USA > Oklahoma > A history of the state of Oklahoma, Volume I > Part 90
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On May 17, 1894, J. Henry Wright was married in Cleveland county, Arkansas, to Miss Maud Word, a daughter of Lee Word. The other children of the Word family are Sandy, Della and Ruth, who reside at Fort Towson, Oklahoma. The children born to
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Mr. and Mrs. J. Henry Wright are Sidney, Lone and Ora. Mr. Wright is a Mason and a member of the Hoo-Hoos.
ANDREW J. WRIGHT, who is president of the Hugo Wholesale Grocery Company, is a pioneer merchant of that city and one of its large property owners, and for many years before becoming a resident of Hugo he was extensively identified with the lum- ber and sawmill industries of Arkansas and Oklahoma. He was born in Cleveland county, Arkansas, October 12, 1861, son of Andrew and Lavonia (Ward) Wright, and the family is of Irish descent, the American forefathers first settling in South Carolina.
Mr. Wright was reared on his father's Arkansas farm, obtained but a meager edu- cation at school, and lived upon the paternal homestead two years after he was married or until 1887. He then sought the forests as a wage earner, felling trees, logging and working on the tram roads, advancing grad- ually to contract work and an interest in the sawmill. His partner in the last named enterprise was a brother, the two acquiring the plant largely on credit, and the mill was destroyed by fire before much progress had been made in paying for it. But with the establishment of credit another mill was erected and the manufacture of lumber re- sumed. A practical knowledge of the busi- ness from the stump to the manufactured article enabled the brothers to make steady progress, and as the conditions of the mar- . ket were also in their favor their profits were so large that they continually en- larged their mill capacity as well as accu- mulated a good capital for operative and developing purposes. When they removed from the pineries of Drew county, Arkan- sas, to the Choctaw Nation to identify them- selves with its commercial, industrial and mercantile interests they were possessed of abundant means to prosecute any enterprise in which they might engage. At first they established the Arkansas and Choctaw Mer- cantile Company in the old town of Hugo, and while still expanding that business com- menced to invest their available cash in tracts of Indian pine timber lands at low government prices. Finally they built a
sawmill and, as an experiment, began to cut out a forty-acre tract. The resulting profits so astounded them as to urge them on to make larger and larger purchases until they had acquired some twenty thou- sand acres. They also erected numerous sawmills, and their enterprise developed to such proportions that when it was turned over to other hands in 1906 the three part- ners found themselves comparatively wealthy men.
On becoming a resident of the new town of Hugo Mr. Wright purchased a large share of the Wright Lumber Company, of which he is an officer, and later became one of the chief stockholders in the Hugo Wholesale Grocery Company, of which he is president. In company with his brother he also built one of the first brick stores in the place, and there they conducted their business. A second brick business house was erected by Mr. Wright in 1907, and in 1908 he built the third brick edifice. In 1909 he and his brother bought a three story brick building fifty by one hundred and forty feet, which had just been com- pleted, and to this they are adding another brick, one fifty by ninety feet. In all the brick structures built by Mr. Wright and partners aggregate two hundred and sev- enty-five feet frontage. He has also built a home and other residences in Hugo, and is classed as one of the leading promoters of the place. He is also a director in the First National Bank of Hugo. His con- nection with politics is confined to his regu- lar casting of a Democratic ballot, and out- side of the domestic circle his social func- tions are associated with the well-known lumbermen's club, the Hoo-Hoos.
The grandparents of Andrew J. Wright were born in Ireland in the early days of the United States as a nation, founded a new home in South Carolina and became the parents of Andrew, William and Nancy. Andrew was born at Rock Hill, that state, in 1812, married Lavonia Ward and moved to Cleveland county, Arkansas, and on the small farm and in the tiny log cabin which comprised the family home- stead were reared the children born into the household, viz .: Andrew J., of this
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notice ; James Henry, a prominent business man of Hugo; Martha, who died in Ar- kansas, as the wife of W. M. Logan; Robert, of Cleveland county, Arkansas; and Louisiana, Mrs. E. E. Lenhart, of Coal Hill, Arkansas. In December, 1885, An- drew J. Wright wedded Miss Nettie Tucker, daughter of Joseph Tucker, a farmer and pioneer of that state, and who for many years was an old-time bear hunter. Mr. and Mrs. Wright are the par- ents of Maud and Andrew J. Wright, Jr.
