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 42

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 42

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At tho ancestral home of his mother in the Village of Alphin, Rockbridge County, Virginia, Dr. Chisolm Tucker Rogers was born on the 21st of December, 1876, and in both the agnatic and distaff lines he is a scion of hon- ored Colonial families of Virginia, of which fact he may well be proud, for the Old Dominion was the gracious cradle of much of our national history and the tender mother of worthy sons and daughters who have been influential in connection with the development and up- building of many of the newer commonwealths of the United States. Doctor Rogers is a son of Dr. William Hunter Rogers, who was for many years one of the dis- tinguished physicians and surgeons of Rockbridge County in his native state, and who was a prominent and influ- ential citizen of Lexington, the judicial center of that county. He was a son of Dr. William Peter Rogers, who likewise was a native of Rockbridge County, Virginia. The maiden name of his wife was Rachael Hayes, who came to Virginia from Vermout to take the place of principal of the aristocratic and exclusive preparatory school for Washington College, located at Lexington. Miss Hayes was known all over Virginia as a woman of great learning and culture.

The paternal great-grandfather of him whose name introduces this review was John Rogers, a scion of stanch Scotch-English stock, and a man who attained to marked prominence in Virginia in the Colonial days. He was a skilled surveyor and had to do with the making of many important surveys in Virginia in the early period of its history, besides which it is especially pleas- ing to record that Mount Rogers, the highest mountain peak in Virginia, was named in his honor. John Rogers' wife was Mary Byrd, sister of Evalyn Byrd, of historic fame, and daughter of Col. William Byrd, of Westover. The two General Clarks, familiar to American historians, were descended from this family, George Rogers Clark being one of them.

The Rogers family is distinctively one of education and patrician culture and the various generations that

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have came on to life's activities have in turn given new prestige to the family name.

The mother of Doctor Rogers bore the maiden name of Mary Alphin, and she was born at the ancestral home- stead which gave name to the Village of Alphin, in Rockbridge County, Virginia, the Alphin family likewise having been one of much prominence in the Old Domiu- ion. The father of Mrs. Rogers was one of five brothers who immigrated from England and all of whom became specially successful in connection with industrial and business affairs in the historic Old Dominion.

Dr. Chisolm T. Rogers was reared to adult age at the Rogers family home of "Marmion" near the fine old City of Lexington, Virginia, and after due preliminary discipline he was matriculated in the historic William and Mary College at Williamsburg, Virginia, at which college he spent two years, leaving there for Western North Carolina for climate reasons. He entered Ruther- ford College in the fall of 1896, graduating from there in the spring of 1897 with the degree of Bachelor of Arts. After several years of business life, Doctor Rogers entered the medical department of the University of the South at Sewanee, Tennessee, at which university he completed his three years' course, taking the degree of Doctor of Medicine in 1904. In 1905, on account of the cold and severe winters in Lexington, Virginia, Doctor Rogers came to Indian Territory and established his residence at Muskogee, where he has since been con- tinuously engaged, save for a comparatively brief period of residence in a small railroad town near Muskogee.

Doctor Rogers is one of those ambitious and pro- gressive physicians and surgeons who hold that pro- fessionally it is not enough for a man to remain in statu quo, but that consistency and cumulative demand that close touch be kept with the march of advancement in medical and surgical science. Thus he has not only been a constant and appreciative student of the best literature pertaining to his profession, but has also done effective post-graduate work not only in metropolitan cities of the United States, but also in leading medical institutions of Europe. In the City of Berlin, Germany, he devoted special study to diseases of the chest, includ- ing tuberenlosis, and he is now confining his practice largely to this special field of work, in which he is one of the foremost authorities iu Oklahoma.

Doctor Rogers is a fellow of the American Medical Association and a member of the Anglo-American Med- ical Association, of Berlin, Germany. He has been very prominently connected with Greek letter fraternities and has been instrumental in putting in many chapters of his fraternities, among which the Alpha Kappa Kappa is prominent.

In politics the doctor has clung tenaciously to the ancestral faith and is a stalwart advocate of the princi- ples of the democratic party and has held many offices in the party organization, and at this writing is chairman of his city central committee. He is also superintendent of public health for the City of Muskogee and is medical director for, a private sanitarium for the treatment of tuberculosis and is otherwise prominent and influential in public and general civic affairs in his home city. He is a member of the Presbyterian Church and his wife is a zealous member of the Episcopal Church.

