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 57

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 57

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Mr. Mullins was married at Marysville, Kansas, in 1896, to Miss Hattie McLeod, who was born in Marshall County, Kansas, daughter of the late Capt. Archie P. McLeod, who served in the Union army during the Civil war and subsequently became a Kansas farmer. Two children have been born to this union: Clarence, born July 19, 1903, who is attending the public schools at Walters; and Hattie Muriel, born August 26, 1913.

JAMES C. MENIFEE. No matter how dynamic the force of progress along all material lines of human endeavor, still agriculture and horticulture · must ever figure as the base of industrial and general prosperity, and fortune is he whose ability and tastes enable him to achieve success in connection with any department of the great elemental art of husbandry. Though the natural resources of Oklahoma are varied and opulent, it is through agriculture and other utilization of the willing soil that civic and material development and upbuilding have mainly been compassed, and in Creek County it is pleasing to direct attention to Mr. Menifee as one of the prominent, substantial and representative exponents of such basic industry, though his activities have been of varied order and have marked him as a man of versatility in business, even as he is known as one of the loyal, appreciative and public-spirited citi- zens of Sapulpa, in the vicinity of which city he is giving special attention to fruit culture.

Mr. Menifee was born in Holt County, Missouri, on the 6th of September, 1860, and is a son of John M. and Eleanor M. (Scott) Menifee, the former of whom was born in Kentucky, a scion of an old and prominent Southern family, and the latter of whom was born in the State of Indiana, their marriage having been solemn- ized in Missouri, where the respective families settled in the early '50s.

John M. Menifee became a prosperous farmer and stock grower in Holt County, Missouri, and finally turned his attention more particularly to the propaga- tion of fruit, of which line of enterprise he became one

of the most prominent and successful exponents in that county, where he developed a fine fruit farm of 100 acres. When in advanced years he sold this valuable property and he and his devoted wife joined their son, James C., subject of this sketch, in Oklahoma, where both passed the remainder of their lives and where in death they were not long divided, Mr. Menifee having passed away on the 6th of June, 1910, at the age of seventy-five years, and his wife having died on the following day, at the age of seventy-one years, the memories of both being reverently cherished by all who came within the compass of their kindly and benignant influence. John C. Menifee was staunchly loyal to the Union during the climacteric period of the Civil war, though living in a state where the preponderating sympathy was for the cause of the Confederacy .. He did all in his power to uphold the Union arms but his physical condition was such that he was unable to enter military service. Both he and his wife were zealous members of the Presbyterian Church, earnest in sup- port of temperance, and tolerant and considerate in their association with all with whom they came in con- tact in the various relations of life. Of their three children the subject of this sketch was the second in order of birth; Bettie W, the first born, became the wife of William Ward and is now deceased; and Robert L. is now a resident of the City of Fresno, California.

James C. Menifee was reared to adult age in Holt County, Missouri, where he early began to assist his father in the work of the home farm and where he gained thorough familiarity with the varied details of successful fruit culture. In the meanwhile he did not neglect to profit fully by the advantages afforded in the common schools of his native county, and he con- tinued to reside at the parental home until his removal to what is now the State of Oklahoma, save that he passed one year in Montana, when eighteen years of age.

In 1892 Mr. Menifee came to Indian Territory and established his permanent residence at Sapulpa, the present metropolis and judicial center of Creek County, Oklahoma, and that he is distinctively entitled to pioneer honors is assured when it is stated that the now popu- lous and metropolitan city was then represented by a railroad station, a general store and a few dwellings of primitive order. Mr. Menifee has always been a man of action, and thus, soon after his arrival in the embryonic city he here opened a general store, this being the second mercantile establishment of the diminutive but aspiring village. In 1893 he formed a partnership with P. B. France which continued for three years, when Mr. Menifee bought Mr. France's interests. With the development of the city and surrounding country the business of Mr. Menifee constantly expanded in scope and importance, though his trade in the earlier year's was largely with the Indians, many of whom came from points as far as sixty miles distant to purchase goods, which they frequently carried away by the wagon load. At that time Sapulpa was the western terminus of the Frisco Railroad line and thus became a trading and shipipng point of much importance, and the town was a place of interest and rendezvous on the part of many Indians who came to it to gain their first sight of a railway train. During the ten years that he was engaged in the mercantile business Mr. Menifee con- trolled a large and profitable trade and was recognized as one of the leading business men of Sapulpa, the while his fair dealings and impregnable integrity gained to him the unequivocal confidence and good will of both his white and Indian patrons and he became known to the white settlers and the Indians throughout a wide radius of country. After he had learned that Sapulpa

