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 74

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 74

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Mr. Parker is politically a democrat, in religious faith a Presbyterian, and fraternally a thirty-second degree Mason and member of the Mystic Shrine. His public services have been many, and in every capacity he has been called upon to shoulder heavy responsibilities-and has been found not lacking in his ability to do so. His business interests consist of farming, stockraising and banking. Unassuming, congenial and responsive, a man of broad and comprehensive learning, he is deservedly popular with all with whom he has come into contact.

On December 25, 1900, Mr. Parker was married to Miss Louise Elizabeth George, a native of Topeka, Kan- sas, whom he met as a classmate at Spencer Academy, and who was later a teacher in that institution. Mr. and Mrs. Parker have one son: Gabe E., Jr., eleven years of age and now attending the Muskogee Public School.

ABRAHAM V. PONDER, M. D. A former president of the Murray County Medical Society, Doctor Ponder has been in the practice of medicine in old Indian Ter- ritory and the new State of Oklahoma , for the past

twenty years, and since 1904 has been a prominent member of the medical fraternity at Sulphur. He is one of the oldest physicians in practice in that city.

He was born in Mount Hope, Lawrence County, Ala- bama, November 10, 1849. Both his paternal and ma- ternal grandfathers were natives of England. The former came to America when a young man settling in North Carolina, and soon afterwards joined the Pa- triots in the struggle for American independence. He later moved across the mountains into Teunessee, and he died at the age of eighty-five before Doctor Ponder was born. Doctor Ponder's father was Pleasant Pou- der, who was born in South Carolina in 1816 and died at Moulton, Alabama, in 1902. He grew up in East Tennessee, where he married, and in 1848 moved to Mount Hope, Alabama. He was a farmer and stock raiser until he retired in 1890 and thereafter lived at Moulton until his death. He was a man of more than ordinary character and influence in his community, and the troubles which arose among his neighbors were very frequently brought to him as arbiter. In the Cum- berland Presbyterian Church he served as an elder for fifty years, and during the war between the states was a colonel of militia. He married Sarah L. Bogart, who was born in Tennessee in 1821 and died at Moulton, Alabama, in 1895. Her early life was spent in the State of Tennessee. Their children were: George W., who was a merchant and died at Shawnee, Oklahoma, in 1910; J. F., a farmer at West Paris, Tennessee; W. J., who has been in the cotton business all his life, both as a cotton ginner and cotton buyer and now lives at Fort Smith, Arkansas; S. H., a carpenter and builder living at Decatur, Alabama; Dr. Abraham V .; and following these sons came six daughters, all of them now de- ceased, whose names were in order of birth Margaret, Mary, Elizabeth, Sallie, Kate and Ophelia.

Doctor Ponder grew up on an Alabama farm and his early opportunities were somewhat restricted since his youth from the age of twelve was passed during the Civil war period. He attended public school at Mount Hope and at the age of twenty left his father's farm and started the study of medicine. He was given a license as a medical practitioner, and has always been a student of his profession, and in 1904 took post- graduate work in the Missouri Medical College of St. Louis.

He began practice at Mount Hope, his native vil- lage, in 1874, and remained there with a growing repu- tation for twelve years. In 1886 he moved to Fayette, Alabama, where he spent five years, and from 1891 was engaged in practice at Moulton in Lawrence County, Alabama, for another five years.

Coming to Indian Territory in 1896, Doctor Ponder located at Mansville on the Washita River, and had a large country practice covering a great radius of the territory until 1904. In that year he identified him- self with the growing Town of Sulphur and has enjoyed much success both in general medicine and surgery and is somewhat of a specialist in diseases of women. For several terms he filled the position of health officer of Sulphur and besides his connections with the Murray County Medical Society already mentioned he is a mem- ber of the Oklahoma State Medical Society, and the American Medical Association.

Other public service has been rendered as a member of the school board, and the city council. He is a member of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, is affiliated with Sulphur Lodge No. 144, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, with Sulphur Camp of. the Wood- men of the World, and is past noble grand of Sulphur

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Lodge No. 353, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and also belongs to the encampment of that order.

In 1874 at Mount Hope, Alabama, Doctor Ponder married Miss Bettie R. Williamson, daughter of the late Elijah Williamson, who was an Alabama farmer. To their marriage have been born two daughters: Julia, wife of W. Y. Wyley, who is a hardware merchant at Woodville, Oklahoma; and Luna, wife of B. W. Mackey, a hardware merchant at Allen, Oklahoma.

