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 94

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 94

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DANIEL G. MURLEY. One of the substantial agricul- turists and stock growers of Alfalfa County and former representative of this county in the State Legislature, Mr. Murley is known for his public spirit, his unbounded civic loyalty and his progressiveness and energy in con- nection with the industrial activities to which he is giving his attention.

On a farm in Macon County, Missouri, Daniel Griffin Murley was born on the 25th of October, 1863, and he is a son of Daniel and Martha A. (Waddle) Murley, whose marriage was solemnized in 1859. Daniel Murley was born in Monroe County, Kentucky, on the 23d of June, 1823, and he was thus about twelve years old . when, in 1835, he accompanied his parents on their immi- gration to Macon County, Missouri, where his father and mother passed the residue of their lives and where he himself was reared to maturity and received the advantages of the common schools of the period. He became one of the prominent and influential citizens of Macon County, where he served for a time as county surveyor and later as county judge-preferments which indicate that he was a man of marked ability and one who had secure place in popular esteem. In 1872 he be- came one of the pioneer settlers in Sumner County, Kan- sas, where he entered claim to a tract of government land and where he continued his operations as an agriculturist until 1883, when, at the age of sixty years, he retired from active labors, the residue of his long and worthy life having been passed at Kansas City, Missouri, where he died in 1904, at the venerable age of eighty-one years. His political allegiance was given to the demo- cratic party, and he was for many years affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. In 1859, as previously noted, was solemnized his marriage to Miss Martha A. Waddle, who was born in Macon County, Missouri, in 1835, her father, Edley Waddle, having been a native of Kentucky and a pioneer of Macon County, Missouri. Mrs. Murley was summoned to the life eternal on the 12th of May, 1866, and was survived by three children, the eldest of whom is William P., who was born October 24, 1861, who came to Oklahoma at the time of the opening of the Cherokee Strip, in 1893, and who is now one of the prosperous farmers of Alfalfa County; he wedded, in 1882, Miss Rhea M. Davis, and they have five children, Zula, Neva, Ruby, Alta and Ruth. Daniel G. Murley of this review was the second of the three children. Martha A., who was born May 11, 1866, is the wife of Jacob Frank, an electrician, and they reside at Rosedale, Kansas, their three children being Carl, Jacob, Jr., and Julia.

Daniel G. Murley acquired his rudimentary education in the schools of his native county and was a lad of about nine years at the time of the family removal to Sumner County, Kansas, where he was reared to adult age on the pioneer farm of his father and where he continued to attend school as opportunity afforded. At the age of fifteen years, vigorous and self-reliant, he initiated his career as a cowboy in Indian Territory, and later he drifted into Texas, where he gained wide and varied experience in connection with life on the great cattle ranges and at farm work, to which lines of enterprise he gave his attention for a quarter of a cen-

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tury. Within these years he made many trips with herds of cattle which he assisted in driving along the olden trails from the Lone Star State to Dodge City and other shipping points on the Kansas border. He has an interesting fund of personal reminiscences concerning the pioneer days of the great open ranges, when buffalo were still much in evidence on the plains and when hostile Indians were frequently encountered. He had numerous thrilling adventures and narrow escapes, but reverts with satisfaction to experiences which progress and opulent prosperity have made impossible of repeti- tion in our great national domain.

Mr. Murley has the distinction of being one of the true pioneers of the present State of Oklahoma, since he "made the run" into the territory at the time when it was thrown open for settlement, in 1889. He did not, however, enter claim to any land, as he shared at the time the common opinion of the cattlemen that the land was fit only for grazing purposes. He retained his cattle and ranch interests in Comanche County, Kan- sas, where he continued his operations in the cattle busi- ness until 1898, when he established his residence in what is now Alfalfa County, Oklahoma. In 1900 he located in the old town of Augusta and later established his headquarters at Carmen, in which locality in Alfalfa County he was actively engaged in farming and the raising of live stock for ten years, having been also a successful buyer and shipper of live stock. He is still identified with these lines of enterprise and is the owner of valuable farm property in Alfalfa County, though lie maintains his residence at Cherokee, the county seat.

