USA > Oklahoma > A history of the state of Oklahoma, Volume II > Part 75
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great fraternal orders. In many ways he was a remarkable man. He was a man of great culture and refinement although raised under adverse circumstances. So genial was his hospitality and so rare his qualities of entertainment that he has often been called the 'Prince of the Osages,' His friends were legion, and many a heart saddens at the news of his death. May his like in- crease ; for it may truly be said of him, The world is better for his having lived.'"
The family of which Judge Rogers was so worthy a representative was founded in Indian Territory, by Captain John Rogers, the grandfather, who came to the Osage Nation from his home in Georgia as early as 1829, being a member of what was known as the "Old Settlers," as distinguished from the emigrants who came in the early thir- ties. With his son, Thomas Lewis Rogers, Sr., he established the first salt industry west of the Mississippi river, at the Rogers homestead, on Spavinaw Creek. Without tools, machinery or equipment of any kind, they dug their wells and built rude, but practicable furnaces for boiling the water and extracting the salt, selling their prod- uct in large quantities throughout Indian Territory, Missouri and Kansas. Among the pioneer enterprises of the Rogers, father and son, in this field was the plant which they established at Grand Saline, which was the forerunner of the extensive industry con- ducted at that point. Thomas L. Rogers, Sr., married Ellen Lombard, a woman who was half French and half Osage Indian, and it is through her that Judge Rogers ob- tained his citizenship in the Osage Nation. Before the Civil war, the Rogers homestead on the Spavinaw was a famous resort of the settlers for miles around, good cheer, comfort and old-time southern hospitality there abounding in their most typical forms. Especially at Christmas and during the holi- day season was the house "wide open" and warm with the best spirit of the days.
The Rogers homestead, noted above, was located about four miles from the confluence of the Spavinaw with the Grand river, in what is now Mayes county, Oklahoma, and it was here that Thomas L. Rogers, of this biography, was born in the 11th of August, 183. At the opening of the Civil war the enlisted in the Confederate service as a mem- ber of Company G, General Watie's Chero- kee Regiment, and spent most of his time as a scout on the frontier of the Indian
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Territory. He was also engaged in sev- eral severe battles, particularly the en- gagement at Big Cabin. The war so depreciated the value of his homestead and business properties that at its close he found employment as clerk in a large general store, being subsequently engaged in the more lucrative and independent occupation of buying and selling cattle. It is illustrative of the faithful and gen- erous character of the deceased that the profits of this business, which covered sev- eral years of his life, were not selfishly ex- pended upon himself, but went toward the support of his widowed mother and the edu- cation of the younger members of the fam- ily. In 1870 he married Miss Nancy Martin, member of one of the most prominent of the Cherokee families, and in 1872 located on the Big Caney in the northwestern part of the Cherokee Nation adjoining the Osage Nation, soon after the lands in that locality were thrown open to settlement. This tract of land became his homestead and so re- mained for many years and, through his industry and skill, it became one of the finest agricultural and stock farms in this section of the country. There, seven miles southeast of Pawhuska, he erected a splen- did stone residence and provided every fa- cility for conducting his large and varied operations. For several years he handled cattle and horses on an extensive scale and, though still operating his farm, moved to Pawhuska, where he built another fine mod- ern residence, on east Main street. As a resident of the town, he engaged successful- ly in general merchandising for several years-at first, in partnership with his kins- man, Hon. W. C. Rogers (chief of the Cher- okees), and later with John R. Skinner. Judge Rogers' prominent participation in in the negotiations and final arrangements with the general government and the Cher- okee Nation, by which the territorial limits of the Osage Nation were determined, has already been noted, as well as his high con- nection with the legislative and judicial af- fairs of his people. So that his passing away from these manifold activities, at the dawn of 1909, marked the departure from the world of a man who had demonstrated not only unusual capacities, but the finest and warmest traits of heart and soul.
