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 32

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 32

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At Allen, Texas, in 1901, was solemnized the marriage of Doctor Jeter to Miss Anna Spradley, daughter of James R. Spradley, who still maintains his home at that place and who is a retired farmer and stockman. Doctor and Mrs. Jeter have one.child, James Rolater, born July, 3, 1908.

J. S. MAYTUBBY. Few men of the Chickasaw coun- try have had a more picturesque career than J. S. May- tubby, now a farmer-stockman at Wapanucka, but a lawyer by profession, long closely identified with the affairs of the old Chickasaw Nation. Common sense was a usual trait among members of the old Chickasaw Leg- islature, and oratory is an attribute of the Indian tribe that has been manifested in nearly every family that rose to distinction. But as a rule the leading men were lacking in an English education and many of them were unable to correctly frame bills introduced into the Legislature. It became necessary therefore that the governor select a draftsman for that important duty of framing bills. During an administration of Governor Johnston, Mr. Maytubby was selected for this important post. He was especially qualified for the work, having been educated in the Rock Academy at Wapanucka, Trinity College at Durham, North Carolina, and com- pleted a course in law at the University of Texas. He was assisted by a law committee of the Legislature in the preparation of bills and all measures before intro- duction had to pass through his hands and the hands of the law committee. This, however, was not the first official distinction of Mr. Maytubby in the Chickasaw Nation, since he filled it after the fortunes of politics has caused his resignation from the office of superin- tendent of public instruction, which he filled under the administration of Governor S. H. Harris, and after he had served under Governor D. H. Johnston, the succes- sor of Governor Harris, as auditor of public accounts of the Chickasaw Nation.

Mr. Maytubby was born of a fullblood father, Tony Maytubby, and a white mother, Mary Lamb, in what was then Kiamichi County of the Choctaw Nation, in the Village of Goodland on the site of which the pres- ent Town of Hugo stands. Both parents died when he was a small child, and he has no recollection of them, neither does he know the year of his birth, but esti- mates his age as about forty-five. Cast out into the world an orphan, he was taken in charge by officials of the Chickasaw Nation and sent to school at Caddo, In- dian Territory, in an educational institution owned and controlled by the Chickasaw Nation. Later he attended Rock Academy, subsequently known as Wapanucka In- stitute, and while there was a student under Cicero A. Skeen, who is now superintendent of the State Boys Training School at Pauls Valley. In 1892 Mr. May- tubby entered the Trinity College of Durham, North

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Carolina, where he was graduated Ph. B. in 1896. In the same fall he entered the University of Texas, and completed his law education there. His career as a practicing lawyer covers less than ten years. In 1897 he began practice at Tishomingo in partnership with S. L. Garrett. Mr. Garrett, who was a first cousin of United States Senator Charles A. Culberson of Texas, was United States Commissioner at Tishomingo during the administration of President Cleveland. Later he be- came a member of the firm of Wolf, Bleakmore & May- tubby, his partners being Nick Wolf and Willard Bleak- more, the latter now a member of the Oklahoma Supreme Court Commission. In 1905 Mr. Maytubby retired from the practice of law and moved to his farm near Wa- panucka, where he has since enjoyed the various inter- ests of country life and has been very successful in the raising of fine horses and in the intensive cultivation of his land.

Mr. Maytubby is a nephew of the noted Peter May- tubby who was a captain in the Confederate army, and who during the days of the Dawes Commission repre- sented the Chickasaw Nation before that body, and sub- sequently served as an interpreter before the commis- sion. Peter Maytubby was one of the best informed men of the Chickasaw country, and assisted the United States Government in keeping out fraudulent claimants when the first annuity was paid to these Indians. The instruction of Peter Maytubby was a means of giving his nephew a knowledge of many things regarding the history and traditions of the Indians, but the latter owing to the fact that his education was obtained in schools where only English was spoken never learned to speak the tongue of his father.

In 1903 Mr. Maytubby married Miss Theodoshia Kemp of Tishomingo. They have one son, Joel Kemp, now five years of age. Mr. Maytubby has also one sis- ter, Mrs. Mary Correll, wife of a farmer-stockman at Ada, Oklahoma. Mr. Maytubby is a member of the Methodist Church, belongs to the Johnston County Bar Association, is a republican in politics, and has been a leader in public affairs. He has the distinction of having been elected to first mayor of Tishomingo, and his election is the more interesting on account of the fact that he defeated William H. Murray, who was his rival for the office. Mr. Murray is now a member of Congress from Oklahoma. Mr. Maytubby has served as precinct committeeman, as a member of the finance committee of the state organization, and also as a mem- ber of the Congressional Committee.

