A history of the state of Oklahoma, Volume II, Part 2

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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HISTORY OF THE STATE OF OKLAHOMA.

other than the highest praise for him as the chief executive of the city. The city is now putting in 150,000 square yards of paving and spending $160,000 in sewers, expending about a half million dollars.

Mr. Stearns was married to Miss Winifred Arnold a native of Indiana, and two chil- dren were born to the union: Helen and William Arnold. Mr. Stearns is a member of the Masonic body, being identified with the Knights of Pythias; also with the Elks.

A. D. MARTIN. The city clerk of Shawnee, elected in 1907, is Mr. A. D. Martin, one of the younger business men of the city, who has won his popularity in public life by straightforward and diligent conduct in the various relations by which he has been iden- tified with this city during the last few years. He came to Oklahoma in 1903, and for sev- eral years was connected with the Shawnee Ice Company as bookkeeper. When he en- tered the political field as candidate for city clerk it was discovered that he was the strongest man on the ticket, being elected to the office by the largest majority ever given in Shawnee for that office, and al- though the youngest of the candidates for the various city offices, he led his ticket by two hundred votes. His recognition in this manner was merited, and he is conducting the affairs of his office in a faultless fashion.

Mr. Martin was born in Paris, Texas, July 25, 1881, son of Robert D. and Eliza D. (Geron) Martin, the former a native of Mis- souri and the latter of Arkansas. His father moved to Texas during the Civil war, and lived there until his death, in April, 1907, aged fifty-five years. After receiving his edu- cation in the public schools of Paris, A. D. Martin became bookkeeper for a mercantile firm of that town, and was thus employcd until his removal to Oklahoma. In April, 1904, he married Miss Josie Spiers, of Paris, a daughter of S. S. Spiers of that place. They have one daughter, Agnes, born February 27, 1905. Mr. Martin affiliates with the Maccabees and Home Fraternity, and is record keeper of his lodge.

NOAH P. KEENE, M. D. The medical pro- fession of Shawnee numbers among its most talented members Noah P. Keene, who has practiced in Indian Territory and Oklahoma throughout his entire professional career, and his connection with the professional life of Shawnee dates from 1901. He has special- ized his work and has become proficient and well known in the treatment of chronic dis-

eases. He is also at the head of a private sanitarium, one of the leading institutions of the community, splendidly equipped with electric appliances, hot air mediators, electric baths, etc., and where a specialty is made of the cure of rheumatism, paralysis, lumbago and chronic diseases.

Dr. Keene is a native son of the Lone Star state of Texas, born on the 5th of Jan- uary, 1860. His father, Samuel L. Keene, a native of Missouri, went to Texas when a young man and in time became a prominent factor in its public life. For eighteen years he served as a justice of the peace, and for many years was a prominent and well known minister in the Missionary Baptist church. He married Miss H. E. Hawkins, born in the same state as her husband.

After completing his education in the pub- lic schools of Texas, Dr. Noah P. Keene be- came a contractor, and continued as such for ten years. Desiring to change his activities from a business to a professional life he at the close of that period became a student in the medical department of the University of Kentucky at Louisville, and in 1901 gradu- ated from the Barnes Medical College of St. Louis. Previous to entering that institution, however, he had practiced in Indian Terri- tory, and after his graduation he came to Shawnee, where he has followed a general practice, but at the same time has specialized and has become particularly proficient in the cure of chronic diseases.

In 1879 Dr. Keene married Miss Cornelia C. Walford, who died in 1899, after becom- ing the mother of the following children: Oliver H., born February 15, 1885; Laura D., December 20, 1889 ; Hampton L., Febru- ary 27, 1891; Nora B., September 11, 1893; and Ethel P., September 25, 1896. Cluster D., born December 19, 1901, and Hazel M., August 9, 1905, are the children of his sec- ond marriage, to Mattie Iola Adams, Sep- tember 24, 1900. Dr. Keene is a member of the Missionary Baptist church.

JAMES H. ODLE. Numbered among the efficient educators of Oklahoma is Professor Odle, in charge of the United States govern- ment school at Shawnee, more commonly known as the Old Mission school. He as- sumed this professorship in February of 190, and has brought the school to a high grade of excellence.

Professor Odle was born at Excelsior Springs, Clay county, Missouri, in 1873, a son of one of the early settlers there, Henry

HISTORY OF THE STATE OF OKLAHOMA.

