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 86

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 86

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Gerald H. Galbreath was born in Pickaway County, Ohio, in 1892, a son of Frank H. and Belle ( Mitchell) Galbreath. His father, who now lives in Mount Sterling, Ohio, was an Oklahoma eighty-niner, and since that date has been interested in one way or another in the state's industries. He was in Oklahoma for several years during the early development of the famous Glenn Pool oil field in the vicinity of Tulsa, the principal figure in which was his brother, Robert Galbreath. John Mitchell, father of Mr. Galbreath's mother, was a pioneer and prominent Methodist minister in Kentucky. Besides Gerald H., other members of the Galbreath family are: Miss Ordie Galbreath, a graduate of the Central State Normal School and a teacher of domestic science in the public schools of Tulsa; Dean Howell, a graduate of the manual training department of the Central State Normal School in 1916; Miss Marel has a business position in Columbus, Ohio; John Galbreath, a law student in the University of Ohio; and Louisa Galbreath, living with her parents at Mount Sterling, Ohio.

Gerald H. Galbreath acquired his early education in the common and high schools at Mount Sterling and the University of Ohio at Athens. He came to Bromide in 1912, entering the office of the Bromide Oolitic Stone Company, and not long afterwards lecame cashier of the Bromide State Bank. He has various interests in lands and other resources of the community. In Derem- ber, 1914, he married Miss Wynona Jackson. Her father is Judge William H. Jackson, the founder of the Town of Bromide. Mr. Galbreath has affiliations with the order of Masonry and with the Delta Tau Delta College Fraternity. The community of Bromide can le con- gratulated upon the presence of such a live and enter- prising young citizen. He is secretary of the Commer- cial Club, and is one of the leaders in the good roads movement which has already gained a substantial impetus in this locality.

ROBERT LEE REAM. True history is only a composite picture of many biographies, and some of the best in- terpretations of the political life of a people are fre- quently found in the careers of individuals. An interest- ing ease in point is that of Robert Lee Ream, a well known and prominent farmer and stockman at Wapanucka.

But for the activities of Mr. Ream, who had been schooled in the rolities of his day in the Chickasaw country, D. H. Johnston, the present governor of the Chickasaw Nation, might never have held that position. It was in the year 1898. Young Ream, having just fin- ished his education, had returned to the land of his childhood to take part in the affairs of his people. In July was held what was known as the Sandy Spring Convention, before which Johnston, Martin Cheadle, P. S. Mosley and Governor Jonas Wolf were candidates for

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HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA

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the nomination. As a delegate to the convention, Mr. Ream espoused the cause of Johnston, and was made leader of the Johnston forces. At one time it looked as if Mosley had a majority of the votes, whereupon Ream took the floor and entered into a discourse in which he read the Curtis Act and compared it with the Atoka Treaty, and by his comment instilled such doubt into the minds of the convention as to the proper course to pursue that the body adjourned for the day. This adjournmeut enabled the friends of Johnston to gather sufficient strength during the night to assure his nomination. At another convention of the opposing party, Hyman Burris of Tishomingo, was nominated. Johnston was elected, and at once arpointed Ream a member of his force with the title secretary of investigation.

The duties of this office required only ninety days to perform, and the Legislature, on Leing convened, elected

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RESIDENCE OF ROBERT L. REAM

Mr. Ream secretary of the Senate. Later he was ap- pointed special national agent of the Chickasaw Nation. The duties of that position required the collection of a 1 per cent revenue tax used in defraying the expenses of the government. In obtaining this position he en- gaged in another fight that is an interesting feature of Chickasaw political history. Opposing him was Alex Rennie, a prominent man of the Nation, whose cause was backed by Ben Colbert, who later became a member of the Rough Rider Regiment of the Spanish-American war, and aiter the war was appointed by President Roosevelt as United States Marshal of the Southern Dis- trict of Indian Territory. Rennie and Colbert sought to so divide the vote that Ream would be defeated. In making their plans, Colbert was dispatched to Denison, Texas. No fixed time had been set for the election. After the departure of Colbert, Ream made a hurried canvass of the Legislature, and persuaded them to hold the election that night, and he was elected. He served eighteen months in this office.

