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 12

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 12

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Montferd W. Pugh was educated in the public schools at Tamaroa, Illinois, graduating from high school with the class of 1897. He then took a normal course in the Southern Illinois Normal University at Carbondale, and for four years did some successful work as a teacher in Perry County and at the same time studied law. The years 1901-03 he spent iu Valparaiso University at Val- paraiso, Indiana, and was graduated in the law depart- ment with the class of 1903 and the degree LL. B. Fol- lowing his admission to the Illinois bar he practiced three years in Pinckneyville in that state and for two years of that time was city attorney.

It was in 1906 that Mr. Pugh came to Oklahoma and his first location was at Texhoma, on the line between Oklahoma and Texas. He filed on a claim of land in Cimarron County and conducted a practice as a lawyer for one year at Texhoma. In February, 1908, he removed to Kenton, which was then the temporary county seat of Cimarron County. In September, 1908, he followed the county seat on its removal to the permanent location at Boise City.

His qualifications and ability as a lawyer were not

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HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA

long in securing recognition in this part of Oklahoma, and in 1907 he was nominated on the democratic ticket and elected county judge of the newly organized Cimarron County. He was thus the first elected official in that capacity to preside over the county court of Cimarron County. He has since been regularly re-elected aud now in his fourth consecutive term. Judge Pugh is a Knight Templar, and is also affiliated with the Inde- pendent Order of Odd Fellows.

On October 4, 1904, at St. Louis, Missouri, Judge Pugh married Miss Lora G. Jack. They were married during the year of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, and the marriage ceremony was performed in the Illinois State Building on the fair grounds at St. Louis. Mrs. Pugh was born November 22, 1881, at Beaucoup, Illinois, a daughter of Samuel C. and Emma (Seibert) Jack, the former a native of Tennessee and the latter of Illinois. Mr. and Mrs. Pugh are members of the Methodist Epis- copal Church South. To their marriage have been born three children: DeMotte J., born June 25, 1905, and died August 23, 1905; Paul G., born November 15, 1909; and Jack, born October 15, 1915.

JAMES A. YOUNG, M. D. A physician of many years experience, Doctor Young came to Oklahoma from Iowa, aud since 1909 has been in practice at Britton, where he is senior member of the firm of Young & Stewart, physicians and surgeons. Doctor Young is regarded as one of the most expert medical men in Oklahoma County as an obstetrician and in the treatment of diseases of children.

James A. Young was born iu Hancock County, Illi- nois, July 23, 1861, a son of Rev. W. M. and Lydia (Souther) Young. His father was a Baptist minister, and for many years was one of the best known and best loved men in the ministry of that church in the State of Iowa. He died in 1881.

Doctor Young spent his boyhood in Montrose, Iowa, where he attended public schools and there took up the study of medicine in the office of Dr. T. C. Hayes. Subsequently his studies were continued under Dr. John Bencher at Reiner, Missouri, and with that preliminary training he entered the College of Physicians and Sur- geons at Keokuk, Iowa, where he was graduated M. D. in 1894. While in medical college he was a special student of obstetrics and diseases of children under Dr. F. B. Dorsey, an eminent authority on those subjects and a member of the faculty of the College of Physicians and Surgeons. For twenty years now Doctor Young, though a general practitioner, has found himself more and more in demand as a specialist in cases involving these subjects. He began practice at Acosta, Clark County, Missouri, but three years later removed to Bonaparte, Iowa, and from that state came to Britton, Oklahoma, in 1909, to join Doctor Stewart in practice.

In 1881 Doctor Young married Miss S. L. Stewart, a sister of his partner in the firm of Young & Stewart. their four children are: Mrs. Lydia Jane Norwood, whose husband is an employe of the Standard Oil Com- pany at Britton; Mrs. Mary E. Scott, wife of another Standard Oil man at Owosso, Oklahoma; ; Mrs. Gertrude Staley, wife of a hardware merchant at Oklahoma City; and James A. Young, agent for the Santa Fe Railroad Company at Plainview, Texas.

Doctor Young is a member of the Baptist Church and affiliates with the Camp of the Modern Woodmen of America. In Iowa he was a member of various medical and surgical organizations and since coming to Oklahoma has taken an important part in the development of his community. While his experience and practice has been of the broadest character, he has always been a student,

and some years ago spent some time in post-graduate study in the Chicago Clinical Post-graduate School. He is regarded as one of the best informed and most suc- cessful practitioners in his part of the state.

