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 29

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 29

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HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA

CHARLES W. RASURE, now serving as county superin- tendent of the schools of Caddo County, is gaining much distinction as an educator in this section of the state and during his long connection with the schools of Oklahoma and Texas has succeeded in greatly raising the intellectual standard and promoting the efficiency of the system as a preparation for the responsible duties of life. Indeed, the constant aim and general character of Professor Rasure's life work are summed up in the famous dictum of Sidney Smith,-that "The real object of education is to give children resources that will endure as long as life endures; habits that time will ameliorate, not destroy; occupation that will render sickness tolerable, solitude pleasant, age venerable, life more dignified and useful, and death less terrible."

A son of George A. aud Mary (Ford) Rasure, Pro- fessor Rasure was born at Booneville, Indiana, Febru- ary 6, 1870. His ancestry is traced to fine old Penu- sylvania Dutch stock and his grandfather, Paul Rasure, born in 1793, removed from the Keystone state to Kentucky and thence to the vicinity of Booneville, Indiana, where his demise occurred in 1877. George A. Rasure was born near Louisville, Kentucky, in 1824, and he was summoned . to the life eternal at Booneville, Indiana, July 5, 1897. He was engaged in the great basic industry of agriculture during the greater part of his active career and his religious faith coincided with the teachings of the Christian Church, in which he was an elder. He married Rachel Thompson, who died at Booneville, and to them were born six children, three of whom are living; Mary E., wife of Louis Hall, resides near Sulphur Springs, Texas; William T., a farmer on the old homestead in Indiana; and John L., a farmer ncar Sulphur Springs, Texas. For his second wife Mr. Rasure married Mary Ford Floyd, widow of B. B. Floyd; she was born in Indiana, in 1827, and died in 1880. To this union were born two children: Jesse A., a merchant at Sulphur Springs, Texas; and Charles W., the immediate subject of this review.

Professor Rasure resided in his native state until 1890 and received his preliminary educational training in the public schools of Folsomville, Indiana. In that year he removed to Sulphur Springs, Texas, and engaged in farming for the ensuing two years. He then taught school in Fannin County, Texas, for two years, at the end of which he located at Throckmorton, Texas, there attending high school through the junior year. He then attended the North Texas Normal School for a time and subsequently was a student in the East Texas Normal School. For nineteen years he taught school in the Lone Star state and during four of those years was principal of schools at Graham, Texas. September 10, 1910, marks his advent in Oklahoma and on that date he located at Binger, where he was principal of schools from 1912 to 1914. November 6, 1914, he was honored by his fellow men with election to the office of county superintendent of schools, an incumbency he is filling with the utmost distinction. Professor Rasure co- operates with the teachers under his jurisdiction and under his able management a splendid educational sys- tem is being built up.

In politics Professor Rasure is a stalwart democrat and in religious matters he is a devout member of the Christian Church. He affiliates with the Knights of Pythias at Graham, Texas, and with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows at Anadarko, Oklahoma. He gives an earnest support to all matters tending to improve the general welfare of his home community and commands the unalloved confidence and esteem of his fellow citizens at Anadarko.

Professor Rasure has been twice married. December

26, 1894, was solemnized his marriage to Miss Maggie Bludworth, a daughter of Rev. W. H. Bludworth, a minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, at Sulphur Springs, Texas. She died at Graham, Texas, in 1902, and is survived by two children: Odessa, boru May 1, 1897, resides at the paternal home; and Willard, born October 15, 1902, is a pupil in the public schools at Anadarko. For his second wife Professor Rasure mar- ried Miss Florence Brazleton, a daughter of Frank P. Brazleton, a farmer and cotton-ginner in Texas. This union has been prolific of one child, Modena, whose nativity occurred January 16, 1908.

VERY REV. BERNARD JAMES FRANCIS MUTSAERS. By far the largest Catholic parish in Oklahoma is that sur- rounding and under the supervision of St. Joseph's Cathedral at Oklahoma City. The pastor of the cathedral · for the past ten years has been Rev. Bernard James Francis Mutsaers, who has accomplished a remarkable work in building up this parish and in keeping the insti- tutions and functions of the church apace with the re- markable growth of the city itself. How well he has succeeded can be judged by the fact that the membership of his congregation now surpasses the 4,000 mark.

