Red River Crossing

OKPRI: Case Files

Red River Crossing

Date: August 23, 2008
Stats: Quiet
Moon: 53% Full - 3rd quarter
Temperature: 87 degrees F.
Wind Speed & Direction: E. 1mph
Barometer: 30.05 decreasing
Humidity: 49%
Member’s Present: Christy, Roger, Joe, Lisa P, Dee, Kendall, LiLi, Chuck, Jiffy, Sheri and guest Christian with News 9

History:

Before this home was built, the land was part of Indian Territory and belonged to a man named Isaac Alberson. His Indian names are listed as: Uho-mah-mah and Sho-me-cha. He was born in 1780 and died in the fall of 1850. Historical records first mention him in the 1780's. He was half Cherokee but it is often thought that he was a Chickasaw as he lived with the Chickasaw people. At the time, Cherokee's were free to come into the tribe and marry. Isaac was married and had 2 sons by his first wife Lucy Gains but there is no record of her death. Later Isaac again married but this time to a Sallie Oxbury and later became chief of one of the four Chickasaw districts in Mississippi from 1815-1837. He explored west in 1828 and signed the 1830, 1832 and 1834 treaties. He was appointed to the Chickasaw Commission in 1834 until it was disbanded in July of 1845. During the Indian Removal act of 1837, he moved from Tennessee to Oklahoma (Indian Territory) with his wife Sallie and their 2 sons, Logan and Isaac Jr. They also moved with a young unknown female and thirteen slaves.

Their new location found them living in Colbert, Oklahoma where Isaac Alberson built his family a beautiful 2 story home. He assumed the role of Chickasaw Chief in the Colbert area District where he remained Chief until 1846. In 1847 the Alberson's are listed as having 27 slaves and 345 head of cattle. In 1848 Isaac attended the Constitutional Convention as Captain and in various documents he's referred to as Chief, Captain and Colonel. Isaac Alberson died at his home in Colbert in 1850 and funeral rites over his remains were performed in the home. He was president of his tribal counsel at the time of his death.

The Alberson-Collins House Beginnings and Events: 1844:

This old home is currently known as the "Oldest Occupied Home in Oklahoma. " Records show that it was built approximately 1844 by slaves, and that Sallie Alberson actually helped to build the house. The original owners of the home were Isaac and Sallie Alberson. the house is primarily a heavy log construction home and there are notations that it took two years for slaves to gather enough stone for the fireplace and large logs for the home. The small windows on the second story served as rifle placements against “marauding Plains Indians”. The main part of the original house consisted of two large rooms, each measuring eighteen by twenty feet, with a half-story above. The house is located south of Colbert on the old road leading to the Colbert Ferry. Old records list the house as “on the TX Road, also called the Butterfield Road, two miles north of Colbert’s Ferry”. This home has a long list of history which will be briefly noted below:

Sarah Potts (Collins) moved in with Sallie “at an early age”. Sallie and Sarah lived in the house alone with several slaves living “near by” on the property.

1850: Isaac Alberson dies in the house – funeral rites over his remains are given in the house. No record of where he is buried.

1866 - 1870:

Dan Collins and Sarah Potts were married Feb 11, 1866, and Dan moved into the house with his new wife, Sarah, and her aunt Sallie Alberson. They rode horseback twenty miles to what is now Yarnaby, OK, to be married. All their children were born and raised in the house. Daniel and Sarah Collins had eight children and raised them in this home. They also raised their nephew after the death of his parents. They are rumored to have adopted at least one other child. Their children are: Allie Collins, Georgia Ann Collins "Georgie," Rhoda Louise Collins, Myrtle Josephine Collins, Ben Carter Collins, Maude Collins, Daniel Hickiubby Collins, Charles H. Collins, Benjamin Franklin Collins (adopted.)

All children lived to be adults and lived to be elderly with the exception of Allie Collins which is listed as, "son, died at an early age, " and the cause of death "unknown."

