USA > Oklahoma > A history of the state of Oklahoma, Volume I > Part 81
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He is a son of one of the early pioneers of northeastern Missouri, Silas Ramsey,
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and was born in Lewis county, near Monti- cello, that state, December 5, 1845. The father was born in Kentucky of Scotch- Irish descent, and it was in 1830 that he es- tablished his home in Missouri. He re- ceived a deed of land there signed by Presi- dent Martin Van Buren (which is still in the possession of S. M. Ramsey), and he died on his old homestead farm there at the advanced age of eighty-three years, both he and his wife having been earnest members of the Baptist church. She bore the maiden name of Henrietta Baker, and was also born in Kentucky, her death oc- curring at the age of seventy-six years. Their four children are: Silas M., James W., Mary H. Tarbox and Newton M., the last named a resident of Tecumseh.
S. M. Ramsey married in Lewis county, Missouri, Mary A. Barkelew, a daughter of Henry and Charlotte (Spencer) Barke- lew, the former dying at the ripe old age of eighty-eight, and the latter at the age of sixty. Mrs. Ramsey is also deceased, dying on the 21st of February, 1884, at the age of thirty-nine, after becoming the mother of four children: Francis M., a railroad conductor and a resident of Shaw- nee; Archie B., the owner and proprietor of a gin mill in the Seminole Nation, near Earlsboro; Florence L., who is a teacher and also has a homestead of eighty acres near her father's farm; and Zetie, with her aunt in Brown, Pottawatomie county. Mr. Ramsey has proved an efficient public offi- cer, having served two terms as a registrar of deeds, and in 1906 was a delegate to the Guthrie constitutional convention. He is a member of the Masonic order, Lodge No. 13 of Tecumseh, and of the Odd Fel- lows, Lodge No. 82 of Brown. His re- ligious affiliations are with the Baptist church of Tecumseh.
WILLIAM B. TROUSDALE, who for many years was prominently before the people of Pottawatomie county as its sheriff and now one of the county's leading agriculturists, came to the Indian Territory with his par- ents when a boy in 1872, coming from Cooke county, Texas. He was born at Paris, in Lamar county, that state. Septem- ber 27, 1858, a member of one of the pio-
neer families of the Lone Star state. His father, Allen Trousdale, was born in Madi- son county, Tennessee, but during his early life moved to Arkansas and later to Texas, and in 1872 came to Oklahoma. He died in Eason township, Pottawatomie county, at the age of seventy-three years, and was the first man buried in the Wanette ceme- tery. He was a prominent farmer and cat- tleman here, and was a Democrat political- ly. His wife, Mary Reed before her mar- riage, was an exceptionally well educated lady. She was born in Zanesville, Ohio, was a graduate of Zanesville Academy, and a lady of many high attainments. She died at the age of sixty-eight, a member of the Methodist Episcopal church, and left three children, one of whom, Alice Hamill, lives in the Choctaw country.
W. B. Trousdale spent his early life as a cowboy in the range in Indian Territory, and he was well educated under the able instructions of his mother. During six years she served as the postmistress at Oberlin, Choctaw county, and during much of that time her son served as her assistant. In 1874 he came to Pottawatomie county and located near Wanette, and he is now the owner of a valuable farm of five hun- dred and sixty acres in Eason township. near Trousdale, the land being especially adapted to the raising of cotton, corn and alfalfa, and in addition he is also quite ex- tensively engaged in the raising of cattle and hogs.
At the Sacred Heart Mission in 1881, Mr. Trousdale was married by the Catholic priest to Mary Tupin, of French and In- dian blood. She was well educated in the St. Mary's Mission school in Kansas. Their children are William, Alexander, Nickson. Augusta, Madeline, Kemp, Mattie Made- line, the latter a student in the con- vent at Purcell, Oklahoma. Mr. Trousdale is an active worker in the local ranks of the Democratic party, and as its represen- tative he served in the office of sheriff in 1895 and 1896. In 1897 he was defeated for the office by only three votes, and he was again elected in 1899 and 1900, and served with credit and ability. He had many exciting experiences with outlaws and
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desperate characters in those early days of the southwest, and one of his most noted captures was the Christian brothers, who were convicted and imprisoned. He is a member of the fraternal order of Odd Fel- lows, Lodge No. 24. He bears the true characteristics of the cattleman, jovial and charitable to all, and his friends are many in Pottawatomie county.
