A history of the state of Oklahoma, Volume II, Part 61

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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Henry G. Baker was born in New Cleve- land, Putnam county, Ohio, on the 27th of February, 1858, son of Henry G. and Ben-

nah (Van Alstine) Baker, his father being a well known merchant. His maternal grandfather was a builder and supervising architect of New York state, of substantial standing in his profession. The early edu- cation of Henry G. Baker was obtained in the public schools of Defiance, Ohio, and prior to taking up his law studies he grad- uated from the high school of that place. Soon afterward he commenced his profes- sional tutelage under Hon. W. D. Hill, rep- resentative in Congress, and on the 5th of January, 1881, was admitted to the bar by examination in the supreme court of Ohio, sitting at Columbus.

Judge Baker commenced the practice of his profession at Defiance, Ohio, in asso- ciation with his preceptor, Mr. Hill, with whom he remained in partnership until 1902, except for three years when he was located at Austin, Texas. The later portion of his practice at Defiance was conducted under the firm names of Hill and Baker and Baker and Phelps, and he also served as judge of the Defiance county court and in minor official positions. While a resident of that city he served as a member of the Ohio state board connected with the World's Columbian Ex- position, being appointed by Governor Campbell chairman of its education commit- tee. Coming up to Muskogee, Judge Baker has practiced under the firm name of Baker and Pursel, but. as stated, has given the bulk of his attention to the development of oil and railroad enterprises. He is married to an Ohio lady, formerly Miss Adelaide Cober, of Toledo. By a former marriage he has a daughter, now Mrs. F. D. Segar, of Muskogee. The Judge is a member of the Town and Country Club, the Elks and other well known organizations.

September 10, 1908. Judge Baker was ap- pointed by Governor Haskell judge of the criminal court of appeals, the criminal branch of the supreme court. His opinions rendered from that bench have a special significance and importance arising from the fact that the judicial history of the state of Oklahoma is just beginning, and that the decisions of the present courts will be the precedents for many years to come. It is fortunate that so capable a representative of the bar should have been summoned to this position.

CAPTAIN GEORGE B. HESTER. The late Captain George Benjamin Hester, husband

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of Mrs. G. B. Hester who for so many years has been one of the most prominent Meth- odist missonaries of the southwest, was a brave and useful character and a power for good in all the country now included in east- ern Oklahoma. He was a native of North Carolina, born March 26, 1832, and at an early day (1855) located as a merchant at Tishomingo (now Johnston county), then the capital of the Chickasaw nation. His business with the Indians brought him in close relations with both their political and social affairs, and his influence as a man of honor and fair dealing left a deep impression on them. As a man of affairs his advice was often sought and freely and unaffectedly given, his influence being ever for peace and progress and tending to smooth the way for the advent of white settlers and the new and better order. He married Miss Elizabeth Fulton, then a missionary in the Indian country and a daughter of Rev. D. 1. Fulton, a Methodist divine, who, in the midst of her widespread missionary work proved ev- er a most devoted wife and mother. Their children were as follows: Fannie Fern, Mrs. J. W. Perry, of Denison, Texas, now deceased ; Daisy Dean, wife of Hon. Robert L. Owen, senator from Oklahoma, and Rob- ert Lee Hester, who died at the age of five vears. At the breaking out of the Civil war the family moved from Tishomingo to Bog- gy Depot. Indian Territory, which was a sup- ply station for the government and at whch point he for a time continued his mercantile operations. Later, however, he enlisted in the Confederate service, being commissioned captain in a regiment commanded by Colon- el Fulson. As such, he saw much active mil- itary service until the conclusion of the war. He then returned to Boggy Depot, where he continued to reside until his death, March 11, 1897.

Mrs. George Benjamin Hester, now a res- ident of Muskogee, Oklahoma, is, as stated. a daughter of Rev. D. T. Fulton, a Metho- dist clergyman. He was a Virginian, and long engaged in missionary work among the Cherokee Indians while their home was in the state of Georgia, until their removal to the Indian territory. In 1870 he went to Texas, where he died six months later. The early education of his daughter. Elizabeth, was largely conducted through his tender but thorough tutelage. Mrs. Hester com- pleted her preparatory education at the Vol. II-21.

