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 96

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 96

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"In all these years I have never known a more faith- ful, earnest and aggressive missionary than Rev. Smith

has been. Hundreds have been converted and baptized and the Association was more than doubled in member- ship.

"This missionary work was prosecuted at no small sacrifice, the missionaries often suffering privations and enduring hardships. The salaries were very small, often not enough to pay the actual expenses.

"The Indians were scattered all over the territory and this meant miles of travel. Sometimes by trains, sometimes by vehicles or horseback, but not infre- quently on foot. This latter method of travel was adopted because of the lack of conveyance. During this seven years that Rev. Smith was missionary, he lived fifteen miles from a railroad, and many times he walked this distance in order to reach his appoint- ments. Several times he was compelled to sleep out nights for want of means to pay for his lodging.

"Wicked ruffians have threatened his life several times, and six-shooters have been displayed, but through it all he has kept steady at the task, never wavering.

"He served as Moderator of the Ministers' and Deacons' meetings for several years, and is at this writing Chairman of the Managing Board of the Asso- ciation, and is just as active in Missionary work as he was when he was under regular appointment as mis- sionary.

"In private life Rev. Smith is a clean and upright man in every sense of the word.

"He was married first in April, 1898, to Eliza Yahola and lived with her until August, 1914, when she died. He was married again on August 5, 1915, to Miss Addie Carr, the daughter of Rev. Robt. Carr. Mrs. Smith is a cultured, educated, refined and intelligent Christian woman, and will be of great help to her husband in his work.

"Rev. Smith has had no children born into his home, but he has raised and educated several orphan children. He is maintaining two in school at the present time.

"In 1913 oil was discovered on the allotment of Mrs. Smith (nee Lizzie Yahola) and has proven to be very valuable. At her death Mr. Smith became heir to one- half interest in this, which has made him a rich man. The income from these oil wells is increasing his wealth at the rate of several thousand dollars per year, but this great wealth does not deter him from his main pur- pose of life-that of serving God and his people, but on the other hand it has increased his power for service. He has given several thousand dollars already to the education and uplift of his people, and he says it is his purpose to give at least the tenth of his income for the work of the Lord among his people.

"He is now planning a unique method of stimulating missionary zeal among his people."

WILLIAM PRICE MURLEY. One of the handsome and valuable farms of the fertile agricultural region of North- west Oklahoma, is the property belonging to William Price Murley, lying five miles southeast of the present Town of Capron. Here he has made his home since the opening of the Cherokee Strip, in 1893, and has con- tributed generously to the development of his community by establishing a well-cultivated and modernly-improved country property. Few men of his locality are more highly esteemed than is Mr. Murley, who is known as a substantial and practical agriculturist and as a public- spirited citizen, and the regard in which he is held is strengthened by the fact that he is the proud owner of a Carnegie hero medal, the first to be awarded an Okla- homan.

William Price Murley was born October 24, 1861, on a farm in Macon County, Missouri, and is a son of Daniel

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and Martha A. (Waddle) Murley. His father, born June 10, 1823, in Mason County, Kentucky, was a man of versatile talents and fine education, mastering several professions and gaining well-merited success in each. At various times he practiced as a lawyer, a doctor, a civil engineer and a teacher, and also for a number of years was engaged in farming. He had an honorable military career as a soldier during the Mexican war, being a private under Gen. Zachary Taylor. During the early days of Missouri he was sent from his district as a representative to the Legislature, and subsequently was elected county judge, an office which he held for a long period. He was an intensely religious man, and died in the faith of his church, at Kansas City, Missouri, Feb- ruary 12, 1904. In 1860, in Macon County, Missouri, Mr. Murley was married to Miss Martha A. Waddle, who was born in that county, in 1845, daughter of Edward Waddle, a native of Kentucky. She died May 12, 1866, the mother of three children: William Price; Daniel G., born October 25, 1863, a farmer and one of the first settlers of Alfalfa County, which he represented in the Oklahoma Legislature in 1908; and Martha Ann, born May 11, 1866, married Jacob Frank in 1881, has three children,-Carl, Jacob and Julia, and lives at Kansas City, Missouri.

