A standard history of Oklahoma; an authentic narrative of its development from the date of the first European exploration down to the present time, including accounts of the Indian tribes, both civilized and wild, of the cattle range, of the land openings and the achievements of the most recent period, Vol. III, Part 10

Author: Thoburn, Joseph B. (Joseph Bradfield), 1866-1941
Publication date: 1916
Publisher: Chicago, New York, The American Historical Society
Number of Pages: 660

USA > Oklahoma > A standard history of Oklahoma; an authentic narrative of its development from the date of the first European exploration down to the present time, including accounts of the Indian tribes, both civilized and wild, of the cattle range, of the land openings and the achievements of the most recent period, Vol. III > Part 10

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A son of the pioneer Yocham, years later, became a resident of Indian Territory and assisted in its de- velopment, and during his lifetime Jefferson Gardner, one of the great men of the Choctaws, became governor. The latter was a man of foresight who had more in- terest in the development of the Choctaw Nation than did many of his people, and at Eagletown, one of the early villages of the Nation, built a mansion for his home, an old colonial style structure that stands today as one of the show places of McCurtain County and as a monument to a man who realized that the tribal govern- ment and the happy hunting grounds of the Indians were passing. It is probable that Mr. Yocham and Governor Gardner were friends, which makes of historical interest the fact that a grandson of Mr. Yocham, who came when the tribal days had passed, wrote the abstract of title that disposed of the Gardner homestead to Charles Stiles, a merchant of Eagletown. The governor had passed away and with him many of the cherished ideals of his people, and while progressive white men were occupying the lands the Indians once roamed over, the home of the governor was not retained as a memorial to the tribe.

The young man who wrote the mentioned abstract was Hose C. Perkins, of Idabel, manager of the Security Title Company, who located in Oklahoma in 1911. A son and grandson of Mr. Yocham became soldiers in the Con- federate army during the war between the states and were killed in battle. A daughter, Nancy Yocham, be- came the wife of Henry H. Perkins, a native of Illinois who moved into Arkansas when a young man. For a number of years Mr. Perkins has been a successful farmer and stockman, for four years was sheriff of Marion County, Arkansas, and in 1914 was elected a member of the Arkansas Legislature. He helped to pass the bill providing for tick eradication, which was of in- estimable value to the livestock industry of the state, assisted in defeating the Sawyer Bill, which would have permitted horse-race gambling at Hot Springs, Arkansas, and had a leading part in making the law that established state-wide prohibition in Arkansas, and which went into effect January 1, 1916.

Hose C. Perkins is a graduate of the Yellville High School, and after leaving that institution entered the abstract business in Arkansas and continued it when he moved to Oklahoma in 1911. In performing the duties of that business he has passed upon the titles to many historie tracts of land in the old Choctaw country and in so doing has been one of the factors in the development of a region held for several generations intact for the Indians. He conducts a loan and real estate business in connection with his title business, and Herbert Cokey is associated with him in these different lines. Mr. Perkins is well known in business circles of Idabel and the sur- rounding country, and his reputation is an excellent one among his associates.

Mr. Perkins was married at Yellville, Arkansas, in 1908, to Miss Virginia E. Coker, daughter of Dr. J. M. Coker, who for thirty-five years has been a practicing physician and surgeon at Yellville, being also prominent in democratic politics of the state and a member of the Arkansas Legislature. One child has been born to Mr. and Mrs. Perkins, Bertha Alene, who is now five years

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HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA

old. Mr. and Mrs. Perkins are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. He belongs to the Oklahoma Association of Title Men, and his fraternal affiliations include membership in the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Woodmen of the World. His home is at Idabel.

THOMAS J. BYRNE. One of the fast-growing business enterprises of Tulsa, which has contributed materially to the commercial importance of this vigorous Okla- homa city, is the Tulsa Sheet Metal Company, which has been developed under the energetic management of its proprietor, Thomas J. Byrne. Mr. Byrne's suc- cess has been self-attained, for he started life without any advantages, and has worked his own way to financial independence and the ownership of the leading industry of its kind at Tulsa.

