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 16

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 16

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reputation as a cool, brave and intelligent officer, ener- getic, shrewd and absolutely conscientious, has continued to grow, so that his territory is practically free from the operations of counterfeiters, "bootleggers," hopkeepers and burglars. One of Mr. Dillon's best achievements was his participation in a raid at the town of Krebs, where one of the largest confiscations in recent years was made, the raiders taking 1,781 gallons of "Choc- taw Beer,'' 1,325 bottles of liquor and 14 gallons of wine.

Mr. Dillon was married a second time in November, 1905, to Etta R. Davis, who is of Choctaw Indian ances- try and a grand-daughter of "Uncle Jimmie" Davis, a leader among the Mississippi Choctaws many years ago, who opened and operated the first coal mines at Lehigh, gave the Town of Atoka its name (after an old Indian by that name), and helped to organize at Atoka the first Masonic lodge in Indian Territory. Mr. and Mrs. Dillon are the parents of two children: Louise, aged seven years; and 'Rose, who is four years old.

Marshal Dillon is a member of Blackfoot Tribe No. 52, of the Improved Order of Red Men, at Keystone, West Virginia; of Washita Valley Lodge No. 143, Knights of Pythias, and of Lodge No. 618, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, at Chickasha. He was secretary- treasurer of the City Democratic Campaign Committee in the municipal election of 1915 and has always been an ardent supporter of the policies of the democratic party. Marshal Dillon is a liberal contributor of both time and money in public uplift undertakings, and all in all may be considered one of the most representative and helpful men of his community.

SIDNEY L. BROCK. The kind of public spirit which constantly plans for the community welfare and is prod- igal of personal time, energy and means in getting the plans carried out, has been the chief characteristic of Sidney L. Brock's citizenship at Oklahoma City. A little more than ten years ago he was one of the smaller merchants of the then much smaller city. He is now president of the Sidney L. Brock Dry Goods Company, probably the largest department store in the state and one of the greater commercial institutions of greater Oklahoma City. While for this reason he is naturally regarded as one of the most successful of local business inen, the frequent words of praise given to this energetic merchant by his host of loyal and admiring friends are due in even greater degree to his constant readiness to leave his own interests and work heart and soul for something he has thought Oklahoma City ought to have. It is no exaggeration to say that Mr. Brock is one of the vital forces in the progress of this great southwestern city, and has done as much as any other individual, if not more, to maintain and promote the solid prosperity of the Oklahoma metropolis.

At the outset it is only proper to state that Mr. Brock came into the world fortunate because of his parentage and ancestry. The Brock family lineage is traced back to General Brock of colonial days, and the first American of the name came over about the time of the Mayflower. Brockville, New York, was named for one member of the family, and many of them were early settlers about Danville, Vermont, from which locality they moved into New York State. Sidney Lorenzo Brock was born at Macon, Missouri, August 3, 1869, a son of Sidney G. and Louisa Olive (Williams) Brock. His father, who still lives at Macon, Missouri, has had a distinguished career. He was born at Cleveland, Ohio, April 10, 1837, a son of E. A. and M. M. Brock. He graduated A. B. from Allegheny College at Meadville, Pennsylvania, in 1859, was given the degree A. M. in 1862, and the same institution honored him with the degree Ph. D. in 1888.

Admitted to the bar in 1861, he served throughout the Civil war in an Ohio regiment and towards the close of the conflict was a major on the staff of General Howell in the operations before Richmond. After the war he located at Macon, Missouri, where for more than half a century he has been an honored member of the local bar. For many years he was also editor of the Macon Repub- lican, dividing his time between the editorial chair and his law office. He served as mayor of Macon from 1886 to 1889, and was republican candidate against Willian Hatch for the office of congressman. President Harri- son appointed him chief of the Bureau of Statistics in the treasury department at Washington, and he held that place from 1889 to 1893. While in Washington he was a close friend and advisor of William McKinley in the preparation of his tariff bill known as the Mckinley Bill. During the Harrison administration he was recognized as the leading statistician of the administration. Leav- ing Washington in 1894 he returned to Macon and has since continued the practice of law. He is also a well known author. His principal works are: "The Hawaiian Islands, Their History, Products and Commerce, " 1892; "History of the Navigation, Commerce, Tonnage, etc., of the Great Lakes, " 1891; "History of the Pacific States and Alaska-Acquisition, Wealth, Products, Commerce, etc., "' 1890; "Advance of the United States for a Hun- dred Years, from 1790 to 1890,"' published in 1893.

