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 81

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 81

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None of them knows better than does Lillian Pearce the real value of labor. For the last two years she has devoted her time to the duties of a teacher, for which she prepared herself carefully. She is the daugh- ter of T. D. and Permellia (Carney) Pearce and she was born on February 25, 1892. Her parents live five miles northwest of Bokchito, Oklahoma, and there she was reared. Mr. Pearce is of white descent and was born in Arkansas. His wife is one-fourth Choctaw blood and was born in the old Indian Territory. She was edu- cated in the government schools of the nations, and to her love of her people is due much credit for the edu- cation and work of their daughter.

Miss Lillian Pearce had her higher education in Tuska- homa Female Institute and St. Agnes Academy at Ard- more. She also pursued a course of training in Bacone College, Muskogee, and has since then attended the sum- mer schools of the Southeastern Normal at Durant dur- ing two terms. Another season's training there will graduate her from that institution. For two years she taught in the Pritchard school, near to her home, and in 1915 she was elected to the faculty of the Kemp public schools. Her work thus far has been of a splendid character, and it is believed that she has a brilliant future before her as an educator. Of splen- did character and mental attainments, her influence with the young is highly creditable, and Kemp is fortunate in having secured the services of a young

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womau who is so manifestly bent upon the better- ment of her people, and in advancing the cause of edu- cation in general.

Miss Pearce has splendid family connections on all sides. She is a niece of Mrs. John Colbert Moore, con- cerning whom extended mention will be found else- where in this publication. She has one brother and one sister. John M. Pearce is freight agent for the Katy Railroad Company at McAlester, and the sister is Mrs. L. H. Lutes, of Bokchito, Oklahoma.

Miss Pearce is a member of the Presbyterian Church of Bokchita, and she is also affiliated with the Order of the Easteru Star of Caddo and the Woodmen of the World circle in Pritchard.

LOUIS ARCHIE MILNE, M. D. A very capable physician and surgeon at Lawton, Doctor Milne in addition to his private practice has for about ten years been one of the Government physicians at the Indian agency in Fort Sill. For the past eight years he has practiced with success at Lawton, and is secretary and manager of the Southwestern Hospital Association of that city and local surgeon for the Frisco Railway.

Louis Archie Milne was born at Sumner County, Kansas, August 16, 1879, a son of George W. and Margaret (Anderson) Milne. As the name implies, the Milne family is of Scotch origin. Grandfather George Milne left Scotland and located in New York City a short time before the Civil war. He was a contractor and builder, moved out to Iowa, aud during the war served as a lieutenant with an Iowa regiment. A short time after the war closed he took up a claim near Kansas City, lived there as an early settler and farmer until his death in 1879. The maternal grandfather was Archie R. Anderson, also from Scotland, in early life a sailor, who finally settled on a farm near Monticello, Iowa, and served from that state during the war in a Union regiment. He died in advanced years at Welling- tou, Kansas, in 1914. George W. Milne was born near Monticello, Iowa, in 1859, and now lives at Verden, Oklahoma. About the time he reached his majority he went to Sumner County, Kausas, in 1879, lived there until 1901, and has since been engaged in the real estate, loan and general land business at Verden, Oklahoma. He is an active member of the Presbyterian Church. By his marriage to Margaret Anderson, who was born in Iowa in 1861 and died at Wellington, Kansas, in 1900, the following children were born: Dr. Louis Archie; Delmer, who died at Wichita, Kansas, at the age of twenty-three; William F., who is a merchant at Anadarko, Oklahoma; Blanche, wife of Joe Swaba, a cattle man at Pocasset, Oklahoma; and Rozella, wife of Mr. Rody, a merchant at Bells, Texas.

Doctor Milne was educated in the public schools of Sumner County, Kansas, where he had the usual training of a farmer boy. He graduated from a high school there in 1900, and in 1904 graduated M. D. from the medical department of the University of Kansas. The first year of practice was spent in Anadarko, Oklahoma, and in 1905 he accepted the post as Government physician for the Indians at Fort Sill in Comanche County. He had his residence at Fort Sill until 1908, since which year he has kept his home at Lawton, where he has a general medical and surgical practice, but still looks after the duties of his office as physician to the Indians at Fort Sill. His Lawton offices are at 32812 D Avenue.

