Pocola, Oklahoma, Kith & Kin
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Pocola, Oklahoma
Kith & Kin

Contact Information: Susan Johnson,
904 Fuller, Pocola, OK 74902... Email @

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Pocola is in eastern Oklahoma. Its' western border is
the Poteau River, to the north is the Arkansas River,
to the south is Backbone Mountain and to the east is
Fort Smith, Sebastian County, Arkansas.The Spiro
Mounds are about ten miles west of Pocola. Also,
near Pocola and certainly part of its heritage is its
closeness to Skullyville,the first payment center for
the Choctaw Tribe after the removal of 1830.
Pocola's ties to the Choctaw are evident from its
name: Pocola is a Choctaw word meaning "ten miles to
town". From Pocola, OK. to the gallows of the
"Hanging Judge" Isaac C. Parker, in downtown Fort
Smith, Arkansas is about ten miles. I believe Pocola
got its start due to being along the Old Texas Road,
which ran from Fort Smith, Arkansas to Fort Towson
on the boundary between the state of Texas and the
Choctaw Nation. Also the Butterfield Stage Route
ran on Pocola's northeastern side. The south part of
Pocola borders the Hackett, Bonanza and Sugarloaf
areas of South Sebastian County, Arkansas. The
Devil's Backbone Mountain cuts across southern
Pocola, lying in an east - west pattern. There is a
train tunnel running through this mountain, its
entrance, on the Arkansas side was known as Jensen
or "Little Hell on the Arkansas Border". Many
families followed the emigration pattern of leaving
Sebastian County and settling near Kully Chaha,
Rock Island, Cameron, Poker Bend, Panama, Bokoshe,
McCurtain and Dogtown in south Pocola.






Among my earliest family to settle here were Lovesy Rogers Lawson and her children, Poker Bend area, by 1880.

The John and Sarah Brown Lovell family were in Bokoshe, I.T.
by 1879.

Milton Bryant Dailey is first documented as being in the Pocola
area in 1889.

Other family lines I have residing in this area were the Harvey
and Mary Strong Lovett family, arriving in the McCurtain area
about 1900.

Mary Savilla Shaw and her three children by Harrison Blair.
After Harrison Blair's death, Mary married Samuel Robert
Tankersley, in 1891... Between 1892 and 1906, they had nine
children, many of these descendants still live in Dogtown, found
on the northside of Backbone Mountain, southwest corner of
Pocola.
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