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 53

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 53

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Judge Winn was admitted to the bar at Chickasha in 1896, being licensed to practice in the United States courts. A year later he began the practice of law at Center, Oklahoma, and in October of the same year re- ceived his first commission as judge of the United States Commissioners' Court. He served in that capacity until 1901, and that was the period during which he was most exposed to the dangers of the frontier and in which his prompt execution of justice brought about such import- ant reforms in his district. In 1901 he resumed the practice of law at Ada, and during the following four years he had a large private business and was also attor- . ney for the Frisco Railroad Company. Then came an- other appointment as judge of the United States Com- missioners' Court, and he discharged the duties of that office until 1907. During the first three years of Okla- homa statehood he was a farmer and stock raiser at Ada, and on May 4, 1910, was appointed postmaster at Ada, and remained in charge of the Federal office until February, 1914. More than ten years of Judge Winn's life in Oklahoma has been spent in the service of the Federal Government. Since leaving the post- office Judge Winn has continued in the practice of law at Ada and is enjoying a most lucrative practice.

Judge Winn has come in touch with the developing life and interests of old Indian Territory and new Oklahoma at many points. In 1893 he organized the first public school at Rush Springs, Oklahoma, taught a part of one term, but resigned later in the same year to make the

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run into the Cherokee Strip. He staked a piece of ground in Enid, only to find later that his stakes were driven into a street. He then went into the country and located a homestead, but subsequently abandoned it be- fore proving up. While serving as commissioner his district embraced an area that was twice as large as the present County of Pontotoc. At the same time his court was held in a small box house at Center and later in a storeroom that was owned by the late ex-Governor Byrd of the Chickasaw Nation.

Judge Winn was married at Duncan, Oklahoma, to Miss Minnie L. Gibbs. They have three chil- dren: Ulysses G., Jr., who is a student in the East Central State Normal School at Ada; William L. and Ruby Thelma, both of whom are in the Ada High School. Judge Winn is a member of the Christian Church, is a past chancellor of the Knights of Pythias Lodge and also affiliates with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. He is a member of the Pontotoc County and Oklahoma State Bar associations and of the Ada Com- mercial Club. In 1909 he served as deputy clerk of the United States Court at Muskogee. Both in territorial and statehood tinies he has been one of the leading figures in the republican party. For ten years he has been a member of the State Republican Central Commit- tee, and in 1910 was tendered the party nomination for Congress from the Fourth Oklahoma District, but de- clined to accept. He still has farm and live stock interests and owns considerable property in Ada. Judge Winn organized the Union Oil & Gas Company of Ada with a capital stock of $30,000, and is still a stock- holder in the organization, and was also one of the or- ganizers of the Ada Building & Investment Company, capitalized at $25,000, and for several years was a stock- holder. Having been a pioneer. factor in the develop- ment of the community, Judge Winn is still an enthusias- tic apostle of its welfare.

ROBERT PAINE BREWER. Now president of the First National Bank of McAlester, Mr. Brewer has been actively associated with banking affairs in old Indian Territory and the new state for almost twenty years.

In fact, almost his entire life has been identified with this section of the country. He is a son of Rev. Dr. Theo. F. Brewer, who for thirty years was a mis- sionary among the Indians of Indian Territory and has long been one of the most active and best known min- isters of the Methodist Episcopal Church South, now holding a pastorate at Eufaula. The interesting and useful career of Reverend Doctor Brewer is sketched on other pages.

Robert Paine Brewer was born at Boonsboro, Arkan- sas, December 3, 1876, and when eight months old his parents came to Muskogee, Indian Territory, in which community he was reared. For his higher education he was sent East to the noted old Webb School at Bell- buckle, Tennesse, was for two years a student in Van- derbilt University at Nashville, and in 1896 graduated Master of Arts from the Southwestern University at Georgetown, Texas.

