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 75

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 75

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At St. Louis in 1893 Dr. Stephens married Miss Bertha M. Bickley, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. M. E. Bickley, her father having been a dry goods merchant, but now deceased, while her mother resides in Waterloo, Iowa. Dr. Stephens and wife have oue child, Earl Winifred, born May 1, 1895, a graduate of the Hastings High School and now attending the pharmaceutical depart- ment of the State University of Oklahoma.

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HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA

WILLIAM H. SLOAT. Judge Sloat is another of the effi- cient and thoroughly experienced men who was led to establish a residence in Oklahoma by reason of the development of the oil-producing industry in this sec- tion of the Union, and he first came to Indian Territory abont 1903. His long connection with the oil business had made his life so largely one of itinerant order that he finally severed his connection with the industry as au active executive, and he has become one of the represen- tative citizens and business men of Kiefer, Creek County, where he has been influential in public affairs and has been liberal and loyal in supporting those undertakings that have fostered social and material progress and pros- perity. He served as police judge in Kiefer from the year of the admission of Oklahoma to statehood, in 1907, until May, 1915, when he retired from this office, which he had signally honored by his able administration. He is still serviug, however, as a member of the board of education of this thriving little city, and is a director and the vice president of the Exchange State Bank of Kiefer, besides being the owner of a well equipped livery and automobile garage and being interested in oil-pro- ducing in Kansas.

Judge Sloat was born in Rock Island County, Illinois, on the 21st of July, 1856, and is a son of James and Isabelle (Lairi) Sloat, the former of whom likewise was a native of Illinois, in which state his parents were pioneer settlers, and the latter of whom was born in the State of New Jersey. Judge Sloat was bnt two years old at the time of his father's death, and was the young- est of the four children with whom the devoted and widowed mother soon afterward returned to her former home in New Jersey, where she passed the remainder of her life and where she was summoned to eterual rest in 1903, at the age of seventy-two years. Of the four children the subject of this review is the youngest; Augusta is the wife of John Bush, of Whitehouse, Hun- derton County, New Jersey; Josephine is the widow of William Hall and she likewise maintains her home at Whitehouse; and Joseph is a resident of the City of Bayonne, Hudson County, New Jersey.

Judge Sloat gained his early education in the public schools of the City of Newark, New Jersey, where he was graduated in the high school and where he continued to reside nntil he had attained to the age of twenty-five years. In New Jersey he entered the employ of the Standard Oil Company, and from a very subordinate posi- tion he soon won advancement and was finally made superintendent of tankage department for this great cor- poration, in the service of which he continued ten years. He then entered the employ of Reeves Brothers, represen- tative oil producers in the field about Alliance, Ohio, and after remaining with this firm for some time, in the capacity of tank man, he went to Warreu, Trumbull County, Ohio, and assumed the position of superintend- ent of construction for the Warren Boiler & Tank Com- pany, with which concern he remained about seventeen years, his specific executive service being in connection with the installation of oil tanks in the various oil fields of the country, so that no home life was possible for him. As a representative of this company he first came to what is now the State of Oklahoma in 1903 and he finally decided to provide for himself a "local habita- tion and a name," with the result that he cast in his lot with the present vigorous young commonwealth of Okla- homa and established his residence at Kiefer, Creek County. Here he opened, in 1907, a feed store, and after conducting the same one year he engaged in the livery business, with which line of enterprise he has here been successfully identified, besides which he has kept pace with modern progress and has amplified the scope of his operations by establishing a garage and providing

excellent automobile service for his patrons. He holds 8,000 shares in the Chanute Refining Company, at Chanute, Kansas, and thus has not severed entirely his association with the important liue of industrial enter- prise with which he was long identified in an active way.

Judge Sloat has exemplified in thought, word and deed his abiding faith in the principles and policies for which the democratic party has ever stood sponsor in a basic way, and he is one of its influential representatives in Creek County. As previously noted in this context, he served efficiently as judge of the police court of Kiefer from 1907 until his retirement from the office, in May, 1915. The judge is a well kuown and popular factor iu the business and social activities of his home town, and is affiliated with the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, the Fraternal Order of Eagles, the Tribe of Ben Hur, and the Order of Owls.

After years of detachmeut from domestic privileges, Judge Sloat, in 1900, made provision for an ideal home life, when he wedded Miss Bertha M. Pittman, who pre- sides most graciously over their attractive home. They have no children.

