A history of the state of Oklahoma, Volume II, Part 13

Author: Hill, L. B. (Luther B.)
Publication date: 1909
Publisher: Chicago, New York, The Lewis publishing company
Number of Pages: 810

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WILLIAM FORAKER, an enterprising farmer and the proprietor of the "Buckeye Farm" in Earlsboro township, Pottawatomie county, Oklahoma, came from Fannin county, Texas, in which state he had lived for twen- ty-one years. He was born in Marion county, Ohio, September 19, 1846, and comes of a well known and highly respec- table family. He is the son of Joseph and a grandson of Joshua Foraker. He is also a cousin of Senator and ex-governor For- aker, of Ohio. The mother was Mary Bur- goon, a native of Ohio, daughter of Dr. Ja- cob Burgoon, a native of Pennsylvania, and of Dutch descent. The parents of William Foraker went to Texas in 1883, and located in Rockwell County, where the father died in February, 1884. He was a Democrat in his politics, and a devoted member of the Methodist Episcopal church. The wife and mother died in the same county at eighty- four years. They were the parents of eleven children, eight sons and three daughters. One son, Solomon J., resides in Illinois. Wil- liam was reared in Ohio until thirteen years of age, then went to Cumberland county, Illinois, and later to Edgar county of that state. After several years in Illinois, he moved to Rockwall county, Texas. In the Lone Star state, he followed farming until 1905, when he moved to Oklahoma and pur- chased eighty acres of land, including a ten acre orchard. He has the best of buildings of all kinds, including an excellent farm- house, situated on a most beautiful site, well furnished throughout, with all that is mod- ern and beautiful.

Mr. Foraker was united in marriage in Cumberland county, Illinois, to Emma Oday who has been his loving help-mate for over forty years. She was born at Hebron, Lick- ing county, Ohio, daughter of Dr. Parker

HISTORY OF THE STATE OF OKLAHOMA.

and Margaret (Cole) Oday of Ohio, both deceased. The children by this union were as follows: 1. Anna Walton, of Oklahoma. 2. Charles, who died at the age of thirty- three years, left four children. His wife is also deceased and the children live with the grandparents and are Pearl, Ora, Clelta and Charles. 3. Minnie S-, of Texas. 4. Bert, who is a barber of Shawnee, Okla- homa. 5. Ruth Snelling, of Shawnee. 6. Al- bert A., at home.

Mr. Foraker is a thoroughgoing farmer and horticulturist, whose fruit farm is known far and near, as well as the hospitable man- ner with which he receives all who call at his charming place, for either business or pleasure.

J. A. HOLLOWAY, the treasurer of Eason township, is a member of one of Pottawat- omie county's oldest and best known fam- ilies, and he has attained prominence through his connection with the public af- fairs of the community, being at the present time the treasurer of Eason township. He was elected to this office in 1904, and has proved a capable and efficient official.

Mr. Holloway was born in Pottawatomie county, Kansas, near Lewisville, the old county seat of the county, January 7, 1873, a son of Linsey C. and Emily (Melott) Holloway. The mother is of French and Pottawatomie blood and a native daughter of Pottawatomie county, Kansas, while the father claims Missouri as the state of his nativity. Of their family of seven children,. four sons and three daughters, J. A. was the first born, and he was reared on a Kansas farm and received his education in the pub- lic schools of that state. In 1896 he came with his father and family to Oklahoma, lo- cating on a tract of eighty acres in Eason township, and this farm has since been con- verted into one of the most valuable ones in the township. It is located three and a half miles northwest of Wanette, and is splendidly and substantially improved.

On the 25th of December, 1904, in Pott- awatomie county, Oklahoma, Mr. Holloway married Maud Dobbins, who was born in Missouri, but was reared in the Chickasaw Nation of Indian Territory and received her education there, her parents being Henry and Belle (Gentry) Dobbins, the father also a native of Missouri. The mother is now deceased, leaving at her death but one child. Mrs. Holloway. To this union have been born two children, Luther Clark and Ethel

Lorea, born respectively on the 14th of December, 1905, and on the 25th of Novem- ber, 1907. Mr. Holloway is an active work- er for Democratic principles, and is one of the popular public officials of Eason town- ship.

