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 62

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 62

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The crude cotton oil that is produced by the plant is sold in large quantities to some of the largest packing plants in the United States. A considerable amount of the company's output is sold to the manufacturers of Cottolene, Snowdrift, Crisco and numerous other prepara- tions that in recent years have taken the place of pure lard for cooking purposes. Little do some of the Cushing people think that when they are using any of these standard brands that the contents are doubtless a portion of the output of one of their own home industries. The process by which the oil is taken from the seed is a most remarkable one. The seed is shipped to Cushing from the string of gins for a radius of fifty miles around after it has been separated from the cotton, and is then run through the delinters, large machines used to separate the lint that is left on the seed by the gins. The seed is then crushed and run through a system of shakers that are used to separate the hulls from the kernels. The kernels, or meat of the seed, are then ground into meal and formed into cakes by a machine called the cake former, the cakes then being passed into steel presses where enormous pressure is applied by a hydraulic ram that compresses and separates the oil from the meal. The oil thus produced or extracted is known as crude cotton oil and is disposed of to large corporations. The products produced by the mill and marketed are cotton seed meal, used for feed for live stock, and cotton seed hulls, also used for feed. These products are sold in large quantities to the stock yards at Kansas City and other large cities and to wholesale feed houses in Nebraska, Texas, Missouri, Oklahoma and Kansas.

John H. Bellis was married in 1902 to Miss Edith M. Bowdlear, who was at that time assistant postmistress at Ripley, Oklahoma, a native of Sioux City, Iowa, who was reared at Omaha, Nebraska, and came to Oklahoma with her sister, Mrs. John P. Hinkle. To this union there have been born four children: William H .; Nell; Lura May, who died at the age of two years; and Edith H.

FRED BOONE. The postoffice at Davidson is now under the efficient management of Fred Boone, one of the popular citizens of that community, and a man of broad and varied experience in the work and activities of the world.

His birth occurred at Table Rock, Nebraska, February 15, 1871, and he is a son of Ely T. and Eunice (Pepoon) Boone. His father was born in the same county in England where many generations before the father of the famous Daniel Boone was born. The mother's family

is descended from that race of Pepins which furnished several of the great kings to the early French nation. Ely T. Boone, who died at Lincoln, Nebraska, in 1893, came to America in 1856, settling first in Illinois, from there moving out to Oregon, and from that state enlisted in a regiment of volunteer infantry during the Civil war, serving three years. After the war he removed to Ne- braska, and was engaged in farming until his death. He was also a carpenter by trade. His wife was born in Ohio in 1841 and is now living at Twin Falls, Idaho. Their children are: Henry O., a resident of Twin Falls, Idaho; Gertrude, wife of Fred Leverett, a farmer at Lisbon, Iowa; Fred; Albert, Frank and Arthur, all farmers at Twin Falls, Idaho; and May, wife of Leslie Lewis, a clerk at Twin Falls.

Fred Boone attended the country schools in the vicinity of Table Rock, Nebraska, and finished his education with a course in a business college at Shenandoah, Iowa. His life to the age of twenty was spent on his father's farm, but during the last twenty or twenty-five years he has come into varied contact with the world. For two years he was a telegraph operator in the employ of the Chi- cago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad. Then six years were spent in fruit farming at Hardy, Arkansas. At Buffalo Center, Iowa, he conducted an electric power plant for three years. In 1903 he again came South and at Myrtle Springs, Texas, had charge of fifty acres of orchard up to 1906. During 1906 he was employed in sawmills and in electric light plants and for a short time served as commissary on a railroad. In 1907 he re- moved to Oklahoma City, and spent three years as news agent on trains. Then in 1910 came his removal to Vernon, Texas, where he was for two years engineer in the city waterworks. Mr. Boone removed to Davidson in 1912, and followed his business as engineer until his appointment on October 12, 1914, as postmaster. He received this appointment from President Wilson. Mr. Boone is a democrat and was formerly affiliated with the Modern Woodmen of America. He is unmarried.

