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 45

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 45

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At the time of his death Senator Beeman was serving his first term as a member of the Oklahoma Senate. He was elected by a large majority to that office in the fall of 1914. So well and favorably was he known over his district that he was elected with practically little effort

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in campaigning on his part, either in the primaries or in the general election. He was also the Alfalfa County member of the Republican State Central Committee.

He was a man of many interests and sympathies. About four years before his death he and his family joined the Friends Church at Cherokee, and he served his church as chairman of the Finance Committee and for over two years as teacher of the Men's Bible Class. His loyalty to church work was indicated by the fact that only a few days before his death, though suffering from illness, he was found at his regular place in the Sunday School room. He was also a member of the Masonic Order, the Brotherhood of American Yeomen at Cherokee, The Knights of Pythias and the Modern Woodmen of America at Carmen.

Mr. Beeman was the oldest of ten children, and his was the first death in the family circle. His aged father, a minister of the Baptist Church, is still living. On July 23, 1896, Senator Beeman married Miss Hulda Davidson, who had been a fellow student with him in Valparaiso University in Indiana, and they were married a few weeks after he graduated from that school. To their marriage were born two children: Virgil and Maecil Beeman, both of whom are still living.

As an appropriate conclusion to this brief review of Senator Beeman's activities and influence there should be quoted a few editorial paragraphs from the news- paper of his home community :

"In the death of Senator A. C. Beeman Alfalfa County sustained the loss of one of her very best citi- zens-a man whose place in the public estimation it will be difficult to fill. There was not a better man from the standpoint of usefulness in all Alfalfa County than Senator Beeman. He was highly respected even by those with whom he had legal and political difficulties. He was universally honored and trusted by every one who knew him. His very name was a synonym for honesty and squareness and in the days that he was a useful member of Alfalfa County life he established a reputa- tion that few men build in the community is which they live.

"As a citizen Ad Beeman was always to be found on the right side of every proposition. Whatever was best for his community and his neighbors was his creed. To better humanity was to better himself, was the theory on which his life practices were founded. A loyal and patriotic citizen, a cheerful and desirable neighbor, and a devoted and attentive head of a family, he stood for everything that builds the moral, civil and religious life of a community. As a citizen of the county he took the view that it was the best county in Oklahoma, as a citizen of Cherokee he adhered vigorously to the theory that it was the best town on earth, and an entire citizenship of men like Beeman would make it so. Rigidly industrious and perhaps giving more attention to his business than any man in Cherokee, yet he could always find time to do something for the good of the town.

" As an attorney, the leader of the local bar, he was all that a lawyer should be and nothing that one should not be. With as high a regard for the ethics of his profession as any man ever admitted to the bar, Mr. Beeman put the beautiful theories of law into the prac- tical application. His large business came almost entirely from the fact that men had absolute confidence in what he told them and that he was more likely to honestly advise a man out of a law suit than try to advise him into one. So few lawyers of today have this virtue that it was singular in Senator Beeman. No set of people will miss him so much as those who entrusted him with their business affairs. The splendid reputation he built for himself is a model that any young lawyer can well afford to follow.

"As a public officer Senator Beeman was faithful to every trust the same as he was in the private business that was given him for his attention. He regarded his duties as a member of the State Senate very much as he regarded the interests of his clients. Although he had served but one term in that body every fellow member learned to respect and honor him.

"The loss of no man in this community could have caused more of a shock or a deeper sorrow than the untimely death of Senator Beeman. To his family, richer than any worldly goods, he left a name of which they will always be proud, a memory which they can always honor and a record of having been a real man."

BUCKMAN B. FOSTER. Like numerous of his fellow practitioners at the Oklahoma bar, Buckman B. Foster is a native of Illinois and a product of the farmn. Pre- vious to entering the practice of law, he was in his early manhood engaged in different lines of business, and since he has engaged in practice he has resided in different localities, thus securing experience and training that has proven of much value to him. Since 1907, however, he has lived at Bartlesville, Washington County, and has con- fined his activities to the duties of his profession, in which he has attained a high reputation and an excellent business.