LEE W. RATLIFF, one of the prominent farmers located near Hugo, Choctaw county, and a member of its board of coun- ty commissioners, has resided within the limits of what is now Choctaw county for the past twenty years. He came to this locality when it was a portion of Kiamichia county, Choctaw nation, in 1889, and es- tablished himself as a farmer near Good- land, which was then a little trading place for this section of the country. When Hugo was established as a railroad town he found himself in a favorable position just north- east of what promised from the first to be a flourishing place.
Mr. Ratliff is a native of Attalla county, Mississippi, in which he was born Decem- ber 19, 1862. Four years later the family moved to Lee county, Texas, the father en- gaging in farming there until the removal of the family to Waco, Texas, in 1890. There the father still resides, the mother having past away in Lee county. The son received his education in the common schools of the county named, and in his youth roamed over various sections of New Mexico, Colorado and Wyoming, as a cow- boy and ranch hand. After five years of this unsettled life the youth came to the Choctaw nation, without capital, but with a practical knowledge of farming and all the duties connected with stock raising. One year afterward he married a citizen of the nation and thereby gained all the property rights attached to such a union. In the early years of his agricultural career he gave more attention to grazing than to farming, the raising of horses and cattle being his specialtv; but the land on which
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he conducted his operations being on the broad prairies, adjacent to Goodland, he finally allotted a half section of the domain over which he had ridden and grazed herds for so many years. In due time the Choc- taw nation gave him a patent to it, and this locality is still his home. This active life brought Mr. Ratliff into close and broad touch with the settlers of his sec- tion of the state, and he secured their con- fidence and high esteem. He had become somewhat active in Democratic politics, and consequently in 1907, when Oklahoma assumed the dignity of statehood, he be- came a strong candidate for county com- missioner of his district-so strong, in fact, that he easily won the nomination and was elected by a vote of nearly two to one. Fraternally he is a member of the Masons and the Order of Eagles.
John W. Ratliff, the father, was born in Attalla county, Mississippi, in 1824, and was a slave owner before the Civil war, and in that conflict served in the Confed- erate army. The paternal grandfather, John Ratliff, lived for many years in Mis- sissippi, and died there, having reared as children of his family-Thomas, who died in Lee county, Texas; Benjamin, who was a Confederate captain during the Civil war, and is still living; Zachariah, of Attalla county, Mississippi ; George, of Ft. Worth : and Mary, who married a Mr. Tucker and left at her death in Mississippi a number of children. The children born to J. W. and Mary (Wallace) Ratliff were as fol- lows: Allison, who resides in Waco, Texas; Lee W., of this review ; Lulu, wife of Charles Ramey, of Waco; and Z. S., of Ft. Worth. On January 8, 1890, Lee W. Ratliff wedded Miss Sophia Spring, a daughter of William Spring, and a cousin of Joel Spring, who is known as the father of Hugo and a Choctaw citizen who made himself conspicuous in business and promi- nent during the pioneer period of the city. William Spring married a Miss Le Flore, a representative of one of the most promi- nent Choctaw families and who have for generations contributed to the tribe its hereditary chiefs. Mrs. Ratliff died Octo- ber 29, 1906. A daughter of Mrs. Ratliff's
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sister has been reared in this household and, as Emma Ratliff, is widely known and respected.
DR. HAL H. WHITE, of Hugo, Okla- homa, has a record well worth preserving in the annals of his state. He was born in Jackson, Tennessee, November 22, 1877,- a son of Hugh L. White, a lifelong resident of Jackson, where he was born in 1842. There he was liberally educated, and was in General Forest's cavalry command during a portion of the great Civil war. His father was James White, a farmer, whose education was received in Union Univer- sity in his native state. He was a Vir- ginian and married Hattie Bryant. Their children were Hugh L., Andrew C., Thomas J., Henry W., George W., all of Jackson; Samuel C., deceased; Lucy, who married a Mr. Williams and died in Tren- ton, Tennessee; Delia, who married G. R. Gooch, of Tennessee; and Pattie, wife of G. L. Wilkinson, of Jackson.