Meantime William H. Murray, then a member of the tribal Legislature, secured the passage of an act raising the commission on revenue collections to 3316 per cent, the law applying, however, only to certain of the col- lectors, and not affecting the commissions of Ream. The latter then applied to Governor Johnston for a similar raise, but at that time the law firm of Mansfield, MeMnr- ray & Cornish was seeking contracts with the Nation that would enable them to get big fees as representatives of the Indians at Washington. Ream was opposed to the contracts, while Governor Johnston favored them. Under the law the commission of a collector could not be in- creased during his term of office and Ream agreed to

resign and remain out of the office until provision was made for the raise by the Legislature. He resigned and went to Ardmore, and the following day Governor John- stou appointed Ben Colbert to succeed him. This affair brought about a crisis in the affairs of the Nation and led eventually to a congressional investigation involving charges made by United States Senator Gore to the effect that the senator had been offered a bribe not to oppose the approval by Congress of contracts procured by Mc Murray.

Later in the same year Mr. Ream had a bill drafted creating the position of delegate to Washington from the Choctaw Nation. It was passed by the Legislature and Keam was selected as delegate. Governor Johnston, however, declined to approve the bill. The Legislature was then convened in extraordinary session that lasted eleven days, during which approval by the interior de- partment of the Legislature's act was sought. This ex- traordinary session was expensive and members of the Legislature demanded of the man whom they appointed as delegate that he should pay $1,000 of the session's costs. Meantime the governor had approved the bill. Rean declined to pay that amount or any other sumn, and the result was that Ben Colbert of Tishomingo and B. F. Roland of Ardmore, were elected. They served six months, but, receiving no pay, resigned.

It is evident from the foregoing that Robert L. Ream has l een as prominent a factor in making political history in the old Chickasaw district of Oklahoma State as any other one man. He is a member of a very prominent family, several of his paternal relations having become distinguished in different ways, and on the maternal side he is of Chickasaw blood. Robert Lee Ream, a son of Robert Lee and Anna (Guy) Ream, was born at Ream Switch, now in Pittsburg County, Oklahoma, in 1871. His father saw active service in the Confederate army. Up to the age of twelve Mr. Ream attended school in Washington, D. C., subsequently spent one year in school at Alexandria, Virginia, and another year at Battle Creek, Michigan. Returning to Indian Territory he entered the National Academy of the Chickasaw Nation, and for two years was in a preparatory school at Franklin, Tennessee, and finished his education with a business course at Nash- ville. It was then that he returned to the Chickasaw Nation and became so closely identified with the political events which have been previously suggested.

Since his retirement from politics and in recent years, Mr. Ream has lived on his valuable farm near Wapanucka. lle is a leader in agriculture and stock husbandry, and has made his efforts and enterprise more than individually profital le, and really a beneficent example to his section of the state. Three hundred acres of this farm are under- laid with a fine quality of oolitic stone, and from this material he has constructed a residence at a cost of $14,000, regarded as the finest in the Chickasaw Nation, and the construction of which from the opening of the ground for the foundation work to the final completion involved a period of five years. Mr. Ream has made a specialty of blooded horses. A few years ago he intro- duced some of the first Percherons to the territory. One of these animals won the blue ribbon at the First State Fair in Oklahoma City, later the first premium at the Missouri State Fair, the red ribbon at the Illinois State Fair, the blue ribl on and a purse of $350 at the Texas State Fair, and first premium at the Fort Worth Fat Stock Show. This house subsequently was sold for $3,500.

At Boggy Depot, Indian Territory, in 1898, Mr. Ream married Miss Ona O'Neil. Their four children are: Lee Ona, Robert Lee, Alinton Guy and Annie Louise. Mr. Ream and family are members of the Presbyterian Church at Wapanucka. He is a brother of Boudinot Ream.

