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 75

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 75

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HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA

in the work of the Methodist Episcopal Church and in various charities. There are three children: Blanche, wife of John P. Cook, president of the Oklahoma State Bank of Enid; and Harold W. and Hazel K., the former a banker at Bisby, Oklahoma, and the latter of these twins being the wife of G. L. Levers, in the railway mail service with home at Tulsa.

MILO MELVILLE MACKELLAR, M. D. Nearly twenty years ago Doctor MacKellar was a regular graduate in medicine, but devoted nearly all the following four years to continued study and an experience which has greatly increased his qualifications for skillful and thorough practice. Doctor MacKellar has been in prac- tice in Oklahoma for the past fifteen years, and is now the leading physician and surgeon at Loveland, in Tillman County. He is also a leader in educational move- ments and popular in social and fraternal life.

Born in Fayette County, Iowa, December 28, 1874, Doctor MacKellar is a son of Peter MacKellar, and grandson of Hugh MacKellar, who was born in Invery Castle, Scotland, emigrated to America and lived for a time in the village where is now found the great city of Chicago, and subsequently was a pioneer blacksmith and farmer in the State of Iowa. Peter MacKellar was born in the State of Ohio in 1842, when a young man moved out to Highland, Iowa, was a farmer and stock raiser all his active career, and quite recently moved from Highland to Elgin, Iowa, where he is now liv- ing retired. In politics he is a republican and an active member of the Presbyterian Church. The maiden name of his wife was Samantha Moore, who was born in Ohio in 1858, and died at Highland, Iowa, in 1894. Her ancestors came from Ireland prior to the American Revo- lution, and for many years lived in Ohio. The children of Peter MacKellar and wife were: Orville W., who was graduated from the medical department of the Iowa State University in 1885, and is now practicing as a surgeon in Chicago; L. W., a farmer at Elgin, Iowa; Hattie, who lives with her father; Dr. Milo Melville; John D., who graduated from the medical department of the University of Illinois in 1900, is now a physician in Chicago, and is secretary of the General Medical College in that city.

Milo Melville MacKellar attended the public schools in Fayette County, Iowa, grew up on a farm and in 1894 was graduated Bachelor of Science from the Upper Iowa University at Fayette. With this substantial literary training he entered the College of Physicians and Sur- geons at Keokuk, Iowa, from which institution he obtained his Doctor of Medicine degree with the class of 1896. The years from 1896 to 1900 were spent in Chi- cago, where he practiced medicine and was also instructor of anatomy in the General Medical College, and almost continuously was pursuing post-graduate studies in the Chicago Policlinic.

From 1900 to 1903 Doctor MacKellar practiced at Cement, Oklahoma, was then at Tulsa, Oklahoma, up to 1907, and has since become established in a large prac- tice, both in medicine and surgery, at Loveland. He is a member of the Loveland School Board, and that is now one of the most important positions in the com- munity, since several districts have recently been con- solidated and plans and preparations are being made for the erection of a handsome new schoolhouse to serve this consolidated district. He is thus a member of the first board of education of Consolidated School District No. 5 in Tillman County. Doctor MacKellar is a mem- ber of the county and state medical societies and the American Medical Association, is a republican in politics, is master of Loveland Lodge No. 392, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, and a member of Frederick Chapter

No. 41, Royal Arch Masons, and of Frederick Council, Royal and Select Masters. He was formerly a member of the Modern Woodmen of America, the Knights of Pythias, the Order of Praetorians, and the Fraternal Order of Eagles. He also belongs to the International Travelers' Association of Dallas, Texas. On June 3, 1914, at Wichita Falls, Texas, Doctor MacKellar married Miss Jennie Huggins. Her father was the late J. H. Huggins, who at the time of his death was serving as president of the Loveland Farmers and Merchants State Bank.

ROMNEY E. JOHNSTON, M. D. Other men's services to the people and the state can be measured by definite deeds, by dangers averted, by legislation secured, by institutions built, by commerce promoted. The work of a doctor is entirely estranged from these lines of enter- prise, yet without his capable, health-giving assistance, all other accomplishment would count for naught. Man's greatest prize on earth is physical health and vigor: nothing deteriorates mental activity so quickly as pro- longed sickness, hence the broad field for human helpful- ness afforded in the medical profession. The successful doctor requires something more than mere technical train- ing, he must be a man of broad human sympathy and genial kindliness, capable of inspiring hope and faith in the heart of his patient. Such a man is he whose name initiates this article.

