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 6

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 6

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. Lowe was married at Perry, Oklahoma, in 1901, to Miss Doris P. Carlock, and they have two children: Helen Margery, aged twelve years; and Gordon Cullon, aged nine years. The pleasant family home is situated at Oklahoma City.

Mr. Lowe is a member of Siloam Lodge No. 276, A. F. & A. M., at Oklahoma City, of the Oklahoma City Country Club and of the Oklahoma City Men's Dinner Club. Professionally, he belongs to the Oklahoma County and Oklahoma State Bar associations, and also holds membership in the Oklahoma City Chamber of Commerce, in which he is actively interested.

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RICHARD E. POWERS. The work and influence of Richard E. Powers as an Oklahoma citizen can be best illustrated in a brief resume of what the Durant Cham- ber of Commerce has accomplished since its founda- tion. During the past six years Mr. Powers has been one of the main springs in this organization and is now its president. Like many other commercial organizations it deserves all the more credit because it has been pro- gressive and has been achieving substantial results in spite of the years of poor crops and financial depression that have prevailed in the Southwest prior to 1915. It is also to be recognized that the type of industry, en- terprise and spirit that Mr. Powers brought from Wis- consin to Oklahoma iu 1909 has been a chief factor in the progress of the state, and has acted as a leaven among a population which in earlier years at least, was strongly impregnated by shiftlessness and the temper of discouragement. Mr. Powers showed his energy and enthusiasm when in effect he was told by the people of Durant to fight for a bigger and better city and a more prosperous and progressive county.

Although Bryan County is especially adapted to agri- culture, as has been shown in a county agricultural ex- hibit wherein ninety varieties of grass native grown were displayed, the status of farming was far below the standard and farmers needed education. The county had to supplement the aid furnished by the Federal and state governments, and this supplementary aid was sup- plied under the direction of the Chamber of Commerce. That organization procured the services of a demon- stration agent, half of whose salary, through the personal effort of President Powers, was paid by the bankers of the county. The county commissioners had refused to levy a tax for this purpose, and the Chamber of Commerce guaranteed the necessary half of salary ex- pense. This plan, it should be noted, was entirely new in Oklahoma, and it is the more noteworthy as illus- trating the unswerving determination of the leading men of Bryan County to advance their section of the state apace with the foremost standards of progress, in spite of adverse conditions.

The Chamber of Commerce also successfully secured from the corporation commission and the court assent to a plan for the erection of a union depot in Durant. At this writing a modern and handsome structure cost- ing about $40,000, one of the most complete of its kind in the state, is being erected. Another object of atten- tion has been the good roads movement through Bryan and adjoining counties, and Mr. Powers, as president of the chamber, has been especially enthusiastic and influ- ential in furthering this cause. The year 1915 witnessed the greatest activity ever shown in Oklahoma in the building of roads. Another substantial achievement to be credited to the Chamber of Commerce under Mr. Powers' presidency was the agreement with the Mis- souri, Kansas & Texas Railway which started a sys- tematic advertisement of the possibilities of Bryant County and other counties along its route in Oklahoma.

For many years before identifying himself with Okla- homa Mr. Powers was a live newspaper man, teacher and civic leader in Wisconsin, where he was known pretty well all over the state as one of the effective forces in democratic politics. He was born July 18, 1867, at Honey Creek, Sauk County, Wisconsin, a son of Richard and Maria (Carroll) Powers. Both parents were of Irish extraction and were born near Quebec, Canada. They were members of a colony of Canadians that made settlement nearly sixty years ago in what was named Irish Valley, Sauk County, Wisconsin, their homes being erected in the timber lands of an unsettled country. Richard Powers became a progressive early farmer of

the state and was one of those who helped establish the dairy industry which in later years brought to Wisconsin farmers more wealth than any other single agricultural line.

