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 92

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 92

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).

Politically Mr. Adams is a republican, and for three years served as trustee of Homestead Township and for two years was constable of Watonga Township. He is affiliated with Homestead Lodge No. 224, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, and with the Brotherhood of American Yeomen at Okeene. On December 25, Christ- mas Day, 1900, in Watonga, he married Miss Anua Marie Howry. Her father, J. C. Howry, lives on a farm southwest of Watonga, where he homesteaded in 1892. To their marriage have been born three children: Lucile Frances, born in September 1904; Robert Howry, born in February, 1906; and Marguerite, born in February, 1913.

JOHN P. HICKAM. One of the strong, resourceful, versatile and loyal citizens whose influence has been potent in connection with governmental and general civic affairs in Oklahoma since the early territorial era in the history of this commonwealth and whose high ideals and downright sincerity have made him a leader in the furtherance of the interests of the people of the state of his adoption, is the honored member of the bar whose name introduces this paragraph. Mr. Hickam has been engaged in the practice of his profession at Still- water, judicial center of Payne County, since the spring of 1897, and is one of the representative pioneer members

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HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA

of the bar of this section of the state. He has been a recognized leader in political activities in Oklahoma, and that he has been one of the foremost figures in the ranks of the progressive party in this state needs no further voucher than the statement that in the election of 1914 he was the progressive party's candidate for the office of governor of Oklahoma. Who knows the man can not fail to have lively appreciation of his ability, his unfaltering integrity of purpose, his admirable equipment for leader- ship in sentiment and action, and his invincible courage in upholding the rights and interests of the people as against the domination of capitalistic and corrupt politi- cal forces.

It is but consistent that in a preliminary way be given an outline of the political activities and public service of Mr. Hickam within the period of his residence in Oklahoma, and such a résumé is afforded in the fol- lowing quotations from an article published at the time when he was in the midst of his campaign for governor of the state, in 1914:

"In 1902 Mr. Hickam was elected to the Territorial Senate, from the Payne-Pawnee district. He was re- nominated for the Senate in 1904 and after one of the bitterest fights ever waged against any candidate in Oklahoma by the old Territorial carpet-bag, stand-pat bunch of Federal officeholders, his majority was four times what it was in 1902. A prominent citizen of his own county said a short time ago: 'Hickam has no enemies in this county except those he has made in fighting crooked politics and machine politicians, and we love him for the enemies he has made.'

"Hickam is in tune with the times. He has kept step with the rapid march of human progress. He believes that political platforms are made for fulfilment instead of to catch votes. In that way he is distinguished from scheming politicians who are brokers in offices. He be- lieves that the Progressive party must remain firm to its principles and hold above all else its opportunity for patriotic service, must hold itself unfettered for the service of the great mass of the people who are looking to it for all that is best and fairest and greatest in the political and governmental activities. He believes that, politically, evasion and indecision are at an end and that the Progressive party has made its choice. The making of that choice was no slight matter. It is no child's play to defy the power of entrenched party machines drawn by the lure of Federal and State offices whose victims will do the bidding of their masters.

"Hickam made the first fight ever made against lobby- ists west of the Mississippi river. In his speech in the senate defying the lobbyists he said: 'Why all this delay, Mr. President, over the important legislation now pending? Bills are held up in committees until it is too late to pass matters of great interest to the people. The fact is that the capital since the first day we met has been full of lobbyists-a set of grafters, sir, who have tried in every way to defeat honest legislation in this body. These parasites have flocked about this cham- ber like buzzards over a carcass.' After Hickam had made this fight the Kansas City Star, in reviewing the conditions around the Oklahoma Legislature, said: Several members of the lobby lost their nerve yesterday and could not be found when the senate sergeant-at- arms went after them. Some are thought to have gone to Texas and others to Kansas. Their whereabouts are unknown and requisitions will be required to bring them leader back if they can be located.'

