SHAKAPAHONA ''SOOKIE'' (PUSLEY) LeFLORE

 

WIFE OF: CHIEF THOMAS "TOM" LeFLORE

 

"GRANNY LeFLORE"

As told by her GGrandson Edmond J. Gardner

 

Granny Leflore was born about the year 1800 and died about the year 1890, having lived about 90 years. She claimed to be a full blood Choctaw, but the color of her skin showed a slight mixture of white blood. Nothing is known of her parents or any of her kindred. She married Tom Leflore when she was about twenty years of age and lived with him until his death about the year 1859. She was of the common type of Choctaw women, very devoted to her home, her church, and to her people, their customs and habits of life. She had but little education, but was bright industrious, and lived thru the greatest trial of her people, the Choctaws. She was my great paternal grand Mother and I was born less than a mile of her house. My father was born on the same farm that I was, and he went over the same road to Granny's house that I did. My father sat at her feet many times and listened to her tell of the old days back in Mississippi, heard her tell of the trip when about six hundred Choctaw, of all ages and kind, came west over the trail of tears, in the year 1832, to their new country now Oklahoma. And when I got old enough I too went to granny’s house and heard these same stories. They were as interesting as fairy tales, but when this very old woman would relate some sad occurrence of those times, some times she became bitter with rage and at other times she could not hold back the tears, and her voice would become weak and trimbly. It made me sad too, but somehow I loved to hear them. Granny Leflore had passed over her hundredth birthday before I had my first birthday, and it is but faintly I remember her. Her Husband had died many years before I was born. He was about one-half Choctaw and one-half French, and was a man of much prominence among his people, was their chief and they loved him. He headed a company of 600 of them on their trip west, and settled near where Millerton, Okla.  now stands. His people built him a big house out of big logs in the year 1834, and he lived there till his death. After his death his widow, Granny Leflore lived there till her death. When I first remember going To Granny Leflore's house, she lived in this big log house, with a great wide hallway and very wide porches, and I sat on the tomfuller block just off the edge of the floor and listened to her talk. Her widowed daughter and grandson lived with her, and just a little way off was a Negro cabin, and there lived Uncle Billy and Aunt Margaret, two very old Negros, who had been slaves to Granny Leflore. The two old Negros loved Granny Leflore, and when they were freed just after the civil war they begged to stay with her and wait on her, so they were given the little cabin for their home and Granny Leflore fed and clothed them for their work and they lived there till they died. Granny Leflore was old fashioned; she wore old-fashioned clothes, knitted all their socks and stockings, smoked a long stemmed clay pipe and grunted a lot when she talked. She grunted long or short to suit the sadness or seriousness of the story told her. It was fun to us children to hear her grunt, and we made up stories to tell her, to see who could bring out the longest grunt. She was so feeble she could hardly get about so she spent most of her time in a big high rocking chair, either before the fire or out on the front porch, and we teased granny a little too much, sometimes, and when she got mad she was a cat, but we could easily stay out of her reach. Granny liked her meals prepared in the good old-fashioned way, and often she called her grandson in the early morning, telling him to get up and go kill some fresh meat for breakfast. The young man would get up, take his gun and go out a mile or so from the house, and in an hour come back with a wild turkey, some squirrels or a deer for breakfast. In the meantime, Granny would call her widowed daughter to get up and go out to the corncrib and get eight ears of corn and shell it, beat it up in the tomfuller block and make bread out of it for breakfast. They had a steel mill for grinding corn on a post in the back yard, it made good meal, but Granny liked bread made from meal beat in the tomfuller block the best, and she always had her way in things like that. When the breakfast was ready, with a big dish of wild meats, a big pone of home meal. bread, some good coffee, and a few other good things. And after taking some good long puffs from the long stemmed clay pipe while sitting in the big rocking chair, Granny Leflore enjoyed herself best. It wouldn't do to insist on her doing anything, for she was boss of that place and would do as she pleased, so we had to wait till she got through talking, then we could ask questions. So in the following I will relate some of the things that Granny Leflore saw with her own eyes.

