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 3

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 3

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

member of the city council. He owns his place of busi- ness at Sentinel and a home at Hobart. Doctor Burke is a democrat, has been a member of the Baptist Church since he was ten years of age and has served as a deacon since 1902. On February 6, 1877, at Lafayette, Tennessee, he married Miss Josie Talley, daughter of William Talley, who was a farmer at Lafayette. Miss Talley was born at Allen, Kentucky, in 1861. Mr. Burke and wife have two children: J. L .; and Ola, wife of B. N. Woodson, Jr., head manager for the Emerson- Brandenburg Implement Company, a wholesale concern at Kansas City, Missouri, where he and his wife reside.

J. L. Burke received his early education in the public schools of Smith's Grove, his native- town, aud at the normal school in Glasgow, Kentucky, from which he ob- tained a first grade teacher's certificate in: 1900. Follow- ing that for one year he was principal of the school at Walnut Grove, Kentucky, and in 1901 moved to Hobart, among the pioneers. For the past ten years he has had the undertaking field to himself regardless of the com- petition of the other four men who engaged in that busi- ness in Kiowa County in 1901.

Mr. Burke is now president of the State Embalming Board, and served two years as president of the Oklahoma Funeral Directors Association. At the meeting of this association held in Oklahoma City in the early days of June, 1915, he received every one of all the votes cast except one ballot to fill the vacaucy which occurred at the expiration of his own term in April, 1915, as a member of the State Embalming Board. There were six other candidates for this position. Mr. Burke's offices

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are in the Hockensmith Building on Jefferson Street in Hobart. As a leading figure in the democratic party, he was three times elected county coroner of Kiowa County, leading the county ticket the last two times. He has been chairman of the Democratic Central Committee of Kiowa County, served one term as president of the local school board and in the fall of 1914 managed the candidacy of James McClintic for Congress from this district, and contrary to general expectations his candi- date was successful.

He has also served as a director of the Hobart Chamber of Commerce and of the Hobart Industrial Association. Mr. Burke was appointed postmaster at Hobart in December, 1915, by President Wilson, taking the office in January, 1916, and being acting postmaster from December 7 to March 4. He is a member of the official board of the Baptist Church and his fraternal relations are with Lodge No. 881, Benevolent and Pro- tective Order of Elks, at Hobart, with Hobart Camp No. 84 of the Woodmen of the World, and with Hobart Lodge of the Knights of Pythias.

In December, 1901, at Smith's Grove, Kentucky, Mr. Burke married Miss Mattie Bland, a daughter of the late Edward Bland of the Blands of Virginia, who was a banker at Smith's Grove. To their marriage have been born seven children: Jenie L., born November 28, 1902; Helen, born May 3, 1905; and Edward, born June 27, 1907, all three of whom are attending the Hobart public schools; Sarah Lee, born in January, 1910; Virginia, born December, 1911; Mary, born August, 1913; and Bryan, born February, 1915.

CHARLES C. HAMMONDS. A native son of the Lone Star Stato and one who early became familiar with the industrial activities of the frontier, Mr. Hammonds, who is now serving as state fire marshal of Oklahoma, is one of those strong and picturesque pioneers who, after suc- cessfully conducting operations as ranchmen for years, gave up their ranches, sold their herds and moved into centers of civilization to enjoy the modern advantages that came with the march of progress and development. He has shown his versatility by successful association with other lines of enterprise and is one of the well known and highly esteemed citizens of the fine young state within whose borders he settled in 1895, when he "made the run" into the Kickapoo Indian country at the time it was opened to settlement. He there obtained a quarter section of land, and though he never occupied the same he eventually perfected his title to the prop- erty.

Mr. Hammonds was born in Navarro County, Texas, in 1852, and is a son of Rev. John J. and Malinda (Lindsay) Hammonds, who were honored pioneers of that state. Rev. John J. Hammonds was a native of Kentucky, became a resident of Texas in 1836 and was a soldier in the Mexican war, through which Texas became annexed to the United States. He served under the gallant Gen. Sam Houston and took part in the historic battle of San Jacinto. After the close of the war he became extensively engaged in dealing in cattle and horses, the while he continued his earnest and unselfish labors as a pioneer local clergyman of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. He was a man of superior intellectual power and both he and his wife were representatives of fine old southern families, he having been a kinsman of President Andrew Johnson and his wife having been a relative of President Zachary Taylor. This honored Texan pioneer passed to the life eternal in 1867 and his wife survived him by a number of years. Of their nine children only two are living,-

Charles C., of this review, and John C., who is a pros- perous farmer near the City of Corsicana, Texas.

