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 71

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 71

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Van H. Albertson was born in Fentress County, Tennessee, July 12, 1880, and is a son of William H. and Clementine (Pile) Albertson, both of whom were natives of Fentress County. In 1886 the family moved to Wayne County, Kentucky, and in February, 1906, to Sullivan County, North Missouri, residing at present at Meadville, Missouri. The father of Mr. Albertson has been a farmer all his life.

The second born in a family of seven children, all of whom are living, Van H. Albertson had the advantages which happy family companionship give, and remained at home until he was eightcen years of age, in the mean- while attending the public schools and with such close application to his books that he secured a teacher's certificate and for two years was engaged in teaching school. Having decided upon the law as his future career, after some preliminary study he entered the law department of Vanderbilt University, at Nashville, Tennessee, and was there graduated with his degree in 1905. In October of that year he entered into practice at Knoxville, in December of the following year remov- ing to Beggs, Oklahoma, from there coming to Sapulpa, October 1, 1913. During all these years he had devoted his entire attention to the work of his profession, and, in gaining valuable experience, had also been able to secure a competency.

In 1904 Mr. Albertson was united in marriage with Miss Nora Johnson, who was born in Tennessee, and they have three children: Margaret, Van H., Jr., and Jo Brady. Mr. Albertson and family are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South.

More or less active in the ranks of the republican party ever since reaching his majority. Mr. Albertson, on several occasions has been put forward by that organiza- tion for office, in 1910 being his party's candidate for county judge, and at present is serving most efficiently in the office of assistant county attorney. Professionally and personally he has many warm friends, and fraternally is identified with the Masons and the Modern Woodmen of America.

HON. GEORGE C. CRUMP. For a number of year actively identified with the bar of Holdenville, Hughet County, George C. Crump is now district judge of Hughes and Okfuskee counties. Judge Crump possesses many of the essential qualifications of the able lawyer, though his knowledge of the law and of men and affairs is based rather on practical experience than on books and theories He is not to be classified as an armchair lawyer. He is a clear thinker, a patient listener, a sound reasoner, and above everything else his friends and his fellow mem- bers of the bar give him credit for possessing in an eminent degree the judicial temperament.

He was born in St. Clair County, Missouri, March 30, 1875, a son of Edward C. and Angeline (Childers) Crump. His father was born in Harlan County, Kentucky, in May, 1831, and his mother was born near Nashville, Ten- nessee, in 1839. The paternal grandfather John E. Crump served for twenty-six consecutive years as district clerk of Harlan County, Kentucky, and afterwards moved to Carroll County, Arkansas, before the war and later to Boone County in the same state, where he died. Edward C. Crump and wife were married in Carroll County, Arkansas, and during the war they moved into Missouri. At the first regular election after the war Edward C. Crump was elected district court clerk of Carroll County, Arkansas, but as he did not return the office was given to his brother G. J. Crump. Edward C. Crump from: the close of the war until his death in May, 1905, was a farm renter. His wife closely followed him in death, passing away in August, 1905. Of their twelve children two died young, and seven are now living, and there has been no death to break the circle of the children for the past forty-one years.

Judge Crump lived on the home farm in Southern Missouri until he was fourteen years of age, and then began his course in the university of hard knocks. Itt was an experience which well fitted him for dealing with men and with material difficulty. He worked for a num- ber of farmers, was also at one time a coal miner, was a railroad worker, and it is related that at one time he walked sixty miles from Hickory County, Missouri, to Quincy, Illinois, to secure a position.

At the age of twenty-one he began the reading of law with his brother W. J. Crump at Harrison, Arkansas. This brother is now a well known lawyer of Muskogee. Admitted to the bar at Harrison in 1898, Judge Crump practiced at Jasper, Arkansas, from July of that year to February of the following year, and in 1899 came to Muskogee, soon afterward located at Wewoka, and in 1908 established his permanent home at Holdenville in Hughes County. He practiced law steadily until elected district judge in 1914, and began his official duties in that responsible position January 11, 1915.