IVY TARTER, one of the well-known sol- dier citizens of Moore township, was born in Pulaski county, Kentucky, in 1838, a son of Jacob and Polly (Weddle) Tarter. His paternal grandfather was born in Ger- many, and coming to this country served for seven years in the Revolutionary war. The father was born in Virginia, and the mother in Pulaski county, Kentucky, of Scotch-Irish and English ancestry. Of their family of nine children, four sons and five daughters, all grew to mature years and married, and one daughter is now ninety years of age. The father was a Whig and a slave owner in the ante-bellum days, but later became a Democrat, and he died in the faith of the Baptist church at the age of eighty-two years. His wife was fifty-three at the time of her death.
On his parents' old home farm in Ken- tucky, Ivy Tarter grew to manhood's es- tate, and that state was his home for forty- three years. On the 15th of October, 1861, at the call of Lincoln for three hundred thousand more men, he enlisted in Pulaski county, Kentucky, at Somerset, in Company D. Third Kentucky Infantry, and served under Captain John C. Bolan and Colonel Thomas Bromlet. His services were with the Army of the Cumberland in General Thomas' command, and he was first under fire at Shiloh, later taking part in the bat- tles of Corinth, Iuka, Perryville, Murfrees- boro, Chickamauga, where he served with General Thomas; Kenesaw Mountain, and in many others of the hard fought battles of the war. On the 21st of June, 1864, at the battle of Maryette, Georgia, he was wounded above the knee in the right leg, and was in the hospital at Nashville from that date until the following August. Re- ceiving a thirty days' furlough he returned
home, but in the following September joined his regiment at Nashville, Tennessee, and was honorably discharged from the service on the 15th of June, 1865, with a brave and gallant record as a soldier, and as the second sergeant of his regiment, a non-commissioned officer.
After a residence of forty-three years in his native state of Kentucky, Mr. Tarter moved to Texas, and after ten years in Collin county came to Chickasaw Nation in Indian Territory. In 1892 he became a resident of Pottawatomie county, Okla- homa, where he now owns a well improved farm of eighty acres located midway be- tween Maud and Asher.
Before leaving his native state of Ken- tucky, when eighteen years of age, he mar- ried Emily Dunbar, who was born in Rus- sell county, that state, and is of English descent, a daughter of Siller Brown Dun- bar, who was born in Kentucky near Mam- moth Cave. Three of his sons were Union soldiers of the Civil war-Lieutenant Reu- ben Dunbar, Hugh Mace and Willis, both now deceased. Eight children, six sons and two daughters, have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Tarter, namely : James W .; Hugh Mason; Sallie; Henry Harrison and Thomas Franklin, twins; Buthie Siller, George Wyat, who died at the age of twenty-five years; and Dan. Mr. Tarter is a stanch supporter of Republican prin- ciples, and during Mckinley's administra- tion he was for three years the postmaster of Siller, which office was named in honor of his daughter. He is a member of the Grand Army of the Republic, Avoca Post of Pottawatomie county.
JOHN WHITEHEAD, of the "Valley View Farm," two miles to the southwest of Shaw- nee, Pottawatomie county, Oklahoma, was born near Topeka, in Shawnee county, Kansas, in 1858. His parents were of French and Indian blood, and were among the first settlers in Kansas. He is the son of Tames Whitehead, the mother being of the Pottawatomie tribe of Indians. She was born in Michigan and lived for a time in Illinois, at Chicago; also for a time in Iowa, and from there her people went
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to Kansas. The father died, aged forty- five years. For her second husband her mother married Lucius Gooner.
Mr. Whitehead was reared in Kansas and was taught to be industrious and honest. He received his schooling at St. Mary's Mission in Kansas. He received an allot- ment of two hundred and forty acres in the rich and fertile bottom land, and his wife received an allotment of one hundred and sixty acres. He was married in 1883 to Mary Wellfelt, who was born and edu- cated at Topeka, and was a classmate of Hon. Charles Curtis, U. S. Senator from Kansas, who is a fast friend of the family. She is the daughter of Joseph Wellfelt, of French blood. Her mother was of French and Pottawatomie blood and now lives at Seattle, Washington. Mr. Whitehead lives in a two thousand dollar farm-house, sur- rounded by cement walks, a beautiful lawn, with everything that bespeaks civilization and refinement. The farm is a model one, and contains fine alfalfa meadows. His teams of draft horses are well worth five hundred dollars a team. The cattle and hogs are of the choicest grades. This farm contains four hundred and forty acres of choice land, which is well tilled and care- fully cared for.