"The Stillwater Advance, in speaking of Hickam's the bar fight at that time, said: 'Hickam stands stalwart, colossal, contending for the rights and interests of the great common people-the farmer, the small cattle- raiser, the honest business man, as against the com-

bined and powerful interests of the great cattle kings, the railroads, the oil mills, who have kept the cloak-rooms and hotel lobbies filled with the shrewdest and smartest men available to defeat good legislation. But Hickam has proved equal to the occasion and has denounced the lobbyists in unmeasured terms. He has earned the eternal gratitude and the confidence of the people in the splendid and able fight he has made in their behalf and for their interests. Senator Hickam is an able and strong man in every way. His fight against the lobby- ists demonstrates the fact that he is unquestionably the strongest member of the Senate.'

"At the close of Mr. Hickam's second term in the Territorial Senate the Stillwater Gazette had this to say : 'Senator Hickam returns to his constituency-the people of Payne and Pawnee counties-with a consciousness that his labors fulfilled the promises he made to the people in his last campaign, that he would at all times care for their interests and fight the corrupt lobbyists, which he did as far as human power could do. He never missed a roll call, was ready to throw harpoon into all kinds of corrupt legislation. For a fearless legislator he had not a peer in the Senate, and he comes home with a clean page and can frankly say, "I did all I could for the interests of my people at home and in the Territory at large."

In view of the statements quoted above it may well be understood that Mr. Hickam was recognized as the most available candidate to be put forth by the progres- sive party for the office of governor of Oklahoma, and though he made a characteristically vigorous and effective campaign and made a powerful impression upon the people of all sections of the state, he encountered the adverse political exigencies that compassed his defeat, though this defeat was not lacking in the better elements of victory.

John P. Hickam was born in Madison County, North Carolina, on the 2d of December, 1870, and is a son of Robert B. and Jane (Plemmens) Hickam, both of whom were born in the year 1844, the father having been a native of Virginia and the mother having been born in North Carolina, where their marriage was soleinnized. Robert B. Hickam was a youth when he accompanied his parents on their removal from Virginia to North Carolina, in the '50s, and there he was reared to man- hood. When the Civil war was precipitated on the nation Robert B. Hickam enlisted in the Second North Carolina Infantry, in the Confederate service, and with this gallant command he continued in service during virtually the entire period of the war. He participated in many engagements, including a number of important battles, and made a record for able and gallant service. His father, Jacob Hickam, who was a native of Virginia and who attained to the patriarchal age of ninety-seven years, was an old-line whig in politics and was vigorously opposed to the secession of the Southern States, so that his sympathies were with the Union when the Civil war became imminent. His sons, however, were loyal to the institutions and cause of the South and tendered their aid in defense of the Confederacy, though John, the elder of the two sons, had first decided to enlist in the Union army, but was deflected from this course largely on account of his kinsmen in appreciable number having enlisted in the Confederate ranks. Both sons served until the close of the war, and upon their return to the parental home the most amicable relations again obtained, the venerable father offering no criticism of the course of his sons and both of the latter having remained on their respective portions of the old homestead estate for nearly a quarter of a century after the war.

In 1885, when the subject of this review was a lad of eleven years, he accompanied his parents on their

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HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA

removal from North Carolina to Sevier County, Tennes- see, and there his father passed the residue of his long and worthy life, his active career having been one of close identification with the basic industry of agriculture and his death having occurred on his homestead farm in Sevier County in 1914, his widow still remaining with one of her sons on the old home place, which is endeared to her by the memories and associations of many years. Robert B. Hickam achieved independence and definite prosperity through his operations as a farmer and was a man of strong mentality and inviolable integrity, he having held the office of deacon in the Baptist Church for fifty-five years prior to his death, and his widow likewise having been for many years a devoted adherent of the same religious organization. He was a stanch supporter of the cause of the republican party, but never sought or held political office. His great-grandfather, Jacob Hickam, was a native of Ireland and came to America in the colonial days, as indicated by the fact that he was enrolled as a patriot soldier in the Con- tinental line in the war of the Revolution. Richard Hickam, grandfather of Robert B., was born and reared in Virginia, became a prosperous planter in that' state and attained to the remarkable age of one hundred and four years. The father of Robert B. Hickam was a gallant soldier in the Mexican war, and from the brief data here given it may well be seen that the history of the family in America has been one of interesting order, typifying loyal and worthy citizenship as one generation has followed another on to the stage of life's activities.

