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 20

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 20

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At Bokchito, Oklahoma, October 9, 1912, Doctor

Lively married Miss Irene Miller. Her father was Dr. Joseph T. Miller of Hartford, Connecticut. Mrs. Lively prior to her marriage' had for several years been a teacher in the public schools of Oklahoma. Doctor Lively has two brothers: R. C. Lively, an electrician at Cincinnati, Ohio; and E. D. Lively, who lives at home with the parents at LaRue County, Kentucky. Doctor Lively has filled the chair of Master in the Masonic lodge, and is also a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows.

RICHARD A. SNEED, Secretary Franklin K. Lane of the Department of the Interior paid a fitting tribute to the civic foresight of Col. Richard A. Sneed when he appointed him superintendent of the Platt National Park, situated adjacent to the Town of Sulphur. Thirty years ago when Colonel Sneed was a merchant in Pauls Valley, he conceived the idea of establishing a health and pleasure resort on the ranch of Perry Froman which embraced the 848 acres of land now marking the area of Platt National Park. He organized and incorporated the Sulphur Springs Company, which came in possession of 640 acres of the Froman ranch. The land was fenced and the company began advertising the medicinal prop- erties of the sulphur and bromide water.

A history of this corporation is interesting in view of its calling to the attention of Congress the possibilities of the region for health and pleasure purposes and also because of the men associated with Colonel Sneed. Among the incorporators were Calvin and Thomas Grant, who were among the most prominent pioneers of the Chickasaw Nation; Charles D. Carter, of Ardmore, since statehood a member of Congress; Dr. J. A. Ryan, of Oklahoma City, a pioneer physician of the southern part of the Chickasaw Nation; Samuel Kennerly, of Gaines- ville, Texas, a merchant well known in North Texas and Oklahoma for over thirty years; Judge W. A. Ledbetter, of Oklahoma City, formerly a lawyer of Gainesville, Texas, and Ardmore, who was a member of the Oklahoma Constitutional Convention, and H. L. Stuart, a member of the present law firm of Ledbetter, Stuart & Bell, of Oklahoma City.

The Sulphur Springs Company's tract, with additional land, was taken over under an act of Congress by the United States Government, in 1902, and Platt National Park created. It was named in honor of United States Senator Orville H. Platt, of Connecticut, who had taken great interest in establishing this national play ground.

When in February, 1914, Colonel Sneed received his commission and returned to the park as its superintend- ent, he naturally was gratified with the realization of his dream of a quarter of a century before.

This is Colonel Sneed's second appointment at the hands of the Department of the Interior. The first was made in 1885, in which year he became a citizen of the Indian country. The position was that of licensed Indian trader and the commission was signed by J. D. C. Adkins, commissioner of Indian Affairs, who formerly had been representative in Congress from the Eighth District of Tennessee, in which Colonel Sneed lived.

Colonel Sneed established himself as licensed trader at Fort Sill, then under command of Maj. John W. Clause of the Twenty-fourth Infantry. Fort Sill was then in the heart of the great Comanche and Kiowa Indian country, and there was not a fence between Red River and Caldwell, Kansas.

The nearest railroad point was Henrietta, Texas, sixty-five miles distant. From Henrietta all that was required for the post and its environs was hauled. A daily mail route existed between Fort Sill and Henrietta, the mail being carried by stage coach.

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HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA .

During the four years Colonel Sneed remained at Fort Sill, he became intimately acquainted with several army officers who have since been promoted to stations of distinction. Among them was Gen. Hugh L. Scott, now chief of staff of the United States army, who was then a lieutenant in the Seventh Cavalry. He knew Major Purington of the Third Cavalry; Captain Bullis, a well known Indian fighter; Col. T. A. Baldwin, then a captain, and Frank D. Baldwin.

He knew the leading Indians of the day, including Quanah Parker, last chief of the Comanches; Geronimo, the noted Apache warrior who was a prisoner of war at Fort Sill; and Lone Wolf, the hereditary chief of the Kiowas. "I have never done business with more honor- able men than were the Comanches and Kiowas thirty years ago, " says Colonel Sneed. "They practised square dealing, which meant that they always paid their debts. I sold them many thousands of dollars worth of goods on credit and never went out to collect a dollar. When the Indian received his lease money from the government, he straightway paid his debts."

