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 97

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 97

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

Mr. Moore is a member of the Lawton Chamber of Commerce, is a trustee of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, belongs to the various bar associations and is affiliated with the Knights of Pythias and the Woodmen of the World. Among other business interests he is a director in the Epstein Oil Company.

At Willis, Virginia, Mr. Moore married Miss Rosie Burnett. Her father, the late Abe Burnett, was a Vir- ginia stock raiser. They have one child, Virginia.

LEWIS S. CLINE. Mr. Cline came from his native State of Missouri and established his residence on a farm in Tulsa County, Oklahoma, in the autumn of 1899, and he

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has since continued to be actively identified with the agri- cultural and live-stock industries in this county, the while he has developed his fine farm of forty acres into one of the model smaller landed estates of this section of Okla- homa, this attractive and well improved homestead being situated two miles distant from the City of Tulsa and having been the abiding place of Mr. Cline during the greater period of his residence in the county, though his ability and popularity resulted in his being called upon to serve as register of deeds of the county, after having previously held the position of bookkeeper in the office of the county treasurer.

Lewis S. Cline was born in Cooper County, Missouri, on the 29th of April, 1867, the old homestead farm which was the place of his nativity being situated near the Village of Bunceton. The sixth in order of birth in a family of eight children, of whom four are living, Mr. Cline is a son of John and Elizabeth Cline, the former of whom was born in Germany and the latter in Missouri,

where her parents were pioneers. The mother died in 1872, at the age of forty-nine years, and the father passed away at the age of sixty-one years, in March, 1884.

John Cline was reared and educated in the German Fatherland, where he learned the trade of carpenter and where he remained until he was twenty-six years old, when he immigrated to the United States, where he felt assured of better opportunity for winning independence and definite success. The sailing vessel on which' he obtained passage consumed about eight weeks in making the voyage across the Atlantic, and after landing in his adopted country Mr. Cline finally made his way to the West and found employment at his trade in Booneville, Missouri. Later he became an energetic and successful farmer and stock-grower in Cooper County, that state, where he continued to reside on his old homestead until the close of his life, his political allegiance having been given to the democratic party and both he and his wife having been zealous members of the Baptist Church. They were unassuming folk of strong mentality and sterling worth of character, and their lives were marked by steadfast integrity and by definite usefulness.

In connection with the work of the home farm Lewis S. Cline early learned the lessons and value of practical industry, and his early education was acquired by attend- ing the local schools during the winter months, when his services were not in full requisition on the farm. He was an ambitious and appreciative student, however, al- ways standing at the head of his class and making excep- tional profit from the somewhat limited educational advantages afforded him during his boyhood and youth. He was but six years of age at the time of his mother's death and was seventeen when his honored father passed away. He was one of the four children at home when the father died, and he and his brother George thereafter had the management of the farm until he had attained to the age of twenty-six years, when he turned his attention to the buying and shipping of grain from that section of his native state, his enterprise as a buyer of grain having extended over the district between Booneville and Glas- gow, in Cooper and Howard counties.

In Missouri Mr. Cline continued his activities as a buyer of grain, in connection with agricultural pursuits and stock-raising, until 1899, on the 15th of September of which year he came to Oklahoma and located on an embryonic farm three miles south of the Village of Bixby. There he engaged in diversified farming and the raising of stock, with which lines of enterprise he has continued to be identified during the intervening years, his home- stead farm being within a short distance of the City of Tulsa, as previously noted, and his holdings including other excellent land in Tulsa County. In 1909-10 Mr. Cline was bookkeeper in the office of the county treasurer, John T. Kramer, and in 1911 he was elected register of

deeds of the county, an office of which he continues the efficient and valued incumbent until January 1, 1917. Mr. Cline is well known and held in unqualified esteem in Tulsa County, is a stalwart democrat in his political pro- clivities, and in the City of Tulsa is identified with the Knights of Pythias, the Independent Order of Odd Fel- lows and the Woodmen of the World, both he and his wife holding membership in the Baptist Church.

On the 21st of June, 1893, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Cline to Miss Sue Baker, who was born at Arrow- rock, Saline County, Missouri, and of their ten children all are living except one who died in infancy. The names of the six sons and three daughters are here entered in the respective order of birth: Lois, Eunice, Cameron, Kingdon, Shelby, Benjamin, Anna, Myrl and Philip.

