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. V, Part 104

Author: Thoburn, Joseph B. (Joseph Bradfield), 1866-1941
Publication date: 1916
Publisher: Chicago, New York, The American Historical Society
Number of Pages: 644

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. V > Part 104

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

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HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA

fornia. He died in 1869, and his widow survived him by nearly half a century, she having beeu in her uinety- first year at the time of her death, in February, 1913, and having passed the closing period of her life in the home of one of her daughters in Colorado.

Hays Hamilton was reared to adult age in Kansas City, Missouri, and in 1882 he came to the Osage Indiau Agency of Indian Territory. For four years he was employed by his elder brother, John B., who was an Indian trader and who maintained; headquarters at Pawhuska, the present judicial center of Osage County, Oklahoma. Within this period of frontier experience Mr. Hamilton learned to speak the Osage language with considerable fluency, and at the expiration of the period noted he returned to Kansas City, where he coutinued his resideuce until 1889, when Oklahoma Territory was thrown open to settlement. He was among the sturdy pioneers who here established a residence at that time and he made Stillwater his abiding place at that early period in the history of Oklahoma. Here he has main- tained his home during the intervening period of nearly thirty years, and the only other citizens of Payne County who came at the same time and who still reside here are Robert A. Lowery, William A. and Ambrose Swiles, and John Barnes.

Soon after thus becoming a pioneer settler at Still- water Mr. Hamilton engaged in the grocery and general feed-supply business, and with this line of enterprise he continued to be actively identified a number of years. He was prominently concerned in the development of grape propagation and wine manufacturing in this section of the state, and for a number of years raised grapes and manufactured wine upon a somewhat exten- sive scale, his efforts at all times having been zealously directed to the advancement of measures and enter- prises that have tended to foster the social and indus- trial development of the territory and state of his adoption.

As one of the interested principals and vice presi- dent of the Sater Abstract Company, Mr. Hamilton gives much of his attention to its business, and the abstracts owned by the company are the only complete records of titles in the county, as the public records were destroyed by fire in 1894. Mr. Hamilton is progressive as a citizen and his political allegiance is given to the democratic party.

Mr. Hamilton first passed through Payne County at the time when Captain Hatch, U. S. A., was making his effort to drive out the professional "Boomers,"' led by Captain Couch, and missed seeing the final expulsion of the boomers from the Stillwater Valley by only a few minutes, after having been attracted to this locality principally by a curiosity to witness the generally ex- pected battle between the contending forces. He was concerned with the better element of citizenship in the establishing of the general democracy which here held sway until the laws for proper government could be formulated and brought into force, and he has viewed with satisfaction the effective popular activity and con- trolling interest in governmental affairs in Payne County, all citizens of standing having worked together with unity of interest to further the well-being of the county in general.

Mr. Hamilton has taken the deepest interest in the history of Oklahoma and has personally taken the pains to gather a large amount of interesting and valuable historical data. He had completed a most valuable record of Payne County history, and after this valuable manuscript was destroyed by fire he renewed his efforts and has to a large extent made good the data, his facilities for gathering historical material having been

advanced through his connection with the abstract busi- ness. His civic pride and loyalty have been shown through his earnest work for the advancement of his home city and making it an attractive and desirable place of residence. He was one of those specially in- fluential in securing to Stillwater the Oklahoma Agricul- tural and Mechanical College, and he aided in raising the fund through which a representative citizen was sent to Washington to appear before the members of Con- gress and make possible the enlarging of Payne Couuty by the addition of a portion of the Cherokee Strip when the latter was thrown open to settlement.

Mr. Hamilton is a devotee of hunting and fishing and has found in this section of the state opportunities for proving his prowess in both of these lines of outdoor sport. He is a member of the Stillwater Country Club, which has provided a fine artificial lake and stocked the same with the best varieties of fish. He is a mem- ber also of the Redlands Club and the Stillwater Com- mercial Club, of which latter he is a director. He has taken much interest in the advancement of the stand- ards of agricultural and horticultural industry in this section, and is the owner of two well improved farms in Payne County, one of the same being in close proximity to Stillwater and the other being several miles distant.