As stated, Judge Rogers' wife before her marriage was Miss Nancy Martin. She was
born on Cabin Creek, Cherokee Nation, on the 30th of October, 1848, being a daughter of John and Martha (Chambers) Martin. Her father, John Martin, was a native of Georgia, born June 11, 1819, and was one of the emigrants to the Indian country of 1829. Through his marriage he secured citizenship in the Cherokee Nation and be- came one of its most prominent men. His father, Jack Martin, served as its first su- preme judge. John Martin was a slave owner before the Civil war and served faith- fully and bravely as a Confederate soldier, his death occurring on the 20th of Novem- ber, 1871. The mother of Mrs. Nancy Rog- ers was born in Georgia, a member of the Cherokee Nation, and her father, Jack Chambers, was of Irish blood. The girl- hood of Mrs. Rogers was spent in the Cher- okee Nation, as the daughter of one of its leading and prosperous citizens. After re- ceiving a thorough education in its public schools, she completed her schooling at the Neosho (Missouri) Academy, and was unit- ed in marriage to Judge Rogers, February 26, 1869. She is an intelligent and cultured lady in every sense of the word, and is ac- tive in the work of the Methodist church. The children born to the marriage of Judge and Mrs. Rogers are four in number, as fol- lows: Mrs. Bertha Leahy ; the second child died young: Mrs. Martha Leahy, and Thomas L. Rogers, Jr. Arthur Rogers is a son by the marriage of Judge Rogers to Ellen Cordy, in 1862.
DR. HARRY WALKER, one of the eminent physicians and surgeons of northeastern Oklahoma, came to Pawhuska in 1900, as government surgeon for the Osage Indian Agency, a position which he filled for sev- eral years, and since retiring from the office he has devoted his entire time to his large private practice, which extends throughout the Osage Nation. He is a member of the County, State and American Medical Asso- ciations, and is one of the censors of the Osage County Medical Society.
The Doctor was born at Conneautville, Pennsylvania, in 1861, and is a son of the eminent Dr. Delos Walker, of Oklahoma City, whose name is so familiarly connected with the medical profession of Oklahoma, and whose sketch will be found on another page of this work. The son received his literary training in the Michigan Univer- sity at Ann Arbor, where he pursued a
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mixed course, including medical lectures. He graduated in medicine from the Belle- vue Hospital Medical College of New York with the class of 1884, but he received his best and most efficient medical training and tutelage, however, from his father as precep- tor and with whom he was associated in practice for many years, beginning at Gree- ley and continuing at Oklahoma City.
Dr. Walker is a fluent and interesting writer, and has contributed articles to the Kansas City Star on some of the more ro- mantic features of Osage Indian history, particularly of the Roy family of Osages and the connection of the Chouteau family, of St. Louis, with the history of the Osages. He is exceptionally well informed on the his- tory of the Osage Indians and their rela- tions with the other tribes and with the United States government. Dr. Walker is a Republican and is affiliated with the Ma- sons of Pawhuska, the K. of P., the M. W. A. and W. O. W. He married Miss Villa Mc- Fadden, a native of Illinois, and they have three sons : Roscoe, attending the State University, at Norman, Oklahoma; Joe, at home, and Deloss, Jr., also at home.
WILEY G. HAINES .. The safety of our re- public depends not so much upon methods and measures as upon that manhood from whose sources all that is precious and per- manent in life most at last proceed, and in reviewing the salient points which mark the career of Wiley G. Haines it is found that he has won the reputation of being one of the most successful criminal officers in Okla- homa, earnest and fearless in the discharge of his duties in various official positions, in- cluding those of deputy U. S. marshal, chief of police for the Osage Nation and for sev- eral years criminal officer of an enviable record in Oklahoma.
Mr. Haines was born in Monroe county, Missouri, October 7, 1860, his ancestors coming to America from England in 1680, on the ship, "Amity." In 1878 he first be- came identified with the West, going at that time to Arizona and securing employ- ment in the mining camps, cattle ranches, etc., and while there also had a considerable experience with the Apache Indians. He later went to California and lived for a time in San Francisco, but was mostly in the mountain country in the northern part of the state. During this western experience he made a trip back to his Missouri home
to complete his educational training in the southwestern Baptist College, at Bolivar, teaching school in the meantime in Cedar county. 'It was following this professional period in his life that he returned to the far west in California.
In 1889 he again turned his face eastward, and at the time of the opening of Oklahoma, on the 22d of April, 1889, he made the run into the new country from Purcell and lo- cated at Oklahoma City, where he became a member of the police force under Charles F. Colcord, whose history appears elsewhere in this work. He was also a deputy under Mr. Colcord when the latter became sheriff of Oklahoma county, and the two have ever since remained the warmest of friends, the dangers that they underwent in contending with the criminal and lawless elements of those days cementing a bond of attach- ment typical of comrades in frontier life. Mr. Haines went to Perry at the opening of the Cherokee Strip, in 1893, and as the deputy sheriff of Noble county, helped to preserve order and suppress crime during the turbulent days coincident with and fol- lowing the opening of the Strip.