 

When a young girl Granny Leflore was called Sookie, and she played up and down the banks of the Tombigby river in Mississippi, with only a few days at school to interrupt her play. When young Tom Leflore first came to see her, he was riding straddle of a horse. It was a funny sight to see a man sitting straddle of an animal; no one in that settlement had ever seen anything like it before. Several of the neighbors came up to see the strange animal, and young Tom Leflore tried his best to get some of them to get on the horse but they were all afraid. After a while late in the evening Sookie got on the horse and rode about the place a few minutes, her mother looked every minute to see this strange animal eat her up alive, but nothing like that happened. Young Tom Leflore had told her that the horse was perfectly gentle and wouldn't hurt her, and she had already learned to have confidence and trust in him, even to getting on this strange animal. Young Tom also told her of another strange animal he called a cow. He said it was about the size of the horse but it had two long horns on its head and it looked different, but people didn't ride them. The Choctaws had no cows or, horses in those days. Young Tom gave Sookie a fan for a present to remember him till he would come again. The choctaws used fans made out of turkey wings but this fan was different, made of paper and so pretty to look at, and Sookie loved it with all her heart and she carefully laid the fan away in a big wooden box she used to keep her things in.  Several times, a day she went to see if it was still there and to show it to others. She would not use it, she was afraid she would break it, and she was going to keep it as long as she lived. Just a day or so before Granny Leflore died she had her daughter go and get this fan and bring it to her, and then she placed it in the daughters hand told her to take care of it and keep it as long as she lived. Her daughter who we called Aunt Sarah lived to be ninety-three years of age, and when she knew she must die, she gave the fan to the woman that nursed her, and told her the history of the fan. I saw the fan in 1915, at that time it was in fairly good repair, but had many patches on it. Sometimes a very small thing is a big thing in our lives, so was this fifty cent fan in the life of Granny Leflore, she kept it ninety six years and delivered it to her daughter who kept it twenty five years, making it one hundred and twenty one years old when I last saw it.

Sookie married Tom Leflore about the year 1795 and they settled near Tom's father, Michael Leflore, a Frenchman, who came among the Choctaws about the year 1770. They lived near the Tombigby River and became very prosperous as traders, merchants, farmers and stockmen, and a leader in the affairs of the Choctaw people. For a time these people were contented and happy and they made considerable progress in the ways of the white man and had many friend among them. But as the eastern states settled up, and that settlement pressed westward, and more land was needed for the new settlers, the Choctaws were in the way. Soon agitation began for their removal to a western country, but the Choctaws did not want to move. They wanted to stay on the lands the Great Spirit had given them, a land where their forefather’s bones lay in the ground. They pleaded with the white man to remain and was promised by the United States government agents that if they would be peaceable,

would learn agriculture, send their children to school, and be christianized they could remain. With this hopeful promise they were bought up and their progress was very rapid. Schools and Churches, Large farms were established among them with considerable success were opened up and good houses built, and some became very wealthy owning many slaves and much livestock. But the cry for more land could not be satisfied and many things were done to o the Choctaws for no cause except to make them dissatisfied to make them move. The Choctaw tried every way to satisfy his enemies but without success, so in 1820 they by treaty traded part of their land in Mississippi, for land in the west, now Oklahoma. They did not move

 west under that treaty because after investigation they learned that other Indians claimed the lands and they could not have peace others claiming the land. Then the United States Government established Forts in the new country and the white settlers in that country was ordered off and the Indians of other tribes driven further

