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 26

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 26

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For several years Mr. Constant has devoted himself almost exclusively to land titles, and has evolved one of the most attractive systems of abstracting to be found in the state. Due to the fact that every tract of land in this section of the state has been owned by Indians as wards of the United States Government, and the necessity of departmental approval in all land transfers, the work required in completing a title for abstract purposes has not been inconsiderable. Every abstract of title in this section bears a form approved by the Interior Department showing the acquirement of the land by Indian treaty in 1825. The complete abstract must show also all data relating to the allottee, includ- ing his enrollment by the Dawes Commission. In the triple capacity of secretary, treasurer and manager of the Home Title Guaranty Company, Mr. Constant is well and favorably known in business circles, and to his capability, judgment and foresight must be accredited the greater part of this concern's success. He and his children reside in their comfortable home at Ada, sur- rounded by all the conveniences which years of industry have brought.

CHESTER R. O'NEAL. Recent investments and explo- rations in the mountain section of McCurtain County of a New York syndicate indicate that the lead and zinc belt that has been extensively developed in Northeast Oklahoma extends into the Choctaw country. This syn- dicate's operations have been in the Hochatown vicinity and have attracted capitalists here from France and England who have made explorations in several sec- tions of the Kiamichi Mountains. Granite, asphalt and limestone are found in the mountains also, probably in paying quantities at certain points. There is no longer a great timber reservation in McCurtain County. The surplus lands of the Choctaws that once were segregated in a large body are being sold by the Department of the Interior to settlers and this has occasioned the at- traction here of men from various parts of the world to

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HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA

investigate probable rich natural resources that for gen- erations have been hidden under department regulations. One of the original miners of MeCurtain County was one Calvin Howell, who claimed to be a Choctaw of one thirty-second blood and who many years ago established a ranch near Hochatown. He was looked upon by his people as being a dreamer and crank and made little development. Recent activities, however, made in the neighborhood of his ranch indicate the dreams at which his friends laughed may come true. Expert geologists who have visited McCurtain County in recent years have been convinced that there are evidences here of the presence of important pockets of oil and gas, and devel- opment has commenced along those lines. The Garvin Oklahoma Oil Company is drilling a well near Garvin, and the MeCurtain County Oil Company is procuring leases preparatory to development.

One of the leading real estate and loan dealers of Idabel, a man who has had considerable to do with the development of the county during the past few years, and one of those most heavily interested in the oil and gas projects of this part of the state, is Chester R. O'Neal. Mr. O'Neal came to Idabel in 1907, in time to witness the pulling of stumps out of the original busi- ness streets of the town. For several years he had been gaining practical and helpful experience in the real es- tate business at Texarkana, Arkansas, and upon coming here entered the real estate business on his own account. It is an interesting fact of local history that he procured the approval of the Department of the Interior of the first deed to Indian land sold in McCurtain County. He laid out the second addition to Idabel, known as the Choctaw Addition, and sold all the lots. When he came here it was only three blocks from the business section to a dense forest, a portion of which became the Okla- homa Addition, and in it Mr. O'Neal built his permanent home. In eight years he has loaned more than $150,000, on real estate in the county and this has contributed greatly to the agricultural development of the county.

An illustration of the peculiarities of the Indian and of the nature of the activities of the white man who has divested the Indian of much of his substance, is among the recollections of Mr. O'Neal of earlier years here. Ephiraham Mckinney, a Choctaw, stout, robust and ap- parently in the best of health and with his family the owner of 1,000 acres of fine land, was stricken with quick consumption. A physician who visited him in company with Mr. O'Neal said he had but a few days to live. Illness had emaciated him to a mere shadow and he lay on a dirty quilt in an open and unfurnished house in the country. He asked for soda pop, which his attendants provided, and then the physician injected a drug that temporarily revived him. It was learned then that he was hungry, penniless and friendless. "I'm going to die pretty soon, " he whispered to Mr. O'Neal, "and I want you to take care of my family." Mr. O'Neal promised to give them as much attention as he could. The Indian, possessor of 1,000 acres, died in want. The property lay in Carter County, in the region now embraced by the great Healton oil field, and it was out of his reach and out of his control.