Odle, who was born in Indiana and is of German ancestry. With his wife, nee Anna Mccullough, he is now living in Kansas, a retired farmer. Mrs. Odle was born in South Carolina, and they are members re- spectively of the Masonic order and of the Methodist Episcopal church. Of their seven children, four sons an 1 three daughters, J. H. Odle was the sixth born, and on the old family homestead in Kansas he developed his fine physique and attained to mature years. He attended the first county high school organized in Kansas or even in the United States, located in Dickinson county, and after his graduation there he became a teacher and taught for several years. But leaving the school room he began work in the railroad shops at Chapman, Kansas, where he remained for a year, and later, in 1904, he was the candidate on the Demo- cratic ticket for the office of clerk of the district court of Dickinson county. Al- though he was unsuccessful in the race he polled more votes than any man on his tick- et. A short time after this he successfully passed the civil service examination, and on the 11th of Januarv, 1907, accepted the pro- fessorship of the United States government school in Shawnee. He is a scholar of more than ordinary ability, and is an enthusiastic believer in education for the people.

At the age of twenty-four, in Hutchinson, Kansas, Professor Odle was married to Nel- ly Anderson, who also taught before her marriage, and she is a daughter of B. and Irene Anderson. The two children of this union are Alpha E. and Alta M. Professor Odle is a popular member of the Knights of Pythias order here, and in addition to fill- ing all of the offices in his local lodge he has represented the order in the Grand Lodge. In 1908 he joined the Masonic lodge of Shawnee. His religious affiliations are with the Baptist church.

WILLIAM S. CADE, who has practiced at the bar of Oklahoma since 1903, is a native son of Ohio, born on the 27th of January, 18449, and in the Southwestern Normal School at Lebanon, that state, he received his literary training. He then began the study of law at Ann Arbor, Michigan, and was admitted to the bar of the supreme court of Ohio in 1875. During the first three years of his professional life, from 1875 until 1879, Mr. Cade practiced in Pomeroy, Ohio, and at the close of that period removed to Anthony, Kansas, where he continued his practice for

twenty-three years. It was in 1903 that he established his home in Shawnee and was admitted to the supreme court of Oklahoma. In 1907 he was appointed the postmaster of the city, for he has always been a stanch Republican, and from 1883 to 1885 served as the probate judge at Anthony, Kansas. For years he was a member of the state Re- publican committee.

In 1883 Mr. Cade was married to Lizzie Hagenbuch, born in Pennsylvania, and their two children are Boyd M. and Lavina. The son is the cashier of the State Bank at Meek- er, Oklahoma, and the daughter is now Mrs. Templeton and a resident of Shawnee. Mr. Cade is a Mason, a past master of Anthony « lodge of Kansas and also of Shawnee lodge, and his religious affiliations are with the Presbyterian church. He was a "mighty hunter" during the early days of the south- west, spending three months of each year for many years hunting in Oklahoma and Indian Territory, and many an elk, antelope and other game fell before his trusty rifle. In those days the Indians inhabited this re- gion of country, with a few cattlemen scat- tered here and there, and his retentive mem- ory is replete with pleasant reminiscences of his hunting adventures, making him an in- teresting and entertaining conversationalist.

HENRY THOMAS DOUGLAS became presi- dent of the Shawnee National Bank in 1900. One of the ablest financiers of Oklahoma, he has directed the affairs of this well known institution in a way to win the confidence of all the depositors and the business inter- ests of this vicinity. The banking business has been his life work since he was twenty- one years old. He was born in Windsor, Henry county, Missouri, March 6, 1867, be- longing to one of the oldest families of that section of Missouri. His grandfather, James Douglas, moved to Henry county in 1833. The father, H. T. Douglas, Sr., who was born in Howard county, Missouri, passed sixty years of his life in Henry county as a farmer, and died there November 17, 1905, in his eightieth year. He married, in 1842, in Henry county, Catherine Parks Painter, a native of Hopkinsville, Kentucky, and she is still living, aged seventy-four. Of the parents' family of five boys and five girls, seven are living.

As one of these children, Henry T. Doug- las grew up at Windsor, attending the grade and high schools of that town, and at the age of twenty-one became a clerk in the

HISTORY OF THE STATE OF OKLAHOMA.

Windsor Savings Bank. A year later he moved to St. Jo, Texas, and his energy and ability quickly promoted him to the presi- dency of the Bank of St. Jo, remaining at its head for eight years when, in 1900, he came to Shawnee. Besides his banking con- nections at Shawnee, he is also owner of much real estate, and is identified with the best civic and business interests of the city. Fraternally, he is a Mason, a member of the Shrine at Oklahoma City and the Consistory at Guthrie, and also affiliates with the Elks, the Knights of Pythias and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. In 1896 he married Miss Mary Frances Belcher, a native of Mis- souri. Her father has for many years been a prominent resident of Belcherville, Texas. Three children have been born of their mar- riage: Edward, August 17, 1900; Henry Thomas, Jr., July 2, 1902 ; Donald Aydelotte, June 10, 1906.

