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 80

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 80

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With the outbreak of the Civil war most of the United States troops were withdrawn from the frontier post. Mr. Coyle and three companions then started north with the intention of enlisting in the Union army. Owing to the unsettled conditions, the presence of numerous Con- federate troops and wild Indians, they had to make the journey at night, while during the day they remained securely hidden. They finally reached Fort Gibson. Orders had recently been given to fortify the place, and Mr. Coyle was induced to take charge of the masonry work on the fortifications, and stayed there one year. The rest of the war period was spent in Kansas, where he found plenty of work at his trade as stone mason. At Humboldt in Allen County he built the county jail and

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HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA

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other buildings, and at times had as many as 125 men working under him.

When the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railroad was built through Indian Territory to Texas, Mr. Coyle had the contract for all the stone work between the Red River and Denison, Texas. In 1871, when this railroad con- tract was finished, he returned to Indian Territory and located about six miles below Wynnewood, farmed there a year, and then went to the settlement known as Elm Springs, now Erin Springs, in Garvin County. In that locality he continued farming and stock raising, and in 1874 moved to Bailey on Rush ' Creek, lived there about ten years, and in 1884 located in the vicinity of Rush Springs, his present home. His occupation was farming and stock raising on land leased from the Indians, and with the opening of the country for settle- ment in 1893, he sold his stock and farming interests and moved into the town of Rush Springs to engage in the grocery trade. Several years later his store was burned out, and he lost everything, having no insurance. After that misfortune he once more resumed farming, but in recent years has lived quietly retired at Rush Springs.

The above is a mere outline of the career of Mr. Coyle. For many years he has been one of the most influential men in his section of the state. In 1896 he was a delegate to the National Republican Convention at St. Louis, and in that convention delivered the six votes from Indian Territory for the nomination of Wil- liam Mckinley as president. In 1906 President Roosevelt appointed him postmaster at Rush Springs, and by reap- pointment from President Taft he held that office and gave it most capable administration until 1913.

Mr. Coyle relates many interesting incidents connected with his life as a soldier and as an early settler in old Indian Territory. While with the United States Army he participated in a number of engagements with the Indians. While at old Fort Chadburn the Indians had killed the mail carrier, and about a month later, when a band of Indians appeared before the fort, he was one of a party of twenty-four detailed to capture them or shoot them down. They killed four and wounded many others. Because of this heavy reprisal the garri- son daily expected an attack from the Comanches, and while such an attack was never made, the soldiers were forced on do considerable extra work in building a pali- sade around the fort. While under the command of Captain Van Dorn and 'stationed at Otter Creek in the Washita Mountains, Mr. Coyle was part of a com- pany that participated in the battle against the Com- anches fought three miles east of Rush Springs. In that eugagement fifty-six Indians were killed. Another interesting fact in that connection is the prominence .of some of the officers engaged. The second in command and captain of Company B was Kirby Smith, who rose to the rank of general in the Confederate army. The first lieutenant of Company D was Lieutenant, after- wards, in the Civil war, General Hood. The second lieutenant of the same company was Fitzhugh Lee, after- wards Governor of Virginia. While Robert E. Lee was not present at the fight, he was at that time lieutenant- colonel of the Second United States Cavalry, and Com- panies A and B from that regiment were engaged with the Indians.

During the Civil war, and while employed at the Washita agency, Mr. Coyle had a narrow escape. He left the agency one day to go to Arbuckle, ninety miles distant. During the same night the post was attacked by Shawnee and Delaware Indians from the north, armed with guns and pistols. As a result of their attack about one hundred and fifty Tonkawa Indians, who were friendly to the whites, and seventeen white men were Vol. V-18

killed, and the only whites that escaped the massacre were Colonel Leeper, Doctor Sturm and Mr. Jones.

