A history of the state of Oklahoma, Volume II, Part 57

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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David Robinson passed his boyhood with his parents until he was about twelve years of age, when, his father having died, he went to live with his maiden aunt, assisting in the work of her farm and in time becoming the active head of her household. Such practical and pressing duties so occupied his time that he acquired only a smattering of book learning, even learning to write after he had reached quite mature years. He early obtained a knowledge of men and things, however, which enabled him to become a pro- gressive agent in the working world. He came to Bryan county in 1876, then only a youth of fifteen, and has been a resident of this sec- tion of the territory and state ever since. He first took possession of a tract of land adjoining the townsite of Bokchito, when he started an independent agricultural career, and has allotted much of what he has controlled for the past quarter of a century. A tract in Garvin county, near Elmore, in addition to what he owns in a body around his residence, comprises the family allotment and totals some 1,000 acres. Of his homestead 300 acres is being cultivated and, until within the past few years, he was a cattleman as well as a far- mer. The scarcity of pasture, however, has caused him to replace cattle with hogs, through which his corn finds its wav to market. On March 13, 1894, Mr. Robinson married, in Bryan county, Miss Ollie May Walker, daugh-

ter of Dan Walker, originally from Illinois, where Mrs. Robinson was born in 1872. The children of their household are Jessie May, Jerome, Edward, Morley and Howard Ham- ilton Robinson.

JOHN W. CRUTCHFIELD, whose farming and dairy interests center in his fine estate adjoin- ing the town of Caddo, Bryan county, was born in Paris, Tennessee, March 28, 1874. He is a son of J. W. Crutchfield, of Sherman, Texas, who was born in the same place and was a successful planter of ante-bellum days. The father entered the Confederate army as a color bearer attached to the Fifth Tennessee, and at the conclusion of the war became a com- mercial traveler for a Tennessee hardware firm, continuing in the field for many years. In 1884 he brought his family to Fannin coun- ty, Texas, and after a short stay there located at Sherman, his present residence. His wife was E. Ledocia Porter, who died in 1907, the mother of the following: Mary, who resides in Sherman; Georgia, widow of Lawrence Etchison, also of that place; John W., of this notice; C. N., who is a machinist in a New Mexico silver mine ; W. E., of Sherman ; For- est P., who died unmarried; and J. J. and Annie (wife of Will Burke), both living in Sherman.

John W. Crutchfield was a lad of ten years when the family located in Sherman, and he received his education in the public schools of that city and at the private establishment of Captain Letellier. When sixteen years of age he entered a cotton mill in Sherman, spend- ing three years there and several seasons in the cotton office of F. J. Baker. At the out- break of the Spanish-American war he en- listed in Company F, United States Volun- teer Immunes, Captain Frank Ryan and Col- onel Ritchie, and the regiment was first or- dered to Galveston and thence to New Or- leans, but its services were not required. The command therefore returned to Galveston and was mustered out of the service in the fall of 1898. Mr. Crutchfield's next civil employ- ments were as shipping clerk for the Lowry Round Bale Company of Sherman and in con- nection with the factory of the Seamless · Bag establishment. He then accepted a po- sition as inspector with the American Cot- ton Company and for a time traveled out of Oklahoma City. He has been identified with some branch of the company ever since, fi- nally being sent to Caddo to operate the gin at this point. From 1900, the year of his

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coming to Caddo, until the present time, he has conserved the interests of the company in every way, besides being an independent cot- ton operator.

On February 20, 1902, Mr. Crutchfield mar- ried Miss Gertrude Thompson, a citizen of the Choctaw Nation, and she soon thereafter be- came interested in farming. He chose the family allotments adjoining Caddo on the northwest, and, with land he has since pur- chased and leased, he is now cultivating some 300 acres. Recently he has established a Jer- sey dairy on the farm, and while it is being handled by proxy its rapid growth is signifi- cant of future possibilities as an important home institution. Mr. Crutchfield has a com- fortable modern residence and has won sub- stantial success, both in the accumulation of worldly goods and in the founding of a good name. Mr. and Mrs. Crutchfield are the par- ents of three children : Evelyn, born December 4, 1902; Mary, February 1, 1906; J. W., Jr., January 5, 1908.

