A history of the state of Oklahoma, Volume I, Part 86

Author: Hill, L. B. (Luther B.)
Publication date: 1908
Publisher: Chicago : Lewis Pubishing Company
Number of Pages: 645

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Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

Lee Troutman was a boy of nine at the time of his parents' removal to Benton county, Iowa, where he was reared on a farm, and he was afterward in Missouri and Nebraska for a time. In 1881 he se- cured a homestead claim in Graham coun- ty, Kansas, on which he built a sod house and improved his farm of one hundred and sixty acres. While in that state, in February, 1890, he was married to Josie Newkirk, who proved an excellent help- mate in establishing the new home in the west. She was born in Clinton county, Iowa, but when nine years of age went with her parents to Graham county. Kan- sas, and was reared and educated in that then frontier settlement, attending a pio- neer sod schoolhouse near her home. Her father, Abraham Newkirk, served in an Iowa regiment during the Civil war, and he is now living in Idaho, but her mother, Orpha (Gregory) Newkirk, died in Kan- sas.

After a number of years in Kansas Mr. and Mrs. Troutman left their farm there to be-

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gin anew in the rapidly developing section of Oklahoma, and they first established their home on a partially improved farm in Pot- tawatomie county, but selling their land after a time they moved to Tribbey and built a home there. Mr. Troutman is an excellent contractor and carpenter, and commands a large trade in those lines. In their family are four sons and four daugh- ters : Orpha, Goldie, Martha, Luther, Newkirk, Ethel, Alfred and Le Roy. Mr. Troutman is a Socialist politically, an ac- tive worker for the party, and both he and his wife are earnest members of the Church of Christ.

HON. JOHN F. LINN, present postmaster at Dale, Pottawatomie county, Oklahoma, has had more than the ordinary experi- ences which come to men, and his career is probably not at its high tide yet. He was born in Highland county, Ohio, near Hills- boro, January 24, 1844, of a good family, who early taught him the usefulness of in- dustry and honesty. He is the son of John S. Linn, a native of Virginia. The mother was Margaret Brown, born in Ohio. They moved to Knox county, Illinois, locating near Galesburg, where the father died, aged fifty-two years. He was a farmer all of his life. His good wife died at Guthrie, Oklahoma. Two sons and three daughters were born to this worthy couple, of whom Hon. John F. was the fourth child. He accompanied his parents to Illinois, and there attended the public schools. When President Lincoln called for more troops in 1862, to suppress the Rebellion, he en- listed in the Eighty-ninth Ohio Infantry Regiment of volunteers, with him who was later known as Governor Foraker and who then was but seventeen years of age. Mr. Linn accompanied Sherman on his famous "March to the Sea," back through the Carolinas to Washington, participating in the grand review, July, 1865. He was honorably discharged with a splendid mili- tary record. He left Illinois and went to Furnas county, Nebraska, where he home- steaded two years, and in 1885 returned to Knox county, Illinois. He again was seized with the "western fever," and went to Hodgeman county, in western Kansas.

remained until 1890, when he went to Ok- lahoma, locating in Lyon county, and there remained for two years, having held the office of county commissioner by appoint- ment of Governor Steele. He served two months and was elected member of the first territorial legislature, in the autumn of 1890, when the Territory of Oklahoma was organized. He removed to Mullhall and subsequently to Kingfisher, Oklahoma. At the last named place he was made the superintendent of an ice plant, which he managed until 1895, when he moved to Perry, Oklahoma, where he remained three months, moving to Shawnee in 1896. Here he embarked in the hardware busi- ness, but later moved to his farm three and one-half miles from Dale, where he has a fine farm of a quarter section of land, all well improved, and of considerable value.

Mr. Linn was first married in Illinois, to Sarah K. Housh, a native of Illinois, who died in 1881, in Knox county, Illinois. He was married the second time, in 1891, at Guthrie, Oklahoma, to Dora B .. Bowers, whose people came from Ohio to Ne- braska. His children are as follows: Bertha, Earl, Raymond, Theodore, Lillie, and one deceased. By the second mar- riage he was the father of one child- Harold, who died at the age of fourteen years.

