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 17

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 17

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The 24th of February, 1885, recorded the marriage of Mr. Copsey to Miss Josephine Bennett, who was born in Montgomery County, Indiana, a daughter of Edward and Louise Bennett, pioneers of that county, where Mr. Bennett became a prosperous farmer and where he and his wife continued to maintain their home until their death. Mr. and Mrs. Copsey have two sons, both of whom are residents of Tulsa,-Fern Bennett and Clair O. The older son wedded Miss Wynett Mercer, and the younger son remains at the parental home.

RICHARD DAVANT MARTIN. South Carolina has given Oklahoma a goodly number of her foremost citizens, and one of them is Richard Davant Martin, who was born in that State, in Barnwell County, the son of an old and highly esteemed family of the commonwealth. John Vincent and Mary (Bostick) Martin were his parents, both natives of South Carolina.

John Vincent Martin was a prominent cotton planter and the son of Hon. William D. Martin, a congressman,

and at the time of his death circuit judge at Charleston, South Carolina. John V. Martin died when his son, Richard D., of this review, was nine years of age, and Mrs. Martin died in 1903.

At the age of fourteeen young Martin went from his native state and the home of his boyhood to reside with relatives in Washington, D. C. He received a fair edu- cation in private schools in South Carolina and this training was furthered by careful study in schools in Washington and Baltimore. In 1886 he came from Washington to the Indian Territory, in company with the present United States Senator Robert L. Owens. For four years thereafter he was in the Federal service in connection with the Indian agency at Muskogee. In 1890 Mr. Martin began his banking career when he be- came bookkeeper in the First National Bank of Musko- gee and later assistant cashier in this institution. In May, 1898, the First National Bank of Checotah was organized with a capital stock of $50,000, fully paid, and Mr. Martin became its first cashier. With this institution he has since continued. The first president of the bank was J. S. Todd, who was succeeded by Mr. J. W. Perry, and he in turn was succeeded in 1910 by Mr. Martin, who is now holding that position. The First National Bank of Checotah is the oldest national bank in McIntosh County. It has always been under local man- agement, all its stockholders being Checotah men. Its financial statement, issued in June, 1915, shows it to have a capital, surplus and profits aggregating $90,000, with resources in the sum of $500,000. It ranks among the strongest banks of Oklahoma, and it is generally conceded that much of its growth and strength is due to the able management ef Mr. Martin.

Mr. Martin though a staunch democrat, has never sought political honors of any sort though he has always been keenly interested in civic affairs and has contrib- uted largely to the development and progress of the sturdy little town of Checotah. Aside from his bank- ing interests, Mr. Martin has extensive farm lands in the county, and as a result his influence has been felt throughout the county, not alone as a banker but as a farmer.

Mr. Martin is a Mason, and a member of the Epis- copal Church. He was married in 1903 to Miss Ida Augustine, a native of the state of Texas. Mr. and Mrs. Martin have one child, Mary Davant Martin, ten years of age.

REV. J. J. READ. Authorities on the subject of the advancement of the American Indian are agreed that no agency has been more powerful than the Protestant mis- sionary in bringing the red man from a state of savagery to a moderately high standard of civilization. Certainly there are no more interesting chapters in the history of the Indian than those that relate to the hardships, priva- tions, industry and philanthropy of the pioneer mission- ary. But for his influence and painstaking labor there would never have been developed so great a fund of pretty romance, so rich an intermingling of the blood of reds and whites, out of which has been developed as high professional talent as the transfusion of the bloods of any other races show, and the work of the missionary also helped to bring about the highly organized form of government which was maintained in some of the tribes. In any record and appreciation of the missionaries who long labored in old Indian Territory, a high place must be given to the late Rev. J. J. Read.

The story of his life as a missionary begins while he was pastor of a large and fashionable Presbyterian Church in Houston, Texas, and with his marriage to Miss Lillah Porter, a leader in church, social and club life in the City of Austin. The second chapter finds them, forty

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years ago, in the wild solitudes of the Choctaw Nation, setting about the task of learning the Indian tongue in order that the cause of Christ might be advanced among the heathens-for Indian Territory forty years ago was regarded as a foreign missionary field just the same as if an ocean separated it from the rest of America. Chap- ter three covers a period of twenty-two years and em- braces more than a mere volume of experiences that are as vital to Oklahoma history as all the Indian treaties aud all the Indian laws, The devoted labors of Mr. Read ended with his death in 1898.