Mr. Coyle is one of the pioneer Masons of Oklahoma, and one of the most prominent and veteran members of that Order in Oklahoma. He has always been a firm believer that "Masonry is the handmaiden of religion," and his activities in the order have brought him many distinctions, so that he is probably one of the best known members of the craft in the state. He took his first degrees in 1866 in Iola Lodge at Iola, Kansas. He is a charter member of Rush Springs Lodge No. 7, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, which was organized in 1875 and chartered in 1876. In 1875 Mr. Coyle built a schoolhouse at Elm Springs (now Erin Springs) and arranged the upper floor for a lodge room, though it was a very small one. That was the first home of the Rush Springs Lodge, and it was organized there. The meet- ing of organization was held on a Saturday, and Mr. Coyle invited the Rev. Mr. Davis of Pauls Valley, then presiding elder of the Methodist Episcopal Church, to come to Rush Springs and hold services on the following Sunday, Mr. Coyle guaranteeing a congregation. Elder Davis accordingly came and found the audience so large that he preached to them in the open, standing in the doorway of the school. In consequence of that meeting he at once organized a church and Sunday school, and it has been in continuous existence ever since.

Mr. Coyle's affiliations with Masonry deserve particular mention. He was the first master of Rush Springs Lodge No. 7, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, held the office of master thirteen years, and is still an active member. He belongs to Chickasha Chapter No. 17, Royal Arch Masons; Chickasha Council No. 4, Royal and Select Masters; DeMolai Commandery No. 7, Knights Templar ; and India Temple of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine. The honors paid him by the state body of Masons are also noteworthy. He is a past grand master of the State Lodge, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons; past grand high priest of the Royal Arch Chapter; past master of the Royal and Select Masters; and past grand commander of the Knights Templar. He also became a charter member of Rush Springs Lodge No. 226 of the Knights of Pythias, and is a past chancellor and repre- sentative to the Grand Lodge, and a member of the Knights of Kadosh.

In 1874 Mr. Coyle married Miss Margaret Bowen, and they have had a happy married companionship of more than forty years. Prior to her marriage Mrs. Coyle was a school teacher in Illinois. They are the parents of four children : Edward Coyle, who is married and has six children; John L. Coyle, who has two children; Charles R. Coyle, who is also married; and Mary Coyle, who like the other children, is living at Rush Springs.

SEYMOUR FOOSE. For twenty-four years Seymour Foose has attended strictly to his profession as a lawyer in Blaine County. He was one of the pioneer settlers, acquired a homestead on the opening, and though he was one of a number of representatives of the legal profession when he came he is now the only one who has continuously practiced law in Blaine County since it was established. His success has been in proportion to the years of his residence, and there is probably no name in Blaine County that is mentioned with more familiar association with the professional, civic and business affairs of that community than Seymour Foose.

In the paternal line he is of Prussiau ancestry, his grandfather, William Foose, having come from Germany .and settled in Ohio as one of the early farmers of that state. Through his mother Seymour Foose is of English and Irish stock. With such a heritage of ancestry, he

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HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA

was born in Meigs County, Ohio, November 11, 1862. His father, John W. Foose, is also well remembered in. Oklahoma, where he was a pioneer. He was born in Trumbull County, Ohio, in 1838. When a young man he moved to Meigs County, but was married in Gallia County in the extreme southern part of the state. From Meigs County he went out to serve as a Union soldier during the Civil war. He was a member of the Seventh Ohio Cavalry, and was in the army three years and ten months. At Rogersville, Tennessee, he was wounded in the leg and taken prisoner, and thereafter spent four- teen months in some of the notorious prison pens of the South, at Libby, Belle Isle, Andersonville, Florence and Charleston. After being exchanged he rejoined his regi- ment in 1864 in Georgia, when the war was nearly over. Returning to Meigs County, Ohio, in 1871 he went to Illinois, living in Wayne County for a number of years, and in 1884 going to Shelby County in the same state. In the spring of 1887 he brought his family to Sedge- wick County, Kansas. While for many years a farmer, he was also an ordained minister of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, but later became affiliated with the Methodist Episcopal Church, and represented that denomination as a minister in several of the southern counties of Kansas, in Summer, Harper and Barber counties. In 1893 John W. Foose homesteaded a claim in Grant County, Oklahoma, being identified with the opening of the Cherokee Strip. In 1902 he removed to Medford, and for several years he filled the position of territorial librarian, in the duties of which office he died at Guthrie May 7, 1907. He had first heen appointed territorial librarian by Governor Ferguson, and was reappointed by Governor Frantz. Politically he was a stanch republican, and was a member of the Masonic fraternity. John W. Foose married Nancy E. Dickson, who was born in Virginia in January, 1844, and is now living, past seventy-two years old, with her son, Seymour, in Watonga. Seymour was the oldest of a family of six children. Addie F., the next in age, married Reber Homrighous, and is a very capable busi- ness woman, living in Chicago, and looking after extens- ive real estate interests in Gary, Indiana; Thomas D., also a resident of Chicago, has for the past fifteen years been superintendent of the Fay livery business in that City; Jennie married Leander Martin, who was at that time probate judge of Blaine County, Oklahoma, but they now reside in Portland, Oregon, where Mr. Martin is in the real estate and lumber business; Elias K. is the wanderer of the family, and his whereabouts have been unknown to his relatives since 1906; Carrie is the wife of C. L. Anderson, and they own and occupy a ranch on Shaw Island in the State of Washington.

