A
Biographical Sketch
of
Sarah Elizabeth Inman
and
William Daniel Wilson
by
Alice Faye Weaver Brown
1993
SARAH ELIZABETH INMAN
Sarah Elizabeth Inman was born near Visalia in Tulare County, California, the daughter of Finley Glover Inman and his wife Mary Frances Carden Inman. I believe her correct birthdate to be August 1870, although 1869 and 1871 have also been indicated as her date of birth on later censuses. During her lifetime she had two nicknames, as an infant she was called “Fanny”, and in later life “Lizzie”.
When the 1870 census was taken on August 18 her age was given as 1/12 indicating that she was one month old, however in the space for writing the month in which her birth occurred if within the year “April” is written. It this were true, she would be about four months of age, not one month. Also, if she was really 1/12 of a year old she would have been born during July, and she indicates on the 1900 census that her month of birth is August. On that same record her year of birth is shown as 1871. Her ages on censuses which were taken over ten years after 1870 are: 11 in June 1880; 28 in June 1900; 38 probably in the month at May 1810; and 60 in February 1920, the last year of her life.
The reason I believe she was born in August 1870 is that her parents have only one child shown with them on that year's census and that is Fanny. Also, with her mother's name and that of her greatgrandmother Mary Frances Coker (who lived next door) being the same, and Fanny is a nickname for the name “Frances”, it seems likely that they might call the first female child by that nickname. In addition to this evidence, there has been found no record of an obituary, newspaper mention, or burial site for a child of Finley Glover and Mary Frances Carden Inman. This is not characteristic of the Carden family and their relatives among whom the young family was living during this period of time. Their family deaths are well recorded in newspaper mentions, obituaries, and marked graves.
When Sarah Elizabeth was a young girl her mother died. She is buried in a cemetery on a knoll just above the road just before reaching Weldon, Kern County, California where the family moved from Tulare County. Originally called the Stramler Family Cemetery, it is located on what had been their property, and is very small. The cemetery is approximately 40 X 80 with only two stones, one of which was added in 1989. The CARDENNICOLL plot in the cemetery is 33'x27'. (The information about this cemetery was provided by Shirley Jackson of Kern County, Bakersfield, CA, a member of the Genealogical or Historical Society of that county.)
On a marble shaft are listed Sarah Elizabeth's (or Lizzie as I will call her from this point)greatgrandmother, Mary Frances Coker died Jany 27, 1889, aged 96 years; Lizzie's grandmother, Elizabeth W. Carden died Mar 28, 1887, aged 65 years; and Lizzie's mother Mary F. Inman died Mar 4, 1876 aged 32 y, 1 m, 9 d; and other family members, Minnle M. Vickers died Nov 20, 1877 aged 3 years; Robert Lee Vickers died Jan 9, 1889 aged 11 years; and George E. Nicoll died Apr 1, 1887 aged 11 days.
The flat stone reads:
NICOLL
Will Clara
Apr 1, 1889 Oct 31, 1886
Oct 6, 1976 Dec 12, 1976
The new stone (1989) is inscribed:
Marian Murray Nicoll
Nov 30, 1907
Mar 28. 1989
Shirley Jackson says this is apparently John Nicoll's wife, one of several that he married during his lifetime. She wrote that he never remained single very long after a wife would die. He did not die until 1918.
According to the information from Jackson the wooden fence that once surrounded the CardenNicoll plot is down. In a part of the cemetery not far from where his family's plot ends there is a small area with a wooden fence around (probably) the graves of William A. Stramler, died prior to 1870; Rachel C. Stramler, death date unknown, and Reuben S. Stramler who died in 1871. (Also, William B. Weldon for whom the community was named is “reportedly” buried in this cemetery.)
The cemetery is surrounded by a wire fence, as shown in a drawing by Jackson who notes: Probably also buried there are John F. Carden died 1893 (probate court records); Elizabeth M. (Carden, Vickers) Nicoll, w/o John Nicoll; Alice Nicoll, d/o John and Elizabeth (does not appear with father and his family in 1900 census nor is she mentioned in his probate records).
[John F. and Elizabeth M. are Mary Frances Carden Inman's siblings.]
