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 34

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 34

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GUY L. ANDREWS. It has been as a member of the bar that Mr. Andrews has performed his most important services in Oklahoma, and for a number of years he has enjoyed a large and profitable share of the practice at McAlester, where he is now head of the firm of Andrews & Lidtke.

Before taking up the profession of law Mr. Andrews was a school teacher and also a business man, and first came to Indian Territory to engage in the coal business. He was born on his father's farm in Gnadaloupe County, Texas, January 22, 1872, a son of William Whitman and Willie A. (Hudson) Andrews. His father, who was of Scotch ancestry and a native of North Carolina, saw active service as a Confederate during the war between the states. While engaged in one of his campaigns he met Miss Hudson, who was a native of Virginia and ot English lineage. At the close of the war they married, and in 1867 William W. Andrews moved to Texas and located on a farm in Guadaloupe County, near Seguin. He was not only a practical farmer but a school teacher, and his wife was also well educated and taught school after coming to Texas. He founded a school for girls in Hays County.

Guy L. Andrews grew up in that section of Southern Texas, acquired an education in the publie schools and at the age of sixteen entered the University of Texas but did not graduate. After leaving school he taught for a time in his mother's school and then for two years in the public schools. For his next work he became a traveling solicitor, and had a broad and thorough experience in that line continuing through seven years.

In 1900 Mr. Andrews became connected with the Hailey, Oklahoma, Coal Mining Company, and from a minor position during the next three years won his way to an assistant superintendency, and became thoroughly competent in all branches of the coal mining industry. Meanwhile he had taken up the study of law and in 1903 was admitted and began practice at Wilburton, but soon afterwards removed to McAlester. With more than ten years of practice to his credit, Mr. Andrews is now regarded as one of the leading lawyers in the eastern part of the state. In 1897 he married Miss Magdaline Schwausch. Though a stanch democrat he has never sought political honors, though for four years he has served as a member of the city board of education at MeAlester and is now president of the board. He is affiliated with the Benevolent and Protective Order of

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Elks, and in May, 1915, was honored by election to the presidency of the state association of the fraternity.

EDWARD CROSSLAND. The present county attorney of Tulsa County has been engaged in the practice of his pro- fession in the City of Tulsa since 1910, is one of the able and representative lawyers coutribnted to the Oklahoma bar by the fine old State of Kentucky, and his success in his chosen vocation has given him distinct prestige therein, the while his ability and personal popularity are vouchsafed in his tenure of the important office of which he is now the incumbent and the affairs of which he is administering with unqualified circumspection and effi- ciency.

Mr. Crossland is a scion of an old and honored family of the Bluegrass State, and in his personality exemplifies the best traditions and social amenities of that patrician old commonwealth. His grandfather, Col. Edward Cross- land, a native of Hickman County, Kentucky, became one of the distinguished men of that state and a leading member of its bar. In his native county he served sev- eral terms on the bench of the County Court, after having previously held the office of commonwealth's attorney, and he represented his district in the United States Con- gress from 1872 to 1876. He was a gallant soldier aud officer in the Coutederate service during the Civil war, as colonel of the Seventh Kentucky Infantry, and during the last year of the war he commanded the Kentucky Brigade, which was a part of the forces under the dis- tinguished General Forrest.

Edward Crossland, named in honor of his honored grandsire, was born at Mayfield, Graves County, Ken- tucky, on the 24th of March, 1875, and is the eldest of the seven children-all living except one-of Samuel H. and Martha (Smith) Crossland both likewise natives of Kentucky, the former having been born in Hickman County, near Clinton, on the 7th of August, 1849, and the latter at Hopkinsville, Christian County, on the 26th of February, 1852, her death having occurred on the 10th of December, 1895. Samuel H. Crossland acquired his higher academic education in Washington & Lee Univer- sity, at Lexington, Virginia, and thereafter was gradu- ated in the Louisville Law College, in the metropolis of his native state. Thereafter he was engaged in the prac- tice of his profession at Mayfield, Graves County, Ken- tucky, until 1909, since which time he has been an hon- ored and representative member of the bar of the City of Paducah, that state. He served one term as county attorney of Graves County, 1882-6, and for one term was commonwealth attorney for that county. He is an influ- ential representative of the Kentucky contingent of the democratic party and is affiliated with the Benevolent & Protective Order of Elks and the Knights of Pythias.