On December 1, 1861, Sidney G. Brock married Louisa Olive Williams, who was born near Cleveland, Ohio, at Chagrin Falls, and died in August, 1913. Her father was Prof. Lorenzo Dow Williams, for many years vice president of Allegheny College at Meadville, Pennsyl- vania. Her mother was a Warren, a direct descendant of General Warren, who fell at the Battle of Bunker Hill. Mrs. Brock was a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution and for many years was promi- nently identified with the Woman's Christian Temper- ance Union, having been corresponding secretary for Missouri at the time Clara. Hoffman was president, and was associated with such notable leaders in that mnove- ment as Frances Willard, Mary A. Livermore, J. Ellen Foster and others.

Sidney L. Brock grew up in Macon, Missouri, was educated in the high school there and by private tutors in Washington, where he lived during the several years of his father's official connection with the Government, and was prepared for Johns Hopkins University, in which institution he completed his education by an at- tendance for three years. He returned to Macon with his father, and his first regular employment was in a newspaper office. He filled the various positions from that vague service known as printer's devil up to the sales management of the circulation department. His first adventure in business for himself was in association with J. H. Barclay, when they engaged in the retail dry goods trade at Macon under the style and name of the Barclay-Brock Dry Goods Company. In 1895 Mr. Brock bought the Barclay interests and the firm became the Sidney L. Brock Dry Goods Company. He sold this con- cern in 1899, and then turned his attention to the raising of pure bred Hereford cattle, establishing a large plant for that purpose near Macon. He subsequently moved his headquarters and his stock to Lake Geneva, Wiscon- sin, where for ten years he stood among the leading Hereford breeders in the country. His stock were prize winners in all the large stock shows, and at the St. Louis Exposition a member of his herd received the highest award over all breeds. He sold his stock farm in 1912.

In the meantime, in 1900, Mr. Barclay, his former partner, had bought a large business at Macon, and Mr. Brock returned to take the management, which he continued until December, 1904, when he resigned.

Sidney L. Brock

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HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA

It was in January, 1905, that the name Sidney L. Brock first became familiar in Oklahoma City. At that it had only a limited significance. On March 4, 1905, he laid the foundation for the present business of The Sidney L. Brock Dry Goods Company by opening a stock of goods valued at less than $10,000 in one small room at the present location. Mr. Brock had already demon- strated the possession of qualities of executive ability and commercial judgment so requisite to the success of the merchant, and with his previous experience, he was not long in establishing a profitable trade for his Oklahoma City store. Without referring to the pro- gressive stages in the growth of this business it will be sufficient to say that at the present time it occupies quarters nine times the actual floor space occupied by the original stock, and represents an investment fifteen times as great as that with which he began. The Sidney L. Brock Dry Goods Company is at 213-219 Main Street, in the heart of the retail district. The building has a 100-foot frontage on Main Street, with a basement under all and rising to three and four stories, and a unique coluuinated entrance affords 250 feet of glass frontage for display purposes. The present floor space is 48,000 square feet with a reserve of 10,000 square feet for fu- ture growth. In the active seasons as high as 250 people find employment in this, the largest department store in the state. During the panic times of 1907 Mr. Brock bought fifty feet of his present location for $65,000, then the highest price paid for Main Street realty. That purchase was a stimulating factor in strengthening real estate values at the time, and did much to insure the future of Oklahoma City as a business center. For the fifty feet which he bought nine years ago Mr. Brock has since been offered $200,000.