BENJAMIN F. HARRISON. A man of fine intellectual- ity, wide experience and much executive ability, Hon. Benjamin F. Harrison, of Calvin, Hughes County, is consistently to be termed one of the honored and repre- sentative citizens of Oklahoma, and he has been a leader in conserving the interests and advancement of the Indians of the state, with just pride in his descent from the staunchest of Indian stock, his father having been a representative of the Choctaw and his mother of the Chickasaw tribe. Mr. Harrison has been the architect of his own fortunes and has been prominent and influen- tial in public affairs in Oklahoma under both the terri- torial and state régimes. His ability and high civic ideals have not failed of recognition, as is evidenced by his having served as Secretary of State of Oklahoma and as a member of the State Legislature, he having been a member of the First Legislature after the admis- sion of the state to the Union, and being the representa- tive of Hughes County in the Fifth Legislature, that of 1915. A man of thought and action, a citizen of sterling worth, he well merits recognition in this history of the state within whose borders he has maintained his home from the time of his nativity. He is one of the sub- stantial agriculturists and stock-growers of Hughes County, his well-improved farm, on which he maintains his residence, being situated in the South Canadian Val- ley and in close proximity to the Village of Calvin.

Mr. Harrison was born in the Choctaw Nation of Indian Territory, in the year 1875, and is a son of Hil- burn and Sarah (Colbert) Harrison. Becoming practi- cally dependent upon his own resources when a lad of

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fourteen years, Mr. Harrison made good use of the advantages afforded him in the public schools of the Choctaw Nation and was finally enabled to enter Trinity College, at Durham, North Carolina, in which institution he was graduated as a member of the class of 1897. In 1900 he established his residence on his present home- stead farm, which he has developed into one of the best in Hughes County, and his progressiveness and marked success as an agriculturist and stock-grower have been a lesson and incentive to other residents of that section of the state. In 1906 Mr. Harrison was elected a member of the State Constitutional Convention, from the Eighty- eighth District, and he took a prominent part in the de- liberations and work of the convention, in which he was assigned to a number of important committees, including those on public-service corporations, state and school lands, primary elections, and preamble and bill of rights. Upon the admission of the state to the Union, in 1907, Mr. Harrison was elected the flotorial representative from Hughes and Pittsburg counties in the First Legislature, and in 1908 he was re-elected, as a member of the Second Legislature, in which he served as speaker pro tem. of the House of Representatives, as chairman of the Com- mittee on Constitutional Amendments, and as a member of the Appropriation Committee. Further and distin- guished honors were in store for Mr. Harrison in the gift of the voters of his native commonwealth, for in 1910 he was elected Secretary of State of Oklahoma, for the term of four years from January, 1911, until Janu- ary, 1915. He gave a most careful and effective ad- ministration but resigned his position in November, 1914, in which month he was elected representative of Hughes County in the Fifth Legislature. He was made a candi- date for the position of speaker of the House of Repre- sentatives of the Fifth General Assembly, but before the election he withdrew his candidacy, in the interest of harmony. He was made chairman of the Committee on Retrenchment and Reform, and a member of the follow- ing named committees also: Congressional Redistricting, Revenue and Taxation, State and School Lands, Public Roads and Highways, Constitutional Amendments, and Relation to the Five Civilized Tribes and Other Indians.

In the Fifth Legislature Mr. Harrison introduced a bill prescribing the qualifications for teachers in the public schools and other educational institutions of the state and defining causes for their removal, the purpose of the measure being to eliminate politics from educa- tional affairs. Another bill introduced by him was that providing for a governor's council, consisting of all state officials, upon whom shall be conferred the powers now entrusted to the State Board of Affairs and the Board of Control of the state penal, charitable and educational institutions, except the power of selecting teachers. He made a careful survey of the subject and estimated that this measure would entail to the state a saving of $65,000 annually. Mr. Harrison was the author of the proposed constitutional amendment providing a mileage tax for the support of the state educational institutions,-a measure designed to relieve the Legislature of the re- sponsibility of making appropriations for the support of these institutions. He was a co-author of a bill pre- scribing requirements for admission to the state insane asylums and providing that persons having property shall contribute to the support of relatives confined in such asylums. He not only showed much discrimination and ability in constructive legislation, but also opposed vigor- ously all proposed increases of appropriations for state institutions except such amounts as were actually neces- sary for maintenance.

