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JOHN O. GILLIAM, M. D.
VOL. 5, p. 1816

Well may Doctor Gilliam be termed a pioneer of pioneers in what is
now the State of Oklahoma, and it has been given him to wield much
influence in connection with civic and industrial progress in Carter
County, where he established his residence at Berwyn nearly forty
years ago and where he became one of the first physicians and most
influential citizens of the frontier community. He still maintains
his home at Berwyn and here conducts a well appointed drug store, the
while he finds it impossible to retire definitely from the practice
of his profession, owing to the insistent demand made for his
ministrations on the part of families to whom he has long been a
guide, counselor and friend. It is specially gratifying to be able to
present in this publication a review of the career of Doctor Gilliam,
whose life has been one of signal usefulness and deep humanitarian
spirit.

Dr. John Overstreet Gilliam was born in Chariton County, Missouri,
on the 17th of August, 1849, and is a son of James A. and Martha Ann
(MARTIN) Gilliam, both natives of the historic Old Dominion State and
both persons of superior intellectual attainments. James A. Gilliam
was born on the old family homestead on the banks of the Appomattox
River, in Eastern Virginia, and the year of his nativity was 1820,
his death having occurred in Saline County, Missouri, in 1905. He was
reared and educated in Virginia, where his marriage was solemnized
and where he continued to be identified with agricultural pursuits
until his removal to Missouri. In the latter state he became a
pioneer of Chariton County, and there he long held precedence as a
progressive and successful farmer, planter and stockgrower. He held
an appreciable number of slaves and not only raised tobacco but also
became a dealer in this product, on an extensive scale. When well
advanced in years he removed to Saline County, where he continued to
reside until his death. He was an inflexible advocate of the
principles of the democratic party, was a Royal Arch Mason and both
he and his wife, who died in Chariton County, Missouri, were earnest
member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. His father, William
Gilliam, was a wealthy planter and slaveholder on the Appomattox
River in Virginia, where he was specially prominent as a grower of
tobacco, and where he continued to reside until his death, which was
the result of virtual starvation, owing to his being afflicted with
the severest type of dyspepsia. He was a descendant of one of two
brothers who came from England and settled in Virginia in the
Colonial period of our national history. Anthony WOODSON, an uncle of
Doctor Gilliam of this review, was a soldier in the War of 1812, and
the heavy cannonading incidental to the battle of Norfolk destroyed
the drums of both of his ears, so that thereafter he was totally deaf.

As a youth Doctor Gilliam, who was signally favored in being reared
in a home of distinctive culture, was afforded the advantages of an
academy at Keytesville, the judicial center of his native county, and
this discipline was supplemented by his attendance in William Jewell
college, in Ray County, Missouri, and Central University, a Missouri
institution conducted under the auspices of the Methodist Church. In
the latter college his training was advanced to the point that made
him eligible for the reception of the degree of Bachelor of Arts, and
in the institution he also availed himself of the advantages of the
medical department. Leaving college in 1872, Doctor Gilliam
thereafter gave his attention to farm work and the reading of
medicine and surgery and was well equipped for the practical work of
the profession which has been dignified and honored by his services.

On the 5th of August, 1876, Doctor Gilliam came to Indian Territory
and established his residence at Berwyn, where he engaged in the
practice of medicine and also assumed the direction of the Indian
school, in which he was a successful and popular teacher. At that
time there were nine schools maintained for the Indians in the
Chickasaw Nation, and the office of teacher in the same was a
position much sought, there being avid competition, owing to the fact
that the teacher was paid a salary of $45 a month, which was looked
upon as a large emolument under the conditions obtaining at the time.
Doctor Gilliam proved his ability and was chosen from a number of
competitors, his service as teacher of the Indian school having
thereafter continued for a period of three years. Thereafter he gave
his attention to the active practice of medicine for a term of twelve
years, and in the meanwhile he became the owner of 1,100 acres of
land in what is now Carter County. In 1880 he instituted the
improvement of this property and established his home on the pioneer
ranch of which he still retains 400 acres, given over to diversified
agriculture and the raising of excellent grades of livestock.