For sixteen years Rev. Fr. Mutsaers has been in America and practically all that time has been devoted to the work of the ministry in Oklahoma. He was born September 2, 1872, in Tilburg, Holland, in the Province of Noord Brabant. From the age of ten, from 1882 until 1897, he attended different institutions in Holland, and on June 12, 1897, was ordained a priest of the Catholic Church at Bois-Le-Duc in Holland by Bishop Van de Ven of the Diocese of 's Hertogenbosch. After a short term as assistant priest at Heusden on the Meuse he went in the fall of 1897 to Rome, where he matriculated as a student of the Gregoriana, a papal university under the direction of the Jesuit Fathers. Chief of his professors were Bucceroni, Wernz, later general of the Jesuit Order, and Billot, now cardinal. He found a very valuable friend and tutor in Fr. William Van Rossum, C. SS. R., now cardinal, and the only Dutch cardinal in the last 400 years. After making various degrees he was finally made a Doctor of Sacred Theology on July 19, 1900, at which time the jubilee was celebrated in Rome under the auspices of Pope Leo XIII.

After this extensive preparation and service in the old country, and following a short stay with his relatives in Holland, Father Mutsaers set out for New York, and soon joined the Oklahoma Diocese, and was assigned to King- fisher. In the spring of 1901 he was moved to St. John's Indian School at Gray Horse, Oklahoma, and in the fall of the same year was made rector of St. Mary's Cathedral at Guthrie, then the capital of the state. After five years of service at Guthrie Father Mutsaers in the summer of 1906 was promoted to be rector of St. Joseph's Cathedral of Oklahoma City, his present position. There he has lived and worked and has seen his work prosper and in- crease, for a period of ten years.

As a student, and later on occasional visits to Europe, Father Mutsaers traveled extensively over France, Spain, Belgium, Germany, Holland, Greece, Egypt, Austria Hun- gary and Italy. In the spring of 1906 he spent a season in the Holy Land, visiting many of the places of interest. In 1911 he went to Cuba and from there sailed over the course probably followed by Columbus from Havana to Spain. He is a man of charming personality, has a great range of intellectual interests, and while devoted to his church and especially his parish, the esteem paid him in Oklahoma City is not confined within sectarian bounds.

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HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA

MONROE U. AYRES. Some of the pioneers of old Indian Territory who settled on the fertile lands along Red River are for the most part reaping the rich rewards produced by the courage and hardihood of their forbears, yet there is that in the young generation that gives evi- dence of the same sort of courage that marked the lives of those pioneer settlers. These are the years when the pioneers are retiring and leaving the future of the country in the hands of their sons and grandsons. The fact is of interest in this region because the present generation is sitting, as it were, on the front porch of the preceding generation and reading in the fields and woods and streams the stories of fifty years that are fraught with examples of courage and of hardships that were not surpassed in frequency or intensity in the annals of many of the older states. One of the young men of the present who is building well on the foundation set by his father is Mr. Ayres, son of William A. Ayres, a native of North Texas, who for fifteen years has been a leader in the development of Southern Oklahoma, The elder Ayres was among the early settlers of Grayson County, Texas, which is just over the river from the region surrounding Woodville. The latter's father was a pioneer merchant of Mckinney, Texas, and the family has been prominent in the agricultural and industrial development of North Texas for the past sixty years.

Monroe U. Ayres was born at Denison, Texas, in 1883. He was educated in the public schools of Grayson County and in Harshaw's Business College at Denison. His first experience in business was as a clerk in the office of the "Katy" car accountant at Denison, before he was seventeen years old. Fifteen years ago he crossed into the Indian country and became a clerk in a general merchandise store. Later he entered the First National Bank as a bookkeeper and in due time he was promoted to the position of cashier. The First National Bank of Woodville has a capital stock of $25,000 and is one of the foremost financial institutions of Marshall County. J. T. Ingram is president and S. W. Henry is vice presi- dent. The bank got its charter as a national organiza- tion in 1905, prior to which time it had been conducted as a private bank by a number of its present stock- holders.

Mr. Ayres was one of a family of five children, and he has two brothers and two sisters. Earl Ayres is a merchant in Woodville. Ernest is operating a farm in the vicinity of this town. One sister is the wife of Ollie Beard, a cashier of the Merchants National Bank of Lehigh, Oklahoma, and the other, Aletha, is the wife of a Mr. Luttrell of Lehigh.

