A history of the state of Oklahoma, Volume II, Part 54

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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Peter Maytubby was born in Mississippi October 10, 1832. his Chickasaw parents be- ing Shanna and Kalletio (McCoy) Maytub- by. In his infancy he was brought with other members of the family to a locality which is now the site of Hugo, Choctaw county, Ok- lahoma, but which then was known as Good- land. There were reared the eight children, of whom Peter was one of the eldest. He reached maturity, hardy, truthful and self- reliant, with such education as he had obtained from the native schools, and early showed an unusual aptitude for business and the man- agement of large affairs. In time he became a most successful agriculturist and stockman, and a man of large property and wide influ- ence among both the Choctaws and the Chick- asaws.

Mr. Maytubby was thrice married, and of his children by his first two wives the follow- ing survive: Samuel, a citizen of Caddo: Peter, a farmer of Bryan county, and Mary, now Mrs. J. C. Moore, of Ainsworth, Okla- homa. Left a widower for the second time when under forty years of age, Mr. Maytubby married as his third wife, Tabitha S. Bailey, on the 17th of May. 1875. The ceremony occurred near Fort Smith, Arkansas. The surviving and honored widow was born near Chattanooga, Tennessee, on the Georgia line, July 25. 1856, being a daughter of William and Minerva (Hinyard) Bailey. Her par- ents were modest rural folk, who died during her childhood leaving-William, who resides near Chattanooga in the vicinity of the old family home, and Tabitha S., Mrs. Maytub- by, who in 1869 accompanied her uncle, Wiley Bailey, to Fort Smith and a few years later met her future husband. The issue of this

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third union was: Sophia, wife of Dr. Miller, a dentist of Walter, Oklahoma; Susan, wife of Everett Pitchalyn, a prominent young farm- er residing near Caddo who is a grandson of the noted Indian statesman, scholar and law- yer and representative of the Choctaw nation at Washington for so many years : Jessie D. Y., of Caddo ; Bessie, Elihu B. and Lillian T. May- tubby.

Until 18:5 Peter Maytubby made his home around Boggy Depot, but that year brought his household to Caddo and was afterward identified with the people of that community until his death thirty-two years thereafter. He was in constant touch with the Dawes Com- mission during the period of allotment in sev- eralty and was of great value to that body in maintaining harmony between the tribes and the government. His own family allotments were taken adjacent to Caddo. and upon this tract were discovered and developed the lo- cally famous Maytubby Springs. Located over an undeveloped field of petroleum, the waters pour from the hillsides of the broken land, varying in quality from a slightly oily decoc- tion to a mixture too thick and sickening to drink and from fresh water to what readily passes for mineral waters. As the number of guests to the locality increased Mr. May- tubby erected a commodious home near the springs, where he maintained his family for seven years and entertained countless friends and visitors. Here he passed the last years of his life, and although he was a man of · great physical vigor he scarcely passed the psalmist's allotted "three score and ten." Much of the later portion of his life was spent in reading, and very prominent in his list was the Bible, for the deceased was a devout and practical Christian, a member of the Presby- terian church. There are few characters who have resided in Oklahoma whose usefulness was broader or more disinterested than his, and certainly none who carried to the beyond a greater share of sincere esteem and affection.

HON. WILLIAM A. DURANT, state represen- tative for Bryan and Atoka counties, and prominent in Indian affairs, as well as a leader in the Democratic party, was born in old Blue county, Choctaw Nation, near Bennington, Oklahoma, March 18, 1866. His father was Sylvester Durant, a Cumberland Presbyterian minister and farmer, who came into Indian Territory in 1832. Ile came from near Dur- ants Bluff, Mississippi, and while making bis way to his future home in the wilds of the

new cession, he is said to have made the en- tire journey on foot. His first location was near Boggy, but he took up his residence near Bennington later, and died there in 1876. He served as a major in Folsom's Confederate troops, during the great Civil war and learned to read and write after coming into the terri- tory. He became one of the finest interpre- ters of the Choctaw Nation and was a member of the Indian Legislature when he died.