Mr. Whitehead and wife have the follow- ing children : Irene, married Ed Pecore; and Webster Whitehead, an engineer on the government industrial farm, who is a carpenter and was educated at Sacred Heart Catholic school at Lawrence, Kan- sas, finishing at Haskell Institute.
WILLIAM BEATTY. The name of William Beatty is becoming a familiar one in the legal circles of Pottawatomie county and especially of Wanette. He came to Okla- home five years ago, locating first in Lin- coln county, and after a year there came to Pottawatomie county. Choosing the law as his life work, he prepared for the pro- fession earnestly and thoroughly and was admitted to the bar January 3, 1905. In like manner with all others, Mr. Beatty started out to win for himself a name and place, and his success is placing him at the head of the Wanette bar.
He was born on a farm in Johnson coun-
ty, Missouri, in 1882, a son of a farmer, Archibald Beatty, a member of an old Ken- tucky family, which is also the state of his birth, and with his wife, nee Mary Sever, also a member of an old family of the Blue Grass state, he resides in Pettis county, Missouri. Of their eight children, five sons and three daughters, the Doctor was the fourth born, and while attaining to years of maturity on the old Missouri farm, he enjoyed the benefits of an excellent educa- tional training and became a successful teacher. He has represented his party, the Democratic, as a delegate to several con- ventions, and is a Mason and a Woodman. He is a member of the Baptist church.
DR. R. M. SHAW, a physician and sur- geon practicing at McComb, is one of the well-known members of the medical pro- fession of Pottawatomie county and is also the proprietor of the Pioneer Drug Store of McComb. He is a native son of Arkan- sas, born near Searcy, in White county, in 1874, and is also the son of a physician who died eleven years ago at the age of sixty- six years. He was born in Ohio and had a gallant record as a Union soldier in an Ohio regiment during the Civil war. The mother, Mahala (Mann) Shaw, born in Kentucky, is yet living and is now seventy- three years of age. They had nine children, three sons and six daughters.
Dr. Shaw received a good educational training in the high school of Sugar Loaf Springs, Arkansas, and while yet a boy in his teens he began the study of medicine under the able instructions of his father. Later he entered as a student in the A. I. Uni College of Little Rock and graduated with its class of 1899, and since then he has been engaged in the active practice of the profession, and since 1902 has been one of the leading physicians and surgeons of McComb and the proprietor of its Pioneer Drug Store, in which he carries a large line of drugs, medicines, toilet articles and everything to be found in a first-class drug store.
Dr. Shaw was married at Beebe, Arkan- sas, in 1897 to Ella Keel, who was born and reared in that state. Her father died many years ago, and her mother is Mrs. R. C.
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Garner. The only child of Dr. and Mrs. Shaw is Lila, four years of age. The Doc- tor is a prominent Republican worker in Pottawatomie county, and is a member of the fraternal orders of Woodmen of the World, Masons and Odd Fellows. He is also a member of the State and County Medical societies, and was one of the or- ganizers and promoters of the Pottawatomie Southern Medical Society. Both he and his wife are members of the Methodist Epis- copal church.
F. S. WRAY, proprietor of a cotton mill and a prominent cotton broker at Maud, is one of the most important business men of Pottawatomie county, an important factor in the cotton business. He came to the county in 1906 and opened his gin mill, which is well supplied with all the modern machinery known to the business, including a thirty-six power engine, and from the time the cotton is taken from the field until it reaches the consumer he has entire charge of the commodity. During the season of 1907 seventeen hundred bales of cotton were ginned and prepared at the Wray Gin, and in addition to this he also handled as a broker twenty thousand bales during the season.
F. S. Wray was born in Shelby, Cleve- land county, North Carolina, in 1877, a son of a prominent planter, stock dealer and business man of that state, G. W. Wray, of Shelby. He has been prominent in the business life of that community for over thirty years, and is one of its best known men. His father, W. H. Wray, was one of the early settlers of that part of the state. G. W. Wray married Sarah Suttle, a mem- ber of another of North Carolina's well known families, and they became the par- ents of seven children, four sons and three daughters, among whom was F. S. Wray. who was reared to manhood's estate in Shelby and received a good education in its common and high schools and in the Uni- versity of North Carolina. For a time after leaving school he assisted his father in business, and finally came to Maud, Okla- homa, to take part in its business life, but he yet spends the most of his summers at his old home in North Carolina with his
parents. His political affiliations are with the Democratic party, and fraternally he is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. He has made many friends in his new home in Oklahoma, his genial manner and straightforward business dealings win- ning him the confidence of all.