B. B. Foster was born on a farm in Sangamon County, near the City of Springfield, capital of Illinois, May 25, 1865, and is a son of Jacob and Roxanna (Bates) Foster, and of a family of English and German descent. His father was born at Cape May, Cape May County, New Jersey, in 1829, and his mother at Potsdam, Lawrence County, New York, in 1832. Both were children when taken to Illinois by their parents, the two families settling in Sangamon County, where the children were reared and educated, and where they resided for many years after their marriage, being engaged in agricul- tural pursuits. About the year 1885 they removed to Iowa, where the father died in 1902, at Pocahontas, and the mother died in 1897, at Manson, Iowa. They were the parents of four sons and three daughters, of whom three sons and one daughter now survive: Charlie F., who is a retired real estate dealer at Bartlesville, Okla- homa; Oliver C., engaged in merchandising at Correction- ville, Iowa; Ella C., who married Dr. W. W. Crane and died at Jacksonville, Illinois, in 1913; Eugene E., who died at Moberly, Missouri, in 1907, leaving a widow and children who now reside at Bartlesville; B. B., of this review; Katherine, who married J. G. Hillbury, a resident of Alberta, Canada; and Mae, who died in in- fancy.

B. B. Foster received his early education in the public schools of Illinois, and resided on his father's farm in Sangamon County until he was eighteen years of age, at which time he moved with his parents to Moberly, Missouri, there securing employment with the Wabash Railroad. When his parents went to Northwest Iowa he accompanied them there, and for a time assisted his father in the conduct of a furniture business, but finally turned his attention to the law, for which he had always had a predilection, and went to Council Bluffs, where he studied in the office of Finley Burke, a prominent attorney who is now deceased. After two years thus spent, Mr. Foster was admitted to the bar before the Supreme Court of Iowa, in 1889, and at once began the practice of his profession at Council Bluffs, but soon removed to Onawa, Iowa, and then to Manson, Calhoun County. While re- siding at Manson, he served one term, 1897-8, as county attorney of Calhoun County, and then went to Pocahontas County, Iowa, and for about nine years was engaged in practice there. Mr. Foster came to Bartlesville, Okla- homa, September 9, 1907, and since that time has main-

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tained his office here, having built up a large and lucra- tive clientele. He has had charge of a number of im- portant litigated interests, his success in which has given lıim a high standing among his fellow-practitioners. He belongs to the Washington County Bar Association, the Oklahoma State Bar Association and various other or- ganizations of his calling, and to the Masonic and other fraternal orders. An enthusiastic booster of the interests . of Bartlesville, he is a member of the Chamber of Com- merce, and has been connected with other stirring and public-spirited citizens in the promotion of movements for the public welfare. In political matters he is a repub- lican, but has not been a seeker for personal prefer- ment. His religious connection is with the Presbyterian Church.

Mr. Foster was married in 1897 to Miss Ella D. Graves, a native of Ackley, Iowa, and a daughter of Prof. G. A. Graves, the head of an academy at Iowa City which was a preparatory institution for the University of Iowa. On her father's side, Mrs. Foster traces her ancestry back to John and Priscilla Alden, and on the maternal side to John Quincy Adams. Two children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Foster, namely: Laura Munson, born April 20, 1899; and Galen Allen, born December 29, 1904.

JUDGE D. A. MCDOUGAL. For the past twelve years Judge MeDougal has been not only oue of the leading lawyers of the City of Sapulpa, but has been oue of the live and pushing citizens who have brought that town into prominence as an important commercial center in Eastern Oklahoma. He is now senior member of the firm of MeDougal, Lytle & Allen, lawyers in Sapulpa, but has many interests by which he is identified with this great new state.

Of a Tennessee family, he was born at Wayland Springs in that state, January 14, 1865, a son of Dr. J. F. and Mary Davis (Carmack) MeDougal. His father was born in Alabama and his mother in Mississippi. Doctor McDougal was reared in Tennessee, and spent most of his active career there, where he practiced medi- cine for a great many years. The mother died in that state in September, 1880. She was born in 1822. Doctor McDougal was born July 16, 1820, aud died in 1905, being buried on his eighty-fifth birthday.

