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 55

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 55

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Mr. Hodges has been a most euthusiastic worker in behalf of the cause of the democratic party, and, as previously stated, is chairman of its central committee for Okmulgee County. He is affiliated with both the York and Scottish Rite bodies of the Masonic fraternity, and also with the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. He and his wife are earnest members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, at Okmulgee, and he is serving on its official board.

On the 28th of June, 1909, Mr. Hodges wedded Miss May Stinnett, who was born in Kentucky but reared and educated in Texas and Oklahoma, she beiug a daughter of P. B. Stinnett, who is still a resident of the Lone Star State. Mr. and Mrs. Hodges have a fine little son, Bert C., Jr.

HON. WILLIAM N. BARRY. One of the very capable members of the House of Representatives in the Fifth Oklahoma Legislature is William N. Barry of Okemah,

Okfuskee County. Mr. Barry was elected in 1914 and had previously been closely identified with public affairs in his home county, where he is proprietor of a very successful business, The Okemah Hardware Company. While faithful to his constituency, Mr. Barry has brought a sound business judgment to the work of the Fifth Legis- lature, and has exercised an important influence on cur- rent legislation. In the House in the Fifth Legislature he has served as chairman of Committee on Elections and as a member of committees on public service cor- porations, municipal corporation, dentistry, enrolled and engrossed bills.

He is one of the younger members of the legislature, but is comparatively an old resident of his section of the state. He was born in Lafayette County, Mississippi, September 9, 1879, a sou of Jesse R. and Ellen Elizabeth (Nichols) Barry. His father was born in South Caro- lina and his mother in Alabama, but they both came to Mississippi as children and in the house where they married they spent the rest of their days. The mother died in Lafayette County, Mississippi, August 12, 1906, at the age of fifty-seven, and the father on December 10, 1914, aged seventy-six. He spent all his active career as a farmer, but during the Civil war he was a private soldier in the Confederate army. He also held the office of county supervisor and exercised considerable influence in local politics. In the family were eight daughters and two sons.

After growing up on the old farm back in Mississippi and gainiug a public school education, at the age of twenty he started out to make his fortune in a new country. In 1901 Mr. Barry went to Texas and for a year or so employed his energies on a farm, but in August, 1903, arrived at Okemah, Oklahoma, where he became clerk in a local hardware store and thus learned the business which he has since followed so successfully. From Okemah he went to Paden, another town in Okfus- kee County, in 1907, and there engaged in the hardware business with John D. Richards as a partner. On Jan- uary 1, 1911, he returned to Okemah and has since estab- lished and conducted a very large business under the name Okemah Hardware Company.

Always interested in public affairs, he was elected one of the first commissioners of Okfuskee County after statehood, representing District No. 1, and was re- elected in 1910. He served two terms, or about five years after statehood. In 1914 he was elected to repre- sent his home county in the House of Representatives.

Mr. Barry is a democrat, a member of the Masonic Order and the Knights of Pythias. On December 9, 1907, he married Eunice I. Busby, who was born in Missis- sippi and came to Oklahoma with her parents, Mr. and Mrs. J. D. Busby, who located at. Okemah about the time the town was founded. To their marriage have been born three children, all of them natives of Okfuskee County. Their names are Eleanor E., Lois I. and Wil- liam N. Jr.

JUDGE THOMAS LEWIS ROGERS. As the contents of these historical volumes will be esteemed by future gen- erations in proportion as they include within their pages the records of men most closely identified with the old territory and the new state, it is especially suitable to the design of the publication to include a record of the late Thomas Lewis Rogers, who died at his home in Pawhuska, January 1, 1909, at the age of seventy-one years, four months and twenty-one days.

Judge Rogers was prominent both as the descendant of an eminent Cherokee-Osage family and in his own per- son as a successful farmer and stock raiser. For many years he lived at his home, seven miles southeast of Pawhuska. His relations to the Osage Nation were

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noteworthy and most commendable to both his head and his heart.

