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 46

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 46

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After coming into the Indian country forty-five years ago, Judge Jackson's first experience was as a cowboy on the old ranch of David A. Folsom on Blue River at Nail Crossing, a point of historic interest because of its being a station on the military stage coach line between Fort Smith, Arkansas, and El Paso, Texas. Judge Jaek- son's father was James Madison Jackson, a native of Virginia and a veteran of both the Mexican and Civil wars. His mother is now living in Tennessee at the age of eighty. Judge Jackson has a brother and a sister living: Andrew Perry Jackson, of Sycamore, Tennessee ; and Mrs. Katherine Shaw, wife of a physician at Ash- land, Tennessee. Judge Jackson acquired his early education as a pupil under Prof. J. E. Scoby, one of the best-known educators in Tennessee half a century ago.

At the age of twenty-three Judge Jackson was elected county judge of Pontotoc County, then one of the most progressive counties of the Chickasaw Nation. That position he held for two years, after which he served two

terms as a member of the Lower House of the Chickasaw Legislature. It was during the first of these terms that Capt. David L. Payne, Captain Couch and others of the type known as "Oklahoma boomers," by making expe- ditions into the western part of the territory, since Okla- homa, caused the Chickasaws much perturbation since these movements foretold the ultimate division of the country, the opening of Oklahoma Territory to white settlement, and eventually the creation of a state that would bring about the dissolution of the tribal govern- ment. Thus the session of which Judge Jackson was a member was marked with much Indian oratory in oppo- sition to any probable action by Congress that would bring about these results.

After his term in the legislature Judge Jackson was elected attorney general of the Chickasaw Nation. Dur- ing this period the question of citizenship was the most important that came before the nation's legal adviser. Hundreds of applications were filed, and they came from Mississippi and various other states to the east. Many of those who applied made the most absurd and ridicu- lous claims. Judge Jackson relates that some sent photographs accompanied by locks of hair that always were coal black, and never a blue eye was shown in a picture, whereas there are many persons of Indian blood who have blue eyes and light hair. And it is significant that no witness ever came in person to assist in establish- ing the professed right of a claimant. So varied were these claims and so preposterous some of them that Judge Jackson declined to consider them at all. He made an extended report to the Legislature regarding them, ask- ing that body to pass a law defining the grounds on which a claimant should be considered. The Legislature did so, and provided that each claimant should thereafter give the family and "house" name. As a result appli- cations became fewer, though the new law brought out many applications from persons claiming to be descend- ants from Pocahontas.

During his term as attorney general Judge B. W. Carter, father of Congressman Charles Carter of Ard- more, was district judge of the Chickasaw Nation. Judge Carter was one of the most advanced men of the nation in educational matters, and the Legislature requested that he resign to become the head of the National Academy at Tishomingo, the capital. Judge Carter replied that he would be pleased to accept the place if Judge Jackson were elected to succeed him on the bench. Carter resigned and Governor Guy appointed Jackson as his successor, and for two years Judge Jack- son was incumbent of that judicial position.

Though his early education in Tennessee had been somewhat limited, Judge Jackson all his life had been a student, many years ago gained admission to the bar of the Chickasaw Nation, and was considered one of the best educated men in his part of the territory. Having filled the various places above enumerated so satisfac- torily, the Indian people picked him for an educational post, and he was made superintendent of Rock Academy, afterwards known as Wapanucka Institute, in which a number of the state's most prominent men of Indian blood have been educated. The school during his admin- istration had sixty students, and was conducted at the expense of and under the supervision of the nation. Judge Jackson remained at its head five years, resign- ing to become superintendent of Collins Institute, a Chickasaw school for girls that was located near old Stonewall, now known as Frisco. Here forty girls were under his tuition, and he continued as superintendent there five years. Then came the disfranchisement act of the Legislature, excluding all intermarried citizens from official positions. Thereupon Judge Jackson took

Mr. H. Jackson

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charge of his ranch, located four miles west of the present Town of Bromide.

