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 31

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 31

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Upon the assumption of the office of chief justice of the Territorial Supreme Court, Judge Burford established his residence in the City of Guthrie, the territorial capital, and there he for several years maintained, his home. His law business is one of broad scope and importance and he has appeared in connection with many

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of the most celebrated cases presented in the various courts of Oklahoma during the state regime. He repre- sented the citizens of Guthrie throughout all the legal proceedings in the courts of the state and the Supreme Court of the United States involving the removal and relocation of the state capital. He has continued a leader in the councils of the republican party in the state and in 1914 was made its unanimous nominee for United States senator, but was defeated in the general election at the polls, as was the entire republican ticket. In the meanwhile, in 1912, he was elected representative of the Twelfth District in the State Senate for the term of four years. He thus served during the Fourth and Fifth Legislative Assemblies and was a commanding figure in the work and deliberations of the upper house. Iu the Fourth Legislature the judge was chairman of the com- mittee on Federal relations, and a member also of judiciary committee No. 1, as well as of the committees on banks and banking, and revenue and taxation. In this session he was the author of a bill abolishing the county high school of Logan County; a bill abolishing the Superior Court of the same county, and a bill providing the system by which vacancies in the Legislature should be filled. He was elected on a platform pledging him to champion vigorously the cause of Guthrie in its efforts to become again the state capital, but his earnest efforts were inadequate to overcome the strong opposition put forth in behalf of Oklahoma City.

In the Fifth Legislature Judge Burford was chairman of the Senate Committee on Military Affairs and held membership also on the committees of ways and means, legal advisory, revenue and taxation, public service corporations, banks and banking, Federal relations, con- stitution and constitutional amendments, mines and manufacturing, legislative and judicial apportionment and commerce and labor. He was specially influential in the furtherance of measures to conserve greater economy in the administration of the various departments of government of the state, in abolishing a number of offices, in promoting more efficient public service, and in his efforts to divorce the judicial system of the state from politics. He introduced a bill requiring that judges should be elected on a separate ballot from that of other officials, and also a bill defining the status of the bank guaranty fund and providing for the administration of this fund. High-minded civic loyalty, great circumspec- tion and thorough familiarity with constitutional law and with governmental policies, made Judge Burford one of the most valuable of legislators, and his record in the Senate, as well as on the bench has become an integral and important part of the history of Oklahoma, a state which he has honored and which has in turn conferred upou him high honors. At the expiration of the regular session of the Fifth Legislative Assembly in March, 1915, Judge Burford resigned his position as state senator for Logan County, and took up his residence in Oklahoma City, where he is actively engaged in the practice of his profession as senior member of the firm of Burford, Robertson & Hoffman.

In the City of Indianapolis, Indiana, on St. Valentine's day in the centennial year, February 14, 1876, was solemnized the marriage of Judge Burford to Miss Mary A. Cheek, to whom have been born one son, Frank Braden, who is now referee in bankruptcy for the Western Federal District of Oklahoma, and who is engaged in the practice of law at Guthrie. He was graduated in the Guthrie High School, received the degree of Bachelor of Arts from the University of Kansas, and completed thereafter a course in the law department of the historic old University of Virginia at Charlottesville, from which he received the degree of Bachelor of Laws.

While Judge Burford has always taken an interest in

political affairs, and has been looked to by republicans as one of the leaders, he has never been a partisan and abhors the title of politician. He has been honored by the members of his profession as president of the State Bar Association and delegate to the American Bar Asso- ciation, and is a member of the Commercial Law League. He has been loyal to the profession and has persistently been active in endeavors to raise the standard of pro- fessional ethics. He has at all times been the champion of the courts, and has openly denounced any attacks upon the integrity or good faith of the judiciary.

One of Judge Burford's chief characteristics has been his pronounced interest in the progress and success of young men, and especially young lawyers, many of whom he has assisted and specially befriended.

RICHARD MARTIN FIELDS. is one of the industrious and reliable farmers of Washington Township, classed with those who are acknowledged to be as broad and scientific in their methods as the workers in any other branch of modern industry. A full-blooded Cherokee, he was born two miles south of Fort Gibson, in the Chero- kee Nation, now Oklahoma, August 3, 1855, and is a son of Wert and Sarah (Woddord) Fields, natives of Tennessee and members of the Cherokee Race.

