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 84

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 84

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E. Rogers Kemp was educated in the public schools of Oil City, which he attended until sixteen years of age, and at that time began to receive his primary business

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experience in the office of a Pittsburg fire insurance agency. After one year thus engaged he became iden- tified with the oil producing business, securing a position in the office of E. H. Jennings & Brothers, of Pitts- burg, and rose steadily in their employ until he had attained the position of head bookkeeper. In 1900 he became secretary and treasurer of the Atlantic Tube Company, of Pittsburg, but after two years he again became interested with the firm of E. H. Jennings & Brothers in the production of oil and came to Oklahoma for them, taking up his residence at Tulsa in 1904, and since that time has continued his activities here, his present office being located at No. 211 South Boston Avenue. He has varied and extensive interests, and in addition to being president of the Toxaway Oil Company, is a director in the Central National Bank of Tulsa. Mr. Kemp is a member of Delta Lodge, A. F. & A. M .; Tulsa Chapter, R. A. M .; Tulsa Commandery, K. T., and Akdar Temple, A. A. O. N. M. S. He also belongs to the local lodge of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, and to the local chapter of the Sons of the American Revolution. Also takes great interest in edu- cational work, being chairman of the Executive Commit- tee of Henry Kendall College located at Tulsa. He do- nated Laura Jennings Kemp Lodge, dormitory for girls, to this institution, which is the leading Presbyterian college of the Southwest. Politically he is a republican, but has had no aspirations of a public nature, and his only connection with civic affairs is as a supporter of movements calculated to be of benefit to his adopted community.

Mr. Kemp was married April 9, 1908, to Miss Laura Jennings, who was born in Pennsylvania, and she died in 1913, the mother of one son, Evan Jennings. On February 6, 1915, Mr. Kemp was united in marriage with Miss Maude Painter, of Tulsa. Both Mr. and Mrs. Kemp are popular in social circles of the city, and have numerous friends. They are members of the Presby- terian Church.

J. B. O'BRYAN. Although Oklahoma is one of the youngest members of the Federal Union the liberal and learned professions have found a congenial home here, the bench and bar in particular having many members whose knowledge of jurisprudence and forensic ability will compare favorably with that of their legal brethren in other states. Among the able lawyers of Johnston County is J. B. O'Bryan, of Tishomingo, who was born in McLennan County, Texas, in 1869. His parents were Irwin T. and Mattie F. (Chandler) O'Bryan. The father, a native of North Carolina, went to Texas in 1846 and was there appointed lieutenant in the Sixth Texas Cav- alry, which took part in the Mexican war. He was a graduate in medicine from Tulane University at New Orleans and practiced his profession for thirty-five years in Texas. Mr. O'Bryan's paternal grandfather, who died in 1825, was one of the most prominent men of North Carolina. On the maternal side the subject of this sketch is a grandson of the Rev. P. B. Chandler, who was a pioneer of Texas and one of the best known Baptist ministers of that state. Two of the latter's brothers, Capt. Joel W. Chandler and Lieut. Harrison H. Chandler, participated in the battle of San Jacinto under Gen. Sam Houston.

J. B. O'Bryan acquired the elements of knowledge in the public schools of Texas, and was subsequently a pupil at Baylor University at Waco, that state. In 1886 he was graduated with the degree of A. B. from Washing- ton and Lee University, after which he began the study of law in the office of Judge Clark at Waco. Here he began the practice of his profession after his admission to the bar in 1895, but in 1899 he moved to Tishomingo,