RUFUS L. HOWARD, a merchant and the trustee of Avoca township, was elected to his present office in the fall of 1907, and in addition to discharging its duties he is also the proprietor of a large general store in Avoca township. He was born in Tennes- see in 1869, a son of Rev. George W. and Martha (Galey) Howard, who are now liv- ing in Asher, Oklahoma. The father is a re- tired minister of the Primitive Baptist church, a man honored and revered by all who know him.

Rufus L. Howard, one of their eight chil- dren, four sons and four daughters, was reared on a farm in Collin county, Texas, where he was early taught the value of in- dustry as the true source of success in life, and when he was twenty-four years of age he was married to Martha Standifer. Her father, the Rev. A. J. Standifer, is a well known minister of the Baptist church, and her mother before marriage was Rebecca Brannon. The following children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Howard: Anna, Roy, Iva, Lorah, Flora, Rellah, and Monroe. Mr. Howard gives an active supprt to the prin- ciples of the Democratic party, and he is a prominent church worker in the Baptist de- nomination, in which he has been a choir leader for years in the church service and an efficient Sunday-school worker. He also has fraternal relations with the Independ- ent Order of Odd Fellows at Violet.

J. S. LYLE, the owner of the pioneer gin mill in Pottawatomie county, is a mill man of thirty years experience. He first entered the business at Eldridge, Alabama, in 1877, where he operated a small four horse-power gin and gave employment to two men and two boys. From Alabama he went to Yalo- busha county, Mississippi, where for thir- teen years he was prominently identified with the ginning business. It was at the close of that period that he came to Okla- homa, and in October, 1894, he opened a gin near Dale in Pottawatomie county. During the first year there he ginned three hundred bales of cotton, and after three years there he moved his mill to McLoud, where he has ever since been engaged in business. He has installed in his mill the

HISTORY OF THE STATE OF OKLAHOMA.

latest improved machinery known to the business, including a Pratt huller, and dur -- ing the season of 1906 he ginned 2,854 bales of cotton.

Mr. Lyle was born in Georgia November 17, 1848. His father, J. P. Lyle, was born in Georgia of English parents and his father was a Revolutionary soldier. The mother, formerly Elizabeth Noland, is of French descent, and was born in North Car- olina. Their family numbered eight chil- dren, four sons and four daughters, but one son died at Sparta, Tennessee, after having served for four years in the Confederate army during the Civil war, a member of the Fourth Georgia Cavalry. Another son, J. Y. Lyle, was a soldier in General Bragg's army, and served throughout the entire per- iod of the war. The father was a stanch Union man during the trouble between the North and the South, and his occupation through life was carpentering.

J. S. Lyle was a boy of ten when the fam- ily left Georgia for Alabama, and he was reared in the latter state. At the age of thirty-two, in Mississippi, he married Eliz- abeth W. Adams, who was born in Yalo- busha county, that state, a daughter of Samuel W. Adams, a Confederate soldier during the Civil war. Of the eight children born to Mr. and Mrs. Lyle, six, three sons and three daughters, are now living, Lillie May Wright, Adolphus, Agnes, Arthur, Leighton and Fay. Bernice died in March, 1893, in infancy, and Frances Clyde died on the 28th of February, 1908, when a young woman of eighteen years. Mr. Lye has rep- resented his ward as an alderman, and his politics are Democratic. The family wor- ship in the Baptist church.

