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 3

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 3

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

At the time of statehood Mr. Harris became clerk in the office of County Judge L. P. Davenport, and later was assistant county clerk. In 1911 he moved to Choc;

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taw County, and became under sheriff under the Lofton administration. Still later he was deputy treasurer of Pushmataha County, and he now has his home at Antlers and is giving most of his time and attention to his duties as deputy county treasurer.

At Antlers in 1905 Mr. Harris married Miss Bessie Eubank. They are the parents of two children: Henry Mead Jr. and James.

HON. CLARENCE EUGENE GANNAWAY. In the life of Clarence Eugene Gannaway, who is now serving his second term as mayor of Clinton, there may be found an illustration of the high awards to be attained through adherence to industry and integrity and the following out of an honorable ambition. Commencing his career as a youth of eighteen years, with only the advantages of a high school education, he has directed his activities so capably and prosecuted them so vigorously that today, still in the prime of life, he finds himself at the head of important business interests in a thriving and pros- perous community, and the possessor of the unqualified confidence of the best element of the people.

Mr. Gannaway was born at Unionville, Tennessee, January 14, 1870, a descendant of Irish ancestors who emigrated to America during Colonial days and settled either in Virginia or North Carolina. His father, John A. Gannaway, was born in Rutherford County, Tennessee, in 1824, and passed his entire life in that state, where he followed farming and merchandising, served as justice of the peace, and for a period of thirty years acted as postmaster of the Town of Bellbuckle, Bedford County, where he died in 1911. He was a democrat in politics, steward in the Methodist Episcopal Church and a mem- ber of the Masons and Odd Fellows. Mr. Gannaway mar- ried Rex Tarpley, a native of Tennessee, who resides at Hot Springs, Arkansas, and they were the parents of eleven children: Emma, who is the widow of the late Dr. W. E. Harrison, a physician, and makes her home at Nashville, Tennessee; Maggie, who is the widow of the late W. A. Winsett, a farmer and merchant, and resides in California; John, an attorney, who died at Victoria, British Columbia; James W., who is a traveling salesman with headquarters at Oklahoma City; Nannie, who is the wife of B. A. Clary, a merchant of Bell- buckle, Tennessee; Cassie, who is the wife of C. H. North, a farmer and trader of Christiana, Tennessee; E. T., who was a mechanic and engineer and died in Texas; Cora, who is the wife of Dr. F. M. Williams, a physician and surgeon of Hot Springs, Arkansas; Clarence Eugene; Horace B., who is in the life insur- ance business at Oklahoma City; and C. V., who is a member of the board of city commissioners of Teague, Texas.

Clarence Eugene Gannaway received his education in the graded and high schools of Unionville, Tennessee, and upon leaving school at the age of eighteen years, became the organizer and teacher of a brass band, which he instructed in the evenings after he had spent the day in clerking in a store at Statesville. Later he engaged in the same pursuits at Woodbury, Watertown and Pittsburg, Tennessee, and in 1898 came to El Reno and became clerk in a store. A short time later he removed to Enid, where he was employed in a drug store for six months, and at the end of that period secured employment as a traveling salesman for a dry goods house, a capacity in which he traveled throughout Okla- homa until 1904. That year saw Mr. Gannaway's entrance upon the field of banking, at Sayre, Oklahoma, where he remained until 1907, on May 27 of which year he came to Clinton as cashier of the First National Bank. In 1909 he was made vice president of that institution,

a position which he still retains, although since October, 1914, he has not been actively engaged at the bank, because of ill health. At this time he is engaged in the farm loan, real estate and insurance business, with offices in the Thurmond Building, Fourth Street and Frisco Avenue. He is the owner of 440 acres of farming land in Custer County, Oklahoma, as well as property in Beckham County, city lots in Oklahoma County, and his residence at Clinton. Mr. Gannaway is an enthusiastic citizen, who has studied his community's situation and incomparable resources, and has unbounded faith in its possibilities of growth and business. He has not feared to venture his own capital in buying lands here or to advise his clients to do so, for while many fortunes have been built up in Oklahoma in commerce, in manu- facture, and in corporate control and management, there has been no surer road to fortune than that offered by real estate. While he has pursued with undeviating steadiness of purpose his business transactions, he has not been unmindful of civic duties. In the spring of 1913, as the democratic candidate, he was elected mayor of Clinton, and his first term contributed so greatly to the city's good, that in 1915 he was elected to suc- ceed himself. He is a member and regular attendant of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Mayor Gannaway is prominent in fraternal life, being a member of Clin- ton Lodge No. 339, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons; Clinton Chapter No. 69, Royal Arch Masons; Sayre Commandery, Knights Templar; India Temple, Ancient Arabic Order Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, Oklahoma City; Clinton Lodge No. 83, Knights of Pythias, of which he is past chancellor commander; Clinton Lodge of the Brotherhood of American Yeomen; and Clinton Chapter, Order of the Eastern Star.