In the preliminary negotiations leading up to the acquirement of a permanent reservation for the Osages, Judge Rogers prominently participated as a member of the Osage council selected to treat with the Government and with the Cherokee Nation for the lands comprising the Osage Nation, as organized in 1872. For several terms he served on the Osage council and for many years was supreme judge of the nation itself. In Masonry he had attained the thirty-second degree, being a member of the Pawnee Chapter and Commandery, Guthrie Consistory and the Oklahoma City Shrine. His home lodge at Pawhuska participated officially in his burial, and his body was also followed to its last resting place by many friends and brothers in the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. The following is a tribute paid to him at that time: "He was a firm believer in fraternal orders and longed to see those who were near and dear to him under the benign protection of one of the great fraternal orders. In many ways he was a remarkable man. He was a man of great culture and refinement although reared under adverse circumstances. So genial was his hospitality and so rare his qualities of entertainment that he has often been called 'Prince of the Osages.' His friends were legion, and many a heart saddens at the news of his death. May his like increase; for it may be truly said of him, 'the world is better for his having lived.' "'

The family of which Judge Rogers was so worthy a representative was founded in Indian Territory by Cap- tain John Rogers, his grandfather, who came to the Cherokee Nation from his home in Georgia as early as 1829, being a member of what is known as the "Old Settlers," as distinguished from the emigrants who came in the early '30s. With his son, Thomas Lewis Rogers, Sr., he established the first salt industry west of the Mississippi River at the Rogers homestead on Spavinaw Creek. Without tools, machinery or equipment of any kind they dug their wells and built rude but practicable furnaces for boiling the water and extract- ing salt, selling their product in large quantities through- out Indian Territory, Missouri and Kansas. Among the pioneer enterprises of the Rogers, father and son, in this field was the plant which they established at Grand Saline, which was the forerunner of the extensive industry conducted at that point.

Thomas L. Rogers, Sr., married Ellen Lombard, a woman who was half French and half Osage Indian, and it is through her that Judge Rogers obtained his citizen- ship in the Osage Nation. Before the Civil war the Rogers homestead on the Spavinaw was a famous resort of the settlers for miles around, good cheer, comfort and old-time southern hospitality abounding in their most typical forms. Especially at Christmas and during the holiday season was the house "wide open" and warm with the best spirit of the day.

This homestead was located about four miles from the confluence of the Spavinaw with the Grand River, in what is now Mayes County, Oklahoma. In that home- stead the late Judge Thomas L. Rogers was born, August 11, 1837. At the opening of the Civil war he was in the Confederate service as a member of Company G, commanded by Captain Butler, in General Stan Watie's Cherokee regiment. He spent most of his time as a scout on the frontier of the Indian Territory. He was also engaged in several severe battles, particularly the engagement at Big Cabin. The war so depreciated the value of his homestead and business properties that at the close he found employment as clerk in a large general store, being subsequently engaged in the more lucrative

and independent occupation of buying and selling cattle. It is illustrative of the faithful and generous character of the late Judge Rogers that the profits of his business were not selfishly expended upon himself, but went toward the support of his widowed mother and the edu- cation of the younger members of the family.

In 1870 he married Miss Nancy Martin, member of one of the most prominent of the Cherokee families. In 1871 he located on the Big Caney, and in 1872 on Bird Creek in the northwestern part of the Cherokee Nation, adjoining the Osage Nation, soon after the lands in that locality were acquired for settlement by the Osages. Previously the lands had been leased from the Indians by white cattle raisers. Judge Rogers lived in that locality for fifteen years, then moved to Paw- huska, where he remained six years, and then went to the home southeast of Pawhuska, where he resided eighteen years, finally returning to Pawhuska a few years before his death. A tract of land southeast of Pawhuska became his regular homestead and remained so for many years and under his industry and skill was rated as one of the finest agricultural and stock farms for miles around. There he erected a splendid stone residence of ten rooms and provided every facility for conducting his large and varied operations. For several years he handled horses and cattle on an extensive scale 'and though still operating a farm he moved to Paw- huska, where he built another fine modern residence on East Main Street. During his first period of residence in Pawhuska he engaged successfully in general mer- chandising, at first in partnership with his kinsman, Hon. W. C. Rogers, the noted chief of the Cherokees, and later with John R. Skinner. His service in the negotiations by which the territorial limits of the Osage Nation were determined and the high post he filled in the legis- lative and judicial affairs of the nation have already been mentioned. Because of such activities his death marked the departure from the world of a man who had demonstrated not only unusual capacity, but the finest and warmest traits of heart and soul.