The mother of Mr. Fields was the first to come to the West, being brought here among the first settlers of what was to later become the State of Oklahoma by her mother, with whom she returned to her native place. Later, when the Cherokees were removed from Tennessee by the United States Government she again came to the Indian Territory, and in the vicinity of Fort Gibson met and married Wert Fields. He died in 1857, and she was subsequently married to Cal Riley, and had two daugh- ters by that union. By her marriage with Mr. Fields she was the mother of three children: William, who died at the age of seventeen years; Mrs. Ella Smith, who is now deceased; and Richard Martin, of this notice. Dur- ing the early days in Tennessee, the Fields family was a wealthy and prominent one, Richard Fields, the grand- father of Richard M., having been the owner of a large plantation and of many negro slaves, as was also his son, Wert. The latter, on coming to Indian Territory, devoted himself to agricultural pursuits, and continued to be a tiller of the soil and a raiser of livestock up to the time of his death. He was an industrious and hard-working man, gaining prosperity by his earnest application and keen foresight, and was highly respected and esteemed by those among whom he lived.

Richard Martin Fields was reared in the vicinity of Fort Gibson, and was brought up on the farm, receiving the greater part of his education in the public schools, although he also attended the Cherokee Male Seminary, at Tahlequah, which was conducted by the Cherokee Nation, and where he was a student for a period of ten months. As a young man he removed to Webbers Falls, now in Muskogee County, Oklahoma, where he followed farming until 1900, and at that time came to his present property in Washington County, a tract of 100 acres, the greater part on the Caney River, his home being located two and one-half miles north of Dewey. Mr. Fields has devoted his entire attention to agricultural pursuits, and now has a valuable and productive farm, with modern improvements, substantial buildings and good equipment. He uses up-to-date methods in his work, and is known as one of the substantial men of his community, standing high in the esteem of all who know him. He is a democrat in politics, a member of the A. H. T. A., and a Master Mason.

In 1883 Mr. Fields was married to Miss Texanna Barnes, who was born three miles west of Fort Gibson, September 2, 1867, a daughter of Albert and Nan

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(Harper) Barnes, natives of the Cherokee Nation. Mrs. Fields' father died when she was about six or seven years of age, while her mother survived until September 25, 1894. She had been married before, and had one child: James Keys, who is now a resident of Tulsa, Oklahoma. Mrs. Fields was the only child by her parents' marriage. To Mr. and Mrs. Fields there have been born five children, as follows: Charles, a successful farmer of Washington County, Oklahoma, who married Myrtle Hines; Wert, who is also successfully engaged in farming in this county, married Cora Teague; Jesse, who prepared for college at Tonkawa, and now a student in the medical department of the State University at Norman, securing a training for a professional career ; Pearce, who resides at home; and. Claud, who met his death by drowning, May 26, 1905, in the Illinois River, aged nineteen years, seven months, being a student in his senior year at the Cherokee Male Seminary at Tahlequah.

FRANK M. OVERLEES had the first store on the site of the present City of Bartlesville. ,He was also the first citizen upon whom fell the distinction of being elected to the office of mayor after the town was in- corporated. In the years that have been required to develop a flourishing city around his pioneer store Mr. Overlees himself has been one of the foremost individual factors in commercial and civic upbuilding. His name properly signifies a great deal of what is best in the history of Bartlesville.

The activities associated with his name are not con- fined entirely to the City of Bartlesville. He has spent many years in this section of Indian Territory and Okla- homa, and he has the honor of having superintended the first practical operation for the exploitation of the oil resources in the Bartlesville District. His has been an exceedingly useful and honorable career, and few men have so much to show for their years of labor.

He was born in Goshen, Indiana, October 25, 1866, a son of Henry S. and Mary A. (Lentz) Overlees. His grandparents were Henry and Mary (Small) Overlees, the former a native of Kentucky and the latter born near the River Rhine in Germany. They first met in Dayton, Ohio, where they married and afterwards moved to Indiana, where they died. The life of Henry Overlees was spent as a farmer and he and his wife had nine children: Elizabeth, Margaret, Polly, Catherine, Anna, George, Henry S. and Daniel.

