Durant, Oklahoma, Who Knew?

The name Durant, of French in origin, goes back to the 13th century. Frenchmen transported the Durant surname to North America as early as the 17th century and used the spelling of DuRant. (3) Other known French surnames associated with marrying Choctaws of the Mississippi Valley are Battiest, Ferrante, Colbert (Col-bear), LeFlore, Moncrief, Dearmour, DuFord, and DuEr.

Louis: In the Mississippi Yazoo Valley

Louis Durant, a French Canadian, moved to the Choctaw Nation of the Mississippi Valley with brothers Louis and Michael DeFlore around the year 1770. (1, 4) Louis Durant worked as a Cour Du Bois, or in English, as a woodsman, trapper, and trader. He settled in the Yazzo Valley (spelled Yazoo Valley today). (2)

The Choctaw Nation adopted Louis into the Hanaka Iska Clan. The Choctaws respected Louis for his honesty and helping them fight against white settlements that encircled their native Choctaw lands. (2) Louis married a full-blooded Choctaw named Sheniyah (She Ni Yak or She Ni Yaw), the daughter of a man named Hanak. The Choctaws thought of her as a rose among forest flowers. (2, 8) Louis and Sheniyah had ten children. One of his son’s, Pierre, and his children lived on to create important Durant, Oklahoma, history.

In 1775, Louis bought some cows and a bull. The Choctaw Nation of the Mississippi Valley had not seen cattle before this time. The new species of animals fascinated the Choctaws, and eventually, Choctaw women became the recognized owners of the cattle. (2, 7)

During the War of 1812 in the year 1814, Louis Durant and his sons joined up to serve. Captain Louis Durant served under Chief Pushmataha for General Andrew Jackson. He fought in the battle of New Orleans. Louis also served on a campaign to Pensicola (as spelled in 1814) under the command of Major Uriah Blue in 1814. (5) After the war, everyone called him Captain Durant for the rest of his life. (2, 9)

Louis Durant created a Durant Family Seal. It pictured four arrows that represented Louis and three of his sons that means family, strength, and unity along with a tepee that signifies home, love, and happiness. (2, 3)

Louis participated in and was compensated for his work in the 1826 treaty negotiations of the refusal of the Choctaw and the Chickasaw Nations to give up more land to the U.S. and move west of the Mississippi River. (10) The 1826 Treaty gave way to the 1830 Dancing Rabbit Creek Treaty that ceded land to the U.S. and moved the Choctaw Nation west of the Mississippi which led to the Trail of Tears and the birth of Indian Nation. (12) During this time in the Choctaw history, settlers from the eastern U.S. moved in and took over their native lands and homesteads of those who had been forced to move west.

Randle Durant or possibly Charles Durant recorded that:

“Louis Durant was so named in the Treaty and given a reservation of land in Mississippi. His sons and sons-in-law registered as wishing to remain in Mississippi on the Big Black River in July of 1831”. (2)

The Durant family along with 7,000 other Choctaw people refused to leave. The new settlers created strife and chaos for those families up until 1843. At that point, the U.S. tried to persuade Chief Nitakechi of the Pushmataha District to move his Nation to Indian Territory. U.S. officials promised that the Choctaws could live without white man’s interference on rich land with abundant game in Indian Territory. (2)

Pierre: After the Trail of Tears

By this time, Louis was elderly and his son, Pierre, acted as head the Durant family and its business. Pierre was born in 1780 in Mississippi Territory, and he married a Choctaw woman named Rachel. The harassment of the settlers and the mistreatment by the U.S. Government finally pushed the Durant family to load up eight wagons in December of 1844 and travel the Trail of Tears to Indian Territory. Louis carved his family seal into his wagons to identify them on this trip. (2)

The Durants traveled overland to north of Vicksburg, Mississippi, and boarded the Steamboat “Erin” on the Mississippi River to the Arkansas River to Fort Coffee. According to the immigration rolls, the Pierre Durant party arrived in Indian Territory with Louis on March 20, 1845. The Durant siblings settled in several different regions of Indian Territory, but Pierre’s son, Fisher Durant, and family, settled two miles south of where the City of Durant lies today. * (2)

Fisher: His Station

Fisher’s birthdate is unknown, but he was born in Attala, Mississippi, and he was an adult when he arrived in Indian Territory. He married a woman named Peggy and they had three children, Jessee, Dixon David, and Bissant. (14) The Indian Territory communities held a high respect for Fisher Durant’s family.

Fisher Durant operated a stage outpost called both Fisher’s Station and Carriage Point where the Butterfield Stage came through with the mail. It was located at the head of Island Bayou, a 46-mile-long tributary of the Red River, and formed the dividing line between the Choctaw and Chickasaw Nations. Today, Fisher’s Station Road, aka N3686 Road, runs south off of SH 70 between Mead and Durant just a few miles east of Lake Texoma. (15)

The National Register of Historic Places added Fisher’s Station in 1972 as #72001058. Facebook lists a Fisher’s Station Page which states: This unofficial Page was created because people on Facebook have shown interest in this place or business. It's not affiliated with or endorsed by anyone associated with Fisher's Station.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Fishers-Station/103752979663143

Dixon: Known For, BUT!

