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 96

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 96

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After the close of his military services, Mr. Bartles returned to the home of his father, and continued to be associated with him until his marriage in 1868, at which time he located on his wife's farm in Wyandotte County, Kansas, remaining there until 1873. In that year, at Silver Lake, a point six miles southeast of the present location of Bartlesville, and in a log house, Mr. Bartles commenced his career as a merchant. In 1874 he built a better building and moved his stock there, and in 1877 built the first flour mill in Indian Territory, on Caney River, northeast of where Bartlesville now stands. In 1878 he built a two-story frame building, 25 by 100 feet, near the mill, for a storeroom and residence and moved to it. In 1878 he planted the first wheat grown on Caney River and the followng year furnished seed to other farmers in order to increase wheat growing, an industry in which he continued to be engaged for a number of years, raising his banner crop of 45,000

bushels in the early '90s. During the same period Mr. Bartles engaged in the cattle raising business, in the walnut log and Inmber business at various places in the Cherokee Nation, and in the mercantile business at Alluwee, Pawhuska, Claremore, Milltown, Nowata and Old Bartlesville. Mr. Bartles also built what is now the Santa Fe Railroad from Caney, Kansas, to Collins- ville, Oklahoma, in 1898-1899, and moved to Dewey in the following year.

The Turkey Creek store and residence, in which his son, Joseph A. Bartles, was born, was moved to the mill at Old Bartlesville, and there used as a furniture and cabinet shop and later was moved to Dewey and is now the home of the Dewey World. The two-story frame store and residence erected at the mill was made of black walnut and was the best building in the Cherokee Nation when erected with the exception of the capitol building at Tahlequah. This building was also moved to Dewey, stood across the street from the First National Bank, and now stands opposite the Hotel Dewey, which Mr. Bartles built in 1889 and which always continued to be his home.

Mr. Bartles always referred with pride to the fact that during his early business career in Indian Territory, he had in his employ J. F. Campbell of Nowata, John Bullet of Claymore, George B. Keeler, William Johnstone, N. T. Carr and Frank Overlees of Bartlesville, A. H. Gibson of Pawhnska and H. M. Brent of Dewey. He added that these men, many of whom are now leading citizens of Oklahoma, were all faithful employes and that it was very gratifying to him to know that they had become prosperous, prominent business men of the communities in which they made their homes.

On October 1, 1868, at Leavenworth, Kansas, Mr. Bartles was married to Mrs. Nannie M. (Journeycake) Pratt, who was born Angust 28, 1843, a daughter of the Rev. Charles and Jane (Sancia) Journeycake. They moved to the Cherokee Nation in 1873 and there were remarried according to the laws and customs of the Cherokee Nation. Rev. Charles Journeycake was a chief of the Delawares and an ordained Baptist clergy- man and did missionary work all through the territory, never accepting one cent for his services, but making his own living by farming. He was the organizer of the Baptist Church at Alluwee. He died in 1894 and Mrs. Journeycake in 1893. Their children were as fol- lows: Mary E., deceased, who married Charles H. Arm- strong; Rachel, deceased, who was the wife of N. J. Tanner; Nannie M., who is the widow of Colonel Bartles; Lucy Jane, deceased, who was the wife of Henry Armstrong; Baron Stowe, who died at the age of three years; Emeline, who is the wife of J. E. Campbell of Nowata; Adeline, deceased, who was the wife of Samnel Love; Anna, deceased, who married Henry Arm- strong, the widower of her sister Lucy; Cora Lee, de- ceased, who was the wife of William Carey, and an infant daughter, deceased.

Mrs. Bartles was given excellent educational advan- tages, attending the Delaware Baptist Mission at Den- nison, Kansas, and spending one year in the Baptist College, at Granville, Ohio. She was the first Christian woman along the Caney River, and on one occasion con- ducted the funeral services over an infant, there being no minister near. She has always been an active religious worker, organized the Baptist Church at Dewey, and has held all offices in the church and Sunday school, having been church clerk until 1913. In 1904 Mrs. Bartles conceived the idea of building a monument to the memory of her father, and also of aiding the Baptist Church work in the Town of Dewey. The present beau- tiful memorial Baptist Church of Dewey is the out. growth of that idea, the church being completed at a

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HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA

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cost of $5,000, and is known as The Journeycake Memorial Baptist Church of Dewey. The dedicatory services were held Sunday, November 25, 1906, when Rev. J. S. Murrow, a venerable Indian missionary of Atoka, Indian Territory, conducted the services.

