The subject of this sketch was born September 25, 1858, at Choska, Creek Nation, fourth son of James M. McKellopp, whose father came from Scotland in 1810, and settling in Alabama, married a sister to Moses Perryman, brother of Lewis Perryman, father of the present chief. James M. McKellopp, father of the subject of this sketch, was robbed and then murdered by Quantrell and his bushwhackers, at Choska, in 1864. His mother, who was daughter to Henry Marshall, of a prominent Creek family, died in 1865, from exposure, at Fort Gibson. Albert attended school at Tallahassee for three years, and from thence, in 1876, was sent by the nation to Wooster University, Wooster, Ohio, where he took the gold medal for Latin when graduating from the preparatory class. Here he remained five years. His first national office was that of clerk of the House of Warriors, in October 1881, which office, by successive re-elections, he retains to this present day. In 1882 he was elected national tax collector, and retained the position three terms. In 1888 he became inspector of the Muskogee district, which office he still holds. He was appointed in 1889 a member of the board of examiners for national teachers. In 1890 he was elected delegate to represent the Creek Nation at Washington. For the past four years he has been private secretary to the principal chief. In August 1889, he married Mrs. Stidham, daughter of James F. Cooper and Lydia Gosnold, both of Willow Springs, Missouri. Mr. Cooper was in the Mexican war, and was sergeant major in the Union Service. Mrs. McKellopp is of French and English descent. She was born in November 1865, at Hillsborough, Illinois, and taught school for some years in the nation, and while visiting the Teachers’ Institute she first met her present husband. Mrs. McKellopp is a most accomplished person, highly educated, and excellent conversationalist and very attractive and fascinating. She was an active member of the Teachers’ Institute in 1887, 1888, 1889, 1890 and 1891, and was honored by the position of president in 1888, and secretary in 1889 and 1890. She organized the Woman’s’ Home Mission Society and Sunday-school, of which she was president, and she is a member of the Baptist Church, Muskogee, and assisted in the work of the evangelical mission in 1888. The subject of this sketch has one child, named Arthur Albert, by a former marriage with Miss Florence Wade, daughter of F. S. Wade and Berenice M. (Coleman) Wade, the latter one-quarter Cherokee. Mr. McKellopp is five feet ten inches high and weighs 135 pounds. He is a gentleman of good address, and is cultivated and refined in manner. He owns a handsome residence near Muskogee, with a farm and stock in connection. He is also a lawyer of considerable note and practices in the district and supreme courts.
