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WILLIAM O. BEALL
Vol. 3, p. 1140

A native of the District of Columbia, where he was reared and
educated, Mr. Beall has the distinction of being a scion of sterling
old colonial families of Maryland, where his paternal and maternal
ancestors settled long prior to the War of the Revolution; he has been
prominent and influential in various departments of governmental
service, especially in connection with Indian affairs in the West; and
he is now numbered among the able and representative members of the
bar of Muskogee County, Oklahoma, where he is engaged in the
successful practice of his profession in the City of Muskogee, with
offices in the Raymond Building.

William O. Beall was born near the City of Washington, District of
Columbia, on the 10th of November, 1870 and is a son of Charles B. and
Adelaide (RICKETTS) Beall, both of whom were born in the State of
Maryland, where the respective families were founded in the colonial
days, as previously intimated in this article. The parents of Mr.
Beall still maintain their residence in the national capital, where
the father has been for nearly half a century the efficient and
honored incumbent of the office of deputy clerk of the United States
Supreme Court.

Reared to adult age in the City of Washington, William O. Beall there
acquired his early education in the public schools, after which he was
for three years a student in the Columbian University, which great
institution of the national capital now bears the title of George
Washington University. In this university he pursued a course in the
law department and while he was not graduated he admirable fortified
himself in the science of jurisprudence.

In 1890 entered Government service, as an attaché of the department of
geological surveys, with which he continued to be identified for the
ensuing five years, during which period he was concerned with
important surveying operations in Wyoming, Colorado and Nevada. In
1895 he was transferred to Muskogee, Indian Territory and was assigned
to the governmental resectioning work in what is now the State of
Oklahoma. This assignment enlisted his close and effective attention
until the work was completed, in 1899, when he was transferred to the
important Dawes Commission, in which he first served as organizer of
appraisement work and later as chief clerk of the Choctaw and
Chickasaw enrollment work.

In 1903 Mr. Beall was appointed secretary of the Dawes Commission, and
of this position he continued the incumbent until the commission
completed its work and was abolished.

In January, 1907, the year that marked the admission of Oklahoma to
statehood, Mr. Beall resigned the governmental office of assistant
Indian commissioner and for three years thereafter he endured fully
the vexation of spirit and the manifold cares that customarily pertain
to practical newspaper work and enterprise. He became manager of the
Muskogee Phoenix, but his association of three years with the
editorial and business affairs of this paper was attended with
indifferent financial success, with the result that he was not
reluctant to sever his connection with the journalistic profession.

Since his retirement from newspaper work Mr. Beall has been engaged in
the successful practice of law, with residence and professional
headquarters in the City of Muskogee. He had previously been admitted
to practice in the local and Federal courts of Indian Territory but in
1910, when he decided to devote his attention to the practice of law,
he consistently tested his reinforcement for the same by passing an
examination before the Oklahoma Supreme Court. He was specially
successful in this examination and his broad and accurate knowledge of
the law combines with his varied and important governmental service to
make him specially well fortified for the active work of the
profession in which his achievement has been marked by distinctive
prestige and association with much important litigation in the various
courts of the state of his adoption.

In politics Mr. Beall is found arrayed as a staunch and effective
advocate of the principles and policies for which the democratic party
stands sponsor; he is affiliated with Muskogee Lodge, Benevolent and
Protective Order of Elks; he is actively identified with Muskogee
County Bar Association and the Oklahoma State Bar Association; and
both he and his wife are communicants of the Protestant Episcopal
Church.

In the year 1903 was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Beall to Miss
Elise FEATHERSTON, daughter of General William S. Featherston, a
distinguished citizen of the State of Mississippi. Mr. and Mrs. Beall
have no children.

Typed for OKGenWeb by Lee Ann Collins, January 4, 2000.