A history of the state of Oklahoma, Volume II, Part 55

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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Again referring to the high standing of the McCoy family in the early annals of Georgia history, it is noted that Jeremiah McCoy, the grandfather, was a leading slave-owning plan- ter on the Chattahoochee river in the early portion of the nineteenth century, became a banker in the city of Columbus and died as one of the wealthy and influential men of that section of the state. Henry R. McCoy, the father, was born in Muscogee county, not far from Columbus, in the year 1818, and, grew to manhood amid the aristocratic surround- ings of his father's magnificent plantation. He followed in the paternal footsteps. and although he was in affluent circumstances at the time of the breaking out of the Civil war and had passed the legal age of military serv- ice he volunteered for service in the army of the Confederacy. He gave three of the best years of his life to the cause, and received at least one wound as a result of his bravery and faithfulness. In 1877 he brought his fam- ily to Texas, locating at Weatherford, near where he resumed the vocation of his fathers. Some years later he removed to Sherman,

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HISTORY OF THE STATE OF OKLAHOMA

where he lived in semi-retirement until his death in 1892. His wife, formerly Selata Cheney, was the daughter of Isaac Cheney, a French farmer, and she passed away at Sher- man, in 1897, at the age of eighty-three. The issue of their union are: Perkins W., of Wynnewood, Oklahoma; Lizzie, unmarried, and residing at Sherman, Texas; Ella, now Mrs. David Frasier, of Ardmore, Oklahoma ; Dr. Clay, also of that place; Dr. Isaac C., of Fort Worth, Texas; Dr. C. H., of Port La- vaca, that state; Mittie, wife of John Malcom, who died at Durant in 1890 and left three children; Lucy, who resides at Wapanucka, Oklahoma, and is the wife of John C. Wilder ; Devotie and Alvah B. McCoy, residents of Caddo. On March 4, 1888, Alvah B. McCoy married a sixteenth Choctaw, Miss Georgia L. Carr, daughter of J. E. Carr, of Wynnewood, and a granddaughter of Rev. Carr, founder and builder of Bloomfield Academy and a pion- eer missionary who accompanied the tribe from Mississippi to the Indian Territory. J. E. Carr married Alice Johnson, of Paris, Texas, and their union produced Mrs. McCoy ; Edith, wife of Sim Riggan ; Helen, who married Whit Wade; Ida, now Mrs. Frank Deal; Beulah : and Bonnie, wife of Fred Reynolds. The children of Mr. and Mrs. Alvah B. McCoy are Stella C., Clarence and Isaac C. The fam- ily are members of the Methodist church. Their pleasant home is at the corner of Arkan- sas and Ainsworth streets.

ELIHU B. HINSHAW, of Durant, has spent eighteen years in Oklahoma which period was passed in educating the Indian youth of the Chickasaw Nation. While directly interested in the training of the. daughters of the gov- ernment ward, as Superintendent of Bloom- field Seminary, he espoused the cause of edu- cation generally and lost no opportunity to contribute to the intellectual advancement of what is now about seventeen counties of the southern part of Oklahoma. Teachers meet- ings attract him and on such occasions as Chautauqua gatherings his experiences and ripe scholarship are always in demand.

Mr. Hinshaw is a native of Randolph coun- ty, North Carolina, born October 23, 1860, son of Jacob and Elizabeth (Barker) Hin- shaw. His ancestors were members of the Society of Friends, in which he holds a birth- right. They came to America with the Penn Colony but settled in North Carolina. Dur- ing the Civil war, the father moved his fam- ily to a farm near Sheridan, Hamilton coun- Vol. II-19.

ty, Indiana, where he reared and educated his children, when the oldest, Elihu B. of this sketch, left in his teens for college. The mother died in 1884 but the father still lives.

Elihu B. Hinshaw was graduated from col- lege in 1886 with the degree of Bachelor of Arts, and later, on account of further literary attainments and research, the degree of Master of Arts was conferred. Soon after gradua- tion, he commenced his labors among the Chickasaws by accepting a position in Bloom- field Seminary. Although the institution was an old one it had advanced but little. After a few years he was promoted to the superin- tendency of the seminary, and so arranged the courses of study as to make them compare favorably with the High School curriculum in the states. The courses, in addition to the lit- erary department, included vocal and instru- mental music, art, and needle work, and that the pupils excelled in the latter branches was demonstrated at the St. Louis Exposition in 1903, when the seminary's art exhibit was ac- knowledged the best sent from what is now known as Oklahoma. That the graduates made good citizens and appreciated their priv- ileges is also evident from the fact that sev- enty-five per cent. of them became teachers themselves.

