USA > Oklahoma > A history of the state of Oklahoma, Volume II > Part 91
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Almalkly
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Mr. Hammett is a public-spirited citizen of Tulsa, has the reputation of being an alert and enterprising business man, and is one of the founders of the city's present prosperity. In politics he is a Democrat, and a member of the B. P. O. E. Mrs. Hammett, before her marriage, was Miss Adelaide Ellard, of Kansas City.
HON. HENRY C. WALKLEY, a former member of the Cherokee legislature and now registrar of deeds of Tulsa county, was born near Claremore, in the Cherokee Nation of the Indian Territory, in 1875, his parents being William and Alice J. (Chambers) Walkley. His father, a na- tive of England, came to America in 1858 and resided for a short period in Illinois, after which he removed to the Indian Ter- ritory, and following the outbreak of the Civil war he joined the Confederate army and served throughout the period of hos- tilities. When the war was ended he es- tablished a permanent home in the Chero- kee Nation, where the town of Claremore was later established and developed. At that time, however, the village had not yet been founded, and the country was but sparsely settled, particularly by white men. He married Miss Alice J. Chambers, a member of one of the most prominent and aristocratic Cherokee families. She was born at Tahlequah, the capital of the Chero- kee Nation, and still lives at the old home in Claremore. The death of William Walk- ley, however, occurred in 1884. He was a farmer and stockman of large and sub- stantial interests in the Cherokee Nation.
Reared under the parental roof, Henry C. Walkley was afforded excellent educa- tional facilities and after attending the male academy at Tahlequah, continued his stud- ies in St. Francis School, at Osage, Kan- sas, and in a business college at Fort Worth, Texas. He was likewise a student in Willie Haskell College at Vinita, and when his education was completed he turned his attention to the live stock busi- ness at Claremore, being a prominent rep- resentative of that important business in- terest until 1905.
In that year Mr. Walkley removed to his present home in Tulsa, established a
real estate agency, and has since engaged in the purchase and sale of property, ne- gotiating many important realty transfers, and through his business activities and per- sonal interests is contributing largely to the upbuilding of this remarkable young city, the growth of which has been so rapid as to partake of the nature of the marvel- ous. He possesses marked energy, keen sagacity and unfaltering perseverance- qualities which are always essentials in the successful business career.
Mr. Walkley is also a factor in political circles and at the general statehood elec- tion on September 17, 1907, was elected, as Democratic candidate, to the office of registrar of deeds of the new county of Tulsa. On the 16th of November he en- tered upon the duties of the position, for which his education, training and previous experience ably qualified him. He had previously had legislative experience, for at Claremore, in 1901, he was elected a member of the Cherokee Nation council, and was the youngest member of that body. Socially he is prominent, being a valued member of the Masonic, Scottish Rite, Con- sistory, Thirty-second degree, bodies, the Knights of Pythias and the Elks orders.
DR. CHARLES W. MCCARTY is a special- ist at Tulsa, having been located here since July 1, 1906. After graduating from the Kansas City Medical College in 1900, he was for several years engaged in general practice, first at Portis, Kansas, and in 1903 located at Oklahoma City. Since coming to Tulsa he has confined his pro- fessional work to the chronic diseases of both men and women and by reason of a peculiar fitness and adaptability has become one of the well-known specialists in this branch of medicine in Oklahoma, having a large practice at Tulsa and vicinity. His office is fully equipped with the latest elec- trical appliances, static, X-Ray machines, etc., etc., being one of the best-equipped offices in the state. Outside of professional work he has gone into business affairs to some extent, particularly as an associate of Mr. Miller Hammett in the oil and land industry.
Dr. McCarty was born at Lecompton,
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Douglas county, Kansas, the first capital of Kansas, in 1876, and was reared on a farm and lived there until he began his preparation for a professional career. He is a member of a historic Kansas family. His parents, W. R. and Rachel (Coulter) McCarty, had the distinction of being among the first white settlers to enter the territory west of Missouri, which, under the Kansas-Nebraska bill of 1853, was de- clared a territory of the United States and opened to settlement. The Doctor's mother has lived continuously in Douglas county since 1849, and the father since 1853, where he is also still living. The mother, in going to Kansas, accompanied her parents from Dayton, Ohio, where she was born. She recalls many historic incidents in connec- tion with the early history of Kansas, par- ticularly the assembling of the first legisla- ture of the territory of Kansas in 1854. being present at the supper given to the delegates by the residents of the little fron- tier town, as it was at that time. They lived in close touch with the stirring events of the fifties, during the fierce border warfare, the John Brown excitement and the Quan- trell and other raids. The farm on which the doctor's mother now lives is the orig- inal one hundred and sixty acres that she and her husband obtained as a homestead from the government, their patent title never having been transferred from that day.
