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 39

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 39

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CHARLIE ELLIS THORNTON. Ranking as one of the representative business men of Washita County is Charlie Ellis Thornton, proprietor of an undertaking and furniture establishment at the county seat, Cordell. He is also known as a man who has contributed to the wel- fare and advancement of the city, and although a com- paratively recent addition to the life of Cordell has already strongly entrenched himself in the confidence of its citizens. Mr. Thornton comes of a family which located prior to the Revolution in Georgia, and was born April 8, 1877, at Black Springs, Montgomery County, Arkansas, a son of A. N. and Mary (Sloan) Thornton.

A. N. Thornton was born in Georgia in 1843, and still survives, hale and hearty in spite of his seventy-three years. He has a winter home at Corpus Christi, Texas, while during the summer months he resides at Cordell. Mr. Thornton enlisted for service in the war between the states in 1861, as a member of a Georgia regiment in the Confederate army, and served four years with gallantry and valor, Later he removed to Black Springs, Montgomery County, Arkansas, and in 1891 to Limestone County, Texas, settling near Mexia. After four years he moved to the Panhandle and took up a ranch near Memphis, Texas, where he and his son, Charles E., owned nine sections of land, and although their large and valu- able ranch property has been sold, the greater part of Mr. Thornton's interests are still centered at Memphis. Mr. Thornton is a deacon in the Baptist Church. He has been active in democratic politics, and at one time served as justice of the peace. Mr. Thornton married Miss Mary Sloan, also a native of Georgia, and they became the parents of six children, namely; Tommie. who was a carpenter and met his death in 1879, at Black Springs, Arkansas, when he fell from a scaffolding while working on a church belfry; Nettie, who is the wife of S. P. Mckinney, an electrician of Amarillo, Texas; Lee M., who owns several farms in the vicinity of Memphis: A. H., who is a school teacher and minister of the Baptist Church. at Cordell; Charlie Ellis, of this notice: and E. K., who was a cattleman and died at Rio. Texas, in 1914.

Charlie E. Thornton secured a graded school educa- tion. and was attending the high school at Mexia in 1895, when the family moved to Memphis. Leaving school at that time. he assisted his father in the work of the ranch until 1906. then entering the furniture business at Memphis. where he continued for one year. He next moved to Rowe, Donald County, Texas, and established himself in the general merchandise business. but after one vear his store was destroved by fire. He rebuilt, but soon thereafter disposed of his interests and went

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HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA

to Clarendon, Texas, where he engaged in the grocery business, a successful enterprise with which he was identified until ill health caused him to sell out, in 1909. He next spent one and one-half years at Sulphur, Okla- homa, and April 8, 1911, came to Cordell, where he has since been engaged in the undertaking and furniture business. His store is situated on the west side of the square, the ground floor being 100 by 25 feet, and the second floor 75 by 50 feet, and in addition to a large stock of furniture, is equipped with every known appli- ance for the dignified and reverent handling of the dead. Mr. Thornton has a patronage which extends into Washita and the surrounding counties, and his business reputation is an excellent one all over this section. Mr. Thornton is a democrat and a member of the Baptist Church. He is an active and enthusiastic mem- ber of the Cordell Commercial Club, and is fraternally identified with Cordell Lodge No. 167, Independent Order of Odd Fellows Memphis Lodge No. 729, and Cordell Chapter No. 75, of the Masonic Order; Cordell Chapter No. 206, Order of the Eastern Star; and Cordell Lodge of the Brotherhood of American Yeomen.

On December 11, 1899, in Childress County, Texas, Mr. Thornton was married to Miss Ollie Barnett, daughter of J. A. Barnett, a capitalist of Clarendon, Texas. Two children have been born to this union: Moselle, born in February, 1902, and now a freshman at Cordell High School; and Harry, born in October, 1903, who is attending the Cordell graded schools.

