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 25

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 25

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Mr. Mason's service in the county attorney's office is one which has gained him the respect of the courts and bar and has placed him still deeper in the confidence of the people. He is a close student of his profession and belongs to the Nowata County Bar Association and the Oklahoma State Bar Association. His fraternal con- nections include membership in Nowata Lodge, A. F. & A. M .; Nowata Lodge No. 1151, Benevolent and Pro- tective Order of Elks, of which he is past exalted ruler ; the Fraternal Order of Eagles, of which he is past president; and the Sigma Phi Epsilon and Delta Theta Phi, college fraternities, in all of which he is popular.

Mr. Mason was married December 25, 1914, to Miss Ruth Cobbs, who was born in Kansas.

EDGAR E. COCHRAN. In spite of its political aspect, the Grandfather Law, so called, that was adopted as an amendment to the Oklahoma Constitution in 1910 operated in sections of the state in favor of the white man's government. As a matter of fact, the political aspect was inconspicuous in a reasonable consideration of the law in a community where negroes either dom- inated or held a balance of power. Although the law was held unconstitutional by the United States Supreme Court in 1915, it was rigidly and patriotically enforced by many election officials while it was in force. The four years of its operation, therefore, constitute a period of political history not of secondary interest.

A unique situation arose in McCurtain County, a prob- lem the solution of which required extraordinary patriot- ism and courage. Two voting precincts of the county contained a predominance of negro voters. An attempt to enforce the Grandfather Law there meant nothing short of bloodshed, for the negroes were goaded by their own ideas of alleged unfair treatment and the spirited prop- aganda of the political party that sought to control their vote.

Mr. Cochran, whose name heads this review, had been appointed secretary of the McCurtain County Election Board and to him principally was given the solution of the problem. To put the conduct of the election in the negro precincts in the hands of negroes meant that suf- frage would be as free there as citizenship, and that no attempt would be made to enforce the literacy test. After some conferences the board concluded to abolish the voting precincts in these communities. This was undeniably a radical step, and one that well nigh pro- voked bloodshed. Complaints were made to the United States officials on the ground that state officials were in- terfering with the right of men to vote for federal officers, and following that representation marshals and deputies came into McCurtain County and made an in- vestigation. Prosecutions never ensued, however, prob- ably for the reason that arrests were made in another county to test the constitutionality of the law. The two voting precincts abolished were those of Shawneetown and Harris, and up to this writing (1915) they have not been reinstated.

Mr. Cochran had been a pioneer settler of the county. In fact, he was the fifth of the line of lawyers that settled there after the establishment of Idabel in 1902. He had been a party leader for several years before statehood and was appointed secretary of the county election board immediately after Oklahoma's admission. It would require much space to adequately describe con- ditions as they existed in the early years of statehood in their relation to the exercise of the ballot in Indian Territory, where men of a second generation had never voted. It was the duty of the secretary of the county election board to teach men their new duties of citizen- ship, and he became truly a pioneer reformer and edu- cator. Misunderstandings twice caused him to be haled before the District Court on a writ of mandamus, but at no time was he shown to have acted other than within his province.

Mr. Cochran was advanced in his political career in 1911 by appointment to the post of county judge to suc- ceed Judge T. J. Barnes, who resigned. In 1912 he was reelected to succeed himself and held the office until January, 1915. One of his principal duties as judge was probate work relating to Indian guardianships and estates, and in 31/2 years of service he approved 700 dead claim deeds. There is an interesting story of his early- day experiences that will aptly illustrate the virgin state of the county at the time of statehood. A client who was charged with theft near Valliant objected to trial before the justice of the peace there, and a change of venue was

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HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA

granted to the court of Justice Cox, who lived two days' travel up in the Glover Mountains. Cochran, his client, a witness and the county attorney traveled on horseback to the seat of the court of Justice Cox. It was bitter cold weather in January and the slow journey was like unto those taken by the pathfinders of the Indian coun- try. The trial consumed a day and the defendant was acquitted.

