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 79

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 79

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Robert Meadows was a boy at the time when his par- ents came to America and established their home in the State of Kentucky. There he grew to manhood and his

loyalty to the land of his adoption was significantly shown when the Civil war was precipitated on a divided nation, for, in 1861, he tendered his services in defense of the Union. He enlisted in a Kentucky volunteer regi- ment, with which he proceeded to the front and with which he participated in numerous engagements. He was finally granted a furlough and after visiting his home was killed by Confederate soldiers, while on the way to rejoin his command. His widow later became the wife of Hezekiah Brown, and with him removed to Kan- sas, where they passed the residue of their lives, her death having occurred in Chautauqua County, that state, in 1886. Of the first marriage were born six children, concerning whom the following brief record is given: James is deceased; Eliza is the widow of William Neal and resides on her homestead farm, fourteen miles dis- tant from Oklahoma City; Daniel is deceased, and Robert F., of this review, was the next in order of birth; Sarah is the widow of Edward Van Sant and maintains her home in the State of California; Emma is the wife of Marshal Martin, of Sedan, Kansas; and Emmett is a prosperous farmer at a point twelve miles distant from Sedan.

Robert F. Meadows was a child at the time of the family removal to Chautauqua County, Kansas, where he was reared to adult age on the pioneer farm and where his scholastic advantages were those afforded in the com- mon schools of the period. In that county he continued his identification with agricultural pursuits until 1891, when, soon after the organization of Oklahoma Terri- tory, he came to this new country and established his residence at Chandler, the present judicial center of Lincoln County, where he remained until the opening of the Cherokee Strip, when he here obtained his present homestead farm, his entire active career having been one of close association with the agricultural and stock- growing industries, so that his prolonged experience and broad practical knowledge naturally gives him prestige and has won him definite success as a representative farmer of Pawnee County, the while his civic loyalty and liberality have been shown in his ready support of meas- ures and enterprises that have tended to advance the best interests of the community. In earlier years he was concerned with the handling of cattle on the great opel range and had to do with extensive operations in this line. In politics Mr. Meadows is found aligned as a stanch supporter of the cause of the democratic party, though he has never manifested any desire for public office.

In the year 1879 was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Meadows to Miss May Rogers, who was born on May 1, 1862, a daughter of Hon. Richard W. and Selina (Billman) Rogers, concerning whom further mention is made on other pages of this work, in the sketch of the career of their son Joseph L. Rogers, a prominent citizen of Pawnee County.

Relative to the children of Mr. and Mrs. Meadows the following brief record is entered: Robert is identified with agricultural activities in Pawnee County; Austie became the wife of Charles Shipley and her death occurred in the year 1900; Earl is a resident of Cen- tralia, Washington; Pearl is the wife of Ira Thompson and they reside in the State of South Dakota; Carl is living at Centralia, Washington; Sherman, Christopher and Zephyr remain at the parental home; Frank died at the age of four years; and Leo is the youngest member of the home circle.

ROY E. HUFFMAN. Among the men of the younger generation in Northwest Oklahoma who are winning suc- cess in the field of finance is found Roy E. Huffman, cashier of the Quinlan State Bank, of Woodward County.

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HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA

Mr. Huffman has been the architect of his own fortunes as he came to Oklahoma as a stranger, without means or other favoring influences, content to accept such oppor- tunities as were offered by a growing community. When his chance came he was not slow in grasping it, and the steady advance which he has made is indicative of higher honors to come.

Mr. Huffman is a native of Illinois, born at Mount Pulaski, Logan County, January 5, 1890, a son of Samuel M. and Addie L. (Fletcher) Huffman. His father was born June 5, 1856, in Kentucky, from which state he went as a lad of fifteen years to Illinois, and after many years passed in Logan County removed to Labette County, Kansas, in 1903. There he resided until 1907, when he came to Oklahoma, being now a retired resident of Alva. Throughout his active life Mr. Huffman was engaged in farming and stock raising, and through industry and good business management accumulated a very desirable property. He has been content to live the life of the farmer, never having been a seeker for political honors and engaging in few business enterprises aside from those immediately connected with the products of the soil. In 1883, at Mount Pulaski, Illinois, he was married to Miss Addie L. Fletcher, who was born at that place, December 25, 1860, a daughter of Thomas and Mary (Bowles) Fletcher, the former a native of Ohio, and the latter of New York. Mr. Fletcher was a pioneer of Logan County, Illinois, to which part of Central Illinois he drove an ox-team overland from his early home in the Buckeye state. He passed his active years as a farmer and breeder of stock and died in 1902, at Mount Pulaski, whence he had gone at the time of his retirement. He was the father of fourteen children. Mr. and Mrs. Huffman had two sons: Roy E., of this notice; and Shelton William, born March 25, 1894, at Mount Pulaski, Illinois, educated at the Oklahoma North- western Normal School of Alva, and now a resident of that place, with his parents.