Judge Crump has had much part in local and state politics as a democrat. He was a delegate to the National Convention at Denver in 1908. In 1907 he established the first newspaper in Seminole County, known as the Wewoka Democrat, which he afterwards turned over to other parties. He is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church South, is a thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason, having membership in the Consistory at McAlester and the Mystic Shrine at Okla- homa City.

On December 30, 1900, Judge Crump married Olive Bernard, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. John F. Bernard.

On January 17, 1916, Governor Williams appointed Judge Crump a member of the Supreme Court Commis- sion of Oklahoma. Those who have had occasion to fol- low the services of Judge Crump as a judge credit him with an almost intuitive knowledge of right and wrong, and he is by all means concerned with getting at the truth of any controversy before him and weighing out full jus-

Franklin E, Kerimamer

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tice to all litigants. He is a hard worker in clearing up his court calendar and in avoiding delays for unim- portant technical reasons. His standing as a judge is well indicated by the fact that he has frequently been called outside his own district to preside over the trial of important cases. Judge Crump and family reside in a comfortable home at Holdenville, he also owns property at Muskogee but it is noteworthy that he spends more money on others than on himself.

FRANKLIN E. KENNAMER. Probably no man in the former Chickasaw Nation clings more faithfully to the delightful pastime custom of the pioneers in the matter of hunting than does Mr. Kennamer. Many times each year he forgets for the time being the knotty problems of law that have so engrossed him in the successful practice of his profession-problems that have involved issues of striking import under a form of state government still in an experimental stage and men charged with the viola- tion of statutes prohibiting all manner of offences-for- gets the assembling of men in a modern cosmopolitan community and harks back to the period when the nation was young, and flees to the heart of nature that was the hunting ground of the carefree red men of half a century ago. This fact in the life of Mr. Kennamer is important for it illustrates a phase of his character that is refreshing, and displays therein a measure of romance of the sort that flourished and was mellow among a his- toric tribe that has been practically absorbed in the cosmos of Caucasian superiority. It was the hunting grounds last of all that the Indians were loth to sur- render. Kennamer is an intermediary, standing fig- uratively for an eminence that inclines on the one hand toward the forest primeval, and on the other toward towering buildings and the marts of commerce.

Slow and droll of speech, Mr. Kennamer is a type of the old South. Trained in law and ready of wit, he is a type of the frank, progressive westerner. It is worthy of mention that he is a republican in politics. Although a native of Alabama, his father, Seaborn F. Kennamer, declined to support the cause of the Confederacy and en- listed as a soldier in the Union army. The elder Kenna- mer was a native of Marshall County, Alabama, and he died at Guntersville in that county, June 16, 1915. The ancestors of the family were from England, and four brothers of them established themselves at a place in Alabama afterwards known as Kennamers' Cove. Mr. Kennamer's mother was Elizabeth Mitchell, and her parents were native Tennesseeans who migrated into Alabama when she was quite young.

Franklin E. Kennamer was born in Alabama in 1879. He had his early education in the public schools of his native community and in a private college at Scottsboro, Alabama, which he attended two years. During that time in Scottsboro he also studied law in the office of Virgil Bouldin, one of the leading lawyers of his day in that section of the state. In 1898 Mr. Kennamer came to Indian Territory and remained one year, returning to Alabama where he taught school for two years. In 1901 he returned to Indian Territory and there took up teach- ing, continuing in the work for three years longer. In 1905 he was admitted to the bar and began the prac- tice of law in Madill as a partner of G. E. Rider. This partnership was of short duration, and in 1908 he be- came the associate of Charles Coakley. This partnership has continued down to the present time, save for a period during which Mr. Coakley was county attorney of Mar- shall County. The firm of Kennamer & Coakley has con- ducted a large amount of Indian land litigation and has been interested in many important criminal cases. It represents locally the Rock Island and Frisco rail-

road lines, and all considered is one of the foremost legal firms in the county. Mr. Kennamer has been three times city attorney of Madill.

On April 8, 1903, Mr. Kennamer was married at Tisho- mingo to Miss Lillie Florence. They have four children, Opal, Juanita, Franklin E., Jr., and Phillip Kennamer.

