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 63

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 63

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A democrat in politics, for a number of years Mr. Miller has been interested in public affairs, and because of his well known ability and integrity has been called to office by his fellow citizens. As early as 1897 he became deputy treasurer of Woods County, a position which he held for 21/2 years at that time, and again in 1907 was appointed to this office, continuing as deputy treasurer until 1912, when he was nominated on the democratic ticket for the office of county treasurer and elected thereto by a handsome majority. He received a majority of 498 in the election of 1914, although Woods is normally a republican county. His services have been eminently satisfactory to the people of his community, and he is considered one of the most popular officials in Woods County. Fraternally, Mr. Miller belongs to the Inderendent Order of Odd Fellows and has numerous friends in the local lodge. He and the members of his family belong to the Methodist Episcopal Church.

Mr. Miller was married September 6, 1893, at St. John, Kansas, to Miss Emma E. Somers, who was born July 6, 1875, at Dayton, Ohio, a daughter of Joseph S. and Minerva (Horner) Somers, the former a native of Switzerland and the latter of Ohio. To Mr. and Mrs. Miller there have been born seven children, as follows: Arthur Roscoc, born January 18, 1895, and now a teacher in the public schools of Woods County; Blanche Esther, born October 10, 1897, who is also a teacher in the public schools; Ellen Grace, who was born April 6, 1899; Ernest Bovd, born April 2, 1901; a son who died in infancy; Melvin Wayne, born . August 1, 1907; and a daughter who died in infancy.

BEN E. FLYNN. A resident of his present property, which is located 31% miles north of Dewey, since 1900, Ben E. Flynn has seen the arrival of the railroad in this part of Washington County, as well as the other developments which have marked the scttle- ment and progress of this fertile and productive part of

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HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA

Oklahoma. His entire career has been devoted to agri- culture, in which he has achieved a satisfying success as a farmer and stockraiser, and at the present time he is accounted one of the substantial men of his community.

Ben E. Flynn was born March 16, 1858, in Warren County, Tennessee, and is a son of Ben and Sally (Monaghan) Flynn, natives of that state and both of Irish parentage. The father, who was a farmer through- out his career, died about the close of the Civil war, but his widow survived him for many years, passing away in 1908. when she had reached the remarkable age of ninety-four years. She reared nine children to manhood and womanhood and all were married and had families: Gilbert; Mrs. Elizabeth Knight; Mrs. Lucy Hill; Mrs. Caroline MeWilliams; Mrs. Minerva Murphy; James; John, a resident of Paris, Texas; Ben E .; and Charles, a resident of Houston, Texas, all being deceased with the excention of the last three.

Ben E. Flynn was given a public school education in the country districts of Warren County, Tennessee, and as a young man engaged in driving a stage and carried on an average of 1,000 people annually over the moun- tains from his home locality to Beersheha Srrings, Ten- nessee. He remained in Tennessee until the year 1886, at which time he came to the Cherokee Nation, where he has since resided. Four years after his arrival, he came to the farm he now occupies, a tract of eighty acres of land, where he has numerous improvements, this property being 31% miles north of Dewey. At that time the railroad had not penetrated to this locality and few improvements were to be seen in the way of churches, schools or even substantial buildings, but in the quarter of a century that has followed all these and many other innovations have been made, and this part of Washington County is now one of the most advanced in the northern part of the state.

In his native state Mr. Flynn was married to Miss Mattie Tate, a Cherokee, who died at Fort Smith, in 1886. leaving three children: Beniamin, who met an accidental death in Arkansas, in 1911; Jennie, who is the wife of Albert Echols, of Braggs, Oklahoma; and William, who is engaged in farming in the same neigh- borhood as his father. Mr. Flynn's first wife's parents were wealthy farming people in Tennessee and were not compelled to come to the West. His children were left out of their allotments because their papers were not made out properly. In 1900 Mr. Flvnn was again mar- ried when he was united with Mrs. Martha E. (Manning) Needham. the widow of Jesse Needham. She was born in the Cherokee Nation, about the year 1861, a daughter of Wosta and Susan Manning, the former a full-blooded Cherokee and the latter a white woman. During the Civil war, Mr. Manning enlisted in the Confederate army, and the Tennessee home was broken up by war's insatiable demands. Both parents are now deceased, and so is Mrs. Flynn's only brother, Napoleon. Bv her first marriage, Mrs. Flynn was the mother of six children : Valentine W. Needham, a resident of Washington County ; Susie J., who is the wife of Owen Greenwood, of this county; John D., engaged in the mail order business at Yale. Oklahoma; Sally M., who is the wife of Frank Revnolds, of Washington County; Fannie P., the wife of Thomas Kitterman, of Washington County; and Jesse G., also of this countv. All of these children received their allotments. and all have oil wells on their properties. While Mr. Flynn has a number of oil wells on his land. he does not need to worry about the price of oil. for his gold mine at Dallas, in Paulding County, Georgia, is doing very well if specimens of pure gold and ore which he has at his home may be taken as any indication. He is accounted one of his community's substantial men, willing to lend his aid to the support

