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 121
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About sixteen years ago Senator Blassingame came out to Oklahoma, locating in Washita County. There he taught in the public schools, and for four years was a member of the county board of examiners, during the administration of County Superintendent J. S. Norton. While teaching a subsequent term at Spiro he pur- chased the Sallisaw Gazette, and when school was out took charge of the paper and plant. That year, 1906, he organized the Democrat Publishing Company at Sallisaw, which bought and consolidated the papers and plant of the Gazette and the Star. He continued in charge of the new publication, the Star-Gazette, until 1912, when he sold it to Alexander & Hentzel.
Senator Blassingame 's activity in politics began in his early youth, and in Oklahoma with statehood, and
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HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA
reveals many of the interesting facts in local political annals since that time. He was secretary of the first democratic central committee of Sequoyah County, which was created by the constitutional convention in 1907, and for two years was a member of the democratic state central committee from Sequoyah County. Many times he has represented his county in state conventions of the democratic party and when delegates were selected to attend the Baltimore convention which nominated Woodrow Wilson, now President, he was chosen, by acclamation, secretary of the convention, perhaps the largest and most representative body of democrats ever assembled in the state. In the City of Sallisaw he has served as a member of the city council and the board of education. His election to the State Senate came in 1912. In the Fourth Legislature Senator Blassin- game was chosen chairman of the senate committee on printing. During that session he had the honor of nominating Robert L. Owen to succeed himself in the United States Senate. With that nomination one func- tion of the State Legislature was probably abolished for all time, since Senator Owen was the last of Federal senators to be elected by the Oklahoma Legislature. The honor was especially gratifying to Senator Blassingame in view of the fact that Mrs. Owen is a niece of George S. Fulton, the beloved tutor of Senator Blassingame in Georgia. Besides the chairmanship of the printing committee, Senator Blassingame in the fourth session was a member of the committee on banks and banking, and had much to do with the preparation and passage of the banking act which inaugurated a new era in financial affairs in the state. He was co-author with Senator Pugh of Anadarko of a law compelling public officials and their employes to file with their claims against the public treasury receipts received for the money spent. During the session he also labored assiduously as a pronounced supporter of the administration of Governor Cruce, opposing some of the notable and wholly unneces- sary investigations of that period and seeking to prevent prolonged legislative sessions.
In the Fifth Legislature Senator Blassingame was chairman of the democratic caucas, and proved himself a worthy and commendable leader of his party.
For his success in life Senator Blassingame bestowed much credit upon his wife, a woman of distinctive culture and leadership in woman's affairs in her home city, and representing a prominent southern family. Before their marriage, which occurred July 10, 1902, Mrs. Blassin- game was Miss Judith Bertena Byrd, of Fairmount, Georgia. The Byrd family has been prominent in many important undertakings for several generations in Georgia, in Virginia and in Oklahoma. William Byrd, of whom Mrs. Blassingame is a lineal descendant, the most prominent of the family, was a member of the King's Council in Virginia in colonial days, and some of his conspicuous achievements were the laying out of the principal cities of Virginia, including Richmond, and establishing the boundary line between Virginia and North Carolina. He is said to have possessed the largest library and was one of the most learned men in all the colonies. Mrs. Blassingame is an active leader in church and social circles, and possesses a genuine affability and an ever-present desire for service that has won her esteem among all classes, and among her elders in par- ticular. Senator and Mrs. Blassingame have two chil- dren: Ruth Fern, aged thirteen: and Maxwell Sloan, Jr., aged eleven. Another son, William Byrd, died at the age of seven months. Six brothers and sisters of Senator Blassingame live in various states of the South, South- west and Middle West.
Senator Blassingame is a member of the Baptist Church at Sallisaw, is affiliated with the Masonic lodge
and the Knights of Pythias lodge in that town, being a past chancellor in the latter. He is a member of the Sigma Nu college fraternity, No. 7, at Dahlonega, Georgia, which was one of the original chapters of that fraternity in the United States. Senator Blassingame is a member of the Sallisaw Hunting and Fishing Club, of the Sallisaw Commercial Club, of the Oklahoma Press Association, and of the Oklahoma Board of the National Red Cross Society, an honor conferred upon him by the governor of the state.
