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 117

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 117

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His first noteworthy participation in politics was in 1905 when selected as a member of the executive com- mittee of fourteen by the Statehood Convention to assist in getting legislation from Congress admitting Indian and Oklahoma territories to statehood. He sat as a delegate in the convention at Ardmore that selected the first democratic national committeeman for Indian Ter- ritory. For some time he has been president of the Democratic Club at Colbert and manager for his precinct in behalf of prohibition in campaigns involving that subject. Governor Lee Cruce appointed him a member of the State Board of Agriculture that was created in 1913, as a result of an initiatory act submitted to the people. Mr. Ramsey represented the State Board of Agriculture at the National Farmers Congress in Wash- ington in November, 1913. He resigned his seat on the board January 6, 1915, to take his place as representative in the fifth legislature, following his election in Novem- ber, 1914. In the legislature Mr. Ramsey served as chairman of the Committee on Charities and Corrections, and a member of committees on education, insurance, relation to the Five Civilized and other Indian tribes, and general agriculture. His interests were chiefly in mea- sures affecting agriculture, and it was his thorough and long experience in that subject that has given his service special value to the law making body. He was author of a bill prohibiting the operation of pool and billiard halls for hire, and of a bill accepting the provisions of the Smith-Lever law enacted by Congress relating to co- operation with the National Government by the state in farm demonstration and extension work.

Mr. Ramsey married, December 24, 1891, Miss Amanda Potts, granddaughter of Benjamin Love, one of the prominent Choctaws who once represented his tribe be- fore the department in Washington. Mrs. Ramsey is related to the Choctaw family of Colbert, that have long been conspicuous in the old Choctaw Nation. Mr. and Mrs. Ramsey have a daughter, Mabel, aged sixteen, now finishing her second year in the literary department of Baylor College at Belton, Texas.

Mr. Ramsey is a member of the Baptist Church, and clerk, deacon and Sunday school superintendent, and was a member of the first Baptist general convention of

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old Indian Territory. He is affiliated with Lodge No. 80, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons at Colbert, having filled the chair of master, and is also affiliated with Lodge No. 75, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, at Colbert, and has beeu officially honored in that order, aud has been representative from the Colbert lodges in the grand lodges of both the Masons and Odd Fel- lows. Mr. Ramsey is a member of the Farmers Institute of Bryan County, and of the National Farmers Edu- cational and Co-operative Union. He was the first president of the First National Bank of Colbert. Mr. Ramsey was appointed a member of the reception com- mittee to receive President Wilson at Muskogee, in April, 1915, during the Southern Commercial Congress.

K. L. COLLEY, M. D. The leading representative of the medical and surgical profession in the community of Big Heart since 1907 has been Doctor Colley. Doctor Colley is an eastern man of old Virginia colonial family, and came to Oklahoma after a thorough training and with a generous equipment for his chosen vocation. Doctor Colley has securely established himself in the esteem of the people of Osage County, has a large and profitable practice, and has that faculty which enables him to make friends wherever he goes.

Born at Birchleaf, Virginia, September 14, 1877, Doctor Colley is a son of Richard J. and Mary E. (Hill) Colley, both of whom were boru in the Old Dominion State. His father died iu 1913 at the age of sixty-nine at the old home at Birchleaf, where the mother still lives. The Colleys were of Scotch-Irish stock, and the family was settled in Virginia before the Revolution. Richard J. Colley spent his life as a farmer, and during the war between the states was in the Confederate army, and many of his relatives gave up their lives in the struggle.

One of a family of nine children, four sons and five daughters, all of whom are still living, Doctor Colley grew up in Dickenson County, Virginia, had the environ- ments and influences of a Virginia farm, and was edu- cated in the local schools. He finally went to Kentucky aud entered the University School of Medicine at Louis- ville, from which he was graduated M. D. in 1907. Soon after his graduation he moved to the new State of Oklahoma, and has since been in active practice at Big Heart. Doctor Colley has a special diploma representing his study and experience in the treatment of diseases of children, but spends his time in the general practice of medicine and surgery. Doctor Colley rendered notable service at Big Heart during the cyclone of 1911, when he was the only medical man capable of assuming the sudden responsibilities devolving upon him as a result of that calamity. Three persons were killed during the storm, and sixty wounded, and he was the first to bring medical aid to the sufferers, and carried thirty-nine of the wounded and injured to the Tulsa Hospital on a special train.

