Wilson N. Jones
History
Sherman Democrat
July 4, 1976
America Always Edition
pg.9
WILSON N. JONES, INDIAN CHIEF,
PHILANTHROPIST, RANCHER
By Oren Art
Wilson N. Jones
Hospital Development
Director
Wilson N. Jones was one of the most notable
and versatile men in the
Choctaw
Nation, a rancher, planter,
statesman and philanthropist, as
well as being a highly successful merchant.
He was born in Mississippi, but the date
isn't certain. One
report gives it as 1831, but the inscription
on his tomb, which records
his death in 1901, states he was 74, which
could make his birth in 1827
or perhaps 1828. He was the youngest
son of Captain Nathaniel
Jones, half Choctaw. half white. His
mother was a Battiest
(pronounced Bah-teest), a prominent
French-Choctaw family still
represented in Eastern Oklahoma
In 1833 the family came over the "Trail of
Tears" to settle on Little
River. Captain Jones was "annuity
captain" in charge of
distribution of government payments to the
tribe. He was also
a member of the Choctaw national council
while it met at the first
council house at old Nanih Waiya, near the
present town of Tuskahoma.
(Nanin
Waiya was named after the
Choctaws' "sacred mound" in
Mississippi.)
Little is known of Wilson Jones' early
years. He did not have
much formal education. In 1848 he left
home and set out to
make his fortune, first as a farmer in the
Little River area.
Starting with nothing, he had in a few
years accumulated
$500, the beginning of a vast estate.
After the Civil War he moved to Shawnee
Creek , about 15 miles east of
Caddo in Bryan County, and began to prosper,
though the road was not
always smooth. In 1867 he went into
the cattle business with
a partner named Myers, and in four years
they had accumulated a herd of
about a 1,000.
Myers drove them overland to Kansas markets,
sold the cattle, and just
kept going on. Jones never knew where.
Wilson Jones was left with nothing but debts
to show for four years of
hard work, but he had acquired such a
reputation for honest and good
management that he was soon on the road to
success again.
After coming of the Katy (M.K.&T.)
Railroad in 1872
he went into the mercantile business in a
big way, owning a store at
Shawnee Creek and another at Caddo.
Due to mismanagement of the Caddo store by a
partner, it failed.
Jones had to take it over pay off
$20,000 in debts, mostly to
St. Louis wholesalers, but he soon had it
flourishing again.
Officially Jones owned only these two
stores, but tradition is that he
owned, had a partnership in, or had some
kind of working interest in
(usually a "silent partnership") in
six other stores, or
eight in all.
Jones' land holdings were not small either.
He had 17,000
acres under fence, about 5,000 cattle, and
75 to 300 head of horses.
About 600 acres were under
cultivation. He had a
very fine orchard, mostly apples; the rest
was in pasture.
Until 1883 a Choctaw could use and hold any
part of the public domain
he cared to fence, improve, and use. A
law passed in 1883
limited the holdings of any one man to a
square mile, but the law was
not retroactive, so Jones was able to keep
his 27-1/2 square miles of
land. He also owned a cotton gin and
had extensive and
profitable in some of the nation's coal
mines.
Once he became established, Jones built a
home at a beautiful site on
Shawnee Creek, near the present settlement
of Cade. The house
had two wings, with 14 rooms in all, and
each room had a fireplace.
One room was about 30 feet long and
wide in proportion.
It reportedly was used as a courtroom
when Jones was a
Choctaw official.
Grand verandahs with walnuts posts and
balusters enclosed the house.
Underneath was a large cellar.
Some said it was
used to confine prisoners awaiting trial
upstairs, but it is more
likely it was used as a storage place,
particularly for fruit.
The house stood for a long time, but a few
years ago was torn down.
Enough lumber was salvaged from it to
build three nice homes.
The owner of one said he was replacing
some of the old
windows a few years back and was
surprised to find the
studdings in the wall were four inches
square instead of the usual two
inch by four inch.
The cemetery near the site is in a sad state
of disrepair, but an
attempt is being made to have the Oklahoma
State Historical Society
restore it, a nd repair the monuments.
