USA > Oklahoma > A history of the state of Oklahoma, Volume II > Part 82
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William A. Reeves, the father of Dr. Reeves, was maturing at the time of the Civil war, and conditions were not the most favorable for the proper education of a coun- try youth. However, he acquired the ele-
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mentary principles of the common branches, and his practical common sense supplied the remaining essential to a successful business career. He married Sallie Allen, from Hay- wood county, North Carolina. The chil- dren of this union are. Ella, wife of J. D. Robertson, of Lone Oak, Texas; Dr. Wal- ter B. : Mattie, who married T. S. Mitchell, of Greenville, Texas; William A., a merchant in Atoka, Oklahoma; Samuel W., a teacher in Clarendon, Texas; Dovie, wife of Grover Rabb, of Lone Oak, Texas, and Miss Mable, of the parental home.
Dr. Reeves was from youth until nineteen years of age used to farm labor and agricul- tural scenes. At the age just named he en- tered with a right good will into the duties as a student. He spent two years in Henry College at Campbell, Texas, and another year in Baylor University in Waco. He then commenced teaching to supply himself with funds with which to continue his stud- ies, and was in charge of the school at Don- elton one year. He then entered Burleson College at Greenville and there took the de- gree of B. S. in 1900. He again resorted to the schoolroom to replenish his scanty capital, and for two years was principal of the schools at Jacobia, Texas. He by that time having decided on the medical profes- sion, spent a year in the University of Nash- ville, and the following year, in the medical department of the St. Louis Medical Col- lege-the old Marion Sims School. He took his degree of M. D. in 1905, and at once opened an office in Wapanucka, equipped by his own efforts for thorough and efficient work in one of the greatest and most honored professions known to all the sciences. As a physician Dr. Reeves has entered actively into the world of medical associations. He is secretary of the Johns- ton county Medical Society and is also numbered among the membership of the Oklahoma State Medical Society and of the American Medical Association. He is great- ly interested in public education, and is in accord with the idea that all progress in the human race is the result of education.
On October 3, 1905, Dr. Reeves was mar- ried to Miss Lula, a daughter of Nicholas D. and Laurissa Morris Lawler, of Lone Oak, Texas. One son was born to this union, Lawler.
J. CLAUDE BENNETT, register of the deeds of Johnston county, Oklahoma, was born near
Grafton, West Virginia, on the 22d day of July, 1878. His father, Elgie Van Vorce Bennett, was born in the same locality, May 20, 1848, and followed farming for a liveli- hood all his life, until his death at Reagan, Oklahoma (then Indian Territory), on No- vember 2, 1901. John M. Bennett, father of Elgie Van Vorce Bennett, and grandfather of J. Claude Bennett, was born in Penn- sylvania about the year 1810, and died at the age of seventy-one years ; was a farm- er and shoemaker by occupation. Matilda Bennett, mother of Elgie V. Bennett, and paternal grandmother, was born in 1810, in Pennsylvania, and died at the age of seven- ty-two years. The mother of Mr. Bennett, of this sketch, Rebecca A. Leonard, was born near Grafton, West Virginia, on July 3, 1853, and was married to Elgie Van Vorce Bennett in the year of 1871, and now resides at Tishomingo, Oklahoma. The father of Rebecca A. (Leonard) Bennett, was Bowen E. Leonard, who was born in 1828, near Grafton, West Virginia, and died in the year 1900 at the age of seventy-two ; he was a farmer all his life and served throughout the Civil war in the Union army. Susan (Jones) Leonard, the mother of Rebecca A. (Leonard) Bennett, was also born near Grafton. in the year 1830, and is living at this time at Hagerstown, Maryland.
J. Claude Bennett is the second of a fam- ily of eight children of Elgie V. and Rebec- ca A. Bennett, as follows: Floyd Edward. born August 16. 1875, now living at Troy, Oklahoma, and engaged in the mercantile business: Flossie Ray, born November ??. 1880. the wife of Thomas W. Lytton, re- siding at Tishomingo, Oklahoma; Josie May, also born November 21. 1880. the wife of John W. Lowry, and resides on a farm near Mill Creek, Oklahoma; Roy H., born October 21. 1883, is now manager of the Tulsa, Oklahoma, yard of the S. M. Gloyd Lumber Company ; Sylvanus R., born Au- gust 29, 1886, is deputy register of deeds of Johnston county and resides with his moth- er at Tishomingo; Evan J., born August 21. 1889; Denzil McBride, born May 21, 1892, the last two also reside with their mother in Tishomingo, Oklahoma.
