Indian Pioneer Papers - Alice Curry 

Submitted by Dennis Muncrief mudman@brightok.net
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Garvin County Indian Pioneer Papers
                                      
                                                                    
Alice Curry  Interview #9472 
Field Worker: Maurice R. Anderson 
Name: Alice Curry 
Date: December 17, 1937 
Residence: Pauls Valley, OK 
Date of Birth: August 4, 1867 
Place of Birth: Love Valley, Indian Territory 
Father: Phil Robison 
Name of Mother: Mary Love  

I was born in Love Valley in the Choctaw Nation, in 1867.  My mother was 
owned by Sobe Love and was brought to the Indian  Territory when only 
a small girl. My father was owned by a  Creek Indian named Day and 
father's name was Phil Day until  after the close of the Civil War. 
At that time he left this  Creek Indian and changed his name to Phil Robison.

  
My father has told me that there was a white man whom he found lying beside 
the road late one evening. He took the white man to his master's house and 
in a few weeks, this white man who had been shot was well.  The white man's 
name was Robison so when my father left the Creek  Indian and came to 
Love Valley, he changed his name to Robison.  

It was about one year after the close of the War that my father said he  
went to work for Mr. Love who owned my mother. My mother said she  
had no place to go after the War so Master Love let her stay with  
him and help with the housework. After my father went to work there,  
he met and married my mother. He worked for Sobe Love for two years,  
then he moved across the Red River and began farming for himself.  

I remember when I was about thirteen years old there was store called 
Colbert's Station, just across Red River in the Indian Territory from  
where we lived. Every year there would be a big picnic held there which 
would  last sometimes from three to four days. I have heard my father 
say that this picnic was put on by the cattlemen and sometimes there 
would be a thousand people there. It was for anybody that wanted to 
come and there would be  free barbecue. There was always a merry-go-round 
which was pulled by a mule.  Besides the lemonade stands there were two 
big dance platforms, one for the  white people and one for the colored. 
The Chickasaws and Choctaws had a place  cleared off for their dance 
ground and they would have a fire in  the center of the dance ground. 
All the music they had was a drum of some  kind. My father would help 
make music for the white people. There would be a  United States Marshal 
and an Indian Police there. When an Indian got  drunk, the Indian police 
would take him and handcuff him to a tree and leave  him there until he 
sobered up and then turn him loose. Sometimes these  dances would go on 
all night.  

While we were living there, my father would come to Pauls Valley every  
fall and gather corn and I have heard him say he helped build Smith Paul's
big rock house that stands on the hill at the South side of where Pauls  
Valley is now.  

In 1900, we moved from Texas to Wynnewood, in the Chickasaw Nation and 
rented a farm on the Washita river and farmed for two years, then we  
moved on the river southeast of Pauls Valley and leased a farm and lived
there until 1908. At that time the Washita River overflowed and washed  
everything we had away: then my father moved into Pauls Valley, and  
went to work by the day.  

When my father died, he was guessed to have been one hundred and 
nineteen years old.  

I now live in Pauls Valley where I have lived since 1908. 

Submitted by Dennis Muncrief