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 34

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 34

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A number of years ago while living in Iowa Mr. Palmer, in order to express his convictions on some of the burning questions of the hour, prepared an article on some phase of the financial problems and asked a local newspaper to publish it. The request was refused, and Mr. Palmer then determined to have the article expressing his views given to the public if he had to found a newspaper himself. Thus it was that he entered the field where his abilities have given him much promi- nence in later years. He first took up newspaper work in Greenfield, Iowa, where he founded the Greenback Patriot. His capital when he entered this business was sixty cents, and he walked from the railroad station to Greenfield, which was then without a railroad, because he did not have enough money to hire a conveyance. He had ordered a plant and equipment costing fourteen hundred dollars from the Illinois Type Foundry Com- pany of Chicago, and secured the services of a practical printer to install the new plant. He soon afterwards became the sole proprietor and for some time made his paper a noted organ for greenback doctrines. Later he moved his paper to Muscatine, where he renamed it the Muscatine Patriot and subsequently it was taken to Whatcheer and there was called the Whatcheer Patriot. The policy of the Whatcheer Patriot was largely inde- pendent in political matters, but proved a strenuous advocate for the suppression of the liquor traffic. In the face of violent contrary public sentiment, the Patriot led the way and was one of the chief factors in abolish- ing the thirty-two saloons of Whatcheer. Some of the doctrines which Mr. Palmer espoused in earlier days have already been worked into the general political and social policy of the country, and for others there have been substituted different policies. But prohibition is still a vital question, perhaps more so taking the nation at large than ever before, and hardly anyone could claim to have worked more devotedly for its success during the last thirty years than this Oklahoma man. He early saw that the success of prohibition would be most definitely advanced whenever either of the two larger political parties should endorse the policy. When the republicans in his section of Iowa wrote a prohibition plank into the platform he joined that party, and he made his aid count for a great deal in the results which subsequently brought about the adoption of a local option amendment to the state constitution.

In 1886, having sold his paper and other interests at Whatcheer Mr. Palmer went to Mason City, bought the Republican there, consolidated it with the Express, sold a half interest, and after making considerable profit in the enterprise disposed of his business and went to Meade Center, Kansas. He arrived in that town during

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HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA

the midst of its boom, and left it when the financial crisis came on in 1892. While at Meade Center he conducted the Meade Republican, which he founded and which he published for six years as a republican organ. In 1893 he moved the plant to Hutchinson and for a few months published a daily paper espousing the policies of the republican party and showing an unmitigated enmity to the saloons.

When in September, 1893, the Cherokee Strip was opened for settlement, Mr. Palmer moved his newspaper plant to Medford, and there founded the Medford Pa- triot. Medford at that time was a town only in name. The depot and small grocery were the meager nucleus of business. He at once erected a building, and soon published the first copy of the oldest paper now in Grant County. Grant County was then called "L" County. He had hardly been here a week before he was using his influence in behalf of political organization and for the extension of his policies in line with the republican party and as a prohibitionist. He soon met some of his old acquaintances from Iowa and Kansas, and he was one of the leaders in moulding republican sentiment and shaping the affairs of the locality. In a county republi- can convention he suggested the name of Grant for the new county. Up to that time some of the letters of the alphabet had been used to designate the civil divisions in the Cherokee Country. In February, 1898, Mr. Palmer was made postmaster of the Town of Medford. He filled that office for more than eleven years, having succeeded D. L. Cline in the office. While postmaster he was ap- pointed by Judge Burford as United States Court Com- missioner. He performed the duties of that office without a bond for five years, and in that time thousands of dollars of public money passed through his hands, and there was never a flaw in his records.

At the incorporation of Medford he was inspector and turned the town to the first officers chosen by ballot without a dollar of indebtedness. For four years he was president of the Board of Education, from the time of the organization of the district. While he was in that office there was not a warrant presented to the school treasurer and endorsed "not paid for want of funds." In every line of advancement in Medford he and his paper, The Patriot, were always in the front leading the way. In a material way he has contributed substantially to the town in the Opera House and a brick store build- ing. For several years he was postmaster, court com- missioner, manager of the Opera House and editor of the Patriot all at one time, and probably the busiest and hardest working citizen of Medford.

