Effie Pearl Hill (Meriwether)

Effie P. Meriwether, (1880·1966) arrived in Oklahoma for the first time in 1907. She came from her home in Marengo, Indiana, and was a descendant of the historic Meriwether family of Old Virginia. Effie's sister, Dora, and two brothers, Lafe and Sherman also came to the new state at about that same time. In 1965 at the age of 85 she wrote some of her reminiscences. With but a few changes the following is the story of her life in early Tillman County.

"While teaching school in Indiana, read a fascinating newspaper article telling of the thousands of people who were crossing the Mississippi River going West. It wasn't 10hg before I had my suitcase packed and was on the train for St. Louis. The next train took me to eastern Kansas, then on to Oklahoma.

"That was when the 'Big Pasture' had opened up for settlement and people had come to settle on their claims. How well I remember the contrast of the beautiful prairie of this new land with the wooded area of southern Indiana!

So many people from so many places were here living on their homesteads. Hardly anything was on them except the native grasses and prairie dogs. The numerous prairie dog towns were a sight to behold. There was dirt thrown up at the entrance of the holes that one could see all over the prairie. The little dogs would come out of their underground homes and stand up straight on their hind feet. They looked like soldiers.

"My sister, Dora, and I went to Lawton, the county seat of Comanche County, to attend a Normal School. It was there in Lawton that I saw my first Indian at a fair. I even saw Geronimo. We were told that he would be there and everyone was anxious to see him. So, after a while he came riding by on a horse. Several U.S. soldiers riding horses came along with him to act as guards.

"I remember two instructors at the Normal School. Professor Nihart was our mathematics instructor and Professor Oakes was our instructor in grammar. My sister and I took the teacher's examination. She had a school in Oklahoma, and I had one in Indiana, where I returned before I had heard the result from our examination, since school was to start shortly. So I taught school in Indiana in 1907.

"When I learned that I had received a teacher's certificate, I returned to Oklahoma in 1908. I found so many changes had taken place. There were small houses and half dugouts on every quarter section and school houses every few miles apart. Land was plowed ready to begin farming.

"Comanche County was now divided. The southern part had become Tillman County. Now there was a normal school at Frederick. I attended this normal school and took the examination for this county. There were five first grade certificates issued, and I was fortunate to receive one of them. I taught one of the first schools in the Big Pasture and had 108 pupils from beginners on up.

"On Saturdays I taught music, and on Sundays I was superintendent of the Sunday School in addition to being church organist. At the close of the year, I returned home to Indiana to rest up, but I couldn't get Oklahoma out of my mind, so I returned.

"One of the favorite meeting places was the Quanah Church. This was on the Quanah town site ten miles west of Grandfield. A post office established there in October, 1907, lasted until July, 1911. This place was named for Quanah Parker, prominent Comanche Indian leader and son of Cynthia Ann Parker. In hopes that a town would be located there, many people purchased town lots and continued paying taxes on them long after there was no hope for a city to materialize. On Sundays we always had a preacher, and the house was filled to capacity. We also had 'literary societies' here where peopie would entertain. It was here that I met my husband-to-be.

"The last school that I taught was Dawson, about 13 miles from Frederick. They had a nice two-room school that employed two teachers. Some pupils rode to school on horses and some came in buggies.

"After my marriage to Charles S. Hill, June 26, 1912, we built a good four-room house on a farm five and one-half miles south and one mile east of Hollister. We raised mostly wheat and cotton. In 1935 we were happy to produce the first bale of cotton in Oklahoma, and I think it was in 1936 that we harvested the first load of wheat in the United States.

"We had four children, Charles (Chub), Sylvester, Anna Mae, and Lucille. The three oldest all first attended school at Cameron and Mayflower. After consolidation of Cameron, they all attended Hollister."