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 57

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 57

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Mr. Milburn was made assistant postmaster and as the work of the office had increased and additional clerk hire was needed, Mr. Swallow and Mr. Milburn took the matter up by correspondence with the postoffice depart- ment and with Mr. Anthony and, with the aid of Mr. Swallow's influence with Mr. Anthony, secured an addi- tional appropriation for clerk hire from the appropria- tion for unusual conditions. The postoffice at the fort was made a civil service office and was raised to the second class. Mr. Milburn is probably the first man in the United States who drew a salary regularly from the postoffice department and the war department at the same time, serving both of them. Also, he received his clothing allowance and rations until his term of enlist- ment was out.

What impressed Mr. Milburn most in his army experi- ence was the utter immorality of the soldiers, the sub- serviency in which they are placed by the existing cus- toms, the loss of individuality and initiative on account

of the fact that they do uot know one hour ahead what they will do the next hour, and the work they do is usually uninteresting, non-productive and is as a whole vitiating to one with any ambition or mind of his own.

If it had not been for the Young Men's Christian Association Building donated by Miss Helen Gould to the enlisted men of Fort Leavenworth, and its efficient secretary and the bunch of better inclined men who are attracted by its atmosphere, life would have been indeed unpleasant and men of this class would probably resort to other means of passing the time and more of them might go from tolerably decent life to immorality and degradation. The United States Regular Army is the worst place on earth for a young man, or any age man, if he desires to live right, declares Mr. Milburn. Mr. Milburn says that there is less patriotism in the United States Army, including the commissioned officers, than any organization on the face of the earth.

After leaving the army and the Fort iu December, 1910, Mr. Milburn took charge of his brother W. J. Milburn's real estate business at Milburn, Oklahoma, and conducted it to his brother's entire satisfaction while his brother was serving in the Third Legislature of Oklahoma as representative from Johnston County. On his return, he offered to give his younger brother a third interest in his business if he would remain with him, but his army experience had not settled him and he desired to find a location for a business of his own in a new field. Thereupon he departed for Colorado in April, 1911, and after spending several months in Colo- rado decided it was not the country to locate in and returned to Texas, after having spent several hundred dollars traveling around trying to find a locatiou in Colorado.

He landed in Dallas, Texas, and secured a position in a book and stationery house, worked several months, and took a position in the office of the Western Union Tele- graph Company, quit it, and secured a position with the Pullman Car Company as conductor and, after working at that several months, resigned and bought a small con- fectionery business in Dallas and after conducting it for several months sold out and returned to Southern Okla- homa. In July of 1912 he resumed work for the Pull- man Company, headquarters at Memphis, Tennessee, aud ran regularly to Tucumcari, New Mexico, and later to Dallas, Texas. While on the Memphis-Tucumcari run, Mr. Milburn had a very narrow escape. In November, 1912, after the train had pulled out of Memphis, it went through a lumber camp on the Arkansas side of the river, and while going about fifty miles per hour a Pull- man tourist car from Memphis to Los Angeles, Cali- fornia, with Mr. Milburn in charge, was wrecked and there were two people killed outright and every other person in the car was injured except Mr. Milburn and a baby, who escaped without a scratch.

Mr. Milburn left the service of the Pullman Company in December, 1912, and returned to Milburn, Oklahoma, and engaged in the fire iusurance business and was mar- ried in that month to Miss Ethel Blount.

In August of the following year, 1913, he sold his insurance business at Milburn and moved to Madill in Marshall County, Oklahoma, where he is engaged in the real estate, loan and insurance business and is at present conducting a business that has been built up by hard work, a thorough knowledge of his work and perfect openness and honesty in his business dealings. He is not the type of man that takes things by storm, but is con- tent to build up gradually, solidly and permanently. He eujoys the full confidence and esteem of his friends, acquaintances and patrons and he values more than gold

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HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA

his reputation for truthfulness and houesty in all his relations and dealings.

