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 83

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 83

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Ben Watkins was a Virginian. He came of colonia stock and was born in the region of that Virginia aris tocracy the individualism of which generations have no in the least effaced. When he was yet a lad his father moved into Mississippi, where the youth was educated in literature and law. There, in the region inhabited by the Choctaws, he acquired something of a compre hension of the future of the Indian and was inspired to devote himself to their uplift. The Civil war prevented an early execution of his tentative plans, and, a majority of the Choctaws having already moved to Indian Terri tory, he there foresaw the region of his usefulness. After the close of the war he moved into Arkansas, near the Indian Territory line, and after a few months selected Fort Towson, Choctaw Nation, as the center of hit activities. Fort Towson at that time was one of the farthest west of military posts in Indian Territory and had become headquarters for adventurers and men il various lines of uplift work and trade. There Mr. Wat. kins established himself as a teacher, and under the Choctaw laws was granted a certificate to teach in the neighborhood schools. Hundreds of representativ English-speaking Choctaws today were his students a: boys. In 1873 he removed to Lukfata, which was the site of one of the first Indian settlements in the Choctav Nation, and there his educational work was carried 01 during the remainder of his life, which came to an end in 1899.

Ben Watkins mastered a speaking knowledge of the Choctaw language in the space of two weeks. Thereafte: he pursued diligently a study of the language, which enabled him to write and publish a Choctaw definer which probably was the first work of its kind ever writ ten. This line of education not only enabled him t make great progress in educational work, but prepare him for the practice of law in the new country. Thes attainments caused him to be appointed clerk of the Court of the Second Judicial District, with headquarter at Alikchi, another of the pioneer communities of th Choctaw Nation.

He was beloved of the Choctaws, both because of hi intellectual attainments and for his marriage to Melvin:

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James, a Choctaw girl, whose father, John James, came with the Indians from Mississippi and became one of the first settlers and leading men of Lukfata. This mar- riage made Mr. Watkins eligible for a national office, but he held no other than that of clerk. His legal ability, however, caused him to be selected by the Choc- taw Council as its legal adviser and in that position he drafted a great number of the measures that were con- sidered by the Legislature. By appointment of the board of education he later became a member of the board of examiners of applicants for teachers' certificates.

One of the ablest and most picturesque of Indian governors was Wilson Jones. He was a man of extraor- dinary foresight, and during his administration is said to have labored for his people to the end that they might make the most useful citizens possible when tribal days had passed. Accordingly, he selected a white man for his private secretary, and the man who was probably best of all fitted for it was given the position, Ben Watkins. Something of the experiences of Mr. Watkins in this capacity is contained in a series of articles, signed "Uncle Ben,"' that appeared in the Indian Citi- zen, at Atoka, during that period, and these articles, although they do not savor of boast, compel the conclu- sion that Mr. Watkins was the real governor during the Jones administration.

Ben and Melvina (James) Watkins were the parents of three children: Waldo E .; Mrs. John W. Thompson, the wife of a farmer at Rufe, Oklahoma; and Mrs. W. T. Erwin, wife of a farmer at Nolia, Oklahoma.

WALDO E. WATKINS. A son of Ben Watkins, that noted educator and leader in the Choctaw Nation, whose career has been sketched on other pages, is now one of the leading young business men of the Choctaw country, being cashier of the First National Bank of Valliant and filling several posts of public duty.

Waldo E. Watkins was born at Lukfata in 1883. After attending neighborhood schools he entered Spencer Academy, and later was a student at Harrell Institute at Muskogee and Jones Academy at Hartshorne. In 1905 he became a clerk in the bank of Valliant and two years later was elected cashier. The bank was national- ized in 1911, and his services were retained as cashier.

Mr. Watkins married in 1910 Miss Sue Townsend, who is one-half Choctaw blood. They have a daughter, Bernice, four years old. Mr. Watkins is a member of the Presbyterian Church and of the Masonic Order, being master of the Blue Lodge at Valliant and a member of Indian Consistory No. 2 at McAlester, and Bedouin Temple of the Mystic Shrine at Muskogee. He is a member of the Oklahoma and American Bankers' Asso- ciation, is clerk of the board of education and a member of the town board of trustees. Since statehood he has taken an active part in political affairs in McCurtain County, and is now chairman of the Democratic County Central Committee. Among other interests he is owner and publisher of the Valliant Tribune, and also has a modern stock farm near Valliant on which he is growing Hereford cattle and Poland China hogs.

