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 115

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 115

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Today Joel Nail possesses all of his honor but con- siderably less money. He has not been a business fail- ure. The exigencies of advancing civilization are respon- sible. These took the wide ranges and broke them into allotments and homesteads, thereby terminating the profitable cattle industry which chiefly flourished in the open range period. On the ranges were built towns and schools and churches and public highways, and agricul- ture and a large population succeeded the grazing indus- try and its typical conditions. Joel Nail was not a bad manager. Out from under him slid the foundation that made money-making on the frontier a game with much competition. Joel Nail is nearly sixty now, but has established himself on a little ranch in McGee Valley, starting life over again, and is beginning to grow up with the country.

His veins carry blood strongly tinged by his Chickasaw ancestors. He was born not many miles from the Town of Caddo. His father was Major Jonathan Nail, a native of the Chickasaw Nation, a warrior in the Choc- taw Brigade of the Confederate army. After him was named Nail Crossing on Blue River, and near this cross- ing Major Nail installed one of the first mills in the Chickasaw Nation. The grandfather, Joel H. Nail, was an early settler of Fort Towson and is buried there. On his tombstone is the inscription: "Sacred to the Men- ory of Colonel J. H. Nail of the Choctaw Nation, who died at his residence near Fort Towson August 24, 1846, in the fifty-second year of his age. Reader, 'Prepare to meet thy God.' "' After the death of Major Nail his widow, the mother of Joel if. Nail, married David Folsom of the Choctaw Tribe, who also is buried near Fort Towson, and on his tombstone is the inscription : "To the memory of Col. David Folsom, the first repub- lican chief of the Choctaw Nation, the promoter of In- dustry, Education, Religion and Morality. Was born January 25, 1791, and departed this life September 24, 1847, aged fifty-six years and eight months. 'He being

dead yet speaketh.' " Former Principal Chief Robert Harris of the Choctaw Nation, was a cousin of Joel Nail.

While attending school in Tennessee, Joel Nail fell in love with pretty Nettie Merritt, who is descended from the well known family of that name in Tennessee. The Indian of that day was grossly misunderstood as far east as Tennessee, and however good the qualities of Joel Nail, the parents of Nettie Merritt derided the thought of her becoming the wife of an Indian, and more than that, the thought of her accompanying, an Indian hus- band into the wilds of Indian Territory. But Nettie Merritt was in love with the young Indian. He left her one day and started back to his people iu the wild coun- try. "In case you consent to share life with me among my people, " he said before he left, "send me a message and I'll come back for you." The message winged west- ward a few days later and intercepted him on his jour- ney. He. returned for Nettie Merritt and they went together into the West. Joel Nail accumulated wealth and standing, and his wife, if she missed the society of her girlhood, never lacked any necessaries or even luxu- ries of life. When she died, at the age of forty-two, the beauty of her girlhood was only heightened and ripened by her matronly charms. She became the mother of five children. Two of them are still living:

Mrs. Vivia Locke, who was Vivia Juanita Nail, lives in Antlers; Oscar D. Nail, is a ranchman near Caddo; Claude, the oldest of the children, who was educated at Austin Col- lege in Sherman, Texas, died at the age of twenty-six; Ethel, who became Mrs. O. H. Perkins. of Durant, died a few years ago; and Ish-tai-yupi (meaning the last) died in 1913.

Mrs. Vivia Locke was educated in the North Texas Female College at Sherman, completing courses in music and art besides the literary course. She inherited the beauty of her mother and the business-like ingenuity of her father. In connection with her education there is a reflection of the Indian Territory romance. She learned in school that she possessed unusual beauty, that it was out of the ordinary for one to be of Indian extraction, and that her father was "the wealthiest man of the Chickasaw Nation, " all of which had no power to lead her into rapturous, dreams of diverting those qualities into a career of useless fastidiousness. Rather, the dis- covery put her on the defensive against deceit, and kindled an ambition for the most profitable use of her talents. Many a white man has courted an Indian girl through desire for her worldly possessions alone, for every Indian girl was given land by the Government. Many a white man courted pretty Vivia Nail, but Vivia Nail never was deceived by any of them. She was proud of her Indian blood, proud of her beautiful mother and her mother's aristocratie ancestors, and proud of her successful father. These were stronger ties than the proffered or feigued affections of her suitors. She was only eighteen when her mother died, and she returned home to become her father's helper. She was married July 14, 1900, to Albert M. Robertson. By that union she has a son, Wesley Leroy, aged fourteen. In 1913 she became the wife of Victor M. Locke, Jr., of Autlers, principal chief of the Choctaw Nation. They have a daughter, Vivia, now one year of age.