In 1904, at Elk City, Oklahoma, Mr. Gannaway was married to Miss Florence Thurmond, who was born in 1881, in Tarrant County, Texas, only daughter of E. G. and Amanda (Harmon) Thurmond, her father now being a retired banker of Elk City, Oklahoma. Mayor and Mrs. Gannaway are the parents of one daughter: Florence Amanda, who was born August 1, 1912, at Clinton.

OSCAR HOLMES THURMOND. Western Oklahoma con- tains a great many able men who have adopted finance as the field in which to conduct their activities. That all should be equally successful in such a career would be an impossibility; the high rewards in this field come to but few, and the fortunate must be gifted with qualifications of a diversified character, including not only intelligence, good judgment, prudence, industry, sagacity and integrity, but a thorough understanding of political economy as it affects the great industries of production and distribution, a quick and accurate per- ception of character, skill in determining the dominant influences that control human action, and a comprehensive knowledge of the principles of finance. Among the financiers of Western Oklahoma few possess these quali- ties in a greater degree than Oscar Holmes Thurmond, president of the First National Bank, who, with his brothers, E. K., A. L., I. C. and J. P. Thurmond, owns eleven banks in this state.

Mr. Thurmond is a Texas by nativity, born in Tarrant County, sixteen miles northwest of Fort Worth, at Dido, September 26, 1869. The family is of Irish-German descent and in pioneer times was founded in Kentucky, in which state, in 1844, E. G. Thurmond, the father of Oscar H. Thurmond, was born. E. G. Thurmond became one of the early ranchmen of Tarrant County, Texas, where, during the Civil war, he enlisted in the Texas Rangers. In 1885 he removed to Wheeler County, in

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the Texas Panhandle, where he resided on a ranch for seven years, and in 1892 came to Cheyenne, Roger Mills County, Oklahoma, there purchasing another ranch on which he made his home until 1901. Since that year he has lived at Elk City and is practically retired from busi- ness affairs. He is a democrat in politics, and his reli- gious connection is with the Baptist Church. Mr. Thurmond married Miss Amanda Harmon, a native of Tennessee, and they became the parents of six children: Oscar Holmes; A. L., born in 1872, cashier of the First National Bauk of Elk City, Oklahoma, a member of the firm of Thurmond Brothers, and a thirty-second degree Mason; E. K., born in 1875, president of the First National Bank of Sayre, Oklahoma, where he resides, and of the First National Bank of Elk City, a member of the firm of Thurmond Brothers and a thirty-second degree Mason; I. C., born in 1878, a banker of Oklahoma City, also a thirty-second degree Masou, and a member of the firm; Florence, born in 1881, who is the wife of Hon. C. E. Gannaway, mayor of Clinton, Oklahoma, and a well known operator in farm loans, real estate and insur- ance; and J. P., a member of the firm, who lives at Elk City with his parents.

