A history of the state of Oklahoma, Volume II, Part 28

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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On leaving the country schools of Chariton county, Dr. Gilliam spent a year in William Jewell and a year in Central College of Mis- souri, at Fayette, receiving his medical edu- cation from the latter institution, which he left in 1823. The succeeding years were chiefly spent in teaching, and in 1875 he re- moved from Missouri to Texas. In 1846 he

built a cabin on the banks of the Washita, and as he had been granted a license to prac- tice medicine he established himself in the midst of the Chickasaw Nation in a double professional capacity. His school room was little more than a rude shelter, and his pupils were the children of the full blooded Chicka- saws, and his compensation both as teacher and doctor came to him largely in the shape of cattle and horses. As the country filled with white residents, however, and his ser- vices as a physician were brought into great- er demand, medicine and surgery came to absorb all his time, and about fifteen years ago he taught his last class. When his prac- tice was entirely among the Indians it was a vocation attended by great personal danger, especially if the patient was so filled with strong drink as to be unable to discriminate between friend and foe; and the old "medi- cine man" of the tribe was often bitterly hos- tile. It was also necessary for the doctor to remain with his patient during the progress of the sickness, to see that his medicine was administered; otherwise it was likely to be thrown out the window by skeptical relatives. Such men as Dr. Gilliam, who married into the tribe, also acted as peacemakers in the numerous native feuds, and really prevented the extermination of the Indians of the south- west. As it was, during the three years of his residence on the Washita fifty-two Indians were killed.

Dr. Gilliam learned the language of the Chickasaws, secured and maintained their respect and confidence, and for his second wife married one of their women, who prov- ed a faithful and competent foster-mother to his orphan children. Having thus acquired the rights of a citizen of the nation, he ob- tained several valuable family allotments along the Washita and outlying fertile regions. As a citizen of the Chickasaw Nation Dr. Gil- liam also served on the native juries and took the Indian census of 1893, but was not identi- fied with Chickasaw politics in any way. He belonged to the Progressives, and both he and his sons vote with the Democrats in state and national affairs, and some years ago he served as mayor of Berwyn. He is a Master Mason, having for six years held the chair of Berwyn lodge, A. F. & A. M.

Dr. Gilliam first married Elizabeth Harper, daughter of Vivola Harper, a Missourian of a Virginia family. Mrs. Elizabeth Harper died in 1879, the mother of the following: Rob-

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ert, who died in January, 1907, leaving a fam- ily; Lena, wife of John Gallagher, a resi- dent of Lexington, Oklahoma, and Edward who was killed by lightning while a young man. For his second wife the Doctor mar- ried Susan Brushingham, a Chickasaw citi- zen, who died in 1891, leaving Lizzie, wife of Frank Tyndall, of Derwood, Oklahoma; Olivet H., wife of Loy Cotner, of Comanche, Oklahoma; James, John and Sallie, who were triplets, the last dying as a young woman ; Maud, Harry and Howard, the second named being deceased. Mrs. Annie Largen became Dr. Gilliam's third wife. She is a daughter of Israel Sigmon, and by this marriage has become the mother of Mary Dolski, Amon, Leslie, Donnie and Paul F. Gilliam.

JAMES P. TAYLOR, mayor of Berwyn, Car- ter county, was for many years identified with the mercantile interests of the village and for eighteen years has been its postmaster. He was born in Monroe county, Kentucky, April 12, 1852, where his father was also born and died. His paternal grandfather was born in England and married a Scotch lady, and Mr. Taylor is therefore of good British stock. The country schools of his Kentucky home provided him with a fair education, and this, aided by his own training, enabled him to teach in the public schools. In 1875 he left Kentucky and removed to Bonham, Texas, where he attended school a year and con- tinned his educational work in that state. In 1879 he came to the Chickasaw Nation, where he resumed the work of teaching for nearly three years, and during the following four years devoted himself to the farm. He be- came a clerk for C. C. Rooks, in 1886, his em- ployer conducting a store at the field head- quarters of the construction company which was building the Sante Fe road through the territory. When the store was moved further along the line, Mr. Taylor remained in Ber- wyn, commencing business on a capital of $18.50 and during the first year his operations amounted to $11,000. The second year he doubled these figures and continued to pros- per until the disastrous drop in cotton, and, as he had been extensively handling the staple, his losses were so great that he was forced to suspend.

