A history of the state of Oklahoma, Volume II, Part 84

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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HISTORY OF THE STATE OF OKLAHOMA.

Kroeger has been an active and leading Re- publican, both in the affairs of the county and state. He was mayor of Francis one term, and his administration was marked by energetic prosecution of the law. When the Republicans nominated him for county judge in 1907 he conducted a vigorous and spirited campaign, but was defeated by an overwhelming Democratic majority. He at- tended the first Republican state convention of Oklahoma as a delegate, being appointed a member of the committee on resolutions, and during the progress of the statehood movement he attended conventions at Ard- more, Oklahoma City and other places. In Masonry, Mr. Kroeger is a member of the blue lodge.

On August 20, 1901, Mr. Kroeger was married in Rockford, Iowa, to Marion S. Teape, a daughter of T. S. Teape. Her fam- ily is of Scotch-Irish ancestry and her par- ents were early residents of Iowa but now reside in Oklahoma City. Mr. and Mrs. Kroeger are the parents of one child: Carl, born September 5, 1905.

WILLIAM CLARENCE HUNTLEY, an instruc- tor and assistant manager of the Muskogee branch of Draughon's Practical Business College, is a progressive young educator, born at Algonquin, McHenry county, Illi- nois, October 19, 1880. His parents are Wil- liam S. and Lucy (Fitts) Huntley, his father being a farmer, carpenter and builder, who was born in Illinois of an old New York family. His mother's ancestors are of Eng- lish stock, the American forefather being traced back to the year 1640.

Mr. Huntley received a common school education in various institutions of Illinois, Iowa and Missouri, after which he com- menced to teach in Phelps county, Missouri. His first employment in this capacity was in the district schools near the town of La- cona, and he was thus engaged from 1892 to 1894. In the latter year he went to St. Louis, Missouri, where he mastered com- plete commercial courses at the Draughon's Practical Business College, graduating there- from in 1907. While a student in that insti- tution he was also a teacher in the book- keeping department, and his reputation was such that when the parent college establish- ed a branch at Muskogee he was transfer- red to that place, where he has since served both as an instructor and assistant manager of this business institution. In 1904 Mr.

Huntley was married to Miss Myrtle Alli- son, of Lacoma, Missouri.

RICHARD O. C. GARDNER, secretary of the Union Life and Trust Company of Oklaho- ma, of which he is one of the organizers, is a leading resident of Muskogee and widely known throughout the state as an able and progressive insurance man. He is a native of Baltimore, Maryland, where he was born on the 30th of August, 1867, being a son of George Gardner, Jr., and his wife, Annie Elizabeth Knox. The paternal branch of the family, of Scotch-Irish ancestry, settled in Virginia in the early period of its colonial history, certain members afterward migrat- ing to Maryland, where they became espec- ially prominent in the public and financial affairs of Baltimore. It was in that city that the father was long and successfully en- gaged in banking. Mrs. George Gardner is a daughter of William Prentiss Knox, of Charleston, South Carolina, is of Scotch- English ancestry and is a representative of both the Prentiss and Knox families so prominent in the legal and the public annals of southern history.

Mr. Gardner obtained his early education in the public schools of Baltimore and at the Baltimore City College. He entered the commercial field as an employe of the J. Seth Hopkins and Company house furnish- ing store of that city, and was connected with that firm in a minor position until 1890, when he joined the local service of the Balti- more and Ohio Railroad. In 1894 he left railway work for the insurance field, and for the succeeding nine years was cashier for the New York Life Insurance Company in var- ious cities. In 1903 he became auditor of the ordinary life department of the Life In- surance Company of Virginia, with offices at Richmond, and remained thus engaged until May 1, 1908, upon which date he came to Muskogee and assisted in the organiza- tion of Union Life and Trust Company of Oklahoma, as before mentioned.

ANDREW S. HAMILTON, sheriff of Bryan county, is a native of Pike county, Missouri, born March 18, 1865. His father was An- drew Hamilton, a farmer, born in Marion county, Indiana, who as a child accompanied his parents to that section, where he was reared, married and entered the service of the Confederate army. The paternal grand- father was James Hamilton, who became the father of twelve children, of whom the fol-

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HISTORY OF THE STATE OF OKLAHOMA.

lowing reared families: Andrew ; John, who died in the Cherokee Nation; Angie, who married John Shaw and reside in Ralls coun- ty, Missouri; Sarah, who married John Davis and died in Pike county, Missouri, leaving a daughter who is now a resident of Rush Springs, Oklahoma; Eunice, who mar- ried N. H. Sherwood, of Kansas City, Mis- souri; Letha, who became the wife of Charles McDaniel, of Hannibal, Missouri; and James, who died in New Mexico, his family now residing near Kansas City. An- drew, the father of Sheriff Hamilton, mar- ried Nancy Bridgeford. The parents are both deceased, the father passing away in 1873, and their children were John and Wil- liam B. Hamilton, farmers of Wade, Okla- homa ; and Andrew S. Hamilton.

