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 113

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 113

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).

The doctor spent the entire year of 1897 in the Col- lege of Physicians and Surgeons at Baltimore and Johns Hopkins University, and in the Pasteuret department of the College of Physicians and Surgeons. In 1898-9 and 1900 he spent from six weeks to three months in the college at Baltimore.

Doctor White commenced the practice of his pro- fession at Mendota, Virginia, where he remained until 1900, in which year he came to Gerry, Oklahoma, and remained there eight years. In July, 1908, he trans- ferred his field of practice to Clinton, where he has been deservedly successful, and where his practice in both medicine and surgery is a large and representa- tive one. He maintains offices in the Thurmond Build- ing, where he has appliances for the most exacting de- mands of his profession. Doctor White is a man of rare discretion, tact and sympathy, an earnest and painstaking exponent of the best tenets of medical science, and an indefatigable seeker after those things

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HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA

which produce health and happiness. He belongs to the Custer County Medical Society, of which he was formerly president, and to the Oklahoma Medical So- ciety and the American Medical Association, and is a fellow of the American Medical Association. He be- longs also to Mendota Lodge No. 281, Ancient Free aud Accepted Masons, and is past noble grand of Men- dota Lodge of the Odd Fellows. Politieally, Doctor White is a democrat, but public affairs have attracted him little. With his family, he belongs to the Baptist Church. He has been successful in a material way, and in addition to his home on Ninth Street, North, Clin- ton, is the owner of much valuable farming property, including 320 acres iu Gray County, Texas, and 1,280 acres in Ochiltree County, Texas.

Doctor White was married at Mendota, Virginia, in 1888, to Miss Della Lce Barker, a daughter of Col. Joel Barker, now deceased, who was a farmer and veteran of the Confederacy. Eight children have been born to Doctor and Mrs. White: Mamie Lee, who married Charles Moon, a clerk in the office of the gen- eral superintendent of the Frisco Railroad System; Nat D., who is the assistant manager of a large furniture establishment at Tulsa, Oklahoma; Nelson Stuart, who is attending the University of Oklahoma; Frank B., a senior in the Clinton High School; Bonnie K., a fresh- man at that school; and John V., Pearl and Erick, who are all attending the Clinton public schools.

ALVIN BINGAMAN. Prompt adaptation to opportunity, a capacity for gauging the possible increase in values and the well developed speculative instinct which places the natural broker in a class by himself, are factors which have contributed to the business success of Alvin Binga- man, formerly a legal practitioner, but of more recent years a dealer in loans and investments, at Cordell. Mr. Bingaman belongs to a family which originated in Ger- many and migrated to America during colonial days, set- tling in Pennsylvania. He was born at Quincy, Adams County, Illinois, September 28, 1870, and is a son of Albert and Mary (Welcome) Bingaman.

Albert Bingaman was boru in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, in 1836, and as a youth of eighteen years made his way to California, where he continued to be engaged in prospecting and mining until 1864. He then went to Illinois and took up his residence at Quincy, where he established himself in the agricultural imple- ment business, continuing there until 1871, when he moved to Nodaway Couuty, Missouri. From that time forward, Mr. Bingaman was engaged in farming and stockraising until his death, which occurred on his farm in 1913. He was a man of industry, who made money in each of his several ventures, being possessed of versa- tile talents in a business way. His religious belief was that of the Presbyterian Church, while fraternally he was a Mason and politically a democrat. His strict integrity placed him in the confidence and esteem of his fellow- eitizens. Mr. Bingaman married Miss Mary Welcome, who was also born in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, in 1850, and died at Burlington, Kansas, in July, 1911. They became the parents of four children: Alvin, Nena, whose home is in Nodaway County, Missouri, but who at this writing (1915) is on a visit to California; Lydia A., who married Fred E. Diss, a mechanic of Nodaway County, Missouri; and Harry, who is engaged in the loans and investment business at Creston, Iowa.

