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 76

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 76

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C. A. Fisher was born at Pine Valley, Warren County, Indiana, January 1, 1865, and was reared on his father's

farm, where he spent the summer months in assisting in its operation, while in the winter terms he attended the district schools. Later he supplemented this training by a course at Purdue University, Lafayette, Indiana, and on leaving that institution entered upon his career as an educator. For three years Mr. Fisher taught schools in various parts of Indiana, Missouri and Kansas, and in 1893, when the Cherokee Strip was thrown open, came to Enid, where he was appointed superintendent of schools. This office he retained for three years, as one of the popular and efficient instructors of the new country, but in 1896 he gave up the cap and gown of the educator to enter business life, as the proprietor of a real estate venture at Port Arthur, Texas, which he continued until 1900, when he became assistant cashier of the First National Bank. His promotion to the cashiership soon followed, he being the incumbent of that position from 1902 until 1908, and in the latter year he came to Gotebo, Kiowa County, Oklahoma, to accept the office of cashier of the Bank of Gotebo. In 1913, with other progressive business men and financiers of this place, Mr. Fisher founded and organized the First National Bank of Gotebo, which threw open its doors to the public in May of that year. This has grown consistently and is now one of the recognized institu- tions of the county and one which has won and retained the confidence and patronage of the people. The institu- tion has a capital stock of $25,000, with $3,000 surplus, and its present officers are: president, M. F. Pierce, a leading farmer and stockman of Kiowa County, well known in Gotebo, where he has large interests; vice president, C. M. Haxton; cashier, C. A. Fisher, and assistant cashier, T. J. Howe. The modern bank build- ing, a handsome and substantial structure, was completed in September, 1913, and in the building the postoffice also has quarters. Mr. Fisher is an experienced, capable and careful financier, who safely conserves the interests of the bank's depositors, and in whom they have learned to place the fullest trust. In addition to his duties at the bank, he is also looking after the people's finan- cial interests in the capacity of city treasurer, an office to which he was elected on the republican ticket. His fraternal connections include membership in Gotebo Lodge No. 305, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, aud Lodge No. 881, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, of Hobart, in both of which he has numerous friends.

On April 3, 1888, at Lancaster, Missouri, where he was teaching school, Mr. Fisher was united in marriage with Miss A. M. Potter, daughter of the late W. S. Potter, a farm owner of Lancaster, now deceased. To this union one child, Helen, was born, March 6, 1909, she now being a student in the graded school at Gotebo.

BEN W. RILEY. While he has been successful in busi- ness throughout a period covering at least forty years in various southwestern states, Ben W. Riley has also been successful in politics, though not so much from the stand- point of elective offices as of influential participation in governmental affairs for the sake of the public welfare. Ben W. Riley is an eminent representative of that class of Americans who advocate playing the political game square. His success probably is best attested by the fact that in the four years he was secretary and chairman of the state election board there were few criticisms of his work and no contest, a record that brought him unsolicited an unqualified endorsement from Governor Cruce, under whom he served. Mr. Riley has lived in Oklahoma for about thirteen years, was formerly a resident of El Reno, aud is now in Oklahoma City, his office being in the Mercantile Building and his home at 1501 West Thirty-first Street.

Ben W. Riley was born at Sutton, Worcester County,

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HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA

Massachusetts. His mother's family were the Wood- burys, who for generations have been prominent in New England affairs. Through his mother Mr. Riley is descended from the first settlers of Massachusetts. One of them was the first representative of the Massachusetts Bay Colony to England, and protected those charged with witchcraft at Salem and assisted them in reaching safety in the Roger Williams Colony in Rhode Island. Two of the ancestors were minute-men and participated in the first fight at Lexington and Concord. One was the first collector of port at Boston. The old Woodbury home, surrounded by eighty acres, granted by the Massa- chusetts Bay Colony, is still in possession of the family at Sutton, Massachusetts. Mr. Riley's sisters have taken an active interest in the Daughters of the American Revolution and Colonial Dames. One sister is the wife of C. A. Pratt, an active banker and business man at Little Rock, Arkansas, and for a number of years a director in the Iron Mountain Railway. Mr. Riley's father's family were early settlers of Rochester, New York, and materially assisted in the growth of that city.

