Hulbert Tales and Trails
by Gloria Youngdeer

Interview with Mrs. Kate Rackleff
recorded August 31, 1937

My mother, Rebecca Neugin nee Ketcher, was the daughter of John Ketcher. I do not know the name of his wife, but both were full bloods. My mother was born in Georgia about 1829.

The Trail of Tears:

My mother, said to be the last survivor of those who came over the Trail of Tears, was about ten years old when they left Georgia. They came in rude wagons drawn by oxen, each family furnishing its own transportation or at least my grandfather did and he loaded his wagon with provisions for his family for the trip. This left little room as he had a wife and six children, of whom my mother was next to the youngest. They were compelled to have a little bedding. They left Georgia in the summer and did not reach this state till the next summer.

These people were brought through Tennessee and Southern Missouri, under soldiers commanded by General Winfield Scott. General Scott left these people under command of his assistant about the middle of the trip that he might attend the National Whig Convention, which was at that time contesting the nominations of Henry Clay and William Henry Harrison, for President of the United States.

Mother stated with a little pig that she named "Toby". When they started he was no larger than a large rat and each day at noon and at night mother would let him run around and watched him and she kept him till he was a large hog and he disappeared one day at the noon hour and she was never able to find him.

n those days there were no roads and few trails and very few bridges. Progress of travellers was slow and often times they would have to wait many days for the streams to run down before they could cross. Each family did its own cocking, on the road. People then had no matches and they started a fire by rubbing two flint rocks together and catching the spark on a place of dry spunk held directly underneath the rocks. Sometimes, they would have to rake away the snow and clear a place to build the fire. Travelers carried dry wood in the wagons to build their fires. The wagons were so heavily loaded and had traveled so many days that when they came to a hill the persons in the wagons would have to get out and walk up the hill. They did not ride much of the time but walked a good deal, not only to rest themselves but to save their teams.

Often, teams would give out and could go no farther and then those who were with that wagon would be divided up among the other wagons and hurried along. One day mother saw a team of oxen fall dead, hitched to their wagon. The party she was with were in a severe snowstorm on the way which caused much suffering. Many died from exposure on the trip and mother said that she thought that a third of those who started died on the way, although all of her family lived to reach the new country. Those who came over the Trail of Tears would not stop for sickness and would stop only long enough to dig a rude grave when any one died and then the bereaved family was forced to move right along.

Mother said that their food lasted them till they reached the Indian Territory but towards the last of the trip that they had little to eat and had to plan to make it last. It was indeed a pitiful band that finally reached the new home promised them for they had been a year on the road, food had become scarce, their clothes which were homemade were wearing out, many had died on the trail, some had lost their teams and wagons and had been placed with other families and there were small children in the band who had lost their parents.

The New Home
It was warm weather and the country to which they came was covered with much good timber, had good water and many wild berries and fruits and besides it abounded with wild game. Destitute as they were after the trip, it was a "Happy Hunting Ground" to them to be free to do as they chose and not have to take up the long trail each morning. They came with their tired oxen into the Goingsnake district and Grandfather began looking around for a location for his home. He blazed trees to mark his claim. Next, he cut small poles and set them up and made a frame which he covered with cloth and this made a place to cook and eat. Then he made another shelter just like that as a place to sleep and here they lived till he could cut the logs and build a rude one room log house for his family. Grandfather had reached here with his team of oxen but they were worn out and unfit for work so he managed to get hold of a team of little mules to work and farm with that first year.

My grandparents were fullbloods and had lived in a log house in Georgia, so perhaps it was not so hard for them to accustom themselves to the new country as it was for some of the others. Then, too, Grandfather had been willing to come and had planned towards the end.

In the old home, Grandmother had her loom and had woven the cloth for their clothing but this was left behind but soon her husband had made her another loom and by the time that they moved from this location five or six years later, into the Going- snake District, they had a large drove of sheep, plenty of hogs and cows and had built two small log houses of one room each near to the other, had built other small outbuildings and besides they had raised what cotton they needed for home use. My grandmother died during my mother's teens.

Mother did not have the opportunity to attend school and always signed her name by mark; she helped with the family's spinning and weaving, made her own dresses and helped to dry and preserved the fruits and berries for winter use. At first, having no jars to can in, the fruits and berries were dried as were the corn, beans and pumpkins. The peaches were placed on a scaffold and a fire was built under them to dry them and the apples were dried in the sun. One day, I remember, my sister got choked on a peach kernel and as I had seen Mother strike a baby in the back when choked I walked up behind my sister and struck her in the back and the kernel flew out of her mouth. They later canned plums in gallon buckets.

Mother lived to be 113 years old and as long as she lived she was busy and only the winter before she died she pieced a quilt. She always smoked a little clay pipe. I do not mean to say that she did more work than the rest of the family. She had three brothers, Mose, ben and John and one sister who lived to be grown, Linnie, and those children all shared the home tasks.

After Grandmother's death mother's father gave her the loom that he had made for his wife and on this mother later wove the cloth for her children's clothes. The family moved from Goingsnake district to a place on Clear Creek, west of Hulbert.

Mother married Bock Neugin, a full blood Cherokee, who spoke Cherokee and who was a Captain in the Union army during the Civil War. They were married before the War and lived not far from where Tahlequah is now during the WAR.

I was born in 1880, about the time of my father's death, and know only what they have told me of him, as I am the youngest of the seven children. My brothers were Henry, Dave, and Neal. My sisters, Sabe, Lizzie, and Cynie.

[ In 1900 Rebecca Neugin was listed as the head of household, Township 18N Range 20E, at that time she stated she was born in 1835 in Georgia. She was a widow, had given birth to 9 children and 6 were living. In her household was a son, Turn Neugin born Aug. 1871, age 28 and a widow. A daughter Kate Neugin (the interviewee) born Sept. 1875 age 24. William Ketcher, a nephew age 11, a grandson Titus Neugin Dec. 1896, age 3.

Living next door was her son Neal Neugin age 29, with wife Jennie age 30, a step-daughter Annie Eagle age 12, a daughter Susie Neugin age 2, and a brother, Henry Neugin age 35.]

Civil War Days.

My father being a soldier could not come home often and it was only occasionally that he could stop and see his wife and then he had to be very careful. Mother did not fare quite so hard as some of her friends for Father could give her some money and then she was entitled to draw rations at Fort Gibson at certain times but there were times when she and her children were forced to "rustle" for themselves.

Sometimes, when they needed fresh meat, the women would run a steer up in the chimney corner and knock him in the head. The women were ready with their butcher knives and they would soon have the skin off and would begin to cut out the chunks of meat. Hogs were also knocked in the head by the women and the group shared among them, so much for each family.

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