Lucinda Johnson - Part 2

WN: Okay. LJ: She (he) was about nine months old, and her (he) and I had gone to visit his mother, you know, where she lived. And we came back by and we stopped over at Grandpa's, and, uh, Papa said, he said, Lou, you better take this baby home, cuz, and take care of her (him), because she has pneumonia. I didn't have any idea, you know, if there was anything wrong with her. And, uh, I took him home, and Dr. Reynolds come out. Dr. Reynolds and Porter were great friends. They could both drink together. And when they got there, when the doctor and Porter got back, they were both feeling no pain. WN: Oh me. And then you had? LJ: Then I had Lucian (Lucian A. Tiger) was next. And then Alvin Lee (Alvin Lee Johnson). I 00:01:00had four. WN: All beautiful children, weren't they? LJ: I thought they were. I just have one picture of Daniel because he was small, you know. WN: Uh huh. LJ: And you didn't have Kodaks or things like that. I've got one picture of him. He was a pretty baby, too. WN: Did he look like Alvin Lee or? LJ: No. [Indecipherable] Johnson. WN: Yeah. But I always thought Alvin Lee looked a lot like Majel, in a way. Just a little bit. LJ: Well, I never did think so? Alvin was an awful pretty baby. And when Alvin Lee came, why, Dr….what is that… WN: Schrader (Charles T. Schrader)? LJ: No. WN: Sisler (F.H. Sisler)? Reynolds? Reynolds? LJ: No.

WN: Coppedge? LJ: No. WN: Snorgrass (W.F. Snorgrass)? LJ: No. WN: Hollis (J.E. Hollis)? LJ: Huh? WN: Wouldn't be Hollis, would it? That was the eyes, ears, nose... LJ: No, no. You know, he, he died not too very long ago. WN: Cowart (O.H. Cowart), Dr. Cowart. LJ: Huh? WN: Wouldn't be Dr. Cowart, would it? LJ: Oh, no, he's, he’s farther back than that. Oh. You know him. You know him well? Unknown: Dr. King (E.W. King). WN: Dr. King. LJ: Yes. Dr. King. WN: Oh, Dr. King. LJ: Yeah, when Alvin Lee was coming, well the Gus (Johnson) was all excited, he said, well, I'm going get the doctor. Then doctor came in and another young intern was visiting Dr. King, all came back, they got here about 8 o'clock, and that was in August. And it was so cold. WN: Cold? LJ: Cold. That young doctor sat right there in the kitchen by the kitchen stove

all night. And then Alvin Lee didn't come until the next morning about 8 o'clock. WN: Oh my. And you had the baby here at the house then? LJ: Yes, uh-huh. All of my babies were born at home. WN: Oh, that's, that's remarkable. Well, you all had to learn to endure, didn't you? LJ: I guess we did. WN: Shoot. Oh, me. LJ: Those were the early days. WN: Now, is there anything else that you can think of? I've kept you long enough. I don't want to keep you any longer. Now, I'll come back sometime and I'm going to have you all speak some Euchee for me. LJ: Okay. No, I don't know of anything more. WN: Is there any advice you'd like to give to your children or your grandchildren or your great grandchildren that you think they ought to... LJ: That they ought to do? WN: Yes, and wisdom from their...

LJ: No. I just always told them to do what was good, not get into any mess of any kind. The only mess that I knew of was...Lucian got married awfully young. He married, uh, well, the chief's daughter. The Euchee Chief's daughter. Her name was Dorothy Jean Brown (ph). And they were both too young to be married, but they did. They didn't stay married. WN: Now, was Grandmother Conneisenney out there, that, she was, how was she related to you? LJ: She's Majel, uh, mother-in-law. WN: Mother-in-law. LJ: That was Porter's mother. WN: Oh, I see.

Now that's the first time I knew that. LJ: And, uh, Porter lived way out in the country. I guess he ruled the town. But you know, he was with the Bristow baseball. WN: Oh, he was an athlete then. LJ: Yes, and I've got a picture of him where he and Ralph Corey, and there used to be some Tidwells, didn't they? WN: Yes, yes. Yes, Tidwells. LJ: He was a great big old tall boy. And then there was a Smith, there were some Smiths, I have a picture of them, Porter, you know, had his picture taken with them. WN: But one day I was reading the newspaper and it was talking about what a wonderful team the Indians had. They used to,

the ball team, the Indians, there were some Indians around here who had a wonderful team. Would that be the same? LJ: No, because Porter was the only Indian on the Indian on the team? WN: Well, occasionally I read in the paper, I would read in the early Indian Territorial Enterprise, you know, that Indians doing this and that. Now, where was Snake Creek? I read about an uprising on Snake Creek. The Indians told the white people to get out of Bristow. LJ: Well, Snake Creek is run by Bixby. WN: Oh, by Bixby. LJ: Over in there. WN: But I had read in there that the Indians came to Bristow and issued an ultimatum for the white people to get out of that area. And that they were going to come back, and so they fixed some kind of a, I don't know, whatever, but the Indians never did come back, so. LJ: Well, I don’t know about that. WN: Well, I just happened to read that in the paper, but I, every once in a while in

the paper as I was going through it in the early days, I'd read about somebody doing something that was really exciting. I thought, oh gah, would like to know more about that. But now listen, we're going to quit for today. LJ: [Indecipherable] know where Slick got its name. WN: No, he didn't say that. LJ: Well, I know. Slick. It was Tom Slick. He was a young man from Pennsylvania when he came here. And he came, he walked from Bristow to our house. And sometimes he'd eat, eat with us, meals, you know. And he was taking leases, oil leases, and he, um, had a lease, uh, I guess it’s east of Slick. I don't know how far east, but that's where he, Tom Slick, first struck his well. WN: And

this is the beginning of the oil boom then? LJ: That was the beginning of the oil boom. Because I think Tom Slick was the first one that ever built, that ever drilled a well in this part of the country. WN: Now that's interesting to know. That's interesting. LJ: [Indecipherable] eat a meal with us [indecipherable]. WN: He didn't have a family then, did he? LJ: No, he wasn't married. He was just a young man, just prospecting is what he was doing. And he started roots out there. WN: That's wonderful. LJ: That's where, that's where he got his first start.