PETER B. FRANCE. Twenty years or more ago Peter B. France was driving over the sparsely settled country of Eastern Oklahoma selling shoes to the retail mer- chants. For many years prior to that he had been a successful merchant and business man in Missouri. After a time he and James C. Menifee established the second mercantile house in Sapulpa.

His many friends and business associates credit Mr. France with a great deal of the constructive enterprise which has made Sapulpa one of the leading towns of Eastern Oklahoma. It is said that he has erected more buildings and owned more real estate than any other one individual in the city, and in fact has always been a leader in everything that affects the welfare of the community. Few men arrive at the age of three score and ten with so much constructive accomplishment to their credit as Mr. France.

He was born at Sodus in Wayne County, New York, April 5, 1844, a son of John and Elizabeth (Bayze) France. His father was born in Yorkshire, England, and his mother in Lineolnshire, where both were reared and

married. His father was a mechanic in the cotton mills in England until he came to the United States, and he also worked at his trade in Wayne County, New York, but finally bought a farm and followed agriculture until he retired. After the death of his wife and after some of his children had gone to Missouri he joined them there, and died there at the age of fifty-nine. He was first a whig and afterwards a republican, but was more interested in church affairs than in politics, being a member of the Methodist denomination. His wife died in New York at the age of forty-two, and she was also a Methodist. There were six children. Thomas B., a Methodist minister, is now living retired at Long Beach, California. John H., who died at Grant City, Missouri, at the age of forty-two, was a Union soldier in the One Hundred and Sixtieth New York Volunteers, was wounded at Port Hudson and was an officer in the Vet- eran Reserve until the close of the war. In 1866 he established his business enterprise at Grant City, Mis- souri, was in the furniture trade, and six months later was joined by his younger brother Peter, and after a few years they established a partnership in the merchandise business, and also in the buying and shipping of stock. The third child in the family is Peter B. France. The daughter Mary, who married Dr. J. H. Housser, died at the age of twenty-two. Fannie after her sister's death married Dr. J. H. Housser and she died at the age of thirty-two. Anna C. married J. T. Rothwell, and she is now living at Long Beach, California.

Peter B. France grew up on the old farm in Wayne County, New York, and gained a public school education. In 1866, at the age of twenty-two, he moved out to Grant City, Missouri, and joined his brother John. Grant City at that time was sixty-five miles from the nearest rail- road point at St. Joseph. For about two years he was associated with a physician in the drug business and then opened a stock of general merchandise. After about four years his brother John joined him as a partner, and the latter exercised his energies in buying and shipping live stock, while Peter France managed the store. In that comparatively early day there were no banks, and the patrons of their store not only bought goods there but left all their surplus currency for safe keeping. Both brothers were men of absolute integrity and thorough business men in every respect. Consequently their enter- prise prospered and was expanded by the addition of four other stores, two located in Iowa and three in Missouri. Mr. Peter France had active supervision of all the stores, and the partners also bought and shipped stock on an extensive scale. After the death of his brother Peter France abandoned the live stock business and in 1888 sold out his mercantile interests in Northwest Missouri, realizing over $50,000. He had loaned money extensively and had done much to build up that section of the country.

In 1888 he moved to Southern Missouri and engaged in merchandising, mining and the reduction of lead and zine, with headquarters at Aurora. Closing out his busi- ness affairs in 1893, he went on the road selling shoes in Missouri, Oklahoma and Indian Territory. It was then that he drove so extensively over Oklahoma and became acquainted with the country. He had a wagon and team and a driver, and sometimes they camped out under the wagon at night. He was very successful as a salesman, and finally established a permanent business at Clare- more, but a year later moved his stock to Sapulpa and formed the partnership already mentioned with J. C. Menifee. They conducted this second store for about three years. Mr. France then bought ten acres in what is now the residence part of Sapulpa, dissolved partner- ship with Mr. Menifee, and began the development, buy-

PB France

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HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA

ing and trading of real estate. He has been the chief factor in building up the real estate interests of Sapulpa, and at the present time is reputed to own property worth fully $100,000. He also built the France Hotel at Sapulpa.