In October, 1890, Colonel Sneed moved to Pauls Valley, Indiau Territory, a town bearing the name of Smith Paul, whom thousands of Indian Territory citizens knew for many years in the territorial development period. Colonel Snced entered the general merchandise business in Pauls Valley and for years sold goods over a territory embracing probably 2,000 square miles. In 1895 the citizens of Pauls Valley seut him to Washington in the interest of a United States Court for the town. Repre- sentative Joseph W. Bailey, of Texas, championed the cause of Pauls Valley before Congress and the Depart- ment of Justice, and Pauls Valley won at the end of a spirited contest with Wynnewood.

When the Kiowa and Comanche Indian country was opened to settlement in 1901, Colonel Sneed returned to the scene of his first business endeavors in the South- west. He leased school land in the neighborhood of Mount Scott and built a beautiful stone residence in the shadow of that peak. The site of the home is upon the spot on which Capt. George B. McClelland and Captain Marcey, his brother-in-law, pitched their tents during a historic expeditionary tour of the Southwest in 1852. It was here on July 18th of that year that Captain McClelland completed a measurement of the highest peak of the Wichita Mountains and named it in honor of General Winfield Scott of the United States army.

Richard Alexander Sneed was born August 28, 1845, in Tallahatchie County, Mississippi, a son of Albert Gallatin and Maria Frances (Bullock) Sneed. The Sneed family came originally from Derbyshire and Stafford counties, England. Colonel Sneed is not the only member of his family to have a military record. His grand- father, Stephen Sneed, served as a captain in Gen. Wil- liam Morgan's command in the Revolutionary war, and was with that famous leader in the battle of Kings Mountain, North Carolina. Stephen Sneed named his first son for his commander at that battle. Albert Gallatin Sneed was captain of the home militia in North Carolina prior to 1835, and though sixty-four years of age at the time, served in the quartermaster's depart- ment in the Confederate army in 1863. Two of his brothers, Archibald and Junius Sneed, were paymasters in the United States army prior to the Civil war, with the rank of captain. On the maternal side Colonel Sneed 's uncle, Erasmus Darwin Bullock, was captain of Second Dragoons, U. S. A., and served in the Florida war, resigning his commission in 1840.

Colonel Sneed's parents were born and reared in Granville County, North Carolina, and in 1835 moved to Mississippi. Colonel Sneed spent his early life in

Madison County, Mississippi, and all his education came from the township schools.

He was still a schoolboy, aged sixteen and a half years, when on March 10, 1862, he enlisted for service in the Confederate army at Canton, Mississippi. He became a private in Company C, Eighteenth Regiment, Missis- sippi Volunteers, Barksdale's Brigade, Longstreet's Corps, Army Northern Virginia. On May 3, 1863, he was wounded at Fredericksburg and captured, aud was recaptured two days later. Being disabled for the infantry service by this wound, he was appointed in June, 1864, ordnance sergeant of his regiment, and remained with his old command until April 6, 1865. Then at Sailor's Creek in Virginia, on Lee's retreat from Richmond, he with several thousand Confederates, was captured and sent to Point Lookout Prison, Mary- land, where he arrived April 14th, the day President Lincoln was killed. He remained a prisoner there until June 30th, when he took the oath of allegiance to the United States and started for home, arriving there July 11th.

Colonel Sneed during the greater part of his active career since the war, has been a merchant and farmer. In August, 1874, he was elected circuit clerk of Madison County, Tennessee, and held that office eight years.

In 1884 he was elected as secretary of the Tennessee delegatiou to the Democratic National Couvention at Chicago, which nominated Grover Cleveland.

In October, 1885, he moved from Jackson, Tennessee, to Fort Sill, Indian Territory, and was a member of the firm of Collier & Sneed, Indian traders at Fort Sill, from 1885 to 1890. Then as already stated he engaged in the mercantile business at Pauls Valley, and during the nation-wide panic of 1893 lost everything he had, including his home. He had sold goods extensively to the farmers around Pauls Valley on credit, and the impossibility of making collections forced him to the wall. He came out with personal credit, since he sacrificed everything he had and bravely and cheerfully faced life at the bottom of the ladder.

On November 16, 1907, the day Oklahoma was admitted as a state, he was elected register of deeds in Comanche County, and held that office three years. He was also president of the Chamber of Commerce at Lawton for two terms, 1908-09. He has always been an active democrat, and was a member of the Democratic State Committee of Oklahoma in 1910. His appointment as superintendent of Platt National Park in Sulphur was inade by the secretary of interior February 3, 1914, and he entered upon his duties February 14th.

