Changes

'''Clayton Wheat Williams, Sr.''' (April 15, 1895 &ndash; September 9, 1983),<ref name=ssdi>{{cite web|url=http://ssdi.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/ssdi.cgi|title=Social Security Death Index|publisher=ssdi.rootsweb.ancestry.com|accessdate=September 12, 2009; under pay wall}}</ref> was an [[engineer]], [[geologist]], [[oil]]man, military officer in [[World War I]], rancher, county commissioner, [[historian]], philanthropist, and civic leader from Fort Stockton in West [[Texas]].

'''Clayton Wheat Williams, Sr.''' (April 15, 1895 &ndash; September 9, 1983),<ref name=ssdi>{{cite web|url=http://ssdi.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/ssdi.cgi|title=Social Security Death Index|publisher=ssdi.rootsweb.ancestry.com|accessdate=September 12, 2009; under pay wall}}</ref> was an [[engineer]], [[geologist]], [[oil]]man, military officer in [[World War I]], rancher, county commissioner, [[historian]], philanthropist, and civic leader from Fort Stockton in West [[Texas]].

==Background==​

==Background==

 

Williams was the fourth child of Oscar Waldo Williams, a [[Harvard University]]-educated lattorney]] who would serve for a decade as the Pecos county judge, and the former Sallie Wheat, hence his middle name. Williams was born in an officers’ building of the former Fort Stockton [[United States Army|Army]] base, which had housed the Buffalo soldiers of the American West from 1867 to 1886.<ref>Mike Cochran, ''Claytie: The Roller-Coaster Life of a Texas Wildcatter'' (biography of Clayton Williams, Jr.) (College Station, Texas|College Station]]: [[Texas A&M University]], 2007), pp. 30, 381; hereinafter cited as Claytie.</ref> O. W. Williams had prospected for [[gold]] and [[silver]] in Silver City, [[New Mexico|New Mexico Territory]], before he came to Fort Stockton. O.W. was in New Mexico during the heyday of Chief Geronimo and [[Billy the Kid]]. He was also a suspect in the shotgun death of a "rogue" sheriff named A. J. Royal, but the killer was never apprehended, and Clayton Williams, Sr., insisted that his father was not the culprit.<ref>''Claytie,'' p. 15.</ref>​

Williams was the fourth child of Oscar Waldo Williams, a [[Harvard University]]-educated lattorney]] who would serve for a decade as the Pecos county judge, and the former Sallie Wheat, hence his middle name. Williams was born in an officers’ building of the former Fort Stockton [[United States Army|Army]] base, which had housed the Buffalo soldiers of the American West from 1867 to 1886.<ref>Mike Cochran, ''Claytie: The Roller-Coaster Life of a Texas Wildcatter'' (biography of Clayton Williams, Jr.) (College Station, Texas|College Station]]: [[Texas A&M University]], 2007), pp. 30, 381; hereinafter cited as Claytie.</ref> O. W. Williams had prospected for [[gold]] and [[silver]] in Silver City, [[New Mexico|New Mexico Territory]], before he came to Fort Stockton. O.W. was in New Mexico during the heyday of Chief Geronimo and [[Billy the Kid]]. He was also a suspect in the shotgun death of a "rogue" sheriff named A. J. Royal, but the killer was never apprehended, and Clayton Williams, Sr., insisted that his father was not the culprit.<ref>''Claytie,'' p. 15.</ref>​

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