TOM HAMILTON. Colbert is a town with a permanent population. The floating element is practically un- known here. It is a place of substantial and well kept homes, and one where the curious and doubting may witness the onward march of the civilization of the American Indian. Tom Hamilton is by blood and birth one-half Chickasaw. In the best sense of the word he is a progressive American citizen, indeed, the real Amer- ican. He stands out as one of the leading citizens of the Colbert community. He is banker and postmaster in Colbert, and one of the most prominent men in the town. A business man to the core, he does not depend wholly upon the business world for his interest. He is a many sided mau, well developed and fit for lead- ership in any field.

Tom Hamilton was born in Panola County, Chicka- saw Nation, near the present Town of Yarnaby, on June 11, 1887. He is a son of John C. Hamilton, a white man of Missouri birth, and his mother was Manda (Benton) Hamilton, a woman of full Chicka- saw blood. They were married in 1884, and when their son Tom was still a very young child they died. The father of John C. Hamilton was Andrew Ham- ilton, a native Missourian.

The schools of Colbert afforded Tom Hamilton his early education, and he later attended the Chickasaw Rock Academy and the Earthman Business College of Whitewright, Texas. When he had completed his busi- ness training Mr. Hamilton secured a position as book- keeper in the Durant National Bank. He remained there until the organization of the Colbert Bank, when he accepted a position as bookkeeper with the new concern. He held that post for a year, when he was made cashier, the promotion coming in recognition of the unusual talent he displayed in matters of finance. For the past nine years Mr. Hamilton has held the po- sition of cashier of the First National Bank. In 1914 he was appointed to the office of postmaster of Colbert. In this he employs a competent assistant, and over- looks the affairs of the office, though giving his time mainly to his duties as cashier of the bank.

Mr. Hamilton is a democrat, staunch and firm, and he has given splendid service to the party thus far. His fraternal relations are confined to the Masons, the Odd Fellows and the Elks.

In 1906 Mr. Hamilton was married to Miss Cecil Bell of Colbert. They have four children. Tom, Jr., eight years old, is in school in Colbert. The others

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HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA

are Hazel, Gwendolyn and Alice, aged six, four and two years, respectively.

The Hamilton family is prominent in social circles in Colbert, and enjoys the confidence and friendship of the best people in the community.

THOMAS J. DYER. Possessiug the distinction of having been a member of the first colony to attempt settlement in the territory which now comprises the State of Okla- homa, Thomas Jefferson Dyer may be numbered among the pioneers of this commonwealth. During his career he has participated iu several eveuts which form inter- esting periods in Oklahoma's history, and has assisted to develop the agricultural resources of the state both in the earliest pioneer days and later as a resident of his present property, located ten miles north of Alva, in Woods County, where he has made his home since 1893.

Mr. Dyer was born August 20, 1857, at Des Moines, Iowa, and is a son of Samuel M. and Mary Elizabeth (Gilbrech) Dyer. His father was born in North Caro- lina, September 5, 1814, and was a lad of seven years when, in 1821, he removed with his parents to Terre Haute, Indiana. There he grew up and learned the tinner 's trade, which he followed at different poiuts in Indiana until 1851, at that time removing to Des Moines, Iowa, then only a military post, where he purchased a large tract of municipal property. During his residence of eighteen years at that place, Mr. Dyer became one of the promineut and influential citizens of the com- munity, serving four years as county treasurer and two years as county clerk of Polk County. In 1869 Mr. Dyer sold his Iowa holdings and removed to Jasper County, Missouri, but in 1870 left that community for the Osage Indian Reservatiou, where he bought a "'squatter's" rights to a claim. After two years of residence there, he learned that the Government contemplated the removal of the 300 "squatters" in the Osage Reservation, among whom were Samuel M. Dyer and his son Thomas J. He immediately wired to Carl Schurz, at that time secretary of the interior, asking his aid and influence iu allowing them to remain, but was answered by wire that they would be compelled to vacate the Indian lands, and they were subsequently removed by the military. Thomas J. Dyer still retains the correspondence which shows that he and his father were members of the first colony to attempt settlement in the territory comprising the pres- ent State of Oklahoma, a body of men who antedated the Payne Colony by seven years. He also owns a bill which was introduced in the Forty-second Congress by Isaac C. Parker, M. C., of Missouri, proposing the organization of the Territory of Oklahoma, dated February 5, 1872, which is supposed to have been the first bill in Congress which pertained to this state.

