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 61

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 61

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Mr. Townsend is a skilled mechanic, and as such has been prominently identified withi railroad work, in which connection he has been employed in various railway shops in Oklahoma. While a resident of Sapulpa he served for some time as special agent for the St. Louis & San Francisco Railroad, and at the same place he was also called upon to serve as a member of the police force and as under-sheriff. His official service as a member of the constabulary of Creek County was initiated at the time of the opening of developments in the oil fields of that locality. In the autumn of 1914, as before noted, he was elected to the office of sheriff of Payne County, a position for which his previous experience and his general equipoise specially qualify him. The sheriff gives his allegiance to the democratic party and is identified with a number of fraternal and social organizations.

On the 18th of November, 1897, Sheriff Townsend wedded Miss Rosa Lee Solwell, who was born in Tarrant County, Texas, and who was reared to majority in Montague County, that state. Mr. and Mrs. Townsend have two children, Elmer Edwin, who was born March 13, 1904, and Horace Haskell, who was born November 8, 1907, and who was named in honor of the first governor of the new State of Oklahoma, which was admitted to the Union in that year.

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HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA

FRANK GROVER PATTERSON. One of the youngest mem- bers of the newspaper fraternity in Western Oklahoma is Frank G. Patterson, proprietor and editor of the Davidson News. While a very young man in years, Mr. Patterson has had an extensive experience in the newspaper business, printing and allied arts, and for fully eight years has been identified with the papers of Till- man County.

He represents an old pioneer family of Livingston County, Missouri, and was born in the City of Chilli- cothe, in that county, May 31, 1889. The Patterson family originally came from England, was subsequently found both in Kentucky and Tennessee, and Mr. Patterson 's grandfather Thomas Newton Patterson was born in Ken- tucky in 1816, shortly after his marriage moved to Chilli- cothe, Missouri, where he became one of the first farmers in Livingston County, and died at Waterloo, Oklahoma, in 1905. T. J. Patterson, father of the Davidson editor, was born at Chillicothe in 1863, and still lives in that city. In earlier years he was a teacher in the Chillicothe public schools, but eventually took up the business of contractor and builder, and has had a large business in that line at Chillicothe and vicinity, and has also carried out building contracts at El Reno and in other parts of Oklahoma. T. J. Patterson married Laura Belle Hen- derson, a native of Chillicothe. Their children are: Arthur, who lives at Louisville, Kentucky; Elizabeth, wife of Cam Fullerton, an elevator constructor at Kansas City, Missouri; Rae, who married Roy Berg, an electri- cian at Chillicothe; Frank G .; Harry, a linotype operator at Kansas City; Thomas, a senior in the Chillicothe High School; and Lena, also in high school.

The public schools of Chillicothe furnished Frank Grover Patterson his early training, but at an early age he entered the great university of a printing shop, serv- ing an apprenticeship at Chillicothe. In 1907 he came to Southwestern Oklahoma and was employed first with the Frederick Enterprise. He managed the paper and subsequently other papers in Tillman County up to 1911, in which year he came to Davidson and bought the News from U. L. Jolly, and has since been its proprietor and editor. The News is democratic in politics, has a circu- lation throughout Tillman and neighboring counties, and its offices and plant are well equipped for newspaper and job printing.

Mr. Patterson himself is a democrat, and has made himself a factor in all public spirited movements under- taken at Davidson during recent years. He was mar- ried at Frederick, Oklahoma, in 1908 to Miss Elizabeth Pike, a daughter of B. M. Pike, who is proprietor of a hotel at Wichita Falls, Texas. Mr. Patterson and wife have two children: Lois born May 26, 1909, and Louise, born December 23, 1911.

JOHN RILEY THACKER. The life of a literary man seldom exhibits any of those striking incidents that seize upon public feeling and fix attention upon himself. His character, for the most part, is made up of the aggregate of the qualities and qualifications he may possess, as these may be elicited by the exercise of the duties of his vocation or the particular profession to which he may belong. However, it may be said that John Riley Thacker presents an exception to the general rule. His career has been passed largely in a literary atmosphere, for a major part of his activities have been spent in the schoolroom and in connection with journalistic work; yet he has also impressed himself and his character upon the people of the communities in which he has resided as a capable worker in other fields of endeavor, and his various achievements have raised his reputation greatly above that of the mediocre worker in the world of let- ters.

