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 30

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 30

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).

Dr. Threlkeld was born in Pike County, Arkansas, September 19, 1875, and is a daughter of Jackson H. and Mary T. (Reese) Farrar, the former a native of Arkansas and the latter of Tennessee, the father having been for many years a prosperous farmer and honored citizen of Pike County. In addition to receiving the advantages of the public schools of her native state the doctor was afforded also those of Nazareth University, at Corinth, Arkansas, long before she began her technical education in her profession.

At Corinth, Arkansas, in 1893, was solemnized the marriage of Miss Catherine Farrar to Dr. Waller C. Threlkeld, who was born in Monroe County, Missouri, and who was graduated in" Barnes Medical College, at St. Louis, that state, as a member of the class of 1901. His medical education and also a part of his literary educa- tion were obtained after his marriage, and for two years he was a student in Nazareth University, his wife's alma mater at Corinth, Arkansas. In 1901 Dr. Waller C. Threlkeld engaged in the practice of his profession at Allen, Pontotoc County, Oklahoma, and his wife proved his able and faithful coadjutor in his practice while giving most solicitous attention to the rearing of their two daughters, Hope, who celebrated her twentieth birth- day anniversary in 1915, and who until recently was a student in the East Central State Normal School of Oklahoma, at Ada, and Grace, aged eighteen, who was graduated in that institution as a member of the class of 1915.

Dr. Catherine Threlkeld is one of the active and valued members of the Pontotoc County Medical Society, of which she is secretary and treasurer in 1915, and is iden- tified also with the Oklahoma State Medical Society. Her parents now reside in the City of Fresno, California, and she is the eldest of their children, brief record concern- ing the others being here entered : John Farrar is engaged in the real-estate business at Fresno, California; Mrs. C. C. Threlkeld is the wife of the president of the First National Bank of Dinuba, that state; Charles I. Farrar is a prosperous agriculturist and stock-grower near Dinuba; Mrs. Walter Bolen is the wife of a real-estate dealer at Dinuba; Mrs. William R. Pigg is the wife of the cashier of the Citrus Bank at Exeter, California; Houston Farrar is the promoter of an interurban rail- way proposition at Fresno, that state; Mrs. Ray Hingley is the wife of a railroad man at Fresno; and Okla, Roy, Lillian and Forrest remain at the parental home.

HON. HAROLD CLARK THURMAN. An able, impartial and learned jurist, Hon. Harold Clark Thurman, judge of the Superior Court of Muskogee County, has been a member of the bench and bar of Muskogee since 1904, and during this time has established an enviable repu- tation for probity, integrity and conscientious devotion to high ideals in his profession. When Judge Thurman's substantial qualities were fittingly recognized by his election, in 1914, to his present office, it was but an- other verification of the statement regarding the im- portant affairs of Oklahoma in all its varied life as a state, that there is no great commonwealth in the country in which more young men are guiding its policies and directing its administration.

Judge Harold Clark Thurman was born at Greenfield, Dade County, Missouri, July 29, 1881, and is a son of Hon. Berry G. and Lula (Clark) Thurman, both natives of Missouri. The Thurmans came west from Virginia, by way of Kentucky, and settled in Missouri, while the Clarks originated in Pennsylvania and came direct to Missouri. Berry G. Thurman was educated for the 'law, in which he was engaged in practice while in Dade County, and there served as the first democratie prose- cuting attorney. During the early '80s he removed with

1444

HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA

his family to Lamar, Bartou County, Missouri, and there resided for thirty years. In 1888-89 he served with distinction in the Missouri State Senate, and in 1906 was elected circuit judge of his circuit court district, an office which he has retained to the present time. Judge Thurman is now a resident of Nevada, Missouri.

