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 63

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 63

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In 1901 and 1902 Mr. Gross was engaged in editing a newspaper at Dayton, Tennessee, but following this ven- ture entered upon his real career as principal of the Fair-

mount schools, at Hamilton, Tennessee, in 1903-4. The next three years he was principal of the County High School, at Hixon, Tennessee, and in 1907 he came to Weatherford, Oklahoma, as professor of English and Literature in the Southwestern State Normal School, a capacity in which he acted for four years. He was then head of the Department of English, Baptist Uni- versity, Shawnee, Oklahoma, for one year; principal of the Okfuskee County High School, Okfuskee, Oklahoma, one year, and principal of the Frederick High School for one year, 1913-14, and in May of the latter year was elected superintendent of city schools of Frederick, a position in which he has since remained, and in which he has charge of four schools, twenty-five teachers and 800 scholars. Mr. Gross, aside from being a teacher pos- sessed the happy and unusual faculty of instilling in the minds of others his own great store of knowledge, as well as an executive who is capable of looking after the business management of his charge, is a close student, and by constant study keeps abreast of his profession, for teaching, like other vocations, is progressive. He is a democrat in politics, is a member of the Baptist Church and superintendent of its Sunday School, and a director in the Carnegie Library at Frederick.

On May 1, 1901, at Talbot, Tennessee, Professor Gross was married to Miss Arrie M. Roberts, who at that time was living with her uncle, M. A. Roberts, but who came from Little Rock, Arkansas, her birthplace. Three chil- dren have come to this union, Marguerite, born in 1902; Ralph Franklin, born in 1906; and Byron Roberts, born in 1909.

The Roberts family is an old one in this country and traces its record back many generations in England, being originally from the family that gave to Great Britain its famous soldier, the late Lord Roberts. The great-grand- father of Mrs. Gross was a minister of the Methodist Episcopal faith, spent many years in Tennessee, and was identified prominently with the Indian history of his day and locality. Benjamin Roberts, the grandfather of Mrs. Gross, was born in North Carolina in 1808, and died at Dandridge, Tennessee, in 1892, having been a pioneer of East Tennessee where he was engaged as a merchant and farmer for many years. He was a republican in politics, but not a politician.

J. Newton Roberts, the father of Mrs. Gross, was born in Knox County, Tennessee, in 1839, and as a youth was taken by his parents to Jefferson County, Tennessee, and then to Little Rock, Arkansas, where he spent the remaining years of his life, being principally engaged as a contractor and builder. During the Civil war he served as a Confederate private for some time, and was sta- tioned at Memphis, Tennessee. He was an active worker in the Methodist Episcopal Church, in which he was class leader, and in political affairs was a democrat. Five children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Roberts: Frank N., who is identified with a wholesale fruit company, at Little Rock, Arkansas; James Benjamin, bookkeeper for the Walker & Calef Ice Company, who died in 1900 at Little Rock, Arkansas; Laura C., who married Doctor Majors, a retired physician of Shiloh, Arkansas; George W., who is a merchant at Little Rock, Arkansas; and Arrie M., who is now Mrs. Gross. The mother of these children, who bore the maiden name of Ellen Davidson, was a native of Virginia, and died at Little Rock, Arkan- sas, in 1880.

Arrie M. Roberts attended the public schools of her native City of Little Rock, Arkansas, and after one year spent in the high school went to Cleburne County, Arkan- sas, both her parents having died. There she passed three years in teaching school, and attending the high school when she could find the time, and later taught at Heber Springs, Arkansas. Miss Roberts next went to

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HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA

Maury Academy, Dandridge, Tennessee, where she passed one year, following which she beeame a student at Carson & Newman College, Jefferson, Tennessee, where she re- mained two and one-half years, and while there met Mr. Gross. She thereafter was engaged in teaching until her marriage, May 1, 1901. Mrs. Gross is well known in educational circles, is a lady of many attainments, and has a wide circle of appreciative friends living at Fred- eriek and elsewhere.

WILLIAM A. CLUTE. A pioneer newspaper man of Oklahoma, having come here at the time of the first opening of lands for white settlement in 1889, William A. Clute has been connected with a number of publica- tions in this state, but is now engaged as a traveling salesman. Mr. Clute was born September 22, 1859, in Livingston County, New York, and is a son of Andrew and Caroline Jane (Harris) Clute.

