- Mrs. Adaline Orcutt, 106, a pioneer county resident, died Thursday night, March 2, 1972, in Wagoner Hospital. She had made her home in Coweta for about 40 years, but had been in Ross Nursing home, Wagoner, Oklahoma, for the last five years. Mrs. Orcutt was born in Indian Territory, on December 25, 1865, at Choska, a Creek Indian settlement south of Coweta. She was the daughter of Alvin Twitworth Hodge and Mary Jane Burgess. Her father was an early-day farmer and judge. He once owned a large part of the land on which the city of Tulsa was founded. She married, Col. A. D. Orcutt, a rancher and later a member of the first Oklahoma State Legislature, shortly before her 18th birthday. They moved to the Tulsa area before it was a town and the Orcutt cattle water hole was located at what is now Swan Lake, at 18th Street and Utica Avenue. It was known for years as Orcutt Lake. Mrs. Orcutt often told friends that "Tulsa was Papa's farm." Her mother was a full-blood Creek Indian and her Creek allotment included the site later known as the Barton Showground, at Admiral Boulevard and Trenton Avenue in Tulsa. Mrs. Orcutt learned three Indian languages as a girl and often served as an interpreter for the Rev. Robert Loughridge, the first missionary in the Creek Nation. She often recalled to friends, a trip she, the missionary, and his wife made by horse and wagon to Carlisle, Pennsylvania, on business. Recalling her early days, she remembered, "When the people poured in from Kansas, drawn by the ads in newspapers telling them they could buy land for next to nothing. When they got here, they didn't find the cheap land and they didn't find much to eat. So Papa killed 13 hogs and gave the meat to them." Mrs. Orcutt also is survived by a brother, David Hodge, who resides in California. She was the mother of Guy Orcutt and Mrs. Pearlie Backward, both of Claremore and former Tulsa residents. Funeral services were held at 2 p.m. Monday, March 6, at the Mallett Funeral Home, with Rev. James L. Moore officiating. Burial was in Vernon Cemetery, Coweta, Oklahoma. Mrs. Orcutt was famous for her humor around the Ross Nursing Home right up to her final days.
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1866 - 1972 (105 years)