Hugh L. White is widely known throughout the country as a real estate dealer, in which business he has been en- gaged from early manhood, and while not active in politics, he affiliates with the dominant party of his county and mani- fests a warm interest in the varied munici- pal affairs of his town. He was married to Elizabeth F. Glenn, daughter of H. C. Glenn, a real estate man and an early set- tler, near Jackson. Mr. Glenn married Elizabeth Hunt, served in the Confederate army, and died in the community where his life was spent. The children of Hugh L. White and wife are: Dr. Hal H., of this sketch; Leone, wife of Norvel Men- zies, of Jackson, Tennessee; Robert B., William G. and Menelle, all of Jackson.
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The literary education of Doctor White was obtained in the Southwestern Baptist University of Jackson, Tennessee, doing the work of the course up to the senior year. He selected medicine and began the study of this science in the office of Dr. J. T. Warford, of Jackson. He entered the University of Louisville, Kentucky, and finished the medical course there March 28, 1901. At first he opened an office at Ma- con, Tennessee, and from that point came
to Hugo, where his professional life has since been passed. He belongs to the Texas State and the Lamar County Medical asso- ciations and to the Choctaw County and Frisco Medical associations. He is the local surgeon for the Frisco Railway Sys- tem, and took a post-graduate course at the New York Polyclinic in 1907. He has served in the Hugo city council and city board of health, and politically the Doctor is a Democrat. He is a member of the Masonic fraternity, and is progressive and public-spirited.
Of his domestic affairs, let it be recorded that he was married May'22, 1902, to Miss Wayne Thornton, of Jackson, Tennessee. Mrs. White's parents are Joseph and Avery (Tucker) Thornton, who have two other children-Cecil, of St. Louis, Mis- souri, and Hazel. Mr. Thornton was for many years agent of the M. & O. Railway at Okalona, Mississippi, and passed his life in the railroad service. Dr. and Mrs. White have no children.
The Doctor is truly a representative of the medical fraternity of the great and growing southwestern country, and stands for all that is good and scientific in his profession.
JOHN W. MILAM, of Hugo, Oklahoma, and county clerk of Choctaw county, came to Oklahoma in 1896 from Lamar county, Texas, where he grew from a boy of twelve summers, going there in 1874 from Tala- poosa county, Alabama, with his parents. He was born in the latter county, February 25, 1862, and in 1869 the family removed to Marshall county, Tennessee, and spent five years prior to their removal to Texas. The farm was the scene of their activities, and the good parents brought up their chil- dren in comfort but not in luxury and idle- ness. Industry was the family motto, and while great wealth was not achieved, the necessaries and many of the comforts of life, in addition to the public edu- cation of their children, were among the blessings obtained.
The father, James L. Milam, was a Geor- gian by birth, born in 1836, a son of Lewis Milam, who passed away in Talapoosa county, Alabama, when young, leaving a
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family of two sons and nine daughters. The family left Georgia in 1854 and set- tled in Talapoosa county, Alabama, from which locality James L. enlisted in the Con- federate army during the great Civil war. He was assigned to the shoe shop at Colum- bus, Georgia, and there put in all of his time at making shoes for the army. He was united in marriage in Alabama to Martha Dunn, who died in 1899. She was of Irish ancestry, and was the mother of David C., of Uvalde, Texas; Mary K., wife of G. S. Wilson, of Lewisburg, Ten- nessee; Martha J., wife of W. R. Patter- son, of Texas; Laura E., who married John A. J. Hooten, of Jones county, Texas ; John W., of this review; Benjamin F., of Prattville, Texas; Sallie L., now Mrs. George Cantrell, of Uvalde, Texas ; James L., Jr., of Enloe, Texas; and Thomas M., of Uvalde, Texas.
As the common schools were all the in- stitutions which Mr. Milam had access to when a boy, his education was of such as could there be afforded. He remained at home until past his majority, then went to Paris, Texas, where he secured a position with J. D. Elliott & Company, merchants, but later went with Bell & Jones and J. R. Snow. Next he went back to Arthur. Texas, with W. R. Douglas, but leaving there in 1896, he came to the Territory and spent five years with Miller, Nelson & Company, of Grant. Next he was attracted by the independence of the farmer, and was so employed, operating on leased lands near Hugo, when he was named by his party for county clerk and was elected. He has always been identified with the Democratic party, in whose principles he has ever believed. He made the race against one competitior, and was elected over his Republican opponent by a ma- jority of five hundred and three votes, taking his seat November 16, 1907.
