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 46

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 46

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As a stalwart democrat Mr. Brown has been active and liberal in the support of the party cause and the furtherance of the political ambition of his party friends, but he has manifested no desire for personal preferment in political affairs. He is one of the active and valued members of the Tulsa Commercial Club, and is a popular member of Tulsa Lodge, No. 946, Benevo- lent and Protective Order of Elks.

In the year 1895 was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Brown to Miss Hattie May Gibbs, who was born at Mexico, Audrain County, Missouri, and they became the parents of four children: James H. died at the age of eight years; Cecilia Honora and Harold Victor remain at the parental home; and Helen Louise died at the age of eight years.

DONALD R. BONFOEY. The business career of Donald R. Bonfoey at Oklahoma City, dates only from October, 1912, bnt during the short space of three years he has built np an enterprise in the line of insurance which places him among the substantial business men of the younger generation. Mr. Bonfoey, who is a member of the firm of Beverly H. Bonfoey & Sons, has also become widely known in military circles through his long connec- tion with the Missouri and Oklahoma National Guards.

Born in Putnam County, Missonri, Jnne 29, 1887, Mr. Bonfoey is a son of Beverly H. and Anna (Webb) Bon- foey. His father, a native of Texas, was a resident of Missonri for forty years, beginning life as a civil engi- neer, subsequently practicing law for a time and finally engaging in the insurance and investment business. Un- der appointment of Governor Dockery, he was a member of the World's Fair Commission of St. Louis, and acted as secretary of that body. Mr. Bonfoey's mother is a sister of Alexander Russell Webb, who was for a num- ber of years city editor of the St. Louis Republic, and under one of President Cleveland's administrations con- sul to Manila, Philippine Islands. In the family of Beverly H. and Anna Bonfoey there were five sons: Donald R., of this notice; B. L., who is in the farm loan and insurance business at Kirksville, Missonri; Percy W., who is secretary-treasurer of the Bonfoey Loan & Investment Company of Oklahoma City; L. P., who is sales mangaer of the Monroe Drug Company, at Quincy, Illinois; and Warner T., who lives with his parents at Oklahoma City and is a student in the high school.

Donald R. Bonfoey attended the public schools of

Unionville, Missouri, and in 1905 entered the University of Missouri, completing, in 1909, the law course and graduating with the degree of Bachelor of Laws. Dur- ing the next year he took a special course in agronomy in the University of Missouri, and in 1910 entered npon his business career when he accepted a position with the Travelers Insurance Company and remained for some time in the office of that company at Hartford, Con- necticut. Returning to Missouri, he became special agent for the Travelers Company with headquarters at St. Louis. In October, 1912, he moved to Oklahoma and became state agent for the National Fidelity and Cas- Cualty Company, retaining the position until June, 1914, when he resigned and was appointed state agent for the London & Lancashire Guaranty and Accident Company and the. London & Lancashire Fire Insurance Company. His is the home office for Oklahoma, and through indus- try and natural adaptability for the work he has built up one of the leading businesses of the state in his line.

At the age of thirteen years, by special permission of the major of cadets, Mr. Bonfoey enlisted in the Fourth Infantry of the Missouri National Guard. On Angust 9, 1907, he was promoted to the rank of second lieu- tenant of Company B, of that regiment, and February 8, 1910, was promoted to captain of his company. While a student in the University of Missouri, in which he graduated in military tactics and science, he was com- inissioned colonel of the University Cadets. On Jann- ary 12, 1912, after coming to Oklahoma, he was com- missioned colonel on the military staff of Gov. Lee Cruce. Under authority of Adjt .- Gen. Frank Canton, Mr. Bonfoey was chiefly instrumental in the organiza- tion of Troop B, First Cavalry Regiment, Oklahoma National Guard, at Oklahoma City, of which he was appointed captain, February 6, 1914. On January 22, 1915, he was commissioned major on the military staff of Gov. Robert L. Williams. During his military ex- perience he was a private, corporal and sergeant before attaining the rank of commissioned officer, and there- after filled the ranks of lieutenant, captain, major, lieu- tenant-colonel and colonel and every general staff office in the National Guard.

