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 96

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 96

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Fred Mershon was reared on his father's farm in Wise County, Texas, and attended the country schools where was laid the foundation of his education. After completing a high school course, he attended for some time Acock's Military School, at San Antonio, Texas, where his days as a pupil closed, although he was not then to quit the school-room. Instead, he continued therein as an educator, having begun teaching at an early age, and for twenty-one years was engaged in work as an instructor. His career in this field was commenced in Texas, from which state he came to what is now Sequoyah County, Oklahoma, in 1903. For years of successful work he was principal of the schools of Vian, Oklahoma, but with the coming of statehood, in 1907, was elected the first county superintendent of schools for Sequoyah County, an office in which he served for a little more than five years, and in which capacity he efficiently organized and put into smooth working order the present excellent school system of the county. In 1910 he was honored by an election to the position of president of the Oklahoma State Teachers Associa- tion. His services were again called into public requisi- tion in 1912, when he was elected clerk of the District Court of Sequoyah County. He entered upon the duties of this office January 1, 1913, and here again brought into play ability and rendered such acceptable service as court clerk as to merit a re-election in 1914, by virtue of which he is now serving his second term in this office. Clerk Mershon is a stanch democrat in politics and fra- ternally is connected with the Knights of Pythias and the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. In church faith he is a Methodist, belonging with Mrs. Mershon and his children to the Sallisaw Methodist Episcopal Church, South.

Mr. Mershon was married in 1897 to Miss Connie Cleo Waite, a native of Texas, and to this union there have been born five children, as follows: Lena, Robbie Ray, Frederick Joseph, William Sequoyah and Frances Eunice.

JAMES A. VEASEY. Now one of the prominent mem- bers of the Tulsa bar, James A. Veasey came to Okla- homa about a dozen years ago as one of the legal em- ployes connected with the Dawes Commission. After leaving that service he set up as an independent lawyer at Bartlesville, and his experience and ability have since brought him a successful place in the law. Since coming to this state he has also identified himself in a public spirited manner with local affairs.

He was born near Louisville, Kentucky, October 24, 1876, a son of Joseph M. and Sarah (Rodgers) Veasey. James A. Veasey is a man of liberal education, and graduated from the literary department of the University of Michigan in 1900, and took his law degree from the same institution with the class of 1902. Not long after- ward he secured appointment with the Dawes Indian Commission and came to old Indian Territory, spending about six months at Tahlequah. He then removed to Bartlesville in 1904, and took up the active practice of

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law. His home was in Bartlesville until 1913, when he removed to Tulsa and became associated with Roger S. Sherman and J. P. O'Meara, in the prominent law firm of Sherman, Veasey & O'Meara. May 1, 1915, Mr. O'Meara's place was taken by A. A. Davidson. The firm handles a large general practice and also represents sev- eral corporations, principally oil and gas companies.

During his residence in Bartlesville Mr. Veasey served two terms as city attorney, one term as president of the board of education, and wherever possible has allied him- self with the movements and organizations that express the best life and ideals of the community. Politically he is a republican. Mr. Veasey has affiliations with Bartles- ville Lodge, A. F. & A. M., Bartlesville Chapter, R. A. M., Calvary Commandery of the Knights Templar at Bartles- ville, the Akdar Temple of the Mystic Shrine at Tulsa, and with Guthrie Consistory of the thirty-second degree Scottish Rite. On November 23, 1904, Mr. Veasey mar- ried Olive Bolen, a native of Missouri. Their three chil- dren are: Mary Elizabeth, Dorothy and James A., Jr.

M. A. LOONEY. Many men attain honors in middle life or advanced age, after many years spent in earnest endeavor; to have won them in early yonth is something less frequently accomplished. One of the youngest men in Oklahoma to hold a commission under the Federal Court as United States commissioner, shortly after state- hood was the subject of this memoir, M. A. Looney, who was appointed by United States Judge Ralph Camp- bell for the district embracing Johnston County. Mr. Looney was then but twenty-one years old, and had just begun the practice of law, having been admitted to the practice of law in the courts of Indian Territory by United States Judge Hosea Townsend.