of beneficial movements, and a friend of education and good citizenship.

ROY R. GETMAN. One of the oldest drug men of Tulsa is Roy R. Getman, who for the past fourteen years has been identified chiefly with the drug trade, and is now proprietor of one of the largest and highest class drug stores in the city. Mr. Getman has possessed that qual- ity of enterprise which enables his activities to expand and keep pace with the development of such a rapid growing city as Tulsa. When he first became identified with the town it was a mere village, and he has been both a witness and a factor in its growth to one of the most important cities of the state.

Roy R. Getman was born at Darien, Erie County, New York, December 30, 1883, a son of Simon J. and Ida H. (Corliss) Getman. His father was born in Erie County near Darien in 1858, and died January 11, 1908. The mother was born at Plessis, Herkimer County, New York, in 1862, and died December 18, 1911. Of their two children the daughter, Eva Fern, died at the age of four. Simon J. Getman was educated in the district schools and early in life learned the drug business, which he followed at Bairdstown, Ohio, subsequently established a hotel on Keuga Lake in Western New York, and in 1892 moved out to Charles City, Iowa, where he was in the wholesale cigar and notion business for several years. In 1901 he removed to Tulsa, Oklahoma, and bought and sold real estate in Northeastern Oklahoma for about a year, and in 1902 bought the P. E. Coin drug business, in which he was engaged until his death. He was a republican in politics, and was affiliated with Tulsa Lodge No. 946, B. P. O. E.

Roy R. Getman acquired his early education and train- ing in several different states, in New York, at Charles City, Iowa, and in the German Methodist College at Charles City. At the age of seventeen, having success- fully passed a civil service examination, he became em- ployed in the government railway mail service, and that was his work until the age of twenty-one. Then em- ployed by C. F. D. Smith in the drug business, he continued that until the fall of 1902, and then came to Tulsa. Here he and his father were together in the drug trade, and after the latter's death in 1908 Mr. Getman continued the business alone until 1911. He then sold out, but in 1912 returned to his former vocation, and now has one of the first class drug stores in the city.

Mr. Getman was married September 14, 1906, to Miss Winifred G. McNaughton, who was born in Wisconsin. They have one daughter, Virginia Fern. Mr. Getman is well known in social circles and is a member of Tulsa Lodge No. 71, A. F. & A. M., Tulsa Chapter No. 52, R. A. M .; Trinity Commandery, K. T., No. 20; Akdar Temple of the Mystic Shrine; and India Consistory of the thirty-second degree Scottish Rite. He is also affili- ated with Tulsa Lodge No. 946, of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. In politics he is a democrat.

HON. CHARLES ALSTON COOK. Oklahoma has been fortunate in having gained as a member of the bar so able and distinguished a lawyer as Judge Cook, who since 1903 has been a resident of Muskogee, engaged in practice in that city, and whose work as a lawyer and public leader has made him known all over the state.

Before he came to Indian Territory Judge Cook had served with distinction as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of North Carolina, his native state, and as a member of both houses of the North Carolina Leg- islature. Since Oklahoma statehood he has been a representative in the lower house of the Legislature, and more recently has been the nominee of the republi- can party for associate justice of the Supreme Court of

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HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA

the state and for representative in the United States Congress.

