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 59

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 59

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

Henry Clay Nash was born in Milton County, Georgia, July 7, 1859. He represented some of the best qualities of the true old Southern stock. After attending public schools he took a course in the Agricultural and Mechani- cal College of Georgia. In 1877 he moved with his parents to Texas. During 1879-80 he was a student in the Sam Houston State Normal of Texas, and from 1880 to 1886 was a teacher in the public schools of Texas and the neighborhood schools of Indian Territory.

From teacher he became a kindly physician who for years ministered to the needs of a large territory, and most of his patients in the early days were Indian fam- ilies. In 1887-88 he attended the Bellevue Hospital Medical College at New York City, and on returning home took up the practice of medicine near Nelson, a village now in Pushmataha County. While in practice he was accredited physician in Spencer Academy, one of the old schools of the Choctaw Nation, and in the Choc- taw Female Seminary at Tuskahoma. In 1890 Doctor Nash removed his home to Antlers, and there he lived and did his work, and when little more than past the prime of years he died in May, 1913. He had assisted in the development of a section of the town and erected the federal court building. He was the town's friend in contests affecting its commercial life, making trips to Washington when there was apparent danger of losing the federal court, and to Guthrie when the fortunes of politics threatened to interfere with county seat honors.

When a young physician he rode one day past the home of Thomas L. Griggs, a Choctaw citizen, and asked the little daughter of Mr. Griggs the way to Nelson. In embarrassment she nodded the right direction. Several years later, when she was thirteen, Doctor Nash rode that way again at an opportune time for her, and she felt that she liked him with a peculiar liking. They became sweethearts later, and on October 31, 1895, Rev. W. J. B. Lloyd, an old time missionary, performed the ceremony that made them man and wife. She was Eliza- beth Griggs. She had been educated in Rock Academy, the Choctaw Female Seminary at New Hope, and Oxford College at Oxford, Ohio. Her father for twenty years has been a member of the Council of the Choctaw Legis- lature. In her is the blood of principal chiefs and other men of note. Principal Chief Wilson Jones was her grandmother's brother, and she is related to the family of Governor Burney of the Chickasaw Nation. Her mother is a daughter of Principal Chief Smallwood of the Choctaw Nation.

Mrs. Nash became the mother of five children, four of whom are living: Esther, aged eighteen, graduated in 1916 from the Oklahoma Presbyterian College at Durant; Ruth, aged fifteen, is a student in the State

School for the Deaf at Sulphur; Mary Frances is thir- teen years old; and Henry Clay is aged eleven.

ORMAN E. MCCARTNEY. Some there are whose lives are controlled by circumstances and others who over- come circumstances and control their own lives. To this latter class it may be safely said that Orman E. Mc- Cartney belongs. When he entered upon his career it was in a professional capacity, but enlightened views and an inherent talent for business called him from the instruments of his learned vocation, and, entering ac- tively into finance, he soon placed himself in a position where he was able to shape his own career. Coming to Oklahoma City in November, 1909, he here founded the Oklahoma National Life Insurance Company, the first domestic life insurance company organized in the state, and of this enterprise he has continued to act as president.

Mr. McCartney was born in Fremont County, Iowa, in 1874, and is a son of Milton and Helen (Paul) Me- Cartney, both of whom are now deceased. The father, a native of Ohio, moved to Iowa as one of the pioneers of Fremont County, in 1850, and there passed the remainder of his life in agricultural pursuits. Mrs. McCartney was a native of Indiana. The public and high schools of Thurman, Iowa, furnished Orman E. McCartney with his early education, and after some preparation he entered the University of Iowa, at Iowa City, from which he was duly graduated in 1900, with the degree of Doctor of Dental Surgery. Following his graduation he re- mained at the university for two years as an instructor, and then returned to Thurman, where for one year he was engaged in the practice of his profession. Mr. McCartney came to Oklahoma in 1903, in which year he settled at Custer City, there engaging in the bank- ing business, but in 1909 came to Oklahoma City, where in November of that year he organized the Oklahoma National Life Insurance Company, of which he at once became president, a position which he has held to the present time. This concern, the first domestic life in- surance company organized in Oklahoma, now does business all over this state, Texas, Arkansas and Kan- sas, and December 31, 1914, had about 5,000 policies in force, with insurance amounting to about $7,000,000.00. That the company has enjoyed a rapid and consistent growth under Mr. McCartney's wise and able manage- ment may be seen from the fact that the assets, which on December 31, 1909, were $239,033, were December 31, 1914, $743,000.00. Mr. McCartney's success is an il- lustration of a man of dominating motive and shrewd foresight responding manfully to a business opportunity. He belongs to that class of keen men who bring with them the atmosphere of business, and who do business in a modern, systematic and efficient manner. Among his associates he is relied upon absolutely.