Alvin Bingaman attended the graded schools of Nod- away County, Missouri, and was graduated from the Maryville (Missouri) High School with the class of 1892. He then attended the State University of Missouri, at Columbia, finishing the sophomore year, and returned to

Maryville, where he took up the study of law in the office of Edwin A. Vinsonhaler, being admitted to the bar in 1894. For a time Mr. Bingaman was engaged in prac- tice at Maryville, but he had become interested in the farm loan business, and when he came to Cordell, in 1910, gave up the law entirely to devote his whole time and attention to the farm loan and investment busi- ness, taking notes and mortgages. He is the owner of a farm eight miles southwest of Cordell, a tract of 160 acres of valuable land, and another property, of 240 acres, eleven miles southeast of Cordell. He handles con- siderable stock and iu this venture, as in his others, he has been more than ordinarily successful. Mr. Binga- man is alert, active and progressive in his views. He has evineed commendable public spirit and zeal, and in all his transactions has been guided by probity, sagacity and good judgment. His offices are located in the Kerley Building. A democrat in political matters, Mr. Binga- man has served as president of the school board of Cor- dell, and was a member of the Missouri State Democratic Committee while residing at Maryville. With his family, he belongs to the Presbyteriau Church. He is well known in fraternal eireles, being past noble grand of the Inde- pendent Order of Odd Fellows at Maryville, a member of the Encampment there, Maryville Camp of the Mod- ern Woodmen of America and Maryville Camp, Wood- men of the World. He is an enthusiastic member of the Cordell Commercial Club and has been active in its work.

Mr. Bingaman was married in June, 1900, at Maryville, Missouri, to Miss Ada A. Alderman, a daughter of Hon. Ira K. Alderman, a resident of Maryville and ex-judge of the District Court. To Mr. and Mrs. Bingaman there has come one daughter, Helen Kemper, born May 31, 1913.

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN BEIIIMER. Among the sucecssful financiers of Cimarron County of the younger generation there is probably no one more perfectly in sympathy with that public spirit which has contributed to the progress of the growing communities than Benjamin Franklin Bchimer, cashier of the Cimarron County Bank, of Kenton. Persevering and energetic in whatever direc- tion his efforts have been turned, he has won a sub- stantial place in banking circles, and as president of the Kenton Commercial Club is a leading factor in the activities which are adding to the prestige and importance of his adopted place.

Mr. Behimer was born April 18, 1886, on a farm in Sumner County, Kansas, and is a sou of Michael J. and Saralı (Peterson) Behimer, and a grandson of Michael and Elizabeth (Oxley) Behimer, natives of Ohio. His father was born October 13, 1860, at Ciu- cinnati, Ohio, and has been a farmer and stock raiser all of his life, being at present a resident of Ellis, Illinois. He was married January 22, 1883, at Blue Grass, Illinois, to Miss Sarah Peterson, a daughter of Benjamin and Lydia F. (Pilkington) Peterson, natives of the Sucker State. Four sons and two daughters have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Behimer, namely: Jessie Pearl, born October 29, 1884, in Vermilion County, Illinois, married February 20, 1906, Frank M. Brennan, a merchant at Ellis, Illinois, and has two children,-Sarah Irene and Mildred; Benjamin Franklin, of this review; Charles, born September 20, 1888, now a live stock farmer at Clarence, Illinois, married September 29, 1912, Miss Katherine Philabaum; Arthur, born April 13, 1891, asso- ciated with his brother, Benjamin F., in the manage -. ment of a cattle ranch in Union County, New Mexico, married in 1913, Miss Irene Brennan; Robert Leo, born August 18, 1898; and Edith Lillian, born February 28, 1901.

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HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA

Benjamin Franklin Behimer was two years of age when taken by his parents from Kansas to Illinois, and there his education was secured in the public schools of that state. He was further prepared by a business course in the Gem City Business College, at Quincy, Illinois, graduating with high honors, and iu 1907 received his introduction to the banking business, the same year, when he entered the Potomac National Bank, at Potomac, Illinois, in the capacity of bookkeeper. In 1908 he came to Oklahoma, locating at Blackwell, where he had charge of a set of books in the State National Bank, now the State Guaranty Bank, of that place. In February of 1909 he was offered a position as bookkeeper with the First National Bank of Clayton, New Mexico, and believing he would have a fine opportunity for advance- ment he accepted the same and has since been associated with the people who own that bank. In January, 1911, Mr. Behimer, who by this time had a good grasp on the details of banking, was elected assistant cashier of the Cimarron County Bank, of Kenton, and October 5, 1912, was advanced to cashier of this institution, a position which he has since retained. This banking house, one of the most substantial in Cimarron Couuty, was estab- lished in May, 1908, by H. J. Hammond, of Clayton, New Mexico, who continues as its president, he being also president of the First National Bank of Clayton, New Mexico, the pioneer financial iustitution of Union County, New Mexico, as the Cimarron County Bank is also the first banking concern of Cimarron County. In addition to discharging the duties of his official position in an entirely capable manner, Mr. Behimer has other interests, chief among which is his cattle ranch, twelve miles west of Keutou, which he operates in partnership with his brother, Arthur. He is president of the Kenton Commercial Club, a director of the Western Oklahoma Bankers' Association, and a member of the board of education. He is what is known in business circles as a, "live wire," being a stirring, energetic factor in every movement launched which promises to benefit Kenton's civic, business, edu- cational or financial interests. He is a Mason and an Odd Fellow and has numerous warm friends in fraternal circles.