PROFESSOR N. M. SOWDER, superinten- dent of the McLoud public schools, is one of the best known educators in Pottawa- tomie county, keenly alive to the educational interests of the people, and has been instru- mental in organizing the High School and in advancing the cause of the McLoud schools in general along all lines. His iden- tification with school work as teacher and superintendent covers a period of fifteen years, and in that time he has taught in Missouri, Kansas and Oklahoma. He is author and inventor of a book, pending publication, entitled "Concrete Arithmetic," a new method of science in mathematics, working all problems embracing either sub- traction or division, or including square and cube root, solely by addition. The manu- script contains about 200 pages print.
He was born near Maryville, Nodaway county, Missouri, March 22, 1874, a son of Abram Sowder, one of the early settlers and leading business men of that city. The latter was born at Brownstown, Indiana, in 1842, and during the Civil war he served as a brave and loyal soldier. He married Anna Walker, who was born in Lyons, New York, and in 1866 they moved to Pickering, Missouri, where Mr. Sowder was a successful laborer until his death at the age of sixty-six years, dying on the 20th of February, 1908. He was a member and deacon of the Christian church, and a loyal Republican, politically.
Professor N. M. Sowder passed from the Methodist Seminary of Maryville to the Afton College, Afton, Iowa; then to Stan- berry Normal in Stanberry, Missouri; then took a business course in Kansas City, Mis- souri ; and from there entered higher insti- tutions of learning at Taunton, Massachu- setts, and Washington, D. C., receiving the degree of A. B. from the Potomac Univer- sity at Washington. He is also the holder of a life state certificate, granted solely upon
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examination. After teaching for a number of years he entered the railroad service, first as a Pullman conductor for two years, and then for two years as a train auditor for the M., K. & T. Railway Company. The first school in which he taught in Okla- homa was in Lincoln county, of which he assumed charge in 1898, and later he was postmaster and in the mercantile business in that county. He also greatly improved the schools at Wellston, being superinten- dent. Since becoming identified with the little city of McLoud he has been thorough- ly alive to her educational interests and has kept its school fully abreast of the rapid educational progress in the state, as evinced by its articulating with the State University at Norman.
In 1902, in Pottawatomie county, Profes- sor Sowder was united in marriage to Viv- ian Wilson, who was educated in Cof- feyville, Kansas. Her father, Thomas L. Wilson, died in Lincoln county, Oklahoma, with a splendid record as a Christian and a Union soldier during the Civil war. The. children of this union are a daughter, Gen- evieve, deceased, and a son, Harold C., two years of age. Professor and Mrs. Sowder are members of the Christian church, and he is also a Mason, Odd Fellow and Wood- man. Both are members of the O. E. S. at St. Louis, Missouri.
ISAAC N. BRADBURN, a farmer in Section II, Earlsboro township, near the town of Maud, has been identified with the south- west for many years. He left Texas nine- teen years ago for the Chickasaw Nation in Indian Territory, and that was his home until he came to Oklahoma eleven years ago. He was born in North Carolina Sep- tember 11, 1837, a member of a family who had long resided in that state, his paternal grandfather having moved there from his native state of Virginia when a boy, and his wife was of English parentage. Isaac E., his son, was born and reared in North Carolina, and was there married to one of the state's native daughters, Ellen Starnes, and there they spent the remainder of their lives and died, the father at the age of sev- enty-five years. He was a prominent southern planter, a Democrat in his politi-
cal affiliations and a member of the Bap- tist church. His children numbered nine, three sons and six daughters, of whom five are now living, a son and four daughters.
