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 28

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 28

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Will Linn owes his primary education to the public schools of Calloway County, Kentucky, after leaving which he enrolled as a student at the University of Ken- tucky, and the Murray Male and Female Institute, at Murray. At the State University he was not satisfied with a single course, but took thorough preparation in the literary, medical and law departments, and was graduated in 1895 with the degree of Bachelor of Laws. Possessing a collegiate training, great energy, and a keen and analytical mind, it is not strange that he should succeed in his calling. His first practice was at Murray, Kentucky, from whence he went to Paducah, that state, and in 1905 came to Oklahoma and took up his residence at Chickasha, which has since been his home. He soon demonstrated his ability in several well- conducted litigated interests and from that time enjoyed a liberal clientage, his cases being prepared with great thoroughness and care and his arguments being clear, forceful and convincing. Thus he attracted favorable attention to himself, and in 1907, during the campaign incidental to statehood, became campaign manager of the democratic party in Grady County. Subsequently, when statehood was granted, Mr. Linn was made secre- tary of the State Elective Board, a capacity in which he served until September, 1910, when he resigned to accept the judgeship of the Superior Court of Grady County. In November, 1914, he was elected judge of the Fifteenth Judicial District Court, comprising the counties of Grady and Caddo, for the term of four years from January 1, 1915. His decisions in his judicial ca- pacity have been a full embodiment of the law applica- ble to the litigated points and have been entirely free from judicial bias, and his career on the bench has but strengthened his position in the confidence of the people. He was made a member of the Supreme Court, Division No. 5, January 15, 1916. Judge Linn is a member of the Grady County Bar Association and the Oklahoma State Bar Association. He is interested in fraternal matters, and is popular with his fellow-members in the local lodges of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Woodmen of the World, the Knights of Pythias, the Improved Order of Red Men and the Loyal Order of Moose.

Judge Linn was married iu 1912 to Miss Lena Brock, daughter of J. H. Brock, of Chickasha. The family home is at No. 1028 South Fifth Street.

DUTCH WHITE TURKEY. This well known citizen of Dewey is a full blooded Delaware Indian, has spent most of his life in Indian Territory, and a number of years ago he and his wife came into an important share of the prosperity which followed the discovery of oil in Wash- ington County. For the past ten years he has been engaged in the oil business, and has several wells on his own farm.

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HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA

Dutch White Turkey was boru in 1856 near Lawrence, Kansas, and both parents were of the Delaware Tribe. His father was White Turkey, and died when the son was about thirteen years of age. His father was a farmer in Kansas, and in March, 1867, came to the Cherokee Nation, lived at Fox Caney a time, and in other localities, and then bought a place very close to Bartlesville, comprising four acres, with a little log house and a brush fence. That was the early home of Dutch White Turkey, and his mother died about 1912. He received his education as a youth partly in Kansas and partly in Tahlequah, and for a number of years was engaged in farming and stock raising. He and his wife lave a farm of two hundred forty acres, and this was located in the district of the oil development, and there are several wells on the land.

Dutch White Turkey was the oldest in a family of eight children, the others being: Sam; Robert; Albert; George; Katie, who married James Day of Bartlesville; Lilly, wife of Dolph Fugate of Dewey; and Lucinda, deceased.

Dutch White Turkey married for his first wife Nellie Fallleaf, who died about 1885, leaving two children: Dennis, who lives at Dewey and married Pearl Thaxton of Dewey, and their three children are Beulah, Nellie and Hazel; and Charles, who died in infancy. In 1889 he married for his second wife Lizzie Thompson, who was born near Bartlesville, Oklahoma, in 1875, and both her parents were Delawares. Her father was Joe Thompson. She was the youngest of four children, the others being: Lilly, wife of Albert Curlyhead; James H .; and Amanda, who died in 1899, the wife of Henry Fallleaf. By the second marriage Mr. White Turkey has one child, Artie, who was born in 1898 and is attending school at Dewey.

