USA > Oklahoma > A history of the state of Oklahoma, Volume II > Part 18
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90 | Part 91 | Part 92 | Part 93
bar that is noteworthy and has gained for him a large and growing clientage.
Mr. Dudley was married on the 24th of December, 1906, to Miss Maud Wingate, of Norman, Oklahoma, and they have one son, Paul W. They are prominent in the social circles of the city where they reside, while their own home is justly celebrated for its gracious hospitality. Mr. Dudley is deeply interested in community affairs and gives his support and co-operation to every movement which he believes will promote the public welfare. He is now serving as a member of the board of education. In politics he is a stalwart Republican and when a candidate for office has always run ahead of his party ticket. He became a candidate on the Re- publican ticket for representative to the leg- islature in 1905 and was defeated by only a very small majority when the usual Demo- cratic majority is from eight to twelve hun- dred. He thus gained an increased vote of more than four hundred and fifty over the usual party ticket. He is chairman of the Republican county central committee and an untiring worker in the interests of the or- ganization which he believes is best quali- fied to conserve the interests of the county. His fellow citizens recognize in him a man of determination, enterprise and laudable ambition and in his practice he has already made a creditable name for himself.
FARMERS STORE COMPANY. Under the firm name of the Farmers Store Company two of the most energetic and enterprising young men of Noble are carrying on a thriving bus- iness, being among the leading merchants of this section of Cleveland county. Organiz- ing this company in 1900, with a capital of $10,000 to begin with, these gentlemen put in a stock of general merchandise, including hardware, furniture, and undertaking goods, and have since built up an extensive and lucrative trade, their annual sales now amounting to $75,000. Catering to the wants of their customers, the firm is con- stantly adding new things to their already varied line of goods, and by their square, honest dealings, and systematic methods of transacting business have gained the good will and patronage of the better class of peo- ple in this vicinity. The firm is composed of Frank Lee Casey and Ernest Lee Sheets. the latter being president of the company, while the former is secretary.
The son of a well-to-do farmer and stock- man, Frank Lee Casey, was born, January
89
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF OKLAHOMA.
23, 1863, in Richmond, Missouri, his parents being Thomas J. and Martha A. (Mann) Casey. Acquiring an excellent education in the public schools of his native state, he be- gan his active career as clerk in the store of E. M. Mann, at Jamesport, Missouri, remain- ing with him five years. Desirous then of entering business for himself, Mr. Casey took advantage of the opportunities offered in the newly opened lands in the Oklahoma territory, and in 1900 located in the town of Noble. Forming a partnership with Mr. E. L. Sheets, under the present firm name, he has as previously mentioned, established a fine mercantile business, similar in its nature to the one in which he was for a brief time engaged in at Gallatin, Missouri. Mr. Casey married, in Gallatin, Missouri, Mary Lee Osborn, their union being solemnized in 1883, and into their home two children have been born, Leone and Thomas Osborn.
A native of Gallatin county, Missouri, Ernest Lee Sheets was born April 1, 1863. a son of William and Belle (Casey) Sheet>. He comes of excellent ancestry, his progen- itors having been men of influence, and his father is still serving his fellow men as one of the public officials of Daviess county, Mis- souri. On leaving school Mr. Sheets entered the store of G. M. Irving, at Gallatin, Mis- souri, and while in his employ became famil- iar with the various phases of mercantile pursuits. Starting then for himself, he ran a general store in Gallatin from 1885 until 1900. Coming then to Noble, Cleveland county, he became associated with Mr. Casey under the present firm name, and as presi- dent of the Farmers Store Company has con- tributed his full share in the upbuilding of the present substantial trade which the com- pany enjoys. At Gallatin, Missouri, in 1880, Mr. Sheets married Emma Brosius, and they have three children, Robert, Eugene, and Anna.
JOHN FRANCIS DELONG. A man of ability and integrity, well informed in regard to public affairs, John Francis DeLong is ren- dering excellent service to his fellow-towns- men as postmaster at Noble, Cleveland coun- ty. A son of Hon. Isaac and Mary E. (Moore) DeLong, he was born, July 8, 1841, in Somerset, Perry county, Ohio. On the paternal side he comes of French ancestry. being the lineal descendant of a family that came from France to this country several generations ago, their name at that time be- ing spelled De Longue. The family has
always been somewhat prominent in pro- fessional circles, Isaac DeLong, his father, and other of his ancestors having been pro- fessional men.
