The Indian Territory Its Chiefs Legislators and Leading Men

W. N. Jones, the present chief of the Choctaws, was born in Mississippi in 1831, and is the youngest son of Nathaniel Jones, who emigrated to the Choctaw Nation in 1833. Nathaniel Jones was annuity captain, and served later as a member of the legislature at the early councils. The subject of our sketch belongs to the Ok-la-fa-lay-a clan. In 1849 he commenced farming without any capital whatever. The results were very limited for the first few years, but he soon accumulated enough to secure a fair start. He succeeded so far as to be in a position to open … Read more

William H. Davis, familiarly known as “Kinney” Davis, was born in the Flint District, April 8, 1838, the son of William A. Davis, M. D., a Virginian of Welsh and Irish descent, and Mary Burns, daughter of Arthur Burns, who married a Lowry. Dr. Wm. A. Davis was one of the delegates that made the Ridge treaty, and happened to be present at the killing of John Ridge, being called upon in his professional capacity to attend Mrs. Ridge, who was then in bad health. Kinney’s father settled in Flint district in 1838, where the subject of this sketch attended … Read more

Born, Feb. 8, 1833, near Muskogee, Creek Nation, the eldest son of Dr. Alexander Robison and Elizabeth Reed. Dr. Reed was a white man from Columbus, Ga., and government physician by appointment for the Creeks during their emigration West. He married in 1832, the daughter of a United States citizen known by the name of Long Reed, who married a full-blood Creek of the Thlopthlocco or Deer clan. The subject of our sketch went to a neighborhood school near the mouth of Little River at the age of nine or ten years, and at about fifteen went to Shawnee Mission, … Read more

This promising and popular young lawyer was born in Smith County, Texas, November 19, 1866, the son of James Franklin Thompson, of Scotch-Irish parentage, and one-sixteenth Cherokee. His mother was Miss Callie E. McCord, of South Carolina, and whose family are to-day influential and wealthy landed proprietors in the northern part of Scotland. When but three years old, William moved with his parents to Beattie’s Prairie, Delaware District, Cherokee Nation, from Smith County, Texas, and there attended the public schools until he was fifteen years of age. In February 1882, he entered the Male Seminary, and in 1884 took the … Read more

William Potter Ross was a native of the old Cherokee Nation, and was born August 28, 1820, on the Ross ancestral farm, at the foot of Lookout Mountain, near Chattanooga, on the Tennessee River. His father came over the sea from Scotland. His mother was a Cherokee, and a sister of Chief John Ross. In childhood he was trained at home, and in youth was a bright and promising boy, of good deportment, which attracted the attention of his uncle, who claimed the pleasure of bearing the expense of his education, for his father’s fortune of $10,000 was lost in … Read more

he subject of this sketch is brother of the late E. C. Boudinot, a well-known man, not only in the Indian Territory, but throughout the United States, and whose sketch is elsewhere given in this volume. W. P. is four years the senior, being now sixty-one years of age. The lives of both ran very much in the same groove until their return to the nation upon coming of age. W. P.’s Eastern education qualified him to fill various subordinate positions in the Cherokee Government, beginning with the clerk of the Senate, or “National Committee,” as it was then called … Read more

William Livingstone Austin was born November 9, 1830, at Trincomalee, Ceylon Island, East Indies, the son of Dr. William Austin, of the Queen’s Own Regiment and a hero of Waterloo. His mother was daughter of Lieutenant-Colonel William Morris. When the subject of our sketch was an infant in arms, his mother, en route homeward with the regiment, touched at the island of St. Helena, and being fatigued while visiting the great Napoleon’s last quarters, was placed upon the bed of the departed hero. Thus W. L. Austin had the honor of sleeping on Napoleon’s bed. His uncle, Robert Austin, surgeon … Read more

