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 29

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 29

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Doctor Gallaher acquired a liberal education. He was reared on a farm, attended public schools in his native Roane County, graduated from Roane College in 1897, and from there entered Chattanooga Medical College, where he graduated M. D. with the class of 1900. In the fifteen years of his active practice Doctor Gallaher has extended his studies both privately and by attend- ance at some of the leading institutions of the country. In 1907 and in 1908 he took post-graduate work in the Polyclinic of Tulane University at New Orleans, special- izing in eye, ear, nose and throat. He spent portions of the year 1909 and 1915 in the Chicago Eye, Ear, Nose and Throat Infirmary.

He did his first practice near Texarkana, Arkansas, and was engaged in general practice there until 1909. In March, 1909, he came to Shawnee, and in this larger field has confined himself entirely to his specialty in the treatment of eye, ear, nose and throat. His offices are in the Mammoth Building. He is a member of the State and County Medical societies and is a Fellow in the American Medical Association.

Fraternally he is affiliated with Shawnee Lodge No. 107, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons; Shawnee Chap- ter No. 32, Royal Arch Masons; Shawnee Commandery No. 36, Knights Templar; Indian Temple of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine at Oklahoma City; and the Shawnee organization of the Woodmen of the World. He is a member of the Presbyterian Church, U. S., and is a member of the Shawnee Chamber of Commerce.

In July, 1902, in Roane County, Tennessee, Doctor Gallaher married Miss Fannie B. Smith. Her father, M. L. Smith, is farmer in Knox County, Tennessee. To their marriage have been born three children: Clinton, now in the public schools at Shawnee; Paul Clark and Mary Lee.

SHAWNEE PUBLIC SCHOOLS. In laying the foundation and building the great State of Oklahoma the citizen- ship have kept in mind the fact that future growth would be impossible without establishing good schools. No man, with or without a family, would want to buy property and live in any community stripped of schools and churches. In view of these facts the people of Oklahoma have spared no means in securing the best educational opportunities. This condition is, especially true with the City of Shawnee. It is, indeed, fitting that the fourth city of Oklahoma (not in general resources, but in school population), a city located in one of the richest regions of the state, should have the best possible school system which can be devised by human minds and hearts.

Shawnee has not only been generous in the construc- tion of buildings but the good people of the city have voted three extra levies for maintenance within the last six years. In equipment the Shawnee public school buildings are second to none in the state. Of the nine buildings, all except one are built of brick and are equipped' with all modern conveniences, such as lava- tories, electric lights, etc.

As a matter of information and proof of the steady growth of Shawnce public schools, a few statistics are here given. The total enrollment for the past four years is as follows :

1912-1913 2,805

1913-1914 2,947

1914-1915 2,961

1915-1916 3,400

The total number of teachers employed, including three substitutes, is 84, of which 15 are men and 69 are women. The total number of employees for the schools, including the secretary to the superintendent and clerk of the board of education, is 97. The average salary of the grade teacher is $57.95 per month; the minimum salary is $40.00; the maximum salary, $65.00. The maximum salary for the primary grades is $76.50. The estimate for maintenance of the schools in 1914-15 was $70,385. The total valuation of Shawnee School District is $7,772,226.56.

Recesses twice daily were inaugurated in all the schools in 1914-15. The cultivation of school gardens has recently been instituted. The study of agriculture has been added to the course in the elementary grades within the last year. Four of the war schools have recently installed $80.00 Victrolas, the moneys being raised through the efforts of the teachers and children. A $1,000 Everett Concert Grand piano has been placed in the high school recently. This will cost the district nothing. One of the ward schools has been equipped with modern playground equipment.

The value of the high school building and equipment is $123,000. Twenty-one teachers are employed. The high school has experienced a wonderful gain, as indi- cated in the enrollment below:

1910-1911 276

1911-1912 332

1912-1913 374

1913-1914

425

1914-1915

480

1915-1916

547

The increase in the graduating classes for the past four years is as follows:

1911-1912

1912-1913

1913-1914

1914-1915 79

1915-1916 93

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HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA

At the beginning of the 1915-1916 school year the entire system was reorganized. The length of the daily recitation was increased from forty-five minutes to seventy minutes, each period being planned for thirty-five minutes recitation on the previous day's lesson and thirty-five minutes carefully supervised study on the advanced lesson. One of the primary objects of this plan is to teach the pupil how to study, and so prevent a very common waste of time in more or less aimless groping for a method of study.

