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 72

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 72

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Mr. Julien was born at Delphi, Indiana, March 4, 1874, and is a son of William R. and Julia A. (Cline) Julien. His father, born May 17, 1834, was reared on an Indiana farm and was engaged in agricultural pursuits in that state when the Civil war came on. He enlisted in 1861 in Company D, Eighth Indiana Cavalry, an organization with which he served four years, participating in many hard-fought engagements in one of which he was wounded and, falling into the hands of the enemy, was sent to Andersonville Prison. When his military career was ended he returned to his Indiana farm and remained there until 1876, when he came to Barton County, Kansas. In that locality he pre-empted a claim, which le subse- quently developed into a fine property, although he moved to Cherryvale, Kansas, in 1880. He continued as a farmer during the remaining years of his life, and died at Bartlesville, Oklahoma, February 22, 1914, while on visit. Mrs. Julien, who was born in Indiaua in October, 1834, still survives and makes her home at Bartlesville. She is a member of the Baptist Church, in the work of which she has been active, as was also her husband. They were the parents of three children, namely : Eva, who is the wife of James Brannach, of St. Louis, Missouri; Stella, who is the wife of Eli Wade, of Bartlesville; and Charles C., of this notice.

Charles C. Julien grew up on his father's farm in Kansas, and secured his early education in the country schools, this being supplemented by a course in a com- mercial college at Kansas City, Missouri. He received his diploma from Spaldings' Commercial College, in 1891, and was desirous of going on with his education, but found himself without finances and was therefore com- pelled to seek employment. Eventually he identified him- self with the Standard Oil Company, securing employ- ment as the driver of a tank wagon, and in this capacity, during the next four years, earned the money to take him through college to his cherished law degrec. In 1895 he entered the University of Kansas and was graduated from that institution in 1898 with the degree of Bachelor of Laws. During the year that followed he practiced in Kansas City, then removed to Coffeyville, Kansas, and practiced two years, and in 1902 came to Bartlesville, Oklahoma, which has since been his field of practice and the scene of his success. While he has given his atten- tion primarily to the duties of his profession, he has not been indifferent to the business opportunities which have presented themselves, particularly in the line of gas and oil, being at this time the owner of two leases and secre- tary of four or five oil companies. He is known as a thorough, learned and capable attorney, with a high standing in his profession, and as an astute and capable business man, far-seeing and with excellent judgment.

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He is a republican in his political views, but has found little time from the duties of his profession and his busi- ness responsibilities to devote to public affairs aside from performing the duties of good citizenship. He is a thirty-second degree Mason, belouging to the York Rite aud Scottish Rite orders aud the Knights Templar, and also holds membership in the Knights of Pythias and the Moderu Woodmen of America.

Mr. Julien was married in 1900 to Miss Mary Grace Bly, who was born in Indiana, and to this uniou there have been born two sons: Jacob aud William.

NEWMAN F. JACOBS. A splendid type of Creek citi- zenship, Newman F. Jacobs is a prosperous farmer and has made himself a factor iu affairs of public importance in his home community in Hughes Couuty. He has spent practically all his life iu that one locality and has stood sturdily for improvement and progress aud especially the advancement of his own people.

He was born at Wewoka, Oklahoma, August 15, 1885, a son of Frank and Jennie (Coker) Jacobs. His father was born on Honey Creek, four miles from Checota, and on one side he was of Creek and on the other side of Germau ancestry. Frauk Jacobs spent all his life in a store until about fifty years of age, when he took up farming and stock raising, and was oue of the success- ful men of the Creek country. He died at his home three miles west of Holdenville July 7, 1909, at the age of seventy. Mrs. Jennie Jacobs was born in the Seminole country and has always lived in that community. Their six children were: Mattie, wife of Ira Foster of Holden- ville; Newman, who lives near Holdenville; Sarah, wife of George Perrymau, Jr., of Tulsa; Josie, wife of Edward Haikey of Tulsa; Willie, who lives with her mother three miles west of Holdenville; and Louis.