The obituary of Lizzie's grandmother Elizabeth Warren Coker Carden, printed in the KernCounty Californian in its issue dated April 9, 1887 tells much about the family. She was born near Sallsbury, Rowan County, North Carolina March 28, 1822 and died on her birthday near Weldon.
When she was about three her parents moved the family to central Tennessee and after nine years on to Carroll County, Arkansas. (The given name of Elizabeth Warren Coker's father is still unknown to me, but her mother's name as has been written above was Mary Frances Coker. Perhaps Mary Frances' maiden name was Warren.)
Elizabeth Warren Coker married Thomas Jefferson Carden in February of 1843 in Arkansas. This couple had nine children and four of them, as well as her mother, survived her. The living children were all with her when she died.
The Carden family moved to Visalia, California in the fall of 1869 where Thomas Jefferson Carden died in August of 1871. (This is another reason that I believe Lizzie was born in August 1870 Mary Frances Coker moved with the Carden family, and I believe that Finley Glover Inman and Mary Frances Carden were married in Carroll or Boone County, Arkansas just before the family left for California. This would make August of the next year just about when it would be expected that they would have their first child. However, due to fires in the courthouses of Boone and Carroll Counties, Arkansas I have been unable to establish their marriage date or place. In 1870 Finley Glover was 21 and Mary Frances 25 which seems to me to be an indication that my assumptions are correct.)
Shortly after Lizzie's grandfather Thomas Jefferson Carden's death her great-grand-mother, grandmother and her children including Lizzie and her parents settled in the valley of the south branch of Kern River. Lizzie's grandmother maintained a home there until her death, and this is where we find Finley Glover and Lizzie in 1880 when this census was taken.
Lizzie's grandmother Carden became a member of the M. E. Church, South, when she was fourteen years old, and according to the death article “lived a devoted, consistent Christian life through all the succeeding years. She was a woman of prayer, and although she suffered much and was an invalid for about two years caused from disorder of the liver, she was never known to murmur (sic) or complain of her lot. The writer called to see her several times during the last six months and always found her in a state of Christian cheerfulness, and expressing herself as ready to go at the Master's call, and was finally gathered home as a ripe sheaf. The relatives and friends were exceedingly kind during her late illness and much credit is due them.She was a faithful wife, a devoted, loving mother, and a kind neighbor.” (These words from the newspaper were written by Rev. W. S. Clinesmith, Pastor, Kernville).
In 1880 the Kern County, California census was taken by Jesse L. Bennett, according to Jackson a “much beloved Methodist minister...”, and the census contains “many errors”. Correctly it should have shown living in Elizabeth Warren Carden's home: her son William Y. Carden; her daughter E. Vickers; her grandson Robert L. Vickers; her granddaughter Harriet E. Vickers; her son J. F. Carden; her soninlaw F. G. Inman; and her mother F. Coker.
Lizzie Inman is shown as Inman, E., 11, apparently boarding with a family named Nailor. There has been discovered no explanation for Lizzie being with this family, but there is also a young girl 14 years of age shown as boarding with this family. It is possible that she and this other girl were visiting in the Nailor home and the census enumerator wrote them down as “borders”. The Nailors as far as I know were unrelated to the Cardens, but may have been grandparents or other relatives of the other girl whose name was shown as Cooper, V.
Soon after this census Lizzie's father returned to Christian County, MO where most of his relatives lived, and that next year on the 6th day of February 1881 married his cousin Mary Louisa Wilson. Lizzie remained in California with her Carden relatives near whom she had lived all of her life.
Family tradition is that Lizzie was raised “near Bakersfield.” This mistake, according to Jackson, “undoubtedly arose from the fact that William Carden and family and James B. Firebaugh and family moved to the outskirts of Bakersfield in the midnineties after she left.” (Lizzie's aunt Sarah Jane Carden married James Bolton Firebaugh).
Lizzie was in Christian County, MO by March 10, 1892 when one of her aunts wrote her the following letter which is now very worn and some words can no longer be read:
Weldon Kern Co Calif
Miss Lizzie Inman
Dear niece
I will ans your letter received a while ago this leaves us quite well. Liney is getting a great deal better she is up and around she has bin very sick and her recovery at once was doubtful. Bessie is going to school she has all the work to do Willie is going they have ____ _______ school. Dick is at school Willie has gone to Scodies Jim and Ealeanur they gone to glenville. Sarah is not feeling very well she is inbed she hasn't bin very well at times all winter.