Mr. Looney was born in 1886 at Vienna, Johnson County, Illinois, the son of Dr. J. T. and Fannie (Jones) Looney. He is a grandson of Dr. W. A. Looney, a graduate of Rush Medical College, Chicago, who for a number of years was a prominent man in his part of the state and served in the Illinois Legislature. Dr. J. T. Looney, father of M. A., was born in Illinois and was, like his father, graduated from Rush Medical College, being shortly afterwards appointed physician-in-chief of the Southern Illinois Penitentiary at Chester. For a number of years he was surgeon for the Big Four Railroad Com- pany, and is now surgeon for the Rock Island Railroad Company at Tishomingo, Oklahoma, of which place he has been a resident since 1901. Doctor Looney was a member of the first faculty of the Secondary State Agri- cultural and Mechanical College at Tishomingo, holding the position until 1914. He is president of Johnston Connty Medical Society and chairman of the Republican Central Committee of Johnston County; also a director of the Farmers National Bank of Tishomingo. A Free- mason of high rank, he belongs to the Commandery at Ardmore, the Consistory at McAlester and the Shrine at Oklahoma City. The Looney family is of Scotch- Irish origin and at an early date was settled in the Isle of Man. On the maternal side Mr. Looney is a grandson of F. M. Jones, who held an officer's commission in the Union Army during the Civil war, and for many years subsequently was one of the leading citizens of his county, for sixteen consecutive years holding the office of county clerk.

M. A. Looney was educated in the school and high school at Vienna, Illinois, and at the University of Illinois, subsequently graduating in law from the St. Louis Law School of Washington University at St. Louis. In 1907 he began the practice of his profession in Tisho- mingo, having been admitted to the bar under the terri- torial regime, and for a time was associated with H. O. Newman. Mr. Looney was but a lad of sixteen when he

came to the territory and he had not been here long when he had an adventure, the possible consequences of which, however, he did not realize at the time. It was during the campaign for governor of the Chickasaw Nation in 1903, and the contest had given rise to snel bad blood that the rumor was rife that in case of the election of Douglas H. Johnston the ballot boxes were to be seized and either destroyed or the men in charge of them murdered. It was necessary that the ballots be put in a place of safekeeping. The place selected was the home of a farmer near Durant, in the Choctaw Nation, for so loose were the regulations governing elec- tions that ballots were frequently transferred to another nation. Any Indian citizen who undertook to carry the ballots away would be in danger of his life. After a secret debate among the leaders young Looney was selected to perform the dangerous task. The ballots, sealed up in a small package, were handed to him and he was instructed on how to proceed. He was to take a Rock Island train at Tishomingo, make transfer to another railroad that would take him to Durant, hire conveyance at Durant and drive to the home of the man selected to keep the ballots nntil danger was passed. He was to keep his mouth closed, answer no questions and brook no delays. Young Looney did not know nntil after- wards of the dangers he was incurring, that he might be killed on sight, nor did he know that upon that journey depended the policies of the nation for a good many years. Fortune favored him, however, as he made the trip and accomplished his mission withont accident or incident, never being suspected by any man of the oppos- ing faction. Governor Johnston was elected and his administration was generally satisfactory.

Mr. Looney's appointment at the age of twenty-one as United States commissioner has already been narrated. After serving for a few years in that office he retired from law and associated himself in the banking business with B. R. Brundage and C. B. Burrows. He spent a year in Clarita, Oklahoma, as vice president of the State Bank of Clarita. Then, disposing of his banking interest there, he returned to Tishomingo and again engaged in the practice of law, this time as a partner of J. S. Rat- cliff, the style of the firm being Ratcliff & Looney. His firm is legal representative of the Farmers National Bank of Tishomingo and owns a stock ranch in this vicinity that is being improved. Mr. Looney is a director of the bank above mentioned. He is a member of the county and state bar associations, of the Commercial and Good Roads clubs of Tishomingo and of the Delta Ki legal fraternity of Washington University; also of the M. W. A., the Knights of Pythias and the Masonic order. In the last mentioned he is past master of Tishomingo Lodge, past high priest of the Chapter of Royal Arch Masons, a member of the Council in Tishomingo and of the Consistory at McAlester. Religiously, he belongs to the Presbyterian Church. Although a republican in poli- tics, he served for a time as assistant county attorney under G. F. Lefler, a democrat.