Mr. Murley is a stalwart advocate of the principles and policies of the democratic party and as a candidate on its ticket he had the distinction of being elected the first representative of Alfalfa County in the Oklahoma Legislature after the admission of the state to the Union, in 1907. He was assigned to various important com- mittees and was zealous and loyal in his work as a legis- lator during the formative period of the state government, his services being now an integral part of the history of this favored commonwealth. Mr. Murley is a well known and popular citizen of Alfalfa County, a prominent buyer and shipper of live stock and a public-spirited man who takes deep interest in the vigorous commonwealth in which he is a veritable pioneer and of the wonderful progress of which he has been a witness. Mr. Murley is a bachelor, is affiliated with the Knights of Pythias and its adjunct organization, the Dramatic Order of the Knights of Khorassan, and also with the Modern Woodmen of America.

ALVA E. SMITH. Some interesting distinctions attach to Alva E. Smith as a banker. He may properly be described as the oldest banker in Oklahoma for his age. This statement requires some explanation of course. Mr. Smith is not yet thirty years of age, and yet has been connected with banking for over fifteen years and has had the responsible part in bank man- agement since he was sixteen years of age.

A few years ago he bought a controlling interest and has since been president of The Dustin State Bank at Dustin in Hughes County. Associated with him in this institution are: T. B. King, vice president, and Jesse W. Smith, cashier. The Dustin State Bank has capital and surplus of $18,000, and is strongly entrenched in popular favor and confidence in that part of the state.

Mr. Smith was born at Valley View, Texas, March 25, 1887, a son of Henry and Anna (Robinson) Smith. His father was born near Syracuse, New York, a son of John Smith, who moved from New York to Texas as

one of the pioneers and was killed by Indians near Laredo in that state about 1860. He served in the Mex- ican war. Anna Robinson Smith was a native of Mis- souri and she was married at Valley View, Texas. The parents now reside at Clarendon, Texas, and Henry Smith has for a number of years been an extensive cattle man.

The oldest in a family of eight children, three sons and five daughters, Alva E. Smith lived at home until about fourteen, and in that time acquired nearly all his literary education, which has been reenforced by exten- sive and close contact with business affairs in later years. At the age of fourteen he went to work in a bank at Loco in Stephens County, Indian Territory, and about two years later was given the responsibilities of cashier. Later he was promoted to a position in the American National Bank of Oklahoma City, where he was manager of foreign exchange and the collection department. With this varied experience in country and city banks, he came to Dustin in 1910 and has since been president of the State Bank.

Mr. Smith is also an extensive operator in the cattle industry of Oklahoma. He has been a democrat since casting his first vote and is a man of progressive leader- ship in his home community. He is a member of the Masonic Order and the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. In December, 1914, he married Miss Ruth B. Park, who was born in Wellington, Kansas, a daughter of Thomas Park. Mr. and Mrs. Smith have one daugh- ter, Jurhee Retta Smith.

DAVID RILEY CARPENTER, during a residence of fifteen years in Oklahoma, has become most widely known as a newspaper man and several years ago he made a very vigorous campaign for election as congressman at large. Most of these years have been spent at Dacoma, where he has been an aggressive worker for law and order and a force to be reckoned with in politics and affairs.

A son of Jacob and Elizabeth (Burton) Carpenter, he was born on the old Burton farm near Orleans, Indiana, January 12, 1854. Both parents were born in Ashe County, North Carolina, and the Burtons, numbering many thousands, are the largest family of record in the State of Indiana. Jacob Carpenter was of pure German descent, while Elizabeth Burton was of English and Scotch origin.

Largely due to the circumstances of time and place, Mr. Carpenter had poor school advantages as a boy, but eventually worked his way into the State University of Indiana, which he attended for a time in the early '70s, though not completing the college course. At the age of twenty he was in Central Nebraska, then an unsettled country, and was a pioneer farmer there.

On January 1, 1877, he married Miss Emma Augusta Peak, who was then seventeen years of age. Among other accomplishments Mr. Carpenter may well be proud of the large family of children which he has reared or is rearing. They are twelve in number, and names and dates of birth are as follows: Albert M., December 3, 1877; Mary E., March 12, 1880; Roy A., August 28, 1882; John S. and Belva L., December 12, 1884; Anna B., July 25, 1888; David Orrill, July 23, 1891; Robert B., October 9, 1893; George B., July 16, 1895; Merle A., July 5, 1897; Marguerite, November 13, 1898; Guy E., June 14, 1903.

