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 55

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 55

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AMBROSE C. WEICKER. The president of the O. K. Transfer & Storage Company of Oklahoma City is one of those valiant and self-reliant men from whom success can not long withold her hand, and he has been in the most significant sense the essential medium through which he has worked his way to definite prosperity. He is now one of the substantial business men and lib- eral and progressive citizens of the capital city of a state

to which he first came the year prior to its creation as a territory. Mr. Weicker has been one of the world's productive workers, has ordered his course with unwav- ering integrity of purpose and well merits the high regard in which he is held by his fellowmen.

Ambrose Claborn Weicker was born in Mississippi County, Missouri, on the 9th of April, 1861, and is a son of George Otto Weicker and Mary Jane (Lett) Weicker, the former a native of Germany and the latter of the State of Tennessee. When the subject of this review was five years of age his parents transferred their resi- dence to a farm in Carroll County, Missouri, and there he attained the rural schools at regular intervals until he had attained to the age of sixteen years, in the meanwhile having giving effective aid in the work of the home farm. After leaving the parental roof he was employed two years on a farm in Jackson County, Mis- souri, and he then went to Leadville, Colorado, which mining town was then in the height of its ambitious industrial activities, and after there being employed one year as a workman in the smelters, he returned to Jackson County, Missouri, where he remained three years, within which he took unto himself a wife three months prior to the celebration of his twentieth birth- day anniversary. He then removed with his wife to St. Clair County, that state, where he devoted the ensuing three years to farming and sheep-raising, his ambi- tion ever prompting him to forward movement and to making the best of opportunities presented. The next stage of Mr. Weicker's activities was at Garden City, Kansas, and after having there been employed one year as driver for a transfer company, he purchased a horse and wagon and engaged in the same line of business on his own responsibility, his cash capital at the time of initiating this independent enterprise having been only fifty dollars.

A year later, when Oklahoma Territory was opened for settlement, Mr. Weicker heard the voice of oppor- tunity and decided to cast in his lot with the pioneers of the new territory, to which he came in July, 1889, about one year prior to the formal organization of the territory. He established his residence at Guthrie, where he found remunerative employment with a firm engaged in the transfer business. In 1893 he purchased the interest of one of the partners and after continuing the business, as senior member of the firm of Weicker & Fairfield, for three years, he sold his interest to his partner and removed to Denver, Colorado, where he be- came associated with his brother, Robert V., in the same line of business. The enterprise was made suc- cessful through their energy and close application, and at the expiration of four years Mr. Weicker disposed of his interests in Denver and came once more to Okla- homa, the year 1900 having thus marked the establish- ing of his permanent residence in Oklahoma City. Here he purchased the business of G. W. R. Chinn & Sons and became the sole owner of the substantial enterprise conducted under the title of the O. K. Transfer & Stor- age Company. The business is now incorporated with a capital of $75,000, Mr. Weicker owning 95 per cent of the stock and being president and manager of the busi- ness, which is the largest and most effectively managed enterprise of the kind in the state. Concerning his vigorous and effective management of this important business the following pertinent statements have been made:

"Since Mr. Weicker assumed control of the O. K. Transfer & Storage Company the history of that cor- poration has been parallel with that of Oklahoma City itself,-an upward march day by day, hour by hour. Upon the massive wagons and vans of the company is painted a handsome picture of the globe, and beneath

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HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA

appears the inscription, 'The world moves; so do we.' Whoever comes to Oklahoma City enlists the service of the O. K. Company in moving the household effects to the new home, and if a resident changes location it is the O. K. wagons that are called to make the careful and expeditious transfer, for the company has proved itself in every sense reliable and just in its dealings. Though somewhat peripatetic in his movements before he found the exact place that fitted his idea of the real one for the development and upbuilding of the business of his choice, Mr. Weicker knew when he came to Okla- homa City that he was finally anchored in the desired port, and the progress of his splendid business, which in scope and importance he has made second to no other of the kind in the West, testifies to the accuracy of his judgment.

