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 95

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 95

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Doctor Dalby was about seventeen years old when the family removed to Kansas, and in the meantime had gained the rudiments of his education in the local schools of Illinois. He grew to manhood in Montgomery County, Kansas, and had considerable experience as a farmer. He lived at home until taking up the study of medicine in 1884 in the Kansas City Medical College, now the medical department of the University of Kansas, from which he was graduated M. D. in 1886. He has since pursued post-graduate work in the New York Polyclinic. Since 1886 Doctor Dalby has been steadily engaged in practice in the districts along the border between Kansas and Oklahoma. His home has been at Ramona for six years, and in October, 1914, he was appointed postmaster of that village. He also owns a farm near Ramona, and is developing it to the best standards.

All his life Doctor Dalby has been a democrat. While living at Chautauqua, Kansas, he served as postmaster under appointment from President Cleveland. He was a delegate to the Oklahoma State Convention of 1912 which selected the Wilson delegate for the Baltimore Convention. He is a member of the medical organiza- tions including the American Medical Association, is affiliated with the subordinate lodge and encampment of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, is a Master Mason and also a Knight of Pythias. In 1888 Doctor Dalby married Miss Minnie E. Byers, who was born in

Iowa. Mrs. Dalby is now serving as assistant post- master at Ramona. While they had no children of their own they have reared several orphans. They are both popular members of the social community of Ramona and have a comfortable home in that village. Doctor Dalby among other experiences which identify him with Oklahoma was a participant in the rush at the opening of the Cherokee Strip in 1893, but did not secure a claim.

J. CLEETUS ENLOW. During a residence of seventeen years in Oklahoma Mr. Enlow has attained distinction as a lawyer of solid ability, and as a man of high ideals has done much constructive work both through his pro- fession and as an author to mould the life of this new country. Since coming to Oklahoma his home has always been at Woodward, but he is well known all over the western part of the state.

Born in West Union, Doddridge County, West Vir- ginia, September 27,. 1876, he is a son of Henry J. Enlow, who was born in Ohio and served as a Union soldier during the Civil war. After the war he removed to West Virginia, where he met his life companion, Sonor D. Stout, whose father was a wealthy land holder in that state. Both Henry J. Enlow and his wife were well educated, and had a part in making West Virginia what it is today. From this union sprang a family of eight children, five boys and three girls, fourth among them being the Woodward lawyer.

Mr. Enlow's earlier life was spent in the valleys and among the hills and rocks of the rich and picturesque State of West Virginia. He became familiar with the mountaineer's customs and ways, out of which environ- ment many men famous in the United States have risen. No doubt in such surroundings he got his greatest vision of a true life. He attended the country school and before fifteen years of age had completed all the com- mon school branches, including algebra and Ray 's higher arithmetic. One year later he had secured a certificate to teach school in his home county. Being too young to teach, he entered college at Salem, West Virginia, con- tinued his education at Fairmount, subsequently took a thorough business course, and began the study of law in the State University at Morgantown.

It was not with a definite design as to permanent residence that Mr. Enlow came to Oklahoma in 1898. His object was to visit his brother, W. M. Enlow, who was then living in what is known as Harper County, Oklahoma. However, so impressed was he with the country that he filed on a homestead and became a resi- dent. On leaving his home town of West Union, West Virginia, he purchased a through ticket to Woodward, Oklahoma, and the first acquaintance that he made there was Lawyer C. W. Herod, ex-receiver of the United States Land Office at Woodward. Becoming interested in the young man, Mr. Herod introduced him to the dif- ferent business men, among them Col. Temple Houston, Oklahoma's greatest criminal lawyer and a son of the famous Sam Houston, the Texas soldier and statesman. Colonel Houston, recognizing many good qualities in the young West Virginian, and learning that he was a law student, voluntarily offered him the use of his entire law library, of which gracious proffer Mr. Enlow made the best advantage and remembers Mr. Houston's kind- nesses with lasting gratitude. Continuing the study of law with Colonel Houston's books and profiting much by his advice, in less than one year he passed a most satisfactory examination, and was admitted to practice law in Oklahoma.

