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Indian Pioneer History Project for Oklahoma 
Date: November 30, 1937
Name: Robinson, N. E. (Mrs.)
Post Office: Anadarko, Oklahoma
Residence Address: 108 West Alabama
Date of Birth: February 11, 1880
Place of Birth: Kiowa, Oklahoma
Father: C. I. Cannon
Place of Birth: Georgia
Information on father:
Mother: Virginia Bryce Cannon
Place of birth: Georgia
Information on mother:
Field Worker: Lillian Gassaway

My father, C. I. Cannon, was born in Georgia in 1831 and died in 1899. My mother, Virginia Bryce Cannon, was born in Georgia in 1863 and died in 1930. My people came to Oklahoma from Texas in about 1888 and settled near Maysville. Maysville then consisted of a blacksmith shop a grocery store and a school house. Sunday school and church was held in the school house. This was a subscription school and only the older children of our family got to go. We lived across the river from the school house that we attended and Mother had to row us across the river every morning and then we had to walk three or four miles to the school house. There were only about twenty-four children who attended school. The river was a dividing line for two neighborhoods. We lived in the May's neighborhood. On the other side of the river was the Scott's neighborhood. Almost everyone in a neighborhood seemed to be related through intermarriage and also through this relationship had obtained land. They held this land until the country opened when they had to give it up.

We went to Rush Springs to do our trading, taking the whole day, for that was then almost a day's journey one way. We had lived among the eastern Indians and were accustomed to them but had never seen any wild Indians and we had been told of a lot of wild stories about them, and we often wondered what we would do if we should see some. One day on our way to Rush Springs to a picnic we stopped on the way to get some water. Ahead of us was a band of wild Indians who had stopped for water too. We were thirsty but we had seen the Indians getting a drink and we children refused to drink out of the same well.

We moved then to Alex. Alex Vaughn owned the land where the town now stands. He had a large amount of land where the town now stands. He had a large amount of land and let it out in small tracts. Looking back now it reminds me of a southern plantation. I don't know whether it was run on the same plan or not for I was too small to know. Then in 1890 we moved to a place about six miles east of Chickasha, on Campbell's Ranch near where Amber is now. From there we did our trading in Chickasha when it was only a tent town. We had no churches or schools here so in warm weather we built brush arbors and held school under them as long as the weather would permit. Then when cold weather came school was closed.

In 1892 we moved from there to a place a few miles northwest of Verden, on the Andrez Martinez farm. The country was so thinly settled that we were always glad to have company. We children used to hang on the gate and watch for wagons to pass. If one passed by we wondered where it was going, but if it turned off the main road in our direction we knew it was coming to our house. Many times people who have stopped over night have been caught in a cold spell and had to stay over a week or two until the weather permitted them to go on. Company was always welcomed to come and stay as long as they wished.

 There were only two holidays that we knew then. The Fourth of July and Christmas and we made much of them. Usually on the Fourth there was a big picnic to which everyone went and spread their dinners together and everyone sampled the other woman's cooking. There was the old usual political speaking and a merry-go-round. The merry-go-round was the main attraction and was run by mule power, just one mule. Some little boy was given a few cents a day to drive the mule. On these occasions my father would not go unless we could start before day and get there in time for the first of the celebration. The young folks went long distances to dances and parties. It was nothing for them to go forty or fifty miles on horseback to a dance. When we lived near Verden my brothers and sisters would go to Mountain View and farther to dances. 

Submitted to OKGenWeb by Theresa Varnau, September 2001.