Harold Clark Thurman was reared at Lamar, Missouri, and there his early education was secured in the public schools. Following this, he entered the Missouri State University, from which he obtained the degree of Bache- lor of Arts in 1903 and that of Bachelor of Laws in 1904, and upon graduating in law was admitted to the Missouri bar. In August, 1904, he became a resident of Muskogee, and during the first year of his residence here served as a law clerk on the Dawes Commission. In 1905 he was admitted to practice in the United States District Court for Indian Territory, and just after Okla- homa was admitted to the Union, in 1907, was admitted to practice in the state by the Supreme Court of Okla- homa. When Judge Thurman left the Dawes Commis- sion, he engaged in the general practice of law at Mus- kogee, continuing alone until 1907, when he became associated with Brook & Brook, under the firm name of Brook, Brook & Thurman. In 1908 he formed a partner- ship with Mr. N. A. Gibson, under the firm style of Gibson & Thurman, a combination which continued until 1914 as one of the strongest of the Muskogee bar. Mr. Thurman first became judge of the Superior Court by appointment, which he received to fill out an unexpired term, but in the fall of 1914 was elected for a full term of four years. He is a democrat in his political views and is fraternally connected with the Masons, having taken his master's degree. Both lie and Mrs. Thurman are consistent members of the First Congregational Church of Muskogee, and have given their helpful support to its various movements.

On September 23, 1903, Judge Thurman was united in marriage with Miss Freda Levy, who was born and reared at Columbia, Missouri, and educated in the Chris- tian College at that place. Four children have been born to Judge and Mrs. Thurman, namely: Margaret, Harold C., Jr., Freda and Estelle.

WALTER A. HOLFORD. "Fifty Years in the Saddle"> would be an appropriate title for any message to the world, emanating from the life and experiences of Wal- ter A. Holford, of Madill, Oklahoma. Fifty years he was a cattleman. Fifty years the feet of his horses trod a range wider than the boundaries of the Chickasaw and Choctaw nations, a range that extended from Fort Smith, Arkansas, to the Panhandle of Texas. And out of that range the feet of his horses beat trails to the pioneer market places of Kansas City, St. Louis, Sedalia, Baxter Springs and Shreveport.

. Mr. Holford was the first white man to establish a cattle ranch in the Chickasaw Nation. That was in 1865, after he had returned from four years at the front with the Confederate army. In a stretch of country as wide north-south as the latitudinal measurement of the Chick- asaw and Choctaw nations, he was the first white man to make permanent settlement between Atoka, Indian Territory, and the Rocky Mountains; the first man to risk his life and fortune in combating the wild tribes of the Comanche and Kiowa reservations against theft, murder and denredations; the first man to announce to the Indians of the Civilized Tribes that the world offered them a market for their livestock. It may be said truth- fully that he established the livestock industry of the Chickasaw and Choctaw nations, and in developing it for half a century the Indians of these nations remained his friends.

The ranch house that he built fifty years ago, six

miles west of Madill, remains intact as one of the monu- ments to an almost unexampled career. The only other early-day improvements made were horse pastures and lots which required the splitting of 30,000 rails. Per- mission of the United States Government was obtained, through officials of the Indian Agency at Muskogee, for the establishment of the ranch, and the horizon was the only line that marked its territorial boundary. That was before the days of leases on Indian lands, but Hol- ford was welcomed by both the officials of the Govern- ment and by the Indians, for they were looking for a man with the business acumen and the courage to occupy the plains and create what for half a century was the most important industry of the Indian Territory.

The first herd of cattle driven to market from the Chickasaw Nation was rounded up by cowboys in Hol- ford's employ on the site occupied by the Town of Madill. These cattle had been purchased by Holford from the Indians and they were driven to Shreveport, Louisiana, to be there transported by boat down the Mississippi River to New Orleans. This trip netted Hol- ford about $2,000. His wagons, drawn by ox teams, accompanied the herd, and returned loaded with cloth- ing, provisions and other necessities, which were traded to the Indians for more cattle. With a medium of exchange established through the finding of a market on the Gulf Coast, the business entered upon a profitable era. The next important drive was made to Sedalia, Missouri, where feeding pens were established and the cattle fattened before placed on the market. This trip and its crowning activities required six months to accom- plish, and it netted Holford about $17,000.

Meanwhile, the Katy railroad began pushing southwest out of St. Louis, and the cattle market was brought nearer to the Indian country. Hunnywell, Kansas, and later Baxter Springs, that state, became important. points. This road was finally extended to Denison, Texas, and thereafter there were no long drives. Trails of historic interest todav had been established, however, and prior to the completion of the railroad they became avenues of commerce for a large part of the southwestern country.

