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 28

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 28

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).

When Mr. Mueller became United States Indian agent, inherited lands were being sold promiscuously and officials were said to have approved deeds of sale in and out of office and in and out of the state. Heirs were not consulted in some cases and did not know their lands were to be sold; blank deeds bearing notary seals and signatures were liberally circulated, and some Indians after receiving money for their lands were robbed on the way home. Such conditions, however, have not obtained in recent years.

Martin J. Mueller, United States Indian agent at Idabel, McCurtain County, was born in Germany in 1862 and came with his parents to the United States in 1870, the family settling first in Minnesota. His education was acquired in the public and high schools of that state and in 1889 he began life for himself in the employ of an express company. He subsequently filled various posi- tions from driver to agent until 1900 and was in the employ of the United States, Adams and American Ex- press companies, and in the year mentioned entered the service of the United States Government, being assigned to appraising work in the Indian Territory under the Dawes Commission. He remained in the Government service until April 4, 1915, when he entered the real estate and insurance business at Idabel. From 1900 to 1902 he continued in appraisement work in the Choctaw, Chickasaw and Cherokee Nations and then spent one year in the Creek Nation, and in April, 1903, entered the Indian office at Atoka where for five years he was en- gaged in the alloting of lands to Indians. In 1908 he became timber inspector and continued in that position until 1910 when he was appointed Indian agent at Idabel.

Mr. Mueller was married in 1885, while a resident of Minnesota, to Miss Louise Cherry, and they have two children: Mrs. Hazel Mueller Rone, who is the wife of a railroad man at Idabel; and Martin E., who is a resi- dent of the State of New Jersey. Mr. Mueller is a mem- ber of the Episcopal Church and of the Knights of Pythias Lodge. His activities as a private citizen at Idabel are those of a progressive man, looking to the upbuilding of the community and the greater develop- ment of a section of the state where so many of his official activities have been centered. He knows per- sonally nearly every Indian in McCurtain County and takes a special interest in promoting the welfare of that race.

HARRY H. SHERMAN, O. D. The beneficent system of osteopathy has an able and effective exponent in the person of Doctor Sherman, who is engaged in the success- ful practice of his profession in the City of Alva, judicial center of Woods County, and who amplifies the scope of his service by availing himself of the most approved devices and methods pertaining to the ther- apeutic values of electricity. Fortified by thorough preliminary study and scientific training and imbued with ambition and high professional ideals, he has made of success not an accident but a logical result, so that he is numbered among the prominent and representative figures in osteopathic practice in the state of his adoption.

On the family homestead farm in Shenandoah County, Virginia, Doctor Sherman was born on the 6th of February, 1861, only a few months before the time when his native commonwealth became the stage of initial military activities incidental to the Civil war. He is a son of John and Caroline (Cronk) Sherman. John Sherman was a native of Germany and after eoming to the United States he achieved independence and definite success through his active association with agricultural pursuits in the historic Old Dominion State, where he

James A Style

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HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA

is a prosperous farmer at the time of his death, in 62. His marriage was solemnized in Virginia, in the ar 1843, and his wife was a daughter of Samuel and chel (Keller) Cronk, both natives of Virginia, where ey passed their entire lives. The mother of Doctor erman was born on the 28th of November, 1825, and tained to venerable age, her death having occurred ptember 10, 1907. John and Caroline (Cronk) Sher- in became the parents of six sons and two daughters, whom the subject of this review is the youngest ; chel A., who was born March 3, 1845, died October 18, 07; Milton H. was born September 8, 1846, and is : Il a resident of Illinois; Martha E., who was born arch 14, 1848, died October 12, 1861; William F. was rn September 20, 1849, and died March 20, 1907; muel T., who was born March 24, 1851, is now a sident of the City of San Diego, California; Jacob R., 10 was born on the 16th of July, 1853, died July 15, 92; and John E., who was born April 20, 1855, passed 'ay on the 14th of May, 1858.