CHARLES W. GUNTER. That "by their fruits ye shall know them" is an aphorism that has been significantly exemplified in the record of Mr. Gunter as state agent for Oklahoma for the Penn Mutual Life Insurance Com- pany, and apropos of his record the following pertinent statements are worthy of perpetuation in this article: "The distinction of having risen to the head of a state agency for one of the largest and most important life- insurance companies in the United States and in one year of a brief period of years having handled for his. company a greater volume of business than any other of its state agents in the South and Southwest with but one exception, belongs to Charles W. Gunter, and this precedence was achieved by him while he was yet in his thirtieth year. This record is illustrative of the character, progressiveness and initiative ability of young business men from older states who are contributing to the commercial development and prestige of Oklahoma." Mr. Gunter has been a resident of this state since 1909 and since 1910 has maintained his residence and business headquarters in Oklahoma City, as the energetic and valued incumbent of the responsible office designated in the initial sentence of this paragraph.

Mr. Gunter was born at LaGrange, Choctaw County, Mississippi, on the 6th of February, 1884, and is a repre- sentative of sterling families long and worthily identified with the history of the Southern states, his paternal great-grandfather, a native of Alabama, having been an early settler and influential citizen of the State of Mis- sissippi, and his maternal grandfather, George J. Givins, having been a pioneer in West Tennessee. Andrew Jack- son Gunter and Sarah Elizabeth (Givens) Gunter, the parents of the subject of this sketch, now reside at Mathiston, Webster County, Mississippi, the father hav- ing previously been for many years a successful planter and representative citizen of Choctaw County, that state, Vol. IV-7

and having now virtually retired from active business. The other surviving children are: John S., who is a sub- stantial planter at Mathiston, Mississippi; Felix E., who is vice-president of the Merchants Bank & Trust Com- pany at Jackson, the capital of that state; Mrs. William Lee Bell, whose husband is a planter near Mathiston, Webster County, Mississippi, and Mrs. Benjamin F. Bollis, wife of a prosperous planter in Choctaw County, that state, Mr. Bollis being a member of the Board of County Commissioners of that county.

After availing himself of the advantages of the public schools of his native state Charles W. Gunter completed a course in the Bennett Academy, in Northern Missis- sippi, and in initiating his independent career he assumed a position in the offices of the Penn Mutual Life Insurance Company at Jackson, Mississippi, where he continued in the service of this representative Penn- sylvania insurance corporation until 1909, when he came to the new State of Oklahoma and became the com- pany 's agent in the City of Ardmore, judicial center of Carter County. In the following year he was transferred to Oklahoma City, the capital and metropolis of the state, where he was placed in charge of the general agency for Oklahoma, the various branch offices in the state being consolidated with that at Oklahoma City.

When Mr. Gunter came to Oklahoma the Penn Mutual Life Insurance Company had $1,000,000 of insurance in force in this state, and since that time, with the earnest and effective co-operation of his assistants in this field, the company has been enabled to underwrite an average insurance of about $2,000,000, annually in Oklahoma, his careful study and marked executive ability hav- ing been combined with enthusiasm in his work and having inspired the vigorous efforts of the sub-agents working under his direction to such a degree that the company now has in force in Oklahoma insurance to the aggregate of fully $6,500,000. In addition to this splendid showing under the administration of Mr. Gunter, the Oklahoma City general office of the company collected in 1914 $165,000 in premiums, the business of this state agency during that year having exceeded that of any other save one of the company's general state offices in the South and Southwest, and the corps of local agents for the company in Oklahoma being now about 100 in number. Mr. Gunter is a member of the directorate of the Guaranty Bank of Oklahoma City and for two years was secretary of the Life Underwriters' Association of Oklahoma, in which he is now chairman of the membership committee. In 1912 he was appointed by Governor Lee Cruce one of the delegates from Okla- homa to the Southern Commercial Congress held in the City of Nashville, Tennessee. Mr. Gunter is most loyal and public-spirited as a citizen and is ever ready to lend his influence and co-operation in the furtherance of measures tending to advance the civic, moral, educa- tional and material progress and well-being of the com- munity. He is one of the alert and vigorous young busi- ness men of the capital city, where he is a valued mem- ber of the Chamber of Commerce, the Oklahoma City Ad Club, and the Men's Dinner Club, as well as the Country Club. He and his wife are zealous and influen- tial members of St. Luke's Church, Methodist Episcopal, South, in which he is serving as a steward and as super- intendent of the Sunday school. He had been an active church worker in his native state, where he had held official position in this connection, as did he also after establishing his residence at Ardmore, Oklahoma. At Jackson, Mississippi, he gave effective aid in erection of the new building of the Young Men's Christian Asso- ciation, and he is now one of the zealous workers for the supplying of the local association in Oklahoma City with a building suitable to meet the demands, his energy

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HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA

as a promoter of this laudable euterprise being inde- fatigable. In his home city he is affiliated with Lodge No. 231 of the Kuights of Pythias.

