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 73

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 73

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George L. Mann spent his early youth chiefly in La- fayette County, Missouri. Besides the commou schools

louS. Willingham

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he attended the Western Normal College at Bushnell, Illinois, and he read law at Lexington, Missonri, under Judge John E. Ryland. He was admitted to the bar in 1855 at the age of twenty-four and soon afterward located and began practice at Osceola in Sonthwestern Missouri. When the State Board of Bar Examiners was created in Missouri he was one of its first members by appointment from the Supreme Court.

In 1907 Mr. Mann gave up his extensive practice in Missonri and moved to Oklahoma, locating at Sapulpa, and from there going to Holdenville in June, 1911. He continued the practice of law until April, 1915, and then retired to look after his private interests. In poli- tics he has always been a democrat, and while living in Missouri served as prosecuting attorney of St. Clair County. He also made the race for district judge while in Creek Connty, but in that election the republicans seenred a majority. Mr. Mann is an active member of the Baptist Church and has served as a deacon almost con- tinnously for thirty years.

On June 5, 1895, he married Miss Anna E. Shotwell of Richmond, Missouri, where she was born March 25, 1861, danghter of J. W. and Julia (Devlin) Shotwell. The three children of Mr. and Mrs. Mann are: George L. Jr., at home; Elizabeth L., who is a student in Hardin Col- lege at Mexico, Missonri; and Horace, at home.

JOSHUA S. COSDEN. One of the energetic and pro- gressive young business men of Tulsa is Joshua S. Cosden, who, since coming to this city in 1911, has been identified with a number of the leading oil and refining enterprises here. He was born in Kent County, Maryland, July 8, 1882, and is a son of John and Anna Cosden. The father, a native of Maryland, was en- gaged in farming throughout an active career in his native state, and died in 1888, at the age of fifty-six years, while the mother, also born in that state, still snrvives. There were three children in the family, of whom two are living: John P. and Joshua S.

Joshua S. Cosden was reared on his father's farm and his education was secured in the public schools of Baltimore, Maryland. As a young man he entered busi- ness affairs on his own acconnt, and in 1908 came to the West, locating at Bigheart, Oklahoma, where he was connected with the oil business until coming to Tulsa in 1911. Here he has become one of the leading men of the oil industry, being president of Cosden & Company, the largest independent refinery in the Mid- dle West. His headquarters are in the Daniels Build- ing, Tulsa, where he has a suite of offices on the ninth floor.

Mr. Cosden is happily married and the father of several children.

JOSEPH S. DILLINGHAM. When the Chickasaw Nation was young and white men were few within its borders, the natives gave names of their own choosing and suit- ing their own fancies to many spots that since have become of historic interest. The region was dotted with prairies, some but a few miles in circumference, while others were of much greater area, but timbered lands covered the major portion of the Nation and the prairies were but breathing places and lookout points. Each prairie, therefore, was of some consequence in the scheme of development and each was given a name. It is an interesting thing in this day, as one travels over the old Nation, to hear men say that such and such a man lives on, near or beyond some particular prairie. Prairies are the guide-posts to travelers and, being numerous, they are an excellent substitute, to pioneers, for section lines and range and township numbers. Thirty to forty

years ago, when white immigration to the Indian conn- try began in earnest, cattlemen contracted as rapidly as possible for leases on prairie lands, and these became centers of the cattle industry.

Between Madill and Lebanon, both of which are now in Marshall County, there lay one of the most picturesque and fertile prairie spots of the Chickasaw Nation. On the edge of this prairie flowed some sparkling perennial springs of water, and in the rocky hills near them the Indians for a generation had killed innumerable rat- tlesnakes, so that the name of Rattlesnake Springs was given to the watering-place, and by that name it is known today and by that name the prairie is designated. At these springs in 1886, Joseph S. Dillingham, a young man from Grayson County, Texas, seeking a location for a cattle ranch in the Indian country, built a ranch honse and for many years thereafter conducted the Rattlesnake Springs Ranch, Since he has retired from the cattle business the property has passed into the hands of Samuel McKenzie, who was a pioneer settler of Cooke County, Texas, and of the Chickasaw country, and it is now known as the Sam Mckenzie Ranch. But the pretty legends and fascinating tales of the Indian period that marked the springs with interest are not forgotten, and neither has the name been erased from the memory of the men who here planted the seeds of progress.

