A history of the state of Oklahoma, Volume I, Part 95

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

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On September 3. 1891, Mr. Witte mar- ried at Fort Smith, Arkansas, Miss Nellie Cooney, of Springfield, Missouri, daughter

of John Cooney, a contractor on the Frisco road and an Irishman by birth. The chil- dren of this union are Leo A. and Frank Witte. Mr. Witte is a Catholic and prac- tically built the Catholic church in Poteau. He is a member of the Knights of Columbus.

JOSEPH S. TERRY, the first chairman of the board of county commissioners and a well known contractor and lumber dealer of Poteau, whose connection with the build- ing of the county seat has been prominent and substantial, was born in Lamar county, Alabama, November 12, 1868. His father was Reuben F. Terry, born in the same state April 3, 1833, and throughout life was a tanner and a farmer. His place of busi- ness was situated in Sulligent, near his early home, and whither the grandfather, John Terry, emigrated from his English home in the first part of the nineteenth century. The grandfather mentioned first located in Allegheny county, Pennsylvania, but in 1818 established himself in Alabama, where he was a mill man as well as a farmer and where he died at the age of eighty years. He was in sympathy with the institution of slavery, for he owned black men and passed them with his estate down to his children. Reuben F. Terry married Mar- jory Hawkins, a daughter of John Haw- kins, a farmer of Ripley, Mississippi, and she passed away in 1887, the mother of the following : Jabous J., who died in Poteau, Oklahoma; George W., one of the well known citizens of that place; Joseph S., of this notice; Henry S., who passed away in Poteau; and Knox, also a resident of Le Flore's county seat.

Circumstances willed that Joseph S. Terry should enjoy only about nine months' schooling, and at the age of sixteen years he entered the shops of an iron bridge builder as a laborer at one dollar and sev- enty-five cents a day. J. H. Rousseau and A. V. Gude, of Atlanta, Georgia, were later his employers, and he remained with them for nearly eight years, and when he left their employ he was principal assistant fore- man of bridge construction and had built bridges in all the southern states but Lou- isiana. He then went to Knoxville, where he became identified with the Union Bridge

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Company of Buffalo, New York, and cov- ered the northwest and middle west as their assistant foreman of bridge building. In 1894 he abandoned bridge work and came out to Indian Territory to visit his broth- ers. He became interested in the town of Poteau and the country, and devoted a few years to farming. Leaving the farm, Mr. Terry then engaged in carpenter work about a coal mine, rising to the position of assistant superintendent of the mine. This place he resigned to become superinten- dent of buildings and bridges for the Ar- kansas and Western Railway, then under construction. He resigned this position and began contracting and building, and his handiwork is seen in nearly all the promi- nent business houses in Poteau and many of its residences. He built the high school, the water works reservoir and pumping sta- tion at that place, and the school buildings at Heavener, Howe, Wister and Shady Point, Oklahoma, as well as at Mena, Arkansas.

Recently Mr. Terry engaged in the lum- ber business at Poteau, where he is presi- dent of the McKenna-Stevens Lumber Company and of the Poteau Grain and Produce Company, and also manager of the McKenna-Terry Coal Company. His interest in Democratic politics led him to enter the race for membership on the first board of commissioners of Le Flore county, and upon its organization he was chosen its chairman. The board has accepted plans for a new court house to cost (with fur- nishings) $150,000, and a modern fireproof jail to cost $13,000, and called an election to vote for bonds for roads and bridges to the extent of $200,000, so that there is a certainty that responsibilities of weight are in store for the chairman of the board, with equal certainty that they will be discharged gracefully, promptly and ably.

On November 3, 1895, Mr. Terry mar- ried, at Poteau, Miss Maggie B. Griffin, a daughter of Alonzo L. Griffin, of Baldwin, Mississippi, where Mrs. Terry was born in 1876. Their children are Joe F., Marjorie and Pauline Terry. Mr. Terry is a charter member of the Knights of Pythias, the Ma- sonic order and Woodmen of the World.

