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 82

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 82

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

Henry Franklin Benson attended the public schools of Roger Mills County for two years and completed the graded schools at Anadarko, Oklahoma. This training was subsequently supplemented by two years of attend- ance at the Geary High School, and when he was sixteen years of age he became an apprentice in the printing plant of the Geary Journal. One year later he went to Hinton, Oklahoma, where he entered the plant of the Hinton Record and soon won promotion to foreman, and later was made editorial manager, a position which he held until 1910. In that year he leased the Tuttle Standard, which he edited for six months and then spent one year at Oklahoma City, also in the newspaper busi- ness. Mr. Benson then became manager for W. B. Anthony 's paper, the Marlow Review, and held that position for nearly a year while Mr. Anthony was acting as secretary to Governor Haskell. From that time for- ward, Mr. Benson worked on various papers in Oklahoma until 1912 when he came to Geary and became associated with E. E. Brewer in the founding of the Geary Booster, of which he was editor for 11/2 years. With this thorough training and practical experience, Mr. Benson felt quali- fied to enter the newspaper field on his own account, and in April, 1914, purchased the Geary Journal, of which he has since continued as the editor and proprietor. The Geary Journal was founded in 1900 and is a supporter of the principles and candidates of the democratic party. It has an excellent subscription list in Blaine and the surrounding counties, and also has a number of sub- scribers outside of the state, while its prestige as an advertising medium has brought business of that charac- ter in constantly increasing volumes. The well equipped plant and offices are located on South Broadway. Mr. Bensou is a supporter of good government, of progressive municipal measures and of the advancement of morality, religion and education, while his good citizenship has been displayed on numerous occasions. He is a demo- crat in his political views and is at present deputy court clerk of the Geary Division of the County Court.

In 1910 Mr. Benson was married in Oklahoma City to

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IIISTORY OF OKLAHOMA

Miss Grace Miller, daughter of F. W. Miller, a merchaut of Hinton, Oklahoma. Mr. and Mrs. Benson have two children: Thelma, born November 20, 1910; and Frank, Jr., born August 31, 1912.

WILHELM WALTER MOORE. As an educator and min- ister of the Christian gospel Wilhelm Walter Moore has become well known in several communities of Oklahoma. He is now giving his entire time and attention to educa- tional work and is principal of the Barnard School at Tecumseh.

Not yet thirty years of age, Professor Moore has laid the foundation of a career of great usefulness aud is properly regarded as one of the able educators of the new State of Oklahoma. He was born at Casey, Illinois, July 27, 1888. His parents were Walter T. and Mary M. (Letner) Moore, both of whom were born in Illinois. The paternal great-grandfather Moore emigrated from Dublin, Ireland, in the early part of the nineteenth century and for a number of years was a slave-holding planter in the South. Grandfather Thomas Moore took up the profession of law and died at Charleston, Illinois, in 1858. Walter T. Moore, who was born in 1853, now resides at Marshall, Illinois. He began his career as a Baptist minister and preached in various towns in Illi- nois, and for three years lived at Geary, Oklahoma, where he also had charge of the Baptist Church. Just before leaving Geary he joined the Methodist Episcopal Cou- ference, and has since been a regular minister of that denomination. With the exception of the three years spent in Geary, Oklahoma, he has lived practically all his life in Illinois. He is a democrat and a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. His wife, Mary Letner, is the daughter of Louis Letner. The latter was born in 1818, has followed a career of farm- ing, and is still living in Illinois only a few years short of a century. Louis Letner's father came from Germany and settled in Tennessee. Professor Moore was the youngest of three children. His sister Ella married Ed Marshall, a farmer living at Pawnee, Illinois. His only brother is L. Clarence, who finished his education in Shurtleff College at Albany, Illinois, leaving that insti- tution in 1906, and is now pastor of the Central Christian Church at Waterloo, Iowa.

Wilhelm W. Moore in the wiuter of the year in which he was born went with his parents from Casey, Illinois, to Oakland in that state. He gained his early education in the public schools there, attended the preparatory department of old Shurtleff College at Albany, finishing in 1902, and then entered the regular collegiate depart- ment, where he remained lacking one term for the full four years' course, leaving school in 1906.