William P. Murley was educated in the public schools of Sumner County, Kansas, was reared amid agricul- tural surroundings, and in 1886 engaged in his first business venture when he took up a homestead in Co- manche County, Kansas, and established a cattle ranch, handling cattle on the range. This proved a successful enterprise, and he continued to be engaged in that man- ner until 1893, when he participated in the opening of the Cherokee Strip by making the race for land. Locat- ing five miles southeast of the present Town of Capron, le secured a choice claim of 160 acres, and this has been since developed under his capable management into one of the finest properties in this section, being now all under cultivation, completely fenced, and with the most up-to- date improvements and substantial buildings. While practical in his aims, Mr. Murley is progressive also, and is ever ready to experiment with new methods which promise to secure advanced results. Politically, he is á democrat, but has never cared for public life, nor has he held any save purely local offices. He holds a cer- tificate of membership in the Payne Colony, which agi- tated the original opening of Oklahoma, but did not take part in that opening. On February 8, 1911, near his home, Mr. Murley exhibited magnificent bravery when he attempted to rescue J. Austin Lott, a boy, from death in a runaway. His courageous attempt cost him greatly, for he received injuries the effects of which will be with him as long as life lasts. However, the incident was brought to the notice of the Carnegie Hero Fund Com- mission, and January 15, 1913, Mr. Murley was pre- sented with a silver medal, together with $1,000 disable- ment benefits and $1,000 toward liquidating indebtedness. Mr. Murley is the first man in Oklahoma to receive such an honor and his medal will ever remain his most highly-prized possession.

On November 9, 1882, Mr. Murley was married to Miss Margaret Davis, of Sumner County, Kansas, who was born May 28, 1864, daughter of Lewis and Rebecca (Ben- nett) Davis, and died October 21, 1909, in Alfalfa County, Oklahoma. To this union there were born five daughters and four sons, as follows: Daniel Lewis, born August 1, 1884, who died August 26, 1885; Zula Z., born March 16, 1886; Glenn, born December 31, 1888, who died October 9, 1889; Neva, born October 14, 1892, mar- ried in 1910, C. H. Lee, and has one child,-William; Ruby, born January 10, 1898, married in 1913, Homer

Elliott, and has one daughter,-Ethel; Alta, born Decem- ber 27, 1900; Ruth, born July 20, 1902; and Harry, and William, who died in infancy.

WILLIAM J. LONG. It is fully a quarter of a century ago, in 1890, when William J. Long first became identi- fied with what is now the State of Oklahoma. In that year he established a pioncer store at McGee, Indian Territory. His store was only one feature of his business interests in the territory, since he also looked after a large amount of stock and had some extensive interests in the cattle industry in this section, where he remained an active factor in business affairs for eight years.

Since 1898 Mr. Long has been one of the liberal and progressive business men of Paul's Valley. There, too, he is accounted an early settler and assisted in organ- izing the Sullivan-Long Wholesale Grocery Company, an establishment with a successful record which in 1914 was sold to the Tyler & Simpson firm. In the same year, 1898, Mr. Long helped to organize the First National Bank of Paul's Valley, and continued a director in that institution for eight years.

In 1902 he bought the controlling interest in the National Bank of Commerce of Paul's Valley, and has since been. its president. This bank was established in 1899 as a private bank, but for a number of years has been conducted under a national charter. In 1902 a handsome building at the corner of Main Street and Chickasaw Avenue was erected and furnished quarters for the bank and for other offices. Some items from a recent bank statement indicate the flourishing condition of the bank. Its capital stock is $50,000; surplus, $10,000; undivided profits, $20,000; and in the fifteen years of its business history it has paid large dividends to the stockholders. Its present officers are: William J. Long, president; W. G. Kimberlin, vice president ; E. C. Gage, cashier; and Harry Hamilton, assistant cashier.

