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 60

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 60

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).

We conclude this review by appending a few details regarding Mr. Marchaut's Masonic standing, for that phase of his prominence is so well known both in Kansas and Oklahoma. He is now deputy grand master of the third district of Oklahoma, in the organization of Ancient Free and Accepted Masons; as this district is composed of Alfalfa, Woods and Major counties, Mr. Marchant has jurisdiction over fourteen Masonic lodges. In 1914 he officiated as special deputy grand master at the laying of the corner stone of the new High School Building of Lambert, Oklahoma. He is a thirty-second degree Mason and a Shriner, at Guthrie and Oklahoma City, respectively. All in all, he may be said to have reached a high pinnacle of success and popularity. His ability, his geniality, his sincerity form the keynote of both his business achievement and his social relations.

C. EDGAR BARKER, M. D. Since locating at Oklahoma City, in 1912, Dr. C. Edgar Barker has steadily advanced to a recognized position in the ranks of the medical pro- fession, and is now accounted one of the leading special- ists here in genito-urinary diseases. A close and careful student, he did not enter upon the practice of his vocation uutil he had thoroughly mastered its principles, and be- fore coming to Oklahoma City had secured much experi- ence of a practical character. Doctor Barker was born at Pattenburg, Hunterdon County, New Jersey, in 1881, and is a son of George G. and Sarah J. (Case) Barker.

The Barker family has resided in America from Colonial times, and is connected directly with Capt. John Reed, of Revolutionary fame, who was first a resident of Con- necticut and later moved to New Jersey, Doctor Barker being in the eighth generation from this patriot. George G. Barker was born in New Jersey, and there entered mercantile pursuits in young manhood, being engaged therein at Pattenburg for approximately thirty years, up to the time of his death in 1910. He was also a lead- ing and influential democrat of his community, and served as postmaster of Pattenburg during both of President Cleveland's administrations. The mother passed away also in 1910, five months after the death of Mr. Barker.

C. Edgar Barker received his early education in the public schools of Pattenburg, following which he entered the Centennary Collegiate Institute, at Hackettstown, Warren County, New Jersey. He began his medical studies at the Medical and Chirurgical College, Philadel- phia, Pennsylvania, but failing health made advisable a change of climate, and he accordingly went to Denver, Colorado, after three years at Philadelphia, and finished his course at the University of Denver Medical College, where he was graduated in 1907, with the degree of Doc- tor of Medicine. Doctor Barker next spent two years at Rock Springs, Wyoming, in the capacity of house surgeon of the Wyoming General Hospital, and in 1909 came to Oklahoma aud first located at Tuttle, where he carried on a general practice until 1912. In that year, seeking a larger field for the display of his talents and abilities, Doctor Barker took up his abode in Oklahoma City, and here has continued to the present time, now occupying offices at No. 415 State National Bank Building, while his home is No. 1117 West 12th Street.

Upon first locating at Oklahoma City, Doctor Barker carried on a general practice, and in the meantime car- ried on independent study, research and investigation. In 1914 he took a post-graduate course at the New York Polyclinic at New York City, and upon his return began specializing in genito-urinary diseases, a field in which he has come. rapidly to the forefront. He is a member of the staffs of the Wesley and Wesley Post-Graduate hos-

6. Logan Tardes -

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HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA

pitals, both at Oklahoma City, and holds membership in the Oklahoma County Medical Society, the Southwestern Medical Association, the Oklahoma State Medical Society and the American Medical Association. His fraternal connections are with the Phi Rho Sigma fraternity, Lambda Chapter; Tuttle Lodge No. 405, A. F. & A. M .; Oklahoma City Lodge No. 417, B. P. O. E., the Woodmen of the World, the Woodman Circle and the Order of the Eastern Star. His religious belief is that of the Presby- terian faith, and he and Mrs. Barker attend the First Presbyterian Church of Oklahoma City.

Doctor Barker was married October 7, 1914, to Miss Viola Todd, who was born in Oklahoma, a daughter of George A. and Margaret Todd, of Ponca City, Oklahoma. Mr. Todd is the owner and operator of the Ponca City Oil & Gas Company, of Ponca City, and is also largely interested in the oil and gas interests at Cushing and other points in Oklahoma.

