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 27

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 27

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WILLIAM A. WILCOXSON. As a white citizen of Okla- homa, Mr. Wilcoxson is one of the oldest native sons. of the state, having been born at the old locality known as Jimtown, Indian Territory, on October 7, 1880. All his life has been spent within the borders of the State of Oklahoma, and from early youth he has been a very hard working and earnest individual and has promoted him- self to some well deserved responsibilities in public affairs. He is now serving as court clerk of McClain County, with residence at Purcell.

His Wilcoxson ancestors were early settlers in Ken- tucky, and his father, G. L. Wilcoxson, was born in that state January 31, 1851. About two years after his birth his parents removed to Illinois, shortly afterwards into Missouri, where he was reared until the age of seven- teen. He then came into the Southwest and in Texas married Martha Ann Clark, who was born in Missouri in 1855. Not long after his marriage G. L. Wilcoxson moved to old Jimtown, Indian Territory, but in 1890 he moved to the vicinity of McGee, Indian Territory, now Stratford, Oklahoma. His first wife died at McGee in 1900. Some years later at the opening of the big pasture he moved to Chattanooga, Oklahoma, where he still resides. His career throughout has been as a farmer and stock raiser. He is a deacon in the Missionary Baptist Church and a member of the Masonic fraternity. By his first wife he was the father of the following children : Alice Louvina, who died in infancy; Rosa Belle, who lives at Blanchard, Oklahoma, wife of Daniel MeCary; William A .; Ida May, wife of I. J. Tucker, a hardware merchant at Blanchard; Charles and Myrtle, both of whom died at old McGee, the former at the age of twelve and the latter at the age of eight; James T., who is clerking in a store at Byars, Oklahoma; Nellie,

wife of Mr. Ed McQuinn, who is serving as deputy sheriff at Rousseau, Kentucky; and Gertrude, who lives with her father. G. L. Wilcoxson after the death of his first wife married Ella Cunningham of old McGee and their three children are Elma, Olis and Otto.

William A. Wilcoxson acquired his principal educa- tion from the public schools of the old town of McGee. The first twenty years of his life were spent on his father's farm and for four years he had experience as a clerk in a store at McGee. In 1904 he removed to Byars, Oklahoma, was a clerk, kept books for a cotton gin, and for two years engaged in the grocery business on his own account.

Hle was a member of the town council in old McGee and at Byars, and for several years was chairman of the school board at Byars, resigning when he moved to Purcell.

In politics he is a democrat and is very active in the Missionary Baptist Church at Purcell, being chorister, deacon, president of the Baptist Young People's Union and assistant superintendent of the Sunday School. Fraternally he is affiliated with Purcell Lodge No. 27, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, and with Purcell Camp No. 596, Woodmen of the World.

At old McGee in 1900 Mr. Wilcoxson married Miss Pearl M. Hyden, whose father is D. M. Hyden, a car- penter and builder living at Stratford, Oklahoma. To their marriage were born three children, Claud Ray, born August 7, 1901, Samuel Roy, born November 23, 1902, and Vivian, born March 2, 1906, all of whom are attend- ing school at Purcell.

In November, 1910, Mr. Wilcoxson was elevated to his first important responsibilities in public affairs by election as clerk of the district court, an office he held two terms. In the fall of 1914 he was elected for the regular term of two years as court clerk of McClain County. His home has been in Purcell since 1911 and his offices are in the court house.

JAMES PERCY POWERS is one of the younger attorneys of Mangum, but his path thus far has been marked by unusual success in his profession, and it is expected that the future will be a brilliant one for him. He was admit- ted to the bar in 1909 and in 1911 began practice in this city, serving a four year term as city attorney, and retir- ing in 1915. He is now engaged in an independent practice.

Born in Wise County, Texas, September 13, 1885, James Percy Powers is the son of Judge James A. Powers, who was born in Opelika, Alabama, in 1851, and died in Mangum, January 28, 1914. From Alabama Judge Powers moved to Grayson County, Texas, and thence to Wise County. In 1888 he came to Greer County, then in Texas, and settled in Mangum, where he took up the practice of law, continuing successfully until death claimed him.