Mr. Bonfoey was married April 4, 1911, to Miss Lil- lian Donforth of St. Louis, the daughter of a prominent grain dealer for many years active in Southeast Mis- sonri. She is a graduate of the University of Missouri, class of 1909, and was a student also at one time of Hardin College, at Mexico, Missouri, Mr. Bonfoey .is a member of the Presbyterian Church. He belongs to the Beta Theta Pi college fraternity, at Columbia, Missouri, and has filled all the offices in his chapter, and is also a member of Siloam Lodge No. 36, Free and Accepted Masons, Oklahoma City, the local lodge of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, and the Casualty Men's Association of Oklahoma.

CLINTON E. B. CUTLER. To have come to a fertile but scantily populated region of the old Choctaw Nation at a time when there was political, commercial and social unrest, just preceding the abandonment of a territorial form of government, and to have observed the drastic changes incident to the latter days of the territorial period and the pioneer times of the statehood era, might have lacked interest to a mind less given to the study of political economy than that of Clinton E. B. Cutler. To him this was more than interesting, in view of the part that he played in the transition.

In his former home in Illinois, Mr. Cutler's activities for a number of years had formed an important part of the political history of that state, but in Oklahoma, tired of the battle front in the field of practical politics, he devoted himself to the energies that bespeak leader-

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ship in the ranks of the people who say little, suffer much and vote right in movements started toward the goal of better government. He became a factor, there- fore, in the termination of a no-self-government period and the establishment of a form of self-government that was applauded all over the country. The Constitution of Oklahoma, believes Mr. Cutler, is one of the greatest documents of human liberty ever written, especially since it makes such ample protection of the rights of the laboring man and itself contains so much of the legislation demanded by that class, thereby forestalling the possibility of legislatures, weak in patriotism, failing to properly provide the things demanded. Mr. Cutler came to Indian Territory in 1905, settling at Lehigh, an important coal-mining town of what afterward became Coal County, and remained there until, after statehood, by a vote of the people, the county seat was transferred to Coalgate.

Clinton E. B. Cutler was born at Joliet, Will County, Illinois, July 3, 1871, and is a son of Azro C. and Elizabeth (Miller) Cutler. His father, a native of New York, was a business man of Chicago as early as 1844 and in later years became a progressive farmer in the vicinity of Joliet, in the fertile County of Will. The ancestry of the Cutler family dates back to the time of William the Conqueror, when Sir Gewasse Cutler was a prominent figure in the invasion of England and par- ticipated in the battle of Hastings. The family had its founder in America prior to the War of the Revolution, and representatives of the name assisted the colonies in securing their independence. Manasseh Cutler, one of the American family, became governor of the Northwest Territory. He was born at Killingly, Connecticut, May 3, 1742, was graduated at Yale in 1765, became a law- yer in 1767, a Congregational minister in 1771, and a chaplain in the Revolutionary army in 1776. After the war he helped form the Ohio Company and had a leading part also in the forming of the State of Ohio. He was elected to Congress in 1800, and died at Hamilton, Mas- sachusetts, July 28, 1823. The mother of C. E. B. Cutler was a native of Switzerland and came to America with her parents when a child. There were two children in the family: C. E. B .; and Miss Ida Lucy, who is a teacher in the public schools of Chicago.

The early education of C. E. B. Cutler was acquired in the public schools of Illinois, in which he completed the high school course. Later he entered the Law De- partment of the University of Valparaiso, Indiana, where he graduated June 5, 1895, and in that year was ad- mitted to the bar. He did not begin the practice of law actively, however, for several years, in the meantime following the occupation of teaching. At the age of twenty-four years, having entered politics, he was elected supervisor of Will County, but he was of the democratic faith and resided in a community that was strongly republican, so that he never attained the honors in politi- cal life to which he early aspired. He was a member of the noted "train robber" convention, in Illinois, in which William Jennings Bryan denounced the methods of Roger Sullivan, and was a sympathizer of the Sulli- van element, although a stanch disciple of the famous Nebraskan. Later he would have been a member of the Illinois State Legislature but for the activities of Sulli- van, who caused his defeat because of Mr. Cutler's atti- tude toward a gas measure in which the Illinois politi- cian was interested. The case was taken to the Supreme Court, where Mr. Cutler won, but later he was deprived of the right of having his name on the ballot by virtue of a ruling made by the attorney-general of the state.

Mr. Cutler was married February 5, 1910, to Miss Frances Brooks, of Dallas, Texas. They have a modern

and beautiful home situated four miles from Coalgate on a picturesque eminence of a fertile 280-acre farm.