EMMET L. TALMAN. A leading oil operator, banker and business man of Tulsa, Emmet L. Talman has had a progressive career that has taken him from a position as a humble clerk to that of one of the most substantial citizens of the Southwest. He was identified with the oil industry in Western Pennsylvania and came from Pittsburg to Tulsa and has done his share in making this city the Pittsburg of the Southwest.

Emmet L. Talman was born in Richmond, Virginia, in September, 1879, a son of William H. and Gertrude R. (Richter) Talman. His father was also a native of

Richmond and died in that city in 1889 at the age of forty-two. He was prominent in public affairs in the old capital of the Confederacy, held the office of city clerk, and his last office was as clerk of court. He was a member of the various Masonic bodies, of the Knights of Pythias, the Elks and Knights and Ladies of Honor. He was married in 1872 at Richmond to Miss Richter, who was born at Leipsic, Germany, and is still living, the mother of five children.

Emmet L. Talman as a boy attended the public schools of Richmond, but partly from necessity and partly from the native energy of his character began paying his own way when still a boy. He delivered newspapers, later was a shipping clerk in a wholesale clothing house, from that became abstract clerk for the Southern Railroad Company, and in 1900 went to Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, and was employed in the department store of the Kauf- man Bros. in that city for several years. In 1904 Mr. Talman became connected with T. N. Barnsdale, a prominent oil producer of Pittsburg, and was associated with that gentleman, whose name is also familiar in southwestern oil circles, for ten years. During this time Mr. Talman came to Oklahoma in February, 1909, and since February, 1912, has had his home in Tulsa. In 1914 he was elected vice president of the Merchants and Planters Bank of Tulsa, and on January 1, 1915, became general manager, secretary and treasurer of the Beaver Oil & Gas Company of Tulsa.

Mr. Talman is a democrat in politics, and takes an interested part in all local affairs. He was married February 22, 1904, to Miss Adda G. Beach, who was born in Jefferson County, Pennsylvania. They are the parents of one son, Emmet L., Jr. .

RUFUS S. HENDON. The present county assessor of Carter County is one of the old settlers of Southern Okla- homa and Indian Territory and in many varied relations he has performed a quiet, faithful and diligent service, whether acting for himself or for the general public. No better man could have been found in Carter County for the present office than Mr. Hendon.

The Hendons came originally from England, settled in Tennessee, and from there moved to Alabama, where at least three generations of the family have lived. Mr. Hendon's grandfather was Alexander Hendon, who was born in Tennessee about 1808, and in early manhood moved to Walker County, Alabama, where he was a farmer and planter and died in 1900. Rufus S. Hendon of Ardmore was born January 28, 1863, also in Walker County, Alabama. His father, Joseph W. Hendon, was born in the same County of Alabama in 1836, was reared and married there, but in 1869, after the war, in which he served with an Alabama regiment of infantry during the last three years in the Confederate army, he moved to Sulphur Springs, Hopkins County, Texas, and in 1870 to Black Jack Grove. He was a school teacher, a mechanic, also a druggist, but in 1873 moved onto a farm near Black Jack Grove. In 1879 he transferred his home to Cooke County, Texas, and in 1880 to St. Joe, Montague County, where his death occurred in 1881. He was an active member of the Cumberland Presby- terian Church and belonged to the Masonic fraternity. Joseph W. Hendon married Sarah J. Reid, who was born in Alabama in 1836 and died at Burneyville, Indian Ter- ritory, in 1891. Their five children were: Savannah, now deceased; Rufus S .; J. E., a contractor and builder at Haworth, Oklahoma; B. B., who is a merchant at Dustin, Oklahoma; and Lucy, who married Mr. Marshall, a farmer, and lives in Greer County, Oklahoma.