Vol V-14

John Riley Thacker, proprietor and editor of the Eldorado Courier, was born at Randolph, Fannin County, Texas, December 5, 1869, and is a son of James Riley and Susanna Elizabeth (Patton) Thacker, and a member of a family of Scotch-Irish origin, whose original an- cestor in America came to Virginia in the seventeenth century. Members of the family spread from that state to others of the South in early days, and a connection of the branch to which Mr. Thacker belongs was Daniel Boone, the great American frontiersman, explorer and colonizer. James Riley Thacker was born in Mississippi, March 16, 1833, and from that state removed with his parents to Louisiana and later to near Longview, Gregg County, Texas. About the time of the beginning of the Civil war Mr. Thacker went to the California gold fields, where he spent seven years in mining, and in 1867 returned to Collin County, Texas, from whence he went to Fannin County, in the same state, and there, October 30, 1868, was married to Susannah Elizabeth Patton, who was born at Randolph, Texas, December 30, 1844, where they still reside. Mr. Thacker has passed his entire life as a farmer and stockman, and has also been a local preacher of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. He is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. There were nine children in the family of James R. and Susanna E. Thacker, as follows : John Riley; Martha Jane, who died in 1903 as the wife of Jacob Colvin, who now resides in Florida; Cora Ann, who married R. N. Davenport, a farmer of Harleton, Texas; Ida Catherine, who died at the age of eighteen years; Robert Oscar, formerly a railroad man for a number of years and now a farmer of Fannin County, Texas, residing at Randolph; Benjamin William, a barber of Denison, Texas; James Edwin, who died as a child; Elijah Otto, a farmer and school teacher of Randolph, Texas; and Miss Julia May, who is single and resides at the home of her parents.

John Riley Thacker attended the public schools at Randolph, and was graduated from Randolph High School in the class of 1889. He had shown himself a penmaster while at school and for a short time was engaged in teaching penmanship in Fannin and Williamson counties, Texas, and in 1892 received his introduction to journal- istic work when he became connceted with a printing office at Bonham, Texas, where was published the Farm- ers' Review. After one year with this paper and a like period spent in farming, Mr. Thacker became identified with the Leonard Graphic, at Leonard, Texas, a publi- cation with which he was connected on and off until 1896, when he identified himself with a paper at Savoy, Texas, and about this time published a small book of poems entitled "Boyhood's Pencilings," which was received very favorably by both press and public. From that time forward Mr. Thacker was employed by various newspapers and wrote articles of a miscellaneous charac- ter until 1900, when he became district organizer in Montague County, Texas, for the Woodmen of the World, and after leaving that position attended Draug- hon's Business College, at Fort Worth, Texas. In 1901 he occupied a position with the Brownwood (Texas) Business College, teaching bookkeeping and penmanship, and in the same year went to San Angelo, Texas, where he occupied a like post. Returning to Fannin County in 1902, he was employed in a printing office there and at Whitewright for a time, and again, in 1903, took up his educational labors, teaching commercial branches at the East Texas Normal College. While thus engaged he was employed also as the college printer and took a literary course himself, being graduated in 1906 with the Bache- lor of Arts degree. That year marked Mr. Thacker's advent at Eldorado, where for one year he taught a coun- try school, and in February, 1908, went to Hollis, where

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he purchased the Hollis Post-Herald, which he edited for two years, and in 1909-1910 occupied the position of chief of the engrossing and enrolling department of the State Senate, a capacity in which he acted also in the year 1915. In 1910, when he accepted the position of adjuster for the Oklahoma State School Land Depart- ment, his duties were such that he was forced to sell his newspaper, but later in the same year he bought the Eldorado Courier, of which he has continued to be pro- prietor and editor. This paper is the combination of the Eldorado Light, founded in 1901, and the original Eldorado Courier, founded in 1902, and assumed its present form in the latter year. Originally a supporter of republican principles, since Mr. Thacker's ownership it has been a democratic organ, and exerts a strong influence in public and political affairs in Jackson, Harmon and the surrounding counties, where it enjoys a large circulation. The offices and plant are situated on Main Street, and have an equipment that equals any in the state in towns the size of Eldorado. The Courier is well printed and well edited, giving its readers the latest news, presented in an interesting and reliable manner, and its columns have always been open to matter sup- porting the civic welfare. It is considered a good adver- tising medium and is being given generous support by the business men of this and surrounding communities. Mr. Thacker is a stalwart democrat, but his activities in public life have been more as an influence than as a seeker for personal preferment. Fraternally he is an ex-member of the Knights of Pythias and the Prætorians, and a member of Eldorado Lodge No. 181, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons; Eldorado Chapter No. 56, Royal Arch Masons; Eldorado Council No. 19; Consistory No. 1, Valley of Guthrie, eighteenth degree of Masonry; Eldo- rado Chapter No. 178, Order of the Eastern Star; Mesquite Camp No. 69, Woodmen of the World, Eldorado; and Mesquite Grove No. 228, Woodmen Circle.