ROBERT T. LOONEY. It is an old adage that "Blood will tell,"' and we often find it exemplified in the history of entire families, whose members in their lives and characters show the force of heredity, modified at times by environment, but seldom or never suppressed. Com- ing of good northern stock, Robert T. Looney, cashier of the Farmers National Bank of Tishomingo, Johnston County, is well qualified both by nature and experience to assume rank among the progressive and forceful men who are building up and developing the youthful State of Oklahoma into a rich and flourishing commonwealth, the peer of many of the older states whose symbolic stars adorn the flag of the Union.

Mr. Looney was born at Simpson, Illinois, January 5, 1889, the son of Dr. J. T. Looney, now one of the leading physicians of Johnston County. His father, and also his grandfather, Dr. W. A. Looney, were graduates of Rush Medical College, Chicago. The father was at one time physician-in-chief of the Southern Illinois Penitentiary at Chester, later was surgeon for the Big Four Railroad Company, and is now surgeon for the Rock Island Rail- road Company at Tishomingo, Oklahoma, having resided there since 1901. Until 1914 he was a member of the first faculty of the Secondary State Agricultural and Mechanical College at Tishomingo, and is now president of Johnston County Medical Society and chairman of the Republican Committee of Johnston County, also a director of the Farmers National Bank at Tishomingo. In Freemasonry he had advanced as far as the Consis- tory. Mr. Looney's mother was in maidenhood Fannie Jones, a daughter of F. M. Jones, who served as an officer in the Union army during the Civil war.

Robert T. Looney was educated in the public schools of Vienna, Illinois, and came to Indian Territory at the age of fourteen, his father having preceded him and made settlement at Tishomingo. At the age of twenty he entered the American National Bank of Tishomingo as bookkeeper in order to learn the banking business. In 1911 he and associates established the First State Bank of Milburn, Oklahoma, of which Mr. Looney took charge. Later the bank was sold and he returned to Tishomingo and became cashier of the American State Bank, which was afterwards consolidated with the Farmers National Bank. This institution has a capital of $30,000 and is one of the leading banks of the county. It is a member of the Federal Reserve System. C. B. Burrows is presi- dent and C. B. Thomas vice president. Mr. Looney is a member of the Tishomingo Commercial Club and of the Johnston County Good Roads Club; also of the Johnston County and Oklahoma Bankers Association. He is a thir- ty-second degree Mason and, religiously, belongs to the Presbyterian Church. Taking an active interest in the agricultural development of the county, he is serving as a member of the directorate of the Johnston County Fair Association, and he and his wife are the owners of some valuable farm land that is being scientifically developed.

On July 28, 1910, Mr. Looney was married to Miss

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Jennie Rennie, and they have two children, Robert Tullis, Jr., aged four, and Mary, aged two years.

Mrs. Rennie is the daughter of William R. Rennie, formerly one of the leading men in this section, who died in 1909 at the age of about fifty-one years. Her mother's maiden name was Mary Ellen Campbell, and she was a sister of Charles Campbell of Mince. The career of Wil- liam R. Rennie is conspicuously interwoven with the his- tory of the Chickasaw tribe of Indians, he having descended from that line of Chickasaw blood that pro- duced the successful financiers of the Johnson family of Norman, Chickasha and Mince; also the Bond family, a member of which is Hon. Reford Bond of Chickasha, who is the credited attorney before the departments in Wash- ington of the Chickasaw tribe, and the Campbell family of Mince that produced Charles Campbell, who was one of the leading men of the Chickasaw Nation for many years, he having been of this blood. Mr. Rennie's talent made him an important figure in tribal affairs and at one time he was treasurer of the Chickasaw Nation. For a number of years he was engaged in the general mer- cantile business at Tishomingo. He served several terms in the Chickasaw Legislature, being a member of that body when the old capital was torn down in 1898 and another constructed of granite obtained from the quar- ries near Tishomingo. At various times he appeared before the departments at Washington in the interest of tribal affairs and was intimately acquainted with a num- ber of men prominent in public life in the United States. He was an intimate personal friend of former Governor Harris of the Chickasaw Nation. He was devoted to the name and history of old Tishomingo and served one or more terms as its mayor.