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was to be made a division headquarters for the Frisco Railroad Mr. Menifee showed his confidence in the future importance and growth of the town by making judicious investments in local real estate, and its appre- ciatiou in value eventually enabled him to realize large profit in the sale of much of the property thus acquired. Since his retirement from the mercantile business he has given his attention principally to the handling of real estate and agricultural enterprise, in both of which lines he has been definitely prospered. In Sapulpa he is the owner of valuable business and residence prop- erties, and since 1912 he has maintained his residence on a fine rural estate one mile north of the city, where he has developed one of the excellent fruit farms of the county, his thorough knowledge of this line of enter- prise having made him specially successful in exploiting this important line of enterprise, along which he is still continuing his effective development work, which is a definite lesson and incentive to others.

In politics Mr. Menifee does not consult expediency but votes in accord with his earnest convictions and is a staunch supporter of the cause of the prohibition party. He and his wife are zealous members of the Presbyterian Church, and he served as elder of the church of this denomination in Sapulpa until his removal to his farm.

It is worthy of special note that at the annual fair of the Creek Couuty Agricultural Society in the autumn of 1915 Mr. Menifee captured second premium in the department of general exhibits from individual farm, and this is the more noteworthy in view of the fact that he had resided on and given his personal super- vision to his farm for the brief period of somewhat less than three years.

In the year 1883 was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Menifee to Miss Alice S. Dulin, who like himself is a native of Holt County, Missouri, where she was born on the 13th of November, 1861, a daughter of Smith and Mary Elizabeth (Embree) Dulin, the former of whom was killed in an engagement at Helena, Arkansas, while serving as a soldier of the Confederacy in the Civil war, and the latter of whom now resides in the home of Mr. and Mrs. Menifee, who accord to her the deepest filial solicitude, as did they also to her mother, Mrs. Nancy Ann Embree, who passed her declining years in their home and who was summoned to the life eternal in June, 1915, about one month prior to the one hundredth anniversary of her birth. This venerable womain retained to the last wonderful control of her mental faculties, and her memory was such that she was able to give most graphic and interesting reminiscences of the years long past. Mr. and Mrs. Menifee became the parents of three children, of whom the first born, India, died at the age of three years; Miss Bettie W. remains at the parental home and is a popular factor in the social activities of the community ; and Newell D. is engaged in the insurance and abstract business in the City of Sapulpa.

JOHN G. COPENHAVER. In those years now pleasantly distant when Northern Oklahoma was untouched by railroads, John G. Copenhaver gained his first acquain- tance with what is now Osage County by work as a freighter, engaged in hauling goods from Kansas Point to some of the early trading posts in the Osage and Cherokee nations. For fully a quarter of a century he has been prominently identified with Osage County, is one of the enterprising men who have done much to stimulate and raise the standards of agriculture aud stock raising in this section, and is now living retired in the enjoyment of a well earned prosperity with his

home in Big Heart, Osage County. Mr. Copenhaver has taken much interest in political affairs, and is now serv- ing as a justice of the peace.

An Indiaua man by birth, he was boru at Clintou on the Wabash River in Vermilion County, Iudiana, in 1852. His parents were Thomas J. and Mary E. Gordon Copeu- haver, both uatives of Iudiana, his mother being also born in Vermiliou County. In 1869, when Mr. Copenhaver was seventeen years of age, the family moved out to Wilsou County, Kansas, where his father took up a homestead, followed farming and stock raising for many years, and died in 1890 when about forty-five years old. The mother died February 19, 1916, at the old home which they took up as a government claim in 1869, when past eighty years of age. Thomas J. Copenhaver served for 41% years as a Union soldier, enlisting at the beginning of the war in the Eighteeeuth Indiaua Regiment, sub- sequently veteranizing, and continuing until the close of hostilities in 1865. Most of his service was as regimental quartermaster. He was a stanch republican, and he and his wife active members of the Christian Church. All of their four sous and four daughters are still living, namely: John G .; Catherine, wife of George Woodard of Wilson Couuty, Kansas; A. J., of Fall River, Kansas; Aunie, wife of Alexander Nelson of Ramona, Oklahoma; M. S., who lives with his mother on the homestead; O. P., of Drumright, Oklahoma; Mrs. Eunice of Wood- son County, Kausas; Mrs. Elsie Cooper, of Greenwood County, Kansas.

