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 59

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 59

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

Mr. Wilkonson was born in Germany, as were also his parents, Elias and Esther Wilkonson, who removed to Southern Russia when he was an infant. Mr. Wilkonson was two years old at the time of his mother's death and was a lad of thirteen years when he became doubly orphaned by the death of his father. He was carefully reared by his stepmother, who accorded to him the utmost kindliness and solicitude, his father having been au agri- culturist and sheep-grower and the widow having reared the children on the home farm. In the family were four sons and three daughters, the subject of this review being the youngest of the number and the only one to establish a home in the United States.

In the schools of Southern Russia Mr. Wilkonson ac- quired his early education, and as he was born on the 22d of April, 1866, he was twenty-four years of age when he landed in the City of Boston, Massachusetts, in August, 1890. He came to America to avail himself of the better opportunities for gaining success and inde- pendence through individual effort and to avoid the re- strictions of monarchical government in Europe. From Boston he made his way to New York City, where he remained thirty days, and he passed the ensuing eight months in the City of Rochester, New York, where he found employment in the establishment of the National Casket Company. From the Empire State he continued his westward journey to Chicago and Kansas City, after which he was for a time employed on a farm in Douglas County, Kansas. He finally worked his way back to Chicago, and for one year he was in the employ of the West Chicago Street Railway Company. He then re- turned to Kansas City, Missouri, where he was engaged in the restaurant business until November 28, 1895, when he came to Oklahoma Territory and located on a pioneer farm two miles west of Perry, uow the judicial center of Noble County. There he gave his attention to farming and stock-raising for five years, at the expiration of which, in 1900, he sold his property and removed to Haileyville, Pittsburg County, becoming one of the pioneers of that town, where he continued his residence until 1909 and where he served as a member of the village council, as mayor, as a member of the board of education and as justice of the peace. He was one of the representative business men of that place until 1909, when he removed to Sapulpa and purchased a city lot on Dewey Avenue, where he erected his present business building, which is 50 by 100 feet in dimensions and in which he has built up a substantial and representative enterprise as a dealer in furniture and hardware. Mr. Wilkonson has entered fully into the progressive spirit of Sapulpa and has been a leader in the furtherance of measures and enterprises tending to advance the best

interests of the city. He has been au active and in- fluential member of the Sapulpa Commercial Club from the time of its organization and its president of the same in 1915. He served one year as a member of the board of education and is known and honored as a loyal and public-spirited citizen. Mr. Wilkonson gives his alle- giance to the democratic party, has received the thirty- second degree in the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite of Masonry, and is affiliated also with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Modern Woodmen of America.

On the 4th of December, 1892, was solemnized the mar- riage of Mr. Wilkonson to Miss Kate Robiuson, who was at the time a resident of Kausas City, but who was born in Grodno, Russia. Mrs. Wilkonson passed to the life eternal on the 12th of February, 1915, and is survived by eight children,-Esther, Myrtle, Elias, Rose, Louise, Sarah Belle, Edward and Lester. The second daughter, Miss Myrtle, is a popular and efficient teacher in the public schools of Sapulpa, and all of the children have been afforded excellent educational advantages. 1

WILLIAM D. MATTHEWS. The most important busi- ness of the state is that of administration, and many would regard the office ranking second iu importance to that of the governor as the state commissioner of chari- ties and corrections. Under the jurisdiction of this office are all the penal and eleemosynary institutions of the state, including private benevolent institutions such as orphans' homes, hospitals, and also the care of the de- pendent orphans of the state. To this office was brought by the vote of the people of Oklahoma in November, 1914, a man whose qualifications for such position are the result of a life of service.

William D. Matthews was a boy soldier of the Confed- eracy, and the great work to which he devoted himself for forty years was the Methodist ministry, with which he was identified in Oklahoma for over a dozen years. William D. Matthews was born in Marshall County, Mis- sissippi, January 11, 1846, a son of Dr. B. D. and Mar- garet F. (Alderson) Matthews. His father was born in Campbell County, Virginia, in 1800; in 1818, when still a boy, located in Tuskaloosa, Alabama, studied medicine, and about 1835 moved to Mississippi, where he practiced medicine among the Chickasaw Indians until they were removed to Indian Territory. In the practice of his profession he continued in Northern Mississsippi until his death on July 12, 1880. Doctor Matthews was of Welsh descent, while his wife, who died January 29, 1879, was Irish.

