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 40

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 40

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ALBERT ANDREW WEBER, M. D. Since the year 1908 the health and sanitation of the thriving little com- inunity of Bessie, in Washita County, have been under the care of Dr. Albert Andrew Weber, a medical and sur- gical practitioner who has brought to his practice a most thorough and comprehensive training and devotion and skill of a high order. Doctor Weber was born at Jack- son, Jackson County, Michigan, April 29, 1875, and is a son of John and Emina (Gass) Weber.

Albert Weber, the grandfather of Doctor Weber, served his term in the German army in his youth and when he entered upon his career chose the vocation of farming, in which he continued to be engaged throughout his life in the province of Wurtemburg, Germany. His death occurred at Esslingen, when his grandson was still very young, the grandfather being then seventy-four years of age. John Weber was born at Esslingen, Ger- many, in 1841, and emigrated to the United States in 1867, settling at Detroit, Michigan, where he was engaged in butchering. From Detroit he subsequently moved to Jackson, where he established himself in a wholesale

HEMAHOF F I 0

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HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA

and retail meat business, and with native thrift and in- dustry increased his holdings and enlarged his scope of operation so that his business activities invaded the fields of milling, real estate and banking, in all of which lines he met with unqualified success. He died at Jackson in 1891, aged fifty years, the possessor of a handsome prop- erty as well as of the regard and confidence of those among whom he had lived. He was a consistent member of the Lutheran Church, and a democrat in politics, and took a keen and active interest in civic affairs, as well as in the various lodges and fraternities to which he belonged, and which included the Harmonica, the Arbeiter Verein, the Turner Verein, the Maennerchor and the Inde- pendent Order of Odd Fellows. Mr. Weber married Miss Emma Gass, who was born in Ohio in 1854, and died at Jackson, Michigan, in 1884, and they became the parents of five children: Emma, who lives at Jackson, Michigan; Albert Andrew, of this review; John, who is a resident of Chicago; Charles, a bookkeeper residing at Jackson, Michigan; and Estella, who is the wife of James Moly- neaux, auditor for the Illinois Central Railroad at Chi- cago.

Albert Andrew Weber attended the public schools of Jackson, Michigan, and in his youth spent three years, from 1888 until 1891, in academic work at Stuttgart, Germany. He was graduated from the Jackson High School in the class of 1894, following which he went to the University of Michigan and was graduated in 1898 with the degree of Bachelor of Science. This was fol- lowed by three years of work in the medical department of the same institution, and his senior year was then passed at Rush Medical College, Chicago, where he re- ceived his degree of Doctor of Medicine in 1903. To further prepare himself he did hospital work in Chicago at St. Luke's Hospital as well as the Cook County Hos- pital and continued to practice in that city from June, 1903, until March, 1904. At that time he first came to Perry, Oklahoma, where he was engaged in practice for four years, and in this time was elected county coroner of Noble County, a position in which he was serving up to the time of his resignation, when, in June, 1908, he came to Bessie. Here he has continued iu the enjoyment of an excellent practice, attracted by his skill, sympathy and earnest devotion. He carries on a general practice in both medicine and surgery, being the only practi- tioner at Bessie, and belongs to the Washita County Medical Society, the Oklahoma Medical Society and the American Medical Association. He has continued to be a close and discriminating student, and in 1913 took a post-graduate course at Rush Medical College. Doctor Weber maintains well appointed offices in the O. P. Smith Drug Store, where he has a comprehensive medical library, and surgical equipment for the handling and care of the most difficult and delicate operations. He is a demo- crat in politics, and in addition to acting as coroner of Noble County was also a member of the insanity board while there. While reared in the faith of the German Lutheran Church, he attends the Presbyterian Church at Bessie. Fraternally, Doctor Weber belongs to Perry Lodge, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons; Perry Lodge of the Knights of Pythias; Bessie Camp of the Modern Woodmen of America, and the Phi Beta Pi Greek letter medical fraternity.

In 1908, at Perry, Oklahoma, Doctor Weber was mar- ried to Miss Frances E. Irwin, daughter of Milton Irwin, deceased, who was a millwright, and one child has been born to this union: Vivian Alberta, born September 17, 1911.

S. E. BELL. When Mr. Bell arrived in Bartlesville in 1903 he found it a village of a few hundred people

and just coming into fame as one of the centers of the oil and gas industry. Since that year his own fortunes and energies have been identified with the development of the oil resources, and his holdings and connections give him rank as one of the most prominent men in that industry in Northern Oklahoma.

