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Oklahoma Biographies

Robert Galbreath (1863-1953)  

Peter P. Pitchlynn was born in Noxubee County, Mississippi, January 30, 1806. His father, a white man, was the Government interpreter for the Choctaw Nation, having been first commissioned as such by President Washington. Thirsting for an education before any schools were established among the Choctaw, he was sent to Tennessee, where he attended an academy, and afterward the University of Nashville, from which institution he graduated. Returning home from school once as a boy, he found his people making a new treaty with the Government, of which he so strongly disapproved that he refused to shake hands with Gen. Andrew Jackson, the Government commissioner. Although he afterward became a very warm friend of General Jackson, he never became reconciled to the treaty. In 1828 he was selected by the Government as the leader of a Choctaw party to explore the proposed Indian Territory and make peace with the Osage. Although but little more than a youth at the time, he discharged the duty thus imposed with a degree of courage and diplomacy that would have done credit to a man many years older. At the beginning of the Civil War he was in Washington on public business and assured President Lincoln that he hoped to hold his people neutral. He remained loyal to the Union throughout the War, though three of his sons were in the Confederate Army. As a result of the War, he lost a large amount of property, including 100 slaves. He was a friend of Henry Clay and of Charles Dickens. The latter described him as a man of great physical beauty and a natural orator. Pitchlynn died in the city of Washington in 1881 and was buried in the Congressional cemetery, Gen. Albert Pike pronouncing the eulogy. ["A History of Oklahoma" by Joseph B. Thoburn and Isaac M. Holcomb, Doub & Company, San Francisco, 1908, Page 99 - Submitted by Jim Vandermark]

Peter Perkins Pitchlynn (30 January 1806 – 17 January 1881), or Hat-choo-tuck-nee ("The Snapping Turtle"), was an American Indian/European-American Choctaw chief.  Peter P. Pitchlynn was born in Noxubee County, Mississippi, January 30, 1806. His parents were Colonel John Pitchlynn, a white man, and Sophia Folsom, a Choctaw. He began his education by attending a Tennessee boarding school about 200 miles from his home in Mississippi. Later he attended an Academy in Columbia, Tennessee. To complete his education he became a graduate of the University of Nashville. After he obtained his degree he returned to his home in Mississippi and became a farmer. Pitchlynn was well educated in both white and Choctaw traditions and served as an effective liaison with the federal government. Impressive in his bearing--"as stately and complete a gentleman of nature's making as ever I beheld," wrote Charles Dickens--he became principal chief in 1860. Pitchlynn was in Washington, D.C., in 1861 when the war started. He immediately left, hoping to escape the expected strife. He had gone to Washington to address national affairs of the Choctaws but immediately returned home. The Choctaws were not permitted to occupy neutral grounds but were forced into the fratricidal strife, some on the one side and some the other, to the inconceivable injury of all. Peter P. Pitchlynn was elected Principal Chief of the Choctaws in 1864 and served until 1866. He then retired in Washington and devoted his attention to pressing the Choctaw claims for lands sold to the United States in 1830. In addition to being a regular attendant of the Lutheran Church, he was also a prominent member of the Masonic Order. In regards to the origin of the Choctaw, Pitchlynn said "according to the traditions of the Choctaws, the first of their race came from the bosom of a magnificent sea. Even when they first made their appearance upon the earth they were so numerous as to cover the sloping and sandy shore of the ocean ... in the process of time, however, the multitude was visited by sickness ... their journey lay across streams, over hills and mountains, through tangled forests, and over immense prairies ... so pleased were they with all that they saw that they built mounds in all the more beautiful valleys they passed through, so the Master of Life might know that they were not an ungrateful people. Pitchlynn addressed the President and several congressional committees in defense of Choctaw claims. He died in Washington in 1881 and was buried in the Congressional Cemetery, where the Choctaw nation placed a monument in recognition of his service and allegiance to his people.  Pitchlynn's mother Sophia Folsom Pitchlynn has the oldest known date on a tombstone in the state of Mississippi. His cousin Frances Folsom (1864-1947) married President Grover Cleveland in the White House.

Father Francis Rother pictured to the left and his headstone above, located at the Holy Trinity Cemetery, Okarche, Oklahoma

Let us pray for the Canonization of
Father Stanley Rother
Oklahoma Martyr

Heavenly Father,
source of all holiness,
in every generation you raise up
men and women heroic in love and service.

You have blessed your Church
with the life of Stanley Rother,
priest, missionary, and martyr.
Through his prayer, his preaching,
his presence, and his pastoral love,
you revealed Your love and Your presence
with us as Shepherd.

If it be your will,
may he be proclaimed
by the universal church
as martyr and saint,
living now in your presence
and interceding for us all.

We ask this through Christ our Lord.
Amen

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