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 9

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 9

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A member of the Masonic Order, Doctor Clark for a number of years filled the office of worshipful master in Milburn Lodge, and is a member of the Scottish Rite Consistory at McAlester. He is a member of the Pres- byterian Church, of the Milburn City Council and the Milburn Good Roads Club, and considering his early experience as a hard-riding practitioner it is only natural to find him a strong ally of the good roads movement. He is also chairman of the Republican Club at Milburn and a member of the Republican County Central Com- mittee.

CHARLES JOHN FRIEDMAN. The jewelry business of Charles John Friedman, at Third and Main streets, Tulsa, has existed under its present management since 1910, but. Mr. Friedman is by no means a recent re- cruit to commercial circles, for he has been in business here since 1906 and prior to that year was variously engaged in the East. By nativity a New Yorker, born at Buffalo, July 28, 1866, he is a son of Charles B. and Annie (Meaney) Friedman.

Charles B. Friedman was born at Whites Corners, Erie County, New York, and for many years was one of the best known hotel men in the Empire State, con- ducting hostelries of distinction at Buffalo, .Niagara Falls, as well as at Titusville, Pennsylvania. After a long and honorable business career, Mr. Friedman re- tired, and still lives at Titusville, aged seventy-eight years. He is a republican, and at one time served as colonel on the gubernatorial staff of his state. In Odd Fellowship he holds high rank and has long been prom- inent in fraternal circles. Mrs. Friedman, who is now deceased, was born in County Clare, Ireland. Of their six children, two are living: Charles John, of this review; and Laura, who is the wife of Michael Murphy.

After attending the Christian Brothers School and the

Titusville High School, Charles J. Friedman became as- sociated with his father in the hotel business at Titus- ville, and continued to be engaged therein until 1895. In that year he formed a connection with the United States Coal and Oil Company, as an accountant, and after five years joined the Oil Well Supply Company in a like ca- pacity. Mr. Friedman came to Tulsa December 3, 1906, and was variously employed until 1910, when he estab- lished himself in the retail jewelry business. He now has a first-class establishment, where he carries a fine line of diamonds, cut glass, silver service sets, etc. He is a keen appreciator of the amenities and ethics of business, as well as of tact, agreeableness and consideration in social and general life. His business has been built up through his own individual effort, and while he has been a busy man the interests of his city have not suffered through neglect at his hands. Fraternally, Mr. Friedman is affil- iated with Tulsa Lodge No. 71, A. F. & .A. M .; Tulsa Chapter No. 52, R. A. M .; Tulsa Council No. 20, R. S. M .; Trinity Commandery No. 20, K. T .; Indian Consis- tory No. 2, having been made a thirty-second degree Mason, H. C. C. H., October 22, 1913, and in line of promotion to the thirty-third degree; and Akdar Tem- ple, A. A. O. N. M. S. He belongs also to Titusville Lodge No. 291, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks; Musical Union, Local No. 94; and the Rotary, Commercial and Country clubs. He is a live, energetic booster of the city of his adoption, where his name is found connected with all movements for the civic and general welfare. Mr. Friedman is a republican in na- tional politics, but in local affairs is inclined to use his own judgment in the selection of candidates, regardless of party lines.

On October 13, 1900, Mr. Friedman was united in marriage with Miss Laura Murdock, at Buffalo, New York, who was born at Oil City, Pennsylvania. To this union there has been born one daughter: Margaret Murdock.

FRANK S. WYATT. The occupant of the chair of his- tory in the Northwestern State Normal at Alva is by no means an arm-chair scholar and theorist. While he knows his subject matter and how to vitalize it in the minds of the young men and women who come before him, he is also intensely practical and wideawake in other lines. It will interest many to know that he home- steaded his claim in Oklahoma in the early days, and has one of the high-class farms in the neighborhood of Alva, where scientific methods and fine stock are much in evi- dence. He is also an organizer and leader, and has done much to give the Northwestern Normal some very suc- cessful athletic teams.

