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 82

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 82

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In 1899 Doctor Ballard located at Weatherford, Okla- homa, and besides the practice of medicine conducted a drug business until 1904. Throughout his career in Oklahoma he has taken an active part in democratic poli- tics. In 1898 he was elected representative from the old Twenty-fifth Legislative Assembly District, composed of eight of the largest counties in the territory. As a mem- ber of the Fifth Legislative Assembly he was on a number of important committees and was chairman of several. In 1899 Governor C. M. Barnes appointed him a member of the board of regents of the Territorial Agri- cultural and Mechanical College of Stillwater, and during his two years as member of the board he was elected its secretary. In 1903 he was elected mayor of Weather- ford for a term of two years. In 1905 Doctor Ballard located at Sayre, Oklahoma, and practiced medicine there until 1910. While there the town sent him as a member of a committee to attend the Constitutional Convention for the purpose of securing a change in county boundaries so that Sayre might be made the county seat of Beckham County. In 1911 Doctor Ballard was appointed assistant state auditor, but at the end of a year and a half he resigned to take the office of assistant state examiner and inspector. In April, 1913, he engaged in the drug busi- ness in Oklahoma City, and he now confines his medical practice to office work.

GEORGE S. BARBER, M. D. Although, as compared with some biographies which appear in this volume of men who have gained eminence in the profession of medicine, a newcomer in the field at Lawton, Dr. George S. Barber has already attained a good reputation as a successful physician and skilled surgeon. He had received a liberal literary education before starting upon the study of medicine, and after a long and thorough preparation in his chosen calling entered upon its practice at Lawton in 1911. Those who are acquainted with him will bear witness to his being an honorable, conscientious

physician, who, by hard study and indomitable energy, has become thoroughly conversant with the details of his profession.

Doctor Barber was born at Waukesha, Wisconsin, April 7, 1883, and is a son of G. F. H. and Lydia D. (Bacon) Barber. His paternal grandfather was Silas Barber, who was born in the State of New York, but lived the greater part of his life at Waukesha, Wiscon- sin, where he was engaged in the wool business and where his death occurred. The family originated in Holland and was founded in the Empire State prior to the outbreak of the Revolutionary war. G. F. H. Barber was born at Waukesha, Wisconsin, in 1851, and there entered business as a young man, continuing to be a resident of that city until 1904 when he came to Lawton, Oklahoma, to accept the position of president of the Citizens State Bank, a capacity in which he acted until his death in 1911. He was well known in political and public life, took an active participation in the activities of the republican party, and for several years served as a member of the city council of Lawton. A lifelong member of the Presbyterian Church, he served as elder for a long period of years. Mrs. Barber, who was also born in Wisconsin, survives her husband and resides at Lawton. There are two children in the family : Winchell F., who is president of the Citizens State Bank of Lawton; and Dr. George S., of this notice.

George S. Barber received his early education in the graded schools of Waukesha, Wisconsin, following which he became a student at the Madison (Wisconsin) High School, where he was duly graduated in 1901. After some preparation he entered the University of Wiscon- sin, where he pursued a literary course and was grad- uated in 1905, with the degree of Bachelor of Arts, and while attending that institution joined the Kappa Sigma Greek letter fraternity, of which he is still a member. Doctor Barber then entered Rush Medical College, Chicago, where he was graduated in 1908, with the degree of Doctor of Medicine, and while there joined the Nu Sigma Nu Greek letter medical fraternity, in which he still holds membership. In 1908 and 1909, Doctor Barber took a post-graduate course in the Presbyterian Hospital, Chicago, where he served as interne, and in 1910 and 1911 studied at Vienna, Austria, where he thoroughly prepared himself in General Diagnosis and Pathology.

On his return to the United States, in 1911, Doctor Barber began practice at Lawton, where he has con- tinued to be engaged in general medicine and surgery and has built up a very lucrative professional business, his offices being located in the Koehler Building. He is serving as city health officer, and has been connected with movements which have done much to contribute to better sanitation for Lawton. A member of the Presby- terian Church, he is acting as deacon and secretary. He holds membership in the leading organizations of his profession, and is fraternally connected with Lawton Lodge No. 183, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, of which he is master; Lawton Chapter No. 44, Royal Arch Masons, and Lodge No. 1056, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. He is a director in the Citizens State Bank of Lawton.