He whose name introduces this article is indebted to the public schools of his native place for his early educa- tional training, which was supplemented by an effective course in West Kentucky College, and in preparation for the profession that had been significantly dignified and honored by the services of his father and grandfather, he entered the law department of Central College, at Danville, Kentucky, in which he was graduated as a mem- ber of the class of 1900, and from which he received the degree of Bachelor of Laws, the president of the college at that time having been the distinguished legist and statesman, Hon. J. Proctor Knott.

After his graduation Mr. Crossland was engaged in the practice of his profession at Mayfield, Kentucky, until 1910, when he made a judicious change by coming to Oklahoma and establishing himself in practice in the City of Tulsa, where he soon built up a substantial and repre- sentative law business and became specially well known as a strong and versatile trial lawyer. At Mayfield, Ken-

tucky, he had served on the bench of the County Court of Graves County from January, 1906, until January, 1910, his removal to Oklahoma having occurred within a short time after his retirement from this position. Upon estab- lishing his residence in Tulsa he was for a brief interval associated in practice with Judge Conn Linn, later was associated with the law firm of B. T. Hainer and H. B. Martin, and finally he was appointed deputy county attor- ney, under Pat Malloy. His effective work in this subor- dinate position marked him as a most eligible candidate for the office of county attorney, to which he was elected in November, 1914, and in which his vigorous and able administration is fully justifying the choice of the voters of the county. It is scarcely necessary to state that Judge Crossland is found arrayed as an uncompromising advocate of the principles of the democratic party, and as a citizen he is definitely liberal, broad-minded and progressive. In a fraternal way he is affiliated with the Benevolent & Protective Order of Elks and the Knights of Pythias. Judge Crossland has two children, Samuel H. and Sue H., and the maiden name of his wife was Winifred Bennan, she being a popular factor in the representative social activities of Tulsa.

T. W. ROBISON. The best evidence of the applica- tion of modern methods in the profession of teaching in the condnet of the public schools of Ada is found in the fact that for seven successive years Superintendent Robison has been at the head of these schools, and the best evidence of the practicability and efficiency of these methods is the remarkable growth of the schools during the same period. A quiet, industrious, methodical school man is Superintendent Robison, and he commands the confidence and brings out the best qualities from the thirty-eight teachers under his supervision. The suc- cess he has made at Ada is unusual in view of the presence of the East Central State Normal School in that city. There have been cases in Oklahoma where the high school was abandoned because of high school work being offered in state schools. In Ada, however, the high school has grown in popularity and efficiency in the very shadow of the normal, and at the same time there is no friction between the two institutions. The attendance record in the public schools showed 1,425 in 1915, where the scholastic enrollment was 1,870. The difference in these figures is due to a model primary school being conducted at the normal which draws stu- dents from the high school grades.

When Mr. Robison first taught in Ada, in 1907-08, as ward principal, the total enrollment was seven hundred and the number of teachers was seventeen. Naturally the subsequent increase can be accounted for largely by the growth of the town, but the efficient administra- tion of Mr. Robison, who was elected superintendent in 1908, must also be accounted a very significant factor. When he began his work in Ada the school equipment comprised a small brick building and a few frame build- ings. Now there are four modern brick schoolhouses, including one of the handsomest and best equipped high schools of the state. When the state normal was estab- lished at Ada the high school building was leased to the state pending the erection of a state building, and all high school work for the time was done in the normal. After the buildings of the state had been completed Superintendent Robison began to re-establish the high school, one grade each year. In 1915 the enrollment in the high school was 115 and since the curriculum has been fully re-established only twelve students have left before completing the course in order to enter the normal. Four live patrons' organizations are main- tained and special emphasis is given to the social center of the school. Athletics is also important, the school

