Individual Notes
Note for: Samuel Durbin, 5 MAR 1849 - 1920
Index
Residence: Date: 1860
Place: Not Stated, , Christian, Illinois,
Residence: Date: 1880
Place: Center, , Mcdonald, Missouri,
Residence: Date: 1850
Place: District 22, , Christian, Illinois,
Residence: Date: 1910
Place: CYCLONE TWP, , MCDONALD, Missouri,
Burial: Place: Union Cemetery, McDonald County, Missouri
Individual Note: From Alma Ross and Mary Houck:
Samuel Durbin's father's old home was where the present city of Springfield, Illinois is now.
Samuel was born at Taylorville, IL. He was an orphan child. His mother had died and his father remarried. Later his father died but his step-mother was very good to him. He had a brother, Leonard who married Mary Finley Johnson's step-daughter, Evaline Johnson.
From Bill Mouck (Aug. 2000:
Sam Durbin travelling through the hills to invite the McKinzey's (his sister's family) to the wedding of John Cooper and Allie Durbin. One the way he stopped at a neighbor's house to visit, however the lady of the house told Sam where her husband was cutting railroad ties so Sam continued, found the man and after a visit continued on the the McKinzies. The neighbor went home and beat his wife half to death with the ram rod for his gun and then accused Sam Durbin for the crime. Grandpa was ready to kill the guy, however he listened to council from the Coopers and others and was tried in court at Bethpage and found not guilty.
Individual Notes
Note for: Louisa Nevin, 1849 - 1926
Index
Residence: Date: 1850
Place: Cambridge, , Guernsey, Ohio,
Residence: Date: 1860
Place: Cambridge, , Guernsey, Ohio,
Burial: Place: Union Cemetery, McDonald County, Missouri
Individual Note: Alma Ross and Mary Houck told the following stories as they had been told to them:
Louisa Nevin's grandfather was educated in Ireland to become a Catholic priest. He renounced his vows, fell in love with a young lady, came to America and married her here.
Louisa's mother was a twin. They lived at one time in Virginia, near Mount Vernon. Her mother's maiden name was Green. The Green home was just across the Potomac River from the home of George Washington and they were neighbors.
Louisa's sister Hattie died in 1893 leaving a daughter Mattie. Mattie was so lonesome after her mother's death her father, Major Perry sent for Mattie's cousin, Annie Bell Durbin to come to Chicago and stay with them. Annie left Powell, MO and stayed in their home about a year.
After Louisa's family left Virginia, they moved to Cambridge, Ohio where they lived until she was grown. They had a small store. After her father died, she and her mother came out west to visit her sister Mary Johnson, Mrs. Ab Johnson, who lived near Buffalo Township in McDonald County, MO. While there, Louisa got a school to teach and met and married Samuel Durbin. She did not teach in a public school but a subscription school where families would join together and hire a teacher to teach their children.
Louisa Nevin and Samuel Durbin were married in 1868 in Newton County, MO by a Baptist preacher.
Individual Notes
Note for: James Ezekiel Muskrat, 20 JUN 1860 - 15 JUN 1944
Index
Residence: Date: 1920
Place: Township 6, , Delaware, Oklahoma,
Residence: Date: 1900
Place: Township 24, , Cherokee Nation, Indian Territory,
Event: Type: 1902-07 Dawes Roll
Place: Card #4137, roll# 9991
Event: Type: Dawes Roll
Date: 1902
Place: #4137, roll# 9991
Burial: Date: 1944
Place: Olympus Cemetery, Grove, Delaware County, Oklahoma
Individual Note: From Heritage of the Hills, p. 398: "Ida Lenora Kelly, a blonde, blue-eyed Irish girl, and James E. Muskrat, a three-quarter Cherokee Indian, were united in marriage in 1889 in Indian Territory which is now Delaware County, Oklahoma. Their first six years were spent on a farm along a lonely little stream called Whitewater. Then they moved to the Olympus district on the south side of Cowskin Prairie where they spend the rest of their lives.
They reared a family of six children; the seventh child, Truman, died at the age of three. Four of the James E. Muskrat family taught school, one did social work, one carried mail out of Grove on Route 2 and he (Harvey) later retired from the Indian Service."
p. 397: "Later the house [the Olympus school] was moved to one corner of the Jim Muskrat farm."
James was 3/4 Indian but enrolled as 1/2 blood.
[Kelly History.FTW]
James Ezekial Muskrat appears on the 1900 census in Indian Territory (Oklahoma), County is listed as Cherokee Nation and the Township is 24 North Range 24 East, Supervisor's District 73, ED# 16, Sheet 16B, Dwelling #121, line 26 and on. That census shows 47 year-old James was a farmer, born in Indian Territory, as were his parents.
He also appears on the 1910 Federal Census in Delaware County, Oklahoma (Enumeration District 63). That census shows James was 53 at the time of the census and that his parents were born in North Carolina.
James Ezekiel and Ida Lenora (Kelly) Muskrat appear on the 1920 Federal Census in Delaware County, Oklahoma (enumeration district 30). That census shows he was a 65 year old farmer and born in the Cherokee Nation, Oklahoma.
He also appears on the 1930 Federal Census in Grove, Delaware County, Oklahoma. That census shows he was 75 years old, a general farmer, and that he and his mother were born in Oklahoma. That census also shows that his father was born in Georgia.