Mr. Milburn was the prime mover in the organization of the Marshall County Building and Loan Association, was its first secretary, and drafted the principal part of its by-laws. He is second vice president of the Madill Chamber of Commerce and chairman of its adver- tising committee. He was instrumental in securing for Marshall County a United States agricultural demon- strator or agent and, with the assistant state agent, Mr. James A. Wilson, made up the guarantee for the agent's salary. He was selected as the first secretary for the Marshall County Fair Association, but resigned for lack of time to attend to its duties, as he had previously done, for the same reason, with the building and loan associa- tion.

Mr. Milburn's career has been remarkable, especially on account of the number and different kinds of posi- tions held and work done. He has a growing and remunerative business in Madill and whatever measure of success he has attained has been attained by honest methods. Throughout his entire past life he has adhered to the policy of honesty at any cost or sacrifice and his life is an example of the wisdom of this course. Life is vastly more than getting money, at any hazard; it is a schooling that fits for a better and nobler life and to fulfill and carry out the purpose of the Divine Creator in placing men here on this earth, fraught with diffi- culties and problems, to overcome which they have also been fitted with the necessary ambition, resourcefulness and talent, if they will only develop them by actual con- tact with the problems of life, one by one, as presented.

Mr. and Mrs. Milburn have two children, a girl and boy, Wilna Marianne and Edward Warren. Mr. Milburn is a member of the Church of Christ and of Hancock Lodge No. 311, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.

His father and mother, ages seventy-four and seventy- one respectively, live at Madill now, and also three brothers and four sisters are living, all in Oklahoma, except two sisters.

It should be noticed by young men that here is a prac- tical example of the wisdom of determining or selecting early in life the profession or occupation one is best fitted for, or likes most, and bending all efforts to the end of becoming proficient in that one thing. Says Mr. Milburn: "The sooner you locate permanently and take up the performance of your chosen profession or occu- pation, the sooner in life you will build up an enduring and lasting competency and established character." "A rolling stone gathers no moss" is exemplified in the life of the subject of this sketch, and it is given in detail and in full by him substantially as recorded here, in the desire and belief that younger men will profit by his mistakes and the example of his roaming, wasteful, scat- tered efforts over a period of several years.

S. WEMYSS-SMITH. The junior member of the firm of Layton & Wemyss-Smith, whose prominent connections and achievements as architects have been described in the sketch of Mr. Layton, has spent all his active career in the Southwest, and prior to his association with the present firm had established a reputation for individual work on a number of notable private and public struc- tures in the State of Texas.

A native of England, Mr. Wemyss-Smith was born in Bath, in 1876, a son of Col. T. and Emily (Talbot) Wemyss-Smith. In 1892 he came to America, and began the study of architecture as a practical apprentice with Messer, Sanguinet & Messer, at Fort Worth, Texas. To round out his education he spent the year 1897-98 at Kenyon College, Ohio, and then formed a partnership

with Mr. Howard Messer. They were together three years, with offices in Fort Worth and Waco. Then for a year the firm of Wemyss-Smith & Moore continued in Fort Worth, after which for two years he practiced alone. In 1904 he became senior member of Wemyss-Smith & Schenck, which continued for three years. In 1907 Mr. Wemyss-Smith came to Oklahoma City and joined S. A. Layton. Their record as architects, including the build- ing of the splendid capitol of Oklahoma, is found on other pages.

Before the present firm was formed Mr. Wemyss-Smith had commissions as architect for a large number of costly residences and public buildings, among which the better known are: Science Hall and Library, Baylor Univer- sity, Waco; dormitory, veterinary hospital and bath- house for the Agricultural and Mechanical College, Col- lege Station, Texas; girls' dormitory at College of In- dustrial Arts, Denton; First Methodist Episcopal Church, Fort Worth; Carnegie Library buildings at Corsicana, Cleburne, Belton, Terrell, in Texas, and Arkansas City, Kansas, and Shawnee, Oklahoma, besides the Sims Memo- rial Library at Waxahachie.

Mr. Wemyss-Smith is a thirty-second degree Mason, having affiliations with Siloam Lodge No. 276, A. F. & A. M., with McAlester Consistory of the Scottish Rite, and India Temple of the Mystic Shrine. He is also a member of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, the Oklahoma City Golf and Country Club, and the South Canadian Gun and Rod Club. Mr. Weymss-Smith married, in 1898, Miss May Stephens, daughter of Con- gressman John H. Stephens of Texas. Their one son is Peyton Wemyss-Smith. They reside at 109 East Park Place.