It is now proper to devote some considerable space to the achievements of Mr. Brock as a city builder. The Oklahoma City of the future must not be allowed to for- get or in any way minimize the strenuous efforts put forth by Mr. Brock and his associates in conclusively and convincingly securing for Oklahoma City a prestige as a commercial, industrial, and government center beyond all its rivals in the state. History is full of ex- amples of cities, that with large natural resources and advantages have been eclipsed in the struggle for great- ness by younger and more progressive rivals. In the majority of cases the explanation of this can be found not so much in location or the changing conditions brought about by shifting population and transportation facilities, but by a superior degree of push and enter- prise on the part of local citizenship. It has been well said "it is men not buildings, that make a city," and an ancient philosopher has said that a city is great not in numbers of population but in the work which it per- forms. Oklahoma City now has a large and increasing population and has more than its quota of skyscraper business houses and streets lined with magnificent homes. But its chief title to distinction rests upon the fact that it has become not only the center of state govern- ment but also the center of southwestern commerce and industry, and thus performs a great and vital service to its tributary territory. In securing these fair advan- tages the greater share of the credit on the basis of honest judgment must be given to the Oklahoma City Chamber of Commerce, and while paying such a tribute to that body it will be proper to refer to its work while it was under the vigorous and enthusiastic leadership of Sidney L. Brock.

Soon after coming to Oklahoma Mr. Brock became a member of the chamber of commerce, and has been a director in that body since 1906. The chamber did perhaps its greatest work and brought the city through the most critical periods of its development in the two

years that Mr. Brock was president, in 1909 and 1910. During his administration he organized committees and instituted an industrial campaign for the development of manufacturing in Oklahoma City. With the aid of A. W. McKeand, secretary of the chamber, special liter- ature was compiled and sent out to all the packing plants of the United States. The result was a visit from Nelson Morris & Co., one of the largest packers in the United States. The story of the subsequent negotiations has been well told by Mr. Brock himself in an article entitled "The Truth About Oklahoma," published in Leslie's Weekly in October, 1910. With a proper mod- esty as to his own participation in that campaign, Mr. Brock writes: "As the result of the follow-up cor- respondence campaign of the Chamber of Commerce in 1908 and 1909, placing before the great packers infor- utation of the production, source of origin and destina- tion of livestock shipments from Oklahoma, and the advantages of Oklahoma as a suitable place for the establishment of a packing plant, negotiations were opened with Morris & Company of Chicago. Their rep- resentative looked over the field, quietly secured options on a large tract close to the city and then called on the writer with a view to closing a deal with our Chamber of Commerce. In company with one trusted associate, a tentative agreement was made, guaranteeing on the part of the packers the establishment of a great live- stock market. The citizens of Oklahoma City, on the other hand, were to pay the packers a cash bonus of three hundred thousand dollars and grant other reason- able and necessary specified conditions in relation to sewer connections, water and gas extensions and exemp- tion from taxation for a five year term.

"How to get the cash bonus was the question. The writer and his associate, George B. Stoue, hit upon this plan : The packers were induced to accept half the bonus when the plant should be ready for operation and the balance a year from that date. Their representative consented to no publicity till we gave the word. Op- tions on 575 acres of land were secured, the best land adjoining and overlooking the packing district from the south, and all within the three mile limit of the center of Oklahoma City, the cost of the land being $184,000. Three tedious days saw the options in our hands; then the directors of the Chamber were called in and need- less to say quickly ratified the tentative agreement. The Oklahoma Industrial Company was planned, with a capi- talization of four hundred thousand dollars, to finance the proposition and guarantee the bonus. At a mass meeting on the 19th of May at ten o'clock the Assembly Hall could not contain the multitude. The announce- ment of the securing of the Morris proposition was made and the plans were laid before the assemblage for financing it, and the statement was made, 'it is up to you to make good and secure this great enterprise.' Did they respond? Four hundred and twenty-seven thousand dol- lars were subscribed in an hour and thirty minutes amid great cheering and enthusiastic addresses, all of one tone-that of approval and hearty co-operation. The packers began to build and the land company to plot and to sell. In a year's time nearly seven hundred thousand dollars worth of lots had been sold and two thousand out of the original forty-four thousand lots were still on hand."