Southern Masonic Female College, at Cov- ington, Georgia, from which she was grad- uated with the class of 1856. She taught in that institution for a time before accepting her call to the missionary field of the Indian Territory, with a special assignment to the Chickasha schools at Tishomingo. The journey to her destination was slow, irk- some and fraught with continual difficulties and dangers. The ox-teams crept through bogs, timber and untracked land; the steam- boats becamed marooned on sand-bars, and the stage coaches were attacked by bandits or threatened by wild beasts. But through it all the tenderly nurtured and cultured young lady finally arrived at the place of the "ringing bells," which is the interpretation of the Indian name Tishomingo.

Mrs. Hester was a mission teacher at that point for three years, and during this period of her life married Captain Hester. At the outbreak of the Civil war she removed with her husband to Boggy Depot, where he con- tinned as merchant and a soldier of the Con- federacy until his death in 1897. Their home was ever a center of sociability, hospitality and elevating influence, and during the prog- ress of the war Mrs. Hester extended hei good offices to soldiers and officers of both armies. Colonel Levering, a Union officer now residing at Dayton, Ohio, is one whom she remembers as having entertained with hospitable impartiality. After the death of her husband Mrs. Hester remained at Boggy Depot for four years, engaged in missionary work, when she removed to Muskogee in the interests of the Woman's Home and For- eign Missionary Society, being still active in that field, which is under the general su- pervision of the Methodist Episcopal Church South conference of Oklahoma. She was treasurer of the Home Missions of Indian Territory for eighteen years, and holds the same position for the territory now covered by the new state, being also president of the Woman's Foreign Missionary work of Oklahoma. She is an ardent worker in the Woman's Christian Temperance Union and the Associated Charities of Muskogee, and in memory of her husband's brave service for the lost cause is identified with the Daughters of the Confederacy attached to the General Forrest Chapter of Oklahoma.

When Mrs. Hester came to Oklahoma she found witchcraft very prevalent and knew of a number being killed and accused

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of being witches, but the work of the mis- sionary paved the way for civilization. Mrs. Hester has been interested in the prisons, and holds services every Sunday. She buys Bibles and gives them to the prison- ers and has interceded for boys in prison. With a noble character she is devoting her time to charity, education and missionary work.

SAMUEL BENTON CALLAHAN. The life of Samuel B. Callahan, one of the honored and leading pioneers of Muskogee, presents a record of varied and broad usefulness which could be equalled by few residents in this part of the state. The Creek and Seminole nations were especially indebted to him for their progress in education and other evi- dences of an advanced civilization. Born in Mobile, Alabama, January 26, 1833, Captain Callahan is a son of James Oliver and Aman- da (Doyle) Callahan. Through the paternal and maternal branches of the family tree he enjoys the advantages of both Irish and Scotch ancestry and of both northern and southern blood. His father was a well known shipbuilder, and a native of Pennsylvania, while his mother represents an old Alabama family. She is a quarter-blood Creek and came here in an early day with the Creeks and Cherokees. She died at the age of eighty-seven years, and was noted for her benevolence, especially her goodness to the sick.

The early education of Samuel B. Calla- han was obtained in the public schools of Sulphur Springs, Hopkins county, Texas, and Mckenzie College of Cloutsville, Texas, and he early engaged in the newspaper bus- iness. After leaving school in 1856, for some time Mr. Callahan edited the Sulphur Springs Gazette and in 1858, half a century ago, came into the Indian country and set- tled on a cattle ranch during the stirring clays of the open range. His headquarters were at Okmulgee but his operations ex- tended over a wide territory. In 1861 he left the ranch for the front, enlisting in the First Creek Regiment of the Confederate army, nearly all of his comrades being full blooded Indians of that tribe. He had be- come so popular with them that he was com- missioned first lieutenant of his company and was promoted during the first vear to adjutant of his regiment. After the first year of the war he re-enlisted as a member of a volunteer regiment and in the second

year assisted in the reorganization of the command and went to the front as captain of Company K, First Creek Regiment, the regiment retaining its identity to the last. After another year of active military service. in 1863, he left the army to represent the Creek and Seminole Indians in the Confed- erate congress. In that capacity he went to Richmond, Virginia, and there served as a Confederate congressman until two weeks before the surrender of Lee and his army.

