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 65

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 65

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

John O. Shaw attended the public schools of Harris- burg, and in 1901 was graduated from Columbia Normal College, with the degree of Bachelor of Arts. He had been reared to agricultural pursuits, but had decided upon a career as an educator in preference to farming, and soon secured a school in the country district of Boone County, where he continued to teach for five years, there gaining much practical experience of a valuable nature. Realizing the need for further preparation, Mr. Shaw then took a course of three and one-half years in the University of Missouri, and in 1910 came to Watonga, Oklahoma, where he became principal of the high school. After two years he was made city superintendent of schools there, and continued to hold that position nntil 1915, when he received the appointment as principal of the Frederick High School. At the present time he has under his charge six teachers and 150 pupils. While Mr. Shaw has held his present office only for a short period he has already demonstrated that he is a man who can accomplish things, and he has under way a member of plans which will elevate the high school system here. The favorable impression which he has created among teach- ers, scholars and parents indicates that he will be one of the most popular principals Frederick has known. Pro- fessor Shaw is a member of the Baptist Church, and is a pledge member of the Nu Beta Rho, an honorary Greek letter teachers' fraternity.

In 1905, Mr. Shaw was united in marriage at Harris- burg, Missouri, with Miss Bessie Blakemore, daughter of Allen Blakemore, a hardware merchant of Harrisburg. To this union there have come two children, namely :

Martha Vivian, who was born January 9, 1909; and Inda French, born June 26, 1912.

GEORGE II. HEALY. In point of continuous residence this honored member of the Beaver County Bar is to be consistently designated as the oldest citizen of the county, and in addition to this interesting feature of pioneer prestige he holds secure place as one of the representative members of the legal profession in this section of the state, and as a citizen whose influence and co-operation have been potent in connection with civic and material progress in western Oklahoma. He is engaged in the practice of his profession in the Town of Beaver, the county seat, has held various offices of distinctive public trust, including that of county judge, and became a resident of what is now the State of Oklahoma more than thirty years ago, so that he gained varied experience in connection with frontier life in old Indian Territory.

Judge Healy is a scion of a New England colonial family of English lineage and personally takes due pride in adverting to the old Pine Tree State as the place of his nativity. He was born in the Village of China, Kennebec County, Maine, on the 30th of May, 1857, and is a son of William H. and Ellen (Breck) Healy, both likewise natives of that state. Reared and educated in Maine, William H. Healy achieved success and prominence in New England as a tanner and an ex- porter and importer of leather and hides. He developed an extensive business, in connection with which he maintained tanneries and warehouses both in Boston and New York. His operations in this field of enterprise continued until 1875, when he removed with his family to Texas, where he engaged in the cattle business on a large scale, besides which, in line with his former busi- ness activities, he developed a proseprous business in the buying of furs from Indians and white trappers in Dakota Territory, his activities in this direction con- tinuing from 1875 to 1879 and both of his business ventures in the West having proved very successful.

In 1878 William II. Healy established a cattle ranch in the western part of Indian Territory,-in the neutral strip commonly designated as No Man's Land and later included in Beaver County. He continued the handling of cattle upon an extensive scale on the great open ranges of Texas and Indian Territory until his death, which occurred in 1883, and he became widely known throughout the Southwest, both as a business man of great energy and ability and as a citizen of sterling character. His marriage to Miss Ellen Breck was solemn- ized in his young manhood, and his wife was summoned to eternal rest in 1867, while the family home was still maintained in the East. Of their six children the first born, a daughter, died in infancy. Caroline E., who was born in 1843, has never married and maintains her home in the City of Springfield, Massachusetts. William H., Jr., who was born in 1845, attained to distinction as one of the representative lawyers in the city of Bos- ton and there his death occurred in 1897. Frank D., who was born in 1847, served as sheriff of Beaver County, Oklahoma Territory four years, his term having been initiated in 1894, and in 1897 he was appointed Register of the United States Land Office at Woodward, Okla- homa, a position which he retained until his death, in 1902. He established his residence in Indian Territory in 1878 and here was associated with his brother George H., of this review, in the cattle business in the early days. In 1866 he married Miss Frank B. Dow, likewise a native of China, Maine, and they are survived by three children, William, Charles and Dole. He became prominent in publie affairs and political matters in

1981

HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA

Oklahoma Territory, and was a stalwart advocate of the cause of the republican party. Nathaniel G., who was born in 1849 and who remains a bachelor, is now a resident of the City of Los Angeles, California.