Chester R. O'Neal was born in Shelby County, Mis- souri, in 1879, and is a son of Thomas E. and Jennie L. (Quigley) O'Neal. His father and mother now live in Idabel, where Thomas E. O'Neal is engaged in the timber and lumber business, an enterprise which he had followed for a number of years in Texarkana, to which place he had removed from Missouri. There were two sons in the family, one, Walter W. O'Neal, being con- nected with the International Creosoting Construction Company of Texarkana. After leaving the public

schools, Chester R. O'Neal became engaged in business with his father, but subsequently entered the employ at Texarkana of the R. E. Company, with which con- cern he remained for fourteen years, or until, as before stated, he came to Idabel.

Mr. O'Neal was married in Missouri, in 1900, to Miss Anna M. Eaton, and they have three children: Lillian, born in 1902; and Chester R., Jr., and Marguerite, twins, born in 1906. Mr. and Mrs. O'Neal are members of the Baptist Church. His fraternal affiliations are with the lodges of the Masons and the Modern Woodmen of America.

ANDREW J. Ross. To have the distinction of being consistently designated a pioneer citizen of Oklahoma by no means implies that the person thus honored has attained to advanced age. This is signally evident in the case of Andrew Jackson Ross, who was one of those who took part in the opening of the Cherokee Strip, in Oklahoma Territory, to settlement in 1893, and who has long been one of the prominent lawyers and influential citizens of Woods County and who is now engaged in the successful practice of his profession in the thriving little City of Alva, though he resides upon and gives his personal supervision to his well improved farm, situated about three miles distant from Alva.

Mr. Ross is a native of Illinois, was an infant at the time of the family removal to Kansas, in the pioneer era of the history of the Sunflower State, where he was reared to maturity; he received his professional training in the State of Indiana; and in the vigorous new State of Oklahoma he has found a most inviting stage for large and worthy achievement in his profession, as a broad- minded and progressive citizen and as a resourceful factor in connection with the basic industry of agricul- ture. He has held various offices of public trust, is loyal and public-spirited to the highest extent and is a representative citizen who well merits recognition in this Standard History of Oklahoma.

On a farm in Douglas County, Illinois, Mr. Ross was born on the 27th of December, 1869, a son of John F. and Mary A. (Young) Ross. The father was born in Franklin County, Indiana, on the 19th of April, 1844, his parents having been pioneers of the Hoosier State, to which they removed in an early day from their native State of Virginia, their residence having been continued in Indiana until the time of their death and both having been representatives of families that were founded in Virginia, the historic Old Dominion, in the colonial era of our national history.

John F. Ross continued his residence in Indiana until 1869, when he removed to Douglas County, Illinois, where the subject of this review was born in December of that year, as already noted in this context. In the following year the family removed to Kansas and John F. Ross there entered claim to a homestead of Govern- ment land, in Washington County. With the passing years he became one of the substantial farmers and stock-growers of that county, where he developed and improved a fine landed estate and where he became a venerable and honored pioneer citizen of the City of Emporia, Lyon County, his retirement from active labor and business affairs having occurred in 1910. John F. Ross was a gallant soldier of the Union during the climacteric period of the Civil war, in which he served as a member of Company F, Eighteenth Indiana Volunteer Infantry. His service covered a period of 41/2 years, or virtually during the entire war, and he rose from private to the rank of lieutenant, with which he was mustered out at the close of the long and wear; conflict. He took part in seventeen important battle

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HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA

and fifteen skirmishes, besides numerous minor engage- ments, and endured the full tension of great campaigns, with their iucidental hardships and perils. He was never seriously wounded and never captured. His abiding interest in his old comrades in arms was shown by his long affiliation with the Grand Army of the Republic, and he was always uncompromising in his allegiance to the cause of the republican party. He died at Emporia, Kansas, on September 12, 1915.