JACOB JOHNSON, who became closely identified both in business and marriage with the Indian tribes of Kansas and Oklahoma, was born in Washington, District of Columbia, March 2, 1823, and died May 8, 1911, on his wife's allotment 21/2 miles west of Shawnee, Oklahoma. One of his children is Mrs. Emma D. Goulette of Shawnee.
William Johnson, his father, was born in England in 1771. From about the age of twelve he followed the sca until he retired as captain at sixty-five. His death occurred in Washington, District of Columbia, in 1859. He was a man of excellent education, and was a com- municant of the Episcopal faith. He made his home in Frederick County, Maryland, till about 1815 when he removed to Washington. He was mayor of the national capital, sometime between the years 1824 and 1859.
Barbara Miller, who became the wife of William John- son, was born in Ohio April 21, 1782, but her home for many years was at Middletown, Frederick County, Mary- land, where many of her blood connections are still found. In the early days of Washington Barbara Miller con- ducted a dairy whose products supplied the homes of Washington people for a number of years.
Though his early home and training were in the East, the real life of Jacob Johnson was identified with the western frontier and its people. His literary education was acquired in Washington schools. At the age of nine- teen he was earning his own way, being first employed in the District of Columbia navy yards, with his brothers, unloading produce and freighting by boat from the Carolinas.
The turning point of his life came in 1849 when he went to the California gold fields with a Government caravan, though not in the Government employ. After prospecting a year, he sold his mines and came home, for a short visit. On going back to California he learned that the purchaser of his property had struck gold, had sold out and had left the fields wealthy.
On this second trip to California Jacob Johnson estab- lished a general store. His stock of groceries, mining implements, etc., were freighted from Omaha, Nebraska, in caravans, each trip requiring three to four months. Flour then sold from thirty to forty dollars a barrel; granulated sugar was a distinct luxury, maple sugar being the staple, while whiskey was the only article that was cheap. While freighting Mr. Johnson gave and sold produce to the Indians, and in that way he laid the foundation of a strong friendship which ever afterward existed between him and the red men. After con- ducting his store and wagon trains three or four years, he made his second visit home, going to his twin brother Henry in Baltimore, where many of his relatives now live.
His next experience in the West was a trip to Wash- ington and Oregon, following the Lewis and Clark trail most of the way. His occupation of fishing and trapping acquainted him with these territories as few white men ever came to know them. With his trapping products he made three or four annual trips to New York.
Next he was one of the engineering party that sur- veyed the present boundary line from the Rio Grande to the Gulf of California, after the new treaty establishing the line was made with Mexico in 1853. This concluded,
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he came to Kansas, still a territory, and with his youngest brother as cook conducted a very successful restaurant at Indianola.
It was at Indianola that his destiny became linked by marriage with the Pottawatomie tribe, and a number of years later his family was among the 1,400 who separated from the prairie band of the Pottawatomies in Kansas and located on the thirty mile square in Oklahoma in 1872. At Indianola Mr. Johnson met and in 1856 married his Indian-French wife, Sophia Jarveau (Shovo), who had just returned from school at St. Mary's, Kansas.
Sophia Johnson, a three-quarter blood Pottawatomie, whose given Indian name is "So-pe,"' was born at Council Bluffs, Iowa, in 1840. Her paternal grandfather Jarveau came direct from France, and his father, and then he, for years engaged in the fur trade for the Indians with the Hudson Bay Company. Her maternal grandfather Ches- haw-gan and wife were fullbloods and prominent mem- bers of the Menominee tribe. Her paternal grand- mother was a fullblood Pottawatomie Indian from Mich- igan. All her ancestors were among those Indians, to whom our United States Government treated then ceded to them what is known in history as the Northwest Terri- tory, created by the Ordinance of 1787.
Her father, Louis Jarveau, whose name the "Great White Father"' changed to Vieux on his rolls, was a half- breed Pottawatomie of Michigan who met and married Sha-note (Charlotte), daughter of Ches-haw-gan while in Michigan. After their marriage, about 1830, they, with Ches-haw-gan, wife and son Po-mom-ke-tuck or "Peter the Great"' moved to what is now Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Here Madaline and Jake were born to the young couple. Louis and family left Milwaukee about 1834, going to Council Bluffs, Iowa, where he was elected tribal chief of the Pottawatomies. The family lived there between eighteen and twenty years. During that time Ellen, Margaret, Rachel, Sophia and Louis were born.
