McCurtain Co. OK - History

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Submitted by: Lou Ann Phillips Lunsford
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McCURTAIN COUNTY: A PICTORIAL HISTORY
Presented by the McCurtain County Historical Society In celebration of Olkahoma's Diamond Jubilee 1982. 
Smithville, Oklahoma

This was one of the earliest settlements in the northern part of what is now McCurtain County. A number of Choctaws settled in
that vicinity after arrival over the Trail of Tears in the 1830's. A Choctaw supply point was established here in the 1830's on the
old Fort Smith-Fort Towson military road. The supply point was near a large salt lick and came to be called Big Lick. On a high
hill just north of Big Lick, a post office called Hatobi was opened in a store on September 13, 1886 with Franklin Moore as
postmaster. The name of the post office and town was changed to Smithville on May 1, 1890, in honor of a pioneer settler,
Josiah Smith. 

Smithville, at its present site south of old Hatobi, was platted in 1912 by Will L. Burkhart. It was largely through Burkhart's
efforts that the town developed rapidly in the years just before and after World War I. By 1920 the town boasted two drug
stores, several grocery and general stores, a meet market, barbershop, cafe, hotel, blacksmith shop, bank, cotton gin and grist
mill. Smithville was also the site of the famous Folsom Training School which was established by the Methodist Church to serve
the northern part of the country where there was no high school. The school was closed in 1933. 

My dad was born and raised in Smithville and remembers this incedent with a twinkle in his eye. He was a great fan of some of
the Choctaw Indians that grew up around his home and many of them were good friends of the Gabriel Phillips family there: 

An Indian lady that lived at Idabel, and she had two sons. She was supposed to be the richest Indian in Ok at that time and that
was back in the 1930’s. My dad would let each one of her sons have a certain amount of groceries or clothes or whatever they
wanted; he had a general store there in SE OK, he would go down once a month to get a check for whatever these boys owed
him. One time he went down to get a check and lived in a big twostory house that had a basement, which was pretty unusual for
then, the girl met him at the door and said She’s down there so he went to the top of the stairs there and looked down and there
were about half-a-dozen Indian women down there washing and they were in soap suds about knee deep and he said they
were just hollerin and havin a big time and she was right in the middle of ‘em. She was a big fat woman. So she gave him a
check, he had that kind of an arrangement with her. Her name was Siney Ward. These two sons, and one of ‘em could play the
piano, I mean he could tear it up! And everytime they would have a singing convention there they would get Perry Jones to play
the piano. 

Her boy’s didn’t have the same last name. Ellis Taylor was the other boy, he was a nice clean-cut Indian., he always wore a
khaki suit of clothes, and a white Stetson hat. Anyway, they had an Indian Church up there north of Smithville, I guess it was in
Hatobi , (old Smithville) as my dad used to say, and about once a month they would have a big Indian Meeting at this church,
and when they would come to town, she would be in the lead car. She had a big old car, I don’t remember what kind it was.
My dad had the general store and he had a filling station and they would drive in, all these cars, like a funeral procession there
were eight or ten cars. He would fill up her car and she would get out and come in and get a strawberry sodawater and sit
down in the window seat in the front of the store. He’d filled up her car and it would pull out, the next car would come in and
he’d fill it up and after the last car was filled up, she would give him a check for the whole thing. 

And then they would buy cattle and hogs and kill ‘em and cook for about two or three days for this meeting, ya know. The
meeting would last about ten days or two weeks. After the meeting was over, I mean they were hollerin and singin to all hours
of the night and just havin a big time. After the meeting was over, it was the same procedure, fill up every car and she would get
a strawberry sodawater, I was tryin to remember what kind it was, I don’t know if Nehi was out about time time or not, it was
either Nehi or Suncrest and it was always a strawberry sodawater she would sit there and drink while they was filling up. That
went on for years while I was growin up and she was a fine person. This Ellis Taylor, now if an Indian liked you that was good,
if they didn’t like you, you watch out. Don’t expect any favors from him. I was just a teenager then and Ellis Taylor had stepped
out two different time in my behalf. And all he had to do was just step out, step off the porch. Back then it was country stores
with wooden porches, there weren’t no sidewalks, just wooden porches with no sidewalks in between. Everybody had his own
porch! He was a fine guy. I went to school with, they were Choctaw Indians, SE OK was Choctaw Nation. McCurtain Co.,
OK. That’s from Texarkana up to Octavia and goes west. The government came in and built brick houses for them. There’s
brick houses all through those woods up there. -------------------------Troy O. Phillips 

Contributed by Lou Ann Phillips Lunsford