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 115

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 115

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John W. Bremer received excellent educational advan- tages in Germany. When he had completed a course at the Pedagogieal Seminary, Odenkirchen, he entered the Music Conservatory of Cologne and studied there until 1895. He had decided ere that time that his profession should be music, and after his graduation from Cologne he engaged in private work in his profession at Duis- burg, Germany, until 1897. In that year he came to LaGrange, Indiana, to which place his brother had pre- ceded him, and he was a teacher of music there for six years, meeting with an appreciable degree of success in the work. In 1903 Professor Bremer went to Goshen, Indiana, continuing there in his chosen work until Feb- ruary, 1908, when he was called to Weatherford to fill his present position as director of music of the South- western State Normal School.

Professor Bremer is a democrat. His fraternal affilia- tions are confined to Goshen Lodge Ancient Free and Accepted Masons. He was married in Elkhart, Indiana, in 1905, to Miss Alma Oberholtzer, daughter of Jacob Oberholtzer, now deceased. Three children have been born to them, John Victor, born July 31, 1906; Joseph Jacob, born February 14, 1909, and Gertrude Clara, born March 8, 1911.

JAMES T. RILEY, M. D., has successfully practiced medicine at El Reno since the fall of 1908. He came to this state with unusual equipment and training, and his successful practice and standing merely represent the accumulated resources of his natural ability and thorough education. Doctor Riley is a graduate of the Union University at Albany, New York, with the degree M. D. in 1907. He had previously spent two years in the medical department of the University of Buffalo, where he served as an interne in the Sisters of, Charity Hospital one year and then followed with two years at Albany. After passing a successful examination before the New York State Medieal Board he was licensed to practice in that state, and in 1908 eame to Oklahoma, and after examination was similarly licensed. In the fall of 1908 he located at El Reno and has built up a profitable general practice. He is anesthesian at the El Reno Sanitarium, and lecturer to the Training School for Nurses, on the subject of materia medica and fever nursing. Doctor Riley is a member of the Canadian County and the Oklahoma Medical societies and the American Medical Association.

Doctor Riley acquired the means for his medical edu- cation by teaching in the public schools of New York State five years. His literary education was obtained

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HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA

in an academy at Mexico, Oswego County, New York, at which place he was born February 11, 1880, son of Terence Riley, a native of Ireland, and Margaret (Driscoll) Riley, a native of New York State. In 1909 Doctor Riley married Miss Frances E. Burrows of Okla- homa City. In religion he is a Catholic and has affilia- tions with the Knights of Columbus.

JOHN H. ROYSTER, M. D. By reason of more than fifteen years of practice as a physician and surgeon in the Wanette community, Doctor Royster is entitled to such distinction as belongs to a pioneer. He has been devoted to his calling in season and ont, and attended his patients in days when the difficulties of medical practice required extraordinary energy and endurance. Perhaps few professional men have prospered and have exercised better business judgment in connection with their vocation than Doctor Royster. He has been one of the real builders of his home town and has extensive possessions both there and in other parts of the state. This is the more creditable for the fact that when he began practice he was possessed of hardly enough money to pay a month's expenses, and he paid his own way through medical school.

Though Doctor Royster came into Oklahoma from Southern Kansas, he was born in Henderson Connty, Kentucky, December 14, 1872. His great-grandfather Royster was the first American ancestor, having come from England with two of his brothers and settled in Virginia shortly after the Revolutionary war. His son, William E. Royster, became the grandfather of Doctor Royster. William E. was born in 1816 in Virginia and became a pioneer in Henderson County, Kentucky, where he died in 1903. He was a farmer and stock raiser by calling.

The oldest child of William E. Royster, W. W. Royster, was born in Henderson County, Kentucky, in 1835. In 1873 he moved ont to Chanute, Kansas, and lived there until his death in 1911. He was reared and married in Henderson County, Kentucky, and in that state was a farmer and stockman, but in Kansas his principal busi- ness was as a grain bnyer and he conducted an elevator at Chanute. In politics he was a democrat. W. W. Royster married Sally E. Locke, who died in Chanute, Kansas, at the age of fifty-five. Their children were: Anna, who married W. H. Cady, who is editor and proprietor of a newspaper at Augusta, Kansas; W. E. Royster, who graduated from the Lonisville Medical College and is now a physician and surgeon at Chanute, Kansas; Eliza F., who married Dr. J. B. Edwards, a physician and surgeon at Chanute; and Dr. John H. Thus there are three physicians in the family.