On June 9, 1915, Doctor Barber was married at Lawton to Miss Alma Fain, of Weatherford, Texas.

MYRON WHITE. The part taken by Myron White in the affairs of Muskogee during the past fifteen years has been that of an able and conscientious lawyer, whose affiliations have always been straightforward and honor- able and whose practice has given him some high connec- tions with local affairs. Mr. White is one of the most popular members of the Muskogee bar and has rendered

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some important services through his professional ac- tivities.

Myron White was born in Brown County, Kansas, September 6, 1875, a son of Jesse H. and Ella (White) White. His father, of English lineage and of Revolution- ary stock, was a native of Ohio, and for four years dur- ing the Civil war was a Union soldier. After the war ho married Ella White, who though of the same name was not related. She was born in Wisconsin, her father came from Scotland and her mother from Ireland. Their two children were Jesse M. and Myron, and when the lat- ter was two years of age she died. Her husband had a second marriage and seven children by that union.

After his mother's death Myron White until the age of ten was reared in his grandmother's home in Ohio. From that age until he left home he was on his father's farm in Pratt County, Kansas. His education came from pub- lic schools, from the Hiawatha Academy of Kansas and from Washburn College at Topeka. He was one of the many students of old Washburn who enlisted in 1898 for service in the Spanish-American war, and was a member of the College Company of the famous Twenty-second Kansas Regiment. He was on duty for ten months, and during that entire time was regimental color bearer. After leaving the army Mr. White entered the law de- partment of the University of Kansas and was graduated LL. B. June 12, 1902, receiving admission at the same time to practice before the Kansas bar. Five days after his graduation, on June 17th, Mr. White came to Musko- gee, and during the subsequent years has succeeded in gaining a large practice and a secure place as a lawyer and citizen.

He is a republican in politics, and in Masonry has taken the Knights Templar degrees and belongs to the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine. In December, 1902, he married Miss Sadie E. Swank of Topeka. Their three children are named Myron Eugene, Margaret Ella and Paul Russell.

THOMAS J. QUINN. Now serving as one of the city commissioners of Tulsa, Thomas J. Quinn has been a resident of Tulsa County for the past six years, and is the owner of extensive farm and other property in this locality. Mr. Quinn is a self-made business man, has been a hard worker since he was in his teens, and for many years was in business, in farming, and active in affairs in the vicinity of St. Louis.

Thomas J. Quinn was born in Galena, Jo Daviess County, Illinois, November 12, 1855, a son of Patrick and Margaret (Nolan) Quinn. Both parents were born in Queen's County, Ireland, were married there, and came to America on their wedding trip, traveling by a sailing vessel. Eight children were born to their union, and only two are now living, Thomas J. being the youngest child. The parents first located in Greenville, Wisconsin, sub- sequently removed to Galena where the father was en- gaged in contracting as a road and street builder, and finally went to St. Louis, Missouri, where he continued as a contractor in street work. In politics he was a democrat. Both parents are now deceased.

Thomas J. Quinn spent his early boyhood in St. Louis, attending school there for several years. The first money he ever earned was in helping unload potatoes from cars to wagons, and his pay was taken out in collecting the potatoes that dropped to the ground during the process of loading. He was at that time twelve or thirteen years of age, and soon afterwards found work in a rope-walk, and later in a brick yard. It was all hard labor, and that was the apprenticeship for his career. He was subsequently connected with paving and street work and at the age of twenty-three engaged in business for him-

self as a builder and contractor in St. Louis. His activ- ities extended to the handling of real estate and building as an investment. He was president of the Glendale Quarry Company of St. Louis. In 1895 Mr. Quinn bought a farm of 360 acres in St. Louis County and gave most of his attention to its management for the next fourteen years.

Having sold his property and other interests in St. Louis County, Mr. Quinn came to Tulsa in 1908, and here engaged in the real estate business, handling farm land. He is also the individual owner of 400 acres of fine farm land in Tulsa County. In April, 1914, he was elected city commissioner of the police and fire depart- ment, and has since given much of his time to the duties of this office. While living at Eureka, in St. Louis County, he served several terms as president of the school board, and was largely responsible for a noteworthy im- provement made in the local school system. He raised the general grade of the school, and through his efforts the fine high school building was constructed. He has always taken an active part in democratic politics, and served as a delegate to several state conventions in Missouri.