ROBERT E. MONTGOMERY. In the cotton seed oil indus- try in the Southwest, few men are better known than Robert E. Montgomery, treasurer and manager of the Independent Cotton Oil Company, of Lawton, who has devoted about fifteen years to this business. Mr. Mont- gomery was born in Yazoo County, Mississippi, Novem- ber 20, 1872, and is a son of Dr. William Wallace and Cora (Green) Montgomery. The family originally came to America from Scotland, probably before the Revolu- tionary war, settling first in one of the Carolinas and then moving to Natchez, Mississippi, from whence dif. ferent branches scattered all over the state, the greater number locating in Madison County.

Dr. William Wallace Montgomery was born in Madi- son County, Mississippi, in 1834, was well reared and educated, and, choosing the profession of medicine as his life's vocation, entered the College of Physicians and Surgeons, Baltimore, Maryland, from which he was duly graduated. When the Civil war broke out he enlisted in a Mississippi regiment, in the Confederate army, and served with that organization until receiving his honorable discharge, and at one time was wounded in the arm. Returning to his practice, he located in Sunflower County, Mississippi, then went to Yazoo County, and during the '80s settled at Shaw, Bolivar County, where his death occurred in 1910. He was a consistent member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. After the death of his first wife, by whom he had sev- eral children, he married Cora Green, who was born in Hinds County, Mississippi, in 1840, and died in Madison County, that state, in 1875, and they had three children : Louise, who married Joe F. Lipscomb, Jr., a merchant, now deceased, and resides at Hattiesburg, Mississippi; William Alexander, who is an insurance agent of Jack- son, Mississippi; and Robert E. Doctor Montgomery was married a third time to Mrs. Emma (Chamberlain) DeJarnett, a native of Mississippi and the widow of William DeJarnett and daughter of William Chamber- lain. They had no children.

Robert E. Montgomery, in addition to being a self- made man, is largely self-educated, as he attended school in Hinds County only until he was fourteen years of age, his subsequent training having been gained by reading, experience and observation. He began his career as a clerk in a store at Terry, and subsequently worked for an express company for seven years, and in 1899 began his connection with the cotton seed oil business at Jack- son, Mississippi, as traveling representative for a con- cern of that city. From 1902 until 1904 he was manager of a cotton seed oil mill at Magnolia, Mississippi, and in the latter year went to Corsicana, Texas, as secretary and manager of the oil mill at that place, remaining until 1908. In June of that year he came to Lawton as treas- urer and manager of the Independent Cotton Oil Com- pany, one of the largest industries of its kind in the state and a concern which contributes materially to the prestige of Lawton as an industrial center. The plant is located on Railroad Street and I Avenue, along the line of the Rock Island Railroad tracks, has a capacity of eighty tons a day of cotton seed, and its products are shipped over a territory extending from Galveston to Canada and from the Pacific to the Atlantic. Mr. Mont-

gomery was afterward promoted to assistant general manager of the Chickasha Cotton Oil Company, with his headquarters at Lawton, Oklahoma. This company operates ten cotton oil mills, as well as a large number of cotton gins, and is capitalized at $1,250,000. Mr. Montgomery is a democrat in politics, and is a member of the Episcopal Church, in which he serves as vestry- man. He belongs to the Chamber of Commerce, and is fraternally connected with Lawton Lodge No. 183, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, and Lodge No. 1056, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks.

Mr. Montgomery was married at Tallassee, Alabama, to Miss Jennie Jordau, daughter of the late William Jordan, deceased, who was a merchant and agricul- turist of Alabama. Two children have come to this union: Robert Hamilton, born April 2, 1909, and Wil- liam Jordan, born February 21, 1911, both at Lawton.

