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 21

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 21

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

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harter fee law, as a result of which more than $100,000 unually is brought into the state treasury; the resolu- ion relating to the election of United States senators y a direct vote of the people; and a number of other neasures for human rights and economical administra- ion. Some of his friends pointed out a special charac- eristic of his polity in that he has always "opposed roing at an automobile speed on a wheelbarrow income."

At the close of the 1908-09 session Governor Haskell ppointed Senator Franklin a delegate to the Southern Conference on Child Labor Laws, which met at New Orleans. During 1911-12 Senator Franklin was presi- lent of the State Conference of Charities and Correc- tions, and is now a member of its executive committee. Senator Franklin has always lived close to the people, and has shown an absolute sincerity in his position with regard to labor. A report by a committee of the Okla- homa Federation of Labor said of him in part as fol-

OWS : "Senator Franklin, who lived in the midst of in agricultural community, did not need for political reasons to line up with the laboring people, but had the greatest desire for humanity's sake to help us along in establishing those protective laws which our people go much need. *

* * Franklin came through the session with the grandest record for legislation to his name of any man in either house." He has always been absolutely free from corporation influence or con- trol, and as one of the Oklahoma papers said: "Sen- ator Franklin is one of the most earnest, sincere advo- cates of economy, honesty and efficiency in government. He has been an ardent supporter of labor issues and has stood close to the farming interests. ' He is an able lawyer and would fill the office of clerk of the supreme court in a most efficient manner. He has additional advantage of legal knowledge and thorough official training. "'

At the democratic primary election in 1912 for the nomination of a congressman at large, with three to elect, Mr. Franklin stood fifth in a race among twenty- eight candidates for the nomination. He went into the fight with no special organization, and without money, and made a splendid showing, although circumstances were against him. After the primary he organized and was made president of the Marshall County Wilson- Marshall Democratic Club, and was an active factor in rolling up a good majority for the general ticket in his section of Oklahoma.

William M. Franklin, whose home is at Madill, where he began practicing law, was born in Cooke County, Texas, December 9, 1876, a son of M. M. and Melissa J. (Williams) Franklin. The family homestead was on the boundary of Cooke and Montague counties. The mother died in 1884 and the father twelve years later. His father was familiarly known as Mel Franklin, and was born in Mississippi in 1852. For his second wife he married Miss Annie E. Browning, who reared the two children of her marriage, making a family of six in all.

William M. Franklin spent the first fifteen years of his life on a farm, and there were years of hard school- ing in contrast with circumstances. He early learned what it is to be a farmer, and had to gain his educa- tion in the intervals between farm duties. At the age of fifteen he became a student in the college at Mineral Wells, Texas, and there showed exceptional talent for extemporaneous speaking, gaining a reputation and sev- eral prizes for this talent. Before reaching his majority he began teaching school aud also farming in the Chickasaw Nation of Indian Territory. His first prac- tical introduction to politics came in 1896, at the age of twenty, when he went to New England and took part in the Bryan campaign both as a journalist and as a

speaker. While in the East he extended his travels to Europe, visiting both Ireland and Scotland. On return- ing to Texas he resumed farming for two years.

Having in the meantime determined upon the law as his vocation, he located at Ardmore and was in the office of Potter & Bowman until he creditably passed the examinations for admission to the bar in Judge Townsend's court. On the establishment of a commis- sioner's court at Madill, he moved to that place as a member of the firm of Hardy, Franklin & Slough, which firm later became Hardy & Franklin, and so continued until 1910, when Mr. Hardy was elected to the bench of the District Court. Mr. Franklin almost from the first enjoyed an important practice and had the han- dling of some civil cases of special interest on account of their involving citizenship and land titles. These cases were tried before the Government department at Washington. One case of special note was Archard vs. McGahey, known on the docket as Chickasaw Con- test No. 1, and with which was consolidated twenty other similar cases. The contest involved about 5,000 acres of land near Madill, a tract which became known as the "Government farm?' from the fact that the litigation was so long in the courts. The battle was fought for four years in the United States courts and three years before the Commission to the Five Civilized Tribes and departments of ultimate jurisdiction at Washington. The firm of Hardy & Franklin represented the plaintiffs, and the final decision was in the nature of a signal victory for the young attorneys at Madill. Senator Franklin's high position as a lawyer can also be judged from the fact that for four years he served as president of the Marshall County Bar Association.

