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 41

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 41

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On May 8, 1904, Judge Decker married Miss Gertrude Leavitt, who was born in Illinois, a daughter of Edward and Harriet Leavitt. The one son of their marriage is named Donald and their daughter is named Harriet.

DANIEL H. LINEBAUGH. The prestige of Mr. Line- baugh as one of the representative members of the Oklahoma bar is certified by his incumbency of the im- portant office of United States district attorney for the Eastern district of the state, and he is also a prome- nent and influential factor in the councils and activities of the democratic party in this vigorous young common- wealth, within whose borders he has maintained his resi- dence since 1898, the year that marked his arrival in Indian Territory. He now has his home and official headquarters in the City of Muskogee, the judicial center of the county of the same name and the metropolis of Eastern Oklahoma. Mr. Linebaugh became dependent upon his own resources when a mere lad, and his advance- ment has been made through personal ability and effort, so that his success and precedence are the more gratify-

ing to note, as every loyal American pays tribute to the man who is the architect of his own fortunes.

Daniel Haden Linebaugh was born at Camden, Oua- chita County, Arkansas, on the 4th of November, 1878, and he was three years of age at the time of the family removal . to the present thriving City of Temple, Bell County, Texas. He is a son of Rev. Daniel Haden Line- baugh and Margaret Elizabeth (Sweets) Linebangh, the former of whom was born in Greene County, Tennessee, but reared in Kentucky, in which latter state his wife was born and reared. Rev. Daniel H. Linebaugh served for the long period of fifty-seven years, and with all of consecrated zeal and devotion, as a clergyman of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and he was seventy- four years of age at the time of his death. His initial service in the ministry was given in the State of Ken- tucky, where his marriage was solemnized, and about fifteen years after this important event in his career he removed with his family to Arkansas. There he con- tinued his earnest ministerial labors until 1881, when he assumed a pastoral charge at Temple, Texas, in which state he continued his residence until he was well ad- vanced in years, when he came to Indian Territory and joined his older son, John H., who was engaged in the practice of law at Atoka, judicial center of the present Oklahoma County of the same name. At Atoka this venerable and honored clergyman passed the remainder of his life and his sons still look upon that city as their home, though the official duties of Daniel H. have caused him to establish his residence in Muskogee. The devoted wife and mother died at Atoka, when about 69 years of age.

He whose name initiates this review attended the pub- lic schools of Temple, Texas, until he was thirteen years of age, when he found employment as office boy in a wholesale grocery establishment in that city. With this concern he remained until he had attained to the age of nineteen years, and through effective service he won promotion through various grades until he became a traveling salesman for the firm. At the age noted he came to Indian Territory and joined his venerable father and his older brother at Atoka.

At Atoka the subject of this review accepted a posi- tion in a general merchandise establishment, and while thus engaged he gave his evenings to the study of law, under the effective preceptorship of his afflicted brother. In February, 1901, he was admitted to the bar and forth- with became associated with his brother in active general practice at Atoka. From that time forward his advance- ment has been substantial and consecutive and he has proved himself specially versatile and resourceful as a trial lawyer, so that he is admirably fortified for the exacting office of which he is now the incumbent.

In the early period of his law practice Mr. Linebaugh became an active worker in behalf of the cause of the democratic party, and he is now one of its leaders in the State of Oklahoma. Since 1900 he has been a dele- gate to every democratic convention held in Atoka County, as has he also to cach of the party's conventions for the congressional district in which he is a resident, and to every Oklahoma Democratic State Convention, as well as to previous territorial conventions. At the Na- tional Democratic Convention held in the City of Den- ver, Colorado, Mr. Linebaugh had the distinction of serv- ing as secretary of the credential committee, and he was chairman of the Oklahoma State Democratic Convention that nominated delegates to the national convention of 1912, in the City of Baltimore, Maryland. From the beginning he was a staunch supporter of the candidacy of Woodrow Wilson, the present able and distinguished President of the United States. In June, 1913, there came to Mr. Linebaugh well merited recognition of pro-

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fessional ability and effective service to his party, in his appointment, by President Wilson, to the office of United States district attorney for the eastern district of Ok- lahoma, and his able administration has fully justified the preferment thus accorded to him.