Mrs. Nancy (Martin) Rogers, his wife, was born on Cabin Creek, Cherokee Nation, October 30, 1848, a daughter of John and Martha (Chambers) Martin. Her father, John Martin, was a native of Georgia, born June 11, 1819, and was one of the emigrants to the Indian country of 1829. Both he and his wife were Indians to about a sixteenth degree. As a citizen of the Cherokee Nation he became one of its prominent men. John Martin's father, Jack Martin, served as first supreme judge of the nation. John Martin was a slave owner before the Civil war and served faithfully and bravely as a Confederate soldier. He died November 20, 1871. The mother of Mrs. Nancy Rogers was born in Georgia, a member of the Cherokee Nation. Her father, Jack Chambers, was of Irish and Cherokee stock, the father being an Irishman and the mother a full- blood Cherokee. The girlhood of Mrs. Rogers was spent in the Cherokee Nation as a daughter of one of its lead- ing and prosperous citizens. After attaining a thorough education in its public schools she completed her school- ing at Neosho Academy in Missouri, and was married to Judge Rogers, February 26, 1869.

The four children born to Judge and Mrs. Rogers were: Elnora, who died at the age of four years; Mrs. Bertha Leahy, wife of T. J. Leahy; Mrs. Martha Leahy, wife of William T. Leahy; and Thomas L. Rogers, Jr. Judge Rogers had been married previously in 1862 to Ellen Coody, and the only child of that marriage, Arthur Rogers, died about four years ago in Oklahoma. Mrs. Judge Rogers was married September 18, 1915, to D. A. Ware. Mr. Ware is one of the old settlers in this

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section of Oklahoma and has been a resident of the state for a quarter of a century.

GEORGE E. TINKER. To the white citizens who have spent practically all their lives among the Indian tribes of Oklahoma, George E. Tinker, a mixed blood Osage Indian, is a man of particular interest. He has lived among the Osages since his birth and has sustained some valuable relations to the city and country around Pawhuska. Even before he gained his majority he was active in politics, and has been one of the public spirited leaders of his people, and has also contributed a service as a newspaper man, is interested in local history in this part of the state, and it is doubtful if any citizen of Osage County is better known and more highly esteemed.

His birth occurred at the old Osage Mission in Kan- sas, September 24, 1868. His parents were George and Genevieve (Revard) Tinker. His father was a native of New England, but was reared in Humboldt, Ohio, and in the very early days made the trip across Kansas and on to California as a blacksmith with a large party who were journeying to the western gold fields with wagons and ox teams. Subsequently he returned to Kansas and located as a blacksmith among the Osage tribe in Neosho County. Mr. Tinker's mother also went out to Cali- fornia in 1850 and lost her first husband there, William Champlain. She had two children by that husband. In 1856 she returned to the states by way of the Isthmus of Panama and New York, and was married to Mr. Tinker at the Osage Mission in 1866. In 1870 they accompanied the tribe to the Osage country of Indian Territory, and spent the rest of their days in what is now Osage County. The father was for many years a Govern- ment blacksmith among the Indians and followed his trade all his active life. He died in June, 1880, at the age of sixty-seven, and his widow passed away in May, 1912, at the age of eighty-eight. George E. Tinker is the only child of his father and mother, but has three half-sisters living: Emeline, widow of Edward Revard of Pawhuska; Eliza A., widow of Julian Trumbley of Pawhuska; and Mary, widow of Thomas Leahy of Los Angeles, California.

Since he was two years of age George E. Tinker has always lived on the Osage Reservation or in what is now Osage County of Oklahoma. Through the first two grades he attended the Government Indian School main- tained at Pawhuska and spent eight months during the winter of 1883-84 in the Osage Mission. Since reaching manhood he has been more or less actively interested in farming, and has a considerable property in and around Pawhuska.

The first weekly paper published in Pawhuska was the Wah-Shah-She News, which was founded and conducted by Mr. Tinker for two years. He also published the Osage Magazine. His interest in local history has led him to make researches and preserve a great many facts and data concerning the Osage people.

All his life he has been affiliated with the democratic party, and in the early days was keenly interested in Osage politics. He was the first chairman of the first democratic organization in Osage Reservation, and was a delegate to every territorial and state convention since the opening of the old Cherokee Strip in 1893. His first important distinction came to him when he was only nineteen years of age, in his election as prosecuting attorney for the Osage Nation, an office which , he capably filled for two years. He was also for six years a member of the Osage Council.