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maintaining football, baseball and basketball teams, and also track teams. Superintendent Robison was the pro- moter and is now president of "The First High School Athletic League,"' an organization that embraces high schools in Ada, Colgate, Francis, Atoka, Holdenville, Roff, Stonewall, Sulphur and Wewoka. The Ada school in 1914 won seven of nine games of football played and was third in the basketball record. Two literary societies are maintained and their debaters in 1914-15 won the championship of Southeast Oklahoma, under direction of the extension division of the University of Oklahoma. New equipment to the value of a thousand dollars a year is being added to the schools and a library of four hun- dred volumes has been installed. The standard of qual- ifications for the teaching force has been gradually raised until in 1915 three-fourths of the teachers were normal school graduates and the others held first-grade certificates. The following year every teacher in the high school proper had the equivalent of a Bachelor's Degree.

Superintendent Robison was born at Big Flat, Arkan- sas, May 16, 1883, and is a son of Finis A. and Nancy J. (Brown) Robison. In his lineage are found many successful farmers of Tennessee and Arkansas. Mr. Rob- ison attended the grade schools in Arkansas and grad- uated from the high school at Mountain View in that state. Education has really been his life work. For five years after leaving high school he was a teacher in Arkansas, and was principal at Franklin and Guion. He came to Ada in 1907 and was elected ward principal. During his residence in the state he has graduated from the East Central Normal and has done considerable extension work with the University of Oklahoma. As already mentioned he was elected superintendent of the Ada public school system in 1908.

At Batesville, Arkansas, in 1904 he married Miss Samantha Eva McCook. Their two children are Lee Jennings, aged nine, and Irene, aged seven. Superin- tendent Robison has a brother Ray H. Robison, who is principal of the public schools at Mill Creek, Oklahoma.

Superintendent Robison is a man of broad interests and sympathy. He is a member of the Methodist Epis- copal Church South, and for the past four years has been superintendent of its Sunday school. He is affiliated with the Masonic and the Woodmen of the World lodges, belongs to the Ada Commercial Club, to the Pontotoc County and Oklahoma State Teachers Association and the Pontotoc County Teachers Examining Board. He is a consistent advocate of public uplift and public im- provement, and one of Ada's most progressive and best liked citizens.

FREDERICK E. TUCKER. Becoming a resident of the Territory of Oklahoma when he was a lad of about ten years, Senator Tucker has in an individual sense kept pace with the march of progress in this vigorous young commonwealth, where he has made good use of the op- . portunities presented, has stood exponent of ambitious purpose and distinctive civic loyalty, and where his material success has been in consonance with his ability and well directed endeavors, the while his distinct hold upon popular approbation needs no further voucher than the statement that he has most efficiently repre- sented the Eighteenth Senatorial District in the Upper House of the Oklahoma Legislature during its fourth and fifth general assemblies. He maintains his home at Ardmore, Carter County, has been an influential figure in connection with educational affairs in the state, and is a progressive and public-spirited young man who well merits recognition in this history of Oklahoma.

Frederick Edward Tucker was born at Mount Vernon,

Franklin County, Texas, on the 20th of September, 1889, and is a son of Frederick A. and Nannie Tucker, both of English lineage. Frederick A. Tucker was a pharmacist by vocation and a Georgian by birth, his father being a member of the well known Virginia and Georgia family of that name but his parents. migrated to Texas after the panic known as Black Friday, be- coming early settlers of the old Town of San Augustine. Frederick entered business at the Town of Mount Vernon when a young man and there the subject of this sketch was born. Nannie Mccown Tucker is a native of Harrison County, Texas, the youngest daughter of Abram and Elizabeth Moore Roach, the history of both families of whom corresponds with that of the Tuckers, except that they were from North Carolina to Alabama and then to Texas. The McCowns and Connors estab- lishing the Texas towns of those names. Abram Roach, upon removing from North Carolina to Texas, first be- came a planter of Harrison County, but when his young- est daughter was three years of age, he acquired the Eli estate near Mount Vernon, where he spent the remainder of his life-a prosperous and honored member of thatt plantation community.