Miss Anna Cross died very suddenly the last of Feb Lizzie had bin to a dance two nights before and taken her death very much at heart John taken dinner here the other day he didn appear to care I suppose the out fit is getting worse very day if reports are true they are stealing all the time. We are having very pleasant weather. there is know grass and if we _____ have rain soon there will be none and its getting to late to expect much. the most of crops looks very bad. Jims is fine. he put his in early and had the benifit of the showers that came. I was down looking at your Uncle Will's Crop on Sunday his prospects are very bad for a crop from news papers report I suppose its a Drouth Oranges & lemons are all killed in the southern part of state and very dry so I think this country will be very Dull. You will please pardon this letter as I am going to write you a plainer letter than ever before allthough I may be wrong in many things you can be the Judge and will ask you to burn up this letter and all o_____ you have received from me. in the first place if you should settle down and start in this world to lead a pleasant life and look a head to have plenty and read books of knowledge and train your mind while your are young and health is good and throw all trash away such as novels and all such trashy litature would be as happy a day for me as I ever seen. those young folks here they are reading novels and all trashy litature they can get a holt of. I cant see what one can expect to make out of themselves when their minds are on such. I am sorry to say my Health is not good enough to promise you I would take care of you. and see you needed for nothing as long as I have any think I would divide to the last.
now I am Satisfied you can never get along with your aunt Helen to beg___n with you she has tried to slur you every since you left. and thats not all she started in to get away with all that property that was her ententlons and her
The letter ends abruptly with the word “her” and the rest of the letter either has been lost with time, or Lizzie might have destroyed the rest of it, even though she did not “burn up” all of the letter as her aunt requested.
Jackson's opinion about the identity of the people mentioned in the letter follows:
It is my opinion that Aunt Elizabeth Carden Nicoll wrote this letter to Lizzie. From the letter it appears that Lizzie and her “new” Aunt Helen did not get along while Lizzie was still in California, and that Aunt Helen did not like Lizzie even after she moved hundreds of miles away.
The aunt who wrote the letter seems to love Lizzie very much and to be concerned about her welfare, but unable to do anything materially for her does plead with her to get her life in order and strive for a better future. I believe Lizzie destroyed the rest of the letter because it divulged information that she did not want to risk falling into other people's hands. The letter was precious to her or she would not have kept it all of her life.
From the tone of the letter and the dates of the events following I believe that Lizzie had become pregnant in California and, as she was already in the midst of discord with Aunt Helen, this added problem brought about her moving to Christian County, MO, where her father and his family were residing. For example: The letter from her aunt is dated March 10, 1892; Martha Anna Frances was born April 1, 1892; William Daniel Wilson (brother of Mary Louisa Wilson Inman wife of Lizzie's father) and Sarah Elizabeth Inman, both of Nixa, MO were married May 29, 1892 at Ozark, Christian County, MO.
In 1900 on the federal census Will and Lizzie Wilson and their children were still living in Christian County and their information shows that they have been married eight years and that Martha A. is eight years old with her birthdate being April 1892. That year they have three children in addition to “Annie” as Martha A. was called: Harvy D. age five; Artelia “Artie” was three; and Leslie nine months old.
Also living with them was Will's mother Nancy Ann lnmon/Inman Wilson, age 79, widowed, and a relative listed as a boarder, James Tyler, 31 years old and single.
Will seemed to love Lizzie very much from a letter that he wrote to her from Hunnewell, Kansas in September 1893, there he and some of his Inman relatives from Missouri were anticipating the land run into the Cherokee Outlet on the 16th. He spoke of how he missed her and Annie, referring to them as “my babies”, and how he was anxious for the run to be over so they could be together again. He showed that he truly wanted to get a claim in the land run for his family. However, as far as is known he did not get a claim, or if he did he soon left it and returned home where they remained until they came to Oklahoma before statehood in a wagon train with relatives and friends, including Lizzie's father Finley Glover Inman and Will's sister Mary Louisa Wilson Inman who came with their two children Mae and Walter.
