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 56

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 56

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Jason Giles MeCombs received his preliminary educa- tion in the public schools of Huntsville, Alabama, and

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after some further preparation entered the Univer- sity of Alabama, from which institution he received his degree of Bachelor of Arts in 1880. Later he pursued a law course in the same institution, being given his Bachelor of Laws degree, but did not at once enter upon the practice of his calling, but instead went to Fort Smith, Arkansas, where for nine years he was as- sistant cashier of the Merchants Bank, now the Mer- chants National Bank. His health failing him, he re- signed his position, and after traveling for a time located, in 1893, at Muskogee, Oklahoma, where he was soon admitted to the bar. Not long thereafter, he was appointed by United States District Judge Charles B. Stewart, to the position of United States commissioner at Tahlequah. His duties in this capacity required his holding court in portions of what are now Cherokee, Adair and Sequoyah counties, and in 1896 he located at Sallisaw, where he has since resided. He held the posi- tion of commissioner until January 1, 1900, and at that time engaged actively in the practice of his chosen profession.

From the time of the organization of the Democratic Central Committee in Indian Territory, Judge McCombs has been active in the councils of his political party. He was one of the organizers of this committee and up to statehood and after, until 1912, served as a mein- ber thereof. He was a member of the Sequoyah Con- stitutional Convention, in which body he served as a member of the corporative committee, of which, as chairman, he wrote the corporative part of the consti- tution which was adopted. Among other positions held by Judge McCombs was that of city attorney of Salli- saw, in which he acted for several years, and in 1912 his friends prevailed upon him to make the race for the county judgeship. He won the nomination of his party for this office, and in the election that followed was successful over his opponent, but served only one term, when he retired to again devote himself to the general practice of his profession. He is known as one of the leaders of the Sequoyah County bar, a man thoroughly versed in every department of his profes- sion and a supporter of its highest ideals and best ethics. He is a Master Mason and a Pythian, and a communi- cant of the Episcopal Church.

In 1885 Judge McCombs was married to Miss Lillie Marcum, a daughter of Col. Tom Marcum, of Muskogee, one of the most distinguished legists of Oklahoma. Mrs. McComb's death occurred in 1899, at which time she left two children: Lillian, who is now Mrs. W. V. McClure of Muskogee, Oklahoma; and Thomas Marcum, a literary and law graduate of the University of Okla- homa, who is associated with his father in the practice of law at Sallisaw, under the firm name of McCombs & McCombs. In 1904 Judge McCombs married for his second wife Miss Jessie Rigsby, of Sallisaw, Oklahoma, but a native of Illinois. One daughter, Margaret Caro- line, has been born to this union.

HENRY P. HOSEY. It was during the administration of Henry P. Hosey as city attorney of Idabel that a spirit of humanitarianism with respect to Indians was injected into the current of municipal affairs. In other words, he ended that practice whereby the city treasury was enriched weekly by the payment of fines from Indians who, being intoxicated, disturbed the peace and dignity of the community. His was the advice of a brother rather than that of the lawyer. One Indian, in particular, had for months been paying regularly a fine of $10 each week. Mr. Hosey found that the man's family was in need of the money, and felt that morally the city should not continue extracting fines from him. ITis plain advice, given to the Indian in a way that he Vol. IV-13

could understand, was to leave off drinking, but if he failed in that resolve, to go to some place removed from the public highway and thus keep himself incon- spicuous and avoid arrest. The former course was beyond the red man, but he acted upon the latter clause of the advice, with the result that the peace of the town for a long time remained undisturbed by him. This incident is related to show Mr. Hosey's acquaint- ance with the frailties and nature of the Indian, a knowledge that led him to pursue a course that gave the Indian as much of the protection of society as possible. He had come from a section of Mississippi where the Choctaws lived before the migration to Indian Territory, and in which many live yet. His uncle, S. P. Wade, long after the Civil war, had thirty Choctaw families as tenants on his extensive plantation.

