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 109
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Mr. Galbreath and his organization have proceeded very cautiously in investigating and exploiting these great quantities of minerals, and have employed expert advice to prove the high grade quality and the prac- ticability of mining them economically and quickly. There has never been any question about the urgent demand for them. All the things that pertain to the mining and smelting of ores are at hand in Southern Oklahoma, forming an ideal place for smelters and mills, located in the center of the United States, convenient for distribution. Now that the value of the deposits is determined, all that remains is to provide for develop- ment and the utilization of the output for trade demands. The immense quantities of steel products consumed in the oil fields of Oklahoma would absorb a large output of steel mills. This is one of the most interesting discoveries ever made in the state and its development will be closely watched by many interests.
SWAN C. BURNETTE. Political, social and religious upheavals in foreign lands have ever resulted in au influx of old-world citizenship to American shores. The perse- cution of Protestantism in France was no exception to this rule, and among the many French families that found sanctuary in America were the Burnettes, who fled from their native land at the time of the Huguenot massacre and settled in Jamestown, Virginia. Swan C. Burnette is the direct descendant of this family. He was born in Hamburg, Iowa, and is the son of J. B. S. and Rebecca (Young) Burnette.
J. B. S. Burnette was born in Cocke County, Tennes- see, in 1825 and died in Atchison County, Missouri, in 1903. He was married in Tennessee, in his native county, and after the war moved into Fremont County, Iowa, settling at Hamburg. It was not until 1873 that he took up his residence in Atchison County, Missouri, where he spent the remaining years of his life. He was a pros- perous farmer and stockman and was well known wher- ever he made a home. His wife was born in North Caro- lina in 1828, and she died at the family home in Atchison County, Missouri, in 1904. They were members of the Baptist Church throughout their lives, and were highly esteemed of all who knew them. They had a family
of ten children. Aun the eldest, married Charles Greer, and they live near Fullerton, Nebraska, where he has a farm. Jane married Henry Eubanks. He is a ranch- inan in Higgins, Texas. William lives at St. Joe, Mis- souri, where he is a carpenter and builder. John lives in Mitchell County, Kansas, and is engaged in farming there. Jesse A. is a practicing lawyer at Topeka, Kan- sas, James is a ranchman in Canadian, Texas. Sara is the wife of G. W. Arrington, a ranchman of Canadian, Texas. Mr. Arrington has been captain of the Texas Rangers and is ex-sheriff of Wheeler County, and the attached counties forming the Panhandle. He is a man of valor, widely known in Texas for his daring, and was the terror of law-breakers in his territory. Thomas left home in early life and his whereabouts are unknown. Swan C. was the ninth of the family, and Susie, the youngest, married V. Stickley, a rancher in Canadian, Texas.
Swan Burnette had his early education in the public schools in Atchison County, Missouri, and up to the age of nineteen years lived at home on his father's farm. He then taught school for a year, and read la'w in the office of his brother in Caldwell, Kansas. He was admitted to the bar in Wellington, Kansas, in 1891, practiced there successfully until 1903, and on March 1, 1903, came to Cordell, Oklahoma. He is a pioneer attorney in this community, and has been busily engaged in a general practice from the beginning to the present time.
In 1909 Mr. Burnette was elected to the Secoud Okla- homa Legislature, serving two years, and he is now city attorney, having served for the past four years. He was president of the Cordell School Board in 1910 and 1911, and has always been a leader in the civic life of the community.
Mr. Burnette is an owner of farm land in Washita County, and has two nice farms aggregating 320 acres. He also owns a farm of 160 acres in Beckham County, Oklahoma, all of which yield him a nice income yearly.
Mr. Burnette is a Mason of high degree. His Masonic affiliations are with Cordell Lodge No. 127, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, of which he is past master; Cordell Chapter No. 75, Royal Arch Masons, of which he is high priest; the Wellington (Kansas) Commandery of Knights Templar; and the Consistory of Guthrie, Oklahoma. With his family he has membership in the Methodist Episcopal Church.
In Rockport, Missouri, Mr. Burnette married Miss Louise Luja, born in Arago, Nebraska, the daughter of Dr. Charles F. Luja, well known in that locality, but now deceased. Mr. and Mrs. Burnette have an adopted child, Claudia (Kellam) Buruette, now attending the public schools at Cordell.