A. H. YOUNG. Among the representative body of men who stand for the best and most stable financial condition of Okla- homa is numbered A. H. Young, cashier of the Bank of Commerce of McLoud. He be- came identified with the interests of this state in 1896, when he came to Shawnee as as employe of the Choctaw Railroad Com- pany, for whom he worked for seven years and resigned as division storekeeper to ac- cept a position with the Ruemmeli-Dawley Manufacturing Company, of St. Louis, Mis- souri, remaining with this company for four years. It was at the close of this period that he accepted the cashiership of the Bank of Commerce of McLoud, and has ever since assisted in guarding the interests of its

depositors and in scrupulously protecting them against any possibility of risk.

McLoud's prominent banker and business man, A. H. Young, was born in Indiana, but when quite young he was taken by his parents to Filmore county, Nebraska, where he spent the period of his youth and early manhood. His father, Matthew Young, was born in Ohio, and he bears a splendid record as a Union soldier of the Civil war. He now lives at Lincoln, Neb- raska, a Republican politically and a mem- ber of the Masonic order and of the Meth- odist church. His wife was Elvira Shack- elford, from Ohio, and they are the parents of five children, one son and four daughters, namely: Mrs. J. L. Vodra, of Shawnee ; Mrs. Emma McNees, of Lincoln, Nebraska ; Mrs. S. J. Pester, also of Lincoln ; and Ber- tha R., with her parents.

A. H. Young, their only son, was mar- ried in Lincoln, Nebraska, to May I. Law- son, who was born in Clarion county, Penn- sylvania, but she received her education in Doane College in Crete, Nebraska, and is a daughter of S. C. and Mary E. Lawson. Her father is deceased and the mother re- sides in McLoud. The only child of Mr. and Mrs. Young is a son, A. Harold. Mr. Young is prominently identified with the Masonic order, belonging to McLoud Lodge No. 37. He and his wife are members of the Presbyterian church.

R. R. HENDON, president of the Maud State Bank, and the proprietor of Fairview Farm, one of the beautiful estates of Potta- watomie county, has been very successful in his business career in Oklahoma and has clearly demonstrated what it is possible to accomplish in this state of many resources. He came here poor in August, 1892, and located on the farm which has ever since been his home, coming from Fannin county, Texas. He was born in Cleburne county, Alabama, February 25, 1860, a son of R. R. Hendon, Sr., who was reared in Georgia and was a Confederate soldier during the Civil war. Emily (McPherson) Hendon, his wife, was a native of Georgia and of an old Virginia family of Scotch-Irish descent, her death occurring in 1882. The husband and father was sixty-four years of age at the time of his death, a farmer, Democrat and a believer in the Calvinistic doctrine. Of the seven children born to Mr. and Mrs. Hendon three are now living, Missouri Gil-

HISTORY OF THE STATE OF OKLAHOMA.

mor, of Oak Level, Alabama, and Henry, whose home is in Polk county, Georgia.

R. R. Hendon, the youngest of the three surviving children, attained to mature years on the old Alabama homestead, and when he reached the age of twenty he mar- ried Mary Belle Nabors, and they have be- come the parents of thirteen children, seven sons and six daughters: The eldest died in infancy and the others are Wheeler, Lillie, Scott, Emily, Claude, Robert, William J., Sallie, Gordon, Esther Belle, Lottie Bess, and one daughter born July 30, 1908 not yet named. Five of the children are suc- cessful teachers, Wheeler, Scott, Emily, Lillie and Claude.

Six years after their marriage in 1886, Mr. and Mrs. Hendon went to Lamar county, Texas, but after one year there re- moved to Fannin county, and in 1889 they came to the Chickasaw Nation and from the dense timberland which they selected as a home and farm they have since evolved one of the most splendid tracts in Earlsboro township. Eighty acres of the farm are under cultivation, and are especially adapted to the raising of corn, cotton and fruit, while their first dwelling, a little log cabin now used as a tenant house, has since given place to a splendid and commodious resi- dence. Fairview Farm is a beautiful rural home in which to enjoy the comforts and pleasures of life. Mr. Hendon is an active Democratic worker, and on the 22d of Feb- ruary, 1908, he was its representative to the state convention at Muskogee. He is a member of the order of Odd Fellows, Earls- boro Lodge No. 77, and both he and his wife and two of their children have membership relations with the Christian church.

