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 100
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This newspaper was established in September, 1901, as the Waurika News, by Thomas B. Fry, who disposed of his interests in 1903 to J. L. Morgan and D. E. Acker- man, who sold it to F. W. Anderson, the latter, in turn, selling to C. S. Gilkerson, who consolidated it with the Democrat in 1911, the paper at that time taking its present style. It is a democratic organ, and is now owned by a stock company, the officers of which are as follows: D. M. Bridges, president; A. L. Walker, vice president; H. W. Lemons, treasurer; C. S. Storms, secretary, and W. W. Morrison, manager. The plant and offices are ou South Main Street, and are modern in every respect, being equipped with the most modern type and appurtenances, with facilities for doing the highest class of job work. The News-Democrat enjoys a large circulation among the best people of Jefferson and the surrounding counties, is a clean, reliable, well-printed and well-edited sheet, and gives its subscribers complete and interesting reports of the latest news, and its advertisers an excellent medium for the presentation of the value of their wares. Mr. Morrison is directing the policy of the paper along lines which have materially added to its subscription list, and has always kept its columns open in the support of movements benefiting the community. He is a democrat and a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church.
On May 4, 1910, at Waurika, Mr. Morrison was mar- ried to Miss Margaret Woolridge, daughter of J. L. Woolridge, the proprietor of a restaurant at Waurika. They have one child: Donald J., born May 14, 1913.
CHARLES BLACKARD. A truly representative Oklaho- man who has passed his entire life within the borders of his native state, and has here achieved success and position in financial circles, Charles Blackard, cashier of the First National Bank of Muldrow, typifies the young and energetic element that has brought the new state so rapidly to the forefront. He is a product of the farm, but since entering financial life his advancement has
been steady and consistent, and to this branch of business activity his attention is now given unreservedly.
Mr. Blackard was born December 26, 1882, on a farm one mile east of Muldrow, in Sequoyah County, Oklahoma, and is a son of Thomas H. and Tennessee (Watts) Black- ard. The family is of Scotch origin and was early founded in North Carolina, in which state, near the City of Raleigh, the grandfather of Charles Blackard, William M. Blackard, was born. He was one of the pioneers to Arkansas, going to that state as early as 1835 and set- tling near Clarksville, which later became the county seat of Johnson County. There he was engaged in farm- ing until the outbreak of the war between the states, at which time he enlisted in an Arkansas regiment in the Confederate army and was subsequently captured during General Price's raid through Missouri, and died at the federal prison at Rock Island, Illinois. He had three sons : Thomas H .; and William D. and John V., who are successful merchants of Muldrow.
Thomas H. Blackard was born in Johnson County, Arkansas, June 5, 1851, and was still a lad when his father died. He had been brought up to habits of indus- try and perseverance and had been given a good public school education, so that he was early able to take his place among the agriculturists of his community and to make a success of his operations. For some years he continued to reside in Johnson County, Arkansas, but finally came to Sequoyah County, Oklahoma, where he still carries on farming and stockraising in the vicinity of Muldrow, being one of his community's substantial and progressive men. Mrs. Blackard was born in Obion County, Tennessee. Her father was Solomon Watts, a native of Tennessee, of Scotch and French lineage, who came to Arkansas about the year 1835 and settled in Johnson County. He served as a soldier in the Confed- erate army during the war between the states, through which he passed safely, and then returned to his farming pursuits in Johnson County. Later he removed to the Indian Territory, where his death occurred in 1883. Thomas H. and Tennessee Blackard were the parents of four children : William M., Nora B., Charles and Vida. The family came to Indian Territory in 1872.
Charles Blackard was reared on his father's farm and educated in the public schools, and as a youth and young man his attention was given entirely to farming. In 1907, at the age of twenty-five years, he came to Muldrow and entered the Citizens Bank, in a minor capacity, and in the following year, when this institution was merged with the First National Bank of Muldrow, he became cashier of the new house, an office he has continued to hold. He has at- tained widespread recognition of his abilities as a financier, and in the circles of general business no man at Muldrow possesses higher consideration. Mr. Blackard is a demo- crat in politics, and, while not seeking political office, has been interested in civic affairs, co-operating with other public-spirited citizens in an effort to advance the com- munity welfare. He is fraternally affiliated with the Masons.