The next move was to Indianola, Kansas, near Topeka. Here Sophia's grandfather and family lived about six miles from them, in bark wigwams, till they saw how houses were built. At Indianola, in addition to his ex- tensive farming and stock raising, Louis "Vieux" con- tinued helping the Indians in their business affairs and in their times of sickness and need, generally. This kind of home life was excellent training for Sophia and the other six children, as each child was required in turn to assist in every line of work from the cooking, sewing and care of the smaller children, to milking and maple tree tapping. A good old negro, "Uncle Charlie," not a slave, lived in Jarveau's family for years, cooking for both hired hands and the family, also helping with the housework generally.
From Indianola Sophia was taken in a wagon to St. Mary's, Kansas, to attend school. While here her eyes became weak so she was compelled to discontinue her studies at the age of thirteen. Thus she had only four or five years of literary training. While she always lived the life of the citizen Indian, her mother Charlotte lived the camp life until her marriage to Louis Jarveau. Measured by the standards of the time, the Jarveaus were wealthy folk. Sophia often tells about her mother's silk and broadcloth Indian dresses, furs, the hired serv- ants, etc. The Indian dress waist those days was what is known as the middy blouse now.
Upon her return from St. Mary's, Sophia met Jacob Johnson, a white American restaurant proprietor, whom she married three years later. The next year, 1857, her mother Charlotte Jarveau died. The father then moved to Vermillion and kept the toll bridge over the Kansas River. Louis "Vieux" married again while here, then
moved to Louisville, Kansas, where he lived and farmed until his death in 1872. His death was deeply mourned by hundreds, and to this date his descendants are never without welcome or friends when among those who knew him.
Now to resume the career of Jacob Johnson. After the death of his brother, Andrew, at Indianola, he removed to Vermillion, where he was toll bridge collector for his father-in-law. From Vermillion the family moved in 1861 to Rossville, Kansas, not far from Louisville, where Louis Vieux had his home. There Jacob Johnson spent eleven years engaged in farming, raising corn, wheat, cattle and hogs. He had gone to Oklahoma a short time before his father-in-law died.
After locating temporarily at Sacred Heart, Oklahoma, Mr. Johnson's family moved to Pleasant Prairie, now Beyers, about 1873. There he owned a general store. Not long afterward his large herd of cattle was stolen in a bunch. This, with his generous western disposi- tion for assisting his fellow men by the too generous extension of credit, ruined him financially. He returned to Sacred Heart in 1876. Eighteen seventy-eight found the family at Salt Creek near Sacred Heart. Here he built a small temporary log house where he expected to wait until it was decided where the Pottawatomies would take their allotments of land. This year at Salt Creek favored Mr. Johnson financially. He and his boys farmed, raising corn, hogs and cattle principally.
Better home comforts were found in the roomy rented house, splendid orchard and stock accommodations at Greenhead in 1879, on the Pettifer's place, where the older boys did the farming. The chief crops were corn, cotton and beans. Had the wild deer, hogs, turkeys, quail and prairie chickens not been so plentiful, the family would have been in hard straits for meat that year, since negroes stole most of the large drove of domestic hogs.
While at Greenhead the oldest son, Richard, left home to become mail carrier between Sac and Fox and Red Fork, now known as Sapulpa. There being no bridges, he often risked his life swimming the swollen streams of Deep Fork. The oldest daughter Rachel found em- ployment at the Friends Mission, which was located near the now Shawnee, Pottawatomie and Kickapoo Indian School near Shawnee. The next older boy Lawrence remained home, while the next three in age, James, Sarah Ann and Andrew, entered the Friends Mission as pupils. Here James died.
In 1883 the family moved to Kickapoo near what is now McLoud, until a two-roomed log house was built on the wife's present allotment. This house remained there until 1913 when the site was covered with a new barn. Mrs. Sophia Johnson in her declining years, on her allotment 21/2 miles west of Shawnee, resides in a neat five-room frame cottage, built and originally fur- nished by her educated children.