GEORGE WARREN GABLE. To his task as president of the Northeastern Normal School at Tahlequah George W. Gable has brought not only a record of uninter- rupted success as a practical educator, but also a thor- ough experience and ability as a constructive adminis- trator of schools. It was his many evident qualifica- tions and distinctions in the latter field that undoubt- edly led to his selection for his present post.

Mr. Gable is still a young man, though in the edu- cational world he has been at work since twenty years ot age, and was born April 9, 1876, near Iuka, Tishi- mingo County, Mississippi, a son of Levi Franklin and Elizabeth Ann ( Milford) Gable. His father was a native of South Carolina and his mother of Mississippi. When he was nine years of age George W. Gable was brought by his parents from Mississippi to Dawson, Texas. His father was a farmer, and the son grew up in a rural environment, getting his first lessons from country schools. He took the preparatory course in Trinity University, Tehuancana, Texas, following which he entered Southwestern University at Georgetown, Texas, and was graduated from that splendid institution in 1900 with the degrees A. B. and A. M. Thereafter for several years he attended the summer quarters in the University of Chicago, and in 1913 won his Master of Arts degree from that university.

In the meantime he had begun his life work, having taught a term in a country district when twenty years of age. His work as a teacher and student alternated for a number of years. For a time he was teacher of Latin and Greek in the University Training School at Blooming Grove, Texas, and soon afterwards began his work as a school superintendent. He had charge of the public schools at Groesbeck, Texas, three years, and for a similar length of time was superintendent of the schools at Duncan, Oklahoma. It was at Duncan that his success as an organizer, administrator and school

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builder began to attract attention. During his work there three splendid school buildings were erected and the high school was organized and brought up to a modern standard of efficiency in its curriculum and work. In fact, when Mr. Gable left Duncan the high school there had more credits than were possessed by many high schools in towns twice or three times the size of Duncan. His next work was done at Checotah, where he was superintendent of the public schools, and his administration was made notable by the construction of a fine high school building, and thero again the high school was put on a basis of efficiency and in its con- tests with other schools its pupils more than once won state wide honors.

After two and a half years at Checotah Mr. Gable was called to the duties of president of the Northeastern Normal School at Tahlequah, where he began his work in January, 1914. As the administrative head of this institution Mr. Gable has already succeeded in inaugurat- ing many improvements which have resulted in a better co-ordination of its work to the ends desired, and the Northeastern school is now holding its own with any of the normal institutions of the state.

Politics has made. little appeal to Mr. Gable, though he is a democratic voter. His father was a Confederate veteran, and Mr. Gable is himself in his characteristics a true Southerner and a fine type of the unassuming, con- siderate and popular Southern gentleman. Fraternally he is a Royal Arch Mason, also a member of the Inde- pendent Order of Odd Fellows, and belongs to the Methodist Episcopal Church South. In 1901 he mar- ried Miss Ethel Collins of Rice, Texas. They are the parents of two children: Collins Franklin and Gerald Ellis Gable.

HAROLD LEE. Of the leading attorneys and counselors at law in Oklahoma City, none holds more secure position or more essentially representative than Harold Lee, who is a member of a prominent and influential family of the capital city and metropolis of Oklahoma, which has been his home since infancy and in which his circle of friends is coincident with that of his acquaintances, his loyalty and progressive. spirit being virtually inherent from the atmosphere of the city in which he was reared and which is known as one of the most vital and un- daunted of the important municipalities of the West. At the beginning of the year 1915 Mr. Lee retired from the office of clerk of the Superior Court of Oklahoma County, after having declined to become a candidate for a sec- ond term. He is a member of the law firm of Paul & Lee and is giving charactistically vigorous and effective attention to his law practice, which is one of substantial and important order, based alike upon his distinctive technical ability and his unbounded personal popularity.