Fraternally, Mr. McCartney has numerous important connections. He is a thirty-second degree Mason, being a member of Custer City Lodge No. 258, A. F. & A. M., all the Scottish Rite bodies, Oklahoma Consistory, Valley of Guthrie, and India Temple, A. A. O. N. M. S. He belongs also to Custer City Lodge No. 236, Inde- pendent Order of Odd Fellows, the Knights of Pythias, of Thurman, Iowa, in which he has gone through all the chairs; and Oklahoma City Lodge No. 417, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks.

In 1906 Mr. McCartney was married to Miss Lola Talkington, daughter of A. B. and Catherine Talkington, of Greeley, Nebraska. Three children have been born to this union: Helen, Verabelle and O. E., Jr. The Mc- Cartney home is located at No. 1117 North Shartel Avenue.

1146

HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA

EDGAR S. VAUGHT. This prominent and successful lawyer of Oklahoma City had his introduction to Okla- homa in the capacity of an educator, and his valuable service in behalf of the schools of Oklahoma City and of the state during the years immediately preceding state work will also deserve some mention in local history and form an important chapter in his own career. Though still very much interested in educational affairs, Mr. Vaught devotes his time chiefly to the practice of law, and is now senior member of the firm of Vaught & Ready, one of the strongest law partnerships in the capital city. His offices are in the Majestic Building.

Edgar S. Vaught was born in Wythe County, in Southwestern Virginia, in 1873, a son of Noah T. and Minerva J. (Atkins) Vaught. His ancestors were from Holland, and found homes among the pioneers of the noted mountain district of Western Virginia and East- ern Kentucky and Tennessee. They possessed the same qualities which have made the men and women from that region conspicuous in American society, noted for their loyalty and valor in the war and for strength of purpose and high mental caliber. Several generations of the Vaught family had lived in Wythe County, one of the most picturesque districts of old Virginia. Mr. Vaught's great-grandfather built the first flour mill there. Noah T. Vaught, his father, was a veteran of the Civil war, having served as second lieutenant of the Sixty-third Virginia Infantry in the Confederate army. He was in the strife from the beginning to the end, and with the cessation of hostilities returned to his farm, and is still living in the East. Minerva J. Atkins, his wife, was also a Virginian but of English descent, and she died in 1901.

Edgar S. Vaught claims as his alma mater one of the old and prominent small colleges of Eastern Tennessee, the Carson-Newman College of Jefferson City. This in- stitution conferred upon him the degree of Bachelor of Science in 1899. In the meantime he had also attended the Emory & Henry College of Virginia. Like many of the young men in that part of the country, his opportu- nities for getting a higher education were subject to his own ambition and energies, and in the intervals of attending college he taught school. In 1896 he was elected to the office of county superintendent of schools of Jefferson County, Tennessee, was re-elected for the two succeeding terms, and at the same time was carry- ing on studies in Carson-Newman College and was also equipping himself for the profession of law. Mr. Vaught was admitted to the bar at Dandridge, Tennessee, in 1898, and had some experience as a lawyer in Dandridge before coming to Oklahoma.

In 1901 Mr. Vaught came to Oklahoma City to accept the post of principal of the city high schools. In less than a year he was made superintendent of the Okla- homa City schools, and guided the destinies of the local schools during those important years from 1901 to 1906. His services attracted the attention of the territorial government of Oklahoma, as coincident with his service as city school superintendent he was from 1902 to 1906 a member of the territorial board of education. In May, 1907, Governor Frantz appointed him a member of the board of regents of the territorial normal schools, three in number, and his membership on that board was terminated by the entrance of Oklahoma into the Union on November 16, 1907.

In 1906, after severing liis active relations with the public schools of Oklahoma City, Mr. Vaught formed a law partnership with John E. DuMars and Samuel A. Calhoun, under the firm name of DuMars, Vaught & Calhoun. It was a successful association of three strong lawyers, and in a short time was conceded to have as large a practice as any other firm in Oklahoma City.

