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 4

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 4

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REFORD BOND. Probably the oldest firm of lawyers in the State of Oklahoma is the Bond & Melton com- bination at Chickasha. The two principal members of the firm of Bond, Melton & Melton have been continu- ously associated in handling a large and important prac- tice at that city since 1900-fifteen years. Reford Bond, though. long identified with the law and ranking as one of the big lawyers of Oklahoma, is still a young man, and is one of the native sons of the Chickasaw Nation. His father has been identified with that section of Oklahoma for half a century or more.

Reford Bond was born in the Chickasaw Nation August 10, 1877, his birthplace being Johnsonville, McLain County. His parents are James H. and Adelaide (Johnson) Bond, both of whom are still living at advanced years on the old farm near Minco, Grady County. James H. Bond was born in Somersetshire, England, January 1, 1841. When a young man he went to Chicago, Illinois, with other members of the family, lived in that city until the outbreak of the war between the states, and a few years later reached the Chickasaw Nation of old Indian Territory. He became identified with the stock business and at Johnsonville married Mrs. Adelaide Campbell. Her father was a noted character in the Chickasaw Nation in early days. "Boggy John- son," who was an Englishman from London, emigrated to America, after a few years located in Mississippi, and there married a Chickasaw woman, and eventually estab- lished his home and became a large rancher in Indian Territory. After many years in the territory, Boggy Johnson finally returned to New York, and was a whole- sale merchant in that city until his death. His daughter Adelaide first married a Mr. Campbell and her son by that union, C. B. Campbell, has for a number of years had a conspicuous position in business and banking affairs in Grady County. James H. Bond has had large ranching and farming interests on Boggy Creek for the past forty years, and he and his wife control extensive interests in that section. Mrs. James H. Bond was born December 25, 1841. Her children by the second marriage are Reford and Edwin B., the latter a resident of Minco.

Reford Bond as a boy had every stimulus to activity in the various interests and pursuits of his father's

ranch. He is one of the best educated lawyers in Okla- homa. His early training at home was supplemented by attendance at the Kemper Military Academy in Boon- ville, Missouri, followed by collegiate work in the Roanoke College at Salem, Virginia, and later study in the Columbian University at Washington, D. C. Mr. Bond took most of his law courses in the University of Missouri, where he was graduated LL. B. in 1897. Upon examination before Judge Townsend at Ardmore, he was admitted to the bar of Oklahoma and at once located in Chickasha for practice. He was first associated with the firm of Herbert & Holding under the name Herbert, Holding & Bond, but in 1900 became senior partner of Bond & Melton, a relationship which has been unbroken for fifteen years, the only change being the addition of Mr. Melton's brother. The presence of Mr. Bond as one of the counsel in a case always attracts attention, and in the course of his career he has probably handled as much important litigation as any lawyer in Grady County.

As a man of the people, a native son, and identified from youth with the old Chickasaw Nation, Mr. Bond has been a power in public life. He was one of the leaders in the single statehood movement, for a number of years was a member of the Territorial Executive Democratic Committee and the Single Statehood Conven- tion chose him committeeman at large for both terri- tories. With the success of the statehood movement, in 1907, he became one of the five candidates for the con- gressional nomination in the Fifth District. It was one of the most exciting political conventions of that year, and there ensued a deadlock, with Mr. Bond as one of the leaders, and it was only broken when he threw the influence of his personal following to Scott Ferris, who was nominated and subsequently elected. In 1914 Cato Sells, commissioner of Indian affairs, appointed Mr. Bond attorney for the Chickasaw Nation, and he is now giving much of his professional attention to the duties of that position. Mr. Bond is a member of the Chick- asha Commercial Club, and fraternally belongs to the Knights of Pythias, the Masonic fraternity and the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. He is a thirty- second degree Scottish Rite Mason and also a Knight Templar and has attended the Grand Lodge of Elks as an Oklahoma delegate.

