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 34

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 34

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Thomas E. Graham was reared on his father's farm in Cass County, and in his native vicinity attended the district schools, acquiring the education usually granted to Missouri farmers' sons of his day. When he was ready to enter upon his own career he adopted farming as his life work, and continued to be engaged therein in Cass County until 1900, when he disposed of his interests there and came to Oklahoma. Here he purchased land in Woods County, located eight miles southeast of Alva, on which he at once began to make improvements. He now has a well-cultivated tract, with substantial build- ings, modern machinery and appliances, and excellent improvements of every character. He has had the benefit of a many-sided experience and is now able to make his land pay him well for the labor he expends upon it. When he started to make his own way in the world, Mr. Graham could not have purchased one acre of this farm and its ownership means a number of years struggling against odds, and patient hoarding of savings for which he gave his best energies. His life furnishes an impres- sive illustration of what may be accomplished by industry, sobriety and persistent endeavor. Mr. Gra- ham and the members of the family belong to the Methodist Episcopal Church. He bears an excellent reputation in the community as a public-spirited citizen, and his name is one honored in commercial eircles for integrity and straightforward dealing in all of life's business affairs.

On October 15, 1871, Mr. Graham was married to Miss Fatima Jane Wheeler, who was born March 25, 1853, in Cass County, Missouri, daughter of John B. and Irene Jane (Reed) Wheeler, the former a native of Tennessee and the latter of Missouri. Mr. Wheeler was

born November 18, 1824, and died June 6, 1897, while Mrs. Wheeler, boru January 31, 1828, still survives and lives with her daughter and son-in-law. Mr. and Mrs. Graham have been the parents of two sons and three daughters, as follows: Franklin Albert, born October 30, 1872, who died the same day; Irene Frances, born October 15, 1873, married January 17, 1898, Tandy Douglass, and has two daughters, Verna Opal and Nina Aline; Charles Frederick, born November 30, 1875, married February 23, 1898, Daisy Allum, and has two daughters, Ada Margaret and Gertrude Cecil ;. Minnie May, born March 4, 1878, married March 3, 1901, Ed- ward Kerstetter, and has two children, Alta Irene and Roy Evertt; and Emma June, born September 25, 1880, married March 3, 1901, David McNally, and has two sons, Orville Marvin and Harry Graham. Each of the four children own a well improved farm and are doing well. The two oldest, Irene and Charlie, live close to their parents. Minnie lives in Panhandle, Texas, eight miles north of Glazier. Emma lives seven miles north- east of Waynoka, Oklahoma.

SAMUEL A. MAXWELL. The career of Samuel A. Maxwell is a noble illustration of what independence, self-faith and persistency can accomplish in America. . He is a self-made man in the most significant sense of the word for no one helped him in a financial way and he is self-educated. In his youth he was strong, vigorous and self-reliant. He trusted in his own ability and did things single-handed and alone. Today he stands su- preme as a successful business man and a loyal and public-spirited citizen. Much of his attention has been given to the promotion of agriculture and at the present time he is cashier of the Citizens State Bank of Coalgate, an institution that has benefited greatly by his shrewd counsel.

Mr. Maxwell was born in Gainesville, Texas, in the year 1880, and he is a son of Z. T. and Laura L. (Duncan) Maxwell, the former of whom went to Texas from Missouri shortly after the outbreak of the Civil war, in which three of his brothers had enlisted under Quantrell. Subsequently Z. T. Maxwell moved into West Texas and there assisted in the organization of several towns, among them Plainview. In 1891 he located on a farm on Oil Creek, near Ardmore, Indian Territory, and there raised to maturity a large family of children : B. C. Maxwell is city manager of Coalgate; F. W. Max- well is manager of the Coal County Abstract Company at Coalgate; W. E. Maxwell is a farmer in Coal County ; Sallie is the wife of J. W. Hurst, a farmer in Coal County; Samuel A. is the subject of this sketch; and Marcus, Curtis, Mrs. Edna Williams and Miss Violet all live in San Saba County, Texas. Mrs. Maxwell is a daughter of Doctor Duncan, a pioneer settler and well- known resident of Sulphur Springs, Texas. Mr. and Mrs. Maxwell are both living and are in the enjoyment of good health; their home is in San Saba County, Texas.

