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Governor Daugherty (Winchester) Colbert
and was reared and educated by that distinguished Chickasaw
leader. Chickasaw law offered no defined procedure relating to
such adoptions but the practice was not unusual among the Indians.
The communistic impulses of these simple folk inclined their hearts
to extend shelter, care and protection to the homeless of their race
irrespective of circumstances. He was invested with the family
name of Colbert his own father's name being employed as his
first name, but Darrity Colbert soon became Daugherty Colbert
occasioned not only by a similarity in the names but also probably
influenced by the fact that a near relative of Levi Colbert bore the
name of Daugherty Colbert. The name Winchester Colbert was
adopted by the young man some years later and so through life
he sometimes was recognized as Daugherty Colbert and at other
times as Winchester Colbert.
The scholastic training of young Daugherty Colbert began
with his attendance at Charity Hall,2 a Cumberland Presbyterian
Mission School near Cotton Gin Port. The years 1826-7 were spent
by him in Washington in the home of Thomas L. McKenney3 the
famous Indian Commissioner and compiler of Indian history, where
he received some preliminary training in land surveying. It was
a unique but valuable experience for the Indian lad. The interest
of McKenney continued after his return home and on March 17,
1828 the Commissioner writes to Levi Colbert, "I hereby write to
request that Daugherty may leave home in time to reach the
Choctaw Academy by the first of June." In this letter mention
also is made of his taking up a course in land surveying. Daugherty
Colbert enrolled as a student in the Choctaw Academy4 in Ken-
tucky, in 1828, his education being more or less directed by Thomas
L. McKenney.
Upon his return from school young Colbert engaged in farm-
ing and in 1837 came with one of the first Chickasaw removal
caravans to the old Indian Territory. He lingered for a brief period
in the vicinity of Doaksville and subsequently established himself
2 Carolyn Thomas Foreman, "Charity Hall," Chronicles of Oklahoma, Vol. XI,
pp. 912 et seq.
3 Thomas L. McKenney, Memoirs, Official and Personal (1846), pp. 158-9 and
163-6.
4 Carolyn Thomas Foreman, "Choctaw Academy," Chronicles of Oklahoma, Vol.
VI, pp. 453 et seq.; ibid Vol. IX, pp. 382 et seq. and ibid Vol. X, pp. 77 et seq.
349