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 105

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 105

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Farm mortgages have been numerous during recent years in the Choctaw country, but 90 per cent of them are liens on property that has passed from possession of the Indian. Harry Cyphers has made comparatively few loans on Indian lands in MeCurtain County and each has been troublesome and expensive. The loans are all made on Indian land but not to the Indians direct. Reference to the tribal rolls made by the department of the interior is always necessary to the establishment of heirship, and heirship is the fundamental basis of property title. Frequently long journeys and many interviews have been necessary to the execution of a loan, and indeed, in some cases proof of marriage must be obtained. Before statehood common law marriages were frequent, and that fact meant to the searcher of titles that probably no record ever was made, and the only method of establishing title in that case would be by personal testimony, a service that could not always be acquired. Marriages were contracted by ministers, and of these there usually was a record made. But where to find the record has been a task not easily consum- mated. Mr. Cyphers recalls a case in which it was nec- essary to go back through the family and tribal records of three generations to find proof of the marriage of certain Indians, the apparent heir to whom had applied for a land loan. Indians of half blood and more have restrictions both on their homesteads and surplus lands, and are not permitted to obtain loans of this character, but death removes the restrictions from some lands and enables the loan agent, if he have the courage and patience to penetrate the gloom of ancestry, to execute a loan.

These facts are illustrative of a phase of current life in McCurtain County, which has an Indian population of 3,500, and in which Indian transaction constitute an' important part of business activities. The Indian is always a borrower, and the impression prevails that could he obtain money from legitimate farm mortgage firms, the interest paid would not rob him of so much of his income as do some other systems.

Mr. Cyphers entered the insurance and farm loan busi- ness in Idabel in 1909, and he is of that class of young men who came into Oklahoma in response to the call of almost unlimited sources of business success. He is a special agent for the New York Life Insurance Com- pany. He was born in Illinois in 1884 and is a son of Charles and Elizabeth (Jackdon) Cyphers. His father, who is yet a resident of Illinois, was born in West Virginia, but was an early settler to his section of Illinois. He was a contractor in early life, but is now retired, living in Fairview, Illinois.

Harry C. Cyphers had his education mainly in the public schools of his native state. His first employment after his school days was as a fireman in the employ of the Burlington Railroad for a year or more, after which he spent four years as a salesman in the northern states.

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HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA

He was married at Madras, Texas, March 12, 1911, to Miss Bonaugh Fulton. He is a member of the Idabel Commercial Club, a live organization of the community. and in it he has done some good work in the interests of the town. Mr. Cyphers has a healthy interest in the advancement of his city and county, and his activities have contributed an important share to the progress of this section, as many will attest.

WILLIAM P. KEEN. In any field of human endeavor the ultimate criterion of ability is success, and deter- mined by this one effective gauge Mr. Keen is consistently to be desiguated as one of the leading younger members of the bar of Beckham County, his achievement in his profession marking him as a true devotee of his exacting vocation and as one whose powers have enabled him to win success and prestige of unequivocal order. He is engaged in the practice of his profession at Elk City, the thriving metropolis of the county, his offices being eligibly located on Broadway. His law business includes both civil and criminal practice and he is the attorney for Oklahoma of the Pittsburgh Mortgage Investment Company, an important Pennsylvania Corporation. He has been a resident of Oklahoma from boyhood and is thoroughly in touch with the progressive spirit of this vigorous young commonwealth.

William P. Keen 's original American ancestors on the paternal side immigrated to this country from England in the colonials days, and representatives of the name were sturdy pioneers in both Tennessee and Illinois. Mr. Keen was born in Wright County, Missouri, on the 27th of December, 1886, and is a son of James E. and Addie (Parker) Keen, who now maintain their home at Cheyenne, the judicial center of Roger Mills County, Oklahoma, the father having been born in Illinois, in 1863, and the mother being a native of Tennessee, where she was born in the year 1859. Of the children the eldest is Flora B., who is the wife of Arthur Smith, a prosperous lumber dealer at Elmer, Jackson County, Okla- homa; Mamie, Nona and Freda remain at the parental home, the first named being a trained nurse and the other two successful and popular teachers in the public schools ; Paul is a member of the class of 1917 in the Southwest- ern State Normal School at Weatherford, Oklahoma; Clifford is in the preparatory department of the same institution; and Thelma is attending the public schools ..