The youngest in a large family of thirteen children, Judge MeDougal grew up in the Town of Savannah, Tennessee, to which place the family removed in 1871. With the exception of one year spent in the Vanderbilt University at Nashville, he acquired his education at Savannah, first in the public schools and later became a student of law. He was admitted to the bar in 1886, and for eleven years practiced at Selmer, Tennessee. Re- turning to Savannah in 1896 he remained there in the en- joyment of a large and profitable clientage until 1903, in which year he became a permanent resident of Sapulpa. At that time Sapulpa had a population of only 2,500, and was a town of possibilities rather than actualities. While building up a practice as a lawyer, Judge MeDougal has kept himself constantly alert in behalf of the general advantages and advancement of his home city. His ad- ministration as mayor of Sapulpa from May, 1909, to October, 1910, is well remembered and stands to his credit. While mayor he took an active part in the campaign to secure a commission form of government and thus served as the last mayor under the old regime. He is well known in the democratic party in Eastern Oklahoma and served as a presidential elector in 1908. For several years he was president of the Sapulpa Commercial Club, and while in that office, and always as a member, has done much to secure new factories for the town. Judge McDougal has some interest in Oklahoma oil fields, and derives some revenues from royalties.

He is a trustee of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, is a member of the Masonic Order and the Knights of Pythias, and belongs to the County, State and Ameri- can Bar associations. He is one of the three Oklahoma members on the commission on Uniform State Laws.

On February 12, 1888, Judge McDougal married Miss Myrtle Archer, of Baldwin, Mississippi. Judge Mc- Dougal is properly proud of his three daughters. Myrtle A., the oldest, is now the wife of Hugh J. MacKay, and both are graduates of the School of Journalism at Columbia, Missouri, and still live there, where Mr. MacKay is manager for the University of Missouri Pub- lications. Mary Carmack, the second daughter, is now at home, having graduated from the North Texas Female College at Sherman, while she and her younger sister were also students in the Oklahoma University at Nor- man. Violet A., the youngest, is now a student in the University of Missouri.

Mrs. McDougal has been one of the active leaders ju women's movements in Oklahoma, and was formerly president of the Indian Territory Federation of Women's Clubs, and also served as president of the Oklahoma State Federation of Clubs from November, 1911, to November, 1913. Though Judge McDougal did not become a resi- dent of Oklahoma until 1903, he was a participant in some of the earlier land openings here. In 1893 he was at the opening of the Cherokee Strip, and slept on the bare ground at Perry on the night after the opening. In 1901 he was also at the Kiowa and Comanche opening.

HON. ROBERT A. KELLER. A lawyer by profession, with residence at Marietta in Love County, Robert A. Keller entered the Oklahoma Senate from the Eighteenth Senatorial District after his election in 1914. Senator Keller has spent all his active career in the Southwest, as a young man was a Texas cowboy, was admitted to the bar in that state about twenty years ago, has been a resident of Oklahoma more than ten years, and his official record also contains service as county judge.

Robert A. Keller was born in Knox County, Tennessee, July 11, 1872, a son of William S. and Ann (Matlock) Keller. Senator Keller has a brother, A. L. Keller, who is in the office of the State Fire Insurance Commissioner at Austin, Texas, another, C. F. Keller, a resident of Knoxville, Tennessee, and associated with the Knoxville Coffin Company, two sisters Mrs. Margaret Daniels, of Los Angeles, California, and Mrs. Mary Cotten of Gainesville, Texas. Senator Keller's father was a Confederate soldier, and had the distinction of being one of the youngest participants in the battle of Chickamauga, where he fought when only sixteen years of age. He was in Company F of the Second Tennessee Cavalry, and during much of the war was under that intrepid leader General Joe Wheeler. William S. Keller is now a resideut of Knoxville, Tennessee. His wife was the daughter of Col. A. Matlock, who was in the quartermaster 's depart- ment in the Confederate Army in Tennessee. Senator Keller is a descendant of Casper Keller, who lived in Hagerstown, Maryland, and who received a land grant in Maryland from Charles II after coming to this country from Switzerland. One of Casper Keller's sons married a daughter of Governor Spotswood of Virginia, while another daughter married the gallant Richard Henry Lee of Revolutionary fame. Helen Keller, the noted blind girl who has achieved international reputation through her remarkable talents and accomplishments, is a second cousin of Senator Keller, being a daughter of his grand- father's brother.

Senator Keller attended the public schools of Tennes- see until ten years of age, when his parents removed to Montague County, Texas, where he grew to manhood. Montague County was at that time on the great border

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of the cattle range, with somewhat limited school facil- ities, but he had such advantages as were offered by the common schools there until fifteen. He subsequently took a shorthand and typewriting course in the Gaines- ville Business College at Gainesville. From 1889 to 1892 he spent as a cowboy and rancher on the plains of West Texas. Senator Keller studied law at home, and was admitted to the Texas bar in 1895.