Returning then to Texas and to his family, Mr. Callahan commenced civil life anew as a merchant. In 1865 he was again drawn to the Indian country and located in the vicinity of Muskogee, taking up land and there be- coming a farmer and stock raiser. He was not long allowed to devote himself entirely to his private affairs for in 1868 he was chos- en by his Indian friends as clerk of the ter- ritorial senate of the Creek legislature, con- tinuing in that position for four years with his residence at Okmulgee, then the capitol of the nation. Later he was chosen clerk of the Creek supreme court and in 1896 as tribal delegate to Washington to confer with President Cleveland. In 1901 he was advanced to the highest position of honor which can be accorded to a one-eighth Creek Indian in the Creek Nation-that of justice of the supreme court of the nation. In addi- tion to these public honors he has also held the superintendency of the intermediate boarding schools of the Creek Nation at Wealaka and also served as secretary to Samuel Checote and Isparheche, both chiefs of the Creek Nation.

In 1857 Mr. Callahan wedded Miss Sarah Elizabeth Thornberg, of Sulphur Springs, Texas, and the following chldren were born to them: Josephine, now Mrs. H. B. Spaul- ding of Muskogee; Dr. James Owen, a prac- ticing physician of that place; Jane Evylin, who became Mrs. R. W. Shaw of Wagner, Oklahoma ; Samuel B., Jr., a merchant of Morse, Oklahoma; Sophia Alice, deceased ; Emma Price, who married L. A. Adair, of Muskogee; Dr. Walter Mckenzie Callahan, engaged in the practice of medicine in Owy- hee, Nevada; and Edwin Thornberg Calla- han, deceased.

ROBERT PATILLA DEGRAFFENRIED is a lead- ing member of the Muskogee bar and for many years has been prominent in the lo- cal affairs of the place. He is a native of Greene county, Alabama, born December

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1, 1859, son of John F. and Ann Eliza (Ken- nedy ) deGraffenried. The paternal ancestors of the family were in direct line from Baron deGraffenried, a well known member of the Dutch nobility while the maternal forefathers were of mixed Scotch and Irish stock. Until the breaking out of the Civil war his fath- er was a prosperous southern planter and a representative of an old South Carolina family. Not only was he a son of one of the states most loyal to the southern cause but attended West Point Miliarv Academy and it was therefore natural that he should be among the earliest to join the ranks of the Confederate Army. He served throughout the period of the Civil war with fidelity and distinction.

Robert P. deGraffenried received his ear- ly education in the schools of his home and afterward entered the Agricultural and Me- chanical College of Misissippi at Starkville, from which he was graduated in 1885 with the degree of B. S. He then studied law under Hon. Thomas Turner of Mount Ster- ling. Kentucky, subsequently pursuing a sını- mer course in the law department of the University of Virginia. He was admitted to the bar in 1887 and soon afterward re- moved to Granbury, Texas, where he asso- ciated himself in practice with B. M. Estes, as a member of the firm of Estes and de- Graffenreid. This connection continued 1in- til 1889, when he became a resident of Quan- nah, Texas, afterwards being elected dis- trict attorney for the forty-sixth judicial dis- trict of that state. At the conclusion of his official term he came to Muskogee and be- came partner with Hon. Charles A. Cook in the firm of Cook and deGraffenried. Since becoming a resident of Muskogee Mr. deGraf- fenried has been honored in various public ways both in connection with the civic and judicial services. For some time he served as a member of the common council of the city of Muskogee and for ten years was a member of the local board of education. be- ing for a portion of that time its chairman. He also received the nomination for the of- fice of district judge at the instance of the Democratic party but failed of an election because of the pronounced minority of his party. His wife was formerly Miss Bessie Lacy, daughter of D. B. Lacv. of Owens- ville, Kentucky, and their three children are : Jouett Lacy, Arthur M., and Mary deGraf- fenreid.

ALEXANDER ANGUS DAVIDSON, a well known lawyer of Muskogee, was for years one of the most popular masters of chancery in the terri- tory and was also prominently identified with the affairs of the Cherokee Nation during the working of the Dawes Commission which ac- complished so much toward establishing the legal status of the Five Civilized Tribes. A single glance at the name indicates the honor- able and ancient Scottish origin of Alexan- der Angus Davidson-in fact both sides of his family were pure Scotch as far back as his- toric records are in existence. Mr. Davidson himself was born in Aberdeen, Scotland, Jan- mary 20, 1866, and is a son of Alexander and Susan ( Angus) Davidson. Until he was six- teen years of age he attended the public schools of his native city and was then appren- ticed to William Sinclair, a manufacturing chemist of Aberdeen. His five years of serv- ice in this line made him thorough master of all branches of the drug business and when twenty-two years of age he came direct to Chicago. He did not apply himself, however, to the line with which he was so familiar but accepted a place as a farm hand near the town of Manteno, Kankakee county, Illinois. This work proved rather distasteful and his knowl- edge of drugs and medicine enabled him to se- cure a position in the Eastern Illinois Hospi- tal for the Insane, at Kankakee, not far from the scene of his farm lahors. He assumed his new duties in 1889 and remained with that institution for two years. In the meantime he had made considerable progress in the study of medicine but decided after all to adopt the legal profession. After studying for some time himself he became a regular student at the old Union College of Law. Chicago, con- tinuing there for one year, or until it was merged into the Northwestern University, and he afterward continued his course at the Kent College of Law, from which he was graduated in 1893, with the degree of LL. B.