Senator Franklin has been interested in fraternal mat- ters, and up to 1913 was head consul of the Woodmen of the World. He is a member of the Woodmen Circle, the Masonic Order, the Independent Order of Odd Fel- lows and the Knights of Pythias. He has also served as brigadier general of the Chickasaw Division of the Sons of Confederate Veterans.

The marriage of Senator Franklin on December 20, 1908,' to Miss Mattie Louise Young was a social event that attracted great attention all over the state, and particularly in the social circles of Guthrie, the state capital, where Senator Franklin was well known and was rapidly gaining a reputation as a senatorial leader. The marriage brought out the story of an interesting romance, and the story was told that Senator Franklin first became interested in his future wife through hear- ing her father speak of her inany accomplishments. Her father was G. W. Young, a well-known ranchman, capitalist and politician of Oklahoma, and who is now serving his second term as county commissioner of Carter County. Senator Franklin had known him and known of his family for several years. At the time Mr. Frank- lin met Miss Young she was teaching school for the benefit of their neighbors' children, in a schoolhouse which her father built out of his own money. Miss Young at the time of her marriage was not yet eighteen years of age. Mr. Young is an old citizen of Oklahoma, and his wife was of one-eighth Indian blood and related to Gov. Douglas H. Johnston of the Chickasaw Nation and also to Mrs. William H. Murray. Mrs. Franklin was educated in the Bloomfield Seminary, an Indian school for young ladies, and was graduated from Har- grove College at Ardmore. She is a woman of talent and culture and in early girlhood attracted attention on account of her proficiency as a violinist and won a number of medals in school and elsewhere for her musical accomplishment. After her marriage she at once became a social favorite in the capital. Senator and Mrs. Franklin now reside at Oklahoma City, though

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they still maintain a residence at Madill. To their mar- riage have been born two children: Prentiss Orville Franklin, born June 4, 1910; and Melvin Granville Franklin, born July 30, 1913.

WILLIAM T. MELTON. There can be no reason for indirection or conjecture in determining the value of the services of this representative and highly esteemed citizen of Pontotoc County, who has been a resident of what is now the State of Oklahoma from early child- hood, whose ambition and self-reliance enabled him to overcome obstacles that faced him in attempting to acquire in a pioneer country a liberal education, and whose success in the achievement of his desired object needs no further voucher than the statement that since 1912 he has been the efficient and valued incumbent of the office of county superintendent of schools in Ponto- toc, with residence in the thriving little City of Ada, the judicial center of the county. By any manner of work that would afford an honest means of accumulating the necessary funds with which to continue his educa- tional work, Mr. Melton pressed steadily forward to the goal of his ambition, and he became one of the pio- neer teachers in the schools of the Chickasaw Nation, Indian Territory, while the passing years have witnessed his advancement to secure vantage-place as one of the prominent, successful and influential factors in connec- tion with educational affairs in this vigorous young com- monwealth. He is still a young man, with unabated ambition and enthusiasm, and the best voucher for his effective service as a representative of the pedagogic profession is his retention of the important office of which he is now the incumbent, his original election to the office of county superintendent of schools having occurred in 1912 and the popular estimate of his admin- istration having been shown in his re-election in the autumn of 1914. From the standpoint of historical interest it is pleasing to recall that Mr. Melton had as the "hall of learning" in which he initiated his expe- rience as an educator, a crude log schoolhouse, it having since been his to note with satisfaction and pride the marvelous advancement that has been made in the edu- cational facilities of the same section of the now pros- perous and opulent State of Oklahoma.

