USA > Oklahoma > A history of the state of Oklahoma, Volume II > Part 20
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ty, Oklahoma, in August, 1907. He mar- ried, in Jasper county, Missouri, in 1861, Sarah McReynolds, who is now living in Davis, Oklahoma. Twelve children were born of their marriage, namely: Alonzo, of Medford, Oregon; Pauline, who married A. J. Hackney, died at St. Joseph, Missouri, leaving a family ; William P., of Mill creek, Oklahoma; I. W., of Fairbury, Nebraska; Thomas H., of this review; Rena, wife of T. R. Wilson, of Lexington, Oklahoma ; Birdie, wife of S. F. Echols, of Tishomingo; and John, of Davis. Four others died in infancy.
Beginning life for himself with no other assets than his native industry, courage and physical strength, Thomas H. Slover has squarely met, and satisfactorily congnered, all obstacles crossing his pathway. Going to Cooke county, Texas, in 1888, he was there for some time employed as an engineer, having control of a stationary engine. Com- ing to Oklahoma in 1895, he located at Pal- mer, and subsequently became head of the firm of Slover & House, cotton ginners, Mr. House furnishing the cash which started the business, while Mr. Slover's engineering ex- perience gave him his important position. Locating in Davis in 1896, the firm built a gin, and Mr. Slover has since resided here. On the death of Mr. House, in 1900, he ac- quired full control of the business, and is also interested in other gins, owning one at Sulphur, and having a half interest in one at Prague, Oklahoma, where it is operated under the firm name of Francis & Co., and, likewise, a half interest in one at Mill creek, the firm name there being Slover & Slover. He is carrying on an extensive business in these gins, in the year 1907 having handled over eight thousand, five hundred bales of cotton. He has been an intelligent and strenuous worker, and during the compara- tively few years since he came to Oklahoma has accumulated a competency. He had but thirty-five dollars in cash when he formed a partnership with Mr. House, the contents ·of his trunk having been of doubtful value, containing wearing apparel adapted to the needs of a working-man, but not of the so- ciety-man.
In 1907 Mr. Slover, with characteristic foresight and enterprise, took advantage of the situation, and built the Davis Electric plant. This plant, having a capacity of eighteen hundred lights, is of the most high- ly approved modern pattern, and is operated
with power obtained from the boilers of his gin. For a number of years, Mr. Slover was a stockholder in the First National Bank of Davis, and is one of the promoters, and the vice-president, of the First State Bank of Davis.
In Cooke county, Texas, on March 16, 1905, Mr. Slover married Grace, daughter of Rev. A. W. Richardson and wife, Idaline (Owen) Richardson. The union of Mr. and Mrs. Slover has been blessed by the birth of two children, Gordon Francis and Edith Margaret. For three years Mr. Slover served in the common council of Davis, in that capacity aiding in installing the muni- cipal water plant. Fraternally he is a mem- ber of the Knights of Pythias, and of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows.
DAN J. KENDALL has been mayor of Sul- phur continuously since 1901, having been elected to the office six times. He has the honor of having been the town's chief exe- cutive during the period of its really remark- able growth. For several years Sulphur oc- cupied an obscure position among the towns of the Chickasaw Nation, being without rail- road connections and the commercial cen- ter of only a relatively small and thinly set- tled country. With the building of the Santa Fe branch from Davis to Scullin came a new era. The sulphur and bromide springs in the neighborhood at once became active resources in the growth of the town, and Sulphur is now famous as a resort and for the curative properties of its mineral waters. At the same time new capital and enterprise came, and the result is that since 1903 Sulphur has experienced a splendid growth, evidenced in its good business blocks, hotels and town improvements. The city adjoins the Platt National Park, which was segregated by the government in 1903 and is maintained under federal control, forming a permanent valuable asset for the city. In 1907, with the creation of Murray county, Sulphur was made the county seat -another boom for this flourishing center. All this growth and development has taken place during Mayor Kendall's administra- tion, and as a progressive and public-spirited official he has done much to create this prog- ress.
