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 114

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 114

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Mr. Jenkins has his office at 11312 West Main Street, and his home at 128 East Second Street in Oklahoma City.

ANDREW MONROE BEETS. One of the leading members of the Washita County bar is Andrew Monroe Beets, who since 1908 has been engaged in practice at Cordell, He was born at Edgar Springs, Missouri, October 1, 1881, and is a son of J. E. and Mattie (Lamar) Beets. The Beets family originated in Holland and came to America during colouial days, settling in North Carolina, where the grandfather of Andrew M. Beets was born in 1832. From North Carolina he moved to Tennessee, residing at Knoxville until 1879, in which year he drove through with an ox-wagon to Edgar Springs, Missouri, where he became a pioneer farmer and stockman. In 1898 he retired from active pursuits and took up his residence at Vinita, Okla- homa, where he met his death two years later when his house was destroyed by fire. He married Miss White, who was born in 1835, and who still survives him and lives at Edgar Springs, Missouri.

J. E. Beets was born at Knoxville, Tennessee, in 1857, and in 1878 moved to Texas, but in the following year moved to Edgar Springs, where he was married to Mattie Lamar, who had been born there in 1864. He engaged in farming and raising stock, but in 1890 went to Wheat- land, Hickory County, Missouri, where he still resides, being a well known and successful breeder of blooded stock, both horses and mules. He is prominent and in- fluential in civic affairs, taking an active interest in the success of the republican party. His religious support is given to the Methodist Episcopal Church, and fraternally he is affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fel-

lows. Mr. and Mrs. Beets were the parents of the fol- lowing children: Andrew Monroe; Edmonia, who died in infancy; Oliver, a druggist of Redlands, California; Luella, who is a teacher of expression in the Oklahoma schools; Clyde, living with his parents, who served a full term of enlistment in the United States army, being stationed along the Mexican border; Bertha, who is a teacher in the schools of Wheatland, Missouri; Ola, who is a senior in the Wheatland High School; and Edgar, who is a freshman at that institution.

Andrew Monroe Beets received the advantages of the public schools of Wheatland, Missouri, from 1890 until 1896, when his parents returned to Edgar Springs, and there he completed a high school course. He began in 1898 and for three years was engaged in teaching school as principle of the Yancy Mills school for three years. In 1901 he entered upon the study of law in the office of Robert Lamar, of Houston, Missouri, who was subse- quently clected to Congress. In the meantime, in 1902, he had been admitted to the bar and had commenced · practice at Houston, but in the fall of 1903 removed to the City of St. Louis, where he remained until May, 1906. Mr. Beets' next field of practice was Foss, Oklahoma, and in October, 1908, he came to Cordell to engage in prae- tice in the county seat of Washita County, where he occu- pies well-appointed offices in the State National Bank Building. His practice is general in its character, and Mr. Beets has been connected with a number of the lead- ing cases tried in Washita County since his arrival. He. is admitted to practice in all the courts, has a large aud representative clientele, and has made steady advance- ment in the confidence of his fellow-practitioners, as wit- nessed by his position as secretary of the Washita County Bar Association. He also belongs to the Oklahoma Bar Association, He has been a member of the Cordell Commercial Club since the time of its organization, and during six years of this time has been a member of its executive committee. Every progressive and beneficial movement has received his hearty support. He was the originator of the movement which resulted in the secur- ing of a Carnegie Library for Cordell, in 1912, at a cost of $9,000, and since its inception has been vice president of the board, In politics a democrat, Mr. Beets served Cordell as city attorney from 1909 until 1911 and ren- dered excellent service to the city of his adoption in that capacity. Fraternally, he is affiliated with Cordell Lodge No. 127, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. With his family, he belongs to the Methodist Episcopal Church.

While a resident of Dixon, Missouri, Mr. Beets was married to Miss Nora Bysart, daughter of R. M. Bysart, a well known farmer of Canute, Oklahoma, and to this union there have been born three children: Dorothy, Walter and Helen, all of whom are attending school.

HON. PETER PARNELL DUFFY. Head of the commission government of El Reno, an editor, and a writer of force- ful and incisive prose and verse, Peter Parnell Duffy has been a well known citizen in Oklahoma for nearly fifteen years, and a high estimate must be placed upon his influence and work both as a journalist and as a public leader.

