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 83

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 83

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"As an educator Dr. Evans has emphasized the idea of usefulness,-in other words, he advocates and teaches that education should be vital and productive, an edu- cation that walks and talks and makes itself a factor in human activities. His practical exploiting of this idea gave birth to well matured plans for enhancing the civic and material attractiveness of Edmond, the seat of the Central Normal School, and the result is that the place has been reclaimed from a somewhat straggling and unkempt village into a modern little city of manifold attractions and great civic pride. As a member of the pedagogic profession Dr. Evans is one of its most forceful, well informed and pleasing public speakers in Oklahoma, and there is almost constant demand for his acceptance of engagements to address various representative associations of both public and private order. He is deeply interested in the work of the Young Men's Christian Association, is state com- mitteeman from Oklahoma in the national organization, and both he and his wife are zealous and devoted mem- bers of the Presbyterian church. "

In addition to his identification with Oklahoma State Teachers' Association and the National Educational Association, Doctor Evans holds membership in the North Central Council of Presidents of Normal Schools of the United States. He is president of the State Civic Association of Oklahoma, having aided in its organization and having from the beginning been one of its most active and enthusiastic workers. In the furtherance of civic beauty he is especially interested in promoting the cultivation of flowers, and his favorite in the floral kingdom is the chrysanthemum.

At Ardmore, this state, Doctor Evans is affiliated with the lodge of Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, and in this time-honored fraternity he has received, in the con- sistory at McAlester, Oklahoma, the thirty-second degree of the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite, besides which he is affiliated with Ardmore Lodge, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, and with a lodge of Knights of Pythias at Marion, Kentucky. Doctor Evans has one brother and one sister,-Judge Thomas Evans, who is a resident of the City of Paducah, Kentucky, and who served twelve years on the bench of the County Court; and Dora, who is the wife of James A. Sherrill, a pros- perous jewelery merchant at Stephansville, Texas.

At Marion, Kentucky, in 1897, was solemnized the marriage of Doctor Evans to Miss Martha Blue, daughter of Judge John W. Blue, a representative lawyer and jurist of the old Blue Grass State. Mrs. Evans is a woman of culture and gracious personality, represent- ann, of ing the best of the gentle traditions concerning the "Okla- ted for nd that Grans is a Civics women of her native state, and she has exceptional ability as an artist, her exhibits of drawing and china painting having been awarded prizes at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, held in the City of St. Louis. Doctor and Mrs. Evans became the parents of two Life," children, Charles and Edward, the latter of whom died ogy and in 1912, at the age of eight years. Charles, who was five dif- born in 1902, is now (1915) a student in the high school re State department of the Central Normal School of Oklahoma, eminent of which his father is president.

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EDD FITCH MILLIGAN, M. D. No physician of Blaine County has a better record for straightforward and high professional conduct, or for success gained through per- sonal merit and effort, than has Dr. Edd Fitch Milligan, who since 1908 has been engaged in practice at Geary. Like a number of other prominent professional men of West Oklahoma, he is a native of the Buckeye State, born at Youngstown, October 11, 1875, a son of William John . and Martha (Brownlee) Milligan.

The Milligan family was founded in the United States by William Milligan, a native of Ireland, who came from County Tyrone and settled in Ohio, being married at Can- field, where he subsequently enjoyed a long career as a successful attorney and died in advanced years before the birth of Doctor Milligan. On his grandmother's side, Doctor Milligan is related to the Professor McGuffey who was the author of the old McGuffey speller and reader so widely used in our schools several generations back. William John Milligan, father of Doctor Milligan, was born at Canfield, Ohio, in 1830, and as a' young man removed to Youngstown, Ohio, where he passed the rest of his life as a stone contractor and died in 1907. He was a democrat, although not a politician, and was a member of the Presbyterian Church, to which Mrs. Mil- ligan still belongs. She was born at Youngstown, Ohio, in 1840, and still makes her home there. There were eight children in the family as follows: N. R., who is a contractor and his father's successor in the business at Youngstown; W. R., who is a ranchman and resides at Denver, Colorado; McGuffey, who died at Youngstown, Ohio, at the age of forty years; Ada, who is the wife of O. E. Forsdick, a carpenter and builder at Cleveland, Ohio; J. T., who is a ranchman of Como, Colorado; Dr. Edd Fitch; Betsey B., who resides with her mother at the old home at Youngstown; and J. R., who is a con- tractor of that city.

