USA > Oklahoma > A history of the state of Oklahoma, Volume I > Part 62
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James Richardson, wholesale lumber. Davidson & Case, wholesale lumber. Union Lumber Mills Co., wholesale lumber. Ft. Scott Lumber Co., wholesale lumber. Carey Lombard Lumber Co., wholesale lumber. Oklahoma Bank, T. M. Richardson, vice-presi- dent.
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Bank of Oklahoma City, Wallace, vice-president. Citizens' Bank, L. A. Gilbert, cashier. Merchants' Bank, C. S. Warner, cashier. Dowden, McGlinchey Mer. Co., wholesale grocers. W. H. Harper & Co., wholesale lime. Adolph Newman, wholesale flour and feed. Pimm & Banks, wholesale furniture. Winningham Bros., wholesale hardware. Wand, Aucker & Co., wholesale drugs. G. A. Beidler, postmaster. Palace Clothing House.
J. W. Johnson, attorney.
Brogan & Son, wholesale produce.
J. S. Richardson, M. D. H. Overholser, president Board of Trade. Oklahoma Journal.
A. W. Dunham, agent Santa Fe railroad. Victor Sherman. Gilpin & Frick, hardware. Walker Bros., furniture.
C. Hart & Son, produce dealers.
O. A. Mitscher, dry goods.
I. C. Grater, boots and shoes.
J. M. Hobson & Co., drugs. Pettyjohn & Co., dry goods, etc.
J. H. Wedemeyer & Co., dry goods, etc. White & Wright, grocers. G. A. Mitchell, dry goods.
W. J. Pettee & Co., hardware.
E. J. Holmes, hardware.
George W. Massey, coal.
Sidney Clarke, Jr., flour and feed.
H. S. Summers, flour and feed.
John A. Blackburn, city recorder.
Sidney Clarke, president city council.
Dr. L. W. Benesse, physician and surgeon.
Frank McMaster, editor Daily Gasette " (who
claims to know the situation and know it well)." J. E. Jones, city council.
Hulet, police judge.
Ledru Guthrie, city attorney.
W. C. Wells, city councilman.
D. A. Harvey, United States circuit court com- missioner.
W. L. Couch, mayor.
The Board of Trade was an influential organization of business men during the early months of Oklahoma City's history, and was among the first of the organized associations. It originated in the real estate office of Carter, Woodford and Beard, at the corner of Grand and Broadway, where a few promoters dis- cussed the subject on the evening of
May 15th, and issued a call for a gen- eral meeting to organize a board on the following Monday evening, May 20. Com- plete organization was not effected, how- ever, for nearly two weeks. The first of- ficers and the membership of the commit- tees were a personnel very representative of the progressive business element of the city during its first year. The first presi- dent was H. Overholser, James Geary, vice president ; J. P. McKinnis, second vice pres- ident; W. H. Ebey, secretary ; T. M. Rich- ardson, treasurer. The membership of the various committees were:
Executive-John A. Blackburn, O. H. Violet, B. N. Woodson, W. L. Couch, C. W. Price, W. C. Wells.
Railroads-J. A. Blackburn, C. W. Price, W. H. Ebey, T. M. Richardson, Gen. J. B. Weaver, J. E. Jones, W. L. Couch, H. Overholser, James Geary.
Manufacturing-C. P. Walker, John Wand, W. L. Killbrew, W. L. Harvey, E. W. Sweeney, F. L. Bone.
Transportation and Freights-J. P. Mc- Kinnis, A. L. Woodford, J. P. Darling, John Brogan, A. L. Frick, W. J. Pettee.
Advertising-O. H. Violet, R. Q. Blake- ney, W. H. Ebey, H. W. Winn, J. W. Beard.
Legislation-Gen. J. B. Weaver, O. H. Violet, Capt. A. B. Hammer, Ledru Guth- rie, Sidney Clarke, W. L. Couch A. C. Scott, B. N. Woodson, David A. Harvey.
Finance-James Geary, W. C. Wells, Ledru Guthrie, T. M. Richardson, Maj. W. A. Monroe.
Education-A. C. Scott, R. R. Connella, C. A. Galbraith, G. A. Beidler, W. W. Witten.
Emigration-Victor Sherman, G. W. Massey, W. H. Darrough, G. W. Adams, H. W. Sawyer.