In 1872 Mr. France married Anna V. Lucas, a daugh- ter of Judge B. F. Lucas, a prominent attorney of Pitts- burg, Pennsylvania, where Mrs. France was reared and educated and where she lived until. her marriage. Mrs. France was a woman of many domestic virtues and much social taleut, and founded the chapter of the Eastern Star at Sapulpa, and was also active in church affairs. Her death occurred December 2, 1912. There were three children : Bessie, Alberta and Fannie. The daughter Bessie married V. R. Bryan, and left four children named Curtis, France, Hazel and Vaughn, Jr. Alberta, who died when about twenty-five years of age, as the wife of Johu Gregory, left one daughter Margaret. Fannie E. is the wife of W. J. Briscoe, a Sapulpa merchant, and has one son named Jackson France Briscoe.

Mr. France has always voted the republican ticket but has had no aspirations for public office, though in his . private capacity and as a business man has done a great deal for the public welfare. While living in Grant City, Missouri, he took his degrees in Odd Fellowship and helped organize the lodge of Odd Fellows at Sapulpa. He is active in the Methodist Episcopal Church, as was his wife.

RUFUS R. SEAY. The present editor and proprietor of the Oklahoma Ledger at Sterling has had a long and varied career in the states of Oklahoma and Texas, was one of the early settlers in Pottawatomie County, Okla- homa, more than twenty years ago, and has at different times been a farmer, rancher, preacher and editor. He is one of the strong men of his community, and conducts his paper for the. enlightenment of the community.

Born in Van Zandt County, Texas, November 25, 1857, he comes of an old North Carolina family, which was trausplauted from Ireland in the early days by his great-grandfather, Austin Seay, who spent the rest of his days in North Carolina. Richard Anderson Seay, father of Rufus R., was born in North Carolina in 1823, went to Georgia in 1827, and in 1849 became one of the pioneers in Anderson County, Texas. In 1851 he removed to Van Zandt County, where he owned an extensive farm, partly in that county and partly across the line in Henderson County, and in 1866 in removing his home from one part of the farm to the other, became a resi- dent of Henderson County. He finally removed to Kauf- man County, Texas, in 1897, and died there in 1898. He was a fine type of the early farmer and stock man who developed the resources of those East-central Texas counties. He was a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, of the Masonic fraternity, and during the war between the states gave several years of service to the Confederate side, serving first in the Sixth Texas Cavalry and later being transferred to other commands. Richard A. Seay married Molsey Ellen Delaney, who was born in Georgia in 1826 and died in Comanche County, Texas, in 1907. The first four of their children, John, Mary, James and Frances, are now deceased; Ann Eliza first married James Cavitt, a farmer, now deceased, and her present husband is John Steele, and they live in Western Texas on a farm; the sixth in age is Rufus R .; Richard Jefferson is a farmer and stockman in Motley County, Texas; Vernon Virginia has been lost track of by his family; Ida is the wife of Leslie Stallings, a grocer at Childress, Texas; Robert is a hotel proprietor in Cali- fornia; Thomas is a civil engineer with home near

Marfa, Texas; and George W., the twelfth of the family, is a rancher in New Mexico.

Rufus R. Seay attained his early education in the country schools of Henderson County, Texas. The first eighteen years of his life were spent on his father's farm, following which he was employed at farming and ranch- ing in Erath County, Texas, for a period of eighteen years, which brings his career down to 1893. In that year he moved to Oklahoma and became a resident of Pottawatomie County soon after it was opened to settle- ment. While there he was a farmer, and was also a minister of the Missionary Baptist Church, with which denomination he has long been identified, and in its ministry has performed a great amount of valuable service. In 1904 Mr. Seay removed to Cement in Caddo County, Oklahoma, and continued farming and preaching there and in that vicinity until August, 1913. At that date he acquired complete ownership of the Oklahoma Ledger at Sterling, the former proprietor having been W. R. Key. The Ledger was established in 1905, is con- ducted independent in politics, has a circulation in Comauche, Caddo, Grady and neighboring counties, and Mr. Seay has continued it as a wholesome and attractive journal furnishing a good news and advertising service to its patronage and locality. He has also recently purchased the Cement Courier, at Cement, Caddo County, Oklahoma, which he is publishing on the same principle as the Ledger, and which was established in 1902.

