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 46

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 46

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In 1879 he married Miss Mamie Jacobs, who was born near Eufaula in 1861, a daughter of Frank Jacobs. Mrs. Brown is a half-blood Creek. They had one child, Clarence W. Brown, who was born January 24, 1880, and died June 9, 1911. This son married Rebecca Bell, and at his death he left three children who have their home

with Mr. and Mrs. Andrew J. Brown. Their names are Lucy, Ruth and John.

H. V. FOSTER, as president of the Indian Territory Illuminating Oil Company of Bartlesville, and the directing head of the company that controls the famous Foster Lease in the Osage Nation, is easily one of the most conspicuous figures in the great oil industry of the Southwest. It was his honored father who negotiated the Foster Lease, but though a comparatively young man H. V. Foster has been the moving spirit in carrying out the plans and details of this great enterprise since 1902.

Born at Westerly, Washington County, Rhode Island, September 6, 1875, H. V. Foster is a son of Henry and Gertrude (Daniels) Foster, his father also a native of Westerly, while his mother was born at Paxton, Worcester County, Massachusetts. Henry Foster was one of the ablest financiers and oil operators of his generation. For many years he followed banking in Rhode Island, but about 1882 moved to Independence, Kansas, where he kept the center of his financial operations until his death on February 25, 1896, at the age of forty-seven. His name is closely associated with a great deal of important development work in the Southwest. He was the builder of the Missouri Pacific Railroad from Leroy to Coffeyville, Kansas, and was also interested in mining, constructed a number of waterworks plants in various parts of the Southwest, and owned or partly owned several ranches for cattle raising.

As already mentioned he secured the lease for the production of oil on the Osage Reservation, and died about the time the Government gave its final approval to the terms of that lease. His wife died at Inde- pendence, Kansas, about 1883 at the age of thirty-two. Their two children are: Annie G., a resident of New York City; and H. V. Foster.

H. V. Foster was specially equipped by education and native ability for the large business affairs which he has directed for a number of years. He is an engineer by profession, though most of his time has been devoted to the executive details of business. As a boy he attended public school in Rhode Island and Massa- chusetts, also at Independence, Kansas, and his parents being Quakers subsequently sent him to the Westtown Boarding School maintained by the Society of Friends at Westtown, Pennsylvania. Going abroad he entered University College of London, England, and graduated with his engineer's certificate in 1894. On his return to the United States he entered Columbia University at New York.

As an engineer his first work was on a drainage project comprising 60,000 acres in Wisconsin. In the meantime he became interested in oil development, and in 1902 removed to Bartlesville to take charge of the Osage Lease and becoming president of the Indian Ter- ritory Illuminating Oil Company. He has since devoted all his time and energy to this industry, and is a master of the business in every detail. Mr. Foster is also vice president and director of the Union National Bank, and his offices are in the Union National Bank Building.

Because of the active participation of the Foster family in the oil industry in Osage territory and because all matters affecting the Osage oil lands are subjects of historical interest in Oklahoma, a few quotations from a recent article that appeared in the Washington Star are properly presented at this point. "A modern industry represented by the huge oil derricks and pipe lines of Oklahoma, " reads the article in question, "has brought at least one nation of Indians into its own as far as the individuals of its tribe are concerned in being

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the original landlords of that part of this continent in which they have made their home. The red man pic- tured in his feathered head-dress on the American penny is suggestive of the former wealth of the nation being held by the Indian. Today, when the white man's dollar has developed a part of the country upon which the Indians still live, the Osages have received such large oil and gas royalties that they have been declared the richest nation in the world. Had the white man never come to this continent these Indians would have undoubtedly been content in their original wild state, taking pleasure in their hunts and ceremonials, but since it is a fact that civilization has killed off their buffalo and so taken their livelihood from them, the Osage Nation may consider that the star of fortune rose about 1870.

"At that time the encroachment of settlers who were making their homes in Kansas was so evident to the Indiau and to the Government that later Congress pur- chased the land upon which the Osages had been living and ceded them the territory they now occupy. By this deal the Indians unknowingly received lands worth mil- lions of dollars on account of the oil lying beneath its surface. Today these resources are so extensive that the government in the capacity of guardian for the red man finds itself thrown in direct business relations with some of the greatest financial powers of the Nation. It gains through this particular management of affairs a clearer knowledge of the business of producing and marketing oil, the most potential wealth-making power of the present day.