Doctor Sherman was not yet one year old at the time his father's death, and he was reared to adult age der the sturdy discipline of the farm, and his early ucational advantages were those afforded in the public tools of his native state. When but twelve years he gan the study of dentistry under the preceptorship of ; maternal uncle, Dr. Harrison Cronk, and after quiring due practical knowledge and skill he followed e dental profession in an itinerant way for six years, incipally in Virginia. For twelve years he continued active practice as a dentist, and his service along this e was given first in Virginia, later in Indiana and ally in Oklahoma.

In 1900 Doctor Sherman was graduated in the National hool of Osteopathy, in the City of Chicago, and since lat time he has been engaged in the practice of his jofession at Alva, Oklahoma, where he has gained a bstantial and appreciative clientage of representative der.

Doctor Sherman is essentially progressive and loyal a citizen and has been an active and influential worker j behalf of the cause of the democratic party. In 1906 I was elected a member of the city council of Alva, d that his two years' service in this office met with equivocal popular approval is clearly indicated by the ct that he was not permitted to retire from municipal vice, but was, in 1908, elected mayor of the city. As ief executive he gave a most careful, progressive and ective administration of the municipal government d instituted the first practical measures for such i portant public improvements as street paving and the oviding of adequate water, sewerage and lighting stems, his regime as mayor having covered a term of 10 years. He has served as chairman of the Demo- atic Central Committee of Woods County and is at de present time an influential member of the Democratic ate Central Committee of Oklahoma. In the time- ]nored Masonic fraternity he has received the thirty- cond degree of the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite, d he is affiliated also with the Independent Order of Ild Fellows and the Knights of Pythias.

The first marriage of Doctor Sherman was solemnized -

the 2d of October, 1891, when Miss Sallie Taylor Icame his wife, she having been a daughter of Judge 'iah Taylor, an influential citizen of Clarksville, John- County, Arkansas. Mrs. Sherman was summoned the life eternal on the 8th of October, 1895, and of 13 two children of this union the first born is Harry T., to was born May 11, 1893, who enlisted, in 1913, in e United States navy, for a term of four years, and ho is giving excellent account of himself in this branch

of the Government service; Eula V., the younger child, was born October 18, 1895, and died on the 18th of the following March.

On the 15th of October, 1902, Doctor Sherman wedded Mrs. Minnie Miller, and they have one child, Harold Carrico, who was born July 3, 1904.

JAMES H. SYKES. Representative of the important County of Tulsa in the Fifth General Assembly of the Oklahoma Legislature, Mr. Sykes is engaged in the active practice of law in the City of Tulsa and is one of the prominent and successful younger members of the bar of his adopted state, within which his high attainments and sterling character have given him secure vantage- ground in popular confidence and approbation.

At Morristown, the judicial center of Hamblen County, Tennessee, James H. Sykes was born on the 5th of January, 1880, and he is a son of Joshua J. and Alice (Burnett) Sykes. The father was one of the early steamboat engineers on the Tennessee River and for many years thereafter was one of the prosperous agri- culturists and influential citizens of Eastern Tennessee. He now maintains his home at Broken Arrow, Oklahoma. His wife, a woman of most gentle and gracious person- ality, was there summoned to eternal rest on the 31st of December, 1914, at the age of fifty-six years, and she held the affectionate regard of all who came within the sphere of her influence. Her father, Rev. M. D. L. Burnett, was one of the distinguished clergymen of the Baptist Church in Tennessee and for many years was a contributing editor of the Baptist Reflector, the leading Baptist publication in the United States.

Hon. James H. Sykes is indebted to the public schools of Tennessee for his early educational discipline, and in 1899 he entered Emory & Henry College, at Emory, Vir- ginia, where he continued his studies until he had com- pleted the work of his junior year, in 1901. Thereafter he assumed a clerical position in the employ of the Southern Express Company, and within a year he was promoted to the position of auditor in the company's office at Chattanooga, Tennessee. His ambition was not to be deflected from its course, however, and while thus employed he devoted close attention to the study of law as a member of a night class in the law department of Chattanooga University. The caliber of his mind and the strenuous zeal with which he applied himself are fully shown forth in the fact that he completed a three-year course in a single year and was graduated with highest honors of his class, in 1905. He was class orator in his senior year and at the commencement observances, and in addition to receiving the well-earned degree of Bach- elor of Laws he was duly admitted to the bar of his native state. In 1906 Mr. Sykes engaged in the practice of his profession at Chattanooga, and it will readily be understood that to one whose valiant spirit had made possible such achievement as a student, success came as a normal prerogative when he applied himself with char- acteristic enthusiasm to the practical work of his chosen vocation.

