USA > Oklahoma > A history of the state of Oklahoma, Volume II > Part 62
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Coming to America in 1883 Mr. Adams commenced the practice of his profession at Hamilton, Ontario, and was thus engaged for about a year when he removed to New York City, being admitted to the state bar in 1885. Not long afterward he came west and located at El Paso, Texas, where he not only prac- ticed his profession but became interested in various mining enterprises of Arizona and old Mexico and for six years continued to engage in these activities. In 1891 he secured admis- sion to the bar of Mexico, residing in the cap- ital for some time and then returning to the United States. He first located at St. Louis. Missouri, continuing there in practice until 1904 when he came to Muskogee, Oklahoma. as the legal representative of certain St. Louis capitalists and his investigations in this capacity so convinced him of the bright future of the country that he determined to become a permanent resident. Mr. Adams was mar-
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ried to Miss Elizabeth Winfield, at Tucson, Arizona, his wife being a daughter of Cap- tain William Winfield, a retired officer of the English army. They have one child-Harri- son Winfield Adams. Mr. Adams is well versed in the Mexican law, and speaking Spanish fluently, is frequently called on for opinions on Mexican mining laws by people in the United States who own mining interests in Mexico.
WILLIAM T. TILLY, M. D., of Muskogee, is one of the younger and progressive mem- bers of his profession who has turned his at- tention to surgery. A native of Madisonville, Monroe county, Tennessee, he was born April 17, 1864, and is a son of James L. and Sarah ( McAfee) Tilly. He comes of a prominent southern family established in this country by English and Irish ancestors. The father was a native of Tennessee, both a merchant and a farmer, and his mother was a Georgia lady.
The early education of Dr. Tilly was ob- tained in the district schools of Monroe coun- ty, Tennessee, and as he was a farmer's son living in a sparsely settled district he was obliged to cover ten miles daily going to and from school. From the district school he passed to Brown Hill Academy, and then, after engaging in farming and following other avocations for several years, the Doctor de- termined to take a regular professional course and for that purpose was matriculated at the Louisville Medical College from which he graduated in 1894 with the degree of M. D. He also obtained an honorary diploma from the faculty for marked excellence in physical diagnosis, clinical medicine, obstetrics and dis- eases of women. It should be added that his professional education was further perfected after he had commenced practice by thorough post graduate courses at the Chicago Policlinic and at the New York Polyclinic, three spe- cialties heing covered in the former institu- tion and one in the latter. Dr. Tilly com- menced practice at Thompson, Polk county, Tennessee, in 1894. afterward removing to Mineral Bluff, Fannin county, Georgia, where he remained for two years previous to his coming to Indian Territory.
His first location in this country was at Prior Creek, where he remained until 1907 when he became a resident of Muskogee. At this point he has not only established a sub- stantial private practice but has been honored with many public offices of a professional na- ture. In April, 1907, he was appointed by
Governor Haskell to membership on the Okla- homa state board of health and served as pres- ident of the board until August, 1908, when he resigned to accept the gubernatorial ap- pointment of president of the board of medi- cal examiners. He is also medical director of the Union Life and Trust Company of Muskogee. Politically he is an ardent and faithful Democrat and during the first cam- paign of the new state served as a member of the state central committee from Mayes coun- ty. He is a Mason in high standing being a Mystic Shriner and also belongs to the order of the Elks and the Knights of Pythias. Married to Miss Alice E. Hall, of Ducktown, Tennessee, daughter of Captain Jonathan Hall. the Doctor is the father of Ethel E., Cecil H. and Oliver J. Tilly.