Andrew S. Hamilton was left an orphan by the death of his parents in Alton, Illi- nois, where they had removed from Mis- souri and resided for a short time. Soon aft- erward, in 1874, his three elder brothers and an uncle started for the Choctaw Nation. Gathering the few articles of personal prop- erty which the joint family possessed, suf- ficient funds were raised to bring them to their destination-a locality then in Blue county, now in Bryan county, Oklahoma. They afterward moved to Fannin county, Texas, where the brothers kept "bachelor's hall," and all worked hard upon a raw south- western farm. Mr. Hamilton thus first saw Bryan county when he was nine years of age, receiving his education in Texas, chief- ly, as he expresses it, by "friction." This is such an education as one never forgets. He early became interested in politics, became an active Democrat and served in Fannin county for five years as deputy sheriff and jailor. In 1889 Mr. Hamilton retired from the sheriff's office and continued farming 1intil 1891, when he returned to Blue county, Indian Territory, located near Durant and continued stock farming for some six years. In 1897-99 he operated a cotton yard at Dur- ant, and then entered the employ of John King and Company, cotton dealers of that place, who also owned the Durant Hardware and Implement Company. After a time he purchased an interest in a mercantile estab- lishment and was placed in charge of the business. He remained in that capacity for two years, when he disposed of his interest and engaged in the hardware business him- self. In 1907 he received Mr. Stone into

partnership, and the firm of Hamilton and Stone is still in the field. Although an ac- tive and influential Democrat for years in Texas, Indian Territory and Oklahoma, Mr. Hamilton was never a candidate for office until he entered the race for the shrievalty of Bryan county, with the coming of the state. He had five competitors in the pri- maries, and in the election which followed his nomination he was the popular choice by a vote of five to one. He is an efficient and busy executive, serving, as he does, all processes issued by the two courts in Bryan county.

On November 20, 1889, Sheriff Hamilton married Minnie, daughter of W. J. and Lena (Ford) Duckworth. Her father was a na- tive of Illinois, was brought to Texas by his parents when a child and there became a farmer and a Confederate soldier. Besides Mrs. Hamilton, the children of the family were: Laura, who died single; Lucy, who married Alexander Bloodworth, of Sterrett, Oklahoma ; Lawrence and Wallace, of Dur- ant, Oklahoma ; Noda, wife of James Kidd, of Durant ; and Henry and Mattie, still resi- dents of Fannin county, Texas. The chil- dren born to Mr. and Mrs. Andrew S. Ham- ilton are: Mildred, William, Tommy, An- drew, Vera and Dorris. The Sheriff is an Odd Fellow, a Woodman of the World and an Eagle. He owns his residence at Eighth and Elm streets, and has rendered himself popular and honored by simply doing his whole duty as a citizen.

BENJAMIN CUNLIFF, a leading architect of Muskogee, also prominently identified with its commercial interests, is an Englishman, born in Ardwick on the 17th of January, 1863. He is a son of William and Elizabeth (Redfern) Cunliff, his father being for many years a leading tanner and leather merchant. The son received his early education in the public schools of Ardwick, and after being graduated from its high school entered his professional work as an employee of the Donovan Construction Company. He soon entered the drafting room and became re- markably proficient in that branch of the business, and concluded his service with that company as supervising architect of its entire business.

In 1889 Mr. Cunliff left England with his widowed mother and sister and locating in St. Louis formed the Cunliff Architectural and Construction Company, with himself as

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HISTORY OF THE STATE OF OKLAHOMA.

president and offices in the Lincoln Trust building. During his residence in St. Louis he planned many of its prominent buildings, such as the Cabanne Arcade and the Lor- raine Hotel, located on Lindel boulevard, and also erected the mechanical and metal- lurgical buildings for the Missouri State School of Mines at Rolla.

