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Indian Pioneer History Project for Oklahoma
Date: July 25, 1937
Name: Daniel Webster Spears
Post Office: Tahlequah, Oklahoma
Date of Birth: January 6, 1875
Place of Birth: Newton County, Arkansas
Father: Dixon Spears
Place of Birth:
Information on father:
Mother:
Place of birth:
Information on mother:
Field Worker: Wylie Thornton
Indian-Pioneer History S-140 

Some experiences of Daniel Webster Spears, a pioneer of Oklahoma, Tahlequah.

I was born January 6, 1875, in Newton County, Arkansas, and came to the Indian Territory with my parents in the month of November 1889, crossing into the Indian Country near Baron Fork station, just south of Westville.  My father Dixon Spears, rented a small farm from a Cherokee Indian by the name of John HARDLAND, This farm had about forty acres in cultivation, but the soil was very fertile and we just noticed so plainly how different this soil looked and produced by the side of the worn-out lands of Arkansas, and my parents talked so much about how happy they were over here.  A little later we got acquainted with some of these fine Indians, instead of bad and dangerous savage Indians we had expected them to be, after being told how they were by some of the folks that we first met were:  Joe LYNCH, Joe COX, George SMITH, Ben FLETCHER, Lee MORTON, Ed CLYNE, Getty WHITMIRE, Tosh SHELL, Ned and Stute WALKINGSTICK and Ned, Bill and Henry DOWNING.

Now these men I think are due a lot of credit for the advancement of the Eastern section of this country, and we found ourselves feeling safe around Baron Fork on account of these good people.

I left my parents at the end of the third year, while they were located just six miles north of their first location, on the farm of Charley HAY, a white man, who had become a great friend to father and mother because he liked my father's interest in keeping his farm in good condition and repair, and tilling the land so well.

I left them in the early fall of 1892 and came out here on Lauries Prairie and hired out to Mr. Than WOFFORD and Fayette HUGHES, making and baling hay for $1.00 per day and board and room.

After six months, I began to roam and ramble all over Oklahoma and I never settled down until in 1919.  I have been here in Cherokee County ever since, and I still believe today that Cherokee County is a haven for a man of moderate means and having farming as his vocation.

The roads were very rough but somehow we didn't mind them.  I remember when I asked directions to reach certain places I always got the direction in stead of the road so much, because if I got confused in the dim roads I'd always struck out in the direction I wanted to go.

Transcribed for OKGenWeb by Charlene <ACharlieBe@aol.com> 03-1999.