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 64

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 64

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In 1890 when old Beaver County, including the present- day counties of Beaver, Texas and Cimarron, was organ- ized, Mr. Braidwood was appointed county clerk by Hon. George W. Steele, then Governor of Oklahoma Ter- ritory. In the ensuing popular election, in 1891, he was duly chosen the incumbent of this office, in which he served two years. He then returned to his former home at Leavenworth, Kansas, where he remained until 1897, when he came again to Oklahoma and resumed his residence in Beaver County. In 1902 he was elected representative of Beaver and Woodward counties in the lower house of the Territorial Legislature, in which he served one term and did much to further the best interests of his constituent district, besides taking loyal and effective part in legislation for the benefit of the territory at large. In 1905 he served as journal clerk of the Legislature. In 1907, the year of the admission of Oklahoma as one of the sovereign states of the Uniou, Mr. Braidwood was appointed United States Com- missioner for western Oklahoma, and of this Federal

he he lect live wil tact. mar Burg on t infar Unite in the band to the Coun couple the Gt sixty the de of fou followi April the foll 1846, a ried M -cember, viving e and Job Liddell in the Indian who was June, 18 Black, a

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HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA

office he has since continued the efficient incumbent, his residence being maintained in the Village of Beaver, judicial center of the county of the same name. He has been foremost in all activities tending to promote the civic and material advancement of his home town and county, and in 1888 he served as mayor of old Beaver City, no other pioneer of this now opulent section of the state being better known or held in higher popular esteem. Mr. Braidwood has reclaimed and improved one of the large and valuable stock ranches of Beaver County, is still the owner of this property and on the same he maintained his residence for a period of eleven years. He has proved one of the strong, vigilant and resourceful pioneers and upbuilders of western Okla- homa and his name shall ever merit high place on the historical records of this section of the state.

Mr. Braidwood was born in the city of Albany, New York, on the 24th of March, 1855, and his father, Thomas L. Braidwood was born at Utica, that state, on the 3d of May, 1820, his death having occurred in Beaver County, Oklahoma, on the 1st of May, 1900, only two days prior to his eightieth birthday anniversary. Thomas L. Braidwood was reared and educated in the old Empire State, where he learned the trade of iron moulder and where he continued his residence until 1871, when he removed with his family to Kansas and became one of the pioneer settlers of Cowley County, where he entered claim to and settled upon a tract of government land. He instituted the development of this land and eventually perfected his title to the property. He continued to reside upon his pioneer homestead until 1875, when he removed to Leavenworth, that state, and became superintendent of a stove foun- dry. With this industrial enterprise he continued to be thus identified until 1889, when he came to Beaver County, Oklahoma, and resumed operations as an agri- culturist and stock grower, with which lines of enterprise he here continued to be identified until his death, both he and his wife having been persons of superior intel- lectual powers and of sterling character, their worthy lives and worthy deeds having gained to them the good will and high esteem of all with whom they came in con- tact. In the State of New York was solemnized the marriage of Thomas L. Braidwood to Miss Marian Burgess, who was born in the City of Glasgow, Scotland, on the 11th of November, 1818, and who was thus an infant at the time of her parents' immigration to the United States, in 1820. She was reared and educated in the State of New York and survived her honored hus- band by exactly two years, she having been summoned to the life eternal on the 3d of May, 1902, in Beaver County, Oklahoma. The marriage of this loved pioneer couple was solemnized at West Troy, New York, on the 6th day of July, 1844, and after a period of nearly sixty years their devoted companionship was severed by the death of Mr. Braidwood. They became the parents of four sons and two daughters, concerning whom the following brief data are entered: James was born April 6, 1845, and died on the 15th of September of the following year. John Burgess was born September 5, 1846, and now resides in Albany, New York. He mar- ried Miss Caroline VanGuysling, on the 25th of De- cember, 1870, and her death occurred in 1885, their sur- viving children being James A., born October 12, 1871, and John Burgess, Jr., born September 5, 1874. James Liddell was born September 25, 1848, and was drowned in the Arkansas River, at a point near Muskogee, Indian Territory, on the 10th of May, 1871. Marian E., who was born at Albany, New York, on the 10th of June, 1851, was married July 4, 1874, to Charles C. Black, and they became the parents of four children:

Charlotte, Marian E., Francis and Charles B., all of whom are living except the first born. Thomas P., whose name introduces this article, was the next in order of birth. Anna J., who was born March 13, 1858, became, on the 31st of March, 1875, the wife of William M. Allison, and of their six children Howard and Robert died in infancy, as did also Nina, the three surviving being William A., born August 1, 1878; Marian, born in February, 1879, died in 1907; and Anna, born May 18, 1883. Mrs. Allison died July 6, 1892, at Chandler, Oklahoma, and her husband, who was a pioneer news- paper man, both in Southern Kansas and in Oklahoma, now resides at Snyder, Oklahoma, where he is serving as postmaster.