The year of the establishment of this ranch by Mr. Dillingham, Sam and Ed Noble also embarked in the cat- tle business here, establishing a ranch on another sec- tion of the prairie, and these two ranches rank among the pioneers of this section of the prairie. Other ranch- men of the same prairie have been Holmes Willis, in his day one of the wealthiest and most influential men of the Chickasaw Nation; George Holford, whose name is almost a household word in the homes of hundreds of early settlers, and E. H. and J. H. Bounds, brothers, ambitious young Texans who early migrated to the In- dian country.

At the time of the settlement of Joseph S. Dillingham, there were two stores at the Town of Lebanon, one con- ducted by Mack Dorchester, who came to the Chickasaw Nation from Sherman, Texas, and one by Sam Evans, who probably was the pioneer merchant of the town. The principal trading and shipping point for this region was Sherman, Texas, forty-five miles away, although a post- office and log schoolhouse had been established at Oak- land, a few miles north, and Tishomingo, the Chickasaw capital, then an inland town, was twenty-five miles to the east. That year the Santa Fe Railroad was being built through the Chickasaw country and the towns of Marietta and Ardmore came into being. Settlements were widely scattered, cattle ranges reached to the horizon beyond the prairies, and the days of roundups and long trail drives were in their greatest era of prosperity. Before that the Chisholm Trail had been established and over it tens of thousands of cattle were driven to the Kansas and Missouri markets. Men of desperate character were to be found in every part of the country, thieving, plundering and killing, and this was the period of the United States marshal, who, operating out of the famous court of Judge Parker, at Fort Smith, was in the heyday of his usefulness. It was the year, in fact, when Andy Roff, a ranchman, well known all over the Southwest, was killed by the notorious Lee boys, rival cattlemen, and this murder and the subsequent death of the Lee boys after a long and rigorous chase gave the late Heck Thomas, a noted United States marshal, a reputation which extended to the farthest habitations of keepers of the peace in this country.

Joseph S. Dillingham was born at Kentuckytown, Gray- son County, Texas, in 1865, a son of James H. Dilling-

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HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA

ham, a native of Kentucky, who with other men of his state settled in Grayson County, Texas, in 1855, was one of the first to engage in agricultural pursuits in that county, and was one of the founders of Kentuckytown, which was located near his home. Mr. Dillingham is a veteran of the Civil war, in which he fought as a Con- federate soldier, and is now living in peaceful retirement at Oakland, Oklahoma, aged eighty-four years. There were five children in the family: Joseph S., of this. notice; J. E., who is engaged in the general merchandise business at Madill; Mrs. Nina Cornelison, who is the wife of a cotton gin operator at Oakland; Fay, who is engaged in the decorating business at Fort Worth, Texas; and Leo, who is a resident of Manila, Philippine Islands.

Joseph S. Dillingham followed ranching until the es- tablishment of the Town of Madill, in 1901, shortly after which he became engaged in the real estate and farm loan business. In this line he has continued to be en- gaged with well-merited success, and has various other connections, one being with the Juanita Oil and Gas Company of Madill, of which he is president, and which has a flowing well in what is known as the Arbuckle field of Marshall County. Mr. Dillingham is a member of the Christian Church and of the Masonic lodge. He was one of the early members of the Blue Lodge at Oakland and has several times been master of the lodge. His Consistory membership is at McAlester. In politics a democrat, Mr. Dillingham has accepted two offices at . the hands of his party, those of city clerk and city treas- urer of Madill.

Mr. Dillingham was married in 1888 in Cooke County, Texas, to Miss Novia Blount, and they have eight chil- dren, among whom are: Monte, who is engaged in the gentlemen's furnishing business at Ardmore, Oklahoma; Cecil, who is employed in the First National Bank of Madill; and Mrs. Charles Lynn, who is the wife of a stockmau and farmer of Oakland.

RUFUS O. RENFREW. Liberal and progressive policies and clear vision have characterized the signally success- ful business career of Mr. Renfrew, and he has brought much initiative energy, much resourcefulness and mature judgment to bear in connection with the development of the substantial and important business controlled by the Renfrew Investment Company, of which he is president and the headquarters of which are maintained in the vigorous City of Woodward, judicial center of the county of the same name. As one of the public-spirited citizens and progressive business men of Oklahoma lie is entitled to special recognition in this history of the state of his adoption.

