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 72

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 72

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Nelson F. Carr grew up on a farm with his mother at Fort Scott, Kansas, and both of them entered a quarter section of land there. Nelson F., according to the land laws, entered his quarter section as the head of

a family, although only fifteen years of age. He was only sixteen when he enlisted for service at Fort Scott in July, 1861, in Company B of the Sixth Kansas Regi- ment. In March, 1862, the regiment became the Sixth Kansas Cavalry, under Col. W. R. Judson. He is one of the last survivors of this noted Kansas regiment.

After his active military service he was employed in a store at Fort Scott, and in 1865 returned to New York State and had six months of schooling in the common schools. In September, 1865, he returned to Kansas and was employed in a store at Fort Scott until February, 1866. He then became one of the first settlers at Oswego, Kansas, and built the first log house in the town and put in a stock of goods. He owned a half interest in this trading post, and he still has a copy of the document signed by the postmaster general which records his appointment on October 4, 1866, as postmaster of Oswego. He was the first to have charge of the postoffice in that town. One year later he resigned the office, which had paid him only a nominal salary.

The Carr store was the social center of the town and the surrounding country, and among those who came to trade there was a Cherokee Indian named Rogers, who lived at Timber Hill, eight miles south of Chetopah and about seventy miles from the present City of Bartlesville. Hillard Rogers was a native of Georgia, a quarter-blood Cherokee, a well educated man, and a descendant of one of the greatest Cherokee chieftains. Hillard Rogers died near Bartlesville at the age of fifty years in Sep- tember, 1870, and his wife passed away on January 18, 1870, at the age of forty-two. She was a native of Tennessee, and was sixteen years of age when she married Mr. Rogers. At the age of seventeen Hillard Rogers acted as Indian interpreter for Generals Scott and Taylor in Florida during the Seminole Indian war. He was one of the prominent members of the tribe, and a man of fine character.

Between this Cherokee and the Indian trader Mr. Carr, there grew up a friendship, and in the course of time Mr. Carr came to hear much of Annie Rogers, the daugh- ter of the Timber Hill resident. She had many unusual accomplishments even for an Indian girl, and in Septem- ber, 1866, when Mr. Carr first visited the Rogers home, he fell in love with the young woman, and on the follow- ing 25th of August they were married. Soon after their marriage they removed from Oswego to the Big Caney. They were almost the first people after the war to locate in that section, and for almost forty years Mr. and Mrs. Carr had their home on a farm three miles north of the present City of Bartlesville. In the early days Mr. Carr traded supplies to the Indians for furs and buffalo robes, and sold the latter at Leavenworth, Kansas. He was frequently away from home, and Mrs. Carr was left with her own children and with her young orphan brother William Rogers, who now lives at Dewey. At one time they remained in the lonely cabin eight days while Mr. Carr was away on one of his trips, and in the many dangers and discomforts of pioneer life Mrs. Carr was a participant as well as her husband.

A year or so ago an interesting little story was told and published in a monthly magazine, the subject of which was Mrs. Carr and her experience as a pioneer on the Big Caney. It contains a well deserved tribute to this splendid pioneer woman of Oklahoma, and a portion of the article, beginning with her experiences when she came as a bride to her new home, is quoted herewith: "The young bride took possession of the home prepared for her with as happy a laugh as if the rude logs had been blocks of stone and the dirt floor a carpet of plush. All the hardships endured in the little cabin did not conquer the langh that bubbled forth from the brave