Thomas P. Braidwood acquired his early education in the public schools of his native city, the capital of the State of New York, and was a lad of about sixteen years when he accompanied his parents on their immigration to Kansas, in 1871. After his father assumed the super- intendency of the stove foundry at Leavenworth, that state, Mr. Braidwood was employed twelve years as a moulder in the establishment, and he thus continued to be engaged until his removal to what is now the State of Oklahoma, in 1887, as noted in detail in former para- graphs of this article.

Mr. Braidwood is aligned as a stalwart advocate of the political principles and policies for which the re- publican party stands sponsor, has received the thirty- second degree of the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite in the time-honored Masonic fraternity, and is affiliated also with the Knights of Pythias.

At Leavenworth, Kansas, on the 6th of June, 1877, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Braidwood to Miss Josie A. Warner, who was born at Delavan, Tazewell County, Illinois, on the 10th day of July, 1855, a daugh- ter of Alexander and Almira (Dossett) Warner, the former a native of England and the latter of Illinois. Mrs. Braidwood received a collegiate education and for three years rrior to her marriage she was a successful teacher in the pioneer schools of Crawford County, Kansas. She died in the City of Leavenworth, that state, on the 12th of June, 1897, and of her two chil- dren the elder is living,-Thomas. C., who was born at Leavenworth, Kansas, September 3, 1878, and resides at Beaver, Oklahoma. He married Miss Edith Hoover, a native of Kansas, on the 10th of April, 1913. Lottie, the younger of the two children of Thomas P. and Josie A. (Warner) Braidwood, was born November 26, 1880, and died in infancy.

LEWIS M. SPENCER. A well known citizen of Cana -. dian County and an influential and honored resident of the thriving little City of Yukon, Mr. Spencer is specially entitled to recognition in this publication, as he figures as one of the founders and builders of the attractive town in which he maintains his home and in the original plat- ting of which he was associated with his brother, A. N. Spencer.

Mr. Spencer reverts to the fine old Buckeye State as the place of his nativity and is a scion of one of its" pioneer families. He was born at Wilmington, Clinton County, Ohio, on the 17th of April, 1842, and is one of the four sons born to Mahlon and Mary Ann (Little) Spencer, who removed from Ohio to Montgomery County, Illinois, in an carly day and became pioneers of the latter state, where the father engaged in farming, both he and his wife having continued their residence in Illi- nois until the time of their death. He whose name initiates this review was a child at the time of the family removal to Illinois, and in Macoupin and Mont- gomery counties he was reared to maturity under the con-

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ditions and influences of the pioneer days, his early educational advantages having been limited to a some- what desultory attendance of the winter sessions in a primitive log school-house of the type common to the locality and period. As a young man in 1860 he went to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where Capt. W. Kuott Little, a brother to his mother maintained his home. As a valiant soldier in the Confederate service he took part in the great conflict, and after the close of the war he made his way to Texas, where he gained practical ex- perieuce in the herding of cattle ou the great open ranges. From the Lone Star State he and his brother, A. N., who is now deceased, had occasion to drive cattle through what is now the State of Oklahoma, and in so doing they made their first visit in the vicinity of the present Town of Yukon, of which they were the founders. A. N. Spencer later became associated with the construction of the Choctaw Railroad, the line of which is now a part of the Chicago & Rock Island system, and on this early railway he became the founder of the Village of Yukon, in association with his brother Lewis M., of this sketch. The two brothers laid out the vil- lage and were the most influential factors in bringing about its development and upbuilding into one of the attractive and prosperous municipalities. of the present State of Oklahoma. Lewis M. Spencer has maintained his home at Yukon since 1891, and is locally referred to, with all of appreciation, as the father of the town. He and his brother obtained four quarter-sections of land, and on this tract laid out the town, and built the railroad and to the development of which they vig- orously applied themselves, their effective efforts having resulted in gaining to the new town an excellent class of enterprising citizens. Lewis M. Spencer has erected many houses in Yukon and has sold them on easy terms, thus enabling numerous families to obtain desirable homes. During all the years of his residence at Yukon he has here been a prominent and successful representa- tive of the real-estate business, in the handling of both farm and town property, and with characteristic pro- gressiveness and civic loyalty he has contributed liberally to the erection of church edifices and parsonages, and to the support of religious, educational and other agencies that ever conserve the best interests of the community. His success has been won by earnest and worthy effort, he has guided his course on a high plane of integrity and honor, and none of the sterling pioneers of Canadian County has more secure place in popular confidence and esteem than does this generous and public-spirited citi- zen.

