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 44

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 44

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Benjamin F. The daughters were Stella and Frances, but both daughters are dead. Montford T. Johnson's second wife was Adelaide B. Campbell, daughter of C. L. Campbell and a niece of his first wife. To this union were born five children: Gettye, Ira M., James W., Charles B. and Vivian.

The early life of Edward Bryant Johnson was spent in the different localities where his father had his busi- ness and ranching interests, living at Johnsonville until 1878. He attended the local schools, an academy in Indian Territory, was a student at Cane Hill College in Arkansas, and completed the junior year at the Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute of New York, where he pursued a course in civil engineering. However, his life has been identified primarily with the live stock and business interests of Indian Territory and Oklahoma. In 1884 he took charge of his father's business as a merchant and cattle raiser, bought out the store the following year, and for a time conducted his father's cattle interests for a, per cent of the increase. Having sold his store in 1890 he became interested in the bank at Minco, and his resources as a capitalist have entered into a number of the leading financial and industrial concerns in that sec- tion of the state. In 1886 Mr. Johnson established his ranch on Pond Creek, three miles from the South Cana- dian River, and his improvements made that one of the best stock ranches in Southwestern Oklahoma. He lived there until 1899, when he moved his family to Norman to educate his children. He still operates his ranch in the old Chickasaw Nation and has large investments in the cattle business in the Panhandle of Texas. His oper- ations as a livestock man were so extensive as to justify his title as a cattle king. He formerly shipped as high as 4,000 steers in one season, and usually kept about 10,000 head on his ranch. He also did much to raise the standards of the general stock industry, and it is said that his father was the first to introduce full- blooded Shorthorn cattle into Indian Territory. For a number of years Mr. Johnson made a specialty of the breeding of Poland-China hogs and the Hereford and Durham cattle.

At Norman, where he has made his home for the past fifteen years, Mr. Johnson owns a beautiful home, a large amount of land, and has brought all his property under improvement and has built a number of substantial brick buildings in Norman. His other business interests include holdings in banks at Minco, at Norman, at Chickasha, and in various local industries. He was one of the prime movers to cause the treacherous Canadian River to be bridged, spending much of his time and capital to accomplish it, and which stands as a monu- ment to the men who built it. He was married at John- sonville in old Indian Territory, to Miss Mollie E. Gra- ham. Mrs. Johnson was born near Chillicothe, Missouri, the fourth in a family of six children of R. M. and Marillis (Froman) Graham. Her father was a native of Illinois and of Scotch-Irish desceut, conducted a mill at Chillicothe for a number of years, but in 1883 removed to the Caddo Reservation in Indian Territory, was engaged in farming and stockraising and finally took up the real estate business in Norman. Mrs. Johnson's mother was born in Danville, Illinois. To Mr. and Mrs. Johnson were born eight children: Veta, Ina, Neil Robert, Montford T., Belton Graham, Froma, Arline and Edward B., Jr.

Mr. Johnson has shared the views of the dominant party in Oklahoma, but his public service has been mainly in behalf of the Chickasaw people. The Interior Depart- ment and the Chickasaw tribe appointed him at differ- ent times to committees for settling the affairs of the Chickasaws. He was selected by them to divide up their land and was a member of a land appraisement commis-

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sion for valuing the lands of that tribe preparatory to allotment. He was also a member of a finance commit- tee for settling differences and accounts between the Choctaws and Chickasaws. During 1887-88 he served as a member of the Chickasaw Legislature, being appointed to the finance, school and other committees in the Legislature, and at different times represented the Chickasaws before the National Congress. Mr. Johnson is a member of the Texas Cattle Raisers Association. He also belongs to the Oklahoma City Lodge of Elks and is an Odd Fellow and a W. O. W. in good standing. He took his first degrees in Masonry in New York City, and is affiliated with Norman Lodge No. 5, A. F. & A. M., and Lion Chapter No. 46, R. A. M., at Norman, and Oklahoma Commandery No. 2, Knights Templars, Oklahoma City; Guthrie Consistory of the Scottish Rite and India Temple of the Mystic Shrine at Oklahoma City. He and his wife are members of the Eastern Star chapter. He and his family are members and active workers in the First Christian Church at Norman.

