USA > Oklahoma > A history of the state of Oklahoma, Volume II > Part 29
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Judge Mason remained at Ardmore success- fully engaged in railroad work until 1898. when he left the service and established an office for the practice of the law. He was first associated with H. H. Brown, as a part- ner, and later with J. T. Coleman and J. A. Bass, his connection with the last named form- ing the firm of Mason and Bass. The quality of his practice and the strength of his char- acter as a man brought him both admiration and popularity, and at the insistence of his friends he allowed his name to be used as a nominee for the county judgeship at the first election of the state of Oklahoma in Septem- ber, 1907. First he carried the primaries against three strong opponents and at the elec- tion defeated his Republican rival at the rate of two votes to one. The months of his judi- cial service since have but demonstrated how fit he is for the duties of the bench to which he was called by the popular voice.
Judge Mason is a descendant of one of America's oldest and most honorable families, his most remote ancestor in this country being a member of the Virginia colony founded in 160%. Ransom Mason, grandfather of Judge Mason was born in the Old Dominion, moved into Tennessee, became a planter, and finally established himself in Pike county, Illinois, as among the first settlers of the state. After rearing a large family in that locality the Civil war came to divide his household. Two of his sons supported the Confederacy and an- other one joined the Union Army. the father himself being a strong advocate of Secession
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even in the home territory of "Dick" Yates, the famous war governor of Illinois.
Joseph S. Mason, the father, was born in 1828, near Nashville, Tennessee, and, although an uneducated man, he had a retentive ·mem- ory, a strong mind, much energy and a sub- stantial stock of common sense. His active business career was spent in Pike county, Illi- nois, as a stock dealer and a butcher of Cham- bersburg, Perry and Greggsville. While there he supplied meat to the steamboat trade on the Illinois river, and in other ways established an acquaintance that was extensive and a source of business profit. When his race had run and his energies were plainly waning, he brought his wife to Ardmore, that they might be near their son in their declining years. There he passed away in 1898, three years subsequent to the death of his wife. Before her marriage Mrs. Joseph S. Mason had been known as Rachel Gilworth, and her children were: Minerva, who first married Harvey Pouder and is now the wife of Nathaniel Ford, of Niantic, Illinois; Olive, Mrs. J. M. Dennis, of Pond Creek, Oklahoma; James P., a resident of St. Louis, Missouri ; Fama, wife of D. E. Allen of Ardmore, Oklahoma ; Chauncey H., of Versailles, Missouri; Isaac Ransom, of this sketch; Eliza, who married Frank Satterlee and died at Irving, Illinois, and Benton D., who died at Bucklin, Kansas.
Judge Mason himself was married at Ar- gonia, Kansas, on the 12th of July, 1885, to Susan, daughter of John and Sarah (Teeter) Zook, her parents being of German blood. The issue of this marriage are Wilda Irene, Ivan Ralph (deceased), Joe, Sarah and Ar- thur Covington Mason. The Judge is a mem- ber of the Masons and Odd Fellows, having taken the Knight Templar degree in the form- er order. In Odd Fellowship he has filled all the chairs in the local lodge and the grand lodge of Indian Territory Jurisdiction, being grand master in 1897-1898. He has served three years as grand secretary of the jurisdic- tion of the Indian Territory and served four years in the sovereign grand lodge, I. O. O. F. as grand representative from his jurisdiction.
WILLIAM B. FRAME, one of the pioneer druggists of Ardmore and the present clerk of Carter county, has been a progressive resi- dent of that locality for nearly twenty years. In 1889 he came hither fiom Dexter, Texas, where he first engaged in the business in which he is so well known in Ardmore, hav- ing migrated to the Lone Star state in 1883
from Moore county, Tennessee. The family was originally of Virginia stock, William Frame, the paternal grandfather removing as a young man first into Kentucky and subse- quently to Moore county, Tennessee. These migrations occurred during the first quarter of the 'nineteenth century, the ancestor noted finally becoming a large slave owner and an extensive planter, leaving an extensive estate in Tennessee at the time of his death in 1837. Among his many children was James M., the father of William B., who was born in 1827.