At Clinton, Louisiana, on the 20th of November, 1907, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Gunter to Miss Louise Currie, daughter of Edward Currie, who was for thirty years a representative merchant of that city. Mr. Currie and his wife now reside in Oklahoma City and it is worthy of note that in 1914 he led other local agents iu the amount of business secured for the Penu Mutual Life Insurance Company. Mr. and Mrs. Gunter have one child, Louise Currie, who was born in 1913.

HON. THOMAS W. LEAHY. Not a few of those who have won distinction and success at the bar and on the bench of Oklahoma have been natives of the Badger state, and among them few are better or more favor- ably known than Thomas W. Leahy, county judge of Muskogee County, who has been an incumbent of that bench since his first election in 1910. During the past fifteen years he has been a resident of Muskogee, and in this time has been almost constantly before the public in a favorable light, either as public official or private practitioner. His record in either capacity is one which will bear the closest scrutiny, and his services have been of a nature to commend him to his fellow-citizens.

Judge Thomas W. Leahy was born at Mineral Point, Wisconsin, May 16, 1875, a son of Patrick E. and Rosa A. (Smith) Leahy. His father was born in New Hampshire, a son of Thomas and Mary (Kendrick) Leahy, who were born, reared and married in Ireland, from which country they came to the United States about the year 1840 and finally settled at Darlington, Wisconsin, where the remaining years of their lives were passed, the father losing his life rather early in a railroad accident. There were eight children in the family.

Patrick E. Leahy was a young man when he went with his parents to Wisconsin, and there entered upon his career as a railroad conductor, having a passenger run on the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad for more than forty years. He is now deceased. During his railroad service he resided in Wisconsin, Iowa and Missouri, and in those states Judge Leahy was reared. The widow of Patrick E. Leahy survives him and now resides in Chicago, Illinois. She is a daughter of Thomas Smith, who was born and married in Ireland, and who as a young married man brought his wife to the United States and settled at Mineral Point, Wis- consin, where they made their home during the re- mainder of their lives. Thomas Smith was a soldier during the Mexican war, and in a successful effort to save the life of General Scott, he himself received a serious wound from which he sustained permanent injury, this disqualifying him from active service in the busi- ness world, as well as from service during the Civil war, in which four of his sons were Union soldiers. He was eighty-five years of age when he died, while his wife passed away when she as eighty-three, and as the paternal grandmother of Judge Leahy was eighty- one years old at the time of her demise, it will be seen that he comes of a long-lived family.

As already observed, Judge Leahy was reared in Wisconsin, Iowa and Missouri, and having laid his educational foundation in the public schools of these states, in 1895 graduated from the Marion (Iowa) High School. From the law department of the Wis- consin University he was graduated in 1901, and at the same time was admitted to the bar in Wisconsin. Immediately thereafter, he came to Muskogee, then a city of about 3,000 people, and for the first five years was assistant chief law clerk in the Department of the

Interior for the Federal Government at Muskogee. For three years thereafter, Julge Leahy was engaged in the general practice of law, and in 1910 was elected as the democratic candidate to the office of county judge of Muskogee County. His record during that term was so unimpeachable from every standpoint of professional conduct and absolute justice, his decisions and general dispatch of business were so prompt and yet courteous, that he was re-elected in 1912 and again in 1914. Capable, diligent and absolutely fair, he has retained in full measure the popularity which was his during the beginning of his judicial career, and has steadily added to his wide circle of friends, as well as to his reputation. Although he votes with the demo- cratic party, it has never been intimated that his judi- cial proceedings have been in any way affected by his party preferences. Judge Leahy was reared a Catholic and has continued to remain a member of that faith. He is widely knowu in fraternal circles, and holds mem- bership in the Knights of Columbus, the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, the Modern Woodmen of America, the Woodmen of the World and the Ancient Order of United Workmen, as well as the Phi Delta Theta college fraternity, the Phi Delta Phi law fraternity, and the University Club of Muskogee.