Oscar Holmes Thurmond attended the public schools of Tarrant County and was sixteen years of age when he went with the family to the Panhandle. Subsequently he accompanied his father to the ranch near Cheyenne, and remained there until the spring of 1903, when he went to Erick, Oklahoma, and founded the First State Bank, of which he was first cashier and was later made president, a position which he retains. The Thurmond Brothers began their extensive operations in the field of finance in 1895, when they organized the Bank of Cheyenne, and since that time they have constantly increased their interests in this direction until at present they control the following concerns: First National Bank of Clinton; First National Bank of Elk City; First National Bank of Sayre; State Bank of Strong City; State Bank of Foss; State Bank of Carter; Cordell National Bank, of Cordell; First State Bank of Camargo; State Bank of Hammon; Bank of Cheyenne, and First State Bank of Erick. Oscar H. Thurmond has been president of the First National Bank of Clinton since 1907, but did not come to this city to reside until July 3, 1913. Since that time he has entered actively into business, financial and public life here, and has con- tributed materially to the development and upbuilding of the community. The Thurmond Brothers own and control in partnership some 13,000 acres of land in Texas and Oklahoma, and in addition to this Oscar H. Thurmond owns personally 550 acres in Custer and Beck- ham counties. As a financier Mr. Thurmond is quick of perception, intuitive in judgment, rapid in conclusions and generally accurate in his estimate of character. His ability, displayed in the management of the institution of which he is the head, and of his various other interests, is recognized by his brethren of the banking profession, by whom he is held in the greatest confidence. He has taken an unshrinking part in whatever movements have been set on foot for the betterment of his community, and among the positions 'of honor and dignity which he has been called to fill is that of president of the Clinton Chamber of Commerce, representing in its mem- bership the most important branches of business and the most active industries of the city. In politics a democrat, while a resident of Cheyenne he served as postmaster during President Cleveland's administration, and was alderman for several years while a resident of Erick. He is a deacon in the Baptist Church, and has been liberal in his support of its movements.

In 1903, at Erick, Mr. Thurmond was married to Miss

Sallie Longmire, daughter of Mrs. E. J. Longmire, who makes her home with her daughter and son-in-law.

DANIEL R. DIAL of Mangum, dealer in real estate and loans since 1904, when he first came to this city, is one of the best established business men in the community. His business activities extend through Greer, Harrison, Jacksou, Beckham, Kiowa and Comanche counties, Okla- homa. He is a son of S. W. Dial, and was born in Miller County, Missouri, on March 6, 1874.

The Dial family is Scotch-Irish iu its ancestry, and they were early pioneers in Tennessee, where S. W. Dial was born in 1833. He died at Martha, Okla- homa, in the spring of 1897, and is there buried. When a very young man he went to Miller County, Missouri, where he married and made his home. He was a prominent farmer aud stock mau there for forty-eight years. In 1883 he went to Anderson County, Kansas, five years later coming to Greer Couuty, Texas (now Oklahoma), and settled on a farm about ten miles south of the Town of Mangum.

Mr. Dial was a republicau in his political faith, and he served in the Federal army throughout the Civil war as a member of the Forty-eighth Missouri Volunteer Infantry. He was a lifelong member of the Christian Church, of which he was an elder, as well as a preacher. He married Nancy E. Lovell, who was born in Illinois in 1838, and died in Martha, Oklahoma, in 1897. Five children were born to them: Sheridan, who died in July, 1913, in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, was a banker; Lettie A. married P. W. Myers, a prosperous farmer of Lone Elm, Kansas; Dora R. married M. Harris, a mail carrier in Mangum, where they live; Daniel R., of this review, was the fourth child, and Maggie, the youngest born, lives in Guthrie, Oklahoma, where she is cashier of the Pioneer Telephone Company.

Daniel R. Dial attended the public schools in Anderson County, Kansas, and finished his schooling in Greer County, when he was graduated from the high school in 1890. After that he gave his attention to farming and stock raising in Greer County, Oklahoma, until 1904. In that year he moved to Mangum, giving up his farming activities, and established himself in the real estate and loan business. The success he has enjoyed has been very marked, and mention has already been made of the many counties iu which he operates. He has his offices in the Mangum National Bauk Building.

Mr. Dial was married in January, 1900, to Miss Eula Mc Auley, daughter of C. McAuley, a retired farmer of Martha, Oklahoma, now living in Maugum. They have three children: Elmer, a freshman in the Mangum High School, and LeRoy and Wilma, in the grade school of the city.

Mr. Dial is an elder in the Christian Church, iu which he has membership with his family, and his politics are those of a republican.

OMER SCHNOEBELEN. An active participant in the life of Mooreland, both business and civic, since his arrival in 1903, Omer Schnoebelen has made himself more and more a necessary factor in the development of this thriving Oklahoma community. As a publisher of the Moorcland Leader he has been foremost in advancing movements of a beneficial character, while in various official capaci- ties he has rendered his fellow citizens signal service, and at present, in the office of postmaster, is handling the Mooreland mail in a manner that is bringing him com- mendation from all sides.