In looking back over his long and eventful career, Colonel Sneed confesses that the achievements of which he is most proud, is the part he took in the establishment and founding of the Confederate Home of the State of Oklahoma. This home was established to care for the indigent Confederate soldiers and sailors, their wives and widows, and is one of the best equipped institutious of the kind in the South. He has served continuously as secretary of the board of trustees since its organization in 1909. Colonel Sneed is commander of John B. Gordon Camp, United Confederate Veterans, at Lawton, and is also judge advocate general on the staff of Maj .- Gen. D. M. Hailey of the Oklahoma Division of the United Confederate Veterans.

The first secret organization with which Colonel Sneed was identified was the Ku-Klux-Klan, which he joined at Jackson, Tennessee, soon after the Civil war. In 1867 he took his first degrees in the Masonic Order at Jack- son; was secretary of the lodge several years; was worshipful master one year, and in 1876 was knighted in the Jackson Commandery No. 13, Knights Templar. He

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is now a member of Lawton Commandery, Knights Templar. His parents were members of the Episcopal Church, and Colonel Sneed was reared in that faith, and is now a member of that church.

On December 15, 1869, at Jackson, Tennessee, Colonel Sneed married Anne Robert Bullock, daughter of Micajah and Susan Morgan (Brown) Bullock. Micajah Bullock was descended from John W. Bullock, of North Carolina, who was a captain in the Colonial army. Mrs. Sneed 's brother, Hon. Ernest L. Bullock, was chairman of the railroad commission of Tennessee and was for two terms chancellor of the Twelfth Chancery Division of that state.

Colonel Sneed and his wife have six children: Susan Morgan, unmarried; Francis Seawell, who married Lula R. Campbell, of Gainesville, Texas; Richard Reynolds, who married Rebecca Perkins Sparks, of Murfreesboro, Tennessee; Lucian Bullock, who married Edna Crum, of Guymon, Oklahoma; Mary Dudley, wife of Walter R. Lovell, of West, Texas; and Annie Linden, wife of Frederick Snyder, of Pecos, Texas. Colonel Sneed's second son, Richard R. Sneed, is now secretary of state of Tennessee. His third son, Lucian B. Sneed, is post- master at Guymon, Oklahoma.

HON. WALTER A. LEDBETTER. The man whose career it is the province of this sketch to trace is well known to the bar, not only of the West, but of the entire coun- try, as a careful, painstaking and profound legist, the foremost constitutional lawyer of Oklahoma, and, the constitution of the state being in large measure the work of his mind, the father of Oklahoma's judicial system. Mr. Ledbetter is a Texan by nativity, having been born on his father's homestead farm in Fayette County, March 9, 1863, and is a son of T. A. and Almeida (Robison) Ledbetter.

Mr. Ledbetter's early education came from the public schools of the vicinity of his birth, following which he attended the State Normal School of Texas, and after some preparation took his law examination and was admitted to the bar at Gainesville, Texas, on the day that he attained his majority. He entered upon the practice of his chosen calling at Gainesville, and there continued with more or less success until 1890, when he removed to Ardmore, Indian Territory, the city being a community of about 1,000 inhabitants and the territory embracing all the country that now comprises the State of Oklahoma. In the territory there was but one United States court with civil jurisdiction, but in the fall of 1889 a congressional committee had been sent to the territory to make an investigation with a view of recom- mending legislation to Congress, and Mr. Ledbetter at once got into touch with this committee, with which he spent considerable time. Conceiving the idea of pro- curing the location of a United States court at Ardmore, he was sent by the people of that city to Washington, and, his efforts there being successful, the court was located at Ardmore, May 2, 1890.

At that time the federal courts in the territory had but limited criminal jurisdiction, that over the higher criminal offenses being held by the United States courts at Paris, Texas, and Fort Smith, Arkansas, to which thousands of persons were taken annually as principals or witnesses for trial. Having shown himself so capable in his first mission, Mr. Ledbetter was sent year after year to Washington to procure full jurisdiction for the courts in the territory and, incidentally, to press the fight for statehood, and from 1900 to 1906 had as much to do with shaping the destinies of the state as any other man. In 1893 his earnest advocacy of statehood and other progressive legislation prompted the Chickasaw Legislature to petition the Secretary of the Interior to

expel Mr. Ledbetter from the country, an action which attracted wide attention throughout the country, but his cause was strongly supported by the people and he was permitted to remain.