In the Masonic fraternity Mr. Harrison has received the thirty-second degree of the Ancient Accepted Scottish

Rite, besides being affiliated with the India Temple of the Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine. He is prominently identified also with the Inde- pendent Order of Odd Fellows, in which he is past grand of the lodge at Calvin and also a member of the grand lodge of the state. He holds membership also in the Oklahoma Society of Eighty-niners, commemorating the organization of Oklahoma Territory and its opening to settlement.

In December, 1912, Mr. Harrison married Miss Grace Liegerot, daughter of Charles and Emma Liegerot, of Tonkawa, Kay County, this state. They have no children.

SAMUEL B. ELROD. The distinction of being the second youngest postmaster in the State of Oklahoma belongs to Samuel B. Elrod, who under the present democratic administration took charge of the postoffice at Hominy about a year ago. Mr. Elrod is one of the capable younger business men of Osage County, and his family has been identified with this state for a number of years.

He was born in Tennessee December 28, 1888, a son of B. F. and Annie E. (Milliken) Elrod, who were also natives of Tennessee, his father having been born in the same house as the son, and is now sixty-four, while his wife is aged sixty. The parents now reside 31/2 miles north of Hominy. When Samuel B. was two years of age the parents moved to Texas, locating in Hill County, and lived there until 1903, when they removed to South- western Oklahoma. The father had been at El Reno at the opening of the Kiowa and Comanche Reservation in 1901. Samuel B. Elrod lived with his parents in South- western Oklahoma until 1911, when he came to Osage County, and was followed two years later by his parents. His father has been a farmer all his active career. Samuel B. Elrod is one of ten children, nine of whom are still living, and one having died at the age of five. He is the youngest of the six sons in the family, while two of the daughters are younger than he.

He lived with his parents until twenty-two aud was then married to Miss Gertrude Harris, born in Bedford County, Tennessee, in 1893, and coming to Oklahoma about nine years ago with her grandparents, both her own parents having died when she was very young. Mr. Elrod was a practical farmer up to the time he removed to Hominy, and then worked a year in a meat market and for two years engaged in the ice and coal business. His appointment as postmaster at Hominy came on July 1, 1914. The Hominy postoffice is third class, and he is now giving all his attention to its management. He has been a democrat since casting his first ballot, and is one of the young leaders of the party in Osage County. He and his wife are members of the Baptist Church and his fraternal affiliations are with the Masonic Order and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. Mr. and Mrs. Elrod have one son, Reynold Milton.

J. WILL MORSE. The Oklahoma Guaranty Bank of Blackwell, of which J. W. Morse is cashier, is in point of resources and stability one of the strongest financial institutions of Northeastern Oklahoma. A recent state- ment indicates total resources aggregating about $278,- 000. Its capital stock is $30,000, with surplus and profits of about $5,500, while the confidence of the community in its management is indicated by deposits approximating over $240,000.

Mr. J. W. Morse has been identified with Blackwell since 1897, and is a banker, business man, leader in community and church affairs, has been one of the men most directly responsible for the growth and improvement of his city during the past twenty years. Mr. Morse was born in:

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HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA

Christian County, Illinois, March 15, 1861. His father was W. L. Morse, long an active business man at Pana, Illinois. W. L. Morse was born at Worcester, Massa- chusetts, of an old Massachusetts family, and located in Christian County, Illinois, in 1856. W. L. Morse was married in Kentucky to Mary Jane Meteer, a woman of intelligence and good family, to whom her children owe much for their success in life. She was born in Ken- tucky, and two of her brothers, Thomas J. and John T., were soldiers in the Union army. She is still living at the old home in Illinois, at the age of seventy-seven. Both she and her husband were members of the Methodist Episcopal Church.

James W. Morse grew up in Illinois, and received his education by attending the public schools and by study at home. He has a sister, Sarah A., who is married and living at Champaign, Illinois. After leaving high school he went into business at Pana, and when he came to Oklahoma in 1897 he brought with him a broad and varied experience and was well qualified to take an active part in the upbuilding of the community at Blackwell.