Mr. Cutler is a member of the Episcopal Church, to which his wife belongs also. He holds membership in the Coal County Bar Association, among the members of which he is held in deservedly high esteem. While he has devoted himself studiously to his profession at Coalgate, thereby coming to be a successful and widely known lawyer, Mr. Cutler has never been too busy to assist in the upbuilding of the town, which is one of the most modern of its population in the state. He is gratified that untoward, unsatisfactory conditions have passed and that the people of former Indian Territory now enjoy the best modern things of civilization. He takes a justifiable pride in his handsome home, as well as in the broad acres of his farm, on which are grown oats, cotton, hay and other staples, as well as water- melons of enticing flavor and great number.

CEPH SHOEMAKE. Whoever of talent has been a teacher in the rural schools of the Choctaw Nation during the first few years after statehood, has con- tributed an incalculable amount to the advancement of a section of the state that for years had suffered because of meagre school facilities and a high percentage of illiteracy. In view of this fact, the experience of Ceph Shoemake as a district teacher is an interesting part of the fast-developing history of Bryan County. His first school was in District No. 20 of Bryan County and it was taught in a log schoolhouse. His prepara- tion for the profession of pedagogy made him espe- cially successful in the work and for five years he continued to teach in rural schools. This experience attracted to him the notice of County Superintendent McIntosh, who, feeling the heavy burden of his efforts to make rural education the more effective in the county, asked Mr. Shoemake to become his assistant in the office, and the two entered upon what promises to be a most fruitful term of service on July 1, 1915.

Mr. Shoemake was born in Chickasaw County, Mis- sissippi, in 1888, and is a son of Elijah and Hallie (Miller) Shoemake. His father, a farmer in the vicin- ity of Bennington, Oklahoma, since 1894, is one of the progressive men of the district. Mr. Shoemake had his education in the common schools of Indian Territory and Oklahoma, the University of Valparaiso, in Indiana, the Central State Normal School and the Southeastern State Normal School of Oklahoma, so that he is well equipped for the work he has chosen. He is a member of the County and State Teachers' associations, and fra- ternally is associated with the Masonic order and the Woodmen of the World. His early farm training in- stilled in him a love for farm life, and he still maintains an active interest iu agricultural enterprises on his farm near Bennington.

H. F. TYLER is the practical man in charge of what is recognized as the largest manufacturing plant in the State of Oklahoma, the Dewey Portland Cement Com- pany at Dewey. This company was organized and incorporated in 1906, with a capital of $1,000,000. The general offices are in Kansas City, and the principal officers of the company are: Frank E. Tyler, president ; Fred L. Williamson, vice president and sales manager ; and J. R. Mulvane, of Topeka, treasurer. The large plant at Dewey was built immediately after the incor- poration of the company, and has a maximum capacity of high grade Portland cement aggregating 4,000 barrels per day, while the average production is 3,500 barrels. The company also does a large business in crushed stone, and furnishes crushed stone for building and other

Jauporg

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uses throughout the country in a radius of 100 milesthe former a native of New York and the latter of around Dewey. There are few places in the United States with greater advantages for a Portland cement factory than Dewey, where there is an abundance of limestone and shale, with fuel from the gas and oil dis- trict almost at the doors of the factory, and it is also very near the coal fields of Oklahoma ' and Southern Kansas. The cement is largely sold in Oklahoma, but is also exported to neighboring states. About 200 men are employed in the Dewey plant.

Mr. H. F. Tyler is manager of the works at Dewey and constructed the plant and has had active charge of its operation for nearly ten years. The plant is one of most modern equipment and its engines generate 4,800 horse power.