When Mr. Riley was a baby his parents settled in Sandusky, Ohio. His father was an ardent supporter of Vallandingham, the Ohioan who led the opposition to the prosecution of the Civil war in the North, and in consequence of this affiliation Mr. Riley's life in Sandusky was not in harmony with the people during the Civil war, and about the close of that struggle the family removed to Jefferson City, Missouri. The recol- lections of Ben W. Riley of Reconstruction days are not pleasant, owing to the bitter feeling that remained after the war between the adherents of both sides. In the meantime he had received his education in common schools, and during the late '70s he attended school at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor for two years, and finished his education in Holy Cross College at Worcester, Massachusetts. Mr. Riley's father was a Catholic and his mother a Protestant, and though bap- tized and confirmed as a Catholic he has himself not been an active member of any church.

Mr. Riley studied law at Jefferson City, Missouri, but never entered formal practice, choosing a business career instead. He served a term as state librarian of Missouri and first became interested in politics in that state during the campaign for governor between Crittenden and Hockaday. He was a member of the convention which nominated Governor Crittenden, and represented that governor at the registration of voters in St. Louis dur- ing a trying political period. Later Mr. Riley became identified with the Gould railway system in the hotel and eating house business conducted along the lines, and was in the business through Kansas, Missouri, Arkansas and Texas.

He lived for a number of years at Little Rock, Arkan- sas, and was especially active in democratic politics while there. He served as a member of the city council and took part in the campaign that resulted in the election of United States Senator Clarke. While living in Texas he took an active part in the campaign that resulted in the nomination and election of "Buck" Killgore for Congress, and was also a persistent sup- porter of James Hogg in his campaign for attorney- general and later for governor. He helped to organize and was first lieutenant of the Eagle Light Battery in Arkansas, and was a member of the Reagan Guards of Texas.

Mr. Riley came to Oklahoma in 1902, locating in El Reno and engaging in the hotel business. He was mayor of the city during the closing territorial days and during the first few years of statehood. During his administra- tion the installation of the city's paving and sewer system was begun and practically completed. He was a member

of the El Reno Board of Education and served a term as president of the Commercial Club. Mr. Riley took an active interest in all conventions in Oklahoma to bring about statehood. He supported the policy to make an individual state of old Oklahoma Territory. He has attended every democratic convention since statehood, and was temporary and permanent secretary of the con- vention which ratified Governor Cruce's nomination. He contributed much in money and influence towards Cruce's election in 1910, and was a member of the finance com- mittee in that campaign. Governor Cruce after his inauguration appointed Mr. Riley secretary of the state election board, and towards the close of the administra- tion he was made chairman of the board. The success he achieved in these positions was marked because of the opposition he encountered at the hands of the republican party and owing to his diplomatic and praiseworthy handling of the innumerable details involved in the appointment of county election boards and the conduct of many special elections. Mr. Riley has never been a candidate for any state office, and the only one he has filled was under Governor Cruce. For six years he served as chairman of the County Central Committee of Canadian County, and was an active member of the campaign committee both times that Senator Robert L. Owen was elected United States senator.

JOSEPH MOSIER. The Osage tribe has had few more prominent names among its citizens than that of Mosier. Several of the family are named in this publication and one of them requiring individual reference was Joseph Mosier.

Joseph Mosier was a son of Thomas Mosier, a French- man, who identified himself with the Osage people in the last century and worked as a blacksmith among the tribe. He married an Osage woman, Basille Ahsinkuh. In the early '50s they moved to Neosho County, Kansas.

It was in Neosho County, Kansas, that Joseph Mosier grew up. He received his early education in the Jesuit Mission of that county, and as a young man received one of the head-rights in the lands of Kansas. The Mosiers were one of twenty-five Osage families who were allotted land in that state by the government. Joseph Mosier and his two brothers, Thomas and John, all enlisted in the Union army, being members of the Ninth Kansas Cavalry, and they were in active service through- out the conflict along the Kansas-Missouri border and in Arkansas and Indian Territory. They were finally mustered out in 1865.