George H. Healy, the youngest of the children, was graduated in an excellent private school in the city of Boston when he was seventeen years of age, and he accompanied his father on the removal to Texas, in 1875, so that virtually his entire mature life has been passed in the Southwest, where his memory links the pioneer past with the present-day era of opulent progress and prosperity, it having been his privilege to contribute a due quota to the march of advancement along both civic and industrial lines. Mr. Healy came to Iudian Territory in 1880, and during the long interveuing years he has maintained his home within the borders of what is now the vigorous young State of Oklahoma. He was early associated with his brother Frank iu establishing a cattle ranch in the old Neutral strip in which the present Beaver County is included, and this ranch was situated on Beaver Creek, its operatiou having been continued by the brothers until the opening of Oklahoma Territory to settlement.

In 1890 Judge Healy was elected the first treasurer of old Beaver County, which then included also the present counties of Texas and Cimarron, and for eight years prior to the admission of Oklahoma to statehood he served as a member of the Republican Central Com- mittee of the Territory, his vigorous and effective co- operation having been fruitful in the advancing of the party cause during the territorial days as well as under the later regime of state government. A man of broad intellectual keen and mature judgment, Judge Healy finally gave careful attention to the study of law until he had fortified himself well in accurate knowledge of the science of jurisprudence, and in 1900 he was admitted to the Oklahoma Bar. He soon afterward engaged in the practice of his profession at Beaver, his attention being given to his substantial law busiuess until his election to the bench of the County Court of Beaver County, on which he served four consecutive years, 1910-14. Since his retirement from the bench Judge Healy has continued in the active work of his profession at Beaver, where he controls a large and representative law business and is known as one of the leading members of the bar of Beaver County.

In the City of Emporia, Kansas, on the 5th of No- vember, 1890, was solemnized the marriage of Judge Healy to Miss Lydia Savage, who was born at Virginia, Cass County, Illinois, ou the 23d of August, 1870, and who is a daughter of John W. and Caroline M. (Springer) Savage, the former of whom was born in Illinois, in 1838, and the latter in Pennsylvania, in the same year, she being now a resident of Beaver, Okla- homa, her husband having died at Emporia, Kansas, on the 20th of May, 1891. Judge and Mrs. Healy have but one child, Ledru Rollin, who was born in Beaver County, Oklahoma, on the 9th of August, 1891, and who was afforded the advantages of the Kansas State Agricultural College, at Manhattan, and of the Wesleyan Business College, at Saline, that state. He is now one of the representative young members of the bar of the City of El Paso, Texas.

P. L. Bucy. Since 1902 Mr. Bucy has been one of the active oil producers in the Kansas and Oklahoma Territory. For the past ten years he has lived at Bartlesville, and has not only been an operator in oil but is also the principal real estate man at Bartlesville, and head of the P. L. Bucy Realty & Investment Com- pany. His active carcer began when he was still a boy,

and he has lived in a number of the states of the Mis- sissippi Basin.

P. L. Bucy was born at St. Mary's, West Virginia, September 3, 1878, a son of Alexander and Jauet (Prunty) Bucy. His father was born in Steubenville, Ohio, February 4, 1833, and his mother at St. Mary's, West Virginia, in November, 1838. They were married at Steubenville, and the father died at Williamstown, West Virginia, November 4, 1908. The mother and one of her daughters now reside with Mr. Bucy at Bartles- ville. The father was a soldier of the Uniou army, and at the beginning of the war enlisted in Company A of the Twenty-second Ohio Infantry, and after three years veteranized and continued until mustered out with an honorable discharge at the close of the war. He was engaged in coal mining until 1876, and thereafter was a farmer.

P. L. Bucy was the fifth in a family of nine children, and spent the first eighteen years of his life with his parents in West Virginia. After the age of fourteen he left school and became a worker, living at home but earning his own support. When eighteen he went to Steubenville, Ohio, and became a contractor. That was his business there until the age of twenty-two, and the following year he spent in the same business at St. Louis. Mr. Bucy then became identified with the Iron Mountain Railroad Company in construction work with headquarters at Pittsburg, Mississippi.

