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 103

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 103

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Reared under the invigorating discipline of the home farm, John T. Kramer continued to attend the public schools of Spencer County until he had completed the curriculum of the high school at Rockport, the county seat, after which he took an effective course in a busi- ness college in the City of Lexington, Kentucky. In initiating his independent career he engaged in the re- tail grocery business and produce-commission business at Rockport, and after being identified with this line of enterprise five years he resumed association with farm- ing and stock-raising, by purchasing in his native county the old Stryker farm, bordering the Ohio River. On this farm was Stryker's Landing, long a point of consider- able prominence in connection with navigation activities on the Ohio River. Mr. Kramer continued his operations as one of the energetic and successful agriculturists and stock-raisers of Spencer County until 1903, when he sold his farm and came to Indian Territory. He purchased a tract of seventy-five acres in close proximity to the ambitious little City of Tulsa, and there turned his at- tention to farming. With the rapid growth and develop- ment of the city his property increased greatly in value, and the entire tract is now an integral part of Tulsa. Sixty acres have been subdivided and platted into city lots and these have been placed on the market in a suc- cessful way, so that the section has developed into a most attractive and desirable residence district, the remain- ing fifteen acres of the original tract constituting the homestead place of Mr. Kramer and being one of the fine homes of the City of Tulsa. In the Fry District of Tulsa County Mr. Kramer is the owner of a well im-

proved farm of 440 acres, devoted to diversified agricul- ture and to the raising of high-grade live stock, espe- cially short-horn cattle and Poland-China swine. One hundred acres of this farm is given to the cultivation of alfalfa, and the buildings on the estate are of sub- stantial order, including four barns that have recently been erected.

Incidental to the state constitutional convention of 1907 Mr. Kramer was appointed temporary county clerk of Tulsa County, to organize and supervise the first elec- tion in the county, and after the admission of the state to the Union, in that year, he was appointed secretary of the county election board, of which office he contin- ued the valued incumbent until his resignation, in 1910. He became at that time democratic candidate for county treasurer. He had an opponent in first election, and was re-elected in 1912, having been re-elected for the second term without an opponent. His second term of administration expired in July, 1915, and he declined to become a candidate in the election of 1914.

Mr. Kramer has been a leader in democratic party circles in his county, both he and his wife are communi- cants of the Lutheran Church, and he is affiliated with Tulsa Lodge, No. 71, Ancient Free & Accepted Masons, as is he also with the local organizations of the Benev- olent & Protective Order of Elks and the Modern Woodmen of America.

On the 9th of August, 1892, was solemnized the mar- riage of Mr. Kramer to Miss Amelia Bretz, who likewise was born and reared in Spencer County, Indiana. She is the youngest of her parents' seven children, and all of her brothers and sisters are married and living near where they were born in and near Spencer County. Mrs. Kramer's parents came from the old country, her mother having been born during the voyage. She lived to be fifty-eight years old and the father died at the age of fifty-four. Mr. and Mrs. Kramer have four children, Forrest J. H., Philip J., Allen C., and John T., Jr.

SAMUEL KING MCCALL. The largest dry goods house in Cleveland County and one of the largest of its kind in the state is the S. K. McCall & Company at Norman. This is a business which was founded by Samuel K. McCall about fourteen years ago. Beginning with a general stock of dry goods he has developed his trade rapidly, has shown unusual genius as a merchant until a few years ago the business was incorporated and now ranks with any mercantile establishment of its kind in this section of the state.

After ten years of successful business experience in Texas, his native state, Mr. McCall came to Norman in 1902. In 1910 the S. K. McCall & Company was in- corporated. under a state charter with a paid up capital stock of $36,000. Mr. McCall is president of the com- pany, with E. Rotan of Waco, Texas, vice president, and E. B. McCall of Norman, secretary and treasurer. The store is located at 311-315 East Main Street and the salesrooms occupy a floor space 75x100 feet, with a warehouse 24x60 feet. Trade comes to this large store from all over Cleveland and surrounding counties.