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HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA

SAMUEL I. MCELHOES. Not only as distinctively a pioneer member of the bar of Comanche County, where he established his residence when that county was still a part of well known Kiowa and Comanche Indian country of this vigorous young commonwealth, but also as one whose fine achievement marks him as one of the able and representative lawyers of the state, does Mr. Mc Elhoes merit specific recognition in this history. Further than this it may be stated that he served for a time on the bench of the County Court of Comanche County, and later as assistant attorney general of the state, since his retirement from which latter office, in January, 1915, he has given his undivided attention to the private practice of his professiou, with residence and headquarters at Lawton, the progressive and attractive judicial center of Comanche County. Mr. McElhoes gave distinguished service as a soldier in the Philippine Islands incidental to the Spanish-American war, and he holds a medal presented to him by act of the United States Congress for bravery and gallant service in this connection.

Mr. MeElhoes was born in Madison County, Nebraska, in the year 1876, and is a son of Jesse S. and Elmira (Switzer) MeElhoes, both natives of Pennsylvania, the lineage of the father tracing back to stauneh Scotch origin and the mother being of Swiss and German ancestry. Jesse S. McElhoes was a blacksmith by trade and vocation, as was also his wife's father, and he became one of the pioneer settlers of Nebraska, where he was successfully eugaged in the work of his trade for many years. Of the four surviving children, Samuel I., of this review, is the only son; Mrs. Frank Upton resides near Madison, Nebraska, her husband being a farmer; Mrs. August Shoerluke is the wife of a farmer in the vicinity of Plainview, that state; and Mrs. Albert Upton is a resident of the City of Los Angeles, Cali- fornia, where her husband is engaged in the lumber business.

After duly availing himself of the advantages of the public schools of his native state Samuel I. McElhoes completed a course in the Northeastern State Normal School, of Nebraska, where he was a studeut in 1892-93. Thereafter he devoted his attention to teaching in the public schools of Nebraska until the outbreak of the Spanish-American war. He had previously served two years as a member of the Nebraska National Guard, iu which he had attained to the rank of sergeant, and in 1898 he was mustered into the United States service as sergeant of Company F, First Nebraska Volunteer Infantry. His regiment was sent to the Philippine Islands and stationed in the City of Manila. During the year that he was with his command in the Philippines Mr. McElhoes participated in all but five of the twenty- seven fights, skirmishes and expeditions in which his company was involved. In February, 1899, he was com- missioned second lieutenant of his company, and he was in command of the company in more than one-half of the engagements in which it participated, owing to the fact that its captain had been wounded and thereby incapacitated. The First Nebraska Infantry was the first regiment to march through Manila and it took down the Spanish flag of the captain of the port of Manila, which standard the regiment captured. As a member of a debating club organized in his company, Lieutenant McElhoes made the first speech delivered in the Philippine Islands in opposition to their retention by the United States. An associate of Lieutenant MeElhoes in his sconting expeditions was A. W. Gilbert, who is now United States consul at Che Foo, China. Lieutenant Me Elhoes was mustered out on the 23d of August, 1899, and within a short time after his returu to the United

States he entered the college of law of the University of Nebraska. In this institution he was graduated on the 13th of June, 1901, with the degree of Bachelor of Laws, and on the same day he was admitted to practice in the Supreme Court of his native state. A few weeks later Mr. McElhoes eame to Oklahoma Territory and established his residence at Lawton, Comanche County, where he has since continued to maintain his home and where he has been closely identified with the civic aud material development of the fine little city. Here he formed a law partnership with Martin Coffman, with whom he continued to be associated in practice under the firm name of McElhoes & Coffinan until 1904, when Mr. Coffman removed elsewhere. Mr. McElhoes then formed a professional alliance with Hon. Scott Ferris, who later became a representative of Oklahoma in the United States Cougress, and the firm of McElhoes & Ferris built up a large and representative law business, which it still controls, Joel S. Rhinefort having been admitted to the firm in 1910.

