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 50

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 50

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Rev. John W. Garner remained at the parental home until he felt the call of patriotism and subordinated all other interests to tender his aid in defense of the Union. On the 1st of January, 1863, about two weeks prior to his twentieth birthday anniversary, he enlisted in Com- pany H, First Kentucky Cavalry, with which command he continued in active service until the close of the war. His regiment was a part of the Army of the Cumberland, and with it he participated in numerous engagements, taking part in the Atlanta campaign and in the mem- orable battle of Atlanta. From Georgia the regiment returned to Nashville, Tennessee, from which place Mr. Garner returned with his comrades to Kentucky, where he received his honorable discharge. He was mustered out as first sergeant of Company A, to which he had been transferred from Company H of his regiment. In later years he has vitalized his interest in his old comrades of the Civil war through his affiliation with the Grand Army of the Republic, in which he holds membership in W. T. Sherman Post No. 41 at Perkins, Oklahoma.

After the close of the war Mr. Garner continued to reside in Kentucky until 1872, when he removed to Mitchell County, Kansas, and became a pioneer farmer in the vicinity of Beloit, the county seat. He continued his residence in the Sunflower State until 1899, when he came to Oklahoma Territory and established his residence in Payne County, where he has since maintained his home on his well improved farm near the Village of Perkins, the place having been developed and admirably improved under his personal supervision.

Mr. Garner acquired his early education in the schools

of his native state and in all the long intervening years he has continued to be a close and appreciative student and reader; with the result that he has broadened his meutal ken to wide perspective and is a man of really liberal education and mature judgment. For the past thirty years he has served as a clergyman of the Christian Church, and his labors in the vineyard of the Master have been most zealous and effective, even as has his temporal work along practical lines of productive industry, through the medium of which he has won independence and definite prosperity. He finds much demand upon his services in the evaugelistic field of ministerial work and when not thus engaged he gives careful supervision to the practical affairs of his fine farm, which is situated four miles west of Perkins. Mr. Garner is broad-minded, liberal and progressive in his civic attitude, is well fortified in his convictions conceru- ing governmental and economic policies and is a stanch supporter of the principles of the republican party. Right living and right thinking have given to Mr. Garner superb physical powers and strong mental grasp, and his appearance is that of a man fully twenty years his junior, in fact many who meet him giving expression to doubt as to his having been a soldier in the Civil war,. owing to the fact that he looks too young today to have been eligible by age for such service more than half a century ago. His devoted wife, who has been his cherished companion and helpmeet for nearly fifty years, has aided him in his service in behalf of his fellow men and has been unsparing in her zeal and earnestness as a member of the Christian Church.

On February 26, 1866, was solemnized the marriage of. Mr. Garner to Miss Mary J. Friels, who was born in Morgan County, Tennessee, in 1849, a daughter of Wil- liam and Martha (Hanks) Friels, and, on the maternal side, she is a third cousin of the great and martyred Abraham Lincoln. They celebrated their golden wedding February 26, 1916. No children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Garner, but they are the friends of all children and the young folk have always found a gracious wel- come in their home. They are well known in Payne County and their circle of friends is limited only by that of their acquaintances.

P. I. BROWN. After fifteen years of banking experi- ence in Kansas P. I. Brown moved to Indian Territory in 1895, locating at Beggs in Okmulgee County and has since been one of the live factors in business enterprise in that section, and for a number of years has been president of the First National Bank of Beggs. The First National Bank is an institution with resources of over $200,000. It has capital and surplus of $37,500, and is one of the thoroughly stable institutious of Ok- mulgee County. The directors are P. I. Brown, Grover Moore, H. George, H. H. Johnson, L. B. Jackson and E. G. Kelley.

A native of Missouri, P. I. Brown was born in John- son County January 1, 1853, a son of James and Martha (Harris) Brown. His father was born in Tennessee in 1812 and his mother in Johnson County, Missouri, in 1815. James Brown was brought to Missouri in child- hood and spent the rest of his life there as a farmer and stock raiser. During the Civil war he served two years in a Missouri regiment of the Union army. He was a democrat and a member of the Presbyterian Church. He died in 1885 and his wife passed away two weeks later. There were seven childreu : Elizabeth, wife of Henry McElwee, liviug in Missouri; W. E. Brown, who for many years was head of the W. E. Brown & Company Livestock Commission House at Kansas City, Missouri, and is now living at Seattle, Washington; P. I. Brown, who is the second in age

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HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA

among the children; Marion, who is a farmer near Carthage, Missouri; Thomas, of Butler, Missouri; Mattie Woodruff, who died in Louisiana; and Edward, who died in Colorado.