From the time of his early boyhood Mr. Linebaugh has held membership in the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and in addition to being at the present time an official member of the church at Atoka he has served for the past decade as a delegate to every annual conference of the church of this denomination in Oklahoma, besides which he was a delegate to the General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, in 1910, at Asheville, North Carolina, and at Oklahoma City in 1914, where he was made a member and chairman of the special conference committee on Vanderbilt University, the great institution maintained under church auspices in the City of Nashville, Tennessee.

Through mental receptiveness and close application Mr. Linebaugh has become a man of high intellectual and professional attainments, and his sterling attributes of character have gained to him unqualified popular esteem. In the Masonic fraternity he has attained to the maximum affiliation of the York Rite, as a member of the Atoka Commandery of Knights Templars, and has received also the thirty-second degree of the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite, besides which he is identified with the adjunct organization, the Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine. In 1905-6 Mr. Line- baugh was grand chancellor of the Indian Territory Grand Lodge of the Knights of Pythias, and since 1907 he has been the supreme representative of the Oklahoma Grand Lodge in the Supreme Lodge of the Knights of Pythias. He is affiliated also with the Woodmen of the World.

On the 1st of June, 1904, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Linebaugh to Miss Della Mckinnon, of Colgate, the present county seat of Coal County, Oklahoma, and they have one child, Margaret Elizabeth.

OLIVER WARREN AUBREY. For the past eight years Oliver W. Aubrey has been actively identified with that fine suburb of South Oklahoma City, known as Capitol Hill, as a real estate man, banker and investment broker. His relations with Oklahoma have some other interest- ing distinctions. From the fact that he was born in a little log cabin two miles east of Vinita in Indian Terri- tory August 21, 1872, about the time the first railway line was being built across the old territory, he has often been spoken of as the first white child born in Okla- homa. He comes of a family of Western pioneers, and most of his own life has been spent in rapidly develop- ing new communities.

His parents were Stephen O. and Nancy Jane (Travis) Aubrey. His mother was born in Columbus, Ohio, and her father, who died in that city during the time of the Civil war, was one of the wealthiest land owners in Ohio. That was a time when there were few Ameri- can millionaires. The Aubrey ancestry begins in America some years. before the establishment of independence. The great-grandfather of the Oklahoma citizen was Sur- geon Aubrey, who came to this country with the English regulars under the command of General Braddock, at the beginning of the French and Indian war in 1755. Every American schoolboy has read many of the incidents in early American history in which Surgeon Aubrey had a part. He was attending surgeon to General Braddock, and was in the great battle in Western Pennsylvania at what has since been known as Braddock's Field, where in opposition to the advice of Gen. George Washing- ton, Braddock rushed his troops in regular array into contact with the wily French and Indians, and in the

fierce hand to hand battle which followed Braddock him- self was badly wounded. Just before his death from his wouuds he sent Surgeon Aubrey to Washington with apologies for having disregarded his advice and begging his pardou for the rash act which had brought death to many English and Colonial soldiers. When the surgeon hauded his report to Washington, the latter at once hastened to the side of his commanding general, and was present when Braddock passed away. After this ignominious defeat of British regulars in the wilds of Pennsylvania, Surgeon Aubrey elected to become a citizen of the colonies, and established the family from which the subsequent generations have descended. O. W. Aubrey's grandfather was a son of this English surgeon and was born in Pennsylvania. F. X. Aubrey, a second cousin of Oliver W., was a famous scout, and in the early days when American civilization hardly reached beyond the Missouri River, made a perilous ride from Santa Fe, New Mexico, over the old Santa Fe trail, to St. Joseph, Missouri. Stephen O. Aubrey, father of the Oklahoma City banker, was born in Litchfield, Illinois, but spent most of his life as a pioneer in the West. With his wife he entered the Indian Territory several years ahead of the first railroad. He built the first wood house at Vinita before the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railroad was built across the Kansas line into the territory.