In 1904 he removed to Marietta, Oklahoma, and has since been one of the active citizens of Love Connty. In 1909 he was appointed county judge of Love County, and the following year was elected to that office and served with admirable efficiency until 1912. In 1914 Mr. Keller was elected a member of the State Senate from the Eighteenth District. During his first term in the Senate he was chairman of the committee on insurance and a member of the committees on legal advisory, judiciary No. 2, fees and salaries, public buildings, school lands, and prohibition enforcement. He has been primarily interested in such constructive legislation as would carry ont the expressed program and desires of the democratic party, with which he affiliates, so as to make the party a" balance between the two extremes of socialism and stand- patism.

Senator Keller was married March 8, 1898, to Lillian Davis, daughter of Capt. J. H. Davis, who was a soldier in the Confederate army with a North Carolina regiment. Mr. and Mrs. Keller were married at Bowie, Texas, where Mrs. Keller for some years had been a popular and successful teacher. Into their home have come three children: Helen, aged fifteen; James, aged four- teen; and Robert, aged nine. Senator Keller is a past master of the Masonic lodge at Marietta and a past high priest of the Royal Arch Chapter. He is past chancellor in the Knights of Pythias Lodge No. 137 at Marietta, and is a grand trustee of the Knights of Pyth- ias Grand Lodge of Oklahoma and a past grand tribune of the Grand Lodge. He is a steward in the Methodist Episcopal Church South at Marietta.

JEROME ROBERT GAMBLE. Though now well estab- lished in business as a real estate and loan broker at Alva, Mr. Gamble is best known over Northwestern Oklahoma as a printer and newspaper man, and thongh by no means old in poiut of years is a veteran of the printing craft, which he began to learn when a boy of abont twelve years. Before taking up his present line of business he was connected with the Alva Pioneer as one of its editors and proprietors.

Jerome Robert Gamble was born November 30, 1874, at Lancaster, Missouri, a son of Jerome Bonaparte and Mary B. (Frank) Gamble. His father, who was born near Nashville, Tennessee, in 1847, was the son of a farmer, who came to Missouri at an early day, and early in life the son left the farm and began the study of law. From the age of seventeen he had taught school, and at the age of twenty four was admitted to the bar at Lancaster, Missouri. Though his early life was one of considerable hardship and out of sheer necessity he had educated himself, he became a prominent lawyer and for twenty years practiced at Lancaster, Missouri. He also took an active part in democratic politics, and for a number of years was county attorney of Schuyler Connty. In 1888 he removed to Manhattan, Kansas, practiced there two years, and was then located at Wallace, Kansas, nine years. In 1900 he brought his family to Alva, Oklahoma, and was one of the members of the Woods Connty bar until his death in 1905. Jerome B. Gamble was married at Lancaster, Missouri, in 1868, to Mary B. Frank, a danghter of Sanford Frank, and she was born in 1853. There were eight children in the family. Alma Matilda is now the wife

of Benjamin Johnson of Fredonia, Kansas; the next two were twins, a son and daughter, who died in infancy; Jerome Robert; Myrtle Mary, widow of B. M. Spauld- ing, living at El Campo, Texas; Nellie Helen, wife of Elmer Pngh, of El Reno, Oklahoma; Sarah Jane, wife of Lewis Gascho, of El Campo, Texas; and Carrie Etta, wife of C. J. Snoddy, a farmer in Woods County, Okla- homa.

Jerome R. Gamble finished his education in the public schools of Manhattan and Wallace, Kansas. Prior to that time, at the age of twelve, and following an entlinsiasm which has led a great many boys into the printing and newspaper business, he found opportunities to learn the printing trade in an office at Lancaster, Missouri. He finished his apprenticeship at Sharon Springs, Kansas, and at the age of twenty bought the office of the People's Voice at Sharon Springs, and was editor and owner of that small journal two years. When he sold ont he returned to the case as a practical printer, and worked at different points in Kansas and Oklahoma until 1910. He then secured an interest in the daily and weekly Pioneer of Alva, and was one of its editors and proprietors four years, since which date he has been out of the newspaper business altogether and now has. a large clientage as a real estate and loan broker.