The late Henry S. Overlees, the last survivor of this family just mentioned, spent many years in Bartlesville during his retirement, and died at his home there March 19, 1916, at the venerable age of ninety years. He was born near Dayton, Ohio, iu Montgomery County, May 26, 1826, spent the first thirty years of his life in that section of Ohio, was married there and had three chil- dren born before he moved to Elkhart County, Indiana. From Indiana he moved to Parsons, Kansas, was a farmer in these two states and about 1896 retired to Bartlesville, where for several years he assisted his son Frank in the general store. Later he acted as bailiff in the District Court until health compelled him to give up all regular duties. To a wide circle of people, both young and old, he was affectionately known as Grandpa Overlees. His was a face and figure much missed on the streets of Bartlesville during the last few months of his life, and he was a man who grew old gracefully, and all classes of people reciprocated his kindly and cheerful spirit. Though very old at the time of his death he had a remark- able .memory and could talk entertainingly of a period covering almost three-quarters of a century. In 1848 Henry S. Overlees married Miss Mary Lentz, who was

born in Pennsylvania May 9, 1829, was taken to Ohio when a child, and is still living at the venerable age of eighty-seven. For more than sixty-seven years Henry S. Overlees and wife traveled life's highways together, and at the time of his death they were probably the oldest married couple in the State of Oklahoma. Their children are: George, who died at the age of twenty-one; Warren, who died at Bartlesville in 1912 leaving two daughters; Emma Van Horebeke, who lives at Joplin, Missouri, and has four children; William H., of Joplin, Missouri; Laura Frances, deceased; Mary Ann Forester, deceased; Milo H. of Bartlesville; Perry of Holmesville, Missouri; Jesse L., of Bartlesville; Frank M .; and Effie Wylie, of Port- land, Oregon. .

The eighth in this family of children, Frank M. Overlees when an infant was taken to Christian County, Illinois, and was twelve years old when the family moved to Parsons, Kansas. He lived there with his parents until 1888 and in the meantime attended public schools and had come to manhood with the sturdy discipline of a farm. His home has been in old Indian Territory in the State of Oklahoma since 1888. His first location was at Coody 's Bluff in the Cherokee Nation. A year later he moved to what is now Bartlesville, when only some half dozen white men lived in that community. For two years he was manager of a firm handling walnut timber, and he engaged in buying and selling walnut logs all over this section. Subsequently Colonel J. H. Bartles had him as manager of his store for three and a half years, and he also worked for Johnstone & Keeler, merchants, for two years, and then engaged in business for himself, conducting a general store eight years. That first store building is still standing at the corner of Second Street and Johnstone Avenue, and was the first store structure on the present site of the City of Bartlesville. While merchandising Mr. Overlees also dealt extensively in cattle.

When the operations in the oil field were extended out from Kansas into Northern Indian Territory, Mr. Overlees owned the first set of drilling tools and put down the first wells around Bartlesville for the Cudahy Oil Company. He has been more or less identified with the oil industry ever since, both as a contractor and as a producer. A large amount of property has been devel- oped through his enterprise, and he has bought and sold on an extensive scale. One of Oklahoma's pioneer inter- urban electric lines reflects one phase of his enterprise. He was one of the original promoters and builders of the Bartlesville Interurban Railroad and was secretary of the company for three years until the property was sold to eastern parties. This is an electric line between Bar- tlesville and Dewey, and is also operated over the princi- pal streets of Bartlesville. Mr. Overlees has built and still owns a number of business places in Bartlesville and takes a great deal of pride in the growth of the city as well as in his individual part in promoting local pros- perity.

Since casting his first vote he has been a republican and served as a member of a number of delegations in the old Indian Territory. He was a delegate in 1896 to the republican convention held in Indian Territory at Fort Gibson. After Bartlesville became a town corpora- tion, he received thirty-six out of the thirty-eight votes cast for the office of mayor, serving one term of two years, and starting the municipal machinery and thus gaining an initial honor which will always be associated with his name in the local history of this thriving city. Mr. Overlees is a member of the Baptist Church and is a thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason, a member of the Consistory at South McAlester. He took his first degree in the Scottish Rite at Wichita, Kansas, in 1896.