Thomas J. Byrne was born in Ireland, July 13, 1870, and is a son of Thomas J. and Elizabeth (Nolan) Byrne, natives of Erin. In 1871 the father brought his fam- ily to the United States and located at Middletown, Ohio, where he purchased a home and small tract of land, and was engaged in the poultry business up to the time of his death, in 1912, when he was eighty-six years of age, the mother having passed away some years before. There were six children in the family, of whom four are still living, and Thomas J. was the second in order of birth. The public and parochial schools of Middletown, Ohio, furnished Thomas J. Byrne with his educational training, and as a youth his first employ- ment was at tobacco stripping, for which he received $1.50 per day. At Cincinnati, Ohio, he subsequently learned the tinner's trade, and later he removed to St. Paul, Minnesota, where he followed his vocation until work became dull in his line, and he secured work chopping wood, in the meantime living in a log cabin in the timber. He later spent some time in traveling, with the end in view of learning something about the country, as well as finding a suitable location, and in his travels visited Chicago, Detroit, Montreal, Boston, vari- ous points in the New England states and Indianapolis, Indiana. Later he went to Logansport, in that state, where he worked at his trade for a time, always seeking to better his condition, and from there went to Phila- delphia, where he worked as a draughtsman and superin- tendent of shops. He also visited Atlanta, Georgia, and Cleveland, Ohio, and at the latter place was employed by Rudolph & Son, where he designed a metal window, which was approved by the fire insurance companies.

In June, 1910, Mr. Byrne came to Tulsa, Oklahoma, where he soon bought out the sheet metal manufacturing business of Edward Himes, and founded his present business at No. 19 West First Street. Here he manu- factures and deals in such products as metal windows, skylights, cornice, guttering, spouting, roofing, tanks, metal cisterns pumps, heating apparatus, ventilating apparatus, cresting, corrugated iron, roof jacks, well buckets, garbage cans, filters, furnaces, tile, hip shingles, brick and stone, face siding, metal shingles, oil filters, stove pipe, steam tables, wall ties, ornamental iron work, canopies and arches. He does all kinds of work in sheet iron, copper, tin, zine and corrugated iron, and handles building supplies of every description. A specialty of his business is the "Byrne" ventilator and bungalow heaters. The Tulsa Sheet Metal Company has grown and developed rapidly and with it has grown the repu- tation of its proprietor. In business circles he has be- come known as an able, energetic business man, whose fidelity to engagements is proverbial. He maintains independent views in political matters, and is frater- nally affiliated with the local lodges of the Knights of Pythias and the Fraternal Order of Eagles.

In 1913 Mr. Byrne was married to Miss Bessie Hearne, who was born near Atlanta, Georgia.

HENRY W. NOAH. The career of Henry W. Noah has been one which from his youth has been filled with inter- esting experiences. A buffalo hunter in the days when the great herds roamed the western plains, an Indian fighter on the frontier, a deputy sheriff of Woods County and a deputy United States marshal at a time when such positions, to say the least, were not sinecures, he is now passing his declining years in peace and content- ment on his farm, which bears the picturesque name of Noah's Deer Park, located four miles east of Alva.

Mr. Noah was born April 18, 1849, on a farm near Covington, Kenton County, Kentucky, and is a son of George W. and Harriet H. (Stevenson) Noalı, the former of whom was descended from German stock, while the latter was of English descent. In 1851 the family moved as pioneers to Harrison County, Missouri, being the third family to settle in that community, and there George W. Noah built a small home for his family and engaged in agricultural pursuits. He continued to farm and raise stock during the remaining years of his life and passed away in 1871, Mrs. Noah having died two years before.

Henry W. Noah was but two years of age when the family moved to the Harrison County farm, and there he was 'reared amid pioneer surroundings. His educa- tional advantages were somewhat limited, owing to the unsettled condition of the country, but for a time he attended a little log schoolhouse and made the most of such opportunities as were granted him. In 1872 he joined a party of buffalo hunters engaged in securing hides for the demands of the trade that soon exter- minated the American bison, and while thus engaged had more than one encounter with the hostile Indians. In 1874 Mr. Noah went to Sumner County, Kansas, and located on Government land, located twelve miles south- west of Wellington, there continuing to be engaged in agricultural operations until 1882. He next moved to Barber County, Kansas, where he turned his attention to the raising of cattle on the open range, and in 1886 consolidated with the old Eagle Chief Pool, with which he was identified until 1889. Mr. Noah disposed of his interests in Kansas in 1893 and made the run for a home- stead at the opening of the Cherokee Strip in Oklahoma, in which he was successful in the securing of a property in the Salt Fork Valley, four miles east of Alva. Here, he now has one of the valuable farms of Woods County, developed through his energy, industry and good business management. This property, well improved for general farming, is named, as noted, Noah's Deer Park, from the presence of a finely-situated natural park, well stocked with deer. He also has been successful in the raising of peafowl, English pheasants and various strains of American fowl, as well as thoroughbred Aberdeen cattle, a black beef cattle, hornless, with short necks and legs and short, wide head. His buildings are substantial in construction and his improvements are of the best, so that his property presents an attractive appearance and is one of the showspots of the locality. In his youth Mr. Noah was known as a crack shot with the rifle, and advancing years do not seem to have dimmed his eye or unsteadied his hand in this particular. Shortly after coming to Woods County, when this locality was filled with rough characters from all over the Southwest, Mr. Noah was appointed a deputy sheriff, and his courage' and perseverance in tracking and bringing to justice! lawbreakers won him an appointment as United States deputy marshal for Oklahoma, a position which he retained from 1893 until 1897.