S. E. Bell, who has spent many years in the old Indian Territory part of Oklahoma, was born at Mendon, Adams County, Illinois, December 29, 1863, a son of John A. and Eliza (Mills) Bell. His father was born in Indiana and his mother in Kentucky, and both were taken to Illinois when children and grew up and married there. The father enlisted at Canton in the spring of 1862 in an Illinois regiment of infantry, and was with the armies of Grant and Sherman until the close of the war. He took part in the Atlanta campaign, then in the march to the sea, and finally reached Washington and marched up Pennsylvania Avenue in the grand review after the close of the war. Soon after the war he removed to Knox County, in Northeastern Missouri, and about 1890 went to Neosho County, Kansas, where his wife died in 1897 at the age of fifty-six. The father is now living at Caney, Kansas, retired. In early life he was a farmer, but for many years was in the hard- ware business in Missouri and Kansas. He is a mem- ber of the Methodist Church and is a stanch republican. He served as mayor and justice of the peace at Cun- ningham, Missouri, and also as justice of the peace in Neosho County, Kansas, and as police judge at Caney.

S. E. Bell was one of a family of five sons and five daughters, all now living except two sons. His early life was spent at home until the age of seventeen, and his education came from the common schools. In 1883, when about twenty years of age, he went to Neosho County, Kansas, and spent two years as a clerk in a hardware store. For two years following he was in business for himself at Erie, Kansas, and then entered the Indian Territory and was employed for three years in a general store at Fort Gibson. For the next three years he was connected with the old Ann Percival store, a well known establishment in that part of the terri- tory. Mr. Bell finally came out of the Indian Territory and was engaged in the hardware and implement busi- ness at Caney, Kansas, until 1903. He then located in Bartlesville, which was then a mere hamlet, and has since made himself a factor in the oil industry, botlı as an individual operator and in association with others. He is president of the Bell Oil Company, incorporated, and was formerly president of the Lehman-Bell Oil Com- pany. He is now manager of the co-partnership company of Bell, Stratton & Company, operating extensively in Kay County. His holdings as an oil man extend to practically all the better known districts of Northern Oklahoma.

Mr. Bell is a republican, and for two terms served as clerk of the city council at Bartlesville. He is also a Master Mason. In 1892 Mr. Bell married Mrs. Minnie R. Vann. She was born in the Cherokee Nation and has a thirty-second portion of Cherokee Indian blood. Her father, John Cunningham, was a pioneer at old Fort Gibson. By her first marriage her three children were: John C. Vann, of Bartlesville; N. B. Vann, of Arizona; and Fannie, who died at the age of seven years. Mr. and Mrs. Bell have three children of their own: Alfred E., who is associated with his father; Laura P., who is now a student at Chicago, taking courses in domestic science and art preparatory to teaching; and Lorena, who is in the high school at Bartlesville.

JAMES W. PORTER. Though a young man of only thirty years, James W. Porter has for almost ten years of that time been an active factor in banking affairs

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HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA

in Western Oklahoma. He is now vice president of the Cotton Exchange Bank of Leedey, assisted in organiz- ing that and several other institutions in Dewey and other counties and is also vice president of the State Bank of Commerce at Trail and vice president of the Texmo Cotton Exchange Bank at Moorewood.

Born at Newton, Tennessee, December 5, 1885, James W. Porter comes of a family that originated in Ireland and established itself in Alabama during the period of early settlement in that commonwealth. His father, J. W. Porter, who was born at Montgomery, Alabama, in 1839, is now living retired at Shawnee, Oklahoma. From Alabama he went to Rock Island, Illinois, and later to Newton, Tennessee, in 1893 established his home at Cleburne, Texas, and in 1903 went to Shawnee. For many years he was in the hotel business. He served throughout the conflict between the North and the South as a Confederate soldier, going out with an Alabama regiment, was wounded and taken prisoner, but subse- quently returned to the ranks after being exchanged. J. W. Porter was married in New York State to Miss Utica Streeter, who was born in Utica, New York, in 1848.

