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T.J. Barker |
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| Barker, T.J.
Field Worker: John F. Daugherty Date: June 22, 1937 There were eleven children in our family. I was born August 10, 1853, in West Liberty, Kentucky. I had a brother living near Thackerville in the Choctaw Nation and I, being a carpenter, decided to come to this new country. I came on the train from Kentucky to Gainesville, Texas, and walked to Thackerville. I helped build the first cotton gin in Thackerville. It had one gin stand and a steel screw press. When the Santa Fe Railroad was being built in 1886 I got a job on the crew which was laying the track. There were two hundred and twenty-five men in this crew. We lived on the work train and paid for our board at the rate of $16.00 per month. I received $1.75 per day for my work. The railroad company offered a five percent premium to the first crew that reached Purcell, which was the meeting place for the north and south crews. The north crew won this contest because there was so much game through the Territory which the southern crew was covering that they would go hunting and would not return to the work car for several days. Jones and Caney were the contractors. I worked for a sawmill near Tuskahoma in the Choctaw Nation for several years between 1889 and 1900. I received $1.00 a day for cutting trees from which the lumber was sawed. The sawmill would saw logs free of charge for those who wanted to build homes. These cabins were left intact when the sawmill changed its location. Anybody desiring a home could move in and claim the house. Lumber was cheap in those days. The best lumber sold for 50 cents per hundred feet. I have been in Murray County since 1900. I have never married. I make my home with my niece, Mrs. John Stevens. I have lived with her and her family for forty-seven years. Transcribed by Brenda Choate and Dennis Muncrief, August 2001.
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