After enduring the hardships of Indian Territory life for a time, Stephen O. Aubrey removed his family to Dodge City, Kansas, where Oliver W. had the benefit of country schools, and later graduated from Garfield University at Wichita with the class of 1892, and also from a commercial college there. In 1892 he located in the old Oklahoma Panhandle in Beaver County, and spent four years on a ranch. This was followed by three years in Texas, but he has never been able to divorce himself for any length of time from the country of his birth. In 1907 Mr. Aubrey located in Capitol Hill in what is now South Oklahoma City. Here he engaged in active real estate and general investment brokerage, and is still active in those lines and one of the most energetic factors in his home city. Soon after locating in Capitol Hill Mr. Aubrey entered iuto partnership with the late I. N. McKinzie in organizing the Capitol Hill State Bank. He served as a director for one year and was then elected its president. Four months later he sold his interests to the Columbia Bank & Trust Com- pany of Oklahoma City. This Capitol Hill Bank is still the only banking institution of the suburb.

Mr. Aubrey is a hardy, industrious and alert business man, and has in many ways made his own activity con- tribute to the benefit of his community. His word in Oklahoma City is regarded as good as his bond, and in business transactions those who have kuown him longest are his most enthusiastic friends and patrons.

At Great Bend, Kansas, December 24, 1900, Mr. Aubrey married Miss Zoua White, daughter of Silas and Lucinda White. To their marriage has been born one son, Francis, August 19, 1904.

CLIFF V. PEERY. Engaged in the practice of law at Wilburton, the thriving and attractive county seat of Latimer County, for more than a decade Cliff V. Peery has achieved success and influence as one of the repre- sentative members of the bar of this section of the state, had the distinction of serving as the first judge of the County Court after the admission of Oklahoma to statehood, has shown himself insistently loyal and public- spirited as a citizen, has held the office of mayor of Wilburton, and has twice been elected a representative of Latimer County in the State Legislature, his last election having occurred in 1914, so that he was a mem-

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ber of the Fifth Legislative Assembly. Mr. Peery is a man of excellent intellectual attainments and marked professional ability, his character is the positive expres- sion of a strong and loyal nature, and during the years of his residence in Oklahoma he has firmly entrenched himself in popular confidence and esteem.

Judge Peery was born in the State of Tennessee, on the 8th of September, 1881, and his parents now main- tain their home near Centreville, Hickman County, that state, the father having long been a prominent repre- sentative of the agriculture interests of that section of his native state and being a scion of sterling colonial stock in Virginia. He is a lineal descendant of James Peery, of Virginia, who represented the historic Old Dominion as a patriot soldier in the continental line in the War of the Revolution.

To the public schools of his native state Judge Peery is indebted for his early educational training, and there, at the age of seventeen years, he entered the literary department of the University of Tennessee in the city of Knoxville. In this institution he was graduated as a member of the class of 1902 and received the degree of Bachelor of Arts. In the meanwhile he had initiated also a course of study in the law department of the university, and in 1903 he received therefrom the degree of Bachelor of Laws. Thereafter he was associated in the practice of law with his uncle, Robert L. Peery, at Centerville, that state, until 1904, in the summer of which year he came to Indian Territory and established his residence at Wilburton, where he has since been engaged in active practice and where he has built up a substantial and representative law business, and gained high reputation for skill and discrimination as a trial lawyer.

Upon coming to Wilburton Judge Peery forthwith identified himself enthusiastically with local interests and became influential in the furtherance of measures and enterprises tending to advance the civic and material development and progress of the city and county. He served one term as mayor of Wilburton, and in 1907, upon the admission of Oklahoma to statehood, he had the distinction of being elected the first judge of the County Court of Latimer County. His services on this bench continned one term and he proved a careful and efficient judicial officer, declining a second nomination. In 1912 he was elected a representative of his county in the State Legislature, and in the ensuing sessions of the Fourth Legislature he was influential on the floor of the house in the deliberations of the various committees to which he was assigned. He was the author of a valuable law defining and regulating the coal mining industry and operations in Oklahoma, the county in which he is a resident being in one of the best coal districts of the state. Section 18. of the mining bill thus passed by the Legislature and later defeated in a popular election, was not a part of the bill as drafted and introduced by Judge Peery. In the Fourth Legislature he was the author also of a bill that reached enactment and that provided for the employment of convicts on the public roads of the state. In this Legislature he was the author also of a law relating to the herding of live stock and a law prohibiting secret fraternal organizations in the high schools of the state.