Mr. Spencer has been closely identified with the de- velopment of the admirable agricultural resources of his home county, and at the Louisiana Purchase Exposi- tion, in the City of St. Louis, he won a bronze medal for his exhibit of coru raised by him and pronounced the best exhibited at that great exposition. He has won also other prizes on corn and cotton exhibited by him at fairs conducted by both state and county agricultural societies. Yukon is located on a beautiful high site fifteen miles west of Oklahoma City, fourteen miles east of El Reno, three miles south of the North Canadian River and twelve miles north of the South Canadian River. It consists mostly of dark rich valley soil under- laid with oil and gas, and raises most any kind of produce in abundance. To the investor Yukon offers the largest revenue on the investment, the demand for houses at a good rental, with a low taxation and small capital invested, insures the investor a good net gain on his investment.

On September 13, 1874, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Spencer to Miss Mary J. Siceluff, the only child

of sterling German parents, and the one child of this union is Claudia, who is now the wife of Elmer E. Kirk- patrick, of Oklahoma City.

ROBERT C. WHINERY. Owner and editor of the Tonkawa News, Robert C. Whinery is one of the suc- cessful newspaper men of Oklahoma. To journalism he has brought the talents which would have enabled him to succeed in lines of business much more remunera- tive, and for many years has been through all the grades of service in the fourth estate, from printer and reporter to editor, and from a salaried position to independent publisher.

In many ways the Tonkawa News has a distinctive position in Oklahoma newspaperdom, and is acknowledged to be one of the brightest and most enterprising journals in the northern part of the state. It is now issuing the numbers of its eighteenth volume, and was established at Tonkawa in 1898 by Thomas Fry, now a resident of Wichita, Kansas. The paper is maintained inde- pendently so far as politics is concerned, and is first and last a strenuous advocate of everything that is good for Tonkawa and vicinity, whether in business, civic improvement, the elevation of schools and churches, or anything else that will make it a better town to live in. Mr. Whinery has a well equipped newspaper office and plant, with linotype, modern presses both for newspaper printing and job work, and is a man of broad experience both in the mechanical and editorial branches of his profession. For eleven years he has been identified with newspaper work in Oklahoma, having come to the terri- tory in 1904. He brought the first linotype machines into Shawnee, Oklahoma, and for one year was connected with Charles Barrett on the Shawnee Herald. They conducted a live wire newspaper during the territorial days, and the Herald was a power both in politics and in general affairs. Mr. Whinery was associate editor with Mr. Barrett on the Herald. Later he removed to Tonkawa and bought the plant of the News, and has since developed this paper with a large circulation throughout Kay and adjoining counties.

Robert C. Whinery was born in Wilmington, Clinton County, Ohio, and is of Quaker parentage, a son of Isaialı and Hannah Whinery. His father is of Irish stock, and made a creditable record for himself and his descendants as a soldier in the Union army. He is now living at Pleasanton, Kansas, at the advanced age of eighty-four years. The mother died in 1906, aged sixty-eight. She was a native of Virginia, her parents being of the F. F. V. There were six children, four sons and two daughters.

Mr. Whinery received his early education in a little Quaker school in Ohio. His university career began with his entrance into a printing shop at the age of fifteen in the lowly capacity of a devil. He learned everything about printing and newspaper business that could be learned in the shop of the Pleasanton Observer, and then went to Kansas City, where he had a more metropolitan training and experience. For a time he was on Colonel Van Horn's republican paper, the Kansas City Journal, and also with the Kansas City Star under Colonel Nelson. One of the editors under whom he worked was the noted William Allen White, the great Emporia editor, author and statesman. He finally resigned and moved to Shaw- nee, Oklahoma, as already mentioned.

