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REV. ALEXANDER S. WILLIAMS
Vol. 3, p. 1167

The law of the Methodist Church provides not only a course of study
for its accredited itinerant ministers, but a scheme of promotion
that may inspire the humblest preacher in the ranks to aspire to the
office of bishop. The office of presiding elder is one of
responsibility and requires more than ordinary intelligence and tact
for the successful performance of the duties it initials. The fact,
therefore, that a full-blooded Choctaw Indian has reached that
exalted station is a fulfillment of the prophecy of early
missionaries that the Indians could be made useful as Christians and
a patent compliment to the United States Government which for several
generations has been doing its level best through education to make
them helpful citizens.

In 1894, during a session of the Indian Mission Conference of the
Methodist Episcopal Church, South, presided over by Bishop HARGROVE,
Alexander S. Williams, who had been converted under the ministry of
some preacher sent into the wild woods of the Choctaw Nations, was
ordained to preach the gospel and for more than twenty years he has
been devotedly faithful to his trust. His endeavors have been among
his own people exclusively and he has filled many stations, reaching
the high mark of his usefulness a few years ago when he was made
presiding elder of the Chickasaw-Choctaw district. In that work he
visited practically all the charges of his church in the old
Chickasaw and Choctaw nations, and his recommendations relating to
the assignment of preachers, missionary appropriations, building of
churches, etc., served as guides to the bishop and the church board
in furthering church activities.

For several years also Mr. Williams was interpreter for presiding
elders of districts in the Indian country where local church
memberships were of both white and Indian races. He traveled in this
capacity with Rev. Orland SHAY, Rev. J.W. WHITE, Rev. J.A. KENNEY and
Rev. A.C. PICKENS. Both before and since that period he has been one
of the most used and useful interpreters for the conference in
various capacities. It is probable that no other Indian of the
Chickasaw and Choctaw tribes has distributed as many Bibles among the
Indian people. For some years Mr. Williams was agent among the Five
Tribes for the American Bible Society and while traveling and
preaching distributed Bibles among thousands of Indians.

Mr. Williams was born near the present postoffice of Bethel, in
McCurtain County, Oklahoma, December 2, 1868. His father, Sylvester
Williams, also was a Methodist preacher, a soldier in the Confederate
army during the war between the states under General COOPER, and for
several years a representative of Nashoba County in the Choctaw
Legislature. Sylvester Williams was born in the Choctaw Nation, was
educated at Spencer Academy, and died in 1879. In his ministry he was
associated with such pioneer Methodist preachers as E.R. SHEPARD and
Willis FOLSOM, the latter of whom was a Choctaw.

The first school attended by Alexander S. Williams was taught by his
father, and was a neighborhood school situated in the vicinity of
Bethel. He entered Spencer Academy in 1883, and during the three
years he was a student there was under O.P. STARK and H.R.
SCHEMMERHORN. He next spent one year at Roanoke College, Salem,
Virginia, and on returning to Indian Territory began teaching English
to his own people in the neighborhood schools. Later he served four
years in the Choctaw Legislature, and upon retiring was selected by
the Legislature as national school trustee for the Second Judicial
District. Silas BACON and Mitchell HARRISON, with Mr. Williams,
composed the board of education for the Nation. The examiners of
teachers appointed by Mr. Williams in the Second District were
William MCKINNEY, of Smithville, and Thomas HUNTER, of Hugo. Ben
WATKINS, an intermarried white citizen, who was one of the leading
educators of the Choctaw Nation, also served for a time on the board
of examiners.

Probably Mr. Williams' most important work for the Choctaw Nation
was as a member of the Indian delegation that made a treaty with the
United States Government through the Dawes Commission. He and D.C.
GARLAND represented the Second District of the Choctaw Nation, and
their deliberations lasted for a month, finally resulting, at Fort
Smith, in the Atoka Agreement, in 1892.

Mr. Williams was married in 1888 to Miss Sillis JOHNSON, a full-
blood Choctaw, and they became the parents of one daughter, who is
now Mrs. Florence NELSON, the wife of a farmer at Golden, Oklahoma.
Mrs. Williams died January 26, 1915, and June 2, 1915, Mr. Williams
was married to Miss Clarissa CALDWELL, also of Indian blood, who for
four years was a student at Wheelock Academy. The Williams family
home is situated at Golden, Oklahoma, where Mr. Williams is the owner
of a valuable and highly-cultivated tract of farmland.

Typed for OKGenWeb by Jack Childers November 28, 1998.