B. F. STEWART, M. D. In Oklahoma more than in older states it is not difficult to trace the influence of one or more men in the building of a community. The history of almost every locality in the state is a record of what only a few men have planned and carried out. The statement of this fact serves to emphasize the im- portance of Doctor Stewart in addition to his regular service as a member of a profession, and at the same time it is not meant to detract from the good that other men of the community have done. One of the great improvements brought to Oklahoma by statehood was the Corporation Commission, which was given authority to regulate the action of public service corporations. Doc- tor Stewart was one of the leaders of a body of men of Britton who shortly after- statehood, through appeal to the commission, procured for the town a modern depot, thus ridding it of a make-shift frontier-town affair. As the little prairie town on a hill immediately north of Oklahoma City began to take on metropolitan ways dur- ing the bright period of material prosperity for the entire country, the necessity of better roads and streets was apparent, and Doctor Stewart was among those who fostered a movement looking to highway improvement. His influence has been an important factor since the birth of the Town of Britton in the establishment of modern schools and providing them with modern equip- ment; in selecting progressive men for town and school board offices; in the erection and maintenance of churches, and in the elevation of health, morals and public welfare.

Dr. B. F. Stewart was born in Iowa in 1869, a son of James and Jane (Payne) Stewart. His father, a native of Scotland, was a mechanic and an early settler of Iowa, and the mother's people, the Paynes, were also early comers to the same state, of English extraction. Doctor Stewart has three brothers and one sister: Mrs. J. A. Young, wife of a physician at Britton who is a partner of Doctor Stewart; William Stewart, a miner in Mon- tana; John L. Stewart, an Iowa farmer; James A. Stew- art, farmer, of Missouri, and A. T. Stewart, who lives in British Columbia.

Doctor Stewart was educated in the public schools of Iowa and in 1900 graduated M. D. from the Keokuk Medical College at Keokuk, Iowa. In the summer follow- ing his graduation he began the practice of medicine iu his native state, but later in the same year moved to Oklahoma locating at Britton. He interrupted his pri- vate practice in 1907 to take a post-graduate course in the Chicago Post-Graduate School.

On August 18, 1901, Doctor Stewart married Miss Flo- rence McCollum at Walton, Kansas. Mrs. Stewart had been a teacher for several years in the public schools of Iowa. They have an adopted child, Helen Bell, aged two years. Doctor Stewart is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, is affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and as already indicated has been a mem- ber of various organizations that sought the betterment of conditions in his home town. He is a successful physi- cian, and has built up a large clientele in the Town of Britton and the community round about. He is a mem- ber of the firm of Young & Stewart, and a sketch of his partner iu practice is given in preceding sketch.

CHARLES T. C. SCHRADER. The Town of Bristow in Creek County has come into particular promineuce as the center of one of the greatest oil districts in the country.

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It is comparatively a new town and in ten years' time its progress has been phenomenal. One of the early men of medicine to locate in the community was Dr. Charles T. C. Schrader, whose home has been there almost ten years. Doctor Schrader has proved himself not only a very capable physician, but has made himself a factor in com- munity affairs to a large extent and is one of the very substantial men of that young city.

He is an Indiana man, having been born on a farm near Evansville in that state April 6, 1879. His parents are Charles O. and Margaret (Klippert) Schrader. Both parents were born near the City of Berlin, Germany, the mother on February 29, 1835, and the father in Decem- ber, 1835. She was brought by her parents to the United States when eight years of age, and grew to young womanhood in New Orleans. The father was fourteen years old when he came to this country, and grew to manhood at Evansville, Indiana. For fully forty years they have lived on one farm in Indiana, and it was on that place that Doctor Schrader was born. The parents are devout Methodists, and in politics the father is a repub- lican. He showed his loyalty to his adopted country by enlisting during the Civil war and serving three years, ten months, being honorably discharged at the close of hostilities. He has for many years been identified with the Grand Army of the Republic. In the family were twelve children, six sons and six daughters, eleven of whom are still living, with Doctor Schrader next to the youngest.