Joseph Mosier, who was born August 5, 1841, had a very brief though honorable career. His death occurred near the old Osage Mission in Southern Kansas, January 7, 1871. His home was attacked in the night time when twelve inches of snow covered the ground. He was dragged in his night clothes, the house was set on fire, and he and his wife, who carried her son William, then eighteen months of age, in her arms, walked five miles to the nearest house barefoot and scantily clad. Joseph Mosier never left his bed after that, and died of pneu- monia. Due to exposure and internal injuries received his widow died nearly six years later, on October 31, 1876. She was born in 1848.

THOMAS MOSIER, who in his time was one of the most prominent members of the Osage tribe, and who died at Pawhuska, September 20, 1912, was one of the children of Thomas Mosier by his Osage wife, and was a brother of Joseph Mosier, mentioned elsewhere in these pages.

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HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA

of the Union army. After the war he returned to South- ern Kansas and remained with his tribe until they gave up their lands there and moved across the line into Indian Territory in 1872.

His name is of particular importance because of his prominent activities as an Osage citizen. He filled many official positions such as delegate to Washington, as national secretary of the Osage Council, national inter- preter, United States interpreter in the Federal courts of Topeka, Fort Smith and other court centers, and was also connected with the department in charge of the leasing of Osage lands at Pawhuska.

WILLIAM THOMAS MOSIER, who spent practically all his life in those various sections of country occupied by the Osages, both in Kansas and Oklahoma, has been primarily a merchant, for many years clerked in the agency store of the Osage country and latterly was engaged in merchandising on his own account, and is now one of the chief owners of improved real estate at Pawhuska.

He was born at Neosho County, Kansas, November 1, 1667, a son of Joseph and Nancy (Waller) Mosier, and a member of the prominent Mosier family elsewhere referred to. After the death of his parents he was reared in the home of his uncle, the late Thomas Mosier, until he was fourteen years of age. Since then he has made his own way in the world. He had some school- ing in the Pawhuska Government School, and spent part of two terms, during 1883-84, in the old Osage Mi in, now St. Paul, Kansas. On July 5, 1885, he located at Pawhuska, and during the summer was engaged in running a mowing machine, and secured work for the winter in a general merchandise store trading with the Osage Indians on the Osage Reservation. For ten years he was an employe in one store at Pawhuska, begin- ning with wages of eighteen dollars a month and board and finally being paid seventy-five dollars a month. He was hired on account of his ability to speak the Osage tongue, though otherwise he had no experience in mer- cantile life. In 1901 Mr. Mosier engaged in business for himself with two partners. He bought at the administrator's sale the stock of E. B. Gravelt. After six months in business he incorporated the firm of the Osage Mercantile Company, and was its vice president until he sold his interests in 1914. Mr. Mosier had been closely and actively indentified with merchandising at Pawhuska for fifteen years up to 1914.

'His present interests are of large scope and import- ance. He is vice president of the Mercantile Real Estate Company, which owns the Osage Mercantile Company Building, the best business structure at Pawhuska. This company also owns the postoffice or Oklahoma Building. Mr. Mosier is a director in the Pawhuska Oil and Gas Company. Individually he owns the Osage Agency Building at the corner of Main and Osage avenues. This is the chief landmark in the city, having been built by the government in 1872. It is a venerable stone structure, and within and around it are associated much of the history and life of the Osage people during the past forty years. Mr. Mosier also owns a substantial home at 133 Osage Avenue, in which he has lived for the past fifteen years. He and members of his family through allotment have 4,200 acres of Osage land. For four years he was a director in one of Pawhuska's banks.

In politics Mr. Mosier has been throughout most of his career a good democrat. He served on the first city council at Pawhuska and was one of the members that drafted the present charter providing for a commission form of government. During 1891-92-93 he was clerk of the Osage council and prior to that had been permit

clerk. In earlier days he knew every person residing on the Osage reservation. Mr. Mosier was reared in the Catholic Church. He is now the second oldest living Mason among the Osage Indians. He was one of the charter members of Washesha Lodge No. 110, A. F. and A. M., at Pawhuska, and has also taken thirty-two degrees in the Scottish Rite, being affiliated with the Consistory at Guthrie, the Knight Templar Commandery at Pawhuska, and Akdar Temple of the Mystic Shrine at Tulsa. He was also one of the charter members of the local Elks lodge, but his since given up that affilia- tion.