In the year 1866, was solemnized the marriage of John F. Ross to Miss Mary A. Young, who was born at Andersonville, Franklin County, Indiana, on the 23d of March, 1847, and who was the fifth in order of birth in a family of five sons and four daughters. She is a daughter of Henry and Eleanor (Walker) Young, who were natives of England and who were pioneer settlers in Indiana, where they continued to reside until their death. John F. and Mary A. Ross became the parents of five children, concerning whom the following brief data are entered: Andrew J., of this sketch, is the first born; Edward Henry, who was born in 1872, died on the 20th of August, 1894; Miss Minnie Grace, who was born January 20, 1870, remains with her venerable parents at their pleasant home in the City of Emporia, Kausas; James Franklin was born in 1880, and his death occurred on the 6th of June, 1896; and Charles Sumner, who was born February 20, 1885, is an expert printer, his residence being at Emporia, Kansas.

Reared to adult age under the conditions of the home- stead farm in Kansas, Andrew J. Ross early gained wholesome fellowing with honest toil and endeavor and he has retained an abiding appreciation of the great basic industries of agriculture and stock-raising. He received the advantages of the excellent public schools maintained in his home couuty and after his youthful ambition had prompted him to formulate definite plans for his future career he went to Indiana, the native state of his parents, and began reading law in the office of the firm of Love & Morrison, of Shelbyville, the judicial center of Shelby County. He was most thorough and punctilious in his devotion to his studies and his application continued during a period of five years, in which he admirably fortified himself in the involved science of jurisprudence. During three winter terms while thus reading law he was a successful teacher in the rural schools of Indiana. At Shelbyville, that state, he was admitted to practice on the 6th of July, 1891, and early in the following year he returned to Kansas. In 1893 Mr. Ross participated in the opening of the Cherokee Strip, or Outlet, of Oklahoma Territory, and became one of the original settlers in the Village of Alva, where he has since continued in the successful practice of his profession, a pioneer lawyer of Woods County and one who has achieved marked success and prestige in his profession. He now controls a substantial and important law business and is known both as a skillful and resourceful advocate and as a well fortified counselor whose integrity and judgment are always to be relied upon.

In 1897 Mr. Ross purchased the plant and business of the Alva Courier, and in connection with his law business he continued editor and publisher of this weekly paper for a period of eleven years, making the same an effective exponent of local interests and of the cause of the republican party, with which he has been stanchly allied from the time of attaining to his legal majority and incidental right of franchise.

In 1904 Mr. Ross was elected representative of Woods County in the Territorial Legislature, in which he served with characteristic loyalty and ability during the session of 1905, the last prior to the admission of Oklahoma to

statehood. In this final territorial assembly of the Legislature he was assigned to three specially important house committees-those on education, county and town- ship organization and lines, and appropriations. He was the author of the bill whose enactment made pro- vision for the appropriation for the erection and equip- ment of Science Hall at the Northwestern Oklahoma Normal School, at Alva, and he has retained deep interest in the work and prosperity of this important state insti- tution in his home town.

In 1906 Mr. Ross was appointed register of the United States Land Office at Alva, and of this office he con- tinued the incumbent two years, or until it was con- solidated with the office at Woodward, in Woodward County.

Mr. Ross is the owner of a specially well improved aud valuable farm of 160 acres, three miles distant from Alva, and on this fine rural estate he and his family maintain their residence, the attractive home being known for its gracious hospitality and good cheer. Mr. Ross drives daily from his farin to his law office in Alva and finds the arrangement which he has thus made is in every way pleasing, as his supervision of the farm gives him relief from the arduous and sedentary work of his profession. He is still one of the active and influential representatives of the republican party in Woods County, and is affiliated with the Knights of Pythias and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows.