Of still more interest to the history of the Southwest were the activities of Matthew Holford, father of the subject of this story, who established a cattle ranch in Grayson County, Texas, with headquarters on the site of the present Town of Gordonville, in 1850. Matthew Hol- ford. who was a native of Carrolton, Arkansas, and a Presbyterian minister, was among the earliest of all livestock dealers to conceive of the coming importance of the Indian country, and he established himself near to its border. The cattle industry of Texas really had its inception in the Holford ranch. Here Walter A. Holford got his first experience as a cowhov. From this ranch he went on the first long cattle drives from Texas. St. Louis was then the chief market, and herds of from 750 to 2,000 head were driven there. Until the breaking out of the Civil war two drives were made every three vears from this ranch to St. Louis. From this ranch the junior Holford enlisted as a soldier in the Confederate army as a member of the Eleventh Texas Cavalry, his company's first captain being Bill Cloud, an interesting pioneer of Cooke Countv. Holford served through the war, taking part in the battles of Shiloh, Pea Ridge (in which he was wounded in the knee and crippled for life), and Corinth. Mississippi. His regiment, was with General Morgan on his celebrated raid into Ohio. After the war closed Mr. Holford returned to his wife, whom he had married during the war. and whom he had left in Gravson Countv. Later in the year he established his ranch in the Chickasaw Nation and called it the Cross J Ranch.

1445

HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA

Westward from the Cross J Ranch lay a stretch of prairie land that merged itself into the Great Plains country, and over this country in that day the Kiowas and Comanches were practically the sole inhabitants. They made raids into Texas and stole thousands of horses and cattle. The opening of the ranch in this territory soon became known to them, and their maraud- ing lines were extended eastward. During a period of twelve years Holford and his little colony of cowboys constituted themselves into an army of defense and they fought many battles with the bold redskins from the west. Altogether these Indians made away with 800 horses from the Cross J Ranch.

One of their principal fights with the Indians took place on the site of the present Town of McMillan, a few miles west of the ranch. Holford and eleven of his men engaged twelve Indians who were armed with guns and bows and arrows. Five Indians and one cowboy were killed while the Indians lost fifteen horses and the whites one man and one horse. The remnant of the band of Indians was chased by the cowboys to the site of the present City of Ardmore, where another fight took place. In this engagement Mr. Holford was slightly wounded in the shoulder, which robbed the cowboys of some of their courage and the white men retired. The Indians retreated without further show of resistance.

Mr. Holford had moved his family to Indian Territory, but for many years had never dared to take them to the ranch to live. He built a magnificent colonial-style home a few miles from the Red River, near to the Burney Institute of Lebanon, which was one of the first Indian schools founded in the Chickasaw Nation. Frequently the marauding Indians came so near this home that the family was precipitately moved over the river to the Gordonsville ranch. For weeks at a time the white men stayed away from the ranch except in daytime, spending their nights in the Holford mansion near the river. At odd times the men fortified the place by setting firmly in the ground long slabs of oak. These were set close and were of such a height that it was impossible to scale them. At intervals portholes were cut and at these men stood guard at night when the Indians were near. Through these holes Mr. Holford and his men watched the redskins, which resulted each time in the retirement of the latter. Finally the Indians learned to fear the leader of the cowboys, and one time he tongue-lashed a party of them into a retreat without the firing of a single shot.

There was established, probably sometime during the '50s, a United States military post in Indian Territory, known as Fort Cobb, which was built on the site of the present town of the same name, in the western part of the state. On the eve of the declaration of war in 1860, Bill Young led a force of some 300 or 400 adventure- seeking young men of the cattle plains of North Texas to Fort Cobb to demand its release to the Confederacy. This undisciplined and ununiformed army, not yet a part of the organized Confederate forces, marched upon the post early one spring morning. Captain Young in the name of the South demanded the surrender of the fort. At his elbow, muskets in hand, stood Walter Holford and Sam Murrell, the latter a picturesque pioneer of Cooke County, Texas. The commanding officer offered no resist- ance. He called his troops in parade form before him and announced that as war was about to be declared, he was going to abandon the post. He said that as some of the men probably were southern sympathizers, he would give them honorable discharges if they desired to join the southern forces. Only fifteen of them left the ranks. Captain Young took possession of all the property of the post save enough ammunition, provisions,

and wagons and teams to enable the troops to make their way safely to Jefferson Barracks, St. Louis.

