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 53

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 53

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On retiring from public office in 1908 Mr. Wenner moved to a fruit and stock farm, and for the next five years gave all his time to that business. In 1913 he was made secretary and manager of the Guthrie Chamber of Commerce, and now, as already stated, combines the duties of his civic position with his life and activities as a farmer and fruit raiser. For twenty-five years Mr. Wenner has been a director in the Guthrie Building & Loan Association. He is secretary of the Cimarron

Valley Fair Association and the Logan County Fruit Growers' Association.

Politically his associations have always been with the republican party and for three years he was assistant secretary of the state committee. He is a Scottish Rite Mason and a member of the Knights of the Maccabees, but has held no chairs in these bodies. He is also a member of the Guthrie Country Club, and has been much interested in church work as a member of the Presby- terian Church, and in 1893 was one of the organizers of the Oklahoma Sunday School Association, in which for fifteen years he filled an office or was a member of the executive committee.

On January 18, 1885, at Bloomville, Ohio, Mr. Wenner married Ammy D. Myers, daughter of Rev. and Mrs. S. P. Myers. Her father, who was formerly a minister of the German Reformed Church, did pastoral work in Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, subsequently affiliated with the Presbyterian Church in Kansas and Oklahoma, and did much important service as a pioneer home missionary in Oklahoma. Mr. and Mrs. Wenner have five children: Robert M., Henry S., David J., Mary E. and Fanny I. All the children are living at home except David J., who is now a student in the State Agricultural and Mechani- cal College, and Henry S., who in 1912 married Louise Rouse, daughter of Dr. George Rouse of Charleston, South Carolina.

OSCAR C. WYBRANT. The legal fraternity of Wood- ward County numbers among its most able and thorough members Oscar C. Wybrant, ex-county attorney and the representative of large and important interests. Mr. Wybrant was born August 4, 1870, in a log house on a farm in Ralls County, Missouri, and is a son of William and Eliza (Heskett) Wybrant.

William Wybrant was born August 13, 1840, in Noble County, Ohio, a son of Hugh and Elmira Wybrant, the former a native of Scotland and the latter of Ireland. William Wybrant was reared on a farm in Ohio, and was engaged in farming when the Civil war broke out. He enlisted in an Ohio regiment of volunteers and served as a wagonmaster in the forces of General Thomas, and when the war was over returned to his Ohio home. In 1867 he was married in Ohio, and in that same year removed to Ralls County, Missouri, where he followed agricultural pursuits until 1903, then coming to Okla- homa and locating on Government land in Ellis County. His death occurred April 23, 1905. Mrs. Wybrant was born June 2, 1840, in Noble County, Ohio, a daughter of John B. Heskett, a native of Virginia. Her mother, who bore the maiden name of Cople, was born in Dela- ware, her parents being natives of the Netherlands. There were four sons and two daughters in the family, of whom two sons and one daughter died in infancy, while those surviving are: Oscar C .; Roy Cople, born September 18, 1878, a farmer of Ellis County, Okla- homa, married in 1906 Miss Minnie Whitehurst and has two children,-Paul and Fern; and Lucy, born October 9, 1880, was married in 1904 to Edward Bondurant, and has one child,-Viola.

After attending the public schools of Ralls County, Oscar C. Wybrant took a course in the Chillicothe (Missouri) Normal School, and at the age of seventeen years began teaching. His career as an educator covered a period of nine years, during which time he applied himself to the study of law, and in 1900 he was ad- mitted to practice in the courts of Ralls County, Mis- souri. He came to Oklahoma in 1902, locating at Wood- ward, and here he has since built up a large and repre- sentative professional business, practicing in all the courts. In 1910 he was elected county attorney of Woodward County, on the law enforcement ticket, and his

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HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA

services during his first term were so satisfactory that he was re-elected to succeed himself iu 1912, serving in all four years, with an excellent record for efficient per- formance of duty. Mr. Wybrant is a republican. He has served as a member of the school board, and at all times has been eager to contribute his abilities to the advancement of beneficial measures. He has been active also in the Christian Church, of which he and his family are members, and at present is superintendent of the Sunday school.