Mr. Ayres is a member of the Church of Christ, and of the Oklahoma Bankers Association. He has held various offices in local government and his citizenship is of a high order. He owns a nice orchard near Wood- ville, and is generally interested in the agricultural enterprise. He has his residence in Woodville.

FARRAR L. MCCAIN. Particularly distinguished among Muskogee's residents and professional men is Farrar L. McCain-popularly known as Judge McCain. He had made good to a brilliant degree before coming to Ok- lahoma and Muskogee is to be congratulated on the fact that his talents have been transplanted to this community. Hitherto an Arkansan, his parentage points back to prominence in North Carolina and Tennessee as well, with records of Revolutionary service in still earlier generations. In the national struggle for inde- pendence, Judge McCain's great-grandfather was a cap- tain of great patriotic activity. The family was of Scotch-Irish origin and have been particularly well known in North Carolina, which was the birthplace of the judge's grandfather, William Ross MeCain. The

latter removed to Tipton County, Tennessee, the native place of his son, William S. McCain, who lived to be- come the father of our subject and to whose history we pause to devote some brief details.

A short time after the close of the Civil war, Wil- liam S. McCain settled in Arkansas, where he married Miss Eliza Chesnutt, a native of that state, but a daughter of Alabama parents. They established a home notable for characteristics peculiarly those of the Scotch-Irish race-thrift, frugality and intellectual ideals, combined with sturdy piety. The religion of Scotch Presbyterianism was theirs by descent and has been loyally adhered to by their household. Four sons were born to William and Eliza McCain, the eldest being Farrar L. McCain, the subject of this review, who was born on December 16, 1874, at Monticello, Drew County, Arkansas.

Farrar McCain's father before him was a lawyer. He practiced in Drew County for a time and in 1877 removed to Pine Bluff, in the same state. Another change of location, in 1885, made the family residents of the City of Little Rock, Arkansas. There William S. McCain rose to distinction in the legal profession in which he was active until the end of his life, in 1808. The same city is still the home of Mrs. McCain, our subject's mother,

The education of Farrar L. McCain was obtained first from private schools; then from conrses in the Methodist College at Little Rock, and later from Ar- kansas College, at Batesville, where he received the de- gree of Bachelor of Arts. Having elected to follow the profession of law, no better tutelage could be wished for than that which the young man could be given by his father. Natural gifts, a good foundation, his own enthusiasm and his father's interest all combined to make his progress rapid indeed, and the very day on which Farrar McCain attained to his majority saw him admitted to the practice of law in the district courts of Arkansas. In the following year he was admitted to practice before the Supreme Court of the state.

As a lawyer of established status, Mr. McCain be- came an associate of his father's firm in Little Rock and in time William McCain and his son became the sole members of the firm. Their practice was extensive and important in quality and continued on the same basis for ten years during which time Farrar McCain was honored by election to the Arkansas Legislature. In 1904 he came to Muskogee.

In 1909 Mr. McCain was appointed by Governor Haskell to the office of superior court judge at Muskogee. In the following year he was again proffered this office by the election of citizens and held it from 1910 until 1914. In the latter year he resigned to accept the gen- eral attorneyship of the Midland Valley Railroad for Oklahoma. Although he had been honored by re-election to his judgeship at primary election, he chose to lay down the reins of political office for the active legal practice of the railroad connection.

Judge McCain has ever been active in the councils of the democratic party. He has served as chairman of both the city and county committees as well as on the Executive Committee of both organizations. He has furthermore been a delegate to many political con- ventions and has been otherwise active, In his pro- fession he has risen to prominence as president of the Muskogee City Bar Association. Fraternally he is a meni- ber both of the fraternal order of Elks and of the Modern Woodmen and Masons. In church affiliation he is a Presbyterian. The judge's life companion is a former Arkansas lady, nee Katherine Adams, to whom he was married on January 31, 1900, at Little Rock, Arkansas.

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HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA

The second generation of the Muskogee family of Me- Cain consists of Mr. and Mrs. McCain's one son, Samuel Barton McCain.

HODGE BAILEY. In 1914, when the voters of Grady County sought material to fill efficiently and creditably the office of sheriff, they looked toward a farm near Rush Springs, where they found Hodge Bailey, who until this time had not been the incumbent of any important public position. He had, however, both as merchant and agriculturist, demonstrated the possession of qualities which justified his promotion to the responsible office to which he was called, and in which, during his present short incumbency, he has fully vindicated the faith placed in him.

