GARVIN COUNTY INDIAN PIONEER PAPERS

OKGenWeb Indian Pioneer Papers Collection

Garvin County Indian Pioneer Papers

J.J. Pettigrew

Interview #1094?
Field Worker: Maurice R. Anderson
Date: March 9, 1937
Name:   Mr. J.J. Pettigrew
Residence: Pauls Valley, Oklahoma
Date of Birth: January 4, 1861
Place of Birth: Texas
Father: L.A. Pettigrew, born in Missouri
Mother: Missouri Whiteside, born in Missouri

 

Story told by Mr. J.J. Pettigrew, born January 4, 1861 on John Wallace Plantation, 12 miles west of Corsicana, Texas.

After my father L.A. Pettigrew came out of the Civil War we moved to Hampsted, Texas.  My father and mother died in Texas.   I came to the Indian Territory in 1885.  I only stayed a short time.  I was a young man and wanted to see some of the country.  I stayed one night at Cherokee Town, Indian Territory.  There were a few houses and two or three stores, a stage barn and a hotel.  Cherokee Town was located about five miles north of where Wynnewood, Oklahoma is now.  I went back to Texas and married.  In 1890 I came back to the Indian Territory bringing my wife and children.  We came through in a wagon with four mules pulling it.  This time I stopped at Wynnewood after they put the railroad through.  Cherokee Town, moved to what is now called Wynnewood.

I went to farming on what is known on the Harmon farm.   We sent our children to a small log school house, called Roady(Ready) school.  We had church services at this log school house.  We had a Union Sunday School, John L. Roady(Ready) and myself were the trustees of the Sunday School.

I only moved twice.  My chief occupation was farming.  I raised lots of cotton, for 120 to 125 bales a year.  I have sold corn as low as ten cents a bushel, oats for fifteen cents a bushel and wheat for forty cents a bushel.

My wife died in 1918.  After the break up of my family I went into business at Wynnewood, operating a wagon yard and boarding house, during the oil boom at Pernell.  

In Apache Oklahoma, I owned the Blackwell Hotel.   After leaving there I ran the City Cafe at Minco, Oklahoma.   Sold out there and bought the Rainbow Hotel and Cafe at Sulphur, Oklahoma.  Sold out there and came to Pauls Valley where I now live on Highway 77 south of this city.

Mr. J.J. Pettigrew is the father of 12 children and has lived to see them all married.