The early education of Rufus S. Hendon was limited to the public schools of Texas until he was thirteen years of age. Thereafter until 1900 he was in the main identi-

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fied with agricultural pursuits. He lived in Cooke County, Texas, but in 1881 removed to Leon in Indian Territory. In 1891 he went to Poolville, Indian Territory, was a farmer in that locality, for four years kept books for I. E. Harmon & Bros., was postmaster and merchant there fivo years, but in August, 1909, came to Ardmore. In tho county seat of Carter County he was first employed as bookkeeper for tho Cold Storage Company one year, then for two years was in the same line of work for C. P. Hall, the furniture merchant. In 1912 he became deputy county assessor, served through 1913, and on November 6, 1914, was elected as chief of that office. In the meantime, in September, 1914, he had been appointed to fill out the unexpired term of A. S. Clarkson, deceased. After his election he took up his duties in January, 1915, for a term of two years. His offices are in tho courthouse.

For many years Mr. Hendon has been actively inter- ested in party affairs of the democrats, has done much to help his friends, but only recently entered a campaign for his own election. He is recording steward of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and is now affiliated with Ardmoro Lodge No. 31, A. F. & A. M., having for- merly been affiliated with both the Modern Woodmen of America and the Woodmen of the World.

In 1892 at Elk, now called Poolville, Mr. Hendon married Miss Louisa Holman. Her father, J. T. Holman, lives at Ardmore and is a brick and stone mason. To their marriage have been born four children: Joseph E., who was graduated in June, 1915, with the degree LL. B. from the law department of the Oklahoma University and is living at Ardmore with his parents; Wilford R., who is now at Kerrville in the mountainous district of Western Texas for the benefit of his health; Mabel, a junior in the Ardmore High School; and Cecile, a fresh- man in the high school.

HON. W. MILTON BICKEL. The Fifth Senatorial Dis- trict in 1914 sent its first democratic representative to the State Senate. At the November election W. Milton Bickel overcame a normal republican majority between 700 and 900 in that district and went into office with a plurality of twenty-one votes. While this election has brought to the Senate a valuable member and a lawyer of broad experience, his election was also a high tribute to his personal standing and his commendable record as county judge in Woods County. He held that office four years, and during that time only two of his decisions were reversed by higher courts. As county judge too Mr. Bickel was a democrat in a county that is normally re- publican, and it was his popularity associated with his services as county judge that undoubtedly enabled him to seek with success the higher official honors which brought him to the State Senate.

W. Milton Bickel was born in McPherson County, Kan- sas, in 1877, a son of H. M. and Elizabeth Bickel. There is an interesting bit of family history that may be noted here. Michael Bickel, the. paternal grandfather, of Ger- man extraction, lived in the southern states before the war, practicing his profession as civil engineer. When the war broke out he became a member of a Confederate regiment formed in Mississippi. At the same time his son, H. M. Bickel, was living in the North, having been reared in Iowa, joined an lowa regiment for service in the Union army. These two soldiers, on opposing sides in the great conflict, fought against each other in the battle of Shiloh. H. M. Bickel afterwards became promi- nent in McPherson County, Kansas, was one of the lead- ing democrats there and in 1884 was candidate for Con- gress in the Seventh Kansas District, but was defeated by the republican nominee. From 1884 to 1888, during Cleveland's administration, he held the office of receiver

of the United States Land Office at Larned, Kansas, and after that was engaged in the practice of law. He moved to Alva, Oklahoma, in 1893, soon after the estab- lishment of that town.

Senator Bickel received most of his education in Kan- sas, attending the public schools and graduating from the high school at Larned, and after completing a course in shorthand and typewriting in a business college at Wichita took up the study of law in his father's office, and for some time was his father's secretary. He was admitted to the bar at Alva in 1898. Three years pre- viously, at the age of eighteen, he had been appointed journal clerk in the office of United States Judge J. L. McAtee, a position he held four years, until his retirement in 1899. For the following two years he was deputy county treasurer of Woods County. In 1901 Sen- ator Bickel engaged in the banking business as cashier of the Bank of Ingersoll, Oklahoma, and later was cashier of the Bank of Commerce at Alva. In 1910 he was elected county judge of Woods County, and in 1912 was re-elected to that office. Mr. Bickel is affiliated with the Masonic fraternity. He was married in 1902 to Rosa B. France of Woods County. Their two children are named Marshall, aged twelve, and Beryl, aged five.