In 1906 Ben Carter Collins died at the age of 31 because he was an Indian Territory Marshall Deputy and was ambushed on his way home. He was shot off his horse then fatally shot in the face with an 8 gage shotgun by a hit man in retribution for the shooting of a fugitive. He was shot in the front of his home and witnessed by his wife Hettie.

1896:

Sallie Alberson dies Sep 12, 1896. She wills the Alberson-Collins home to her niece, Sarah Collins. She is buried at Love Cemetery next to her sister, Rhoda.

1916:

Daniel and Sarah Collins were at home in Colbert on their 50^th wedding anniversary, when their large family showed up at the Collin’s Home for a surprise anniversary party. The event was covered by the Dallas Morning News, Durant Daily Democrat, and the Daily Oklahoman (who played host to the party), and was dubbed “The oldest inhabited house in Oklahoma”. Article states at this time, Dan and Sarah had 27 grandchildren and 11 great-grandchildren, and “at the present time (Collins) owns some eight or nine hundred acres of fine land situated around and near his present home”. Article featured two photos at the home.

1921: Daniel writes a will showing Sarah A Collins as the sole administrator of his entire estate. Daniel Collins Sr. dies on August 7, 1921, and is buried at Garden of Memory Cemetery. Grave stone has a Mason’s symbol. 1926: Sarah Collins dies Nov 27, 1926 and is buried at Garden of Memory Cemetery. She wills her home to her daughter, Maude Collins. Robert L Murray (husband of Rhoda Louise Collins-Murray “Louie”, who is Maude’s sister) files to become the executor of Sarah Collins’ estate and is granted on December 13, 1926. Robert Murray takes possession of the estate/home, but allows Maude to live there. 1958: Maude dies. She lived in the home from her birth until her death on July 29, 1958. No cause or location of death given, but she was said to have been in and out of the hospital the last few years of her life. Her niece, Minnie Murray Odom remains in home after Maude’s death, and the will showing Minnie owning the home is enforced. August 21, 1958, Myrtle McKinney (Minnie’s sister) files a lawsuit to have her mother’s will showing all five children sharing 1/5 interest of the estate, but does not win in court. 1961: Myrtle McKinney files an appeal to the previous lawsuit, but again does not win in court and Minnie Murray Odom remains the owner of the home. 1984: Minnie Murray Odom dies on November 17, 1984. Unknown if dies in home or hospital. Wanda Hale reports that she was sickly and went downhill quickly after a “dispute with neighbor over property”. She is buried in the Garden of Memory Cemetery. Minnie Murray Odom was a retired school teacher. According to her niece, Connie Collins Flood, she had no children and was not a “mean old woman”. Minnie Murray Odom leaves the home to her niece, Janice Tupper.

1985: The Collins house was purchased from Janice Tupper by H. Hale Hale and W. Hale