SAMUEL TULLOSS ROBERSON. A young attorney of El Reno who has been in successful practice for the past seven years, Samuel T. Roberson has established himself securely in the estimation of the people of Canadian County, where his influence counts as that of a progressive leader. He possesses youth, ambition and energy, together with a broad sense of responsibility of the individual to the community, and has a large career of usefulness before him. Mr. Roberson is now serving as county attorney of Canadian County.
Samuel Tulloss Roberson was born November 12, 1877, in Bledsoe County, Tennessee, son of James and Penelope P. (Spears) Roberson. He comes of a well known family of Tennessee, and both his parents were natives of that state. When he was sixteen years of age the family located at Jasper, in Marion County, Tennessee, and that is still the home of his father and mother. His father has for many years been a lawyer.
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Samuel T. Roberson attended the People's College and in 1899 was graduated from the Pryor Institute of Tennessee. Then followed a number of years of self-supporting industry and the study of law as oppor- tunity offered. After teaching school one year in Ten- nessee he came to Oklahoma in 1901, and his home has been in El Reno practically ever since that time. For three years he was a teacher in Canadian County, and did several other kinds of work while pursuing his law studies. Mr. Roberson was admitted to the Oklahoma bar in 1908, and has since had his law offices in El Reno, where for a time he was associated with his older brother, James N. Roberson.
Mr. Roberson served during a part of 1909 and all of 1910 as deputy county attorney, and in 1912 was elected to the office of county attorney, and secured an endorse- ment of his work in that office by re-election in 1914. He is a democrat in politics, and is affiliated with the Knights of Pythias and the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. His church home is the Methodist Episco- pal Church, South. In February, 1914, at. Cleveland, Ohio, Mr. Roberson married Miss Emma M. Gobel.
LEWIS GADDY, M. D. Engaged in the practice of medicine and surgery at Stratford since 1910, Dr. Lewis Gaddy has succeeded in winning the confidence and regard of the people of his adopted community and in building up an excellent professional business of a most repre- sentative character. He is a native of Van Buren County, Arkansas, and was born September 1, 1870, being a son of James and Elizabeth (Hensley) Gaddy.
The Gaddy family, which originated in Ireland, emi- grated at an early day to America and took up its residence in Georgia, where the grandfather of Doctor Gaddy, Ezekiel Gaddy, passed his life as a planter and died. James Gaddy was born in Georgia, in 1844, and was six years of age when he lost his parents. He was subsequently taken to Van Buren County, Arkansas, where he was reared in the home of a family named Martin, and when the Civil war came on enlisted in the Union army and served four years, going safely through that struggle and returning to his Arkansas home. His subsequent life, with the exception of several years at Johnsonville, Indian Territory, was passed in Van Buren County, Mr. Gaddy following the pursuits of farming and stock raising, and there his death occurred in 1907. . He was an active member of the Christian Church, being on the official board for many years, and fraternized with the Masonic Order. He married Elizabeth Hensley, who died at Johnsonville, Indian Territory, in 1893, and they became the parents of two children: Newton, who was born in 1868, passed his life as a farmer, and died in 1908, in Stone County, Arkansas; and Dr. Lewis.
Lewis Gaddy attended the public schools of Van Buren County, Arkansas, and was reared on his father's farm, being associated with his father until he was eighteen years of age, at which time the family moved to Johnsonville, Indian Territory, near which place the young man farmed for himself for about three years. Farming, however, did not appeal to him, and he event- ually resumed his education in the high school in Van Buren County, Arkansas, which he attended for two years. During the school years of 1898-99-1900 he studied medicine in the medical department of the Uni- versity of Arkansas, and in 1902 and 1903 practiced in Pope County, Arkansas, at Atkins. He next re- entered the University of Tennessee at Nashville for further training and was graduated therefrom in 1905, with the degree of Doctor of Medicine. From 1905 until 1910 he was agair engaged in practice in Pope County, Arkansas, but June 3d of the latter year gave up his
practice there and came to Stratford, where he has built up a large and profitable professional business, his offices being located in the Bayless Drug Store. Doctor Gaddy is a republican and a consistent member of the Christian Church. His fraternal connections include membership in Stratford Camp No. 2, Woodmen of the World, for which he is examining physician.
