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Archiver > OKMAJOR > 1999-03 > 0920866254


From: "J. M. Freed" <>
Subject: Re: [OKMAJOR-L] WEST families in OK before 1881
Date: Sun, 7 Mar 1999 23:10:54 -0500


Bev,
I have another suggestion for you concerning your WEST family being in
Oklahoma prior to 1881 (see part of your message below). From
another web site (through the USGENWEB site, for Oklahoma), I learned
something that I had not known before: No Man's Land (which became
the Panhandle of Oklahoma) WAS open for settlement much earlier than
the other parts of Oklahoma, with several thousand persons trying to
farm and ranch there (plus notorious outlaws as well). I'm wondering
if your WEST family may have been in No Man's Land prior to 1893, and
decided to make the Run into the Cherokee Outlet in September 1893.

Another suggestion, IF there is a cemetery marker in the Ringwood area
that states that Margaret WEST died in 1881, that does not mean that
she is buried there. I'm basing that on a cemetery marker for my
great grandmother, Elizabeth Speraw Smith, whose marker in the Ames
Cemetery (eastern portion of Major County), states that she died in
1892. She DID die in 1892 according to many family records, but she
was buried in Barber County, KS, and her husband came to the Ames area
ca 1894 or 1895, and when he died ca 1912, the family placed his
wife's name on the marker as well as his. The family, in fact,
planned to bring the woman's body down from Kansas, but they were
unable to find it! Based on that experience, I wonder if the same
may have happened to your WEST family, as her husband died in Ringwood
in 1908. Perhaps there is a marker somewhere for her in the area in
which they lived prior to 1893.

Jim Freed, Ohio

-----Original Message-----
From: <>
To: <>
Date: Saturday, March 06, 1999 1:10 PM
Subject: [OKMAJOR-L] WEST families in OK before 1881

>Hello:
>
>My Great Grandfather, John Wesley WEST (b. 1835 Ohio and d. Ringwood,
Ok 1908)
>was in Oklahoma, Ringwood, Woods County, before 1881. He and his
wife,
>Margaret (GRIFFITH) WEST (b. 1841 Ohio and died Ringwood, Ok 1881),
had moved
>from Missouri with their children:

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