WILLIAM T. HUTCHINGS. The law is known as a stern mistress, demanding of her followers constant and unre- mitting attention, and leading them through many mazes and intricacies before granting them success at her hands. This incessant devotion frequently precludes the idea of the successful lawyer indulging in activities outside of the straight path of his profession, especially if his vocational duties are of a large and important character. There are men, however, who find the time and the incli- nation to devote to outside interests, and who, by the very reason of their ability in the law, are peculiarly and particularly fitted to perform capable service therein. William T. Hutchings, of Muskogee, has been known in that city for a quarter of a century as a close devotee of the law. A master of its perplexities and complexities, his activities have been directed incessantly to the de- mands of his calling. Yet he has found the leisure to discharge in a highly efficient manner the duties dictated by a high ideal of citizenship, and he is therefore prob- ably as well known as a publie spirited factor in civic affairs as he is as a thorough, learned and profound legist.

William T. Hutchings was born on his father's plan- tation in Pittsylvania County, Virginia, September 6, 1858, a son of Dr. John M. and Sallie Anne (White) Hutchings, natives of the Old Dominion and both mem- bers of "first families" of Virginia. The ancestors of both the Hutchings and White families came to America from England during Colonial days, and members of both assisted in the winning of American independence. Dr. John M. Hutchings was a physician and planter, and both in his profession and his pastoral pursuits gained more than an ordinary success.

William T. Hutchings was twelve years of age when his parents settled at Danville, Virginia, and there he grew to manhood. His early education was received under the instruction of a private tutor, and he was then sent to the Bingham School, in North Carolina, where he was prepared for college. He matriculated in Richmond College, Richmond, Virginia, and was gradu- ated therefrom in 1878. Predilection led him to the law, and after studying in a lawyer's office at Danville, and there gaining a practical knowledge of the law and its practice, and in fact laying the foundation of his subsequent success, he was admitted to the Virginia bar in 1880. In order to better equip himself for the profession, he next entered Yale College, where he was graduated with his degree in 1881. Mr. Hutchings began his pro- fessional career at Danville and made rapid progress. In 1886 he was made index clerk in the House of Represen-

tatives, at Washington, a position which he held for two years and then resigned because of the death of his father, an event which necessitated his return to Dan- ville to settle up the estate. In the fall of 1888 he re- moved to Fort Smith, Arkansas, and in the following fall came to Muskogee, then in the Indian Territory, where the young attorney soon attracted the best kind of busi- ness that can come to a lawyer. He has continued to make this city his place of residence. and field of profes- sional endeavor, and during his more than twenty-five years here has come to be numbered among the most prominent and influential members of his profession. He has been active in promoting the growth and development of the interests of Muskogee and has served as a council- man and as city attorney. While he is a democrat and well known among the leaders of his party in the state, he is not a politician in the generally accepted meaning of the word, but rather a good citizen to whom public service means a duty. In the law, Mr. Hutchings has been the preceptor of several young men who have since made their mark in their calling, as well as in politics. Fraternally, Mr. Hutchings is a prominent Mason, being a Knight Templar, a member of the Mystic Shrine and past commander of his commandery; and is also a Pythian Knight and a member of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. In fraternal circles, as well as in profes- sional and public life, he has numerous admiring friends. Reared in the faith of the Baptist Church, on coming to Muskogee Mr. Hutchings identified himself with that denomination here, and for many years has taken a prominent part in movements which have made for moral and spiritual advancement.

Mr. Hutchings was married, in 1885, to Miss Mary E. Key, of Texas, and they have one daughter: Ellen Blair, who is the wife of C. A. Looney, a well known newspaper man and managing editor of the Muskogee Times- Democrat.

GEORGE F. LINDSAY. For nearly forty years Mr. Lind- say was prominently identified with the cotton industry, principally as a representative of the same in the great State of Texas, whence he came to Oklahoma City in 1898 to assist in the organization and establishing of a large cotton-compress company, of which he became vice president and manager two years later and from his active association with which he did not retire until he had attained to an age when the average man would consider such onerous duties and responsibilities beyond the limitations of his powers. He initiated his connection with the cotton industry in 1866 and did not sever his association with the same until 1902-a record with few parallels in this field of enterprise. Mr. Lindsay is now . secretary of the civil service commission of Oklahoma City and has been a valued member of this important body from the time of the adoption of the commission system of municipal government in the city, in 1911.