Dr. John H. Royster attended public school at Chanute, graduating from high school with the class of 1890. He then became dependent upon his own earning capacity and paid his way through three conrses in the Louisville Medical College. In the meantime he came to Nebo, Indian Territory, practiced medicine a year there, and since 1898 his home has been at Wanette. In that year he passed the state board examination as an under- graduate, and in 1905 he interrupted his practice to re-enter the Lonisville Medical College for his fourth course, and during the same year received his de- gree of M. D. from that institution. Doctor Royster is a close student of his profession, and in the past ten years has twice left Wanette to pursue post-graduate work, taking a, course in Tulane University at New Orleans in 1907 and another in the New York Post- Graduate School in 1909. His offices are in the Paris and Royster Building on Main Street in Wanette.

In the meantime he has judiciously invested his re- sources as a prosperous physician. He owns 160 acres

of farm land half a mile west of Wanette; eighty acres two miles east of Wanette, and two tracts of eighty acres each seven miles northwest of the town. He and his partner, W. G. Paris, own jointly 415 acres in the Washita Valley, six miles northwest of Pauls Valley. They also own the 2-story building on Main Street in which their offices are located, and they have half interest in a cotton gin in Wanette and own another cotton gin at Asher, Oklahoma. Thus Doctor Royster has made himself a valnable factor in the commercial and indus- trial development of his section of Oklahoma, in addition to the service rendered through his profession.

He is a member of the County and State Medical societies, the American Medical Association, is a stock- holder in the Southwestern Surety Company, and at one time was vice president of the State Bank of Wanette. Fraternally he is identified with Wanette Lodge No. 171, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons; Wanette Lodge No. 166, Independent Order of Odd Fellows; Wanette Lodge of the Woodmen of the World. In the community known as Old Wanette in 1901 Doctor Royster married Miss Mary J. Lareau. She was born in Kansas in 1879. To their union have been born six children: Florence, born in July 1903, and now in the seventh grade of the public schools; Ralph, born in December, 1905, and Cordelia, born in March, 1907, both attending public school; Lila Rene, born in January, 1910; Inez, born in January, 1913; and Roma Lee, born in March, 1915.

CHARLES MCCALLUM, M. D. Representing the first class ability and skill of his profession and enjoying a large general practice, Doctor McCallum is one of the young physicians and surgeons of Western Oklahoma who have quickly taken front rank in their profession. He began practice in this state ten years ago with an ex- cellent equipment, and the test of real practice found him qualified for his important calling among the social pro- fessions. He resides and has his offices at Randlett.

Dr. C. McCallum was born in Dallas County, Texas, December 28, 1875. His grandfather, William McCallum, was a native of Scotland, emigrated from that country to South Carolina, and subsequently became one of the first settlers to locate in the Pleasant Valley community of North Texas, where he pursned his work as a farmer until his death. His wife was a native of Ireland. J. T. McCallum, father of Doctor McCallnm, was born in South Carolina in 1839, went to Texas during his youth, spent many years as a practical farmer and cotton gin operator at Pleasant Valley, but since 1911 has lived retired at Garland. He is a democrat and an elder in the Presby- terian Church. He was married in Texas to Miss Bettie Kelley, a native of that state. Their family of children is as follows: William, who died at Pleasant Valley at the age of twenty-one; Dr. Charles; Ninner, wife of John Pace, a farmer at Garland; Elizabeth, wife of G. U. Jurdan of Pleasant Valley; Maude, wife of Mellard Fluke, a Garland farmer; Mack, a farmer at Pleasant Valley, married Euna Hubble, Pleasant Valley, Texas; Joe, a druggist at Temple, Texas; Gibs, who is employed as a bookkeeper at Garland; Ola and J. T., who live at home with their parents.

In the public schools of Dallas County Doctor McCallum seenred his fundamental training, followed by a three years' course in the Hillsboro Institute at Hillsboro, Texas, and for one year he was in the medical school at Dallas, and in 1904 and 1905 attended the Memphis Hospital and Medical College, where he was graduated in 1905 with the degree M. D. His entire professional career has been spent in Oklahoma, and from 1905 to 1912 he was in practice in Marshall County, Oklahoma. Since 1912 his home has been at Randlett, Oklahoma, where he has built up a promising practice

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HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA

as a physician and surgeon. His offices are on D Street. He is city physician of Randlett, Oklahoma, is a member of the Presbyterian Church, a democrat in politics, and besides his associations with professional bodies is affili- ated with Randlett Lodge No. 374, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, with the Camp of the Woodmen of the World at Randlett, and with the Woodmen Circle at Pleasant Valley, Texas.

