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 58

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 58

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JOHN W. CORNELL. One of the well known figures in the journalistic world of Westeru Oklahoma is John W. Cornell, editor and manager of the Clinton News, of Clinton, one of the most alert, enterprising and interest- ing organs of the democratic party in Custer County. Mr. Cornell is a Kansan by nativity, born in Saline County, December 24, 1878, and is a son of Charles and Clara (Anderson) Cornell.

John Cornell, grandfather of John W. Cornell, was born in Sheffield, England, from whence he emigrated as a single man to the United States, and settled as a pioneer of Marshall County, Illinois, in the vicinity of the Town of Sparland. There he carried on agricul- tural pursuits throughout his life. He was married there to an Illinois girl and they became the parents of two sons: John, Jr., who died at the age of twenty- five years; and Charles. Charles Cornell was born on the home farm in Illinois, in 1850, and during the Civil war fought in an Illinois volunteer infantry regiment in the Union army. Shortly after the close of the war he removed to Saline County, Kansas, where he engaged in farming and stockraising and continued therein until 1907, when he went to Newton and secured employment in the storehouse department of the Santa Fe Railroad. He was residing at Newton at the time of his death, in 1911. Mr. Cornell was a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and a good and public-spirited citizen, and his known integrity and probity won him many friends and the high regard of a wide acquaintance. He married Miss Clara Anderson, who was born at Salina, Kansas, and who survives him and lives at Kansas City, Kansas. They became the parents of five children: John W .; James Robert, who is a commercial traveler out of San Francisco, California; Blanche E., who is the wife of Earl Bishop, engaged in the packing business at Kansas City, Missouri; R. E., who is con- nected with the Los Angeles Bank and Trust Company, at Los Angeles, California; and Ivan E., who is manager of the Harvey Restaurant, at Guthrie, Oklahoma.

John W. Cornell attended the public schools of Saline County, Kansas, and was graduated from the Gypsum (Kansas) High School with the class of 1899. His first position after leaving school was that of bookkeeper in the Gypsum Valley State Bank, where he remained one year, and in 1900 came to Oklahoma, locating at Cleo, as bookkeeper for the Cleo State Bank. He next con- tinued his banking experiences as bookkeeper for the Watonga Bank, of Blaine County, Oklahoma, and in 1902 became the organizer of the Bank of Eagle City, Oklahoma, an institution of which he was cashier for a period of seven years. Mr. Cornell became one of the organizers of the Farmers State Bank, at Thomas, Okla- homa, in 1909, and continued to be identified with that concern for four years, but in 1913 resigned the cashier- ship to start editorial work as a member of the staff of the Thomas Tribune, a paper which retained his services

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HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA

for two years. In March, 1915, he resigned and came to Clinton, where in partnership with S. R. Hawkes, the present postmaster of Clinton, he bought the Clinton News, of which he has since been editor and manager. The offices and plant are located in the Dipple Building, on Frisco Avenue, and are modern in every respect, not only including machinery of the latest manufacture for the printing of an up-to-the-minute newspaper, but for first class job work of all kinds as well. Under Mr. Cornell's editorship the News has won a reputation for veracity and reliability. While the paper is a demo- cratic organ, an effort is made to place matter before the public in an impartial manner, and to print the whole news at all times. Mr. Cornell, himself au active and stalwart democrat, has held several positions of public trust, having served on the school board while a resident of Eagle City, and as mayor for two terms while living at Thomas. He is a Mason of high rank, belonging to Thomas Lodge No. 265, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons; Thomas Chapter No. 53, Royal Arch Masons; Weatherford Commander, Knights Templar; and India Temple, Ancient Arabic Order of Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, at Oklahoma City.

In 1904, at Gypsum, Kansas, Mr. Cornell was united in marriage withi Miss Halle Whitmore, daughter of the late J. W. Whitmore, who was a cattleman, and to this union there have been born two children: Helen and William Kenneth, both of whom are attending the public schools of Clinton.

C. H. WESTGATE. For thirty years Dr. C. H. Westgate has been in the practice of his profession as veterinary surgeon, and has the largest and best equipped veterinary hospital in Kay County, Oklahoma, in the City of Black- well. Doctor Westgate has lived in Blackwell since 1906, and was already well established and with a good reputa- tion in professional circles when he came there. His faith in the future of Kay County led him to invest in farm and town property, and he is now one of the large tax payers of that section. His veterinary hospital is housed in a large building 24x50 feet, containing offices, store rooms, garage, operating facilities and everything needed for the care and treatment of domestic animals.