On September 19, 1909, at Potomac, Illinois, Mr. Behimer was united in marriage with Miss Flossie Olive Coon, who was born April 27, 1890, a daughter of John and Elizabeth (Swisher) Coon, natives of Vermilion County. They have two children: Elsie Charlotte, born January 22, 1912; and Melvin John, born June 16, 1915, both at Kenton, Oklahoma. Mr. and Mrs. Behimer are consisteut members of the United Brethren Church.

HIRAM GILL CAMPBELL, M. D. When Doctor Campbell located at Asher on January 31, 1907, he was prepared by an unusual course of training and by thorough experi- ence to furnish a splendid service as physician and surgeon. That service has been performed in subsequent years, and his practice now covers a large scope of coun- try around Asher, where his abilities are ranked the very highest. Doctor Campbell is a man who has made the best use of his opportunities in life, and his position and prosperity are only the just reward of what he has done for his fellow men.

The family whose name he bears came from Scotland to America during the colonial era. Doctor Campbell himself was born in Sharp County, Arkansas, June 24, 1872. His father was Rev. John William Campbell, a minister of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. He was born in Kentucky in 1840, and died in Sharp County, Arkansas, in 1880. His early years were spent in Ken- tucky, where he married, and in 1869 he settled in Sharp County, Arkansas. He was a democrat in politics, a

member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. Rev. Mr. Campbell married Miss Charlene K. Davies, who was born in Kentucky in 1844 and died at Newport, Arkansas, iu 1909. In 1874 the family removed to Izard County, Arkansas, but lived there only a short time before they returned to Sharp County, where Rev. Mr. Campbell died. The widowed mother then took her family back to Izard County and located there at La Crosse. Doctor Camp- bell has an older brother, Silas, who is an attorney at Newport, Arkansas, and a graduate from the Arkansas College at Batesville, read law under Judge Fulkerson and was admitted to the bar in 1894. There were two other children who died in infancy.

Doctor Campbell spent most of his boyhood in La Crosse, Arkansas, where he attended La Crosse College. In 1895 he graduated A. B. from the Arkansas College at Batesville and the following year moved to Newport. He was a teacher in the public schools of that town for four years. In 1899 he entered the medical department of the University at Nashville, Tennessee, and remained there until graduating M. D. in 1903. For about a year he was an interne in the Nashville City Hospital. He began practice in 1904 at Newport, remained there a year, and during the months of January aud February in 1905 took post-graduate work in the New York Poly- clinic. For two years beginning in March, 1905, he was in partnership with Doctors Kennerly aud Dorr at Bates- ville. That was the experience which preceded his entrance into Oklahoma as a competent and highly successful physician at Asher. His offices are on Main Street in that town, and he has a general practice both in medicine and in surgery.

In politics he is a democrat and since coming to Asher has served on the town council and the school board. He is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, belongs to the County and State Medical societies and the American Medical Association, having served as vice president of the County Society. Fraternally he is affili- ated with Asher Lodge No. 238, Ancient Free and Ac- cepted Masons.

On April 20, 1907, in Batesville, Arkansas, Doctor Campbell married Miss Pearl Reeder. She was born in Virginia, and finished her education in the Elizabeth Aull Seminary, at Lexington, Missouri. Her brother is Dr. H. M. Reeder, who is also engaged in the practice of medicine at Asher.

W. LE ROY BONNELL, M. D. Both in the broad fields of civic and social activity as well as iu devotion to the interests of his profession, Doctor Bonnell has had a notable career during his residence in the State of Okla- homa. As a past president and now secretary of the Oklahoma Homeopathic Society it is very probable that Doctor Bonnell is the most prominent homeopathic physi- cian in Oklahoma. He is a man of unusual breadth of interests, and while the medical fraternity knows him on account of his prominence in medical organizations he has also been a citizen of action in his home town of Chickasha, and over the state at large is well known to practically all the members of the Masouic order and of the Court of Honor.

