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WILLIAM GILL
Vol. 3, p. 1083-1084

In view of the fact that for sixty years Atoka has been a center
from which have radiated the missionary activities of some of the
oldest Protestant organizations of the two territories that were
combined to form the State of Oklahoma, it is of interest to note the
modern Atoka, judicial center of the county of the same name, is the
seat of the Young Men's Christian Association to be found in any
community of the same approximate population in the entire state.
Here is a chapter or association with fifty members-live, energetic
young men of high ideals; young men who have made their influence
distinctly and worthily felt in the community. These ambitious young
men have crystallized sentiment into definite achievement. They have
built and maintain an association home of their own in the business
center of the town, and have equipped the same with a modern
gymnasium, a comprehensive and will-selected library, with attractive
reading room, and the building is also provided with an excellent and
attractive assembly room. The ambitious members of the association,
through recourse to various normal means of raising funds for the
cause, have virtually obliterated the debt that rested on them in
connection with the erection and equipment of their building. Basket-
ball has proved the chief source of income, the association team
having developed qualities of and facility in play that for several
years made its members the practical champions of Eastern Oklahoma.
In 1914 this term defeated the best team that the City of Dallas,
Texas, could present, as well as the admirable teams from the East
Central State Normal School and the Southwestern State Normal School,
of Oklahoma, the only defeat which the Atoka team encountered in that
season having been received at the hands of the Muskogee team. Sunday
evening services are held at the club and under the direct charge and
auspices of the association weekly religious services are conducted
at the county jail. Of the association B. R. STUBBS is vice
president; William Gill, secretary; and T. A. HICKS, treasurer. A
literary and debating society affords one of the important features
of the club work.

William Gill, to whom this brief sketch is dedicated, has proved one
of the most loyal, efficient and popular workers in and executives of
the Atoka Young Men's Christian Association, in the organization of
which, in 1912, he gave zealous assistance. He has been its secretary
from the time of organization to the present and has been one of its
most active workers. His executive duties and prominent and
influential worker in the Christian Endeavor Society of the
Presbyterian Church of Atoka, of which society he is president.

His organizing and administrative ability was also exemplified
effectively in the forming of the Young Men's Democratic Club of
Atoka County, of which organization he is secretary. This club has a
membership of more than 100 and has made itself of value to the
democratic party in the wide dissemination of the tenets and policies
for which that party stands sponsor. M. C. HAILE, of Atoka, is
president of this club; Paul PINSON, who is now assistant United
States attorney for the Eastern District of Oklahoma, is vice
president; and T. A. Hicks is treasurer, he being the present
incumbent of the office of treasurer of Atoka County. The club has
fostered and assisted active democratic organizations at Stringtown,
Caney and Tushka.

William Gill finds definite satisfaction and pride in claiming
Oklahoma as the place of his nativity and no young man of the state
is more loyal and enthusiastic in the exploiting of its manifold
advantages and attractions. He was born at Shawneetown, in the old
Pottawatomie Nation of Indian Territory, and 1892 was the year of his
birth. He is a son of J. H. Gill, who came to the Pottawatomie
country as a pioneer of 1889, who served as the first sheriff of
Pottawatomie County, and who is now court clerk of Atoka County. His
wife is a daughter of Capt. S. J. SCOTT, who, many years ago, was
licensed by the United States Government as an Indian trader at
Shawneetown.

The early education of William Gill was obtained in the public
school of Pottawatomie and Atoka counties, to which latter county he
came with his parents in 1907, the year that marked the admission of
Oklahoma to statehood. As a youth he served as a deputy in the office
of D. N. SELF, the first district clerk of Atoka County, and later,
for two years, he was court reporter under Judge Baxter Taylor, who
was then presiding of the bench of the county court and concerning
who individual mention is made on other pages of this work. Later Mr.
Gill was employed for sixteen months in the office of the
superintendent of the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railroad at Muskogee,
a position which he resigned to engage in his present business at
Atoka, where he has built up a substantial and representative
enterprise in the domain of real estate, loans and insurance. Mr.
Gill has four brothers and one sister: Hugh is District Court
reporter at Atoka; Samuel S. is chief law clerk in the office of the
Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railroad at Muskogee; Lee is a successful
and popular teacher in the public schools of Atoka County; and
Earnest and Nina, who remain at the parental home in Atoka, are
attending the public schools.

The year 1912 recorded the marriage of William Gill to Miss Ethel
FIRST, and they have one child, Charles William, who was born in 1914.

Typed for OKGenWeb by Carolyn Smith Burns on December 4, 1998.