The Durants emanate from a Frenchman, Pierre Durant, who married a full-blood Choc- taw, came to Oklahoma in the early days of the Indian hegira, and died at Bennington. Among his many children were Fisher, after whose son, Dixon, the city of Durant took its name ; George, who was prominent in Choc- taw politics and the father of Judge A. R. Durant ; Rev. Sylvester ; Ellis and Isham, both deceased; Zozare, known as Jo, a farmer and once a county judge; Phillis, who married Lewis Robinson: and Monett, who became the wife of John Folsom. Rev. Sylvester Durant married Martha Robinson, a white lady who died in 1881, leaving Pierre. of Durant, Carina, wife of Fred Thompson, and William A. Both Rev. Durant and Martha Robinson had been previously married, the former's first children being Mrs. Edmund Jones and Mrs. Martin Crowder, while Mrs. Durant's children were Mrs. Sarah Powell, of Durant, Oklahoma ; Mary married Rev. Dixon Durant ; Elizabeth, Mrs. John Durant : and James Hutchinson.

Coming to the biography proper of Hon. William A. Durant, it should be stated that he was educated in the public schools of Benn- ington, and Durant and Arkansas College, at Batesville, where he graduated in 1886. Choosing law for his profession, he com- menced its study at Paris, Texas, and was ad- mitted to the bar there in the Federal court. before Judge Boardman. He was admitted to the Choctaw courts by Judge Vinson, at the old court grounds of the Third district, and there tried his first lawsuit. He continued actively in the law practice until his entry into politics, preparatory to statehood. It was in 1881 that Mr. Durant located near where Dur- ant has since been established, and here he has had both farming and stock-raising interests until the present time. He took his family allotments here and has a thousand acres in one body, almost adjoining the city, which constitutes a princely estate.

In early manhood, Mr. Durant was actively engaged in Choctaw politics and took an ac-

Was ur ant

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tive interest in the educational affairs of his people. He was the superintendent of Jones Academy, at Hartshorne and was appointed royalty collector for his district. His first position was an educational one, that of in- spector of academies. He served as special district judge, under the Indian government. When selecting party fealty in national mat- ters, he became a Democrat and campaigned parts of the Choctaw and Chickasaw nations for the Democratic candiciate for Constitu- tional delegate, also covering a part of the Seminole country, which service aided largely in the choice of Judge R. L. Williams of Durant, as a delegate to the convention that framed the State's constitution. Mr. Durant was appointed sergeant-at-arms of the Consti- tutional Convention, and took the stump for the Constitution for the Democratic party, in the autumn of 1902. He was prevailed upon to run for state representative and although he made few speeches in his own district, he defeated his opponent by about two thousand votes.

In the legislature. Mr. Durant was made chairman of the public building committee, was a member of the general appropriations committee, committee of public highways, and committee on relations of the Five Civilized Tribes. He is opposed to the sale of the School Lands of his state: favors the "New Jerusalem" plan for a state capital, and ably supported the movement for abolishing the saloon in Oklahoma. He secured the passage of a resolution for the transfer of the Indian records to the State Historical Society's rooms. In all his career, Mr. Durant has stood for correct and progressive measures.

Mr. Durant was re-elected representative at the expiration of his first term and among the committees on which he served was the appropriation committee, public building com- mittee, and on criminal jurisprudence. He was largely responsible in securing one of the state normal schools for Durant. His popularity is evinced by his re-election, and no man stands higher in the estimation of the people in Southern Oklahoma.

Concerning his domestic affairs, let it be stated that he was united in marriage in 1892. on the 19th of April, to Ida May Corber. daughter of George Corber, of Ozawkie. Kansas. Mrs. Durant was born in Jefferson county. Kansas, April 1. 18:3. The chil- dren of this union are: William E. L .. who served as a page in the Constitutional

convention of Oklahoma and also in the first legislature, and is a member in good standing of "Murray's Chickasaw Squirrel Rifles." The youngest child of Mr. and Mrs. Durant is James Gordon.

CLEMENT A. HANCOCK, of Caddo, is one of the real pioneers of the place, for although a man of middle age he has passed more than thirty-six years within the present corporate limits. His father was one of the fathers of the place and, after a long career as a cattle- man of Texas, Kansas and Indian Territory, ended his days at Caddo in 1901 as a news- paper man. The son, Clement A., was born in Colorado county, Texas, on the 19th of October, 1852, and his childhood and youth were passed in that locality, in Cherokee coun- ty, Kansas, and at various points in the pres- ent state of Oklahoma to which his father's cattle and business interests called him. From 1869 to 1822 was the period spent in southern Kansas, and in the latter year the family lo- cated at Caddo whose site was still virtually prairie grass.