Mr. Wybrant was married June 16, 1903, at Mutual, Oklahoma, to Miss Margaret Frankie Roberts, who was born April 4, 1876, in Hardin County, Kentucky, the birthplace of Abraham Lincoln, daughter of David R. Roberts, a full review of whose life will be found on another page of this work in the sketch of Ed S. Roberts. David R. Roberts moved to Kansas in 1884 and to Mutual, Oklahoma, in 1894, and passed away at the latter place April 13, 1905. Mrs. Wybrant was one of the pioneer school teachers of Woodward County, and for ten years taught in the log schoolhouses which were the forerunners of Oklahoma's present excellent educa- tional institutious. A woman of many attainments and accomplishments, she still continues active in educational, social and religious work, and was one of the organizers of the first church in Woodward County outside of those located in the towns. Mr. and Mrs. Wybrant are the parents of one daughter: Alma Joy, born at Wood- ward, March 25, 1904.

WILLIAM BUCK of Wetumka is one of the most highly successful fullblood Indians in Hughes County. He has spent his entire life in the old Creek Nation, and though he was twenty years of age before he could speak the English language, he has exercised such foresight and energy in managing his affairs that he is now one of the wealthy men of the county, and has made it all in farm- ing and in judicial handling of real estate.

Mr. Buck is now about thirty-six years of age. He was born half a mile west of the present site of Wetumka, and his Indian name is Yekiche. His parents Daniel and Mary (Poyarfe) Buck were both born in the Creek Nation, were fullbloods, and neither could speak the English language as long as they lived. Both died on the farm where their son William was born, and the father passed away November 8, 1915, at the age of seventy- four, having spent his active career as a farmer and stock raiser. Their four children were: Joseph, now deceased; Tony, deceased; Roley, who gained his education in the Haskell Institute at Lawrence Kansas; and William.

William Buck as a boy attended the local schools, and finished his education in the boarding schools at Wetumka and Eufaula. He gave up his schooling as soon as he had learned to speak the English language and he soon afterwards started in business for himself as a farmer and real estate man. Mr. Buck now owns about 3,400 acres in the Creek Nation, and operates it all under his direct management. His prosperity is also represented by one of the finest homes of Wetumka, a residence which he built in 1903.

For a number of years before statehood he was a mem- ber of the Creek Council, and as a citizen of Oklahoma he votes the republican ticket and is alive and public spirited in relation to all public affairs. He is affiliated with the Woodmen of the World.

In 1907 Mr. Buck married Miss Lizzie Tiger, who was also born in the Creek Nation. They have two children: Lonnie, and Sapho, who died in 1909.

LEE DORROH, M. D. The quality of large-mindedness and resource required of the young man who would suc-

ceed in any of the learned professions in these days of severe competition and strenuous effort seems to be an integral part of the equipment of Dr. Lee Dorroh, the pioneer physician of Hammon, whence he came in April, 1909, shortly after the founding of the town. Doctor Dorroh was born at Fredonia, Caldwell County, Ken- tucky, June 28, 1872, and is a son of William W. and Mary (Easley) Dorroh. The family was founded in America by the great-grandfather of the doctor, who spelled his name O'Dorroh, a native of Ireland, who settled in North Carolina about the time of the war of the Revolution.

William W. Dorroh was born at Fredonia, Kentucky, February 22, 1827, and in 1875 removed to within four miles of Princeton, the county seat of Caldwell County, Kentucky, where he passed the remaining years of his life as a farmer and stock raiser and died in Septem- ber, 1904. He was a staunch democrat and a consistent member of the Baptist Church. Mrs. Dorroh was born in Virginia, in 1830, and when nine years of age was taken by her parents to Fredonia, Kentucky, where she was reared, educated and married. She died at Princeton, in February, 1891. There were six children in the family, namely: Bobbie, who became the wife of Charles W. Guess, a farmer of Princeton, Kentucky; Frankie, who is the wife of J. J. Rorer, a farmer of

Fredonia; William T., who is engaged in farming in Caldwell County; Annie, who is the wife of W. T. Hurst, a carpenter and mechanic of Hopkinsville, Ken- tucky; Dr. Henry C., a practicing physician and surgeon of Hammon, and graduate of the Louisville (Kentucky) Medical College, a sketch of whose career appears else- where in this work; and Doctor Lee, of this review.