Henry P. Hosey was born in Jasper County, Missis- sippi, June 10, 1871, and is a son of William T. and Lucy (Atwood) Hosey. His father, a native of Missis. sippi, followed planting throughout his life, and served as a soldier of the Confederacy during the war between the states. His paternal great-grandfather was the first tax assessor and collector of Jasper County, Mississippi, and a man of influence and prominence in his com- munity, and his great-grandfather's mother was a Terrell who lived in Georgia and a member of a family from which have sprung many men of prominence in public affairs in Georgia, Mississippi, Texas and Oklahoma. A. W. Terrell, for many years prominent in Texas history, is a member of this family, as is also Joseph Terrell, of Hobart, Oklahoma, who has been a member of the Oklahoma Legislature and a prosecuting attorney of his county, a leading lawyer and a man of influence and wealth. The father of Joseph Terrell was for a number of years a member of the Supreme Court of Mississippi and a jurist who lent dignity and strength to the bench. The activities of Isaac Hosey, an uncle of Henry P. Hosey, are found prominent in the annals of the Creek Nation, in which he served as a deputy United States marshal under one of the administrations of President Cleveland. Isaac Hosey married a woman of Creek blood, and in recent years has made his home at Paden, Okfuskee County. William T. and Lucy (Atwood) Hosey were the parents of four children: Henry P .; Isaac, who is a stockman and farmer of Bay Springs, Mississippi; Mrs. J. W. McNeece, who is the wife of a farmer at Enloe, Texas; and Mrs. M. T. Wind- ham, who is the wife of a farmer-stockman at Taylor- ville, Mississippi.

Henry P. Hosey secured his education in the public and high schools of Mississippi, this being supplemented by much home study, and with this preparation began teaching in the public schools of his native state. During the several years that were thus employed, he devoted himself closely to the study of law, and, being admitted to practice, engaged in his profession in 1905, at Semi- nary, Mississippi. In 1909 Mr. Hosey came to Oklahoma and took up his residence and opened an office at Idabel, and here he has since continued in practice. Not long after coming to this place, he formed a partnership with James M. Leggett, an association which continued for two years, and in August, 1914, the present professional combination of Gore, Hosey & Jones was formed. This concern appears in all the courts, carries on a general practice of an important character, and has on its books some of the foremost firms and individuals in this part of the state. Mr. Hosey's ability was given recognition when he was elected city attorney of Idabel, but at the expiration of his term of office he retired from public life, preferring to give his entire time to his pressing and constantly-growing professional duties. Hc is an

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ardent and consistent democrat, and while still a resident of Mississippi served one term as state election com- missioner under Governor James K. Vardeman.

Mr. Hosey was married at Vossburg, Mississippi, in 1892, to Miss Laura Arrington, and they have four chil- dren, as follows: Mrs. Winnie Croft, who is the wife of a business man at Idabel; Mrs. Fannie Leggett, who is the wife of a well known attorney of Idabel; Miss Edna, who is a student in the State College for Young Women, at Chickasha, Oklahoma; and William Henry, six years of age, who resides at home. Mr. and Mrs. Hosey are members of the Baptist Church. He is fraternally affili- ated with the Masons and the Woodmen of the World, and professionally with the MeCurtain Connty Bar Asso- ciation and the Oklahoma Bar Association.

JAMES PHILANDER RENFREW. One of the newspapers of most decided influence in the old Cherokee Strip conntry of Oklahoma is Renfrew's Daily and Weekly Record, published at Alva, and owned and edited by James P. Renfrew. Mr. Renfrew is a pioneer in the Cherokee country, having participated in the opening in the fall of 1893, was the first elected treasurer of Woods County and has been a leading figure as a homesteader, teacher, man of affairs and newspaper publisher.