Slaves:
There are many records of Isaac and Sallie Alberson, and Rhoda Gunn-Potts having slaves. There are stories of the Alberson/Collins family treating their slaves well. In Indian Territory, black children were allowed to go to the Indian schools. The Collin's sent the slaves’ children to school, and a few of the "special" ones were even sent to college, paid for by the Collins family. Below are a list of the slaves that are historically documented.
• 1836 Historical Records show Sallie’s father “bequeaths to his daughter, Sallie Alberson, one negro girl, called Patience.”
• 1837 Census shows Isaac and Sallie Alberson during “the Removal” travelling with 13 slaves
• 1847 Census shows Isaac and Sallie Alberson to have 27 slaves
• 1860 Census shows Sallie Alberson to have 22 slaves, ages 64 – 2, housed in three slave houses (see two documents below)
• 1893 – Final Rolls of Citizens and Freedmen of the Five Civilized Tribes in Indian Territory shows two slaves/freedmen of Sarah (Sallie) Alberson: Viola, female, 9 years and Tom, male, 81 years
• 1893 – Final Rolls of Citizens and Freedmen of the Five Civilized Tribes in Indian Territory also shows twenty-five slaves/freedmen of Rhoda Gunn – this was after her death, so it is presumed that these slaves moved to the Alberson-Collins property when Rhoda moved to the property: Ben, male, no age; Bert, male, 14 years; Betsey, female, no age; Corine, female, 6 years; Culberson, male, no age; Dora, female, 8 years; Hattie, female, 38 years; Isaac, male, no age; Jason, male, no age; Katie, female, 11 years; Kitsey, female, no age; Lige, male, no age; Linda, female, 4 years; Logan, male, no age; Lucy Gaines, female, no age; Mary, female, 16 years; Milly, female, 71 years; Nellie, female, no age; Pete, male, no age; Peter, male, no age; Samuel Dovy, female, 1 year; Simon, male, 18 years; Sue, female, no age; Wilburn, male, no age; Willie, male, no age
• 1893 – Final Rolls of Citizens and Freedmen of the Five Civilized Tribes in Indian Territory list four slaves to the Potts. It is very likely these slaves were owned by JB Potts, which would mean they were inherited by Rhoda Gunn-Potts and possibly would of moved to the Alberson-Collins property when Rhoda moved to the property. They are: Lucy, female, 28 years; Myrtle, female, 4 years; Sylvester, male, 7 years; Willie, male, 6 years
• 1902 – Indian enrollment hearing shows Sallie Alberson as listed as owning a slave named Miss Lily Cole (Sallie died in 1896 – perhaps this was also a provision of the will she left to Sarah Collins?)

A ledger hand-titled “Dan Collins Farm Records – 1899” has a section titled “Paid Hired Help”. It is believed the Collins’ treated their slaves well, and that when they were considered “Freedmen” some chose to stay at the Collins’ home as hired help. Listed in this column are: Charlie Brown; Henry Mitchell (confirmed – hired hand/not slave – see article below); J.R. Nowl; Joe Davis – listed as a “Cotton Grant”; Mike Barren; Milus Jackson; Mr. Haines; Mr. Hill; Old Man Dean – listed for “supplies - corn, socks, etc.”;
Sam Childress; Sam Watson. It is unknown if any of these people were actually slaves of the Alberson-Collins family, but several of these men are known to Connie Collins-Flood (descendant) to be very old black males that have lived in Colbert.

The Red River Floods and Deaths:

The Red River was a major factor for life back then but it was also very dangerous during the times when it flooded. The Red River at this location has numerous notations in records stating that cattle drivers were killed crossing the river prior to the start of the Colbert Ferry. Major floods at this location of the Red River are notated in 1848, 1874, 1908, and 1990. A railroad bridge (Katy Bridge) and a wagon bridge was built in 1873 to cross the Red River, but both were washed away by a flood only 11 months later in 1874. (*Note: Colbert 1845-1982 lists the bridge as being completed in 1875 and flood occurring in 1876 – but all other accounts list the 1873-1874 dates.) It was rebuilt in 1892, but floods took out both bridges again in 1908. The flood of 1908 also took the lives of 14 people (no record of who these people are). It was rebuilt again in 1915.

On July 22, 1898 there was a suspicious drowning at this location. Walter Carr was last seen in the company of two strangers who were prospecting. He was found the following day, having drowned in the Red River, and the two strangers had disappeared.

The Well

This property was well known back in the 1800's and early 1900's due to the well that was located on the property. It is said that the well was owned by Sallie Alberson and was a stop on the Butterfield Trail Stagecoach Line which was the last fresh water stop in Oklahoma until Basin Springs, Texas. This well was also said to be a place where many robberies took place and that there were many valuables that were thrown down the well in order to keep them from being taken. John Collins was also said to have been shot and killed near the well. The well was also the site of tragic deaths such as reported in the 1888 in the Purcell Register on January 14, 1888. It states: “Jan. 10. MRS. LOUIS DEVAULT, three miles north of Denison on Red River, threw her seven months old child into a well last night and killed it.” The well on the Alberson property was recorded as the last well before reaching TX during the time of the civil war. Very possibly it was the same well."