Mr. Looney was married June 24, 1912, to Miss Helen Dudley, daughter of a pioneer resident and hardware merchant of Tishomingo. Mr. Looney has one brother, Robert T. Looney, cashier of the Farmers National Bank, of Tishomingo.

ARLES A. ROGERS. Twenty years of actual experience in the educational field have prepared Arles A. Rogers for his present position of superintendent of schools of New Wilson, to which he came one year ago. His rec- ord thus far has been a highly creditable one, and much is expected of his future connection with the local schools. He is a man who realizes the importance of his relation to the public mind, and is one who sees much dignity in

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1273

the task of instructing the growing mind of a child. Such as he will always be ornaments to the teaching profession, and New Wilson feels itself fortunate in having secured him to take charge of its department of public instruction.

Arles A. Rogers was born in Clarkesville, Arkansas, on September 6, 1875, and he is a son of W. W. Rogers, born in Fannin County, Texas, in 1854, and Addie Trus- cott, born in Illinois in 1861. The father died in Fred- erick, Oklahoma, on August 28, 1913, and the mother is now living in that community. The elder Rogers was a dry goods merchant in Clarkesville, Arkansas, for several years, having moved there from Fannin County some years prior to the birth of the subject. In 1894 he moved back to Texas and in 1902 he came out to Okla- homa, settling in Frederick, where he later died. He was a democrat and a life long member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. He served the church as a steward for a good many years, and was one of its faithful and dependable members while he lived. He was prominent in Masonry, and it, is a notable fact that his son, the subject, is a member of the same Masonic lodges that the father was connected with. Other fraternal affiliations were with the Woodmen of the World and the Inde- pendent Order of Odd Fellows.

To W. W. and Addie (Truscott) Rogers were born seven children. Arles A. was the first born. Vera mar- ried S. E. Patton, vice president of the Oklahoma State Bank at Frederick, Oklahoma, where they live. E. E. is a traveling salesman, living at Independence, Kansas. D. D. lives at Wellington, Kansas, where he is foreman in the railroad shops there. B. B., also of Wellington, is employed in the shops under his brother. Z. Z. is a resi- dent of Frederick, where he is engaged in the drug busi- ness, and he is mayor of the town. J. J. is now attending the university at Kansas City, where he is preparing himself for the profession of dentistry.

Arles A. Rogers attended the public schools in Clarkes- ville, Arkansas, and was graduated from the high school there in 1890. He then entered the State University at Fayetteville, Arkansas, and was graduated therefrom in the year 1893, with the well earned degrees of A. B. and M. A. Two years later he was graduated from the Sam Houston State Normal School in Texas, with the degree of Doctor of Pedagogy, and iu 1895 he felt himself fitted to engage in educational work. He began to teach in Vernon, Texas, and was located there for five years, being principal of the schools there during the last two years of his stay. His work there was of a high order, well calculated to attract notice of other schools, and he answered a call to Frederick, Oklahoma, where he filled the position of superintendent of schools until the year 1907. From 1907 to 1913 he was county superintendent of schools for Tillman County, and in 1913 he became principal of the Hobart High School, continuing there for a year. In 1914 he took charge of the schools in New Wilson, and is at present filling the position of superintendent of schools. He has in charge three schools, twelve teachers and 600 students.

Mr. Rogers is a democrat and a Methodist. He is a member of the board of stewards of the church, and is a leader in its good works. He is prominent fraternally, chief among his fraternal orders being the Masons, in which he has taken all degrees but the highest. He is a member of Frederick Lodge No. 249, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, and in 1907 was worshipful master of it. He is a member of Frederick Chapter No. 44, Royal Arch Masons, and of that lodge he is past high priest. He is a member of Frederick Commandery No. 13, Knights Templar, of which he was eminent commander in 1909. He is also a member of India Temple, Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, of

Oklahoma City, of India Consistory No. 2, McAlester, Oklahoma, and of Hobart Council No. 91, in the latter being past thrice illustrious grand master. Other fra- ternal orders with which he is connected are the Knights of Pythias, No. 66 Lodge at Frederick, of which he is past chancellor commander, and the Modern Woodmen of America, Frederick Lodge. In the line of his pro- fession Mr. Rogers is a member of Carter County State Teachers Association, and he was president of the South- western Teachers Association in 1912.