The ancestors of Mr. McCall came out of Ireland and located in Pennsylvania during the colonial era, and some of his ancestors fought in the colonial and revolu- tionary wars. Samuel K. McCall was born at Waco, Texas, June 19, 1870. His father, J. L. L. McCall, was born near Crab Orchard Springs in Kentucky in 1828 and died at Weatherford, Texas, in 1906. His early years were spent in Kentucky, but in 1854 he went to Texas and was one of the pioneer settlers at Waco, where he became well known as a lawyer and was active in civic and political affairs. In 1873 he removed to

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HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA

Weatherford. In politics he was first a whig and after- wards a republican, and at one time filled office as judge. He was a member and elder of the Presbyterian Church. Judge McCall married Eliza Ann Sturm, who was born in Rogersville, Tennessee, in 1830 and died at Weatherford, Texas, in 1896. Samuel K. McCall was the youngest of a family of fourteen children, three of whom died in infancy, and the others are mentioned as follows: Ezra, now deceased; Kate, who married E. Rotan, who is president of the First National Bank of Waco, and Mrs. Rotan is active in the Daughters of the American Revolution and in the Colonial Dames; George is now deceased; J. S. is a retired capitalist at Fort Worth; James is a contractor and builder at Dallas; Nannie, who lives in New York City is the widow of F. C. Gallagher, who was an expert accountant; Mattie is the wife of Charles Barthold, a merchant at Weatherford, Texas; John is a Presbyterian minister at Hillsboro, Texas; William S. is a traveling salesman with home at Waco; Mary resides at Melrose, Massa- chusetts.

Samuel K. McCall acquired his early education. in the public schools of Weatherford, graduating from high school in 1886, and the following four years he spent in the free and open life of the cattle ranges of West Texas. In 1890 he entered and for two years was a student in Austin College at Sherman, Texas. It was in 1892 that he began his mercantile career, being located for two years at Colorado, Texas, and then in the same line of business at Lott, Texas, until 1902, when he came to Norman.

Mr. McCall is a republican, and is active in the Nor- man Chamber of Commerce and the Oklahoma Retailers Association. At Lott, Texas, in 1893 he married Miss Minnie Linticum, daughter of the late W. T. Linticum of Sherman, Texas. Their children are five in num- ber, namely: Anne, who is a senior in the Oklahoma State University at Norman, has taught in the public schools of that city one year, and is also an active member of the Daughters of the American Revolution; Laura is a sophomore in the State University; Lewis, twin brother of Laura, graduated from the Norman High School in 1916; Sammy, a junior in the Norman High School; and Dorothy, a student in the grammar schools.

JAMES M. GIVENS. During a residence of more than twenty years at Muskogee, James M. Givens through his profession as a lawyer, through his influence as a public leader and good citizen, has done much to promote the local welfare and make Muskogee one of the leading cities of the Southwest. Mr. Givens is now engaged in a suc- cessful practice as a member of the firm of Zevely, Givens & Stoutz.

Of an old Kentucky family, James M. Givens was born February 14, 1869, in Webster County, Kentucky, a son of John W. and Margaret (Ross) Givens. His father was a planter, a tobacco buyer and a banker in Webster County, but not long after the birth of James the family moved to Providence, Kentucky. In that town James M. Givens acquired his early education, and later attended Center College at Danville, Kentucky, where he was grad- uated in the literary course in 1889. He then took up the study of law under private tuition, and was admitted to practice at Madisonville, Kentucky, in 1891.

In 1892 Mr. Givens came to Muskogee, Indian Terri- tory, and since that date has been a member of the local bar. In 1893 President Cleveland appointed him to the office of United States attorney for Indian Territory. In this position he remained four and a half years, and did some valuable work at a time when the federal attor-

neys in Indian Territory had all the responsibilities that are now divided between a large number of local, state and federal officers. This was Mr. Givens' only important public office in Oklahoma, and for the past seventeen years he has been engaged in active private practice. The firm Zevely, Givens & Stoutz is one of the strongest legal combinations in Muskogee and its offices are in the Arkansas Building.

Mr. Givens is a loyal democrat, and at different times has manifested considerable interest in the welfare and success of that party. He is a Knight Templar Mason, and also a member of the Mystic Shrine, and belongs to the Benevolent aud Protective Order of Elks, having been the first district deputy of that order in Indian Territory.