CHARLES G. ADKINS. Formerly a lead- ing business man of Cameron, Charles G. Adkins, register of deeds of Lc Flore county, was born in Johnson county, Ar- kansas, September 4, 1871. His father, Will- iam Adkins, who is now a farmer near Cameron, Oklahoma, is also a native of that county and obtained his early training and education there. He served in the Confed- erate army under General Cabell, his regi- ment being first attached to the Trans- Mississippi department and later to that east of the Mississippi river. He partici- pated, among others, in the battle of Wil- son's Creek and served throughout the war. Resuming civil life, William Adkins re- turned to the farm and subsequently en- gaged in merchandising at Clarksville, Ar- kansas, residing there until he came to the Choctaw country, and after spending some years at Cameron in mercantile pursuits en- gaged in farming at his present location near the city. The paternal grandparents were Joseph and Martha (May) Adkins, the former being a Tennessee farmer who established the family homestead in John- son county, Arkansas. William Adkins, the father, was married in that county, to Miss Mattie A. Paine, and the issue of the 'union is Charles G., of this review ; Frank, of Van Buren; William, also of that place; and Mrs. Annie Poole, of Poteau, Oklahoma.

While the parental home was at Clarks- ville, Arkansas, Charles G. Adkins reached mature years and received his education in its public schools. When a youth of six- teen he became a merchant's clerk in his native town, and made this his business until he became a student in the famous normal school at Valparaiso. Indiana. Added to his work in the normal was a business course which he pursued in the Fort Smith Business College, just before his advent to the Indian country in 1892. He became a bookkeeper at Cameron in 1892, and was identified with that town as employe or proprietor until he was chosen register of deeds. He was in the employ of W. H. McMurray and J. W. Carrel at Cameron for nine years, and then success- fully engaged in business for himself. He

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also became interested in coal, and devel- oped quite a valuable mining property, after organizing a company known as the Cam- eron Coal and Mercantile Company, which business, as well as his store, was sold out in 1907. Being thus free from the cares of private business and having a wide ac- quaintance over the county, Mr. Adkins be- came a candidate for register of deeds and received the nomination in the Democratic primary without opposition-an unusual honor and indicating a high degree of per- sonal popularity and public confidence. He was elected over his Republican opponent by a majority of five hundred and twenty votes, and assumed office in Poteau with the advent of statehood, succeeding to the office of the recorder of district fourteen of the Indian Territory under the Federal regime.

On December 25, 1895, Mr. Adkins was married at Van Buren, Arkansas, to Miss Maud M. Eichenberger, a daughter of Jackson and Mary E. (Carey) Eichenber- ger, who were the parents of five children. Mr. and Mrs. Adkins are the parents of the following children: Charles G., Jr., Carey P., William J., Amasa M. and Henry F. Mr. Adkins is a member of the Knights of Pythias, and both he and his wife are Methodists.

DR. FELIX W. BIRD, an able and pros- perous physician and druggist of Poteau, LeFlore county, is a native of Grant county, Arkansas, born November 23, 1872, son of William R. L. and Kate (Mitchell) Bird. His mother was a daughter of David Mitchell, an Alabama farmer and a native of Crenshaw county. Both parents, in fact, were born in that county, migrating from. their native state in 1860. The father died in Grant county, Arkansas, in 1885, at the early age of thirty-eight, and the mother passed away in 1878.

At the time of his mother's death Felix W. Bird was less than six years of age, and as he was thus bereft of both parents he was adopted by his grandfather, James Kelley, who provided him with a thorough common education and trained him in the practical duties of the farm. At seventeen years of age the youth drifted into the

Choctaw Nation, and even at that age was well equipped to not only care for himself but to make substantial progress toward useful citizenship. His first work was as a cotton picker, for which he received fifty cents a hundred and board, and in the suc- ceeding two seasons he was engaged in clearing land and in agricultural duties for the neighboring farmers. His next venture was as clerk in the drug store of Dr. M. F. Gray, at Cameron, with whom he remained until 1896, when he associated himself with George B. Noble and purchased a drug business in that town. The firm thus formed, known as the Noble-Bird Drug Company, moved its stock to Poteau in 1899 and has since been established there as one of its leading business houses. His experi- ence as a druggist naturally interested him in medicine, and he therefore decided to enter that field professionally. For that purpose he attended Barnes Medical Col- lege, St. Louis, in 1900 and 1901, and after graduating from that institution located at McCurtain for the practice of medicine. He then returned to Poteau, where his profes- sional business interests have since been maintained. The Noble-Bird Drug Com- pany is now one of the oldest in Poteau, and its business was actively conducted by its two members until Mr. Noble was elected first sheriff of Le Flore county, when the management of the business fell to Dr. Bird.