Mr. Lee was born at Grand View, Spencer County, Indiana, on the 11th of February, 1889, and at the open- ing of Oklahoma for settlement in 1889 his parents moved to Oklahoma, and became pioneers of Oklahoma City, the formal organization of the territory having not occurred until the following year, 1890. In the old Hoosier State were also born the parents, Otto V. and Sabina R. (May) Lee, who still maintain their residence in Oklahoma City, where the father is one of the city 's most substantial capitalists and most honored and in- fluential citizens. Otto V. Lee has exerted potent and benignant force in connection with the development and upbuilding of Oklahoma City along both civic and ma- terial lines and is here the owner of a large amount of valuable realtv, including some of the best properties on Main street. the large and modern Hotel Reoal, on West First Street, and other valuable central properties.

Harold Lee was reared to adult age in Oklahoma City, and here he attended the public schools. Later he en- tered the Missouri Military Academy, at Mexico, Mis- souri, in which institution he was graduated with high honors, as a member of the class of 1906. During the year thereafter he remained at the academy as a teacher of history, and his special proficiency in military tacts is shown by the fact that he received a commission not only as captain but also served as assistant commandant. In 1906 he was commissioned a lieutenant in the Missouri National Guard and he now holds a commission as cap- tain in the Oklahoma National Guard.

After leaving the military academy Mr. Lee was matriculated in the law department of the University of Kansas, in which he was graduated as a member of the class of 1911 and from which he received the degree of Bachelor of Laws. He forthwith returned to Oklahoma City, was admitted to the bar of his home state and was here engaged in the practice .of law until the autumn of 1912, when he was made the republican nominee for the office of clerk of the Superior Court of Oklahoma County. In the ensuing election he was victorious at the polls by the remarkable majority of 1,186, the county in general having given to the democratic ticket a ma- jority of 1,500 in the same election. In January, 1913, Mr. Lee assumed the office to which he had been elected by so flattering a majority and he was but twenty-three years of age at the time, so that there can be little doubt that he was one of the youngest men in the state ever called to official position of such importance. His ad- ministration of the exacting affairs of the office reflected honor upon himself and the county; besides fully justify- ing the confidence of the many citizens whose use of the franchise in his favor brought about his election. At the expiration of his term of two years Mr. Lee retired from office, no effort having been made by him to seek re-election, as he believed expedient to resume the active practice of his profession, for which he has admirably fortified himself.

Mr. Lee is unswerving in his allegiance to the cause of the republican party, is alert and progressive as a citizen, has received the thirty-second degree of the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite of Masonry, besides being affili- ated with the Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Knights of Pythias, and the Knights of the Modern Maccabees, in which last mentioned he is past Sir Knight Commander. Both he and his wife hold membership in the Methodist Episcopal Church and are leaders in the representative social activities of their home city, their residence being at 318 East Ninth Street, Oklahoma City.

On the 18th of December, 1912, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Lee to Miss Helen Mitchell, daughter of William O. Mitchell, a representative citizen of Okla- homa City.

COL. C. H. ELDRED. Recent years have witnessed the passing of many of the picturesque old characters who were most prominently identified with the appropriation and use of Western Oklahoma lands before the formal opening of that territory to settlement. Many of the early cattle men whose operations were carried on upon Oklahoma pastures prior to 1889 had their headquarters and homes in Southern Kansas, but grazed their herds by the thousands on the rich grasses of Western Okla- homa. The death of Col. Charles H. Eldred at Alva on February 1, 1914, recalls what was perhaps the largest of these pioneer cattle companies. Colonel Eldred was one of the most active figures in what was known as the Cherokee Live Stock Association during the decade

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of the '80s. This association held under lease from the Cherokee tribal government many thousands of acres in what was known as the Cherokee Strip, and used these lands for grazing until the country was opened to scttle- ment in 1893.

Charles Homer Eldred was born on a farm in Greene County, Illinois, October 12, 1836, and was in his seventy- eighth year at the time of his death. His career deserves memorial, since he was one of the most prom- inent of the early builders of Oklahoma. He grew to manhood in the vicinity of Carrollton, Illinois, and prior to the Civil war had become engaged in the cattle busi- ness as a shipper, sending his stock to the markets in New York City, Buffalo and Chicago.