In June of 1898 Mr. Haines accepted a position as police officer for the Osage In- dian Nation, locating at that time in Paw- huska, which has ever since been his home, and in 1906 was made chief of police for the Osage Nation, his present office. He has under him a force of five constables, and he is also field deputy United States marshal for the western district of Oklahoma under John Abernathy, of Guthrie. Mr. Haines is a criminal officer of national record, and one of his most notable cases was in con- nection with the breaking up of the Martin gang, composed of the two Martin brothers and Clarence Simmons as principals. They were a notorious gang of outlaws and train robbers operating in Oklahoma and for a long period defied the officials of the terri- tory. Among their other crimes was the killing of John Cross, an officer, at Geary, this state. It was on their attempted escape eastward after this murder that they were intercepted in the Osage Nation, on Birch Creek, about six miles south of Pawhuska, in August of 1903, by Warren Bennett, then deputy U. S. marshal, and Mr. Haines. In the fight that ensued these brave officers killed the Martin brothers, Clarence Sim- mons alone escaping, but the last shot fired by the Martins struck Mr. Haines in the
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shoulder, the ball passing around the lower part of the back of the neck, and proved a serious and almost fatal wound and con- fined him in the hospital for several months. Warren Bennett, a brave officer, died short- ly afterward, probably as a result of the hardships and exposures endured on this expedition. In commenting on this event, Judge Horace Speed, of Guthrie, gave in a letter of recommendation to Mr. Haines as his opinion that no better work was ever done than in this fight and in the wiping out of the Martin gang. Mr. Haines had a great many narrow escapes. He is a deputy sheriff and had a commission under Johnson in suppressing the liquor traffic.
Mr. Haines married, in Oklahoma City, Miss Sarah E. Tapp, a native of Illinois, and their eight children are: John D., Mary H., Wiley P., Ralls Lawton, Elma, Robert, War- ren, and Virgil Clyde. Fraternally Mr. Haines is a Scottish Rite Mason, belonging to the Consistory at Guthrie and the Shrine at Oklahoma City.
WILLIAM S. MATTHEWS. Among the men prominent in the affairs of the new state of Oklahoma is William S. Matthews, who is the head of one of the leading banking institutions of the state, the Citizens Na- tional Bank, of Pawhuska. He is among the first of the pioneers, having been born near the old Creek agency of the Creek Nation, near Muskogee, September 15, 1848. His father was born in Kentucky, but came to the Indian Territory in the early days of its settlement, later removing to the Osage Nation and locating where the town of Os- wego, Kansas now stands. The mother of William S. Matthews was a half-blood Osage Indian and this accounts for the great interest and prominent part he has taken in the affairs of the tribe.
The parents lived at Oswego until the Civil war broke out, when they went to Texas, but their son, William, received most of his schooling at the old Osage Mission, at what is now St. Paul Kansas, as he re- mained in school there until he moved to , Texas. After the war William S. Matthews left Texas for the Indian Territory, where he began herding cattle in the Cherokee Nation. He continued in this until 1874, working for various of the big cattle outfits of Texas and taking cattle over the trails to Kansas, his route most frequently being on the old Military trail passing through Fort Gibson.
In 1874 Mr. Matthews came to Pawhuska, the capital of the Osage Nation, and this has been his home ever since, and he is one of the earliest of its pioneers. During the first two years of his residence here he worked for Isaac T. Gibson, the Indian agent then in charge of the Osage Agency. Being injured by a horse, Mr. Matthews clerked for traders for a time and disposed of his cattle, he having been engaged to some extent in the cattle industry. Finally disposing of all his interests, he directed his labors entirely to banking. He was one of
the owners and founders of the Osage Mer- cantile Company and one of the organizers of the First National Bank here, which he afterwards sold. He was one of the organ- izers of the First State Bank at Hom- iny and also the one at Gray Horse, Okla- homa, and selling his interest in these banks, he started the Citizens National Bank, be- coming its president. The Citizens National Bank was organized in August of 1905; is a successful financial institution, and its stock is capitalized at $25,000. Mr. Mat- thews devotes practically all of his time to the management of this institution.