Mr. Schnoebelen was born February 10, 1884, at River- side, Iowa, and is a son of Nicholas and Mary (Bouquot ) Schnoebelen. His father was born December 8, 1833,

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in Alsace Lorraine, France (now Germany), and was three years of age when brought to the United States by his parents, the family settling at Riverside, Iowa. There the lad grew to sturdy young manhood, receiving a public school education and learning the trades of blacksmith and mechanic, lines in which he built up a good patronage. In 1865 the lure of the West, with the promise of large fortune, called him and he made his way to Omaha, Nebraska. During the days of the frontier, with its hostile Indians, its outlaws and hold-up men, and various other dangers, he conducted a freight- ing outfit between Omaha and Denver, Colorado, and in the five years he was so engaged met with numerous thrilling experiences. While so engaged Mr. Schnoebelen . was married, in 1868, to Miss Mary Bouquot, who was born August 28, 1844, at Burlington, Iowa, daughter of Joseph and Mary Bouquot, natives of France. Ten children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Schnoebelen: Rose, now a nun in the Order of the St. Vincent de Paul, with mother house at Emmitsburg, Maryland; Crescencia, who is unmarried and resides at Riverside, Iowa, with her parents, a musician of unusual talent; Anna R., who is the wife of Judd Brown of Lincoln, Nebraska; Marcella, who is the wife of George d'Autremont, a Canadian farmer; Omer, of this review; Marietta, who is the wife of Oscar d'Autremont, a merchant of Portland, Oregon; Celestine and Hugh, who are deceased; Clair, who is editor and publisher of the Quinlan Advance of Quinlan, Oklahoma; Lillian, the wife of Bert Tilford, of Waynoka, Oklahoma; and Herman, residing with his parents. With the coming of the railroads to the West, the freighting business began to be unprofitable, and in 1870 Nicholas Schnoebelen disposed of his outfit, returned to his home at Riverside, and there continued to be engaged in the blacksmithing business for many years. He is now living in quiet retirement at that place, enjoying the fruits of his many years of industrious and well-directed labor.

Omer Schnoebelen was educated in the public schools of Riverside, Iowa, and when but sixteen years entered the vocation which he was to make his life work by starting to learn the trade of printer. He was only nineteen years of age when he took up his residence at Mooreland, where, April 18, 1903, he founded the Moore- land Leader, of which he has since been editor and owner. His start was made in a modest way, but when the citi- zens of this rapidly-growing community saw the young man had come to remain and recognized the worth of the sheet which he was publishing, they began to give him their support, and he was able to enlarge his plant and paper and to give his readers a more advanced news- paper He now has a plant modern in every respect, his equipment including up-to-date presses, a linotype machine and other machinery for the publishing of a twentieth century paper, while his circulation and adver- tising have grown by leaps and bounds. Mr. Schnoe- belen has never been backward about supporting the movements or men whom he has believed to be beneficial to his community. The paper maintains an independent policy in regard to political affairs, and it is the aim of the editor to not only give his readers all the news in an authentic way, but to publish each side of every question of public importance that may arise.

Personally, Mr. Schnoebelen is a democrat and has been active in county and state politics, frequently at- tending county, state and congressional conventions as a delegate and giving his stanch support to his party's candidates. He was a member of the first board of trustees after the town was incorporated and has since served as a member of the town council, his services on which have been of an energetic and helpful character. On July 26, 1914, he was appointed by President Wilson to the position of postmaster of Mooreland, and is now

acting in that capacity. Mr. Schnoebelen is a member of the Knights of Columbus. While the greater part of his time is devoted to his newspaper, he has at times been interested in outside enterprises, and during 1911 and 1912 was employed as assistant cashier of the Security State Bank of Mooreland.

On January 12, 1904, Mr. Schnoebelen was married to one of Mooreland's young ladies who had served for two years as assistant to the postmaster, Miss Edna Knittel, who was born at Riverside, Iowa, November 17, 1883, a daughter of F. J. and Louise (Kortzborn) Knittel, the former a native of France and the latter of Iowa. They are the parents of three children: Rita, born May 11, 1907; Omer, Jr., born November 5, 1912; and Hugh, born December 13, 1914.