James W. Porter from the age of eight years lived in Cleburne until his father removed to Shawnee. He attended the public schools at Cleburne, and graduated with the high school class in 1903, and from that year until 1906 was laying the foundation of his business career as an employee in a department store at Shawnee. In 1906 he became associated with W. O. Horr and Irving H. Wheatcroft. These gentlemen organized at Ray the Cotton Exchange Bank and similar banks in Texmo, Cheyenne, Crawford and Elk City. In 1911 the bank at Ray was removed to Leedey, and has since been the Cotton Exchange Bank of Leedey. Its present officers are; Irving H. Wheatcroft, president; James W. Porter, vice president; C. R. Flint, cashier. The bank has a capital stock of $15,000 and the present surplus account is $1.500. In 1911 at the corner of Main Street and Broadway a modern and well furnished banking house was constructed, the banking rooms being on the lower floor and offices above. It is a cement block building.

In politics Mr. Porter is a democrat, but has given most of his attention to local affairs, and for two years served as mayor of Leedey. He still has membership in the First Baptist Church at Cleburne, Texas, and is affiliated with Leedey Lodge No. 227 of the Knights of Pythias. At Texmo, Oklahoma, in 1906 he married Miss Velma Horr, daugliter of C. A. Horr. Mr. Horr is a resident of Leedey and in the real estate business.

HON. E. E. GLASCO. One of the leading civil and criminal lawyers of the state, Hon. E. E. Glasco, has also won distinction as a public servant, the value of whose labors in the Oklahoma Legislature cannot be overestimated. He was born in White County, Illinois, in 1870, but was reared principally in Wayne County, where his parents, Thomas M. and Martha A. (Burrell) Glasco, resided on a farm. Thomas M. Glasco, a native of Illinois, was but fifteen years of age at the outbreak of the Civil war, but he bravely joined his father in the same company of the Eighty-seventh Regiment, Illinois Volunteer Infantry, and subsequently served four years under the flag of the Union. Mr. Glasco's paternal and maternal grandfathers were natives of South Carolina, and the ancestry of the former has been traced back beyond the days of the Revolution in America. Both parents are living now at Washington, Oklahoma. In the family of Thomas M. and Martha A. Glasco there were three sons and three daughters, as follows: E. E., of this review; E. D., who is a prominent stockman and real estate dealer at Washington, Oklahoma; Clarence,

who is a prosperous farmer at Athens, Texas; Mrs. Ada Jackson, who is the wife of a machinist at Athens, Texas; Mrs. Mary E. Smith, who is the wife of a mem- ber of the firm of Smith-Glasco Hardware Company, at Blanchard, Oklahoma; and Mrs. Sarah Sapp, who is the wife of an agriculturist and stock dealer of McClain County, Oklahoma.

E. E. Glasco was educated in the public schools of Illinois and the Hayward Collegiate Institute, at Fair- field, Illinois, from which he was graduated in 1892 with the degree of Bachelor of Arts., Following this, he completed a course in the Southern Illinois State Normal School, at Carbondale, Illinois, and for the eight succeeding years was a popular and efficient teacher in the public schools. While in Illinois, Mr. Glasco served two years in the capacity of assessor of Wayne County.

In 1897 Mr. Glasco moved to Athens, Texas, and for three years thereafter continued to follow the vocation of educator. At that time he became interested in journalistic work, founding the Henderson County News at Athens, and this paper soon became involved in a heated campaign involving the liquor question, support- ing the side of the prohibitionists and assisting them to victory. The character of officers sought by the pro- hibitionists were elected, among them being District Judge R. L. Gardner, who still retains his seat on the bench. Following the outcome of this struggle, Mr. Glasco went to Tishomingo, Oklahoma, where he began the practice of law, to which he had devoted much study for several years. He succeeded in building up a good practice, but in 1906 came to Purcell, Oklahoma, and in 1907 was elected the first county judge of McClain County, an office which he acceptably filled for one term.

Mr. Glasco was first elected to the Oklahoma Legis- lature in 1912 and during that term was made chairman of the Committee on Banks and Banking. He was the author of the banking act passed by that body which remedied defects in the guaranty law and placed the guaranty plan on a more substantial basis, and was joint author of the law prohibiting race track gambling and of a series of bills regulating the loaning of money. In 1914 he defeated the late C. M. McClain, who had been a member of the Constitutional Convention, for the nomination and was re-elected to the Legislature, on a platform pledging an anti-usury law and exemption reforms. His victory was notable in view of the oppo- sition encountered at the hands of bankers and retail merchants who opposed his plan of remedial legislation relating to usury and exemptions. He was made chair- man of the Committee on Judiciary No. 1, and a mem- ber of the committees on Criminal Jurisprudence, Con- gressional Redistricting, Revenue and Taxation, Pro- hibition Enforcement and Banks and Banking. He was the author of a bill preventing usury, and a bill validat- ing insurance policies and requiring insurance companies in case of a total loss of property insured to pay the face amount of the policy. Mr. Glasco was a stanch adherent of measures advocating the interests of labor and the farmers, and in the 1912 Legislature was sternly opposed to the passage of a bill relating to coal miners which, after being passed by the Legislature, was referred to and defeated by the people. He was a candidate for speaker of the House of the Fifth Legislature, but with- drew from the contest and threw his strength to A. McCrory, who was thus elected. Mr. Glasco has been a delegate to every state democratic convention since the acquirement of Oklahoma statehood, being a member of the 1912 convention platform committee, and was a delegate to the democratic national convention at Bal- timore in 1912.