Having completed his studies in the pub- lic schools of Perry county, Ohio, John F. DeLong began life for himself as a farmer in the territory of Kansas. Fired with pa- triotic enthusiasm, he offered his services to his country at the opening of the Civil war, enlisting in the Ninth Kansas Cavalry, with which he remained three years and four months. In the meantime he saw much hard service on the frontier, being among the bushwhackers of Missouri, Kansas, Indian Territory, and Arkansas, and took part in several engagements of importance. Re- turning to Auburn, Kansas, where he had settled in 1856, Mr. DeLong resumed ranch- ing for a time, and then located at Topeka, where, in 186;, he had the distinction of be- ing the first to be elected peace officer in that city, and the following year he was elected L'nited States deputy marshal. Subsequent- ly Mr. DeLong lived for a few years in Tex- as, being prosperously engaged in business. Selling out his Texas interests, he came to Oklahoma soon after it began to be opened up to settlers, locating at Pawnee, in Pawnee county, where he immediately became ident- ified with the establishment of various enter- prises. He helped organize the Pawnee County Bank, which was later merged into the Pawnee National Bank, with Mr. De- Long as its vice-president. He also em- barked in mercantile pursuits, in Pawnee, opening a clothing and furnishing store for gents. Deciding to change his place of res- idence, he afterwards sold his store, and for some time carried on a thriving real estate business at Guthrie, Oklahoma. In 1904 Mr. DeLong came to Noble, where as a business man he prospected in various en- terprises, and in March, 1907, was appointed postmaster. In this office he is serving most efficiently, being prompt, accommodating and generally popular with his patrons.
Mr. DeLong married, December 22, 1886, at Mobeetie, Texas, the county seat of Wheeler county, Alice Spencer. Mr. De- Long is an active member of Pawnee Post. No. 8, G. A. R., and for forty-two years has been a Master Mason. Mrs. DeLong died November 17, 1897, in Lipscomb county. Texas. The home had been in Texas since their marriage and Mr. DeLong was very successfully engaged in cattle-raising.
90
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF OKLAHOMA.
HON. BENJAMIN F. WILLIAMS, senior member of the law firm of Williams and Williams (father and son), is a veteran of the Confederacy, a prominent actor in the period of reconstruction and for many years one of the distinguished members of his profession in Texas and Oklahoma. Born in Giles county, Tennessee, on the 8th of April, 1828, he is a son of Benjamin and Margaret Hall (Robson) Williams. Both were Virginians, although married in Ten- nessee. In the earlier years of his manhood his father was an academy professor, and later a planter in the states of Tennessee and Mississippi. Mr. Williams' maternal grandfather was a Scotchman who passed his mature life as a planter in Virginia, Tennessee and Mississippi. So that on both sides of the family he comes of the culti- vated, substantial agricultural stock of the south.
As a boy, Judge Williams attended the district schools of his home neighborhood, and later pursued his higher studies in the Miami University of Ohio and the Center College of Danville, Kentucky. In 1851 he was admitted to the Mississippi state bar, and upon his removal to Texas in 1853 to both the state and supreme courts of that commonwealth. His actual practice may be said to have commenced at Gilmer, Texas, and later he located at Pine Bluff, Arkansas. During the Civil war he served as first lieu- tenant in a Confederate company forming a part of the Pardgous Regiment of Louis- iana, and at the conclusion of the rebellion returned to Texas. Prior to the war he had served as district attorney of Upshur county, of which Gilmer was the county seat, but was unable to continue there in practice on account of the iron-clad oaths and other stringent conditions of the reconstruction period. In 1867, however, he resumed prac- tice, at San Antonio, Texas, remaining there until 1881 as a leading member of his pro- fession of signal ability and the most hon- orable methods. In the year named Gov- ernor Roberts recognized his professional talents and character by appointing him judge of the district court, and in the as- sumption of its duties he removed to Gra- ham City, Young county. At the expiration of his term in 1883 he was returned to the bench by popular election, and thereafter served the full four years. In 1887 Judge Williams returned to the private practice of his profession at Henrietta, Texas, in 1891
located in Oklahoma City, and still later be- came a resident of Norman, Cleveland coun- ty, where he formed a partnership with his son, B. F. Williams, Jr., under the firm name of Williams and Williams.