Edd Fitch Milligan was educated in the public schools of Youngstown, and was graduated from the Reyen High School in the class of 1894. Following this he took a preparatory course at the Poland Seminary, being grad- uated in 1897, and matriculated in Northeastern Univer- sity of Ohio, at Canfield, where he pursued a course and received his degree of Bachelor of Art in 1899. His medical studies were prosecuted in the medical depart- ment of Denver University, where he was graduated in 1905, with the degree of Doctor of Medicine, and while attending that institution became a member of the Alpha Kappa Kappa, a Greek letter medical fraternity, to which he still belongs. After receiving his degree, Doctor Milligan served one year as interne in St. Luke's Hos- pital, Denver, Colorado, and in 1906 entered upon the practice of his calling at Quenemo, Kansas, where he re- mained until coming to Geary, Oklahoma, October 1, 1908. Here he has since been successfully engaged in a general medical and surgical practice, with offices on Blaine Avenue. He has acquired a large and lucrative patronage and enjoys the respect and confidence of all classes, both at Geary and in the surrounding country, where he has numerous calls for his services. He keeps fully abreast of the various advancements being made in the profession, and holds membership in the organ- izations of his calling, thus keeping in close touch with the professional brotherhood. In 1915 Doctor Milligan completed his handsome new residence, in connection with which is his garage, where he keeps his two new model automobiles. Doctor Milligan is a republican, but has not mixed in public affairs save as an advocate of all measures promoted for the public welfare. He is a member of Golden Rule Lodge No. 87, Knights of Pythias, Quenemo, Kansas; past noble grand of Quenemo Lodge and a member of Geary Lodge No. 138, Inde-

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HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA

pendent Order of Odd Fellows, and is a thirty-second degree, Scottish Rite Mason, belonging to Geary Lodge No. 139, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, of which he is past master; Peaceful Valley Chapter No. 59, Royal Arch Masons; Consistory No. 1, Topeka, Kansas; and Indian Temple, Ancient Arabie Order of Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, Oklahoma City. With Mrs. Milligan he at- tends the Presbyterian Church, of which both are mem- bers, and in which he is now serving as an elder.

Doetor Milligan was married September 30, 1908, at Fort Scott, Kansas, to Miss Myrtle J. Wright, of Eureka, Kansas, daughter of the late Edward Wright, who was in the insurance business. Doetor and Mrs. Milligan are the parents of one son: Donald Edd, who was born December 5, 1909.

FRANK BENCE, M. D. One of the early physicians and surgeons to establish themselves in practice in Potta- watomie and Cleveland counties is Dr. Frank Bence, whose home is now at Macomb. Doctor Bence is a prac- titioner of more than forty years active experience. He praetieed in Ohio and Indiana before coming to Oklahoma, and at this date he is widely recognized for his ability and for his many associations with the profession and with public affairs.

He was born in Ashland County, Ohio, March 19, 1852. His father, William Benee, was drowned at sea soon after the birth of Doetor Bence and the mother had passed away a short time before. Doetor Benee grew up in the home of his maternal grandfather, Shriner, who was a native of Pennsylvania, in which state he was reared and married, and was an early set- tler in Ashland County, Ohio. Peter Shriner was also a physician, and combined that profession with farm- ing. He had seen active service as a soldier in the Mexican war. From Ohio he moved to Indiana. At his death he was, it is said, one hundred fifteen years of age. He reared seventeen children to manhood and woman- hood.

In the home of his grandfather Doetor Bence acquired his early training in Ashland County, Ohio. He studied medicine under his grandfather, and took his first case when only seventeen years of age. Some years later he entered the Physicians and Surgeons College in Chi- eago, from which he was graduated M. D. in June, 1889. His home and work as a physician were in Ash- land County, Ohio, until 1890, in which year he removed to Talbott, Indiana. From there in 1897 he came to Oklahoma City, remained there about a year, and then went into Cleveland County, and has since been a prom- inent member of the medical fraternity in that and in Pottawatomie County with the exception of eighteen months spent at Rosedale, in McClain County.

