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 5

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 5

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Born at Fort Dodge, Iowa, July 4, 1856, "Bill" Tilgh man, as he is everywhere known throughout the South west, has spent nearly all his life on the borders of the frontier. His parents were William and Amanda (Shep ard) Tilghman. His father, who was born in 1823 01 the eastern shore of Maryland, is descended from Rich ard Tilghman, who came from Couuty Kent, England along with Lord Baltimore, the founder of the Maryland Colony. A number of the Tilghman family are stil found along the 'Chesapeake Bay in Maryland. When a boy the senior William Tilghman left home, saw service in the Florida Indian wars, drifted to the West at a very early day, and finally located at Fort Dodge, Iowa. when there was really a fort there, and for some time carried on a sutler's store in the army post. In 1856 he removed to Kansas, locating four miles east of Atchison and was one of the pioneers engaged in farming and stock raising until 1883. He then returned to Fort Dodge, living there some seven or eight years, and or the opening settlement of the land of the Sac and Fox Indians in September, 1891, established a new home a quarter of a mile from Chandler in Lincoln County, and lived there until his death in 1910 at the age of eighty seven. His wife died at eighty-six on February 7, 1915 They were people who possessed all the hardy virtues of early settlers and pioneers.

Mr. William Tilghman had no formal education in schools, and his early life was one continuous training in those practices which make men proficient in all the crafts of the frontier. He left home at the age of fifteen and for the next fifteen years may be said to have prac- tically lived with the wild Indians. When Oklahoma was opened to settlement he was among the first arrivals on that historie day of April 22, 1889, and established his first home at Guthrie. In 1891 he was appointed a deputy United States marshal, and thereafter continu- ously for nineteen years was in the service, being reap- pointed by every United States marshal in Oklahoma until 1910. He performed his duty with a capable efficiency and courage that would be difficult to match, and by those who are competent to judge it is said that Bill Tilghman while deputy marshal had more criminals to contend with than any other officer of the law in the entire Southwest. Not long ago the famous Western sheriff and personal friend of Theodore Roosevelt, Bat Masterson, wrote an article for the magazine Human Life, in which he gave many interesting incidents and details of Tilgliman's service as deputy marshal and the article furnishes an emphatic proof of the statements already made as to Mr. Tilghman's high standing as an officer of justice.

After retiring from the marshal's office in 1910, Mr. Tilghman was elected a member of the State Senate from the Thirteenth Senatorial District. In 1911 he resigned from the Senate to become chief of police in Oklahoma City, and in that new office his record serves to increase his standing as a man of devotion to duty. In 1914 Mr. Tilghman finally retired from active life, and is now enjoying the fruits of a long career during which he has witnessed the reclamation of the entire Southwest from the domain of the barbarian Indian and

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desperado into a country that is bearing some of the finest fruits of civilization.

In 1915 Mr. Tilghman was instrumental in bringing out a moving picture series entitled "The Passing of the Oklahoma Outlaws," the scenes of which have been re-enacted under his direction by many of those who were actually engaged in the original work of hunting down the outlaws. This dramatic representation was repro- duced in the rugged country of the old Creek and Osage Nation, where many bloody dramas in the conflict of law and order against desperadoism occurred. There is an instructive moral element in the moving picture drama, which depicts the life of the outlaw from the first act of crime until he inevitably becomes entangled in the toils of justice, and contrary to many representations of that class of people the outlaws in this drama are not repre- sented as heroes who would readily gain the admiration of young boys, and it is Mr. Tilghman's judgment, based on a long and thorough experience with criminals, that there is no such thing as an outlaw hero.

In 1878 Mr. Tilghman married Miss Flora Kendall. Her mother was Mrs. Nancy (Kendall) Marrs, of Fort Dodge, Iowa. Mrs. Tilghman died in 1910 leaving four children : Charles A., William, Jr., Dottie and Vonnie. In 1903 Mr. Tilghman married Miss Zoe A. Stratton. Her father, Mayo E. Stratton, better known as Uncle Pete Stratton, was prominently known all over the South- west, lived in Southern Kansas and later in Ingalls, Oklahoma, and was oue of the pioneers of Oklahoma I cattle men, having driven, in 1868, the second bunch of cattle over the old Chisholm Trail, which led from the 1 Texas range to the northern pastures and markets. Mr. and Mrs. Tilghman, who reside at 824 West Twelfth Street in Oklahoma City, have three sons: Tench, Rich- of ard and Woodrow Wilson Tilghman.

