William Wilson Oxsheer

William Wilson Oxsheer, farmer, county official, and Texas state representative, was born in Bledsoe County, Tennessee, in March 1815. He was the son of Samuel and Sarah (Wilson) Oxsheer. Oxsheer was raised in Tennessee; in 1836 he relocated to the residence of an uncle in Morgan County, Alabama. He accompanied this relation on a prospecting expedition to Texas in 1837. Oxsheer returned to Alabama six weeks later and emigrated from that state to Texas in 1839. He and his relations initially lived near Wheelock in Robertson County before settling in the vicinity of Cameron, Milam County, in 1842. Oxsheer himself obtained approximately 2,000 acres of land in Milam and Bell counties and engaged as a farmer and was a member of the local Methodist church. On December 1, 1842, he married Martha Elizabeth Kirk. They married in Robertson County. They had eight children.

Beginning in the early 1840s, Oxsheer assumed a prominent role in the public affairs of Milam County. In 1846, when Burleson County was formed from a section of Milam County, Oxsheer was charged with executing the transfer of a cache of papers and records from the new county to the old. Oxsheer served as Milam district clerk from 1846 through 1852. From 1849 through 1852, he was deputy district surveyor for the Milam land district. Following an 1870 fire which destroyed several public buildings at Cameron, Oxsheer donated land for the construction of Cameron Baptist Church and San Andres Lodge. In June 1875 he was a subscriber for the construction of a new county courthouse. Around this time Oxsheer became active in state politics. In 1873 he won election on the Democratic ticket as House representative for District 17, comprised of Milam, Falls, and Bell counties, to the Fourteenth Texas Legislature. He represented these counties again during the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Texas legislatures. Oxsheer died in Milam County on December 13, 1905, and was buried in Oxsheer-Smith Cemetery in Milam County.

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brief biography and family

William Wilson Oxsheer was born March 29, 1815 in Bledsoe Co., Tennessee, son of Samuel and Sarah Wilson Oxsheer.

In 1836, at the age of 21, he left Tennessee and went to Morgan County, Alabama to live with his uncle, William B. Wilson, and his family. He came to Texas briefly in 1837 on a prospecting trip, staying about 6 weeks, and returning to Alabama.

The Wilson family and William Oxsheer moved to Texas in 1839, initally settling in Robertson County, near Wheelock. In spring of 1842, William Oxsheer helped his uncle William Wilson set up a homestead in Milam County, about 4 miles southwest of Cameron, on the Little River; they brought the rest of the family from Wheelock that fall.

They probably passed through Nacogdoches on their way to Central Texas; William obtained a Third Class (320 acre) conditional land grant there in December of 1839. The grant was changed to unconditional in 1844, so it may have been for the Milam County land. He was also owner of an original grant in Bell County (Abstract 643). In any case, William set up his own home on 2000 acres on the Little River in 1843, about 8 miles from Cameron.

The following is a quote by William Wilson Oxsheer from the 1893 book "History of Texas, Together with a Biographical History of Milam, Williamson, Bastrop, Travis, Lee and Burleson Counties"

"As I was induced to come to Texas to live by the impression made on me during my visit in 1837, a reference to that impression is proper at the onset of what I have to say. Texas then, according to my recollection of it, was near an earthly paradise for a man of simple tastes and fond of nature as I have ever saw or have since read of. To the eye it presented the appearance of a vast stretch of undulating country, threaded at intervals by clear streams of running water and divided almost equally between timber, land and prairie. All kinds of game, such as buffalo, deer, antelope, bear, wild hogs and turkey were here in abundance, while the climate, barring the occasional heavy rainfall in winter, was almost ideally perfect. To use a little rhetoric, none too strong, however, for the facts, I would say it was the hunter's home, the pioneer's paradise and the poet's dream of breathing beauty. Added to this was the promised pleasure of association with a class of people the like of whom could be found only in such a country, a people who were a little rude, perhaps, in ways, but honest, brave, candid, steady in purpose and steadfast in friendship, generous and hospitable to a degree, as I believe, never witnessed elsewhere in the world."

William married Martha Elizabeth Kirk December 01, 1842 in Robertson Co., TX. She was born July 29, 1824 in Williamson County, Tennessee, daughter of William A. and Ann R. Kirk. The Kirks were originally from Williamson County, Tennessee, and had moved to Texas from Mississippi in 1841.

The first election in Milam County was in 1846, and William was elected to be the first District Clerk for Milam County, an office he held for six years. He was also Deputy District Surveyor of Milam land district from 1849 to 1852, which included the counties of Milam, Falls, McLennan, Bell, Bosque, and Coryell.

William served as a Representative for Falls, Milam and Bell Counties in the 14th, 16th, and 17th Texas Legislatures. The 14th Legislature (1874-1875) had the task of making the state government operational after the removal of Federal authorities.

William and Martha had eight children, only three of whom survived their parents: Viola Oxsheer (married H. F. Smith), Medora Oxsheer (married Dr. J. S. Fletcher), and Fountain Goodlet Oxsheer (married Mary Beal).

Martha Elizabeth Kirk Oxsheer died December 14, 1893 in Milam Co., Texas. William Wilson Oxsheer died December 1905 in Milam Co., TX, on the homestead near Cameron. They are both buried in the Oxsheer-Smith Cemetery, located on Milam County Road 242.

commens

Date and place of birth have also been (erroneously?) reported to be:

• March 3, 1815 in Bledsoe County, Tennessee, United States (unattested)
• March 28, 1815 in Bledsoe County, Tennessee, United States (unattested)

sources

• History of Texas, Together with a Biographical History of Milam, Williamson, Bastrop, Travis, Lee and Burleson Counties. (Chicago, IL: Lewis, 1893), p. 255-260.

links

• http://www.sutphen.org/genealogy/oxsheer/williamwilson.htm