After attending the common schools and the high schools at Sauk City and Prairie du Sac, Richard E. Powers was for six years a teacher in the Wisconsin public schools. On leaving the school room he worked on the Central Wisconsin newspaper, of Wausau, three years and then established the Wausau Herald, which he published and edited for fifteen years, the last eighteen months having a daily edition. Early in his newspaper career Mr. Powers became very active in democratic politics and was prominent in the party in Wisconsin through many exciting campaigns. For many years he never missed a single state convention, and at the in- sistance of his friends at one time became a candidate for alderman and won in a ward that had always been heavily republican. He was not only a close student but a practical worker for municipal reform, and through his efforts and under his leadership, the city council established one of the most perfect and cheaply operated municipal lighting plants in the country. His ideas on municipal improvement and reform brought him con- sideral prominence in the state.

With all this experience, and with an assured position in his native state, Mr. Powers was nevertheless attracted to Durant, Oklahoma, in 1909, by a desire to help develop the new country and its boundless possibilities. He had been thoroughly impressed by the work of the constitu- tional convention, manifested in a constitution which many statesmen have declared to be a model in a repub- lican form of government. While his primary intention was to engage in the real estate business, Mr. Powers first bought the Durant Daily News from Lewis Paullin. He edited and published that paper for eight months, until his early plans could be matured, and he then dis- posed of it. A few days after his arrival in Durant a proposed bond issue for electric lighting purposes was defeated by a vote of three to one. The issue was again brought up in a few weeks and in the meantime Mr. Powers had supported it with well chosen arguments and with a wealth of reasoning acquired during his earlier experience in Wisconsin, with the result that at the second election the proposition carried by a vote of three to one. It was very soon after coming to Durant that Mr. Powers was elected a director of the Chamber of Commerce, which he later served as secretary, and from that was moved up to the office of president, a post which he was particularly well qualified to occupy, as events already narrated prove.

His influence as a democrat has hardly been dimin- ished by an exchange of residence between Wisconsin and Oklahoma. Here he has attended nearly every county and state convention of the party. Before the state committee in 1910 he advocated the making of a party platform before the primary campaign was launched, and this idea has taken such root that it is likely to be adopted. Here again he drew upon his Wis- consin political experience, as in that state he was one of the authors of a similar political proposal, which was. put in effect and proved satisfactory.

In 1897 at Wausau, Wisconsin, Mr. Powers married Miss Anna E. Patzer. Her father, John Patzer, was one of the leading citizens and democrats in his section, was an intimate friend of Judge W. C. Silverthorn, who in 1896 was the choice of the democratic party for gover- nor of Wisconsin. In their early associations Mr. Patzer taught Mr. Silverthorn to speak the German language in exchange for Silverthorn's service in teaching Patzer the English.

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Mr. and Mrs. Powers have five children-John Marvin, Nathalie Clare, Richard Kenneth, . Maurus Norbert and Roger Gordon. Mr. Powers is a member of the Catholic Church, the Knights of Columbus and the Catholic Order of Foresters, having held all offices in the local organiza- tions of these orders in Wisconsin and having served as a delegate to the state and international conventions of the Foresters. While in Wisconsin he was a member of Company G of the National Guard of the state, and was one of the crack shots of the company.

HON. MANLEY W. BOVEE. Representing the people of one of the richest oil and gas producing sections of the country, Manley W. Bovee came into the Fifth Legisla- ture from Washington County, and his activities in that session were confined largely to legislation affecting the interests of the independent oil and gas producers. His experience of nearly fifty years as an operator in oil fields of Pennsylvania and Ohio proved invaluable to the oil and gas committees of both the Senate and the House, and he is a recognized authority on all matters connected with what has been his life work. Mr. Bovee is a resident of Bartlesville and has been identified with the oil industry in that section for the past ten years.

Manley W. Bovee was born at Eagle, Waukesha County, Wisconsin, in 1849, a son of William R. and Sarah (Snover) Bovee, who located in Wisconsin in 1842, before the advent of railways to that state. His father was a railway contractor and assisted in the construc- tion of portions of the Milwaukee and St. Paul Railroad. The paternal grandfather, Mathias J. Bovee, was a mem- ber of Congress from the New York district during the administration of President Andrew Jackson. An uncle of Mr. Bovee, Marvin H. Bovee, was once a member of the State Senate in Wisconsin. The first representatives of this name in America located in the Mohawk Valley of New York in 1634, and some members of the family distinguished themselves in the Indian wars and the Revolution. One of the name was scalped by Indians during a massacre in the Mohawk Valley. The maternal ancestors of Representative Bovee were natives of Ger- many, early transplanted to New Jersey, and one mem- ber of the family was a manufacturer of gunpowder near Philadelphia during the Revolution.