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HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA

Mr. Noah was married in 1870 to Miss Eliza Hall, a former schoolmate in Missouri, and they are the parents of two daughters: Harriet M. and Maggie M.

CYRUS S. AVERY. A vigorous and resourceful man of marked initiative and administrative ability, Mr. Avery has been prominently identified with the civic and in- dustrial development and progress of Oklahoma, within whose borders he has maintained his residence since the early territorial era of its history. He has been contin- uously an exponent of progressive policies in business and public affairs, has done much to exploit the attrac- tions and resources of the state of his adoption and to insure development along normal and legitimate lines, the while he has so taken advantage of opportunities here afforded as to achieve distinctive and merited suc- cess. Mr. Avery is today a leading exponent of agricul- tural, live-stock and oil and gas industries in Oklahoma, and every enterprise with which he has identified him- self has felt the invigorating power of his strenuous, sincere and versatile personality.

Mr. Avery takes justifiable pride in claiming the fine old Keystone State as the place of his nativity, but his loyalty and progressive spirit are distinctively of the true western verve and are shown in his deep apprecia- tion of the manifold attractions of the state of his adoption. He was born at Stevensville, Bradford County, Pennsylvania, on the 31st of August, 1871, and in the same state were born his parents, James and Ruie (Stevens) Avery, of whose three children he was the second in order of birth; his elder sister, Caroline, is the wife of James Stauber, of Noel, McDonald County, Missouri; and Bertha is the wife of Dr. Walter E. Smith, a representative physician and surgeon at Collinsville, Rogers County, Oklahoma.

James Avery became a successful merchant at Ridge- way, the judicial center of Elk County, Pennsylvania, where he remained until 1881, when he removed with his family to Missouri and settled in McDonald County, near Southwest City, a village that is situated in the extreme southwestern corner of the state and in close proximity to the Oklahoma and Arkansas lines. There he was suc- cessfully engaged in farming and stock-growing until his death, in 1906, at the age of sixty-three years, his widow being still a resident of Missouri and having cele- brated in 1915 her seventieth birthday anniversary; she is a zealous member of the Baptist Church, as was also her husband, and in politics he was a democrat. At the inception of the Civil war James Avery enlisted in a Pennsylvania volunteer regiment, but after he had gone to Gettysburg to enter active service it was found that the requisite quota of volunteers had been filled and he was accordingly mustered out.

Cyrus S. Avery gained his rudimentary education in Pennsylvania and was a lad of about ten years at the time of the family immigration to Missouri. At Liberty, Missouri, he finally entered William Jewell College, in which he was graduated as a member of the class of 1897. In the same year Mr. Avery came to Oklahoma Territory and established his residence in Oklahoma City, where he continued to be identified with the life- insurance business until 1904. He then removed to Vinita, Craig County, where he was a successful repre- sentative of the real-estate and loan business until 1908, when he transferred his residence and business head- quarters to the City of Tulsa, where he has continued operations in the extending of financial loan on approved real-estate security and where he has become prominently concerned with the oil and natural gas industry, as well as with agriculture and stock-growing. He is president of the Avery Oil & Gas Company and secretary and treasurer of the Togo Oil Company, both of which con-

