Biography of William Alfred Underwood - Bryan County OK Submitted by: Sara Rollins 12 Sep 2001 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- USGENWEB ARCHIVES NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by any other organization or persons. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material, must obtain the written consent of the contributor, or the legal representative of the submitter, and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof of this consent. The submitter has given permission to the USGenWeb Archives to store the file permanently for free access. http://www.usgwarchives.net/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------- This record was copied from: Volume III, Oklahoma A History of the State and Its People. Published by Lewis Historical Publishing Co., Inc. New York 1929 William Alfred Underwood born May 20, 1876, Gainsville, Cooke, Texas William Alfred Underwood moved to the Indian Territory in January 1892, and settled near New Boggy Depot, Choctaw Nation, where his home is still located. He completed his education in the neighborhood schools and entered the stock raising business, in which with farming, he has made much of a success and today he is one of the important and influential men of his community. Mr. Underwood has been most active in all movements for the advancement and progress of his section. For several terms he has served as a member of the local School Board for District No. 12, which includes the consolidated schools of Atoka County. In politics he is a Democrat and has worked with great energy for the interests of the party throughout the community. He is an active member of Wapanucka Lodge, Free and Accepted Masons, and is affiliated with the Consistory, Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite. The father of Mr. Underwood was James Matthew Underwood, born in St. Louis, Missouri, January 20, 1849. The latter's Grandfather was an English sailor who settled in Kentucky, just after the American Revolution, and his father John C. Underwood, born May 17, 1808, in Ohio County, Kentucky, was a well known machinist of his day, who installed the first milling machinery at Silver City, New Mexico, just before the commencement of the Civil War. The father of the Mr. Underwood of whom this is a record migrated to Texas about 1866. Mr. Underwood's mother Epsia (Marlow) Underwood, was of Choctaw descent and was born, October 22, 1850 in St. Francis County, Missouri. Her parents migrated to Texas after the Civil War, where her future husband, the father of Mr. Underwood was a prosporous farmer. William Alfred Underwood was married in Fannin County, Texas to Anna Julia Wilson, the daughter of Henry and Lucy (Roberts) Wilson. Her father was born in Mississippi, was a full-blood Choctaw and her mother enrolled in that tribe as a full blood member, after her marriage. Mr. and Mrs. Underwood were the parents of a daughter, Ruth Cleo, born September 22, 1900, who devoted her life, since the close of her scholastic studies to the advancement and progress of the younger generation. She is at present (1928) a teacher of Home Economics at the Oklahoma Presbyterian College, at Durant, and formerly was a teacher at the old Puskahoma Academy for girls. She also taught for a time in the high school at Spiro, LeFlore County. Miss Underwood is a graduate of the Oklahoma Presbyterian College at Durant, class of 1912, and she received her degree of Bacholor of Arts from the Southeastern Teachers College in Durant in 1927.