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 69

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 69

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In April, 1901, Mr. Payne married Miss Grace Chasteen, who was born in Kansas, but whose parents, Albert and Etta Chasteen, were pioneers of Oklahoma, where they continued to reside until their death. Mr. and Mrs. Payne have four children: Loren, Harry, Okemah, and Thomas, Jr.

JOE MARTIN LYNCH. It is in a large degree a mat- ter of fulfillment of expectations to find Joe Martin Lynch filling an important place in public affairs and in the profession of law since he belongs to a family which has been distinguished in the old Cherokee Nation from its first identification with Indian Territory. Mr. Lynch is a successful lawyer at Stilwell, Adair County, and is now serving as probate attorney for the two counties of Adair and Sequoyah.

Born in Adair County July 30, 1881, he is a quarter blood Cherokee and of one of the most distinguished Cherokee families. His father, Cicero L. Lynch, served as the last chief justice of the Cherokee Nation, while the grandfather was first chief justice of that nation after it became established west of the Mississippi. Cicero L. Lynch, who is still living, was born in the Delaware District of the Cherokee Nation May 9, 1841. His father was Joe Martin Lynch, Sr., who came to the Indian Territory with the first Cherokee immigrants. Cicero L. Lynch married Nannie E. Bell, who was born in the Flint District of the Cherokee Nation, a daughter of John Bell, who with other members of the Bell family were prominent in tribal affairs. The record of Cicero L. Lynch is found plainly written in the annals of the Cherokee Tribe. Besides his work as chief justice,

he held many positions of honor and trust, was sheriff, and was chief justice until the Cherokee Nation was absorbed in statehood government. Since statehood he has lived retired on his farm in Adair County and now makes his home with his son Joe M. Lynch at Stillwell. He is now in his seventy-fifth year aud for several years has endured the misfortune of blindness. He and his son are the only representatives of the family still living.

Reared in Adair County, Joe Martin Lynch acquired his preliminary education in the rural schools of the Cherokee Nation, attended the Cherokee Male Seminary at Tahlequah, the Normal University at Valparaiso, In- diana, and in 1911 graduated in law from Cumberland University at Lebanon, Tennessee. Returning at once to Oklahoma, he took up the practice of his profession at Stilwell. Several years previously he had given his first public service as clerk in the Oklahoma State Con- stitutional Convention, and at statehood was elected the first register of deeds for Adair County. Since his service in that office of three years he has steadily prac- ticed law with growing prestige and success at Stilwell. On February 17, 1914, he was appointed United States probate attorney with joint jurisdiction in the counties of Adair and Sequoyah, and has since made an admir- able record in this responsible office.

Since early manhood Mr. Lynch has been actively interested in the democratic party. His name is known all over Adair and Sequoyah counties. Fraternally he is a Royal Arch Mason and Knight of Pythias, and a member of the Methodist Church. In 1913 Mr. Lynch married Miss Hazel C. Mason, who was born in Iowa.

ELIJAH E. NORVELL, M. D. While his work as a physician and surgeon at Wynnewood has brought him a substantial position in the profession, Doctor Norvell during his fifteen years of residence in that thriving city of Southern Oklahoma has found a varied outlet for his energies and is widely known over the state at large. In May, 1914, Doctor Norvell retired from the office of postmaster, to which he had been first appointed by President Roosevelt January 31, 1906, and reappointed by President Taft in February, 1910. On October 6, 1915, Doctor Norvell was elected and installed as grand master of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows in the State of Oklahoma. He has taken a very prominent part in fraternal affairs in the new state.

His partner in medical practice is Dr. H. P. Wilson, and they have their offices in the Wilson Building, and both are graduates of the same school of medicine, the medical department of Vanderbilt University, Doctor Norvell being about one year the junior of his partner in professional service.

Elijah E. Norvell was born near Batesville in Inde- pendence County, Arkansas, September 6, 1872. A num- ber of generations back his ancestors lived in Sweden. It was by accident that the family was established in America. Doctor Norvell's grandfather three times removed was a shipwrecked sailor boy and was picked up along the Maryland shore, and thenceforth became identified with this country and founded the family of which Doctor Norvell is a descendant.

