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 73

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 73

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His public service makes his name notable in political annals of Oklahoma. He served as a member of the Territorial Legislature for two terms from 1891 to 1895, having taken his seat in the second year after the organization of the territory. The political history of Oklahoma during those trying first years after settle- ment should be read, as recounted on other pages of this publication, bearing the fact in mind that Mr. Wimberley was one of the most influential and active members of the State Legislature at the time. He was also a mem- ber of the board of regents at the Agricultural and Mechanical College from 1892 to 1894. During 1902-03 he was a member of the board of county commissioners in Caddo County. A fact that connects him especially with early political history is that he was a delegate to the first republican convention held in Oklahoma. This convention met at the old Town of Frisco in June, 1889, only a few weeks after the original opening. He was also chairman of the first republican convention ever held in Caddo County.

On January 1, 1890, he was married at Kingfisher to Miss Martha J. Gillam, who was born in Montgomery County, Indiana, in 1867, and was reared principally in that state. To their marriage have been born four chil- dren : Fern, who was born at Kingfisher June 18, 1892, is a graduate of the State Normal School at Edmond; Letha, born August 12, 1894, graduated from the Paw- huska High School and is now the wife of Frank Johnson of Oklahoma City; Jonnie Margaret, born in 1898, died

in 1903; Martha Alice was born at Pawhuska in 1907 is still in school. Mr. Wimberley also has a grandson named John A. Wimberley Johnson.

J. F. MCILHENY. Now one of Bartlesville's leading business men, Mr. McIlheny began his career many years ago as a telegraph operator. For about thirty years he was a private operator and secretary for the late Michael Cudahy, the Chicago packer and capitalist, and first came to Oklahoma as the representative of the Cudahy interests in the oil district about Bartlesville. Mr. McIlheny in recent years has been in business for himself and is now head of the firm of McIlheny & Thurman, insurance, surety bonds and loans.

J. F. McIlheny was born at Middletown, Ohio, Decem- ber 15, 1854, a son of R. K. and Sarah (Monfort) Mc- Ilheny. His father was a native of Pennsylvania, and the mother was born in Ohio but was reared and mar- ried in Pennsylvania. They lived for a number of years after marriage in Ohio, and about 1880 moved to Chicago, and in October, 1903, came to Bartlesville, Oklahoma. J. F. McIlheny was their only child and his parents lived with him for many years. The father died at Bartlesville in April, 1904, and the mother on Novem- ber 5, 1913. At his death he was eighty-two years of age and she was in her eighty-sixth year. While a resi- dent of Ohio he had followed the grocery business.

Mr. McIlheny left school and took up practical work at the age of sixteen, when he learned telegraphy and was soon employed in the regular service. For several years he was train dispatcher on the Big Four Railway at Cincinnati, and then went to Chicago as a private operator for Michael Cudahy. The Cudahy interests sent him to Oklahoma as purchasing agent and later as local manager in the oil fields. He continued one of the active and trusted lieutenants of the Cudahy people in Okla- homa from 1903 to 1908, when the Cudahys sold their holdings to the National Refining Company. Mr. MeIl- heny was in the service of Mr. Cudahy for more than thirty years and finally retired, going into business for himself. Since 1908 he has been in business for himself as a general insurance man and loan agent. He was first associated with H. C. Moore, but since December, 1911, has been at the head of the firm of McIlheny & Thurman, his partner being F. E. Thurman.

Mr. MeIlheny has been one of the men of affairs at Bartlesville since the early days, and served two terms on the city council when Bartlesville was a small town. During territorial days he was a member of the Re- publican County Central Committee. He stands high in Masonic circles being affiliated with the Blue Lodge, Royal Arch Chapter, Knights Templar Commandery, Eastern Star Chapter, and the Mystic Shrine, and is also a member of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. On April 24, 1886, Mr. McIlheny married Miss Anna Sneed, of Rushville, Indiana.

CLAUDE TILDEN SMITH. A lawyer who now enjoys a lucrative private practice in Beaver County, Claude Tilden Smith also distinguished himself by a vigorous administration as county attorney for two years, and is the recognized leader of the democratic party in Beaver County.