The intrinsic progressiveness of Mr. Sykes was again denoted when, in 1908, he came to and thoroughly iden- tified himself with the progressive and vigorous young commonwealth of Oklahoma, in which he discerned ample opportunity for effective service in his profession. He established his residence in Tulsa, where he has since continued in the active general practice of law and where he has built up a specially substantial and representative practice, with attendant distinction for facility and power as a trial lawyer and as a well fortified counselor. That Mr. Sykes soon came to the front in connection with public affairs in the new state needs no further voucher than the statement that in 1912 he was a can-

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didate for the democratic nomination for representative of the Third Oklahoma District in the United States Con- gress. Though he was defeated in the primary election he carried his own county and had the distinction of be- iug the only man who has thus defeated Hon. James S. Davenport, of Vinita, the present congressman, in Tulsa County. While still a resident of Tennessee Mr. Sykes gained a statewide reputation as a public speaker, espe- cially through his effective services on the stump in several campaigns-national, state and county. He was an ardent supporter and champion of Hon. William J. Bryan for President in the national campaign of 1908 and of President Woodrow Wilson in the campaign of 1912. At the early age of sixteen years Mr. Sykes was known as one of the most talented young speakers or boy orators of Tennessee, and his special forensic ability has inured greatly to his success as a trial lawyer. At a very early stage in his professional career he achieved a nota- ble victory when he appeared in the defense of Tom Carter, who was charged with murder, in Polk County, Tennessee, and in whose trial the jury promptly rendered a verdict of acquittal after young Sykes' forceful and cogent speech for the defense, he having been at the time only twenty-four years of age. He is an active member of the Oklahoma State Bar Association and his ability and genial personality have gained to him the high regard of his professional confreres. Incidentally it may be noted that he is a cousin of the distinguished New York lawyer, Martin W. Littleton, and of the lat- ter's brother Jesse, who for thirty years has been an eminent member of the bar of Chattanooga, Tennessee.

Without support from the press and without making a personal campaign in his own behalf, Mr. Sykes was nominated in 1914 as representative of Tulsa County in the State Legislature, and he was elected by a majority of 300 votes. In the Fifth General Assembly he took a prominent part in the work on the floor of the House and in the deliberations of the various committees to which he was assigned, including the judiciary committee No. 1, the committee on legal advisory code, and those, on charities and corrections, oil and gas, and roads and highways. He was a staunch supporter of the policies of Governor Williams and earnestly strove to carry out the campaign pledges of his party. He was specially interested in legislation affecting the oil and gas indus- try, which is the most important of all in his home county, and that relating to charities and corrections. He is one of the most steadfast and effective exponents of the cause of the democratic party to be found in Oklahoma, and both he and his wife are members of the Boston Avenue Church, Methodist Episcopal, South, at Tulsa.

At Flintstone, Walker County, Georgia, on the 18th of November, 1903, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Sykes to Miss Carrie Morgan, whose death occurred November 27, 1906, and who is survived by one daugh- ter, Carrie Brysea, who lives in the home of her maternal grandmother, in Chattanooga, Tennessee. On the 31st of July, 1911, Mr. Sykes wedded Miss Essie Overton; of Meridian, Mississippi. She is a daughter of John W. and Minnie (Glass) Overton, the Overton family being one of the oldest and most influential in West Tennessee, and Thomas Glass, of Dresden, Tennessee, maternal grandfather of Mrs. Sykes, having been the son of a Revolutionary soldier. Mr. Sykes has one brother, John, who likewise is engaged in the practice of law at Tulsa, and his three sisters are Mrs. William W. Markwood, of Trinidad, Colorado; Mrs. David Rutherford, of Terre Haute, Indiana; and Mrs. Noel Rutherford, of Broken Arrow, Oklahoma.