During the year of his graduation he lo- cated for practice at Kankakee, associating himself with A. L. Granger, under the firm name of Granger and Davidson and continued in this connection for the following five years. Three years of private practice followed and in 1901 he received an appointment in con- nection with the legal branch of the depart- ment of the interior and in that capacity ac- companied the Dawes Commission to Musko- pee. Indian Territory. He himself was as- signed to service in the Cherokee Nation, be- ing located at Tahlequah until 1904 when he

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received the appointment of master of chan- cery for the northern judicial district of the Federal court for the Indian Territory. He thus served until 190? when he assumed a similar position in the western district of the court and filled that with credit, with his office at Muskogee, until Oklahoma became a state. With the realization of statehood Mr. David- son returned to private practice associating himself with Charles W. Bliss in the forma- tion of the law firm of Bliss and Davidson. Besides conducting a large and growing prac- tice he is a director in the First National Bank of Muskogee and widely participates in all public enterprises which promote the general welfare of the county. On November 17, 1896, Mr. Davidson married Miss Alexis Wallwork, of Kankakee, Illinois, and their three children are: Ruth, Mary T. and An- gus A. Davidson.

MASTERSON PEYTON. A leading member of the Oklahoma bar, engaged in practice at Muskogee, Masterson Peyton is also a par- ticipant in the founding of the common- wealth, and is making material additions to the honorable genealogy of the family, whose deeds are noteworthy in the history of England and the southern states of Amer- ica. He is a Kentuckian, born at Peyton's Well, Lincoln county, on the 8th of October, 1858, and is descended from the family which first occupied Peyton Manor, Suffolk- shire. in the eleventh century, and afterward became so prominent in the history of the eastern counties of England. Its founder was William de Malet, a Norman baron who accompanied William the Conqueror to England and served as sheriff of Yorkshire during the third year of the reign of William I. As a reward for his military services he obtained from the crown grants of sundry Jordships and manors, among which was Sibton and Peyton Hall. "The knightly fam- ily of Peyton flowed out of the same male stock," says Camden, the genealogical authority, "whence the Uffords, earls of Suf- folk, descended; albeit they assumed the sur- name of Peyton, according to the usage of that age, from their manor of Peyton Hall, in Boxford, in the county of Suffolk."

The first recorded member of the family by the name of Peyton was Reginald de Pey- ton, second son of Walter, lord of Sibton, younger brother of Baron de Malet men- tioned above. This Reginald de Peyton. lord of Peyton Hall, was an officer in the

household of the Earl of Norfolk, and all- cestor of that independent ancestor who re- fused aid to Henry III. during the war of 1258-65, in which the barons of England op- posed their monarch in defense of popular rights. It is recorded that the king sent the following message to this Earl of Norfolk: "I will send reapers and reap your fields for you." Whereupon, the earl replied to roy- alty: "And I will send you back the heads of your reapers." From this ancient and goodly stock is descended Sir Thomas Pey- ton, who was a member of the English par- liament for Dunwich in 155G; as well as Thomas Peyton, Esq., described in the rec- ords of Lincoln's Inn, London, as "late of Royston in the Co. of Cambridge, gentleman ;" and that more famous Thomas Peyton, author of "The Glasse of Time," a poem published in 1620, from which Milton so generously drew for his "Paradise Lost." The famous author was born at Royston, county of Cambridge, in 1595, and was therefore only twenty-five years of age at the time of the appearance of "The Glasse of Time."