His early life was spent on the old Indiana farm and he lived with his parents until he was seventeen. His early educational advantages were sufficient to qualify him as a teacher and he spent two years in that vocation. He first chose a business career and after a course in bookkeeping at the Bryant & Stratton Business College he spent a year in clerical work, and then took a more definite step by entering the Hospital College of Medicine at Louisville, Kentucky. He remained a student there until awarded his degree M. D. in 1905.

During the first year out of college Doctor Schrader practiced at Evansville, Indiana. In May, 1907, he arrived in Bristow, and here his office and home have been during the succeeding years, and with the growth and develop- ment of the town and tributary country his practice has assumed proportions that tax his energies. For seven years of his residence he has served as county physician and is still holding that position. More recently he has become identified with the oil industry and has some val- uable holdings in the Bristow district.

For two years he was a member of the Town Council. In politics he is a republican and in Masonry has attained the thirty-second degree of Scottish Rite. In 1907 Doctor Schrader married Miss Dollie Bogle, a native of Kansas. Their three children are named Marjorie, George and Theodore Roosevelt.

FRANK C. RUSSEL. A man of inviolable integrity, of buoyant and optimistic nature and of fine intellectuality, the late Frank C. Russel became one of the pioneer set- tlers in Garfield County, Oklahoma, at the time when the historic Cherokee Strip was thrown open for settlement in 1893. Here he passed the remainder of his life, a citizen of much prominence and influence in community affairs, and his character and achievement were such that there is all of consistency in offering in this history of the state of his adoption a tribute to his memory.

Mr. Russel was born on a farm in Stewart County, Tennessee, August 13, 1860, and died of paralysis on the 19th of July, 1914, so that his death occurred shortly before the fifty-fourth anniversary of his birth. He was buried in the cemetery at Canton, Kansas. He was a

son of John and Mary E. (Sypert) Russel, the former of whom was born in Pennsylvania and the latter ill Tennessee. John Russel was proud of being the descend- ent of a Mayflower passenger. In Tennessee he became a successful planter and representative citizen of Stewart County, where he continued his residence until the early '70s, when he sold his property in that state and removed with his family first to Illinois thence to Kan- sas, where he became one of the pioneer settlers of McPherson County. He there reclaimed and developed a valuable farm near Canton and lived up to the full tension of the pioneer era in the history of the Sun- flower State, and was uniformly esteemed as a citizen of sterling worth and of marked industry and progres- siveness. Both he and his wife continued their residence in McPherson County until their death, and their children, five sons and one daughter, are living. Hs was a stanch Presbyterian worthy of his Puritan fathers, and in politics a republican. His wife was a woman known for her practical Christianity and executive ability, her love and loyalty.

Frank C. Russel acquired his rudimentary education in the schools of his native state and was eleven years of age when he accompanied his parents to the pioneer wilds of Kansas, where he was reared to maturity in McPherson County, and where he continued his studies in the pioneer schools until he had completed the cur- riculum of the high school at Salina, the county seat of Saline County. For several years thereafter he was a successful and popular teacher in the schools of Central Kansas, where also he continued to be concerned with agricultural pursuits.

In 1893 Mr. Russel was one of those who came to Oklahoma Territory and participated in the opening of the Cherokee Strip or Outlet, which was thrown open to settlement in that year. He entered claim to a tract of land in Garfield County, at a point 31/2 miles south- west of the present thriving Town of Hunter, and there he vigorously instituted the homesteading of a farm, the while he became one of the prominent and influential men in the new community, to the civic and material development and progress of which he contributed in generous measure. While improving his farm he also found requisition for his services as a teacher in the pioneer schools of the county. As a man of mature judgment and much public spirit he was naturally called upon to serve in various local offices of trust.

In 1909 Mr. Russel purchased the plant and business of the Hunter Enterprise, a weekly paper published at Hunter. He vitalized this newspaper and made it an effective vehicle through which to exploit and foster the interests of the town and county as well as to further the cause of the democratic party and to direct popular sentiment and action. After continuing as editor and publisher of the Enterprise for two years, impaired health compelled him to abandon this field of enterprise and he sold the property to D. H. Perry.

Mr. Russel was one of the leaders in the councils and campaign activities of the democratic party in Garfield County and served with characteristic ability. He was an earnest and devoted member of the Christian Church, and he was a deacon of the church of this denomination at Hunter at the time of his death. Mr. Russel com- manded high place in the confidence and good will of all who knew him and in his death the community mourned the loss of one of its most honored and valned citizens.

