 | Family Stories from the Trail of Tears (taken from the Indian-Pioneer
History Collection, Grant Foreman, editor) |  |
8. Dodge, Rachel
May 14, 1937
Field Worker: Grace Kelley
Interview with Rachel Dodge; Born 1886
11 miles SE of Henryetta
Father: Christopher Columbus Clay
Born in the I. T. Cherokee Nation
Mother: Polly Silk
Born, I. T. Cherokee Nation
Trail of Tears by Rachel Dodge
Aggie Silk was my grandmother and she has told me of the many hardships of the trip to this country. Many had chills and fever from the exposure, change of country and they didn't have too much to eat. When they would get too sick to walk or ride, they were put in the wagons and taken along until they died. The Indian doctors couldn't find the herbs they were used to and didn't know the ones they did find, so they couldn't doctor them as they would have at home. Some rode in wagons, some rode horses and some had to walk. There was a large bunch when she came; she was sixteen years old. They were Cherokees and stopped close to Muldrow where they built log houses or cabins but they didn't like this country at first as everything was so strange. She married at twenty years of age.
| Family Stories from the Trail of Tears (taken from the Indian-Pioneer
History Collection, Grant Foreman, editor) | |