George Fry Lindsay was born in the City of Mobile, Alabama, on the Sth of September, 1849, and is a son of George Fry Lindsay and Ellen C. (Knox) Lindsay, the former of whom was born in the City of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and the latter in Sumter County, South Carolina. Mrs. Lindsay died in Oklahoma City, in July, 1902. Mr. Lindsay became one of the representative members of the bar of Alabama and served two years as judge of the Probate Court of Mobile County. He died in Alabama in March, 1850.

George F. Lindsay, of this review, acquired his early education in a private school at Selma, Dallas County, Alabama, and in the same county he completed a higher academic course in Stonewall Institute, an excellent insti- tution of the locality and period. While he was too young to be eligible for military service at the time of

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the Civil war, yet when General Wilson attacked Selma, in April, 1865, Mr. Lindsay, who was then a lad of fifteen years, shouldered his gun and joined the Con- federate forces that were engaged in defending the city. He thus served during the siege of the beleaguered city until he was captured and made prisoner by the Federal troops. His mother, then a widow, made earnest applica- tion to the Union commander, General Wilson, after the capitulation of the city, and on account of the youth of the loyal little defender the general consented to his returning to his devoted mother.

Upon attaining to years of maturity Mr. Lindsay became associated with the operation of a cotton ware- house in Selma, and within the eight years of his con- nection with the same he gained broad and exact knowledge, as he served in virtually every position to be filled in the cotton business. After severing his associa- tion with this warehouse he served eight years as cotton- weigher at Selma, and during this period also he was unremitting in his study of all details pertaining to the industry. During the last five years of his residence at Selma he owned and had the supervision of a cottou plantation of 500 acres, situated a short distance east of the city, and on this place he raised from 125 to 250 bales of cotton of his own each year.

In 1884 Mr. Lindsay removed to Belton, Bell County, Texas, where for eleven years he was manager of an extensive cotton-compress business, besides becoming lessee and finally owner of another compress, at Temple, in the same county. In 1890 he had the supervision of the erection of a compress at Hillsboro, that state, and in 1895 he removed from Belton to that place to assume the practical management of the same. While a resident of Belton he assisted in the organization of the company which erected and placed in operation the Belton Cotton Seed Oil Mill, and was a stockholder and secretary of the company controlling the same. During his last two years at Belton he fed more than 2,000 head of cattle as an adjunct enterprise. Mr. Lindsay continued his residence at Hillsboro, Texas, for two years after he had come to Oklahoma City, in 1898, to assist in the organ- ization of the large and important cotton-compress com- pany in this city, and after establishing his home here, in 1900, he continued as vice president and general manager of the company until 1902, when he sold his interest in the same and permanently retired from the business that had largely engrossed his attention from the days of his youth.

Thereafter Mr. Lindsay was engaged in the real estate business in Oklahoma City until the commission form of government was here adopted and he was soon afterward elected a member of the city civil service commission. His effective and loyal service led to his re-election for a term of six years, beginning in May, 1913, and the other members of this important municipal board place the highest valuation upon his services, owing to his scrupulous integrity of character and his mature judg- ment. He has served as vice chairman and chairman of the board. Mr. Lindsay is now chairman of the civil service commission of Oklahoma City. For several terms he was chairman of the Oklahoma Traffic Association and a member of the board of directors of the same for twelve years; was also a member of board of directors of the Chamber of Commerce for some time, and has always taken an active part in public affairs. He has never wavered in his allegiance to the democratic party and as a citizen is essentially progressive and public-spirited, with a vitality and zeal possessed by few men upon whose heads rest so many years.

At Selma, Alabama, on the 11th of June, 1873, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Lindsay to Miss Mary C. Corbin, daughter of John S. and Mary C. (Blackwell)

Corbin, both natives of Virginia and members of sterling old families of that historic commonwealth. Mr. and Mrs. Lindsay became the parents of four children, of whom three are living: Franklin was born April 16, 1874; Emma C. was born January 20, 1877; George Fry III, who was born September 20, 1878, died on the 20th of January, 1906; and Virginia C. was born October 23, 1880.