GEORGE W. ALLEN is counted among the veterans of the great Civil war, who found his way after the close of that struggle, into the wilds of the southwestern country, where he still resides, an honored citizen. He was a native of Sullivan county, Missouri, where he was born, March 3, 1847. His father, Major William Allen, (descended from the celebrated Ethan Allen) commanded a bat- talion in the Mexican war. His father (the grandfather of George W.) had been a slave owner in Kentucky, though William Allen was opposed to slavery and refused to ac- cept any slaves from his father. Major Al- len engaged as a farmer in northern Mis- souri, where he owned a considerable tract of land. He died there in 1860, a highly respected citizen ; he was an intimate friend of General Sterling Price, of Missouri.

Our subject's mother was Sarah Worley, born in Ohio, where her family were early settlers. The father, Major Allen, was a Baptist preacher, as well as a soldier and farmer, and they had a large family. Three of the sons were soldiers in the Union army and one son, Colonel Thomas Allen, raised a regiment of troops in California and march- ed them to Texas for the Confederate army. George W. Allen of this sketch, was reared on a farm in Missouri and at the age of six- teen years, enlisted in April, 1863, as a mem- ber of Company A, Twenty-third Missouri Infantry. This regiment had met with heavy losses at Shiloh and had returned to recruit up its ranks once more, Colonel W. P. Robinson and acting captain, WV. O. Sea-

man, having charge of the regiment. They went to the front and were with General McPherson at the time he was killed and took part in all the campaigns around to the Carolinas, and back to take part in the Grand Review at Washington, District of Columbia, in June, 1865. Mr. Allen was dis- charged at Benton Barracks, St. Louis, Mis- souri, escaping with a scalp and thigh wound. After his return from the service, he learned the cabinet makers' and the car- riage and wagon makers' trades. He went to California and from there to Shawnee, Oklahoma Territory, in 1896, when the place was but a small village built mostly of cot- tonwood lumber.

Mr. Allen was united in marriage at the age of twenty years to Martha Matkins, who died at Leavenworth, Kansas, leaving four children, two of whom are now living: Arthur M., of New Mexico and Alice Call, of Missouri. The deceased are William A., who died aged thirty-five years, in Oklaho- ma, and Lola M., who died when she was twenty-five years old. His present wife was before marriage Zeruiah Schenck, a native of Indiana, daughter of Rev. John Schenck, a native of Ohio, but for many years a minis- ter of the Baptist (old school) church, in Kansas. The family now occupy a good house, on a three-acre plot of ground, with a good orchard, the same being on South McKinley street. Originally, George W. Allen was a Douglas Democrat. He very naturally finds a place within the ranks of the Grand Army of the Republic and counts his friends, both within the veteran and civil ranks, by the legion.

SCOTT GLEN. Throughout his entire life, Scott Glen has taken a deep interest in edu- cational matters, and his scholarly attain- ments and broad intelligence have promoted the interests and advanced the intellectual status of Shawnee, which he is now serving as the superintendent of schools. He en- tered upon the duties of that office in 1905 when the schools were under the supervision of about forty teachers, while at the present time they number eighty, his administration showing an increase of forty instructors.

Mr. Glen was born in Jasper county, Illi- nois, December 26, 1876, a son of Alfred and Mary (Scott) Glen, natives respectively of Indiana and Ohio. The father moved to Illı- nois before the opening of the Civil war and engaged in farming, and his death occurred in that state in 1888, aged forty-nine years.

HISTORY OF THE STATE OF OKLAHOMA.

The public schools of Indiana and Illinois furnished Scott Glen with his elementary training, and his higher education was re- ceived in the Universities of Indiana and Chicago. He left the school room as a stu- dent only to enter it immediately as a teach- er, following the profession in Kentucky, Illinois and Indiana, and in August, 1901, he came to Shawnee and resumed his edu- cational labors here. In 1905 he was made the superintendent of the city schools of Shawnee. He is a member of the Modern Woodmen of America.