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HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA

Mr. Glasco was married in 1889, while still a resident of Illinois, to Miss Rosa E. Donovan, who died in March, 1907. To this union there were boru four children, as follows: Roy, aged twenty-one years, who passed the state bar examination in 1914 and is uow employed in the law office of Thompsou & Patterson, at Paul's Val- ley, Oklahoma; Ellen, aged nineteen years, who is a high school graduate and lives at home with her father; Raymond, aged seventeen years, who is employed as a chemist in the plant of the Kansas Chemical Company, at Wichita, Kansas; and Crystal, aged twelve years, who is a student at Purcell High School. In 1908 Mr. Glasco was again married, his second wife haviug borne the name of Mrs. Mattie Keener. They have one daughter : Evelyn, who is three years of age.

Mr. Glasco and his family are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church South. Professionally, he is connected with the McClain County Bar Association and the Oklahoma State Bar Association. He is senior member of the law firm of Glasco & Osborn, and is justly accounted one of the leading civil and criminal lawyers of his part of the state.

DILLARD WATTS, M. D. One of the hardest working physicians in Oklahoma is Dr. Dillard Watts of Laverne. It is said that Doctor Watts has a practice extending over three counties and is almost constantly at work answering the calls of his large patronage.

He represents one of the' old families of Kansas, and much of his early experience was connected with farm- ing and other lines of business until he could realize his , ambitions by entering the medical profession. He was born on a farm in Johnson County, Kansas, March 15, 1869, a son of Josiah and Sarah (Mann) Watts. Josiah Watts was a notable figure in western life in the early days. He was born in 1820 in St. Charles County, Mis- souri, and was directly related to the family of Daniel Boone, the Boones having been among the pioneers in St. Charles County. Josiah Watts was also of French stock, his great-grandfather having been an officer in the Revolutionary army under General Lafayette, with whom he emigrated to America. Josiah Watts showed his stock by a life of much excitement and adventure in the West. In 1849 he participated in the rush to the West during the gold excitement and spent four years on the Pacific Coast as a prospector and miner. He went out by ox team overland and returned by the Isthmus of Panama. After his returu to Missouri he became associated in mercantile business with James Bridger, the famous trapper and Indian fighter, and for a number of years was located at the eastern terminus of the Santa Fe Trail, at what is now Kansas City. He then homesteaded land in Johnson County, Kansas, prior to the Civil war, and the title to that land still remains in the Watts family. He was one of the prominent men of Johnson County, where he died April 30, 1896. In 1858 Josiah Watts married Miss Sarah Mann, who was born March 20, 1838, a daughter of Samuel Mann, a native of Mis- souri, and she now lives at Stilwater, Kansas. There are seven children, five sons and two daughters, namely: Banaugh, now a physician at Okemah, Oklahoma; Samuel, deceased; Mary, who died in infancy; Ada, widow of Jerry R. Harbeson of Sapulpa, Oklahoma; Robert B., a physician at Wellingtou, Missouri; Leo, a farmer in Beaver County, Oklahoma.

Dr. Dillard Watts, the youngest of the family, grew up on a farm in Johnson County, gained a public school education, and worked on the farm with his father until he was twenty-one. For the following four years he was in the drug business at Napoleon, Missouri, and after earning and accumulating the necessary means he entered

in 1898 the Kansas City Medical College, where he spent two years. He also practiced under a preceptor for two years, and thus by continued hard work and paying his own way finally graduated from medical college with the degree M. D. in the class of 1908. Seeking a perma- nent location Doctor Watts came to Oklahoma, and prac- ticed at the old Town of Speermore, where he built up much of the practice which he still retains. Speermore was his home until 1914, in which year he moved to Laverne to be near the railroad, and now has his office and residence in that growing little city.

