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 78

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 78

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A wide circle of people in old Indian Territory have a respectful and admiring memory of the late Joseph Thompson, father of the young business man of Beggs. Joseph Thompson was born near Logansport, Indiana, and married there Mary Calkin, a native of the same locality. At sixteen years of age he ran away from home in order to enlist in the army and served with the Union forces in an Indiana regiment. After his marriage he moved to Missouri, afterwards to Western Kansas, then returned for a time to Missouri, and in 1891 located in the vicinity of the present City of Tulsa. He died at the Tulsa Hospital in May, 1912, at the age of sixty- seven. His widow now lives at Beggs. Joseph Thompson was a pioneer by nature. It seemed that he was never content to abide long in a well settled community, and his ambition was to be in the center of the progressive life and affairs of a new country. He was well equipped for pioneer duties and hardships, and was a splendid physical specimen, standing six feet four inches in height and weighing 240 pounds. His main business was farm- ing and stock raising, but he was often called upon for public work, and served several years as sheriff of Lawrence County, Missouri, and was a deputy United States marshal from the time he came to Indian Terri- tory until his death. He was an active republican, and a member of the Grand Army of the Republic. He and his wife became the parents of eleven children: C. E. Thompson, who was accidentally killed; U. S., a rancher at Beggs; S. V., a stockman in Tulsa County; W. M., a stockman at Beggs and president of the Farmers National Bank there; Lillie, wife of LeRoy Ward of Oilton; Leva, wife of Lon Lewis of Broken Arrow; W. H. of Big Heart; J. N .; R. B., a stockman at Beggs; Floy, who died at the age of two years; and Mildred, who died when sixteen years old.

It was the late Joseph Thompson who established his young sons as farmers and stockmen in Okmulgee County. J. N. Thompson, who was born at the home of his parents at Mount Vernon, Missouri, June 28, 1882, grew up on his father's farm and in Indian Territory from the age of nine, and was on the home ranch in the Creek Nation until he was seventeen years old. He attended Kendall College two years, spent five years as an employee in the postoffice at Mounds, and then com- pleted a course in Bryant & Stratton's Commercial Col- lege at St. Louis and was employed in that city for a few months before returning to Oklahoma. Since then he has looked after his interests as a partner of Thomp- son Brothers, stockmen, and also has a real estate office and some investments in the oil district of Oklahoma.

In politics he is a republican, is a Scottish Rite Con- sistory Mason and a member of the Elks Lodge at Okmulgee. In 1905 he married Miss Wilma Red of Mounds, Oklahoma. They have two daughters: Mildred and Doris, the former aged six and the latter two years.

JOE ABRAHAM. Only a little inquiry is needed to establish the fact that Joe Abraham has been first and foremost in all the commercial development at Bristow. He came when the town started, and by shrewd and in- telligent management, by faith in his fellow men, by judgment in handling his resources, and by great enter- prise and public spirit in supporting everything that would benefit the community, he has risen to such a

position as any native American might envy. Mr. Abra- ham is a Syrian so far as his birthplace is concerned, but there is no more loyal American citizen in the State of Oklahoma. His career would make an interesting story, and his interests and activities reflect the real substantial history of the town which is his home.

In his native City of. Beirut, Syria, he lived for about thirty years. His experience there was confined to em- ployment in a silk factory. In 1896 he set out for the New World. He landed in New York City with only $10.50 in his pocket. At the end of a week in that strange and bustling American city he found himself without any money at all. A friend loaned him a few dollars in order to get him to Buffalo, and there another friend stood responsible for $15 worth of merchandise. With this on his back he started peddling through the country, gradually working his way to the West. He lived on the roads, selling to farming people, and prac- tically living among them. He repaid the friend who had advanced him money and sent more back to buy additional stocks of goods. In the course of about eight months he had walked from Cleveland to St. Louis. In that city he mads his headquarters for eighteen months, and went out into the country districts of Missouri and continued his work as a peddler. At the end of that time he had saved $200, and this he at once sent back to his father in Syria as return for the passage inoney which he had borrowed to bring him to the New World.