Isaac Bradburn, the only surviving son of the family, left home at the age of eigh- teen and for three years traveled over the south and west, working at different occu- pations, and finally returning home he en- listed for service in the Civil war as a mem- ber of the Thirty-second North Carolina Volunteer Infantry, under Colonel Brabble and General Early, and took part in the battle of Spottsylvania Court House. In the engagement of Cedar Creek, while with a Virginia train, he was made a prisoner of war and held at Point Lookout by the Federals for some time, and when finally discharged the war had closed and he re- turned home to take up again the work of the farm. In 1873 he went to Grayson county, Texas, where he was engaged in farming and the cattle business until going to St. Jo, that state, and in 1880 he went to the Chickasaw Nation in Indian Terri- tory, and from there to the Choctaw Na- tion in 1887. From the Indian Territory he came to Pottawatomie county, Okla- homa, in 1896, and purchased one hundred and sixty acres of Indian land, where he has made an excellent farm home, and he has also donated one acre of the land to the county for public purposes. For four years he has served his community as a justice of the peace, for nine years was a notary public, and for a number of years has served as a member of the school board, the cause of education finding in him a faithful friend. His political affiliations are with the Democratic party.
Mr. Bradburn was married in 1866 to Mahala Pennell, who proved to him a worthy helpmate in their life on the plains of Texas, Indian Territory and Oklahoma. She was born January 3, 1835, and reared in North Carolina, a daughter of Richmond Lewis, both her parents dying in North Carolina. Of the seven children born of this union, five sons and two daughters, five are now living : Joseph W., Elisha, Charles, Eva Miller and Lillie Kenyon. The two de- ceased are Robert, who died at the age of
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twenty-two years in the Chickasaw Nation, leaving a wife and one child, and Hugh, who was also a young man of twenty-two at the time of his death, both young men of great promise, well known and admired. Both Mr. and Mrs. Bradburn are members of the Baptist church.
REV. PHILLIP H. DOWNING. One of the best known and one of the most valued citi- zens of Earlsboro township is Rev. Phillip H. Downing, a minister in the Free Will Baptist church and the president of the Rural Telephone Company. He is thor- oughly earnest and sincere in all his works and deeds and has done much to further the upbuilding and improvement of his sec- tion of Oklahoma since coming here in 1905. He was born in Jefferson county, Iowa, December 15, 1851, a son of William and Sarah (Miller) Downing, the father a native son of Indiana of Pennsylvania parentage, while the mother was born in that state and was a representative of a Pennsylvania German family. The parents are both now deceased, the mother dying near Jefferson, Iowa, when her son Phillip was but a babe, leaving six children, five sons and a daughter, and the father sur- vived until the age of eighty, dying in Cali- fornia. He was a tiller of the soil, a Re- publican politically and a member of the Methodist Episcopal church.
After the death of his mother Phillip H. Downing was reared in the home of his uncle, Phillip Miller, where he laid the foun- dation for his future field of usefulness. Leaving his native state of Iowa in 1895 he went to Franklin county, Illinois, and there he made his home until coming to Pottawatomie county, Oklahoma, in 1905. Here he has two good farms, with eighty acres under cultivation and well improved with orchards and good buildings. On the 28th of August, 1898, Rev. Downing was ordained a minister of the Free Will Bap- tist church, and for one year thereafter he served as the pastor of the Prairie City church in McDonough county, Illinois. Since coming to Oklahoma he has been ac- tive in the field of missionary work, diligent in the continuance of the work to which he early consecrated his life, and he has proved
an efficient laborer in his Master's cause. He has at the same time been loyal to his duties as a citizen, and was one of the first promoters of the telephone here and assist- ed in organizing the Rural Telephone Com- pany, of which he was made the president. The company was organized in 1907 and has proved of inestimable value to the citi- zens of the town and county.
Rev. Downing married first Ermine Snook, who died at the age of thirty-six years, a member of the New Light church. She left three children, Lulu Walker, Frank and Carl. On the 26th of October, 1892, he wedded Miss Evila Glasgow, who was born in Bloomfield, Davis county, Iowa, a daughter of Nathaniel and Sarah (Stagg) Glasgow. The father, a native of Ken- tucky, and of Scotch descent, died when fifty-seven years of age, and the mother survived until her sixty-eighth year, both members of the New Light Christian church. Of their eleven children seven are now living. One son, Warren Clyde, has been born to Rev. and Mrs. Downing, a lad of fourteen years.
DR. JAMES MONROE BYRUM was born in Monroe county, Tennessee, July 19, 1871, a son of Peter and Mary (Cavette) Byrum. The family are descendants of the early set- : tlers in East Tennessee and the Carolinas and are of Scotch-Irish origin. The par- ents, with the three sons and two daugh- ters, removed to Charlotte, Arkansas, in 1881, where the children were given a com- mon school education. The subject of this sketch, the eldest child, completed the high school course at Sulphur Rock, Arkansas, and a college training at the State Univer- sity.
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