Stories from the Road (eBook)

An Early History of the Heart of the Old Fort Cobb Trail

Teresa Moore (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2020 | 1. Auflage
420 Seiten
Bookbaby (Verlag)
978-1-0983-2600-5 (ISBN)

In 1859, the United States Army blazed a trail from Fort Arbuckle in the Chickasaw Nation to Fort Cobb, the newest military outpost at the rugged edge of the Indian Territory frontier. Called the Fort Cobb Trail, this almost-forgotten military road was the first route through the heart of Oklahoma's south-central Washita Valley. The old road gave passage to many of the sweeping historical events in the area and became home to the early-day villages of Erin Springs, Bradley, Alex and Old Fred. For the first time, many of trail's earliest voices speak together as one to tell "e;Stories from the Road."e;Using a modern mapping technique known as geo-referencing, "e;Stories from the Road"e; follows the 100-mile route of the old Fort Cobb Trail. It describes early happenings along the road and at the military garrisons it connected, and also chronicles the development of some of the area's oldest civilian settlements.

Author’s Note

On a three-sweater afternoon in January 2016, I made my way to Fletcher, Comanche County, Oklahoma, to video a few of the life memories of Earl Manning, my then 92-year-old grandfather. Earl settled in the Chitwood area southwest of Alex, Grady County, Oklahoma, with his family around 1924 and farmed on Roaring Creek in that area for at least five decades. After I came along, Earl became known as Paw Paw.

As we talked that day, Paw Paw explained that the early-day village of Alex had grown up alongside what was then a major Oklahoma highway. For years, he said, a sprawling elm shade tree had marked the location where that old road crossed Soldier Creek just west of town.

As Paw Paw told it, this huge tree, in its prime only slightly smaller in circumference than a standard large round bale of hay, had likely been rooted there at least 75 years when he first saw it as a youngster some 75 years before. He pointed out that the tree had no doubt served as a landmark for generations of travelers on the highway that crossed Soldier Creek during Indian Territory days and long after Oklahoma statehood.

As a fourth-generation Oklahoma native, Paw Paw’s story prompted questions I had never before thought to ask: What was the heart of the south-central Washita Valley like before the earliest villages took root there? While many of the first pioneers of the area were known, how did those hardy souls make their way to that valley and what brought them there? And what part did those earliest settlers play in the history of Oklahoma itself?

As I set out on my journey to answer these questions, I found a surprising amount of information that seemed waiting for discovery. In the barely discernable etchings of old maps manipulated with modern technology, I found the Fort Cobb Trail, the earliest predecessor of that “major state highway” described by my grandfather. I undertook to follow the old trail and along the way, I met a great many long-dead folk with stories as big as history itself. I learned that the tree of which Paw Paw spoke once stood alongside the oldest road through the heart of the south-central Washita Valley, a trail initially blazed by the backbreaking efforts of soldiers in service of the United States military as it pushed ever westward. I also found that deep connections existed among the simple places and people along that old road.

I began to see our world with different eyes. No longer was I constrained by modern highways, the confines of towns and the other landmarks that define the south-central Washita Valley today. I became situationally aware, conscious of the creeks, crooked fence rows, old rutted tracks and other small clues offering glimpses into a world that no longer exists. County lines and section roads faded under the weight of the area’s expansive past.

Traveling back in time, I climbed into dank cellars, relived bloody Indian battles and riffled through cryptic, handwritten notes almost a century old. I climbed into the over-warm attics of area courthouses to blow dust off old plats and massive record books. I visited the many historical collections maintained along the road and found them staffed by dedicated volunteers more knowledgeable than I will ever be. And I pried from the ground bits of the lives of the old trail’s earliest settlers from Elm Springs to Old Fred, gaining a sometimes ambivalent understanding of how those people lived and died and what their lives were like along the way.

I chronicled information gained from new friends and walked the muddy banks of the fickle Washita with old friends. I traversed rich river bottom land, inspected prairie ridgelines and savored the sweet scent of native Blue Stem. When I broke the dense, chocolate Washita Valley sod between my fingers, I finally gained an immediate and tactile understanding of why the earliest settlers chose the place.

Along the way, I also learned more about who I am and who we are. And in these pages, I will lay out all I have learned in a story of the many voices of the south-central Washita Valley joined together for the first time as one.

While this true tale belongs to each individual with interest in the old valley, it is also my personal story. An ancestor, Marion Godwin, traveled from the Union state of Illinois to Texas in 1880 and then moved on to Pauls Valley in Indian Territory in 1891. More of the family followed and Marion settled in Erin Springs, Garvin County, Oklahoma, in 1900. His brother, my great-great grandfather, Cornelius Godwin, eventually found his way to Alex, or Elec, or however you want to say it.