Judge Cook was born in Warrenton, county seat of Warren County, North Carolina, October 7, 1848. His own character and achievements have justified his pos- session of an unusually old and distinguished line of ancestors. He is able to claim kinship with many of the distinguished names of both Virginia and North Carolina. The lineage of the Cook family goes back through many generations in England. Judge Cook is a son of Rev. Charles Marshall and Havana Lenoir (Alston) Cook. The first Americans of this branch of the Cook family emigrated from England and settled near the historic Town of Jamestown, Virginia. Later descendants became prominently identified with civic and industrial interests in the northeastern part of North Carolina. Many of them served in offices of public trust. In the vicinity of their original colonial settle- ment many of this family lived and died. Judge Cook is one of the few representatives either in the paternal or maternal line who have drifted away from that sec- tion of the South. He and his sons are the only living representatives who bear the name of this branch of the Cook family in America. Judge Cook has enjoyed the privilege of having followed the star of empire on its westward course and like his ancestors has become a founder and builder in a new commonwealth.

The Alston family, in Judge Cook's maternal line, is of Saxon origin. John Alston came from England and became the founder of the American branch, settling first in Virginia and then in the northeastern part of North Carolina on Bennett Creek in 1711. He served as associate justice of the Colony of North Carolina from 1722 to 1729. His oldest son, Joseph John Alston, married first Betsy Chauncy, from whom Judge Cook is descended, and she was the mother of several sons and daughters. The second wife of Joseph John Alston was Euphan Wilson, and by her he had several children. Capt. John Alston, the oldest son of Joseph John Alston and Betsy (Chauncy ) . Alston, married Ann Hunt Macon, daughter of Gideon and Priscilla (Jones) Macon, and a sister of the distinguished statesman, Nathaniel Ma- con. Gideon Alston, a son of Captain John, married Frances Atherton, daughter of Col. Jeptha Atherton. Their son Gideon wedded Elizabeth Ann Branch, a daughter of Col. John and Betsy (Norwood) Branch, and a half-sister of John who became governor of North Carolina, represented that state in the United States Senate, was secretary of the navy in the cabinet of President Andrew Jackson, and later was governor of Florida. Gideon Alston was a representative planter in North Carolina, and though without political ambition yielded to the importunities of his fellow citizens and served one term in the North Carolina Senate. Gideon Alston, Jr., maternal grandfather of Judge Cook, was a man of culture and high intellectual attainments and was a member of the North Carolina Legislature at the time of his tragic death, which resulted from being thrown from a stage coach in a runaway accident on his return from the state capitol.

It will thus be seen that Judge Cook is a lineal descendant of the Alstons, Athertons, Norwoods, Hawk- ins, Marshalls, Lenoirs, Edwards, Macons, Jones and other prominent families who were among the first set- tlers in the colonies of Virginia and North Carolina, their settlements being on both sides of the state line. All these families bore a part in the making of history in that section of the two states.

Judge Cook's father was a lineal descendant of the Marshalls, Hawkins, Jones, Macons (being descended from Sally Macon who married Col. John Hawkins, and who was a sister of Ann Hunt (Macon) Alston, also a

sister of the statesman, Nathaniel Macon, and other distinguished families of Virginia and North Carolina. He was a local minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and also a wealthy and influential planter and slave owner in North Carolina during the old south- ern regime before the war. Was a man of high ideals, and not only a practical business man but had unusual powers of intellect. From 1845 until 1868 was clerk and master of the Court of Equity of Warrren County, North Carolina. His parents were Benjamin Edwards and Sallie Hawkins (Marshall) Cook. Benjamin E. Cook was born on the Appomattox River near Petersburg, Vir- ginia, went to school in the old Blanford Church, and moved to Warrenton, North Carolina, when quite a young man, and there as a citizen, gave his chief service of forty-eight years in the office of clerk of the Su- perior Court of his home county.

The mother of Judge Cook was born in 1824. She was a woman of gentle and gracious personality, and pos- sessed many attractive qualities of mind and heart; at the age of twenty-two became the wife of Rev. Charles Marshall Cook. They were the parents of two children: Charles Alston and Alfred Lenoir, the latter of whom died when about four years of age. The mother passed away in 1878 at the age of fifty-four. By her own re- quest she was laid to rest "under the peachtree in the garden" of her home in Warren County, North Caro- lina. Her husband survived her about fifteen years, and died in 1893 at the age of sixty-nine. He was a man whose noble character and worthy services gave him a lasting place in the esteem and confidence of all who came within the sphere of his influence.