James M. Frame was reared amidst favor- able surroundings and acquired a liberal edu- cation for one of his time. He became one of the early schoolmasters of Moore county, but when he chose a permanent occupation it was that of agriculture, and to it he adhered for the balance of his life. He was a strong Democrat, a good citizen and a true Metho- dist. For his wife he chose Susan Tripp, daughter of Eli Tripp, a farmer of Lincoln county, Tennessee, and Mrs. Frame is now a resident of Davis, Oklahoma. The children of the family were : William B., Sallie, who is a resident of Davis; James H., who died at that place; Thomas W., living there as a prominent business man : Mollie V., who mar- ried T. C. Wakefield and died at Dexter, Texas, leaving a daughter ; Rufus C., of Mad- ill, Oklahoma ; Della, who married Burge Kel- ley and died at Davis : Mattie Lee, who mar- ried Hilliard Hamilton, deceased, the widow being now a resident of Davis; and Lon M. Frame, of Ardmore.
William B. Frame, the eldest child of the family was born in Moore county, Tennessee, on the 24th of January, 1857, and at the age of eighteen was so far advanced in educa- tional acquirements that he became a teacher in the public schools of his home locality. After being thus employed for some seven years he married, and in the following year (1883) removed with his wife to Dexter, Cooke county, Texas. For the succeeding five years he did effective work in the country schools, when he permanently abandoned teaching for a business and public life. His venture as a druggist was so successful that he decided to establish himself in the same line as a resident of the new territory which was about to be thrown open to general set- tlement and development. In 1889, therefore, soon after Oklahoma's first great land sale, he removed to Ardmore, and has remained in the locality of his first choice, continually
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progressing in material things and in his char- R. Johnson, the grandfather of him whose acter as a faithful, useful and enterprising name introduces this review. citizen. When he cast his lot with the vil- William R. Johnson was born in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1811, a son of Hezekiah John- son, who came with his family and his slaves to the then new commonwealth of Kentucky about 1820 and opened up a plantation in what is now Boone county. As did his father Wil- liam R. passed his life on a plantation, and when the issues of the Civil war were to be fought out, he and his remained on the side of the stars and stripes. He married Miss Francis Allen, whose mother was a Moseby and whose ancestors, like those of her hus- band, brought their family and slaves from Richmond, Virginia, to make a home in the land of "Daniel Boone." At her death Mrs. Johnson left her husband with five children, one of whom is Thomas B. Johnson. lage of Ardmore he established a small stock of drugs in a frame building on Main Street, near the depot, but his business increased with the growth of the town, and under the stimulus of his good management, and finally reached metropolitan proportions. As he prospered he became interested in Ardmore real estate, established a handsome home and erected two business houses on Main Street- these facts identifying him as one of the build- ers of the city. In his race for the nomina- tion of county clerk Mr. Frame was opposed in the primaries by three strong citizens of Carter county, but as his party (the Demo- cratic) was in local power he defeated his Re- publican opponent by a large majority, and, with the advent of statehood, took office as the first clerk of Carter county.
As a citizen few men are more widely known in Carter county than William B. Frame. Both in the conduct of his private business and the affairs of the county he has evinced unfailing integrity, sincerity and posi- tive ability-qualities which never fail to in- spire general esteem and confidence. Toward the multiplicity of affairs which appeal to the public for accomplishment he has ever shown a willing and liberal hand. Mr. Frame was married February 19, 1882, in Tennessee, to Miss Savanna Eula Thomason, daughter of Dr. W. F. Thomason, and the children of the family are: Sue Hopkins Frame, bookkeeper in her father's store: James F., Thomas L., Myrtle V .. William J. and Paul S. Frame. Mr. Frame is a member of the Odd Fellows fraternity.
