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 93
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Alexander N. Waddill was an infant at the time of his parents' removal from Tennessee to Missouri, in 1839, and the family became pioneers of that state. His wife accompanied her parents from Virginia to Missouri in 1860. The father of Judge Waddill was loyal to the institutions and customs of the South and signified this by gallant service as a soldier of the Confederacy in the Civil war. His brother, James N., who died March 25, 1915, served in the Union army. Alexander N. Waddill became one of the substantial and wealthy farmers and stock-growers of Missouri and continued to reside on his fine homestead of 320 acres, Henry County, until his death which occurred on the 15th of February, 1913, his widow now maintaining her home at Windsor, that county. They became the parents of three sons and three daughters, the subject of this review being the eldest of the number; John C. is a prosperous agricultur- ist in the State of Arizona, where he owns and operates a large ranch; Eliza is the wife of William A. Finks, a representative business man at Mena, Arkansas; Nellie is the wife of Andrew J. England, who is engaged in the practice of law in the city of St. Louis, Missouri; May is the wife of Doctor Sevier, who is engaged in the practice of his profession, as a physician and surgeon, at Liberty, Missouri; and Thomas Alexander, who resides at East St. Louis, Illinois, is employed as a vet- erinarian in the service of the United States Govern- ment.
Reared to the sturdy discipline of the home farm, Judge Waddill continued to be associated with its work and management until he had attained to the age of twenty-four years, and in the meanwhile he had received excellent educational advantages, including a high- school course and a course in Clinton Academy, at Clin- ton, the judicial center and metropolis of his native state. For several years thereafter he was a successful teacher, and finally he went to Mena, Arkansas, where
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he was employed as a bookkeeper for six years. Prior to this he had passed eighteen months at Blackwell, Oklahoma, where he held a similar position in a hard- ware and implement establishment. The marriage of Judge Waddill was solemnized in 1904 and thereafter he continued his residence at Mena, Arkansas, until 1909, when he came with his wife to Washington County, Okla- homa, and established his residence at Bartlesville, the county seat. He had previously given attention to the study of law and at Bartlesville he continued his techni- cal studies under the preceptorship of George S. Hill, a prominent lawyer of this county. He was admitted to the bar of the state on the 25th of June, 1911, and there- after was successfully established in the practice of his profession until he was elected county judge, on the 3d of November, 1914. He was one of four democrats who were victorious in the election in Washington County, and received a majority of 290 votes,-a definite attes- tation to his personal popularity and his well proved equipment for the judicial office of which he is now the incumbent. The jurisdiction of the county judge in- cludes all probate and juvenile court affairs, as well as the direction of providing for proper disposition of the insane, besides which in certain cases the county court has concurrent jurisdiction with the district conrt. Judge . Waddill is giving a most careful and efficient administration of the manifold duties devolving upon him and is fully justifying the confidence rerosed in him by the voters of Washington County. He is a staunch advocate of the principles and policies for which the democratic party stands sponsor and is one of its leaders in his home county.
On the 12th of October, 1904, was solemnized the marriage of Judge Waddill to Miss Bernice Hignight, who had previously been a popular teacher in the public schools at Mena, Arkansas. She was born at Brunswick, Missouri, October 7, 1875, and is a daughter of Prof. James F. and Elizabeth (Breeze) Hignight, her father having formerly been superintendent of schools for Chariton County, Missouri, and her mother being a first cousin of the great Confederate officer, Gen. Sterling Price.
JOSEPH A. BAKER. A sterling pioneer settler of the Kiowa and Comanche Indian district of Oklahoma, Mr. Baker there played well his part in the development of the resources and industrial activities of a now well populated and thrifty section of the state, standing exponent of energy and unalloyed civic loyalty, and gain- ing secure vantage-place in popular confidence and esteem, as was shown in his election, in the autumn of 1914, as a rerresentative of Caddo County in the State Legislature. He reclaimed from the virgin prairies one of the fine farms of that county, and though he still owns and gives general supervision to his well improved landed estate he now maintains his residence in Anadarko, the metropolis and judicial center of the county.