G. M. BARRETT, prosecuting attorney of MeCurtain County, went alone on a tour of inspection of the moon- shine regions of the old Choctaw Nation in 1911. For a week he traveled, unmolested and practically unques- tioned, never suspected, visiting one community after another, making memoranda of the location of the dis- tilleries and charging his memory with the names and physiognomies of the men operating them. Back in his office at Idabel, he marshalled his data, placed some of the names of operators he had obtained upon war- rants, and held a conference with Sheriff Tom Graham. The important result was the capitulation of six dis- tilleries, the confiscation of their property, the arrest of a "higher up" in the liquor manufacturing business, the confessions of several others who voluntarily sur- rendered, and-a brass band. The brass band led a parade of law-abiding citizens of MeCurtain County who rejoiced in the clever work of the young Arkansas lawyer whom they had elected prosecuting attorney and in the fact that he had achieved what United States officials had not accomplished in half a century of effort. The brass band was also a feature of the reception given Mr. Barrett, and, piled upon a wagon that featured in the parade, were the kettles and other paraphernalia of the moonshiners.

Mr. Barrett's clue that led to this clever piece of work was secured in Sevier County, Arkansas, where he was reared and where he had known two illicit manu- facturers of liquor who had established themselves later in Indian Territory where settlements were fewer and molestation infrequent. These men were brothers and in his campaigns of the county for office, Mr. Barrett had learned of their location. His lonely journey as a sleuth led him there, and on a public highway he met one of the brothers, but was not recognized.

His route to a still usually was found by an almost unfailing sign, i. e. the stumps of small trees that had been cut for logs to use in the construction of liquor plants. With few exceptions he found the plants far removed from public highways and in almost inacces- sible canyons and caves of the wildest section of the

Kiamichi Mountains, although one was discovered withir 200 yards of the public road which he was traveling.

"Mountain Dew" he found in divers quantities. The most prosperous of operators put their product in bar rels and it was hauled to points in Arkansas on the Kan sas City Southern. Others put it in kegs and jugs and bottles and delivered it to peddlers who operated ir adjoining territory, visiting such settlements in the mountains as Hochatown, Ida, Bethel, Smithville anc Alikchi, and at Idabel, Valliant, Garvin and Haworth in the southern part of the county. A few moonshiners raised the crops of corn from which their white liquor was made, while others depended upon the little farmers of the mountain country to sell them corn or to trade to Chard it for liquor. Mr. B

The first moonshiner placed in jail happened to be at Garr one of the men whom Mr. Barrett had known in Arkan- raising, sas and whom he visited in his cell, relating his experi- ence as a detective. The man, in his surprise, confessed to being a moonshiner, whereupon, he and .Mr. Barrett agreed that if this man would return to the mountains, advise his fellows of the coup and the predicament they were in, and assist the sheriff in delivering their plants into possession of the county, there would be prosecutions of only the oldest of them in the business, provided all agreed to refrain from re-entering the busi- ness. The moonshiner was thereupon released upon his own recognizance. He headed for the mountains and in a few days six plants had been brought in by the sheriff and all the men connected with them had sur- rendered. The men agreed among themselves who should plead guilty and when they were presented to Mr. Bar- rett he recommended light sentences. These occurrences happened in 1911. For several years the Kiamichis were tolerably free of the big stills.

G. M. Barrett was born in Dyer County, Tennessee, June 7, 1874, and is a son of John F. and Ulysses Luvisa (Hopper) Barrett. His father, born in North Carolina, ran away from home at the age of fourteen years to join his three brothers who were in the Confed- erate army, in which he likewise enlisted and was wounded three times, the last wound being received at Appomattox, where General Lee surrendered. Mr. Bar- rett was taken a prisoner and on account of his wound was not finally released until nearly a year after the war had closed. In the meantime, a negro boy came to the hospital and inquired if a Confederate soldier was there, and, on being introduced to Mr. Barrett, remained with him until after he had rejoined his relatives in Ten- nessee. When he returned to his former home in North Carolina, after a long and arduous trip on a sore leg, he found that his father had taken his wife and other children and set out for a new home in the West. About the same time, Mrs. Hopper, also widowed by the war, took her two boys and two girls from their home in South Carolina and headed for the West. It happened that the Barrett and Hopper families joined and made the trip together, locating in Middle Ten- nessee. After much wandering, veteran John F. Bar- rett found the remnant of his family, and in due time was married to Ulysses Luvisa Hopper. They became the parents of six sons: G. M., Earnest L., a farmer at Corn Hill, Arkansas; John W. and J. E., farmers at Garvin, Oklahoma, and S. S. and C. C., who are teachers. At the close of the war, John F. Barrett settled on an unimproved farm of eighty acres in Arkansas, near Brownstown, where he resided for some years, but finally moved to Garvin, Oklahoma, where he now makes his home.