Fraternally Mr. Tinker is a member of the Knights of Pythias in all its branches; is a charter member of Wah-Shah-She Lodge No. 110, Ancient, Free and Ac- cepted Masons, at Pawhuska; has taken thirty-two de-

grees in the Scottish Rite, being a member of the consistory at Guthrie; is affiliated with the Temple of the Mystic Shrine at Oklahoma City, and is a member of both the Royal Arch Chapter and the Knights Templar Commandery at Pawhuska.

On January 1, 1886, Mr. Tinker married Sarah Ann Swigerty, who was born in Northeastern Kansas in 1867. They are the parents of a fine family of six children: Clarence L., who is now a lieutenant in the regular army of the United States and at present stationed at Hono- 'lulu; Genevieve, who is now Mrs. Leonard Dyer, married March 8, 1916; Anna, wife of Myer F. Ruffner of Osage County, and their two children are named Victoria and Leona; Nicholas A., who lives in Montana; George E, Jr., who attends college in Denver, Colorado, but is now at home; and Villa, at home and attending school.

G. R. GRIGGS, M. D. Successful and progressive small town and country doctors in Oklahoma are numerous. Some of them have taken post-graduate degrees, while the others keep abreast of modern things in the profes- sion through reading, close observation and association with medical societies and other sources of learning. Typical of this class of doctors is Doctor Griggs, who grew up principally on a ranch in Texas, but whose ambition to take up and successfully follow a profession never abated. For eight years he has been engaged in practice as a physician and surgeon at Harrah, and these have been growing, prosperous years, and he enjoys a fine practice.

A Texan by birth, Doctor Griggs was born in Panola County, April 25, 1877, a son of William B. and Carrie (Roquemore) Griggs. His father, who now lives in Callahan County, Texas, is a native of Georgia, but has lived in Texas since the close of the Civil war. The mother, who was born and reared in Texas and is still living, is the daughter of Georgia parents who came to Texas prior to the Civil war.

As a boy Doctor Griggs attended the public school at May, Texas, for a few years, and then spent ten years of employment on farms and ranches. In 1903, largely with such means as he had himself supplied, he entered the Dallas Medical College at Dallas, and in 1907 gradu- ated M. D. from the Southwestern Medical College of that city. He at once removed to Oklahoma and has since been established at Harrah.

In 1909, at Harrah, Doctor Griggs married Miss Minnie Martin, whose father was one of the pioneer farmers in that community. Their one daughter, Robbie Lee, is now three years of age. The brothers and sisters of Doctor Griggs are: Dr. R. L. Griggs, a successful physician and surgeon, specializing in surgery, at Baird, Texas; W. W. Griggs, who is fourteen years of age and lives with his father in Callahan County, Texas; Mrs. Odran Green, wife of a farmer near Baird, Texas; and Mrs. Lyns Ramsey, whose husband is a dentist at Cross Plains, Texas.

Doctor Griggs is a member of the Canadian Valley Medical Association, and fraternally is affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Modern Woodmen of America, and is medical examiner for the camp of the latter at Harrah. He is also a member of the town board of trustees, and was an active and influ- ential member of the Harrah Commercial Club before that organization ceased its activities. His progressive citizenship shows its many points, and he has worked untiringly and unselfishly to advance movements relating to the public schools, good roads and other needed facilities.

JAMES MONROE ADDLE. The average Oklahoman has had a greater range of experience and more opportunities

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of adventure than the citizen of the older states. One expects something unusual and exceptional in the career of nearly everyone who claims this state as his home. But even among Oklahomans James M. Addle, who is well established as a lawyer at Bristow in Creek County, stands above the ordinary line of achievement and ex- perience. Mr. Addle during the past forty years has been identified with almost every important section of the great developing work. He has been a miner, a pioneer in new countries, a soldier, and perhaps in Okla- homa where he has had his home for the last twelve years, he has enjoyed a quieter routine than befell his lot after he left his eastern home when a young man.