That Mr. Bovee is a thoroughly practical man both in business and as a legislator is due to the facts of his experience. His education was limited to the common schools of Wisconsin and at the age of fifteen he began clerking in a general merchandise store. In 1869 he went to Pennsylvania, and was connected with a general mercantile establishment at Pickwick. Pickwick was in the oil region, and some of the accounts on the books of the firm were settled by taking oil wells as payment. This finally led the firm into the oil production business, and they operated in the Bradford field in McKean County and in the Warren County field. Thus Mr. Bovce has been an oil operator since the pioneer days of that industry in Western Pennsylvania. In 1906 he came to Bartlesville, Oklahoma, as representative of Freeman E. Hertzel of Pennsylvania, who had acquired some oil holdings in Oklahoma. Later Mr. Bovee and his son began operating on their own resources, and he is now treasurer of the Bamm Oil Company of Bartles- ville.

His first experience in politics was in that rock- ribbed republican State of Pennsylvania, when in 1892 he was defeated as democratic candidate for the State Senate. He was twice defeated for a seat in the Penn- sylvania Assembly. In 1880 he served as chairman of the Democratic County Central Committee of Warren County, and continued his political activities more or less

throughout his Pennsylvania residence. Mr. Bovee was elected to the Oklahoma Legislature in 1914, with a plurality of 274 votes in a district normally republican by about 300. During the following session he served as member of committees on election, practice of medicine, municipal corporations, dentistry, and cotton warehouse and grain elevators.

Fraternally he is identified with the Ancient Order of United Workmen and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. In August, 1871, at Meadville, Pennsylvania, he married Mrs. Elizabeth W. McCool. Their four chil- dren are: William D., an oil operator at Grand Valley, Pennsylvania; Jesse O., a farmer in Warren County, Pennsylvania; John S., connected with the Wolverine Oil Company at Bartlesville; and George L., a contractor at Bartlesville. Mr. Bovee has a sister, Mrs. Ezra Clemons, wife of the superintendent of the St. Paul Railway at Seattle, Washington.

JAMES A. THURMOND. A resident of Tushka, Okla- homa, since 1906, Mr. Thurmond effectively represented Atoka County in the Fifth Oklahoma Legislature, that of 1914-15, and he has been a prominent, influential and progressive citizen of his village and county, where he is the owner and operator of cotton gins and has become a prominent figure in connection with the development of the cotton industry in the state of his adoption. Mr. Thurmond is of fine old southern lineage and while scarcely more than a boy he served as a loyal soldier of the Confederacy in the Civil war, the same spirit of loyalty having continued to animate him in all of the relations of his later life and his career having dem- onstrated that peace has for the gallant soul victories "no less renowned than war." He has been consist- ently termed the father of the thriving little City of Tushka, and has been a leader in the progressive move- ments that have conserved its civic and material advance- ment.

Mr. Thurmond was born in Lauderdale County, Ten- nessee, in the year 1848, and is a son of Orville Lafay- ette and Caroline (Walpool) Thurmond, who passed their entire lives in Tennessee, where the father was actively identified with the great basic industry of agri- culture during virtually his entire mature life. Of the children only one is surviving besides the subject of this review, his brother, Orville L., a prosperous farmer residing near Caney, Atoka County, Oklahoma. The father of Mr. Thurmond was an influential and honored citizen of Tennessee and was a son of a physician who was one of the first settlers in the locality designated as Key Corner, that state. The maternal ancestry of Mr. Thurmond is of sterling English origin, and the first representatives of the Walpool line in America made early settlement near Jamestown, Virginia, and representatives of a later generation removed into the middle part of the State of Tennessee and became pio- neers in the vicinity of the present Town of Halls, Lau- derdale County.