LEMUEL EDMOND GEE, M. D. Among the learned vocations, there is none in which the warning to "make haste slowly" may be followed to greater advantage than in that of medicine and surgery. Almost without an exception, those who have gained success in the field of medical and surgical science have been men of the most careful preparation. Native talent is desirable, but those who enter practice unprepared by scholastic teaching are at a disadvantage and have a handicap exceedingly difficult to overcome. Lemuel Edmond Gee, M. D., of Terral, Oklahoma, is a typical modern physi- cian and surgeou, who has laid a broad foundation for continuous personal development and professional prog- ress. Born near Gladewater, Gregg County, Texas, June 24, 1878, he is a son of Lemuel Merral and Sallie (Arm- strong) Gee.

The Gee family originated in Scotland, went theuce to Ireland, and was brought from the latter country to America by the great-grandfather of Doctor Gee. His grandfather, John Philip Gee, was a Free Will Baptist minister, who preached for many years in Alabama and in later life went to Hunt County, Texas, where he died. Lemuel Merral Gee was born in 1850, in Alabama, and as a young man removed to Gregg County, Texas, where he conducted a logging camp until 1888, then moving to a point four miles east of Big Sandy, Texas, where he still resides. During the greater part of his career he has been an agriculturist and at the present time is engaged in diversified farming and stockraising. During the past twenty-seven years he has lived on his present handsome and valuable tract, a property of 240 acres which he has brought to the highest state of cultivation. In the various departments of agricultural work he has achieved excellent results, and is widely known in his community as a successful grower of fruit. Politically, in former years he was a populist, but at this time is supporting republican candidates and policies. He is a member of the Christian Church, in which he has been an elder for many years, and Mrs. Gee also belongs to this faith. Like her husband, she is a native of Ala- bama, and they have been the parents of the following children: Benjamin, who died at the age of sixteen months; Dr. Lemuel Edmond, of this review; Ludie, who is the wife of Robert A. Martin, a prosperous merchant of Atoka, Oklahoma; Iola, who is the wife of James Haigwood, residing three and one-half miles east of Big Sandy, Texas, on a farm; Jackie Ophelia, who is the wife of Roy Mackey, a farmer residing six miles east of Big Sandy, Texas; and Robert Madison, who is engaged in farming in the vicinity of the homestead of his father.

Lemuel Edmond Gee was reared on his father's farm, was brought up to agricultural pursuits, and remained under the parental roof until about eighteen years of age. In the meantime, he had started laying the founda- tion for his education by attending the district schools, after leaving which he successfully passed an examina-

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tion which secured for him a first-grade teacher's life certificate .. However, he never followed teaching as a profession. After some preparation, he next entered the Memphis Hospital Medical College, Memphis, Tennessee, and was graduated after a course of four years, receiv- ing the degree of Doctor of Medicine. In 1906 he took a post-graduate course at Fort Worth, Texas, aud he has always continued to apply himself assiduously to his studies in order to keep fully abreast of his profession. Doctor Gee commenced practice at Big Sandy, Texas, but after a short time removed to Wade, Indian Terri- tory, where he remained for five years, subsequently spending one year at Fort Townsend, Oklahoma, and about six years at Caney. He came to Terral in 1913, and since that time has carried on a general medical and surgical practice, his offices being located in Fisher's drug store. He has built up a large and lucrative prac- tice, and his success in a number of complicated cases has not only won him the confidence of the people of his adopted community, but the regard of his fellow-prac- titioners. Doctor Gee belongs to the Jefferson County Medical Society, and formerly was associated with the Atoka County (Oklahoma) Medical Society. At the present time he is serving as local surgeon for the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad, and as city health officer of Terral. In political matters he is a democrat. Doctor Gee is also well known in fraternal circles, belouging to Caney Lodge, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons; Terral Camp, Woodmen of the World, in which he is past counsellor commander; Terral Lodge, Woodmen's Circle; Caney Lodge, Modern Woodmen of America, and Caney Lodge, Knights of the Maccabees, in all of which he is examining physician with the excep- tion of the first named.

Doctor Gee was married in 1900, at Paris, Texas, to Miss Mary Griffin, of Soper, Oklahoma, who was born at Sulphur Springs, Texas. To this union there has come one son: Edmond Clark, who was born December 28, 1909.

