Hon. William E. Long. The representative from Wagoner County in the Oklahoma Legislature of 1915-16 is one of the interesting personalities of the legislative body and is a native Oklahoman, descended from one of the early Cherokee families in the eastern part of the state.

He was elected to the State Legislature from Wagoner County in 1914, and served in both the regular session of 1915 and the special session of 1916. One fact of his legislative record that deserves special mention is that he was author of the resolution appointing a committee to investigate A. P. Watson, corporation commissioner, after charges has been preferred against the commissioner. This resolution was adopted by unanimous vote. Mr. Long also served on a number of important committees, including banks and banking, and was a member of the inauguration committee when Governor R. L. Williams was installed in the executive chair in 1915.

Representative Long was born at Webbers Falls in Old Indian Territory, October 13, 1886. His father was William P. Sheppard, who was a native of the Cherokee Nation and died in 1889, when his son was in infancy. He was quite active in Cherokee affairs and at the time of his death was a member of the old Cherokee Council. He was a one-eighth Cherokee, while the mother of Representative Long was a native of Tennessee and of Irish stock. He maiden name was Mattie F. James, and after the death of her first husband she married James E. Long, and her son, was legally adopted, hence the chance in his name. James E. Long was born in Texas in 1859, but has been a resident of Oklahoma for the past twenty years, and is now a well known farmer in Wagoner County. Since statehood he served four years in the office of sheriff of Wagoner County. Mr. and Mrs. James E. Long also have a daughter Sallie, who is a graduate of the University of Oklahoma, and is now instructor of English in the high school at Durant.

William E. Long received his early education in the Cherokee schools and also attended the university at Fort Smith, Arkansas. After graduating he had his first practical experience as bookkeeper for a mercantile house at Wagoner, but since then has been active in the real estate business.

He early took much interest in democratic politics and prior to his election as representative served as city assessor of Wagoner and was a delegate to several county and state conventions.

Fraternally he is affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. On September 12, 1912, at Wagoner he married Miss Hattie A. Kuykendall, who was born in Arkansas in 1890. Mrs. Long is a graduate of the Cherokee Normal at Tahlequah. To their marriage has been born one child, Hattie Ernestine, born September 30, 1913.