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 118

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 118

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In 1884 Mr. Campbell married Miss Margaret Wil- liams, daughter of Mr. W. G. Williams, who was one of the early pioneer settlers of Indian Territory. To their marriage have been born seven children: Anna Belle, who is the wife of A. H. Witherspoon of Oklahoma City, and the mother of a son, A. H. Witherspoon, Jr .; Charles

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HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA

WV., Mary Ellen, Milton B., Stella, Bernadine and Effie May Campbell, all of whom reside at Minco, Oklahoma.

R. E. ECHOLS. The profession of law is one that affects the most valuable interests of organized society, and hence arises the high public place which is accorded the honorable, well qualified lawyer. The bar and bench, in every civilized community, represents, as a whole, the cultured citizenship, the effective leaders, and because of this the profession is frequently well repre- sented in public life. All other things being equal, choice naturally falls upon those best equipped through train- ing and experience, for other fields of responsibility. A foremost member of the Elk City bar and well known in his profession all over Beckham County, is Hon. R. E. Echols, formerly state senator, and a vitalizing factor in all that concerns the development and welfare of Oklahoma.

R. E. Echols was born June 2, 1873, in Upshur County, Texas, and is a son of W. H. and Maggie (Callaway) Echols, the former of whom was born in Anderson County, Texas, in 1848, and the latter in Upshur County in 1850. W. H. Echols in early manhood moved from Auderson to Upshur County, where he married, and from there, in 1876, removed to Terrill, Kaufman County, Texas, during his active years engaging in merchandising. In 1909 he retired and settled at Altus, Oklahoma, where he still lives, he and his wife being leading mem- bers of the Methodist Episcopal Church at that place. They have five children: J. W., who is a physician and surgeon at McAlester, Oklahoma, is a graduate of the Louisville University, where he received his medical de- gree; R. E .; Flossie, who is the wife of R. D. McAfee, a merchant at Terrell, Texas; Renna, who is the wife of Thomas A. Howells, an ice manufacturer at Altus, Okla- homa; and Basil, who resides on his ranch in Montana.

W. H. Echols is a democrat in his political views and fraternally is identified with the Masons and the Elks. During two years of the war between the states, he served as a soldier in the Confederate army, enlisting from Texas. He suffered for a time as a prisoner of war, but later was exchanged.

R. E. Echols attended the public schools and was gradu- ated in the class of 1895, from the Terrell High School, after which he entered the law department of the Uni- versity of Texas, where he continued for three years, and in 1899 was admitted to the Texas bar. Ambitious and enterprising, Mr. Echols had the canny foresight of his Scotch ancestors, in making choice of a profes- sional field, in the fall of 1900 coming to Elk City, and in the same year was admitted to the Oklahoma bar. He has been identified in every way with this section ever since and has built up a large and lucrative law practice by honorable methods, covering both civil and criminal cases, and naturally has been concerned in a large amount of important litigation. He is a valued and useful member of the county, state and national bar associations, and his law library is comprehensive and up to date.

In 1907, when Oklahoma assumed the dignity of a state, the elections were matters of great importance and the selection of members of the state senate were carefully looked after by both political parties. One elec- tion that brought very general satisfaction was that of R. E. Echols, and his administration of the office dur- ing his first term brought re-election, so that he served two full terms, four regular sessions and also four spe- cial sessions. While at Oklahoma City Mr. Echols was 110 mere figurehead, on the other hand the records prove that he was as faithful in performing his duties as he was able in statesmanship. The senatorial district he represented was composed of Beckham, Roger Mills, Ellis

aud Dewey counties. During the first session he was chairman of the corporation committee; during the second of the judiciary No. 1 committee, and during the third and fourth sessions was chairman of the con- gressional apportionment committee, and additionally was a member of a number of other committees, to all of which bodies he gave time and consideration, expert counsel and practical help. Senator Echols was the author of the bill creating a board of public affairs, which selected body has been operating for several years, and has proved of great usefulness. He was elected chairman of the Oklahoma State Convention, April 11, 1916.

