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 25

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 25

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in 1882, the father establishing a home ou a farm near David City, Nebraska, where the sons were reared to adult age and were afforded the advantages of the public schools. The parents, Frank aud Katherine (Vice) Kroutil, are still living and maintain their residence in Oklahoma, as do also their four sons and oue daughter, the latter being the wife of Anton F. Dobey, vice president of the Yukon Mill & Grain Company. He whose uame introduces this article has become one of the substantial capitalists of Oklahoma and in addition to being president of the Yukon Mill & Grain Company he is president of the Yukon National Bank. While he has been unflagging in his application to business and has achieved large success, he has had appreciation of the responsibility imposed by such success and is most loyal, liberal and public-spirited in his civic attitude. Though a strong supporter of the cause of the demo- cratic party he is essentially a business mau and has had naught of ambition for the honors or emoluments of public office. He and his family are communicants of the Catholic Church, and he is a life member of the Oklahoma City Lodge of the Benevolent aud Protective Order of Elks. As a man of large business activities, Mr. Kroutil has formed a wide acquaintanceship in the state of his adoption, is liberal iu the support of measures and enterprises advanced for the general good of the community at large, and his honorable, straightforward course, as combined with a genial and buoyant nature, has gained to him hosts of staunch friends.

The maiden name of the first wife of Mr. Kroutil was Leonora Borek, and she is survived by oue child, Bernice. A few years after the death of his first wife Mr. Kroutil wedded Miss Mary Fisher, and they have one daughter, Margarette, the family home being one of the most attractive in Yukon and a center of most gracious hospitality.

HENRY H. EDWARDS, city attorney of Mangum, aud former member of the state legislature, is a native son of the State of Illinois. He was born in Greene County on September 29, 1878, and is a son of George P. and Jane (Moore) Edwards, both of Illinois birth.

George P. Edwards is a prosperous and well kuown farmer in Greene County, Illinois, and has his home in the Town of Whitehall at the present time. He was born in 1850 and has passed his days in the couuty and state of his birth. Five children were born of his mar- riage to Jane Moore. Henry H. of this review is the eldest. Ward, living in Greene County, has charge of a drainage district ou the Illinois River. Walter lives in Humboldt, Iowa. Grover is a locomotive eugineer aud lives in Centralia, Illinois. Nina married Minor Morrow, a traveling salesman, and they have their home in White- hall, where her parents live.

Henry H. Edwards attended the common schools of Greene County and was graduated from the Whitehall High School with the class of 1897. He taught for three years in the public schools of the county, and then, in 1900, went to Chicago where he was engaged as an instructor in a business college. For five years he cou- tinued in that work, reading law in his spare time, and in 1905 he took a position as a traveling salesman. In 1907 he came to Oklahoma, located in Stigler, and soon after was admitted to the bar. He began the practice of law in Stigler at once and continued in practice there until 1911. He was prominent and popular in the county and in 1910 was elected to the Legislature, serving through 1910 and 1911. He served on several commit- tees during that time, among them the Judiciary, Insur- ance, Federal Relations, Code and Special Investigations committees. During his incumbency he fathered and in-

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HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA

troduced three companion bills on road laws, which were passed and entered upon the statute books. In 1911 he resumed the practice of law, locating in Dallas, Texas, and he was there until 1914, coming to Mangum in July of that year. He has since been engaged in general practice. In February, 1915, Mr. Edwards was elected to the office of city attorney for a four year term, and since his election has taken quarters in the city hall.

Mr. Edwards was married in January, 1914, in Calera, Oklahoma, to Miss Bertha Burrow, a daughter of B. B. Burrow, former postmaster of Calera, where he now lives retired. Mr. and Mrs. Edwards have found inany warm friends in their new home, and they are prominent in social circles of the community.

T. T. BLAKELY is now secretary and mauager of the Chamber of Commerce at Okmulgee. However, he is the type of man who is always larger than any office with which he happens to be connected. Mr. Blakely is a man of unusual parts and talents. Perhaps the dominant quality in his makeup has been enterprise, and he has succeeded not only in doing a large amount of work and business through his individual efforts, but has been

peculiarly effective in getting other men to do what he . Caney, Kansas, having gone there when gas was dis- wants them to do.