Dr. McCarty married Miss Margaret Sample, of Downs, Kansas. He affiliates with the Knights of Pythias and B. P. O. E., and is a Democrat.
W. TATE BRADY. Inseparably inter- woven with the history of Tulsa and its development is the name of W. Tate Brady, now a wealthy merchant and mine owner who has a wide and favorable acquaintance here. His marked enterprise and diligence have not only been factors in his personal success, but have also contributed to gen- eral progress. He is yet a young man, his birth having occurred in Forest City, Mis- souri, in 1870. He resided there until twelve years of age, when he went to Ne- vada. Missouri, where he made his home until his removal to Tulsa in 1890. The
embryo city at that time had a population of not more than fifty and few would have believed that it would prove a city for a successful business career, but Mr. Brady foresaw the possibilities here and time has proved the wisdom of his judgment. He has been connected with commercial af- fairs throughout his entire life, starting when a small boy in a humble clerkship and embarking in business on his own ac- count when but seventeen years of age.
On removing to Tulsa, Mr. Brady opened a small store at what is now the southeast corner of the Brady Hotel block, occupying there a little frame building six- teen by thirty-two feet. Day by day the business grew in volume and also advanced in the confidence and respect of the buying public. He has based his success upon cer- tain principles and rules, from which he has never deviated. He has also made it his purpose to carry the best quality of goods and to sell at a reasonable figure and to represent his stock in just and honorable manner. He has also believed in liberal advertising, and his careful control of his business and his keen discernment have enabled him to develop an enterprise which has now reached an extensive figure, its sales being represented by the sum of one hundred thousand dollars annually. To- day the house owns its own building and the floor space is forty-four by one hundred and sixty feet. The stock is valued at forty thousand dollars, the shoe stock alone amounting to ten thousand dollars. After carrying on business alone for a time Mr. Brady organized the present Brady Mer- cantile Company and is today at the head of one of the largest commercial estab- lishments in the eastern half of the state.
A many of ready resource, wide outlook and keen discernment, he has not concen- trated his energies upon one line, but has extended his efforts into other fields and owns and operates the Brady coal mines, about five miles east of Tulsa, representing an extensive industry. He is indeed not only a pioneer merchant, but also a pioneer in the operation of the coal fields, thus de- veloping the rich mineral resources of this part of the state. He opened his first mine
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in 1893 and has since been busily engaged in placing its products on the market. He also erected the Brady Hotel, of which he is still the owner, and which, in 1907, was greatly enlarged by a new addition, making it one of the extensive hotels of the new state. He is likewise financially interested in banks and other business concerns, which show him to be a man of resourceful ability and enterprise, and which are prov- ing an element in the rapid and substantial growth of this section of the state, as well as a source of individual profit.
In 1895 Mr. Brady was united in mar- riage to Miss Rachel C. Davis, of Kensing- ton, Georgia, and they have four children : Ruth, Bessie, Tate and J. Davis. The fam- ily home is one of the finest of Tulsa's many fine residences, and, standing on Brady Heights, commands a splendid view of the surrounding country. In his politi- cal affiliation Mr. Brady is a Democrat, recognized as one of the leaders of the party in the state, and now serving as a member of the Democratic state executive committee. He has always refused poli- tical preferment for himself, accepting only honorary positions, but has done effective work in municipal affairs as president of the Tulsa school board and is a member of the city council. He is prominent among the energetic, far-seeing and successful men of Tulsa and is equally well known for his public spirit.
LEE MATHEWS, a leading architect whose ability has gained him prestige in his chosen profession, is located at Tulsa and is an influential and governing factor in build- ing operations, which are making this a beautiful modern city. He was born at Zanesville, Muskingum county, Ohio, in 1846. In 1866 his parents, S. H. and Mar- garet (Sperry) Mathews, went with their family to Missouri, settling in Pettis colin- ty, where the mother still resides, the father, however, having passed away in 1905.