As a member of the Fifth Legislature Senator Bickel was chairman of the Committee on Senatorial and Judicial Apportionment, and a member of the committees on Legal Advisory, Constitution and Constitutional Amendments, Judiciary, Appropriations, Municipal Cor- porations, Banks and Banking and State and County Affairs. As part of his legislative record, he advocated a repeal of the county tax assessor law, offering instead a measure providing that only counties expressly so vot- ing should possess that office. He introduced and cham- pioned a measure amending the constitution so as to pro- vide that women should have equal suffrage with men in case that at an election held for that purpose, in which only women voted, a majority of all women otherwise qualified should declare in favor of such amendment.

JUDGE W. C. STEVENS was one of the pioneer settlers in the Cherokee Strip of Oklahoma, and has been one of the leading lawyers in the western section of the state for twenty years or more. His home was in Kingfisher County until the opening of the Southwestern reserva- tions in 1901, and now for nearly fifteen years he has been in active practice at Lawton. He has the distinction of having served as the first county attorney of Comanche County, from August, 1901, the date of the opening, until January, 1903. Governor Jenkins appointed him to that office.

Walter C. Stevens was born at Lewiston, Maine, August 25, 1868. His father, C. P. Stevens, who is now engaged in the practice of law at Benicia, California, was born near Lewiston, Maine, in 1844, and in 1861, at the age of seventeen entered the Union army and saw four years of active service. He was with Company E of the Fifth Maine Volunteer Infantry. The chief incident of his career as a soldier came in the battle of Winchester, when he was thrice wounded in one day. He was struck in the head, on the leg, and his left arm was broken. All his service was in the Army of the Potomac. After the close of the war, and still only a young man in years, he lived in his native state for a time, and in 1869 became a settler on a farm in Iowa, and in 1871 moved to Beloit in Mitchell County, Kansas. After farming for some years he studied law and was a practicing attorney at Beloit, Kansas, for a number of years. In 1894 he moved out to Benicia, California, and is still engaged in practice in that city. He is a repub- lican in politics and has long been active in church work

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as a member of the Baptist Church. C. P. Stevens married Celeste Small, who was born at Lewiston, Maine, in 1851, and died at Benicia, California, in 1902. Judge Stevens is the first of their two children, and his sister is Sarah, wife of Walter Z. Rankin, a merchant at Benicia, California.

Judge Stevens spent his early youth chiefly at Beloit, Kansas, where he attended the public schools, graduating from high school with the class of 1884. In 1886 he grad- uated LL. B. from the Kansas State University, and was admitted to the bar at Lawrence on June 3 of that year. From his admission to the bar until 1893 he was in practice at Beloit, and then located in the newly opened Cherokee strip at Hennessey in Kingfisher County. He served as city attorney of Hennessey four years, and for two years was judge of probate of Kingfisher County. From that district he was also twice elected a member of the Territorial House of Representatives, serving four years, during the sessions of 1899-1900, and 1901-02. During his first term he was chairman of the judiciary committee, and a member of the committee on elections and others. In 1901-02 he was honored by election as speaker of the house. His record while a member of the Legislature is one of importance. He amended and prepared the codification of the Oklahoma Election Laws of 1899, and they remained on the statute books with little change until Oklahoma came into the Union. Judge Stevens was also author of the Cashion Monument Bill, providing a monument at Hennessey in Kingfisher County in honor of Roy Cashion, who was the first Oklahoma volunteer to be killed in the Spanish-American war. Roy Cashion enlisted from Hennessey, and the monument in his honor stands in that town.

In August, 1901, Judge Stevens removed to Lawton, and has since looked after a large civil and criminal practice, with offices in the First National Bank Build- ing. He is a member of the county and state bar asso- ciations, and has always been an active republican. During his residence in Beloit, Kansas, he served two years as police judge.

Fraternally Judge Stevens is a past noble grand of the Beloit Lodge of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and past chief patriarch of the Encampment of the same order; and is a member of the Lawton Camp of the Modern Woodmen of America and of the lodge of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. He also belongs to the Chamber of Commerce.