On April 5, 1902, he left Pittsburg and entered the oil business with headquarters at Pittsburg, Kansas. From there he came to Bartlesville in 1905, and has since done a great deal of drilling and producing in the Bartlesville field. He has organized a number of cor- porations under the laws of different states and has dealt extensively in real estate, farm lands, oil lands and city property in Ohio, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Kansas, Missouri and Oklahoma. The P. L. Bucy Realty & Investment Company is a co-partnership, and the largest concern of its kind in Bartlesville. It has extensive oil holdings in Oklahoma.

Mr. Bucy is a republican and was defeated by ouly thirty-three votes in the primary election of 1914 for the Legislature. He is a member of the First Baptist Church of Bartlesville and of the Benevolent aud Pro- tective Order of Elks. As a citizen he has worked effectively to prevent vicious legislation in land title laws, and has been engaged in considerable litigation. Some of his cases have beeu carried to the Supreme Court, and he is known as one of the most vigorous fighters for justice, but always contending for fair and honorable principles.

J. A. JONES, M. D. The senior member of the medical profession at Tonkawa is Dr. J. A. Jones, who has been in active practice there for the past fifteen years, aud who in that time has seen mauy physicians come and go, and now, in point of continuous service, is the oldest doctor in that community. His success has been in pro- portion to his long residence, and he is known all over Kay County as a successful physician and a public- spirited man.

In 1900 Doctor Jones graduated from medical college, and in the same year moved from Northeastern Missouri to Oklahoma and began practice at Tonkawa. He was born in Northwestern. Indiana on a farm ncar Val- paraiso in January, 1874. His father, George W. Jones, was a substantial farmer and stockman, had made a record as a soldier in the Union army during the Civil war, and is now living retired at the age of seventy-seven in Tonkawa, Oklahoma. The mother, whose maiden name was Elizabeth Peterson, is now deceased.

One of a family of four children, Doctor Jones grew

e n

F e

1982

IHISTORY OF OKLAHOMA

up on a farm, and from his early experiences in the country gained the rugged constitution which has served him so well in his arduous practice as a physician. He attended public school in Valparaiso, also the Western College of La Belle, Missouri, and afterwards paid his way for several years as a teacher. His work as a teacher was done in Missouri, and in the meantime he took up the study of medicine and finally secured his degree from a medical college. Doctor Jones is a student all the time, keeps in close touch with advance in the medical profes- sion by constant reading, association with other physi- cians, and possesses a fine library.

At Tonkawa, in 1902, he married Miss Myrtle Pep- pered. They have one daughter, Glayds, a bright girl of twelve years now attending school. Doctor Jones is a member of the County and State Medical societies, in Masonry has attained the thirty-second degree of the Scottish Rite, and is also an Odd Fellow. He has been prospered materially, resides in a comfortable seven-room cottage home at Tonkawa, furnished in excellent taste, and has considerable property both in the city and in Kay County. He has always manifested a public-spirited attitude toward local improvements, has performed his proportion of work in making Tonkawa a better place in which to live, and has contributed liberally to schools, churches and all local movements.

COL. A. H. NORWOOD. Forty-five years of residence and experience as a teacher, lawyer, newspaper man, merchant and in general business affairs and politics have given Colonel Norwood of Dewey many unique relations with the old Cherokee Nation and North- eastern Oklahoma. Among white men of prominence Colonel Norwood has lived in that section of Oklahoma longer than any other individual with the exception of N. F. Carr. Colonel Norwood is an authority on Cherokee history and has been both a witness and a participant in the progress and development of old Indian Territory from the time when there was not a railroad between Kansas and the Red River.

A. H. Norwood was born at Cleveland in East Tennes- see, November 17, 1850. His parents were P. W. and Isabella Ann (Cowan) Norwood, both natives of East Tennessee, where they lived until 1876, and then removed to Texas, where they spent the rest of their lives. P. W. Norwood was a farmer and while a resident of Tennessee held several county and state offices, and during the war was a captain and served as provost marshal in the Union army. His wife was a first cousin to Sam Houston, the great Texas statesman, her mother being Hattie Houston. The maternal grandfather was Andrew Cowan, who served as an officer in the War of 1812. P. W. Norwood was descended from John Norwood, who settled at Lyons Mills near Baltimore, Maryland, and he and five of his sons were soldiers in the Revolutionary war. He came from the north of England and was a Scotchman. Colonel Norwood was the oldest in a family of eight children, six of whom reached maturity and five are now living. All the children accompanied their parents to Texas with the exception of Colonel Norwood.