Politically Mr. Linn is a stanch Repub- lican, who is a great admirer of President Roosevelt and his public policy. He is an honored member of the Independent Or- der of Odd Fellows and in his community is esteemed for his many virtues and public spirited disposition. He received the ap- pointment as postmaster at Dale, Okla- homa, January 20, 1908.

N. A. J. TICER is one of the three com- missioners of Pottawatomie county and one of the leading merchants of Moral, a pros- perous and rapidly growing town on the railroad four miles southeast of Tribbey. He was elected to his present office on the 17th of September, 1907, and has proved a safe and careful county official. Okla- homa has been his home for twelve years, and he is, therefore, numbered among its

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pioneers, his first home being on a claim or farm four miles west of Moral, but later he moved into the town and opened his store of general merchandise, carrying a full line of dry goods, boots and shoes, gro- ceries and many other articles, and his man- ly and straightforward .dealings have se- cured him an excellent patronage and many warm friends.

Mr. Ticer was born in Stone county, Ar- kansas, April 6, 1861, and is a member of a very old family of that state. His father, Hugh Clark Ticer, was born in Alabama, and was a soldier in the Confederate army during the Civil war. He was a lifelong farmer, a Democrat politically and a mem- ber of the Methodist Episcopal church, South, dying in the faith of that denomi- nation in June of 1898. His wife, Sarah Caroline Rorie, was born in North Caro- lina, and at her death she left five children, one of whom, James M., is a resident of Caddo county, Oklahoma.

Another of her sons, N. A. J. Ticer, was reared to the life of a farmer, and he at- tended the public schools near his home during his boyhood days, but his more spe- cific training was received by actual busi- ness experience. At the age of nineteen he was married to Rosa Lawson, formerly of Arkansas, and she died on the 20th of March, 1884, leaving two children, one of whom is John W. Ticer. His second wife, Zonietta Cartright, was also a native of Ar- kansas, and at her death, April 11, 1899, she left four children: Henry Allen, Rosa Pink, Mary Caroline and Newton Ed. On the 9th of January, 1905, Mr. Ticer mar- ried his present wife, Sarah Weatherford, whose birth occurred in Independence coun- ty, Arkansas, and by this union two chil- dren have been born : Lillie Jane and Okla- homa. Mr. Ticer is one of the leading local workers in the Democratic party, which he has represented in several conventions. He was a member of the territorial con- vention of 1905, and was a delegate to the state convention at Muskogee in 1908. He is a prominent Odd Fellow, a member of Moral Lodge No. 47, in which he has served in all of the offices and as a repre- sentative to the Grand Lodge; also a mem-

ber of the A. F. & A. M. at Moral, No. 33. When he was sixteen years of age, Mr. Ticer united with the Methodist Episcopal church South, and has been an active mem- ber since, taking part in Sunday school and church work. Mrs. Ticer is also a member of the same church.

JAMES HUTCHINSON, manager of the Cary & Lombard Lumber Company, of Wa- nette, has been a resident of Oklahoma for twenty-four years, and since the 16th of March, 1904, has been identified with the interests of Wanette. He was born in Pe- tersburg, Virginia, forty-four years ago, and receiving a general literary education he entered the pharmacy department of Co- lumbian University, Washington D. C., and graduated with the class of 1884. Shortly after his graduation and during Grover Cleveland's administration he was ap- pointed the government physician of the drug department at Fort Reno, Oklahoma, and continued in the government employ for four years. From there he went to Perry, in this state, where he had a good position as a druggist for five years, and for some time after leaving that city he was in Paul's Valley. It was from there that he came to Wanette in 1904, and since allying his interests with those of this city he has not only been active in its business life as the manager of the Cary & Lom- bard Lumber Company, but has also been prominent in its public life, serving for three years as the city clerk and is the pres- ent city treasurer.