Doctor Gaddy was married at Eglantine, Arkansas, in 1895, to Miss Henrietta Eldridge, daughter of J. E. Eldridge, a retired citizen of Roberta, Oklahoma. Of the children born to this union, three are living: lla, who is the wife of Rex G. Grant, connected with the First National Bank at Ada, Oklahoma; Mamie, who is a member of the sophomore class of Stratford High School; and Edwin, who is a pupil in the first grade of the public school at Stratford.
THOMAS B. REEDER. One of the prominent lawyers of Southern Oklahoma is Thomas B. Reeder, since 1907 located in practice at Duncan. Mr. Reeder has been a member of the bar for many years, having entered the profession and practiced for a long time in his native State of Indiana, whence he came to Oklahoma. His chief ambition has always been within the limits of his profession and he ranks high among the learned and skillful attorneys in the Stephens County bar.
Thomas B. Reeder was born December 28, 1858, on ground now included in the City of Kokomo, Howard County, Indiana. Ilis parents were Walter Scott and Martha M. (Rader) Reeder. Concerning the origin of the family in America the account is that three Reeder brothers came from England prior to the Revolution and settled in Pennsylvania. On the maternal side Mr. Reeder is a grandson of James Rader, who was one of the early farmer settlers in Howard County, Indiana, and died there at the age of about fifty-five. He married a Miss Kinser, whose father was a large planter and slave holder in South Carolina. Walter Scott Reeder was born in Indiana in 1832 and died in Clinton County of his native state in 1912. For a number of years he lived in Howard County, moved from there to Madison County in 1873, and still later to Clinton County. He was an old soldier, having served in the Union army from 1862 to 1865 in Company C of the Seventy-fifth Indiana Regi- ment. While in the army he was taken down with typhoid fever and also injured his leg by a fall. This injury interfered so much with his activities in later years that he abandoned farming and became a mill- wright, and by these different occupations gained his livelihood and provided for his family. He was reared as a Methodist. His wife, Martha (Rader) Reeder was born in South Carolina in 1837 and died in March, 1915. Their children were: James J., who is Circuit Court clerk at Delphi, Indiana; Thomas B .; Taylor, who died young; Frank, who died at the age of seventeen; Jose- phine, wife of William Hobbs, a farmer in Clinton County, Indiana; Lulu, a widow who lives in Russell- ville, Indiana; Nettie, who died at the age of nine years; Walter S., a hardware merchant in Illinois; Mattie, who died at the age of seventeen; John, who died in infancy; and Roxie, who is married and lives on a farm in Rus- sellville, Indiana.
Thomas B. Reeder attended the common schools of Howard and Cass counties, Indiana, and in 1873, grad- uated from a high school in Madison County of that state. His early experiences in life were of a varied nature, partly farming, partly other work, but he grad- ually concentrated his attention and ambition upon the law. He studied law in the office of Justice & Lairy at Logansport, Indiana, was admitted to the Indiana bar, and in time had a satisfying practice at Logansport.
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In 1894 he interrupted his practice to enter the Uni- versity of Michigan at Ann Arbor, where he remained until graduating LL. B. from the law department on June 25, 1896. He then resumed practice at Logansport and remained a prominent member of the Cass County bar until the fall of 1906. He then sought new fields in the Southwest, and was located at Ardmore, Oklahoma, for a time but in April, 1907, established himself permanently at Duncan, where he has since enjoyed a rising reputa- tion and a large general civil and criminal practice. His offices are in the First National Bank Building.
Mr. Reeder is a democrat, and in the spring of 1909 was elected mayor of Duncan, to which office he gave two years. He is a member of the English Lutheran Church, and is affiliated with the Benevolent and Pro- tective Order of Elks at Logansport, Indiana, with the Duncan Lodge of Ben Hur, with Mistletoe Lodge No. 117, Knights of Pythias at Duncan, besides which he is active in the Chamber of Commerce and a member of the County and State Bar associations.
In Carroll County, Indiana, in 1884, Mr. Reeder mar- ried Miss Minnie B. Wharton, whose father, John Whar- ton, was a retired farmer at Camden, Indiana, now de- ceased, having died at that place on March 12, 1916, at the age of seventy-seven.
Gov. JOHN F. BROWN. The little village community of Sasakwa in Seminole County is largely interesting because of the fact that it is the home and the village was founded by Gov. John F. Brown, who for thirty years or more has been the principal chief or gov- ernor of the Seminole Nation.