In 1907 the firm became DuMars & Vaught, continuing as such until 1912, when it was dissolved. At that time Mr. Vaught became associated with James H. Ready, making the firm Vaught & Ready, as it is at the present time. Mr. Vaught has the proper temperament and natural qualifications for the successful lawyer and by his thorough training and broad experience has well fortified his rank as one of the leaders of the Oklahoma bar.

Mr. Vaught in 1914 was vice president of the Okla- homa City Chamber of Commerce, and is a member of the Oklahoma City Men's Dinner Club. Fraternally a Mason, he affiliates with Siloam Lodge No. 276, A. F. & A. M. at Oklahoma City; with the Royal Arch Chapter at Jefferson City, Tennessee; and with Oklahoma Com- mandery No. 3, K. T. Mr. Vaught and family reside at 427 East Park Place in Oklahoma City. In 1899 he was married at Dandridge, Tennessee, to Miss Mary Holtsinger. Her father, G. W. Holtsinger, of Dandridge, was a captain in the Union army during the Civil war, and later for a number of years served as clerk and master of the Chancery Court at Dandridge. Mr. and Mrs. Vaught are the parents of three children: Eleanor, Edgar S., Jr., and Ruth.

HUGH L. HARRELL. Definite contribution to the dyna- mic energy which has been potent in the furtherance of the social and industrial development of Oklahoma is to be accredited to Mr. Harrell, who has been a resi- dent within the borders of the present commonwealth from the time of his nativity, who is a member of an honored and influential pioneer family of the state and whose individual activities have been manifold and productive, so that he is consistently to be designated as one of the most progressive and loyal young men of the state, his character and achievement fully entitling him to the unqualified popular esteem in which he is held. He had the distinction of serving as assistant secretary of state for Oklahoma when he was but twenty- four years of age and such exceptional preferment in the new state indicates special ability and fealty on the part of the incumbent. Mr. Harrell maintains his residence in Oklahoma City but gives a general supervi- siou to his fine landed estate of several hundred acres, in Hughes County, his enterprise and energy being the forces that are developing this into one of the model agricultural demesnes of Oklahoma.

Mr. Harrell was born at Culla Chaha, Indian Territory, the place of his nativity being near the City of Potean, the present judicial center of Le Flore County, Oklahoma, and the date of his birth having been February 27, 1887. He is a son of Ilenry B. and Jessie M. (Enochs) Har- rell and his father is numbered among the successful stockmen of Oklahoma, where he is a citizen of promi- nence and influence, besides being a member of a family that settled in Indian Territory in the early pioneer days. Heury B. Harrell was born in Alabama and was a boy at the time when the family immigrated to the wilds of Indian Territory, the journey having been made up the Mississippi River and thence up the Arkan- sas River to Fort Smith, Arkansas, before the establish- ing of railway facilities in this section of the Southwest. His father became one of the carly exponents of the live-stock industry in the Indian Territory, and finally established his residence at San Antonio, Texas, where his venerable widow still resides and where he continued to be identified with the cattle business until the time of his death. As a matter of enduring historic interest it should be noted that the paternal great-grandfather of him whose name initiates this article, became one

ing ime dy, ent ind by

la. of a ter

de he

d d

e 3

n d 1

rell ma

EdSlaugh

1147

HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA

of the early missionaries of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, in Indian Territory, and was the founder of Harrell 's Chapel, near Poteau, this pioneer and crude church edifice having long been one of the landmarks of that section of the present State of Oklahoma. The muaternal grandfather of Mr. Harrell was a prosperous merchant in the City of Verona, Mississippi, at the incep- tion of the Civil war, and during the great conflict be- tween the states of the North and the South he was a gallant soldier of the Confederacy, besides which he had served as a member of the Mississippi Legislature. His widow now resides in the home of the parents of the subject of this sketch, at Calvin, Hughes County, Okla- homa.