He was born at Grafton, Massachusetts, April 18, 1873, son of C. J. and Nellie M. (Bacon) Blakely. His father was born in Northern Vermont and his mother in Canada, so their birthplaces were not far apart, being separated by the international boundary line. They grew up and married in that community, and by trade the father was a shoemaker. Eventually he was made foreman of the finishing department in one of the large shoe factories of Grafton, Massachusetts. He later invented a machine which performed an important part in the making of shoes. Leaving the East he finally located at Janesville, Wisconsin, when his son T. T. was two years of age. He established a shoe factory at Janesville and has spent the rest of his days in that city. The mother passed away in 1906 at the age of sixty-two. She was at one time president of the Grand Lodge of the Rebekahs of the State of Wisconsin and the father was also an active lodge man. In their family were five children, three daughters, after whom in age comes T. T. Blakely, and then a younger brother.

Mr. Blakely was reared in Janesville, and finished the high school course there in 1891. At an early age, though he lived in a comfortable home, he found it necessary to do something practical in addition to acquiring knowl- edge and living the usual routine of boyhood. He paid much of his expenses through high school by carrying laundry. In 1891 he entered the State University at Madison, where he paid his expenses by handling a laundry agency, by collecting bills and running a students' club. In the summer vacations he sold books for three years. In 1895 leaving the university he spent a year as a teacher in Janesville, and then returned to school and completed the literary course in 1896. He also gained some credits in the engineering course.

From 1896 to 1900 Mr. Blakely was principal of the high school at Middleton, Wisconsin, and from 1900 to 1904 was superintendent of schools at Sun Prairie, Wis- consin. During that period he also conducted summer schools for teachers at Janesville and other places in the statc. Mr. Blakely has the distinction of having or- ganized the first teachers' association in Dane County, Wisconsin, a county of which Madison, the state capital, is the county seat with 400 teachers connected with the schools. He was elected the first and second president of the association, and filled that office in 1898-99. While engaged in teaching in Wisconsin he spent his

summer vacations largely as a book agent, selling stu- dents' reference books, the Encyclopedia Britannica and Stoddard's Lectures. Probably few men have had a more successful experience in the book business than Mr. Blakely. Because of his success he received an offer from the E. R. Dumont Publishing Company of Chicago, at $50 per week and expenses, to cover the company's territory in Wisconsin, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio and Pennsylvania. He was then South, the company paying the expenses of the removal of his family, and he covered the states of Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, Alabama and Georgia. During this time his family resided at Shelby, North Carolina, Spartansburg, South Carolina, Columbus and Dawson, Georgia, and Montgomery, Alabama. He was next sent north to Toronto, Canada, and continued his work as a canvasser all along the lake region, and still later located at Coffeyville, Kansas. For two years his family lived at Mound Valley, Kansas, and he continued his work as a canvasser through Louisiana, Arkansas, Texas and Oklahoma. In that district he covered every town above 5,000 population.

From 1907 to 1912 Mr. Blakely had his residence at

covered. He entered the real estate business, and for a time was very successful in that field. When the gas supply gave out he lost all his investments and started all over again. This time he began selling Florida lands, with headquarters at Lakeland, Florida.

In September, 1914, Mr. Blakely was elected secretary of the Chamber of Commerce of Bartlesville, Oklahoma, and after a year accepted a similar position at an advanced salary at Okmulgee, where he is now doing a great deal to vitalize and organize the work of the local chamber of commerce. During his residence at Caney, Kansas, he was elected a member of the city council and also served on the county high school board of Inde- pendence, Kansas, having been chosen as a republican. Fraternally he is a Mason and Odd Fellow. Mr. Blakely has great ability as a public speaker and in his long and varied career has been called upon to exercise this talent on many occasions.

In 1898 he married Hattie Louise Ferrin, who was born at Darlington, Wisconsin, and is a graduate in music. Five children have been born to their union, but their daughter Moyne died at the age of eight months. The four sons are: Thurston, Merle, Kenneth and Mal- colm. Mr. and Mrs. Blakely are members of the Presby- terian Church at Okmulgee.

HON. ALBERT RENER MUSELLER. One of Oklahoma's lawyers, and one of the assistant editors of this work, whosc home is now in Pawhuska, was formerly register of the United States land office at Alva, and his name and influence have been identified in many important ways with the development of this new state where he has lived since 1893.