The one of Mr. Jones
is truly an impressive one that must have
cost many thousands of
dollars. It was said to have been
shipped to Caddo in
sections and moved to the grave site where
it was assembled.
The inscription on the tomb is about as short and simple as one
could
possibly be. It says only
W.N. Jones
died June 1901
74 years of age
There is no mention of his having been
principal chief (or Governor) of
the Choctaw Nation.
It was not surprising that a man of Wilson
Jones' ability should become
involved in Choctaw politics. In 1884
he became trustee for
Pushmataha District; in 1887 he was elected
treasurer of the Choctaw
Nation, and in 1890 was elected to the
highest office within the gift
of the Nation, that of principal chief - or,
as it was sometimes
called, governor. The election was a
bitter one, Jones
beating the incumbent, Benjamin Smallwood,
by 200 votes.
Jones was a member of the Progressive Pary
(called derisively the
"Polecats" by their opponents.) The
opposition party was
officially the "National," but they too soon
had a nickname, "The
Buzzards". Generally speaking, the
Progressives were the more
liberal and had many mixed-bloods. The
Nationals wanted to
keep all the old ways and had many
full-bloods.
The election of 1892 was the most bitter in
Choctaw history.
Inflammatory newspaper "letters to the
editor" and advertisements added to the
unrest and civil war was narrowly averted.
Jones was opposed by Jacob
B. Jackson, a full-blood
who had attended college in the "states".
The bitterness of the campaign, it is said,
was partly because whites
helped stir up trouble, wanting the Nation
to be disbanded so they
could more easily get possession of Choctaw
land and other property.
Another factor was that the winning
party would have charge
of disbursing large sums of money, more than
$100 for every man, woman
and child in the Nation, as a result of a
per capita payment from the
United States.
The election was close, and there was
probably some fraud on both
sides. It seemed, on the face of the
returns, that Jackson
was the winner, but the vote was so close
that ballots were to be
canvassed by the national council, which was
to meet in October.
Several Jones partisans were murdered during
the campaign and after the
election. Armed Jackson followers
prevented the arrest of the
culprits. In response to an appeal
from Jones, a company of
calvary from Fort Reno came in and outright
war was averted.
Nine Choctaws were sentenced to death,
but only one was
actually executed for the murders.
Jackson, the losing candidate, was
instrumental in restoring calm.
He constantly urged his followers not to
fight, but to let
the law take its course.
When the returns were officially canvassed,
the count was 1,705 for
Jones to 1,697 for Jackson, a difference of
only eight votes.
(Some reports put the difference at
three.) Each
side claimed victory, the nationals saying
Jones controlled the
assembly, which was true. The nationals
felt they had been
cheated out of the election, but, largely
because of the urging of
Jackson, they accepted the decision.
Although Governor Jones was lacking in formal
education, his
administration was memorable for the radical
changes made in the
educational system. Three new schools
were built, one a
school for girls near the Choctaw capital,
appropriately named
Tuskahoma
Academy. A school for boys was
built near
Hartshorne and was named after the governor, Jones
Academy.
This school is still in operation, but
the students now stay
in the dormitories at the academy and attend
public school in
Hartshorne, about two or three miles away.
A third school, erected for "Choctaw
Freedmen," was named Tuskaloosa
Institute. The term "Freedmen" deserves
explanation for those
not familiar with Choctaw history.
During the Civil War the
Choctaws sided with the South. Many
Choctaws owned slaves.
After the war the federal government insisted
the Choctaws (and the
rest of the five civilized tribes) give the
freed slaves full
citizenship. The Choctaws resisted
bitterly, but pressure was
such they finally had to relent .
Tuskaloosa Institute was
built to provide education, but "Jim Crow"
laws were enforced in the
Choctaw Nation, and intermarriage was a crime
punishable by death.
Governor Jones was also insistent that Choctaw
schools be run by
Choctaw educators, and there were plenty of
highly qualified Choctaws
for these posts.