Lee Mathews is numbered among the veterans of the Civil war. He was, how- ever, one of the youngest soldiers of the Union army, enlisting when only fifteen years of age at Newark, Licking county. Ohio, on the 27th of November. 1861, as
a member of Company D, Seventy-sixth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, under Captain Charles H. Kibler and Colonel Charles R. Woods. Going with his command to the front, he was a participant in many impor- tant battles, including the battles of Fort Donelson, Shiloh, the siege of Corinth, the battles of Pea Ridge, Milliken's Bend, Haines' Bluff, Greenville, Bolivia, Chicka- saw Bayou, Arkansas Post, Deer Creek, Fourteen Mile Creek and Jackson, the sieges of Vicksburg and Jackson, the bat- tles of Canton, Lookout Mountain, Mis- sionary Ridge and Ringgold, the siege and battle of Atlanta, Sherman's march to the sea and the advance northward through South Carolina, North Carolina and Vir- ginia to Washington, where he participated in the grand review at the close of the war, it being the most celebrated military pag- eant ever seen on the western hemisphere. On that occasion thousands of Union sol- diers marched through the streets of the city and passed the reviewing stand, on which were seated the President and other notable men of the nation, while over broad Pennsylvania avenue swung a banner, bear- ing the words, "the only debt which our country cannot pay is the debt which she owes her soldiers." When the war was over, Mr. Mathews, still but a boy in years. but a man in his war experiences, returned home. The following year he accompa- nied his parents on their removal to Pettis county, Missouri, and resumed his educa- tion, which had been interrupted by the exigencies of the war. He received excel- lent school privileges in Sedalia and St. Louis, the greater part of his technical edu- cation in the preparation for the profession of an architect being received in the latter city. He had practical experience, how- ever, from his early boyhood under his father, who was a contractor and builder in Ohio and later in Sedalia, Missouri. His first independent experience in architectural lines was at Warrensburg, Johnson county, Missouri, whence he removed to Monett, that state, where he followed the profession of an architect for several years. In 1903 he arrived in Tulsa, where he has since made his home.
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As an architect and superintendent of construction Mr. Mathews has taken a very important part in the remarkable upbuild- ing and substantial improvement of Tulsa, which began about the time of his arrival here and has continued uninterruptedly to the present time. He has erected more buildings here than any other one man, a large number of them being the most prom- inent buildings of the city, including Rob- inson Hotel, Rosenfield building, World building, Trimble block, Mowbray & Half building, Elks' building, Hamilton build- ing, the Alexander & Shelton block, the Kellman block, the L. W. Lindsey resi- dence, the residences of John D. Seaman, Flowers Nelson, Singleton, Chastain, Wright, Dr. Harrison and a large number of other well-known buildings of the city. His contracts have not only included busi- ness structures and residences but also pub- lic buildings, schoolhouses and churches. The attractiveness of Tulsa from an archi- tectural standpoint is largely due to his ef- forts and, as will be seen, many of the most important structures here stand as monu- ments to his thrift, enterprise and ability. He is also the editor and publisher of the well-known architectural journal called Home Building, which is issued at Tulsa, and has been an influential factor in induc- ing citizens to build more attractive and convenient homes, thus adding to the beauty of the city and surroundings.
Mr. Mathews was united in marriage to Miss Vesta Briscoe, of Exeter, Missouri, and they have four children: Mrs. Mabel Gettel, of Enid; Otto; Leo, and Earl.
Fraternally Mr. Mathews is connected with the Elks and with the Grand Army of the Republic, and he is a member of the executive committee of the Oklahoma Architects' Association. What he has done but represents the fit utilization of the in- nate talents which are his. He is pre- eminently a man of affairs and one whose labors have been beneficial to his city as well as a source of gratifying income to himself.