On leaving college his first employment was as pas- senger conductor on the I. T. S. Railroad, with home at Springfield. In that practical work he spent about two years. He then entered the ministry, as a member of the Illinois Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and after having charge of the church at De Witt, Illinois, for a time he was called to Stillwater, Oklahoma. In addition to preaching he also taught high school work. After six mouths at Stillwater he was transferred to Jet, Oklahoma, for a year and then joined the Christian Church. In 1913 Mr. Moore taught in the McLoud, Oklahoma, High School and at the same time filled the pulpit of the Christian Church at McLoud and Tecumseh, keeping his home in McLoud.

In June, 1914, Mr. Moore came to Tecumseh and has since been the capable man in charge as principal of the Barnard School. He has under his supervision ten teach- ers and a regular enrollment of 520 pupils. In June, 1916, he was granted the degree A. B. from the Teachers

Professional College of Austin, Texas. In politics Pro- fessor Moore is a democrat.

On May 11, 1914, at Tecumseh, he married Miss Edith Fisbaugh. Her father, A. B. Fisbaugh, is a merchant at Jet, Oklahoma. Mrs. Moore was educated in the public schools, finishing the sophomore year in the Christian University at Enid, Oklahoma.

FRANK R. BUCHANAN, M. D. Among the younger members of the medical profession in Oklahoma, Dr. Frank R. Buchanan of Canton has the ability and skill which are guarantees of a permanent success, and has already gained a good practice in and about his home town in Blaine County.

The Buchanan family to which he belongs originated in Scotland and in colonial times was planted in the Province of Pennsylvania. Doctor Buchanan's grand- parents, T. J. and Harriet Buchanan, were both born in the East. His grandfather, T. J. Buchanan, was born in Pennsylvania in 1829, was an early settler and farmer at Windsor, Missouri, where his wife died, and he afterwards moved to Kansas and in 1894 was one of the pioneers to settle in the vicinity of Thomas, where he homesteaded a claim of one hundred sixty acres. He is now living retired at the age of eighty-six in Thomas. During the Civil war he served on the Union side.

T. J. Buchanan, Jr., father of Doctor Buchanan, was born at Windsor, Missouri, in 1865, and when quite a young man entered the railroad service in the South- west. He was married at Albuquerque, New Mexico, to Miss Martha Jane Hughes, who was born in Georgia in 1867. After that he followed railroading for a num- ber of years, with home at Gallup, New Mexico, but in 1896 came to Thomas, Oklahoma, and buying a farm of 160 acres a quarter of a mile northwest of the town, developed his land and has since been one of the pros- perous men engaged in diversified agriculture in this section. He is a member and trustee of the United Brethren Church, and is affiliated with the Brotherhood of American Yeomen. He and his wife are the parents of eight children: Harriet Nuel, wife of William C. Dodd, who is in the insurance business at Thomas, Oklahoma; James H., a railroad foreman at Bloomington, Illinois; Dr. Frank R .; Hazel Winona, a senior in the Thomas High School; Hobart Lawrence, in the freshman class of the Thomas High School; Lewis Edward and Wilhelmina, both students in the public schools; and Amy Oneta.

It was during the residence of his parents at Gallup, New Mexico, that Dr. Frank R. Buchanan was born, June 30, 1892. However, most of his life has been spent in Oklahoma, and he has been a witness to many transformations in the central part of the state. He attended public school at Thomas, but left high school before graduating, and in 1910 entered the University of Arkansas to take up the study of medicine. In 1911 he was granted a high school diploma before the Indiana State Board of Registration. After two years in the University of Arkansas he finished his education by two years in the College of Medicine and Surgery of Val- paraiso University, from which he was graduated with the degree M. D. in the class of 1914.

Doctor Buchanan took up active practice at Thomas on June 1, 1914, in association with Dr. T. B. Hinson. While there he helped to establish the Thomas Hospital, and owned a half interest in that institution. A year later, on June 1, 1915, he removed to Canton, and has since conducted a general practice, though specializing largely in surgery. His offices are over the Bank of Canton.