His education finished, he returned to Indian Terri- tory, and hecame one of the organizers of the First Na- tional Bank of Checotah. He served as assistant cashier from its organization until 1901, and then participated in the organization of the First National Bank of Quin- ton, in which he became cashier. He remained with that institution until 1909, when he accerted promo- tion as cashier of the First National Bank of McAlester. For the past six years Mr. Brewer has been actively identified with this large institution, one of the strongest banks in Eastern Oklahoma, and in August, 1915, was

elected its president. In the meantime he became iden- tified with the organization of other banking institu- tions in Oklahoma, and now holds stock and has official relations with about twenty banks in different parts of the state. Though a comparatively young man he is today regarded as one of the ablest bankers and financiers in Oklahoma.

His public spirited citizenship has been on a par with his business career. He has accepted many op- portunities to work in behalf of the various communities where he has lived, and though a loyal democrat has sought no political office and in fact has had no time for the duties of such position. In Masonry he has attained the thirty-second degree of Scottish Rite, is a member of the Mystic Shrine, and is also affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. His religious membership is in the Methodist Episcopal Church South.

In 1901 Mr. Brewer married Miss Lucile Barnette, of Missouri. Their two children are Elizabeth and Robert Paine Brewer, Jr.

EDWARD SWEENEY. One of the men who made the race for land at the time of the opening of the Cherokee Strip in 1893 is Edward Sweeney, whose farm is located one mile east of the present Town of Dacoma. During the twenty years in which he has resided in this com- munity, he has not alone developed a valuable and productive property and shown himself an intelligent and well-trained agriculturist, but has co-operated with other progressive and public-spirited citizens in advancing the interests of Woods County.

Mr. Sweeney is one of the comparatively few citizens of his part of Oklahoma for whose citizenship this com- monwealth is indebted to the New England states. He was born at Bridgeport, Connecticut, July 6, 1855, and is a son of Miles and Margaret (Mahan) Sweeney. His father, a native of Ireland, emigrated to the United States at the age of twenty years, and was married in Connecticut, where, at Bridgeport, he followed his trade of mechanic until his death in 1860. He was the father of five sons and four daughters, namely: James, Ann, Patrick, Bridget, Bernard, Mary, Edward, William and Elizabeth.

The early advantages of Edward Sweeney were not numerous, nor was his education extensive, for he was only five years of age when his father died, the family was large, and the widowed mother was forced to care for her children in the best way she could and the small means she had at hand. He attended the public schools of Bridgeport at intervals, and having inherited some of his father's mechanical skill adopted that calling in his youth. When he was sixteen years of age he decided to face the world on his own account, and accordingly left home and made his way to New York City, where lre secured employment, and subsequently visited various other parts of the country, accepting such positions as were given him in the line of his trade. He was married in Ohio, when twenty-four years of age, and having saved some small capital went to Marion County, Ohio, where he began his career as a farmer. After ten years in the Buckeye State, he decided there were better opportunities awaiting in the West, and accordingly went to Kansas, where he located on United States Government land in Comanche County, where he soon became recognized as a substantial and trustworthy citizen and participated in the organization of the county. Mr. Sweeney remained in Comanche County until 1893, being there a member of the first jury impaneled in the county, and at the opening of the Cherokee Strip, in the year mentioned, made the run and

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was successful in securing a very desirable homestead, a claim one mile east of the present City of Dacoma. Here he at once settled down to make improvements, and at the present time las 240 acres of finely improved land, which he devotes to general farming and the raising of stock. He has made many improvements, including a fine set of substantial buildings, and is using the most modern methods and machinery in his work. As a citizen he has taken an active part in township and county affairs, and in his community he is held in high esteem and regard by those with whom he has come into contact.

Mr. Sweeney was married in 1874 to Miss Alice Keener, a native of Pennsylvania, and they have been the parents of four sons and five daughters: John J., Morris, Rosa, Earl and Pearl, twins, Carrie, James, Ellen and Laura.