On November 5, 1902, Mr. Bond married Miss Jane Ware. Her father, J. A. Ware, of Sedalia, Missouri, was one of the contractors who built the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad through the Indian Terri- tory. To their union has been born one son, Reford Bond, Jr. Mr. Bond and family reside at 128 South Twelfth Street in Chickasha, and the offices of his firm are in the First National Bank Building.

GEORGE ABSALOM FOOSHEE. At the time that Grover Cleveland was elected President of the United States, in 1884, and his cabinet selected, George Absalom Fooshee, then a lad of sixteen years, observed that every member was or had been a lawyer. There was glowing in him then an ambition for a successful professional career, which kind he had not yet determined, but he decided when he read of the new cabinet, giving his choice to the law. In that part of Tennessee in which he resided, there was a firmly-established belief that the path of the law led away from the door of the church and right living, and his parents strenuously opposed the career he had selected. But their opposition did not change the youth's determination. Having been reared by poor parents in the country, in a region where education was neglected as not being a necessary adjunct, Mr. Fooshee at the age of sixteen years could not even write his own name. That lack . of a fundamental of an education he

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was not able to overcome until four years later, when he entered a private school at Decatur, Tennessee.

In the meantime, however, Mr. Fooshee had been able to master other principles of an educational character and after attending school six months had the knowledge required for primary teaching work and this he entered. He followed it for several years, attending school dur- ing each vacation period, and also began the study of law. In 1897, four years after his marriage, he grad- uated from the law department of the University of Tennessee, and that year was admitted to the bar of Polk County, Tennessee, and began the practice of law at Dayton. The following year he moved to Nocona, Texas, where he was engaged in practice for five years, and in 1903 he came to Coalgate, Oklahoma, and formed a partnership with David D. Brunson, with whom he is still associated.

George Absalom Fooshee was born in White County, Tennessee, September 30, 1869, and is a son of Jonas and Jennie (Crook) Fooshee. The paternal ancestry originated in France, although representatives of the family probably settled in America before the outbreak of the Revolutionary war. More than a century ago the grandparents of Mr. Fooshee settled in Tennessee and assisted in the organization of the state government. Jonas Fooshee was a Mason of high standing, was a well known farmer, and served for four years in the Confederate army during the Civil war, being wounded at the battle of Chickamauga. Two brothers of Mr. Fooshee's mother, Maj. C. B. Crook and Col. Crockett D. Crook, also were soldiers under the flag of the South- land. The latter was a graduate of Emery and Henry College, and after the war entered the ministry of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and for a number of years was a member of the North Alabama Confer- ence. Mr. Fooshee has two brothers, a half-brother and a half-sister: Mrs. E. N. Correll, the wife of a mer- chant at Stonewall, Oklahoma; J. C. Trewith, who is a traveling salesman out of Knoxville, Tennessee; Joseph C. Fooshee, who has been for a quarter of a century a teacher in the schools of Tennessee, and for eleven years has been at the head of the Rhea County High School of that state; and Robert L. Fooshee, who is a lumber dealer and manufacturer of colonial columns at Sparta, Tennessee.

George A. Fooshee was married in 1894, in Tennessee, to Miss Minnie Powell, who shared his ambition for a professional career, and in great measure to her is due the lasting determination and the courage it required for him to complete his necessary education. The ele- ment of sympathy and encouragement which she dis- played became a permanent factor of happiness in the family and it helped to create in him a love of home and family that is far stronger than any exterior appeals for entertainment. Four children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Fooshee: Joseph C., twenty years of age, who is a student at the University of Oklahoma; George T., fourteen years old, a student at Coalgate High School; Lillian, thirteen years of age, who was valedic- torian of the class of 1915 in the graded school, and is now a student of Coalgate High School; and Zettie Lee, who is eleven years old and attending the graded schools.