Doctor Bence first located at Eteuwah in 1903, but from there a few months later moved to Tribbey and Old Burnett. In April, 1915, he re-established his prac- tiee and home at Macomb.

He was one of the charter members of the Oklahoma State Medical Society, and a member of the Potta- watomie County Society. In polities he is a republican and in earlier years took a very prominent part in politi- cal affairs. For six years he was a member of the school board in Old Burnett, and has served on the County Central Republican Committees of both Cleve- land and Pottawatomie counties. Besides his large pri- vate practice he is examiner for the Kansas City Life Insurance Company, the Bankers' Life Insurance Com- pany of Oklahoma, the Indianapolis Reserve and Loan Company, and the New York Life Insurance Com- pany, and at one time was local surgeon for the Okla- homa Central Railroad. Doetor Bence was reared in the

Episcopal faith. He is affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Knights of Pythias in the lodges in Linwood, Kansas.

In Ashland County, Ohio, in 1874, he married Miss Mary Crull, who was born in Ohio in 1857. Her father was a Union soldier and was killed during the war. To their marriage have been born six children: Minnie, wife of William Slate, a farmer and stockman at Lind- say, Oklahoma; Walter, who is a motorman for the Street Railway Company at Shawnee; Leta, wife of Charles Sheppard, who is manager of the Central Telephone Exchange at Macomb; Pearl, wife of Willis Buggs, who resides in Leavenworth, Kansas; Vernon, in the livery business at Macomb; and Bertha, still at home with her parents.

STONEWALL JACKSON. That Mr. Jackson received his Christian or personal name in honor of one of the great and revered heroes and officers of the Confederate service in the Civil war and that his family name makes the appellation the more consistent finds further reinforce- ment through the fact that his father was a gallant soldier of the Confederacy during virtually the entire period of the war between the states of the North and the South, his service of four years having been rendered as a member of a Louisiana regiment and it having been his portion to participate in many spirited engagements, ineluding a number of important battles. He was al- ways found at the post of duty and in one engagement he received a severe wound.

Stonewall Jackson has been a resident of Cheyenne, judicial center of Roger Mills County, since 1902, and through his own executive ability, his circumspection as a financier and his impregnable integrity of purpose he has become an influential figure in connection with bank- ing activities in the western part of the state. In his home town he is now president of the Cheyenne State Bank, of which office he has been the incumbent since 1912, and he is president also of the First State Bank of Strong City; vice president of the Crawford State Bank, of Crawford, Roger Mills County; and a director of the Guaranty State Bank of Texola, Beckham County. His prominence in financial cireles is further indicated by his having served in 1913 as treasurer of the Okla- homa Bankers' Association, of which he continues an active and valued member.

Stonewall Jackson was born at Alto, Cherokee County, Texas, on the 2d of December, 1877, and is a son of William D. and Mary (Kendall) Jackson, both natives of Louisiana, the former having died at Mars Hill, Arkansas, in 1879, and the latter being now a resident of Magnum, Greer County, Oklahoma.

William D. Jackson was born in the year 1834, and was reared and educated in Louisiana, from which state he went forth as a valiant soldier of the Confederacy in the Civil war, as previously noted. In his native state his marriage was solemnized, and after the close of the war he removed to Arkansas, whence, about 1877, he went with his family to Texas, but about three years later he returned to Arkansas, where he passed the re- mainder of his life, his active career having found him successfully engaged as a contractor and also a representative of the live-stock industry. He was a seion of a sterling family that was founded in the state of Georgia in the colonial period of our national his- tory, and it is to be presumed that the first representa- tives of the name in America settled in Virginia. Of his three children the eldest is Willie, who is the wife of William H. Thomason, a farmer in Beaver County, Okla- homa; Stonewall, of this review, was the next in order of birth; and Ida, whose death occurred at Magnum, Greer County, this state, was the wife of Rev. Charles

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HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA

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R. Roberts, who is still a resident of that place and who is a clergyman of the Baptist Church.

