Clear Creek Water Mill

The stone's two singers were father and daughter, not husband and wife as scholars long assumed. R. B. Ward, a historian and Willis descendant, showed it in 2019-21 from Wallace Willis's 1884 obituary. Enslaved by a Choctaw named Britt Willis, they were hired out at times to Spencer Academy, where the boys loved the songs they sang at work. The academy's superintendent, Rev. Alexander Reid, heard the Fisk Jubilee Singers say they were short of material in 1871 and taught them six of the Willis songs, Swing Low, Sweet Chariot and Steal Away to Jesus among them.

What the plaque says

Clear Creek Water Mill Water-powered grist mill in oper- ation on Clear Creek early as 1819 by white settlers in old Miller County, Arkansas Territory. New mill built in 1837 by Choctaw Joel Kemp. A later owner, Choctaw John Wilson, replaced crude undershot wheel with turbine- type which also powered cotton gin. John Prince acquired mill site in 1909, updated machinery and replaced log dam with concrete, drilled two artesian wells and supplied water to town of Valliant for many years. Adjacent swimming pool was a favorite recreational facility. Mill ceased operation about 1944; swimming pool closed 1962. Remnants of mill remain. Tradition holds that two Black slaves, Wallace and Minerva Willis, first gave voice to renowned Negro spirituals such as "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" on nearby plantation. Oklahoma Historical Society 196-1995

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Fort Towson Historic Site — 8.0 mi
  The 1824 Red River post where arriving Choctaw and Chickasaw families were dispersed after removal, beside the site of Doaksville, the Choctaw capital where Stand Watie surrendered in 1865.
• Beavers Bend State Park — 27 mi
  Pine and hardwood Ouachita hills where the Mountain Fork leaves Broken Bow Lake, a 1930s CCC park named for a Choctaw citizen, with trout water, a 26-mile ridge trail and the Forest Heritage Center.

More markers nearby

• Elliott Academy — steps away
• Wheelock Mission — 7.5 mi
• Fort Towson — 7.7 mi
• Fort Towson Landing — 7.7 mi