To the common schools of Indian Territory Hugh L. Harrell is indebted for his early educational disci- pline, and from 1905 to 1906 he was found enrolled as a student in the Oklahoma Agricultural & Mechanical College at Stillwater. Thereafter he completed a normal and business course in Indianola College, at Wynnewood, Indian Territory, and in this institution he was gradu- ated in 1906, with the degree of Master of Accounts. Prior to this he had served as secretary and treasurer of the Hundley Mercantile Company, at Calvin, and he continued with this concern for some time after his graduation. He next engaged in the land, loan and banking business. In the meanwhile he had instituted the improvement of his ranch of several hundred acres, in the vicinity of Calvin, and he is rapidly developing this into one of the most productive and valuable landed estates in Hughes County.

In 1911, when but twenty-four years of age, Mr. Har- rell was appointed assistant secretary of state for the new State of Oklahoma, and during his four years' incumbency of this important office he proved a signally efficient and valued executive. He served for a time also as an appraiser for the Oklahoma state board of public-land commissioners, and he has informed liim- self thoroughly in regard to the resources and ad- vantages of the various portions of the state, to which his loyalty is unfaltering and appreciative. Though he prepared himself for and has received admission to the bar of the state Mr. Harrell has not found it ex- pedient to engage in the practice of his profession, but his technical knowledge has proved of great value to him in his various business operations. In politics he is an active supporter of the cause of the democratic party, and both he and his wife hold membership in the Presbyterian Church. He has varied interests in Oklahoma City, where he formerly held the office of sec- retary of the Broadway Loan & Mortgage Company. He manifests deep interest in all that tends to con- serve the welfare and progress of Oklahoma and here his circle of friends is virtually coincident with that of his acquaintances.

In the Masonic fraternity Mr. Harrell has received the thirty-second degree of the Ancient Accepted Scot- tish Rite and is affiliated with Indian Consistory, No. 2, at McAlester, and is also a member of India Temple Order of the Mystic Shrine. For several years he was secretary of the lodge of Free & Accepted Masons at Calvin but his ancient craft affiliation is now with Oklahoma City Lodge, No. 36. At Calvin he served also as secretary of the camp of the Woodmen of the World, and he is a member of the Oklahoma City Coun- try Club. Mrs. Harrell was graduated in William Woods College, at Fulton, Missouri, as a member of the . class of 1907, and she is active in church work in the Oklahoma metropolis, where also she is a popular factor in representative social circles.

At Oklahoma City, on the 2d of June, 1908, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Harrell to Miss Winnie Scales, daughter of George W. and Mattie (Bourland) Scales, her father having been a pioneer of the Choctaw Nation of Indian Territory and having there married Miss Mattie Bourland, who is a member of the well known Indian family of that name and also a repre- sentative of the Byrd family, which likewise claims a distinct strain of Indian blood and is one of promi- nence and influence in the present generation in Okla- homa. Mr. and Mrs. Harrell have one child, Pauline, who was born in 1910.

Mr. Harrell has three sisters, Mrs. Tupp L. Griffin, whose husband is a prominent merchant at Calvin; and Leona and Ada, who remain at the parental home.

EDGAR BENTON MARCHANT. A man who is variously distinguished in Aline and other Oklahoma localities is Edgar Benton Marchant; in law, in politics, in Masonic activities, lie holds high rank as a citizen of ability. It will be of interest to review his ancestry and to trace the causes of his success from stage to stage of his career.

Both parents of Mr. Marchant were rersons of strong character and high ideals, his father being of French and his mother of Irish origin. Abraham Marchant, the former, was a native of Fayette County, Ohio, and fol- lowed agricultural pursuits throughout his life. At the outbreak of the Civil war, he was in California and enlisted in Company G of the Second California Cavalry. He died in service in 1861. He was one of the five sons of William Marchant, a relative of the noted Marchant family of Rhode Island. Mrs. Abraham Marchant, the mother of our subject, was, like her husband, a native of Ohio, and on her mother's side a descendant of one of the old Virginia families. Mrs. Marchant, nee Catharine Limes, was when still a very young woman, a very ardent advocate of temperance. In 1866 she par- ticirated in one of the famous crusades against the liquor traffic. This courageous raid took place at Greenfield, Ohio, and is said to have been the first "slashing raid" ever made against the saloon evil. All her life was devoted in generous measure to influence against the national curse of alcoholism and in favor of law enforce- ment of all kinds. Hers was a gallant fighting spirit, inherited nerhans from her Revolutionary great-grand- father, Jesse Rowe. That noted gentleman used his pension money for the lofty purpose of buying material for the first Methodist Episcopal Church ever built in Fayette County. Ohio, buying the Inmber for the same from the grandfather of the late Senator Foraker of Ohio. After the war between the states the widowed Mrs. Marchant was again married in later vears. Her second husband was Thomas Gaskill. of Wilmington, Ohio. He died in 1895. She survived him fifteen years, her worthy and efficient life closing at Aline, Oklahoma, on January 4, 1910.