Dr. C. H. Westgate was born near Mendota in La Salle County, Illinois. His birthplace was the pioneer farm of La Salle County. It had been settled by his grand- father, Abner D. Westgate, ninety years ago, in 1826, and that part of Northern Illinois was still a wilderness and before the City of Chicago came into existence as a village. Abner D. Westgate was the first to improve a farm in La Salle County. David Westgate, Sr., was also born on that homestead and died there at the age of seventy-two. David, Sr., married Martha Gibbs, who now lives with her daughters at Aurora, Illinois. She was the mother of seven children. George H. is a horse dealer at York, Nebraska, and next to him comes Dr. Charles H. Letitia, who is a graduate physician from Rush Medical College at Chicago and is in practice of medicine at Aurora. Frank A. is a practical farmer and occupies the old homestead at Mendota. Frank A. lives in La Salle County.

Doctor Westgate was reared on the old farm, developed a good physique by farm work, and the schools at Mendota supplied him with a thorough education. For four years he served as chief of police at Mendota and made a record as a courageous officer.

In La Salle County, Illinois, August 6, 1888, Doctor Westgate married Jessie Wallace, whose grandmother, Elizabeth Wallace, lived to the remarkable age of one hundred and two years. Both Mrs. Westgate's parents are now deceased. Mrs. Westgate was one of twelve children, five sons and seven daughters. To their mar-

riage have been born the following children: Lloyd A., a popular man in the United States postal mail service; Morth B. and David W. Doctor Westgate has an attractive modern eight-room residence, furnished in good taste and with everything needed for comfortable living. He owns three other good homes in Blackwell, and has two valuable farms in Kay County. Among the little possessions which he cherishes is the old deed writ- ten on parchment covering the title of the land in Illinois granted by the Government to his grandfather ninety years ago.

Doctor Westgate is a fine speciman of physical man- hood, stands six feet in height and weighs 200 pounds and has the bearing and address of an army officer. He is interested in local manufacturing, and has a wide connection with men and affairs both in Oklahoma and elsewhere. He owns a fine automobile, and uses it both for business and for the recreation of himself and family.

H. T. HANSFORD. The manager of the Municipal Bath House at Guthrie, perhaps more widely known as the Guthrie Hercules Sanitarium, Mr. Hansford deserves the credit for making this splendid institution known far and wide and appreciated for the curative value of the waters and the efficiency of the service not only in Okla- homa but over the entire Middle West.

Mr. Hansford was a Kansas banker for many years, but in 1908 he moved to San Antonio, Texas, and be- came interested in lands in Southwest Texas and also in promotion and capitalistic affairs. It was while at San Antonio that he became familiar in a business way with mineral waters and the conduct of sanitariums. In 1913 he was attracted to Guthrie by the curative prop- erties of the mineral waters at that point. During 1914 he made arrangements and secured a lease from the Park Board Commissioners, beginning January 1, 1915, for the Municipal Bathhouse and Sanitarium. His lease runs for a term of ten years, and since taking charge he has really been responsible for the growth and development of the institution. This is a very elaborate enterprise, and is recognized as the most complete in general equipment and service west of the Mississippi River.

It cost $100,000 to construct the fireproof building and install the splendid equipment. The building itself is one of the handsomest examples of architecture found anywhere in Oklahoma. Constructed on the mission style, its attractiveness is enhanced by its broad verandas and loggias, and the splendid expanse of glass, which indicates that sunlight and fresh air are combined with the curative properties of the waters which are supplied from five different mineral wells. There is a competent staff of attendants, and the building has facilities for furnishing thirty different types of baths. The equip- ment for hydrotherapeutics cannot be excelled by any institution in America. The building was erected by the City of Guthrie. The waters from these mineral wells are recognized as specifics in the treatment of a number of physical disorders, and are helpful agencies in assist- ing in the restoration to health of persons suffering from many ailments of the vital organs and nervous diseases.

Since Mr. Hansford took charge of the sanitarium its patronage has more than doubled, and its patients come from all parts of the United States, Mexico, Canada, and even from the Hawaiian Islands.