He is of an old Southern family, long represented in the State of Maryland. He was born at Wakefield, Mary- land, March 26, 1877, a son of James E. and Martha A. (Beach) Smith. His father was born July 17, 1850, at Warfieldsburg, Maryland, a son of James and Mary . (Harmon) Smith, who were natives of Maryland. James E. Smith during his younger years was a very active demo- cratic leader in Maryland, and held several state offices.

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HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA

He is now living at Westminster, Maryland. He mar- ried, April 16, 1876, Miss Beach, who was born August 3, 1849, at Leesburg, Virginia, a daughter of James and Elizabeth (Higdon) Beach, both natives of Loudon County, Virginia, and of prominent Virginia stock. Claude Tilden Smith was the oldest of five sons. The others were: Rozier Gormau, born in 1879 and died in 1880; Grover Roberts, born in 1884 and died in 1885; John Ray, born in 1886, died in 1903; and James E., Jr., who was born in 1891, was married in 1915 to Beulah Ogle, and now lives with his father. That the family has been strongly democratie in politics will be observed from the fact that several of the sons were named for some of the great leaders in that party during the last three or four decades.

Claude Tilden Smith was given a liberal classical edu- cation at Western Marylaud College iu Westminster, where he graduated A. B. with the class of 1896. He took up the study of law at first under Judge James A. C. Bond and later under Reifsnider & Reifsuider at Westminster for three years. His preceptors subse- quently. filled places on the bench. He was admitted to practice before the Court of Appeals of Maryland on October 14, 1899. He soon had a promising law practice in his native state, aud in 1903 was appointed examiner in equity causes for Carroll County, and in 1908 held office as city solicitor for Westminster. He resigned these positions June 26, 1909, on his removal to Beaver, Oklahoma.

At the present time Mr. Smith is state committeemau in the democratic organization from Beaver County. In 1910 he was the nominee of his party for county attorney, and in 1912 was again nominated and this time elected, leading his ticket. He remained in the office two years, but in his third campaign was defeated, largely on account · of the fact that he had shown an unusual ability and fearlessness in the vigorous enforcement of all laws and the additional fact that Beaver County has a republican majority. Since leaving office he has looked after the interests of an extensive private practice. He is affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Knights of Pythias.

On June 12, 1907, at Sparrow Point, Maryland, he mar- ried Miss Amelia E. Owings, who was born June 16, 1884, at Cockeysville, Maryland, a daughter of Perry Thomas and Margaret Stuart (Watson) Owings, the former a native of Baltimore County, Maryland, and the latter of England. Mrs. Smith is a descendant in the maternal line from the royal family of Stuarts of Eng- land and Scotland, and another branch of her ancestry was the fighting Mckays of Scotland. Daniel Henry Stuart Mckay, her grand-uncle, was the grand master of the Orange Society in the counties of Antrim and Londonderry, Ireland, for a number of years. Mr. and Mrs. Smith have four children, two sons and two daugh- ters, namely: James Owings, boru June 5, 1908; Claude Tilden, Jr., born September 22, 1909; Martha Amelia, born December 26, 1911; and Elizabeth Stuart, born December 1, 1913. The three youngest children were born in Beaver, Oklahoma.

While a resident of Maryland Mr. Smith took a very active part in military affairs. He was the organizer of Company H, First Maryland Infantry, Maryland National Guard, and he resigned from the office of captain when he came to Oklahoma.

VIRGIL F. CARLETON. Of the men who are lending practical encouragement to the industries and institu- tions of Custer County, few are contributing in more helpful degree to the general progress and advancement than is Virgil F. Carleton, who is engaged in the real

estate aud insurance business at Clinton. A resident of the county since 1897, and during a large part of this time engaged in farming operations, he is thor- oughly conversant with values, and in several positions of public trust has evidenced the possession of traits which have made his reputation firm in the community.