Owing to the conditions of time and place Senator Tucker was never able to attend school until he was nearly ten years of age. He came with his widowed mother to Oklahoma Territory and settled at Ardmore, on the 7th of May, 1899, about four months prior to his tenth birthday anniversary. At Ardmore he con- tinued his studies in the public schools until he had completed the curriculum of the high school, in 1909, and through attending summer normal schools he further fortified himself for the vocation of teacher. He obtained a normal training certificate and also a first- grade certificate, each of which entitled him to teach in any county in the state, and in making his way for- ward to worthy achievement he depended almost entirely on his own efforts and resources. In 1909 he became an advertising solicitor for the Daily Oklahoman, at Okla- homa City, but he resigned the position within a few weeks, as the salary was not sufficient to satisfy his ambition. He then obtained employment at Muskogee, as salesman for a firm engaged in the flour and feed business, and while thus engaged he had occasion to visit the City of Ada, judicial center of Pontotoc County, where Otis Weaver, publisher of the Oklahoma Baptist Journal, tendered him a position as editor and manager of this periodical, with the alternative of receiving a commission in the event that he found a pur- chaser for the property. Within five days thereafter Senator Tucker sold the paper and received a good com- mission. Mr. Weaver then sold to him the plant and business of the Konowa Chief-Leader, in Seminole County, and after he had been editor and publisher of this paper a few weeks he received a telegram announc- ing that he had been elected principal of the public schools of Milburn, Johnston County. He promptly severed his active association with newspaper work and for nine months he served as the valued and efficient principal of the Milburn schools, at a salary of $100 a month. In the meanwhile he had sent announcement to Carter County, where he maintained his home, that he would there become a candidate for county superin- tendent of public instruction at the next regular elec- tion. In 1910, when but twenty years of age, he was nominated for this office, to which he was elected by a gratifying and significant majority. After his nomina- tion, and prior to the election, he made a careful study and survey of public-school systems and conditions in various states, and for this purpose he visited ten counties in Oklahoma, ten in Texas, three in Missouri,

Mrs. Fred E. Sutton .

Fred & Sutton

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one in Illinois, and two in Pennsylvania. He gave a most progressive and effective administration and did much to bring the schools of Carter County up to their present high standard. He was elected representative of the Eighteenth District in the State Senate in 1912, and to assume his seat as a member of the Fourth Legis- lature he resigned his position as county superintendent of public instruction. He has the distinction of being the youngest man elected to the Senate in the history of the State of Oklahoma, and those familiar with his course as a legislator fully realize that to him vigorous youth has proved no handicap, for he has shown the utmost circumspection and marked maturity of judgment in his services and earnest work on the floor of the Senate and in the deliberations of the various commit- tees to which he has been assigned.

In the Fourth Legislature Senator Tucker was chair- man of the committee on education and became author of the bill defining the present code of the public schools of the state, the text of this bill filling ninety-seven printed pages in the 1913 Statutes and being the most voluminous, as well as one of the most carefully and effectively conceived, legislative documents on the records of this commonwealth. Senator Tucker is to be credited also with the authorship of the law that pro- vided for the transfer to union graded or consolidated schools the balance of the public-school land fund in the state treasury; and further work achieved by him was his able advocacy of the measures resulting in the establishment of the State School for the Blind, at Muskogee.

In the Fifth Legislature Senator Tucker was chairman of the committee on Federal relations and introduced several measures recommended by the American Com- mission on Uniform Laws. He was a member also of the committees on appropriations, oil and gas, commerce and labor, revenue and taxation, mines and manufactur- ing, education and school lands. He vigorously cham- pioned in the Senate measures approved by the State Federation of Labor and was the author of a bill pro- viding an eight-hour day for women employed in industrial, commercial and general business occupations. He was the author of a bill authorizing the state treasurer to purchase out of the public-building fund the residue of a $300,000 bond issue and to place the proceeds of the sale to the credit of the union graded or consolidated school fund. Among other bills introduced by him was one making more stringent regulations relative to mar- riage and divorce. In politics the senator has been found arrayed as an uncompromising and effective ad- vocate of the principles and policies of the democratic party, and he is influential in its councils in Oklahoma.