JOHN THREADGILL, M. D. To few of its citizens does Oklahoma City owe more for its substantial development than to Dr. John Threadgill, who, coming here in 1901, immediately became one of its most helpful and active promoters. To his resource, initiative and courageous faith may be accredited such enterprises as the Oklahoma Life Insurance Company, the Columbia Bank and Trust Company and the Threadgill Hotel, while civic develop- ment derived encouragement from his able and disinter- ested support until his death, which occurred on the 14th of May, 1915.

John Threadgill was born at Wadesboro, the county seat of Anson County, North Carolina, September 28, 1847, and is a son of James and Eliza (Panl) Thread- gill, natives of the same town and state. The family was founded in America by four brothers, Thomas, Randall, William and John Threadgill, who in 1770 emi- grated from England and located in North Carolina, where all married and reared families. It is from the family of Thomas that Doctor Threadgill descends. This ancestor was a full colonel in the Revolutionary army and was a conspicuous figure at the Battle of Camden, South Carolina. The father of Doctor Thread- gill was a wealthy planter and slave owner of the South prior to the Civil war, and his family consisted of eleven children, of whom John was the fourth in order of birth.

As he grew to manhood, John Threadgill was educated in the home schools, and after some preparation entered the medical department of the University of Alabama, at Mobile, from which he was graduated with the class of 1874. Previous to this time, however, when not quite sixteen years of age, he enlisted in the Fourteenth North Carolina Infantry, Confederate army, in September, 1863, and served until he was captured by the Federal troops near Petersburg, April 3, 1865. He was paroled from Hart's Island, New York, June 17, 1865, being one of the first Confederate prisoners sent to that prison. According to the records he was one of the youngest Confederate soldiers at the time of his death.

Leaving his native state in September, 1870, Doctor Threadgill located in Washington County, Texas, where he practiced medicine until 1875, then moving to Will- iamson County, and in 1880 retired from the practice to engage in the banking business at Taylor, Texas. He became vice president there of the First National Bank and its active manager, the president of the institution being a resident of Chicago. Selling out his banking interests in 1895, Doctor Threadgill moved to Norman, Oklahoma, having obtained a contract from the Terri- tory of Oklahoma and the Indian Territory to care for the insane of the two territories. Here he built the Oklahoma Sanitarium for the Insane and conducted it until 1901, when he sold out to others and moved to

Oklahoma City to become one of its live wires in the development of the magic city. One of his first moves was to organize the Oklahoma Life Insurance Company, serving as its president until its complete organization, when he disposed of his interests. He then organized and became president of the Columbia Bank and Trust Company of Oklahoma City, in 1902, from which posi- tion he subsequently resigned after the first year and sold his stock before it was consolidated with the State National Bank. In 1904 he built the Threadgill Hotel, at the corner of Second and Broadway, now the Bristol, and owned it until 1913, when he exchanged it for Texas lands, upon some of which have been developed oil pros- pects. After building the Threadgill Hotel, Doctor Threadgill practically retired from active operations. Doctor Threadgill was a thirty-second degree Mason and a member of all the kindred orders. He was also a Pythian Knight and an Odd Fellow. He was a member of the First Presbyterian Church of Oklahoma City, as is also Mrs. Threadgill.

On January 28, 1872, Doctor Threadgill was married in Washington County, Texas, to Miss Elizabeth Guiton, who lived only one year after their marriage. In Will- iamson County, Texas, he was married to Miss Sue Gault, December 1, 1875, and she died June 6, 1891, having been the mother of one daughter, who is now Mrs. W. T. Salmon, of Oklahoma City. At Memphis, Tennessee, January 6, 1892, Doctor Threadgill was married to Miss Frances Fidelia Falwell, who was born September 22, 1867, daughter of Samuel and Zarsko Zelo (Messick) Falwell. Two children were born to this union: Mary Frances, September 27, 1892; aud John Falwell, April 15, 1894. Both children still are unmarried and reside with their mother.

To his last marriage, Doctor Threadgill owes much of his success and happiness in life, for Mrs. Threadgill is not only a capable member of the household and a con- genial companion, but a woman of remarkable character and breadth of thought along lines of endeavor espe- cially appreciated by civic and philanthropic students. While the doctor was busy in his business enterprises, his estimable and cultured wife has been one of the most active civic workers in the West. Mrs. Threadgill, after having the advantages of the public schools of her native city, Memphis, Tennessee, graduated from the Peabody Normal School, at Nashville, in 1881, with the degree of L. I. Earlier, she had also graduated from a business college at Memphis, hence, when she elected to give her life to active public service, she had all the preparation qualifying her for the noble work to which she was de- termined to devote her career. Immediately after her graduation at Nashville, Mrs. Threadgill became a teacher in schools and colleges of Memphis, in which work she continued until 1891 when she moved to Taylor, Texas, also to teach until she and the doctor were mar- ried. When they located at Oklahoma City, Mrs. Thread- gill was at once recognized as an admirable leader among the women of the state striving to better civic conditions. She was elected president of the Territorial Federation of Women's Clubs in 1906 and also of the state body in 1907-8, was State Federation president from 1908 to 1910 and from 1910 to 1912 was treasurer of the General Federation of Women's Clubs.