In 1911 Judge Leahy was united in marriage with Miss Martha Fears, of Muskogee.

JAY R. HANNAH. For the past decade Oklahoma has offered a specially inviting field in which to initiate pro- fessional or business activities on the part of young men of ability and the vital spirit of ambition. The product of the state's university and other educational insti- tutions of higher learning has scattered itself in the most favored communities and accounted well for itself. Probably no other state in the Union of comparable pop- ulation has so great a percentage of vigorous and suc- cessful young men engaged in professional work. In nearly every town of importance in every county of the state may be found one or more young men who are laying the foundation for professional prestige of high order and who exemplify fully the progressive spirit of the vital young commonwealth with which they have cast in their lot. The field has naturally been inviting also to young men from other states, especially Texas and Kansas, and the universities of those states have made what may be termed far more than normal contribution to the citizenship of Oklahoma. Among the young men who have come here from the University of Kansas is Jay R. Hannah, who has been engaged in the practice of law in this state since 1912 and who is now the junior member of the representative law firm of Elting & Hannah, of Durant, the judicial center of Bryan County, where it controls a substantial general practice that is constantly expanding in scope and importance. By his classmates and by the legal fraternity in Kansas he will be recalled as editor, in 1911-12, of the Kansas Lawyer, published at Lawrence, the seat of the Univer- sity of Kansas, and constitutiug the official organ of the legal fraternity of that state. In 1912 Mr. Hannah completed in the law department of the University of Kansas the course which leads to the degree of Bachelor of Laws, and a few months after his graduation he returned to Oklahoma, where his parents had estab- lished their home in 1900, and engaged in the practice of his profession at Tonkawa, Kay County, where he remained until the spring of 1913, when he established his residence at Durant, where he has since continued in practice and where he has made a record that places him among the leading lawyers of the younger generation in this section of the state. He acquired his early educa-

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HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA

tion in the public schools of the City of St. Joseph, Mis- souri, and after the removal of the family to Oklahoma he here completed, in 1908, a course in the university preparatory school at Tonkawa, after which he entered the law department of the University of Kansas, in which he was graduated as a member of the class of 1912, as previously noted. Mr. Hannah is a member of the Bryan County Bar Association and the Oklahoma State Bar Association, the Phi Delta Phi college fra- ternity claiming him as one of its valued and appre- ciative fraters. He is actively identified with the Durant Commercial Club and is affiliated with the local organi- zations of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and Woodmen of the World, besides which he holds member- ship in the Kansas University Club, his political alle- giance being given to the democratic party.

Jay R. Hannah was born at Newton, the judicial cen- ter of Jasper County, Iowa, in the year 1889, and is a . son of Dr. Joseph Warren Hannah and Nora Edith (Holmes) Hannah. Doctor Hannah was born in Ohio, a representative of one of the honored pioneer families of that state, and after his graduation in the North- western Medical College at St. Joseph, Missouri, he was engaged in the practice of his profession in Iowa for a number of years. In 1900 he came to Kay County, Okla- homa, where he continued his professional labors' until his removal to Durant, Bryan County, where he built up an excellent practice. He and his wife now maintain their home in the State of Missouri. His father was one of the pioneer members of the bar of the State of Iowa, there continuing in practice many years and for a time serving on the bench of the County Court.

In 1913, at Tonkawa, Oklahoma, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Hannah to Miss Mayme Goodman, daughter of Dr. Sanford T. Goodman, a pioneer phy- sician and surgeon of Kay County. Mrs. Hannah was graduated in the University of Oklahoma, and later did effective post-graduate work in Leland Stanford .Uni- versity, in California; the great University of Chicago, and Cornell University, at Ithaca, New York, besides which she took a course in the Patton School of Expres- sion, in the City of Chicago. Mrs. Hannah prepared herself for professional work and for two years was teacher of expression at the University Preparatory School at Tonkawa, Oklahoma. While in Chicago she had for a time the active charge of the Junior Dramatic League of America. Since her marriage she has to a certain extent continued her professional work and her gracious personality and high attainments make her a popular favorite in social circles, the while her dis- tinctive talent as a dramatic reader causes her interpo- sition to be much sought in connection with public enter- tainments of varied orders. Mr. and Mrs. Hannah have a daughter, Mary Bess, who was born in the year 1914.

