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 76

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 76

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Captain Carrico is one of the men who dates the beginning of their education in a log schoolhouse. That school was back in Greene County, Illinois, and he later supplemented the district schooling with a course in the Bryant & Stratton Commercial College at Chicago, where he was graduated June 14, 1859. A few days later he began his practical duties as bookkeeper and salesman at Carrollton, Illinois, and in 1860 became clerk on a Mississippi steamboat-the Luther M. Kennett-Captain. J. R. Keach-commander.

The military record of Captain Carrico begins with his enlistment on November 11, 1861, in Company B of the Sixty-first Illinois Volunteer Infantry, as a private; February 5, 1862, he was commissioned second lieutenant of the company. October 16, 1862, he became first lieutenant; May 1, 1863, was commissioned captain; resigned May 29, 1865. That regiment had all told sixty-three officers, and of these only twelve are now living. Captain Carrico is now the ranking officer of the old regiment, and is the only survivor who reached the rank of captain at the date of his muster in as an officer, February 5, 1862. His service as a soldier took him all over the country south of the Ohio River, and he was in many important battles, including the great conflict at Shiloh and subsequent engagements up to and including Nashville, Tennessee, December, 1864. He was fortunate in escaping wounds or capture.

With nearly four years of military service to his credit, after the war Captain Carrico engaged in the merchan- disc business successfully until 1884. In that year he

became an early settler at Harper, Kansas, and continued merchandising there. In October, 1885, he was appointed postmaster at Harper, and held the office until he resigned in 1890.

When Captain Carrico arrived in the Cherokee Strip in September, 1893, he was fortunate in securing a loca- tion on land near Alva at the west. He put up one of the first buildings in the new town, and has the distinc- tion of opening the first real estate and loan office. His business grew and prospered, and from the first he was one of the men of commanding influence in that locality. He served as chairman of the Government Townsite Commission of Alva, which issued titles for town lots.

Captain Carrico is a democrat in politics. He is a member of the Grand Army of the Republic, and was at one time commander of his post in Illinois. He is a charter member of Raboni Chapter No. 25, of the Royal Arch Masons at Alva.

On March 5, 1866, he married Miss Cornelia C. Bates, daughter of Peter J. and Rebecca (Rummell) Bates. Mrs. Carrico was born June 30, 1845, at Whitehall, Illi- nois, and died July 7, 1912, at Alva. Her father was a native of New York State and her mother of Maryland. Mrs. Carrico was an active member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. To this union, which endured for more than forty-six years, there were born five children, one son and four daughters: Belle and Minnie, both living at Alva; Edward Sherman, deceased; Nellie, deceased; and Reba K., the wife of Prof. Guy M. Lisk, superintendent of the city schools at Alva.

LEW WILDER. In 1914 the people of Creek County chose for the office of sheriff a citizen whose fitness for such responsibility and honor is unquestioned and excep- tional. Sheriff Wilder has been a resident of Creek County for a number of years, was originally a cowboy on his father's ranches, and his early training well fitted him for all the duties and responsibilities of self-suffi- cient manhood and citizenship. The people of Creek County have been highly pleased with his official record as sheriff, and there seems to be little doubt in that county but that he will be re-elected.

He was born at Morgan, Texas, August 8, 1874. Both of his grandfathers were pioneers in Texas and owned several leagues of land and grazed large herds of cattle in the early days. Sheriff Wilder's parents were Charles Edward and Julia (Womack) Wilder, the former a native of Mississippi and the latter of Virginia. Both went to Texas with their parents when they were children. Grandfather Wilder at one time owned the land where Texarkana, Texas, stands. Charles E. Wilder was an active rancher and cattle man both in Texas and since 1892 has operated extensively in Oklahoma. He first had a large ranch near Chouteau, and subsequently extended his interests to Greer County. For a number of years he made his home in Kansas City, Missouri, in order that his children might have the best of educational ad- vantages. He is now living retired at Kiefer, Oklahoma, his wife having passed away in January, 1899.

Lew Wilder, the oldest of the three children, grew up as a cowboy on his father's ranches in Texas and Okla- homa, and received most of his education in the public schools of Kansas City. He spent a number of years as a rancher and cattleman in Greer County, Oklahoma, but in 1907 moved to Kiefer in Creek County and set up as a blacksmith and proprietor of a machine shop. Later he was connected with the Warren City Tank and Boiler Works of Warren, Ohio, and was an assistant superintendent in the oil fields around Kiefer until 1911. In that year he made his first race for the office of sheriff but was defeated. In 1914 the republicans nominated him again and he was elected by a good majority.