By profession Mr. Kendall is a lawyer and enjoys a large practice at Sulphur and ad- joining towns. He is one of the oldest citi- zens of the southwest, and has been identi- fied with its varied history by many chang-
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ing experiences of an active career. Born in Morgan county, Kentucky, in 1846, at the age of thirteen he accompanied his parents to Texas and became a resident of Denton county during the frontier period in that portion of North Texas. At the age of six- teen, in 1862, he enlisted at Dallas in Com- pany F, Thirty-fourth Texas Cavalry, and was in the Trans-Mississippi service of the Confederate army until the close of the war, being in Louisiana, Arkansas, Texas, through all the Red River campaign, in- cluding the battles of Yellow Bayou, Pleas- ant Hill and Mansfield. His family made a remarkable record in the Confederate cause, he being the youngest of six brothers who fought for the stars and bars. Three of them were with John H. Morgan, the noted ranger, in his raid through Ohio, where they were all three captured and, later, one of the brothers was killed while in Morgan's serv- ice. For fourteen years following the war, Dan J. Kendall was a deputy sheriff and a sheriff in Denton county. In those years such an office in northern Texas meant serv- ice as dangerous as that on the field of war, and Mr. Kendall belongs to the number of well known criminal officers who served during the "Rawhide" days of Texas his- tory, during the worst period of Indian dep- redations, and dealing constantly with the roughest characters of the southwest. His career also includes, following his service as sheriff, several years' experience as com- mercial traveler, during which time he kept his home at Denton. In the '90s he removed to Ardmore, Indian Territory, and from there in 1899 became a citizen of Sulphur.
At the outbreak of the Spanish-American war, Mr. Kendall recruited and organized a troop of Rough Riders at Ardmore, and this troop was incorporated in the famous regiment of Rough Riders under Colonels Wood and Roosevelt, being officialy known as Troop M, First Volunteer Cavalry. Mr. Kendall himself on account of age could not be accepted for active service. His activity in this connection is one of the many strik- ing instances of the union of the blue and the gray. Mr. Kendall was first married in Denton county, Texas, to Miss Noovella Norton, a native of Pike county, Missouri. She died in Denton county, leaving a son, Horace Kendall, who is a resident of Ard- more. The present Mrs. Kendall was be- fore her marriage Mattie L. Lockhart, a native of Alabama.
DR. JOHN T. WIGGINS, successfully prac- ticing at Sulphur as a physician and sur- geon is one of the prominent residents of the southwest now serving as departnicht com- mander of the Trans-Mississippi Depart- ment of the United Confederate Veterans. He was born at Rusk, Texas, in 1862, a son of Captain John T. Wiggins, a native of North Carolina, who arrived in Texas in 1852, establishing his home at Rusk, in Cherokee county. He was a Confederate soldier of distinction and commanded Con1 - pany I of the Tenth Texas Cavalry. He still survives and is yet a resident of Rusk. His wife was Mrs. Mary (Armstrong) Wiggins, who had seven brothers, members of the medical fraternity, while Captain Wiggins had two brothers who were physicians, while two uncles of Dr. John T. Wiggins by mar- riage were also connected with the medical profession. This close ancestral association may have had something to do with the Doctor's choice of a profession but it also seems that nature intended him for this call- ing as lie possesses the requisite, natural qualities that lead to success, combined with the ambition that prompts one to reach the highest degree of proficiency possible in a given field of labor.
Spending his boyhood days in the city of his nativity, Dr. Wiggins at the usual age entered the public schools and was promoted through consecutive grades until he com- pleted the course by graduation from the high school. He qualified for his profes- sional career as a student in the Missouri Medical College at St. Louis, from which he was graduated in 1885. He has remained throughout his connection with the medical profession in close touch with the progress. that is being made by its representatives and is thus continually broadening his knowledge and promoting his efficiency. He located for practice at Rusk, where he re- mained in the successful prosecution of his chosen calling until February, 1908, save for a brief period of two years spent in Balling- er, Texas. He was for eighteen years local surgeon for the Cotton Belt Railroad at Rusk. Desirious of attaining the highest degree of perfection possible in his chosen field of labor, he has pursued post-graduate courses of study in St. Louis and in New Orleans and has also added to his knowledge through the interchange of thought and ex- perience among the members of the Amer- ican Medical Association and the National
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Association of Railway Surgeons, with both of which he is connected.
While living in Texas, Dr. Wiggins was married to Miss Dona Redman, of Mason, that state, and they now have three daugh- ters, Mary, who is a graduate of the high school and of Baptist College at Rusk, Tex- as, and in 1908 was appointed chief maid of honor of the Texas division for the annual Confederate reunion at Birmingham, Ala- bama; and Ruby and Nellie, at home. The family is prominent socially, the members of the household occupying an enviable po- sition in social circles where true worth and intelligence are received as passports into good society.