Under the sturdy discipline of the home farm near Ardmore, Oklahoma, Samuel A. Maxwell was reared to maturity. At the age of eighteen years, with his father's blessings, he started out to make his own way in the world. He had lived in a thinly settled country where respectable neighbors were few and Indians had the habit of putting one another out of the world through open fights and drunken brawls. Public schools were open for but a few months each year and only the more fortunate children were able to attend a subscrip- tion school. Outlaws were numerous and civilization of the sort enjoyed today was several years in the future. It was out of an environment of this sort that young Maxwell walked. He went back to Texas and sought work and subsequently entered the West Texas Normal

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& Business College, at Cherokee, pursuing a scientific and business course and graduating at the age of twenty- three. He earned every dollar of the money with which he defrayed his expenses and missed very little time out of school. Sweeping floors, making beds and teaching represented his work out of school hours and yet he was able to keep up with his class in four subjects. After graduating he returned to Oklahoma and secured a posi- tion as teacher in the Indianola Business College, at Tecumseh, remaining there for three years, during a part of which time he was president of the college. In 1909 he entered the employ of the Citizens State Bank at Coalgate as bookkeeper, later buying stock and accept- ing the position of assistant cashier. Since 1912 he has held the responsible position of cashier of this reliable financial institution, which is capitalized with a stock of $25,000 and of which C. Y. Semple is president and Thomas Pope vice president. Mr. Maxwell is a member of the Coalgate Chamber of Commerce and is one of the most active men in Coal County in the promotion of agriculture. In connection with his banking interests he holds membership in the Coal County, the Oklahoma State and the American Bankers associations. His re- ligious affiliations are with the Christian Church, to whose support he is a liberal contributor.

In 1904, in Hood County, Texas, Mr. Maxwell married Miss Ora Rater, a daughter of a pioneer settler in Indian Territory. One son has been born to this union: Leo, whose birth occurred in 1905.

GUY F. NELSON has built up an excellent gen- eral practice as one of the able and representative mem- bers of the bar of the City of Muskogee, where he has been thus engaged in practice since the spring of 1909, prior to which time he had given efficient service in both Indian Territory and Oklahoma Territory as a representative of the legal department of the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railway.

Mr. Nelson was born at Nevada, the judicial center of Vernon County, Missouri, the 16th of August, 1873, and that he may have entered his present vocation through hereditary predilection is possible when consideration is taken of the fact that his paternal grandfather was one of the able pioneer lawyers of that section of Missouri. Mr. Nelson is a son of I. Founty S. Nelson and Alice (Pottorf) Nelson, the former of whom was born and reared in Missouri and the latter of whom was born in the State of Illinois, though she was reared at Mexico, Missouri, her father having been a native of Pennsylvania and having lived for a number of years in Illinois prior to his removal to Missouri, his lineage tracing back to sterling Swiss-French origin. The parents of Mr. Nelson still reside at Nevada, Mis- souri, and the father has long been employed as a traveling commercial salesman, Harry F., the younger of the two children, likewise following that vocation and being still a resident of his native town of Nevada. Albert F. Nelson, grandfather of him whose name ini- tiates this article, was born in the historic old town of Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and as a young man he removed from that state to become a pioneer of Missouri, where he achieved local prominence and success in the practice of law and where he served with marked ability in judicial capacity. Judge Nelson was an in- fluential citizen of his community in Missouri until the close of his long and useful life.

In the public schools of his native city Guy F. Nelson continued his studies until he had completed the curricu- lum of the high school, and after his graduation he pursued for two years higher academic studies in Chris- tian College, a well ordered institution established like- wise at Nevada, the place of his birth. Soon afterward

he began the study of law in the office of Horace H. Blanton, who was then engaged in practice at Nevada but who is now one of the prominent members of the bar of . Kansas City, Missouri. Mr. Nelson made excellent prog- ress in his absorption and assimilation of the involved science of jurisprudence and in 1892 he was admitted to the bar of his native state. He initiated his pro- fessional career at Nevada, and during his first year of practice served also as assistant county attorney of Vernon County. After leaving his home city he prac- ticed one year at Greenfield, Missouri, and one year at Harrison, Arkansas, after which he returned to Nevada, Missouri, where he continued in the successful work of his profession four years. He then assumed a position in the law department of the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railway Company, in the interests of which he was in active service in Kansas and Indian Territory until April, 1909, when he resigned his position to engage in the active general practice of his profession in the City of Muskogee, where he now controls a substantial and representative law business and has established a reputation as a resourceful trial lawyer and well forti- fied counselor.