Below is given a list of the special department in the high school showing cost:

Commercial $1,500.00

Domestic Science

1,900.00

Manual Training

2,500.00

Agriculture

600.00

Chemical Department

2,000.00

Physics Department

2,000.00

Biology Department

400.00

Gymnasium

1,500.00

Each of the above departments is being strengthened every year.

There are organized in the high school: One first class orchestra; four literary societies-two girls and two boys; one German Club; one Girls' Glee Club; a school paper is published-the Caldron.

With the already high state of improvement and efficiency and with the support of the progressive citi- zenship of Shawnee, the school authorities anticipate wonderful advancement in Shawnee public schools for the coming years.

RANDOLPH BROOKS FORREST. One of the senior lawyers of Western Oklahoma is Randolph Brooks Forrest of El Reno, who became identified with the Oklahoma bar about four years after the opening of the original Oklahoma Territory, and his prestige and influ- ence as a lawyer and citizen have been increasing in proportion to the length of his years of residence. Mr. Forrest is now serving as county judge of Canadian County, where he has had his home since coming to Oklahoma in 1893.

Randolph Brooks Forrest is an Ohio man by birth, having been born in that interesting section of Southern Ohio along the Ohio River at Portsmouth October 20, 1850. His parents, Joseph H. and Vancaline (Vance) Forrest were natives of Ohio, but their respective parents were Virginians who were among the pioneers in South- ern Ohio, having located there in 1809. His paternal great-grandfather, Zachariah Forrest, was an officer in the Revolutionary army, from Maryland; his grand- father, Archibald Forrest, was a soldier in the War of 1812, from Ohio; his uncle, Elza Forrest, was killed in the battle of Beuna Vista in Mexico, and his own father served in the war of the states for the Union. In 1851, when Judge Forrest was about a year old, his parents removed to Illinois, finally locating on a farm in Logan County. His father was a farmer by pursuit and reared his family on a farm.

Judge Forrest had his education from Illinois country schools, followed by a course in the high school at Atlanta, Illinois, and two years in the Illinois Normal University at Normal. His early ambition was directed to the law, and he took up the study of Blackstone while teaching school, a vocation which held him for three years. At the age of twenty-three Judge Forrest was editor of the Logan County Journal, which he published at Lincoln for one year. He then sold the paper, and in June, 1876, successfully passed the examination before the Illinois Supreme Court and was admitted to the

Illinois Bar. Judge Forrest has had a long and interest- ing experience as a lawyer, both in the Middle West and in the Northwest and Southwest. He practiced at Lin- coln, Illinois, for several years, and in 1880 was elected state's attorney of Logan County, an office he held four years, and which gave him a splendid training as an advocate. During the winter of 1884-85, Mr. Forrest removed from Illinois to Minneapolis, Minnesota, and was successfully identified with the bar of the flour metropolis of the Northwest until 1893. In the latter year he came to Oklahoma and located at El Reno. Of his work as a lawyer it is hardly necessary to speak except to state that he is regarded as a lawyer of thorough ability, broad knowledge of jurisprudence, and with a most successful record in the handling of litiga- tion. His public and political career is a matter of interest and reflects some of the interesting political history of Oklahoma. In the early days he practiced as an attorney over nearly all of Western Oklahoma Territory, gained a wide acquaintance, and in 1898 the democrats of Western Oklahoma favored his candidacy as territorial delegate to Congress. However, the heavier vote of the eastern part of Oklahoma gave the nomina- tion to another candidate. The Western Oklahoma demo- crats again preferred him as their candidate for Congress in 1900, but he declined to run because of the fusion of democrats and populists in the convention. Two years later he was again an unsuccessful candidate for the nomination. Judge Forrest is an Oklahoman who deserves credit for his participation in the statehood movement in all its phases for more than ten years before statehood became an actuality. In 1895 he was chosen a delegate to the statehood convention of that year. From the first he espoused the cause of "single statehood," that is one state for the two territories of Oklahoma and Indian Territory. He sat as a delegate in the statehood convention of 1901, and for a third time was a delegate in 1902. In both these conventions he was chairman of the committee on resolutions. In 1904, because of his convictions in favor of single state- hood, Mr. Forrest supported for re-election to Congress Mr. McGuire, a republican and the author of the then pending single statehood bill in Congress. In the same campaign Judge Forrest supported the local democratic ticket, and always before and always since has been a loyal and vigorous advocate of the man and measures of the democratic political party. Since his residence in Oklahoma he has been a delegate to every democratic county and territorial or state convention. It will be recalled that there was much division of public senti- ment with respect to the question whether Oklahoma and Indian Territory should go into the Union as one or two states, and Judge Forrest's attitude on statehood led to his defeat as a candidate from this county to the constitutional convention which in 1907 perfected the first organic law for the new state. In the primary election of 1912 Mr. Forrest was an unsuccessful candi- date for nomination to Congress from his district. One of the chief planks in his platform during that campaign was the advocacy of the conservation of surface water.