When the Oklahoma Constitutional Convention was in session after statehood came, in 1907, Mrs. Threadgill was active in the advocacy of those measures so dear to the hearts of the clubwomen of the state, including compulsory education and child labor provisions.

Mrs. Threadgill also descends from a historic family of Colonial days and distinction. Her grandfather, Samuel Falwell, was born in Rappahannock County, Virginia, and her father, also named Samuel, was a

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HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA

soldier during the Mexican war of 1847-8. On her mother's side the family comes down through a line of Stephens tolk in which are listed the names of Emanuel and Thaddeus Stephens, of Lincoln's cabinet, and traces back to one of three brothers who came from the north of England and settled in Maryland, in 1711.

If a community and a state may be proud of such citizens as was Doctor Threadgill, they may be equally proud of his home associations and of the magnificent character of such a helpmate as he was so fortunate to secure in the person of his distinguished wife. Through the interest Mrs. Threadgill has had in the educational work she was instrumental in having established by the State Federation of Women's Clubs, a loan fund to be used in aiding young girls to obtain higher educations.

HENRY LOWNDES MULDROW. A number of enviable distinctions associated with the name and activities of this well known business man of Norman, where he is head of the firm Muldrow & Lewis, state managers in Oklahoma for the Minnesota Mutual Life Insurance Company, with offices in the First National Bank Build- ing. Mr. Muldrow is a marked man in Masonic circles, and for his age has probably received more of the honors and dignities from that ancient order in its various branches than any man in the West. Mr. Mul- drow was educated for the law, comes of distinguished American ancestry, and has been identified with Indian Territory and Oklahoma for almost twenty years.

Born at Paducah, Kentucky, October 12, 1872, he is a son of Robert and Annie (Oliver) Muldrow. The Mul- drow family came originally from Scotland, settled in South Carolina, and in the early generations of their American residence they simplified the spelling of the name, which in Scotland was MacMuldrow. During the Revolutionary war two ancestors of Mr. Muldrow were officers under Gen. Francis Marion, the famous "Swamp Fox" who performed such a valuable service in ridding the Carolinas of their British enemies. One of the noted members of the Muldrow family was United States Senator Lowndes of South Carolina. Mr. Muldrow's mother was a daughter of Simeon C. Oliver of Mississippi, but originally from Georgia, and a man of prominence and note in Mississippi affairs prior to the Civil war. By virtue of his ancestral record Mr. Mul- drow is eligille to membership in the Order of Cin- cinnati, the Sons of the American Revolution and his daughters are eligible to the D. A. R. Robert Muldrow his father, born in South Carolina, was reared and edu- cated in Mississippi, and completed his education at the University of Mississippi at Oxford, where he graduated as First Honor man. Up to the outbreak of the war between the states he was a planter, and during that war served as major in a Mississippi regiment under the command of General Forrest. Following the war he moved to Paducah, Kentucky, and was engaged in the manufacture of plows until his death in 1873. He had the distinction of becoming the youngest member ever elected to the Mississippi State Senate, having received nomination to that office while a student in the univer- sity. His wife survived him many years, passing away in 1911.

In 1885 the Muldrow family returned to Mississippi, where Henry L. Muldrow finished his literary education, first in the public schools and later in the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Mississippi. He then went East and took his law course in the Columbian, now the George Washington, University at Washington, where he was graduated LL. B. in 1894.

Though thus well qualified for the practice of law Mr. Muldrow has never practiced. In the spring of 1895 he came to Indian Territory as a member of

the United States Geological Survey engaged on the subdivision survey. In that capacity he ran the first section line ever established in the old Indian Territory. He was connected with this survey up to 1898, and was thien sent with the first party of the United States Geological Survey to Alaska, where he remained about one year. He was with the corps that officially esti- mated the height of Mount Mckinley. After that work he again returned to Indian Territory and with residence at Tishomingo became variously identified with farming, real estate and insurance. While there he was also married.

