A history of the state of Oklahoma, Volume II, Part 32

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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Having completed his contract with the Chickasaw Nation and after twenty-nine years of labor as preacher and teacher, Mr.

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Derrick became interested (rather acciden- tally) in banking. In 1897 Mr. Derrick or- ganized the Merchants and Planters Bank of Marietta, of which he was president until 1900 when they liquidated the Merchants and Planters Bank and organized the First National Bank of Marietta, of which he was president until 1903, when he resigned his position, sold his interest and came to Ma- dill, where, in 1902, he had organized the Madill National Bank and was elected its first president. In August, 1908, he organ- ized the Madill State Bank, with $50,000 capital stock and it was opened for business September 1. 1908. September 4th, three days after opening the Madill State Bank, they liquidated the Madill National Bank, practically the same officers taking charge of the Madill State Bank, as follows: W. S. Derrick, president; J. D. Arbuckle, vice- president ; John L. Derrick, cashier ; D. D. Whiting, assistant cashier. Mr. Derrick is a stockholder and a director in the Lebanon Telephone Company, a stockholder in the Mall-Millan Oil and Gas Company, and has farm holdings both in Oklahoma and Texas.

The above embraces the main facts of a remarkable career, composed of true pa- triotism, self-sacrifice in the futherance of the higher life and a modest reward in the shape of material prosperity which will place the faithful worker above the harass- ments of an uncertain worldly future.

The children born to the parents of Rev. William S. Derrick were as follows: Mary E., widow of Edward Warren, of Iconium, St. Clair county, Missouri; Catherine, who died in Coke county, Texas, in 1907, as the wife of William Burr: Eliza J., also of Coke county, who was twice married- first, to Timothy Hurd, and secondly, to Daniel Burr, deceased ; Nancy A., who mar- ried the late William Givens, of Benton county, Arkansas : Sarah, wife of Robert B. Ross, of Coke county : Dona, who died as Mrs. G. W. Lindsay, of Benton county, Ar- kansas; Levi F., of Oklahoma; William S., of this biography ; and Asa H., also of Ok- lahoma.

On March 22, 1866, Rev. William S. Der- rick wedded Miss Mary Elizabeth Butler, their marriage occurring in Benton county, Missouri. She was born in Murray county, Tennessee, August, 1848, and is a daughter of James S. Butler, of the county named. The children of the union are: John L., Cashier of the Madill State Bank who mar-

ried Miss Margaret Cumming and is the fa- ther of Elizabeth, Daisy and William Stew- ard, Jr. ; James Harvey, cashier of the First National Bank of Alpine, Texas, who mar- ried Lena Thomas and has Cecil Howard, Dorothy, James Harvey, Jr., and Lena Thomas Derrick; Marietta, the wife of J. W. Weaver, of Throckmorton, Texas, and the mother of Willie Vivian; Carrie J., who married Robert L. Davis, of Madill, and has William L. and Marvin W .; Willie Belle, who became the wife of C. J. Webster, of Sulphur, Oklahoma, and is the mother of Clay Bedford, Marydelle and Anabelle (twins). Fraternally Mr. Derrick is a charter member of Lebanon Lodge, No. 100, A. F. & A. M. He has served Madill as a member of the school board and as chair- man of the official board of the Methodist Episcopal Church South of Madill, and also as supernumerary preacher.

JEROME WHITESEL, who is one of the old- time cattle men and merchants of this sec- tion, cast his lot among the natives of what was then Pickens county, Chickasaw Na- tion, in 1876. He was then sixteen years of age, and as he had lost his father when he was an infant, his life has been self-reliant from a very early period. His pioneer home was at Woodville, now Marshall county, where he had a few friends and industrious- ly performed the agricultural work to which he was accustomed in his earlier Indiana home. Having saved a little money he bought a few cattle, and in 1879 formed a partnership with J. F. Armstrong, still a leading citizen of the county. Mr. Whitesel first adopted the "flying 'W' bar" brand, and later the "W" bar, and while he was not numbered among the big operators, he was among the then prosperous growers, and when he finally closed out his business in 1907, he was in comfortable circumstances. A portion of the long period of his residence in Marshall county has been spent as a mer- chant in various lines. His first venture was in Lebanon. where, without previous ex- perience or training, he engaged in the drug business. Eventually he disposed of his store and entered the familiar field of mer- chandising, with more pronounced success. Later he became a member of the Texas Mercantile Company, representing the con- cern and selling goods at Sulphur, now Murray county, Oklahoma, and remaining there from 1901 to 1903. He then returned to the farm, and in October, 1907, purchased

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HISTORY OF THE STATE OF OKLAHOMA.

property in Madill and established his home there.