Governor Brown is now past seventy years of age. He was a first lieutenant in the Indian Territory con- tingent of the Confederate army during the Civil war. His mother was a fullblood Seminole Indian woman, and he has given the greater part of his life to the interests and welfare of his own people. Repeatedly during the past half century he has visited Washing- ton either alone or as member of delegations to present the causes of the Seminoles before the president and before the different derartments of the national gov- ernment, and he has stood valiantly for the right, for justice, and for the preservation of all the wholesome attributes of the Indian character.
He has not only been a civil leader among his people, but has been a pastor or shepherd of his flock, and has kept the Seminoles true to religion and has officiated as leader of the Indian church for many years. In a business way he has been a merchant and farmer, and it can truly be said that he has worked for the benefit of others rather than for his selfish interests.
He was born near Tahlequah, Oklahoma, October 23, 1843, a son of John F. and Lucy (Grayheard) Brown. His father was a white man and was distinguished in the early days of Indian Territory. He was born at Charleston, South Carolina, was liberally educated for the profession of physician, and graduated in medi- cine from the University of Edinburg, Scotland. On returning to America he took up practice, and soon be- came an army surgeon. He served in that capacity with General Jessup in the Seminole war in Florida. It was about 1838 that he came west to Indian Territory and located at Fort Gibson as a contract physician to the Government for the troops at different times. He mar- ried in Indian Territory and spent the rest of his days there as a practicing physician to his adopted people. He died about 1868 at the age of sixty-eight. The mother died about 1865 when fifty-five years of age. Of their four sons and four daughters three are now living: Governor Brown; Andrew Jackson of Wewoka; and Stanton, who lives near Holdenville.
Governor Brown has spent all his life in Indian Tel ritory, and gained his education in Indian schools a Tahlequah, Park Hill and Wright's Chapel. When stil young the family moved into the Creek Nation in the vicinity of where the City of Muskogee now stands a the beginning of the war. In 1862 he joined the army and for a year was a member of a light horse cavalry For a time he was under the command of Col. D. N McIntosh, and then was attached to the brigade com- manded by General StanWatie, the famous Cherokee military leader. This brigade consisted of two Creek regiments, one Seminole regiment and three Cherokee regiments. Ever since the war Governor Brown has been closely identified with the Seminole people. He has served as superintendent of schools, and as prin- cipal chief, and with the exception of one year has held the position of principal chief or governor for thirty years. This official position caused him to go to Wash- ington frequently as a delegate, and during the past half century he has met many of the presidents of the United States, and was in Washington when President Wilson was inaugurated.
Governor Brown succeeded Col. John Jumper as Prin- cipal Chief and also as pastor of the Spring Baptist Church of the Seminole Nation. This church is the oldest Baptist institution and is situated about a mile and a quarter west of Sasakwa, a town which Governor Brown founded. He has been in the mercantile business for the past forty-five years, and still has a store at Wewoka and also one at Sasakwa. His own home is on a fine farm two miles west of the town, where he has 140 acres. On this farm and on a commanding eleva- tion from which a fine view of the surrounding country can be obtained he built in 1890 a very commodious and comfortable fourteen-room house, where he and some of his children now reside.
Governor Brown is remarkable for his splendid con- stitution and rugged health, and he has enjoyed the best of health all his life. After the war he married Elizabeth Jumper, a daughter of Col. John Jumper, and all of their four children, two sons and two danghters, are deceased. In September, 1875, he married Eliza- beth Alexander. Of that union there are now living two sons and two daughters named: Mrs. Alice J. Fleet ; Mrs. Josie Hargo; and A. J. Brown, Jr., all of whom reside at Sasakwa, and Lewis C., lives with his father and is manager of the store at Sasakwa. By still another marriage Governor Brown has a daughter, Mrs. Henrietta Howell, who lives at Konawa. His present wife before her marriage was Sarah Cullie, and their four children, all of them at home, are named Ruth, Martha, Solomon and James.
MILO H. GUNSENHOUSER. The man who settled in Cordell, Oklahoma, as early as 1902 is rightfully regarded today as a pioneer of the community. Milo H. Gunsen- houser was one of these. He took over the management of the Herald-Sentinel in Cordell, of which he is the editor and owner.