He was happily married at Mooresville. Tennessee, January 14, 1885, to Jennie, a daughter of Willis Perry, a farmer. Mrs. Perry was a Miss Flannigan and was the mother of seven children. Mr. and Mrs. Milam are the parents of Delbert, deceased ; Everett L .; Souella; Mamie, deceased; Nellie ; John W .; Ethel, and Mabel.
In his fraternal connections Mr. Milam is a member of the Masonic order, the Woodmen of the World, the Modern Woodmen of America and the M. P., and is popular and highly efficient in his public duties.
BURGOYNE BROTHERS .- Don C. and Oliver H. Burgoyne, constituting the firm of Burgoyne Brothers, who are extensive lumber dealers in Oklahoma, and whose place of business is at Hugo, will form the subjects of this memoir. They represent in their personalities the successors of one of the pioneer hardwood timber dealers of the Indian Nation, John W. Burgoyne, who was for years actively engaged with those interests, but has now retired to his estate at Tuskahoma, near where the evening of his life is being spent.
Of the son Don C. Burgoyne let it be stated that he was born near Danville, Illinois, March 2, 1870, while his brother, Oliver H., was born October 22, 1868. They are the sons of John W. Burgoyne, born. at Zanesville, Ohio, in 1839. The father grew to manhood at Kokomo, Indi- ana, at which place he obtained his educa- tion. He settled near Danville, Illinois, just prior to the Civil war, and enlisted in the Thirty-fifth Illinois Infantry Regiment, serving four years, and was captured by the Confederate forces and imprisoned at Andersonville, sent later to Florence, South Carolina, and finally incarcerated in the old Pemberton building in Richmond, Virginia, and was there in the old tobacco warehouse when the Civil war had ended, having been in prison nine months. Al- though he was ever on the alert to try and make good his escape, and did succeed in getting out of the prison walls three times, each time he was returned by the aid of bloodhounds, and was liberated only when the power of the Confederacy had forever been broken.
On January 3, 1867, John W. Burgoyne married Jennie Hawkins, who was born in Richmond, Indiana, October 10, 1843, a daughter of Nathan and Sarah (Wright) Hawkins, both born in Richmond, Indiana, the father April 8, 1808, and the mother in 1812. They were married January 1, 1829.
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The Hawkins family came from near Charleston, South Carolina, and settled in Richmond, Indiana, in 1807, in what is now known as Glenn Miller Park. Both the grandfather and great-grandfather of Mrs. Burgoyne were named John and were Qua- kers. Nathan Hawkins built a sawmill in Wayne county in 1836, one of the first in that vicinity. John W. Burgoyne took up the vocation of a farmer at Catlin, Illinois, moving into Danville after some years, and from there conducted his agricultural and other interests. In 1880 he built a steam- boat on the Wabash river, at Perryville, Indiana, and ran it down that river, the Ohio and the Mississippi and up the Ar- kansas and Verdigris rivers to the head of navigation on the last named stream, and there took the machinery from the boat and used it for power in operating a sawmill which was among if not the first mill of the kind within the Creek Nation.
From 1880 to 1892, when he retired from business and was succeeded by his capable sons, whose names head this sketch, he was a prominent factor in the hardwood timber industry of the Indian Territory. Here he established a business and a reputation which were both widespread. The con- sumers of his materials throughout the United States came to know of him and the character and quality of his lumber products. Being in touch with all the great southwest country, he very naturally drift- ed into the cattle business. His grazing interests became only second to his timber interests. After he had amassed a hand- some competency for himself and family he established a ranch five miles from Tus- kahoma, where he may now be found with his herds of blooded cattle and thorough- bred swine, in the supreme enjoyment of the rich proceeds of his long years of ef- fective toil.
Such was the character of John W. Bur- goyne that Indians and whites alike re- garded him highly. He was a man full of sympathy and true kindness in an early day when men's souls were frequently tried. The brave, self-sacrificing frontiersman never interfered, but stood bravely by all of his measures and industries. If he learned of a stranger over the mountain
hungry and without a shelter he made it his business to go to him with food first, and to look after his general comfort. When a case of illness developed in his neighbor- hood he was first to see that the patient was cared for and that neglect was a thing unknown in his cabin. He loaned to and borrowed from his neighbors from the day he landed on the banks of the Verdigris river to the day when he was retired to the quiet of his home ranch at Tuskahoma.
