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 27

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 27

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On May 12, 1911, at Elmer, Doctor McConnell was united in marriage with Miss Kate MeCabe, daughter of the late Barney MeCabe, retired, of Litchfield, Ken- tucky, who died in 1914. Doctor and Mrs. McConnell are the parents of one son: Henry Lee, born at Elmer, January 7, 1914.

DUDLEY B. PHILLIPS. The genial, popular and efficient cashier of the First National Bank of Yukon is recognized as one of the representative executives in connection with financial affairs in Canadian County and is well entitled to consideration in this history of Oklahoma, within whose borders he has maintained his home since 1889, the year that marked the opening of the territory to settlement. Mr. Phillips has been identified with the First National Bank of Yukon for nearly a score of years, and has had much influence in its development into one of the substantial and important financial insti- tutions of Canadian County, the while his character and services have given him inviolable place in popular con- fidence and good will.

Though a representative of one of the honored pioneer families of Oklohoma, Mr. Phillips claims the fine old Bluegrass state as the place of his uativity, and there also were born his parents, John B. and Martha A. F. (Lain) Phillips, who emigrated thence to Oklahoma in 1889 and settled on a farm six miles southeast of the present thriving little City of Yukon. There the father continued to reside until his death, in 1897, at the age of seventy years, his wife surviving him by a number of years, and the names of both meritiug endur- ing place on the roll of the sterling pioneers who initiated and carried forward the civic and industrial development of a now vigorous and opulent young commonwealth.

Dudley B. Phillips was born in Hancock County, Ken- tucky, on the 8th of March, 1867, and in the schools of his native state he received meager advantages. He preceded his parents to the West, as he came to Kausas in 1884, when seventeen years of age, and he remained in the Sunflower state until the opening of Oklahoma to settlement, in 1889, when he came to the new terri- tory and established his residence in Canadian County, where his parents located in the same year. Thereafter he was for a few terms a representative of the peda- gogie profession in this county, as a teacher in rural districts, and in the furtherance of his own education he attended for a time the University of Oklahoma.

In 1898 Mr. Phillips assumed the position of book- keeper in the Bank of Yukon, and soon afterward he was advanced to the position of assistant cashier, of which he continued in tenure until he was made cashier of the insti- tution in 1900. The Bank of Yukon was converted into the First National Bank in 1902. Prior to enteriug the banking business he had been identified with agricultural pursuits in Oklahoma, but in his present vocatiou lie has found opportunity and scope for most effective service and has become known as au able financier of marked discrimination aud progressiveness.

Vitally interested in all that touches the general wel- fare of his home community, county and state, Mr. Phillips is loyal and public-spirited, and though never troubled with aught of ambition for the honors or ewolu- ments of political office he accords uuwavering allegiance to the democratic party. He is a Master Mason, and is a member of the Baptist Church of Yukon, of the Sun- day school of which he has served as superintendent for more than seventeen years-covering virtually the entire period of his residence in Yukon.

In 1899 was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Phillips to Miss Clara Artt, who was born in Iowa and whose father, Jefferson Artt, was a sterling pioneer of Canadian County, Oklahoma. Mr. and Mrs. Phillips have six children : Lucille, Daniel Artt, Dudley Bernard, Dorace, George Dayton and Jean Lewis.

J. S. BARHAM. During the dozen years he has been a resident of Oklahoma, J. S. Barham has become one of the leading men of Seminole County, has been engaged in merchandising, in the management of stock and ranch interests, has served as a member of the Legis- lature, and is now postmaster of Wewoka.

A native of Tennessee, he was born at Satillo June 8, 1867, a son of William I. and Tennessee C. (Hawk) Barham. Both parents were born in the same locality of Tennessee and the father died there in 1871 at the age of thirty-five. He was a tanner by trade and also a general merchant, and three of his brothers were in active service in the Confederate Army under the noted cavalry leader, Forrest. These brothers were Samuel J., Newsom and A. P. Mr. Barham's mother is still living, having spent most of her life at the old home in Tennessee, but is now residing at Grayson, Louisiana.