During the boyhood of James A. Thurmond no public schools had been established in the section of Tennessee in which he was reared, and his early educational dis- cipline was obtained in a primitive log schoolhouse with slab benches and meager equipment, the school being maintained on the subscription plan, as was common in the locality and period. He was about thirteen years old at the inception of the Civil war, and after he became old enough to enlist it was his privilege to serve as a Confederate soldier during the last eighteen months of the great conflict. He was a member of Company G, Fifteenth Tennessee Cavalry, in Neeley's brigade of the division commanded by General Horace, and he took

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part in a raid on the City of Memphis, an attack on Fort Pillow, and was with the command of General Hood when that gallant officer was halted, at Franklin, on his way to the North. Serving until the close of the war and being then nineteen years of age, Mr. Thurmond was thereafter enabled to attend school one year, and from his youth to his removal to Oklahoma, in 1906, he continued to be a prosperous agriculturist in his native state.

Upon coming to Oklahoma, the year prior to the admission of the state to the Union, Mr. Thurmond established his residence in the ambitious little Town of Tushka, Atoka County, where he has since maintained his home. At this place he erected and equipped the first modern cotton-gin in the county, and this plant he still owns, as does he also another that is situated a few miles distant from the village. He is the owner of sev- eral valuable farms in Atoka County, and also owns and conducts at Tushka the Thurmond Hotel. Mr. Thurmond served two terms as justice of the peace of his precinct and one term as municipal police judge at Tushka. In 1914 he was elected representative of his county in the Fifth General Assembly of the Oklahoma Legislature, in which his wide experience and mature judgment made him a resourceful and valued legislator. He was assigned to the following named committees of the lower house: Charities and corrections, initiative and referendum, fish and game, purchase of coal and asphalt lands, public health, and pure food and drugs. Mr. Thurmond pre- sented bills providing for the creation of the office of district attorney; for the amending of the law pertain- ing to stays of execution, by extending the length of redemption period in cases where property is sold through decree of court of execution; for restraining elected officers from making excessive charges; and for giving to ginners of cotton a lien on the cotton ginned in their establishment. He manifested deep interest in all legislative measures tending to foster and protect the interests of the people in general, and particularly in those for the prevention of usurious rates of interest. He was careful and earnest in his labors in the legis- lature and his services fully justified the popular confi- dence reposed in him and signified emphatically by his election.

Mr. Thurmond is a stalwart democrat in his political allegiance, both he and his wife are members of the Free Will Baptist Church; and at Dyersburg, Tennes- see, he still maintains affiliation with the lodge of Knights of Pythias, of which he was formerly chaplain, as was he also of the camp of the Woodmen of the World at that place. In Tennessee he was for a num- ber of years prominently identified with the Farmers' Alliance.

The first marriage of Mr. Thurmond was solemnized in 1876, when Miss Mary E. Moore, of Tennessee, became his wife. In 1893 he wedded Mrs. Fanny M. Stephenson, of Dyersburg, Tennessee. Of the children of Mr. Thur- mond, all born of the first marriage, seven are living: Mrs. Robert L. Cousins, Mrs. Carrie McDearmon, Mrs. Mattie Boone and Mrs. Olie May Burke, being residents of Lauderdale County, Tennessee, where their respective husbands are successful farmers; Mrs. Tom Moore being the wife of a prosperous farmer near Martin, Weakley County, that state; Ossie C. being a resident of Tushka, Oklahoma; and Okley N. maintaining his home in Ten- nessee.

HOLLIS G. OLIVER. Although comparatively a late comer into the legal world of Oklahoma City, Hollis G. Oliver, who possesses the highest qualifications for his profession in a quick grasp of salient points, a forceful

and impressive manner, as well as considerable oratori cal gifts, has already achieved prominence and popu larity. He has also, for several years, taken an activ part in democratic politics and in the movements making for civic betterment.

Mr. Oliver was born at Mount Vernon, Texas, Augus 31, 1888, and is a son of Thomas Jefferson and Jennie (Glass) Oliver. His father, also a native of Texas, was a business man of ability and for many years was engaged in agricultural pursuits in the Lone Star State. The family was founded in Texas in 1848 by the paternal grandfather of Hollis G. Oliver, who migrated to that state from Tennessee, Lieut. James Riley Oliver, who enlisted for service during the Civil war and met a sol- dier's death on the battlefield. Mr. Oliver's maternal grandfather was also a native of Tennessee and a soldier during the Mexican war, at the close of his service, in 1847, removing to Texas and being the first white settler in what is now Franklin County, that state.

