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 43
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).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90 | Part 91 | Part 92 | Part 93 | Part 94 | Part 95 | Part 96 | Part 97 | Part 98 | Part 99 | Part 100 | Part 101 | Part 102 | Part 103 | Part 104 | Part 105 | Part 106 | Part 107 | Part 108 | Part 109 | Part 110 | Part 111 | Part 112 | Part 113 | Part 114 | Part 115 | Part 116
WILLIAM A. LONG. One of the flourishing yonng cities of Oklahoma that do not glory so much in their past as in their present condition and future possibilities is Dewey, in Washington County. Mr. Long is an inter- married citizen and has been identified with this section of Oklahoma for many years. His eareer has been one of diversified endeavor and enterprise, and he is esteemed as one of the fine old pioneers in Washington County.
His birth occurred February 28, 1851, near Eaton, in Delaware County, Indiana, a son of John C. and Caroline (Cox) Long. His father was born in Pennsylvania and his mother in Tennessee. The former was a general farmer and was one of the early settlers of Delaware Connty, Indiana. The mother of Mrs. Long died in 1895. William A. is the oldest of four children. His brother Calvin lives at Coffeyville, Kansas, his brother Robert lives near Wheeling, Indiana, and the only dangh- ter, Jennie, is now deceased.
Until twenty-two years of age Mr. Long lived on the old Indiana farm with his father. He attended sehool at Ridgeville in his native county and also was a student in the Valparaiso Normal School. While employed on his father's farm he taught school during the winter months, but in 1875 went to Hoopeston, Illinois, and became foreman on his uncle's extensive ranch of 3,500 acres in that vicinity. After two years there he went west to Leadville, Colorado, during the high tide of mining development in that region, and was a worker
George It. Fields .
1091
HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA
in the quartz mines until 1879. For about six years from 1879 Mr. Long was engaged in general farming and stock raising enterprise at Coffeyville, Kansas. He was also a buyer and shipper of cattle in Texas, and after his marriage in 1890 engaged in farming on about 1,800 acres of land in the northern part of Indian Ter- ritory. For nearly twenty years farming and stock raising provided abundant opportunities for his business ability, but since 1910 he has been retired and lives in Dewey, and has operated considerably in local real estate. Mr. Long since moving to Dewey has platted what is known as the Long Addition to the town, comprising altogether forty acres. Mr. Long also owns mining interests near Boulder, Colorado, and for the past ten years he and his family have spent their summers in that city.
On April 10, 1890, Mr. Long married Mrs. Eliza (McCay) Blosser. She was born in the Goingsnake Dis- trict of Indian Territory, and is of one-eighth Cherokee blood. Her parents were William P. and Jane (Cole- man) McCay, both natives of Tennessee and members of the Cherokee Tribe. Her father was of Scotch descent, was a farmer, blacksmith and wagon maker, and was employed in those capacities in the vicinity of Tale- quah for a number of years. Mrs. Long was one of a family of five children: William, deceased; Lucinda, deceased; Alfred, who lives at McAlester, Oklahoma; Mrs. Long; and one that died in infancy. Mrs. Long was born November 17, 1849, and her first husband was Emanuel Blosser of Bluffton, Indian Territory. He died in August, 1886, and the one child of that union is Joseph D. Blosser, who was born August 18, 1874, and is now a carpenter and sawmill foreman at Deweyville, Texas, and married Mary Pratt. In 1864, while the Civil war was in progress, Mrs. Long and two other children in the family set out to walk from near Tale- quah to Fort Smith, Arkansas, a distance of forty-five miles. It was in the midst of the extreme summer heat, but they finally accomplished their journey and joined their father at Fort Smith. Mrs. Long's brother Alfred was taken prisoner during the war and kept at Tyler, Texas, for a number of months. For the past thirty years he has served in the Indian Department at McAlester. Mr. Long is a republican and Mrs. Long is a member of the Eastern Star and of the Christian Church.
When Mr. Long first became identified with the ranching interests of the old Cherokee Nation in what is now Washington County, there was not a house between Bartlesville and Coffeyville, Kansas. The extensive land over which he grazed his stock was an extended prairie with grass so thick that it was almost impassable in places. He showed a great deal of enterprise and progressiveness in his farming and stock raising inter- ests. He put a seven-wire fence around about 800 acres of land and later developed 500 acres as cultivated land. He kept as high as several thousand head of cattle on the range, and will always be remembered as one of the leading cattle men of his day. About the time the Indians were allotted their respective portions of land he leased 1,600 acres near the Kansas line. He was at that time at the height of his prosperity as a cattle raiser. Many of his friends recall the heavy misfortune which befell him soon afterward. He bought 500 head of select Colorado steers. all of one color, uniform in size and standard, and said to have been one of the best bunches of cattle ever grazed in Northern Oklahoma. After fattening them, he sent them to the Chicago mar- ket. Apparently they were in the best condition, but as a matter of fact the entire head had been infected on the range with the Texas tick, and on arriving in the Vol. III-10
Chicago stock yards they were immediately condemned by the inspectors and the entire investment proved a total loss. This was one of the heaviest discourage- ments Mr. Long ever met in his career, though he has seen a great deal of vicissitudes, and has made his mod- est fortune by constant perseverance and persistence and a courage that has enabled him to begin all over again when necessary.
