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 69

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 69

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Dan M. Pendleton received his common school educa- tion in Spencer, West Virginia, and later attended the University Preparatory School at Morgantown, and in 1905 was graduated from the high school at Parkersburg. Having already taken a year and a half in preparatory school he graduated from the law department of the University of West Virginia in 1907. For the follow- ing year he was employed in his father's law office and was also engaged in abstracting land titles for the South Penn Oil Company and later formed a partnerhsip with his father under the firm name of Pendleton & Pendleton at Spencer. The firm subsequently became Pendleton, Matthews, Bell & Pendleton, and in 1910 the firm had offices at Spencer, Grantsville, Point Pleasant and Ripley, with the younger Pendleton in charge of the Ripley office. In June, 1911, he came west and settled at Konawa, Oklahoma, for the practice of law. The follow- ing year he was a candidate for the nomination for prose- cuting attorney on the democratic ticket, and though defeated was second in a race with four other democrats. In September, 1913, he removed to Ada and has since become successfully established as a lawyer. At Ada he succeeded Judge C. A. Galbreath, who became a memy ber of the Oklahoma Supreme Court Commission, in the firm of Galbreath, Epperson & Maxey, the new firmn be- coming Epperson, Maxey & Pendleton. On November 1, 1914, Mr. Pendleton retired from the firm and estab- lished an office of his own.

January 16, 1915, he married Miss Edna Morford of Parkersburg, West Virginia. Mr. Pendleton is affiliated with the Elks Lodge at Ada, having transferred his membership from Parkersburg, West Virginia. He is a member of the Ada Commercial Club and of the Pontotoc

County and Oklahoma State Bar associations. He is con- siderably interested in the development of sections of the oil fields of Oklahoma and owns property in Pontotoc county.

It is said that Mr. Pendleton probably knows more men in public life than any other young man of his age in the West. During the last ten years he has been a frequent visitor to Washington and has attended a num- ber of sessions of Congress and knows personally and by sight a large number of the members of both House and Senate of Congress. This experience has naturally broad- ened him in matters of public interest and has given him a ready fund of information on national issues. He takes an interest in the democratic politics of Ada and Pontotoc county, and willingly puts his services into any movement. for industrial and commercial advantage.

ROBERT E. WEST. The little City of Davis has one of the best equipped modern schoolhonses in the state, com- pleted in 1909. At this writing there is being con- structed an addition in the form of an auditorium which will contain a thousand seats.

In the fall of 1912 Robert E. West became superin- tendent of schools of Davis. Mr. West is one of Okla- homa's younger educators, a man of thorough experi- ence as a school administrator and teacher, and his work is also characterized by an initiative and originality which make him invaluable to any community which he serves. All members of his high school faculty are col- lege graduates, while the teachers in the grades are graduates of normal schools. Mr. West has under his supervision a corps of 14 teachers, 115 high school pupils enrolled and 400 students in the grades.

Out of the fruits of his experience as an educator Mr. West has devised and invented a complete system of high school records, for which application for patent has been filed. This is known as "The Complete and Permanent Record of the High School Pupil." It con- sists of four parts. Part 1 is called enrollment and classification; part 2 is classed record book; part 3, a report to parents; and part 4, loose leaf ledger. All of it is designed to correlate in plan and idea, first, the courses carried by the pupils; second, the daily record of grades made by the pupils; third, the period averages at the end of each six weeks; and fourth, the semester grades at the end of each semester. The report card is a report only of the average grade taken from the class book and sent to the parents. The ledger contains the summarized semester class grades and examination grades made by the pupils. These are carried into an average column and designated as a pupil's credit grade. Each page contains the name, residence and date of entrance of the pupil, and shows all the semester grades made by the pupil during the four years he has been in school. In fact, it is a complete history, semester by semester, and year by year, of the high school pupil.