The doctor's parents were W. B. and Sarah A. (Rogers) Norvell. His father was born in Eastern Ten- nessee at Aartrace in Bedford County in 1848. He was reared in that state, but was married to Miss Rogers near Batesville, Arkansas, where she was born in 1857. In 1894 W. B. Norvell moved to Hillsboro in Hill County, Texas, and from there came to Marietta, Oklahoma, in 1912, where he is still living. His chief occupation has been as a farmer and stock raiser. At Hubbard, Texas,

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from 1897 to 1902 he filled the office of postmaster under appointment from President McKiuley. He is a repub- lican, as is also his son, Doctor Norvell. For many years he has been a deacon in the Baptist Church, and for sev- eral terms served as worshipful master in the Masouic fraternity. Doctor Norvell is the oldest of a large family of children. His brother, W. H. Norvell, is a deaf mute, having been graduated from the Deaf Mute Iustitute at Little Rock, Arkansas, and is now a printer at Marietta, Oklahoma; Fanor is the wife of J. C. Hines, a farmer and stockman at Tussey, Oklahoma; Fannie B. died of typhoid fever at the age of eighteeu at Hubbard, Texas; M. G. Norvell is former postmaster of Marietta; Ila is now living with her parents at Marietta and is a stenog- rapher; "Lucile is the wife of William H. Stewart, a lumberman at Harlingen, in the extreme Southern Texas; Allie is the wife of Milton Parks, a stockman at Goree, Texas; Marchie, who graduated from the high school at Stamford, Texas, is now a teacher in the public schools of Brownsville in that state; Oscar is assistant bookkeeper in the First National Bank of Marietta.

Elijah E. Norvell acquired his early education in the public schools of Independence County, Arkansas, aud spent two years in the North Arkansas Presbyterian College at. Batesville. In 1891 he entered the medical department of Vanderbilt University at Nashville, where he graduated M. D., March 26, 1894.

During 1894-96 Doctor Norvell practiced at Bynum in Hill County, Texas, and from that time until 1900 was located at Britton in Ellis County. He came to Wynne- wood in 1900, the same year that his partner, Doctor Wilson, located there, and together they have acquired a splendid general practice. Doctor Norvell is a member of the county and state medical societies and the Ameri- can Medical Association, served four years as city health officer, and is local surgeon for the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railroad. He is also a director in the First State Bank of Wynnewood.

While living iu Texas, Doctor Norvell served three years as postmaster at Britton, and thus was well quali- fied for his official duties when he took a similar position at Wynnewood in 1906. Besides the exalted position which he now holds in Oklahoma Odd Fellowship, he is a member of Wynnewood Lodge No. 83, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and of the Encampment Odd Fel- lows at Guthrie, aud the Order of Rebekahs at Wynne- wood. He is also affiliated with Wynnewood Lodge No. 40, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, and a member of Wynnewood Camp No. 539, Woodmen of the World. In 1906 he represented the Indian Territory and 'Okla- homa Territory for the Woodmen of the World in the convention at Norfolk, Virginia.

In 1895 at Britton, Texas, Doctor Norvell married Miss Ela McGee, daughter of G. W. McGee. Mrs. Nor- vell died in 1896, leaving one child, Murvin, who is now a sophomore in the Oklahoma State University at Nor- man. At Alvarado, Texas, in 1897, Doctor Norvell mar- ried Miss Ida Wood. Her father was the late W. A. Wood, a farmer. There are two children of this mar- riage: Lawton, a sophomore in the Wynnewood High School; and Nell, in the seventh grade of the grammar school.

WILLIAM HARRISON ODELL. A thoroughness and ac- curacy of judgment, a solidity of logic, a brilliancy and quickness of deduction, aud a mature grasp of the letter of the law-these have been some of the qualities which have aided William Harrison Odell to a position among the leading lawyers of Creek County. Coming to Sapulpa in 1910, he almost immediately attracted to himself a practice of more than ordinary desirability and im- portance, and from that time to the present, when he is

senior member of the firm of Odell & Wright, his advance has been steady and consistent.

Mr. Odell is a member of families which originated in Ireland and Scotland and which settled in South Carolina during Colonial days. His grandfather, John H. Odell, was born in Georgia, and in addition to carry- ing ou agricultural pursuits was occupied as an educator and for some time was in charge of a high school in Chattooga County, Georgia, where he died when still in middle life. His son, Charles M. Odell, the father of William Harrison Odell, was born iu October, 1843, and when two years of age was takeu by his parents to a farm in Chattooga County, Georgia, was there reared aud educated, and when the Civil war came on enlisted under the flag of the Confederacy in the Sixth Georgia Cavalry, which was attached to the command of Gen. Joe Wheeler. He was never absent from his regiment and participated in many hard-fought engagements, but was never even slightly wounded, and when the war closed returned in safety to his family. Resuming agricultural pursuits, he has continued to be engaged therein during his entire career, and at present is one of the substantial farmers and influential citizens of his community, where he has beeu the incumbent of several local offices. Mr. Odell married Miss Frances J. Adams, also a native of Chat- tooga County, Georgia, who still survives and has been the mother of seven children: C. L., a practicing at- torney of Bessemer, Alabama; Lillie, who is the wife of John L. Ray, residing on the old homestead in Georgia; Gertrude, who is the wife of C. R. Tucker of Lyerly, Georgia; Mary A., who resides with her parents; Charles F., of Birmingham, Alabama; Claude, of Bessemer, Ala- bana; and William Harrisou, who was the second in order of birth. The mother of these children is now seventy years of age but, like her husband, is hale and hearty and in full possession of her faculties.