In 1912 the bar of Comanche County elected Mr. McElhoes county judge, to fill a vacaucy, and he con- tinned his service on the bench for a period of seven months, when a regular incumbent was ehosen. In September, 1913, he was chosen assistant attorney general of the state, under Attorney General Charles West, and he continued in teuure of this position until January, 1915, in the meanwhile having been actively identified with a large amount of important legal work for the state. He is at the present time serving as city attorney of Lawton, besides being president of the Comanche County Bar Association, 1915, and an active member of the Oklahoma State Bar Association.

Mr. McElhoes has shown a vital interest in all that has tended to conserve the progress and prosperity of his home city and he gave a most vigorous administration during his incumbency of the position of president of the Lawton Chamber of Commerce. While he was in tenure of this position it was principally through the influence of the organization that the Cameron School of Agriculture, a state institution, was secured to Law- ton. Within the period of his presidency of the Chamber of Commerce Mr. McElhoes further aided in the advancing of its vigorous civic policies and supported its activities in bringing about the erection of the city's fiue high school building, besides which the Gore Addi- tion to Lawton, a tract of Indian land adjoining the city of the north, was obtained for the city, the same having been platted and sold under the direction of the Department of the Interior of the Federal Government. Mr. McElhoes was a member of the board of freeholders that prepared the charter on which the municipal govern- ment of Lawton is based.

Prior to the removal of its headquarters from Lawton to Norman, Mr. McElhoes was a second lieutenant of the engineering corps of the Oklahoma National Guard, this organization having been called into service at the time of the disastrons tornado at Snyder, Kiowa Couuty, and also to forestall a contemplated lynching incidental to a murder committed at Lawton. This engineering corps captured the prize of $750 offered by Oklahoma City a few years since in a competition superintended by officers of the United States army. Mr. McElhoes has found. further opportunity for the employment of his knowledgo of military tactics by serving as scout master for Lawton organizations of the Boy Scouts, in the work of which he continued to take lively interest, as does he in all things that tend to develop sturdy and manly youth. He has been for a number of years a prominent and popular leader among the young folk in church, social and literary activities. He is one of the valued members

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of Henry W. Lawton Camp, Spanish-American War Veterans' Association, of which he has served as com- mander; he is affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Modern Woodmen of America, in which latter he is chicf forester, in 1915, of the camp at Lawton, and both he aud his wife hold membership in the Methodist Episcopal Church, he having been formerly secretary of the board of stewards of the Lawton Church of this denomination.

On the 31st of May, 1911, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. McElhoes to Miss Frances Garner, of Lawton, and she is a popular figure in the representative social activities of the city.

WILLIAMS V. BUCKNER. A resident of the City of McAlester, Pittsburg County, and representative of the Twenty-fifth senatorial district of the state in the Okla- homa Legislature, Senator Buckner served with marked ability in the fifth general assembly of the Legisla- ture and here, as in all other relations of life, he fully upheld the prestige of a name that has been specially distinguished and honored in connection with the his- tory of what is now the vigorous young commonwealth of Oklahoma.

Senator Buckner was born at Eufaula, in the Creek Nation reservation of the Indian Territory, and the date of his nativity was December 18, 1881. He is a son of Rev. Henry F. and Mollie (Vandivere) Buckner, whose lives were marked by consecrated service in the mission- ary field among the Indians of Indian Territory, the latter having been a daughter of Almerine Vandivere, who was a native of Georgia and who was for several years a missionary among the Creek Indians.

