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 48

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 48

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His public career is worthy of special record. He has always been a loyal democrat. In 1882-83 he served as clerk of the Judiciary Committee of the Georgia State Senate. In 1897 he was assistant chief clerk of the Oklahoma Territorial Council, and had also served for a time as acting city attorney of Guthrie. In 1895 he made the race against Judge Hainer for city attorney of Guthrie, and in 1902 was a candidate against Jacob Hammond for city attorney of Lawton. In 1906 he was elected from District No. 81, comprising the Seminole Nation and a part of the Creek Nation, as a delegate to the Constitutional Convention. He was one of the influential men in the convention, and he has in his possession one of the historic documents pertaining to the work of that body. This is the original call for a democratic caucus to select a democratic candidate for president of the convention. This call was written by Mr. Baker himself, and is signed by nearly all the democratic delegates, including C. N. Haskell, who was the first governor of Oklahoma, and R. L. Williams, the present governor. Iu 1907 Mr. Baker was candidate for district judge at the primaries, that being the first pri- maries held after statehood. Out of a vote of 10,000 he lost the nomination by only 180. The district com-

prised the counties of Seminole, Pontotoc, Coal, Atoka and Johnson.

Mr. Baker now has a large amount of farming land which requires his supervision and, as already mentioned, in the early days he had a large farm in Pottawatomie County on the North Canadian River. He is a member of the Oklahoma Bar Association, and he and his family are Episcopalians. On Juue 5, 1878, he married Miss Jeannie Bacon, who was born at LaGrange, Georgia, in 1858. Her father, Thomas J. Bacon, served as a captain in the Confederate army and was killed at the battle of Seven Pines. The Bacons are among the oldest and most prominent families of Georgia. Mr. and Mrs. Baker have two children. Lucy Bacon, who is now a student in the East Central State Normal at Ada; and George Merriweather, at home. They also have an adopted daughter, Beatrice, now the wife of J. V. Thomas of Canton, Georgia.

Miss Lucy Baker, the daughter, is a talented young poetess, and recently a paper read before a meeting of the United Daughters of the Confederacy contained some of her verses under the title "Not Forgotten," which deserve to be preserved in permanent form. These are:

They tell us to forget, they say Our banner has been furled and put away, Our cause is lost and all the strife, The loss of home, the loss of life, They tell us to forget.

We know the North and South has been made one, The tumult and the call to arms are done, And now the Blue and Gray united stand, To form one world-power, one beloved land, But why must we forget?

They do not know who tell us to forget

That blood of Southern sons flows in us yet, That the old Blue is hallowed by the Gray, That thoughts of those we lost make dear today, And we can not forget.

The Stars and Bars are furled but loved the same, And through their bloody stains we love the name, Of Stars and Stripes, our banner of today, The old cause is not lost but laid away; So do not say "forget."

LESLIE GORDON NIBLACK. In the career of Leslie Gordon Niblack, of Guthrie, there is to be found much to instruct and encourage the youths who are forced to start out in life entirely on their own resources. When, more than twenty years ago, he first came to this city, he had little to aid him save a little experience in newspaper work, a willingness and ability to perform cheerfully and well whatever work came to his hands, and a consuming ambition to make a name and place. for himself in the field of journalism. With these assets he started sturdily in to make his way, and through their possession he has advanced steadily to a leading position among Oklahoma newspaper men and in public and political life.

Mr. Niblack was born at Evansville, Indiana, October. 1, 1876, and received his education in the public schools of Louisville, Kentucky, and Rockport, Indiana, and a the state university, at Bloomington, Indiana. As : lad of fifteen years he worked in vacation periods on the Louisville Courier-Journal, as a cub reporter, where hi Lodg taste for journalism was whetted and where he deter mined upon this profession as his life work. Before h Chub was cighteen years old he worked on newspapers at Si Louis and Carthage, Missouri. Mr. Niblack located a

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HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA

Guthrie in 1894 and began work as a reporter on the Daily Leader, which had been established two years before by politicians. Within one year he was in full charge of the paper, which for a number of years had hard sledding, it being a democratie paper in a strong republican city, the territorial capital. Mr. Niblack put all of his energy into his work. He labored night and day, often without pay, when the "ghost refused to walk." Little by little he acquired an interest in the Leader plant, which at that time was one of the most pretentious in the state. In 1902 he acquired full pos- session of the Leader property, the daily and weekly, the job department and the book bindery. As president of the Leader Printing Company he increased the equip- ment and business, bought the Leader Building, and did a large volume of business with the various counties of the territory.