Newman F. Jacobs throughout his life has had his home within two miles of the place where he now resides. As a boy he attended the Emahaka Mission or Academy and the Indianola Business College at Holdenville. For a time he was in the government service, and held other clerical positions, being now deputy clerk of Hughes County. He has also served as township trustee and as a member of the school board of his district. For the last seven years Mr. Jacobs has occupied and tended his fine farm of 120 acres near Holdenville, and he also owns three other tracts of land in this section of Okla- homa. His home is situated one mile west of Holdeu- ville, ou a fine elevation that affords most healthful sur- roundiugs and is an attractive place in which to live and rear his family.

Mr. Jacobs is a deacon in the Indian Church of the Baptist denominatiou, and is affiliated with the Wood- men of the World. On May 29, 1904, he married Ella Monahwee. She was born fourteen miles west of Okmul- gee August 4, 1883, and is a fullblood Creek. Both her parents died before she was a year old, and she was reared aud educated at Muskogee. Mr. and Mrs. Jacobs have three children, William, Jesse and Warren.

JAMES WALT SMITH. There are few active newspaper men in Oklahoma who have had a broader and longer experience in the profession than Walt Smith, as he is familiarly known in his home community of Grandfield. Mr. Smith is proprietor and editor of the Grandfield Enterprise, and is also postmaster of the village. He is a pioneer in that section of Tillman County and his name suggests as much public spirit as is connected with any other individual in the county.

This branch of the Smith family originated in Eng- land, was brought to America before the Revolution, and became early identified with the State of Tennessee.

Walt Smith's father was W. H. Smith, who was born in Tennessee in 1831 and died at Dallas, Texas, in 1902. He came to Texas in 1860, was an early farmer in Smith County, and later conducted hotels at different points in the state. For four years he was a soldier in the Con- federate army from Texas. In politics a democrat, he was a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church aud of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. W. H. Smith married Mary Aun Bobbitt, who was boru in Tennessee in 1840 and died at Terrell, Texas, in 1900. -

Walt Smith was born in Smith County, Texas, sixteen miles east of Tyler December 10, 1865. His training in the public schools was acquired in Smith County, Wood County and Van Zandt County, Texas. Iu the meantime his professional training had begun at the age of ten years, by an apprenticeship in the office of the Mineola Monitor at Mineola, Texas. He was then successively employed on the Wills Point Chronicle, the Terrell Times- Star for three years, aud for three years held "cases"' on the old Dallas Morning Herald at Dallas. From 1884 to 1886 he was a typesetter on the El Paso Evening Tribune. Returning to Terrell in 1886, he helped estab- lish the Review, but a few months later went to Waco and was foreman of the University Printing Company up to 1888. After that he was case man for the Western Newspaper Union at Dallas, subsequently foreman and editor of the patents, after which he was for one year with the Dallas News and spent one year in a job print- ing house at Dallas. This brief record of his activities brings him up to the year 1899. At that time he became foreman of the Roswell Record at Roswell, New Mexico, but in a few months engaged in the mercantile business at Cleburne, Texas. Six months later he sold his inter- ests and was again identified with his trade on the San Antonio Express. Up to the fall of 1900 he had the agency for the St. Louis Globe-Democrat and the St. Louis Republican at San Antonio, and then bought a newspaper plaut at Kemp, Texas, was there nntil 1904, and then became proprietor of the Cisco Round Up, which he edited until 1907.

Having sold out his Texas interests, Mr. Smith re- moved to Kell, Oklahoma, in 1907. His first venture here was the Kell Enterprise. At that time Kell was in Comanche County and Oklahoma was still a territory. Both personally and through his newspaper he gave a strong support to the statehood movement. At that time Grandfield had not been placed on the map, and the site . was marked only by one or two farm houses. With the opening of the "Big Pasture"' a decided impetus to settlement and development was given, and one of the results was the founding of Grandfield as a central com- munity and business town. In 1909 Mr. Smith made his paper the Grandfield Enterprise. It supports the demo- cratic principles, and has a good paying circulation throughout Tillman and surrounding counties. Mr. Smith as a practical printer and newspaper man has supplied his office with an excellent equipment, and the newspaper home is on Main Street adjoining the postoffice.

Ever since coming to Oklahoma Mr. Smith has been a local leader in the democratic party. He was three times elected justice of the peace, was a member of the school board at Grandfield five years, and has sat as a delegate in a number of county and state conventions. He was appointed postmaster at Grandfield April 1, 1914. It is noteworthy that his was the first newspaper in the state to support Woodrow Wilson for the presidency. Mr. Smith is an elder in the Presbyterian Church, and is affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Modern Woodmen of America, the Knights of Pythias and the Knights of the Maccabees at Grandfield.