Dixon David Durant was born in March 1809, in Black River, Mississippi, and died April 1906, in Durant, Oklahoma. He led a long life with a golden historical legacy behind him and more legacy to come. He married six times and fathered eight children. (16)

Dixon is considered the founder of Durant, Oklahoma, and is known for several pastorates, the establishment of the first building in Durant in 1873 that sold general merchandise, and naming the present day town Durant Station. (13, 15, 17)**

The REAL Dixon David Durant

Dixon’s beginnings toward his successful life are told in an old treasure trove book of stories called Leaders and Leading Men of the Indian Territory. A missionary named Silas Kingsbury was conducting a good, old-fashioned camp meeting that Dixon, age 14, was attending. Jonathon Dwight, Choctaw interpreter, converted the young Dixon to Christianity with John 3:14. Dixon vowed to learn the English language in order to discover the mystery of Christ.

Dixon left his new homeland and traveled through the United States working on farms for three years until he had a good command of the English language and a general knowledge of Biblical scriptures. When Dixon returned to Fisher’s Prairie with an ax and camping gear, he married an orphan girl named Kate (Kitty) Harney and became a farmer.

He became an ordained preacher in the Presbyterian Church from 1868 to 1885 and then joined the Congregationalists. In 1889 and 1890 he went to southeastern Texas to preach to the Alabama Indians. For 22 years, he devoted the profits from his farm to traveling among people who needed the word of God.

During the Civil War, Dixon served in the Choctaw Brigade under Colonel Walker and fought at Leutonia, both battles of Cabin Creek, and at Camden, Arkansas. A shell wound during the war caused him to limp and restricted him from heavy labor for the rest of his life. (18, 19)***

*Pierre died near present-day Hugo, Oklahoma, in Indian Territory.

**Fisher Durant is buried in The Pioneer Cemetery along with his family and son, Dixon Durant. (15)

***This account was published when Dixon was 82. Silas Kingbury was later adopted by the Choctaw Tribe.

Pictures

1. Dixon Family Portrait: Dixon Durant, top center. Mollie Durant, on Dixon’s right. Melvina, on Mollie’s right. John Wesley, front center. Fannie, on Dixon’s left. Mattie, on Fannie’s left.

2. Fisher Durant's Log Cabin and Dixon Durant marker at the park named for him in Durant at N 10th Ave, Durant, OK.

3. Fisher Durant’s headstone.

4. Dixon Durant’s headstone

5. Trail of Tears routes.

Sources

1. Cushman, Horatio Bardwell. History of the Choctaw, Chickasaw and Natchez Indians. Greenville, TX: Headlight Printing House, 1899.
In compliance with current copyright laws, U. C. (University of California) Library Bindery produced this replacement volume that meets the ANSI standard, 1984, to replace the irreparably deteriorated orginal, 1993.

2. Randle Durant Foot Steps of the Durant Choctaws
https://www.geni.com/people/Louis-Durant-Captain/6000000006836682604 Accessed April 20, 2018

3. Mulligan, James C., L. David Norris, and Ann Vanmeter. Durant, 1872-1990. OK: Bryan County Heritage Association, 1990.
Original from, the University of Wisconsin Madison. Digitized, May 18, 2010

4. McCreary, Henry. A Story of Durant, "Queen of Three Valleys. Madison, WI: Democrat Printing, 1946.

5. National Archives: https://www.archives.gov/research/military

https://www.archives.gov/research/military/war-of-1812

(Still working on an exact page)

6. Martini, Don. Who Was Who among the Southern Indians: A Genealogical Notebook, 1698-1907. Carrollton, MS: Pioneer Pub, 1998.

7. https://muse.jhu.edu/article/16100/pdf Accessed April 20, 2018

8. https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Durant-15 Accessed April 20, 2018 

9. https://www.ancestry.com/boards/thread.aspx?mv=flat&m=798&p=localities.northam.usa.states.mississippi.counties.holmes Accessed April 20, 2018

10. https://www.choctawnation.com/history-culture/history/government-treaties Accessed April 20, 2018

11.
https://www.choctawnation.com/sites/default/files/2015/09/29/1826_Refusal_of_Chickasaws_and_Choctaws_original.pdf Accessed April 20, 2018

12.https://www.choctawnation.com/sites/default/files/2015/09/29/1826_Refusal_of_Chickasaws_and_Choctaws_original.pdf Accessed April 20, 2018

13. https://www.durant.org/243/History-of-Durant Accessed April 20, 2018

14. https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Durant-22 Accessed April 20, 2018

15. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/41228658/fisher-durant Accessed April 20, 2018

16. https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Durant-32 Accessed April 20, 2018

17. http://www.okhistory.org/publications/enc/entry.php?entry=DU010 Accessed April 20, 2018

18. This is a free Google Book, but I found a hardcover on Amazon for $647.00

O'Beirne, Harry F., Theodore Gross, and Laura S. Gross. Leaders and Leading Men of the Indian Territory: With Interesting Biographical Sketches. I. Choctaws and Chickasaws: With a Brief History of Each Tribe, Its Laws, Customs, Superstitions and Religious Beliefs. Vol. 1. Hartford, CT: American Publishers' Association, 1891.

https://books.google.com/books?id=unAwAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA31&lpg=PR1&focus=viewport&dq=Dixon+David+Durant+Choctaw+History&output=text
Accessed April 20, 2018

19. http://www.okhistory.org/sites/cabincreek Accessed April 20, 2018