In the year 1880, when J. C. Bennett was two years old, his parents moved from West Virginia to Texas, settling in Denton coun- ty, near what was then called "Hill town" but now called Little Elm, and the family
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resided continually in Denton county until they moved to the Indian Territory in the winter of 1893. Coming to the Indian Ter- ritory, they settled on Mill creek, near the town of Reagan, and "put in" a lease, and lived on same until in 1892, when they moved to Reagan and entered the hotel business. Claude, as he is called, received what education he possesses in the common country free schools of Denton county, Tex- as, having attended school at "Mays school- house" each winter from the time he was eight years old until he was fourteen years old.
Even with this meager chance, he had made such good use of his time that he was enabled, at the age of sixteen to teach a term of school at "Shady Grove" school- house, where the town of Troy now stands. The winter of 1895-96 he assisted his uncle, Prof. John S. Leonard in a school in the suburbs of Mckinley, Collin county, Texas, studying at night and during school hours at spare times, and at the close of this term, in the spring of 1896, passed a successful teacher's examination, and secured a four- years' certificate. The following school term, he taught at Corinth, near Celina, Texas, and at the close of the term, came back to his home on the farm near Reagan, where he lived with his parents, farming during the summer and teaching during the winter, until they moved to the town of Rea- gan and entered the hotel business, when he secured a position as bookkeeper and clerk in the general mercantile establish- ment of T. W. Lytton, which position he held until Mr. Lytton's store burned in No- vember, 1899.
In September, 1900, Mr. Bennett moved from Reagan to Mill Creek, Indian Terri- tory, and secured a position as bookkeeper with the firm of Hardy & Smathers, which position he held until he resigned to select a homestead in the Comanche country, he having drawn a claim in the famous big lottery. The 160 acres he selected was in the valley of Otter creek, on the west side of Comanche county, but he was destined to never reap the benefit of his good lock, for his father died at Reagan, Indian Terri- tory in November of that year, and Mr. Bennett was forced to relinquish his home- stead, which he did, and again went back to Mill Creek, and secured the position of bookkeeper with the same old firm of Hardy
& Smathers, where he remained until 1903, when he entered business in Mill Creek for himself. together with Mr. W. C. Morgan, under the firm name of Bennett & Morgan, and remained in this business until the spring of 1907, when he sold out and entered the race for the Democratic nomination for the office of register of deeds, of Johnston county, which nomination he secured by a good margin over three very worthy and able opponents, and in the general election in the fall was elected over his Republican opponent by the usual majority for that county.
On September 23, 1900, J. C. Bennett was married to Miss Nolen Jones, of Reagan, Indian Territory, who was born near French Camp, Mississippi, on April 27, 1884, and came to the Indian Territory with her pa- rents in the year 1889, locating at Springer, where her father engaged in the gin busi- ness, later moving to Reagan, where he fol- lowed farming as an occupation. David D. Jones, the father of Nolen (Jones) Bennett, was born in Mississippi, on April 9, 1857, and now resides on a farm near Reagan. Oklahoma. He was married to Mary I. Phillips in Mississippi. Mary I. (Phillips) Jones was born February 5, 1858, in Missis- sippi and died at Reagan, November 2, 1899.
There has been born to Mr. and Mrs. J. Claude Bennett, five children, all girls, as follows. Mary Thelma, born at Mill Creek, Oklahoma (then Indian Territory), July 18, 1901; Ruby Vane, born at Mill Creek, March 8, 1903: Merle, born at Mill Creek, November 3, 1905, and died at Tishomingo, December , 1908 ; Sylvia and Sybil (twins) born at Mill Creek. October 12, 190%. MIr. J. C. Bennett has since the age of fourteen years been a member of the Missionary Baptist church, and is at present a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, being a past grand in that order. He is a member of the Encampment and of the Woodmen of the World, and takes an active interests in the affairs of each.