ALBERT F. STEWART. Senior member of the repre- sentative firm of Stewart & Wilderson, architects and building contractors who have done much to further the material upbuilding and physical attractiveness of Okla- ioma City, Mr. Stewart is known as a progressive, suc- essful and substantial business man and as a citizen of marked public spirit. The firm of which he is a member las given special attention to the designing and erecting f residence buildings of the better order and has been oncerned with the development of various fine residence ections of the Oklahoma metropolis and capital city, besides which the operations of the firm have extended ble nto other parts of the state. tel. Albert F. Stewart was born in Edgar County, Illinois, n the 3d of December, 1874, and is a representative of ne of the sterling pioneer families of that fine con- ionwealth. He is a son of Samuel and Rosaline (Bates) tewart, his father having been a native of Ohio and hav- ig become a resident of Illinois in an early day, there aving reclaimed a fine farm from the virgin prairie nd having continued his identification with agricultural ursuits until his death, which occurred in 1896, his idow being still a resident of Illinois. hat the ern Bat nan and the ents 3 an

Reared to the sturdy discipline of the home farm and fforded the advantages of the public schools of his ative county, he continued to be associated with his ither in the work and management of the farm until nat hen3 had attained to the age of seventeen years, when he e in stablished his residence at Waterloo, Iowa, and entered arves Luty. life ring ntire and te employ of the firm of William Zittrell & Company, hich was there engaged in contracting and building. this connection he gained a comprehensive knowledge the business and well qualified himself for independ- it work along the same line of enterprise. In 1901 r. Stewart came to Oklahoma Territory and at Okla- ma City engaged in general contracting and building,

in partnership with Mr. Wilderson, with whom he has continued to be associated, under the firm name of Stewart & Wilderson. The firm has been prominently identified with the development of the better residence districts of Oklahoma City, as designers and builders of houses ranging in price from $6,000 to $30,000. The firm has amplified its scope of business by the purchas- ing of property and by erecting excellent residences on the same and then placing the houses on the market, this progressive enterprise having been fruitful in ad- vancing the substantial upbuilding of the capital city. Stewart & Wilderson platted and opened Stewart's Addi- tion to Oklahoma City, and among the many fine resi- dences erected in Oklahoma City by the firm may be noted those of J. P. Lankford, John R. Cottingham, S. T. Bledsoe, Joseph B. Thoburn, C. R. Hoffer, Max Her- skowitz, Dr. Robert L. Hull, besides which the firm erected the warehouse of the Bass-Barbour Company, one of the largest structures of the kind in the state. Stewart & Wilson have built many excellent residences in other sections of Oklahoma and through the fair and honorable methods and marked technical ability that have been brought to bear at all times, the business has become one of broad scope and importance, the while the high reputation of the firm constitutes its best busi- ness asset. The offices of the firm are in the American National Bank Building and the attractive residence of Mr. Stewart is at 2230 West Sixteenth Street.

On the 17th of April, 1902, Mr. Stewart wedded Miss Mattie B. Mercer, daughter of James Mercer, one of the prominent aud extensive fruit-growers of Southern Mis- souri, and the three children of this union are Lawrence, Albert F., Jr., and Maurice.

GAVIN H. BUTLER, M. D. Many different states of the Union have contributed to the personnel of the medical profession in Oklahoma, and a prominent and honored physician and surgeon of this vital young com- monwealth who claims Tennessee as the place of his nativity is Doctor Butler, who now gives special atten- tion to the surgical branch of his profession and who has been engaged in successful practice in the City of Tulsa since 1905, his office being at 305 Bliss Building and his residence at 1201 Carson Street.

