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 43

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 43

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Doctor Woodring grew up at Pulaski, and was edu- cated in Giles College at that place, where he graduated Bachelor of Arts with the class of 1873. He then spent three years as a student of medicine in the Hospital College of Medicine at Louisville, Kentucky, and was awarded the degree Doctor of Medicine, February 28, 1876. He did his first practice at Bunker Hill, about · twelve miles east of Pulaski, and in 1879 moved out to Kansas and established his home and office at Elk City. While there for four years of Cleveland's administration he was a member of the pension examining board. In 1889 Doctor Woodring came to what is now the City of Bartlesville, and is now the oldest physician in point of continuous residence and practice in Washington County. While his practice has been general, and particularly in the early years of his work, he has come into a special reputation for his skill in the treatment of diseases of children. He stands very high in professional circles, and in January, 1908, on the organization of the Wash- ington County Medical Society, was honored by being elected first president. He has served as president of the local society for four years, and is also a member of the State Medical Society and of the American Medical Asso- ciation. Besides his private practice he is serving as district surgeon for the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Rail- way.

Doctor Woodring is hardly less well known as a man of affairs than as a physician. . He is a democrat, and in 1897 was elected mayor of Bartlesville and served two years. He has done his share towards the general up- building of the city, and his office is in the Woodring Building, a substantial structure on Second Street, which represents part of his investments in local real estate. He has also interested himself in various oil and gas companies. Doctor Woodring is one of the leading mem- bers of the Christian Church at Bartlesville, and is promi- ment in Masoury, being affiliated with the Lodge and Royal Arch Chapter at Bartlesville, with the Consistory at Wichita, and with the Temple of the Mystic Shrine at Oklahoma City.

Doctor Woodring was married at Elk City, Kansas, May 3, 1881, to Miss Viola L. Morgau, who was born in Illinois but was reared in Kansas. Her father was J. P. Morgan. The doctor has one son, Guy Morgan Wood- ring, who lives in Bartlesville and is married and has two children named Robert and George.

HENRY C. ROGERS, M. D. Within the pages of this publication will be found specific recognition of a goodly quota of those earnest and able physicians and surgeons who are effectively upholding the dignity and prestige of their profession in Oklahoma, and to such consideration

Doctor Rogers is distinctly eutitled, for he is one of the prominent physicians and surgeous engaged in practice in the City of Muskogee and is a broad minded and pro- gressive citizen whose character and achievement have given him impregnable place in popular confidence and good will.

Dr. Henry Collins Rogers was born in the City of Memphis, Tennessee, on the 10th of March, 1867, and is a son of Dr. William E. and Elizabeth (Battle) Rogers, the former a native of North Carolina and the latter of Tennessee. Dr. William E. Rogers, who became one of the distinguished physicians aud surgeons of the State of Tennessee, was a boy at the time he accompanied his widowed mother and his two brothers on the family removal from North Carolina to Tennessee, in which latter state he was reared to adult age in Haywood County. In pursuance of the course along which lay his definite ambition, he entered the medical department of the University of Pennsylvania, in which he was gradu- ated with the degree of Doctor of Medicine. When the Civil war was precipitated he promptly signalized his loyalty to the cause of the Confederate States by enter- ing service as surgeon in a Tenuessee regiment, in which capacity he served, with all of efficiency and self-abnega- tion, during the entire period of the great conflict be- tween the North and the South.

After the close of the war Dr. William E. Rogers engaged in the practice of his profession in the City of Memphis, where he rose to a position of eminence as one of the leading representatives of his profession in the State of Tennessee. He was known for his great skill as a surgeon and was a prominent figure in the educa- tional work of his profession. He was the founder of the Memphis Hospital Medical College, which is now the medical department of the University of Tennessee, and in this institution he served as professor of surgery. He passed the closing years of his long and useful life at Memphis and was one of the city's honored and revered citizens whose influence was always given in support of things that tended to advance the general welfare of the community and whose abiding sympathy and tolerance were on a parity with his recognized intel- lectual and professional talent. His wife survived him by several years. They became the parents of four sons and three daughters, of whom one son and two daugh- ters are living. Two of the sons, Dr. Sheppard Ash Rogers and Dr. William Bodie Rogers, likewise entered the profession that had been signally honored by the character and services of their father, and both became able and popular members of the faculty of the Memphis Hospital Medical College.