Mr. Hutchinson is a son of Virginia par- ents, Samuel C. and Margaret (Bruce) Hutchinson, and on the paternal side he is of Scotch descent. The father died in Pe- tersburg, of the Old Dominion state, in Oc- tober, 1891, where he had long been a prominent and successful physician, and his widow is now living in Wanette with her son. James Hutchinson was the second born of their eleven children, five sons and six daughters. During his residence in Perry, Oklahoma, in 1898, he married Mary A. Burch, who was born in San Antonio, Texas, to J. E. and Mary (Huntley) Burch. The father served the south as a Confederate soldier during the Civil war.

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Mr. Hutchinson is a Democrat politically, and his fraternal relations are with the Ma- sonic order, Lodge No. 88, in which he has filled all the offices; the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, Wanette Lodge No. 87; the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, Guthrie Lodge No. 426; the Knights of Pythias, Lodge No. 7, and the Modern Woodmen of America. Both he and his wife are members of the Baptist church.

J. R. SMITH, the assistant cashier of the Maud State Bank, is popular and well known in both the business and social life of this community and a young man worthy of note in the history of his town and coun- ty. He has been prominently identified with the interests of Pottawatomie since his ar- rival here in 1905, and he is a native son of Tennessee, born in Madison county in 1874, a son of E. E. and Virginia (Lewis) Smith, natives respectively of Tennessee and Virginia, and members of prominent old southern families. The father, of Scotch-Irish ancestry, was a lifelong tiller of the soil, and was a worthy member of the Baptist church. Mrs. Smith died at the age of sixty-seven, after becoming the mother of thirteen children, and seven of this once large family, five sons and two daughters, are yet living.

On a farm in Tennessee J. R. Smith at- tained to manhood's estate, in the mean- time receiving a good education in its pub- lic schools and in the Robertson Christian College at Hudson. For three years after the completion of his education he taught in the schools of Oklahoma, two years near Tecumseh and the remainder of the time east of Shawnee. During eight months he also served as the assistant to the postmas- ter at Maud, George McEnis, and he later accepted the position of assistant cashier of the Maud State Bank, one of the reliable financial institutions of Pottawatomie coun- ty. In his official capacity he is accommo- dating, genial and pleasant, and is popular both with the patrons of the bank and its officers. He is a member of the Woodmen of the World and the Christian church.

GEORGE G. BOGGS was born April 5th, 1869, at Boonesboro, Iowa. His parents

moved to Nebraska when he was an infant, the family locating on a homestead near Blair, in Washington county, in which George G. spent his early life and where he lived until 1893. His parents were John W. Boggs and Carrie S. Boggs, whose early lives were spent in Clarion county, Pennsylvania. His mother's maiden name was Carrie S. Gardner. John W. Boggs was a soldier of the Civil war, being a member of the Seventieth Illinois Infantry. In later years he served as sheriff of Wash- ington county, Nebraska, for four years and was postmaster at Blair during the ad- ministration of President Benjamin Harri- son.

George G. Boggs was educated in the public schools of Blair, graduating from the high school in 1888. He then attended Doane College at Crete, Nebraska for two years and afterwards the law department of the Iowa State University and in 1892 was admitted to the bar. In 1893 Mr. Boggs was married to Carrie A. Lawson, of Blair. They have one son, Logan E. Boggs, who was born in Shawnee, Okla- homa, in March, 1897, to which place his parents had removed in 1895.