In the year 1891 Mr. Hamilton wedded Miss Margaret J. Harper, who was born in the State of Kentucky, and their only child, Fern, was graduated in the Oklahoma Agricultural and Mechanical College, as a member of the class of 1913, she being a popular figure in the representative social activities of her home community.

E. L. GAY. The pioneer newspaper enterprise at Pawhuska was the establishment of the Osage Journal of . which E. L. Gay became editor in 1904, when Paw- huska had very little claim to the business activities and improvements of a town or city. Not only in the newspaper field but in other affairs Mr. Gay's life has been one of varied and interesting experience. He is one of the original Oklahomans, and in fact can claim membership in that goodly company of enterprising men who were denominated as "sooners." He and his family had many interesting associations with frontier life in the Southwest, and there are few who possess in their memory a greater fund of information concerning Oklahoma history than this Pawhuska editor.

Born in Hillsdale County, Michigan, October 12, 1862, E. L. Gay is one of a family of six sons and two daughters, all of whom grew up and. are all living except one. He was the fifth in order of age. His parents were Charles H. and Catherine (Fulton) Gay. His grandfather was William H. Gay, who was born in Scotland and was brought to America when a child. About 1830 he settled in Michigan, and in 1852 was appointed United States Iudian agent for the Wyandotte tribe at the Wyandotte Agency located near where Kan- sas City, Kansas, now stands. He held that post until 1856. In that year he and his son James were making a trip from the Indian agency to Fort Leavenworth. While going up the river they were halted by a band of horsemen, and were questioned as to their attitude to- ward the then critical question of whether Kansas should be admitted as a slave or free state. William H. Gay, it should be remembered, was a Scotchman, and possessed all the courage of his convictions. He expressed himself decisively in favor of making a free state of Kansas, and the words were hardly out of his mouth when he was shot down and killed, while his son was severely wounded. William H. Gay was a real frontier character, and in the early days had made a couple of trips to Texas in the interests of the govern-

Vol. V-23

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ment, and while there formed a great friendship with Governor Houston. Charles H. Gay, who was born in New York State in 1825, was one of three children, two sons and a daughter, his brother being James H. Gay, already mentioned as the companion of their father at the time of the latter's death. Charles H. Gay spent most of his active career in Southern Michigan and Northern Ohio. He was a millwright by trade in early life but in later years took up the profession of law and became one of the noted young jurists of that sec- tion. He married Catherine Fulton, who was of the same family as the noted inventor, Robert Fulton. She died at Pioneer, Ohio, in 1884. At their home in the same place and in the same house Charles H. Gay passed away in 1903.

The early life of E. L. Gay brought him into close touch with the actualities of existence, and he had a hard struggle to gain the education which his ambition craved. He lost his mother in the spring of 1884, when he was twenty-two years of age, and up to that time he had kept quite close to the old homestead. He attended high school at Pioneer, Ohio, and for one year was a student in the Valparaiso Normal School in Indiana. In order to pay his way through school he taught, beginning when he was seventeen years of age, and continued alternately as a teacher and student for five years. His practice was to teach the short winter terms and attend school himself the rest of the year. In 1884, after the death of his mother Mr. Gay went to Kansas City, Kansas, and taught in the Wyandotte County public schools one year, but from there went to Western Kansas and identified himself with the exciting incidents of the frontier. He was also in Texas and for a time was in that region described in the old geographies as "No Man's Land" of Indian Terri- tory. In the spring of 1887 he was in the Panhandle of Texas, looking after a herd of cattle. From there he returned to No Man's Land and in 1889 began the