In Mr. Kennamer's immediate family there were six sons and three daughters. All are living today. T. J. Kennamer is a mail contractor at Birmingham, Alabama. C. B. Kennamer is a lawyer at Guntersville, Alabama, the old family home, and he once served as assistant to United States District Attorney O. D. Street of Alabama. J. S. Kennamer is a clerk in the postoffice department at Washington. D. W. Kennamer has a post in the Depart- ment of Commerce and Labor at Washington. S. R. Kennamer is postmaster of Guntersville. Miss Mary lives with her brother at Guntersville. The remaining sisters of Mr. Kennamer are Mrs. Barton Noel, of Boaz, Alabama, and Mrs. Mattie Smith.

Mr. Kennamer is a member of the Commercial Club, the Civic League and the Good Roads Club, while his fraternal relations are confined to the Medill Lodge of the Woodmen of the World. He is very much interested in agricultural activities, and is the owner of some splendid farm land in the county as an incentive to the advancement of a general enthusiasm for agriculture. He has a nice home in Madill.

How Mr. Kennamer is regarded in his home locality is well indicated by a felicitous editorial which appeared in the Marshall County News-Democrat in July, 1915: "A profound respect and constant admiration in the hearts of the many good men of Marshall County for F. E. Kennamer have made him the great man in the legal profession that he is today. His knowledge of the law and ability to express himself in open court is greatly due to the love his fellow men have bestowed upon him. Thus great men are made or ruined. No man, however high in the affairs of the world, dislikes the kind words of a friend. On the other hand, uncom- plimentary things have the reversed effect. Nothing is more applicable than this little verse:

'If with pleasure you are viewing

A piece of work a man is doing, And you think praise is due him,

Now's the time to slip it to him,

For he cannot read his tombstone when he's dead.'

"Kennamer has made a great record in the courts of Southern Oklahoma as a trial lawyer. He has defended many cases where the charges were so grave in their nature that conviction seemed inevitable. But Kenna- mer was always there on trial day with the full facts and both sides of the story, thus preventing innocent men from serving sentences in the state prison or meeting disgraceful death on the scaffold. To give the devil his dues, it is quite true that he has made enemies, some because of the narrow vision of envy and some because of his power to reveal facts that were not flattering to their pride. The respect and good will of his friends, with the talents bestowed by the powers of heaven, have made him the great lawyer and man that he is today. He is a kind and loving father and husband, and a friend to his friends."

C. WILBUR B. HINDS. If it be admitted that "eter- nal vigilance is the price of liberty," then Colonel Hinds, as he is familiarly known to his troops of friends, had fully earned the broad liberty of thought and action that denotes and has definitely expressed the character and worthy achievement of the man as he stands forth as one of the world's productive workers. His career

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HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA

has been marked by multifarious endeavors and wide ex- perience; his is a strong and positive nature; his a well disciplined mind of high intellectual attainments; he has been a consistent leader of public sentiment and action; he has won large material success and has thereafter felt the buffeting of ill winds; he has been prominent in political and general civic affairs and his influence has been ever benignant; and he has been specially prominent in the editorial department of news- paper publication. The Colonel now holds a responsible clerical position in the office of the Secretary of State of Oklahoma, has been a resident of this state from the year of its admission to the Union, is well known throughout its borders and has been zealous and en- thusiastic in exploiting its manifold advantages and attractions-a loyal and public-spirited citizen to whom it is a pleasure to accord recognition in this history of the vital and progressive young commonwealth.

The original progenitors of the Hinds family of America came from Wales as members of the colony of Lord Baltimore, and from the first settlement, in Maryland, there sprang three different branches-one being early established in Maine, another in Kentucky, and the third having become prominent and influential in the State of Mississippi, where Hinds County was named in honor of one of its distinguished representa- tives. Colonel Hinds is a descendant of the line that early found representatives in Kentucky. He whose name initiates this article is a son of Jacob and Susan (Markland) Hinds.