As a boy in Wayne County, Illinois, Seymour Foose gained the equivalent of a high school education. For three years he attended the Southern Illinois College at Enfield, and for four years, during 1882-85, was a teacher in the country schools in Shelby County, Illinois. The next two years were spent in teaching in Nemaha County, Nebraska. In the spring of 1887 he made the journey with his parents to Sedgwick County, Kansas. They accomplished that migration in true pioneer style, driving overland with a four horse wagon. He lived at home, managing the farm during the summer season for five years and teaching school in the winter. In the mean- time he took up the study of law, attended the law department of the Garfield University, now known as the Friends University, at Wichita, Kansas, and in 1891 was graduated LL. B. and admitted to the bar at that city in the same year. He had also spent one year in the law offices of Holmes, Haymaker & Holt at Wichita,

and after graduation was for one year in the law offices of O. H. Bentley, who is now mayor of Wichita.

Leaving Kansas in 1892, Mr. Foose drove across country to what is now Watonga, and was present at the opening of the lands in Blaine County, and while making the run on foot he was fortunte in securing a lot situated south of where the present courthouse stands. After proving up his claim he sold it, and. later acquired a homestead of 160 acres one mile south- west of Watonga, but has since disposed of that prop- erty also.

It was on April 19, 1892, that Mr. Foose began his practice as a lawyer at Waton, a. Since then for twenty-three years his reputation ha's heen steadily grow- ing and he has handled an increasing amount of the important civil and criminal practice in Blaine County. In the fall of 1892 he was appointed deputy county attorney, and at the same time became a candidate for the office and was regularly elected for @ term of two years. He thus has the distinction of having been the first elected county attorney of Blaine County. His suc- cess as a lawyer is reflected in his extensive property holdings. He is the owner of three quarter sections and a farm of eighty acres, all in Blaine County, has con- siderable real estate at Watonga, has a three-fourth interest in Block 10 of that city, on which his residence is situated, at the corner of Noble and Prouty avenues.

In various ways Mr. Foose has been identified with the public life of Oklahoma. He is a republican, and was a delegate to the National Republican Convention that nominated Roosevelt in 1904. During the Spanish- American war he enlisted and in July, 1898, was mustered in as first sergeant of Company M, First Territorial Regiment of Volunteer Infantry. The captain of that company was F. L. Boynton, a well known attorney of Kingfisher. He was promoted and commissioned second lieutenant by Governor Barnes in January, 1899, and received an honorable discharge from the Volunteer army at Albany, Georgia, February 13, 1899. After returning to Oklahoma he was appointed by Governor Ferguson as a member of his staff, and held that posi- tion four years, and subsequently was on the staff of Governor Frantz, by whom he was promoted to the rank of major. He resigned this commission at the end of Governor Frantz's term. Fraternally Mr. Foose is affiliated with Watonga Lodge No. 176, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons; with Peaceful Valley Chapter, Royal Arch Masons, at Geary, Oklahoma; and with Consistory No. 1, thirty-second degree of Scottish Rite, Valley of Guthrie.

In August, 1893, at Wellington, Kansas, Mr. Foose married Miss Nora Gilbert. She died a few weeks later, in October, 1893. March 17, 1899, at Oklahoma City, he married Miss Minnie B. Beals. Her father, Dwight A. Beals, who died in July, 1914, was an Oklahoma pioneer and had been a veteran of the Union army during the Civil war. Mr. and Mrs. Foose have two children: John S., born in June, 1902, is now in the freshman class of the Watonga High School; and H. Theodore, born in September, 1904, is a student in the local public schools.