Lee Dorroh grew up in the vicinity of Princeton, Kentucky, where he attended the district schools, and subsequently finished the teachers' course. In 1896, 1897 and 1898 he attended Bowling Green (Kentucky) Normal School, from which he was graduated in the latter year with the degree of Bachelor of Sciences, and in the meantime, in 1895, had become principal of schools of Caldwell County, acting in that capacity six months of each year until 1899. In the spring of 1899 Doctor Dorroh went to Angels Camp, California, where he was employed in the mining industry in connection with a quartz mill at that place, and continued to be thus engaged until January, 1902, when he began his medical studies as a student at the Louisville Hospital College of Medicine, at Louisville, Kentucky. Graduated from that institution in the class of 1906, with the degree of Doctor of Medicine, he first practiced for eighteen months at Fredonia, Kentucky, and then returned to Angels Camp, California, where he took charge of the hospital as surgeon for the Mica Mining Company for one year. In April, 1909, Doctor Dorroh came to Hammon, Oklahoma, shortly after the founding of the town, and here has carried on a general medical and surgical practice, his offices being located on Main Street. Since 1910 he has been physician for the Red Moon Indian Agency, and is also local surgeon for the Clinton, Oklahoma & Western Railway. His professional connec- tions include membership in the Roger Mills County Medical Society, the Southwestern Medical Society, the Oklahoma Medical Society and the American Medical Association. He is the recipient of a pat- ronage as financially remunerative as it is intellec- tually satisfying and encouraging, and notwithstand- ing his well known caution and respect for tradition is not afraid of untrod paths or independent, individual effort. Doctor Dorroh has interested himself variously in enterprises of a business nature and is vice president and a director of the Farmers National Bank of Ham-

Jorge Riley Hall

The boy is Hugh, and the girl is Rebecca Kathryn who was the actual inspiration for the line "Here's to the daughters, as fair as the dawn." She is, to the author, the real Oklahoma "daughter" since she is his only daughter.

tin phy na ab arm For of hea

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HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA

mon. A democrat in politics, he takes a lively interest in civic affairs, and has served as health officer, and is now a member of the school board. Fraternally, he belongs to Hammon Lodge No. 435, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, of which he is treasurer.

Doctor Dorroh was married in October, 1906, at Bowling Green, Kentucky, to Miss Ophelia Alvis, daugh- ter of Asa and Mabel Alvis, the former of whom, a farmer, is now deceased, while the latter still survives and resides at Salem, Kentucky. Doctor and Mrs. Dorroh have two children: Thelma Lee, born April 28, 1909; and Louise Camille, born December 14, 1910.

GEORGE RILEY HALL. About a year before the original Oklahoma opening there came into Indian Territory a green country boy in search of adventure and fortune. So far as known that kind of fortune represented by heaps of gilt-edged bank stock and securities has never been accumulated by George Riley Hall. He is never- theless a very fortunate man, fortunate in his talents and attainments, in his long and varied experience, and in the warm and hearty friendship of many men whom it is an honor to know.

He has found in Oklahoma another resource than material wealth. This fortune is best described in words of his own, a poem known as "Land of My Dreaming," which has brought him recognition, not only in his home state, but throughout the country as a home-made poet with a gift of language and picturesque ideas such as men never acquire from books, but only from real life. It is a poem that has been widely read and frequently published, but it will not be superfluous to include it here:

Land of the mistletoe, smiling in splendor Out from the borderland, mystic and old, Sweet are the memories, precious and tender, Linked with thy summers of azure and gold.

O! Oklahoma, fair land of my dreaming, Land of the lover, the loved and the lost; Cherish thy legends with tragedy teeming, Legends where love reckoned not of the cost.

Land of Sequoyah, my heart's in thy keeping, O, Tulledega, how can I forget! Calm are thy vales where the silences sleeping, Wake into melodies, tinged with regret.

Let the deep chorus of life's music throbbing, Swell to full harmony born of the years; Or for the loved and lost, tenderly sobbing, Drop to that cadence that whispers of tears.

Land of the mistletoe, here's to thy glory! Here's to thy daughters, as fair as the dawn! Here's to thy pioneer sons, in whose story Valor and love shall live endlessly on!

George Riley Hall was born at Rolla, Missouri, Feb- ruary 1, 1865, a son of George Riley and Rebecca (Reece) Hall. His mother was a daughter of Rev. Dr. Sherwood Reece of Tennessee, who moved into Southwest Missouri in 1851 and located in Lawrence County, where he con- tinued his professional work as a Baptist clergyman and physician. Mr. Hall's grandfather, John Hall, was a native of Kentucky and moved to Sarcoxie, Missouri, also about 1851. George R. Hall, Sr., entered the Union army in the fall of 1864 as a member of Company C, Forty-eighth Missouri Infantry, served until the close of the struggle and came out of the army so broken in health that he soon afterwards died. He and his wife were married in Missouri in 1854 and she died in 1888. George R. Hall was a mechanic and farmer and had con-

siderable artistic talent which came down to his son. Of the six children there are three now living, George R. and two daughters who live in Texas.