He is a member of the state and county medical so- cieties and the West Central Medical Society, is a

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HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA

republican in politics, and is affiliated with Thomas Lodge No. 265, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, and Thomas Chapter No. 53, Royal Arch Masons.

On September 10, 1914, at Osakis, Minnesota, Doctor Buchanan married Miss Carrie Hesse, daughter of the late George Hesse, who was a miller. They have one child, Hubert Ruel.

OREN V. DILLON. Since 1903 the cashier of the First National Bank of Geary, Oren V. Dillon has become well known in banking circles of Blaine County as a thor- oughly capable and energetic business man and financier. Mr. Dillon, whose entire career has been passed in the banking business, was born at Scotttown, Ohio, Novem- ber 19, 1883, and is a son of John H. and Josie (Mount) Dillon, natives of Lawrence County, Ohio.

Vincent Dillon, the great-grandfather of Oren V. Dillon, was born in Ireland and was brought to the United States when five years old by his parents, the family settling in Pennsylvania. He grew up in that state and became a pioneer homesteader in Ohio, from whence he drove large herds of cattle and hogs to New York and Boston, via Pittsburgh. His entire career was passed as a farmer and stockman and his death occurred in Lawrence County. Henry Dillon, the grandfather of Oren V. Dillon, was born in Pennsylvania in 1832 and as a lad was taken to Noble County, Ohio, and later to Lawrence County, where he grew up amid pioneer surroundings. Following in the footsteps of his father, he engaged in farming and the raising of live stock, and through in- dustry, energy and good management became one of the substantial men of Lawrence County, where he died in 1896. He was married there to Miss Jane Reed, who was born in 1837, in Noble County, Ohio, and she survives him and resides on the old family homestead. Mr. Dillon was a republican in politics and a consistent member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, to which the grandmother still belongs. They were the parents of four children, namely : Mary, who married L. O. Enochs, and resides on the old homestead with her mother; John H .; Rose, who is the wife of John Ellsworth, the owner of a telephone exchange at Kenefic, Oklahoma; and Grant, who died at the age of nine years.

John H. Dillon was born in Lawrence County, June 12, 1859, and attended the public schools there as well as the normal school located at Lebanon, Ohio. Leaving school at the age of eighteen years, he continued to work on his father's farm until attaining his majority at which time he entered the general merchandise business at Scott- town, Ohio, and continued therein until 1886. In that year Mr. Dillon went to Colorado as manager for the Southern Colorado Townsite Company, a project in which he was interested for three years, and in 1889 came to Oklahoma and took up his residence at Kingfisher, where he was located during the opening of the Cheyenne-Arap- aho Reservation. In 1892 he received the appointment as postmaster of Watonga, Oklahoma, and served in that capacity until March, 1893, when he was elected county treasurer of Blaine County, and served two terms, or four years, during which time he established an excellent record for faithful and efficient public performance of duty. In 1898 Mr. Dillon resigned his office and ac- cepted the position of cashier of the First State Bank of Geary, of which he was one of the organizers, and in 1902 became president of the institution, a position which he has retained to the present time, the bank having received its national charter in 1904 and now being known as the First National Bank of Geary. Mr. Dillon has invested heavily in realty, owning farms in Blaine and Canadian counties, on which he carries on, through tenants, diversified farming and stock raising.

He owns also business houses at Geary and residential properties, as well as his own handsome modern residence, situated in the southwest part of the town. Mr. Dillon belongs to the Oklahoma State Bankers Association. He is a stalwart republican and is fraternally affiliated with Geary Lodge No. 138, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks at El Reno.

In 1882, in Lawrence County, Ohio, Mr. Dillon was united in marriage with Miss Josie Mount, daughter of the late Sam Mount, who was a mechanic, and to this union there have been born six children: Oren V .; Mary, who is the wife of W. M. Gamble, of Oklahoma City, a traveling salesman for the Loose-Wiles Company, con- fectioners; Merrill, Mary's twin brother, who is a banker of Earlsboro, Oklahoma; Jack, who is an employe of the First National Bank of Geary; Miss Agnes, who resides with her parents; and Hobart, who is a freshman in the agricultural and mechanical college, at Stillwater, Okla- homa.