Mr. Cochran was born June 18, 1880, at Boenhmond, Arkansas, and he is a son of Martin M. and Harriet A. (Holman) Cochran. His father and paternal grand- father, were Baptist ministers in Arkansas, the latter a man of considerable note in Arkansas and Indian Terri- tory as a powerful preacher of the Word. He was mur- dered near Wheelock Academy, in what is now McCurtain County, Oklahoma, while traveling back to his Arkansas home after a prospecting trip that took him as far as Denison, Texas. A negro employed at the country house where he spent a night en route followed the old gentle- man into the timber the next morning, assaulted him with an axe, robbed him, and left his victim to die. He made his escape, but a posse later captured him and he con- fessed to the heinous crime and paid the penalty of his deed. Dudley Cochran was widely known, not alone as a minister of the gospel but as a legislator in the State of Arkansas, and in his native state he filled other posi- tions of public prominence. The maternal grandfather of the subject was Joseph Holman, now living at the advanced age of eighty. He was a pioneer settler in Sevier County, Arkansas, and once was judge of his county and a member of the State Legislature. He lived a highly useful and creditable life, and when retired from active life 'by reason of his age his county lost the serv- ices of a man who had been faithful to it through long years of active life.

Edgar Cochran had his early education in the public schools of Arkansas, and in 1905 he was graduated from the law department of the University of Arkansas, re- ceiving his law degree at that time. In September of the same year he began the practice of his profession at Ashdown, Arkansas, but in December decided to move to Idabel, Indian Territory, where he might find more ready opportunities in a newer country, and later removed to Valliant. Mr. Cochran was in practice in Valliant until 1911. While there he was associated in partnership with Edmund Gardner, a well known Choctaw Indian lawyer, and later he became a partner of William P. Stewart, who was a member of the first State Senate of Oklahoma. Mr. Cochran's first practice in Indian Territory was be- fore Judge Spaulding, who was United States commis- sioner at Garvin. He came to Idabel in 1911.

Mr. Cochran was married April 16, 1907, at Benloman, Arkansas, to Miss Nancy Louise Meredith. They are members of the Baptist Church, and Mr. Cochran is fraternally identified by his membership in the Woodmen of the World and the Masonic order, being well advanced in the latter. He is a member of the County and State Bar associations and in 1915 was president of the county body. He was one of the organizers and is now a mem- ber of the board of directors of the First National Bank of Valliant, that being the first bank organized there, and one of the most prosperous and well conducted insti- tutions of its kind to be found there at the present time.

Mr. Cochran has one brother, D. M., who is a teacher and is now located at Valliant.

JAMES M. GAUME, M. D. Since 1907 Doctor Gaume has been located at Byron and has been steadily growing in reputation and skill as one of the leading physicians and surgeons of Alfalfa County. He is one of the earnest and capable men in the medical profession in

that section and has as yet hardly reached the full tide of his success.

While most of his life has been spent either in Kansas or Oklahoma, James M. Gaume was born November 11, 1876, at Danville, Ohio, a son of Augustus J. and Mary M. (Colopy) Gaume. His father was born in Stark County, Ohio, in 1848, a son of parents who were born in France. Augustus Gaume was a merchant, cigar manufacturer and farmer, and farming was chief among his occupations throughout his active career. In 1881, when Doctor Gaume was five years of age he moved out to Kansas, buying land in Harper County, two miles east of Danville, and continued his successful work as a farmer there until his death February 4, 1893. He was a member of the Catholic Church. His wife, whom he married in 1869, was born in Knox County, Ohio, July 10, 1851, a daughter of Jacob and Sarah (Sapp) Colopy, who were natives of Vermont. Mrs. Gaume died Decem- ber 2, 1912, at Danville, Kansas, and was likewise a communicant of the Catholic Church. They had five children, four sons and one daughter, all living, as follows: Bertha Estella, born December 20, 1872, mar- ried in 1899 Ney Titus, and they are now farmers in the Province of Alberta, Canada; Harry Wilfred, born August 4, 1874, was married in 1903 to Lizzie Smith- hisler, and he is now a leading physician at Harper, Kansas; the third in age is Dr. James M. Gaume; Francis Rolland, born November 1, 1879, married in 1902 to Laura Follot, and is now a farmer in Alberta, Canada; Lamy Augustus, born January 5, 1889, is a farmer at Danville, Kansas, and was married in 1910 to Phoebe Ernest.