LUCIAN BULLOCK SNEED. One of the first citizens of Guymon, Oklahoma, both in point of time and promi- nence, is Lucian B. Sneed, the present postmaster. Ten years ago, when the town was incorporated, he was honored with one of the first city offices. Mr. Sneed represents one of the old families of Oklahoma, being a son of Col. Richard A. and Annie R. (Bullock) Sneed. Colonel Sneed is still one of the active men in Oklahoma 's affairs and is widely known over the state at large.

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HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA

It was in the home of his parents at Jackson, Ten- nessee, that Lucian Bullock Sneed was born January 4, 1878. He was educated in the public schools of Gaines- ville, Texas, where his father lived for some years, and also attended a private school at Paul's Valley in Indian Territory. From school he at once entered business life as salesman in a general merchandise house and remained in that business until 1904. In that year he came to Guymon and became identified with the real estate business. When the town was incorporated in 1905 he was elected the first city clerk. In 1907 he was chosen the first county clerk of Texas County on the democratic ticket. His present office as postmaster of Guymon was given him in 1914, and he is now very capably managing this branch of the federal service.

Mr. Sneed is also secretary of the Guymon Business Men's Association and fraternally is a member of the Masonic order. On December 23, 1909, at Guymon, Okla- homa, he married Miss Edna B. Crum, daughter of W. A. and Nannie (McHenry) Crum, who were natives of Kentucky and Illinois, respectively. Mrs. Sneed was born April 4, 1886, at Mattoon, Illinois, and is a gradu- ate of the Eastern Illinois State Normal School at Charleston, Illinois. Prior to her marriage she spent five years as a teacher. Mr. and Mrs. Sneed are the parents of one child, Richard Bullock Sneed, born at Guymon, Oklahoma, November 14, 1910.

JAMES W. KERLEY, M. D. In such a new country as Oklahoma pioneers are often young men in spite of their experiences and services. A future generation will find much to admire in the arduous and faithful service of those who accepted the hardships and limitations of a life on the frontier partly from a desire to establish their own economic well being and partly to perform their proper tasks in the world. Though a physician and surgeon of only fifteen years active experience, Dr. James W. Kerley may properly claim the distinc- tion of having been a pioneer doctor in at least two communities in Southwestern Oklahoma. He now has a most successful practice and enjoys business pros- perity and the comforts of a good home and the honors of citizenship at Cordell.

Born at Mountain View, Arkansas, June 4, 1871, he is one of the seven children of James and Nancy (Meadows) Kerley. His father was born in Hardin Coun- ty, Tennessee, in 1848 and his mother in Wayne County, Tennessee, in 1846. James Kerley when a young man went to Arkansas, was married there, and that state was his home until the death of his wife in 1907. He has since lived at Cordell, Oklahoma, where he is a farmer and stock man. The seven children were: Dr. William W., of Anadarko, the twin brother of Dr. James W .; Melissa A., wife of Joseph Smith, a druggist at Bessie, Oklahoma; P. A., a farmer and stock man at Oil City, Oklahoma; Albert M., a railroad man living at San Diego, California; Ollie, who lives in Arizona, the widow of Joseph Dodson, who was killed while in service as a United States marshal in Arkansas; and Joseph E., a railroad man at San Diego, California.

Dr. James W. Kerley grew up in his native state of Arkansas, attended the public schools there, and in 1888 removed from Mountain View to Baxter County, Arkansas, where he was graduated from the high school in 1894. Doctor Kerley early adopted the principle of self-help as a means of advancing himself in the world, and for several years performed some useful service and at the same time earned money necessary for his higher education by teaching school. This was his regular occupation from 1894 to 1896, though in the meantime he had started to read medical works. In 1896 he entered the university at Nashville, Tennessee, took an

active part in student affairs while there, and graduated M. D. in 1900.