His estate at Dewey is known as Maple Grove, one of the most beautiful and picturesque places in Washington County. His home has most attractive surroundings in a grove of splendid maples, and he has also done much to improve the growing city by laying out one of the best residence sections of the town.
HON. GEORGE W. FIELDS. A young and energetic member of the Oklahoma bar with residence at Grove, in Delaware County, George W. Fields is one of the prom- inent Oklahomans from the old Cherokee Nation of the state, has been actively identified with public affairs in his county since the beginning of statehood, and is now a member of the Oklahoma Senate from the Thirtieth District.
George W. Fields was born in Delaware County in the Cherokee Nation of Indian Territory, July 10, 1882, son of George and Sarah Fields, who were members of the Cherokee Tribe. His father was of one-fourth Indian blood and his mother of one-half Indian blood. There is also a strain of Scotch, Irish and English in his ancestry, coming through his father principally. His great-grand- father, Richard Fields, was a native of Tennessee, descended from an English family, and spent most of his life with the Cherokee Indians. In the early part of the nineteenth century he was governor of a branch of the Cherokee Tribe that lived in Texas. In Texas history his name is associated with that of the Edwards brothers, who in 1826 established the short lived Fredonia Republic in Eastern Texas, and Richard Fields as governor of the Cherokees had a prominent part in that enterprise. After the Fredonian rebellion and the failure of the project to which the Edwards brothers were devoted, Richard Fields subsequently joined Gen. Sam Houston and other Texans in their successful efforts to accomplish freedom from Mexico.
.
George W. Fields attended the common tribal schools as a boy, and on May 28, 1902, was graduated with the degree Bachelor of Science, from the Cherokee Male Seminary at Tahlequah, which for so many years was the capital of the Cherokee Nation. Some years later his inclinations turned to the law, and he studied that profession and was admitted to the bar in December, 1913, at Oklahoma City. He has since engaged in practice in his home town at Grove. On April 3, 1904, while engaged in school work, Mr. Fields was married to Miss Jennie Glass, in McDonald County, Missouri, a popular young school teacher of Rogers County, Okla- homa. To this union no children have been born. Mrs. Fields was the prime mover in the promotion and organi- zation of a club formed by the wives of the legislators which bears the euphonious and appropriate name "Ohoyohoma," a word in the Choctaw Indian language meaning Women's Circle. This organization has re- cently been federated with the state federated clubs. Mrs, Fields is a leader in social and literary circles in her home town of Grove.
His success as a rising young lawyer is attested by the fact that those in need of legal services come with the knottiest questions found in that profession. He has already, during his brief term of practice, gone to the highest courts in the state. He is at present National Attorney for the Cayuga-Seneca Nation of Indians, west
1092
HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA
of the Mississippi, residing in Northwest Oklahoma, who have large interests in both lands and money in their former home, the State of New York, as well as valuable individual allotments in Oklahoma. Those who know him best are very lavish in their efforts to have him enter the campaign for either Corporation Commissioner or for Congress from the First District.
After leaving college Senator Fields was for five years a teacher in the public schools of the old Cherokee Nation. He left that profession iu 1907, the year that Oklahoma was admitted to the Union, and at the state- hood election was chosen the first registrar of deeds of Delaware County. That office he held until elected a member of the Senate in 1912. Senator Fields begau his service as senator at the beginning of the fourth session of the State Legislature. His district embraces Delaware, Cherokee and Ottawa counties.
As a member of one of the strongest and most important of the five civilized tribes, Mr. Fields during the Fourth Legislature was made chairman of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs. In the Fifth Legislature he was chairman of the Senate Committee on Education. Living in a section of Oklahoma, formerly the Indian Territory, where little progress had been made in public education and the construction of public highways before statehood, Senator Fields during his senatorial career has given particular attention to legislation relating to those two important subjects and they may be designated as his hobbies. The Town of Tahlequah, in Cherokee County, which is in his district, is the seat of the Northeastern State Normal, and one of his ambitions has been to assist that institution in securing appropriations com- mensurate with the needs of that part of the state. Ottawa County, possessing the lead and zinc fields, the only ones in the state, he has given special attention to that infant but thriving industry. He has made special efforts in maintaining the gross tax at a reasonable rate and to establish a branch of the School of Mines at Miami, where practical miners are turned out. In these he has succeeded.