That the reader may know from whence this truly noble-hearted character emanated it may be added that the ancestry was from old Virginia. His father was Henry Bur- goyne, who died in Ohio and who reared a family of five daughters and four sons: James, of Danville, Illinois ; Evan, of La- betta county, Kansas; R. L., of Buffalo, New York; John W., of this memoir; Sarah, wife of John Stockton, of Danville, Illinois; Duhana, who married William Hawkins, of Catlin, Illinois; Mahala, who married William Woods and is deceased : Matilda, who married William Woods and died at Kokomo, Indiana; and Elizabeth, who married a Mr. Russel and is deceased.
Don C. and Oliver H. Burgoyne were educated in the public schools of Danville, Illinois, and it was during the summer va- cations back in the eighties that they first became connected with the timber busi- ness of the Indian Territory. They be- came associated with their father perma- nently about 1884, and succeeded to his large interests when he retired. Their busi- ness is the outgrowth of that established at the crossing of the Verdigris and the M., K. & T. Railroad, near Eufaula, and a sys- tem of mills has sprung up from time to time, one being at Bennington and the oth- ers at Boswell, Hugo and Idabel. The out- put of these various mills finds its market in all parts of the United States and in many foreign lands. Germany, England and other European countries and some of the South American states have been consumers of the walnut and other lumber handled by this firm. Although the father had built up one of the largest business concerns of his times, the sons have ex- tended it and are now second to none in Oklahoma as dealers in hardwood mate-
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rials. In virgin timber days in this terri- tory their father was known as the king of walnut log men, but of recent years, piling, ties, poles and other heavy timber, in addition to ash lumber and quarter- sawed oak, constitute the chief feature of their immense stock.
The Burgoyne Brothers are also dealers and developers of real estate in and near Hugo. They platted and put upon the mar- ket "Burgoyne Brothers' Addition" to the city, and laid out Mt. Olivet cemetery, a mile and a half east of Hugo. They also own a fruit farm near the city, which pro- duces pears and peaches. They also have general farming interests in the Chickasaw Nation.
Oliver H. Burgoyne is unmarried, but Don C. was married June 1, 1907, to Jen- nie, a daughter of Martin Barnes, a lawyer of Bonham, Texas. The issue of this union is a son, John W. Burgoyne. The Bur- goyne family is Republican in its political views, the father having conducted the Re- publican campaign in Pushmataha county in 1907 as chairman of the county com- mittee. They are all "Hoo-Hoos" and have attended the meeting of the National Association of Hardwood Lumbermen. Don C. is a Mason and Oliver H. is an Elk in fraternal connections.
WILLIAM H. HARRIS, vice president and manager of the business of the Womack Mercantile Company, of Hugo, is one of the able young business men of this sec- tion of the state, and has charge of the largest mercantile concern in Choctaw county. He is a native of Lamar county, Texas, born on the IIth of January, 1871, a son of John and Mary (Reed) Harris. The father was born in North Carolina in 1823; when a young man removed to a farm near Lebanon, Tennessee; married in that locality, and during the Civil war set- tled as a farmer in Lamar county, Texas, where both parents died. The surviving issue of this marriage is as follows: John, a resident of Blossom, Texas; Isham Green, a physician connected with the Hudson River State Hospital at Pough- keepsie, New York; and William H. Har- ris, of this sketch.
After the death of his parents William HI. Harris was taken back to his Tennessee relatives, with whom he remained for three years, returning to Texas when he was thir- teen years of age, and until his twentieth year being chiefly occupied in getting an education. In pursuance of the latter he attended the public school at Honey Grove, Texas; Washington and Lee University, at Lexington, Virginia, and the high school at Blossom, Texas. His first work outside of the schoolroom consisted of chopping and picking cotton, and for about two years he himself engaged in farming. In 1894, however, he commenced to teach country school, and after two years in this employ- ment secured a clerical connection with the Womack firm in Blossom. He remained identified with this business until 1903, when he became connected with Penick & Ford, of Shreveport, Louisiana, as a trav- eling salesman, handling sugar and molas- ses. The three succeeding years were passed in their employ, and he then became identified with the establishment of the Womack department store, and as its man- ager is mainly accountable for its signal success. He is not only the active superin- tendent of its business, but is a stockholder in the concern. Outside of his business activities Mr. Harris is known as an in- fluential fraternalist. In 1892 he was ini- tiated as a Mason in Blossom Lodge No. 303; has taken the Blue lodge work, and is also connected with the Modern Wood- men of the World.
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