James Philander Renfrew represents one of the best family stocks that came into Oklahoma when this country was first opened for settlement. He was born on a farmn in Benton Connty, Iowa, Angust 31, 1849, a sou of John and Hester Jane (Johnson) Renfrew. His father was born on a farm near Mansfield, Ohio, Jaunary 16, 1824, a son of James Renfrew, who was a native of Ireland. John Renfrew, a farmer by occupation, went out to Iowa in 1846, about the time that state was admitted to the Union, and about 1860 set out for Kansas, while that state was being settled up, but instead of proceeding to his destination determined to locate in Caldwell County, Missouri, and lived in that section of Northwest Missouri for twenty-eight years. After this long interval he actually went to Kansas, when conditions were very different from what they had been before the Civil war, and settled on a tract of Government land in Barber County. He continued farming there until 1894, and then in the year following the opening of the Cherokee strip moved to Woods Connty, Oklahoma, and proved up a homestead ten miles north of Alva. His death occurred at Alva June 16. 1902. John Renfrew was married in Coshocton County, Ohio, November 2, 1849, to Miss Hester .Tane Johnson, a daughter of Robert and Jane (Stephenson) Johnson. Mrs. Renfrew was born April 6, 1831. in Coshocton County and died in Woods County, Oklahoma, March 12. 1899. The Alva editor was the first of their four children, three daughters and one son. Emily Jane, the oldest of the daughters, was born Febrnarv 18. 1852, and on December 5, 1871, married James W. DeGeer, who was born November 26, 1843, in Ontario, Canada, and is now living as a retired farmer at Nampa, Idaho, he and his wife having fonr children, Cora. Eva. Renfrew I. and Vaughn E. Mary Ellen, the second daughter. born Angust 10. 1855, was married October 28. 1875. to Lyman W. DeGeer, and their seven children are: Muriel. Mabel, Dahl. Frederick, deceased, Ernest. Frank and Edgar. Hessie Lou, the yonngest, born Jannarv 14, 1869, married April 22, 1895, Anthony T. Nuce, and their two children are named Harry Ren- frew and Alice.

James Philander Renfrew was reared and educated in Richland Countv. Ohio, and Caldwell County, Missouri, and was about eleven years of age when his father located in the latter county. The advantages he enjoyed in the public schools enabled him at the age of twenty

to qualify as teacher, and he followed that occupation in combination with farming for a number of years. In 1887 Mr. Renfrew removed to Barber County, Kansas, and there continued farming and teaching for seven years.

In September, 1893, Mr. Renfrew was on the starting line for the rush into the Cherokee Strip, and staked out a claim of Government land ten miles north of Alva. When Woods Connty was organized that year all the officers were appointed, and the first regular county election was held in 1894. In that campaign Mr. Ren- frew was a candidate on the populist ticket for the office of treasurer and won the contest by a safe majority. This gives him a distinction which will always be associated with his name in local connty history as the first regularly elected treasurer of the comity. After filling that office for two years, he again resumed his work as teacher, and also paid some attention to the development of his farm. In 1899 Mr. Renfrew acquired an interest in the Alva Review and for the following three years was its editor. Selling out he then estab- lished in 1902 Renfrew's Record as a weekly populist paper. In 1904 Mr. Renfrew became once more aligned with the regular democratic party, but up to that year had been one of the active factors in the populist move- ment. In 1898 he was the populist nominee for the office of state senator from Woods County. On Jan- uary 1, 1915, Mr. Renfrew began the publication of a morning edition, known as Renfrew's Morning Record. This newspaper has a large circulation over Woods and surrounding connties, is a paper from which many hundreds of its readers take their opinions on current questions, and it is also a prosperons business enterprise. Mr. Renfrew has a modern plant with complete equip- ment for the publication of his journal and also for general printing. In 1910 he was honored by election to the office of president of the Oklahoma State Press Association, and held the office one year.

On August 31, 1871, on his twenty-second birthday, at Mirabile, Missonri, Mr. Renfrew married Jnlia Ellen Black. In that section of Missonri her family has been one of the oldest and most honored for many years. Her parents were Dr. Oakley H. and Susan R. (Hyde) Black. Mrs. Renfrew was born April 14, 1856, at Champaign, Illinois, being the first white child born in that city. Doctor Black was born May 21, 1828, in Clark County, Ohio, and was of Virginia parents and English ancestry. Doctor Black served as a soldier in the Mexican war and was also in service along the frontier against the Indians during the years 1846-51. He was a member of Company B of the First United States Dragoons, and was made sergeant of his company at the battle of Buena Vista. Doctor Black was the family physician to all the best people in and around Mirabile for many years, and finally died at Cameron, Missouri, February 13, 1894. He was married Jannary 29, 1854, and the eight children living by his first marriage are Julia E., Emma W., Olive M., Sarah C., Cordelia A., Agnes B., Minerva L. and Rosana M. The mother of these children died February 26, 1870. On November 4, 1870, Doctor Black married Miss Mary T. Rinaman. The three children of this marriage are Charles T., William A., and Mary E., the son, William, being a successful editor and news- paner man.