OSCAR RAY, the senior member of the livery firm of Ray Brothers, was the found- er of the business here, and is one of the most popular business men of McComb. Throughout the period of his residence here he has been actively connected with the on- ward movement of Pottawatomie county, an exponent of progress and reform, and as a business man he has gained the confidence and support of his fellow townsmen. His barn is a large building forty by forty feet, and he keeps on an average about ten good horses and carriages and vehicles of all kinds.

Mr. Ray was born in Texas twenty-five years ago, his parents being J. C. and Mary J. Ray, in whose family were seven children. The father served as a Confederate soldier

during the Civil war. Oscar Ray married, in 1902, in Burnett, Anna R. Harden, who was born and reared in Oklahoma, and their two children are John and Delia.

EDGAR H. BUNCE, proprietor of Oak Hill Farm in Avoca township, was born in Ra- cine county, Wisconsin, in 1843. His par- ents, John A. and Elizabeth (Harrold) Bunce, were born in New York, the father of English and the mother of Scotch-Irish descent, and they were among the first to locate in Racine county, Wisconsin, from whence they later moved to Ottertail county, Minnesota, where they spent the re- mainder of their lives and died in the faith of the Methodist Episcopal church, the father when eighty-two and the mother when eighty-four years of age. He was an excellent cabinet maker, and he was a Re- publican politically.

Edgar H. Bunce, one of their ten children, four sons and six daughters, was reared in Racine and Juneau counties, Wisconsin, and until leaving home for the Civil war he worked at the carpenter's trade. In Feb- rnary, 1862, in Juneau county, he enlisted in the Tenth Wisconsin Light Artillery, under the immediate command of Captain Beebe. Going into camp at Racine, they were later sent to Benton Barracks at St. Louis, Missouri, where forty thousand troops were encamped, and his first battle was at Corinth, Mississippi. He later par- ticipated in the battle of Iuka, was later in a forced march to Nashville, and was under both Generals Rosecrans and Thom- as in Sherman's army during the Atlantic campaign. He was at Raleigh, North Car- olina at the time of the surrender of General Joe Johnston, thence on to Richmond, Vir- ginia, and to Washington, D. C., where he took part in the Grand Review and was honorably discharged at Madison, Wiscon- son, on the 25th of June, 1865, with an ex- cellent military record.

For a time after returning from the war Mr. Bunce lived in Minnesota, from whence he returned to Juneau county, Wisconsin, and later was in Washington county, Kan- sas, engaged in the mercantile business. From there he went to Thayer county, Neb- raska, where he was engaged in contracting, the mercantile business and farming, and in March of 1903 came to Oklahoma and se- cured his present farm in Avoca township, Pottawatomie county, where he owns one hundred and twenty acres of fertile and

HISTORY OF THE STATE OF OKLAHOMA.

well improved land familiarly known as Oak Hill Farm.

Mr. Bunce was married in 1871, in Fari- bault county, Minnesota, near Winnebago City, to Mary E. Phillips, who was born and educated in New York, near Syracuse, and she was a successful teacher before her mar- riage. Her parents were New York people. A daughter, Grace, is the only child of this union, and she is the wife of U. C. Umphe- nour, who was born in Livingston county, Illinois, and was also reared and educated there, and they reside with her father on the farm. They have three children, Sterling Gordon, Helen Grace and Forest Irving. Mr. Bunce is a stalwart Republican and a member of the Grand Army of the Republic, and in Thayer county, Nebraska, he served his post as a commander. Mrs. Bunce and her daughter are members of the Methodist church.