When it was necessary to make room for the Indians who were being removed from Kansas, Mr. Dyer, along with some of his fellow "squatters," moved just over the line into Kansas, and for several years leased land from the Indians for farming and grazing purposes. In 1885 he removed to Barber County, Kansas, and there continued to reside on a ranch until his death, which occurred June 22, 1886, in the faith of the Methodist Episcopal Church.

Samuel M. Dyer was married in 1839 to Miss Mary Elizabeth Gilbrech, who was born February 14, 1821, in Germany, and came to the United States in 1824 with her parents, John A, and Mary (Lemer) Gilbrech. She died at the "Tarrapin Ranch" in Harper County, Kan- sas, December 6, 1897. She was a faithful member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, the movements of which she always supported. Nine sons and four daughters were born to Samuel M. and Mary Elizabeth Dyer, as follows (all lived to maturity and reared families, with

the exception of two) : John Van Buren, born August 19, 1841, who is now a retired farmer of Sedan, Kansas; Ezekiel Benton, born January 20, 1843, died December 25, 1905; William Franklin, born June 8, 1844, met his death in a mine accident, May 30, 1906, was a veteran of the Civil war, having been a member of the Twenty- third Regiment, Iowa Volunteer Infautry; Samuel Mere- dith, born May 20, 1846, now a retired farmer and resi- dent of California; Hiram Jennings, born September 17, 1848, died April 27, 1904; Viretta Harris, born July 18, 1853, now the wife of Joseph Pitt, a farmer of Elgiu, Kansas;' James Madison, born September 20, 1850, who died May 5, 1853; Oscar Franklin, born May 3, 1855, now postmaster and a hotel man of Gazelle, California; Thomas Jefferson, of this review; Thompson Bird, born January 6, 1859, and now a railroad man of Provo, Utah; Mary Elizabeth, born September 5, 1861, who died March 15, 1862; Rebecca Jane, born October 8, 1862, who is now the wife of George Maroney, a retired farmer of Attica, Kansas; and Sarah Ellen, born February 1, 1865, who is now the wife of William Granger, a farmer of Shaudon, California.

Thomas Jefferson Dyer received his education in the public schools of Polk County, Iowa, Jasper County, Missouri, and Chautauqua County, Kansas, and in 1878 went to the Chickasaw Nation, Indian Territory, where for five years he worked as a cowboy on the old ranges, now passed away. Later he followed the same line of work in Kansas, and finally settled on Goverument land in Barber County, Kansas, where he remained uutil 1893. In that year he made the run at the time of the opening of the Cherokee Strip in Oklahoma, and located on a homestead ten miles north of Alva, in the cultivation of which he has since been engaged. He carries on gen- eral farming and the raising of stock and has been very successful in his efforts, his industry, perseverance and good business management having brought him satisfy- ing rewards. In business circles he bears an excellent reputation as a man of integrity' and fidelity to agree- ments, and his citizenship has at various times brought him preferment at the hands of. his fellow-townsmen, A stalwart democrat, in 1907 he was elected as the first county treasurer of Woods County after the admission of Oklahoma to the Union, and was re-elected in 1910, continuing to hold the office in all for five years, seven months, seven days. In 1914 he was the nominee of his party for the office of county clerk, but the county has become heavily republican, and he met with defeat.

Mr. Dyer has been twice married, his first union being celebrated November 28, 1878, when he wedded Miss Lucretia Burnett, who was born in Trigg County, Ken- tucky, May 20, 1859, a daughter of Cornelius Burnett. She died in Carroll County, Arkansas, December 12, 1879, leaving two children: Lulie Ellen, born August 20, 1879, and now the wife of A. V. Martin, a farmer of Woods County, Oklahoma; and Thomas Frederick, who died in infancy. Mr. Dyer was married the second time, December 31, 1884, in Barber County, Kansas, to Miss Nina C. Cummins, who was born January 18, 1867, in Appanoose County, Iowa, daughter of Scott Cummins, the Oklahoma author and poet widely known as the "Pilgrim Bard." To this union there have been born four children: Lillian Eldred, born December 20, 1886, a graduate of the Oklahoma Northwestern Normal School, class of 1910, and now a teacher in the city schools of Alva; Thomas Lafayette, born April 17, 1889, in Barber County, Kansas, a graduate of the Oklahoma Northwestern Normal School, class of 1910, and of Leland Stanford University, class of 1914; Ethel Byrdie, born July 31, 1894, in Barber County, Kansas, a gradu- ate of Oklahoma Northwestern Normal School, class of 1915; and Sarah Mabel, born in Woods County, Okla-

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homa, November 5, 1896, and now the wife of John . lead in building enterprise, putting up a group of four Nelson Cameron, of Capron, Oklahoma.

