Ira and Bonnie Jones

BM: What year, Lester, wait a minute, let me back up a minute. This is a tape of Lester Jones and his wife in their home living room, 10/18/76, time 7:30. Lester, what, what year was it that you was in the Pinehill community?

LJ: Nineteen-and-twenty-five.

BM: Did you ever go to school here?

LJ: No.

BM: What was some of the things that you remember happening there in the Pinehill community?

LJ: Well, one of the main things was Mote Bruce's cattle operation.

BM: What do you mean by Mote Bruce's cattle operation?

LJ: The way, now on these places that he had this Indian land range and he always reserved the stock field. And he grazed these, these cattle and these, in those creek bottoms in the wintertime, that's where he wanted them.

BM: Anything else that you remember?

LJ: And remember real well a one-legged colored man that--

BM: What was his name?

LJ: All I remember is "Big Boy." He had both of his legs--I'm sorry, he--both legs were off. And, one below his knee and one above his knee. And he picked cottons walking on his knees, and he pick four-fifty, four hundred fifty pounds of cotton a day out of the, out of the creek bottoms.

BM: You said something while ago that you knew my mother and you knew my dad. What year did you get acquainted with them?

LJ: Well I got acquainted with them in 1924.

BM: Anything in particular that you remember happened, that was before my time. Anything that you remember happened that--with them in particular?

LJ: Well, yeah. I thought about what a nice neighbor they, that family was a lot of times. Real, real nice people.

MM: What about the blackberry thicket?

BM: What about that blackberry thicket that you--

LJ: That blackberry--

BM: --started telling me about a while ago.

LJ: --more rabbits in it, more blackberries, and a few snakes, than any patch of blackberries I ever seen in my life. It was one acre of solid wild blackberries. Me and Casey went over and we picked a tubful of blackberries in about three hours. Number--number one washtub.

BM: You remember that spring that was here by that old blackberry patch?

LJ: No. No, I don't remember a spring.

BM: It was right south of the blackberry thicket.

LJ: Oh is that right?

BM: Uh, no, it wasn't that blackberry thicket, it was right around it. It was right around that spring.

LJ: Yeah? Well we just went in the west side over there next to Casey's place and we just, we just went out in there, in there, and we just picked right in one little spot there. Oh, it was place bigger than this house, you see. But I never, I ain't never seen such--

MM: Just picked until you got tired?

LJ: Ma'am?

MM: Just picked until you got tired?

LJ: Just picked 'til we got a tubful and went to the house.

BM: Now this old spring that I was speaking about a while ago, it's still there as of today.

LJ: Yeah?

MM: The blackberry patch is not there.

BM: The blackberry patch is gone.

LJ: Yeah. I remember Walt Bolin (ph).

BM: Up in the north.

LJ: He lived on the north side of Polecat going straight north to Pinehill school. And his mule kicked him! And he had a scar of this mule's foot on his-a lot of, some people called him "Mule Tracks."

BM: Do you remember a Frank Bruce?

LJ: Real well. Used to work for Frank, let's see--I was about, about thirteen or fourteen, just getting big enough to go to the thrashin' and help 'em thrash. We hauled a bundle wagon. Hauled wheat and oats in to his place down in the pasture. The Roberts boys here at Bristow, colored--these two colored men? They, they were, they had that was their thrashing machine. Steam thrasher.

BM: You mentioned Roberts a while ago. Did you by any chance know that they were 00:04:00some of the freedmen that were in this community?

LJ: No, but I figured maybe they was. I figured maybe they was.

MM: But you did know that the freedmen were out here to the allotments along this--

LJ: Oh yes, they, they were slaves of the Indians, right.

BM: This Arthur Roberts, Arthur Roberts still lives on his allotment that he was allotted whenever they--his dad came to this part of the country and had taken out his allotment. Arthur Roberts still lives on his land of allotment.

LJ: Yeah.

BM: His sister, Irene, lives on hers.

LJ: Yeah.

MM: And Elsa Still still lives on--

BM: Elsa Self still lives on his original--

LJ: We used to--or I went to school at Sunrise when Elsa's wife was teaching. But she was--they had a two-room school and Claudie was in--he taught the other grades. I was in the, in the, Self's--

BM: Well, Elsa taught there, taught there too.

LJ: Yeah.

BM: He's got a miniature school building of the first Pinehill--uh, Sunrise school--

LJ: Yeah, we've seen it. We've seen it.

BM: --with all the pictures and everything in it.

LJ: He had it over to the cemetery one day, at Sunrise.

BM: Who was some of the other people that you remember in there, Lester?

LJ: I remember the--

BM: I mean at that time, now. At that time.

LJ: Curtis Scott (ph). He lived a mile and a half south of Pinehill school. And 'course I knew all the, all the Bruce family. Not, not all of them. Smith Bruce, he lived in there. And Bob Lucas, knew them well, goes to school there at Pinehill.

MM: Mrs. Lucas comes to the reunion every year and won't eat bite, she's afraid she'll miss some gossip.

LJ: Oh, well that's--(laughs)

MM: [Inaudible] is something else.

LJ: Yeah, that's where I first--first knew him was at--

BJ: Now didn't you go to school at Pinehill?

LJ: No, no.

BJ: I thought you went to school there! Just lived there?

LJ: No, we--I went to school with Casey, the fall of '25, and of course I was out in there for the whole two years Casey was there, you see. But we moved from right here on the Posey place, we moved to Pickett Prairie.

BM: When you left the Posey place, then you moved to Pickett Prairie.

LJ: Mmm-hmm.

BJ: Now we could talk about Pinehill [inaudible].

LJ: Yeah.

BJ: They even went to school there.

LJ: There was a Florence Stanley, the name is Florence, and Jake--he lived [inaudible] (tape garbled).

BM: [Indecipherable.]

MM: Ellen and--

BM: Ellen was [inaudible] (tape garbled).

LJ: And--

BM: Ellen was the oldest, then Myrtle.

MM: Myrtle.

LJ: Yeah. That's--was a Carson girl that married Claude Bruce.

BM: That was Velma Carson.

LJ: Velma, yeah.

MM: We interviewed Claude yesterday.

LJ: Yeah? Claude'd be a lot of help on that thing.

BM: No, he hadn't [indecipherable] brother was more help than--[inaudible] (tape garbled)

BM: --baby brother was more help.

MM: They are writing a history but I've heard [inaudible] (tape garbled)

BM: Claude did real well on his [inaudible] (tape garbled)

LJ: Yeah.

BM: When you were in there [inaudible] (tape garbled)

BM: Did you ever help out [inaudible] (tape garbled)

LJ: And I tell you something [inaudible] (tape garbled)

LJ: Theodore Abraham, he had a big cattle--[inaudible] (tape garbled)

LJ: --bought the cattle, and Ed Abraham was his father.

BM: Right.

LJ: And they were a big operator, had a big store and they dealt with the farmers a lot. That was Theodore, they used to be a [indecipherable] here.

BM: Can you think of anything else you might want to ask him?

end of interview