publication of the Tribune at Beaver City. Mr. Gay was closely identified with that movement which is an important chapter in any history of Oklahoma for the erection of a local government in the Panhandle of Oklahoma, and was a member of the first provisional council that adopted a plan of government for "pro- visional territory of Cimarron." He was also elected to one of the proposed territorial officers as district at- torney. Mr. Gay published the Tribune at Beaver City for about a year. In the meantime he had received an appointment as chief clerk in the first Territorial Legis- lature of Oklahoma, and spent five months at Guthrie, the capital, during that session. After leaving Beaver City he moved to El Reno and bought the Oklahoma Democrat in that city, which had just been started. He conducted this journal as a partnership for two or three years, and in the meantime had participated in the opening of the Cheyenne and Arapaho lands. Sub- sequently for one year Mr. Gay conducted the Even- ing News at Shawnee, and during the boom times that followed railroad construction identified himself with Holdenville. He also lived at Tulsa for a time, and in 1904 came to Pawhuska for the definite purpose of establishing a paper. He was one of the organizers of the Osage Journal Company, and has edited this prom- inent and influential weekly democratic paper ever since. When Mr. Gay first came to Pawhuska there was not a foot of sidewalk in the town, and not a single brick building. He has used the influence of his paper and has worked as an individual citizen for everything tending to the betterment of his town and has been one of the real factors in its advancement.

In polities he has been a lifelong democrat. He

was not only clerk in the first but also in the second Territorial Legislature of Oklahoma. In the early days and while a resident of No Man's Land he held a com- mission as Deputy United States Marshal under J. J. Dickerson when the federal court of the second Texas District was supposed to have jurisdiction over that coun- try. As such officer he was instrumental in bringing to trial the participants in the Wild Horse Lake massacre which occurred in the central part of that country.

Fraternally he is affiliated with the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, the Ancient Order of United Workmen, the Homesteaders and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows.

While engaged in the newspaper business at El Reno he was married to Alice Crawmer at Wichita, Kansas, on November 26, 1891. Four children have been born to their union, one of them, Eugene Fenton, dying in in- fancy. Those living are: Leah Frances, Elgin Crawmer and Allen G. Thurman.

WILLIAM H. EDMISTEN. A resident of Indian Terri- tory since 1886, William H. Edmisten has been an eye- witness of the growth and development of this wonder- ful country from the days when it was almost entirely in- habited by the red man to the present era of business and agricultural prosperity and advanced civilization. During this period he has been engaged principally in pursuits connected with farming and the raising of stock, but at present is living a retired life at Cleveland, although he has some valuable holdings, particularly on Turkey Island, on which one oil well has been drilled.

Mr. Edmisten was born at Neosho, Newton County, Missouri, February 20, 1857, and is a son of Richard and Eliza C. (Rhodes) Edmisten. His father, a native of either Kentucky or Tennessee, came to the West with his parents in 1830 and settled in Newton County, Mis- souri, where he passed the remaining years of his life as a farmer and stock-raiser. The mother, also a native of the South, located in Missouri about the same time as her husband and now makes her home at Goodman in that state. They were the parents of eleven chil- dren, as follows: Daniel, who is deceased; William H .; Mary Ellen, of Seattle, Washington, the wife of Lewis D. Stone; John D., a resident of Missouri; Florence who is the wife of Charles Barnes, of Missouri; Rosa Lee, who is the wife of John Stites, of Missouri; Rich- ard and Eliza, twins, both of whom died young; Maggie the wife of William Foster, of Joplin, Missouri; Matt cashier of the Goodman State Bank of Goodman, Mis souri; and Theo, who is the wife of William Cornelison of Kansas.

William H. Edmisten was educated in the schools o Newton County, Missouri, and grew up as a farmer and stock-raiser. Feeling that he could better his fortune further to the West, in 1886 he came to Indian Terri tory and for about fifteen or sixteen years was en gaged in the stock business, a line in which he won we' merited success. In the winter of 1901 he came t Pawnee County, settling on a farm on the Arkansa River, six miles southeast of Cleveland, a tract of 16 acres, which he still owns and which consists of goo bottom land. There he continued to make his home unt January 1, 1914, at which time he came to Cleveland Mr. Edmisten's farm is a part of Turkey Island, and & the present time this property is in litigation, in regar to riparian rights. If Mr. Edminsten wins his suit 1 will have 275 acres, but it is not the quantity of lan that makes this case an important one, but the oil thi has been discovered there. There have been a nur ber of wells drilled on his land, shallow sand wells, yiel ing from twenty to sixty barrels.