Upon the one surviving son, Dr. Henry C. Rogers, of this review, has devolved the privilege of being the only remaining one of his generation to perpetuate the high professional prestige of the family name, and that he has succeeded most admirably is evident to all who are in the least familiar with his career in his exacting vocation. The Doctor acquired his early education in the schools of his native city and then entered the Mem- phis Hospital Medical College, in which he was gradu- ated as a member of the class of 1888 and from which he received his well earned degree of Doctor of Medicine. Immediately afterward he further fortified himself by earnest post-graduate work in New York City, after which he went abroad and availed himself of the ad- vautages of the best surgical clinics in the cities of London, Paris, Vienna and Berlin, having been absent in Europe for the greater part of one year.

Upon his return to America, with exceptionally ad- vanced training for his chosen calling, Doctor Rogers engaged in general practice in his native city, but not long afterward he became severely afflicted with asthma

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and was virtually compelled to seek a change of climate. In 1896 Doctor Rogers became a resident of the vigorous Oklahoma city that is now his home, and here his high professional attainments soon gained to him a large and lucrative practice, the same having constantly expanded in scope and importance with the passing years and his success having given him secure vantage-place as one of the leading physicians and surgeons of the state of his adoption. Close study of the best literature pertaining to his profession has been supplemented by Doctor Rogers through successive post-graduate courses in leading in- stitutions of New York, Chicago and other metropolitan centers, and in all things he exemplified the highest ethics of the profession in which his services have been fruitful in the alleviation of human suffering and distress. The Doctor is an influential and honored member of the Muskogee County Medical Society and the Oklahoma State Medical Society, besides which he is actively iden- tified with the American Medical Association.

In politics Doctor Rogers has always been found ar- rayed in the ranks of the democratic party and while he has taken a commendable interest in public affairs, espe- cially those pertaining to his home city, county and state, he has considered his profession worthy of his undi- vided fealty and thus has manifested no ambition for personal preferment along political lines. He is affiliated with the Masonic fraternity and both he and his wife are communicants of the Protestant Episcopal Church, in which he served as a member of the vestry until he felt prompted to resign the office, owing to the exigent demands placed upon his time and attention by his pro- fessional work.

In the year 1890, in the City of Memphis, Tennessee, was solemnized the marriage of Doctor Rogers to Miss Helen Clayton, daughter of Henry D. Clayton, who was a distinguished soldier of the Confederacy during the Civil war and who was president of the University of Alabama at the time of his death.

OLLIE SWEET WILSON. Oklahoma is essentially a labor state, has for years been known as the home of the industrious middle class, and in its general social com- position and in the tendencies and practice of its laws and government shows many manifestations of the progressive policy which is seeking a fairer distribution of the burdens between capital and labor. Oklahoma labor is fortunate in having for one of its chief official representatives such a man as Ollie S. Wilson, who for the past four years has been secretary and treasurer of the Oklahoma State Federation of Labor. Mr. Wilson justifies his membership in the ranks of laborers by a long experience as a printer and he still carries a printer's card. He is a man of intelligence, has firm convictions of justice and seeks every opportunity to advance the interests of his party, and yet could not be defined as a class man or a partisan in any sense of the term except a good one. Mr. Wilson was for a number of years a newspaper man at Pauls Valley, afterwards was connected with the Metropolitan Press in Oklahoma City, and as the official of the Federation of Labor has his offices in the Patterson Building at the capital city.

Ollie S. Wilson was born in Utica, Missouri, September 19, 1876, a son of Madison G. and Cynthia A. (Hart) Wilson, the former a native of Tennessee and the latter of Ohio. His father was a Union soldier during the Civil war and spent the last year with the Forty-fourth Missouri Infantry. When Ollie was seven years of age his parents moved to Vernon County, Missouri, where he attended common schools until the age of seventeen. Then followed an apprenticeship in a printing office, and he worked in varying capacities and in different localities as a printer up to 1899.

When Mr. Wilson located at Pauls Valley, Indian Territory, in 1899, he established the Chickasaw Enter- prise, of which he became editor. Subsequently he founded the Pauls Valley Pantagraph, and was its editor until 1904, when he sold out his holdings at Pauls Valley and moved to Oklahoma City. For six or seven years he did newspaper work in the metropolis on the staff of the Oklahoma Daily Post and the Daily Oklahoman.