At Sylvan Grove, Kansas, on the 7th of August, 1892, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Ross to Mrs. Sarah Gertrude Croft, who was born in Davis County, Iowa, on the 23d of June, 1869, and whose parents, Paul aud Eunice Matthews, likewise were born in Iowa, as members of pioneer families of the Hawkeye State, whence, a few years after their marriage, they removed to Kansas and became pioneers of that state. Mr. and Mrs. Ross have but one child, Walter Maurice, who was born at Alva, Oklahoma, on the 9th of January, 1894, and who is associated with his father in the work and management of the home farm. On the 20th of October, 1913, he wedded Miss Lillian Rolf and they are popular factors in the social activities of their home community.

CHARLES M. THACKER. Mr. Justice Charles M. Thacker, of the Supreme Court of this state, was born (on January 17, 1866) and raised on his father's farm in the northeastern part of Brunswick County, Virginia.

Being born and raised in the aftermath of the Civil war in a land that had been devastated by its ravages, his early educational advantages were very poor; but a devoted mother gave him much instruction at home; after he was seven years old he attended each year for more or less of the school period either a public or a private school until he was past nineteen years of age, excepting one such period when he served a relative as a clerk in a woodyard in Petersburg, Virginia, aud another such period when he served another relative as clerk in a country store at Rowanta, Virginia. During his boyhood he did the usual farm work that fell to the lot of farmers' boys in that country. At the age of nineteen he feared tuberculosis of the lungs in Vir- ginia and was also unable to see his way there clear to accumulate sufficient means to enable him to marry and support a family; and, in this state of mind, he felt the call of the west, with its promise of health and wealth, so strongly that he persuaded his parents to con- sent to his migration to Texas to work out his own destiny among strangers. Accordingly, in October, 1885, with $75.00 furnished him by his father, he went to Texas, stopping at Ennis, where, for a small salary, he served as scribe and man of all work to a somewhat tal-

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ented old gentleman (who was engaged in looking up "lost titles" to Texas lands and in the culture of flowers, fruits, trees, shrubs, etc., for sale) for the period of one year. At the expiration of this time the illusion of wealth and a speedy return to Virginia, where he would marry and live happily ever after, had vanished, and he took up the study of bookkeeping in the belief that he would be content to work as such for the usual salary paid for such service all the balance of his life. After completing a couple of courses in such studies, he saw and embraced an opportunity to study law and pay his way by office work for his preceptors. On June 20, 1888, after a little more than a year of study, and while still residing at Ennis, he was admitted to the bar by the District Court at Dallas, Texas, where he soon there- after took a position as bookkeeper with a concern he at once found to be in failing condition and that could not pay his first month's salary. About September 1, 1888, with just five dollars loaned him by a friend and a few old and discarded books given him by a firm of kindly disposed lawyers in Dallas, he commenced the practice of law, and made sufficient money to pay actual expenses, at Garland, Texas; but, having theretofore impaired his health by over study, he soon conceived the idea that it was necessary for him to find a higher altitude and a dryer climate, and in the following spring he sought a location in Northwest Texas. On April 29, 1889, after some visits to other places, he reached Mangum, in Greer County, then under the de facto jur- isdiction of Texas, but which became a part of Oklahoma as a result of a decision by the Supreme Court of the United States on March 16, 1896, that the same was no part of Texas. Upon his arrival at Mangum he had just 50 cents left and, being among strangers as well as in a depressing state of health, a few sympathetic and kindly words from County Judge J. M. Berryman induced him to locate there, although the place was merely a frontier village in a newly and sparsely settled country without means of a livelihood visible to so young and inexperienced a lawyer and although the general aspect of the country then seemed to him desolate and uninviting.

At first he taught a little class in bookkeeping to help pay living expenses, which did not exceed $15.00 or $20.00 per month; but in August, 1889, he was appointed to the then vacated office of county attorney from which he derived an income barely sufficient to meet his meager needs. He did not want the office longer than for the remnant of the term for which he was appointed; and, as he did not seek re-election, his first law partner, John W. Craig, took the same without opposition.