CHARLES F. COLCORD. Among the vital, strong and resourceful citizens who may consistently be designated the founders and builders of the vigorous young State of Oklahoma, a place of distinctive priority must be accorded to Charles F. Colcord, who was a pioneer cattle- man in Indian Territory and whose splendid initiative and constructive ability have made him one of the foremost men in the development and upbuilding of the State of Oklahoma, where his activities and capi- talistic interests are varied and of most important order, so that his status is essentially that of one of the most prominent and influential citizens of this com- monwealth, `even as he is one of the best known and most popular. In the present day, when his time and attention are engrossed by large business and industrial interests, it is well to pause and pay tribute to him for the splendid service which he gave in public office in the formative period of territorial and state govern- ment and especially in the establishing and maintenance of law and order at a time when Oklahoma was overrun with all manner of lawless, irresponsible and predatory personalities. His character is the positive expression of a resolute and sincere nature, and he has put forth a really dynamic force in the furtherance of enterprises and measures that have inured wonderfully to the ad- vancement of the civic and material progress and pros- perity of Oklahoma. There have been no esoteric or equivocal phases in his career, and thus the story of his life may be told simply, directly and briefly, undue adulation being avoided as essentially repugnant to the man himself and all he represents.

Charles F. Colcord was born in Bourbon County, Kentucky, in the year 1859, and is a son of Col. William R. and Maria E. (Clay) Colcord, his father having been a gallant officer of the Confederate forces in the Civil war and his mother having been a daughter of Hon. Green Clay, of Paris, Kentucky, who was a lineal descendant of Sir John Clay of England and of the same family line as the great American patriot and statesman, Henry Clay. In his native state Charles F. Colcord acquired his rudimentary education and he was about ten years of age when, in 1870, his parents removed to Texas. His father established a home in Nueces County, that state, and became one of the promi- nent and influential representatives of the cattle and horse industry in Southwestern Texas, besides having been influential in public affairs in that section of the state.

In the Nueces region of the Lone Star State Charles F. Coleord acquired thorough training and broad experi- ence in connection with the cattle business, at a time when the great open ranges were still available. In 1876 he drove a large bunch of cattle from Texas to the North, over the old Chisholm Trail, and he estab- lished his herd in the old Cherokee Strip of Indian Ter-

ritory, his range headquarters having been near old Fort Supply, on the salt plains of the Cimarron Valley, in what is now Woodward County, Oklahoma, and his business headquarters having been just across the line in Evansville, Comanche County, Kansas. Here he organ- ized what was known as the Comanche County Pool, a power organization of stock interests that at one time owned 60,000 head of cattle. Until the Cherokee Strip was opened to settlement, in 1893, this company was one of the principal occupants of that region and its operations were of broad scope and importance under the old regime of the cattle business in what is now the State of Oklahoma.

When, in accord with the provisions of the presiden- tial proclamation issued on the 23d of March, 1889, 39,030 square miles in Indian Territory were thrown open to settlement and, on the 22d of the following month, came the great rush of 50,000 immigrants into this new country, Mr. Colcord forthwith identified him- self with the founding and development of Oklahoma City, the present capital and metropolis of the State of Oklahoma. From the position of one of the leading stockmen of the territory he became prominent and made a notable record as an officer of the law. In the summer of 1889, somewhat more than a year prior to the formal creation of Oklahoma Territory, Mayor Beal of Oklahoma City appointed Mr. Colcord chief of police of the embryonic city, and when W. D. Gault became mayor by regular election Mr. Colcord continued in service as chief of police until the autumn of 1889, when he was duly elected the first sheriff of the newly organized Oklahoma county, an office of which he con- tinued the fearless and efficient incumbent for the ensuing two years. Concerning local conditions and his administration the following interesting statements have been made, and the same are worthy of perpetuation in this connection: "The two years during which Mr. Colcord served as sheriff of Oklahoma county are nota- ble in the records of the county and the territory, for at that time the forces of law and order found them- self confronted with the most formidable of obstacles in their endeavors to restrain and drive off the cohorts of vice that beset the new Territory and constituted a constant menace to the law-abiding citizens who had come to the new country in such large numbers. It is certain that never since has there been in Oklahoma a condition of affairs demanding such vigorous and courageous work on the part of official entrusted with the maintenance of law and order, and it is altogether probable that at no previous period had so great a task been imposed. In bringing to an end the reign of outlawry in Oklahoma, one of the criminal officers who deserves unqualified credit and honor for thorough efficiency and straightforward service, untainted by cor- ruption or deviation from the strictest ideals of duty, is Charles F. Colcord, whose record as a public official may perhaps be forgotten in the light of his latter-day activities, which have been of great magnitude and importance. After his retirement from the position of sheriff Mr. Colcord held for five years the United States prison contract at Guthrie, the territorial capital."