It was in Shawnee that the most thrill- ing and perhaps important events in the life of Mr. Boggs occurred. Mr. Boggs had been active in Republican politics and upon the election of the late President Mc- Kinley was appointed postmaster at Shaw- nee. After serving but a few months sev- eral valuable registered letters disappeared from his office and could not be found. In- vestigations were made but with no results and the matter appeared to be dropped. The community was shocked one day in the following spring by the announcement that their postmaster had been arrested, charged with the crime of embezzling registered let- ters. After several months Mr. Boggs was removed from office and tried in the Fed- eral court at Tecumseh, Oklahoma, and convicted upon the testimony of hand- writing experts, hand-writing being the point upon which the Government based the prosecution.' Upon conviction Mr. Boggs was sentenced to serve four years in the Federal prison at Ft. Leavenworth,

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Kansas. The case was appealed to the higher courts and Mr. Boggs was again de- feated. When all recourse to the courts had been exhausted and it looked as though there was no hope of Mr. Boggs avoiding serving a term in prison, a young man who had been a clerk in the postoffice at Tecumseh, Okla- homa, at the time the letters were lost, went to the postoffice authorities and con- fessed that the letters had been sent to his office by mistake and that he had stolen them. Upon this confession Mr. Boggs was at once released from bonds and the charge against him dismissed. The long drawn out trials in court had impoverished Mr. Boggs but he had many good friends who were anxious to aid him and as a result he, in a very short time, organized the Asher State Bank at Asher. Oklahoma, of which bank Mr. Boggs became president and which he made one of the most prosperous and solid in Oklahoma. This was in the fall of 1901. Mr. Boggs remained in Asher until the fall of 1906, when he removed to McLoud, Ok- lahoma, and became president of the Bank of Commerce there. Through all Mr. Boggs' fortunes, good and bad, he has had the support and advice of a true and good wife, who during the four years that he was in court supported the family by acting as bookkeeper in the Shawnee National Bank at Shawnee, Oklahoma, she having quali- fied herself for such work in early life. Through Mr. Boggs trials and delays in court he had many friends in position to aid him, especially among the officials of the courts, who believed him innocent, and he was never deprived of his liberty, even at times when there was no provision for giv- ing bonds.

Mr. Boggs has two brothers and one sis- ter. The two brothers are E. E. Boggs, a passenger conductor on the Rock Island Railroad, residing at Shawnee, and Frank W. Boggs, an attorney, who also resides at Shawnee. The sister, Miss Jo E. Boggs, resides with her parents at Longbeach, Cali- fornia. Mr. Boggs and his wife are mem- bers of the Presbyterian church. Mr. Boggs is a member of the Masonic fraternity and Mrs. Boggs of the Order of the Eastern

Star, and is the Worthy Matron of her chapter.

MOSES M. HENDERSON. Throughout nearly his entire identification with the in- terests of Oklahoma, Moses M. Henderson has been connected with journalism, and is now at the head of two of the leading papers of Pottawatomie county. Shortly after his arrival in Tecumseh he organized and launched the Tecumseh Standard, an independent paper which has done much towards purifying politics and fighting grafts and ring rule. Mr. Henderson is a stanch and true Prohibitionist, and during the last election had charge of that move- ment in the county, making by voice and pen a vigorous campaign and contributing much to the success of the cause. He has never desired the honors of emoluments of office, but stands for right and the public good. Mr. Henderson also owns the Wanette Winner, which is conducted on the same independent lines as the Standard, and is edited by his son Lewis, who is only a boy of nineteen, but who has already displayed journalistic ability which gives promise of a brilliant future.

Mr. Henderson was born in Tennessee, near Chattanooga, September 20, 1861, a son of J. W. C. and Mary (Clift) Hender- son, both of whom were born in Tennessee. The father was a member of an old Scotch- Irish family of that commonwealth. After completing his education in the public schools the son Moses studied law for a time, finally abandoning it to engage in a mercantile capacity. He continued in that business for ten years, and in 1901 came to Oklahoma City, and six months later to Tecumseh. He married, in 1889, Miss Emma Ragsdale, a daughter of Frank and Emily (McMillen) Ragsdale, of Chatta- nooga, Tennessee, and their two children are Frank and Mary. The family are Pres- byterians.

