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. IV, Part 100

Author: Thoburn, Joseph B. (Joseph Bradfield), 1866-1941
Publication date: 1916
Publisher: Chicago, New York, The American Historical Society
Number of Pages: 656

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. IV > Part 100

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Hugh M. Bear, like his brothers and sisters, acquired his early education in the country schools of the Baxter District in Cooper County. In 1892 entering the Uni- versity of Missouri he completed the normal course in three years, and while in the university was a military cadet for one year, and thus received training as a citizen soldier. For about five years he alternated between the work of teaching and the study of law. For two years he was principal of schools in Cooper County, spent one year in the same work at Thomasville, in Southern Missouri, and again for one year was connected with the Cooper County schools. After two years in the law department of the University of Missouri Mr. Bear was graduated LL. B. in 1900, and admitted to the Mis- souri bar the same year.

In April, 1901, he established his home at Okeene, Oklahoma, and here his best work both in his profession and as a citizen has been accomplished. Mr. Bear handles a large amount of litigation both in the civil and criminal jurisdiction, and everyone in that community is familiar with Attorney Bear, whose offices are over the Citizens State Bank. In 1914 he was an unsuccessful candidate for the office of county attorney. He is a member of the County, State and American Bar asso- ciations, is a democrat in politics, a member of the Baptist Church, and is affiliated with Okeene Lodge No. 43 of the Knights of Pythias. For two years he was a member of the local school board, and his name is carved on the cornerstone of the handsome new school building, with the erection of which he had much to do. Among other interests Mr. Bear owns a farm of 160 acres in Kingfisher county, seven miles east and five miles south of Okeene, and operates it through tenants.

At Jefferson City, Missouri, in 1906, he married Miss Dessa Powell. Her father, C. W. Powell, is a substan- tial farmer of Cooper County, Missouri. They are the parents of two children: Louise, born September 28, 1907; and Elna, born November 22, 1913.

HARRY ROBERT TAYLOR, M. D. Every profession has its prominent men, some made such by long membership, others by proficiency and achievement. Dr. Harry Robert Taylor is numbered among the leading medical men of Jackson County, not so much by the length of time he has devoted to the calling-for he entered active practice only in 1910-as by the eminent success he has already made of it, the wealth of learning and experience he has brought to it, and the high ideals which he has maintained in regard to its ethics. At Eldorado, where his entire professional career has been passed, he is accounted not only one of the thoroughly learned mem- bers of the medical fraternity, but a man whose entire training has been along lines that makes his usefulness a decided factor in the advancement of the locality.

Doctor Taylor was born December 25, 1878, at New York City, New York, and is a son of Berry and Frances (Taylor) Taylor. His father, a native of Worcestershire, England, was born in 1835, and emigrated to the United States in 1872, settling first in New York City, where he resided until 1888. In that year he moved to a farm in Morgan County, Illinois, seven miles southeast of Jacksonville. There he continued to be engaged in ex- tensive farming operations during the remainder of his life, and also dealt largely in stock, at times having on hand as many as 300 hogs. After a long, useful and industrious career, he passed away at Jacksonville, in 1900, aged sixty-five years. Mr. Taylor was a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and was one of the highly regarded men of his community, winning and retaining the respect and esteem of all with whom he had transactions. He married Miss Frances Taylor, who, although bearing the same name, was no relation before their marriage, and who was born near Jacksonville, Illinois, in 1845, and died there in 1905, a woman of true Christian character and of many excellencies of mind and heart. There were, three children in the family of Berry and Frances Taylor, namely: Ida, who became the wife of R. F. Cool, who is engaged in agricultural pursuits at Graceville, Minnesota; Emma, who is the wife of Charles James, a railway mail clerk, residing at St. Louis, Missouri; and Dr. Harry Robert.

Harry R. Taylor received the foundation for his educa- tional training in the public schools of New York City, and was ten years of age when he accompanied the family to Illinois. There, while growing up on the home farm, he finished his primary education in the

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graded schools of Jacksonville, and in 1896 was gradu- ated from the Jacksonville High School, in the meantime spending some time in a visit to the World's Columbian Exposition at Chicago. The Spanish-American war came on while Doctor Taylor was still on the farm, and with other youug men of his community he enlisted in the volunteer service, being attached to the medical corps, with which he served throughout the campaign in Cuba. His term of enlistment expiring, he veteranized in 1899, and was sent to the Philippine Islands, where he was identified with a medical corps until 1900 and was then appointed a recruiting officer and stationed at Louis- ville, Kentucky, for two years.