He was born June 3, 1857, at Clayton, Illinois. His father, Rener R. Museller, was born in the province of Aurich, Germany, and was a subject of the King of Hanover. He emigrated to the United States and became a naturalized citizen before his death which occurred in 1864, when the subject of this sketch was only six years old. He was a gunsmith and blacksmith and he married Malissa Wallace of Winchester, Illinois, who was born in 1837 and still lives at an advanced age in Wichita, Kansas. Malissa Wallace was a daughter of Joseph Wallace, one of the pioneers of Illinois, at whose house in Winchester, Illinois, Stephen A. Douglass lived when he taught his first and only term of village school. The father of Joseph Wallace was Charles Wallace, who

A. R. Mureller

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HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA

married Peggy Short in Longford County, Ireland, and in 1776 emigrated to Baltimore, Maryland. These Wallaces were Scotch-Irish, and descendants of the Wal- laces who left Scotland and settled in Northern Ireland in the seventeenth century.

Albert R. Museller had no inheritance. What he has been able to accomplish in life has been the result of his own effort and ambition. He educated himself and had only the advantages of the common schools of his country, and yet he is a man of liberal education, for which he always says, he is largely indebted to an aunt, Mrs. H. W. Craig, of Vermilion County, Illinois, with whom he lived for several years when a boy.

He taught school in Illinois and Indiana for several years, read law in Lincoln, Illinois, was admitted to the bar of that state and subsequently in Kansas and also Oklahoma.

He resided for several years in Wichita, Kansas, and for four years was judge of the City Court of that city. After coming to Oklahoma, in the year 1893, he was for two years, county judge of Noble County, was county attorney of the same county for two years, and for four years was register of the United States land office at Alva, Oklahoma. He is now engaged in the practice of law in Pawhuska.

In politics he has been identified with the republican party, although in 1912 he supported the progressive ticket nationally. He is a fluent and ready public speaker, and there are not many cities or towns in old Oklahoma in which his voice has not been heard dis- cussing the political issues. He has contributed articles to various magazines, chiefly on games and sports and the aborigines of this country. The Indians have always been of great interest to him. He loves God's out of doors, and there are few plants, birds, insects, trees or flowers with which he is not familiar. His chief recrea- tion is artificial bait casting for bass, in which accom- plishment he is an adept. Mr. Museller's ready pen has also contributed many articles to the various papers of his state on agricultural subjects.

Fraternally, he is affiliated with Wahshahshe Lodge No. 110, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, of Paw- huska, and is a member of the Consistory of Scottish Rite at Guthrie.

On May 6, 1880, at New Holland, Illinois, he and Ida R. Thomas were married. Mrs. Museller is of old New England stock and is a descendant of Gen. Israel Putnam of Revolutionary fame. The Thomases emigrated from Ohio to Illinois in the early years of the nineteenth century. Mr. and Mrs. Museller are the parents of three children. Crete is now the wife of Fred M. Merkle, who is in the Government service at Perea, New Mexico. Leo, the second daughter, is the wife of Hon. John B. Doolin, formerly state fish and game warden of Okla- homa, and their only son, Albert R. Museller, Jr., is occupying a good position with the Southern Pacific Railway at Redwood City, California.

SHAWNEE CARNEGIE LIBRARY. One of the first insti- tutions to mark the growth of Shawnee as a center of culture and liberal education was the Shawnee Carnegie Library. This central city of Oklahoma now has much to be proud of, not only as a commercial metropolis of a large and distinctive territory, but as a city of churches, schools, and the various institutions and organizations that increase the attractiveness and advantages for those who not only seek opportunities to advance in a business way, but the facilities of enlight- enment.

The handsome new library building in which the large collection of books are stored and are distributed to

the public was erected in 1905 in beautiful Woodland Park, on North Broadway. This building cost $15,768. The library now comprises 10,500 volumes and is steadily growing, not only in additions to the book col- lection but in a more important degree in the use of the books themselves.

The first librarian was J. C. Holt, who was succeeded by Mrs. J. C. Parker in 1907. Since 1909 the librarian has been Mrs. T. S. Funk. The present library board is made up of the following persons: Mayor F. P. Stearns, president; Judge W. M. Engart, vice president; George E. McKinnis, Otis Weaver, Mrs. W. H. Dodge, Mrs. Agnes Amos and Mrs. George Larch-Miller. Mrs. Funk was secretary of the library board almost from its organization in 1902. The first president of the board was Mrs. J. R, Schloss. Other members who at different times have been especially identified with the work of this organization were: Mr. and Mrs. C. J. Benson, Mrs. Dr. Shive, Mrs. Glen Lehman, Mrs. Henry Beard, Mrs. James Aydelotte, Hon. R. E. Wood, Victor E. Har- low, Paul Cooper and Mrs. Frank Boggs.