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HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA

Her five children were: Mollie N., now deceased; Newsom R., who for the past twelve years has served as district judge at Lexington, Tennessee; Samuel J., deceased; J. S .; and Rena, wife of A. B. Mitchell, of Grayson, Louisiana.

J. S. Barham grew up in Tennessee and lived in that state until about 1903. He had limited opportunities to gain an education, but made the best of them, and at the age of sixteen began a business career as a mer- cantile clerk. From 1898 to 1904 he was purchasing agent for the Ayer & Lord Company of Chicago, buying up timber for the manufacture of ties and other kindred material. He was also for four years postmaster at Parsons, Tennessee.

Since November, 1904, Mr. Barham has been a resi- dent of Oklahoma. For a time he was a merchant at Coalgate, but in April, 1905, moved to Konawa, in Seminole County, was in the land and loan business there until moving to Wewoka in 1908. From 1908 to December 31, 1910, he served as under sheriff of Semi- nole County and then resumed the real estate and loan business during 1911-12. Again he filled the office of under sheriff until July 27, 1913, and then accepted appoint- ment as postmaster of Wewoka, an office in which he has rendered valuable service to the community. While Mr. Barham has also had some experience in handling the affairs of a postoffice back in Tennessee, it is note- worthy that his mother was for some time in charge of the postoffice at Satillo, Tennessee, and Mr. Barham's sister, Mollie, was also postmaster of the same town. Among other business interests Mr. Barham is closely identified with agriculture in Seminole County, and has about 600 acres under cultivation.

He has always been a democrat, and was chairman of the first democratic campaign committee in Seminole County. From 1911 to 1913 he represented Seminole and Pontotoc counties in the State Legislature, and thus in addition to handling his private affairs successfully he has rendered public service to his county and home community and also to the state at large. Mr. Barham is a Mason, having attained thirty-two degrees in the Scottish Rite, is a Knight of Pythias and a member of the Woodmen of the World. In 1898 he married Miss Eula Corine Payne at Iuka, Mississippi. To their mar- riage have been born six children: Hugh Payne, Anna Irene (who died in infancy), Willie Tina, Lewis, New- som, and J. S., Jr.

CHARLES WILLIAMS. One of the enterprising and progressive business men of the younger generation at Hooker, Texas County, Hon. Charles Williams, is there conducting a substantial enterprise through his well established general insurance agency, and he has other- wise been prominently identified with local interests, is broad-gauged and public-spirited, and that he enjoys unalloyed popularity is fully vouched for in his election as representative of Texas and Cimarron counties in the Fifth General Assembly of the Oklahoma Legislature. Mr. Williams has reason to take pride in the fact that he was born and reared within the present State of Oklahoma, his parents having been numbered among the pioneer settlers in Indian Territory, and though the conditions of time and place placed certain limitations on the advantages afforded to Charles Williams in his boyhood and youth, he imbibed deeply of the progressive spirit of the West, early learned the value of self-reliant purpose, developed definite ambition, and thus was able to make good all handicaps and to press forward to the goal of worthy achievement. He is a young man of strong mentality and well fortified opinions, and as a

member of the Legislature of his native state he has acquitted himself with credit and no little distinction.

Mr. Williams was born in that part of Indian Ter- ritory that is now Bryan County, Oklahoma, and the year of his nativity was 1884. He is a son of Cicero B. H. and Nancy (Swagger) Williams, the former of whom was born in Mississippi and the latter in Virginia, both families having been founded in the South several genera- tions ago. Cicero B. H. Williams was a youth when he accompanied his parents to Texas, in 1869, his father haviug thus become a pioneer of the Lone Star State, where he established his residence within a few years after the close of his service as a loyal soldier of the Confederacy in the Civil war. Cicero B. H. Williams continued his residence in Texas until the early '80s, when he became a pioneer settler in Indian Territory, where he engaged in farming and stock growing. He has been successful in his association with these lines of industrial enterprise in Oklahoma and he and his wife reside on their well improved homestead farm near Hooker, Texas County, being well known in this section of the state and being honored as sterling pioneer citizens who have done their part in accelerating the civic and industrial development of Oklahoma.

