Roundtree, Ross
43, home, 126: parents of, stepmother of 128; biography, Charles M. Rendall
by, 126-128.
Roundtree, Ross INTERVIEW
Carl R. Sherwood interviewer
Sept 4, 1937
Interview with Ross Roundtree, Texanna
About Charles M. Randall
Charles M. Randall was a prominent and well to do citizen of the Texanna
vicinity. He has been actively identified with the development of what
is now McIntosh county and experienced the hardships and even horrors
of the early days in the Indian Territory.
He was born April 10, 1860, in Copiah County, Mississippi.
His father was Riley F. Randall: his grandfather, S.J. Randall, who was
born in Glasgow, Scotland.
His father taught school in Mississippi when a young man.
He served four years in the Confederate Army during the Civil War, being
a commissioned officer in the Cavalry of General Armstrong's brigade.
He was captured by the enemy at the battle of Corinth and confined in
prison at Rock Island, Illinois for about nine months; after his exchange
he rejoined his command.
He moved with his family to Texas in 1868, locating at Thornton, in Limestone
County, where he was successful in the mercantile business and farming.
He lived to the good old age of eighty-two years, passing away, March
19, 1905 in Thornton, Texas. He was a man of deep religious faith, an
inheritance from his Scotch ancestors. Although not a member of any church
until after sixty years of age, he was never found without a Bible in
his pocket.
He married Elizabeth Wamack, a native of Mississippi. To this union were
born, Charles M. Inla. Oscar, Jarret G., Alma and John K.
Charles M. Randall acquired a practical knowledge of books while young,
in the public school of Thornton, Texas.
At the age of eighteen years, he left his father's home and came to the
Creek Nation, Indian Territory locating near Eufaula, in what is now McIntosh
County. He engaged in buying and selling walnut timber for two years,
moving the logs east of Eufaula to an inland town named Brooken, situated
on the south side of the Canadian River in the Choctaw Nation.
After his marriage to an Indian maiden of one-fourth Choctaw blood. he
engaged in farming and stock raising.
In 1906(8) he moved to Texanna, McIntosh County and clerked in the Forsyth
Ogden general merchandise store. When Mr. Randall first located in Eufaula,
the Creek nation was in a state of turmoil. The few white people now living
there were desperate characters and were aided by the worst element of
the Creek Indians for two years in their lawlessness.
Mr. Randall served as deputy United States Marshall, and was associated
with the capture of many criminals. He witnessed the hanging at fort Smith,
Arkansas of eleven desperate men, ten of the were white, and the other
an Indian.
The Choctaw had a law in force making sorcery a felony, punishable by
death after the third offence, and he saw three Indians tried and convicted
under this law, and saw them shot.
The parents of Ross Roundtree were renters from Mr. Charles M. Randall.
The Roundtrees were share-croppers at Texann. Mrs. Jones, East of Texann,
xxx Step mother of Ross Roundtree, also corroborated the statements in
this interview.
Posted by Shelley Lynch
Submitted by Elizabeth Humphrey for "beverly birdwell" <beverlybirdwell@msn.com> |