In November, 1983, at Vincennes, Indiana, Mr. Morse married Miss Jessie M. Rice, who. was born in Kentucky, a daughter of Rev. William G. Rice, who for many years was a successful minister of the gospel. He had also served as a soldier in the Confederate army, and spent the last days of his life in Kentucky. To the marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Morse have been born seven children. Irocu died in infancy, and Wilber died in childhood. Those living are: Florence, wife of C. D. Baily of Laurens, Iowa; C. E. Morse of Wichita, Kansas; Glyde, attending high school at Blackwell; Wilford and Evelyn, also in school. Mr. and Mrs. Morse have both been very prominent in the Presbyterian Church activities at Black- well. He has served as superintendent of the Sunday- school and treasurer of the church board, and has always expressed himself positively and in terms of action in behalf of any movement for the improvement of churches, schools and general elevation of morality aud temper- ance in his community. Mr. Morse is also prominent in the Masonic Order, a member of the Knights Templar, and belongs to Akdar Temple of the Mystic Shrine at Tulsa.

FRANKLIN J. SPRINGER. To grow old gracefully has been only one of many accomplishments associated with the career of Judge Springer of Cushing. Many men much younger are not so fortunate in carrying the weight of their years as Judge Springer, who is now close to four score. His is a pleasing retrospect and a conscious- ness of duty well performed and a long life of honorable service have undoubtedly been factors in enabling him to advance so easily toward a green old age.

From the time he was a hard-fighting soldier in the army of the Potomae during the Civil war until the present Judge Springer has employed much of his time and energy in the duties of citizenship. He was born in Northampton Countv. Pennsylvania, on a farm, May 18, 1837. He was the only child of his father, Louis Springer, who died before Judge Springer had any definite recollection of this parent. The mother's maiden name was Mary Kromer. Both were born in Pennsyl- vania and of German parentage. The mother spent all her life in that state. Up to the age of about ten years Judge Springer lived with his grandparents, and soon afterward started out to earn his own way in the world. Self-reliance, independence, faithful diligence, have been important factors in his career. For about six years he worked on a river boat on the Ohio River. In 1852 he went west to Cass County, Illinois, and lived on a farm there until the outbreak of the war. Returning to Pennsylvania he enlisted in July, 1861, as a private in

Company B of the Forty-fifth Regiment of Pennsylvania Infantry, and was later in Company A, Twenty-first Pennsylvania Cavalry. He was continuously in service until 1865, the close of the war, having veteranized at the close of the first three years of his enlistment. He . was mustered out by a special order taking effect May 15, 1865. In the meantime he had borne more than the ordinary duties and responsibilities of the soldier. Five days before the surrender of Lee he was taken prisoner at Amelia Springs, Virginia, and his regiment was mustered out two months later. From private his first promotion was to first sergeant, later to lieutenant, and for one year before his muster out he was captain of Company A of the Twenty-third Pennsylvania. This record is the more notable for the fact that he enlisted as a poor boy and a stranger among his comrades in Company A. He made no efforts to gaiu promotion, and every advance was on the basis of merit and efficiency and not by reason of personal influence. He took part in all the great battles in which the army of the Potomac was engaged from Antietam on to Appomattox. At Fredericksburg he was slightly wounded when a splinter from a gun carriage struck him iu the forehead, leaving a scar which is still visible. While in the army he had three horses shot from under him, and his clothing was frequently struck by bullets, though he himself passed through practically unscathed.

After the war he lived in Pennsylvania for a time, was married there in 1866, and soon afterwards brought his bride to Illinois and to Cass County, where he had formerly lived, and engaged in farming. Five years later he moved to,Iowa and was a resident of Lee County in that state until 1889. Judge Springer is an Oklahoma '89er. After participating in the great rush of colonists and home seekers on the 22d of April he secured a claim in Oklahoma County, and for a number of years gave his energy to its development. He has always been successful as a farmer, and has developed a large acreage since coming to Oklahoma. He was honored by election as one of the first county commissioners of Oklahoma County, helped to organize that district, and as the other members of the board of commissioners were city men and practically unacquainted with their duties, he bore a large share of the official responsibilities con- nected with that office. For about five years Captain Springer lived in Lincoln County, and about twelve years ago moved to Payne County, and for the past five years has lived retired in Cushing. The greater part of his career has been speut as a farmer, aud he still owns considerable farming land in Oklahoma.