James E. Keen was reared and educated in his uative state, and as a young man he removed from Illinois to Missouri, first locating in Texas County and thence re- moving to Wright County, where his marriage was solemnized and where he continued his activities in the lumber business and the operating of a saw mill until 1898, when he came to Oklahoma Territory and entered claim to a homestead of 160 acres eleven miles northwest of Cheyenne, the present county seat of Roger Mills County. He reclaimed this land into a productive and valuable farm, and he still owns the property, thoughi he is now living practically retired in the Village of Cheyenne. He is known and honored as one of the rep- resentative citizens of Roger Mills County, has served as county treasurer and held other offices of local order, and is a staunch advocate of the principles and policies for which the democratic party stands sponsor. He is affiliated with the Masonic fraternity and the Independ- ent Order of Odd Fellows.

William P. Keen, immediate subject of this review, acquired his rudimentary education in the district schools of his native county, in Missouri, and was a lad of about ten years at the time of the family removal to Oklahoma Territory, where he was enabled to continue his studies in the village schools of Cheyenne. There he was grad-

uated in the high school as a member of the class of 1905, and for the ensuing three years he was a student in Southwestern Normal School, at Weatherford, where he completed the work of the junior year. In the mean- while, in consonance with his well defined ambition, he had given considerable attention to the preliminary read- ing of law, and after leaving the normal school he was matriculated in the law department of Cumberland University, at Lebanon, Tennessee, in which he was grad- uated as a member of the class of 1909 and from which he received his well earned degree of Bachelor of Laws.

After his graduation Mr. Keen was engaged in the practice of his profession at Cheyenne, Roger Mills County, until November, 1913, when he removed to Elk City, which place has since continued the stage of his specially active and successful professional activities. He was elected city attorney in 1915, but resigned this office in the early part of 1915, owing to the demands placed upon him by his private law business, which has touched both the civil and criminal calendars of the courts of this section of the state. His political allegiance is given to the democratic party, he is affiliated with the masonic fraternity and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and both he and his wife hold membership in the Baptist Church.

In January, 1914, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Keen to Miss Lela Jones, whose father, William W. Jones, now resides at Fairfield, Texas, in which vicinity he owns and operates a valuable farm.

WILLIAM RALPH COCHRAN. The Cochran family is of Irish ancestry, as the name would indicate to any one even slightly versed in nomenclature, and William Ralph Cochran's grandsire, William Cochran, was the first of this line to quit old Ireland's shores for those of America. He first settled in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and in 1853 moved to Sullivan County, Missouri, where he became a prominent farmer and stockman, and where he died in well advanced years.

The son of this Irish emigrant was R. H. Cochran, father of the subject. He was born in Philadelphia, in 1851, and when the family came to the West in 1853 he came with them, an infant in arms. He was reared in Sullivan County and saw that community advance from an almost barren waste to its present high state of pro- ductiveness, and aided largely iu bringing about the great change, for he has devoted his life to the business of farming and stock raising, and is still active in the business, being one of the foremost men of the county in that enterprise. Mr. Cochran is a member of the Presbyterian Church and an elder therein. He is a republican and a member of the Masonic fraternity. He married Isabelle Swanger, born in Pennsylvania in 1857, and she died in Sullivan County in 1889, youug in years, and the mother of four children. Bruce, the first born, is a naval officer in charge of the naval recruiting station at Omaha, Nebraska. William Ralph, of this review, was the second child. Ray lives at Lane, Kansas, where he is a well-to-do farmer. John, born in 1889, died in 1891.

In later years Mr. Cochran remarried, Lydia Reger, a Sullivan County girl, becoming his wife. Two children have come to them: Cash and Vera, both of them at home as yet.

William R. Cochran attended the Sullivan County pub- lie schools in his boyhood, and in 1904 he entered the State Normal School at Kirksville, Missouri, where he spent two years in diligent study. Finishing his normal course he began teaching, and he gave four years of his life to that work, in which he was especially success-

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HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA

ful, and in which he would undoubtedly have made a name for himself in educational circles.