BENJAMIN F. WILLIAMS, JR., junior mem- ber of the firm of Williams and Williams, of which his father is the senior, is one of the young and advancing members of the legal profession in Norman, Cleveland county. He was born in Granbury, Hood county, Texas, on the 21st of March, 1876, being a son of Hon. Benjamin F. and Etta H. (Rucker) Williams. The son first received a common school education in the schools of Henrietta, and afterward attended the Polytechnic College at Fort Worth. He studied law under the careful tutelage of his father, and on March 21, 1896, was admitted to prac- tice before the district and supreme court of Oklahoma.
Upon entering practice Mr. Williams was first identified with his father's offices, was afterward a member of the firm of Botsford and Williams, and still later formed a part- nership with his father, under the present style of Williams and Williams. The junior member has rapidly advanced both pro- fessionally and in public station. In 1902 he was elected city attorney of Norman, and at the present time is serving as one of the eleven commissioners appointed by the su- preme court of Oklahoma to examine appli- cants for admission to the state bar. Mr. Williams' wife, to whom he was married in 1902, at Norman, was Miss Ninnis H. Hullam, and their children are named Mildred Lee and Margaret Lucile.
J. J. BURKE, postmaster of Norman and one of the pioneer and successful journalists of Oklahoma, possesses all the persistence, honesty, brightness, elasticity and strength of his people, the Scotch-Irish. He was born in Stirlingshire, Scotland, on the 23rd of November, 1854, and is a son of Rev. John and Jane (Jeffrey) Burke. At an early age he was brought by his parents to the United States, residing chiefly in Pennsyl- vania and Ohio, where his father was en- gaged in church work. Later in life he en- gaged in teaching in various district schools, and then removed to Kansas, being engaged in newspaper work for a number of years at Garnett, Paola and Colony, that state, as well as at St. Joseph, Missouri. Mr. Burke came to Oklahoma on the original opening day, April 22, 1889, and about June 1, 1889,
91
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF OKLAHOMA.
took charge of the Oklahoma City Journal, later purchasing the Oklahoma Times and consolidating the two as the Times-Journal. His enterprise proved to be the founda- tion of permanent journalism in Oklahoma City. In 1897 he removed to Norman and purchased the business and plant of the Norman Transcript, continuing as its editor and publisher until his appointment to the postmastership in 1902. His son, Edward H. Burke, then assumed the management of the publishing business.
Postmaster Burke was honored with a re-appointment to his present position, and has conducted its affairs with promptness, energy and ability. For many years he has been a Republican leader in the politics of the territory and state. He was the first president of the Oklahoma Editorial Asso- ciation, with which he is still affiliated, his position being thus still further confirmed as one of the founders of journalism in the state. He is a member of both the Masonic and Elk orders. Married at Garnett, Kansas, in 1878, to Miss Clara J. Hiatt, he has be- come the father of one son, Edward H. Burke, who has already been mentioned as his father's manager in the publishing busi- ness.
HARRY CLINTON DICKERSON, manager for the South Texas Lumber Company, located at Norman, Cleveland county, is a true west- erner-in birth, education, training and spirit. He is a native of Iola, Kansas, where he was born on the 14th of June, 1884, being a son of Thomas M. and Paulina (Newbro) Dickerson. His education was obtained through the common and high schools of that state, he being a member of the gradu- ating class of 1901 of the Colony high school.
Immediately after leaving school, Mr. Dickerson became identified with the lumber trade of the southwest by entering the offices of the Cooper Lumber Company at Parsons, Kansas, and in 1903 he removed to Bartlesville, Indian Territory, as assistant manager of the Clark and Bales Lumber Company, at that point. He remained in that capacity until 1906, when he accepted the position of manager of the Norman yards of the South Texas Lumber Company, in the discharge of which duties he is demon- strating the possession of energy and good business judgment. Mr. Dickerson's pro- nounced sociability finds one of its vents through the order of the Hoo Hoos, of which he is an enthusiastic member.