Peter Parnell Duffy was born August 31, 1873, at Louisville, Kentucky, during a brief residence of his parents in that city. His father, Bernard P. Duffy, born in Ireland, came to the United States when about fifteen years of age. The grandparents first settled in Louisiana. Bernard P. Duffy subsequently entered the law and was admitted to practice before the Illinois Supreme Court at Springfield. He began his practice in St. Louis, Mis- souri, later practiced for a short time in Louisville,

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HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA

Kentucky, and then removed to Maryville, Missouri, where he was a prominent lawyer for eighteen years. While in Maryville he also became identified with newspaper work as editor of a weekly paper. Leaving Missouri he established a home in Columbus, Nebraska, and in that city was associated with his son, Peter Parnell, in pub- lishing the Platte County Democrat. Bernard P. Duffy married Mary Frazier, a native of Scotland. They were married in St. Louis.

Peter Paruell Duffy acquired his early education in the schools of Maryville, Missouri, aud in Nebraska, aud in that unrivaled training school, a newspaper and priut- ing office. In 1901 he was graduated from Nebraska Uni- versity, and soon afterwards came to Oklahoma, with the intention of starting up an office for the practice of law. However, his plans were diverted and for the first four years he was a traveling insurance agent with home in El Reno. Mr. Duffy has never for' any great length of time been able to get away from the influences of journalism, with which he was surrounded as a youth. His strongest inclination has been toward news- paper work. Some years ago in compauy with J. W. and T. W. Maher, he bought the El Reno Daily Demo- crat, and for eight years the firm conducted this as one of the influential daily papers of Oklahoma. During that time Mr. Duffy had also served for four years, 'during legislative sessions, as private secretary to Lieutenant Governor George W. Bellamy.

Throughout his residence in El Reno Mr. Duffy 's qualities as a civic leader have been recognized and appre- ciated, and in 1911, when the commission charter first went into effect he was the choice of the people for the first commissioner of public affairs. This position made him executive head of one of the departments into which the government of El Reno was divided by the new charter, and by virtue of that position he is also ex-officio mayor of the city. Mr. Duffy was elected for one year under the terms of the charter, and in 1912 was re-elected for three years, and again re-elected in April, 1915, mak- ing seven years in all when his term expires in 1918. Politically Mr. Duffy is a democrat of the progressive type. He is affiliated with the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks.

In 1913 he married Miss Olivette, daughter of Dr. J. A. Hatchett of El Reno. Aside from his work on his own paper Mr. Duffy has coutributed much special cor- respondence to Oklahoma papers and to journals in other states. He is a keen student and observer of political and social affairs, and has written many illuminating articles for the public press. To a widening circle of readers he is becoming more and more appreciated as a facile writer of charming verse, and many of his poems have attracted as much attention as his articles on politics and general affairs.

DAVID F. CRIST. President of the First National Bank at McLoud, David F. Crist is a young banker whose talents and capacity for that line of business has brought him rapidly into prominence, and his friends and asso- ciates predict for liim, now only a little past thirty-five years of age, a very high place in Oklahoma financial affairs.

He comes of what might be called the landed aris- tocracy of the Middle West. His people have been sub- stantial farmers, and his grandfather, David Crist, at one time owned 200 acres of black prairie land where the little City of Roodhouse, Illinois, now stands. He was one of the pioneers in that section of Illinois. David F. Crist, the Oklahoma banker, was born at Rood- house, Illinois, January 19, 1880. His father, C. J. Crist, was born in the same place in 1845, and still lives there

at the age of seventy. In fact, that section of Illinois has been his home all his career, except from 1903 to 1911, years which he spent in Pottawatomie County, Oklahoma. His business has been that of farmer and stock raiser. He married Eliza Jane Wales, who was born in Pennsylvania. Of their six children David F. is the youngest, and the other five are briefly mentioned as follows: Louisa, whose first husband was William F. Wyatt, who was first a school teacher and later an attor- ney, and who is now the wife of Frank C. Crizier, a carpenter and builder, their home being in Roswell, New Mexico; Charles H., a farmer at Churchill, Idaho; Car- rie, wife of J. H. Harp, a farmer at Roodhouse, Illinois; Mary, wife of E. V. Rawlins, a physician and surgeon at Marshfield, Missouri; and Fannie, wife of F. E. Rawlins, a farmer at Roodhouse, Illinois.