.
Senator Fields is a thirty-second degree Mason, has been an officer of his local lodge at Grove, and is a member of the Scottish Rite, India Consistory No. 2, Mc Alester, Oklahoma. He is also a Mystic Shriner, Bedouin Temple, at Muskogee, Oklahoma, and is affiliated with the Lodge of Elks at Vinita, Oklahoma. He is a member of the Christian Church at Grove.
ALBERT P. CROCKETT. A member of the representative law firm of Burwell, Crockett & Johnson, with offices at 415-427 Lee Building, Oklahoma City, Mr. Crockett is a man of fine professional attainments and his precedence at the bar of the state of his adoption is based upon results achieved.
Mr. Crockett was born in Williamson County, Tennes- see, in the year 1871, and is a son of Dr. Rufus A. and Nancy (Scales) Crockett, the latter a representative of the old and prominent Scales family of North Carolina. Dr. Rufus A. Crockett, who was an able physician, con- tinued in the practice of his profession in Tennessee until his death, which occurred when his son Albert P. was a boy, his widow still being a resident of that state. Doc- tor Crockett was a scion of the historic old Crockett family of Tennessee, that produced the great frontiers- man and patriot, Davy Crockett, who lost his life in the memorable massacre of the Alamo, in Texas, in 1836.
In the Webb School at Bellbuckle, Tennessee, Albert P. Crockett acquired his early educational discipline, which was supplemented by a course in Vanderbilt Uni- versity, in the City of Nashville, Tennessee. In this institution he was graduated in 1892, with the degree of
Bachelor of Arts, and he forthwith entered the law de- partment of the university, in which he completed the prescribed curriculum and was graduated as a member of the class of 1894. After the reception of the degree of Bachelor of Laws he engaged in the practice of his profession at Hopkinsville, where he served two terms as city attorney and also gained noteworthy recognition in being appointed as counsel for Kentucky of the Ten- nessee Central Railroad Company.
Fortified through excellent and varied experience in connection with legal work of important order, Mr. Crockett came to Oklahoma Territory in 1902, since which year he has continued in the active practice of law in Oklahoma City, and where since 1908 he has been a member of the well known law firm of Burwell, Crockett & Johnson, which controls a large and important prac- tice, extending into the various courts of Oklahoma, both state aud federal. In 1908 Mr. Crockett was president of the Oklahoma City Bar Association, of which he con- tinues an active and valued member, and he is identified also with the Oklahoma State Bar Association and the American Bar Association. In the Masonic fraternity he has received the thirty-second degree of the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite; he is past exalted ruler of Okla- homa City Lodge, No. 417, Benevolent & Protective Or- der of Elks; is affiliated also with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and holds membership in the Oklahoma City Club, the Men's Dinner Club, and the Golf aud Country Club, all representative social organizations of the Capital City.
In 1907 was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Crockett to Miss Elizabeth Russell, daughter of James D. Russell, of Hopkinsville, Kentucky, and their residence in Okla- lioma City is at 506 West Thirteenth Street.
RET H. ERWIN. A well-known and highly esteemed citizen of Ada, Pontotoc County, where he is now one of the interested principals of the Pontotoc County Abstract Company, Mr. Erwin is one of the progressive and loyal young men who was virtually reared under the primitive conditions that obtained in the former Indian Territory, and he has kept pace with the march of progress, has proved a resourceful, steadfast and reliable citizen and has done his part in the furtherance of civic and material advancement. His high standing in his home community is indicated by the fact that he served two consecutive terms as county treasurer of Pontotoc County, a position from which he retired on the 1st of July, 1915, the provisions of Oklahoma law being such that no candidate for such county office is eligible for re-election for a third term.
Mr. Erwin was born iu the southeastern part of the State of Missouri, in the year 1883, and is a son of Joe and Fannie (Davis) Erwin. His father, a native of the State of Tennessee, was one of the early white settlers of the Chickasaw Nation country of Indian Ter- ritory, and became a prominent and influential factor in the social, industrial and commercial development of this now favored section of Oklahoma. He served as a valiant soldier of the Confederacy during the Civil war and was a resident of Missouri thereafter until his re- moval to Indian Territory, where he became a pioneer settler in the Chickasaw Nation, as previously intimated.