During all this time Mr. Niblack was active in politics, serving successively as city and county chairman of the democratic central committees, as acting democratic national committeeman for the territory, and as delegate to the presidential conventions. In 1905 he served in the Oklahoma Senate and was minority leader of that body. Mr. Niblack's campaign for the Senate was the most sensational ever held in the territory. He elected the entire county and district democratic ticket and was himself elected by a majority of 614 in a district which two years before had been carried by a republican by 3,900 majority. On two occasions Mr. Niblack refused to become the democratic candidate for Congress, hold- ing that a newspaper man should not run for office, but in 1912, reluctantly yielding to the importunities of his friends, ran for congressman at large in a field of fifteen candidates with three to be elected. He was the fourth man in the race, which he entered only three weeks before the primary election.

The Leader is the oldest democratic paper in Oklahoma and has been under one continuous management longer than any other daily in the state. It took the lead in the fight for statehood. When the Leader was made the official organ of the constitutional convention convened at Guthrie, in 1906, the Leader Printing Company did all the printing for the convention, the bill amounting to nearly $50,000. There was no appropriation to pay this by the government, and Mr. Niblack was forced to wait two years for his money or until the constitution had been carried and the first Legislature met. Mr. Niblack served on the state committee which waged the campaign for the adoption of the constitution, and the Leader did the printing for the first and second legislatures. One year after statehood Mr. Niblack was offered $175,000 for his plant at Guthrie.

Mr. Niblack has been identified with all the business, industrial and social interests of Guthrie and of the state. . He is recognized as a forceful and successful newspaper man. On November 16, 1908, he administered the oatlı of office to the state's first governor, Hon. Charles N. Haskell, on the steps of the Carnegie Library at Guthrie. At the request of Governor-elect Haskell, Mr. Niblack took out a commission as notary public in order to administer the oath. He has served two terms as presi- dent of the Oklahoma Press . Association, and has been also vice president of the National Editorial Association and a director of the Oklahoma State Historical Society. He is a Scottish Rite Mason of the thirty-second degree, K. C. C. H .; served two terms as exalted ruler of Guthrie Lodge No. 426, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, of which he is a life member; and holds membership in the Shrine, the Knights of Pythias Lodge, the Country Club the several other clubs and organizations of Guthrie and the state. With his wife he belongs to the Presbyterian Church. While Mr. Niblack has a beautiful

and comfortable home at Guthrie, he believes in seeing how others live, and during three months of each year accompanies his family on long trips in this country and abroad.

Mr. Niblack was married March 31, 1909, to Miss Frances Haskell, daughter of Governor Charles N. Has- kell, and to this union there has been born one child, a daughter, October 26, 1911. This marriage was an elaborate state affair, held in the capitol building, with all the state officials attending, and Chief Justice M. J. Kane officiating.

MANLY E. MICHAELSON is one of the successful younger lawyers of Bartlesville, where he has been in practice since 1910, and his business and professional interests have particularly identified him with the oil and gas industry in this section of the state.

He was born in Jackson County, Iowa, March 13, 1881, a son of George C. and Nancy Jane (Mann) Michael- son. His father was born in the Province of Schleswig- Holstein, Germany, in 1850, and was about eighteen years of age when he came to America. He made his way to Iowa, where he married Miss Mann, who was born in Jackson County, Iowa, in 1857. After their marriage they lived in that state until November, 1881, when they removed to Elk County, Kansas. George C. Michaelson became a quite successful farmer and stock raiser in Kansas, and he and his wife now reside at Baldwin, Kansas, enjoying the rewards of their former years of toil. They were the parents of four sons and one daughter.

The second in the family, Manly E. Michaelson was taken to Kansas when an infant, and he grew up on the old homestead near Moline in Elk County. The rural schools supplied his early education and in 1898 he graduated from the high school at Moline. Soon after- wards, at the age of seventeen, he enlisted as a private in Company F of the Twenty-first Kansas Volunteer In- fantry for service in the Spanish-American war. He was with that regiment about seven months, being stationed at the Reserve Military Camp at Chickamauga Park and afterwards was in Kentucky and Kansas until receiving his honorable discharge.