George Riley Hall had about three terms of district schooling. He is really self educated, and by much application to those lessons found in the course of his experience has attained a degree of culture such as many men with college degrees are not acquainted with. He became dependent upon his own exertions after his father's death, and after the death of his mother he and his brother, Samuel J., the latter now deceased, came into Indian Territory in 1888. He stopped on the Canadian River, near Eufaula, and for a time tried cot- ton raising, but without success. In the fall of 1890 he was appointed teacher in one of the neighborhood Indian schools, near the present site of Henryetta, hav- ing about a dozen wild Indian children under his super- vision. He taught in neighborhood schools until 1895, and thereafter until 1900 was employed in the boarding and academic institutions among the Indians, and in 1897 . became president of the Creek National Teachers' Nor- mal School, in which he had previously served as vice president. This high position in the educational affairs of Indian Territory was a remarkable record for one who had not the advantages of liberal education, and had come here without special recommendations as a teacher and with practically no friends or other influ- ence to promote him on his career. Mr. Hall, while teaching, acquired a considerable knowledge of the Creek language and there is perhaps no man in Eastern Okla- homa more favorably known among the Indians of the older generation.

On leaving the schoolroom in 1900 Mr. Hall leased a farm and for a time was actively identified with agri- culture in Okmulgee County. Then, in 1902, he estab- lished the Free Lance at Henryetta, which is the oldest newspaper in the town and has become both a daily and weekly. He has published it continuously since then and has kept his home and plant on the same lot, at 211 South Fifth Street, one block south of Main Street. He conducts it as a republican paper, and in fourteen years he has made the Free Lance one of the most influential organs of public opinion in Eastern Oklahoma. He has never had the backing of wealthy men in this enterprise, and has always fought his own financial bat- tles. He has conducted the Free Lance remarkably clean, and it has always stood high in the estcem of the other papers of the state.

Ever since coming to Indian Territory Mr. Hall has been a writer of poetry, and it was in 1906 that he produced the charming verses above quoted. This poem was widely published through the Associated Press, largely through the influence of Mr. Hall's friend, Alex- ander Posey. A great many favorable comments were passed upon the verses by papers throughout the United States. Mr. Hall is a natural poet and has found in literature and music his most satisfying pursuit. A few months ago he bought ten acres in the heart of the beautiful Tulledegan hills on the shore of the North Canadian River, and this place he has improved for a summer home and there he delights in the beauties of landscape and finds his greatest inspiration for writing.

In January, 1902, he married Miss Kathryn Harris of Fayetteville, Arkansas. She was a teacher in the Indian schools up to the time of her marriage. It is in his home and with his family that Mr. Hall spends all his spare time, and it may be truely said of him that he is in love with his family. He and his wife have four children. Rebecca Kathryn was the actual inspiration of the line above quoted, "Here's to thy daughters as fair as dawn,"' and she is to the author the real "Okla- homa daughter," since she is his only daughter. The

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three sons are: George Milton, who died at the age of seven weeks; Hugh; and Lawrence.

As a republican Mr. Hall served two terms as county chairman of the Republican Central Committee, and has also been active in state politics. He is past master and charter member of Tulledegan Lodge No. 201, Ancient, Free and Accepted Masons, at Henryetta, and he gave the name to this lodge in honor of the beautiful place which he had selected for his own summer home. He is also a Knight Templar and Shriner and he and his wife are members of the Christian Church. Mr. Hall is also known as an unerring marksman and "sure shot" with the rifle. Though he has spent more than a quarter of a century in the Indian Territory District of Okla- homa, and was here in the time marked by many scenes of violence and when "gun toting" was a regular cus- tom, it has been his good fortune never to have his own hand stained by the shedding of human blood. He is a man strong, virile and wholesome, temperate in all his ·habits, and with all his varied experience has not a gray hair in his head.

HARRY LEE FOGG. The first county judge of Canadian County after statehood was Harry Lee Fogg. At the time of his election he was regarded as one of the rising young attorneys of the El Reno bar, and his position in the law is now regarded as one the highest in Western Oklahoma. While his chief ambition has always been within the limits of his professiou, Judge Fogg has the qualities of a leader of men, and is prominent in the councils of the democratic party in the state.