As a youth of fifteen. Clement A. Han- cock's first employment at Caddo was in the store of Major Harlan in the capacity of a clerk. Later he was similarly connected with Marchand and Fenlon and finally, as C. A. Hancock, transacted a general business in merchandise from 1882 to 1903. In the year named he retired with a competency, but al- though he relinquished business he commenced the realization of a long-cherished desire to be an agent in the improvement of the thoroughbred cattle of his county and the ter- ritory. He selected as his breed the White Face cattle, and when it became possible to acquire title to Indian lands he began buying "Indian surplus." His large ranch is situated some six miles from Caddo and is equipped with a comfortable residence, convenient barns, sheds and tanks, and other necessities for the proper handling of fine stock. He started in the business with one hundred head of young high-grade heifers of the White Face variety and placed Fitzsimmons and Dewey, registered males, at the head of the herd, and, with each year's addition of new animals, he has now as pure and valuable a collection of White Faces as can be found in this section of the state. His is now one of the important enterprises of the county. He is owner of a pleasant home at the corner of Arkansas and Ainsworth streets. and his worldly successes have failed to draw him

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from the attractions of the home circle, and he is essentially domestic in his nature. His fraternal connections are limited to member- ship with the Woodmen of the World.

The father of J. S. Hancock, was born near Louisville, Kentucky, in 1833, his parents being Virginians. He remained in that state until the late forties, when he located in Col- orado county, Texas, and established himself there as a stockman and a citizen of affairs. Among other offices he held that of tax as- sessor of his county prior to the Civil war. As the climate did not agree with his health he drove a herd of cattle into Cherokee county, southern Kansas, and resided in that part of the state from 1869 to 1822. Having recovered his health and done well financially, Mr. Han- cock again traveled southward, following the railroad until it stopped at Caddo, where he himself rested from his travels. Then and there was founded the Hancock family of Oklahoma, one of the last acts of Mr. Han- cock's energetic and useful life being to as- sume the management of the Caddo Herald, as its proprietor. He died while thus engaged, January 15, 1901. The deceased was a man of strong and high character. He was a charter member of the Odd Fellows lodge at Caddo, and of a social and charitable dispo- sition. In the fifties he had married, in Col- orado county, Texas, Miss Mary E. Allen, whose father, Clement Allen, was a native of Georgia, a stock farmer and a Texas pioneer. His first wife died October 24, 1857, leaving him a son, Clement A. Hancock, of this sketch. Mrs. Susan F. Bransford became the second wife of J. S. Hancock. She is a

daughter of Albert Henderson, and by a for- mer marriage had a son, W. S. Bransford, now of Stockton, California. By her marriage to Mr. Hancock she became the mother of Sallie, wife of F. K. Low, who died at Caddo many years ago and left a son, William H., now a young man residing at Pauls Valley. Oklahoma; and Samuel H. Hancock, of San Francisco, California. January 1, 1889, Cle- ment A. Hancock married Miss Julia Sims, born in Mckinney, Texas. The children of this union are Phillis. Paul, Lee, Ruth and Mary Frances. The family are members of the Methodist church.

HION. A. FRANK Ross, of Durant, was a pioneer minister of the Baptist church, was an influential missionary of the Indian Terri- torv. a gentleman of statewide reputation as a Mason and an Odd Fellow, and served as

one of Bryan county's representatives in the lower house of the first legislature of Okla- homa. He was a native of Neshoba county, Mississippi, born on the 21st of January, 1851, son of Abraham J. Ross and Martha Moore, daughter of A. J. Moore, a Choctaw woman of Christian character. The paternal grand- father. Frank Ross, was an infant in arms when his parents crossed the Atlantic and lo- cated in South Carolina. There he married Nancy Boyd, daughter of John Boyd, keeper of a stage station between Greenville and Lawrence Court House, that state. Eleven sons and two daughters were born to their union, and in time the parents removed to Neshoba county, Mississippi, where they be- came slave owners and planters of importance and spent the last years of their lives. Their son, Abraham J. Ross, who had been born in Lawrence district, South Carolina, in the year 1819, was given a fair education, and, although a man of middle age at the time of the out- break of the Civil war, served in the ranks of the Confederate army. In Texas he gave his efforts toward the development of a home and the proper rearing of his family. His first wife (nee Martha Moore) died in 1853 in Neshoba county, Mississippi, the mother of the following: A. Frank, of this sketch; and William T. Ross, now a resident of Madill. For his second wife Abraham J. Ross married Rebecca Poole, who bore him: Ella, now the wife of John Murff, of Leon county, Texas ; John and Lee, who died in that county : Fan- nie, who married Charles Hailey, of Lott, Texas ; Bettie, who married and is now a resi- dent of Bokoshe, Oklahoma, and George, who lives in Leon county, Texas.