Since then Mr. Enlow's has been a very successful business career, and while he has interests in other states, he has contributed largely to the upbuilding of Okla-

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noma in a political, religious aud financial way, and was instrumental in helping to frame the present laws of the state. He is an Oklahoma booster, has an intimate and exact knowledge of the state's resources, and through his personal iufluence and peu has done much to attract the best class of people to this portion of the Southwest. As a writer Mr. Enlow has contributed many articles of interest to the press of Oklahoma and to outside magazines, and has written two very interesting books entitled "Brownie, an American Slave, " and "Law and Patriotism, " besides the volume entitled "Unraveling Childhood."

Mr. Enlow met Miss Julia L. Russell, daughter of Pressley J. Russell, oue of Oklahoma 's earliest and lead- ing merchants, who has a definite claim to the gratitude of many people through his active assistance iu helping the poor settlers to hold their claims in Western Okla- homa. On August 20, 1900, Mr. Enlow and Miss Russell were married, and since then Mr. Enlow has had no thought of returning to his old home State of West Virginia. To their union were born four children, three sons and one daughter, as follows: Russell Cleetus, born in 1902; Heury Dallas, born in 1904; Ralph Ver- non, born in 1906; and Alice Lueleta, born in 1908.

ROGER S. SHERMAN. Of the well known Tulsa law firm of West, Sherman & Davidson, with offices iu the Palace Building, Roger S. Sherman is a Harvard University graduate and has been in active practice at Tulsa for the past eight years.

Considering the fact that a considerable part of his legal business is identified with the oil and gas companies of Northern Oklahoma, it is interesting to note that Roger S. Sherman was born at one of the centers of the Pennsylvania oil district, Titusville. He was born March 11, 1879, a son of Roger and Alma S. (Seymour.) Sher- man. His father was born in Tennessee in 1839 and died at Titusville September 19, 1897. During the Civil war he served as a member of General Forrest's noted cavalry command. He was liberally educated in his native state, and was admitted to practice at the bar of the State of Arkansas. Not long after the close of the war hie re- moved to Pennsylvania and for many years carried on an active practice as a lawyer at Titusville. Politically he acted with the democratic party. His wife was born in Michigan in 1848 and is still living in Pennsylvania. She was the mother of two children, and her daughter Alma is the wife of Thomas W. Phillips, Jr., of Butler, Penn- sylvania.

In the person of his father, Roger S. Sherman had the example and the resources of a cultured and successful lawyer to stimulate and guide his early activities, and from the public schools of Titusville he entered Law- renceville School in New Jersey, prepared for college, and in 1901 graduated A. B. from Harvard College. Several years later he was admitted to the bar, and on August 1, 1907, established his home at Tulsa. He was identified with an individual practice up to May, 1913, but is now associated with Preston C. West and A. A. Davidson. This is a combination of brains and experience which makes the firm one of the strongest in Northeastern Oklahoma. They handle a general practice and are also corporation attorneys for several Oklahoma oil and gas companies.

Mr. Sherman is a member of the Tulsa County Bar Association and the Oklahoma State Bar Association and in politics is a democrat.

WILLIAM H. DOHERTY, JR. The cashier of the First State Bank of Stilwell, William H. Doherty, Jr., repre- sents the kind of financial material to which the older residents of Adair County look for a maintenance of

stable, progressive conditions. His largest usefulness lies in the future, for he is now but twenty-three years of age, having been born January 18, 1893, at Grove, Dela- ware County, Oklahoma, and represents the third genera- tiou of his family to reside in this state.

William H. Doherty, Sr., was born in what is now Adair County, Oklahoma, in 1863, and his mother was born iu the same county, there being a strain of Cherokee in the family through her, although the Dohertys are of Irish origin. He married Mollie Hampton, who, although born in the Cherokee Nation, is of pure white blood and of English lineage. William H. Doherty, Sr., has long resided in what is now Delaware County, Oklahoma, and is one of the leading and influential citizens of the Town of Grove, where he is successfully engaged in business as the proprietor of a flourishing dry goods establishment. He has also been identified with financial matters for a number of years, being interested in an official capacity in 'several banks, including the First State Bank of Stil- well, of which he is president.