Professor Hinshaw, as he is familiarly known, held the superintendency of Bloom- field Seminary nine years, and when the Chick- asaw Normal was established, he was ap- pointed its director by the governor and sup- erintendent of Indian schools, holding these positions as long as tribal relations remained undisturbed. He was also made president of the examining board for teachers, perform- ing his duties until superseded by the Federal authorities in 1906. He was a member of the National Text-book committee, which was created by an act of the legislature, and in that capacity aided in the selection of the text- books used in the National schools. He was a member of the signal service, is a registered pharmacist, a member of a lecture lyceum bu- reau, and has written considerable for publi- cation. To his other attainments he has added a knowledge of law, a course in which he completed recently.

The entire school work in which Professor Hinshaw has been engaged required the high- est qualities of an educator, patience, firm- ness, initiative, knowledge of advanced meth- ods and a keen insight into the higher nature of the Indian race; and in all these traits he so excelled that his record makes him one of

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its real benefactors, as well as a strong instru- ment in the development of the new life of the southwest. His sterling worth, tact and ability, also the esteem in which he is held by the Indian people commended him to the au- thorities of the New State of Oklahoma and he was elected to the vice-presidency, and sup- erintendent of the training department of the Southeastern State Normal School located at Durant. He is a Christian gentleman, cultured and refined, and is the embodiment of noble manhood.

Mr. Hinshaw is a Mason of high standing, having taken both the York and the Scottish rites. He is a Knight Templar, of the Deni- son (Texas) Commandery, a member of the Shrine, of Hella Temple, at Dallas, Texas. In the Scottish Rite, he is a thirty-second de- gree Mason, belonging to the McAlester Con- sistory. In 1886 he married Mollie E. Hunni- cutt, of Victoria College, Tennessee, daughter of J. C. and Nancy Hunnicut. With all due respect to the work done by others, there is in all probability, no man who has done a greater work among the Indians with whom he has labored than has Prof. Elihu B. Hin- shaw.

RUPERT P. BOWLES, of Durant, has been a resident of what is now Bryan county for the past twenty-five years, and soon after his loca- tion in Durant in 1907 entered the real estate field, which he has since occupied and culti- vated with profit to himself and as a force tending to contribute to the general develop- ment of the community. He was born in Cald- well county, North Carolina, on the 29th of May, 1862, and is descended from northern ancestry. His paternal grandfather was a Pennsylvanian, who migrated to Caldwell county during the first quarter of the nine- teenth century, reared a large family and died just after the Civil war. His son John, the father of Rupert P. Bowles, came to manhood on the paternal farm, received a district school education and exhibited in youth a decided mechanical bent. He therefore learned the carpenter's trade, and in time engaged in con- tracting, the vicinity of Hickory, Catawba county, where he now resides, having many substantial and attractive structures which are his creations. With the exception of two years' service in the Confederate army, he de- voted his working life to the work of his trade, settling near his birthplace to enjoy the final years of his life. He was born in the Tar Heel state in 1822, and has passed the

years of his long and useful life in Caldwell and Catawba counties. For his wife he mar- ried Miss Eliza C. Moore, daughter of Mrs. Eleanor Moore, of Scotch ancestry. Mrs. Bowles died in 1892, the mother of Williani A., who passed away in Chester, South Caro- lina, leaving a family; M. L., of Atlanta, Georgia; J. A., of Hickory, North Carolina ; Rupert P., of this notice, and Julia, now Mrs. Stevenson, also residents of that place.

The early experience of Rupert P. Bowles in the practical things of the world was ac- quired in printing offices at Hickory, North Carolina, and Lawrenceville, Georgia. At the same time he was obtaining a good common school education, so that when he left the lat- ter place in 1882 for Texas he was a remark- ably intelligent and self-reliant young man. In Wise county he fell in with Dan Wagoner, the famous cattle king of that section, and re- mained with him for two years. His next move was to Kaufman county, where he en- joyed a mercantile experience of two years, afterward taking a position as bookkeeper in the grocery of J. W. Bennett, of Denison. In 1889 he located in the Choctaw Nation, en- gaging at Sterrett, now Bryan county, in the hay and grain business and in general mer- chandising. Thus occupied until 1892, he sold his business and brought the proceeds to Du- rant, for a time following the stock business near that place. The active conduct of that business, which necessitated much contact with property owners, drew him into real estate matters and he began handling lands in a limited way. In 1903, when the land office was located at Atoka, he engaged regularly in that line of business, and has prosecuted it continuously ever since. He has a large body of all kinds of lands under his control, and renders valuable aid to settlers in the se- curing of desirable homes and in acquiring incontestable title to them, under the recent act of Congress removing restrictions from Indian lands.

