James Culberson was born in old Skullyville County
of the Choctaw Nation on April 21, 1870, and he is the son of John
and Lucy (MCDONALD) Culberson. The father was a full-blood Choctaw,
while the mother was a white woman of Texas birth. They were married
in 1869 and they became the parents of three children. James, is the
eldest. E. W. is a resident of Bower, Oklahoma. Joan married J. P.
LEE, a farmer of Albany, Oklahoma.
John Culberson came from Mississippi with the first
delegation of Choctaws in 1832. At that time he was only a little
boy. When he grew up he located near Skullyville, then a steamboat
landing on the Arkansas River, and there lived until the Civil war
broke out, when he enlisted in the command of Gen. Douglass H.
COOPER. He passed through the war with only minor injuries, and when
peace was restored he returned to Skullyville and resumed his life
as a ranchman. Mr. Culberson was a devout member of the Methodist
Church. His wife was the daughter of a Scotchman who had come into
the territory prior to the war and conducted a blacksmith shop at
old Skullyville. It was there the young Choctaw met and won the
white daughter of the Scot, and they were married in 1869, as has
already been stated.
He was graduated from Spencer Academy and the
Southwestern Presbyterian University at Clarksville, Tennessee,
receiving the degree of A. B. from the latter institution in 1890.
He was later elected district clerk and served in
that office for a term, after which he became attorney general for
the Choctaw Nation, filling that office during the time when Green
McCurtain was principal chief of the nation. During these years Mr.
Culberson attended the various political conventions held throughout
the nations, and when the Sequoyah Convention was called at Muskogee
in 1904, to prepare a constitution for separate statehood, he had
served as member of the convention for the allotment of lands, held
at Atoka.
In 1897 Mr. Culberson was married to Martha HARRIS,
daughter of M. H. Harris, of LeFlore, Oklahoma. Their children are
James M.; Mary C.; John; and Ruth. Mrs. Culberson's father was a
merchant in LeFlore. She was a school teacher for some time prior to
her marriage.
Source:
Thoburn, Joseph B..
A Standard History of Oklahoma. Chicago and New York: The
American Historical Society, 1916., Vol. 3, p. 1059.
Basil LeFlore died about 1886....ten boys who were
sent from Spencer Academy to act as pall bearers, active and
honorary. I remember James Culberson and Louis Battiest were two of
them...
Source:
"Thomas W. Hunter Interview." Indian Pioneer Papers.
05 Mar 2002. 31 Jan 2003 <https://sites.rootsweb.com/~okchocta/ipp/ipp_thomas_w_hunter.htm>.
August 1988
Mary Culberson Bringle of Covington Tennessee, died July 30, 1988 in Covington. She was 84 years of age, 1/4 Choctaw. She was born in Ft. Smith and was the daughter of James Culberson, well known Choctaw. Mary grew up in Durant and graduated form Durant High School and later graduated from Rhodes College at Memphis, Tennessee. Mary taught school in Covington for 30 years. Mary was preceded in death by her husband, Hughes Bringle, in 1984. She is survived by one brother, James Culberson of North Carolina, one sister, Ruth Culberson Robertson, Ardmore, Oklahoma, a daughter, Beverly Bringle of Concord, Mass. and a son, Walter Bringle of Rockport, Texas.
Source:
"The Choctaw Nation Of Oklahoma." August 1988, Obituaries. 31 Jan 2003
http://www.choctawnation.com/.