William H. Doherty, Jr., was educated in the public schools of Grove, Oklahoma, and Chillicothe and Spring- field, Missouri, this training being supplemented by a commercial course in a business college at Fort Smith, Arkansas. His career commenced when he was only seventeen years of age, at which time he was made cashier of the Bank of Kansas, at Kansas, Oklahoma, where he displayed such ability that he was soon chosen as cashier of the First State Bank of Wagoner, Oklahoma. In that position he remained until 1913, in which.year was organ- ized the First State Bank of Stilwell and Mr. Doherty came to this city to accept the cashiership of the new banking house. This institution has a capital of $15,000 and has enjoyed a steadily-increasing patronage from the time of its inception. Although a young man, Mr. Doherty is regarded as an able banker, and because of his energy and enthusiasm and sound business tactics is expected to realize his highest ambitions.

Mr. Doherty was married in 1911 to Miss Vivian Morris, of Adair County, and they are the parents of two children : Helen and Mildred.

HARRY B. DRAKE. Twenty miles from a railroad, in a secluded and picturesque nook of the Kiamichi Moun- tains, and in the little Village of Smithville that the am- bitious but visionary Billy Burkhart, of Chicago, sought to build to metropolitan proportions in a night, began the career of Harry B. Drake in Oklahoma. It was in the duties of a teacher in a school conducted under super- vision of the United States Government, that Mr. Drake was first occupied, and that school was attended almost exclusively by full-blood Choctaw Indians, some of whom knew not a word of the English language. The experi- ence of Mr. Drake in teaching the language of the white man to descendants of Indians whom the Government had set about educating three-quarters of a century before was like borrowing a half year from the early history of the nineteenth century. Pioneers of Kentucky and Ten- nessee never entered a more virgin region than this, and it differed only in being less hazardous, for most of the dangerous wild beasts of the Kiamichis had been done away with by the natives. Here, hidden away from civil- ization for six mouths, Mr. Drake studied the nature and characteristics of the Indians. He visited them in their homes and listened to their romantic recitation of the lore and legendry of their people. He picked out of their veneer of civilization their ingrained notions of faith and honor-notions that had been considerably seared and changed iu their not too satisfactory relations with their white brothers. It was this study of aboriginal attrib- utes that enabled him later to be of inestimable service

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in other and larger capacities while in the employ of the United States Government.

Among the students in this little school conducted by Mr. Drake, were the children of Elom Johnson, a Choctaw County judge of considerable ability and of wide reputa- tion. Also children of Tom Watson, a sheriff of Wolf County of the Choctaw Nation, whose reputation was extended to the boundaries of that Nation.

While at Smithville Mr. Drake became intimately asso- ciated with Billy Burkhart, a Chicago newspaper man, and they became fast friends. In Smithville Mr. Burk- hart had found what he believed to be an ideal spot for the building of a mountain city that should have a nationwide reputation. He believed that its natural qualifications were such that it would grow like magic, with a little publicity, and to that end he advertised the project throughout the United States. Settlers came and went. The town grew and declined. Smithville today is a prosperous village, and Mr. Burkhart, its founder and sponsor, still ambitious for his dream, is one of its leading spirits.

Mr. Drake served the Government two years more be- fore leaving the teaching profession-one year being spent at Tomaha Academy and another year at Matoy, both of them Indian villages of the Choctaw Nation. Then, after being associated in law for a year and a half with Alexander Richmond, he entered the service of the United States Indian Agency at Muskogee, and was assigned to the office of a district agency at Holdenville.