CHARLES H. WOODS. That success which is the con- Unite comitant of only ability and integrity of purpose has attended the activities of Mr. Woods in his chosen pro- fession and he is to be designated consistently as one

wiety the S of the representative members of the bar of the capital city of Oklahoma, where he maintains his well appointed offices at 810 Colcord Building. He is one of the loyal and progressive citizens of Oklahoma City and his law business is one of substantial and important order indicative of the high estimate placed upon him as a lawyer and as a citizen.

Benero City musica memhe secreta

Mr. Woods was born at Chillicothe, the judicial cen- ter of Ross County, Ohio, on the 24th of June, 1876, and is a son of Joseph J. and Laura (Yeo) Woods, both likewise natives of Ohio and representatives of

from Territo Fretary it was Associ ular tibed sterling pioneer families of the Buckeye State, where the death of the mother occurred in 1884 and where the father still maintains his residence and is identified with the manufacturing of shoes, as an interested princi- pal in the Union Shoe Company. Both the Woods and the An In Mr. W 0. Sec Presby Yeo families were founded in America in the colonial era and both gave patriot soldiers to the Continental Line in the War of the Revolution. Members of the Woods family were gallant soldiers also in the Civil war, and the military loyalty of the family found exemplificatior on the part of the subject of this review, who tendered his services in the Spanish-American war.

of this Rer stated agnati

After duly availing himself of the advantages of the unexcelled public schools of his native state, Charles H. Woods entered the University of Ohio, in the City

settled is a se ing Er tatives they later jated country of Columbus, in which institution he prosecuted both academic and law courses and in the law department of which he was graduated as a member of the class of 1900. In addition to receiving the degree of Bacheloi of Laws he was admitted to the bar of the Buckeye State, and in the year of his graduation he came to Oklahoma Territory and established his residence il Guthrie, the territorial capital. In the work of his profession he was there associated for the first year with the representative law firm of Asp & Cottingham and in 1901 he was appointed assistant attorney genera of the territory, under Hon. Jeremiah C. Strang. H.

retained the position until March, 1903, when he resigned to accept the post of assistant attorney for the Atchison Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad Company, of which offici he is still the incumbent. He continued his residence a Guthrie until after the admission of Oklahoma to the Union and in 1911 removed to Oklahoma City, the capita of the state, where he has since continued in the practic of his profession and given effective service as an offi cial of the legal department of the railroad company mentioned.

One of the first cases to the charge of which he wa assigned after his appointment to the office of assistan attorney general of the territory was that connected with the attempt of Ira N. Terrill to obtain release from th Federal penitentiary at Leavenworth, Kansas, where h had been sentenced for a murder committed in Oklahoma Territory. This was a cause celebre and Mr. Woods vig orously and successfully opposed the granting of free dom to Terrill, his able presentation of this case havin; added materially to his prestige as a versatile trial law yer. While a resident of Guthrie Mr. Woods served als as a member of the board of education. In connectio: with his professional activities in Oklahoma City he i a member of and counsel for the Employes' Building Loan Association, one of the leading organizations o of mun the kind in the state. In the recently organized Schod home a of Law at Oklahoma City, Mr. Woods will be one of the tical ap members of the faculty.

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Through ancestral heritage Mr. Woods is eligible fo its peo membership in and is a companion of the second clas Vol. 1

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HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA

1043

f the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the Jnited States, besides being affiliated with the So- iety of the Sons of the American Revolution and he Spanish-American War Veterans' Association. In he Masonic fraternity he has received the thirty- econd degree of the Ancient Accepted Scottish lite, in which latter he is affiliated with Oklahoma Consistory No. 1, and with Guthrie Lodge, No. 426, Benevolent & Protective Order of Elks. In Oklahoma City he holds membership in the Apollo Club, a men's nusical organization, and both he and his wife are members of the Presbyterian Church. Mr. Woods was secretary of the Oklahoma Territory Bar Association from 1901 until it was consolidated with the Indian Territory Bar Association, after which he continued sec- etary of the amalgamated organization until 1908, when t was merged into the present Oklahoma State Bar Association. He is not only one of the valued and pop- ılar members of this vigorous association but is iden- ified also with the Oklahoma City Bar Association and the American Bar Association.

