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An interview with
Dr. O. E. ALEXANDER
Antlers, Oklahoma
An Interview with Dr. O. E. ALEXANDER, A Pioneer
Field Worker’s name:
Johnson H. Hampton, Journalist
Date of Interview: April 28, 1938
Post
Office: Antlers, Oklahoma
Date of Birth: August 26, 1879
Place of
Birth: Richland, Missouri
Transcribed & Submitted by Teresa Young
I was born August 26, 1879 in Richland, Missouri. I came to the Indian
Territory, Choctaw Nation in 1901. I was about twenty-two years old at the
time I came to the Indian country. I was a single man at that time when I
came here. The reason of my coming to this country was that when I was at
home, I wanted to try out a new country and for that reason, I came here. I
then left home and came here and when I landed here, I went to work on a
railroad section boarding at the section house at a little switch called
Wadner on the Frisco Road. I worked there for a while. I then quit working
there and moved to Antlers and I lived in Antlers for a while, I then left
and went to Kosoma, Indian Territory which is just north of Antlers, about
twelve miles on the same railroad where I taught school for one term. I then
went back to Missouri, stayed there for about eight months and finished my
schooling as a dentist. I then came back to Antlers, where I practiced my
profession.
I then moved to Wister in 1904 where I worked at my
profession for a while; I then moved back to Antlers in 1910. I stayed there
for a while after which I moved to Tulsa, where I put up an office and one
at Skiatook. I worked there in 1911 and 1912 when I sold out my office
equipment and went to Albion, living there for eleven years.
I was
employed to teach school at Kosoma by MIKE HAMBY and J.W. AMEND who were the
most noted men in that little village at that time but after teaching that
term I went back to my profession. I went in partnership with a man of the
name Dr. I.T. PEET who was from Lebanon, Missouri and we worked along the
Frisco railroad in the little villages together. After we dissolved our
partnership, he went somewhere else while I still lived in Antlers and did
dental work. I was living at Kosoma when Statehood came in 1907. I was
appointed Chairman of the Democratic Precinct Committeemen, later being
appointed Inspector for the first election held in the state. My friend, J.
W. AMEND, ran for the first Treasurer of Pushmataha County and was elected
to that office. I was appointed delegate to the Democratic State Convention
held at Oklahoma City several times.
I was a delegate to the
conventions that nominated J. B. A. ROBERTSON and also HENRY JOHNSON for
Governors. I was elected Mayor of the City of Albion and held that office
for eleven years and at the same time, I was one of the School Board members
for eight years. At the time I was on the School Board we organized a
consolidated school and built a fine schoolhouse in this district which is
now of the leading consolidated schools in the north end of this county.
At that time there were not many white people to be seen out in the
country, they were mostly in towns and villages, there were a good many
Choctaw Indians then but they are not so many now. They have all died out
and the white people have taken the country where the Fullbloods use to live
and in a few years, there won't be any Fullbloods, I think.
While I
was living in Albion, I put eleven million small fish in the Kiamichi River.
The small fish were furnished by the State Game and Fish Warden, BEN WATTS,
who was the State Game and Fish warden at that time for the state.
I
have never attended any of the Choctaw Indian camp meetings nor any of their
cries; they still have the camp meetings but they discontinued the cries
after the white people settled the country as the Choctaws say that the
whites used to make fun of them so they just quit having their cries.
My experience with the Choctaw Indian people has been good; I have done
lots of dental work among them while I have been living here among them and
I find them to be honest and, law-abiding people. I have never lost anything
for the work I have done for them, I have raised my children among them.
They attended school with the Choctaws and have associated with them but
they never had any kind of trouble with any one of them and I have never had
any trouble with any of them.
One of my boys is teaching school out
in the mountains and has several Choctaw Indians going to school under him,
and he says that they do not give him any trouble at all whatever. The only
trouble that he has with them is that they do not speak English and it is
very hard for them to learn but they are doing fine and after they can speak
a little English, they go right on with their work just the same as the
white children. They surely have a hard time in learning how to speak the
English language as most of them are fullbloods who were raised back in the
mountains and hardly ever get out to see any white people very much so they
are very backwards to get started in their books but they do not give my son
any trouble in the least. They try to do just what he tells them to do and
they get along just fine. Father and Mother both died back at the old home
in Missouri and are both there; my first wife died here in Antlers and is
buried in the Antlers Cemetery. My second wife is a Cherokee Indian and we
are living here in Antlers, where I am still practicing my profession as a
dentist.
Transcribed & Submitted by Teresa Young
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