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spirit of the Indian maid. One-fourth of the blood in her veins came from a race keen in intellect as well as strong in body. From her Cherokee father she brought to the lonely plains a spirit of never failing courage and cheerfulness. Her own father, descended from the great chief Foyal, who invented a wonderful Cherokee Indian alphabet of eighty-six letters, was a prominent man of his tribe and had been United States interpreter for General Harvey. The life of the pioneer is ever lonely, but to have been the first in a country so rich in natural resources and in future possibilities is recompense for many hardships. Mr. Carr's trading post drew other white people to settle in the vicinity, and the homes that soon dotted the river bank made life seem almost gay to the young trader and his wife. Thus it was that Mrs. Carr was instrumental in the foundation of one of Oklahoma's industrial centers. His business prospered too and inore comforts.crept into the little cabin. Lum- ber for a floor was brought from the Spadmore hills east of Grand River and later a new home was built. For almost forty years the devoted woman lived on the site of the log trading station and reared her splendid family. Hardships gradually became but a memory to her and so broad and noble her nature that they are a pleasant memory. About 1907 Mr. Carr built a comfort- able home in Bartlesville and the ideal home life begun in the rude cabin shed a broader influence. Still more recently a handsomer home was purchased. There Mrs. Carr, still strong in all her faculties, with her happy vivacious personality permeating her household, sur- rounded by noble sons, beautiful daughters, and lovely grandchildren, occupies a position that queens might envy, her throne a home on the spot that she watched grow from a lonely plain into a thriving county seat, with magnificent business blocks, churches, schools and homes. The achievements of a woman of Mrs. Carr's nature cannot be measured in material things. She was placed in a hard situation and her strength was suf- ficient to meet it and to make of the hardships a joy. To be able to make a home in a cabin as well as in a mansion, to fill it with laughter, to rear children to honor the humble home and her who made it-this is the greatest work of woman's life."'

In 1868 during a raid from the Arapahoes Mr. Carr's store was robbed, and after that he gave most of his attention to farming. In addition to his own claim he bought other lands which gave him a ranch of 1,200 acres under fence, and in time he brought 800 acres of this under cultivation. In 1868 he paid $2.50 for a bushel of seed Indian corn, and his own energetic example was an important factor in promoting the general agricultural industry. About that time Mr. Carr built the first grist mill on the Caney just across the river from the present site of Bartlesville. He dug a tunnel across a neck of land around which the river flowed and thus secured a fall of eight feet, which was sufficient to turn his mill wheel. Later he sold this mill to J. H. Bartles, who replaced it with a modern flour mill. After that Mr. Carr gave his entire attention to farming and stock raising until 1907, when he removed to the City of Bartlesville. He still owns more than 200 acres three miles northwest of Bartlesville, including the land on which he first settled when he came to what is now Washington County.

Mr. Carr is a member of the Baptist Church and belongs to the Grand Army of the Republic and has been a Mason since 1866, having affiliation with Key- stone Lodge, No. 102, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, at Coffeyville, Kansas.

He and his wife take pardonable pride in their fine family of children. Their son, Edward R., the first born, died at the age of nine years. Ida J. is the wife

of John Johnson, now living on the old Carr farm near Bartlesville. Grace Maude died at the age of seventeen. William A. lives in Mound Valley, Kansas. Frank Marvin is a resident of Washington County. Sarah Louise is the wife of William Keeler of Washington County. Josie May married L. J. Brower, of Washing- ton County. Beulah Mabel is the wife of S. C. Brady, of Bartlesville. There are also twelve grandchildren. Since Mr. Carr married prior to 1874, he was placed on the roll as an Indian, and he and his family have received the usual allotments of land and money with other members of the Cherokee tribe.

Mr. Carr has witnessed every improvement made by the hands of civilized man in the vicinity of Bartles- ville. In many ways he has helped in this development, and his own example has been a potent factor in increasing the complete utilization of the splendid resources found in the soil and climate of Northern Oklahoma. Both he and his wife have traveled exten- sively, but with all their observations of other countries and states they remain extremely loyal to Oklahoma, which represents to them the greatest as well as the fairest portion of the Globe, and in all the "beautiful land" the spot most sacred to them is the site of the rude log cabin as it stood half a century ago and in which the joys of young married life were sweetened and accentuated by the hardships and adversities of frontier existence.

JOHN A. HUGHES is well known to the bar, not only in his home City of Lawton, but throughout the state, as a profound, painstaking, careful and conscientious lawyer. While his residence in Lawton, covering a period of five years, has been replete with engrossing profes- sional employment, which has placed him in the front rank of practicing lawyers, he has found time to devote to the responsibilities of good citizenship, and few progressive movements are launched which do not have his name on their list of supporters.