The subject of this sketch was born March, 1844, in Woodberry, Tennessee, third son of Rev. J. J. Trott, a noted missionary among the Cherokees, and who was arrested with Rev. Worcestor and others by the Georgian Guard, for refusing to take the oath of allegiance to Georgia. William’s mother was a Miss Rachel P. Adair. The young man attended Franklin College, Nashville, Tennessee, for five years, when, with his father’s family, he removed to the Cherokee Nation. Rev. J. J. Trott, however, did not move with the emigration to the new country, but remained in Tennessee until 1857, and … Read more

The subject of this sketch was born in July 1854, the son of Rev. Hamilton Balentine and Anna Hoyt, granddaughter of Second Chief Lowry. This lady died in March 1890. The Rev. H. Balentine, of Pennsylvania, educated at Princeton College, came to the Creek Nation in 1844, and taught school at the Tallahassee Mission, and later at Coweta Mission. Afterward he moved to Good Water and Spencer Academy, Choctaw Nation, teaching for some time at these points. His next move was to Wappaknucka, Chickasaw Nation, where he taught on different occasions for a term of five years. After the war … Read more

The subject of this sketch was born in July 1856, the son of William Gordon, a half-breed Scotchman and Creek Indian. His parents dying while he was quite young, William was carried North during the war, and stayed at Osage, near the Sauk and Fox agency. At the conclusion of the war he went to school at Drury College, Springfield, Missouri, for two years. In 1879 he entered the mercantile house of his half brother, Sam Brown, at Wealaka, with whom he worked for three years. After this he took charge of his step-brother’s cattle at Red Fork for one … Read more

The subject of this sketch is the son of Samuel Fisher, two-thirds white, and a farmer and stock-raiser by occupation. His mother was three-fourths Indian. William received his first schooling in Alabama, and coming to this nation in 1847, was sent to the Shawnee Mission, Kansas, where he spent about two years. In 1850 he married Miss Sarah P. Lampkins, a white woman, from Tennessee, after which he commenced farming on a small scale. By this marriage he had nine children, five of whom are living, Henry C., Emma, Martha, Samuel and Annie. In 1855 he commenced trading in the … Read more

The subject of this sketch was born June 7, 1851, in the State of Kentucky, fourth son of E. Halsell, Esq., who moved to Texas at an early date. William attended public school until eighteen years of age, when he started in the stock business and carried it on until 1882. During those years, in partnership with his brother Glenn, they accumulated a large herd of cattle, selling out for $300,000. Moving to Vinita, Cherokee Nation, the Halsell brothers bought another large herd, and in the spring of 1884 dissolved partnership. Glenn, going to California for his health, died in … Read more

The subject of this sketch was born August 1, 1829, being seventh son and fourteenth child of Joseph E. Patton, of Buncombe County, North Carolina, a farmer and stock-raiser. His mother was a Miss Orr, of South Carolina. William went to a neighborhood school until fifteen years of age, and at eighteen went to Lafayette Academy, Walker County, Georgia, where he remained two years. In 1853 he went into the mercantile business in Georgia, and continued in it until 1860. In that year he opened out in Chattanooga, and in 1862 joined the Confederate army, continuing in service until the … Read more

The subject of this sketch was born in Alabama, in 1817, the son of a Mr. Crabtree who emigrated from Ireland in his youth. William B., in 1837, went to Miller County, Arkansas, settling on McKinney Bayou, near Red River, where he commenced farming and continued it until the close of the war, when he lost 250 bales of cotton by fire, at a time when that staple was worth fifty cents per pound. Parting with nearly one hundred slaves, Mr. Crabtree moved to the Creek Nation, where he had many strange and varied adventures. It should have been stated … Read more

The subject of this sketch was the second son of Columbus Jackson and Virginia Appleberry. Wayman attended public school until he was thirteen years of age, when he went to the Baptist College, Louisiana, Missouri, for one year, and from there to the Morgan H. Luney Male School, at Fayetteville, Arkansas, where he remained eighteen months, finishing his education after a two years’ sojourn at the Arkansas State University. Leaving this institute in 1874, he spent one year in Texas, after which he commenced the study of law at Fayetteville, at A. M. Wilson’s office (Wilson is a member of … Read more