The Gunsenhousers are of Swiss origin, and the paternal grandsire of the subject, as well as the first of the family to seek America, was John Jacob Gunsen- houser. He left his home in Switzerland when a lad of twelve years and settled in Ohio, where he found others of his own blood. Later he went to Indiana, settled on a farm of 160 acres located two miles east of Butler, and there he spent practically the remainder of his life. He sold the farm a short time before his death, which took place in Butler in 1873 when he was ninety-four years old. This pioneer married Betsy Stroll, a native of the State of Pennsylvania, and she died near Butler. Their son, John, father of the subject, was born in
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Ohio in 1830. He was still quite young when the family moved into Indiana, and there he was reared, and later married. He was a carpenter and passed his life in that work. A member of the United Brethren Church, he was an itinerant preacher of his day, and it is probable that he would have been ordained and entered the service as a full-fledged minister but that he lost his life in battle during the Civil war. He enlisted in the Forty-fourth Indiana Regiment of Volunteer Iufantry, and was killed in action at Chickamauga. He married Lucinda Williams, who was born in Ohio in 1833, and she died at Grand Ledge in March, 1893. Four children were born to them. Frank M. is living in Webb City, Missouri. Milo H. was the second child. Rachel married Fred Dayton, a newspaper man of Chicago, who is now deceased, and she makes her home in that city. Ida married J. J. Tankersly, a member of the Chicago Board of Trade, now deceased, and she has her home with her widowed sister, Mrs. Dayton.
Growing up on the home farm, Milo H. Gunsenhouser attended the district schools of DeKalb County and began work on his own responsibility at the early age of fourteen years. In 1868 his widowed mother moved to Sigourney, Iowa, and there he worked on the farm on which they settled until 1875, when he entered the print- ing office of the Sigourney News. He spent five years in the general work of the office, and when he left was considered an all around printer. He went to Chicago and for six months worked at the trade there, after which he went to Auburn, Indiana, and took a position in the office of the Auburn Republican, where he con- tinued for eighteen months. For the next seven years he was with the Hillsdale Leader, in Hillsdale, Michigan.
In 1889 Mr. Gunsenhouser felt himself well enough advanced in the printing business to do something on his own responsibility, and he established the Waldron Echo, at Waldron, Michigan. After six mouths of ownership the town was wiped out by a fire. Mr. Gunsenhouser decided not to rebuild there, but went to Grand Ledge, Michigan, bought the organ of the socialist party there and converted it into the Grand Ledge Republican, which he edited until 1902, when he sold it and came to Cordell, Oklahoma.
Mr. Gunsenhouser bought the Herald-Sentinel 'and under his management it is a staunch republican paper, and circulates in Washita and neighboring counties, with a foreign circulation of considerable scope. The plant and offices are in the Bunghardt Building on Main Street.
Mr. Gunsenhouser was married in 1880, at Sigourney, Iowa, to Miss Ida Ames, daughter of J. W. Ames, a farmer of that place. He died in 1913 at the age of eighty-seven years.
To Mr. and Mrs. Gunsenhouser have been born three children. Fred, the first born, died in Cordell, when he was eighteen years old. Ruth married A. R. Pribble, assistant cashier of the Cordell National Bank, and they live in Cordell. Rhea lives with her parents. She is a capable young woman and has a position as stenographer in a local office.
MRS. LUCY L. (MORRIS) EASTON. One of the best known newspaper women of Oklahoma is Mrs. Easton, proprietor and editor of the Chattanooga News. She and her husband were pioneers in the Cherokee Strip, and while they have one of the fine farms in the vicinity of Chattanooga, Mrs. Easton has shown her exceptional enterprise and qualifications as a leader of opinion by her work in the journalistic field. The Chattanooga News was established by Colonel Bayne in 1905, and has been under the proprietorship of Mrs. Easton since 1911. It
is an independent paper in politics and has a substantial circulation in Comanche, Cotton and Tillman counties, with a weekly issue. The plant and offices are on Third "Street and Mrs. Easton owns both the building and the grounds.
Mrs. Easton has been in the newspaper field for the past nine years. For five years she published the Advo- cate at Geronimo, Oklahoma, and for three years of this time also published the Leader at Faxon. She is the state editor for the National Mizpah, the official organ for the Order of the Eastern Star in the State of Oklahoma. She has been a member of the State Press for nine years, and second vice president twice, and twice was on the executive board. She is also a member of the National Editorial Association.
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