The Skullyville Freedmen's Project

My Great grandparents, Sam and Sallie Walton lived in the Oak Lodge are in the Skullyville district of the Choctaw Nation. They were Choctaw Freedmen. Sallie was born in the Choctaw Nation, her father was Choctaw and her mother Amanda was a slave. Sallie's grandparents were Kitty and James Crow.

Skullyville was once known, before the Civil War, as Iskuli Town. Today it is an unincorporated community in Le Flore County Oklahoma, about one mile east of Spiro Oklahoma. In the 1860s there were 41 slave holders in Skullyville. And in nearby Sugar Loaf, there were 16 individuals who were slave holders in that area.

When Freedom came, many survived, and chose to work the land where they were born, lived, and toiled for decades. By the time of the Dawes Commission in the late 1890s, there were 77 households of Choctaw Freedmen living in Skullyville. Most appeared in front of the Dawes Commission around the same time.

For this first part of the Skullyville Freedmen's Project, the names of those who survived and remained in Skullyville are presented here in the order in which they appeared.

Card No.      Names on Card              (Post Office)                     
675                 Albert Gary and family   (Spiro)
678                 Prince Pitchlynn and family (Oak Lodge)
679                 Anna Craig and children (Oak Lodge)
680                Anna Dennis and children (Brazil)
682                Eddie Eubanks and children (Braden)
683                Joe Thompson and family (Oak Lodge)                      
684                Henry Eubanks -- only name on card  (Brazil)     
687                Milly Butler and daughters (Oak Lodge)                                    
688                Martha Draper and son  (Oak Lodge)                                           
689                Jessie Byrd --only name on card  (Oak Lodge)                            
690                Rachel Brown and sons and grandchildren  (Oak Lodge)
691                 Albert Fisher and family (Spiro)
693                Ben Thompson and family (Oak Lodge)
694                Elsie Jackson and children (Oak Lodge)
695                James N. Spring and family (Oak Lodge)
696                Ben Evans -- only name on card (Oak Lodge)
697                David McCurtain and children  (Oak Lodge)
698                Edna Williams and son (Braden)
699                Rice Rogers only name on card  (Braden)
702                Moses Eubanks and family (Oak Lodge)
703                Lilly Parker Burris and children (Oak Lodge)
704                Squire Hall and mother (Spiro)
705                Henry Choate  -- only name on card  (Brazil)
706                Maria Brown and son (Brazil)      
707                Hense Windham and siblings, nephew and children (Oak Lodge)
708                Eliza Brown and children and grandchildren (Brazil)
709                Annie Blackwater and grandchildren (Brazil)
710                Rose Wilson -- only name on card (Brazil)
711                 Malindy Brown and husband (Brazil)
712                Jensy Russell and children (Brazil)
713                Henry McCoy and children and grandchild  (Brazil)
714                Willie Stewart--only name on card  (Brazil)
715                Felix Triplett -- only name on card (Mountain)
716                Chester Brown and siblings (Brazil)
717                Mary Mabry and children and brother  (Brazil)
718                William Stewart and daughter (Brazil)
720               Emma Neighbors and son (Brail)
721               James McGee -- only name on card (Oak Lodge)
723               Effie Washington and children (Oak Lodge)
724               Katie Bradley and daughters (Oak Lodge)
725               Aaron Mabry (residence confirmed on memorandum) (Oak Lodge)
728               Lidie Mabry (only name on card)  (Brazil)
729               William Folsom and family  (Oak Lodge)

Sample of a Skullyville Freedman Enrollment Card

(End of Part 1)