USA > Oklahoma > A history of the state of Oklahoma, Volume II > Part 21
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REV. EVAN DHU CAMERON. In the matter of public education the new state of Oklaho- ma owes much to its first superintendent of public instruction. Rev. Evan Dhu Came- ron, who at the primary election of July, 1907, received the highest vote of all candi- dates for state offices, and was elected with the rest of the Democratic ticket in the fol- lowing September, was territorial superin-
tendent of public instruction in Oklahoma during the administration of Governor Ren- frow, from 1893 to 1897. The results of his administration have been inherited by the new state as a permanent benefit to the pub- lic school system. Having held the office during the formative years of the territory, he became in large degree the formula- tor of the public school system, and the statutes and laws then enacted under his di- rection and influence, will continue, with slight amendment, to govern the public school system of the state.
Though now identified so prominently with educational affairs of Oklahoma, Sup- erintendent Cameron is almost equally well known in the state for his labors in the min- istry, especially in the Baptist church. He is a man of great versatility and intellectual power, and has succeeded in whatever line of efforts to which he has given his time. A member of a prominent North Carolina family, of Highland Scotch ancestry, he was born in Richmond county, North Carolina, in 1862, and was reared in the strict Scotch atmosphere that still prevails in those sec- tions of North Carolina which were settled by the Scotch. His parents were Colonel John W. and Caroline (Crawford-Coving- ton) Cameron. His father, one of the distin- guished men of North Carolina, was a law- yer, a member of the North Carolina legisla- ture, and a successful newspaper man. For several years he was editor of the North Car- olina Argus at Fayetteville, which before the war was the principal organ of the Whig party in North Carolina. He opposed se- cession, but with the actual rupture between the states he joined his fellow citizens and remained loyal to the South, becoming a valued counselor in the legal and official de- partments of the Confederate government. Going back another generation, Rev. Cam- eron's grandfather was Neill Cameron, one of the leaders in his time and community. Cameron Hill and the town of Cameron (thirty miles from Fayetteville) were named for him. He had large interests and was an active citizen.
Evan D. Cameron received an education fitting his career. After studying in Rich- mond Academy at Rockingham and at Trin- ity College, he embraced the law, pursuing his studies in the famous old law school of Judges Dick and Dillard at Greensboro, North Carolina. He was graduated at the age of twenty, in 1881, in the same class
Swords
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with Charles Aycock, who since has become governor and one of the strongest men in North Carolina's public life. Admitted to the bar at Raleigh in 1881, he began practice at Rockingham and at Laurinburg, now the county seat of Scotland county. During his practice as a lawyer, covering a period of seven years, he had resolved to enter the ministry and made active preparations for that profession. In 1889, coming to Texas, he joined the North Texas conference and was assigned to the pastorate of the Metho- dist church at St. Jo, Montague county. He was connected with the North and the North- west Texas conferences two years, and in 1891 joined the Indian Mission confer- ence of the Methodist Episcopal church in Oklahoma, his first charge being at Norman. Afterward he was pastor of St. Luke's church in Oklahoma City, and in churches at El Reno, Muskogee, Paul's Valley, and Chickasha. At Chicka- sha, having joined the Baptist church, he re- ceived an appointment as pastor of the church of that denomination at South McAl- ester, where he remained five years. In 1906 he became pastor of the Baptist church at Sulphur, Murray county, and retained this charge until he resigned to take up the duties of his present office. Mr. Cameron was mar- ried at Henrietta, Texas, to Miss Clara Wil- liams, daughter of Judge B. F. Williams. They have six children, Crawford, Evan Dhu, Donald, Douglas, Ima and Malcolm.
JOSEPH FORSYTH SWORDS, a prominent and influential resident of Sulphur, who has been termed the "father of the Platt National Park" was born in New York City, August 8, 1842, a son of Henry and Mary Forsyth (Smith) Swords. His father was born in Connecticut, which was also his mother's native state, their respective ancestors hav- ing located there in colonial days. In the paternal line Joseph F. Swords is descended from Coronet George Swordes, one of the sixteen hundred and forty-nine officers in the service of King Charles I and II in Ire- land, and one of the proprietors of the town of Swords, a suburb of Dublin. The family, however originated in Normandy, France, where the name was spelled Swordes and where the religious faith was that of the Huguenots.