Mr. Cunliff became a resident of Musko- gee in 1905, and there he has since continued his professional work with signal success, both in a financial sense and in regard to the increase of his reputation. As evidences of his tasteful and substantial work in this city are the Convention Hall, Sayers block and the Pace, Corbut, National Trust and Hamlin Garland business buildings. He is also the architect of the Haskel and Oktaha churches, the Oktaha, Taft and Chase high schools and the Denton and Greenwood business block at Nowata, besides numerous residences both in the city and county of Muskogee. Besides conducting his large and growing business Mr. Cunliff takes an active part in many enterprises connected with the commercial development of the city and vicinity, being prominently identi- fied with the Commercial Club of Muskogee and secretary of the Oklahoma Steam Packet Company. His fraternal relations are with the Elks and Masons. Mr. Cunliff is a man of domestic tastes, and his wife was former- ly Miss Eve Thurman, daughter of Dr. E. J. Thurman, and he has one child, Donald Cunliff.

EBENEZER HOTCHKIN, president of the Presbyterian College of Durant, is a native of Oklahoma, and, although a man only ap- proaching middle life, has spent a genera- tion in educational work among the Indians. His is a continuation and enlargement of the work begun by his devoted mother more than half a century ago, and has slowly de- veloped into an institution of learning, which, while founded by the church, has been nurtured by her and her family, with Mr. Hotchkin at its head, until its influence is felt far beyond the people for whose bene- .fit it was originally intended. The school, of which the Presbyterian College of Durant was the outgrowth, was first established in 1885 by Rev. A. J. Reed of the Missionary committee of the Presbyterian church at At- lanta, Georgia, and during the first three years of its existence it acquired little stand- ing. Some thirty pupils were enrolled when

Mr. Hotchkin was appointed principal of the school in 1888, and a frame building (now a part of the dormitory) constituted the first college building. At this time he was doing efficient work among the Indians along the Red river in the vicinity of Hugo, Oklahoma, and he was accompanied to Dur- ant by his mother and sisters, the family constituting the faculty for some years thereafter. As interest in education spread among the Indians, the attendance increased and the accommodations of the college were broadened. In 1901 a new college building was completed at a cost of $20,000, and the old structure with its additions was convert- ed into dormitories. The new building is an attractive brick structure, convenient in ar- rangement, and the campus occupies a block of ground. The present attendance of two hundred and fifty has already outgrown the enlarged accommodations. The faculty now comprises ten teachers, and the curriculum provides for a four years' course, with the conferring of the A. B. and B. S. degrees upon graduation. The year 1909 will wit- ness the graduation of the first class in the full course, all previous graduations having been for the completion of the work of the eighth grade. While the college is sectarian, pupils are enrolled from families which pro- fess a variety of religious beliefs, or none whatever. Under the spiritual instruction of the management and through the agency of revivals many of the students are converted and a large percentage unite with the Pres- byterian church. The college is maintained by an endowment fund of $10,000, from aid extended by the Presbyterian Board of Home Missions, and from regular tuition fees. Its graduates enter the various walks of life, business and the professions predom- inating, where they are recognized as well educated, well disposed and representative citizens.

Ebenezer Hotchkin was born on his fa- ther's Red river farm, July 5, 1869. The family was founded in the Choctaw Nation by the noted Rev. Ebenezer Hotchkin, who was a missionary to the tribe in Mississippi and who accompanied them to their new home in what is now Oklahoma upon their removal thither in 1832. He had previous- ly translated the Bible into Choctaw, and he continued to preach, teach and labor among them with his wonted zeal in the western country. Under the treaty of 1866, the

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Choctaws provided for missionaries of his class by enrolling them as farmers but not as citizens of the nation, and Rev. Ebenezer Hotchkin chose his home in the valley of the Red river where he is buried. He was the father of several children, among them being Maria, who married Cyrus Kingsbury, engaged in religious work among the Choc- taws; Henry, the father of the living Eben- ezer ; and Rev. Charles Hotchkin, who be- came an influential preacher and citizen among the tribe and died in 1905. Henry Hotchkin was born in 1834 at the paternal homestead in the Indian Territory and with the exception of his service in the Commiss- ary department of the Confederate army de- voted his life to the work of the farm, dying in this employment in 1887. He married Miss Mary Semple, a teacher and mission- ary among the Choctaws.