HON. JACOB LEE CARPENTER. Possessed of legislative experience acquired in Texas and of a knowledge of law and law-making gained through many years of suc- cessful practice, Senator Carpenter, from the Fourth Senatorial District and a well known lawyer of Mangum, entered the Fourth Legislature of Oklahoma as one of its strongest and most valuable members. He distin- quished himself as a supporter of the administration of Gov. Lee Cruce, who, during that session, was subjected to much criticism at the hands of members of the Legis- lature and others, and in the end, when Cruce was cleared of accusations and declared to be an honest and consci- entious official, Senator Carpenter received the plaudits of the administration forces. Later, in deference to a friend who was an applicant for the position, he declined to accept appointment at the hands of Governor Cruce

as a member of the Oklahoma Supreme Court. So popu- lar was he in Greer County that the democratic county convention in session adopted a resolution requesting him to become the nominee of the party for the State Senate.

Born in Fannin County, Texas, in 1866, Senator Car- penter is a son of Conrad H. and Harriett (Williamson) Carpenter, both of whom were descended from an illus- trious ancestry. The father, a native of Kentucky, set- tled as a farmer in Texas in 1842. The mother was a native of the State of Texas.

Senator Carpenter received his primary education in the public schools, completing a high school course un- der Prof. J. S. Burnett at Stephensville, Texas. After graduation he taught in the public schools of Texas for several years, and while teaching, in 1894, was elected a member of the Twenty-fourth Legislature. In that body he was the author of the present fee and salary bill of Texas, although it was not passed finally until after the convening of the Twenty-fifth Legislature, of which he was a member. This measure passed after one of the hardest fought battles in Texas law making. The session lasted from 3 P. M. on Friday until 5 A. M. of the fol- lowing Sunday, and a call of the house was made neces- sary during this period. .

Senator Carpenter became a resident of Oklahoma about the time that Greer County was detached from the Texas jurisdiction. He located at Mangum May 24, 1901. He had previously been admitted to the bar, and has since been in active practice at Mangum. He was elected a member of the Senate of the Fourth Legislature and was chairman of the legal advisory committee. He was the author of an important measure passed providing that the State should collect royalty for sand and gravel taken from the river beds of the State to which the State had title. He was author of a bill conferring authority upon the governor to investigate charges against elected county and State officials and to dis- charge them from office on proof of delinquency. The bill failed of passage. He was author of a bill reducing the penalty on delinquent taxes from 18 to 10 per cent, which failed to pass both houses and he offered the same bill in the Fifth Legislature. In the Fifth Legislature he was chairman of the committee on legal advisory and a member of committees on constitution and constitu- tional amendments, public service corporations, public buildings, senate and legislative affairs, penal institu- tions and prohibition enforcement. With Senator Thomas he was the author of a bill preventing unjust and destructive competition. He favored economy in public office, as few appropriations as possible, and was a supporter on the administration on measures designed to effect better service and more economy in government.

On June 2, 1902, Senator Carpenter married Miss Charley Benjamin Mecham of Mangum, who for several years had been a teacher in the Mangum public schools. They have two children: Julia Katherine, aged nine, and Jacob Lee, Jr., aged five. Senator Carpenter has a sister and three brothers: Miss Mattie Emily Carpenter, a milliner at Olney, Texas; Conrad C. and James D., farmers at Olney; and Henry C., a lawyer at Olney.

Senator Carpenter is a member of the Methodist Epis- copal Church, South, at Mangum, and for several years has been chairman of the Board of Stewards of that organization. He is not a member of any secret society. Mrs. Carpenter is an active church worker, taking an im- portant part in the activities of the Women's Mission- ary Society and other organizations of the church. Since coming to Oklahoma Senator Carpenter has contributed much as a public-spirited citizen toward the upbuilding of his town and county.

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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