Though reared under the untrameled conditions and associations of the frontier, Charles C. Hammonds was favored in having the influences of a home of marked culture, and after availing himself of the advantages of the common schools of the day and an academy in the City of Corsicana, Texas, he there attended also an excellent institution known as Bishop's Military College. He was but fourteen years old at the time of his father's death, but he assumed charge of the interests of the family estate and though he was but a boy he manifested much discrimination and maturity of judg- ment in this connection. Later he removed, to Callahan County, Texas, where he was engaged in ranching for a period of eleven years. For the ensuing nine years he operated a ranch in Crockett County, that state, and he then removed with his cattle to the Creek Nation of Indian Territory, in which section he made settlement at Checotah. There he finally abandoned the cattle business, and in 1895 he obtained a homestead of 160 acres at the opening of the Kickapoo Indian country to settlement, as noted in the initial paragraph of this article. Upon his retirement from the cattle business he established his residence at Shawnce, in the present Pottawatomie County of Oklahoma, and after having there been engaged for one year in the feed business he became associated with the First National Bank of Shawnee in the capacity of livestock mortgage expert and collection man, a position which he retained five years.

In August, 1901, incidental to the opening of the Kiowa and Comanche Indian country, he transferred his residence to Lawton, the present judicial center of Comanche County, and after having there been engaged for a timein the real estate business he accepted a posi- tion as a member of the first police force of the ambitious young city, under the administration of Mayor Leslie P. Ross. In 1902 he resigned this office to become a candi- date for that of sheriff of the county. In the democratic county convention he was nominated on the first ballot, and in the ensuing general election he was victorious by the noteworthy majority of 935 votes. The 'estimate placed upon his administration in the office of sheriff was shown in the next election, two years later, when he was re-elected by the significant majority of 1,680, there having been no opposing candidate for the nomina- tion. He served five years as county sheriff and his administration was made specially notable by the break- ing up of a notorious band of horse and cattle thieves that had made frequent depredations from its operative base in the Wichita Mountains, by the arrest, conviction and imprisonment of two men who were found guilty of the murder of a man named Beemblossom, near the east line of the county, shortly after the opening of the Kiowa and Comanche country; and by effective protec- tion of John Hopkins against the threats of a mob after he had been accused of the murder of his wife, this last mentioned case having been one of notable order in the crime annals of the new country. It may further be stated in this connection that fully 100 men formed an incipient mob for the purpose of wreaking summary punishment upon the accused man, and Sheriff Ham- monds gained information to the effect that demand for his prisoner would be made by the would-be lynchers shortly after midnight. He gave stern notification that he and his corps of assistants would fight without fear or favor in the protection of their prisoner. Early in the evening, in consonance with an order issued by the governor of the territory, the jail was surrounded by armed territorial troops, and this provision, together with the sheriff's openly avowed intention of shooting

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every man who made an attenipt to take the prisoner, caused the mob to abandon its plans, thus avoiding a blot on the history of the territory and future state.

From 1907 until 1910 Mr. Hammonds gave his atten- tion principally to the real estate business, and his operations in this early period of statehood were largely in the handling of his own properties. In 1910 he had charge of the Comanche County campaign for the elec- tion of Hon. Lee Cruce to the office of governor of the state, and after the election had resulted in a decisive victory for Governor Cruce, who assumed office in Jan- uary, 1911, the new executive showed his appreciation of the loyalty and eligibility of Mr. Hammonds by sum- moning the latter to Oklahoma City and tendering him the appointment to the office of state fire marshal. Mr. Hammonds accepted the office, has retained the same under the administration of Governor Williams, and has shown unbounded energy and circumspection in the handling of the business of the position, which is one or specially responsible and important order in the material protection of communities in all parts of the state.