Doctor Bonnell was born at Ashtabula, Ohio, June 6, 1883, a son of William R. and Rosa A. (Booth) Bon- nell. His father has for thirty-eight years been locomo- tive engineer in Ohio in the service of the New York Central lines, and now has a run on the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern. Among the historic railroad acci- dents which are well remembered by the people of the past generation was the destruction of many lives which went down with the passenger train while crossing a bridge at Ashtabula, the foundations of which had been weakened by flood. Just a short time before this acci-

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HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA

dent William R. Bonnell had taken his own traiu across that bridge. Doctor Bonnell is the ouly son in a family of nine children. His seven living sisters are: Mrs. James Wood of Ashtabula; Mrs. Floyd Mack of Lock- port, New York; Mrs. M. B. Walkley of Madisou, Ohio; Mrs. J. C. Bates of Ashtabula; Mrs. Arba Willis, of Geneva, Ohio; Mildred Lucile and Esther Estelle, both of Ashtabula. The Bonnell family traces its aucestry in America back to 1638, when the first settlement was made in New Jersey. Members of the family were in Washington's army during the Revolution, and among them was Capt. John Bonnell. Doctor Bonnell's mother 's parents were early settlers of Ohio, his maternal grand- father being a merchant and steamship owner at Ash- tabula.

At the risk of some repetition there should be quoted a brief pen sketch of Doctor Bonnell by Judge Eugene Hamilton, which iu a few senteuces indicate how vigor- ously he strove when a young man to gain his station in a learned profession. Judge Hamilton says: "While only a freshman high school student, he worked his own way through high school, buying his own books and clothes. While yet a school boy with very limited means, and knowing his two hands as his ouly support, he decided on a profession. With a small purse of sixty- five dollars and a barrel of determination and cleau char- acter he entered college to become a doctor. Working night and day for four years and also meeting obliga- tions amounting to over twenty-seven hundred dollars would make another interesting article. In June, 1907, he graduated from Cleveland Medical College with honor. His first physician's shingle was hung out at Chickasha, Oklahoma. By his pleasing personality and ability his success was assured from the start."

In addition to the above it should be noted that after graduating from the Ashtabula High School he entered the employ of an oil and gas corporation, and was ad- vancing rapidly in the line of promotions, when he determined to study medicine. It was without financial assistance from any source that he set out to work his way through college. In high school he had taken a combination of courses with the study of medicine in view, and therefore was well advanced when in 1903 he entered the Cleveland Homeopathic Medical College, which later became the medical department of the Uni- versity of Ohio. Until his graduation in 1907 he labored incessantly, meeting the many expenses of his college education. His broader success as a physician is well attested by the fact that during the administrations of both Governor Lee Cruce and Governor Robert L. Williams he has been a member of the State Board of Medical Examiners, and is now vice president of board of examiners. Another distinction is that he was chair- man for Oklahoma of the American Institute of Home- opathy for four years. Other honors already mentioned are those pertaining to his official connection with the Oklahoma Homeopathic Society.

Dr. Bonnell was married May 17, 1913, to Miss Clara Alice Witt of Taos, New Mexico, who was for five years a student in the Oklahoma College for Women in Chick- asha.

Dr. Bonnell has been a member of the Methodist Church for twenty-four years. He is an active member of the Grady County Farm Bureau and the Chickasha Chamber of Commerce, and has taken a lively interest in the upbuilding of his town. Partially through his efforts is due the establishment in Chickasha of the Oklahoma College for Women. He is a member of the Phi Epsilon Rho medical college fraternity, is a member of the National Geographic Society, and is vice president and director of the Harden-Roche Mortgage Company of

Chickasha, which is the largest loan and mortgage com- pany in that part of Oklahoma.

His Masonic connections are of special note. Ho belongs to the Blue Lodge at Chickasha, the Scottish Rite Consistory at Guthrie and to India Temple of the Mystic Shrine at Oklahoma City. He is a charter mem- ber of the National Masonic Rescarch Society. Other affiliations are with the Independent Order of Odd Fel- lows and the Knights of Pythias lodges at Chickasha. For the last six years Dr. Bonnell has acted in the capacity of state chancellor of the Court of Honor, and in that office has the general supervision over all lodges in both Oklahoma and Texas. In the Court of Honor he has for eight years been a delegate to the national incet- ings of the order, and has done a great deal to advance its interests and organization in the Southwest.

