A history of the state of Oklahoma, Volume II, Part 77

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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ways the most dangerous and desperate criminals with whom the federal govern- ment has to deal, have for many years been the special mark of Mr. Cone's vigilance, and in dealing with them he has shown the highest qualities of skill, courage and dar- ing, winning for himself a record for steady efficiency and unflinching devotion to duty. On one expedition to Oklahoma City, still well remembered in that city, he arrested forty-one saloonkeepers for illicit whiskey selling. In the summer of 1907, in a raid after bootleggers, and while asleep in his room at night, at Tullahassee, in the Creek Nation, a volley of bullets were fired at him, the mattress and pillow being perfor- ated by fifteen, while he almost miraculous- ly escaped. In rounding up a bunch of counterfeiters at Tulsa, in June, 1907, he had another exciting experience.

The Cone Secret Service Agency was established at Tulsa in December, 1907, as an incorporated company with bonded re- sponsibility of $80,000. This is a detective agency operated on legitimate lines, and under the direction of a man who has all the qualifications for such a business and also possesses the confidence of the people as a man of integrity. The Cone rogue's gallery comprises photographs of five or six thousand persons selected from the criminal world and the class of "suspects." Mr. Cone was married while teaching school at Lehigh, to Miss Helen Parker, who was born and reared in Cleveland, Ohio. They have a son, Sam Cone.

et. Lombard

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HISTORY OF THE STATE OF OKLAHOMA.

of farm animals and has, therefore, been enabled to make judicious purchases and to realize a good profit when he has placed his stock upon the market.

In the spring of 1875 Mr. Mitchell estab- lished his home at Mexico, Missouri, where he continued his residence for about twenty- eight years. Ere he removed his family from that state he himself came to Indian Territory-in 1899-and since that time has practically made his headquarters at Tulsa. In 1903 he removed his family to this rap- idly developing city, and in 1906 built a fine residence on South Boston avenue, where hospitality reigns supreme and where many attractive social functions are enjoyed by their friends.

Although his residence and headquarters remained at Mexico, Missouri, Mr. Mitchell for many years traveled extensively as an auctioneer and in that connection had an unusually varied and interesting career. He has conducted public sales of all kinds from New York to the Pacific Coast and south as far as New Orleans. He conducted several town lot and townsite sales in different boom cities of the west, principally at Se- attle, Washington, and in Idaho. He is a most energetic, capable man, always busy, and in his career as an auctioneer has dis- played an alert spirit, which is indispensable to success in that direction. He also has that ready adaptability which enables him to grasp immediately a situation and its pos- sibilities. He now has valuable property and real estate interests in Oklahoma, par- ticularly at the well known resort of Sul- phur.

Mr. Mitchell was married in Morgan county, Illinois, to Miss Laura E. Wallace, and they have three children: Mrs. Mattie E. Gardner, Mrs. Daisy B. Mills and Joel C. Mitchell. In his travels throughout the country, Mr. Mitchell has noted good points in one city and another, but in making choice of a location manifested his faith in the new state of Oklahoma, which in its rapid development is offering excellent op- portunity to the enterprising, progressive man.

ALBERT LOMBARD. On the road leading north from Tulsa and dividing the former nations of the Cherokee and Osage Indians, a mile from the city, lives the family of Al- bert Lombard, a large cattle owner and rais-

er, who has lived in the locality since 1889. His beautiful home on the border of the Osage country, with rich tracts of land about twenty-five miles north of Tulsa on Bird Creek, has become his property both through his own ability and good manage- ment and through his inheritance of Osage citizenship through his father. Altogether, he owns about 480 acres of land, six of his children having been legally allotted 160 acres each, and eleven grandchildren also add to the landed estate of the family. It is, therefore, evident that the Lombard fam- ily is a strong factor in the substantial pros- perity and progress of Tulsa county. Dur- ing the greater portion of his residence in this locality, Mr. Lombard's lands have been chiefly valuable for their agricultural resources, but with the discovery of oil in later years, with the sinking of productive wells, their value has greatly increased at the expense of their picturesqueness.

