The Andersons From South Carolina

(This is transcribed as written)

William Larkin Anderson and Maria Jones, daughter of Solomon and Mary "Hamilton" Jones were married March 9, 1871. He worked and taught school for his education afther his father's death, and became a minister of the Southern Baptist denomineation. He was pastor of a small church as I remember, called the Gap Creek Church. They had 12 children when we left South Carolina (two were married and one deceased).

They were:

      Mathilda Jones Anderson born December 25, 1871

      Eliot Anderson born July 22, 1873

      Emily Anderson born March 31, 1875

      John Bernie Anderson born February 4, 1877

      Sallie Anderson born November 7, 1878

      Lela Anderson born August 25, 1880

      Victor Anderson born April 17, 1882

      Joseph Anderson born August 18, 1884

      Cora Manula Anderson born May 27, 1886

      Harry Herbert Anderson born February 7, 1888

      Robert Milton Anderson born October 27, 1889

      Maud Anderson born January 13, 1893

The death of Victor saddened all the family and my father spend many days working on his grave. He covered it entirely with a thick cement slab. That brother I never saw.

I remember my father carrying me into the church on Sundays. The choir sang so beautiful even though they were just country singers. They would have training classed of then days every so often and they would drill and practice all parts; bass, tenor, alto and soprano. They would practice until they balanced and then have a concert. They sang only the church hymns and sacred music.

My two brothers, Eliot and Bernie, became restless as there was much in the news about the land and opportunities in the Indian Territory and the west. They decided to go and see for themselves. That made Mother restless as she wanted to hole her family together. So, she and my father decided to follow the boys if the boys did not return to South Carolina. The boys wrote home and said they were staying and asked the rest of the family to join them. When the relatives and neighbors heard about it, there was much discussion and many opinions expressed. Aunt Amanda Jones said, "You are leaving the United States." Mother said, "Indian Territory belongs to the United Stated." Aunt Amanda replied, "Folks tells me "it" is out of the United States. I would not go there." The decision was made and the date set to leave.

The neighbors gathered for a farewell party. A young man, Straub McReary with his banjo and Uncle Ulyses Anderson with his violin, entertained the crowd until midnight when our train was due.

We left for the Oklahoma territory in 1897. We boarded the train at Greenville at midnight. The train took us around the Gulf of Mexico through Florida and the gulf states. We crossed the Mississippi River on a ferry boat. We all had to get off the train and walk out on the ferry boat and then back on the train as we crossed the river.

We arrived in Chickasha in December, 1897 at night. My brother, Eliot met us and took us to a house he had found for us to use temporarily.

On Christmas night, we did not sleep much as Indians were riding by on horseback all night getting whiskey and yelling. They continued this drunken yelling until daylight.

We then moved to a farm owned by Ed Burney, two miles south of Chickasha. There we experienced our first tornado. It took the roof off Mr. Burney's barn. There were no houses and most people had to start in dugouts. My father with some hired help had to build his own. They dug back into the bank of a ravine for a basement and got lumber for the floor, roof, front and side walls with a door and windows.  Mother curtained off the rooms with white linen sheets. We had to get water from Buffalo Wallows: haul it is vessels by wagon. We had a fire-place as there was plenty of wood, and a cook stove. My parents then found a four room house for sale to be moved and they bought it and added it to our dugout. The horses were without shelter and several died. They called it blind staggers. No one knew what to do for them. They tried to doctor them but could not save them.

Mr. Beeler had the adjoining ranch and offered to pay for a windmill if our men would dig the well and then we could all share. So, we got the well at 60 feet and a big windmill and metal tank for the stock. We stayed there three years and then moved to Ninnekah.

Eliot contracted with Henry Houston near Anadarko, to harvest the hay on his land and he employed a crew of men and obtained a haybailer.

Joseph Anderson, at age 17, left for New Mexico and California. He stayed in Los Angeles three years and then returned to Oklahoma. He gained employment with an oil company at Enid and Garber, Oklahoma and stayed there untill 1944. He then moved to Texas where he later died.

Harry Anderson left for California at age 17, and stayed in Santa Ana for one year. He then returned home and married. He later moved to Enid and took a job as superintendent of an oil company. He was killed in an auto accident in 1918 in the oil fields.

A cousin, King Jones, came to our area when he was about 18 years of age. He tried farming with Ham Hart. They lived in a little house two miles away. King got sick with typhoid fever. Ham came after Mother. They brought him to our house and he lost his voice. After nine days of illness, he died.