 west. After this had been done the agitation for removal became worse and the Choctaw could not have any peace at. all, so they signed another treaty in 1830 ceding all their lands in Mississippi to the United States Government and agreed to move west in two years. The Choctaw are a peaceful people and they were very much disturbed and their troubles were born by their leaders in political affairs, and Tom Leflore at that time was doing all he could to satisfy the agitator for removal and to calm his own people and bring about peace, but nothing could be done, so as a last resort he advised his people to go west where they could have peace and govern themselves as they liked. This procedure was accepted by the leaders as the only course, but many of the others rebelled and threaten to go to war rather than go west. At this time Tom Leflore was the father of seven children, had been Chief of the Choctaw people, and was a recognized leader among them. And Sookie his wife, was not only mother of seven, but had become Granny Leflore. She had more than the burdens of her household to bare, she was a choctaw, her heart was broken because of her people, and the thoughts of them being driven away from their old home lands, like so many cattle, grieved her. After the treaty of 1830 was signed and its requirements proclaimed, the people went into mourning. Some were bitter against their leaders and accused them of selling out. Tom Leflore was a true friend to the Choctaw people and did the best he could under the conditions, but he had to beg many reports and slanderous remarks. The people came to the Leflore home in great numbers for consolation and advise, they were told nothing could be done, but make their arrangement to go west. Mrs. Leflore had many friend's and they came from far and near to unburden their sorrows for her sympathy and advice, she also told them nothing could be done but go west. Some of the people resigned to their fate and began making preparations for removing, but others held on and had to be almost forced to go. Saloons well established. At many points in the old Choctaw country, the men drank to drunkenness and murdered each other. And there were many other things detrimental to their peace and happiness to further hasten their departure. Al1 this thing was a burden and grievance to the good missionary that had labored among them, and to many others who worked tirelessly for the best interest of the people. The missionary had worked faithfully for the church and school, they had good membership in the church, and were successful in the school, and they were in deep sympathy with the people. The common white people who had lived as neighbors to the Choctaws were in full sympathy with them, but the land grafter and the politician was working for their own interest, and had no sympathy for the people. Tom Leflore and his wife had more than their share of the burdens to bear, because they could hear and see the peoples troubles and was helpless to do anything for them. As time went on some of the wealthy ones went west to establish their homes in small companies with reasonable comfort in their journey but the rank and file of the people lingered as long as their oppressors would let them. Tom Leflore had accumulated considerable property and had more than a half bushel of gold, and he could have assembled a few of his kindred and friends and traveled in good comfort, but he chose to go with a large company composed of every age and kind of people that he might be a help to the man that could not help himself. Notices went out notifying all the people to assemble at a mission station named Goshen in full preparation to leave on the first day of August 1832. TOM Leflore was the acknowledged head of that great company of about six hundred people. Several days before the appointed time the people began to come in and set up some form of shelter to stay in while the others gathered, and as the day drew nearer the number that came in increased, and soon the whole place was covered with people. They came in every form, wagons, and horseback