Jerome Whitesel was born in Preble coun- ty, Ohio, on the 4th of February, 1850, and was reared in Tipton county, Indiana, whith- er his parents had removed in 1852. His father, George Shidler Whitesel, was also born in Preble county, of Pennsylvania Ger- man ancestry, and, with his family and the paternal grandfather, Adam Whitesel, moved from Ohio into the heavily timbered country about Tipton. Adam Whitesel was not destined to see an improved and pro- ductive farm and a comfortable homestead in this frontier land, for he died of cholera in the year of his settlement, leaving the rugged pioneer work to the widow and other hands. George S. Whitesel and his broth- ers, David and Henry, were faithfully reared in the Dunkard faith by the surviving widow (nee Susanna Shidler). George S. White- sel married a Miss Clawson, who bore him the following children: Jerome, of this re- view ; Mary, who married John Nevins and died in California ; Sarah J., of Tipton, Indi- ana, who became the wife of Edward Paul, and Clara E., now Mrs. Butler. Mrs. White- sel married for her second husband William Jackson, and two daughters were born to this union, one of them, Irene, now being Mrs. John Bunting of Kansas.

In 1878, Jerome Whitesel married Mary E. Stubblefield, whose mother was a Miss Willis and one-eighth Chickasaw Indian. The children of this union are: Lydia Car- oline, wife of S. D. Long, of Madill ; Katie May, Mrs. Edward L. Ingle, of that place : and Frederick Jerome, Willis and Zula. The family are members of the Christian church. In politics, Mr. Whitesel is a Democrat, and in Masonry has advanced to the Shriner's degree. Mr. Whitesel is a director and vice- president of the Lebanon Telephone Com- pany. His family allotments were taken near Lebanon, consisting of 640 acres and 560 acres six miles south of Madill and 90 acres in the Washita bottom, near Wood- ville.

SUMMERS HARDY, senior member of the law firm of Hardy and Franklin, leading practitioners of Madill and Marshall county, is one of the ablest young lawyers in the state. Outside of his profession he is known as a leading Democrat, an earnest supporter of fraternalism and a strong Prohibitionist. He is also deeply interested and practically active in the futherance of educational mat-

ters, and his prominence in the work of the Methodist church consistently maintains the family record in that regard.

Born in Van Buren county, Arkansas, on the 23rd of May, 1875, Mr. Hardy is the son of Henry Hardy, a native of Mississippi and a man of remarkable versatility and strong moral character. In early life he engaged in farming and in prosecuting his trade as a blacksmith. He also joined the Methodist church in boyhood and his absorption in its work so deepened that he finally entered the ministry as a local preacher. While resid- ing in Arkansas his Democratic friends sent him to the legislature, and soon after com- pleting his term in that body, in 1885, he removed to Montague county, Texas. There he continued his labors for the church, again entered politics and was twice elected county judge for terms of two years each. He afterward removed to Ardmore, Okla- homa, where he died in 1895 at the age of forty-three. He was a member of a large family of children, two of his brothers being business men of Carter county; John is a resident of Berwyn, and Reuben, who lives at Ardmore, is one of the men of wealth and property in that locality. Rev. Henry Hardy married Martha A. Underwood, who resides in Ardmore and is the mother of the following: Cornelius, a lawyer of Tishom- ingo, Oklahoma; Summers, of this notice; Hattie, wife of A. J. Henderson, a Kentuc !:- ian ; Minnie and Nettie, living in Ardmore ; Carrie, now Mrs. L. A. Huff, of Quannah, Texas ; Reuben, a resident of Guthrie, Okla- homa, and Willie and Abbie, young ladies of Ardmore.

Much of Summer Hardy's youth was spent on a farm, and his earlier education was both of a public-school and commercial nature. He became a clerk in the Ardmore postoffice and spent a portion of his small salary in the completion of a course in sten- ography, applying this accomplishment in his office work for Garrett and Hardy, law- yers of the place. At the same time he took up the study of law, and continued it with his brother Cornelius until his admission to the bar in 1897. He then practiced for a time with Mr. Garrett, but later formed the co-partnership of Hardy. Franklin and Slough, which has since become Hardy and Franklin, having since 1900 been a progres- sive lawyer and citizen of Madill. In the former capacity, Mr. Hardy has proved con- clusively that he has both a thorough know .-