Though a part of his earlier years were spent in teaching school, most of that portion of his life was devoted to farming. Mr. Carpenter is also a mechanic, followed his trade as carpenter for a time, and at various periods, aggregating about ten years, has been engaged in newspaper work. In 1886 he was admitted to the bar

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in Chase County, Nebraska, but after a brief practice gave up the law for newspaper work.

Few men have a better acquaintance with the course of political sentiment in the West than Mr. Carpenter. He became active in the anti-monopoly movement in the early '70s, took a prominent part in the Alliance uprising and in the organization of the populist party in 1890. In 1888 he first met W. J. Bryan, then hardly known beyond the boundaries of his home district in Nebraska. They both spoke at a political meeting at Beaver City, Nebraska, and since that time Mr. Carpenter has been an admirer and supporter of the silver tongued orator in all the latter's political adventures. For more than twenty-five years Mr. Carpenter has been on the political stump, and his clear and forceful manner of delivery has made him a place among the political orators of Oklahoma. He served as under-clerk in the upper house of the Nebraska Legislature in 1891, and was bill clerk in the Nebraska Legislature in 1893. ' In 1890 he was the farmers' candidate for Congress on the populist ticket for the Fifth Nebraska District, and only a few votes stood between him and the nomination at the con- vention.

It was in 1901 that his life became identified with Oklahoma, when he settled in old Woods County. He was chosen to preside over the last big fusion convention of the populist and democratic parties ever held in old Woods County at Old Augusta, in 1902. When in 1912 Oklahoma elected three congressmen at large, Mr. Car- penter was one with twenty-seven others to make the race on the democratic ticket for one of the seats. In a number of counties where he was known he had a liberal margin of votes, but his statewide acquaintance was too limited to give him an equal chance with those who have made for themselves a name in the affairs of the state.

Not only in practical politics but to educational and other public affairs Mr. Carpenter has given a loyal support for many years. For one term he served as president of the Commercial Club of Old Augusta, and there has been no undertaking for the improvement and welfare of the little town of Dacoma, Woods County, where he has lived for the past eleven years, in which he has not been one of the leading spirits and often prime mover. He has always stood for law and order, and his activities in the suppression of crime in his own town made him the target of the lawless element, and as a result, on the night of April 17, 1910, he was clubbed on the streets of Dacoma within a short distance of his own door. Fortunately for him, the culprit who attacked · him was too drunk to accomplish his design, and Mr. Carpenter escaped with his life, but he still carries the scars of the murderous act on his head.

In 1912 Mr. Carpenter established the Dacoma Enter- prise, and was its editor for three years until he sold the plant. He is a student of social and political economy, spends some time in historical research, and is now engaged in writing a book.

HON. RICHARD A. BILLUPS. For more than fifteen years Richard A. Billups has been regarded as one of the most aggressive lawyers and useful citizens of Oklahoma Territory and State. Mr. Billups' home is at Cordell, and from that district he went as a senator to the first and second legislatures of the new state. He has been a factor in politics for a number of years but now has practically retired from the political arena and is giv- ing his attention to a fine clientage which he enjoys as a lawyer.

Of an old Southern family, Richard Alphonzo Billups was born April 24, 1878, at Jefferson in Carroll County,

Mississippi. His father was Dr. William Billups, who was born at Monroe, Georgia, in 1825, and was educated in the Medical University at Charleston, South Carolina. In 1853 he moved out to Jefferson, Mississippi, and con- tinued the practice of his profession there until his death on August 2, 1899. He was a kindly and capable physician, a man who made friends wherever he was, and proved a valuable counselor and adviser to all the aspiring young men of his acquaintance. He was promi- nent in the Baptist Church. Dr. William Billups mar- ried Irene Kimbrough, a woman of sweet and gentle disposition, who was born in Carroll County, Mississippi. They were married in 1864. She died in 1895.

Richard A. Billups during his youth in Mississippi enjoyed the advantages of a good home and such oppor- tunities as local schools afforded. He had an ambition for a higher education and a professional career, but in order to attain the object of his ambition he found it necessary to earn his own way, and he actually paid his expenses while a student of law in Cumberland University at Lebanon, Tennessee. He was graduated from that old institution with the degree LL. B. in 1899.