Mr. Seay is a democrat in politics, and while living in Pottawatomie County served as a member of the school board. He takes much interest in fraternal affairs and is a past master by service of Cement Lodge No. 297, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons; past grand chaplain of Oklahoma Ancient Free and Accepted Masous; a member of Chickasaw Chapter, Royal Arch Masons; is past grand of Cement Lodge No. 272, Inde- pendent Order of Odd Fellows; a member of Purity Lodge No. 113 of the Order of Rebekahs at Sterling; and Cement Camp No. 129 of the Woodmen of the World.

While living in Erath County, Texas, in 1874, Mr. Seay married Miss Dona Smith, who died in that county in 1883. There were three children by this marriage: John Anderson, who is a farmer in Bryan County, Okla- homa; Thomas Newton, a farmer near Gorman, Comanche County, Texas; and Heury Harrison, who died in infancy. In 1884 Mr. Seay was married in Erath County to Nancy Henderson, whose father was the late James Henderson, an Erath County farmer. The home of Mr. and Mrs. Seay has been blessed with the birth of ten children: Nancy Ellen, wife of George S. Bradley, a farmer in Seminole County, Oklahoma; James Richard, who is con- nected with a cement plant in Grady County, Okla- homa; Oscar Reagan, who lives in Cement; Effie, at home; Ethel, who performs the typing service for her father in the newspaper office; Alice, living at Cement; Lena, at home; Lea, a twin sister of Lena, died in infancy; William Arvel and George, who are still in the public schools at Sterling.

WALTER F. LEARD. Thirty years ago the Choctaw Indians enjoyed a leisure that was not enforced or re- strained. It was of the same nature as that which had been the portion of their forefathers and which they believed they had been sent to the Indian Territory to enjoy continuously. It was not a perpetual leisure, for the Indians were fairly prosperous with their herds and with their little patches of maize and vegetables. They had not been contaminated by money, nor was the desire for money a hindrance to their social life. Mission- aries had been among them and taught them the Chris- tian religion, with the result that their communal inter-

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ests advanced to a stage that their forebears had uot known. Their idleness was an innate attribute and extravagances were uuknown among them. Among their chief pastimes was Indian ball, a game peculiar to the Choctaws and Chickasaws. It was within this period that Walter Fitzgerald was born in the Indian Village of Pocola, County of Skulliville, Choctaw Nation, and his early recollections touch no happier scenes than those pertaining to witnessing and participating in the Indian ball games. He recalls one that took place between teams representing Skulliville and San Boise counties and which was one of the last of the great games between Choctaw counties. The game was played within a few hundred yards of the Leard home and it was attended by several hundred persons, some of whom came from points from forty to fifty miles distant. Elias Thomas, of a well known Choctaw family, was captain of the San Boise team, and Robert Chubby, a Methodist ex- horter, was captain of the Skulliville team. J. W. Le- Flore, a deputy United States marshal, of Choctaw blood, led the parade in which the Skulliville team indulged before the game began, but this advance exhibition, while it may have excited inspiration, was not sufficient to win the game, for the San Boise team carried away the honors. For a good many years there existed among the people of San Boise County an interesting and inno- cent feeling of superiority over their neighbors of Skulli- ville County.

While this incident illustrates, as forcibly as anything can, the pleasures of Choctaw life in that period, its recalling also brings to mind that it was about that time that the Indians experienced their first money con- tamination. Each member of the tribe was paid the sum of $103 out of the Choctaw funds in the hands of the United States Government. So large an amount of money had never before beeu in circulation in the Choctaw Nation. Unfortunately for the Indians, this dis- tribution brought into their domain many white men of questionable character and motives. Some of these men brought spirituous and intoxicating liquors, knowing the weakness of the Indian for strong drink, and others came for the purpose of getting hold of as much as possible of the large sums of money which the Indians had received. There are men in the Choctaw Nation who have lived there forty to fifty years and who declare that the retrogression of the Choctaws began with that period. Young bucks bought ponies and sad- dles, bright blankets, hickory-bark bridles, Winchester rifles and other types of firearms. They decorated their horses and saddles with vividly colored ribbons and rode promiscuously over the wide ranges. They imbibed freely of "bootleg" liquors and many of them became intoxicated for the first time. Their sprees lasted for several days and made beasts of them for the time being.