Politically Doctor Colley is also well known in his home community and state, and is now a member from Osage County of the State Democratic Committee. He belongs to the County and State Medical societies, and is affiliated with the Masonic Order, the Knights of Pvthias and the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks.

On July 18, 1912, he married Miss Ertle Swift. Mrs. Colley was born in Oklahoma, and her father, James A. Swift. was one of the pioneer settlers. To their marriage have been born two children: Elander and Beatrice.

HENRY W. SITTON. Elected representative of Stephens County in the State Legislature, Mr. Sitton proved a most zealous and efficient member of the lower house

during the fifth general assembly, in which he introduced and ably championed a number of wise and important measures. He is engaged in the practice of law at Duucan, the judicial center of Stephens County and through his sterling attributes and effective services he has gained secure place as one of the representative members of the bar of the southern part of the state.

Mr. Sitton was born near Houston, Texas County, Missouri, on the 12th of May, 1874, and is a son of James and Sarah R. Sitton, the former a representative of an old and influential family of the South, where his father and grandfather were prominently identified with the iron industry at Birmingham, Alabama. James Sitton removed from Alabama to Missouri at the time of the Civil war, and later he removed with his family to Northern Arkansas. His wife is a native of Georgia. Her maiden name was Wilson and she is a descendant of the early settlers of Virginia. Of the children of James and Sarah R. Sitton Henry W. was the youngest in order of birth; George W. is a farmer in the vicinity of St. Joe, Arkansas; Cicero is engaged in the mercantile busi- ness at Pyote, Texas; William is a successful farmer and stock grower in Stephens County, Oklahoma, and re- sides near Comanche; James P. is a farmer in Okfuskee Couuty, this state; Mrs. Nancy McClain resides near Calico Rock, Arkansas, her husband being a farmer by vocation; and Mrs. Mary Russell is the wife of a pros- perous farmer residing near St. Joe, Arkansas.

Henry W. Sitton was a child at the time of the family removal to Arkansas and as his parents were in very modest financial circumstances he became dependent upon his own resources in acquiring his liberal education. He was enabled to attend, with more or less regularity, the public schools of Northern Arkansas until he had at- taiued to the age of thirteen years, and later he pro- vided the means necessary to defray the expenses in- cidental to the completion of a course in high school. He left the Harrison School in 1891 and for the ensuing three years was a student in the Valley Springs Academy in Boone County, Arkansas, where he finally received a scholarship that admitted him to Hendrix College, at Conway, Arkansas. In this institution he prosecuted higher academic studies during the years 1894 and 1895, and thereafter he entered Mountain Home College, at Mountain Home, that state, in which institution he was graduated in June, 1897, and from which he received the degree of Bachelor of Science. In the same year he was elected president of Big Flat Academy, at Big Flat, Arkansas, and he continued the executive head of this iustitution four years. In 1900 Mr. Sitton was appointed county examiner of Baxter County, where- upon he returned to Mountain Home. While incumbent of this office he held also a position as member of the faculty of Mountain Home College, where he served in turn in the chairs of higher English and higher mathe- matics.

In 1904 Mr. Sitton established his residence at Co- manche, Indian Territory, where he engaged in the prac- tice of law, for which work he had prepared himself through private study of assiduous order and through technical reading in the office and under the preceptorship of the law firm of Horton & Smith, at Mountain Home, Ar- kansas, where he was admitted to the bar in 1901. He continued his residence at Comanche until the admission of Oklahoma to statehood, in 1907, and on the 15th of May, 1908, he was appointed deputy county attorney of Stephens County, this preferment leading to his removal to Duncan, the county seat, where he has since maintained his residence. In 1910 Mr. Sitton was elected county attorney and was re-elected to that position iu 1912, and in the last election there came to him a most grati-

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HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA

fying evidence of popular confidence and approval, in that he received the largest majority ever given to any candidate for county office in that county-1,624 votes out of a total voting strength of approximately 1,800, and his opponent having been D. A. Bridges, who was also his opponent in the 1910 clection. Concerning his administration as county attorney the following consis- tent estimate has been given: "He was among the most active officials of the State in conserving the suppression of crime, especially in the enforcement of the prohibition law, and he succeeded in breaking up one of the most obnoxious and thoroughly organized bands of horse thieves that had ever infested that section of the state. He was punctilious and indomitable in his efforts to foster law and order, and malefactors in Stephens County gained a wholesome fear of him."