During the entire period of his residence in what is now the State of Oklahoma Mr. Hammonds has been an active and influential worker in the ranks of the democratic party, and up to 1910 he served almost con- tinuously as a member of the democratic county com- mittee of Comanche County, having twice been manager of the democratic campaigns in that county, both in 1907 and 1910, having thus shown much finesse in maneuvering political forces in the campaigns of Hon. Lee Cruce for governor. Mr. Hammonds is the owner of a large amount of city property at Lawton and of a valuable farm near Hugo, Choctaw County. He and his wife are zealous members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, in which he has served as a steward since he was eighteen years of age, and he is at the present time a member of the board of stewards of Epworth Church, Oklahoma City, his residence in the capital city being at 1417 West Twenty-fifth Street and his executive office as state fire marshal being in the Mercantile Building.

At Corsicana, Texas, on the 18th of December, 1872, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Hammonds to Miss Bettie Hamilton, daughter of the late Samuel Hamilton, who was a sterling pioneer of Navarro County, that state, where he became a prosperous agriculturist and stock-grower. Mr. and Mrs. Hammonds became the parents of three children, one of whom, Horace, died at the age of nine years; Ambrose E., who was graduated in Daniel Baker College, at Brownwood, Texas, is a lawyer by profession and is engaged in practice at Hugo, Oklahoma, as one of the representative members of the bar of Choctaw County; and the younger son, Homer C., is assistant state examiner and inspector of Oklahoma.

RT. REV. FRANCIS KEY BROOKE, D. D. Aside from the work of early missionaries among the Indian tribes in the old Indian Territory, the vital history of the Episcopal Church in what is now the State of Oklahoma has been made since Francis Key Brooke was appointed first bishop of the missionary district of Oklahoma and Indian Territory. Before that time the territory had been attached to the Diocese of Arkansas. Old Indian Territory was visited by a number of Episcopal bishops, beginning with Bishop Otey of Tennessee as early as 1834, and an Episcopal missionary was appointed for this district in 1838. Before the removal of the Indian tribes to the West many of the Indians were converts under the influence of the Episcopal missionaries, and carried those affiliations and influences with them to their home in the new reservation. But for many years, beginning with the first establishment of the Indians in the territory in

the early '30s, the church was unable to maintain a con- centrated and persistent effort and had practically no Indian missions in the Southwest. Some bishops and missionaries visited the territory, spending a time at the army posts, and baptized and confirmed quite a number of persons, but no permanent work was begun and no resident missionary was placed among the civilized tribes until 1881. At that time Rev. J. B. Wicks and two Indian converts, one a Cheyenne and the other a Kiowa, established missions at Darlington and Anadarko for the Cheyennes and Kiowas. Through their efforts a house was built at Darlington and a schoolhouse chapel at Anadarko. Three years later illness compelled the retire- ment of Mr. Wicks, and thereafter for a number of years the work was much neglected, and had no responsible head.

Such in brief is a review of the work of the Episcopal Church in old Indian Territory up to the time the mis- sionary district of Oklahoma and Indian Territory was organized in October, 1892. On January 6, 1893, the first missionary bishop, Francis Key Brooke, was con- secrated. Bishop Brooke found the Cheyenne and Kiowa missions moribund, no services having been held among the Five Civilized Tribes for either whites or Indians for at least seven years.

In the meantime a remarkable change had occurred and Oklahoma and Indian Territory were no longer a field peculiarly for missionary efforts among the Indians, who for so many years had been the nominal possessors and inhabitants. As a result of the first Oklahoma open- ing in April, 1889, more than 50,000 white people came in and found homes in the older part of Oklahoma within a year's time. Then followed in succession the opening of other reservations to settlement, including the Cherokee Strip, soon after his coming, so that by the time Bishop Brooke took up his duties Oklahoma had a much larger white population than Indians. Thus the primary aim of the church was to establish missions and strengthen the influence of that denomination in a new white man's country, with the Indians a constantly decreasing factor in the situation.

