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HENRY CLAY NASH, M.D.
Vol. 3 p. 1144-1145
Book has photo

It is peculiarly fitting that the memory of such a man as the late
Doctor Nash of Antlers should long be kept green in the community
which he so faithfully and unselfishly served. In his business
activities he was a stockman-farmer, and a highly competent and
skillful physician. But more than all else he was distinguished for
his unflinching courage in pursuing the course which he thought would
redound to the highest welfare and good of his chosen people, the old
Choctaw Nation, among whom he lived and worked and from one of whose
principal families he selected his faithful wife.

The Choctaw Nation thirty years ago, then an entity under governmental
rule peculiar to itself, possessing and enjoying a peaceable and
unique life, welcomed the vivacity and ambition of young white men
from the states who brought unstinted ideas of true progress and
reform. Only occasionally did minor factional differences disturb the
serenity of a people who had learned to be happy in a foreign land. It
is a significant fact of history in this old nation that many young
men came here in that period as teacher and as such disseminated
learning of the right character among Indian children.

It was in this period that the late Henry Clay Nash entered the
nation, coming over from Texas, from where he had obtained a decree in
the Sam Houston State Normal. He taught for a few years in the
neighborhood Indian schools, mostly in that section of the nation now
embraced in Pushmataha County. He became the friend of some of the
leading Choctaw men of the day, and this friendship continued until
his death. The strength of this friendship was disclosed at the end of
his life, when it became necessary for his widow and their children to
sacrifice a major portion of their fortune to settle outstanding
obligations he had made in an effort to save a few hundred of the
Choctaw people from heavy financial loss at the hands of corporations
that were seeking their property. Lumber companies had executed
contracts for timber with Indians for terms of from five to
twenty-five years, and many of these contracts did not afford proper
remuneration to the Indian. Doctor Nash undertook to reestablish their
rights, and to do so instituted suits against lumber companies
involving the contracts. The task was expensive, and he paid most of
it out of his own pocket. He probably would have brought the matter to
a successful termination had he lived another year.

In making the sacrifice incident to financial settlement after his
death Mrs. Nash was compelled to sell her valuable and valued
allotment at The Narrows, a scenic watering place of note in Indian
history, situated near the picturesque Village of Smithville in
McCurtain County. Here she had hoped at no distant day to establish a
permanent home, set in the midst of the beautiful Kiamichi Mountains
on an elevation above the old domain of the trapper and hunter, and
near by a living spring of healing mineral water that for several
generations had been a favorite watering place of her people. Besides
this she lost much other property and money of the estate, but these
sacrifices were made with unflinching sense of duty of suppressed
emotion, qualities that are characteristic of and peculiar to the true
born Choctaw.

While Doctor Nash's activities in the Choctaw country enabled him to
accumulate a comfortable fortune, he always remained mindful of his
country's interest. Long before statehood he took a lead in the
organization of the democratic party, and it is said that probably no
other man helped to form as many democratic clubs in the Choctaw
Nation. As partial reward for these activities and in appreciation of
their high regard for him his friends sought in 1912 to have him
appointed United States marshal of the Eastern District of Oklahoma.
The fortunes of politics are involved in mystery, but it may be that
death alone defeated the efforts of his many friends. In endorsing
Doctor Nash for the appointment Judge Robert L. Williams of the
Oklahoma Supreme Court said:

"He has resided in the Choctaw Nation for over thirty years . . .
During all that period he has been an active and prominent citizen,
enjoying the people's confidence and esteem. He has had wide and
varied experience as a business man . . . Also he has been an active
worker in the democratic party organizations of the Territory prior to
the erection of the State and since the erection of the State, he has
been active in the affairs of the democratic party in that portion of
the State."

Henry Clay Nash was born in Milton County, Georgia, July 7, 1859. He
represented some of the best qualities of the true old Southern stock.
After attending public schools he took a course in the Agricultural
and Mechanical College of Georgia. In 1877 he moved with his parents
to Texas. During 1879-80 he was a student in the Sam Houston State
Normal of Texas, and from 1880 to 1886 was a teacher in the public
schools of Texas and the neighborhood schools of Indian Territory.

From teacher he became a kindly physician who for years ministered to
the needs of a large territory, and most of his patients in the early
days were Indian families. In 1887-88 he attended the Bellevue
Hospital Medical College at New York City, and on returning home took
up the practice of medicine near Nelson, a village now in Pushmataha
County. While in practice he was accredited physician in Spencer
Academy, one of the old schools of the Choctaw Nation, and in the
Choctaw Female Seminary at Tuskahoma. In 1890 Doctor Nash removed his
home to Antlers, and there he lived and did his work, and when little
more than past the prime of years he died in May 1913. He had assisted
in the development of a section of the town and erected the federal
court building. He was the town's friend in contests affecting its
commercial life, making trips to Washington when there was apparent
danger of losing the federal court, and to Guthrie when the fortunes
of politics threatened to interfere with county seat honors.

When a young physician he rode one day past the home of Thomas L.
GRIGGS, a Choctaw citizen, and asked the little daughter of Mr. Griggs
the way to Nelson. In embarrassment she nodded the right direction.
Several years later, when she was thirteen, Doctor Nash rode that way
again at an opportune time for her, and she felt that she liked him
with a peculiar liking. They became sweethearts later, and on October
31, 1895, Rev. W. J. B. Lloyd, an old time missionary, performed the
ceremony that made them man and wife. She was Elizabeth GRIGGS. She
had been educated in Rock Academy, the Choctaw Female Seminary at New
Hope, and Oxford College at Oxford, Ohio. Her father for twenty years
has been a member of the Council of the Choctaw Legislature. In her is
the blood of principal chiefs and other men of note. Principal Chief
Wilson JONES was her grandmother's brother, and she is related to the
family of Governor Burney of the Chickasaw Nation. Her mother is a
daughter of Principal Chief SMALLWOOD of the Choctaw Nation.

Mrs. Nash became the mother of five children, four of whom are living:
Esther, aged eighteen, graduated in 1916 from the Oklahoma
Presbyterian College at Durant; Ruth, aged fifteen, is a student in
the State School for the Deaf at Sulphur; Mary Frances is thirteen
years old; and Henry Clay is aged eleven.

Typed for OKGenWeb by: Earline Sparks Barger, December 21, 1999.