At the opening of the Cherokee Strip, in 1893, Mr. Colcord secured large land holding in the district and established business interests at Perry, the judicial center of Noble County as at present constituted. In 1898 he returned to Oklahoma City, which has since continued to be his place of residence, and here he has achieved large and worthy success in connection with industrial and general material progress, with the result that he is now looked upon as the leading capitalist and most prominent citizen of the metropolis of the state, where he is serving as a member of the municipal advis-

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ory board. Mr. Colcord is president of the Colcord Investment Company and the Colcord Park Corporation, both of which have had powerful influence in fostering general development and progress in Oklahoma, and his other capitalistic interests are of broad scope and im- portance. In 1908 he erected in Oklahoma City the Colcord Building, which is one of the most modern and attractive office buildings in the city, the same being a fine twelve-story structure of thoroughly metropolitan order. He organized and was president of the Com- mercial National Bank of Oklahoma City, which con- solidated with the State National. He served as vice president of the State National Bank of Oklahoma City, and he is still a member of its directorate, besides which he is president of the Oklahoma City Building & Loan Association and a director of the Oklahoma State Fair Association. Thoroughly in accord with the high civic ideals and progressive policies of the Okla- homa City Chamber of Commerce, which has the dis- tinction of being the second largest in the United States, Mr. Colcord has been one of its most active and influential members and he served as its president in 1914. He has extensive financial interests in the oil and gas fields of Eastern Oklahoma.

In politics Mr. Colcord, though never imbued with ambition for political preferment of official order, is a stalwart supporter of the cause of the democratic party. In the time-honored Masonic fraternity he has received the thirty-second degree of the Ancient Accepted Scot- tish Rite, as a member of the Oklahoma Consistory of the Valley of Guthrie, and he is affiliated also with Indian Temple, Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine. He holds membership also in the Men's Dinner Club and the Golf and Country Club, representative social organizations of the capital city.

In September, 1884, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Colcord to Miss Harriet Scoresby, daughter of Rev. Thomas S. Scoresby, at the time a resident of Hutchin- son, Kansas, in which state he was a pioneer clergyman of the Methodist Episcopal Church, having there estab- lished his residence in 1870; he was descended from Cap- tain Thomas Scoresby, of Whitby, England, who was a gallant sea captain, who made several voyages in search of the North Pole and who discovered within the Arctic Circle Scoresby Land, which is named in his honor. Mr. and Mrs. Colcord have six children-Ray, Mar- guerite, Caroline, Sidney, Cadijah, and Harriet. The beautiful family home, a center of much of the repre- sentative social activity of Oklahoma City, is at 421 West Thirteenth Street. 1

THOMAS W. SHACKLE. A native son of the West and exemplifying in his personal career its typical progres- siveness, Thomas Weir Shackle has been identified with the drug business from the time of his youth and is today one of the leading exponents of this line of enter- prise in the City of Tulsa, where he has maintained his residence for nearly a quarter of a century and where he now owns and conducts a finely equipped retail drug establishment of essentially metropolitan order, its sub- stantial trade being founded on effective and careful service and on the unqualified personal popularity of the proprietor, who is with all of consistency to be desig- nated as one of the sterling pioneer business men of the vigorous young commonwealth of Oklahoma.