Judge Powers was a lifelong democrat and always took an active interest in party affairs. In 1889 he located on a homestead which later became the town of Mangnni. That small investment formed the nucleus of what is today a large estate. The Judge added a considerable to it in his lifetime by wise investments, and he left a property that is today managed by his son, James P. of this review, while his widow is administratrix thereof. She was Matilda A. Hamilton before her marriage to Judge Powers, and was born in Alabama, in 1859, but reared in Tennessee. She lives now in Mangum.

Their children are: James Percy Powers, of this re- view. Nellie R., who married George Stultz. He died in 1913, and she lives with her mother in Mangum. Mary Hamilton has been a school teacher since she got her

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education. She taught four years in Mangum, and is assistant principal of the Boulder, Colorado, public schools. Kate has also followed a teacher's career, and is now furthering her education in a similar manner. Annie Lou is principal of the Carnegie, Oklahoma, public schools. Ruth is a student in the Oklahoma Industrial School at Chickasha. Grace, Leslie and Eva are attend- ing the Mangum High School.

James Percy Powers had his early schooling in Mangum and was graduated from the local high school in 1904, after which he entered the State University at Norman, Oklahoma, and spent the years from 1900 to 1905 in study there. Returning to Mangum he read law under his father and Judge Brown, his father's partner, the latter having lately died while judge on the supreme bench. In the fall of 1907 he entered Cumberland University, Lebanon, Tennessee, and in the spring of 1908 was grad- uated from the law department of that institution. He was admitted to the Tennessee bar in 1908, after which he returned to Mangum. His return home was followed by an attack of typhoid fever that incapacitated him for work for a year, and in 1909 he was admitted to the bar of Oklahoma and began practice in his home town. Two years later he was elected to the office of city attorney for a four year term, which he just coucluded, having acquitted himself in a most creditable manner in the discharge of his duties in that office. Mr. Powers is now engaged in general practice, and in the care aud manage- ment of his father's large estate, which makes heavy demands upon his time, and leaves him no great amount of time for his professional work.

Mr. Powers is a member of the County, State and National Bar Associations, and is a stockholder in the Greer County Fair Association. He is a democrat, faith- ful to party interests, and has membership in the Metho- dist Church. His fraternal connections are with the Elks, Mangum Lodge No. 169, Lodge No. 38 Knights of Pythias, of which he is past chancellor, and is now serving as present chancellor. He is unmarried.

The Powers family is distinctly Irish in its origin. Seven brothers came from Ireland in Colonial days and settled in Virginia and the Carolinas. Their descend- ants scattered to Alabama and Georgia, and the name is found in many sections of the United States today. John M. Powers, grandsire of the subject, was a soldier in the Civil war, and died in the service of the South during that time.

ELIAS M. LANDRUM. It is but a natural result that in the State of Oklahoma there have come to the front in public affairs aud in the wielding of large influence the strongest and best types of the race whose first was the dominion iu America. It is specially gratifying to note to how great a degree have those of Indian lineage been identified with the development and up- building of the great state that was originally the Indian Territory, honoring their race, the state and the nation through their ability, loyalty and effective services. A prominent and influential representative of this progressive class of citizens is Hou. Elias M. Landrum, of Oklahoma City, who is a blood member of the Cherokee tribe of Indians, who was a leading factor in the making of the Cherokee Nation one of the most advanced and prosperous of the Indian Terri- tory, and whose father, Hon. David D. Landrum, was for a number of years a member of the senate of the Cherokee Nation, besides having twice been elected a justice of the Supreme Court of that vigorous nation. He whose name introduces this review likewise became an influential member of the Cherokee Senate, later served in the senate of the Oklahoma State Legislature, and is at the present time incumbeut of the office of

special deputy state examiner aud inspector. He stands exponent of the best traditions of both his white and Indian ancestors and justly takes pride iu the records of both lines.