Mr. Johnson joined the Friends Church at old Shaw- neetown when Franklin Elliott and wife were mission- aries from 1879 to 1884. His wife, baptized and raised a Catholic, united with the Friends Church also, but re- turned to her original faith after his death. "Grandpa and Grandma Johnson,"' as they were affectionately called, made a wide circle of acquaintances and friends in their locality, and business men knew them as people of the highest honesty and integrity. In his earlier days Jacob Johnson belonged to the Masonic lodge, but pioneer life forbade a continued active relationship.
Twelve children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Johnson. The first two, Seraphine and Jacob, died at Vermillion, Kansas, Seraphine at the age of four and Jacob when an infant. Richard, born at Vermillion, Kansas, Feb- ruary 26, 1860, died a bachelor January 22, 1889.
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Rachel, whose allotment home is at Norman, was born at Rossville, Kansas, May 2, 1863, and married in 1881 John Wall (white) and about 1892 married Jim Hale (white). Loren, born at Rossville, January 31, 1866, married December, 1896, Florence Wooford (white), and has his home near Shawnee. James, born at Ross- ville in 1868, died in 1884. Sarah Ann, born at Ross- ville March 14, 1870, married April 7, 1896, J. D. Goulette (Indian), and she died at Shawnee November 2, 1909, her allotment being at McLoud. Andrew, born at Rossville August 11, 1872, is single, and has his allot- ment at McLoud. Ida, born at Pleasant Prairie, now Beyers, Oklahoma, April 29, 1874, has her allotment at Tecumseh, and married Ben Bollman (white). Emma, born at Sacred Heart, Indian Territory, March 31, 1876, married January 28, 1912, J. D. Goulette, and has allot- ment at Tecumseh. David, born at Salt Creek, Indian Territory, November 16, 1878, has his allotment at Tecumseh, and married Kate Fansler (white). Kath- erine, born at Greenhead January 19, 1882, married Charles Craig (white), her allotment being at Shawnee.
JOHN T. HAYS. Among the men who composed the early bar of Kiowa County were several who brought to their practice an experience and ability gained by a number of years of court and office practice in other states, and of these John T. Hays, who located at Hobart in 1903, has continuously maintained the repu- tation to which his previous training entitled him. Mr. Hays had practiced a number of years in Kentucky be- fore moving to Oklahoma and is one of the best known members of the Oklahoma State Bar Association.
Born in Knox County, Kentucky, in February, 1861, John T. Hays is descended from an Irish family of that name which established its home in Virginia prior to the War of 1812, and one or more of the name par- ticipated on the American side in that conflict. His father, Joseph C. Hays, was born in Knox County, Kentucky, in 1834, and died at Winchester in that state October 30, 1902. He was a farmer and stock raiser and in 1898 moved from Knox County, Kentucky, to Boone County, Missouri, and that was his home the rest of his life, his death having occurred while on a visit to Winchester, Kentucky. During the war between the states he was a Confederate soldier under General Morgan one year, and was taken prisoner at Cumber- land Gap, but made his escape. He was a member of the Christian Church, and a democrat in politics. Joseph C. Hays married Minerva N. Bain, who was born in Knox County, Kentucky, in 1837, and is now living at Columbia, Missouri. Their children were: Alexander, who died in infancy; John T .; Arah, who died at the age of thirty-five, the wife of Thomas Gilbert, who is now a farmer at Lawton, Oklahoma; J. Smith, an at- torney at Winchester, Kentucky; James M., also an attorney, practicing at Okmulgee, Oklahoma; Thomas B., a farmer at Hobart; William, who was a physician and surgeon and died at Highlands, North Carolina, at the age of thirty-five; Ora, who married F. A. Henninger, a jeweler at Columbia, Missouri; and Mrs. Mary Eliza- beth Spillman, wife of a farmer at Harris, Kentucky.