DR. ALBERT STEPHENSON, who died at Wapanucka. Johnston county, Oklahoma. on the 10th of November, 1908, was one of the younger and progressive members of the medical profession in the state, and had been a leading physician and citizen of that place for about ten years. He came of stock which is cultured and professionally inclined and is truly southern, and personally he was
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a good type of the broad kind of man pro- duced by the south and the southwest. A native of Atlanta, Georgia, born on the 10th of October, 1873, the future physician be- came a resident of Texas when he was about three years of age, at that period of life his parents locating in Grayson county. The father, Dr. Joseph Stephenson, who was a North Carolinan, a man of liberal education and a graduate of the New York Medical College, had successfully practiced his pro- fession in Georgia for many years. Ill health then compelled him to abandon it and seek the more invigorating life of the Texan plains and farms. During the Civil war he had served as a surgeon in the Confederate army, and was highly honored both for his professional skill and his strength of man- hood. His labors, however, had so under- mined his physical constitution that he died on his newly-occupied farm in Grayson county, in 1877, aged fifty-five years, his wife passing away on the family homestead in 1887. The surviving children of their union were as follows: Lizzie, wife of Charles Chapman, a resident of Denison, Texas, and Albert S., of this sketch.
At the age of fourteen years, by the death of his mother, Dr. Stephenson was left an orphan, and made his home for a number of years with R. J. Evans, his guardian, who resided in the neighborhood of the Stephen- son farm. After obtaining a public school education the youth entered Grayson Col- lege, at Whitesboro, from which institution he graduated with the degree of B. S. But the ambition implanted by his good and able father was eventually realized, the first step in which was his graduation from the Louis- ville (Kentucky) Medical College and the commencement of practice at Kemp, Ok- lahoma. His preliminary preparation in a two years' course in pharmacy at Jackson, Texas, with a medical course in the institu- tion named, laid a substantial foundation for successful professional work; but in 1895 he took his second course of lectures in the Memphis (Tennessee) Hospital Med- ical College, and afterward, until his un- timely death, practiced within the limits of Oklahoma. His three professional fields centered successively at Kemp, Hunton and Wapanucka, and in the town of his last res- idence he was an acknowledged leader in the advancement of his profession. At his decease he owned a home. besides other real estate in the county, and was an active
member of the State and Johnston County Medical societies. In politics he was a Democrat, and took an active and decided part in the campaign which resulted in the admission of Oklahoma into the Union.
On September 6, 1896, Dr. Stephenson married at Kemp, Oklahoma, Miss Anna Wells, daughter of Jutes G. and Mary E. Wells, the former a native of Kentucky, who died in 1876, at Rock Wall, Texas, and the latter formerly a resident of Pennsyl- vania. Dr. and Mrs. Stephenson became the parents of Cecil, C. A., Luman and Lu- die Stephenson. The widow and children survive the lamented deceased.
JOSEPH E. LAWHEAD, district clerk of Seminole county, Oklahoma, and prominent- ly identified with the business and social interests of Wewoka, was born in Ft. Scott, Kansas, February 28, 1872. He was reared in that city, where he obtained a good edu- cation, both at the common and high school, and also attended college at Kingfisher. He then commenced teaching school, in which vocation he continued five vears in Okla- homa.
He is the son of Joseph H. and Mary L. (Jones) Lawhead. The father was born in Pennsylvania and the mother in Ohio. Jo- seph H. was the son of Benjamin Lawhead, of Pennsylvania, where this branch of the family settled. Born in Ireland, four broth- ers came to this country in Colonial days and soon thereafter separated, finding homes in different states, one locating in Penn- sylvania, one in Maryland, one in Louisiana and one in Mississippi. The subject's great- grandfather served through the Revolution- ary war and received a wound in his knee at the battle of Brandywine. He settled in Pennsylvania and there reared a family and died. His son, Benjamin, was there reared and died, having a family of five sons and one daughter.