The founder of the Swords family in America was Francis Dawson Swords, a graduate of Trinity College, Dublin, who on account of his sentiments against the
crown was expatriated. Coming to New London, Connecticut, at the time of the outbreak of hostilities in the mother country, he joined the patriot forces and fought throughout the American war of the Revo- lution. To a man of his liberty loving spirit the attainment of success must have been of the greatest gratification. He married a lineal descendent of Rear Admiral Thomas Graves, who was commissioned admiral by Oliver Cromwell, and who came to America in command of the convoy that brought to the shores of the new world Governor Brad- ford of the Massachusetts colony. Admiral Graves settled at Charlestown and was the founder of Christ Episcopal church of that city.
Captain Thomas Swords, a brother of Francis Dawson Swords, was a captain in the Fifty-fifth British Foot that fought un- der General Abercrombie in Canada. He wedded Mary Morrell of Albany, New York, and settled near Saratoga Springs. The bat- tle of Saratoga was fought on his farm. His descendants have nearly all been prominent in military life, including Major General Thomas Swords, who was Chief Quarter- master General in the Civil war, and Major General James R. Swords of New Jersey.
Joseph F. Swords was reared and educated in New York City and passed the examina- tions for admission to the Free Academy, now the University of the City of New York, but chose instead to enter business life and pursued a commercial course in the same school rather than spend his time upon a classical course. True to his patriotic in- stinct of an ancestry noted for military prowess and for loyalty, he enlisted for serv- ice in the Civil war as a member of Com- pany G, Ninth New York State Militia, in which he rose to the rank of lieutenant. This organization became a part of the Army of the Potomac and Mr. Swords was a partic- ipant in all the great battles in Virginia and Maryland, including the engagements at Wilson's Creek, Spottsylvania, Chancellors- ville, Antietam, Gettysburg and the Shenan- doah Valley campaigns. In all his service comprised three years and three months. He was present at Cold Harbor and in other important engagements where he demon- strated his fidelity to the stars and stripes in the midst of the firing line. That his regiment saw arduous service and was ex- posed to the greatest danger is evidenced by the fact that out of one thousand members
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only ninety were finally mustered out, the others having succumbed to illness, wounds or death.
Mr. Swords, returning home at the close of hostilities, engaged for a time in the in- surance business in New York city and later turned his attention to the newspaper busi- ness, becoming New York correspondent for the Washington National Republican. Sub- sequently he went to Washington, where he took charge of the paper as business man- ager. Secretary of the Navy George M. Robson, and United States Senator William E. Chandler were at that time interested in the ownership of the National Republican, which later was merged with the Washing- ton Post. While in the capital city Mr. Swords was appointed to the consular serv- ice, with which he was connected for three years, establishing the Consulate Sagua la Grande, province of Villa Clara, Cuba. Up- on his return to the United States he settled in Hartford, Connecticut, and engaged ex- tensively in the wholesale coal business, with which he was identified for eighteen years. On account of strenuous labor and close con- finement his health became impaired and through the influence of Senator Platt of Connecticut he was appointed to a position in connection with the survey and apprais- ing of lands for the Dawes Commission in the Indian Territory. This gave him oppor- tunity for outdoor life. Beginning on the 5th of September, 1900, he covered fifteen hundred miles on horseback, traveling prin- cipally through the Chickasaw, Creek and Choctaw Nations. Journeying in this man- ner he became familiar with the springs and the attractive natural surroundings at Sul- phur in the Chickasaw Nation and being impressed with the importance of preserving and improving these under government su- pervision, he recommended that a national park be established at Sulphur. The recom- mendation met with favor in Congress, where the matter was presented by Senator Orville H. Platt and steps were immediately taken for carrying out the project. Mr. Swords assisted in the surveying and laying out of the park, which was begun in 1902 and finished in 1903. It comprises eight hundred and forty-eight acres of land, ad- joining the city of Sulphur and includes among its thirty-six springs the famous sul- phur and bromide springs. The park was named the Platt National Park in lionor of the Connecticut senator who had brought
about the necessary legislation in Congress for its establishment. Mr. Swords, however, has always been known as the father of the park on account of his untiring efforts in getting the matter before Congress and his work in laying it out. It has become a re- sort of wide renown and annually attracts. increasing numbers of admirers and visitors.