trol valuable producing properties and undeveloped projects in the Oklahoma oil and gas fields. Mr. Avery has other important capitalistic interests, including the ownership of a finely improved farm of 700 acres, eligibly situated near Tulsa, and devoted to diversified agriculture and the raising of high grades of live stock, especially full-blood Holstein cattle. As an agricultur- ist Mr. Avery has been specially successful in the raising of alfalfa, and for his progressive policies in agriculture and stock-raising he has received high compliments on the part of the official of the agricultural department of the state .. He has been zealous and liberal in the promotion of good roads and other agencies for the material benefit of the state, and is vice president of the Ozark Trail Association, as a member of which he was successful in bringing about a meeting, at Tulsa, in which were formulated plans that resulted in the mark- ing in proper way the old Ozark trail through this section of the state, this being an enterprise of enduring historic value. Even the foregoing brief statements show that Mr. Avery has had the energy and good judgment to avail himself fully of the advantages afforded in Okla- homa, where he has acquired a substantial competency through his worthy and well ordered endeavors.

A staunch advocate of the principles of the democratic party, Mr. Avery has had no special ambition for public office, but he has not been permitted to deny his service in positions for which his marked eligibility has been recognized. He is now serving as a progressive and valued member and for three years as chairman of the board of county commissioners of Tulsa County, to which position he was first elected in 1913 and to which he was re-elected in 1915. He is a member of the direct- orate of the Tulsa Commercial Club and also a director of the Tulsa Automobile Club, besides holding member- ship in the local Country Club. Mr. Avery is affiliated with Tulsa Lodge, No. 71, Ancient Free & Accepted Masons, as well as with other local organizations of the York Rite of Masonry, and in the consistory of the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite at McAlester he has received the thirty-second degree.

On the 23d of December, 1907, Mr. Avery married Miss Essie McClelland, who was born at Liberty, Clay County, Missouri, and they have two sons-James L. and Gordon S.

JOHN M. CRAIG. The manufacture of lumber has be- come in recent years one of the leading industries of Oklahoma. This was made possible by legislation per- mitting the purchase or lease of lands or timber rights on lands of the old Choctaw Nation, wherein is situated one of the most important timber belts for lumber purposes in the United States. McCurtain County contains a large percentage of such lands, but until ten years ago there was little done in the Choctaw country toward making use of its valuable timber. It was in 1904 that the Choctaw Lumber Company began buying timber here, and, soon learning of the region's possibilities, prepared for the period of important development that began a few years later. Lack of transportation facilities was the leading hindrance to development at the start, but this the company overcame by the building of a railroad from Valliant, a point on the Frisco Railroad, in the southern part of McCurtain County, to a new town the company called Broken Bow, and then followed, in 1910, the erec- tion at Bismarck, a station on the new road, of a sawmill with a capacity of 125,000 ft. of lumber per day. Two years later the company built at Broken Bow another mill, with a capacity of 100,000 ft. per day. In the icantime the concern had commenced disposing of its lands from which valuable timber had been taken, the lands being sold to settlers in small tracts for farming

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HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA

purposes. Thus was opened the way for the agricultural development of a large section of the northern part of the county which had theretofore been only sparsely .populated. Besides creating important sawmill indus- tries this company made possible the building of a town at Broken Bow of 2,500 population with a considerable support from farming and ranching communities. Sev- eral hundred men are employed in the mills of this com- pany and its pay roll is among the largest of the in- dustrial institutions of the Southwest. The general office of the company is at Kansas City and the sales office at Oklahoma City, and the present officers are: Herman Dierks, of Kansas City, president; and John M. Craig, manager of the timber department, at Idabel.

John M. Craig has become an important factor in the lumber industry of Oklahoma solely through the medium of his own efforts, having worked his way up from the most humble capacity, through the various departments, and thus familiarizing himself thoroughly with every de- partment and detail of the business. He was born in Benton County, Arkansas, March 14, 1886, and is a son of Albert and Wincie (McDavid) Craig. There was one other child in the family who is now Mrs. Herbert Dierks of Kansas City, wife of one of the officials of the Choc- taw Lumber Company. After attending the public schools of Arkansas, John M. Craig enrolled as a stu- dent at Washita Baptist College, Arkadelphia, Arkansas, and when his course was completed there secured employ- ment as bookkeeper in the First National Bank of DeQueen, Arkansas. About this time, he began to realize the great possibilities of the lumber industry in this sec- tion of the country, and in order to get experience in the business accepted a position as water carrier for a saw- mill. In 1909 he went into the office of the company at De Queen, later was transferred to the Idabel office as assistant manager, and in 1913 was promoted to his pres- ent position as manager. While best known in the lum- ber trade, Mr. Craig has other interests, and is now vice president of the First National Bank of Broken Bow.