Important though his public service has been, Judge Jackson has probably contributed his greatest work through his share in the industrial development of the Chickasaw country. He became familiar with the min- eral resources of the nation, but for many years was unable to develop them because of an act of the Legis- lature that prohibited mineral development. This act was an expression of the Indian feeling that a source of sacredness resided in minerals, and that their develop- ment would fill the nation with white speculators who eventually would take possession of the land and thereby deprive the Indians of their freedom and incidentally of their hunting grounds and game. As is well known at the present time, the old Chickasaw country abounded in deposits of manganese, oolitic stone, glass sand, lime- stone and other minerals. At length through the influ- ence of Col. M. Lem Reynolds, a member of the Chick- asaw Senate and one of the most influential men of the nation, Judge Jackson persuaded the Legislature to pass a law permitting prospecting for coal. This was already being done in the Choctaw Nation, where large deposits of coal were found. Meantime, the manganese deposits were discovered in great quantities in the region of the bromide and sulphur springs about Wapanucka. Judge Jackson, Douglas H. Johnston, afterwards governor of the nation, Governor R. M. Harris and Richard MeLishi formed a company for the development of this mineral. They went before the Legislature, presented their char- ter, and procured the passage of an act giving them the right to prospect for all kinds of minerals.

It was eighteen years ago that manganese development was begun, and the first shipment of ore, consisting of 210 tons, was sent to the Illinois Steel Company, being hauled with ox teams to Lehigh, the nearest railroad station, a distance of twenty miles. Afterwards 800 tons were shipped from Wapanucka, a distance of nine miles from the mines, to the American Car Foundry Company at St. Louis. A few years later, Robert Gal- breath of Tulsa, one of the state's leading oil operators and capitalists, purchased a half interest in 150 acres of land containing manganese deposits, from Judge Jackson, and still later Galbreath contracted for the other half interest, Judge Jackson holding a one-third interest in the company that was formed. Mr. Galbreath has since been developing this property.

In the vicinity of the present Town of Bromide explorations were undertaken some years ago by B. A. Ludgate, a Canadian geologist, who was the first to ascertain the medicinal properties of the springs. About this time the Dawes Commission had begun its inquiry into the nature of the land and was preparing to set aside into a special class those of mineral value. These activities led to the establishment of Platt National Park at Sulphur, where mineral waters similar to those at Bromide were found. Judge Jackson, who had already done some development work and had the report of the geologist above named before him, covered up his springs and withheld from the commission and from the public the true nature of the waters. Some sus- picion was attached to his acts, however, and it required two years for him to get a patent to the land on which the springs are located. When the patent was finally obtained his activities were renewed, and eventually the Town of Bromide was established, and owing to its pic- turesque situation, the presence of the springs and the abundance of minerals in that section, it has become one of the leading health and pleasure resorts of the state.

The spirit of enterprise which has been exemplified by Judge Jackson is well illustrated in one of his earlier and less successful undertakings. In 1886 he built one

of the first mills operated by water power in the Chick- asaw Nation. At Viola he found a waterfall of fifty-two feet, and the overshot wheel which he installed was forty feet in diameter. This made the plant one of the largest in the Southwest, and the power was used for the opera- tion of a sawmill, a grist mill and a cotton gin. Though the plant cost $9,000, it was never successful, and Judge Jackson soon discovered that he was about twenty-five years ahead of the development of the country.

The history of the Bromide community might be entirely told in the record of Judge Jackson, but it will suffice to merely mention some of his more important activities in recent years. One of these was in procuring the construction of a branch of the Missouri, Oklahoma & Gulf Railroad to Bromide, a project that cost him personally $7,500. He was also instrumental in the open- ing of the extensive deposits of limestone near his home; the establishment of the oolitic stone plant, which turns out some of the finest building material found in the United States; the establishment of a rock crushing plant by the Missouri, Oklahoma & Gulf Company, which is furnishing ballast material for railroads and paving material to cities all over the Southwest; and the opening of high grade glass sand deposits near Bromide.

Many years ago during his activities as a cowboy along Blue River, Judge Jackson married Annie Donovan, who is of one-half Chickasaw blood. She is a niece of Peter Maytubby, one of the foremost men of the Chick- asaw Nation thirty or forty years ago. Mr. and Mrs. Jackson have four sons and three daughters: Mrs. H. H. Burris, wife of a prominent Indian citizen of Tisho- mingo; C. W. Jackson, a civil engineer now employed by the M. O. & G. Company at their rock crusher at Bromide; Thomas P. Jackson, who looks after his land interests at Bromide; William Byrd Jackson, engaged in the oil business at Thrall, Texas; Othello Jackson, a cattle dealer at Bromide; Mrs. J. C. Gunter, wife of a ranchman at Bromide; Mrs. Gerald Galbreath, wife of the manager of the Galbreath Hotel at Bromide; and Miss Zenobia Jackson, an invalid living at home with her parents.