J. FENTRESS WISDOM, prominently identi- fied with the Wisdom Real Estate and Invest- ment Company, having also large personal in- terests in property at Muskogee, has been a leading factor in the development of the lo- cality for many years. He is a son of Colonel Dew Moore and Annie ( Terry) Wisdom, and was born at Jackson, Tennessee, on the 6th of February, 1875. The late Colonel Wisdom was one of the bravest and most prominent men of the southwest, and full details of his noteworthy career as soldier, journalist, legis- lator, Indian agent and lawyer, are given in a biography following this. J. Fentress Wis- dom spent his early boyhood in the city of Jackson, Tennessee, obtaining his education in the public schools of that place and Fort Smith, Arkansas. He entered business life as an expert connected with the hardwood lumber business of Cummings Brothers, of the latter place, and first resided at Muskogee in 1885-7. Then spending five years at Fort Smith, in 1892 he resumed his residence at Muskogee which has been continuous since, with the exception of a short time during which he studied law at the Cumberland Uni- versity, Lebanon, Tennessee. Soon after lo- cating at Muskogee hie accepted a position as bookkeeper at the First National Bank of that city, and in 1893 was honored with the appointment of chief clerk of the Union In- dian Agency, which he acceptably retained until 1895. In 1906-7 he acted as business manager of the Muskogee Phoenix. having previously been the associate editor of the Ardmorcite, a brisk paper published at Ard- more, but throughout all his various activi- ties he has kept one object in mind-that of
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judiciously investing in the realty of the city which he has made his home. Active in both a political and a public sense, he has never sought personal preferment but has often ad- vanced the interests of his friends. He is a life member of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks; is social and fraternal by in- stinct, as well as in fact, and his broad and cultured tastes are well embodied in a choice and extensive private library.
COLONEL DEW MOORE WISDOM, who died at his home in Muskogee, November 5, 1905, was one of the bravest, most versatile and · thoroughly admirable men who was ever iden- tified with the history of Indian Territory or the southwest. A deep classical scholar; a dashing, brave, thoroughly competent and al- ways dependable soldier ; a leading journalist of two states; and during the later years of his life government agent of the Five Nations and mayor of Muskogee-the statement is self-evident that the deceased impersonated the best spirit and abilities of the regenerated South. He was a native of Medon, Madison county, Tennessee, where he was born on the 3d of February, 1836, his parents being Wil- liam S. and Jane (Anderson) Wisdom, both of whom are deceased. His father was born in Rockingham county, North Carolina, in the year 1796, and when Dew was only a few months old he moved to McNairy county, Tennessee, where the boy was reared and ob- tained his early education. During his youth he resided chiefly at Purdy, and after exhaust- ing his home advantages entered the literary department of the Cumberland University at Lebanon, Tennessee, from which he graduated in 1834. From an early age he had been a close student of Latin, and his college course made him remarkably proficient not only in that language, but in Greek and French. The young man also pursued a course in the law school of the Cumberland University, and at the time of the outbreak of the Civil war was engaged in the practice of his profession at Purdy.
At the beginning of hostilities, Colonel Wis- dom was chosen a member of the Constitu- tional convention, without opposition ; but the convention was never called. being defeated by popular vote. He joined Company F, Thirteenth Tennessee Regiment of Volunteer Infantry of the Confederate army, and was elected first lieutenant of that command under Captain John V. Wright, and when his super- ior was promoted to the colonelcy Lieutenant
Wisdom became captain by the unanimous vote of his comrades. Under his command the company participated in the battles of Bel- mont and Shiloh, and he was twice severely wounded in the first named engagement. Later he served in the cavalry service under Generals Rowdy and Forrest. It was under the latter great leader, popularly known as the "Wizard of the Saddle," that Colonel Wis- dom participated in many engagements and brilliant campaigns for a period covering near- ly three years-during most of the time as col- onel of a regiment. At the battle of Harris- burg he was again wounded, and by the time- ly arrival of his command he saved the day at Brice's Cross Roads. Colonel Wisdom led the Tennessee troops at the storming of Fort Pillow, and was in many other engagements in which he evinced remarkable qualities of bravery and military tactics. His breadth and independence of character were forcibly ev- inced when he refused to enforce the Confed- erate conscript law designed to enforce mili- tary service upon all of legal ages, irrespec- tive of their beliefs. At the conclusion of the war, he located at Inka, Mississippi, having been married in 1862 to Miss Annie Terry, daughter of Wiley B. and Mary (Gooche) Terry. Three sons and a daughter were born to this union, as follows: Lucile, now Mrs. Eberle, of Muskogee; William D., J. Fen- tress, and Terry Wisdom.
