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 8

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 8

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1785.

HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA

The Bradshaw family to which he belongs came from England to Virginia during colonial times. A. C. Brad- shaw himself was born in Adair County, Missouri, Decem- ber 3, 1874. His father, Joseph R. Bradshaw, was born in Kentucky in 1845 and died in Sullivan County, Mis- souri, in 1899. From Kentucky he removed to Adair County, Missouri, and though only a boy at the time in 1861 enlisted in the Second Missouri Cavalry, and went through the entire conflict, coming out with a gallant record of military duty well performed. Returning to Adair County, he took up the pursuits of farming and stock raising, and from there in 1890 moved to Sullivan County. As a man who had fought on the Union side during the war he naturally affiliated with the republican party. He was a member of the Missionary Baptist Church. Joseph R. Bradshaw married Mary S. Thornton, who was born in Georgia in 1848, and is still living, her home being with A. C. Bradshaw at Leedey. Their children were: William T., a carpenter and contractor at Wichita Falls, Texas; John, a farmer in Adair County, Missouri; A. C .; Cassie, wife of John I. Starkey, a farmer and stock raiser in Kingman County, Kansas; and Valley E., wife of Albert A. Butler, a clerk in the B. & O. Cash Store at Leedey.

The primary fact in the career of A. C. Bradshaw has been a propelling self effort toward larger accomplish- ment. As a boy he had to be content with such education as the public schools of Adair County could supply him, but later he paid for a course in the State Normal School at Kirksville for one year in 1896. He then took up teaching in Adair County, and in 1901 arrived in what was then Oklahoma Territory, and was employed for a year as teacher in the public schools at Angora in what later became Roger Mills County. He also homesteaded a claim of 160 acres, proved up on his land, and that is still included among his business assets. The farm is nine miles southwest of Leedey. In the meantime, as he became better acquainted with the people and the people became better acquainted with his capabilities, he was the recipient of various honors and responsibilities of a public nature. In 1905 he was appointed United States commissioner, and held that office until Oklahoma became a state in 1907. In 1906 he was appointed postmaster of Texmo, and held that office until the postoffice was discontinued on August 15, 1915.

His work in the newspaper field began in 1907, when he leased the Texmo Times. He later bought the plant and in June, 1911, removed the paper to Leedy, where it is now known as the Leedey Times, with Mr. Bradshaw as editor and proprietor. It is a republican paper, and has a large circulation throughout Dewey, Custer, Roger Mills, Ellis and other counties. Mr. Bradshaw owns the plant and building in which the paper is published on Broadway. He also owns one of the finest residences of the town, situated on Phillips Street.

In politics Mr. Bradshow is himself aligned with the republican interests; is a member of the Baptist Church; is affiliated with Leedey Lodge No. 443, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons; is past noble grand in Leedey Lodge No. 369, Independent Order of Odd Fellows; is past consul of Camp No. 15436 of the Modern Woodmen of America at Leedey. As a newspaper man belongs to the Oklahoma State Press Association.

In 1899, in Sullivan County, Missouri, he married Miss Effie Belle Wilkin, daughter of Jacob Wilkin, who is now a resident of Oklahoma, a farmer eight miles south- west of Leedey. Mrs. Bradshaw died April 22, 1915, leaving three children: Raymond Dale, who died at the age of seven years in 1907; Eugene Lyle, a student in the Leedey public schools; and an infant son, Harvey Dean.

S. S. LAWRENCE is the Choctaw tribal attorney at Ant- lers, an office in which he has given most creditable serv- ice during the past two years. He is a bright young lawyer, and most of his practice has been in the south- eastern section of Oklahoma.

The office of probate attorney in former Indian nations of Oklahoma has proved its particular value in the fact that the Indians, thousands of whom for years have been victimized by unscrupulous white men, have been taught to counsel with the man the United States Gov- ernment has placed among them for that purpose. The duties of a probate attorney, an office that was created only a few years ago, were not specifically stated in any statute or department regulations, and when Secretary Franklin K. Lane of the Interior Department distributed

its commissions to young lawyers of Oklahoma they were supposed to learn for themselves what was necessary in becoming counsel to the wards of the government over whom they were placed. The office has supplied the needs of that quality in the Indians which once caused them to be denominated children of the forest, the quality of dependence and succor. This is the begin- ning of the successful administration the probate attor- neys should have, for it has acquainted them with every form and character of need the Indian experiences.