where he entered into a law partnership with William H. Murray, an intermarried citizen, with whom he was asso- ciated for a number of years, Mr. Murray attending to those cases coming to the firm which were to be tried in the Chickasaw tribal and Federal courts and Mr. O'Bryan to those which were to be tried in the Federal courts. The firm built up a wide practice over the Chickasaw Nation and North Texas, the association of the two part- ners being severed only when Mr. Murray, in 1906, became a member of the Constitutional Convention, of which he was also president. Subsequent to this Mr. Murray advanced to other honors, being speaker of the House of Representatives of the First State Legislature, a candidate for the democratic nomination for governor and a member of Congress, which last mentioned posi- tion he still holds. For some time after the dissolution of the partnership between Mr. Murray and Mr. O'Bryan the latter was associated with George W. Burris, a pioneer lawyer of this section, but is now practicing alone. He is a member of the county and state bar associations, of the Tishomingo Commercial Club and of the Presbyterian Church. He also belongs to the Good Roads Club and has taken an active and useful part in the development of this town and county. He is a democrat in politics and several times has served as special judge. An inter- esting feature in his early career is that Judge George W. Clark, of Waco, Texas, with whom he studied law, was an opponent of James Hogg in one of the most spec- tacular campaigns for the governorship that was ever waged in Texas. While he never participated actively in the events relating to the Indian history of Johnston County, Mr. O'Bryan, during his residence here of six- teen years, has been an interested spectator of the transi- tion from the tribal era to the beginning of the progress of this region under state government.

Mr. O'Bryan was married in 1889 at Hubbard City, Texas, to Miss Lessie McLain, daughter of one of the leading cattlemen of that section. They have seven chil- dren, namely: Henry, manager of the plant of the Southwestern Lumber Company, at Wapanucka; J. B., Jr., who is engaged in business at Girard, Texas; and Bessie J., Kate, Gladys, William M. and Thomas, who are residing at home with their parents.

J. ELMER THOMAS. The representative of the Seven- teenth Senatorial District, in the Oklahoma State Senate, J. Elmer Thomas, is a lawyer and constructive statesman of eminent ability, a methodical thinker and practical worker, a thorough master of parliamentary law and a leader in advanced thought relating to municipal and state government. Senator Thomas' achievements have been earned by his own efforts and energies, and his struggles to get an education and a foothold in the pro- fessional world consist largely of alternate years of work and study. With a common school education he entered the Central Normal College, at Danville, Indiana, in 1893, with financial resources that enabled him to remain there but one year. During the next three years he alternated teaching with going to school and in 1897 completed the course in the Central Normal College, fol- lowing which he taught public schools and for one year was principal of a township school, and later entered De Pauw University, at Greencastle, Indiana, from which institution he was graduated in 1900, with the degree of Bachelor of Arts.

In 1900 Senator Thomas began the practice of law at Oklahoma City, having taken a law course in the Central Normal College, pursued law studies privately while at- tending De Pauw University and been admitted to the bar at Greencastle in 1897, and his college diploma and admission credentials in Indiana admitted him to the Oklahoma bar. He had chosen the normal school educa-

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HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA

1233

tion first in preference to the high school and college course because, being in moderate circumstances and hav- ing to make his own way, he saw an opportunity to make rapid advancemeut, and this idea has been the basis of his consistent advocacy of numerous institutions of learning in Oklahoma, an idea for the best advancement of poor boys and girls. A second factor in his educa- tional career was the winning, in 1895, of a scholarship in an oratorical contest, and this paid his tuition and half of the expenses of a year in college. In 1901 Sen- ator Thomas went to Lawton, Oklahoma, and there con- tinued the practice of law, for a time being junior part- ner in the firm of Smith & Thomas.

In 1896 Senator Thomas had his first experience in politics when, as a member of the Democratic Club of his college, he toured a part of Indiana as a speaker for William Jennings Bryan. He took an active part also in the democratic campaign in Indiana in 1900, and that year had resolved to enter the Columbian Law School at Washington, District of Columbia, and had his books packed for departure when he concluded to come to Okla- homa instead. At Lawton, Senator Thomas assisted in the organization of the first democratic club, in 1901, but his interest in politics remained nominal until in 1907 he was elected a member of the Senate in the First State Legislature, a position which he has occupied un- interruptedly ever since. During the First Legislature he was chairman of the Legal Advisory Committee, a chairmanship which he retained in the Second Legisla- ture. In the third session he was president pro tempore of the Senate and in the Fourth and Fifth Legislatures was chairman of the Committee on Appropriations. He is the author of practically all acts relating to the dis- position of state school lands and the income received from them. In the Third Legislature he sought to create the office of state tax commissioner, who should be secre- tary of the State Board of Equalization, but this bill was vetoed by the governor, but in the Fifth Legislature a similar idea was embodied in the message of the gov- ernor. As chairman of the Committee on Appropriations he made an intimate study of the financial features of state government and developed his well-known plan for a commission form of government for the state, a plan somewhat like that advocated by Governor Williams in his first message. His ideas on a different basic form of state government are advanced and held in high esteem by leading men of Oklahoma. In the Fourth Legislature, Senator Thomas took a leading part in state capitol legis- lation and was a member of the committee that ended the historic fight for the capitol site and brought about the selection of the site on which the building was erected. In the Fifth Legislature he was the author of commendatory legislation that settled differences between opposing parties in regard to the Capitol Commission and their duties and the manner of spending the capitol money.