A native of the fine old Buckeye State and a scion of sterling pioneer stock in that commonwealth,Mr. Baker was horu in Belmont County, Ohio, on the 28th of May, 1854, and in the same county were born his parents, Jolın and Elizabeth (Henderson) Baker, the former of whom was well advanced in years at the time of his death and the latter of whom, who celebrated her seventy-eighth birthday anniversary in 1915, now resides in the home of her only daughter, at Pittsburg, Kansas. Aside from the subject of this review the other surviv- ing children are Harry M., who is a resident of Shreve- port, Louisiana. where he is employed as a bookkeeper, and Mrs. Rose Kiehl. whose husband is an electrician in the employ of the Western Coal and Mining Company,
at Pittsburg, Kansas. John Baker devoted the major part of his active career to agricultural pursuits, was a man of ability and sterling character, and served in various public offices of local order, including that of county commissioner. He continued his residence in Ohio until 1881, when he removed to Kansas, where he died in 1901.
Reared to the sturdy discipline of the home farm, Joseph A. Baker duly availed himself of the advantages of the common schools of the locality and period, but lis broader education has been acquired under the guidance of that wisest of all headmasters, experience. His father was unable to give him the advantages of higher educational institutions, and his advancement in life has been won entirely through his own ability and efforts. After attaining to his legal majority he con- tinued to be identified with agricultural pursuits for a few years, in his native state, and he then turned his attention to the carpeuter's trade, in which he became a skilled workman.
As a young man Mr. Baker removed from Ohio and numbered himself among the pioneers of Crawford County, Kansas, where he established his home in the Village of Cherokee and engaged in the work of his trade, as a contractor and builder. He continued his residence in the Sunflower State for twenty years and was long one of the well known and highly esteemed citizens of Crawford County. He served as constable and later held the office of city marshal of Cherokee for two terms. In 1884, while the incumbent of this latter position, a strike among the coal miners of that locality resulted in the closing of the mines. The operators thereupon brought in a large number of negro strike- breakers from the South, and the result was the creating of much bitterness and turbulence. One night a French- man was killed by one of these imported negroes, the latter of whom was captured by Marshal Baker, who started with his prisoner for the city jail. On the way he was overtaken by a mob, was unable to resist the same, the negro falling into the hands of the vengeful captors, who promptly gave the murderer a public lynch- ing, the negro having been hanged to a tree just outside the town. In the early days Mr. Baker had many other experiences that demanded courage and determination in the suppression of lawlessness and crime in that section of Kansas, but he rroved equal to emergencies except under such impossible conditions as that just noted.
In 1902 Mr. Baker came to Oklahoma Territory, and in the following year he settled on a farm near Grace- mont, Caddo County, at a point eight miles north of Anadarko, the present county seat. He thereafter gave his attention to the development, improvement and gen- eral supervision of his farm until December, 1914, when he established his residence at Anadarko, where he is now enjoying the well earned rewards of former years of earnest endeavor. He was a pioneer farmer of the Kiowa and Comanche country, and when he made settle- ment on his embryonic farm there were no roads, no fences and few houses in the locality. He contributed as much as an ambitious and thrifty citizen could to the development and upbuilding of the community, and he became one of the influential and representative citizens of Caddo County. For eight years Mr. Baker served as trustee of Gracemont Township, for three years he was a deputy sheriff of Caddo County, and during one term he gave effective service in the office of justice of the peace, a renomination for this position having been declined. In November, 1914, he was elected representa- tive of his county in the lower house of the Fifth Legis- lature, as candidate on the democratic ticket. Не
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received a plurality of 268 votes, which is much in excess of the usual democratic majority in the county.
In the fifth general assembly of the Oklahoma Legis- lature Mr. Baker manifested no desire for spectacular activity or special prominence, though he proved a care- ful and effective worker on the floor of the House of Representatives and in the deliberations of the various committees to which he was assigned, namely: Judiciary, senatorial redistricting, general agriculture, public roads and highways, relation to the Five Civilized Tribes and other Indians, manufacturing and commerce, and levees, drains, ditches and irrigation. He introduced no bills, but was a consistent and zealous advocate of wise legis- lation, especially pertaining to agriculture and the estab- lising of good roads. He was a specially earnest cham- pion of the bill, duly enacted, that provides for the transferring of school district funds to the treasurers of the respective districts.