carts, sleds, pole drags, and afoot. It was known that only a few of the most needed things could be carried, so just a handful of things for each family was brought, and nothing that had weight. The government furnished several wagons and several more was furnished by private individuals, but the number was too small to provide convenience for any one able to walk, for the wagons were needed to carry the things necessary for the journeys and to be used in the new country. So everybody that was physically able had to walk. Very young children, very old people, the sick and the afflicted rode the wagons and horses. A great herd cattle was held by pens and herdsmen to be slaughtered for meat, and these cattle were driven in the rear of the company to be killed along the journey to provide meat. In addition to the cattle, men with guns scouted the country along the route and killed much wild game, and secured other food. The men who had charge of the company did what they could to make things comfortable for the people but there was much suffering at best. At the beginning, of journey the weather was warm and pretty and the people fresh, the suffering was not so bad, but as time wore on, the weather got bad and cold, the roads torn to pieces from so many wagons, and the people worn out with so much walking, the suffering was most pitiful and intense. Babies were borne on the roadside and in an hour the mother was back into the procession, if the mother or babe died they were buried on the roadside where they died and the others urged on. Progress was necessarily slow for something was happening that interrupted their going, and many of the wagons were drawn by oxen. Sometimes they were stopped a week or more on account of swollen streams and bad crossings. The people as a whole stood up under the strain remarkably well, and there was a shadow of cheerfulness among them most of the time. This company was formed of kindred’s, friends, and members of the same church or community, they nearly all knew each other, this helped to break the worry and grind of the journey. But the greatest help was the Christian fellowship that prevailed and the teaching of the missionary that the Great Spirit would in some way "provide'' for his people. The Leflore Company was called a Christian company because held evening and morning religious services and they never traveled on Sundays. Seasons of songs and prayers gave them encouragements, and the Sundays gave them rest. A great many of the company was very poor, had very little clothing and no shoes on their feet, and at one time we were detained for more than two weeks by a swollen stream and during the time it got awfully cold and the ground was covered with sleet and snow and many had no shelter to protect them from the inclemency of the weather, and to make things worse they ran out of food, and had to beg a little corn and lived on that. "We were nearly four months on the road," said Granny Leflore, "and was literally worn out when we got to the line of the new country." At one time a part of our company got cut off by a swollen stream and we stayed there about two weeks, we could not go on and leave them because we had all the rations. About seventy of our company died, principally old people, very young children and people that were in bad health to start with. It was a very sad thing to see our kindred, friends, or loved ones buried and left on the roadside, but we had it to do to keep up with the company. There were about one hundred wagons in the company, ten of these were government wagons loaded with rations for the trip, and all the other wagons were filled high with household goods and a few other things. A few sick people, some very young children and some very old people road on the wagons, and the rest of, the company walked. There was about a hundred loose horses along with the company, some of' these were packed with all kinds of plunder, some was rode by the leading men who went up and down the line of wagons to assist those needing their help, some was rode by men who went far out along on side of the road hunting for wild game to be used for foods, and some was rode by the cripple, the invalid, the very old, and the very young. Many of the company came unprepared for such a journey, some had no shoes, others shoes wore out before they had gone far, it being warm when they started they did not have sufficient clothes when the winter came on. The big company was formed by smaller companies of two to four wagons. Each family came and their near kin usually formed themselves into small companies putting all their effects into one or more wagons and joined the big company out traveled as a unit to themselves. The Leflore’s had four wagons the Gardner’s two wagons, the Garlands three wagons, the Garvin’s two wagons, the Jones two wagons, and

so on with the rest. The six government wagons that had the rations, lead the way, and the other four government wagons followed behind with the live cattle that were brought along for beef. Tom Leflore was chief at the company and he rode on horseback all the way, and went up and down the line to give help to the people. "Nearly all the roads were new, said Granny Leflore, and we had to take time to throw a temporary bridge across many of the streams before the many wagons could cross. We crossed the Mississippi at Vicksburg and that was about the only ferry we crossed. We had to ford the streams and if they were up a little we had to wait till they went down before we could cross. The government wagons ahead would select each nights stopping place where there was water, and the others