Following this incident of his earlier career, he spent one year in the Kansas State Normal School at Emporia and for one term he taught school. He was a railway locomotive fireman until February, 1902, and with his savings from that work entered the law department of the University of Kansas at Lawrence, where he was graduated LL. B. in 1905. At intervals during his law course he had continued railroad work and even after his admission to the bar he followed such employment until 1907. In that year he set up in private practice at Beloit, Kansas, and from there in January, 1910, moved to Bartlesville, Oklahoma. For several years he was associated with the well known law firm of Brennan & Kane, but he is now alone in practice, and as attorney represents several of the larger oil and gas companies of the northern part of the state.

Politically he is a progressive, is a member of the Oklahoma State Bar Association, is affiliated with the Masonic Order, the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks and with the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers. Mr. Michaelson is unmarried.

JOSEPH E. WHITENTON. Among the men contributed to the citizenship of Oklahoma by the State of Tennessee and who have won enviable and prominent positions in business and financial life, is found Joseph E. Whitenton, president of the Citizens Bank, of Henryetta, Okmulgee County. Mr. Whitenton's salient characteristics are determination, diligence and keen sagacity, and upon

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HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA

these he has builded his prosperity, and with them has won a high and well merited measure of success.

Mr. Whitenton was born in Madison County, Tennes- see, January 21, 1882, and is a son of L. E. aud Cordelia (Sammons) Whitenton. His father, a native of Mad- ison County, Tennessee, where he was reared on a farm and educated. As a young man he engaged in a variety of pursuits, being for many years a farmer of Madison County, but eventually removed to Hardeman County, Tennessee, where he is now the proprietor of a hotel at Bolivar. They are stable, substantial people of their community, holding the respect and esteem of all who know them. Of their six children, five still survive.

Joseph E. Whitenton was granted the advantages to be secured in the log district school house during his youth, and later, for a time, attended high school. He was reared on his father's farm, was brought up to be industrious, honest aud painstakiug, aud in 1900, decid- ing to seek his fortune in the West, came to Oklahoma. He first settled at Shawnee, where he secured employ- ment as clerk and bookkeeper in a grocery store, and later transferred his services to a hardware store, where he acted in the same capacity. On January 1, 1907, he became a traveling representative of a wholesale hard- ware company, and for more than six years remained on the road, selling hardware in different parts of Oklahoma, but April 2, 1913, turned his attention to banking when he became the organizer and founder of the Guaranty State Bank of Henryetta, of which concern he acted as president. On January 1, 1915, this bank was consoli- dated with the Citizens Bank, of which Mr. Whitenton has since been president, the other officials being: W. L. Sullins, vice president; T. E. Keggin, cashier; and E. J. Kersting, assistant cashier: This is the only bank at Henryetta with a 'savings department, and its deposits are protected by the Depositors Guaranty Fund of the State of Oklahoma. A statement of its condition, as given March 7, 1916, follows:

Resources: Loans and discounts, $171,645.44; bonds and warrants, $19,251.41; overdrafts, $612.41; furniture and fixtures, $3,500; other real estate, $3,002.68; cash and sight exchange, $51,515.21; total, $249,527.15.

Liabilities: Capital, $25,000; surplus and undivided profits, $5,636.60; reserved for taxes, $618.78; deposits, $218,271.77; total, $249,527.15. The Citizens Bank now has a large patronage and is considered one of the sound and substantial institutions of this part of the state. Mr. Whitenton maintains a sound and conservative policy that has won public confidence, but at the same time his methods are progressive. He is also a director in the Guaranty State Bank of Muskogee. Aside from his banking connections Mr. Whitenton is largely interested in coal, oil and gas lands in Oklahoma. He is treas- urer of the Henryetta & Western Railroad, an electric line which is being built to connect all the towns of this thriving mining community, and of which he was one of the organizers. He is a democrat in his political views, is chairman of the election board of Okmulgee County, and has served one term as a member of the council. Fraternally, he is a thirty-second degree Mason and a member of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. A typical Oklahoman, wide awake, alert and enterpris- ing, he has carried forward to successful completion what- ever enterprise he has undertaken and has made oppor- tunity for advancement if none has seemed to exist. Thus he has continued to work his way upward and already has attained a very creditable and enviable position in business and financial circles of Okmulgee County.

