A history of the state of Oklahoma, Volume II, Part 44

Author: Hill, L. B. (Luther B.)
Publication date: 1909
Publisher: Chicago, New York, The Lewis publishing company
Number of Pages: 810

USA > Oklahoma > A history of the state of Oklahoma, Volume II > Part 44

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

JOHN B. JONES, postmaster of Lehigh has been a resident of Oklahoma since 1887 and of Lehigh since 1890, where he engaged in mercantile pursuits until his appointment as postmaster in 1898. He succeeded W. D. Covington and has been re-appointed since as often as the office has been advanced to a higher class. Mr. Jones was born in Wales, a son of Jacob D. Jones and wife, who em- igrated to the United States. The father died in New York and the mother. Ann Jones passed away at Collinsville, Illinois. Their children were: Joseph, of Haileyville, Oklahoma: Anthony, of Krebs, Oklahoma ; John B., of this sketch; Mary, wife of J. S. Simpson, of Collinsville, Illinois ; and Mar- garet, who married James Owens and re- sides in Iola, Kansas.

John B. Jones began life as a coal miner. The limited education he received when young, he had secured before he closed his career as a miner, by attending night schools and otherwise exerting himself in that direc- tion. He followed mining in Kentucky from which state he came to Oklahoma. He worked at his trade also in Savanna until he secured a clerkship there and he resumed this in Lehigh, when he made his home here. He has identified himself with his town as a permanent and substantial citizen, having erected one of the largest and best houses in the place. He also erected a business house in which the postoffice is located.

In his political affiliations, Mr. Jones is a believer in protecton for American labor and American industries and casts his vote with the Republicans. He first voted for General U. S. Grant and has followed down along the entire line of Republican presidents ever since. He is a member of the Masonic fra- ternity, having advanced to the Command- ery degree of this most ancient and honor- able Order.

In September, 1876, Mr. Jones was mar- ried in Dekoven, Kentucky, to Mary James, a daughter of Ben and Margaret James, the parents being English and Welsh respective- ly. William A. Jones is the sole heir of his parents and is the assistant postmaster of Lehigh.

230

HISTORY OF THE STATE OF OKLAHOMA.

BOONE WILLIAMS, of Lehigh, president of the Lehigh National Bank and a delegate to the Constitutional convention of the state, was born in Alcorn county, Mississippi Oc -. tober 9, 1872, a son of Benjamin Franklin Williams, who was born in the same state in 1835. He was captain of Company B Twenty-sixth Mississippi Infantry, serving under General Lee and was through the en- tire Civil war. Politically, he was a Dem- ocrat, and became prominent in Alcorn county affairs.

The grandfather, Robert T. Williams, was born in North Carolina and was a pioneer settler in Mississippi. He was a farmer and died in Alcorn county in 1880, aged seventy- two years. He married Mary Dalton and their children were: Mary, married Van Flake, and died in Hood county, Texas ; Emma, be- came Mrs. J. C. Reece and died in Corinth, Mississippi; Benjamin F .; Zebadiah, who died in Prentiss county, Mississippi ; Amelia, married E. F. Sorrell and died in Cornith, Mississippi, in 1904; Robert T., Jr., of Cor- inth, attorney-at-law, and H. Clay, who died unmarried. Benjamin F. Williams, the fa- ther of Boone, married Mollie, daughter of John and Mary Boone. The Boone family was founded in Mississippi by John Boone who died before the Civil War ; and was one of the largest slave owners of the state. He was from middle Tennessee. The children of Benjamin F. and Mollie (Boone) Wil- liams were: Sallie A., who died single, Boone, of this sketch, and Benjamin F. Jr., of Lehigh.

Politically, Boone Williams is a supporter of the principles of the Democratic party. He was a candidate for delegate to the Con- stitutional convention in 1907, and in spite of strong opposition, he won the election, defeating A. E. Perry, later vice-chairman of the Republican committee of Oklahoma. As a member of that convention which made the State Constitution Mr. Williams was a member of the committee on Crimes and Punishments, Geological Surveys, General Provisions, Military, and Liquor Traffic and was also on committee on Banking where the Oklahoma banking law originated, on which committee'he did most effective work. For six years he served on the Statehood Executive Committee and was the oldest member of that committee when the Statehood bill was drawn; was president of the Segregated Coal Towns Association and prepared the

memorial and plans for the sale of the se- gregated coal lands to actual settlers. Al- ways a Democrat, he has performed effici- ent service to his party on many occasions and has served his people locally in almost every public capacity. He stumped Coal county and a portion of Atoka county, in the campaign for Statehood. As a business man, he has been alert to many interests. He is now president of the Lehigh Com- mercial Club and is a thirty-second degree Mason ; a charter member of the South Mc- Alester Consistory. He also belongs to the Knights of Pythias and Elks orders. Mr. Williams is unmarried.