In 1891 he was appointed postmaster of Berwyn, and, although he has performed the duties of the position with the utmost effi- ciency, he engaged in several outside business ventures, such as drugs, furniture and under-

taking, and fairly repaired the losses of the former years. He now owns a business house, a residence and other property in Ber- wyn, and is in comfortable circumstances. Mr. Taylor has always been an active Re- publican. He was first appointed postmaster in 1887, and served until Cleveland's second term, when Senator Bailey of Texas had him removed for too pronounced activity in political matters, but he was re-appointed in 1900, and has well served the public in that position. When the Republicans decided to give the Indian Territory a delegate to the national convention, political activity of a local nature was aroused, and Mr. Taylor served on many committees organized to manage the campaign from his particular section. He was a delegate to the first Republican state con- vention held at Tulsa, in 1907, and is well known among the leaders of the party in Car- ter county. In April, 1908, he was elected mayor of Berwyn against a strong Democrat, and as that party is normally in the ascend- ancy his induction into office was a decided compliment to his popularity and ability.

On the 6th of June, 1884, Mr. Taylor was united in marriage with Mrs. Eliza J. North, daughter of William Sadler who migrated from Iowa. Two pairs of twins were born of this union, and reside near their parents. They are: Albert and Euberta, who married Zettie Vann and Charles and Samuel. One daugh- ter Minnie Belle is deceased. Mr. Taylor is a third degree Mason, has been secretary of his lodge and is a member of the Christian church.

CHARLES W. HENDERSON. Having passed thirty-seven years within the limits of what is now Oklahoma, Charles W. Henderson, president of the First National Bank of Ber- wyn, Carter county, may justly claim firm foothold as a pioneer, and as he has been a brave soldier, a successful stock-man and merchant and a promoter and developer of substantial institutions of a financial and mercantile nature, no one would withhold the credit due him as a man of character and ability, and a strong factor in the upbuilding of a progressive state. Mr. Henderson es- tablished himself first in the Cherokee Nation along the valley of Caney river some fifteen miles west of the present site of Claremore, and there, in 1871, he invested the few hun- dred dollars he had accumulated in cattle and passed his first two years in the wilderness of the great west. Then disposing of his stock,

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he came south to the Washita river and resumed the cattle business along its banks within the limits of Pickins county, Chicka- saw Nation, and was somewhat extensively identified with the industry until 1904, when the farm and his other interests absorbed his entire time. His army life no doubt liad something to do with influencing Mr. Hender- son to chose the wild country of the Indian Territory as his permanent home. He had passed the years of that service in the depart- ment of the Trans-Mississippi, and, even amid the excitement and distraction of war its spell as an abiding place was laid upon him, never to be broken.

Taking up the narrative from its inception, it is learned that Charles W. Henderson was born in Barry county, Missouri, on the 4th of March, 1845. His father, Lewis Henderson, was a native of South Carolina, and for many years resided in Washburn, Missouri, as a leading merchant of the place. There he mar- ried Abbie Hamilton a Tennessee lady who died at Berwyn, Oklahoma, in 1894, at the age of eighty-three years. The father died March 22, 1845, shortly after the birth of Charles W. Henderson. The only other child is Robert, also a resident of Berwyn. In his sixteenth year the former enlisted in the Elev- enth Missouri Infantry, and served in the Second Brigade under Generals Holmes, Hindman, Parsons, Van Dorn and Price. He participated in the battles of Wilson Creek, Pleasant Hill and Jenkins Ferry, his com- mand being stationed at Shreveport for a few months preceeding the surrender of Lee and was there disbanded. He was on the boat loaded with soldiers which, in the spring of 1865, started down the Red river on its homeward journey, but foundered with the loss of several hundred lives. Mr. Hender- son escaped with a companion, made his way to Little Rock and through the influence of a Federal friend, secured government employ- ment there. In December he returned home, spent the year 1866 in Jackson county, Mis- souri, and then was employed for four years as a merchant's clerk at Cane Hill, Arkansas. It was from the proceeds of the latter service that he accumulated the nucleus of his pres- ent comfortable fortune. Along the Washita river, in the Chickasaw Nation, he engaged both in farming and stock-raising, and being an intermarried citizen he obtained his family allotments of land to which he was entitled.