ARTHUR L. WALKER. As a Western Union messenger at Forth Worth, Texas, at the age of fifteen Arthur L. Walker began what has proved to be an exceptionally interesting career, during which he has achieved the distinction of becoming one of the leading business men and democratic politicians of Oklahoma. Nearly fifteen years ago he identified himself with the development of the newly opened territory in Southwestern Oklahoma, and in that section has employed his talents and business judgment in many of the most important undertakings in several towns, and still at an age when most men are at the outset of their productive careers he has achieved gratifying financial success. Mr. Walker is now a mer- chant, banker, publisher, and interested in other affairs at Waurika, and is secretary to the speaker of the House of Representatives of the Oklahoma Legislature, chair- man of the state election board and state conservation officer for the corporation commission of Oklahoma.

Arthur L. Walker was born December 16, 1879, on a ranch near Venus, Texas, a son of T. F. and Cornelia (Williams) Walker. His father, who was born near Palestine, Texas, was a railroad contractor, and superin- tended much railroad construction in the early days of the state, among other enterprises having had an im- portant part in the building of the Forth Worth & Denver City Railway into Wichita Falls during the early '80s. Now, at the age of seventy-one, he makes his home at Waurika and Forth Worth, Texas, living with his children. Mrs. Walker, the mother, was also a native of Texas, the daughter of an Alabama man whose chief business was sawmilling.

Arthur L. Walker's wide experience has been his educa- tion. As a school boy in Forth Worth and Waco he pursued his studies only to the fifth grade. At the age of fifteen he began making his own way as Western Union messenger in Forth Worth, later was a newsboy, and advancing in that work became state agent for the Kansas City Sunday Sun, establishing sub-agents over a large part of the state. Later he was a carrier for the Evening Telephone, a Waco daily paper, of which he subsequently became circulation and advertising manager. A printer's strike caused him to sever his connection with the paper, although he was not a union card holder, and he took charge of the circulation and advertising department of a new paper founded by the striking printers. This, it is a matter of interest to note, was the first penny paper published in Texas. His next employment was in the business office of the Waco Times- Herald, with which he was identified until 1901. Thus Mr. Walker came to Oklahoma with an experience and training that had brought him into contact with all sorts of men and conditions, and had developed his powers adequate to solve each successive problemi as it arose.

Mr. Walker was at the opening of the Kiowa and Comanche country in 1901, and was for some time located at Lawton, the metropolis of that district. There he became associated with L. T. Russell in the publication of the Lawton State Democrat, one of the first news- papers in the town. In 1902, with E. G. Etzold and Russell Monroe, he established the Botsford Tribune at a new town thirty miles south of Lawton. He also became associated with the townsite company engaged in promot-

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ing new towns along the line of the Rock Island Rail- road, then building south of Lawtou, and iu this way assisted in the establishment and organization of Temple, near Botsford. At the age of twenty-one he was the first mayor of Temple. The plant of the Tribune was moved to Temple and the paper has siuce been known as the Temple Tribune, Mr. Etzold remaining in charge. Mr. Walker assisted in the organization of the First State Bank of Temple, was its first president, but in 1905 removed to Waurika and organized the First State Bauk, of which institution he also became president. Later he and associates bought a ranch of 10,000 acres near the towu, and he still retains interests in that property. He has been secretary of the Waurika Cham- ber of Commerce and now a member of the executive committee, is a member of the city board of education, and chairman of the teachers' committee, is vice presi- dent of the News-Democrat Publishing Company of Waurika, also deals in real estate, aud has a large busi- ness as a hardware and implement dealer.

Mr. Walker was secretary of the State Federation of Commercial Clubs when that organization made the first effort to secure the repeal of an article of the constitu- tion forbidding the consolidation of railroad companies, and he was in active charge of the campaign. He was a member of the first Democratic Central Committee of Comanche County, and secretary of the first two demo- cratic county conventions. He was secretary of the Hobart convention of 1907 that nominated Scott Ferris of Lawton, for Congress. He was the first chairman of the Democratic Central Committee of Jefferson County after statehood, and has been chairman of all demo- cratie campaign committees except one in that county since Oklahoma became a state. Mr. Walker was a member of the state committee that raised funds in behalf of the national campaign of 1912 and sat in the Democratic State Convention of that year as a delegate pledged to the support of Woodrow Wilson. He was also chairman of the campaign committee in Jefferson Connty that brought about the removal of the county seat from Ryan to Waurika.