In 1906, announcing himself as a candidate for the Constitutional convention, Mr. Ledbetter was nominated and elected, was appointed as chairman on the Committee on Judiciary, and subsequently served on the legal advisory and numerous other committees. In that body, Mr. Ledbetter's services were of a most stirring and brilliant character, as related in the following, taken from a review of his work in the Constitutional con- vention :

"One of the first questions which arose in the con- vention involved the power of the convention to hear and determine the election and qualification of its mem- bers. This power was denied by certain members, on the ground that it had not been specially delegated to the convention by the Enabling Act, it being insisted by them that the convention had only such powers as were specially delegated to it. Mr. Ledbetter successfully led the fight against this contention, maintaining that the convention possessed all the powers which it was not specially prohibited from exercising, one of its neces- sary powers being the right to determine the election and qualification of its members. The questions at issue were of the utmost importance, involving the considera- tion of great constitutional principles, which were vindi- cated, after the convention had completed its work, by the decision of the Supreme Court of Oklahoma in hold- ing that the convention had the power to create new counties out of the old counties of the territory of Okla- homa, to propose a state government according to its judgment as to what a state government should be, subject only to the requirements of the Enabling Act and the limitations of the Federal Constitution. The Enabling Act required the convention, as soon as its organization was completed, to adopt the Constitution of the United States for and on behalf of the people of the State of Oklahoma. A resolution was offered to comply with this requirement, but it went further and declared that 'the Constitution of the United States is the highest and paramount law of the State of Okla- homa.' . Mr. Ledbetter moved to strike out the last clause. This motion provoked one of the most celebrated debates in the convention, but Mr. Ledbetter's conten- tion that the Constitution of the United States was not ' the highest and paramount law of the State of Okla- homa, ' was sustained by the convention. His argument was that while the Constitution of the United States was the supreme law of the land, and as to all matters that pertain to the Federal jurisdiction and power it was paramount, yet within the domain of state sovereignty the state constitution and laws are supreme; that the spheres of the State and Federal governments are sepa- rate and distinct, and each within its sphere is supreme. Mr. Ledbetter introduced the measure which was adopted with some amendments as the judicial system of the state, which now constitutes Article Seven of the Con- stitution.

"The Public Service Committee's Report, which fixed the passenger fares at two cents per mile, was amended on motion of Mr. Ledbetter, so as to empower the Cor- poration Commission to exempt any railroad from the operation of this rule upon satisfactory proof that it could not earn just compensation for the service rendered the public if not permitted to charge more than two cents per mile, the purpose of this amendment being to meet and avoid the claim, which was certain to be made, that the arbitrary two-cent fare rule would be con- fiscatory, and, therefore, in violation of the Federal Constitution in its effect on the smaller roads operating

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HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA

in the sparsely settled portions of the state. Under the power which this amendment coufers upon the Corpora- tion Commission a number of the smaller railroads, with a total of about thirteen hundred mileage, have been exempt from the two cent fare provision of the Con- stitution. It is now generally conceded by lawyers that but for this amendment the two cent fare provision of our constitution would long since have been held void.

"After the constitutiou was prepared and ready for submission, certain interests in the state opposed to statehood caused a number of injunction suits to be instituted, to prohibit the submission of the constitution to the people of the state. Injunctions were granted, aud the questions were finally fought out in the Supreme Court of the Territory of Oklahoma. Great public inter- est was aroused by this litigation, and upon its deter- mination depended the question of statehood, because if the injunctions had been sustained, statehood would have been defeated. However, Mr. Ledbetter, who had been designated to represent the Constitutional Conven- tion, was successful, and the people were permitted to ratify the constitution, and the state was admitted."

Mr. Ledbetter was a member of the commission on behalf of the Constitutional Convention, which was sent to Washington to confer with the President and attor- ney-general on the questiou as to whether the constitu- tion, as written, conformed to the Enabling Act and created a state government, republican in form. It is conceded that this commission did invaluable service in removing the prejudice against and criticism of the constitution, and that its mission largely contributed to the final action of the President iu giving his approval to the constitution. In the state capitol controversy, Mr. Ledbetter represented the State of Oklahoma, and sus- tained the "power of the state to locate its capital before the year 1913." He also represented the State of Okla- homa in the litigation over "River Beds" and in the "Grandfather 's Clause Act" litigation.