KELLY BROWN. The aggressive forward movement of men who have not failed and do not purpose to fail, who have courageously gone forth to reclaim, to initiate and to build; to develop where it needs only develop- ment; to redeem what have been waste places; to found and upbuild a new empire-this has been the glorious movement that has given to the United States the vig- orous, inviting and opulent young commonwealth of Oklahoma, whose citizens rejoice in its vital strength, its manifold attractions and its splendid advantages. He whose name initiates this paragraph has been a resi- dent of Oklahoma from his youth, has imbibed fully and effectively exemplified the progressive spirit that has made such marvellous development and advancement possible, has won for himself distinctive success as one of the representative younger members of the bar of the state, and has so proved himself and his ability as to gain popular recognition and definite prestige, as shown by the fact that in 1914 he was elected repre- sentative of Carter County in the Fifth General Assem- bly of the Oklahoma Legislature, in which he gave admirable account of himself and to his constituency. He is engaged in the practice of law at Ardmore, judi- cial center of Carter County, where he is associated with two of his brothers, Henry H. and Russell B., under the firm name of Brown, Brown & Brown.

Though essentially and emphatically loyal to and ap- preciative of Oklahoma, Mr. Brown takes justifiable pride in reverting to the fine old Bluegrass State as the place of his nativity and to the fact that he is a scion of a family whose name has been long and worthily linked

with the annals of American history. The lineage traces back through a distinguished and patrician course iu England and there representatives of the name were members of the nobility. The original American pro- genitors there incurred the displeasure of their sovereign and under these conditions came to America about the time of the Revolution and settled in Virginia, one or more having made their escape to the New World by becoming stowaways on the vessels that afforded them passage across the Atlantic. A scion of the family in Kentucky, Hon. John W. Kenyon, who was for sev- eral years a representative of that state in the United States Congress, was a cousin of the father of Kelly Brown.

At Caney, Morgan County, Kentucky, Kelly Brown was born in the year 1885, and he is a son of Allen K. and Eliza (Lykins) Brown, both likewise natives of that state, where they continued to maintain their resi- dence until their removal to Oklahoma, when their. son Kelly was about twelve years of age. The father has become a substantial agriculturist and stock-grower of this state and he and his wife are well known and highly honored residents of Ardmore, he having celebrated in 1915 his seventy-first birthday anniversary and she her sixty-seventh. Concerning their other surviving chil- dren it may be noted that Henry H. is engaged in the practice of law at Ardmore, as previously stated; John F. is engaged in farming and stock-raising in Ken- tucky, with residence in the City of Lexington; William M. is associated with the Ardmore Ice, Light & Power Company; Russell B. is associated with his brothers Kelly and Henry H. in the law firm of Brown, Brown & Brown, of Ardmore; Mrs. W. H. Stacey is a resident of Cannel City, Kentucky, her husband being an agri- culturist and stock-grower by vocation; and Mrs. M. Lykins maintains her home at Ardmore, Oklahoma, where her husband is a prosperous merchant.

In the schools of his native state Kelly Brown ac- quired his early educational discipline and in 1903 he was graduated in the high school at Ardmore, Okla- homa, as a member of the first class to be graduated after the establishment of this department of the pub- lic schools of the village. For a year he was a studeut in Hargrove College, at Ardmore, and thereafter he continued his academic studies for two years in the lit- erary department of the University of Texas. In the furtherance of the discipline which has given him ad- mirable equipment for the work of his chosen profes- sion Mr. Brown was for nearly three years a student in the law department of the great University of Chi- cago, where he completed his law studies in 1910. Im- mediately afterward he returned to Oklahoma and ob- tained admission to the bar of the new state, where- upon he engaged in the general practice of law at Ard- more, where he and his two brothers who are his valued coadjutors now control a substantial, representative and constantly expanding practice, the same extending into the various courts of the state and having given to Kelly Brown the opportunity to win decisive and note- worthy victories in the causes with which he has been identified and to give him special prestige as a resource- ful trial lawyer.