Mr. Baker and his wife are members of the Presby- terian Church, he is a member of the Anadarko Commer- cial Club, and he was formerly identified with the Anti- Horse Thief Association and the Base Line Vigilance Committee at Cherokee, Kansas.
On the 29th of November. 1877, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Baker to Miss Lucy Brown, who like- wise was born and reared in Ohio. They have no chil- dren.
ROBERT M. MCFARLIN is a Texan by birth, had his early experience in the stock business and farming in that great state, but a little over twenty years ago trans- ferred his activities to Oklahoma, locating in what is now Hughes County. In that section of the state Mr. McFarlin's name is synonymous with many of the most important interests, and among others he was one of the founders and promoters of the thriving little City of Holdenville. He developed a splendid stock ranch in that locality and about ten years ago diverted his capital to oil development around Tulsa. Mr. MeFarlin organized, and is now vice president, of the MeMan Oil Company of Tulsa, with offices in the Drew Building. This is the largest producing concern in the state. Besides Mr. McFarlin the other officers and interested principals in the company are J. A. Chapman, president; E. P. Har- well, secretary; Harry H. Rogers, attorney; and P. A. Charman.
Robert M. McFarlin was born in Waxahachie, Texas, July 27, 1866, a son of Benjamin Porter and Carolina (McKnight) McFarlin. Both parents were natives of Tennessee, and came to Texas in 1851, the father becom- ing one of the early farmers and stock men in Ellis County. He srent his active career on the old homestead near Waxahachie and died there in 1887 at the age of sixty-one. He was in politics a democrat. His wife sur- vived him until 1902, and at her death was seventy-six years old. Of their eight children, all of whom are liv- ing, Robert M. was the youngest.
Mr. McFarlin grew up on one of the typical ranch homesteads of North Central Texas. His schooling came from the public schools, with subsequent attendance in Marvin College of Waxahachie. He early learned the routine of farm and ranch and on reaching manhood that became his regular business. He lived in Texas until 1892, and then became one of the pioneer settlers in Hughes County, Oklahoma. At that time the district was a wild prairie country, with little development beyond the use of the pastures for grazing, and with practically no commercial life. The flourishing City of Holdenville now has a population of 2,500. In that vicinity he car- ried on extensive operations as a farmer and stock man, and has not relinquished them in spite of his activities in another field. He has a reputation as a successful
breeder of thoroughbred Hereford cattle, and runs his stock on a magnificent domain of from 2,500 to 3,000 acres.
It was in 1905 that Mr. McFarlin turned his attention to the oil business, becoming interested in the develop- ment work at Glenn Pool, south of Tulsa. Several years later he organized the MeMan Oil Company, which at this time has the distinction of being the largest produc- ing oil company in Oklahoma. Mr. McFarlin was also one of the organizers and is a director of the Exchange National Bank of Tulsa.
Fraternally he is affiliated with Holdenville Lodge No. 123, A. F. & A. M., and also with Oklahoma Consistory No. 1 of the thirty-second degree of Scottish Rite. On March 24, 1886, he married Ida May Barnard, who was horn at Gainesville, Texas. Mr. and Mrs. McFarlin take great pride in their two daughters. Leta May, the older, is the wife of J. A. Charman, who is president of the Me Man Oil Company. Pauline Carolina, the younger daughter, is a graduate from the National Park Seminary at Forest Glen, Virginia, near Washington, D. C.
J. S. RATLIFF. Eight years or more have passed away since the news went round the world that a new state had been born into the American Union and christened by the euphonious and aboriginal name of Oklahoma. Among the first officials of Johnston County under the new regime was the subject of this memoir, J. S. Rat- liff, who assumed the duties of county attorney, being the first to hold that office under statehood. Mr. Ratliff was born in Murray County, Tennessee, August 14, 1876, a son of N. W. and Margaret (Vernon) Ratliff. The father, a native of Tennessee, is now a farmer in Johns- ton County, Oklahoma. Mr. Ratliff's maternal grand- father was for many years a well known Baptist minister in Tennessee.