The rudimentary educational advantages afforded to Hon. Charles Williams and the other children of the family were necessarily somewhat primitive, as the pioneer facilities in what is now Oklahoma were meager. In what is now Garvin County he pursued his studies in a little log schoolhouse, the equipment of which was on a parity with those in the older states of the Union three generations ago, and the school was maintained on the subscription plan. Mr. Williams made good account of himself in his initial application to scholastic lore, and later he was able to extend his education by broader advantages and by personal application in an independent way, so that he has become a young man of excellent in- formation and mature judgment. Concerning the other surviving children of the family it may be stated that Mrs. Benjamin D. Mills resides on a farm near Hooker, her husband being a progressive agriculturist and a suc- cessful teacher; Henry is now a resident of Richards, Colorado; William likewise maintains his home at that place; and the younger of the two sisters is the wife of Michael C. Young, a successful farmer near Hooker, Texas County, this state.

In the early youth of Mr. Williams the family home was maintained for fifteen years at Elmore, not far distant from Pauls Valley, the present judicial center of Garvin County, and after leaving the public schools Mr. Williams completed an effective course in the Indian- ola Business College at Ardmore, Carter County. In 1904 he accompanied his parents on their removal to Texas County, where he has since maintained his resi- dence and where his circle of friends is limited only by that of his acquaintances.

In 1905-6, the only period of absence from his native state, Mr. Williams was employed as freight and ticket agent for the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad, at Hartland, Kansas, and in 1907 he settled on a farm near Hooker, Texas County, Oklahoma. He still owns this homestead, has made good improvements on the same and has continued to be identified with farming in a limited way. In 1913 Mr. Williams was appointed deputy court clerk at Hooker, and of this position he continued the incumbent until his election to the lower house of the Oklahoma Legislature, in the following year. In the campaign for representative of Texas and Cimarron counties in the Legislature Mr. Williams made an effective canvass and his popularity was shown in his receiving at the polls a plurality 250 greater than his

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HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA

representative district accorded to the state ticket iu general.

In the Fifth Legislature Mr. Williams was assigned to the following named House committees: Labor and arbitration, insurance, county and township government, state and school lands, public roads and highways, and that on levees, drains, ditches and irrigation. He was specially interested in legislation for good roads, a measure which he had made an issue in his campaign, and he was a supporter of the movement looking to the abolishing of the office of county judge. He introduced a few bills but in the main his ideas and policies were embodied in bills that were introduced by other members of the house, and he earnestly devoted himself to the furtherance of legislative measures in harmony with his convictions and his campaign pledges.

The political allegiance of Mr. Williams is given to the democratic party ; he is affiliated with Hooker Lodge No. 366, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, in his home village, and in the Scottish Rite of Masonry is identified with the consistory in the Valley of Guthrie. He is master of ceremonies of the Oklahoma State organization of the Brotherhood of American Yeomen, besides being secretary of his Masonic lodge. He is secretary of the Hooker Commercial Club and has been active in the promotion of its progressive policies, notably the obtain- ing of better freight rates and passenger service for Hooker in connection with railway transportation. Both he and his wife hold membership in the Christian Church.

On the 14th of January, 1914, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Williams to Miss Catharine Hiebert of Hooker.

MAURICE E. BIVENS. The present mayor of Vici, Okla- homa, is a man who has been engaged in the mercantile business in this region for the past fifteen years. It was not until the year 1911, however, that he established a place of business in this town. and when the enter- prise at Vici was well under way Mr. Bivens withdrew from his mercantile activities in the towns of Seiling and Cestos, since which time he has confined his interests to the upbuilding of the business here. Mr. Bivens has been successful in the field of merchandising to which he has devoted himself, and his present place of busi- ness is a center for trading in hardware, implements and furniture. As one of Vici's leading business men he is well entitled to the prominence he has won, and as mayor of the town he is rightfully regarded as the first man in the community.

