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 41
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HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA
day evening services are held at the club and under the direct charge and auspices of the association weekly religious services are conducted at the county jail. Of the association B. R. Stubbs is vice president; William Gill, secretary; and T. A. Hicks, treasurer. A literary and debating society affords one of the important fea- tures of the club work.
William Gill, to whom this brief sketch is dedicated, has proved one of the most loyal, efficient and popular workers in and executives of the Atoka Young Men's Christian Association, in the organization of which, in 1912, he gave zealous assistance. He has been its secre- tary from the time of organization to the present and has been one of its most active workers. His executive duties and responsibilities in this connection fall to him naturally, by virtue of his being also a member of and prominent and influential worker in the Christian En- deavor Society of the Presbyterian Church of Atoka, of which society he is president.
His organizing and administrative ability was also exemplified effectively in the forming of the Young Men's Democratic Club of Atoka County, of which or- ganization he is secretary. This club has a membership of more than 100 and has made itself of value to the democratic party in the wide dissemination of the tenets and policies for which that party stands sponsor. M. C. Haile, of Atoka, is president of this club; Paul Pinson, who is now assistant United States attorney for the East- ern District of Oklahoma, is vice president; and T. A. Hicks is treasurer, he being the present incumbent of the office of treasurer of Atoka County. The club has fos- tered and assisted active democratic organizations at Stringtown, Caney and Tushka.
William Gill finds definite satisfaction and pride in claiming Oklahoma as the place of his nativity and no young man of the state is more loyal and enthusiastie in the exploiting of its manifold advantages and attrac- tions. He was born at Shawneetown, in the old Potta- watomie Nation of Indian Territory, and 1892 was the year of his birth. He is a son of J. H. Gill, who came to the Pottawatomie country as a pioneer of 1889, who served as the first sheriff of Pottawatomie Connty, and who is now court clerk of Atoka County. His wife is a daughter of Capt. S. J. Scott, who, many years ago, was licensed by the United States Government as an Indian trader at Shawneetown.
The early education of William Gill was obtained in the public schools of Pottawatomie and Atoka connties, to which latter county he came with his parents in 1907, the year that marked the admission of Oklahoma to state- hood. As a yonth he served as a depnty in the office of D. N. Self, the first district clerk of Atoka County, and later, for two years, he was court reporter under Judge Baxter Taylor, who was then presiding on the bench of the county court and concerning whom individ- ual mention is made on other pages of this work. Later Mr. Gill was employed for sixteen months in the office of the superintendent of the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railroad at Muskogee, a position which he resigned to engage in his present business at Atoka, where he has built up a substantial and representative enterprise in the domain of real estate, loans and insurance. Mr. Gill has four brothers and one sister: Hugh is District Court reporter at Atoka; Samnel S. is chief law clerk in the offices of the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railroad at Muskogee; Lee is a successful and popular teacher in the public schools of Atoka County; and Earnest and Nina, who remain at the parental home in Atoka, are attending the public schools.
The year 1912 recorded the marriage of William Gill to Miss Ethel First, and they have one child, Charles William, who was born in 1914.
CHARLES ALEXANDER WILLIAMS. Here and there, throughout our country, will be found the descendants of a family that is Welsh in its origin and ancestry, and Charles Alexander Williams is the descendant of a Welsh family that came to American shores in early colonial days and pioneered into Mississippi when that district first began to attract attention. Many of the name are to be found in that state yet.
Mr. Williams was born in New York City, on August 15, 1881, and is the son of James and Mary (Brushna- han) Williams. The father was born in Denton, Texas, in 1853, and died in Ardmore, Oklahoma, in 1897. He was a newspaper editor in Texas and Oklahoma and a man of prominence in his community in both those states. It was about 1878 when he went to New York City and there had a position on the New York Herald, his father- in-law, John Brushnahan, being in charge of the mechan- ical department in the plant of the Herald. In 1884 he returned to Texas, locating in Denton, and in 1896 he moved to Oklahoma and settled in Ardmore. He car- ried on newspaper work in both those places, and was the editor of a very successful paper in Ardmore when he died in 1897.