In politics Mr. Gamble is a democrat, and for two years served on the state committee from Woods County. He is one of the veterans of the Spanish-American war. Early in that period of hostilities in 1898 he enlisted as a private in Company L of the Second United States Volunteer Infantry, a regiment that was of the "Rough Rider" class and was recruited from the territories of Oklahoma, Arizona, New Mexico and Indian Territory.

On January 1, 1902, at Alva Mr. Gamble married Miss Evangeline Matilda Lloyd, daughter of the Rev. Dr. Thomas Lloyd, a sketch of whom appears in following paragraphs. Mrs. Gamble was born February 28, 1875. To their marriage were born four children: Robert Jerome, who died in infancy; Daisy Marie; Robert Jerome; and Thomas Frederick, boru August 20, 1914. Mr. Gamble and family are members of the Episcopal Church.

REV. DR. THOMAS LLOYD, D. D. For a number of years Doctor Lloyd was in the active work of the Episcopal Church in old Indian and Oklahoma territories, but for the past five years has lived retired aud has his home at Alva. His has been a notable career of service and disinterested devotion to his high calling, and for that reason it should not pass without some mention and tribute in this publication.

Thomas Lloyd was born July 6, 1836, at Milford Haven, Wales, a son of Rev. Dr. John and Elizabeth (Evans) Lloyd. His father was a native of England, became an Episcopal clergyman at the age of twenty- three, spent his life in the ministry and died in England at the age of seventy-seven. He had eight children, fonr sons and fonr daughters, namely: David, William, John, Thomas, Matilda, Jessie, Jane and Anna, of whom the only survivor is Reverend Doctor Thomas.

Doctor Lloyd is also the only member of the family who came to America. He received his education in England and is a graduate of Caermarthen College, an Episcopal institution. The degree Doctor of Music was conferred npon him in 1877, and he was regularly ordained to the ministry in 1886. On coming to America he was first located in Canada, where he was a deacon in the Diocese of Quebec for ten years. Since then he has been located in the United States, and had charge of churches in various states. He came to Alva from Vinita, Indian Territory, in 1900, and was rector

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of the first Episcopal Church in Alva. He retired from the ministry in 1910, and is now a beneficiary. However, in 1914, he was partially recalled to public duty by election as a justice of the peace. In 1915 he had conferred upon him the degree of Doctor of Divinity by the College of Church Missions of Kansas City, Missouri, a branch of an English college.

On May 24, 1857, in Wales, he married Miss Marie Clay, daughter of Capt. William and Fannie E. (Griffith) Clay. Mrs. Lloyd was born in Wales July 4, 1838. To their marriage were born nine children, three sons and six daughters, as follows: Frederic E. J., who was born June 5, 1859, is now rector of an Episcopal Church in Chicago and served as a member of the Illinois Senate in 1913; John David, Thomas Henry, Gertrude Mary, Isabelle Clay, Edith Fannie Elizabeth, all of whom are deceased; Evangeline Matilda, wife of Robert Gamble, of Alva, Oklahoma; and Monica Daisy, wife of Rev. D. C. Lees, rector of the Episcopal Church at Enid, and they have one child, Jane. Reverend Doctor Lloyd is a Scottish Rite Mason.

JUDGE WILLIAM HARRISON JACKSON. The careers of few individuals furnish more instructive and interesting commentary upon the history and life of that section of Oklahoma originally known as the Chickasaw Nation than that of Judge Jackson, a splendid type of the pioneer white man in the Indian country, and who is the recognized founder and developer of that beautiful resort and industrial town known as Bromide, where he has his attractive home, and is now engaged largely in looking after his real estate, mining and other extensive interests.

Until the adoption of an amendment to their constitu- tion that placed the government exclusively in the hands of men of Indian blood, the Chickasaw Indians prob- ably never conferred as many distinguished honors upon a person outside the tribe as upon Judge Jackson. And in view of the fact that no tribe of Indians in America ever had a more perfect system of government or con- ducted it with more regularity and regard for the inter- ests of their people, the honors Judge Jackson received differ materially from and are of far more interest than those given by any other nation of red men to their white citizens. He came among those Indians forty-five years ago, a stripling of eighteen, lured into the virgin West through association with a young Chickasaw who was liv- ing in Lebanon, Wilson County, Tennessee. The place of Judge Jackson's birth was Ray County, Tennessee. The Chickasaws all but adopted him into the tribe, and after his marriage to a maiden of Indian blood, whose ante- cedents were the notable family of Maytubbys, he became as near one of the tribe as a white man could possibly be.

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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