Sheriff Bailey is a native of the Cracker State, born in 1871, a son of J. Hodge and E. P. (Crossley) Bailey. His father, who in early manhood had been a Georgia blacksmith, moved to Saint Jo, Montague County, Texas, where he engaged in farming and continued therein during the remaining years of his life, dying several years ago. Hodge Bailey has two brothers: T. J., who is a ranchman at Corona, New Mexico; and J. M., who is engaged in merchandising at Rush Springs, Oklahoma. Hodge Bailey received his education in the public schools of Montague County, Texas, whence he was taken when still a small child, and was brought up to agricultural pursuits. On attaining his majority, he embarked on his own career as a farmer, and this continued to be his sole occupation until he entered the mercantile business at Rush Springs, Oklahoma. In 1901 his mother was awarded a homestead by the United States Government, at the time of the Kiowa and Comanche country was opened to settlement, and on this claim, with his own land adjoining, Mr. Bailey has since resided. He has been particularly successful in the development of a handsome farm, with modern improvements of every kind, and including large and handsome buildings. He has specialized in the growing of feed and the breeding of hogs, and his farm is sub-irrigated, so that the years of short rainfall have not brought him a crop failure. As a progressive and up-to-date agriculturist, he has always favored the most modern methods and appliances, and few men have contributed encouragement to agricultural progress in greater degree.

Mr. Bailey was married September 24, 1891, at Saint Jo, Texas, to Miss Mary Bell Wade. To this union there have been born two children: Joseph Eldon, aged twenty-two years, who has completed a common school education and a course in the Chickasha Business College, and who is now assisting his father in operating the home farm; and Elmer Wade, aged fourteen years, who is a student in the Chickasha High School.

As before related, Mr. Bailey was elected sheriff of Grady County in 1914. and took up the duties of that office in January, 1915. Thus far he has conducted the office on a conservative and business-like basis, fearing no element and seeking to follow out faithfully the teaching of his official oath. He is a member of the local lodge of the Woodmen of the World and of the Anti Horse Thief Association, of which he was treasurer for several years. His office is in the courthouse.

WILLIAM WIRT HASTINGS. Speaking without dis- paragement of any other members of the Oklahoma dele- gation to Congress, it is doubtful if any one of the present congressmen is better fitted by long residence, active participation in affairs, and general ability and talent, to represent his particular district in the National Legislature than William Wirt Hastings, of Tahlequah. A lawyer by profession, Mr. Hastings for

fully twenty years has been prominent as a rep- resentative of his people in their varied relations with the Department of Indian Affairs and Congress, and while he is thus so close to the life and spirit of the people whom he represents, Mr. Hastings is by no means a stranger in Washington, having gone there repeatedly on official business.

He was born December 31, 1866, in what is now Dela- ware County, Oklahoma, a son of Yell and Louisa J. (Stover) Hastings. His father was born in 1842 in Benton County, Arkansas, a son of William Hastings, who came of an old Tennessee family of English origin. The mother was born in what is now Delaware County, Oklahoma, and has spent all her life in practically that one locality. Her father, John Stover, was a native of Georgia, and married Charlotte Ward, who was a mem- ber of the Cherokee Tribe, and from her William W. Hastings gained his Indian blood and citizenship. Mr. Hastings' parents were married in 1864, and have ever since lived in what is now Delaware County. His father was a Confederate soldier, serving throughout the war, but aside from that his steady vocation has been that of farming.

Congressman Hastings grew up on a farm and had the wholesome environment of the country as an im- portant early influence on his mind and character. He attended the Cherokee Tribal Schools and in 1884 grad- uated from the Cherokee Male Seminary at Tahlequah. He then entered Vanderbilt University at Nashville, Tennessee, first in the literary department and later as a student of law, and in 1889 was graduated LL. B. As a means of paying the expenses of his higher education he had already taught school, and afterwards continued the same work while getting established as a lawyer. After one year spent as principal teacher in the Chero- kee Orphan Asylum, Mr. Hastings began the practice of law at Tahlequah in 1890, so that his professional career covers a period of a quarter of a century.

