Skullyville County Freedmen School Rosters

Several years ago, I looked at some rosters of students attending the Freedmen Schools in the Choctaw Nation. Skullyville had several schools and I made a small pamphlet from some of the records that I copied. I decided to see if I could find more of these records, and spent several hours at the local Family History Center, to examine the records more closely. I was surprised to see that I had missed several schools. I also realized that there was much more to learn about the settlements where Choctaw Freedmen lived in the Skullyville area.

The records will have to be examined to determine whether or not Freedmen are on each of the rosters, but these records are part of a microfilm group of Choctaw Nation Records, recorded at the Oklahoma Historical Society.

These schools were called "neighborhood" schools and I realized that by examining the records from the neighborhood schools, once could get a better idea of the exact communities where Freedmen lived. in the 1890s, before and during the Dawes enrollment era.

Skullyville was the northernmost county in the old Choctaw Nation. There were settlements of Freedmen scattered throughout the rural county at that time and it appears that where were school age children, neighborhood schools were created for them. The following is a list of the schools and neighborhoods where many Freedmen children received primary education in the late 1800s.

(I will later provide a definitive list of all schools that were targeted for Freedmen children, in the Choctaw Nation.)

Neighborhood Schools of Skullyville, Choctaw Nation

Clarksville
Dog Creek
Fairview

Fort Coffee

Huly Tushka

Milton

Oak Lodge
Of The Tapa

Opossum Creek
Pine Log
Pocola
Poteau
Skullyville

Short Mountain

Two Prairie

Walnut Grove

Ward
Wolf Creek

Student Roster of Fort Coffee Neighborhood School
in Skullyville County, Choctaw Nation