Doctor Milne is independent in politics, is a member of the First Presbyterian Church at Lawton, and takes much interest in Masonry, being affiliated with Lawson Lodge No. 183, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, of which he was master in 1913, and has taken fourteen degrees of the Scottish Rite in the Valley of Guthrie

Consistory No. 1. He is also a member of Lawton Lodge No. 1056 Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. =

At Fort Sill in 1906 Doctor Milne married Miss Sue Madera, of Gainesville, Texas. They have one daughter, Sue Estelle, who was born August 9, 1907, and is now a schoolgirl.

JAMES MADISON ENNIS, now postmaster at Antlers, has for years been one of the best known public charac- ters in the old Choctaw Nation. His record is especially interesting for his long service as a deputy United States marshal.

The last man executed under the tribal laws of the Choctaw Nation, says Mr. Ennis, was William Going, a member of the tribe by blood and a baseball player of considerable prominence. He was shot in 1898, by Sheriff Tom Watson of Nashoba County at Alikchi, the old Court Town of the Third Judicial District, of the Choctaw Nation, after having been convicted of murder of Ishtimihoke, a Choctaw woman, whom Going thought was practicing arts of witchcraft upon him.

The execution occurred about the time Congress gave its approval of the Atoka Agreement, and the passage of the Curtis Act, which abrogated the Choctaw Govern- ment to a great extent and deprived its Court of Juris- diction to try cases.

The attorneys for Going made application to Judge Clayton, United States judge for the Central District of the Indian Territory, which included the territory in which the Going case was tried, for a writ of habeas corpus, to stop the execution of Going, Judge Clayton heard the case and after a thorough investigation de- cided that he had no jurisdiction to interfere in the matter, and delivered Going to the Choctaw authorities. The judge of the Choctaw District Court resentenced Going and about the time for the execution an effort was made in Antlers to forestall the execution, and tele- grams were sent to Judge Thomas that Judge Clayton was out of the district and that Going was going to be unlawfully executed. Judge Thomas upon said tele- grams issued an order staying the execution until the matter could be investigated, and sent the order to Antlers by telegram; the telegram was conveyed to the Choctaw authorities at Alikchi on the day set for the execution.

When this telegram was taken before the Choctaw judge he declined to be controlled by the order of Judge Thomas, saying that Judge Clayton had decided that the United States courts had no jurisdiction in the case and decided to let the Choctaw law and judgment of the court be enforced, Abner Clay, an educated and brilliant young Choctaw was district attorney. He told the court that in his opinion the execution should pro- ceed. Shortly before 2 o'clock on the execution day, Going was stripped to the waist and made to kneel on a blanket spread on the ground. His heavy irons having been removed in the jail, he walked down between two lines of men to the site of the execution. Every safe- guard was placed around the execution, for Going had the reputation of being a desperate man. When he had knelt a medicine man of the Choctaws painted a black spot on his left chest, supposedly over his heart, a deputy sheriff held each hand and Sheriff Watson, thirty paces away, after careful aim fired his Winchester. The ball hit the center of the painted spot and passed through the Indian 's body. Going threw up his hands, screamed and fell backward, but he was not dead. Sallie Durant, an Indian woman, recalling similar occurrences of earlier years, suggested the use of water to complete the death job, and the suspicion has since been current

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that Going would not have died had it not been for the use of water.

Warrants were issued at Antlers charging the sheriff, the prosecuting attorney and clerk with violation of the order of Judge Thomas, and James Madison Ennis, then deputy United States marshal under Col. John Carroll at Fort Smith, was charged with their arrest. Sheriff Wat- son came to Antlers and surrendered and the others were brought in. Charges against them were dismissed when it was learned that Judge Clayton was yet in his district when the order was issued by Judge Thomas. This fact invalidated the order. Judge Thomas was killed in 1914 by prisoners in the State Penitentiary at McAlester during an uprising of convicts. At the time Judge Thomas was sitting in the office of the warden.

The experiences of Mr. Ennis as an officer in the Choc- taw Nation cover a wide range of activities, and embrace many interesting features of life in those days. Dur- ing the four years that he was deputy marshal 19 com- missioned officers were killed and many were wounded. Mr. Ennis was wounded once. This wound came at the hands of Will Meeks, who was charged with horse steal- ing, and whom Ennis located at a dance near Red River. Meeks fired when Ennis entered the room while a dance was in progress. Meeks, however, did not escape but was arrested by Ennis and taken to Fort Smith. He was the first man ever to be granted a new trial by United States Judge Parker at Fort Smith, and on second trial he was acquitted.

