Marion Co TOC

(Excerpt from Newspaper clipping - 50th Anniversary)

    "Elam Sulve McCracken Jr. was born in Marion county, Arkansas 11 Jan 1861, and his wife was born in the same county on 29 Mar 1870. Mrs. McCracken's maiden name was Mary Kathern King. The two, after a courtship, were married in the same county, 20 Jan 1888. They moved into a modest farmhouse where they resided until 1897, when the call of the wild Indian Territory was heard by the husband. He gathered all he possessed and started for this land of adventure with a train of prairie schooners.
    The train of pioneers left Yellville, Ark., on 10 Oct 1897 and arrived in Brooken, Indian Territory several weeks later. Here the couple lived a year and then moved westward to what is now Holdenville. In 1900 the couple moved to Eufaula where they resided for 21 years before moving to their present home in Canadian.
    According to McCracken, eking out a livelihood in the early days of the Indian Territory was no easy task. Farmers had no paved roads over which to carry cotton and corn or ready markets for the produce and crops harvested.
    McCracken gives his wife most credit for their existence in the early days. She cared for the milk cows, chickens and a fine garden.
    The couple, while pioneering the Indian Territory never neglected worship, and each Sunday made a trip of seven miles in a wagon to church." (bottom of clipping missing)

Elam Sulve McCracken Jr. b. 11 Jan 1861 in Marion Co AR, d. 23 Dec 1947 in Canadian, Pittsburg Co OK, son of Elam Sulve McCracken Sr. (1837-1912) & Mary Jane McCabe (1853-1904) who was the son of Elam G. W. McCracken (b ca 1800). Mary Catherine King b. 29 Mar 1870 in Marion Co AR d. 11 Aug 1951 in Eufaula, McIntosh Co OK, daughter of Robert W King (1822-1906) & Letha Jan Cantrell (1840-1923).

50th Wedding Anniversary Photo - 1938.