In March, 1907, Mr. Cochran came to Cestos, Dewey County, and continued teaching until December, 1911, when he entered upon a new enterprise, establishing the Vici Beacon, of which newspaper he has since been editor and publisher. The paper is one of the live sheets of the county, and circulates in Ellis, Woodward and other neighboring counties, besides its home county of Dewey. It is a republican organ, voicing the. senti- ments of its editor and the party in general, and in all its phases exercises an influence for good in those communities where it circulates that will not be gainsaid.

Mr. Cochran has been town clerk of Vici since the town was incorporated, and is one of the more public spirited citizens of the thriving little city in which he has his interests. He was a member of the school board while resident in Cestos, and takes a wholesome interest in educational affairs in Vici as well. He is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church and the Oklahoma Press Association, and in a fraternal way is associated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, Cestos Lodge No. 447, of which he is past noble grand.

In 1907 Mr. Cochran was married in Green City, Mis- souri, to Miss Mabel Terry, daughter of P. F. Terry, a prominent farmer and stockman of that place. Three children have come to them: Randall, born May 9, 1908; Carroll B., born October 1, 1909, and Annabel, born January 10, 1913. Mr. and Mrs. Cochran are popular young people in their home town and have a host of staunch friends in the city and county. They are sought in the best social circles of the community and have a leading part in the social activities of the place.

A. J. RITTENHOUSE. During the past eighteen years no one name has been more conspicuous in the legal profession in Oklahoma than Rittenhouse. The late A. J. Rittenhouse was a lawyer of broad experience and many years of practice in various states, having moved to Oklahoma in 1897. He practiced at Chandler until his death. One of his sons is Hon. George B. Rittenhouse, now one of the justices of the Supreme Court Commis- sion of Oklahoma. Another son, F. A. Rittenhouse, was in practice with his brother as a member of the firm of Rittenhouse & Rittenhouse at Chandler until Judge Rit- tenhouse went on the bench, and is now carrying on a large practice alone. Thus father and sons have con- tributed a great deal by their respective ability to the early associations of the Oklahoma bar.

The late A. J. Rittenhouse, a son of James and Rebecca (Wells) Rittenhouse, both of whom were natives of Pennsylvania and of old Pennsylvania stock, was born in Harrison County, Ohio, in 1850, and was reared and educated in his native state. He was admitted to the Ohio bar, and after some practice there moved to Center- ville, Iowa. At Seymour, Iowa, he married Louise Jane Brown. Mrs. A. J. Rittenhouse, who is still living at Chandler, was born in Huron County, Ohio, a daughter of E. J. and Maud (Sturgeon) Brown. Her father was born in Ohio, was a Presbyterian and prominent in the Masonic Order and is now deceased, while her mother died at the age of forty-five. Of the Brown family, one son, Montreville Brown, survives his parents. besides three daughters.

After their marriage A. J. Rittenhouse and wife re- moved to McCook, Nebraska, where he practiced law. For a time he was also identified with the Colorado bar and later was a resident of Bellingham, Washington. From there he returned to McCook, Nebraska, but in 1897 located in Chandler, Oklahoma. He practiced in all the courts, had many cases in the Federal courts,

and his knowledge and attainments and skill as an advocate had few superiors among his contemporaries. In Chandler he practiced with his son, George B. For a time he had as partner Charles Barnett of Shawnee.

A. J. Rittenhouse died at Hot Springs, Arkansas, April 24, 1909. During the twelve years of his residence in Oklahoma he identified himself closely with affairs where he could be influential and helpful outside of his own profession. He served as a member of the board of regents of the state university. He was an Odd Fellow and was a man of many social qualities as well as high professional attainments. A close student of the law, he was rated as an unusually able speaker whether be- fore court and jury or on public occasions.

Mr. and Mrs. A. J. Rittenhouse had the following children: Olive Rebecca, who is docket clerk and book- keeper for the firm of Keeton, Wells & Johnston at Oklahoma City; George B., of the Supreme Court; May Maria, now deceased; F. A .; and Robert R., who was born May 23, 1896, and lives in Chandler.

