Wendy, I forwarded your letter to a cousin-friend and got this response..be sure to see the next post I send as it contains some corrections. > I thought this was very interesting! I just wonder who might be added to the > list! I know that the Muncriefs were Choctaw. Was their father a white > man? Samuel Moncrief married Josephine Morse Stowe, the former > wife of Dr. Jim Snow, and Joseph Morse, half brother of my ancestor, > Tabitha Jerusha Shelton Randolph Shannon Morse Thomas. Tabitha (a > white woman and all her kin came to I. T. about 1872 in a wagon train! > Her son, a white man, William Colville Randolph (mother of Jessie Randolph > Moore!) was already in OK. He had married Sarah Tyson, > the daughter of James Tyson (a white man) and his Chickasaw wife, > Charlotte Love Tyson. Another white son of Tabitha that was in the group, > Holland Coffee Randolph, had married Maria Lanham. Thomas Jefferson > (Tom) Shannon, a white man, married Tabitha's daughter Catherine Barbary > Randolph. He became a lawyer in Pauls Valley. They came in > 1872. James Mayberry Morse, a nephew of Tabitha and a white man, > came to I. T. with them. He married several times. One of his wives, > Henryetta LaFlore, was a Choctaw. He is listed in Gideon's book, or > one of the books of the earliest persons in Indian Territory. Another > daughter of Tabitha, Sarah Elizabeth Randolph, married James Barnet > Shannon (a white man and brother of T. J. Shannon). They came to > I. T. for awhile for her last child was born in Mayesville. They later > returned to Sherman, TX and died there. However, her son, Joseph Barnet > Shannon (and Tabitha's grandson) was an early physician in Pauls Valley, > Purcell, and later in Oklahoma City. Joseph F. Myers, a son of Tabitha, > came in 1872 (he was white). He married Eula Colbert, the daughter > of Holmes Colbert and Elizabeht (Betsy) Love. Jessie O. Shannon, > another son of Tabitha, came in 1872. He married a girl from Hungary > who had come over as a immigrant and her husband had died on the > way. She later married a Smith (She was Betsy Smith), had other > children, and Smith became a peace officer in I. T. Mary Jane Shelton > who married John Shannon, a neice of Tabitha (John and all the other > Shannons except Jessie were Tabitha's step children). She and her > husband came to Carriage Point (around Whitebead) during the 70's > They were in I. T. to make the Oklahoma Run and received a lot in > Capitol Hill. Their son, Albert Shelton, was a pioneer Dr. in I. T. He > was killed around Paul's Valley in the late 1880's. > > Was Alexander Rennie on that list? He was in I. T. during the Civil > War and served as an officer with the Chickasaws. (He was a white man!) > My great grandfather, John Fletcher Williams, came to I. T. around 1870 > where he married Elizabeth Love, daughter of L. H. Love and Elizabeth > Humphreys. My grandmother, Elizabeth Williams, was born in 1874, > and Elizabeth Love Williams, died at her birth. He married another > wife (a white woman) and raised another family in I. T. He worked in > a dry goods store at Colbert and at Tishomingo. He later served as > an accountant for the Chickasaw Nation in Tishomingo! > > Tabitha's niece, Eliza Ann Shelton, married a white man by the name of > Franklin (he is mentioned > in one of the early books such as Gideon and O'Riely (?). His first wife > was a Colbert (I have not been able to find out who she was!) and they > lived on Indian land, because she was an Indian. After her death, they > revoked his privilege and he was forced to move. I do not remember > right off hand the dates. > > My great grandfather, George Wirt Randolph, and his wife Martha Olive > Friend (both white), was one of those who came in 1872 (along with my > grandfather, James Coffee Randolph, who was 2 years old). They > founded a Methodist Church, Randolph Chapel, that was one of the > first Methodist churches in I. T. When he later moved to another > community, he and his son founded a another church which they called > the Randolph M. E. Church (South). That community is still called the > Randolph community (in Garvin County) and the state recently paved > a road there which they called "The Randolph Road." > > Gideon Lyman Friend, a brother of Martha Olve Friend, and his wife, > Margaret Corley Shannon (Tabitha's step-daughter), both white, came > in 1872. They were members of the Randolph Chapel. Their young > son, Thomas Friend, came with them. He was to marry Henryetta > Williams, the sister of my grandmother, Bettie Williams. The Friend > school house in Grady County was built on the allotment of Alice Friend, > their daughter. > > - -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----