In the year 1902 was solemnized the marriage of Doctor Rogers to Miss Carita Van Ness, a daughter of Judge William and Mary Wyckliffe Waters Van Ness. Her father served as a colonel in the Union army during the Civil war and had the distinction of being one of the officers on General Grant's staff. After the close of the war he became a distinguished lawyer and jurist in the State of Florida, where he served in important judicial offices and as mayor and prosecuting attorney of the Vol. IV-10

City of St. Augustine. His father, Judge William Van Ness, of sterling Holand Dutch lineage, served as a jus- tice of the Supreme Court of New York and was Aaron Burr's second in the latter's famous and historic duel with Alexander Hamilton. Her maternal grandfather was the Hon. Thomas W. Waters, of Kentucky. Doctor and Mrs. Rogers have two children, William Hunter Van Ness and Mary Katherine.

JAMES WILLIAM ZEVELY, one of Muskogee's leading lawyers and citizens, is well known throughout Oklahoma and beyond its confines, even to the nation's capital. Since 1903, Mr. Zevely has been associated with Mus- kogee's affairs. Though Missouri is his native state and the scene of his early successes, his allegiance and interest are now those of a loyal Oklahoman.

The Zevely family is of Moravian origin and its early history is connected with the development of Salem, North Carolina. Mr. Zevely's father, Thadeus Zevely, was born in that locality and while still a lad was brought West by his parents, who settled at Linn, in Osage County, Missouri. There Thadeus Zevely grew to manhood, was educated and entered upon a career in law, which was continued throughout his life, save for the interruption incident to his entering the Union army at the time of our sectional differences in the early '60s. His wife was Mary Miller Zevely, a lady of Scotch line- age and a native of Tenuessee.

Mr. Zevely was born at Linn, Missouri. His child- hood and early youth were given to the usual educational exercises of the American boy, with the vocational varia- tion of a few years spent in a printing office. As a printer's "devil," he gained his first knowledge of that line of activity and for two or three years edited a newspaper which had been bought by his father and an uncle and which was known by the doughty name of "The Unterrified Democrat." The studies of James W. Zevely, begun in the Linn public schools, were supple- mented first by a course in the German School at Her- man, Missouri, and later by a two-years' collegiate course in the Christian Brothers' School at St. Louis, Missouri. He was secretary of the Missouri State Labor Bureau at Jefferson City, which position he held for two years. This was followed by an appointment by the Supreme Court of Missouri to the office of state li- brarian, which position he held for ten years. While serving as state librarian he was admitted to the bar, in 1886, and later he took a course of lectures in the College of Law of the University of Virginia. When Ex-Governor Francis became a member of the Presi- dent's cabinet, as secretary of the interior, he appointed J. W. Zevely as special inspector for that department. Mr. Zevely went to Washington and began the duties of his position in 1896, continuing in the service for seven years. In the spring of 1903 he resigned the position and resumed the practice of law.

Mr. Zevely's first association as a lawyer in Muskogee was with Mr. J. M. Givens, their partnership beginning in 1903. Later Mr. Edgar Smith entered the firm, that connection being cut short by the death of the latter. When Mr. R. W. Stoutz entered the firm, the legal estab- lishment became knowu as Zevely, Givens and Stoutz. The firm has an excellent reputation among the legal fraternity of Muskogee County and the State of Okla- homa.

The democratic party has long included Mr. Zevely among its faithful sons. Both in Missouri and in Okla- homa he has served as a member of the state central committees. His extensive activities and valuable services in public affairs have won him many staunch friends at the state capitals and also at Washington.

Mrs. Zevely is a daughter of Missouri and before her

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marriage was Miss Janie Clay of Mexico, Missouri. She and Mr. Zevely have two promising children, Jane Clay Zevely and James William Zevely, Jr. Mr. Zevely's home was established in 1908 and both he and Mrs. Zevely are counted valuable acquisitions to the life of Muskogee and its environs.