Roy E. Huffman received his early education in the public schools of his native place and was thirteen years of age when he accompanied his parents to Labette County, Kansas. He was graduated from the Labette County High School, of Altamont, Kansas, in the class of 1907, and in that same year came to Oklahoma to enter upon his career as a teacher in the public schools. After one year thus spent in Woodward County, he went to a business college at Kansas City, Missouri, taking a one-year course, and in November, 1911, entered the Security State Bank of Moreland, Oklahoma, as bookkeeper. He displayed such ability in that capacity that after one year he was advanced to the position of cashier, and held that office until January 1, 1915, when he was elected cashier of the Quinlan State Bank of Quinlan, a position which he still retains. This insti- tution was established in 1907 by J. G. Bailey, who is now president, and who has another bank at Harper, Kansas, where he spends the greater part of his time. The State Bank of Quinlau is a sound, conservative banking house which has won the confidence of the people of the community out of whose needs it grew. Its cashier has done much to make himself popular with the depositors, who come from all over this part of the county and whose business he transacts in a courteous, expeditious and entirely capable manner. Mr. Huffman is a Mason, fraternally, and his religious con- nection is with the Methodist Episcopal Church.

On September 15, 1913, at Alva, Oklahoma, Mr. Huff- man was married to Miss Ollie J. Hampton, who was born at Rich Hill, Missouri, February 20, 1896, daughter of Thomas and Sadie Hampton, natives of Missouri. One daughter has been born to Mr. and Mrs. Huffman: Virginia Halycon.

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN HENNESSY. Few men have had a more active and beneficial relation with Oklahoma's general progress in educational and agricultural develop- inent during the past fifteen years than Benjamin F. Hennessy, who recently retired from his office as scere- tary of agriculture for the state and is now giving prac- tically all his time to the management of a fine ranch at Ferguson, in Blaine County. However, Mr. Hennessy is as much at home on the lecture platform as in his fields and among his stock, and for a number of years his work has called for public appearance and the enter- tainment and instruction of people in groups. While he is a very popular entertainer, and is a master of the humorous anecdote, much of his accomplishment has been of a serious nature and for the training of Oklahoma people in particular to a better utilization of their resources and advantages. He has done a great deal of lecture work for the benefit of churches, lodges, library associations and other organizations.

During his four years of service from 1911 to 1915 as secretary of the State Board of Agriculture Mr. Hen- nessy was one of the leading figures in public life in Oklahoma. He injected an element of dignity into the activities of the board, and, being essentially a school man, furthered in every possible way the cause of industrial education among young men and women and practical farmers as well. He represented the board in important state and national conferences and was an active member of the Southern Commercial Congress, and is still a director from Oklahoma in that body. To the various affairs of the board he applied modern methods, taking an active and leading part in demon- stration work and discriminating agricultural education through newspaper and bulletin articles and in speaking tours of college and railroad officials. As one of the important representatives of the state government he proved a favorite speaker before various clubs and societies, and as an after-dinner speaker he is regarded as one of the most pleasing in the entire state.

Benjamin Franklin Hennessy was born at Woodstock, Illinois, September 21, 1873, a son of Daniel and Katherine (Lynch) Hennessy. His father was born at Kilkenny and his mother at Tipperary, Ireland, and they were the parents of ten children, six boys and four girls.

Mr. Hennessy completed his education in the Central Normal College in Kansas, where he was awarded the degree of Bachelor of Science in June, 1898. At an earlier date he was teaching in the districts of McPherson County, Kansas, and in 1895 was elected to the chair of English and Expression of the Central Normal College and held that position while continuing the studies lead- ing up to his collegiate degree. In 1897 he had been appointed vice president of the Central Normal College. In 1900 he was chosen superintendent of county schools of Barton County, Kansas, an office he held until 1902.