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Mr. Wilder is a typical western man, popular and genial, but does his duty without fear or favor. He is affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Loyal Order of Moose and the Benevolent and Pro- tective Order of Elks. On December 26, 1915, he mar- ried Mrs. Florence Shipley.

LEE A. WALTON. At Alva, judicial center of Woods County, is maintained the residence of this well known and representative Oklahoma pioneer, and he is a citizen of large and varied attaiuments, even as he is a man of wide experience aud broad activities along lines that represent definite civic and material progress. Mr. Wal- ton has been one of the influential figures in public affairs and industrial development in Oklahoma, where he established his residence in 1893, the year when the historie Cherokee .Strip was thrown opeu to settlement. He is a skilled civil engineer, aud as such has done a large amount of important work both in Kansas and Oklahoma, is being specially worthy of note that he was chief engineer of the surveying and construction of the first railroad line to enter the present thriving city of Beaver. As a youth Mr. Walton studied law; he has been a successful representative of the pedagogic pro- fession as well as that of civil engineer; he has been active as a newspaper editor and publisher; he has con- cerned himself with mercantile enterprises; and he has been specially resourceful in connection with the develop- ment and advancement of the basic industry of agricul- ture, All these things betoken his versatility, and his broad mental grasp and mature judgment have further made him specially well equipped for leadership in popu- lar sentiment aud action, so that it may readily be under- stood that he has exerted large aud beniguant influence in couuection with the march of progress in Oklahoma, both under territorial and state government.

A native of the fine old Buckeye State, within whose borders both his paternal and materual ancestors settled in the early pioneer era of its history, Mr. Walton was born at Rome, Lawrence County, Ohio, on the 14th of August, 1859. He is a son of Thomas A. and Sarah E. (Massey) Walton, both likewise natives of Ohio, the father having been born iu Lawrence County, in 1830, and the mother in Lawrence County, in 1832-a daughter of John and Elizabeth (Darling) Massey.

Judge Thomas A. Walton was a son of Thomas and Elizabeth (Whitten) Walton, both natives of England, where a representative of the Walton family was the Duke of Leeds. The parents of Judge Waltou were numbered among the representative pioneers of Ohio, iu which state they continued their residence until their death, In his native state Judge Walton received advanced educational advantages as gauged by the standards of the locality and period, and he not only became an able civil engineer, but also a prominent lawyer and jurist in Lawrence County, Ohio, where he was engaged in the practice of law as a young man and where he served for some time on the beuch of the Dis- triet Court.

In 1885 Judge Walton removed to Harper County, Kansas, and after there devoting two years to farming he engaged in the same line of enterprise in Barber County, that state, where he continued his resideuce until 1893, when he participated in the opening of the Chero- kee Strip in Oklahoma Territory and settled on a tract of land to which he entered claim 'in old Woods County. He here continued his residence until 1900, when he and his wife established their home at Victoria, the judicial center of the Texas county of that name. There they passed the remainder of their lives, Judge Walton having passed away in 1906 and his widow in 1913. Their mar- riage was solemnized in the year 1854 and they became

the parents of five sons and four daughters, coucerning whom the following data are available: John A., who was born in 1855, died at the age of seven years; Charles A., born September 2, 1857, is now a prosperous farmer in Victoria County, Texas; Lee A., immediate subject of this review, was the next in order of birth; Nora E., born October 3, 1861, was the wife of Horace Frisbie and she resides at Lamar, Colorado; Samantha H. E., who was born December 25, 1863, died in 1911; Cecilia Ella, born December 24, 1865, died in 1886; Minerva E., born in 1868, died at the age of two years; Don A. was born in 1873 and died in 1892; T. Whit was born in 1875 and is a resident of Addicks, Texas.

Lee A. Walton passed the period of his childhood and early youth on his father's farm in Lawrence County, Ohio, and that he made good use of the advantages afforded by the public schools of his native county needs no further voucher than the statement that when but sixteen years of age he proved himself eligible for peda- gogie honors and engaged in teaching in a district school. He continued his successful work as a teacher and also initiated the study of law, in which he event- ually gained a really broad and accurate fund of tech- nical knowledge. Under the direction of his father he studied and worked as a civil engineer, and served as deputy county surveyor of Lawrence County, under the administration of his honored sire, this position having been retained by him when he was seventeen years old.