He was born at Meadville, Crawford County, Penn- sylvania, October 8, 1851, a son of A. M. and Margaret (Shartle) Addle. His parents were of Dutch stock and both natives of Pennsylvania, where they spent all their lives. His father was a stone mason and brick layer by trade, and from his trade he developed a business as a contractor. There were two sons, William Henry and James M., and the former, now deceased, was also an attorney. James Monroe Addle spent the first twenty- one years of his life in his native City of Meadville. He acquired his education in the local schools and spent two years in that fine old institution of Meadville, Alle- gheny College. He took up the study of law with the firm of Farley & Hotchkiss at Meadville, and was ad- mitted to the bar there. April 10, 1872.

He soon afterwards started out on his life of adven- ture and wander. His first destination was San Antonio, Texas, from there he went to Wichita, Kansas, and it would be difficult to enumerate all the scenes and places of his activities and experience since then. He visited the states of California, Wyoming, Idaho and Mon- tana, and from Shoshone County, Idaho, he came to Oklahoma in 1904. He was a prospector and miner in Idaho, California, Montana and New Mexico, also prac- ticed law and has fared among many different peoples and in many out of the way places. Mr. Addle was a member of the rough rider regiment during the Spanish- American war.

In politics he is a democrat. On May 5, 1873, he married Clara O'Brien, who was born in Armstrong County, Pennsylvania. There were two children of the marriage, Maude, now lives at Meadville, Pennsylvania, and Kitty died in 1875.

JACOB SIMPSON BEARDEN. In many ways the agricul- tural, business and financial interests of Okfuskee County reflect the ability and enterprise of Jacob S. Bearden, who is one of the pioneers of this section of the state and was one of the first to take an interest in and supply capital and other resources to the starting of the new Town of Ckemah. When he located in Okfuskee County about twenty years ago he engaged in merchandising, and around his store grew up a little village, which in his honor was named Bearden, and he has always been greatly concerned with the growth and improvement of this village. The town takes much pride in its fine school buildings, and is one of the flourishing smaller com- munities.

For a number of years Mr. Bearden has been best known as a banker, and for the past three years has been president of the First National Bank of Okemah. This bank has a capital of $25,000 and surplus of $5,000, and is one of the United States depositories in Oklahoma. By a statement issued in the closing months of 1915, the aggregate resources of this bank are shown to be upwards of $175,000, and deposits of over $100,000 reflect not only the integrity of the bank but also the prosperity of the surrounding community. The principal officers of the bank are: J. S. Bearden, president; E. R. Strain, vice

president; O. P. Bearden, cashier; and G. E. Clowers, assistant cashier.

lu many ways Jacob S. Bearden has had a remarkable career. He had few of the opportunities for culture which are usually given to modern boys, and he never mastered the rudimentary elements of learning, although he has apparently suffered no special handicap as a keen and vigorous business man. His success could be traced chiefly to hard work, the overcoming of difficulties and a steadfast honor and integrity in all of life's rela- tions.

He was born in Marshall County, Alabama, May 5, 1858, a son of Jacob and Caroline (Hess) Bearden. His parents were born and were married in Georgia, and afterwards moved to Alabama where the father died when Jacob S. Bearden was four years of age. The mother spent her last days with her son Jacob S. in Tecumseh, Oklahoma, and died there in 1892 at the age of fifty-eight. In the family were three sons and three daughters

Jacob S. Bearden grew up in Alabama, and at the age of twenty-two was married there in 1880 to Miss Norcenia King. Immediately after their marriage they moved to Pope County, Arkansas, where Mrs. Bearden died in the spring of 1882, without children. For his second wife Mr. Bearden married Mrs. Jodie (King) Bearden, a sister of his first wife and widow of his brother Richard.

Mr. Bearden came into Oklahoma and located at Tecum- seh in 1890, and secured a claim at the opening of the Kickapoo Indian Reservation, but later sold out. His claim was 212 miles from Shawnee. In 1893 he made the run to Perry at the opening of the Cherokee Strip. His second wife died at Tecumseh in 1893. Many years ago Mr. Bearden moved to Okfuskee County and estab- lished his store at Bearden. Up to that time he had followed farming, but soon proved a success as a mer- chant. In 1902 he located at Okemah at the beginning of that town and established a branch store there, but after a few years sold a two-third interest of the busi- ness at Bearden to the firm of Strain & Cowgill, which still continues the business there.

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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