Albert Lombard was born in the extreme southwestern portion of Missouri, on De- cember 31, 1844, his family originating in France, of which his grandfather was a na- tive. In 1854 the family joined the overland migration to California, several of its mem- bers becoming farmers and stock raisers in Sonoma county. There the boy reached maturity, mastered those callings himself and followed them successfully until he re- moved to the Osage Nation in 1889. While a resident of California he married Miss Hester C. Palmer, and the children born to their union were : Laura, now the wife of A. C. Cunningham, of Bartlesville, Ok- lahoma; Agnes, who married Dr. S. G. Ken- nedy, who after practicing at Tulsa for a number of years, recently retired from his profession to devote himself to his oil and financial enterprises ; Walter A., also a resi- dent of Tulsa ; Mable, wife of Dr. J. L. Ken- nedy, of that place; Ida, who married J. E. Barber and resides near Ramona, Osage county, this state; John M., a farmer and stock-raiser of Tulsa county; and Clara, Nina, Irene, Bessie and Robert. The hon- ored father of the family has devoted him- self quite closely to his property interests and is considered a most valuable asset of the local citizenship. Fraternally, he is a member of the Elks lodge of Tulsa and, po- litically, is a Democrat who has been fully content to cast an intelligent and honest vote without seeking any public benefits.

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HISTORY OF THE STATE OF OKLAHOMA.

JOHN W. ARCHER. One of the old fam- ilies of Cherokee citizenship is now repre- sented at Tulsa in the person of John W. Archer. In the history of the origin of the Indian Territory mention has been made of the old Loveless tract, now included in the state of Arkansas. Here, on the land first given to the Cherokees when they moved to the west, John W. Archer was born, in 1861. His parents were among the immigrants of the thirties. His mother was of part Cherokee blood, and a native of Georgia, while his father, a white man, was born in middle Tennessee. Both parents died in the early childhood of John W. Archer, who had many disadvantages at- tendant upon that loss, and among others had no opportunity to secure an education. His boyhood home was the old Frozen Rock place, on the Arkansas river, three miles from Muskogee. As he grew up, he had few white companions, and the Indian Ter- ritory, with only one line of railroad and without commercial development, offered few opportunities for a business career out- side of the cattle industry. During the period while the trails across the Territory were thronged with the great herds from Texas, and the Indian lands were leased in great measure to the cattlemen, he spent several years on the trail and had all the experiences of the cowboy. His last em- ployment of this kind was with Clarence Turner, of Muskogee, in the summer of 1882, which was one of the last years when cattle in any considerable number were driven through the eastern part of the Terri- tory.

Mr. Archer has lived in Tulsa since 1882. The completion of the railroad to that point in 1883 gave the first real impetus to the growth of what had been up to that time an obscure settlement. His business career has been that of farming, and since he came to this vicinity, a quarter of a century ago, he has received the many benefits of the general development and progress in the Cherokee Nation and vicinity. Under the allotment rules he and his children have be- come the possessors of over six hundred acres of the fine land lying north and east of Tulsa, within the boundaries of the old Cherokee Nation. His home is one mile north of the city. His deceased brother, Thomas J. Archer, formerly owned valuable business property in Tulsa. Mrs. Archer

before her marriage was Miss Florence Mosley. They have five children: Mattie E., John Ernest, Robert V., Leroy, and Thomas J.

In politics Mr. Archer belongs to the Democratic party, but has never desired any office. He is a member of the Masonic order and also of the Knights of Pythias.

HON. LUTHER D. MARR. In a history of Tulsa and this section of the state of Okla- homa, it is imperative that mention be made of Hon. Luther D. Marr, a prominent citi- zen, widely known as a successful banker and also by reason of his public service in various connections. He is now secretary of the state board of school land commissioners and is classed with those residents of the newly created state who have labored un- tiringly for its welfare and interests, desir- ing that it shall hold to high ideals of citi- zenship, government and public service. A man of energy, enterprise and keen fore- sight, he has but reached the prime of life and Oklahoma is to be congratulated if he continues a factor in her public affairs for many years to come.

A native of Clay county, Missouri, he was born near the town of Liberty, in 1866. His parents are still living and are now res- idents of Tulsa. His father, Lorenzo D. Marr, was born in Kentucky, and became one of the early settlers of Clay county, Missouri, while the mother, a native of that county, was born and reared near Liberty. In his childhood days Luther D. Marr, of this review, accompanied his parents on their removal to Clinton, Missouri, where he was reared. He acquired an excellent education, spending a number of years in school, his early privileges in that direction being supplemented by a course in Platts- burg (Missouri) College, from which he was graduated in the class of 1884. The follow- ing year was devoted to the mastery of the branches of study taught in St. Joseph (Mis- souri) Commercial College, and after grad- uating from that institution in 1884 he took up the study of shorthand in Stansberry (Missouri) Normal College. The year of his graduation there was 1886, and he was graduated from the Kirksville State Nor- mal College, in Missouri, in 1888.