Directors-O. H. Violet, C. P. Walker,
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James Geary, W. A. Monroe, C. A. Gal- braith, J. A. Blackburn, A. C. Scott, W. L. Couch, Victor Sherman, A. L. Woodford, W. H. Ebey, J. W. Beard, B. N. Woodson, C. W. Price, W. J. Pettee, A. B. Hammer, W. McGlinchey, J. L. Brown, W. L. Har- vey, E. W. Sweeney, J. P. McKinnis.
Four months after the founding of the city, forty-five doctors, including two wo- men, were located in Oklahoma City, and all of them ostensibly for the purpose of practicing their profession, though not a few were engaged in improving city lots and in the more material activities of the city. The active physicians saw fit to or- ganize within two months after the open- ing, and a meeting on June 11, 1889, in Dr. Bradford's office, resulted in the or- ganization of the Oklahoma Medical So- ciety. The officers were: L. W. Benesse, president; DeLos Walker, vice president; W. M. Baird, secretary ; H. C. Way, treas- urer. "We, the physicians of Oklahoma City, South Oklahoma and vicinity, for the purpose of investigating, by discussions, lectures and essays, all that pertains to our profession, including our relations to our patients and to each other, do hereby or- ganize ourselves into a medical society," is the preamble of the society.
The establishment of the Oklahoma City Times was an instance of advanced news- paper enterprise. Hamlin Whitmore Saw- yer is one of the most interesting figures of Oklahoma journalism. His associate in this undertaking was B. R. Herrington, who, being thoroughly familiar with the Oklahoma country, became local editor. In this case the local editor was the sole rep- resentative of the paper in Oklahoma, and really deserved the name of foreign corres- pondent. The first number of the Okla- homa City Times was issued at Wichita, Kansas, December 29, 1888, Mr. Herring-
ton's copy being set up and all the mechani- cal work being done in Wichita. It is said that the novelty of the enterprise and the eagerness of people from all parts of the country to hear the news about Oklahoma gave the Times a very large circulation, very little of which, curious to say, was in Oklahoma. On February 10, 1889, Lieut. Malcomb, with a company of United States troops, raided this section of Oklahoma and drove out all "sooners," including the Times, which was then being printed in this vicinity. The proprietors had to move their establishment to Purcell, and then back to Wichita, where the paper was is- sued as at first until the opening. On June 30, 1889, the first issue of the Okla- homa City Daily Times appeared.
Two features of Oklahoma City during the first months of its development are noted in a report sent by Captain Forbush to headquarters, on July 29:
"I desire to be informed as to whether the city of Oklahoma have the right to ex- tend the jurisdiction of their police be- yond the city limits proper for sanitary purposes only. There are quite a number of dead cattle lying in the vicinity of the city, having been afflicted with Texas fever, and it is purposed to have the decaying bodies disposed of by the city within the radius of five miles and require the owners of the cattle to dispose of the bodies them- selves in case of future deaths." (The san- itary jurisdiction of the city was con- firmed.)
"On the night of the 28th inst., a young Englishman arrived in Oklahoma who was to join a settlement of his people between Oklahoma and Fort Reno. He was intro- duced to a gambling den by 'bunco-steer- ers,' and fleeced of about $540. The pre- vailing opinion among the better people seemed to be that the young fellow had
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been robbed, and they advised him to re- port the facts to the provost-marshal, Cap- tain Stiles, Tenth Infantry, who at once in- formed me about it, and at the same time telling me that a man had been 'sand- bagged' in the same place but a short time since, robbed, put on the train and sent to Texas.
"There is no local law to prevent gamb- ling, and the city authorities, as well as the United States marshals, fail to take cognizance of these cases.
"In the interests of peace and good or- der, I directed Captain Stiles to break this gambling den up and see to it personally that the occupant left the city. They have all departed." (This action was commended.)
The enterprising individual who took possession of the only pump in Oklahoma City at the opening and sold water at so much a drink until he was ousted from his profitable "graft" was the central figure of an incident that is related in a report of Captain Stiles to Inspector General San- ger :
"I have the honor to report that on April 23, 1889, the day following the opening of Oklahoma, a gambler from Chicago named G. W. Cole took possession of the only pump in town and sold water at five cents a drink. The man sat near the pump, and was armed with a revolver, which he kept in his lap part of the time. He collected the money himself, and had a man pump the water. There were over 12,000 people camped on the site of Oklahoma at the time, and besides this pump there were only two other places where water could be had -one a well with a bucket where there was but little water, and the other at the railroad tank, and here the supply was lim- ited.