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On November 12, 1891, Mr. Overlees married Miss Carrie V. Armstrong. Mrs. Overlees belongs to the dis- tinguished Indian family whose head for many years was Chief Journeycake of the Delaware Tribe. Chief Journeycake was Mrs. Overlees' grandfather. Chief Journeycake was a great figure in early history of Indian Territory, and further reference to him is found on other pages. Mr. and Mrs. Overlees have three sons: E. Ray, who lives in Angola, Kansas, and married Catherine Galbreath; William E., whose home is in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and by his marriage to Miriam E. Scott has one child named Frank M .; and Milo H., who is now a student in the William Jewell College at Liberty, Mis- souri.

Mr. Overlees himself is a graduate of the high school at Parsons, Kansas, but his best education came from the school of experience and by contact with men and affairs. It is said he arrived in old Indian Territory with only fifty cents in his pockets and a few cheap clothes. By steady industry and a liberal acceptance of oppor- tunity he has made himself one of the leading citizens of Bartlesville. He was fortunate largely because he pos- sessed qualities that make for success. He has had his share of what many men call luck, but that has not been the dominating factor in his life. In fact he has over- come obstacles, and everyone says that Frank M. Overlees has deserved all the good things that have come to him.

COL. DEW M. WISDOM. Among those who first became identified with Oklahoma affairs as members of the of- ficial group who were employed in the administration of Indian affairs in the Five Civilized Tribes none is recalled with more affection and sincere admiration than the late Col. Dew Moore Wisdom, who died at his home in Muskogee, November 5, 1905. Among a large host of friends he is regarded as one of the bravest, most versatile and honorable men who were ever identified with the old Indian Territory. He possessed and exer- cised qualities which made him a natural leader, and well typified the virtues and attainments of the old Southern gentleman, with his classical education, with a record as a brave and competent soldier, and with many years of experience as a journalist, public official and lawyer.

He was born at Medon, Madison County, Tennessee, February 3, 1836, a son of William S. and Jane (Ander- son) Wisdom. His father was born in Rockingham County, North Carolina, in 1796. A few months after his birth Colonel Wisdom was taken to McNairy County, Tennessee, where he grew up and received his early education. After gaining all he could from the local schools he entered the literary department of Cumber- land University at Lebanon, where he was graduated in 1857. He began the study of Latin in early boy- hood, and while in university became proficient also in Greek and French. He prepared for the law as a pro- fession, taking the course at Cumberland University, and was engaged in practice at Purdy, Tennessee, when his career was interrupted by the outbreak of the war between the states. His county unanimously elected him a member of the proposed constitutional convention, which was never called into session, since the proposi- tion was defeated by popular vote. At the beginning of the war he joined Company F of the Thirteenth Ten- nessee Regiment of Volunteer Infantry of the Confeder- ate army, and became first lieutenant under Captain John V. Wright. When the latter was made colonel Lieutenant Wisdom, by unanimous vote of his comrades, succeeded as captain. While at the head of his com- pany in the battle of Belmont he received two severe wounds, but was able to rejoin his command in time to participate in the great battle of Shiloh. Subsequently

he was in the cavalry service under Generals Rowdy and Forrest. Particularly under General Forrest did Colonel Wisdom manifest those brilliant and dashing qualities which made him the almost ideal soldier. He was again wounded at the battle of Harrisburg. At Brice's Cross Roads the timely arrival of his command saved the day for the Confederate forces. He also led the Tennessee troops at the storming of Fort Pillow. As a soldier he was not only brave and faithful in the per- formance of duty, but also showed a breadth and inde- pendence of character, the most notable illustration of which was in his refusal to enforce the Confederate conscript law designed to enforce military service upon all of legal age irrespective of individual belief.

After the war Colonel Wisdom located at Iuka, Mis- sissippi, and resumed practice as a lawyer. He also served one term in the State Senate of Mississippi. His next home was at Jackson, Tennessee, where he devoted twelve years to journalism as owner and editor of the Tribune, which subsequently consolidated with the Jack- son Sun. In 1878 Colonel Wisdom was appointed clerk to the master in chancery of Madison County, and held that office for two successive terms of six years each.