Though nearly all his brief career has been spent in Oklahoma, Robert E. West is a native of Missouri. and was born at Linneus, in Linn County, June 6, 1885. His father is M. E. West, who was born at Decatur, Illinois, in 1855, was reared partly in that state and partly in Missouri, and was married at Linneus to Mattie Belle Kirby, who was born there in 1860. M. E. West is an original pioneer of Oklahoma Territory, having gone to Guthrie in 1889. In 1891 he moved to Lincoln County and lived there until 1901 and has since lived in Hinton, in this state. He has been very successful in his business career, and has followed farming and stock raising, bank- ing, and still owns a large amount of farm lands. At Hinton he is secretary of the Methodist Episcopal Church, is a member of the Masonic fraternity, and

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affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Knights of Pythias, the Brotherhood of American Yeomen and the Modern Woodmen of America. As a democrat he has served as a state committeeman. He and his wife are the parents of five children: L. L. West, who is a hardware and implement dealer at Hydro, Oklahoma; Lessie, wife of E. I. Heuston, a capitalist and farmer at Hinton, Oklahoma; Professor West; Chester E., a farmer at Hydro; and Anna Maye, senior in the Hinton High School.

Robert E. West attended the public schools in Eastern Oklahoma, and as part of his early career had six years of work and experience on a farm. In 1901 he entered the Southwestern State Normal School at Weath- erford and he taught his first school in 1908-09 at Cement. He was again in the Southwestern Normal, where he was graduated in 1910 with a certificate for life. He is now preparing for the degree M. Ped. from the Missouri State University. The two years 1910-11 and 1911-12 were spent as superintendent of schools at Sentinel, and in the fall of 1912 he came to Davis. He is an active member of the County and State Teachers Association.

In politics he is a democrat. At Davis he is an active member of the Methodist Episcopal Church South, is a church trustee and assistant superintendent of the Sunday School. He is affiliated with Tyre Lodge No. 42, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons at Davis; Ivanhoe Lodge No. 116, Knights of Pythias; and Lucretia Camp No. 10206, Modern Woodmen of America. He is a past venerable consul.

At Oklahoma City in 1910 Mr. West married Miss Eva Belle Dinsmore. Her father, J. W. Dinsmore, is a farmer at Lookeba, Oklahoma. To their marriage was born July 10, 1911, a son, Devert Wallace.

EDWARD S. BURNEY. A native of the Indian Territory and a scion of fine old Chickasaw and Choctaw Indian lineage, Mr. Burney is one of the sterling citizens and representative business men who have made in these later years of progress and prosperity in Oklahoma a mark of distinction for the race of which he is an able and honored representative, a race whose members alone can claim the title of pure Americans. The father of Mr. Burney was a man of strong character, fine men- tality and much ability, with the result that he became one of the prominent and influential figures in the gov- ernment and civic and industrial activities of the highly enlightened Chickasaw Nation, the entire family record of the subject of this review, along both paternal and maternal lines, being one in which he may well take just pride and satisfaction. As a man of affairs he has had an exceptionally active and successful career and through his own well directed efforts has achieved large and worthy success. He stands today as one of the leading exponents of the real-estate business in the thriving little City of Chickasha, Grady County, is essentially loyal and public-spirited and commands the unqualified confidence and good will of all who know him.

Mr. Burney was born in the Chickashaw Nation of Indian Territory in the year 1861, and is a son of David C. and Emily (Love) Burney, the father having been of Choctaw and Chickasaw strains of lineage and having been born in the State of Mississippi, whence he accom- panied the Chickasaws on their exodus to their assigned reservation in the Indian Territory. He became spe- eially prominent in the councils of the Chickasaw Nation, served as a member of its Legislature and also as dis- trict judge, his superior intellectual powers and unswerv- ing integrity having made him a leader in sentiment and action. He died in the year 1870, and his widow passed

away in 1884. She was a daughter of Isaac Love, a Chickasaw Indian, who likewise accompanied the other members of the tribe from Mississippi to Indian Terri- tory and who became one of the prominent men of the nation of which he was a distinguished representative. His brother, Ben Love, was a representative of the Indian Territory in the national capital and before Con- gress for many years, and there found his chief mission in the presenting and protecting of the interests of the Chickasaw Nation.