The dependence of Choctaw Indians in Pushmataha County, for instance, is exemplified in the character of advice sought of Attorney Lawrence. He recalls that one Indian who once belonged to the Clan of Snakes, wanted to borrow $5 at a bank. The loan was made, on the Indian's unsecured note, and gladly, for he is honest. A few days later this Indian came back to Mr. Lawrence, rather than going to the bank for the infor- mation, and inquired when the note would mature. Many Indians ask the attorney where to buy provisions and clothes, and while he probably could not conscien- tiously make any recommendations of that nature, he is in position to guard the Indian against trading with a merchant whom he knows would make exorbitant charges for his goods. Indians ask the attorney to rent or lease their lands, collect their debts, write their checks, pass upon their legal instruments, etc. It is not obliga- tory upon an Indian that he consult the attorney regard- ing mortgages, transfers, notes, etc., yet he is learning that it is best to do so. While the labors of the attorney are burdensome and he has to hear all manner of trivial complaints, requests and tales, he nevertheless is learning the secret of what economists for many years have called the Indian problem. The attainment of this knowledge has convinced Mr. Lawrence that the position of pro- bate attorney should not be a political one.

An example of the reformatory character of the at- torney's work is found in the case of Abel Noah, all his life until recently a member of the Clan of Snakes who recognize no government, accept no patents, sell or lease no lands, and receive no pay from the Government. Noalı recently was convinced that his attitude toward the Government was wrong, and he consented to sell some of his land, a valuable fertile tract in Bryan County. The sale was executed after some technical reverses had been remedied, and Noah came into possession of $1,600 of good American money. He spent it with spirit and relish, and since that time has been accepting all that other Indians get from the Government. He has seen the light after many years of Snake darkness.

There are about 5,000 Indians in the district assigned Mr. Lawrence, which comprises Pushmataha and Choc- taw counties. A part of each week he spends in Hugo. In Antlers he offices with Principal Chief Victor M. Locke, Jr., of the Choctaw Nation, and it is a little mat-

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ter of interest that the principal chief, whose whole ambition is to be of service to his people, frequently acts as interpreter for the probate attorney. It was Chief Locke who first introduced Mr. Lawrence in the Indian service. On March 18, 1914, Mr. Lawrence was selected and commissioned by Chief Locke as pro- bate attorney for a district of the Choctaw Nation. On July first following he received his commission from the Secretary of the Interior.

Of an old Southern family, S. S. Lawrence was born in Surry County, North Carolina, June 25, 1884, a son of P. W. and C. O. (Gordon) Lawrence. His father, who now at the age of eighty-two lives at Pilot Moun- tain, North Carolina, is a veteran of the war between the states, and has spent most of his active life as an agriculturist. He lives at the place where he settled more than half a century ago, loved and tenderly revered by the entire community. Other children besides the Antlers attorney are: J. R. Lawrence, a traveling sales- man in New York; and Miss Victoria Lawrence, who lives with her parents in North Carolina.

After attending the public schools of his home county, Mr. Lawrence completed a course in law in the Univer- sity of North Carolina, receiving his LL. B. degree in 1908. On the first of December of that year he began practice at Mount Airy, North Carolina. Then with two or three years of practical experience to his credit, he came to Oklahoma and on August 1, 1911, located in Antlers, where he was making promising progress in the acquirement of a profitable private practice until appointed to his present position as probate attorney.

On August 28, 1912, at Mount Airy, North Carolina, he married Miss Roberta Vance Price, a great-niece of Zeb Vance, who many years ago was a United States senator from North Carolina. Mr. Lawrence is a mem- ber of the Presbyterian Church. Fraternally he is a Mason and belongs to the Pushmataha Bar Association. Mrs. Lawrence is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South.

JAMES C. TYE. In several different communities where he has lived, both in Kentucky and Oklahoma, James C. Tye has helped to make history. In fact he has been an energetic factor in affairs for more than half a century. Prior to that he was a gallant soldier in the Civil war and made a record which redounds to his credit and to that of his descendants. Mr. Tye at present is one of the officers in The First National Bank of Bristow. He helped to found that bank and also to found the town. That he is a successful business man goes without say- ing and there is plenty of evidence to support the state- ment that he has been as honorable and straightforward in all his relations as he has been prosperous.