GEORGE L. ROSE. Although young in years, George L. Rose may be rightfully termed one of the pioneers of Oklahoma, for he came to Tecumseh the day it was opened for settlement, in September, 1891. If a .complete account of the events which form the history of Tecumseh and its vicin-

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ity were written the name of George L. A scholarly and broad-minded man, he is Rose would appear frequently and prom- popular with all classes of citizens in Shaw- nee, and his work has met with the kindly co-operation of many outside the member- ship of his church. inently in connection with the leading events. His first work here was as an educator, teaching in the public schools four years. He held the third first grade teach- er's certificate issued in Pottawatomie coun- ty. During the two years following his educational labor he was manager for a mercantile firm. He then drifted into the ab- stract, farm loan and insurance business, with which he is still identified.

In 1903 he organized the Bank of Wan- ette and was made its president. This bank and the First National Bank of Wanette later consolidated. In 1903 he was also made president of the First National Bank of Holdenville, and in 1905 he was elected president of the First National Bank of Tecumseh, the oldest bank in Pottawatomie county. The banks with which he is con- nected have been very successful. Mr. Rose is a strong believer in good agricultural lands for safe and remunerative in- vestments, and has become the owner of considerable good farming land in several counties in the state.

Mr. Rose represents an old southern family originally from Virginia, from whence they removed to Kentucky, the birth place of Granville P. and Josephine (Steph- ens) Rose and their son, George L., who was born February 1, 1873. He is a prom- inent Mason, affiliating with the blue lodge of Tecumseh and with the Shrine of Okla- homa City. He married, in 1899, Jimmie L. Strain, a native of Texas and daughter of D. W. Strain. They have two daughters, Addie and Josephine, born respectively on the Ist of January, 1903, and the 15th of June, 1906.

REV. HILDEBRAND ZOELLER, O. S. B. Un- der the pastorate of the Rev. Hildebrand Zoeller, O. S. B., the church at Shawnee has made notable progress and improve- ment, both in membership and material bet- terment and also in the widening of its sphere of useful and uplifting influences. Father Zoeller took charge of the church at Shawnee in 1905, and since that year has had the satisfaction of seeing a new church edifice built for his congregation.

Father Zoeller was born in Germany in 1873, son of Martin and Mary Zoeller, who emigrated from the fatherland to the Unit- ed States in 1888, and after living a few years in Maryland moved to Oklahoma Ter- ritory in 1892, so that the family have been identified with this new state almost from its first years. Hildebrand was educated in the public schools and the Sacred Heart College. At the St. John's University in Minnesota he graduated with the degree of B. S., and was ordained to the ministry in that state in 1900. Before engaging in parish work he taught for a time in St. John's University, and was then in charge of several parishes in Minnesota before he removed to Oklahoma and began the work in Shawnee, which has been blessed so abundantly. He is in complete sympathy with the movements undertaken for the civic welfare of this growing city, and is a public-spirited citizen as well as a priest devoted to furthering the interests of his own sect.

VERNON H. GEE has been identified with the mercantile life of Shawnee since 1901, and is the active managing partner in the firm of Madden, Jarrel & Gee, dry goods merchants. He is a well known business man, the treasurer of the Chamber of Com- merce, and active in all interests for the upbuilding and advancement of Shawnee.

Mr. Gee was born in Granville, Texas, January 21, 1874, where his father, Dr. J. C. Gee, was a practicing physician for a number of years, having removed to Texas from his native commonwealth of Virginia. During the Civil war he served as a sur- geon in the Confederate army, and his death occurred in 1881, aged fifty-five years. Mrs. Gee, nee Agnes Lewis, was a native daugh- ter of Tennessee.

After completing his educational training in the public schools of Texas, Vernon H. Gee entered upon his business career as a clerk in a dry goods store in Greenville, but leaving that city in 1896 he was for three

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years the proprietor of a store in Denison, Texas, and going thence to Vinita, Indian Territory, he formed a partnership with J. W. Madden, of Denison, and A. J. Jarrel, of Temple, Texas, in the dry goods busi- ness. They were actively identified with the business life of that city until the firm of Madden, Jarrel & Gee transferred their interests to Shawnee in 1901 and have since been leading merchants in this city.