H. F. Tyler was born at Chatfield, Minnesota, in 1865, a son of D. W. and Harriet M. (Freemen) Tyler. The Tyler family is one of historic prominence in this coun- try, and John Tyler, one time president, is of the same stock. Mr. Tyler's father was born in Massachusetts and his mother in Ohio. He died at Junction City, Kan- sas, May 31, 1914, at the venerable age of eighty-one, while the mother is still living at Junction City. D. W. Tyler was a machinist by trade, and during the Civil war volunteered as a private, and subsequently was made inspector of artillery. He was one of the early settlers in Minnesota, and lived there as a farmer until 1871, when he located at Dubuque, Iowa. H. F. Tyler attended the public schools until 1883, and then went out to Marion, South Dakota, then Dakota Territory, and became bookkeeper in a flour mill erected by his father and a partner. He remained in Dakota Territory until 1893, and then went to Junction City, Kansas. His father and his brother Frank and Mr. Tyler erected a flour mill and grain elevator at Junction City, and he became one of the prominent business men there. In 1901 he was influential in getting the Interurban Rail- way constructed between Junction City and Fort Riley and is still a director in that company. Since 1906 he has been closely identified with the building and man- agement of the Dewey Portland Cement Company.

Mr. Tyler saw Dakota Territory made into states, and was also in Indian Territory when it was merged with Oklahoma Territory to form one state, and voted in favor of statehood in both South Dakota and Oklahoma. In addition to his chief business Mr. Tyler has extensive oil interests in Northern Oklahoma. His father was a member of the first State Legislature from South Dakota.

Mr. Tyler has one son, Donald M., who is a draftsman and mechanical engineer at the Dewey cement plant. This son was educated in Oklahoma and in the Univer- sity of Kansas, and by his marriage to Ima Irwin, daughter of John S. Irwin, has one child, Helen Louise.

FRED WOOD HANFORD. In the months following the opening of the Cherokee Strip Fred W. Hanford estab- lished the pioneer hardware storc at Alva. For nearly fifteen years he was the leading merchant in that line in Alva, kept his business growing along with the growth and development of the city and surrounding country, and left it in such flourishing condition and with such well established confidence among its patronage that the store is still continued by his estate and enjoys the prestige which long years of reliable merchandise service give to any such institution. Fred W. Hanford was a fine type of the Oklahoma pioneer, and a man whose business achievements and whose character fitly deserve commemoration.

Fred W. Hanford was born June 12, 1866, in Lenawee County, Michigan, and died at Alva, April 14, 1909. His parents were James and Emma (Wood) Hanford,

Michigau. Of the four sons all are deceased except R. G. Hanford, now a resident of Spokane, Washington.

The late Mr. Hanford grew up on a Michigan farm, in the vicinity of Tecumseh, and his education was con- cluded with his graduation from high school. At the age of twenty he and his parents moved out to the new state of Kansas, locating on a farm in Pratt County. It was in a hardware store at Pratt that the late Mr. Hanford learned the hardware business, and when he came to Oklahoma he brought with him a thorough experience and considerable capital. For a number of years he was traveling representative for an agricultural implement house. It was in October, 1893, that he opened a stock of hardware and agricultural implements in Alva, and was one of the first merchants in that town. Since his death the business has been continued under the old name and under the management of the estate. Mr. Hanford left a widow and two children.

In politics he was a democrat, but was not an office · seeker and confined his efforts primarily to the develop- ment of a reliable service as a merchant and to the ful- fillment of those responsibilities and duties which come to every individual in the social sphere. He loved his home, was generous and clean minded, and had a high place in the esteem of those who knew him best. He was a member of the Baptist Church.

At Pratt, Kansas, on November 17, 1891, the late Mr. Hanford married Miss Alice L. Simpson, daughter of James F. and Lee A. (Hilbert) Simpson. Both her parents were natives of Ohio. Mrs. Hanford was born at Rosemond, Illinois, July 2, 1871. During her long residence at Alva, while primarily devoted to the inter- ests of her home, she has also become well known in church and club work, and is a factor in the woman's activities and circles of that city. Her oldest child, Ernest, born May 27, 1895, died in infancy. The daughter, Neva Jane, born June 16, 1897, was graduated in 1915 from the Southern Seminary at Buena, Virginia, where she specialized in the classics, music and art. The son, Fred Wood, Jr., was born May 3, 1901.

E. L. AURELIUS. During the past five years the name of E. L. Aurelius, president of the Aurelius-Swanson Company, Incorporated, has become as familiar to the residents of Oklahoma City as a household word, being indissolubly associated in the mind of the public with a number of enterprises, which have not only added to the city's prestige, but have also placed comfortable homes within reach of the industrial classes, and have inci- dentally added to the projector's fortune. These achieve- ments, it may be added, have been accomplished before their architect has reached the age when slower minds are beginning to comprehend life's possibilities.