His military service completed, Doctor Taylor returned to the home farm for a time, but his Cuban and Philip- pine experiences had created in him a desire to enter the medical professiou, and in 1906 he entered the medi- cal department of the University of Louisville, from which he was graduated in 1910, after a full course of four years. With his newly acquired degree of Doctor of Medicine he came to Eldorado, October 10, 1910, and here commenced practice. As other young physicians have before him, Doctor Taylor was forced to pass through the probationary period, but his skill and learn- ing soon attracted patients to him, and from then to the present his practice has been growing steadily. Doctor Taylor's practice in medicine and surgery is general in its lines, embracing all departments of the calling, and his well-appointed offices are located in the Corner Drug Store Building, corner of Main and Fourth streets. He has continued to be a close and careful student of the profession, realizing that the modern physician must keep closely in touch with the advance- ments being constantly made if he desires success, and is a member of the Jackson County Medical Society, the Oklahoma State Medical Society and the American Medi- cal Association. His political inclinations make him a republican, but professional duties and responsibilities have been so engrossing as to preclude the idea of active participation in public life. With his family he belougs to the Methodist Episcopal Church. Doctor Taylor is a thirty-second degree Mason, belonging to Eldorado Lodge No. 181, Ancient, Free and Accepted Masons; Eldorado Chapter No. 56, Royal Arch Masons; Eldorado Council No. 19; Eldorado Commandery No. 27, Knights Templar, and Consistory No. 1, Valley of Guthrie; and also holds membership in Eldorado Lodge of the Inde- pendent Order of Odd Fellows and Mesquite Camp No. 69, Woodmen of the World, at Eldorado.

· At Jeffersonville, Indiana, in 1902, Doctor Taylor was married to Miss Georgia Rogers, daughter of the late H. C. Rogers, a stockman, who died at Litchfield, Kentucky, in 1914. Doctor and Mrs. Taylor have had one child, Clay, who died in infancy.

JAMES FRANKLIN GRIFFITHI. Now in his second term as county attorney of Kiowa County, James Franklin Griffith is a lawyer with a long and broad range of experience, having been admitted to the bar in Texas and having practiced in . that state for a number of years before moving to Oklahoma Territory. Whether in private practice or in official work, his efficiency, thorough integrity, and capable talents have won him a deserved reputation.

A Texan by birth, he was born in Grimes County, Feb- ruary 4, 1867. The Griffith family is one of the oldest of Alabama, where his father, James Griffith, was born in 1824. From Alabama he went to Texas as a young man, was one of the early settlers in Grimes County, and was married there to Miss Isabella Wooderson, who was born in Texas in the year of Independence of the

Texas Republic, 1836. She died in Grimes County in 1874. At the outbreak of the Civil war James Griffith enlisted in a Texas regiment aud fought for four years on the Confederate side. With the close of the war he returned to Grimes County and resumed his business as a farmer and stock raiser until his death at Bedias in that county in 1873. The oldest of his four children is John T., a farmer at Port Lavaca, Texas; William, the next, was a farmer and died at Wewoka, Oklahoma; the third in age is James F .; and Benjamin is a farmer in Grimes County.

The early life of the Hobart attorney was spent in Grimes County on a farm, with instruction from the dis- triet schools and in 1886 he completed a high school course. After that for one term he taught school at Willis in Moutgomery County, Texas, for two years was in the same vocation in Grimes County and for the. next two years was in Madison County as a teacher. In the meantime he had taken up and carried on as rapidly as possible the study of law and was admitted to the Texas bar in October, 1892. In the following November he was elected county attorney of Madison County, Texas, and the two years spent in that office was an experience of great value to him in his sub- sequent career. He was engaged in the practice of law at Madisonville from 1892 until February, 1897, and at that date removed to Greer County, Oklahoma, filing ou a claim of 160 acres. He lived on his land eighteen months, proved his claim, and then sold out. His next location was Mangum, Oklahoma, where he practiced law from 1899 until 1903, in which year he moved to Hobart. In 1905 Mr. Griffith established a law office at Lone Wolf, Oklahoma, and was one of the leading lawyers in that locality uutil 1913, when he returned to Hobart. While at Lone Wolf he established the Kiowa County News and edited the paper three years.