While at Holdenville Mr. Drake was associated with one "Billy" Baker, a district Indian agent, whose activities in safeguarding the interests of minor and orphan Indians earned him a national reputation of which he might well have been proud. The notable Wewoka investigation in the Seminole Nation was conducted by these two men in their official capacities, and it resulted in the indictment of several men of prominence, and in drawing the state into the controversy as well. The well remembered instructions to the grand jury by Judge West were dictated to Mr. Drake, and he transcribed the indictments drawn by Attorney-General Charles West. It was a stormy period, during which Drake found it necessary to arm himself in defense of his associate, Billy Baker, and of other officials of the Government. The whole county was stirred. Friends of the parties concerned took sides, and at times the community seemed on the verge of an incipient civil war. This investiga- tion finally resulted in the establishment of certain im- portant reforms in the Seminole Natiou as regards the handling of matters relating to the guardianships and estates of Indians.

After the Seminole investigation Mr. Drake resigned from the Government service and entered the law school of Epworth University in Oklahoma City, paying his way through that school one year by his own earning activities as a stenographer in the office of the law firm of Shartel, Keaton and Wells. While there he assisted Alexander Richmond and other financiers in the organ- ization of the Mutual Savings & Home Association. After another year his former associate, Mr. Baker, called him again into the Indian service, Baker having in the mean- time become supervising district agent. Drake was made probate attorney and was placed in charge of head- quarters at Durant. Later he was transferred to Ard- more, liis services in these positions giving him super- vision over all matters of a probate nature in Indian affairs. He resigned in the latter part of 1911 to engage in practice in Idabel, where he has since conducted an office, and where he has a wide and continually growing clientele.

It should be said that Mr. Drake was born in Hamilton,

Texas, in 1881. He is a son of Joseph Cullen and Martha (Falmer) Drake. The father was a native of Long Branch, New Jersey, but was a pioneer settler in Hamil- ton County, Texas, where he early engaged in farming and stock raising. He was one of the first men in his section of the state to fence his grazing land with barbed wire after that product was introduced into Texas by John W. Gates, and his testimony, it is said, brought about the first convictions of wire cutters in Hamilton County during a period when men with herds on the open range objected to fencing on the part of land owners.

Young Drake had his primary schooling in the public schools of Texas and later he was graduated from the high school at Event, Texas, and was class valedictorian. He then entered upon a normal course for teachers, and when that was completed went into the teaching profes- sion. He taught one year in his native county, and in 1904 went to the Indian Territory to take the position offered him at Smithville by Territorial Superintendent of Schools Ballard. His career from that time down to the present date has already been outlined with more or less attention to detail.

Mr. Drake was married in April, 1914, to Miss Elsie Emilyn Roberts of Idabel, and they have a daughter, Dorothea Emilyn. He has six brothers and sisters, cou- cerning whom mention is briefly made as follows: Irving L. Drake is a practicing physician at Smithville, Okla- homa. S. P. Drake is a merchant and farmer at Hamil- ton, Texas, the old family home. Mrs. M. P. Winters is the wife of a farmer and ranchman at Stringtown, Texas. Mrs. J. R. Carter lives at Center City, Texas. Mrs. S. R. Allen has her home at Hamilton, Texas, and Mrs. E. J. Hardin lives at Mangum, Oklahoma.

Mr. Drake is a member of the County and State Bar associations, and he is secretary of the Republican Cen- tral Committee of McCurtain County. He is a Mason of high degree and he and his wife have membership in the Baptist Church. They are young people of splendid char- acter, and represent an element of citizenship that is highly creditable to their city and county.

WILLIAM CARNAHAN. Now head of the Carnahan Grocery Company of Ramona, and until recently mayor of that city, William Carnahan has made a truly credit- able ascent in the business career he chose for himself and during the past fifteen years has led the way in not only the commercial enterprise, but also in the civic upbuilding of his section of Washington County. Mr. Carnahan began his career as a clerk and by close attention to his work and with exceptional ability in the liaudling of the complications of business has promoted himself to a place among the most successful merchants in Northern Oklahoma.

Nearly all his life has been spent either in Kansas or Oklahoma. He was born in Elk City, Kansas, September 28, 1879, a son of J. D. and Hattie (Wisdom) Carnahan. His parents were born in Illinois, were brought to Kansas when children, and were married there. J. D. Carnahan died at Ramona in August, 1914, at the age of sixty-nine, having lived in that community for about sixteen years. The mother is still living at Ramona. They had two sons, William and Jesse C., the latter of Bartlesville.