Dr. Romney E. Johnston, who has been a resident of Bridgeport, Oklahoma, since 1908, was born at Harrods- burg, Indiana, January 22, 1884. He is a son of A. H. and Debbie Jones (Morgan) Johnston, both of whom were born in the vicinity of Harrodsburg, the former in 1861 and the latter in 1859. A. H. Johnston is a farmer and stockman in Monroe County, Indiana, and he is a deacon in the local Methodist Episcopal Church. He and his wife are the parents of eleven children, brief data concerning whom appears in the sketch of Judge C. R. Johnston, of Caddo County.

To the public schools of Harrodsburg and Danville, Indiana, Doctor Johnston is indebted for his early edu- cational discipline. He attended the normal school at Valparaiso, Indiana, for one year, and in 1904 was matric- ulated as a student in the University of Louisville, in the medical department of which he was graduated in 1907, duly receiving the degree of Doctor of Medicine. While in the university he belonged to the Students' Club, of which he was a charter member. Doctor Johns- ton entered upon the active practice of his profession at Harrodsburg, Indiana, and remained there until May, 1908, which date marks his advent in Bridgeport, Okla- homa. Here he has built up a splendid medical and surgical practice and in addition to his professional work he owns and conducts the only drug store in this city. The doctor is a democrat in politics and although elected health officer he declined to serve in that capacity. He has been a member of the Bridgeport School Board for the past five years and in religious faith is Methodist Episcopal. He affiliates with Bridgeport Lodge, No. 229, Ancient, Free & Accepted Masons, of which he is master, and he formerly belonged to the Harrodsburg Lodge of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows.

December 14, 1909, in Edinburg, Indiana, was solem. nized the marriage of Doctor Johnston to Miss Helen San- burn, a daughter of William Sanburn, now deceased, a painter and decorator at Bloomington, Indiana. Doctor and Mrs. Johnston have two children: Frank Woodrow born April 4, 1912; and Maxiene, born September 4, 1914

WILLIAM TAYLOR. It has been but a matter of course that many of the older commonwealths of the Union have made valuable contribution to the citizenship of the

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HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA

vital new State of Oklahoma, and a representative farmer and progressive citizen of Pawnee County who claims the old Buckeye State as the place of his nativity and who is a scion of families early founded in the South, is William Taylor, the close of the year 1915 marking the twentieth year of his residence on his present well improved homestead, which is eligibly situ- ated in the vicinity of the Village of Jennings, in sec- tion 10, township 20, the place having been well improved by him and his son George A., now hav- ing charge of the practical operations of the farm, the income from which has in recent years been augmented by the extending of leases for oil development on the property. Mr. Taylor further merits special consider- ation by reason of having served as a valiant soldier of the Union in the Civil war, and in all of the relations of citizenship he has shown the same loyal spirit that thus prompted him to go forth in defense of the nation 's integrity.

William Taylor was born in Vinton County, Ohio, on the 21st of July, 1840, and though he is now venerable in years he retains much of his pristine physical and mental vigor and in the gracious evening of life enjoys the good health that marks the result of right living and right thinking. He is a son of Andrew and Sarah (Loving) Taylor, the former of whom was born in Green- brier County, West Virginia, on the 4th of February, 1813, his native state having at that time been still an integral part of Virginia, and his wife having been born within the limits of the latter state as at present constituted. Both were young at the time of the immi- gration to Ohio, he having been a young man at the time and having severed the home ties to cast his lot with the pioneers of the Buckeye State, while his wife had removed with her parents to that commonwealth, their marriage having been solemnized in Vinton County. In the autumn of 1841 Andrew Taylor removed with his family to Sycamore County, Illinois, and in 1843, he became one of the pioneer settlers in Keokuk County, Iowa, a section then on the very frontier of civilization. He became one of the early representatives of the agricultural and live-stock industries in the Hawkeye State, where he continued his residence for nearly half a century. In 1884 he and his wife removed thence to Oregon, and they passed the closing years of their lives at Drain, Douglas County, that state. Andrew Taylor devoted his active life to farming and milling, and though he was blind during the last sixty years of his life he was able to attend to business affairs and to supervise practical details of farm work, even as he had no difficulty in driving about with a team and unac- companied. He never swerved from his allegiance to the democratic party, and both he and his wife held membership in the Methodist Episcopal Church. Con- ceruing their children who attained to maturity the fol- lowing data are available: John is a resident of Oregon, in which state he established his home in 1862; the next in order of birth was William, subject of this review; Jame became the wife of Enos Rushton, and was a resident of Kansas at the time of her death; David died in the City of Los Angeles, California; Newton is a resident of Grand Junction, Colorado; and Mary Elizabeth is the wife of Mason E. Hindman, of Mount Idaho, in the State of Idaho.