The first twenty years of his life he spent at the old home in East Tennessee and received his education at Flint Springs Academy and at Cleveland. He studied law with a member of the bar at Chattanooga.

Colonel Norwood came to the Cherokee Nation of old Indian Territory in 1870, and for six years was a teacher, first at Fort Gibson and for three years was connected with the Orphan Asylum of the Cherokees. From Fort Gibson he went to the Coo Wee Scoo Wee district, and located on the site of the present City of Claremore, where he combined the practice of law with merchandising. He established the Claremore postoffice,

at a time when mail was delivered only once a week and was carried by horseback. He was first postmaster, and gave the name to the office, since applied to the thriving little city. The name was given in honor of an old Osage chief. In 1881 Colonel Norwood became associated with Col. J. H. Bartles in the lumber and milling business, and they had common business relations more or less for fifteen years.

Soon after coming to Indian Territory Colonel Nor- wood became prominent among the Cherokees and for about twenty years was a member of the National Council of the Cherokee Nation. At different times he also served as secretary of both houses of the national Legislature and was one of the Cherokee officials that signed the patent for the lands now owned by the Osage tribes in Oklahoma. As a lawyer and representative of the Cherokee Nation he took an active part in the allotment of lands and has practiced largely before the interior department, a business which required his presence many times at Washington, D. C. He represented the Cherokees at Washington, and gave an active opposition to the bill for the original opening of Oklahoma Terri- tory, and subsequently became a vigorous antagonist of the separate statehood movement, working ardently for the single statehood cause which finally prevailed. He was formerly active in tribal politics and in more recent years has been a democratic leader in his part of the state. In 1914 and 1915 he was secretary of the county central committee, and at the present writing is colonel on the governor's staff. Under appointment from the Federal Government he served as first mayor of Clare- more, and by virtue of that office presided over the courts with jurisdiction similar to that of United States com- missioner, and on account of that service has been long familiarly known as Judge Norwood. He was also the first mayor of Chelsea.

Colonel Norwood has long been in the newspaper business, published papers at Claremore and Chelsea, and is now the owner and editor of the Dewey Globe, which he established. Colonel Norwood is said to know more people in the Cherokee Nation than any other citizen. By his long residence and associations and also by study he has become familiar with both the Delaware and Cherokee tribes historically and personally, and has known all the chiefs and officials of the Cherokees since the time of John Ross.

Colonel Norwood was the first man to organize an oil company for operations in Oklahoma. This was the Cherokee Oil & Development Company, instituted in 1889 and incorporated under the laws of Illinois. A number of St. Louis men were associated with him in that enterprise, and they drilled their first wells at Chelsea. For ten years Colonel Norwood was the legal representa- tive for Indian Territory of the Cudahy Oil Company, the first to develop the oil resources of Washington County and he secured many of the leases to the land on which they conducted their operations. During his residence at Claremore Colonel Norwood combined with his merchandising a business as buyer and shipper of stock. Along with his many other activities Colonel Nor- wood has constantly supported schools and churches and at different times has served on several local school boards and has helped to build several institutions in the old Cherokee Nation.

Colonel Norwood has been three times married. In 1872 Miss Alice R. Gourd became his wife. Her father was Judge Jackson R. Gourd, a prominent man in the Cherokee Nation. The mother and the one child of the union are both deceased. His second wife was Susie Love, a member of the Delaware tribe of Indians. She had an exceedingly fair skin, while Colonel Norwood's complexion is so dark that he would more readily have

A. H. NORWOOD

1983

HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA

been takeu for an Indian than his wife. There were two children by this union, and both are deceased, and their mother passed away in 1893. In 1904 Colonel Norwood married Ida M. Woodard, who was born in Indiana and was of Quaker parentage. Colonel Norwood can relate many interesting incidents in connection with Indiau life, customs, religion and traditions. He speaks and under- stands to some extent the Cherokee language, and has some knowledge of the languages of the other tribes. -

ANDREW HICKENLOOPER SMITH. By his enterprise Mr. Smith has contributed to the general commercial and business resources of the little City of Frederick, Okla- homa. He is now proprietor of the leading garage in that town, and for a number of years has been success- ful as a farmer and stock raiser in the same community.