came on as they could, some was way into the night getting there, having been delayed by bad roads or burying the dead. About half of the wagons were fairly good, but others mere makeshifts and often breaking down, some was made from sawing a large tree to make the wheels and when then they got worn a little they wobbled and flopped about when they traveled. Much of the country after leaving the Mississippi river was a wilderness with just a few country stores and two or three small towns along that long road, so it was hard to get anything even if you had the money and many of our company was very poor. There was about two in our company that knew a little about medicine to relieve the sick and the accidentally hurt, and they had but little medicine. A good many of the Choctaws believed in their medicine man, but this superstitious belief did not help, nay, only it gave the believer some peace of mind. When we got to the border line of the new country the land had been taken by them that proceeded us, several companies like ours, some smaller, some larger, had reached the new country and some was on the road, so we moved on several miles into the new country before stopped to look out a place to build our future home. After we reached the new country the big company soon broke up, each family unit going in a different direction to look out a place to build. We thought our troubles were over when we reached the new country, but we were mistaken in this, for the cold weather and rain had set in and we had nothing but a few tents, a few open sheds, and few open log houses to protect us from the rain and cold. We had but just a few tools to work with and it was a long ways to where we could get anything at all, and what they had was soon sold out, so we had to just help one another and do the best we could. Those that had tools helped those that had none first to build some form of shelter and then the others helped them. The new country was covered with heavy timber and tall grass, except the prairies, and the river bottomlands stood in water in the most part, because the timber and underbrush was so thick it could not dry out. There was but one public road in the whole country and that was the Fort Towson-Little Rock military road cut thru in 1824. We found a good spring on this road on the edge of a small prairie and stopped there and lived in a tent thru the winter and built a small log house in 1833 and lived in that till 1834 when the choctaw people built us a big log house, "the biggest and the best in the country". The people built this house for Tom Leflore because they loved and honored him for his kindness and friendship. Tom Leflore lived in this big house until his death about 1859, and Granny Leflore lived in it till her death in about the year 1890. In November 1931 the ruins of this house was still standing, and had been occupied up a year or so ago. This house stands about a half mile northeast of Millerton, Okla. The writer was born on the farm that joins Millerton on the north. Some of our company settled east of us, said Granny Leflore, some north, some south, and some went on still further west. After we had stopped and stretched our tent several wagons passed along the road in front of our tent and we stood and watched them pass. It was real pitiful to see them trudge along the road. Some of the women had many little things they wanted to bring along, but they couldn't find any room in the wagons, so they put them in a large pack basket, with a leather strap that went over their forehead and the basket resting on their backs, and they carried them all the way from Mississippi in this way. Some of the men wore the white mans clothes and shoes; some wore buckskin breeches and a blanket and moccasins on their feet. Nearly all had long hair cropped square at the point of their shoulders and the white mans kind of hat. The women were dressed nearly all alike, they wore long cotton dresses that touched the ground, a large shawl over their shoulders and head, some wore large red handkerchiefs over their heads. Some had shoes and some wore moccasins on their feet. A good many both men and women were barefooted, and nearly all the young boys and girls were barefooted. The Choctaws had a good many cattle in Mississippi; these were all put together into a great herd and driven thru a few weeks after we came. Some sold their stuff off pretty well, but a great many just went off and left what they couldn't carry along with them. The white people flooded our old country even before we left everything of value left was taken by them. Alfred Wright our missionary had agreed to come west with us and establish schools and churches in the new country, but he had to go back east to supervise the printing of some new books to be used on the new field.  He promised to come as soon as he could and did arrive some time after we did. A site for his station already been selected, the under brush cleared away and some benches made, and the people was anxiously waiting his coming. He was detained at Little Rock for a while on account of his health, but came on as soon as he was able to travel. He came to the site we had selected and organized a church on the 9th day of December 1832 and named the place Wheelock. He was a godly man and a good physician and people needed him, very bad. Other missionaries also came, but it seemed the people had their minds centered on Alfred Wright. We had so much work to do and so little to do it with, and it was cold and bad, that it took quiet a while to get everybody settled with some kind of shelter. It was soon spring of the year so we had to plant our corn in the woods and clear the ground and fence it afterwards, in order to get anything planted