INTERVIEW # 8484
Field Worker’s name: Thad SMITH, Jr.
This report made on: September 13, 1937
Name: Mrs. Roy HILL
Post office Address: Chickasha, Oklahoma
Residence address: 1201 Idaho Avenue
Date of birth: December 18, 1892
Place of birth: Chickasaw Nation
Name of Father: Jim FITZPATRICK
Place of birth: Indian Territory
Other information on father: Buried near Chickasha
Name of Mother: Mary MAUPIN
Place of birth: Kentucky
Other information on mother: Still living, age 76 years
I was born on my father’s ranch in a big log house in the Chickasaw Nation in 1892. My father’s ranch was located about 8 miles southeast of where Chickasha now is on the north side of the Washita River, near the place where the old Chisholm Trail crossed the Washita River.
Father’s brand was a 97 on the left hip. He had several hundred head each of cattle and horses.
In 1897 my father employed a school teacher named Mrs. Jess LOCKETT to come to our ranch and teach my brothers, sisters and me. We studied McGaffey’s books and did all of our writing on slates.
My father built, or had built, the first brick business building in Oklahoma in 1892. It is still in use as a hotel.
My father always kept several cowboys on the ranch to break the young horses and to keep the cattle from straying as well as to brand them. The cowboys had a small house in the corner of the yard for their own use. Most of the cowboys were rough and gruff but good-hearted.
In 1898 we moved to the Jones place south of where Verden now is and I attended a Methodist mission school nearby. Mr. MCQUIRTER was the preacher and Mrs. Hattie ROSE was our teacher.
In 1901 we moved to the John OSBORNE farm north of Verden, where I attended the Tennessee School which was about three miles from home. Miss Teresa WAMSLEY was our teacher. All the children who didn’t walk came to school either in buggies or on horseback.
In 1901 my folks and I went to a big Indian dance about three miles west of Verden, or about five miles from where we lived. There must have been at least two or three thousand Indians there. We took a tent and lived and cooked like the Indians.
The Indians did most of their dancing at night around a big fire. There were several different tribes. Some wore beaded buckskin suits and some wore colorful blouses and skirts, but all of them wore beads and earrings. They didn’t all try to dance at once but each tribe would take a turn about.
At sunrise the dance would stop and we would all cook and eat. We would take our horses to the river to water them, then stake them out on fresh grass.
The Indians would sleep nearly all day and would get ready for another dance that night.
The third afternoon we were there my father and mother left me with my older brothers and sisters in our tent while they went home to see about our stock. I certainly was scared.
The fourth day the dance broke up.
My mother made all of the children’s clothes by hand.
Even though my father had lots of cattle sometimes we wouldn’t have any milk to make bread with so we would make sour dough bread which is very tasty when made right.
In 1904 we moved from the Caddo country over into the Chickasaw Nation on Bill MONCRIEF’s place and I finished my schooling at the Gilbert School. A lot of the time I rode to school on horseback but always on a side saddle.
In 1907 there was a Fourth of July picnic north of Chickasha where they had horse racing, roping and dancing. There were lots of white people there and very few Indians, but lots of negroes.
Note: Pearl Francis "Jence" [FITZPATRICK] HILL
18 Dec 1892 - 17 Jul 1986
Submitted by Sandi CARTER
Great niece
If you have questions, you can email Sandi.
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