JOHN S. JENKINS. One of the veteran members of the Oklahoma bar, John S. Jenkins has practiced with distinguished ability since the opening of the original Oklahoma Territory, and with the exception of four years as federal attorney in Indian Territory has had his home at Oklahoma City since the opening of the townsite. Of the older residents of the state, none rep- resent a better stock of the old Virginia and Kentucky families, and his own career has honorably maintained the traditions and high standards of his forbears.

John S. Jenkins was born in Monroe County, Ken- tucky, February 22, 1851. He grew up on a farm, and as a boy came to appreciate the social and political confusion of the Civil war period. His education was acquired in the Kentucky common school, at the Con- cord Seminary in Tennessee and the college at New Middleton, Tennessee. He began reading law in his native state and finished his studies in Columbian Uni- versity at Washington, where he had the exceptional advantages offered by residence in the nation's capital. After his admission to the bar in 1876 at Glasgow, Kentucky, and a brief practice at Tompkinsville in his home state, he moved to Texas and for fourteen years enjoyed a substantial position in the bar of Mckinney.

At the opening of Oklahoma in 1889, Mr. Jenkins became a charter member of the bar iu Oklahoma City. Iu 1890 he accepted an appointment from President Harrison as assistant United States attorney of Indian Territory, with headquarters at Ardmore, and served four years in that office. In 1894 he returned to Okla- homa City, and has since practiced in all the courts of the territory and state. His experience as a lawyer has brought him in close contact with the people of Okla- homa throughout the interesting epochs covering the development of the state, and he ranks as one of the ablest as well as oldest lawyers. He is prominent in the Order of Odd Fellows, being past grand of Okla- homa Lodge No. 8, and a member of Oklahoma Encamp- ment No. 4, I. O. O. F. His church is the Christian.

Mr. Jenkins is descended from a Welsh family that established a home in Bedford County, Virginia, in 1754, twenty years before the beginning of the Revolution. Later, in 1798, they joined the tide of emigration pass- ing out of Virginia to the West and his great-grand- father, Jerry Jenkins, brought military land scrip which was located in Kentucky. Grandfather Samuel Jenkins served as a soldier with the rank of captain in both the War of 1812 and the Blackhawk war of the early thirties.

Samuel M. Jenkins, father of the Oklahoma lawyer, was a native of Kentucky and a prosperous farmer. He followed in politics the fortunes of the great whig, Henry Clay, and during the war upheld the Union cause, though too old then for active service. His home was in a section of country peculiarly exposed to

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HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA

the troubles of private and public faction, where fami- lies were often divided in allegiance between North and South, and both he and his children suffered many of the unpleasant features of regular and irregular war- fare. After the war he was a republican. His death occurred in 1900 in his eighty-sixth year.

Samuel M. Jenkins married Margaret Bush, a native of Kentucky, who died in 1886 in her seventy-sixth year. The Bush family came into Kentucky with the parents of Abraham Lincoln, and her grandfather's sister, Sallie Bush, was, as history tells, the step-mother of the martyr president.

John S. Jenkins in 1876 married Miss Helen Beall, a daughter of E. Beall, of Monroe County, Kentucky. Her family were of the large planter and slave-holding aristocracy of Kentucky, but her father was a Union man during the war. Mrs. Jenkins died in 1896, leav- ing a son, Albert E. Jenkins, now a successful lawyer at San Francisco.

In 1900 Mr. Jenkins married Miss Maude Whiteside, of Belleville, Illinois, and they have a son, John T. Jenkins, attending school in Oklahoma City. By his second wife Mr. Jenkins becomes connected with some of the historic names of New England. Mrs. Jenkins's father was Thomas A. Whiteside, a veteran Union soldier and a pioncer at Belleville, Illinois. On her mother's side she is a great-great-granddaughter of Matthew Lyon, of Vermont, who was one of the companions, and also a brother-in-law of Ethan Allen in his noted ex- ploits during the Revolutionary war. Afterwards Mat- thew Lyon became prominent and made a name in his- tory during the formative period of the American nation. He served as a member of an early Congress, and after becoming a resident of Kentucky and repre- senting that state in the National House of Representa- tives had the distinction of casting the decisive vote which made Thomas Jefferson president and defeated Aaron Burr.

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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