"Nineteen years ago when James Bigheart was the principal chief of the Osage Nation, about one million five hundred thousand acres of land, or approximately two thousand square miles-a tract many times as large as the District of Columbia-was leased directly from the tribe, through the United States Government, to Edward B. Foster of New York City. The development of a large part of the territory was made by the sub- lessee, known as the Illuminating Company, engaged in producing oil. When the original blanket Foster lease and the subleases expired at the end of ten years they were renewed for another ten years, which will expire March 16, 1916. It was for this reason that in March, 1915, one year previous to the expiration of the lease of the vast stretch of oil lands, the oil interests of the world were assembled in a great conference with the government, hoping to receive a share of consideration when the time comes for Uncle Sam and the Osage Indians to say who shall obtain the right to produce oil in the Foster lease land in the future.

"The terms by which the Foster lease has been carried are that of payment of one-eighth royalty on all oil produced is made to the Indians. One twenty-fourth royalty is retained by the Foster interests for their management and extensive development of the land. In years past it has been a common cry that the Indians always came out at the little end of the horn when deal- ing with the white man. The story of the Osage, how- ever, is a contradiction to such a plaint, for by the Foster lease alone the Osage Indians have to date gained more wealth than the real producers of the oil.

"As these red men have not allied themselves with modern civilization in being able to fill a place in the industrial world, and as their incomes from tribal trust funds and oil leases are more than sufficient to keep them in idleness, there is but one answer to the question of whether the Osages as a nation are better Indians because of their independence through wealth. In all there are about 2,230 citizens of the Osage tribe. From oil royalties alone they average per capita, including

children, is nearly seven hundred dollars per year. A family with two children receives an average annual income of about twenty-seven hundred dollars from this one source, besides large sums from lands allotted to them, making the wealth of the people greater than that of any other nation in the world. *

* * As a matter of record to date, the one-eighth royalty paid the Indians on the Foster lease contract exceeds the profit which the actual operators have made during the seventeen years on their five-sixths working interest. Nearly five million dollars have been paid to the Indians."

All this is interesting historical reading, and is espe- cially suggestive of the important part played by Mr. Foster in the industrial affairs of this state. He is a splendid type of the modern American business man, and one who does big things always in a big generous way. While a republican, he has never sought public office and has preferred to confine his contributions to his adopted city's welfare by conscientiously performing the duties of good citizenship. He is a thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason and a Shriner, and is also a member of the local lodges of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, the Knights of Pythias and the Modern Woodmen of America. In social and busi- ness circles he is known not only in Oklahoma but in most of the larger cities. He belongs to the Lotus and Republican clubs of New York; the Illinois Athletic Club of Chicago, the Misquamicut Golf and Country Club of Watch Hill, Rhode Island; the Colonial Club at Westerly, Rhode Island; and the Country Club of Bartlesville.

May 1, 1897, Mr. Foster married Miss Marie Dahl- gren, who was born at Chicago, Illinois, a daughter of Carl John and Marie (Sierks) Dahlgren. Mr. and Mrs. Foster have two children: Ruth Daniels and Marie Dahlgren.

WALTER GRISWOLD BISBEE, M. D. Representing the first class ability and skill of his profession and enjoying a large general practice, Doctor Bisbee is one of the young physicians and surgeons of Oklahoma who have quickly taken front rank in their profession. Doctor Bisbee has a large general practice as a physician and surgeon in Chandler. He began practice with an excel- lent equipment and the test of real work found him qualified for this important service among the social professions. Doctor Bisbee is a graduate from the Dart- mouth Medical College and Hospital of Philadelphia with the class of 1901.

Walter Griswold Bisbee was born at Dexter, Iowa, August 1, 1876. His father, Frank A. Bisbee, was one of the leading citizens of Dexter, and was boru in Ver- mout of an old Vermont family, the ancestors having come from England to New England in the early days, and men of that name participated in all the early wars of the country, including the Revolution and the War of 1812. Frank A. Bisbee is now living at Chandler at the age of seventy-one, and his wife died at the age of seventy.