Mr. Hughes was born in Russell County, Virginia, March 24, 1864, and is a son of William H. and Emeline (Darnell) Hughes. The founder of the family in the United States was his grandfather, Bill Hughes, who brought the family from Scotland during the '20s and settled in North Carolina, where he engaged in farming and stockraising. Subsequently he moved to Russell County, Virginia, and there his death occurred. William H. Hughes was born in Scotland, in 1823, and was a small lad when brought to America, where he followed in his father's footsteps and became a farmer and planter. When the Civil war broke out he enlisted in a Virginia regiment in the Union army, with which he served four years, and at one time was captured and made prisoner on Belle Isle. When the war closed he returned to his agricultural pursuits and continued to be engaged therein until his retirement. His death occurred in Wise County, Virginia, in 1905. Mr. Hughes was a republican, was prominent and influential in civic affairs, and held numerous town and county offices in Russell County. In his latter years he was a strong Missionary Baptist. He married Miss Emeline Darnell, who was horn in Russell County, Virginia, in 1839, and died in Wise County, Virginia, in 1909, and they became the parents of ten children, namely: William G., who is a contractor of Dant, Russell County, Virginia; Charles L., who is the proprietor of a livery and sales stable at Coeburn, Virginia; John A .; J. R., who died in 1897 as a farmer of Wise County, Virginia; Robert L., who died at the age of eighteen years; three children who died in infancy; Mary, who married M. M. Robinett, a lumber- man of Wise County; and Harry H., a merchant of Wise County, whose death occurred in 1913.

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John A. Hughes was given his primary education in the public and high schools of Russell County, Virginia, following which he was for four years engaged in teach- ing in the schools of that couuty. Removing at that time to Wise County, he farmed for two years, aud then began the study of law under Hobart Miller, an attor- ney, under whose preceptorship he remained two years. He next took a law course in the University of Vir- ginia, at Charlottesville, being graduated January 1, 1896, with the degree of Bachelor of Laws, and imme- diately entered upon the practice of his professiou in Wise County, that being his field of endeavor until August, 1909, when he came to Oklahoma. Mr. Hughes took up his residence at Lawton in April, 1910, and here has continued in a general civil and criminal practice, his offices now being located in the Boone-Hammon Building, at 3211% D Avenue. Mr. Hughes has been a manager of numerous cases calling for deep knowledge of law and practice, readiness of resource, energy of action and power of logical argument, and in all has acquitted himself creditably. He enjoys high standing among his fellow-practitioners and is a valued member of the Comanche County Bar Association and the Okla- homa State Bar Association. A democrat in politics, he has not sought public preferment, but while a resident of Virginia served in the capacity of commonwealth attorney of Wise County. Fraternally, he is affiliated with Lawton Lodge No. 41, Knights of Pythias, and his religious faith is that of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South.

In 1886, in Russell County, Virginia, Mr. Hughes was married to Miss Sabra Minton, daughter of George W. Minton, and nine children have been born to this union: Fred, a graduate of the Coeburn High School, Inde- pendence, Virginia, and now a merchant of Bristol, Vir- ginia; Elsie, a graduate of Coeburn High School, and the wife of Robert P. Litz, a coal broker of Coeburn, Virginia; Logan L., a graduate of Coeburn High School, and now a railroad man in West Virginia; Hattie, a graduate of the same school, and now engaged in the millinery business at Temple, Oklahoma; Arnold, who resides with his parents; Myra, a talented young lady who is studying vocal and instrumental music; Garrett, living with his parents; and Hurman and Wanita, who are attending the Lawton public schools.

EUGENE ALBERTO DUKE. Assistant superintendent of the State Department of Education, E. A. Duke has been actively identified with educational affairs in Okla- homa for the past twelve years, and his experience as teacher, principal and county superintendent gave him exceptional qualifications for the administrative duties of his present position.

Representative of an old Southern family, E. A. Duke was born at Newborn, Georgia, February 11, 1879, a son of John R. and Tommie Eugenia (Murrelle) Duke. Both parents were natives of Georgia and his father was a Georgia planter. The Duke family came originally from Virginia, while the great-grandfather of E. A. Duke served in the Revolutionary war, moved out over the mountains from Virginia into Kentucky, and finally located his land grant for military service in Georgia. This tract of land is still owned by his descendants.

E. A. Duke completed his education in the University of Georgia, where he was graduated Bachelor of Science in 1901. He at once took up the active work of teach- ing, spent one year in that vocation in Georgia, taught in Texas one year, and in 1903 came to Oklahoma, to accept the principalship of the high school at Mangum. A year later he went to Ponca City in Kay County, was

principal of the high school there, and .in 1907 was elected county superintendent of the schools of Kay County. While county superintendent he had his resi- dence at Newkirk, the county seat. From county super- intendent of schools in Kay County, Mr. Duke was promoted in July, 1913, to his present office as assistant superintendent of the State Department of Education, beginning his duties September 1st of that year. As assistant superintendent he has supervision of all the county superintendents throughout the state, and prac- tically all the work of an administrative nature comes under his direction.

