William Cary Renfrow (15 March 1845-31 January 1922) was the Democratic Governor of the Oklahoma Territory from 7 May 1893 to 31 January 1897, succeeding Abraham Jefferson Seay and preceding Cassius M. Barnes.
Biography[]
William Cary Renfrow was born in Smithfield, North Carolina in 1845, and he served in the 50th North Carolina Infantry Regiment during the American Civil War. After the war, Renfrow became a county official in Russellville, Arkansas and took part in the Land Run of 1889 in Oklahoma, becoming a banker in Norman. He served as Governor Grover Cleveland's Governor of the Oklahoma Territory from 1893 to 1897 due to his clean reputation and his success in finance, and he opened the Cherokee Outlet to settlement in 1893. After retiring, he moved to Kansas City, only to become a zinc and lead miner in Miami, Oklahoma. He died in Bentonville, Arkansas in 1922 while visiting an ill brother in Bentonville.