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Indian Pioneer History Project for Oklahoma
Date: April 18, 1938
Name: Laura Tyner Sears
Post Office: Ochelata, Oklahoma 
Residence Address: R. R. #1
Date of Birth:  
Place of Birth:  
Father: Reuben R. Tyner
Place of Birth: Fourteen Mile Creek, Tahlequah, Oklahoma
Information on Father: Civil War veteran and a Methodist Minister
Mother:  Almyra Virginia Irons
Place of Birth: Chillicothe, Missouri
Information on Mother:
Field Worker: Jarvis Tyner

Mrs. Tyner was the daughter of R. R. and Almyra Tyner. She was born on North Double Creek on the Tyner farm. She stayed at home and helped with the house until she was married. She attended Hillside Mission and never went to town (Bartlesville being the closest town then) until she was sixteen years old. She was one-eighth Cherokee Indian and received an allotment which she still owns and which is her present home. 

The family of children and their parents went to Vinita and tried to file for an allotment, but later had to go over to Tahlequah.

There was one toll bridge on Caney River. It either was state or county owned. She remembered crossing it many times.

The South Methodist people had camp meetings on Double Creek. All of her brothers and sisters went to these and she recalled how when dinner was eaten at these camp meetings being a child she had to wait until all of the grown people had been served and usually the children had to do without. Her father, R. R. Tyner, was a Methodist preacher, but not ordained. 

Being a Cherokee she was paid a sum of money from the sale of a part of the Cherokee land. This amounted to three hundred and sixty five dollars apiece or they could have taken one hundred and sixty acres of land in that country.

Her father built a Methodist Church, the present site of which is their family graveyard, where he is buried. His grave was placed where the Altar was in the church. This was the first Methodist Church in this part of the country. Circuit Riders-Preachers would be called this because they would come to a church and then travel by horseback, usually to another church.

[Additional comments: Her post office address was Ochelata, Oklahoma R.R. #1. She lived one half-mile east and two-one-half miles south and one half-mile east. Laura was born 29 April 1884 on North Double Creek, Tyner farm. There was no town of Ochelata then.

Laura's father was Reuben R. Tyner who was born in Tahlequah, Oklahoma at Fourteen mile Creek. He was a Civil War veteran and a Methodist Minister. Her mother was Almyra Virginia Irons, born in Chillicothe, Missouri. Her parents were married 1868 on July 3. Her mother was the oldest settler in Indian Territory living until 1936; came here when three months old.]

Submitted to OKGenWeb by Gary Sears, grandson of Laura Tyner Sears < gsears01@sprynet.com  > November 2000.