Orran Oscar BURT

     Orran Oscar BURT, son of John William BURT and Sarah Ann Amanda CAFFEE, was born on 1 January 1858 in Coosa County, Alabama.¹

Orran Oscar BURT appeared on a census, enumerated 10 July 1860, in the household of his parents John William BURT and Sarah Ann Amanda CAFFEE in Mt. Olive, Coosa County, Alabama. He was recorded aa Oran O. Burt, age 3, born Alabama.

Orran Oscar BURT moved with Stephen Evan BURT and Minerva Ann BURT from Arkansas to Texas some time in1872. They lived in several areas of eastern and northern Texas between 1872 and 1886. The last place in Texas they lived was near Denton.

In about 1886, during the winter, the family migrated north into Indian Territory.²

Sue Burns in her blog "Keeper of the Dead" writes that when the families came north, they did so in the middle of the winter and rode right across the Red River as it was frozen over that year. Apparently it was a very harsh winter. They traveled with a herd of cattle when they moved north, and that they also had covered wagons for the journey. She said that the families settled first just north of what is now Velma, Oklahoma where they stayed in a “half-dugout” shelter. Later on, (by at the latest, 1888 or so) the family moved farther north, to an area near modern day Rush Springs, in Grady County.

Around 1890, Evan and Orran went to work for a Mr. Lynch B. Cochran who was married to an Indian lady and who owned land in I.T. just south of where Cox City, Oklahoma is today. On a hill on the west side of a creek that runs into Rush Creek, Evan and Orran built a store for Mr. Cochran. The settlement there was known for years as Burt, I.T. and there was a post office in the store from about 1890-1892. Mr. Cochran was the postmaster. Some printed sources confirm that the town of Burt was named after “the Burt boys, Evan and Iron” who were carpenters in the area. The hill where the store once stood is known to the old timers’ here as “Burt Mountain.”.²

Orran Oscar BURT died on 21 January 1943 in Rush Springs, Grady County, Oklahoma, at age 85. He was buried in Rush Springs Cemetery.