William Macklin Cross

William Macklin Cross born on July 4, 1847, in Purdy, Tennessee. At fourteen he joined Confederate States Army, serving in the 154th Tennessee Infantry Regiment as a drummer in Company K. He fought alongside his father at the Battle of Shiloh where his father was killed and he was captured. After a prisoner of war exchange, Cross returned to service under Gen. Joseph E. Johnston. After the war he attended Kentucky University in Lexington, but dropped out after a year due to being unable to afford tuition. He eventually became a travelling salesman and moved to Oklahoma.[1]

He was an unsuccessfully candidate for Oklahoma Territory's at-large congressional district in 1902. In 1907 he was elected as the first Oklahoma Secretary of State.[1] In 1909, he refused to accept a petition for a state question to allow women to vote from Kate Himrod Biggers because she was not a registered voter. J. Luther Langston and James B. A. Robertson later submitted the petition for her, which Cross accepted.[2] He died in office on August 3, 1910, after winning the 1910 Democratic primary for Oklahoma State Auditor. After his death, his body lied in state at the Guthrie Masonic Temple draped in a Confederate flag. His eulogy was given by newspaperman and former territorial legislator Frank Hilton Greer.[3]