The farm in Harper County, Kansas, was the scene of Doctor Gaume's early rearing, and he attended a Catholic parochial school at Danville and also the Central Kansas Normal at Great Bend. In 1906 he graduated from the Ensworth Central Medical College of St. Joseph, Missouri, and in the same year began practice at Jennings, Kansas. After one year, in 1907, he removed to Alfalfa County, Oklahoma, and has since resided at Byron. He.is a member of the county and state medical societies and in 1914 served as vice presi- dent of the county society. He is also a member of the American Medical Association, and by reason of his special skill and attainments in that direction is affiliated with the American Association of Orificial Surgeons.

At Wichita, Kansas, May 14, 1909, Doctor Gaume married Miss Mabel V. Blanchard, daughter of James L. Blanchard, who is now living at Byron, Oklahoma. She was born September 20, 1886, at Smith Center, Kansas. They have two children, LaMont, born at Byron Feb- ruary 14, 1910, and James Garnet, born September 14, 1915. Doctor Gaume is a Catholic, in which faith he was reared, while his wife is a member of the Christian Church.

RICHARD M. JOHNSON, M. D. While Doctor Johnson, who is proprietor of the Oklahoma Naturopath Institute, possesses the degree of the regular doctor of medicine, and was himself a medical practitioner many years ago, he became convinced early in his professional career that the administration of medicine in the usual sense for the cure of disease was subject to so many errors and dangers that he could no longer conscientiously follow out his chosen vocation. From the beginning he had made a close study of the curative principles contained in natural agencies and became convinced that nature, if allowed a free hand, would effect a greater proportiou of successful cures than all the poisonous drugs in the pharmacopeia. Thus as a result of study, observation and experiment, Doctor Johnson finally took his present

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stand as a naturopath, a curative science which insists upon the use of nature's own remedies in the treatment of all human diseases. He has done probably more than any other individual to perfect this science, and the Oklahoma Naturopath Institute has in consequence gained wide recognition and is an institution of which Oklahoma City and the state are properly proud. The institute is located in the Herskowitz Building at Oklahoma City.

Born in Indiana, November 10, 1855, Richard M. Johnson is a son of Jonas and Mary (Price) Johnson. The Johnson family originated in North Carolina, where they were firm adherents of the Quaker faith and conse- quently opposed to the institution of slavery, on which account they left the South and became pioneer settlers in Indiana. In Indiana both the grandfathers of Doctor Johnson assisted in organizing and operating the under- ground railway of slavery days. Jonas Johnson and wife were both natives of Indiana, and the former was a farmer. During the war he went out with the Sixty- ninth Indiana Regiment, and while participating in Grant's campaign against Vicksburg was the first man to be killed in the battle of Port Gibson. Thus Doctor Johnson was only a child when his father was slain as a sacrifice to the Union cause, and from an early age he has been dependent on his own resources. He attended the public schools of Indiana and in 1878 was graduated M. D. from the Missouri College of Medicine. After several years of practice he abandoned the profession for the reason that the more he became familiar with the conventional and accepted methods of medical practice the more he disliked it. Other lines of business engaged his attention for several years, and at the same time he took up and pursued privately the study of the relief of mankind without recourse to the knife and drugs. Sub- sequently he studied osteopathy, graduated from that course in 1898, and in 1901 completed a course in Ger- man naturopathy, followed by similar attainments in the science of electro-therapeutics, chiropractic, food sci- ence and kindred other drugless methods. During a period of nearly thirty years Doctor Johnson has received twenty-seven diplomas, two of them being honorary degrees, and he is a master of electro-therapeutics and of somopathy.

Doctor Johnson practically originated the science of naturopathy after he came to Oklahoma City in 1901, and has not only practiced that science for the past ten years but has been engaged in teaching it to others. Naturopathy is as old as the world. It means going back to nature to correct the ailments of mankind by use of natural remedies. The science as perfected by Doctor Johnson means the elimination of all errors and the teaching by comparative methods of the proper uses of food such as nature supplies, without recourse to drugs or poisons. Emphasis is placed upon the natural way of living and in a word naturopathy is the science, art and philosophy of removing the cause of disease with methods which are in harmony with the laws of nature, employing water, herbs, light, heat, cold, air and food, each of these elements being applied as may be indi- cated for individual cases.