On February 6, 1910, at Erick, Oklahoma, Mr. Thacker was married to Miss Bertha Briley, daughter of John Briley, a retired farmer of Mangum, Oklahoma. One child has come to this union: James Glenn, born October 25, 1913, at Eldorado.

J. J. CLOUGHLEY. A little more than twenty years ago Mr. Cloughley was a messenger boy in the employ of the railroad company at Parsons, Kansas. He went through several grades of the railroad service, but for the last dozen years has been active in a similar progres- sive fashion in connection with Oklahoma and Indian Territory banking, and is now president of the First National Bank of Ringling. He is one of the able men in Oklahoma's banking fraternity, and his name and influence are respected all over the southern counties of the state.

The First National Bank of Ringling, in the estab- lishment of which Mr. Cloughley was the principal factor, was founded May 23, 1914, and has occupied its new building on Main Street since December 15th of that year. The officers of the institution are: Mr. Cloughley, president; L. P. Anderson, vice president; A. A. Morris, cashier. Its capital stock is $50,000 and in a year's time its resources have shown a gratifying increase and its management has gained the confidence of the business community in and around Ringling.

John J. Cloughley is a native of Kansas, born in Parsons December 14, 1874. His parents, John and Margaret (Canada) Cloughley, were both natives of Liverpool, England, and in the family are mingled strains of both English and Scotch. John Cloughley, who was born in 1843, is now living at Parsons, Kansas. He came to this country in 1873, bringing his wife and

three children, and for many years was an engineer employed by the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railroad with headquarters at Parsons. He is now a retired rail- road man. He is a staunch republican and a member of the Episcopal Church. He and his wife had eight children: Robert, who is a retired railroad engineer at Parsons; Maggie, who married Mr. Fuller and resides in Bellingham, Oregon; Nellie, wife of Frank Paragory, superintendent of a foundry at McAlester, Oklahoma; Isabelle, wife of L. C. Minkler, an engineer for the Southern Pacific Railway living at San Bernan- dino, California; John J .; William, who is secretary of the National Livestock Commission Company at Kansas City, Missouri; Anna,' who lives at Sedalia, Missouri, her husband being a conductor on the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railroad; and Susie, who lives at Wichita, Kansas, and whose husband is a contractor and builder.

J. J. Cloughley acquired his education in the public schools at Parsons. At the age of seventeen he found work as messenger boy for the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railroad, and by 1892 had become proficient in teleg- raphy and for ten years was employed by, the railroad as operator and train dispatcher. During that time his home was at Parsons. In 1902 Mr. Cloughley became assistant cashier of the State National Bank at South Mc Alester, Indian Territory. When that institution was sold to the American National Bank in 1903, he took the leading part in organizing the City National Bank of South McAlester, and was its cashier until 1904. He then organized the First National Bank of Cornish, Indian Territory, and was its president until it was reorganized as the Bank of Cornish, and continued as head of the new institution until 1914. Since then he has been president of the First National Bank of Ringling.

Mr. Cloughley is independent in politics, a member of the Episcopal Church, and takes an active interest in various Masonic bodies. He is a member and has served as secretary of Cornish Lodge No. 64, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons; belongs to McAlcster Chapter, Royal Arch Masons; and has taken eighteen degrees in the Scottish Rite at the McAlester Consistory. In a busi- ness way he is also a director in the Newman-Harris Mercantile Company at Ringling.