Senator Echols was married in 1908, at Greenville, Texas, to Mrs. Sallie (Chandler) Mays, who was the widow of J. A. Mays, formerly a banker of Elk City, who left two daughters: Ida, born in 1902, and Mary, born in 1904, both attending school. Mrs. Echols was born at Greenville, Texas, and is a daughter of Doctor Chandler, a well known physician of that city. Senator and Mrs. Echols have one son, R. E., Jr., who was born n 1909.

While Senator Echols has been busy with law and poli- tics for a number of years, he has found time to ac- cept fraternal relationships and has become well known in the leading orders. He belongs to Elk City Lodge, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, No. 182; Elk City Chapter No. 50; Elk City Knights of Pythias, of which he is past chancellor and has served also as a delegate to the grand lodge; and to Lodge No. 1144, Elks, of Elk City. Endowed with great talent as a lawyer, he is esteemed in his profession, and his sincerity, public spirit and loyalty to friends have made him admired in public life. Among his associates of everyday life his couduct has always been such as to win unqualified respect if not. warmer emotion. In many ways Senator Echols may be named as one of Oklahoma's representative men, possessing, as he does, qualities dear to the people of this stirring state-honesty, independence, courage and enter- prise-the same qualities which led his ancestors from Scotland to Virginia in colonial times, and sturdily sup- ported them after they reached there.

WILLIAM F. HARRIS, M. D., a prominent physician and surgeon of Washita County, whose skill in the heal- ing art has won for him a high standing with the medi- cal fraternity of the county and an enviable reputation among its people in general, has been engaged in practice at Sentinel since 1907. His entire professional career has been passed in Oklahoma, where he has been given the opportunity to rise in his chosen calling, and where he has invested his means with a view to passing his future years.

Doctor Harris was born in Murray County, Georgia, January 23, 1878, and is a son of William G. and Eugenia A. (Carter) Harris, and a member of a family whose founder came to America from England during Colonial days. The name was well known among the pioneers of Missouri, was later taken into Tennessee and finally into Georgia, where, in Murray County, Georgia, William C. Harris settled during the '50s. He was then a young man, having been born in 1830, and was engaged in farming when the Civil war came on. Having Southern sympathies, he enlisted in the Thirty-sixth Georgia Volunteer Infantry, in the Confederate service, and fought with the rank of captain throughout that struggle, establishing an excellent record for faithful and valiant service. When his military career was finished Captain Harris returned to the vocation of stock raisiug and farming in Murray County, in which he continued to be engaged until his death in March, 1901. He was a member of the Cumberland Presbyterian

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HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA

Church, and a deacon and elder therein, and was a member of the Masonic fraternity. Captain Harris was married in Murray County, Georgia, to Miss Eugenia A. Carter, who was born in the Cracker state, in 1841, and died in Murray County, in 1910, and they became the parents of nine children, uamely: Lucy, who died in Murray County in 1889 as the wife of the late Charles H. Humphreys, a school teacher; Nannie, who died in Murray County in 1906, as the wife of the late Dr. Leonard C. Furr, for many years a practicing phy- sieian of that county; Charles, who died in infancy; John H., who is unmarried and resides on the old home farm in Murray County, Georgia; Georgia, who is the wife of George McCamy, a farmer and stockman of Texas; Carrie, who is unmarried and resides on the old Georgia homestead farm; Corrie, who died at the age of eleven years; William F .; and Tom, who is married and has not left the homestead.

William F. Harris obtained his preliminary schooling in the public institutions of his native county, and was graduated from the high school there in 1892. At that time he accepted a position in a drug store at Clarkes- ville, Georgia, and while there became interested in medicine and familiarized himself with the rudiments of that calling. In 1897 he entered the Southern Medical College, Atlanta, Georgia, where he was graduated from the Atlanta College of Physicians and Surgeons, class of 1900, with the degree of Doctor of Medicine, and at once entered upon the practice of his calling at Wood (now called Port), Oklahoma. Doctor Harris continued to be engaged in practice there from May, 1900, until December 1, 1907, when he came to Sentinel and here has since carried on a general medical and surgical practice which covers all branches of the calling and is confined to no particular specialty. He has well appointed offices in the Hughes Building, where he has a large medical library as well as equipment and instruments for the performing of the most delicate operations. He belongs to the Washita County Medical Society, the Oklahoma Medical Society and the American Medical Association, and is a student who recognizes no end to the road of science and who forges ahead energetically and conscientiously. Eight years have brought about a constant rise in his fortunes, and he has won the confidence of the community by his skill as a diagnos- tician and his successful treatment of complicated and apparently hopeless disorders. He has been successful in a material way, and beside his own residence at Sentinel, is the owuer of a farm of 160 acres, located eight miles northwest of this place, at Port, Oklahoma, where he has a renter engaged in diversified farming. Doctor Harris is a democrat. His fraternal connections are with Sentinel Lodge No. 152, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, Consistory No. 1, Valley of Guthrie, of the thirty-second degree, and Central Lodge of Okla- homa, Knights of Pythias.

