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 35

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 35

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Mr. Thrift was married in 1898 to Miss Carrie M. Bell, a native of Virginia, and daughter of John W. Bell. To this union there have been born five children: James E., Jr., Izzie B., John Marshall, Constant A. and Mildred B.

JOHN H. KING. The careers of many of those who have won distinction in the law in the states of the West and Southwest are in some respects similar. In a large number of cases the common type brings to mind an ambitious and gifted youth, born, if not in penury, in humble circumstances, struggling with steadfast labor and self-sacrifice to gain subsistence, while giving his thoughts to the acquisition of an academic and usually a university education. An interval in the school room follows, as a teacher, and this lays open the entrance into professional schools; following which comes a calling to the bar, and a settlement in some community in the West. The gaining of foothold in practice is the next step, then ensues a period of more marked prosperity, and finally elevation to some judicial position. The career of John H. King is no marked exception from this rule. His early life was marked by a struggle for the necessities of life; he won a liberal education through his own labor; he began practice in a new western town and then sought the broader opportunities of the city, where he has since won recognition and honors.

Judge King was born at North Vernon, Indiana, March 8, 1867, and is a son of Dr. William D. and Jennie (Brazelton) King, natives of the Hoosier state. His father was a physician and was just entering upon a suc- cessful career in his profession at North Vernon, when he died, his son John H. being then but nine months old. Judge King's mother took him, when he was six years old,

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to Edinburg, Illinois, and there he was reared and re- ceived his education in the public schools, subsequently entering the Valparaiso University, at Valparaiso, In- diana. He began his career as a teacher in the public schools, and while thus engaged devoted himself assidu- ously to the study of law, so that July 3, 1893, he was admitted to the bar and took up his practice at Hamilton, Missouri, where he remained with a measure of profes- sional success for eight years. During this time he acted in the capacity of prosecuting attorney for one term, and for a like period gave Hamilton an excellent adminis- tration as mayor.

Mr. King then decided that he needed further educa- tional training, and accordingly enrolled as a student in the law department of the University of Michigan, from which he was graduated in 1903, and in January of the following year came to Muskogee, where he has resided ever since. When Oklahoma became a state, he received the republican nomination for judge of the Third Judicial District, an office to which he was elected, and in which he served for a period of three years, the first judge of the district under statehood. Since leaving the bench the judge has engaged in the practice of law with offices in the New Phoenix Building, Muskogee, and is in the enjoyment of a large general practice, to which his fine legal abilities most certainly entitle him.

Judge King was married in 1897 to Miss Ida Hum- phreys, of Edinburg, Illinois. They have no children. Judge and Mrs. King are members of the Christian Church, and have taken an active and helpful part in its work. He is a thirty-second degree Mason and a Pythian Knight, and is a member of Oklahoma State and City Bar Associations. In civic affairs he has shown himself constantly ready to perform the duties resting upon him as a citizen, and his name is frequently found among those who are behind movements making for ad- vancement in morality and education.

ROBERT C. ROLAND. Few men who have reached the age of thirty-five years with but meager fundamentals of a school education go back and gather up the threads of their youthful ambition and, putting them together, build up a determination to yet acquire the essentials for a successful professional career. Robert C. Roland, a prominent and successful lawyer of Ada, must be classed among those few, for until he had attained that age he had but a few months of schooling, this training secured before he reached the age of fifteen years.

At that age Mr. Roland's father moved to Indian Territory, which was then a country sparsely settled by whites, and with few educational and social opportuni- ties. As Mr. Roland began to approach manhood he was more and more impressed with the endless possibilities of the new country. All opportunity for education had not been allowed to pass, however, for he was a devoted student from early boyhood. At the age of twenty-four years, when he was married to Miss Fannie Adams, of Ardmore, his earlier ambitions were beginning to become more active, but it was not until eleven years later, in 1904, that he determined to take the necessary steps toward a higher education. Accordingly, he sold out his interests in the Indian Territory and returned to Texas, entering there the North Texas Baptist Academy, at Westminster, where he remained two years, attending night school. In the meantime, early in his career he had learned the trade of blacksmith and this he fol- lowed at Westminster while pursuing his studies. After completing the academy course, he returned to Indian Territory and taught school two terms, one of them at Conway, in what is now Pontotoc County. It lasted three months and $6.00 was the total amount of tuition col- lected in money; the rest of his fees he took in corn,

chickens and other things acceptable to the family larder, and home-made tobacco, which was extensively grown in those days.