In 1910 Mr. Wilson was elected secretary-treasurer of the Oklahoma City Typographical Union and during the following year gave all his time to the duties of that position. This honor at the hands of union labor was followed in 1911 by his election as secretary-treasurer of the Oklahoma State Federation, and he has been retained in that position to the present time. For the two years that he served as secretary-treasurer of the Typographical Union he was also editor of the Labor Unit. Mr. Wilson has a vigorous pen as a newspaper and editorial writer, has the courage to express his views, and under his management the Labor Unit attained its high point in general distinction and editorial character."

His record as secretary-treasurer of the Oklahoma State Federation of Labor has been one of uninterrupted confidence in the minds of those he has so faithfully served, and every labor man in the state that knows of him or his work is his friend. He has been an ardent and effective advocate of the policy of drafting into state laws such measures that would tend to the establishment of equal justice to all toilers. As a member of the. Federation Legislative Committee he is untiring during a session of the Legislature in his endeavors to write into the laws of the state provisions that will safeguard the laborer no matter in what position he may work. Conspicuous among the qualifications of Mr. Wilson for the place he holds is the fact that he secures the con- fidence and respect of every honest law maker or anyone else with whom he becomes acquainted, and is always given a respectful hearing when he has suggestions or requests to offer.

At Pauls Valley, Oklahoma, June 2, 1901, Mr. Wilson married Miss Loura Stark, daughter of Silas and Bell (West) Stark, the father a native of Missouri and the latter of Iowa. Mrs. Wilson's father was a Confederate soldier. They have one daughter, Edith, born July 23, 1902.

ELTON B. HUNT. Equipped with a creditably high literary education and a Bachelor of Laws degree from the law department of the University of Oklahoma, Elton B. Hunt entered upon the practice of his profes- sion at Chickasha in 1913, immediately after his gradua- tion, and since that time has become one of the most popular and successful young practitioners of Grady County. As a member of the firm of Hunt & Rosen- stein he has participated in a number of important cases in which he has fulfilled the promise of his bril- liant college career, and from the time of his entrance into active professional life his advancement has been consistent and steady.

Mr. Hunt was born May 24, 1886, near Lamar, Barton County, Missouri, and is a son of Jacob and Elizabeth E. (Broyles) Hunt. He belongs to families on both sides which trace their ancestry back to colonial times in this country, and members of which participated in the war for American independence. His parents, who are now farming people and reside on their property in Grady County, Oklahoma, are natives of Tennessee. Mr. Hunt has two brothers: Roy B., who is a successful stockman of New Mexico; and Edwin S., a lad of twelve years, who resides with his parents and attends the Grady County public schools. Elton B. Hunt re- ceived his graded school education in Henry Kendall

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College at Muskogee, Oklahoma, following which he en- rolled as a student in Northwestern State Normal School at Alva, Oklahoma. He completed the literary course at Park College Academy, Parkville, Missouri, in 1904, and in 1906 entered Colorado College, Colorado Springs, Colorado, where he was graduated in 1910 with the degree of Bachelor of Arts. By working at odd times he paid his own way through this institution. In 1910 he entered the law department of the University of Oklahoma, graduating therefrom with the degree of Bachelor of Laws. Mr. Hunt participated in activities that made him one of the foremost students of the university. He was one of the charter members of the Grady County Club at the University of Oklahoma, as well as an officer of the Democratic Club there; he still retains membership in the Sigma Chi, Phi Delta Phi and Delta Sigma Rho colloge fraternities, and was president of the Young Men's Christian Association of the Uni- versity of Oklahoma. He was also undergraduate orator on the occasion of the inauguration of President Brooks, was a participant in four interstate collegiate debates, was a member of the staffs of all the college publica- tions, and a member of the University of Oklahoma's first student council. While in the Colorado College he also participated in interstate oratorical contests.