In 1901 Mr. Rogers was married at Vernon, Texas, to Miss Annie Gamble, daughter of William Gamble, a Verona stockman and prominent citizen. Five children have been born of their union: Curtis, born April 9, 1903; Rita, born October 8, 1905; Idris, born July 4, 1907; Gomer, born July 15, 1909; and Meredyth, born February 12, 1911. All but the youngest are attending the local schools.

JOHN A. SPIVY. Clerk of the County and District courts of Jefferson County, John A. Spivy has been a factor in the political life-of this section of Oklahoma since statehood. He is almost to the manner born in local politics, since some of his earliest experiences in his native State of Texas were in connection with public offices. Mr. Spivy has also been a farmer, and is one of the men justly appreciated and influential in Jefferson County.

John A. Spivy was born in Weatherford, Parker County, Texas, September 8, 1867. The Spivy family came originally out of Ireland, locating in this country probably before the Revolution, became pioneer settlers in Mississippi, and from that state removed to Tennessee. Mr. Spivy's father, H. W. Spivy, was born in Hardeman County, Tennessee, in 1834, and died at Weatherford, Texas, in March, 1887. When a young man he moved from Tennessee to North Texas as a pioneer, and was one of the early group of settlers who made the com- munity of Weatherford one of prominence. He was married at Weatherford, reared his family there, and · was a merchant until 1876, when elected clerk of the District Court, an office he held ten years. In religious matters he belonged to what is called the hardshell branch of the Baptist Church. H. W. Spivy married Sallie Shofner, who was born in Tennessee in 1840 and died at Weatherford, Texas, in 1873. Their children were : Mary, wife of R. A. Sullivan, an Arkansas farmer; John A .; J. B., a farmer at Nocona, Texas; H. W., a farmer at Carnegie. Oklahoma; and Annie, wife of F. S. Biggs, and lives at Weatherford, Texas.

John A. Spivy grew up at Weatherford, attended the public schools there, and graduated from the high school with the class of 1886. For six years he was employed in the office of the district clerk at Weatherford, part of the time under his father, and on resigning those duties became a Parker County farmer. In 1900 he removed from Parker to Montague County, Texas, and kept his interests there until 1908. Mr. Spivy estab- lished his home at Ryan in Jefferson County, Oklahoma, in 1908, and was a farmer until his election as clerk of the District Court in 1912. He was elected to the office in 1912 and re-elected in 1914, after the act went into effect consolidating the offices of clerk of the District Court and of the County Court, he was re-elected. Though a large part of his active career has been given to the details of the district clerk's office either in Texas or Oklahoma, he has also filled other public responsibil- ities, and among them he was deputy sheriff of Mon- tague County, Texas, four years, and at the beginning of Oklahoma statehood he was elected the first justice of the peace of Brown Township, while living at Oscar

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near Ryan. He filled that office two years, and for two years was treasurer of the Brown Township board.

Mr. Spivy is a member of the Baptist Church and fraternally affiliates with the Woodmen of the World. In March, 1889, at Weatherford, Texas, he married Miss Ethel McCune, daughter of R. A. McCune, now deceased, who was a Weatherford farmer. Mr. and Mrs. Spivy have five children. Mary, married W. A. Patter- son, a painter at Waurika; John W. is employed as an automobile repairer at Waurika; Eva is a sophomore in Waurika High School; Lanham, named for a former governor of Texas whose home was at Weatherford, is attending the Waurika public schools; and Joe Bailey, the youngest of the family, was also named for a famous Texan.

ULYSSES C. MOORE. Several weeks before the formal opening of the Kiowa and Comanche Reservation Ulysses C. Moore took up his residence at Lawton and began the practice of law, on July 29, 1901. From that time to the present he has continued to maintain a fore- most place among the lawyers of Comanche County and has found and utilized many opportunities for real public service.

The interest attaching to his career is greater because recently his candidacy was announced for the office of county attorney of Comanche County. That he is capable and qualified needs no proof to those that have closely followed his career, but whether in office or as a private citizen he has been an Oklahoman whose record should be contained in the history of the state.

