USA > Oklahoma > A history of the state of Oklahoma, Volume II > Part 12
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Mr. Lewis' first wife was Louisa Boussa, a native of Wabaunsee county, Kansas, and of French and Pottawatomie blood, and their only child is Laura Gilbert, of Eason township. His second wife, Matilda Ber- geron, was also of French and Pottawatomie blood, a native of Nebraska, and she died in 1886, in Pottawatomie county, Kansas, leaving nine children: Lester, Ivy, Josie, Omer, Felra, Ed and three now deceased. Mr. Lewis is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. Politically he is a Democrat and was active in the party in his younger days.
J. A. LAREAU, proprietor of the largest and best known livery, feed and sales stable of Wanette, has been numbered among the business men of this city since July, 1907, when he purchased the business established by William Easley at the opening of the town. Thus the barn is one of the oldest established industries of Wanette, and is a large structure fifty by one hundred and
twenty feet, stocked with twenty good driv- ing horses and vehicles of all kinds. Mr. LaReau is a liveryman of several years ex- perience, for he was also in the business in Kansas, and he thoroughly understands every department of the industry.
He is a native son of Pottawatomie coun- ty, Kansas, where he was born January 4, 1873 to Joseph and Mary (Higby) LaReau. The father, a Canadian by birth, moved to Illinois and located near Kankakee, where he followed his trade of a saddler. His wife is still living, the mother of seven children, three sons and four daughters. The son J. A. came from Kansas to the territory of Oklahoma in 1891, where he rode the range for a time, and from that wild and uncertain life drifted into farming, while later he left the farm to enter the livery business. He is a member of the order of Masons and Wood- men of the World, and is closely connected with the progress and advancement of his adopted city, supporting all measures for the public good.
J. C. PATTERSON, M. D. At the opening of the town of Wanette in February, 1904, there came to reside within its borders one who has since been prominently identified with its professional life and who has the future of the town at heart, Dr. J. C. Patter- son. He was born in Tennessee, at the his- toric spot of Cumberland Gap, September 12, 1872, and is a member of a family of phy- sicians. As he was growing to years of ma- turity he received a good mental training in the schools of his native state, and after leaving the school room engaged in the study of medicine under the preceptorship of Dr. L. Jones Price, a prominent practi- tioner in Knoxville, Tennessee. After a time he entered as a student the Nashville Medical College, and was a close and earnest student until his graduation with the class of March 22, 1894, acquitting himself with honor and excellent standing. Entering then the real work of the profession, he was for two years at Knoxville, and then returned to his home town of Cumberland Gap. From there in 1903 he came to Wanette, Oklahoma, where he has won for himself a name and place among the leaders of the profession in Pot- tawatomie county.
Dr. Patterson is the son of a physician, Dr. William C. Patterson, who for years was at the head of a large and lucrative practice. He was a member of a Tennessee family, and at the time of the Civil war they were
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HISTORY OF THE STATE OF OKLAHOMA.
divided in sentiment and were represented on both sides, brother fighting against brother. A true southerner Dr. Patterson entered the Confederate army, fighting under General P. Clyburne, while his uncle, General Robert Patterson, espousing the cause of the north, became a gallant officer of the Union army. Dr. Patterson's wife, Eloise Castleman, is a member of a honored old Virginian family.
During his residence in Knoxville, Ten- nessee, in December, 1894, Dr. J. C. Patter- son wedded Blanche Thornburgh, a native daughter of that state. Her father, Colonel Duff Greene Thornburgh, was an officer in the Union army during the Civil war, and for thirty years he has been chief clerk in the pension department of the government office. His wife, Anna Dell was a daughter of a Confederate surgeon. Three children have been born to Dr. and Mrs. Patterson: Charles O., William Craig and Milton Thornburgh. The Doctor is a mem- ber of the Democratic party and of the Ma- sonic order, Lodge No. 66 at Wanette. Mrs. Patterson is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church.