ROY Z. TAYLOR. A resident of Oklahoma City since 1901 Mr. Taylor has gained prestige as one of the pro- gressive business meu aud loyal and influential citizens of the fine city whose vigorous youth is on a parity with his own. He has taken specially earnest interest in public affairs, has served as a member of the city council and in the autumn of 1914 he was elected a member of the board of county commissioners of Okla- homa County, in which important office he is serving with characteristic loyalty, zeal and efficiency, his various official preferments fully indicating his status in popular confidence and esteem. Mr. Taylor has con- ducted a retail cigar business in Oklahoma City since 1911, at 229 West Grand Avenue, and effective service and fair and honorable dealings have gained to him a large and apprecative patronage, so that his business enterprise is now one of the most important of its kind in the capital city.

Like many others of the representative citizens of Oklahoma, Roy Zachary Taylor claims the State of Missouri as the place of his nativity. He was born at Windsor, Henry County, that state, on the 8th of May, 1880, and is a son of Frank T. and Virginia (Berry) Taylor, the former of whom was born in Kentucky and the latter in Missouri. Frank T. Taylor was a valiant soldier of the Confederacy during the Civil war, his enlistment having taken place in Missouri and his service having been principally in the command of the valiant and intrepid General Price, whose famous raids con- stitute a thrilling chapter in the history of the great conflict between the North and the South.

Roy Z. Taylor was reared and educated in his native state, where he duly availed himself of the advantages of the public schools. He was eighteen years of age at the inception of the Spanish-American war, and, like his father, he did his part in upholding the military honors of Missouri. He enlisted in the Second Missouri Volunteer Infantry, with which he continued in service eleven months, at the expiration of which he received his honorable discharge, his regiment not having been called to the stage of active polemic operations.

In 1901 Mr. Taylor came to Oklahoma City, and witlı this place as headquarters he was for the following ten years an ambitious and successful traveling salesman for a wholesale grocery establishment. He then engaged in the retail grocery business on his own account, and his store is essentially metropolitan in equipment and service, while his success has given him vantage-place as one of the representative merchants of the city.

The home of Mr. Taylor is in the attractive residence district known as Capitol Hill, and he was a member of. the municipal council of the city thus designated at the time when it became an integral part of Oklahoma City, and thereafter he served as a member of the city council of the metropolis until the commission form of goveru- ment was adopted by Oklahoma City, in 1911.

There came fitting recognition of the earnest and loyal services of Mr. Taylor when he was called to even more important office, that of member of the board of county commissioners, to which he was elected in Novem- ber, 1914, as representative of the district embracing the greater part of Oklahoma City. He assumed the functions of this office in January, 1915, and at the time the following statements were made concerning him: "Those who have watched the conduct of Mr. Taylor

and have studied his high character, are assured that in him they will have at all times an efficient, careful and conscientious representative on this important board, under the jurisdiction of which millions of dollars are expended in connection with public affairs in the county. He is distinctively one of the solid business men of the great city in which he has cast his lot, a desirable citizen and a safe counselor in matters of moment, -- one always ready to do his full share in that work which must result in the further advancement of the city, the county and the State."

In politics Mr. Taylor is a democrat, he is affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Fraternal Order of Eagles, and Mrs. Taylor is a member of the Christian Church, which he attends and liberally supports.

At Chandler, Oklahoma, on the 21st of November, 1904, Mr. Taylor wedded Miss Minnie Lee Beleher, daughter of Thomas Belcher, who was born in the same town in Missouri as was Mr. Taylor, Mrs. Belcher like- wise being a native of the same place. Mr. and Mrs. Taylor have two children-Roy Z., Jr., born in 1905, and William Lee, born in 1911.

JOHN NEWTON RYAN, M. D. The first or certainly one of the first physicians and surgeons to locate in the community of Sulphur was Dr. John Newton Ryan, who did his first practice in that locality fully twenty years ago. Doctor Ryan has not lived coutinuously at Sul- phur, but for a number of years was an early physician and also a homesteader at Frederick, but has now returned to Sulphur and enjoys an extensive general practice there. He is a physician of fully thirty-five years' experience, and did his first work in the profes- sion in Indian Territory, so that there are few medical men of the present State of Oklahoma whose position as pioneer doctors is based upon a wider and longer ex- perience.