While a resident of Mississippi, Colonel Wisdom served for one term in the state sen- ate, but upon his removal to Jackson, Ten- nessee, entered upon a career of twelve years in the field of journalism. During this period he was the owner and editor of the Tribune, a leading Democratic journal which consoli- dated with the Jackson Sun. In 1878 he was appointed clerk to the master in chancery of Madison county, holding this position for two successive terms of six years each. In 1882 upon his removal to Fort Smith, Arkansas. he re-entered journalism as part owner of the Fort Smith Herald, of which he was the po- litical editor, in which capacity he came into prominence as one of the most stalwart Dem- ocrats in the state. His coming to Muskogee was for the purpose of assuming the chief clerkship of the Union Indian Agency, whose jurisdiction extended over the Five Nations, and in 1893-9 he served as Indian Agent. In the latter office he made a national reputation for independence, honesty and able adminis- tration, but resigned on May 3, 1900, because
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of the change in administration. The suc- ceeding few years remaining to him were passed in the practice of the law, which was largely devoted to legal matters connected with the Indian Agency with which he was so fa- miliar. To the last he was a straight-forward, brave, manly and able gentleman and lawyer, who was widely popular, but never stooped to questionable means to gain public favor or the plaudits of the people.
DEROOS BAILEY. A leading lawyer of Mus- kogee, senior member of the firm of Bailey and Kistler, DeRoos Bailey is of fine south- ern family and English Scotch-Irish stock, which is a sufficient genealogical explanation for his perseverance, his pluck, his keenness, his versatility and substantial ability, with all those other traits by which a man wrests an enviable and an honorable reputation from un- toward circumstances by force of will and emi- nent aptitude. He was born in Carroll coun- ty, Arkansas, on the 27th of May, 1857, and is a son of William Wilson and Harriet ( Wasson) Bailey, his father being a Tennes- see farmer, the American origin of whose family is traced to the Old Dominion : thence the extensions of the branch to which Mr. Bailey is attached was to North Carolina and Tennessee, with still later offshoots into Ar- kansas and Oklahoma. The paternal ancestry in the Old World was English and the mater- nal, Scotch-Irish.
The early education of DeRoos Bailey was obtained in the public schools of his native Arkansas county and at Belle Fonte Academy. Although entirely self-educated in the law, pursuing his studies at night and during odd moments, while laboring under the stress of self-supporting employments, he was still en- abled to pass a most creditable examination for admission to the bar, at the age of twenty- five. Soon after this eagerly anticipated event, in 1882, Mr. Bailey commenced the practice of his profession at Harrison. Boone county, Arkansas, and made so favorable an impres- sion by his mental energy and private suc- cesses that he eventually served for two terms as district, or prosecuting attorney. Later, he removed to Yellville. Marion county, same state, where he remained for about five years and then returned to Harrison, subsequently also practicing a year at Little Rock. In 1897 he made another move to Muskogee, Indian Territory, and after practicing there for some time as a member of the firm of Marcum, Bailey and Owen, located at Wagoner. In
1900 he again located at Harrison, Arkansas, and in 1902 resumed practice at Muskogee. as a member of the firm of Bailey and Owen, his associate being Thomas H. Owen. Later, he formed the firm of Bailey and Kistler, a strong co-partnership of present prosperity and greater promise.
Personally, Mr. Bailey is not only a lead- ing lawyer but a prominent Democrat, being an active member of the executive committee of the state organization. He has been twice married- his first wife being Miss Lillian Mc- Dowell, of Yellville, Arkansas, by whom he had one child, Lillian Lucile Bailey. His pres- ent wife was Miss Berdena Atkins, of Spring- field, Missouri, by whom he has had two chil- dren-Esther and Paul Atkins Bailey.
JOHN FRANKLIN GAMBILL, county super- intendent of public instruction of Muskogee county, is a Kentuckian, born in Johnson coun- ty, January 2, 1875. He is a son of Calvin A. and Katherine C. ( Gamble ) Gambill, his father being also a Kentuckian by birth of an old English family, and his mother, of Scotch and Irish extraction.
The early education of John F. was ob- tained in the schools of Preston, Pratt county, Kansas, and was completed at the Central Normal College of Kansas, located at Great Bend, from which he graduated in 1898, with the degrees of A. B. and B. S. Mr. Gambill began his career as an educator in what is Woods county, Oklahoma, having first come into the Indian country with his father, in . 1893, with the opening of the Cherokee strip. Being then a lad of eighteen years he was. of course, too young to become a full-fledged "boomer" but the strength of the impression made upon him by the free, vigorous and promising country remained after he had completed his education in Kansas, and it was impossible for him to do otherwise than to gravitate thither. After teaching in the pub- lic schools of what is now Woods county for some time. before finishing his normal course, Mr. Gambill received the appointment of sup- erintendent of schools at Hunnewell, Kansas, and after his graduation from the Central Normal College of Kansas he returned to the Indian Territory, and in 1903 located at Has- kell, Muskogee county, as superintendent of its graded and high schools.