Oren V. Dillon received his education in the public schools of Kingfisher, Oklahoma, but at the age of seven- teen years put aside his studies to begin to secure practical experience in banking, a career in which he had decided to engage. For two years he was con- nected with the Bank of Sayre, Oklahoma, in the capac- ity of cashier, and with this preparation came to Geary in 1903 as cashier of the Bank of Geary, which in the following year was nationalized. The bank occupies a structure on Main Street, corner of Broadway, which was built in 1898 for bank and office purposes, and the present officials of the institution are: John H. Dillon, president; Willard Johnston, vice president; Oren V. Dillon, cashier, and L. E. Troxel, assistant cashier. The capital of the First National Bank is $25,000, with a sur- plus of $5,000, and its depositors come from Blaine and the surrounding counties. It bears an excellent reputa- tion in banking circles as a sound and conservative con- cern, ably and prudently managed.

Mr. Dillon is a republican, but has not been attracted by public life. He is well known in Masonic circles, belonging to Geary Lodge No. 139, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons; Peaceful Valley Chapter No. 59, Royal Arch Masons; Valley of Guthrie Consistory (thirty-sec- ond degree), No. 1, Royal and Select Masters, and India Temple, Ancient Arabic Order Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, of Oklahoma City. Mr. Dillon is unmarried.

CHARLES EVANS, B. S., M. A., LL. D. There can be no conjecture or other uncertainty in determining the value of the services of Doctor Evans in the domain of practical pedagogy, and to few of his age has it been given to wield larger or more benignant influence as an educator of high scholastic attainments and as a broad-minded and progressive executive. He has served since 1911 as president of the Oklahoma Central State Normal School, at Edmond, and prior to coming to Oklahoma he had attained to high reputation in educa- tional circles in Kentucky, his earnest and effective services having given him in his chosen profession a reputation that, in fact, transcends all limitations of merely local order. Oklahoma is signally favored in having enlisted his co-operation and vital enthusiasm in carrying forward the work of popular education within her borders, and he is specially entitled to definite recognition in this publication, that at least a brief record of his service may be perpetuated in the history of this favored and vigorous young common- wealth.

Apropos of the work of Doctor Evans since assuming his present official position, there is consistency in

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offering in a preliminary way a few statements concern- ing the admirable state institution of which he is the executive head, and thus the following quotations are germane :

"Certain facts pertinent to the growth of the Central State Normal School during the four years that Presi- dent Evans has been at its head are illustrative of the ability of the man as an educator and executive. By a unanimous vote of the State Board of Education he was called from the superintendency of the city schools of Ardmore, Carter county, to the presidency of the normal school at a time when the work of this important state institution was lagging and inadequate aud when its spirit was at low ebb. The problem of conducting suc- cessfully a state normal school was to be solved in the new commonwealth, and Dr. Evans fortunately was the one called upon to make the solution,-a task that demanded vigorous policies, marked initiative and administrative ability, great circumspection, and no little constructive talent. He proved equal to all demands thus placed upon him and the results that he has achieved justify the application of the scriptural aphorism that 'By their fruits ye shall know them.' On the 1st of July, 1911, when Dr. Evans assumed charge of the Central Normal School its best enrollment record had been 1,154; the latest attendance figures are 2,981. The graduating class of the preceding year comprised only eighteen members; the graduating class of 1916 comprised 211 members. In 1911 the normal college department had an enrollment of sixty students; that department in 1916 had an enrollment of 1,210 students. Appropriation for the maintenance of the institution in 1911 was $52,500; the state appropriation for 1915, showing legislative appreciation of the work accomplished under the regime of President Evans, was $222,000. Within the four years an additional building for the schools has been erected and placed in commission. All of these statements are significant and bear their own lessons of incentive and inspiration."

In February, 1916, the trustees of Henry Kendall College, of Tulsa, Oklahoma, unanimously elected Doctor Evans to the presidency, carrying with it a tenure of five years and a salary of $5,000 a year. He accepted, and though urged by the State Board of Education and a great student body to remain with Central State Normal, he chose to serve, as he said, not only the schools, but school and church.

