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 89

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 89

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).

Mr. Bellis was born in Posey County, Indiana, near the Town of Cynthiana, December 25, 1843, and is a son of Charles H. and Mary (Benson) Bellis, natives of Indiana, the father born July 4, 1818, and the mother about 1827. She died about 1860, when thirty-three

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HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA

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years of age, and in 1863 Charles H. Bellis was again married, being united with Jane Alcon. Two years later, with David B. Bellis and his wife, they moved to Kansas, and there the father was engaged in agricultural pursuits until his death in 1885, which was caused by a fall when he was sixty-seven years of age. Charles H. Bellis was the father of six children: David B .; Elizabeth, who died as the wife of Charles Shultice; Jane, who is the widow of Mark Benson, of New Mexico; Euphemia, deceased, who was the wife of Peter Gursch, deceased; Mary, deceased, who was the wife of John Calhoun; and William, a resident of Kansas.

David B. Bellis was educated in the district schools of Posey County, Indiana, and grew up on the home farm, where he was residing at the outbreak of the Civil war. He was eighteen years of age when he enlisted in the Union army as a private in Company B, Sixtieth Regi- ment, Indiana Volunteer Infantry, with which organiza- tion he served for eleven months and ten days, at the end of that time receiving his honorable discharge on account of disability. Returning to his home, he again took up farming with his father, with whom he continued operations until his marriage, October 5, 1865, to Miss Sarah J. McReynolds, who was born in Warrick County, Indiana, July 18, 1847, a daughter of J. B. and Matilda (Carnahan) McReynolds, natives of Indiana, the former of whom died in Kansas and the latter in California.

Shortly after his marriage Mr. Bellis and his wife started on their wedding tour, a journey which lasted seven weeks and five days. During this time they traveled in a covered wagon across the country, and finally reached their destination in Ottawa County, Kansas, where they lived for twenty-three years. In 1868, during the Indian raids, they moved to Missouri, but after about four years returned to Kansas. At the time of their arrival they found hardships and difficulties facing them. Railroads there were none, or schools or school districts; even ordinary highways were few and far between; labor was to be secured at not less than $5 a day, and even the barest necessities of life were correspondingly high. Mrs. Bellis organized a subscription school in their home during the latter '60s, and soon had a class of twenty pupils. Money was scarce at that time and she received remuneration for her labors in various ways, one family paying her in buffalo meat, while another neighbor, anxious to educate her children, paid off his debt in breaking a tract of prairie for the Bellis family. Mr. Bellis, who devoted his time to breaking his land and putting it under cultivation, also found the leisure to serve as the first postmaster at Coal Creek, Kansas, Mrs. Bellis looking after the postoffice. As the years passed he was able to develop a good farm and resided thereon until the opening of the Cherokee Strip, in 1893, attracted him to Oklahoma. He first secured a claim twelve miles south of Guthrie, on which he resided until coming to Payne County, and four years later retired from active pursuits and took up his residence at Cushing, where he now lives, one of his community's highly respected and substantial citizens. Mr. Bellis is a republican in politics. The religious faith of himself and wife is that of the Presbyterian Church, and the only order with which he is connected is the Grand Army of the Republic.

Mr. and Mrs. Bellis have been the parents of five children: Mary Matilda, who is the wife of E. N. Hunt, of Guthrie; John H., president of the Commonwealth Cotton Oil Company, and one of the foremost business men of Cushing, a sketch of whose career appears else- where in this work; Etta M., for seventeen years a teacher in the schools of Oklahoma, and now the wife of W. L. Lormer, of Cushing; C. Oliver, who is a resident of Klamath County, Oregon; and Alice, who was also a

teacher for several years, is the wife of L. J. Martin, of Cushing.

HON, OLIVER C. DALE. A willingness to face hard- ships in the working out of a well defined plan of action, a perseverance which declined to accept defeat, a faith in self which buoyed him up under discouragement and disappointment, and a preparedness to grasp opportunity when it finally presented itself, combined to place Oliver C. Dale, now mayor of Yale and one of the leading oil men of Oklahoma, on the high road to fortune and position.