Mr. Quinn is a member of Tulsa Lodge No. 946, B. P. O. E., and of Tulsa Council No. 1104 of the Knights of Columbus. On December 31, 1878, he mar- ried Miss Mary O'Tool, who was born in St. Louis. To their union have been born a fine family of twelve chil- dren, eight of whom are living: Edward J .; David W .; Leo P .; Thomas R .; Irene Margaret; Blanche Mary ; William J., Mary and Louis, all three of whom died in infancy; Joseph F .; Belle; and George F., who died at the age of eight years. Mr. Quinn also has nineteen grandchildren.

ROBERT HERMANN HENRY, M. D. In point of equip- ment, experience, and broad ability and attainments, there is no member of the medical profession at Ard- more who enjoys higher prestige and rank than Doctor Henry. A native of Germany, but for more than thirty years a resident of America, a product of the best schools in this country and abroad, he has steadily been engaged in practice for over twenty years, chiefly in Texas and Oklahoma.

Born in Wurzen, Saxony, Germany, December 24, 1860, he is a son of Christian Gottlob and Augusta A. (Lausch) Heinrich, as the family name was spelled in the old country. His father was born in Wurzen in 1831 and died there in 1882. The same town was his home all his life and his active career was spent in the cigar business, as owner of a cigar factory. He was a member of the German Lutheran Church. His mother, Augusta A. Lausch, was born in Tammenhain, Saxony, in 1845, and is still living at Wurzen. She spent the years 1900-01 in the United States with her son, Doctor Henry. Doctor Henry was the oldest of four children. Augusta died at Wurzen in 1866, of diphtheria, and the next youngest, Hermann, died of the same disease at the same time. The youngest, Oscar, died in Wurzen, in 1906.

Doctor Henry attended the public schools in Wurzen, graduated in 1878 at Doenges College, and in the winter of 1883 came to America. For a time he followed the drug business in the State of Texas and then entered the University of Nashville, Tennessee, where after a full course he was graduated M. D. with the class of 1896. In the meantime as early as 1892 he had secured a license for practice from the State Board of Examiners in Texas, and was a physician in Quanah, that state, from 1892 to 1896. After his graduation at Nashville he spent a year in Europe, taking a general course in Leipsic. From 1896 to 1903 he was in practice at Cisco, Texas, and in

HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA

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the latter year moved to Ardmore, where he has since conducted a large general medical and surgical practice. His offices are at 171/2 North Washington Street. Doctor Henry has always been keenly alert in professional mat- ters, and has taken advantage of every opportunity to improve his own knowledge and skill. In 1900 he took post-graduate studies in the Chicago Policlinic, in 1901 was in the Eye and Ear Infirmary at New York City, was again in the Chicago Policlinic in 1910, and has made not infrequent sojourns in the larger cities of America as a student and a builder of clinics and other advantages.

In politics he is an independent democrat. He is sec- retary of the Carter County Medical Society, and a member of the State Medical Society and the American Medical Association. For a great many years Doctor Henry has been very much interested in the work of the Masonic fraternity, and has enjoyed many of the dis- tinctions in the various branches of the order. In 1888. he took his first degrees in Lodge No. 666, A. F. & A. M., at Margaret, Texas. He is a past master of Ardmore Lodge No. 31, A. F. & A. M .; a past high priest in Ardmore Chapter No. 11, R. A. M .; and took his Royal Arch work in Quanah Chapter No. 195, R. A. M., at Quanah, Texas, in 1890; is past thrice illustrious master of Ardmore Council, R. & S. M., also past grand master R. & S. M .; is past eminent commander of Ardmore Com- mandery No. 9, K. T., and also past grand commander, having received his degrees in the commandery at Ard- more in 1905; belongs to India Temple of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine at Oklahoma City; and is a thirty- second degree Scottish Rite with Indian Consistory No. 2 at McAlester. He is also affiliated with Ardmore Camp of the Woodmen of the World, and is a member of the Baptist Church.

On March 27, 1890, at Quanah, Texas, Doctor Henry married Miss Lou Ingram. Her father was W. I. Ingram, a farmer of Green County, Kentucky. Doctor Henry and wife have two children: Rowena A., who in June, 1915, married Charles R. McClain, and they live with Doctor Henry and wife, Mr. McClain having charge of the Carter County Abstract Company; Ingram, now a sophomore in the Ardmore High School.

