Mayes Co., OK - History: Remembrances of old Spavinaw
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This file was contributed for use in the USGenWeb by:
Jim Coats <jimnell1@itexas.net>
Oct 14, 2003

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                     REMEMBRANCES OF OLD SPAVINAW

This letter was written to Billie Jean Cook Tatum by her aunt Willa June West
Cohea on March 18, 1978 in response to questions Billie Jean had about her
mother’s family. Billie Jean’s mother was Bertha West Cook, Willa’s younger
sister. Willa was born in 1900 in Spavinaw, 4th daughter of William North West
and Clementine Shadles West. Her older sisters were Mahala Mae West Fuqua, Nola
Ardis West Colvard, and Tookah Belle West Coats. She had 2 younger sisters,
Bertha Jane West Cook, and Emma Elizabeth West Patterson, and a younger
brother, Emmitt West. Emmitt and Emma were twins. The following is a verbatim
transcript of the letter with a few sentences edited out. The observations and
opinions are Willa’s alone. Enjoy.

Dear,

Billy, I don’t know very much about my kin folks. Mama told us girls long time
ago grandma West was German and she was a mean old woman. She was a big woman
like my sisters and had that blonde red hair and blue eyes like Emma. Mama said
Emma looked like (your) grandpa West. Papa had that red hair like Emma and blue
eyes, she looked a lot like papa.

Mama said after the Civil War they made rush on the land and it was for the
Indian, but the white vendor came in and signed up as Indians and got land.
That is why (there are) so many rich people in Okla and Texas. They stoled the
land from the Indians.

The white vendors out here was making Indian jewelry and selling it for Indian
jewelry, so the Indians put a stop to it because it wasn’t made by the Indians.
It has to be made by Indians to be Indian jewelry. So that is the way it goes,
white man robbing the Indians. I don’t know if papa was Irish. Mama never told
us kids about papa’s folks. She did tell us grandma West was German and she was
mean. Most of the people who came over on the Mayflower boat was German and
Irish.

Papa had 3 brothers, James, John, and Walter. All three of his brothers were
dark and had dark hair and eyes. He had two sisters, Liza Thompson and Laura
Grey. Aunt Liza was a big woman and looked a lot like Bertha. Aunt Laura was
big, too, and had hair and eyes like Emma and she was mean and bossy. Mama
never did take her children to visit Liza and Laura because she didn’t like
them. So us kids was never in Aunt Liza and Aunt Laura’s home. They would come
visit mama and she always treated them nice. I remember papa taking his family
to visit Uncle Walter. He was real sick and he died with the same disease papa
had. Bright’s disease. That is a kidney infection. That was the first time we
were in Uncle Watt’s home and the last time.

Speaking of Irish in Kansas and northeastern Okla was at that time called the
Cherokee Nation. Now it is Okla and Mayes County. When papa was a young man he
lived in Salina IT that is a little town between Spavinaw and Pryor. He could
talk that Cherokee language as good as the Indian and the attorney for the 5
Civilized Tribes couldn’t talk their language. So this lawyer told papa if he
would buy a set of law books and study them he would make him his assistant
attorney. So papa bought these books and they were 30 volumes and each book was
leather bound, and the books was law for the Cherokee Nation and the five
civilized tribes. So papa got this job as assistant attorney for the five
civilized tribes and the Cherokee Nation. He married, I don’t know when, I
guess he was still working for that lawyer and his wife gave birth to twin boys
and she died after they were born. I don’t know what their names was. His
brother John took the twins and reared them to be 10 years old and they both
died with typhoid fever.

Mama was living in Salina IT with her grandmother. I’ll tell you more about
that later. Mama and papa were married April 6, `1890. I guess they were
married in Salina as they both were living there. Mama was 17 years old when
she married papa. He was older than her, I think about 30 years. So papa gave
up his lawyer job and they moved to Spavinaw and he was assigned to be their
postmaster. He was the first postmaster. He got the job May 2, 1893, was known
as Cherokee Nation, Indian Territory. Okla became statehood Nov 9, 1907. Papa
had a grocery store and the post office was in the front of the store. I still
remember our mail box number. It was 23.

They didn’t have much mail in those days. The mail would come up from Muskogee
on the train to Vinita, and a man there brought it to Spavinaw on a mule and
Jim Toney worked for papa, he would take the mail to Salina on a mule. It would
take Jim all day and come back late at night.

Papa had a farm and so did mama and five of us girls had farms. He owned the
old grist mill where they would grind their corn into corn meal. Papa was known
to be a well-to-do farmer. He was their notary public for years. He still had
the post office when he died and a young man got it his name was Harve
McClassin. He kept it for 35 years then he retired.