Doctor Butler was born in the Village of Adamsville, McNairy County, Tennessee, on the 15th of November, 1871, and was the eighth in order of birth in a family of nine children, of whom five are living. He is a son of Dr. Gavin H. and Melissa (Thrasher) Butler, the former a native of North Carolina and the latter of Alabama. Dr. Gavin H. Butler, Sr., was for more than fifty years engaged in the active practice of his pro- fession in Tennessee and was not only one of the able and honored physicians and surgeons of that state but was also prominent and influential in public affairs. He was a child at the time of his parents' removal from North Carolina to Florence, Alabama, in which latter state he received an excellent academic education, and in preparation for his chosen profession he entered the medical department of what is now knowu as Vander- bilt University at Nashville, Tennessee, froin which in- stitution he was graduated with the degree of Doctor of Medicine. From that time forward until virtually the close of his long and useful life he was engaged in the practice of his profession at Adamsville, that state,-a representative of the old-time country prac- titioner upon whom devolved heavy responsibilities and arduous labors, his zeal and faithfulness in the pursuit of his humane calling having never faltered and his services having been given effectively and unselfishly, with the result that the entire community looked upon him as "guide, philosopher and friend." He was actively

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identified with the McNairy County Medical Society, the Tennessee State Medical Society and the American Medi- cal Association, and his hold upon the confidence and esteem of his confreres is indicated by the fact that he served many years as president of the McNairy County Medical Society.

Though of fine old southern stock and reared under the gracious old southern regime, the Doctor was op- posed to secession at the time of the Civil war, gave support to the Union cause, and became an influential representative of the republican party in his state. After the close of the war he had the distinction of being the first republican elected in the Tennessee Legislature, in which he served one term, declining nomination for a second. He died at the venerable age of eighty-one years, his wife having been seventy-eight years of age when she was summoned to the life eternal.

He whose name initiates this review is indebted to the public schools of Tennessee for his early education, which was supplemented by higher academic study in Charleston College. In 1892 he was graduated in the medical de- partment of the University of Louisville, Kentucky, and after receiving his degree of Doctor of Medicine he engaged in the practice of his profession at Benton, Missouri, where he remained until 1905, when he came to Oklahoma Territory and established his residence in the City of Tulsa. Here he has built up a most sub- stantial practice, in which he specializes in surgery, and he is known as a man of high professional attainments, with an admirable record for worthy achievement in his exacting vocation, of the unwritten ethical code of which he is a punctilious observer. The Doctor is a prominent and appreciative member of the Tulsa County Medical Society, of which he served as president in 1907-8, and is identified also with the Oklahoma State Medical Asso- ciation and the American Medical Association. In poli- tics he accords unswerving allegiance to the republican party, and he is one of the liberal and broad-minded citizens who have aided in the development and up- building of the flourishing City of Tulsa.

On the 11th of August, 1906, was solemnized the marriage of Doctor Butler to Miss Lillian Bowman, who was born in the State of Indiana; they have no children.

SELWYN DOUGLAS. One of the senior members of the Oklahoma bar is Selwyn Douglas, of Oklahoma City. It lacks only three years of half a century since Selwyn Douglas was admitted to practice and while a resident of Kansas he watched with interest the progress of the movements by which the original Oklahoma Territory was opened to settlement, and a few months after that historic opening he himself came to Oklahoma City, where he has been a resident and a member of the bar since the 4th of July, 1890. Mr. Douglas has had a life of unusual experience, as soldier, plainsman, scholar and lawyer. While his knowledge of the law is regarded as specially profound, among the circle of his immediate friends he is also held in high esteem for his interest in many other subjects outside of his immediate profession. From early life he has trained his keen powers of ob- servation, and is regarded as almost an authority on the subject of natural history in the Southwest.

Selwyn Douglas was born at Ann Arbor, Michigan, November 29, 1841, a son of George and Alma (Mac- gregor) Douglas, his father a native of Edinburgh, Scotland, and his mother of Painted Post, New York. In Scotland his ancestors were members of the old Douglas family, which in the course of generations has furnished hundreds of soldiers to Great Britain, and members of which have become prominent in all the civil activities of the world. George Douglas was for many years a newspaper man, and was one of the pioneers in

Ann Arbor, Michigan, where he located during the decade of the '20s.

Selwyn Douglas grew up in and near Ann Arbor, at- tended the local schools, and when less than twenty years of age enlisted for service in the Union army, three of his brothers also volunteering. He became a member of the First Michigan Cavalry in Custer's famous brigade. His service continued until 1866. Most of it was under Col. Peter Stagg, under whose command he was at Five Forks, and at Appomattox, Virginia, when Lee surrendered. After the war he went with the First Michigan Cavalry in the Western Indian service, and covered a vast section of territory ranging almost from the Canadian line south to Utah. He was mustered out at Fort Bridger, Utah, March 10, 1866, and in returning home walked most of the way across the plains.