Mr. Blackard was married in 1905, in Sequoyah County, to Miss Ibbie M. Rhodes, a native of Missouri. They are the parents of three children: Thomas M., Charles, Jr., and Mary Catherine.
WILLIAM C. LIEDTKE. The vital industrial and com- mercial City of McAlester, Pittsburg County, claims as one of the able and representative members of its bar and as one of its liberal and progressive citizens William C. Liedtke, who came to Oklahoma prior to the admission of the state to the Union and who has been engaged in the practice of his profession at Mc- Alester since May, 1909. He is junior member of the well known law firm of Andrews & Liedtke and
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HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA
has gained secure vantage ground as one of the able and popular lawyers of the younger generation in the state of his adoption.
Mr. Liedtke was born at Coesfield, Cooke County, Texas, on the 13th of February, 1882, and is a son of Frank and Julia A. (Cadel) Liedtke, the former of whom was born in Germany and the latter in the State of Missouri. The father devoted the major part of his active career to merchandising. His death occurred in January, 1904. His wife still maintains her home in the Lone Star State, where he achieved independence and definite prosperity through his well directed endeavors.
He whose name initiates this article acquired his early education in the excellent public schools of Gaines- ville, the judicial center of his native county, where he was reared to adult age. After having formulated his plans for his future career Mr. Liedtke entered the law department of the University of Texas, in which he was graduated as a member of the class of 1902 and from which he received the degree of Bachelor of Laws, with concomitant admission to the bar of his native state. In 1904 he came to Indian Territory and estab- lished himself in practice at Eufaula, the present judi- cial center of McIntosh County, Oklahoma, where he continued his residence until May, 1909, when he es- tablished his home in' McAlester, in which broader field he has since continued his professional activities and in which he has gained prestige as one of the able and successful members of the bar of this section of the state, the firm of Andrews & Liedtke controlling a specially large and important general practice, be- sides which the subject of this review has been granted high judicial honors.
A stalwart and effective advocate of the principles and policies for which the democratic party has ever stood sponsor in a basic way, Judge Liedtke has been influential in its councils and campaign activities in Oklahoma, and has shown himself most loyal and pro- gressive in his civic attitude. He was an active and influential member of the Oklahoma Constitutional Con- vention that framed the organic laws of the new com- monwealth, and in August, 1911, Governor Cruce ap- pointed him to fill out the unexpired term of Judge Philip D. Brewer on the bench of the Superior Court of Pittsburg County. He filled this judicial office with characteristic fidelity and ability for three years, and then resigned, for the purpose of resuming the active practice of his profession.
In the Masonic fraternity Judge Liedtke has become affiliated with various bodies of Scottish Rites as well as with the Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine. He is one of the most appreciative and popular members of McAlester Lodge, Benevolent & Protective Order of Elks, of which he served as exalted ruler for 1915, and as one of the eligible young bachelors of the community he has a wide circle of friends in social circles as well as in those of professional and business order.
ROBINSON McMILLAN. A scion of patrician old South- ern stock and of families whose names have been prom- inently and worthily linked with American history from the early colonial era, Judge McMillan, who is now serv- ing as assistant attorney general of Oklahoma, repre- sents in his character and bearing the best traditions of the fine Southern regime of the ante-bellum period, and was born in Tennessee only a few years before the pre- cipitation of the Civil war, his father having been a soldier of the Confederacy, serving under Gen. Bedford Forrest, even as ancestors of Judge McMillan were
found as patriot soldiers in the War of the Revolution and that of 1812. The lineage of the Judge in both the agnatic line and on the distaff side is one in which he may well take pride, and those who know the man him- self can but realize that he has added honors to the name which he bears. As a lawyer, jurist, legislator and man of affairs he has achieved much and given admirable account of himself and to the world. In his profession he has been a worker and in public office he has never looked upon preferment as a sinecure but as a trust de- manding service to full extent of his powers and oppor- tunities. The Judge has been a resident of Oklahoma since 1902 and from the year of the admission of Okla- homa to statehood, in 1907, he served on the bench of the District Court of the Fourteenth judicial district of the state until January, 1915, his retirement having come only when he declined to become a candidate for re-election in the autumn of 1914. He is a Southron by lineage, birth and education, knows the history of his family thoroughly in its records of the various gen- erations, is a democrat in principle and politics, is of broad mental ken but has naught of intellectual bigotry, and he believes no man can ask for higher commenda- tion than that implied when it is stated that he has been a worthy and productive worker in the field of life's multiplex activities. The Judge maintains his home at Norman, the county seat of Cleveland County, and as assistant attorney general of the state he has his offi- cial headquarters in the Lawrence Building, Oklahoma City.