At intervals through these years he fol- lowed the profession of teaching, continu- ing in active connection with the profession for nine years. He was principal of the schools of Fair Grove. Buchanan county,

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principal of the schools at Turney, Clinton county, and also at Manchester, St. Louis county. He was afterward chosen super- intendent of the schools at Mansheld, Mis- souri, but desiring to enter a more lucrative field of labor, hie established a banking busi- ness in Mansfield in 1890, and placed it upon a substantial and paying basis. While thus identified with the financial interests of the town he read law and was admitted to the bar in the eighteenth judicial district by Circuit Judge Cox in 1896.

Mr. Marr came from Mansfield to Tulsa in 1900, since which time he has been a resident of this city. Upon coming here he established, in connection with his business associates, the City Bank, which later be- came the City National Bank, and was prominent in its control and management until 1903, when he sold his interests therein and, with his brother, S. W. Marr, estab- lished the Farmers National Bank, of which he became the active manager and cashier. Its methods will bear the closest investiga- tion and scrutiny. It is founded upon con- servative business methods and yet there is no lack of a progressive spirit in its con- trol. Mr. Marr is thoroughly acquainted with banking in principle and detail, and the institution is one of the strong mon- eyed concerns of this part of the country. It has never made loans or extended finan- cial favors to its officers, directors or em- ployes, Mr. Marr establishing the rule that they should never be in debt to the bank. He holds to the highest ideals in the con- duct of the institution and in his business career has displayed a close conformity to commercial ethics.

Mr. Marr has been selected for financial connections with some of the most promi- nent moneyed institutions of the east, such as the City National Bank of New York and the National Bank of Commerce of St. Louis. The bank has a working capital of sixty thousand dollars. Mr. Marr, with the utmost fidelity to those whose interests are in his care, has made it a fixed purpose to refrain from speculations in oil or other properties, the outcome of which must al- ways be more or less in doubt. The con- servative plan which he established and the able management which he has displayed have brought to the bank a patronage of many of the leading industries of the Tulsa country, such as the Standard Oil Company,

the Frisco Railroad, the Oil Well Supply Company and other important corporations.

Mr. Marr has also become widely known with banking interests elsewhere. He was formerly president of the First State Bank of Broken Arrow, also the Farmers & Mer- chants Bank of Collinsville, and a stockhold- er in the International Bank at Haskell. While still maintaining his financial inter- ests in the Farmers Bank, Mr. Marr, in the fall of 1907, resigned as an active officer therein, to take up the duties of secretary and member of the state board of land com- missioners for the new state of Oklahoma, a most responsible position during the form- ative period in the history of the state. The value of the school lands of Oklahoma which are leased out to individuals amounts up into the millions of dollars and the money in rental thereof aggregates more than two thousand dollars per day. To the task of systematizing the details of the state land office and conducting the business connect- ed with the revenue from the school lands for the best interests of the new state and the people at large Mr. Marr is now giving his time and splendid business abilities. On his appointment to this position by Gover- nor Haskell it was almost uniformly con- ceded that he was the best man for the place, and Governor Haskell and other state officers serve with him as members of this board.

In 1898 Mr. Marr was married to Miss Emma C. Reinhard, a daughter of William Reinhard, of Manchester, Missouri, a sub- urb of St. Louis. They now have one son, Luther D. Marr, Jr. In community affairs Mr. Marr is deeply and helpfully interested and whatever tends to benefit the communi- ty receives his endorsement and, to a large extent, his active co-operation. He was secretary of the board of education of Tulsa for five years, and for some years was super- intendent of the Sunday school of the First Christian church, in which he holds mem- bership. His life has been honorable, his actions manly and sincere, and his record is that of a man who is fearless in conduct, loyal in citizenship and stainless in repu- tation. In January, 1909, Mr. Marr was admitted to the bench of the Supreme Court of Oklahoma. The Oklahoma State Bank of Tulsa, with a capital of $25,000, of which Mr. Marr is the president and the controll- ing owner, was organized by him in Janu-

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ary, 1909. Fraternally, Mr. Marr is a mem- ber of the I. O. O. F. and the Modern Wood- men.