In recent years Mr. Muldrow has been an active and influential factor in state politics. In 1910 he man- aged a campaign for W. HI. Murray at the democratic primaries for the nomination for governor. He was president of the Murray State School of Agriculture at Tishomingo for the years 1911-12-13. In December, 1914, Mr. Muldrow removed to Norman. He still has ex- tensive farming interests in Johnston County. He is also a member of the firm of Muldrow & Lewis in the insurance business.

Mr. Muldrow's Masonic record deserves considerable comment. He has been through both the general branches of Masonry, the' York and Scottish Rule, and is one of the few men upon whom is bestowed the culmi- nating honor of a thirty-third degree. He is a past master and honorary life member of Tishomingo Lodge No. 91, A. F. & A. M., and now has active membership in Norman Lodge; is past high priest of Tishomingo Chapter, R. A. M .; past thrice illustrious master of Tishomingo Council, R. & S. M .; and a member of Nor- man Commandery of the Knights Templar. He has hon- orary membership in all three of the Temples of the Mystic Shrine in the State of Oklahoma, and is active life member of Bedouin Temple, A. A. O. N. M. S. He has held all the offices in the Grand Lodge of Masons, and in 1907 was made grand master of the Grand Lodge of Indian Territory, being the last incumbent of that office in that territory. On the coming of statehood and the consolidation of the two territories, he was elected in 1908 the first grand master of the grand lodge for the State of Oklahoma. One of his greatest services in behalf of Oklahoma Masonry was accomplished when he went to Washington and secured the passage of the bill through . Congress under which the Masonic fra- ternity in Oklahoma acquired the old Cheyenne and Arapahoe Indian school reservation at Darlington to be used for a Masonic home. After the expiration of his term as grand master he was for two years a mem- ber of the board of control of that institution. In 1912 Mr. Muldrow organized the Order of the Red Cross of Constantine in Oklahoma and has since been its intendant general of the state. He was a charter mem- ber of Indian Consistory at McAlester. In October 1909, he was elected a thirty-third degree honorary, and for a long time was the youngest thirty-third degree Mason in the United States. He was likewise the youngest grand master in the country. Mr. Muldrow is a mem- ber of the Royal Order of Scotland.

In the spring of 1899 at Tishomingo Mr. Muldrow married Miss Mary. Daisy Fisher, daughter of Osborne Fisher, of Tishomingo and of Choctaw Indian descent. To their marriage were born five children: Osborne Fisher, Mattie Annie, Henry L., Jr., Alvin M. and Lewis L. Muldrow.

FRANK EMANUEL. A particular interest always at- taches to those careers which exemplify the quality of self-help. An example is found in the person of Frank Emanuel, who on March 3, 1915, was appointed by President Wilson as postmaster of Sulphur. Mr. Emanuel

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HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA

lias not only been able to help himself in his struggle through the world, but as a boy he assumed mauy of the burdens and responsibilities in connection with the keeping of a tamily of younger children, and though he is now only twenty-eight years of age he has been a hard working man ever since he was twelve.

He was born in Cherokee County, Texas, November 22, 1887, a son of C. and Mary (Green) Emanuel. His grandfather, Simon Emanuel, was a native of Russia, came to America when a young man not many years after the Revolutionary war, and located on the Pedee River in Marlborough County, South Carolina. He became successtul as a merchant, planter and slave owner, and he died at Bennettsville, South Carolina, when about eighty-seven years of age. C. Emanuel, his son, was born in South Carolina in 1842, grew up in that state, and throughout the period of the war between the states was a Confederate soldier with a South Carolina regiment. In the battle of Brandy Sta- tion he was twice wounded, once through the hip and once through the shoulder, and in another battle of the war he was again wounded. Several years after the close of the war in 1870 he moved to Cherokee County, Texas, where the rest of his life was spent as a merchant. He died in 1899 while on a sojourn for his health at Hot Springs, Arkansas. He was a member of the Masonic Fraternity, and though he had served with the Confederate army was a republican in politics, and served five years as postmaster of Jacksonville, Texas, under appointment from President McKinley. His first wife was Mary Ballew of Cherokee County, Texas. Her only daughter Amy is now de- ceased, and the only son, a half brother of the Sulphur postmaster, is Charles B. Emanuel, who has gained distinction as an Oklahoma lawyer, was a member of the second and third Oklahoma State Legislatures, being speaker pro tem in the Third Legislature, has also served as assistant county attorney, as mayor of Sulphur, and is a very prominent Oklahoma democrat. After the death of his first wife C. Emanuel married Mary C. Green, who was born in Camden, Arkansas, in 1859, and now lives in Los Angeles, California. Her children are: Frank; Mrs. Shirley Zelle, wife of a broker at Hollywood, California; Esther, who married George Gray, who is employed as an electrician with the West- ern Union Telegraph Company at Los Angeles, Califor- nia; Fannie, whose husband is wire chief for the Rocky Mountain Telephone Company, with residence at Pasadena, California; William McKinley who is also connected with the Rocky Mountain Telephone Company with residence at Pasadena; and Flora, who is unmar- ried and lives with her mother.