After profiting fully by the advantages afforded in the schools of the Chickasaw Nation, Edward S. Burney completed an effective course in the Chickasaw Manual Training School, at Tishomingo, Indian Territory, under the able preceptorship of Prof. John M. Harley. At the age of sixteen years he initiated his active career in the capacity of cowboy, and his physical prowess and alert mentality came into effective play in this strenuous and invigorating vocation, as a representative of which he gained wide and varied experience during the period when the great ranges were still open and untrameled. In 1882 Mr. Burney engaged in the cattle business in an independent way and eventually he became the owner of a large number of cattle and conducted an extensive and profitable business. In 1890 he disposed of his interests in this industrial enterprise and turned his attention to agricultural pursuits in a minor way, besides becoming largely interested in real estate in the Chick- asaw Nation. Mr. Burney, now in the prime of his vig- orous manhood, may consistently be termed the father of the City of Chickasha, for when the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad Company extended its line through this section, in 1892, he organized a company which purchased land, entered into a definite contract. with the railroad company, effected the proper survey and platted the new Town of Chickasha. On the 28th of April of that year Mr. Burney personally initiated his active and successful efforts in the selling of lots in the new town, and his energy and discrimination proved potent forces in the early stages of development and unbuilding. Within a short time after the organization of the village government he was elected a member of the board of education of Chickasha.

In 1895 Mr. Burney was appointed deputy United States marshal, of which office he continued the efficient incumbent until the 1st of August, 1898, when he resigned, this action having been taken principally for the purpose of giving him opportunity to render assist- ance in the campaign of Hon. Douglas H. Johnson, candi- date for the office of governor of the Chickasaw Nation. He made a most spirited and effective canvass in sup- port of Governor Johnson, who was elected September 1, 1898, and who soon afterward appointed Mr. Burney representative of the Chickasaws on the Dawes Com- mission, to assist in the preparation of the enumeration rolls of the Choctaws and Chickasaws. With character- istic vigor and ability Mr. Burney continued his service as a member of this important commission until 1902. In 1906 he was reappointed Deputy United States mar- shal, under George A. Porter, and of this position he continued the incumbent until Oklahoma was admitted to statehood, in the following year.

Since that time Mr. Burney has not been actively engaged in farming, but has given the major part of his time and attention to the supervision of his substantial landed interests and real-estate business, the while he has secure vantage-ground as one of the representative busi- ness men and progressive and liberal citizens of Chick- asha, with vital interest in all that touches the civic and material welfare of the fine little city which he assisted in founding and developing.

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Mr. Burney is an appreciative and honored member of Masonic bodies in his home city, where his affiliations are with Chickasha Lodge No. 94, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, of which he served three terms as master, and with Chickasha Chapter, No. 77, Royal Arch Masons. Both he and his wife hold membership in the Methodist Episcopal Church, Sonth.

In the year 1882 was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Burney to Miss Ada Cross, daughter of Joseph P. and Martha Cross, of Cook County, Texas, where she was born and reared. Her father became a substantial farmer and stock-grower in that section of the Lone Star State, where he established his residence when the hostile Indians were still making freqnent depredations, and he took part in varions conflicts with these maranding bands, on one occasion having his horse shot and killed beneath him. In later years he came with his family to Oklahoma, where his death occurred in 1905, his wife having passed away in the preceding year. In the con- cluding paragraph of this article is entered a brief but interesting record concerning the children of Mr. and Mrs. Burney, the data being pertinent at the time of this writing, in 1915: Wessie Ella is the widow of Rev. George H. Ray, who was a clergyman of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and she has one son, Howard Burney Ray. Joseph C. remains at the parental home. Edward C. was afforded the advantages of the Oklahoma State Agricultural and Mechanical College, at Stillwater, and of Anstin College, in the capital city of Texas. He and his wife now maintain their residence at Muskogee, Oklahoma, where he holds an executive office in the Mns- kogee Commercial Club. Overton L. was graduated in the Chickasha high school and is now assistant store- keeper at the celebrated Indian school at Carlisle, Penn- sylvania. Ada Bessie is a student in the Oklahoma Woman's. College, and Alice M. likewise is attending the public schools, the family home being at 1702 South Thirteenth Street.