"There is not in Oklahoma City to-day a more lucra- tive, and more carefully and systematically conducted business of any nature than that of the O. K. Transfer & Storage Company, and in every detail can be traced the capable directing power of its president. Facing the Frisco Railroad Station at the corner of First and Hudson streets, is the mammoth home of the O. K. Transfer & Storage Company,-a fireproof, reinforced- concrete structure, seven stories in height and occupying a ground space 75 by 120 feet in dimensions. Within the walls of this immense building are afforded the best of facilities for the storage and safeguarding without impairment of valual le household goods and other per- sonal effects, and all patrons realize that this stead- fast and popular business concern will take better care of the properties entrusted than could the owners themselves. "'

Both as a citizen and as a business man Mr. Weicker has high standing in the community. He is a democrat in politics, is a member of the local lodge of the Benevo- lent & Protective Order of Elks, and is affiliated with all of the Masonic bodies in Oklahoma City, in which great fraternity he has the distinction of having received the thirty-second degree of the Ancient Accepted Scottishi Rite.

At Independence, Missonri, September 29, 1880, was recorded the marriage of Mr. Weicker to Miss Lucy Ann Walker, daughter of Andrew J. and Polly (Braden) Walker, her father having served in Quantrell's com- mand as a Confederate soldier during the entire period of the Civil war. The wife of Mr. Weicker's youth was summoned to the life eternal on the 24th of December, 1910, and of their three children the eldest, Marian Evah, who was korn March 9, 1882, died at the age of twenty years; Robert Andrew, born July 7, 1890, and Oliver Francis, born September 26, 1898, are now asso- ciated with their father 's business.

In Oklahoma City, on the 27th of December, 1913, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Weicker to Mrs. Cora (Storm) Jordan, who had come to this city in 1901 and who, through judicious local investments, soon accumulated an appreciable fortune in valuable prop- erties. She still owns in her own right the modern four- apartment brick building at the corner of Sixth and Harvey streets, as well as several fine cottages in de- sirable sections of the city. The family home, one of the attractive residence properties of the capital city, is at 104 East Fifth street. :

GEORGE S. MARCH. Among the men who have been observers of and participants in the developments which have formed the history of Oklahoma, one who has passed through many interesting experiences both in the earlier and lawless days of Indian Territory and the young state and in its later period of civilization and prosperity, is Hon. George S. Mareh, former judge

of Montague County, Texas, and now a leading member of the Marshall County bar, at Madill.

The March ancestry extends back in this country be- fore the Revolutionary war. George O. March, one of the Colonial forefathers, became a book publisher at Lebanon, Ohio, and Francis A. March, who settled in Pennsylvania, became the father of Col. Peyton C. March, who assisted in the capture of Aguinaldo in the Philip- pines. The maternal grandmother of Judge March- the mother of Clementine Elizabeth (Sory) March- still lives at the age of ninety-four years, and an inter- esting character of the maternal ancestry of the Judge was Col. Robert Haltom, his mother's uncle, who built the first courthouse and jail, in Rusk County, Texas. A. M. March, the father of Judge March, who was a surveyor, was among the first settlers at the historic site of Spanish Fort, on Red River, just over the river from the Indian country. There he made settlement in 1857, nine years after he had made his advent to Texas from Jackson, Tennessee, and built one of the first log houses in Rusk County. Comanche Indians frequently were on the war-path in that day and the log houses bore "port holes" on each side, being thus transformed into forts for the protection of the settlers against the hostiles. Mr. March was a member of a party of Texans who par- ticipated in the last fight with the Comanches, at Eagle Point, Texas, in 1876. Twenty years later he died, and his body lies buried in the old cemetery at Montague, Texas.

As it appears in retrospection, the cattle range epoch of former Indian Territory was one of the most fas- cinating periods of this section's history, and tragedy frequently split the even trend of the day's events. Judge March recalls the important facts of a fight which took place during a roundup at Erin Springs, near the present Town of Lindsay, in 1886, between two rival forces of cattlemen, when his father, who dealt exten- sively in cattle in that section, accused one Wyatt and Curg Williams and Frank Murry of taking unlawful pos- session of some 300 to 400 head of his cattle. Men on both sides were armed, as were all frontiersmen of these days, and twenty to thirty men were engaged, the result being that four or five were killed. The after-effects reflect the spirit of the time: there was a peaceful division of the herd and Mr. March secured all the cattle . that he had claimed.