Mr. Melton was born at Burns, Cooke County, Texas, in the year 1886, and is a son of John R. and Lulu (Bryant) Melton, who now reside on their well improved farm near Sasakwa, Seminole County, Oklahoma. The father of Mr. Melton was born and reared in Kentucky and as a young man, about the time of the Civil war, he established his residence in Texas, where he continued to maintain his home until 1890, when he came with his family to Indian Territory, where he became a pioneer settler and within the original boundaries of which he still continued to reside.

The early educational training of him whose name initiates this article was acquired in primitive subscrip- tion schools in Indian Territory, where his parents estab- lished their home when he was about four years of age. The scholastic facilities in Indian Territory were very meager and later Mr. Melton attended high school at Paradise and also at Bridgeport, Texas, in which latter connection he worked as janitor, clerk in a store and other occupations, in order to earn the money necessary for his maintenance during the completion of his school work in the high school. After his return to what is now the State of Oklahoma he took a course in the Central Normal School at Edmond, and later completed an effective supplemental course in East Central State Normal School at Ada, his present place of residence. In 1904 Mr. Melton served his novitiate in the pedagogic · profession by assuming the position of teacher in the

pioneer log schoolhouse, in Pontotoc County, to which reference has incidentally been made in a preceding paragraph. A consistent estimate of his character and splendid services has been written by one familiar with his career and the same is worthy of reproduction in this connection :

"Mr. Melton rose rapidly in his profession, by experi- ence and normal training, and was for three years prin- cipal of the school at Center, then one of the most important in Pontotoc county. For several years he has been a recognized leader in educational thought and advancement in this county, and he has served several terms as president of the Pontotoc County Teachers' Association. He is a member of the Oklahoma Educa- tional Association and has been honored by the State Superintendent of Public Instruction in being appointed a member of the examining committee of the State Board of Education.

"At the inception of Oklahoma statehood school facil- ities in Pontotoc county were still of most meager order. When the State was admitted to the Union there came the opportunity for the educational advancement which the people much desired, and during the first three years after the admission of the State sixty modern school buildings were erected in the county. There are now sixty-four organized school districts, with a scholastic population of 9,985, and employment is given to a corps of 161 teachers. In the five years preceding 1915 the scholastic population grew from 6,000 to the figures noted above. The average attendance in the county schools from 1913 to 1914 increased from sixty-six to seventy-eight per cent. During the administration of Mr. Melton as County Superintendent of Schools his work has been an inspiration and incentive and has enlisted the enthusiastic support of all classes of citizens, the teachers under his supervision and the pupils in the various schools. Within his regime, in connection with the erection of school buildings, special attention has been given to heating, lighting and ventilation, and vir- tually all school buildings in the county are up to the best modern standard in these important particulars. In the town of Roff employment is given to 12 teachers and the curriculum includes four years of high-school work. The village of Frances has the third largest school in the county and is followed in turn by Allen, Stonewall and smaller towns. The average length of the school year in Pontotoc county is eight months; ten districts have recently voted bonds for new buildings or extensions; and the standard of teachers in the county ranks high, the major number of them having received training in State normal schools. Under the adminis- tration of Superintendent Melton interest in eighth- grade graduations has been materially increased and vitalized. In 1909 there were twenty-four such grad- uates and in 1915 there were more than one hundred. Superintendent Melton has created and perpetuated defi- nite popular interest in the modern school ideals and systems, and the teaching of agriculture, domestic sci- ence and manual training have been materially advanced in connection with the public school work under his able and faithful supervision. The establishing and upbuild- ing of public-school libraries has received marked atten- tion, and there are now in these libraries in Pontotoc county more than 8,000 volumes. Field and track ath- letics have gradually taken rank with those of the best counties in the State, and public-school pupils of the county take a lively and helpful interest in the preparing of exhibits for the county fair and also the state fair."

Though a man of broad and well fortified convictions concerning economic and governmental affairs and a staunch supporter of the cause of the democratic party, Mr. Melton has subordinated all other interests to the

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demands of his chosen profession and thus has mani- fested no desire to enter the turbulent current of so- called practical politics. He is a valued and active member of the Ada Commercial Club and both he and his wife hold membership in the Baptist Church.