WILLIAM B. JOHNSON. Among Oklahoma's professional and business men none are more closely identified with the growth and best interests of their communities than William B. Johnson, of Ardmore. His career at the bar has been one of honor, and he is giving some of the best efforts of his life to the elevation of municipal government. His an- cestry is numbered among the old American families of the Atlantic coast, from where its posterity migrated toward the Blue Grass state of Kentucky, there to plant a seed des- tined to flourish and multiply into a race which has indelibly impressed itself upon our national life. The honor of founding this family in the middle west belongs to William
Thomas B. Johnson, who has resided in Ardmore since 1891, was born in Boone coun- ty, Kentucky. September 30, 1840, and lived in that county and Livingston until his re- moval to Oklahoma. His life was spent largely as a farmer, but for a time he carried on a sort of river trade with the lower "river country" in farm products, during this. time residing in Livingston county. When the rebellion came on his sympathies were with the Union and the old flag, and in December of 1863 he enlisted in Company B, Thirtieth Kentucky Mounted Infantry, and was com- missioned sergeant major of the regiment. This regimental command seemed to have been detailed for operation in Kentucky, for it seldom left the state's borders, and when it did so the errand was one of destruction of the enemy's property nearby, such as the Salt Works of the Confederacy on the south- ern border of Virginia. Capturing Confeder- ate deserters, chasing the Morgan "raiders," quelling international disturbances in the state and curtailing the influence of Con- federate sympathizers and Confederate free- booters was the work that largely devolved upon the Thirtieth Kentucky from its incep- tion to the close of the conflict. Thomas B. Johnson married Sarah J. Slater, a daughter of Kentucky by birth but of Virginia ances- try. She was born February 14, 1841, and became the mother of two sons, William B. and Charles L. Johnson, both of Ardmore. Mr. and Mrs. Johnson celebrated their gold- en wedding on January 26, 1909.
William B. Johnson was born in Boone county. Kentucky, November 18, 1860, and
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while growing to manhood learned how to raise tobacco and grain on his father's farm. From the country schools he went to Ghent College, receiving his diploma from that insti- tution in 1829. Deciding then to prepare for the law he entered the University of Michi- gan at Ann Arbor, and was graduated in its law course in 1882. Thus with his educa- tional training completed so far as his col- lege work was concerned Mr. Johnson select- ed a location in Texas, and in the fall of 1882 opened an office in Gainesville. He tried his first lawsuit there, and during the eight years that he was a member of the Cook county bar he established a reputation as a capable and promising lawyer. In 1890 he was appointed a U. S. commissioner and sent to Ardmore to represent the eastern district of Texas, which then had jurisdiction over the Indian country. He was at that time in partnership with A. C. Cruce, the firm name being John- son and Cruce, but this relation was then dis- solved not to be resumed again until his ser- vices as commissioner were concluded, and then under the firm name of Johnson, Cruce and Cruce, Ardmore. In October of 1897 he was appointed U. S. district attorney for the southern district of the Indian Territory, the appointment having been made by President Mckinley, and at the expiration of his term he was recommissioned by President Roose- velt, and retired from the office January 31, 1906.
Being a Republican and as such responsible for the promotion of the interests and success of his party, William B. Johnson has never failed to qualify for service whenever there was party work to be done. He was a mem- ber of the first Republican convention for the Indian Territory, which was held at South McAlester in 1892 and one of the five men, who called that convention and this at a time before a station had been built at that place and when the delegates were compelled to walk to old McAlester to get their tickets stamped for return passage. Following this meeting he was a member of the territorial committee for twelve years. He was a dele- gate to all statehood conventions, and at the last one the temporary chairman was con- ceded to the Indian Territory and he was urged for the place, but declined to contest with R. L. Williams of Durant, although in the first election for state officers he was pitted against that gentleman for judge of the supreme court of the state, and was de-
feated with the rest of the Republican ticket. From 1896 to 1899 Mr. Johnson was general attorney for the Chickasaw Nation, and ap- peared in their interests in all the courts of the territory, and in sixty-six cases before the supreme court of the United States.
In a business way the Ardmore National Bank owns Mr. Johnson as a stockholder, as does the Pennington Wholesale Grocery Com- pany of this city and the Folsom-Morris Coal Mining Company of Midway, Oklahoma. He was one of the builders of two of the first brick business houses of Ardmore, also a com- fortable home, and is the secretary and treas- urer of the coal mining company above men- tioned.
January 26, 1886, in Gainesville, Texas, he married Miss Annie Conlee. Her father, Preston Conlee, settled in Texas when it was a province of Mexico, and lived there through its republic era and long after it became a part of the American Union. Mrs. Johnson was born in Gainesville, January 16, 1867, and her union has been blessed with the birth of four children. One William D., dying in in- fancy ; the eldest son, Doran G., is a medical student in the Kirksville, ( Missouri), School of Osteopathy, and his literary training was obtained in the military school at Lexington, Missouri, and in the Castle Heights school of Lebanon, Tennessee. The two younger chil- dren are Grace and Thomas Green. Mr. John- son is a Knight Templar Mason and a Shrin- er, as well as a past exalted ruler of the Elks lodge of Ardmore.