Although successful in business and politics,
Wilson Jones' personal
life was beset by tragedy, almost from the
beginning. When he
was young he married the daughter of Colonel
Pickens, well known
Chickasaw leader. Two children were born
of this marriage,
both of whom died young, soon to be followed
by the mother.
In 1855 he married Louisa LeFlore, a
granddaughter of Thomas
LeFlore,
district chief and kinsman of Greenwood
LeFlore of Mississippi, who was
one of the wealthiest men in the United
States. To this
marriage four children were born. Of
them, only a son , W.W.
Jones, and a daughter, Annie, grew to
maturity. Annie, a
beautiful and very intelligent girl died in
her senior year in college
at Fulton, Mo.
Willie, the son, received the best educational
opportunities, but
developed habits of dissipation. In 1885
on the streets of
Caddo, he killed a man. Three years
later he himself was
killed while returning with a group of
revelers from Texas, his body
being found on the sands of Red River.
He left an infant son,
Nat, who eventually became the heir of Wilson
N. Jones.
On Willie's tombstone in the family lot is
engraved : "W.W. SON OF W.N.
& LOUISA JONES. BORN DEC. 22, 1860.
DIED
JAN 27, 1888." On the bottom line is the
time of his death:
"At 9:00 P.M."
Louisa Jones died in 1864. Her tombstone
says she was "AGED
..ABOUT 32 YEARS".
There was another marriage that was not
recorded and on which the
details are vague. This wife was Martha
Risner, a white
woman, daughter of George Risner. This
marriage lasted a
year, one son being born to them. Then
Martha left and
remarried . It is not certain if there
was a divorce or if
Governor Jones had the marriage annulled, as
he was politically
powerful enough to do. The boy spent
many of his boyhood
summers at the ranch. His father seemed
to like him but never
acknowledged him as his son. In his will
he left him a small
cash settlement, but it was bequeathed "To my
friend" not "To my son".
Governor Jones' final venture into matrimony
was in 1876 when he
married a widow, Mrs. Belle Curtis, daughter
of Colonel Heaston of
Arkansas. She too bore him two children.
They too
died in infancy, but their mother survived
their father.
Governor Jones had long transacted business
with banks and wholesale
houses in Sherman, and in the late '90s he
purchased a home there, the
former residence of Judge Thomas J. Brown of
the Texas Supreme Court.
Most of Jones' declining years were
spent in this home.
When he died in 1901 his estate was
valued at $250,000.
In his will he provided for his sole remaining
heir, Nat Jones, and
made several other bequests, stipulating that
the bulk of his fortune
be used to erect or buy a hospital for the
citizens of southern
Oklahoma and north Texas. Tradition is
that he wanted to
hospital to be in Texas, as Oklahoma was not a
state and did not have
laws governing the operation of a hospital.
Tradition also says that one of the provisions
of the will was that no
poor person or any Indian was ever to be
refused admission to the
hospital. Some old-time Indians say at
one time they did not
have to pay for using the hospital, but did
have to pay the doctors who
treated them. Some Indians say that
later they did get a
discount, but now this is not so.
One final act in the Jones family tragedy was
in 1916 when Nat Jones
fell to his death from the ninth floor of a
hotel in Oklahoma City.
The official verdict was suicide, but
the family never
accepted that. They said he was thrown
from the window, and
that the condition of his body, particularly
the fingernails, showed he
had fought vigorously for his life, had
grasped the edge of the window
and had hung on until his fingernails had been
almost torn from their
sockets by whoever it was who wanted him out
of the way.
The will was vigorously contested by the
family, litigation dragging
on for 28 years. Finally, on June 27,
1929, for consideration
of $100,000, the Sherman hospital and nurses
school was purchased and renamed the Wilson N.
Jones Memorial Hospital.
Chief Wilson
Nathaniel Jones
Biography of
Wilson N. Jones -
Access Genealogy
Wilson Jones
1890 - 1894 -
Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma
Chief Wilson
Nathaniel Jones -
Chronicles of Oklahoma
Historical
Marker
Biography Index
Susan Hawkins
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