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(This song is in remembrance of my husband; Dwight Chasteen (1928-1984), who was truly "the wind beneath my wings", supporting each and every endeavor that I undertook during the many years that we were as one.)

The Williams Family of Pryor Oklahoma

with links to the Chandler, McClure, Miller and Wiggins families of Virginia, North Carolina, Kentucky, Georgia, Tennessee, Missouri, Oklahoma,

and TEXAS!!!

This page is dedicated to the "star of my life"-- my mother, Olga Nancy Williams, who came to Oklahoma from Taney County Missouri as a child-- she and her sister walking all the way behind a covered wagon --
-- and she lived to see a man walk on the moon!

One of the disappointments in my mother's life was that she knew so little about the mother that she had lost when she was only seven years old. This task was assigned to me; her youngest child, before her death on the 21st of Dec 1983. I'm just sad that I did not accomplish this while she was still alive, but I know that she is looking down from her special star, and smiling at every step that I have taken, and thrilled with me for every find that I have made.

By the time that I was born late in my mother's life, few momentos of her mother had survived. One item was a pair of gold bell earrings that her mother had worn. Mother said that she could remember how embarrassed her mother would be if she forgot and turned her head suddenly during church services, because the bells would ring.

Another item was a well-worn bible showing the birth of her mother, Francis Elizabeth Miller, on 19 Jul 1858. The father of Francis was William L. Miller and the bible noted his death "in 1864- in the Confederate army". Her mother was shown as Susan Caroline Chandler whose death was shown in the bible as 26 Nov 1862. The birth dates of this husband and wife were shown as being on the same day; 24 Mar 1832. It is unknown if this is an error or a very rare coincindence.

According to the bible entries, my grandmother had one older sister, Mary Jane Miller and a younger brother, Joseph Edward Miller. Consistent with other bibles of that era, there were no place names on either births or deaths. One very faint entry on the bible fly-leaf interested me and was finally recovered by laser photocopy. It said "bought of John Clabaugh, Leon County, 1852". This was three years before the marriage of Susan Caroline Chandler to William L. Miller, which was the first entry in the bible records.

The known facts in 1980:

William L. Miller, born about 1832, died 1864

married 13 Dec 1855 to

Susan Caroline Chandler, born about 1832, died 2 Nov 1862

Their children were:

Mary Jane Miller, born 14 Mar 1857

Francis Elizabeth Miller, born 19 Jul 1858, died 13 Nov 1897, Barry County MO.

Joseph Edward Miller, born 14 Mar 1860

Francis Elizabeth "Fannie" Miller married Samuel Bryant William, on 9 Nov 1882 in Sarcoxie, Jasper County Missouri.

Their children were:

Samuel Edward "Ed" Williams, b/11 Mar 1884 in Jasper Co MO

Walter Jackson "Tib" Williams, b/29 Oct 1888 in Barry Co MO

Olga Nancy Williams, b/21 Jul 1890 Pioneer, Barry Co MO

Lucy Wiliams, b/11 Oct 1893 Pioneer, Barry Co MO

The mother and her two daughters were stricken during a typhoid epidemic in 1897. The mother died on 13 Nov, and the father did not dare to leave his daughters to attend her burial, as the girls (ages 4 and 7) were not expected to survive the day.

After the death of his wife, Samuel (b/26 May 1857) moved to Taney County MO to be nearer his parents for help with the four children. He married again in Mar of 1900 and left Missouri for Oklahoma a few years later, with his (by then) very large family of 13 children.

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