The wife of William R. Rennie, who died in 1915, was a modern, progressive woman, possessing much literary talent and a warm personal interest in the progress of the Indians. She organized the Cemetery Association of Tishomingo and was an active leader in church and club affairs. She was reared near Mince when it was the principal town in a wide scope of prairie country over which buffalo roamed, and the seat of the big cattle industry that her relatives pursued on a magnificent scale before the advent of the white lessees of the big reser- vations.

The children of Mr. and Mrs. Rennie are: Mrs. Robert T. Looney, of Tishomingo; Miss Nora Looney of Tisho- mingo; Mrs. Arthur Nesbitt, wife of a business man of Tishomingo; Cecil, a farmer living near Hiekory, Okla- homa; and Claude, who is engaged in business in Tisho- mingo. It will thus be seen that not only is Mr. Looney of good stock himself but he is directly connected through marriage with some of the best blood in what is now the State of Oklahoma. His personal record is such as to inspire confidence in his fellow citizens and his business and public activities are proving a useful factor in the upbuilding and improvement of this community.

WALTER N. CHITWOOD. The Cherokee Nation is no more. Its government has been disbanded; its citizens have become citizens of the United States. But the Cherokee people will never change. Once a Cherokee, always a Cherokee. They may become the cultured chil- dren of a benevolent civilization, they may become bleached with the blood of the Anglo-Saxon; but they will ever revere the name of Cherokee. Wherever found they do this.

In the University of Oklahoma there is an Indian club, known as Oklushe Degataga, which interpreted means "Tribes Standing Together." The greatest representa- tion of any tribe upon the rolls of membership belong to the Cherokees. Among those represented is Walter N. Chitwood, a Tulsa man by permanent residence, but now a law student and temporary resident of Norman. Mr.

Chitwood was the second to be honored with the office of chief in this students' organization. He is a one- quarter Cherokee, and is an all-round college man, and one from whom a great deal will undoubtedly be heard both through his professional associations and his high minded citizenship.

It was in the spring of 1914 that the Oklushe Degataga was organized in the University of Oklahoma. Six tribes of Oklahoma Indians were represented in its mem- bership of thirty students of Indian descent, comprising some of the university leaders in the various branches of college activity. Its purpose is the duty of aiding the advancement of the Indian race, including the securing a greater enrollment of Indian students in the university and making them feel that the State University of their last home was their institution, and the efforts of the organization are also directed toward the creation of a fitting museum for American ethnology in the university at Norman. Its members are proud of their blood; they have the right to be.

Walter N. Chitwood was born December 13, 1891, in what is now Delaware County, Oklahoma, formerly in the Coocooweescowee District of the Cherokee Nation. His parents are Thomas N. and Lucy (England) Chit- wood, now resident of Broken Arrow, Oklahoma. His father is a white man and his mother is one-half Chero- kee, a daughter of William England, and closely related to the famous Mayes family, who have played such an important part in the politics and development of the Cherokee Nation. The grandmother of Mrs. Thomas Chitwood was "Grandmother" Snell, who died in 1910, and who came from the east side of the Mississippi with the Cherokees during their early removal. Mrs. T. N. Chitwood's mother was a half sister to William P. Mayes and to Samuel Mayes, who was chief of the Cherokees.

Thomas N. Chitwood, father of Walter N., was born in Estill Springs, Tennessee, in 1864, a son of William Chitwood, a prominent Tennessee lawyer. After com- pleting his education at Pea Ridge College in Pea Ridge, . Arkansas, he came to the Indian Territory, and for ten years was engaged in the teaching profession. It was in the beautiful Cherokee Hills that he met Miss Lucy Eng- land, aud they were married in 1890. Miss England had been educated in the national schools of the Cherokee Nation. Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Chitwood are the parents of three children: Walter N .; Mamie J., who married Charley Gilbert of Okmulgee; and Floyd, now attending school at the Haskell Agricultural School of Broken Arrow. Thomas Chitwood is engaged in farming and stock raising, and has also some extensive oil interests in the vicinity of Tulsa.