Joseph H., the father of the subject of this narrative, was also born and reared in Pennsylvania, and in his young manhood went to Ohio, where he later married and settled. At the opening of the Civil war in this country he enlisted in the Union army, being a member of the Ninth West Vir- ginia Regiment. He was made first lieuten- ant of his company and later, for meritorious services, was promoted to higher rank until at the close of the war he was a general. He was fortunate in never receiving a
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wound or being captured. Before and after the war he followed school teaching. When he returned from the army he went to his home in Meigs county, Ohio, in which coun- ty he was subsequently elected register of deeds, remaining in office until 1871, when he removed to Ft. Scott, Kansas, and there resumed teaching. He was there elected county school superintendent, serving two terms, and in 1881 was elected to a seat in the legislature, serving two terms, after which he was again elected school super- intendent. He proved himself a true friend of education and was rewarded by an elec- tion to the important office of State Super- intendent, serving four years. He was in possession of a liberal education, and was an author of some note. He was also a law- yer, and most of his books related to laws concerning the Kansas school system. In 1889 he went to Oklahoma and located lands near Kingfisher, where he had a farm im- proved. Later he was appointed by the Re- publican administration as superintendent of the schools of the Territory, in which capacity he served four years. He was also the author of Oklahoma school laws. Dur- ing the greater part of his life he was in public office and teaching, and the most of his acts as a public man yielded good fruit. In church faith he adhered to the Presby- terian creed. He was a Mason, in which he was an advanced member. He died Au- gust 12, 1893, widely known and universally respected. His faithful wife still survives and enjoys life in traveling and spending much of her time in the sunny clime of Cal- ifornia. Six children blessed this marriage union : Hadden, an Oklahoma farmer; Richard B., a business man of Ohio ; Daniel B., editor of the Democrat at Wewoka; Mary E., Mrs. Thomas Finley, of Califor- nia ; Joseph E., the subject of this memoir ; and Clyde, a professional teacher.
Joseph E. Lawhead was born in Kansas, and went to Oklahoma with his parents in 1889. He remained at home under the pa- rental roof until 1898, when he enlisted in the famous old Sixth Infantry of the U. S. regular army, for services in the Spanish- American war, and was consigned to the Philippines, where he served three years and was in many hard campaigns and some hotly contested battles. He received a bul- let wound through the right lung, from which he recovered after two years' treat- ment. He saw much hard military service
and army exposure, which service was rec- ognized by the United States government in the granting of a pension. He received an honorable discharge and after two years' recuperation engaged in school work again, going to Seminole county in August, 1906, where he was engaged in teaching the gov- ernment schools, teaching in all classes and all colors and races. He continued until the first election of Statehood, in November, 1907, when he was elected district clerk. He at once qualified and assisted in the organ- ization of the county government. Up to this writing he has held two terms of dis- trict court under Judge A. T. West. He found about twenty-five hundred cases on the docket, which were speedily disposed of. He had some noted murder cases, but all escaped the hangman's knot, but received long prison sentences.
Entering the Kingfisher high schools, Mr. Lawhead took from its corps of able teach- ers Miss Helen Bidwell and made her his life companion. She was born in Nebraska in 1878, and is indeed a lady of refinement and true worth. She is the daughter of Frank and Maria (Sharp) Bidwell, the for- mer of New York and the latter of Pennsyl- vania. They were married in Wisconsin and later moved to Nebraska, and in 1894 went to Oklahoma. In Nebraska the father was a farmer and stock-raiser, but later en- gaged in the implement business at York, Nebraska. Upon immigrating to Oklahoma he took a claim and improved the same and engaged in stock business. Later he moved to Kingfisher City, where he subsequently died. Politically, he was a Republican. He never cared to hold public office, but pre- ferred to be a tiller of the soil and raise stock. His widow lives at Kingfisher and still holds the homestead property. They were both exemplary members of the Pres- byterian church. The children born of this union were: Helen, Mrs. Lawhead ; Charles, an Oklahoma farmer: Minnie, a popular teacher, of Kingfisher, unmarried; and one, the first born, who was killed by a cyclone in Oklahoma when a young man.
Mr. and Mrs. Lawhead have no children. Mrs. Lawhead is a Presbyterian in her church connections, and her husband be- longs to the Masonic and Odd Fellow fra- ternities.
THOMAS F. HARRISON, M. D., a surgeon and physician of the new and enterprising
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town of Wewoka, is a native of Alabama, born August 14, 1826. He was surrounded by rural scenes in his childhood days, attend- ing the common district schools, and he is a son of James W. and Harriet (Barnes) Harrison, natives of Alabama, where they were united in marriage and located on a farm. The father was not old enough to serve in the army at the time of the Civil war, but his sympathies ran in the direction of the Confederacy. After his marriage he commenced farming, and was a very suc- cessful agriculturist until 1906, when he re- moved to Indian Territory, locating in the famous Seminole country, where he leased lands and again resumed farming, in which he has been materially prospered. While in Alabama he served for several terms as a justice of the peace, to which office he was also elected in Seminole county, and is still serving in that capacity. Politically, he is a defender of true Democracy. In church affiliations he has been for many many years a member of the Missionary Baptist church. At this date both he and his excellent wife are members of the Holi- ness Church. He is a member of the Ma- sonic fraternity and stands for all that is true, loyal and upright in each community in which his lot is cast. The children born to this worthy couple are: Thomas F., of of this sketch; Bell, Mrs. Oakes; Viola, Mrs. Barnes; Luther, a farmer ; Lethia, Mrs. York: John, a farmer; Eugene, a farmer ; Pearl, a farmer ; Lona, who died aged seven years ; and two attending school.
