Summary of discussion by curators for the record...messages 3/14-3/16
The question under discussion is; given that both families were well-known and respected Creek and Cherokee families, theoretically well to do, why was Louisa McIntosh buried in the Canton Hiawatha Cemetery, why was she not brought home for burial in a family cemetery?
It’s interesting to me that the Archers didn’t seem to take care of her or advocate for her to get good treatment. Let her wander around as a known demented person. And the Archers were the sophisticated, educated ones.
...Polygamy was legal in the Creek Nation.
I think it also interesting that if we can believe the obit for Freland McIntosh, his family was upstanding and likely on the wealthy side, so why was Louisa allowed to be buried at Hiawatha and not brought back for burial in a family plot unless she was somehow ostracized?
Note 1 Husband's family side based on Freland McIntosh's obit; Freland "stood high in the Creek nation"
Note 2 Her family side based on sister Cora Shackleford (Archer) obit; "member of one of the most prominent Cherokee families"
...That one is easy. Freeland died in 1914, and Lou died in 1915. They had been separated/divorced since at least 1885 when his daughter Eulalia Jessie Kroeger (Mcintosh) was born. Daughter Lucille lived with her mother only temporarily, it seems, the rest with her Cherokee grandmother. (? Double check needed on her residences.). Lucille was “first” enrolled Creek, so apparently she was close enough to her father, and she’s in his obit. So, why should she be involved with a difficult and expensive transportation, if she was even identified by Canton as next of kin? Apparently she had not been, because Lucille thought her mother died in 1902 (ex? stepmother Annie Vann? - Freeland married 3rd in 1896).
The benefits of her married life seem to be opposed to the life expounded by those who "knew her" for 10-20 years. Were there issues between the Creek and Cherokee that would have led to an abandonment by both sides? Was she considered "demented" by the Cherokees simply because she married a Creek man?
...Lucille Houston (Lou’s daughter) may not have been entirely reliable about Freeland’s family. I do not think his father was born in Boston, as example. (It should be noted that in the Q&A for her Dawes Card, several persons were interviewed who called themselves friends but had not seen Louisa for 10-20 years, yet still called her "demented"
...The first thing you’ll notice is that Mollie Boulton introduces herself as white and that her husband Cheesie (Albert Gallatin ‘Cheesie’ McIntosh)’s ancestor had a “Creek, Cherokee, and white wife.” So did Cheesie’s father, in fact, and his polygamous partner’s origins included yet more ethnicities.
...And - Freeland’s wives were also 1) Cherokee 2) Creek 3) white. You’ll also remember one of the testimony providers in Lucille Houston’s application was white, but his wife was a Cherokee cousin of Lou’s.
...So, I do not think there were strained feelings between Creek & Cherokee families based on ethnicity. Mary F. Archer attributed physical distance. “She’s over there, in the Creek Nation …”
...I find that unlikely given the many intermarriages. And, demented is demented. If I interpret correctly, Lou was raised like her sisters, taught school, and married approximately, but was always “off.” Could check the ethnicity of sisters’ husbands. Daughter Lucille’s marriages were both to white men.
...So far I have not seen documented interaction between McIntoshes and Lou after the marriage dissolved, although she was sometimes “over there, teaching in the Creek Nation.” It seems to be hearsay from sister Cora Shackleford.
...There was the kindness of doctors before her arrest and commitment. There might be living relatives who know something of her. But so far this is reading to me like the limitations of medical treatment in that era. And, that she was difficult to help, perhaps.
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/196563052/lucille_thomason (wrong birth date, she was born 28 November 1878) has her obit, she called herself Lucille Thomason.
...and the cemetery is incorrect also, we know she was buried in the canton Hiawatha Cemetery. She may have had a last marriage to a man with the surname Thomas.
Both mother and daughter were teachers in the Saline District, Indian Territory,
...Was Lucille a teacher?
...and Louisa moved to and also taught school in the Creek Nation.
My thought is that now you need some “social history” for customs of time and place.
Archie Christie is understandable to me. He was caught in the system. Lou McIntosh, less so. Not for her being institutionalized, or even that she was sent to Canton; she needed help, and it was billed as where she could get good care. But for how she was “lost” for so long and apparently without much assistance.