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ledge of the law and, buttressed by splen- did office preparation, possesses unfailing ability to present his causes in the best light to either court or jury. Much of his exper- ience in the first years of his practice was obtained in connection with the "citizenship cases," in which work he brought immediate success and permanent popularity to his firm. While his practice has been of a gen- eral character, civil suits have appealed to him most strongly, and those involving Fed- eral questions have proven to be the most noteworthy and profitable. That long litiga- tion known as the "government farm case" (Archards versus McGahey, et al., No. 1) which was consolidated with twenty others, which was fought for years before the Com- mission of the Five Tribes and the United States court and finally carried to Washing- ton, was perhaps the most noted in which the firm has been engaged. The decision, which went in favor of Hardy and Franklin was a notable triumph for the able young attorneys of Madill, and especially for the senior member. As stated, although a strong Democrat, Mr. Hardy is a stalwart Prohibitionist. In the campaign of Septem- ber, 1907, he was one of the speakers se- lected by the Democratic state committee to explain to the people of the Territory the proposed constitution and urge them to vote for its adoption. For years he has been a member of the executive committee of his party, was chairman of the Democratic county convention of 1907, and a member of the executive committee of Marshall county and recording district, and a member of the Democratic state central committee. Mr. Hardy has been a delegate to every Ter- ritorial and State Democratic convention since his 21st birthday.

In his fraternal relations, he is a member of the Sons of Veterans and was the first brigadier general of the Chickasaw brig- ade. He has served as a delegate to the Grand Lodge of Odd Fellows, belongs to the order of Rebekahs and has served a term as Grand Messenger in the Grand Lodge. He is a Master Mason and a Wood- man of the World. In his civic and church relations he is a steward in the Methodist denomination, has served as president of the board of education of Madill and is a stockholder in the Madill National Bank. His wife, to whom he was married in Ard- more, Oklahoma, July 29, 1900, was for- merly Miss Laura Scrivner, of Hill county,

Texas, a daughter of John J. and Medora (Weatherred) Scrivner. The mother was born in Hill county, Texas, a member of one of the pioneer families of the Lone Star State. Mrs. Hardy was one of the most accomplished and popular young ladies of central Texas, and since her marriage has been an incentive as well as helpmate to her husband, and has aided materially in building up the popularity enjoyed by Mr. Hardy. There is one surviving child of their union, Calla May, born April 23, 1905.

JOHN I. WEBB, sheriff of Marshall county, was born in Dade county, Missouri, on the 22d of February, 1846. He is a son of George W. Webb, who was born in Ten- nessee, in 1812, moved to Illinois with his parents, and, as a young man, located in Dade county, Missouri, where he married Jane, a daughter of William Penn, an early settler of that state, and, like the Webbs, a tiller of the soil. In 1860 the father left Missouri with his family and became a citi- zen of Van Buren, Arkansas. There he re- sided until the close of the war, after which he resided in Columbia county and at Louis- burg, Arkansas. In 1866 his wife died at the latter place, and he himself passed away in 1883, at Nevada, Texas. The marriage of Mr. and Mrs. George W. Webb resulted in three children, all of whom reached man- hood: John I., of this sketch; W. H., who served in the Eleventh Arkansas Regiment, Federal troops, and Sim, who was a sutler's clerk in the employ of Colonel Lamb, also of the Union army.

The Webbs were unpretending farmers, and the parents of John I. were able to provide the boy with only the most modest education. His parents were strong Union- ists, but John I. supported the Confederacy, and in August, 1864, enlisted in the Elev- enth Regiment of Arkansas Confederate troops, under Colonel John L. Logan, of Price's army. In November following he was captured at Princeton, Arkansas, and imprisoned at Alton, Illinois, until March, 1865, when, with others, he was forwarded to Richmond, Virginia, and exchanged April 3, 1865.

During the war Mr. Webb married, and when he returned from military imprison- ment he commenced farming at Atlanta, Ar- kansas, and after being thus engaged for a number of years removed to Collin county, Texas, where resumed that calling. There, alsó, he became identified with the politics