Andrew Clute was born in New York and when he entered upon his eareer took up farming in Livingston County, where he was living at the outbreak of the Civil war. He enlisted as a private and seout in Company F, 136tlı Regiment, New York Volunteer Infantry, and served three years with that organization, partieipating in thirty engagements, including Gettysburg, Lookout Mountain and Chattanooga and the battles incident to General Sherman's great mareh to the sea. Following the war he removed to Michigan and then to Nebraska, continuing his farming operations, and finally settled in Colorado, where he met his death in a railroad wreek in 1881. He was a member of the Masonic Fraternity. In 1855 Mr. Clute was married to Miss Caroline Jane Harris, who was born in 1848, the youngest of the eleven chil- dren of Isaae and Hanna (Howe) Harris. She died at Altus, Deeember 9, 1915. There were four children in the family, namely: Andrew, born in 1856, and now a traveling man of Hastings, Nebraska; William A .; Franeis M., born in 1869, who died in 1904; and Sidney E., born in 1873, a resident of Altus.

William A. Clute was edueated in the schools of Miehi- gan and Nebraska, and reared on the home farm. He later entered the service of the Chieago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad as agent for the townsite department in Nebraska and Colorado, and was subsequently agent and trustee for the townsite interests on the C. K. & N. Railroad in the latter state. He also spent five years in Mexico, as an exporter and, in 1889, when Indian Territory and Oklahoma Territory lands were thrown open to the publie, eame to El Reno, where he was given the first deed issued for a town lot. He also secured a claim two miles from the eity of El Reno, paying the claim- ant for his relinquishment by the purchase of a pair of $5.00 boots. This land has since sold for $200 per aere. Mr. Clute took an active part in the organization of the town, being a member of the first eity eouneil under the Enabling Aet, and in 1891 bought the El Reno Democrat, of which he was editor for two years. In the same year he was the nominee on the independent democratie tieket for the legislature, but was defeated after a elose eontest. He was also a member of the first grand jury ever impanelled in Canadian County, was president of the first democratie elub organized in the county, was a delegate to the first state convention of his party, and was the organizer of the first independent eom- pany of state militia, Company A, of which he served as captain for several years. When the Cherokee Strip was opened to settlement Mr. Clute made the raee to Enid, at which place he edited the West-Side Demoerat during the exeiting period of the town's early history. In 1892, with his brother, Franeis M., Mr. Clute estab- lished the Argus, at Arapaho, and eondueted that paper

for two years, and in 1894 bought from Lafe Merritt the El Reno Globe, being editor thereof for two years. Sinee disposing of his interests in that newspaper, Mr. Clute has devoted himself to traveling for wholesale houses as a salesman, having his headquarters and residence at points in the state as convenience demanded.

Mr. Clute has been an eye-witness to the wonderful development of this state, and still takes a keen and aetive interest in its institutions and industries. Few men contributed in greater degree to the advancement of Canadian County, the first history of which came from his pen. He is connected with various fraternal and so- cial organizations and has a wide aequaintanee all over the state, and has established enduring friendships with some of Oklahoma's most prominent and influential eitizens.

THOMAS R. DUNLAP. One of the newest towns ilt Southern Oklahoma is Ringling, and though its annals are brief there has been no laek of enterprise and achieve- ment. One of the men present when the first furrow was turned on the townsite is Thomas R. Dunlap, now serving as postmaster. Mr. Dunlap has had a long and active career, chiefly engaged in educational work, and many years ago was superintendent of schools at Ardmore.

Thomas R. Dunlap was born in Gibson County, Ten- nessce, February 11, 1853, a son of J. M. and Elizabeth. (Carter) Dunlap. The Dunlaps came originally from Scotland prior to the Revolutionary war and settled in South Carolina. The Carters were likewise early in South Carolina, and came from Holland. J. M. Dunlap was born in South Carolina in 1826 and died at Hum- boldt, Tennessee, in 1880, having been taken to Tennes- see by his parents when he was a small boy. His life was spent as a farmer and he was a member of the Masonic fraternity. His wife was born in South Caro- lina in 1837 and died at Humboldt, Tennessee, in 1908. Their seven children were: Thomas R .; Sallie A., wife of Frank Craddock, a Tennessee farmer; Mary, wife of B. F. Rains, a horticulturist in Gibson County, Tennes- see; Maggie, who died in 1910 as the wife of J. N. Jackson, who is a farmer in Tennessee; Amanda, who died at the age of six years, and Kendriek, a fruit grower in Crockett County, Tennessee.