This Oklahoma educator is not ashamed of the fact that he was born in a log cabin in Crawford County, Missouri. The date of his birth was October 17, 1871, and a good many other substantial families in that part of Missouri had no better homes than the Wyatts-in fact, log houses were then the fashion. His parents were William H. and Mary H. (Woodruff) Wyatt. His father was born at Hermann, Missouri, in 1846, the oldest son of Gideon P. and Matilda (Wier) Wyatt, the former a native of Virginia and the latter of Kentucky. Grand- father Wyatt was a pioneer Missourian, and was elected the first sheriff when Franklin County was organized, about 1835. Later his fellow citizens in that district sent him as their representative to the Missouri Senate. Sound, wholesome lives have been the rule in the Wyatt family for generations. Professor Wyatt's father spent his active career as a farmer and teacher, and at one time he was sheriff of Crawford County. In 1882 he moved from Missouri to Kansas, locating on a farm in

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HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA

Harvey County, but in 1905 he came to Oklahoma, secured government land in Woods County near Galena, and is now living retired in Alva. He is an active mem- ber of the Presbyterian Church, and a democrat. His wife, whom he married in 1870, was the daughter of Joseph and Elizabeth (Inmann) Woodruff, natives of Alabama. Mrs. Wyatt was born in Crawford County, Missouri, in 1850, and prior to her marriage taught school, so that Professor Wyatt has educators on both sides of his family. There were only two children, and the daughter, Susie Cora, who was born in 1873 and was educated at Halstead, Kansas, married in 1892 Robert S. Armour, and they now live on a farmi in Woods County, Oklahoma. The Armour children are Frances, Mabel, Robert, Janeva and Louella.

The fact that Frank S. Wyatt has a university educa- tion is due not so much to his early opportunities and advantages as to his own persistent effort and energy in acquiring all the training and preparation which he con- sidered necessary for his success and advancement. In 1892 he graduated from the high school at Newton, Kan- sas, and then began that routine made familiar by the experiences of so many successful men-teaching in the summer and attending normals and the state university as his funds warranted. He has since been a student in the University of Chicago, and in 1913 the University of Oklahoma conferred upon him his earned degree of A. B.

He first became identified with Oklahoma in 1894, when he took up a claim in Dewey County, and while proving up he was superintendent of the schools at Okeene four years. For two years, in 1898-99, he was principal of the city schools at Newton, Kansas. In 1906 he was made assistant in history at the Northwestern Normal at Alva, and since 1908 has had the full chair of history in that institution. He is also coach in athletics, and is not only a capable director and organizer in this field but is himself an enthusiast for clean, wholesome sport. He has trained several teams that have carried away honors at the state meets. In 1911 he was commis- sioned captain of the National Guard and still holds the commission. His home is on a fine farm two miles east of Alva, and there he makes use of his opportunity to raise blooded live stock, cattle, hogs and poultry.

He is an active Presbyterian and is superintendent of the Sunday school of his church at Alva. In 1894 at Newton, Kansas, Professor Wyatt married Miss Louella A. Jacobs. She was born in Harvey County, Kansas, April 1, 1873. Their three children are: Francis T., born in 1896; Mary H., born in 1898; and William J., born in 1900.

WILSON P. COTTRELL, M. D. While his location in the land that once was the hunting ground of the red men can in no way be considered a result of his ances- tral antecedents, it is interesting and rather coincidental that the paternal great-grandfather of Dr. Wilson P. Cottrell, now a prosperous physician and surgeon at Milburn, was a quarter-blood Cherokee, spent a good part of his life as a hunter of game in the wild wooded and mountainous regions of Tennessee and Virginia, and for months at a time was accustomed to travel alone, returning to civilization only occasionally for a wagon and team to haul in the savable part of his game. After a few days of rest in the settlement and communion with his family, he would then return, answering the call of the wild, and again pursue his vocation happily in the woods. No claim was ever set up by his descendants, for lands in the Indian Territory after the Cherokees were moved west. During his few years of residence in the Indian country Doctor Cottrell has been an interested

student of the more modern red man and has practiced in the homes of some of their leaders, among them the late Mark Cheadle, who has been by some of his people designated as the greatest man the Chickasaws have produced.