Mr. Williams was a Methodist all his life, and he was a member of the Masons and the Knights of Pythias. He was married soon after he went to New York City, to Mary Brushnahan, who was born in that city in 1865, and she passed away in Ardmore in December, 1913. Seven children were born to them. George is living at Ardmore now, an employe of an oil company there. Cecil is a banker in Kingston, Oklahoma. Grace mar- ried Fred Carr, and they live in Ardmore. Marjorie has elected a business career and is now associated with the insurance firm of Kirkpatrick & Hinkel. Mary, the twin sister of Marjorie, is a teacher in the Ardmore publie schools. James is associated in business with Charles Alexander, the eldest of the family and the subject of this review.
Charles Alexander Williams attended the publie schools of Texas as a boy, the schools of Ardmore, Oklahoma, also adding something to his training. After the death of the elder Williams, in 1897, the subject, in company with his mother, took over the management of the Ard- more Daily Chronicle, and together they conducted it for two years. At the end of that time they sold the plant and Mr. Williams connected himself with the Daily Ard- morite, continuing with that paper for another two years, after which he took a road position with the Penning- ton Wholesale Grocery Company, of Ardmore, his terri- tory embracing all of Southern Oklahoma. He held that position until 1910, and from then nntil Jannary 1, 1914, he was sales manager and buyer for the same firm. On January 1, 1914, Mr. Williams came to Wirt, Okla- homa, and here established a general merchandise store, which he is now conducting on Main Street. This has proved itself a successful venture, and it is one of the leading enterprises of a business. nature in the community.
Mr. Williams is a director and stockholder in the First State Bank of Ringling, and owns a considerable real estate in Ardmore. He also has an interest in a num- ber of oil companies in the county, and is identified with other business ventures that speak well for his future.
Like most Oklahomans, Mr. Williams is a democrat, and he is a leader in local politics. He has served as chairman of his precinct on the election board, and has in other ways shown his interest in local affairs. He is a member of the Episcopal Church and has filled the office of vestryman in past years. He is a Mason, with A. F. & A. M. and R. A. M. affiliations, and is also a member of the Knights of Pythias and the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks.
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HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA
In November, 1911, Mr. Williams was married in Ardmore to Miss Floy Mullen, a daughter of James P. Mullen, a well known resident of Ardmore. No children have been born to them.
J. K. GREEN. For more than fifteen years Mr. Green has lived in and about Dewey, Oklahoma, and formerly a farmer, has now built up a large and prosperous busi- ness as a real estate man with offices in Dewey. Mr. Green has spent much of his life in the West, and has been identified with various occupations, but perhaps chiefly as a farmer.
J. K. Green was born in Jessamine County, Ken- tucky, May 11, 1846, a son of Andrew Jackson and Lucy (Phillips) Green. His father was born in Cul- peper County, Virginia, August 27, 1816, came to Rich- mond, Kentucky, in childhood, grew up there and was married to Miss Phillips, who was born in Richmond, Kentucky, August 28, 1816. He was a farmer, and he and his wife members of the Methodist Church. She died at the age of sixty, and he died at the home of his son, J. K. Green, in Nebraska, at the age of seventy. Of the seven children, the five who reached maturity are: Mattie Fair, deceased; Lucinda Lloyd, deceased; Elizabeth Bailey, of Custer County, Nebraska; J. K .; and William Jackson, who lives with his brother, J. K., in Dewey.
When J. K. Green was twelve years of age he went with his father to Lincoln County, Kentucky, and grew up and had his education in his native state. In 1869, a few years after reaching his majority, he moved out to Nebraska and became one of the pioneer settlers in Custer County. He was a small boy when the war broke out between the states, but before its close he got into the service and was with a regiment of Kentucky Vol- unteer Infantry seven months three days under Major Bridgewater. In Nebraska Mr. Green did some pioneer farming, but in 1887 engaged in the hotel business at Broken Bow and continued that five years. From Nebraska he removed to Appleton City in St. Clair County, Missouri, and combined farming with the livery business for five years. Mr. Green removed to Oklahoma in 1899, and for six years was a practical farmer on land within a mile and a half of Dewey. He then removed to town, and has since maintained a real estate office, and also has extensive interests in the oil industry.
