William W. Wilson

WILSON, WILLIAM W.

Vol. 5, p. 1814-1815

In Choctaw County, a place of distinctive prominence and influence

is held by William Ward Wilson, who, as a merchant, banker and stock

man, has played an important and worthy part in connection with the

civic and industrial development of this section of the state and

especially of his home town of Fort Towson.

Wherever the United States Government established a frontier

military post in the early part of the eighteenth century there

abounds history and a certain atmosphere of romance at the present

day. Fort Towson where once were stationed two members of the United

States Army who were designated to achieve great distinction, Gen.

Ulysses S. Grant and Gen. George V. McClellan, possesses more of

historic charm and interest than many other military posts that, like

it, have lived and thrived and finally been abandoned. The martial

phase of its history can never fail of interest and this interest is

enhanced by its later record as a place of importance in the Choctaw

Indian Nation. The story of Fort Towson is for another chapter of

history, but because its crumbled ruins still mark the place where it

was built nearly one hundred years ago, almost within a stone's throw

of the modern and vigorous town which perpetuates its name, a

reversion to its ancient history puts a breath of charm into the

community that "Bill Wilson" founded. On the site of the present

Village of Fort Towson Mr. Wilson once herded and fed his cattle, and

long before that he killed deer and turkey on the site where

substantial brick business buildings now stand. The Town of Fort

Towson, not far distant from the site of the old fort, is situated on

a tract of land that Wilson and his brother possessed or controlled

before the allotment period. This tract was once a part of their

cattle range, and they were among the pioneers of the cattle industry

in this section of the former Choctaw Nation. When it was made known

that Billy Wilson is not yet sixty years old and that he grew to

manhood long after the post at Fort Towson had been abandoned and

when it is made known that within a few hundred yards from the post

he has seen deer in herds of forty and fifty and wild turkey by the

hundreds, some idea is conveyed of the frontier wildness of the

landscape at the time when the government here established a military

post, nearly a century ago.

The Town of Fort Towson is new and vital. It was established in

1903, at the time when a line of railroad was in process of

construction through this section. Prior to its founding Doaksville

had been the general trading post of this region, the latter place

having been one of the earliest settlements of the Choctaw Nation.

The first store in the new town was erected and stocked by the

Doaksville Trading Company, which had developed a substantial

business at Doaksville, from which older towns soon came other

merchants to cast in their lot with the ambitious and newer

community, the result being that within a comparatively short time

Doaksville became little more than a memory. The Wilson brothers

eventually purchased the stock and business of the Doaksville Trading

Company and about the same time they organized one of the first

banking institutions in the new town. Several changes and

reorganization have taken place since, and on December 31, 1915, the

First National Bank of which W. W. Wilson, E. H. Wilson and R. D.

WILBOR had controlling interests, and the First State Bank,

controlled by Ed LEONARD and Sam MCKINNEY and T. E. HOPSON

consolidated and retained the name of the First State Bank. This is a

strong institution, with Ed Leonard, president; W. W. Wilson, vice

president, and Sam McKinney, cashier. One of the largest and best

equipped mercantile establishments of the former Choctaw Nation is

the finely equipped general-merchandise store of William W. Wilson

and it occupies a substantial brick building of modern design and

facilities, so that both the establishment and the business are a

distinct contribution to the civic and business prestige of Fort

Towson.

That Mr. Wilson should continue to maintain his home in this

community and here rise through his own efforts to a position of

commanding influence and large success, is the more interesting in

view of the fact that he was born at a point but a few miles distant

from the fine little town that is now the state of his important

business activities. In a pioneer log house near the old educational

institution known as Wheelock Academy, and one-half mile distant from

the stone Presbyterian Church that was erected in 1846, by Rev.

Alfred WRIGHT, Mr. Wilson was born in the year 1857, and the old log

house which was his birthplace is still standing, in a fair state of

preservation and as one of the landmarks of this part of the state.

In the neighborhood he acquired his first definite educational

instruction in the primitive school house in which Miss Jane AUSTIN

was the teacher, she later becoming the wife of the principal chief

of the Choctaw Nation, Chief Jackson MCCURTAIN. Mr. Wilson continued

to attend the neighborhood schools until he had attained to the age

of fourteen years, and his parents then sent him to Spencer Academy,

which was then established about ten miles northeast of Fort Towson

and which was the first higher educational institution established by

the Christian missionaries who here labored faithfully among the

Choctaw Indians. The interesting and important history of this old

institution has never been properly written and is worthy of the

careful study of those who would attempt to prepare adequate record

concerning the history of Oklahoma and its early advances along

educational lines, long before Indian Territory had lost its original

identity. The Civil was caused a cessation in the work of Spencer

Academy, but in 1871 it was reopened for the reception of students,

under the superintendence of Rev. J. H. COLTON, and Mr. Wilson

entered the school at the time that it thus resumed operations.