Soon after leaving Cumberland University he came out to Oklahoma Territory, and began practicing in Washita County in 1899. He was soon marked for official honor. He was elected to serve as Probate Judge of Washita County from January, 1901, to November 16, 1907, giving up the office when Oklahoma Territory was merged into Oklahoma State. In the meantime he had been elected from the Sixth Oklahoma State Senatorial District as Senator, and took his seat in the first Senate of the new State of Oklahoma, serving during the first, second and the first special sessions of the Legislature.

In 1902 Mr. Billups was elected secretary of the Oklahoma Democratic State Committee and in 1904 was elected a member of the Democratic National Committee for Oklahoma Territory, being the youngest member ever elected to the National Committee, and held that office four years. He has been a delegate to every democratic convention in Oklahoma since 1899, and attended the national conventions in 1900, 1904 and 1908, and was a delegate to the Baltimore Convention of 1912, where he consistently cast his ballot for Woodrow Wilson until the nomination was complete.

Mr. Billups is a director of the Cordell National Bank and director and president of the Beacon Publishing Company, and the owner of some of the best farms in Washita County. He has a good home and sufficient business interests to insure a competency. Fraternally he is affiliated with the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, the Knights of Pythias and the Woodmen of the World. In church affairs he is a Baptist and is superintendent of the Baptist Sunday School at the First Baptist Church of Cordell.

At Duck Hill March 30, 1902, he married Beatrice Tyler, daughter of W. E. and Virginia Tyler of Duck Hill. Mr. and Mrs. Billups have a fine family of grown children: Richard Lee, aged twelve; Beatrice Virginia, aged eight; Irene Louise, aged six; William Tyler, aged three; and Sarah Kimbrough, who was born in 1915.

G. O. WEBB, M. D. Contemporaneous with the growth and development of Temple has been the residence and professional service of Doctor Webb, who has been in con- tinuous practice at that locality for nearly fifteen years and deserves all the prestige which goes with an old- established physician.

Doctor Webb was born at Paragould, Benton County, Arkansas, June 13, 1875. The Webb family is of Scotch- Irish descent, was located in America before the Revolu- tion, and became identified with the pioneer settlement of

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Tennessee. Doctor Webb's grandfather was John L. Webb, who was born in Tennessee and died at Trenton in that state at the age of seventy-two. He was a planter and slave owner. L. L. Webb, father of Doctor Webb, was born at Trenton, Tennessee, in 1838, and from that community removed to Paragould, Arkansas, and in 1877 established the home of the family at Cleburn in John- son County, Texas, but in 1883 again removed to Mans- field, Texas. In 1902 he came to Temple, Oklahoma, and is now living retired in that town, after a long and active career as a farmer and stock man. He is a demo- crat, but at the beginning of the Civil war enlisted in the twelfth regiment of Tennessee Infantry, Company C, of the Confederate army. He was captured in the Battle of Shiloh and was sent to Libby prison and for nearly three years was kept a prisoner by the Federals, until the close of the war. He is a member of the Methodist Church. L. L. Webb married Mary E. Graham, who was born in Arkansas in 1854. Their children are: Etta, wife of J. C. Martin, a farmer at Henderson, Texas; Robert, who is a farmer near Temple, Oklahoma; Dr. G. O .; Lee, a railway employe at Temple; Eva, wife of Ed Burnett, a farmer near Temple.

Two years of age when the family removed to Texas, Doctor Webb acquired a public school education in the country schools in the northern part of that state and in 1894 was graduated from the high school at Mansfield. Thenceforward he pursued his schooling almost continu- ously until fitted for his profession. In 1896 he was graduated Bachelor of Science from the Southwestern University at Georgetown, Texas, spent two years in the medical department of the State University of Texas, and after another two years at Tulane Medical College in New Orleans, was graduated M. D. in 1901. Since be- ginning his practice he spent several months in 1907 in post-graduate work at the College of Physicians and Sur- geons in Chicago, specializing in surgery. Doctor Webb began his practice at Temple in 1901, practically with the founding of the town, and his business and reputation have grown in proportion to the development of that center of population and surrounding territory. His offices are in the Temple Drug Store on Commercial Street. For the past four years Doctor Webb has been local surgeon for the Rock Island Railway Company, and is a member in good standing of both the County and State Medical societies.