Mr. Duke is affiliated with Newkirk Lodge No. 88, A. F. & A. M., and belongs to the Young Men's Demo- cratic Club of Oklahoma City. On January 13, 1906, he married Miss Maye Mills, daughter of John Mills of Crockett, Texas. Their one son is Bert Duke, born May 4, 1907.

CHARLES COMSTOCK. Holding prestige as having the distinction of being the first public school teacher in what is now the State of Oklahoma, Charles Comstock has been prominently identified with educational work in Wagoner County since 1896, and at the present time is serving in the capacity of county superintendent of schools, having been the incumbent of this position since 1910. Mr. Comstock's career, from early boyhood, has been one in which he has made his own opportunities and gained success through his own efforts, and the high position which he holds in his profession aud in the con- fidence of the people of his community, is but the justly- merited reward of conscientious industry and close fidel- ity to elevating ideals.

Mr. Comstock is a native of Missouri, born at Cape Girardeau, Cape Girardeau County, January 15, 1875. Paternally, he is of French extraction. His father, James Comstock, was born in Kentucky, but went to Missouri when a young man, was married there, and became an carly farmer of Cape Girardeau County. Professor Com- stock's mother bore the maiden name of Jane Shelton, was a native of Tennessee, aud was brought to Missouri when she was only two years of age.

On his father's farm in Southeastern Missouri, Charles Comstock was reared to manhood. He there learned the lessons of toil and perseverance that have greatly entered into his life as elements which have made for success, and hard work in youth and early manhood fell to his lot. In the meantime, he had ordinary educational advan- tages in the country schools, and next entered Wooster Academy, which was a branch of Drury College. Subse- quently he took up the profession of educator in the country schools of Missouri, making teaching a stepping- stone to a higher and better education. In 1895 Mr. Comstock was graduated from Willie Halsell College, at Vinita, Indian Territory, and in January, 1896, located at Wagoner, where he first was engaged in teaching a private school. In May of the same year he was one of the principal figures in the organizing at Wagoner of the first public school in Indian Territory, of which he became the first teacher, and thus belongs to him the distinction of being the pioneer public school teacher of what is now the great commonwealth of Oklahoma. As Mr. Comstock's talents and learning became known, his reputation grew and he was called to higher places in his profession. He spent eighteen months as superin- tendent of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows School, at Checotah, Oklahoma, after which he was made princi- pal of the public schools of that place and served as such two years, and still later taught two terms at Fort Gib- son, Oklahoma, for a time being also located at Coweta, Wagoner County. He was located at the latter place in 1910, when he was elected superintendent of schools of

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Wagoner County, a position to which he has beeu twice re-elected to succeed himself, aud in which he is now serving to the entire satisfaction of the people of the county. In addition to being a man of broad and thor- ough learning in his profession, Professor Comstock is a student of men and events, an able executive and the possessor of more than ordinary business ability, which has been exerted in his official capacity in protecting the interests of the people. While a strict disciplinarian, he is possessed of a warm heart and a keen sense of jus- tice, and is a general favorite among his teachers, as well as with the students.

Professor Comstock was married in 1901, at Wagoner, to Miss Sallie McGuire. They are consistent members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. While he finds his greatest pleasure among his beloved books and at his home, Professor Comstock also believes in the pleasures of companionship among his fellow-men, and is popular with his associates in the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. His political views make him a demo- crat, but he is not a politician.

JOHN ATLAS HASTE. A graduate in law from the Cumberland University of Lebanon, Tennessee, where he took his LL. B. degree in 1905, being admitted to the Tennessee bar in the following fall, John A. Haste has been an Oklahoma lawyer since the year of state- hood, 1907. He came to Murray County in that year, and since 1910 has been in active practice at Sulphur. His offices are in the Cook Building.

He was born near Trenton, Gibson County, Tennes- see, March 17, 1877, and his people were long identified with that section of the state. Mr. Haste has some childhood memories of his great-grandfather, who lived in the home of his grandfather David Haste, who was born in North Carolina in 1822, was a Baptist minister and did much pioneer work for the church in Tennessee. Grandfather Haste died at Trenton, Ten- nessee, in 1892. The members of this family originally came from England and settled in North Carolina.