Up to twenty-five years ago Mr. Long was a Texan. He was born at Sulphur Springs, in Northern Texas, January 8, 1860. His family is of Scotch-Irish descent, and its representatives were among the pioneers of Maury County, Tennessee. His great-grandfather, John Long, was a Texas pioneer, having emigrated to Harrison County in that state from Maury County, Tennessee. He died in Harrison County. Mr. Long's grandfather, Mathew Long, arrived in Texas in time to fight the Mexicans and Indians under the redoubtable Sam Houston, He was for many years a farmer and stock man, and died in Hopkins County, Texas, having been a native of Tennessee. P. H. Long, father of the Paul's Valley banker, was born in Tennessee in 1831 and died at Sulphur Springs, Texas, in 1876. His parents had settled in Harrison County, Texas, in 1844, and he grew up in that section of Eastern Texas, and as a young man moved to Hopkins County, where he married Sarah McKnight, a native of Hopkins County. In Hopkins County P. H. Long followed business as a merchant. In 1861 he accepted the lot of his home state and enlisted in the Confederate army, and just before the close of the war was wounded and consequently was home on a furlough when hostilities closed. He was a democrat, a member of the Presbyterian Church, and a Royal Arch Mason. His first wife died at Sulphur Springs in 1861, and her only child is William J. Long of Paul's Valley. For his second wife the father mar- ried Mary M. McKnight, a sister of his first wife. The children by that union are: Charles M., who is proprietor of a hotel at Ada, Oklahoma; Minnie M., wife of William Mann, in the real estate business at Dallas, Texas; Aunie T., wife of Joe Prim, a merchant at

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Wynnewood, Oklahoma; and Emma M., deceased wife of R. B. Moreland, who is a minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church and now resides at Sherman, Texas.

William J. Long, while growing up at Sulphur Springs, Texas, acquired a high school education. When only seventeen years of age he began his business career, being connected with a mercantile establishment at Sul- phur Springs for two years. He then removed to Fairy- land, in Hopkins County, and established a general store. This he conducted for ten years and then sold out. With this experience as a merchant and in general business affairs Mr. Long entered Indian Territory in 1890. He has since acquired a position that makes him one of the leading business men in the southern part of the state. He is widely known in banking circles, is a member of the Oklahoma Bankers' Association and the American Bankers' Association. He is a director in the Paul's Valley Commercial Club and takes a part in every move- ment for the benefit of that city. In politics he is a democrat, and has served as a member of the council. He is a deacon in the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, and is affiliated with Valley Lodge No. 6, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, of which he is past master; with Paul's Valley Chapter, Royal Arch Masons; with India Temple of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine at Oklahoma City; with the thirty-second degree of Scottish Rite, in Consistory No. 1, Valley of Guthrie; and also with the Woodmen of the World.

In 1883 at Sulphur Springs, while just getting a foot- hold in business affairs, he married Miss Julia I. Hicklin. Her father, the late Richard Hicklin, was a farmer. To their marriage have been born four children: John R., in the furniture business and also a stockman at Paul's Valley; Maud M., wife of Samuel Hewett, who is pro- prietor of a furniture store at Paul's Valley; Edwin, a hardware merchant at Paul's Valley; and Carlie C., who is in partnership with his brother Edwin.

DR. JAMES JOHNSON WILLIAMS. The town of Weath- erford owes a considerable to Dr. J. J. Williams, who has been established in practice there since 1898. He may truly be said to be a pioneer, and to his activities in his profession, he has added much public service of an ad- mirable character that has made his presence in Weather- ford a distinct advantage to the community.

Dr. James Johnson Williams was born in Wheatland, Hickory County, Missouri, on April 8, 1867, and is the son of James D. and Harriet B. (Hughes) Williams. The father was born near Nashville, Tennessee, in 1818, and died in Wheatland, Missouri, in 1886. His wife was born near Knoxville, Tennessee, and she died at Bolivar, Missouri, in 1896. From Tennessee James D. Williams moved to Wheatland, Missouri, prior to his marriage, and in 1883 he moved from Wheatland, where he had spent many happy and prosperous years, and settled in Eldorado, Missouri, though he later returned to the old home in Wheatland and there died. He was a farmer and stockman there, and was very prominent in his county. He was a member of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, and a devout Christian. He was twice married. His first wife was a Miss Holbert, and she died near Cross Timbers, Missouri, the mother of one son, F. M. Williams. Of his second marriage three children were born. William T. lives in Lindsay, California, where he has an orange grove. Nannie E. married J. A. Dickerson, and they live in Louis, Oklahoma, where he is postmaster and a hardware dealer. The third child was Doctor Williams of this review.

Doctor Williams had his elementary training in the schools in Hickory County, Missouri, and was graduated from the Eldorado High School with the class of 1886.