The birth of Edoar Benton Marchant had taken place on March 23. 1858, iu the log house which was the farm home of Abraham and Catharine Marchant. Orphaned by the war, the lad early turned his mind to ways and means of procuring his own livelihood. For him, also, the newsrarer route proved to be the first stage on the road toward success. Greenfield. Ohio. was the localtv in which he began his inderendent activities. And for him, too, the rrinter's office seemed the logical second sten. He served au aprrenticeshin in the plant of the Highland Chief, of Greenfield, his first salary being $1 per week. At nineteen years of age young Marchant began to be attracted to the rrofession of law and rroceeded to fit himself for that line of vocational activity. In 1881 he removed to Kansas and in that

1148

HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA

same year he was admitted to practice in the Sunflower State. His bar examinations were passed at Kingman and he settled for practice at St. Johu, of the same state. For sixteen years Mr. Marchant continued in active practice, and held various successive offices of distinction. For a time he was police judge of St. John; was deputy county attorney of Stafford County; and also served as assistant attorney general of Kansas for the special purpose of enforcing the prohibition laws of that state in Stafford County.

In 1893 Mr. Marchant took an active and prominent part in the opening of the Cherokee Strip in Oklahoma, locating at Pond Creek, where for a time he continued his law practice, which he later carried on at Cleo, Okla- homa. In 1894, business affairs called him back to St. John, Kansas, and there he established the fraternity paper known as The Kansas Free Mason. This periodical was the official gazette of the Kansas Grand Lodge of Ancient Free and Accepted Masons. The publishing offices of this paper Mr. Marchant in 1895 removed to Wichita, Kansas. It is ueedless to remark in this con- nection that he was one of the leading Masons of the State of Kansas, having been master of the first Masonic lodge ever instituted in Stafford County. His was the honor of making the first Mason ever created such in that county.

To his adopted State of Oklahoma Mr. Marchant returned in 1900. At Cleo he continued his work as an editor and publisher, at this time establishing The Chronoscope at that place. In county and state politics he has always beeu a cousistent republican and his news- paper policy has always beeu clearly defined as such. In 1901 the Chronoscope was transferred by Mr. Mar- chaut to Aline, which has since been the home of the paper. In 1907 he sold the plant and established his residence at Clinton, Oklahoma. There he gave invaluable service in the advertising and upbuilding of the town. For two years he was secretary of the Commercial Club of Clinton and was one of the most euthusiastic "boosters" of that growing municipality. Indeed, it is said of him that it was through his activities that Clinton was placed upon the map in conspicuous letters.

Aline became Mr. Marchant's definite home in 1910, for a second time. In that year he became identified with the law department of the Kansas City, Mexico and Orient Railroad, representing its interests in personal injury cases. Aline is still the attorney 's home and he adds much to the town's well known atmosphere of success and social warmth. Mr. Marchant has ever been one to whom distinction comes, now and again, for his is a personality that invites such honor and fitly bears it. At the time of the St. Louis World's Fair he was made secretary of the Oklahoma Commission to the Louisiana Purchase Exposition. He had entire charge of the Oklahoma Building and its exhibit; while Mrs. Marchant was the gracious and competent hostess of the same.

Mrs. Marchant is a woman of education and culture. Before her marriage she was Miss Ellen Kerns aud a native of near Mannington, West Virginia, that state also being the birth place of her parents, E. S. Kerns and Jane Kendall Kerns. In 1880 the family home was removed to Kansas, and there Miss Kerns accepted a teaching position at the early age of fourteen and a half years. In 1884 she was united in marriage, at St. John, with Mr. Marchant, then a leading lawyer of that city. Mr. and Mrs. Kerns removed to Oklahoma in 1893. The latter died at Sedan, Kansas, in 1898; the former now resides in Cleo, Oklahoma. Mrs. Marchant's graceful presence and fine intelligence make her a distinguished member of society where she goes. She holds high honors

in the Order of the Eastern Star and is a leader in chib and Sunday school work.

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

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