Dr. Wiggins while residing in Cherokee county was prominent in political circles. He served both as precinct and county chair- man and was a delegate from his Congres- sional district to the Democratic and nation- al convention which nominated William Jen- nings Bryan at Kansas City. While he has attained more than local distinction as a physician and surgeon he is perhaps best known throughout the south for his prom- inence in connection with the United States Confederate Veterans. In 1902 he was ap- pointed brigade commander in Texas and following this was appointed assistant sur- geon general of the south. In 1907 he was honored by the appointment of department commander of the Trans-Mississippi De- partment, which embraces the states of Tex- as, Arkansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, Colorado and California. In March, 1908, he estab- lished headquarters of the Trans-Mississippi Department at Sulphur, Oklahoma, his new home, to which he removed from Rusk in February. Here he is now pleasantly lo- cated and in addition to his general practice he is owner, in partnership with Dr. C. C. Sims, of Sulphur Sanitarium. He did not come to this city unheralded, for in fact he was well known throughout the southwest and has already attained local prominence and success here in connection with his pro- fessional interests.
GEORGE C. FRIER is closely associated with the improvement of Sulphur in his capacity as a contractor and builder and property owner. He possesses a spirit of enterprise that enables him to overcome difficulties that would be considered almost insurmountable obstacles by men of less resolute spirit and determination. His birth occurred in Polk county, Florida, in 1867, and there he spent
his boyhood days, acquiring his early educa- tion in its public schools and afterward con- tinuing his studies at Kissimmee in Osceola county. His literary education completed, he learned the trades of a plasterer and brick layer and followed those pursuits in Atlanta, Chattanooga, Victoria, Texas, and other cit- ies of the south. He dates his arrival in Ok- lahoma from 1893, in which year the Chero- kee strip was opened and after living for a short time in the city of Oklahoma he re- moved to Tecumseh, the county seat of Pot- tawatomie county. There he engaged in the plastering business, which he also followed at Shawnee. In 1904 he removed to his pres- ent home in Sulphur and has taken a prom- inent part in the extensive building opera- tions that have transformed a village into a city of considerable size and importance. Here he has carried on business as a contrac- tor and builder, making a specialty of the erection of public buildings, including schoolhouses, churches and business blocks. Under his supervision the work is executed in expert manner and gives general satis- faction. He has also erected some valuable business property on his own account in Sul- phur notably the Palace Hotel on East Sec- ond street, which is a three-story brick struc- ture, one of the best buildings in the town. Of this he is still the owner and from it de- rives a good annual income.
Mr. Frier was married to Miss Elenore Hanson, and they have three children, Clar- ence, Maud and Goul. Fraternally Mr. Frier is connected with the Odd Fellows. He is prominent in community affairs and is now representing the second ward in the city council, exercising his official prerogatives in support of various measures for the pub- lic good. In his business he holds to high ideals, exemplifving commendable traits in his trade transactions with his fellowmen.
WILLIAM J. WILLIAMS. With a number of important interests which have contribut- ed to the development of Oklahoma and the southwest, William J. Williams, now a capi- talist of Sulphur, has been closely associated and in the acquirement of personal success he has also labored for general progress. He was born near Knoxville, in Knox coun- ty, Tennessee, in 1852. Five years later the family removed to Montgomery county, Illi- nois, settling on a farm on which William J. Williams was reared. In February, 1876, when a young man of about twenty-four years, he went to Texas, settling first at
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Sherman, where he remained for about a year, when in April, 1877, he removed to Henrietta, Clay county. There he became connected with farming and cattle interests, continuing his residence there for eighteen years. When he left the Lone Star state in 1895 he came to the Chickasaw Nation in the Indian Territory, removing with him a bunch of cattle and settling at Sulphur, then a small and inconsequential town, on the 3d of July. Not long after his arrival he disposed of his cattle interests, believing the opportunity offered for more profitable business interests in other lines. He had been a well known cattle man in Texas for several years and was one of the organizers of the Northwest Texas Live Stock Associ- ation at Henrietta.
