Welcome to my webpage! My goal here is to try to link the present to our past.  We  have an very interesting family history and this site provides a great way to share  it with you.  I love learning about my ancestors, researching and learning about them  has brought me great joy.  On the other hand, there is still a lot of work to be done  on this site.  There is still so much out there that is still unkown. If you have any  additional information or photos that you'd like to contribute, please email  me.  I appreciate any help and input you all may have.   Also, please pass the  website on to other family members who may be interested in learning more about their  heritage. Thank you for checking out the site....enjoy!

Interesting Family History Facts:  
  
 Oklahoma Slave Narrative of:  Eliza Hardrick

My name is Eliza Hardrick. I live at 320 Third Street, Vinita, Oklahoma. I  was born at Salina, Cherokee Nation, Indian Territory, in October 1860.  My  father's name was Mose Hardrick Ross, and my mother was named Patience Ross.  My grandfather's name was Silas Ross, and my grandmother's name was Winnie  Ross. We all belonged to Louis Ross before and during the Civil War.  There  was so many slaves, who belonged to Louis Ross, who had my father's name Mose,  that he adopted the name of Hardrick, and after he was set free, he just kept  the name of Hardrick. That kept me from drawing land with the rest of the  slaves of the Cherokee people.  My grandfather told me that it was about 1838  that Louis Ross chartered a boat and shipped five hundred slaves from Georgia  to Fort Gibson, Indian Territory. He said the boat was in the charge of Dan  Ross, and that Louis Ross had come on ahead and had settled on a plantation in  Saline district, Cherokee Nation, Indian Territory, where the present site of  Salina is now located.  He said Louis Ross met the boat with an armed guard of  full-blood Indians and ox wagons and took them to his plantation in Saline  district. Here a lot of the slaves were sold to other Cherokees in the Nation  and a lot of them he kept to the farm and run the salt works, which he later  operated.  My father was six years old when he landed at Ft, Gibson. He said  his uncle George Ross got so scared when he landed at Ft. Gibson and saw all  those full-bloods with guns that he broke and ran, and got away, and they  never did hear of him anymore.  My father told me that both Chief John Ross,  and his brother, Louis Ross, went north with the soldiers who set us free, and  that he last saw Louis Ross at Baxter Springs, Kansas, where the soldiers  turned us loose. He said the Indians were having trouble among themselves, and  both the Ross's thought it time for them to leave, and they took that means of  getting out of the country. He said they both came back as soon as the war was  over.  George Ross, one of the slaves, took sick at Baxter Springs, Kansas,  and held us back from going on north for two or three days. He died inside of  three days and we buried him at Baxter Springs. Then we went on to near Ft.  Scott, where the soldiers told us we would be protected from the southern  soldiers.  The soldiers left us ox teams and wagons to go on with, and also a  lot of furniture and over five hundred head of cattle which they had taken  from the Indians. As winter was coming on and we had no way of feeding them,  my father said they only took a few milk cows and ox teams. They were afraid  of being caught with all that fine furniture so they broke up a lot of it at  Baxter Springs and left it there. He said they also turned loose something  like five hundred head of cattle and that some of them went back home, so that  the Kansas farmers got a lot of them and kept them.   My father said there was  no end to the hardships the slaves went through in Kansas after they were set  free. The winters were exceedingly cold and work was scarce, and wages were  practically nothing. He said they had to do a lot of work to get a little  something to eat.  There was a drought in Kansas while we were there and there  was scarcely any corn raised at all. The price went so high the slaves could  not afford to buy it, and they came near to starving. He said they were glad  when they could get back to the territory.