Indian Pioner Papers - G.P. Rollow

Submitted by Brenda Choate   bcchoate@yahoo.com

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                    Garvin County Indian Pioneer Papers
                                      
                                                                    
                               G.P. Rollow



Interview #4811

Field Worker: Maurice R. Anderson

Date:  July 12, 1937

Name: Mr. G.P. Rollow

Residence: Wynnewood, Oklahoma

Date of Birth:  1865

Place of Birth: Tennessee

Father: Johna Rollow, born in Tennessee

Mother: Rebecca Kay, born in Tennessee





Story told by Mr. G.P. Rollow, born in 1865 in Tennessee.



I came to the Indian Territory in 1898 and settled at Wynnewood 

in the Chickasaw nation and went into the retail business for myself.  

Wynnewood at that time was a trading place.  People from as far as 

Stonewall traded with us.



People around Wynnewood at that time were very religious.  There was 

a Baptist Church and a Methodist Church at Wynnewood and on Sundays 

both of these churches would be full of people.



This was a very beautiful country back in 1898. The prairies would be 

covered with flowers and the woods were full of wild plums and grapes.

I dealt in real estate some.  Land that sold then for thirty dollars an 

acre is today worth a hundred and  fifty per acre.  I have raised a bale 

of cotton to the acre off of this river bottom land and corn would make 

from seventy five to a hundred bushels to the acre and we did not half 

farm it.



I remember when I came here you could buy dressed turkeys for fifty cents 

a turkey and frying chickens for one dollar a dozen.  Corn was fifteen 

cents a bushel and oats ten cents a bushel.



I have talked to old settlers living around Wynnewood and have been 

told that Wynnewood was built on Indian land belonging to Mrs. R.W. 

Jennings. Wynnewood got its name from two men named Wynne and Wood, 

who were surveying engineers and who surveyed the right of way for 

the Santa Fe Railroad through here.  Wynnewood was surveyed and named in 1887. 

W.C. Lee was the first Mayor of Wynnewood and C.E. Austy was the first 

City Marshal. J.H. Walner was the first merchant, having moved his 

store from old Cherokee Town after the railroad came through here.  

Dr. A.P. Ryan was the first practicing physician. Joe Walker was the 

first hotel proprietor and the Pioneer Church Society was the Methodist 

Episcopal Church South.  Reverend A.N. Everett was the pastor and David 

Anstine of Illinois and Miss Allie Kizer were the first couple married in 

Wynnewood.  The first births were twins born to Mr. and Mrs. D.C. Clark.  

Both babies died and were the first to be buried in the Wynnewood Cemetery.  

Mr. Harry Keiser became Wynnewood's first post master.  Mrs. M.S. Hotchkiss 

was the first school teacher at Wynnewood.



I am now in the real estate business at Wynnewood where I have been since 1898.