He and his family are now reckoned among the wealthiest people of Oklahoma. Their wealth is not only due to the fact that their land holdings are a part of the great Cushing oil field, but also to the splendid ability with which Mr. Dale has handled the suddenly increased responsibilities thrust upon him after the discovery of oil. When he came to Red Fork in the Creek Nation in 1901, he had experienced a set back in his individual fortunes that would have terminated the efforts of one less deter- mined in nature, but Mr. Dale would not admit failure. He had the courage of his convictions-implicit confidence in his own judgment. Perseveringly and along a straight line of action he worked out his own salvation and his career is well worthy a place among the annals of men of Oklahoma who have lived and labored to purpose.

Oliver C. Dale was born in Jasper County, Missouri, December 23, 1871, a son of Henry C. and Emma J. (Barker) Dale. He belongs to a family which traces its ancestry in America back to Sir Thomas Dale, the founder of the family in this country, and the first governor of Virginia. Rev. George Dale, his great-great- grandfather, was a missionary Baptist preacher in Vir- ginia and a man of great physique, weighing nearly 400 pounds. Elijah Dale, his great-grandfather, was born in 1794 in Virginia, was captured by the Indians at the battle of Tippecanoe while fighting under General Harri- son, was subsequently exchanged and fought through the War of 1812. When still a young man he went to Ken- tucky and married there Frances Shelton. They went to Boone County, Missouri, then to Jasper County, and later to Moniteau County, where Elijah Dale died at the age of seventy-four. His wife passed away in Jasper County when eighty-eight years of age. They had eight chil- dren: Alfred, Robert J., James M., Phielden, Meadley, Mrs. Malinda Griffith, Mrs. Mary Sunday and Mrs. Rebecca Martin.

Robert J. Dale, the grandfather of Oliver C. Dale, was born in Kentucky in 1820 and was eighteen years of age when he located with his parents in Jasper County, Missouri. There he married Olive Cox, who was born in 1822 in Tennessee and was brought to Missouri by her parents about the same time as her husband arrived. With the exception of seven years from 1863 until 1870, when they lived in Moniteau County, they passed the remaining years of their lives in Jasper County and both died at Carthage, Missouri, Robert J. at the age of ninety and his wife when about eighty. He was a farmer, trader and stock dealer, was clerk in the Baptist Church for a long period and throughout his life sup- ported the principles of the democratic party. Robert J. and Olive Dale had seven children as follows: George F., of Moniteau County, Missouri; Mrs. Mary M. Hughes, deceased; Henry C .; Mrs. Ann F. Wise, of Carthage, Missouri; Mrs. Permelia B. Howard of Cooper County, Missouri; Mrs. Martha J. Johnson of Carl Junction, Jasper County, Missouri; and Mrs. Canzada Hind, deceased.

Henry C. Dale, father of Oliver C. Dale, was educated in the public schools of Missouri and until reaching the age of twenty-three resided with his parents. He then

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attended school for six months and for six years there- after was occupied as an educator in the country dis- triets, at the end of that time turning his attention once more to farming, in which he was occupied for sixteen years. Next he went to Galena, Cherokee County, Kansas, where he followed mining for a short time and the real estate business for two years, and then again resumed the vocation of agriculture. He was one of the promi- nent men of his community and served as justice of the peace for twelve years, resigning that office when he came to Yale, Oklahoma, February 14, 1915. He still lives at Yale and has assisted his son Oliver in the latter's ex- tensive business affairs. A democrat all his life, he is a devout member of the Missionary Baptist Church. Henry Dale at one time owned a farm in Jasper Couuty, Missouri, which had been homesteaded from the Govern- ment by a man named Hammer. Hammer sold it to Robert J. Dale for $500. Robert sold it to his son Henry for $600. Henry disposed of the land to M. L. Reed for $1,600, who iu turn received $2,200 for it from Tom Pete Moss. This farm has always been an object of special association and affection in the Dale family. In 1915 Oliver C. Dale went to Missouri and bought the land for $17,800. He now has a corps of experts en- gaged in making a thorough test of the property, pros- pecting for lead and zine deposits. The property con- tains 220 acres.