P. I. Brown was reared and received his early education in Johnson County, Missouri, and lived on a farm there until 1876. He then went into Southwestern Kansas, establishing a stock ranch in Comanche County, and in 1881 moved to Elk County, Kansas, where he was in the grocery business for a time. In 1884 he organized the first bank in his town, The Farmers State Bank, which is still in existence and a flourishing institution.

In 1895 Mr. Brown brought his family to Iudian Terri- tory and located six miles northeast of where the Town of Beggs now stauds, where he began operating as a farmer and cattle mau. When the railroad was built and the Town of Beggs started he at once identified him- self with its interests, and iu 1901 organized the Beggs State Bank. In 1903 this was reorganized as the First National Bank. Mr. Brown has been its president since organization, and up to two years ago was very active in the management of its affairs. His business interests are extensive, comprising a large amount of town prop- erty and also ranch and cattle interests in the vicinity of Beggs.

Since casting his first vote more than forty years ago he has been an active democrat. Just before statehood in 1906-07 he served as a deputy United States marshal in Indian Territory. Mr. Brown is a charter member of Beggs Lodge No. 319, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, and belongs to the Scottish Rite Consistory of the thirty-second degree at Macalester.

In December, 1872, he married in Johnson Couuty, Missouri, Miss Hannah Jackson, daughter of Joel Jack- son. They have two sous, W. E. Brown and Joel Ray.

W. E. Brown is a well known bauker of Sapulpa. He was born in Elk Couuty, Kansas, August 6, 1879, and after completing a business course at Quincy, Illi- nois, spent four years in the First National Bank at Beggs with his father. He was also connected with the First National Bank of Mounds, and since 1908 has been identified with the American National Bank of Sapulpa, having been eashier and one of its directors for the past four years. He is active in the Commer- cial Club and in various civic and social organizations at Sapulpa, and by his marriage in 1900 to Miss Cora Lee Pendleton has three children: Naomi, W. E., Jr., and Maxine.

Joel Ray Brown is eashier of the Bank of Commerce at Wetumpka, and likewise has a capable record as an Oklahoma banker. He married Frances Jones of War- rensburg, Missouri, and has one son, Joel Ray, Jr.

H. C. FELLOWS first became identified with Henryetta as-a coal operator, and managed for several years one of the largest companies operating at that time in this field. In recent years he has turned to the newspaper business and is now head of the Fellows Publishing and Printing Company and managing editor of the Henryetta Stan- dard. His associates are his three talented young sons, all of whom have chosen journalism as a profession and there is probably no other paper in Oklahoma which has the distinction of being managed and edited by a single family group.

Born at Lineoln, Illinois, January 12, 1865, H. C. Fellows is a son of Dr. A. M. and Emily S. (Closson) Fellows. Both his parents were natives of Vermont, his father horn in 1828 and his mother in 1832. Doctor Fellows acquired a medical education in New York, and then came to Illinois, where just before the war he mar- ried Miss Closson. After she had completed her educa-

tion she taught in a girls' school in Virginia for a time before coming to Illinois. Early in the War of the Rebellion Doctor Fellows entered the service as a surgeon with an Illinois regiment and served during the greater part of the struggle. He was finally sent home from Mississippi ill with the fever. In 1872 he took his fam- ily to Parsons, Kansas, a town which had only recently heen established, and engaged in practice there for many years. After retiring from practice in 1890 he lived in Kansas City, Missouri, until his death in 1895. He was for many years active in the republican party. His widow is still living in Kansas City with her son, and though eighty-three years of age writes most interesting letters in a clear legible hand. She has always been in- terested in educational and religious affairs and during her active life in Southern Kansas was known as a woman of superior culture and education. There are three children: H. C. Fellows, A. M. Fellows, a whole- sale coal merchant at Kansas City; and Eva L., wife of W. H. Hoffstott of Kansas City.

