IN INDIAN TERRITORY
by Bud Caudle Early in 1905 (some say 1906) at least forty-two families mostly in Morgan and Magoffin Counties of eastern Kentucky sold their land, packed a few household items and personal goods, loaded into wagons, and went to the nearest train station. They chartered the entire train and went west to Ardmore in the Chickasaw nation of Indian Territory. Before they could leave, they had to cook up enough food to last their families through the long journey. It took a week for the train to reach its destination in March of that year. All available rent lands had already been rented out and most crops had been planted. It was nearly impossible to find houses to live in. If a house was found, several families shared. Many lived in tents and dugouts. A few had relatives who had come to the area earlier and were taken in by them. Several died in that first year, and during the second year many of the families scattered throughout Oklahoma. Some settled at Wapanucka in 1907, but a lot of them remained in the Ardmore area around the old Legate and Hoxbar communities. A few even returned to Kentucky. The families as named here sometimes include married children and their families. The list was made from memory by Druzy Blankenship Lowe in 1963, fifty-seven years after the train trip and when she was eighty years old.Many names were forgotten, but those known to have come at that time were:
Bud Caudle, 1014 W. Mansur, Guthrie, Oklahoma 734044, or e-mail me at BnLFAMILY@aol.com |
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