Before her marriage, Mrs. Matthews was Miss Eugenia Girard, a native of Missouri, and of French ancestry. There are five children in the Matthews family: Jose- phine, Joe, Marie, Lillian and Florence. Mr. Matthews is a Democrat. He was treasurer of the Osage Nation two terms (four years), for two years served as prosecuting attor- ney and two years as supreme judge of the tribe and also councilor of the tribe for two terms. In 1908 he was candidate for chief of the Osages, but was defeated by Peter Bighart by a small majority. Mr. Mat- thews was a member of the city council of Pawhuska for one term and has been dele- gate to Washington, D. C., three times on tribal business, refusing to go the fourth time. His family are members of the Cath- olic church. A member of the Masonic or- der, Mr. Matthews is affiliated with Paw- huska Lodge, No. 31. of Pawhuska, Okla- homa.
HON. T. J. LEAHY is widely known as a man of high attainments, of profound erudi- tion and practical ability as a lawyer, and as one who has achieved success in his pro- fession. He is one of the most interesting of the prominent characters whose worth and merit have graced the history of Okla-
J.D. Leahy
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homa as a state and territory, and was one of the two members elected to the con- stitutional convention from the Fifty-sixth constitutional district, comprising the Osage Nation. In that high official position he performed particularly notable work as a member of the committee on public service corporations, as such making a thorough study and unprejudiced investigation of the great problems in connection with the gov- ernmental regulation of public service cor- porations, giving his best thought and judg- ment in the effort to arrive at a just solution of this modern and somewhat complex phase of legislation. The enactments which are the results of this committee's work in the convention are conceded to be of the greatest beneficence to the state.
Mr. Leahy is one of the strong leaders of the bar in Osage county. For several years he conducted a large criminal practice, which is still a feature of his legal business, having an established reputation for success in that line. His practice as a whole, how- ever, is of a general nature in connection with the Oklahoma and Federal courts and interior department litigation. He was made chairman of the commission that was appointed to investigate the status and value of the segregated coal and other min- eral lands of Indian Territory and to make recommendations as to the advisability or non-advisability of having the state pur- chase those lands. He spent much time and labor on the work of this commission, the report of which was submitted to the gov- ernor of Oklahoma in 1908. Mr. Leahy was also the father of the measure which was made a part of the Bill of Rights providing that the right of the state to enter into pub- lic enterprise for public purposes should *not be denied. The labor unions and labor- ing element generally were particularly pleased with Mr. Leahy's championship of measures in their interests in the constitu- tional convention. He is Democratic in politics.
Mr. Leahy is a member of a family well known in the Osage Nation for many years back and his cousin, W. T., and uncle, Thomas Leahy, stockmen and bankers and residents of Pawhuska, have been promi- nently identified with various interests in this country since the early eighties. But the Hon. T. J. Leahy is a native son of Kansas, born in Neosho county in 1868, his parents, both natives of Ireland being early
settlers in the Osage Indian country. His father died in 1869, but his mother is still living and her home is in Pawhuska. Their son was reared in Neosho county, receiving" a common and normal school education, and he studied law in both Kansas and Okla- homa and was admitted to the bar in 1892. In that year he settled permanently in Paw- huska, the capital of the Osage Nation, al- though he had been in the nation, back and forth since 1884. He belongs to the Ma- sonic orders, and also to the Knights of Pythias, of which latter he is past grand chancellor of Oklahoma.
Mr. Leahy married in Pawhuska, Miss Bertha Rogers, who was born and reared here, a member of an old family of part Osage Indian blood and daughter of Hon. Thomas L. Rogers, whose sketch is found on another page of this volume. Mr. and Mrs. Leahy have four children : Thomas Rogers, Cora Willella, Mabel N. and Ed- ward Arthur.
HARRIS H. BRENNER. The name of Harris H. Brenner is indelibly traced on the his- tory of Oklahoma, figuring prominently on its pages whose records perpetuate the prin- cipal events of the Osage Nation from the early period when it formed a part of In- dian Territory until it was annexed to Ok- lahoma and finally became a part of the greatest state of the southwest. It was in 1886 that he located at Pawhuska, the capi- tal of the Osage Nation in Indian Territory, being prominently identified with its mer- cantile and trading interests until 1889, when he returned temporarily to Missis- sippi. Coming back to this city in 1895 he re-engaged in the general mercantile busi- ness and in the cattle industry, but in re- cent years he has disposed of those interests and devotes his entire time to his banking business and general capitalistic enterprises in connection with the development of the Osage Nation, particularly in oil and gas, of which he was one of the pioneers in the Osage country.