Mr. Hansford was born February 6, 1869, at Morrisou, Whiteside County, Illinois, a son of Thomas J. and Lydia A. (Eads) Hansford, both of whom were natives of Kentucky. His mother was a relative of the famous engineer who designed and built the Eads Bridge at St. Louis. Thomas J. Hansford served in the Union army

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during the Civil war, and he died in 1875 from disease contracted during his military service. H. T. Hansford at that time was six years of age, and from boyhood he has relied upon his own efforts and enterprise to advance him through life. He came out to Kansas and finished his education in the college at Horton in that state, and also took a business course at Fort Scott. For several years he was in the insurance business, and was then elected cashier of the Kansas State Bank at Fort Scott, a position he filled until 1908, when he left for Texas, and his experiences there finally brought him to Guthrie.

Mr. Hansford is not only a man of great energy and enterprise but has a magnetic personality, has a host of friends and is recognized as a genial entertainer and one who shows a true Southern hospitality in all his relations. Fraternally he is a thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason.

TRUDO JONES WEBB. While one of the most difficult of professions, that of medicine is likewise oue that brings the greatest service and value to humanity, and while its practitioners seldom occupy the conspicuous positions in the world they perform a work of more direct and greater value to individuals than cau be claimed for any other calling. A young man of excep- tional native qualifications and thorough training, Doctor Webb has already gained recognition and reputation for skill and successful work as a physician and sur- geon, and after several years of practice in Northwest Texas has been located at Tipton, Oklahoma, since 1911.

He was born at Lockhart in Caldwell County, Texas, April 30, 1883. His grandfather James Webb was born in Tennessee, and while serving in a Tennessee regiment with the Confederate army was killed in the Civil war. He was a Tennessee farmer, and his family had settled in that state during the early days. F. M. Webb, father of Doctor Webb, was born at Winchester in Franklin County, Tennessee, in 1850. When he was a boy his parents removed to Southeastern Texas and he has lived in that state ever since, a farmer and stock raiser, and since 1890 has been established at Romney in Eastland County. He is an active member of the Methodist Epis- copal Church and a democrat in politics. F. M. Webb married Alice McGinnis, a native of Texas. They have a large family of children, a brief record of them being as follows: Sophronia, wife of W. P. Grubbs, who owns several farms and lives at Carbon, Texas; Dr. Trudo J .; Brice, who is a farmer at Romney, Texas; Eva, wife of Iva Bostick, a farmer at Romney; Mack, a druggist at Tipton, Oklahoma; Elsie, wife of Mr. Elliott, a retail meat dealer at Sweetwater, Texas; Lou, who married A. Blackwell, now postmaster at Romney; Terry, Lillian and Beatrice, twins, and Bernard, all living at home and attending the public schools at Romney.

Doctor Webb was educated in the public schools at Romney, where he lived from the age of seven, and had the usual life and experiences of a farmer boy up to the age of eighteen. In preparation for his chosen profes- sion he attended the medical department of the Uni- versity of Nashville two years and spent three years at the Memphis Hospital College. He graduated M. D. April 29, 1904, and did his first practice at Hale Center, Texas, where he remained eight months. From 1905 till the fall of 1911 he was located at Texico, on the line between Texas and New Mexico, and in the fall of 1911 . removed to Tipton, Oklahoma, where he has since ac- quired a profitable general medical and surgical practice. His offices are in the Tipton Drug Store and Postoffice Building on Main Street.

While living at Texico Doctor Webb served as health officer. He is a democrat, is affiliated with Tipton Lodge

No. 417, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, and with the Woodmen of the World at Tipton. On August 5, 1907, at Fort Worth, Texas, he married Miss Adelia Nichols, whose father is W. H. Nichols, of Texico, New Mexico.

AUGUSTUS WOOD HENDERSON. With the construction of the Midland Valley Railroad through Osage County and the laying out of the Townsite of Avant in 1909, one of the first settlers and business men to locate in the new community was Augustus Wood Henderson, who bought some lots and in the midst of a corn field erected the building in which the Bank of Avant has since been housed. Since then Mr. Hendersou has been actively identified with local affairs chiefly as a real estate man, and is one of the local capitalists. Mr. Henderson is one of the characters of the Kansas-Oklahoma frontier, and has lived in close touch with the Indian peoples and the pioneer communities of the Southwest the greater part of his life. A distinction which will at once serve to identify him with early Oklahoma history is that he was a member of Payne's Colony of Oklahoma Boomers during the decade of the '80s, and several years before Oklahoma Territory was first opened to settlement.

