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 20

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 20

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PAUL H. JONES. The ancestral history of this well known citizen of McAlester, Pittsburg County, is one of the most interesting and distinguished order and he is a scion of a family whose name has been prominently linked with the annals of American history from the early colonial era, each successive generation having produced men of sterling character and women of fine personality, while representatives have been found promi- nent and influential citizens in New England, New York, Maryland, Illinois, Georgia and other states of the Union. Family tradition, amply fortified by records still extant, indicates that the original American progenitor or progenitors of this family of Jones came from England on the historic ship Mayflower, and the lineage is traced back to William Jones, one of the stern English- men whose loyalty to principle led him to become a member of the historic company of regicides who made decisive blows in behalf of human independence. Mem- bers of the Jones family were numbered among the early settlers of both Massachusetts and Connecticut, and the grandfather of Prince Jones, from whom the subject of this review is a lineal descendant, was a brother of the mother of the celebrated colonial hero, Paul Revere. The mother of George H. Bissell, the dis- tinguished sculptor, was a sister of Prince H. Jones, who was the paternal grandfather of him whose name intro- duces this article. Judge Samuel D. Lockwood, the first attorney general of Illinois and later an associate justice

of the Supreme Court of that state, was a brother of the mother of Prince H. Jones. Abraham Prickett, great-grandfather of Paul H. Jones in the maternal line, was one of the first settlers at Edwardsville, Illinois, became the first mayor of that town, was a member of the committee that framed the constitution of Illinois in 1818, was a member of the first Legislature of that state, and became the founder of the first banking insti- tution at Edwardsville, his son George having been the first white child born in the pioneer village that is now a thriving and beautiful city.

Paul H. Jones, who is numbered among the repre- sentative business men of McAlester, Oklahoma, and who served as a member of the State Board of Prison Control until the board was eliminated by legislative enactment in March, 1915, was born in the historic old Town of Edwardsville, Madison County, Illinois, in the year 1874, and is a son of William and Clare (Prickett) Jones. The only other surviving child is Miss Minna Jones, who remains with her parents at Edwardsville, the family home being that in which the mother was born, sixty years ago.

Mr. Jones continued to attend the public schools of his native city until he had completed the curriculum of the high school, and as his father met with severe financial reverses about this time, the youth was denied the advantages of a collegiate education. He initiated his business career by obtaining employment in a bank at Edwardsville, where he continued to be identified with this line of enterprise until 1897, when failing health rendered it imperative for him to seek less sedentary occupation and it behooved him also to find a change of climatic conditions. For a year thereafter he was a cowboy on ranches in Wyoming and Colorado, the ensuing year having been by him devoted to mining in the gold and silver fields of the latter state, and the manual application and free and open life having resulted in his fully regaining his health, with the accumulation of a robustness greater than he had previously enjoyed at any period. Upon his return to the East he established his residence in the City of St. Louis, Missouri, where he was engaged in the coal business during the ensuing four years. In 1902 Mr. Jones made a prospecting trip in Indian Territory, and while on a hunting expedition out from McAlester he became so favorably impressed with the attractions and advantages of the locality that he decided to make permanent location at McAlester. Here he became identified with the brick-manufacturing industry, in connection with which he was for several years general manager of the Choctaw Pressed Brick Company. In the spring of 1915 he severed his associa- tion with this corporation and established an inde- pendent brokerage business, in which he deals principally in building material, his personal popularity and unsul- lied business reputation having made the enterprise successful from its initiation.

In politics Mr. Jones is aligned as a staunch sup- porter of the cause of the republican party, and he has not been permitted to deny his services in public offices of trust during the period of his residence in Oklahoma. Within recent years he served two terms as city clerk of McAlester, and in 1913 he was appointed by Governor Cruce a member of the State Board of Prison Control, a position in which he served with utmost loyalty and circumspection until the abolishment of this department of the governmental service of the state, in March, 1915. This board recommended, upon careful investi- gation, the issuing of paroles to 385 prisoners in the state penal institutions, and most of these paroles were granted by the governor, only fourteen of the prisoners

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thus paroled having failed to live up to the conditions and provisions under which they were released.