On leaving Tennessee Colonel Wisdom located in 1882 at Fort Smith, Arkansas, where he became part owner of the Fort Smith Herald. As political editor of that influential journal he exercised a strong influence in the political affairs of the state for a number of years.

An appointment as chief clerk of the Union Indian Agency, whose jurisdiction extended over the five civ- ilized tribes, brought Colonel Wisdom to Muskogee, where he spent the rest of his influential and useful life. In 1893-99 he served as Indian agent, an office in which he made a national reputation for independence, hon- esty and efficiency. He resigned May 3, 1900, because of the change in the national administration. He was also at one time honored with the office of mayor of Muskogee. During his last five years Colonel Wisdom was chiefly engaged in the practice of law, and to him were referred many legal matters connected with the Indian agency. The characteristics of Colonel Wisdom which deserve to be most frequently recalled by those who knew him in his life were his straightforwardness, his brave and manly conduct in all the relations of life, his possession of all the qualities which make the true gentleman, and a sound learning and ability as a lawyer. He was a very popular man, but would never stoop to questionable means to gain public favor or popular regard.

During the war, in 1862, Colonel Wisdom married Miss Annie Terry, daughter of Wiley B. and Mary (Gooche) Terry. To this marriage were born three sons and a daughter : Lucile Eberle; William D .; J. Fentress; and Terry Wisdom.

CHARLES A. COAKLEY. The open range of Indian Ter- ritory that for over thirty years was common to the early cattlemen, developed among a certain class a passion for theft, the inspiration for which was furnished by the comparative ease with which a man could round up cat- tle, place his mark and brand upon them and count them for his own. There have been times when this passion, which frequently led to murder, placed disfiguring black spots upon the fair and romantic history of this region, but as the open range became smaller through the estab- lishment of more ranches and the building of fences, this business diminished to the stage of larceny and then followed an era in which men of small caliber vied with each other in the business of cattle theft. Some made a bare living and escaped prosecution; others made small fortunes and with a part of the proceeds of their crimes escaped prison sentences. The accessibility of Texas was

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an important factor-a small band of thieves could gather up a few cattle here and a few there, between suns, and drive them into Texas and dispose of them without be- ing apprehended. This practice was still common even down to the year of statehood, under which, however, a regime of law and order was established and the men elected to office in the Indian Territory country faced many grave crises in attempting to enforce some stringent laws to which the people of this region had not as yet been subjected.

Charles A. Coakley, who was the second county attor- ney of Marshall County, found soon after he entered upon the duties of his office that one of his principal duties was the suppression of cattle theft. This was not easy, for the thieves had a thorough mastery of their game. Among them were five men in the southeastern part of the county who had transferred their booty regularly over Red River to Denison where the cattle were sold to a local slaughter-house manager. There was a sort of un- derground route and along it were men who shared in the proceeds for helping in the transportation of the cattle. Attorney Coakley, when he had advanced far enough in his investigations, caused the arrest of a num- ber of men. He was as courageous as they were "game"' and his methods were equally as shrewd. They were "caught with the goods" and one of their number was induced to turn state's evidence, which resulted in the conviction of several of his companions. The result was that Marshall County was rid of systematic thievery for the first time in nearly half a century. This much, and more, Mr. Coakley has contributed to the history of the great commonwealth of Oklahoma.

Charles A. Coakley was born at Farley, Iowa, in 1884, and is a son of C. C. and Annie (Coleman) Coakley, his father a native of Wisconsin, a farmer and stockman, an early settler of Iowa and now a highly regarded resi- dent of Flandreau, South Dakota. There were six sons in the family: Raymond, Lee and Harold, who are engaged in farming operations in Iowa; Walter, who is a student at Creighton University at Omaha, where in 1914 he was manager of the athletic association of that institution; Manning, who is private secretary to the manager of the Soo Lines at Minneapolis, Minnesota; and Charles A., of this review. Mr. Coakley's maternal grand- father was a soldier during the Mexican war, and dur- ing the gold rush to California during 1849 made the long and dangerous trip across the plains in search of the yellow metal.

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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