He was born at Marion Center in Indiana County, Pennsylvania, December 21, 1850, a son of John McKin- ley and Elizabeth Black (Wood) Henderson, both of whom were natives of Pennsylvania, his father of West- moreland County. John M. Henderson learned the trade of tailor at Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, and was em- ployed at his trade until 1856, when he removed to Henry County, Illinois, and was engaged in farming in that rich district of the Prairie State until 1865. He then moved to Eastern Kansas, settling on a farm seven miles from Olathe in Johnson County, where he continued to reside until his death in 1890. His first wife, and the mother of Augustus W. Henderson, had died in Illi- nois in 1863 while he was away in the army. He served in the One Hundred and Twelfth Illinois Mounted In- fautry, was wounded at the Battle of Richmond, Ken- tucky, and after spending some time in the hospital was discharged in the fall of 1864. Not long afterward he returned to Pennsylvania and married for his second wife Miranda Brady. There were four children by . the first wife and five by the second. The older son, William Henry Harrison Henderson, was wounded while fighting with the Union army, and died from the results after he returned home. Augustus W. Henderson is now the only one living of his mother's children, and there is one son by his father's second wife.

Since he was fifteen years of age Mr. A. W. Henderson has lived in the West and has witnessed almost the entire development of the states of Kansas and Oklahoma. Most of his education came from the country schools of Illinois, and his career of adventure began when he was eighteen years old, with his enlistment in 1868 in the Nineteenth Kansas Cavalry for service under General Custer against the Indians. He was with his command during the winter of 1868-69, and was discharged from the army in the spring of the latter year. In 1871 Mr. Henderson left home and the next three years were spent at Wichita, Kansas, He was married while living there to Cordelia C. Gillman, who was born near Monticello, Iowa, and died at Coffeyville, Kansas, in the spring of 1879. Her ouly child was Beulah L., who died at Alva, Oklahoma in 1901, after her marriage to W. C. Fergu- son, by which union there was one child Carmalete.

After the death of his first wife Mr. Henderson, who had already gained an extensive experience on the cattle ranges of Central and Western Kansas, moved to the Sac and Fox Agency in Oklahoma, and was in the

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employ of the trader John Whistler during 1879-80. He continued in the cattle business until 1882, and it was during that time that he first became identified with the Payne Boomers. In 1882 he engaged in the saloon business at Honeywell, Kansas, but in the same fall removed his business to Kiowa. In the fall of 1893, with the opening of the Cherokee Strip, he took up a claim and about the same time established at Alva a saloon and cold storage plant, and he continued to be identified with that business until the admission of Oklahoma as a state in 1907 and the consequent closing of all the saloons throughout the territory. He soon afterwards moved to Osage County and has since been a factor in the upbuilding of Avant.

In 1900 at Oxford, Kansas, Mr. Henderson married Carrie A. McCann. She brought him one daughter, Edith L., who is now the wife of James L. Beeler, who is now conducting the bottling works at Alva which rep- resents Mr. Henderson's original enterprise in that city. Mr. and Mrs. Henderson also have an adopted son, Fred Sweet Henderson, who is now a farmer in Major County, Oklahoma.

Among the interesting experiences of Mr. Henderson there should be recalled one which followed his entry into the Panhandle of Texas during the fall of 1887 while the Santa Fe Railroad was being built across that territory. He located at Miami, and was soon after- wards involved in the local struggle for the location of a county seat for Roberts County. For a time there were two sets of county officials in Roberts County, and owing to the fact that both of the nominal sheriffs ap- pointed Mr. Henderson deputy sheriff, he was really the only legally constituted and qualified person in the county government. Politically Mr. Henderson is a democrat and has fraternal affiliations with the Knights of Pythias, the Fraternal Order of Eagles and the American Horse Thief Association. During his early days on the plains Mr. Henderson for about fifteen years allowed his hair to grow long until it fell over his shoulders like an Indian, and there is a photograph still extant which shows him in this picturesque costume. During the many years that Mr. Henderson conducted a saloon at Alva it is only a matter of justice to record that he never had a fight on his premises and no man was ever arrested at his bar.