ROMAINE W. HOSLEY. On May 10, 1908, death removed from the circle of his family, friends and associates in Washington County, one of the most force- ful figures known in the early days of the cattle industry of old Indian Territory and in the business enterprise which in later years has transformed the wilderness into stock ranches, agricultural farms and centers of city and industrial life. Romaine W. Hosley left a permanent impress . upon that community known as Ramona in Washington County. By reason of his success in busi- ness he was in a position to exert a large influence in local affairs, and his memory deserves to be kept green in the community which represented his home for a number of years. He spent most of his life either in Kansas or in Oklahoma. He was born at Antioch in Lake County, Illinois, September 13, 1847, a sou of Columbus and Ruth (Briggs) Hosley. His parents were born and married in New York State, and were early settlers in that district of Illinois north of Chicago, where the father became a farmer. A few years after the war he moved to Kansas, and was likewise an early settler in Chautauqua County of that state, locating near Niotaze, where he died. The mother passed away at the home of her son, Austin, at Nowata, Oklahoma. The four children were: Austin, who died at Nowata, Okla- homa; George, who died in Lake County, Illinois; Elias, who went to the war with an Illinois regiment and was killed in the battle of Shiloh; Eleanor, now the only surviving child and the wife of T. P. Waskey of Pitts- burg, Kansas; and Romaine W.

During the first twenty-one years of his life Romaine W. Hosley gained an education from the country schools of Lake County, Illinois, and also went from that locality to serve as a soldier in the War of the Rebellion. He enlisted at the age of seventeen in Company H of the One Hundred and Fifty-third Illinois Volunteer. Infantry, became a sergeant of his company, and was in the army during the last year of the war. Abont 1868 he accompanied his parents on their removal to Southern Kansas, and continued to live with them on the farm until he was twenty-five years old.

At Elk City, Kansas, in 1872, Mr. Hosley married Miss Cynthia Brashear. Mrs. Hosley, who since the death of her husband has continued to reside at Ramona, was born at Kirksville, Missouri, September 11, 1848. After his marriage Mr. Hosley took up farming on a farm of his own in Kansas, and was also interested in stock dealing. In 1874, having sold his interests in the Sun- flower State he removed to the Cherokee Nation of Indian Territory, and his interests and his home were in that section of Indian Territory from that time until his death, nearly thirty-five years later.

The late Mr. Hosley was not only successful in his business operations but enjoyed the high esteem and

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respect of his community. How much he was appreciated will be better understood from the following quotation from the Ramona Herald, in an editorial published at the time of his death: "More than thirty years ago R. W. Hosley or 'Darb' as his many friends knew him, came to the Indian Territory. He engaged in the stock busi- ness for many years and his cattle ranged from Texas to the Kansas line. He accumulated wealth in the stock business before the days of railroads in the Territory. In years following and before the railroads were con- structed through the new country, he confined his busi- ness operations to this section, and both Indians and white people all over the northern part of the old Indian Territory came to know 'Darb' Hosley and remember him as a man who dealt fairly by everybody and oue whose word was as good as his written promise. Eight years ago (1900) he came to Ramona, which was then being built upon a wheatfield. In this place he engaged in the general merchandise business, and in 1904 estab- lished a hardware and furniture store, which was after- . wards continued by John C. Asahl. Mr. Hosley was enterprising and progressive and never let an oppor- tunity pass to do a part in building his home town. The big Hotel Hosley was erected by him a few years ago at a time when the future of the town was by no means assured. He engaged in real estate business and was connected with several business enterprises during his residence in Ramona." Much might be said about his enterprise and progressiveness as a business man at Ramona from the beginning of that village. He did much to establish the town permanently during the oil boom, and not only constructed the hotel which bears his name but also lent his influence and means to various other enterprises which served to place the town securely on the map. From 1905 until his death he was a member of the Ramona Real Estate and Insurance Agency.

His friends remember in addition to his business activities his kindly nature. He was especially kind hearted and gentle to those in sickness and distress, and it is said that in the early days of his pioneer life he would ride for miles to help the sick. In politics he was a republican and always interested in public affairs, especially of a local nature, and was a member of the Grand Army of the Republic. The year before he mar- ried he spent hunting buffalo on the western plains before those animals were fiually exterminated, and another of his early experiences was his connection with a cattle outfit operating in the old Cherokee Strip during the early '80s.

WILLIAM SYNNOTT. For almost fifteen years Mr. Synnott has been identified with the First National Bank of Norman, and is now one of the active executive offi- cials, serving as cashier. Mr. Synnott can be regarded as an Oklahoma pioneer, though he was still very young when he came to the territory, and largely by his own efforts has raised himself to a position in the business and civic life of his home city as all must respect. As a banker he possesses both ability and integrity, and enjoys the complete confidence of his associates and the wide extended patronage of the First National.