He then entered the Southwest Baptist College in Bolivar, Missouri, and was graduated with the class of 1889 with the degree B. L. Soon after he matriculated in the College of Physicians and Surgeons in Chicago, now known as the Medical Department of the State Uni- versity, and he was graduated with the class of 1893, degree of M. D. He then took a post graduate course in the Chicago Clinical School in 1905, and has in other ways kept up his training so as to maiutaiu his place in the advance guard of the profession.

Doctor Williams' first practice was in Cross Timbers, Missouri, from 1893-6, and from 1896-8 he was engaged in practice in Bolivar, Missouri. He came to Weather- ford, Oklahoma, in April, 1898, and since that time has conducted a general medical and surgical practice.

Doctor Williams is a democrat, and has served as local health officer here on several occasions. He was mayor of Weatherford for two terms, serving through the years of 1903-4-5-6, and he gave excellent service to the community in that office. In 1907 he was elected to the State Senate, serving iu the First Legislature of Oklahoma. He was re-elected and served four years in that office. During the first term he gave special service as a member and chairman of the Committee on Hospi- tals and Charities, and during his second term he was chairman of the Committee on Appropriations. During this third term of service he was chairman of the Com- mittee on the Senate and Legislative Affairs, and at the same time was chairman of the Public Health Committee. He was also a member of the Committee on Roads and Highways, on Federal Relations, on Drugs and Pure Foods, on Judicial Apportionments, and on State and County Affairs. He was the originator of the "Medical Practice Act of Oklahoma," as well as the author of the Compulsory Education bill, the bill for providing for Consolidated Rural Schools, the bill providing' Weath- erford with $100,000 for the new Southwestern State Normal School building, the bill for the Boys' Trading School at Pauls Valley, Oklahoma, and the bill for the Institute for Feeble Minded, at Enid, Oklahoma. It was largely through his efforts that all these various bills went through. In addition to his service in these mat- ters, he has served Weatherford as a member of the City Council for several years. He was appointed by Governor Williams as a member of the State Board of Medical Examiners of the state in January, 1916.

Doctor Williams is a Mason, with membership in the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, the Royal Arch Masons and the Knights Templar, all Weatherford bodies; India Temple, Ancient Arabic Order Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, Oklahoma City, and Consistory No. 1, Valley of Guthrie. He is also a member of the Knights of Pythias and the Modern Woodmen of America. He is a member of the County, State and American Medical Societies, and is prominent in the county with his brother practitioners.

Doctor Williams is the owner of considerable real estate in and about Weatherford, including his home, and a fine farm of 160 acres three miles south of Weatherford.

In 1892, in Bolivar, Missouri, was recorded the mar- riage of Doctor Williams to Miss Tena Milliken, daugh- ter of H. R. Milliken, a prominent attorney and farmiug man of Bolivar, now deceased. Three children have been born to them: James Rankin, now a junior in the Southwestern State Normal at Weatherford; Gordon Darnell, also a student in that institution; and J. J., living at home with her parents.

HON. DICK THOMPSON MORGAN. When, in the elec- tions of November, 1914, the Hon. Dick Thompson

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Morgan was sent to the United States Congress for the fourth consecutive time, there was evidenced eloquently the confidence of the people of the Eighth Congressional District of Oklahoma in his trustworthiness, his fidelity to the responsibilities incident to the holding of public office, and his entire capacity to promote the best in- terests of his constituents. A prominent legislator, Mr. Morgan is also a noted legist, a recognized authority in several branches of the law, and an author of no mean ability, and during his quarter of a century of residence in Oklahoma has done much and in many ways to pro- mote the substantial growth of one of the nation's most wonderful commonwealths.