His father being a farmer and stock raiser, William Carnahan grew up in the environment of a Kansas farm but from the age of five lived in Elk City until he was seventeen, and gained his education in the schools of that place. In 1897 he removed to Bartlesville, and has been in Washington County ever since. His first employ- ment was as a laborer, and then for one year he bought grain for William Johnstone, of Bartlesville. In 1900

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he came to Ramona and for five years was an independ- ent grain and stock buyer. In 1915 his business as a merchant concludes ten years of successful establishment. In 1905 he started a grocery and meat market, which from year to year has grown steadily and has more than kept pace with the local demand. The Carnahan store in Ramona is in a large brick building on the main street, the store room being 35 by 80 feet, with two warerooms, one 16 by 40 and the other 20 by 40. The company also operates its own electric light plant and ice plant, and not only furnishes facilities for cold storage but also manufactures a large amount of ice for the local trade. Five clerks are employed in the estab- lishment at Ramona and he also has a store at Skiatook, known as the Carnahan-Wood Grocery Company Mr. Carnahan has developed both a retail and wholesale house, and carries a stock valued at about $6,000 and supplies large quantities of groceries to other small towns around Ramona. He conducts his establishment on what is known to the trade as the "Wiley Plan" and has made his store the headquarters for pure food, specializing in high grade staple products and also fresh groceries and fresh meats, getting the supplies for his market from the home grown grain fed stock of Wash- ington, butchered and cured in his own slaughter house and cold storage plant. Mr. Carnahan owns a ranch of 120 acres, and keeps his stock there and has a slaughter house on his farm. His record as a business builder has been greatly appreciated by his fellow citizens, and for six years he was a member of the town council and for four years held the post of mayor. This latter office came to him without solicitation and on the basis of fitness, and he gave the town an excellent administration and one which was marked by many civic improvements and by generally high standards of civic spirit.

Mr. Carnahan is a republican in politics, is affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Knights of Pythias and the Modern Woodmen of America. He owns a good home in Ramona, and was married in 1910 to Miss Edith Reush, who was born in Colorado.

FRED MERSHON. From the time of his arrival in what is now Sequoyah County, Oklahoma, in 1903, Fred Mershon has been one of the most helpful of its citi- zens, and during a large part of this time, ever since the acquisition of statehood, in fact, has been the incum- bent of public office, in which his fine abilities have been used in the furtherance of measures for the gen- eral welfare. He is the father of the public school system of the county, having for many years been en- gaged in educational work both in Texas and Oklahoma, and since January 1, 1913, has been clerk of the Dis- trict Court.

Mr. Mershon was born February 21, 1867, in Wise County, Texas, and is a son of Fred L. and Frances (Lawley) Mershon. The family is of French origin, the progenitor in America coming to this country long before the outbreak of the American Revolution. From New Jersey some of the name moved to Kentucky sub- sequent to the winning of independence, and it was in that state, near Bowling Green, that Fred L. Mershon, the father of Fred Mershon, was born. As a young man the father joined other adventurous souls and went to the new country of Texas, where, in Wise County, he met and married Frances Lawley, a native of the Lone Star State. They became the parents of three children, of whom Fred was the youngest, and when he was only one year old the mother died. Later Fred L. Mershon married Mary Reed, who bore him seven chil- dren. At the time of the Civil war, Mr. Mershon en-

listed in a regiment of volunteer infantry from Texas, and fought gallantly as a soldier in the uniform of the Gray. His military career finished, he returned to the peaceful pursuits of farming and raising stock, in which he continued to be engaged during the remaining years of his life, rounding out a career of usefulness and pass- ing away in Wise County at the age of sixty-three years. He was a highly esteemed member of his community, serving with distinction in several public offices, includ- ing that of county treasurer of Wise County, which he held for four years, and was a devout member of the Christian Church.

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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