Born at Lockport, Illinois, December 30, 1874, Mr. Synnott is a son of Edward and Ellen (Ryan) Synnott. The Synnott family was early established at Lockport, Illinois, and the family was there in the pioneer times almost before a village was started on the present site of the City of Chicago. Edward Synnott was a native of Ireland, but in early childhood was brought to the United States, and his father located a few miles west of the present City of Chicago. Edward Synnott be- came a merchant and farmer, and lived in several differ- ent states, going from Illinois to Texas, later to Oregon,

and in 1890 arriving in Oklahoma not long after the opening of the new country. Thereafter he lived at Norman until his death in 1909. His wife's family came from Pennsylvania, but she was born in New York State, and the Ryans were well known both in business and political affairs in Illinois.

William Synnott attended public schools in Oregon while the family lived in that state and was about six- teen years of age wheu his father located at Norman. He finished his education in the college at Sacred Heart, Oklahoma, and in the meantime had become a practical farmer. In January, 1898, he entered the office of the county treasurer of Cleveland County at Norman, but resigned after three years and on January 1, 1901, ac- cepted a position as bookkeeper in the Norman State Bank, now the First National Bank. His responsibilities were increased from time to time, and since 1913 he has given a capable service as cashier.

Mr. Synnott has always been a citizen of public spirit and deeply interested in the welfare of his local town, and is an active member and treasurer of the Norman Chamber of Commerce. He was reared in and is a member of the Catholic Church. In 1901 was celebrated his marriage to Miss Sarah J. Nolan of Wichita, Kansas. She came to Norman, Oklahoma, in the early days not long after the opening of 1889 with her brother, and consequently enjoys the distinction of being a pioneer settler of this state. To their marriage have been born three children : Sarah J., Dorothy and William E. Synnott. The family reside at 402 East Comanche Street, Norman.

MULLEN & MULLEN. The well-known firm of Mulleu & Mullen, Ardmore, Oklahoma, is composed of the broth- ers Leslie Val and Joseph S. Mullen. Leslie Val, junior member of the firm and mayor of Ardmore, came to this community in 1897, and his brother followed in the next year. In those days the firm was known as Mullen, Mullen & Mullen, but since the death of the father in 1913, the name of the then senior member has been dropped and the firm name of Mullen & Mullen survives. In writing of these men, space will not permit fullest attention to detail, but the more salient points in their careers will be touched upon.

Leslie Val Mullen was born in Choctaw County, Mis- sissippi, on January 22, 1880, and he is the son of Joseph P. Mullen, also a native of Choctaw County, born there in 1843. He died at Ardmore, Oklahoma, on No- vember 16, 1913. The father was of Scotch-Irish ances- try, his father having been a pioneer into Mississippi in the early days of the nineteenth century. Joseph P. Mullen was reared in Choctaw County, Mississippi, and there he married. He was a school teacher in his young days, and later practiced law, though he always devoted some time to teaching, even in the years when he was a practicing attorney. In 1885 he moved from Mississippi to Arkansas, settling in Fort Smith, and from there he came in 1897 to Ardmore, where he was occupied in legal practice to the time of his passiug.

Mr. Mulleu was a stauuch democrat all his life. He was a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, active in the work of the body, and long serving on its official board. He was identified with the Masonic fraternity and with the Woodmen of the World. He was a Con- federate veteran, his service having been in the Twenty- first Mississippi Regimeut of Volunteer Infantry.

He married Miss Elizabeth C. Norris, born in Missis- sippi in 1847, and she survives him, living in Ardmore at this time. To them were born four children. Kating died at the age of seven years. J. S. is the partuer of Leslie C. and extended mention of him will be made in later paragraphs. Leslie Val. is the third child, and Floy

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Williams, the youngest, is the wife of a merchant in Ardmore, and who also has extensive oil interests in the state.

Leslie Val Mullen had a public school education and was graduated from the Fort Smith High School in 1897. In the summers of 1896-07 he attended the busi- ness college at Fort Smith, and in 1897, when he had finished his high school course, he came to Ardmore, where his father had already located, and entered luis office as a clerk. In 1898 Joseph S. came home from Vanderbilt University, joined his father and brother, and the name Mullen, Mullen & Mullen was soon after to be seen upon their office door. They continued to be thus associated until the death of the senior member in 1913, when the firm changed to Mullen & Mullen, its present form.