JOSEPH C. MITCHELL. The mark of popular confi- dence and approbation has been signally accredited to this well known citizen of Bartlesville, for not only has he served in other positions of public trust in this com- munity, but he is now the efficient incumbent of the responsible and dual office of county clerk and recorder of Washington County.

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the British West Indies, and the year of his nativity was 1857. He was reared to maturity in these fair isles of the Antilles and received a common-school education. For ten years he was in the employ of the board of trade department of London, England, and at the age of twenty-eight years he established his home in Crawford County, Kansas, where he continued to be engaged in mercantile pursuits for five years. In the autumn of 1894 Mr. Mitchell established his residence in the pres- ent thriving City of Bartlesville, Oklahoma, though the place at that time had a population of less than fifty persons. Here he was employed about four years in the general merchandise store conducted by Frank M. Over- less. For seven years thereafter he was local agent for the American Express Company, and he is now serving his third consecutive term in the office of county clerk and recorder, to which he was first elected in 1910, his duties as an executive including those applying also to the office of register of deeds, of which he is ex-officio incumbent, the State Legislature having passed a law combining the offices and this law having taken effect on the 1st of January, 1915.

Mr. Mitchell is a staunch supporter of the cause of the republican party, and prior to his election to his present office he had served as city treasurer of Bartles- ville and had been called to become one of the first mem- bers of the board of education at the time the city was incorporated. In 1900 he was oue of the Government census enumerators of Washington County. He is affili- ated with the Knights of Pythias and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and both he and his wife hold membership in the Methodist Episcopal Church, South.

In 1880 Mr. Mitchell wedded Miss Adcle A. Darrell, and her death occurred in March, 1913. Of the three children of this union the eldest is Lulu, who is the wife of Fred B. Woodward, of Dewey, Washington County, this state; Ralphi continued to maintain his home at Bartlesville; aud Gertrude died at the age of twenty- one years. For his second wife Mr. Mitchell married " Mrs. Ethel Pelsue, who presides graciously over their pleasant home.

GEORGE E. NICKEL. As cashier in the First National Bank of Alva and an associate in the chain of Oklahoma banks of which Capt. J. A. Stine is president, George E. Nickel wields no iuconsiderable influence and power in financial circles in Western Oklahoma.

He is a pioneer Oklahoman, having come to Alva a few years after the opening. Mr. Nickel was born in Missouri, is a polished gentleman, a man of varied interests and an astute financier. He had experience as a banker in various places before coming to Oklahoma, particularly at Amarillo, Texas. Thus he had no diffi- culty in impressing himself upon the plastic new com- munity where he has since been located, aud has enjoyed recognition for his work and his qualities of real leader- ship.

During territorial days, Mr. Nickel served seven years as a member of the board of regents of the Okla- homa State Normal School. For four years, beginning in 1911, he was mayor of Alva. The city never had a more progressive administration, and some evidences of it are found in the fine city building and in the miles of street paving laid during that time, and also in the installation of an adequate water and sewerage system. In 1912 he was one of the republican electors from Okla- homa.

In banking circles Mr. Nickel is a member of the executive committee of Group 2 of the Oklahoma State Bankers' Association. He is a thirty-second degree

Mason, and as an Elk served for three consecutive term: as exalted ruler of Alva Lodge No. 1184.