S. J. WEAVER is at the head of one of the leading financial institutions of Pottawa- tomie county, the State National Bank of Wanette. He was one of its promoters and organizers a number of years ago, and the State National is now capitalized at twenty- five thousand dollars and is under the super- vision of the following gentlemen: Si R. Miller, president ; J. H. Royster, vice-presi- dent ; and S. J. Weaver, cashier, all men of well known reliability. S. J. Weaver has had a banking experience of fourteen years, entering the business when a young man in the prime of life, and he has grown old in the service. He was born in Ashley coun- ty, Arkansas, and was a son of a farmer, Samuel P. Weaver, who was in the Confed- erate army during the Civil war and died when forty-nine years old. The mother, Sarah, is also deceased, dying at thirty-six years. When a boy of nine their son went to Montgomery, Alabama, where he began in earnest the battle of life for himself, mak- ing his own way in the world and at the same time securing quite a liberal education by his own exertions and will. For a time he served as a clerk in the general mercantile store of I. Pollock, of Montgomery, remain- ing in that store until he accepted a position as clerk and worked up to note teller with
the First National Bank of Nashville, Ten- nessee. From there he came to Shawnee, Oklahoma, and accepted a position with the Shawnee National Bank, and leaving that institution was the organizer of the State National of Wanette.
At the age of twenty-five Mr. Weaver married Edith O'Neal, who was born and reared in Nashville, Tennessee, and their union has been blessed by the birth of two children, S. J., Jr. and Henry O'Neal. The Democracy receives the political support of Mr. Weaver, and his fraternal membership is with the Modern Woodmen of America and the Knights of Pythias, the latter of which he has represented in the Grand Lodge. His wife is a member of the Episcopal church. He has reached the prime of a useful and honorable manhood, upon the ladder of his own building climbing to prominence and prosperity, and to-day he stands facing the future undaunted.
JOHN B. BRANDENBURG is a member of the firm of Brandenburg Brothers, prominent and well known druggists of Asher. This is one of the oldest and one of the most substantial firms of the city, and in their large and well stocked store they carry everything to be found in a first class drug store, including a large and fresh supply of drugs, toilet articles, wall paper, books and stationery. The store would be a credit to a town much larger than Asher, and its pro- prietors M. and J. B. Brandenburg are men of excellent business ability and are public spirited and thoroughly interested in all movements for the advancement of the town and county. The junior member of the firm has been in business here for ten years, and is a graduate of pharmacy with the class of 1899 at the University of Texas.
Born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, he is a son of Peter and Margaret Brandenburg, in whose family were six children, four sons and two daughters, one of whom is associ- ated with the firm of T. J. Asher & Sons, the largest manufacturers of yellow poplar in the world, located at Wasioto, Kentucky. Mr. Brandenburg, the father, was born across the water in Europe, and coming to this country became one of the most prom- inent business men of Minneapolis, Minne- sota, where for twenty years he was the proprietor of a hotel, but he is now living retired in Shawnee, Oklahoma, a large prop- erty owner.
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HISTORY OF THE STATE OF OKLAHOMA.
John B. Brandenburg spent one year in Galveston, Texas, before coming to Okla- homa, and in Lexington, this state, in 1903, he wedded Margaret, the daughter of J. D. Fairchilds and a native daughter of Ken- tucky. Their two sons are John P. and Rob F. Mr. Brandenburg is one of the active Republican workers in Asher and Pottawa- tomie county, is a member of the Masonic, Elks, and Woodmen fraternities and is a director in the Canadian Valley Bank of Asher. He is a member of the Catholic church.
DR. A. C. HARRELL, one of the leading phy- sicians and surgeons of Wanette, has been a member of the medical profession for thirty years, and since 1891 he has been iden- tified with the professional life of Oklahoma. He is a graduate of the Independent Medical College of Chicago, Ill., after attending Rush Medical College one term, and his first prac- tice was in Colfax, Indiana, removing from there to Hoopeston, Illinois, and from Hoop- eston he came to Oklahoma in 1891. Arriv- ing here, he was one of the first to practice medicine at Hennessey, but after a time he moved to Arkansas, from whence he came again to Oklahoma in 1901, locating first in Shawnee and from there he came to Wan- ette. Dr. Harrell has won special success in the cure of cancers, fevers and malaria, and maintains his position among the lead- ers of the medical fraternity of Oklahoma.
Dr. Harrell was born in Jefferson county, Indiana, near Canaan, March 2, 1854, and is the son of a farmer, who is now living at the advanced age of eighty-four years. He was born in Frankfort, Kentucky, repre- senting a good old southern family of that state, but his wife, nee Lucinda Sailors, was born in West Virginia, of German ancestry. They became the parents of ten children, nine sons and a daughter, and the Doctor was their fourth son. He was married in Boston, Indiana, April 11, 1883, to Jennie St. Clair, who was born and reared at that place. He is a member of the Odd Fellows fraternity, as is also his father, and his mother was a member of its auxiliary order, the Rebekahs, and at her death was buried by the order.