In July, 1915, Doctor Gilliam purchased of his son-in-law, Dr. James
W. WEBB, the drug store at Berwyn, and he now conducts the store,
which was established many years ago and is the only one in the
village. When Doctor Gilliam retired from the active practice of his
profession, nearly a quarter of a century ago, he sold his stock of
drugs and medicines to the proprietor of the drug store of which he
himself is now the owner, it being interesting to note that certain
of his original medicines are still to be found on the shelves of the
establishment. Concerning the former, owner, Doctor Webb, individual
mention made on other pages of this work.

In politics Doctor Gilliam has always been found strongly aligned as
a supporter of the cause of the Democratic Party, with well fortified
convictions concerning matters of economic and governmental policy.
He served one year as mayor of Berwyn and in the territorial days he
served also as a member of the school board, an office of which he
was the incumbent one year. His religious views are in harmony with
the tenets of the Methodist Episcopal Church South, which he attends
and liberally supports. He is affiliated with Berwyn Lodge No. 59,
Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, and served eight years as master of
the same. In this time-honored fraternity the doctor has received
also the thirty-second degree of the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite,
and is affiliated with Indian Consistory No. 2 at McAlester. He holds
membership also in the Berwyn Lodge of the Independent Order of Odd
Fellows.

Doctor Gilliam has been thrice married. In 1872, in Charition
County, Missouri, he wedded Miss Lizzie HARPER, and she died at
Berwyn, Indian Territory, in 1879. Three children were born of this
union: Robert, who died at the age of thirty-two years, he having
been a prosperous farmer, Mary Pauline, who died at Berwyn June 16,
1915, her thirty-eighth birthday anniversary; and Alva Edward, who
was killed by lightning when he was twenty years of age.

In 1880 Doctor Gilliam married Susan BRUSHINGHAM, an orphan of Part
Chickasaw Indian blood, she having been well educated in the schools
of Kansas, and her death having occurred in 1891. Concerning the
children of this marriage the following brief data are entered:
Lizzie is the wife of Frank TINDALL, of Durwood, Carter County, in
which vicinity he is engaged in farming, having formerly been a
merchant. Olivet H. is the wife of Roy COTNER, of Pryor Creek, this
state, and her husband is a traveling salesman. Sallie died at the
age of eighteen years. John, James and Howard are triplets, John
being a prosperous ranchman in Southwestern Texas, James being
identified with the cattle business near Marietta, Oklahoma, and
Howard being his father's assistant in the drug store at Berwyn.

On the 9th of August, 1892, Doctor Gilliam married Mrs. Nannie
(SIGMON) LARGEN, a daughter of the late Israel Sigmon, who was a
farmer in the State of Arkansas, the first husband of Mrs. Gilliam
having been Frank Largen, who was a farmer of Carter County,
Oklahoma, at the time of his death. Doctor and Mrs. Gilliam have four
children, -- Mary, Amon, Leslie and Donald. Mary, who has been a
popular and successful schoolteacher, married, in July, 1915, Carson
HATIFIELD, and they maintain their residence at Berwyn.

Typed for OKGenWeb by: Geraldine Olson KING, July 19, 1999

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)

[NOTE: 04-2000 Jean Dow, great granddaughter of John Gilliam,
advises Olivette (her grandmother) married LOY EDGAR COTNER, not Roy
Cotner. For more information contact Jean Dow at [ F62@aol.com ].

[NOTE: 08-2003 Mary Lou Cowden, email: < NoTyme1@aol.com >, Amarillo, TX 
writes: While reading an article about my great grandfather, Dr. John 
Overstreet Gilliam, I realized my grandmother's name had been left out 
in the listing of his children. She was born to Dr. Gilliam and Susan 
Brushingham, his second wife. Her name was Lula Maude, and she was born 
5 years after the triplets, and 2 years before Howard. You have the 
triplets listed as  John, James, and Howard. Actually, the triplets 
were James, John and Sallie.  I would really like to see this corrected 
or a footnote added. Please contact me if you need any information, 
or verification.]