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From the Choctaw Indian Biography Collection, Oklahoma Historical Society
Submitted by Mrs. W. W. Wilson, 4111 Travis St., Dallas, Texas [ date unknown]

William Ward Wilson
Born April 11, 1857
Died July 1, 1924

W. W. Wilson, son of John and Jane Wilson, was born near the mission of Wheelock Academy which is near the old rock church erected in 1846, by Alfred Wright, a Presbyterian missionary. John and Jane Wilson were from Mississippi. There were born to them six sons and two daughters.

At the age of fourteen, W. W. Wilson was enrolled at Spencer Academy, having finished the primary school taught by Miss Jane Austen, who later became the wife of the principal chief of the Choctaw Nation, Chief Jackson McCurtain. Spencer, supported by the Presbyterian Church was for boys only. This school was located ten miles north of Fort Towson and the ruins are still standing [in the late 1920's].

On finishing Spencer, Mr. Wilson soon engaged in the cattle business and for nearly forty years he continued a cattleman. Later years, he turned his attention to banking and farming and was very successful.

The later years of Mr. Wilson's life were very actively spent in looking after his banking interests as well as his farms.

At twenty-one years of age, Mr. Wilson was elected to a seat in the Choctaw Council. He later became a tribal senator and served in this until statehood. During this time, he was also auditor and treasurer. He was a member of the Dawes Commission, in which the interest of the Choctaws were protected.

Mr. Wilson was urged by his friends to become a candidate for principal chief but this honor he declined. The Indians from all sections consulted Mr. Wilson as to personal and business affairs. He was always loyal to their interests and stood very high in the estimation of Indians as well as the whites of his State.

Mr. Wilson was a member of the Church of Christ, at Fort Towson, Oklahoma. He was faithful in attendance at church and an earnest Christian, always using his means to aid the church.

Mr. Wilson first married Rosana Williams (1875); and second, Nanny Carney in 1882. He and his second wife had four sons and one daughter; all are dead. In 1906 he married Ollie Biard. They are the parents of two children, William and Ollie Jane. Mrs. Ollie Wilson's parents were Sam Houston and Lula Johnson Biard of Biardstown, Texas.

William Wilson was born June 24, 1908 and Ollie Jane on Nov. 9, 1910.

Mr. Wilson's father and mother were from Mississippi, the mother having been reared at Wheelock Mission. She was the daughter of a white father and an Indian mother.

contributed by Kathy Leach