In 1898 Mr. Abraham again took up his journey west- ward, and for eighteen months peddled goods along the way until he arrived at Chandler, Oklahoma. Here he established a little store with such goods as he still had on his wagon when he arrived. He was a good sales- man and at the end of eleven months in Chandler he had a stock of goods valued at $1,250, practically all of which had been made in those eleven months. At the advice of a friend in Chandler he next steered his course to Bristow. Bristow was then just beginning, and only three or four buildings were on the town site. His own little store was among the pioneer mercantile establish- ments, and since then, for a period of about fifteen years, there has been practically no interruption to his business activities in this community. In that time mer- chants came, set up their stock, and many of them failed for one cause or other. Much of Mr. Abraham's suc- cess has come from the buying up of bankrupt stock. To his own store he added one department after another until he had the largest assortment of general merchan- dise in the town. Perhaps the most noteworthy fact about his work as a merchant has been his willingness to sell on credit. He sold to negroes, Indians and whites with little distinction among thein, and his faith is justi- fied by his collections. It is said that he has lost very little money in spite of the generous credit he has ex- tended to his customers. After a few years land was placed on the market for sale, and Mr. Abraham turned his surplus into a new channel, and bought altogether about 30,000 acres, and has ever since continued the buy- ing and selling and handling of lands, acquiring much of the old Indian and Freedmen's lands. In this likewise he has been prospered.

He also got into the cotton business. He finally bought a cotton gin, and at the present time he has five gins and during the last year he operated twelve different establishments. He ships great quantities of cotton east and abroad and is one of the leading cotton mer- chants of Eastern Oklahoma. On October 1, 1914, he sold his large mercantile stock to his brother Ed. Mr. Abraham was influential in bringing two of his brothers to this country, Ed, who subsequently was followed by Jusif, who now conducts a store of his own at Bristow.

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Mr. Abraham also has four large gas wells, and they supply nearly all the illuminating and heating fuel to Bristow. He has extensive holdings in the oil district and altogether has about 4,200 acres of farming land. He owns the four best business blocks in the town and a number of dwellings. He has been at numerous times identified with the local banks, but has disposed of most of his stock. He has been one of the main promoters in the establishment of the glass factory. In everything he is public spirited and has beeu distinguished for his readiness to help others who were not so fortunate and he perhaps derives his greatest pleasure and satisfaction from the careers of several men whom he started on the road to success. As a loyal American he believes there is no other country in the world that responds so quickly to the efforts of an honest man as the United States of America. For a man whose dealings have been so ex- tensive, and with all classes of people, it is an indication of his judgment and character that he has never had a law suit, dispute or misunderstanding.

Another striking fact about this Syrian business man of Bristow is that he is unable either to read or write the English language, although he speaks it with suffi- cient fluency to carry on a conversation or transact any business. In former years he sold merchandise valued at between $40,000 and $50,000 a year, largely on credit. He kept a bookkeeper, but seldom relied upon the records of his books. The transactions were all recorded in his keen memory. Without referring to the bookkeeper, he could recall whenever he desired the information just when a note was due, where the man lived who owed the account, and what quantity of goods he had sold him.

Out of his extraordinary prosperity Mr. Abraham some years ago sent back the money and directed its in- vestment in a fine orange and tropical fruit plantation in his native land of Syria. That plantatiou is now the home of his father and mother, who are spending their declining years in peace and comfort, in the shade of their own vine and fig tree, in a country that has long been the storehouse of biblical and secular history and story. Joe Abraham was born there March 20, 1865. His parents' names are Abraham Nahra and Jamelia Harb. They have spent all their days in Syria and have never been more than 200 miles from their birthplace. The father is now seventy-six and the mother seventy, and both are well and happy, and take a great deal of pride in the achievements of their son, who took out his citizenship papers and has been an American since 1902. In the family were four sons and six daughters, and as already stated three of the sons are now living at Bristow.

Joe Abraham was reared in the faith of the Catholic Church. In 1900 he married Fannie Lonaker, who was born in the State of Missouri. Their five children are: Louis, Herbert, Frances, Jack and Pauline.