Dick Thompson Morgan was born at Prairie Creek, Vigo County, Indiana, December 6, 1853, and is a son of Valentine and Frances ( Thompson) Morgan, the former a farmer and native of Kentucky who died in 1880, at the age of sixty-five years, and the latter, a native of Indiana, who survived until 1913 and reached the advanced age of ninety-two years. Mr. Morgan re- ceived his early education in the public schools of the vicinity of his birth, following which he was sent to the Union Christian College, Merom, Indiana, graduating therefrom in 1876 with his degree of Bachelor of Science "When Mr. Morgan entered Congress, March 4, 1909, he recognized the fact that the trust question was the one great unsolved National problem. He at once began a careful and systematic study of the question. While others were talking, Mr. Morgan was working. He searched the Congressional Library, studied the Constitu- cisions, and sought light and inspiration from every avail- able source. In the Campaign of 1910 he told his con- stituents that he was in favor of creating a Federal Corporation Commission. Entering upon his second term, he immediately began the preparation of a Bill for this purpose. It was finally completed and introduced in the House on the 25th day of January, 1912. It covered 14 pages of printed matter, every section, paragraph and line of which had been prepared with the utmost care. On the 21st day of February, 1912, Mr. Morgan delivered in the House the first speech advocating the creation of such a Commission. The leaders of the Republican party recognized merit in the proposition and at the next Con- vention of the party, held at Chicago in June, 1912, the platform declared for a Federal Trade Commission. A month later the Progressive Party, in its first platform did likewise. When the 63rd Congress convened in special session, April 7, 1913, Mr. Morgan promptly rein- troduced his Bill. Other Representatives followed his leadership and introduced similar bills. But the climax was reached when President Wilson went before Con- gress with his message recommending the creation of such a Commission. He thereby committed his party in Congress to the proposition, Thereafter, it was only a question of working out the details and determining what power should be conferred upon the Commission." and receiving his Master's degree from the same institu- tion in 1882. He took his law course at the Central Law School, Indianapolis, where he was graduated in 1880, with the degree of Bachelor of Laws, and in that same year began the practice of his profession at Terre Haute, Indiana. From the time he had reached his . tion, examined Federal Statutes, read Supreme Court de- majority, Mr. Morgan had been a strong and active republican, and in 1880 was elected to his first office as a member of the Indiana House of Representatives, in which body he served capably during that and the fol- lowing year. He then entered the newspaper field, in con- nection with his legal practice, and from 1882 until 1886 was editor and publisher of the Terre Haute Courier, which was a powerful influence in the ranks of repub- licanism in the Hoosier State at that time. In the latter year Mr. Morgan retired from journalism to accept, the position of attorney for the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad Company, at Garden City, Kansas, and re- tained that position until the opening of Oklahoma, April 22, 1889, at that time settling in the City of Guthrie. There he resided and continued in the practice of his profession until 1893, when he removed to Perry, and in 1901 transferred his residence and field of practice to El Reno. He was residing at the latter city in 1904, when he was appointed by President Theodore Roosevelt to the position of register of the United States Land Office at Woodward, where he has since made his home. Mr. Morgan retained this position until 1908, when he was elected from the old Second Oklahoma Congressional District, as a member of the Sixty-first Congress of the United States. His services in that body were of a char- acter that demonstrated Mr. Morgan one of the strong and able members of the House, and re-elections to the Sixty-second and Sixty-third congresses followed. In November, 1914, he again became the candidate of his party, and was elected from his district, the new Eighth, to the Sixty-fourth Congress, for the term from March 4, 1915, to March 4, 1917.

On January 25, 1912, Congressman Morgan introduced the first bill in the House of Representatives to create a Federal commission to supervise, regulate and control industrial corporations engaged in interstate commerce, and February 20, 1912, made a speech in the House advocating such a measure. In the initiative and ad- vocacy of such a commission, Congressman Morgan was a pioneer. Later the republican and progressive parties endorsed the proposition in their party platforms, and

President Wilson, in a special message to Congress recom- mended it. The Sixty-third Congress passed the act creating the Federal Trade Commission only about 21/2 years after the same had first been proposed by Congress- man Morgan.

The Woodward News Bulletin, referring to Congress- man Morgan's leadership in Federal Trade Commission legislation, says: "The Federal Trade Commission Act recently passed by Congress, stands as a monument to the foresight, breadth of intellect, legislative skill and constructive statesmanship of Congressman Dick T. Mor- gan. The passage of this measure marks an epoch in the history of National legislation. Conspicuous among the names of those who have written this chapter in American legislative history will appear for all time the name of Dick T. Morgan. He initiated the measure in the House and followed it closely through every stage of its de- velopment and progress. In the conception, development and completion of this monumental piece of legislation, Mr. Morgan led the leaders in the Halls of Congress, moved in advance of his own party organization, and outlined a program and policy which was finally adopted and followed by a National Democratic Administration.

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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