Mr. Jones is one of the progressive and public-spirited citizens of the vital and ambitious City of McAlester, is an active and valued member of the McAlester Cham- ber of Commerce; is a member of the board of trustees of All Saints Hospital, maintained in this city under the auspices of the Protestant Episcopal Church; is secretary of the MeAlester Golf and Country Club; is senior deacon, in 1915, of MeAlester Lodge, No. 196, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons; and is one of the most influential and popular members of McAlester Lodge, No. 533, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, of which he has twice served as exalted ruler. Both he and his wife are communicants of the Protestant Episco- pal Church.

In 1909 was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Jones to Miss Agnes Stuart, daughter of Judge Charles B. Stuart, of Oklahoma City, who was formerly a law partner of Senator Bailey, who represented Texas in the United States Senate. Under the administration of President Cleveland Judge Stuart served on the bench of the United States Court of the Eastern District of Indian Territory. Mrs. Jones was graduated in a college for young women at Lexington, Kentucky, and she is a leader in the repre- sentative social activities of the City of MeAlester. Mr. and Mrs. Jones have one child, Halleck Stuart, who was born in 1912.

A scion of honored and influential pioneer families of Illinois, Mr. Jones has maintained a deep interest in the history of his native state and among his most prized possessions are a table, a rocking chair and a straight chair which were there used by the martyred President, Abraham Lincoln, upon whose death these valued memorials became the property of Thomas C. Prickett, a maternal ancestor of Mr. Jones. A few years ago Mr. Jones loaned the table and chairs to the Lincoln Memorial Association. He has in his possession also a letter writter by President Lincoln under date of September 27, 1852, in which Lincoln sought to have the administrator of the Prickett estate correct the title to some town lots that had been transferred to "Billy, the barber," a negro who had shaved Lin- coln in Bloomington, Illinois.

C. C. ATWOOD. A flourishing little center of trade and business in Hughes County is named Atwood, a village that was laid out along the M. O. & G. Railroad by members of the Atwood family, and the railroad company named it in honor of C. C. Atwood, who for forty years has been a resident of Indian Territory, the greater part of the time in what is now Hughes County, and has been prominent as a cattle man, banker and citizen.

A native of Texas, he was born in Coryell City, July 4, 1861, a son of Eli and Katy (Trousdale) Atwood. His father was a native of Nashville, Tennessee, and his mother of Springfield, Missouri. The father grew up in Tennessee, but after his marriage in Missouri moved to Texas in 1860 and he and his wife spent the rest of their days there, his business being that of farmer. During the war, though too old for active service, he was a member of the home guard and served as a scout. C. C. Atwood was twelve years of age when his father died and eleven when his mother died. The six children were: C. M. of Belton, Texas; Bettie, deceased wife of Hugh Phillips; Eliza, deceased wife of A. A. Ed- wards; William, deceased; Matt, deceased; and C. C.

The first fourteen years of his life C. C. Atwood spent in Texas, and while there acquired a common school education. . In 1875 he went into the Chickasaw Nation and located near Tishomingo, moved from there to

Okmulgee in the Creek Nation, and then in 1881 to Tobucksec County in the Choctaw Nation, and soon afterwards located in the vicinity where he has ever since kept his home and the center of his activities. Throughout this long period of activity he has been a farmer and stock raiser chiefly.

He nas seven children, and all of them have allotments in Hughes County. When the M. O. & G. Railroad was built they bought land for a townsite from Mr. Atwood, and that was the origin of the present Village of Atwood.

Mr. Atwood was one of the original stockholders in the City National Bank of Calvin, and he is now a director in the First National Bank of that place and a director in the First State Bank of Atwood. At one time he was president of the City National Bank at Calvin. However, he has given his chief attention and has made his success in farming and stock raising. At one time he grazed very large herds over his own holdings and leased lands. At the present time his landed possessions comprised, with those of his children, several sections of rich land, and about 640 acres are under cultivation. He is a democrat and is an elder in the Church of Christ, of which he has been a member for the past twenty years.

In 1882 Mr. Atwood married Miss Patsy Ann Burris, who was born at old Doaksville in the Choctaw Nation, a daughter of Benjamin and Sally (Nelson) Burris. Both her father and mother were half-blood Choctaws. Mr. and Mrs. Atwood have seven children, all of whom were born at Atwood, and briefly noted as follows: Ottie, wife of R. C. Lee of Parsons, Kansas; Arry, wife of Dr. W. B. Berninger of Atwood; Bennie, of Cordell, Oklahoma; Ollie, wife of R. L. Henley of Atwood; Colman of Atwood; Lizzie, who lives at home; and Ambrose, also at home.