Mr. Craig was married at De Queen, Arkansas, March 27, 1910, to Miss Ola Lake, and they have three children: John Lake, who was born in 1911; and Martha and Margaret, twins, born in February, 1915. Mr. Craig is a member of the Masonic fraternity, holding membership in the Consistory at McAlester and the Shrine at Musko- gee. His residence is maintained at Idabel.

CHARLES H. WILSON, county superintendent of schools for McIntosh County, Oklahoma, prominent land owner and successful farmer, was born on a farm near Fayette- ville, Arkansas, on February 22, 1874. He was reared, however, within the borders of old Missouri, to which state his parents moved two years after his birth, and settled in Barry County. Concerning his parentage, it should be said that Mr. Wilson is a son of James and Emmeline (Curtis) Wilson, and a grandson of Larkin Wilson.

James Wilson was born in Virginia, the natal state of Larkin Wilson, and when the former was a boy the fam- ily moved from Virginia to Tennessee. There he was reared, and there he met and married the mother of the subject. She was a native of Tennessee, and the daugh- ter of Tennessee people. After the marriage of James and Emmeline (Curtis) Wilson they left Tennessee, moved to Missouri, and settled in Barry County in the year 1870. A short time afterward they removed to Arkansas, where they also remained but a short time, returning thence to Missouri, where they arrived in 1876. The father died in Missouri and the mother now lives in Oklahoma.

Charles H. Wilson was reared on the Missouri farm to which he went with his parents when he was yet an in-

fant. He attended the public schools, getting such information and training as was available, and when he was seventeen years old he taught his first school. From that time on, until he felt himself properly equipped for educational work, Mr. Wilson alternately taught and studied. For two years he was a student in the Mount Vernon Normal at Pea Ridge, Arkansas, and later on he attended the Missouri State Normal at Warrensburg, Missouri.

Mr. Wilson, prior to turning his attention solely to educational matters, gave some time to the merchandise business. In 1901 he engaged in that enterprise in Vinita, Oklahoma, and the next year saw his arrival in Eufaula. He located on a farm near the county seat and for a time devoted himself to that work. He came into possession of his farm through his marriage with Lyda Burton, a young woman with a strain of Indian blood in her veins. Since that time Mr. Wilson has added to their land holdings from time to time until they now are the owners of 800 acres of valuable farm land in Mc- Intosh County:

Since coming to Oklahoma Mr. Wilson has been espe- cially prominent in politics. A staunch republican, he has served on the county committee of the party, and has furthered its interests in a worthy manner. He served two years as deputy United States marshal. In 1912, in recognition of his excellent training for the position, and in response to a recognized need in the county, he was elected to the office of superintendent of schools for McIntosh County. His service in this im- portant post has been most valuable to the county, and he has distinguished himself as an educator of more than average ability. His re-election in 1914 was a speaking testimony to his record in the previous term of two years. . The progress of the schools in the county under his guidance has been marked, and everywhere may be found the evidences of the success of his admin- istration of the schools.

Mrs. Wilson, it should be said, is a daughter of Robert O. Burton, who came from Mississippi to the Indian Territory in an early day and here married Elizabeth Smith, a member of one of the most prominent families of the Creek Nation. Three children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Wilson : Oleta, Jerome and Charles Victor.

FREDERICK W. KOPPLIN. Graduated in the law de- partment of the University of Minnesota as a member of the class of 1908, Mr. Kopplin came to Oklahoma in the same year that he received his degree of Bachelor of Laws and has since been engaged in the general prac- tice of his profession in the City of Tulsa, where he has firmly entrenched himself as one of the representative members of the bar of this section of the state and where he commands unequivocal esteem as a loyal and progressive citizen of the vigorous young commonwealth with which he has cast in his lot.

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Author: Thoburn, Joseph B. (Joseph Bradfield), 1866-1941 Publication date: 1916 Publisher: Chicago, New York, The American Historical Society Number of Pages: 660

Author: Thoburn, Joseph B. (Joseph Bradfield), 1866-1941
Publication date: 1916
Publisher: Chicago, New York, The American Historical Society
Number of Pages: 660