After leaving college Mr. Hunt associated himself and for 11% years remained with the law firm of Randolph, Haner & Shirk at Tulsa, Oklahoma, and' in 1914 asso- ciated himself with C. H. Rosenstein, a classmate, in the practice of law at .Chickasha, where the firm now has offices at 31012 Chickasha Avenue, being known as Hunt & Rosenstein. This is accounted a strong legal com- bination and its business has enjoyed a steady increase in volume and importance.

Mr. Hunt holds membership in the Oklahoma State Bar Association, is a member of the Presbyterian Church, and in politics is a democrat. He is unmarried.

JAMES OSMAN WHARTON, M. D. While building up a successful practice as a physician and surgeon at Dun- can during the past ten years, Dr. Wharton's name has also become known over the state at large in medical circles through his service on the State Board of Medical Examiners, and his service and attainments are such as to give him rank among the best representatives of the medical fraternity iu Oklahoma.

James Osman Wharton was born at Russellville, Ar- kansas, October 15, 1879, a son of Dr. J. T. and Kate (Williamson) Wharton. The Wharton family has been one of distinction in this country since it came from England prior to the Revolutionary war and settled in Virginia. Dr. J. T. Wharton was born in Louisville, Kentucky, in 1840, and died at Duncan, Oklahoma, in 1911. Both before and after the Civil war he studied medicine at the Eclectic Medical Institute of Cincinnati, and was in practice for many years in the State of Arkansas. In 1889 he became the pioneer physician at Duncan in the Indian Territory, and lived there and practiced until his death. He was a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church and the Masonic fraternity. His wife, a native of Arkansas, is still living at Dun- can. Some mention should be made of their ten chil- dren. Minnie, the oldest, is the wife of T. J. Smith, who is in the lumber and timber business at Gautemala City in Gautemala; Jesse Lawrence is a graduate of the Memphis Hospital Medical College and a practicing phy- sician at Salina, Oklahoma; Susie May married W. F. Angel, in the insurance business at Collinsville, Okla- homa; Dr. James O. is the fourth in age; John Thomas is a graduate of the Bennett Medical College at Chi- cago and a physician and surgeon at Ketchum, Okla-

homa; Cloyd W. is bookkeeper for the Caddo Cotton Oil Company at Caddo, Oklahoma; Alonzo is clerk of the postoffice at Duncan; Bettie, a twin sister of Alonzo, married Guy C. Short, a member of the Duucan Hard- ware Company; Annie is the wife of Carl Frymire, a jeweler at Fort Sumner, New Mexico; Sydney Phillip is connected with the drug business at El Reno, Okla- homa.

James O. Wharton has lived at Duncan the greater part of his life since he was ten years of age. Follow- ing his graduation from the Duncan High School with the class of 1899 he became a farmer, and was engaged in looking after a herd of cattle seven miles southeast of Duncan until 1901. His ambition was for a profes- sion, and he followed in the footsteps of his father in his choice. In 1903-04 he attended the Memphis Hospital Medical College, and spent the years 1905-06 in the Physio-Medical College at Dallas, Texas, where he was graduated in the class of 1906 with the degree M. D. He began practice at Duncan but during the years 1907-08-09 was located at Chickasha, with which excep- tion his practice has been confined to the Duncan com- munity. His offices are in the City Drug Store Building on Main street. Besides the large private practice which has come to him he has served for the past five years as city physician of Duncan, and for the past four years has been a member of the State Board of Medical Examiners. He is a member of the County and State Medical Societies and the American Medical Association, and has served as secretary and treasurer of the State Association of Physio-Medical Physicians and Surgeons in Oklahoma.

Dr. Wharton is a republican in politics, and a member of the Presbyterian Church. In Mistletoe Lodge No. 17 of the Knights of Pythias in Duncan he is a past chan- cellor and is now. serving as chancellor, and other fraternal relations are with Duncan Camp No. 515, Woodmen of the World, with Grove No. 33 of the Wood- men Circle, with the Modern Order of Pratorians, and he is also active in the Duncan Chamber of Commerce.

As Chickasha, Oklahoma, in 1908, Dr. Wharton married Miss Oma Guthridge, whose father, Reuben Guthridge, is a farmer at Cement, Oklahoma. Dr. and Mrs. Wharton have one daughter, Winifred Jewell, who was born December 18, 1913.