On the 13th of May, 1897, in Superior, Nebraska, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Russel to Miss Anna C. Sypert, who still maintains her home at Hunter, no children having been born to their union. Mrs. Russel was born at Hopkinsville, Kentucky, on the 13th of September, 1870, and is a daughter of Col. Leonidas A.

Wim Speck

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HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA

and Martha D. (Henry) Sypert. After duly availing herself of the advantages of the public schools of her native place she there continued her studies at South Kentucky College. After leaving this institution she was for two years a popular teacher in the schools of that section of the old Blue Grass State. In 1891 she removed to McPherson, Kansas, where for six years she continued her successful work as a teacher in the public schools, in the meantime taking a normal course at McPherson College. In 1897 she came to Oklahoma Ter- ritory with her husband where she continued her service as a teacher for a period of five years. When her hus- band assumed control of the Hunter Enterprise Mrs. Russel became his able coadjuter in the editorial work of the paper, and in this connection her exceptional literary talent, her broad intellectual ken and her definite public spirit gained to her a wide reputation as one of the able representatives of the journalistic profession in Oklahoma. She became an active and valued member of the State Editorial Association, of which she served as a vice president in 1911. She still continues to a cer- tain extent her literary activities and is a popular leader in the representative social activities of her home com- munity, as well as in the work of the Christian Church.

Col. Leonidas A. Sypert, father of Mrs. Russel, was born in Lebanon, Tennessee, on the 15th of December, 1832, and died at Hopkinsville, Kentucky, on the 23d of March, 1892. He acquired a finished education and was a graduate of Lebanon, Tennessee, Law School, soon after becoming a member of the Hopkinsville bar. He represented Kentucky as a gallant soldier and officer of the Confederate service in the Civil war, became an eminent member of the Kentucky bar, and in addition to coutinuing many years in the active work of his profession he was also prominent and influential in political affairs in his section of the Blue Grass State. In Kentucky was solemnized his marriage to Miss Martha. D. Henry, who was born at Hopkinsville, that state, on the 23d of February, 1850, and who was a daughter of Col. William Henry of that place and Martha D. (Cocke) Henry of Mississippi, both members of old and cultured families. Their lineage traces back to stanch Scotch and English origin, both the Henry and Cocke families having been founded in America in the early colonial era of our national history.

WILLIAM M. SPECK is one of the meu who helped to place the new town of Dewey ou the map as a com- mercial and industrial center. His home has been there for the past fifteen years, and the town has no citizen of broader interests, of greater public spirit, or one whose energies have gone more effectively into move- ments which make for real progress.

His career began with his birth at Bedford, Pennsyl- vania, September 3, 1850. Pennsylvania was also the native state of his parents, Henry and Mary (England) Speck. His father, who was a shoemaker by trade, died in Ohio, March 28, 1893, and the mother passed away at the same place in 1898.

One in a family of ten children, William M. Speck since early boyhood has depended largely upon his own resources and has found his own opportunities in the world. At the age of twenty-one he left Pennsylvania, where he had gained his early education and had learned the trade of shoemaker, and for some years was engaged in the shoemaker's trade and shoe merchandising in Ohio. Subsequently for about two years he conducted a grocery store and also sold musical merchandise. Finally giving up his business interests in Ohio, Mr. Speck identified himself with the newer country of Kansas, locating in Sumner County in that state about 1883. In 1884 he moved to Garfield County, Kansas, and secured a pre-

emption homestead claim. At Ravanna, Kansas, he built a hotel and was its proprietor for five years. In 1889 he was elected to the legislature on the republican ticket, and in 1891 was returned for a second term. He helped to organize Garfield County. About 1893 he removed to Topeka, conducted a hotel in that city for a year, and selling out continued his hotel enterprise for four years at Independence, Missouri.

Coming to Dewey, Oklahoma, in 1900, Mr. Speck estab- lished the Dewey Hotel and also the Right-Way Hotel at Bartlesville. He proved an energetic booster for both these growing young cities, and also interested himself in the larger political life of the territory, serving as a delegate from Washington County at the national capital in the interests of statehood. For several years Mr. Speck has devoted his time primarily to farming and fruit growing, and has some handsome and valuable property in and about Dewey. In 1914 he was republican candidate for the state senate from Washington and Tulsa counties, and though on the minority party ticket his defeat was accomplished by only forty-eight votes. Mr. Speck is at the preseut time president of the Wash- ington County Fair Association. He was also one of the promoters of the interurban line between Bartles- ville and Dewey, which is one of the pioneer electric transportation lines in the state.