David F. Crist grew up on his father's farm near Roodhouse, spent the first nineteen years of his life in the wholesome atmosphere of an Illinois rural district. He attended the country schools and also the Roodhouse High School, and in 1900 graduated from Brown's Business College at Jacksonville, Illinois. Mr. Crist is not only a banker but a practical farmer as well. After leaving business college he was employed on a farm near his native town for a year and then became a book- keeper in the People's Bank at Roodhouse. For a year and a half he was in the same employment with the Roodhouse Bank. In April, 1904, he came to McLoud, Oklahoma, and assisted in clearing up and developing his father's farm two miles north of that town until 1907. He then entered the Shawnee National Bank, but in 1908 returned to the farm, and during 1909 he was engaged in farming for about a year in Idaho. Returning to Oklahoma in 1910, Mr. Crist soon became identified with the Canadian Valley Bank at Asher. From bookkeeper he was promoted to cashier, and from that to the office of president. Mr. Crist is still president of the Asher Bank, and on November 8, 1915, became president of the First National Bank of McLoud. His home is now in McLoud. The other officers of this bank are John W. Jones of Shawnee, vice president, and W. H. Hollis, cashier. The First National has a capital of $25,000, surplus of $5,000, and the bank building is situated on Main Street.

In politics Mr. Crist is a democrat, and is affiliated with Asher Lodge No. 238, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, and is a member of the Oklahoma Banker's Association, At Oklahoma City, in December, 1909, he married Miss Myrtle Welchon, whose father, J. W. Welchon, lives on his farm north of McLoud. Two children were born into their home, D. Frank, born September 25, 1910, and Wayne Gordon, born December 6, 1912.

MILO F. GRAHAM. The Citizens National Bank of Okmulgee represents not only large financial resources but also some of the best business and financial talent of that city in its officers and dircctors. The principal officers of the bank are: D. M. Smith, president; M. F. Graham, vice president; R. deSteiguer, vice president ; Crittenden Smith, cashier. Other directors are Ed Hart, J. L. Fuqua, L. W. Duncan, H. C. Beckman and Bluford W. Miller. The Citizens National is capitalized at $100,000 and at the close of the year 1915, had a surplus of $20,000. Its total resources aggregate over $900,000 and according to a recent statement the deposits totaled nearly $750,000.

The vice president of this bank, M. F. Graham, has been a resident of Okmulgce a number of years, and throughout that time has been identified with its banks, and came to Oklahoma with considerable banking ex-

di G

inville ,

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HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA

perience gained while a resident of his native State of Missouri. He was boru at Millville, Missouri, July 14, 1875, a son of Fletcher J. and Elizabeth A. (Fowler) Graham.

His father was born in Carroll County, Missouri, in 1838, and his mother in Ray County of that state in 1840. She is now living at Richmond, Missouri, while the father died there in 1913. At the outset of his career Fletcher Graham was a country merchant at Millville, Missouri, until his store was destroyed by the northern bush- whackers. He then joined General Price's army and was wounded in the critical Battle of Pea Ridge. He was shot through the head and in the hip, and lay an entire day on the battlefield without attention, being given up for dead by his comrades. As a result of the wound he lost his left eye. After getting his honorable discharge from the Confederate armny he again resumed merchau- dising at Millville, and continued to sell goods in this locality for fifteen or twenty years. At the same time he conducted a large farm and stock ranch. He became a director and one of the organizers of the Exchange Bauk of Richmond, one of the old established institutions of that city. He moved his family and home to Rich- mond about 1885, and lived there until his death. In his later years he was still active iu business, and gave prac- tically all his attention to the management of his farm and stoek. He was a democrat in politics, and was a deacon in the Christian Church at Richmond at the time of his death. He was a Knight Templar Mason and a man whose influence counted for a great deal in the building of the community. There were five children : Frank Ely, who is unmarried and lives at Richmond with her mother; Forest M., who conducts the old homestead in Missouri; Mary William, wife of J. E. Hill, now deputy county clerk of Ray County, Missouri; M. F. Graham; and Fletcher, who died when four years of age. The mother of this family was one of seven girls who were taken prisoners by Federal soldiers in 1863 charged with making underwear for the southern soldiers. She was held in a prison of war in Iowa for a year before being released and was well treated while thus a prisoner.