Fort Cobb was established for the protection of the frontier settlements against the Indians. The new com- mand had fought Indians iu their own country, but never before had been camped high and dry in the heart of the wild Indian country. When dark came they were apprehensive, and among the most apprehensive was Sam Murrell. He was nervous and uneasy-in such a state of mind that when lightning bugs made star spar- kles in the firmament of the bushes he leaped to his feet and began peppering them with lead from his musket. Then and during several succeeding hours of the night he was confident that the lights in the bushes were sparks from the flintlocks of the Indians. Other intrepid volunteers of this band of conquering heroes shared in this opinion, so that the establishing of outposts pro- ceeded with fear and trembling. Every man on outpost duty many times during the night made murderous onslaught into the ranks of the fireflies. Slowly, as morn- ing dawned, the deception silently exposed itself through- out the ranks, but during the rest of his life Sam Murrell was known as the hero of the Battle with the Lightning Bugs.

There was a time when Mr. Holford knew every man, woman and child over ten years of age in the Chickasaw and Choctaw nations. He has been personally acquainted with every governor of these nations, and some of them have frequently been guests for days at a time on his ranch, or in his fine home. He was a friend of Quanah Parker, an early chief of the Comanches, and of Lone Wolf of the Kiowas. He knew more or less intimately Santa Ana and Big Tree, who were among the most intrepid of Comanche leaders when the Indians were in their marauding period. He was the friend of the Indian and the foe of the outlaw and cattle thief. Many times a cattle deal amounted to $100,000, an amount larger than was involved in any other transaction in cattle in the Southwest in the '60s, and he recalls that once he wrote a check for $60,000 on a bank in Gaines- ville, in which he had not a dollar on deposit at the time. But it was honored, for the honor of Walter Holford was never questioned. One of the first teachers in Burney Institute, in 1854, was Miss Sallie Holford, his sister, who rode to the school from Grayson County on horseback. She is now Mrs. Richard Litzey of Denton, Texas, and is eighty years old.

Matthew Holford, father of the subject, was for many years a resident of Tennessee, and for four years he was a colonel in the National Guard of the state. His father, John Holford, was a hero of the American Revolu- tion, as was also Walter Alley, Walter Holford's mater- nal grandfather. Walter Alley Holford was married at Burney's Institute, in 1862, to Miss Amanda Babb, a step-daughter of George D. James, who was of Choctaw descent. Mrs. Holford was the first white child born in Paris, Texas, and she was born on property that had been willed to her by her father before her birth. She became the mother of eleven children, six of whom are living now. Mrs. Jesse Wharton, the eldest child, is the wife of a stockman at Lexington, Oklahoma. Mrs. Amanda Pidcock married a hardware dealer at Van- couver, Washington. Mrs. Arthur Creel is the wife of a hardware merchant of Carnegie, Oklahoma. George M. D. Holford is a land owner and ranchman of Madill, Oklahoma. Matt Holford is engaged in the oil business at Beggs, Oklahoma. W. D. Holford is a traveling sales- man and lives in Oklahoma City.

In 1910 Mr. Holford retired from active work, that year marking the completion of his fiftieth year in the saddle. He has his home with his son, George M. D.

1446

HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA

Holford, in Madill, Oklahoma. He is a member of the Presbyterian Church, and is a Mason.

JOHN H. BURFORD. A large and benignant influence has been exerted by Judge Burford in connection with the development and progress of the State of Oklahoma, to which he has given distinguished service, not only as a lawyer and jurist, but also as a legislator and as a citizen of broad views and vigorous public spirit. He served for ten years as chief justice of the Supreme Court of Oklahoma Territory, and as such administered the oath to the members of the constitutional convention, which framed the constitution, the adoption of which gained for Oklahoma admission into the Union as a state. To him is ascribed leadership in the movement that gained to the twin territories admission as a sovereign state. He was the first president of the Oklahoma City Commercial Club and as such issued the call which resulted in the first joint statehood convention held by the two terri- tories. He represented the Twelfth Senatorial District in the Oklahoma Legislature during the Fourth and Fifth General Assemblies. The judge is essentially one of the distinguished members of the Oklahoma bar, is con- sistently to be designated as a pioneer citizen, and his character and services have given him inviolable place in the confidence and esteem of the people of this vigorous young commonwealth.

Judge Burford was born in Parke County, Indiana, on the 29th of February, 1852, and is a son of Rev. James Burford, who was a native of Indiana, and a descendant of Elijah Hastings Burford, of English, Scotch and Welsh ancestry, who emigrated from Oxfordshire County, England, and settled in Amherst County, Virginia, in August, 1713. This family gave to the nation a gallant patriot soldier in the War of the Revolution. Rev. James Burford was a prominent member of the clergy of the Baptist Church in Indiana, where he held various pastoral charges and where he continued to reside until his death. Judge Burford's great grandfather, Daniel Burford, was a pioneer settler of Fort Harrod, Mercer County, Ken- tucky, where he reared a large family, developed a large landed estate and was prominent in the civic and material progress of the community.