Soon after coming to Oklahoma Mr. Palmer began attending the state republican conventions and has done much to direct that party in its state campaign. He is personally acquainted with all the men who have served Oklahoma in the time of its greatest development, and from the first issue of his paper to the last he was an unswerving and determined enemy and opponent of the liquor traffic. On March 1, 1910, he sold the Patriot and has since been in the ranks as a private citizen, though his interest in public affairs is in no wise abated. He hopes to live to see national prohibition, but in any case he realizes that such a condition cannot be many years away. Considering the opportunities that sur- rounded his own early youth Mr. Palmer has had a really remarkable career. From the first he had high moral standards and ideals, and in following them he has probably accomplished work of greatest benefit. As a boy he spent his money for books instead of for tobacco and other pleasures, although at a later date he tried tobacco for three months, only to his disgust.

On April 4, 1871, at Port Perry, Canada, he married

Miss Sarah Lazier, daughter of James B. and Hannah (Orser) Lazier. Mrs. Palmer was one of a family of seven children. Three children have been born to their union: May is the wife of George E. Honey, local agent for the Santa Fe Railway at Kingman, Kansas. Clyde N. is a printer at LaGrande, Oregon, and married Miss Rena Aikens. Cora is now Mrs. F. C. Wright of Wakita, Oklahoma. Mrs. Wright was educated in music, gradu- ating from the famous musical college at Lindsborg, Kansas, took private instruction for six years with Ella Bachus Behr of Kansas City, spent two years abroad in Berlin, and another year in New York City. She also taught a year in Wichita College of Music, while pursu- ing her studies, and after her education was finished she continued as an instructor and leader in musical affairs until her marriage.

MONT Z. SPAHR. In both the paternal and maternal lines Mont Zartman Spahr is a scion of families that were founded in America prior to the war of the Revolution, the lineage- of the Spahr family tracing back to sterling Holland Dutch origin and the pro- genitors of the American branch having left Holland at the time of the religious reformatory movement in that country in the seventeenth century and upon coming to America having settled in the Virginia colony, the maternal ancestors of Mr. Spahr having settled in Pennsylvania about the same time. Edward Spahr, grandfather of him whose name introduces this para- graph, was born in the beautiful Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, in 1778, and he became one of the pioneer settlers in Greene County, Ohio, where he reclaimed and developed a farm and where he continued to reside until his death, which occurred in 1861.

Since 1908 Mr. Spahr has been one of the successful and popular representatives of the pedagogic profession in Oklahoma, and his zeal and ambition are based on thorough academic or literary training, the while his marked ability as an executive has tended greatly to conserve his success in the vocation which he has fol- lowed for virtually a quarter of a century. He is now the incumbent of the position of superintendent of the public schools of the village of Foss, Washita County, and has brought the same up to high standard, the while he has personally gained secure vantage-ground as one of the representative figures in educational circles in this section of the state.

Mr. Spahr was born in Greene County, Ohio, on the 5th of November, 1866, and is a son of John E. and Adelia (Zartman) Spahr, the former of whom was likewise a native of Greene County, Ohio, where he was born in 1832, and the latter of whom was born in Pennsylvania, in 1834. Both passed the closing years of their lives in Wayne County, Nebraska, where the mother passed to eternal rest in 1904 and the father in 1909. Of their children the eldest is Frank, who is a prosperous farmer in Wayne County, Nebraska; Annie died in that county, at the age of twenty-six years, she having been the wife of Ora Newton, who is now a merchant in the City of Pasadena, California; Charles is engaged in the live-stock business in Phillips County, Kansas; Mont Z., of this review, was the next child; Wilbur is a retired farmer residing in Wayne County, Nebraska, where Harvey, the next in order of birth, is a progressive and successful agriculturist; and Maude is the wife of Henry W. Perkins, a successful contractor residing at Loveland, California.