Maurice E. Bivens was born in Madison County, Illi- nois, on November 11, 1874, and he is the son of Charles N. and Martha (McGilvery) Bivens. The father was of Scotch-Irish parentage and the mother Scotch, Welsh and English. Charles N. Bivens was born in Madison County, Illinois, in 1843, and he died in Denver, Colo- rado, in 1888. He spent his life in Madison County up to the year 1880, when he went to Denver, unaccompanied by his wife, but in 1884 the family joined him and located in Burden, Cowley County, Kansas, where Mrs. Bivens yet lives. Mr. Bivens went to Denver in search of health, and died there in 1888. While resident in Madison County and Denver he served as a policeman, and while in Denver he also conducted a cigar factory for some time. He was a veteran of the Civil war, and served in Company K, Eightieth Illinois Volunteer Infantry for three years. He saw much of the less attractive side of war, and was in action in many important engagements of the long conflict. Mr. Bivens was a church member all his life, and was identified with a number of the more prominent fraternal organizations.

In Illinois he was married to Martha McGilvery, who

was born in that state in 1850. She was the daughter of Martin McGilvery, who immigrated from Scotland in young manhood aud settled in Madison County, where he spent the remainder of his life as a farmer and stockman. He was a man of many sterling qualities, and he was a leader in his community as long as he lived. Coming into Illinois in its pioneer days he did his full share in shaping the destinies of Madison County, and his influence on that section of the state is felt today in the progressive spirit that has ever marked its life.

To Charles N. and Martha (McGilvery) Bivens were born five children, two of whom, daughters, died in infancy. Laura May, the eldest, married John Burchell, a farmer, and she now lives in Oklahoma City, Okla- homa. The second child was Maurice E., of this review. Arthur, the youngest, lives on his homestead farm in the vicinity of Cestos, Oklahoma, and is a prosperous farmer.

After the death of Mr. Bivens in 1888 his widow mar- ried Edmoud E. Rhodes, a Kentuckian, and two children have been born to them, H. Ray Rhodes, who is asso- ciated in business with his half brother, Maurice E. Bivens, the subject, and Mabel, who died in infancy.

Mr. Bivens as a boy had such educational advantages as usually fall to the lot of a country boy, and it might be said that he had no actual schooling after he .was sixteen years old. However, he has in a larger sense gone to school all his life, for it is in the great school of experience that he has had his best training. After he left his books he applied himself to farming in Cowley County, Kansas, where the family then resided, and he was there until the latter part of 1897, when he came to Dewey County, Oklahoma, and filed on a homestead claim of 160 acres near the Town of Cestos. He lived on that place until 1900, when he proved title thercto. Mr. Bivens still owns the land, which is steadily increas- ing in value, and which lies three miles east and a half mile south of Cestos.

In 1901 Mr. Bivens engaged in the mercantile busi- ness in the Town of Cestos with a Mr. Ingle as his business partner. They prospered, as the result of good management and a natural tact for the economical administration of a small business house, both men being fortunate in their possession of that invaluable quality, and as time went on they established branch houses in Seiling and Vici. They broadened their lines from time to time, until they carried very complete stocks in hard- ware, farm implements and furniture. The Vici branch was established in 1911, and the growth of the business at this point broadened so rapidly that Mr. Biveus decided to discontinue the stores at Cestos and Seiling, so that the Vici establishment is the only one now con- trolled by Mr. Bivens. The firm is called M. E. Bivens & Company, and besides himself it includes his mother and his half-brother, H. R. Rhodes.

This enterprise is undeniably one of the most suc- cessful in the county, and it draws its patronage from the counties of Dewey, Ellis and Woodward. Splendid business principles have been the rock on which the house has made its stand, and its growth has been sure and steady. The house has the confidence of the public and its patronage follows as a natural sequence.

In 1912 Mr. Bivens became mayor of Vici and he is still serving in that office. He has proved himself a capable and wide-minded citizen, equipped in every way to guide the actions of the city council, and in his administration of local affairs he has made an excellent record for himself. The same sturdy qualities that have spelled success for him in his business career have entered largely into his work as mayor of. Vici, and the

my Bivens

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HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA

results have been creditable to him and invaluable to the city.

Mr. Bivens is a socialist in the matter of his politics, and he is a member of the Christian Church. He has long served the local church as deacon and elder, and while at Cestos he was superintendent of the Sunday school for four successive terms. He is a Mason, with Ancient Free and Accepted Masonic affiliations, and a member of Cestos Lodge No. 80, Independent Order of Odd Fellows. Other business connections are with the Home Investment Company and the Aetna Insurance Company, in both of which he is a stockholder.

