Upcoming Events (Go to our Calendar for more Information)
outdoor mother of the bride dresses
GIDEON SMITH, SAM, THE AFRICAN, AND PETER SHOOT
Gideon Smith had been living in east Texas with his Father Nathan, and family, when he moved his own family here. He brought along Sam, a slave and friend since childhood. On the way to Fannin County, the party came across a slave trader having a slave tied to a tree to be punished for being unruly. Gideon stopped the process, told the trader that a man should not be treated that way, and bought the slave named "The African".
...After settling here, Gideon threw a big church wedding for Sam and a slave named Creelia. Later The African married Buliah. They had a large outdoor mother of the bride dresses party and the bride and groom jumped a broom, which the custom at the time.
One day the men all went hunting in Indian Territory. They saw an Indian hunting with a bow and arrow. Later Gideon shot a deer with his rifle. When they found the deer the Indian was getting ready to dress it. Gideon claimed the deer but so did the Indian, who kept saying "Peter Shoot" and making sign language with his bow. Gideon had the deer dressed and tied on a horse, all the time hearing, Peter Shoot, Peter Shoot, Peter Shoot. Gideon then told his men to tie Peter Shoot on a horse and that they would make a slave out of him because surely he had poached on Smith land at one time or another. He may have had a better life than than he had as a free Indian. Although the Smith Plantation joined the Indian Territory, Peter Shoot never left. The story comes down that the black ladies were quite fond of him and that he enjoyed the attention. I don't know what happened to Peter Shoot, but upon his death he was given a funeral that everyone attended. The African later went back and built a fence around his grave.
When Nathan Smith died, Gideon was given a letter that his father had left for him. It told of a love affair that he had had with Sam's mother and that Sam was his half Brother.
When the War For Southern Independence came, although too old, Gideon joined the Confederacy and achieved the rank of colonel. While he was gone for four years, Sam and The African floated cotton to New Orleans on large cedar rafts. The cotton and cedar were always sold for gold which Sam brought back and hid. Their passage was never challenged because of the orders the carried by them from Colonel Gideon Smith.
When the war was over, Gideon gave Sam several hundred acres and kept him on as his foreman. About half the slaves stayed on as sharecroppers continuing to work for Sam. Many of those that had left, unable to find jobs as promised by the Union League, returned to the plantation.
The African changed his name to Wilber when his first child was born, saying that The African just didn't sound like a daddy. Sam Smith, and some of the others, became prominent black men of the Siloam Community. Gideon Smith died on the plantation in 1891.