At Vinita, Indian Territory, in 1893, Mr. Cloughley married Miss Sabra Harmon, daughter of J. H. Harmon, who is now deceased, and was for many years a cattle- inan at Seneca, Missouri. To their union have been born four children : Harmon, a sophomore in the Agricultural and Mechanical College at Stillwater, Oklahoma; Florence, a sophomore in St. Mary's Academy at Okla-' homa City; Boone, and J. J., Jr., both in the public schools at Ringling.

JOHN W. RANDALL. The present postmaster of Black- well, John W. Randall, is one of the pioneers of Kay County, and has supplied many of the resources of enterprise and business faith and hope which have accomplished so much in this section of the state during the past twenty years. Among his achievements was the development of a fine homestead in the vicinity of Blackwell. He has an important part in other business affairs, and received his appointment to the postoffice in February, 1908, taking charge on the 1st of April. The Blackwell office is second class, and has four rural carriers and two city carriers. The first assistant post- master is John R. Camt, who has been connected with the Blackwell office for the past two years, and begin- ning with 1904 has served seven years in the railway mail service.

Mr. Randall made the run from the Kansas line into the Cherokee Strip in September, 1893, and was one of

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the fortunate ones who staked out a valuable claim in the vicinity of Blackwell. John W. Randall was born at Gallatin, Missouri, September 22, 1859, but when an infant his parents removed to Green County, Wisconsin, where he grew up in the Town of Monroe. His father was Thomas Randall, a native of Tennessee, where he grew up, and his wife, Rachel Hodges, was a native of Indiana, but of Tennessee parents. In 1877 the Randall family left Wisconsin and removed to Kansas, locating at Winfield. The father was a prosperous farmer, and died in Scott County, Kansas, and the mother passed away at the age of seventy-eight. Their children were: Sarah, who lives in California; Alice, a resident at Belle- ville, Illinois; Mary Berkey, of Blackwell, Oklahoma, and Ella, of Spokane, Washington.

Jolın W. Randall grew up at Monroe, Wisconsin, where he received his education in the public schools. His early life was spent on a farm, and he had a thorough training and discipline in the duties of farm work.

At Winfield, Kansas, July 16, 1882, Mr. Randall married Miss E. F. Freeland. Mrs. Randall has been a devoted wife and mother for thirty-three years, and is a woman of intelligence, high character, and with no little initiative. Before her marriage for several years she was a successful teacher. Her father, F. M. Free- land, was an Illinois man, and is now living in Oklahoma. Her mother died in 1913. Mr. and Mrs. Randall take pride in their family, comprising nine children, six sons and three daughters: Dwight B., who is a clerk in the local postoffice under his father; Gladys, a deaconess in the Methodist Episcopal Church and formerly a school teacher; Carl, who is secretary and treasurer of the Blackwell Brick Company; Laura; Paul and Beulah, twins; Glen; William, and Fred. The younger children are all attending the public schools, while the older ones are graduates of the high school.

Mr. Randall was for several years editor and proprietor of the Blackwell Times Record. For six years he served as United States commissioner at Blackwell, and made an excellent record in that office as he has in every other responsibility and business relation. While living in Kansas he served as postmaster at Floral for seven years. Fraternally he is a member of the lodge, chapter and commandery of Masonry and also belongs to the Temple of the Mystic Shrine at Tulsa. He finds his recreation in hunting and fishing, and is a man of splendid physical constitution, stands six feet high and weighs 185 pounds, and has always kept himself in sound health and vigor. Among other undertakings Mr. Randall was one of the active promoters of the Blackwell Oil & Gas Company, which is capitalized at $210,000 and has at the present time twelve wells in operation with a number of miles of pipe line. Mr. Randall has been one of the leaders in exploiting oil and gas resources in this section of Oklahoma.

JOHN H. BELLIS. At the time of the opening of the Cherokee Strip, September 16, 1893, John H. Bellis, then a young man of twenty-one years, rode his little Canadian horse seventeen miles in fifty-five minutes in an endeavor to secure a claim on the Black Bear Bottom west of Pawnee. In this endeavor he was unsuccessful, as when he got on the bottom he found men with families and some were plowing. He immediately went one-half mile north of Black Bear Creek, where he and his father secured the same claim, Mr. Bellis buying off another claimant and his father settling on the property. Fol- lowing this John H. Bellis went on to Guthrie, but in his absence, on account of sickness, he lost his claim, and thus it was that he turned his attention to other enter- prises and entered upon a career that has resulted in his becoming one of the foremost business men of Payne

County, president of the Commonwealth Cotton Oil Com- pany, an official in large and important industries, and the holder of extensive interests.