ROBERT TALIAFERRO DAVIS, of Durant, is a leading merchant, financier and Democrat of that place. He is a native of Hayward county, Tennessee, born July 16, 1865, his family ori- ginating in Virginia (as to the American branch) and having been transplanted several generations ago to the southern state beyond the mountains. Mr. Davis' father served throughout the war in the service of the Confederacy, and the son reached manhood amid rural occupations and school advan- tages. In 1888 Robert T. left his Tennessee home for Texas, reaching Nocona with per- haps $120 in money. With this as his cash cap- ital, with some experience as a salesman in Brownsville, Tennessee, and with sound health and buoyant spirits he established himself as a grocer at that place. The ten years of his business at Nocona placed him in such substantial circumstances that upon coming to Durant he purchased the fine two-story brick building at Second and Main streets, where his extensive business has since been ·conducted. His stock now runs from $15,- 000 to $25,000, and his establishment is a most popular emporium for both rural and urban customers. For a number of years Mr. . Davis was a member of the firm of Davis and Perkins in Durant ; he was one of the or- ganizers of the Farmers' National Bank, and throughout his residence in the city has been been one of the large and steadfast factors in its development. He is also a strong leader of

the local Democracy, and in 1904 served as a representative to the national convention held in St. Louis. His fraternal identification is with the Knights of Pythias, the Eagles and the Woodmen of the World.

The history of the Davis family in Tennes- see commences .with the migration of Robert R. Davis, the grandfather, from his native Virginia to Brownsville, the county seat of Hayward county. He was a planter of the Old Dominion and died (chiefly engaged in agricultural occupations ) in his new Tennessee home. His three sons were John and Ben- jamin, by his first wife, who died in the home state, and Robert R. Davis, Jr. The last named, who became the father of Robert T., was also born in Hayward county, Tennessee, in 1838, and soon after the commencement of the Civil war was commissioned captain of a company of the Bluff City Grays, a regi- ment organized at Memphis. Captain Davis served throughout the war, residing in Ten- nessee until 1890, when he followed his son to Texas, and now resides on a farm in Mon- tague county. His wife was formerly Mamie E. Taliaferro, daughter of Robert Taliaferro, an Italian who came to America in early life, settled at Brownsville, Tennessee, engaged in selling goods, and served as county clerk for many years. The children of Mr. and Mrs. Robert R. Davis are: Robert T., of this re- view ; John, of Nocona, Texas; Douglas, of Fox, Oklahoma; Charles, of Graham, that state ; Turner, also of Nocona, Texas, W'il- liam and Richard, of the same place ; Empson, of Graham, Oklahoma; and Bettie and Flor- ine, of Nocona. It was in the place named that Robert T. Davis married Miss Julia Al- ford, the ceremony occurring April 15, 1893. Mrs. Davis is the fourth child in the Alford family, the members of which are also: Charles, a resident of Austin, Texas ; Ball, living in New Orleans, Louisiana ; Thomas, of Montana: Jennie, wife of Thadeus Mc- Call, of St. Louis, Missouri, and Mollie, now Mrs. R. B. Clark, of Nocona, Texas. Mr. and Mrs. Robert T. Davis are the parents of the following : Jennie Louis Bessie M., J. T., Ruth, Minnie Lee and Robert T. Davis, Jr.

BENJAMIN F. McCURTAIN, of Durant, is a representative of one of the prominent Choc- taw families of what is now Oklahoma, and whose history in recent years is closely inter- woven with the progress of the Choctaw Na- tion. It dates from the earliest years of the Indian occupancy, and its first home was

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HISTORY OF THE STATE OF OKLAHOMA.

near Fort Smith, Arkansas, in what is now LeFlore county, Oklahoma. It was at Paco- sa. then the home of Governor Green McCur- tain, that Benjamin F. was born on the 15th of March, 1874, that being also the birth- place of the father.

Green McCurtain married Rhoda Folsom, a half-breed Choctaw, for his first wife, and she died in September, 1874, a few months after the birth of her only child, Benjamin F., of this sketch. The Folsoms were also among the prominent and pioneer families of the Choctaws, Colonel David Folsom being the first Choctaw chief elected by ballot. Rev. Cyrus Byington, the beloved missionary for many years, dictated the following epitaph, which is engraven on Colonel Folsom's mon- ument and well describes his character: "To the memory of Colonel David Folsom, the first Republican chief of the Choctaw Na- tion, the promoter of industry, education, religion, morality, was born January 2, 1291. died September 24, 1847. 'He being dead yet speaketh.'" Other members of the family have been prominent in civic and military affairs. Among the McCurtains none has been more conspicuous in shaping the affairs of the Choctaw Nation than Green McCur- tain, who, as a leader of the Tushkahomma or Progressive party in Indian politics, was elected the last governor of the nation, as Colonel David Folsom was the first, and Governor McCurtain was the executive head of the Choctaw Nation in winding up its tri- bal affairs. For many years he has made his home in what is now Haskell county, and it is in that locality that his chief business in- terests are held.