In reviewing this achievement which meant so much to the future welfare and development of Oklahoma City, the Daily Oklahoman paid Mr. Brock and his associates the following editorial tribute: "Not everyone knows the tremendous efforts which were put forth by Mr. Brock and Mr. Stone. Not everybody knows that Sidney Brock rifled the bank account of his big dry goods store and took out twenty-five thousand dollars of his own

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money with which to purchase optious which would be necessary to insure the location of the big plant in Oklahoma City. He did this without any guarantee that one dollar would be refunded to him in case he lost aud the Morris Company decided to locate else- where. He did it without hope of one cent of profit to himself other than the indirect benefit of the location of the packing plant here. One city in a thousand can produce men of the spirit and caliber of Sidney Brock and George Stone. And any community which is for- tunate enough to claim citizens who are ready and willing to stake a large part of their fortune on the hazard of greatly benefiting their town, can never go backward, and on the contrary it is bound to go forward by leaps and bounds. "

Within about a year after this contract was closed with Morris & Co. their packing plant was ready for use, representing an investment of about $3,000,000. About that time Mr. Brock went to New York City, where he interviewed Mr. Sulzberger of Sulzberger & Sons Company, and succeeded in interesting him in a propo- sition later resulting in his meeting a committee in Chicago, and their bringing him to Oklahoma City. Here was closed a deal identical with that of the Morris & Co. As already stated, the Oklahoma Industrial Company was formed to finance the local obligations to these great packing concerns. Mr. Brock became presi- dent of the company and held that office ever since. This company disposed altogether of lots to the value of $750,000, paid the majority of the bonus, paid for the land and still has valuable assets in the way of real estate contracts and unsold property. The net invest- ment of these two packing plants is between $8,000,000 and $10,000,000, while the plants themselves are the . most modern in the world, and together with the Okla- homa City Stock Yards, covering an area of about sixty acres, have made Oklahoma City one of the leading pack- ing centers west of the Mississippi River.

While a large part of the future industrial pros- perity of Oklahoma City must follow directly upon the initiation of the packing industry through the Sulz- berger and Morris plants, there were other important achievements carried out while Mr. Brock was president of the Chamber of Commerce. Several other industrial plants were located, and a committee of the Chamber of Commerce secured stock subscriptions to the amount of $50,000 as a bonus for the El Reno Interurban Railroad. During that time the fight for the capital location was inaugurated, the capital was definitely located at Oklahoma City and during the last six months of his administration as president of the Cham- ber the land was secured and given to the state as the site for the capitol, the magnificent building which is now nearing completion. At the same time the member- ship of the Chamber of Commerce was increased to 1,300, and made the Oklahoma City chamber the largest body of its kind in the United States outside of New York City.

When Mr. Brock retired from the presidency of the Chamber of Commerce he was presented with a solid gold medallion by the Chamber, with the following inscription on one side: "Presented to Sidney Lorenzo Brock on the occasion of his retirement from the presi- dency of the Oklahoma City Chamber of Commerce, con- veying the gratitude of the members for his sterling achievements and bestowing a life membership. Decem- ber 31, 1910."' On the reverse side is a quotation from Act 5, Scene 5, of Julius Caesar : "His life was gentle and the elements so mixed in him that nations might stand up and say to all the world, that was a man."'

Mr. Brock is a director of the Oklahoma State Fair Association, and was one of the original committee that

helped to organize the state fair in 1907, and was espe- cially active iu having the present stock pavilion built. Ile is a director of the Farmers National Bank of Okla- homa City, a member of the Oklahoma City Golf and Country Club and of the Oklahoma City Men's Dinner Club. In 1894 he married Miss Jennie Wardell, daugh- ter of Thomas Wardell of Macon, Missouri, a wealthy coal operator of that city. Their two children are named Elizabeth Brock and Sidney L. Brock, Jr.

It is a source of wonder to the friends of Mr. Brock how he finds time and energy for his many varied activi- ties. He represents quiet efficiency in the highest degree and only his intimate friends are aware of the great dynamo of energy which lies under the surface of his quiet demeanor. He has been a frequent contributor to magazines, and being an authority on livestock has contributed articles to the Breeders' Gazette, and in 1895 and 1896 wrote the Wide Awake retailing page for the Dry Goods Economist. His article in Leslie's Weekly entitled 'The Truth About Oklahoma" has already been referred to, and it is an excellent statement of a wide survey of facts about Oklahoma at the time it was written. Mr. Brock takes much pride in the fact that during his entire association with the members and directors of the chamber of commerce for a period of uearly ten years he has always found them men of clean morals and of a fine practical idealism in business and citizenship. He is himself outspoken on the value of education for business men, as he himself has seen and felt the benefits of college training in his own activ- ity. He always endeavors to give full credit to the training received from his good mother, a training that kept him from drink, smoking, profanity and other things that detracts from man's efficiency in the work of the world.