The Homeowner's Experiences:

The current homeowners have been living in the home for the past 20 years and have been experiencing things off and on for years but more in the last year. Their paranormal experiences range from a variety of activity and are reported by homeowners as:

The family hears knocking on their doors and the doors are sometimes found open when previously shut and locked. They have witnessed their TV turning on by itself and have witnessed clothes hangers moving across the floor on their own. One evening
the homeowners shut the kitchen door and turned the light off but the next morning the door was found open, the light on, and honey buns were found scattered all over the kitchen. One of the residents of the home was in her bedroom changing and left only to return 10 minutes later to find a picture of the house with a man in it along with his name and the date of June 1963 - the picture had never been seen before. One day the homeowner baked a cake and had left the oven door open to cool. The cake was sitting on top the stove when she left the kitchen. When she came back 15 minutes later, she found the cake flipped upside down. Oone evening while talking about the history of the house, the homeowners reported hearing what sounded like church bells or chimes – have been heard around 11:15 p.m. several times. There has been many instances where the homeowners have smelled cologne throughout the house and they have seen shadows passing through various parts of the home. Things seem to mysteriously get moved or knocked off of shelves or counters. One of the female residents reported feeling touched and all homeowners reported hearing audible voices throughout the home. One of the more frightening experiences for this family was one night when the female homeowners was awakened by an unknown presence and when she looked down the hallway, she saw a shadow walking back and forth in the hallway.

The Investigation:

Our group arrived at this location and began our initial walk-thru of this home. Areas of activity were shown to the lead researcher on this case as well as to the case managers. We had our guest reporter Christian Price with us and he began doing interviews with the homeowners. Upon the walk through of the home, one of the investigators (Roger) captured a strange photograph of a light anomaly over the shoulder of the male homeowner. This light anomaly did not show up in the secondary photography which was taken for a comparison. After the walk through, the team discussed the strange photograph and the things that were noted during the walk through and the team was split up into 2 different teams. Team one began their investigation in the home and noticed that the house seemed to be quite active. In the kitchen area of the home, 2 of the investigators were standing by the dining room table when they heard an audible "hey" in between them. Their audio recorders picked up the recording.

Another strange audio recording that was picked up whenever the team was upstairs in one of the bedrooms. We picked up both on video and on audio a voice that said, "Don't leave, don't leave." The video clip also shows this same instance with the same voice. Upstairs in this same room another team heard footsteps audibly coming up the stairs and they were able to record these on audio. "Audio clip of footsteps on stairs." There was only way way up into this room and one way down and there were no one on the stairs at the time this was recorded.

A couple of our team members felt like they were touched and one of the strangest things that happened was to the reporter, Christian Price who was with us. Christian happened to be filming us conducting our investigation in the downstairs master bedroom when he experienced something he had a hard time logically explaining. As he was filming, he suddenly we all saw him lunge forward as if he had been pushed really hard. This caught him off guard and you could tell that he was a bit stunned. It also took him a couple of minutes to realize what had just happened to him. After we saw him pushed, we offered to take the camera for him and film his reaction. It did seem to shake him up quite a bit and he felt like he needed to step outside for a while. He stated that this incident was the first time he had actually been physically touched and so it was a bit different for him and he wasn't sure how to react to it. He did however state that it made him more curious about the paranormal and he definitely wanted to keep studying it.

When team 1 was on break, there were a couple of interesting evp's recorded. Both of them sound like they are from a woman and from listening to the audio, it does appear that she was watching us quite intensively. These 2 evp's picked up her voice saying, "What the hell, what are you doing?" and then another one that says, "His pants are off!"

