1. William Thomas McDonald  2. Lewis Porter McDonald  3.  Robert Bryan McDonald
      (1829 - 1923 )                                      (1860-1932)                           (1900 - 1982)                
                        

William Thomas McDonald was born November 29, 1829 in Alabama and died
January 21, 1923 in Holdenville, Oklahoma, Hughes County.  He married (1) Luanza Akin  February 5, 1851.  She was born June 25, 1826 in Georgia and died in Indian Territory.  He married (2)  Mandy (Milly) Angeline English December 31, 1865 in Alcorn County, Mississippi.  She was the daughter of Joseph English and Elizabeth Hamm.  She was born February 12, 1845 in Old Tishomingo County, Mississippi and died November 9, 1902 in Holdenville, Oklahoma.  .

William Thomas McDonald served in the Confederate army for Mississippi during the Civil War.

Family tradition is that William Thomas McDonald was the flag barrier for General Lee at the surrender.  William Thomas is noted as saying, "Giving up that flag was the hardest thing I ever had to do."

Children of William Thomas McDonald and Luanza Akin are:

Additional information:

William Thomas owned a wagon yard in Holdenville, Oklahoma.  According to Spencer Petete, a long-time resident of Hughes County, W.T. built two metal buildings behind the wagon yard that were still standing until very recently.  W.T. would rent out the buildings to newly arrived settlers until they could find more permanent accommodations.  Spencer said that his parents stayed in one of the buildings when they arrived in Hughes county.

Family sources said that at one time, William Thomas had a hotel in Bonham, Texas.  However, a search of Fannin County records revealed no land records for William Thomas McDonald.  It is possible that William T. may have just managed the hotel for someone else  (R.C. Thompson, his son-in-law perhaps - after R.C.'s heart attack (??)

He was in the Confederate army during the American Civil War.  He was a POW from 1861 - 1865 in Chicago, Illinois.  William Thomas said, "The only thing between me and the North Pole was that lake."  Newt thinks that William Thomas migrated to the United States from Ireland or Scotland -- thinks Ireland.  (This info came from Newt McDonald and Lona McDonald James on July 7, 1990)

William T. McDonald was found living with a nephew named Juddy who managed that wagon yard in 1920 in Hughes County, Oklahoma.

W.T. McDonald obtained the 3rd town lot recorded in Holdenville's records - directly from the  Creek Nation on July 15, 1905 for the sum of $882.50.  Juddy Watts obtained the 2nd for $20 on January 17, 1903.

William T. and Millie are buried in the R.C. Thompson burial plot.  To find it: come through the main gate from Poplar Street.  Take the first left through the brick gates until you get to the white building.  Their plot is on the right, in front of the building, about 5 rows back and right under the 2nd tree back.  W.T.'s tombstone inscription:  "His Memory is Blessed".

MILITARY:

William Thomas, along with his brothers John and James enlisted together in Company K, 13thh Infantry Regiment Mississippi (Alcorn County).  Based on Newt's recollection that W.T. was a POW at the end of the war in Chicago, it is almost certain that he was confined at Camp Douglas near the shores of Lake Michigan as it was the only prison camp close to Chicago -- and Camp Douglas was actually in Chicago.  The only other prison camp on a Great Lake was in Ohio (Lake Erie) Camp Douglas was known as the northern prison camp with the highest mortality rate of all Union Civil War prisons.  Conditions were horrible and it is reported that 1 in 5 prisoners within those walls died.  Punishment by officials and guards was unusually cruel.  Confederate soldiers starved to death as food rations were withheld and many being deprived of blankets while living in tents, froze to death in the severe weather.  Many wore sacks with head and arm holes cut out; few had underwear.  Blankets to offset the bitter northern winter were confiscated from the few that had them.  The weakest froze to death.  The Chicago winter of 1864 was devastating.  The loss of 1,091 lives in only four months was heaviest for any like period in the camp's history, and equaled the deaths at the highest rate of Andersonville from February to May 1864.

1920 Census Record:  In 1920, WT had a nephew (perhaps from his wife's side of the family? -- Akin or English???)  named Juddy Watts living with him as the manager of the wagon yard.  May have been Juddy W. Griffin's namesake.  Juddy may also have been named for Judah McDonald.  Judson D. Watts is buried in the Thompson plot in Holdenville Cemetery with W.T. McDonald.  He died of a cerebral thrombosis on January 29, 1964 and was buried January 31, 1964.  According to Spencer Petete, Juddy was a small man and would never come to the dinner table without putting on a tie.  Spencer was between W.T. and the Thompsons' and Cottons' as well as some Cains that I was unaware of.  So it's possible that the relationship between W.T. and Juddy was deliberately withheld from public knowledge for some unknown reason.

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