HENRY R. CLINE. In the spring of 1904 Henry R. Cline was elected mayor of Tulsa. The remarkable industrial growth and civic
development of Tulsa have taken place dur- ing the last five or six years, and it is a merited credit to Mr. Cline that much of Tulsa's progress occurred during his ad- ministration, and with his active co-opera- tion. The building of the Santa Fe and Midland Valley railroads into Tulsa has contributed a great advantage to the city, and in placing personal credit for this re- sult it should be stated that Mr. Cline was chairman of the railroad committee of the Commercial Club, which conducted the ne- gotiations with the railroad companies. He is a director of the First National Bank of Tulsa.
Mr. Cline came to Tulsa in 1902, and at once engaged with characteristic enterprise in the movements for progress and develop- ment then under way. He has engaged in the real estate business and in promoting a number of enterprises. He has made money for himself, but has been even more active in producing wealth for the city. He was formerly a member of the Tulsa board of education. Of Oklahoma cities, Tulsa, it would seem, has in many respects re- ceived more "boosting" during the last few years than any other. It is an extremely progressive class of business men who are devoting themselves to the upbuilding of this city, and one of the most enthusiastic among them is the former mayor, Henry R. Cline.
Mr. Cline was born in Fulton county, Missouri, in 1864. During his boyhood the family moved to Kansas City, where he was reared and educated. The Alta Plane stock farm near Hannibal, Missouri, was for many years known to horsemen and stock- men the country over. Its blooded trotting and pacing horses were often record and prize winners, and all of them were of finest blood and breeding. The farm has had as many as one hundred standard-bred horses there at a time. This stock farm was established by the Cline family, after their removal from Kansas City, and they continued to conduct it successfully for fif- teen years. Here Henry R. Cline spent part of his youth and manhood. In Sep- tember, 1893, he participated in the run by which the Cherokee Strip was opened to
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settlement, and securing a homestead near Blackwell, in Kay county, lived there, en- gaged in farming and other business enter- prises until he came to Tulsa in 1902. Mr. Cline is a Democrat in politics, and frater- nally a Mason, an Elk and a Woodman. The Methodist Episcopal church South, at Tulsa, is indebted to Mr. Cline as one of its most generous and hard-working mem- bers. He is chairman of the board of stew- ards, treasurer of the board of trustees, and was secretary and treasurer of the build- ing committee. In the last named position he bore the responsibility to a large extent for the construction of the beautiful new church edifice of this congregation, which is a source of pride to both the church and city. Mr. Cline gave much time to the work and contributed to the financing of the undertaking almost to the point of sac- rifice. He is secretary and treasurer of the Tulsa Vitrified Brick and Tile factory, man- ufacturers of brick and tile for pavers and builders and sidewalk construction, etc., etc. The plant has a capacity of seventy-five thousand. Since moving to Oklahoma Mr. Cline married Miss Etta Fair, a native of Corydon, Indiana.
WALTER I. RENEAU, a capitalist and prominent citizen of Tulsa, who is now filling the position of postmaster, was born in Jefferson county, Tennessee, December 4, 1868. In the paternal line he is of French ancestry, descended from the well- known historic character, Phillip Francis Renault, who came to America at the time of the French and Indian war, and was the founder of the family in this country. In the maternal line, however, he is of Irish ancestry.
In 1870 the Reneau family removed from Tennessee to Missouri, where they lived for thirteen years and later located in Har- per county, Kansas, where Walter I. Re- neau made his home for a decade. At the time of the opening of the Cherokee Strip in 1893. he made the run into the Strip and. located on a homestead in Grant county. On that notable occasion he made the run from the south line of Kansas from a town about half way between Hunnewell
and Caldwell. He continued to reside in Grant county until January, 1902, when he located at his present home in Tulsa. In this city he at once took an active part in the marvelous growth and development which have transformed the embryonic vil- lage into a city of marked business enter- prise and capacity of rapid growth and of substantial advancement. The development of the vast oil resources of this section was but just beginning at the time of his arrival. This has brought many residents here and the growth of the town has been developed along lines of permanency that have made it one of the most attractive of the new cit- ies of the west.
Mr. Reneau is widely recognized as a public-spirited citizen, who has been one of the moving forces in the upbuilding of the city, and as a capitalist has engaged quite extensively in real estate and building oper- ations, largely handling business property. The common testimony of him is that he is a man of remarkable sagacity-a quality in the human mind that we can scarcely overestimate in business and many relations of life. He is careful, prudent and honest, and has, therefore, not been favored by chance but by the due exercise of his own good qualities.
