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 33

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 33

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Charles D. Dodd was born in Indiana in 1858 and was still a youth when he accompanied his parents to Harvey County, Kansas, where he completed his edu- cation, grew up as a farmer boy, and was married. At the time of his marriage, he turned his attention to mercantile lines, establishing himself in the retail fur- niture business, as a merchant at Burrton. In 1890 he removed to Hutchinson, Kansas, where he became fore- man in the salt works, and in 1895 became a pioneer of Dewey County, Oklahoma, where he took up a homestead of 160 acres in Sickle township, a beautiful tract of land which he still owns. When he came to Oklahoma he had practically nothing, his business ventures not having met with a very gratifying success up to that time, but in the field of agriculture he soon began to accumu- late a handsome property, and at this time is the owner of 700 acres of land in Dewey and Roger Mills counties. This land is practically all under a state of cultivation and is improved with substantial buildings and modern equipment of all kinds. In 1903 Mr. Dodd again entered the mercantile business, starting a furniture establish- ment at Thomas, Oklahoma. This he conducted until 1914, when he sold out and came to Roll, his present home. Mr. Dodd bears an excellent reputation in busi- ness circles and as a citizen has shown himself capable, energetic and public-spirited. He maintains an inde- pendent position in regard to politics, is a devout mem- ber of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and is fraternally connected with the Masons. Mr. Dodd was married in Harvey County, Kansas, to Miss Lucy E. Lancett, who was born in 1863, in Indiana, and who is also a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church and active in its work. They have been the parents of six children, as follows: William C., who is engaged in the life insurance business at Thomas, Oklahoma; Elmer Harold, of this notice; Roy, who resides at Oakwood, Oklahoma, and is the proprietor of a hardware business; Ray, twin to Roy, who is a chiropractitioner of Elk City, Okla- homa; Charles, Jr., who resides at Canton, Oklahoma, and is a general merchant; and Bertha, who is the wife of G. W. Ford and resides on the old family homestead farm in Dewey County.

Elmer Harold Dodd attended the public schools of Hutchinson, Kansas, and went to school at Burrton, Kansas, in 1895-6, in April of the latter year coming to his parents' homestead in Dewey County, Oklahoma. There he continued to pursue his studies in the little log school house until he was sixteen years of age, and then, until he was nineteen, devoted his energies to assisting his father in the cultivation and development of the home place. Mr. Dodd was married in 1903, at King- Vol. V-8

fisher, Oklahoma, to Miss Grace M. Thrush, daughter of Charles B. Thrush, a pioneer homesteader of Dewey County, Oklahoma, who now resides on his farm near Putnam. Three children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Dodd: Cecil, born November 16, 1903; Vera, born August 16, 1905; and Carroll, born in November, 1907, all attending the Taloga public schools.

For one year after his marriage, Mr. Dodd continued to be engaged in farming, then turning his attention to railroading. Nine months, in 1905 and 1906, convinced him that he did not care for a career as a railroad man, and he accordingly resigned his position and accepted a clerkship in the grocery store of Ogden Brothers, at Thomas. Later he went to Oakwood, Oklahoma, where he was employed in the general store of E. L. Porter, former county treasurer of Dewey, and in 1908 became manager of Burt Groves' general store. 'After two years he was made head salesman for Mr. Groves, in the store at Canton, but after one year, in 1911, returned to the pursuits of the soil, being engaged in farming in Harri- son Township, Dewey County, for one year. He then resumed his connection with mercantile affairs, being with Keller's Hardware Store at Oakwood for a short time and then again with E. L. Porter, at Oakwood, and in August, 1912, purchased Mr. Porter's interest in the establishment and continued to be engaged in the mer- cantile business on his own account until selling out in June, 1914. In the fall of that year he was elected county treasurer and assumed charge of the duties of that office July 1, 1915, for a period of two years. A republican in his political views, for a number of years he has been interested in public affairs, having served both on the school board and as a member of the council at Oakwood. With his family he belongs to the Christian Church, where he is a chorister. Mr. Dodd is possessed of much musical talent, and was a member of the first band ever organized in Dewey County, at Butte, Oklahoma, playing at the various county fair in the early days under the leadership of his uncle, Andrew Lancett of Chicago, who now resides at Clinton, Oklahoma, and is a grain buyer. He belongs ot the A. H. T. A., and is fraternally affiliated with Oakwood Lodge No. 386, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, and Putnam Lodge No. 89, Independent Order of Odd Fel- lows, of which he is past vice grand.