They settled in Craig County where they rented a farm and Will farmed it to support the family. In the household when the 1910 census was taken the couple had two more children born after 1900: Lilly 7, born in MO; Silvy 2, first of their children born in Oklahoma. Her birthday was September 28, 1907 not too long before statehood in November. Also living with the family was Will's mother Nancie A. 80, a widow, and a boarder William M. Coher 28, single. Harvey Daniel helped his father on the farm and Coher's occupation is listed as general farmer, so he may have assisted with the chores on the Wilson farm. (I really believe this man's name should be spelled Coker, and that he is a relative. However, when I copied it from the census film itappeared to be Coher and I did not know at that time that there were Coker relatives.)
This year's census shows that Lizzie had borne eight children with six living. It is my guess that the children not living would be one born during the four year period between Leslie and Lillie, and one born in the five years between Lilly and Sylva. While living in Craig County Will and Lizzie's final child Roy Alva Wilson was born on September 9, 1911.
The family moved to a rural area near Prague, Earlsboro, and Shawnee, Oklahoma where the Lincoln County and Pottawatomie County lines meet. While there William Daniel Wilson died on February 23, 1913. He died one morning about 8:00, probably from a cerebral hemorrhage, according to his death certificate. He was 54 years, two months, eight days old.
Two years later death visited the family again when Nancy A. Wilson died on November 12, 1915.
Will and his mother are both buried in Garden Grove Cemetery near the village of Econtushka in Dent Township, Pottawatomie County, OK. The cemetery is across the rural road north of the Garden Grove Missionary Baptist Church which the family attended.
Living not too far from Lizzie and her family was her father and his family. Finley Glover and Mary Louisa Wilson Inman, their son Walter, and Lizzie Inman Glover Wilson Sanders (sister of Nancy Ann Inman Wilson) lived in the home of Tom and Mae Inman Robison and their children. This household was more to the west than Lizzie and Will's.
Greataunt Lizzie Sanders also died during the years that the families lived in this area and she, too, is buried in the Garden Grove Cemetery, next to her sister. She was more than 100 years old at the time at her death. She never had any children.
Tom Robison worked building wooden oil derricks and the family moved northeast toward Oilton and Drumright where new oil fields were opening up. The widowed Lizzie also moved her family to Drumright where she rented a house for her and her children on the west end of Drumright's Main Street atop what was and is called Tiger Hill. To support her family she ran a boarding house in their home mostly inhabited by oil field workers, some of whom were employed by Tom Robison.
Walter Inman died in Drumright around 1917 to the best of the memory of older family members. His grave has not been located, but it is believed he is buried at Drumright. He could be buried near his halfsister Sarah Elizabeth “Lizzie” Inman Wilson because she also died at Drumright on December 14, 1920 after being under the care of a physician for four days gravelyill with pneumonia. She died at 8:00 p.m. O. B. Stubblefield was the undertaker who made the arrangements for the burial of Sarah Elizabeth Inman Wilson in the Masonic Cemetery south of Drumright, Creek County, Oklahoma. Information for the death certificate was given by Will and Lizzie's first son Harvey Daniel Wilson. Her year of birth is given as 1870.
Among Lizzie's survivors were her father and stepmother, Finley Glover and Mary L. Wilson Inman; four daughters, Martha Anna Frances Cagle, Artelia “Artie” Sikes, Lillie Mae and Sylva; three sons, Harvey Daniel, Lester Finley, and Roy Alva.
Written by Alice Faye Weaver Brown
September 1993
WILLIAM DANIEL WILSON
William Daniel Wilson was born December 15, 1859 in Christian County, MO, the son of Francis P. Wilson and Nancy Ann Inmon/Inman. His paternal grandparents were Joel Wilson and his wife Mary, both born in NC. The couple resided in Giles County, TN when their son Francis P. was born ca 1831. (The initial P is believed by family researchers to be for Pinckney).
In the early 1850s, along with several Wilson and Inman families Francis P. Wilson and Nancy Ann Inman moved to Missouri where they were married July 20, 1854. Their marriage is recorded in Greene County, Book B, Page 8.
When William Daniel was less than three years old his father Francis P. Wilson was enrolled and mustered into Co. D 8th Regiment of Missouri Cavalry Volunteers at its beginning in Springfield, Greene County, MO on August 9, 1862. He left his wife Nancy at their Ozark home with a five day old baby girl named Martha Anna Frances, a four year old daughter Mary Louisa, and perhaps another son James, six years of age. (Martha Anna Frances and James died as children and their death dates are unknown, but both were deceased by 1870).