Though John G. Copenhaver resided with his parents until his marriage, he had already acquired an extensive experience as a farm boy, a student in local schools, and in employment in those occupations which are char- acteristic of a new state. Ou August 29, 1877, he mar- ried Miss Mary E. Scott, who was born in Illinois in 1856 and was brought to Kansas in 1871 with her parents.

After his marriage Mr. Copenhaver located on a farm in Wilson County, Kansas, and lived there until his removal to the vicinity of Pawhuska in 1890. He has been a resideut of Osage County ever since, and most of his active career has been spent in farming. For the past six years he has lived retired. During his early manhood Mr. Copeuhaver gained the experience already noted as a freighter. In 1872 he was employed by the Coy Brothers and Ogeese Captain, who operated an ex- tensive trading post at Hominy Falls about seven miles north and west of Tulsa, and this firm had the first store built on the Osage Reservation. Mr. Copenhaver was employed chiefly in hauling goods to this trading post from Fort Leavenworth and later from Fort Scott, Kan- sas. The distance he had to cover between Fort Leaven- worth and the trading post was fully 300 miles. In later years Mr. Copenhaver gained considerable note as a stock raiser, and at times had between 200 and 300 head of cattle and from forty to fifty head of horses. A pleasing distinction which is associated with his name is that he was the first to introduce Holstein cattle into Osage County. That was about twenty years ago.

Mr. Copenhaver was one of the organizers of the republican party in Osage County, and for more than twenty years has been identified with the Knights of Pythias fraternity. He and his wife are the parents of three children. Thomas J. lives in Independence, Kansas, and is married and has three children. Wil- liam J. lives at Big Heart and is also married. Jacob resides at Independence and is married and has one child.

JUDGE CHARLES B. WILSON, JR. Deep and accurate knowledge of law, native shrewdness and ability, and unswerving integrity have made Judge Charles B. Wil-

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son, Jr., of the Tenth Judicial District, an excellent lawyer and an admirable judge; high personal character, firm convictions of the right, a kind heart and strong sense of duty has made him a valuable citizen. A con- scientious public servant, of high purpose and sincerity, he has long stood as one of the ablest representatives of the dignity of the law in. Chandler and Lincoln County. The Tenth Judicial District of Oklahoma comprises the two counties of Lincoln and Pottawatomie.

Judge Wilson has long been known in Central Okla- homa as a successful lawyer and one of the strong and active figures of the democratic party. He was engaged in the active practice of law for sixteen years, and has lived in Oklahoma since the first opening in 1889. He was born in Clinton, Henry County, Missouri, August 2, 1872, and is a son of Charles B. Wilson, Sr., a pioneer lawyer of Chandler and a native of Missouri, where he was reared and educated. He is now retired from the active practice of law and belongs among the class of honored old-timers of the Southwest. The maiden name of the mother was Kate Thurston, who came of a family of Virginia people. Charles B. Wilson, Sr., and wife had two children: Charles B. Jr., and Ann Wilson, now of St. Joseph, Missouri. The father is a democrat, and is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church South and a man honored and respected in all his relations.

Judge Wilson spent his early life in Clinton, Missouri, was educated in the Clinton high schools and was seven- teen years of age when he became identified with Central Oklahoma. He studied law under the direction of his father at Chandler, and was admitted to the bar in that city in 1899. For several years he was junior member of the firm of Wilson & Wilson, and this was a firm which controlled a large and successful practice and in ability was ranked second to none in the Tenth District. Judge Wilson was formerly a member of the firm of Hoffman, Robinson & Wilson, and each of the three members have seen active service in judicial positions, either as county or district judges.

