Selected Families and Individuals

Notes


Daniel Webster SPEARS

1.  An interview of Daniel Webster Spears as written by Wylie Thornton, 25 Jul 1937:  
     I was born January 6, 1875, in Newton County, Arkansas, and came to the Indian Territory with my parents in the month of November, 1889, crossing into the Indian Country near Baron Fork Station, just south of Westville.
     My father, Dixon Spears, rented a small farm from a Cherokee Indian by the name of John Harland.  This farm had about 40 acres in cultivation, but the soil was very fertile and we just noticed so plainly how different this soil looked and produced by the side of the worn-out lands of Arkansas, and my parents talked so much about how happy they were over here.
     A little later we got acquainted with some of these fine Indians, instead of  bad and dangerous savage Indians we had expected them to be, after being told how they were by some of those pople back n Arkansas.
    Some of the folks that we met were:  Joe Lynch, Joe Cox, George Smith, Ben Fletcher, Lee Morton, Ed Clyne, Getty Whitmire, Tosh Shell, Ned and Stute Walkingstick and Ned, Bill and Henry Downing.  Now these men I think are due a lot of credit for the advancement of he Eastern section of this country, and we found ourselves feeling safe aroung Baron Fork on account of these good people.
     I left my parents at the end of the third year, while they were located just six miles north of their first location, on the farm of Charley Hay, a white man, who had become a great friend to father and mother because he liked my father's interest in keeping his farm in good condition and repair, and tilling the land so well.
     I left them in the early fall of 1892 and came out here on Lauries Prarie and hired out to Mr. Than  Wofford and Fayette Hughes, making and baling hay for $1.00 per day and my room and board.
    After about six months, I began to roam and ramble all over Oklahoma and I never settled down until in 1919.  I have been here in Cherokee County ever since, and I still believe today that Cherokee County is a haven for a man of moderate means and having farming as his vocation.
     The roads are very rough but somehow we didn't mind them.  I remember when I asked directions to reach certain places I always got the direction instead of the road so much, because if I got confused in the dim roads, I always struck out in the direction I wanted to go.


Ezza SPEARS

1.  The name may be Dessie Ezza


Clay C. WILLIAMS

1.  Clay's widow and three sons lived in Conway, Arkansas as of April 1999


Martha E. STEELE

1.  When Martha died the children were placed in an orphanage.