To the public schools of Arkansas and Texas Stone- wall Jackson is indebted for his early educational dis- cipline, and in 1901 he was graduated in the Sam Hous- ton Normal School of Texas. He thereafter devoted his attention to teaching in the schools of the Lone Star State until June of the following year when he came to Oklahoma Territory and established his home at Cheyenne, where he assumed the position of cashier of the Cheyenne State Bank, with which he has since been actively identified and of which he has been president since 1912. The bank was established in 1898, by Thur- mond Brothers, and it is one of the oldest and strongest financial institutions in this section of the state. Its operations are now based on a capital stock of $20,000, and its surplus fund is $2,500. The vice president of the institution is J. H. Kendall; G. B. Lovett is cashier, and J. L. Finch holds the position of assistant cashier.

Insistently progressive and public-spirited as a citi- zen, Mr. Jackson has taken a specially loyal interest in all that touches the civic and material welfare and ad- vancement of his home town and county, and he is found aligned as a staunch supporter of the cause of the demo- cratic party. He and his wife are zealous and influential members of the Baptist Church at Cheyenne, and he is giving effective service as teacher of the Bible class in its Sunday school. Mr. Jackson is affiliated with Cheyenne Lodge, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, of which he is past master; with Cheyenne Chapter, Royal Arch Masons; with Elk City Commandery, Knights Templars, at the county seat of Beckham County; and with Indian Temple, Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, in Oklahoma City. In addi- tion to these Masonic affiliations he holds membership in Cheyenne Lodge No. 237, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and Cheyenne Camp, Modern Woodmen of America.

At Cheyenne the year 1904 recorded the marriage of Mr. Jackson to Miss Texia H. Hornbeak, daughter of Rev. James A. Hornbeak, who is a clergyman of the Presbyterian Church and who now resides in the City of Dallas, Texas, his brother, Dr. S. L. Hornbeak, being a member of the faculty of Trinity University, at Waxa- hachie, Texas, in which institution Mrs. Jackson was graduated. Mr. and Mrs. Jackson have one child, Mar- jorie, who was born July 8, 1907.

JAMES S. BARNETT, M. D. Of the contingent of able and successful physicians and surgeons who are well npholding the dignity and prestige of their profession in Blaine County, a prominent and popular representative is Doctor Barnett, who maintains his residence and pro- fessional headquarters in the vigorous and thriving Vil- lage of Hitchcock and who has built up an excellent general practice in that section of the county.

Doctor Barnett was born at Columbia, Boone County, Missouri, on the 31st of July, 1871, and is a son of Jesse E. and Mary A. (Batterton) Barnett, both likewise natives of Boone County, Missouri, where the former was born in 1843 and the latter in 1848, the respective fam- ilies having been pioneers of that section of the state and prominently identified with its civic and industrial devel- opment. The lineage of the Barnett family traces back to staunch Scotch-Irish origin and its first representatives in America settled in Virginia, in the colonial period of our national history.

Jesse E. Barnett passed the major part of his long and useful life in his native county and his active career was given principally to agricultural pursuits and the livestock business. At the time of the Civil war he became one of the youthful and loyal soldiers of the Con-

federacy, his service covering a period of three years and he having been in the command of the gallant General Price. He took part in numerous engagements, in Mis- souri, Arkansas and Louisiana, and with his command surrendered at Shreveport, Louisiana, at the close of the war. He was a man of broad mental ken, earnest and steadfast in all of the relations of life, never desirous of notoriety or public office, but loyal to all civic duties. His allegiance was given to the democratic party, he was a deacon in the Christian Church, of which his widow has long been a devoted member, and was affiliated with the United Confederate Veterans. He continued his opera- tions as a farmer and stock-grower in Boone County until 1889, when he removed to Columbia, the county seat, where he lived virtually retired until his death, which occurred in 1908, and where his widow still maintains her home. Of their children the firstborn, Pearl, died at the age of eighteen years; Dr. James S., of this review, was the next in order of birth; George H. was a resident of Columbia, Missouri, at the time of his death, when twenty-nine years of age, and thus was cut short a most prominent career, as he had been graduated in the law department of the University of Missouri and was prose- cuting attorney of his native county at the time of his death; Lawrence died at the age of eight years; Edward, who was editor and publisher of a newspaper at Joplin, Missouri, at the time of his death, passed to the life eternal at the age of thirty-three years; Mary J. is a popular teacher in the high school at Columbia, Missouri; Bessie C. is superintendent of the telephone exchange in the same city; and Carrie is a teacher in the high school at Hannibal, Missouri.