at all. So the year 1833 was a very busy year, clearing land, building houses, fencing, and working our crops. We raised some corn and other stuff and with what the government gave us we got along pretty well, and when winter came on we was much better prepare. We were worn out from the trip and had been exposed in the bad weather till a good many of our people took sick or had been sick and many died. When the fall rains of 1833 began and extended far into the spring of 1834, and the scent from decaying timbers, it seemed we were all going to die, for nearly everybody got sick. Rev. Alfred Wright being a sickly man did all he could for the people, but he had no medicine and could not get any only from the east and it would take too long. In one month he attended three hundred and thirty eight and did what he could but many of them died. Only two trading post had been established at this time, one near Fort Towson and the other near Eagletown. We could get out very few things at any price, and what we did get was high. The government paid out net proceed and annuity money at Eagletown and at Fort Towson, and we got a few rations at these places, but no medicines. The sickness let up in the spring of 1834 and the people took on new hopes. During the summer and fall of 1834 there was several good houses built, mostly along the Fort Towson-Little Rock military road. This road crossed the line at, Ultimathule in Arkansas Territory and followed the high lands southwest to the Wheelock crossing on Little River, then southwest out of the bottoms then turned almost due west and followed the high ridge lands bordering Little River for about 7 miles then left the ridge land and went west thru timber land for about two miles, then thru prairie most of the way to Fort Towson. The Choctaws didn't all come as we did, some came by boat up the Arkansas River, and others came up the Red River, those of the leaders and wealthy class came in private conveyances in small companies. The most noted of the wealthy Choctaws was Robert Jones and Joel Kemp, both owned many slaves. Robert Jones went further west and settled a place that became know as Rose Hill and died there. Joel Kemp settled about 10 miles west of our place and opened up a large farm of a thousand acres, and another farm nearly as large on Red diver. He also built a water mill on Clear Creek to supply meal for his many negro slaves and ground corn for the public in the year 1834, and continued to own and operate the water mill until the year 1844 when he moved further west, selling his water mill to Oklabi another choctaw. Several mission stations was established in the year 1834 and church and schoolwork advanced rapidly with but little opposition, and in the 1842 several boarding schools were built.  The people soon became settled down and began to attend their little farms and see after their stock, which fed themselves on the open range. The people held their councils, elected their chiefs, and enacted their laws and had their officers and in the most part was very well satisfied. During the years 1842-50 the religious activities was at its best, and in the year 1846 a stone church at Wheelock was built, erected to mark the march of education and religion in the west. The cost of building this church was paid partly by the mission board and partly by the people, some gave money, and others gave labor, and the stones was taken out the ground south of the church site. A good stone mason was employed to over see the work, and others was also employed, but as much of the work as could be was done by our own people. The people got along good and prospered until the outbreak of the civil war, when we were all torn to pieces again. After being forced into the war our people joined the south. Tom Leflore died just before the war broke out in 1859, being about 84 years of age at the time of his death. He had been very prosperous and had several farms opened up and much livestock on the range. After his death his interest was taken care of by his sons and son-in-laws. His wife Granny Leflore as she was called lived 31 years after the death of her husband. She might have lived a few years longer if she had been let alone. After she had passed her one-hundredth year she was not able to do much work, only such work as knitting and mending clothes, she spent most of her time sitting in a big-armed chair.  When she was a hundred and fifteen she owned much cattle and horses and it was generally believed she had lots of money. So one night she was awaken by someone trying to get in at the window she was alone with her daughter and some small great grand children, her grandson the only man of the place was away.  But in order to scare the burglar away she called her grandson saying, "come quick a burglar is in the house. The burglar withdrew and ran away, but the excitement was too much for Granny Leflore, she took sick and died about a week 1ater. Granny Leflore could have told many things of interest to the people of this day, but she had to pass away like the rest of the people before her, and was buried in the family cemetery a short distance east of her home, and the little house, common in those days, was built over her grave.

 

    Noel & Edna                GRANNY LEFLORE

    Route 1, Box 539                                                    By Edmond J. Gardner

     Valliant, OK 74764

 

                                      

Alma Mason

Rt. 5 Box 450

McAlester, Ok. 74501

Phone: 918 423 2610

Fax: 918 423 4300

Alma@cwis.net

 

I WISH SOME ONE WOULD WRITE AN ARTICLE ON CHIEF THOMAS "TOM" LeFLORE, THERE IS QUITE A BIT ABOUT HIM AND THEIR CHILDREN SCATTERED ABOUT IN HISTORY.

Alma Mason

Route 5, Box 450

McAlester, OK 74501