Mr. Ledbetter came to Oklahoma City in 1909 and here formed the firm of Ledbetter, Stuart & Bell, with offices at Nos. 815-823 American National Bank Building. The firm is conceded to be one of the strongest in the state, its practice being mainly before the State Supreme Court and the United States courts.

HON. WILLIAM M. FRANKLIN. One of the most im- portant offices in the Oklahoma state government is clerk of the Supreme Court, and in 1914 the people made a worthy choice and a deserved recognition of ability, experienced political service, and peculiar fituess for the honors to which he aspired, when they elected William M. Franklin to these responsibilities.

Under the territorial government and also under the state government up to January 1, 1914, the office of clerk of the Supreme Court was maintained on the fee system. With the growth of the state and with the development of the volume of business handled by the Supreme Court and the Criminal Court of Appeals, to both of which one clerk was assigned, the revenues of the office amounted up to about $11,000 a year. During his term in the State Senate, Senator Franklin intro- duced bills at each session to place the office of clerk among the salaried positions in the state, and as a result the office now pays a salary of $3,000 a year, with all fees paid into the state treasury. Mr. Franklin was the first clerk elected under the new system. In the election of November, 1914, he received the greatest plurality of any one on the state ticket by 3,000 votes, while his majority over his nearest opponent was 34,800. He took office November 16, 1914, to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Mr. Campbell, and his regular term of four years from January, 1915, to

January, 1919. In addition to his scrupulous accept- ance of the funds of the salaried position, Mr. Franklin has already perfected reforms in the management of the office that will save the state between $4,000 and $5,000 anuually.

Before taking up a formal biography it will be proper to renew the public record of Mr. Franklin in other fields. His work as senator stands out conspicu- ously. For a uumber of years he had been an earnest advocate for statehood for Oklahoma, and was a mnem- ber of the delegation which went to Washington in December, 1905, to urge the favorable action of Con- gress in this matter. After the passage of the enabling act Mr. Franklin became a candidate for the State Senate, and was elected in September, 1907, and in that election received the highest percentage of majorities with which any member of the body was honored. He was strongly supported by the farmers, who had peti- tioned him to make the race, and he well justified the confidence thus shown him. The first election was for the short term, but his service so recommended him to his constituents that in 1908 they unanimously returned him for the four-year term. In that election he suc- ceeded in carrying both counties at the primaries by a large majority.

During his term as senator, from the beginning of statehood until January, 1913, a period of nearly six years, in which were held five sessions of the Legisla- ture, Senator Franklin made a remarkable record of faithful attendance and consistency in his performance of duty. He missed only three days from roll call, and that was on account of sickness. During his service in the Senate he was chairman of the Committee on Com- merce and Labor during the First Legislature; chair- man of the Legal Advisory Committee of the Third Legislature; and a member of the Steering and Sifting Committee, as well as a member of the Judiciary and other important committees. He was also recognized as the labor leader in the Senate.

While he was still a member of the Senate his work was described as follows: "He was not only a watcher, but a worker, and soon secured the passage of eleven bills and two resolutions-eight of which measures vital- ize sections of the State Constitution and four of which were especially noted by the governor in his message to the Legislature. He was the author of the follow- ing: Anti-bucket shop bill; an act defining the duties of labor commissioners, creating the board of arbitra- tion and conciliation, and providing laws in relation to labor employed in the mining, transportation, mechan- ical and manufacturing industries of the state; an act relating to the teaching of agriculture and allied sub- jects, for the purpose of giving practical educational values and providing for schools of secondary grades with course of studies leading to the Agricultural and Mechanical College; and a joint resolution relating to the election of United States senators by the people, and the calling of a convention to amend the Federal Constitution toward that end, which the governor de- clared in a message to be the most practical plan ever submitted on the subject. He also prepared at this session most of the health and medical practice acts which were considered by the Legislature, and the Associated Press declared his inheritance tax bill to be 'more unique and equitable than any law of the kind in the United States. " "' This refers to his legislative record during his first term. A more complete summary of his legislative performance is found in his author- ship of the child labor law, one of the most advanced and beneficial pieces of legislation in Oklahoma; the general labor law; the industrial educational law; the anti-bucket shop law, demanded by the farmers; the

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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