Mrs. Mary Hotchkin was born at Steub- enville, Ohio, and in 1857, then a young wo- man, accepted the call of the Presbyterian Board of Home Missions to labor among the Indians along Boggy Creek, where the Hotchkin family were engaged in such loyal work. Although she afterward married and reared a numerous family, she was engaged in educational work among the natives for forty years. Her first school contained full blood Indian children, who knew not a word of English, but she has lived to see the day when there is scarcely an Indian who does not know the English as well as his mother tongue. To assist her in her educational and spiritual work she herself became fa- miliar with Choctaw, passing the later years of her active teaching career as a promoter of the welfare of the Presbyterian College of Durant. Mr. and Mrs. Henry Hotchkin be- came the parents of the following: Lena, who married William Walner and left at her death five sons living in Durant; Alexan- der, who spent several years as an Indian teacher in the territory and is now in the government service at Mare Island, San Francisco; Henry, a resident of the Green Mountain Falls, Colorado; Ebenezer, of this sketch ; Fannie, now Mrs. Delzell, who is a teacher in the Presbyterian College; Lucy, wife of Smedley Forest, of Fort Smith, Ar- kansas, who was formerly a teacher among the Choctaws; and Helen, a missionary in Utah, and wife of Rev. McIntyre of the Presbyterian church of Salt Lake.

Ebenezer Hotchkin was early designed by his mother to continue the missionary work of her life, and his preparation was thorough and liberal. After enjoying years of en- nobling home influences, he spent two years in Park College, near Kansas City, and later pursued special courses at Fort Worth Uni- versity. In 1892 he began teaching, and with the exception of one year has since kept closely to his calling. His connection with educational affairs throughout the Choctaw country has been active and pro- ductive of great good. Besides holding the presidency of the Presbyterian College, he is one of the board of examiners of Bryan county, by appointment of the superintend- ent of schools. On July 13, 1895, Mr. Hotch- kin was united in marriage with Miss Maria Moore, daughter of A. L. Moore and Eliza (Lytton) Moore, farmers and originally from Missouri. The children of this union are Earl, Thomas, Christine and Mary.

DR. ASA B. CALLAWAY, who has been a resi- dent of Stigler since 1903, has been a leader in the medical profession of Haskell county for the past fifteen years, and this although he is still in his early forties. He is of a prominent Arkansas family which has been long settled in that state near Arkadelphia, Clark county, his father, Dr. James L. Calla- way, having practiced medicine in that lo- cality all his life. The paternal grandfather, Jonathan Callaway, was a Mississippian, who in his early manhood migrated to the Arkansas county named above and became one of its largest and wealthiest plantation owners. Although a quiet and unostenta- tious man, he was possessed of great fore- sight and force of character and in the years of his residence in Clark county not only made a large fortune but established a most enviable reputation. His family consisted of six children as follows. William, who died in Arkadelphia ; Samuel, who was offi- cially connected with the county govern- ment for many years; Jonathan, who was long clerk in the court of chancery at Little Rock, Arkansas, and died in that city ; Mary, who died in Clark county as the wife of. Madden Wilson; Emily, who became the wife of a Mr. Brown and died at Arkadel- phia; and Dr. James L. Callaway, who died in 1883, aged about fifty-four years.

The elder Dr. Callaway received his pre- liminary education in the local schools of Arkadelphia and studied medicine at Tu-

Congresos, D. Attacker

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HISTORY OF THE STATE OF OKLAHOMA.

lane University, New Orleans, where he graduated in his young manhood. Soon aft- erward he married Miss Florence Bell, a daughter of Asa Bell, of a family of old and substantial standing in Arkadelphia and firmly established in Alabama. His wife died in 1870, the mother of the following: Hattie, who married Jefferson Call and died at Hollywood, Arkansas; Dr. Asa B., of this review; and Eugene, of Amity, Ar- kansas.

Dr. Asa B. Callaway reached manhood as a resident of Arkadelphia, where he re- ceived his early education and became thor- oughly familiar with farm work, there also gaining a knowledge of business through occasional clerkships in home institutions. He was thus employed in a drug store when he decided to study medicine and com- menced his career as a pupil of his father. He also read with Dr. R. H. L. Rutherford, ot Hollywood, taking his first regular course of lectures in Little Rock and later becom- ing a student at the Barnes Medical Col- lege, St. Louis, Missouri. He was gradu- ated from the latter institution in 1905, some years after he had entered active practice at Whitefield, Haskell county. He first located at that point in the early nineties, the town then being the popular center of trade for old Sans Bois county before the construction of the Midland Valley Rail- road. He remained in practice at the old town of Whitefield for nearly ten years, removing then to Stigler and afterward, as stated, pursued his advance medical course at the Barnes Medical College.