That these two extremes of life among his people should come within the early recollections of Walter F. Leard is a striking point in Choctaw annals, for he is only of thirty-second degree Choctaw blood and has an unprejudiced comprehension of Indian affairs. His father, James Thomas Leard, had settled in Skulliville County when a youth and had there married Cora MeCarty, of the Choctaw tribe. Mrs. Leard is a daughter of Robert S. McCarty, who was a native of Georgia and a pioneer in Texas. At the time of the Mexican troubles in Texas Mr. McCarty came into the Indian Territory, where for several months he was quartered with the United States soldiers at old Fort Towson, one of the early frontier posts. Continuing his residence in the Choctaw Nation for many years, Mr. McCarty was for twenty-seven consecutive years a Sunday school superin-

tendent at Kavanaugh, across the line in the State of Arkansas.

Walter F. Leard was born in the year 1882, and his rudimentary educational training was received in the Pine Log School, on Owl Creek, where his first teacher was Mr. Sinclair, who later became a physician and engaged in the practice of his profession in the Choctaw Nation. Mr. Leard continued to attend the local schools until he had attained to the age of eighteen years, after which he was for one year a student in Spencer Acad- emy. He then entered Joues Academy, under the ad- ministration of Superintendent W. B. Butts, who had previously been his instructor in Spencer Academy, though the principal teacher had been Spencer Gabe Parker, who is now commissioner to the Five Civilized Tribes. In Jones Academy Mr. Leard was a schoolmate of W. F. Semple, now an Indian probate attorney under the Department of the Interior, with headquarters at Durant, Bryan County; W. R. McIntosh, now of McAles- ter, who was mining trustee of the Choctaw Nation under the administration of Principal Chief V. M. Locke, Jr .; and others who have become representative men in business and professional life. After leaving Jones Academy Mr. Leard assumed a position in the office of John D. Benedict, superintendent of education for the Five Civilized Tribes, and there he remained three years. In 1908 he engaged in farming near Durant, where he continued operations one year. In 1909 he entered the employ of the Caylor Lumber Company, and in 1913 he was transferred to the new and thriving Town of Fort Towson, where he has since continued his effective service as manager of the company's extensive business in this section of Choctaw County and where he is a popular and representative factor in business circles and known as a loyal and progressive citizen. He is affiliated with the Masonic fraternity and the Woodmen of the World, and both he and his wife hold membership in the Baptist Church. Mr. Leard's parents are still living and their other children are: Joseph N., who is engaged in the lumber business at San Jose, Texas; Andrew J., who is a prosperous agriculturist and stock grower at McCurtain, Haskell County, Oklahoma; Robert R. and Terry T., who are representative farmers near Hugo, Choctaw County; Mrs. Helen Davis, whose husband is a prominent business man at Stigler, Haskell County; and Miss Laura and Wheeler R. Leard, who remain at the parental home, in Hugo, the judicial center of Choctaw County.

In May, 1907, was solemnized the marriage of Walter F. Leard to Miss Winena Ross, of Durant, her father having been one of the early missionaries among the Choctaw Indians. Mr. and Mrs. Leard are popular fac- tors in the social activities of their home community and are the parents of one son, Ross, who was born in the year 1908.

ELMER HAROLD DODD. The receiving and disbursing of all the public moneys and revenues of a county entails the possession of executive ability of more than ordinary character by the incumbent of the office, but, further than this, he must possess also the absolute confidence of the public, the faith in his integrity and character that may be built up only through a life of probity and honorable dealing. Elmer Harold Dodd, treasurer of Dewey County, has gained his office through the pos- session of the qualities named. It has been his fortune to have succeeded in public life as he has in business affairs; in each avenue of endeavors his name has been synonymous with straightforward transactions with his fellow men and energetic and well-directed effort.

Mr. Dodd is a Kansan by nativity, born at Burrton,

la 2milionaed

1871

HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA

Harvey County, August 7, 1883, a son of Charles D. and Lucy E. (Lancett) Dodd. His family is an old and honored one, of Scotch-Irish descent, which was founded in America in colonial times and subsequently moved to Indiana, where the great-grandfather of Elmer H. Dodd was a pioneer settler and for many years a farmer. Joseph Dodd, his grandfather, was born in 1826, in Indiana, and there grew to manhood, receiving a com- mon school education and early learning the trade of carpenter. He followed this vocation, in connection with farming, until the opening of the Civil war, when he en- listed in an Indiana volunteer infantry regiment and served therewith four years as a private in the Union army. Returning to Indiana, he continued to be occupied in the same way for several years, when he decided to try his fortunes in the West and accordingly moved to Harvey County, Kansas. He located there on a farm, to the cultivation of which he devoted his attention, although he was engaged also at times as a carpenter, erecting a number of the early structures of that com- munity. His death occurred there in 1914.

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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