John P. Hickam was the fifth in order of birth in a family of eleven children, eight of whom are living, and he acquired his rudimentary education in North Carolina. As previously noted, he was eleven years of age at the time of the family removal to Sevier County, Tennessee, where he was reared to maturity under the invigorating discipline of the home farm and where he made good use of the advantages afforded in the public schools, as shown by the fact that when seventeen years of age he proved himself eligible for pedagogic honors, three years having been given by him to successful work as a teacher in the schools of Tennessee. Thereafter he completed a. four years' course in Carson & Newman College, at Jefferson City, that state. He simultaneously gave care- ful attention to the study of law, under effective pre- ceptorship, and in the spring of 1896 he was admitted to the Tennessee bar. In the following autumn he came to Oklahoma Territory, and he remained in Oklahoma City until the spring of 1897, when he established his perma- nent residence in Payne County. During the first four years he maintained his home in the Village of Perkins, where he was a teacher in the public schools, besides serving as assistant editor of the Perkins Journal, which had been established in 1889. Upon leaving Perkins lie removed to Stillwater, the county seat, where he has since been engaged in the successful practice of his profession and where he has gained definite priority as one of the leading members of the bar of this section of the state. He served two terms as a member of the Territorial Senate, as noted in preceding paragraphs, and was elected on the republican ticket. During the entire period of his residence in Oklahoma Mr. Hickam has shown a lively interest in political affairs and he con- tinued a prominent representative of the republican party in Payne County until the organization of the progressive party, in 1912, when he transferred his allegiance to the same and became one of its most influential exponents in Oklahoma, as shown by the fact that he became its can- didate for representative of his district in the United States Congress in the national election of 1912, and in 1914 was the progressive candidate for governor of

the state, adequate mention having already been made of his political activities.

In a fraternal way Mr. Hickam is a Master Mason, and both he and his wife are zealous members of the Baptist Church in their home city.

In 1899 was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Hickam to Miss Flavilla Duck, who was born in Iowa and who was a child at the time of her parents' removal to Payne County, Oklahoma, where she was reared to maturity and was afforded the advantages of the Oklahoma Agri- cultural & Mechanical College at Stillwater. She was thereafter a popular teacher in the schools of Payne County until the time of her marriage. Her father, John W. Duck, was a gallant soldier of the Union in the Civil war, in which he served as a member of an Iowa regiment. Mr. and Mrs. Hickam have three children ---- Elmer, Horace and Eunice.

WESLEY M. DIAL. Probably the most influential white man in the Osage country is Wesley M. Dial, owner and proprietor of the beautiful Mount Dial homestead north of Pawhuska. His father was an Oklahoma eighty- niner, and that brought Mr. Dial into contact with Oklahoma affairs when he was still a boy. Something over twenty years ago he was a plain cowboy in the Chickasaw Nation, and one of the early achievements which is mentioned to his credit was establishing a townsite and postoffice out in Payne County. His mar- riage about twenty years ago with an Osage woman brought him into tribal relations with that people, and it is said that he has enjoyed more of the confidence and distinctions of tribal honors and responsibilities than any other white man. For years he was employed as one of the principal agents in handling the vast wealth of the Osage tribes in the negotiations between the people and the General Government at Washington, and there has never been one of his acts which could be properly construed as reflecting upon his absolute integrity and honesty in all the aggregate of his relations as an inter- mediary between his people and the controlling Govern- ment.