JOHN HINKLE. The name of John Hinkle has been associated with the bar of Carter county, Oklahoma, and the public life of Ard- more for almost eighteen years, it having been in 1891 that he cast his lot with the residents of the future state and enrolled his name among its promoters and upholders. His connection with the courts as an advocate and as a Master in Chancery have given him a wide acquaintance here, and his interest in civic matters in Ardmore has established his sincerity and earnestness as a citizen.
His first important step in a business way was his connection with his father and broth- er in operating a store in Springfield, Ark- ansas, continuing in the store from 1858 until the outbreak of the war of the rebellion. In the struggle which ensued he rendered what aid he could as a civilian, and in 1864 was ap- pointed and commissioned to hold the election in Conway county, Arkansas, the voting be-
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ing done at Springfield, and the Republicans carried the county. He certified the result of the ballot, and when the war ended the next year the county and township officers of that county were commissioned on the results shown by his certified returns. From the close of the war until 1872 the Republicans filled the offices of Conway county, and as Mr. Hinkle's brother was its clerk he (Mr. Hin- kle) performed the duties of the office while the brother gave his time to outside affairs. On leaving that office he began the completion of his preparation for the law, and after his admission to the bar of Springfield practiced in that city and in Morrillton, the new county seat, until his removal to the Indian Territory and settlement in Ardmore.
In his political affiliations Mr. Hinkle is a Republican. While in Arkansas he took a firm stand for his party's cause, and persisted in showing his colors in that state all through the era of persecution and assassination of Republicans by the Democrats, which took place there as late as twenty years ago. He was one of the members of the Lincoln Re- publican Club, said to have been the first political organization in Indian Territory, and he was one of the five men from this city to take part in the organization of the first territorial Republican convention at South McAlester in 1892, while later he was a state committeeman of the party for several years. In 1898 he was appointed master in chancery and referee in bankruptcy for the southern district of Indian Territory, and served in those important offices until the coming of statehood in 1907.
Mr. Hinkle is a native son of the Blue Grass state of Kentucky, born in Garrard county May 2, 1838. His paternal grandfather had moved to that state from Virginia, and died there early in life, leaving a widow with sev- eral children to battle with the frontier and its antagonistic elements as best they could. Anthony Hinkle was one of those children. He was born in Virginia in 1812, and together with a sister he was taken to a distant lo- cality to be reared, and in that way lost all trace of his mother and her other children. Until some time after his marriage he lived on a farm. and although not an educated man from a modern view point he had a rich personality and led a positive and useful life. After leaving the farm he located in Spring- field, Arkansas, (to which state the family had gone about 1842), and engaged in mer-
chandising with his sons, the opening of the war finding him thus connected. He enter- tained strong Union sentiments and support- ed Bell and Everett in 1860 because they were the nearest he could get to the Lincoln ticket, in that campaign. Raising a company for the Union, he was commissioned captain of Com- pany L, Third Arkansas Cavalry, and served throughout the period of the war. Notwith- standing he was a slave owner he loved the union of the states more than the institution of slavery and offered his life for its preserva- tion.
After the close of the conflict he performed a modest part in the reconstruction of the state, and was chosen a delegate to the con- stitutional convention of 1868, and took part in the important deliberations of that body. On resuming civil life after the close of this conflict he practiced medicine after the man- ner of many of the old time doctors. He affiliated with the Republican party, heartily endorsing the great work it had accomplished, and in 1894, in Conway county, where he had lived and labored for fifty years or more, his beneficent and useful life was ended in death. He. was a pious man, a member of the Bap- tist church, and was clerk of the first associa- tion of that denomination held in Arkansas. He married first Mary Cook, who died in 1840, the mother of three children: Clara, who mar- ried T. I. Matthews and died in Conway county, Arkansas; William R., of Faulkner county, Arkansas ; and John, mentioned above. Amanda George became his second wife, and she cared for his children as only a mother could, her death occurring in Conway county.