HENRY C. DORROH, M. D. Possessing in generous meas- ure the qualities which make the personally popular as well as financially successful physician, Dr. Henry C. Dorroh has a firmly established reputation at Hammon as an earnest, cautious and painstaking healer of men. He represents a kind of medical practice which is a long way removed from the standards of even a decade ago, his progressive mind rejecting mercilessly dogmas whose only claim is their antiquity, and which have no place in the light and intelligence of modern investigation.

Doctor Dorroh is of Irish descent, his great-grand- father, who spelled his name O'Dorroh, coming from Erin about the time of the Revolutionary war and settling in North Carolina. William W. Dorroh, father of Doctor Dorroh, was born at Fredonia, Kentucky, February 22, 1827, and in 1875 removed to within four miles of Prince- ton, the county seat of Caldwell County, Kentucky, where he passed the remaining years of his life in the pursuits of farming and stockraising and died in September, 1904. He was a stalwart supporter of the democratic party and with his wife belong to the Baptist Church. Mrs. Dorroh, who bore the maiden name of Mary Easley, was born in 1830, in Virginia, and when nine years of age was taken by her parents to Fredonia, Kentucky, where she received her education and was reared and married. She died at Princeton, Kentucky, in Febru- ary, 1891, the mother of six children, as follows: Bobbie, who is the wife of Charles W. Guess, a farmer of Prince- ton; Frankie, who is the wife of J. J. Rorer, a farmer of Fredonia, Kentucky; William T., who is engaged in agri- cultural pursuits in Caldwell County; Annie, who is the wife of W. T. Hurst, a carpenter and mechanic of Hop- kinsville, Kentucky; Dr. Henry C., of this notice; and Doctor Lee, a graduate of the Louisville Hospital Col- lege, of Louisville, Kentucky, and now engaged in a med-

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HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA

ical and surgical practice, a sketch of whose career will be found elsewhere in this work.

Henry C. Dorroh was born at Salem, Livingston County, Kentucky, December 23, 1869, and in the following year was taken by his parents to Caldwell County, where he attended the public schools. He was reared on the home farm, but had no liking for an agricultural career, and on attaining his majority, in 1891, went to Washing- ton, in which state and Oregon he spent the next six years in engineering. His next location was Angels Camp, California, where he was connected with the Utica Gold Mining Company until 1903, and in that year joined the gold-hunters of Alaska, spending 11/2 years at Nome in search of the precious yellow metal. Returning to California at the end of that period, for a time he was engaged in engineering at San Francisco, but finally turned his attention to the profession of medicine, and in the fall of 1905 entered the Louisville Hospital College of Medicine, at Louisville, Kentucky, which he attended for two years. During his vacation, in 1907, he returned to California, but in the fall of the same year went back to Louisville and completed his medical course, being graduated with the class of 1910 and receiving the degree of Doctor of Medicine. Shortly thereafter Doctor Dorroh came to Oklahoma and commenced practice at Aledo, Dewey County, but August 15th of the same year changed his field of practice to the Town of Hammon, where he has since continued in the enjoyment of a rapidly growing medical and surgical practice, his offices being located in the Hammon News Building on Broadway. Practicability and simplicity have been the professional efforts and he is a most careful and expert diagnostician as well as a close and inquiring student. In the search for clearer vision and larger usefulness he has allied himself with the various organizations of his vocation, being a member of the American Medical Association, the Oklahoma Medical Society and the Roger Mills Medical Society, of which latter he served one term as treasurer, his service expiring in January, 1915. He is a democrat in politics, but not particularly active in public affairs save as a good citizen and a supporter of progressive and beneficial movements. Fraternally, he is connected with Russell Camp No. 51, Woodmen of the World, and the local camp of the Woodmen's Circle.

Doctor Dorroh was married at Angels Camp, Cali- fornia, in 1904, to Miss Edna Covens, of Chicago, Illinois, aud they have one child: Edna May, born April 17, 1913.