When J. S. Ratliff was a small boy his parents moved to Wise County, Texas, where he attended the public schools, being afterward a pupil in a Baptist college at Springtown, that state. Aiter completing the college course he taught for two years in the public schools of Texas, and then came to Indian Territory, where he iol- lowed the same occupation for a like period. He then engaged in farming and while thus occupied began to prepare himself for the legal profession by home study and leading in a law o.lice. In 1906 he was admitted to the bar and began the practice of law at Sulphur, Indian Territory. Here, however, he remained but a few months, at the end of that time removing to Tishomingo. Soon after, as above narrated, he was elected county attorney and tried the first case under state government in the county, in the room of the old Chickasaw capitol where once Indian oratois had poured forth their eloquence and Indian law had been framed. His assistant was Charles Stephens, who had been his partner for a short tinie previously. Three hundred cases lett on the dockets of the territorial courts were transferred to Johnston County, and the disposition of these was the first task of County Attorney Ratliff. Some of them were trans- jerred to Marshall County, others were dismissed and others were tried. Two men were convicted of murder and are now serving lite sentences in the penitentiary.
After serving one term as county attorney, Mr. Ratliff retired from public office, preferring to earn a more lucrative living in private practice. In 1911 he formed a law partnership with C. S. Fenwick, which existed until the following year, when Mr. Fenwick was elected county judge. Mr. Katliff then associated himself with M. A. Looney and the firm of Ratliff & Looney is still continued and handles a large amount of legal business annually. Mr. Ratliff is a member of the County Bar Association and of the Tishomingo Commercial Club, also of the Odd
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Fellows and M. W. A. lodges. A Baptist in religion, he belongs to the church of that denomination in Tisho- mingo. He owns a stock ranch in the country and devotes considerable attention to its improvement. As a progressive citizen he is interested in the development and prosperity of the town and county and has served as chairman of the town board of trustees.
Mr. Ratliff was married at Tishomingo, October 20, 1909, to Miss Ruth White, and they have two children: Ruth Iline, aged four years, and Joseph Looney, aged one year. The family occupy a pleasant, comfortable residence in Tishomingo. Mr. Ratliff has four brothers and three sisters living: W. L. Ratliff is an attorney at Amarillo, Texas; J. M. and C. E. Ratliff are farmers in Johnston County; C. H. Ratliff lives on a farm with his father in this county; Mrs. Dora Grisham, who lives in Johnston County, is the wife of a former attorney of the county; Mrs. Beulah Keenon and Mrs. Blanche Dan- ner are wives of Johnston farmers. All the members of the family are prosperous and respected residents of their respective communities.
JUDGE PERRY C. BOLGER, a lawyer, by profession and the present judge of LeFlore County, was born in Colum- bia County, Arkansas, November 4, 1867. He is a son of Hiram P. and Sarah E. (Mathews) Bolger, natives of South Carolina and Georgia, respectively.
Hiram Bolger was reared in Georgia, and passed through the Civil war as a soldier of the Confederacy. Returning to his home he married Sarah Mathews, the daughter of Capt. James P. Mathews, who served in the Confederate army throughout the war in an Arkansas regiment. Following his marriage he migrated to Arkan- sas and settled on a farm in Columbia County, where he remained until about 1879. In that year he gave up farm life, and thereafter devoted himself to the mercantile business at Magnolia, Arkansas.