Though one of the leading land holders in Cambridgeshire, Suffolk, Norfolk and Hunt- ingdon, or the Eastern counties, from the Conquest to the death of Charles I, the young- er sons of the Peyton family, who were not bound to the estates, were of such active, adventurous and fearless spirit that they took service not only in the British army and navy, whose annals are illustrated by their exploits, but under various foreign princes. They served in the wars of Gascony (in the reign of Edward II) and in Flanders, and one of them achieved such military renown by his skill as a leader at the battle of Poictiers that, about 1356, he was created Earl of Suffolk and Knight of the Garter. In his last will, among other bequests, he leaves to his son William, "the sword wherewith the King girt him when he created him Earl; and also his bed with the eagle entire ; and his summer vestment powdered with Leopards."

The military spirit of the family descend- ed to the American forefathers of Masterson Peyton, whose great-grandfather was General Henry Peyton, of Revolutionary fame. He is also a kinsman of Hon. Bailey Peyton, in Congress six terms from Tennessee.

The son of Matthew Speed and Zuritha Peyton, Masterson Peyton received the lib- eral education which would naturally be en- joved by the scion of a prosperous and in- telligent Kentucky gentleman extensively en-

Masterson Peyton

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HISTORY OF THE STATE OF OKLAHOMA.

gaged in farming and stock-raising. His early education was obtained in the public schools of Lincoln county and at Christian College, not far from his home. He then pursued a thorough course in the Kentucky University. from which he graduated in 1848, and two years later finished his studies at the Louis- ville Law School. Mr. Peyton had determined upon his professional career when he was only sixteen years of age and bent all his energies toward thoroughly preparing himself for it. While pursuing his literary courses in college, and even in the lower schools, he evinced 1111- usual readiness as a debater on historical and political questions and showed especial fond- ness for historical and Biblical studies. Soon after his graduation from the Louisville Law School, in 1880, Mr. Peyton commenced the practice of his profession at Stanford, Ken- tucky, and after eight years of laudable work located at Knoxville, Tennessee, where he formed a partnership with Hon. Henry H. Ingersoll, ex-judge of the state supreme court. This association obtained until he located at Muskogee, Oklahoma, in the latter part of 1904. He is now senior member of the firm of Peyton and Mason, one of the leading legal combinations of the county specializing in the practice of corporation law. With the sub- stantial progress of his law practice, Mr. Pey- ton has become a leader in Democratic and public affairs. He served as a delegate to the separate state constitutional convention held at Muskogee, serving as a member of the ju- diciary committee and the committee on con- stitution, and both on the floor of the conven- tion and in committee sessions was promptly outspoken in support of wise economy and statesmanlike Democracy. In the campaign of 1908 he was delegated by the Muskogee Dem- ocratic Club to extend its welcome to the par- ty leader on his return from Europe during his great reception in New York City. . Al- though his public and legal responsibilities have left him little time for outside interests, Mr. Peyton attained the rank of chancellor commander of the Knights of Pythias, while residing at Knoxville, and still is deeply con- cerned in the good of the order. His religious affiliations are with the First Presbyterian church of Muskogee.

Mr. Peyton was married on the 12th of February, 1896, at Louisville, Kentucky, to Miss Sara Hinkle, one of the most beautiful women in Kentucky, and their two unusually intellectual children are: Mary Randolph Peyton, born August 9. 1897, and Virginia

Clay Peyton, born August 31, 1899. Mr. Pey- ton carries the affection and generosity of the household into the world beyond, these domes- tic traits being there transformed into a broad charity and liberality in his dealings both with individuals and social and economic problems. He is a Democrat, in the highest and broad- est sense, whether in politics or religion, al- though believing that he can best advance his principles by remaining in connection with such historic organizations of his faith as the Presbyterian church and the Democratic par- ty. He is particularly concerned in the devel- opment of the strongest type of young man- hood, believing that every citizen of valuable experience and earnest thought should con- sider it a public duty not only to set a moral example, but do all in his power as a moral teacher.

PERCIVAL ADAMS, a well known member of the bar of Muskogee, is a native of Edinburgh, Scotland, born April 30, 1859, being a son of Rev. William and Mary Ann ( Percival) Ad- ams. Like the majority of sons of typical Scotch parents in comfortable circumstances he received a thorough education in both the elementary and higher branches. The prelim- inary courses were mastered under the tute- lage of private instructors and also in the pub- lic schools of Edinburgh. He then entered the university of that city from which he was graduated in 1883 with the degrees of A. M. and LL. B. and also secured the honor of ad- mission as a solicitor before the supreme courts of Scotland.

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A history of the state of Oklahoma, Volume II, Part 61

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