JOEL E. PEIRSOL, a retired farmer, capi- talist and promoter at Tulsa, Oklahoma, was born in Lee township, Fulton county, Illinois, in 1843. The Piersols are an old and well known family in the history of Fulton county, and the father, Joel Piersol, was born in Berks county, Pennsylvania, of Scotch-Welsh ancestry, and settled in Lee township, Fulton county, Illinois, in 1837. The mother was Catherine (Emery) Peirsol. Dr. John H. Peirsol, an uncle of Joel E., and who died at the age of fifty-five years, was a notable character, not only locally in his home county, but in state affairs as well. He was a physician for a long number of years, greatly revered for those kindly traits characteristic of the old- school physicians, and these greatly en- deared him to all, both old and young, and to all classes of people. He served as the county judge of Fulton county and held other positions of trust. He was a man of the finest character.

Joel E. Peirsol lived for practically forty years on the farm in Lee township, where he was born. In earlier years, while yet a youth and to gratify a spirit of adventure, he did considerable pioneering journeying, for between 1860 and 1867 he made two trips to California, this giving him an ex- perience of the various routes across the plains and the Panama and the Nicaraugua routes. In 1888 he moved to Ralls county, Missouri, locating near the edge of the county line, not far from the City of Hanni- bal, and during the last four years of his residence there he was the owner of the famous Alta Plane Stock Farm, devoted ex- clusively to the breeding and raising of standard bred trotting and pacing horses. He lived in Ralls county about fourteen years, and in the early part of 1904 retired from active farming and stock-raising op- erations and settled permanently in Tulsa. Here he has engaged quite extensively in capitalistic enterprises, principally in city real estate and building, in which he has enjoyed uniform success, and through wise and timely investment has made money. Mr. Peirsol is a Democrat in politics, and while in Fulton county he served at differ- ent times as township trustee, treasurer and supervisor, and in 1886 was the candi-

date of the Democratic party for county treasurer. In Tulsa he has represented his ward, the Fourth, in the City Council. He is an active and public spirited member of the Commercial Club, and his successful efforts in raising bonuses for worthy enter- prises and the time he has given to public affairs in promoting the growth of the city are much appreciated by the citizens.

Mr. Peirsol married, at Prairie City, Illi- nois, in the adjoining county of Warren, in 1870, Miss Ellen L. Clark, who was born and reared there. They have a daughter, Mrs. Ethel G. Foreman, and a little grand- son, Carl P. Foreman ; and one son, John L. Peirsol, who still resides in Hannibal, Mis- souri.

JOHN I. YARGEE. The Creek emigration from Alabama during the thirties carried along with its current a family named Yar- gee, one of whose members, Peter Yargee, was then a child, and who spent a long life in the Creek Nation of Indian Territory until his death, November 30, 1862, at about forty-five years. The principal representa- tive of this old Creek family in the present generation is John I. Yargee, who is a farm- er and stockman and citizen of prominence at Red Fork, in Tulsa county. His parents were of mixed white and Creek blood, and his mother is still living.

The old Yargee home is in the Eufaula neighborhood, in the midst of what is prob- ably the richest agricultural land of the old Indian Territory. Peter Yargee had an ex- cellent estate there, and in that environment John I. Yargee grew to manhood, trained to the farming and stock-raising pursuits which have been the substantial part of his subsequent business career. Mr. Yargee is a well educated Creek gentleman. After attending the Indian schools he was a stu- dent of the Wooster (Ohio) University.

Mr. Yargee was born in what is now Mc- Intosh county, in the lower Canadian valley, in 1857. In 1884 he moved to his present home at Red Fork, and for many years his stock farm was conducted with profit and success among the best in that part of the country. He himself is now retired from active business, but his farm is still the seat of considerable farming and stock- raising activity. His place adjoins Red Fork on the west, and in 1907 part of it was platted as a residence addition, the Yar- gee addition being considered the most at- tractive site for homes in the town.

. JOHN I. YARGEE

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HISTORY OF THE STATE OF OKLAHOMA.

By marriage Mr. Yargee is connected with one of the Creek families that has for years been noted in the political affairs of the nation. Mrs. Nannie T. (Porter) Yar- gee is a sister of the late Pleasant Porter, who died in 1906, and who was one of the last and most noted governors of the Creek Nation. As a soldier, as an educator, and

finally as governor of his people, Pleasant Porter was one of the strongest characters of the Creek Nation. (See sketch else- where.) Mr. and Mrs. Yargee have four children : Nathaniel V., Pleasant P., Lo- rena and Charles. In politics Mr. Yargee is a Democrat.