Doctor Harris was married February 14, 1903, at Wood (now Port), Oklahoma, to Miss Alice Trotter, daughter of Joseph Trotter, who is now a farmer in the vicinity of Sentinel. To Doctor and Mrs. Harris three children have been born: Carter, born January 1, 1904, and now attending public school; William F., who died in infancy; and Sam, born April 2, 1911.

MARK D. LIBBY. Engrossed in the business avocation which brings him his daily wage, the ordinary individual is approximately representative of the nation's citizen- ship. This is the normal type; his life begins and ends, perhaps, with nothing to differentiate him from the mass. It is the unusual type that commands attention, and it is the influence of the men belonging thereto,

exerted upon their community, and the record of their lives, that are valuable and interesting as matters of biography. In the professions, and particularly in the law, the opportunities for usefulness and personal ad- vancemeut depend almost entirely upon this unusually gifted individual, and here natural endowment is as essen- tial as is thorough preparation. The bar of El Reno has its full quota of brilliant men, and one of its foremost members is Mark D. Libby, who both in private practice and as a representative of the Government has displayed the possession of eminent talents.

Mark D. Libby was born at Vassalboro, Kennebec County, Maine, February 28, 1858, and is a son of Wil- liam T. and Hannah M. (Brown) Libby, natives of the Pine Tree State. His father was one of the adventurous souls who crossed the plains at the time of the dis- eovery of gold in California, in 1849, and the greater part of his life thereafter was passed in the West. In 1867 he removed his family to Idaho, but when Mark D. Libby was fifteen years of age his mother took him and the other children to Maine, in order that they might secure better educational advantages.

In 1879 Mark D. Libby graduated in engineering from 'the University of Maine, and immediately thereafter went to Kansas, from whence, in the summer of 1880, he removed to Wyoming. There he became deputy United States surveyor, a position which he held for several years, at the same time carrying on activities as a mining engineer, not only in Wyoming, but in Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona. Returning to Kansas, he was for two years county surveyor of Kiug- man County, and in the meantime applied himself to the law, studying so assiduously that he was admitted to the bar in 1887. . Mr. Libby began the practice of his pro- fession at Kingman, Kansas, and in 1889 became a practitioner before the United States Land Office in Oklahoma, as an attorney, and from that time to the present has been identified with affairs in Oklahoma, although it was uot until 1893 that he took up his resi- dence at El Reno. Here he has ariseu to a high place in his profession, and is generally acknowledged to be a thorough, learned and painstaking lawyer and a stirring aud public-spirited eitizen. He has always been a stanch republican in politics, and wields some influence in his party, for the interests of which he has always worked faithfully. His professional connections include mem- bership in the state and county bar associations.

In 1889 Mr. Libby was united in marriage with Miss Cornelia Gillette, daughter of the distinguished jurist, Judge F. E. Gillette, of El Reno. Mr. and Mrs. Libby have two daughters: Cornelia and Anna.

LOUIS PRICE HENDERSON. The Pottawatomie County Democrat at Tecumseh, of which Louis Price Henderson is editor, is the leading paper in the county, and has a circulation greater than that of any two other papers. It is read in the home of nearly every intelligent family in Pottawatomie County, and also circulates and exerts its influence over a number of surrounding counties.