Mr. Reneau was married to Miss Effie Bunyard, a daughter of W. T. Bunyard, a well-known " '89er" in Oklahoma, and a pioneer of the Canadian country where he still lives. He is one of the substantial and representative citizens of the western half of the new state. Mr. and Mrs. Reneau have two sons. Guy and Alva. In his po- litical views Mr. Reneau is a stalwart Re- publican and has taken time from his busi- ness affairs to co-operate to some extent in political work. In fact, he is recognized as one of the leaders of the party in the new state, and in the fall of 1907 was ap- pointed postmaster of Tulsa by President Roosevelt, and in this position is giving a businesslike administration. All his labors, whether of a public character or business relations, have been characterized by a strong determination and an honorable pur- pose, and Tulsa is fortunate in that he has allied his interests with hers.
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MELVILLE B. BAIRD. In a history of that section of Oklahoma which until recently had existence under the name of the In- dian Territory, Melville B. Baird, of Tulsa, now a well-known capitalist, has done ef- fective work in promoting early progress and development, utilizing the natural re- sources of the state in promoting his in- dividual interests and also contributing thereby to the general prosperity of the communities in which he lived. He became well known as a dealer in walnut timber and later as a builder of toll bridges in the Territory. He was born in Bairdstown, Wood county, Ohio. His father, John Baird, in whose honor the Ohio town was named, was a representative of the old Baird family of Philadelphia, where the Bairds have lived for several generations. At the old family home in Ohio Melville B. Baird was reared, but acquired the greater part of his education at Findlay, Hancock county, where he spent four years as a student in the high school and was then graduated. Before he had attained his majority he had entered commercial life, his labors characterized by unfaltering energy and laudable ambition. Quick to note opportunities and to utilize them, he became interested in the walnut log indus- try in the south, and in 1885 made his way to the Indian Territory, where he began dealing in walnut logs on an extensive scale in Creek and Cherokee Nations. In the year of his arrival in the Territory he visited Tulsa, which at that time was but a very small settlement. His cash capital was but sixty-five dollars, but he possessed what is better than money-a ready under- standing of a business situation and an abil- ity to control, to assimilate and unify the forces at hand. Within less than a year from that time he was doing a business in the walnut log industry aggregating about one hundred thousand dollars a year, and in eighteen months had paid off what he owed and had a clear profit of about sev- enty-five thousand dollars. Of course, all this meant arduous. unremitting toil, in- telligently directed, but he has never feared that laborious attention to detail which is always an essential in a successful business
career. At that time the country through which he made his journeys was almost in- accessible on account of the lack of roads, bridges and accommodations of any sort for white people. Moreover, he had to en- counter, on more than one occasion, the desperado element that then infested the Indian nations. In the face of obstacles which would utterly have discouraged many a man of less resolute spirit, he continued his operations, and as the years have gone by has met with a success which is most gratifying, admirable and commendable. He continued to deal in walnut logs for several years, not only in the Indian Terri- tory but in Texas, Arkansas, Missouri and Louisiana.
Later, as a capitalist, Mr. Baird took up the business of building toll bridges. Pre- vious to the admission of Oklahoma to the Union there were no public bridges across the rivers and creeks in the Indian Terri- tory, and such as existed had to be built by private capital and operated on the toll plan. Mr. Baird entered into this business with characteristic energy and has invested more capital therein than any other one man. His work has been of the utmost benefit to this part of the state at large, bringing into close touch districts which were previously isolated, from the fact of there being no method to cross the rivers and streams. With his associates Mr. Baird built the present substantial bridge across the Arkansas river at a cost of about forty thousand dollars, and it is con- sidered one of the most potent elements in building up the trade of this city, render- ing Tulsa easy of access to the residents of outlying districts. He also built the bridge across the Verdigris river four miles east of Nowata and also erected the bridge across Bird creek, six miles north of Tulsa, together with a bridge across the Caney. four and a half miles north of Collinsville, and one across the same stream at Oche- leta. It was through the efforts of Mr. Baird that the bridge across the Grand river, about five miles east of Choteau, was built, and altogether through his individual efforts or with associates, he has erected seven substantial bridges in the Indian Ter-
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