For six years he served in the city council, and was a member of the school board four years. Doctor Webb is a democrat, is affiliated with the Knights of Pythias and the Woodmen of the World at Temple and is popular in all classes of citizens.

In 1903 at Fort Worth, Texas, Doctor Webb married Miss Lena Tatum, whose father was John Tatum, now deceased, a farmer by occupation. Three children have been born to their marriage: Helen, Harold and Agatha, all three of whom are attending the public schools at Temple. 1

BENJAMIN W. SLOVER, M. D. For fully thirteen years Dr. Slover has been successfully engaged in practice as a graduate physician in Oklahoma. For a number of years his services were given to the Durant community, but since 1912 he has been well established in his profession at Blanchard.

He was born in Cherokee County, Texas, December 23, 1873, a son of T. and Martha (Runnels) Slover. The Slover family first came to America and landed in Massa- chusetts during the first years of settlement in New England. Not long afterwards the Indians massacred all members of the Slover family except Abraham and John, and John survived to become the ancestor of

Dr. Slover. T. Slover was born in Georgia in 1837, but was taken by his parents in 1847 to Texas, where he grew up. During the war between the states he was a Confederate soldier, was taken prisoner and kept in Arkansas until the war closed. His wife, Miss Martha Runnels, was born in Alabama in 1845 and died at Shawnee, Oklahoma, in 1901. They removed from Cherokee County in 1876 to Collin County, Texas. Mr. T. Slover has been a farmer and stockman all his active career and is now living retired at Sulphur, Oklahoma. His children are: Rachel, deceased, who married D. D. Boyle; S. P. Slover, deceased, who was a cotton buyer at Wynnewood; Frankie, widow of L. C. Lane; G. W. Slover, a physician at Sulphur; W. Z. Slover; Dr. John T. of Sulphur; Benjamin W. Slover; and J. L. Slover, living at Sulphur.

Benjamin W. Slover was reared in Collin County, Texas, and besides the public schools he finished his early education at Grayson College at Whitewright. When twenty years of age he entered the Missouri Medical College at St. Louis, spent one year there, and for three years altogether he was a student of Barnes Medical College at St. Louis. He did not pursue his studies in consecutive courses, but in the meantime was licensed as an undergraduate practitioner and followed his profes- sion in Texas in the intervals of his student work. Dr. Slover was graduated M. D. from Barnes Medical College with the class of 1902.

He soon afterward came to Oklahoma and located at Durant, where he practiced from 1902 until 1909, and for the next three years carried on his profession in Comanche County, Oklahoma. Since August, 1912, he has had his home at Blanchard, with offices in the Stafford Building on Main Street, and he now enjoys a substantial general practice in medicine and surgery.

Doctor Slover is a democrat, and is a member of Blan- chard Camp No. 518, Woodmen of the World. In Janu- ary, 1895, in Leonard, Texas, Doctor Slover married Miss Lucy M. Lawrence. Her father, J. A. Lawrence, is a dealer in fruit trees at Durant, Oklahoma. To their marriage have been born two children: Robbie May, born January 1, 1896, and now the wife of E. B. Col- linsworth, a rural mail carrier at Blanchard; and Hubert B., born December 25, 1902, and in the eighth grade of the public schools.

GEORGE T. ARNETT. The course of that section of Red River that makes a ribbon along the southern edge of the Chickasaw and Choctaw nations holds many an interesting fact of history-a thousand more facts than can ever be obtained from the mouths of men; a thou- sand little bits of tragedy and romance that have passed on like the red current. It is quite possible that no other stream of the Middle West would figure half so conspicuously in history were the annals of its border regions fully related. This is true because Red River was a boundary line between civilization and the remnant of forty-five tribes of Indians, herded by the Government upon their last reservation, with whom thousands of Government officials and millions of other white men have had business transactions. This accounts for the fact that every one of the fifty or more ferries along Red River where it touches the Chickasaw and Choctaw countries has a fascinating aroma of history hovering about it. The real and most interesting facts about it would equal in interest the story told of any frontier in the history of the world.

Among these ferries was Hamberg Ferry, near which George T. Arnett was born and near which his father, Walter R. Arnett, was a merchant for many years. The Arnett store was on the Texas bank of the river, being

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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