The First National Bank, of which Mr. Brenner is the president, was established in 1900, and its capital stock is $25,000, a solid financial institution particularly iden- tified with the live-stock and industrial in- terests of the Osage country. Mr. Brenner has taken a public-spirited part in the build- ing up and expansion of Pawhuska, the town being organized in 1906 at the time the
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Interior department sold the town lots. The coming of the Midland Valley Railroad and the discovery of oil and gas have also contributed largely in accelerating this won- derful growth.
Mr. Brenner is a German by birth, born at Courland, the Baltic province, in 1852, and was reared in mercantile pursuits. In 1869 he made his way to America and soon after arriving in this country located at Ox- ford, Mississippi, where he resumed his mer- cantile pursuits and was in business there until 1885. From there he came to the new southwest to bend his energies toward the wonderful transformation which has since been wrought here, and as the president of the First National Bank of Pawhuska he has placed his name high on the roll of Oklahoma's business men. He is support- ing the principles of the Democratic party, being appointed post trader under both Cleveland's administrations at Pawhuska Osage Agency.
Mr. Brenner is a prominent Mason be- longing to the A. F. & A. M., York Rite, Scottish Rite and Pilgrim Rite, and a 32nd degree Shriner of India Temple, Oklahoma City ; he is also a member of the K. of P., Pawhuska B. P. O. E., Tulsa, and the Chap- ter at Pawhuska. His wife before marriage was Mary L. Morris, a native of New York state.
WILLIAM T. LEAHY, prominently known as a banker, capitalist, stockman and pioneer, is one of the best known and most public spirited citizens of northeastern Oklahoma. He is the vice-president of the First National Bank, one of the solid financial institutions of the state, and is an officer and one of the largest stockholders in the Pawhuska Gas & Oil Company, the corporation that fur- nishes the natural gas supply to the city of Pawhuska. The company has also de- veloped some of the richest oil and gas fields in the Osage Nation.
Mr. Leahy was born in Neosho county, Kansas, in 1869, a son of Thomas and Mary (Champaigne) Leahy. The father was born in county Tipperary, Ireland, and came to America in 1855, locating on the Osage Indian reservation of Kansas, in what is now Neosho county. He was there married to Miss Mary Champaigne, whose father was a Frenchman and her mother of the Osage Indian family. Thomas Leahy and his family came to the Osage Nation,
now Osage county, Oklahoma, in 1874, and they have lived here ever since, the home of the parents being in Pawhuska. Thomas Leahy is an old-time cattleman, and his name figures prominently in the history of that industry in the southwest.
He reared his son William to that indus- try from his early boyhood, the latter at- taining to mature years in the Osage Na- tion, and of late years he has engaged in the cattle business on an extensive scale. He was educated principally in the South- east Kansas Normal College of Fort Scott. He now has a fine stock ranch and farm two miles north of Pawhuska, his home be- ing in the city, where he is one of the prom- inent and public spirited citizens.
He married here Miss Martha E. Rogers, a daughter of Judge Thomas L. Rogers, the history of whose life may be found else- where in this work. Their two sons are William Timothy, Jr., and Bernard Thomas. Mr. Leahy belongs to the Elks, the Eagles and Knights of Columbus.
DR. ROGER L. HALL is one of the most prom- inent figures which has graced the early and recent history of Oklahoma, the mayor of Pawhuska, real estate owner and builder of prominent structures in the city and formerly prominent in its medical frater- nity. Born in Warrensburg, Johnson coun- ty, Missouri, in 1869 he was but five years old when he moved with his parents to Southwestern Kansas, locating at Cald- well, which was then and remained for some time a well known center of the great south- western cattle business. The elder Mr. Hall was engaged in that business, and he reared his son in the occupation from his early boy- hood. From the life of a cowboy the youth's mind gradually turned to the study of med- icine, which he pursued in the Missouri Medical College at St. Louis, graduating with its class of 1894.
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