As the community filled with white settlers. and the demand for mercantile conveniences increased Mr. Henderson saw the need of a general store in the community and estab- lished one on his land. He maintained it in that locality until the advent of the railroad and the location of a switch foretold the build- ing of the town of Berwyn, when he removed his store thither, being among the first, and continued the business for several years. Mr. Henderson then retired from urban business for a time, and next established the First Na- tional Bank of Berwyn, with a capital of $25,- 000. He still owns the majority of the stock and is the president of the institution. In 1908 was formed the Berwyn Mercantile Com- pany, of which he is vice president and a director. On August 19, 1877, Mr. Hender- son wedded Mrs. Louisa Humes, daughter of Van Colbert and a niece of Winchester Colbert, first governor of the Chickasaw Na- tion after the days of reconstruction. Mrs. Henderson died in 1904, leaving Elsie, wife of John Mulkey, of Mulkey, Oklahoma, and Charles, Ella, John and Thelma, who are still members of the family circle. On November 27, 1906, Mr. Henderson was married, in Washburn, Missouri, to Mrs. Mary A. Moore, daughter of Seaburn Johnson, a farmer and trader of that place. His present wife he had known in the days of his youth. Mr. Hend- erson is a Master Mason and a Baptist. He is a thorough Democrat, without political am- bition, but from all the higher standpoints is a citizen of representative American traits.

HON. CHARLES M. CAMPBELL, of Ardmore, was during many years conspicuously identi- fied with the federal courts of the southern district of the Indian Territory, both as at- torney at the bar and as an official of the court. His first connection with the courts of Indian Territory was as a member of the firm of Campbell and Jenkins, and upon the dissolution of this connection he practiced alone as long as he remained actively in the profession. As a lawyer his learning and his ability as an advocate and his fairness in his attitude toward his colleagues and the court won him the confidence and admiration of his fellow counsellors and friends to the extent that he was strongly urged by them to seek the appointment of judge of the new federal court established at Ardmore, which he did. In the conference at Washington with Presi- dent Mckinley relative to the matter, he was slated by the President for the place, but

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HISTORY OF THE STATE OF OKLAHOMA.

before the nominations were sent to the sen- ate an old congressional friend and comrade in Ohio of the President solicited the appoint- ment, and in the negotiations which followed, Mr. Campbell consented to accept the clerk- ship of the court, filling that office from 1897 until November 16, 1907, when statehood closed up federal relations largely in Okla- homa.

In the course of the years passed in Ard- more, Mr. Campbell has entered the sphere of business and is numbered among thie con- servative and successful financiers of the coun- try. He is quite extensively interested in graz- ing and owns a large ranch near Foster in Garvin county. He is vice president of the Ardmore National Bank, of which he was also one of the organizers, and he has pro- perty interests of other kinds in the county seat.

In reverting more particularly to the private and ancestral life of Hon. Charles M. Camp- bell we first revert to Scotland, the early home of the Campbells. But his paternal grandfather left his, native land at the close of the eighteenth century, and in the year 1800, was united in marriage to Miss McIn- tosh of New York City. A few years later they moved south and founded his branch of the family in the state of Alabama. Among his children was James W. Campbell, ( father of Charles M. Campbell), who with his broth- er Donald and sister Marjory constituted the household. He married Miss Susan Morgan, a relative of Senator Morgan of Alabama, and for some years lived at Knoxville, Tennessee, whither he had moved when a young man. He was born in the year 1805, and passed part of his life as a merchant in Tennessee, and later as clerk of the Supreme Court of Ten- nessee.

James Campbell brought his family to Texas in 1860 and settled at Jefferson, then an important place on the navigable waters of Red river, and here he engaged in the drug business with his son Donald and the late E. W. Taylor of Texas. There he passed through the trying times of the Civil war only to meet death, together with his wife and daughter by the yellow fever while on a visit at Milli- can, Texas, in 1867. Among his family of thirteen children, were. Donald, who died in Texas, leaving six children, was once lieuten- ant governor of the state; Argyle was killed in the Confederate army near Richmond, Virginia, leaving a widow and one daughter ; Vol. II-10.

Mrs. J. W. Bridges, who died at Millican, Texas, leaving three children; Mrs. John R. Juden, of New Orleans, Louisiana, has four children, and Charles M. mentioned above, the others having passed away unmarried.