Of an old Kentucky family, he was born at Lot, May 25, 1844, a son of Hiram and Rachel (Siles) Tye. His parents were also born in Kentucky, his father in 1814 and his mother in 1817. All their lives were spent on a farm near Lot in Whitley County, where the father died in 1855. The mother survived and was past eighty when called away by death. Hiram Tye was a farmer and stock raiser and bought and shipped a great many hogs in the years before the war. In the family were four daughters and six sons, and one daughter and four sons are now living. Besides James Tye his older brothers John and Henry were also soldiers in the Civil war. John served for three years and Henry for eighteen months. Both James and John enlisted in 1861, John in the Eighth Kentucky Infantry and James in the Seventh Infantry. The brother Henry went out with the 49th Kentucky Regiment.

In the meantime James C. Tye had grown up in his

district of Kentucky, had received the rugged discipline of the farm, had attended the common schools after he learned his letters-probably two months, and that when about sixteen years old, and was in the full bloom of early manhood. When seventeen years of age he re- sponded to the call for volunteers to put down the soutli- ern rebellion, and on August 20, 1861, was enrolled in Company G of the Seventh Kentucky Infantry. He served until October, 1864, a little more than three years. He was in many of the greatest campaigns which cleared the Mississippi Valley from the Confederate forces. He was in the great campaign around Vicksburg, under Grant and Sherman. For much of the time he had the rank of sergeant, and during the Vicksburg campaign he was detailed as a member of the Pioneer Corps and did part of the heavy work involved in advancing the army over the difficult ground around the mighty fortress over the Mississippi.

After the war Mr. Tye returned to his native village of Lot, and took up farming. He also conducted a Kentucky distillery for about twenty years.

With a good deal of material prosperity to his credit, Mr. Tye came out to Oklahoma in the spring of 1890, not long after the original opening of lands. His first location was seven miles west of Edmond. He engaged in farming there, but soon moved to Chandler, and three years later came into the Creek Nation in 1894. Since then for more than twenty years his activities have iden- tified him with what is now Creek County. . He first leased about 700 acres of farm and ranch land and culti- vated it to crops and went into the stock business on an extensive scale. When the Town of Bristow was started he came into the village bringing two carloads of lumber, and set up as the first lumber merchant. He soon sold the two carloads of lumber which he brought, and it nearly went into the construction of the pioneer build- ings of the town.

Along with other parties he engaged in banking when the first banking facilities were given to Bristow. He was associated with the old Farmers & Merchants Bank, and later was one of the organizers of the First National Bank, in which he has since been vice president. The other officers are J. W. Teter, president, and N. T. Gilbert, cashier. A recent statement shows that the total resources of the First National Bank of Bristow are more than $240,000, a splendid showing for a bank in a town of that size. The capital stock is $25,000, with over $7,000 of surplus and profits. The deposits aggre- gated about $180,000. Besides his position as a banker Mr. Tye also has some valuable farming interests in Okla- homa. He is also associated with Mr. B. B. Jones in the ownership and control of some oil interests in the Bristow field.

, A lifelong democrat, Mr. Tye was quite interested in politics while a resident of Kentucky, but has done little in that direction in Oklahoma. He held some minor offices, though he was never a willing candidate for such honors. He is a member of the Christian Church and affiliates with the Grand Army of the Republic.

On March 23, 1865, he was united in marriage with Elizabeth Brummet. Mrs. Tye was born in Whitley County, Kentucky, not far from the birthplace of her husband, on March 17, 1845, a daughter of George and Jane (Lambdin) Brummet, who spent all their lives along the Cumberland River and were substantial farm- ing people. Five children were born to Mr. and Mrs .. Tye: S. Jane, who died at the age of eighteen months; Hiram, who is an attorney practicing law at Williams- burg, Kentucky; John, who died in 1910, and whose widow and two children live at Bristow; George, who died in infancy; and Ortha, wife of J. E. Lurton of

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Bristow. Perhaps at the conclusion of this sketch Mrs. Tye should be allowed a little bit of testimony .. She says that she has lived with Mr. Tye for fully half a century and that he measures up to all the standards and qualifications of a truly good man.

HARRY G. JONES. In his varied career as farmer, postmaster and newspaper man Harry G. Jones has met with many interesting experiences and he has mani- fested a peculiar aptitude for different lines of endeavor. He has been a loyal and public-spirited resident of Hydro since 1901 and since 1906 has been sole pro- prietor and editor of the Hydro Review, a republican paper with an extensive circulation throughout this section of the state.