William Taylor remained at the parental home until he had attained to his legal majority and in the mean- while not only gave effective aid in the work and man- agement of the home farm, but also made good use of the advantages afforded in the pioneer schools of Iowa, in which state he was reared to adult age.

At Fairfield, Jefferson County, Iowa, in September, Vol. V-17

1861, Mr. Taylor wedded Miss Martha Ann Woodward, who was born in Indiana, as were also her parents, Silas and Sarah (Leonard) Woodward, who established their home in Iowa when she was still a child, her mother having died in that state and her father having been a resident of Kansas at the time of his death and having been a pioneer farmer in both Iowa and Kansas.

Shortly after his marriage Mr. Taylor subordinated all personal interests and left his grieving but loyal young wife to tender his aid in defense of the Union. On the 9th of August, 1862, he enlisted in Company B, Nineteenth Iowa Volunteer Infantry, Harry Jordan having been captain of the company, and he continued in active service with this gallant command until the close of the war, his honorable discharge having been received by him in July, 1865. He participated in all of the many engagements in which his regiment was involved. He took part in the battle at Prairie Grove, Arkansas, in December, 1862, and also in the siege of Vicksburg and the siege of Spanish Fort, besides many minor engagements. He held the office of corporal during all but the first year of his service in the ranks and proved himself a faithful and gallant soldier, his record having been such as to reflect lasting honor upon his name.

After the close of the war Mr. Taylor resumed farm- ing operations in Wayne County, Iowa, until 1882, when he removed his family to Cloud County, Kansas, where he was a renter and where he continued successful opera- tions as an agriculturist and stock-grower until the autum of 1894, when he came to Oklahoma Territory and became one of the pioneer settlers of Pawnee County, where he has resided upon his present homestead since the spring of 1895, his energy and good judgment hav- ing been brought into effective play in the development and improving of the farm, which is now one of the valuable places of this section of the state.

Mr. Taylor has always exemplified the best type of loyal and public-spirited citizenship, is a stalwart demo- crat in his political proclivities, has been affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows for nearly half a century, and vitalized the more pleasing associations of his military career by his active affiliation with the Grand Army of the Republic, that noble organization whose ranks are being rapidly thinned by the one invincible foe, death. The first wife of Mr. Taylor did not long survive, as she was summoned to eternal rest in February, 1864, while he was still serving as a soldier of the Union. Their only child, William E., is now a resident of Minnesota.

On the 10th of September, 1865, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Taylor to Mrs. Eliza R. Ryckman, who was born in Indiana, and whose death occurred in Wayne County, Iowa, on the 9th of August, 1871. Of the three children of this union Rosa became the wife of W. A. Robertson, and her death occurred in Iowa, she having been survived by three children; Eli, the second child, is a resident of the City of Lewiston, Idaho; and Alva maintains his home at Concordia, Kansas.

On the 9th of December, 1873, Mr. Taylor contracted a third marriage, when Miss Malinda C. Chapman became his wife, she having been born in the State of Iowa, where her parents settled in the pioneer days. Mr. and Mrs. Taylor became the parents of eight children, of whom Arthur and Rena died in infancy; Sarah C. is the wife of Bert Hart, of Custer County, Oklahoma; Cora is the wife of Daniel Hart, of Drum- wright, Oklahoma; George A. has charge of the home- stead farm of his parents; Eva is the wife of John Miller, of Ellis County, Oklahoma; Nellie married Jay Hart; and Fay is the wife of Lemuel Sugg, of Okla- homa. Mr. Taylor has twenty-nine grandchidren.

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HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA

ORAN D. MCCRAY, M. D., holds prestige as one of the most skilled young physicians and surgeons in Caddo County, where he has been engaged in a general medical practice for the past decade. He now resides at Binger and here controls a large and lucrative patronage. The McCrays are of Scotch-Irish descent and trace their ancestry to the wealthy and noted family of that name at Hedges, Scotland. The first McCrays in America came hither in the early colonial days of our national history and settled in Virginia.