"The people were suffering for water
and appealed to me to remove Cole, saying if I did not do so they would hang him. Upon inquiry I found that Cole had no right to the pump or water, and at once removed him and placed a guard over the pump with orders to allow each person to have one bucket of water. My action in this case was at once reported to the com- manding officer, Col. J. F. Wade, Fifth Cavalry, and approved by him."
It is a matter of some surprise to people of the older states, who possess no dis- criminating knowledge of early Oklaho- mans, to learn that religious institutions were established almost as soon as home shelters were built. Along with the army of gamblers who entered Oklahoma City at the beginning, also went some Christian workers. On the second Sunday in May, 1889, a meeting was held in the postoffice building which resulted in the organization of a local Y. M. C. A. Through the win- ter of 1889-90, while men were bending their energies to building a new town, oc- casional lectures were being given by this association, and the proceeds from these were applied to the establishment of a li- brary and reading room. Gen. F. L. Cra- mer was the first president, A. C. Scott, vice president, and Henry DeWolfe, gen- eral secretary. These officers were suc- ceeded after the first month by: A. C. Scott, president; Robert Young, vice presi- dent; Charles Richardson, secretary; T. H. Weiss, treasurer, and John M. Martin, general secretary for this city.
The ringing of the first angelus from the tower of St. Joseph's church in Okla- homa City on the evening of August 2, 1889, was one of those impressive inci- dents of pioneer times that show how close to the beginning of organized society are the institutions of religion.
Rev. N. F. Scallan, who had been Cath-
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olic missionary among the Indians of the J. W .; David W. Gibbs, Treas .; Maj. J. territory, came to Oklahoma City, May 7, E. Bell, Secy .; W. P. Stork, S. D .; Taylor Logan, J. D .; L. H. Graham, T. 1889, about two weeks after the founding of the town, and advertised a meeting of the Catholics for the next Sunday. A rail- W. L. COUCH .* road accident delayed this first Catholic mass, and it was not performed until the Sunday of May 19, 1889. The old Indiana House, on Main street, between Robinson and Harvey, was the scene of this first Catholic service. A considerable number of first settlers were Catholic, as shown by the fact that fifty-five heads of families and forty-two young men enrolled as mem- bers to constitute the parish of St. Joseph's. The church was begun July 1, 1889, with Father Scallan as the architect.
The Masonic order became active in Oklahoma City within less than a month after the opening. On Friday night of May 10th, forty-one Masons held an in- formal meeting in an unfinished room ad- joining the postoffice on Main street. A temporary floor had been laid in the room, and it was with difficulty and some risk that the members made their way about, while the gusts of wind several times ex- tinguished the light. In spite of these in- conveniences a chairman was chosen (S. Linn Biedler of Illinois) and a secretary (A. C. Scott, of Kansas), and a committee of five appointed to secure dispensation for Masonic work, namely: S. Linn Biedler, J. M. Steade, J. A. Keys, D. W. Gibbs and H. B. Calef. Dispensation was granted September 23, 1889, though weekly meet- ings nad been held in the meantime, and at the meeting of the grand lodge at Purcell a charter was granted North Canadian Lodge No. 36, on November 6th. The charter members numbered twenty-three, and the first officers, chosen December 13th, were: C. M. Keller, W. M .; Dr. C. F. Waldron, S. W .; Maj. W. A. Monroe,
The 22d of April, 1890, the first anni- versary of the opening of the Fair God land to civilization, was a day of mourning in Oklahoma City. One week before the brave and gallant Captain W. L. Couch had been cruelly shot down while defend- ing his homestead. After lingering for a few days upon the borders of the great un- known, his heroic spirit burst the fetters that bound it and sailed away upon etern- ity's sea. He died on Monday, April 21, 1890, and was laid to rest the following day upon the beautiful homestead where he had hoped to pass his declining years, and for which he endured the hardships of pioneer life and braved the opposition of the United States government. An im. mense concourse of people attended the funeral of the dead hero. The Methodist church was filled to its utmost capacity . with the grief-stricken friends and rela- tives. At the close of an impressive service the sorrowful audience repaired to the grounds adjacent to the church, where its numbers were augmented by fully five thousand people from both the city and adjoining country. Here the Hon. Sidney Clarke, an intimate friend and co-worker of the martyred Couch, paid the following eloquent and pathetic tribute to his mem- ory :
"Death is an impenetrable mystery. To- day we are in the bloom of health; tomor- row we step out into the great hereafter. Like the endless cycles of time, the gen- erations of men march with measured tread from the cradle to the grave. But
*From the "Illustrated History of Oklahoma," by Marion Tuttle Rock, 1890.
