Indian Pioner Papers - A. B. Bridges

Submitted by Brenda Choate  bcchoate@yahoo.com

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                    Garvin County Indian Pioneer Papers
                                      
                                A.B. Bridges
                                      
     Interview #9969
     Field Worker: Maurice R. Anderson
     Date: February 11, 1938
     Name: Mr. A.B. Bridges
     Residence: Pauls Valley, Oklahoma
     Date of Birth:  November 29, 1859
     Place of Birth: Mississippi
     Father: W.W. Bridges, born in North Carolina
     Mother: Lucy Ann Adair, born in Tennessee
     
                                      
     I was born in 1859, in Mississippi, and came to the Indian
     Territory with my family in 1884.  We came on the train to
     Gainesville, Texas, and were met there by my uncle Watson Wells,
     who lived at old Thackerville in the Chickasaw Nation
     
     There was no railroad from Gainesville to Thackerville at that time
     so my uncle met us in a wagon and hauled what few things we brought
     with us to his home and my family stayed at his home until I was
     able to lease a farm.
     
     The first year I farmed my uncle loaned me a pair of mules and by
     borrowing a few plow tools from neighbors I made my first crop in
     the Indian Territory.   Farming wasn't new to me for I had been
     raised on a farm back in Mississippi.
     
     I only had a turning plow to break the land with and a Georgia
     stock to lay off the tows and I had to drop the corn by hand.  I
     raised more corn that year than I ever did at one time back in
     Mississippi.  I had to haul my cotton Gainesville, Texas, to market
     it, as there was no market for cotton in that time at Thackerville.
     
     We lived in log houses and there were very few barns to put what we
     raised in.  We would pile our corn up and build a rail fence around
     it to keep the stock off.  We didn't have roads then to speak of,
     only cattle trails, and there were no bridges to cross the creeks
     or rivers.  We would have to drive twenty to theiry miles farther
     in going from Thackerville to Gainesville than one would have to go
     today, as we would have to keep to the open country all we could so
     we could dodge all the creeks that we could.  There were no bridges
     across Red River at that time but there was a ferry crossing and it
     costs $1.00 for a wagon and team.  If the river was low we would
     ford it to save the dollar.
     
     I bought and traded for cattle and in a few years I owned quite a
     herd of cattle.  In 1885 I remember I helped my uncle drive about a
     hundred head of cattle ot White Bead Hill and he sold them to James
     Rennie, who at that time owned a store at White Bead and also was a
     cattle buyer.
     
     There was only one store at Pauls Valley at that time so White Bead
     was the main trading poing for that part of the country.  There
     were a few stores, a church house, a boarding house at White Bead
     and a stage line went through there from Caddo to Fort Sill.
     
     The Territory at that time was more of a cattle country than a
     farming country. From White Bead Hill to Thackerville about all one
     could see then was cattle. There were no fences and the cattle
     grazed where they wanted to.  They wouldn't have to go far to find
     grass as there was plenty of it.
     
     There were plenty of deer then and turkeys went in droves like
     cattle.   We never thought anything about them and when we wanted a
     turkey we didn't have to go far to get one.  People lived good in
     the part of the country I lived in for we always had plenty to
     eat.  There were very few doctors in those days nor was there much
     need of a doctor then, as there was not much sickness.  I know we
     only had the doctor in our house one time in four years.
     
     The railroad was built from Gainesville through the part of the
     coutnry where I lived in 1886, and old Thackerville was moved
     nearer to the railroad as the railroad missed the old townsite
     about two miles.  After the railroad was built it was a great help
     to the farmers and merchants for before that we had to freight all
     our things by wagon from Gainesville and the mail was carried on a
     horse and only came into Thackerville once a week.
     
     In 1889 I sold out my cattle and put in a general store at
     Thackerville with Mr. Davis.  The store was known as Bridges and
     Davis and we operated this store until it burned down in 1892.
     
     School conditions at Thackerville were very poor then, so I moved
     my family to Gainesville, Texas, where they had very good schools
     and I went in the grocery business at Gainesville.
     
     I now live in Pauls Valley.