MRS. T. S. FUNK. Librarian of the Carnegie Library at Shawnee, Mrs. Trimmier (Sloan) Funk was born at New Albany, Mississippi. The Sloans came originally from Ireland and England and were early settlers in South Carolina. Another branch of her family were the Henrys, who were of Scotch-Irish descent. Mrs. Funk is a great-granddaughter of Nancy Trimmier, whose father was born in a Revolutionary camp. Nancy Trimmier lived in South Carolina near Spartanburg. The Trimmiers were of French origin, and were extensive planters, cotton mill owners, conducted carriage factories, and were prominent in the South in an official way. Mrs. Funk's father was Capt. T. B. Sloan, who was born at Spartanburg, South Carolina, in 1830, but when a boy his parents settled in New Albany, Mississippi. He is still living at New Albany at the age of eighty-five. He received his early education at Spartanburg and New Albany, and in 1861 went into the Confederate army, and at Gettysburg he was wounded and made a prisoner, and remained in the Federal prison on Johnson's Island in Lake Erie until the close of the war. He then settled at New Albany, was married, and became a planter and merchant. He married Mary Henry, who was born in South Carolina in 1840 and died at New Albany, Mississippi, in 1885. Their children were: Georgia A., widow of W. H. Gantt, and she now resides on a planta- t'on in Arkansas; Mrs. T. S. Funk; Minnie Frances, wife of Major W. Stroud, who is a large shipping contractor and at the head of a transfer business at Greenwood, Mississippi; Willie Theodore, wife of W. H. Bone, a planter at New Albany, Mississippi; Compton, whose whereabouts have been unknown for several years; Elizabeth Irma, wife of Frank W. O'Keeffe, connected with a department store at Meridian, Mississippi.

Mrs. Funk received her early education in the public and private schools of Mississippi. She spent some time training for library work in the Carnegie Library at Oklahoma City. In 1886 in New Albany she married Richard Walker Funk. He was born in Wallerville, Mississippi, received a public school education in his native town and at New Albany and in the University at Oxford, Mississippi, and in business became a general merchant and furniture dealer in Mississippi. In 1902 he moved to Shawnee, where he established the Shawnee Furniture Company in partnership with J. B. Armstead. This house was burned out in 1904, and since then Mr. Funk ho been connected with the Flemming-Brown Fur- niture Company at Shawnee. He is a democrat and is a member of the Knights of Pythias. Mr. and Mrs. Funk

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HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA

have two children: Waller Adair, who received a high school education at Shawnee and pursued further train- ing in a school of technology in Chicago and is now superintendent for an electric company in New York City. Louise Trimmier is now a sophomore in the high school at Shawnee.

F. P. STEARNS. For a good many years Shawnee has reposed the administration of its municipal affairs in the hands of Frank P. Stearns. He is one of Oklahoma's very capable mayors. He is one of the old settlers and has lived in Shawnee and has been a witness and par- ticipant in its growth and development for more than twenty years.

He was born in Paris, Maine, October 5, 1861. His ancestors came over from England in Governor Win- throp's ship in 1636 and three brothers of the name settled in Waltham, Massachusetts. S. P. Stearns, father of Mayor Stearns, was born at Paris, Maine, in 1829, and has spent all his life in that community as a farmer and banker. Though past eighty-five years of age he is still attending to his duties as a banker. In politics he is a republican and is a member of the Universalist Church. He married Isabelle Partridge, who was born in Paris, Maine, in 1832, and is also still living in advanced years. Their children were: Austin P., a farmer at Paris, Maine; Frank P .; Henry K., a miller at Hebron, Maine; William C., on the old homestead at Paris; Mary, wife of E. C. Park, a lawyer at Bethel, Maine; and Joan, wife of E. S. Kilborn, a retired lumberman, who spends part of the year in Bethel and during the winter resides in Portland, Maine.

Mayor Stearns attended the public schools of his native village, in 1881 graduated from Hebron Academy, and for one year was a student in Colby College. In the meantime he had begun teaching and for a time was principal of the high school at Pine Hill. In 1885, coming West, he located at Abilene, Kansas, and spent two years in the grain and stock business at Chapman. Removing from there to Dighton, Kansas, he became a . rancher, handled real estate, and for two terms filled the office of county superintendent of schools.

