Carlotta Archer

Obituary posted on Find A Grave:

http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=11439916

Miss Carlotta Archer, pioneer Mayes county citizen, passed away at 2: 15 p.m., August 27, 1946. She would have reached her eighty-first year October 10. She was the daughter of a pioneer Cherokee family. Edwin F. and Mary Archer. Her grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Vann, were also residents of what is now Mayes county, and known as Old Settlers as they came to the Indian Territory before the Indian removal west, on what is known as the Trail of Tears of 1838.

Survivors of her immediate family are Mrs. Ada Jones and Mrs. Cora Shackleford, sisters, and Miss Vera Jones, a niece, of the home; and Mrs. Jean A. Budd, a niece, and Harry Archer Budd, Charles David Budd, and Joseph Vann Budd, sons of Mrs. Budd, all of Pryor. There are other nieces and grand-nephews and nieces residing elsewhere.

Miss Archer was born in Mayes county southwest of Locust Grove and in the early 1870s her family moved to the present Archer homestead southeast of Pryor. She attended the Cherokee Female Seminary at Tahlequah, graduating there in 1883, taught a country school a short time and then attended the Monticello Seminary for girls at Godfrey, Illinois. Returning to the Indian Territory, she taught music in the Alice Robertson Presbyterian mission school in Muskogee. which later grew into the Kendall college of Muskogee, and after its removal to Tulsa became the present University of Tulsa.

She later returned to the female seminary at Tahlequah, the capital of the Cherokee nation at that time, and taught music in the seminary for a number of years. She was made a member of the Board of Education of the Cherokee Nation, the only woman to ever occupy the position. Miss Archer was indeed an accomplished musician: at the age of fifteen years she was awarded a medal for being the most accomplished musician under twenty-one years of age of the Five Civilized Tribes.

Miss Archer's father was an early printer at Park Hill, Indian Territory. He helped organize the first Masonic lodge in what is now Oklahoma at Tahlequah. He was postmaster of Pryor's Creek, then located southeast of Pryor on Pryor creek near the old Archer homestead.

Carlotta Archer came with her mother to Pryor soon after statehood, and established the present home on South Vann Street. Her mother had lived to be one-hundred years of age at her death in 1923.

When this community thought of school and education it had long since learned to think of the Archer family and when there was a vacancy in the office of County Superintendent soon after statehood, Miss Archer was called to fill the place which she held with honor and distinction for nineteen years. Her sister, Mrs. Ada Jones, is alert and active at eightyeight and has long been known as the pioneer school teacher of Mayes county. Mrs. Cora Shackleford is interested likewise, and her nieces, Miss Vera Jones and Mrs. Jean Budd, have been affiliated with ccunty and state schools ever since statehood.

After leaving the Superintendent's office, Miss Archer joined the Indian Office of the Federal Government and served for more than twenty years in the Agency at Muskogee and Pryor, retiring a few years ago for a much deserved rest from her official cares. However, her interest in people and culture soon found her active again as librarian of the public library in Pryor, a service she gave to the city because of her love for being of service to her county and her friends, and especially the young people. She' was the first person appointed to the library board when it was organized in 1939 and served on the board continuously since.

Miss Archer was a Christian lady and possessed a charming personality. She was interested in people every minute of her life. She was helpful and charitable in acts and with her funds. She had been an active supporter of the Red Cross of Mayes county since its organization in 1917 and was generally the first to contribute in all drives. During World War I she served as regular secretary of the chapter, and otherwise made herself useful and beneficial, as she enjoyed doing.

To walk into the Archer home is indeed to breathe an atmosphere of culture and of friendship which is so pleasantly manifest to all who have the pleasure of visiting the home. Her passing is a distinct loss to Mayes county, yet her long and useful life will cause pleasant memories and will be an inspiration to many throughout the years.

By THOMAS J. HARRISON

References

1. History of the Cherokee Indians and Their Legends and Folk Lore by Emmett Starr. Page 671. < GoogleBooks > Carlotta Archer sketch.
2. Starr, Emmett. History of the Cherokee Indians and Their Legends and Folk Lore. Oklahoma City, Oklahoma: The Warden Company. 1921 < link > Carlotta Archer sketch. (Easier to read.)
3. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/11439916/carlotta-archer
4. WikiTree contributors, "Carlotta Archer (1865-1946)," WikiTree: The Free Family Tree, (https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Archer-5208 : accessed 15 March 2024). Cites:
   1. "United States Census, 1900," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MSRL-9YP : accessed 23 July 2020), Charlotte Archer in household of William Bates, Tahlequah Township 17 N. Range 2 E., Cherokee Nation, Indian Territory, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) 33, sheet 11B, family 218, NARA microfilm publication T623 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1972.); FHL microfilm 1,241,845.
   2. "United States Census, 1910," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MLQV-6TW : accessed 23 July 2020), Carlotta Archer, Pryor Creek Ward 4, Mayes, Oklahoma, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) ED 86, sheet 32B, family 55, NARA microfilm publication T624 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1982), roll 1262; FHL microfilm 1,375,275.
   3. "United States Census, 1920," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MN1H-B3P : accessed 23 July 2020), Carlotta Archer in household of Mary F Archer, Pryor Creek, Mayes, Oklahoma, United States; citing ED 56, sheet 12B, line 64, family 37, NARA microfilm publication T625 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1992), roll 1473; FHL microfilm 1,821,473.
   4. "United States Census, 1930," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XCWC-MH3 : accessed 23 July 2020), Carlotta Archer, Pryor, Mayes, Oklahoma, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) ED 15, sheet 2A, line 8, family 32, NARA microfilm publication T626 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 2002), roll 1913; FHL microfilm 2,341,647.
   5. "United States Census, 1940," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:VBVR-8VJ : 25 January 2020), Carlotta Archer in household of Ada A James, Pryor Creek, Pryor Creek City, Mayes, Oklahoma, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) 49-17, sheet 23B, line 79, family 541, Sixteenth Census of the United States, 1940, NARA digital publication T627. Records of the Bureau of the Census, 1790 - 2007, RG 29. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 2012, roll 3311.
   6. Oklahoma and Indian Territory, U.S., Dawes Census Cards for Five Civilized Tribes, 1898-1914 for Carlotta Archer[1][1] Sources
   7. Oklahoma and Indian Territory, U.S., Dawes Census Cards for Five Civilized Tribes, 1898-1914: The National Archives at Fort Worth; Fort Worth, Texas; Enrollment Cards, 1898-1914; NAI Number: 251747; Record Group Title: Records of the Bureau of Indian Affairs; Record Group Number: 75 Ancestry Record 60543 #162925
   8. Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com : accessed 23 July 2020), memorial page for Carlotta Archer (10 Oct 1865–27 Aug 1946), Find A Grave: Memorial #11439916, citing Fairview Cemetery, Pryor, Mayes County, Oklahoma, USA ; Maintained by DMLeForce (contributor 47131861)