Papa was the only man in that country that had a registered stud horse. His
name was Hood. I don’t know what kind of horse he was. He was a pretty slim
horse he was chestnut brown and had a black mane and tail. He also had a
registered Poland-China black boar. He had a lot of horses, he raised horses
and sold them. He had a lot of cattle but no registered bull. He had a lot of
hogs. Papa was sick about 10 years. He died Jan. 27, 1909- age 67.

We were the only family around there that had a piano and organ. Papa bought
mama the organ after they were married and then later on he bought me the
piano. Mama played the organ by ear and so did we girls. We played the piano by
ear. Mama had a lot of old beautiful furniture, pretty wood bedsteads and iron
bedsteads. Our home was a beautiful old home. Our home was built by Mormons. We
had a lot of flowers in the yard and one big cedar tree in the front yard. We
had peach trees all over he place and when they bloomed in the Spring our home
was beautiful. We had a big apple and peach orchard.

We had a big grape vineyard papa used the grapes to make wine. He also made
apple cider. We had a big strawberry patch and had lots of strawberry
shortcake! Our home had a fireplace in the east bedroom and one in the west
bedroom. Mama had lots of cooking pots and pans. Her tea kettle and pots and
skillets were cast iron. Papa made her a potato masher and her butter mold to
mold her butter. Mama canned a lot of fruit and made a lot of apple butter,
peach butter, grape butter, pumpkin butter and she dried apples and peaches and
pumpkins and it sure was good in the winter.

We had a big cellar under the west bedroom, bigger than my dining room and
there were shelves all around the walls and mama would fill the shelves with
canned fruit. We always had a 50 gallon barrel of sorgum molasses, had a bin
full of apples, one full of potatoes, one full of turnips, one full of sweet
potatoes. And in the smokehouse a lot of good hickory smoked meat and the best
smoked ham you ever ate. We had a ash hooper. If you don’t know what it is
write me and I will tell you. So you see why us girls were so big. Had a lot of
good food to eat.

We girls were the only girls around there that had our horses and saddles. We
had side saddles but it wasn’t long til we girls and women started to use mens
saddles. So we women made their riding habits. They were made like the pedal
pushers the girls used to wear. Loretta (her daughter) had a pair when she was
in high school.

We was the only family that had a two seated hack on slayes (sleighs) they
called them. It was a two seated buggy. It was called the Spaulding buggy. It
had side curtains to put on the sides in the winter to keep you warm.

Papa had a sawmill down on the creek where they made lumber. We always milked 4
or 5 cows had lot of good milk and butter.

Nobody could raise a good garden like mama. She planted everything by the moon,
the dark of the moon. She always planted her potatoes on Good Friday if the
ground wasn’t frozen.

Papa had a nice saddle and shotgun and one day mama was gone and someone came
and stole his gun and they stole his saddle at night. Mama never did lock her
house, Nobody did in those says so someone came and got his gun while she was
gone. Mama and papa were married 3 years before Mae was born. So you can see us
girls were reared by well-to-do parents. Well, this is all I can remember. Hope
you enjoy reading about your rich grandparents. Ha.

All of papa’s brothers were well-to-do farmers, had lots of cattle, horses,
hogs and they raised lots of wheat. James (Jim) West wife was full blooded
Cherokee Indian. She was a school teacher. She got her education at Tahlequah
Indian School at Tahlequah IT now Okla. Her name was Josephine. Aunt Liza,
papa’s sister, married a man named Martin and had 3 children for him and one of
the boys name Dee became a drunkard as they called them. He lived with it and
raised a family and when he was 58 he died with a heart attack. He weighed 295
pounds and they couldn’t find a casket big enough for him and they had to make
one. Aunt Liza had a pretty girl. She was dark and had black hair and eyes. Her
name was Joanne. She married a man named Mays and had a baby boy and died. She
lived 2 days after the baby was born. Aunt Liza’s husband died and she married
a man name Vet Thompson full blood Irishman (red hair). She had 2 boys and a
girl for him. Her daughter had that red hair like Emma and blue eyes. Her son
Jim become a drunkard and his wife killed herself and he had a stroke and layed
in a rest home in Salina for 10 years before he died. Carrie was her daughter’s
name. She died 4 years ago of a stroke. She is 6 months older than me.

They was a creek back of our farm and in the summer we would swim and fish in
it. We would ride our horses in this creek in a hole 12 feet deep to wash them
off. me and Bertha. In the spring. We would go up in the hills and pick wild
huckleberries for mama to can. Nola me and Bertha. In the spring of the year we
would go down in the creek bottom and gather wild onions and wild greens. In
the winter we had lot of snow and we went to school and made snow men.