To Senator Thomas is due practically all of the credit for the beginning of construction of Government irriga- tion projects in Oklahoma. As a representative of the Chamber of Commerce of Lawton, he made several trips to Washington, D. C., convinced the Secretary of the Interior that irrigation was needed in Oklahoma, caused the Reclamation Service to send an inspector to this state for investigation that resulted favorably to the project, and finally aided in the passage through Congress of a bill setting aside 600 acres of Indian school land near Lawton as the basis for operations and making avail- able what may be necessary of the irrigation fund to the credit of the state held by the Government. The state has some millions of dollars to its credit for recla- mation work, and the Lawton project is doubtless the beginning of extended irrigation projects in Oklahoma.

Senator Thomas has completed a statute regarding the construction of roads and highways which is conceded to be a solution to the many complex legal and practical problems that have confronted the state since the begin- ning of state government. With H. A. Lloyd, a banker of Lawton, Senator Thomas established Medicine Park, one of the leading pleasure and health resorts of the state and the Southwest, located in the Wichita Moun- tains, near Lawton and Fort Sill, and he was also a prime mover in the construction of an interurban railroad between those two points.

On September 24, 1902, Senator Thomas was married to Miss Edith Smith, daughter of Judge Wilford M. Smith, who, as a lawyer in South Dakota, was a member of the First Senate of that state. One son has been born to this union: Wilford, aged ten years, who was a page in the House of Representatives during the Fifth Legis- lature. Senator Thomas is a member of Lawton Lodge No. 1056, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, of the Masons, and of the Phi Delta Theta college frater- nity. He belongs also to the Lawton Chamber of Com- merce and of the Medicine Park Club, and is treasurer and secretary of the Medicine Park Company and an hon- orary member of the Oklahoma Press Association.

ROBERT J. RAY. Judge Ray of Lawton, now presiding over the County Court, is an Oklahoma eighty-niner. He has been identified with all the more important openings in Oklahoma Territory, and resided successively in the original Oklahoma at Oklahoma City, then at Woodward, and finally became a pioneer and prominent settler at Lawton with the opening of that reservation. His career as a lawyer covers a quarter of a century and with a successful practice he has long been a power in demo- cratic politics, and is well known by all the prominent men in public life in the state.

Robert J. Ray was born in Bedford County, Tennes- see, December 7, 1864, and the Ray family originally lived in North Carolina. His father, John C. Ray, was born in Tennessee in 1827 and died in 1895 at Flatcreek, Tennessee, where he lived for many years, combining the business of millwright and miller with that of farming. The old mill which he opened and operated is still stand- ing, and its machinery is occasionally turned even at the present time for the grinding of grist. The maiden name of the mother was Elsie Jane Reagor, who was born in Tennessee in 1833, and is still living on the old farm at Flat Creek. There was a large family of children, mentioned briefly as follows: David G., who was a newspaper man and died at the age of forty-five in Texas; Dr. H. F., who graduated from the Franklin Osteopathie Institute in Kentucky and is now in practice at Charlotte, North Carolina; Albert, a mechanic at Birmingham, Alabama; Alvin, a twin brother of Albert, who was drowned in Texas at the age of twenty-one; Judge Robert J .; Watt F., lives at Flat Creek and is a stock trader; Mary, who died at the age of twenty-five; Kittie, who married Fin Gowan, and they live on their farm near the old homestead; John B., who lives on the old home place where the family has lived for over fifty years; and Myrtle, who died at the age of four years.