During the last four years Mr. Abraham has spent about $45,000 in his efforts to develop the oil district around Bristow. His endeavors have brought him one small oil well, but in the meantime he has developed 12,000,000 feet of gas. He still continues his investments in this line, and his faith will probably be rewarded by an oil strike of no mean proportions in the near future. Mr. Abraham has his offices in the Bristow National Bank Building, which he owns, and which is a re-enforced concrete building of three stories. In conclusion, the testimony of other citizens of Bristow may be summed up by saying that Joe Abraham has done more than any other citizen for the upbuilding and welfare of his com- munity.

J. EVERETT SMITH. The official organ of the repub- lican party in Woodward County, the Woodward News-

Bulletin, is one of the alert, enterprising and thoroughly reliable newspapers of Northwest Oklahoma. Its steady rise to a position of influence in this section has been brought about by the efforts of its capable and energetic editor, J. Everett Smith, who, now well known in jour- nalistic circles, was formerly as widely and favorably known as an educator.

Mr. Smith was born in 1869, in Tippecanoe County, Indiana, and after securing his primary education in the public schools entered Purdue University and later took a course at the Iowa State Normal School. After his graduation from the latter institution he entered upon his career as an educator, during which he taught in several states and gained a substantial reputation as an able and thorough instructor. For four years he was a member of the staff of the Northwestern State Normal School, of Alva, Oklahoma, where he established an excellent record, and in 1903, entered upon his editorial labors when he purchased the Woodward Bulletin, the pioneer paper of Woodward County, and its printing plant. Under his capable management this soon became recognized as a power in molding public opinion, and in 1909 the paper was consolidated with the Woodward News, adopting the name of Woodward News-Bulletin, as at present, with Mr. Smith as editor and the firm of Smith & Thomas, publisher. While it is republican in policy and the official county organ of that party, it is the aim of the editor to place questions before its read- ers in a strictly impartial manner. Its columns have always been open to the aiding of movements for the welfare of the county and its influence has contributed in no small way to the development of Western Okla- homa. Mr. Smith's efforts have been recognized sub- stantially in the gaining of a large and representative circulation, and he is being generously supported by the business men of Woodward County, who find the News- Bulletin an excellent advertising medium. Mr. Smith is a member of the Masonic fraternity, and one of the most enthusiastic and active members of the Commercial Club.

JAY H. REIGNER. In the election of November, 1914, Mr. Reigner was elected representative of Pushmataha County in the fifth general assembly of the Oklahoma Legislature, and this preferment came as a consistent recognition of his loyal and earnest labors as an advocate of the principles of the democratic party and in behalf of measures and enterprises tending to advance the best interests of the state of his adoption. He is one of the representative newspaper publishers and editors of Okla- homa, and he came to Oklahoma in 1905, well fortified in experience in the domain of journalism, so that his ability, independence and vigorous policies have enabled him to make of the Antlers News-Record one of the model weekly papers of the state. As a progressive, lib- eral and public-spirited citizen he is entitled to definite recognition in this history of Oklahoma.

Jay Harlin Reigner was born in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, in the year 1870, and is a son of William and Elizabeth Reigner, both likewise natives of the old Keystone State, where the original Americau progenitor of the Reigner family settled upon his immigration from Alsace, France, in 1730, representatives of this sterling old family having been found aligned as patriot soldiers from that commonwealth or colony in the war of the Revolution. William Reigner was the eldest in a family of nine children and was the first of the number to be summoned to the life eternal, all having attained to ad- vanced age and thus far their death having occurred in respective order of their births. William Reigner died in 1889. His wife had died a number of years before.

Jay H. Reigner was reared to adult age in Pennsyl-

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HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA

vania and afforded the advantages of the public schools. In 1890 he became a student in the Westchester Normal School, at Westchester, Pennsylvania, but he withdrew from this institution within a short time and removed to the Middle West. He finally entered the law depart- ment of the great University of Michigan, at Ann Arbor, in which he was graduated in 1893, and from which he received the degree of Bachelor of Laws. Prior to this Mr. Reigner had become effectively identified with news- paper work and had virtually decided to make the same his permanent vocation. In 1887, when but seventeen years of age, he became a reporter on the staff of the Intelligencer at Wheeling, West Virginia, and later he assumed the position of editor of the News-Democrat at Canton, Stark County, Ohio, the home of the late and lamented President Mckinley. While the incumbent of this position Mr. Reigner was able to wield no little influence in supporting the cause of the democratic party in the national campaign of 1896, when William Jennings Bryan first appeared as the party's candidate for the presidency. He was a loyal supporter of Bryan in that memorable campaign, and later he became editor of an independent democratic weekly paper, the Sunday Herald, at Canton. In 1897 he went to the city of Alliance, in the same county, where for several years he was editor of the Daily Critic.