Judge McMillan was born in Giles County, Tennessee, on the 25th of March, 1857, and though he was a child at the time he had become by inheritance a slave-holder prior to the war between the states of the North and the South. He is a son of Franklin P. and Jane (Robinson) McMillan, both likewise natives of Tennessee, where they continued to maintain their home until their death. The lineage of the McMillan family is traced back to sturdy Scotch-Irish origin and that of the Robinson fam- ily is of English derivation, the first representatives of both families in America having settled in Virginia in the colonial days. The paternal great-grandfather of Judge McMillan was a soldier of the Continental Line in the War of the Revolution, and representatives of the family served in the War of 1812, having been with Gen. Andrew Jackson at New Orleans. Franklin P. McMillan was a soldier in a Tennessee regiment in the Confederate service during the Civil war, and was long a man of prominence and influence in his native state.
In the schools of Tennessee Judge McMillan acquired his early education and in the prosecution of his higher academic studies and those fitting him for the profes- sion of his choice he attended Cumberland University, at Lebanon, that state, an institution in which he was graduated as a member of the class of 1885. In the same year he there engaged in the practice of law, and he became one of the leading members of the bar of Wilson County, Tennessee, where he long controlled a substantial and important law business. In 1891-2 the Judge served as a member of the Tennessee Legislature, and in 1896 he was a presidential elector on the ticket of the democratic party in that state-this having been at the time when Hon. William J. Bryan made his first race for the presidency of the United States. .
Judge McMillan continued in the practice of his pro- fession in his native state until 1902, when he came with his family to Oklahoma Territory, this change having been prompted by the hope that it would prove beneficial to his wife, whose health had become much impaired. He engaged in the general practice of his profession at Norman, and in 1907, upon the admission of Oklahoma
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to statehood, he was chosen judge of the Fourteenth judicial district of the state, of which position he con- tinued in tenure until January, 1915, as previously noted in this context. On the bench he gave evidence not only of broad and accurate knowledge of the law and marked judicial acumen, but he also made an exceptional record for his untiring zeal as a worker. He tried and dis- posed of more than 8,000 cases and, though his district was one of the largest in the state, he alone kept its dockets clean, as he permitted nothing to interfere with dispatching properly the business of the court, no mat- ter how great the demands placed upon his mental and physical powers. As was said of a distinguished Eng- lish statesman, he can "toil terribly." He worked to provide the means for obtaining his higher education, and he has never lost his appreciation of the dignity and value of honest work. He does not look upon office as a "soft snap," but as a place where all duties are to be conscientiously and carefully discharged. Upon his re- tirement from the bench Judge McMillan was asked to take a place as assistant attorney general under Hon. S. P. Freeling, and since his acceptance of this position, in January, 1915, his services have been characteristically punctilious and efficient.
In the year 1883 was solemnized the marriage of Judge McMillan to Miss Josie Heugley, of Nashville, Tennessee. She is a lineal descendant of the Blount family which furnished two governors to Tennessee, and which had in previous generations been prominent in the history of Virginia and North and South Carolina, an ancestor of Mrs. McMillan in this line having been one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. The Blount family is one of the oldest of the Norman stock in England, brothers of the name having accompanied William the Conqueror from Normandy to England in 1088. Judge and Mrs. McMillan became the parents of two sons and three daughters, but the two sons, Murray and Charles, each died shortly after graduation in Cum- berland University. Of the daughters the eldest is Inez, who is the wife of John E. Lambert, of Chelsea, Okla- homa, and the younger daughters, Bess and Mary, are students in the University of Oklahoma.