At Pleasanton, Kansas, in January, 1893, Mr. Whinery married Miss Mamie Latimer. Mrs. Whinery is a woman of education and culture, was educated in Park College in Missouri, and was a successful teacher before her marriage. Her parents were James and Elizabeth (Hart- ford) Latimer, her father having been a professor in Knox College in Illinois. Mr. and Mrs. Whinery have three children: Marie Elizabeth and Esther, students

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at the State University at Norman; and Robert C., Jr., now nine years of age.

Mr. Whinery in politics has always been a republican. He has been honored with the office of mayor, and is a hard and independent worker for anything that will bring welfare to his community. His associates speak of him as a man of decided conviction, and always ready to take a firm stand on a platform of right and justice. He is a member of the Masonic Order, being a past master of the lodge, and of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and his family worship in the Presbyterian faith.

AARON DRUMRIGHT. Only to few men can come such distinction as that which has made Aaron Drumright the father of a city of fifteen thousand people, which bears his name, and which is now considered one of the great -. est oil centers in the world. Drumright was worthily named. It was an honor fitly bestowed. Mr. Drumright was not only the fortunate possessor of a large acreage in Creek County which was underlaid by unusually rich deposits of oil and gas, but he had the public spirit, the business. enterprise and the management which enabled him to make the best of these resources not only for him- self but for the thousands of others who have since con- gregated around the site of his original homestead. The people of Drumright, both the old and new settlers, say that no one individual has done quite so much in a public spirited and liberal fashion for the upbuilding of the little city than the man for whom it was named.

It is also unusual to discover that Mr. Drumright is a very young man in spite of his wealth and position. He was born at West Plains, Howell County, Missouri, June 22, 1883. His parents were R. F. and Eliza Ann (Hatcher) Drumright, his father having been born in Tennessee in July, 1854, and his mother in Northern Mis- souri. The mother died at West Plains at the age of forty in May, 1896. The father spent about forty years on the old homestead at West Plains, but for the past five years has had his home in Oklahoma. In 1910 Aaron and his brother Otto traded their father's old place for a farm in Oklahoma. Aaron Drumright is one of a family of nine children, six of whom are still living, three sons and three daughters: Aletta, wife of Edward Sparks of Douglas County, Missouri; Viola May, wife of Preston Hesterly, and she is now deceased, while Mr. Hesterly was county clerk of Douglas County, Missouri, and later became a physician in Oklahoma; Otto is a farmer at Bristow, Oklahoma; Aaron is the fourth in order of age; Everett lives in Kansas; Arthur died at the age of three years; Lina married Henry Bridges of Kansas; Gertrude is the wife of Frank Nasworthy of Bristow, Oklahoma; and Eliza is now deceased.

The first sixteen years of his life Aaron Drumright spent on the old farm. His experiences have led him into Kansas, Oklahoma and Arkansas, and especially in earlier years he earned his bread by the sweat of his brow. He worked as a roustabout on railroads and with carpenter contractors until twenty-three, and then located near Cushing, Oklahoma, where in 1905 he married Miss Mary Ryan. She was born in Iowa, daughter of Dennis Ryan.

After his marriage Mr. Drumright began farming on leased Indian lands, and kept that up for five years. His efforts were successful, and at the end of five years he had twenty-eight hundred dollars to show for his work and management. He had begun with a minimum of capital, though he possessed the strength and industry and determination which enable a man to succeed in anything he undertakes. At the opening of the Cheyenne River and Standing Rock Indian Reservation in South Dakota he registered and drew Lot No. 1,750, which

brought him a claim near Isabelle, South Dakota. He proved up and kept the claim for two years, then sold, and returning to Oklahoma located on the present site of Drumright in November, 1911. Here he bought 120 acres of land from B. B. Joues, paying fifteen dollars an acre or $1,800 for the entire tract. This has been his home and the scene of his fortunate operations down to the present time.