Robert C. Roland was born in Collin County, Texas, in 1869, on the farm on which his father had been born in 1850. His parents, John C. and Tabitha L. (Gridin) Roland, are now living at Ada. His father entered the Confederate army at the age of thirteen years, enlisting in Collin County, Texas, and served through the remain- der of the war as a member of a company of frontier home guards. His mother is a daughter of Capt. Madi- son Griffin, one of the best known men of his day in Alabama. Mr. Roland has seven living brothers and sisters; James, who is engaged in farming operations at South Bellingham, Washington; Henry, who is an agriculturist at Coleman, Oklahoma; Dudley, who is one of the leading farmers and stockmen of ,Grady County, and makes his home at Cement, Oklahoma; Clyde, who is employed in the oil fields of Cushing, Oklahoma; Mrs. May Morrison, who is the wife of a farmer at Chickasha, Oklahoma; Mrs. Minnie Harmon, who is the wife of a farmer of Montague County, Texas; and Mrs. Josie Rains, who is the wife of a farmer and stockman at Muskogee, Oklahoma.

Kobert C. Roland began the study of law in 1905 in the office of Tom D. MeKeown, now district judge at Ada, and to Judge Mckeown he gives most of the credit for his having become a successful lawyer. When he was admitted to the bar, in 1907, Judge MeKeown gave him a part of his library and he entered the practice at Ada. He began to take an active interest in demo- cratie politics and in 1912 was elected county attorney of Pontotoc County, a position which he held until Jan- uary, 1915. During a part of that interim of his career, after finishing his education in Texas, Mr. Roland was engaged in the ministry of the Baptist Church. He filled pulpits at Roff, Hickory, Center and other places and at Ada was first pastor of the North Ada Baptist Church. His faith in the principles of the democratie party led him to the stump in campaign years and he has debated with some of the best talent of the socialist party that has been sent into this section of the state.

Of the nine children born to Mr. and Mrs. Roland, one son and three daughters are living, namely: Jewell, aged eighteen, and Helen, aged sixteen, who are students ot the Ada High School; Ruth, aged thirteen years; and Howard Dudley Keller, who is three years of age. Mr. and Mrs. Roland are members of the Christian Church. He belongs to the Woodmen of the World, and is a char- ter member of the Odd Fellows Lodge at Midland, Okla- homa in which he has filled all the chairs, and he is also a member of the Eagles. He is a member of the county and state bar associations, and is a charter mein- ber of the Ada Commercial Club.

Among interesting experiences of pioneer days of In- dian Territory, Mr. Roland recalls that prior to 1891 there was no law against the carrying of pistols and he has seen young men accompanying their barefooted sweethearts to church with white-handled revolvers pro- truding from the young men's pockets. A law was passed in 1891 forbidding the carrying of concealed weapons and he recalls having seen many young men, unable to buy ammunition for their revolvers, trade these weapons for pocket knives. Mr. Roland has always had an abiding interest in education, and while he was county attorney he made it a rule never to prosecute a teacher charged with assault and battery until after the teacher and the board of education had submitted the matter to arbitration. His first home in Indian Territory was fifteen miles east of Ada and at that time, except for four other families in the neighborhood, there was not a white neighbor within a radius of fifteen miles.

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He recalls killing a deer on the site now occupied by the plaut of the Ada cotton mill when there was not a house within four miles of the spot. He heard the report of the gun that killed Bill Dalton, a notorious outlaw of early days in Indian Territory, and saw the killing of Osavia, a noted Mexican outlaw, by John Strickland. He witnessed the killing of Jim Starr, another notorious character, by Robert Hutchins, now chief of police at Ardmore, and Bub Stringer. Mr. Roland and his father carried "Preacher" Perkins off the field when he had been killed by members of the famous Doolin gang, at Woodford, Indian Territory. However, these days of outlawry and crime have now passed, and Mr. Roland has done his full share in bringing about the enlight- enment that has made this one of the most law-abiding communities in the great Southwest.

JOSEPH S. FULTON, M. D. One of the pioneer physi- cians of Southeastern Oklahoma, Doctor Fulton has lived Atoka. When he established his home at Atoka he became the only physician in the town. The country about was so sparsely populated that his practice ex- tended twenty to thirty miles in all directions. Boggy Depot, the oldest and most historic community of the Choctaw Nation, was in his professional territory, and there he was physician to the family of Rev. Allen Wright, one of the greatest and noblest men who ever lived among the Choctaw Indians.