Born at Vicksburg, Mississippi, in 1843, he was the son of William and Mary Louise Read. He was educated in a plantation school in Mississippi, where he had one of those picturesque classical instructors who were often the peer of any members found in college faculties. Later he attended Oakland College at Oakland, Mississippi, and finished his preparation for the ministry in a theological seminary of the Presbyterian Church at Columbia, South Carolina. Mr. Read served four years as a soldier in the Confederate army, entering the ministry soon after the war and being assigned to a church in Texas. Until he took up missionary work he filled some of the best pas- torates in Texas. In 1876 he was elected superintendent of Spencer Academy of the Choctaw Nation, located ten miles from the present village of Doaksville. This was one of three important schools maintained in the Choc- taw Nation at that time, the others being known as Wheeler Academy and Pine Ridge Academy.

After five years Rev. Mr. Read resigned from the presidency of the academy and was transferred by his church to the Chickasaw Nation. He and his young wife settled four miles from the present site of Wapanucka, on a tract of land still owned and occupied by Mrs. Read. Boggy Depot, twelve miles distant, was their nearest postoffice, but Mr. Read shortly started a movement to have the postoffice established nearer his home. It was necessary that the distance to Boggy Depot be measured in order that the Postoffice Department could be assured of the distance filling the requirement of the rules of the department. Mrs. Read accordingly tied a red cloth to a buggy wheel and counted the revolutions of the wheel all the way to Boggy Depot, by which simple means the dis- tance was officially established. Mrs. Read was given the honor of selecting the name for the office, and she took from Cooper's "The Last of the Mohicans" the euphonious word Wahpanucka, which was the name of a chieftain clan of the Delaware Indians. The field of labor in this region embraced four or five charges, scat- tered from a point north of Stonewall to Red River and west to the Santa Fe Railroad. At each place Mr. Read organized a church and in due time assisted in the con- struction of a church edifice at most of them. Indians who had been converted sawed and hauled lumber and worked under his direction as carpenters. In the begin- ning he held services under trees and bush arbors and in crude schoolhouses. Like the pioneer country doctor of Indian Territory, no ugly demonstration of the elements or other agency which were within the power of man to

endure deterred him from his work, and thousands of Indiaus revere his name today. Among those who were his students in Spencer Academy are Dr. E. N. Wright, one of the leading men today of the Choctaw Nation; Peter Hudson, a Choctaw leader who frequently has been suggested for governor of the nation; Rev. Silas Bacon, for a number of years principal of the Goodland Indian School; and Rev. William MeKinney, who later graduated from Harvard and became a prominent politician among the Choctaws. .

Throughout all his years in Oklahoma Mr. Read was a member of all organizations that assisted in uplifting the red men and the pioneer white men, and individually did

such a work that its record should always be a permanent memorial to his name. He was affiliated with the Masonic Lodge. To Mr. and Mrs. Read were born six children : E. D. Read, a civil engineer in Oklahoma; Rev. J. L. Read, now pastor of the Central Presbyterian Church at Little Rock, Arkansas; Mrs. T. N. Binnion, wife of a traveling salesman of Pauls Valley; D. L. Read of Ari- zona; Mrs. R. T. Ball of Wapanucka; and T. P. Read, who lives with his mother and conducts the old farm at Wapanucka.

GEORGE W. AUSTIN. Throughout the country, and in no section more than in Oklahoma, have layınen as well as progressive educationalists come to demand a wider and deeper school service. In answer to this demand the Oklahoma College for Women, located at Chickasha, in Grady County, came into being, and in its development came also a demand for a man of superior judgment and executive ability as well as high educational attaiments, to assume its management and carry out its important purposes. Its present head, George W. Austin, who assumed these responsibilities in August, 1914, undoubt- edly is the right man in the right place, a finished scholar, an experienced educator in sympathy with mod- ern ideas and a practical worker also along material , lines.