Following his arrival in Sulphur Mr. Wil- liams engaged extensively in the livery bus- iness. Even in those early days Sulphur at- tracted numerous visitors in the summer season and Mr. Williams had a hack con- tract with the Santa Fe Railroad for haul- ing passengers from Davis. When the Fris- co Railroad was completed through Scullin in 1901 he had a similar contract with that company and operated both hack lines until the railroad was built to Sulphur in 1903. He is still the owner of a livery business, which is conducted under the name of the Sulphur Livery Company. In all that he has undertaken he has displayed an aptitude for successful management, seemingly util- izing every opportunity to the best possible advantage and making few if any mistakes in business judgment.
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Mr. Williams has achieved prominence as a capitalist in developing some of the rich natural resources of Oklahoma, particularly in asphalt and grahamite. He put in opera- tion the Brunswick asphalt mines near Dougherty, which he afterward sold and subsequently acquired his present holdings in asphalt lands which lie between the Brunswick and Gilson mines in Murray county. In the ownership and development of these properties he is associated with cap- italists of New York and Philadelphia. He also owns large holdings of land east of Stringtown in Atoka county, containing val- uable deposits of grahamite, which he is min- ing and has already begun the manufacture of roofing material from this product. For about five years he made his home in Dough- erty but returned to Sulphur in 1907.
On the 19th of January, 1876, in Mont- gomery county, Illinois, Mr. Williams was united in marriage to Miss Frances I. Dun- can, and unto them have been born twelve children : Cora, Bird, Maud, Walter, Claude, Virgie, Jessie, Ida, Duncan, Robert, Mary and Anna Lee. Mr. Williams enjoys an influential acquaintance throughout the southern and eastern part of the state and his opinions and views have carried weight in regard to the consideration of matters of public moment. In the constitutional con- vention his suggestions concerning the boundary lines of the proposed county of Murray were adopted and carried out. His ideas upon matters of county and state pol- icy are practical and in all matters of citi- zenship he is deeply interested. In his bus- iness career his success is largely attributa- ble to the fact that he has noted and utilized opportunities which others have passed by heedlessly. The rich deposits of graham- ite and asphalt contained in this territory opened to him a field of possibility for profi- table development and in the conduct of the enterprise he is meeting with splendid suc- cess and at the same time contributing to public prosperity by employment furnished to many workmen and also by placing upon the market articles of much value in the development of the new state.
DR. A. V. PONDER, of Sulphur, has been engaged in the general practice of his pro- fession at that place for the past six years. He was born at Moulton, Lawrence county, Alabama, and was there reared and educat- ed, studying medicine at Nashville Univer- sity and the Missouri Medical College, St. Louis, from the latter of which he graduated in the class of 1876. He had begun practic- ing, however, in his home county, follow- ing his studies at Nashville. Dr. Ponder practiced medicine in Alabama for about twenty years and in 1902 came to Sulphur, which has since been his home and the scene of his professional advancement. Pre- vious to coming to Sulphur he had practiced at Mannsville, Indian Territory, for several years, and established a widely extended and lucrative practice in that portion of the old Indian Territory.
Dr. Ponder is a busy practitioner of med- icine and surgery, and for many years has been looked upon as one of the leaders in his profession. He came to Sulphur at the time when the place was in its infancy and has been one of the prime factors in thel
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growth and development of the city to its present proportions. He is a member of the city council from the Fifth ward, and in numerous ways takes a prominent part in the local affairs. He belongs to the Masons and the Odd Fellows and to the County and State Medical Associations. Married in Al- abama to Miss Bettie R. Williamson, who was born and reared in that state, the Doc- tor has two children :- Mrs. Julia Wiley and Miss Luna Ponder.