Mr. Swords has established his home at Sulphur and spends considerable time in efforts to secure further congressional appro- priations for the improvement of the park which is a project dear to his heart. He has made investments on his own account in the city, principally in residence properties in the eastern part of the town. His wife, Mrs. Emma Alice Swords, nee Walker, is a na- tive of Sweetwater, Tennessee, a descendant of an old Virginia family and previous to. her marriage was engaged in teaching school in Chicago, and Dallas, Texas. Mr. Swords. comes of an ancestry honorable and distin- guished and is fortunate in that his lines of life have been cast in harmony therewith. In personage, in talents and in character he is a worthy scion of his race and in warfare and in days of peace he has been equally loyal to the land of his birth and its inter- ests.
Mr. Swords is a member of the Connecti- cut Society, Sons of the American Revolu- tion, life member Connecticut Historical Society, Vice President for Oklahoma of the American-Irish Historical Society, member of National Geographic Society, member of John A. Rawlin's Post G. A. R. of Washing- ton, D. C. Was first superintendent of Platt National Park, holding such office for three years and eight months.
ISAAC McCOY, a well known merchant in the Sac and Fox Agency, is a Civil war veteran and one of the honored pioneers of Oklahoma of the early days. On first arriving in the territory he located on the North Canadian river where he secured rich bottom lands and was one of the first agri- culturalists there. Born in Franklin coun- ty, Kansas, near Ottawa, in 1842, he is a birthright Ottawa Indian, a son of Samuel and Pauline (Wenn) McCoy, of the Dela- ware and Ottawa races respectively, the father being born in Ohio. The son, Isaac, was reared in Kansas, receiving his educa- tion in the West Point government schools of that state, and during the Civil war he enlisted in the Sixteenth Kansas Volunteer Cavalry and saw active service on the
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Isaac Luc Goy
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western plains and in southwestern Mis- souri and southeastern Kansas. He took part in many hard fought battles under Generals Price and Marmaduke. His mili- tary career covered a period of two and a half years, and he was discharged with an excellent war record.
A few years after returning from the war, in 1871, Mr. McCoy was married to Mary Thort, of the Sac and Fox tribe, and born and reared in Kansas. Her mother was a Fox Indian, and her father, John Jordan, was a white man. The union of Mr. and Mrs. McCoy has been blessed by the birth of four children, two sons and two daughters, Daniel, Rhodie, David and Pauline Lewis. Mrs. McCoy, by a former husband, Thomas Monroe, an attorney, had children as follows: Mrs. Hamblin, near Shawnee in Pottawatomie county, Mrs. D. W. Meek, of East Shawnee, and Mrs. Miles, of Shawnee. Mr. McCoy is numbered among the honored pioneers of Oklahoma, and genial and courteous with all, fair and honorable in his business transactions, he has gained the confidence of all with whom he has had business or social relations and is one of the prominent men of Lincoln county. He is a member of the Grand Army of the Republic.
Isaac McCoy and wife were the first Baptist missionary workers in the Sac and Fox tribe and he was ordained to minis- try in 1875. Meetings were held in their log cabin home. They converted Chief Keokuk and others and it was through Mrs. McCoy's work that they received the mis- sion aid to help them build the first church built in this district, which was in 1876.
WV. C. KOHLENBERG, the United States agent for the Sac and Fox Agency, has been in the government employ for fifteen years, being appointed to his present po- sition on the 12th of November, 1903. He was first stationed at the Winnebago agency in Thurston county, Nebraska, for three months, during three years was employed at Fort Shaw Industrial Training School in Montana, was then at the Tongue River agency at Lame Deer, that state, for seven years, and at the close of that period came to the Sac and Fox Agency in Oklahoma.
When the Sac and Fox Indians came to this agency from Osage county, Kansas, their number was estimated at about nine hundred, but sickness and death has since
depleted their ranks so that they number on- ly about six hundred. The agency was first under the Quaker form of religion, the most popular form of worship during General Grant's presidential administration, and the first government agent was John Picker- ing. He, however, was in charge here for only a short time, and from that time on for a few years the U. S. government in- spectors were in charge. Since then the agency has been under the supervision re- spectively of - Taylor, Mose Neal, Col. Samuel Patrick, General Thomas, Lee Patrick, a son of the Colonel, Ross Guffin and lastly of W. C. Kohlenberg. The gov- ernment and the Indians have expended thousands of dollars in building the office, the three school buildings and the govern- ment residence. The agency is a beautiful little village, six miles from Stroud. The government boarding school, a co-educa- tional institution, numbers ninety pupils, and is under the supervision of several teachers.