In August, 1906, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Woods to Miss Edith Scott, daughter of Rev. Henry D. Scott, D. D., who was at that time pastor of the L'resbyterian Church at Guthrie, and the two children of this union are Carolyn and Charles.

Reverting to the genealogy of Mr. Woods it may be tated that his original American progenitors in the gnatic line were English Presbyterians who came to this ountry about the opening of the eighteenth century and ettled in Pennsylvania, and that on the maternal side he is a scion of the Shinn family, which likewise is of sterl- ing English lineage and the original American represen- tatives of which settled in New Jersey, about 1654; they were members of the Society of Friends but a later generation, which settled in Virginia, became affil- iated with the Baptist Church.

HARRY C. EVANS. Of the United States the self-made man is a typical product, and though the title has become trite and often is abused, yet its significance is none the fess, and Americans still delight to do honor to the man who has risen through his own energy, ambition and ability, who has met undaunted the obstacles that have obtruded in his path and who has made of success not an accident but a logical result. Such an individuality is that of Mr. Evans, who in his younger days imbibed deeply of the invigorating atmosphere pertaining to the free and open life on the great cattle ranges of the Lone Star State, who lived there the untrammeled and vigorous life of the cowboy, but who preserved through all these experiences his ambition for greater and higher things and who had the intrinsic capacity that made achievement possible. The pertinence of the last state- ment is emphasized when it is known that he is at the present time serving as municipal commissioner of public works and property in the vital and progressive little City of Ada, the judicial center and metropolis of Pon- totoc County, Oklahoma. For eleven years after he abandoned his service in connection with the extensive cattle interests of the Texas range, where he worked under the jurisdiction of such representative cattle kings as the Burnetts and Wagoners, he was engaged in busi- ness at Henrietta, Clay County, Texas. He found this transference to urban associations both pleasing and inspiring, and incidentally he made such a careful study of municipal affairs that after he had established his home at Ada, Oklahoma, he was permitted to make prac- tical application of his theories and policies, and that to the distinct and enduring benefit of the little city and its people. For five years he served with marked Vol. III-7

efficiency as a member of the city council of Ada, and it was within this interval that most of the important public improvements of the city were instituted. Later, under the commission system of municipal government, he served as a member of the municipal board of com- missioners and had the satisfaction of aiding in the completing of some of the public utility improvements which had previously been initiated, chief of these being the installation of the fine waterworks system, which various authorities have pronounced to be unexcelled in the entire state. The source of the water supply is Byrd's Mill, fourteen miles south of the city. This mill furnished the power for the operation of the modern pumping plant that sends the purest of spring water to the city. The spring has a capacity of 10,000 gallons a day, far in excess of what is needed to supply the City of Ada, and the water is as pure, wholesome and spark- ling as can be found within the borders of this pros- perous young commonwealth. As city commissioner of public works and property large responsibilities rest upon Mr. Evans, and his administration has been une- quivocally successful and satisfactory, marked by dis- crimination, judgment, progressiveness and utmost civic loyalty. Under his regime the sewer system has been materially extended and the streets greatly improved, besides which natural gas has been piped into the city from a splendid well a few miles distant to the west.

Mr. Evans was born in the City of Hannibal, Missouri, historically notable as having been the home of the great American humorist, Mark Twain, in his youth, and the year of his nativity was 1869. He is a son of Sam C. and Susan (Clark) Evans, his father likewise being a native of Missouri and being now a prosperous farmer near Hannibal, that state, besides which he is a skilled workman at the carpenter's trade, to which he has devoted more or less attention for many years. The paternal grandfather of the subject of this review was born in Kentucky and as a young man became a pioneer settler in Missouri, where he passed the remainder of his life. The father of Mr. Evans is still living, and he has two brothers and two sisters: Sam C. is a resi- dent of Texline, Texas; Mrs. Effie Myers resides in the State of Kansas; Miss Mattie Evans maintains her home in the City of St. Louis; and Charles is a resident of the City of Portland, Oregon.

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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