In 1913-14 Mr. Forrest served as assistant county attorney of Canadian County, and in 1914 was elected county judge, and is now giving his time and attention to a capable administration of Canadian County 's affairs. His election to the office of county judge is somewhat of a vindication of his course in political affairs. Fraternally Judge Forrest is affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. He was married in Illinois in 1872 to Miss Mary Randolph. They are the parents of two daughters and one son.

1859

HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA

Judge Forrest is a man of broad intellectual interests, and is the author of a small book of verse on current topics, which has been well received.

W. T. BERENTZ. Bartlesville has one of its most force- ful business men in the person of W. T. Berentz, who is president of the Berentz Hardware Company and is also proprietor of a furniture and undertaking establishment. A number of years Mr. Berentz saw a crop of wheat cut from the site of the city where he now makes his home and where his business activities have been concentrated for nearly fifteen years. He has helped in an important way in making Bartlesville the center of trade and indus- try for a large surrounding territory, and has identified himself in a public-spirited fashion with all local move- ments for upbuilding and improvements.

A resident of this section of Oklahoma for twenty-five years, W. T. Berentz was born in Danville, Illinois, Feb- ruary 21, 1867, a son of Jeremialı and Emma (Olmstead) Berentz. His father was born in Ohio. From Illinois the family emigrated to Kansas and took up a homestead in Labette County in 1869. W. T. Berentz at that time was about two years of age, and his youthful recollec- tions concern themselves largely with the pioneer condi- tions found in Southeastern Kansas during the late '60s and '70s. His father died in October, 1913, at the age of seventy-one, and the mother passed away May 5, 1905, at the age of sixty-three. Jeremiah Berentz served for more than forty-eight months with the Twelfth Illinois Volunteer Infantry during the Civil war. After his three-year term had expired he veteranized and con- tinued until the close of the mighty struggle between the North and the South. He was a member of the Presby- terian Church and a republican in politics. W. T. Berentz was the oldest of four children, and the second, Myra, died at the age of twelve years, and two daughters, Maude and Mabel, twins, who were born in 1875, are now living in Los Angeles, California.

W. T. Bereutz grew up in Kansas, received his educa- tion from country schools, and for the greater part of the time up to 1897 lived with his parents. In the spring of 1890 the entire family had moved from Kansas to Indian Territory, and the son operated a ranch here up to 1901. In 1897 his parents went back to Kansas, but Mr. Berentz has lived continuously in Northeastern Okla- homa for the past twenty-five years. In 1901 he became a merchant in the new Town of Bartlesville, and at that time started in the hardware, furniture and undertaking business associated with R. H. Muzzy under the name Berentz & Muzzy. In 1907 he bought out his partner's interest and in 1914 organized a stock company known as the Berentz Hardware Company, Incorporated, of which he is president. In the meantime the furniture and undertaking had been separated and has been con- ducted under the individual name of Mr. Berentz. He owns the building where he first started in business on Second Street, but his present large store is located on Johnstone Avenue. He is also interested with J. P. Goveran in the buggy and implement business. For a number of years he was also identified with the manufac- ture of brick at Bartlesville.

As a citizen Mr. Berentz has served as a member of the city school board for the past six years, and was re- elected in the spring of 1915 to the same office. He is well known in Masonry, being a member of the Lodge, Chapter, Commandery, the Scottish Rite Consistory and the Mystic Shrine, and is also affiliated with the Benevo- lent and Protective Order of Elks. In January, 1903, Mr. Berentz married Miss Florence Forrester, who was born in Illinois, a daughter of William Forrester. To their marriage have been born two sons: Russell and Robert.