ALVA LUM MCDONALD. Among the men who have lent practical encouragement to agricultural interests, and who have also taken an active part in business affairs and the struggles of the political arena, Alva Lum McDonald has been numbered since 1901. Coming here a stranger, he soon won the esteem and respect of all with whom his business brought him into contact, and from that time to the present his popularity has steadily increased. In addition to farming and stock- raising, Mr. McDonald is extensively engaged in the real estate business at El Reno, and has been entrusted with important positions as one of the foremost members of the progressive party in Oklahoma.

A. L. McDonald was born at Curdsville, Daviess County, Kentucky, September 16, 1876, and is a son of Hiram C. and Sarah Catherine (Brogan) McDonald, the former a native of Curdsville, Kentucky, and the latter of the State of Tennessee. The great-grandfather of Mr. McDonald was the founder of the family in Amer- ica, coming, as the name would suggest, from Scotland, and settling in Virginia. From this source this branch of the family scattered throughout Virginia and Ken- tucky, in which state the name is still well known. All of Mr. McDonald's male relatives, including his father, served as Confederate soldiers during the Civil war,

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some of them fighting throughout that struggle with Gen. Joe Wheeler.

The public schools of his native locality on Panther Creek furnished Alva L. McDonald with his early edu- cation, and this was subsequently supplemeuted by at- tendance at Hartford (Keutucky) College, from which he was graduated in the class of 1894. He no doubt in- herited the military spirit which sent his father and others into battle, for when the Spanish-American war came on he offered his services to the volunteer army and was accepted. When that struggle was finished he took part in putting down the Filipino rebellion, and while thus engaged was under the brave General Wheeler, with whom members of the family had fought in the Civil war. He had at first been a member of the Seventh California Volunteers, but after a few months was transferred to the Thirty-first United States Volun- teer Infantry, serving in Luzon and Mindanao Islands altogether for thirty-seven months. During the time he was at Mindanao he served ten months as military postmaster.

On his return from the Philippine Islands Mr. McDon- ald located at El Reno, Oklahoma, where he had drawn a farm at the opening of the Kiowa aud Comanche drawing at El Reno in 1901. He resided ou this prop- erty for two years, aud then moved to the city of El Reno and entered actively into the real estate business, buying and selling farm lands principally on his own account.

In 1905 Mr. McDonald was elected a member of the El Reno City Council, and during his two years served as president of that body. During the administration of President Roosevelt, Mr. McDonald was clerk of the Third District Federal Court of Alaska, stationed at Fairbanks, for two years, under Judge Silas H. Reed. From the time that he had come to Oklahoma Mr. McDonald had always been an active republican and a dutiful worker for his party. In 1912 he was a delegate from this state to the Chicago convention, and when the break came, he joined the Roosevelt forces and returned home to do untiring work for the cause of the new progressive party. He was elected chairman of the state committee of the new organization, and prosecuted a vigorous campaign for his ideal candidate, the indomi- table Colonel. He served as chairman of the state committee of the progressive party for two years, hand- ing over to his successor the party organization in the state in the best possible shape attainable under the adverse circumstances under which he was compelled to work. These services cost Mr. McDonald many hundred hard-earned dollars.

At El Reno, Oklahoma, November 27 (Thanksgiving Day), 1903, Mr. McDonald was united in marriage with Miss Scottie Belle Barker, daughter of Beverly R. and Eliza (Eaton) Barker, both natives of Virginia. Mrs. McDonald's father and practically all her male relatives were Confederate soldiers during the Civil war. To Mr. and Mrs. McDonald there have been born two children: Vinita Mary, born February 16, 1905; and Alva Fergu- son, born December 9, 1906. Mr. McDonald is a member of the local lodge of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, in which he has numerous friends, as he has also in business and public life. Mr. and Mrs. McDonald are consistent members of and active workers in the First Christian Church of El Reno.

ORA O. DAWSON, M. D. Oklahoma is one of the young- est of the commonwealths of the Union and yet its age is sufficient to have enabled it to claim as representative figures in its business and professional ranks not a few ambitious young men who have been reared and educated

within its borders. Such au one is Doctor Dawson, who is the only physician and surgeon engaged in practice at Wayne, McClain County, and who has gained secure prestige as one of the able aud successful representatives of his profession in this section of the state.