Mr. Nelson has from the time of attaining to his legal majority been a staunch and effective advocate of the principles of the democratic party and he is still active in his service in behalf of its cause. He is an apprecia- tive and popular member of the Muskogee lodge of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, is identified with the Muskogee County Bar Association and the Okla- homa State Bar Association, and both he and his wife attend the Christian Church.

At Nevada, Missouri, in the year 1898, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Nelson to Miss Maybelle Ayres, daughter of A. J. Ayres, a well-known citizen of that place. Mr. and Mrs. Nelson have two children: Lorraine and Ayres.

WILLIAM E. HOLLAND. Seventeen miles south of Du- rant and fourteen miles north of Denison, Texas, in the heart of a rich alluvial black land section of Bryan County, Oklahoma, is situated the progressive and pros- perous Town of Achille. Its original settlers were In- dians and cattlemen; its population today consists for the most part of modern citizens-men who have traveled about the country and learned the secrets of industrial and commercial success. Achille is not greatly different from other towns of its proportions in Oklahoma, but it is an excellent example of what the new men of the commonwealth, the successors of the Indian and cattle- men, can accomplish in community building. During many years men of foresight in Texas counties along. Red River looked forward to a day when Indian lands might be sold and the country settled and governed by men of white blood. It is an interesting phase of history that a great number of these men crossed the river when the time was ripe, made settlement, and initiated the country's greatest period of development.

Among these men was James Henry Holland, a na- tive of Texas and a son of Col. Edward Holland, of the Confederate army, who was born in Virginia and for many years was a prominent citizen of Paducah, Ken- tucky, and Grayson County, Texas. Mr. Holland had been in the livestock business in Texas and in Indian Territory he found a much more lucrative field. The years of the cattleman were numbered in the territory, however, and Mr. Holland made a comfortable fortune and prepared himself and his family for the new era of the banker, the merchant and the farmer.

One of the sons of James Henry Holland, William Edward Holland, after being educated in the public schools of Grayson County, Texas, Harshaw College at

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Denison and the Metropolitan Business College, Dallas, was enabled to take his place among the leading men of the new generation who were destined to fulfill the desires of their parents who had witnessed the dawn of the new era and wished it the most possible success. Mr. Holland was born at Bells, Grayson County, Texas, in 1885. His mother was a daughter of Captain Chaf- fon, one of the best known oldtimers of North Texas, and his father was for many years one of the substan- tial farmers and stockmen of the county. Mr. Holland began business for himself in 1906, as inspector for the Southern Trust Company, at Atoka, Indian Territory, his duties comprising field work over the timber section of the Choctaw Nation. Two years later he was elected secretary of the company and continued in that position until 1911, when he became one of the organizers of the First State Bank of Achille, which two years later ac- quired a national charter. He has been cashier since the organization of the bank, of which R. B. Lemon is president and R. S. Legate and G. W. Wells are vice presidents. The bank has a capital stock of $25,000 and its statement of June 23, 1915, showed surplus of $15,- 820, including undivided profits, and deposits of $29,807. Mr. Holland, in July, 1915, was elected the first town clerk of Achille and recorded the first ordinance enacted by the board of trustees which forbade the commis- sion of misdemeanors.

Mr. Holland has five brothers and four sisters: Marion Inge, a stockman of Achille; Mildred Carver, also en- gaged in the handling of stock here; Mrs. A. W. Bar- nett, the wife of an Achille druggist; Miss Allie, a teacher in the public school; and James Henry, Jr., Velma, Birdie, David and Walter. Mr. Holland is in- clined to the faith of the Methodist Church, is fra- ternally connected with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and holds membership also in the Bryan County, Oklahoma State and American Bankers associations. His bank, a member of the federal organization of the Eleventh District, has been one of the most important factors in the development of the community, having contributed to the expense of maintaining a county farm demonstration agent, the building of good roads and other public causes.

HON. GEORGE EMMET WILSON. Senator Wilson came into the Oklahoma Senate with a distinction that made him an object of immediate interest among his colleagues in that body, since he was the first socialist to be chosen a senator in Oklahoma. Senator Wilson is from the Second Senatorial District, and his home is at Cestos. He has been a member of the socialist party for twenty years and is secretary of the Cestos local of his party and represents a strong contingent of socialists over Dewey, Ellis, Beckham and Roger Mills counties, which constitute his district. In the campaign which resulted in his elec- tion he won over his democratic opponent by about 150 votes.