In 1891 and until February 8, 1892, while holding him- self out as a lawyer, he edited the Mangum Star, a weekly newspaper, as a much needed additional means of support. On February 8, 1892, a vacancy had occurred in the office of county judge of Greer County and he was appointed to fill out the remnant of the term; and he served in this office and by virtue thereof as chairman of the County Commissioners Court and also as county superintendent of public instruction; but this office too barely afforded him the means of support and, having gotten the reward in popular favor that comes from sat- isfactory service in such a position, he was not a can- didate to succeed himself.

In those early days of the settlement of Greer County the fees of the two offices mentioned were insignificant and the salaries were small and paid in county warrants that were practically worthless because of the dispute as to the rightful jurisdiction of Texas over the county, so that the financial rewards for public service were almost negligible.

In 1898, the second year after the transition of his .county from Texas to Oklahoma, he was elected to the Oklahoma Territorial Legislature from the big thirteenth district composed of Greer, Roger Mills, Washita, Cus ter, Day, D (which he named "Dewey" through legislative Act), Woodward, and Beaver Counties, a: those counties existed prior to the admission of Oklahoma to Statehood on November 16, 1907; and, after serving in the Assembly of 1899, where he was on many import ant committees and chairman of the Committee of Private Corporations and Corporate Law, he voluntarily retired at the expiration of his term to serve his count} as its county attorney.

In the meantime the country had settled and devel oped and when, in 1890, he was elected county attorney his county was a well settled and prosperous community

He served as county attorney until Statehood, a period of nearly seven years, by virtue of successive elections and during approximately the same period, by the. appointment of Governor Jenkins in the first instance and Governor Ferguson later, he served the territory a a member of the territorial board of education fo Normal schools, voluntarily resigning upon the coming of Statehood.

In April, 1909, he was elected mayor of Mangum an( served as such until after the election of his successo in April, 1910, when he retired without having been : candidate to succeed himself.

He was an unwilling candidate for this office and gav the matter of his candidacy no attention until on election day he saw his opponent hauling voters to the polls in : sixteen passenger automobile bus bearing on each sid a streamer with the legend, "Vote for (here the name for mayor," whereupon the subject of our sketch, il due appreciation of the "eternal fitness of things" and not to be outdone in ostentatious exploitation, requis tioned a wheelbarrow, upon each side of which he had painted tho legend, "Vote for Chas. M. Thacker fo Mayor, "' and at once commenced to haul voters to th polls from nearby places in this stately equipage, whil cheering crowds thronged the streets. This ludicrous comparison of expedients contributed to make Judg Thacker's majority of the votes cast more than four t his opponent's one, although he suffered blistered hand and feet from the strenuous work.

On March 19, 1913, he was, by the Supreme Court appointed from the state at large to the bench of th Supreme Court commission of this state to fill out th unexpired term of Judge C. B. Ames, and in the follow ing September was regularly appointed by the court fo the ensuing full term, which expired February 1, 1915 And upon the re-creation of the commission he was, Apr. 1, 1915, by Governor Williams, with the approval of th court, again appointed from the state at large to men bership upon the commission.

On November 1, 1915, while he was still serving on th commission, Governor Williams appointed him to th bench of the Supreme Court to succeed his friend, th late lamented Mr. Justice Brown.

He has continuously resided at Mangum since Apr 29, 1889, and has practiced law when not in office exclu( ing him from the same.

In 1893-96 he had for a law partner Judge T. I Clay, of Mangum, 'and for four years next before h entry upon the duties of county attorney in Januar: 1901, Hon. A. R. Garrett, of the same place, was h: partner.

As a practicing lawyer and in official service of th people he has been and is an indefatigable and co1 scientious worker.

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ities by which he has always been elected sufficiently attest the public approval of the man and his official services.

The American genealogical history of Mr. Justice . Thacker is somewhat obscure, while one or more links in his ancestral chain are entirely unknown; but it seems reasonably certain that the original progenitor of his branch of the Thacker family in this country was either Edwin or Henry Thacker, who were probably brothers- family tradition indicates Edwin if they are not brothers.

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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