Mr. Landrum was born at Rhea Mills, Collin County, Texas, on the 6th of March, 1866, his mother having been at the time among the Cherokee refugees who had gone from the Indian Territory to Texas for safety at the outbreak of the Civil war, prior to which the Cherokee tribe had been one of the most advanced and prosperous in the great Indian Territory. Mr. Landrum is a son of David D. and Susan (Crutchfield) Landrum. His father was born in Georgia and became one of the pioneer farmers of Indian Territory, his settlement having been made on Cabin Creek, near the present town of Viuita, the judicial center of Craig County, Oklahoma. He became a leader in the councils and industrial affairs of the Cherokee Nation, and, as previously noted in this context, served in its legisla- ture and as a member of its supreme court. The two dominating political organizations of the nation at that time were known as the Downing and Ross parties, neither of which manifested any inclination to encourage ambitious young men to euter the field of political activity. Under these conditions David D. Landrum and other aspiring young men of the day effected the organization of what was designated as the national party, as chief of which they elected D. W. Bushyhead. He was a prominent and influential representative of this organization and was long one of the leaders in public affairs in the Cherokee Nation. At the inception of the Civil war he ardently espoused the cause of the Confederacy, and as a soldier of the same he served with marked gallantry under Gen. Stan Watie, the dis- tinguished Cherokee commander. George Hunter, a half- brother of the mother of the subject of this sketch, joined Gen. Samuel Houston in the latter's heroic efforts to gain independence of Texas, and after the formation of the Texan Republic he was awarded a due portion of the Spanish land grant in the new republic. This estate comprised the land on which the City of Austin is now situated, and the family representatives have in later generations made vigorous attempts to estab- lish their ownership of the property.

Elias M. Landrum was a child at the time when his mother returned from Texas to Indian Territory, and his early education was received in the schools of the Cherokee Nation. He completed a course in the high school at Vinita, at which place he thereafter attended Worcester Academy, from which he received the degree of Bachelor of Science, in 1885. In the pursuance of higher academic studies he then entered Emory College, at Oxford, Georgia, in which institution he was gradu- ated as a member of the class of 1890 and from which he received the degree of Bachelor of Arts. For the ensuing year he was president of the Ben Hill Academy, in Georgia, and he then returned to Vinita and resumed his association with agricultural pursuits, besides which he devoted oue year to teaching in the public schools of Vinita. A young man of mature judgment and high intellectual attainments, he was well qualified for leader- ship in public sentiment and action, and his influence became both potent and beniguant in connection with the goverment and industrial affairs of the Cherokee Nation, He served one term, of two years, as pro- bate judge of Delaware County, and one term as a member of the Senate of the Legislature of the nation, the latter office having been resigned by him when he engaged in the mercantile business at Tahlequah. With this line of business enterprise he there continued to be successfully identified for a period of twelve years, and he then retired to accept the democratic nomina-

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tion for member of the Senate of the newly organized State of Oklahoma, as representative of the Thirtieth Senatorial District. In the district senatorial conven- tion of 1907 there occurred a protracted deadlock, and after 270 ballots had been taken and the convention had adjourned at Grove to reassemble at Afton, Mr. Landrum was nominated on the first ballot cast after his name had been presented to the convention. Prior to this he had served two terms as a member of the City Council of Tahlequah and three terms as city clerk. In 1908 he was re-elected to the State Senate without opposition, and he was a prominent and resourceful figure in both the first and second General Assemblies of the State Legislature. He introduced in the Senate and championed to enactment the bill providing an ap- propriation for placing a statue of Sequoyah, inventor of the Cherokee alphabet, in the National Hall of Fame in the City of Washington. The contract for making the statue was awarded to Vinnie Rheam Hoxie. He secured also the passage of a bill establishing the Northeastern State Normal School at Tahlequah, former capital of the Cherokee Nation, and, with all of con- sistency, drafted and presented a bill making it a mis- demeanor to use a wooden statue of an Indian for advertising purposes, a measure that unfortunately failed of enactment. Senator Landrum was largely instru- mental in obtaining in a textbook measure passed by the First Legislature a clause favoring Oklahoma au- thors in the election of textbooks for use in the public schools and other educational institutions of the state. His broad and well fortified views aud unequivocal civic loyalty made him an ideal legislator, and among other measures that called forth his enthusiastic support was one of special consistency and one whose passage redounds to the lasting honor of the state. This was in the passage of an act creating the office of public defender for the Department of Charities and Correc- tions, this office being created specially for the purpose of protecting orphan children of the Indiau nations, and the result being that there were returned to Indian orphans $800,000 and 1,000,000 acres of land of which they had been wrongfully deprived. The speech which Senator Landrum delivered in support of this measure has been pronounced by high authorities to have been a masterpiece of eloquence and logic, but probably the speech which gained to him the maximum distinction during his service in the Legislature was that in which he nominated Hon. Thomas P. Gore for the United States Senate. In this address on the floor of the Senate he alternated the Cherokee dialect with the purest and most classical English; the somewhat stoical mannerisms of the Indian with the polish and suavity of a modern man of affairs,-the result being impressive in the extreme. Senator Landrum made the first speech ever delivered in the Oklahoma Legislature by an In- dian, and comment upon this now historic address de- clared that it expressed the cementing of a new tie of relationship and a community of interests between the two territories that recently had been nuited to form the new State of Oklahoma.