An Alabama man by birth, John Newton Ryan was born in Morgan County, January 28, 1852, a son of W. S. and Mahala (Oden) Ryan. His ancestors came originally from Ireland and settled in Virginia in colonial times, and the Odens were of similar origin and early settlement in America. W. S. Ryan was born in Northern Alabama in 1814 and was reared and mar- ried there. In 1870 he moved to Texas, locating at Paris, and in 1875 went to Red River Valley of Northern Texas, and acquired a tract of school land in the vicinity of Henrietta, where he followed stock raising for five years. In 1880 he moved to Jimtown, Indian Territory, but about three years later returned to Texas and lived in Montague until his death in 1899. Most of his career was spent as a farmer and stock man, though he had stores at Jimtown and Montague. He was a democrat and an active member of the Primitive Baptist Church. His wife was born in Northern Alabama in 1861 and died at Montague, Texas, in 1901. They became the parents of a large family of children, ten in number, noted briefly as follows: Annie, who died in infancy; Mary, first married Redman Roberts, who was a farmer and lost his life while a Confederate soldier during the war, and she is now living at Sulphur Oklahoma, the widow of W. T. Nations, who was a stockman; W. J. Ryan is now retired and living with his brother, Doctor Ryan; Nancy is deceased; Doctor Ryan is the fifth in order of birth; Cynthia Annie, living at Sulphur, is the widow of J. M. Webster, who was a merchant at Sulphur until his death in 1913; C. T. was a merchant and died at Ardmore, Oklahoma; J. A. is a real estate owner living at Oklahoma City; G. L. died at Manitou, Okla- homa, where he was a physician and surgeon; Ellen is

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the wife of Charles Hall, living at Altus, Oklahoma, where Mr. Hall for a number of years was a merchant but recently took up the business of traveling salesman.

John Newton Ryan acquired his early education in his native state and lived on his father's farm until eighteen years of age. About that time his father came to Texas, and after some experience as a mercantile clerk took up the study of medicine and continued it until admitted to practice in 1880. In that year he came into Indian Territory and located at Lebanon, in which community he had his home and practice until moving to Sulphur in 1895. In both places he did much of the work of the pioneer. Hc quickly established himself in the confidence of the people as a skillful and conscientious physician, and he answered calls which necessitated riding for many miles over the rough and sparsely settled districts, and there are few members of the Oklahoma medical frater- nity who have done a larger share of the really hard work of their profession than Doctor Ryan.

In 1901 Doctor Ryan left Sulphur and went to the new town of Frederick at the opening of that section of Southwestern Oklahoma to settlement. He drew a homestead of 160 acres, and lived on it long enough to prove his claim. Five years later he sold out, but con- tinued to practice in Frederick until 1911, when he re- moved to Wellington, Oklahoma, for eight months, and in 1912 again located at Sulphur. Here his offices are in the Meadoes Building and he has a fine practice. He also enjoys a high standing among his fellow physicians, and is a member of the County and State Medical societies and the American Medical Association. He owns a com- fortable residence in Sulphur. Fraternally he is identi- fied with the Woodmen of the World, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, Sulphur Lodge No. 144, Ancient, Free and Accepted Masons, and Frederick Chapter, Royal Arch Masons. In politics he is a democrat.

At Lebanon, Indian Territory, in 1880, soon after going to that community as a young physician, he married Miss Mattie L. Duncan. Her father was the late M. M. Duncan, a farmer and stockman. Doctor and Mrs. Ryan have a fine family of eight children: James L., who has taken three courses in medicine at the Forth Worth University and one course at the Memphis Hospital Medi- cal College in Tennessee, and is now practicing at Nebo, Oklahoma; Blanche, who died in childhood; W. M., a farmer, and living with his father; Mande, who died young; Alice, wife of W. C. Ryman, a farmer and stock- man at Manitou, Oklahoma; Charles E., a grocer at San Antonio, Texas; John B., a student in the Sulphur High School; and Ruth, who is in the public schools at Sulphur.

EVERETT B. HAMILTON has held the office of adjuster and appraiser in the loan department of the Oklahoma State School Land .Department since his appointment in 1914. Prior to that he served two terms as a member of the Board of County Commissioners of Grant County, and was chairman of the board during that time. He has been prominent in local politics since he came to Okla- homa in 1893, and has a leading place among his towns- people. Mr. Hamilton was born October 1, 1869, on a farm in Guernsey County, Ohio, and is a son of Robert and Margaret (Sherrow) Hamilton.