Francis P. Wilson died February 23, 1864 at Duvall's Bluff, AR in the Regimental Hospital. The cause of death was pneumonia and chronic diarrhea, disease contracted byexposure in the line of his duty in the service of the U.S. Government as a Union soldier.
Private Wilson was thirtyone years old. He was born in Giles County, TN, was 5'8" tall, fair complexion, hazel eyes, dark hair and was by occupation, a farmer.
Nancy Ann Inman Wilson supported her family with her widow's Civil War pension that she drew until her death on 12 November 1915. She is buried in Garden Grove Cemetery in Pottawatomie County, OK.
In 1881 in Christian County, MO William Daniel Wilson's sister Mary Louisa married Finley Glover Inman. This was the groom's second marriage. He had an eleven year old daughter, Sarah Elizabeth Inman, by his first wife Mary Frances Carden Inman who died when their daughter was six years old. His wife was buried near her family in Weldon, Kern County, CA, and Sarah Elizabeth was still living with her mother's family.
William Daniel Wilson (called Will or Bill) was sentenced to ten years imprisonment in the State Penitentiary at Jefferson City, MO for the crime of second degree murder in August 1883. The murder took place on the evening of Saturday, Oct. 21, 1882.
In a neighborhood version of the story, the victim Daniel Stephenson was unfaithful to his wife Ann Inman Stephenson (the baby sister of Will's brotherinlaw Finley Glover Inman), but it was unclear whether he was attacked for his philandering or for other reasons.
Stephenson, in an old Inman family story, had been out that evening with his brotherinlaw Jack Inman and Will Wilson. As kinsman Robert Inman told the story, the three men traveled to Springfield and drank heavily; on the way home, Will Wilson clubbed Stephenson to death with a wagon standard.
In another version, two men one of them Will - tied Daniel to a team of horses, and after whipping them, let the horses drag Daniel through “new ground” full of tree stumps. This is according to a Stephenson family history compiled by Nora Ann Maynard Hart and verified by others.
According to Springfield newspapers, Robert Inman's version, while not perfect, comes nearer the truth: After the murder on the 21st, the Springfield Express carried the following report in its issue of October 27:
Ozark, MO, Oct. 23, 1882 A brutal murder was committed five miles northwest of here last Saturday (Oct. 21) evening. Jack Inman and Bill Wilson returned from Springfield by way of the Faught school house, where a Greenback(political party) meeting was being held. They inquired for one Daniel Stevenson and asked him into their wagon. He consented, and this was the last seen of him as they drove away. His absence causing some uneasiness, a search was made Sunday morning. His coat was found first, then his hat and this led to discovery of his dead body in the brush. A family feud is at the bottom of the murder as Inman is the brotherinlaw of Stevenson.
The murderers are at large, and a strong posse of citizens is now being organized here, and the county will be scoured for the fugitives. The excitement is intense, and popular indignation is greatly aroused. (Since the above was written, it has been learned that Wilson and Inman beat Stevenson to death with wooden clubs.)
On Nov. 3, 1882 the Express reported that “the murderers of Dan Stevenson are still at large, notwithstanding the active measures (a posse) to effect their capture.”
The circumstances of the capture of Inman and Wilson are unknown, but according to court records, on March 5, 1883, James R. Vaughan was appointed special prosecutor to try charges of firstdegree murder against Jack Inman and William Daniel Wilson. (It is believed the two men may have fled to Arkansas where the Inmans had relatives).
The trial coincided with a spate of local murders, including a John (Jack) Griffin who shot and killed John P. Conroy in a Springfield saloon on Feb. 28, 1883. Dominating the front pages of newspapers was the bank robbery trial of Frank James in Gallatin, MO.
The Express was incensed about the killings and editorialized about Inman, Wilson and Griffin: “Four redhanded murderers were taken from the county jail here last Monday morning (Aug. 27) to Ozark for trial in the Christian County Circuit Court. All these crimes were atrocious murders, and if the murderers escape the gallows, it will appear to the unbiased mind that capital punishment has but a small chance.”
Inman was found not guilty. A full report on the murder trials was reserved for Griffin, who was convicted and sentenced to 45 years and taken to Jefferson City for imprisonment along with Wilson.