This work is also dedicated to my Alabama-born great-great grandmother, Susan Analiza (O’Neal) Phillips, a true daughter of the American South. With her young family, Mama Susie, as she came to be known in Alex, crossed the Red River around 1902 during her journey to Chitwood from Van Alstyne, Grayson County, Texas.

The stories here are also told in honor of my father’s people. Just as much as the old Chickasaw Nation is the legacy of the Wichita and the Caddo, the Comanche and the Kiowa and even the Choctaw, it is also my father’s country. His grandmother, Mary Rowena (Wright) Dutton, was born in 1884 in the Chickasaw Nation, and her descendants continue to embody our red-dirt Oklahoma standard today.

Finally, I undertook this project so our own grandchildren, when they reach that certain age, will not have to cast about for an understanding of their history. They will know they have deep roots in old places along an even older road, a trail traveled during a time long past when the journey was as much about the places along the way as it was the destination.

Many thanks go out to my Alex brain trust, those consummate professionals who chronicled area history long before the subject caught my interest. To my mother, Valvia Sue (Manning) Moore, who passed on during this project; Faye (Stuard) Hess, Elanna (Cope) Chitwood and the Christine Peters family - Perhaps this history was not what you expected of me, but I wrote what found its way into my heart.

Thanks also to Shirley (Horn) Bray for the research she contributed to this study and to Norman Voss, who sussed out many issues far enough to find the truth.

This history could not have been completed without the contributions of the good folks of the Lindsay Historical Society and the volunteers at the Murray-Lindsay mansion. To Shawn Bridwell, Marion Cunningham, Thelma Love and others - Thanks for going out of your way to understand that your story is mine as well.

I never expected so many would be so eager to help tell our earliest story. I would like to acknowledge the following for their support and assistance:

The director and staff at the University of Oklahoma’s Western History Collection for their vast knowledge and for restoring the Indian-Pioneer Papers database just in the nick of time; the Caddo, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Comanche and Wichita tribes and Dr. Timothy Baugh; Find-A-Grave; the Chickasha Chamber of Commerce; the Anadarko Historical Society; Gwen Williams and the Arbuckle Historical Museum at Davis; Pat Cunningham and the Grady County Historical Society at Chickasha; Liz Craig and the Ninnekah Historical Society, Adrienne Grimmett and the Pauls Valley Historical Society; the Men’s Breakfast Club at the Alex Senior Center; the Facebook group, “Alex History, Memories Old and New,” for listening all these years; Terry Thomas and the American Exchange Bank in Lindsay; and Randy Talley and the First National Bank and Trust of Chickasha for believing in me. This project also owes its life to my editor, Jo Perryman of Chickasha, an employee of the First National Bank. Thank you very much.

Appreciation to Rosemary Addy for her brave forays into the National Archives; Wes Baker for indulging my obsession with old horse shoes; Adam Carl Brown for information about Old Bradley; Durl Ray Burton for sharing my love of hand-drawn maps; Ann Davenport for the cover photo; Joy Everett and other residents of Erin Springs for opening their homes to me and for not calling the police as I drove slowly through their town, wandered down their streets and alleys and tried to understand; Amber Chapman Feller for history and pictures of the Fitzpatrick family; Brandon Fentem of Lindsay for his wealth of knowledge; Lois (Hughes) Foster for clarity; Nataline Harrington for listening; Stella Harrison for riding shotgun; Penny (Ellithorp) Hitt for her story; Danny Jackson for allowing access to his property; Dale Jones for answering questions; Travis Jones of the Grady County Soil Conservation office for finding Blue Stem; Tra Ketchum for facts about Bermuda grass; Sammy Nye; Jay and Claudia Mann and Sonny and Eva Mitchussen for never being too busy to answer my questions; James McElvany; Andrew, Jessica and Spencer Moreno for inspiration; Dennis Muncrief for information about Fort Arbuckle; Scott Niles for information about the Wilson family; Doug Parr; Jan (Williams) Pipkin for proofreading; Shelby Ross and Kelly Smith for access to the Muncrief Cemetery; Cindy (Foster) Russell for showing me God’s country; Sharon (Nye) Russell for information about Old Bradley; Ted Shaw for helping with the search for Old Fred; Jim Shelby for allowing me complete access to his property; Mel Smith for teaching me to respect details; Jerry Snow for information and...

Erscheint lt. Verlag	12.9.2020
Sprache	englisch
Themenwelt	Geisteswissenschaften ► Geschichte ► Regional- / Ländergeschichte
ISBN-10	1-0983-2600-8 / 1098326008
ISBN-13	978-1-0983-2600-5 / 9781098326005

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