DAVID I. JOHNSTON. A member of the law firm of Keaton, Wells & Johnston, with offices in the Terminal Building in Oklahoma City, Mr. Johnston merits desig- nation as one of the able and representative members of the bar of the state and as a loyal and progressive citizen whose character is the positive expression of a strong, sincere and upright personality. Though he is a lawyer of excellent attainments and indefatigable in his application to the work of his profession, Mr. John- ston has manifest naught of ambition for public office but has preferred to employ the time not demanded by his law business to zealons service in the field of religious activities and the incidental aiding and uplifting of his fellow men. He has full appreciation of the dignity and responsibility of his exacting profession and his high ethical ideals make him earnest in his efforts to conserve through his legal services the principles of equity and justice.

Mr. Johnston claims the historic old Keystone State of the Union as the place of his nativity and is a scion of one of the sterling old families of that commonwealth. He was born on the homestead farm in Indiana County, Pennsylvania, on the 18th of August, 1876, his father having been a representative agriculturist and stock- grower of that section of the state. Mr. Johnston is a son of Robert F. and Lena (Adams) Johnston, botlı natives of Pennsylvania, where, the former was born in 1842 and the latter in 1848, both having passed their entire lives in the Keystone State.

David I. Johnston duly profited by the advantages afforded in the public schools of the little City of In- diana, judicial center of his native county, and there also he attended the Pennsylvania State Normal School. From

1895 to 1900 he was numbered among the successful and popular teachers in the schools of his native state and the latter part of his service in this capacity was given while he was a student in the normal school. In 1900 Mr. Johnston entered the law department of the great University of Michigan, at Ann Arbor, and in this insti- tntion he was graduated as a member of the class of 1903. Simultaneously with his reception of the degree of bachelor of laws he was admitted to the Michigan bar, but in the same year, however, he came to Oklahoma Territory and established his residence at Oklahoma City, where he was forthwith admitted to the territorial bar and also to practice in the United States courts of Oklahoma. Here he was associated in practice with the law firm of Shartel, Keaton & Wells until 1906, when he was admitted to partnership in the firm, the title of which has been Keaton, Wells & Johnston since the re- tirement of Mr. Shartel, in November, 1913. Mr. John- ston has been identified with much important litigation in the various conrts and has effectively demonstrated his ability as a versatile trial lawyer and admirably for- tified counselor. He has continued to take deep interest in educational matters and in 1913 served as a member of the Oklahoma state board of education. He is also president of the board of trustees of Henry Kendall College, Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Mr. Johnston has identified himself enthusiastically and completely with the state of his adoption and has unlimited confidence in its great future. He has become an interested principal in many important industrial enterprises, including oil and gas production in local fields, and is a director of several of the corporations with which he is thus associated. As previously noted, he has no ambition for political office, nor has he any desire to enter the arena of so called practical politics, though he gives staunch allegiance to the republican party. In the Masonic fraternity Mr. Johnston has re- ceived the thirty-second degree of the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite, in which he is affiliated with Oklahoma Consistory of the Valley of Guthrie, where he holds membership also in India Temple of the Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine. His ancient- craft affiliation is with Siloam Lodge, No. 276, Ancient Free & Accepted Masons, in his home city. Mr. John- ston is an active and popular member of the Oklahoma City Golf & Country Club and of the Men's Dinner Club of his home city.

Mr. Johnston and his wife are specially earnest and zealous in their religions activities and are influential and valued members of the First Presbyterian Church of Oklahoma City. Since 1904 Mr. Johnston has been a member of the governing board of elders of this church and also superintendent of the Sunday school. He is an active and loyal worker in the Oklahoma Young Men's Christian Association, and was for several years chair- man of the executive committee of the Oklahoma Sunday School Association. His attractive home, at 112 West Ninth Street, with Mrs. Johnston as its gracious chatelaine, is known for its generous hospitality.

In the year 1903 was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Johnston to Miss Winifred C. Copley, daughter of Edward B. Copley, a representative citizen and banker at Decatur, Van Buren County, Michigan. The three children of this union are: Esther Elaine, David Copley, and Lois Anita.