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a few days ago I clasped the warm hand of our dead friend in mine, and with mingled hopes and fears bade him good-bye. Yes- terday I returned to find him in the em- brace of death, and today I come to join with you in honoring his memory and watering with tears his new-made grave.
"But, oh, my friends, how feeble is hu- man language to express the anguish of this hour! Remembering the heroic spirit of him whose mortal frame we this day bury beneath the soil he loved so well, gladly would I say something to cheer the hearts that are bruised and bleeding with unutterable sorrow. But well I know that none but Him who holds in His keeping the mysteries of the universe can assuage the grief caused by this sad calamity.
"Not only in the sacred circle of his fam- ily and friends-to us who knew him but to love him-but to millions throughout the country, the story of W. L. Couch- the story of the life now gone-will be a lesson, a poem, a tragedy. . It speaks to us of bravery, of generosity, of charity, of integrity, of sincerity of purpose, of the royalty of truth, of the sanctity of friend- ship, of the nobility of manhood, of love and hope, of joy and sorrow, of triumph and of adversities. It tells us that a noble purpose in any life-unyielding for the right-will master the most difficult prob- lems, and snatch the grandest victories for mankind from the jaws of defeat. It tells us of a man of undaunted courage, and who knew no fear, was generous to a fault, and that he gave up his own life rather than take in self-defense the life of another. "No man knew better than Captain Couch the dangerous character of his as- sailant; no man knew better than he the sacred right of self-defense in all civilized society ; no man was more capable of de- fending his life, and yet so great was his
magnanimity that ne carefully evaded any act which would put him in the position of the aggressor.
"I cannot now speak in detail of the life of Captain Couch. Born in the state of North Carolina in 1850, he moved to John- son county, Kansas, in 1866, and four years later settled at Douglas in Butler county. In 1880 he became fully identified with Payne's Oklahoma colony, and after the death of Captain Payne in 1884, he was elected president. Through all the years that followed, up to the spring of 1889, you know with what pertinacity, with what un- wearied diligence, he led the advance guard of civilization against the craft and bar- barism which had closed Oklahoma to set- tlement. To the world at large he was deemed the leader of a forlorn hope, but to him and to his associates it was the path of duty and the way to victory. He be- lieved then and to the day of his death, as I believe now, that Oklahoma has been in every proper sense a part of the public domain since the treaties of 1866. But mindful of the interpretation of the law by the executive department of the govern- ment, in December, 1885, he went to Washington and commenced the great work before Congress which bore its fruit one year ago today in the opening of Okla- homa to settlement. Alas, that on this an- niversary of that notable event, and on the day when the American Congress, aroused to action by the movement of which he was the conspicuous and trusted leader, has crowned this beautiful territory with the majesty of civil government, he is not here to witness the great event !
"For more than five years I have been intimately associated with Captain Couch in the work he had in hand, and I know how great were his efforts and earnest his purpose to dedicate Oklahoma to free 1
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homes and to a free people. I know there was no reserve in his friendship for me, and I know there was none in mine for him. If I ever looked into any man's heart; if I ever comprehended the value of courage, sincerity and integrity, in hu- man character; if I ever correctly divined the motives and objects of a single human being, I did in the case of my dead friend. It is not too much to say that he was made of the material of which heroes are made. He looked into the future with the grasp of the most comprehensive statesman. He saw before other men saw the future state of Oklahoma, rich in all the attributes of wealth, civilization, and progress. He saw with prophetic eye the millions of happy homes that will dot this fair land in the years to come. He comprehended the tran- scendent results which, under the beneficent influence of our free institutions, will fol- low the founding here in the center of the continent of a new American state.
"Its vast possibilities were as plain to his vision as the rays of a beautiful morning sun. He appreciated the majestic forces of Christian civilization marching on and on to the subjugation of a continent. He exemplified the spirit of Whittier's poem :
"""Each rude and jostling fragment Soon its fitting place shall find; The raw material of a state, Its muscle and its mind. And westward still, the star that leads The new world in its train Has tipped with fire the icy spurs Of many a mountain chain.'