In June, 1904, Mr. Bivens was married to Miss Esther Gates, daughter of G. W. Gates, now living retired in Orange, California. They were married in Seiling, then the home of the Gates family. Three children have been born to them. Martha Euleta was born November 26, 1905; Arthur Lewis on September 5, 1907, and Randall Ray on August 5, 1909. All three attend the Vici High School, and they are popular and prominent young people in their circles. The family is prominent socially in Vici, and have many friends.

ELIJAH B. SHOTWELL. A man of marked technical and practical ability, Mr. Shotwell is now giving most effect- ive service as county farm demonstrator of Okmulgee County, and maintains his home at Okmulgee, the judicial center and metropolis of the county. He may consist- ently be termed a pioneer of Oklahoma, where he estab- lished his home in the former Sac and Fox Indian coun- try soon after it was thrown open to white settlement, and he has thus been actively identified with the civic and industrial activities of this favored commonwealth since 1892. He has been more than ordinarily influential in connection with the furthering of educational work in Oklahoma, as he has served as county superintendent of schools in both Lincoln and Okmulgee counties, in which fields he achieved splendid results.

Mr. Shotwell was born near St. Thomas, Province of Ontario, Canada, on the 28th of January, 1857, but was a lad of fifteen years at the time of his parents' removal to the State of Kansas, where he was reared to maturity and maintained his home until his removal to Oklahoma Territory. He is a son of William and Martha E. (Taylor) Shotwell, both of whom were born and reared in the Province of Ontario, the former's father, Smith Shotwell, having been a native of the State of New Jersey, whence he removed to, Ontario, Canada, where he passed the residue of his life as a substantial farmer. In 1872 William Shotwell removed with his family to Kansas and became one of the pioneers of McPherson County, where he entered claim to land and reclaimed and improved a productive farm, this homestead having continued to be his place of residence until his death and his widow having passed the closing period of her life in the home of her son W. C. Shotwell, near Cushing, Payne County, Oklahoma. Of the children six attained to years of maturity, namely: Samuel, who is now a resident of Hawards, California; Smith, who resides at Crescent, Oregon; Emily, who is the wife of Elijah Prior, of Riverside, California; Elijah B., who is the immediate subject of this sketch; Whitson, who is a progressive farmer near Cushing, Oklahoma; and Letitia A., who is the wife of Jenas G. Scott, of Salem, Texas.

He whose name introduces this article acquired his earlier education in the schools of his native county in Ontario and, as before stated, was about fifteen years old at the time of the family removal to Kansas, where he was reared to maturity on the pioneer farm in McPherson County and in the meanwhile supplemented his education by attending the public schools of the

locality. He continued to be associated with the work of his father's farm and teaching school winters until he had attained to his legal majority, and thereafter he conducted individual operations as a farmer and teacher in the Sunflower State until 1892, when he came to Okla- homa Territory and became one of the pioneer settlers in what is now Lincoln County. He secured a tract of land from the Government and developed the same into one of the productive and valuable farms of Lincoln County. There he continued to reside until 1901, when he was elected county superintendent of schools and removed to Chandler, the county seat, where he continued as the energetic and efficient incumbent of this position for a period of four years. Soon after his retirement from office he removed to Okmulgee, in July, 1905, and here he engaged in the abstract business, to which he continued to give his attention until September, 1907, when he was elected the first county superintendent of schools of Okmulgee County under the new regime of state government. With characteristic vigor and circum- spection he defined and organized the work of the schools of the county, and in his two terms of service in this important office he brought the schools up to a specially high standard of efficiency, as gauged by the conditions and influences that obtained at that period in the history of the county. Since July, 1913, he has given equally commendable and valuable service in his present office, that of county farm demonstrator, a position to which he was appointed by the director of the extension work conducted in connection with the Oklahoma Agricultural and Mechanical College and the United States Department of Agriculture. He has proved himself unmistakably the right man in the right place, has carefully timed his visitations in all sections of the county, and both by instruction along scientific lines and by exemplification of practical order has done much to raise the standards of agricultural and live stock industry in Okmulgee County, where, as a matter of course, he has gained a very wide acquaintanceship and a host of valued and appreciative friends.

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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