Rev. Mr. Matthews was educated in Mississippi. He was a student in the St. Thomas Hall, a military acad- emy, at the outbreak of the war between the states. Though only in his fourteenth year, he entered the Con- federate army on November 3, 1861, in the Third Mis- sissippi State Infantry under the noted soldier-church- man, General Polk. He was in that command until February, 1863, and then became identified with the noted cavalry organization under Gen. John H. Morgan. He served as quartermaster's sergeant, and continued fighting for the cause of the South until the close of hostilities. He was paroled May 25, 1865, then returued home and for three months attended school, following which for about three years he was clerk in a mercantile business at Memphis, Tennessee. During the winter of 1867-68 he taught school in Lafayette County, Missis- sippi, and at the same time pursued the study of medi- cine. After some preparation he discovered that the bent of his abilities was in another direction, and he gave up medicine and for several years was employed in teaching and also in farming. On May 31, 1871, Mr

1544

HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA

Matthews was licensed as a preacher of the Methodist Episcopal Church South. He joined the North Missis- sippi Conference on January 3, 1872, and for forty con- secutive years was a pastor and otherwise actively iden- tified with the Methodist Church. He saw service in Mississippi, Arkansas, Missouri and Oklahoma, and was a presiding elder in both the states of Arkansas and Oklahoma. As he had been a good soldier in the bat- tles of men so he was likewise efficient in promoting the cause of militant Christianity, and throughout nearly all his life has been devoted to other interests than those of self. Mr. Matthews first came to Oklahoma November 2, 1899, locating at Guthrie, where he was pastor until 1900, following which he held pastorates at Norman, Pauls Valley, Tecumseh, Atoka, was presiding elder of the Clinton District of Western Oklahoma four years, during 1911 was pastor at Purcell, and at Davis in 1912. At his own request Mr. Matthews retired from the ministry in the fall of 1912. During the sessions of the Fourth Legislature he was chaplain of the Senate and for two years was chaplain of the Boys' Training School at Pauls Valley.

His selection to the office of state commissioner of charities and corrections is an example of the principle of the office seeking the man rather than the man the office. It was only at the earnest desire of many friends that in 1914 he permitted himself to become a candidate at the democratic primaries and in that primary con- test he found himself one among a field of nine caudi- dates, seven of whom were women. There was that in his record of service and his personal character which made a strong appeal to the members of his party, and he was selected by a large plurality. At the election in Novem- ber he was elected by a plurality of nearly 30,000 votes. Mr. Matthews began his official term of four years in January, 1915. His offices are in the State House at Oklahoma City.

On August 4, 1868, Mr. Matthews married Miss Nan- nie D. Conway, daughter of Denson and Nancy Conway of Lafayette County, Mississippi. Denson Conway was a Mississippi planter and had a large estate before the war. To their union had been born nine children, six of whom are living: Ballard D. Matthews of Pauls Val- ley; Joseph A. Matthews of Los Angeles, California; Allie E., wife of W. C. Van Hoozer of Pauls Valley; Margaret F., wife of Carl A. Shumate of Pauls Val- ley; Nannie Maud Matthews living at home; Mattie F., wife of J. H. Cooper, of Wynnewood, Oklahoma. Besides these children there are ten grandchildren, five boys and five girls. Mr. Matthews and wife reside at 1103 North Shantel Street, Oklahoma City.

WILLIAM EUGENE ROWSEY, a pioneer teacher in the Indian Territory, afterward prominent in the educational affairs of Oklahoma, and now a successful financier and banker of Muskogee, is a native of Tennessee, in which state, at Montezuma, Chester County, he was born June 15, 1870, a son of William F. and Sarah F. (Taliferro) Rowsey. On the paternal side, Mr. Rowsey is of Scotch- Irish lineage, while maternally he is of Scotch and Eng- lish descent. His father, a native of Tennessee, and a Confederate veteran of the Civil war, has been a general merchant all of his life and a resident of Tennessee, being at this time in business at Henderson, that state. Mr. Rowsey's mother was born in Mississippi.