HON. JAMES PAUL SPEER. A member of the Legisla- ture from Stephens County, James Paul Speer is a law- yer and leading citizen of Comanche. The lack of funds necessary to complete his education caused him to put his will power to a test during the latter years of his climb to the position of a successful lawyer in his town, and to a seat in the lower house of the State Legislature. Bright, active, progressive, he has made an enviable record for a man of twenty-six.

James Paul Speer was born May 16, 1888, in Oakland, Florida, a son of Arthur and Martha Carolina (Kincaid) Speer. While Mr. Speer chose to make his own career unaided he comes of an old and prominent family in the Southeastern United States. His grandfather, Judge James G. Speer, was one of the early settlers of Florida, a member of a colony of families that invaded the wilder- ness and laid out, organized and named the County of Orange and the towns of Orlando and Oakland. Judge Speer was an able lawyer, jurist and statesman, and filled many positions from county commissioner to presi- dent of the State Senate. He was author of the first local option law enacted by the Florida Legislature, his being the first prohibition law passed in that state. Judge Speer and the maternal grandfather Kincaid as- sisted in transporting Indians to Indian Territory fromu Georgia, Florida and North Carolina during the '30s. The early generations of the Kincaid family were resi- dents of Burke and Cherokee counties in North Carolina, and on the old Kincaid farm have been found many his-

toric relics of the days of Spanish exploration and occu- pancy. Representative Speer's father was a farmer who went into Florida from Georgia when a lad, and later established a home near Oakland which he named " Woodbourne." James Paul Speer was married January 15, 1916, to Miss Louise Yates, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. J. P. Yates, Jr., of Comanche, Oklahoma. He has a sister, Miss Gertrude Kincaid Specr, who lives in Oakland, Florida, and owns an orange grove on which she located after ten years of service as a teacher.

Mr. Speer received his primary education in the public schools. He then bought books and for several years studied them at home. In 1905-06 he was a student in the Young-Harris College at Young Harris, Georgia. Lack of money caused him to leave college, and he com- pleted a law course with a correspondence school, receiv- ing his degree LL. B. In 1909 he came to Oklahoma, and in the same year successfully passed the state bar exami- nations. He studied shorthand for a time at Oklahoma City, but abandoned that for the law and located at Co- manche. There he has served as city attorney, and has been a factor in democratic politics, a member of the Democratic County Central Committee, secretary of the Democratic Club and a member of the Young Men's Democratic Club of the state. In 1912 he made the race for nomination for representative, and though defeated his campaign made him popular over the county, and in 1914 he was nominated and elected to the House of Rep- resentatives by a good majority. In that campaign he traveled over 500 miles on horseback, coming in close touch with the people and making almost hourly speeches.

In the Fifth Legislature Mr. Speer was made chairman of the Committee on State Militia and a member of the committees on Legal Advisory, Education, Congressional Redistricting, Impeachment and Removal from Office, and Investigation of Judicial and Executive departments. He was the author of a free text book bill that passed the house by a vote of 76 to 19. This measure required a great deal of his time and talents, and he emphasized it in his legislative program. He gave much study to other educational measures. His bill providing for the equalization of prices on raw commodities bought by monopolies to give producers the benefit of competitive buyers and passed by the House by a vote of 75 to 4, is the first effort ever made by law to regulate the control of monopolies on buying and it attracted great attention.

Mr. Speer is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church South, affiliates with Lodge No. 165, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons at South Apopka, Florida, and with the Royal Arch Chapter at Duncan, Oklahoma. He is secretary of the Comanche Commercial Club, and has taken a leading part in advertising the mineral waters of the town, which are now being sold all over the coun- try, and also in promoting the annual summer carnival which for a number of years has been the leading attrac- tion of its kind between Oklahoma City and Fort Worth. He is a member of the Stephens County and the Okla- homa Bar associations, and is interested as a corporation stockholder in oil and gas development and the cotton ginning industry.

HALBERT A. SMITH is an Oklahoma attorney of twenty years experience, and has been identified with the City of Lawton since the rush of pioneers into the Kiowa and Comanche Reservation on the establishment of that town as the metropolis of Southwest Oklahoma. His work as a lawyer has given him a substantial reputation in that section of the state, and he has also become widely known for his activity in behalf of certain principles of politics and governmental control.