Doctor Bisbee, after some experience in the Post- Graduate and City Hospital of Philadelphia, came to Chandler and began active practice. He soon had all he could do, and the almost constant driving over the country, loss of sleep, and arduous devotion to his duty caused a breakdown in health. He then gave up his practice and spent two years in recuperating in San Antonio, Texas. While there he resumed practice, but soon afterwards returned to Chandler and now enjoys a reputation with the leading physicians and surgeons of Central Oklahoma.

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HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA

Doctor Bisbee was married December 3, 1902, to Eleanor Carpenter. She comes from an old Tennessee family at Knoxville, where she was reared and educated. Her father was Maj. D. A. Carpenter, an officer in the Union army, with which he made a gallant record of service. Doctor Bisbee and wife have one son, Wallace, now seven years of age. Outside of his home and his profession Doctor Bisbee has few interests. With him medicine is not only a profession but also a hobby and enthusiasm, and he finds his chief interests in continued studies, and no doctor in the state keeps more closely in touch with the advance of knowledge in medical and surgical science than he.

JUDGE MARK L. BOZARTH. There comes no greater satisfaction to a man in public life than a practically unanimous election to an important post of responsi- bility. That was the experience of Judge Bozarth in 1914, when as a candidate for re-election as county judge of Okmulgee County he had no opposition either at the primaries or in the general election. Judge Bozarth is a thoroughly grounded and capable young lawyer, and has been in active practice of the law and a figure in public affairs at Okmulgee for the past fourteen years.

He is of fine stock of American ancestry, and his fore- bears of mingled French, German with an admixture of other early nationalities that figured in our Colonial era, were among the first settlers in the Trans-Allegheny District of Western Pennsylvania and Western Virginia. The first American of the name, who was probably Caleb Bozarth, came from France during the persecution of the Huguenots and about 1735 settled in New Jersey near Philadelphia. He had three sons, Isaac, Caleb and John, and the first two served under General Washington during the Revolution and afterwards were pioneers in Kentucky. These two Revolutionary soldiers became the ancestors of a very numerous group of descendants sub- sequently scattered over Kentucky, Illinois, Missouri and other middle western states. John Bozarth, who was born in 1743, a son of the immigrant ancestor, was about eleven or twelve years of age when General Braddock came over with the British regulars to fight the French and Indians on the western frontier, and John Bozarth drove one team and wagon and was present at the disas- trous Battle of Braddock's Field. John Bozarth subse- quently moved out to Western Pennsylvania and was a frontiersman during the Revolution. In his twenty- seventh year he married Jane Ivers, who was a native of Ireland. The Bozarths took a very prominent part in the frontier life of Western Pennsylvania in the early days, and one of the name Miss Rebecca Bozarth per- formed some exploits in defending her home against an attack of Indians which has been made the subject of a chapter in a book entitled "Daring Deeds of Ameri- can Women."

George Bozarth, a son of the John Bozarth just men- tioned, was born April 12, 1774, near the historic old Red Stone Fort in Western Pennsylvania and not far from the present City of Morganstown, West Virginia. At the age of seventeen he enlisted in a company of Rangers and did much service against the Indians and their British allies in patroling the country along the Ohio River and as far down as Kentucky. In March, 1795, George Bozarth married Mary Reger, who was of pure German extraction, spoke the German language fluently though after her marriage the English was con- stantly used in the household. George and Mary Reger Bozarth were the parents of fifteen children, six of whom died in infancy. Of those who reached maturity the names were Anna, Temperance, Mary, Jacob, Lot N., Gilbert, Jane and Ruanuy. The descendants of these

children became widely scattered in many of the states of the Middle West.

One of them, Jacob, who was born in September, 1810, was the grandfather of Judge Bozarth of Okmulgee. Jacob had three wives and five children. The three children of his first marriage were Elizabeth Ann, Amanda and Allen B. By the second wife there was a son named George Gilbert. By his third marriage, to Charlotte Warrington, there was a son Jacob, and thus Jacob Bozarth has for a number of years been a well known citizen and business man of Okmulgee.