It is a very small modicum of Indian blood that runs in the veins of Doctor Cottrell. He was born at Florence, Alabama, in 1879, a son of William Henry and Martha (Tomlinson) Cottrell. His father, who now lives in Marionville, Missouri, is a native of Tennessee, early settled in the vicinity of Florence, Alabama, and for a number of years was a prominent teacher both in that state and in Arkansas, to which he removed when Doctor Cottrell was a small boy.

It was in the common schools of Arkansas that Doctor Cottrell received his early education. He had to contend with difficulties in advancing himself to the plane of a profession. He took an academic course at Green Forest, Arkansas, and began the practice of medicine before completing his professional education. His degree Doctor of Medicine was obtained from the medical department of the University of Arkansas in 1908. He then prac- ticed one year at Missouri, moved to Lincoln County, Oklahoma, and was in practice there for two years, and has been a resident of Milburn since 1911. During his early youth he had to work hard on the farm and every step in his educational advancement was earned by his own labor. For six years he was a cow puncher in Mis- souri, but through all that time his ambitions for a pro- fessional career never left him. Leaving the ranch he entered the profession of teaching, and during the four years spent in that work he carried on his medical studies coincidentally. Doctor Cottrell is now junior member of the firm of Drs. Clark & Cottrell, and they enjoy a splendid professional business in and about Milburn.

In 1901 Doctor Cottrell was married at Green Forest, Arkansas, to Miss Myrtle Mitchell. Their three chil- dren are Virgie, aged fourteen, and now a student in high school; Pansy, aged nine; and Nell, aged seven. Doctor Cottrell has one brother, W. K. Cottrell, who is an instructor in telegraphy and bookkeeping in a busi- ness college in Springfield, Missouri. Doctor Cottrell is a member of the Christian Church, is Master of Mil- burn Lodge, A. F. & A. M., and has taken various de- grees in the Scottish Rite of Masonry. He is also a member of the County and State Medical Societies and the American Medical Association, and is one of the workers in the Good Roads Club of Milburn. He and Dr. Guy Clark, his partner, own the stock of the Blue River Telephone Company of Milburn.

JAMES W. SLOAN. As a youth in his native State of Pennsylvania, Mr. Sloan early gained practical experi- ence in connection with the petroleum oil industry, and in later years he has witnessed and assisted in the develop- ment of this important productive industry in the newer fields of Ohio, Texas and Oklahoma, his activities hav- ing also touched the fields of West Virginia. In Okla- homa he has at the present time large interests in con- nection with oil operations, besides which he is president and general manager of the Oklahoma Iron Works, rep- resenting one of the most important industrial enterprises of the City of Tulsa, where he has maintained his resi- dence since 1904 and where he has gained prestige as a representative man of affairs and as a progressive and public-spirited citizen, so that there is all of consistency in according him definite recognition in this history of the state of his adoption.

Mr. Sloan was born in the City of Allegheny, Penn- sylvania, on the 5th of February, 1870, and is the younger of the two children of John W. and Catherine

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HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA

(Williams) Sloan, his mother having died in 1872, when he was a child of about two years; his sister, Mary, is the wife of John C. Sloan and they likewise reside in the City of Tulsa, as does also the venerable father, who celebrated his eighty-fifth birthday anniversary in 1915.

John W. Sloan was born and reared in the old Keystone State, where he followed in his younger days the trade of carriagemaker, besides becoming also a skilled cabi- net maker. Soon after the death of his wife he removed to Clarion County, Pennsylvania, where he became the owner of an excellent farm, and to the management of this old homestead he continued to give his supervision until 1894, since which time he has lived retired, after years of earnest and useful endeavor. This venerable citizen of Tulsa, where he is passing the gracious even- ing of his life with his children, is a consistent member of the Presbyterian Church and gives his political sup- port to the republican party, whose cause he espoused at the time of its organization, after having previously been aligned in the ranks of the whig party.

