Helen or Kingston, Which Came First?

In 1894 Jeff King built a school and a small church and established a post office on April 4th. It was 1 1/8th mile south and 3/4th of a mile west of the present Hwy 70 and Hwy 32 intersection. About 7 dwellings were built there and it became known as Kingston.

When the Frisco Railroad announced plans to build a railroad from Oakland to Woodville, J. Hamp Willis plotted a new town north of Kingston. The railroad would pass through the middle of the town. He named the town Helen in honor of his daughter Helen Robenia Willis. Helen's mother was Emma Harris and her grandfather was Raleigh Britton "Britt" Willis.

Since there was already a town in Indian Territory by the name of Helena, the Postal Department wouldn't grant Helen a post office.

Most of the people in Kingston moved to Helen and some moved their houses. The old Andrew Corder house at 2nd and Maytubby stood for over 100 years on the lot just across the street from where I live. Two rooms in that house were moved to Helen from Kingston and then added to. When James Hill tore that old house down it was obvious which rooms came from Helen.

The post office at Kingston moved to Helen, and Mr. Willis asked Frisco to change the name of the depot from Helen to Kingston.

Kerry Armstrong set out on a genealogy search in 1991. He visited the "Council House Museum" in Tishomingo, OK and discovered his great grandmother's diary. He obtained a copy of it and published it as "The Diary of Lottie (McLaughlin) Durham".

Kerry called upon Willis and Mary Jane (McCuan) Jones to help identify people when he annotated the diary. Mary Jane's father Ed McCuan, who married May Winn and was a barber in Woodville, is mentioned often within the journal entries. Mary Jane was a sister to Jack, Carter, and Dee. She weighed only one pound at birth and was for many years called Pixie Lou. In fact, she was identified by that name in the 1920 census.

When Kerry finished his work on the diary, he gave an autographed copy to Willis and Mary Jane. It read, "To Willis and Pixie Lou: Thanks for all your Hospitality, Help, and History. Your friend, Kerry. 4 June 1992."

After Willis Jones passed away, Mary Jane entrusted this copy of the diary to my care.

In the "Preface" of the diary, Kerry gives permission to share the content. He also requests, "I would ask that the reader or researcher use discretion when utilizing these passages."

Thank you, Kerry, for sharing this vast wealth of recorded dated history.

Lottie first mentions Helen on July 25, 1900: "new town called Hellen on the new railroad they are building." On December 8, 1900 she bought a meat chopper at the new town of Helen. That would indicated a store before 1901.

In a March 30, 1901 entry she wrote, "Went to Maddill by buggie, came back from Maddill and Oakland by Hellen." Her spelling left a little to be desired. Just as Madill only hasd one "d" in it, Helen had a single "l". Her last journal entry that mentioned Helen was December 24, 1902: "Berry came home this morning from Hellen."

On June 10, 1902 when Lottie was living in Tishomingo, she wrote: "On the 6th had a phone box put in the house."

Now let's leave Helen and travel to Woodville, where Lottie lived off and on for many years, and visit the past through some of her journal entries.

On November 29, 1900 (Thanksgiving Day), she wrote: "Artie and I was invited to eat dinner with Dr. And Mrs. Sullivan at old Woodville (Woodville No. 1). We went, had a nice dinner and a good time. Artie went back to new Woodville with the men after dinner."

February 10, 1901: "Went to see them la the railroad track in Woodville. (This would have been Woodville No. 2).

On June 6, 1901 Lottie rode the train from Woodville across the Washita River and got off at Grey's switch and took a buggy to Colbert.

South of where the railroad would later cross the Washita was the original site of Harney: named after Lyson Harney and given a post office November 8, 1881. This river valley contained some of the most fertile soil in the nation. Settlers flocked to the area, planting crops and establishing orchards. The people prospered, and lumber to build homes was brought from Denison, TX. The lumber crossed the Red River on the Thompson Ferry and was stored south of Harney, which was also referred to as Harneyville in a 1889 court document. Woodville was also mentioned in that same deposition as being about a half of a mile south of Harneyville.

A new settlement sprouted at the lumber storage site, fast outgrowing Harney. It was named Woodville in honor of W.W. Wood, a prominent Chickasaw. The post office for that area was awarded to Woodville on July 9, 1888. When the railroad was built around the turn of the century, a new town was built and the people in Woodville moved their homes and businesses to the new location.

The bottom-land soul underneath what is now Lake Texoma was considered by many to be the richest in America. The U.S. Government decided to inundated it with water, and forever destroy this Eden-type fertile delta. Lake Texoma was constructed for the sole purpose of flood prevention. Hydro-electric generation was included in the final version of the project to help get support for its passage. The main reason this vast resource of fertile farmland was lost forever concerned Bonham, Texas and those who lived there. Bonham was the home of Sam Rayburn, one of the most powerful politicians ever. When the Red River flooded, the bottom-land near Woodville flooded and so did near Bonham. When Lake Texoma was completed, Woodville was destroyed and Bonham was relieved of their flooding problems. It's not what you know, but who you know. We enjoy the lake today, but it came at a great price. My father, Arch McWilliams, lost his life in the construction of the railroad bridge. Six little kids lost their father. My grandfather, Moody McCuan, lost his farm and pecan orchard and his livelihood. The Corps of Engineers wanted it and they took it. It was called "involuntary conversion" and that pretty much described it.

Woodville No. 3 was established about 3 miles north of the lake and was called New Woodville. I started to school at New Woodville in a new brick building in 1944. The school faced to the north in the middle of the street that went to the east and west in front of the school. The superintendent's office was on the west side of the double door entryway. Adam Barnes was the superintendent and he also taught the top 4 grades. Two additional rooms were on that side, the 1st and 2nd grades met in one room and the 3rd and 4th met in the other. The auditorium was in the front on the east side and the 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th grades all shared the south half of the east side. The lunchroom was a separate building to the southwest some 100 feet, where my mother cooked.

Mother rode the bus with us kinds at New Woodville and when she got a job cooking for the Kingston School in the Fall of 1949 we moved to Kingston and all walked to school together.