With an assured reputation for successful work as a representative of the profession of his choice, in 1905 Mr. Reigner came to Oklahoma Territory and established his residence at Antlers, the judicial center of Push- mataha County, where he purchased the plant and busi- ness of the Antlers News, a weekly paper. Later he pur- chased the plants of the Antlers Record and the Kiamichi Reporter, the latter at Albion, in the same county, and in 1908 the three papers were by him consolidated under the present title of the Antlers News-Record.

Aside from his influence in political affairs as a news- paper editor Mr. Reigner had individually taken au active part in several campaigns in Ohio, where in 1898 he was chairman of the Democratic Congressional Committee of the Sixteenth Congressional Distriet of the state and where he served several times as chairman of the Democratic Central Committee of Stark County. Upon coming to Oklahoma Mr. Reigner forthwith mani- fested a lively interest in political and governmental affairs and soon became a recognized leader in the local councils of his party. He is a firm believer in the basic principles of the democratic party and in an independent aud courageous way always advocates for it policies that should make it justify in a generic way its title of demo- cratic, his standard of the theory of government being that power should be given to the whole people rather than to the few. Thus it is that in his direct, carnest and well taken editorial utterances he is duly conservative and falls short of undue or ultra radicalism.

In 1914, as previously noted, Mr. Reigner was elected representative of Pushmataha County in the lower house of the Oklahoma Legislature, in which he has made an admirable record of conscientious, effective and loyal effort to conserve good goverment, wise legislation and the promotion of the best interests of the state and its people. He was made chairman of the committee on judicial and senatorial apportionment, and was assigned also to the committees on elections, on fees and salaries, on retrenchment and reform, on initiative and referen- dum, and on congressional apportionment. Mr. Reigner introduced and ably championed a bill relative to sena- torial apportionment and another providing for the reduction of district-court districts from thirty-one to twenty-one. As a unfaltering advocate of the fundamen- tal principles of the democratic party he has consistently opposed any movement or legislation tending to abrogate

in the least the power and authority of the people, and thus it was but natural that he should be found earnestly supporting measures providing for the preferential pri- mary ballot and also presidential primaries.

Mr. Reigner is a popular and appreciative member of the Oklahoma Press Association; is an active and enthusiastic member of the Antlers Commercial Club; is affiliated with the Masonic Lodge, Chapter and Council in his home city, with Hugo Commandery, No. 30, Knights Templars, at Hugo, Choctaw County, and with Bedouin Temple, Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, at Muscogee. At Antler he served ! as thrice illustrious master of Zabud Council, No. 20, Royal and Select Masters, and he has held other official chairs in the time-honored Masonic fraternity.

At Canton, Ohio, in 1902, Mr. Reigner wedded Miss Emma E. Shroyer, and she was summoned to eternal rest on the 3d of November, 1911, leaving no children.

ANDREW J. HICKS. When Professor Hicks first became identified with educational work in Oklahoma in 1910, he brought with him a long and extensive experience as a school man from his home State of Missouri, where he had been a teacher and superintendent for upwards of fifteen years.

He resigned as county superintendent in Missouri to come to Wayne, in McClain County, Oklahoma, in 1910, where for four years he was superintendent of the city schools. In 1914 he became superintendent of schools at Blanchard, his present position. Professor Hicks is well known among Oklahoma educators and teachers. In 1911 he was instructor of the joint normal school main- tained by McClain and Garvin counties, and conducted that school in 1912. Each summer since 1912 he has been instructor iu history and civil government in the State Normal School at Edmond, and during the past three years has taken a number of courses in the Ed- mond Normal School and has obtained a teacher's life certificate in Oklahoma.