M. F. Graham had his home on the farm and in Rich- mond with his parents until he had finished high school in 1898. He spent three years in the State University at Columbia, takiug a literary course, and while there became a member of the Phi Delta Theta fraternity. After one year of farm work he became assistant cashier of the Ray County Savings Bank at Richmond, and it was after two years of experience with that institution that he looked for a newer and broader field in old Indian Territory.

On coming to Okmulgee Mr. Graham became book- keeper in the Citizens National Bank, but after two years was elected cashier, and two years later became vice president, his preseut post. Throughout this period he has been actively associated with his fellow officers and directors and has done much to make the bank what it is today. In the meantime he has acquired some inter- ests in the oil fields of his home county and has some good property elsewhere. Besides good farm lands he is associated with John Cain in the ownership and opera- tion of a grazing ranch in Pittsburg County containing 2,500 acres of rough land, suitable to pasturing.

Both in Missouri and after coming to Oklahoma Mr. Graham has taken an active part in local and county politics. He is a democrat and a deacon in the Christian Church at Okmulgee.

ROBERT N. LINVILLE. Elk City, the thriving me- tropolis and commercial center of Beckham County, has not failed to draw to itself a due complement of able and successful representatives of the legal pro-

fession, and prominent among the number is Mr. Lin- ville, who has here been engaged in active general practice since the autumn of 1911, and who has made a most admirable record in both the eivil and crim- inal departments of practice. He has appeared in connection with much of the important litigation in the courts of Beckham County and has won forensic victories that fully attest his broad aud accurate knowledge of the science of jurisprudence and his close and effective application to his chosen vocation, prior to enteriug which he had achieved marked suc- cess in the pedagogic profession. As one of the lead- ing members of the bar. of this section of Oklahoma and as one of the broad-gauged and progressive citizens of Beckham County, he is entitled to special recognition in this publication.

Robert Neely Linville claims the old Keystoue state as the place of. his nativity and is a scion of a family that was founded in that historic commonwealth in the early colonial era, his paternal ancestors having been members of the colony that was organized in England by William Penn and that came to represent the first definite settlement in Pennsylvania. On his father's farm, near the little hamlet of Georgetown, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, Mr. Linville was born, December 7, 1869, a son of Benjamin J. and Rachel Rebecca (Gra- ham) Linville, both natives of Chester County, that state, where the former was born on the 24th of May, 1833, and the latter in the year 1831. After his marriage Benjamin J. Linville removed to the farm near Georgetown, Lan- caster County, Pennsylvania, where he remained until 1870, when he emigrated to Westmoreland County, Kansas, but in the following year he removed with his family to Illinois, and settled in Mason County, where he continued to be engaged in agricultural pursuits nn- til 1887, when he established his residence on a farm in Adair County, Missouri. There he continued his ac- tivities as a farmer and stock-grower for about a decade, his wife having been summoned to the life eternal in the year 1897, soon after which deep bereavement he removed to the City of Des Moines, Iowa, where he continued to reside until April, 1915, since which time he has been living in the home of his son, Robert N., of this review, he having attained to the age of more than eighty years, and finding the gracious evening of his life compassed by filial solicitude and the well earned repose that should rightly crown the former years of his earnest toil and endeavor. Of the children the eldest is Highram F., who is a successful con- tractor and builder at Pawhuska, Oklahoma, and who is concerned also with the oil industry in that section . of the state; Mary is the wife of David Berrier, a prominent contractor in the City of Des Moines, Iowa; Benjamin J., Jr., is a progressive farmer in Mahaska County, Iowa; Isaac G. is engaged in the hardware busi- ness at Maroa, Macon County, Illinois; Rosa, who died in 1909, was the wife of John Brown, an architect re- siding in Vinton, Iowa; Robert N., of this sketch, was the next in order of birth and is the youngest of the children.