Mr. Kohlenberg has proved himself a competent public official, one worthy in every way to discharge the duties of this responsible and arduous position. He was born in Miami county, Kansas, April 16, 1813, his parents having moved to that state from Illinois in 1869, and he is a son of Christopher and Minnie (Schonenran) Kohlenberg, farming people in Miami county. Mr. Kohlenberg is one of their five children, and he received an excellent educational training in the public schools of Kansas and at Chillicothe, Missouri, aft- er which he became a successful teacher. He was married at Helena, Montana, in 1897, to Mary Gibbs, who was born in Scotland. Mr. Kohlenberg is a Scottish Rite Mason and a member of the Knights of Pythias.
Dr. F. W. WYMAN, a physician and sur- geon in the Sac and Fox Agency, is one of the best known physicians in Lincoln county. He has been in the government service since 1887, first in the government post at Jicarilla, New Mexico, for six years, and was then for two years at Leach Lake in the White Earth reserve. From there he came to the Sac and Fox Agency in Lincoln county. He is a graduate of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Keokuk, Iowa, with the class of 1817, and practiced in Keo- kuk and in Lee county for ten years. Since
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the close of that period he has been in the government service as a physician and sur- geon.
Dr. Wyman is a native son of Iowa, born on the 17th of March, 1848, at Bonaparte, Van Buren county. He is a member of a prominent old family of that state and a son of Dr. R. H. Wyman, a New Yorker by birth and for many years a successful phys- ician and surgeon. In 1842 he located in Olney, Illinois, but after a two years' res- idence there went to the then territory of Iowa, settling in Van Buren county. He was one of the early pioneers of that com- munity, and in time became one of the coun- ty's best known and most successful med- ical practitioners. He was a graduate of the old Jefferson Medical College of Penn- sylvania, and during the Civil war he served as a surgeon in the Twenty-first Missouri Infantry, a Union regiment under the com- mand of Colonel Moore. Dr. Wyman, Sr., voted with the Democratic party and was a member of the Episcopal church. His wife bore the maiden name of Susan Moore, and was born and reared in Johnstown, Penn- sylvania. Her death occurred in 1901, when seventy-one vears of age, and she left four children.
Dr. F. W. Wyman, the only son in this family, received an excellent literary train- ing in his youth, and he began the study of medicine under the able instructions of his father. He was married in 1882, in Lee coun- tv. Iowa, to Ida Cooper, who was born, reared and educated in Fort Madison, that state, a daughter of Calvin Cooper, als) from Iowa. The two children of this un- ion are Lura and Flossie, the elder the wife of P. C. Grimm, a banker of the Sac and Fox Agency, and the younger, wife of Professor T. E. Laird, of a normal school in Missou- ri. Mrs. Wyman is a member of the Metli- odist Episcopal church, and the Doctor has fraternal relations with the Masonic Lodge No. 48 of Stroud, and with Lodge No. 106, B. P. O. E., of Keokuk, Iowa.
HON. WALTER WILBERFORCE JONES, a cit- izen of Davenport, Oklahoma, is a uni- versally known and highly respected per- son who has had much to do within the dis- trict described by the state lines of Kansas, Missouri and Oklahoma. He was born in Cass county, Michigan, April 27. 18-45. son of an old pioneer family, his father be- ing William H. Jones, a native of Hardin
county, Kentucky, and a son of Smith Jones, who was a full-blood Pottawato- mie Indian and a pioneer of Kentucky and Michigan. William H. Jones was an officer in the Civil war, holding the rank of captain, under Colonel Williams, of the First U. S. Colored Infantry. Captain Jones was mar- ried in Pendleton, Ind., to Kate Messick and went to Michigan and from there emi- grated to Kansas in 1853, being among the first settlers of Brown county, at the point where now stands Hiawatha. He took part in the Border warfare with old John Brown and was with Colonel James Lane. In that great struggle for freedom in Kansas, as against the slave power, Mr. Jones bore well a conspicuous part and was a personal friend of Samuel H. Kingman and other noted Abolitionists of eastern Kansas. In 1866, Mr. Jones went to Missouri and later to Cal- ifornia, dying at the home of his son, James, in San Benito county, aged seventy-three years. His wife is also deceased.
The son, Hon. Walter W. Jones, was reared on the wild frontier, and only went to school for a few months, but by studying at home acquired a good education and hav- ing chosen the law as a profession, studied and was admitted to the bar. At the time of the Civil war, he was a member of the Sev- enth Kansas Regiment and in such com- mand saw much active service, being honor- ably discharged in 1865 at Leavenworth, Kansas. Politically, Mr. Jones is a Repub- lican of no uncertain type, having possibly inherited some of the principles of this po- litical organization from the father before him. He was elected to the legislature in Missouri, serving in the Fortieth general assembly, having been elected November 8, 1898. He was also elected presidential elec- tor at Poplar Bluffs, Missouri, April 17, 1900, from the Fourteenth congressional district of Missouri. He is a candidate for the office of state Senator from the Thir- teenth senatorial district of Oklahoma.