Mr. Whitenton was married in 1911 to Miss Fay Sacra, daughter of James Sacra, a cattleman of Texas

and Oklahoma, Mrs. Whitenton being a native of the former state. They have one child: Peggy, aged three years.

IRA T. SMITH, M. D., a prominent physician and surgeon at LaKemp, was one of the pioneers of Okla- homa, having come to the state at the time of the opening of the Cherokee Strip, more than twenty years ago. For many years .he has enjoyed a high standing in his profession and also in business affairs, and success has come to him as a reward for much earnest and hard labor during his younger years.

He was born November 3, 1868, in a log house on a farm in Sullivan County, Missouri. His parents were John E. and Nancy F. (Sipes) Smith. His father was born in Ireland, emigrated to America with his parents in 1829, the family locating in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, and there as a young man he became a structural iron worker. He was born in 1827 and he died in Portland, Oregon, in 1904. He was one of the loyal native's of Ireland who fought for the integrity of the Union during the Civil war. He served as a private in Com- pany E of an Iowa cavalry and went through the entire struggle with credit. His wife was born in 1830 in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, and died at Vici, Oklahoma, in 1914. She was a lifelong member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. These worthy people became the parents of fourteen children, Robert, John S., Ephraim S., Margaret, Joseph G., Harriet Jane, James F. N., Daniel M., Nancy E., William T., Henry B., Ira T., Lena Belle, and Martha, the last two being now deceased.

The first temple of learning Doctor Smith attended was a log school house in Sullivan County, Missouri. This instruction was interspersed with such work as his strength permitted him to perform on his father's farm. Being one of a large family of children, he had the serious responsibilities of life early thrust upon him. In 1881 he left home and went out to Nebraska, which was theu a frontier state, and from there in 1884 moved to Kiowa, Kansas. There he entered the drug business, studied pharmacy and also carried on his readings in medicine.

In 1893 Doctor Smith took part in the opening of the Cherokee Strip, and though failing to secure a claim in the strip he secured one in Dewey County in the old Cheyenne and Arapahoe country. For a number of years he devoted himself to his arduous duties as a country practitioner in Dewey and Ellis counties, but in 1913 removed to Beaver County and bought a drug store in the new town of LaKemp. He has a good business as a druggist, and also has a widely extended and profitable practice as a physician. Doctor Smith is a member of the Oklahoma Medical Society and the American Medical Association, and is a thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason, being a member of the Consistory No. 1 at Guthrie. He is a charter member and was the first uoble grand of Fay Lodge, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, at Fay, Oklahoma. His church is the Presby- terian.

On December 24, 1889, in Sedgwick County, Kansas, Doctor Smith married Miss Minnie Adella Halsey, who was born in Kansas City, Missouri, September 16, 1869. To their marriage have been born five children, three daughters and two sons: Verga M., born November 18, 1892, now the wife of G. F. Partridge, a farmer at LaKemp; John Henry, born April 29, 1901; Lura Rose, born May 29, 1904; Georgia Lillian, born November 29, 1906; and Ira, born October 25, 1909.

KENNETH ROGERS. This is a name which will always have prominent association with that section of Osage

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HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA

County where the Village of Wynona is now located. The land of the townsite was originally owned by Kenneth Rogers, who has spent all his life in the Osage country, and for a number of years has been looking after his extensive interests as a farmer, stock raiser, and fruit grower in that vicinity. He is a business man of judg- ment and enterprise, and his public spirit has been reflected in his varied activities and relations with the community where he now lives.

Ou a farm thirty miles east of the present Town of Wynona Kenneth Rogers was born November 10, 1879, a son of Antoine and Elizabeth (Carpenter) Rogers, both of whom were born in the Cherokee Nation. The mother was a white woman while in the veins of Antoine Rogers flows a mixture of Cherokee and Osage Indian blood, and also of French and English. After their marriage Antoine Rogers and wife moved to the Osage country about 1875, and have lived at Wynona for the past twenty-five years. He has extensive interests as a rancher and farmer, but has lived retired from active business for the past two years. Antoine Rogers married the widow of his twin brother, Joseph, who died leaving three children: Jasper, of Pawhuska; Minerva, who married Arthur Rogers, and both are now deceased, leaving five children; and Louis A., of Wynona. The six children of Antoine Rogers are: Eva, wife of Elmer Wheeler; Kenneth; Annie, wife of C. R. Clewein of Pawhuska; Ora, deceased wife of J. A. Owens; May, living at home with her parents; and Viola, wife of F. M. Watson, and they now live on the old Rogers homestead at Wynona.