While living in Kansas he was one of the seven dele- gates sent by Governor Leedy in 1898 to St. Louis to discuss the advisability of holding a World's Fair to commemorate the Louisiana Purchase, and was elected secretary of the Kansas delegation and held that office two years. In 1905 he was presented with silver and gold medals by the president of the World's Fair at St. Louis and in 1906 the World's Fair board gave him a beautifully engraved diploma.

In 1903 Mr. Hennessy came to Oklahoma as teacher of English and Expression in the Logan County High School at Guthrie. In 1907 he was selected as official representative of Oklahoma at the Jamestown Exposi- tion, and gave stereopticon lectures relating to the resources of Oklahoma at that fair. In the meantime he had spent parts of several years working as state

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HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA

organizer of farmers institutes for Oklahoma. Alto- gether he was connected with the State Department of Agriculture for a period of seven years, and resigned his office as secretary of the board January 15, 1915.

Since leaving office Mr. Hennessy has taken up his residence on his ranch in Blaine County, where he owns several hundred acres and is happily and busily engaged in the raising of horses, mules, hogs and cattle. He is considered an expert polo player, and one department of his ranch industry is the raising and training of polo ponies for the eastern markets. He is a democrat and in Masonry a member of the thirty-second degree Con- sistory of the Scottish Rite.

JAMES E. BRESLIN has practiced law at Guymon for the past ten years. He is a very capable attorney, came to Oklahoma with a thorough training in his profession, and has built up a large and prosperous practice. His practice is not confined entirely to Texas County, but extends to courts in the adjacent states of Texas, Colo- rado, Kansas and New Mexico. Mr. Breslin has the best selected and largest law library in Texas County, and owns the modern office building in which he has his professional headquarters.

Though he has practiced in Oklahoma ever since he left law college Mr. Breslin is a northern man by birth and ancestry. He was born on a farm in St. Croix County, Wisconsin, January 16, 1882, a son of William and Julia Jeannette (Riley) Breslin. His father was born February 22, 1846, at Montreal, Canada, a son of James and Elizabeth Breslin, both natives of Ireland. At the age of eleven years William Breslin came to the United States, the family locating at Manistee, Michigan. For fourteen years he was engaged in the lumber busi- ness in the northern woods of Michigan and then re- moved to Wilson, Wisconsin, where he was a farmer until his death on January 22, 1907. He was married March 17, 1878, to Miss Riley, who was born March 16, 1860, at Alemont, Ontario, Canada, a daughter of Michael and Eliza (Fannan) Riley, both of whom were born in Ireland. Mrs. Breslin died October 23, 1905, at Wilson, Wisconsin. In the family were ten children, seven sons and three daughters, namely: Harry M. of St. Paul, Minnesota; James E .; William F., a resident at Wilson, Wisconsin; Thomas J. of Cloquette, Minnesota; P. J., a lawyer at Guymon, Oklahoma; Ellen, wife of M. J. Hirsh of Holabird, South Dakota; Clara Belle, who is married and living in Duluth; Anna Belle, deceased; Sylvester S. of Winnipeg, Canada; and Arthur S., who lives at Wilson, Wisconsin.

James E. Breslin grew up in Wisconsin, attended the local schools, but for his professional education went to St. Paul, Minnesota, where he was graduated from the St. Paul College of Law on June 5, 1905. It was only a few weeks after his graduation that he came to Okla- homa, was admitted to the bar, and began practice at Guymon. He is a member of the Benevolent and Pro- tective Order of Elks at Delhart, Texas, Lodge No. 1159.

THOMAS RIDGWAY REID. A member of the El Reno bar for a period of twenty-one years, Thomas Ridgway Reid is one of the best known lawyers of that place, and since May, 1912, has served in the capacity of city attorney. Both as a private practitioner and as a city official he has displayed the possession of fine talents, so that he is justly accounted a reliable and progressive member of the bar, who stands high in professional ability and as a man of broad business and financial judgment.