After attending the public school of his native town of t Mount Vernon, Hollis G. Oliver entered Burleson (Texas) College, and subsequently took the academic and law courses at the University of Texas. Admitted to the ' bar in June, he came to Oklahoma City in September, 1910, and at once began the practice of law, in which he has continued to be engaged to the present time, and in which he has been successful in the handling of his cases, in increasing his clientele and in gaining a sub- stantial reputation among his fellow-practitioners. He belongs to the various organizations of the law, and is recognized as a valuable associate, a worthy opponent and one who should go far in his chosen calling.

From the time he attained his majority, Mr. Oliver has been actively interested in democratic politics, and since coming to Oklahoma City has taken an energetic part in advancing his party's interests. In 1914 Governor Cruce pleasantly honored him with appoint- ment as secretary of state to fill the unexpired term of B. F. Harrison and he capably discharged the functions of office about two months. At the present time Mr. Oliver is a member of the Oklahoma County Democratic Central Committee, and of the executive committee of the Young Men's Democratic League of Oklahoma City. In 1914 he managed the campaign in Oklahoma County for the Hon. R. L. Williams during the democratie pri- mary election, this campaign resulting in Mr. Williams receiving the nomination for governor of Oklahoma in 1914. Fraternally Mr. Oliver is affiliated with the local lodges of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Elks, and socially his connection is with the Oklahoma City Golf and Country Club.

Mr. Oliver is unmarried and resides at No. 420 West Park Place, while his offices are located at Nos. 232-236 American National Bank Building, Oklahoma City.

BEN H. DWIGHT. What the commissioners have done for the Choctaw tribe of Indians has never been recorded in written history. That they began an endless chain of the highest type of civilization is evidenced in the lives .and characters of those with whom they came into con- tact, and their descendants, who now occupy positions of honor and trust. The impetus they gave to education and advancement has ever increased, and their influence will never die.

The Dwight family of the Choctaw Nation is one that is famous in its annals, mainly because of their indi- vidual belief in the benefits of education, and their adherence to high standards of life and living. No family has been more open to higher influences than this one, and the missionaries have found them plastic in matters of education and ideals.

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HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA

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The grandfather of Ben H. Dwight of this review was Timothy Dwight, named in honor of President Timothy Dwight of Yale College. He was a well educated man from kicks and knocks, and was of a studious disposition, especially of the Bible. He came west in 1832, from Mississippi, with the first delegation of Choctaws. It has ever been characteristic of these people that educa- tion awakens in them a desire to lift up their own people, rather than to launch out into the world in any effort at self-aggrandizement oľ advancement, and Timothy Dwighit was no exception to the general rule. He passed through the Civil war as a lieutenant in the Confederate army, and lived for years in Jackson County, Indian Territory. His children were seven in number, and are briefly mentioned as follows: Edwin T. Dwight, a Choc- taw judge; Jerry Dwight; Adeline, who married Turner B. Turnbull; Leah, who married a Mr. Robinson ; Annie, who died in youth; Josephine, the wife of Ned Paton; and Simon Timothy Dwight, the father of Ben H. Dwight of this review.

Simon Timothy Dwight was born in Jackson County, in the Choctaw Nation, in 1865. He was graduated from Spenser Academy, after which he spent three years in Centre College, now Central College, in Kentucky. A full-blooded Indian, he was an apt and a popular stu- dent, and was a member of the Beta Theta Pi Fraternity. With the completion of his college training he returned to the Choctaw Nation, where he at once became a leader in the affairs of the tribe. He was placed at the head of the educational system of the Choctaws as general superintendent and he held that position until his death in 1893, when he was but twenty-eight years old. His passing was an incalculable loss to his people, for he gave promise of much that was good and uplifting in the car- rying forward of his work. He was superintendent of the Jones Male Academy in addition to his office of general supervisor of education, and he was also a member of the Choctaw Council. It is believed that he would have reached the position of principal chief of the tribe if he had been spared to life a few years longer.

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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