While we know our northern friends may not feel it, in the South, Spring is
here. So we thought we'd share a few of our gardening sites appropriate
for this time of the year. Along with gardening, there's grilling, and getting
ready to diet so that you can fit back into that bathing suit this summer!
On August 31, 1905, the Presbytery of
Kiamichi met at Oak Hill, at a time when an
attack of malaria at his summer home at
Fonda, Iowa, prevented the return of the
superintendent. The attendance of visitors
was unusually large. It fell to the lot of
Miss Eaton, matron, and Miss Ahrens to
provide for their entertainment. They were
ably assisted by Miss M. A. Hall and
Mitchell S. Stewart. They had sixty for
dinner on Friday and Saturday and one
hundred and twenty-five on Sabbath.
On this occasion three new members were
added to the roll, Jack A. Thomas was
elected and ordained an elder, and Samuel
Harris, a deacon.
The meetings of the Presbytery, which are
always evangelistic, have now come to be the
most attractive, interesting and profitable
meetings held in their respective
communities. As the available Churches are
few in number, the meetings are held in each
every two or three years. The coming of the
Presbytery is anticipated with a great deal
of interest, and a "big crowd" is the
delight of the congregation, receiving and
entertaining it. This is a fact worthy of
special note.
Not An Oak Hill Bucket
In the Territorial days, or, rather previous
to the allotment of lands to them
individually in 1905, the most attractive
meeting, in their various neighborhoods, was
the annual old-time picnic, made interesting
by the presence of a "merry go round" that
relieved them of their nickels, and a
platform, where promiscuous dancing was sure
to be continued through most of the night,
and be accompanied with considerable
dissipation and immorality.
When the superintendent discovered the
nature of these gatherings, he did not
hesitate to declare their dissipating and
demoralizing tendency. He also stated the
attitude of the institution in regard to
them by giving utterance to the following
sentiment: "Whilst everything at the academy
is available for the betterment of the
colored people, there is not an Oak Hill
bucket available for use, at a dissipating
and demoralizing dance in the timber." This
sentiment sounded a little harsh and cruel
at first, but it now commands the approval
of all the good students and of those, who
are doing most to promote the happiness and
welfare of the young and rising generation.
Since the young people have come to
participate, to a greater extent, in the
frequent meetings of the Presbytery and in
an annual Sunday school convention, the old
time "dance in the timber", has become a
"thing of the past."
Everybody Goes To
Presbytery
The meetings of the Presbytery are sure to
be attended by everyone, living in the
vicinity of the meeting, and by as many
others as can manage to "get there." It is
unusual for any colored minister and his
elder to be absent from any meeting, no
matter how great may be the difficulties,
that have to be overcome in getting there.
If the place of meeting can be easily
reached, additional delegates are chosen to
represent the Sunday school, the aid,
Endeavor and Women's Missionary societies.
If these additional delegates get to the
meeting, they are duly enrolled and later
are accorded all the time they wish in
making their oral reports of the work they
represent. All seem to enjoy making reports
and addresses at Presbytery. Many are
animated with the earnest desire to aid in
giving their race an uplift, and the address
in Presbytery seems to be one of the nicest
opportunities to do this. This is especially
true of some of those among the older people
who cannot read survivors of the slavery
period who inherited good memories and good
voices. Several of the most eloquent and
deeply impressive appeals, it was the
privilege of the author to hear at the
academy or Presbytery, were delivered by
those, whose condition of slavery in youth
and isolated location afterward prevented
attendance at school. By frequent
participation in religious meetings, where
they endeavored to repeat and enforce Bible
truths, to which they had given an attentive
ear, caused them, like some of the famous
philosophers in the days of Socrates and
Aristotle, to be held in high esteem as
persons of intelligence and influence in
their respective communities. Henry
Crittenden, Elijah Butler, Mrs. Charles
Bashears, and Simon Folsom were all good
examples of unlettered, but natural orators,
who found their widest sphere of usefulness
in the activities of the Church.
Going To Presbytery
Those, attending the meetings of the
Presbytery, often experienced serious
disappointments on the way and some little
inconveniences, when they got there.
Previous to the organization of the Church
at Garvin in 1905, there were only two
Churches, Oak Hill and Beaver Dam at Grant,
that were located near the railroad. All the
other Churches were located in rural
neighborhoods, 8 to 20 miles distant from
the nearest station. The roads to them were
merely winding trails through the timber
that crossed the streams where it was
possible to ford them, without any grading
of the banks.
That which we witnessed and partially
experienced, in making our first trip
through the timber to a meeting of the
Presbytery at Frogville, about fifteen miles
from the station, was characteristic of
three other meetings we attended, at a
distance from the railroad.
The delegation that arrived at the station
consisted of nearly two dozen and about half
of them were women. We arrived at the place
the wagons were to meet us, after walking
across the railroad bridge over the Kiamichi
river, a short distance west of the station.
When we arrived there, we found only one
wagon of the three that were expected. That
was a serious but not a stunning
disappointment. The luggage was crowded into
the bed of that wagon and it carried also a
few of the older women. The rest of us set
out on a good long walk; indulging the hope
other teams would surely meet and relieve us
somewhere on the road. As the hour of noon
was approaching, we anticipated our needs on
the way, by having a box of crackers and a
slice of cheese put on the wagon. When we
reached a half way place, where there was
also a spring of good water, this lunch was
greatly enjoyed. We managed to ride the
remainder of the distance, and at the end of
the journey we heard no one complain the
"road am hard to travel."
Entertainment For
Everybody
The problem of entertainment, always seemed
before-hand a rather serious one for the few
families, living near the Church in a rural
neighborhood. Their generous hospitality,
however, never seemed to be over taxed, but
to have an elasticity that included a
cordial welcome to every one, and as much of
comfort during the night as it was possible
to extend. Many of the younger people on
Saturday and Sabbath evenings, when their
number would be greatest, would be grateful
when they were accorded a pillow and blanket
for a bed on the floor, or a bench.
The happy, hopeful spirit, manifested by
both hosts and guests, in meeting the
responsibilities and unexpected
disappointments, that are sometimes
experienced while attending meetings of the
Presbytery in the rural neighborhoods,
reminds one of the happy remark of a little
six year old boy, in regard to a sunny
visitor, whom he knew had experienced many
trials and had just left their home: "Yes, I
like her; she goes over the bumps as though
her heart had rubber tires."
This site
includes some historical materials that may imply negative stereotypes
reflecting the culture or language of a particular period or place. These
items are presented as part of the historical record and should not be
interpreted to mean that the WebMasters in any way endorse the stereotypes
implied .
Choctaw Freedmen and Oak Hill Industrial
Academy, 1914, Robert Elliott Flickinger