GEORGE A. FOOSHEE, is the senior mem- ber of the law firm of Fooshee and Brun- son, of Colgate and came to Coal county and Oklahoma in 1903 from Nocona, Texas, where as a member of the firm of Fooshee and Admire, he practiced law from 1898. He was an emigrant to Texas from Dayton, Rhea county, Tennessee. He was born in White county, Tennessee, September 30, 1869. He grew to manhood in Meigs coun- ty and owing to the financial circumstances of his parents, he was unable to procure even the rudiments of an education.

He is the son of Jonas and Jennie (Crook) Fooshee. John B. Crook, his grandfather, was one of the old settlers in Tennessee, and like Jonas Fooshee, was a farmer. Mrs. Fooshee died in 1894 and three years later her husband passed away. Their children were: Joseph C., of Dayton, Tennessee ; George A., of this notice; and Robert L., of Sparta, Tennessee.

At twenty years of age George A. Fooshee was still on the farm. and from thirteen to seventeen was never in school, learning to write after the latter age. When twenty years old he entered school in Decatur, Ten- nessee, and with a brother kept "bach," which act was necessary to husband their combined resources. The next vear he had reached a point where he was able to qualify for a teacher and he taught his first school. For the succeeding eight years he taught from August to December, attending school himself the remainder of the winter and farming in the summer months, until he finished his college course in the University of Tennessee. He was graduated from that institution in 1897 with the degree of LL. B., taught the following year and then moved out to Texas. As a teacher he was actively

Апеченина 1

231

HISTORY OF THE STATE OF OKLAHOMA.

interested in all the aids and supplemental work of the teachers' organizations of his county, attending teachers' meetings, con- ducting examinations and commanding a salary equal to the best paid teachers in his county.

Having prepared himself by reading while teaching, and while in the university for the profession of law, his diploma admitted him to the Tennessee bar and Mr. Fooshee ac- quired his first experience by assisting the county attorney, by his courtesy, a matter which added no little to his self-confidence and to his strength in the trial of causes. His practice in Texas and Oklahoma has been largely commercial and litigations over real estate titles and leases and in the course of his practice coming to his present firm by reason of their professional connection with the Rock Island and Oklahoma Cen- tral railroad companies.

Active from the incipient stages of State- hood, Mr. Fooshee was present as a dele- gate at every Statehood meeting and was one of the fathers of Democracy in the twenty-third recording district of the Indian Territory and was chairman of the Demo- cratic Central Committee of the district. He entered the campaign as a speaker for the constitution and the election of the Demo- cratic ticket. Much attention and time has been spent by Mr. Fooshee in behalf of the public schools. His work as an educator clothed him with a large sympathy for pub- lic education. He was a member of the school board of Colgate for several years, and attended every meeting for four vears, except two, wrote all contracts, and helped materially in erecting two new school houses. Likewise in Nocona, Texas, he served four years as a member of the school board and was also mayor of the town, and is now the city attorney of Coalgate. He is a stockholder in the First National Bank of Tupelo and in the Hale-Halsell Grocery Company.

In Meigs county. Tennessee, George A. Fooshee married, January 18, 1894, Miss Minnie Powell, a daughter of R. C. Powell, a farmer and merchant. The issue of their union is : Joseph C., George Trewitt, Lillian and Zetta Lee. To Mrs. Fooshee her hus- band gives all the credit for the educational achievements of himself. She warmly sec- onded his efforts in getting his education completed and enabled him to get through college bv keeping boarders until he was

equipped for a successful career at the bar. They are members of the Methodist Epis- copal church and are doing good work by precept and example for the moral and spiritual elevation of humanity. Mr. Foo- shee belongs to the Elks, Knights of Pythias and Woodmen of the World

COOPER E. DAVIS, of Coalgate, register of deeds for Coal county is a representative of the substantial young men who have been reared under the territorial conditions of the Chickasaw and Choctaw Nations and in spite of unfavorable environment, he has achieved a position of honor among his fel- low citizens and has maintained himself al- ways upright and useful as a citizen. He was born in Henry county, Tennessee, at Paris, May 26, 1868. He was seven vears of age when his parents left the old home state to take up their home among the In- dians of the Territory. His father, Rev. William Davis, was a native of Giles county, was self-educated there, and learned the wagon-maker's trade. His birth occurred in 1837 and his father was Vachel Davis, who after the Civil war moved to Arkansas and died at Greenwood, the father of four sons and as many daughters.