The territory embraced in the district covered by Mr. Ennis as marshal was that of the Chickasaw and Choc- taw nations. There were numerous cases of murder and theft and several of those arrested by Mr. Ennis on these charges were hanged in Fort Smith. So vigilant and vigorous were his activities that many organized bands of thieves were broken up summarily. An inter- esting case in his experience indicates the distinction be- tween federal and tribal laws of that period. At Fort

Towson a merchandise store owned by J. Rosenthal, an

intermarried citizen, was burglarized by Indians, whom Mr. Ennis arrested and took to Fort Smith. There the Federal Court disclaimed jurisdiction in such a case. The Indians were returned to the Choctaw country, but could not be prosecuted under tribal laws because Rosen- thal had not complied with the law in the matter of obtaining a license when he was married to an Indian woman.

Goodland was the official headquarters of Mr. Ennis and prisoners were transported to Fort Smith by wagon, such a trip and return sometimes requiring sixty days. During his service, John McAlester was killed at Purcell, John Phillips was killed in the Creek Nation, and Posse- man Williams was killed in the Chickasaw Nation. These were among the best known and bravest officers of Indian Territory. Mr. Ennis recalls the killing of Frank Dal- ton, a deputy marshal, near Fort Smith in Indian Ter- ritory. His murderer was a boy eighteen years old, a member of a band of horse thieves. This boy was the only one of the band left after Dalton and Jim Coe had fired into their tent, and Dalton was shot through the head after he had emptied his Winchester and was trying to release the hung trigger on his revolver. The boy escaped and was followed by Ed Stokely and Bill Moody to the vicinity of Stringtown, Indian Territory, where he was overtaken. Refusing to surrender, he was fired upon. He fell after the first fire and when Stokely advanced to him the lad raised himself up and put a ball through the officer's heart. This daring young des- perado later surrendered to Moody and was taken in a wagon to Stringtown with the body of Stokely, but died about the time the party reached Stringtown.

Most of the troubles of that period were brought on

by white men, is the mature opinion and judgment of Mr. Ennis, who can recite almost any amount of evidence to support his opinion. As a rule the Indians were peace- able and law abiding. In fact Mr. Ennis classes them as among the best people in the world in the matter of obedience to law.

James Madison Ennis was born in Lincoln County, Tennessee, November 8, 1862, a son of John C. and Parthena (Hughey) Ennis. There is one other son, R. A. Ennis, who is an intermarried Choctaw citizen and lives at Haworth. When James M. Ennis was quite young his parents removed to Texas, and his father died in Abilene in that state in 1880. The public schools of his native state and of Texas gave him his education, and he also spent four years in a private school in Huntsville, Ala- bama. For a time his home was at Clarksville, Texas, where he entered the employ of H. Herman of New York as a timber buyer in the Choctaw Nation. Mr. Herman had a sawmill at Herman's Point in Towson County, and the buying range covered territory along Red, Little and Kiamichi rivers. Besides prosecuting his business as a timber buyer Mr. Ennis also owned a gen- eral merchandise store just over the river from Bon Ton, a noted place of the South Choctaw country. Later he entered the employ of the government, and subse- quently for twenty years was a farmer and stockman near Antlers. He still has some valuable farm land near that town, and has some livestock interests which require part of his attention.

On June 16, 1913, he was appointed postmaster at Antlers by President Wilson, succeeding C. E. Archer. Mr. Ennis is a member of the Masonic Order, affiliating with the lodge, Chapter and Commandery at Antlers, the Scottish Rite Consistory at Hugo and the Temple of the Mystic Shrine at Muskogee. At Fort Smith, Ar- kansas, in October, 1893, he married Miss Effie Basham.

WILLIAM S. BAILEY. President of the Guaranty Ab- stract & Title Company of Tulsa, William S. Bailey is a lawyer by profession, was for a number of years suc- cessfully identified with his profession in the City of Chicago, finally retiring on account of ill health to an Illinois farm, and thence came to Tulsa while that city was enjoying its rapid growth as the metropolis of the oil district of Eastern Oklahoma, and has made himself a factor of large influence and activity in local business affairs.