This firm, originally devoted to the practice of law, has in time come to be one of the leading land invest- ment firms in the state. It controls a vast acreage of lands, already under cultivation, located in nine coun- ties of Southern Oklahoma, and not only does it deal in farm lands, but in improved oil lands as well. It is well established, ably conducted and does business in accord- ance with honest methods and honorable principles. It is one of the soundest investment companies in the state, and the present firm deviates not a hair's breadth from the sturdy principles 'that were woven into the warp of the enterprise in the days when their esteemed father was the head and front of the concern.

Leslie Val Mullen is a democrat, like his father, and he is now mayor of Ardmore, entering on his duties on April 16, 1915, for a term of two years. He is a member of the B. P. O. E., Ardmore Lodge No. 648, of which he is past exalted ruler. He has served his lodge as a delegate to the grand lodge, and he is the first vice president of the state association. Other fraternal orders with which he is affiliated are the Woodmen of the World and the Modern Woodmen of America. He is a leading member of the Ardmore Chamber of Com- merce, and some of his social connections are with the Chickasaw Country Club and the Ardmore Gun . Club. He is president of the Geneva Pearl Oil and Gas Com- pany, is president of the Muldoon Oil Company and a director in the Bull Head Oil Company.

Mr. Mullen was married in Gainesville, Texas, in 1903, to Miss Geneva Durrett, daughter of George Durrett, a well-known cattleman of Weatherford, Texas. They have no children.

Joseph Sylvester Mullen, brother of Leslie Val and his associate in business, was born in Choctaw County, Mississippi, on August 25, 1878. He attended the high school in Fort Smith, Arkansas, and was graduated from that school in 1896, one year earlier than his brother Leslie. He then took a two-year course in Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee, devoting himself to the study of law, in preparation for entrance into his father's business. In 1898 he came to Ardmore, here joining his father and brother. In 1902 Mr. Mullen was admitted to the bar, and while the main business of the firm is land investments, his knowledge of the law is a valuable adjunct to his training, and strengthens the firm in many ways. Something of the scope of the business has already been mentioned, so that further remarks on that score need not be introduced here.

Mr. Mullen, like his brother, is one of the leading citizens of the community. He is a democrat, true to family tradition, and has served the Town of Ardmore as a member of its board of aldermen, in which office he did credit to himself and to the city. He also served as mayor pro tem of Ardmore, and has in many ways manifested the high quality of his citizenship. He is president of the Ardmore Chamber of Commerce and his

activities have done much to promote the growth of the community, as president of that highly creditable organ- ization.

Mr. Mullen is a life member of the Elks and is also a member of the Dornick Hills Country Club.

He was married in Oklahoma in 1899 to Miss Ada Maurer, daughter of Joseph and Mary Maurer. In her paternal ancestry were prominent officers in the army of Napoleon, and her mother is a descendant of a famous Choctaw chief, known in his tribe as Puck-shanub-bee. To Mr. and Mrs. Mullen have been born three children- J. S., Jr., Harold M. and Don Lacy, all of them under the instruction of a private tutor in their home.

All members of the Mullen family are prominent in Ardmore, and they add much to the social activities of the community.

JAMES M. BERRY. In 1907, the year of Oklahoma's admission as a state, Mr. Berry became one of the or- ganizers of the Central National Bank of Tulsa, of which he is first vice president at the present time and of which he was the original cashier. At that time he possessed a wide and practical experience in banking, and has become a recognized factor in Oklahoma finance. His skill and integrity as a banker have been mainly responsible for making the Central National Bank one of the strongest institutions of its kiud in the northwestern part of the state. Its capital stock is $150,000, and it has an earned surplus fund of $150,000.

Mr. Berry was born in Giles County, Tennessee, De- cember 27, 1861, and is the younger of the two chil- dren of Rev. Harrison Berry, M. D., and Margaret (Hudson) Berry, the latter of whom died at the age of thirty-seven years. His older brother is William H., now a resident of Aurora, Missouri. Rev. Harrison Berry was born and reared in the State of Illinois, of a pioneer family, and after preparing himself for the medical profession practiced in Illinois for a number of years. He then removed to Nashville, Tennessee, and became the publisher of a newspaper, but eventually entered the ministry of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, as a clergyman of which he continued his faitlı- ful aud able services for many years prior to his death, at the venerable age of eighty-two years.

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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