The Doctor has developed a practice both large and select, and for years his profes- sional territory has covered the country tri- butary to Whitefield and Stigler for a dis- tance of fifteen miles, and the effectiveness of his work and the kindliness of his per- sonality have made his name a household word. Doctor Callaway is also interested in various business and financial interests of the place and has personally contributed to its material growth. He is a considerable stockholder in the First State Bank and has promoted other important enterprises of the place. Professionally he is an active mem- ber of the Haskell County Medical Society and in his religions faith he is an active Methodist, although his forefathers for many generations seem to have been adher- ents of the Christian denomination.

Vol II-29.

In September, 1895, Dr. Callaway was married at Whitefield, Oklahoma, to Miss Ada Atkins, daughter of Pinkney C. Atkins, a resident of Eufaula, Oklahoma. Her mother was a native of Tennessee. Four children have been born to this union: Pauline, who died at the age of seven years ; Sybil, Marjorie and Irene. Dr. Callaway is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows.

C. S. STOCKER. Thoroughly trained as an agriculturist, a railroad builder, a real estate dealer and a financier, C. S. Stocker, presi- dent of the American National Bank of Stig- ler, is admirably qualified to be a founder of western towns. He is acknowledged to be one of the strongest forces connected with the substantial growth of his residence place, in whose establishment he also took a leading part. A native of Tuscarawas county, Ohio, born on the 6th of April, 1842, he is a representative of a prominent Penn- sylvania family of German ancestry, mem- bers of which migrated at an early age in the history of the Buckeye state to the site of old Gnadenhutten, a spot made historic by the massacre of the Christian Indians at that point just after the Revolutionary war. The grandfather of C. S. Stocker was one of these Pennsylvania emigrants, and his father, Absalom, was also born in Tus- carawas county, in the locality mentioned, and was engaged in farming for many years in the bottom lands of the Tuscarawas val- ley. He married Miss Sarah Stecher, also of German stock, who died in 1844, and the is- sue of their union was as follows: Delilah, who died at St. Elmo, Illinois, as Mrs. John Wright; Alcinda, who married Benjamin Knouse and resides at the same place ; Eliza- beth, who became Mrs. Louis Engler and died at St. Elmo; Solomon, who resides on the old Ohio homestead ; Leander, a business man of St. Elmo; and C. S., of this sketch. For his second wife, Absalom Stocker mar- ried Miss Rebecca Demoth, who bore him the following: Ellen, now Mrs. Peters, a widow ; Josephine. Mrs. Henry White, of Columbus, Ohio; Maria, who became Mrs. Harvey Flickinger and resides in Ohio; and George, who also lives at Gnadenhutten, the old family home.

Before C. S. Stocker had completed his education the Civil war broke upon the country, and the youth enlisted in an Ohio regiment which was a part of the Army of

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the Cumberland under General Rosecrans. Among the other engagements in which he participated was the battle of Stone River. Upon his discharge from the service in May, 1864, he resumed life on the home farm, but before the end of the war removed to Christian county, Illinois. He continued agricultural pursuits there for several years, and then engaged in railroad work, his first contract being the grading of a section of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. He com- pleted similar contracts on the Vandalia, the Jacksonville and Southeastern, and the Grand Trunk lines, leading to Chicago, and also on the Wabash System; after which he assumed the work which took him to the southwest and to Oklahoma. His contracts in the Indian country covered three branches of the Frisco in Oklahoma, and two branches of the Choctaw Railroad, now a portion of the Rock Island System, and his last work of this character was the grading of the fifty-two miles of the Midland Valley road which was built through Haskell coun- ty and on which was platted the town of Stigler. Thoroughly convinced of the fine . future of the place he abandoned railroad contracting, and was one of the first to lo- cate on the townsite.

In November, 1908, he added the Coleman addition to Stigler, a tract of forty acres, and graded the streets and put down cement walks before a lot was sold, and also set out shade trees on part of the streets. The lots are now about all sold and this is now the resident district of the town. He laid out one of the most popular residence additions of Stigler: organized the Amer- ican National Bank, of which he was elected president ; erected a s substantial brick building, the Stocker block, for the accommodation of its business; and is the author of other handsome structures, both business houses and residences, which have materially added to the metropolitan appear- ance of the place and stand as conclusive evidences of his faith in its continued pro- gress. He has property interests at other points in Oklahoma, and all his substantial performances and connections mark him as one of the safe and reliable men of the county and state. Both father and sons are splendid citizens and rooted firm in Re- publicanism. The elder man has never sought office, although in his early man- hood, while a resident of Pana, Illinois, he

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A history of the state of Oklahoma, Volume II, Part 84

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