J. W. STROUD. The founder of one of the thriving towns of Lincoln County is now a wealthy and prominent citizen of Pawhuska, in Osage County, with which locality he has been identified practically throughout the period of its greatest development. J. W. Stroud is an Okla- loma Eighty-niner, a man who came into the original territory with capital and business experience, and by his shrewd judgment, foresight and enterprise has not only lifted himself above the plane of modern success, but at the same time has assisted several localities to grow and prosper. He is one of the men whose names should be permanently linked with the history of Okla- homa during the past twenty-five years.

Born at Springfield, Missouri, August 2, 1859, he is of German parents, L. D. and Priscilla (Schmidt) Stroud. His father was a natural mechanic, handy with all manner of tools, and developed his trade into a business as builder. He helped construct the first buildings of the normal school at Warrensburg, Mis- souri. He was also a soldier during the Civil war, hav- ing served with the Second Missouri Artillery.

The only child of his parents, J. W. Stroud, at the age of fifteen, started out for himself, and is strictly a self-made man. He gained a limited education, but has improved all his opportunities by observation and experience and by industry and economy finally got started in the world along the lines for which he has shown special inclination and ability. He was reared on a farm, but soon developed his instinct as a trader and in 1881 established a small store near the City of Springfield, Missouri, and made that in a few years an important trading center for a large surrounding community.

Mr. Stroud came into Oklahoma in 1889 and soon after the opening was proprietor of a small grocery store on Main Street in Oklahoma City. With the opening of the country east and south of Oklahoma City to settle- ment, he set up a rough frame shack out on the prairie, put in a stock of goods, and that was the beginning of a settlement which came to be known as Stroud, the actual beginning of whose history was on April 6, 1892. He conducted his store in that locality until 1898, and in the meantime had taken an important part in securing the construction of the Frisco Railroad through Lincoln County, and then moved his store over to the railroad site, and his name was applied to the new Town of Stroud. He was first in all matters of public enter- prise there, and that thrifty and prosperous community is well pleased to have his name identified with it. Mr. Stroud conducted a lumber yard at Stroud, was also vice president of the First National Bank, which he helped to organize, and later organized the City State Bank, of which he was president. He finally sold out his inter- ests in both of these institutions, and had also in the meantime acquired a large amount of real estate, both in the city and the surrounding country.

Since January, 1907, Mr. Stroud has made his home and the center of his interests at Pawhuska. Among other important investments he has four brick buildings on Ki-hi-Kah and Sixth streets, and he has also built and occupies a beautiful bungalow home on the hill which is second to none of the Pawhuska residences of that class. Mr. Stroud also owns 1,200 acres in Osage County, and has much of his land under cultivation and improvement.

In 1909 Mr. Stroud drilled two gas wells on the city site of Pawhuska and then turned over the plant to the city at cost. As a result of this public-spirited enter- prise the price of gas was at once reduced one-half, and fuel was furnished in abundance to the water and light plants. This act of public spirit made him a great

1860

HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA

many friends and admirers, and in turn the people of Pawhuska made him mayor of the city for two years.

Politically Mr. Stroud is a republican, was reared in the faith of the German Baptist Church, and in Masonry has attained the thirty-second degree of the Scottish Rite, being affiliated with both the Consistory and the Temple of the Mystic Shriuc.

When a poor struggling young man back in Missouri at the age of nineteen Mr. Stroud married Miss Martha Gregg, who was born in that state. To their union were born seven children: Lucas lives in Texas; Priscilla is the wife of Henry Ward of Fairfax, Oklahoma; Samuel also lives in Texas; Alma is the wife of Henry McMillen of Osage County; Charles lives on a farm in Osage County ; Maude is the wife of W. H. Spurr, who is cashier of the First National Bank at Seminole, Okla- homa; LeMoyne is now attending law school at Chat- tanooga, Tennessee, In 1903 Mr. Stroud married for his present wife Ella Fisher, who was born in Nebraska.