On December 11, 1870, Henry C. Dale married Miss Emma J. Barker, who was born November 19, 1851, in Moniteau County, Missouri, daughter of Charles L. and Delilah (Eads) Barker. Of this uniou there were eight children : Oliver C .; Charley, who resides at Galena, Kansas; Arthur, deceased; Mrs. Maggie Lewman and Mrs. Canzada Jarrett, both deceased; Henry Clay, prin- cipal of the high school at Columbus, Kansas; Gordou, who is manager of the O. C. Dale Department Store at Yale; and Mrs. Willa Anna Pettit, of Yale.

Oliver C. Dale received a public school education and worked with his father on the home farm, and while the family was living at Galena, Kansas, worked in the mines there and at Joplin, Missouri, for about three years. On May 6, 1896, at Galena, Kansas, he married Miss Izora E. Miller, who was born in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, February 28, 1879, and at five years of age came to Indian Territory with her parents, Charles H. and Cevilla (Mowery) Miller. Charles H. Miller, who was a prominent ranchman, died at the home of Mayor Dale in 1912, while Mrs. Miller still survives and resides on a farm in Creek County, Oklahoma. Charles Miller was a very prominent man in the Creek Natiou in the early days. He was a quarter-blood Cherokee and was an adopted citizen of the Creek tribe. It was his Indian citizenship which brought to the Dale family the heritage of land which by a happy turn of fortune have converted his descendants into the wealthiest people in their section of Oklahoma. In an illustrated article which was pub- lished in the magazine section of the St. Louis Post- Dispatch in August, 1915, something is said about Charlie Miller and the part he played in the early days of Okla- homa. He was one of the men who stood for law and order in a country where lawless couditions largely pre- vailed. He rendered special service as member of a band of vigilantes which expelled two of the most notorious bands of outlaws ever known in Eastern Oklahoma, one of them being the Buck gang and the other led by "Narrow-Gauged Kid," one of the most infamous cattle rustlers in the territory. Charlie Miller himself had some exciting battles with these marauders. Due to this and his otherwise prominent activities he was adopted into the Creek tribe.

After his marriage Oliver C. Dale made a trip to

the Indian country but failed to establish himself with any degree of success and then returned to Kansas. In 1901 he came to Red Fork in the Creek Natiou, where he helped to unload and set up the rig of the party that made the first oil strike in Iudian Territory. Subse- quently he came to the lands of his wife in Creek County, nine miles southeast of Yale. Mrs. Dale and her children had participated iu the allotment of lands in that section, she and her two daughters receiving 150 acres each. On this land Mr. Dale spent part of his time hunting and fishing. At that time the Dale farni was thirty miles from any railroad. He and his family experienced all the hardships that are a part of the life of the pioneer, and he drove on several occasions sixty miles for the purpose of spending $2 for pro- visions. In the Post-Dispatch article already mentioned there is illustrated the old log house in which the Dale family lived while on the farm. After four years he removed from the farm to Yale in 1905, and worked for one year in a store. Later for three years he ran an engine in a cotton giu, which was put up originally for the big blacksmith shop in this end of the state. Mr. Dale in fact supported his family by work at the anvil, and comparatively little attention was given to the family land. Then came the great oil strike which brought the Cushing oil field into existence. The Dale lands were in the very center of this new oil district, and the allot- ment of the older daughter, Vida, soon was yielding 100,000 barrels a month, while the land of her sister Mabel developed about fourteen producing wells and was almost equally productive.

About the beginning of the Cushing oil field Mr. Dale gave up his work as a blacksmith and began trading in oil leases. He proved a very shrewd trader, and in two years built up a fortune on his own account. His oil interests and his many other affairs now occupy his entire atten- tion. He is identified with the Twin State Oil Company, the Producers Oil Company, the MeMann Oil Company and the Shaffer Oil Company. In the interests of these concerns he travels all over Oklahoma and adjoining states. He is the owner in his own right of 700 acres of oil land in Ada, and his holdings total 2,000 acres in Oklahoma, 900 acres in Missouri and 1,000 acres in Kansas. In the spring of 1915 Mr. Dale became the owner by purchase of the O. C. Dale department store, which is now under the management of his brother Gordon. He has contributed materially to the upbuilding of Yale, his latest contribution in this line being his own residence, Fern Dale, erected in 1915 at a cost of $14,000. This is a seventeen room house on F Street, located on an elevation overlooking Yale and three other towns, and is not only the costliest home in Yale but one of the finest in the state. It has every modern convenience, is finished in mahogany with white maple floors, every room is hand decorated and this last item alone cost $1,600. Mr. Dale has also erected a number of other residences in Yale and at present owns five valuable homes. He is interested in the Farmers National Bank and in various other enterprises which contribute to Yale's business importance and prestige.

