Hi Olive: This is the information you requested. It's rather basic and if you read the interview with Sarah Ann [MONCRIEF] HARLAN, it's mentioned in there, also. Sandi :) OUR CHOCTAW HERITAGE In 1849, with pressure on Congress increasing, the gov’t made Indian removal mandatory instead of voluntary. They promised to pay expenses and furnish a year’s rations for those being removed to the west. The only other choice remaining to the Indian was to cede their property to the gov’t and enter the Indian Reservation set up for them in Alabama. Sophia and Sampson MONCRIEF, mother and father of Susan McCLAIN, visited William MONCRIEF, who had stayed in the Choctaw Nation instead of returning to Alabama with Susan and James McCLAIN. They, during their visit, were intrigued by what they saw and returned to Alabama to encourage their children to go west. Taking the advice of their mother and father seriously, the three married daughters of Sophia and Sampson MONCRIEF: Mary Ann [MONCRIEF] and her husband Robert McCARTY, Sarah [MONCRIEF] and her husband Erasmus Bryant HAWKINS and Susan [MONCRIEF] and her husband James McCLAIN, enrolled with the emigration agent and booked steamboat passage along with their brother, Robert MONCRIEF. --- In 1853 Sophia MONCRIEF, the mother of Susan MONCRIEF, died and Sampson MONCRIEF decided to sell his Alabama plantation and join his married children in Indian Territory. Two of the sons-in-law, James McCLAIN and Robert McCARTY, were called to come to Alabama and settle the estate of Sophia MONCRIEF. After the business was completed and the plantation was sold, Sampson MONCRIEF, his two children still at home, and his slaves began the long trip to Skullyville County. The trip was mainly made by wagon and hack but many of the slaves walked the entire distance. Sampson MONCRIEF settled on land at the junction of the Poteau and Arkansas rivers. The rich farm lands produced well and the slaves were happy and well cared for. Sampson made a great deal of money and had a bad habit of carrying large sums on his person. In January of 1856 Sampson disappeared and was never found. It was a assumed that he had been killed and robbed since it was known that he had been carrying $20,000 in gold when he disappeared. A reward of $10,000 was offered for information leading to finding him and, though the country was full of searchers, nothing helpful was ever learned.