Thomas R. Dunlap had the environment of a Tennes- see farm during his youth, and began his edueation in the public schools of Gibson County. These advantages were improved by a course in the Southwestern Baptist University at Jackson, Tennessee, and in 1880 he grad- uated A. B. from Eminence College in Henry County, Kentucky. Educational work was his ehosen voeation, and he served as superintendent of schools in several counties in Texas up to 1894, in which year he was elected superintendent of schools at Ardmore, Indian Terri- tory. For four years he was principal of the Chicka- sha Collegiate Institute, and then returned to Texas and for four years had charge of the Jarvis Institute at Granbury, Texas. Subsequent serviee in the educational field comprised two years as president of Sulphur College at Sulphur, Kentucky, three years as professor of Latin at Wilson, North Carolina; one year in the Chair of Latin in the Virginia Christian College at Lynehburg, Virginia.

Mr. Dunlap eame to Wilson, Oklahoma, in 1914, but in March of the same year identified himself with the new townsite at Ringling. He was made postmaster by Postmaster General Burleson and took the office July 17, 1915. On January 1, 1916, the office was made third elass and Mr. Dunlap was made postmaster for a term of four years. He is a demoerat in polities, an elder in

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HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA

the Christian Church and has affiliations with Ardmore Circle of the Woodmeu of the World.

At Florence, Alabama, in 1881, he married Miss Sallie F. Young, whose father was the late Thomas W. Young, a farmer at Florence. Their family comprises four children: Errett, who is in the land business with Mullen Bros., at Ardmore, Oklahoma; Allen Young, who was drowned at Fort Arbuckle, Oklahoma, June 29, 1897; Laurence, postmaster and merchant at Wilson, Okla- homa; and Mattie, a junior in Enid College.

VIRGIL A. WOOD, M. D. It is not only as a physician and surgeon, but as a citizen of varied usefulness and public spirit that Doctor Wood is identified with Black- well and Kay County. He located in Blackwell in 1901, and since that year he has quietly and efficiently per- formed his services as a doctor in the city and surround- ing country. He is a man of high standing in his profession, and has undoubtedly chosen wisely in devot- ing himself unselfishly and patriotically to the welfare of his fellow man, rather than concentrating his efforts towards the building up of a fortune. He enjoys the rewards of community esteem in a richer degree than some men perhaps more fortunate in worldly wealth, and may well be content with his independence and his career of practical idealism.

Doctor Wood is a pioneer of Oklahoma, having come to the territory in 1889, the year of the first opening. He has practiced medicine upwards of thirty years, and by bis skill and ability stands in the front rank of Oklahoma practitioners. Doctor Wood was born on a Georgia plantation August 12, 1849. His parents were James and Mary (Turner) Wood, the former a native of North Carolina and the latter of Georgia. His father gave service in behalf of the Southern cause during the war between the states. From Georgia the family sub- sequently removed to Texas, and later to Arkansas. James Wood followed farming all his active career and died at the age of eighty-two years, while his wife passed away at sixty. Both were members of the Baptist Church. Of their five childreu three are still living: Hon. R. E. Wood, a prominent citizen of Oklahoma City, assistant attorney-general of Oklahoma; O. M. Wood of Arkansas; and Dr. V. A. Wood.

Doctor Wood spent his early life on farms in Texas and Arkansas. This experience gave him a sound con- stitution and was a wholesome training for his later professional career. At the same time he attended public schools, studied at home, and also had the advantages of college. He began the study of medicine under a well known physician in Arkansas, and then entered the Louisville Medical College of Kentucky, where he was graduated M. D. in 1885.

Doctor Wood was married in 1874, in Arkansas, to Miss Sarah Robbins. They have now lived together as man and wife and in mutual confidence and esteem for more than forty years. Mrs. Wood is a member of a Georgia family and of old Southern antecedents. Doctor Wood and wife are proud of their family of nine children: Robert H., who is a geologist and is connected with the work of his profession in a Government position at Wash- ington; Homa and Okla, twins, and both A. M. graduates from the University of Oklahoma, and Homa is an LL. D. of the same university; Virgil O .; Dudley; Beulah, of Shawnee; Minnie Rose, wife of a successful business man at Watonga; and Edna, wife of F. A. Smith of Fort Smith, Arkansas. All the children have received the best of educational advantages, and have been well prepared for their duties in life.