William Daniel Wilson was inmate #3802, 23, a farmer, 5'7", his foot length 9 and 1/2 inches, dark hair, blue eyes, and light complexioned. His religion was listed as Campbellite, his“habits of life” intemperate; his education reads and writes; no former imprisonment. The information on his prison record says that his mother lives in Nixa, Christian Co., MO, he is unmarried, has scar on left knee cap, scar over right eye, weight 145 pounds. The charge was murder second degree, in Christian County, 10 years from Sept. 8, 1883.
His full term would have been to Sept. 8, 1893, but he was pardoned by Governor David R. Francis on August 20, 1890. The document says that the Governor does “hereby pardon, release, discharge and forever set free...and I do hereby entitle the said WILLIAM D. WILSON to all the rights, privileges, and immunities which by law attach to and result from the operation of these presents....”
This all happened almost two years before Sarah Elizabeth Inman, the daughter of Will's brotherinlaw, and he were married on May 27, 1892 in Christian County, MO. It probably should be noted here that the family did not too largely condemn William Daniel Wilson. Daniel
Stephenson was “running around” on “Aunt Ann” -- there's no doubt, an InmanWilson descendant, Randy L. McConnell now residing in Jefferson City, MO, emphasizes. He writes:
EVERYONE in the Inman, Maynard and Stephenson families remembers that point. Otherwise, my greatgreatgrandparents, John Wesley and Nancy Lavanda Wilson Inman, would not have named their “accidental” final son William Daniel Inman after the man in 1890.
He adds: ...The sheer brutality of the murder (clubbed to death) also aroused the community. The community, however, was not too hostile because William Daniel moved back there and lived for 10 to 15 years before moving on, and the jury rejected the Springfield newspaper's call for capital punishment in the case. In fact, the jury didn't even convict W.D. of first degree murder.
On Sept. 10, 1893 from Hunne Well, Kansas William Daniel Wilson wrote to his wife Sarah Elizabeth “Lizzie” Inman Wilson. The letter now very fragile, and with pieces missing reads:
My Dear Darlin Wife
Once more I seat my self to drop you a few lines to let you no I am well and truly hope this will find you all well I am now at Honey Well Kansas spending Sunday and I wish I could spend it with my two Babies, We campt 5 milds west of heare last night. Shugar this is the Pretiest country I Ever saw and I think a good one if I _______ lucky a nough to get a home heare I no I will b_ satisfide and I _____ will Bee the __________ Will _____ th______ heare
Water is easy found
Hun I dont no just how I will make the race yet I am verry sorry I did not bring lottie if I had her Heare I would feel sure of a home if I haf to hier a Horse it will cost me $10 or $15 Dollars We talk like runing in our wagon at Times it is unsettled yet Dol you can write two letters to me and address one to Arkansas City Kansas and one to Hunne Well Kansas this address is right I Blotted the first So you might not under stand it.
Sugar Be sure to write to Both P1____ so I will be Sure _____ letter from_______. I start Home I dont no just Which Place I will Be at I Want a letter from you next friday I will Be at one or the other towns on that day all the Boys is well and satisfide with this trip whether They get a home or not all But me if I Dont get a hone I wont Be satisfide staying a way so long from you Bud ses for me to tell you if you see any of his folks for you to tell them hes allrlght as I hav ask you to wright Darlin I will close for this time Hoping to see you soon from your True _____ send a kis to _____ne and lots of _____ two Babys Tell Mama and aunt I Want to See them _____ no more This time W.D. Wilson
William Daniel nor Bud got land in the run into the Cherokee Strip...or if they did they soon left it and returned to Christian County, Mo. However, Will and his family did later move to Oklahoma before statehood.
The two babies to which Will refers are his wife and their little girl Martha Anna Frances because their next child, a boy named Harvey Daniel was not born until two years later.
“Bud” is his nephew Finley Glover Inman, greatgrandfather of Randy L. McConnell. At that time he was in his midtwenties and single. He sends regards to “any of his folks,” which suggests an unmarried man saying hello to parents and siblings.