Later on during the sit-sown in the master bedroom, we recorded a light anomaly over the male homeowner's shoulder. We also recorded one evp which was a male's voice saying what sounded like, "Aw ma" as if in response to the conversation and if he were a bit frustrated for not being acknowledged. The sit-down did seem really quiet however and we couldn't help but think that perhaps the entities there were a bit tired after the long night.

Psychic Investigator's Comments:
- Christy Selfridge -

This investigation was unusual because it was like I was stepping back in time but yet I was also seeing it in the present. I felt like there were many spirits on the land that were unhappy with the way the home and property had been taken care of through the years and I especially felt it aimed more towards the land since it had become so divided. When I saw the land, I saw acreage upon acreage with fields and openness but now the property was divided into down into just a small acreage with the home on top of it. I also had the feeling that off to the left side of the home there were other buildings which housed slaves but I did not feel a hostility between the original slave owners and the slaves themselves. In fact I caught a glimpse of a little slave boy around the age of 6 on the home's side slanted roof top looking in the window and calling out to his friend to come and play. It was confirmed that the Collins family had at one time, owned slaves which they treated very well. I also felt like there were other buildings that were present on this property that had long been removed but there were still energy imprints from them.

Another interesting thing I picked up while walking the property was an old well that I felt was an important part of the land. It felt to me like the well was no longer in use and now covered but I knew at one time it had great significance. I felt like at one time it was a gathering place for many and I also felt like there were valuables that had been thrown down the well. Our researchers found that there was written documentation which thought that many people who had stopped at this well were often at risk for being robbed so many people had thrown valuables such as coin money and jewelry down the well to keep from being robbed and their plan was to later return and retrieve their items from out of the well.

I also felt like there was a young infant that had been thrown in the well by its mother which resulted in its death. Although this seemed extremely odd, my vision was correlated with a news article that our researcher found which stated that on Jan. 10, 1888 MRS. LOUIS DEVAULT, three miles north of Denison on Red River, threw her seven months old child into a well last night and killed it.” The well on the Alberson property was recorded as the last well before reaching TX during the time of the civil war. Very possibly it was the same well."

I also felt like there were some disturbances at the well in the way of injuries and death. I saw a struggle at the well and saw a man shot. I felt like this man's name was John or Jonathan. Later we learned that a relative of the Collins named John Collins was indeed engaged in a fight and he was shot and killed.

I felt a great significance with the Red River as well. I felt like there had been many death caused there at the river and many of these had to do with those who had tried crossing the river. I also felt like there had been a big flood that took place many years back which resulted in quite a few deaths. Our researchers were able to uncover that in 1908 there had been a large flood which resulted in may deaths.

On a more personal note and one that I will not divulge in details due to the confidentiality of the homeowners, but I picked up on 5 total children but 3 of these children, one male and two females that had not crossed but more so were earthbound. I felt like the male had died by a type of fire, one female by health issues and one female by One of the females seemed very connected to the father and seemed to be concerned about his diet. I also felt like this female felt very responsible for her father and that she needed to be around him to help him. I also felt like there was a big emphasis on time and that time was very important to them, almost like time was running out for a personal reason. Our researchers were able to uncover information about this family which correlated with my psychic impressions. There had indeed been a total of 5 children, all who died of the causes that I had stated. Our researchers were also able to find out additional correlating information about this family however due to confidentiality, it will not be posted here.

Overall I loved this investigation because the home and land seemed to have a lot of history and it was really a lot to take in. I firmly believe that this location is haunted and I was glad that we were given a chance to investigate it. I would like to thank the homeowners of this location for allowing us to come out and help them with this case.

Evidence Collected

Photographs:

There was 1 positive photographs from this location

Video:

A collection of different video clips were recorded for this location

Red River Crossing Video Clip

Evp:

There were 6 evps recorded from this investigation.

"Aw Maa"
"Don't leave, don't leave"
"Help"
"His pants are off"
"What the hell, what are you doing?"