Mr. and Mrs. Renfrew are the parents of four children, two sons and two danghters. Rufns Oakley, the oldest, born July 6, 1872, was married February 13, 1898, to Miss Stella Long, daughter of Rev. M. T. and Mary (Noble) Long, and she was born November 14, 1878, in Chautanqna County, Kansas, and by their marriage have one child, Edith Lillian, born April 21, 1900. Rnfus

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Renfrew is now in business as a loan broker and abstracter at Woodward, Oklahoma, and is a thirty-third degree Mason. (See his sketch on another page in this work.) The second child, Mabel Estella, was born October 15, 1873, and died September 5, 1874. John Alden, born March 14, 1875, is now a merchant, and the present mayor of Alva, married Mabel Williams, daugh- ter of Capt. George L. and Anna F. (Bragg) Williams, and they have a child, Clara, born April 22, 1902. Lillian Emma, the youngest, born October 3, 1876, and died May 27, 1900, was married April 28, 1897, to Dyas Gadbois, who was accidentally killed July 3, 1909.

Mrs. Renfrew inherits much of the strong mental ability and character of her father, and has ably assisted her husband in the editorial management of the paper. She has also been prominent in club, church and society affairs both in her own city and over the state. She served in 1914 as department president of the Woman's Relief Corps, and is past worthy matron of the Order of Eastern Star.

WALTER MILBURN. A career that has its lessons for every growing youth and has included a remarkable range of interests and experiences is that of Walter Mil- burn, of Madill. His experiences are told frankly and modestly and the story is told with only a few editorial comments.

He was born on a farm in Cooke County, Texas, reared in Montague and Jack Counties, in the neighborhood schools of Selma and Rocky Point in these counties, received practically all of his literary training at them, and assisted in the farm work on his father's farm at the beginning and before the end of each school term.

At the age of 19 he journeyed to Gustine in Comanche County, Texas, attending the high school for about two months, that being the only time ever spent in a graded school. At the end of this term he took the examination in Comanche County for a teacher's certificate, receiving a county third grade certificate, and secured a school near Gustine. He left for Oklahoma to attend to his father's cattle and assist his eldest brother in putting up hay, about two miles northeast of the Town of Ter- rall, Oklahoma, on the C. R. I. P. Railway. This was the year 1901.

The fall of 1901 he returned to Texas and taught the country school, four months term, and went from there to Toby's Practical Business College at Waco, Texas, for a course in book-keeping and commercial law. On account of not having a diploma from any recognized high school in the state, he had to take the preparatory studies and pass examinations in them. These were spelling, arithmetic, grammar and composition and on all these he made 100 per cent grade on examination and made 98 per cent on commercial law or an average of more than 99 per cent. On account of the fact that he had never seen inside a set of double entry books, or other account books, and his having to brush up on the pre- paratory studies, he spent about five months in this school and just at the time he had taken up the course in bank bookkeeping and corporation bookkeeping his money gave out and he had to stop school. As a student from this school is never examined until he completes all these, he therefore never received a dinloma of pro- ficiency or certificate of graduation in his chosen pro- fession. On leaving school he went to Southern Oklahoma and began working at the carpenter's trade. and after working the remainder of 1902, in the fall of that year obtained a position as bookkeeper for a cotton gin at Tishomingo, and after the cotton ginning season was over was an assistant teacher in the Milburn High School for the remainder of the school term. After school was out,

he resumed carpentry work and went to other points in the state and was engaged in the service of the M. K. & T. Railway Company's freight department at Muskogee, at night work, handling and trucking freight. A few months were spent with the Muskogee Electric Light and Power Company, oiling machinery and other work, and about two weeks in a brick plant at McAlester, where he received an injured finger. In the fall of 1903 he returned to Milburn and resumed work at the carpen- ter's trade and in November began work in the Milburn post office as clerk and worked continuously till January 5, 1906, at which time he took a position with the Rock Island Railway Company engineers, then surveying a line from Watonga to Woodward, Oklahoma. After passing the Town of Ceiling, Oklahoma, the party was called in, and four or five of the newest additions to the party were laid off, including Mr. Milburn. On this work he was assistant topographer.