He early was identified with newspaper work, having gained practical experience through service, during his vacations, as a reporter on a paper called the State, at Columbia, South Carolina. In 1896 he founded at Mattoon, Illinois, the Morning Star, and of this paper he continued editor and publisher until 1902, when the plant was destroyed by fire, with a loss of fully $25,000. His success had been unequivocal up to the time of this financial disaster, which virtually compelled him to start anew. Thereafter he served for some time as correspondent for leading Chicago daily papers from Springfield the capital city of Illinois. The Colonel's capacity for work is equalled by his versatility and re- sourcefulness, and he was soon found prominently con- cerned with the development of the oil industry, with which he was actively identified five years, within which period he traveled over prospective and producing oil fields in Ohio, Indiana, Texas, Wyoming and Alaska. In 1906 he had accumulated in this business a sub- stantial competency, fully $50,000, but market manipu- lations in a brief time left him virtually bankrupt. Vital, optimistic and determined of purpose, the word discouragement has ever been on the index expurgato- rius in the life of Colonel Hinds, and when misfortune has come to him he has but worked the harder and cast defiance in the face of adverse fate. Resuming his association with newspaper work, he was thereafter an attache in turn of the Post-Intelligencer of Seattle, Washington; the Sun of San Diego, California; and the Salt Lake Herald, in the metropolis of Utah. For eight months he served as representative of the Asso ciated Press in Salt Lake City and Denver, and in 1907 he indicated his approval of the newly admitted State of Oklahoma by here accepting the position of political editor of the Oklahoma Leader, in the City of Guthrie. Through this association and liis effective services in the connection he gained a state-wide repu- tation and acquaintanceship, and he made the Leader justify its name in its influence during the formulative period of the history of the new commonwealth. From 1911 to 1915 he was editor of Husonian, at Hugo, the

county seat of Choctaw County, and in the spring of the latter year he resigned this position to accept that of which he is now the incumbent, in the office of the secretary of state of Oklahoma, this preferment being due him alike on account of his ability and the large influence he has wielded in political affairs in the state. The Colonel has but one hobby, and that is work. Of him it may be consistently said, as of a distinguished English statesman, that he can "toil terribly,"' and in such application he finds definite satisfaction rather than in seeking periods of rest or so-called vacations. He has been indefatigable in his efforts to exploit the interests of the various towns and counties in which he las resided in Oklahoma, and this loyal civic attitude has been maintained by him since he established his residence in the capital city of the state, upon assum- ing the present official position.

Convictions resulting from close study of economic and governmental policies have made Colonel Hinds a stalwart, effective and uncompromising advocate of the principles of the democratic party, and he has been influential in its councils and campaign activities in various states of the Union. In 1902 he was candidate for Congress from the Eighteenth District of Illinois, but was defeated by Hon. Vespasian Warner, who later . served as United States commissioner of pensions. Colonel Hinds was a member of the Democratic State Central Committee of Illinois and chairman of his party's executive committee for the Eighteenth Con- gressional District, besides having been chairman of several delegations to the state conventions of the democratic party in Illinois. While in school and col- lege he received a number of medals for oratorical skill, and his ability as a public speaker later came into. effective play in his work in various political campaigns in which he took the stump. Thus he was found an active supporter of William Jennings Bryan as a cam- paign speaker in the national campaign of 1896, and in 1900 he was again prominent as a speaker of force and influence in advancing the interests of his party in the national campaign of that year. He has been a cam- paign worker in every county in Illinois and Kentucky, and in the latter state was a vigorous worker in the Goebel campaign for governor. Incidental to the cam- paign of 1914 in Oklahoma, Colonel Hinds was called to the capital city of the state by the democratic cam- paign committee at a juncture that was conceded to be one of critical order for the party contingent, and his skill and circumspection in the maneuvering of polit- ical forces and the formulating and direction of popu- lar opinion came into effective play at this time, as he labored with characteristic ability and enthusiasm as assistant manager of the democratic press bureau of the state during a strenuous period of three weeks, and contributed greatly to the efficiency of the bureau's service, in the supplying of campaign literature to fourteen daily and more than 400 weekly newspapers, the result of this work having been potent in the in- suring of the splendid victory for the democratic party in Oklahoma in that spirited campaign. The genial temperament, sincerity and consideration of Colonel Hinds have gained to him a host of friends in political, business and social circles, and his name is still per- mitted to remain enrolled on the list of eligible bach- elors. At Mattoon, Illinois, he still maintains affilia- tion with Lodge No. 495 of the Benevolent and Pro- tective Order of Elks and he has been identified with various other civic organizations of representative

character.