Since the organization of the Naturopath Institute it has had a flourishing growth and has performed a val- uable service. In addition to Doctor Johnson from three to five assistants are employed all the time, with an average of from 100 to 150 patients treated daily. He has a drugless sanitarium at 801 East Fifth Street, and there treats all conditions of so-called incurable troubles. The College of Naturopathy maintains a thirty-month course and not only graduates its students in naturop- athy but also with degrees in mechano-therapy, chiro- practic, physio-medico and electro-therapy, and also in

aristophagy, which as the name indicates means the eating of the best and most perfect foods.

In 1882 Doctor Johnson married Miss Rosa Watkins of Ohio. They are the parents of two sons, Charles and Wister Johnson. Doctor Johnson resides at 801 East Fifth Street, Oklahoma City.

EUGENE A. LILLY. One of the pioneer business men of Oklahoma is Eugene A. Lilly, who more than twenty years ago was in the real estate and insurance business at El Reno, and in the same line of enterprise has been identified with Tulsa since the early beginnings of that city. Mr. Lilly has a very important record in Masonry, and is one of the progressive and public spirited citizens of this great commonwealth.

Eugene A. Lilly was born at Lilly Chapel in Madison County, Ohio, May 8, 1858, a son of James and Matilda (Anderson) Lilly. The parents were born in Ohio, his father in Ross County in 1816 and living to 1874. The mother was born in Madison County, and died in 1859. She was the mother of seven children, four of whom are still living, with Eugene the seventh and the youngest. James Lilly received his education in Ross County, Ohio, and became prominent as a farmer, stockraiser, buyer and shipper in Madison County. His enterprise brought about the founding of an important village in that county. This had its beginning in a donation by him of the ground on which a Methodist Episcopal Church was built. This was known as Lilly Chapel, and around it subsequently grew up a village and the postoffice and town took the name Lilly Chapel, and it is still known as such. At the time of his death James Lilly was chairman of the board of county commissioners of Madison County. In his early years he had voted with the whig party and later became a republican.

Eugene A. Lilly acquired his early education in the public schools of Madison County, at London, and sub- sequently attended the Ohio Wesleyan University at Delaware and in 1880 graduated from the University of Michigan, with the degree of pharmaceutical chemist. Thus equipped for business by a liberal education, he went out to Dakota Territory and engaged in the real estate business and in cattle ranching at Bismarck and in Emmons County. He continued in those lines in Dakota up to 1887. His next location, after selling out, was Minneapolis, Minnesota, where he developed some important interests in insurance and loan activities up to 1892. He then came south, and located in the new City of El Reno, where he opened his office for the handling of real estate, loans and insurance. From El Reno Mr. Lilly removed to Weatherford in this state, continued in the real estate, insurance and loan business up to 1905, and then after a year of travel, which took him as far west as California, he returned to Oklahoma, and in the fall of 1906 established himself in business at Tulsa. Tulsa was at that time a young village with a great deal of promise as to its future, and Mr. Lilly showed keen foresight in identifying himself as closely as possible with its destiny. For the past nine years he has handled a large bulk of the general loan and insurance business in this community.

Mr. Lilly's Masonic record begins with his initiation in 1881 into Chandler Lodge No. 138, A. F. & A. M., at London, Ohio. He dimitted from this lodge to become a charter member of Western Star Lodge at Weather- ford, Oklahoma, and served as first master of the new lodge. At this time he is an honorary life member of Delta Lodge No. 425, A. F. & A. M. at Tulsa, having served as its first master. He took his chapter degrees in Adoniram Chapter at London, Ohio, dimitted and became a charter member of Weatherford Chapter, R. A. M., and served as first high priest there. He is now

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HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA

a member of Tulsa Chapter, R. A. M. He became a Knight Templar in Palestine Commandery at Spring- field, Ohio, in 1882, was subsequently a charter mem- ber of the Commandery at El Reno, and served as the first recorder of that organization. He subsequently joined Weatherford Commandery, K. T., and is now a member of Trinity Commandery at Tulsa. He belongs to Guthrie Consistory, thirty-second degree of the Scot- tish Rite, is a K. C. C. H., and served as grand junior and senior warden and deputy grand master of Okla- homa, though on account of his vacation and absence from the state he did not succeed to the office of grand master. He has held various offices in the grand chap- ter of the Royal Arch Masons of Oklahoma.