Mr. Fooshee is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and for five years has been superintend- ent of the Sunday school of that denomination at Coal- gate, missing during that period but one Sunday from his post. He is a member of the Benevolent and Pro- tective Order of Elks, the Knights of Pythias and the Woodmen of the World, and also holds membership in the Coal County Bar Association, the Oklahoma State Bar Association and the American Bar. Association. He

is president of the Coalgate Commercial Club and fc six years has been a member of the Coalgate Boar of Education. While a resident of Nocona, Texa: Mr. Fooshee served one term as mayor, and since com ing to Coalgate las acted as city attorney. In politic a stalwart and active democrat, he has been chairman of the Coal County Central Committee, and has partici pated in every campaign since he came to Oklahoma Mr. Fooshee is a successful lawyer and has heavy invest ments in city and farm property, thus evidencing hij faith and confidence in the future prosperity of this section.

KEE R. McKEE. Versatility, self-reliance and markeć initiative and constructive ability have characterized the el career of this representative captain of industry in thee State of Oklahoma, and he has been in the most sig- nificant sense the architect of his own fortunes, his large and definite success having been worthily won along normal channels of business enterprise and his facility in making good use of opportunity having been shown when he was a mere youth and when he was dependentt entirely upon his own resources. Mr. McKee is today one of the most prominent and influential figures in connection with the oil industry in Oklahoma, and in addition to being identified with important producing enterprises in the oil fields of the state he is also presi- dent of the Oklahoma Refining Company, one of the most important corporations of its kinds in the entire Southwest. He is president also of the American Brick & Tile Company, representing another of the important industrial enterprises contributing to the commercial prestige of Oklahoma City, and he is also an interested principal and executive in leading oil and gas com- panies operating in the petroleum fields of Oklahoma. His liberality and progressiveness as a man of affairs have been paralleled by his loyalty and public spirit as a citizen, and he stands well to the front as one of the aggressive, far-sighted and substantial personalities who have been specifically prominent and influential in furthering the civic and material development and marvelous progress of the vital young commonwealth with which he has cast in his lot and which he has honored by his character and achievement.

The lineage of the McKee family traces back to ster- ling Scotch-Irish origin, and in the colonial era of our national history eleven brothers of the name emigrated from the north of Ireland and established a home in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, where the thriving industrial City of Mckeesport perpetuates and honors the family name. Representatives of the family later removed to Kentucky, and of this branch the subject of this review is a descendant. The McKee family became one of special prominence and influence in con- nection with religious and political affairs in Kentucky, and many of its representatives there lent luster to the profession of law. For thirty-five years one of the con- gressional districts of Kentucky was represented by a member of this family in the National Legislature, and Hon. Robert Letcher McKee, a great uncle of him whose name introduces this sketch, not only served as governor of Kentucky but also as United States representative to Mexico.

Kee R. McKee was born in Christian County, Ken- tucky, in the year 1863, and is a son of Col. Robert L. and Anna (Sharp) McKee, both likewise natives of the old Blue Grass State. Colonel McKee was a lawyer by profession, was likewise prominently concerned with the great basic industry of agriculture in his native state, and during the Civil war he was a gallant soldier of the Confederacy, as colonel on the staff of Gen. Albert Sid-

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HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA

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ney Johnston. He died in 1866, when his son, Kee R., was a child of about three years, and his widow survived him by many years, passing the residue of her life in Kentucky.