In the year 1910 was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Melton to Miss Mayme White, of Center, Pontotoc County, where she had been a successful and popular teacher in the village schools. They have one child, Troy, who was born in 1911. Mr. Melton has two brothers and two sisters: Samuel is a prosperous farmer near Wetumka, Hughes County; Roland is a stu- dent in the high school at Ada; Mrs. Margaret Lackey resides at Nina, Arkansas, her husband being a rail- road employe; and Mrs. Nora Polk is a resident of Wetumka, Oklahoma, her husband being an electrician by trade and vocation.

WILLIAM JACKSON HOSKINS. Some of the least auspicious appearing events of recent years in Okla- homa have had a vital significance in the development of the state. The capture of a plant of a liquor dis- tillery in the mountains of Atoka County is an event of little importance in itself but it is a link in the final clearing for the use of civilized communities of a region wherein in former years flourished some of the most stubborn hindrances to the development of civilization.

The illegal manufacture and barter of intoxicating liquors was the last great hindrance. It is therefore of interest that William Jackson Hoskins, in his official capacity, had a part in the capture of liquor manu- facturing machinery. It was not the last of such ma- chinery, but the plant was of such magnitude and the men conducting it so influential among their kind that it really marked the beginning of the end of liquor manufacture in the mountains. One result of the re- form thus established was a determination on the part of law-abiding citizens of the county that it should be cleared of the bootlegging element. In due time Mr. Hoskins became head of the police department of the City of Atoka and did probably more than any other man in that position to enforce anti-liquor laws. An illustration of the belief of the people of Atoka that he would accomplish this is found in the fact that in the primary campaign of 1915 he received more votes than his three opponents combined and more than twice the number of votes received by his republican opponent in the general election. He practically put an end to bootlegging and gambling and made the historic City of Atoka as clean as any community in the state. Two men on the police force assist him. Prior to his elec- tion Mr. Hoskins was for nearly two years by appoint- ment of the mayor head of the police department of the city.

William Jackson Hoskins was born in Mississippi, May 13, 1875, and is a son of John H. and Maggie Hoskins. His father is a native of Mississippi, an early settler of Red River County, Texas, and one of the old- est settlers now remaining at Boggy Depot, the oldest community of Atoka County. The Hoskins family set- tled in Red River County, Texas, in 1876, where the present Atoka marshal first attended school. His father there engaged in farming and the boy grew up on the farm, living at one time in Fannin County, in the same state. He moved to Boggy Depot in 1900, several years after his father settled there, and later moved to Atoka and for five years prior to his ele- vation to the chief's office was a member of the police force. Before that time, while he was engaged in farming for nine years at Boggy Depot, he served in various capacities as a peace officer. At Boggy Depot he lived on the Harkins farm which was established

more than fifty years before. His home was near the historic salt plant that was operated about the middle of the last century by the grandfather of Harkins. Among those in business there while Chief Hoskins was a resident was C. A. Skeen, a pioneer white citizen of the Choctaw Nation.

Mr. Hoskins was married in Texas, in 1896, to Miss Carrie Lee Guyton, who died ten years later at Boggy Depot. She was the mother of five children: Fred P., Roy Howard, Marie Lillian, Zeva May and William Claud. Mr. Hoskins was again married in 1912, at Atoka, when united with Rilla M. Pratt, and they have one child: Delma Jackson, born in 1913. The broth- ers and sisters of Mr. Hoskins are as follows: Mrs. Annie Penola, the wife of a farmer at Madill, Okla- homa; R. C., who is engaged in agricultural pursuits in Hunt County, Texas; J. N., who is engaged in farm- ing at Boggy Depot; J. B., also a farmer in that lo- cality ; Mrs. Lilla M. Ford, who is the wife of a farmer at Magnum, Oklahoma; and Miss Lillian, who resides with her parents at Boggy Depot. Mr. Hoskins is a popular member of the local lodges of the Woodmen of the World and the Knights of the Maccabees.

JAMES F. HICKEY. An energetic business man whose success in life has been on a parity with his well directed endeavors is James F. Hickey, secretary and manager of the Blackwell-Hickey Company, a wholesale seed concern with headquarters at Hydro. This firm controls an extensive business throughout the South and makes a specialty of field seed for the wholesale trade.