The career of this most interesting citizen of Okla- homa began at Jasper, Newton County, Arkansas, August 14, 1871, when he was born to Samuel and Susar (Stallion) Dial. His father was born in Maysville Kentucky, September 13, 1834, and his mother was borr near Nashville, Tennessee, November 22, 1843. Both his father and mother had been previously married, and she had two sons and he had one son by their previou; unions. The two sons of his mother were: Witt and John Penn, while his father's first son was Edward Dial who died in 1879. By their second union the parent had four sons and three daughters: Emma, now de ceased; Clemmie Kirk, of Ripley, Oklahoma; Wesley M. Clayton, deceased; Samuel R., who lives in California Arthur, of Foraker, Osage County; Mattie, wife 0 Jacob Martin of Yale, Oklahoma. The mother of thes children died in Yellville, Arkansas, in 1907, and th father now resides with his son Wesley at Pawhuska.

Mr. Dial spent the first ten years of his life at Ha) rison, Arkansas, and his father, who was a farmer an stock man, then removed to Taney County, Missouri. I 1889 the family came into Oklahoma at the origina opening, and secured a claim at Clayton in Payn County. Wesley M. Dial was then eighteen years c age. His regular schooling aggregated only four month in different district schools, and he has gained h education by self study and by practical experience wit men and affairs. At the age of twenty-one he went 1 the vicinity of Denison, Texas, and was employed as farm hand. In the spring of 1891 he went into tl

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western part of the Chickasaw Nation near Minco, and was soon riding herd as a cow puncher.

His first real experience as an Oklahoma City citizen came in September, 1893, at the opening of the Cherokee Strip, when he secured a farm near Glencoe in Payne County, and established a postoffice and store named West Point. In 1895 he sold out and removed to Northwestern Kansas and for a time was engaged in the hay business. Again coming into what is now the State of Oklahoma, he was married on September 7, 1897, in Osage County, to Eliza Penn, a widow with four children. These children are: Dora, wife of Sid Dalie of Osage County; Augustus M. of Arkansas City, Kansas; Rosa E., who lives with Mr. Dial; and Robert E., who died in 1901.

Mrs. Dial has tribal rights in the Osage country, and since his marriage Mr. Dial has always had his home in the vicinity of Pawhuska. He and his family have eighty acres adjoining the corporation limits on the north and another eighty acres on the east. His home, known throughout the county as Mount Dial, is located on the eighty acres north of the city. Mount Dial is situated on an elevation which is 1,000 feet above sea level and 185 feet above the grade of Main Street, and from the Dial home is secured one of the finest views of surrounding country to be found anywhere in the state. On the south is the City of Pawhuska, and on all other sides for a distance of seven miles or more the eye sweeps over a panorama of hills and valleys comprising a landscape such as is unusual even in North- eastern Oklahoma. Mr. Dial and his family control in the aggregate about 6,000 acres of land in Osage County. Since these lands were allotted in severalty, Mr. Dial has spent about $35,000 in improvements. One of the finest farms in Northeastern Oklahoma is 1,000 acres under the Dial ownership, cultivated to the full extent of its fertile soil, and situated near Foraker.

For a number of years Mr. Dial has been in the land business at Pawhuska and has long been considered an expert authority on land values. He is the first and only white man who has ever been elected by the tribal meeting of Osage citizens as an official representative to handle tribal matters relating to the oil and gas interests. Every one in Oklahoma and a great many people outside the state know how vastly important and valuable these interests are. Mr. Dial represented the tribal interests in that capacity several months and drew up a report which was submitted to the tribal council, and which in turn the council forwarded to the Secretary of the Interior at Washington. That report was the basis for the subsequent negotiations which have brought about the disposal of the oil and gas interests in the Osage territory. In 1905 Mr. Dial was also a delegate from the Osage people to Washing- ton to defend claims being prosecuted against the Osage tribe to the sum of $230,000 by the heirs of Van and Adair, and he appeared in both the House and the Senate committees of Congress and largely through his arguments and effective testimony brought about the de- feat of the claims. No other citizen with intermarried rights in the tribe has figured so conspicuously in tribal affairs. He also assisted in defending the Glenn oil lease before committees of Congress, and for the past fifteen years has made from one to two trips to Wash- ington annually, appearing before the various com- mittees of Congress on department matters. At the present time Mr. Dial is the business representative for the Uncle Sam Oil Company in Osage County, and this is one of the most responsible and most profitable busi- ness positions in the state.