On December 25, Christmas Day, of 1874, Mr. Speck married Miss Christina Levers, a daughter of David and Mary (Kaylor) Levers. Mrs. Speck was one of a family of twelve children. To their marriage have been born three sons. Howard is still single and living at home in Dewey. Lloyd married Miss Grace Hunt of Ossa- watomie, Kansas, and their two children are named Glenn and Thomas. Roscoe, who lives in Kansas, mar- ried Miss Sadie Clay, and they have a child named Emma. Mr. Speck is affiliated with the Loyal Order of Moose and the Homesteaders, and both he and his wife are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church. While a resident of Ohio, Mr. Speck spent several years in Stark County, and during 1881-2 was chairman of the republican central committee of that Ohio county, the county seat of which is Canton, the old home of President Mckinley and wife. Mr. Speck was a personal friend of President Mckinley, and during the latter's first campaign for the presidency in 1896 he wrote a personal letter to Mr. Speck, who was at that time living in Kansas.

Mr. Speck is interested in good farming iu Washington County and is doing all he can to boost this movement.

OLIN W. MEACHAM. Those individuals who have given their energy, skill, ambitious vigor and enthusiasm in the building up of a community are benefactors of humanity, and their names cannot be held in too high estcem. In every undertaking there must be a logical beginning, and a man who lays the foundation for what afterwards may become a flourishing city must have the courage of his convictions and unlimited confidence in the future of the location which he selects as the scene of his endeavors. One of the best small cities in Eastern Oklahoma is Henryetta in Okmulgee County. The mayor of that little city is Olin W. Meacham. Mr. Meacham was for thirteen years postmaster of the town. He came here attracted by the beauty of the site and the presence of coal deposits nearby, and fifteen years ago was one of the "fathers of Henryetta" aud from the day he helped lay out the townsite his keen mind and boundless enthusiasm have kept him looking beyond the narrow horizon of the day and reading the signs of a splendid tomorrow.

By profession he is an old newspaper man and printer, and was identified with early Kansas journalism as well as with some of the first newspapers in the original Okla-

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HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA

homa Territory. It is an interesting fact that he is one of the survivors of the famous group of "Oklahoma boomers" headed by Captain Payue during the '80s. Thus there are many interesting features of Mr. Meacham's career. His most permanent work has with- out doubt been the building up of Henryetta. He exer- cised not only enthusiasm but good judgment in promot- ing this town in the early days. He sold a large number of lots for less than they were worth in order to get people located in the town. The first private residence there was put up by him in 1900, a box house of the simplest character, 20x20 feet. He also constructed the brick flue attached to any house or building, and also had the first plastered house. In the past fifteen years he has built three homes for himself, and now has one of the most attractive residences of the town. He was given the choice of a large stretch of land along the railroad when it was constructed for townsite purposes, and after much investigation chose what is now Henryetta.

An Illinois man, Olin W. Meacham was born near Rushville in Schuyler County March 16, 1858, a son of Ahira Gault and Mary E. (Jewell) Meacham. His father was born at Rochester, New York, in 1836, while the mother was born at Augusta, Maine. They were mar- ried at Mount Meacham, Illinois, a postoffice that was named in honor of Mr. Meacham's grandfather, who had located there about 1855. Mr. Meacham's mother died in Schuyler County in 1866 when he was about eight years of age. In 1872 the father took his family out to Kansas, and a number of years later came to Oklahoma in 1890, soon after the opening, and died at Guthrie about 1906. He was a carpenter and contractor nearly all his active career, though he did considerable farm- ing while living in Kansas. During the Civil war period he enlisted in the hundred day service at the first call, and afterwards re-enlisted and remained until the close of the war. He was with a Missouri Regiment of engin- eers, and did some hard work in digging the canal which cut off Island No. 10 in the Mississippi River, one of the most notable exploits of Grant's army in open- ing up the river to the Federal invasion of the South. He afterwards took part in many pitched battles, and served as a non-commissioned officer. While living at Leon in Butler County, Kansas, he was in the real estate and loan business and put up the first opera house there. He was a strong prohibitiouist and one of the men

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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