A stalwart democrat in politics, in 1912 he was made a: Wilson delegate to the National Convention at Baltimore. He was one of the original Wilson men in Oklahoma. and has been a strong supporter of his administration He has also had experience as a delegate to county and state conventions of his party, and spent six years or the school board. He was on the board when the district was consolidated, this being the first consolidated district in the state.

In the spring of 1915 he was elected mayor of Yale without opposition, and is proving himself as able al Los An

Vol. V

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executive as he has shown himself a business man. The office means to him not only a distinctive honor but also a responsibility. It is said that he has spent many times his salary on public improvements which he con- siders the town should have, and is working constantly for the best interests of the entire community. In fact the welfare of Yale has first place in his thoughts, in spite of the fact that his enormous business interests might well require his entire time. He has been one of the community's most liberal supporters of movements making for religious, social, educational or civic benefit.

Mr. and Mrs. Dale are the parents of six children: Vida May, who married Arthur I. Tull of Yale aud has a son named Arthur; Mabel, now about fifteen years of age; and Charles Henry, Dare D., Georgia and Del Val. All the younger children still reside in the magnificent home of their parents. The two older daughters are now said to be the richest girls in Oklahoma, and on that account have received much attention from the press and the public generally. It is an interesting fact that wealth has left them unspoiled. Vida, the older daughter, did not allow her sudden wealth to interfere with the continuance of her happy courtship with Arthur Tull, aud the younger daughter Mabel has continued to be a friend to her child playmates in Yale without special regard for the distinctions that wealth have surrounded her with.

HARRY E. ALTON. The Alton Mercantile Company of Enid is almost in a class by itself among the whole- sale grocery houses of the Southwest. It is a busi- ness with more than twenty-five years of development, and has behind it a remarkable wealth of experience and personal ability. "The Alton Goods" are distributed among the retail merchants all over Western Oklahoma and the City of Enid takes special pride in this mag- nificent enterprise. The president of the corporation is S. T. Alton, who was formerly a traveling salesman, and fonuded a small business at Arkansas, Kansas, during the '80s, and is now practically retired. The vice pres- ident is T. C. Smallwood, and the secretary and treasurer and active manager is Harry E. Alton, a son of the president.

The business was established at Enid in 1903 as a branch of the main house at Oklahoma City. S. T. Alton engaged in the wholesale grocery business at Oklahoma City in 1897, and that city was headquarters until 1905. In the latter year the business was concentrated at Enid, and in the past ten years there has been a constant ex- pansion. In 1905 $100,000 approximately was invested in the business. This has since been increased to an aggregate of more than $250,000, including the value of the buildings. The main building has 30,000 square feet of floor space, and an additional building containing 20,000 square feet of warehouse space, with convenient railroad connections, was erected in 1915. The trade of the company extends all over Western and Southern Okla- homa, the Panhandle of Texas and Southern Kansas. There are twelve traveling representatives, who are con- tomers. About fifty persons are employed in the local establishment at Enid. The growth in the ten years since locating at Enid has been very satisfactory, and the limits of expansion are not yet in sight. stantly on the road visiting the 1,500 or more retail cus- made a timore, ahoma tration ity and ears on en the alidated

S. T. Alton was in the wholesale business at Arkansas City, Kansas, from 1889, and the house which he estab- lished there is still flourishing. He finally sold to his partner, J. A. Ranney, who is now deceased, but whose sons continue the business. Though Mr. S. T. Alton is of Yalastill president and the principal owner, he has lived at able an Los Angeles since 1910. For fifteen years he was a Vol. V-20

traveling salesman representing the Chicago soap manu- facturing house of James S. Kirk & Company, and cov- ered the Western States. With this thorough experience and acquaintance with the trade, he established a busi- mess of his own with a very modest capital at Arkansas City. Throughout his career of residence in Oklahoma he has been in the wholesale grocery business.