Mr. Carleton was born on a farm in Ray County, Mis- souri, February 5, 1875, and is a son of L. M. and Frances M. (Tunnel) Carleton. His grandfather was G. M. Carleton, a native of England who emigrated to the United States and settled first at Haverhill, Massa- chusetts, subsequently moving as a pioneer to Ray County, Missouri, where he passed his remaining years in the pursuits of the husbandman. L. M. Carleton was born in 1826, at Haverhill, Massachusetts, and was twenty-three years of age when the news of the discovery of gold in California reached his New England home. Contracting a severe case of "gold fever," he packed his belongings, took a ship around the Horn, and joined the adventurous souls who were laboring to secure the precious metal. After about four years of indifferent success as a miner and prospector, Mr. Carleton re- turned to the East, but after a short stay migrated to Ray County, Missouri, where he preempted a homestead of 160 acres. There he continued to follow the pursuits of farming and stock raising until his death, in 1876, winning success through his industry, integrity and in- telligent management. Mr. Carleton was a republican ; but not a politician. He married Miss Frances M. Tun- nel, who was born near Knoxville, Ray County, Missouri, who survives her husband and resides near Elk City, in Custer County. They were the parents of four children, namely : Alpha, who married W. C. Cowherd and resides on a farm in Custer County; L. M., who conducts the Fay Mercantile Company at Fay, Oklahoma; Virgil F .; and G. M., who lives on the old homestead in Ray County, Missouri.

Virgil F. Carleton attended the public schools of Ray County, Missouri, while assisting in the work of the home farm, and in order to further prepare himself for a commercial career took a course in the Lexington (Missouri) Business College, where he was graduated in 1896. In that year he returned to Ray County and again resumed farming, but in February, 1897, came to Washita Township, Custer County, Oklahoma, and, settling near Elk City, filed on a homestead of 160 acres, a tract of land which he still owns. He resided on this. farm until 1907, when he removed to Cliuton, Oklahoma, and first engaged in the cattle business, in addition to holding an interest in a planing mill, and in 1909 was elected mayor of Clinton, in which office he served dur- ing that and the following year. At the close of his term of office he embarked in the real estate and insur- ance business, a line in which he has continued to be engaged to the present time, having offices in the Jeter Building. As an official Mr. Carleton gave Clinton one of the best administrations which it has known, and while a resident of Washita Township he rendered excel- lent service as a member of the school board. He is a. democrat in his political views, but has not allowed party prejudices to interfere with the performance of the duties of citizenship. In business circles his name is an honored one, due to the straightforward and honorable manner in which his transactions have always been car- ried on. Mr. Carleton is well known fraternally, being a member of Clinton Lodge No. 339 of the Masonic Order; Clinton Lodge of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows; Elk City Lodge of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks; the Brotherhood of American Yeomen, and the Knights of the Maccabees.

Mr. Carleton was married in February, 1895, in Ray County, Missouri, to Miss Olga M. Smallwood, daughter

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of Dr. P. C. Smallwood, a practicing physician and surgeon of near Carpenter, Oklahoma. To this union there has been born one son, R. V., who is attending the public schools.

DAVID PRESTON PARKER is one of the acknowledged leaders of the Harper County bar, and for a young man has gone far in his profession, has accomplished a great deal in spite of difficulties and adversities which en- cumbered his early progress.

A North Carolina man by birth, he was born May 23, 1876, in a log house on a farm in Johnston County, a son of King Henry and Sarah Anne (Beasley) Parker. His father was of the Israel Putnam stock of New England- ers, but spent all his life in North Carolina. In 1905 he retired from his work as a farmer. He was born January 5, 1848, in Johnston County and died there March 27, 1911. In 1867 he married Sarah Anne Beasley, daughter of Enoch O. and Edith (Avery) Beasley, both natives of North Carolina. Mrs. Parker was born Oc- tober 8, 1851, in Johnston County. To the parents were born a large family of fourteen children, eight sons and six daughters. Nancy Anne, born in 1869, died in 1873 as a result of severe burns; Sarah Anna, born September 28, 1871, was married in 1908 to David T. Lunceford; James Daniel, born March 23, 1874; David Preston who is the fourth in order of birth; Mary Ella, born July 23, 1878, married in 1904 N. G. Rand; the sixth in birth, a daughter, died in infancy; Joseph P., born September 1, 1881; Edith Ellen, born September 20, 1883, was mar- ried in 1911 to P. A. Putnam who died in 1915; Geneva, born December 23, 1885, married in 1909 Henry L. Graves; Mordecai, born June 5, 1887, died December 26, 1897; Ezra, born July 4, 1889; Henry Almond, born December 18, 1891; and the two youngest, Nehemiah and Horace Virgilius, both died. in childhood.