Doctor Wood, outside of his professional service, has interested himself above all in the advancement of the public schools of Blackwell and Kay County. For twelve

years he has served as a member of the Blackwell School Board, and the people of that community readily give him credit for the splendid improvements which now give Blackwell rank among the first cities of Oklahoma in point of educational standards and equipment. He has worked assiduously and unselfishly to provide such oppor- tunities to the growing generation and for many years to. come his name will deserve recognition when the progress of the Blackwell schools is under discussion. Doctor Wood and wife are both active members of the Baptist Church, in which he is deacon, while Mrs. Wood is promi- nent in the church organizations. Both have been liberal supporters of the church, and Doctor Wood has probably accomplished as much as any other local physician in the direction of practical charity, giving his services without thought of remuneration to those requiring it, whether rich or poor. He has always believed in the golden rule, and has practiced it perhaps as acceptably as any man. While he has always enjoyed a high stand- ing and a good practice as a physician, he has not accumu- lated wealth and has had little ambition to do so. Much of his income has gone in support of the manifold charities and causes in which he was interested, and in the community esteem which is paid him and in the wealth of his home and well trained children he has riches greater than could be measured by bank stocks or railroad bonds. Doctor Wood is a fine example of the old-time Southern gentleman, has proved himself trust- worthy in all the relations of life, and greets hardship and ill fortune with the same kindly smile that he turns. to his many friends.

WILLIAM R. JONES. Within the period of his resi- dence in Oklahoma Judge Jones has proved a specially able representative of both the pedagogic and legal pro- fessions, and in the autumn of 1914 there came a well merited recognition of his eligibility and his high stand- ing at the bar when he was elected to the bench of the. County Court of Payne County, an exacting and respon- sible office in which he is giving a characteristically ef- fective and popular administration. Prior to establishing his residence at Stillwater, the county seat, he had main- tained his home at Cushing, this county, where he had been a successful teacher in the public schools and had also engaged in the practice of law.

Judge Jones was born on a farm in Wright County, Missouri, and the date of his nativity was December 18, 1877. He is a son of Thomas and Luvinia (Royster) Jones, who were born and reared in Tennessee and who. were young folk at the time of the removal of the respective families to Missouri, just before the outbreak of the Civil war. In that. state their marriage was solemnized and they still reside on their excellent home- stead farm in Wright County, the subject of this review being the eldest of their eight surviving children.

Judge Jones acquired his early education in the schools of his native state and his initial experiences were those gained in connection with the activities of the home farm. He was an ambitious student and through his well di- rected application he acquired a liberal education along academic lines. Thus he admirably fortified himself for the pedagogic profession, of which he was a successful and popular representative for fourteen consecutive years, save for an interim of one year. His earlier work as a teacher was in schools of his native state, and he taught one year in Arkansas. In 1902 he came to Oklahoma Territory, and here he continued his efficient services as a teacher for a period of six years-until he turned his attention to the practice of law. During the first two years of his residence in the territory he taught in the schools of Oklahoma County, and he has been a resident of Payne County since 1908. While in Oklahoma.

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County Judge Jones further fortified himself by attend- ing the State Normal School at Edmond, and later he continued his higher academic studies in the Oklahoma Agricultural & Mechanical College, at Stillwater. For three years he was principal of the public schools at Cushing, Payne County, and 1912 he was elected county superintendent of schools, an office which he held two years, and in which he did admirable work in systematiz- ing and advancing the work of the schools of Payne County. While engaged in teaching he devoted close attention to the study of law and gained a comprehensive' and practical kuowledge of the science of jurisprudence, his admission to the Oklahoma bar having been granted in 1910. He removed to Stillwater upon assuming office as county superintendent of schools, aud after his retire- inent from that responsible post he was here engaged in the active general practice of law until his election to his present office, that of county judge, in the autumn of 1914. He is a staunch and effective advocate of the principles and policies for which the democratic party stands sponsor and has rendered yeoman service in behalf of its cause during his residence in Oklahoma. He and his wife hold membership in the Christian Church and he is affiliated with the local lodge of Aucieut Free and Accepted Masons.