In the Senate he was a member of seven committees, but his chief interest centered in legislation affecting the working class. Senator Wilson introduced a bill pro- posing a constitutional amendment granting women the right to vote in Oklahoma. Another amendment proposed by him would deny to the governor the right to veto measures adopted by the people under the initiative and referendum laws. Still another measure advocated by him was one for the amendment of the initiative and referendum so as to simplify and strengthen those laws.

George Emmet Wilson is a man of the people and his own career and experience have given him a ready sym- pathy with those who must acquire their right to live through hard work. Thrown out into the world on his own resources at the age of eleven, he early acquired

fellowship with toil, and to a considerable degree has been a successful business man. He is a strenuous worker, has made a close study of economics and is a devoted disciple of the fundamental principles of socialism.

George Emmet Wilson was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1867, a son of George C. and Mary Jane (Boyd) Wilson. His father, who was born in New York City, was a book- binder, and at the Centennial Exposition of 1876 was awarded the premium by the Methodist Book Concern for the best bound Bible on display. George C. Wilson also reached the rank of lieutenant-colonel in the Fifteenth Kentucky Volunteer Infantry in the Union Army during the Civil war. Mary Jane Boyd, who was of Scotch descent, was a woman of social charm and of unusual vitality, as is well illustrated by the fact that at the age of seventy-four she danced the Highland Fling during a social function given in Cincinnati.

Senator Wilson attended the public schools of Cin- cinnati until completing the fourth grade, and after that had only two more terms of regular schooling. He began earning his own living at the age of eleven, and some years later studied telegraphy and from 1882 to 1884 was in the employ of the metropolitan line of the C. & A. Railroad in Chicago. He learned the printer 's trade, and in 1889 engaged in the printing business in Chicago and continued there until 1893, beginning under the title of G. E. Wilson and later as the Wilson Publishing Com- pany. His publications consisted largely of pamphlets and books of a liberal nature.

As a result of failing health in 1899 Mr. Wilson went South and was engaged in the timber and lumber business at Handsboro, Mississippi. In 1911 he became an organizer in Mississippi for the American Federation of Labor. Formerly he had held a card in the car workers union. He engaged in the fight against a road law in Mississippi, which he charged disfranchised laborers and sentenced men to jail for non-payment of poll tax without a trial. The fight became bitter and a special justice of the State Supreme Court was selected to pass upon the constitutionality of the law. It was held constitutional, but the following Legislature passed an act discharging the justice.

In 1912 Mr. Wilson came to Oklahoma and settled on a farm near Cestos, and farming has since been his chief business in the state. In the same year of his coming to Oklahoma he married May C. Guth of Chicago. They have one daughter, named Militant. Senator Wilson had a brother, Fred Wilson, who was recruited for service in the United States army and was sent to join the forces in the West shortly before the Custer massacre, and was a victim in that national tragedy.

GROVER CLEVELAND WAMSLEY. Present county attor- ney of Caddo County, Oklahoma, is a resident of Ana- darko, his professional headquarters being in the court- house. The Wamsleys are descended from an old line of English lawyers, representatives of the name in America having coming hither in colonial times, locating in Vir- ginia.

At Huttonsville, West Virginia, October 8, 1884, occurred the birth of Grover C. Wamsley, who is a son of Stuart M. and Mary E. (Crickard) Wamsley, both of whom are now living, their home being in Jefferson Township, Caddo County, this state. The father was born near Huttonsville, West Virginia, in 1860, and he was a pioneer settler in Yukon, Canadian County, Okla- homa, whither he removed in 1893. In 1901 he took up a homestead in Jefferson Township, Caddo County, and there is following his occupation of farmer and stock- man. Mrs. Wamsley was born near Huttonsville, West Virginia, in 1862, and she and her husband became the

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parents of eight children, of whom the subject of this sketch is the oldest. Elmer, second son, is a farmer in Grady County, Oklahoma; Agnes married William Martinseau, editor of the Livestock News, at Oklahoma City; Teresa and Hope are both popular and success- ful teachers in Caddo County; Rose is a pupil in St. Mary's Academy, in Oklahoma City; Lina died at the age of eleven years.