At the opening of the Cherokee Strip he entered Oklahoma, secured a homestead of 160 acres one mile north of Enid, but after a year sold out and since November 7, 1894, has lived in Shawnee. Since then Mr. Stearns has been identified with many of the busi- ness activities of this city. For two years he conducted a general store. He established the first gas plant, but after a year sold out to present Gas Company. To a greater or less extent he has been in the real estate business. He was elected and served three years as city treasurer, and for 41/2 years held the office of post- master, having been appointed at the close of Mckinley's administration and remaining in office until 1905. He was secretary of the chamber of commerce a year and its president one year. In the spring of 1906 he was elected mayor, and held that office . for two terms, or four years. After being out of office a year he was again selected, this time for a three year term, and is now serving a second three-year term. In politics he is a republican, and is affiliated with Shawnee Lodge No. 657, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, with the Maccabees, the Fraternal Order of Eagles, the Modern Woodmen of America, and the Brotherhood of American Yeomen. Mr. Stearns is a director in the Shawnee Building and Loan Company, has served on the board of education, is president of the Provident Asso- ciation, having been chosen for a second term in that office on November 11, 1915, and is by virtue of his office president of the Carnegie Library Board. Mayor

Stearns was largely instrumental in securing the estab- lishment of the splendid hospital at Shawnee and it is recognized as the finest municipal hospital in the state and the only one that is on a paying basis. He is now governor of the hospital board.

In 1893, at Dighton, Kansas, Mayor Stearns married Miss Winifred Arnold, daughter of S. E. Arnold, now of Kansas City. They have two children: Helen, who graduated from Bethany College in June, 1915, and is now taking a special course in music in Kansas City; and Arnold, in the first year of the Shawnee High School.

JUDGE WILLIAM MARSHALL ENGART. A prominent Shawnee attorney and vice president of the Shawnee library board, Judge Engart was born in Boone County, Indiana, October 14, 1849. The Engart family is of Dutch-Irish descent and arrived in Virginia about the time of the Revolutionary war. His father, Absalom Engart, was born in Virginia in 1818 and died in Clinton County, Indiana, in 1886, He came to Boone County, Indiana, about 1845, having been reared and married in his native state. He was a farmer and stock raiser and about 1876 he moved to Clinton County, where he died. Absalom Engart -married Elizabeth Brawley, who was born in Virginia in 1820 and died in Clinton County, Indiana, in 1876. Their children were: Diana Johnson, a widow, who lives in Clinton County, Indiana; Marietta, who married J. C. Ghent, a druggist, both being now deceased; Martha, who married John Pauley, a stockman, and they also are deceased; Caroline, who mar- ried John Jelf, a carpenter, and both died at Chat- tanooga, Tennessee; Rush, a farmer, who died at Frank- fort, Indiana, and William M.

Judge Engart attended the common schools in Boone County, Indiana, and for a time was a student at Thorn- ton Academy, under John C. Ridpath, the great popular historian. He graduated Bachelor of Science in 1869 from Stockwell University. His early life was spent on his father's farm, and for three terms he was a teacher in the district schools of Boone County. In the mean- time he took up the study of law, and also attended the law department of the Indiana University at Blooming- ton. He was admitted to the Indiana bar in 1873, and has had more than forty years of active experience as a lawyer. His first practice was done at Colfax, Indiana, from 1873 to 1881. Then for a few years, until 1888, he was engaged in farming in Jasper County, Missouri, and from there went to Dallas, Texas, and was in the planing mill business there until 1892, in which year he returned to Indiana.

Judge Engart is an Oklahoma pioneer, having come to the territory in 1893, and after securing admission to the bar practiced at Guthrie for ten years. On January 1, 1904, he removed to Shawnee and has since enjoyed a general civil and criminal practice, his offices being over the State National Bank. He has frequently served as special judge of the district court and in the superior court of Pottawatomie County. He has served as president of the Pottawatomie County Bar Association, and in politics he is affiliated with the socialist party. In Clinton County, Indiana, in 1875, Judge Engart married Mrs. Matie J. (Dean) Long. Her father was a farmer in Carroll County, Indiana. The seven children of their marriage are: Linus M., who is connected with the Royal Typewriter Company and resides at Corpus Christi, Texas; Zoe, wife of A. E. Church, who is in the fire department at Los Angeles, California; Ethel, wife of R. C. Raglan, also with the fire department at Los Angeles; Grace, wife of Joe Hawkins, proprietor of a restaurant in Shawnee; Blanche, wife of N. L. Hardin, connected with the Pacific Railway at Los Angeles; C. R.,

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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