William S. Bailey was born in that interesting and historic community of Indiana known as New Harmony, Posey County, where his father had a farm that orig- inally belonged to the old communistic church sect of the Quakers known as the Rappists. William S. Bailey was born March 12, 1871, a son of Larkin and Martha (Fitzgerald) Bailey. Both his parents were born in Virginia. The grandfather came to Indiana in 1824 and bought a section of land in Posey County, paying $1.25 an acre, and this property is still held under the family name. He was one of the early settlers in Posey County, and lived there until his death. He was a member of the Methodist Church. His wife died when William S. was two years of age, in 1873, at the age of thirty-six. The father then married Matilda Graham, who proved an affectionate and devoted mother to her husband's first children and who lived until 1910. Larkin Bailey died in 1875 at the age of thirty-eight years ten months and twenty-eight days. Larkin Bailey and his first wife had six children, of whom William S. was the fifth.

Mr. Bailey grew up in old Posey County, was educated in the public schools at New Harmony, and afterwards entered the Northwestern University at Chicago, where he took the classical and scientific course, graduating in 1885, and finished the work of the law department in

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1SSS. During the following year he continued post- graduate studies in the literary courses, and then was admitted to the Illinois bar and was successfully identi- fied with the Chicago bar up to 1900. During 1891-92-93 he served as first assistant corporation counsel of Chicago under the administration of the elder Carter H. Harrison. In 1900, on account of ill health, Mr. Bailey gave up his profession and left the city and located on a farmi near Peoria. His attention was directed to the management of his country property until 1907 when he came to the Southwest and located at Tulsa. Here he organized the Security Abstract Company, and was president of that concern. Subsequently his company took over the Guaranty Abstract & Title Company, of which he became president, and in March, 1915, absorbed the business of the Fidelity Abstract Company. These three companies were all merged or consolidated under the one business title of the Guaranty Abstract & Title Company. Mr. Bailey is president and has developed this business to large and successful proportions.

He is a member of the Chicago Bar Association, the Illinois State Bar Association, and the American Bar Association, and fraternally is identified with Delta Lodge No. 425, A. F. & A. M. at Tulsa, with Guthrie Consistory of the thirty-second degree Scottish Rite, and with Akdar Temple of the Mystie Shrine. He is also a member of Tulsa Lodge No. 946, Benevolent and Pro- tective Order of Elks. Politically Mr. Bailey has always acted with the democratie party. On November 20, 1893, Mr. Bailey married Minnie G. Holton, who was born in New Harmony, Posey County, Indiana. They are the parents of two sons and one daughter: William S., Jr., now a student in the University of Oklahoma, Larkin and Eugenia.

JOSIAH HAMILTON DILLARD. Foremost among the men who have made history in the Town of New Wilson, and one of the pioneer business men of the city is Josiah Hamilton Dillard, who has been identified with Oklahoma and its progress since the years before statehood. He has seen many changes in the district now known as Oklahoma. The rule of the Five Civilized Tribes has given way to the white man's government, though the Indian is a factor to be reckoned with today no less than in earlier years. All his life has been passed in this region, and in his younger days Mr. Dillard has hunted wild game in forests that have since been re- placed with thriving villages and abundantly producing farms. He has acquired a good deal of property, and in Carter County alone holds lands to the extent of about 1,200 acres. In New Wilson he owns and operates a thriving hotel, carries on a mercantile business, and is a stockholder in the First National Bank. Speaking in general terms, he is a leader in the community and a man of wealth and influence.

Mr. Dillard was born in Southern Mississippi on September 14, 1860, and is the son of Hamilton Dillard and his wife, Elizabeth LeFlore, a daughter of a famous old Mississippi family.

Hamilton Dillard was born in Mississippi in 1833, and died at Caddo, in the Choctaw Nation, Oklahoma Ter- ritory, in 1885. He came into the Indian Territory from his native state in the year 1862, settling in a community then called Doaksville, but now known as Fort Towson. He was a farmer rancher and stock- man all his life, successful and prosperous, and he was a leader in the community that was the center of his activities. A democrat, he served as county judge in the Choctaw Nation, and also served as clerk of the court there. He was a man of excellent character, and he had the confidence and esteem of all who knew him. His widow survives lim, and is living in the vicinity

of Caddo, Oklahoma. They were the parents of ten children. Joseph George died in Lindsay, Oklahoma, when he was forty-eight years old. Benjamin died in Tishomingo, Oklahoma, when he was forty-four years of age. He was a farmer and stockman, as had also been Joseph G., above mentioned. The third child was Josiah Hamilton of this review. T. W. is a farmer and now lives in Caddo. John died at the age of twenty-two years, and Lillian was six when she died. Gil is a farmer and lives at Old Hewitt, Oklahoma. James died when a young man of twenty-six. He was a volunteer soldier in the Spanish-American war, and died in the service. LeFlore lives at Hugo, Oklahoma, where he is engaged in farming. Vera married Charles P. Jones, and lives on a farm near Wilson, Oklahoma.