As already stated, Judge Jackson now spends much of his time in looking after his real estate interests, and is president of the Jackson Land Company of Bromide. He is devoted to his home and his children, and every- where in that section of the Chickasaw country is known as the Grand Old Man of Bromide. He is a member of the Presbyterian Church, and has fraternal affiliations with the Masonic order, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Knights of Pythias and the Woodmen of the World. He was a delegate to the last territorial meeting of the Indian Territory A. F. & A. M., during which the domain was dissolved and united with that of Oklahoma Territory.

CHARLES E. TRUMBO. It is in the field of banking and finance that Charles E. Trumbo has chiefly distinguished himself, and he came to Oklahoma about thirteen years ago after a varied country aud metropolitan banking ex- perience in his native State of Missouri. Mr. Trumbo is now cashier of the Citizens' State Bank of Wagoner, but has been president and otherwise officially identified with the executive management of several other institutions in the eastern part of the state, and has interests which would also classify him as a farmer.

His birth occurred on a farm in Linn County, Missouri, May 24, 1870. His parents were Charles W. and Mary F. (Carter) Trumbo, the former a native of Kentucky and the latter of Missouri. Charles W. Trumbo, who was of fine old Kentucky stock, went to Missouri when quite young and though possessed of little money started out with an energetic spirit and worthy ambition to gain

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for himself and family the best possible advantages of life and at the same time do service to others. For a number of years he lived on a farm in Linn County, and while in the active work of that vocation was one of the most successful agriculturists in his part of the state. About 1888 he extended his interests to the banking busi- ness at Linneus, and for many years was president of the Farmers & Merchants Bank of that city, continuing the active head of the institution until about five years ago, when he retired. He has now reached the eighty-second milestone on a well directed life, and from small begin- nings has reached a success that makes him one of the wealthy men of Linn County. He reared a family of seven children, and their mother, a woman of many ex- cellences of heart and mind, died several years ago. Charles W. Trumbo in politics has always been a stanch democrat, and served with distinction in the Thirty-fifth General Assembly of Missouri and has held several local offices. He has shown the example of high character to his children, and in addition gave them splendid educa- tional advantages and other opportunities for successful beginnings.

The first eighteen years of his life Charles E. Trumbo spent on his father's farm near Linneus, and acquired his early education from the district schools in that neighborhood. After passing the entrance examination he became a student in the academic department of the University of Missouri, but after a year specialized in commercial law, and for a similar period was a regular student in the business or commercial course. He re- ceived a diploma from the commercial department of the university, as it was then maintained, and returned home to become cashier of his father's bank, the Farmers & Merchants Bank of Linneus. During nine years of serv- ice as cashier he gained an intimate knowledge of all details of the banking business, and supplemented that training by one year as mailing clerk and paying teller in the Traders National Bank of Kansas City. The stockholders and directors of that institution then sent him in October, 1902, to organize the Farmers & Mer- chants Bank in Coweta, Oklahoma, and he became its first cashier and held that post eight years. Selling his in- terests in the Coweta bank, he next organized the Security Abstract Company of Wagoner County. About that time his first and only important excursion was made into the field of practical politics. In 1910 he was elected on the democratic ticket to the office of county treasurer of Wagoner County. Soon after taking office he sold his interests in the abstract company, and for two and a half years devoted himself with characteristic fidelity and energy to his official work. On retiring from office, asso- ciated with other prominent citizens of the county, he bought the Central State Bank of Muskogee, the First State Bank of Webbers Falls and the Porter State Bank of Porter. In this chain of banks Mr. Trumbo became president of all of them. The next change in his financial relations came in January, 1915, when he sold his stock in the Central State Bank, removed from the City of Muskogee to Wagoner, and is now giving his principal attention to his work as cashier of the Citizens State Bank of that city. He is also vice president of the National Bank of Commerce of Coweta, near which town he owns one of the best improved farms of Wagoner County.

