The Freedmen Elders of Skullyville

Enrollment Card of Malindy and Smith Brown
Choctaw Freedman Card No 711

While studying the community of Skullyville during this Black History Month, I have been curious as to who the elders were at the time that Freedmen were going through the Dawes Commission. I decided to look at the cards from that community, and to see how many individuals were applying for enrollment who were at least 60 years of age, or older.

Of course the community of Freedmen of Skullyville was not exceptionally large. As I pointed out earlier, there were less than 300. Among those scattered through the Skullyville County of the Choctaw Nation were a handful who were elders.

They are mentioned here, because these would have been among individuals who were among the first generation to have been born after in the Territory after Choctaw arrival. The Choctaws arrived in the Territory in 1830-1831. The Dawes Commission began the interview process among Choctaw Freedmen, in 1898. Thus those who were at least 60 years of age had spent most of their life in the nation, and would have been eyewitnesses to most of the stages of settlement, adjustment, enslavement and eventual freedom in the Territory. These were the elders to whom the Freedmen community would have also looked to for guidance, comfort, and advice to life. These are the elders who saw so much and are mentioned so seldom, on the pages of history.

This small number of survivors who lived to see the transition of a people, should be honored, for having chosen to survive.

Their legacy deserves to be honored and celebrated.

Choctaw Freedmen Elders:

Card #            Name  (Age)
690                 Rachel Brown (64)
704                 Eliza Owens  (65)*
710                 Rose Wilson  (84)*
711                  Malindy Brown (78)
711                  Smith Brown  (76)
750                 Phoebe Brown  (63)

* Eliza Owens and Rose Wilson, died before the enrollment process ended and neither lived to select their land allotment. Nevertheless, they went through the process, staking their claim as citizens of the Choctaw Nation. 

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

From Skullyville: The Lone Slave of Fort Coffee Academy

When studying the slave schedule of 1860 from the Choctaw Nation one small entry was out of the ordinary. Instead of listing the name of a slave holder, and the number of people enslaved there was one unusual entry---the slaveholder of record was "Fort Coffee Academy".

This kind of entry is most unusual, and there is nothing written about the 50 year old woman who toiled at the Academy in the school at Fort Coffee. The school was established in the 1840s for Choctaw males, and much can be found about both Fort Coffee Academy as well as New Hope, a school for females. However, the lone enslaved woman who worked at the Academy, is not mentioned. Beyond the mention of a few instructors or school staff, it is no surprise that an enslaved woman would not garner a mention by name.

The school did not last very long, and by the end of the Civil War, it was gone. Only a few images of the school exist. One photograph of the school exists and that photo reflects the remains of the school when it was in a state of deterioration and disrepair. The school was built on the site of the remains of the old military fort, but it was burned during the Civil War, and the Choctaw Nation no longer focused on the site for a school.

After the war, when slavery ended, with the Treaty of 1866 the few enslaved people who lived in the area, worked as servants for many Choctaw households in the area. No knowledge exists at all of this woman, past her prime, but working at the school.

It can only assumed that she was cook, cleaner, and tended to numerous tasks that required physical labor at the school. Was she treated kindly? Did she endure sexual harassment in the all male environment of the school? Was she required to also live on the premises? Did she have a room or her own? Would the privacy of a lone female slave even have been considered? Did she sleep on the floor, near the fireplace? Did she have children and family of her own for whom she pined? If she had children, could she visit them? Or would she have had to wait until freedom came to connect with her own family? And importantly, did she live to see freedom and to breathe free air?

Though there are no answers, and the likelihood of a slave having freedom of movement is slim. With the daily demands of a school, there was always food to prepare, clothing and bedding to wash, and fires that needed tending. The work of this lone slave had to be difficult, lonely and sad.
There was nothing on the slave schedule indicating that a separate cabin for this enslaved woman existed, as there is no tic mark reflecting a "slave dwelling" counted. So chances are that her life consisted of every task focused on the school and her place of rest was most likely the same place as her work. On a mat perhaps, near a hearth or fireplace in the winter and near a doorway in the warmer months.

This 50 year old woman forever unnamed, would have been in her 90s if she lived until the Dawes era. Identifying her is an impossible task, but acknowledging her presence in the northernmost part of the Choctaw Nation, is as important as calling her name. She is not to be forgotten.

Slaveholders of Skullyville & Sugar Loaf, Choctaw Nation

1860 Slave Schedule Skullyville, Choctaw Nation

The 1860 slave schedule of the Skullyville area in the Choctaw Nation is a small one, reflecting about 201 enslaved people. There were 48 slave holders named on the record although in some cases there were additional people who had an "investment" in a group of enslaved people. In those cases, a note was made that others had an interest in that small group of slaves.

In the case of Jos. R. Hall, he was listed as the slave holder of record, but a note on the record indicates that there were 7 others who had an interest in the same slaves.

Slave holders of Skullyville

E. P. Massey

James Boyd

Samuel Allen

Dennis Folsom

F. M. Monks

Armstrong Frohling(?)

Walker Folsom

William Merriman

George Gunter (of Cher. Natio

James Choate

Samuel Bridges

N. B. Breedlove

Mrs. Breedlove

Clem Vann's wife

F. E. Williams

L. B. Dow

I. I. Phillips(?)

Tandy Walker

William Frazier(Frayon?)

Nathaniel Folsom

Bowlin Perry

Edmund Folsom

Peter Folsom

Edmond Riddle

Emeatubbee

Campbell Le Flore

John G. Ainsworth

A. W. Gary

Margaret Gary

Eli Mitchell

Plarcide Krebbs

Simon Hancock

Sina Pickens

Willis Burns

James Frayon(?)

Claudine Kincaid

William Cooper

Jerry Riddle

Eliza Hampton

Mary Jack

Edward Moore

Fort Coffee Academy

Widow C. M. McCurtain

Jos. R. Hall (and 7 others)

Mrs. Thompson McKinney (and 3 others)

Mrs. James M. Coleman

James M. Colman

Henry Keyser

In Sugar Loaf, the number of enslaved people was even smaller, with only 51 people held enslaved. They were held enslaved by 17 slaveholders. (In the case of the McClain heirs one guardian was appointed as the "owner" of record, and is therefore counted as one.)

Slaveholders of Sugar Loaf County

Steven Holson

Kennedy McCurtain

Thomas Lewis

Rhoda McCurtain

Emmaline Folsom

Nail Perry

Sukey Perry

Morris Nail

Widow James

John Page

McKee Folsom

Robert McCarty

Eliza & George McClain minor heirs

Sophia McClain

James McClain

Sophia Eubanks

Matthew Moncrief

It is clear that the two northernmost counties in the Choctaw Nation slavery was not as prevalent as it was in the southern parts of the nation, where slaveholders held dozens and in some cases hundreds of people in bondage. However, the nature of slavery should not be considered as "kinder, or gentler" institution, because "ownership" of another human being, is still a violation of the human spirit and there is no "better" or "nicer" way to live enslaved.

This is the first time that a general study of slavery in Skullyville has been undertaken. Hopefully more will someday be learned as stories are found, and told to preserve the history of this small corner of the Choctaw Nation, of Indian Territory and of Oklahoma's pre-statehood years, when slavery prevailed upon the land.