John E. Spahr was reared and educated in Greene County, Ohio, where his early experiences were those gained in connection with the work of the home farm. After his marriage he continued his activities as a farmer in his native county until 1876, when he removed

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with his family to Shelby County, Iowa, in which sec- tion of the Hawkeye State he remained until 1881, when he removed to Wayne County, Nebraska, where he purchased a tract of land and where he became a pros- perous agriculturist and stock-grower, both he and his wife having there passed the residue of their lives and both having been zealous members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, in which he served for a long period in the office of steward. At the time of the Civil war Mr. Spahr was enrolled as a member of the state militia, or home guard, of Ohio, circumstances having made it impossible for him to go to the front in defense of the cause of the Union, though he did all in his power to further and uphold that cause and to aid the needy families of soldiers. He was a stalwart advocate of the principles of the republican party and his mature judg- ment and well fortified opinions were such as to equip him well for the prominent part which he took in politi- cal and other public affairs in the various communities in which he lived at different stages in his active and useful life.

Mont Z. Spahr was a lad of about ten years at the time of the family removal to Iowa, and the rudimentary education he had gained in the schools of his native county in the old Buckeye State was supplemented by his attending the schools of Iowa, the while he assisted materially in the work and management of the home farm. He remained at the parental home until he had attained to the age of nineteen years, and thereafter he provided the means through which he acquired his higher education and fitted himself for the profession in which he has achieved such distinctive success. In 1891 Mr. Spahr was graduated in the Western Iowa Normal College, at Shenandoah, from which he received the degree of Bachelor of Didactics, at the completion of a two years' course. In the following year he was gradu- ated also in the Nebraska State Normal School at Wayne, and for the four ensuing years he held the office of superintendent or principal of various public schools in Wayne County, that state. In 1896, counting as satisfactory naught but the best possible fortification for his exacting and responsible vocation, Mr. Spahr attended the Central Normal College in the City of Indianapolis, Indiana, and from this admirable insti- tution he received the degrees of Bachelor of Science and Bachelor of Pedagogy. Prior to this Mr. Spahr had served as principal of public schools in the Gulf coast section of Texas, his services in this capacity having been rendered, in turn, at Alvin, Hallettsville and Edna. After his course in the college at Indianapolis he became principal of the public schools of Portales, New Mexico, where he remained thus engaged until 1911, in July of which year he came to Oklahoma and assumed his pres- ent position, that of superintendent of the schools at Foss, Washita County. Under his supervision is a corps of five specially competent teachers, who give to him most earnest and effective co-operation, and the enroll- ment of pupils in the village schools numbers 175.

Mr. Spahr has made himself one of the vigorous and influential factors in the general community life and is enthusiastic in all that pertains to the work of the schools, so that his administration has proved altogether effective and worthy of popular approval. His political allegiance is given to the republican party, he is affiliated with the Foss Lodge No. 204, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, he is identified with the Oklahoma State Teachers' Association and the National Teachers' Asso- ciation, and both he and his wife hold membership in the Methodist Episcopal Church, South.

in Southern Ohio, and who was a successful and popular teacher prior to her marriage, of which no children have been born. William R. Kimmans, father of Mrs. Spalır, was a representative business man at Alvin, Texas, at the time of his death, and his wife also is deceased.

DAVID W. VANN. Among the well known merchants and farmers of Marshall County, one who for fifteen years has assisted in maintaining a high standard in both commercial and agricultural affairs is David W. Vann, of Woodville, a citizen universally respected in his community by reason of his strict business integrity and high order of citizenship. He belongs to a family around which romance and history entwine in the Chero- kees and Chickasaws. Gen. Stand Watie, the noted Cherokee general, who displayed such gallant courage in behalf of the Southern Confederacy during the Civil war, and who was known as Degatugo in the Cherokee tongue, was the commander under whom William Vann, the father of David W. Vann, served during the war between the states. At Cabin Creek William Vann helped to take 600 wagons and teams from the Union troops; at Pea Ridge he marched away in defeat with- ont the lead of General Mccullough, who was killed. Belle Starr, the noted woman outlaw and desperado was captured and her gang broken up on the Canadian River through the efforts of William Vann, who was at that time sheriff of the Canadian District of the Cherokee Nation. Dick Triplett, another noted Chero- kee outlaw, who had escaped the clutches of the law, was captured by Deputy Sheriff Vann after Sheriff Stand Gray had refused to make the arrest because of fear. William Vann replaced Sheriff Gray and the older residents of that section still remember the bravery and absolute fearlessness of this officer who operated in the desperate days following the close of the Civil war.