Mr. Reid was born at Saline Mines, Gallatin County, Illinois, July 16, 1864, and is a son of Robert and Elizabeth (Campbell) Reid, natives of the shire of

Renfrew, Scotland. They were reared in their native land, where they lived until about fifteen years of age, at which time they accompanied their respective parents to the United States. Here they met and were mar- ried. Robert Reid early became a minister of the Presby- terian faith, and some time during the '50s was given the parish of Saline Mines, where for a number of years previously he had been an operator of coal mines. As a minister he was earnest and zealous, laboring faithfully in the service of the church and winning the love and confidence of his parishioners, who found in him not only a spiritual adviser but a true and faithful friend. He spent a long, full and useful life, and was eighty- five years old when death claimed him.

The public schools of Saline Mines furnished Thomas R. Reid with his preliminary educational training, this being supplemented by a course in the Southern Illinois Normal University, at Carbondale, Illinois. He next accepted a position as a teacher in the country schools, being thus engaged for a period of three years, and in the meantime applied himself to the study of law, with the result that he successfully passed the examination and was admitted to the bar at Shawneetown, Illinois, in 1888. At that place Mr. Reid entered upon the practice of his profession, continuing there until 1894, and build- ing up a large and representative practice. While there Mr. Reid also took an active part in political affairs, and became known as one of the party leaders of republican- ism in that locality. In 1891 he became the republican candidate for representative to the Illinois State Legis- lature, to which he was elected and in which he served one term.

Mr. Reid changed his field of operations from Illinois to Oklahoma in 1894, in which year he opened an office at El Reno. He has had good reason to congratulate himself upon his change, for in this state he has ad- vanced steadily to a high position in his vocation and has been successful in attracting to himself a lucrative professional business. Also, he has continued his activ- ities in political matters, and has been frequently called upon to serve in offices of public trust. In 1894 he was elected county attorney for Canadian County, Oklahoma, in which position he served one term, and in 1899 and again in 1901 was elected a member of the Territorial Legislature of Oklahoma, and in his first term was speaker of the house. In 1901 Mr. Reid was appointed receiver of the United States Land Office, at El Reno, a capacity in which he acted efficiently for ten years. In May, 1912, Mr. Reid was elected city attorney of El Reno, and has continued to hold this office to the present time. In his various public capacities he has at all times demonstrated an earnest desire to be of use to his community, and few men are held in higher general confidence and esteem by the public. Mr. Reid is a prominent Mason, being a Knight Templar and Shriner, and belongs also to the Knights of Pythias, the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks and the Fraternal Order of Eagles. He is a consistent mem- ber of the Presbyterian Church, and at present is serving on the board of trustees thereof.

Mr. Reid was married in Illinois, in 1908, to Miss Jessie Robinson.

SOLOMON REVARD. A considerable proportion of the families in Oklahoma bear traces of the influence and relationship of the early French traders who, going out from St. Louis as their general headquarters, and begin- ning back in the eighteenth century, carried the goods of civilized manufacture among these Indians, estab- lished trading posts and lived among them, and very frequently married Indian wives. There is now living retired in Fairfax in Osage County a descendant of these

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HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA

old traders, and one of the most interesting men in the Osage country. Solomon Revard has been a resident of the present Osage country more than forty years and until recently was a very successful farmer.

He was boru in Jackson County, Missouri, at the pres- ent site of Kansas City, April 17, 1855, a son of Peter and Leonora (Roy) Revard. Both parents represent names of distinction among the Osage people. They were boru in Missouri, his father in 1826 and his mother in 1828. The grandfather was Joseph Revard, who was of mixed Osage and French stock. Joseph Revard mar- ried a girl, whose first name was Frances, and who was of German aud French stock. The Roy family came from France originally, and settled in Missouri, and a number of its representatives served as early traders and employees of the great American Fur Company. The Roy family has a number of important relations with different tribes of Indians, and the name and family stock are found among the Osages, the Kaws and the Sioux. The Revard family also furnished early employ- ees to the American Fur Company. The parents of Solomon Revard continued to live in Missouri until 1872 when they joined the rest of the Osage people in their migration to their new homes in Indian Territory where they spent the rest of their lives. The mother died in Osage County in July, 1884, and the father in Novem- ber, 1888. Before coming to Indian Territory he had served as a member of the police force at Kansas City for four or five years, and after coming to the reserva- tion spent his time as a farmer. Peter Revard and wife had five sons and two daughters: Solomon, Charles, who now lives on the reservation near Elgin, Kansas; Alex- ander, of Osage County; Emily Allen, of Tulsa; William, of Pawhuska; Franklin, of Bartlesville; and Mary E. McGuire, of Tulsa.