Josiah Hamilton Dillard had his early book training on a bench in the little log school house at old Good- land, Oklahoma. He was later sent to the Academy at Old Spencer, in Oklahoma, where he remained until he was about nineteen years old. Up to the age of twenty his home was the old ranch of his father, and at that age he married and launched out on his own responsibility. He was better versed in farm lore than any other subject, and he quite naturally turned his attention to that enterprise. Up to the year 1884 he farmed success- fully in the vicinity of Tishomingo, in the Chickasaw Nation, when he moved to Pickens County, now Jef- ferson County, Oklahoma, there engaging in farming and stock raising until 1888.

In 1888 Mr. Dillard located in Carter County, Okla- homa, bought a farm and homesteaded a government tract as well. He has since been adding to his land hold- ings in Carter County until today he has something like 1,200 acres in that county alone. In those years he farmed and gave a good deal of attention to stock breeding, enjoying a considerable financial success in the enterprise and accumulating properties here and there as a result. In 1913 he built a hotel in New Wilson, then sadly in need of a comfortable hostelry, and since February, 1914, he has been running the place himself. He did not go into the business as an experi- enced hotel man, but his natural good judgment came to the rescue when he found himself the proprietor of the place, and he has made a splendid success of the enter- prise. Mr. Dillard also owns and conducts a grocery house on Main Street, and this, too, is a very successful business. He also owns two other store buildings, though he is not interested in the enterprises they house, and he owns and operates a wagon yard, owns another hotel building and three nice residence properties in New Wilson.

Mr. Dillard is a democrat, and has always been the staunch ally of that party and its principles and pur- poses. In the days of the Chickasaw government he held certain offices under their rule, and since statehood in 1907 he has held various local offices under the present government. In 1907 he was elected constable, the first time in Hewitt Township and afterward for the Town of Wilson, serving three and a half years, after which he was appointed deputy sheriff, in which office he served until Christmas, 1914, when he resigned. Soon after he was appointed justice of the peace to fill an un- expired term and later was elected to the office in which he is acting today.

Mr. Dillard is a member of a number of fraternal orders, among them the Woodmen of the World, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and the Masons.

In 1880 Mr. Dillard married Miss Victoria Buckner, the daughter of P. M. Buckner, a well-known and pros- perous farmer of Tishomingo, Oklahoma, now deceased. Nine children have been born to them. Lee Hamilton and Joseph Carpenter live in Wilson and are engaged in

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farming. William Gray is manager of the wagon yard which Mr. Dillard owns. Minnie married John Moore and lives on the old home farm. Beulah Mamie is with her parents. Cubby Fowler lives on the home place. Floyd died at the age of about eleven years. Douglas and Kirmet are attending the public schools.

JEFFERSON DAVIS BALLARD, M. D. As a physician, business man and public leader Doctor Ballard has been identified with the old territorial regime and with the new state since 1892, and has become well known in different parts of the state, being now a resident of Oklahoma City.

He was born August 10, 1861, in a log house on a farm in St. Genevieve County, Missouri, a son of John G. and Susan E. (McDowell) Ballard. His parents were also natives of Missouri and his grandfather Ballard, a native of Virginia, followed Daniel Boone into Ken- tucky and afterwards pioneered into Missouri during the early '30s.

Doctor Ballard received his education in the public schools of his native county and in 1891 graduated M. D. from the Missouri Medical College of St. Louis. His first practice was done at Dallas, Texas, but he soon afterwards removed to Old Indian Territory, locating at Purcell. In 1892 he established his home at Colony, Oklahoma, and in November of the same year was elected probate judge of Washita County, being the first to hold that office by election. In 1894 he resigned to accept the appointment of physician to the Cheyenne and Arapahoe Indians at the Seger sub-Indian Agency, and he spent about five years in the duties of this Govern- ment appointment.

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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