William Eugene Rowsey, after attending high schools in Western Tennessee and graduating from Henderson College, enrolled as a student at Union (then Southwest- ern) University, at Jackson, Tennessee, where he com- pleted his literary education, although he did not grad- uate there. He is a member of the Kappa Sigma frater-

nity of that institution. In 1892 Mr. Rowsey was elected president of Willie Halsell College, at Vinita, Oklahoma (then Indian Territory), a position which he held for three years, following which he was made clerk of the Federal Court at Miami, under Judge Springer, and during President Cleveland's second ad- ministration. This position Mr. Rowsey held for five years, and during that time also engaged in other lines of endeavor, being the organizer of the First National Bank of Miami, of which he was cashier from the time of its organization until 1902, when he removed to Muskogee to take charge of the Territorial Bank and Trust Company, a $250,000 concern. His official rela- tions with this company were those of vice president and cashier. Three years later the banking department of this concern was absorbed by the Commercial National Bank of Muskogee, of which Mr. Rowsey became active vice president, and subsequently, upon the organization of the Bank of Commerce he became president of that institution. Mr. Rowsey is now director and president of eight or ten banks in Oklahoma; a director of the City National Bank of Fort Smith, Arkansas, and a director of the Farmers and Merchants Bank of Hender- son, Tennessee.

While Mr. Rowsey's interests in the financial field are large and important, as will be seen in the foregoing, he has been equally prominent in educational matters in Oklahoma. Governor Haskell appointed him a member of the first board of regents of the State University, under statehood, and he acted in the capacity of secretary of this board until Mr. Cruce was elected governor of the state, at which time he succeeded Mr. Cruce as president of the board, where his services were of the greatest value to the university and deserving of more than passing mention. Soon after Governor Cruce's administration began, the governor appointed Mr. Row- sey a member of the State Board of Education, a posi- tion which he held for four years, and which he re- signed March 1, 1915, because of the great press of his private interests. The following letter explains itself :

"March 8th, 1915.

"Dear Rowsey :

"I see from the daily papers that you have resigned your place on the State Board of Education. Personally I very much regret to see this come to pass. The State Board of Education is a child of my administra- tion and when filled by men of proper type is the most important department of state government. Naturally, I have a special interest in seeing this Board accomplish its mission in the school life of Oklahoma. My associa- tion with you has thoroughly convinced me of your great interest in the work of education and your special qualification to act as a member of this Board. With- out indulging in flattery, in all sincerity I can say no better fitted man for this position has ever been a member of the Board and none better will succeed you. I regard your retirement as a distinct loss to the edu- cational interests of the State, and if I were governor no such loss would occur, as I would draft you into service.

"Thanking you again for the great service you rendered both the people and my administration, I am, "Sincerely your friend,

"LEE CRUCE.

"Hon. W. E. Rowsey, Muskogee, Okla."

Mr. Rowsey is a democrat in politics, a life member of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, and for many years has been an active member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, now being a steward of Saint Paul's congregation, Muskogee. Aside from

1545

HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA

his banking interests, he is actively engaged in the production of oil, is the owner of several large farms, engages extensively in the raising of livestock, and with his brother-in-law, Dr. F. B. Fite, is joint owner of the Fite-Rowsey Building. He has been an active builder of Muskogee, and was the organizer of the Muskogee Chamber of Commerce, serving in the capac- ity of secretary of that body when that position was a purely honorary one.

In 1895 Mr. Rowsey was married to Miss Evelyn Pat- ton, of Vinita, Oklahoma, who died in 1904, leaving one son, Paul Edward, who is a graduate of Shattuck Military Academy, of Minnesota, and is now a student in the University of Pennsylvania.

GEORGE WEABER. The reputation of a town or com- munity rests in large degree upon the character of its financiers and those connected with its monetary institu- tions, upon their standing as to reliability, push and enterprise, integrity, and fidelity to trusts and engage- ments, these being in most instances a measure of the prosperity and welfare of the place. The thriving little community of Dacoma is especially fortunate in its men of business and finance, and among them no one is held in higher respect and esteem than the energetic and progressive cashier of the State Bank of Dacoma, George Weaber.

