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Vol. 26 No. 2 Robert Lee Williams by Charles Evans -------------------------------------------------- 120 “The Otoe and Missouria Reservation” by Berlin B. Chapman ----------------------- 132 Boss Neff by Moita Dorsey Davis --------------------------------------------------------- 159 Ellen Howard Miller by Lillian Delly ----------------------------------------------------- 174 Early Post Offices in Oklahoma by George H. Shirk ----------------------------------- 179 Notes and Documents ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 245 Necrologies Clara Alice Ward by Muriel H. Wright ------------------------------------------ 252 Samuel Robert Wilson by Robert L. Williams ---------------------------------- 253 Justus Otho Hall by Robert L. Williams ----------------------------------------- 255 Charles Orr Johnson by Robert L. Williams ------------------------------------ 255 General Andrew Holley by Robert L. Williams -------------------------------- 256 Minutes ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 257 120 Chronicles of Oklahoma ROBERT LEE WILLIAMS By Charles Evans ,John Ruskin said, '' The f mest of fine arts is the art of right living.'' There is so much truth in this, it renders the efforts of the biographer difficult. Two forces make us what we are: heredity and environment. Heredity is defined as all things before ; en­ vironment as aH things afterward. That power to take these two forces, and so blend or use the good in one to offset the bad in the other, until a useful, competent, and beneficial life shall be presented to mankind, that soul may be said to have mastered the art of right living. Robert Lee Williams, a resident of Oklahoma for fifty-two years, I knew well. I met him on the streets of Ardmore in 1905, and I knew at once that he was a man of decided opinions, and that he was profoundly interested in building a State that he and all thinking men and women could see at that time, was just around the corner. Upon inquiry, I found that coming to the Indian Territory in 1896. he set up a law office in Atoka in the Choctaw Nation and at once interested himself not only in the practice of law, but in setting up movements whereby the law or government of the coming State might he grooved and kept in the hands of the party in whose doctrines and faith he had been cradled in Alabama, the product of Thomas Jeffer­ soni the Democratic Party. He, together with T. F. Memminger, J. D. Lankford, and a young man from 'rennessee, Baxter Taylor, a scion of a Tennessee family that gave two governors to that State, set up a newspaper at Atoka-The Atoka Democra.t, and Taylor, was made editor. Baxter Tavlor had been admitted to the Bar and had been a cub reporter on tl;e Bristol Courier, Bristol, Tennessee. The Atoka Democrat continued under their control until the event of statehood. and played a prominent part in shaping the policies of the Democratic Party in the Indian Territory. After a residence in Atoka from August 10, 1896 to January 17, 1897, Robert Lee Williams reached the conclusion that Durant. then a hamlet in a rich, agricultural region, now the county seat of Bryan County, was a better point for operation. He, the twenty• three year old Alabamian, hung out his shingle there, and there be made his home until the time of his death, April 10, 1948. Between these dates, 1900 and 1948, perhaps no man ever liYed in Oklahoma, and not many in America, ever packed in and pressed down more achievement than did Robert Lee Williams. Without em· bellishment or pausing for details, let us note what history record!- Rubert Lee IF iiliams 121 of his progress. First, he was one of the leading men in demanding that Congress admit the territories of Oklahoma and Indian Terri­ tory as a state, and getting that piece of work accomplished. Then in 1906, offering himself to the Bryan County area Dis­ trict 108, as a candidate for membership in the Constitutional Con­ vention meeting in Guthrie, November 20, 1906, he was elected and took his seat with the one hundred and twelYe men who wrote Oklahoma's fundamental charter. He is rated by historians as one of the big five who gave substance and shape to our fundamental law. Some rate him first. The Constitution was completed and signed, September 17, 1907. He offered himself as a candidate for the position as member of the Supreme Court subject to the election held on that day. Again his people honored him, and the highest state tribunal organizing for work, his associate justices~ elected him to the exalted position of Chief Justice or presiding judge of the Oklahoma Supreme Court. On this court he served for eight years. He was here no time server, but the record reveals that he blazed trails of legal procedure and law interpretation which have shaped and pointed out the course of the courts towards the ends of high honor, simple justice, and fearless defense of human rights that has given Okla­ homa law distinct and high value throughout America. Believing that he could serve the people better, although re­ elected to the Supreme Court in 1914, he offered himself as demo­ cratic candidate for Governor and was elected, taking his sPat, .January 11, 1915 and serving until January 14, 1919. Here again he was not merely an office holder. He won fame throughout the 8tate as an economist and throughout the nation as Oklahoma's ,var Governor. America had discovered in Governor Williams, a judicial mind of fearless thinking and dauntless integrity. So on March 19. 