Rev. Henry F. Buckner, a clergyman of the Baptist Church, came from Pulaski County, Kentucky, in 1848, as one of the earliest Christian missionaries among the Creek Indians, his self-abnegating and arduous service as a missionary having continued forty-two years and up to the time of his death, which occurred in 1883, his wife having survived him and having been summoned to the life eternal in the same year. Aside from the subject of this review they are survived also by three other chil- dren-Helm F., who is an executive with a strect-railway company at Bakersfield, California; Sumner J., who is an employe at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary at McAlester; and Mrs. John W. Reynolds, of Hood River, Oregon. Upon coming to the frontier of civilization in the pioneer days Rev. Henry F. Buckner was first sta- tioned at the old Creek Indian Agency, near Muskogee, where he remained until the outbreak of the Civil war, when, with members of the Creek tribe, he found refuge in Texas. After the close of the war a delegation from the Creek Nation went to the Lone Star State and urged him to return to Indian Territory, so strong a hold had he gained upon the confidence and affection of the tribe, of which he was elected a member after his return from Texas, this noteworthy distinction having been accorded to him in 1866. Later he established a college at Witcherville, Arkansas, and the institution bore his name. He was a man of high scholastic attainments, made a close and exhaustive study of the Creek language, and in addition to compiling and publishing a grammar in the Creek tongue he also translated into the same language a large portion of the Bible, and translated into English many of the tribal songs of the Creeks. His brother, Robert C. Buckner, was the founder of the Buckner Orphans' Home in the City of Dallas, Texas. The name and memory of Rev. Henry F. Buckner merit enduring place in the history of Oklahoma and to them perpetual honor should be paid, for his life was one of consecrated zeal and devotion and he endured the full tension of hardships and vicissitudes in his long and

noble service as a missionary among the Indians, his labors constituting an important chapter in the history of the Five Civilized Tribes.

Senator Williams V. Buckner was not yet three years old at the time of the death of his father and he was reared under the conditions that obtained in the Indian Territory at a time when there was little of fortuitous influence to enable him to make progress such as was common to the youth of the average state of the Union. There he obtained, however, a good common-school edu- cation, including a course in the high school at Eufaula, where he thus continued his studies until he was fourteen years old. Thereafter he took a course of higher academic order in Bacon University, at Muskogee, Okla- homa, and attended for two years Ouachita College, at Arkadelphia, Arkansas. Prior to completing his college studies he had engaged in teaching when seventeen years of age, and it was likewise at this time that he tendered his services as a soldier in the Spanish-American war. He enlisted in a regiment of picked men from Oklahoma Territory, Indian Territory, and the territories of Ari- zona and New Mexico, this having been known as the First Territorial Regiment of Volunteer Infantry and having been commanded by Colonel McCord. As a mem- ber of Company D, Senator Buckner continued in service eight months, but his regiment was not called to the stage of active military operations in Cuba. He is at the time of this writing, in 1915, commander of William C. Smith Camp, No. 12, Spanish-American War Veterans, at McAlester.

After the close of his military career Senator Buckner continued his efficient services in the pedagogic pro- fession, as a representative of which he taught in the Government schools maintained for the Indians and later in the public schools, after the admission of Okla- homa to statehood. In the meanwhile he had established his residence at McAlester and during the entire period of Oklahoma history under the state regime he has been actively identified with political affairs, as a leader in the ranks of the democratic party contingent in Pitts- burg County, where he is a valued member of the Demo- cratic Club of the county. Senator Buckner continued his activities as a teacher in the public schools until 1912, when he was elected clerk of the Superior Court of Pittsburg County, an office of which he continued the incumbent until 1914, in the autumn of which year he was elected to the State Senate, as representative of the Twenty-fifth Senatorial District. Prior to this he had served as a clerk in the lower house during the second general assembly of the State Legislature; in 1908 was a special land appraiser in the employ of the state board of public land commissioners; and for a time was an assistant in the office of chief mine inspector of the state, at McAlester.

As a member of the Senate in the Fifth Legislature, that of 1915, Senator Buckner was chairman of the com- mittee on penal institutions and held membership also on the committee on mines and manufacturing, the committee on ways and means, and those on roads and highways, fees and salaries, education, and commerce and labor. By the democratic caucus of the Legislature he was made a member of the so called steering com- mittee, and he was zealous and influential in the work on the floor of the Senate and in the deliberations of the committees to which he was assigned. He introduced the Senate bill for the regulation of divorces in the state, with a provision prohibiting the marriage of divorced persons within six months after the granting of divorce. He was one of the authors of the rural-credits bill, probably the most far-reaching and popular meas- ure that came before the Fifth Legislature. The senator

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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