Mr. Hickey was born in the City of Boston, Massa- chusetts, May 30, 1875, and he is a son of John A. and Johannah (O'Neil) Hickey, both of whom were born in Ireland, the former in County Clare, in 1848, and the latter in County Cork, in 1850. The father came to America in 1862 and located in Boston, whence he removed to LeMars, Iowa, in 1877. Subsequently he established the family home in Sioux City, Iowa, and for a time was a resident of Denver, Colorado. In 1908 he came to Oklahoma and settled in Oklahoma City, removing thence to Hydro in August, 1913. He devoted most of his active career to work as a brick manufacturer but since coming to Hydro has lived in virtual retire- ment, his home being with the subject of this sketch. He is a democrat in politics and he is possessed of a genial, kindly disposition that makes him popular with all classes of people. Mrs. Hickey was summoned to the life eternal at LeMars, Iowa, in 1882. The following children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Hickey: Mary is the wife of Joseph M. Hedinger, a railroad man at Sioux City, Iowa; Nellie married a Mr. Devlan, a railroad employe in Denver, Colorado; James F. is the subject of this review; John was a miner in Alaska when last heard from; Addie is the wife of Frank Chatterton, an electrician in Los Angeles, California; and Joseph E. died in San Francisco at the age of twenty-six years.

After completing the prescribed course in the public schools of LeMars, Iowa, James F. Hickey began to work for a seed concern in Sioux City, remaining with the same firm for six years. In 1895 he went to St. Louis, Missouri, and was there connected with the same line of business for one year. He then attended St. Benedict's College, at Ashton, Kansas, for one year and in 1898 he joined the Sixth Missouri Volunteers, going to Havana, Cuba, with the Seventh Army Corps. He was on police duty in Havana and was mustered out of service in May, 1899, at Savannah, Georgia, as a corporal. In the following year he returned to Sioux City and was engaged in the seed business for four months, at the expiration of which he went to Denver, Colorado, and secured a position with the Barteldes Seed

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Company as traveling salesman, covering Colorado, Utah, Idaho, Oregon, Washington, Montana, South Dakota and Nebraska. In 1907 the above concern appointed him manager for the Oklahoma branch at Oklahoma City and he continued in that capacity for six years. In 1913 he went to Salt Lake City and traveled again until August of that year, when he came to Hydro, where he has since resided and where he is secretary and manager of the Blackwell-Hickey Seed Company, of which Mr. J. W. Blackwell is president. This firm deals exclusively in field seeds and makes a specialty of improving different varieties of seeds for the wholesale trade. The principal business is in supplying jobbers in carload lots, con- signments being shipped to different sections of Okla- homa, Texas, Louisiana, Georgia, Arkansas and other states in the South and Southwest. In 1914 190 cars of seeds were shipped and during the first six months of 1915 125 cars were shipped. The Hickey-Black- well Seed Company is in a very flourishing condition and promises to become one of the big business enterprises of the Southwest.

Mr. Hickey is a democrat in politics and while he does not take an active part in public affairs he gives a loyal support to all measures and enterprises calculated to benefit the community and state at large. He is a shrewd business man and is well known and admired for his just and honorable methods.

In Oklahoma City, August 23, 1909, Mr. Hickey was united in marriage to Miss Belle Tozer, a daughter of William Tozer, a farmer at Petersburg, Illinois. Mr. and Mrs. Hickey have two children: John W., born June 24, 1910; and Maxwell, born December 23, 1911.

ROBERT WESLEY DICK, warden of the Oklahoma State Penitentiary, is a native son of Arkansas, and was born in Columbia County, June 8, 1865, a son of William J. and Minerva C. (Smith) Dick. His father was born and reared in South Carolina and came of sturdy Scotch- Irish stock, and as a young man went to Louisiana, where he met and married a daughter of one of the very oldest families of that state. He settled there and lived for a short time in Columbia County, Arkansas, when he removed to Grayson County, Texas, in 1870, and settled on a farm.

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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