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Mr. Edmisten has had many and varied experiences since coming to the West, many of which center around the Indians. At one period in his career he was farm- ing 1,100 acres, twelve miles east of Vinita, at the head of Duck and Shawnee creeks, where he operated four farms, worked twenty mules, and kept two jacks in his stud. He bought and shipped much stock during that time and did much dealing with the Indians, with whom he managed to keep on friendly terms.

As an incident showing the turn that fortune may take at some time and that a man's judgment and fore- sight cannot always be infallible, the following may be related: On September 16, 1893, Mr. Edmisten was standing at the elbow of the man who fired the gun an- nouncing the opening of the Cherokee Strip, at Still- water. It was noon, and he was off with the shot, mounted on a good horse which took him over twenty miles to Pawnee in one and one-half hours, and there he secured several lots which now form the property on which the high school stands. Mr. Edmisten, however, figured that this was an undesirable part of the coun- try, that it would likely never amount to anything, and accordingly gave his lots away and rode to another locality. A sight which impressed itself upon his mind on that same day occurred at Stillwater. It was hot and dusty, water was at a premium, and the anxious homeseekers were gathered in hordes. Some enterpris- ing citizen started selling water melons, soon others followed suit, and before all had registered the water melon rinds lay two feet deep on the ground for a space covering nearly a half a mile! While Mr. Edmis- ten has been a permanent resident of Cleveland for only a comparativey short time, he may be said to have been one of the town's eariest arrivals, having come here before the place was started, and buying groceries for himself and feed for his horses three days after the town opened. He has always been a progressive promoter of beneficial movements, lending encouragement and sup- port to any enterprise that has promised to make for the betterment of his locality or its people. As a busi- ness man, he has built up a substantial reputation for integrity and honorable dealing, while his good citizen- ship has never been doubted.

Mr. Edmisten was married in 1876 to Miss Samantha C. Stark, who was born in Washington County, Indiana, January 16, 1856, and brought to Missouri when twelve years of age by her parents, Vinyard and Susan (Kester) Stark, natives of Indiana, the former of whom, a farm- er, died in Missouri, and the latter in Kansas. Eleven children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Edmisten, as follows: Harlington Lafayette, who spent a number of years in Idaho and Montana but is now engaged in operating one of his father's farms; Ada Belle, who is the wife of Andrew McCaffrey, of Afton, Oklahoma; Jack E., of Goldboro, Washington; Daniel Horace, of Cleveland, an oil man connected with the Prairie Oil and Gas Company; Alta Lee, the wife of F. C. Larabee, of Los Vegas, New Mexico; Walter W., of Cleveland, engaged in oil production ; Orville Harrison, who for six years has been connected with the relay office of the Santa Fe Railroad, at Topeka, Kansas; Myrtle, who is the wife of J. O. Martin, of Waxahachic, Texas; Lillian, who resides with her parents; Richard, an oil man of Cleveland; and Goldie, who resides at home. Mr. and Mrs. Edmisten have never lost a child and have sixteen living grandchildren. Their first seven children were born in Missouri and the rest in this state, and all have been well educated and trained admirably for the posi- tions in life to which they have been called.

ALBERT D. BROWN. Until he became proprietor and editor of the Observer at McLoud in Pottawatomie County, Albert D. Brown had been for a number of years identified with educational work in Oklahoma. Mr. Brown comes from a family of educators and church- men, and he is himself an ordained minister of the Baptist Church and has preached in several localities in this state. His father before him was a minister and also his grandfather.

In August, 1915, Mr. Brown came to McLoud and bought the Observer from B. McGlathey. The Observer was established in 1902 as a democratic paper and is now independent in politics. The plant is well equipped and the office is situated on the main street of the village. It is a paper with much influence and has a circulation over Pottawatomie County and Oklahoma County and also goes in considerable numbers outside the state.