Robert Hamilton was born in Ohio on July 25, 1830, and was the son of Irish parents, born in County Kil- larney, Treland. Robert's mother died in 1880 when she. was 105 years old. Her maiden name was Dorcas Organ. Her husband died when he was eighty-nine years old, and they were the parents of five children, four sons and a daughter, all now deceased. They were Abner, James, Alexander, Robert and Eliza. Robert, father of the subject, died at Derby, Kansas, on February 20, 1913.

He was a farmer and a mechanic all his active life, and was a life-long member of the Presbyterian Church. He married Margaret Sherrow August 18, 1852, and she was born in Ohio December 30, 1833. They were the parents of seven children, all living at this time, as follows: Samantha is the wife of James L. Patterson, of Cam- bridge, Ohio. LaFayette D. is a resident of Derby, Kansas. Alexander also lives there. Alva lives in Arkansas City, The fifth born was Everett B. of this review. Benjamin Franklin and Della, twins, were born at North Salem, Ohio, and Della is now the wife of Wirt Larrimer.

Everett B. Hamilton moved from Ohio to Kansas with his parents in 1883, and the father bought land in Sedgewick County. With the other children, he was educated in the public schools, and he was graduated from the Derby High School in the class of 1886. He then attended a business college in Wichita, followed by two years of study at Garfield University, after which he taught in Sedgewick County for three years. September 16, 1893, Mr. Hamilton was one of the many who parti- cipated in the opening of the Cherokee Strip in Okla- homa, and he settled on government land in Grant County, two miles east of Pond Creek. He still owns this land, and has made a success of stock raising on it. Shorthorn cattle have been a feature of his breeding enterprise, and he is counted among the prominent stock .

men of the county. Mr. Hamilton has been prominent in many phases of life in Grant County since he located here, and has served his town and county well in the various offices to which he has been called. He is a democrat, and in 1907 was elected a member of the Board of County Commissioners of Grant County. He served five years on the board, and the last two years was its chairman. On April 1, 1914, he was appointed to a position in the office of the state auditor, J. C. McClel- land. After six months he was appointed appraiser and adjuster with the State Land School Department, which office he is now holding. He is a Mason, and is past worthy master of Pond Creek Lodge No. 125, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons.

On September 12, 1893, Mr. Hamilton was united in marriage at Derby, Kansas, with Miss Viola Waugh, daughter of John C. and Snsanna ( Zaneis) Waugh. She was born April 21, 1874, at Kappa, Illinois, the daughter of native born Germans.

Mr. and Mrs. Hamilton have ten children, named as follows: Ray Wiley; Harold Franklin; Fanchon Mar- guerite; Max C .; Robert C .; Juanita Lucile; Gretchen Trene : Wanda Viola; and Gail Roberta.

The family are members of the Congregational Church of Pond Creek, and all are prominent in their home community, where they have a wide circle of staunch friends.

GEORGE FRANCIS WOODRING, M. D. In a new country no professional services are so welcome and so much needed as those of the physician. One of the best known citizens of Bartlesville is Dr. George F. Woodring, who chose that locality as the scene of his professional labors in 1889, many years before the development of those interests and resources which have made Bartlesville famous among the cities of the Southwest. For a number of years Doctor Woodring had to practice over a broad range of country, and underwent countless hardships in taking his skill to the isolated homes of the settlers. In later years he has shared in the improvements which have come to the community at large, and has become a man of affairs as well as a pioneer physician.

George Francis Woodring was born at Pulaski, Giles County, Tennessee, November 15, 1856, a son of G. W.

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aud Frauces (Nave) Woodring. His father, who was born near Elizabethtowu, Kentucky, aud died in Ten- nessee in 1907 at the age of eighty-four, was a marble cutter by trade, and spent most of his life in Giles County. The Woodring family had its original seat in Holland, where they were wealthy and influential people. On account of political troubles three brothers of the name emigrated to America. One of them, Jacob, the great-grandfather of Doctor Woodring, located in Ken- tucky, while the other two settled in Pennsylvania. The grandfather of Doctor Woodring was also named Jacob, and he spent his life as a farmer near Elizabethtown, Kentucky. Doctor Woodring's mother was born at Bunker Hill, Tennessee, and died at Pulaski in 1903 at the age of fifty-six. Her family, the Naves, were Scotch- Irish and came from North Carolina. Doctor Woodring was one of four children: Claude Jacob, who died at the age of about thirty-five; George F .; W. T., deceased; . and Myrtle, wife of G. A. Talley of Nashville, Tennessee.

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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