JAMES DUGLASS MAGUIRE came to the ter- ritory of Oklahoma in the early days when it was opened to entry and settlement under the homestead laws of the United States. He was an experienced journalist and came to the "New Country" with the intention of establishing himself in that profession; but on viewing the situation over, he con- cluded that commercial life offered better and safer returns; and settled at Norman, then a box car station on the Santa Fe Rail- road. From that time forward he gave his time, energy and ability towards the up- building and development of Norman and Cleveland county. It was through his efforts that Cleveland or as it was then called "Little-River" county was taken from Ok- lahoma county and erected into a separate county with Norman as its county seat. The original report of the Committee on Terri- tories only provided for six counties, Okla- homa county with Oklahoma City as the county seat included all the country 110W contained in the two counties. His efforts with his friend Congressman Asher G. Car- uth, then representing the Louisville district in Congress secured the amending of the report providing a seventh county with Nor- man as its county seat.
Mr. Maguire always took a citizen's in- terest in politics and served for many years on the Republican territorial committee ; he was appointed by President Mckinley, in 1901, receiver of the United States land office at Lawton, the new government town lo- cated at Fort Sill and named for Gen. Law- ton, when the lands of the Kiowa, Comanche and Apache Indians were opened to settle- ment. For four years he efficiently held and discharged the duties of that office, adjust- ing the conflicting interests of miner and agriculturist until he resigned in 1906 to give his personal attention to his private business, which by this time had grown to such pro- portions as to demand his presence.
There is no one in Cleveland county, who has done more to justly present the claim and advantages of this section to non-resi- dents and to induce desirable immigration. He has also done much for the educational interests of the new commonwealth. He served for six years on the board of regents of the State University and for two years of that time was chairman of the executive committee of the board.
Mr. Maguire was born in Ireland, and was educated in that country. He graduated
92
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF OKLAHOMA.
from Queen College, Galway, with a Bache- lor's degree. He came to America immedi- ately following his school days, so that all his active life was spent in the United States. He located at Indianapolis, Indiana, where his relatives were publishing the Indianap- olis Journal and went to work on that paper and there became acquainted with the "lights and shadows of the fourth estate." This accidental employment by his relatives de- termined his immediate work and he fol- lowed newspaper work thereafter for many years working successively on the Memphis Appeal, Memphis, Tennessee and St. Louis Post, and Sub-editorial work on the Balti- more American, and was engaged as agent of the United Press Association at Louis- ville, Kentucky, when the "boomers" res- cued Oklahoma from the cattlemen and took possession of the "land of the fair god."
He was married to Miss Grace A. King, daughter of Henry King, of Emporia, Kan- sas, of which union two children were born: James D. and Mary Catherine. The family name was always maintained at Norman where his business interests centered. Mr. Maguire is a consistent and communicating member of St. Joseph's Catholic Church and an active member of its charities, he is also a contributing member of the United States Catholic Historical Society. He is leading a very active life physically and mentally.
JOHN ELLISON BAILEY, M. D. From no professional man do we expect or exact so many of the cardinal virtues as from the physician. If a clergyman is austere we imagine that his mind is absorbed with the contemplation of things beyond our ken; if our lawyer is brusque or crabbed it is the mark of genius ; but in the physician we ex- pect not only a superior mentality and com- prehensive knowledge but sympathy as wide as the universe. Dr. Bailey in large meas- ure meets all of these requirements and is regarded by many as an ideal physician. Certainly if patronage is any criterion of ability he ranks high among the leading members of the medical fraternity in Sul- phur and this section of Oklahoma, where he is now enjoying a large and lucrative patronage.
A native of Virginia, he was born at Keys- ville, Charlotte county, November 13, 1850. His parents were Armistead W. and Anne (Clark) Bailey, both natives of the Old Do- minion. The father was also born in Char- lotte county, where the grandfather had
settled at an early period in its develop- ment. He was a descendent of an old and well known English family, which included Squire Bailey, for whom the "old Bailey" of London was named. Following the founding of the family in America the Baileys were represented for several genera- tions in Virginia. Armistead W. Bailey there organized two companies at the out- break of the Civil war for service in the Con- federate army, and of both these he was made captain. The first was a company of infantry, composed of one hundred and eighty men, which he took with him in the service but as his weight-two hundred and nine pounds-was considered too heavy for infantry service he organized an artillery company, with which he was stationed at Malvern Hill and there he was killed in the second battle of Manassas, while his wife passed away a few days previous.