However, the chief interest in his career centers in his operations beginning with 1879 when he located in Barber County, Kansas. Here he became associated as a member of the firm of Gregory, Eldred & Company. This company bought a strip of land on the southwestern border of Barber County, about eight miles long and 21/2 miles wide, comprising nearly 12,000 acres, extending eastward from the Salt Fork almost to Hardtner, Kansas. The company engaged in cattle raising on a larger scale and kept a small army of cowboys in its employ. Just south of the Gregory, Eldred & Company ranch was the Cherokee Strip or Cherokee Outlet, across the Kansas line in old Indian Territory. Colonel Eldred and his associates were among the first to pursue a policy of enlightened self interest and justice in their dealings with the Indian possessors of this land. For many years cattle men, had grazed their herds over the Cherokee pastures and paying for their use rather a tribute than a regular rental to the Indian owners. As a better method than this irregular and lawless policy, Colonel Eldred and those associated with him undertook to secure formal leases from the Cherokee Nation at a price that would be of real value to the Cherokees and would establish the cattle industry on a secure footing. On these ideas was organized the Cherokce Live Stock Association, during the early '80s. Colonel Eldred and other members of the company went to Tahlequah, the capital of the Cherokee Nation, and endeavored to negotiate a lease from the Cherokee Legislature. Their proposals were bitterly opposed by the cattle men who had been getting the use of the strip for only a nominal consideration, and the matter was held pending through- out almost two annual sessions of the Legislature. Finally the lease was granted by the Cherokees, at an annual rental of $200,000. From this large revenue the Cherokees built schools and academies and in many other ways employed the fund for the permanent benefit of the tribe. Probably Colonel Eldred deserves the greater share of credit for the successful negotiations of this lease, and for a number of years he continued as presi- dent of the Cherokee Live Stock Association.

Until the Cherokee Strip was opened for settlement Colonel Eldred had his home on a ranch just west of the present town Hardtner, Kansas. In 1889 he undertook an interesting project in the building of a sugar mill at Medicine Lodge, for the purpose of manufacturing sugar from sorghum cane. The enterprise was not destined to succeed, and the investment was largely lost. It is recalled that the lake constructed by the company to supply water for the mill was afterwards used as the reservoir to supply the first system of waterworks in Medicine Lodge.

Colonel Eldred on the opening of the Cherokee Strip in 1893 secured a homestead three miles northwest of Alva and remained a resident in that country locality in 1907. In that year he was appointed postmaster of Alva and then moved to the city and had his home on West

Flynn Avenue until his death. He held the office of postmaster five years, until January, 1912.

Those who knew the late Colonel Eldred paid a high tribute to his kindly and genial disposition, his calm and dignified manner, and his great generosity. It is said that no deserving person ever applied to him for aid without success. He was almost patriarchal in his relations with his former employes, the cowboys, and the old sugar mill at Medicine Lodge became known as the O. E. Hospital, from the fact that many former employes of the O. E. ranch were given positions about the mill. Colonel Eldred had the calm philosophy of a man who has endured the storm and stress of frontier life for many years, and this is well illustrated in some of the last words reported from his death bed. Only a short time before he passed away he said: "The ship is going on a long journey, and I am going with it." Colonel Eldred was buried by services at the Presbyterian Church, and was laid to rest in the A. O. U. W. Cemetery at Alva.

His first wife was Adley Avery, whom he married in 1858. She was a native of Illinois and died in 1868. Their only child, Dudley, born in 1860, died in 1911. On December 25, 1883, Colonel Eldred married Mrs. Emma (Charles) Evans at Chetopa, Kansas. Mrs. Eldred survives her husband and resides at the family home in Alva. By her former marriage she has a son, Robert S. Evans, who was born October 23, 1880, and is now a prosperous farmer and cattle man of Woods County, having grown up on the cattle range and having a distinction among the old cowboys as one of the champion cattle ropers. Robert Scott Evans was married in 1903 to Winifred King, and by this union there are three children, two sons and one daughter, named as follows : William Eldred, born June 30, 1905; Julia Joy, born October 22, 1909; and Robert, born March 20, 1911.

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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