The Henderson family, father and son, have been closely identified with the press and public life of Pottawatomie County for a number of years. The pro- prietor of the County Democrat is M. M. Henderson, father of the editor, Louis P. The elder was born in Hamilton County, Tennessee, in 1861, and was of Scotch- Irish descent. Some of the Hendersons were pioneers in Tennessee back about the time of the Revolutionary war. M. M. Henderson was reared and educated in his native county of Tennessee, married there, and for several years was engaged in the shoe and other mercantile lines of trade. In 1901 he removed to Tecumseh, Oklahoma, and

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was among the early settlers there. He founded the Tecumseh Standard, a newspaper which was characterized by progressive policies and up-to-date management, but in May, 1909, when he bought the Pottawatomie County Democrat the Standard was discontinued. M. M. Hen- derson is a very active democrat in politics, and on February 13, 1915, he was appointed postmaster of Tecumseh. Since April 6, 1915, he has been engaged in his official duties, and most of the responsibilities of the newspaper have been resigned to his son, Louis P. The elder Mr. Henderson served as secretary of the State Banking Board under Governor Haskell, and was also formerly a member of the board of regents for the University Preparatory School at Tonkawa and at Clare- more. Since identifying himself with Tecumseh he has also served as a member of the city council and has put himself on record many times for enterprises and move- ments involving the improvement and the best welfare of that community. He is a deacon in the Presbyterian Church and was formerly affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Knights of Pythias.

M. M. Henderson married Miss Emma Ragsdale. She was born at Chattanooga, Tennessee, September 20, 1868, a daughter of B. F. Ragsdale, who died at Chattanooga in 1878, when in the prime of his years. Mr. Ragsdale was a general passenger agent for one of the main rail- way lines centered at Chattanooga. To the marriage of M. M. Henderson and wife were born two children: Louis P., and Mary Jane, who is the wife of E. M. Newell, proprietor of a general store at Tecumseh.

Louis Price Henderson was born while his parents lived in Chattanooga, Tennessee, on August 5, 1888. He lived there until he was about fourteen years of age, and in the meantime attended the public schools of the City of Chattanooga and breathed in some of the atmosphere of the progressive movement which was inaugurated in that Southern city during the years of his boyhood. After the family removed to Oklahoma he began learning the printing trade in his father's office, first with the Stand- ard and then with the County Democrat. He developed much proficiency in all departments of the printing trade and newspaper work and was his father's right hand man until April 6, 1915, since which time he has been in active charge of the editorial management of the paper.

In politics he is a democrat, is a member of the Presby- terian Church, and also a member of the International Typographical Union. In November, 1909, at Tecumseh, he married Miss Elma Copeland, daughter of T. N. Cope- land, a well known Tecumseh merchant. To their mar- riage has been born one daughter, Mary Louise, whose birthday was May 19, 1915.

EDWARD R. YOUNG. The incumbent of one or another official position at Duncan since 1901, Edward R. Young, present sheriff of Stephens County, has established a clean and honorable record for public service as a coura- geous, faithful and entirely efficient officer. During a long and somewhat diversified career, his activities have led him to invade various and varied occupations, and in each community in which he has resided he has held and merited his fellow-citizens' respect.

Sheriff Young was born in Coosa County, Alabama, February 15, 1867, and is a son of Harrison B. and Antoinette (Gililand) Young. The Youngs came from England to America prior to the Revolution, settling in Alabama, where the grandfather of Sheriff Young, Bird H. Young, was reared among the Cherokee Indians. He served faithfully as a soldier during the War of 1812, and subsequently was extensively engaged in farming and in the breeding of horses and the raising of game- cocks, and died in Coosa County, Alabama, at the age of

