Dixon David Durant

He was a Choctaw who came to Oklahoma by the Trail of Tears. He is part of Durant,Ok history. Durant,Ok is named after him.

Dickson D. DURANT (Idno I1218), born 1838, , , MS, died 1906, Durant, Blue (now Bryan) Co. OK, son of Fisher DURANT (Idno I1207) and Peggy ??? (Idno I1219). SOURCE NOTES:

City of Durant, OK is named for Dickson. He donated the land for the first city park. He served in the Choctaw Brigade under Col. Walker in the Civil War. He saw action at Newtonia, MO, both battles of Cabin Creek, IT, and at Camden, AR. He was wounded in the left side which left him disabled and caused him to limp the remainder of his life and prevented him from doing heavy work.

Dickson was the son of Fisher Durant, a full blood Choctaw and the great grandson of Louis B. Durant the French -Canadian trapper and progenitor of the Durants in the Choctaw Nation. He was born in 1838 in Mississippi near the big Black River or Lonesa-Chita, and emigrated to Indian Territory with his parents in 1842, stopping in Boktukkalo County at Skelton Depot where he lived for years. In 1840 he settled at Carriage Point in the Chickasaw Nation. At fourteen years of age, when visiting a camp meeting presided over by a missionary named Silas Kingsbury, (afterward adopted by the tribe), he became a convert to the Christian religion through the interpretation of the fourteenth verse, third chapter of John. The interpreter, Jonathan Dwight, so impressed upon the youth the significance of this verse that he determined to learn English in order to penetrate the mystery of Christ. With this in view, he left his people and traveled through the states working on one farm and then another until, at the end of three years he could speak and read the English language correctly in addition to a general knowledge of scriptures.

On his return to his people he married Kate Harney, an orphan girl, and with nothing but and axe and a camping outfit, commenced his career by opening a small farm near Carriage Point, which he soon sold, moving to Melon Creek where he stayed for three years. From this point he moved to Fisher's Prairie in Jack's Fork County. When the war commenced, he moved to Durant where he stayed until his death.

For seventeen years Mr. Durant was an ordained preacher in the Presbyterian church but left it in 1885 and joined the Congregationalists. During the twenty two years of his mission he never received a cent for his labors but devoted the profits of his farm to traveling among those who needed the word of God. In 1889 he went to southeastern Texas to preach to the Alabama Indians and in July 1890 returned on the same mission by invitation of the tribe. He was superintendent of Sunday School for twenty-seven years.

Family tradition says the last Choctaw "Cry" was held for Dickson after his death. This was a tradition among the Choctaws of old. When a member died, they had a feast and designated a day at a later time for mourning. The mourning day was called the "Cry".

Married about 1855, Carriage Point, Chickasaw Nation, Kate HARNEY (Idno I1234).