The early education of Ret H. Erwin was obtained in subscription schools maintained in the Chickasaw Nation, and in one of these undeniably primitive schools, in the Sulphur Springs district of Pontotoc County, he had a number of Indian children as his fellow-pupils. He made good use of these meager scholastic advantages and in the broad schools of experience he has effectively rounded out his education in later years. After Okla- homa was admitted to statehood Mr. Erwin was ap-
Ok
be Ada trea are 0 Effi an
tenu M is per hold eity
poin posi coun istra his office the Lee
to
far
for
De
Is
HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA
1093
pointed deputy clerk of Pontotoc County, and of this position he continued the incumbent until he was elected county treasurer, in 1910. His careful and able admin- istration of the fiscal affairs of the county resulted in his re-election in 1912, and his record in this important office stands unequivocally to his credit and to that of the county which he thus served. His brother-in-law; Lee Daggs, who has been his assistant in the office of county treasurer, succeeded him in office and is now in tenure of the position.
Mr. Erwin accords allegiance to the democratic party, is affiliated with the Knights of Pythias and the Inde- pendent Order of Odd Fellows, and both he and his wife hold membership in the Baptist Church in their home city. Mr. Erwin has two brothers and three sisters, con- cerning whom the following brief data may consistently be given: G. A. and P. F. are prosperous farmers near Ada; Mrs. Lee Daggs is the wife of the present county treasurer of Pontotoc County; and Jeanette and Mary are with their brothers.
On the 5th of April, 1913, Mr. Erwin wedded Mrs. Effie Bryant, of Ada, and their two children are Lucile and Ret H., Jr. Mrs. Erwin also had two children by a former marriage, Ambrose Bryant and Marie Bryant.
ALEX RENNIE. Among the enterprising and successful business men of the growing young commonwealth of Oklahoma are some who mingle in their veins the blood of the white settlers with that of the original possessors of the soil. Of this type is Alex Rennie, now engaged in the insurance, real estate and loan business in Tisho- mingo, Johnston County. Mr. Rennie was born in Tishomingo in 1872, the son of Alex and Mary (Humphrey) Rennie. The father, a native of Toronto, Canada, came to Fort Washita, Indian Territory, in 1859, and during the Civil war was a soldier in the Confederate army. He was one of the first merchants in Tishomingo and served a term as treasurer of the Chickasaw Nation. Mr. Rennie's paternal grandfather was a native of Scot- land. His maternal greatgrandmother was a full blood Chickasaw. His maternal grandfather was a pioneer farmer of the Chickasaw country and for a number of years operated a mill near Tishomingo. Holmes Colbert, a half brother of his mother, was one of the foremost men of the Chickasaw country and represented the nation for several years in Washington.
Mr. Rennie was educated in the public schools of Denison, Texas, including the high school, and at the Denison Business College, being graduated from both the last named institutions. When eighteen years old he entered the employ of an uncle at Lehigh, Oklahoma, and remained there for three years. Subsequently returning to Tishomingo, he engaged in the insurance, real estate and loan business and has since been thus occupied. It was partly under his supervision that the Tishomingo town site, as now platted, was laid out, when the Rock Island road built here. The original town site had been platted under tribal government and lacked uniformity in lots and streets, and in making the new plat much confusion ensued. As an instance of this, Mr. Rennie found that after the new plat was made practically all of seven acres he owned on the original plat had been consumed in streets. Many of the streets of the town, which covers 545 acres, are named after prominent Indian families and other pioneers of the Chickasaw Nation. In addition to his regular business already mentioned, Mr. Rennie owns some valuable farms in Jackson County, and is an advocate of scientific, pro- gressive farming. At one time he held a position under the tribal government, being collector of the one per cent revenue tax on merchants. His brother William, now
deceased, was treasurer of the Chickasaw Nation during the first per capita payment to the tribe, at which time Charles Carter, now a member of Congress from Okla- homa, was secretary of the nation.
Mr. Rennie was married in 1900, at Stonewall, to Miss Lulu Burris, daughter of one of the leading inen of the Chickasaw Nation for many years, who held nearly every office in the Indian government save that of governor. Mr. and Mrs. Rennie are the parents of four children: Louise, Helen, Dorothy and Alexia. Mr. Rennie is a member of the Presbyterian Church, of the Tishomingo Commercial Club, and of the Royal Arch and Scottish Rite divisions of the Masonic order. He has a brother, John F., who is a railroad man at Denison, Texas, and a sister, Mrs. U. S. Allender, wife of a druggist at Pauls Valley. Giving evidence more of the Caucasian blood in him than of the Indian blood, and possessing the pro- gressive characteristics of the leading white men who have made this old nation a land of happy homes, thriv- ing farms and commendable public institutions, Mr. Rennie is typical of the generation that is accomplishing most for a higher civilization here.