On January 2, 1895, Mr. Nickel married Miss Lena Stine, only daughter of Capt. J. A. and Emma J (Lanich) Stine, reference to whom will be found or other pages of this publication. Mr. and Mrs. Nickel have shared their prosperity and accomplishment together, and she has been a most worthy and effective coadjutor in his career. In fact, she deserves a place: among the notable Oklahoma women. She was born in Burlingame, Kansas, and is a young woman of many and varied accomplishments. The best of educational opportunities were presented to her. She graduated in instrumental music at thirteen, and in vocal music at the age of sixteen. She completed the course in the Amarilla (Texas) High School in 1892 and in the South- western Kansas College of Winfield in 1893, in vocal and instrumental music. Her accomplishments have naturally made her a leader in social circles, and in club work she is president of the City Federation of Clubs of Alva, and her beautiful home has been the scene of many of the most interesting and attractive social func- tions of Alva. Mr. and Mrs. Nickel are communicants of the Episcopal Church, and she is also a director of the First National Bank of Alva. The home of Mr. and Mrs. Nickel deserves more than passing mention. It is known as "Buena Vista" and deserves the title,. not only for the beautiful site which it occupies on an emi- nence at the west side of Alva, but the residence itself constitutes really "a beautiful view." It is certainly one of the most modern, if not the most elaborate, home in the state, having been built at approximately a cost of $65,000. It stands as a work of rare architec- tural merit, and there is the greater interest in it for the general public as well as Mr. and Mrs. Nickel for the fact that the owners had an important share in the drawing of the plans and the arrangement of the home in many details. "Buena Vista" is constructed of buff pressed brick with terra cotta roof, and its pleasing architectural features are enhanced by the careful and pleasing arrangement of the grounds and the various landscape gardening effect.

CAPT. JAMES A. STINE, the prominent banker of Alva, was in the midst of the exciting scenes attending the opening of the Cherokee Strip on September 16, 1893. He is thus an Oklahoma pioneer, and in many ways has led the march of improvement at Alva. His name has been associated in a helpful way with probably every enterprise ever undertaken in that city and that section of the state.

Though a native of Pennsylvania, Captain Stine is a typical western American, and for many years he breathed the atmosphere and participated in the activi- ties of the frontier. He was born June 12, 1842, at Mc Veytown, Mifflin County, Pennsylvania, and acquired a common school education and also attended Mount Dempsey Academy and Kishacoquillis Seminary. When a young man he learned telegraphy and was an instructor in a Philadelphia college until 1869.

In that year he located in Osage County, Kansas, and for five years was a cattle man. He then turned his capital to a venture which for a time was very profit- able, and for several years owned and operated a line of steamboats on the Missouri River, when that river was navigable and when a large share of the commerce of the Middle West was carried on its waters. He may have had extensive ambitions to control and direct a large river transportation traffic, but when four of his boats went down in rapid succession, each one with a full cargo, he was left very close to the bottom of the

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financial ladder, and he abandoned boating as a very uncertain enterprise. After that he became a retail merchant and by frugality and industry had soon rehabilitated his fortune. He was also in the stock business in Kansas during 1881 and 1882, spent several years at Burlingame, Kansas, and for a number of years preceding the opening of the Cherokee Strip was in business at Harper, Kansas. He made himself a very important factor in the upbuilding of the Town of Har- per, and is kindly and gratefully remembered by the citi- zens of that place. He also extended his enterprise to Amarillo, Texas, where in 1890 he helped organize the Amarillo National Bank, of which he became a director.

On locating at Alva, Mr. Stine organized what is now the First National Bank of Alva, and has served as its president continuously for twenty-three years. His operations as a financier have extended all over the western section of Oklahoma and he is now at the head of an important chain of banks, including the First National of Alva, the First National of Woodward, the First National Bank of Waynoka, the Bank of Capron, the Bank of Ingersoll and the Bank of Supply. He is president of all these institutions, and as a financier he has done much to conserve the important interests in his section of the state.

However, his hand has not been withheld from any public enterprise. He served as mayor of Alva and became the first president of the Alva Commercial Club in 1896, and was head of that live organization for many years. As much as any other man he deserves credit for securing the establishment of the State Normal School at Alva. He was given the privilege of driving the first stakes that marked the location and he also officiated in the Masonic ceremony of laying the corner stone of this splendid state educational institution, which for years has been the pride of Alva. Captain Stine is now serving as a member of the board of control of the Supply State Hospital for the Insane. Politically he is a democrat, but confesses to only a modest participation in state politics, though his counsel has been frequently sought by party leaders. Captain Stine is a thirty-sec- ond degree Mason, a member of the Benevolent and Pro- tective Order of Elks, the Knights of Pythias, and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and his church is the Presbyterian. The most modern business block in Alva bears the name Stine chiseled on its front, and this structure stands as a fitting monument to the life of one of the founders and builders of the city.

