WHAT'S YOUR STORY, DANNA?

 by Danna Shirley

My roots go back to the Choctaw Indian Nation and from there into the good old American soil of the south . . . Arkansas and Oklahoma.

My paternal grandmother, Augusta Victoria (Folsom) Goines “Gran,” was born February 8, 1901 in Wilburton, OK (Indian Territory). She was on the rolls of the Choctaw Nation at the age of two and was 3/16^th degree of Indian blood. Having Indian blood in 1865 earned the name half-breed or worse but by 1965 I was proud to claim Choctaw as my heritage. What a difference one hundred years can make. Because I could prove lineage through her, I was given a Certificate of Degree of Indian Blood as well.

Gran’s father, Frank Folsom, being of Indian descent, enrolled the family with the Dawes Commission on November 6, 1901. As an original enrollee of the Five Civilized Tribes (roll #6672, census card #2307), she was allocated 180 acres in the Bokoshe area, west of Spiro, OK. She later acquired the land of other family members but with difficult times, much of it was lost throughout the years to back taxes. With the exception of a 40-acre meadow, most of the land was of little value. The last 100 acres was sold at $14 an acre.

Gran’s father died in 1907 and her mother in 1910, leaving her an orphan at the age of nine, at which time she and her brothers went to live with her Uncle Lafayette and Aunt Myrtle Funk.

Gran was affectionately known as “Cassie” and was unaware of her real name until several years later when she enrolled in the Tuskahoma Academy for Girls. She met my grandfather, Everett Howard Goines “Big Pop,” while attending Flower Hill School and they were married on July 13, 1917 when she was just 16.

Gran and Big Pop had three sons: Howard Eurbie (my father) born February 26, 1921; Erel Theodore born July 21, 1923; and Carl Jerrell born January 15, 1926. All weighed in on Grandma Goines’ chicken scales at over nine pounds. 

Gran was a woman small in stature and extremely strong-willed. She liked to go places but took forever to get ready. If she asked for your opinion, you had to be prepared for her to choose just the opposite. Even with her independent nature and having been widowed for over 40 years, she never learned to drive.

Gran attended the Catholic Church while living with her aunt and uncle as this was the primary religion of her Polish ancestors. She became a Christian at an early age, joining the YWCA in 1915 in Tuskahoma. With each move she would join the church in that area.

Perhaps it was her dedication and love for the Lord that allowed her such a long, healthy life. At age 92 she still had all her teeth and used a hearing aid only sparingly. She was hospitalized only twice. The first time in 1958 when she slipped a disc in her back while hanging clothes on the line and again at age 91 when she had a buildup of fluid on her lungs. Gran died in 1994, just a few days after her 93^rd birthday.

I am proud to pass along this rich ancestry to my children and grandchildren and on down through many more generations.