With the attainment of statehood and the organization of the Republican primaries, Mr. Gambill received the nomination of county superintendent of schools, and was elected and is still serving as the first incumbent of that
De Rosa Bailey
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office. He has brought them to a fine stand- ard of efficiency, and is recognized as one of the most popular as well as able superinten- dents of the state. His fraternal relations are with the I. O. O. F. and the Modern Woodmen. His paternal love and domestic affections are centered in his three children- Ledah, Katherin and Wanda Gambill-whose mother ( formerly Miss Myrtle Elam, daugh- ter of H. A. Elam, of Blackwell, Oklahoma ) is deceased.
HON. ROBERT SMITH. A typical and enter- prising western man, Robert Smith of Mus- kogee, had already obtained a substantial rep- utation as a business and public man before he became a citizen of Oklahoma, having before coming here served three terms in the Wyom- ing legislature. Although he settled in this locality as chief clerk of the Lease Division of the Indian agency his business talents have led him away from executive work and in- duced him to profitably engage in business as a lessee of productive oil and gas lands in the former Creek and Cherokee Nations. He is a thrifty, honest and able Scotchman, born in Aberdeen, May 1, 1848, son of Robert and Barbara ( Abercromby) Smith, his father he- ing long engaged as manager of the famous estate of the Earl of Fife.
Mr. Smith was educated in various schools in and near Aberdeen, Scotland, being a stu- dent for five years at Fordyce Academy. Banffshire. Soon after his graduation from the latter institution he became an employe of the shipping house of Hutchison and Brown, of Glasgow, who were leading vessel owners and operators of Scotland. After one year of service the youth became cashier of their large business and so remained until the dissolution of the firm in 1869 removing in that year to London as corresponding clerk for. Charles Price and Company, refiners and importers of oil. He remained with that firm until 1873 when he emigrated to America. passing through Chicago then in the midst of its historic rebuilding, going to Evanston. Wy- oming. He there secured the position of cashier and bookkeeper of the Rocky Moun- tain Iron Company and remained thus em- ployed for three years when in 1826 he was engaged by Jay Gould and Sidney Dillon to manage their interests in the Union Pacific Coal Company at Salt Lake City. He took advantage of this position to purchase stock in the silver mines of Utah and to engage in other profitable mining operations, returning
to Green River. Wyoming, in 1818 and there establishing himself as a merchant. Becom- ing interested in the newspaper business he next purchased the Sweet Water Gasette, a progressive local newspaper of the place and continued there for some time as its publisher. He then removed the plant to Rock Springs, and changed the name of his publication to the Rock Springs Miner. His journalistic ventures brought him prominently before the people of his district and eventually resulted in sending him to the Wyoming legislature where he served for three terms in both its upper and lower houses.
In 1903, soon after the conclusion of his legislative services, he received the federal ap- pointment from the interior department of chief clerk of the Lease Division of the In- dian agency and in this capacity became a resi- dent of Muskogee. At that time the oil fields of the locality were in their first development and Mr. Smith saw such promise in them that he abandoned all other prospects and in- terests to invest in them at an early stage and for several years past he hàs devoted his en- tire time to the purchase and selling of oil and gas leases in the territory formerly em- braced by the Creek and Cherokee Nations.
In 1829, Mr. Smith was united in marriage with Miss Georgiana Greig Kidd, the cere- mony occurring in the city of Glasgow. Scot- land. The name at once brings to mind pic- tures of the historic pirate and it is true that Mrs. Smith's family is directly descended from the famous Captain Kidd. Two children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Smith: Robert Abercromby, a graduate of Rush Medical Col- lege and now a practicing physician of Chi- cago, and Georgiana Sanderson. who married George D. Rogers, of Muskogee.