George W. Austin was born in Mississippi, in 1873, and is a son of Rev. David Jones and Julia (Couch) Austin. Perhaps the ancestry might reach to Wales, but the father was born in the State of Missouri. For over twenty years he was one of the leading ministers in the Baptist Church in Mississippi, and since 1894 has been a resident of Fort Worth, Texas. The mother was born seventy-nine years ago in Tennessee, and she also sur- vives and they have a wide acquaintance at Fort Worth, the family being variously prominent in the state. The eldest daughter, Mrs. Nannie W. Curtis, is president of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union of Texas.

George W. Austin was given excellent educational advantages, after a public school course entering the Mississippi State Normal School and, following the removal of the family to Texas in 1894, the Texas State Normal School. Later he pursued certain studies in the University of Texas and then entered the educational field for which such thorough preparation had been made. After three years as president of Graysou College, White- wright, Texas, he became superintendent of the public schools at that place, continuing as such there for five years and for the succeeding two years was in the same office in relation to the schools of Wagoner, Oklahoma, from which place he was called, in August, 1914, to Chickasha, the position of president of the Oklahoma College for Women being tendered him without any solici- tation on his part. Since taking charge of this institu- tion his efforts have been to place it on a high plane and that he has been successful, a short review of the college and what he has already accomplished may prove inter- esting.

The Oklahoma College for Women is the only strictly female school established by the state in Oklahoma, and the last state school to be established, all the other state schools being coeducational. This school was established to meet the desires of the very considerable element who prefer to educate their daughters in schools strictly femi- nine in the student body. This institution is prepared to complete the work begun in the public schools, offer- ing through training ample opportunity for higher edu- cation in literature, science and language. The high school course of four years includes also domestic science, domestic art and physical culture, special training being given the young women in preparation for home-makers.

IN Austin,

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If desired a four-year college course may be enjoyed and the degree of A. B. and B. S. secured. The special departments-music, expression, art and voice-are con- sidered exceptional in the advantages they provide. To particularize: the whole course of study is designed to develop. young women and train them technically and practically for the duties of life. The classes are open to girls and women between the ages of twelve and thirty- five years and Doctor Austin reports an enrollment of 400 students in February, 1916.

The college is favorably located as to transportation and health. The campus, comprising twenty acres, is situated on the highest eminence overlooking the City of Chickasha from the southwest. It was secured and the college established by an act of the first State Legisla- ture, in 1908. Its government was then vested in a board of regents, but, by legislative enactment, it passed under the state board of education in 1910. The administra- tion building was ready for occupancy in September, 1911, and cost $100,000. The dormitory, which cost $50,000, was not yet completed when President Austin took charge and practically nothing had been done toward advertising of this school with its expensive mod- ern equipments and unusual advantages. Doctor Aus- tin's energy and administrative ability soon became manifest. The school owns. a farm of 140 acres of excel- lent land and Doctor Austin is making plans to stock and cultivate it, with a view to producing a part of the supplies for the dormitory, and for a second dormitory for which he is hoping. The college attendance has grown so rapidly under his management that he, with others who have the best interests of the state at heart, hope much for the future. He feels that a field is here and a real demand for an institution of this kind, one that, with other advantages, will give the practical train- ing to young women for a peculiarly feminine sphere. He feels, with other Christian men, that the home is the basis of civilization; that it must have an economic foun- dation and that happiness and permanency rest on the capacity of the woman of the house knowing how to properly make use of what the man of the house earns in the outside world. It is the ardent wish and aspira- tion of Doctor Austin that this school should become a fountain of inspiration and to its upbuilding he is devot- ing every energy and effort that forethought suggests or opportunity offers.

Doctor Austin was married in 1900 to Miss Mattie Pearl Herndon, who is a daughter of Zachariah Herndon, of Tupelo, Mississippi, and they have two children, a son and a daughter, Marsden and Miriam. Doctor Aus- tin and family reside at the college, No. 1907 South Eighteenth Avenue, Chickasha, Oklahoma. They take part in the pleasant social life of the city and their home is a center for gatherings where hospitality is offered with genuine old-time southern welcome. Reared in the Baptist faith, Doctor Austin has been a member of the Baptist body since his youth and since coming to Chick- asha has been a deacon in the First Baptist Church. Aside from membership in numerous educational organi- zations, he is a Mason of the highest degree in the state, lis record being as follows: member of Chickasha Lodge No. 94, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons; Chickasha Council No. 4, Royal Select Masters; Chickasha Chapter No. 17, Royal Arch Masons; De Molay Commandery No. 7, Knights Templar; Oklahoma Consistory, Valley of Guthrie, thirty-second degree. Through the great work he has accomplished at Chickasha Doctor Austin has become widely known over the state and if all his ambi- tions are successfully brought to fruition, the Oklahoma College for Women will prove an open door to a vast number who, so far, have found few invitations awaiting