WILLIAM C. HUGHES. One of the most fertile counties in Eastern Oklahoma is that of which Holdenville is county seat, and it was created at the time of statehood and was named in honor of William C. Hughes, one of the most striking and influential figures in the Constitu- tional Convention. Mr. Hughes is an able brilliant law- yer, practiced law in Oklahoma for many years, and is now a resident of St. Joseph, Missouri.

He comes of an old and distinguished Missouri family. He was liberally educated, and from Kansas City he moved to Oklahoma in March, 1901, locating at Oklahoma City. As a lawyer he had soon established a state repu- tation.

He was elected a member of the Oklahoma Consti- tutional Convention in 1906 from the Twenty-eighth Con- ventional District, comprising the business center of Okla- homa City. He was chosen as a democrat and by an overwhelming majority. In the convention he was a prominent candidate for president, aud lost that dis- tinction by a very small majority, largely on account of becoming seriously ill. In the constructive work of the convention his was one of the most important individual

influences. He was chairman of the Municipal Corpora- tion Committee, and the imprint of his judgment and foresight is upon all the provisions of the organic law affecting this subject. He is author of provisions of the constitution as follows: The provisions giving to the people of the cities the right to make the charters for their government, the rights of the initiative and referen- dum in city affairs, the right to require by direct vote the granting of franchises; the provisions prohibiting the granting, renewal or extension of franchises without ap- proval by the people by direct vote; the provisions ex- pressly authorizing cities to own and operate their pub- lic utilities and providing means by which they may raise money for such purposes; the provisions creating the office of state commissioner and corrections; the pro- visions prohibiting child labor.

It was as a tribute to his valuable services that Hughes County was named in his honor.

William C. Hughes was born at Georgetown, then the county seat of Pettis County, Missouri, October 24, 1869, a son of Dr. B. F. and Catherine (Kidd) Hughes, and he later lived in Sedalia and Kansas City. His parents were also native Missourians and the grandparents on both sides were pioneers in the state, Grandfather Hughes having come from Virginia and grandfather Kidd from Kentucky. Mr. W. C. Hughes was one in a family of seven children, four of whom are still living. Doctor Hughes, his father, served as surgeon of the Seventh Mis- souri Cavalry, and also of the Sixth Missouri Cavalry, in the Civil war. He was afterwards a member of the Mis- souri Constitutional Convention known as the "Drake" Convention, having been elected from Pettis County as an independent, and he ardently fought against the estab- lishment of a military despotism by that convention, which was in a measure a result and consequence of the re- construction following the war. His name is signed to the ordinance abolishing slavery in Missouri.

On June 14, 1893, W. C. Hughes married Luella Gaines of Clinton, Missouri. They are the parents of four daughters and one son: Jeanette Cameron, Elizabeth, Lucy Briscoe, William C. Jr., and Donna.

JOSEPH W. CHILDERS. When Joseph W. Childers came to Okmulgee in June, 1905, he brought with him the accumulated experience of twenty years as a successful lawyer in the State of Missouri. In the past ten years Mr. Childers has gained prominence as an attorney in the new state and has also taken an active part in local and state politics. The people of Okmulgee County espe- cially appreciate his service as county attorney for four years. He was first elected to that office in 1910, and his first term brought him a vote of renewed confidence in his re-election in 1912. In 1914 Mr. Childers lost the nomination for district judge, his successful opponent being Judge Hughes.

Though most of his life until coming to Oklahoma was spent in Missouri, Joseph W. Childers was born iu Monroe County, Iowa, near Blakesburg, August 11, 1859, a son of Isaac and Huldah A. (Tharp) Childers. The Childers family is of Welsh stock, and there had been a number of prominent men of that name in Wales, one of them having served as a member of the parliament and an active supporter of the Gladstone administration. The Tharp family is of Scotch descent. Mr. Childers' father was born in Wood County, West Virginia, December 10, 1819. and his wife in Harrison County in the same state in 1824. They were married in West Virginia in 1841, and in 1850 went out as pioneers to the new State of Towa, where the father entered a tract of government land in Monroe County. They lived there until 1861, and then moved to Sullivan County in Northern Missouri.