John T. Hays grew up in his native county in Ken- tucky, where he attended the public schools and spent the first eighteen years of his life on his father's farm. He had a varied experience of self help and effort for a number of years before gaining admittance to the legal profession. Three years were spent as a teacher at Barbersville, Kentucky, where he was principal of the public schools, and one year at Williamsburg, Kentucky. For nearly four years he was a student in the Agricul- tural and Mechanical College at Lexington, and during 1888 was a student in the law department of Vanderbilt
University at Nashville, Tennessee. He had already pursued a private course of study in the law, and was admitted to the bar at Franklin, Kentucky, September 9, 1888. Thus Mr. Hays has had an active career as a lawyer for more than a quarter of a century. His first practice was at Barbersville in Knox County, Kentucky, and his practice, continued from 1888 to 1903, brought him into relations with not only the local but the state and federal courts. In 1903 he came to Hobart, Okla- homa, about two years after the opening of the Kiowa and Comanche reservation and has since enjoyed an in- creasing civil and criminal practice.
A service which has brought his name into prominence among legal circles throughout the state was as a member of the State Code Commission, which revised, annotated and codified the laws of Oklahoma. He is a member of the County, State and American Bar Asso- ciations, and in 1910 was a member of the council of the state association and is now a member of its com- mittee on uniformity of laws.
His law offices are in the Starns Building on Fourth Street in Hobart. For several years he has served as a member of the Hobart School Board and has thus as- sisted in the construction of the school buildings and has promoted the general advancement of local educa- tional facilities. He is a member of the Christian Church, is a democrat in politics, is affiliated with Lodge No. 108, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, at Barbers- ville, Kentucky, and also with Barbersville Chapter, Royal Arch Masons.
In 1897 at Barbersville Mr. Hays married Miss Lucy J. Tye. She is a daughter of the late George W. Tye, a farmer at Barbersville. To their marriage have been born four children: Howard Homer, who died when six years of age; Howell Edmond, now in the freshman class of the Hobart High School; Russell Randolph and Helen Hortense, both students in the grammar schools.
PROVIDENCE MOUNTS. One of the oldest lawyers in point of continuous service at Frederick is Providence Mounts, who was an attorney of mature experience and well tried ability when he located there more than ten years ago, and has since developed a profitable business as a lawyer and has made himself a factor in the growth 'and development of the town.
A Texan by birth, Providence Mounts was born at Denton, Denton County, February 25, 1872. The Mounts family came originally from France, settled in Virginia, moved at a later date to Kentucky, and the grandfather, Providence Mounts, was born in Virginia about 1804, went as a pioneer to Texas and died at Denton about 1876. William H. Mounts, father of the Frederick lawyer, was born in Virginia in 1832 and died at Denton, Texas, in 1889. He went out to the latter state about 1850 and became identified with the farming, stock raising and mercantile interests of North Texas from pioneer times onward. As a democrat he took much interest in the party and in local affairs, and the family has always been one of prominence in Denton County. He served as an elder in the Presbyterian Church and his family were reared in the same faith. During the early days along the Texas frontier he participated in several engagements with the Indians. William H. Mounts married Miss Mattie Haynes, who was born in Mississippi in 1838 and died at Denton, Texas, in January, 1914. Their children were: R. M., who is a stock raiser at Hereford, Texas; Emma, who lives at Denton, and is the widow of Dr. C. Lipscomb; Ena, who married Frank A. Tompkins, in the real estate and insurance business at Corpus Christi, Texas; Providence; John H., a merchant at Frederick, Oklahoma; Sena, wife of W. W. Wright, a farmer and stock man at
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Denton; and Alice, wife of Clarence Cockrell, who is in the electrical business at Dallas, Texas.
Providence Mounts obtained his education from the public schools of Denton, and was a student for a time in the high school, and spent one year at the Agricultural and Mechanical College at Bryan, Texas, before entering the law department of the State University. In 1893 he was graduated LL. B., and was thus equipped for practice in a profession at the age of twenty-one. Re- turning to his old home town of Denton for the next eleven years he was marked as one of the rising attor- ueys of the Denton County bar, and during that time served both as city attorney and county attorney. Since 1904 he has looked after a growing general civil and criminal practice with home at Frederick, Oklahoma. His offices are in the Stinson-Mounts Building on Grand Avenue, of which he is a part owner.
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