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HIalbert A. Smith was born at West Bend, Wisconsin, October 2, 1865. His ancestors originally came from England to New York State, and there is a record of service by members of the family in the Revolutionary war on the American side. His father was William A. Smith, who was born in New York State in 1823 and died at Stockton. Kansas, in 1901. He moved out to Wisconsin in 1843, when Wisconsin was still a territory, and as one of the pioneers cleared up a farm from the woods near West Bend. From Wisconsin he moved to the vicinity of Kansas City in 1867, and in 1900 retired from his business as a farmer and miller and lived in Stockton, Kansas, until his death. At the age of twenty- one, in 1864, he enlisted in the artillery service, and during the last year of the war was stationed near Washington, District of Columbia. He was a stanch republican throughout his life. William A. Smith mar- ried Miss Westover, who was born in New York State in 1831, and died in 1909 while visiting at El Reno, Okla- homa. Her children were: Henry, who many years ago went out to the Texas cattle range, and has since been lost track of, probably is deceased; Charles W., who holds a Government position at Topeka, Kansas; Andrew, who also went to Texas and his whereabouts are not known; Walter, a farmer in Western Oklahoma; Frank, a farmer in Eastern Colorado; Mary, wife of A. E. Newell, in the hardware and implement business at El Reno; Orson, who is a passenger conductor on the Missouri Pacific Railway with home in Kansas City; Halbert A .; Glory, wife of F. Patchin, a sheep raiser in Eastern Oregon; and Millie, wife of S. I. Sage, editor of a newspaper at Alma, Kansas.

Halbert A. Smith spent most of his early life on a farm, with an education obtained from the country schools near Kansas City and from the Harrisonville schools. For three years he was a student in the University of Kansas, leaving in 1889 and going to Kansas City where he found work with a surgical instru- ment house. He remained with them two years, and for one year sold their goods on the road.

Mr. Smith has known Oklahoma almost from the beginning of its development as a civilized country. He came to El Reno in 1895, and for several years supported himself by various work while carrying on his studies in the law office of John I. Dille, who was at that time attorney for the Rock Island Railway in Oklahoma and Indian Territory. He remained in Mr. Dille's office until admitted to the bar in 1896, and for five years practiced law in El Reno. For three years he was a United States commissioner at El Reno. In 1901 Mr. Smith came to Lawton, about the time of the opening, and has since been busied with a large practice in general civil and criminal law. His offices are in the City National Bank Building at the corner of D Avenue and Fourth Street. He is a member of both the county and state bar associations.

Mr. Smith is a prominent republican. He takes the stand in favor of the resubmission of the prohibition question, and has taken an active part in several cam- paigns in that cause. He was particularly active during 1910. With many others he believes that in view of the fact that Oklahoma became a prohibition state at the adoption of the constitution and that public opinion has had time to crystallize on the subject, it is one that should be resubmitted for either approval or subjection. Mr. Smith was the only delegate from Oklahoma to the convention at Louisville, Kentucky, in 1909, composed of delegates from all parts of the United States, and before that assemblage made one of the most noteworthy speeches. He is president of the Citizens League at Lawton. He belongs to a Greek letter college fraternity

and is a former member of the Lawton Chamber of Commerce.

In January, 1901, at El Reno Mr. Smith married Mrs Florence (Dale) Carson. Her father, John Dale, is : retired farmer living in El Reno. Her first husband was Dr. J. M. Carson. By her first marriage Mrs. Smith had a son, Emera, who is employed as an expert accountan; for the Lawton National Bank.

BEN WATKINS. There are many white men of the old Choctaw Nation, most of them intermarried into thi: tribe, whose activities for years have been the leading factor in the industrial development of the nation. They have taught the Indian the arts of agriculture and the science of the live stock industry, and they have instructed him in building schools and churches, town: and bridges, as well as how to trade profitably and invest . his money. One hears everywhere over the nation about the accomplishments of these white men, before the days of white settlements. The student of history learns that the spiritual development of the Indian has been due principally to the preaching of missionaries of the white race, and out of this text he gathers fragments of romance and legendary accounts of the occult religious ceremonies of the Indians before the coming of the missionaries. But in the annals of the Choctaw Nation little credit has been transferred to record of the white men whose lives were devoted to the purely educationa uplift of the tribe. There were only a few such men and among them was Ben Watkins.

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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