Harry G. Jones was born in Smith County, Kansas, October 9, 1879. He is a son of Ora and Melvina (Rhodes) Jones, the former of whom was born in Ohio, in 1835, and the latter in Iowa, in 1840. As a young man Ora Jones removed from the Buckeye state to Iowa, was married there and then went to California, where he enlisted in the Civil war as a Union soldier. His army experience consisted mostly in subduing the Indians, whose uprisings were a sore trial to the Federal forces during the period of civil strife. Mr. Jones retained a deep and abiding interest in his comrades at arms and indicated the same by membership in the Grand Army of the Republic. After the close of the war he located in Smith County, Kansas, arriving there several years before the noted grasshopper year, and he was engaged in farming operations and in stock raising until he retired, in 1903, to Smith Center, where his death occurred in 1908. He was a republican and took an active interest in party affairs. He served on the town board of commissioners for a number of years at Smith Center and was also active on the school. board. His cherished and devoted wife, whose maiden name was Mel- vina Rhodes, survives him and lives at Smith Center, Kansas, They became the parents of the following children: Jennie, married to A. N. Nye, a retired farmer, living at Franklin, Nebraska; Prue married F. H. Hous- ton, a farmer near Wharton, Texas; Clarence E. is station agent for the Missouri Pacific at Anthony, Kansas; Frank and Orin C. are both farmers in Smith County, Kansas; Dolly is the wife of Warner Sanford, a merchant at Blessing, Texas; Harry G. is the subject of this sketch; Carl is a baker at Belleville, Kansas; and May is the wife of Milo Stanley, a farmer in Smith County, Kansas.

To the public schools of his native place Harry G. Jones is indebted for his preliminary educational train- ing. In 1896 he became rural mail carrier at Smith Center and two years later he turned his attention to farming. In 1901 he drew a homestead four miles north- east of Hydro, Oklahoma, and lived on it until 1907. In 1902 he became assistant postmaster at Hydro and for eight months was acting postmaster. He disposed of his farm in 1909 but repurchased it in 1911, and has since conducted it as a stock farm, later buying another eighty-acre tract adjoining the farm. He owns 250 head of hogs in addition to numerous head of cattle and horses. July 1, 1904, he became interested in the Hydro Review, becoming associated with Dr. W. M. Wellman, who founded the paper in October, 1901. Mr. Jones obtained control of this publication in 1905 and the following year bought up the interests belonging to Mrs. Wellman. The paper is republican in its poli- ties and it circulates in Caddo, Blaine and Custer Counties. The offices and plant are located on Main Street and this paper has the distinction of being the only one in the county whose plant has never been mortgaged. In

addition to his other numerous interests in this section Mr. Jones owns a number of city lots. He is a republi- can in politics and for four years he served as a mem- ber of the county election board. He is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church and is affiliated with Hydro Lodge No. 230, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons.

At Hydro, in 1907, Mr. Jones was united in marriage to Miss Irene Smith, a daughter of Mrs. Alberta Smith, of Eaply, Oklahoma. Prior to her marriage Mrs. Jones was a popular and successful teacher in the public schools of Hydro. Mr. and Mrs. Jones have no children.

ROSCOE C. THOMAS. While he first became identified with the Panhandle district of Oklahoma as a home- steader and farmer, Mr. Thomas has for a number of years been best known as a newspaper publisher and is now editor and owner of the Cimarron News at Boise City, He is probably the leading and most influential democrat of this section of the state, and is well known to the leaders of the party all over Oklahoma.

A Tennesseean by birth, Roscoe C. Thomas was born February 22, 1883, on a farm in Wilson County. The house in which he was born was constructed of log timbers, and in the same house his father, Eli, was born October 30, 1839, a son of J. B. and Mary (Wilson) Thomas, who were natives of Virginia and of Welsh origin. Eli Thomas has been a farmer all his life, but is now living retired at Lebanon, Tennessee. During the war between the states he was with the Confederate army as a private in the Second Tennessee Regiment. On October 30, 1869, his thirtieth birthday, Eli Thomas married Miss Eliza Sneed, who was born in Wilson County, Tennessee, January 30, 1846, and her parents were likewise natives. of Tennessee. To their marriage were born ten children, eight sons and two daughters, all of them living as follows: Crittenden, born July 30, 1870; Houston, born September 5, 1871; Charles, born January 4, 1873; Ephraim, born August 5, 1875; Arizona, born June 10, 1876; Baxter, born July 20, 1877; Hogan, born March 22, 1879; Gordon, born Jan- uary 16, 1881; Roscoe C., who is the ninth in order of birth; and Ophelia, born January 4, 1885.