He was born on an old Virginia plantation in Patrick County, Virginia, July 16, 1866. His Virginia ancestors originated in England and probably settled in Virginia in colonial times. His grandfather was one of the large planters in Patrick County, where he owned more than 1,000 acres of land, and it was there that William T. Moore, father of the Oklahoma lawyer, was born in 1829. He was also a farmer, though he devoted some time to merchandising, and he retired several years before his death, which occurred in August, 1892. He was a demo- crat, and a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. William T. Moore married Miss Paulina A. Clement, who was born in 1839 in Pittsylvania County, Virginia. She survived her husband only a short time, dying in Patrick County November 8, 1892. They were the parents of nine children, as follows: Robert E. Lee, D. D. S., who died in Patrick County, Virginia, at the age of twenty-four; Willie, who is the wife of R. R. Scales, a farmer of Patrick County; Ulysses C .; Minnie, who died at the age of twelve years; John Edgar, a traveling salesman for a shoe firm and a resident of Patrick County; Monnie, who married Charles Turner, a farmer of Carroll County, Virginia; Georgia, who died in Carroll County, Virginia, at the age of twenty-four; Nannie V., who married Mr. Hedgecock, a farmer of High Point, North Carolina; and Nettie, wife of Dr. J. W. Bolen, a physician and druggist of Galax, Carroll County, Virginia.

Ulysses C. Moore attended the public schools of Pat- rick County, and remained on his father's farm until the age of seventeen. After completing his public school course he began teaching, pursuing that work during the winter and working on the farm and as a carpenter in the summer until he had saved money enough to enter college. For three years he was a student in Trinity Col- lege at Durham, North Carolina, and then for a year and a half resumed teaching at Jonesville, North Caro- lina. He resigned his place in the school to take a nor- mal course in William and Mary College at Williams- burg, Virginia. He then continued teaching at Peter's

Crook in Patrick County, his native county, and a year later became a member of the faculty of Stuart Normal College at Stuart, Virginia. In the second year there he was elected president of the college, and remained its head until he resigned to take up the study of law. In the fall of 1897 Mr. Moore entered the law department of the University of Tennessee, where he completed a two-year course in one year, and was graduated LL. B. in June, 1898. He at once began the practice of law at Chattanooga, Tennessee, and his ability soon attracted favorable attention of a growing list of clients. While he was in Chattanooga Grant University, now the Uni- versity of Chattanooga, established a law school, and Mr. Moore was chosen its first professor of real property, but after a year he resigned, since he was unable to attend the night classes.

While at Chattanooga Mr. Moore met Mr. Sam Strass, who at that time was conducting the Red Store near Fort Sill, Oklahoma Territory. It was the influence of Mr. Strass which determined the Chattanooga lawyer to participate in the opening of the southwestern district of Oklahoma to settlement, and in February, 1901, he arrived in Oklahoma City and then on the date already mentioned reached Lawton, and from that time to the present, a period of fifteen years, has been closely and influentially identified with the bar and with the good citizenship of Lawton and Comanche County. He has had an important civil and criminal practice, and his offices are at 425 D Avenue.

By learning, industry, ability and character Mr. Moore holds a high rank among Oklahoma's lawyers and is no less valued in the community as a liberal minded and public spirited citizen. A democrat in politics, he served as secretary of the county election, board during Gov- ernor Haskell's administration. That was an important offiec immediately after statehood, and though there was very little pay connected with it, Mr. Moore gave it the best of his ability for four years. While secretary of the board there occurred several county division fights, and he vigorously safeguarded the interests of the parent county, and he deserves much credit for keeping Comanche County intact as to boundary, and when he left office it was one of the largest and most influential counties of the state. For two years Mr. Moore served as a member of the Lawton Board of Education, and in that capacity he sought in every possible way to raise the standards of the local schools, and, consistent with public economy, to make the equipment of the very best.

His public service has been characterized by two important qualities-progressiveness and economy. He does not believe in the sacrifice of efficiency merely to save a few dollars, and at the same time within reason- able bounds the interests of the taxpayers are always paramount in the consideration of any public questions. He has shown himself to be an honest, competent and fearless citizen, and as such he enjoys high esteem throughout Comanche County, regardless of his political partisanship.

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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