 adoption into the family of Levi 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 Kentucky, in 1828, his education being more or less directed by Thomas L. McKenney.
Upon his return from school young Colbert engaged in farming 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
upon lands in the North Fork country. He later effected a permanent settlement at Oil Springs about twenty miles northwest
of Tishomingo and about nine miles east of the present town of Berwyn and in what is today Johnston County, Oklahoma.
The political affairs of the Chickasaws were closely interwoven with the Choctaws during those early formative days in the
West. The treaty of January 17, 18375 at Doaksville created the Chickasaw District in the Choctaw Nation. This district under the provisions of the treaty of June
22, 18556 became the Chickasaw Nation and the separate political status of the Chickasaws was accomplished. Winchester Colbert was
a directing hand in framing this treaty and had served as a member of the Choctaw council from the Chickasaw District but
early became a strong advocate of the political separation of his people from the Choctaws. He was a prominent member of the
constitutional convention which framed the constitution for the newly created Chickasaw Nation, in August, 1856 and served
as a member of the first Chickasaw legislature.
In August, 1858, Winchester Colbert became the second governor of the Chickasaw Nation when he defeated Gov. Cyrus Harris
who was running for reelection. Harris postponed a second consecutive term for Governor Colbert when he returned to the governorship
in the fall of 1860, but Colbert again defeated Harris in August, 1862, and was reelected in the autumn of 1864. The two concluding
terms of Governor Colbert covered the fateful years of the Civil War, from the fall of 1862 to the fall of 1866. Winchester
Colbert was a signer of the treaty which, as a Chickasaw delegate he had aided in negotiating with Gen. Albert Pike the representative
of the Confederate States at North Fork, Creek Nation, on July 12, 1861. His sentiments, as were those of the Chickasaws in
general, were very distinctly with the South. All forms of endeavor among the Chickasaws approached a stalemate during the
war. The governor becoming apprehensive of his personal safety, upon the d