After his return to Ann Arbor Mr. Douglas entered the University of Michigan, where he had been previ- ously a student in the collegiate department, took the course in law and was graduated with the class of 1868. From the day of his graduation Mr. Douglas has made the law his profession. He soon afterwards went out to Kansas, locating in Linn County, practiced at Mound City and also at Paola, and from 1878 to 1884 was county attorney of Linn County. He was also a member of the Board of Registry of the University of Oklahoma during the administration of Governor Frantz, the last terri torial governor.

Since his location in Oklahoma City Judge Douglas has always held a position among the ablest in the loca bar. He possesses a sound learning, broad experience in legal affairs, combined with a soundness of judgment and a gravity of character which have made his counse and service invaluable. He has also been active in the progress of his home city and state in a civic way, and has been a factor to be reckoned with in any public movement. While a friend of the statehood movemen and using his influence to secure its principal object, he was fearless in the expression of his convictions during the constitutional convention in 1907, and vigorousl. opposed many measures that were included in the organi law of the state at that convention. A republican il politics, he has always been an ardent supporter o Theodore Roosevelt,. whom he regards as the greates, man of modern times.

For years Mr. Douglas was regarded and accepted a one of the brightest Masons in the state, serving a grand master of Oklahoma in 1894-95, and during th same time as grand high priest of the Grand Chapter o Royal Arch Masons of Indian Territory. He is als affiliated with the Knights Templar and the Mysti Shrine branches of the fraternity.

In December, 1869, Judge Douglas married Sophi J. Colman at Boone, Iowa. Mrs. Douglas, who died a Oklahoma City in 1902, was one of the founders of th Oklahoma City Carnegie Library, and a memorial four tain was afterwards placed in front of the buildin bearing her name. She was also prominent as founder of the Federation of Women's Clubs of Okl: homa, and during her lifetime was one of the most activ in the educational, religious and social life of her hon city. Mrs. Douglas was educated at Ypsilanti, Michiga and at Vassar. The only child of their union, Ma gregor Douglas, died at the age of thirty-three year but left a wife and three fine sons, all of whom Judg Douglas cherishes most kindly and with whom he mak his home. Judge Douglas has his offices in the Bau Building, and his home is with his daughter and gran sons at 48th and Western Avenue.

JERRY P. O'MEARA. This well known Tulsa lawy formerly a member of the firm of Sherman, Veasey

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''Meara, has had a career of unusual experience in the tw, covering more than a quarter of a century, and ame to Oklahoma with a well established reputation in is profession, gained during many years of residence 1 Kentucky. Mr. O'Meara was at one time a member f the Kentucky Legislature.

Jerry P. O'Meara was born in Hardin County, Ken- icky, July 3, 1867, a son of Thomas and Mary (Dooley) )'Meara. Both parents were natives of Ireland. His ather who died in 1890, at the age of forty-six, came to his country when a young man, landing in New York ity, and gradually drifted west until he reached Ken- icky, where he was in the employ of railroads for a me. He finally took up his residence in Hardin County, nd there became identified with the substantial industry f farmer and stock raiser, which he followed until his eath. He was a democrat in politics. Mrs. Mary "'Meara is still living, at the age of seventy. She was married in Elizabethtown, Kentucky, in 1863, and be- ame the mother of five children, as follows: Mary; erry P .; Patrick, who died at the age of thirty-nine; ohn; and Julia, who died in infancy.

Jerry P. O'Meara arter his primary education at- ended St. Joseph College in Bardstown, Kentucky, and tudied law in the office of J. P. Hobson at Elizabeth- own. His admission to the Kentucky bar came in 1888 t Elizabethtown, and after that he was identified with growing general practice up to April 17, 1907, at which ate he arrived in Oklahoma and located at Bartlesville. Ie had a general practice in that city until May 1, 1913, t which date he became associated with Roger S. Sher- ian and James A. Veasey in the strong and highly steemed law firm of Sherman, Veasey and O'Meara at 'ulsa. On May 1, 1915, Mr. O'Meara dissolved, his ssociation with Sherman and Veasey, and since then as assumed an independent practice, with offices in he Clinton Building.