Mr. Shackle was born at Aledo, Mercer County, Illinois, on the 6th of April, 1869, and is a son of Dr. Peter F. and Elizabeth M. (Weir) Shackle, the former of whom was born in the City of Toledo, Ohio, and the latter in Henry County, Illinois. Doctor Shackle, who has at- tained to the venerable age of eighty years, is now living virtually retired at Columbus, the judicial center of

Cherokee County, Kansas, being one of the honored pioneer physicians and surgeons of that state, as is he also of the State of Iowa. His devoted wife, who en- dured with him the vicissitudes of pioneer life, died at the age of sixty-seven years. They became the parents of two sons and three daughters, and three of the num- ber are yet living, Thomas W., of this review, having been the third in order of birth.

Dr. Peter F. Shackle has long been known and hon- ored as a physician and surgeon of high attainments and as one who has labored with all of zeal and unselfishness in the alleviating of human suffering and distress. He was graduated in the Philadelphia Medical College and as a young man he established his residence in the little frontier village of Morning. Sun, Iowa, where he en- gaged in the practice of his profession and also estab- lished and maintained a drug store, his having been the prestige of being the pioneer physician and druggist of that section of the Hawkeye State. In the late '80s he removed with his family to Columbus, Kansas, and be- came there also a pioneer in his profession as well as in the conducting of a drug business. He has been one of the influential citizens of- Columbus during the long intervening years, and has been retired from active prac- tice since 1905, and is one of the best known and most revered pioneer citizens of Cherokee County, his political support having been given to the democratic party since his young manhood and both he and his wife having been active in church work until his loved companion and helpmeet was suminoned to the life eternal.

Thomas W. Shackle was a child at the time of the family removal to Columbus, Kansas, where he was reared to adult age and was afforded the advantages of the public schools. When but twelve years of age he began to assist in the compounding of medicines in his father's drug store, and his services gradually touched all departments of the business, in which he gained accu- rate and comprehensive knowledge of materia medica and all other details of the drug business under the effective direction of his father. He continued to be associated with his father in business until he had at- tained to his legal majority, and in the meanwhile had passed the required examination and become a licensed and registered pharmacist in Kansas, the same status having later been given him in Oklahoma Territory and Indian Territory, even as he is one of the pioneer regis- tered pharmacists of the State of Oklahoma.

Mr. Shackle continued his residence in the Sunflower State until 1891, when, within a short period after the organization of Oklahoma Territory, he came to Tulsa, where he arrived on the 4th of April of that year. Here he was employed as prescription pharmacist in the drug store of John M. Morrow until the 1st of January, 1897, when he engaged in the drug business in an independent way, his success in this field of enterprise having been on a parity with his recognized ability in a technical way and as an honorable and steadfast business man. The civic loyalty and progressiveness of Mr. Shackle were significantly shown in 1907, the year that marked the admission of Oklahoma to statehood, since in that year he erected, at 113 South Main Street, The Shackle Build- ing, to which he removed his drug business. Later he sold this building, and in 1913 he erected at 922 South Main Street his present business block, which is of con- crete block construction and one of the attractive modern structures of Tulsa. Here he has his finely appointed drug store, which caters to a significantly large, repre- sentative and appreciative patronage. Mr. Shackle is a prominent and honored member of the Tulsa Druggists' Association and actively identified also with the Okla- homa State Pharmaceutical Association, in the affairs of which he has been prominent and influential.

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Mr. Shackle has at all tinies given his co-operation in the furtheranco of measures and enterprises projected for the general good of the community and is essentially liberal and public-spirited as a citizen. He has mani- fested no predilection for political office but accords a staunch allegiance to the democratic party in all that concerns general governmental and state affairs. In the time-honored Masonic fraternity he has received the thirty-second degree of the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite, in which he maintains affiliation with Indian Con- sistory, in the City of McAlester. His basic affiliation is with Delta Lodge, No. 425, Ancient Free & Accepted Masons, at Tulsa, where also he is a loyal and valued member of Akdar Temple, Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, and Tulsa Lodge, No. 946, Benevolent & Protective Order of Elks, besides being identified with the local organizations of the Knights of Pythias and the Ancient Order of United Workmen.

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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