Doctor Dawson is a scion of staunch Scotch ancestry and the family was founded in America in the colonial era of our national history. His grandfather, Thomas Benoui Dawson, was born in Virginia, in 1804, was a gallant soldier in the Mexican war, became one of the pioneer farmers and stock-growers of the State of Iowa, and passed the closing period of his life at Long Beach, California, where he died in 1905, at the remarkable age of somewhat more thau 100 years. His ancestors settled in Virginia in an early day, upon their immigration from Scotland, and the name has been worthily linked with the annals of American history during the long intervening years, as one generation has followed another on to the stage of life's activities.

Doctor Dawson was born near Sherman, Texas, on the 26th of March, 1884, and has been a resident of Okla- homa since he was a lad of about eight years. He is a son of William and Lucretia (Moorman) Dawson, the former of whom was born in Iowa, in 1840, and the latter in Ohio, in 1845. William Dawson was reared to man- hood in the Hawkeye State, where his early experiences were those gained under the conditions and influences of the early pioneer days. After his marriage he removed to Nebraska, later resided for a time in Kansas, and in 1881 he removed with his family to Grayson County, Texas, near Sherman, where he remained until 1892, when he came to Oklahoma Territory and established his residence at Guthrie. Since 1906 he has maintained his home in the vicinity of Wanette, Pottawatomie County, where he is a prosperous agriculturist and stock raiser. He is a republican in politics and is a veteran of the Civil war, in which he gave valiant service as a member of an Iowa regiment of volunteer infantry. He and his wife have an attractive home in the state of their adop- tion and are numbered among the sterling pioneer citi- zens of Oklahoma. Of their children Doctor Dawson of this review is the youngest; Thomas B. is a progressive farmer near Wanette; Ollie, who is deceased, was the wife of John Williams, who is still engaged in farming near Wanette; William W. is a successful agriculturist of the same locality; Charles T. is engaged in the lumber business at Luther, Oklahoma County; LeRoy is a farmer near Wanette; Lucy is the wife of William Van Meter, a farmer near the City of Guthrie; and John is another of the progressive agriculturists of Pottawatomie County.

The rudimentary education of Doctor Dawson was ac- quired in Texas and, as already noted, he was about eight years of age at the time of the family removal to Okla- homa, where he was enabled to continue his studies in the public schools of the City of Guthrie until he had com- pleted a course in the high school, in which he was grad- uated in 1906. For a year thereafter he gave his atten- tion to the buying of cotton and he finally entered the medical department of the University of Oklahoma, in which he was graduated as a member of the class of 1912 and from which he received his degree of Doctor of Medicine. He soon afterward established his residence at Wayne, where he has since continued in active general practice and where he has gained distinctive success, besides holding secure place in the confidence and esteem of the community and stauding forth as a progressive and public-spirited citizen. The doctor is a member of the Oklahoma State Medical Society and the McClain County Medical Society and of two Greek letter fraterni- ties, Beta Theta Pi and Phi Beta Pi. He is also a mem-

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ber of Wayne Lodge of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. His political allegiance is given to the republi- can party, but he has no desire to enter the arena of prac- tical politics, as he deems his profession worthy of his undivided attention. The doctor is still a bachelor.

DR. P. G. MURRAY. Six years ago Dr. P. G. Murray came to Thomas, Oklahoma, and engaged in medical practice. He has been here occupied in a professional way since that time. He came as a young physician, with some more than four years of actual practice behind him, but his record here has been highly creditable to him and to the medical fraternity. He is well established in Thomas and enjoys a pleasing popularity. Doctor Murray was born in Sedgewickville, Missouri, on March 9, 1880, and he is a son of H. J. Murray, born in Bollinger County, Missouri, in 1845. The senior Murray is now a resident of Thomas, having come here in the year 1913, after his retirement from his lifelong business as a farmer and stockman in his native county.

The Murray family is one that has long been established on American soil. It is of Scottish origin, and three brothers, Bennett, William and James, came together to these shores in early Colonial days, settling in North Carolina, where many of the name will be found today. The ancestor of the subject was Bennett Murray, and Doctor Murray has a brother named in his honor.