H. C. Fellows was about seven years of age when the family removed to Parsons, Kansas, where he grew up and finished his education in the high school. In 1889° he went out to Pueblo, Colorado, and had charge of the fuel department of the Missouri Pacific Railroad. In 1894 he took charge of the coal business of the same rail- road company at Kansas City, and in 1896 beeame pres- ident of the Trans-Missouri Coal Company at Omaha. Returning to Kansas City in 1897 he was sales manager for the Kansas & Texas Coal Company for a time, and when this corporation sold its business to the Central Coal and Coke Company Mr. Fellows moved to Spring- field, Missouri, and became manager of the Creseent Iron Works for B. F. Hobart, then president of the company. In 1903 he went back to Kansas City as manager of the J. R. Crowe Coal & Mining Company, and this eor- poration sent him to Henryetta, Oklahoma, to open the mines of the Whitehead Mining Company. In 1906 Mr. Fellows was employed by the Randolph-Mason Coal Com- pany, a New York corporation, to take charge of its min- ing operations in Missouri. After one year he returned to Oklahoma and again resumed charge of the White- head Coal Mining Company, with which he continued until 1910.

It was in 1910 that Mr. Fellows, bought the Henryetta Standard and organized the Fellows Printing and Pub- lishing Company, composed of himself and sons. Since then he has given most of his time and attention to the publication of the Standard, which is one of the influen- tial weekly papers of Okmulgee County and is now in its sixth volume. In politics it is independently demo- cratic. Mr. Fellows himself is managing editor, his sons Carl H. and Paul H. are editors, and Albert M. is assis- tant editor.

Since loeating at Henryetta Mr. Fellows has been a vigorous factor in loeal progress and served several years as president of the Commercial Club. He is a thirty-sec- ond degree Scottish Rite Mason and a member of the Mystic Shrine and is also a charter member of the loeal lodge of Elks.

In 1891 he married Miss Lillian MaeGowan, who is a graduate physician and one of the first women to take a regular M. D. degree from one of the larger institutions of the Middle West. She was born in Poweshiek County, Iowa, in 1867, but spent most of her girlhood in West Liberty in that state, where she finished the course of the high school. After teaching for a time she entered the medical department of the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, and was graduated M. D. in 1890. She then went West and began practice at Pueblo, Colorado,

FRANK M. WATSON

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HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA

where she met and married Mr. Fellows. Since her mar- riage she has made no serions attempt to practice medi- cine. Mrs. Fellows is well known in woman's club circles in Oklahoma, has been president of the Ladies Improve- ment Club at Henryetta, and has also been active in the federated club work of the state. She has also written a number of articles for newspapers. Her parents were Andrew and Eliza (Morgan) MacGowan, both of whom were born in the State of Ohio in 1826. The mother died in 1903 and her father in 1906 at West Liberty, Iowa, where he was for many years a farmer. The Mac- Gowans were Quakers.

The three sons of Mr. and Mrs. Fellows are: Paul H., born in 1892; Carl H., born in 1894, and Albert M., born in 1898. Carl H., at this writing is attending the School of Journalism at the University of Missouri. Each one of the sons has his own, particular bent and talent in the newspaper profession, and much may be expected of these young men in the future.

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN VAN DYKE. The emigrant ancestor of Benjamin Franklin Van Dyke was William Van Dyke, who came from Holland in company with Peter Stuyvesant and served as attorney general of the Colony of New Amsterdam under Governor Stuyvesant. From that day down to the present time men of the name have been leaders in their respective communities.

Benjamin F. Van Dyke was born in Keokuk County, Iowa, August 6, 1862, and his parents were L. H. and Emily (Kinnick) Van Dyke. The father was of Indiana birth, born in 1826, and he died in Lawrence, Kansas, in 1909. To these people were born eight children: D. M. Van Dyke, the eldest, died in 1887 near Garden City, Kansas, at the age of forty-five, he had been a farmer. Louisa married W. H. Holland, a farmer, now deceased; she lives at Whatcheer, Iowa. James W. lives in Sacramento, California, and is the foreman of a large ranch in that vicinity. Mary L. married Albert Skinner, a farmer, of Peabody, Kansas. Anna died in infancy. John, who was a building contractor, died in Sacramento, California, in 1914. The seventh child was Benjamin F., of this review. Emma married J. V. Weidlein, and they live in Lawrence, Kansas, where he is employed in the express office of the Santa Fe Rail- road.