A brief biography for James Ezekiel Muskrat and his family appears in the book Heritage of the Hills:
His obituary appeared in the June 22, 1944 edition of The Grove Sun, Grove, Delaware County, Oklahoma. He is buried in Olympus Cemetery, Grove, Delaware County, Oklahoma.
Individual Notes
Note for: Harvey R Muskrat, 22 FEB 1895 - 25 MAY 1980
Index
Alias: Toad /Arba/
Event: Type: Nickname
Place: Arba A
Event: Type: 1902-07 Dawes Roll
Place: Card #4137, roll# 24437
Event: Type: Dawes Roll
Date: 1902
Place: #4137, roll# 24437
Individual Note: Harvey is listed on the Dawes roll as Arba. His nickname was "Toad". Harvey carried mail out of Grove on Route 2 and later retired from the Bureau of Indian Affairs. He worked in Nevada, Washington and California.
As told by Thelma Muskrat to Jim & Lorene Muskrat, August, 2000:
Toad was not a mixer with the Indians like Claude. Thelma told of one time Toad dressed up in a white suit, had a cane over his arm and cocked his head back as if he were worth a million dollars. Toad went to a school in North Carolina somewhere, but they were not teaching the courses he thought he would be taking. While there, Toad did strike up a friendship with an Indian from the Northeast. He came home with Toad from school for a visit, and Thelma said the man stayed four or five years.
[Kelly History.FTW]
Harvey R. Muskrat, son of James Ezekiel and Ida Lenora (Kelly) Muskrat, appears on the 1900 Federal Census in Indian Territory, Cherokee Nation (enumeration district 16, township 24 NR 24 East, sheet 16). That census shows five year-old Harvey as "Roy" Muskrat, born in 1895 in Indian Territory.
He also appears on the 1910 Federal Census in Delaware County, Oklahoma (Enumeration District 63). That census shows him as Ray (Harvey) Muskrat. He was 15 at the time of the census and born in Oklahoma.
He was living in Cheyenne, South Dakota in 1944 when is father passed away in 1944. By 1956, he was living in Toppenish, Washington when his mother passed away.
Harvey carried mail out of Grove on Route 2 and later retired from the Bureau of Indian Affairs. He worked in Nevada, Washington and California.
Individual Notes
Note for: Ruth Margaret Muskrat, 3 OCT 1897 - 12 JUN 1982
Index
Alias: /Rutha/
Event: Type: 1902-07 Dawes Roll
Place: Card #4137, roll# 24438
Event: Type: Dawes Roll
Date: 1902
Place: #4137, roll# 24438
Individual Note: From Heritage of the Hills, p. 398: "Ruth married John F. Bronson from Connecticut, who retired from the U. S. Naval Medical Research Unit. They adopted a 21-month old Pueblo Indian girl."
[Kelly History.FTW]
Ruth M. Muskrat was the fourth child born to James Ezekiel and Ida Lenora (Kelly) Muskrat, appears on the 1900 Federal Census in Indian Territory, Cherokee Nation (enumeration district 16, township 24 NR 24 East, sheet 16). That census shows two-year old Ruth as "Ruthie", living with her parents, and that she was born in Indian Territory.
She also appears on the 1910 Federal Census in Delaware County, Oklahoma (Enumeration District 63). That census shows she was 12 years old and born in Oklahoma.
Ruth M. Muskrat attended Mount Holyoke College. An event while she was a student there is recorded in "The Native Americans - An Illustrated History", Turner Publishing Inc (1993):
"Charged with presenting recommendations for the future course of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the Committee of One Hundred had met for a long weekend in December 1923. When the time came for the committee to present its reports to President Calvin Coolidge, however, the group and the president simply stared at each other, unable to open a dialogue.
"Ruth Muskrat, at the time a student at Mount Holyoke College, broke the impasse by approaching the president in archetypal Cherokee Indian princess costume. Perhaps her garb appealed to Coolidge, who was also known to favor outfitting himself in Indian regalia. Muskrat delivered a short speech and offered the president a book prepared by a Protestant missionary group. The book, which outlined troubled conditions on the reservation and then called for continued support for the Indian Office, captured the essence of Muskrat's subsequent long career.
"Already experienced in reservation social work through participation in YWCA programs, Muskrat became a BIA teacher immediately upon her graduation. Intelligent and articulate, she moved quickly through the bureaucracy, eventually becoming a guidance office and overseeing government loans and scholarships for Indian students. As executive secretary of the NCAI, she worked with tribal groups across the country, stalked the halls of Congress as an Indian lobbyist, and published 'Indians Are People Too.' In 1957, she returned to Indian service in the field of community health."
Ruth's determination to serve her people was spurred while still in college. She was sent by the YWCA as a playground instructor to the Apache reservation where she saw and experienced the way the Indians of the area lived.
In 1933, she was sent by the Student Christian Federation to represent Indians at a conference in China. She entered college on her return and was employed by the Bureau of Indian Affairs immediately after graduation. This work demanded much personalized service and she was of great help to young Indian people in need of moral support and encouragement.
For a three year period, Ruth was executive secretary of the National Congress of American Indians and in this capacity made an extensive survey of Indian conditions in Alaska. Then she returned to the Bureau of Indian Affairs as a health worker on the San Carlos Apache Reservation. She also was a community worker for the U. S. Public Health Service.
Her obituary appeared in the June 15, 1982 edition of The Tucson Citizen, Tucson, Arizona.