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 37
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Another measure which he advocated, and which has many obvious advantages, was one prohibiting railways from changing proposed routes after grades had been established, depot and switching sites fixed, and official statement of plans filed with the secretary of state, except upon vote of two-thirds of the people of the com- munity affected. Thus in spite of ill health, with the menace of death constantly over him, Mr. McCance made a record in the Legislature which may well be a per- manent memorial to his name.
Mr. McCance was married June 7, 1903, at Running- water, Texas, to Miss Zoe Duvall, whose parents were among the pioneer settlers of the Texas Panhandle. To their marriage was born one child, Venia May, now three years of age. Mr. McCance was a member of the ยท Methodist Episcopal Church, South, served as Sunday School superintendent eight years, and for a long time was a steward and lay leader.
He was a member of the Oklahoma Press Association, and was major general of the Squirrel Rifles, a military organization formed during the Constitutional Conven- tion by W. H. Murray, president of that body. This title was one of the rewards for the influence of Mr. McCance in helping elect Murray to the presidency of the con- vention.
JAMES H. N. COBB. The secretary of the Sapulpa Commercial Club and one of the present county commis-
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sioners of Creek Connty has had a variety and length and breadth of experience such as fall to the lot of very few men. He was born in old Virginia a few years before the outbreak of the war between the states. He was a member of a large family of children, and his parents were hard working and self respecting people who never reached a completely independent stage of prosperity. These facts indicate what the environment of Mr. Cobb was as a boy. He worked for all he got in the way of education, and it may be said that he has supported himself since he entered his teens. In spite of such handicaps, he educated himself for work as a suc- cessful teacher, has for about a quarter of a century been identified with the Methodist Episcopal Church as a preacher and missionary, and in other official work, gained admission to the Oklahoma Bar some years ago, has been active in politics, and has other enviable distinctions.
He was born in McDowell, Virginia, December 14, 1858, a son of John Augustus and Elizabeth Anne (Pullin) Cobb. Both parents were natives of Virginia, his father born July 26, 1826, and his mother about 1830. Both died in Virginia, his father in 1877 and his mother in 1892. John A. Cobb was a farmer all his life, and saw four years of active service in the Confederate army under the noted cavalryman J. E. B. Stuart. He was taken prisoner near Beverly, West Virginia, and for three months languished in a prison at Wheeling until paroled. He was the father of a family of twelve chil- dren, four sons and eight daughters, two of the sons having died in infancy while all the rest are still living.
James H. N. Cobb never attended a free school in all his life. When he was ten years of age he and his father left Virginia and made a trip to Missouri, but after a short time returned to Virginia, and he remained there five years. For about three months each year for two or three years he attended one of the old field schools of Virginia, but spent most of his time in hard labor which contributed toward the support of the numerous family of which he was a member. In 1879 Mr. Cobb went to Ohio and was employed as a farm hand at $10 a month in the winter and $16 a month in the summer.
On September 22, 1880, he enlisted in the United States army and was sent to Columbus Barracks, Ohio, and remained there five years. During part of one year he continued his studies in a night school and for part of his army service was attached to the hospital department. He was finally made overseer of the Post School in Colum- bus Barracks, and his major recommended him for the position of superintendent of army schools. The major unfortunately died in 1883, and the recommendation was never carried out. While overseer of the Post schools Mr. Cobb was given the rank of sergeant, and he has always been proud of the fact that he served in the army and was given that rank.
On gaining his honorable discharge he returned to Virginia, was granted a first-grade certificate and for a time taught school in the mountains of that state at. $20 per month, boarding himself. He spent two years in the back districts of Virginia and West Virginia as teacher, then went out to Nebraska, taught there a year, and was an unsuccessful candidate for county superin- tendent of schools.
In 1890 he qualified for entrance into the ministry of the Methodist Episcopal Church. For fifteen years he had charge of different churches in Nebraska, but in 1893 came to Oklahoma and took the pastorate of the Methodist Episcopal Church at Tulsa. After sixteen months he was assigned to the pastorate at Sapulpa for one year. His next promotion was as presiding elder of what is now the Tulsa District. While still engaged in
the active work of the ministry Rev. Mr. Cobb was elected a member of the Oklahoma constitutional convention, and one feature of his work while there should be recalled, and that was in gaining the location of the county seat of Creek County for the Town of Sapulpa. He was one of the thirteen apostles of the republican party represented in the statehood convention. How- ever, he was not unduly bound by party ties but was willing to work for what he was convinced to be the best interests of the state. He therefore supported the enabling act and also signed and advocated the adoption of the state constitution though his party opposed it officially.