At Oakland, Oklahoma, in 1907, Dr. C. McCalluni married Miss Nealey Van Pelt. Her father. G. F. Van Pelt, is a farmer at Royce City, Texas. To their mar- riage were born three children: Ralph 'and Ray, both now in the public schools at Randlett; and Orland.

HARVEY RUSSELL WINN, one of the most capable law- yers practicing at the Oklahoma bar, was born at Ozark, Arkansas, February 16, 1849, and is a son of Robert Minor and Tabitha (Bates) Winn, natives respectively, of Fauquier County, Virginia, and Cane Hill, Arkansas. His grandparents removed from Virginia to Trimble County, Kentucky, in 1819, from which locality Robert Minor Winn migrated to Franklin County, Arkansas, in young manhood, and entered the practice of medicine, later becoming a surgeon in the Confederate army dur- ing the Civil war. Of his family of eight children, Harvey R. was the fourth in order of birth.

Harvey Russell Winn attended the country schools until large enough to enter the Presbyterian Seminary at Clarksville, Arkansas, where he completed the course with the class of 1870. Two years later he began read- ing law, and also engaged in teaching school until 1889, when he was admitted to the bar, and soon thereafter came to Oklahoma City to enter upon the practice of his profession. He made the run with the rush, coming to Oklahoma City from Purcell on the noon train over the Santa Fe Railroad, and staked as his claim the two lots on the corner of Third and Broadway, immediately south of the present Masonic Temple. One of these lots he sold later during a depression to C. F. Colcord, for $500, and the other still later to J. L. Brown for $450.

On his arrival in Oklahoma City, Mr. Winn imme- diately was recognized as one of the aggressive, level- headed, fair-minded men of the new community, and was consulted as a lawyer by the leading men of that day. During the turbulent conflicts between the "sooners"' and the "regulars, "' almost equally matched in numbers, Mr. Winn took the stand that the law against "sooners" was as much to be obeyed as any other law, although it was doubtless an unfair law. He, however, recognized that there were many good men among the "sooners" and counselled fair treat- ment of men on all sides. In the fall of 1889, during the fight between these two factions, then designated as the "Seminoles" and "Kickapoos,"' when the issues reached the point of anarchy; when each side was ejecting members of the other side from lots and burn- ing down each other's houses; after one house had been dragged into Main Street just west of where the Pettee Building stands and burned in broad daylight in open view of thousands of people, it was Mr. Winn who went to Mayor Beale and insisted that the chief executive join him in sending a telegram to Washington asking for the protection of the Federal Government. The telegram was sent to Hon. John H. Rodgers, a member of Congress from Arkansas, and a personal acquaintance of Mr. Winn. Mr. Rodgers acted at once and the Washington authorities issued an order to the army to take charge of the peace in Oklahoma City, and from that day on all the differences between the two factions were adjusted in the courts and order reigned.

While Mr. Winn stood for the enforcement of the "sooner" law and regulation because it was the law of the land, when Senator Plumb of Kansas, introduced a bill to compromise all contests between "sooners" and "regulars" by dividing the land under contest, Mr. Winn was an active factor in prevailing upon congress- men from other states to join Senator Plumb in his move. Through personal letters written to members of Congress in Arkansas, his native state, he secured the support of all the congressmen and both senators of that state for the Plumb bill, which, however, was de- feated because on the eve of its last reading those in Oklahoma City and throughout the state who had won the first decision before the land office for their con- tentions, "Burned up the wires" urging Congress not to interfere. Many who had felt themselves secure and thus stopped the passage of the Plumb bill later were reversed in the higher courts and lost all their land.

From those earliest days in Oklahoma City, Mr. Winn has been regarded as a safe lawyer, a good citizen, and a man of resource to be reckoned with by his opponents. He was admitted to the bar of the Supreme Court of the United States at Washington, D. C., on November 8, 1915, and is now engaged in preparing a case for appeal-Adams against Higgins-in the United States Supreme Court. It is one of the largest title cases ever filed in the Oklahoma courts, the famous John C. Adams case against 643 defendants occupying that part of the city embracing the quarter-section of land upon which the courthouse stands, covering a half mile of West Main Street. This claim of .160 acres was in contest between John C. Adams, Capt. W. L. Couch, Robert W. Higgins, John Dawson and others. Couch and Adams both built on the claim, as did some of the others, and after being hounded and badgered about by soldiers and friends of the others until he was crazed to mad- ness, Adams, in April, 1890, shot and killed Couch. He was arrested and tried for murder twice, finally being sentenced to five years in the penitentiary. Couch being dead and Adams in prison, the land office officials de- cided the contest in favor of Higgins, upon whose entry all the present 643 occupants now hold title.