GEORGE T. BROWN, capably filling the of- fice of city attorney at Tulsa, is one of Illi- nois' native sons, his birth having occurred at Rushville, Schuyler county, in 1875. In 1880 his parents removed with their family to Kansas and located near Cherokee, in the southern part of Crawford county, where the son was reared. Having mastered the elementary branches of learning in the pub- lic schools, he spent two years as a student in the literary and art departments of the Kansas University, at Lawrence, and then qualified for a professional career by two years' study in the law department of the same institution, from which he was gradu- ated with the class of 1903.

Previous to this time, however, Mr. Brown had been a student in the Kansas Normal College at Fort Scott, from which he received the degree of Bachelor of Sci- ence. Ere he had completed his own educa- tion he also taught school for several terms, principally at Chicopee, in Crawford coun- ty. He then began the practice of law in Crawford county and in December, 1905, removed to Tulsa, where he has since con- ducted a law office and has been connected with much important litigations tried in the courts of this locality. In 1906 he was ap- pointed city attorney to fill a vacancy, and at the regular city election in April, 1907, was chosen by popular suffrage for the of- fice, which he has since filled with eminent success. He easily takes rank with the ac- complished members of the bar of the new state and socially he is prominent as a Ma- son, who is always loyal to the teachings of the craft.

THOMAS E. SMILEY. One of the organ- izers and the first president of the Tulsa Bank of Commerce was Thomas E. Smiley,

who from the date of the opening of the bank for business, on February 11, 1904, for several years was one of its active offi- cials. Mr. Smiley is one of the oldest busi- ness men in Tulsa. Born at Belfast, Mar- shall county, Tennessee, in 1863, he spent his boyhood there, lived awhile in Corsi- cana, Texas, and on June 2, 1883, arrived in Tulsa. He was young, without capital, and his enterprise found opportunity as a clerk in the well known store of H. C. Hall & Company. He became engaged in busi- ness for himself, and his individual inter- ests grew apace with the town. The rapid development of Tulsa following the oil de- velopment of the past decade brought pros- perity to many of the old guard of business men, and for some years Mr. Smiley has been in the forefront of the business lead- ers. He withdrew from the banking busi- ness early in 1907, in order to promote some enterprises at Tulsa and vicinity, especially in development of the natural resources. He is a member of the Commercial Club, which in the last year has performed such effective work in booming Tulsa. In poli- tics as such he has never taken an active interest, but has always been identified with the public welfare, and at Tulsa has served on the school board and also for one term in the city council. Mr. Smiley is one of the most active Masons of eastern Oklahoma, having taken the degrees through both branches, up to and including the thirty- second. By his marriage to Miss Sarah Fortner, who was reared in Kansas, Mr. Smiley has five children. Lottie, Ernest, Al- len, Keith, and T. E., Jr.

S. AUGUSTUS ORCUTT. The student of history cannot carry his investigations far into the annals of the southwest without learning of the Orcutt family, and they have been particularly prominent in Oklahoma and Indian Territory. Colonel A. D. Or- cutt, the father of S. Augustus, is one of the pioneers and prominent citizens of the east- ern half of Oklahoma, and his sketch is found elsewhere in this work.

Thus to S. Augustus Orcutt belongs the honor of being a son of one of the most prominent pioneers of Oklahoma, and he has spent the most of his life in Tulsa, a prominent real estate owner. He was born in Lewis county, Kentucky, in October, 1870, a son of Colonel and Mary A. (Jack) Orcutt. He was reared on the old home

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ranch near Tulsa and received the greater part of his educational training in the Osage College, at St. Paul, Kansas. During many years of his young manhood he was con- nected with his father's enterprises in the cattle business, and also had a half interest in the firm of A. D. Orcutt & Company. He continued his operations in the cattle business until quite recently. His home is in the beautiful residence section of the city that lies south of Oakwood Cemetery, known as Park Place and Orcutt's Addition, of which he is the owner, the former con- sisting of eighty acres and the latter, of ninety-one. These tracts comprise a very attractive location for homes, and are build- ing up rapidly.

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A history of the state of Oklahoma, Volume II, Part 77

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