Chickasaw Lady, a Governor's Wife

Mary Alice Hearrell Murray was the wife of Oklahoma's most colorful politician in the early twentieth century, William H. "Alfalfa Bill" Murray. Alice stands out as one of the prominent women in the Chickasaw Nation at the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth century. She was the niece of Chickasaw governor Douglas Johnston, who was her guardian, and she was a graduate of the prominent Chickasaw girls' school, Bloomfield Academy for Chickasaw Females. Alice graduated as the dawn of the twentieth century ushered in a more progressive society and the world of the new woman. Alice, however, was not a new woman of the progressive era; she adhered to the traditional order of the Chickasaw people.

Alice also witnessed the dissolution of her tribal government and the division of communal lands into individual allotments. She acknowledged that the old ways must go and that her people must accept the dominant culture of twentieth-century America. Alice married William H. Murray at Douglas Johnston's home in Emet, Chickasaw Nation, on the afternoon of July 19, 1899. As the wife of Murray, and as the niece of the governor of the Chickasaw Nation, Alice understood the changing world of both Indian Territory and Oklahoma Territory politics, and she witnessed the creation of the state of Oklahoma. She bridged two societies: the traditional Chickasaw culture of her ancestors and the emerging world of industrial and progressive America.

Suzanne H. Schrems is the author of articles and books about Oklahoma history and the history of the American West. She received her BA, MA, and PhD from the University of Oklahoma. Until retirement, Schrems taught American history at Rose State College in Midwest City, Oklahoma. She is the author of Who's Rocking the Cradle? Women Pioneers of Oklahoma Politics from Socialism to the KKK, 1900–1930 and Uncommon Women, Unmarked Trails: The Courageous Journey of Catholic Missionary Sisters in Frontier Montana.