The Alton Mercantile Company, as importers, wholesale grocers and coffee roasters, now have anuual sales aggre- gating $1,000,000. From time to time the company has taken advantage of developing trade and transportation conditions. When S. T. Alton moved from Arkansas City to Oklahoma City, it was to take advantage of distribu- tion conditions, and the same factor was prominent in establishing the branch at Enid. At Oklahoma City the house already had other competitors, but there was no wholesale house at Enid. The company roasts its own brand of coffee, and a graduate chemist from the State University of Oklahoma is at the head of this depart- ment. The roasting is done in the most scientific manner, and a very superior grade of coffee is sold as one of the features of the Alton goods. The company also packs grocers' sundries, spices, and other commodities, and this feature is not usually found in ordinary jobbing houses.

Harry E. Alton, secretary, treasurer and general man- ager of the company, has had the full responsibility of management since 1910. He practically grew up in the Arkansas City house, and the details of the business were ground into him from the start. In 1903 he went to Enid as the active representative of the firm in the branch house, and has filled important positions in a progressive scale until he is now carrying the chief responsibilities.

Mr. Alton was born in Chicago in 1880, and was edu- cated in the public schools of Arkansas City and the military school at Salina, Kansas. He is a clear-headed, genial merchant, with ability to grasp the salient points in whatever situation confronts him, has great skill as a manager and is an aggressive worker in planning and carrying out business campaigns. He has also made himself a factor in good citizenship at Enid. He has served on the city council, and has always worked to keep Enid up to the high mark of its opportunities. He has the faculty of co-operation highly developed, and his business friends find him a most valuable confrère. He is a director of the Chamber of Commerce, and the future greatness of Enid is a subject upon which he readily becomes eloquent. Mr. Alton serves on the vestry of the Episcopal Church. In 1914 he married Miss Lucile Mullett of Kansas City, Missouri.

CHARLES B. SWARTOUT, president of the Oklahoma State Bank of Cushing, has been a resident of Oklahoma since 1889 and of his present home in Payne County since the opening of the Sac and Fox lands. During this long period he has been engaged in farming, in building as a contractor and in financial enterprises, and in each avenue of endeavor has gained a satisfying and well-merited success. He is one of the men contributed by the Empire State for the upbuilding of the great commonwealth of Oklahoma, having been born at Wat- kins, Schuyler County, New York, September 30, 1856, and is a son of Heman C. and Sarah A. (Monroe) Swartout.

The parents of Mr. Swartout, who passed their entire lives in New York and died at Watkins, were agricultural people and natives of the state, the father being born in Yates County and the mother near Watertown, Jefferson County. Of their ten children, three died young and one after reaching years of maturity, and six are still living. Charles B. Swartout received a good common school

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education in his youth, grew up on his father's farm and as a young man learned the trade of carpenter. By the time he had reached his twenty-fourth year he was engaged in business as a building contractor, a vocation which he followed in New York until 1889, in that year coming West to take advantage of the original opening of Oklahoma lands. At the time he made his second run the horse which he was riding fell, and the crowd was so dense about him that he was unable to jump either to the right or left, but was compelled to leap straight over "his horse's head. Luckily he was uninjured, was able to remount, and was eventually successful in securing lots in Guthrie. In that city he made his home for two years, and then again took part in a run for land, at the opening of the Sac and Fox country, when he secured a claim in the southwest one-quarter of section 3, township 17, range 5 east, on which he has resided ever since. He has a well cultivated, valuable and productive property, thirty acres of which is included within the corporation limits of Cushing, while his residence adjoins the limits. For many years, in connection with his agricultural oper- ations, he was engaged in contracting and building, but retired from that vocation in 1913. He was one of the founders of the Oklahoma State Bank of Cushing, of which he has been president for several years, a strong and substantial institution of Payne Connty which has grown and developed steadily under his capable and far- sighted direction. Politically a democrat, he is not an office seeker but has shown an interest in his party 's success in Oklahoma. His progressive ideas of citizen- ship have led him to support movements for the welfare of his community.

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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