Honorable Edmund McCurtain

b. 4 Jun 1842 at Fort Coffee, Indian Territory (Oklahoma)
d. 4 Nov 1890 at Scullyville, Indian Terriory (Oklahoma)

Conflicts with location of birth listed on monument. He was the son of Cornelius McCurtain and Mahayia Nelson Belvin, granddaughter of Sho-ma-ka.

He attended neighborhood schools until age 17. He served as an officer in the Confederate Army under his brother, Captain Jackson McCurtain. After his service, he established a home at Sans Bois, in present Haskell County Oklahoma.

He married Susan King in 1862, and after her death, married Harriet Austin in 1876. In 1879, after the death of Harriet, he married Clarissa LeFlore, and finnaly married Lucy Webster in 1881.

His children from these wives are Pauline, Kitty, Jennie, with Susan, George with Clarissa and Louisa with Lucy.

His life was devoted to the service of the Choctaw people, whom he served as Judge, Superintendant of Education, Principal Chief, and Senator.

He filled every office of honor or trust in the gift of the people, from Representative to Principal Chief. He was also a Delegate in Washington for 4 years. One half his life was spent in the service of his country and during all this time his actions were governed by as pure a patriotism as the Choctaws will ever know. While Superintendent of Schools he sowed the seeds of Education among his people that still blossom and bear fruit as long as his Nation shall stand. He deserves above all others to be called The Friend of His People. He was kind and generous as the brave only can be. When the years have come and gone and the Choctaws shall be few, this stone shall mark the place of one of the purest, bravest, and most patriotic sons of that Nation. If there be a place where the kind, the noble, and the honest, shall rest when life is ended, he will enjoy its happiness because he made so many happy on this earth.

The eloquent epitaph written above is inscribed in beautiful script on the monument of Chief Edmund McCurtain. The monument is a century old, and the white marble is beginning to show the ravages of acid rain. A dignified wrought-iron fence encloses the graves of Chief McCurtain, his brother David McCurtain, his brother Robert McCurtain, three nieces, Jo Anna McCurtain LeFlore, David McCurtain Hartshorne and Hearts Delight Riddle, and other McCurtain relatives erected by his niece David Cornelia McCurtain Hartshorne.

He died at Skullyville, while en route to his home at Sans Bois from attendance at a meeting of the national council, on November 9, 1890 and is buried there where his grave is carefully marked.