Jacob Bozarth last mentioned was born in Starke County, Indiana, February 7, 1852, a son of Jacob and Charlotte (Warrington) Bozarth. Jacob Bozarth, Sr., was one of the pioneers of Starke County, and in 1850 had the honor of being elected the first county recorder after the organization of that county. He was married in Starke County to Miss Warrington, who was of a Delaware family. Jacob, Sr., died at Troy, Kansas, in 1880, and his wife died in Indiana, January 1, 1875. Jacob, Sr., had been a teacher in his early life.

Jacob Bozarth of Okmulgee had the distinction of being honored in 1882 with election to the same office which his father had filled more than twenty years earlier, county recorder of Starke County. He had grown up on the home farm in Indiana, was given a substan- tial education, but after being elected county recorder served in that office continuously for eight years. After- wards he established himself in business at Knox, county seat of Starke County, and dealt in real estate, loans and abstracts and in 1891 was admitted to the bar, but confined his, practice chiefly to real estate and title law. In 1900 he moved to Okmulgee, Indian Territory, and has since been a prominent factor in the upbuilding of that city, and has conducted a prosperous business in real estate, insurance and has also been a notary public. He built the Bozarth Hotel at Okmulgee and in many other ways has found opportunity to serve the public welfare as well as his own. He is an active democrat, a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and belongs to the Methodist Episcopal Church.

On October 4, 1874, Jacob Bozarth married in Starke County Phebe Westhaver, who was born in Ohio. To their marriage were born four children: Judge Mark L., Ernest LeGrande, who graduated from Valparaiso University in Indiana in 1902 and is now a druggist at Henryetta, Oklahoma; Mary, wife of B. W. Christian of Okmulgee; and Daisy, wife of H. L. Allen of Grass Range, Montana.

Judge Mark L. Bozarth was born at Knox, Indiana, August 17, 1875, and lived in Starke County until he came to Okmulgee, September 4, 1902. He was grad- uated in 1902 from Valparaiso University, then known as the Northern Indiana Law School, with the degree LL. B. In the meantime he had taken an active interest in local politics at Knox and served three years as city clerk. Along with a substantial practice he has com- bined an equal interest in public affairs since locating at Okmulgee. In November, 1912, he was elected county judge, and in 1914 was re-elected for a second term, in which he is still serving with admirable efficiency. He is one of the leading democrats of . Okmulgee County and for four years was a member of the Territorial Democratic Executive Committee before statehood. He is a member of the Oklahoma State Bar Association aud is affiliated with the Masonic Order, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks.

On November 28, 1894, Judge Bozarth married Grace G. Garner, who was born in Indiana, daughter of J. A. Garner, now a resident of Okmulgee. Judge Bozarth

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HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA

and wife have three children: Mary Garner, born November 15, 1907; Helen, born in May, 1909, and died at the age of ten months; and Kathryn, born November 22, 1911.

J. W. WHITE. One of the leading grocery establish- ments of Edmond is conducted by the firm of White & O'Connor. Mr. White has for several years been one of that town's most influential citizens. He stands for high grade business principles, for good sanitation and good morals and is a leader in moral and educational affairs. Mr. White came West from Kentucky at the age of twenty-seven, in search of health, and soon afterwards turned his attention to ranching in Kansas. He estab- lished near Syracuse in that state, one of the best equipped ranches in that part of the country, and even- tually reached a success which enabled him to take up another line of business that was less exciting and more suited to his talents.

J. W. White was born near Irvine, Kentucky, in 1860, a son of John Thomas and Mahala Jane (Barnett) White. His father, a native of Kentucky, was for many years one of the leading public school teachers of that state. The paternal grandfather was a native of Ire- land and an early settler of Virginia, being a mission- ary Baptist preacher. The maternal grandparents were prosperous planters in Kentucky.

Mr. White had a liberal education, first in the public schools and later in the Edgar Institute at Paris, Ken- tucky. After finishing his course in the latter, he taught school for three years, but ill health compelled him to abandon that vocation. Thus at the age of twenty-seven he was beginning his career as a rancher at Syracuse, Kansas, and continued a resident of that locality until 1910, when he came to Edmond and engaged in the grocery trade. The junior member of the firm of White & O'Connor is M. J. O'Connor.