Kee R. McKee attended the schools of his native state until he had attained to the age of fifteen years, after which he was employed two years in a drug store, no financial recompense having been given him for his serv- ices. His ambition soon caused him to sever this asso- ciation and he assumed a clerical position in a hard- ware store in his native county. Through self-applica- tion and experience he had in the meanwhile effectively broadened his mental ken, and after an interval of about two years in the hardware store he became local editor of the South Kentuckian, a weekly paper published at Hopkinsville, Kentucky. Somewhat later his widowed mother determined to return to the homestead farm, to which he accompanied her, and for the ensuing years his energies were expended in connection with its work and management. About this time occurred the death of the proprietor . of the hardware store in which Mr. McKee had previously been employed, at Hopkinsville, and the young man was requested to assume charge of the business, to which he consented to give his super- vision during a period of about two years. Fortified by his experience, though with virtually no capitalistic reinforcement, he then decided to engage in the same line of enterprise in an independent way. Accordingly he became associated with a partner in the purchase of a small stock of hardware at Cadiz, a village that is the judicial center of Trigg County, Kentucky. The business was conducted under the firm name of McKee & Com- pany for the first three years, at the expiration of which Mr. McKee purchased his partner's interest, and there- after he conducted the enterprise in an individual way until 1903, when he disposed of the stock and business under most profitable conditions. The caliber of the man was shown in connection with his activities at Cadiz, a town of about 1,200 population, for there he succeeded in developing a modest business enterprise into the largest and most important of its kind in Trigg County. For the accommodation of the business he erected a substantial brick building, three stories in height, and in the same he handled a specially large and complete stock of hardware, farm implements and machinery, roofing material, buggies, wagons, etc., with a trade that extended over a wide radius of country and that was based upon fair and honorable dealings. At Cadiz he made also many judicious investments in real estate, erected a number of houses, assisted in the organization of the Cadiz Bank, of which he became vice president, and otherwise did much to foster the advancement of local interests, with the result that he gained secure vantage-ground as one of the representative merchants and influential citizens of that section of the Blue Grass State.

In 1903 Mr. McKee sold the major part of his interests in Kentucky and established his residence in Oklahoma City, where he has since maintained his home and where his vital activities and mature judgment have given him prominence as one of the leading men of affairs in the state. Shortly after his arrival in the present capital city of Oklahoma Mr. McKee effected the organization of the McKee-Brown Lumber Company, which engaged in the retail lumber trade, and purchased also a large interest in the American Brick & Tile Company, of which he is president. This corporation has a large and well equipped manufacturing plant one and one-half miles west of Oklahoma City, where sixteen and one-half acres of ground are utilized and where the most approved and modern machinery is in operation in the manufacturing

of face-brick and building brick, as well as subsidiary products. Employment is given to an average force of about fifty men and the products find sale both in Oklahoma and Texas, the enterprise being one of flourishing and important order.

In 1906 Mr. McKee organized the Oklahoma Refining Company, becoming its secretary and treasurer, and he has been its president since 1912. He has shown great vigor and ability in the developing if its extensive and profitable business. The offices of the company are in the Herskowitz Building, Oklahoma City, and its large and finely equipped refining plant, which covers about eight acres, is situated on East Washington Street, with direct connections with all four railway lines that enter the city. In this refinery are manufactured all kinds of petroleum products, including lubricating oil, greases, etc., and the enterprise has contributed much to the commercial precedence of the capital city. Operations were initiated with an output capacity of 250 barrels of oil a day, and the present capacity is 2,000 barrels a day,-a fact that adequately denotes the splendid advancement of the business. In Oklahoma City the company gives employment to a corps of about twenty- five men, and about fifty employes are retained in the various distributing stations, the products of the plant now finding sale not only throughout the United States but a substantial export trade having been developed also. The stockholders of the company are all citizens of Oklahoma, and thus this important enterprise is to be considered strictly a home industry.

Mr. McKee is vice president of the Sloane Oil Com- pany, a local corporation whose functions are in the distribution of petroleum products; he is secretary and treasurer of the Junior Oil & Gas Company, which owns valuable holding in the oil fields of Okmulgee County, where it has in operation seven producing wells, the company having been organized in 1908.

Though according unfaltering allegiance to the demo- cratic party, Mr. McKee is essentially a business man and has had no desire for the honors or emoluments of political office. He is essentially liberal and public- spirited in his civic attitude and is ever ready to lend his influence and co-operation in the furtherance of measures and enterprises projected for the general good of the community.

In 1892 was solemnized the marriage of Mr. McKee to Miss Bettie Baker, daughter of Blake Baker, of Cadiz, Kentucky, and they have two children,-Robert Letcher, and Lucille.