Though born at Winamac, Indiana, September 15, 1878, lie belongs to an old Ohio family. The Smiths came originally from England, and his grandfather, Adolphus H. Smith, was born at Albany, New York, in 1809, and died on his farm at Enon, Ohio, in 1902, at the extreme age of ninety-three years. He was an early settler at Cincinnati, where he built up a large business as a dis- tiller. He was at Indianapolis, Indiana, soon after the establishment of that town and was a trader there in skins and furs and other merchandise. Mr. A. H. Smith acquired his middle name from a prominent Cincinnati business man, General A. Hickenlooper, who married Maria Smith, a sister of William H. Smith, the father of Andrew H. Smith. General Hickenlooper gained his rank and title by service in the Civil war in the Engineers Corps, and later became president of the Cincinnati Gas & Electric Company. William H. Smith, the father, was born at Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1842, and died at Enon, Ohio, in 1901. He grew up on the farm at Enon, lived for a time at Winamac, Indiana, and in 1879 returned to Cin- cinnati. He was a democrat in politics, a member of the Episcopal Church, and was affiliated with the Masonic fraternity. He married Camilla A. Rees, who was born at Cincinnati in 1849 and died in the same city in 1911. Andrew H. Smith is their only surviving child, the daugh- ter Laura having died in infancy.

After a high school education in Cincinnati, Andrew H. Smith took a course in Bartlett's Commercial College of that city in 1894, and for the next four years was a salesman in Cincinnati. Since then his time has been given almost entirely to farming and ranching in Ohio, Oklahoma and Arizona. He located at Frederick, Okla- homa, in 1906, and that has been his home with the exception of fourteen months during 1911-12 spent in Arizona. On coming to Southwestern Oklahoma he bought a farm nine miles southeast of Frederick com- prising 160 acres, and on that land has demonstrated some of the possibilities of his section for diversified farming and stock raising. It was on February 1, 1915, that he bought the garage situated on South Tenth Street in Frederick, and thus became proprietor of a well equinned and prosperous enterprise. The garage was established by I. W. Yancey in 1913. The building is 32x140 feet and furnishes storage for a number of cars, also facilities for repair work and the handling of auto- mobile accessories, and Mr. Smith has the local agency for the Overland cars.

An interested member of the Masonic fraternity, he is affiliated with Lodge No. 222, Ancient Free and Ac- cepted Masons, at Christiansburg, Ohio, and also with Frederick Chapter No. 41, Royal Arch Masons, with Frederick Commandery No. 19, Knights Templar, and with India Temple of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine at Oklahoma City. He also belongs to Harmony Chap- ter of the Order of the Eastern Star at Wilcox, Ari- zona. and to the Junior Order of the United American Vol. V -- 15

Mechanics at Hampton, Ohio. 'As a local business man he belongs to the Frederick Business Men's Association.

At Northampton, Ohio, in 1901, Mr. Smith married Miss Lola M. Freeze, whose father William Freeze is a farmer at Frederick. Mrs. Smith is a member of Har- mony Chapter of the Order of Eastern Star.

LEROY B. TOOKER. A popular and able young repre- sentative of the newspaper business in Western Okla- homa, Mr. Tooker is editor and manager of the Beaver Democrat, a well ordered weekly paper published at the county seat of Beaver County.

Mr. Tooker was born at Lawrence, MeHenry County, Illinois, on the 12th of July, 1888, and is a son of Benjamin F. and Mary L. (Palmer) Tooker. His father was born in 1840, in the State of Wisconsin, where his parents were pioneer settlers, and for many years he was a successful building contractor, a vocation which he continued to follow until 1907, when he came to the newly-organized State of Oklahoma and obtained a tract of Government land in Beaver County. This homestead, which he has developed into one of the well-improved and valuable farms of the county, is situated twenty-four miles southwest of Beaver, the county seat, and there he and his wife still maintain their residence, their marriage having been solemnized, in 1879 and Mrs. Tooker having been born in Pennsylvania, on the 8th day of July, 1842, her parents likewise having been natives of the old Keystone State. They have three children, of whom the subject of this review is the youngest, as is he also the only son: Lynnia Belle, who was born February 20, 1880, at Lawrence, Illinois, was united in marriage in 1911, to Hugh N. Robertson, and they reside in Beaver County, Oklahoma, their two chil- dren being Linden and Lillian; Georgia May, who was born in 1882, became, in 1899, the wife of Charles L. Munger, their home being in Beaver County, and they have five children,-Vernon, Harlan, Adrian, Kenneth and Lila.

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

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