PERCIVAL E. MAGEE. On the 16th of June, 1906, the day that the President of the United States signed the bill authorizing the admission of Oklahoma as one of the sovereign states of the Union, this well known young attorney of Tulsa became a resident of the city that is now his home, and on the 10th of June of the following

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year, which marked the formal creation of the new com- mouwealth, he was admitted to the Oklahoma bar, after having passed the required examination. Thereafter he continued in the successful general practice of law at Tulsa until 1913, when he assumed his present position as vice president and attorney of the Hill Oil & Gas Company, one of the important corporations operating in the oil fields of this part of the state, his attention having since been given largely to the executive and legal affairs of this company.

Percival E. Magee was born at Waukon, Allamakee County, Iowa, ou the 16th of January, 1885, and is a son of Rev. John C. and Jane (Cole) Magee, the former of whom was born in Center County, Pennsylvania, in 1845, and the latter in Lawrence County, New York, in the same year. Of the nine children Percival E. was the eighth in order of birth, and of the others three sons and two daughters are now living.

John C. Magee was eleven years of age at the time of the family removal from the old Keystone State to Iowa, and his parents, David F. and Abigail (Rankin) Magee, both likewise natives of Pennsylvania, became early pioneer settlers in Jones County, Iowa, where the father reclaimed and improved a farm, both he and his wife passing the residue of their lives in the Hawkeye State. John C. Magee was afforded excellent educational advantages, including those of Lenox College, one of the representative institutions of Iowa, and after having de- voted several years to successful work as a teacher in the Iowa schools he was ordained a clergyman of the Methodist Episcopal Church. With all of consecrated zeal and much intellectual power, he served as a minister in the Upper Iowa Conference of his church for forty years, and in 1909 he retired from the active work of the ministry. He aud his wife now reside in the City of Tulsa, Oklahoma, where they are held in affectionate re- gard by all who have come within the compass of their gracious influence.

Percival E. Magee acquired his preliminary education in the public schools of his native state, and the period of his childhood and youth was passed at various places in Iowa, as his father was called to different pastoral charges, in consonance with the itinerant system of the Methodist Church. After a course in the Iowa State Teachers' College, at Cedar Falls, he continued his higher academic studies in Upper Iowa University, at Fayette. Thereafter he devoted one year to teaching school and in the meanwhile he had given close attention to the study of law. In June, 1906, as previously noted, he came to Tulsa, Oklahoma, and here he continued his legal studies in the office and under the effective preceptorship of his older brother, Carl C., his admission to the bar of the new commonwealth of Oklahoma having occurred on the 10th of June, 1907, a few months prior to the formal admission of Oklahoma to statehood. Mr. Magee has proved himself a resourceful and successful trial lawyer and well fortified counselor, and is one of the prominent and popular younger members of the bar of Tulsa County. He has not become an aspirant for political office but is known as a staunch supporter of the princi- ples and policies for which the republican party has ever stood sponsor.

In the time-honored Masonic fraternity Mr. Magee has advanced to high degree, his York Rite affiliations being with Tulsa Lodge, No. 71, Ancient Free & Accepted Masons; Tulsa Chapter, No. 52, Royal Arch Masons; and Trinity Commandery, Knights Templars. In India Con- sistory, No. 2, Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite, in the City of McAlester, he has received the thirty-second de- gree, and at Tulsa he is affiliated with Akdar Temple, Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic

Shriue. Both he and his wife hold membership in the Methodist Episcopal Church.

On the 18th of November, 1908, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Magee to Miss Lillian Green, who was born at West Union, Fayette County, Iowa, and they have oue child, Jane Ellen.

ROBERT L. PEEBLY. One of the essentially representa- tive farmers and stockgrowers of Oklahoma, Mr. Peebly has the distinction of being a pioneer of this favored commonwealth and his finely improved landed estate is eligibly situated in Oklahoma County, this homestead comprising 240 acres and being situated in close prox- imity to Oklahoma City, the fair capital and metropolis of the state. He has achieved prominence as one of the most progressive and successful stock-raisers of Okla- homa, and his admirable herd of Jersey cattle has become celebrated throughout the Southwest as well as for being the largest in Oklahoma. Mr. Peebly has been one of the loyal and enterprising citizens who have done much to further the civic and industrial development and up- building of the young and vital state of his adoption, and he has represented Oklahoma County as a member of the third and fifth sessions of the State Legislature.

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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