Purdy, Oklahoma

	Garvin County County Seat - Pauls Valley
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Purdy
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Purdy is located six miles southeast of Erin Springs and lies in the rich Washita Valley bottomland. Once an active community, it was established in the 1880's and its post office started in 1892 and operated until 1918. Purdy was named after the first postmaster, R.S. Purdy. There was a cotton gin, about two general stores, a school and church. Because of the rich soil for growing cotton, farmers were attracted to the area. Modern progress has caused the decline of this community which now has only a cemetery, a few buildings, and some farming families.

DAVIS, JOE interview 1157

Field Worker: Maurice N. Anderson 438

March 30, 1937

Biography of Mr. Joe Davis (white)

3 miles west of Pauls Valley, Oklahoma

Born: Alabama March 21,1881

Parents: James Robert Finley Davis, ALA. (deceased)

Millie Blackwell, ALA (deceased)

Story Told By: Mr. Joe Davis, born March 21,1881, ALABAMA

"I came to the Indian Territory with my father and mother in 1892. I was

11 years old, we came through on the Santa Fe train from Texas to Pauls

Valley, Indian Territory. On arriving at Pauls Valley, my father bought

2 horses and a wagon, we loaded up our household things, that my father

has shipped through. It was not much, we had 4 chairs, table, homemade

bedstead and a few other household things.

My father moved to Purdy, a little place about 25 miles southwest of

Pauls Valley. There was a store, lone schoolhouse, Blacksmith shop and a

Grist Mill. This mill was ran by steam and owned by Mr. Park (Hart). The

Blacksmith Shop was owned by Jim Welch. I do not remember who owned the

store.

I went to school at this Log School house. A white woman was my teacher,

I do not remember her name. My father had to pay her one dollar a month

for me. Us kids that went to school did not have desks, we used slates

and set on the hued down logs for seats. I had a blue back speller and a

reader. I think there was about 25 or 30 children went to this school,

the year I went. I did not go much the second term, only on the days we

could not work in the fields. I had to help my father on the farm.

My father had about 100 acres leased, he raised lots of corn and cotton.

He would haul the cotton to Pauls Valley on the Washita river. I believe

this mill and gin went out of business.

There was lots of deer around Purdy, when we moved there, I have seen as

high as 15 deer in one drove, around the foot of the Table Mountains,

south of Purdy. Wild turkey's I have shelled corn and feather, about one

mile from our house was a big turkey roast, they would come around our

corn crib early of a morning. We could have turkey anytime to eat we

wanted to. I have gone hunting and would not even shoot at a turkey. I

like rabbits better, there was lots of coon, possum and skunks around

Purdy.

I have broke wild horses for my father when I was 14 years old. Sunday,

that was our "fun day". After Sunday school a group of boys that lived

around Purdy, would meet at my house, nearly all owned saddle horses. We

would go out on the prairie, there was not very many fences then. We

would rope calves and have our rodeo, riding these calves on Sunday was

when I learned to ride. When I was at the age of 15, I was not afraid to

try any wild broncs or did I not care how big the steers were. We boys

would make up $5.00 purses for the best rider for that day. I have won

several times.

My father raised some cattle and hogs, but his main crop was corn. Corn

was cheap then, I have seen my father sell corn for fifteen cents a

bushel. My father sold about 20 Acres of corn for ten cents a bushel in

the filed. I do not know how much corn the man he sold that year

gathered, but we usually made forty to fifty bushels an Acre.

I lived with my father and mother around Purdy, until I was married in

1900. I married Lisa Sarah Malecoat, daughter of F.L. Malecoat, who was

a big cattle man around Purdy, when my father moved there. My wife was

born in Purdy, I do not know how long her people has been in the Indian

Territory, before my father and mother came there.

After getting married I moved on a farm and went to farming for myself.

In later years I have raised as high as 75 bales of cotton a year.

My wife and I have reared 10 children. I now live 3 miles west of Pauls

Valley. I have lived around in what is now Garvin county for 45 year. "

A copy of this interview was sent by Walter Malicoat January 20, 1994.

Old Purdy Cemetery
Camp No. 9, Purdy, Oklahoma
Chickasaw Nation, Indian Territory

Southwest of Purdy, Oklahoma on a farm owned by Mrs. Mattie Whitt is an old neglected and almost forgotten cemetery which is the final resting place of some of the first settlers in that part of Oklahoma, Indian Territory. Old Purdy Cemetery is now lost in weeds and memory. few if any of the old timers who came to those parts are left to tell the story of those hardy pioneers who lived and died in Purdy Camp No. 9, Purdy, Indian Territory in the Chickasaw Nation.

