Everglades Biographies
James Mallory Willson
James Mallory Willson, a native of Somerset, Kentucky, and former
resident of Chicago, Illinois, relocated to Kissimmee, Florida in the
early 1880s. Through contacts with the Southern Baptist Organization,
James Willson helped organize Baptist missionary crusades for the Seminole
Indians. Together with his wife, Minnie Moore Willson, he was instrumental
in the society known as "Friends of the Florida Seminoles." This
organization dealt with the Indians through education and attempts to
raise their standard of living. During his extensive dealings with the
Seminoles, James Willson also compiled an extensive vocabulary and
dictionary of the Seminole Indian language. James M. Willson, an invalid
the last few years of his life, died on August 5, 1943.
Biography prepared by Ruthanne Vogel, University of
Miami
Excerpt of letter from
James M. Willson to M.K. Sniffen, Secretary of the Indian Rights
Association, January 26, 1925.
Minnie Moore Willson Papers, University of Miami.
"If this drainage plan is
carried out as it is outlined then I believe it would include the 100,000
acres we persuaded the Fla. Legislature to set aside for the
Seminoles....
Then too there is another
part of this work we must consider and that is to have that tract of land
turned over to the National Gov. for these Indians, and thus get it out of
the hands of Florida. As long as it is left in its present title I fear,
now that people are getting land crazy, some one will come forward with
some scheme to get that land turned over for other purposes.
The Florida Seminoles are now
so far down in the Everglades I have not seen any of them for a long time,
but I am very anxious to make a trip to visit them. So far as I know they
are getting along about as usual, with the hunting about gone, which means
of course more hard times for them than they have ever known. They need
all the friends they have and then some..."
Near Lake Okeechobee, James M. Willson and Billy Bowlegs, with a
deer on his back, just returning from an hour's hunt. February 8,
1916.
Photo courtesy of
University of Miami Libraries, University
Archives
