Caldwell County MO Archives History .....COVERED WAGON TRIP TO DAVIESS COUNTY - CHEROKEE STRIP 
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Karen Walker khw4@yahoo.com September 3, 2008, 6:41 pm

COVERED WAGON TRIP TO DAVIESS COUNTY - CHEROKEE STRIP
	Narrator:  Mrs. Aurora Williams, 72, of Kidder, Missouri

     Mrs. Williams is a daughter of Wm. A. Morrow and Mary F. Huttram who came 
in a covered wagon eighty years ago from Kentucky to Daviess County.  They had 
two horses to the wagon and a riding horse hitched behind.  It took six weeks 
to come, for there were really no roads, mainly trails through the prairies.  
They stopped off in Indiana to see some kin, fearing that they would never get 
back to see them again, nor did they.  At first while "looking around" they 
rented.  Finally they bought land on Grand River north of Lick Fork, from 
Thornton Talbot.  Mr. and Mrs. Morrow and a daughter are buried in old Lick 
Fork cemetery which is still in use, though many of the old stones are down.
     Mr. Morrow died 1872 and the family lived in Daviess County till 1885 
when Mrs. Morrow and those children who were still at home moved close to 
Cowgill, four miles north west of the town.  They lived in the first house 
south of the Excelsior School house (there are two Excelsior Schools in 
Caldwell County, this is the south one).  This school district was named by 
Mary McCoy of Hamilton who was the first teacher in the new school house.
     Before Mrs. Williams married she learned the dress making trade in the 
dress making and millinery shop of Mrs. Cosgrove and Martha Glasener, on south 
Main street in Hamilton in the late eighties.  She then married and became a 
participant in the opening of the Cherokee Strip 1894.  Her husband already 
owned land which touched the roped line.  The cowboys and soldiers lived with 
them.  On account of benefits received, the soldiers offered to let Mr. 
Williams go into the strip the night before as a "sooner" but he wanted to be 
fair.  He got a good claim but there was no way of making any money there.  
They stayed on the claim as long as they had any money, then sold out and came 
back to Missouri.  Her Mother pioneered in Missouri and she pioneered in 
Oklahoma.
     Interviewed  August 2, 1934.


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