LUTHER W. TARKENTON. For twenty years a resident of old Indian Territory and the State of Oklahoma, Luther W. Tarkenton completed his education here, and for the past fifteen years has been pursuing a varied commercial career, and is chiefly known as a real estate and farm land dealer at Waurika, and has also made himself a factor in the oil development of that district.

Luther W. Tarkenton was born near Russellville, Pope County, Arkansas, October 5, 1881, a son of John P. and Bettie (Jaenes) Tarkenton. The Tarkenton family were among the pioneer settlers of Tennessee. John P. Tarkenton, who was born in that state in 1840, moved to Pope County, Arkansas, aud in 1895 established his home at Comanche, in Old Indian Territory. Early in his life he was conscripted for service in the Confederate Army, though he was opposed to secession. His active career was spent as a farmer and stock raiser, and in 1903 he retired from business and is now living at Ada, Oklahoma. He is a member of the Free Will Baptist Church. His wife was born in Tennessee in 1847 and died near Ada at Maxwell in 1905. Their six children are given brief mention as follows: William T., who is a farmer and an oil well and deep water well contractor and lives at Ada; May, whose husband is a contractor and builder in New Mexico; Luther W .; Emma, who is unmarried and living in New Mexico; John P., who died at Ada at the age of twenty-two; Elsie, wife of L. L. Bedford, a Texas farmer.

Luther W. Tarkenton grew up on a farm and in his early boyhood attended the common schools of Pope County, Arkansas. In 1900 he finished his education in the high school at Comanche, and his first business con- nection after leaving the farm was as clerk in the gen- eral merchandise store conducted by W. A. Yates at Comanche. He was next sent to Temple, Oklahoma, as manager of the firm's store in that place, and continued merchandising until 1908. Since the latter date his home has been at Waurika, where he has built up a large business in handling general real estate and farm loans. Quite recently he has become an oil promoter, and is now drilling a well a mile and a half north of Waurika. His offices are in the Leech Building on Main Street. Mr. Tarkenton owns a farm of eighty acres eight miles east of Waurika, another of 160 acres nine miles east of town, and one of 120 acres ten miles northeast. He has also leased upwards of a thousand acres in Jackson county. His own comfortable residence is on C Avenue in Wau- rika.

Mr. Tarkenton is an independent republican and a member of the Baptist Church, and is affiliated with the Woodmen of the World. He was married at Comanche in 1903 to Miss Hannah B. Howard, daughter of Rev. J. W. Howard, now deceased, who was for many years a Baptist minister. There are two children: Lucile, born in 1905, and Wilton W., born in 1908, both attending the Waurika public schools.

RAPHAEL H. Ross has been one of the makers of history in Northwest Oklahoma. He founded the flour- ishing Town of Rosston in Harper County, and when that town was incorporated recently he was honored by election as its mayor.

Throughout his career in Oklahoma Mr. Ross has been more than a passive factor in development. Successful himself, he has made his success count for betterment in a large community. It was in 1912 that he had 160 acres of his land platted as a townsite, and it was named Rosston in his honor. In the same year he took the

modern brick buildings, furnishing quarters for bank, stores and postoffice, and his liberality has been seen in almost every permanent institution of the community. When the town was incorporated in 1916 he was elected the first mayor, and no one could have deserved that office better. Everyone speaks of him as the father of the town, and he has been its leading spirit from the beginning.