William Harrison Odell was born on the homestead in Chattooga County, Georgia, August 31, 1874. After at- tending the public schools of the locality of his birth he went to Gaylesville (Alabama) Institute, from which institution he was graduated in 1896, and after some further preparation was admitted to the bar at Summer- ville, Georgia, July 16, 1897. He began his practice at Ringgold, Georgia, where he was married October 17, 1899, to Miss Alma Gordon, a native of that state and a daughter of Judge Thomas M. and Ophelia J. Gordon. Mrs. Odell's father was a cousin of Gen. John B. Gordon and a descendant of the Gordons of Scotland.

Mr. Odell continued his law practice in Ringgold and Dalton, Georgia, until 1910, on March 1st of which year he arrived at Sapulpa. Here he continued alone-until June of the same year, when he formed a partnership with Lucien B. Wright, and the firm of Odell & Wright has since occupied offices in the First National Bank Building. Mr. Odell's high standing among the prac- titioners of Creek County rests largely upon his happy faculty of being able to place facts in a point of view favorable to his client without recourse to misrepresenta- tion. He belongs to the Creek County Bar Association, and continues to be, as at the outset of his career, a close and careful student. His business connections are not numerous, as he devotes himself almost unreservedly to his rapidly-increasing practice, but at present he is serving as secretary and treasurer of the Fidelity Gaso- line Company of Sapulpa. A lifelong democrat, while residing at Ringgold, Georgia, he served as mayor for three years. With his family he belongs to the First Presbyterian Church. Mr. and Mrs. Odell are the parents of one son, Dan Gordon, who is still attending school.

THOMAS HAMPTON FANCHER. Now in his second term as prosecuting attorney of Hughes County, Thomas H.

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Fancher has been a lawyer at Holdenville since 1909, and came to Oklahoma with a broad and varied experience in the law and in practical affairs in his native State of Arkansas. Mr. Fancher is an able lawyer and has de- served the confidence of the people repeatedly shown in his election to important places of trust and responsi- bility.

He was born in Carroll County, Arkansas, January 24, 1867, a son of Hampton B. and Eliza Olive (McKennon) Fancher. His father was born in Tennessee January 9, 1828, and died at the age of eighty-one in 1909, at Berryville, Arkansas. The mother was a native of Ten- nessee and died in Arkansas in 1892 at the age of fifty- four. They spent all their married lives in Carroll and Boone counties, Arkansas, where the father was an active farmer. He also made a record of important service during the Civil war. He was captain of a company in the state troops at first, and later was with the regular Confederate army on courier duty most of the time. Of the family of six daughters and two sons, there are now living Thomas H. Fancher and his two sisters: Bettie, wife of J. H. Walker of Hughes County, Oklahoma; and Clevie, wife of W. M. Bunch of Hughes County.

It was the wholesome and sturdy discipline of a farm in Arkansas that gave Mr. Fancher his early ideas and ideals and a vigorous mental and physical constitution. From the homestead he went to Clarksville, Arkansas, and began the study of law with his maternal uncle, Capt. A. S. MeKennon, who has since become a well known member of the bar at MeAlester, Oklahoma. Ad- mitted to the bar at Russellville, Arkansas, November 16, 1893, Mr. Fancher soon afterwards returned to the farm after the death of his mother, married, and assisted his father in rearing the younger children. Later he moved to Berryville, where he was engaged in the practice of law for several years. While there he was elected county judge of Carroll County, an office he held for two terms or four years. Then resuming private practice he con- tinued in Arkansas for two years more, and in 1909 established his home and office at Holdenville, Oklahoma. He was soon enjoying a promising practice as a lawyer, and in 1912 he responded to the wishes and urgings of his friends and became a candidate for the office of county attorney. He was elected, and in 1914 his first administration was given a vote of confidence by his reelection.