His career, as these facts indicate, has been essentially that of a banker, and he has won an enviable reputation and enjoys a large acquaintance among banking men both in this state and elsewhere. Fraterally he is a Master Mason, a Knight of Pythias and also a member of Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. In June, 1898, Mr. Trumbo was married at Columbia, Missouri, to Miss Nellie Newman.

WILLIAM H. H. KELTNER. The paternal great-grand- sire of William Henry Harrison Keltner was Henry Keltner, one of four brothers who came from Germany to America in early Colonial times and settled in Ken- tucky, in what came to be known as Keltner Township. He spent his life there, a planter of prominence and wealth. He had four sons who served in the long-fought war for American independence. One of the four was William Keltner, the father of J. C. C. Keltner, and grandfather of this subject. This patriot, William Keltner, fought with General Jackson at the battle of New Orleans, and he died in Dardanell, Arkansas, a prosperous planter and mill owner.

William Henry Harrison Keltner was born in Bonham, Fannin County, Texas, July 18, 1852, and is the son of J. C. C. Keltner, born in Kentucky in 1828. In 1844 J. C. C. Keltner came from his native state to the Indian Territory, where he worked for his father-in-law on one of his plantations, and later he became overseer of his wife's father 's plantation, and in 1851 he married the daughter of Arnus Spring, his employer. Crossing Red River in 1852, he resided in Bonham, Fannin County, where W. H. H. Keltner was born. In that year he came back to the Choctaw Nation, settling near Hugo, thence to near Atoka, and finally to near Leon, Chickasaw Nation, and spent the remainder of his life there, en- gaged in stock farming. He died there in the year 1910. He was captain of an Indian company of volunteers in 1861-5, and was a staff officer in Gen. Joe Wheeler's regiment throughout the war. He was a member of the Church of Christ, and in politics was a whig, but after the war became a democrat. He married Nancy E. E. Spring, born in the Choctaw Nation, and a quarter- blood Indian. She died in Wise County, Texas, and William H. H. Keltner was her only child.

Mr. Keltner attended the Spring Chapel School under the tutelage of Doctor Dabney, now a resident of Sul- phur, Oklahoma, and when he was sixteen years old he left school and went to work as a cowpuncher, in which he continued until 1874. However, in 1871-2 he found it possible to attend Oplaca Academy, in Alabama, for about twenty months, which was a very valuable addi- tion to what had been a somewhat meager education. When he left ranch work in 1874 he became a stake driver in a railroad engineering camp, and in 1877, after three years of continuous work in that line, he took a field position as a qualified civil engineer. He followed that work through the Indian Territory, Texas, Louisiana and Arkansas, until the year 1895. During those years he had been accumulating farming lands, and in 1895 he retired from his enginering work to his farm at Hickory, Pontotoc County, where he remained until 1900. In that year he moved to his farm on Red River, continu- ing there until 1912, when he moved to his farm at Reck, Oklahoma, six miles south of the town of Wilson. This place of 600 acres is the present home of the fam- ily. Another valuable farming property of Mr. Kelt- ner's is his Red River farm of 2,100 acres, and he has title to 170 acres of lead and zine lands in the Arbuckle Mountains. Mr. Keltner also is interested in certain valuable oil lands in the Healdton fields and in the Ma- dill District as well.

It is perhaps unnecessary to say that Mr. Keltner is a republican of the old school. His name would carry that assurance with it, and it is safe to assume that any man who signs himself William Henry Harrison would vote the republican ticket. Mr. Keltner was a deputy marshal in the Indian Territory, and he served on the election board in Love County in 1911-12 and 1913. In 1876 he became an ordained minister in the Church of Christ, and since that time he has devoted a good deal

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of his time to the ministry. He is a member of Leon Lodge No. 189, Independent Order of Odd Fellows.

In 1876 Mr. Keltner was married at Pilot Point, Den- ton County, Texas, to Miss Susie Potter, the daughter of Col. Zack Potter, a farmer, now deceased. He was a colonel in the southern army, serving in a Missouri reg- iment throughout the war.