Albert D. Browu was born in Henry County, Mis- souri, August 23, 1877. The Brown family came from Scotland originally, and were pioncers in Kentucky. The grandfather was a minister of the Presbyterian Church in Kentucky and moved from that state about 1837, to Missouri where he was one of the early settlers in Henry County. Elder Peter Brown, father of Albert D., was born in Washington County, Kentucky, in 1825, and was thirteen years of age when the family moved to Missouri, where he grew to manhood. He was largely self educated, and in younger years practiced medicine for a time. At the age of twenty-one he began active work as a Baptist preacher, and in spite of the early handicaps in the way of an education he was for a number of years considered the best Greek Bible-scholar in the state. His life work as a Baptist minister was confined to Missouri, though his influence and activities were in various other spheres as well. As a democrat he was once nominated for the State Legislature. During the Civil war he was on the Confederate side as a soldier. He was a member of the Masonic fraternity. Elder Peter Brown married Elizabeth Shanks who was born in Pettis County, Missouri, in 1835. She now lives at Hatfield, Arkansas. Elder Peter Brown died a few years ago in the Baptist Sanitarium at St. Louis. Their children were: Catherine, wife of Ellis Tuttle, a brick manufacturer in Butler, Missouri; Peter, who is an architect at Hatfield, Arkansas; George, a farmer in Roger Mills County, Oklahoma; Benjamin Franklin, a farmer at Hatfield, Arkansas; Lucy, wife of U. G. Roberts, a farmer in Wyandotte, Oklahoma; Stephen, a farmer and stock raiser in Missouri; and Albert D.

The youngest in this large family, Albert D. Brown was eight years of age when his parents moved in 1885 to St. Clair County, Missouri. He attended the public school there, and afterwards attended the Wiliam Jewell College at Liberty, Missouri, where he took two years of academic work and two years in the regular colle- giate department. He finished the Sophomore course in 1906. While in college he was a member of the Philo- mathic Literary Socicty, and took first prize in com- petition for an essay and tied for honor in oratory. He also won several honors in prose and poetry contests.

On leaving college Mr. Brown came into Oklahoma in 1906 and began teaching school in Roger Mills County. He was principal of schools in that county until 1914 and then for a year taught at Harrah in this state. As an ordained minister of the Baptist Church Mr. Brown also filled pulpits in several parishes in Roger Mills County and elsewhere, but several years ago lost his voice and had to retire from the ministry. In politics he is a democrat, and is affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Woodmen of the World.

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In 1909 in Navarro County, Texas, he married Miss Minnie Meredith. Her father was the late Doctor Mere- dith, a physician and surgeon at Navarro County. Two children were born to this union. Mattie Ellen, born October 14, 1911, and Byron Addison, born April 30, 1914.

Mr. Brown has gained no little distinction as a writer of poetry. He rarely edits an edition of his paper with- out featuring some poetry of his own composition. He possesses a rare kuowledge of rhythm and verse and his poetry is as scholarly and correct in technic as it is elevated in seutiment and feeling. As an example of his style and diction there is quoted herewith a poem which he dedicated to his mother and which Mr. Brown him- self considers his best composition.

TO MY MOTHER (By A. D. Brown)

The world's at the morning in sweet mother's love Like sweet roses sparkle with dew from above My mother directs me and watches my way And keeps me from evil wherever I stray. Ofttimes I remember when temptations arise The precepts which mother brought down from the skies. And when in my strength all my vows I fulfill My sweet mother, smiling, approves of me still. I see her dear face wheresoever I roam. It strengthens the ties and affections of home.

Purest, sweet mother! A shrine I will make And worship thine image, and never forsake Thy faithful instruction. Thy tears I will heed, Regard all thy prayers, for when I'm in need Of strong resolution, and determined will, I need to remember what thou didst instill. I can't compensate thee for what thou hast done, But please take this tribute from thy grateful son.

For what thou hast suffered, what thou underwent For thy watching o'er me, the wakeful nights spent, The pains and the pangs and the griefs that thou bore I don't understand, but I reverence the more. Thou gavest thy strength and thy blood and thy bone. Thou gavest thy life for me, thou, thou alone. Thou'st done this and more for me, Mother, and now A halo of glory I place on thy brow.

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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: 644

Author: Thoburn, Joseph B. (Joseph Bradfield), 1866-1941
Publication date: 1916
Publisher: Chicago, New York, The American Historical Society
Number of Pages: 644