As a boy Grover C. Wamsley attended the country schools near Huttonsville, West Virginia, and near Yukon, Oklahoma, and subsequently he was a student in the Yukon High School, this state. He was graduated in the Central State Normal School of Oklahoma, in 1907, and shortly thereafter entered the University of Michigan, in the law department of which noted institu- tion he was graduated, in 1910, with the degree of Bachelor of Laws. He entered upon the active practice of his profession in Anadarko in January, 1911, and here he has met with unqualified success as a general practitioner. He is a democrat in his political affilia- tions and November 6, 1914, he was honored by his fellow men with election to the office of county attorney. He has filled this office with the utmost efficiency since January 1, 1915, and he is well known throughout this section of the state as a loyal and public-spirited citizen, who has at heart the best interests of his home com- munity.

In August, 1913, in this city, was celebrated the marriage of Mr. Wamsley to Miss Nettie Daniels, a daughter of W. H. Daniels, a prominent carpenter and builder in Anadarko. Mrs. Wamsley has long been prominent in educational work in this section of the state and since 1911 has served as county superintendent of schools for Caddo County; her term of office expires July 1, 1915. Mr. and Mrs. Wamsley have no chil- dren.

In a fraternal way Mr. Wamsley is a member of Anadarko Lodge, No. 21, Ancient, Free and Accepted Masons; and of the Odd Fellows order. As a man Mr. Wamsley is thoroughly conscientious, of undoubted integrity, affable and courteous in manner, and he has a host of friends.

J. E. THRIFT. Few lawyers at the Creek County Bar are generally acknowledged to have a more sound and ready judgment in broad and intricate matters of civil jurisprudence than J. E. Thrift, who since 1909 has been engaged in practice at Sapulpa and since 1912 has been the representative of the great Jones oil interests here. Mr. Thrift's mastery of the law is remarkable alike for its accuracy and comprehensiveness, and in its application he is forceful, concise and logical, which accounts for the high and substantial position he occupies in public opin- ion, as well as for the professional standing that has elevated him to the presidency of the Creek County Bar Association.

J. E. Thrift was born in Albemarle County, Virginia, January 26, 1872, and is a son of J. E. and Sally (Bowcock) Thrift. His parents were natives of Vir- ginia, members of old families of that state, the father being of Scotch-English and the mother of Scotch-Irish stock, and members of both families took part in the Revolutionary war as soldiers of the Continental line. At the outbreak of the war between the states, the father, then a lad of sixteen years, joined a Virginia volunteer cavalry regiment, and fought throughout the entire period of the war, seeing much hard service, participating in numerous hard-fought battles and being wounded three times. When the war had ended he returned to his home in the Old Dominion and there continued to be engaged in agricultural pursuits for the remainder of

his life, the mother also dying there. They were the parents of four sons and two daughters.

J. E. Thrift received his early education in the public schools and remained at home until he was sixteen years of age, at which time his independence asserted itself and he began to shift for himself. After following various occupations, at the age of nineteen years he applied himself to the study of telegraphy, an occupation which received his attention until he was twenty-six. In the meantime he had become interested in law, and after some preparation entered Washington and Lee Univer- sity, from which old and distinguished institution he was graduated in 1897 with the degree of Bachelor of Laws. He at once engaged in practice in Madison County, Vir- ginia, where he secured recognition in a short time, and was elected prosecuting attorney, the duties of which office he discharged for ten years. IIe also served one term in the West Virginia Legislature. In January, 1909, Mr. Thrift sought the comparatively new regions of the West, taking up his residence at Sapulpa, where he has since continued in a constantly growing practice. He became assistant county attorney under L. B. Jackson, the first county attorney under statehood, and served for eighteen months in that office, his labors therein attract- ing favorable attention to him. In 1912 he was given the position of attorney for the interests of B. B. Jones & Brother, generally accounted to be the largest individual oil owners in the world. Mr. Thrift is known as an attor- ney of broad legal information, engaged in the successful handling of involved and important litigation; a man of scholarly tastes and thoughtful disposition, and a logical and forceful speaker. Among his professional brethren he is held in the highest esteem, a fact emphasized by his election, in 1914, to the presidency of the Creek County Bar Association. Politically he is a democrat. His fra- ternal connection is with the Masons, while his religious belief is that of the Presbyterian Church, which he attends with the members of his family.

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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