CHARLES O. COPSEY. For nearly thirty years Mr. Copsey has been identified with the lumber business and he is at the present time a stockholder of the E. C. Robinson Lumber Company, one of the most extensive operating in the State of Oklahoma, its general offices being in the Wright Building, St. Louis, Missouri, in which state it maintains yards at four different places, besides two in Illinois and six in Oklahoma, Mr. Copsey being the manager of the well equipped yard and office of the company in the City of Tulsa, the vigorous metropolis and county seat of Tulsa County, with head- quarters at 302 North Main Street. The other Oklahoma yards of this important corporation are established re- spectively at Vinita, Bristow, Osage, Prue, and Inola, with the main office at Tulsa.

Charles O. Copsey claims the fine old Hoosier State as the place of his nativity and is a representative of one of its honored pioneer families. He was born in Oxford Township, Benton County, Indiana, on the 1st of December, 1861, and is a son of Charles C. and Mary (Graham) Copsey, both natives of Greene County, Ohio, and both of whom passed the closing period of their lives in Benton County, Indiana, where the father died in 1879 and the mother in 1880, the subject of this re- view being the youngest in a family of six chidlren, of whom four are living. Charles C. Copsey was born in the year 1800 and was a member of one of the earliest pioneer families of Greene County, Ohio, where he was reared to maturity and where he continued to be iden- tified with agricultural pursuits until 1857, when he removed with his family to Indiana, the journey having been made overland with teams and wagons and he himself having ridden the entire distance on horseback. He became one of the pioneer representatives of the agricultural and live-stock industries in Benton County, Indiana, where he developed a productive farm and

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where he and his wife passed the residue of their long and worthy lives, both having been birthright members and zealous adherents of the noble religious organiza- tion, the Society of Friends, commonly designated as Quakers, and his political support having been given to the democratic party.

Reared to manhood under the sturdy and benignant discipline of the old homestead farm which was the place of his birth, Charles O. Copsey early learned the lessons of practical industry, the while he made good use of the advantages afforded in the public schools of the locality and period. He continued to be associated in the work and management of the home farm until he had attained to the age of twenty-four years, and in 1886 he removed to Burlington, the judicial center of Coffey County, Kansas, a county lying contiguous to the present State of Oklahoma along the line of the former Indian Territory. There he became associated with the Coggeshall Lumber Company, in which he became a stock- holder, and this alliance continued nearly a score of years. In the autumn of 1899 Mr. Copsey traveled some- what extensively through the District of the Osage Nation of Indian Territory, at a time when this section was the rendezvous of only Indians and cattle herders. He incidentally visited the Government station main- tained at Pawhuska, present county seat of Osage County, for the distribution of supplies to the Indians, and at the time of his visit two bands of Indians were encamped near the station. His interest led him to attend a dance given by the Indians, though he could not prevail upon any other white man to accompany him, as all feared the Indians, by whom he himself was treated with con- sideration.

In 1903, after disposing of his interest in the lum- ber business at Burlington, Kansas, Mr. Copsey came to Indian Territory and established his residence at Jenks, a village in the present County of Tulsa. There he was individually engaged in the lumber business until 1907, the year which marked the admission of Oklahoma to statehood, when he solu his business and removed to Tulsa, in which city he has since been a stockholder of the E. C. Robinson Lumber Company and manager of its large and prosperous local business. He has kept in touch with the progressive spirit of the West and is one of the loyal and public-spirited business men of the city and state of his adoption. His politi- cal allegiance is given to the democratic party; he is past noble grand of Aurora Lodge, No. 36, Independ- ent Order of Odd Fellows, at Tulsa, where he is affil- iated also with Silver Plume Lodge, No. 182, Knights of Pythias.

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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