The difficulties of the work even among the white population were graphically explained by Bishop Brooke at the end of his first ten years of church life in Okla- homa and Indian Territory, his article being published in 1904 in "The Spirit of Missions." Bishop Brooke wrote: "The manners and customs are not those of the frontier, they are those of the older communities in Kansas, Missouri, Arkansas and Texas, from which states the great majority of the people have come. Our church is weak in number and wealth because she is so in the smaller communities in those great states from which largely our people come. So far as known, there are not twelve hundred communicants in these territories by immigration. There are towns of three thousand to four thousand population with only one communicant in a thousand. A large proportion of the people know abso- lutely nothing of that strange body with its queer ways of prayer book service and vested ministers-the Epis- copal church. Most of them have some religious tradi- tion, but there is a vast mass of indifference, worldliness and irreligion, and still more of vague and uncertain religious convictions, for which the church has a strong and helpful message. In the twelve years since January, 1893, we have made some encouraging progress. Then there were but two clergymen, now there are eighteen; then only two church buildings, now thirty-six; then seventy-five communicants, now about seventeen hundred; and instead of work in two places we are doing at least something in fifty. In the twelve years, besides the churches mentioned, there have been built fourteen rec- tories, a bishop's house, and the valuable All Saints

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hospital at South McAlester. The value of the church property has grown from three thousand dollars to one hundred five thousand dollars. But no one can put these figures beside the astonishing statistics that represent the growth and population, and have any other feeling than that we have done only a small portion of our duty."'

Writing at that time Bishop Brooke refers to the problem as it related to the Indians, and the following sentences are of special interest: "There are many Indians, of course, but the greater problem and responsi- bility is not Indians, but whites. The next twenty years will see the Indians in these territories so far absorbed in and affiliated with the great body of the people that they will present no separate problem. Other Christian bodies have worked among them generously and with some success. Our field is very limited, so far as dis- tinctive Indian work is concerned. For eight years we have been trying to reconstruct the scattered Cheyenne Mission, but new conditions, allotment, blundering and mistaken governmental methods have made our work one of small result and less promise. Our great work is to make the church a genuine power for good among the white people.''

Since Bishop Brooke gave his review of conditions a short time before Oklahoma statehood, the increase in population and the progress of Oklahoma has been such as to require in 1910 the division of the diocese. Eastern Oklahoma since that time has been under the care of Bishop Thurston of Muskogee, while Central and West- ern Oklahoma comprise the diocese under the jurisdiction of Doctor Brooke, with the designation of Bishop of Oklahoma.

Francis Key Brooke was born November 2, 1852, at Gambier, Ohio, a son of Rev. John T. and Louisa R. (Hunter) Brooke. His father, who was a native of Frederick, Maryland, came to Ohio in 1835 and for many years was one of the well-known clergymen of the Epis- copal Church. His residence for the greater part of the time was in Cincinnati. He continued in the active min- istry until his death in 1861. John T. Brooke was a cousin to Judge Roger Brooke Taney, whose connection with the Dred Scott Decision will be recalled. Judge Taney's wife was a sister to Francis Scott Key, and between the author of "Star Spangled Banner" and Rev. John T. Brooke there existed a warm friendship, and hence the name of the present Bishop of Oklahoma. Bishop Brooke's mother was a native of Virginia and died in 1883.

Bishop Brooke was graduated from Kenyon College at Gambier in 1874 A. B., and in 1881 was given the degree Master of Arts by the same institution. On March 23, 1875, he was ordained a deacon of the Protes- tant Episcopal Church, and from 1875 to 1877 was rector of the Protestant Episcopal Church at College Hill, Ohio. His ordination as priest occurred on May 6, 1877, and he then had charge of the church at Portsmouth, Ohio, from 1877 to 1880. He was stationed at Piqua, Ohio, from 1880 to 1884; at Grace Church in Sandusky, Ohio, from 1884 to 1886; at St. Peter's Church in St. Louis from 1886 to 1888; and at Trinity Church, Atchison, Kansas, from 1888 to 1893. In 1892 the Kansas Theo- logical School conferred upon him the degree S. T. D., and the same degree was given him by the University of the South in 1911, and by Kenyon College in 1912.

On January 5, 1881, Bishop Brooke married Mildred R. Baldwin of Bolivar, Tennessee. Her parents were Mil- ton and Ruth (Sheldon) Baldwin. Her father was a teacher, was one of the Kansas pioneers, and died in 1858 while engaged in founding Baker University at Baldwin, Kansas. Bishop Brooke and wife are the parents of five children: Ruth Sheldon Brooke; Louisa

Brooke; John Thomson Brooke, now deceased; Mary wife of E. T. Gregory of Woodere, Long Island; an Elizabeth Hunter Brooke. Bishop Brooke's residence i at 427 West Ninth Street, Oklahoma City.

