live with one parent a while and then with the other.  At the time, Willis had custody of his son and

his daughter was living with Rozene. 

In 1840, the nation was on the move across the mountains and rivers toward the West.  The

white settlers were pushing the Indians out of Georgia, Alabama, and Tennessee.  The peaceful

villages became angry towns.  Willis Maxwell saw his life caught up in this "so called civilization." 

He and Rozene were separated with no hope of living together again.

After careful thought, Willis made arrangements with Rozene to keep both of the children.  This

pleased Rozene because she wanted to attend her sister's wedding in Montgomery, Alabama.

Standing in the yard, on this early May morning, Rozene recognized Willis as he rode into the

yard.  Rozene knew that he had come for her daughter, Sarah.  Rozene took her daughter out to

meet Willis and watched her mount up behind him.  The two riders were never again to be found

in Alabama.  Willis rode with his twelve-year old daughter to Waynesboro, Tennessee.

At Waynesboro, there was a wagon train waiting for Willis to lead it to the new Cherokee land in

Oklahoma.  Willis was required to register his party with the Indian Agency.  He gave his wagon

train the name "Willis Party."  He gave as little information as he could to the agency because he

didn't want Rozene to find him or the children.

Willis left his children in northwest Arkansas to be reared by his brother, while he traveled on to

the Cherokee Indian nation capital at Talequah.  It was at this point that he decided to go on to

California.  While in California, he found gold and returned to Arkansas with some of this wealth

to buy his daughter a few acres of land in Missouri.  This property was located near the present

town of Seligman, Missouri.

In 1890 Sarah Rozene (Maxwell) Sitton with her husband and their children waited at St. Joe,

Arkansas for a train.  The train they waited for was carrying Rozene Conrad.  Almost fifty years

had passed, since mother and daughter had been together.  The youngest child at the station that

day - Valley G. Sitton Switzner - often described this scene to her children and grand children.

The train announced itself a mile down the track by the rattle of the wheels and the puffing of the