As the Civil war period covered the youth- ful years of A. Frank Ross, and his father was at the front, in the service of the Confed- eracy, his education was so neglected that he reached man's estate scarcely able to read or write. He was at that time a farm hand in Leon county, Texas, and after he was twenty- one years of age, having decided to enter the ministry, he became an academic student. He afterward entered the Southern Baptist Theo- logical Seminary, at Louisville, Kentucky, hav- ing previously taken a literary course at Bay- lor University, then situated at Independence, Texas, and conducted by Dr. William Carey Crane, so well known to the early educators of the state. He had joined the church, for which he was to labor with such good results, in 1866: in 1868 was set apart to the ministry

J. Thank Rose

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by the Missionary Baptist church, in Leon county, and in 1814 was appointed by the church as a missionary to the Indian Territory, locating first near Fort Smith, Arkansas. His stay there of two years was occupied with both teaching and preaching, after which, de- siring to better prepare himself for his work, he spent two years in the theological seminary at Greenville, South Carolina, graduating therefrom in 1828. He at once returned to his missionary labors in the Choctaw Nation, his earlier work being in the section of what is now LeFlore county, Oklahoma. The board of the Southern Baptist convention gave him full charge over the fullblood preachers of his church, which authority connected him with the Baptist work of the entire nation. He was closely identified with this special field for ten years, and when appointed examiner of teachers became more particularly interest- ed in the work of education. For seven years he held that position, holding examinations at different points in the nation, as the conven- ience of the teachers required. During a por- tion of his activity as a missionary he made his home in McAlester, and while there pub- lished the first paper established in the terri- tory, known as "The Indian Missionary." He also founded "The Fraterna! Record," his in- terest in the work of the higher fraternities having prompted him to launch the enterprise with the object of combining the good offices of the benevolent orders with the moral in- fluences of religion. As a Baptist minister, Mr. Ross was very efficient, and few clergy- men living have baptized more happy con- verts in the Indian Territory, ordained more preachers or founded more churches than he during the past thirty-four years. He was the moderator of one of the largest associations within the church body, comprising the Choc- taws and the Chickasaws, and also served as president of the State Sunday School conven- tion. As already intimated, Mr. Ross was one of the conspicuous Masons of the Indian Ter- ritory jurisdiction. Initiated in Amity lodge, Arkansas, in 1875, he took the three degrees as a member of that body. after which he at- tended school at Greenville, South Carolina, where he took the chapter degrees. He was long connected with the Masonic grand lodge as lecturer, chaplain, junior and senior war- dens, orator, and grand chaplain. He was made grand patron of the grand chapter. O. E. S., at Oklahoma City in 1893. In 1877 he became an Odd Fellow at Louisville. Ken- ticky : passed through the chairs in Cyclone

Lodge No. 3 at McAlester in 1882; and be- came first grand secretary of the grand lodge of Indian Territory in 1893, in Pocahontas Lodge No. 2 at Lehigh. Mr. Ross was the only man living who had attended every ses- sion of the grand lodge of Odd Fellows and filled all of its elective offices. He served as grand treasurer three times, and was grand master for the term of office expiring April, 1908. At the meeting of the grand lodge in that year at Sulphur he was elected grand rep- resentative of the sovereign grand lodge to convene in Denver in the fall, and was pre- sented with a gold medal as an expression from the order of its high appreciation of his faithful service and as a token of esteem for a gentleman and an honorable citizen. In both Masonry and Odd Fellowship Mr. Ross was among the most prominent figures of the southwest.