Doctor Watts is a Scottish Rite Mason, belonging to the bodies of that order at Guthrie. In 1896 he married Miss Jessie Hawkins, who was born iu Bates County, Missouri, in 1872, and who died January 20, 1899, at Kansas City, Missouri. To their marriage were born two children: Zoe, wife of Philip Doherty, a lumberman at Laverne; and Beulah, who is an elocutionist. On March 29, 1915, Doctor Watts married Emma Garrity, who was born in Riley County, Kansas.

J. C. SHEETS. The wonderful development of the oil and gas industry of Oklahoma during recent years has attracted to this state men of ability, enterprise and pro- gressive spirit from all parts of the country. Among the first to come to the vicinity of Copan was J. C. Sheets, a West Virginian, who has since been active in the promo- tion and development of some of the leading industries of this part of the state. At the present time he is associated with enterprises of importance and large pro- portions that have contributed materially to the business prestige of Washington and the surrounding counties.

J. C. Sheets was born at Salmon, West Virginia, No- vember 19, 1876, and is a son of Leander and Alice Starr (Curtis) Sheets. His father was born at New Mata- moras, Washington County, Ohio, March 18, 1838, and as a young man went to West Virginia, where he con- tinued to be engaged in agricultural pursuits until his retirement. In his later years he came to Oklahoma, and his death occurred at Copan, in September, 1908. Mrs. Sheets was born at Hockingport, Athens County, Ohio, November 24, 1849, and was about ten years old, in 1860, when taken to West Virginia by her parents. That state continued to be her home until she came to Oklahoma, where she still resides. There were four chil- dren in the family: Vaughn L., a graduate of the Amer- ican Medical College, and now a practicing physician and surgeon of Chicago, Illinois, where he has offices at No. 59 East Madison Street; Earl H., a resident of Mus- kogee, Oklahoma, and partner in the oil producing firm of Sheets Brothers and various other concerns; J. C., of this review; and Dr. F. C., a graduate of the American Medical College, and now a practicing physician of Okla- homa City.

J. C. Sheets received his education in the public schools of Cameron, West Virginia, and in 1899 became inter- ested in the oil business as a producer, although he had been connected with this industry in one or another capac- ity since his sixteenth year. In 1902, as one of the first producers of Copan, he came here with his brother, Earl H., and founded the firm of Sheets Brothers, which has steadily grown into one of the largest concerns in this line in Washington County. The firm now operates twelve properties, and since its inception has drilled about 300 wells, the brothers operating farm lands and timber tracts extensively. J. C. Sheets is secretary and treas- urer of the Georgia Oil and Gas Company, manager of Sheets & Company, president of the Alamo Oil Company, secretary and treasurer of the Swastika Oil and Gas Company, secretary and treasurer of Sheets Brothers & Jackson and manager of the Collis Oil and Gas Company.

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He is known among his associates as one of the shrewdest oil operators in the state, and his judgment is taken as final in regard to gas and oil properties.

Mr. Sheets' contribution to the upbuilding of Copan is a beautiful home, built in 1905, of reenforced con- crete, with eight rooms, modern in every particular, and including private sewerage and private water works. He was reared a democrat, but is inclined to vote inde- pendently, preferring to use his own judgment in the selection of candidates. At the present time he is serv- ing as treasurer of his school district. He is a thirty- second degree Mason, belonging to the Shrine at Tulsa, the Commandery at Sistersville, West Virginia, of which he is a life member, the Consistory at Guthrie, and the Blue Lodge at Copan. He is also a life member of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, at Indepen- dence, Kansas, and holds membership in the local lodges of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Knights of Pythias.

Mr. Sheets was married in 1904, to Miss Millicent E. Holdren, who was born at Independence, Ohio, January 16, 1876, a daughter of H. H. aud Harriet E. (Webber) Holdren, natives of the Buckeye State and residents at Newport. To Mr. and Mrs. Sheets there has been born one daughter: Alice Millicent.

HUGH HENRY. There is a picturesque elevation in Okmulgee County known as "the Hugh Henry Hill" which rises 192 feet above the general elevation of the town at its foot. Crowning this hill is the home of Mr. Hugh Henry, who has lived in this one locality for fully forty years. He is a quarter blood Creek Indian, having inherited that ancestry from his mother, and consequently was given an allotment of the lands in this part of the old Creek Nation. For many years Mr. Henry had extensive livestock interests, and is one of the old time cattlemen of Texas and Indian Territory.

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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