Doctor McCray was born at Putnamville, Putnam County, Indiana, November 23, 1874, and he is a son of George S. McCray and Mary Alice (Sellers) McCray, the former of whom was born in the old Hoosier State in 1851 and the latter in the same place in 1855. In 1882, about ten years after his marriage, Mr. McCray established the family home in Saline County, Missouri, where he was a farmer and stockman until his demise, at Marshall, that county, in August, 1906. He was an elder in the Presbyterian Church, was affiliated with the time-honored Masonic fraternity and in politics was a stalwart democrat. His wife, whose maiden name was Mary Alice Sellers, survives him and maintains her home at Marshall, Missouri. Mr. and Mrs. McCray had but one child, namely, Oran D., of this notice.

After completing the curriculum of the public schools of Marshall, Missouri, Doctor McCray was matriculated as a student in the Missouri Valley College, in which excellent institution he was graduated in 1897. He then attended the University of Missouri, at Columbia, for two years, at the end of which he entered the University Medical College, at Kansas City, Missouri, being gradu- ated in that institution in 1901, with the degree of Doctor of Medicine. Doctor McCray received his initial practice as a physician and surgeon at Carrolton, Mis- souri, where he maintained his professional headquarters for two years. In 1903 he came to Caddo County and for one year practiced at Anadarko, whence he removed to Binger, where he has since resided with the exceptiou of one year spent iu Clovis, New Mexico. His offices are on Elm Street and in connection with his life work he is a member of the Oklahoma State Medical Society, the Caddo County Medical Society and the American Medical Association. His political allegiance is given to the democratic party and in 1907 he was elected coroner of Caddo County and he held that office until it was abolished by the Legislature. He served for several years as health officer at Binger and in every way possible he contributes of his time and means to the general weal. He is a member of the Congrega- tional Church and affiliates with Anadarko Lodge, Ancient, Free and Accepted Masons. He is an ex-mem- ber of the following organizations: Independent Order of Odd Fellows, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, Brotherhood of American Yeomen, and the Ancient Order of United Workmen.

At Binger, in 1906, Doctor McCray was married to Miss Florence Risch, a daughter of William Risch, a retired business man at Binger. This union has been prolific of two children: George, born January 19, 1909; and Kenneth, born January 6, 1912.

PORTER T. RAGLAND. The experiences of Mr. Ragland as a pioneer of Oklahoma are not only interesting and serve to throw light on early conditions in the terri- tory, but are also instructive and encouraging to the ambitious youth of the present time. He lived in the territory under adverse and trying conditions but is the character of man who profits by experience and makes each obstacle only a stepping stone to higher and better things.

Born in Barren County, Kentucky, June 13, 1876,

Porter T. Ragland when a small boy came west with his father, driving overland to Southwestern Kansas, where the family lived for six years. Before leaving Kentucky he had attended one term of school and spent three terms at Springfield, Kansas. The Ragland home. in Kansas, established in 1884, was the first built in Seward County. In 1889 his father was one of the pioneers of the original Oklahoma Territory, and at the opening of public lands acquired town lots in Kiug- fisher. Later the family located on a farm immediately west of Oklahoma City, that farm being now included within the corporation limits. The elder Ragland later made the run into what was known as the Pottawotamie County, entering at Tecumseh, then into the Cheyenne and Arapaho Indian country through Cloud Chief, then into the Cherokee strip through Perry, and finally into the Kickapoo country. This probably establishes a record for entering public land areas opened to settle- ment such as few men in Oklahoma have equalled. Mr. Ragland's father is now living on a fine farm near the town of Harrah in Oklahoma County.

Porter T. Ragland, who was thirteen years old when he came to Oklahoma, attended one of the first public schools organized in Oklahoma County. It was taught by Mrs. B. F. Crozier in a ten by twelve room of her little home near Oklahoma City. There were no desks, and the pupils sat on rude benches. The next term of school he attended was taught by William Guernsey in his lit- tle home on the site of the present Washington School in Oklahoma City. The family then moved to a farm six miles northwest of the city, and while there he at- tended school two years more, equipping himself for teaching and receiving his first certificate at the age of seventeen, For a number of years Mr. Ragland followed teaching as a profession and there are many men and women in Oklahoma who sat under his instruction and have grateful memories of his schoolmastership. His first school was in the Pleasant Hill district six miles south- east of Edmond during the year 1894-95. The salary paid him, $28.00 a month, was the highest given to any teacher in the rural district at that time. Subse- quently he taught two terms twenty miles east of Purcell in a log building. This building was 20 by 24 feet, there was no chinking between the bare logs, and humble and rude though its accommodations were the school had an enrollment of 114 pupils. O. G. McGehee, treasurer of the board of education of the district, was one of his pupils, and twenty of the scholars were older than the teacher. During the summer following the second term Mr. Ragland attended a business college in Oklahoma City, following which he taught three terms in the Star district of the former Kickapoo Indian country. This was followed by a term at Harmony and for three years he was superintendent of schools at Harrah. In 1904 Mr. Ragland was nominee of the republicau party for county superintendent of schools, and was defeated by Laura Whistler, the democratic nominee, by 156 votes.

