Jefferson J. Terry was born January 1, 1847 in Huntsville, Randolph County, Missouri to Henderson Terry and Mary Kitchen. He was the third child of ten. Jefferson (JJ) rode with Capt. Caleb Perkins Calvary unit during the civil war. His unit was captured and released from Alexendria LA the 7^th of June 1865. At his release he was given a suit of clothes, a pair of shoes and a train ticket to Huntsville MO. His hometown. On the 1870 Randolph CO. MO. Census he is listed as a schoolteacher in his father’s home. In 1877 he married Mrs. Phoebe McKeever, a widow whose husband was killed in the civil war. They lived in Redwood Mississippi and had 2 children. Phoebe died with yellow fever in 1877. JJ took his children to his parents’ home in Missouri and headed for Indian Territory. In an excerpt of WPA interview of Mr.  Clarence Granville Bearden, dated September 30, 1937 “…I was raised right down there south of Hugo on my step-mother’s farm. I first attended school at Spring Chapel, a two-story frame or boxed building. The upper story was used for a lodge for the Masons and below was used for school, and all other kind of social affairs. My first teacher was J.J. Terry, a white man, who drifted in here from the north, somewhere and hacked railroad cross ties for a living one summer, while waiting for time for his school to open. He was a good teacher and a pretty good citizen, and got to be a United States Marshall. “ J.J. married again in 1890 to Dora Payton who died in 1896,

shortly after the birth of their son Joseph. After his marriage he went to Missouri and brought his children home with him to what is now called Hugo Oklahoma. He married again October 17, 1898 to Sarah Josephine Gardner. This marriage license cost $100.00, a rather large amount of money for that period of time. They were married by Parson Hodges who was a minister of the gospel in the county of Kiamichi, of the Choctaw Nation. They divorced June 7, 1912. Sarah filed the divorce with charges of harsh, cruel and undkind Treatment. JJ denied the charges but did not contest the divorce. They made an agreement between themselves to divide the property and she was to have the children until school age and then JJ would be responsible for their education. She would receive child support and alimony. There was a motion to modify and vacate the portion of the judgment and decree on the 19^th of June 1912. While JJ was out of town, upon returning he found the children hungry and not being cared for. The neighbors told him that they had come over to their house begging for food and that Sarah had left them unattended. For this reason he ask for custody of the children, and obtained it, and also he obtained custody of his stepdaughter Emma Belle Hickman. J.J. again married Mrs. Sallie Mullins of Italy Texas in December of 1916, in FT. Worth Texas. He then married Adelia C. Pruitt on January 10^th, 1920. They were married by Wallace M. Crutchfield a minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church, in Hugo Oklahoma. JJ raised 9 children. J.J.’s oldest son was Robert Bea Terry, born in Mississippi, he married Alice M. Hynson in Goodland I.T. 2 March 1895 in Goodland by S. G. Hotema Co. & Pro. Judge. They made their home in Goodland. On April 17, 1898 they were attending church to have their baby daughter christened and a disturbance started outside. Bea went out to see about it and his friend Bun Gooding and some other men were drinking and shooting their guns off. Bea was able to talk his good friend, Bun Gooding into leaving but Bun said Bea had to go with them, which he did. When they got to the wild plum thicket Bun shot Bea and killed him. J.J. was a marshal at his time so he tried to track Bun and the others down, but Bun Gooding was never found. [1]JJ’s oldest daughter Maud Moore Terry married Samuel Bailey Spring on April 25, 1895 in the Terry home near Hugo. She was 16 yrs old. Mr. Spring was a very educated man and worked for the Choctaw people. He was the first postmaster of Hugo. ON the 1920 census for Choctaw CO OK his occupation is City Clerk.  Mr. Spring and JJ worked together surveying the Western part of Hugo, and sold the lots for $50.00 each. The town’s determination was made by the Arkansas and Choctaw RR and the Monett and Paris branch of the Frisco RR crossing. The official survey and plat of the city of the city of Hugo was made in August , 1902 when 415 acres of land were set aside for town site purposes. Hugo’s history as a municipality begins September 3^rd, 1903, when according to the 1906 Husonian, the order incorporating the town became effective. Terry Hill is located in the Northwestern part of town. Most of the land is now owned by the Baptist Association and there is a Retirement Center built on the land. There are at least 3 graves on the property, Sarah Josephine’s mother Agnes Bohannon and two unidentified sole buried one on each side of her. Grandpa said one was a baby and one was an uncle. JJ Terry is buried in the family plot at Spring Chapel Cemetery located just south of Hugo.  His son Joseph and daughter Beulah buried there. Jefferson J. Terry was known “far and wide” for his enterprising spirit. He was one who did not like to disappoint his friends, and he was averse to starting something he could not finish. [2] [i]