Politically he has had a part in politics only as a public spirited citizen, though frequently honored with official position. He is a republican, and in Cushing served as police judge until that office was abolished on the introduction of the commission form of government. Since then he has administered justice iu the local courts as a justice of the peace. Judge Springer took an active part in the movement which brought about the organiza- tion of old Oklahoma Territory. Perhaps his chief in- terest since coming to Cushing has been the welfare of

local schools. He has helped to establish school dis- tricts, has served many years on local school boards and his name should be definitely remembered for his help in founding the State Normal School at Edmond and the Agricultural College at Stillwater. Fraternally he is a member of the Masonic Order and also belongs to the Grand Army of the Republic.

In Pennsylvania, on March 1, 1866, Judge Springer married Emma Levan. She was born in Pennsylvania, June 13, 1845, a daughter of John and Catherine (Oster- stock) Levan, both of whom spent all their lives in the Keystone State. Judge and Mrs. Springer are whole-

F. & Springer

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HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA

some people, always preserved good physical health, are still active in spite of their years, have reared a large family of children without the loss of a single one. Neither Judge Springer nor any of his sons have ever used tobacco or liquor in any form and he is as clean mentally and morally as he is physically. In religious matters he is somewhat liberal and prefers to analyze and study the scheme of the world and the problems beyond untrammeled by conventioned thought or dogma. A brief record of his ten children is as follows: Alice is the wife of Robert Yarbrough of Oklahoma City; Frank H. lives in Pawnee County; Hattie Belle is the wife of R. O. Pettigrew of Oklahoma City; Nora is the wife of S. W. King of Texas; Fred lives in Shawnee; Ida is the wife of Dusel Casto of Yukon; Lee lives in Texas; Albert lives in Payne County; John W. is a resident of Vinita; and Mamie is a teacher in the high school at Cushing.

THOMAS ANDREW GROSS. No individual in a com- munity wields a stronger influence in the molding and shaping of character than the public instructor. . The . capable, conscientious teacher must needs assume heavy responsibilities, for on entering the schoolroom the child's mind is as plastic clay and is as readily made to take shape under guidance and instruction. That community is fortunate therefore that numbers among its citizens men and women of ability and high ideals, to whom the teaching of its future citizens is a trust not to be lightly assumed but to which thought, care and constant service must be rendered. In this category stands Thomas. An- drew Gross, superintendent of schools of Frederick, Okla- homa, who has devoted himself to teaching almost from the time that he left college halls.

Mr. Gross was born at Birchwood, James County, Ten- nessee, in April, 1875, and is a son of A. J. and Har- riet (Ziegler) Gross. The family originated in Germany, a number of generations ago, locating in Virginia in colonial times, and subsequently removed to Tennessee in the first settlement of that state. A. J. Gross was born at Birchwood, in the Big Bend State, in 1851, and for many years was engaged in farming there, but in 1910 moved to the vicinity of Dayton, Tennessee, where he now makes his home. He is a member of the Baptist Church and a democrat in politics, is interested in public and civic affairs, and has served as a member of the school board. Mrs. Gross, also a native of Birchwood, survives, and has been the mother of nine children, namely : J. F., who is identified with the Department of Indians Affairs at Washington, D. C .; Thomas Andrew, of this review; Tennessee, who resides with her parents at Dayton, Tennessee, and is unmarried; Lena, who mar- ried Mr. Jones, a ranchman of Ridge, Montana; Pearl, who married Mr. Brown, a civil engineer of Chapel, North Carolina; and Lilly, Lola, Blanche and Stella, who are unmarried and reside with their parents.

Thomas Andrew Gross first attended the Birchwood public schools and was graduated from Birchwood Acad- emy iu 1894. He next taught school for one year in James County, Tennessee, following which he enrolled as a student at Carson & Newman College, Jefferson, Tennessee, where he was graduated with the class of 1900, degree of Bachelor of Sciences, with the highest honors of his class. His college career was a notable one, in which he was a prominent figure in the Columbian Liter- ary Society, in the work of the Young Men's Christian Association, in athletics and in the various musical or- ganizations. Later, in 1908, he received the degree of Master of Arts from this institution.

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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