Mr. Jones was married first, to Laura Wilson, by whom two children were born : Benjamin and Chester. The wife and moth- er died and for his second wife he married Laura A. Roberts, by whom he has four children : Fay, Lottie, George and Walter, Jr.
Of his personal appearance, let it be sub- joined that Mr. Jones is six feet in height.
Richard V Shumaton Nichar
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and weighs two hundred pounds; is frank, candid and possessed of many manly traits of character.
RICHARD SHUNATONA, which means Big Horse in English, the assistant clerk in the Sac and Fox Agency, is a young man of pleasing personality, of excellent promise and worthy of note in a work devoted to the portraying of the lives and character of the representative men of the new state of Oklahoma. He was born on the western plains of Nebraska in the home of his par- ents amid the Ottoe Indians. He is descend- ed from a noted Indian family, and his father's record is that of a great warrior who led his band on to victory in many warlike battles of the plains of the north- west. And he was also one of the first of his race to make a treaty of peace with the government of the United States.
He gave to his son, Richard, an excellent education in the schools of Kay county, Oklahoma, and a two-year course in the state normal at Santa Fe, New Mexico, and he became especially proficient as a book- keeper and penman. He then returned home to Pawnee county, Oklahoma, farm- ing until July, 1908. He is now filling with ability the position of assistant clerk in the Sac and Fox Agency.
Mr. Shunatona was married in 1896 to Jenny Bayhylle of Pawnee, Oklahoma, a pu- pil of the government schools of this state, and they have five children, Jauanita, Jos, Baptiste, Louisa, and Lucy. Mr. Shuna- tona votes with the Democratic party, and both he and his wife are members of the Presbyterian church.
R. W. OPLINGER, the manager of the Farmers' Gin in Prague, is enrolled among the early pioneers of Oklahoma. It was in 1891 that he made the run to this state and secured a homestead six miles northwest of Prague, which he improved and sold and then located in this city. He has had an experience of twelve years in the ginning business, and is therefore fully competent to control and manage the Farmers' Gin, one of the largest institutions of its kind in the county. It was erected in 1907 and is conducted by the Murry process, contain- ing a one hundred and twenty-five horse- power engine, a one hundred and fifty horse- power boiler and is located in a building thirty-six by one hundred and twenty-five
feet. The mill has a capacity of thirty bales a day, and will during the present season of 1908 average an output of two thousand bales of cotton.
The genial and popular proprietor of the Farmers' Gin, R. W. Oplinger, is a native son of the east, born in Luzerne county, Pennsylvania, in 1853, of Pennsylvania German descent and a son of Reuben and Nelly (Worder) Oplinger. During his early life he learned the carpenter's trade, and in 1879 he came to the west and located in Leadville, Colorado, from there going to Grant county, Kansas, and in 1891, as above stated, he came to Oklahoma.
In his old home state of Pennsylvania Mr. Oplinger was married to Mary Lear,
native of that commonwealth and a a daughter of William Lear. They have eight children, three sons and five daughters, namely : C. W., Carrie, Maud, Laura, Myrtle, Gladys, Lloyd and Edward. Mr. Oplinger gives his political support to the Democrat- ic partv, and he is a member of the frater- nal order of Odd Fellows. Mrs. Oplinger is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church.
R. H. HANNAH, M. D., has the distinc- tion of being a pioneer physician and sur- geon of Lincoln county, and one of the most able medical practitioners in Prague. It was in 1896 that he came to the south and sought a home in the new Territory of Okla- homa, enrolling his name among the pioneer physicians of Lincoln county, and he first located at Arlington, and later came to Prague and located his home and practice here. He had been unusually well trained in the science which he had chosen as his life work. Having graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1881, he passed to the Medical College of Memphis, Tennessee, and was graduated with the class of 1886, and in 1906 completed the course with honor at the St. Louis Univer- sity of Medicine. Dr. Hannah has taken post graduate courses in Kansas City, St. Louis, Chicago, and New York City. He is thus well equipped to cope with the many ills to which flesh is heir, and his success is the outcome of his thorough understanding of the principles of medicine and surgery.
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