Like many other able representatives of the legal pro- fession, Judge Burford found the days of his childhood and youth compassed by the conditions and influences of the farm, and his early education was acquired in the schools of his native state. In 1874, he was graduated in the University of Indiana, with the degree of Bachelor of Laws, and thereafter he took effective post-graduate law courses, besides having been for a time a student and assistant in the law offices of Judge D. V. Burns, of Indianapolis. From the' capitol city of Indiana, he removed to Crawfordsville, the judicial center of Mont- gomery County that state, where he initiated his inde- pendent career as a lawyer and where he became an intimate friend of the distinguished soldier and author, Gen. Lew Wallace, and also of the brilliant Indiana novelist, Maurice Thompson.

At Crawfordsville, Judge Burford soon gained pro- fessional prestige and success, and there he served for two terms as prosecuting attorney of the Twenty-second Judicial Circuit of the state. He early became active in the affairs of the republican party in his native common- wealth, and as a member of its state central committee in 1888, was a vigorous and effective champion of Gen. Benjamin Harrison in the latter's campaign for the presidency of the United States, he having taken 'a loyal part in effecting the nomination and election of his dis- tinguished and honored fellow Hoosier.

In 1890, Judge Burford came to Oklahoma Territory, and soon afterwards he was appointed, by Governor

George W. Steele, the first Probate judge of Beaver County, in the region formerly designated as "No Man's Land." His incumbency of this office continued two days, at the expiration of which he resigned and located in Oklahoma City, where shortly afterwards he assumed the office of Register of the United States Land Office, a position to which he was appointed by President Harri- son. Of this post he continued the incumbent until March, 1892, when he was appointed by President Harri- son associate justice of the Supreme Court, to succeed Hon. Abram J. Seay, who had resigned to accept appoint- ment to the office of governor of the territory, as suc- cessor of Governor Steele, who had resigned. As an associate justice of the Supreme Court, Judge Burford was assigned to the Second District, which embraced the western part of the territory, and he- accordingly removed to El Reno, in order to reside within the judicial district for which he was appointed. He continued his services on the Supreme bench for a period of four years and four months, three years of which were under President Cleve- land. He discharged the duties of this high position with such ability and efficiency, that he gained the friend- ship and support of Attorney General Judson Harmon, and President Cleveland over the protest of some partisan democrats, permitted Judge Burford to serve for the full term for which he was appointed. He was succeeded by Hon. John C. Tarsney, of Kansas City, and then resumed the active practice of his profession, with resi- dence and office in El Reno.

On the 16th of February, 1898, Judge Burford was appointed by President Mckinley, to the distinguished office of chief justice of the Supreme Court of Oklahoma Territory, and was reappointed in 1902, and again in 1906 by President Roosevelt, so that he continued in tenure of this important judicial office until the two territories were combined and admitted to statehood on the 16th day of November, 1907. The judge had much influence in formulating and directing the territorial system of jurisprudence which still prevails in the state, and manifested the true judicial qualities, as well as a broad and comprehensive knowledge of law and precedent. While serving as chief justice he published thirteen volumes of Supreme Court reports, and as chairman of the board of trustees of the Territorial Library, he effected the elimination of an indebtedness of $5,000 against the library, besides increasing its collection to the notable aggregate of 15,000 volumes. One of his last official acts on the bench was in rendering the noted decision in a case in which citizens of Greer County sought to prevent the state constitutional convention from dividing that historical county or from incorporating any of its territory into other counties. The questions involved were presented by a number of the ablest lawyers in the constitutional convention on one side, and by a number of eminent lawyers on the other. In this case, Judge Burford announced the principle afterwards affirmed by the Supreme Court, that the constitutional convention was a body possessed of the highest legislative functions in the exercise of which the courts had no power or juris- diction to interfere. Judge Burford was a member of the commission designated under the enabling act to divide the two territories into districts for the election of delegates to the constitutional convention, and was a member also of the canvassing board that declared the result of the vote on the adoption of the state constitu- tion.

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

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