For a time Mr. Cobb was field secretary of the Anti- Saloon League of Oklahoma and stumped half the state in behalf of the cause of prohibition. He was appointed district Indian agent by the secretary of the interior and served four years with supervision over Creek and Tulsa counties, with headquarters in Sapulpa. He resigned his office in 1912.
For the past two years Mr. Cobb has been secretary of the Sapulpa Commercial Club, and since January 1, 1913, has given much of his time and attention to his duties as county commissioner. With such opportunities as were presented in a life of great activity Mr. Cobb read law, and was admitted to the Oklahoma Bar in 1910, and has a license to practice in all the courts of the state. He is affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fel- lows and with the Masonic Order.
On November 8, 1888, he married Miss Rebecca Ellen Hooke, who was born near McDowell, Virginia, January 14, 1862. They are the parents of four children: James Merrill is now a senior in the Oklahoma School of Mines at Wilburton; Virginia, who attended the University of Oklahoma, is now living at Tulsa; Marie is a senior in the Sapulpa High School; and Elmo died at the age of seven and a half years.
WILLIAM B. MOORE. Since 1905 a member of the Muskogee bar, Mr. Moore has rapidly gained recognition as an able and thoroughly equipped lawyer. He is a man of liberal training and of broad experience, but practically since the age of sixteen has been dependent upon his own resources and efforts to advance him in the world. While the law has properly received the greater part of his talent and time, Mr. Moore has also been a factor in the public life of his home city and is also quite well known over the state.
William B. Moore is a native of South Carolina and was born at McColl, April 18, 1881, a son of Dr. Welcome A. and Mary A. (Woodley) Moore. Both parents were natives of South Carolina and were of Revolutionary stock. The first ancestors came from England to Vir- ginia and thence by way of North Carolina and finally found homes in South Carolina. The Moore and Woodley families have lived for several generations in Marlboro County, South Carolina, and many of their members have been well known for their attainments in business and other affairs.
Mr. Moore's father was by profession a dental sur- geon, but was also a planter, and thus the son grew up on a South Carolina farm. His early education came from the public schools, and after completing high school he had to use his own resources and ingenuity largely to gain a higher education. He attended Wofford College at Spartanburg, South Carolina, and from there entered the Columbian University, George Wash- ington University, at Washington, D. C., and also studied law in Georgetown University. While attending college at Washington he paid his way in a clerical position in the federal census bureau. From Georgetown he went
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West and entered the Kansas City Law School at Kansas City and after completing the course received the degree of LE. B. in 1903, and in the same year was admitted to the Missouri bar. Mr. Moore was engaged in practice in Kansas City for two years and thus came to Muskogee in April, 1905, with not only a thorough education but with metropolitan experience. Having passed an exam- ination before the United States Court of Indian Terri- tory, he was admitted by the Supreme Court of Oklahoma upon the erection of the State of Oklahoma, and has since been in active practice both in the state and federal courts. By successful connection with a large amount of important litigation, he has won an enviable reputation as a lawyer.
Mr. Moore is a staunch democrat, and while active in the support of measures of his party and for friends who were candidates for office, has himself never sought political honors. He is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and of the Muskogee Town and Country Club.
R. N. ARMSTRONG is a sterling representative of all that is praiseworthy in financial and industrial circles in Coal County and since 1911 he has been president of the Farmers National Bank at Tupelo. The spirit that manifests itself in many bankers in the rural dis- tricts of Oklahoma-the spirit that organizes commercial clubs, good roads clubs, that indorses better methods of agriculture, that conserves resources and contributes to commercial prosperity-is found in a marked degree in the subject of this sketch. Living in a practically un- developed country, he has an abundance of raw material on which to work and the varied resources that are still in their infancy in his home community receive much of his attention and financial support. The Town of Tupelo, which is the junction of three railroads and is "located in one of the best agricultural regions of Okla- homa, is developing rapidly under the leadership of such men as Mr. Armstrong. This town is but nine years old vet it has a modern brick school building, two banks, two cotton gins and several up-to-date general stores. Surrounding it is a fertile soil that produces an abun- dance of wheat, oats, corn, cotton, alfalfa, kafir corn and other products. As Mr. Armstrong was reared on a farm in Missouri he has a splendid appreciation of the value of agricultural education and much of his time is devoted to the improving of agricultural conditions.