In politics Mr. Lilly has been a republican, but in 1912 he supported the progressive nominee. On May 6, 1902, Mr. Lilly married Mary Veronica McCarron. Mrs. Lilly was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

A. H. CONSTANT. The year 1915 marked the fifteenthi anniversary of the birth of the Town of Ada, and in commemoration of the event its citizens recalled that the man who selected the site and drove the first stakes that marked boundary lines of town lots was still a resident. A. H. Constant, as a pioneer of the Chickasaw country, possessed the foresight of the successful business man when he saw the possibilities here for the establishing of modern communities and of important commercial and industrial institutions. The first railroad survey had been completed through what is now Pontotoc County and sections of the railroad were under construction. That an important commercial center would be estab- lished in this community was certain. Mr. Constant, who was then and had for eight years been manager for the Valley Grain and Milling Company, at Pauls Valley, in company with W. H. P. Trudgeon, of Oklahoma City, and George B. Rennie, of Pauls Valley, obtained pos- session of 190 acres of land, of Indian ownership, and March 19, 1900, began platting the Town of Ada thereon. The Indian right was transferred to Mr. Ren- nie and he delegated to Mr. Constant the power of attorney to sell the lots. The first house was built by Mr. Rennie, being completed May 20, 1900, and other houses built previous to the following December, when the Frisco Railroad was completed to Ada. were of lum- ber that was hauled forty to fifty miles by wagon, from Pauls Valley, Wynnewood and Davis.

In the meantime Mr. Constant became the manager at Ada for the Laidlaw Lumber Company and during the early building days sold $30,000 worth of lumber to home and business house builders here, before the rail- road was built into the town. He assisted in the organ- ization of the town government and the election of the first mayor and city council, and was secretary of the first board of education and held the position for three years, during which time Mr. Yarborough became the first public school teacher in the town. In the autumn of the first year the Department of the Interior, through whom the townsite had been obtained, recognized the surveys of the townsite company, although approval was not made until 1903.

A. H. Constant was born September 4, 1866, at Buf- falo, Illinois, and is a son of Adam H. and Mary F. (Greening) Constant. His father, a native of Illinois, now, at the age of seventy-six years, is living at Arkan- sas City, Kansas. The paternal ancestry is of French and English origin and some of those who came to America produced some of the early settlers of Illinois. Mr. Constant's mother's people were natives of Ken- tucky. Mr. Constant was educated in the public schools of Illinois and Kansas and the Kansas State Normal School, at Fort Scott, after graduating from which he

entered the educational profession, being for three years engaged in teaching in the public schools of Kansas. On March 30, 1890, he settled at Purcell, Indian Territory, where he later became associated with the Purcell Mill and Elevator Company. In 1903 he was appointed clerk of the United States Court, at Ada, a position which he held until the advent of statehood in 1907, serving under the administrations of United States Judges Hosea Townsend and J. T. Dickerson. He was largely instru- mental in having Ada designated as a United States Court town, over Roff.

Mr. Constant was married at Frankfort, Indiana, Feb- ruary 17, 1891, to Miss Florence Waggoner, who died April 11, 1915, ending a life of usefulness in the service of her husband and children, her church and the people she loved. There are two children: Harold W., aged nineteen years; and Edith Mae, who is twelve. Mr. Constant has one brother, Gershom K. Constant, who is a farmer in Kansas. Mr. Constant is a member of the Knights of Pythias lodge, from which he holds a cer- tificate of past chancellorship. He is a member of the Ada Commercial Club, and one of the town's most val- uable and valued uplift workers. He has been a repub- lican since attaining his majority, is a member of the Republican State Central Committee, was a member of the Territorial Central Committee before the securing of statehood, and has been chairman and secretary of the Pontotoc County Central Committee. He has been the incumbent of various positions of importance in the community in which he has made his home for the past quarter of a century, and for two years subsequent to statehood was referee in bankruptcy in a district com- prising four counties, including Pontotoc County.

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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