According to Randy an old family story exists that Bud and his wife Mary Alice Dewitt aka Lawson, did move to Oklahoma about 1898/1899, but quickly returned. Randy said “Before he died, Uncle Robert Inman, Bud's son, told me a story about how Granny Lawson (Emily Jane Lawson, Mary Alice's mother) read coffee grounds to tell the family if Bud was safe on his trips. Granny Lawson was a KY backwoods witch (and I'm proud of her - a feminist long before her time....)”.
Bud was never known by any other name in the family and the neighborhood. When histombstone was carved, the name (Finley) was misspelled as “Findley” because it was so seldom used. No one knew until Randy told them a couple of years ago (ca 1991). He had apparently been called Bud since his youth to distinguish him from his uncle and namesake who went to California and later returned to marry Will Wilson's sister.
In Randy's research he has learned that David Inman (son of Elkanah and Sarah Moore Inman), wife Cynthia Charles Inman and their family moved to Oklahoma in the 1890s as did his brother Jack (Andrew Jackson) Inman and wife Mary Estes. Jack bounced back and forth, but David never returned to Missouri permanently. They settled in northeast Oklahoma. (David Inman died in January 1919 and is buried in Nowata, OK).
Sarah Ann Stephenson (Aunt Ann, widow of the murdered Daniel) moved with her daughter Lizzie Castillo/Castlow/Costlow and grandson Calvin to OK after 1900 when her daughter Alice died. Randy said “Uncle Robert (b. Dec. 1899) said he remembered the wagon train forming at the compound when David, Jack and Ann moved but I believe he remembered David and Jack coming back for Ann several years after they had settled in OK. This wagon train may well have been the one in which Will Wilson and his family moved (ca. 1905/07).” (Ann died in the '30s and according to Wanda Faye Inman of Claremore, OK, widow of a descendant grandson of David, Jimmy Inman, is buried at Oglesby, OK).
William Daniel Wilson and Finley Glover Inman (son of Elkanah and Sarah Moore Inman) moved with their families to Oklahoma together and lived in Craig County near Vinita
and Big Cabin, OK before statehood, bringing with them Will and Mary's mother Nancy Ann Inman Wilson, and her sister Aunt Louisa “Lizzie” Inman Glover Wilson Sanders. (Aunt Lizzie lived to be more than 100 years old. She had no children.)
May Inman and Thomas Robison were married in 1905 and their marriage is recorded in Nowata, OK. Her parents, brother and Aunt Lizzie made their home with them.
Will and Sarah Elizabeth “Lizzie”, their children and Will's mother Nancy Ann Wilson lived nearby.
William Daniel Wilson died February 23, 1913 at the age of 55 on the same day of the same month that his father Francis P. had died 49 years earlier. He, his mother, and Aunt Lizzie are buried in Garden Grove Cemetery, in a rural area southwest of Prague, Lincoln County, and northeast of Shawnee, Pottawatomie County, OK along with other family members. The cemetery is across the country road north of Garden Grove Missionary Baptist Church wherethe family worshiped when they lived in that area. Their graves are marked with engraved stones of cement made in the summer of 1990 by his grandson Billy Floyd Brown and his wife Alice
Faye Weaver Brown of Stroud, OK. Their son Billy Michael “Mike” Brown helped set the stones one beautiful late afternoon.
After Will's death his widow moved to Drumright, Creek County, OK where she ran a boarding house on the west end of Main Street known as Tiger Hill. She died there on December 14, 1920 from pneumonia at the age of fifty years. She is buried in the Masonic Cemetery south of town and her grave is marked by a cement marker like the ones on the burial sites of her husband, his mother and aunt, about nine inches by sixteen inches, also made by her grandson
Billy and his wife Alice Faye Weaver Brown in the summer of 1990. The marker was set by another grandson Wayne D. Sikes of Drumright.
Finley Glover and Mary L. Wilson Inman had two children, a daughter May and a son named Walter. Walter died ca 1917 and is believed to be buried at Drumright, OK although his burial site has not been found. May died at home in Oklahoma City in 1931 and is buried in the Covington Community Cemetery, Covington, OK next to her parents. Mary Louisa Wilson Inman died at Covington, Garfield Co., OK on July 28, 1921 from influenza. Finley Glover Inman died at Covington on October 4, 1922 from an obstruction of the bowels after an illness of about ten days.
Children of William Daniel Wilson and Sarah Elizabeth Inman Wilson are:
Written by Alice Faye Weaver Brown
August 1993