While growing to manhood Kenneth Rogers acquired an education in the Osage schools, and from an early age has had abundant opportunity to test his ability and enterprise in the varied relations of farmer, stock- man and fruit grower. He and his children own and control 1,800 acres of land in the vicinity of Wynona, and he has one of the best peach orchards in this sec- tion of the state, its crop in 1915 totaling about 3,000 bushels. It was in 1907 that Mr. Rogers sold a portion of his land for the townsite of Wynona, and in that year built the finest residence in the town for his own home. The year 1914 Mr. Rogers spent in California with his family.

In 1903 he married Miss Ida Murphy, who was born in St. Joseph, Missouri, December 9, 1879, lived there until eighteen, and then came to the Osage country with her parents, D. L. and Margaret (Campbell) Murphy. Her father was born in Richmond, Virginia, of Irish parentage, and he acquired his education in Yale University. He was a cattleman and later in life for a number of years an oil prospector, and died at the home of his daughter, Mrs. Rogers, in 1906, at the age of eighty-two. Her mother was a native of Rich- mond, Virginia, but of Irish parents, and she now lives part of the time in California and part of the time in Dakota. Mr. and Mrs. Rogers have two children: Helen, born December 9, 1903; and Antoine, Jr., born July 20, 1905, who is named for his Grandfather Rogers, being the only grandson. Mr. Rogers is a member of the Knights of Pythias lodge of Pawhuska.

ANDREW GREGG CURTIN BIERER. Since the first open- ing of Oklahoma, April 22, 1889, Andrew Gregg Curtin Bierer has been a strong and active member of the legal fraternity of the state, and during this time has been connected as counsel with some of the most important litigation brought before the state and federal courts. He has won substantial recognition of his fine legal talents, his fidelity to professional duties, and his careful conservation of all interests confided to his care, and on

several occasions has been called to public offices of importance and trust.

Mr. Bierer is a Pennsylvanian by nativity, born at Uniontown, Fayette County, October 24, 1862, and is a son of Colonel Everard and Ellen (Smouse) Bierer, natives of the Keystone State and descendants of German ancestors who emigrated to this country at an early date in Pennsylvania's history and located in the German settlement of Fayette County. There Col. Everard Bierer was born in February, 1827. He was granted excellent educational advantages, and on graduating from college became a lawyer, and in 1848, when but twenty-one years of age, was elected the first district attorney of Fayette County. He continued to be actively engaged in the practice of law until the outbreak of the war between the states, at which time, an ardent Union sympathizer, he organized a company of which he served as captain. After being severely wounded in the fierce engagement at South Mountain he was transferred to the One Hun- dred and Seventy-first Regiment, Pennsylvania Veteran Reserve Corps, of which he became colonel, and during the later part of the war was placed in command of a division which participated in engagements in North Carolina. While still in the field Colonel Bierer was made one of the Lincoln electors from his home community in Pennsyl- vania. With an honorable record for gallant and faith- ful service he received his honorable discharge at the close of the war, and, after a short stay at home, in 1865 removed to Brown County, Kansas. There he not only became recognized as a thorough and resourceful lawyer, but as being made of legislative timber, and in 1867 he was sent to the Kansas State Legislature. In that body he was opposed to the fifteenth amendment, against which he voted, and urged Senator Ross to vote against the impeachment of President Johnson. With the close of his political and public services, he returned to his private practice, and continued to be engaged therein at Hiawatha, Kansas, until his death, which occurred Decem- ber 26, 1910. Throughout his career Colonel Bierer's name continued to be connected with important events and large undertakings, and few men were better known or more highly esteemed in legal circles of Kansas. He was united in marriage in 1852 with Miss Ellen Smouse, who survived him several years and died May 7, 1913, at Hiawatha, Kansas, and they became the parents of six sons and two daughters, namely: Everard, Jr .; Anna; Samuel; Daniel; Andrew G. C .; Retta; William, who is deceased; and Bion B., who is now a captain in the United States navy.

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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