David P. Parker spent his boyhood on a North Carolina farm. He grew up in a home of wholesome ideals but of limited comforts and few advantages except such as the members were able to secure for themselves. He at- tended the public schools in Johnston County, the Tur- lington Institute at Smithfield in that state, and was graduated with the class of 1900 and the degree A. B. from the State University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In 1901 he was given the degree of Master of Arts. He distinguished himself as an orator and debater while in university, and in 1900 won the Willie P. Man- gum medal for oratory, and was also one of the successful North Carolina debaters in the interstate debating con- test between North Carolina and Georgia. His scholar- ship standing while in university is well indicated by the fact that he is a Phi Beta Kappa, being a member of the Alpha Chapter of North Carolina. Though he was leader in school and university circles, he paid most of his way by teaching between terms. He was a teacher in the states of North Carolina and Texas from 1893 to 1909, held several superintendences in Texas and in 1907 was a member of the state board of summer normal exam- iners of Texas. In 1909 he removed to Oklahoma City, and on December 9, 1909, was admitted to practice by the Supreme Court at Guthrie.

In January, 1910, Mr. Parker located at Buffalo, Har- per County, and the favorable impression he created soon brought him a paying and profitable practice. The same year he located there he was nominated on the republican ticket and elected county attorney of Harper County, and was re-elected to the office in 1912. His administration was characterized by exceptional vigor and impartiality, but after four years of service he declined a third nomi- nation, and resumed the private practice of law, in which he is still engaged.

On July 30, 1905, Mr. Parker married at El Paso,

Texas, Miss Mary Louise Potts, daughter of Charles B. and Elizabeth (Shirley) Potts. Her father was born in England and her mother in Mississippi. Mrs. Parker was born April 7, 1880, in Parker County, Texas. To their marriage have been born three children. David Preston, Jr., born September 20, 1907; Elizabeth Shirley, born May 27, 1911; and Annette, born October 25, 1914. Mr. Parker is affiliated with the Knights of Pythias, and he and his family are members of the Presbyterian Church, of which he is an elder. He has been president of the Harper County Sunday School Association con- tinuously since 1911, and takes great interest in the work.

JOHN WILLIAMS DUKE, M. D. A widely known and prominent physician and surgeon of Guthrie, Dr. John W. Duke has practiced medicine in Oklahoma for many years and has been vitally identified with some of the larger movements connected with the public health of the state. He is also one of the most prominent Masons in the State of Oklahoma.

He was born at Scoby, Mississippi, June 5, 1868, and received his literary and professional education in his native state and in Tennessee and New York. In 1891 he graduated M. D. from the Memphis Hospital Medical College, and in 1893 received a diploma from the medical department of the University of New York. Since then he has been in active practice and most of his years have been spent in Oklahoma. He is a man of wide experience, of unusual natural gifts, and a natural leader in his profession.

From 1911 to 1915 Doctor Duke served as secretary of the Oklahoma State Board of Medical Examiners, and at the present time is state commissioner of health at Guthrie. He served that city as mayor from 1905 to 1907. For ten years he was surgeon-general of the Okla- homa National Guard.

Doctor Duke is a democrat. He took his first degrees in Masonry in Connecticut about 1896. In 1897 he became a Knight Templar in Shrine Commandery No. 8 at Middltown, Connecticut, and in 1900 completed the course of the thirty-two degrees of Scottish Rite at Guth- rie. In 1909 he was honored with the supreme thirty- third degree in Scottish Rite Masonry at the House of the Temple in Washington, D. C.

On January 30, 1901, in the State of Connecticut, Doctor Duke married Isabelle Perkins, daughter of Doc- tor Edward Perkins, of Wallingford, Connecticut.

WILLIAM R. BARRY, M. D. A forcible illustration of pluck and determination leading a man to success is found in the career of Doctor Barry of Bradley, who after completing a course in the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Mississippi set out without means to make his way through a medical school and establish himself in a profession. Probably nine-tenths of the successful business men of Oklahoma have won their way through adversity from the beginning of their education. Doctor Barry earned every dollar of the money that was required to complete his medical education.

Born at Oxford, Mississippi, January 8, 1867, he is the son of James J. and Margaret E. (Nichols) Barry. His father, a native of South Carolina, settled in Mis- sissippi in the early '30s, and in 1848, following the dis- covery of gold on the Pacific coast, went to the California mines, but returned before the outbreak of the Civil war to enter the Confederate army, in which he served three years, part of the time as a captain under Gen- eral Forrest. Captain Barry was a successful farmer before and after the war, and a well known man in his state. The grandfather of Doctor Barry was a slave owner and a prosperous South Carolina planter before the war.