In politics Mr. Dial is a republican, and has helped to make some interesting political history in Oklahoma.

Under the Enabling Act of Congress providing for state- hood he was appointed an election commissioner of Osage County. He established the voting places, ap- pointed the election judges and clerks, canvassed the returns, and with that sturdy regard for public opinion which is characteristic of the man, when the returns showed a democratic majority, issued his proclamation of the result with a judicial impartiality .which was in entire consonance with every other transaction by which he has been known to the people of the state. For sev- eral years he was a member of the State Republican Committee, and was president of the Oklahoma State Organization of Republican Clubs in 1908.

In Masonry Mr. Dial has taken thirty-two degrees in the Scottish Rite and has also taken the various de- grees in the York Rite, and is a member of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, and is affiliated with the Benev- olent and Protective Order of Elks. By his marriage to Mrs. Penn he has three children: Cora E., Eva and Charles P. The two daughters are now students in the Loretto Academy at Kansas City, Missouri.

Probably no man in Northeastern Oklahoma has han- dled larger financial sums and more important business transactions than Mr. Dial. He. was chiefly instrumental in securing a lease through the Osage Council for 230,000 acres of oil and gas lands. It should also be noted as a matter of history that he was one of the ten men who were tried in the Federal courts of Oklahoma City dur- ing the months of May and June, 1914, for conspiracy in an alleged attempt to defraud the Government in matters connected with the Osage oil and gas lands. While the trial and the argument of the case required many weeks, it required the jury only ten minutes to give him a complete acquittal and exoneration from all the charges of the indictment.

HENRY C. CHAPMAN. A veteran of the newspaper profession, and proprietor and editor of the Okeene Eagle, which he founded more than twenty years ago, Henry C. Chapman has lived a life of intensive activity and experience for more than half a century. He was a soldier in the Civil war on the Union side, gained admittance to the bar about the close of the war, spent many years with the metropolitan press in New York and other cities in the East, and for the last thirty-five years has lived in the western states and has been chiefly identified with the management and editorial direction of various newspapers.

The family to which he belongs came from England to Holyoke, Massachusetts, during Colonial times. His father, John S. Chapman, was born in Holyoke, Massa- chusetts, in 1812, started West as a youth and found a location in northern Indiana in LaPorte County, where he was a pioneer farmer, one who cleared out a portion of the wilderness and developed it for purposes of culti- vation, and exercised his business ability in the buying and selling of extensive farm lands in that region. He died in LaPorte County in 1847. He was married there to Lucinda Atkins, who was born in Washington County, New York, in 1814, and died in LaPorte County in August, 1844. Henry C. Chapman was the older of their two children. His brother Francis M., who died in LaPorte County in 1881, built up an extensive business in the buying of scrap metal.

Born in LaPorte County, Indiana, September 6, 1842, H. C. Chapman knew little of his parents, since his mother died when he was two years old and his father when he was five. He was also reared in a pioneer dis- trict and among pioneer surroundings. He attended country schools in LaPorte County, but most of his edu- cation came from hard study directed only by his strong

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intellectual curiosity and ambition to amount to some- thing in the world. Many nights he lay before the open fireplace in northern Indiana and studied every good book he could get his hands upou. By diligent applica- tion he acquired a practical education, and at the age of seventeen emerged from a farm in the woods and spent one term in a village school at Laporte. Following that he was a farmer and taught school for two terms, but iu 1862 answered the call of patriotism by enlisting in the Twenty-First Battery of Indiana Light Artillery. His service continued for nine months, and in the several engagements in which he participated he received severe injuries to shoulder and elbow and was mustered out and given an honorable discharge.

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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