Mr. Renfrew was born in Caldwell County, Missouri, on the 6th of July, 1872, the place of his nativity having been the homestead farm of his parents, James P. and Ella (Black) Renfrew, an individual record concerning his father being given on other pages of this publication, so that a repetition of the family data is not demanded in the article here presented. The early education of Mr. Renfrew was acquired in the public schools of his native county and those of Barber County, Kansas, in which latter the family home was established when he was about fourteen years of age, in 1886. In 1894 he was graduated in the commercial department of the Central Normal College at Great. Bend, Kansas, and he devoted three years to teaching in the schools of Barber County, Kansas, and Woods County, Oklahoma, to which latter county his parents removed in the year 1893. In 1894-5 he served as deputy treasurer of Woods County, under the administration of his father, who held the office of treasurer of the county two years. For one year after retiring from the position noted, Mr. Renfrew was

engaged in the wholesale produce business at Alva, judi- cial center of Woods county, and from 1897 to 1899 he was a salesman in a retail mercantile establishment at that place. During the following five years he was asso- ciated with his brother-in-law, Dyas Galbois, in the fur- niture and undertaking business at Alva, and soon after severing his counection with this enterprise he removed, in March, 1905, to Woodward, the county seat of Wood- ward County, where he established himself in the abstract, loan and investment business, the enterprise proving a success from the time of its initiation and rapidly expanding in scope and importance. To facilitate fur- ther the extensive operations of the business he effected in 1912 the organization of the Renfrew Investment Company, which is incorporated under the laws of the state, with a paid-up capital of $25,000, the home office of the company being maintained at Woodward and being under the direct supervision of Mr. Renfrew, who has been the president of the company from the time of its incorporation.

The Renfrew Investment Company controls an exten- sive farm-loan business through Northwestern Oklahoma, and in its field of enterprise is rated as one of the leading concerns of the kind in the entire westeru part of the state, with a reputation that constitutes its best asset and gives to it inviolable claim to popular confidence and support. In addition to buying and selling land on a large scale the company also owns and operates a uum- ber of productive aud well improved farms in Western Oklahoma. Mr. Renfrew is a vigorous and aggressive executive and is the dominant force in directing the large affairs of the company which bears his name and which owes its high prestige and large success mainly to his effective policies and able administration.

Mr. Renfrew has not hedged himself in with restric- tions of mere personal or business success, but has shown himself to be most loyal and public spirited as a citizen, popular appreciation of this fact being shown when he was elected a member of the first city council after Wood- ward received its charter as a city of the first class. He continued his service as a member of this municipal body for seven consecutive years, during five of which he was president of the council. Within his period of service the city installed its municipal electric-light plant and its effective water and sewer systems, which are uni- formly admitted to be among the best in the state. Mr. Renfrew has infused much of his progressiveness and optimism into civic activities in Woodward and has been well fortified for the leadership that has manifestly been his in the directing of public sentiment and action. On January 1, 1916, he was elected president of the Woodward Commercial Club, to serve one year. He and his wife hold membership in the Presbyterian Church in their home city aud are active and liberal in the support of the various departments of its work. He is a promi- nent and appreciative member of the Masonic fraternity in Oklahoma, has completed the circle of the York Rite and has received also the thirty-third degree of the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite, besides being affiliated also with the Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine.

In a pioneer sod house near Alva, Woods County, Oklahoma, was solemnized, ou the 13th of February, 1898, the marriage of Mr. Renfrew to Miss Stella Long, who was born at Columbus, Kansas, on the 14th of November, 1885, and whose parents, Rev. Matthew T. and Etta (Noble) Long, were born in Indiana and became pioneers in both Kansas and Oklahoma, her father being a clergyman of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Mr. and Mrs. Renfrew have one child, Edith Lillian, who was born April 14, 1900.

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HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA

HENRY F. McLISH. The owner of a splendid farm and ranch three miles east of Minco, Henry F. McLish is a sturdy representative of the original stock of Old Indian Territory. He is a native of the Chickasha Nation, his father a white man and his mother a full blood Chick- asaw woman, and he is one of the members of the tribe who inherited a share of the great wealth so long held in common for the tribe, and has particularly distinguished himself by his ability not only to make secure the talents given him, but to use them thriftily and increase them by judicious and energetic use. He is one of the wealthy farmers of Grady County and has a family of which he may well be proud.