ROBERT M. TOWNSEND, a prominent farm- er in Avoca township, was born in the dis- trict of Greenville, South Carolina, July 26, 1845, a son of Robert Bolen and R. Ellen (Hiatt) Townsend, who were also born in that commonwealth. When their son Rob- ert was six years of age they moved with their family to Georgia and later to Arkan- sas, where the father died at the age of seventy, a farmer and a Missionary Bap- tist in religion. There were twelve children in their family, four sons and eight daugh- ters, and the eldest son, John Duncan, was a Confederate soldier in the Civil war, the flag bearer of his regiment, and three times he saved his flag from destruction after it had been shot down.

From Arkansas Robert M. Townsend came to the Chickasaw Nation in the Indian Territory in 1889, where he continued to re- side for nineteen years or until coming to Pottawatomie county, Oklahoma, in 1896. Here he owns eighty acres of the best land in Avoca township, forty-five acres of which is under cultivation and splendidly im- proved. Before leaving his home in Arkan- sas, Mr. Townsend enlisted in the Union army from Conway county, in 1863, and served in Company G, Third Arkansas Cav- alry, which became known as the "Bloody Third." He was with General Steele's com- mand throughout the Arkansas campaign, and took part in many of the memorable battles of the war. He had many narrow escapes from death, and was honorably dis- Vol. II-5.

charged at the close of the war at Little Rock, Arkansas.

When twenty-two years of age Mr. Townsend was married to Eliza C. Glenn, who was born in Georgia, a daughter of Samuel Glenn. Of their twelve children nine are now living, John, Job, Calfey, Coen, Harriette, Ever, Robert Simpson, Oliver and Perry. Mr. Townsend is a stanch supporter of Republican principles, and Mrs. Townsend is a member of the Baptist church.

DR. J. I. LYON. Among those who have attained distinctive prestige in the practice of medicine and surgery in the city of Mc- Loud as well as in Pottawatomie county, and whose success has come as the result of thorough technical information and skill, stands Dr. Lyon, who has been a member of the profession here since 1899. He is a grad- uate of the Kansas City Medical College with the class of 1892, and in 1898 he com- pleted a post-graduate course at the Post- Graduate School, Chicago, also a Post- Graduate Course in the same year at the Eye, Ear, Nose & Throat College of Chi- cago, thus having made deep and careful research into the sciences to which he is devoting his life. In addition to his prac- tice he is interested in a drug store in Mc- Loud, the leading store of its kind in the city, and for some years he was the govern- ment physician for the Kickapoo Indians in Pottawatomie county. He is now one of the oldest representatives of the profes- sion in the county, and has not only main- tained his position among the leaders of the fraternity but has also taken part in much of the public and social life of Mc- Loud, so that he is accounted one of her most valued citizens.

Dr. Lyon is a native Missourian, born at Humansville, that state, December 29th, 1869, and is a kinsman of General Lyon, one of the heroes of the Civil war and who was killed in battle. William James Lyon, the Doctor's father, died at the age of sev- enty-four years, and his mother, Martha (King) Lyon, died at the age of fifty-six. She was born in Missouri and was a mem- ber of one of the pioneer families of that state, they having moved there from Vir- ginia in an early day. The Doctor has one brother, David K. Lyon. The family are Methodists in their religious affiliations. training in the public schools of Warrens-

The Doctor received his early educational

HISTORY OF THE STATE OF OKLAHOMA.

burg, Missouri, passing from the public schools to the Missouri normal, and he be- gan the study of medicine at the age of twenty under the preceptorship of Dr. Wann. In June of 1894 he married the daughter of his former preceptor, Addie Wann, and they have one son, James Ben- ton, born in September, 1903. Dr. Lyon's politics are Democratic, and he has served as secretary of the school board of McLoud. He is a member of the Knights of Pythias Lodge No. 155, of Humansville, Missouri, and of the Masonic order Lodge No. 37 of McLoud. Both he and his wife are active members of the Christian church.