In 1883, when about twenty-four years of age, Mr. Walton came to the West and entered claim to a tract of Government land in Harper County, Kansas. He devoted two and one-half years to reclamation and other improvemeut work on his claim, and in counection with these pioneer farmiug operations he also found requisi- tion for his services as a teacher in the local schools. In 1885 he removed to Stevens County, that state, where he engaged in teaching school and where he served four years as county surveyor. For a time he was editor and publisher of a weekly paper in the Village of Moscow, that county, and the former vigorous Town of Fargo Springs, Kansas, claimed him for a period as one of its leading merchants. During the last five years of his residence in the Sunflower State Mr. Walton gave his attention principally to farming and teaching in Barber County,

When, in 1893, the Cherokee Strip of Oklahoma Terri- tory was thrown open to settlement, Mr. Walton was one of those who "made the run" into this new region, and he has since beeu closely and prominently identified with this section of the State-a valued exponent of civic and material development and advancement. Mr. Walton is now the owner of a valuable and well improved farm in the fertile Driftwood Valley, in Woods County, aud to the same he gives a general supervision, as does he to his various other real-estate and business interests, the while he maintains his residence at Alva, the county seat, where the modern and attractive family home is a center of gracious hospitality and good cheer.

In politics Mr. Walton has always been actively arrayed as a supporter of the principles and policies for which the republican party stands sponsor, and he was prominently concerned with the organization of its con- tingent in Woods County. At the last session of the Oklahoma Territorial Legislature, in 1907, he served as doorkeeper of the council or upper house of that body, and in 1908 he was the republican candidate for county clerk of Woods County, his defeat for this office beiug compassed by only seventeen votes. In 1910-11 he was associated in the editorial management of the Alva Morning Times. Iu 1883, fully six years prior to the opening of Oklahoma Territory to settlement, Mr. Wal- ton assisted in the surveying of the Cherokee Strip in

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HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA

Indian Territory, at the instance of and for the benefit of the cattlemen then operating in this region.

On the 23d of April, 1883, was solemnized the mar- riage of Mr. Waltou to Miss Frederica C. Farson, daugh- ter of Henry C. and Louise (Seikerman) Farson, who were at the time residents of Ashland, Kentucky. Mrs. Walton was born in the Province of Westphalia, Ger- many, on the 25th of November, 1864, and thus was a child of six years at the time of the family immigration to the United States, in 1870. Mr. and Mrs. Walton have three children : Lois F., who was born May 4, 1884, in Harper County, Kansas, was graduated in the Okla- homa Northwestern Normal School, at Alva, as the youngest member of the class of 1900, and in 1904 she became the wife of Loran A. Purcell. They maintain their home at Sapulpa, Oklahoma, and have four chil- dren-Emma C., Lois Esther, Walter Lee aud Lloyd Kenneth, Winifred Winona, who was born at Moscow, Stevens County, Kansas, on the 18th of April, 1889, was graduated in the Oklahoma Northwestern Normal School as a member of the class of 1906 and was the youngest member of the class, Later she took post- graduate courses in the University of Oregon and the University of California, in the latter of which she was graduated in the department of domestic science. She is now engaged in teaching in the public schools of Washington. Loren Lee Walton, the youngest child and only son, was born in Barber County, Kansas, on the 3d of September, 1891, and after completing a course in the Oklahoma Northwestern Normal School, in which he was graduated in 1910, he entered the law department of the great University of Michigan, at Ann Arbor, in which he was graduated in 1913, at the age of twenty-one years- one of the youngest members of a large class. Prior to this he had taken a year's course of academic order in Leland Stanford University, at Palo Alto, California. Since 1913 he has been engaged in the practice of his profession at Alva, and he is one of the leading younger members of the bar of Woods County-a painstaking and ambitious young attorney whose success in his profession is fully justifying his choice of vocation.

ARCHIBALD C. BYARS, M. D. In professional life, nowhere is the value of thorough preparation more evi- dent than in the science of medicine. In the domain of the physician the university is a vital necessity, if the devotee reasonably hopes to reach the plane of a broad practice. When a young man, Archibald C. Byars pre- pared himself with patience and thoroughness, and the result is shown by the fact that in the years of his actual practice he has made noticeable strides toward eminence. Doctor Byars was born in Scotland County, Northern Missouri, February 21, 1870, and is a son of James K. Polk and Sarah Elizabeth (Owen) Byars.