In the early years of his practice Doctor Fulton was frequently called upon to dress the wounds of Indians who had been stabbed or shot in fights among them- selves. These fights, says Doctor Fulton, were almost entirely the result of drinking liquor that had been brought into the Indian Nation by "bootleggers" in violation of the federal laws. More than once he had the singular experience of administering an anesthetic to his patients under protest, and afterwards removing a limb. His calls from the historic towns of Caddo and Stringtown were frequent, and his patients were num- bered among the leading families of the Choctaw Nation. His life has been filled with interesting experiences, and nature so constituted him as to enable him to get the maximum enjoyment from these experiences. He is buoyant and optimistic, and in addition to being an able and popular representative of his profession has proved himself a veritable apostle of goodness and gladness in his association with all sorts and conditions of men.

Doctor Fulton is a member of the Atoka County Medi- cal Society, the Oklahoma State Medical Society and the American Medical Association, and is an honorary mem- ber in the Grayson County and the North Texas Medical societies. Since 1907, when Oklahoma became a state, he has served as superintendent of health in Atoka County. For the past twenty-five years he has been local surgeon for the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railroad.

Joseph S. Fulton was born in Grayson County, Texas, January 9, 1866. David W. Fulton, the father, was born in Arkansas and made settlement in Grayson County when a young man. He was a Confederate soldier in the Civil war, member of the brigade com- manded by General Ross. In 1915 he celebrated his eightieth anniversary and is now living retired at Van Alstyne, Grayson County. His wife, now deceased, was a granddaughter of Collin Mckinney. Collin Mckinney, who settled in Texas when it was a province of Mexico, was a distinguished pioneer, served one or more terms in the Constitutional Convention State Legislature, and for his varied services was appropriately honored when his personal name was given to Collin County, with its capi-

tal city known as Mckinney. Collin Mckinney lived to be ninety-six years of age. Doctor Fulton has four brothers and two sisters: Mrs. Jennie Benton, wife of a merchant at Van Alstyne; Mrs. Emerson, of Van Alstyne, a widow, whose husband was a physician; Robert S., editor and publisher of the Van Alstyne Leader, who owns large quantities of land in Grayson. County; Vardie M., who is associated with his brother, Robert S., at Van Alstyne; James D .; and Perry, who lives at Canadian in Pittsburg County, Oklahoma.

While spending the first nineteen years of his life on the old homestead in Grayson County, Doctor Fulton attended the country schools and then for two years taught school as assistant to a young Baptist clergyman who had come from Tennessee to Grayson County. After- wards for a time he was a salesman for the nursery products of John S. Kerr of Sherman, Texas, one of the widely quoted horticultural authorities in the Southwest.

Doctor Fulton is affiliated with Atoka Lodge No. 4, Ancient, Free and Accepted Masons, and with the Knights of Pythias and Modern Woodmen of America, and he and his wife are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church South. On February 26, 1891, he married Miss Lena Cannon. Her grandfather, James P. Dumas, was the first vice president of the Merchants and Planters National Bank of Sherman, and one of the largest land owners in Grayson County. Her father, R. M. Cannon, who lives at Van Alstyne, has also been prominent in Grayson County, and the Town of Cannon in that county was named in honor of the family. Doctor and Mrs. Fulton have two children: J. Harold, who was twenty-two years of age in 1915, is associated with his father in the livestock business; Clifford Can- non was thirteen years old in 1915.