On September 11, 1889, at Beloit, Judge Stevens mar- ried Miss Alice E. Casley. Her father, the late Paul Casley, was for many years in the United States mail service, with headquarters at Beloit. Judge Stevens' only daughter, Laverne, is a graduate of the Lawton High School and the Ziegfeld College of Music at Chicago, and is now the wife of Fred G. Trosper, who has a fine dairy farm five miles west of Lawton. The Stevens family has been identified with New England for many generations, having lived originally in Massa- chusetts prior to the Revolutionary war, after which they removed to the State of Maine.

CHARLES H. SHAFFER. Now serving as clerk of courts for Muskogee County, Charles H. Shaffer is one of the deservedly popular men of Eastern Oklahoma, and prior to his entry into official affairs was for many years en- gaged in the railroad service, a work that brought him to old Indian Territory nearly twenty-five years ago.

Mr. Shaffer is a Pennsylvania man, and his ancestry goes back to early colonial days, and includes soldiers in several wars of our nation. He was born in Center County, Pennsylvania, December 9, 1859, a son of Adam F. and Fayetta (Heckman) Shaffer. Both parents were

born in Pennsylvania and were of German extraction. The Shaffers came from Germany to America about 1660, locating near Reading. The great-grandfather of Charles H. Shaffer was Johannes Shaffer, who fought with the colonial troops in the War of the Revolution. His son, Adam Shaffer, was a prominent farmer in Central Penn- sylvania, and gave his son Adam F. the advantages of a good education, so that he was fitted for the work of teaching and subsequently became a lumber merchant, but died when only twenty-three years of age, leaving two children, of whom Charles H. is now the only sur- vivor. The mother subsequently married Rev. William Lamey of the United Presbyterian Church.

Charles H. Shaffer after the death of his father re- mained with his paternal grandfather, who had a com- fortable home and a large farm and was a man of utmost kindness in his relations to his family. Mr. Shaffer received the advantages of a good English education, which was supplemented by a business course in the Eastman 's Business College at Poughkeepsie, New York. At the age of nineteen he left the home farm to begin the battle of life for himself, and after reaching Illinois became identified with the railway service. He learned telegraphy, and for twenty-six years was constantly in railroad work, most of the time as station agent. His assignments to duty were in the states of Illinois, Wis- consin and Minnesota, and in September, 1891, he was sent into Indian Territory. His first station in what is now the State of Oklahoma was at Wagoner, and sub- sequently for about fifteen years he was at old Fort. Gibson. While there he became identified with local affairs as assistant cashier of a bank. In January, 1911, Mr. Shaffer was appointed clerk of the Muskogee County courts, and after four years under appointment he was regularly elected to the office of court clerk in 1914.

Mr. Shaffer is a democrat, a Master Mason, and is also affiliated with the Knights of Pythias, the Inde- pendent Order of Odd Fellows and the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. His church is the Presby- terian. By his marriage in 1891 to Miss Mary Kreiger he has one daughter, Edna.

E. ROGERS KEMP. The marvelously productive oil wells of Oklahoma have attracted to this state men of ability and experience who have received their training largely in the oil regions of the East, and whose activ- ities in their new locality have done much to add to Oklahoma's growing prestige. In this class may be named E. Rogers Kemp, who since 1904 has carried on extensive operations in Tulsa, where he is now president of the Toxaway Oil Company.

Mr. Kemp was born at Oil City, Venango County, Pennsylvania, February 14, 1872, a son of Gipson R. and Elizabeth W. (Hough) Kemp, and a member of a family that traces its ancestry back to the Revolutionary war, in which several of its members participated as soldiers of the American army. Gipson R. Kemp was born in Pennsylvania, in 1835, and became one of the pioneer men of the oil industry in Pennsylvania, being connected with this business up to the time of his death, in 1884, when he was but forty-nine years of age. He had a successful career, and was widely known as an oil de- veloper and broker, and as a member of the Oil City Oil Exchange. Politically he was a democrat, but his ex- tensive business interests left him but little time to participate in public matters. Mrs. Kemp, who survives her husband, has been the mother of three children: Ada, Anna and E. Rogers.

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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