On ' May 29, 1895, at Pawhuska Mr. Mosier married Louisa Prudom. She was born on the Caney River in Osage County in February, 1877, and is also of Osage Indian blood mingled with French. Her parents were Charles N. and Lydia (Nowberry) Prudom, both of whom were born in Kansas and are now living in Texas. The children born to Mr. and Mrs. Mosier are enumer- ated as follows: Charles Prudom Mosier of Pawhuska married Louisa Plomondom, youngest daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Moses Plomondom. The other children are John Thomas, Edwin P., Luther P., Christeen A., James Russell, and the youngest, Margaret, died in infancy.

GEORGE WILLIAM FRASS. One of the interesting young men of half Indian blood in the western part of Okla- homa is George William Frass, whose operations as a stock man and farmer and whose good citizenship has made him an important factor in the community of Calumet. He represents one of the best families pro- duced by the commingling of sturdy white stock and the native Indian, and while the members of the earlier generations were closely identified with the life of the plain and the frontier, the younger ones exhibit that com- bination of energy and culture which are the features of modern Oklahoma.

It was in an Indian camp on the Cheyenne and Arapahoe Indian Reservation that George William Frass was born October 29, 1878. His father, William Frass, who was born at San Antonio, Texas, in 1850 of German parentage, and who died at Kansas City, Missouri, April 24, 1909, was a picturesque character in the old Indian Territory. For a number of years he lived as a cowboy on ranch and range, and later became a military beef contractor at old Fort Supply, Fort Reno and the Cantonment. From about 1873 he engaged in the cat- tle business on the open range of Indian Territory, and his interests as a cattle man continued until his death. William Frass in 1874 married a northern Cheyenne Indian woman. She was the mother of three children: Emma, now the wife of A. Kinsley, who is of Winnebago Indian blood and is now in the United States Indian service at Cantonment, Oklahoma. Rosa is the wife of Isaac Seneca, who carries the blood of the New York tribe of Seneca Indians, and is now in the United States Indian service at Chilocco, Oklahoma; and George William Frass, who is the youngest and the only son. It should be noted that Isaac Seneca, who married Mr. Frass' sister, was a graduate of the Carlisle (Pennsylvania) Indian School, and is well remembered by devotees of inter-collegiate football since he was one of the strongest players of the Carlisle team and won a place on the All-American Football team.

George William Frass received his education in the Government Indian school at Carlisle, Pennsylvania, and the Haskell Institute at Lawrence, Kansas. He finished with a business course in Oklahoma City, and then re- turned to western Oklahoma and has since been active as a cattle man at Calumet, and owns some valuable farming interests in that section. He inherited from his

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Indian forebears a natural expertness in all the vigor- ous sports of outdoors, and from youth up has been an expert horseman. For a uumber of years he traveled with a wild west show as a cowboy rough rider. Frater- nally he is a member of the Masonic Order, and is very active in the Baptist Church, being a member of the Gospel team of that church. He married Miss Asie B. Lazzelle, of Oklahoma City.

HARTSON D. FILLMORE, M. D. Few members of the Oklahoma medical fraternity have a broader range of experience and training for their profession than Doctor Fillmore, who has practiced in this state nearly fifteen years, and is now the leading physician and surgeon at Martha, in Jackson County.

A few interesting facts should be recorded concerning his ancestry. The Fillmores are of Scotch-English descent, and have been in America since colonial days. Doctor Fillmore's great-grandfather was a cousin of Millard Fillmore, the Vice President who succeeded Gen- eral Taylor in the presidential chair. The branch of the family to which Doctor Fillmore belongs has given a number of names of more than local reputation to musical cireles. From the vicinity of Buffalo, New York, this branch of the Fillmores moved to Cincinnati, Ohio, where Doctor Fillmore's grandfather spent all his life. He was a mechanical engineer, and for many years served as tax assessor in the City of Cincinnati.