The Vann family, preceding the war between the North and the South, had been considered wealthy Indians; they had about seventy-five negroes as slaves and cattle whose increase was enough to bring in a splendid yearly income. After the war, their home destroyed, their property gone and their nation devas- tated, William Vann and his family went South into the land of the Chickasaws. Here he found among the people of his adoption a faithful helpmate in Miss Lottie Willis, sister of Holmes and Britt Willis, and daughter of J. Hamp Willis, who with his brother, Britt, left their Tennessee home to marry among the Indians, Britt uniting with a Choctaw girl and J. Hamp with a Chickasaw girl. Thus the two families of Willis: one Choctaw and one Chickasaw. Gabe E. Parker, of Mus- kogee, superintendent of Indian Affairs, is the grand- son of Britt Willis.

In the spring of 1868, William Vann moved with his Chickasaw wife back to the Cherokee Nation, and it was after this removal that he became sheriff and suc- .ceeded in breaking up the many bands of outlaws that infested the Cherokee country. After his service as sheriff, he served for ten years as a member of the Cherokee Council, and when finally defeated in election again returned to the Chickasaw Nation. Here he died March 15, 1911, and his widow died November 21, 1915. Six children were born to William and Lottie (Willis) Vann, all of whom are living: David W., of this review; Ellen, who married a Mr. Graves, a farmer near Wilkinson, Oklahoma (Cherokee Nation) ; James, who is associated with his brother David W. in the mercantile business at Woodville; Mrs. Georgia Lynch, who is one of the popular and efficient school teachers

At Alvin, Texas, on the 28th of June, 1899, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Spahr to Miss Zona Kimmans, who was born in the City of Wheeling, West Virginia, on the 2d of August, 1867, who was educated of Marshall County; Lulu and William reside at home.

Wm Varm

1877

HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA

David W. Vann was born at Willis, Oklahoma, then the old Chickasaw Nation of the Indian Territory, January 8, 1868. He was educated in the common schools which existed at the time of his boyhood and youth, but the important part of the requirements of that day did not consist of book learning so much as it did of the ability to maintain life. In August, 1891, Mr. Vann was married to Miss Fannie Doyle, of Web- ber's Falls, Cherokee Nation, and to this union there have been born five children, as follows: Lolo, now de- ceased; Louis, also deceased; Arthur, who is attending school at Muskogee; Jennie, who is attending school at Denison, Texas; and David P., who lives at home with his parents.

Mr. Vann came to Woodville in 1900, and embarked in the mercantile business, in association with farming. He has been successful in both lines of endeavor, being an energetic, enterprising and industrious man, with modern ideas and methods, who does not neglect his duties as a citizen. His only fraternal connection is with the local camp of the Woodmen of the World.

J. H. VANN. A native son of the Old Cherokee Na- tion, and a prominent farmer and stock raiser in the community of Woodville in Marshall County, J. H. Vann is one of the solid and substantial citizens of that section of Oklahoma.

He was born at Webber Falls in Canadian District, Cherokee Nation, a son of William and Lottie Vann. As a boy he attended the old Cherokee Male Seminary at Tahlequah, leaving school in his sophomore year, and afterwards took a business course at Muskogee. While there have been some minor experiences of his life, he has spent his years most profitably in farming and stock raising, and he also conducts a general store at Woodville and is one of the principal merchants in that county. He has prospered and has accumulated means that can be translated into sufficient comfort and satisfaction to provide liberally for himself and family.

Mr. Vann is a democrat, is affiliated with the Wood- men of the World and is a member of the Presbyterian Church. At Preston, Texas, near the Red River, on December 6, 1902, he married Miss Laula Gresham. They have a daughter and two sons. The daughter is Cloy Vann, and the sons are John Henry and James Edward Vann.