Five children were born of this union. Hattie May married John Moore, a farmer, and they live in Hickory, Oklahoma. Nema Pearl married F. E. Kinney, and they have their home in Durant, Oklahoma, where Mr. Kinney is a merchant. J. Arthur lives in Madill, Oklahoma, and is engaged in the real estate business, as well as giving some time to the ranching business. Hazel is the wife of Oscar Babb, a Nebraska farmer. Ruby married Walter Middleton, and they live in Chicago, where he is the superintendent of an electric power plant.

The wife and mother died in 1897 and in 1898 Mr. Keltner married in Stonewall, Oklahoma, Miss Mattie Burns, the daughter of S. B. Burns, of LeFlore, Okla- homa. She has borne him four children. They are named Goodwin, Neroli, William H. H., Jr., and Wal- lace L. All of them are attending school in Reck, where the family home is located.

SANDOR J. VIGG. A leading member of the legal fraternity of Woods County, Sandor J. Vigg has been a resident of Alva during the entire period of his pro- fessional career. Coming here in 1908, he soon attracted to himself a clientele of the most desirable kind, and having displayed his ability and learning was called upon to serve in offices of public trust, the duties of which he discharged with a fidelity that placed him in the con- fidence of his fellow-citizens.

Mr. Vigg was born July 22, 1879, in Austria-Hungary, and is a son of Georgia and Elizabeth (Berekszazi) Vigg. The father was born in 1852, in the same country, and was a small farmer in his native land, where the family had lived for generations. He could not see any promising future before him in Austria, and accordingly, in 1891, came to the United States, of the opportunities of which land he had heard so much. He was without capital, but located on a farm in Barber County, Kansas, where through economy and thrift, united with tireless labor, he managed to secure a small property, and in 1897 moved to Woods County and settled on Government land, twelve and one-half miles northwest of Alva. Here he has since developed into a successful farmer, and his career is one worthy of emulation by the youth of the land, and worthy of the respect of all who admire self-made manhood. Mr. Vigg was married in 1876 to Miss Elizabeth Berekszazi, who was born in 1852 in the same locality as her husband, and they became the parents of four sons and three daughters, as follows: Sandor J., of this notice; Mary K., educated at Northwestern State Normal, of Alva, married in 1912, Charles Duncan, a native of New Jersey and a success- ful merchant at Culver City, California, and has one child, Eugene; Julia, educated at Oklahoma North- western Normal School, taught in the public schools of Woods County, but now resides at Los Angeles, Cali- fornia; and three sons and one daughter, who are deceased.

Sandor J. Vigg received his early education in the schools of his native land and was twelve years of age when he emigrated to the United States with his parents. Later he went to the public schools of Barber County, Kansas, and completed his preparatory studies in the Oklahoma Northwestern Normal School, at Alva, where he was graduated in the class of 1906. At that time he entered upon the study of law, in the legal department of Vol. IV-11

the University of Kansas, and graduated therefrom in 1908, with the degree of Bachelor of Laws, and June 4th of that year was admitted to the bar of Oklahoma, after successfully passing an examination before the Supreme Court. Mr. Vigg took up his professional duties at Alva, where he opened an office and continued in a general practice until 1910, when he was elected prosecuting attorney of Woods County. His services were of an eminently satisfactory nature, and in 1912 he received the re-election. Mr. Vigg is a republican and takes a keen interest in the success of his party. Frat- ternally, he is connected with the local lodges of the Masons, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and the Modern Woodmen of America. Every movement which promises to be of benefit to his community may rely upon his hearty support and co-operation.

On June 25, 1910, at Cherokee, Oklahoma, Mr. Vigg was married to Miss Nettie A. Paul, daughter of Otto and Callie (Davis) Paul, natives of Franklin, Indiana. Mrs. Vigg was born in June, 1884, at Franklin, Indiana, and graduated from the Oklahoma Northwestern Normal School in 1908, and before her marriage was for four years a teacher in the Cherokee High School. Three chil- dren have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Vigg: Harriet, born September 15, 1911; Paul, born January 14, 1914; and Karl, born October 25, 1915. He was appointed county attorney of Woods County, Oklahoma, in October, 1915, to fill a vacancy occasioned by the removal of the regularly elected county attorney of said county.

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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