WILLIAM S. WISEGARVER, a prominent farmer in Bales township, was born in Bed- ford county, Pennsylvania, December 12, 1836, a son of George W. and Sarah Ann (Smith) Wisegarver, both members of old Pennsylvania German families, and a grand- son of Daniel Wisegarver, also a native of Pennsylvania. Mr. and Mrs. George W. Wisegarver were married in Pennsylvania, where they were early residents, and the mother died there at the age of three score years and ten, the father surviving until the age of seventy-five. He was a farmer and a Jackson Democrat politically. Of their fam- ily of nine children, four sons and five daughters, three of the sons served their country in the Civil war, William S. as a member of the Twelfth Iowa Infantry Vol- unteers; David, of the Fifty-fifth Pennsyl- vania Infantry, and John, who now lives at Topeka, Kansas. David served four years in the army, and died at Portland, Oregon.

A native son of Pennsylvania, William S. Wisegarver was reared and educated there, went to Iowa when nineteen years of age and one of the most memorable events connected with his early life in that state was the terrible massacre of the set- tlers at Spirit Lake by the Indians in 1857, and he assisted in the sad task of burying the dead. In 1861 he enlisted from Dela- ware county, Iowa, in the Twelfth Iowa Infantry, under Colonel J. Woods. He en- listed at the time of the call for three hun- dred thousand more men and before the war had closed he took part in many of its hardest fought battles, including those of Fort Donelson, Fort Henry, Shiloh, Jackson, Chapel Hills, Black River Bridge, throughout the entire siege of Vicksburg, Holly Springs, Franklin and Nashville. His

military record is one of which he has every reason to be proud, and after a long and arduous service he was honorably dis- charged and returned to his home in Iowa. Leaving there after a time he went to Neb- raska, where he secured a homestead claim in Holt county, and remained there for fif- teen years. He then sold his land and re- moved to Mount Vernon, Illinois, where he lived until coming to Oklahoma in 1900. In company with his two sons he has been farming Indian land here, and they are all successful farmers and stock raisers.

Mrs. Wisegarver, formerly Mattie Jane Gillham, was born in Grant county, Wis- consin, a daughter of William and Martha (Williamson) Gillham, who were born re- spectively in North Carolina and near Springfield, Illinois. The father was a mil- ler and was a soldier in the Black Hawk war. He died in Iowa, and his wife died in Holt county, Nebraska, at the advanced age of eighty-four years. They became the parents of ten children, and three of their sons were soldiers in the Civil war, Ransom serving as a member of the Second Wiscon- sin Infantry and William and Jourdon in the Ninth Iowa Infantry. The three chil- dren of Mr. and Mrs. Wisegarver are: Lau- ra, a stenographer in the employ of the rail- road company at Shawnee ; George O., who completed his education in the Stillwater College and is now at home, a young man of twenty-one years ; and Irvin S., in his sec- ond year in Stillwater College. One daugh- ter, Lillian, died at the age of six years. Mr. Wisegarver is a member of the Masonic fra- ternity, belonging to Oriel Lodge No. 85. He was one of the organizers and a charter member of the Masonic Lodge in Coles- burg, Iowa. He also has membership rela- tions with the Grand Army of the Repub- lic, and in Oriel, Nebraska, he served as the senior vice of his post.

Jo F. TRIMMER, county treasurer of Garvin county, residing at the seat of gov- ernment, Pauls Valley, is one of the repre- sentative agriculturists and public men of that section of Oklahoma, having a well settled and patriotic conviction that after the American citizen has provided a liveli- hood for himself and those dependent upon him, he owes a portion of his time to a con- sideration of civic affairs, and, if the people so desire, to a participation in them. Both in Texas and Oklahoma he has conformed to this high standard of citizenship, and has

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A history of the state of Oklahoma, Volume II, Part 13

Author: Hill, L. B. (Luther B.) Publication date: 1909 Publisher: Chicago, New York, The Lewis publishing company Number of Pages: 810

Author: Hill, L. B. (Luther B.)
Publication date: 1909
Publisher: Chicago, New York, The Lewis publishing company
Number of Pages: 810