A young man notable for vitality, optimism and buoyancy of temperament, Mr. Brown has entered fully into the civic activities and public interests of his home village and county and is an influential figure in the local councils of the democratic party. He has served as secretary of the democratic central committee of this county and as chairman of the county election board. In 1914 he was elected representative of Carter County in the Lower House of the State Legislature,

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and his secure place in popular confidence and good will is indicated by the fact that he carried every precinct in the county with the exception of one that has a large element of negro population. He received a plural- ity of about three to one above the vote cast for the opponent who was his closest competitor in the election. In the Fifth Legislature Mr. Brown was made chair- man of the house committee on public-service corpora- tions, and was assigned to membership also on judiciary committee No. 1, and the committees on criminal juris- prudence, oil and gas, elections, fish and game, en- rolled and engrossed bills, and capitol building. His home city being near the border of the well known Healdton oil and gas field and known as the commercial center of the Southern Oklahoma oil district, Mr. Brown has naturally taken, both independently and as a legis- lator, a lively interest in matters pertaining to the welfare of this district, and in the Legislature he was a staunch supporter of the oil-conservation measure that was enacted and in other provisions for the proper control and exploitation of the oil and gas industry in the state.

Mr. Brown proved a most zealous and effective work- ing member of the fifth session of the Oklahoma Leg- islature, in which he introduced and ably championed an appreciable number of important bills, the major number of which had the strong approval of the gov- ernor of the state-notably those exempting farm products from taxation, and recreating the Supreme Court Commission, in accord with the views of Gov- ernor Williams. Among other bills introduced by Mr. Brown was that creating a state bureau of weights and measures, in conformity with an act of Congress that enabled Oklahoma to obtain from the Federal Gov- ernment a laboratory equipment valued at $20,000; a bill relating to Probate Court procedure, this being a measure in which he is deeply interested; a bill creating a state cemetery fund; a bill making the carrying of a revolver or pistol a felony; a bill relating to licenses for the practice of law in the state; a bill establishing an accounting system for municipal corporations; a bill providing that applicants for charters for public- service corporations shall make a showing to the cor- poration commission that there exists a public necessity for such corporation; and a bill creating county boards of insanity.

Mr. Brown and his wife are members of the Meth- odist Episcopal Church, South, in which he has served as steward and president of the Epworth League, and he is teacher of the Barraca class of the First Chris- tian Church of Ardmore. Mr. Brown is a valued mem- ber of the Ardmore Chamber of Commerce and is iden- tified with the local golf and country club. He is an active and popular member of the Oklahoma State Bar Association and also the Carter County Bar Asso- ciation.

In the City of Paris, Texas, in 1911, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Brown to Miss Leta May Wood- ward, her father being the editor and publisher of a newspaper at Paris. Mr. and Mrs. Brown have two children-Martha Elizabeth and David Kelly.

PHILLIP KRAMER. Now a resident of Tulsa, with a good growing business in the handling of insurance, bonds and loans, Phillip Kramer has been more or less closely identified with Oklahoma since the opening of the Cherokee strip more than twenty years ago. He is a pioneer, and in the course of his varied activities has reached a position of standing and influence. His offices in Tulsa are in the First National Bank Building.

Phillip Kramer was born in Spencer County, Indiana,

on his father's farm, March 29, 1872, a son of John H. and Johnnette (Becker) Kramer. His parents were born in the Rhine Valley of Germany, his father on June 9, 1818, and his mother in 1821. His father died February 26, 1884, and his mother in 1895. They were married in Germany, and to their union were born five sons and six daughters, six of whom are still living. Phillip was the eleventh child. In 1850 the parents with four children embarked on a sailing vessel and started for the land of freedom and promise. They were thirty days on the ocean, an exceedingly rough and stormy passage, and many of the passengers had abandoned hope of ever seeing land again. After landing. in New York City they came on west to Spencer County, Indiana, where John H. Kramer located in an undeveloped country and took up farming and stock raising. He was an excellent type of the sturdy, self-reliant, liberty-loving and vigor- ous German, especially of that class which came so numerously to America during the revolutionary troubles of 1848. He set himself bravely to the task of hewing a farm out of the wilderness, and during the succeeding years cleared up through his own labors many acres formerly covered with virgin timber. At the time of his death his career was represented in material value by the possession of 680 acres of fine farming land in Spencer County. He cared nothing for public office, was a democrat in politics, and a member of the Lutheran Church.

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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