My father held many public offices; his first public office was that of supreme clerk which he filled for six years. He was county judge and also served in the House of Representatives. He was Thomas E. Oakes.

I have a ledger which my father kept while operating the store and the Oakes ferry across Red River. This ledger was the means of saving a young man’s life. Late one evening a young man stopped at my father’s place and asked for work. Father told him that there was no work just then, but if he wanted to stay awhile maybe he could use him in a few days. The young man stayed and father put him to work doing odd things around and when this boy had earned some money he bought a shirt and some pants from Father. After this young man had been there a month, a marshal from Texas arrested him and said he was wanted for murder in Texas. The day he made the purchase from Father’s store was the day on which he was charged with having committed the murder. So by Father showed the entry in the ledger proving that the young man was in the Indian Territory on that day and he was cleared of the murder charge.

I attended school at Spencer Academy and Clarksville Tennessee. There were about one hundred boys at Spencer Academy while I was there and we thrived on corn bread, beans and potatoes. I still use my grandmother’s oval shaped iron Tom Fuller pot which is a hundred and three years old and was brought here from Mississippi I also have the old wooden lock and key used by my father to lock the store at Oakes ferry.

Transcribed by Ron Henson 03-01
page last updated 03/19/08