Judge Ray grew up in Bedford County and his early recollections center about the old farm and the mill at Flatcreek. He attended the common schools until seventeen years of age and then run away from home, eventually finding work in a sawmill in Arkansas. From work as a common laborer he qualified and taught school, and studied law at every possible opportunity. He taught in Arkansas and for one'year in old Indian Terri- tory, having come to what is now the State of Oklahoma

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HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA

in 1888. In the fall of 1889 Judge Ray came to Okla- homa City, a few months after the opening of the territory, and was a participaut in the eveutful life of tho capital city almost from the beginning. Ou June 10, 1890, the day the Supreme Court of Oklahoma Territory was organized, he was admitted to practice, and forth- with took up the active work of his profession. Judge Ray practiced at Oklahoma City two years, and served as city attorney in 1891-92. In 1892 he removed to Cheyenne iu Roger Mills County, and iu September, 1893, went into the Cherokee Strip, locating at Wood- ward until 1901.

Judge Ray has the distinction of having beeu the only democrat elected to the Territorial Senate in 1894. He was sent up from Woodward, aud gave some efficient service during 1895-96. President Cleveland appointed him register of the Woodward Land Office, and he held that position from 1895 to 1897.

With the opening of the Kiowa and Comanche reserva- tions in 1901 Judge Ray moved to Lawton, and as a lawyer has since enjoyed a large general, civil and criminal practice. He was elected county judge Novem- ber 3, 1914, for a term of two years beginning January 1, 1915. He was a member of the first school board at Lawton. He has long been prominent in the democratic party, and he attended every democratic state convention in territorial days. He has hosts of friends all over Oklahoma and his name among them all is plain "Bob."

On January 20, 1895, at Winfield, Kansas, Judge Ray married Miss Olive B. Smith, daughter of B. B. and Susan Smith, of Woodward, Oklahoma. Her father died December 25, 1913, having been au attorney at Wood- ward. Judge Ray and wife have one son, Kenneth, now a student in the Cameron District Agricultural School at Lawton.

CLINTON MOORE. Coming to Indian Territory in 1904, it has been given to Mr. Moore to achieve large success and much influence in connection with the development of the oil industry in what is now the State of Okla- homa, and he is known and honored as a loyal and public-spirited citizen. He has extensive interests in the production of oil and gas, and it is pleasing to note that he has been a prominent figure in this line of enterprise for many years, his association with the oil industry having been initiated, in Pennsylvania, within about a year after the termination of his valiant service as a soldier of the Union in the Civil war. It will thus be readily understood that, within a period of virtually half a century, he has gained authoritative knowledge of all details of the business and that Oklahoma has been favored in gaining his personal and capitalistic inter- position in the developing and exploiting of its fine nat- ural resources.

On a farm near the City of Rochester, Monroe County, New York, Clinton Moore was born on the 28th of February, 1848, and he is a son of Thomas and Jane (Doremus) Moore, the former a native of Yates County and the latter of Seneca County, that state. In his early life the father was a successful and popular teacher in the schools of the old Empire State, but the major part of his active career was one of close and successful iden- tification with the fundamental industries of agriculture and stock-growing, of which he was long a representative in Monroe County, New York. He was born in the year 1800 and was about eighty-three years of age at the time of his death, which occurred in the City of Roches- ter, his wife having died in Venango County, Pennsyl- vania, in 1868, when sixty years of age. Linus Moore was a citizen of prominence and influence in his com- munity and served many years as justice of the peace in

Monroe County. His father, Roger Moore, was a valiant soldier in the war of the Revolution, in which he served as captain of a company in the command of Gen. Ethan Allen. He was taken prisoner at the battle of Fort Ticonderoga. He to whom this sketch is dedicated was the ninth in order of birth in a family of five sous and five daughters, and he has three brothers and two sisters still living.