In the primary election of 1914 Mr. Sitton was nomi- nated by a plurality of 1,000 votes, in a strongly con- tested election, and as candidate for representative of his county in the State Legislature the ensuing popular election gave to him a most gratifying and significant majority, his political allegiance being given to the democratic party. In the fifth legislature Mr. Sitton was chairman of the committee on criminal jurispru- dence, and a member of each of the following named committees also: Legal advisory, appropriations, con- gressional redistricting, public-service corporations, public buildings, constitutional amendments, retrench- ment and reform, revenue and taxation, and state capitol. He urgently championed amendments to the judicial code in the matter of avoiding useless litigations; he introduced an amendment in repeal of the law requiring county treasurers to notify taxpayers of the impending delinquency of their taxes, this action being based on the Supreme Court ruling which made such an amend- ment virtually imperative; he introduced a bill provid- ing that in all civil cases in which a jury is demanded, the demand shall be made within three days after the issues at law are joined, thus eliminating the holding of jurymen during the trial of cases not demanding a jury and enabling the judge to so arrange his docket that all jury cases shall be tried at the beginning of the term and the venire then be discharged. Mr. Sitton manifested also a lively interest in the deliberations relative to amendments to the primary election law and the matter of preferential primaries. A distinguished honor was conferred on him by the fifth legislature be- fore adjournment, in that he was unanimously selected to aid the house managers in the impeachment trials of A. P. Watson, corporation commissioner, and A. L. Welch, insurance commissioner.

In his home city of Duncan Mr. Sitton is past chan- cellor commander of Mistletoe Lodge, No. 117, Knights of Pythias; is master of Duncan Lodge, No. 60, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons; and affiliated with Duncan Chapter, No. 20, Royal Arch Masons. He is a member of the Duncan Commercial Club, holds membership in the Stephens County Bar Association and the Oklahoma State Bar Association, and both he and his wife are zealous members of the Christian Church.

At Mountain Home, Arkansas, on the 12th of Novem- ber, 1903, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Sitton to Miss Stacye Baker, daughter of John T. Baker, a representative merchant of that place. Mrs. Sitton was graduated in the department of elocution and expression in Mountain Home College and later was a teacher of elocution in Big Flat Academy, at the time when her husband was principal of that institution. Mr. and Mrs. Sitton have four children: Frances Elizabeth, Mary Louise, Ellen Virginia, and Rebecca Jean.

DAVID S. SCHUBER. Few men have lent more practical encouragement to the agricultural and grain interests of Alfalfa County than has David S. Schuber, of Byron, general manager of the Byron Alfalfa Mill and Elevator Company. Coming here in 1913, he bought his present business and since that time has been identified with the commercial, industrial and civic interests of his adopted community, and has proven himself a valuable and helpful citizen. Mr. Schuber is a man of industry and enter- prise; otherwise, he could not have gained his present standing in the business world, for his father died when he was still a lad, and he has always been compelled to depend upon his own resources to gain for him the things that he has wanted in life.

By birth a Russian, Mr. Schuber was born January 3, 1871, a son of David and Lizzie (Eckhart) Schuber, who were born in Russia of German parents. The family came to the United States in 1878, when David S. was seven years of age, and located on a farm in Kansas, where the father continued to be engaged in agricultural operations until his death, which was caused by the explosion of a lamp at his home in Russell County, Kan- sas, in 1883. The mother survived until 1903 and died on a farm in Marion County, Kansas, to which she had removed following the death of her husband. Mr. and Mrs. Schuber were the parents of four sons and three daughters, namely: Adam, who is deceased; David S .; Mollie; Henry; Mary; Annie, who is deceased; and Samuel.