After being laid off in April of this year, having failed to find other work, he took a job with the Miller Brothers 101 Ranch, near Ponca City, working there for several weeks, and returned to Oklahoma City, and did carpentry work and railroad work east of there. In June of that year he visited his parents at San Angelo, Texas, re- turned in July to Oklahoma City and took a job as sales- man, selling direct to the consumer and followed that till the fall of 1907, at which time he went to Amarillo, Texas, and then to Clovis, New Mexico, working for the Santa Fe on its concrete round house. Leaving there he went to Amarillo and worked in a newspaper office, the Daily Pan Handle, about a month, left for Sulphur, Oklahoma, and visited parents a week, and returned to Oklahoma City where he enlisted in the engineering corps of the United States Army, being informed by recruiting officers that there was a school of engineering at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, where they would send him till he had become acquainted with civil engineering. He was sent to Jefferson Barracks, St. Louis, Missouri, and after two weeks was assigned to Company L, 3rd Battalion of Engineers, at Fort Leavenworth. On arriving there he soon found how he had been deceived by the agents of the War Department, the recruiting officers at Oklahoma City, for there is a School of Engineering at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, but for commissioned officers only.

His story of experiences as a soldier may best be told in his own words:

"I resumed the duties of a recruit and was drilled daily in the bunch of recruits and soon took my place among the other soldiers and we had daily drills at the Post gymnasium, digging ditches some days, the pontoon drill other days, the military training every day, target practice, etc., etc. The fare was the same every day, consisting principally of meat balls, rice, corn and beans some days, soup every day. We furnished our own butter, if we had any.

"On pay day, once a month, our sleeping quarters and living rooms were turned into gambling houses and non- commissioned officers would take part, the biggest part of my room mates, the larger part of the Company, would go to town, Leavenworth, two miles distant, connected by interurban and half-hour cars, and spend half of the night at houses of ill fame, buying whiskey from the drug stores and elsewhere and carousing around, return to their barracks and proceed to empty their stomachs of poisonous contents onto the floor.

"I continued to endure this kind of life for five months, while some of the best men deserted and took the risk of being caught and made to serve a prison term of from one to three years in the United States Military Prison at Fort Leavenworth-the old Federal Prison. I have done duty while there as prison guard and we would

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march them out to the quarry and guard them with our guns while they worked and then march them back to the prison at night where they were placed in their cells. The greater number of these men-not criminals by act or deed, but made so by the military arm of their country, were serving terms for desertion only. Occasion- ally some of these men would be killed while engaged in rough work and they would bury them in the potters field, not in the well kept soldier's cemetery on the easterly sloping hillside on the Western Part of the reservation.

"After five months of mental torture by my social surroundings, and living every day minute by minute, after having considered every means of extricating my- self from my surroundings, including purchasing my dis- charge, which some of the boys did, I was successful in securing a place in the United States Post Office as clerk. "There are, in fact, three distinct and separate Mili- tary Posts, or Military Departments, at Fort Leaven- worth, namely, The Army Post, the Army Service Schools and the U. S. Military Prison. When I left there Col. R. H. R. Loughborough was commandant of the Post. He was grizzly, rough in speech, and an evident stranger to fear, although he was considerate of and friend of the enlisted man, the common soldier, but disliked the newly made officers from West Point, especially those who were 'fresh,' and he lost no opportunity to 'bawl them out.' The Colonel came up from the ranks and was not a graduate of West Point, but he was liked by the enlisted men generally. Brigadier General Frederick Funston, another plain, unassuming man and a friend to the enlisted man and one of the greatest benefactors to the service, on that account, was Commandant of the Army Service Schools. It is not remembered who the Commandant of the U. S. Military Prison was at the time. These three posts mailed out an enormous volume of franked or free matter-all official business, and as the postmaster at all offices, except fourth class, receive their salary on a basis of sales, or receipts from sale of stamps, envelopes, cards, etc., this condition worked a very unjust burden ou the Postmaster at Fort Leaven- worth and arrangement was made with the War Depart- ment at Washington whereby a soldier might be placed on detached service-that is service away from his com- pany, and worked in the postoffice.

"In a few months after I began work in this office, Mrs. Laura Goodfellow, a kindly old lady who was post- mistress was replaced by a favorite henchman of Con- gressman D. R. Anthony-Mr. G. A. Swallow, originally of Vermont, but for last preceding 30 years a resident of the Sun Flower State. Mr. Swallow was a very genial and withal a very fine man."'

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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