them to be trained in the homely but noble arts of home- making, for which Nature has implanted a secret long- ing, no matter what station in life they may adorn.

ARDEN L. BULLOCK. While his administratiou in the office of county attorney of Pontotoc County has fully demonstrated his exceptional eligibility for the posi- tion and attested to his distinctive talent as a trial lawyer, the preferment came to him virtually through somewhat extraordinary political exigencies. This county is a recognized democratic stronghold and in the elec- tion of 1912, owing to an irreconcilable split in the local ranks of the republican party, Mr. Bullock transferred his allegiance from the same to the democratic party, as the candidate of which he was elected to his present office in 1914. His was a complete personal readjust- ment along political lines, for he became a stalwart sup- porter of President Wilson in the national campaign of that year, has been since that time an ardent and effective exponent of the principles and policies of the democratic party and as such is a leader among its younger representatives in Oklahoma.

The Southwest looked inviting to Mr. Bullock after he had completed his college career in the State of New York, where he was born and reared, and he accordingly came to Oklahoma in 1903 and established his residence in the Village of Koff, Pontotoc County. His profes- sion did not at that time offer many inducements at Roff, owing to its having attracted a larger quota of lawyers than the community could well support, and though a true disciple of Blackstone and Kent, Mr. Bullock consulted expediency and for a time gave his attention to the pedagogic profession, as a successful and popular teacher in the village schools of Roff during the initial period of his residence in Oklahoma. In the following year he taught a term of school in Grady County, but it is in the work of the legal profession that he has found his greater opportunities for success, as shown by his standing as one of the representative mem- bers of the bar of Pontotoc County. He has been given divers manifestations of popular confidence and good will, and not the least of these came to him when he was elected mayor of Roff, and that prior to his attain- ing to his legal majority.

At Cherry Creek, a village in beautiful Chautauqua County, New York, Arden L. Bullock was born on the 16th of March, 1875, and he is the elder of the two sons of Richard C. and Emma (Brown) Bullock, his brother, Arley, being now the incumbent of a responsible posi- tion in a manufacturing establishment at Falconer, New York. The father of Mr. Bullock still resides at Cherry Creek. The mother died in 1900. Richard C. Bullock served eight years as postmaster of that place. He has been a resident of the Empire State from the time of his nativity and represented the same as a valiant soldier of the Union in the Civil war.

To the public schools of his native state Arden L. Bullock is indebted for his preliminary educational dis- cipline, and after completing a course in the New York State Normal School at Fredonia, in his native county, he devoted several years to teaching in the schools of the Empire State. In preparation for the profession of his choice he entered the law department of the Uni- versity of Buffalo, in which he was graduated as a member of the class of 1900, his reception of the degree of Bachelor of Laws being coincident with his admis- sion to the bar of his native state in 1900. He initi- ated the active practice of his professiou in his home Village of Cherry Creek, where he remained until 1903, when he set forth for Oklahoma, having been prompted to this action by the favorable reports he had received

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from a friend who had located at Roff. He established his home in the same village, as previously noted, and there lie continued in the practice of his profession prior to his election to his present office, when he removed to Ada, the judicial center of the county.

Mr. Bullock is an influential and popular member of the Pontotoc County Bar Association and the Ada Com- mercial Club, is affiliated with the Delta Chi legal fra- ternity, holds membership in the lodge of Independent Order of Odd Fellows at Roff and the Ada Lodge of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, besides which he is affiliated with Roff Lodge No. 69, Ancient, Free and Accepted Masons, of which he served six years as master, and of Roff Chapter, Royal Arch Masons, of which he is past high priest. He is past grand of the Odd Fellows Lodge at Roff.