Doctor Fillmore himself was born at Newport, on the opposite side of the Ohio River, in Kentucky, April 25, 1877. His father, Ebenezer Fillmore, was born in Ohio in the early '50s, and died at Cincinnati in 1878, the year following Doctor Fillmore's birth. He was a steam- boat captain, and had command of the steamboat Bos- tonia, which plied between Cincinnati and New Orleans, his headquarters being in the former city. Captain Fill- more was a member of the Methodist Church. He mar- ried Zuba Dustin, who was born near Lexington, Ken- tucky, in 1847, and now lives with her only son and child, Doctor Fillmore, at Martha.

In 1880 the widowed mother removed to Lawrence County, Tennessee, where Doctor Fillmore spent his youth and gained his early education, graduating from high school in 1895. Unlike most boys of that age, he had fully determined upon his future profession, and in order to secure the best possible advantages and at the same time pay his own way, he went to New York City and fouud a position in the city dispensary, in which he remained as an employee until 1897. In the meantime he attended lectures in the medical department of the University of New York, and on November 19, 1895, entered the City Hospital, from which he received a diploma May 19, 1897.

In April, 1898, at the beginning of the war against Spain, he sailed from New York in charge of the hospital on board the auxiliary cruiser Panther, with the First Marine Battalion. The Panther touched at Key West, and soon afterwards engaged in the bombardment of Matanzas and Cardenas, Cuba. The vessel then sailed to the Bay of Guantanamo, where the first actual land battle took place between the Americans and Spaniards, Colonel Eliott being in command of the First Marine Battalion. Throughout the entire course of actual war- fare in Cuban waters Doctor Fillmore was connected with the United States Navy, and was then transferred under contract to the United States Hospital Ship Missouri, and remained in that service as long as the hospital was in commission.

His experience as a medical student in New York and in the hospital service there and in the navy depart- ment was of itself a broad and liberal equipment for professional work, but after being released from the

navy he entered the University of Tennessee and was graduated from the medical department with his degree M. D. in 1901. Doctor Fillmore began practice at Lawrenceburg, in Lawrence County, Tennessee, in the spring of 1901, but in the same year moved out to Oklahoma, and became one of the pioneer physicians in Johnson County. He practiced in that section until 1911, and for the following two years was health officer in Coal County, Oklahoma, and during 1913 spent a short time in Ada, and since 1914 has been located at Martha, where he is already well established in a medical and surgical practice, his home and offices being on Main Street.

Doctor Fillmore is a democrat, is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, belongs to the county and state medical societies, and in fraternal matters is affili- ated with Martha Lodge No. 278, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, with McAlester Consistory of the thirty-second degree Scottish Rite, and with Martha Camp of the Woodmen of the World. On May 17, 1905, in Johnson County, Oklahoma, he married Miss Annie A. Hill, who came to this state from Arkansas. They are the parents of two children: Hartson William, born September 1, 1907; and Clyde Chastaine, born November 25, 1909.

JAMES A. UTTERBACK. The successful man in any walk of life is he whose vigilance enables him to recog- nize opportunity when she comes a-knocking to make the most advantageous circumstances. Mr. Utterback, through his persistence and determination to succeed, has built up a splendid business at Bridgeport, where he owns one of the largest and best general merchandise stores. He is interested in public affairs and at one time gave efficient service as city councilman.

At Riverton, Fremont County, Iowa, October 14, 1872, occurred the birth of James A. Utterback, whose ances- tors were natives of Holland, whence they immigrated to America in the colonial times and located in Pennsyl- vania. He is a son of Harrison and Mary ( Allison) Utterback, the former of whom was born in Illinois, in 1847, and the latter was born in Missouri. Harrison Utter- back accompanied his parents to Riverton, Iowa, in 1853, at which time he was but six years of age. He has resided in the vicinity of Riverton during the major por- tion of his life thus far and has devoted his attention to farming and to conducting a general store. Although very young at the time, he served for four months in the Union army in the Civil war, just prior to its close. He is a democrat in politics and is deacon in the Christiau Church at Riverton. He and his wife have seven children, concerning whom the following brief data are here in- corporated: William resides at Binger, Oklahoma, being a farmer and banker; Jesse lives at Tulsa, this state; James A. is the subject of this sketch; Simpson con- duets a telephone exchange at Imogene, Iowa; Emaline is the wife of George Zimmerman, a farmer near River- ton, Iowa; Mary is the wife of Hawes Yates, of River- ton; and Myrtle is married and resides on a farm in Iowa.

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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