Walter N. Chitwood is still a very young man, but has acquired a liberal education, and is one of the high minded members of the Cherokee race, well fitted for leadership not only among his own people but among the best of the white race. He was educated in the common schools of the Cherokee Nation, in the Cherokee Male Seminary at Tahlequah, and in the Southeastern State Normal at Durant. He is an all-around college man. In athletics he plays football, tennis and baseball. While in the seminary at Tahlequah he was end and half-back on the football team three years, and in the Southeast- ern State Normal he played half-back three years and captained the victorious all-state normal team of 1913, in which year he was picked as all-normal half-back. In 1912 he presented with a colleague the claims of the Southeastern State Normal against the E. C. S. N. debating team. Mr. Chitwood entered the law school of the State University in February, 1914, and during the college year of 1915 he was the law school football captain participating in

HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA

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the inter-class games. He is a member of the Kappa Alpha and the legal Phi Alpha Delta College fraterni- ties. He is also a member of the Masonic Club, of the Sooner Bar, a legal society, of the Williams Club Court, and of the Democratic Club of the University. He is affiliated with Norman Lodge, Ancient Free and Ac- cepted Masons, and is already an influential worker in behalf of the democratic party, and undoubtedly much will be heard of him as a public man. He is secretary- treasurer of the Inter-Tribal Council of Oklahoma In- dians, which was recently organized.

In December, 1913, Mr. Chitwood married Miss Bea- trice Tiblow, a daughter of William S. Tiblow, of Skia- took, Oklahoma. Mrs. Chitwood is a one-half blood Cherokee, and was educated in the common schools of the Nation and in Central College at Lexington, Missouri. To their marriage was born October.27, 1914, Juanita Charlotte Ka-lee-la (Song-bird). While Mr. and Mrs. Chitwood reside temporarily at Norman, they will take up their abode in Tulsa after Mr. Chitwood graduates from the State University law school in Feb- ruary, 1917. At Tulsa he will engage in the practice of law and look after his extensive oil and other inter- ests there.

ELVA C. BARROWS. Coming with his parents to Okla- homa when the territory was thrown open to settlement, in 1889, and shortly before the formal organization of the territory, which occurred in October of the following year, Mr. Barrows has so effectually taken advantage of the splendid opportunities here afforded that he has, through personal ability and effort, achieved distinctive success. He has been prominently identified with bank- ing interests, with the real-estate business, with the de- velopment of oil and natural-gas resources, and with the industries of agriculture and horticulture, in which last mentioned line of enterprise he has done splendid service in exploiting the possibilities of fruit culture in Okla- homa. Mr. Barrows at the present time gives much of his time and attention to the general supervision of his magnificent fruit farm, which is conceded to be one of the finest in the Southwest and which is eligibly located within five miles of the City of Tulsa, which has repre- sented his home since 1907, the year in which Oklahoma became one of the sovereign states of the Union. Just outside the city limits is established his beautiful home, the modern and commodious brick residence occupying a pleasing site and being surrounded with fruit and decora- tive trees of the best type, with fine landscape-gardening effects, parterres of flowers, shrubbery, etc., making it one of the ideal homes of Tulsa County, even as it is known as a center of most gracious hospitality, with Mrs. Bar- rows as its popular chatelaine. The premises comprise an entire block in a most attractive residence district constituting one of the numerous additions to or suburbs of Tulsa. In a preliminary way it is but consistent to make liberal quotations from an appreciative newspaper article relative to the fine fruit farm of Mr. Barrows:

"Long before the winding road opens to your vista the long rows of blooming trees, the faint aroma of peach blossoms strikes in upon the faculties. Then the road curves around and you see, as far as the horizon permits in the sandy, loamy hills, what looks like miles upon miles of fruit trees. It is the first and largest commercial orchard in Northeastern Oklahoma, the property of Elva C: Barrows, of Tulsa. It is one of the largest in the state, and prominent horticulturists have said it is the finest, as regarding upkeep, condition, etc. None could visit this wonderful orchard without declaring it was a beautiful right. . Comprising eighty acres and lying five miles southeast of Tulsa, it can be easily reached by automobile

over some of the best roads in the state. Yesterday there were 4,600 peach trees, all three years old, in full bloom. They made a brilliant scene against the background of sandy, rolling prairie land, well cultivated, with not a weed visible. In addition to this vast amount of peach trees were hundreds of plum trees, the greater part being literally white with blossoms. In other directions were thousands of apple, crab-apple, cherry and other varieties of trees, just budding out, that will be in full bloom in another week.