Aunt Laura married a man named Grey half Cherokee Indian. She had 3 good
looking boys all dark with black hair and eyes. And had a pretty girl but I
don’t remember her name. She was big and looked a lot like Bertha. She died
with TB when she was 19 years old. They were well-to-do also.

Well, I’ll write all I know about mama’s folks. Mama was born April 7, 1873.
Her name was Clementine Shadles but everybody called her Tiney. Her mother was
Amanda Miller. She married Jim Shadles half Cherokee and when she was a baby he
rode off one day on his horse and never did come home. The Indian was still on
the war path. The Civil War was over but the Indians were still mad. Mama said
the Indians killed him. Mama never did see her dad. Back in those days men
would run off and leave their families and go into another state and that was
called leaving the county, and the law couldn’t go into another state and
arrest them. So grandmother lived with her mother Granny Miller and Granny took
care of mama and her mother. The law was then when a man run off and left his
family after 7 years they could marry. So after 7 years mama was 7 her mother
married a man I don’t remember his first name but his last name was Hillburn he
was a white man. She had 3 girls and 2 boys for him. I don’t know anything
about mama’s half brothers. She never did tell me a thing about them. They died
when they were small boys. Her sisters were pretty. One we called Aunt Magg.
Her name was Margaret Cherokee. And the 2nd girl was named Martha Amanda and
the 3rd girl was named Bertha Jane. I won’t go into all their marriages but all
had good living.

But mama had 2 aunts Emma Reed and Sarah Trout and she never did take her
children around them they was so hateful, but mama did visit her sisters. All
of mama’s folks were well off too. They all had land and plenty.

Mama made all our dresses and we had more pretty dresses than any of the girls
around there. Nobody could cook, can fruit, sew, quilt or raise a good garden
like mama. She was the smartest woman in that country.

I don’t know anything about grandpa and grandma West. If grandpa was Irish like
Nola said he was no Indian and if grandma West was German she wasn’t no Indian.
If they registered as Indian they were what was called adopted Indians. That
means a white man claiming to be an Indian.

After papa died it scared mama to death. She didn’t know how she was going to
raise her 7 kids. Without papa. She had 3 heart attacks and pneumonia. Twice
she took heart pills for a long time. I don’t know when she quit taking them.
Mama done a good job raising a bunch of mean girls. Brother was always a good
boy.

Holy Cow! Now you know all about my folks. I inherited my talent from mama. We
get our Indian blood from mama her dad was ½ Cherokee Indian.

Mama made all our dresses. We had more pretty dresses than any little girl
around there. Mama would order long white stockings and dye from Montgomery
Ward catalogue and she would dye our white stockings the color of our dresses
and we would also have ribbons to match our dresses. She dressed me, Emma and
Bertha like little dolls and we were pretty little girls. She bought us black
patent leather slippers that had 4 straps across the instep and they were
called Mary Jane slippers. We had beautiful hats and when we went to Sunday
School and church we looked like little faultless starch dolls. Mama made all
of Mae’s and Nola’s and Bell’s clothes til they married.

Mama didn’t have any dress patterns. She would look in the catalogue and see a
little dress for us little girls (me, B, and E). She would take a newspaper and
cut out the pattern and make us the cutest little dresses. We only took 2
newspapers. The Kansas City Star and the Vinita Leader. Nola wrote the Spavinaw
news for the Vinita Leader so we got it for free.

Me and Bertha had lot of fun horse back riding and she was mean and would tear
up my play houses. Ha!

I am proud of my parents and proud the way I was reared up and I am proud of my
Indian heritage. Everybody says I don’t look my age, 78. Well, as the old
saying goes, Indians don’t show their age like white folks.

I finish quilting my “Lone Star” quilt and am going to make that pretty Log
Cabin quilt. It is an old pattern and is supposed to be over 100 years old.
Loretta pieced one and she is quilting it. It sure is pretty.

If those Indians make any money on that Arkansas River they plan on building
hospitals, schools and rest homes for the Indians. But I’m not going to their
hospitals or rest homes. I don’t like Indians. I went to school where there was
Indian kids and I can’t stand Indians. “Period”

Papa also had a 50 gallon barrel of wine and he had a 50 gallon barrel of apple
cider in the cellar. He kept whiskey in the house for medicine and he would
serve it to his friends and his wine, too. He didn’t use moonshine whiskey. He
either bought it in Southwest City, Mo. Or he bought it in Joplin, Mo. His old
hired hand Jim Toney would go and buy it for him. Mama had a lot of hired hands
to cook for besides her family. Jim would ride a horse to Mo. To buy papa’s
whiskey.

Well. I could go on and on. I remember a lot of my childhood but I think I have
wrote enough. I hope you can read my writing.
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