G. M. Barrett was reared on the home farm, where he remained until he was twenty-one years of age, and

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1893

HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA

at that time started out to secure an education. "I had a yearning for an education, " he says, "an ambition to rise in the world and increase the sphere of my use- fulness. My father, who desired to help me all he could, furnished me with provisions and I rented a small house where I did my own cooking and cut wood on Saturdays to pay rent. I worked out and went to school until I was able to teach. I then studied law and July 9, 1902, was admitted to practice law in Little River County, Arkansas. I was admitted to practice in the United States courts September 11, 1905." In 1904, while still living in Arkansas, he bought the Little River News, at Ashdown, Arkansas, which he later sold to Charles L. Shinn, of Hale, Missouri.

Mr. Barrett came to Oklahoma in 1905 and located at Garvin, where he engaged in farming and stock raising, as well as in the practice of law. In 1906 he was secretary of the Democratic Central Committee of the 111th District, and on October 6th of that year, called the first primary election ever held in the district, this being for the purpose of nominating a candidate for the Constitutional Convention. The election call was issued by the committee, of which W. L. Ray was presi- dent, in session at Garvin, September 8, 1906. In 1907, Mr. Barrett made the race for the democratic nomination for county attorney, in the first statehood campaign, and was defeated by Robert E. Steel by a narrow margin. This campaign had an especially exciting feature in that it stirred certain republicans of the north end of the county, who believed Mr. Barrett would be nominated and who knew what his policy would be with reference to the enforcement of the law. In 1908 Mr. Barrett was appointed county attorney to suc- ceed Robert E. Steel, temporarily suspended, and in a letter, dated September 4th of that year, addressed to William H. Harrison, regarding the appointment, he said in part: "I pray God that when I shall have lived my allotted time out on earth and come to bid farewell to those who know me, I shall have the pleas- ure of knowing that my life has been of some service and has been appreciated. Next to my family the thing I treasure most is the friendship, well being and happiness of the people among whom I live." During the ten days of his incumbency of that office, Mr. Bar- rett convicted seven men for murder and one for lar- ceny. This was a record that had not been surpassed in the state, considering the brevity of time and the character of defense made by those he prosecuted.

In the campaign of 1910 Mr. Barrett made a speak- ing tour of the county in behalf of the celebrated "Grandfather Clause Act," which was given a sub- stantial majority by the county. In that year he came - before the people again as candidate for county attor- ney of McCurtain County, and was elected to that office without opposition in the general election, receiving 1,314 votes, the highest number 'cast for any county candidate, and the largest vote with one exception cast for any democratic candidate that year in Oklahoma. In 1912 he defeated Jeff D. Mclendon for the nomi- nation for the office and was re-elected by a large ma- jority. During his campaign in 1910, he said: "I am no politician and know nothing of politics. I did not come from a family of politicians. But must I be defeated because my father is not a politician, because he honored the plow handles instead of the judge's bench? Must the favored few always hold the posi- tions of honor and trust and the politicians rule our government? Are honesty and integrity qualifications worth anything against political influence?""