When Solomon Revard came to Indian Territory with his parents in 1872 he was about seventeen years of age. The previous year he had spent in work in the Kansas City Stock Exchange. For eleven years he was employed by the United States Government at Pawhuska Agency in the shoe and harness department. His education was acquired in the public schools of Kansas City, followed by two years in the Osage Indian School at Pawhuska. After leaving the agency store Mr. Revard took up farm- ing, and followed that industry prosperously and enter- prisingly until about four years ago, when he retired from the active responsibilities of a well spent career and has since lived quietly in his substantial home at Fairfax. Mr. Revard still owns a nice estate of 445 acres.

Outside of his interests as a business man and farmer he has been frequently honored with positions of trust and responsibility in tribal affairs. His study and observation of political problems has inclined him to give his support to the socialist party. He was reared a Cath- olic, but has taken no part in church affairs for the past twenty years.

On February 4, 1880, Mr. Revard married Miss Anna Traylor. She was born in Illinois September 23, 1854, and grew up in the states of Missouri and Arkansas. Her parents were William and Elizabeth (Armstrong) Traylor, her mother having been twice married. Both her parents died in Indian Territory, her mother on the Caney River and her father at Grayhorse. He spent most of his life as a farmer. Mr. Revard has one daughter Leonora McCarty, who lives in Missouri, and her six children, grandchildren of Mr. Revard, are named: William Todd, Solomon, Charles Wesley, Edna, Eliza- beth and Madeline. Among the public honors which Mr. Revard recalls with particular satisfaction was his service as a delegate to the county convention which

chose district delegates for the constitutional convention which framed the present organic law of Oklahoma.

JOHN COYLE. Rush Springs, in Grady County, is the home of one of the most interesting of Oklahoma's pioneers. John Coyle first became acquainted with the country now known as Oklahoma as a soldier in the regular army of the United States during the decade of the '50s. From that time to the present most of his life has been spent in this section of the Southwest, and for more than forty years he has been a resident of what is now Grady County. The events in which he has participated and which he has witnessed would, if narrated in detail, form an important portion of the history of Oklahoma's development and progress.

John Coyle is a native of Scotland, and was born in the City of Glasgow, in 1836, a son of Edward and Mar- garet (Moove) Coyle. At Glasgow he spent his youth, attended schools and learned the trade of stone cutter and stone mnason, but at the age of seventeen, in 1853, took passage on a vessel bound for America, and landed in the City of Quebec, Canada, where he spent three months and then went to New York City to work at his trade. Owing to labor troubles he left there in the fall of 1855 and sought employment at Boston. Being unsuccessful, he accepted an employment which has appealed to a great many men out of work at different times. He enlisted November 10, 1855, in the United States Army, and was assigned to Company F of the First Regiment of United States Infantry. After being for a time on Governor's Island, in New York Harbor, his regiment was sent to Corpus Christi, Texas. At that time the present cities of Dallas, Waco and Austin were on the extreme frontier of settlement in Texas, and all the country to the north and west was still the domain of the Indians and buffalo. The Federal Government was endeavoring to maintain as a guard to the settle- ments a cordon of military posts extending from the Red River south and west across Texas. It was to one of the oldest and most noted of these posts that Mr. Coyle and his comrades marched from Corpus Christi and took station at Fort Chadbourne. While there fifty of the First Regiment, men from Company F and Com- pany C, were detailed to accompany Captain Van Dorn to the Washita Mountains in Indian Territory. John Coyle was among those who participated in that note- worthy expedition, record of which is an important part of early Oklahoma history. The Second United States Cavalry was also a part of the expedition. They went to the post on Otter Creek, and remained there until the end of 1858. Mr. Coyle was then ordered to join his regiment at Fort Cobb, Indian Territory. His enlist- ment expired in November, 1860, and he chose to remain in the district where most of his. service as a soldier had been. He was employed for a time by Colonel Leeper, the Indian agent at Washita, Indian Territory, and also by John Shirley, the Indian trader there.

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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