A native of the great State of Illinois, R. N. Arm- strong was born in the year 1879 and he is a son of James T. and Ethel (Rollins) Armstrong, who removed to Missouri in 1883. Six sons were born to Mr. and Mrs. Armstrong and concerning them the following brief data are here incorporated: J. C. is assistant secretary of the Kansas City Title & Trust Company, of Kansas City, Missouri; W. P. is manager of the coffee depart- ment of the Interstate Wholesale Grocery Company, of Joplin, Missouri; A. R. is connected with the police de- partment of Pittsburg, Kansas; W. B. and W. T. are prosperous ranchers in the vicinity of Arthur, Missouri; and R. N. is he to whom this sketch is dedicated.
Mr. Armstrong was reared to the sturdy discipline of the parental farm in Missouri and after a public-school education he attended college at Rich Hill, Missouri. Subsequently he was a student for two years in the Warrensburg Normal School and for two years there- after he was a popular and successful teacher in the public schools of Missouri. In the year 1901 he entered the National Bank of Commerce in Kansas City as book- keeper. Five years later we find him launched in the grocery business in Kansas City but one year in that line of enterprise sufficed and he then again turned his atten- Vol. IV-9
tion to banking. In the fall of 1907 he located in Guth- rie, Oklahoma, and there became assistant cashier of the National Bank of Commerce. Three years later he set- tled in Stonewall, Oklahoma, and assumed the responsi- bilities of the position of cashier of the First National Bank. The year 1911 marks his advent in Tupelo and here he and his associates purchased the Farmers & Mer- chants State Bank, which was shortly afterward incor- porated as the Farmers National Bank, with a capital stock of $25,000; this institution now has deposits amounting to about $75,000. The other officials of this reliable institution are: W. C. Duncan, vice president; and J. M. Wilson, cashier. Among the stockholders are P. A. Norris, of Ada; A. G. Adams, president of the First National Bank of Ada; H. T. Douglas, president of the Shawnee National Bank; F. J. Phillips, president of the Greenville National Exchange Bank of Greenville, Texas; B. F. Edwards, president of the Central National Bank of St. Louis; Tom Randolph, president of the Na- tional Bank of Commerce of St. Louis; F. C. Dillard, a lawyer of Sherman, Texas; Mike Mayer, president of the First National Bank of Coalgate; E. J. Mckinney, of Ada; and R. E. Fowler and Price Statler, of Tupelo.
In fraternal circles Mr. Armstrong is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, in which he is noble grand of the local organization; and in connection with his business he is a valued member of the Coal County and the Oklahoma State Bankers associations. Mr. Arm- strong is well known as a very expert and judicious banker-one who is always looking for the welfare of his bank and of his customers. In all his dealings he is the soul of honor and his word is as good as his bond. He is considered one of the strong men on finance in this section and his success in his chosen line shows that he has special talents for banking. He manifests a deep and sincere interest in all that affects the welfare of his municipality and he commands the loyal respect of his fellow citizens.
HON. ELZA LEON MITCHELL. The interesting career of Senator Mitchell as a leader in most of the important movements for the development of Western Oklahoma was supplemented by his election as president pro tempore of the Senate in the Fifth Legislature, a position which he filled with distinction and with honor to the democratic party, with which he has affiliated since coming of age. The election was a reward for his services as senator since 1908. Out of the long record of consistently beneficial work which Senator Mitchell has performed in behalf of Oklahoma affairs may be mentioned as a matter of recent interest his joint authorship of a measure establishing a good roads system and his assistance in legislation affecting rural school conditions, These were two of the most import- ant subjects disposed of by the Fifth Legislature.
Senator Mitchell comes from Missouri, a state that has furnished many sterling citizens to the new country of Oklahoma. He was born in Clinton County, March 13, 1876, a son of George W. and Josephine (Harris) Mitchell. His ancestry goes back in America to Revolutionary times, when some of their forbears, of Irish descent, served in the army under General Wash- ington. Senator Mitchell's maternal grandfather, Solo- mon Harris, was a pioneer resident of Kentucky. George W. Mitchell was a minister of the Christian Union Church, spent eight years as president of the general council of that denomination, and a similar time as president of the Christian Union University at Edin- burg, Missouri.