Mr. Green is a democrat, and has been a member of the Christian Church for forty-five years. On May 16, 1876, there was solemnized a double wedding, at which time J. K. Green married Amanda E. Bailey, and Eliza- beth Green, a sister, married Thomas T. Bailey, a brother of Amanda. Mr. and Mrs. Green's marriage has been blessed with seven children: Ida, who died at the age of ten months; Ira W., of Washington County, Okla- homa; Artilla Winifred, wife of A. C. Clifford of Dewey; George Samuel, a machinist in this state; Thomas L., employed at Dewey; James William, a farmer; and Mamie, living at home.
JAMES WILLIAM MANEY, of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, was born January 3, 1862, in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. He is of Irish parentage, his father, Michael Maney, and his mother Johanna Hartnet, were born and reared in County Kerry, Ireland, near the beautiful lakes of Killarney. The grandfather of James William Maney, on his father's side, was a scholar and teacher in Tralee, County Kerry. Both parents came to America in their youth and met for the first time in Pittsburg, Pennsyl- vania. Memory of their native country drew them together, and they were married in Pittsburg in 1850. Five children were born to this union: Michael, James
William, John, Anna and Margaret. The eldest son, Michael, became a Catholic priest, and died in the year 1910. The daughter, Margaret, died at the age of six- teen. Anna is living in Oklahoma City, and John is a member of the firm of Maney Brothers & Company, general contractors, of Oklahoma City. From Pittsburg, Michael Maney and his wife went West and became pioneers in Clark County, Iowa, where they reared a sturdy self reliant family.
James William Maney grew to manhood on a farm, attending the public schools, and finishing his education at college, in Red Oak, Iowa. At the age of eighteen, he started in life for himself with no capital except his hands, and a sturdy ambition. His Irish blood and his pioneer training helped to make him the successful and influential man he has become. He is in every sense a self-made man, having without financial assistance fought his own way to success.
His first position was as a civil engineer with the Union Pacific Railway, which he held for four years, severing his connection with the railway company when twenty-two years old, and starting in the contracting business.
His first railroad contract was on the Burlington, in the State of Nebraska. His next important contract was on the Chicago & Northwestern, when that line was built into the unsettled Black Hills country, in South Dakota. The country then was very sparsely settled by white people. Few white families having ventured into that portion of the frontier, and the whites were largely miners, prospectors and cowboys, while the rest of the population were Cheyennes and Sioux Indians. The rail- road was built into Deadwood, South Dakota, and over this line was shipped the wealth from the Homestake Mine, which became known as the greatest silver mine in the world.
On April 22, 1889, Oklahoma was opened to settlement, and following the opening of the new country came the railroads. James W. Maney has the distinction of having built the second railroad into the new state. As a young civil engineer and practical railroad builder, whose suc- cessful experience as a railroad contractor made him well known in several western states, James W. Maney came into the new and undeveloped country of Oklahoma in August, 1889, and has ever since been identified with the development and upbuilding of the state. He soon had organized and perfected a staff of workmen, with ample facilities for his business as railroad contractor, and he has handled some very large contracts for railroad build- ing in the state. One contract alone provided for the construction of 250 miles of road. A part of many lines in the West were constructed by Mr. Maney, and he continued actively in the railroad business and the up- building of the new state.
In 1896 he married Miss Alphonsena Marie Gerrer. Mrs. Maney died in 1912, the mother of six children, named Marie, Beatrice, Robert, Agnes, Florence, and James W., Jr., all of whom are living with their father in the beautiful home in Oklahoma City.
In 1910, with other prominent men, he promoted the building of the El Reno Interurban Electric Line, between El Reno and Oklahoma City. In 1912 he pur- chased the controlling interest in a new line of railroad, the Clinton and Oklahoma Western. He became presi- dent of this railroad, and continued the line for thirty miles west.
In 1900 he entered the mill and grain business, build- ing and becoming president of the Weatherford Milling Company, the Canadian Mill & Elevator Company, the Thomas Milling Company, and the Maney Export Com- pany, of Oklahoma, and the Maney Milling Company,
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HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA
of Omaha, Nebraska, and has become one of the leading mill and grain men in Oklahoma and Nebraska.
He is a man of constructive enterprise and his eutire time and attention has been given to importaut con- structive works, aud his chief satisfaction has been in those permanent developments which he has promoted and supported.