W. E. PENNINGTON. One of Oklahoma's most prominent business men is W. E. Pen- nington, a general merchant of Romulus. Through his diligence, perseverance and ability he has built up an excellent business, at the same time contributing to the general
prosperity of the community, and few men are better known in this part of Pottawa- tomie county. He has been in business in Romulus since 1893, at that time buying out the firm of Harvey Brothers, and he at once filled his store with a large and excellent line of dry goods, boots and shoes, groceries, queensware and clothing. all of the best grade, and his annual sales now amount to over sixteen hundred dollars a year. His courteous manner and well known reliabil- ity have won him the confidence of all with whom he has business or social relations.
Born in Sparta, Tennessee, in September of 1867, Mr. Pennington received a fair com- mon-school education, and the first twenty- two years of his life were spent in Tennessee. His home then for eleven years was on a ranch on the South Canadian river in Indian Territory, and from there he came to Okla- homa. He had married Sally Pryor, also a native of Tennessee, and their only child is Floyd, ten years of age. The family reside in a pleasant four-room cottage in Romulus. Mrs. Pennington is a member of the Baptist church, and he has membership relations with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and has represented the order in the Grand Lodge. In political connections he is a Democrat.
W. O. McGRUDER, superintendent of the Farmers' Union Gin Mill, of Earlsboro, has been at the head of this important industry since 1905, and has filled the position to the entire satisfaction of both patrons and owners. He came to Oklahoma from north- eastern Missouri, Macon county, where he was born in 1853, a member of one of the pioneer families of that county. His father, Josiah McGruder, moved there from his home state of Kentucky, and he was killed by the Home Guards of Missouri during the Civil war, leaving a wife and six children, three sons and three daughters. His wife joined him in the home beyond in 1906, dying at the age of seventy-five years and in the faith of. the Baptist church. She was loved and honored for .her many noble char- acteristics. Two of their sons reside in Ok- lahoma, one being David, and a daughter, Mrs. Vulgamore, is also a resident of Pot- tawatomie county.
W. O. McGruder spent the early years of his iife on a farm in Macon county, Mis- souri, where he was early taught the value of industry and honesty as a true means of success. It was in 1898 that he left his boy-
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HISTORY OF THE STATE OF OKLAHOMA.
hood's home for Oklahoma, and shortly after his arrival here he became the owner of his present homestead of one hundred and sixty acres a mile and a half south of Earlsboro. Since 1905 he has been the efficient super- intendent of the Farmers' Union Gin Mill, and he is also the president of the township order of the Farmers' Union.
When a young man of twenty-one Mr. McGruder wedded Anna Smith, who was born and reared in Missouri, a daughter of Robert and Teletha Smith, both of whom died in that state. The children of this union are : George W., who is married and has one child, and he is the popular and well known liveryman of Earlsboro, Robert, Jos- eph, Ella White, Hollis, Eddy, John and Ruby. Mr. McGruder votes with the Dem- ocratic party, and he helped to organize here and is the district grand master of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, Lodge No. 77. He is a valued member and a dea- con of the Baptist church.
U. S. CORDELL, M. D. During the past four years Dr. Cordell has been engaged in the practice of medicine and surgery in Romulus, his residence here dating since 1904. He is one of its oldest and best known physicians, and is a graduate of the medical college at Chattanooga, Tennessee, with the class of 1895. Previous to his en- tering college he resided at Colbert, Indian Territory, where he read medicine under the preceptorship of Dr. Howell until 1889, and under his able instructions gained a fair in- sight into the work which he had chosen as his life's occupation. In partnership with Joel Counts he is also conducting a large and well stocked drug store in this city.
The Doctor was born at Valley Head, Alabama, December 16, 1868, and is a son of a farmer, MI. C. Cordell, who lives now in Johnson county, Oklahoma. During the Civil war he served in the Confederate army as a member of the Sixty Georgia Cavalry. Mrs. Cordell bore the maiden name of Emily Lee, and was a distant connection of the Confederate general and leader. The Doc- tor was one of twelve children, ten of whom are yet living, and in 1894 he wedded Effie Phelps, born in Missouri, and their four chil- dren are Willie, Beulah, Beatrice and Bern- ice. Dr. Cordell is politically a socialist, and fraternally a member of the time- honored order of Masons, and of Lodge No. 13, I. O. O. F., of Romulus.