The old Rucker school together with other public schools of Jefferson, Texas, equipped Charles M. Campbell with a liberal education for his day. He was born at Knoxville, Ten- nessee, November 2, 1850, and was ten years of age when his parents cast their fortunes with the Lone State state. He read law in Jefferson with J. H. Rogers and with his brother Donald Campbell, and also in Austin, and was admitted to the bar before Judge Barksdale at Dallas in 1826. After practic- ing for some time in Jefferson, he in 1883 was appointed U. S. Inspector of the port of Gal- veston, holding the position one year, and was then appointed postoffice inspector, with head- quarters at Austin, continuing in that office until the first Democratic administration as- sumed power, when he again took up the prac- tice of law in Austin. He entered actively and enthusiastically into the work, and re- mained at the capital until locating in the vil- lage of Ardmore, Indian Territory, in 1890, where his business and professional lines have since been cast. Mr. Campbell was chairman of the first organized Republican central com- mittee in the old Indian Territory, being elected at McAlester, June 12, 1892. In his political relations he emerges from a fountain head of Republicanism. His father and his older brother were of that political faith, and he cast his first presidential vote for General Grant and held the secretaryship of the Re- publican Senate of Texas in 1871. He was also treasurer of Marion county, that state, for several terms, and went into the prac- tice of law on leaving that office. When the matter of statehood came into prominence Mr. Campbell entered spiritedly into the movement and was in Washington with committees, add- ing his mite toward the crystallization of sen- timent in favor of the passage of an enabling act. In the political campaign which followed statehood, his participation was largely as a layman and in the interest and success of the Republican party at the polls. He was strong- ly and repeatedly urged to accept the chair- manship of the Republican state committee in 1902, and it was only after he had positively declined to serve that another man was chosen.

On November 3, 1886, he married in Aus- tin, Texas, Miss Fannie Simpson, a member

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of an old family of the south and formerly from Little Rock, Arkansas, the birth place of Mrs. Campbell. The only child of this union is Rachael Anoise. In their religious belief the Campbells were Presbyterians, and the Hon. Charles M. Campbell is a member of that denomination, but Mrs. Campbell is member of the Christian church. In Masonry he is a member of the Scottish Rite and a Shriner.

GEORGE MURRAY, president and manager of the Berwyn Mercantile Company, is also presi- dent of the Berwyn board of aldermen, and is a citizen of marked business ability and tal- ents for useful public service. For the past thirty years he has been acquiring a familiar- ity with western people and western institu- tions which has made him as thoroughly in sympathy with the spirit of the great coun- try west of the Mississippi as though he had been born on its prairies or amid its moun- tains. Lehigh county, Pennsylvania, was his native place and his birth occurred November 12, 1859. His father, Matt Murray, was fore- man of an iron mine there, and was born in County Mayo, Ireland. He married Susan Patterson, and both parents died when George was a mere child. On this account the large family was scattered, and the whereabouts of the different members became unknown. Even at the tender age of five years George was forced to earn something toward the support of a widowed mother and even younger chil- dren, and several years after, when his moth- er was taken from him, his labors were re- doubled. His first labors were about the mines, and at the age of fourteen he entered a rolling mill at South Bethlehem, Pennsyl- vania, where he was employed about three years. Then he came west, and in 1878, after a brief stay at Lincoln, Nebraska, he had pro- gressed as far as Del Norte, Colorado, where he was employed in a brick yard and later finding the same work at Denver. He re- mained in that state until 1883, when he en- gaged in railroad work in New Mexico and Arizona, and finally, in his prospectings and wanderings, reached the California coast. Eventually he saw much of Oregon and Wash- ington, and then sought the harvest fields of North Dakota. At the approach of winter he drifted to Louisiana, where he worked in a sugar house on the Salzburg plantation below Donaldsonville. A few months there, and he dropped into Houston, Texas, there entering the employ of the Santa Fe road first as a

laborer and then as a section foreman. Ile was finally honored by being transferred from Sanger to section 47, at Berwyn, which was reputed to be the hardest section on the Okla- homa division. The place suited Mr. Murray so well that he left the employ of the railroad company July 31, 1897, and in the following month engaged in selling goods at Berwyn, as a member of the firm of Attaway and Murray. This venture was unfortunate, but Mr. Mur- ray engaged in a profitable business with his brother-in-law, as Suggs and Murray continu- ing operations until 1907. In September of that year he withdrew from the firm and as- sumed a large interest in the Berwyn Mercan- tile Company, of which he was chosen man- ager. Its capital stock amounts to $10,000, and its stockholders are among the best busi- ness men of Berwyn and vicinity. The Ber- wyn Mercantile Company is now in a most flourishing condition, Mr. Murray's surplus, as heretofore, being invested in real estate. He thus has become the owner of comfortable resi- dence and is a considerable holder in business property and other improved real estate. He is also a stockholder in the First National Bank of Berwyn, and has been actively identi- fied with the civic affairs of the village. Ever since its incorporation he has served the m11- nicipality in some capacity, and, as mentioned, is now president of the board of aldermen. In politics, he is a Republican. On September 22, 1895, Mr. Murray married Miss Mary E. Suggs, a daughter of Butler Suggs, a Mis- sissippian by birth, and Mamie and Ruth are the issue of this union.