John Hinkle spent the days of his boyhood and youth in the country around Springfield, Arkansas, and the subscription schools fur- nished him his educational training. He mar- ried first, December 25, 1870, in Conway county, Arkansas, Miss Almina Cargile, who at her death left a daughter, Carrie, the wife- of R. D. Earl, a prominent merchant and' citizen of Morrillton, Arkansas. For his sec- ond wife he wedded Mary E., a daughter of W. R. Morgan, of an old Southern family. and of the four children of this union two died in childhood, and one, Hattie, married J. J. Chanler and died in Ardmore in 1901. Homer, the only one living, is with the Mul- lins Land Company in Ardmore. During the progress of the Civil war Mr. Hinkle was introduced into the mysteries of Masonry and is now a member of the chapter. He is one
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of the stockholders of the Ardmore National Bank, and has other property interests in the city.
REUBEN HARDY. The life history of Reu- Den Hardy touches the pioneer epoch of Okla- homa and the great southwest, his days being an indissoluble chain which has linked the early, formative period with that of latter day progress and prosperity, one whose connection with the commercial world here has been most extensive, whose influence in the sub- stantial construction of the city is unsurpassed, and one whose liberality has encouraged every convenience of a public benefit and every agency of a spiritual or educational character. Such is the life history and achievements of Reuben Hardy, the pioneer business man of Carter county.
Born in Lowndes county, Mississippi, in 1847, he is a member of a family which seems to have originated in South Carolina, the na- tive state of his father, Dr. Andrew Hardy, who was born in Union District in 1805, be- came a resident of Mississippi in early life, where he prepared himself for a medical career and followed its practice in Lowndes county for fifty-two years, dying there in 1844. His wife, Arminda, was a daughter of Richard Hutchison, one of the wealthy men of Monroe county, Mississippi, and of their ten children Reuben was the fifth born. He acquired a limited country school educa- tion while attaining to mature years on his father's farm, and at the boyish age of fifteen he enlisted in General Bedford Forrest's Cav- alry to aid the Confederates in the war of the rebellion. Soon after the close of the con- flict he was married and established his home in the county of his birth and engaged in farming for himself. But, not long after this, in 1868, he drove westward with team and wagon, accompanied by his family, to Scot- land, Van Buren county, Arkansas, and after three years there continued the journey with his wife and little ones to Texas. He brought with him in his wagon his few worldly effects, the sum of his possessions on arriving in Montague county consisting of a span of mules and a wagon. He soon established a small grist mill at a point afterward named in his honor, Hardy, the government later establishing a star route service to that place.
As an indication of the family situation at that time it is enough to note that its exist- ence depended upon the labors of its official head, whose wages only commanded thirty
cents a day during their first winter spent in the Lone Star state. With the influx of set- tlers came a greater demand for labor and supplies, and the establishment of his mill opened the way for the first breath of pros- perity he had yet drawn. During the fifteen years passed in Montague county he attained some success at various business vocations, and with the capital thus accumulated he en- gaged in the wholesale and retail grocery busi- ness in Bowie, but the building of the Santa Fe Railroad and the establishing of the town of Ardmore. Oklahoma, caused him to trans- fer all his interests to this latter place, which he did in 1888. He erected one of the first business houses of the place, a frame struct- ure twenty-four by sixty feet, and from Feb- ruary of 1888 until his retirement from active business fifteen years later his store was one of the most busy and prosperous marts of trade to be found in this or any other metro- polis of the territory. Year after year annual- ly passed over its counters a hundred thou- sand dollars worth of goods, and in conse- quence it grew to be an establishment of im- mense proportions. But in 1903 his active connection with merchandising ceased in Ardmore, although his branch store in Ber- wyn continued in business until 1907, and with its closing his interest in all financial transactions ceased.
During his active business career Mr. Hardy was ever mindful of his city's interests, and many business houses and residence prop- erties sprang into being on his initiative, and to him perhaps belongs the credit of being the author of more of Ardmore's buildings than any other of her citizens. In its incep- tion the city was embarrassed by a poor road service for the accommodation of trade dis- tricts adjoining and by the utter lack of school and church facilities. These conditions had to be improved and the expenses met by public subscription, and in the raising of these funds Reuben Hardy's donation was ever present, and some of his dollars have gone into every road leading into Ardmore and into nearly every school house and church erected in the country tributary to it. With the exploita- tion of New Mexico as a promising farming and grazing country, and consequently a good field for commercial enterprises. Mr. Hardy invested many thousands of dollars in Por- tales and in ranch property there and else- where, much of which he gave to his chil- dren and thus placed them at once in a posi-
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