Clinton Moore was reared to the age of twelve years on the homestead farm and the following three years were passed in the City of Rochester, his education in the meanwhile having been that acquired in the com- mon schools of the locality and period. On August 1, 1863, about six months prior to his sixteenth birthday anniversary, Mr. Moore gave distinctive assurance of his youthful patriotism by tendering his services in defense of the Union. He enlisted in the Twenty-second New York Volunteer Cavalry, and was with General Grant's command in the Wilderness campaign, taking part in the battle of Cold Harbor and in Wilson's raid from City Point to Washington. Thereafter his gallant regi- ment served under Sheridan in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia and took part in the battle of Winchester, Virginia, on the 19th of September, 1864. On the 22d of the same month he was shot from his horse in an attack on the part of Moseby's guerrillas, near Front Royal, and after being seut to the hospital at Win- chester he was transferred to a hospital at Frederick City, Maryland. He recuperated and rejoined his regi- ment, with which he was assigned to provost duty in the Valley of Virginia until the close of the war. He was mustered out August 1, 1865, and duly received his honor- able discharge, after having made a record that shall ever reflect honor upon his name and memory-a faith- ful and valiant soldier who aided in the preservation of national integrity.

After the close of the war Mr. Moore took a course of study in the Bryant & Stratton Business College at Rochester, New York, and in the winter of 1865 he went to the oil fields of Pennsylvania, establishing his head- quarters at Titusville in the spring of 1866 and being thereafter closely concerned with oil production in that state for many years. Thereafter he followed the devel- opments along the same important line of industry in Ohio and West Virginia, and finally he came to Indian Territory in 1904, after which year he maintained his residence at Bartlesville until March 1, 1916, when he came to Tulsa. He has built a beautiful home in Tulsa, at 1701 South Denver Street. He now has exten- sive oil interests in Oklahoma and has been an influen- tial figure in the development of the great oil and gas interests of this vigorous young commouwealth. Mr. Moore is a man of large capitalistic investments in the state of his adoption and is a director of the Union National Bank of Bartlesville, in the organization of which he was concerned. His interest in public affairs has been of loyal and vital order during the period of his residence in Oklahoma, and he has served as repre- sentative of Washington County in the lower house of the State Legislature. During his entire mature life he has not wavered in his allegiance to the republican party, and he is prominently affiliated with the time- honored Masonic fraternity, in which he has received the thirty-second degree of the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite, besides being affiliated also with the Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine. He was identified with the laying and dedication of the cornerstone of the Masonic Building in the City of Guthrie, and his name appears with others on this stone. He is a member of the vestry of the Protestant Episcopal Church in Bartlesville, though not a communicant of the

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church, his wife, however, having held the latter rela- tionship. He has never abated his deep interest in his old comrades of the Civil war and manifests this through his active affiliation with the Grand Army of the Republic.

At Oil City, Pennsylvania, on the 1st of May, 1875, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Moore to Miss Sarah Keenan, of Meadville, that state, and she died at Coleville, McKean County, Pennsylvania, in 1889. Of this union were born six children: Mrs. Pearl Gorham, who now makes her home with her father; Mabel, who died at the age of eighteen years; Frank L., who resides at Tulsa, this state; Harrold C., who is cash'er of the Union National Bank of Bartlesville; Edith, who is the wife of Clyde Fowler, of Bartlesville; and Hazel, who remains at the paternal home.

LEE DANIEL. At the age of twenty-five Lee Daniel has already achieved the honors of position and a prom- ising reputation in the Oklahoma bar. Mr. Daniel soon after finishing his university career came to Oklahoma, and for the past three years has been actively identified with the bar at Tulsa. His offices are in the Palace Building of that city.

Lee Daniel was born in Ackerman, Mississippi, May 5, 1890, a son of William John and Mollie V. (Whis- nant) Daniel. Both parents were born in Choctaw County, Mississippi. His father was born in 1862 and died in 1912, at the age of fifty-two while Mr. Daniel was a child when his mother died. He is the older of two living children, one being deceased. William J. Daniel was also a lawyer, was educated in the University of Mississippi and Cumberland University at Lebanon, Tennessee, and for more than twenty-five years was en- gaged in general practice at Ackerman, Mississippi. He was a Mason, Odd Fellow and Knight of Pythias, and in politics a democrat.

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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