At Cherry Creek, New York, the year 1900 gave rec- ord of the marriage of Mr. Bullock to Miss Josephine Terry, who has been a successful teacher in her native state and who has continued her pedagogic labors to a greater or less extent during their residence in Okla- homa, where she has made a specialty of primary work. She is an active member of the Oklahoma Federation of Women's Clubs and in the same has done much toward furthering its high ideals and efficient work in connec- tion with practical educational affairs .. Mr. and Mrs. Bullock have five daughters, whose names and respective ages, in 1915, are here entered: Doris E., thirteen years; Josephine, nine years; Nedra, six years; Ruth, three years and Marjorie, two years.

JAMES B. GILBERT, M. D. That comparative youth causes no handicap in achieving prestige and success in his exacting profession has been significantly shown in the professional career of this representative physician and surgeon of the younger generation in the City of Tulsa. Careful and thorough preparation, continued study and research, unflagging application and valuable clinical experience have combined to fortify Doctor Gil- bert most admirably for the work of his chosen calling, and none can be more appreciative of its dignity and responsibility, so that his advancement in success and professional reputation has come as a natural sequence of his well directed endeavors.

Doctor Gilbert was born in the City of Meridian, Mis- sissippi, on the 29th of November, 1888, and in the same fine old southern commonwealth were born his parents, Albert P. and Mary (Daniels) Gilbert, the for- mer of whom died in 1894, at the age of fifty-four years, and the latter of whom still maintains her home in Meri- dian; they became the parents of six sons and three daughters and of the number the doctor was the eighth in order of birth. Albert P. Gilbert was numbered among the representative business men of the City of Meridian, where he operated a cotton compress and was owner of a large warehouse, so that he was influential in connec- tion with the cotton industry in his native state.

, In public and parochial' schools of his native city Doctor Gilbert acquired his early education, and he was but six years of age at the time of his father's death. In preparation for his chosen profession he entered the Mississippi Medical College, in which excellent institution he was graduated as a member of the class of 1912 and from which he received the degree of Doctor of Medi- cine, besides becoming a member of the Mississippi State Medical Society.

In June, 1912, the month of his graduation, Doctor Gilbert established his residence at Tulsa, Oklahoma, and here his earnest endeavors and recognized technical ability have enabled him to build up a substantial gen- eral practice, in connection with the demands of which he has served also as city physician since 1914, his re-

appointment to this position having taken place in May, 1915. The Doctor is in no sense a practical politician, but he has never found reason to deflect his course from the line of close allegiance to the cause of the democratic party, in the faith of which he was reared. He holds membership in the American Medical Association, the Oklahoma State Medical Association, and the Tulsa County Medical Society.

On the 29th of November, 1914, was solemnized the marriage of Doctor Gilbert to Miss Edna Wilson, who was born in Pennsylvania, and they are popular factors in the social activities of their home city.

JOSEPH J. HARDY, M. D. The high awards attainable in position and character through a life of industry and faithful adherence to an honorable ambition are most forcibly illustrated in the life of Dr. Joseph J. Hardy, of Poteau. Whether one considers the obstacles which poverty and obscurity placed in his path to oppose his entrance upon a learned profession, his patience and persistence in overcoming them, the worthy motives which impelled him, or the skill which he has brought to a difficult calling, he will be impressed that Doctor Hardy's career is one which reflects much credit upon him and which should encourage other young men start- ing life under difficulties.

Doctor Hardy was born February 26, 1861, in Jeffer- son County, Arkansas, and is a son of George W. and Mary E. (Wakefield) Hardy. His father was born in Giles County, Tennessee, and came of the numerous southern Hardy family that from Virginia scattered to several states of the South. He was married in Ten- nessee to Mary E. Wakefield, who was born in Illinois, and soon after his union removed to Jefferson County, Arkansas, where he was residing, engaged in farming, when the war between the states came on. Casting his sympathies with the South, George W. Hardy enlisted in an Arkansas regiment and served with gallantry until he met a soldier's death on the battlefield of Cane Hill, Arkansas, in 1863. His widow, with her daughter and son, left Arkansas in 1866 and returned to Giles County, Tennessee, and there Joseph J. Hardy grew to manhood and gained a fair common school education.

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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