The popular estimate placed upon the services of Judge Peery in the Legislature was indicated by his re-election, in 1914, to the Fifth General Assembly, and in the ensuing session he was made chairman of the house committee on labor and arbitrations, besides being assigned also to the following named committees: Judi- ciary No. 2, legal advisory, criminal jurisprudence, appropriations, code, retrenchment and reform, fees and

salaries, and mines and mining. He was one of the authors of the workman's compensation act passed by the Fifth Legislature, and during this session he devoted the major part of his time and attention to this and other vigorous measures for the conserving and protect- ing of the rights and interests of the laboring people. He was the author of House Resolution No. 1 providing for a proposed amendment to the constitution authoriz- ing compulsory compensation in case of death as well as injuries. Among other measures that he earnestly championed along this line was the bill providing for a nine-hour maximum working day for women employed, and measures in the interests of mines and mining.

While a student in the University of Tennessee Judge Peery was an active member of Phi Kappa Phi fraternity and also of the Mckinney Club, the latter a student organization of the law department of the university. He represented the University of Tennessee in its first debating contest with Vanderbilt University at Nash- ville, that state, and was active in the affairs of the literary societies of the university, which he claims as his honored alma mater. He was president of his law class at the time of his graduation in the law depart- ment, and served also as president of the Students' Association and of the university Young Men's Christian Association, besides which he took an active part in the athletic affairs of the institution and made some creditable records in track team work.

Judge Peery is actively identified with the Latimer County Bar Association and the Oklahoma State Bar Association, is past chancellor of Wilburton Lodge No. 248, Knights of Pythias, and is affiliated with Wilburton Lodge No. 41, Ancient, Free and Accepted Masons. He has been an enthusiastic and valued member of the Wilburton Commercial Club from the time of its organi- zation and has been influential in the furthering of its high civic ideals and its progressive activities for the advancement of the town and community. In politics he is a thoroughgoing democrat, with firm belief in the principles of the part as exemplified by Jefferson and Jackson, and he has served as chairman of the Democratic County Committee of Latimer County. As a citizen and as a legislator he has zealously, and with much con- sistency, put forth earnest efforts to advance the mining interests of the county, and has concerned himself prominently with the affairs of the State School of Mines and Metalurgy, which is established at Wilburton. Both he and his wife are zealous members of the Christian Church and active in the various departments of the work of the church of this denomination in their home city. In the summer 1915 he and his family moved to Poteau, county seat of Leflore County, Oklahoma, where he is now actively engaged in the practice of law.

On the 1st of August, 1909, was solemnized the mar- riage of Judge Peery to Miss Janie Elizabeth Wingo, who had previously been a successful and popular teacher in the public schools of Oklahoma, and the three children of this union are Dorothy Elizabeth, Clifford Wingo and Virginia Alice.

JOHN O'NEILL. One of the largest estates in Stephens County is known as the O'Neill estate, left by the late John O'Neill at his death at Duncan on November 14, 1914. John O'Neill had an interesting career of pioneer experience in the Southwest, and was a fine type of the old settler, a man of sterling character, one who ae- complished a great deal during his individual energy, and was as popular as he was successful. His family resides at Duncan, where Mrs. O'Neill occupies one of the largest and most attractive homes in that little city

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and she is herself a capable business woman as well as a lady of culture and of old Southern family stock.

The late John O'Neill was born in County Tyrone, Ireland, August 27, 1845, and was in his seventieth year when he died. His father, Patrick O'Neill, was born in the same county of Ireland in 1813, lived there a farmer all his life and died in 1903. John O'Neill spent his early life in Ireland, was educated there, and in 1863 at the age of eighteen went to Scotland, but after a year or two returned to Queenstown, and in 1866 took passage for the New World. He landed in Philadelphia, re- mained there about six weeks, then went to Mount Ster- ling, Kentucky, and his farming experience in that state continned until 1879.