The family estate and property were en- tirely wiped away by the ravages of war and Dr. Bailey's only inheritence was a lot of worthless Confederate money and bonds, some of which he still retains as a relic of that period in American history. Nature, however, made him of strong individuality and through the development of his natural talents he has gained for himself a credita- ble place in the business world. In 1867 he removed westward, locating first at Nebras- ka City, Nebraska. For several years there- after he did any kind of labor that he could find to do in order to meet his expenses while completing his education, which was extend- ed over several years. At one time he was a teacher in the schools of Kentucky. In Ne- braska he had the misfortune to break his leg, necessitating its amputation but this did not deter him from his purpose of se- curing an education and entering the medi- cal profession. From Nebraska he went to Kentucky and worked his way through schools at Hickman, Lexington and Louis- ville, completing his final medical course in the Medical University at Louisville, from which he was graduated in the class of 1885.
Dr. Bailey located for practice in Fulton, Kentucky whence he removed to Com- merce, Texas, in 1888. On the 23d of July, 1902, he arrived in Wynnewood, then in the Indian Territory, located in the Chickasaw nation, six years ago removing to Sulphur, now the county seat of Murray county, Ok- lahoma. He had a capital of less than one thousand dollars on his arrival; today he
Very Truly JEBailey.
93
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF OKLAHOMA.
is in possession of valuable property inter- ests in the city that are worth at least fifty thousand dollars. He erected the first bus- iness building-the Bailey Block in East Sulphur, which has since become the lead- ing section of the new city. This building is a substantial two story brick on the cor- ner of Muskogee avenue and East Second street. The lower floors are occupied by stores, while the upper floors are devoted to business offices. Dr. Bailey is well known as a lover of and the owner of fine registered horses, some of which have made notable track records. His life work, however, is that of a physician and surgeon, and in his profession he has made steady advancement to a physician of prominence among the members of the medical fraternity in this section of the state. He has been an earnest and discriminating student of the science and while always slow to discard the old and time-tried methods the value of which have been proven in years of practice, he is also quick to adopt any new method which his judgment sanctions as of value in his work for the restoration of health and checking the ravages of disease. He has been accord- ed an extensive patronage and that his la- bors have been attended by excellent results is indicated by the fact that his business is continually growing.
Dr. Bailey was married in 1875 to Miss Sallie M. Miller and they have two sons : Dr. 'H. C. Bailey, who is a graduate of the Med- ical Department of the Trinity University at Dallas, Texas, and is now located at Wynnewood, Oklahoma ; and Robert S., who is now in business in Sulphur but was for- merly United States deputy marshal, in which connection he made a splendid record for courage and efficiency, especially in breaking up the illicit whiskey traffic in Chickasaw Nation. Dr. Bailey is popular with his fellow townsmen and has gained many warm friends by reason of the social qualities of his nature as well as his profes- sional ability. He can never content him- self with mediocrity and because of this he has so qualified that he has steadily advanced to a prominent position among the capable members of the profession in his section of the state, and the medical frater- nity as well as the public acknowledges his worth and merit.
ISAAC C. RENFRO. The name of Isaac C. Renfro is widely known in horticultural cir- cles. He is regarded as an authority upon
the subject of fruit culture and is proprietor of a private experimental station at Sulphur. His life record began in Clay county, Mis- souri, in 1851, and there he was partly reared upon a farm but in early youth removed with his parents to Topeka, Kansas. He joined a party of buffalo hunters and while yet a boy hunted buffalo all over the south- western plains at a time when traffic in hides was one of the most profitable sources of revenue in that section of the country. He also acted as Indian scout and in the late '70's he became associated with Captain Payne, the Couch brothers and others who were actively engaged in the exploitation of Oklahoma's resources and were promi- nent in the agitation of the subject of open- ing up to the public the government lands in the territory. With them Mr. Renfro made several expeditions from Wichita to Okla- homa and by those who were foremost in desiring the opening of the state, he was elected sheriff, an office created to preserve law and order in the various camps. His duties in this direction were arduous from the fact that in pioneer times there is usually found a lawless element, who, unheeding the opportunities for legitimate business, prey upon the rights and properties of others.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.