Benjamin F. Van Dyke was brought up on his father's farm in Keokuk County, Iowa, and he had such schooling as was available in his community in those days. Never- theless, it is reasonable to suppose that he was a student and that he made the best of such advantages as were to be found, for when he was twenty-one he began teach- ing in the country schools of the county, continuing through two terms. He then entered the Eastern Iowa Normal at Columbus Junction and in 1885 was graduated with the degree of B. S., upon which he was appointed to the principalship of the schools of Columbus City. This service was followed by a similar call to service in Hillsboro, Kansas, where he remained until 1888, and in that year he returned to Columbus Junction and read law in the offices of Senator C. A. Carpenter. Three years later, in 1891, Mr. Van Dyke was admitted to practice before the Supreme Court of Iowa.

For the next ten years Mr. Van Dyke conducted a law practice in Columbus Junction, and in 1901 he came to Granite, Oklahoma, where he has since been ably identified with the legal activities of the place. He has found friends here and has won to himself a following that is well worthy of his talents.

Mr. Van Dyke is a democrat since 1896, and is a member of the Masonic and Pythian orders. His Masonic affiliations are with Granite Lodge No. 164, Ancient Free

and Accepted Masons. Other fraternal societies that claim him are the Modern Woodmen of America and the Woodmen of the World. In a professional way he is a member of the State Bar Association, and he is a member of the Sons of the American Revolution, an honorific membership to which he is eligible through his paternal grandfather, William Van Dyke, who gave valiant service as a soldier in the American Revolution from Somerset County, New Jersey.

In 1886 Mr. Van Dyke was married in Sigourney, Iowa, to Miss Fannie Fulton, daughter of C. M. Fulton, then postmaster of Columbus Junction. Two children were born to this marriage. Claire is married to Ray H. Arnett, superintendent of the water and light depart- ments in Granite, where they live. Dorothy was gradu- ated from Drury College in Springfield, Missouri, in 1914, with the degree of A. B., and in 1915 received an M. A. degree from the same school.

In March, 1903, Mrs. Van Dyke died, and in May, 1904, Mr. Van Dyke was married in Mangum, Okla- homa, to Miss Hattie Wright, daughter of T. E. Wright, a retired farmer of Missouri. There are no children of this later marriage.

FRANK M. WATSON. The title of biggest farmer in Osage County is rightly bestowed upon Frank M. Wat- son. His farm near Wynona is a splendid illustration of the methods and possibilities of "bonanza farming," and everything is conducted on a big scale. In his pastures are found hundreds of head of fine cattle, he plants and harvests hundreds of acres of wheat every year, and there are few business houses in Oklahoma which represent a larger investment of capital' and employ more equipment and the services of more hands.

The head of this big agricultural industry is a young man thirty-one years old. However, he has lived in close touch with stock raising and agricultural matters in the Southwest since boyhood, and his father has for years been one of the well known cattle.men of the Southwest. Frank M. Watson was born in Independence, Kansas, February 8, 1885, a son of William and Lannie (Lane) Watson, the former a native of Sherman, Texas, and the latter of Kentucky. The parents were married in Texas, and soon afterwards moved their home to Kansas. They were married at Gainsville, Texas, where William Watson was at that time engaged in his extensive ranch- ing operations. He still owns two large ranches, and for twenty-five or thirty years has ranged his cattle herds over the states of Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas. Frank M. Watson is one of eight children, four sons and four daughters.

Most of his early life was spent in Kansas, chiefly in Montgomery County, though he also became acquainted with the Osage country of the Indian Territory through his practical association with his father's cattle busi- ness. For a number of years his father had a ranch on the Caney River near Bartlesville. In 1906 Mr. Watson went to Texas with his parents, but soon afterwards came to Wynona and that has since been his head- quarters as a farmer and cattle raiser.