Frank Emanuel was about twelve years of age when his father died. Up to that time he had received the advantages of the public schools in Cherokee County, Texas. As he was the oldest of his mother's children, and there were five young brothers and sisters who by their father's death were left with very slender re- sources, he at once contributed his own labor to the family, and worked for several years at selling papers on the streets and in shining shoes. At the age of six- teen he was taken into the railroad station at Jack- sonville, Texas, as porter, and while working at that for thirteen months learned telegraphy and was then given a position as telegraph operator by the Cotton Belt Railroad Company. At the end of three years the confining work made inroads upon his health which caused him to resign, and he then went west to New Mexico and for a year was secretary for H. J. Simmons, general manager of the El Paso and Southwestern

Railway Company, and another year was spent with the Copper Queen Mining Company. Aiter returning East he was for three months in the superintendent's office of the Southern Pacific Railroad at Houston, Texas, and for two years was in the railroad superin- tendent's office at Dallas.

When Mr. Emanuel came to Sulphur, Oklahoma, in 1909 he helped reorganize the Chamber of Commerce of which he was made secretary, and for two years he handled most of the business of the Chamber. At the same time he had an office for the handling of gen- eral loans and insurance, and he continued actively in that line of business until appointed postmaster in 1915. He has prospered, owns his residence at Sulphur, and has a farm,of 210 acres eight miles south ot the town.

He is a member of the board of directors of the Sulphur Chamber of Commerce, is a democrat, a mem- ber of the First Methodist Episcopal Church, and is affiliated with Sulphur Lodge No. 353, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, with Sulphur Lodge of Knights of Pythias, and with Sulphur Camp ot the Woodmen of the World.

In 1910 at Sulphur he married Miss Kate Melson. Her father is J. A. Melson, a cotton merchant at Okla- homa City. One child was born to their marriage, Jack, on July 9, 1911.

SAMUEL C. TIMMONS. The life story of Samuel C. Timmons is one that is inspiring to contemplate, for it shows the evolution of a man's success by various strenuous stages from the humble rank of newsboy to the influential position of bank president. It is one more fascinating version of the fine American story of perseverance, thrift, industry, ambition: and these are the stuff of which democracy and the worthiest aristo- cracy are made.

One paragraph we must give to a consideration of the life of Mr. Timmons' father and his immediate family. Josiah Timmons was a native of Indiana, where he was born in 1820. He entered and was graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point. It was therefore natural that he should become prominent in the Civil war when that conflict absorbed all the best energies of our nation. Josiah Timmons gave gallant service as a lieutenant, even though he paid the price of several of the best years of his prime and thereafter endured the effects of those years of strenuous exertion, excitement and exposure. In 1860 he had married, in Danville, Ohio, Miss Elizabeth Clayton, daughter of John and Elizabeth Clayton, natives of Ohio. Elizabeth Clay- ton Timmons was a woman of beautiful character, a loyal churchwoman who all her life was a communicant of the Episcopal Church. She was a worthy helpmeet of the husband who was forced so soon after their marriage to part from her in response to the call from the army's front. After the war, Josiah Timmons turned to teach- ing as the profession by which he and his family must live. In that worthy but modestly paid work he gave noble service, his pedagogical life being spent chiefly in Carrolton, Missouri, and in Kansas. He died at Wichita, in the latter state, in 1898; and his widow closed her earthly life at the same place on September 20, 1911. Their family had numbered seven children, of whom four survive. One son, Frank, is now deceased, as are also two daughters, Mary and Jessie. Minnie Timmons became Mrs. N. P. Evans, now widowed; Emma is Mrs. M. J. Shields, of Savannah, Georgia; Druzilla, Mrs. Joseph Mosbacher, resides in Coffeyville, Kansas, where her husband is a prominent merchant.

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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