"All together there are 20,000 fruit trees and berry bushes and grape vines on this magnificent eighty-acre fruit farm. Already they are making preparations for the harvesting of the fruit from trees and vines. Not a tree will be so tall that a man can not stand on the ground and pick fruit from every limb. Near the farm house is a large packing shed, two stories in height, which is filled with all kinds of baskets in the knock-down state. In one corner is a stapling machine which is used for making the complete baskets. In a large barn on the premises is found a specially constructed wagon which will be used to haul a maximum load of fruit to the market. This was made to order especially for Mr. Bar- rows. Here are all kinds of modern farm machinery especially designed for work in orchards. Then, last of all, there is the latest design of a spraying machine equipped with a gasoline motor, and this will be used to keep the trees and bushes free from all infection. In the farm house, occupied by the manager of the farm, is a blueprint of the entire eighty acres, so arranged that every tree or bush or vine on the place can be located in a minute's time. "'

Relative to this fine demesne it may further be stated that Mr. Barrows has devoted the closest study and care in the selection of and care of the manifold varieties of fruit grown on the place, and brings to bear the most modern and approved methods in all details of the busi- ness, his personal study and investigation having made him virtually both a scientific and practical authority in fruit culture. On the farm are to be found forty varieties of peaches, sixteen of plums, fourteen of cherries, four of crab-apples, eight of early apples, eight of grapes, and the best types of blackberries, raspberries and dewberries.

The owner of this fine property was born in Richard- son County, Nebraska, on the 29th of March, 1873, and is a son of John R. and Alice G. (Clinton) Barrows, the former a native of Iowa and the latter of Kentucky, the paternal grandparents of the subject of this review hav- ing been honored pioneers of the Hawkeye State. Elva C. Barrows is the eldest in a family of three children; John H. died at the age of eighteen years; and Mrs. Edith B. Russell is a resident of Oklahoma City.

David Barrows, grandfather of him whose name ini- tiates this article, was an early settler in Missouri, from which state he removed to Iowa in an early day, but shortly afterward he numbered himself. among the pioneer settlers of Nebraska.

John R. Barrows acquired his early education in the schools of Missouri and Nebraska and as a man of affairs in later years he was a successful and prominent dealer in live stock, his operations extending through various parts of Kansas, Nebraska and Oklahoma. In 1889 he removed with his family to Oklahoma City, and in the newly created Territory of Oklahoma he became one of the extensive dealers in cattle, as a representative of which line of enterprise he shipped principally to the markets of Kansas City, St. Louis and Chicago. He be- came a citizen of prominence and influence in the new territory, served as a member of the first city council of Oklahoma City, and served two years as sheriff of Okla- homa County, an office to which he was elected in 1897.

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He was a republican in his political proclivities, was a man of sturdy rectitude and much business ability and he commauded the respect aud confidence of those with whom he came in contact in the varied relations of life. He was a resident of Oklahoma City at the time of his death, which occurred on the 10th of October, 1899, and his widow still resides in that city.

The public schools of Richardson County, Nebraska, afforded to Elva C. Barrows his early educational ad- vantages and he was a youth of sixteen years at the time of the family removal to Oklahoma City, and here he earned his first money selling papers, his interposition as a newsboy having occurred two weeks after the new terri- tory had been throwu open to settlement. This service gave him a predilection for the newspaper business, and he held thereafter a position on the reportorial staff of the Oklahoma Daily Journal, one of the pioneer daily papers of Oklahoma City. Of this position he continued the incumbent one and one-half years, and thereafter he was employed about two years in the United States land office at Oklahoma City. He then assumed the position of bookkeeper in the State National Bank of that city, and during an incumbency of somewhat more than three years he gained an excellent knowledge of the details of the banking business. At the expiration of the period noted he made advancement by assuming a position in the Bank of Commerce, in which he won promotion to the office of teller. After remaining with this institution about one year Mr. Barrows accepted the position of cashier of the First National Bank of Weatherford, Cus- ter County, and after retaining this post about four and one-half years he resigned his executive office to identify himself with the Choctaw Townsite & Investment Com- pany, which was engaged in the establishing and platting of townsites along railway lines. Later Mr. Barrows en- gaged in the real-estate and loan business in Oklahoma City, and there he built up a successful enterprise, in connection with which he was enabled to aid not a little in the furtherance of the civic and industrial development of the territory that was now aspiring to the dignity of statehood. He was one of the representative real-estate dealers in Oklahoma City for a period of about three and one-half years, within which Oklahoma became a state. Iu that year, 1907, Mr. Barrows removed from the capital city to Tulsa, where he became prominently identified with the development of the oil and natural-gas industry in this celebrated field. He has continued his association with this important industry and through its medium has realized a substantial competency.

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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