In 1901 Mr. Bowles spent nearly two years in the mineral state of Chihuahua, Mexico, in quest of a region of great traditional pro- ductiveness. With a native guide he covered the trails of the state, penetrated to even un- explored sections, and finally located at Guade- loupe E. Calvo, northwestern Chihuahua, a copper and silver mine of unknown richness, but located sixty days' journey from transpor- tation facilities and unprofitable to work 1111- der Mexican conditions. He opened the mine to test its value, and yielded to an offer fairly

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compensating him for the time, passing his title to other hands. With the exception of this period passed in Mexico Mr. Bowles has been an active citizen of Durant and vicinity. contributing to the development of the local- ity. Eight of the substantial brick stores of the city owe their erection to him, through his financial connection with the contractors, and two of the large and attractive residences are his creations. His present home at 1403 West Main street is one of the most attractive spots at the county seat, being a ten-room cottage gracing a block of artistically im- proved grounds. Politically, Mr. Bowles is a well known Democrat, and during Cleve- land's second administration served as United States constable for the Durant commissioner district. On July 27, 1889, Mr. Bowles was married in Dallas, Texas, to Mrs. Hattie M. Whitfield, daughter of Mrs. Mattie J. Carter, of Terrell, Texas. Mrs. Bowles was born in St. Charles, Missouri, August 21, 1862, and is the mother of Rupert P. Bowles, Jr.

JOHN B. SMITH, M. D., of Durant, is not only a practitioner of fine reputation and sub- stantial career but a broad citizen active in the development of the community, whose in- terests embrace business, finances and horti- culture. He was born in Rockcastle county, Kentucky, May 25, 1866, and is descended from historic Revolutionary stock. The founder of the American family was James Smith, who emigrated from Ireland during the later years of American colonial history and settled with the Quakers in Pennsylvania. He was a lawyer and a military man, and is said to have regularly drilled the first company of militia in America. He was a member of the convention which prepared the Declaration of Independence, was a signer of the immortal paper, but was too old to participate in the ac- tual fighting on the field. But he actively as- sisted in the raising of troops, and in recog- nition of his energy and patriotic zeal was commissioned colonel of a regiment. His sword and suit are heirlooms of the family. and through the eldest sons have passed to the generations of the present day. William Smith was a son of Colonel James Smith, his home being in Virginia, and among his chil- dren was Jonathan, the grandfather of Dr. Smith. Jonathan Smith became a Kentucky planter, located in Pulaski county, where. on January 1, 1843, was born Milton G. Smith. the father. The latter received a limited edu- ration, was married in his native county and

afterward removed into Rockcastle county, where he continued farming until 1825. Sub- sequently he resided at Ash Grove, Missouri, and Fort Smith, Arkansas, his present home being in the latter city. Prior to his marriage Milton G. Smith enlisted in the Confederate service, was subsequently made captain of a wagon train and experienced to the full the hardships of a military life. He married Rhoda Bodle, daughter of John L. Bodle, of Scotch origin and of a family which seems to be extinct. The Bodies were Virginia farmers who migrated to Kentucky, in which state they continued their agricultural occu- pations. The children of Mr. and Mrs. Milton G. Smith were: Dr. John B. Smith, of this notice : Sallie B., who married James McFad- den, of Sapulpa, Oklahoma : Susie, wife of Dr. C. W. Baynham, of Fort Smith, Arkansas ; Norman T., chief dispatcher Ft. W. & D. Railway, located at Childress, Texas; James W., a passenger conductor residing at Fort Smith, Arkansas: Stella, wife of Charles O'Kelley, chief dispatcher of the Fort Smith & Western road at Fort Smith, and Leon, who lives at Sapulpa, Oklahoma.