James W. Sloan, the immediate subject of this review, was a small child at the time of the family removal to Clarion County, Pennsylvania, where he gained his initial experience as one of the world's workers and where his boyhood was compassed by the conditions and influences of the home farm. When but fourteen years of age he found employment in connection with lumbering opera- tions in that section of the state, and he also found requisition for his services in the work of the farm of his father, the stannch and fixed habit of industry having been one of the fortuitons forces in enabling him to achieve definite and worthy success in his independent business career. His early education was acquired in the public schools of his native state and for a time he was a student in the State Normal School at Clarion, Pennsylvania. As a youth he was employed at farm work at the nominal stipend of $5 a month, and during the winter months he worked for his board and availed himself of the privilege of attending school. From the work of the farm he turned his attention to the dressing of tools utilized in the oil fields in the vicinity of Clarion, and later he found for several years employment as a driller of oil wells. In 1894 Mr. Sloan engaged in inde- pendent contracting for this work, and as such he was identified with the development of oil fields in West Virginia and Ohio, in which latter state he remained somewhat more than three years. He then returned to his father's farm, which property he purchased, but he eventually sold the same, and on the 28th of March, 1898, he settled at Corsicana, Texas, where he became actively concerned with the producing of oil in the field that was there being rapidly developed. About two years later he transferred his residence to the new and celebrated oil fields at Beaumont, that state, where he became one of the organizers of the Producers' Oil Com- pany, of which he was made vice president. For seven years he was representative of this company in practical operations in the fields at Batson and Jennings, Texas, and in the meanwhile he had further shown his initiative enterprise by assuming the contract for the installation of a waterworks system at Sonr Lake, Texas. He con- tinued as vice president and general manager of the Producers' Oil Company until the autumn of 1903, when he sold his interests in Texas and came to Oklahoma Territory, where he identified himself with development and producing activities in the oil fields in the vicinity of Muskogee. In the following year he established his permanent home at Tulsa and became interested in oil producing, as an interested principal in what was known as the Glenn Pool. His long and varied experience and authoritative knowledge have made him an influential factor in connection with the development of the oil and

gas industries in this state, where his interests in the business are still of important order. In 1907 Mr. Sloan was one of the organizers of the Oklahoma Iron Works, of which he has since been president and general manager and for the providing of the fiue plant of which cor- poration he selected and laid out a tract of twenty-five acres southwest of the city, where are situated the fine and essentially modern foundry and structural-steel works. As touching the importance of this enterprise as one of the foremost industries contributing to the pres- tige of Tulsa and of the state the following quotations, taken, with bnt minor change, from a recently published article in a Tulsa newspaper, are well worthy of repro- ductiou iu this more permanent vehicle :

"Established in April, 1907, in a small way, with a capital of only $25,000, and employing only a small force of men, the Oklahoma Iron Works has grown until now it is the largest single institution in Tulsa with branches at Cushing, Bartlesville, Oklahoma, and Tampico, Mexico, and with a corps of about 200 employes. Here almost everything nsed in the oil fields is made and all kinds of repairing are done. A business of such magnitude did not develop by accident. Those who have put their money into it have done so because dividends have been declared and a real business established-a business that is not only a eredit to Tulsa and a great benefit to this oil field but also a lasting, permanent investment, bring- ing good dividends and with as near a certainty of future success as can be predicted for any large enterprise eare- fully and economically managed and supplying a demand that is sure to continue. The drawing of plans, the mak- ing of the designs, the completing of the product in all its details, from the smallest to the largest pieces of machinery utilized in the oil business, may here be traced and watched in all the interesting processes.

"Such a business, built np in eight years and estab- lished on such a solid basis, must have a guiding mind, and this enterprise is fully fortified in this important feature. That mind is that of the organizer and presi- dent of the company, J. W. Sloan. With a capital stoek of $300,000, with assets of more than three-fourths of a million dollars, and with orders for work pouring in from every direction, Mr. Sloan and his associates surely have reason to feel proud of what they have built in the face of depressions and discouragements in the oil busi- ness. The plans are now being prepared for another building for the already large and substantial plant, and for the providing of the latest in modern equipment, with all machinery driven by electricity. The building will be of fire-proof construction and its dimensions 250 by 74 feet.

. "The possibilities before this business seem almost limitless. It has been multiplied by more than ten in less than that number of years, and there is no reason why this should not happen again.''