Benjamin F. McCurtain spent the years of his youth in acquiring an education at Spen- cer Academy (supported by the Choctaw gov- ernment) and Henry Kendall College, Musko- gee, graduating from he latter in 1898. His education completed, he returned to the home- stead farm in Haskell county, and was identi- fied with its management until 1902, when he removed to Bryan county to continue his agricultural pursuits, securing for the pur- pose his family allotments consisting of three tracts of 300 acres each within five miles of the county seat. Through his tenantry he has placed about half of his estate under profitable cultivation, his comfortable fam- ily homestead being in Durant. On Septem- ber 26. 1900. Mr. McCurtain was married in Fort Gibson, Oklahoma, to Clara Hagood.

daughter of George MI. Hagood who, for years, was a successful horticulturist of Cane Hill, Arkansas, and who has since transferred his interests to Durant. The Hagood fam- ily is of old Kentucky stock, the grandfather of Mrs. McCurtain, Lewis Hagood, migrat- ing from Bowling Green, that state, to Wash- ington county, Arkansas. He was a slave- holding planter, who furnished two sons to the Confederate army, who refugeed with Price's army in the south, and died in north- ern Texas of yellow fever during the Civil war. George MI. Hagood, one of his sons and the father of Mrs. McCurtain, was born in Washington county, Arkansas, but was too young to serve in the war of the rebellion. As stated, his permanent occupation was that of a fruit grower. He married Anna Mor- row, a daughter of John Morrow whose wife was a Miss Buchanan. They were all na- tives of Bowling Green, Kentucky, and like the Hagoods, Presbyterians. The children of Mr. and Mrs. George M. Hagood are as follows: Clara E., wife of Benjamin F. Mc- Curtain ; Dr. Albert S. Hagood, of Durant ; and Mrs. J. H. Crockett and Floyd Hagood, also of that place. Mr. and Mrs. McCur- tain have one son, Randolph McCurtain.

CHARLES L. SAWYER, president of the First National Bank of Bokchito. Bryan county, is one of the foremost business men of this sec- tion, and represents the vigorous, yet con- servative, element of the southwest which is building on a substantial and an expansive foundation. Since his early youth he has been identified with the progressive life of either Texas or Oklahoma-agriculture, real estate and finances having successively occupied his attention. His career in Oklahoma dates from 1900, and whether in business, politics or so- ciety, his earnestness, sincerity and ability are ever apparent.

Mr. Sawyer was born in Robertson county, Tennessee, on the 4th of November. 1868. son of William P. and Lucy J. ( White) Saw- ver. In his early life the father was a cooper. but finally abandoned a trade which the intro- duction of improved machinery made unprofit- able. and sought agriculture as a means of family support. He was also born in Robert- son county. April 22, 1826, being a son of Tames and Jane (Warren) Sawyer (the latter being a Tennessee woman) and grandson of an Irishman who settled in Tennessee. James Sawyer and his wife removed from that state very early, settled in Missouri and died near

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Bolivar leaving a family of ten children. The father of Charles L. lived quietly but indus- triously ; was an ardent supporter of Method- ism, and died October 31, 1908, at his old home in Robertson county, Tennessee. His wife, who had died nearly two years before, was also a native of Robertson county, Ten- nessee. born May 22, 1835. She was a deeply religious woman, having been a convert to Methodism and a member of the M. E. Church South since she was sixteen years of age. Mrs. William P. Sawyer was the daughter of Reuben and Hannah B. ( Moss) White, her father having been born in South Carolina. June 18, 1800, and her mother in North Caro- lina, August 6, 1803. In 1806 their parents brought them to Robertson county, where they passed the remainder of their days. Reuben White's father (the maternal great-grand- father of C. L. Sawyer) was born in South Carolina, moved to Tennessee, at an early day locating on the Louisville and Nashville turn- pike, at what is now known as the "White House," a small town which was named from him. The father of Hannah B. Moss was reared in London, England, and married Lucy Vaughn, the couple moving first to North Carolina and then to a location near Eldora Springs, Tennessee. Mrs. William P. Sawyer, the mother of Charles L., whose genealogy has thus been traced, died at Bok- chito, while on a visit to her sons, on the 13th of December, 1906, the mother of the follow- ing : James M., a resident of Fort Worth, Texas: Charles L. and W. S. (twins), who reside at and near Bokchito: Robert H., a farmer living in the same locality: Lucy E .. now Mrs. L. L. Elkins, of Randlett. Okla- homa, and Dr. R. E. Sawyer, a physician and druggist of Bokchito.