Prior to the approach of statehood Mr. Ross took little interest in politics, although his views were generally known to be those of a pronounced Democrat .. His long and use- ful career among his people, his popularity and his strong character, however, marked him for the public service of the new common- wealth, and he was chosen a representative to the first legislature of the state of Okla- homa by the largest vote given any candidate at the primary election. As a member of the house of representatives he served as chair- man of the committee on commerce and man- ufactures, and was a member of the commit- tees on general agriculture, agricultural edu- cation, private corporations and birds, game and fish. When not absent from the capital on extraordinary business he was always pres- ent at roll-call and was ever ready to forcibly support his vote by a sensible reason clearly expressed. Mr. Ross was elected a member of the second legislature of Oklahoma but died, August 6. 1908, before taking his seat.

On the 21st of January, 1879, Mr. Ross was married to Miss Emma J. Tucker, at Fort Smith, Arkansas. She is a daughter of David A. Tucker, whose early home was in Georgia. After their marriage, like the Christian girl that she was, she left her friends and relatives. went with her husband to his Indian home, and with him fought the good fight. Six children have been born to them, one of whom died in infancy and the other five have become promising workers for the Christian cause. Mave married Jared Stallings in 1898, and is now a widow residing at Durant with her two children : Samuel B., twenty-five years of age,

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is a teacher and farmer at Utica, Oklahoma : Hallie, twenty-three years old, is a public school teacher at Alderson, that state; Nema, twenty-one, is the wife of W. F. Leard, and also lives at Durant, and Ione, thirteen years of age, is at home. Being Choctaw citizens, Mr. Ross' family have splendid farms in Bryan county, their allotments having been taken in the vicinity of the county seat. On his own tract about a mile from Durant Mr. Ross had established a fruit farm of 100 acres, largely devoted to berries, and was one of the most prominent horticulturists in Bryan county.

ALVAH B. McCoy, of Caddo, Bryan county, has been a resident of what is now the state of Oklahoma for nearly thirty years, and since 1829 has remained almost constantly within the boundaries of the territory included in the former Choctaw and Chickasaw na- tions. It is as an agriculturist that he is best known, although he has enjoyed quite a mer- cantile experience at other points than Caddo during the years of his active career, and since becoming a resident of that town has done much for its educational and civic ad- vancement. January 22, 1909, Mr. McCoy again entered the mercantile field when he bought the hardware, implement and vehicle store from Diffenderffer Hardware Company of Caddo.

Mr. McCoy was born in Columbus, Geor- gia, September 26. 1860, the family having been prominent for many years among the planters along the Chattahoochee river and with the business and financial interests of that city. His father was a substantial planter and a Confederate soldier, who brought his fam- ily to Texas when Alvah B. was seventeen years of age. The youth had been well edu- cated in various subscription schools of Georgia and completed his studies at Gran- bury and Weatherford colleges of the Lone Star state. Then his active temperament drew him to the life of the plains and he became a cowboy on the ranches of Charles Metz of Denton county and James Majors, also of western Texas. In 1879 Alvah B. McCoy left the range and for two year's was employed as a ferryman on the Red river at Colbert Station, and it was during this period (in 1880) that the great flood occurred which made that stream impassable for two weeks, its record for high water standing until the greater flood of 1907. Mr. McCoy's next move was to Caddo, where he was a clerk for

six years in the mercantile establishment of his brother, Dr. C. McCoy. He then went to Wynnewood, Chickasaw Nation, where he completed the first store building erected in the place and occupied it for some time as his place of business. When he sold this estab- lishment he located at Ardmore, now in Car- ter county, and after filling a clerical capacity there for two years returned to Caddo (in 1892), which has since been his place of resi- dence. While in Wynnewood Mr. McCoy married a Choctaw citizen, and his family allotments in the Choctaw and Chickasaw na- tions amounted to 1,400 acres. Much of the land lying near Caddo he has brought under cultivation and improved with houses and other buildings for the comfortable habita- tion of the tenants upon whom he chiefly de- pends for the proper cultivation of the land and the general operation of the farm.

In politics, Mr. McCoy is a strong Demo- crat, and has served Caddo as mayor, alder- man and secretary of the school board. He was also prominent in Indian politics as man- ager of Governor McCurtain's campaign in Blue county. being chosen judge of the county and serving a portion of one term. In the ranks of the fraternities he is active and pop- ular, being identified with the Uniformed Rank Knights of Pythias, Woodmen of the World and the Elks.

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A history of the state of Oklahoma, Volume II, Part 54

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