At Grand Saline, Texas, in 1893, Mr. Smith married

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HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA

Miss Jennie F. Florence. Her father, Sim Florence, is a newspaper man and also in the real estate and loan busi- ness at Grand Saline.

Sydney Smith, the only son and living child of Walt Smith, is now active manager of the Grandfield Enter- prise. However, he is best known as a poultry breeder and fancier of national reputation. He has exhibited his fowls in the biggest shows of the Southwest during the past two years, and has had his poultry in competition with 6,000 birds representing twenty-one different states, and they have won twenty-three first prizes out of a possible thirty. He has also won six sweepstake prizes in competition with all breeds. The breed which he has made the basis for his exceptional performances is the White Orpington. At the State Show of the American Poultry Association held at Muskogee under the auspices of the Oklahoma State Poultry Federation in 1914, there were 2,500 birds from ten states, and Sydney Smith won the governor's seventy-five-dollar cup for the best five birds in the show, all breeds and varieties competing, and also won three out of a possible five first prizes. He is prominent in poultry organizations, a member of the executive board of the Oklahoma State Poultry Federa- tion, president of the Tillman County Poultry Associ- ation, secretary of the Grandfield Poultry Association, vice president of the Elk City Poultry Association and vice president of the Southwestern Oklahoma Poultry Association.

Agnes Smith, the only daughter of Walt Smith, died at Kingston, Oklahoma, in 1913, the wife of Jack McCurdy, who is now a merchant at Elmer, Oklahoma.

HENRY Y. THOMPSON. Among the men whom Okla- homa City has long since learned to value and to like is Henry Y. Thompson, whose career as a high-minded lawyer has been identified with Indian Territory and Oklahoma nearly twenty years, the past ten years as a resident of Oklahoma City. As a clean, conscientious member of the legal profession, he built up a sub- stantial practice, and up to the time of his death, April 16, 1915, he served as county attorney for Oklahoma County. Mr. Thompson's ability as a lawyer placed him above pretense, and his fellow lawyers and clients recognized and esteemed his scorn of all trickery and his straightforward, ethical standards of conduct.

Henry Y. Thompson was born in Guernsey County, Ohio, June 4, 1855, a son of James and Sarah (Tullus) Thompson. His father, his grandfather and his great- grandfather were all born in Pennsylvania. Mr. Thompson finished his education in old Ohio College at Athens and also a collegiate institution at Marietta, Ohio. He entered upon the practice of the legal pro- fession before he was twenty-one years of age, and that has been the central fact in his career for more than thirty-five years. Soon after leaving college Mr. Thompson went to the states of Washington and Cali- fornia and lived there until 1896. That was the year he came to old Indian Territory, where he spent about eight years in practice, and he had since been identified with the bar at Oklahoma City. Mr. Thompson was long one of the recognized leaders in the republi- can party of his home city and state. From 1912 to 1914 he served as first assistant county attorney of Oklahoma County, and in 1914, as a republican, over- came a democratic majority in the county of about 1,200, and served up to his death in an office of the highest importance to all the people of the county. Mr. Thompson was esteemed by all classes and parties for his civic worth and legal attainments, was a high minded gentleman who strived to assist everyone to obtain a square deal, and in his official capacity de-

spised any attempt made by designing persons to use his office to their own advantage. In Masonry Mr. Thompson was a Knight Templar and was also affiliated with the Mystic Shrine.

At Checotah in Indian Territory, May 28, 1898, Mr. Thompson married Mrs. Fannie McDaniel. Five chil- dren were born to them, the first a son, living but a few months. The others, two sons and two daughters, are enjoying the excellent school advantages afforded by Oklahoma City.

Judge Thompson was failing in health for more than a year before his death, which was occasioned by a dormant liver and Bright's disease. The one great attainment of his profession was in reversing the de- cision of the Supreme Court of the United States in the case of the Board of County Commissioners of Oklahoma County v. Seymore Heyman. For full in- formation regarding this consult the West Publishing Company of St. Paul, Minnesota.