In 1863, Captain Stine married Miss Emma N. Lanich of Pennsylvania. Mrs. Stine was born September 10, 1843, and died November 14, 1913, at Alva. There are two children. The son, Lenn Leonard, is now cashier of the First National Bank of Woodward, and the daughter, Lena, is the wife of George E. Nickel, refer- ence to whom is found on other pages.

JOHN HENRY MILEY. High on the roll of Oklahoma lawyers is found the name of John Henry Miley. A native son of the Southwest, he has passed his entire career in this part of the country, having been a resident of Oklahoma since 1909, and since March, 1913, has been the incumbent of several important positions, being at this time assistant attorney general of his adopted state. Mr. Miley was born at Bastrop, Texas, February 23, 1878, and is a son of Rev. Andrew B. and Avarilla (Dollahite) Miley.

Rev. Andrew B. Miley was born in the State of South Carolina, in 1818, and as a young man was ordained as a member of the ministry of the Baptist Church. When the Civil war broke out, he enlisted in an Alabama vol- unteer regiment in the Confederate service, he having

removed to that state some years before, and early in the war was wounded. When he recovered from his in- juries, he rendered further service to the Confederacy as a lieutenant-colonel in the recruiting branch, and con- tinued thus engaged until the close of hostilities. When the war closed, like many of his fellow-Southerners, Reverend Miley made his way to Texas to escape the hardships and indignities of the Reconstruction period and settled at Bastrop. He became widely known and greatly beloved by the members of his congregation, and when he died, in 1896, the ministry lost one of its most zealous members. Mrs. Miley, who was a native of Tennessee, died at Bastrop, Texas, in 1895. She was a direct descendant of the Lords Haliburton and Robert Bruce of Scotland.

The early education of John Henry Miley was secured in the public schools of Rockdale, Texas, following which he entered the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas, from which he was graduated in June, 1896, with the degree of Bachelor of Science, having taken a full course in civil engineering. After his graduation for about one year he was bookkeeper for the firm of Scarborough & Hicks, of Austin, Texas, then returning to Bastrop, where he was elected county surveyor of Bastrop County. It was while serving in this capacity that he decided to take up the study of law, and accord- ingly began to read in the office of Orgain & Garwood, of Bastrop, of which firm Judge Garwood is now general attorney of the Sunset-Central Lines. Admitted to the bar June 19, 1899, Mr. Miley began practice at Bastrop, and shortly thereafter entered into a partnership with Judge Paul D. Page, under the firm style of Page & Miley, with offices at Bastrop and Smithville, Texas. This association continued as one of the strong com- binations of Bastrop County, until July, 1909, when it was mutually dissolved, Mr. Miley at that time removing to Shawnee, Oklahoma, where he continued in the general practice of the law until his appointment, March 15, 1913, to the office of special assistant to the attorney general of the United States. He was placed in charge of the litigation affecting the title to the Seminole Indian Allotted Lands, and continued as assistant United States attorney general until January 11, 1915, when he was appointed by Atty .- Gen. S. P. Freeling, to the position of assistant attorney general of Oklahoma, a capacity in which he has charge of much of the more important litigation of the department, particularly that pertaining to the regulation of corporation, taxation and the public and school lands. Mr. Miley has won his present position fairly and has brought to his duties a profound knowl- edge of law and jurisprudence and a conscientious regard of the responsibilities of public service that are a part of his inheritance from his sturdy Scotch-Irish ancestors who emigrated to South Carolina among the first col- onists. He belongs to the various organizations of his profession and is well known in club and fraternal life, while in politics he wields a distinct influence. With his wife and children he is a communicant of the Episcopal Church.

On October 13, 1901, Mr. Miley was married to Miss Stella B. Warner, daughter of Capt. John T. Warner and Jennie Warner, of Baseville, Arkansas. She died December 6, 1905, leaving one daughter, Cora Avarilla. On June 12, 1907, Mr. Miley was again married, being united with Miss Cora May Brown, daughter of Mrs. Emma G. Brown, of Arkadelphia, Arkansas, and they have one son, William Harvey. The family home is at No. 510 East 10th Street, Oklahoma City.