Matilda (my older sister) and Billie Cantrell and their two daughters, Jessie and Bessie, also came from South Carolina. After living in Ninnekah for one year, Jessie died of pnuemonia during the winter. She was the first one to be buried in the cemetary at Ninnekah about 1901. The family then moved to Apache, Oklahoma but after a year returned to Ninnekah and remained there the rest of their lives.

Bernie worked for a Mr. Gillock, who had a dairy. After Mr. Gillock died, he ran his ranch and later married his widow. They moved to Lawton when it was settled over night after the drawing of claims in the Oklahoma Territory and Lawton became a tent town. There was much outlaw activity and his wife Mary, was held up and robbed of her cash and watch. She cried and said the watch was a gift from her dead husband and the robbers gave it back to her.

Eliot married Lue Wyatt and farmed at Ninnekah until the climate affected his health and he moved to Arizona. He returned to Ninnekah and continued farming until his death in 1926.

We were joined later by cousins, the Hart brothers. Soloman married Ella Paul. She died in the winter of 1898 of Meningitis, which was epidemic that year. Her two brothers, Bob and Vivian, and her sister, Anna, stayed on with Soloman until he was shot and killed by Dan Snell.

The other two Hart brothers, Frank and Ham and Joe and his wife Martha, farmed and ranched near Norge, Oklahoma. Joe made an invention of a cotton boll cleaner and built a machine shop in Chickasha.

John and Emily (my older sister) Davenport were living in Grand Junction, Colorado. They came down for a visit and decided to sell out in Colorado and buy a farm in Oklahoma. They did just that and built their home near Norge, Oklahoma.

In Ninnekah, we lived on Mr. Beeler's land. We had a log house and a four room framed house by the side of it. We were by the railroad tracks, north of the Little Washita River. We had no school available and my older sister spent one hour every day teaching me to read in McGuffy's first reader and the Bible. I finished the first reader before I started to school.

After we moved to Ninnekah, we had a two-room school. Each child paid tuition by the month to hire a teacher. In 1906, we were allowed $40.00 per month for a teacher's salary.

There was no church but some Methodist ladies had started Sunday School in a school house. Out of this grew three churches: Baptist, Methodist and Christian. My father, being an ordained minister, organized the Baptist; Robert A. Thompson and his wife and Mr. and Mrs. Crawford organized the Methodist; Mr. Beeler started the Christian and donated the building.

The adjoining districts with little one-room schools got together and decided to consolidate and build a high school, the first of its kind in the state. They got wagons like buses, to transport the children. It is still continuing to this day.

In 1907, as early as we could get a clear title to the land, we built our home in Ninnekah on 20 acres.

In 1910, the state gave an examination for all who had finished the eighth grade. Our teacher, G. F. Newel,, thought the whole class had failed as some of the questions were on subjects we had not studied. Most of the class gave up trying but I tried to answer them. In August, 1910, another girl, Hattie Thompson, and I received fro the County Superintendent's office a diploma for having completed the eighth grade. We were encouraged for continued two more years of high school and then went on to the Central State Normal School at Edmond. We both started teaching and continued summer sessions at Edmond.

In Ninnekah, the business life of the community was ranching and farming. The "Woodmen of the World" was the only lodge represented there. My fater served as post master and my sisters, Sallie and Lela, worked there. My father remained pastor of the (Southern) Baptist Church until his death is 1912.

After his death, Cora and Maud, had to find a way to earn their living. Cora started teaching at Ninnekah and continued her course at Edmond. She spent eight years teaching in Longfellow School at Tulsa and was married in California in 1927.

When my family moved to the Indian Territory, they consisted of William and Maria (parents) and seven children living at home: Sallie, Lela, Joe, Cora, Harry, Robert and Maud. Sallie later married J. H. Lents; Lela,, Jim Sivley; Joe, Gertrude Weatherby; Harry, Mae Proctor; Cora, William Dee Jacobs; Robert, Katherine Nichol; Maud, William K. Slagle.

NOTE: The information contained in these 5 pages on the Andersons of South Carolina, shall not be used in full or in part for the profit without the written consent of Maud Slagle or her heirs.

The above was sent to us by Stephen Anders.  It was written by one of his Great Aunts in the early 1990's. It is copied here exactly as written.