In 1908 was solemnized the marriage of Judge Jones to Miss Naomi Howe, who was born in Kansas, and who is a daughter of Alexander C. and Harriet Howe, both of whom were born in Pennsylvania, whence they removed to Kansas in the pioneer period of its history. They remained in the Sunflower State until 1892, when they came to Oklahoma Territory and first located at Guthrie. Mr. Howe later becanic a prosperous farmer of Payne County, where his death occurred and where his widow still maintains her home. Judge and Mrs. Jones have three children : Lorene, Paul and Harold.

IRA EDWIN SNYDER. This young business man of Frederick where he is manager of the Southwestern Lum- ber Company, has shown an unusual ability to advance himself in the world, and immediately on finishing a high school course in Kansas started to learn the' lumber business, and in a very few brief years has been advanced to responsibilities which make him an important factor in the Town of Frederick.

Born at Pleasanton, Kansas, February 11, 1889, he is a. son of Edward Marcus Snyder, a grandson of Asa Snyder, aud a great-grandson of an emigrant from. Germany who spelled his name Schneider, who settled in Tennessee as a farmer and married a Miss Downey. Grandfather Asa Snyder removed his family from Ten- nessee to Kentucky, thence to Illinois, and finally to Kansas, and died near Pleasanton in the latter state. He combined the business of farming with his duties as a local Methodist Protestant minister. Edward Marcus Snyder, who was born near Danville, Vermilion County, Illinois, in 1853, was also a minister of the Methodist Protestant Church, and is now living at Centerville, Kansas. In that state he has had charge of churches at Centerville, Rose Hill, Battlefield, Whitewater, and other places, and for two years preached in the Congrega- tional Church at Fredonia. His first wife was a Miss Perry, who died in Linn County, Kansas, the mother of three children, namely: Fred B., who is a machinist in the shingle mill at Blanchard, Washington; Lena May, who lives at Wichita, Kansas; and Clema Inez, wife of Frank Brooks, who is a farmer near Blue Mountain, Kansas. Edward M. Snyder married for his second wife Ella Aun Osborne, who was born at Uniontown, Peun- sylvania. Their children are Ira Edwin Snyder and Charles Wilbur Snyder, the latter born October 31, 1890,

and now manager of the Dascomb-Daniels Lumber Com- pany at Frederick, Oklahoma.

His early training in the common schools Mr. Suyder acquired at Centerville, Rose Hill, Prairie Center, Kan- sas, and was graduated from the high school at Burns, Kansas, in 1909. On May 10th of the same year he placed his foot on the first round of the ladder of advancement by becoming yard man aud bookkeeper in the lumber yard at Burns, and remained there until April, 1910. He was then sent to Westphalia, Kansas, as manager of the R. W. Long Lumber Company for 21/2 years, and on October 5, 1912, arrived at Frederick, Oklahoma, where he has since had local management of the Southwestern Lumber Company. The headquarters of this company are at Kansas City and there are eleven branch yards maintained in Oklahoma. This company acts as sales and distributing agent for the East Oregon Lumber Company in the State of Oregon.

Mr. Snyder is independent in politics, a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, is affiliated with West- phalia Lodge No. 305, Ancient Free and Accented Masons, with Frederick Chapter No. 41, Royal Arch Masons, with the Brotherhood of American Yeomen, and belongs to the Business Men's Association of Frederick.

On December 31, 1912, at Westphalia, Kansas, hẹ mar- ried Miss Violet Eagle, daughter of J. S. Eagle, who is now living retired at Westphalia. They have two dangh- ters, Rose Marie and Eleanor Margaret.

THOMAS P. BRAIDWOOD. In 1887, about two years prior to the formal opening of Oklahoma Territory to white settlement, Mr. Braidwood came to the neutral strip of country then known as No Man's Land and became one of the influential figures in defining the government and instituting the development of this region that now includes a number of the most prosper- ous and progressive counties in the western part of the state. He established his residence in old Beaver City and there opened and conducted the first hardware store, operations having been continued in the original building until the same was destroyed by a cyclone that swept the locality on the 31st of March, 1892. In the year that marked his arrival in this new frontier region, Mr. Braidwood became one of the organizers of the Terri- tory of Cimarron, and he served as a member of the Territorial Senate. In 1888 he was chosen territorial secretary, and of this office he continued the incumbent until the territorial organization was dissolved by the opening of Oklahoma Territory to settlement, as duly recorded in the direct historical department of this publication.

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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