FRED R. LINTON. From the turbulent scenes of the Kansas City Board of Trade, where with other men he

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HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA

experienced the financial reverses and alternately the pleasures of wealth, Mr. Linton came six years ago and established himself in the then unassuming but prosper- ous City of Chickasha. At that time he had not yet recovered from his previous reverses, and was $10,000 in debt. He determined to apply to the grain business in Oklahoma the same industry and tact which he had employed in his business career at Kansas City. The success he has made in Chickasha is best attested by the books of the Linton Grain Company, of which he is pro- prietor, and which show that he handled more than $1,000,000 worth of wheat in the first two months of 1915 and that the business of a day during that period ran from $23,000 to $94,000. His is principally export busi- ness, aud he buys wheat in carload lots from all over Oklahoma and Kansas. In order to serve the local trade he conducts a $20,000 modern elevator plant in Chickasha.

Fred R. Linton was born in Washington County, Illi- nois, in 1866, a son of Benjamin and Susan A. (Death) Linton. His father, a native of Wilmington, Ohio, was a general merchant and lumber and grain dealer, and died in 1881. The grandfather, Nathan Linton, was the first settler in Clinton County, Ohio, where he surveyed and platted the county and built the first brick house, and lived to the venerable age of ninety years. A history has been written of the Linton family in America, showing its first ancestors to have located in Pennsylvania as Quaker settlers prior to the Revolutionary war. Reunions of the family are held annually in Philadelphia.

Mr. Linton received his primary education in the pub- lic schools of Illinois. An endowment of unusual energy and enterprise sent him into the field of business when still a boy. At the age of fifteen he was a marker in the Board of Trade of Kansas City, with an ambition event- ually to become a member of that organization. This ambition was realized at the age of nineteen, when he was the youngest man to hold a seat in the board. The year he was twenty-one brought his first important suc- cess, when he netted $40,000 from his operations. The following year this fortune was lost, and for a few years his career was filled with successes and adversity, leading up to the disastrous flood of 1903, when practically all his holdings were washed away. It required several years to re-establish himself, and some of his obligations were not paid until after he came to Oklahoma in 1909. For a year before locating in Chickasha Mr. Linton was engaged in the banking business at Montrose, Missouri.

In Chickasha he is well located with reference to the grain belt and railroad facilities, and his business has grown to enormous proportions. The knowledge he acquired on the board of trade has been applicable here and the business probably leads all others of its kind in towns of this size in the West. Mr. Linton is also one of the thirty stockholders in the American Coal Refining Company of Denver, Colorado, which is operated with a capitalization of $300,000. This company controls new processes by which ingredients are taken from coal and manufactured into products which have a great demand in various commercial industries and from which large profits are realized.

Mr. Linton was married at Parkersburg, West Vir- ginia, in 1887, to Miss Sue E. Rathbone, daughter of Col. W. P. Rathbone, a distinguished West Virginian. Mrs. Linton died after becoming the mother of four children, all of whom are also deceased. The oldest child, a boy of twenty-one, died in a field near Chickasha in 1913 while learning the occupation of farmer. In June, 1909, Mr. Linton married Miss Sadie C. Tully of Kansas City. W. H. Miller, late secretary of the Kansas City Board of Trade, married a sister of Mr. Linton, and she is still a resident of Kansas City.

Mr. Linton is a member of the Oklahoma Grain

Dealers' Association and the Grady County Farm Bureau and Chickasha Chamber of Commerce. He is essentially a home man and has little to do with clubs and lodges. At Fifteenth Street and Minnesota Avenue in Chickasha he has built a $14,000 home of Oklahoma granite and stucco. The structure is one of the finest in the city, and thoroughly modern.

CHARLES C. JULIEN. It has been customary to speak of men who have raised themselves to honorable stations in life without the aid of wealth or influential friends, as "self-made." Such an individual is Charles C. Julien, who started out in life with nothing but his ambition and his determination to succeed. That his desire has been accomplished is evidenced by the fact that he is not only one of the leading members of the bar of Washington County, but also one of the prominent business men of Bartlesville, where he is largely interested in the oil industry.

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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