It was about thirty-five years ago when John O'Neill came to the Southwest and first located in the vicinity of Sherman, Grayson County, Texas. He was one of the early farmers and ranchers in that locality, but about 1881 moved to another place in Montague County, near the Red River boundary of Texas. His residence in Southern Oklahoma dates from 1885, when he was one of the pioneer white ranchers to secure a foothold on the Indian lands in the vicinity of Wild Horse Creek. His operations as a rancher and farmer continued there on an increasing scale until 1904, when he relaxed in some degree the strenuous activities that had engaged him to that time, and moved into the town of Duncan. His work and influence are visibly impressed upon the general business and civic progress of Duncan. For a time he had a dry goods store and was also one of the directors of the First National Bank of Duncan, and was one of the founders and a director in the Duncan National Bank, which was established August 8, 1904. In 1905 he was instrumental in having the bank erect its new stone building on Main street. His creditable work in the upbuilding of Duncan should never be passed over without honorable mention. He was a patron of the local schools and helped the village improve its institu- tions and establish its prosperity on a sound basis. Though he long stood as a leader, he had no aspirations for office, and contented himself with voting the demo- cratic ticket. He was a member of the Catholic Church.

John O'Neill married Elizabeth Payne, who was born within three miles of the county seat of Shelby County, Missouri, acquired her education in that and other counties of Missouri and in the Baptist College at LaGrange in that state. She and her daughter now occupy the fine residence built by the late Mr. O'Neill at the corner of Third and Hickory streets in Duncan. In addition to this town home the real estate comprises a splendid tract of a thousand acres of land twenty miles east of Duncan, of which 800 acres are under cultivation, and also a stone business building at the corner of Main and Eighth streets, Duncan. Mrs. O'Neill has two daughters.

Annie Josephine was married at Duncan November 27, 1907, to James R. Sparks, who is a Duncan hardware merchant, and they have one child living, Mary Patricia, born March 8, 1914. Bird, the younger daughter, is joint administra- trix with her mother of the O'Neill estate. She is a graduate of St. Joseph's Academy at Guthrie, Oklahoma.

Mrs. O'Neill is a daughter of Thomas H. and Martha (Marshall) Payne. The Paylle family is of Scotch- Irish ancestry, and was established in Virginia before the Revolutionary war, and after that struggle moved across the mountains into Kentucky. Thomas H. Payne was born in Bourbon County, Kentucky, in 1821, and died in Montague County, Texas, in September, 1884. The principal places of his residence were in Bourbon County, Kentucky, in Palmyra, and Shelby County, Missouri, and late in life he removed to Montague County, Texas.

He was a farmer and stock raiser during the greater part of his active career. During the war he participated on the Federal side for about one year, having first served in the Missouri militia under John Glover and continued with those troops when they were regularly enrolled in the Federal army. He was stricken with pneumonia while in the service and given an honorable dischargo for disability. Martha Marshall, the mother of Mrs. O'Neill, was born in Kentucky in 1827 and died in Montague County, Texas, in October, 1900. Mrs. O'Neill was the oldest of their ten children, and some mention of the others of the family is as follows: Har- riet Katherine, who now lives in Idaho, is the widow of the late Thomas Joiner, a farmer; Samuel, who lives on a farm near Marlow, Oklahoma; William, a farmer at Mar- low; Winifred, at Butler, Oklahoma; Newton, a farmer near Wewoka, Oklahoma; Callie, wife of Fred McClanna- han, a carpenter and builder who lives at Holbrook, Ari- zona; Lulu, wife of Allison Scott, a retired railroad man at Fort Worth, Texas; Thomas, who was a rancher and died at Duncan at the age of forty-three; Walter, a farmer and rancher at Duncan.

CHISOLM T. ROGERS, M. D. The noble and historic Old Dominion has not failed to give to the new and vigorous commonwealth of Oklahoma a due quota of loyal and progressive citizens, and prominent among the number stands Doctor Rogers, who came to Indian Terri- tory in June, 1905, and who has been engaged in the active and specially successful practice of his profes- sion in the City of Muskogee, which has been his place of residence during nearly the entire period of his residence in what is now the State 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