A. A. POWELL. In the great task of the twentieth century, the complete utilization of the farming resources of the nation and the general raising of the standards of country life, one of the importaut factors working under the auspices of the general government is the county agricultural agent. The first official of that type to be appointed and act in Washington County is A. A. Powell, who is a graduate in agriculture and stock hus- bandry from the Colorado Agricultural School at Greeley, and is not only an expert authority in his profession but a man with a great deal of capacity for leadership and in inspiring and encouraging better methods and more efficient system among the people with whom he works.

Mr. Powell was born on a farm in Phelps County near Rolla, Missouri, September 20, 1882, a son of J. F. and Jane A. (Allen) Powell, both of whom are natives of Kentucky, were married there, and came to Missouri about the time of the Civil war. They are now living on a farm near Rolla, Missouri. The seventh in a family of eleven children, A. A. Powell grew up in that pictur- esque district of the Ozark region in Southeru Missouri, lived at home until sixteen years of age, and gained his early education by attending a log school house near his father's home. He afterwards graduated in pedagogy from the Springfield Normal School, and for fifteen years was a successful teacher in the schools of Missouri and elsewhere. He afterwards attended the State College at Greeley, Colorado, from which he has his degree as Bach- elor of Scientific Agriculture. He left. Missouri and went to Colorado in 1908, and lived in that state until his removal to Oklahoma in 1912. After coming to Okla- homa Mr. Powell for a time had charge of the science branches in the Ramona High School, and while there conducted a special course in agriculture for two years. He was then appointed by the United States Agricul- tural Department county agent in Washington County, and now gives all his time to the work. He has been instrumental in persuading about fifty farmers of Wash- ington County to carry on demonstration and experiment in agricultural methods under the direction of the Agri- cultural Department and his personal supervision. He also has organized about a hundred boys' corn clubs in the county, and there are many exhibits which indicate the influence of his work in improving agricultural and live stock conditions in this part of the state.

Mr. Powell has 130 acres under lease adjoining the Village of Ramona, and his wife operates that as a farm. In 1908 he married Miss Maude Cave, who is a girl of the Ozark Mountain district of Missouri. They have a son named Arthur and also an adopted daughter named Lenore.

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HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA

BENEDICT MILLER. Attracted by the possibilities of the lumber business in a region adjacent to the mountain and timber lands of the old Choctaw Nation, Benedict Miller, Sr., of Kansas City, Missouri, established, in 1906, the first sawmill at the present Town of Millerton, and this resulted in the subsequent building of the community and the naming of it in houor of its founder. For over a half a century Wheelock Academy, now a Government school for Indian girls, had been in exist- ence in a beautiful forest two miles from the site of Millerton, and from the time of the building of the Arkansas and Choctaw Railroad, in 1902, there had existed a postoffice (mail crane station) at the place, this being named Parsons, in honor of W. L. Parsous, its founder, and for several years its postmaster. The Town of Millerton was platted on a tract of land that was the property of Mrs. Susan Parsons, the wife of W. L. Parsons, she being descended by blood from some of the historic old families of the Choctaw Nation.

The establishment of the sawmill made a town a prac- tical necessity, and Mr. Miller, assisted by his son, Bene- dict Miller, Jr., who came over the line from Marianna, Arkansas, where the Millers have large lumber interests, had the tract platted and sold lots, later erecting a hotel and a number of residences. Naturally, this settlement attracted merchants, the town grew until it reached con- siderable proportions and, a bank becoming a necessity, Mr. Miller and his son instituted a private enterprise known as the Bank of Millerton. In the following year, which was the year of statehood, the institution was made to conform to the new laws of statehood and became an approved state bank. The year 1907 produced a pauic, and this financial distress caused the failure of a Kansas City banking concern with which the Bank of Millerton was affiliated. This resulted in the first financial mis- fortune of the Town of Millerton, but the bank did not fail. In the same year the plant of the Miller company at Mariauna, Arkansas, was destroyed by fire, and when Mr. Miller returned to Millerton to make an examina- tion, he found that his bank had been burglarized. It was a year of misfortunes, but so stable and sound had been the foundation of the lumber mill that its business continued to grow and prosper. The source of supply was the timber country located only a few miles to the north and hard wood was purchased principally, although pine was also manufactured into lumber, and from this the box factory connected with the company obtained its raw material. Mr. Miller and his son also established in connection with the plant a wood alcohol distillery, and more recently the box factory has been superseded by a handle factory as well as a factory in which wagon material is made, the Miller interests now being the largest and most important in the thriving little Towit of Millerton.