About the time Mr. Drumright bought his land B. B. Jones and T. B. Slick were drilling for oil two and a half miles northeast, at what is known as the old Tiger well. After the well was brought in it averaged a pro- duction of thirty-five barrels per day. There was no pipe line which could take the oil to market, and consequently the well was plugged. Other wells were brought in in that territory, and during 1912 Mr. C. B. Shafer put down the first well on Mr. Drumright's land, which struck oil in September, 1912. Then followed the great rush which has since made Drumright the largest active pro- ducing center for oil in the country. Nine wells were sunk on the 120 acres by C. B. Shafer, and one of them proved to be a gas well. Five of these wells averaged 250 barrels per day.

It was in July, 1912, that the first tent was set up on Mr. Drumright's farm at the southwest corner. It was used as a boarding camp, and quickly around it sprang up others, and in February, 1913, Mr. Drumright had the land surveyed and sold as lots. At the present time the entire farm of 120 acres is platted and nearly all of it sold. About one-third of the City of Drumright is on Mr. Drumright's old farm. As soon as the camp was formed a postoffice was required, and Mr. Drumright took a petition from one rig to another and secured suffi- cient signatures in order to get this branch of the service from the Federal Government. When it came to select- ing a name for the office there was general suggestion and approval of the name of Mr. Drumright, and thus Drumright was put down in the directory of postoffices and as such the name will probably exist through all succeeding generations. It is interesting to note that the camp was first known as Fulkerson's Camp, because J. W. Fulkerson owned the south half of the town, but Mr. Drumright's interests and activities made him so popular a figure among the early comers that it was almost by unauimous choice that his name was selected for the name of the city.

In many ways he has been influential in helping for- ward every movement and institution in that locality. He was a member of the local school board in June, 1912, and served with the board until June, 1915. In that time he was largely responsible for the present splendid school system to be found in Drumright. At first the town had only one small building, with sixty pupils enrolled. Now there is a twelve-room stone building, a ten-room brick building, and a new high school building in course of construction that will cost $60,000. All this has been accomplished in about three years, and Drumright is not only a city of great natural com- mercial resources, but also a center of schools, churches, good homes and is rapidly progressing toward every other standard civic improvement. Mr. Drumright has . also served as treasurer of the township board. He helped to organize the first bank, known as the Drum- right State Bank, in 1914, and has since been its presi- dent. He gave his help toward organizing and main- taining the Commercial Club, of which he is treasurer. He is also city treasurer, and was president of the com- mittee that secured the construction of a branch of the Santa Fe Railroad to Drumright. Thus the future his- torian will find not only the fact that the town was named for him, but that his activities went into and helped to vitalize every local movement and improvement. In poli-

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ties he is a republican. He practically built the Methodist Episcopal Church of which he is an active member, and he is prominent in Masonry, being affiliated with the thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Consistory at Guthrie, and with the Mystic Shrine at Tulsa. He is also affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Modern Woodmen of America and the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. Mr. and Mrs. Drumright are the parents of four children: Everett, aged nine; Bessie, aged seven; Irene, aged five; and Fred Haskell, aged three.

JOHN O. SHAW. When, in 1915, John O. Shaw was appointed principal of the Frederick High School, an individual was chosen for that position who is eminently fitted by cdueation, training and experience to discharge its important Antics. His entire carcer has been devoted to teaching and has been one of steady and well-won advancement, until today he is one of the best known and most popular educators in this part of Oklahoma, where his labors have been prosecuted for the past five years.

John O. Shaw was born at Harrisburg, Boone County, Missouri, September 26, 1880, and is a son of J. W. and Mikired French (Woods) Shaw, and a member of a fam- ily that originated in Ireland and settled in Virginia probably before the War of the Revolution. His grand- father, John Wesley Shaw, was born in the Old Dominion and was an infant when taken to Missouri, where the family located among the pioncers. The grandmother, Mrs. Elizabeth Shaw, still makes her home near Higbee, Missouri, in advanced years. J. W. Shaw was born near Harrisburg, Missouri, in 1856, was reared to agri- cultural pursuits and has been engaged in farming and raising stock all his life. He is an active member of the Baptist Church, as is his wife, and their children were reared in that faith. Mrs. Shaw was born in Harris- burg, and has been the mother of three children : John O., of this notiec: W. A., who is engaged in banking at Colmbia, Missouri; and Robert H., a farmer and the owner of a property located near the old homestead in Boone County.

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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