He owns the controlling interest in the Jordan Valley . nection with many important litigations in both the Land & Irrigation Project, which comprises a tract of land of 50,000 acres in one of the most fertile valleys in the State of Oregon, and is developing this land for intense agricultural purposes. He owns many farms scattered over Oklahoma, and has large property interests in Oklahoma City.
James W. Maney is a member of the Catholic Church, and is affiliated with the Knights of Columbus, being the first Graud Knight of the first council organized in the state. He is also affiliated with the order of Elks. Politically he is a democrat, and in 1890 was elected county surveyor of Canadian County, being re-elected for the second term. He was the first to hold that office by election in the county.
This is a brief outline of his work and activities during his residence in Oklahoma, but is sufficient to iudicate the value to the material and civic upbuilding of the state which has resulted from the career of this enterprising man.
THOMAS G. CHAMBERS. A member of what is uni- formly recognized as one of the leading law firms of the State of Oklahoma, that of Ames, Chambers, Lowe & Richardson, with offices at 512-529 American National Bank Building, Oklahoma City, the professional prestige of Mr. Chambers is based alike upon his high ethical ideals, his long and varied experience and his distinctive achievement in the work of his chosen vocation. He has been a resident of Oklahoma City since 1895 and had gained prominence and influence at the territorial bar fully a decade prior to the admission of the state to the Union, even as he had previously been influential in professional and public activities in the State of Kansas.
Mr. Chambers was born at Charleston, the judicial center of Coles County, Illinois, in the year 1861, and is a son of Dr. William M. and Mary (Ingels) Chambers. His father was long an honored and representative physician and surgeon of Illinois and established his residence at Charleston, that state, in 1858. During the progress of the Civil war Dr. Chambers rendered effective service in behalf of the Union by having the supervision of the Federal Hospital maintained in the City of Nash- ville, Tennessee. He continued his residence at Charles- ton, Illinois, for nearly forty years, aud there his death occurred in November, 1892. Mrs. Mary (Ingels) Cham- bers was summoned to the life eternal in 1877.
The public schools of Illinois afforded to Thomas G. Chambers his early educational advantages, and in 1884 he was graduated in DePauw University, at Greencastle, Indiana, from which institution he received the degree of Bachelor of Arts. In preparation for his chosen pro- fession he was matriculated in the St. Louis Law School, in which he was graduated as a member of the class of 1886 and from which he received the degree of Bachelor of Laws, with incidental admission to the bar of the State of Missouri. In the autumn of the same year Mr. Chambers engaged in the practice of his profession at Coldwater, Comanche County, Kansas, and he continued one of the leading members of the bar of that county for nearly nine years. In 1893, as candidate on the straight democratie ticket, he was elected a representa- tive of Comanche County in the Kansas Legislature, and in the ensuing general assembly he was one of the three democratic stalwarts who held the balance of
power in the legislative body, the session having beeu one of unusual importance in the legislative and political annals of the Sunflower State.
Iu 1895 Mr. Chambers came to Oklahoma Territory and engaged in the practice of his profession in Okla- homa City, which has since continued the stage of his able and successful endeavors. He has appeared in con- territorial and state courts, as well as in the Oklahoma Federal courts, and though he has been retained in some of the notable criminal cases in this field of prac- tice, he has given his preference to the civil branch of practice, in which his versatility and resourcefuluess as an advocate have given him specially high standing at the bar of the state, with secure place in the confidence and esteem of his professional confreres. In April, 1907, the year that marked the admission of Oklahoma to statehood, Mr. Chambers was chosen city attorney of Oklahoma City, but after serving one year he resigned this office to devote his undivided attention to the private practice of his profession. In 1909 he became a mem- ber of the law firm of Ames, Flynn & Chambers, and since 1911 he has been a member of the firm of Ames, Chambers, Lowe & Richardson. Mr. Chambers has taken a vital and loyal interest in all that has conserved the civic and material welfare of Oklahoma, and has been signally progressive and public-spirited, the while he has viewed with great satisfaction the marvelous develop- ment and upbuilding of the vigorous western common- wealth within whose borders he has maintained his home for a score of years. He still accords unfaltering allegiance to the democratic party and is influential in the councils of its Oklahoma contingent.