Mr. Fancher has been a democrat ever since casting his first ballot. In Masonry he takes an active part in the lodge and Royal Arch Chapter and has filled all the chairs in these branches. In January, 1896, he married Miss Carrie Keener, who was born in Missouri in 1869, but was reared in Arkansas, being a daughter of the late Judge William Keener. Mr. and Mrs. Fancher's three children are all at home, their names being Eliza, Mary and Paul.

ALBERT P. MARSH. There has been established in Madill a healthy and altogether desirable public senti- ment relating to the material and social welfare of the city through a happy association of progressive ideas emanating from the city hall on the one hand, and the worthwhile people on the other. When Albert P. Marsh was elected mayor he appealed to his constituents not to look upon him as an isolated factor of progress, nor to place upon his shoulders unusual or unfair burdens. He made a frank and open appeal for co-operation, and the result is that no other city of the Southwest enjoys an era of greater public thrift than Madill is experiencing now.

To accomplish this result, Mayor Marsh, early in his administration, promoted the organization of a Chamber of Commerce, of which the members made him president. Vol. IV-16

Conforming to the mayor's ideas, this body departed somewhat from the routine path through which such an organization usually travels, and constituted itself a factor in the development of the good-government idea of municipal progress. It became in reality an advisory board to the city administration, thereby furnishing to the mayor on occasion concrete and thoroughly worked- over ideas that were in reality the crystalization of pub- lic sentiment.

Believing it to be the duty of the city administration to inspire a healthy sentiment relating to civic beauty, Mayor Marsh next proceeded to the organization of a civic league, and its members made him one of the board of directors. This body is a cooperative arm of the city government, without warrant of statute, but nec- essary nevertheless. The best men and women of the town constitute its membership and it has made of Madill a municipality shorn of rough edges and unat- tractive thoroughfares. It has improved and beautified public parks and inspired a form of local civic pride of unusual degree in a city of 3,500 souls.

Inasmuch as the City of Madill has grown up in that region of the state formerly Indian Territory, where, prior to statehood, school facilities were meagre and pub- lic education was neglected, Mayor Marsh next proceeded to the establishment of a public library, To this end he had the city attorney prepare a library ordinance which the city council adopted, and which creates an annual levy sufficient to maintain the institution. The county commissioners set aside two rooms of the handsome new $75,000 courthouse for library quarters, and the library commission, appointed by the mayor, aroused such en- thusiasm during the first few months of its existence that 600 volumes were donated as a nucleus of the library. The library commission is made up of City Superintend- ent of Schools Montgomery, Attorney Charles Oakley, Mrs. M. Scott, Mrs. F. W. Porter, Miss Mabel Tolliver and F. H. Ewing, a merchant.

During the administration of Mayor Marsh a handsome city hall has been erected and in it installed a paid fire department, equipped with auto trucks and modern hose and ladder apparatus. Probably no other city of its size in the state has a motorized fire department. The next move of the mayor and his advisory board will be to begin the paving of a few of the business streets. This will not be done, however, until financial conditions warrant it, for the level-headed men of Madill have exer- cised the faculty of discretion to a remarkable degree. They have been progressive, but consistent, and have not over-built or over-developed the town.

Mayor Marsh, who had been a member of the town board, was one of the principal factors in getting Madill declared a city of the first class in 1912. After Governor Cruce had signed the necessary proclamation the voters expressed their appreciation of the services of Mr. Marsh by electing him mayor of the newly-made city, and his re-election followed in 1914.

Mr. Marslı was born in Chattooga County, Georgia, in 1866, and is a son of Ephraim and Annie (Plowman) Marsh. His father was a farmer, a native of Tennessee, a veteran of the Civil war in the Confederate army, and an early settler of his county in Georgia. Albert Marsh, at the age of seventeen, moved with his parents to Parker County, Texas, where for several years he was engaged in farming and ranching. Later he entered the milling and grain business in Collin County aud in 1909 moved to Madill and built the large plant of the Marslı Milling & Grain Company, which he sold in 1914. Early in the year 1915 he established the Chickasaw Grain Company, which does a wholesale grain business. Shortly after moving to Madill Mr. Marsh was elected to mem- bership on the board of education, and in that position

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he was largely instrumental in eliminating a condition that had beset the schools for several years, and establish- ing a system that has since made the schools of Madill among the best in the state. He served two terms on this board and was then elected a member of the town board of trustees.

Mr. Marsh was married in 1892 in Weatherford, Texas, to Miss Paloni Eklen Comer. They have six children. Clara, Hubert, Robert, Mabel, Howard and A. P., Jr. Hubert, the eldest son, is his father's assistant and asso- ciate in the grain business.