HARRY G. LARSH. The initiative ability and pro- gressive spirit that make for large and worthy achieve- ment have been significantly manifested in the career of this representative and influential citizen and promi- nent business man of Oklahoma City, and he has been in the fullest sense the dominating factor in the achieve- ment of personal advancement and distinctive success. He is a native son of the great West and is essentially a man who thinks and executes. His fidelity and ambition were manifested in no uncertain way during the period of his connection with the United States mail service, and in the promotion of large and important business enterprises he has shown much circumspection and execu- tive ability. Mr. Larsh is at the present time identified with various business enterprises of important order, and concerning them definite mention will be made in suc- ceeding paragraphs. At this juncture it is sufficient to say that he is president of the Pioneer Coal and Timber Company, which represents one of the important indus- trial enterprises of Oklahoma City.

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HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA

Kansas, on the 21st of September, 1879, and thus is in the very zenith of his vigorous and useful manhood. He is a son of Leander and Nancy (May) Larsh. Leander Larsh was born in Preble County, Ohio, where he was reared and educated, and he eventually removed from the old Buckeye State to Illinois, where he continued to reside until 1878, when he removed to Kansas and num- bered himself among the pioneer farmers of Pawnee County. He became one of the prominent and influential citizens of that county, a leader in the local ranks of the republican party, and that he held inviolable place in popular esteem is shown by his having served eight years as treasurer of Pawnee County. He died in the year 1911 and his devoted wife was summoned to eternal rest in 1913.

Harry G. Larsh found the period of his childhood and youth compassed by the influence of his father's farm, in the work of which he early began to lend his aid, and to the public schools of his native county he is indebted for his youthful education, which has been effectively supplemented by self-discipline and by the lessons gained in the school of practical experience.

In 1896 Mr. Larsh came to Oklahoma Territory and settled at Perry, the judicial center of Noble County, where he had the distinction of being appointed the first mail carrier when the local postoffice was placed on the free delivery list. After serving four years in this capacity he was appointed acting special agent for the United States Postoffice Department, and later was appointed an agent of the rural free delivery service, in which connection he was stationed in turn at Nashville, Tennessee, Cincinnati, Ohio, Louisville, Kentucky, and St. Louis, Missouri. His work was of important and responsible order, and in fidelity and efficiency of service he proved equal to all demands made upon him. While at St. Louis Mr. Larsh resigned his position in the Gov- ernment service and established his residence at Shawnee, Pottawatomie County, Oklahoma, where he engaged in the coal and gravel business and near which place he operated a gravel pit for two years, the product having been much in demand for building purposes, road con- struction, etc. In 1910 Mr. Larsh transferred his resi- dence to Oklahoma City, and here he effected the organi- zation of the Central Coal and Material Company, of which he has since served as secretary and as an execu- tive and principal of which he has wielded potent influ- ence in the development of its wholesale coal and material business. In August, 1911, he organized also the Pioneer Coal and Timber Company, which controls a substantial wholesale business in the handling of coal and timber and of which corporation he is president. In the latter part of the year 1912 Mr. Larsh gave further exemplifica- tion of his progressiveness and business sagacity by organizing the Mid-Continent Glass Sand Company, which is the pioneer corporation of its kind in the state and which maintains an excellent quarry and mill at Roff, Pontotoc County, and which supplies the best quality of blast sand to glass factories in Oklahoma, Kansas and Texas, this being the only industrial enterprise of this order to be found west of the Mississippi River.

Not only in connection with business enterprises of important order has Mr. Larsh shown his progressive spirit, but also in exerting his influence in support of measures and undertakings projected for the general good of the community. He is essentially a loyal and liberal citizen, a republican in his political allegiance, and it may consistently be said that every business enter- prise with which he has identified himself has been made successful in marked degree. Aside from the business connections already noted, Mr. Larsh is vice president of the McAlester-Haileyville Coal Mining Company, which owns and operates coal mines near Haileyville, this state,

and the organization of which was effected by bim il November, 1913; he is president also of the Beebe Oi and Gas Company, an Oklahoma corporation which nov has seven producing wells and which is making furthe: development of wells seven miles west of Tulsa.

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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