James K. P. Byars was born in 1843, in Warren County, Tennessee, whence his family had come as pio- neers from North Carolina. As a young man he moved to Northern Missouri, where he was married and where he continued to be engaged in agricultural pursuits until the year 1876, when he removed to Shelby County, Mis- souri, and there continued to be engaged in agricultural operations, as a farmer and stock raiser, until his death in 1884. A stalwart democrat, he took an active part iu civic and political affairs, but never was an aspirant for public office, preferring the quiet of his farm to the strife and doubtful honors of the public arena. He was a faithful member of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, in which he was an elder, and Mrs. Byars still belongs to that faith. She was born in Kentucky, went to Northern Missouri with her parents in girlhood, and still survives Mr. Byars, being a resident of Laclede, Missouri. They were the parents of three children,

namely: Archibald C .; Mary Rosina, who is the wife of Frank Clay, a shipper of stock at Laclede, Missouri; and Edith D., who is the wife of Dr. W. M. Duffy, a physi- cian and surgeon of Hamilton, Missouri.

Archibald C. Byars received his early education in the public schools of Northern Missouri, following which for one year he was a student at Oakland College, Knoxville, Kuox County, Missouri, and then spent three years at the Clarence (Missouri) High School. Following this, he enrolled as a student at Missouri Valley College, Mar- shall, Saline County, Missouri, but after one year his health failed and he was forced to give up his studies. During the next two years he did little, but at the end of that time, having recovered, entered the Tennessee Medical College, at Nashville, Tennessee, where he re- mained one year, - He next went to the Knoxville (Ten- nessee) Medical College, where he remained three years and was graduated in 1902 with the degree of Doctor of Medicine. When he left college halls, Doctor Byars did not cease his studies, but has been a close and careful student, having taken in 1910 a post-graduate course at the Kansas City Post-Graduate School, and in 1911 a post-graduate course by correspondence with the Post- Graduate Clinical Medical College, Chicago, from which institution he received his diploma.

In 1900, two years prior to his graduation, Doctor Byars began the practice of medicine at Nashville, hav- ing taken an examination before the State Medical Examining Board Later, while still attending college, he practiced at Nashville, Tennessee, but in July, 1902, came to Shawnee, Oklahoma, where he spent a short time. He next went to Rossville, this state, in 1904 to Mid- lothian, in 1910 to Mulhall, Logan County, Oklahoma, and in 1911 to Tampa, Florida, where he remained for one year. Following his return to Oklahoma, he was for one year engaged in practice in the country districts of Jefferson County, and in 1914 settled at Terral, where he has since continued to be engaged in a general med- ical and surgical practice. He has attracted to himself an excellent professional business, having displayed the possession of marked abilities and talents, broad informa- tion and experience, thorough learning and a conscien- tious devotion to his profession that makes him a decided factor in elevating its standards and upholding its ethics. He belongs to the Jefferson County Medical Soicety, the Oklahoma State Medical Society and the American Med- ical Association, and maintains au excellent reputation among his fellow practitioners. In addition to his med- ical practice, and in connection therewith, he condnets a pharmacy on the main street of the village, where he carries a full line of drug goods, and prepares his own prescriptions. Fraternally, the doctor is affiliated with the Knights of Pythias, the Modern Woodmen of America, the Ancient Order of United Workmen, the Brotherhood of American Yeomen and the Knights of the Maccabees, aud is popular in all orders. With his family he attends the Methodist Episcopal Church, in which he is a trustee.

Doctor Byars was married at Asheville, North Caro- lina, to Miss Ophelia Magness, who was born in De Kalb County, Tennessee, daughter of the Rev. Green Magness, a Baptist preacher, who is now deceased. Two children have been born to this union: Sarah Ruth, who is a sophomore at the Terral High School; and William Sheldon, who is in third grade in the public schools.

L. R. FLINT, now cashier of the First National Bank of Rosston, comes of a family of thorough business men and bankers, and has been engaged in banking in Kansas and Oklahoma for a number of years. On January 1, 1915, having sold his interests in Kansas, he came to Oklahoma, and in April, 1915, with others organized the

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First National Bank of Rosston, and has since directed its affairs through the office of cashier.

The First National Bank at the end of its first year has a record of deposits averaging about $75,000, and its business is conducted on a capital of $25,000. It is one of the best managed institutions in Harper County.