In 1898 Mr. Gee married Miss Delle Yo- com, a daughter of J. D. Yocom and a na- tive of Denison, this state. Their only child is a little daughter, Dorothy, born Septem- ber 14, 1900. Mr. Gee is popular in the business, political and social circles of Shawnee, and is a member of the B. P. O. E.

HARRY V. FOSTER. Since 1892 Oklahoma and Tecumseh have claimed Harry V. Fos- ter among their influential residents, prom- inent in the business, political and social life. But he is perhaps best known in connection with journalistic interests, as the editor and proprietor of the Democrat, one of the lead- ing papers of Oklahoma. He is a native son of the west, born in Blue Earth county, Minnesota, April 4, 1869, a son of F. Anson and Henrietta (Van Brent) Foster, both natives of the state of New York. The mother represented an old Holland Dutch family, the grandfather having owned the ground on which Trinity church now stands and valuable property on Wall street, New York. F. Anson Foster moved when a young man to Wisconsin, and after the Civil war went to Minnesota and embarked in a mercantile business. He was an active politician, and his home is now in Cali- fornia.

After attending the public schools in Mankato, Minnesota, and a college at Janes- ville, Wisconsin, Harry V. Foster was en- gaged in the insurance business for a time. On the 3d of July, 1892, he arrived in Te- cumseh, Oklahoma, and soon afterward launched the Democrat, an influential pa- per. He is a popular journalist, an active factor in politics, having served his city as a member of its council, and has been president of the Farmers Bank since in June, 1907. He has been connected with

this institution since its organization, first as its vice-president.

On the 12th of May, 1900, Mr. Foster married Miss Mattie Metcalf, a native of Missouri, and their only son, Max H., was born in 1906. Mr. Foster has membership relations with Lodge No. 13, A. F. & A. M., with Lodge No. 211, I. O. O. F., and with the Sons of the American Revolution.

B. C. HANSON has gained a wide reputa- tion through his connection with the Union Co-Operative Company, of which he is the ex-secretary. The institution is strictly co-operative and of state-wide operation, and its special feature is that only members of unions can hold stock. Mr. Hanson was born in Germany, June 18, 1869, a son of H. N. and I. (Anderson) Hanson, both of whom were also natives of the father- land. In 1882, when but a boy of thirteen, B. C. Hanson came to the United States and to Iowa. At that time he could not speak a word of English, and he first at- tended school and farmed. By selling books and other occupations he saved enough money to enable him to pursue a three years' course in the Iowa Wesleyan Uni- versity, where he studied for the ministry, but on leaving the university he studied engineering and for two years was connect- ed with the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad at Burlington, Iowa. For several years he also traveled over the country as a civil engineer, finally, in 1892, drifting to Galveston, Texas, where he farmed in the southern part of the state for eight years and was also the deputy sheriff of Walla county. At the outbreak of the Spanish- American war he enlisted in Company I, First Texas Infantry, and served through the entire conflict. Returning at its close to Galveston, he was in that city during the memorable storm, in which he lost all his possessions, and in June, 1901, he went to Elgin, Texas. In 1902 he went to Durant, Indian Territory, where he farmed until his removal to Colgate, that state, in 1905, and while there was elected the state secretary and treasurer of the Farmers' Union. From that city he came to Shawnee in 1906, and is now prominently connected with the Union Co-operative Company.

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A history of the state of Oklahoma, Volume I, Part 86

Author: Hill, L. B. (Luther B.) Publication date: 1908 Publisher: Chicago : Lewis Pubishing Company Number of Pages: 645

Author: Hill, L. B. (Luther B.)
Publication date: 1908
Publisher: Chicago : Lewis Pubishing Company
Number of Pages: 645