CLAY J. WEBSTER. The men who have us- ually made their way to a pioneer district have been those who sought the opportun- ities of tilling the soil and developing farms, but in the opening up of Oklahoma there has been written a new chapter in pioneer progress. While there is much opportunity for the successful conduct of agricultural in- terests there also went into the territory men of marked business enterprise, who made it their purpose to build towns, not along the lines of slow plodding growth but in har- mony with the spirit of modern progress, introducing all the twentieth century im- provements, conveniences and accessories of town building. Mr. Webster, a resident of Sulphur, has been among those who have made it a thoroughly up-to-date city. He was associated with his father in the estab- lishment of the first mercantile house here and is now president of the First National Bank. He was born in Clay county, Texas, in 1872, his parents being J. M. and Annie M. (Ryan) Webster, both of whom are now living in Sulphur. His mother is a native of Alabama and his father of Arkansas. At the time of the Civil war J. M. Webster re- sponded to the call of the Confederacy and joined a Mississippi regiment. After the ces- sation of hostilities he removed to Texas, settling in Clay county, and in 1891 he came with his family to Sulphur, now the county seat of Murray county, Oklahoma. At that time, however, it was but a small settlement in the Chickasaw Nation of the Indian Ter- ritory and his residence had been attracted here by the existence of Sulphur Springs, containing medicinal qualities. In connec- tion with his son, Clay J. Webster, the father established the first mercantile house in the place under the firm style of J. M. Webster & Son. This was located in the old town to the south of the site of the present city of Sulphur-the old town having since been abandoned and made a part of the govern- ment reservation now known as the Platt
National Park. Business was carried on successfully by the firm for some time but was discontinued some years ago, on which occasion the father retired from active con- nection with business affairs.
Clay J. Webster then turned his attention to the banking business and became the founder of the First National Bank of Sul- phur, which was established in 1900. Throughout the entire period of its existence he has remained as its chief executive officer in the position of president. The bank has a capital stock of fifty thousand dollars and a surplus of twenty thousand. The institu- tion has been an extensive feature in con- nection with the varied business and indus- trial interests of Sulphur and with the growth and development of the town and county. The safe, conservative policy in- augurated at the outset has always been maintained and has made it one of the relia- ble institutions, having the full confidence of the general public. Mr. Webster is a man of wide resources and was also one of the or- ganizers and promoters of the railroad that was built in 1903 from Sulphur to Scullin, to connect with the Frisco Railroad, and which was afterward sold to that company. This was Sulphur's first railroad line and was the real stimulus of the subsequent growth and rapid development of the city. It has gained with the passing years a reputation as a na- tional health resort because of the existence of its sulphur springs and its salubrious cli- mate.
Mr. Webster was married in 1902 to Miss Willie B. Derrick, a daughter of a prominent banker. They have three children: Clay Bedford ; and Anna Belle and May Dell, the latter two being twins. In community in- terests Mr. Webster is deeply concerned and his labors have been a resultant force in pro- moting many matters of civic virtue and civ- ic pride. Any movement tending to promote the city's welfare receives his endorsement and his labors in its behalf have been far- reaching and beneficial.
JAMES C. LITTLE. The eighteenth senator- ial district as constituted by the convention in 1890 consists of Murray, Carter and Love counties, comprising a large section of the old Chickasaw Nation, Indian Territory. September 12, 1907, this district elected for its first representative in the upper house of the Oklahoma legislature a young lawyer from Sulphur, a prominent and able member of his profession, a leader in Democratic pol-
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itics in his section of the state, and a fine type of the right kind of young man in pub- lic life. Admitted to the bar in 1902, James C. Little came to Indian Territory in the fall of the same year, and established a law practice at Roff in the Chickasaw Nation. At Roff he was elected city attorney and participated actively in public affairs. In 1905 he moved to his present home in Sul- phur, which, by the subdivision of the Indian Territory into counties, is now the county seat of Murray county. Here he quickly achieved enviable prominence in affairs and in his profession, and his selection as the candidate for senatorial honors was but de- served recognition of his position and his ability.
Senator Little was born October 22, 1817. in Union county, North Carolina, which has been the ancestral abode of the Little family for several generations, and where his par- ents, G. M. and Sareno (Brooks) Little, still live. Reared on a farm, he early sought entrance into vocations that appeal to a young man of intellectual tastes and ambi- tions. While he was growing up, farming was not the profitable occupation in North Carolina that modern methods have made it, nor were the opportunities of the modern industrial development presented to him. School teaching was about the only occupa- tion that led to the broader spheres of activ- ity, and while he was receiving his education he was also engaged part of the time in teaching several school terms in his home county, and in this way partially earned his college education. Mr. Little is a well edu- cated lawyer. After attending the public schools of Union county, he was a student in Union Institute, the Academy at Mar- shall, the Bingham school at Asheville, and at Wake Forest College, the well known Baptist Institution of North Carolina, he pursued his legal studies in addition to the regular literary curriculum, and was gradu- ated from the law department in 1902. being soon after admitted to the bar by the su- preme court of North Carolina.
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