Mr. Flint was born at Bethany, Missouri, November 28, 1886, but has spent most of his active career in Kansas, first becoming acquainted with Oklahoma as a boy when his father participated in the opening of the Cherokee Strip. His parents are A. W. and Elizabeth Ann (Harvey) Flint. His father was born in Harrison County, Missouri, September 18, 1856, his parents hav- ing come from Maryland. A. W. Flint has been a suc- cessful farmer and stockman. In 1893 he entered Okla- homa at the opening of the Cherokee Strip and for sev- eral years was established on a government claim in Grant County. In 1898 he left Oklahoma and removed to Caldwell, Kansas, and subsequently bought a stock ranch in Barber County from the late Jerry Simpson, the famous. congressman from the Seventh Kansas District. After eight years in Barber County, he removed to Ottawa, Kansas, from which point he has directed his extensive interests as a livestock man. His marriage occurred in 1876. His wife was born July 4, 1854, in Pennsylvania, daughter of James and Deborah (Sutton) Harvey, both natives of Pennsylvania. A. W. and Eliz- abeth Flint have seven children, four sons and three daughters: Jesse Benton, who was born March 28, 1877, and is now president of the Citizens State Bank of Hum- boldt, Kansas; Harvey, died in infancy; Nora Gertrude, born Angust 13, 1883, completed her education in the Southwestern College at Winfield, Kansas, and is now an expert stenographer; Ethel Leona, born March 24, 1885, was married in 1905 to A. V. McRoberts, who is a farmer at Monticello, Missouri; L. R. Flint, who is the fifth in order of birth; Ruth Alma, born November 8, 1889, a graduate of Ottawa University in Kansas with the class of 1913 and now a teacher in the high school at Hoisington, Kansas; Wiley Glenwood, who was born April 29, 1891, and was graduated with the class of 1915 from Ottawa College, and is now assistant cashier of the First National Bank of Rosston, Oklahoma.

L. R. Flint completed his literary education in the high school at Medicine Lodge, Kansas, where he was graduated in 1905. Then followed a year in a business college, and in 1908 he became bookkeeper in his brother's bank at Humboldt, Kansas. A year later he was promoted to assistant cashier. On July 1, 1910, the members of his family bought the Home State Bank at Garland, Kansas, and he served as its cashier until January 1, 1915, soon afterward moving to Rosston and organizing the First National Bank. Mr. Flint is a Mason and a member of the Christian Church.

FRANK H. ROBERTS. One of the best known operators in real estate and loans in Woodward County is Frank H. Roberts, who has been engaged in this business at Quinlan since 1902. Skilled in realty values, a man of practical experience, business acumen and great fore- sight, while carrying on his operations and gaining per- sonal success he has contributed materially to the growth and prosperity of his adopted community through the introduction of new blood into the business veins of this thriving and productive part of Oklahoma.

Mr. Roberts was born February 3, 1865, at Des Moines, Iowa, and is a son of Benjamin Franklin and Elizabeth Jane (Hendricksou) Roberts. He belongs to a family which originated in Wales and the founder of which in America was his grandfather, who upon his arrival in this country located at Martinsville, Indiana, with his wife, whom he had married shortly before embarking

for the new home across the waters. Benjamin F. Roberts was born at Martinsville, Indiana, in 1832, and early in life developed talents as an inveutor and archi- tect, in connection with which latter profession he car- ried on building. It was as an architect that he won reputation, particularly in Iowa, where he constructed many buildings after his arrival in 1858 and assisted in the creation and construction of the capitol building at Des Moines. In 1885 he went to Nebraska, where he continued his career in architecture until his death, at Fremont, September 20, 1896. Although a man of eminent talents, he was never wont to push himself for- ward, and while an ardent and unswerving democrat, never sought favors at the hands of his party. In 1858 Mr. Roberts was united in marriage with Miss Elizabeth Jane Hendrickson, who was boru in Indiana in 1838, a daughter of Ezekiel and Lydia (Tilford) Hendrickson, the former a native of Kentucky and the latter of Vir- ginia. She died at Fremont, Nebraska, in 1902, in the faith of the Methodist Episcopal Church, of which throughout her life she had been a devout member. Mr. and Mrs. Roberts were the parents of two sons and three daughters, all of whom are living, as follows: Alice Douglass, born in 1857, who was married in 1880 to George E. Jennings, now postmaster of Garden Grove, Iowa, and has three children-Bessie Lyle, Georgia and Marian; Elizabeth Maude, born in 1861, and now the wife of J. A. Shields; Benjamin T., born in 1863; Frank H .; and Hattie G., born in 1867, and now the wife of Henry J. Smith, of Omaha, Nebraska.

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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