Mr. Winn, as chief counsel for Adams' guardian and heirs, instituted suit to set aside the Higgins title and to quiet the title in Adams and his heirs. The case is now pending and will doubtless be fought out in all the courts of the state before a final decision is reached. It may last for years. Under the estimate of expert judges of value, this property now in controversy repre- sents over $9,000,000 in land and improvement values.

At Ozark, Arkansas, September 27, 1874, Mr. Winn was married to Miss Mattie J. Stutesman, daughter of Jacob and Eliza (Barnhill) Stutesman. Mr. Stutes- man was a native of Indiana and Mrs. Stutesman of Arkansas. He was a large plantation and slave owner in Arkansas prior to the Civil war, but when that con- flict came on moved to the North with his family. Seven children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Winn, namely: Della, born July 5, 1876; Luke R., born February 10, 1878, engaged as head pressman in a large daily news- paper office at Portland, Oregon; Oula, born July 2, 1881, and now the wife of J. C. Hinds, of El Paso, Texas; Mabel, born June 12, 1883, who met her death by drowning, while with Miss Morris, at Wheeler Park, Oklahoma, May 19, 1907; William Harold, born October 20, 1885, now a lawyer in the office of Ames, Chambers, Lowe & Richardson, of Oklahoma City; Champ, born August 20, 1887, who died at Oklahoma City, August 10, 1889; and Frederick Minor, born May 17, 1892, now with an advertising agency at Oklahoma City. Mrs. Winn is a member of St. Luke's Methodist Episcopal

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Church. The family home is located at No. 629 West Tenth Street, Oklahoma City.

THOMAS HIRAM HUBBARD, postmaster of Cordell and a . resident of the town since 1907, was born in Halifax County, Virginia, the ancestral home of the Hubbard family, on June 30, 1845. He is a son of Dr. H. C. and Ann Maria (Osborne) Hubbard, both now deceased.

Dr. H. C. Hubbard was born, in Halifax County, Vir- ginia, in 1804. In 1850 he left his native county and moved to Cumberland County and in these two counties he spent his entire life, with the exception of a two year period which he passed in Tennessee. He was a graduate of the Cincinnati Medical College, and his life was spent in the practice of medicine and surgery in Virginia. He was a whig in politics, a member of the Baptist Church and a Mason. He died in Cumberland County in 1872. His wife, Ann Maria Osborne, was of Virginia birth and parentage also. She died while on a visit to her old home in Buckingham County, Virginia, though her own home was then maintained in Cumberland County. She died in 1852 and Doctor Hubbard afterward married Sallie Swan, who survived him seven years. By his first mar- riage Doctor Hubbard had four children. John Milton, who died at the age of twenty-one years; William O., a farmer in Buckingham County; Thomas Hiram, the sub- ject of this review; and Henry C., now deceased. By his second marriage Doctor Hubbard had a daughter Rosa, who married a Mr. Garland and is now a widow.

Thomas Hiram Hubbard attended the public schools in Cumberland County, Virginia, and in 1861 he was graduated from the high school of his home town. He promptly enlisted in Company "C," Twenty-first Vir- ginia Regiment of Volunteer Infantry, serving four years in the Confederate army, and seeing a great deal of the hottest fighting of the war during his service. He was wounded at Cedar Mountain, his injuries incapacitating him for duty for several months. He was in the Seven Days Battle around Richmond, at Malvern Hill, Kern- town, Winchester, and many other engagements in which his regiment participated. After he had recovered from injuries received at Cedar Mountain, young Hubbard was transferred to Stuarts Cavalry, Fitzhugh Lee's Division of the Fourth Virginia Cavalry, Company "G," and was inustered out a corporal at Farmsville.

The war over, Mr. Hubbard returned to Cumberland County, there to gather up the broken threads of life, and he farmed under the greatest difficulties until 1871, when he moved to Tallahatchie County, Mississippi, and there farmed for one year. He taught school in Coahoma County, Mississippi, for five years, after which he went to Helena, Arkansas, and engaged in the cotton planting business. He was ten years in that work, when he gave it up, returned to Mississippi and resumed school-teach- ing. In 1902 he went to Memphis, in the Panhandle in Texas, and taught for one term, after which he came to Oklahoma. In July, 1905, he settled in Foss, Washita County, this state, and taught school in that place for two years. In 1907 Mr. Hubbard was elected county super- intendent of education for Washita County, and moved into the county seat, Cordell, where he filled the office for 51/2 years. On July 1, 1913, he became postmaster of Cordell, by appointment of President Wilson, and is giving splendid service in that office.