As a Democrat and a public spirited citi- zen Dr. Bird himself has been active in mu- nicipal affairs and has already served for one term as city clerk. He is also an active member of the Commercial Club and a leader in fraternal work, being past high priest of the local Masonic chapter and past chancellor of the Knights of Pythias. On December 7, 1903. Dr. Bird was mar- ried at Poteau to Miss Kate Gatewood, daughter of W. P. Gatewood, a merchant of Vinita. Oklahoma, but a former resident of Mississippi.

OBE T. ALLEN is widely known among the citizens of Talihina as a cattle grower and dealer, and has passed the years of his business life in what is now Le Flore coun- ty. He is a native of Fort Worth, Texas,

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born July 23, 1870, a son of Alexander Allen. Mr. Allen's education was obtained in the rural schools of his home neighbor- hood, but his real training for the business of life was received on the broad plains of Texas. While still a young boy he became an expert horseman and handler of cattle, and at the age of seventeen he was engaged in business for himself. In 1890, then only twenty years of age, he located in Le Flore county as a stockman, and since that time has made steady progress in that business. While not counted as among the most ex- tensive stock men of the locality, he handles from twelve to fifteen hundred cattle an- nually, shipping. to the various markets of the north and east. He is an active member of the Texas Live Stock Association.

Mr. Allen has been twice married, first to Miss Alice Lovelace, who died on Oc- tober 20, 1893. In 1896 he married Mrs. Dora Veulemans, a daughter of H. S. Allen and the children of this second union are: Thelma, Naomi, Gladys, Fay and Jay Allen. Mr. Allen now occupies a comfort- able and modern home in Talihina, is an active member of the Woodmen of the World, and in politics is a Democrat.

C. DIXON HILL. For more than a quar- ter of a century C. Dixon Hill has been a developing force in Le Flore county, and for many years past has been a permanent resi- dent of Poteau, where he is still engaged in the promotion of his large business and financial interests; looking after the educa- tion of his younger children and, as a tenant landlord, superintending his property near Sugar Loaf Mountain. The latter locality was the scene of his first coming to the In- dian country, when, as a sturdy youth of eighteen years, he ventured into the land of uncertain but bright promise as an emigrant from his native state of Mississippi.

Mr. Hill was born in Lee county, Missis- sippi, September 21, 1863, his father being Augustus Hill, a farmer and a Baptist min- ister of Tennessee birth. The latter was born in 1821 and married in the state of his nativity. He acquired only a common school education and became an adherent of the Primitive Baptist faith, his father (Allen

G. Hill) being a clergyman of that denomi- nation. The grandfather of C. Dixon final- ly settled in Arkansas and died at Little Rock about 1874, at eighty years of age. His father, in turn, was the founder of the family in Tennessee and was of Irish birth. Among the children of Allen G. Hill were Horace, who died in Ardmore, Oklahoma ; C. S., who passed away near Little Rock, Arkansas; Augustus, who died in Lee county, Mississippi; Mrs. A. G. Nelson, who died in Mississippi; Mrs. Adalaide and Mrs. Adaline Williams, both of whom re- side at Meridian, Mississippi.

Augustus Hill, the father, married Miss Naomi Beavers, a lady of Tennessee birth, who passed away in Lee county, Missis- sippi, the mother of the following: Martha, who first married a Mr. Ryan and whose second husband was John Cunningham, of Paris, Texas, where she also passed away ; Elsie, who became the wife of William Bonds and died near Paris, Texas ; Erastus, who was killed in the Confederate army ; Lucy, wife of Jesse Wilson, of Boonville, Arkansas; Albert, of Fort Smith, that state ; Erastus II, who died near McCloud, Oklahoma, and left a son; Fannie, wife of Jo Eaves, of Bertram, Texas; Adaline, who married James McCarty, of Sherman, Mis- sissippi ; Augustus, of Nettleton, that state ; C. Dixon, of this sketch, and Ruth, who is Mrs. Thomas Gray, of Tom Green county, Texas.

The country schools were all that C. Dixon Hill had at his command while get- ting his education, and when at the age of eighteen he cast about for a more promis- ing field for the exercise of his maturing abilities his mind turned to the Indian Ter- ritory, since in the shadow of Sugar Loaf Mountain he had acquaintances in the fam- ily of Enoches and it was with them that he first found a home in the Indian country .. In this locality he commenced to work on shares, next rented a farm and in 1886 was in a financial position to take upon himself the responsibilities of a wife and family. His wife, before marriage, was Miss Izora James, daughter of Martin James, a Chicka- saw Indian and a Missionary Baptist preacher. The latter married a Choctaw

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woman, a Miss Merriman, whose father was a white man from Kentucky and whose mother was also a Choctaw. The children born to Mr. and Mrs. C. Dixon Hill have been : Horace C., Orval Q., Elba N., Louis A., Esther J. and C. Dixon, Jr.