Mr. Haste's father is D. P. Haste, who was born November 26, 1851, near Trenton, Tennessee, and has lived in that general locality all his life, chiefly as a farmer, though at one time he conducted a store. In politics he is a republican, and for several years served as constable. He has long been active in Baptist Church work and for a number of years served as clerk of his church. D. P. Haste married Mary Burress, who was born December 5, 1851, in Gibson County, Tennessee. Their children are: William H., Jr., who is a Baptist minister and preacher living at Halls, Tennessee; John A .; Grace, wife of R. M. Morrison, a teacher at Ti, Oklahoma; George Melvin, who lives on the old home- stead farm near Trenton, Tennessee.

John Atlas Haste acquired his early education in the common schools of Gibson County, and in 1901 grad- uated Bachelor of Science from Laneview College, Ten- nessee. He also attended for one year the Southwestern Baptist University at Jackson, Tennessee, an institution now known as Union University. For several years he has occupied a place in the educational field, having taught in Tennessee during 1903 and 1904, and for two years after completing his law course and before coming to Oklahoma. Since 1910 he has been a teacher in the public schools of Sulphur.

Like his father Mr. Haste is a republican. He is a trustee of the Sulphur Baptist Church, is affiliated with Hickory Camp of the Woodmen of the World, and is a member of the Murray County Bar Association. At Kenton, Tennessee, in 1905, he married Miss Tossie Wright, daughter of J. W. Wright, a merchant at Trimble, Tennessee.

ANDREW M. YOUNG. The financial history of Okla- homa would be incomplete without a sketch of the above subject, as he has been identified in an active executive way with banking interests since 1892: Mr. Youug has become a prominent and influential figure in connection with financial operations in the Southwest. He had the distinction of serving as the first state bank commissioner of Oklahoma after the admission of this commonwealth to the Union, has continued to wield large and distinctive influences in bauking and other capitalistic circles. He is uow general convention man and special representative in the South and West for the Mechanics and Metals National Bank of New York City. When Oklahoma was admitted to statehood, in 1907, and Hon. Charles N. Haskell, of Muskogee, was elected the first governor of the new and ambitious commonwealth, he realized that he had a difficult problem in selecting the right man for bank commissioner; so after several months of delib- eration and having before him some of the very best bankers of the state to select from, time proved that he manifested marked discrimination by appointiug Mr. Young, who at that time was cashier of the Bank of Commerce of Muskogee, Oklahoma. His coufidence was fully justified by the vigorous aud sagacious administra- tion given by Commissioner Young. In this connection it may be well to note that Mr. Young has always con- tended that it was the large number of undesirable banks and bankers who were permitted to come under the new guarantee law, which caused so much trouble and loss. Subsequent events prove he was correct. It is not too much to say of him that his positive, aggressive and rapid manner in dispatching business was so note- worthy that he attracted the attention of representative financiers throughout other sections of the Union, which to a large extent accounts for his splendid New York connections. Concerning his work the following sig-

nificant statements have been written: "Within his administration the principal bank failure within his jurisdiction was that of the Columbia Bank and Trust Company of Oklahoma City, an institution that had deposits of $2,900,000. Under the provisions of the guaranty law, Commissioner Young paid all depositors in full, and when the state examiner and inspector, Fred Parkinson, after a thorough and searching investigation of the affairs of the institution, declared its every asset had been fully accounted for .. The examiner's report further shows that during Mr. Young's entire term of office as bank commissioner a discrepancy of only $5 was found in his accounts. More than 100 state banks were correspondents of the Columbia Bank and Trust Com- pauy, but under the careful and far-sighted administra- tion of Commissioner Young not one of them failed. A further mark of his efficiency and his mature judgment is shown in the fact that of the large number of banks that he approved charters for, there were only two that failed in the proper performance of their official duties. In handling the affairs of the Columbia Bank and Trust Company, it may not be out of place to say that Mr. Young was subjected to severe criticism, but, looking at past history with an impartial eye, it must be, and is, admitted by the best financiers of the country that a man of less judgment, ability and aggressiveness in handling the critical situation would have wrecked the guarantee law of this state in its infancy.

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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