Senator Mitchell was educated in the Missouri public schools, and finished his literary training in the institu-
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tion at Edinburg of which his father was then president, graduating in 1899 with the degree Bachelor of Arts. While in college he was editor of the Edinburg Light and Truth, a college publication. This experience no doubt influenced him in his early choice of vocation, for on leaving college he came to Oklahoma and established in 1902 the Canadian Valley Echo at Grand, noteworthy as the first newspaper published in that section of the territory formerly known as Day County. The Echo was merged with the Roger Mills Sentinel at Cheyenne, Oklahoma, in 1907, and Senator Mitchell was owner and editor of the Sentinel until 1911, when he retired from the newspaper business.
He is a man of varied talents and activities, has been successful as a newspaper publisher, and is also a member of the Oklahoma bar, having been admitted in the first class seeking admission after statehood in 1908. His most interesting services, however, have been as a public leader. In 1902 he was the primary agent in organizing the first democratic party movement in Day County, and in that year the county gave a majority of 159 votes to Bill Cross, democratic nominee for Congress, over Dennis Flynn, who had previously carried that county without opposition. Senator Mitchell was the first chairman of the Day County Democratic Central Com- mittee. He served as city attorney of Cheyenne, and his name is associated with a number of enterprises that comprise the general history of development in that section of the state. He is a director in the company of local men that financed and built the Cheyenne Short Line, a railroad seven miles long connecting Strong City and Cheyenne. This is one of the many important indus- trial and promotion undertakings in which Senator Mitchell has been a factor.
He was elected a member of the Senate in 1908, and took his seat at the beginning of the Legislature. In that Legislature he was chairman of the committee on private corporations. His efforts during his first term, in the Second Legislature, were principally in behalf of legislation affecting agriculture. In the Third Legisla- ture he was chairman of the committee on revenue and taxation, and that position caused him to concentrate his studies and efforts upon matters coming within the purview of that committee. In the Fourth Legislature he was chairman of a committee on code revision, and this committee superintended the preparation and adop- tion of the Harris-Day Code, now the statute of Okla- homa. In the Fifth Legislature, besides serving as president pro tempore and ex-officio a member of all the senate committees, he was the joint author with Senator Austin of a measure proposing an amendment to the constitution abolishing the County Court, and was joint author with Senator McIntosh of a bill relating to libel that was intended to prevent unfair statements in public speaking and debate.
Senator Mitchell was married at Roll, Oklahoma, May 1, 1904, to Miss Ethel Madden. She was educated in the Christian Union College at Edinburg, Missouri, of which her husband is an alumnus, was a teacher before her marriage, and has been an active factor in social and club work in Cheyenne. They are the parents of four children : Bryan, aged ten; Bernice, aged eight; Ruth, aged five; and Norris, aged two. Senator Mitchell has six brothers and three sisters: B. S. ("Cap") is editor of the Monitor at Shattuck, Oklahoma; George is a con- tractor at Excelsior Springs, Missouri; Overton is a real estate man at Excelsior Springs; Hugh is a preacher in the Methodist Church, his present station being at Lan- caster, Missouri; E. B. is assistant superintendent of the Colorado Southern Railway Company at Cheyenne, Wyoming; R. A. is editor of the Roger Mills Sentinel at
Cheyenne; Mrs. Daisy Helmandollar is the wife of a farmer at Edinburg, Missouri; Mrs. Robert Sanderson is the wife of a railroad station agent at Hardin, Mis- souri; and Miss Iona lives with her parents at Excelsior Springs, Missouri.
Senator Mitchell is a member of the Christian Union Church, and in Lodge No. 133, Ancient, Free and Ac- cepted Masons, at Cheyenne, has held the offices of junior warden and senior deacon. He is also affiliated with the Cheyenne Chapter of Royal Arch Masons, and has passed all the chairs in Cheyenne Lodge No. 235, Independent Order of Odd Fellows. Mr. Mitchell is a member of the Cheyenne Commercial Club and is presi- dent of the Roger Mills County Bar Association.