William Davis served four years as pri- vate in the Confederate army in Tennessee, being a soldier in the Trans-Mississippi de- partment. He was mustered out at Marshall, Texas, and returned home to resume his trade. He was converted young and re- sponded to the call to preach the gospel. In 1875 he came, according to arrangement, to work among the Indians and establish himself at Stringtown where he opened a wood-work shop and made it the prop which should sustain his family in the material things of life. From this point he visited the Choctaw and a part of the Chickasaw Nation, establishing churches and Sunday Schools and holding revival and other meet- ings. His chief business was to bring the gospel to the red men and he fulfilled his mission often at the personal discomfort of his family. He remained in Stringtown until age and the exhaustion of his work rendered him incompetent for regular service when, induced by his eldest son, he moved his fam- ily to Atoka where, November 16. 1905, he passed away. He married Melissa J. Diggs, a daughter of Rev. William Diggs, of Giles, a prominent Methodist revivalist of Ten- nessee and who was also one of the effective

232

HISTORY OF THE STATE OF OKLAHOMA.

expounders of the Methodist doctrines in the state. Mrs. Davis died in Atoka, Indian Territory, in 1904, the mother of Cooper E. of this narrative; Martha E., wife of P. L. Jackman, of Coalgate ; Minnie, who married Felix E. Lucand and resides at Van Buren, Arkansas ; Julia E., wife of John McElroy, of Atoka, Oklahoma, and Selma, Eunice and William E., of Atoka.

In Atoka and Coal counties, Cooper E. Davis passed his boyhood days and entered man's estate. His education came largely from the experiences of his every-day life. Twenty months would cover the time he spent in a subscription or other school and he was only thirteen years of age when he began earning money for the household by working about planing mills at Stringtown. His next work was on the section. as a track hand for the M. K. & T. Railroad Company. He remained at this and other positions on the road named for several months. He then went to Tushkahomma and engaged to work about a saw mill for a time. Coming back to Atoka he engaged as a clerk for D. C. Blossom with whom he continued five years, gaining there his primary ideas of practical business. In 1892 he came to Coalgate and entered the service of the Southwestern Coal and Improvement Com- pany and worked himself up to be chief clerk of the office. After five years in this capac- ity, he was connected with Perry Brothers Coal Mining Co., also the Coalgate Co., and then on the road as traveling salesman for the Southern Fuel Company, of Dallas, Texas, and was in that position when Okla- homa was admitted into the Union, and when he announced himself for register of deeds and asked for the nomination at the hands of the Democratic party. He received a plurality over five candidates and defeated two men at the election in September, 1907. by a majority of five hundred and seventy- three votes.

From the day he earned his first dollar until the last child of the paternal household could provide for itself Mr. Davis contribu- ted of his earnings to the support and com- fort of that home. His money not only went freely but his counsel and advice and time, when needed, went toward the main- tenance and happiness of those nearest his heart and the education and training of the younger ones of the family. When he ac- quired a family of his own the same care

was exercised for their welfare and he is seeing them grow up to become an honor to their parents and a credit to their com- munity as upright citizens.

In the month of June, 1892, Mr. Davis married, at Atoka. Oklahoma. Minnie L. Allen, a daughter of Dr. T. J. and Helen (Gatewood) Allen, formerly citizens of Ar- kansas. The other Allen children are: Ar- thur S., of Coalgate, Oklahoma; Juanita, a stenographer in Oklahoma City, and J. M., of Coalgate, Oklahoma. Mr and Mrs. Da- vis' children are: Allen, Arthur and Helen. Mr. Davis is superintendent of the Metho- dist Sunday School and has taken a lively interest in both religious and educational affairs.

DAN McLAUCHLAN, secretary of the Pro- gressive Club of Coalgate, and manager of the mercantile department of the Coalgate Company, became a citizen of Oklahoma in the early part of 1890, when he entered the mines as a coal miner. He was born at Cum- nock in the County of Ayrshire, Scotland. January 29, 1863, a son of John McLauchlan, who was also born in Cumnock, the home of the famous bard "Bobby" Burns. John McLauchlan learned the trade of a miner which he followed through life, spending more than fifty years in the "pits," and aban- doning this only when his powers were no longer equal to the demands of his work. He married Elizabeth McBeth, who died in Pennsylvania, while the family was tempor- arily sojourning there, leaving the following : Dan, of this memoir; Robert, a newspaper man, at Beamount, Texas : James, a wander- ing cosmopolitan, and Miss Kate, of La- Salle, Illinois.