Among his first duties after entering the office of county attorney in 1910 were the preferring of charges,

involving failure to enforce the law, and Indian mis- dealings, against the county judge. Conditions relating to Indian transactions had reached an acute stage and Governor Cruce and Governor McCurtain of the Choctaw Nation were appealed to with the result that D. C. McCurtain was assigned to the county as special assist- ant attorney general to assist in an investigation started by Mr. Barrett. Judge Hill of MeAlester, and G. V. Mc Veigh, an Indian agent, also joined in the investiga- tion. This resulted in the removal from office of the county judge, the return to county of about $74,000 that had been unlawfully taken from the Indians and the deeding back to Indians of lands taken unlawfully. Mr. Barrett is essentially a prohibitionist and he had much to do with the McCurtain County prohibition ma- jority of 245 in the election of 1912 wherein it was sought to substitute local option for statewide pro- hibition.

No case he was ever engaged in had a more spectacular interest and is likely to be longer remembered in McCur- tain County than the Coltrane Case. He took it up long after the deeds of crime had been committed and judg- ment passed, and in fact his efforts were directed toward a righting of the processes of justice, a reparation to a man who had already served some half a dozen years in the Federal prison at Leavenworth, and a conviction of the real criminal.

Only a brief history of the case can be attempted. In the fall of 1902 Cicero and Sam Coltrane made ar- rangements to live a few months at the log home of Tom Watson and his rather attractive wife, a few miles from Hochatown. In a short time there was friction between Cicero Coltrane and Watson partly over business matters, partly, it is said, because of the former's attentions to Mrs. Watson. One evening in May, 1903, Cicero left the house to feed a hog. While near the pen he was shot down with a double barreled gun, one load being of fine shot and the other of buckshot. That night the body was conveyed to a field some distance away and buried.

The next day Sam Coltrane was arrested charged with the murder. While in custody he made a confession that he had killed Cicero, though neither at that time nor at any subsequent time was a strong and impelling motive for the killing given or proven.

Coltrane had his examining trial and was bound over to the United States Court. Suspicion was very strong against Watson also, and the officers arrested him. Later on he was bound over and placed in jail with Sam, but failing to get any testimony that would corroborate Sam's against Watson, and being unable to convict either Watson or Sam without using the testimony of Watson and his wife against Sam, the grand jury dropped the case against Watson and used Watson and his wife as witnesses against Sam. Thus after a number of trials and one or more disagreements, Sam Coltrane was sen- tenced before the Federal judge of Durant to serve the rest of his natural life in the Federal penitentiary at Leavenworth. He not only protested his innocence of the real crime but kept unceasingly diligent in securing the influence of friends to effect his release from prison and the establishment of his innocence.

It was after his election as county attorney that Mr. Barrett first became identified with the case. He had been in office only a few weeks when an old man named Saunders who lived in the Hochatown neighborhood was murdered in his home and his house burned down on the body. Mr. Barrett conducted an investigation and in the debris of the house found some scraps of letters, which indicated that the letters had been written from the penitentiary at Leavenworth. In the meantime Sam Col-

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HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA

trane having learned of the killing of Saunders, wrote Governor Cruce a synopsis of the killing of Cicero Col- trane, stating that Watson was the man who killed old man Saunders for the purpose of covering up all the facts in reference to the killing of Cicero. While old man Saunders was an important witness against Tom Watson, it was really his son Harry Saunders who had passed the Watson place on the evening of the killing of Cicero Coltrane, and Watson's wife had seen the young man and, though it being about dark had mistaken him for the father. Mr. Barrett soon afterward went to Leaven- worth and procured all information he could from Sam Coltrane. After examination of all the information, Mr. Barrett came to the conclusion that Watson was the real murderer, and that he had been led to kill the old man Saunders for the purpose of getting him out of the way as a last remaining witness against him. After Wat- son had killed Cicero for the protection of himself, he and his wife conspired together .to lay it all on Sam Coltrane, and that was an easy matter under the circum- stances since Coltrane was a comparative newcomer in the neighborhood and from the first realized that he could never get his word believed against that of Watson, and that his life depended upon his covering up the mur- der and shielding Watson. It was for this reason that he had consented to a plot outlined by Watson by which it was agreed that the first one arrested for the murder should assume all responsibility for it, while the other would lend his influence in getting the defendant cleared. Sam Coltrane thus fell a guileless victim to the plot, and while he was thus "accessory after the fact" he was not the real murderer.