Harry Lee Fogg is a native of Kentucky, born at Mt. Sterling, September 15, 1878, a son of Thomas L. and Kitty (Gillespie) Fogg. Both his parents were Kentuckians by birth and have spent their lives in that state. They now live in Montgomery County, where Thomas L. Fogg is still active as a farmer.

Judge Fogg grew up on a farm, received his early training in private schools, and before the completion of his literary education entered a law office at Mt. Sterling, where he trained himself in the law. He was admitted to the Kentucky bar in 1901 when twenty- three years of age.

His career as a practicing lawyer has all been passed at El Reno, where his services have been retained in some of the very important litigation before the local courts. In the office of county judge of Canadian County Mr. Fogg served with ability for three years. He has been much interested in democratic politics ever since coming to Oklahoma, and is now serving his second term as a member of the State Democratic Central Committee. His fraternal associations are with the Masonic Order and the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks and his religious faith is that of the Christian Church.

In 1905 Judge Fogg was married at El Reno to Miss Blanche Fryberger, daughter of W. E. and Cora B. Fry- berger. They are the parents of two children: William Lee and Rupert Metcalfe Fogg.

EDWIN FISHBACK. Among the older business men of Bartlesville mention should be made of Edwin Fishback, whose associations with that then small city began in 1904, and who for a number of years has been at the head of a large and prospering business as a plumbing contractor. Mr. Fishback is well known in Washington County, and his reputation for business ability and in- tegrity is unassailable.

Born at Hall in Morgan County, Indiana, September 27, 1881, Edwin Fishback is a son of Edwin and Nancy Jane (Landfair) Fishback. His father was born in Taylorville, Kentucky, and his mother in Ohio, and they were married in Morgan County, Indiana. His father

grew up in Kentucky and at the age of twenty-three removed to Indiana, and was a farmer in that state until his death in 1881. The widowed mother, left with two children, somewhat later married James A. Long, and they removed to Labette County, Kansas, when Edwin Fishback was ten years of age. Mr. Long died in 1913, and Mrs. Long is still living. Edwin Fish- back has a brother Charles F., who lives at Edna, Kansas, and by the Long marriage there is a son A. L. of Edna.

Mr. Fishback lived with his mother until eleven years ago. He was graduated from the Labette County High School in 1903, and for a year found employment at Wichita, Kansas, with a hydro-carbon light company. In December, 1904, he arrived in Bartlesville, and the next three years were spent as a plumbing employe of W. T. Berentz. Since then he has been in independent work as a plumbing contractor and has executed some of the largest contracts installed in Washington County. He knows his trade in all its details and has a record of reliable and proficient performance which brings him all the business he and several employes can attend to. In 1911 Mr. Fishback built his shop on Chickasaw Avenue, and in 1913 erected a comfortable home on the same avenue.

In politics he is a republican, is a member of the Baptist Church, and is affiliated with the Masonic Order, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Knights of Pythias. On December 28, 1908, he married Mrs. Jessie (Wood) Upham, widow of Anthony F. Upham, who by her first marriage has a son Stanley.

WILLIAM N. FAYANT. Probably no one citizen has exercised a more potent influence in the upbuilding of the little community of Dustin in Hughes County than William N. Fayant. Mr. Fayant came to Oklahoma about fifteen years ago after a broad and successful ex- perience in business and civic life in South Dakota. He came South in search of a milder climate and was at El Reno in 1901 at the opening for settlement of the south- western part of the present state.

In the next year he located at Spokogee, now Dustin, in Hughes County when that town was started and has participated actively in every enterprise of importance there since. His main business, to which he was trained in early youth, has been the cattle industry and the retail meat business. He has become extensively known all over this section of the state as a cattle man, both buying and shipping, and at the present time he has 200 head of stock, and at different times has owued much larger herds.

An important feature of his Oklahoma residence has been his public service in behalf of his home town. He was the first mayor of Dustin, and held the office three consecutive terms. He also organized the first school board, was elected its president, and was kept at the head of local school affairs until 1914, when he had decided that he had served long enough and that others should assume his share of the responsibilities. After retiring from the school board he was again elected mayor, but after one term declined further honors in that position. Politically Mr. Fayant is a democrat. The first state legislature appointed him one of the county commissioners of Hughes County, and he was one of the three first selected to that office and became chairman of the board, and was ap- pointed by Governor Haskell to the first county election board and served as its president four years. This and nearly every other political honor came unsolicited. A few years ago Governor Cruce appointed him a delegate to the Southern Commercial Congress.

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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