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of the county, serving with credit as con- stable and deputy sheriff. In the latter ca- pacity he served eight years under sheriffs Gabe Beck and Scott Phillips, and at the conclusion of this long and signal service he established his agricultural homestead at Lebanon, Oklahoma. But although he was an industrious and faithful tiller of the soil, his heart was in the performance of other work, that of an executive and admin- istrative nature connected with the public affairs of the county. He continued to farm at Lebanon with indifferent success until the coming of statehood to Oklahoma, when the Democrats put him forward as a candidate for the office of sheriff of Marshall county. His fine Texas record as a peace officer followed him, and he was elected over his Socialistic opponent by a vote of almost five to one, assum- ing office on the 16th of November, 1907. Mr. Webb makes a most popular and ef- ficient sheriff, as he has always been a faithful and useful citizen. He has been three times married and is the father of nineteen children. His first wife, whom he married in 1864, was Harriet M. Abney. She died in Louisiana, which had been the family home just prior to Mr. Webb's advent to Texas, and was the moth- er of the following: Bettie, who married J. T. Crimes and died at Lebanon, Okla- homa, in 1903; Sue, wife of A. L. Dale, of Marshall county, and Ida, now Mrs. S. H. Weatherall, of Dallas county, Texas. In Claybourne parish, Louisiana, Mr. Webb married his second wife, Sigourney Mont- gomery, who died in Collin county. Texas, in 1890, the mother of Eva, wife of Clinton Lacy. of Celeste, Texas: Eustace, of Leb- anon, Oklahoma; Eugene, also a resident of Lebanon ; Lottie, now Mrs. Charles Dunn, of Oak Cliff, Texas; Velma, of Madill, and Jessie, wife of George Scribner, of that place. In 1893, Mr. Webb married Miss Mary Trantham, his present wife, who has borne him Earnest, Ethel, Homer and Willis, all alive.

LYMAN F. BEARD, postmaster of Madill, is an ex-Rough Rider of Cuban fame and a Re- publican of influence. He was born in Wil- son county, Kansas, on the 1st of August, 1873, and when he was seventeen years of age his parents left Fredonia, their home town in that state, and settled at Oklahoma City. With only a common-school educa-

tion at his command, Lyman F. there com- menced the serious work of the world, spending his first year as a water hauler. He then obtained employment on a farm near town, and continued in that employ- ment until the call for troops for the Span- ish-American war. He at once enlisted at Guthrie, in Troop D, First United States Volunteer Cavalry, afterward known throughout the country as the Rough Rid- ers, and, with other members of the com- mand, rendezvoused at San Antonio, Texas. The troops were ordered to the front under Colonel Leonard Wood, who, with Colonel Theodore Roosevelt, commanded them in the Cuban campaign. The part they played at Las Guasimas, El Caney and San Juan is a bright chapter of American military history, in which Mr. Beard was one of the gallant figures. Santiago de Cuba surren- dered to the American troops in July, 1898, the peace protocol was signed in August, and in September the Rough Riders were withdrawn from the island, sailed for New York and were most honorably mustered out of the service in September, at Montauk Point.

Mr. Beard then located at Shawnee, Ok- lahoma, and for a year was occupied with the recuperation of his health, which, in common with his other brave comrades, had been seriously affected by the enervating conditions of the tropics and the bad sani- tary conditions necessarily prevailing as a result of the sudden and unexpected occupa- tion of Cuba by the American army. He finally located at Ravia, Oklahoma, where he conducted a hardware store until July, 1905, when he sold his business, settled in Madill and became identified with the Mall- Millen Oil and Gas Company in the work of prospecting leases in Marshall county, Mr. Beard and father owning a one-fourth interest in the company. His acquaintance with the Rough Riders, some of whom be- came men of influence in Oklahoma politics, and the natural favor with which they were all viewed by President Roosevelt, induced Mr. Beard to apply for the postmastership of Madill. He also received the endorse- ment of such men as Governor Frantz, Char- ley Hunter and Cash Cade, and in March, 1902, received his commission. Through his uprightness, promptness and substantial ability the town is being provided with a thorough postal service.

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As a Republican, Mr. Beard served as a delegate to the district convention at Coal- gate, and to the Oklahoma City convention of 1908 for the selection of delegates to the National Republican Convention. Frater- nally, he is an Odd Fellow and a member of the Ancient Order of United Workmen. He was married August 8, 1899, to Buda, daughter of Ella McCormick, a Massachu- setts lady, but a settler from Missouri, Mrs. Beard having been born at West Line, that state. The issue of this marriage are Ted- die, Henrietta. Mildred and Teresa.

GOVERNOR ROBERT MAXWELL HARRIS, of Tishomingo, ex-governor of the Chickasaw Nation, an extensive farmer and representa- tive of one of the pioneer and leading In- dian families of the state, was born April 1, 1851, near Emet, in Johnston county. This family was founded by Daniel Harris. a grandfather of Governor Harris, who was born in Georgia, of Scotch parents, moved to Mississippi in early life and there mar- ried Elsie Perry, a Chickasaw Indian wom- an. They came to the Indian Territory in 1842 and passed their lives as farmers and growers of stock. They now lie buried in the cemetery at Emet, near the place of their final setttlement. Their children were : Joseph, Sally, who married Henry McKin- ney, and died at the home community ; Bettie, married John Pytchelyn, and died on Red River, opposite Clarksville, Texas.