Dr. John B. Smith developed his rugged physique on his father's farm and trained his mind in the district schools and at the Christian College, Ash Grove, Missouri. Af- ter the completion of his medical studies and his graduation from the Missouri Medical College (St. Louis) in 1891, he located for practice at Bois D'Arc. Four years of pro- gressive work there was succeeded by three years of practice at Walnut Grove, after which, in 1898, he came to Durant. Dur- ing the ten years which have followed he has attained high rank with his associates, his patients and with the public at large. He aided in the organization of the Medical Clin- ical Society, the first medical society in the southern portion of the Choctaw Nation, and served as its president. He was on the Med- ical Examining Board of the Central district for four years and for three years served as its secretary. He is identified with the Conn- ty and State Medical societies, and an active force in the progress of the professional fra- ternity. As to the outside orders of a beney- olent and a fraternal nature, he is a Master Mason and an Elk. The Doctor is also ac- tive in many practical fields outside the limits of his profession, being president of the Dur- ant Gas and Oil Company: a stockholder in the Farmers' National Bank: a partner in the business of the Corner Drug Store of

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Durant, and proprietor of a large fruit farm near the city. Dr. Smith was married at Ash Grove, Missouri, December 14, 1892, to Miss Marie Harshbarger, daughter of John WV. and Catherine (Williams) Harshbarger, who were the parents of six children. Dr. and Mrs. Smith have one child, Catherine.

JESSE M. HUMAN is city clerk of Durant, whose interests have been largely urban since his coming to Oklahoma in 1897. Stop- ping for a short time in Caddo, he came to Durant, December 10th, of the same year. He is a native of Smith county, Texas, born June 15, 1862. Six years prior to that date Bazel Human, the grandfather, abandoned his native state of Georgia and made the overland trip through the southern states to Texas. Locating his family in Smith county, he resumed his trade as a shoemaker, and died thirty years afterward. By his two mar- riages he was the father of twenty-six chil- dren, each of his wives bearing him an equal

number. His first wife was a Miss Gloer, whose oldest child was Jesse G., the father of Jesse M. Human, and his second wife was known before her marriage as Amanda Ellis. Jesse G. Human, the father, is a Bry- an county farmer, of limited education, and plain, honest character, who in his youth served the Confederacy in Ross's regiment. Walker's division of Texas troops, and by his several marriages is the father of a large family. He is passing his closing years near Durant. His first wife was Kizzie Null, daughter of John Null, an Irishman who re- moved from Alabama to Texas with his fam- ily about 1856. Mr. Null married Sarah Buckholts, whose mother, Betsy Brashears, was a quarter-blood Choctaw and was listed by Captain Ward about 1836 as one of the tribe entitled to all the rights of a Choctaw under the treaty with the government which followed. Kizzie Human died in 1863 and Jesse M. was her only child. One of her sis- ters. Pearly Null, became the second wife of Jesse G. Human. She was born on Pearl river, Mississippi, while her parents were en- route to Texas, and died in 1872, leaving John B. (now deceased) and Zoe, who married G. G. Hill, of Sterrett, Oklahoma. For his third wife Tesse G. Human married Jennie Mc- Donald, who bore him the following three children: Ritta, wife of George Human, of Whitesboro, Texas: Effie, widow of John Hatcher, of Durant, and W. G. Human, of Grapevine. Texas. After the death of his third wife Mr .. Human married Miss Emma

Jarman, and the children of this union are June, Dewey and Olive.

Jesse M. Human was reared by hard-work- ing parents on a Texas farm, and, although his education was somewhat limited, he taught school for some time in Grapevine, and fol- lowed the same occupation for two years in Delta county, Texas. After a total experience of five years in this line he entered a harness shop in Wolfe City, Texas, learned the trade and followed it there for eleven years. In 189; he located in Durant and continued in the familiar work until 1906. when he was drawn into the statehood movement as a rock- rooted Democrat. In April, 1907. he was elected city clerk of Durant. As a citizen of the Choctaw Nation his family holdings aggregate 1,800 acres of land, located not far from the county seat. His interests are therefore varied and important. He is also prominent in the secret and benevolent orders, especially in Odd Fellowship. In that fra- ternity he is past representative of Durant lodge, was grand guard of the jurisdiction for two years, and is a frequent attendant upon the sessions of the grand lodge, where during one communion he served upon the finance committee. He is a Modern Wood- man and has served his camp as clerk and consul.

Mr. Human was first married in Grape- vine. Texas, on the 17th of August, 1886, to Miss Mattie Cowan, daughter of Seaburn Cowan, a settler from Tennessee. Mrs. Mat- tie Human died in December, 1894, leaving two children, Jesse S. and Matabel Human. On September 22, 1895, Mr. Human mar- ried as his second wife Laura Whitt, daugh- ter of James Whitt, who migrated from Ten- nessee to Texas. She died February 21. 1896, leaving a son, Robert W. The third wife of Jesse MI. Human whom he married Octo- ber 3. 1894. was Miss Mattie E. Russell, and the children of their marriage are Julia Maye, George Lafayette and Allen Terrell Human.