Mr. O'Meara is a member of the County and Okla- .oma State Bar associations and the American Bar Association. He is affiliated with Bartlesville Lodge f the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks and the Knights of Columbus. As a democrat his chief political ctivity was in his native state, where he was elected or one term as a member of the Kentucky Legislature n 1891, being at that time only twenty-four years f age.

On November 16, 1908, Mr. O'Meara married Nora Arnold. Mrs. O'Meara claims Kentucky as her home tate, and though born in San Francisco, California, grew up and received her education in the old Bluegrass listrict of Kentucky. Her parents, Phillip and Mary Arnold were both natives of Kentucky. Soon after her irth the family returned to Kentucky.

EDWARD TAYLOR ROBERTS. While a native of the Mid- lle West, Edward Taylor Roberts is by business training ind inclination an Oklahoman, and in this state he has ound the opportunities which have enabled him to work ut a well-earned success. It has been his fortune and privilege to realize many of his early ambitions, and he inds himself today, with powers undiminished, in a posi- ion of prominence among his fellow business men at Nowata, the possessor of a firmly established commercial nterprise and of an excellent reputation for integrity in he transactions of trade.

Mr. Roberts is a product of the farm, born in Mont- ;omery County, Indiana, on his father's homestead, a on of James Thomas and Lydia A. (James) Roberts, September 3, 1863. His parents were Kentuckians, but vere married in Indiana, whence they moved as young people and where they followed farming until 1870, the ather also giving some attention to mercantile pursuits.

In the year mentioned the family removed to Liberty, Kansas, where James T. Roberts was engaged in farm- ing, stock raising and mercantile lines until 1881, and then moved over the line into Indian Territory and set- tled on a farm situated six miles southeast of the present site of Nowata. Through the remaining years of his life he continued to devote himself to the pursuits of the soil, winning a competence through steady industry and honorable dealing. His death occurred in 1903, at which time his community lost one of its respected citizens. Mr. Roberts was a democrat, but took only a passive part in political affairs. Mrs. Roberts died in 1904, at the age of sixty-six years, the mother of seven children, of whom five are living, Edward Taylor having been the second born.

Edward T. Roberts was seven years of age when the family removed to Kansas, and there in the district schools of Montgomery County, his education was se- cured. He was but eighteen when he came to Oklahoma, and here his real training was secured on the farm and ranch near Alluwe, in Nowata County, six miles from the Town of Nowata. In 1895 he came to this city, which by this time had become one of the promising communities of the section, and established himself in a furniture business in partnership with his elder brother, William E., an association which continued until 1897. Mr. Roberts then embarked in business alone, as the proprietor of a furniture and undertaking establishment, of which he remained the sole owner until 1908, when his son, Joseph E., was admitted to partnership, and since that time the concern has been conducted under the style of E. T. Roberts & Son, with its place of business at No. 138-140 South Maple Street. This enterprise has a modern establishment in every way, equipped with all appurtenances for the dignified, sanitary and reverent handling of the dead, and in the furniture department may be found a full line of high-class goods. Mr. Rob- erts, while engrossed largely with his heavy business in- terests, finds time to give to civic betterment, and has served on the school board for some nine or ten years and on the council for one term. He is a democrat and known as one of his party's stanch wheel-horses in this county. Mr. Roberts' fraternal connections are with Nowata Lodge No. 1151, of the Benevolent and Pro- tective Order of Elks, and the Modern Woodmen of America.

Mr. Roberts was married August 13, 1885, to Miss Luella Conner, who was born in Kansas, and to this. union there have been born two children: Della, who is the wife of J. Ruby McKnabe, of Newport, Tennessee ; and Joseph E. The latter was educated in the public schools, the Nowata High School, and the Barnes School of Undertaking and Scientific Embalming at Chicago, where he was graduated with the class of 1910, having become associated with his father in business two years before. He is a member of Nowata Lodge No. 1151, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, and is known as one of the energetic and enterprising young business men of his community, where he is generally popular with a large circle of acquaintances. He married Miss Addie Lowerance, who was born in Nowata County, In- dian Territory, and they are the parents of one daughter : Katherine May.

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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