Andrew J. Hicks is a native of Georgia, born in Rock Springs, Walker County, April 15, 1867. His original American ancestor was a Scotchman, his great-great- grandfather, who emigrated to the United States and located in Maryland just after the close of the Revolu- tionary war. A brother of this emigrant subsequently became governor of Maryland. Thomas J. Hicks, father of Professor Hicks, was born in Georgia in October, 1841, but spent most of his early life in Tennessee, where he married Sarah Phillips. She was born in that state in 1848 and died at McClurg, Missouri, in' 1896. After their marriage Thomas J. Hicks returned to Walker County, Georgia, lived there a few years and in 1869 moved to a farm south of Springfield, Missouri, where he still lives. Along with farming he has for many years been an active minister of the Baptist Church. During the Civil war he was a Union soldier, served exactly three years and one day. He has been a republican ever since the war. By his marriage to Sarah Phillips were born the following children: George T., who is a county judge of Taney County, Missouri, living near Springfield; Andrew J .; James B., who is a promi- nent citizen of Forsyth, Missouri, where he served eight years as county clerk and is now a farmer, stockman and banker; Mary E., wife of David Johnson, a farmer and stockman at Brown Branch, in Southwest Missouri; Saralı E., wife of J. V. Brown, a farmer at Fairfax, Oklahoma; Albert, a farmer and stockman at Long Run, Missouri; Joseph, a farmer at Igo, Missouri. After the death of his first wife, Thomas J. Hicks married Mrs. Sarah (Johnson) Bishop, whose former home was in Kentucky. They have two young children, Della and Paul.

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HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA

Professor Hicks attended school near Springfield, Mis- souri, and after finishing the high school course attended the Bradleyville Normal School and the Ava Academy. After leaving the latter institution in 1886 he at once engaged in his regular professiou as a teacher and taught for a number of years in Southwest Missouri. He also spent two years as a student in the Missouri State Uni- versity at Columbia. Wherever his work has been done Professor Hicks has been distinguished as an intensely alive educator, a man of great energy, of broad views, and one who is able to apply his knowledge and adapt his work to the changing conditions of modern life. While iu Missouri he was elected county superintendent of schools of Taney County and served three terms, six years. He resigned from that position to come to Okla- homa in 1910.

At Blanchard he has under his supervisiou a corps of six teachers and 419 scholars enrolled. The Blanchard public schools are very thoroughly equipped, and he is doing a very successful work there. He is active in the County and State Teachers' Association, is a democrat in politics, is superintendent of the Sunday school of the Baptist Church at Blanchard, and is active as a fraternal man, having affiliation with Forsyth Lodge No. 254, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, in Missouri; with Purcell Chapter No. 10, Royal Arch Masons; with For- syth Camp of the Modern Woodmen of America; with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows at Wayne, Okla- homa, and belongs to the Encampment degree and the Order of Rebekahs.

At Bradleyville, Missouri, in 1892, Professor Hicks married Miss Mahala Johnson. Her father, Dr. J. C. Johuson, now deceased, was a very promineut citizen of Taney County, Missouri, where he served as sheriff, tax collector and circuit clerk and also represented the county in the State Legislature. Mr. and Mrs. Hicks are the parents of three children: Cuma O., who has completed the senior courses iu the normal schools at Springfield, Missouri, and Edmond, Oklahoma, is now teacher of the second grade in the public schools at Blanchard and is also supervisor of music and drawing; Troy J. is a senior in the Blanchard High School; and Victor is a junior in the local high school.

WILLIAM L. PITTMAN. Of the various county superin- tendents of schools in Oklahoma there is none who has brought to the discharge of his official duties broader, more systematic and more practical policies than Mr. Pittman, who is county superintendent of the public schools of Woodward County and whose distinctive executive ability has been coupled with his pedagogic efficiency to bring the schools of the county up to their present high standard. He is an enthusiast in his work, places true valuation upon systematic education and his appreciation has, perhaps, been quickened and vitalized through his having depended upon his own resources and exertions in acquiring the liberal education which stands to his credit. Superintendent Pittman came to Wood- ward County in 1901 and has resided within its borders during the intervening period. Becoming a land owner at the time of his arrival in the county, he has aided in the industrial development and progress of this sec- tion of the state, in addition to having been specially prominent and influential in the advancing of educa- tional interests and the best civic ideals and conditions.

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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