The early education of Judge March was obtained in the public schools of Texas. His first experience as a cowpuncher was secured under U. S. Joines, now a wealthy citizen of Ardmore, who was a pioneer ranch- man of the Indian Territory. The ranch was situated on Mud Creek and from it drives were made every year over the Chisholm Trail into states of the North. On one of these drives the man in charge of the herd came to the conclusion that he had more men then were needed and five of them (among them Judge March) were dis- charged in a lonely and uninhabited region of the north- ern end of Indian Territory. These men set ont on their return to the Spanish Fort country of North Texas, and their lack of food and being forced to eat green corn from roasting-ear patches near the southern end of their journey, are incidents characteristic of the hardships of the day. The annual spring roundups on Big Valley were among the chief events of the time in the cattle country and many a young man was initiated into the mysteries of cowpunching degrees while learning a new occupation on these occasions.

After his cowboy days, Judge March returned to Texas, furthered his educational training and became a teacher in the rural schools. Finding himself adapted to this vocation, he pursued it with vigor and inereasing

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knowledge and later taught in some of the leading schools of North Texas. In the meantime, he studied law and was admitted to the bar in July, 1890, at Montague, Texas, and four years later was elected county judge of Montague County, Texas, and as such was ex-officio county superintendent of schools. During the four years he filled this office he labored with Prot. J. M. Carlyle, one-time state superintendent of public instruction of Texas, in Lehalf of a law creating the office of county superintendent of schools and their efforts finally resulted in success. For twelve years Judge March was a member of the executive committee of the Educational Associa- tion of Texas.

Judge March returned to Oklahoma in 1901, being among the throng that came from all over the south- western country and made up the population of the Town of Lawton, which was established during that year. Here he found a return to the era of lawlessness, and after the brief annals of the new city had been stained with the blood of many murdered men, he joined the forces, 5,000 strong, of young Robert Goree, a party which marched down the notorious Goo Goo Avenue and cleared the city of crooks and gamblers. Later Judge March returned to Nocona, Texas, where he made his home after retiring from the judgeship of Montague County, and there remained until 1910, when he settled in the practice of law at Madill, which has since been his residence and the scene of his labors. He has taken his place as one of the most forceful, learned and thorough lawyers of the Marshall County bar, and his connection with a number of important cases has given him prestige and attracted to him a most important professional busi- ness. Judge March served one term as city attorney of Madill and during his administration the city hall was erected and the sanitary sewer system installed. In Marshall County he became a leader of the organization at Madill that, after five elections, succeeded in securing the courthouse for this city, the election being won by twenty-two votes. Later a magnificent courthouse was erected at a cost of $75,000 and Judge March was the first man to try a case therein. He is a member of the Marshall County Bar Association, of the Madill Com- mercial Club and of the Madill Civic League, and his fraternal connections include membership in the Knights of Honor, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Woodmen of the World, the Rebekahs and the Wood- men's Circle. With his family, he belongs to the Meth- odist Church. While the days of lawlessness have passed, a glamour sets upon the country to this day, and there is an interesting and singular twinkle in the eye of the judge who passed through the epoch of the cattle range and who finds in retrospection the material for many charming stories.

Judge March was married April 12, 1888, at Mount Enterprise, Texas, to Miss Margaret Westfall, and they have eight children living: Miss Lester, who recently completed a course at Chillicothe Business College, Chilli- cothe, Missouri, and has chosen a business career for her- self ; and Clyde, Mona, Marguerite, Lucile, George S., Kathleen and John Abe, living at home. Four of the eldest have made perfect records in attendance and unusually high grades in the public school and two are graduates of the high school. The brothers and sisters of John March are: John S., who for thirty years has been engaged in the hardware business at Nocona, Texas; Mrs. Clementine E. McNew, of Okla- homa City ; Mrs. Rhoe Matlock, widow of the late Judge Matlock, of Texline, Texas; R. L., who for twenty-five years has been a lawyer at Duncan, Oklahoma; Mrs. Frankie Hagler, of. Nocona, widow of the late Will Hag- ler; W. W., who met an accidental death while hunting

near Nocona in 1909; and Abe and A. M., who are pioneer hardware dealers of Lawton, Oklahoma.