J. N. MCCALLISTER. The history of the people and country around Bartlesville is an open book of recollec- tions to J. N. McCallister, who has lived in that locality nearly twenty years, and has been not only a close observer but has been drawn into close participation in the events and affairs of a growing city. For the past ten years Mr. McCallister has been the leading under- taker of Washington County and with the aid of his children now conducts an establishment both at Bar- tlesville and at Dewey.

Born in Cass County, Missouri, August 18, 1871, he is a son of J. N. and M. F. (Mckinney) McCallister. His parents were also natives of Missouri, and lived there for several years after their marriage, when they moved to Montgomery County, Kansas, in 1873, and in 1881 went to Greenwood County, Kansas, where they are still living. His father is a retired merchant. He was a farmer up to 1881, and then engaged in merchandising, which was the basis of a successful career until he retired with a competence in 1903. The Bartlesville citizen is one of four children. His sister Maude is the wife of John A. Gill of Selma, Kansas; Bertha is the wife of Carl A. Dixon of Kansas; and Lela is now deceased.

Mr. McCallister grew up in Kansas and lived at home with his parents until he removed to the Cherokee Nation of Indian Territory on February 8, 1897, and this has been his home ever since. In the first spring of his arrival only twenty votes were cast in this community, and there was only a handful of white residents at that time. Up to the age of eighteen Mr. McCallister had attended school and worked for his father, then became a barber, and followed that trade fifteen years. For the past ten years he has given his time to his business as undertaker. Mr. McCallister was elected the first coroner of Washington County under statehood rule, and has the distinctiou of having performed the first inquest in the new state. He took the oath of office at 3 o'clock in the afternoon and was called upon to hold the inquest at 8 in the evening of the same day. At that inquest he secured the two bullets which had killed the first two men in Washington County after statehood, and has these as relics of that historic occasion. Mr. McCallister held the office of coroner for two years, and was the only one ever to hold that official position in Washington County, since in the meantime the courts had ruled that the con- stitution had not provided for such an office, and it has consequently not been a distinct subdivision of county functions since that time.

For the past ten years Mr. McCallister has given his entire time to undertaking, although he owns a farm in Washington County and one in Kansas. Since starting at Bartlesville he has established a branch of his business at Dewey. On first engaging in business at Bartlesville he erected a building on Third Street and then traded that for the one he now occupies at the corner of Second and Dewey Avenue. He is also interested in the oil industry.

Mr. McCallister is well known in fraternal circles, having affiliations with the Knights of Pythias, with the Uniform Rank of that order, with the Fraternal Order of Eagles, the Order of Owls, the Modern Woodmen of America, the Woodmen of the World, the W. C., with the Dramatic Order of Khorassan and with the Loyal Order of Moose and several other benevolent and mutual benefit organizations.

In 1891 Mr. McCallister married Miss Maggie Pedigo, who died in May, 1908. Two children survive her. Ernest lives at home and is associated with his father in busi- ness at Bartlesville. Daisy is the wife of C. H. Burt, and they manage the Dewey branch of the undertaking firm. Mr. McCallister has made his two children equal partners in the McCallister Undertaking Company. The son re- ceived a license as an embalmer when he was sixteen years of age, and that is the youngest age on record for such a distinction. Mr. and Mrs. Burt have one child, Bonita, and when she was born she made the fifth living generation in the family, her two great-great-grand- mothers being living at that time.

When Mr. McCallister came to the vicinity of Bartles- ville a wheat field covered a portion of the site now occupied by the flourishing city, and all the country south of Third Street was an open range. Among his interesting relics of the past is a photograph taken fifteen years ago showing himself and a party of friends with more than 500 pounds of catfish hauled out of the Caney River at one catch. One of the fish weighed more than sixty-five pounds. These fish were taken out at the dam in the river.

PLUMER W. LUTMAN. . Maintaining his residence in the thriving little City of Edmond, Oklahoma County, and prominently concerned in its development and upbuilding, Mr. Lutman has been a resident of this county since 1898, and that he has an impregnable place in popular confidence and esteem needs no further voucher

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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