About that time he made up his mind to leave educa- tional work and establish himself in some permaneut business or profession. With that object in view in 1905 he entered the School of Pharmacy of the Uni- versity of Oklahoma, and was graduated June 13, 1907. Four days later he found himself in the employ of the Carson Drug Company at Tecumseh. On June 17, 1909, Mr. Ragland, with his wife, his baby, fifty cents in money and a bull dog, entered the drug business in Harrah. Six years have passed, and in that time he has built up a profitable business. His is the only drug store in the town, and the stock is as large, varied and up to date as can be found in any other store in towns of the same size in Oklahoma. Mr. Ragland celebrated a quarter

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century 's continued residence in Oklahoma in the Thanks- giving season of 1915, and during all that time he has never crossed the state borders. During his residence at Harrah he served four and a half years as postmaster, and in 1915 was honored by election to the office of mayor. While in Tecumseh he was for one term police judge. As a citizen of Harrah he has been energetic, public spirited and progressive, and partially due to his efforts the town has one of the most modern brick school buildings found in any of the small towns of the state, constructed at a cost of $10,000.

In Oklahoma City, January 27, 1897, Mr. Ragland mar- ried Miss Clare House. Their two children are Oscar, aged fifteen, and Marguerite, aged three. Mr. Ragland has three brothers and one sister: E. E. Ragland, a farm- er living near Harrah; Neil Ragland, in the lumber and milling business at Arrow Springs, Colorado; E. M. Ragland, who lives with his father on the farm near Harrah; and Mrs. Ross Wood, of Oklahoma City. Mr. Ragland is a member of the Christian Church, is affiliated with Lodge No. 375, Ancient Free and Ac- cepted Masons, at Harrah, with the Modern Woodmen of America, and belongs to the Oklahoma Pharmaceutical Association. He is also president of the board of educa- tion of Harrah, a position for which his long experience as a teacher has given him eminent qualificatious.

C. A. FISHER. The career of C. A. Fisher is an expres- sion of practical and diversified activity, and in its range has invaded the realms of education, business, finance and politics, all of which have profited by the breadth and conscientiousness which are distinctive char- acteristics of his character and labors. Mr. Fisher came to Oklahoma with the opening of the Cherokee Strip, in 1893, and for several years was engaged as an educator, following which he spent several years in Texas in a business venture. Since 1900 he has been identified with financial affairs in Oklahoma, and has been a factor in the development of one of the soundest institutions of Kiowa County, the First National Bank of Gotebo, of which he is cashier.

Mr. Fisher belongs to a family which came to America during the seventeenth century from England and settled in North Carolina, from whence its members spread to various states in the South and Middle West. His father, James A. Fisher, was born in Ohio in 1840, and as a young man removed to Pine Valley, Warren County, Indiana, where he was married to Anna H. Bradley, who was born in 1844 at Winchester, Virginia. After many years passed in agricultural pursuits in the Hoosier state, Mr. Fisher removed to Seward County, Kansas, where he located on a farm in the vicinity of the village of Liberal, and there continued to be engaged in farm- ing and stock raising until his death, which occurred in 1893. Mrs. Fisher, who survives her husband, resides at Port Arthur, Texas, and is seventy-one years of age. During the Civil war, James A. Fisher joined the Union army, enlisting from Warren County, Indiana, in the 110th Regiment, Indiana Volunteer Infantry, with which he served three years, proving a faithful and valiant soldier. He was a lifelong member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, to which Mrs. Fisher still belongs. They became the parents of four children, as follows: C. A., of this review; Clinton, who was a stockman and farmer near Liberal, Kansas, and died at the age of twenty-seven years; L. B., who is a druggist and merchant at Port Arthur, Texas; and Mabel M., who is the wife of Eugene Davis, who is in the refining department of the Texas Refining Company, at Port Arthur.

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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