Mr. Aurelius was born at Pecatonica, Winnebago County, Illinois, in 1883, and is a son of J. P. and Ida (Johnson) Aurelius. His father, a native of Sweden, is a minister in the Lutheran Church and with Mrs. Aurelius resides at Fremont, Kansas. There were two sons and three daughters in the family: E. L., of this notice; Harry E., a graduate of Bethany College, at Lindsborg, Kansas, class of 1914, and now associated with his brother in business at Oklahoma City; Mrs. J. E. Liljedahl, who is the wife of a minister at Salina, Kansas; Miss Esther, who resides with her parents at Fremont, Kansas; and Miss Ruth, who is attending the high school at Salina, Kansas.

E. L. Aurelius received his preliminary education in the graded schools of Wakefield, Nebraska, and his high school training at El Campo, Texas. Thereafter he spent several years as a student at Bethany College, Lindsborg, Kansas, and when he left college, in 1901,

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accepted a position as traveling salesman, a capacity in which he represented several wholesale houses during the next few years. In 1909 he came to Oklahoma City and entered the real-estate and loan business, in which he developed his now well-known system of home-build- ing. In five years he and his associates have built over 100 modern residences in Oklahoma City, and recently that feature of the business has been extended to Nor- man, the seat of the University of Oklahoma. The Aurelius-Swanson Company was organized and incor- porated in 1914, with a capital stock of $50,000 and a financial responsibility of $100,000 and Mr. Aurelius has continued as president of this concern and in active management of its affairs. The company has a suite of offices on the tenth floor of the State National Bank Building. Its principal business is the selling of first mortgages on city and farm real estate and its clientele is found in many states of the North and East. Dr. J. E. Swanson, a member of the company's directing board, is a capitalist of Sioux City, Iowa. On the theory that mortgages on improved city real estate are considered the choicest of all investments, this company has brought hundreds of thousands of dollars into Okla- lioma for the development of city property. Their securities are actual first liens on improved real estate that is worth several times the amount of the mortgage. Mr. Aurelius is a member of the Swedish Lutheran Church. He belongs to the Oklahoma City Ad Club, and has been a helpful factor in a number of movements for civic betterment.

FINIS E. SADLER, M. D. The progresisve faculty pos- sessed by some men stands as one of their dominating characteristics and gives to them a marked advantage in attaining distinct prestige in any line to which they may confine their efforts. Doctor Sadler is a substantial physi- cian and surgeon of Coal County, Oklahoma, whither he removed from Wapanucka, then Indian Territory, in 1906. He has since been one of the most valued resi- dents of Coalgate, where he has achieved prominence in both professional and municipal circles.

A native of the Lone Star State, Doctor Sadler was born in Fannin County, Texas, February 10, 1879, and he is a son of John W. and Isabel (McGee) Sadler. John W. Sadler is likewise a native of Texas and for many years past has been known as a prosperous farmer and rancher in Fannin County, that state. Of the children born to Mr. and Mrs. Sadler, H. E. and Roy are ranchers and stockmen in Fannin County; Lillie is the wife of Cowan Lattie, cashier of the First National Bank of Dodd City, Texas; and Dr. Finis E. is the immediate subject of this sketch.

Doctor Sadler received his preliminary educational training in the common schools of Fannin County, Texas, subsequently attended high school at Bonham, that county, and he completed his literary education in Haw- thorn College, at Mckinney, Texas. Early deciding on the medical profession as his life work, he entered Central University, at Louisville, Kentucky, and there completed a special course on the diseases of children June 29, 1903. April 29, 1904, he was graduated in the Memphis Hos- pital Medical College, at Memphis, Tennessee, with the degree of Doctor of Medicine, and June 30, 1904, he completed a special course in therapeutics and gynecol- ogy under Dr. Edward Speidel of the faculty of Central University, Louisville, Kentucky. Being thus well equipped for his life work Doctor Sadler entered upon the active practice of his profession at Wapanucka, In- dian Territory, in 1904, and removed thence to Coalgate, Oklahoma, in 1906. Here he has built up a splendid medical practice and for several years past has served most efficiently as local surgeon for the Missouri, Kansas

& Texas Railway Company. For five years he was city health officer of Coalgate, also the county physician for five years, and he is a valued member of the Coal County Medical Society, the Oklahoma State Medical Society, and the American Medical Association.

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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