Mention has already been made of Mr. Stroud's part in helping to build the Frisco Railroad through Lincoln Couuty. He was one of the active promoters of that line from Sapulpa to Oklahoma City, and not only lent all his influence and resources but assisted iu making the survey and in securing the right of way and also conducted a canvass for funds to pay for the construc- tion. He also laid out some of the townsites aloug the line, and the judgment of railroad builders and civil engineers has confirmed his excellent judgment in locating that line of railroad, which was one of the most con- siderable factors in the early days in establishing the pre- eminence of Oklahoma City. Since then he has helped in making the surveys of several other railroad lines in the state. In addition to his various other investments Mr. Stroud is president and general manager of the Acacia Oil & Gas Company of Pawhuska, an Oklahoma corporation which is composed entirely of home capital- ists and investors.

WILLIAM L. CHAPMAN. As part of the political ma- chinery methods necessary to the establishment of state government in Oklahoma and as an official of that gov- ernment after it was established in 1907, William L. Chapman, the well known lawyer of Shawnee, has con- tributed much to the welfare of the state. Equipped with a literary and commercial education he has suc- cessfully filled the positions of editor and banker, and a legal traiuing has enabled him to make a success in the law. For six years prior to and subsequent to statehood he was secretary of the Territorial and State Demo- cratic Central committees, serving in that capacity dur- ing the campaigns for the election of delegates to the Constitutional Convention, the adoption of the consti- tution and the election of the first state officials. After statehood he was he first secretary of the Corporation Commission and in that position laid the foundation for a systematic and methodical keeping of the records of that department of state government.

Born in Wingo, Kentucky, October 12, 1867, a son of Thomas and Nannie (Hatchell) Chapman, William L. Chapman having completed the public school course in his native state entered Marvin College at Clinton, Ken- tucky, from which he was graduated in 1888 with the degrec Bachelor of Arts. He holds the degree Ph. D. from Cumberland University at Lebanon, Tennessee, awarded him in 1895. While in Marvin College he swept floors and worked in a chair factory at odd times to pay expenses, and during part of the time helped out his sister who was in the same college. On leaving school he was for ten years a successful teacher in Kentucky, Texas, Arkansas and Oklahoma, was at one time super-

intendent of city schools at Stephenville, Texas, and at another time president of Willie Halsell College at Vinita, Oklahoma. He is a graduate of Hills Business College at Waco, Texas, having completed the course there as preparation for a clerical position that was wait- ing him in Oklahoma.

On leaving college work at Vinita Mr. Chapman entered the First National Bank of that city as a clerk and afterwards became assistant cashier. Later he moved to Shawnee, was in the banking business and for four years was editor of the Shawnee Herald. For sixteeu years he was a member of the Democratic Territorial aud State Central committees and was secretary of that committee during two national campaigus. In these campaigns he was in charge of special trains that toured the state with W. J. Bryan as the speaker. Only a brief summary can be made of his varied public service. At Vinita he was a member of the board of education that established one of the first public schools in Indian Ter- ritory. He was city clerk of Norman, Oklahoma, and city treasurer of Shawnee. He resided at Norman when the University of Oklahoma was founded and there be- came associated with F. S. E. Amos, now of Vinita, who was then a member of the faculty of the university and is an advisory editor of the Standard History of Okla- homa. Mr. Amos accompanied Mr. Chapman to Vinita and became a teacher with him iu the Willie Halsell College.

At Columbus, Kentucky, June 5, 1895, Mr. Chapman married Miss Maud Taylor. Mrs. Chapman is a woman of thorough culture as well as a most capable home maker. She graduated with high honors from Marvin College in Keutucky and a year after graduation was given a chair in the faculty of instruction at that in- stitution. To their marriage there are three liviug children: Merle, aged sixteen, in high school; Marie, aged thirteen, also in high school; and Vernon, aged ten. Mr. Chapmau has one sister, two half-sisters and a half-brother: Mrs. Ada Moore, wife of a farmer at Clinton, Kentucky; Mrs. Charles Crawl, wife of a lum- ber dealer at Eufaula, Oklahoma; Mrs. Ola Painter, whose husband is an oil supply man at Wichita Falls, Texas; and H. M. Myers, who for seven years has been in the auditing department at Muskogee of the Missouri, Oklahoma & Gulf Railway Company. Mr. Chapman is a member of the Masonic and the Knights of Pythias lodges, and of the Methodist Church.

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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