Dan McLauchlan has been connected all his life with mining interests. He began at Arnot, Pennsylvania, when but a lad of eleven summers, and seemed to rather in- herit the disposition from his father who had worked at mining all of his active years. Dan was born when his father was about twenty-five years of age, and from early boy- nood, it appears that the son would certainly follow in his father's footsteps. Being hur- ried into the mines, only knowing the inside of a schoolroom until he passed into the second reader, Mr. McLauchlan virtually was educated under ground in the "pit." But quick and active mentally, he acquired much knowledge by absorption and observation, and the subsequent development of his fac-

233

IIISTORY OF THE STATE OF OKLAHOMA.

ulties in the realm of business followed his natural promise. He joined the movement to promote the interests of Coalgate and make it a good place in which to reside and was chosen its secretary. He possesses the spirit of progress in a marked degree and his ettorts, coupled with those of his fellow workers, will make a metropolitan center of the center of the county seat of Coal county. Mr. McLauchlan is a member of the Knights of Pythias; being past chan- cellor and has more than once represented his lodge at the Grand lodge.

In December, 1900, he was happily mar- ried in Coalgate, to Elizabeth Stanage, daughter of James Stanage, a miner, and an native of Glasgow, Scotland. The issue of this marriage is: John and Jean McLauch- lan. Politically he favors the Democratic party.

JOHN S. CAMERON, of Lehigh, superintend- ent of the Western Coal Mining Company, and vice-president of the Merchant's Nation- al Bank, is a son of William Cameron, the widely known mining expert and government mine supervisor of the Oklahoma region and both were born in Edinburgh, Scotland, the father in 1844 and the son July 9, 1875. Wil- liam Cameron, the father, was only a lad of eight summers, when he engaged in mining and has passed more than fifty years in some one of his departments of this calling. He identified himself with American mining in 1881, and two years later brought his family to the Indian Territory and became superintendent of the Atoka Mining Com- pany's property at Lehigh and Savanna. He continued in that capacity until 1902, when he was appointed to succeed L. W. Bryan as United States Mine Inspector of the In- dian Territory. He served as such until the arrival of Statehood when he was made supervisor of mines and coal expert for the government having his headquarters at Mc- Alester, Oklahoma. In his native land Wil- liam Cameron married Agnes, a daughter of John Simpson, a contractor and builder of Edinburgh. This union resulted in the fol- lowing issue, John S., of this notice; Rob- ert, died at Krebs, Oklahoma, where the family spent their first year in the United States: Alexander L., of Oklahoma; Miss Mabel J., and Campbell, both of McAlester.

John S. Cameron was reared in Pittsburg and Coal counties, Oklahoma, and attended the schools of McAlester and Lehigh, com-

pleting his collegiate course in the Univer- sity of Missouri. He was appointed assist- ant superintendent and cashier of the West- ern Coal Mining Company at once and filled the position until 1904, when he was made their mining engineer with offices at St. Louis. He held such position until 1906, when he was returned to Lehigh and as- signed to his present position.

As a citizen, Mr. Cameron has entered in- to the spirit of affairs in general at Lehigh, he being one of the promoters of the bank of which he is vice-president. It was or- ganized in 1906, with a capital of $25,000. In his political action Mr. Cameron affiliates with the Republican party. He was chairman of the Coal county central committee, during the campaign of 1907 and was chair- man of the delegation to the State Repub- lican convention of 1908. From May, 1907 to August, 1908, he was mayor of Lehigh. He is a wide awake citizen of the place, and is the present manager of the opera house of his city. He is a member of the Masonic fraternity, advanced to the thirty-second de- gree, Scottish Rite and Royal Arch Mason in the York Rite. He is also a member of the McAlester Consistory and Knights of Pythias orders and the Woodmen of the World.

Of his domestic affairs it may be stated that he was united in marriage March 21, 1899, to Miss Kate B. Bloomer, daughter of A. E. Bloomer, who immigrated to Oklaho- ma in 1893, going there from Sherman, Grayson county, Texas. The Bloomers were formerly from Kansas, where Mrs. Camer- on was born in 1848. The children of this union are Louise E., John Bloomer and Clara Regina.