WILLIAM B. BAINBRIDGE. As a member of the firm of Bennett. Urmston and Company, William Bowles Bainbridge. of Muskogee, is one of the most prominent marble dealers in Oklahoma. For about six years he has been engaged in the business which he so thorough- ly mastered in his youth and early manhood, four years of that period being spent in Texas. As the other years of his long business career were passed as a commercial traveler. or salesman. he has enjoyed the best possible training to insure him an unusual success both as a promoter and a practical manager of the house with which he is connected. Its busi- ness, in fact. is so large that for a number of
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years yards have been established at McAles- ter, Oklahoma, and recently at Muskogee.
Born in Tipton county, Tennessee, on the 5th of November, 1858, Mr. Bainbridge is a son of William B., Sr., and Jane Dean ( Camp- bell) Bainbridge. The paternal ancestors, of English stock, settled in Maryland at an early colonial period, and the maternal forefathers were of Scotch origin. The boy received a public school education in the vicinity of his Tennessee home, and when about eighteen years of age entered commercial life as an em- ploye in the sales department of the marble yards operated by the Clark Monumental Com- pany, of Covington, Kentucky. In 1829, after filling that position for some three years, Mr. Bainbridge entered the ranks of the commer- cial travelers, in the employ of various houses covering sections of Missouri, Illinois and Kentucky. He concluded this phase of his business career by locating at Louisville in the last named state, where he established a piano and music house. His broad experience as a commercial salesman, however, had fitted him for a larger field, and his mind naturally re- verted to the marble business. Mr. Bain- bridge's next independent venture was to es- tablish himself as a marble dealer in Texas, but as the promise of the northern country for a rapid and substantial growth appealed more strongly to him than the future of any section of the Lone Star state, in 1903 he located at McAlester, Indian Territory, as a member of the firm of Bennett, Urmston and Company. with yards (as stated) both at that point and at Muskogee. Mr. Bainbridge's wife was for- merly Miss Queen V. Atkins, daughter of John W. Atkins, a resident of Paducah, Ken- tucky, and of old Virginian stock.
MICHAEL FRANK DUNLEAVY. A large land investor and a well known capitalist, Michael F. Dunleavy, of Muskogee, possesses the best characteristic traits of his Irish forefathers- keenness, versatility, humor, honesty and all other qualities which enter the character of the pleasing, substantial and honorable man. Born in Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin, on the 22d of February, 1863, he is also pledged by the very day of his nativity to be a lover of Washington and a patriot of the enthusiastic kind. He is a son of Owen and Eliza (Mor- iarity) Dunleavy, his father being a farmer and stock-raiser and a native of County Ker- ry, Ireland, and his mother was also a native of the Emerald Isle.
The boy received his education in the schools of his native Wisconsin city, but at
the age of twelve he left home and from that time to the present has been a self-support- ing member of society. He has never admit- ted such a word as "laziness" into his vocab- ulary. Coming farther west, he located at Clear Lake, Cerro Gordo county, lowa, where he learned the trade of cheese-making, but after engaging at that occupation for about two years became a farmer in Allamakee county. Still but fifteen years of age-a youth in years, but a man in temperament and accomplishment- during the first year of his venture on a rented farm he cleared $2,777 from the sales of his wheat crop, and shortly afterward located in Jewell county, Kansas, where he invested his savings in farming and stock-raising. In 1890 he located south of Chandler, Indian Territory, where, soon after the opening of the Cherokee strip, he com- menced his career as a rancliman, three years later obtaining possession of one hundred and sixty acres of land at Medford and residing there until 1899.
His enthusiastic attention was drawn to Muskogee as a coming center of commerce, trade and agriculture, and in 1900 he located at that point, one of his first acts being the purchase of fifteen acres of land within the corporate limits. The progress of the city has so conformed to his expectations that he has devoted much of his time to the improve- ment of his original tract and the purchase and sale of other town real estate, as well as to the equally profitable business of deal- ing in country property. Mr. Dunleavy is now the owner of fully three hundred farms in the state, which, with his position as a land- ed citizen and capitalist of Muskogee, places him in the class of the most substantial resi- dents of Muskogee county. He is a supporter of the principles of the Democratic party.
DR. GEORGE ALLISON SMITHETT. a progres- sive physician and surgeon of Muskogee, was born at Louisville, Kentucky, August 14, 1876, son of William B. and Viola ( Jones) Smithett. His father was a merchant and son of an Eng- lish missionary and his mother was of pure English stock and traced her ancestry back to the Mayflower Pilgrims, various members of the family afterward migrating to the Em- pire state of which Mrs. William B. Smithett is a native.
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