Reared in a home of culture and high ideals, Judge Cook was a small boy when the great struggle between the North and South was being fought in the dark days of the '60s. He was prepared for college by Prof. John Graham; in 1866 entered the University of North Caro- lina and was a student there during the freshman and sophomore years; in September, 1868, entered the junior class in Princeton University, where he was graduated A. B. with the class of 1870. In 1873 Princeton gave him the degree Master of Arts, and in 1881 he received a similar degree from the University of North Carolina. Judge Cook was a trustee of the University of North Carolina from 1887 to 1901.

Talent as well as inclination led him to take up the law. He pursued his readings under the direction of Hon. William Eaton, Jr., a kinsman and a distinguished lawyer at Warrenton, North Carolina. Was admitted to the bar in his native state in 1872 and at once began practice in his native town. He was not long in securing recognition for his ability and a promising and profit- able practice. The first public office of trust to which he was called was that of solicitor of the Criminal Court of Warren County, to which he was elected in 1878. In 1886 was elected representative of his dis- trict in the State Senate. Though a southerner by birth and training Judge Cook from early manhood has been affiliated with the republican party, having represented his party in many state conventions, and was a delegate to the National Republican Convention in 1892, which was held at Minneapolis.

In 1889 President Harrison appointed him United States attorney of the Eastern District of North Caro- lina, an office he held with honor to himself and credit to the office until his term expired in 1893. In 1894 was again elected to the Senate; and during the session following, 1895, was chairman of the judiciary com- mittee and was leader of the Senate, in which there were only six democrats of the membership of fifty.

In 1896 he was elected representative from his county, and during the following session-1897-was chairman

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of the committee on privileges and elections; chairman of the special committee on the matter of the lease of the North Carolina Railroad; chairman of the joint com- mittee on election law and county government; and chairman of the committee of the whole. In that body there were only twenty-seven democrats out of 120 mem- bers, and of which he was the recognized leader.

Upon the death of Chief Justice Faircloth of the Supreme Court of North Carolina in 1900, Governor Rus- sell tendered Judge Cook the office of chief justice of the state. The latter, however, declined this honor and recommended instead the elevation of Judge Furches, who was one of the associate justices of the court, a much older man, who was also a personal friend of Judge Cook. To the vacancy, caused in the ranks of the associate justices when Judge Furches was ap- pointed chief justice, the governor appointed Judge Cook. This appointment was based entirely upon his merit and high qualifications, without solicitation or request. From 1901 to 1903 he served on the Supreme Bench of his native state. Into many of the decisions of the Supreme Court during that period were read the learning and broad experience of Judge Cook as a lawyer and jurist. His opinions thus written met the distinct approval and commendation of the bar of his state and of the highest judicial authorities.

In 1903, shortly after the expiration of his term, he removed to Indian Territory and established his home in Muskogee. It was only natural that he should take a foremost position in the territorial bar. He soon en- joyed a large and important law business. In the great increase of population and development which have oc- curred in Oklohoma since he moved there his prestige as an attorney and man of affairs has been undiminished.

His influence and leadership have been exercised to es- pecial advantage in the republican party. In 1908, the year following the admission of the State, he was elected to represent Muskogee and Haskell counties in the lower . house of the Legislature, and was the minority leader of that body. One incident of his legislative service deserves special mention. He drew and introduced a bill for the creation of a commission to codify the laws of Oklahoma. There was a constitu- tional requirement for the codification of the laws of the state, and his bill was composed and drawn with ac- curacy; hence there was no reasonable objection to the bill itself. However, as the measure was introduced by a republican, the democratic majority would not allow the credit for so important a bill to go to an opposite partisan. But with trivial alterations, a democratic member of the Senate copied the Cook bill and intro- duced it in that body, thus stealing the original author's thought and thunder. Though the members of the Legis- lature in general manifested disapprobation of the course thus taken, the bill was enacted into law.

In 1912 he was the republican candidate for asso- ciate justice of the Oklahoma Supreme Court; and in 1914 was republican candidate for Congress from the Second District. He fully anticipated defeat on each of these occasions, and it was gratifying to him that he succeeded in reducing in both elections the normal democratic majority.