Mr. Marsh has a brother and two sisters. James T. Marsh is a merchant at Fort Worth. Mrs. Elizabeth Blackburn is the widow of a former farming man of Dor- chester, Texas. Mrs. G. B. R. Smith is the wife of the president and manager of the Smith Milling Company of Sherman, Texas.

The Marsh family have membership in the Methodist Church, and he is a Mason, with Blue Lodge and Royal Arch affiliations. He also has membership in the Wood- men of the World in Madill.

SAMUEL J. STARR, JR. One of the best known and most highly respected families of the Cherokee Nation is that which bears the name of Starr, whose members have for many years been the incumbents of prominent positions as professional and business men, financiers, public servants and leaders in civic life. A worthy rep- resentative of the name is found in the person of Sam- uel J. Starr, Jr., who is now serving his second term in the capacity of county clerk of Adair County. On the maternal side Mr. Starr is also a member of a prominent family, belonging to the Adairs for whom Adair County was named. He was born on a farm in Flint District, Cherokee Nation, Indian Territory, and in what is now Adair County, February 20, 1882, and is a son of Caleb E. and Madarene (Adair) Starr, and a grandson of George Starr.

Samuel J. Starr attended the public schools of Adair County and in 1904 was graduated from the Cherokee Male Seminary, at Tahlequah. Thus prepared he entered upon a career as a schoolteacher and followed that profession with gratifying success until his retire- ment to enter upon the discharge of his duties as county clerk of Adair County, an office to which he was first elected in 1912 for a term of two years. In 1914 he was re-elected to this office, in which he is capably serv- -ing his second term. Mr. Starr is a stanch democrat in politics. He is fraternally a Master Mason and a mem- ber of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. His good and public-spirited citizenship has found expres- sion in the support of progressive and beneficial move- ments, while in the discharge of his official duties he has won friends by his unfailing courtesy.

Mr. Starr was married in 1910, at Stilwell, to Miss Nellie Whitmire, a member of the Cherokee race, born in Adair County. They have three children: Jewell, Wynema and an unnamed infant. Mr. and Mrs. Starr are members of the Baptist Church. The family home is at Stilwell.

WILLIAM J. THOMPSON, of Pauls Valley, is one of the most sterling representatives of the old Choctaw tribe, and in his own right and on the basis of ability and merit has achieved a commendable position of prominence in business affairs.

Naturally enough he takes great pride in his fore- fathers. He is one of the younger sons of the noted Giles Thompson, who at one time was reputed to be the wealthiest man in the Indian Territory. The Thompsons became identified with the Choctaw people by inter-

marriage. Originally they were pioneer white settlers in North Carolina in colonial times. There is a file of inter- esting letters in the university library at Norman, writ- ten by members of the Thompson and Wall families and covering the period from 1834 to 1847, containing not only many interesting facts about the families them- selves, but throwing considerable light on the life and times in the old Indian Territory of that epoch.

Giles Thompson was born in North Carolina in 1802 and after moving to Mississippi in 1820 he married a Choctaw woman. He assisted in making the treaty of Dancing Rabbit in 1830, a treaty which brought forth| admiring praise and commendation from President Jack- son. All his relatives were on the roll and received allotments of land. Giles himself acquired 960 acres as his share of the tribal property. It was in the spring of 1833 that he moved out to Indian Territory and estab- lished himself at Boggy Depot's present site. He was. a man of enterprise, and took advantage of the natural ! resources in the salt deposits and developed the only salt works of the Indian Territory at Boggy Depot, now in ! Atoka County. Giles Thompson conducted these works until the outbreak of the Civil war, as sole owner and ! operator. At Boggy Depot he had a reservation one mile square and, according to the tribal laws, no one was . allowed to cut even a sitek of timber from the land. It was through these varied operations that he acquired the fortune which made him the wealthiest man in Indian Territory. At one time seventy-four slaves were employed in working the salt works. The product was sold as high as $5 per bushel, since salt was a very rare and indispensable commodity. When the war broke out he showed his faith and liberality in behalf of the south- cru government, and invested $100,000 in 20-year gold bonds drawing 8 per cent interest. These, of course, became valueless after the war, and they were a complete contribution to the cause. William J. Thompson of Pauls Valley now has some of these old bonds as cher- ished relics of his father's patriotism. During the war Giles Thompson freed his slaves. In 1876 he moved to Garvin County, and was engaged in the stock business there until his death in 1878. In politics he was nat- urally a democrat and was a member of the Baptist Church. Another distinction was in helping organize the first Masonic lodge in Indian Territory, of which he was a charter member.

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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