MRS. JACKSON F. MCCURTAIN. In the midst of a silent valley, abandoned by tradesmen with all their attributes

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of commerce, grimly and perhaps stoically succumbing to that which makes all things perish and pass into the realm of memory, stands the capitol of the Choctaw Nation. The bright red of the council house with its white-rimmed windows and its tall white window shut- ters defies all things dreary when the sun makes it smile. Its builders seem to have put a lasting dye into the brick, forecasting a day when some final evidence of a nation dissolved and absorbed might remain to entice the treasure hunter. It stands full three stories in archi- tectural majesty. Its simple outlines aud unadorned walls are as strikingly modest as the fullblood whose head bends under the presumptuous stare of an unsophisti- cated traveler. Its face is set toward the east, whence came the men for whom it was built-set that way per- haps that it might give warning to impostors of Indian blood bent on dividing the fortunes of the pioneers. To the east, the north and the south are walls of mountains. To the west is a blue-mantled gateway that is entrance to the prairies, the lands of the wild tribes and the staked plains. The square little valley has afforded the seclusion necessary to the enactment of laws whereby the Choctaws were goverued until their nation was but a memory.

More interesting than the council house and its sur- roundings is a woman who has been left there by the tribe as custodian of the building. She is Aunt Jane McCurtain, and is the widow of Principal Chief Jackson McCurtain, who was oue of three brothers the Choc- taws elevated to the highest office in their government. Aunt Jane is seventy-three years old and every whit an Indian in color and sentiment, although American blood ran in the veins of both her parents. She has an English education and is possessed of fluent speech and a choice and elaborate vocabulary. It is pretty safe to assert that no other Indian woman of this country, after being educated in English schools, and having returned to her people and lived among them for over fifty years, has retained as much of the culture and delicate and refresh- ing manners and select phrases of apt conversational speech as has Aunt Jane.

One enters the big council house, explores its high- walled and wide measured empty rooms, and enters the chamber of Aunt Jane on the first floor expecting to encounter considerable difficulty and employ the art of signs in order to converse with her. Her wrinkled fea- tures change to contours of smiles, for she welcomes the American seeker of Choctaw knowledge, and in pure English invites him to take a seat. His preconceived notion of this welcome having been challenged, he breathes the delightful aroma of flowers that blossom outside as high as the six-foot window sill, and finds himself already engaged in pleasing and fluent couver- sation.

Aunt Jane was born in 1842 near the present site of the Town of Valliant. Her parents were Louis and Mollie Austin. Her mother was of Irish descent and had blue eyes and fair skin. Her father, who was less than fullblood, was born in Mississippi and came with the Choctaws to Indian Territory in the early '30s. He was a farmer and blacksmith and possessed great inven- tive genius. He established the first and probably only shoe factory in Indian Territory, and in it during the Civil war he made shoes for the family and neighbors. The war deprived the Indian country of most of its market facilities and those who remained at home lacked many of the necessaries of life, including salt. Louis Austin set his ingenuity to work and became the first man in Indian Territory to extract salt from water. Aunt Jane remembers when a teacupful of this salt sold for $5 of Confederate money. Mollie Austin was a niece of Samuel Garland, who represented his people in

Washington in procuring an act of Congress that create what has become known as the Net Proceeds Payment She was an industrious little body, who spun and wov. her own cloth and out of it made clothes for the Choctav soldiers during the Civil war.

Little Miss Jane Austin began attending school a Wheelock Academy. Rev. Alfred Wright, a Presbyterian minister, established the school in 1832 and was still in charge while she was a student there. Mr. Wright wa: a great man iu his church, did great things for the Indians and established an institution that is continued today by the United States Government. Aunt Jane is among the few living who enjoyed his instruction. She made excellent grades the first four years there, and those grades gave her a scholarship of another four years. Meanwhile missionaries had opened a school at Sewickleyville, Pennsylvania, to which Indian children were admitted. Jane and another Choctaw girl, Fannie Woods, who is now Mrs. William King and lives near Tuskahoma, were awarded scholarships. Rev. John Ed- wards, who succeeded Mr. Wright at the academy, accom- panied them to the East. It was three years before the Civil war began, and there were few railroads in the West. They went first to New Orleans, then up the Mississippi to Cairo, Illinois, and then overland through Indianapolis and Cincinnati to Pittsburgh, near which the school was situated. "We were given our choice of this route or another by steamer to New York," says Aunt Jane, "but the ocean waves looked too scary for me.''

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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