Mr. White was married in Kentucky in 1882 to Miss Sarah Elizabeth Barnett. They have two children: Miss Dula White, who was formerly principal of the public schools of Britton and is now a stenographer in Okla- homa City; and William Harrison White, aged fifteen, a student in the public schools of Edmond. Mr. White is a member of the Christian Church, has held several im- portant chairs in the lodge of Odd Fellows, and is a member and chorister of the Men's Gospel Team of Edmond. One interesting direction in which his original mind has turned is as an inventor. He has patented an auto and vehicle wheel rim attachment, based on the coil spring principle, that promises to become an important substitute for pneumatic tires.

Mr. White has also been a useful citizen in the different localities where he has lived. In Kansas he held the office of township assessor and for a number of years was a member of the board of education in his school district. In March, 1915, he was nominated by the democrats for mayor of Edmond.

WILLIAM EZRA SEBA, M. D. One of the first medical men to locate and open an office at the new Town of Leedey was Dr. W. E. Seba, who during the past eight years has built up a large practice in the town and surrounding country, and is one of the best qualified physicians and surgeons in Dewey County, a fact that is readily attested by his high standing in the com- munity and by his professional work here and else- where.

He comes of an old Southern Missouri family, and was born at Bland, in that state, January 15, 1884. His grandfather Seba came from Germany in 1853, located in Gasconade County, Missouri, on a farm, and died soon afterward. Doctor Seba's father is Dr. J. D.

Seba, also a physician, who was born in Gasconade County, at Woollman, Missouri, in 1856. He is now living at Bland, where he has been in active practice as a physician since 1894. In that year he was graduated from the Beaumont College of Medicine at St. Louis. For a number of years before taking up medical practice he served as justice of the peace and is now editor of the Bland Courier. He has also been coroner of Gas- conade County, and has filled all the chairs in the Gasconade County Medical Society and has served on several important committees in the Missouri State Medical Society. He is a member of the American Medical Association, of the Modern Woodmen of America, the Brotherhood of American Yeomen, is active in the Methodist Episcopal Church and in politics is a republican. Dr. J. D. Seba married Miss Katy Horst- man, who was born in Osage County, Missouri, in 1857. Their children are: Henry F., a farmer at Feuersville, Missouri; John W., who has a draying business at Bland; Dr. William E .; Rosie L., wife of R. M. Strick- len, who is connected with the Swift Packing Company in East St. Louis; Fred L., who is manager and pub- lisher of the Bland Courier, owned by himself and father jointly, and this republican paper has probably the largest circulation in Osage and Gasconade counties; and Louise, still at home with her parents.

William Ezra Seba attended the public schools in Bland, and by a course of study at home and under the direction of his father was well qualified to pass his examinations and receive his credentials when he entered medical school. He entered the Marion-Sims Medical College at St. Louis in 1900, took a two years' course, but at the end of that time was too young to graduate. He then employed his time in a drug store one year, entered the St. Louis . College of Physicians and Sur- geons, and was graduated there April 14, 1905, with the degree M. D. only a few months after his twenty- first birthday.

After a general practice at Bland, his old home town, for two years, Doctor Seba came to Oklahoma in 1907 and began practice at Leedey. His offices are in the Horr & Seba Building, of which he is one of the owners.

Doctor Seba is president of the Dewey County Medi- cal Society, and is a member of the State Society, the Southwestern Medical and the American Medical Asso- ciation. He is a stockholder in the Leedey Oil & Gas Company, and has financial interests in various other enterprises. In politics he is a republican. He has served as deputy health officer at Leedey and also as a member of the town board. Fraternally he is affiliated with Leedey Lodge No. 369, I. O. O. F., being now Right Supporter to the Noble Grand; with Leedey Lodge No. 227, of the Knights of Pythias; with the Brotherhood of American Yeomen and the Modern Woodmen of America at Leedey, and with the Mutual Protective League.

On May 23, 1907, in Kansas City, Missouri, Doctor Seba married Miss Marie Telkamp of Sanborn, Iowa. Her parents, Mr. and Mrs. H. Telkamp are now living at Mitchell, South Dakota, where her father is a retired farmer and the owner of considerable property.

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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