When the old cemetery first came into use is not known exactly, though it was already three before the town of Purdy and may even date back to 1870 or earlier. It was definitely in use in the 1880's. The area around what was later to become Purdy, Oklahoma was patented to the Chickasaw tribe on March 23, 1842 and Purdy Camp No. 9, Indian Territory was probably established shortly after that. The land tract for the townsite of Purdy, Indian Territory was not granted until after 1900. A townsite commission was appointed by the U.S. Department of the Interior to appraise the lots for the town of Purdy, Oklahoma and the sum of sixty dollars, the full amount of the purchase price, was deposited with the U.S. Indian Agent a Muskogee, Oklahoma. The patent entitled the town of Purdy and its heirs and assigns, forever, all right, title, and interest to lots 3, 4, and 5 in block 36 in the Choctaw and Chickasaw Nations. The plat for this townsite was approved by the Secretary of the Interior on the 5th day of November 1901. This agreement was witnessed and signed by Green McCurtain, principal chief of the Choctaw Nation, on the 9th day of July 1908 and by Douglas H. Johnston, Governor of the Chickasaw Nation on July 24, 1908. The deed was duly recorded and filed on the 28th day of January 1908 at 11 o'clock a.m.. Thus was born the town of Purdy, Oklahoma, formerly Purdy Camp No. 9, Chickasaw Nation, Indian Territory.

The earliest official record of the establishment of a cemetery in Purdy, Indian Territory is a U.S. Department of the Interior document No. 34 setting aside five (5) acres, more or less, situated in the Chickasaw Nation, Indian Territory for cemetery purposes. In consideration for this tract of land, the town of Purdy paid fifty dollars, the full amount of the purchase price, into the treasury of the United States, with the Indian agent at Muskogee, Oklahoma. This contract was signed and sealed by Green McCurtain, Principal Chief of the Choctaw Nation, on August 9thm 1906. The contract was filed for the record on the 9th day of January 1907 at 3 o'clock p.m.. Old Purdy Cemetery was officially established.

That same year on December 5, 1907, Ethel M. Vawter, Choctaw by blood, Roll No. 9723, was granted an allotment of some fifteen (15) acres, more or less, in the Chickasaw Nation. The original plat description for this land was as follows: The North Half of the North East Quarter of the South East Quarter, less five (5) acres reserved for cemetery, of Section Twenty-two (22), Township Three (3) North and Range Four (4) West, Chickasaw Nation.

This allotment was witnessed and signed by Green McCurtain, Principal Chief of the Choctaw Nation on November 10, 1908 and then by Douglas H. Johnston, Governor of the Chickasaw Nation on November 3, 1909. It was officially approved by the U.S. Department of the Interior on February 6, 1909 and filed on the 13th day of February 1909 at 11 o'clock a.m.. How long Ethel M. Vawter retained her allotted land is not known but the acreage on which the cemetery was located passed into the hands of a Frederick H. Carr, Choctaw and was eventually purchased by Mr. Lee Whitt on January 19th, 1932. The townsite of Purdy had washed away some years before leaving the old cemetery in the middle of a cow pasture. Mr. Whitt put up a fence to keep his cows out. some years later Mr. Lee Cameron who had relatives buried in the old cemetery put up a new fence with iron posts and an iron entrance gate. That fence is still standing today.

Old Purdy Cemetery was surveyed from 1975 to 1977 by the Elliott Lee Chapter of the DAR and names and dates of all legible grave markers catalogued by Mrs. J.H. Ferguson, Mrs. Sara Thomason, and Mrs. Mattie Whitt, owner of the farm on which it was located. A copy of this catalogue was filed at the Nora Sparks Warren Memorial Library in Pauls Valley, Oklahoma. The oldest legible marker was that of Daniel Harrison, Born May 21, 1837 and died August 12, 1888. The most recent burial at the time of the survey was U.E. Estes born March 22, 1847 and died December 15, 1942. One descendant of the original settlers and pioneers of Purdy Camp No. 9, Indian Territory remained in an old folks home in Maysville, Oklahoma. Then in May of 1991 Oteka Crawford-Camel, daughter of J.H. Crawford and Laura Belle Crawford, was cremated and her ashes buried next to her mother's grave in Old Purdy Cemetery. The ceremony was simple with only a few family members present but now, at last, the last pioneer of the Chickasaw Nation was finally at rest.

A faded inscription found on one of the gravestones in the old cemetery seems somehow fitting for all those who are buried there. It reads:

Rest on, rest on in peaceful
Eternal sleep that God has given
But, citizen, mark well the sacred place
Where these hardy pioneers now rest forever

Garvin Co Garvin Co. Oklahoma
Your County Coordinator is Jeff Smith

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