All this was brought out by Attorney Barrett, who assembled a great volume of evidence and proceeded with characteristic vigor in the prosecution of the case against Watson subsequent to the Saunders murder. In 1912, a few months after Saunders was murdered and his house burned down, Tom Watson was indicted charged with the murder of Cicero Coltrane. Mr. Barrett conducted the prosecution of Watson, and toward the close of 1913 secured his conviction and Watson was subsequently sent to ten years confinement and a thousand dollars fine. In passing, it may be noted that Sam Coltrane has been pardoned and Mr. Barrett recently signed a petition for the pardon of Watson.

Mr. Barrett was united in marriage December 10, 1899, at Brownstown, Arkansas, to Miss Della R. Hern- dou, daughter of Robert Herndon and granddaughter of an officer in the Confederate army during the Civil war. To this union there has been born one daughter, Ulice, who is now ten years old. Mr. Barrett and his family are members of the Baptist Church. Fraternally, he is affiliated with the local lodges of the Masons, the Inde- pendent Order of Odd Fellows and the Woodmen of the World, and his professional connections include member- ship in the MeCurtain County and Oklahoma Bar asso- ciations.

GLEN W. DILL. The Dills, father and son, have been prominent in financial and other affairs at Hobart for twelve years, almost from the founding of the city. The late Judge D. S. Dill occupied a position of promi- nence and influence as a banker and attorney such as few of his contemporaries in Southwestern Oklahoma en- joyed, and since his death many of his financial activities have been assumed by his son Glen W., who now looks after the extensive farm loan business established by his father, and is also one of the largest stock holders and a director in the City National Bank of Hobart.

The late Judge D. S. Dill was born in Ohio in 1858, his ancestors having come originally from Germany, and

probably settled in Ohio from North Carolina. At the age of sixteen he went west from Ohio to Nickerson, Kansas, and eventually studied and became a lawyer. In 1887 he removed to Kansas City, Missouri, and in 1890 to Caldwell, Kansas, and at the opening of the Cherokee Strip established his home on a claim at Medford, Okla- homa. In 1903 he removed to Hobart, where he became prominent as one of the early lawyers and bankers and for ten years was an active force in everything connected with the civic and political life of that city and was con- spicuous as a town booster. He became president of the City National Bank, and held that position at the time of his death in January, 1913. Judge Dill was a trustee in the Presbyterian Church, was a member of Hobart Lodge No. 198, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, and was one of the leading democrats of Kiowa County. He married Cora Wolfinger, who was born in Ohio in 1863. Their children are: Glen W .; Todd, who was killed by a fall over a precipice in the Washita Moun- tains at the age of twenty just before he was ready to graduate from the Hobart High School; Cora Marie is now a freshman in the Hobart High School.

Glen W. Dill was born at Kansas City, Missouri, Feb- ruary 10, 1888, and since early childhood has lived in Oklahoma, having gained his early education in the public schools at Medford, and graduating from the Hobart High School with the class of 1906. In 1907 he took a business course in the Gem City Business Col- lege at Quincy, Illinois, and after returning to Hobart spent five years as bookkeeper in the City National Bank. In 1913, following the death of his father, he took charge of the large farm loan business and brokerage interests built up and established by his father in connection with banking, and has carried on this business which repre- sents an extensive clientage throughout Kiowa and sur- rounding counties. His offices are in the City National Bank Building. In the bank, of which his father was president, he is a director and one of the principal stock- holders. Mr. Dill is also secretary and treasurer of the Hobart Ice & Bottling Company, is secretary of the Hobart Mill & Elevator Company, and secretary of the Hobart Building & Loan Association.

In politics he is a democrat, is a trustee in the Pres- byterian Church, and is affiliated with Hobart Lodge No. 198, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, and Hobart Chapter No. 37, Royal Arch Masons. At Hobart in 1910 he married Miss Zelma Vandegrit, a daughter of the late D. E. Vandegrit, who was a real estate broker in Hobart but who died in Oklahoma City.

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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