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Near the end of the French Revolution, as social turmoil in the nation deepened and threats upon the lives of those in certain quarters of French society loomed, one family with the surname of Victor decided to send three young brothers to a safer haven across the Atlantic to New Orleans, Louisiana. These brothers were John, Sylvester, and Sebastian Victor. They settled in an area known as Old Frenchtown, Louisiana.1 Not long after settling in Old Frenchtown, the three brothers formed a trading business partnership. Their focus was the Indian trade, which caused the Victor brothers to relocate their enterprise closer to more powerful tribes deeper in the interior of North America. They eventually settled in current-day Mississippi, in what was known as the Apuckshunnubbee district of the Choctaw. The oldest brother, John Victor, would marry a Choctaw woman named Ellen (Foster) Pusely of the "Oka-la-fa-lay-a clan." According to family oral traditions, John's two brothers, Sylvester and Sebastian, also married Choctaw women. Until the 1830s, life for John Victor's family among the Choctaw seemed uneventful.
Life, however, took a drastic turn for John and his family when the United States government began the forced removal of Southeastern tribes to the Indian Territory. John and his family were among the first groups of Choctaws forced to go to Indian Territory. The removal was even worse because many Choctaws made the trek during the bitter winter of 1831 - 1832. Many Choctaws perished along the way from exposure, lack of food, and disease. The final group to set out for Indian Territory in 1832 arrived in the bitter cold of December.2 After the Choctaws arrived and settled in their new western home, the first infant baby in Indian Territory born to John Victor was his son Alfred Wade Victor, born December 25, 1834, near Skullyville, Indian Territory. Alfred Victor would eventually have fourteen siblings: Lucinda, Wilson, Pension, William S., John, Robert, Amanda, Missy Melissa, Salinda Salina, Louise, Lucy, Peter, Cordelia, and Martha Ann Margaret.
Alfred Victor grew up in the Indian Territory, not far from the Fort Towson area. Not much is know about his youth, but living near Fort Towson, John likely witnessed the bustle surrounding the frontier outpost and the concerns of frontier life...