obtained at this time.
The portraits of the ministers and older elders of the neighboring
churches have been added to these, to increase its general interest and
value.

In as much as Oak Hill Industrial Academy was intended to supply the
special educational needs of the young people in the circuit of churches
ministered to by Parson Charles W. Stewart, the pioneer preacher of the
Choctaw Freedmen, and faithful founder of most of the churches in the
Presbytery of Kiamichi, a memorial sketch of this worthy soldier of the
cross has been added, that the young people of the present and future
generations may catch the inspiration of his heroic missionary spirit.

"All who labor wield a mighty power;
The glorious privilege to do
Is man's most noble dower."

The ministers of the neighboring churches, in recent years, have been so
helpfully identified with the work of the Academy, as special lecturers
and assistants on decision days, and on the first and last days of the
school terms, they seem to have been members of the Oak Hill Family. The
story of the Academy would not be complete, without a recognition of
them and their good work. This recognition has been very gratefully
accorded in a brief history of the Presbytery of Kiamichi and of the
Synod of Canadian.

The period of service rendered by the author, as superintendent of the
Academy from the beginning of 1905 to the end of 1912, eight years, was
one of important transitions in the material development of Indian
Territory.

The allotment of lands in severalty to the Indians and Freedmen was
completed in 1905, and the Territorial government was transformed into
one of statehood on Jan. 1, 1908. The progress of their civilization,
that made it possible for the Indians in the Territory to become owners
and occupants of their own homes, supporters of their own schools and
churches and to be invested with all the powers and duties of
citizenship, is briefly reviewed in the introductory chapters.

The author has endeavored to make this volume one easily read and
understood by the Choctaw Freedmen, in whose homes it is expected to
find a place, and be read with interest and profit many years.

He has done what he could to enable as many of you as possible to leave
the impress of your personality on the world, when your feet no longer
move, your hands no longer build and your lips no longer utter your
sentiments.

The hope is indulged that every pupi