H. J. Murray was born and reared in Bollinger County, Missouri, and when the war broke out in 1861 he enlisted from his county, serving two years in the Union army. He was taken prisoner, but was exchanged after several months of prison life, and returned to his home to recuperate from the effects of that unfortunate experi- ence. He married Sarah Dunlap, who was born in Perry County, Missouri, in 1849, and they became the parents of a large family of fourteen children, named as fol- lows: Morris, now deceased; Bennett, a merchant, living in Independence, Oklahoma; James, a farmer and teacher, living near Thomas, Oklahoma; Charles, a farmer and teacher, living near Marquard, Missouri; the fifth child died in infancy; Anna married Robert Vance, and they live in Thomas, Oklahoma; Dr. P. G. was the seventh born; Travis lives in Pittsburg, Kansas; Ray, a farmer, lives in Thomas, Oklahoma; John died in infancy; Levi lives in Waurika, Oklahoma, and is a graduate of Barnes Medical College, now in practice in Waurika; Mary married Emil Mabuce, a farmer of Marquard, Missouri; David, a teacher, lives in Thomas with his father; Lew also lives at home.

Doctor Murray attended the public schools in Sedge- wiekville, Missouri, and he was graduated from the high school there in 1896. He then entered the Marvin Colle- giate Institute, in Fredericktown, Missouri, and continued there for two years, after which he engaged in teaching, and for three years thereafter he was employed in the public schools in Bollinger County. In the spring of 1899 he went to Custer County, Oklahoma, where he taught school for a year, and in 1901 he entered Barnes Medical College in St. Louis, from which he was gradu- ated in 1905 with the degree M. D. Since that time Doctor Murray has returned on several occasions for clinics and post-graduate work, supplementary to a very complete medical training, so that he is well equipped for the work he has chosen. Doctor Murray first began practice in Patton, Missouri, and he continued there in practice until April 4, 1909, when he took up his residence in Thomas, Oklahoma, and has here been located ever since, with offices in the B. & H. drug store.

Doctor Murray is a member of the county, state and American Medical societies, and aside from his regular practice he is examining physician for the Pacific Mutual,

the Bankers Reserve, the Midland, the Oklahoma National, the Mid-Continent and the Merchants Life Insurance companies. He is also serving in the same capacity the Modern Woodmen of America, the Royal Neighbors and the Brotherhood of American Yeomen. He served the City of Patton in the office of health physician while practicing there, and has given the same service to Thomas. He is a republican. A member of the Methodist Church, Doctor Murray is serving that body as a steward and trustee. His fraternal affiliations are with the Modern Woodmen and the Yeomen, and he is an alumnus of Barnes Medical College. He is a member of the Thomas Chamber of Commerce, and has taken an active part in municipal affairs since identifying himself with the community.

On July 27, 1905, Doctor Murray was married in Yount, Missouri, to Miss Ellen Heitman, daughter of William Heitman, a prominent miller and farmer of Yount. They have two children: David William, born May 3, 1906, and Mary Jane, born August 24, 1907.

THOMAS J. PALMER. Of those who pioneered into the Strip country of Oklahoma in 1893, it is doubtful if there has been a more energetic and influential and useful citizen than Thomas J. Palmer, whose local work has identified him particularly with the Town of Med- ford in Grant County, but whose influence in politics, in the prohibition movement, and in all movements for uplift and betterment, has helped to make the texture of Oklahoma life what it is today.

It will be recalled that the famous run at the opening of the Cherokee Strip was made on Saturday. On the following Tuesday, September 19th, Thomas J. Palmer arrived from Hutchinson, Kansas. He had since 1887 lived in Kansas, chiefly at Meade. He has had a long and versatile career. For a number of years he lived in Iowa, and went from Mason City in that state to Kansas. During the twenty-two years of his Iowa residence he was a school teacher for six years and the rest of his time an active newspaper man. While it would be impossible to classify Mr. Palmer by any one vocation or line of activity in Medford, he has longest been identified with the newspaper profession in this and other states.

Thomas J. Palmer was born at Port Perry, Canada, February 6, 1847. While both he and his father were natives of Canada, earlier ancestors were from the United States. His great-grandfather was Ebenezer Palmer, said to be a direct descendant of one of the Mayflower Pilgrims of the Plymouth Colony. Ebenezer Palmer seems to have been a frontiersman, and spent much of his life in the then Far West. Stephen Palmer, grandfather of the Oklahoma citizen, was a native of Pennsylvania and went from that state to Canada, where he did some pioneering on his own account in the Canadian woods. Stephen Palmer married Abigail Jones, who was of German descent. Their children were David, Thomas, Henry, Joseph, Elizabeth and Amanda.