Dr. Harrison entered Bell Academy, at Bell, Alabama, from which educational in- stitution he was graduated in 1898. He had studied the science of medicine with Dr. Woods as a preceptor, and after his gradu- ation from the Academy he entered the Memphis ( Tennessee) Hospital Medical Col- lege and there availed himself of two full courses. In 1900 he went to Eastman, Indian Territory, and began his practice, continuing successfully there until 1902, when he at- tended the medical department of Grant University at Chattanooga, Tennessee, tak- ing a full course and graduating with the class of 1903. He then returned to his home in Eastman, where he resumed practice and remained until 1906, when he went to We- woka, where he found about the same class of diseases as he had handled successfully in Eastman, which included chills and fever,
some catarrh and pneumonia, mostly in light forms, however ; la grippe was quite preva- lent, but few fatal cases ; scarlet fever pre- vailed ; and a run of the smallpox epidemic, in which some cases proved fatal. All in all, he thinks the climate favorable to good healthı.
The Doctor possesses a fine medical li- brary of modern and more ancient medical works, and he is a daily student, keeping up with the current medical literature. His office is well equipped in all that is known useful in the modern science of medicine and surgery. He has merited and won the confidence of the community in which he practices, and when the prostrate sick need the faithful watch-care of a reliable physi- cian he is thought of and sent for to admin- ister such specifics as will best relieve their pain and restore them to health. His prac- tice is large and extends out in the surround- ing country for many miles. He is truly a self-made man, and has gained his present standing in the medical fraternity by hard and unceasing toil. He is a worthy mem- ber of the Masonic fraternity and of the Odd Fellows order and Modern Woodmen of the World, as well as the Woodmen of America. In politics he is a defender of true Democratic principles, and is well posted regarding the condition of matters pertain- ing to both state and nation.
Of his domestic affairs it may be stated that he was happily married at Eastman in 1901, to Miss Mary A. Givens, a native of Texas and a daughter of L. R. Givens and wife, of Tennessee, early settlers in Texas and prominent in farm and mercantile cir- cles. He removed to Indian Territory in the early months of 1890, and there em- barked in mercantile pursuits and also stock business. He laid down life's burden in 1907. He served his country in the Federal army in the Civil war, where he was wound- ed and saw his full share of army privation and hardship. Politically he was an ardent Republican, but cared not for public office himself. The children born to Mrs. Harri- son's parents were as follows: Bart. I., en- gaged in insurance business; Mettie, Mrs. Backus, who died leaving five children ; Liz- zie, who is married; Larene, a stockman ; Jesse, a farmer ; Frank, a farmer ; Mary A., wife of Dr. Harrison ; and George, a student. The wife and mother is of the Baptist faith and now resides in Marietta, Oklahoma.
W.F. Cooper.
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PROFESSOR WILLIAM F. COOPER. Seminole county, Oklahoma, is fortunate in hav- ing as its first superintendent of schools Professor William F. Cooper, a gentleman not only of long experience in all the practi- cal details of teaching, but an educator of thorough normal training and of pronounced executive ability. He also has an intimate acquaintance with the people and condi- tions in the south and southwest, and is therefore finely equipped to carry on the work of organization and development in which he has already made such signal prog- ress. Born in Mississippi, on the 13th of June, 1869, he is in the very prime of life and is apparently assured of many years of useful work, beneficial to the public sys- tem of education and promotive of his own advancement as an educator. He was reared in the rural districts of his native state; received his early education in the common schools of his home neighborhood, and enjoyed his preliminary training in the field of pedagogy at the Alabama State Nor- mal School. Professor Cooper commenced practical work in 1893, and made a most enviable reputation as an educator in both Alabama and Mississippi. In the midst of these active labors he pursued various spe- cial and higher courses in the Southern Nor- mal University at Huntingdon, Tennessee, from which institution he graduated in 1900.
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