William A. REDMAN
". . is the present county treasurer of Pushmataha County, with residence at Antlers. He is an excellent and painstaking official, and keeps an excellent set of books. He is one of the men who are strongly committed to economy in public affairs, and he is practicing "what he preaches by doing the work of the office alone during half the time.
A historian frequently passes lightly over the physical development of the community in his eagerness to justice to the romance and spirit of the other side of life. He seldom recalls that the builder of a historic old mansion, around which is a delightful spiritual atmosphere, was truly a factor in the development of that atmosphere.
Out of the old Village of Charleston, Arkansas, came the man whose idea of architecture, manifested in the physical construction of buildings, made the once wayside Indian community of Antlers the modern town of brick and stone it is today. For twenty years William A. REDMAN followed the profession of contractor and mechanic in Antlers and he has built more business blocks in the town than probably all other men of that profession combined. Constituting an important part of the business district, and bearing testimony to his reliability and skill, are the Silverman, Cochran, Antlers Hardware Company, Horn, Jones, Butler, Moon, Word Brothers and Westbrook Brothers buildings.
When Mr. REDMAN located at Antlers in 1893 there were no schools of consequence outside the village, and white settlers were few. The day of progress had begun, however, for such intermarried citizens as Major Farr, Victor M. Locke, Sr., and Dr. J. H. Miller and few other white men and educated Indians were developing the soil, the cattle industry and commerce in view of the era of greater development foreshadowed by the coming of statehood. It was the year after Indian fights had ended and peace had been established between the two Indian factions that once threated to involve the entire Choctaw Nation in war. A troop or two of Indian militia guarded the outskirts of Antlers when Mr. REDMAN arrived. For five years he engaged in farming on land belonging to Doctor Everedge, an early settler of this region who served under the tribal government as royalty collector. On moving to Antlers he took up the duties of his profession as contractor, and among the building constructed in an early day was the Methodist Church, which replaced an edifice erected by the church during the early missionary period.
Mr. REDMAN's activities led him into public life and he became a member of the board of trustees of the town. While a member of that board the present permanent water and electric light systems were installed. He served also as a member of the board of school trustees and took a hand in the development of a modern system of education. His next public office was that of county treasurer to which the democrats elected him in 1914. His official duties began July 5, 1915. He is an active member of the Baptist Church and affiliates with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Woodmen of the World.
Though he came to Indian Territory from Arkansas, Mr. REDMAN was born in Dallas County, Texas, in 1860. He is a son of Captain John R. and Orlena (SMITH) REDMAN. His father, who was an officer in the Confederate Army, was a native of Tennessee but a citizen of Texas as early as 1858. Captain REDMAN died in 1892 at Alvord in Wise County, Texas, where many years previously he had established a mill and cotton gin. The mother of Mr. REDMAN died when the latter was seven years of age.
When Mr. REDMAN was quite a boy his father moved to Charleston, Arkansas, and there the son attended school and also gained his first experience in a business way working as clerk in a Charleston store. He went out of the store to learn the trade of mechanic and developed from a journeyman carpenter into the profession of contractor.
In 1881 in Franklin County, Arkansas, Mr. REDMAN married Miss Susie GARNER. They are the parents of eight children: Clarence REDMAN, who is engaged in the general merchandise business at Hanna, Oklahoma; Eugene REDMAN, in the cattle business at Hanna; Clyde REDMAN, a Western Union telegraph operator in Kansas City; Clara REDMAN, a teacher in the public schools at Antlers; Mrs. G. C. McINTRYE, wife of a farmer in Western Oklahoma; William and Brancie, both at home in Antlers."