SAMUEL O. BOPST. In the history of pioneer mer- cantile affairs at Bartlesville there are three names that stand out conspicuously and have the most prominent associations in the minds of all who located in that city ten years ago or more. These were the late Samuel O. Bopst, George B. Keeler and William Johnstone. Their family names are given permanent memorial in different ways at Bartlesville, one of the principal business build- ings bears the name Bopst, while an important avenue has the name Johnstone. These three men were close friends, and were associated together in business affairs. Up to about ten years ago they were primarily Indian traders, and all three of them spoke the Indian dialect and tongues as well as the Indians themselves. The late Samuel Bopst was master of five Indian languages.

Samuel O. Bopst was an active resident of Bartlesville nearly thirty years. In his death on April 4, 1912, that city lost not only one of its pioneers but one of its most useful and well known. citizens. Samuel O. Bopst was born iu Atchison County, Missouri, in 1855, son of Othaniel Borst, who with his wife was a native of Germany, and the German language was the tongue usually spoken in their home. Othaniel Bopst, who died in Missouri at the age of eighty-four, was a merchant for more than thirty years at Nishna in Atchison County, and was likewise an extensive farmer. Samuel O. Bopst was one of two sons and four daughters, and spent his early life on a farm, attended the public schools until eighteen, and learned the mercantile business in his father's store at Nishna.

When Mr. Bopst arrived at what is now the City of Bartlesville in 1884 he found only a blacksmith shop and store with a few rude dwelling houses along the Caney River. For twelve years he was employed in the store of Johnstone & Keeler, and subsequently bought the Johnstone interest and was first a member of the firm of Keeler & Bopst, and after George Keeler sold out to C. M. Keeler the firm then became Bopst & Keeler. Mr. Bopst finally bought the Keeler interests and con- tinued as sole proprietor of the business until he sold out about a year before his death. He succeeded in building up the largest hardware, implement, furniture, wagon house in Bartlesville, and when he sold out it was to the Cherokee Hardware Company, which still continues this business, now established for more than thirty years.

Mr. Bopst was also regarded as one of the largest oil operators in Northern Oklahoma until ill health com- nelled him to sell out his interests about a year before his death. He was treasurer of the Caney Valley Oil & Gas Company, which had a notable record in oil produc- tion in the Bartlesville district. At one time out of forty-eight wells drilled by the company there were only two dry holes. In 1908 Mr. Bopst erected the Bopst Building, a fine two-story brick block, with store below and offices and living rooms above. This building, which is one of the monuments to his enterprise, stands on Johnstone Avenue next door to the First National Bank Building.

Mr. Bopst was popular in all classes of business and social circles. He was a thirty-second degree Mason, and also a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Knights of Pythias and the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. He gave a great deal of atten- tion to Masonry, and his funeral was conducted under the auspices of the consistory body at McAlester, who came to Bartlesville for that purpose in a special char- tered car. The funeral services were held in the Methodist Church.

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Mr. Bopst was married December 25, Christmas Day, 1887, to Miss Racia Hampton, who was born June 8, 1865, in Moultrie County, Illinois, and is still living with her children in Bartlesville. Mrs. Bopst when a small child was brought out to Kansas by her parents and four years later they located in Indian Territory. She is a daughter of William A. and Jane (Rail) Hampton, both of whom died in Bartlesville. Her father was a native of Louisville, Kentucky, and was a carpenter and coutractor. Mrs. Bopst was one of a family of four daughters. The children of Mr. and Mrs. Bopst are: Roy and William O., both of whom live at home with their mother; Ella, wife of Jack Shaw of Bartlesville; and Jennie, wife of Morris K. Webber, of Bartlesville.