To the public schools of his native city Dr. James S. Barnett is indebted for his preliminary educational dis- cipline, which was supplemented by a four years' course in the academic department of the University of Missouri. In consonance with his ambition and well matured plans he then entered the medical department of the university, in which he completed the prescribed curriculum and was graduated as a member of the class of 1896, his recep- tion of the degree of Doctor of Medicine having occurred on the 3rd of June of that year. The doctor wisely for- tified himself in practical clinical experience by serving several months thereafter as interne in one of the lead- ing hospitals in the City of St. Louis, and after leaving the metropolis of his native state he was engaged in practice one year in his home City of Columbia. There- after he continued his successful professional activities in Audrain County, Missouri, until 1901, when he came to Oklahoma Territory and engaged in practice at Geary, Blaine County. Two months later he transferred his residence and professional base of operations to the Town of Hitchcock, where he located in October, 1901, only a few weeks after the founding of the town. He is thus the pioneer physician and surgeon of this place and in addition to having given the best of his talents and powers to the exacting work of his profession during the entire period of his residence in Blaine County, he has been also one of the broad-minded and progressive citi- zens whose influence and co-operation has made possible the development and upbuilding of the fine little Town of Hitchcock. He is the only resident physician of the village and his practice extends throughout the wide section of country tributary to the town, his office being maintained in a building on Main Street. That Doctor Barnett is emphatically one of the representative physi- cians and surgeons of this section of the state and that he holds high place in the confidence and esteem of his confreres is shown by his having been called upon to serve as president of the Blaine County Medical Society, of which he continues an active and influential member, be-

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HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA

sides being identified also with the Oklahoma State Med- ical Society and the American Medical Association.

The doctor has pronounced himself an "old-school" democrat in politics, and though he has been importuned to become a candidate for political office he has invaria- bly refused to consider such overtures, as he deems his profession worthy of his undivided time and attention. He and his wife hold membership in the Christian Church, and he is affiliated with Hitchcock Lodge, No. 191, Inde- pendent Order of Odd Fellows, of which he has served three different terms as noble grand, and he holds mem- bership also in the local organizations of the Modern Woodmen of America, the Ancient Order of United Work- men, the Brotherhood of American Yeomen, and the Mutual Benefit Associatiou.

At Mexico, Audrain County, Missouri, was solemnized the marriage of Doctor Barnett to Miss Lula B. Thomas, whose father, now deccased, was a representative farmer of that county. Doctor and Mrs. Barnett have four children, Ruth, Josephine, Lucille, and James Thomas.

L. A. WISMEYER. One of the oldest and best known Indian traders of the Osage County, it is likely that the name of L. A. Wismeyer will be chiefly remembered through future generations for his enterprise in founding the Town of Fairfax in Osage County. He took the lead in starting the town there when the railroad was con- structed in 1903. Not long ago the editor of a local paper who was closely familiar with all Wismeyer's public spirited activities at the time described his part in the founding and upbuilding of the town in the following language: "He borned the town, nursed it in its infancy and paid the doctor's bill. He built the first school- house and helped to build all the churches, and whether he belonged to any of them or all of them his name appears on the records of at least two as trustee or incorporator. In his townsite bill he secured for Fair- fax ten acres of land for a cemetery, a gift from the department that no other town on the reservation received. He was the first merchant in Fairfax and established the first lumber yard. He was at the head of the Fairfax Grain Company that built the first ele- vator. He was one of the organizers of the First National Bank and served as president of that institu- tion for a number of years and was one of three men that erected the bank's splendid quarters. In short, Mr. Wismeyer has been a public benefactor and in the long run Fairfax has been the greater beneficiary of his labors. "

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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