Mr. Griffith was elected county attorney of Kiowa. County in the fall of 1912, and was re-elected for an- other term of two years November 6, 1914. He now gives all his attention to the duties of his office, and is one of the most esteemed members of the little com- munity of officials at the courthouse in Hobart. While at Mangum he was elected the first city attorney and helped to incorporate that town. In politics he is a democrat, is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and affiliates with the Modern Woodmen of America at Lone Wolf.

In 1891, a year before his admission to the bar, he was married at Madisonville, Texas, to Miss Mary L. Ross, a daughter of Amos S. Ross, now a retired farmer at Granite, Oklahoma. Into their household have come nine children: Clyde is now in the lumber busi- ness at Bogalusa, Louisiana; Sarah Belle is a teacher in the Hobart schools and lives with her parents; Jonnie May is a junior in the Hobart High School, her brother Ross being a sophomore and her sister Ruth a freshman in the same school; Jeannette, Lucile and Amos Sherod, are all in the grammar schools; while the youngest is Joe Ben.

ORR J. BOYER. In the years to come when the pioneer activities in Beaver County are thrown into a stronger relief, the name of O. J. Boyer will be recalled for its early associations with the settlement and development of that county, and particularly with the business and civic life of the Town of LaKemp. In 1915 at the first election after the incorporation of that town, he was chosen treasurer.

He came with his parents to Beaver County in 1906 and located on a claim of Government land one mile west of the present Town of LaKemp. O. J. Boyer

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Le RoyJouer

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HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA

was born on a farm in Van Buren County, Iowa, January 11, 1884, a son of Benjamin O. and Martha E. (Fine) Boyer. His father, who was born in Ohio May 22, 1854, has spent his active career as a farmer and on coming to Oklahoma in 1905 also proved up a claim of Govern- ment land in Beaver County. In 1883 he married Miss Martha E. Fine, who was born in Missouri April 27, 1862, a daughter of. Doctor Fine, also a native of that state. To their union were born four children, two sons and two daughters, as follows: Orr J .; Dorr, who was born September 10, 1886, and is now a farmer in Beaver County, married in 1911 Eva Fogel, a native of Illinois, and their one child is Verlin Elmer; Beulah, born December 5, 1890, was married in 1908 to Oliver B. Hummer, a native of McLouth, Kansas, and their chil- dren are Goldie and Emmett; Gladys Elizabeth, who was born April 20, 1905.

Orr J. Boyer was reared and educated in Iowa, attend- ing the public schools at Farmington. He had a practi- cal training on his father's farm, and was ready to make an independent career when he came to Oklahoma in 1905. After proving up his claim in Beaver County he applied himself to business affairs as manager in 1911 of a lumber yard at LaKemp conducted by the York-Key Lumber Corporation. He had charge of this yard until it was closed on July 1, 1913. He then entered the LaKemp State Bank, as bookkeeper, and was assistant cashier when he severed his active con- nection with the institution, though he is still a director. Mr. Boyer is now at the head of a prosperous business handling real estate, farm loans and insurance.

Politically he is a democrat, and is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church South. In February, 1910, at Farmington, Iowa, he married Miss Ida Spurgeon, a daughter of Samuel and Matilda Spurgeon. Mrs. Boyer was born at Bonaparte, Iowa, March 29, 1881. They are the parents of two children: Charles Arthur, born at LaKemp, Oklahoma, August 19, 1911; and Blanche Elizabeth, born December 6, 1912, at LaKemp.

LEROY JONES. The name Jones is oft times indica- tive of Welsh ancestry, and in this instance especially is it true. The family of which LeRoy Jones is the present day representative came from Wales to Massa- chusetts prior to the Revolution, and has since been widely scattered throughout the East.

LeRoy Jones was born in Grand Ledge, Eaton County, Michigan, on September 7, 1869, and is a son of Charles H. and Adaline (Fleming) Jones. The father was born near Attica, New York, and he went to Eaton County, Michigan, with his parents, when a small boy. He grew up there and married, later moving to Ionia County, in the same state, settling in the Town of Portland, in 1904. He is there engaged in farming and stock-raising, which enterprise has held his atten- tion all his active life. Mrs. Jones, who was born in Lorain County, Ohio, in 1847, died in Portland, Mich- igan in 1907. Four children blessed their home. Everett E. is a farmer at Grand Ledge. Frank G., also a farmer, lives in Ionia County, Michigan. LeRoy of this review was the third child. Arthur died at Port- land when he was twenty-seven years old.