HENRY E. Asp. A distinguished member of the Okla- homa bar, Mr. Asp is engaged in the practice of his profession in Oklahoma City, where he is the head of the representative law firm of Asp, Snyder, Owen & Lybrand, with offices in Suite Nos. 608-14 Terminal Building. He established his residence in Oklahoma in the year following the creation of the territorial gov- ernment, and is thus to be designated as one of the pioneer lawyers of both the territory and the state. Further than this his high sense of civic loyalty and stewardship has made him a constructive force in con- nection with governmental affairs and general indus- trial progress in Oklahoma, where he has given earnest co-operation in movements and enterprises projected for the general good of the commonwealth and its peo- ple, especially valuable having been his influence in con- serving a due portion of the public domain for the pro- motion and support of education. He was a prominent meniber of the state constitutional convention and has been a leader in the councils of the republican party in Oklahoma during the entire period of his residence within its borders.

Henry E. Asp was born at New Boston, Mercer County, Illinois, on the 1st of January, 1856, and is a son of John A. and Christina Asp, both natives of Sweden and sterling representatives of that valuable Scandinavian element that has proved a benignant power in connection with the development and upbuilding of many of the states in the western portion of our great national domain. The mother of Mr. Asp died in 1857, when he was an infant of one year, and his father's life was sacrificed in the Civil war, so that virtually he has no remembrance of either of his parents. He was a child at the time of his father's removal from Illinois to Iowa, and at the inception of the Civil war his father, John August Asp, enlisted in an Iowa Regiment of Engineers, with which he proceeded to the front and with which governmental records show him to have been a faithful and valiant soldier. He participated in the siege of Vicksburg, in which city he died shortly after it had capitulated. His vocation after coming to the United States was that of a blacksmith, and his loyalty to the land of his adoption was shown with all of significance when he laid down his life in defense of the nation's integrity.

In 1866 Mr. Asp was taken by his guardian from Iowa to Illinois, and thus he was reared to adult age in his native state. He began to assist in the work of the farm when a mere boy and remained with his guardian until he had attained to the age of sixteen years. In the meanwhile his privileges and educational advantages had been of meager order and he has referred to this period of his career as being one of hard work and hard knocks. Alert mentality and ambitious purpose were not, however, to be denied their legitimate functions, and to such determined and valiant souls success comes

as a natural prerogative. At the age of sixteen years Mr. Asp initiated an apprenticeship to a trade and later he was enabled to complete a one year's course in a business college. In the meanwhile he had formulated definite plans for his future career, and in consonance with his ambitious purpose he began the study of law under the preceptorship of a prominent attorney at Winfield, Kansas. When but seventeen years of age he tried his first case and he has been engaged in active practice since that time, though he was not formally admitted to the bar until he had attained to his legal majority, this distinction having been granted him in 1878, at Winfield, Kansas. In that city he formed, in 1883, a law partnership with William P. Hackney, under the firm name of Hackney & Asp, and they continued in active general practice at Winfield until 1890, when, a short time after the creation of Oklahoma Territory, they removed to Guthrie, the territorial capital, where their effective professional alliance continued until 1-892, when impaired health compelled the retirement of Mr. Hackney from the firm. Mr. Asp then formed a pro- fessional alliance with James R. Cottingham, under the title of Asp & Cottingham, and this partnership con- tinued, at Guthrie, until 1907, when it was dissolved, this being the year in which Oklahoma was admitted to statehood. Close application and onerous profes- sional responsibilities had made severe inroads on the physical health of Mr. Asp, and after his retirement from the firm he passed one year on a farm, for the purpose of recuperating his energies. He then resumed the practice of his profession at Guthrie, where he remained until 1912, when he removed to Oklahoma City, where, on the 1st of April of that year, he became a member of the present and prominent law firm of Asp, Snyder, Owen & Lybrand, which controls a very large and important law business. Mr. Asp has appeared in much important litigation in both the territorial and state courts and is known as a careful, steadfast and resourceful trial lawyer and well fortified counselor, as well as one who insistently maintains the highest appre- ciation of professional ethics and of the dignity and responsibility of his chosen vocation. From 1889 until 1907 Mr. Asp had charge of the law department for Oklahoma of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Rail- road Company, and he resigned this position in the latter year, when his law partner, Mr. Cottingham, was appointed Oklahoma solicitor for this company. While a resident of Guthrie he served several months as assist- ant United States district attorney, a position which he resigned to give his undivided attention to his private law business.

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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