He now has the largest farming outfit in Osage County and has also earned the distinction of being the largest cattle man. He has 2,000 acres in his farm adjoining Wynona on the south, and it is all cultivated, with about 1,000 acres in wheat, 300 acres in oats, and the rest in feterita. It requires a big force of men to operate such an extensive farm, and his employes num- ber from fifteen to thirty, depending upon the seasons. He keeps an average of about 1,500 head of cattle, and has had as high as 6,000 head. He also handles hogs on a large scale. Throughout this section of the country his place is known as the J. O. Ranch, his cattle brand

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HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA

being composed of those letters. Altogether Mr. Watson owns and controls 50,000 acres of land in Osage County. One of the noticeable features of his farm enterprise is the presence of three immense silos. He has also constructed an individual water system, the finest in the state, representing an investment of $1,500. In addition to the use of traction engines to draw his immense gang plows, he also requires about sixteen teams to perform the farm work. Instead of depending upon an itinerant threshing outfit he owns an equipment of that machinery of his own, and has several thousand dollars invested in all the machinery and appliances needed for the culti- vation and harvesting of his crops.

Mr. Watson also keeps a pack of fourteen wolf hounds. These he employs for hunting, and they have proved an important factor in exterminating the wolves from this section of Oklahoma. During the first six months of 1915 he and his hounds have caught fifteen wolves. Mr. Watson is a member of the Masonic Order, the Benevo- lent and Protective Order of Elks, the Fraternal Order of Eagles and the Knights of Pythias. On March 21, 1908, he married Miss Viola E. Rogers, who was born in Osage County, a daughter of Antoine Rogers of Wyuona. They have one daughter, Viola Camille.

IRA GILBERT MARKEE. Appreciative of the constructive business activities, the civic loyalty and progressiveness and the sterling character of Mr. Markee, the voters of the Village of Perkins, Payne County, consistently elected him to the office of president of the village board of trustees, a position of which he has been the in- cumbent since 1915, and in which he has given a most capable administration as chief executive of the muni- cipal government. Mr. Markee has been a resident of Oklahoma since boyhood and is a representative of one of the sterling pioneer families of the state, his parents having here established their residence at the time of the opening to settlement of the Cherokee Strip, of which the present County of Payne was a part. He is one of the most influential business men of Perkins, where he operates a well equipped and thoroughly modern cot- ton gin and where he is general manager of the Farmers' Cotton Company, which is incorporated under the laws of the state.

Mr. Markee was born in Butler County, Kansas, on the 26th of October, 1880, and is a son of F. M. and Priscilla (Morgan) Markee, the former of whom was born in Illinois and the latter in North Carolina. J. M. Markee, grandfather of the subject of this review, was a loyal soldier of the Union in the Civil war, and the maternal grandfather, James Morgan, was in the same great conflict as a valiant soldier in the Confederate ranks, in which he served during virtually the entire period of the war. The marriage of the parents of Mr. Markee was solemnized in the State of Kansas, where they continued their residence until the opening to set- tlement of the Cherokee Strip of Oklahoma, in 1892, when they came to the territory and established their home on a pioneer farm in Payne County. They now reside at Stillwater, the county seat, where the father is living retired, after having contributed his share to the civic and material development and progress of this favored section of the state. Of the four children the mayor of the Village of Perkins is the eldest; May is the wife of Jesse Bennett, of Ripley, Payne County; J. Minard is identified with business interests at Still- water; and Fay remains at the parental home.

Ira G. Markee acquired his early education in the public schools of Kansas and was about thirteen years of age at the time of the family removal to Payne County, Oklahoma, where he was reared to manhood on the pioneer farm and availed himself of the advantages

of the local schools. He continued to be associated with his father in the work and management of the farm until 1904, when he engaged in the cotton business and estab- lished his headquarters in Stillwater, where he was asso- ciated with the Thompson Gin Company for four years and where he gained a thorough knowledge of all details of the cotton-ginning business. Upon leaving the county seat Mr. Markee established his home at Perkins, where he has since operated his modern gin and ably supervised the business of the Farmers' Cotton Company, of which he is general manager.

Mr. Markee is a stanch supporter of the cause of the democratic party and is a young man of invincible enter- prise and public spirit, so that he is admirably fortified for the municipal office of which he is now the incumbent. He is affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fel- lows, in which he has passed the various officials chairs of his lodge, and both he and his wife hold membership in the Baptist Church at Perkins.

In the State of Kansas, on the 12th of May, 1903, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Markee to Miss Nora Rennick, who was born in that state ou the 24th of May, 1886, being a daughter of John M. Renniek, a prosperous farmer of Dawson, Oklahoma. Mr. and Mrs. Markee have three children-Frances, Ruth and Bertha.

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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