In 1882, when Charles L. Sawyer was four- teen years of age, the family located on a farm five miles south of Honey Grove, Texas, and there the children reached maturity and were educated. Charles L. first engaged in farming, but gradually drifted into the rais- ing of live stock and especially of Jersey cattle. Having thereby obtained necessary capital, in 1899 he removed to Shawnee, Okla- homa, and for three and a half years engaged in the real estate business. His venture was so encouraging that he abandoned the specu- lative field and located at Bokchito as a reg- ular agent. But his advent to that place in 1903 showed him that the banking feld was even more promising: for. although the town was enjoying a substantial development.

it had no financial accommodations. He there- fore interested a few reliable and prominent citizens in his enterprise, and the result was the First National Bank of Bokchito, with a capital of $25,000 and the following officers : Charles L. Sawyer, president ; E. W. Frey, cashier ; and W. E. Riddle, assistant cashier. Messers Sawyer. Frey, A. L. Hollingsworth, H. T. Douglas and A. W. Carter constitute the board of directors. The bank has been wisely managed and has paid several dividends to its stockholders, besides accummulating a reassuring surplus. On December 28, 1908. the management liquidated the First National Bank and surrendered its charter, organizing the Citizens' State Bank, with a capital stock of $150,000. The new institution opened for business, December 29, 1908, with the follow- ing officers and directors: C. L. Sawyer, president : E. W. Frey, vice-president, and W. E. Riddle, cashier : directors, C. L. Saw- yer, E. WV. Frey, W. E. Riddle, A. W. Carter and M. M. Smith.

On the 21st of December. 1891, Mr. Saw- yer married in Fannin county, Texas, Miss Mintie A. Moore, who was orphaned young and was taken into the household of Mr. and Mrs. Samuel M. Blair, of that county, these foster parents proving as loving and faithful as though they were of kindred blood. Samuel MI. Blair was a Tennesseean, who migrated to Fannin county, Texas, with his family, in January, 1867, and there became widely known as a sturdy and able farmer and stock raiser, laboring and prospering in that locality for thirty-six years. In 1903 he became a resi- dent of Bokchito, where he engaged in the handling of real estate and in other invest- ments of a substantial nature. The Blairs were among the pioneers of both North Caro- lina and Tennessee, Thomas, the grandfather of Samuel M., being a native of the former state, born about 1705. He served in the Revolutionary war, with the rank of major. and was attached to the quartermaster's de- partment, dying in Guilford county, North Carolina, about 1789. His son, who became the father of Samuel M., was born in the county named, January 11, 1269, and settled near Nashville as early as 1286, being a prominent hunter and Indian fighter, a typical frontiersman of the Boone type. The sons of the family were all in this class. John, a brother of the Tennessee pioneer, being scalped by the Indians in 1788, but surviving for sixty-four years thereafter. Samuel R. Blair, father of Samuel M., was an old-time

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planter and died near Nashville, Tennessee, on the 3d of February, 1863. His children by Mary Simpson, his first wife, were as fol- lows: Mary, who married Dr. Nichols and died near Hickman, Kentucky; Nancy, who became Mrs. George McWhorter and died at Nashville, aged ninety-six years; Margaret, who was the wife of Barnard Seat and died at Clarksville, Tennessee ; Sallie, who married a Mr. McNeal and passed away at Centralia, Illinois ; and Jennie, who married J. T. Neal and died in west Tennessee. William, a son by the second wife, is deceased, as is the mother. The third wife of Samuel R. Blair was Mary Sparkman, who bore Eveline ( who died unmarried) and Samuel M. Blair, the foster father of Mrs. Sawyer. The latter was reared on a comfortable southern plantation, and enlisted in the Confederate service as a member of a cavalry force organized in and around Nashville. General Joseph Wheeler commissioned him captain of a company which served under such leaders as Bragg, Johns- ton and Forrest, and participated in the en- gagements at Mill Spring, Murfreesboro and other battles in the southwest. He was finally captured by the Federals in Rutherford coun- ty, Tennessee, and taken to Nashville, where he was confined in the post prison for five months, being then released under a bond of $10,000 and pledged to abstain thereafter from giving any service or aid to the Confederacy. Since that time Mr. Blair has devoted himself to rural pursuits, and has ever comported himself as a loyal, honorable citizen and an upright Christian gentleman. He is a lead- ing member of the Methodist church. His wife was formerly Miss Bettie Lanius and she was born in Tennessee, November 8, 1844. The children of Mr. and Mrs. Charles L. Sawyer are Marvin L., Samuel E .. Ruth B., William, Clarence, Roy and Ruby Sawyer.