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HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA

After completing a common school education in the public schools of Mississippi Doctor Barry entered the Agricultural and Mechanical College of that state, gradu- ating with the degree A. B., July 6, 1887. Later for one term he was in the Memphis Hospital Medical Col- lege at Memphis, Tennessee, and then used his acquired knowledge and skill to practice medicine as a necessary means of earning the money required for the completion of his training. He was given the degree Doctor of Medicine at Memphis in 1889, and began his regular practice in his native state. He next removed to Camp- bell in Hunt County, Texas, remained there ten years, and in 1900 came to Bradley, Oklahoma, where he has since been in practice. Doctor Barry is a successful man from a professional standpoint, and his practice covers a large and fertile territory around Bradley. He is a member of the Grady County Medical Society, of the Oklahoma Medical Society, of the Southern Medical Society and the American Medical Association. He has held the office of township treasurer in his county and as chairman of the board of education in his school district.

Doctor Barry was married in Hunt County, Texas, to Miss Maggie M. Phillips. They are the parents of four children: Lucile, Merle, Louise and an infant as yet unnamed. The oldest daughter, aged thirteen, has com- pleted the eighth grade in the Bradley public schools. A brother of Mrs. Barry is Ben F. Phillips, chief of police at Chickasha, Oklahoma. Doctor Barry is a member of the Presbyterian Church, and of the Masonic and Odd Fellows lodges, and is master of the former in Bradley. He is also a member of the Mutual Aid Society for Agriculture. Having been a factor in the promotion of such public enterprises and the establishment and bet- terment of public schools, highway building, town improvement, he ranks among the leading and most sub- stantial men in the eastern part of Grady County.

CORREL C. DEGRAW. The present court clerk of Beaver County, one of the most popular residents of that section of the state, is an original Oklahoma eighty- · niner, though he was only a child at the time. The De- Graw family settled in Kingfisher County, and its mem- bers have been closely associated with developments here for more than a quarter of a century. The DeGraw family came to Oklahoma from Kansas. Correl C. De- Graw was born in a stone house on a farm in Potta- watomie County, Kansas, July 26, 1879, a son of Byron and Anna (Bothsell) DeGraw. His father was born in 1847 in Iowa, a son of Joseph and Jane DeGraw, the former a native of Canada and the latter of Pennsyl- vania. Byron DeGraw has been a farmer all his life, combining that occupation with stock raising. He went from Iowa to Kansas in 1872, lived in Pottawatomie County a number of years, and in 1883 moved to Staf- ford County, where he was engaged in farming until the notable year of 1889. Though he was not a participant in the grand opening of Oklahoma, he arrived in August, about four months after the opening, and secured a tract of government land in Kingfisher County near the pres- ent City of Hennessey. That was his home for eight years, and he is now engaged in farming in Dewey County. Miss Anna Bothsell, whom he married in 1876, was born September 22, 1852, at Quincy, Illinois, a daugh- ter of Joseph Bothsell, also a native of Illinois. Mrs. DeGraw died August 17, 1897, at Hennessey, Oklahoma. There were seven children, four sons and three daughters, mentioned briefly as follows: Correl C .; Joseph Parks, born January 10, 1881, now a farmer in Beaver County; Guy, born August 20, 1884, a farmer in Blaine County, Oklahoma; Flossie, born December 23, 1887, married in

1903 John Dugan, and they now live in Blaine County; Ionia, born December 23, 1889, and died January 23, 1890; Bessie, born March 3, 1893, who was married in 1914, and lived in Kansas City, Missouri; Rector, born March 15, 1895, and now engaged in farming in Dewey County.

Correl C. DeGraw was ten years of age when he came to Oklahoma with his parents. His subsequent education was obtained from the public schools of Hennessey, and his early youth was surrounded by the conditions typical of an Oklahoma farm during the decade of the '90s. In 1904 Mr. DeGraw took the Civil service examination the Indian school service, and soon afterward was ap- pointed an industrial teacher at the Pierre Indian Schools in Pierre, South Dakota. He remained in that work in South Dakota for three years. In 1907, having returned to Oklahoma, he located at Beaver, and en- gaged in merchandising. In 1911 he bought a farm two miles north of Beaver, and that is where he now makes his home.

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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