Mr. Ross has been identified with Harper County fif- teen years. Besides his interest in the Town of Ross- ton he has an extensive ranch of 4,000 acres, lying imme- diately adjacent to Rosston. He is of old Virginia ancestry, and was born January 25, 1868, in a log house on a farm in Pleasants County, West Virginia, a son of Cornelius P. and Ambrosine (Harness) Ross, who were natives of the same state. Cornelius P. Ross, who was born in 1836 and is now living retired at the age of eighty in Florida, spent his active years up to the age of forty as a farmer and afterwards became a merchant. When the Civil war came on he went with the South, and fought in a Virginia regiment under General Long- street, was present in many important battles including Cedar Creek and Chancellorsville, and was mustered out with the rank and title of an officer of the Confederate army. After the war he represented his home district in the West Virginia Legislature. In 1866 he married Miss Ambrosine Harness, who was a daughter of Solomon and Ann (Usher) Harness, her mother being a relative of the late Admiral Usher of the British Navy. She died at Waverly, West Virginia, in 1905. She was a highly cultured woman and especially devout in her religious duties, being an active worker in the Presbyterian Church. Their three children are still living: Raphael H .; Ora G., now the wife of Richard S. Foley, a farmer at Waverly, West Virginia; Anna R. is the wife of M. C. Hess, a merchant at Rosston, Oklahoma.

Raphael H. Ross completed his literary education in the University of West Virginia at Morgantown, and found ample outlet for his unusual energies and enter- prise as a worker in the oil fields of West Virginia. From the East he came to Oklahoma in 1901, and secured a tract of Government land in Harper County. From that first tract as a nucleus his holdings have spread until they now include a ranch of 4,000 acres, well stocked and improved, and he is one of the principal buyers, raisers and shippers of cattle from this section.

Mr. Ross also conducts a large hardware, furniture and implement store in Rosston, and is president of the First National Bank of that town. He was one of the organizers of the Fort Supply Telephone Company, which conducts a line from Woodward to Beaver. Mr. Ross is a thirty-second degree Mason, being affiliated with the consistory at Guthrie.

The history of the little Town of Rosston constantly reflects his liberality. He donated four blocks of land for school purposes and also gave a quarter block for the Congregational Church. He not only gave the land but gave of his means for the building of schools and churches, and in every possible way is exerting his in- fluence toward making this one of the model towns of Northwest Oklahoma.

On November 20, 1906, at Woodward, Oklahoma, Mr. Ross married Miss Annie L. Moore, who was born in Missouri in 1878. They have three sons: Eugene Gran- ville, Leland Rufus and Raphael Herbert.

SAMUEL TRUITT CARRICO. One of the men who partici- pated in the run into the Cherokee Strip on September 16, 1893, was Captain Carrico, who for more than twenty years has been closely identified with the business and

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civic life of the City of Alva. He gained his rank and title by valiant service as a soldier in the Union army during the Civil war. Prior to the opening of the strip he was a resident of Kansas, and secured one of the choice homesteads at Alva, where he opened the first real estate office. Captain Carrico is now retired from business, and is one of the notable pioneer characters of Northern Oklahoma.

Samuel Truitt Carrico was born November 17, 1840, on a farm in Greene County, Illinois, and is now the only male survivor of this branch of the Carrico family, which was of Spanish origin. His parents were Silas and Catherine (Decker) Carrico. Silas Carrico was born at Athens, Ohio, April 18, 1818, his father being a native of Virginia and his mother of Maryland. In 1828 the family moved from Ohio out to Illinois and became early settlers in that state. Silas Carrico grew up in Illinois and was a substantial farmer there until 1904, when in advanced years he came to Alva and died in that city May 5, 1905, aged eighty-seven years eighteen days. The business of farming sums up his activities, and he was a man of substantial influence in the community where he lived so many years. He was a member of the Masonic fraternity and of the Methodist Church. Silas Carrico married Catherine Decker in 1839. She was a daughter of James D. and Eliza (Truitt) Decker, the former a native of Germany and the latter of Wales. Mrs. Car- rico died at Carrollton, Illinois, in 1897. She was for many years devoted to her church. There were seven children in the family, two sons and five daughters, namely: Samuel T .; Eliza, who died at the age of four years; George Rutledge, who died at the age of two; Mary C., who died December 24, 1863; Laura, who mar- ried L. K. Sitler, and now lives at Enid, Oklahoma, is the mother of three children: Roger S., Louise Lamar and George; Lucy C. Vigus, who lives at Tulsa, the widow of Titus C. Vigus, has four daughters and one son, namely, Carrico, Sadie, Barbara, Port C. and Lucy; Harriett E. Brown, deceased, married John L. Brown, also deceased, and their one son and three daughters are Belle, Kathryn and Inez, who are residents of Chicago, Illinois; and Fred S., deceased.

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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