Roye Family, Edwin and Indiana

"Edwin and Indiana Roye moved to Haskell County to the Rucker community from Pontotoc County, Mississippi. Later they moved to the Rose Hill community, although the country-side was ideal for its rich land and beauty, the malaria-carrying mosquito brought ill health to the family there and caused them to move to the Stigler area. During the first days of January, 1916, in the bitter weather, they moved to the Anderson place. Within two weeks of their arrival, Edwin became critically ill with swamp fever or malaria. He died January 12, 1916. He was taken by wagon to Stigler and on to Miss. by train, accompanied by undertaker Mr. Mallory. He was laid to rest in Old Pleasant Grove Cemetery in Pontotoc, Miss. near the grave of his father.

"Henry, the oldest son, then eighteen, pleaded with his mother to remain in Haskell County. He had fallen in love with a local girl, Pearl Amos. However, Indiana longed to return to her native Mississippi.

"Indiana's brother-in-law, Ben Johnson, had come to Oklahoma and offered her and her children his land in Mississippi to farm and helped them to secure a house to live in. Indiana and her sons sold all they had except the farm in Rose Hill and left for Mississippi. It was a very bad experience for the widow and six children. They farmed that first year with Ben Johnson in Chiwapa bottom, a part of the land that had belonged to Indiana's father.

"Being the eldest son, Henry was looked on as the man of the house. The relatives helped out with the farming. An uncle loaned him a team of oxen named Nig and Log. The oxen ate 75 ears of corn in one meal. Henry returned to Oklahoma in Nov. 1916 and married the Oklahoma girl he had fallen in love with. Indiana, Anna Ruth, Thelma, and Thelma's family went to Oklahoma to visit Henry's family in 1928. Henry's family was ill with influenza when they arrived. Indiana, who had been frail most of her life, told them that if she contacted the disease, she would surely die.

"The weather was cold and threatening snow when they were ready to leave for Missouri, Thelma's home state. They went to Stigler to spend the night in a hotel, Indiana's room was not heated and by morning, she was unable to travel. Not realizing the seriousness of her illness, they left her at Vas's and continued their trip. A few days later, January 8, 1929, Indiana died of Pneumonia at Vas's home in Stigler, the same town where Edwin had died 13 years earlier. Henry still very ill himself was wrapped in quilts and carried to Stigler to view the body of his mother before they left for her native state by train with undertaker Mallory accompanying the body, the same as with her husband, Edwin 13 years earlier. She was placed beside her husband, Edwin, in Pleasant Grove Cemetery in Mississippi.

"Edwin and Indiana's children are, Henry, Charley, E. J., Ruth, Thelma, and Mae. Charley and Mae are deceased. Henry lives on the Rose Hill farm his father purchased about 1915. E. J. lives in Pontotoc, Mississippi. Ruth lives in Peoria, Ill., and Thelma lives in Missouri."