By this marriage, under the Choctaw laws, Mr. Hill became an independent land owner ; selected his allotments near Sugar Loaf Mountain and became a successful raiser of cotton, corn and grain. In 1889 he removed to Poteau and clerked for sev- eral years in the stores of Forbes and Donaghe and Captain McKenna, also asso- ciating with C. T. Wilburn for about a year -then sold to S. P. Humphrey and clerked for him a time in general merchandise. He then returned to farming occupations near Sugar Loaf Mountain, but with the growth of his Poteau interests and his desire to give his children the advantages of the su- perior schools at the county seat, he rented his lands and became a fixture in the city. Since then he has been identified with its most substantial enterprises. He was one of the organizers of the Le Flore County Bank and its first president, and is a stock- holder in the Miller Hardware and Furni- ture Company. In politics he is a Demo- crat. The family residence is a pretty cot- tage which caps a picturesque hill overlook- ing Poteau. Both Mr. and Mrs. Hill, as well as the members of the family, are faith- ful and active Presbyterians.

QUINTUS HERNDON, of Garvin, one of the leading farmers and a pioneer of old Bok- homa county, now Red River county, Choc- taw Nation, effected his settlement there about twenty years ago, when he opened up a farm near Garvin and began his career as a married man. He began in the tim- ber, and there hewed out for himself a · home and a good farm. With his own fam- ily allotments he is one of the largest land- owners of the county.

Mr. Herndon was born in Sevier county, Arkansas, May 4, 1861, a son of Harrison Herndon, a mechanic and small farmer who a few years before the breaking out of the Civil war went there from Orange county, Virginia, where his father, Peter Herndon,

also a farmer, lived, reared a family and died. Harrison Herndon was born Feb- ruary 20, 1821, and was reared on his father's farm and married in his native state. He served an apprenticeship at the carpenter's bench, following that trade through life, save during the period of his service in the Confederate army, and estab- lished himself at Little River county, Ar- kansas, upon first coming to the state, but later lived in Sevier county and died there February 10, 1906. He married Alice Mason, born also in Virginia, in 1826, and she is now a resident of Idabel, Oklahoma. Of her family of eleven children, Quintus is the fourth in order of birth.

Quintus Herndon received a limited edu- cation at the rural schools. His youth was spent on the farm, and when eighteen years of age he commenced to operate life's craft on his own account as a hired man on a farm. In this capacity he proved himself useful and he continued to labor for about five years. By practicing rigid economy he found himself with a bank account at the date of his marriage, April 17, 1887, when he became the head of a family and estab- lished a good home for himself. His mar- riage occurred at Old Wheelock, then in Towson county, where he was united to Miss Roas Pebworth, whose parents were members of the Choctaw tribe. The chil- dren of this union are May, Edna, Wilma, Henry, Mayo, Raphiel and Ruby.

In his citizenship in Oklahoma Mr. Hern- don has ever maintained himself in a quiet, unassuming manner and without aspiration or ambition save for that business success which would enable him to properly educate and train his children. His many years' experience with territorial conditions led him to espouse the cause of single state- hood, and when the time came he threw his influence toward the adoption of the new constitution. He makes no demonstration, but always acts with deliberation, hence is accounted a safe counselor. His splendid home is the result of a score and more years of hard toil at the hands of himself and faithful wife. Their children are re- ceiving the best of English educations and are being taught good citizenship, the father

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and mother both desiring that their off- spring shall be an honor to them and to the state in which they are being educated.

HARVEY THOMAS WRIGHT, junior mem- ber of the mercantile firm of Goff, Gamble and Wright, of Garvin, was born in Polk county, Arkansas, October 15, 1870. He was reared and educated there, having the advantages of the good public school sys- tem of that locality. He began life as a school teacher in the country districts, and followed this vocation seven years, when he abandoned the profession and prepared him- self for a commercial career by taking a course in Neal's Business College at Ft. Smith, Arkansas. He then accepted a posi- tion as a bookkeeper with the I. A. Dye Lumber Company at Jansen, Arkansas. Next he was employed by the William Scroggins Dry Goods Company at Mena in a like capacity, after which he engaged in merchandising for himself at Jansen, con- tinuing there until his departure for Garvin, Oklahoma, in 1904, when he became a part- ner in the firm mentioned in the introduction of this sketch.