Doctor Fulton owns much real estate in Atoka, includ- ing his residence, and is secretary and manager of the Atoka Realty Company. However, his principal real estate holdings in Atoka County consist of the historic old Mckinney Ranch, located a few miles north of Atoka. The ranch house, on a picturesque elevation of ground, was once the home of Mr. and Mrs. Alexander Mckinney and something should be said of them as pioneer white citizens of the Choctaw Nation. They lived there a number of years, almost in solitude so far as white neighbors were concerned, before Dr. John S. Murrow, "father of Atoka, " had his town named and established. The coming of white neighbors was joy- fully welcomed by the Mckinneys, and their joy was expressed in unbounded hospitality, for which they became noted over a large area of the district of Pushmataha. Their hospitality was most sincerely and appropriately expressed once each year on the occasion of their birthdays, which fell on the same day. All of Atoka was invited to the birthday feast and observ- ances, and these occasions were enjoyed in the fullest social measure. The Mckinneys were childless, and when the proper opportunities came they adopted a child. She was of Indian blood, and thereby inherited a share of Indian lands. In the course of time coal was discovered in the region about McAlester, the present county seat of Pittsburg County, and in that region lay part of this child's allotment. A coal vein was found beneath her allotment and she became wealthy. Her income, estimated at five hundred dollars a month, contributed to the elaborateness and gaiety at suc- ceeding birthday observances at the Mckinney home. A few years later an orphan boy was likewise taken into this generous home. The boy and girl eventually became man and wife. Some of their children now live within the borders of the old Chickasaw Nation,

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but the four who made pleasure and entertainment for Atoka and lighted a torch of romance in the Indian country have passed away. The story is interesting on its own merits, and also because Doctor Fulton, who many times was a guest of the Mckinneys, now owns the little ranch formerly occupied by those revered pioneers. His extensive farming and ranch interests in that locality include about 6,000 additional acres in Atoka County.

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JOHN H. JOHNSON. One mile west of Dewey, in Washington County, is located the handsome and well- cultivated farm belonging to John H. Johnson, a pro- gressive and enterprising farmer, who, with the excep- tion of several years spent in Texas, has been a resi- dent of this property for thirty-three years. He has watched and participated in the great growth and development of this region, and has seen the virgin prairies blossom forth into productive fields of grain, dotted here and there with oil wells; the product of which is making the fortunate owners of land here wealthy.

Mr. Johuson is a native of Kentucky, born in Laurel County, December 8, 1865, and is a son of Wesley N. and Martha Ann (Sparks) Johnson, natives of the same state and county. The parent's were born, reared and educated in Kentucky, where they were married, and about the year 1875 set out for the West and settled in Northern Texas, on the plains. There the father carried on stockraising until the fall of the year of President Garfield 's assassination, 1881, when the family removed to the Cherokee Nation, the parents continuing to reside here until their death. They passed away during the same year, 1894, the father in March, when fifty-eight years of age, and the mother in September, aged sixty- one years. Mr. Johnson was a farmer and stockraiser, was successful in the accumulation of a competence, and had the respect and esteem of his fellow-citizens in what- ever community he resided. He and his wife were the parents of eight children, namely: James, who died at the age of sixteen years; H. G., a resident of Okla- homa; William, who resides in Texas; John H., of this notice; Lucy, whose home is in Arkansas; Julia, residing at Bartlesville, Oklahoma; Cyrus, who lives in Osage County, this state; and Eliza, whose death occurred when she was an infant.

· As before stated, John H. Johnson has been a resi- dent of his present property for thirty-three years, and here has devoted himself to farming and stockraising. He was given a public school education in his youth and grew up as an agriculturist, and at the present time has an eighty-acre tract, located one mile west of Dewey, in Washington County. Here he has made numerous improvements, including a substantial set of modern improvements, and aside from general farming operations is selling the oil from his eight wells. He was married in 1891 to Miss Jennie Carr, who was born in the Cherokee Nation, on the Caney River, December 31, 1869, daughter of N. F. Carr, a sketch of whose career will be found on another page of this work. Mrs. Johnson and her children have their allotment of land, so that the family in all owns 530 acres, this being all in one body with the exception of eighty acres and sixty acres, both tracts adjoining Dewey. Mr. Johnson's old- est son is cultivating eighty acres of this land, while Mr. Johnson is in charge of the operations on the rest of the property. There are seven children in the family : Frank, who married Myrtle Keener, and his one child, Anna Charlotte; Edith, the wife of P. G. McWhorter, carrying on operations with Mr. Johnson, has one child, Windell; and Roy, Flora, Annie, Paul . and Lelia, all

living with their parents. Eva Beatrice died when three months old.

Mrs. Johnson, a woman of many attainments, was brought up under Christian influences, and like her mother is a church and fraternal worker. She belongs to the Baptist Church, and is a member of Dewey Chap- ter, Order of the Eastern Star, the Rebekahs at Dewey, and the Woodmen's Circle. She is well educated, having attended the public schools, as well as having been a student at the Cherokee Female Seminary at Tahlequah for two years. Mr. Johnson is also interested in fraternal work, and belongs to the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, lodge and encampment, the Knights of Pythias, the A. H. T. A., and the Woodmen of the World. He is a republican in his political views, and while he has not sought public preferment, has always been a staunch supporter of movements making for civic reform and betterment.