HON. T. J. LEAHY is widely known as a man of high attainments, of profound erudition and practical ability as a lawyer, and as one who has achieved success in his pro- fession. He is one of the most interesting of the prominent characters whose worth and merit have graced the history of Oklahoma as a state and territory, and was one of the two members elected to the Constitutional Convention from the Fifty-sixth District. In that high position he performed particularly notable work as a member of the Committee on Public Service Corporations, as such, mak- ing a thorough study and unprejudiced investigation of the great problems in connection with the governmental regulation of public service corporations, giving his best thought and judgment in an effort to arrive at a just solution of this modern and somewhat complex phase of legislation. The constitutional provisions result of this committee's work in the convention are conceded to be of the greatest beneficence to the state.

Mr. Leahy is one of the strong leaders of the bar in Oklahoma. For several years he conducted a large crimi- nal practice, which is still a feature of his legal business, having an established reputation for success in that line. His practice as a whole, however, is of a general nature, extending into several states in addition to the Oklahoma State and Federal courts and the Interior Department. He was chairman of the commission that investigated the status and value of the segregated coal and other mineral lands of the Indian Territory and made recommenda- tions as to the advisability of having the state purchase those lands. He spent much time and labor on the work of this commission, the report of which was submitted to the governor of Oklahoma in 1908. Mr. Leahy was also father of the measure, which was made a part of the Bill of Rights, providing that the right of the state to enter into public enterprise for public purposes should not be denied. The labor unions and laboring element gen- erally were particularly pleased with Mr. Leahy's cham- pionship of measures in their interest in the Constitu- tional Convention. He is democratic in politics.

Mr. Leahy is a member of a family well known in the Osage Nation for many years back, and his cousin, W. T. Leahy, and uncle, Thomas Leahy, stockmen and bankers and residents of Pawhuska, have been prominently identi- fied with various interests in this country since the early eighties. But the Hon. T. J. Leahy is a native son of Kansas, born in Neosho County, in 1868, his parents betn natives of Ireland, being early settlers in that state. His father died in 1869, but his mother is still living. Her home is in Pawhuska. Mr. Leahy was reared in Neosho County, Kansas, receiving a common school and normal education. He studied law in both Kansas and Oklahoma and was admitted to the bar in 1892. In that year he settled permanently in Pawhuska, the capital of the Osage Nation, although he had been in the Nation back and forth since 1884. He belongs to the Masonic

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Order, and also the Knights of Pythias, of which latter he is past grand chancellor of Oklahoma.

Mr. Leahy married in Pawhuska, Miss Bertha Rogers, who was born and reared there, a member of an old family of part Osage Indian blood, and daughter of Hon. Thomas L. Rogers, whose sketch is found in another page of this volume. Mr. and Mrs. Leahy have four children: Thomas Rogers, Cora Willella, Mabel Aun and Edward Arthur.

STRATTON D. BROOKS. Dr. Brooks has been president of the University of Oklahoma, Norman, since 1912, is a native of Everett, Missouri, where he was born Septem- ber 10, 1869. At the age of twenty-one he graduated from the Michigan State Normal College, and subse- quently the following degrees were conferred upon him: B. Pd., 1892, and M. Pd., 1899, by the Normal College; A. B., by the University of Michigan, 1896; A. M., by Harvard University, 1904; LL. D., Colby University, 1912.

Doctor Brooks served as vice president of the Mt. Pleasant (Michigan) Normal School in 1893; as principal of the high school at Danville, Illinois, in 1890-2, and held a similar position at Adrian, Michigan, in 1896-8, and at LaSalle, Illinois, in 1898-9. In 1899 Doctor Brooks was appointed assistant professor of education and high school inspector of the University of Illinois, and thus continued for three years; served as assistant superintendent of the Boston (Massachusetts) schools in 1902-06, as superintendent of schools at Cleveland, Ohio, from January to March, 1906, and was at the head of the Boston schools in 1906-12. In May of the latter year he was called to the presidency of the University of Oklahoma, which he has since ably filled. He has served as a trustee of the Massachusetts College and is a mem- ber of the national council of the National Educational Association and of the fraternity Phi Beta Kappa. Doctor Brooks is also a leading writer in his professional field, being assistant editor of the School Review and Journal of Pedagogy, and author of text books on composition, rhetoric, elementary composition and reading.

LAURENCE L. COWLEY. Since 1901 Mr. Cowley has been engaged in the practice of his profession in Okla- homa, and since 1913 he has been one of the repre- sentative members of the bar of Okmulgee, in which city he now controls a large and important law business, besides which he is serving as secretary of the board of trustees of the Okmulgee Public Library.

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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