Henry L. McLish was born in the Chickasaw Nation in 1863, a son of Frazier and Julia (Tomtubby) McLish. His father was born in Tennessee of Scotch descent, and came to the Chickasaw Nation at an early date. He married Julia Tomtubby, whose parents were full blooded Chickasaws and came with the tribe when they emi- grated from the country east of the Mississippi River. There were three children born to Frazier and Julia McLish. One daughter is now deceased, another is Mrs. Charles Stewart of Wynnewood, Oklahoma, and the only son is Mr. McLish of Minco. Frazier McLish was a farmer and stock raiser and occupied a position of consid- erable importance in the old Chickasaw Nation, being captain of the Indian Militia. Both. he and his wife died when Henry McLish was little more than a child.

Consequently at the age of thirteen Mr. McLish went to live with his relatives, Mr. and Mrs. James H. Bond at Minco, and he lived with them and received a careful training under their direction until his marriage in 1894. Mr. McLish obtained most of his education at the Hawley Academy in Tishimingo under the direction of Doctor Hawley. His practical training came from Mr. and Mrs. James H. Bond. While living at their home he proved himself useful in all the branches of farming and stock raising, and each year was given a certain number of calves and colts, which were branded with his individual brand and constituted the nucleus with which he estab- lished himself in the stock business.

In 1894 Mr. McLish married Miss Cora Aber, daughter of J. W. Aber, who came from Illinois. After his mar- riage he started farming and stock raising on his own account at his ranch three miles east of the Village of Minco. There for more than twenty years he has con- tinued to live and has prospered steadily, and while acquiring a fair share of material wealth has also reared a good family and has made himself a progressive factor in the life of the community.

Mr. and Mrs. McLish have four children. The three daughters are Nina, Lena and Clara, the last being the wife of Earl Johnston of Minco. The one son is Glenn McLish. It was an unusual distinction when all three of the daughters graduated in the same class at El Meta Bond College at Minco in 1913. The daughters took the full course of the college in the arts and sciences and also in music. The youngest daughter had made such progress as to be able to graduate with her older sisters.

WYLIE SNOW is a prosperous young attorney of Man- gum, located here since January, 1913, when he engaged in general law practice. Though his stay here has been brief thus far, indications are that he is well on the way to success in his profession. He is a native Missourian, born in Davis County, that state, on July 26, 1884, and is a son of C. S. Snow, who was born in the vicinity of Lynchburg, Virginia, in 1856, and who now lives on a farm near Blair, Oklahoma.

When a young man C. S. Snow moved from Virginia to Davis County, Missouri, and there engaged in the

merchandise business. He continued thus occupied until 1886, when he went to Fort Worth, Texas, and there again took up merchandising. In 1889 he went to Ver- non, Texas, where he had a cattle ranch, and in 1905 he disposed of the place and went to Haskell, Texas, where he was associated with his son, Wylie, in the real estate business. He came to Blair, Oklahoma, and settled on a farm there, where he has since continued. He is a deacon in the Christian Church of which he has long been a member, and is a member of the Woodmen of the World. His political affiliations are with the democratic party.

Mr. Snow married Lillias McLeod, who was born in mid-ocean, while her parents were en route from Austra- lia to Boston, Massachusetts, in 1859. They have six children. Wylie Snow of this review is the eldest. Walter is a merchant in Blair, Oklahoma. Juanita is a teacher in Clinton, Oklahoma. Gladys is engaged in the teaching profession in Devol, Oklahoma. Robert Stillinan is on the farm with his father, and Helen attends the Mangum High School, making her home with her brother Wylie.

In Vernon, Texas, Wylie attended the public schools, and he was graduated from the high school in that place in 1904. In that year he engaged in the real estate business in Haskell, Texas, being associated with his father in that enterprise, and was so occupied for three years. In 1907 he withdrew from that field and came to Grier County, establishing a general merchandise store at Jester, Oklahoma, which he conducted for a year. Mr. Snow had made up his mind by that time that he wanted to study law, and he accordingly. enrolled in Mercer University, Macon, Georgia, and was graduated from the law department with the class of 1910, the degree of LL. B. being awarded to him at that time. He began the practice of his profession in Blair in 1910 and in Janu- ary, 1913, came to Mangum, where he has since conducted a thriving general practice. He maintains offices in the Hawkins Building, suite 5.