LeRoy Jones attended the public schools in Eaton County, and was graduated from the Grand Ledge High School with the class of 1888. He at once undertook the study of law in the offices of Judge J. L. McPeek, in Grand Ledge, and he was admitted to the bar before the Supreme Court of Michigan in 1890.

Mr. Jones first engaged in practice at Grand Ledge, and in three years entered a partnership with Judge McPeek, and moved to Charlotte, Michigan. In 1897

the judge died, the partnership being dissolved auto- matically. In the meantime Mr. Jones had been doing some post graduate work in the law department in the University of Michigan, so that he was advancing him- self in theory as well as in practice. He continued in practice until 1901, when he returned to the old home and was there at work in his profession until 1903. It was in that year that he first came to Cordell, and he was one of the pioneer lawyers of the community. He has been continuously engaged in practice here since that time, and has offices in the Smith Building, on the west side of the Square.

Mr. Jones is a staunch republican. He served as circuit court commissioner of Eaton county, Michigan, for four years, and was county attorney there for two years. He has here been a candidate on the republican ticket for the office of county judge of Washita County, but the strong democrat sentiment was too much to combat successfully. Ile has been a delegate to all the county and state conventions of the republican party since he came here, and has taken an active and interested part in civic affairs in his community.

Mr. Jones was married in Coldwater, Michigan, in 1893, to Miss Laura E. Resseguie, daughter of a well known miller of Hillsdale, Michigan. Seven children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Jones. Harold is in business with his maternal grandfather in Hillsdale, Michigan. Ronald L. makes his home in Cordell with his parents. He is a student in the high school, and is in training for the teaching profession. Charles E., Lillian and Henry are also attending the local schools, and the two youngest children, Lockwood and Adaline, are still in the home.

WILLIAM ANDREW RICHARDSON. The career of this successful and progressive young business man has been chiefly identified with banking at Okeene, where for the past ten years he has been connected in varying capacities and responsibilities with the institution which after several changes is now the State Guaranty Bank, of which Mr. Richardson is vice president.

As to ancestry this branch of the Richardson family came from Ireland to Virginia during colonial . times. William Andrew Richardson was born at Henryville in Clark County, Indiana, July 18, 1883. He is a son of W. A. Richardson, who was also born in Henryville, in 1843, and lived there as a farmer and stock raiser up to 1898. . In that year he came to Oklahoma, as one of the carly settlers, was a farmer in the vicinity of Kingfisher for several years, and then moved to Frederick at the opening of the Southwestern country, taking up a homestead of 160 acres, which he developed and finally sold. He is now living retired at Frederick. W. A. Richardson married Isabella Gray, who was born at Henryville, Indiana, in 1843, and died there in 1895. There were five children: Philo P., who is a farmer at Frederick, Oklahoma; Charles E., an attorney at Clinton, Oklahoma ; Clifford M., a farmer at Frederick ; Walter R., a grain buyer at Kremlin, Oklahoma; and William A.

William A. Richardson gained his education in the public schools of Henryville, Indiana, and at King- fisher, Oklahoma. On coming to Okeene in December, 1901, he found his first position in the local postoffice. He was connected with the Okeene postoffice five years, and then in 1906 began the work which has since made him one of the successful young bankers of this section of Oklahoma. He entered what was then known as the First National Bank as bookkeeper, later was pro- moted to assistant cashier, and since July 1, 1913, has been vice president of the State Guaranty Bank. This

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bank was originally established in 1900 as the Bank of Okecne. A national charter was taken out and after 1903 it was the First National Bank. In 1908 it became the State Guaranty Bank. The present officers are: R. C. Menefee, of Kansas City, president; William A. Richardson, vice president; O. E. Durham, cashier. It has a capital stock of $10,000 and surplus of $3,000.

While his success is due to close application to the chief business of his career, Mr. Richardson has many other interests in his home locality. He has served as city clerk of Okeene, is now clerk of the school board, is an active member of the Methodist Episcopal Church and secretary of the Laymen's Association of the state, is a democrat in politics and is affiliated with Okeene Lodge No. 357, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, and with the Brotherhood of American Yeomen. In 1909 at Okeene he married Miss Rachel Sherwood, daughter of C. W. Sherwood, who is a Methodist Episcopal minister, now living at Okarche, Oklahoma. To their union were born two children: Marjorie Fern, born January 31, 1911; and Freda May, born May 7, 1914.