Senator Tucker is a member of the Ardmore Chamber of Commerce, is a director of the Oklahoma Historical Society, and is an active member of the Oklahoma Teachers' Association, as well as the Carter County Teachers' Association. He holds membership in the Baptist Church. The senator is now engaged in the real-estate and insurance business and is prominently identified also with the oil industry, as president of the Bess Tucker Oil Company, of Ardmore, which was named in honor of his wife, which made the first discovery of oil in Jefferson County, and the holdings of which are now a part of the celebrated Healdton oil field.

At Guthrie, this state, on the 8th of October, 1913, was solemnized the. marriage of Senator Tucker to Miss Elizabeth Frances Gano, whose father was for many years an influential banker and oil operator of Dallas, Texas, and whose maternal grandfather, Judge Thomas T. Lowe, was territorial secretary of Oklahoma under the administration of President Cleveland. Senator and Mrs. Tucker have one child, Elizabeth Claire, who was

born July 25, 1914. Of the brothers and sisters of the senator brief mention is made in conclusion of this article: R. E. is a merchant and ranch owner at Toyah, Texas; K. C. is engaged in the live stock busi- ness in the same locality; F. C., who was a civil engineer by profession, died in 1912; Mrs. William B. Stewart resides in Los Angeles, California, her hus- band being a retired business man and substantial capitalist; Miss Willie remains with her widowed mother at Toyah.

JESSE A. PENDERGRASS, of Lawton, Oklahoma, was born in Putnam County, Tennessee, in 1889, the son of F. R. and Angie (Greider) Pendergrass, who are both living at Cooksville, Tennessee, where the father is a prominent hardware dealer. Mr. Pendergrass, the subject of this sketch, is the second child of a family of three children. He was reared and educated in both common and high school at Cookeville. When just a boy he secured a position in a dry goods store at that place, but being energetic and with a desire to see the West, he came to Lawton in 1910, and clerked in the shoe store of J. F. Witney for about eight months. He then became night clerk at the Midland, which position he held for a year. But anxious to advance he affiliated with an automobile concern. But on account of ill health returned to Tennessee and remained until August, 1914, when he returned to Oklahoma, becoming night clerk of the Tulsa Hotel at Tulsa, remaining eight months, at which time he returned to Lawton. And is now assistant manager of the Midland Hotel.

Mr. Pendergrass has oil interests in Comanche County and at Tulsa. He is a member of the Benevolent Pro- tective Order of Elks, No. 1056, and is one of the most popular and congenial hotel men in the state and well worthy of notice and mention in the history of Oklahoma.

FRED E. SUTTON. Now secretary and treasurer of the Mid-Continent Oil Company and one of the leading business men of Oklahoma City, Fred E. Sutton has been an Oklahoman since the historic opening of April, 1889. During the last half dozen years he has been particu- larly prominent in the development of the oil resources of the state. While Mr. Sutton is one of the first citizens and well known in business circles, he shares the honors of prominence with his wife, who under the maiden name of Jennie Cox taught the first school in Oklahoma City, was the founder and first president of "The Women of 1889," and for a number of years has been a leader in women's affairs and in the civic life of the state.

Fred E. Sutton was born at Dowagiac, Michigan, July 9, 1860, a son of Peter D. and Mary (Allen) Sutton, both of whom are still living, the former at the age of eighty-one, with home in Kansas City, Missouri. The father was born in New York State, came west to Michi- gan, and at the outbreak of the war was residing in Illinois. He was among the first to enlist, and became a member of the Illinois Cavalry, a command with which he saw service till the end of hostilities. Discharged with the rank of first lieutenant, he lived thereafter for sev- eral years on a Michigan farm, and in 1869 moved out to Kansas, where he followed farming through the many ups and downs of agriculture in that state until his retirement in 1904.

As a boy Fred E. Sutton was prevented by ill health from regular attendance at school, and in place of school- ing had the rugged training of the plains school, on the cattle range and in the rough and tumble existence of the wild West. He can vouch for the saying of that day that, "there was no law west of St. Joseph, and no God west of Fort Dodge." It was in 1878 that he

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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