Perry C. Bolger was twelve years old when his parents left the farm and engaged in business in Magnolia. There, in the public schools, he gained a sufficient train- ing to enable him to teach school, and for six years he was occupied in that profession. With the savings from his earnings in those years the young man defrayed the expenses of a law course in Washington and Lee Uni- versity, at Lexington, Virginia, and in 1890 he was ad- mitted to the bar of Arkansas. He did not then engage in independent practice, but entered the office of Wood and Henderson, a prominent law firm of Hot Springs, where he passed two years, thus gaining an experience that he could not have acquired in a much longer time as a free lance in the legal world. He spent another two years in school teaching in Arkansas, then came to Indian Territory and hung out the proverbial shingle at Cameron, on August 30, 1895. It was then that his, professional career began in earnest. In 1896 he was appointed referee in bankruptcy and probate commissioner by Judge William H. H. Clayton of the United States District Court at Cameron. The appointing judge was a republican in politics and Mr. Bolger was a democrat, but the appoint- ment was made, as Judge Clayton said, "because there was no republican member of the bar at Cameron who was not then holding an office." This office Mr. Bolger filled with credit, and his service was terminated by the admission of Oklahoma to the sisterhood of states in 1907. The United States District Court was moved to Poteau, Indian Territory, in 1900, and in September of that year Mr. Bolger took up his residence in that place, and there he has since resided.
With Oklahoma's admission to statehood, Mr. Bolger was designated by the Constitutional Convention as the first county clerk of LeFlore County, and by virtue of his
position he served as chairman of the first election board for his county. He was also the first democratic state committeeman from LeFlore County.
In 1910 came his election to the office of county judge. He was re-elected in 1912 and again succeeded himself in 1914. His efficiency record in that office has been an enviable one, and out of several cases appealed from his court, only one decision has been reversed.
Judge Bolger has given considerable attention to farm- ing in LeFlore County, and has a fine farm of 100 acres which he purchased from the Federal Government as an unallotted tract. His interests in a local way extend in various directions and he is president of the National Bank of Poteau, to which office he was elected in January, 1915, and re-elected in 1916.
On June 25, 1913, Judge Bolger was married to Miss May Stalcup, a native of Tennessee.
JOHN ANTHONY FOREMAN. One of the most promi- nent of the old families of the Cherokee Nation is repre- sented by John Anthony Foreman now living quietly retired in Ramona in Washington County. Such have been the services and attainments of different members of the family that this publication should devote con- siderable space to the record. The father of John A. Foreman was the Rev. Stephen Foreman, one of the most useful and earnest workers for the educational and religious advancement of the Cherokees. Rev. Stephen Foreman died at his home at Park Hill near Tahlequah, December 8, 1882, in the seventy-fourth year of his life. A sketch of his career is a part of the history of the Cherokee Nation, and the following facts are gleaned from a sketch which appeared in the Cherokee Advocate at the time of his death.
Rev. Stephen Foreman was born October 22, 1807, at a place called Oo-you-gi-lo-gi about twenty-five miles northeast of the present site of Rome, Georgia. His parents were Anthony Foreman, a Scotchman, and his wife, Elizabeth Watty, a full blooded Cherokee. Anthony Foreman came among the Cherokees during or soon after the Revolutionary war as a trader, and died among them in 1817. Stephen Foreman was thus left at the age of ten in a country where the opportunities for gaining an education were very limited but there is ample evidence that he made more than the best of his opportunities. The first school he attended was in 1815 just after the Creek war. In later years he wrote about some of his experiences in gaining an education, and of this first school he says: "How long the school was kept or how much I learned, I do not now recollect. Webster 's spelling book and reader were my first school books and Burgess Witt was my teacher." In 1824 he attended the Mission School on Candy's Creek, walking three miles to attend that school as a day scholar. Later, quoting his own words, "in 1826 I went by invitation of Mr. Holland to live at the Mission and while there, or before going there, I heard a Mr. Chamberlain preach, who was the first missionary I ever heard preach, and through his preaching I was made sensible of sin and brought to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ." He attended the Mission School two years, and during the winter of 1828 went to New Echota and studied there under Rev. S. A. Worcester. He was afterwards in school in Prince Edward, Virginia, under Doctor Rice, and following the death of Doctor Rice in 1830 and acting on the advice of friends he entered in 1831 the Princeton Theological Seminary in New Jersey, remain- ing there two years.
Licensed to preach in 1833, Rev. Mr. Foreman took charge of the church at Candy's Creek in 1834, and labored there until the removal of the Cherokees from
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