An Old Timer - El Reno Herald, El Reno, Indian Territory

Submitted by:  Sheri Hammons hammons@shertech.net
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MINCO, CHICKASAW 
NATION I.T. 
Friday Jan. 26, 1894 
 
An old Timer 
 
 
W.G. Williiams was up today from the south Indian country, consulting 
his attorney, W.H. Criley, on business matters. He is one of the prominent 
stockman of the lower country, he has a fine stock ranch on the Washita 
river, ten miles below Anadarko. "Bill" as he is everywhere known, is now 
54 years of age, and has been 33 years with the Caddo Indians. He left 
Kentucky in 1859 and went to Texas on foot. Here he worked on a ranch at 
$15 per month for awhile, and afterward gathered stray cattle in the 
Wichita Mountains among the hostile Indians, where no white man would go 
and received a consideration of one third of the cattle he recovered. In 
this way he made his first "stake". During the war he was contractor to 
furnish beef to the Osage, Caddo and Comanche Indians, and at the close of 
the war received $18,000 in Confederate currency, which being worthless 
caused his bankruptcy. 
 
He soon recovered from his discouragement, however, and soon began to 
accumulate, and he now has on his ranch 2,500 cattle, 350 horses, and 300 
hogs. His horses are extra fine American blooded horses, the result of 
thirteen years of careful breeding, and the half-moon brand if horses are 
in demand wherever known, Williams has 2,000 acres of land under fence and 
in cultivation, and has besides a pasture one mile square, fenced with 
wire. 

As a result of his prosperity, a large elegant frame residence is 
completed at the ranch, which cost $3,000. Williams is married to a Caddo 
woman and has eight children. During all the time he has been among the 
Indians he has only been in one Indian fight-El Reno Herald.