Mr. Weaber was born August 5, 1873, on a farm in Miami County, Indiana, and is a son of Jacob and Anne Weaber, natives of Switzerland. The father, who was engaged in agricultural pursuits throughout a long and successful career, died December 31, 1887, while the mother survived until October 20, 1895, and passed away at Diller, Nebraska. There were three sons and two daughters in the family, as follows Elizabeth, who is deceased; John, who is a resident of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; Henry, who is deceased; George, of this notice; and Ida, who is the wife of John Brown, a farmer of Lockhart, Texas.

George Weaber received ordinary educational advan- tages in his youth, his boyhood being passed much the same as other Indiana farmers' sons. He was only fourteen years old when his father died, and he early became self-supporting, thus learning the value of self reliance, which has stood him in good stead in later years. For five years he was connected with a mercantile concern as salesman, but in 1902 became the head of a business of his own when he came to Oklahoma and, locating at Augusta, opened a grocery. This Mr. Weaber conducted with a fair measure of success for two years, but in 1904, recognizing an opportunity, and seeing the chance to enter financial operations, as he had long desired, he came to Dacoma and with others established the State Bank of Dacoma, an institution of which he has continued to be cashier to the present time. The capital of the State Bank is $15,000, while its average deposits amount to $81,000. It is located in the heart of a rich farming country, and its twelve stockholders, with the exception of two, are agriculturists of this locality. Mr. Weaber is the dominant factor in the management of the State Bank, and under his able direction it has grown and developed steadily and has continued to maintain a high reputation in banking circles of North- west Oklahoma. He has directed its policies and con- served its interests as well as those of its depositors, and personally his standing is high with bankers and business men. A democrat in politics, he has taken no very active part in public affairs, save where they immediately affect the welfare of his adopted place. He is a Knight Templar Mason and a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and in both lodges has a wide circle of friends.

On April 1, 1906, Mr. Weaber was married at Dacoma, to Miss Edith Stoner, who was born in Pennsylvania, September 20, 1884, a daughter of Christian and Mary Stoner, natives of the Keystone State. They are the parents of two daughters and one son: Ivan, born Jan- uary 5, 1908; Doris, born May 5, 1910; and Gertrude, born August 7, 1912. Mr. Weaber and his family are members of the United Brethren Church.

HON. WILLIAM E. LONG. The representative from Wagoner County in the Oklahoma Legislature of 1915-16 is one of the interesting personalities of the legislative body and is a native Oklahoman, descended from one of the early Cherokee families in the eastern part of the state.

He was elected to the State Legislature from Wagoner County in 1914, and served in both the regular session of 1915 and the special session of 1916. One fact of his legislative record that deserves special mention is that he was author of the resolution appointing a committee to investigate A. P. Watson, corporation commissioner, after charges has been preferred against the commis- sioner. This resolution was adopted by unanimous vote. Mr. Long also served on a number of important committees, including banks and banking, and was a member of the inauguration committee when Governor R. L. Williams was installed in the executive chair in 1915.

Representative Long was born at Webbers Falls in Old Indian Territory, October 13, 1886. His father was William P. Sheppard, who was a native of the Cherokee Nation and died in 1889, when his son was in infancy. He was quite active in Cherokee affairs and at the time of his death was a member of the old Cherokee Council. He was a one-eighth Cherokee, while the mother of Representative Long was a native of Tennessee and of Irish stock. He maiden name was Mattie F. James, and after the death of her first husband she married James E. Long, and her son was legally adopted, hence the chance in his name. James E. Long was born in Texas in 1859, but has been a resident of Oklahoma for the past twenty years, and is now a well known farmer in Wagoner County. Since statehood he served four years in the office of sheriff of Wagoner County. Mr. and Mrs. James E. Long also have a daughter Sallie, who is a graduate of the University of Oklahoma, and is now instructor of English in the high school at Durant.

William E. Long received his early education in the Cherokee schools and also attended the university at Fort Smith, Arkansas. After graduating he had his first practical experience as bookkeeper for a mercantile house at Wagoner, but since then has been active in the real estate business.

He early took much interest in democratic politics and prior to his election as representative served as city assessor of Wagoner and was a delegate to several county and state conventions.

Fraternally he is affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. On September 12, 1912, at Wagoner he married Miss Hattie A. Kuykendall, who was born in Arkansas in 1890. Mrs. Long is a graduate of the Cherokee Normal at Tahlequah. To their marriage has been born one child, Hattie Ernestine, born September 30, 1913.