· Mr. Hubbard is a democrat, as might be inferred, and is an elder in the Presbyterian Church, of which he has long been a member. Fraternally, he is associated with the Masons as a member of Cordell Lodge No. 127, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons.

On April 7, 1880, Mr. Hubbard was married in Browns- ville, Tennessee, to Miss Julia Nixon, daughter of Wil-

liam C. Nixon, a merchant, now deceased. Three chil- dren have been born to them. Henry C. is assistant in the post office under his father. Margaret Louise mar- ried Dr. H. S. Andrews, and they live in Minden, Nebraska, where Doctor Andrews is engaged in practice. Annie died at the age of ten months.

JAMES I. PHELPS. Among the older members of the bar of Western Oklahoma, whose services date back to the earlier territorial days, James I. Phelps deserves par- ticular mention, having been one of the leading lawyers of the El Reno bar nearly twenty years. He has built up a good practice and has a high reputation for the successful results in many important cases which have passed through his hands. Mr. Phelps is also one of the most popular men of Canadian County, both among the members of his own profession and in the general body of citizenship.

James I. Phelps was born in Southeastern Texas at Newton, June 20, 1875, a son of Elza V. and Mary A. (Simmons) Phelps. His father was a native of Louisi- ana and his mother of Mississippi, but they were mar- ried in Texas, and have lived in the southeastern .part of the state since their marriage. Their home is now at Bronson, in the Texas pine belt. The father is a farmer, and James I. Phelps grew up on a farm in Southwestern Texas. He attended the public schools, and finished his education in Ford College at Newton, where he was . graduated. Following his collegiate work he entered the law department of the Texas State University and in 1899 was graduated LL. B. The day of his graduation was the 14th of June and on the following morning he bought a ticket and boarded the train for El Reno, Oklahoma. El Reno was then improving fast and grow- ing rapidly into a metropolitan city, and as he brought ability and thorough training into his profession Mr. Phelps was not long in establishing himself securely in the ranks of the local bar. He has always enjoyed a good practice and at the same time has taken an active part in democratic politics.

Mr. Phelps was police judge of El Reno in 1900-01, resigning in the latter year to become probate judge of Canadian County. He held that office for six years, until the time Oklahoma became a state. Judge Phelps is now chairman of the Canadian County Democratic Central Committee. He is a member of the Christian Church. February 1, 1903, at El Reno Judge Phelps married Miss Lydia B. Malcolm, daughter of J. F. and Phoebe Malcolm.

HON. HARVEY H. SMITH. For at least thirty years Harvey H. Smith's activities in the law and in demo- cratic politics have been increasingly valuable and influ- ential. He has been successively identified with the states of Kentucky, South Dakota and Oklahoma. Mr. Smith is particularly well known as a man of affairs in Shawnee, where he has lived since a few months before statehood.

He is not disinclined to credit his worthy ancestors with some responsibility for his own success in life. Mr. Smith's parents were M. and Mary E. (Smith) Smith. His parents, though of the same name, were not related. On the paternal side the aneestors eame from England to Virginia and Pennsylvania in colonial times. Mr. Smith of Shawnee and the late Hopkinsou Smith, the brilliant author-artist, and Senator Hoke Smith of Georgia have a common ancestry in the early annals of America. The maternal ancestry of Mr. Smith is even more notable. They likewise eame from England in colonial times and settled first in North Carolina and later in Virginia, and from there went across the

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mountains as pioneers to the Kentucky region long be- fore the Revolution. Maj. James Smith aud two brothers departed for the Kentucky Territory in 1752, even before Daniel Boone made his exploits famous in that region. Maj. James Smith served with that rank aud title during the Indian wars, and was a military instructor at one time in the old St. Mary's College of Virginia. His writings were the first papers to be preserved by the Filson Club of Louisville, a club which has collected and preserved the most interesting and valuable archives of the Kell- tucky region. Mr. Smith's great-grandfather on the maternal side was Capt. William Smith, and he was known as the founder of the Universalist Church in Kentucky and was a pioneer physiciau there, and gained his rank of captain by service in the Indian wars. Maj. James Smith had a grand-uephew, Z. F. Smith, who was a Presbyterian minister and superintendent of public instruction in Kentucky, and wrote a standard history of that state. Z. F. Smith died in 1904. Senator Smith of North Carolina is a descendant from the same stock.

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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