Those agencies that tend to conserve the eivic and material prosperity and advancement of the community have the loyal and liberal support of Mr. Sloan, and though he has never been imbued with desire for the honors or emoluments of political office, he accords a staunch allegiance to the republican party. In the Masonie fraternity he has received the thirty-second degree of the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite, as a member of the consistory in the City of Guthrie, and at Tulsa his ancient craft affiliation is with Delta Lodge, No. 425, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, besides which he is identified with the Ancient Arabie Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine.

CLEVELAND SPENCER WHITLOW. A life-long resident of Eufaula, Oklahoma, Cleveland Spencer Whitlow has achieved local prominence in his native county, and occu-

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HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA

ies a position among his fellow citizens that marks him 'or a man of character and good citizenship. His rise has been a steady and consistent one, and since 1906 he has been in some manner identified with the public serv- ce departments of his city and county. His election to he office of county treasurer, which he now fills, came in July, 1915.

Mr. Whitlow was born at Eufaula on July 19, 1885, und is a son of David B. and Mary (Hodridge) Whitlow. David Whitlow was a native South Carolinian, who, at the age of fourteen, came with his parents into the North ind located in Illinois. He was twenty when he set out on his own initiative and came to the Indian Territory, here to follow his trade of locksmith. He spent a brief period in Talequah, and then opened a small store at Old Town, on the river, near Eufaula. Here he carried on a pioneer merchandise business of a varied nature until the coming of the Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railroad, which passed through Eufaula. Mr. Whitlow vas not slow to move his stock into the Town of Eufaula with the coming of the railroad, and there he entered nto a merchandise partnership with one Daniel Cody. This business venture was attended with a pleasing meas- ire of success, and when Mr. Cody, the senior member of the firm, died a few years later, Mr. Whitlow con- inued in the business, but sold out a few years later. About thirty-five years ago he settled on a farm in the vicinity of Eufaula and there he continued until his leath in 1901, when he was seventy-nine years of age.

David Whitlow was a real man, possessing many sterling qualities of heart and mind. He came to the Indian Territory as a poor young man, but with an ambition that would not be denied. He fought against heavy odds in the early days of his business career, and b- success was undeniably his. Such patrimony as he left o his children was fortified by the undying heritage of clean, well spent life. He was twice married. By his irst marriage he had three sons and two daughters. His econd wife was the widow of his business partner, Daniel Cody. She was the mother of Cleveland Spencer Whitlow of this review, and of one other son. She had our daughters and two sons by her first marriage. Daniel Cody, be it said, was a member of the Cherokee Tribe of Indians, and he was a man of great character und a power among the members of the tribe.

When Cleveland S. Whitlow was five years old his mother died, and when he was fifteen his father passed mn. He was reared in Eufaula, attended the public chools and the Creek Mission School. He had no further raining in books, though his education is the equal of In average high school training, and he has ever added o his education by careful reading and observation.

For some years after he left school Mr. Whitlow was clerk in a drug store in Eufaula, and in 1909 he be- ame deputy district clerk. This was his first venture in public service. He held that position until September 1, 910, when he was appointed deputy county treasurer. This office he filled capably, and so fit did he show him- elf for the duties of the position that he was elected to The office of county treasurer at the last election, and ntered upon the duties of the position on July 6, 1915. Ie has been a democrat since reaching his majority, and as always been a staunch supporter of the party. His fraternal relations are with the Odd Fellows and the Knights of Pythias.

On April 1, 1908, Mr. Whitlow married Cenora B. Kelley, and their children are Lillius Spencer and Cenora Iyrtis. The family is one that enjoys the esteem and onfidence of the public, and the friendship of a wide ircle throughout the county.

Vol. III-3

HOSE C. PERKINS. Years before the Civil War, when Indian Territory was an inviting field of adventure, one Acey Yocham, a pioneer of Northern Arkansas, traveled on horseback over the Five Nations and traded with the Indians. He knew the leading men of the Nations and from them and their people bought thousands of cattle. Mr. Yocham had been reared at Yellville, Arkansas, which was originally settled by Indians, probably of the Choctaw tribe, who emigrated into Indian Territory after its organization.

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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