Judge Wilson has an eminently clean record in all his business and civic relations. One of his strongest char- acteristics is his faculty for making and retaining strong friendships. Judge Wilson has taken fourteen degrees in Scottish Rite Masonry and is also affiliated with Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Knights of Pythias and the Modern Woodmen of America. He is a man of strong physical and mental address and his dignity and impartial conduct on the bench is matched by the strength and cordial manners of the lawyer and gentleman. In 1915 he was appointed a member of Division No. 5 of the Supreme Court Commission of the state appointed by the governor.

ROBERT DUNLOP. Ranked as one of the leading and most successful oil operators of Oklahoma, with proper- ties scattered over all the important producing sections of the state, Robert Dunlop, of Newkirk, is also greatly interested in agricultural ventures, and during a long and active career has served his state in positions of responsibility and trust, in which he has demonstrated the possession of excellent executive powers as well as high ideals of public service.

Mr. Dunlop was born at Garnett, Anderson County, Kansas, September 6, 1869, and is a son of Alexander and Mary (Whitson) Dunlop, natives of Scotland, the former born at Dunlop Place, February 3, 1826, and the latter at Kelso, March 24, 1832. The parents were strict Scotch Presbyterians and were married in 1865 in Law- rence, Kansas, after the return of the father from his service in the Civil war, in which he fought as a private of the One Hundred and Forty-eighth Regiment, Illinois

Volunteer Infantry. The parents of Mr. Dunlop's mother came to the United States in 1849 and her mother died in New York shortly afterward. In 1850 Mr. Dunlop moved to Quebec, Canada, and in 1856 to Fort Leaven- worth, Kansas. The father of Mr. Dunlop settled first on the first homestead awarded to a white man in Howard County, Kansas, this being to George Hitchens, a late distinguished pioneer of that state. It is now occupied as the home of Mr. Dunlop's two brothers, George and James, and is located in the vicinity of Long- ton, Kansas.

Mr. Dunlop attended the public and high schools of Howard County, finishing a business education in the latter, and began life for himself in Oklahoma, working on the homestead of an uncle in Payne County. The next year, 1890, he did ranch work in the Osage Nation, and in 1891 entered the Iowa Indian country at its opening. He found no land that suited him there, however, and did not make any settlement. Having as a cowman traversed a large part of the territory em- braced in the Cherokee Strip, he took part in the opening of that territory in 1893 and took a homestead in what is now Kay County. This in due time he patented and it became the nucleus of the 320 acre farm which now is one of his most valuable possessions. It is situated in the heart of one of the finest farming regions of the state, and the section of which it originally was a part ranks as the best in Oklahoma. On the land are suc- cessfully grown wheat, oats and alfalfa, and Mr. Dunlop for many years has had his men emplcy the best and most scientific methods of agriculture. As one of the leading and original settlers of the county he took an active part in a good roads movement that resulted in the establishment of a system of roads that were not surpassed in any of the original counties. In 1902 he was elected treasurer of Kay County and this position he held until 1907, the year of statehood, when he became a candidate on the democratic ticket for state treasurer, but was defeated for the nomination by James A. Mene- fee of Anadarko by 289 votes. He served during the administration of Governor C. N. Haskell as a member of the board of trustees of the Insane Asylum at Fort Supply, and sought to have an appropriation of $1,500,- 000 made early in the state's career for the proper care of the insane. He contended then and has since main- tained that the new government should first make ade- quate provision for its unfortunate wards.

In 1910 Mr. Dunlop was elected state treasurer of Oklahoma, carrying, in the primary election over M. E. Trapp, of Guthrie, sixty-one of the seventy-six counties. His policy as state treasurer was a strict adherence to the rule established in other states that compels all departments of state government collecting money for the state to deposit the money immediately in the state treasury, but in this policy he was unsuccessful, owing to laws that permitted various departments to handle state moneys. The question of whether or not all state funds shall be deposited with the state treasurer has been an unsettled issue, due principally to the policy of administrations of maintaining the school land office as a separate state institution entrusted with the duty of handling school funds, and his views were virtually passed in 1915.