His most recent as well as his most notable achieve- ment in state politics was in 1914, as manager of the campaign of A. McCrory of his county for speaker of the House of Representatives. He was also a member of the committee choseu to take of the interests of Judge Williams, who in the same year was elected governor. The campaign of Mr. MeCrory was somewhat unique in politics owing to the fact that his election as speaker was brought abont without a single promise or pledge which would in any way trammel his independ- ence as the executive leader of the House. The hand of Mr. Walker was in this proceeding, and he must be given a large share of the credit for clearing the way for a successful administration by the present speaker. The result also established him among the leading young reform democrats of Oklahoma.

Mr. Walker was married in Duncan, Oklahoma, March 1, 1908, to Miss Prudence Morgan, who died in Omaha, Nebraska, the home of her parents, September 7, 1915. Her father, Clinton Morgan, has for years been with the firm of Clay-Robinson Commission Company of Omaha. Mrs. Walker was a prominent club and social worker of Waurika. She was one of the founders of the Waurika Publie Library, and treasurer since its establishment, and a member of its board of trustees. She was a mem- ber of the Eastern Star and the Royal Neighbors, serving through all chairs in each. They have no children. Mr. Walker has two brothers and a sister : Raymond Franklin and Edgar, both employed in the plant of the Swift Packing Company at Fort Worth,

the latter as a machinist; and Miss Ruby, who lives with her brother in Waurika. Mr. Walker is affiliated with Waurika Lodge of the Masous, with the Royal Arch Chapter of Lawton, with the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks at Lawton, and the Knights of Pythias Lodge at Waurika.

IlON. ADDISON C. BEEMAN. An expanse of woodlaud often takes its character from several conspicuous trees. When one of these giants is overthrown the entire forest seems desolate. The same is true of humanity. When death overwhelms one of its broad and massive charae- ters, an entire community, loses an important feature of its rugged outline and there is a widespread sense of grief as of a permanent loss.

All this and more were true of the late Senator Addi- son C. Beeman of Alfalfa County, who died suddenly at his home in Cherokee Thanksgiving morning November 25, 1915. His loss was felt the more keenly because he was still a young man, less than forty-six. He was born in Sharpville, Ohio, June 19, 1870. When, he was six years old his parents moved to Pennsylvania where he attended common schools, and in 1896 he graduated with honors from Valparaiso University in Indiana.

He was a very capable educator before he took up the law. After graduating from college and after his marriage he taught school for a uumber of years at Tassanong, Indiana, and for three years was principal of the city schools at Wheatfield, Indiana. He then removed to Oklahoma, was in the real estate and loan business at Carmen, and then lived at Alva, the county seat of old Woods County, where he was under-sheriff until statehood.

Senator Beeman became one of the pioneers of Alfalfa County, locating there on November 16, 1907, the date of Oklahoma 's admission to the Union. In the meantime he had studied law, was admitted to the bar, and began practice at Cherokee. As a lawyer he was remarkably successful, and his success has further distinction because he did not take up the law until comparatively late in years, being past thirty when he was admitted to the bar. It is said that at the time of his death he enjoyed the largest practice of any attorney in Cherokee. His diligent application to his work, the absolute confidence clients imposed 'in his integrity and devotion to their interests, won him a recognition and standing such as few attorneys could expect to enjoy anywhere. The esteem of his colleagues in the law was well expressed in resolutions by the Alfalfa County Bar Association. A few sentences from these resolutions should be quoted: "The bar of which he was a member here had learned to honor and to love him. He typified to a rare degree that ultimatum of industry and integrity toward which we know it to be the duty of every right-thinking lawyer to strive. We feel that his life as a citizen and a lawyer exemplified that enlightened morality which is the essence of that spirit of Divine Justice with which the best of our profession strive to vivify and inspire all laws. The tenderness of his nature wove into the sterner woof of statute and decision the golden web of sym- pathy which tempered justice with mercy. In our daily struggle to combine loyalty to client with obedience to law and reverence for right, his example of unswerving rectitude has always made the path of duty less hard and less lonely."'

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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