Grayson, Colbert

The following data is extracted from The Indian Territory, Its Chiefs, Legislators and Leading Men.

The subject of this sketch was born at Elk Creek, south of Muskogee, in 1845, and is the eldest son of Elijah Grayson and Louina Scott. In 1853 he was sent to Asberry Mission, and remained there until the outbreak of the war, joining the Confederate service in 1863. In 1865 he married Mary Elizabeth Steward, second daughter of R. W. Steward, a white man who had come from Kentucky to this country in 1844. By this marriage he had six children, only one of whom has survived, named Charley Coleman, born December 1873. His wife dying in January, 1879, he married in the fall of the same year Mrs. Posey, a white woman, widow of the late Wm. M. Posey, by whom he has two boys and one girl: Edmond T., born June, 1880; Louina Antoinette, born May, 1887; and Grover Cleveland, born December, 1890. Mr. Grayson has been a farmer since the war. In 1883 he was elected to the House of Warriors, and in 1887 was re-elected, serving until 1889, when he resigned for the office of District Inspector of Wewoka District, which office he still holds. Mr. Grayson is a man of sound education and very intelligent. He is one of the best interpreters in the nation, and has held the office of United States Interpreter at Fort Smith for one year, and could have held it permanently had he so desired. He is one-third white, but shows more of the Indian, is five feet eight inches in height, robust in build, and of good appearance. He has about seventy-five acres in cultivation, a good comfortable home and sufficient stock for his own use. He lives sixty-five miles southwest of Okmulgee, at the mouth Little River.

Source: The Indian Territory, Its Chiefs, Legislators and Leading Men

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