JOHN HARDY, one of the prominent mer- chants and promoters of Berwyn, Carter coun- ty, is an immigrant to Oklahoma from Clin- ton, Arkansas, and a native of Itawamba coun- ty, Mississippi. He was born on the 8th of April, 1855, son of Andrew Underwood Hardy, a South Carolinan, who was reared in his na- tive state and educated as a physician. He practiced his profession among the Chicka- saw Indians in Mississippi, learned their lan- guage and partially adopted their modes of life. The Choctaws were also among his pa- tients, and he remained in the state until 1869, spending the last few years of his residence therein as a citizen of Lowndes county where as a successful physician and a superior citi- zen he became widely known. Dr. Hardy was a son of Andrew Hardy, who spent his life on the South Carolina plantation on which the son's birth occurred in 1802. The doctor re-

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moved from Lowndes county, Mississippi, to Clinton, Arkansas, where he passed the final period of his life. His marriage to Arminda Walton occurred in Itawamba county, and the wife died in Clinton, Arkansas, in 1820, the mother of the following: Arminda, wife of M. Driver, of Van Buren county, Arkansas ; Salena, who married A. J. Reese and died in that county; Andrew, of Berwyn, Oklahoma, an ex-Confederate soldier and a farmer ; Reu- ben, a successful business man and a capita- list of Ardmore: John, of this notice, and Hugh, of Mill Creek, Oklahoma.

The country schools of his native state gave John Hardy his education, and he passed the first twenty-seven years of his life on a farm. He then settled in Clinton, Arkansas, engag- ing in the grocery business and later in the conduct of a general store, thus continuing until his removal to Oklahoma in 1893. When Mr. Hardy came to Berwyn he possessed $325 as his total capital. He erected a cottonwood house eighteen by twenty-four feet for his first store, and from the profits of the business which he has since developed has erected six of the twelve stone stores in Berwyn, three of which he yet owns. As a lessee of Indian land he has become a farmer, and his tenants add substantially to his yearly income. On the 19th of January, 1874; Mr. Hardy was united in marriage with Miss Isabella Culpep- per, only daughter of Rev. C. H. Culpep- per, who migrated from Mississippi. Mrs. Hardy is a native of Bradley county, Arkan- sas, and by this marriage has become the mother of the following : Emma, wife of Drew Middleton, of Ada, Oklahoma; Alonzo, of Konawa, Okla .; Charles, private secretary of the judge advocate of the United States in the Philippines, where on December 22, 1908, he married Elizabeth McMahon, of San Diego, California; Iva, wife of W. H. Hooks, of Memphis, Texas : Minnie, wife of Jesse Page. of Holdenville, Oklahoma ; Pearl, who married T. Rogers, of Berwyn, and Noble, Coy C. Nellie and Claude, still of the family circle.

HON. ISAAC R. MASON, county judge of Carter county, is a native of Chambersburg. Illinois, where he was born on the 14th of February, 1863. He was reared to manhood in his native county of Pike, being educated in its public schools and at Jacksonville Col- lege, from which institution he graduated at the age of twenty-one with the degree of B. A. Like other ambitious young men who have made a success in the law, he chose as a

stepping stone to his ultimate ambition the profession of teaching. While a teacher in the public schools he borrowed all the law books owned by his acquaintances, and thor- oughly read and digested them; in fact, even before the completion of his college course he was a student in the office of George Cooper and Congressman Ed. Lane, lawyers of Hills- boro, Illinois. While teaching he learned tele- graphy as another means of furthering his progress in the law, and enabling him to finally devote his life to it. His first railroad work was with the Big Four Road, as an operator at Windsor, Illinois, and he continued to serve at various points of that system until he removed to Mayfield, Kansas, in 1884, to assume the agency of the Southern Kansas Railway Company. He was transferred suc- cessfully to Milan, Argonia and Woodward (Oklahoma). to Celeste (Texas) and in 1890 to Ardmore, Oklahoma.

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A history of the state of Oklahoma, Volume II, Part 28

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