Since then official honors and responsibilities have come thick and fast, and have often left him no time to look after his private practice. In November, 1890, he was elected superintendent of schools for the Cherokee Nation and held that position one year. In November, 1891, he was appointed attorney general for the Cherokee Tribe, an office he held four years. His first experience in Washington came with his appointment in 1892 as one of the delegates to represent his nation at the national capital, and while there he assisted in ratifying the treaty on March 3, 1893, providing for the sale of what is known as the Cherokce Strip, which in the fall of the same year was opened to settlement and is now divided among a number of some of the finest and richest counties of Northwestern Oklahoma. Mr. Hast- ings was again a delegate from the Cherokee Nation to Washington in 1896, in 1899, and finally in 1905.

By Act of Congress March 3, 1893, the Dawes Com- mission was created and by Act of June 10, 1896, was given jurisdiction to hear applications for admission to citizenship in the five civilized tribes. Mr. Hastings was employed as one of the attorneys to represent before that commission the tribal interests of the Cherokees. As is well known, the powers of the Dawes Commission were enlarged and extended from year to year, until it became the chief instrument for the settlement of the many vexed problems and questions arising during the proc- ess of alloting the Indian lands and converting the civilized tribes to the relations of American citizens. For more than ten years Mr. Hastings was one of the chief representatives of the Cherokees in their negotiations with this body, and continued his duties in that capacity up to 1907, when the tribal rolls were

Catherine Thrilkeld 1, 2 ,

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HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA

completed. In January, 1906, Mr. Hastings was em- ployed as national attorney for the Cherokees, the appointment being approved by the President of the United States. In this position he was in exclusive control of tribal interests before all Federal Courts and before Congress, and remained as national attorney until June 30, 1914. He had the handling of many important law suits in which the Cherokee Nation was involved, and the remarkable part of that record is that he never lost a single suit contested by him.

In practical politics Mr. Hastings has long been a leader in the democratic party in his section of the territory and, state. In 1892 he presided over the first democratic convention of the Indian Territory, and has otherwise been active in party affairs, including ser- vice rendered as a delegate to the National Democratic convention in Baltimore in 1912, in which body he was one of the original Wilson delegates. In August, 1914, at the democratic primaries, he won the nomination for Congress from the Second Congressional District, and was regularly elected in November, 1914, and took his seat in the sixty-fourth Congress.

Fraternally Mr. Hastings is a thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason, also belongs to the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, is a Knight of Pythias and a member of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. His Greek Letter college fraternity is the Delta Tau Delta. His wife is a member of the Presbyterian Church and he gives his support to that denomination. On December 9, 1896, Mr. Hastings married Miss Lulu Starr, daughter of Charles and Ruth (Adair) Starr. They are the parents of three children: Lucile Ahnawake, Mayıne Starr and Lillian Adair Hastings.

MRS. CATHERINE THRELKELD, M. D. The distinction of being the only woman physician in Oklahoma, and probably in the entire Southwest, to be appointed county commissioner of health, is held by Dr. Catherine Threl- keld, who holds this preferment in Pontotoc County and who is engaged in the successful practice of her pro- fession at Ada, the county seat. Her appointment to this important office was made in the spring of 1915, by Dr. John W. Duke, of Guthrie, state commissioner of health under the administration of Governor Robert L. Williams. The appointment was of further interest in view of the fact that Dr. Threlkeld had been engaged in the practice of her profession little more than one year and had not taken up the profession of medicine until she had reared two daughters to adult age and had otherwise removed all other domestic restrictions to her ambitious and noble purpose. Being the wife of an able physician to whom she had given most effective assis- tance during a period of ten years prior to her preparing specifically for the same exacting profession, she ex- perienced a constantly increasing ambition and desire to prepare herself thoroughly for the profession in which she has already gained marked success and prestige. When her younger daughter was three years of age Dr. Threlkeld yielded to her ambition to the extent of pack- ing her trunk and making ready to depart for a medical school, but the instincts of motherhood prevailed and she sacrificed ambition to maternal devotion until her children had attained to adult years, when she found clear her way to the goal which she had long desired to gain. On the 2d of June, 1913, she was graduated in the American Medical College, in the City of St. Louis, Missouri, this being the medical department of the National University of Arts and Sciences, from which splendid institution she thus received her coveted degree of Doctor of Medicine, her active practice as a physician and surgeon having been initiated at Ada in January, 1914.

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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