Joseph Harris was born in 1827 and was a youth of fifteen summers when his parents joined the exodus of the tribe toward their future home in the Far West. The family first located near Doaksville, some twelve miles north of Fort Towson, but remained there only a few years until their final re- moval to the Blue, near Emet, where the remainder of their lives was spent. At that place Joseph Harris grew up surrounded by Nature's rich contribution, learned the es- sentials of farming and acquired the prin- ciples of a rural Indian education. He grew to be strong and vigorous in body, slightly under six feet, and possessed a weight of three hundred pounds. His brain was mas- sive and powerful and as active as was his body. His wife was Catherine Nail, a Choc- taw, who also came over from Mississippi. Mrs. Harris died in 1853, the mother of Eliz- abeth, who married W. H. Morris, and died in Roff, Oklahoma, in 1901; Robert M., of this sketch; Frances, married Ben Harris ; Joseph Harris married Martha Colbert for

his second wife and she bore him twin daughters, Ida, who married James McCoy, and Ada, who became Mrs. Thomas McCoy. Both died leaving families.

Joseph Harris early took an interest in Chickasaw politics and was himself urged by his countrymen for public office. He proved a popular and highly competent offi- cial and was promoted from time to time, until the governorship itself seemed almost within his grasp. He served as county judge, treasurer of the Nation, delegate to Fort Smith, and as a member of the treaty of conference in 1866, regarded as one of the most important affecting the welfare of the Five Nations among the civilized tribes. He was often a member of the national legis- lature and was finally an unsuccessful can- didate for governor of the Chickasaw Na- tion. As a farmer. he was extensive and successful, being a slave owner, and when the Civil war came on he sided with the South and was commissioned colonel of the Chickasaw Battalion, which organization was used for the protection of the frontier against encroachments of the wild Indian tribes, his duty requiring much of his time around Ft. Sill. He died in 1884.

Governor Robert M. Harris was educated in the Indian schools of his time and in Shilo College, at Paris, Texas. He engaged in the stock business as a young man and. in 1882, purchased the improvements of Alexander Rennie. adjoining Tishomingo, and moved his family hither. This place he has since made his home, improved and cultivated and also allotments near Emet. where the scenes of his youth were enacted. While the governor has devoted his rural activities to the production of cotton and the various cereals, their importance prom- ises to be eclipsed by natural and subter- ranean resources, recently found and opened up, though almost totally undeveloped yet. Prospecting for minerals which might be present within the bowels of the earth, the presence of granite was discovered on his farm, and when a quarry was opened and the product tested and put to actual use as a building stone it was found to be unsurpassed. Samples of the stone were entered at St. Louis World's Fair and the Harris of Indian Territory exhibits were awarded second prize, the Vermont granite only exceeding it in superiority. The con- struction of the Chickasaw capitol and the Harris Building, of Tishomingo, are striking

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examples of its utility in a commercial sense. Its development only awaits the ad- vent of capital.

Governor Harris, like his illustrious father, became interested in Indian politics on approaching middle life, and his official career began with the office of constable. He was then elected county clerk, coun- ty judge, was sent to the lower house of the legislature a few times and, in 1896, was elected governor to succeed Gover- nor Wolfe. As governor, Mr. Harris was chairman of the Chickasaw delegation to Atoka to formulate in conjunction with. the Dawes Commission, the "Atoka Agree- ment." During his administration the Chickasaw capitol was built, under his supervision. The people having elevated him to the highest position in the gift of the freemen and he having acquitted him- self with entire satisfaction to his fellow- countrymen, with the termination of his services as governor Mr. Harris abandoned politics. He retired to his farm, where he has devoted ten years continuously to its cultivation and to the rearing and edu- cation of his interesting family. He is not a member of any church or fraternal society, but politically, an ardent supporter of Democratic principles.

He was first married in what is no. Brv- an county, in 1842, to Lucy McCoy, who died in 1894, the mother of Lula, wife of Charles Harkins, of Emet, leaving the fol- lowing children : Robert, Lucy May and Edwin, Emma, married Hamp Willis, of Kingston, Oklahoma, and has one daughter, Helen ; Nettie, wife of Ed. Bradley, of Emet. her children being Harris and a daughter not yet named ; Mamie, Mrs. Shema Boyd. of Tishomingo, has a daughter, Inez; and Tommy and Lucy, young ladies of the fam- ily home. For his second wife, Governor Harris married, in October, 1894, Jennie Wiatt. Dixie, Hallie and Robert are the children born of this union.

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A history of the state of Oklahoma, Volume II, Part 32

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