Roscoe C. Thomas was reared in Wilson County, attended the public schools there, and as opportunities were not so abundant in his native state as he imagined they would be in a newer country, he came in 1904 to Oklahoma and spent one year on the famous 101 Ranch in Kay County. In 1905 he located on a homestead in Texas County, but in addition to proving up and cul- tivating his claim he also operated a real estate office in Guymon. Since then he has been closely identified with the substantial activities of this section of the state. In 1907 he was one of the organizers of the Cimarron Town Company, and was manager of that company until the town failed to realize the sanguine expectations of its founders. In 1908 he removed to Boise City, and in 1910 bought the plant of the Cimarron News at Kenton and removed it to Boise City, where he consolidated it with the Boise City Tribune in 1911. He now has the leading paper in that section, and has a printing plant that is unusually well equipped, having among other facilities a typesetting machine and modern rotary presses.

During 1913-14 Mr. Thomas was a member of the Oklahoma State Board of Agriculture. He is demo- cratic state central committeeman from Cimarron. Fraternally he is affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church.

On June 29, 1910, at Boise City he married Miss

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Ruby Allisou, who was boru June 10, 1885, at Groes- beck, Texas, a daughter of A. B. Allison, who now lives at Boise City, Oklahoma. Mr. and Mrs. Thomas have one child, Roscoe C., Jr., born March 28, 1914.

JOHN G. REID, M. D. A physician and surgeon of broad and successful experience, Dr. John G. Reid in 1914 located in Lincoln County at Fallis, and later in Oklahoma City, where he enjoys the esteem and the practice which indicate the possession of both ability and high personal character. Doctor Reid has spent many years in Oklahoma, having first come to the terri- tory at the opening of the Cherokee Strip in 1893, and after participating in the run he located a claim in that section. He came to Oklahoma from Wellington, Kan- sas. Doctor Reid is a graduate in medicine from the Northwestern University of Chicago, Illinois, with the class of 1877.

John G. Reid was born at Jacksonville, Illinois, April 8, 1847, and his early life was spent on a farm. His grandfather and father were, respectively, Stephen H., Sr., and Stephen H., Jr. Both were natives of Kentucky and were of Scotch-Irish ancestry. Stephen H. Reid, Jr., grew up in his native state and married there Martha Capps, who became the mother of three children. His second wife was Miss Martha Garrett, who was born in Cheshire, England, of English parentage. Her children were: John G .; Lydia C .; Richard W., who was a lawyer, and is now deceased; George W., of Jacksonville, Illinois; Enoch S., now deceased; and Elijah J., a farmer near Jacksonville, Illinois. The father of these sons died at the age of seventy-six. Politically he was a republican, and before the war was a great friend and admirer of Owen Lovejoy, the great abolitionist. His wife died at the age of sixty-one. She was a member of the Methodist Church, and a woman of admirable temper and excellent qualities of heart and mind.

Dr. John G. Reid was reared on the old farmstead in Illinois, and owing to many circumstances, life in a country community, the turmoil of war times, and other things, he had only a limited educated while growing to manhood. He later secured his education from the proceeds of his own endeavors, studied at home, at- tended higher schools, and then prepared for a profes- sional career in Chicago. After graduating from medical college his first location was at Woodburn, Illinois, subsequently he practiced in Chicago several years, then located in Texas, and since 1893 has been identified with the Territory and State of Oklahoma. For several years he was in Enid, and in 1901 removed to Hydro, where he conducted his general practice until removing to Fallis, and came in 1916 to Oklahoma City.

Doctor Reid was first married March 20, 1877, in Illinois, to Mary J. Whittier, a niece of the great Quaker poet, John G. Whittier. She was born and educated in New York State, and was a woman of fine culture and . education, and died at Welington, Kansas, at the age of fifty-five. She left one daughter, Mrs. Welch. Doctor Reid married his present wife in Kansas, Miss Evelyn Schamell. Mrs. Reid was boru in Lincoln, Nebraska, and was educated chiefly in Kansas. Her parents, Peter and Margaret (Bonet) Schamell, were, respectively, Ger- man and Irish. Doctor and Mrs. Reid have one son, Cranston, who was born January 25, 1912. Doctor Reid is a member of the Modern Woodmen of . America. Politically he is a prohibitionist; both he and his wife are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church.

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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