CLINTON E. B. CUTLER, an attorney-at-law, practicing in Coalgate, Oklahoma, is a na- tive of the great "Prairie State" of Illinois, born in the city of Joliet, Will county, July 3, 1871, a son of Azro Cutler and the grand- son of Lyman A. Cutler, the former born in New York state and the latter in the city of Providence, Rhode Island. The grand- father brought his family west from Chen- ango county, New York, in the pioneer days of Chicago, and was himself an early mer- chant there. Of his five children, only Az- ro and Jasper reared families. The former settled in Will county, when a young man and improved a farm. He spent the years from 1844 to 1861 in Chicago, where his

234

HISTORY OF THE STATE OF OKLAHOMA.

father died in 1856. He married Elizabeth Miller, daughter of John Miller, who was a Swiss settler in Illinois. Mrs. Cutler was born in Switzerland and still survives in Joliet where she reared her family. Of her children, Clinton E. B. was the older and Miss Ida L., for many years a teacher in the public schools of Chicago, is the young- er.

Clinton E. B. Cutler was educated in the city schools of Joliet and was graduated from the law department of the Northern Indiana Law School, January 5, 1895, aft- er having read law with the firm of Don- ohoe and McNaughton of his home town. He was admitted to the bar at Ottawa, Ill- inois, before the Appellate court, May 22, 1895. From 1895 to 1906 Mr. Cutler prac- ticed law in Jonet, but was chosen in the latter year supervisor of his home place, which was one of the important and respon- sible offices in the gift of the citizens of the town. While an incumbent of such office three years, he instituted many inno- vations looking toward the saving of money to the tax-payers. He abolished the "Town Store" and went into the open markets among the merchants of the place for the town's goods. He put the "town" on a strictly cash basis and thereby relieved the public of a large interest fund. He built a sanitary sewer at the county farm and fa- thered the resolution to have "union" labor to do all the work on county buildings. He also had the county records properly indexed and papers and instruments properly record- ed and was chairman of the school com- mittee and helped build up the common schools of his native county. In 1903, Mr. Cutler was appointed by the mayor of Joliet, corporation counsel of the city and filled that office until May, 1906. During his incumb- ency of this office the board of local im- provement passed a resolution requiring all contractors doing city work to use union la- bor and work eight hours a day, and when- ever an opportunity presented itself to in- terest himself in behalf of organized labor, Mr. Cutler demonstrated his friendship for it.

He was reared and educated a Democrat and in 1904 became a candidate for the leg- islature from Will county. He was bitter- ly opposed by the "Gas Ring" and by the sanitary canal interests. The Republican Attorney General of Illinois arbitrarily re-

versed the findings of two county judges sitting to pass upon contests, which ruling deprived Mr. Cutler of a place on the official ballot, after being legally nominated by a two-thirds majority convention. When his term of corporation counsel had expired he came to Oklahoma, locating at Lehigh, in Coal county, where he was engaged in ac- tive law practice until 1908, when he located at Coalgate and associated with George Trice and E. E. McInnis in the practice of law. Having ever participated in Demo- cratic politics, when the party was actively formulating its plans for the Statehood and later campaigns, he joined with his party as- sociates and aided in the election of the constitutional delegate. He himself has served as delegate to conventions of his chosen party in both county and state. In his profession he is known as a vigorous trial lawyer and the public regard him as one of the strong members of the Coal coun- ty Dar.

WILLIAM T. CULBERTSON. An old-time merchant of Indian Territory, which he first entered as a boy in 1868, William T. Cul- bertson has, for a number of years past, been engaged in the real estate business at Ki- owa, Pittsburg county, of which city he is an ex-mayor and last mayor, the town now having a trustee form of government. He is a leading citizen in every sense of the word. He comes of a well known Scotch- Irish family, originating at Culbertson Row, county Antrim, Ireland, and being planted in America by Samuel, one of three brothers who, sometime prior to 1758, located in Pennsylvania in what was known as Culbert- son Row. The records show that he was en- rolled as sergeant major in Colonel Hugh Mercer's Third Battalion of Pennsylvania Provincial troops and that he continued in service until 1759 ; as his term of enlistment was for three years, it is evident that he must have been enrolled as early as 1756. It is also of record that his will was pro- bated in Franklin county, Pennsylvania, in the year 1789. His second son, John Cul- bertson, emigrated from his native Ireland to the United States, and in December, 1776, was serving as lieutenant in the Fifth Bat- talion of Cumberland County Associateers under Colonel Joseph Armstrong. Andrew J., son of the lieutenant and grandfather of William T., was born in Erie county, Penn- sylvania, in 1794; subsequently moving to

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

A history of the state of Oklahoma, Volume II, Part 44

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