Politically Mr. Wright is affiliated with the Democratic party. In fraternal rela- tions he is a Master Mason.

ROBERT J. GLENN, the owner of one of the richest oil producing fields of Okla- homa, was born and reared on a farm, and most of his subsequent life has been de- voted to agricultural and stock raising pur- suits, although for some time he was en- gaged in railroad occupations with the Frisco company, principally in the tele- graphic department. He was born near St. James, in Phelps county, Missouri, Jan- uary 1, 1868, and was educated in the schools of that city, a son of J. D. and Eliz- abeth (Branstetter ) Glenn.

J. D. Glenn, now deceased, was one of the old-time citizens of Phelps county, Missouri, where he was born and lived his life until in March, 1893, when, with his family, including his son Robert, he came to Indian Territory, their temporary des- tination being Sapulpa, from whence they made an investigating trip in search of good farming land through western Indian

Territory and into the northern part of Oklahoma. This was in 1892, the year of the opening of the Cherokee Strip, but they found nothing to suit them, and during the summer returned to the Creek Nation in the vicinity of Sapulpa, which they de- cided was as favorable a section of country as they could find for agricultural pur- poses. Mr. Glenn continued to reside in this vicinity until his death. His widow is still living, her home being at Mound, and their daughter, now Mrs. Ella Petty, has lived for several years at Brownwood, Texas.

During the gold excitement of 1852 J. D. Glenn went to California, and while there obtained a knowledge of mother earth which was of much benefit to him after coming to Oklahoma. He took a lease on the Berryhill land and while bursting up rock for pillars for his buildings he dis- covered oil, and later found. oil on the frozen creek. From the knowledge he ob- tained in the gold fields of California he knew there was considerable oil in this sec- tion, so he induced his daughter-in-law and his son to give the lease to Chesley and Galbreath.

Robert J. Glenn, the son, located in this vicinity with the main idea of securing a piece of land that presented the most fa- vorable prospects for farming and stock raising purposes. He selected a quarter- section in what is now Tulsa county, fifteen miles south of the town of that name, and this has since become famous as the allot- ment containing the original well drilled in the Glenn Pool. A lease on this quarter- section being obtained from its owner, Benjamin Franklin Berryhill, Mr. Glenn established his residence thereon August I, 1893. One the 12th of August, 1894, he married Mr. Berryhill's daughter, Miss Ida Berryhill, who inherited this quarter-sec- tion from her father at his death in 1896. Since the discovery of oil here this land has become famous as the Ida Glenn Allot- ment. The first oil well drilled on this place, and which is still producing, was brought in by Robert Galbreath in Novem- ber of 1905, and the great industrial de- velopment which has taken place in Glenn Pool since that time seems almost miracu-

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lous, comprising what is said by oil men to be the richest oil field in the world.

Mrs. Glenn was born in Buchanan county, Missouri, and is a member of the well known Berryhill family of Creek In- dian history, headed by. John Dallas Ber- ryhill, who came with the first Creek em- igration from Alabama to the Indian Ter- ritory and later settled in Buchanan county, Missouri. Mrs. Glenn's father, Benjamin Franklin Berryhill, was born in that county, and moved with his family to the present home in the Creek Nation some time in the eighties, and Mrs. Glenn was reared there and was educated at Wealaka Mission. Mr. and Mrs. Glenn have four children- Mabel C., Grace, Elma and Ralph. The in- come in royalties from oil produced on the lands owned by Mr. and Mrs. Glenn and their children, all of the lands adjoining, has brought them great wealth, which they use, however, without ostentation and with good business judgment.

HENRY LINK, who has lived in Okla- homa City since 1892, and for many years was known among a wide circle of friends as a traveling salesman, is now engaged in conducting some large mining interests in the Colorado field. As president and general manager of the Little Bernice Min- ing and Milling Company, of Custer county, Colorado, and as one of the directors of the New Bull Domingo Mining and Mill- ing Company, in the same county (the lat- ter being a lead and silver proposition), he has been instrumental in developing some first-class properties and in placing them within the control of his Oklahoma City friends. Notwithstanding the loca- tion of the mines, the properties might be well considered an Oklahoma affair, since Mr. Link and his financial associates have promoted them.

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A history of the state of Oklahoma, Volume I, Part 95

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