Prior to the war it had been a scholastic mecca for many years. Some

of the old buildings at Spencer are still standing and are situated

on land owned by the heirs of the late Robert FRAZIER, an Indian

citizen of sterling character and excellent repute. After spending

four years at the academy Mr. Wilson sought to obtain from the

Choctaw Nation an appointment as a student in some eastern school,

but his application was rejected, owing to the fact that the nation's

quota of students to be given such advantages had already been

filled. In his earnest ambition for a higher education he sought the

assistance of his uncle, George JAMES, who was one of the leading

citizen of the Chickasaw Nation, but through this medium he likewise

failed to realize his desires, under which conditions he entered the

employ of his uncle, George James, in the cattle business, and here

he earned his first money, his employer having paid him $15 a month.

The James ranch was near Bloomfield Academy, in the Chickasaw Nation

and the range of the James cattle to the north covered a vast era of

country in which houses were on the average twenty miles apart.

Within a short time Mr. Wilson engaged in the livestock business on

his own account, and for nearly forty years this line of enterprise

engrossed the major part of his time and attention, his herds having

grazed over large areas of the southern section of the Choctaw

Nation. The open range was the common property of the cattle men and

hence few fences were needed. Mr. Wilson was one of the pioneers in

the cattle industry in this region and to him is due in large measure

the credit for the development of this important line of enterprise

into one of the profitable and permanent features of industrial

activity in this section of Oklahoma. Over this country rode the

buyers who came form other states and territories and from other

Indian nations, and good prices were usually paid for the cattle.

Market cattle that were not sold to such buyers locally were shipped

principally to the City of St. Louis, Missouri, and Mr. Wilson made

such shipments in an independent way. He still continued to be

associated with the cattle industry on a modest scale, the former

broad scope of operations having met the gradual curtailment with the

elimination of the open range, the allotment and sale of Indian lands

and the general settling up of the country by farmers, several of

whom may be found to the square mile on the tillable land, and roads

having been established along section lines.

Shortly after he attained to the age of twenty-one years Mr. Wilson

was elected to a seat in the Choctaw Nation, from Towson County.

Later he became a member of the senate, and his service in

legislature was under the administration of Chief C. C. COLE and

Chief B.F. SMALLWOOD as principal chiefs. In this connection it is

interesting to note that the officials of the Choctaw Nation never

have been compelled to live at the capital. Until the tribal

government was abolished they assembled at the capital each

successive year, and ordinarily the members of the legislature and

other officials completed the transaction of their business in about

thirty days, after which they returned to their homes. Mr. Wilson

served two terms as national auditor of the Choctaw Nation and one

term as national treasurer. He was frequently importuned to become a

candidate for the office of principal chief, but as often declined

the honor, by reason of the exactions of his private business affairs

and his lack of desire for political office.

Under appointment by Principal Chief Gilbert DUKES, Mr. Wilson

became a member of the Choctaw commission that assisted the Dawes

Commission in making the supplemental treaty by which the vested

rights and property interests of the Choctaws were effectively

conserved and protected. The other members of the Choctaw commission

were Chief Dukes, C.B. WADE, Simon LEWIS and Thomas AINSWORTH. The

first office to which Mr. Wilson was called in the service of the

public was that of circuit clerk of the Apokshonubbi District, under

appointment by Circuit Judge Jefferson GARDNER.

He and his wife hold membership in the Christian Church.

In 1879 Mr. Wilson married Miss Rose GARLAND, a kinswoman of

Crockett Garland, who was once principal chief of the Choctaw Nation.

She died in 1882 and is survived by no children. The second wife of

Mr. Wilson bore the maiden name of Nannie CARNEY and she was of

Choctaw blood, a relative of Albert Carney, who was a prominent

citizen of Savannah, Indian Territory. The one child of this union is

a son, Oscar. In 1906 was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Wilson to

Miss Ollie BAIRD, of Paris, Texas, and they have two children,

William Ward, Jr., and Ollie Jane.

Mr. and Mrs. Wilson have an attractive home in the Village of Fort

Towson and they delight to extend its hospitality to their many

friends.

SOURCE: Thoburn, Joseph B., A Standard History of Oklahoma, An

Authentic Narrative of its Development, 5 v. (Chicago, New York: The

American Historical Society, 1916).

Typed for OKGenWeb by Carole McAnally, July 18, 1999.