This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Surnames: Wilmon, Pollard, Lemons, Hughes, Brit, Beebe, Smithee Classification: Biography Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/TaB.2ACI/1119 Message Board Post: MRS. MAUDE WILMON RECALLS EARLY DAY HAPPENINGS One of McIntosh County’s early settlers celebrated her 79th birthday in January of this year. This marks her 70th year in McIntosh County. Mrs. Wilmon recalls the day her family traveled from Clarksville, Arkansas by covered wagon, to arrive here in October before Statehood in November of 1907. It wasn’t an easy journey for the Pollard family, with the mother, Eliza Pollard, having her arm broken, and trying to care for 10 month old Burl Pollard. The older boys, L.B. and Estes cared and tended the livestock they were bringing with them. In 1910 tragedy struck the family. Brit, the father of the family , had taken his cotton to the gin in Eufaula, and while returning with his hard earned money, 2 men jumped him, robbed him of his money, and threw him into the North Canadian River. The family was never to see him again. At the age of 20, Maude married Jonas Wilmon, a young farmer who traveled here from Alabama. Maude and Jonas had a good and happy life together. Their days were full of hard work, the joys and worries of raising 10 children, and the blessings of the God they worshipped devoutedly. All of the children were born and reared in and around the Vivian Community. They attended the Vivian Church and woned and operated the Vivian Store and Post Office in 1942. In 1955 Jonas died after a long battle with emphysema. He is remembered by those who knew him in tohse days as a good neighbor, a great wit and a kindly man. Each year the family has a reunion with all the children and grandchildren gathering at Mrs. Wilmon’s house in Eufaula. The children, all living are: Ella Wilmon, Muskogee; Willard of Rosell, New Mexico; Olene Lemons, Eufaula; Orbrey, Eufaula; Estelle Hughes, Checotah; Brit of Decateur, Georgia; J.C.; Winnie Smithee; Lahoma Beebe; and Ken, all of Eufaula. The stories they tell are often humorous of times when living was hard and life was not very easy; of being scolded by father for killing a mockingbird; going to church and leaving one small little boy asleep on a back pew; of having your horse throw you because he was frightened and leaving you alone to face the screaming animal in the woods; of war time when everyone was afraid. But they made it through, because they had that drive that spirit of pioneers. >From the EUFUALA INDIAN JOURNAL, BICENTENNIAL EDITION, June 1976