JUDGE WILLIAM S. PENDLETON, a promi- nent attorney of Shawnee and well known at the bar of Oklahoma, was born in Warren county, Tennessee, a son of Edmund and Sarah (Smartt) Pendleton, natives respec- tively of North Carolina and Tennessee. Edmund Pendleton was a member of a prominent old family of Virginia, of En- glish descent, and they established their home in the Old Dominion state before the period of the Revolutionary war. During the boyhood days of his son William, Mr. Pendleton moved to Texas, but after his death the mother returned with her family to Tennessee and the lad, William, attended the public schools there and also graduated from the Manchester College, where he was a student under WV. D. Carnes, a noted edu- cator of the South. For a short time after leaving college he taught school, but obey- ing a desire to become a member of the legal profession he studied law and was admitted to the bar in Tennessee. But shortly after this event he moved to Texas and practiced in Ft. Worth for a number of years, finally coming to Tecumseh and has since been in continuous practice in Pottawatomie coun- ty. It was in 1894 that he first came to Oklahoma, and in 1898 he became a resident of Shawnee. While in Tecumseh he was in partnership with W. M. Melton and later with D. B. Madden. In 1900 he was elected the probate judge and served for one term, and then resuming private practice he in 1905 became associated with W. N. Mab- en and remained with him until Mr. Mab- en's election to the office of district judge. He is now the senior member of the firm of Pendleton, Abernethy & Howell, one of the foremost legal firms of the county. Mr. Pendleton is a Democrat politically, but has never been a seeker after official honors.

His first marriage was to Miss L. Belle Shelton, of Ft. Worth, Texas, from whom

he was divorced in 1890. There are four children by this marriage. His second wife, nee Adelaide Cullen, died in 1906, and on the 30th of October, 1907, he married Miss Rosa C. Prather, a daughter of Samuel Prather, who was born in Iowa.

ALLEN J. CAMMACK. One of the leading real estate firms of Shawnee is Cammack and Yerrick, the senior member of which is Allen J. Cammack, an enterprising business man who located in Shawnee in 1905. From the railroad train service he has transferred his attention with much success to a business in which there is great rivalry in this new state, and the firm has a large and profitable clientage in real estate, loans and insurance.

Mr. Cammack was born in Clarkesville, Tennessee, August 3, 1866, a son of Albert and Florence (Johnson) Cammack, the for- mer a native of Louisiana and the latter of Clarkesville. The father died in 1906 aged seventy-three, and the mother in 1903. The former was for many years a merchant, en- gaged in business in New Orleans, Louisi- ana. Allen J. Cammack spent his youth largely in New Orleans, where he obtained an education in the well known educational institution, Tulane University. When he left school his constitution was too delicate to engage in any of the professional activities or in confining business, and having been advised to seek outdoor employment, he found it in the railway train service, which he began in Alabama. His health improved so much in this work that he continued at it until 1905, being employed in running a pas- senger train on the Louisville & Nashville Railroad until he came to Shawnee. Mr. Cammack married Mrs. Muncie O. Porter, of Trenton, Tennessee. Fraternally he is connected with the Masonic order, being a Shriner, and is a member of the Episcopal church.

JOHN ANDERSON, JR., is prominently con- nected with the United States Government Indian Industrial School at Shawnee in the capacity of the agricultural teacher and as the manager of the farm. His family were among the first to locate in Pottawatomie county, they being of French and Indian blood, and he received his government ap- pointment in August of 1902. The farm under his supervision has become very valu- able, well improved and well stocked with a high grade of cattle, horses and Poland China hogs. In addition he owns a well improved

JOHN ANDERSON

HISTORY OF THE STATE OF OKLAHOMA.

farm of his own, and is a practical and pro- gressive agriculturist.

Mr. Anderson was born at St. Mary's, Pot- tawatomie county, Kansas, on the 10th of October, 1871. His father, also named John, was born in Peoria county, Illinois, descend- ing from French and Pottawatomie Indian blood, and after the Black Hawk war his race left Illinois and went to Iowa on the Des Moines river, while later they contin- ued on to Pottawatomie county, Kansas, where John Anderson, Sr., was married to Elizabeth Hardin, who was born near Chica- go and was also of the Pottawatomie race of Indians. They continued to reside in Kansas until their removal to Oklahoma in 1871, making the journey with teams and wagons and located near the Mission Farm in Pottawatomie county, where Mr. Ander- son still resides. For twenty-five years he was a government blacksmith, and his res- idence here antedates many years the advent of the railroad. His family numbered twelve children, all of whom received Indian allotments, and the ten now living are Charles E., Julia, Mary, John, Jr., Thomas, Elizabeth, Margaret, Rosetta, Elizabeth, and Irene. Two are deceased, as is also the wife and mother, who died here at the age of fifty-six years. Mr. Anderson is now living retired, after many years devoted to farm- ing, the cattle business and the black- smith's trade. He is a member of the Ma- sonic fraternity.