David S. Schuber was reared on the family farms in Russell and Marion counties, Kansas, was brought up to industry and honorable dealing, and reared to appreciate the value of hard work and thrift. In the meantime he attended the public schools, his education being limited to the branches offered by the country schools, but being a lad of retentive memory and an apt scholar he obtained a good training, which has since been added to by observation, reading and coming into contact with men and affairs. In 1892 Mr. Schuber left Kansas for Okla- homa, being one of those who sought land in the opening of the Cheyenne and Arapahoe Reservation, April 21st. He was successful in securing a homestead, locating on Government land in Blaine County, and there proved up on his tract and developed a good farm, with substantial buildings and many improvements. Of this he was able to dispose at a good figure in 1901, when he decided to try his fortunes in a mercantile venture, at Ferguson, Oklahoma. While this enterprise proved satisfactory, he saw a broader field in the grain business, and accordingly disposed of his interests in the store to enter upon a career as a miller, continuing in the same line at Fer- guson until 1913, when he came to Byron, which has since been his place of residence and the scene of his business success. When he came here Mr. Schuber pur- chased the plant of the Byron Alfalfa Milling Company, and here he has been engaged in the manufacture of alfalfa meal and other products. He has since estab- lished an elevator, in connection with which he purchases and handles grain of all kinds, but principally wheat, on a large scale, shipping to all points. The extent of his operations may be seen in the fact that he has already shipped more than 40,000 bushels of grain in a year from Byron, thereby contributing in no small way to the busi- ness importance and prestige of this thriving little Okla- homa community. Mr. Schuber is also the owner of the only hotel at Byron, the Commercial Hotel, which is managed by Mrs. Schuber, who has built up a large business and won the patronage of the traveling public by the homelike manner in which the hostelry is arranged and the many comforts prepared for the guests.

Mr. Schuber was married December 8, 1892, in Marion

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County, Kansas, to Miss Lizzie Adler, who was born in Russia, September 20, 1876, and came with her parents to the United States in 1884, they being Jacob and Lizzie (Schlotthauer) Adler, now residents of Marion County, Kansas. Six children have been born to this union: Hanna, Emanuel, Lida, Elsie, Jacob and Evelyn. Mr. Schuber is a popular member of the local lodge of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. A republican in politics, he has been too closely devoted to business affairs to engage actively in the public arena, but has never refused his support to any movement which would advance the welfare of his community or the civic, moral or educational betterment of its people.

GEORGE E. ELLISON has the distinction of having opened the first merchandise store at Guymon, Oklahoma. He is now manager of the Star Mercantile Company there. In many ways during the last fifteen years his name and activities have been closely identified and associated with the growth and prosperity of that com- munity. As a merchant he lias made his business a reliable service to a constantly growing circle of patron- age, while as a citizen his part has been equally public spirited and nothing affecting the welfare of Guymon lias passed without his consideration and helpful support.

He was born February 7, 1878, at Coatsburg, Illinois, a son of Henry and Irene (Guymon) Ellison. He was one of two sons, and his brother Arthur E. was born at the same place in Illinois May 17, 1880.

In 1879 the family moved to Kansas, and he completed his education in the public schools of Topeka and Liberal. While living at Liberal he had his first experience in merchandising, and was also the first cashier of the First National Bank of that town.

Mr. Ellison was just twenty years of age when the Spanish-American war broke out. He enlisted in the famous Twentieth Kansas Regiment, commanded by Colonel, now General, Fred Funston. He went out as principal musician, and was with the regiment in its Philippine campaign. Mr. Ellison had marked talent for music as a boy, and has always been extremely interested in musical affairs.

It was in 1901 that he located at Guymon, Oklahoma, opened the first store there, and has kept at the forefront in the progress of the community. While an active republican, and liberally supporting the party, he has never sought any office for himself. Mr. Ellison is a thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason and a member of the Mystic Shrine.

