Indian Pioner Papers - Jim F. Davis


Submitted by Brenda Choate  bcchoate@yahoo.com


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                    Garvin County Indian Pioneer Papers

                                      
                Jim F. Davis


Interview #1242

Field Worker: Maurice R. Anderson

Date: April 28, 1937

Name: ÿ Mr. Jim F. Davis

Residence: Pauls Valley, Oklahoma

Date of Birth:ÿ 1880

Place of Birth: Tennessee

Father: Alfred Davis, born in Tennessee

Mother: Nancy Mitchell, born in Tennesseeÿ 


Mr. Jim F. Davis was born in Tennessee, in 1880.


I came to the Indian Territory, Chickasaw Nation, when I was eighteen years old.ÿ

 I was with Mr. Baker, and he settled on Rush Creek, west of Pauls Valley, in 1898.

ÿ Mr. Baker was nick-named 'Rush Creek Baker'.ÿ He rented a farm from Moman Pruitt,

 who was a lawyer at that time.ÿ

 
Mr. Baker and I had a little trouble and I went to work for Mr. Sam Garvin,

 who owned a large ranch.ÿ His brand was the Coffee Pot brand.ÿ I was paid

 twenty-five dollars a month and my board.ÿ There were about fifteen men working

 for Mr. Garvin at that time, on his ranch.


There wasn't much cattle stealing then, but our main trouble was the wolves.ÿ

 Many a cold rainy night I have stayed out until two o'clock in the morning 

bringing in a cow and young calf.ÿ I couldn't leave the cow and calf as I knew 

if I did the wolves would kill the calf.ÿ It takes a long time to drive a cow 

and young calf from fifteen to twenty miles.

ÿ 

Mr. Garvin and Mr. Burk had under their control the range from Pauls Valley 

to Story and near Elmore City.ÿ There were other brands on this range belonging 

to different ranches, but at roundup time, we had our hardest work picking out 

the Coffee Pot brand.


I have hauled cottonseed out on the prairie by wagon loads and dumped them out 

for the cattle.ÿ Cottonseed wasn't worth ten cents a bushel.

ÿ 

It was no trouble to get a job of work, if you wanted to work. ÿ Groceries were 

cheap, and after I went to farming for myself, I have sold fryers for fifteen 

cents each.ÿ I have sold good milch cows, giving from four to five gallons of

 milk a day for twenty-five dollars.ÿ Fat hogs brought three cents a pound on foot.

When I came to Pauls Valley, land was cheap, and I could have bought a five acre 

tract and a three-room house where the ball park is today, for one hundred dollars.ÿ 

The river bottom land could be bought then, for ten dollars an acre. 


I have seen more corn left in the fields when I came here than was raised last year.