WILLIAM W. JONES. From the time of his early child- hood has this well known citizen, who served for three years as one of the efficient commissioners of the City of Bartlesville, the progressive judicial center of Washing- ton County, been a resident of what is now the State of Oklahoma, and he is a representative of one of its hon- ored pioneer families. Mr. Jones is now devoting his time to looking after the real estate holdings of himself and father and is the representative of the Mutual Benefit Life Insurance Company of Newark, New Jersey, in the City of Bartlesville, Oklahoma. He claims the Lone Star State as the place of his nativity and was about two years old when he accompanied, his parents on the overland journey from Texas to Indian Territory, his medium of transportation having been one of the old-time "prairie schooners,"' and his mother having driven the team attached to the same, the while his father drove another team and gave careful supervision to the primitive caravan and the care of the live stock which was driven through by men hired for the purpose. He whose name initiates this article has imbibed deeply of the progressive spirit of the state in which he was reared and has witnessed its development and upbuilding with satisfaction, his loyalty to Oklahoma being of the most insistent type and being marked by distinctive public spirit.
Mr. Jones was born in Fannin County, Texas, in the year 1883, and is a son of John W. S. and Martha T. (Stowe) Jones, the former of whom was born and reared in Illinois and the latter of whom was born in Indiana but reared to maturity in Illinois, where her marriage was solemnized. In 1878 the parents removed to Texas, and there the father was identified with the cattle and farming industries until 1885, when he came with his family to Indian Territory, under conditions that have already been described. They arrived in what is now Washington County in July of that year and location was made on a pioneer farm two miles east of Bartlesville. John W. S. Jones here developed a valuable landed estate and achieved marked success as a farmer and stock-grower. He continued his residence on this place until about the year 1900, since whic. time he has lived virtually retired in the City of Bartlesville. He still owns a valuable landed estate of 300 acres in Washington County and the same is devoted to diversified agriculture and the raising of live stock. Mr. Jones is one of the sterling pioneer citizens of Washington County, has done well his part in the development of
1 P Y
S
the ber ree Liş
# Ice of en ett
th
ty ut a- r- er
t
e
f
1094
HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA
this section of the state, and is held in high esteem by all who know him, his wife, who had been his devoted helpmeet, having been called to the life eternal in Janu- ary, 1901, at the age of forty-four years, and she is sur- vived by four children-Francis A., who is one of the prosperous agriculturists of Washington County, his farm being situated a few miles south of Bartlesville; William W., who is the immediate subject of this review; and Ora Dessie and Ola Bessie, twins, the former being the wife of Charles B. Skinner, who resides on a farm two miles south of Bartlesville, and the latter being the wife of Roy E. Spear, assistant city engineer of Bartles- ville.
William W. Jones has beeu a resident of Washington Couuty from his virtual infancy and his childhood was passed under the conditions and influences of the pioneer period in the history of this section. He acquired his early education in the somewhat primitive local schools of the period, and the first which he attended was in the old Missionary Baptist Church building, four miles southeast of Bartlesville. Thereafter his studies were continued in a schoolhouse that was built by his father aud a few other men for the purpose and that was sup- ported by him and other settlers in the vicinity, the teacher receiving $1 a month for each child to whom he imparted instruction. Mr. Jones continued to attend school about four months each year until he had attained to the age of sixteen years, and in the meanwhile he learned the lessons of practical industry under the care- ful direction of his father, the latter having earnestly encouraged the children in the developing of self-reliance, ambition and a determination to achieve worthy success. After leaving the rural school Mr. Jones attended the public schools of Bartlesville for two terms-one of seven and the other of nine months' duration. At the age of eighteen years he felt his ambition to acquire a more liberal education so definitely quickened that he made the desire one of action. Through his own resources largely, he defrayed the expenses of a three years' course in school at Independence, Kansas, where he pursued high school studies and also completed a regular business course, so that he won and received diplomas in each department, in 1904, at which time he was about twenty years of age. The ambition of the young student and worker was not yet satisfied, as shown by the fact that in the same year he realized his heart's desire and took unto himself a wife. The year 1904 recorded, at Independence, Kansas, his marriage to Miss Grace McCreery, who was born and reared in the Sunflower State and who is a daughter of John L. McCreery, now a resident of Bartlesville. Mr. and Mrs. Jones have five children, namely: Ray Winfield, Elsie Genevieve, Charles Francis, Helen Laurie, and Robert Lincoln.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.