HENRY F. BECKHAM, M. D. The first physician and surgeon in point of time to locate permanently at Roose- velt, the subsequent years have done nothing to disturb his priority as the leading man of his profession in that locality, and Doctor Beckham is today the favorite house- hold friend and physician of a large number of the best families, both old and new settlers, in that part of Kiowa County.

In younger years Doctor Beckham was on intimate terms with adversity and has had an exceedingly varied career since his early teens. Born at Houston, Ten- nessee, January 16, 1867, he attended a few terms of district school near his birthplace, and at the age of fourteen ran away from home and during the next few years saw a great deal of the country. He spent most of the time in Tennessee and Arkansas, and at the age of nineteen arrived at Batesville, Arkansas, and a short time later went to Mountain View in the same state. In the meantime he had gained a somewhat more than ordinary education in literary branches, though every course of book instruction was well supplemented by practical experience with men and real life. At Moun- tain View he was engaged in teaching school for a time and then set out to prepare himself for the profession of his choice, taking up the study of medicine under Dr. J. W. C. Hinkel. In 1890 he passed the Arkansas state medical examination and was given a license to practice, but soon afterwards entered the Georgia Eclec- tic College, from which he was graduated Doctor of Medicine in 1892. In that year he began practice at Mountain View, remained there as a physician from June 21 to September of that year, and then returned to his native state and set up an office at Olive Hill. After about ten months there he went to Hillsboro, Texas, and in April, 1893, came into Oklahoma, being engaged in practice at Arapaho until January 13, 1895. At that date he returned to Hillsboro, Texas, but in September of the same year went back to Olive Hill, Tennessee, and was quietly engaged in his professional labors there for seven years.

Doctor Beckham arrived at Roosevelt, then a raw prairie townsite, in the newly opencd district of the Kiowa and Comanche Reservation, on April 17, 1902, and since that date his reputation has been steadily growing as an able and conscientious medical and surgical practitioner. His offices are on Main Street.

This branch of the Beckham family came from Eng- land to North Carolina during colonial days. Doctor Beckham's father was J. Z. Beckham, who was born in

North Carolina in 1901 and died at Houston, Tennessee in 1876. After his first marriage he removed fron North Carolina to Houston, Tennessee, where he became a planter and owned several farms. At an earlier date while living in North Carolina and long before the railroads had invaded that part of the South he con- ducted the tallyho stage across the mountains over the boundary between North Carolina and Tennessee. Prior to the war he had been a whig in politics and after- wards, following the example of most of the mountain people of Eastern Tennessee, was a republican. He was three times married, and his third wife, Mary McMullin, was the mother of Doctor Beckham. She was born in Tennessee in 1826 and died at Dyersburg in that state in 1913. Her children were: Amos, who is a farmer at Foss, Oklahoma; Jacob, a farmer near Roose- velt; Andrew, a farmer at Foss; L. M., who lives at Roosevelt; Dr. Henry F .; Samuel A., a farmer near Dyersburg, Tennessee; and Joshua, who died at Hous- ton, Tennessee, at the age of thirteen.

While Doctor Beckham has made his profession the main object of his endeavors, he has also accumulated considerable material prosperity, and is setting a bene- ficial example as a diversified farmer on his two ad- joining farms of 320 acres situated three miles east and a mile south of Roosevelt. His land comprises the south half of section 417. In the way of public service he has also been active, has served as health officer of Roosevelt for a number of years, and is now deputy county physician under Dr. G. W. Stewart of Hobart. He has also served as clerk of the school board at Roosevelt. In politics he is a republican, is a member and deacon of the Christian Church, and is affiliated with Hobart Lodge No. 881 of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks.

On February 28, 1893, at Houston, Tennessee, he married Miss Martha C. Beckham, a very distant rela- tive, who was born near Houston, a daughter of William Beckham, now deceased. Doctor Beckham's children are: Byron, who is now farming one of his father's farms; Marrell, who has finished a preparatory medical course in the University of Oklahoma and is now continuing his studies for the profession under the direction of his father; Marcia, who lives at home and is taking a correspondence course in nursing; Law- rence, employed in the office of the Roosevelt Record; L. Lloyd and Venus, both of whom are in the public schools.

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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: 656

Author: Thoburn, Joseph B. (Joseph Bradfield), 1866-1941
Publication date: 1916
Publisher: Chicago, New York, The American Historical Society
Number of Pages: 656