JOSEPH S. KNIGHT represents a prominent Cherokee family and since getting his allotment he has lived at Dewey and has made his land notable both for the pro- duction of the staple agricultural crops and for its pro- duction of oil and gas. Mr. Knight is an exceedingly capable business man, and is thoroughly identified with the life and affairs of the Southwest, and in the early days was a skillful cowboy.
He was born February 19, 1874, in the Grand River near Vinita, Indian Territory, a son of Thomas R. and Rachel J. (Sixkiller) Knight. His father had a sixteenth portion of Cherokee blood, while his mother was a half blood Cherokee. Thomas Knight was a farmer, and died at Vinita in 1895. The mother is still living in that city. The six children were: Victoria, deceased; Joseph S .; Morris of Vinita; Thomas, who lives in Bartlesville where he is an abstractor; Henry, of Vinita; and Fanny Mary, wife of Paul Clinton of Tulsa.
During his youthful years Joseph S. Knight attended school at Vinita and Talequah, and for two years was a student in the Indian school at Lawrence, Kansas, the Haskell Institute. Returning home after this liberal education, he found an outlet for his energies and spirit of adventure by riding the range and cattle trails, not only in Texas but also in Wyoming, Colorado and the Dakotas. He was engaged in the cattle industry until coming to Dewey and taking his allotment of eighty acres. Mr. Knight now owns 160 acres altogether and utilizes it for general farming purposes. He is also an oil and gas producer, and on his land has seven oil wells and three gas wells. About 1908 Mr. Knight built one of the handsomest homes of Dewey, located on his farm.
In September, 1905, he married Shirley Reeve, who was born in 1894, a daughter of T. H. Reeve of Dewey. Mr. and Mrs. Knight have four children: Susan and Rachel, twins, both now deceased; Joseph Reeve, born in December, 1906; and Lineth, born December 4, 1910. In politics Mr. Knight is a democrat, while Mrs. Knight is a member of the Episcopal Church.
SOAM J. CASTLEMAN, The name of Castleman is well known in England, and Americans bearing the name easily trace their ancestry to that country. Soam J. Castleman's early American ancestors came to these shores in Colonial days and took a creditable part in the long war for American independence. They pioneered into Kentucky in the early days of its settlement, and there many of the name will be found today. Soam J. Castleman was born in Audrain County, Missouri, on May 13, 1867, and he is the son of Dr. James L. Castle- man, who was born in Kentucky in 1830, and who died in Wise County, Texas, in 1893.
Doctor Castleman had his higher education in the St. Louis Medical College, returning to Kentucky to begin.
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medical practice. From there he went to Mississippi, spent a short while there, and moved to Audrain County, Missouri. It was there the subject was born. In later years he moved to the Town of Pella, in Wise County, Texas. That was in 1875, and he continued there in practice until death claimed him. He was a talented man, prominent in his profession in whatever communi- ties he found himself, and he was also an ordained min- ister in the Church of Christ. He was a veteran of the Civil war, serving the South as a member of a Mississippi regiment throughout the war. He was a democrat and in the later years of his life was a member of the Inde- pendent Order of Odd Fellows.
In Mississippi Doctor Castleman married Miss Nannie Yokum, born there in 1837, and she died in Wise County, Texas, in 1899, six years after the passing of her hus- band. They were the parents of eleven children. John L., the eldest, died in Noble, Oklahoma, when he was forty years old. He was a farmer and stock breeder there, prominent and prosperous, and a justice of the peace in his town at the time of his death. Georgia mar- ried and was living at Siloam Springs, Arkansas. She died while en route from that place to the old home in Texas. Her husband was Laurence Davis, also deceased. Jennie married, John Deering, a farming man of Cook County, Texas. Steve F. is a minister in the Church of Christ, and is now in charge of a pastorate at Calvin, Oklahoma. Jefferson, a dealer in stock, dropped dead in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in 1907. He was the twin brother of Mississippi Belle, who married Prof. L. F. Bullock, an instructor in the Eastland (Texas) High School, now deceased. She is living in Gypaw, Texas, at this writing. Sallie M. married A. C. Kidd, a rancher in Cook County, Texas. James E. is engaged in the oil business in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Soam J. of this review was the ninth child. Ira Emmett is a farmer in Colorado. Nannie Catherine, generally called Kate, is the wife of John B. Wilson, a well-to-do farmer and ranchman in Lone Wolf, Oklahoma, where they live. Jesse La Rue died in infancy.
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