HON. J. O. MCCOLLISTER. An active and helpful par ticipation in the business and civic affairs of Mangun since his arrival in this city in 1900, so placed J. O MeCollister in the confidence and esteem of his fellow citizens that in 1914 he was sent as the representative from Greer County to the Oklahoma Legislature. In that body he lias fully vindicated the faith placed in his ability and integrity, and has been the medium through which has been secured some much-needed legislation. Mr. McCollister was born at Leavenworth, Crawford! County, Indiana, August 29, 1862, and is a son of John Jay and Rebecca F. (Denison) McCollister. His father, , a native of Pennsylvania, became one of the leading lawyers of his part of Indiana, where he served as dis- trict attorney for some years, and on occasion filled the chair of district judge. Mr. McCollister's mother, who is now living at Mangum, Oklahoma, is descended from the family of Denison which made settlement at Mystic Bridge, Connecticut, in 1600, and one of the family married a passenger of the Mayflower. Her father was a pioneer settler of Conneautville, Pennsylvania. John Jay and Rebecca F. McCollister were the parents of two sons: J. O., of this notice; and Lewis A., who is en- gaged in the insurance business at Mangum, Oklahoma.

J. O. McCollister was educated in the public schools of Indiana and Iowa, to which latter state his father moved in 1873, and from the age of nine years was partly self- supporting. Learning the business of telegraphy, for a number of years he was a knight of the key, and from 1886 until 1890 served in the capacity of auditor of Ida County, Iowa. In 1900 Mr. McCollister moved to Okla- home and settled at Mangum, in Greer County, where he at once established himself in the farm loan business, in which he has continued successfully ever since, handling his own money, and at times also engaging in real estate, insurance and abstract operations. He may be called the pioneer loan man of Greer County, as he was the first to execute a farm loan here.

In 1912 Mr. McCollister was defeated for the nomina- tion for representative, on the democratic ticket, but in 1914 again became a candidate, and this time was nominated and elected by a handsome majority. In the Legislature he was made a member of the committees on appropriations, congressional redistricting, banks and banking, public buildings, prohibition and prohibition ¡enforcement, investigation of judicial and executive de- partments and penal institutions. He introduced a bill repealing the mortgage tax law. Another bill of his authorship provided for an extension of the redemption period for mortgages subjected to foreclosure, and an- other measure made appropriation for the State Reforma- tory at Granite, which is situated in Greer County. Mr. McCollister took a special interest in good roads meas- ures and others relating to material progress of the state. However, he was conservative in his publie acts, believ- ing that ordinarily more can be accomplished by the man who introduces and champions few bills than by he who takes an interest in many. He advocated a thorough investigation by a commission of all departments of state government, with a view of eliminating unnecessary em- ployes and a reduction of the expense of government.

Mr. McCollister was married at Ida Grove, Iowa, December 9, 1886, to Miss Nellie High, and they have four children: Mrs. E. B. Northcutt, who is the wife of a merchant at Russell, Oklahoma; Mabel Ruth, a gradu- ate of the Mangum High School, who has taken credits

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n Epworth University at Oklahoma City and the Central State Normal School at Edmond, Oklahoma, and is now popular and efficient teacher in the Greer County pub- Lc schools; Mart D., who is associated with his father n business at Mangum; and Georgia Bradford, who is nine years of age and attending the graded schools.

Mr. McCollister is a member of the Methodist Epis- copal Church, South, and was for fourteen years superin- tendent of the Sunday school of that church at Mangum. He is steward and trustee at the present time of his church and a member of the executive committee for Oklahoma of the International Sunday School Associa- tion. In addition, he has been extremely liberal in his donations for the building of churches, as he has also in the procuring of railroads for Mangum. Fraternally he' is connected with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and also holds membership in the Mangum Com- mercial Club. He was chairman of a committee of the city's representative people which laid out and beautified the park. in the midst of which was placed the Greer County Courthouse, and has always taken an interest in civic beauty and civic betterment enterprises. Mr. Me- Collister is devoted to the cause of prohibition, and was a member of a committee of five which went from Okla- homa to Washington, D. C., in December, 1913, in the interest of the Hobson resolution relating to national prohibition.

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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