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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.