Hon. George B. Rittenhouse was born at Aurora, Nebraska, December 25, 1879. He graduated from the McCook High School, and obtained admission to the bar in 1901. He was in practice from that year until 1909, associated with his father, and from 1909 to 1914 was senior member of the firm of Rittenhouse & Rittenhouse, his partner being his younger brother, F. A. Ritten- house. Since 1914 he has been one of the justices of the Oklahoma Supreme Court Commission, and was one of the youngest men ever elevated to that high dignity. He is prominent in Masonry and in 1915 received the highest honors of the Scottish Rite when he was made a thirty-third degree Mason. In 1906 Judge Rittenhouse married Mignone A. Ashton, daughter of Francis Allen and Maggie Ashton. They have one daughter, Margaret May. Judge Rittenhouse and family now reside in Okla- homa City.

F. A. Rittenhouse was born in Aurora, Nebraska, January 8, 1885, being six years younger than Judge Rittenhouse. He received most of his education in Nebraska, in the public schools of McCook, and has lived in Oklahoma since he was nineteen years of age. His higher education was attained in the University of Mis- souri, where he graduated in the law course, receiving the degree LL. B. Beginning practice at Chandler with his father and brothers, this relationship was interrupted by . the death of his father, and since his brother took his seat on the bench at Oklahoma Citiy he has been alone. He has fine offices in Chandler and one of the best law libraries in the state.

On June 22, 1910, at Cortez, Colorado, Mr. Ritten- house married Miss Alma Hocking. She was educated in the states of Oklahoma and Kansas and is a daughter of Scott A. and Sarah Hocking. Mr. and Mrs. Ritten- house have one son, Austin J. Mr. Rittenhouse has taken thirty-two degrees in Scottish Rite Masonry and is also a Knight Templar. He is a man of striking presence, stands over 6 feet 1 inch high, and has both the learning and talents requisite for a high position in the bar. He is a member of the executive council of the State Bar Association.

GEORGE W. STEWART, M. D. While the professional position and attainments of Doctor Stewart are such as to command respect throughout Kiowa County, where he has lived since the opening of the reservation to settle- ment. and over the state at large, it is a matter of knowledge to comparatively few how vigorously he con- tended with difficulties and embarrassments in his early youth to gain what his ambition craved. Doctor Stewart is a Southerner by birth and training, and his early youth was spent in the section of the South ravaged by

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HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA

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the Civil war. It was only after reaching his majority that he was able to take up his long deferred plans for gaining an education, and was a farmer, a merchant and teacher before beginning the practice of medicine.

His great-grandfather Charles Stewart emigrated from Scotland to Virginia in the closing years of the eight- eenth century. From Virginia he moved into Georgia, and thence into Alabama, followed his vocation as a farmer in those various localities, and died in Pickens County, Alabama, but near the city of Columbus, Mis- sissippi. Doctor Stewart's grandfather was John Stewart, who was born in Georgia in 1795, and died in Milam County, Texas, in 1860. He was likewise a farmer, lived in the States of Alabama and Mississippi, and a short time before the war moved to Texas, where he died.

Doctor Stewart was born in Itawamba County, Mis- sissippi, September 10, 1856. His father was Wiley S. Stewart, who was born in Pickens County, Alabama, in 1831, and died at Fulton, Mississippi, in 1872. He was a farmer and stock raiser all his active career, and from Pickens County removed to Itawamba County, Missis- sippi, and was living there when the war came on. He saw four years of service in the Thirty-second Mississippi Regiment of Infantry, was shot through the arm in the Battle of Chickamauga, and returned home from the war a physical wreck, and never fully regained his health. He married Mary A. Cobb, who was born in North Carolina in 1833 and is now living at the venerable age of eighty-two with her son Doctor Stewart at Hobart. There were eight children in the family, a brief record of them being as follows: John A., a farmer at Hobart, Oklahoma; Dr. George W .; Wiley M., a farmer near Hobart; Sidney Jackson, a farmer at Denton, Texas; Mary, who is now living at Gorman, Texas, the widow of T. L. Gates, who was a merchant in Gorman, Texas, and died there; W. P., who is with the Warden Printing Company at Oklahoma City; R. L., a farmer at Sentinel, Oklahoma; and L. F., who is an educator and is vice president of the Panhandle Agricultural School at Good- well, Oklahoma.