RANDOLPH COOK, of Earlsboro township, near the town of Maud, is a native son of Illinois, born in Franklin county, January 19, 1841, a son of James H. and Sarah (Rob- inson ) Cook. The father was born and reared in Tennessee, and both he and his wife died in Illinois, he at the age of forty- four years and the mother at the age of seventy. She was a daughter of a soldier of the war of 1812 and who was with Gen- eral Jackson at New Orleans. He was one of the early settlers of Illinois, living on one of its first farms, and he was also a noted hunter of his time, when bear and wild game of all kinds was plentiful in that state. Mrs. Cook was a member of the Mis- sionary Baptist church, and was loved for her goodness of heart, her kindness and her hospitality. Eight of their children grew to years of maturity, four sons and four daugh- ters, and five are now living. One son, John Cook, died in September, 1907, at Maud.
Randolph Cook was reared to the life of a farmer boy, and since attaining to mature years has followed various occupations. From Illinois he went to Texas in 1872, where for nine years he was engaged in the cattle business in Grayson county, and where he served as a justice of the peace. He also owned a ranch in the Chickasaw Nation. While there he was also engaged in selling goods and the cattle business and in carrying the mail for the government. Aside from all this he was an expert hunter. It was in February, 1892, that he came to Pottawatomie county, Oklahoma, where in Earlsboro township he now owns a good farm of eighty acres, one-half of which is bottom land and well adapted to the raising of cotton, corn and alfalfa. He also has an excellent orchard and his farm is further improved by pleasant and substantial build- ings. He has served his community as a justice of the peace for two terms, making a good record in that office, has been the treasurer of the township, and is a member of the Masonic order and of the A. H. T. A.
Mr. Cook was married in 1858 to Mary Webb, with whom he has traveled the jour- ney of life for nearly fifty years and togeth- er they have experienced the life of pioneer- ing in the southwest. She was born in Franklin county, Illinois, in 1841, and was reared and educated there, a daughter of Charles and Cynthia (Page) Webb, both of whom were born in Kentucky and be-
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HISTORY OF THE STATE OF OKLAHOMA.
came pioneers of Franklin county, Illinois. Mr. and Mrs. Cook have seven children,- Henderson, John W., Harvey Allen, Dru- silla, wife of U. S. Taylor, Mary J. Riker, Sarah J. Smith, deceased in 1908 and Stella Finks, wife of a postmaster in Indian Ter- ritory. One son, George M., died in the Chickasaw Nation at the age of thirty-eight years, leaving a wife and one child. The family are members of the Baptist church.
B. B. DAWSON, M. D. Prominent among the physicians and surgeons of Pottawa- tomie county, Oklahoma, is numbered Dr. B. B. Dawson, of Asher, who came here at the starting of the town in 1901, and has since become widely known in his profes- sion and as a man of public spirit and enter- prise. He was born in Sharp county, Arkansas, in 1844, a member of a good old southern family of that state, and his father, Burrell Dawson, was before the war a large planter, stock man and slave owner, but like all other southern gentlemen he lost all in the conflict. He served in the Confed- erate army, mostly on a river fleet, and he died at the age of forty-four years, leaving a wife and nine children, two sons and sev- en daughters. Mrs. Dawson was before her marriage Emeline Baker, and was born in North Carolina and was a member of the Baptist church.
Dr. Dawson was reared on a farm in his native state of Arkansas, where he de- veloped a sturdy and vigorous manhood, and in the meantime attending the public and high schools and graduating in West Plains College with the degree of A. B. He began the study of his chosen profession under the preceptorship of his brother, Dr. W. D. Dawson, now a prominent and well known practitioner of Greer county, Oklahoma, and after his graduation from the Illinois Med- ical College of Chicago with the class of 1899 he spent two years in practice with his brother in Greer county. Since then he has been numbered among the leading and suc- cessful physicians and surgeons of Asher. For a time he served as editor of the Med- ical Herald, and he is also a stockholder and one of the directors of the Canadian Valley Bank of Asher.
In Arkansas, in October, 1892, Dr. Daw- son wedded Helen Moore, who was also born, reared and educated in that state, a daughter of E. H. Moore. They have one son, Earl, a bright boy of six years. Dr. Dawson gives his political allegiance to the
Democratic party, and is a member of the fraternal orders of Masons, Odd Fellows and Woodmen of the World. Mrs. Dawson is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church.