He whose name initiates this article was reared to the sturdy discipline of the farm and acquired his carly education in the public schools of Mason and Logan counties, Illinois, where the family home was established in the second year following that of his birth. He continued to be associated with the work and management of his father's farm after the re- moval to Missouri until January, 1892, when he entered the North Missouri State Normal School, at Kirksville, in which institution, after intervals devoted to teaching, he was graduated in the spring of 1898, with the degreo of Bachelor of Scientific Didactics. During the school

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HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA

years 1895-6 and 1896-7 he had held the position of superintendent of the public schools at Sumner, Missouri, and in 1898-9, after his graduation, he was super- intendent of schools at Fairfax, that state. In 1899- 1900 he devoted the school year to the pursuing of higher academic studies in the Christian University at Canton, Missouri, and during the summer and autumn of 1900 he did effective post-graduate work in Drake University, at Des Moines, Iowa, where he later con- tinued his studies until his graduation, in June, 1902, in its College of Liberal Arts, from which he received the degree of Bachelor of Arts. He was soon after- ward elected to the chair of political science in the Southwestern State Normal University at Weatherford, Oklahoma Territory, and he continued the able and popular incumbent of this position until July, 1908, in the meanwhile having become one of the prominent and influential figures in the educational circles of the terri- tory, which was admitted to statehood while he was still a member of the faculty of the institution men- tioned. In the spring of 1905 Mr. Linville received from his alma mater, the Missouri State Normal School at Kirksville, the honorary degree of Master of Peda- gogy, and later he received from Drake University the degree of Master of Arts.

Having determined to prepare himself for the legal profession, Mr. Linville had, with characteristic zeal and energy, prosecuted the study of law while engaged in teaching and attending school, and in the winter of 1908-9 he rounded out his technical discipline by at- tending the law department of the University of Kansas, with the result that, in the spring of 1910, he proved himself eligible for and was admitted to the bar of the State of Oklahoma. Thereafter he was associated with Thomas W. Jones, Jr., in the practice of law at Weatherford, until October 1, 1911, when he estab- lished his residence at Elk City. Here he has built up and controls a substantial and important law business, the scope and character of which virtually cause his practice to engross his entire time and attention, the while his success has been in consonance with his as- siduous application and recognized ability as a lawyer of high scholastic and professional attainments, his well appointed offices being in the State Exchange Bank Building. Having achieved appreciable financial suc- cess entirely through his own efforts, Mr. Linville has made judicious real estate investments. Besides his resi- dence in Elk City he owns other property, real and per- sonal, in Western Oklahoma, New Mexico and Montana.

In politics Mr. Linville maintains an independent attitude, with well fortified convictions touching mat- ters of economic and governmental polity. He and his wife hold membership in the Christian Church in their home eity, and here his Masonic affiliations are with Elk City Lodge No. 182, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons; Elk City Chapter No. 50, Royal Arch Masons, and Elk City Commandery No. 15, Knights Templar. While a resident of Weatherford he likewise was active and in- fluential in Masonic affairs, as indicated by the fact that he is a past master of the lodge and a past high priest of the chapter at that place.

At Sumner, Missouri, on the 16th of August, 1899, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Linville to Miss Muriel Brown, whose father, A. B. Brown, is now one of the representative farmers of Beckham County, Okla- homa, where he and his wife maintain their home at Elk City. Mr. and Mrs. Linville have one child, Robert Neely, Jr., who was born June 7, 1910.

JOHN W. BREMER is director of music in the South- western State Normal School, Weatherford, Oklahoma. To one who is in any way conversant with the train- ing and experience of Professor Bremer in his profession,

the above statement tells much of the completeness and efficiency of the music department of that institution, for Professor Bremer came to

his duties here splendidly equipped, both in talent and in training, for the duties of his office. Professor Bremer was born in Essen, Germany, in the Rhine Province, on November 25, 1874, and he is the son of William and Gertrude (Ferl- mann) Bremer, both German born. The father was a native of the Rhine Province, born there in 1837, and he died in Essen, Germany, in 1896. The mother was born in Westphalia, Germany, in 1841, and her death occurred at the family home in Essen in 1892. William Bremer was for years the superintendent of a force of several hundred men in one of the large smelting mills in his province, and was a man of prominence in his field of activities. He was liberal in politics, and he served in the wars of 1864, 1866 and in the War of 1870-71, re- ceiving the Iron Cross in recognition of bravery in action during the latter war. He was the father of two children, Joseph H., who died in 1901, in LaGrange, Indiana, at the age of thirty-three years, and who had come to America in 1891; and John W. of this review.

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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