"The name and fame of Capt. W. L. Couch will be indissolubly connected with the history of Oklahoma. Only those who did not know the man will ever question the purity of his motives or the grandeur of his character. If there be those who would have deprived him and his family a home on Oklahoma soil after his long and
weary struggle for the right, after his sac- rifices and sufferings in behalf of the people of Oklahoma of to-day and of to-morrow, after his battle to the death with monopoly and fraud, let them be left to the universal execration of that portion of mankind who despise ingratitude and cover with im- mortal honor the unselfish heroes of the human race.
"In his last hours he had no word of reproach for the destroyer of his life. When the grim messenger of death held him in no uncertain grasp, he was as calm and fearless as when in the best of health.
"Brave, generous, heroic friend ! Noble in life, true to duty and to humanity, what a sublime lesson you have left to us, and to those who come after us, in the presence of death! We enroll your name with the heroes of this age and of all the ages who have dared to suffer and to die for prin- ciple, for friends, for country, for the good of their fellow men."
Kansas and the original Oklahoma Ter- ritory stood in somewhat similar relations to each other as the old state of Virginia was related to Kentucky and Tennessee. From the Old Dominion not only its native sons, but its institutions and civic and social ideals, were transplanted to the western slopes of the Alleghanies, and there lived and were reproduced in the changed en- vironment and times that characterized the early history of that region. The ideals and actions that gave the particular stamp to the history of Kansas survived in the men who gave vitality to the movement for the opening of Oklahoma to settlement, and the influence of the free-state movement and the type of men who became con- spicuous under the title of "Kansans" were the strongest factors in the occupation of
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Oklahoma. Oklahoma as a state and dur- ing the latter part of its existence as a ter- ritory has outgrown the Kansas influence as a predominating factor, but during the boomer days and for some time after the original opening Kansas men, and Kansas law, and Kansas ideas were controlling powers in Oklahoma affairs.
This close association of Kansas and Oklahoma has nowhere a better illustration than in the life of the man whose career, more than that of any other individual, has been identified in a large political way with the affairs of both states throughout the greater period of their history. . Sidney Clarke became a resident of the territory of Kansas in 1859. The climax of the free- state fight was over, but Kansas was still restless before the coming crisis of the Civil war. A young law student of twenty- four in the office of the free-state apostle, Jim Lane, could not fail to understand the principles and details of the political dis- cussions of the time, and when, a little later, he became private secretary for Senator Lane, the first senator from the state of Kansas, he was at once thrown into immediate contact with the greatest personalities of the nation. In the first year of the war he was elected to the Kan- sas legislature, and the following year was made assistant adjutant general of volun- teers, and assigned to duty at Leavenworth as provost marshal general for Kansas, Nebraska, Colorado and Dakota under what was known as the enrollment act. He superintended the volunteer recruiting serv- ice and was chief mustering and disburs- ing officer for his district.
In the fall of 1864 Mr. Clarke was elected to Congress-being the third man to receive that honor and at that time the only representative Kansas had in the lower house. By reelection he served in Congress
until March 4, 1871. As congressman- elect he was in Washington during the last months of the war, was on the scene a few minutes after the assassination of Lincoln, assisted in the hasty reorganization of gov- ernment after that catastrophe, and as a member of the funeral party witnessed all the final scenes in the earthly career of the great war President. From the beginning of the war until the close of his term of service in Congress, the experiences of Mr. Clarke and his associations with noted men were of such an intimate character that his reminiscences become a vivid portrayal of that important period of the nation's history.
As one of the adopted sons whom Kansas chose to honor, he was thoroughly repre- sentative of the vital principles of politics and civics that Kansas had upheld during her formative period. Sidney Clarke was an expansionist in the sense that he believed in the unrestricted development of the na- tional resources wherever they were found. Against the rights of the homesteader he recognized no sufficient adverse claims. Furthermore, he found in the changed con- ditions and exigencies of the time in which he lived a justification of any reversal and revision of the policies adopted in the past. Consequently, in the era of national devel- opment that followed immediately after the war, he gave his influence and active sup- port to the extension of railroad lines into the undeveloped areas of the west. As a Kansan he was interested in the Indian land question, especially since immense tracts in Kansas still were vested in the control of the Indian department. During the last term he was in Congress he was chairman of the house committee on Indian affairs, and it may be said that in that capacity his influence was directed to the gradual reduction of the Indian domain,
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