Thomas Palmer, father of Thomas J., was also a native of Canada, was a shoemaker by trade, spent his life in that vocation and in the cooperage business. He alone among all the children of Stephen Palmer came to the United States. He located in Iowa, where he farmed and conducted a store, and his death occurred at What- cheer, Iowa. It was in 1865 that he brought his family to the United States. He was an Adventist in religion and a member of the sect known as "Millerites." Thomas Palmer married Catherine McVay. She also died and is buried at Whatcheer, Iowa. She was a native of Canada, and had in her veins the blood of Irish, German and Scotch, while her husband was both

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English and German, so that their children possessed an unusual mingling of those substantial ancestral stocks which have had most to do with the settlement and development of the New World. Thomas and Catherine Palmer were the parents of the following children: Daniel D., who is noted as the founder and originator of the science of chiropractic, and he founded a school for the propagation of the art at Davenport, Iowa, though he died in Los Angeles, California, October 20, 1914, leaving a family of three children: Thomas J. Palmer is the second in age; Lucinda is married and lives at Plattsmouth, Nebraska; Jennie is the wife of H. G. Palmer of Tacoma, Washington; Bartlett D. died at Whatcheer, Iowa; Mrs. Katie Wiles lives in Platts- mouth, Nebraska.

Thomas J. Palmer at the age of five years started to attend school in Canada, and until nearly nine years his only teacher was a man named John Black. He made rapid advance in his studies, and before he was ten years of age was carrying high school work, including the sciences. The health of his father and other causes then kept him out of school for several years, but he finally had another nine months of instruction just before he became a teacher. He was eighteen when he took the Goose Creek School in his home county in Iowa. He had been promised the school by a board of directors before he interviewed them, his qualifications having been introduced to the board by a lawyer friend. He was promised the school on condition that he secured a third grade certificate. He agreed to try for the certificate and rode horseback to the county seat and passed the ordeal of examination in four hours. So well did he acquit himself that he was almost granted a first grade. certificate. His clothes were ragged, his trouser linings showed at the knees and coat linings at the elbows, and he might well have been an object of curios- ity to all eyes. His exceedingly creditable showing in the examination was the surprise of the superintendent in charge as well as of the board where he taught. He was accepted as the new teacher after an overnight session with one of the board, who "tried him out" and advanced him ten dollars for a new suit of clothes. To put himself in the good graces of the larger boys of the school he spent a week before the opening attending spelling schools and literary societies, and took the lead in all matters in which the senior boys would be interested. In consequence he was "passed" by these larger scholars and endorsed by them in a public motion while on the road home from one of the spelling bees. The fact that Mr. Palmer entered so earnestly and en- thusiastically into his task make it hardly necessary to state that he was a very successful teacher. He had the aid of his influential pupils and the patrons of the dis- triet, and showed much originality as a teacher. He attracted more than local attention to the various new methods he instituted for arousing interest in the pupils in the various subjects studied. For six years he was a teacher in Iowa and for a similar period in Mercer County, Illinois. While in the latter state he was for three years president of the Mercer County Teachers' Association. While there he explained his plan of teach- ing spelling to the advanced pupils, and his demonstra- tion so interested President Edwards of the Illinois State University that the latter subsequently prepared and published upon the lines suggested by Mr. Palmer the school text book known as Edwards' Analytical Speller. Mr. Palmer did his last work in the school room in Hardin County, Iowa, just before entering the news- paper field.

Soon after coming from Canada to the United States Mr. Palmer took out his naturalization papers. His

first political attitude was that of the independent. Subsequently he became a granger, when that move- ment was at its height and from that took up the cause of the greenback party. When the republican party adopted the principal planks of the greenback party he united with the older and larger organization. He became a republican also for the reason that the Iowa republicans took up the prohibition movement in the state and directed its influence to the suppression of the liquor traffic. The main policies of the old greenback party were the remonetization of silver, the reissue of greenbacks and the adoption of prohibition. All these principles Mr. Palmer espoused, and when they were adopted by the republican organization he found no difficulty in effecting a partisan change. Mr. Palmer was a personal friend of the late General J. B. Weaver, the eminent Iowa statesman, and has been a close student and observer of political progress in the Middle West for fully forty years.

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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