Benedict Miller, Sr., was born in Germany, and at the age of thirteen years emigrated to the United States, landing at New Orleans. He then took passage up the Mississippi on a vessel which foundered near Natchez, Mississippi, nearly all on board being lost. The German lad was taken by a woman of that town, who kept and reared him until he was practically grown, when he went to Cincinnati, Ohio, there finding an opportunity to enter business on his own account. Later he lived at Chicago and Kansas City, and while at the latter place estab- lished his first sawmill, at Marianna, Arkansas, in 1888. Now, at the age of eighty years, he resides at Kansas City, but is still active in mind and alert in body, per- fectly capable, as in former years, of looking after his extensive Arkansas and Oklahoma interests. Mrs. Miller, also a native of Germany, survives at the age of seventy- seven years. They have been the parents of six chil- dren, as follows: Mrs. John F. Ryan, who is the wife of

a merchant at Millerton; A. T., who is associated with his father iu business at Millerton; Max D. and Thomas J., who are partners with their father in the lumber business at Marianna, Arkansas; Mrs. P. A. Rollert, who is the wife of a Kansas City merchant; Mrs. Etta Shaff- stall, who is a widow; aud Benedict, Jr.

Benedict Miller, Jr., was born at Paola, Kansas, in 1870, and there secured a common school education, fol- lowing which he spent two years in a business college at Kansas City. At the age of eighteen years he joined his father in the lumber business at Marianna, Arkansas, and continued in that line until a few years ago, when he bought the plant of the Idabel Light and Power Com- pany. That company had established the first light plant at Idabel, but it had been unsuccessful. In the meantime, the Millers, father and son, had purchased the business of the Smith Lumber Company and the Idabel Lumber Company, which they had consolidated under the latter name. On the property of the Smith company stood the plant of the light and power company, the stock of which was owned by about thirty business men of the town. When Mr. Miller took charge of the plant he increased and modernized its equipment, and later was granted a franchise by the town government, and purchased the property. The franchise was not granted him, however, until another one had been voted to three speculators from Kansas, who failed to establish a plant within the time fixed by the franchise and who aban- doned the project. Another election therefore was held and the vote was nearly unanimous in favor of the Miller franchise. Mr. Miller then proceeded to improve the plant and today it is all new and equipped with mod- ern machinery. He expects in a short time to establish an ice plant in connection with it.

Mr. Miller was married at Fort Scott, Kansas, Mrs. Miller having formerly been Miss Laura Bair of that city. They are members of the Presbyterian Church, and both are general favorites in social circles of Idabel. Mr. Miller belongs to the Oklahoma Gas and Electric Association, and was formerly a member of the Okla- homa and Arkansas Lumber Dealers' Association. The Miller home is one of the modern residences of Idabel.

GEORGE L. MANN. After thirty years of active prac- tice as a lawyer George L. Mann recently retired from the law. He was a prominent attorney in Southwest Missouri for many years, but since statehood has lived in Oklahoma.

Mr. Mann was born in Warren County, Missouri, Feb- ruary 14, 1861, a son of Josiah and Elizabeth (Moore) Mann. Josiah Mann was born in Missouri August 10, 1824, about three years after the state was admitted to the Union, and spent his long and useful life as a farmer. He was married in Lincoln County, Missouri, to Miss Moore, who was born in Virginia February 21, 1827, and was brought to Missouri by her parents about 1835. For many years the family resided in Warren County, but during the period of the Civil war they moved to St. Louis County, and from there in 1872 went to Lafayette County, and they spent their declining years in Lexing- ton. The mother died there March 29, 1899, and the father passed away at the age of eighty-two. Both were active members of the Baptist Church and the father was a lifelong democrat and a very strong partisan. They had seven children: Mary, wife of Thomas Mahan of Kansas City; Dr. J. A. of Wellington, Missouri; Joseph B., of Leadville, Colorado; Edgar P., who is an attorney for the Frisco Railroad Company at Springfield, Mis- souri; George L .; Dr. F. W. of Wellington, Missouri; and Robert L., a merchant at Wellington.

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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