On June 25, 1902, in Texas County, Oklahoma, he married Miss Carrie Lee Cain, daughter of Zach and Thena (Smith) Cain. Mrs. Ellison was born in Virginia May 25, 1882. They have four children, all daughters: Irene, born August 17, 1903; Helen, born July 5, 1904; and Gaynette and Dolores, twins, born July 8, 1908.

ROBERT LONG. After a varied experience in the states of Texas, Kansas and Missouri, Mr. Long came to Oklahoma in 1892 and became one of the pioneers in the present Pawnee County at the time when the Cherokee Strip was thrown open to settlement, in the following year. He here obtained a homestead claim and from a beginning of most modest order he has pressed forward in worthy achievement until he has gained secure status as one of the representative agriculturists and stock growers of the county, his well improved landed estate being situated in the vicinity of the Village of Jennings, which is his postoffice address. His life has been one of consecutive application and he has so availed himself of opportunities afforded in connection with industrial en- terprise in Oklahoma that he has gained substantial

prosperity, the while he is significantly appreciative of and loyal to the state of his adoption.

Mr. Long was born in the State of Tennessee, on the 5th of May, 1845, and is a son of John E. and Catherine (Hawser) Long, both natives of Pennsylvania and both of sterling German ancestry, the respective families having been founded in the old Keystone State in an early day, and both the paternal and maternal grand- parents of the subject of this review having used the German language exclusively. The parents of Mr. Long were children at the time of the removal of the respective families to Tennessee, where they were reared to ma- turity and where their marriage was solemnized. In 1850 they removed from that state to Jersey County, Illinois, in which state the father devoted his attention very effectively to agricultural pursuits. He was born on the 10th of October, 1819, and attained to venerable age, the closing period of his life having been passed in Carroll County, Missouri, to which state he removed about the year 1884, his death having there occurred in July, 1907. In Tennessee he had followed the trade of shoemaker and after his removal to Illinois he not only became a farmer but also worked at the carpenter's trade. His wife, who was born in 1822, died in Illinois, on the 12th of November, 1862. Of their children the eldest is Mrs. Jane Rankin, who maintains her home at Carroll- ton, Missouri; Mrs. Sarah E. Dampkey is a widow and resides in Madison County, Illinois; Robert, subject of this sketch, was the next in order of birth; Jonathan H., who was born November 18, 1847, was a resident of the city of East St. Louis, Illinois, at the time of his death, on the 15th of August, 1910; Mrs. Catherine McCanney died in the State of Kansas; Mary J. is the wife of Louis Tigner, of Madison County, Illinois; William H. is a resident of Edwardsville, that county; and Joseph maintains his home in Montgomery County, that state.

Robert Long was a lad of five years at the time of the family removal from Tennessee to Illinois, where he was reared to adult age under the sturdy discipline of the farm. He availed himself of the advantages of the common schools of Jersey County and when he was six- teen years of age the family removed thence to Mont- gomery County, where he grew to manhood and where he cast his first presidential vote. As a lad he was a great admirer of the distinguished Illinois statesman, Hon. Stephen A. Douglas, and he was a lad of about fifteen years when the "little giant" was made the independent democratic candidate for President of the United States, in 1860.

Mr. Long continued his association with agricultural industry in Illinois until 1879, when he made his way to Texas and established his residence in Parker County, where he had the distinction of being the first to plant cotton and thus initiate a profitable line of enterprise in that section, though he did not remain to witness the advancement made, as he returned to Illinois in the fol- lowing year. There he remained until 1882, when he located in Carroll County, Missouri, where he raised one farm crop and then removed to Stoddard County, that state, where he remained during one summer. For the ensuing six years he was engaged in farming and stock growing in Cherokee County, Kansas, in which state he continued to maintain his home until 1892, when he came to Oklahoma Territory and made ready to avail himself of the opportunity offered for securing government land at the opening to settlement of the Cherokee Strip. On the 8th day of March, 1894, he established his residence on his present homestead farm, which comprises 160 acres of excellent land and which is eligibly situated at a point 41/2 miles distant from the Village of Jennings. He has reclaimed the major part of his farm to cultiva- tion, has made excellent improvements of a permanent

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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