His first work as a physician was done at Burns, in Washita County, Oklahoma, where in 1900 he was one of the first physicians to attend the wants of a large surrounding country, only sparsely inhabited at the time. In 1904 he took up his permanent residence at Cordell, where he was likewise one of the first of his pro- fession to open an office. He has since gained a splen- did reputation, and has all the practice he can well attend to. Doctor Kerley is a man of progressive ideas, and has never been content to practice long without active contact with the great centers of medical learn- ing. He took a general postgraduate course in the New York Policlinic in 1904 and in 1906 spent several months specializing in surgery in 1908 at the Post- graduate Medical School and Hospital in Chicago, and in March, 1914, took some courses in diseases of children at the New Orleans Polyclinic.

Doctor Kerley has deservedly prospered in material fortune. His offices are in the Kerley Building, a busi- ness structure at the corner of Maiu and College streets which he owns. He also owns his home on College Street, and has two farms of 320 acres in Elk Township of Washita County, the management of which is entrusted to tenants. Doctor Kerley served as county superintend- ent of public health in Washita County from statehood until quite recently. He is a democrat in politics, is a member of the county and state medical societies and the American Medical Association, and fraternally is identified with Cordell Lodge No. 137, A. F. & A. M., and Cordell Lodge No. 167, I. O. O. F.

On March 7, 1897, in Arkansas, while still a struggling student preparing for his profession, Doctor Kerley mar- ried Miss Zona Morrison, daughter of D. A. Morrison, who later became a farmer in Washita County, Oklahoma, but is now living retired in California. Mrs. Kerley died May 23, 1901, survived by two daughters: Myrtle, who died at the age of eleven years; and May, now a student in the public schools at Cordell. In October, 1904, in Washita County, Oklahoma, Doctor Kerley married Mrs. Alma (Mowery) Arnold. Her first husband was the late Samuel Houston Arnold, a rancher of Washita Coun- ty. Her father is W. H. Mowrey, a Texas farmer. There are three children by this union: Edith and Arthur, twins, both now in the public schools at Cordell; and James W., Jr.

JOHN P. LYNN. About twenty-eight years ago a young man rode horseback into the country of the Osages, stopping in the vicinity of the present City of Pawhuska where he found employment as a farm hand in looking after the farm controlled by the sisters who have charge of the St. Louis Indian School. Three years later he married and ever since that time John P. Lynn has been identified with that part of Osage County, and in many interesting ways is related to the development and upbuilding of Pawhuska. He came into the country without money and with no immediate prospects, but is now one of the largest land holders and one of the most influential men in the locality.

A native of Illinois, John P. Lynn was born in LaSalle County August 3, 1861, a son of Patrick and Margaret (McNamara) Lynn, his father a native of north Ireland and his mother of southern Ireland. The father came to the United States when five years of age and was married in Philadelphia. The family moved to Illinois about 1860 and in 1869 the father located iu the new country around the present City of Independence, Kan- sas, establishing his home and taking a claim among the Osage Indians, who about that time removed from Kan- sas into Indian Territory. That was a time of primitive

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conditions, wheu all travel was either by horseback or on foot, and the father developed a farm from the virgin prairie in the vicinity of Indepence and his wife died there when John P. Lynn was twenty-two years old. The father afterward married again, and took up a claim in old Oklahoma Territory. He died in Oklahoma City and was laid to rest by his wife iu Independence, Kansas. By his first marriage there were three daughters and three sons aud two of the sons and two daughters are still living. By the second marriage there were four boys and three girls.

John P. Lynn had to get his education by very limited attendance at local schools at Independeuce, Kansas. After coming into the Osage country as already related he spent three years as foreman on the farm near the St. Louis School. On March 19, 1895, he married Mary A. Rogers, who was born in Pawhuska or where that city now stands November 5, 1876, a daughter of Patrick and Constance (Canville) Rogers. Her father was born in Ireland and her mother in the United States, being French on her paternal side and Osage Indian through her mother. Mrs. Lynn's grandfather Canville belonged to the old French stock originally located in the vicinity of St. Louis, and from there moved West to where Kansas City now stands, and at one time owned forty acres of land covering the site of the old Uuion depot in that city. He was a French trader. Mrs. Lynn's father was a trader through the Osage country in the early days, and came to the Southwest from Decatur, Illinois, aud both he and his wife died at Pawhuska and were laid to rest ou the Cary River, twenty-five miles north of Pawhuska. Mr. and Mrs. Lynn have five children, named John, Joseph, Theresa, Patrick and William.

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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