Mr. Bellis was born in Missouri, June 30, 1872, a son of David B. and Sarah (McReynolds) Bellis, natives of Indiana, a complete sketch of whose careers will be found on another page of this work. His parents were married in Indiana, following which they removed to Missouri, and in 1873 went to Abilene, Kansas, where they resided until the opening of the Cherokee Strip. Since that time David B. Bellis has been interested in farming and stock raising, although he is now practically retired from active life and is living at Cushing. He was a soldier for three years during the Civil war as a member of Company B, Sixty-fourth Regiment, Indiana Volunteer Infantry. There were six children in the family : James, who died at the age of six months; Mary, who is the wife of Edward Hunt of Guthrie; John H .; C. O., of Klamath County, Oregon; Etta M., the wife of W. L. Larmer, of Cushing; and Alice E., the wife of L. J. Martin of the Cushing State Bank. Mrs. Larmer was a teacher for seventeen years, and was elected the first county superintendent of schools of Shaffer County, but the election for this county did not carry by fifty-nine votes, so she had an office but no county to put it in.

John H. Bellis was reared on his father's farm near Abilene, in Dickinson County, Kansas, and there his early education was secured in the district schools. After coming to Oklahoma he assisted his father until determin- ing upon a business career, and in 1899 was graduated from the Capitol City Business College at Guthrie. He was at that time employed by the firm of W. H. Coyle Company, at Guthrie, a cotton and grain concern, at a salary of $40 per month, but when he left that company seven years later he held the position of general man- ager. On March 1, 1907, he came to Cushing and super- intended the building of the mill for the Commonwealth

Cotton Oil Company, the first president of which was J. M. Aydelotte, P. A. Norris being the first secretary. These gentlemen continued with the concern until 1914, when Mr. Bellis, who had until that time been manager, bought their holdings and thus gaining a controlling interest became president of the industry. E. A. Smith, the present secretary and treasurer, came to Cushing from Shawnee in 1907 as bookkeeper for the company when it was organized and took his present position in 1914. In 1915 Mr. Bellis became the founder of the Bellis Furniture and Undertaking Company, of which he has since been president. He is also vice president of the Jones Oil and Gas Company of Cushing, and was the founder of the company and the builder of the plant of the Cushing Compress, which he subsequently sold to the Peoples Compress Company. He is owner of the Postoffice Building, Bellis Building and several other brick buildings, and in addition to his own home, one of the finest residences at Cushing, has erected about twenty dwellings, which are rented to tenants. He has two good farms and feeds from 1,500 to 2,000 cattle at the oil mill and has been one of the stanchest supporters of the agricultural interests of Payne and adjacent counties. While he does not hold membership in any religious denominations, he is a supporter of all the churches and his charitable benefactions are numerous. His fraternal connection is with the Masons, he being a member of the Shrine at Tulsa and a thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason.

As one of the leading industries of Oklahoma, a short history and description of the Commonwealth Cotton Oil Company may not be out of place in the sketch of Mr. Bellis, to whose enterprise, energy and business talent its success is due. The data is taken from a

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pamphlet recently prepared by local writers. The Com- monwealth Cotton Oil Company at Cushing is one of the largest cotton oil companies in the state and is the fifth largest in the United States. Its yearly output will exceed $1,000,000. The company was organized in 1907 on a small scale. The business grew to wonderful pro- portions the first few years of the concern's existence and at once began to attract wide attention among the large interests of the East. Its products were the very finest that could be produced and the officers soon found a heavy demand for the plant's output. The business is now capitalized at $150,000. In 1914, 8,000 tons of cot- ton seed were pressed at the plant, the products of which amounted to more than $300,000 worth of business. More than 16,000 bales of cotton were handled by the company, which, with the cotton seed products, represent fully $1,000,000 in business. The company's plant is situated in the west part of Cushing near the Santa Fe Railroad tracks. The holdings consist of sixty acres of land and a number of brick structures for the different departments, the company's plant and property being valued at $150,000.

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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