WILLIAM J. WALLACE, M. D. Among the medical men of Oklahoma, by reason of his unusual training in best medical schools and hospitals both in America and abroad, and the associations of his practice and those of medical organizations, Dr. W. J. Wallace has a deservedly high rank. He located in Oklahoma in 1902, first at Chandler, and since 1907 has practiced at Okla- homa City.
Since his graduation from the medical department of the University of the South at Sewanee, Tennessee, in 1900, Doctor Wallace has been a close student and has interrupted his private practice a number of times for continuation work in various medical colleges. He took post-graduate work in the New York Post-Graduate Medical School in 1905; at the New Orleans Polyclinic in 1906-07; at the New York Polyclinic in 1907; at the New York Post-Graduate Medical School again in 1910; in the great hospital at Vienna, Austria, in 1910; and was again at the New York Post-Graduate Medical School in 1912, and also in January and February, 1914, and in June, 1915.
Doctor Wallace was born at Kosciusko, Mississippi, February 24, 1873, a son of Virgil H. and Lucy (Love) Wallace, both natives of Mississippi. His father was a planter and merchant, and during the war between the states served with the rank of first lieutenant in the Thirteenth Mississippi Infantry. Doctor Wallace, after his course in the common and high schools of Kosciusko,
took his medical course in the University of the South in Tennessee, and in 1900 received degrees both in phar- macy and medicine from that institution. After a short period of practice in Mississippi, he came to Chandler, Oklahoma, in 1902, and then in 1907 located in the Okla- homa metropolis. In Oklahoma City Doctor Wallace has limited his practice to genito-urinary diseases, and is assistant professor of genito-urinary diseases at the medical school of the University of Oklahoma. He is on the staff of the Wesley Hospital, the Wesley Post- Graduate Hospital and the University Hospital; is a director of the Wesley Post-Graduate Hospital; and is a member of the Oklahoma State Medical Society, the Oklahoma County Medical Society, the American Medical Association, the Central State Medical Association, and the Southern Medical Association.
Doctor Wallace has taken fourteen degrees in Scottish Rite Masonry and is also affiliated with the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. By his marriage to Miss Eloise Braswell of Atlanta, Georgia, he has two sons: John Carter Wallace and William J. Wallace, Jr. Doctor Wallace has his offices in the American National Bank Building and his home at 1141 West Thirteenth Street.
ALEXANDER S. FOREMAN. Of the men who carry more than the average share of responsibilities in the City of Sallisaw and whose names have come to possess a familiar significance in that part of the state, one is Alexander S. Foreman, now postmaster and for some years actively identified with the civic and business affairs of Sequoyah County.
Born on a farm in what is now Sequoyah County, September 18, 1879, he is a Cherokee Indian in the sixteenth degree, and a son of George Bullitt and Nannie E. (Garrison) Foreman. His father, though always liv- ing on a farm, took a quite prominent part in political affairs of the Cherokee Nation, serving in the national council and also as judge of the Illinois District. He died at the age of forty-seven in 1892. His widow is now living at Vian, Oklahoma. There were two sons and two daughters in the family.
Until he was twenty-five years old Alexander S. Fore- man had the environment and experiences of a farm and rural life, and he became familiar with the stockraising feature rather than the agricultural side. In the mean- time he attended the Cherokee tribal schools, from 1894 to 1898 was in the Cherokee Male Seminary at Tahlequah, and followed that with a business course at Fort Smith, Arkansas. It was as stenographer and clerk in a law office at Sallisaw that Mr. Foreman really began his career. From that in 1908 he was appointed assistant county clerk, from which he resigned a year later to become under-sheriff of Sequoyah County, which was his work also for a year. Meantime he served as town clerk from 1908 to 1911. For several years his chief business has been abstracting, which he began in, 1910 and is now owner of the Sallisaw Abstract Company. He owns considerable real estate, including farm lands, and has paid much attention to the proper development and cultivation of his holdings. In the Sallisaw postoffice, of which he was appointed postmaster in 1913, he has man- aged affairs with that admirable efficiency which is the highest requisite of a public office.