In his native state he was prominently identified with military affairs. In 1887 he joined the state militia, served several years as inspector of small arms practice, with the rank of captain. In 1897 was appointed in- spector general with the rank of colonel of the state militia, which in the meantime had become known as the North Carolina National Guard, and in that capacity continued his service until 1901, when he was appointed to the Supreme Bench, and was then placed on the list of retired officers. Subsequently was brevetted brigadier

general on the corps of retired officers of the North Carolina National Guard. In 1898 he tendered his serv- ices as a soldier in the Spanish-American war; thereupon President Mckinley sent his name, by Senator Pritchard, to the Secretary of War Alger, directing his appoint- ment as brigadier general of volunteers; but the sur- render of General Toral followed in a few days, the war ended, and his appointment never reached the Senate.

From early manhood Judge Cook has been a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church South, and for many years was a steward in the church of that denomina- tion in Warrentown and was the recording steward. For several years was secretary of the district conference and was four times a delegate to the state conference of the church. Both he and his wife are now active members of St. Paul's Church in Muskogee.

Since coming to Oklahoma Judge Cook has taken an active interest in Masonry. He was made a Master Mason on February 17, 1905, and his present affilia- tions are with Muskogee Lodge No. 28, A. F. & A. M .; Muskogee Chapter No. 3, R. A. M .; and Muskogee Council No. 2, R. & S. M. He has passed the various official chairs in each of these bodies, and on April 22, 1908, he was consecrated and set apart as a member of the Order of Anointed High Priest. He is now grand junior deacon, after previous service as grand junior steward; and also grand marshal in both the Grand Chapter and Grand Council of the state; and for several years has served as grand representative of the Grand Lodge of Prince Edward Island, Canada, near the Grand Lodge of Oklahoma.

On October 11, 1871, at the home of the bride Judge Cook and Miss Marina Williams Jones were happily married. She was born and reared in Warren County, North Carolina, and is a daughter of the late Joseph Speed and Lucy Barker (Pettway) Jones, honored and distinguished citizens of that county. To this mar- riage were born eleven children, eight of whom are now living.

GEORGE M. NICHOLSON spent his early youth as a farmer boy in Kansas. . When he was fifteen years of age he decided that he had about exhausted the ad- vantages of the common schools and started out to earn his own living. For several years he worked at monthly wages, chiefly as a farm hand, and finally began in- dustriously reading law in the office of Thomas Berry at Ness City, Kansas. The keen comprehension which enabled him to master the various legal subjects and secure his admission to the Kansas bar in 1894, when a little past nineteen years of age, has been a dominant characteristic in his subsequent career as a lawyer.

At Ness City he engaged in practice from the time of his admission until 1898. From 1898 to 1903 Mr. Nicholson was a resident of Lincoln, Nebraska. In the latter year he came to Oklahoma and located at Sulphur, where he was one of the early members of the bar and has since enjoyed a distinctive share in the work of the local courts and in a large amount of responsible business entrusted to his care. Among other clients he represents as general attorney the Union Savings Asso- ciation for the State of Oklahoma.

His grandfather, Jacob Nicholson, was a Kansas Ter- ritory pioneer, having gone to that state during the virulent stages of the conflict over the free soil territory which preceded and introduced the Civil war. He was born in Ohio in 1822 and located in Kansas in 1855. After farming there for a number of years he moved out to Portland, Oregon, where he lived retired until his death in 1907. The first American representative

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of the Nicholsons came from Scotland and settled in Pennsylvania during the Revolution.

George M. Nicholson was born in Riley county, Kan- sas, May 30, 1874. His father, George E. Nicholson, was born near Carthage, Missouri, in 1850, but grew up in Kansas, where he married Ida Carpenter, who was born near Muscatine, Iowa, in 1855. A few years before the birth of George M. Nicholson the family removed to Riley County, Kansas. George E. Nicholson was a minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church and filled various pulpits in the State of Kansas. In 1904 he came to Sulphur, Oklahoma, and has since been retired from the ministry and now lives at Sulphur. He also took an active part in public affairs in Kan- sas, and at one time served as probate judge of Ness County. In politics he is a republican. There were four children. George M .; Mate, who is unmarried and is assistant cashier of the Bank of Commerce at Sulphur; Kate, who lives with her parents; and Helen a teacher in the public schools at Sulphur.

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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