STEVEN P. HANNIFIN. Among the enterprising and ambitious citizens of the enterprising and ambitious City of Devol, Oklahoma, none has labored more ener- getically in the interests of the community than has Steven P. Hannifin, proprietor and editor of the Devol Dispatch. During the two years that he has conducted this newspaper, he has developed it into one of the successful journalistic efforts of Cotton County, and at all times has given over its columns to a stanch support of Devol and its industries and institutions.

Mr. Hannifin was born at Waterloo, Wisconsin, July 23, 1895, and therefore is but twenty years of age, but it would seem in his case that youth has been no bar to his success. He comes of good old Irish stock, his grand- father, Steven Hannifin, for whom he was named, having been born in County Kerry, Ireland, in 1805. Shortly after his marriage, the grandfather emigrated to the United States, settling at Waterloo, Wisconsin, where he continued to be engaged in agricultural pursuits until his death, in 1902, when he was ninety-seven years of age. On the maternal side, Mr. Hannifin's grand- father was Patrick Griffin, a native of County Clare, who on his arrival in this country located at Waterloo, Wisconsin, but later moved to the City of Madison, in that state, and there died. He became a man of

prominence and influence, and for several terms repre- sented his district in the Wisconsin State Legislature.

D. L. Hannifin, the father of Steven P. Hannifin, was born on his father's farm in Wisconsin, June 12, 1863, and was brought up to agricultural pursuits, in which he was engaged in his native locality until 1907, being the owner of a handsome and valuable farm located one mile north of Waterloo. In the year mentioned he removed to Randlett, Oklahoma, where he established himself in the furniture and undertaking business, and continued at that place until 1913, when he added his name to the list of business men of Devol. Here he has continued in the same line to the present time, having a modern establishment and a large and repre- sentative patronage. In political matters a strong democrat, while a resident of Wisconsin Mr. Hannifin served in the legislature during the sessions of 1902 and 1904. Mr. Hannifin was married to Miss Etta Griffin, who was born in 1870, at Waterloo, Wisconsin, and they have had only one child: Steven P.

Steven P. Hannifin commenced his educational train- ing in the public schools of Waterloo, Wisconsin, and was twelve years old when he accompanied his parents to Randlett, Oklahoma, where he graduated from the high school in the class of 1912. At that time he secured a position with the Bank of Randlett, where he worked for one year in the capacity of bookkeeper, but his inclinations indicated journalism as his field of effort, and in 1913 he came to Devol and purchased the Devol Dispatch, of which he has since been the proprietor and editor. This newspaper, a democratic organ, was estab- lished in 1909 by M. A. Forgy, and it was purchased by Mr. Hannifin in 1913. It circulates in Cotton and the surrounding counties and has also a respectable foreign list, its list of readers constantly growing because of the able management and clean policies of its owner. The plant, modern in every particular, with equipment for high class job printing, is located on Wichita Avenue. Mr. Hannifin has "made good" in his chosen field of effort, and is eminently deserving of the support which is being given him by his subscribers and advertisers.

Mr. Hannifin's political views make him a supporter of democratic principles. He is a member of the Wood- men of the World, at Devol, and his religious faith is that of the Roman Catholic Church. He is unmarried.

EDWARD L. CRUZAN. A resident of Oklahoma for more than a quarter of a century, Edward L. Cruzan has become widely known in a number of lines of endeavor, having been successively occupied as agriculturist, preacher, chiropractor and merchant. At the present time he is head of the prominent firm of Cruzan & Son Hardware Company, dealer in agricultural implements, wagons and vehicles and binder twine, a concern at Cushing which has been developed to large proportions by excellent management and honorable business methods.

Mr. Cruzan was born near the Town of West Union, in Adams County, Ohio, May 10, 1862, and is a son of Proverbs B. and Catherine (Blackburn) Cruzan, the former a native of Indiana and the latter of Ohio. He was a farmer by vocation and for a number of years carried on operations in Adams County, Ohio, but in 1882 moved to the West, settling on a farm in Chau- tauqua County, Kansas. That locality continued to be his home until 1889, when he moved with his son, Edward L., to Oklahoma, and here passed away near Cushing, at the age of sixty-five years. During the period of the Civil war, while living in Ohio, he attempted on three occasions to enlist for service in the Union army, but was each time rejected, owing to an injury he had received in youth and which made him ineligible

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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