J. C. MILNER, the president of the Asher State Bank, claims the honor of being one of the earliest pioneer settlers in Pottawa- tomie county. He was born in Morgan county, Ohio, near the town of Marietta, in 1864, and his parents, George and Mary E. (Orr) Milner, are both now deceased, the father dying in Savannah, Missouri, at the age of seventy-six, and the mother was sev- enty-five when called to the home beyond, both having been earnest and faithful mem- bers of the Methodist Episcopal church. Mr. Milner followed the occupation of a farmer, and gave his political support to the Democratic party.
J. C. Milner, the youngest of their twelve children, six sons and six daughters, was reared on a farm in the hills of Morgan county, Ohio, where he was early taught the lessons of industry and honesty as the best road to success, and in 1885 he left home and went west to Sumner county, Kansas. He homesteaded a farm in the western part of the state, and remained there for several years, finally leaving on account of the great droughts so prevalent in that section. He lost all he had there, and going to Kansas City, Missouri, he accepted a position with the Stock Yards Company, where he remained for some time or until he had obtained another start. Coming from there to Pottawatomie county, Oklahoma, he secured a claim near Tecum- seh and conducted the first farm in this part of the territory and was also the pioneer in the raising of Poland China hogs. His first home here was a little log cabin, presided over by a negro servant, and his supplies were hauled with ox teams from Oklahoma City. For a time during the early history of this country Mr. Milner served as a dep- uty sheriff, and while discharging his duties had many thrilling adventures with the bad men and desperadoes so numerous here at that time. At the time of the murder of Sheriff Frank Smith, of Anadarko, Mr. Mil- ner as the deputy sheriff and in company with George Stone, now the county recorder of Pottawatomie county, captured and ar- rested the murderers after a hard fight.
J. C. Milner was married November 26, 1891, in the little log ranch house on his
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HISTORY OF THE STATE OF OKLAHOMA.
homestead claim, to Mary A. Riecker, they being the first white couple married in Pott- awatomie county. They have three chil- dren, George, Florence and John. He is one of the wheelhorses in the local ranks of the Democratic party, and has won the confi- dence of all who know him.
CHARLES C. CHAPELL. It may be truth- fully said of Charles C. Chapell that he is one of the best known business men of this part of Oklahoma and especially of Potta- watomie county. His residence here dates from the year of 1901, and he has ever since been active in the business and polit- ical interests of Oklahoma. He was born at Algonquin, in northern Illinois, in 1871, a year made memorable in that state by the great Chicago fire, and was a member of a well known family of that community who came originally from the State of New York and first located in Dupage county. C. E. Chapell, the father of Charles C., was born at Naperville, then the county seat of that county, and is now retired from business and living at Elgin, Illinois. His wife, Elizabeth, is also living.
They reared their son, Charles C. Chapell, in Elgin, and he supplemented his public school training by a course at the Wheaton College, of Wheaton, Illinois. After leaving school he accepted a position with Hibbard, Spencer, Bartlett & Company, the leading hardware firm of Chicago, with whom he re- mained in their store and represented them on the road for nine years, resigning his position then to become associated with the John Pritzlaff Hardware Company of Mil- waukee, Wisconsin. Again he resigned, after six years as a traveling salesman, and this time came to Oklahoma and established the first mercantile industry in the new town of Asher. With the intervening years he has built up a large and successful trade, at the same time has performed well his part in the public life of the community. He is a stanch Republican and for three years repre- sented Pottawatomie county as a commis- sioner, having been the only Republican elected on the county ticket at that election. He served with credit to himself and to he best interests of those whom he represented, and he has also served as a delegate to the county and state conventions, being a mem- ber of the State Central Committee during years of 1907 and 1908.
In 1896, in McHenry, Illinois, he married Amy C. Owen, who was well educated at
Lake Forest, Illinois, and is a daughter of Ed Owen, formerly of McHenry but now deceased. The only child of Mr. and Mrs. Chapell is a son Charles Edward. Mr. Cha- pell is a member of the Ancient Arabic Order Nobles of the Mystic Shrine and a Knight Templar Mason, and was one of the organizers of the lodge at Asher and served as its first secretary. He has received the thirty-second degree in Masonry. He is prominent in the business, political and social life of the community, frank, genial and courteous to all, and no more popular man can be found in Pottawatomie county than Charles C. Chapell of Asher.
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