John WTillman

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HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA

The father was a sturdy and practical farmer and had an honorable career in all its relationships. He died in Missouri August 29, 1891, while his wife passed away April 2, 1887. They became the parents of a large fam- ily of fourteen children, two of whom died in infancy. A brief record of the others is as follows: Preston R., who is now seventy-two years of age and lives at Little- ton, Colorado, served four years as a Union soldier, hav- ing veteranized after his first enlistment, and was with Sherman on the famous march to the sea; Sylvanus W. lives in the State of Oregon; Delia Ann Tipton lives at Nuckols, Nebraska; Mary died at the age of twelve years; Stephen L. is a farmer at Helena, Oklahoma; Addison H. is a contractor at Denver, Colorado; Hulda A. Page lives on the home farm back in Sullivan County, Missouri; W. H. is an attorney at Milan, Missouri; Joseph W. is next in age; Marion V. met an accidental death in 1883; Sherman died at the age of fourteen; and Emma L. Akers lives at Alva, Oklahoma.

Joseph W. Childers grew up on the home farm and remained there until 1879. In the meantime he had attended the district schools, and on leaving home his first experience was as clerk in a store at Milan, Missouri. In 1884 he began the study of law in the office of Jolm P. Butler at Milan, and was admitted to practice May 16, 1886. Continuing to make his home at Milan, he soon built up a promising profitable practice and con- tinued it until his removal to Oklahoma in 1905. In this state in addition to his large private practice he has ac- quired considerable interests in oil lands. In politics he is a democrat, and is a member of the Presbyterian Church.

On November 15, 1888, he married Lillie M. Graham. She was born at Milan, Missouri, June 29, 1869, a daughter of James S. and Samantha (Swanger) Graham. Mr. Childers has one daughter, Wodenia, wife of Louis B. Bradfield, of Greeley, Colorado.

JOHN WALKER TILLMAN. An able and influential member of the Oklahoma bar, John Walker Tillman, of Pawhuska, has won unmistakable prestige, his scholarly attainments and comprehensive knowledge of law having won him an assured position in the. legal fraternity of Osage County. He was born June 16, 1886, in Fayette- ville, Washington County, Arkansas, coming from dis- tinguished ancestry, being a son of John N. Tillman, LL. D., and a descendant of the same immigrant ancestor that founded in America the family from which Benjamin R. Tillman, who won distinction as United States senator from South Carolina is descended.

A native of South Carolina, John N. Tillman moved with his parents to Southwestern Missouri in childhood, and during his earlier life received exceptionally good educational advantages. Entering the legal profession, he became prominent as a lawyer, and after his removal to Fayetteville, Arkansas, where he still resides, was one of the leading educators of that state, for seven years serving as president of the University of Arkansas. A lifelong democrat, he has exerted great influence in the councils of his party, and has filled various public offices with ability and fidelity, winning the approbation of his constituents. He was circuit judge for some time, and is now serving his third term as congressman from the Third Congressional District of Arkansas. His wife, whose maiden name was Tumpy Walker, was born, bred, and educated in Benton County, Arkansas. Three chil- dren were born of their union, namely: John Walker, the special subject of this sketch; Frederick Allen, of Fayetteville, Arkansas, a lawyer, and his father's secre- tary; and Kathleen, wife of L. B. Shaver, of Oklahoma City.

After his graduation from the University of Arkansas, John Walker Tillman began the study of law with Messrs. C. B. Wall and Charles H. Brough, and in 1907 was admitted to the Arkansas bar. Beginning the prac- tice of his profession in his home city, he met with most encouraging success as a lawyer, and was soon prominently identified with public affairs, serving two terms as assistant prosecuting attorney, and for two terms being city attorney of Fayetteville. In 1911 Mr. Tillman located at Pawhuska, Oklahoma, and has here gained an excellent position among the leading men of this section of the state. In 1912 he was elected assist- ant county attorney of Osage County, and after serving two years under C. K. Templeton was elected, on March 3, 1914, county attorney of Osage County, his election being proof of the satisfactory manner in which he performed the duties of his previous office.

Politically Mr. Tillman is a stanch adherent of the democratic party, supporting its principles by voice and vote. He is a member of both the county and the state bar associations, and belongs to two fraternal organiza- tions, the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, and the Knights of Pythias.

Mr. Tillman married, in November, 1911, Miss Jennie Walker, a daughter of C. W. W. Walker, a well-known attorney of Fayetteville, Arkansas.

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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