EDWARD BRYANT JOHNSON. In the old Chickasaw Indian country of Oklahoma no family has figured more conspicuously since the removal of the Indians to the west of the Mississippi than that of Johnson, promi- nently represented by Edward Bryant Johnson, now a resident of Norman. Mr. Johnson in his career as a cattleman and banker has become widely known and is now vice president of the First National Bank of Chick- asha and for a number of years has been president of the First National Bank of Norman. He was in the Indian Nation when its property and civil regulations were prescribed by tribal government, and though at times the laws of the nation seemed very rigorous, it can be said of him that he always lived up to and helped to enforce the rules and laws, and in business and in all other affairs his career has reflected honor upon his name and he has done much to work out the proper destiny of this section of Oklahoma.

The birth of Edward Bryant Johnson occurred October 1, 1863, near old Fort Arbuckle, on Caddo Creek, in the Chickasaw Nation. His father was Montford Thomas Johnson, who was also born in Indian Territory, at Boggy Depot, which became one of the first distributing points of the Chickasaw tribe after they came to Indian Territorv. The Johnson family was founded in Okla-

HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA

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homa by Charles Johnson, grandfather of Edward B. He was born, reared and educated in England, became an attorney by profession, and some time after coming to America was appointed special agent to assist in settling up the affairs of the Chickasaws in the State of Missis- sippi. After removing to Indian Territory he was ap- pointed the first agent for this tribe. To him was at- tached the name "Boggy," and as Boggy Johnson he figured conspicuously in the early history of the Chicka- saws. That name is said to have been given him because of his assistance in helping the Indians out of a bog during their removal to the West, and the old town already mentioned, Boggy Depot, was also named in his honor. By marriage he was a member of the Chickasaw tribe, and throughout his career enjoyed their complete confidence, having been selected as a delegate to Wash- ington to care for their interests and securing rulings from the department of benefit to the Indians. He finally removed to New York City, and as a democrat was an active figure in political affairs in that city, and also had extensive interests in an importing firm. He died when nearly eighty years of age. Charles Johnson first married Rebecca Tarntubby, who was born in Mississippi, being a half-breed Chickasaw. To this union were born two children: Montford T., father of Mr. E. B. John- son; and Adelaide, who is the wife of Mr. J. H. Bond, of Minco, Oklahoma. About three years after the death of his first wife, Rebecca, he married Rose Blackmon, of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and they both died in the same year.

A paragraph should also be devoted to Montford T. Johnson, who in his time stood among the leaders as, a business man and citizen in the old Chickasaw Nation. He completed his education in the Robinson Male Acad- emy near Tishomingo, took up the stock business, con- ducted a ranch on Caddo Creek until 1869, then estab- lished a ranch on Walnut Creek near what is now known as Purcell. He moved his family and located on the South Canadian River and here a village grew and was named in his honor Johnsonville, on the first old Chisolm cattle trail. In that locality he carried on a store until 1878, and then moved to the western border of the Chickasaw Nation, buying the Caddo Bill Williams resi- dence and ranch at Old Silver City, again locating on the Second Old Chisolm Cattle Trail. His operations there included both merchandising and cattle raising. His wife died there in 1880. In 1881-82 he spent some time in New York with his son, Ed B., and his father. Iu 1883 he married the second time and settled five miles west of Silver City, where he owned what was regarded as the best farm and the finest home in all Indian Territory. He was prominent in financial affairs, assisted in organizing the bank at Minco, of which he was vice president until his death. Montford T. John- son was only fifty-two years of age when he passed away in 1896. He was a Methodist, a member of the Masonic order, and during the war had served with the Chickasaw Battalion in the Confederate army, being on the staff of his brother-in-law, Maj. Michael Campbell. Montford T. Johnson's first wife was Mary Elizabeth Campbell, who was born in Texas, daughter of Maj. Charles Campbell, a native of Ireland and of Scotch- Irish descent, who gained distinction as an officer in the United States army. Major Campbell at one time had command of a frontier post in Texas, subsequently com- manded at Fort Arbuckle, and also was stationed at a fort in Alabama. He died in Alabama after resigning his office in the army. Major Campbell married Miss Bryant, who was also of Scotch-Irish descent. At her death in 1880 Mary Elizabeth Johnson was survived by seven children, five sons and two daughters. The sons were: Edward B., Henry B., Robert M., Tilford T. and

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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