eighty-one years, when Sheriff Young was still a small child. Harrison B. Young, the father of Edward R. Young, was born at Cherokee Bluff, Tallapoosa County, Alabama, in 1827, and as a young man removed to Coosa County, where he was married. In 1876 he re- turned to his native county, where during the remaining years of his life he was engaged in farming and raising stock, and there his death occurred in 1904. Throughout his life he was actively interested in Masonic work, being a Mason for fifty-two years, past master of his lodge and a member of the higher branches of Masonry, and was a popular figure on the lecture platform. Through- out his life he belonged to the Baptist Church, in which he served as deacon and clerk for many years. With six of his brothers he enlisted for service during the war between the North and the South under the flag of the Confederacy, and served four years, first as a member of the Fourteenth Regiment, Alabama Volunteer In- fantry, and subsequently as a member of the famous cavalry under Gen. Joe Wheeler. Mr. Young married Antoinette Gililand, who was born in Chambers County, Alabama, in 1837, and died in Tallapoosa County, in 1895, and they became the parents of twelve children: Annie, who is the wife of Alonzo Wicker, who for fifteen years has had charge of the same ranch at Waxahachie, Texas; Emma, who married LeRoy Upshaw, a farmer of Waxahachie, Texas; Sallie, who married Allie Russell, a farmer of Tallapoosa County, Alabama, and both are deceased; A. Forest, unmarried, who lives on the old family homestead in Tallapoosa County, Alabama; Mary, deceased, who was the wife of William Little, a merchant of Cherokee, Alabama; Edward R., of this notice; Nettie, who married W. M. Thomas, a well-to-do farmer and stockraiser of the vicinity of Dallas, Texas; W. K., who is a farmer residing in Tallapoosa County, Alabama; Osa, who died of an attack of typhoid fever when twenty- two years of age; Vallie, deceased, who was the wife of Ed Ogletree, a farmer and stockman of Tallapoosa County, Alabama; Grace, who is the wife of Thomas Sanders, a farmer of Tallapoosa County; and Homer G. a stenographer and railroad man of Waco, Texas.

Edward R. Young attended the public schools of Coosa and Tallapoosa counties, Alabama, in the meantime being reared in the agricultural atmosphere of his father's farms. On January 15, 1885, he removed to Plano, Texas, where he engaged in farming and dealing in horses until 1889, when he returned to Tallapoosa County, Alabama, and remained there two years as a farmer, also serving in the capacity of deputy sheriff. Returning to Texas, he settled in the locality of Waxa- hatchie, where he carried on farming on his own account for nine years, and at the end of that period, in 1901, took up his residence at Duncan, Oklahoma. At that time he entered business operations as the proprietor of a confectionery and ice cream parlor, but after one year disposed of his interest therein when he was elected city marshal. In this capacity he acted until 1911, and in 1912 and 1913 was employed as a collector for the banks and a hardware store at Duncan. In 1914 he became the candidate of the democratic party for the office of sheriff of Stephens County, to which he was duly elected by a handsome majority in the elections of November of that year, and assumed the duties of his office on January 1, 1915. In the comparatively short time he has been in office he has displayed efficiency, courage and a consci- entious appreciation of the responsibilities of his posi- tion, fairly winning the commendation of the people of this county. In addition to the duties of the shrievalty, he has also discharged those of deputy United States marshal since 1901. His offices are located in the court- house. Sheriff Young is well and popularly known in

HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA

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fraternal circles, being an ex-member of the Knights of l'ythias, of which he was master-at-arms, and a member of the Fraternal Order of Eagles and the Ancient Order of United Workmen.

In 1893, while still a resident of Tallapoosa County, Alabama, Mr. Young was umted in marriage with Miss Josie L. Ross, daughter of the late Edward Ross, who was a well-to-do farmer of Tallapoosa County. Five children have been born to this union, namely: Hazel Laverne, who is the wife of Glynn Hess, and resides at Tulsa, Oklahoma, where Mr. Iless is in the oil business; Dunn B., a student of the public schools, in the seventh grade; Antoinette, in the fifth grade; Ready Ross, in the second grade; and Roberta, the baby.

HON. WILLIAM PERRY FREEMAN. From 1898 until 1907, at the beginning of statehood, William P. Free- man served as clerk of the Indian Territory Court of Appeals. This service alone has naturally made him well known over the state at large. Mr. Freeman is a very substantial sort of citizen. He has the character and attainments which make people repose confidence in him and respect his acts and opinions. While he has some very excellent idealisms, he keeps his dreams and visions in the right place, and makes his practice practical. While he has naturally been widely known for his political activities, Mr. Freeman confesses that the post of dignity and responsibility of which he is mnost proud was his election as grand master of Grand Lodge A. F. & A. M. of Oklahoma, and that honor has meant more to him than election as governor of the state.

Born in Miller County, Missouri, June 15, 1858, he is a son of Andrew J. and Editha A. (Tinsley) Free- man. His parents were solid industrious people, self- respecting, but noteworthy neither for wealth nor for conspicuous position in society. His father served as a soldier in the Union army until the battle of Tupelo, Mississippi, where he was struck down and so severely wounded that he died not long afterward.

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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