Politically he has been identified with the democratic party ever since attaining his majority, and wields a wide personal influence in Sequoyah County. He is affiliated with the Knights of Pythias. In 1911 Mr. Fore- man married Miss Kittie Brown. Their two children are Mary and Elizabeth Foreman.
JAMES W. BIFFLE. At the age of seventeen years, James W. Biffle entered upon his career in true, inde-
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pendent Southwestern style, as a cow-puncher on the open range. From that time to the present his life has been one of steady advancement, until today he finds himself the owner of a handsome stock farm, located on Mud Creek, in Jefferson County, and the incumbent of the office of sheriff, a position which he has held con- tinuously since 1912. Sheriff Biffle is essentially a self- made man, and the esteem in which he is generally held has been fairly won. He was born in Wayne County, Tennessee, March 12, 1866, and is a son of Jacob and Maud (Lusk) Biffle.
The Biffle family were early pioneers of the State of Tennessee, where Jacob Biffle was born in 1821. From Tennessee he removed to Cook County, Texas, in 1876, but resided there only a short time, when, in the same year he decided to pay a visit to a ranch which he owned in what afterward became Wichita County, Oklahoma. It was while making this visit that he was murdered by one of his employes. During the Mexican war he served in the army of the United States, and in 1861 when the Civil war came on his sympathies were with the South and he enlisted in the army of the Confederacy, remain- ing therein for four years and rising to the rank of colonel. For the former service Mrs. Biffle long drew a pension from the Government. She was born in Tennes- see, in 1840, and died in June, 1912, having been the mother of seven children, as follows: J. T., who is a farmer and stockman and resides at Myra, Cook County, Texas; Anna, who is the wife of James Brewer, a resident of Louisiana; Ella, who married John Stout, a railroad engineer residing at Cleveland, Texas; James W., of this notice; William, who is engaged in trading in Kansas; Fay, who is the wife of Carl Shutes, a farmer of Ringling, Oklahoma; and Minnie, who is deceased.
James W. Biffle was only ten years of age when his father died, but the mother managed to keep the little family together and to give her children good common school advantages in the way of education. At the age of seventeen years, after leaving the public schools, he secured a position as a cow puncher in Wilbarger County, Northwest Texas, where he remained for five years, then returning to Cook County. There he followed the same line of work until 1898, when he came to Mud Creek, Jefferson County, and invested his earnings in a farm, and continued to cultivate his land and raise stock until 1912, when he was elected sheriff of Jeffersor County on the democratic ticket. His first term in that office won the commendation of the voters, who re-elected him for a second term in 1914, and he still occupies that office. During his administration he has shown himself to be a brave and fearless officer, determined, resolute and untiring in dealing with the criminal element, and possessing the ability to follow a clue to its finish. He has resided at Waurika since the time of his first election, his offices at this time being in the courthouse, on East D Avenue. Mr. Biffle belongs to the Methodist Episcopal Church, as do the members of his family. He is fraternally connected with Waurika Lodge of Masons, No. 315, and Grady Lodge No. 227, Independent Order of Odd Fellows. Since attaining his majority he has ·supported democratic principles and candidates and is known as one of the county's active party workers.
In 1887, in Cook County, Texas, Sheriff Biffle was united in marriage with Miss Emma Markle, daughter of the late J. W. Markle, a furniture dealer of Stephens County, Oklahoma, who died there in 1914. Eleven children have been born to this union: Virgil, who is a stockraiser of Grady, Oklahoma; Jessie, who is the wife of Rube Brown, who is the partner of her brother, Virgil; John, who is a soldier in the United States army, at Fort Meade, South Dakota; Martha, who is the wife of
Earl Morris, a painter and paper hanger of Ringling, Oklahoma; Sally, who is the wife of Allen Wright, con- nected with a furniture business at Fort Worth, Texas; Ruby, who is a sophomore at the Waurika High School; Mary, who is a freshman in that school; James, who is in seventh grade in the public schools; Fay, in the sixth grade; Ruth, in the fourth grade; and Yvonne, the baby.
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