HENRY G. BEARD. In connection with the history of the State of Oklahoma Mr. Beard is with all consistency to be designated not only as a pioneer but also as a founder and builder. He came to Oklahoma Territory in the year that it was thrown open to settlement and

1546

HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA

during the intervening years he has been a prominent and influential factor in the developing and upbuilding of cities and towns, in the furthering of civic and in- dustrial advancement, in the building of railroads in the promotion of educational interests and in all those activi- ties that make for normal and legitimate progress. Since 1910 he has been one of the honored and influential citizens of Sapulpa, the fine metropolis and judicial center of Creek County, and it is a matter of specific consistency as well as of historic interest to accord to him a tribute in this publication.

Mr. Beard was born at Sweet Springs, Saline County, Missouri, on the 6th of March, 1866, and is a son of Alfred B. and Catherine C. (Gec) Beard, both of whom were born and reared in Illinois, where their marriage was solemuized and whence they removed to Missouri soon after the close of the Civil war, in which the father had served three years as a gallant soldier of the Union; he was a member of Company I, Fortieth Illinois Volun- teer Infantry, with which he took part in many engage- ments and lived up to the full tension of the great internecinc conflict through which the integrity of the nation was perpetuated. After residing about two years in Missouri the family removed to Southeastern Kansas and scttled on a pioneer farm near Fredonia, Wilson Couuty. There Alfred B. Beard obtained a tract of Government land and set to himself the task of reclaiming the same to cultivation. He endured his full quota of the hard- ships and vicissitudes incidental to pioneer life in a sec- tion that suffered greatly from droughts and the scourge of grasshoppers, and in the course of years prosperity attended his efforts. He continued his residence in Wil- son County until 1890, when he removed from the Sun- flower State to Oklahoma Territory. After remaining for a time in Oklahoma City he established his residence near Woodville, Marshall County, where he continued his activities as an agriculturist and stock-raiser until 1910, when he sold his property in that county and secured a tract of land in Creek County. Here he has since lived retired, however, in the City of Sapulpa. He is a man of sterling character, a loyal and broad-minded citizen and a staunch advocate of the principles of the repub- licau party. He and his wife are citizens who have secure place in popular esteem and they are well entitled to the gracious peace and prosperity that attends them in the gentle twilight of their lives. Of their eight childreu the subject of this review is the eldest; John W. resides at Ada, Pontotoc County; Lola G. is the wife of Samuel R. Wilson and they reside in the State of California; Lymau F. resides at Siloam Springs, Arkansas; Laura B. is the wife of Benjamin A. Spcar, of Billings, Montana; Claude R. is deccased; Oliver L. is cashier of the Mer- chants' National Bank of Tishomingo, Oklahoma; and Leroy died in infancy.

Henry G. Beard, whose name initiates this article, was a child at the time of the family removal to Wilson County, Kansas, where he was reared under the sturdy discipline of the pioneer farm and afforded the ad- vantages of the public schools of Fredonia, the county seat. He continued to be associated with the work and management of his father's farm until he had attained to his legal majority, and in 1889 he became one of those who took part in the opening of Oklahoma Territory to settlement. He entered claim to a home- stead five miles southeast of Oklahoma City, and after remaining on the place one year and making definite improvements, he sold the homestead and engaged in the produce business in Oklahoma City. About two years later, in 1891, he became the promoter and founder of the now thriving City of Shawnee, Pottawatomie County. He platted the townsite, gave to the village its name, in honor of the Shawnee tribe of Indians, and had the dis-

tinction of being choseu the first mayor of the place. One of the principal streets of the city was named in his honor, and thus there will be an enduring memorial to the founder of the now populous and important munici- pality. He was a member of the first board of commis- sioners of Pottawatomie County, aud it was mainly due to his influence that the county received its name. Mr. Beard was a member of the directorate of the Bank of Shawnee, which was later reorganized as the First National Bank, aud this was the first banking institution in the ambitious young town. His initiative and cou- structive ability has seemed to be without limit, and was shown distinctively in his association with the founding and upbuilding of Shawnee, where he continued to be engaged in the hardware business for a period of about ten years, besides having been actively identified with other lines of enterprise and with all things teuding to advauce the civic aud material development of the city. He was largely instrumental in giving railroad facilities to Shawnee aud in securing to the city the shops of the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad.

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

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