1919, he was appointed Judge of the U. S. District Court of the Eastern District of Oklahoma by President Wilson, where he served with distinction. Then in his sixty-seventh year, to set the shining shiel1l of merit upon his marvelous career, President Franklin Roosevelt elt'vated him to the second highest legal tribunal in the land by appointing him to be a member of the United States District Court, 10th Circuit, .April 26, 1937. In the sketch of his life in ''Who's Who in America'' in the sentence telling of his retirement from his Unitd States Circuit judgship. it says: "Retired, March 31, 1939, but continued to serve." It never was a part of his life to give up, to quit. So runs the larger threads of his life's service. But about, and through all this, there ran the warp and woof, the untiring, un- 122 Chronicles o/ Oklahoma ceasing labor for the betterment of the social order in his city, county and state. Only a few illustrations of this can be offered. Williams was not rated by the casual observer as interested in the church or religious influence. Deep in his nature he was devout. He told all those close to him that the home, school, and society needed nothing so much as leaders of high moral character to serve the state. He never forgot the old Methodist Church in Pike County, Alabama and he sent money to keep it in order. This was the church in which he was baptized. He sent money yearly to keep the old cemetery of his ancestors and his family, clean and protected. He ordered simple and neat markers to be set up at his expense for his fore-fathers in the community of his birth. A story of his charitable and religious nature was unfolded at his funeral by his pastor, Reverend Don La Grone. He said, "Judge Williams, when I came to Durant four years ago, took me by the hand and said to me, 'Remember sir, you are my pastor and I want to help. Look about you not only in the church, but throughout the city and the community and when you find the needy and the helpless, there is a fund that I place at your command to give relief.' '' He took this love and friendship of moral forces into the big endeavors of his life. He leaned in his governor­ ship heavily on the advice and friendship of the Right Reverend Theophile Meerschaert, Rabbi Blatt and Dr. Forney Hutchinson. Pastor of St. Lukes Methodist Church, Oklahoma City. He received as a poor boy great kindness from a Church College. Southern University at Greensboro, Alabama. While Governor, he was called to the defense of the Church Colleges of Oklahoma. Tlw President of one of the state teachers colleges ( there are six) was elected in 1916, President of the Presbyterian Synodical College at Tulsa. Knowing the Church College could never make growth or find proper power without equal privileges and certification in parallel courses with State supported institutions, he drew up a bill granting church colleges this certification and presented it through Mr. Glenn Condon of Tulsa to the Legislature. The bill had scarcely appeared before it begot the hostility, hidden of course, but sure and positive of all the State supported institutions of learning-Statr colleges, the A. & M. College and the University. Nothing could br done about the bill without Governor Williams' support. He was visited and he said, '' Of course I will support it. It is just and right and best of all, we need the moral and religious strength which only church colleges can give. When you need me, call on me and I think I can show these big school leaders a thing or two.'' The bill pa~ed the House but got lost in the Senate, and it was found that it was being held back by a senator who was in close touch with the State supported institutions. Through a friendly senator, a call for the bill was made, and it was placed on the calendar. Not many hours before the close of the session, the Senator said, '' Governor Williams, promised his help in passing this bill. Go down and tell Robert Lee 11' iJliarns 123 him I need him badly and at once.'' Needle~ to say, in a few minutes, '' Old Bob'' as he was called, was moving casually about the floor of the Senate and in a few minutes when the bill was taken up and only one speech was made against it by a senator from Hugo, the bill was passed and it became and is now the law.

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