Mr. Landrum is an appreciative and popular member of the Oklahoma Indian Association, in the affairs of which he is prominent and influential, he is affiliated with the Delta Tau Delta college fraternity, and both he and his wife hold membership in the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. He is the only surviving son of one of the sterling pioneer families of what is now a great and prosperous commonwealth, and his two sisters are Mrs. Nancy L. Adair, who resides near Vinita, Craig County; and Mrs. R. K. Adair, of Chelsea, Rogers County, her husband having formerly been super- intendent of the Cherokee Male Seminary at Tahlequah.

At Vinita, in September, 1895, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Landrum to Miss Nana Woodall, a direct descendant of a member of the distinguished Calvert family of whom Lord Baltimore was the first representative in America. Mr. and Mrs. Landrum have iour children: David Stanley, Elias M., Jr., Mar- garet M. and Lois Stewart. Stanley Landrum, who was born in the year 1896, was a page in the first State Senate of Oklahoma aud held a similar prefer- ment in the House of Representatives in 1910. He was graduated in the Oklahoma City High School and in this city is uow a student (1915) in Hill's Business College. The younger son is a student in the high school and the two daughters are attending the public schools of Oklahoma City, where the family is one of distinctive popularity in the social activities of the community, the attractive home being at 148 East Twelfth Street.

JOHN COLBERT MOORE. The basis of a community's prosperity and a nation's progress and solidarity is meas- ured by the thrift, energy and intelligence of its agricul- tural citizenship. Unite with these qualities the rein- forcement of strong and eminent family connections and there is added to the community something of perma- nence that is not found when the latter qualities he lacking.

John Colbert Moore is not only a successful farmer and stockman of the Aylesworth community and the State of Oklahoma, but he belongs to one of the best families extant in the Southwest, while his wife claims as her heritage the blood of two of the most prominent families of the old Choctaw and Chickasaw nations. "Blood will tell"' is an old and favorite saying the world over, and the truth of the aphorism is everywhere evident in the home and business life. The best families of Virginia may look back with pardonable pride on their ancestry ; but no aristocracy has more pride of ancestry than these families found in the old Indian Territory, for the white ancestry comes from the oldest and best families of the Atlantic seaboard and Europe, while the Indian ancestry is from the purest strains of the proudest Amer- ican native.

Mr. Moore was born in Saline County, Arkansas, No- vember 3, 1869. He is the son of Joseph Colbert Moore, a man of Cherokee and Chickasaw blood. The latter fought in the Civil war as a captain in the commissary department of the First Arkansas Regiment, Confederate Army, and was in action at the battles of Gettysburg, Shiloh, and many other history making engagements. After the war he returned to Arkansas and made that state his home until he went to the Indian Territory in 1883. He was the son of Colbert Moore, a white man, who married a girl of Cherokee-Chickasaw blood, of the name of Allen. He was adopted by the Chickasaws and later became interpreter for the nation.