CHARLES W. BRILES, B. LIT. The president of the East Central State Normal School of Oklahoma is naturally one of the prominent and influential figures in connection with educational affairs in this common- wealth and such official preferment as is his attests fully his high scholarship and his executive and constructive ability. Coming to the West as a young man recently graduated in the University of North Carolina, Mr. Briles initiated his pedagogic career as a teacher in an obscure rural school in Northern Texas, but not for him was long continued service in such capacity, for his ambition and talent fitted him for broader activities in his chosen profession, and his advancement has been consecutive and well merited. He has done most effective constructive work in his present position, has been a resident of Oklahoma since 1905 and is known and honored as one of the leading forces in educational activities in the state of his adoption, the admirable institution of which he is the executive head being located at Ada, the judicial center of Pontotoc County.

Professor Briles was born in Davidson County, North Carolina, in the year 1873, and is a son of Millard Fill- more Briles and Sallie (Lopp) Briles. His ancestors were of sturdy Holland Dutch stock and his forebears in the agnatic lines settled in North Carolina shortly after the close of the War of the Revolution, the maternal ancestors having become residents of Pennsylvania in 1778. The father of President Briles has been identified with the great basic industry of agriculture from his youth to the present time and he and his wife still reside on the ancestral homestead farm of the Briles family, the place where his great-grandfather settled shortly after the close of the Revolution. On this farm is an historic graveyard which the North Carolina Historical Society believes to contain the bodies of the members of celebrated Croiton Colony that was lost early in the settlement of the state. Excavations have been made under the direction of the historical society and the remains of white persons have been found, this fact lending credibility to the presumption that here was the resting place of the historic lost colony, whose represen- tatives may have succumbed during some epidemic scourge or may have suffered practical obliteration at the hands of Indians.

The early education of Professor Briles was acquired in the public schools of his native state and in the furtherance of his higher academic education he was fortunate in being able to avail himself of the provisions of a college-loan fund established by an honored phil- anthropist named Deems, of New York City, his own financial resources having been virtually none, so that he was favored in being accorded the reinforcement demanded in the achievement of his ambitious purpose.

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As a member of the class of 1896 he was graduated in the University of North Carolina, with the degree of Bachelor of Letters, his having been the one hundred and first class to be graduated in that institution.

Immediately after his graduation Professor Briles set forth for the Southwest for the purpose of instituting his work as a teacher. Upon his arrival at Greenwood, Wise County, Texas, he was fortunate in being able to obtain the position of teacher in the only school, in a rural district, for which such provision had not pre- viously been made for that year. During his pedagogic career in the Lone Star State he taught in some of the best schools of Wise, Erath and Grayson counties and was the conductor of three summer normal institutes in Wise County. He was a member of the State Board of School Examiners for one year and a member for one term of the faculty of the summer school of the Univer- sity of Texas. Coming to Oklahoma in 1905 from the City of Sherman, Texas, where he had served as principal of the high school, Professor Briles was elected super- intendent of the public schools of the City of Muskogee, a position which he retained four years and which he resigned in 1909 to become the first president of the newly created East Central State Normal School, this preferment having come to him unsolicited and having been the result of official appreciation of his special eligibility. Prior to leaving Muskogee he had caused to be prepared plans and specifications for the magnifi- cent new high school building in that city and had the satisfaction of seeing the first dirt turned for the erec- tion of the fine building, which was finally completed at a cost of $325,000. In point of continuous service Pro- fessor Briles now has the distinction of being the oldest head of a state educational institution in Oklahoma, and in his present responsible office he has found opportunity to bring out his exceptional strength as an organizer and as a progressive executive of admirable constructive and initiative ability. The handsome and well appointed building of the East Central State Normal School was erected in 1909, at a cost of $100,000. It is situated on a beautiful eminence in the eastern part of the thriving little City of Ada and the surrounding gardens and attractive lawn and landscape effects represent the products of the æsthetic ideas and practical skill of Mrs. Briles, who constituted herself the voluntary supervisor of the work at the time of its initiation and to whom is due great credit for the exquisite landscape-gardening that has added so greatly to the attractions of this suc- cessful educational institution of Oklahoma.

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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