Although a native born son of Kansas, John Anderson, Jr., was reared in the ter- ritory of Oklahoma, and attended in his youth the early schools here, when the teacher "boarded around." At the age of twenty-one he was married to Sophie Mil- ler, who was born in Germany, but when she was a girl of twelve she came to the United States and joined her brother, the Rev. Frederick Miller, a Presbyterian minis- ter, at Kamrar, Iowa. Her parents, Mat- thew and Elizabeth Miller, are living in Ger- many. Mr. and Mrs. Anderson have three children,-George Albert, Elizabeth and Ben Nathan. Mr. Anderson is both a Ma- son and a Republican, and he and his wife are members of the Quaker religion.

AUSTIN M. COFFIN is a prominent factor in the business and political life of Oklaho- ma, and as an expert assayer is extensively associated with its mining interests. He is a representative of a family from the moth- er country of England, Tristram Coffin hav-

ing been the first of the name to come to the United States. The family in time became owners of the Island of Nantucket, and to- day own a large portion of it. John Coffin, the grandfather of Austin M., was born on the island, and from North Carolina he went to Indiana and purchased land on which a part of Indianapolis now stands and also where the monument to the veterans of '61 stands. He afterward sold the land and the deed is now in the possession of his grand- son. His son, Z. W. Coffin, was born in Indiana, as was also his wife, Josephine New, and she was of German descent. They moved to Missouri in 1874.

Austin M. Coffin was born in Greenfield, Indiana, August 14, 1871, and was therefore a boy of three years when his parents moved to Missouri, receiving his education in its public schools and the Missouri Wesleyan University, where he gave special attention to the study of English, surveying and chemistry and received the degree of A. B. With this excellent training to serve as the foundation for his life work he began as- saying and geological surveying in Kansas City, but a short time afterward was obliged to give up the work on account of the weak condition of his eyes. For two years he was engaged in railroad work with the Santa Fe and Rock Island companies, and in 1897 came to Shawnee, Oklahoma, to embark in the real estate business, but finally drifting into mining his excellent knowledge of as- saying led to his selection as the secretary of the Shawnee & Kyhaco Copper Mining Company. He is also the vice-president of the Shawnee Wyoming Copper Mining Company, both of Wyoming. While active- ly associated with business life he has been equally as active in political matters, and while in Missouri he was a delegate in 1896 to the Prohibition National Convention from the Fourth district, and in the same year and from the same district was a delegate to the Democratic National Convention.

Mr. Coffin married, in 1906, Miss Florence Fay Roberts, born in Columbus, Georgia, a daughter of James E. and Mary (Tocson) Roberts. James E. Roberts was the vice- president of the Illinois Central Railroad Company. Mr. Coffin is a member of the Odd Fellows fraternity, and has filled all the offices and is the present great sachem of the Independent Order of Red Men. His religious connections are with the Methodist church.

HISTORY OF THE STATE OF OKLAHOMA.

ROBERT H. HAGAR. Everybody in Pot- tawatomie county knows "Uncle Bob" Ha- gar, who almost since the opening of the Oklahoma country has been a familiar and prominent figure in political and business affairs. Since 1903 he has been engaged in the real estate and insurance business with J. H. Robertson, as the firm of Hagar and Robertson. Mr. Hagar came to Oklahoma at the opening in 1889, and located land that is now comprised within the fair grounds at Guthrie.

In 1891, having traded his Guthrie prop- erty, he took a claim seven miles north of the present city of Shawnee, and the follow- ing year removed to the little settle- men that had started under the Indian name of Shawnee. Mr. Hagar testifies that at the time of his arrival not a fence post had been driven, nor a house built, nor a furrow turned in the re- gion now contiguous to the prosperous city. He was one of the first to improve the

acres of his claim, and from the first was actively identified with the civic and busi- ness life of his community. In 1893, by which time Shawnee had about two hun- dred people, he was elected a county com- missioner. In August of that year, Govern- or Renfrow appointed him sheriff of Grant county, in the northern part of the territory, and he served two years in that newly opened country. His term of service was marked by the troubles incident to the build- ing of railroads through that portion of Ok- lahoma, when bridges were blown up and much property destroyed in the dissensions between residents and corporations. On the expiration of his term he returned to his farm in Pottawatomie county, and has since lived in this county without interruption. In 1903 the citizens showed their confidence in his substantial devotion to the public in- terests by electing him county commission- er, and in 1906 he was re-elected for another three-year term. In every phase of a busy career he has shown himself to be honest, loyal to friends and true to the people's in- terests, and is the type of man of which every community is proud. In the develop- ment of the real estate interests of Shawnee he has erected some fine houses, and has taken a public-spirited part in other move- ments for the improvement of the city. He is also proprietor of a livery business in Shawnee.

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A history of the state of Oklahoma, Volume II, Part 2

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