As one of the older members of this family and with his youth passed in the time and under the conditions briefly suggested above, Doctor Stewart had a youth of many cares and responsibilities besides those imme- diately concerned with his individual advancement. His common school education was derived from the schools of Itawamba County, Mississippi, and in 1878, at the age of twenty-two, he graduated from Fulton Academy in that county. For a few years he combined merchan- dising with farming and was a teacher for six years. In 1888, with such savings as he had managed to accumu- late in addition to supporting his own home and family, he entered the Memphis Hospital Medical College at Memphis, Tennessee, and was graduated M. D. in 1890. Doctor Stewart is still a close student of his profession, and in 1908 took a post-graduate course in the Chicago Post Graduate School.

His practice began at Fulton, Mississippi, in 1890, and in 1893 he removed to Gause in Milam County, Texas, practiced there until 1896, and practiced in Hill County, Texas, until 1901. In that year he came to Hobart as one of the pioneer physicians to locate in Kiowa County, and has since enjoyed a large general medical and sur- gical practice. Since Oklahoma entered statehood he has been county superintendent of health of Kiowa County, and is also prominent in medical organizations, having served two years as president of the Kiowa County Medical Society and is now its vice president, and is a member of the State Medical Society and the American Medical Association. His offices are in the Jones Building on Fourth Street.

Doctor Stewart is a democrat and served three terms on the Hobart City Council. He is a member and presi- dent of the board of trustees of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, is a charter member of Hobart Lodge No. 198, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, being a past master, by service; and is a charter member of Hobart Chapter No. 37, Royal Arch Masons, and is also affiliated with Hobart Camp No. 84, Woodmen of the World.

Doctor Stewart in 1883, when a young man still strug- gling to fit himself for his chosen work back in Missis- sippi, was married at Fulton to Miss Margaret E. Nabors. She died in Fort Worth, Texas, in 1907. Oscar Stewart, the oldest child of this marriage, is now one of the prominent men of Oklahoma, and is superintendent of the State Institute for the Blind at Muskogee. He is a graduate of the School for the Blind at Austin, Texas, afterwards attended Vanderbilt University at Nashville, Tennessee, is an ordained minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and in 1914 was urged to take the nomination for Congress from his district, but refused that honor, though his abilities insure him many substantial distinctions in public affairs. He is an active democrat. Oscar Stewart married Miss Jane Robertson of Virginia, and their two children are Wilhelm, born August 12, 1907; and Virginia Elizabeth, born in October, 1908, these being the only grandchil- dren of Doctor Stewart. Otho, the second child of Doctor Stewart, is a graduate of the Southwestern University at Georgetown, Texas, and is now pastor of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, at Coweta, Oklahoma; Oland, the youngest child, is now a student in the University of Oklahoma at Norman. Doctor Stewart was married at Hobart in 1908 to his present wife, Miss Ida Wilkie, who is of German descent and came to Oklahoma from Wisconsin. .

JOHN DAVIS GARNER. While his name is now most familiar to the people of Custer County as president of the Farmers' State Guaranty Bank at Thomas, Mr. Garner was one of the real pioneers of this section of the state and has been variously identified with farm- ing, merchandising, banking and public affairs for fully fifteen years.

The family which he 'represents is of old colonial American stock, the Garners having come from Ire- laud to South Carolina, and the great-grandfather of the Thomas banker lived at Pendleton, South Carolina, and from that locality offered his services as a soldier during the Revolutionary war. John Davis Garner is a Georgia man by birth, born at Gainesville in . Hall County, October 22, 1868. His father, Joseph A. Garner, who spent his active career as a farmer and stock man, was born at Gainesville in 1846 and died there in 1891. For eighteen months he was a soldier in the Confederate army. His church was the Bap- tist. Joseph A. Garner married Louisa Whelchel, who was born in Gainesville in 1847 and died in 1886. Their children were; John D .; India, the wife of W. S. Huff, an attorney at Dahlonega, Georgia; Eula is the wife of Herbert S. Blackwell, of Lula, Georgia, and Mr. Blackwell for twenty-one years has been an engineer in the service of the Southern Railway and the com- pany ranks him No. 1 for efficiency; Cynthia married George W. Shackleford, an attorney living in Florida; Henry A. is a railroad man at Lula, Georgia; Robert C. is a farmer at Price, Georgia; and Joseph E. died in infancy.

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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