In the year 1886 was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Chambers to Miss Flora G. Gossert, of Wabash, Indiana, and they became the parents of three sons, of whom the eldest, Robert W., met a tragie death in the year 1911, having been killed by lightning while in the State of Colorado and having been twenty-four years of age at the time; Thomas Gavin, Jr., familiarly known by his second personal name, is assistant United States district attorney in Oklahoma City; and Myron is prominently identified with the newspaper business in this city.
C. D. BUNCH. To hold a public office in Oklahoma is an undoubted honor and the experience, naturally, has its pleasant and its unpleasant phases. To be twice elected county clerk, with scarcely any opposition in the second campaign, is the best evidence of a man's popu- larity, his conscientious devotion to the duties of his position and the high quality of his character. This is interesting in the career of C. D. Bunch, the present county clerk of Coal County, who is probably more widely known as Dick Bunch, but from the standpoint of making history in Coal County, probably his most interesting experience was as police judge of Lehigh, a position which he held some years ago. Lehigh is a mining town and, naturally, is the home of a large for- eign element, many of whom are given to the infraction of law. Judge Bunch in presiding over his court was an important factor in the maintaining of order and public decorum and in the reformation of conditions that without proper restraint would have resulted in much lawlessness and disorder.
C. D. (Diek) Bunch was born in Ellis County, Texas, May 31, 1881, and is a son of E. R. and M. A. (Shires) Bunch. His father, who is a native of Kentucky, was a farmer of Texas, where he was a pioneer and engaged in operations for many years, but is now living with the mother in Coal County, Oklahoma. There were five children in the family, as follows: C. D., of this notice; C. E., who is a rice farmer at Beaumont, Texas; R. C.,
HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA
1087
who lives at home with his parents on the farm in Coal County; Mrs. Addie May Gay, who is the wife of an agriculturist in Pontotoc County, Oklahoma; and Miss Bessie, who is a teacher in the public schools of Coal County.
C. D. Bunch received his rudimentary education in the public schools of Texas, and when he was eighteen years of age began to work on a farm at $15 a month wages. In 1899 he moved to Coal County, Oklahoma, and en- gaged in the business of ginning cotton, later turned to mercantile pursuits, in which he was successfully engaged for several years, and still later became mine boss at Lehigh. He was elected county clerk in 1912 and re- elected in 1914, and attestation of his efficiency is given in the highly complimentary report of the state exam- iner and inspector of the condition of his books and records at the end of his first term.
Mr. Bunch was married September 4, 1909, at Krebs, Oklahoma, to Miss Sadie Winnett, daughter of a mining engineer at Krebs, who died some time ago. One child has been born to this union: Robert E., who is four years of age. Mr. Bunch has shown some interest in fraternal affairs, being a member of the local lodges of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the L. O. O. M. and Woodmen. He is also identified with the Coalgate Commercial Club and the Oklahoma Association of County Clerks. He has been prominent since his resi- dence at Coalgate in assisting in the promotion of enter- prises calculated to encourage the commercial, social and educational activities of the community, and endeavors to live up to his motto that a man should be truthful, square, honest and careful of his reputation. There are few people in Coal County who are not acquainted with Dick Bunch, and in his wide circle of acquaintances he numbers many warm, sincere friends.
JUDGE ALEXANDER GULLETT. Among the various avenues to distinction law and politics present special attractions to the ambitious; yet, of the great number who set out on the road many fall by the way and only a few achieve an unqualified success. In the political field accident often prevents an able man from reaching the ultimate goal of his ambitions, but in law a high degree of ability usually brings its reward in time. One of the foremost citizens of Tishomingo, Oklahoma, is Judge Alexander Gullett, whose career has been marked by notable achievements in both the fields of activity to which reference has been made above. Judge Gullett was born at Union City, Indiana, June 26, 1844, a son of Samuel and Fannie (Wasson) Gullett. His paternal family is of French Huguenot extraction, some of its early members, after the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, fleeing to Ireland, whence they later came to the United States. Among them was Thomas Gullett, who was a preacher in the Colonies during the Revolution. The paternal grandfather of Judge Gullett was born in North Carolina. The maternal grandfather, Rev. Davis Wasson, was a native of Ireland, of Scotch and Irish extraction, and at an early date settled in Ohio, bringing with him a Masonic lodge demit from Ireland, dated 1807. The Wassons were long-lived, the last son of Rev. Davis Wasson dying a few years ago at the age of ninety-four.
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