Mr. Dunlop's activities since retiring from office have been in furtherance of his agricultural and oil and gas interests. He has a farm in Kay County of 320 acres, with 300 acres in cultivation. In partnership with E. B. Howard, of Tulsa, he owns 600 acres of oil and gas bearing land in the eastern part of the state. He is a director in the Spreading Adder Oil and Gas Company, the Coleman Farms Oil and Gas Company, the Sipo Oil and Gas Company, the Kay Vernon Oil and Gas Co., the

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HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA

Kay Wagoner Oil & Gas Co., the Flora Hope Oil & Gas Co., and the Dunlop Oil & Gas Co.

Mr. Dunlop was married in 1904, at Blackwell, Okla- homa, to Miss Flora Christian, of Blackwell, who was a native of Holden, Missouri, a graduate of the Emporia (Kansas) State Normal School, and a teacher for several years prior to her marriage. She died in the following year, leaving one daughter, Flora, aged ten years, who resides at Newkirk with her father. Fraternally Mr. Dunlop is a member of the Masonic Lodge, his Ancient Free and Accepted Masons membership being No. 57, at Tonkawa, Oklahoma; his Knight Templar membership being in Ben Hur Commandery, at Ponca City, Oklahoma ; his chapter membership being with Hope No. 41, at Howard, Kansas, and his shrine membership being with Akdar Temple, Tulsa, Oklahoma. He is a member also of the Knights of Pythias, of the Country Club at New- kirk, and of the Capital City Gun Club of Oklahoma City.

Mr. Dunlop has been one of the state's most progres- sive citizens for many years. His success is compensa- tion for the early day hardships he endured when, as a poor young man, he followed the herds of cattle over the raw prairies of the unsettled country and had visions of the establishment of a rich and resourceful common- wealth; and when, alone with his gun, he traveled over the wide and wild areas of the unsettled Cherokee Strip that now is one of the state's most prosperous regions.

STEVE DURHAM. Harper County has its livest and most progressive newspaper in the Buffalo Republican. This paper was the product of and was founded by L. R. H. Durham, but it is now the property and under the editorial management of his son, Steve Durham, whose history from the beginning to the present has been closely associated with printer 's ink and newspaper work.

In fact, Steve Durham was born in a printing office. On June 9, 1888, he first saw the light of day in his father's print shop at Seward, Kansas. His parents are L. R. H. and Rebecca Jane (Warren) Durham. His father was born March 11, 1862, at Chandlersville, Illi- mois, a son of E. R. and Jane (McDaniel) Durham. The grandfather was born in Pennsylvania, but his wife was a native of Scotland.

When L. R. H. Durham was eleven years of age he was bound out as an apprentice in a printing office, and thus he, too, has had a long and active experience in the newspaper business. In 1876 he went to Stafford County, Kansas, and as one of the pioneers of that section estab- lished the Independent at Seward. He was editor and owner of this paper for two years. During that time his son Steve was born in a newspaper office, which was also the home of the family. In 1889 he removed to Colorado, and for six years conducted newspapers at Villa Grove and Saguache. Returning to Stafford County, Kansas in 1898 he established the Stafford Leader, remained at its head two years, conducted the Sun for one year at Sylvia, Kansas, and in 1901 removed to old Augusta, Oklahoma, where he published the Herald for a short time.

In 1902 the elder Mr. Durham established the Repub- lican at Supply, Oklahoma, conducted it three years, and in 1910 he bought the Buffalo Republican, which is the pioneer newspaper of Harper County. He continued its active editor and owner until December 1, 1915, at which time he transferred its management to his son Steve.

On August 16, 1883, in Stafford County, Kansas, L. R. H. Durham married Miss Rebecca Jane Warren, daugh- ter of. James B. and Sarah (Caldwell) Warren. Her father was a native of Pennsylvania and her mother of Scotland, and thus Steve Durham from two sources has

Scotch ancestors. Mrs. L. R. H. Durham was born July 10, 1863, at Plum Creek, Pennsylvania. She be- came the mother of three sons: William E., who was born May 20, 1884, and is now a farmer in Stafford County, Kansas; Albert L., who was born October 8, 1886, and is a farmer in Harper County, Oklahoma; and Steve Durham, whose birth date has already been given. The latter was educated in public schools, and prac- tically grew up in a newspaper office, became familiar with the details of a printing office at an early age, in fact his earliest recollections are associated with such things, and he is a practical printer and newspaper man by experience as well as by vocation. The Buffalo Re- publican is his first venture on his own account and he is making it a very live and wholesome paper.

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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