At Salem, Livingston County, Kentucky, Charles Evaus was born on the 16th of August, 1870, and he is a son of Enoch E. and Frances E. (Dawson) Evans. His father was a village blacksmith at Salem, a man of strong individuality and sterling integrity, and a representative of an honored pioneer family of Ten- nessee. Enoch E. Evans was born in Montgomery County, Tennessee, where his father had served with . efficiency as an early-day schoolmaster. The lineage of the Evans family, as the name indicates, traces back to Welsh origin, and that the American branch was founded in the Colonial era of our national history is evidenced by the fact that representatives of the name were found as valiant soldiers of the Continental Line in the war of the Revolution.

The preliminary educational discipline of Dr. Charles Evans was obtained in the village schools of his native county, and thereafter he attended the literary or academic department of the University of Kentucky until the close of his junior year. In 1891 he was graduated in the National Normal University, at Lebanon, Ohio, with the degree of Bachelor of Science, and from that time forward to the present has con- tinued his services as an able and honored exponent of the pedagogic profession.

Doctor Evans' initial experience as a teacher was gained in his native Village of Salem, and for twelve years thereafter he was superintendent of the city schools of Marion, the judicial center of Crittenden County, Kentucky. Within this perior of service he gained clear comprehension of the scope and details and the practical possibilities of the educational system that later became popular throughout the different states of the Union in the centralizing of school work in rural and semi-rural communities. He devised plans and methods through which he developed with marked success this community-center policy of educational work at Marion, to which place students were drawn from a wide radius of country, owing to the superior advantages thus possible of being afforded. Doctor Evans became known as one of the most successful pioneers of this admirable movement in the United States, and as his work became known he was frequently called upon for advice on the part of educators in Kentucky and other states. Year after year the Marion Board of Education re-elected him to the office of superintendent of schools, and when he finally announced his intention of removing to the West the board not only earnestly besought him to remain but also tendered to him a life tenure of the superintendency and a definite pension at the time when he became too old for further active service. Gratifying as were these overtures and deeply as he appreciated the same, Doctor Evans felt it expedient to adhere to his decision, and his field of labor in Oklahoma has given him such wide scope for achieve- ment that he has found no cause to regret his decision. He became known as one of the most progressive and popular educators in his native State of Kentucky and was the first to serve throughout all sections of that commonwealth as an instructor in teachers' institutes, the while he was a most active and valued member of the Kentucky Teachers' Association, in the affairs and activities of which he was specially influential.

In 1905 Doctor Evans was elected superintendent of the public schools of the City of Ardmore, Oklahoma, at a salary of $1,200 a year, and the estimate placed upon his services is shown when it is stated that his salary at the time of his resignation, after a regime of six years, was $2,500, the greater part of this marked advancement in recompense having been made within a period of three years after he had assumed the superin- tendency. His splendid record in this incumbency marked him as a leader in educational circles of Okla- homa after the state was admitted to the Union and finally resulted in his election to the presidency of the Central State Normal School, in 1911, as previously noted in this context. In 1908 Doctor Evans was presi- dent of the Chickasaw Teachers' Association, an organ- ization that had previously been formed in the Chickasaw Nation of the Indian Territory, and he has served also as president of the Oklahoma State Teachers' Associa- tion, as well as vice president of the National Educa- tional Association. Not only in a direct and executive way has Doctor Evans been prominent in educational affairs, but he has also been the author of three valuable textbooks. In conjunction with Charles O. Bunn, of Oklahoma City, he prepared the work entitled "Okla- homa Civics," a textbook that has been adopted for general use in the public schools of the state and that has been thus employed since 1910. Doctor Evans is the author also of a work entitled "Oklahoma Civics and History; " and another entitled "Growing a Life," this being a treatise on pedagogy and psychology and one that has been adopted as a textbook in five dif- ferent states of the Union, including his native State

of Kentucky. In 1913, in recognition of his eminent services in his chosen profession and his high intel-

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lectual attainments, the University of Kentucky con- ferred upon him the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws. "He who serves is royal," and such mark of distinction signally applies to him whose life has been thus conse- crated to high ideals and that has shown such large and worthy achievement as that of Doctor Evans, whose circle of friends and admirers is coincident with that of his acquaintances. Concerning him the following pertinent statements have been written and are worthy of perpetuation :

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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