JOHN T. PETTY, vice president and one of the active heads of the Bryan County Bank of Caddo, has been a resident of the city since 1903. He is now in the vigor of mid- dle life and has chiefly passed his mature years in the agricultural, mercantile and fi- nancial activities of Texas and Oklahoma. He is a son of James M. Petty, founder and developer of the town of Petty, on the Texas & Pacific Railroad, in Lamar county, Texas.

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It was in this locality that John T. obtained the foundation of his varied experience as a man of southwestern affairs.

The father was born in the Spartanburg district, South Carolina, and when a young man moved to Lamar county, Alabama, where he married Sophronia Ridgeway and the young couple began life in poor circumstances but rich in spirit and determination. The hus- band had both pluck and business ability, and in 1859 engaged in merchandising in Mississippi and extended his transactions to Double Springs, Spring Valley and Starks- ville, amassing means and establishing an honorable reputation.

John T. Petty was born in Vernon, Ala- bama, December 31, 1859, the same year his father moved to Mississippi, and was reared and educated in the localities mentioned above. In 1880, at the attainment of his majority. he removed to Lamar county, Texas, and in the following year induced his father to visit the locality on a tour of inspection. The father was so impressed with the possibilities of the country that he returned to Mississippi, converted his property into cash and brought his family to Lamar county, purchasing a large tract of land for farming purposes. When the station was located near his farm his attention was directed to its promising situation as a commercial center. He erected the second store on the site of the town and placed other improvements on foot which made made him the leading spirit of the place and stamped his name on the village. With the growth of the town of Petty he established a bank, retiring, a number of years ago with a handsome estate and dying in 1906, at the age of eighty-three years. Two years be- fore his wife and helpmate of so many years passed away at Petty.

As stated, John T. Petty spent his earlier years as an assistant to his father in his mer- cantile and agricultural labors in Mississippi. and at Petty, Texas, acquired a thorough training both in business and finances. He was identified with the store for eight years and also gained a fundamental knowledge of banking methods. Disposing of his interests at Petty, he spent a short time in Brazoria county in the real estate business, after which he served four years as assistant cashier of the bank at Angleton, Texas. He was then engaged for a year in the livery business at Chickasha. Oklahoma; was two years man- ager of a cotton yard at Rice, Texas, and

in 1903 located at Caddo. After holding the position of a bookkeeper for a year, Mr. Pet- ty was chosen assistant cashier of the Caddo National Bank, where he remained three years, and on January 1, 1908, was elected vice president of the Bryan County State Bank, and as such is one of the active man- agers of the institution. The Bryan County State Bank is the successor to the first bank established in Caddo, an institution operated as a private concern but converted into the Choctaw National Bank. When Oklahoma became a state the bank surrendered its old charter, assumed its present name and was capitalized at $40,000, with the following offi- cers : H. · M. Dunlap, president ; John T. Pet- ty, vice president ; Henry Edwards, cashier ; Messrs. Dunlap, Petty, Edwards, H. T. Chiles, J. A. Moore, W. H. Attaway and W. H. Ainsworth, directors.

January 19, 1887, Mr. Petty was married, in Lamar county, Texas, to Miss Annie B. Burtrem, daughter of Joseph and Mary ( Greer) Burtrem, the paternal family being of Kentucky origin. Mr. and Mrs. Petty's children are Clara, Bonner, Carl, May, Hazel Mildred, deceased, and Jennice Knight.

ALBERT NEELY, former city assessor of Dur- ant and present justice of the peace, spent more than thirty years as an educator of fine practical ability in Texas and Oklahoma. A native of Kentucky, his birth occurring in Warren county, May 22, 1818, he came to ma- turity on his father's farm, and the handling of stock and the cultivation of the soil were among his chief youthful occupations. He is of a New York family, his grandfather having migrated from the Empire state direct to Warren county, where he passed his life. Mr. Neely was drafted from the school room during the progress of the Civil war. joining the Second Kentucky Cavalry of General John Morgan. At the close of hostilities he went to Grayville, Illinois, where he concluded his schooling, afterward returning to his native state to resume his work as a farmer.

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A history of the state of Oklahoma, Volume II, Part 55

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