While at Blair Mr. Snow served as city attorney, and is now filling the office of justice of the peace. He is a democrat, and a member of the Christian Church of Mangum, serving the church on its board of deacons, and being assistant superintendent of the Sunday school. His fraternal memberships are with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, Mangum Lodge No. 208, the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, Mangum Lodge No. 1169, and he has membership in the Grier County Bar Association.

On September 1, 1913, Mr. Snow was married to Miss Lena Cardwell, in Granite, Oklahoma. She is a daughter of W. E. Cardwell, now living in Granite, and connected with the Oklahoma State Reformatory. Mr. and Mrs. Snow have one child, Joy La Verne, born June 20, 1915.

The Snow family comes of sturdy German ancestry, the first of the name to settle on American shores having come soon after the Revolution. They made their first home in Massachusetts, and a branch of the family moved to Virginia. It was this line from which the sub- ject and his family come, while another branch has won a creditable place for itself in eastern states.

CURTIS R. DAY, PH. G., M. D. An ex-dean of the medical department of the University of Oklahoma, Curtis R. Day, Ph. G., M. D., has worked out a career typically American in character. Born a farmer's son, his ambitions early carried him into the realm of medi- cine, and after securing through his own efforts the means with which to pursue his professional studies. entered upon the practice of his calling with such de- termination and assiduity that he soon attracted to himself the favorable attention of the profession and the public alike, and has since steadily advanced to a commanding position among the medical men of Okla-

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HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA

homa. His success in his chosen vocation is the more remarkable, in that he is the only member of his family, so far as is known, who has engaged in the practice of the medical profession.

Dr. Curtis R. Day was born at Warrensburg, Mis- souri, December 3, 1866, and is a son of Joseph M. and Jane C. (Buxton) Day. On his father's side he is of English and German descent, and on the maternal side of French and English ancestry, and the American progenitors of both families came to this country prior to the War of the Revolution, settling in Virginia. Both families, also, have been noted for their longevity, two of the Days having lived to be more than 100 years of age, while a number of others passed the mark of four score years and ten. Joseph M. and Jane C. Day were both born in North Carolina and were brought to the West as children by their parents, the families being pioneer settlers of Missonri. As a young man, Joseph M. Day was engaged for several years in teaching school, in which vocation some of the other members of the family had also labored, but later turned his attention to agricultural pursuits, farming having been the principal family occupation. Both he and the mother live at Edmond, Oklahoma, hale and hearty in their eightieth year.

Curtis R. Day was reared on his father's farm in the vicinity of Warrensburg, Missouri, and there his pri- mary education was secured in the public schools. Later this was supplemented by a conrse at the State Normal School, Warrensburg, and when he left that institution he began to teach school in the country in order to gain the means necessary to prosecnte his medical studies. Entering Beaumont Hospital Medical College -now the medical department of St. Louis University- he was graduated in March, 1891, with the degree of Doctor of Medicine, and at once entered upon the practice of his profession at Mayview, Missonri, where, with the exception of one year at Lexington, Missonri, he was engaged in his calling for nine years, from 1891 until 1900. During this time he served as secre- tary of the Board of Pension Examiners of Lafayette County, Missouri, and in 1900 was honored by election to the vice presidency of the Missouri State Medical Society.

Leaving Missonri in Jannary, 1901, Doctor Day re- moved to Edmond, Indian Territory, where he engaged in general practice, and while located there, in 1906, was given the degree of Pharmaceutical Graduate by the Ohio Institute of Pharmacy. At Edmond, as else- where, his abilities were speedily recognized, not only as a physician, but as a man of sterling ability who could be depended upon to represent his city's best interests, and during 1903, 1904 and 1905 he served in the capacity of city treasurer. In 1907 he was elected to represent Oklahoma Connty in the First State Legislature of Okla- homa, in which body he was known as a working member, serving on the committees on public health, sanitation and practice of medicine; education, pure food and drugs, and dentistry.

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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