Mr. Sawyer himself is such a citizen as the southwest delights to honor-a man who has the wisdom to see that public and private affairs of a community are so intermingled that to neglect either is a detriment to the general progress. While public spirited, he is therefore anxious and fully able to manage his own affairs to the best advantage. He is a good citizen, a strong Democrat, a steward in the Methodist church, and identified with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Modern Woodmen.

HORACE MARSHALL, of Durant, closely iden- tified with the business interests of the place,

with the coal business of Cox and Marshall counties and the agriculture of the country in the vicinity of Fort Washita has been a resident of Oklahoma for about fifteen years. He was born at Whitesboro, Cooke county, Texas, on the 9th of July, 1875, to which place his father went when a boy, with his widowed mother and his sisters, and where he reached manhood and married. The father was born in Tennessee in 1842. He lost his own father in childhood, and as he was the oldest son of the family when the widow brought her little family to Texas much of the burden of their support fell on him. When the Rebellion came on, he entered the Confederate army as a drummer boy, and after the war settled in Cherokee county, where, in 1865, he married Miss Martha Bolton, daughter of C. S Bolton, of Jacksonville, Texas. Mr. Bolton was one of the early settlers of the place, and there Mrs. Marshall was born. To this union was born John, of Whitesboro, Texas; Nettie, wife of Hamp P. Abney, of Sherman, Texas ; Belle, now Mrs. J. Frank Bennett, of Potts- boro, Texas; William and Lee, merchants of Belcherville, that state; Beulah, of Whites- boro, and Bart, secretary to Colonel Cecil Lyon, of Sherman, Texas. In time the father returned from Cherokee to Cooke county, and was successively farmer, merchant and gin- ner, following the last named pursuit at Dex- ter. He followed this dual business quite suc- cessfully, and finally engaged in it at Whites- boro, where he now resides and prospers.

Horace Marshall acquired his education in the public school at Whitesboro and the Southwestern University at Georgetown. Tex- as, preparing himself for business in the old National Commercial College at Denison, Texas. At the age of eighteen he became proprietor of a gin at Durant ; also running a sawmill in connection with it and getting out all the dimension timbers which went into the first brick buildings erected in the city. Hav- ing exhausted the accessible supply of logs. the sawmill was sold and removed. The gin was also disposed of and is now known as the Roberts gin. While engaged in the gin busi- ness Mr. Marshall married a citizen of the Choctaw Nation, and when he sold his plant removed to Fort Washita, where he contin- ued for some time in stock and agricultural operations. Here he afterward allotted land for his family and added to the land thuis ac- quired, by purchase, until 1,000 acres com- prise his cultivated farm. In 1904 he re- turned to Durant with his family, and soon

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assumed his present position as bookkeeper for the Durant Cotton Oil Mill. His time is chiefly occupied with his duties in this con- nection, his large coal interests in Cox and Marshall counties and the various phases of his farming enterprise. He has one of the best residences in town, a ten-room cottage at the corner of Thirteenth and Locust streets. He is a Democrat of pronounced views, was serving as alderman of the Fifth ward when it was legislated out of existence, is an earnest member of the brotherhood of Elks, and in all his connections demonstrates that he is a progressive citizen and a broadly useful mem- ber of the community. On December 15, 1892, Mr. Marshall married Miss Lillie Colbert, daughter of David and Rebecca ( Harris) Col- bert. Mr. Colbert was of both Choctaw and Chickasaw blood and a representative of one of the most prominent and widely extended families of the former Indian Territory. The children of Mr. and Mrs. Horace Marshall are Hazel, Colbert and Donald.

WILLIAM H. REILLY, joint agent of the Missouri, Kansas and Texas and the Frisco railways at Durant, began his railroad career at Denison, Texas, as a "caller" for the for- mer line. This was in 1886, when he was a youth of seventeen, and at that time he had been a resident of the city for three years, sup- porting himself and gathering such education from the parochial schools as his circum- stances would permit. He was born in Se- dalia, Missouri, on the 9th of March, 1869, being a son of Irish parents, his father a coach painter in the employ of the Missouri Pacific road at that place. At the age of four- teen the boy left home, and. as stated, went to Denison. From callboy he was promoted to a clerkship in the Missouri, Kansas & Texas office, and in 1893 was made chief clerk of the local office. In February, 1900, he was appointed agent of the road at Mc- Alester, Oklahoma, remaining in that posi- tion until August of the following year. In November he assumed the agency at Durant, which he still holds. Mr. Reilly is .an indus- trious representative citizen of the place, at- tending closely and capably to his railroad duties. He is a Democrat, a member of the Elks fraternity, and owns a neat home on North third street.

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A history of the state of Oklahoma, Volume II, Part 57

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