Joseph Colbert Moore, father of the subject, married Mary Murray, who was born and reared in Tennessee. She was a daughter of Mrs. Agnes Hawthorne, who had settled with her invalid husband at the old Chickasaw Bluff Indian Village. Mr. Hawthorne was a New Yorker by birth and ancestry, aud came of a fine old family. When Joseph C. Moore brought his family from Arkausas to the Indian Territory he settled near the head of what became known as Moore's Creek, on the old Blue County Choctaw Nation. In those days the Indian Territory was still in a most primitive state. The range was cov- ered with cattle and the wilds abounded in game of every description, peculiar to that section of the country. There were no schools save certain private academies and a few subscription schools of the order that existed in our coun- try prior to the development of our present splendid pub-

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lic school system. For these reasons, Mr. Moore, who was but a lad when the family left its Arkansas home for its present location, had few enough advantages in the matter of education. He attended a few sessions of the neighborhood schools, but it may be said with all propriety that he gained his education mainly in the school of experience. He had an excellent training in the matter of farming and stock-raising under the guid- ance of his father, who was most successful in that enter- prise, and the young man early entered into the business on his owu responsibility. He prospered from the begin- ning, and prior to the Government allotment of lands in that district he owned several hundred acres and a splen- did herd of cattle.

In 1894, wheu Mr. Moore was twenty-five years old, he took a wife. Miss Mary E. Maytubby, daughter of Capt. Peter Maytubby, was the girl of his choice. In this connection it is fitting that some further mention be made of her family, for it is one that has been equally prominent in the history of the Indian Territory with the Moores.

Capt. Peter Maytubby was a full blooded Chickasaw Iu- dian and a veteran of the Civil war. He was born in Pontotoc County, Mississippi, October 10, 1837, and came to the Indian Territory in infancy with others of the tribe that migrated from the South to the Southwest in that early day. His family settled at Fort Coffey near Fort Smith, and they settled on a farm near Caddo. This old homestead became the property of Captain Maytubby, and there he built a large and handsome house. The place is four miles from the Town of Caddo, and is one of the fiuest in this district. At the beginning of the Civil war Maytubby enlisted in the Confederate army, and he became captain of Troop A, under Gen. Douglass H. Cooper. He passed through the long civil conflict with a brilliant record, and when the war was ended he re- turned to his home and resumed farming and stock-raising as before. Prosperity followed him all his days, but he never became in any manner estranged from his people. He fought their battles to the end of his life, and despite his many interests he was never too busy to give his time in their interests. He was long connected with the tribal government iu an official capacity, and he later served with honor and justice as a member of the Dawes Commission. Captain Maytubby was the father of a fam- ily of twenty children, of which nine now survive. He was married three times. His first marriage took place in 1857 when a Miss Hiles became his wife. She was a quarter-blood Choctaw. One child of that union now lives, Sam W. Maytubby of Caddo. His second wife was Miss Rufina Tolsom, of the distinguished Choctaw fam- ily of that name. Two children born of that union are now living: Peter (Bud) Maytubby, of Caddo, and Mrs. Moore. The third wife was Miss Tabitha Bailey, a white girl of Fort Smith, Arkansas. She became the mother of six children who are now living: Sophia is the wife of Dr. N. Miller, of Durant; Susa married E. E. Pitchlyn of Caddo; Jess D. is a resident of Caddo; Bessie married Milton Farmer of Texas; Elisha B. also lives in Caddo; and Lillian married Jack Bond of Atoka.

The Moores have a fine home in Aylesworth and are among the foremost people of the community. Mr. Moore is a leader in the varied activities of his district, and is a democrat in politics. His only fraternal affilia- tions are with the Masonic order, in which he is well advanced.

HON. WILL LINN. On the roster of Oklahoma's able jurists is found the name of Hon. Will Linn, judge of the Fifteenth Judicial District Court, who has gained distinctive preferment in the legal profession, both at the bar and on the bench. Judge Linn was born at Linn

Grove (named in honor of his father), Calloway County, Kentucky, in 1873, and is a son of Lilburn Cyrus and Louisa (Thornton) Linn. The Linn family was founded in Kentucky toward the close of the eighteenth century by emigrants from Ireland, where the name originated.

Lilburn Cyrus Linn was born in Kentucky and was there educated for the law, in which he was engaged throughout his career. He wou a position of prominence iu his calling, and was elected judge of the Third Ju- dicial District of Kentucky, an office in which he served for a number of years. During the Civil war he enlisted in the Confederate army, and subsequently participated in a number of hard-fought engagements, including the battle of Shiloh, in which he received a severe wound. He is now living retired from active life at Chickasha, Oklahoma, as is also Mrs. Linn, who was born, reared and educated iu the State of Virginia.

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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