Mrs. Bartles was married first to L. B. Pratt, who was first engaged in the lumber business at Leavenworth but turned his attention to farming when his health failed. He went from Shurtleff to Denison, and graduated from the latter institution. His death oc- curred in 1865, he having been the father of three chil- dren: Nonie, born March 2, 1861, who married J. J. Barndollar, of Coffeyville, Kansas, and has one son, Pratt; Ella May, born May 14, 1863, who married Frank Neilson, of Coffeyville, Kansas, and has one daughter, Nonie; and Ida F., born November 7, 1865, who married A. H. Gibson, of Coffeyville, Kansas, and has one daughter, Mary Ella. Mr. and Mrs. Bartles were the parents of two children: Charles, born August 13, 1869, who died September 6, 1870; and Joseph A., born December 15, 1873, who now resides at Dewey.

Colonel Bartles always took the greatest interest in the Grand Army of the Republic, and it is with a large degree of satisfaction that the members of his family reflect upon the great pleasure which came to him when he entertained the survivors of his regiment, the Sixth Kansas Cavalry, in a three days' reunion at Dewey, in September, 1908. A very sick man at the time he was still able to attend most of the campfires and those present will never forget his beaming countenance as he beat time to the campaign songs. A short account, as copied from one of the local newspapers, is herewith given: "Dressed in gala attire, with flags, bunting, pennants and streamers flying from every available pole and building around the square, Dewey is this week as- sisting Uncle 'Jake' Bartles in the entertainment of his guests, the survivors of the Sixth Kansas Cavalry. This is the twenty-fourth annual reunion of the famous old regiment and all of the survivors, who are in attendance, are the guests at the Dewey Hotel of J. H. Bartles. The illness of the latter, who is confined to his cot on the veranda of the hotel, serves to mar the pleasure of the occasion. Mr. Bartles is able, however, to sit up and converse with his guests who are coming to the entertainment on every incoming train. In connection with the entertainment of his old regiment, which will last three days, Mr. Bartles has arranged for a general olonel reunion which will be attended by the old soldiers of all ife of age of mphell regiments. This is the first day of the entertainment and it is starting with a swing that promises to make it a notable event. The crowds began gathering late yester- ife of day and today the people are coming from all points Arm- of the compass. Dewey threatens to be taxed to the ce, de extreme in caring for her guests, but the people have ind an determined to render all assistance they can to make the visit of 'Uncle Jake's' guests as pleasant as possible. advan- t Den- Baptist bristian The Commercial Club is taking a leading part in the entertainment. The old cannon brought from Washington by Mr. Bartles was brought down from Sedan, a band has been secured for the three days and nights and excur- on con- sions have been arranged on the Cement company's road e being and the interurban to Bartlesville."

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It was not long after the foregoing was written that er, and Colonel Bartles passed away, at 6 o'clock, A. M., school, October 18, 1908. His death, which was due to Bright's 4 Mrs disease, occurred at the Bartles Hotel, Dewey, it being ment to about four years from the time that the disease had Baptist first demonstrated itself. With his old spirit and energy, nt beau-he valiantly battled against it, and the courage and the out-pluck which had characterized his entire life probably ed at a

added a year or more to it. It will not be inappropriate to close this all too inadequate a review of one of Okla- homa's builders and benefactors, to quote from an article which appeared in the Dewey Sentinel, June 9, 1911, and which was written by Judge Andrew H. Norwood; a lifelong friend of Colonel Bartles, and himself a pioneer of this country and familiar with its develop- ment during the past half a century. The article re- ferred to says in part:

"In 1872 Capt. J. H. Bartles with his family located at Silver Lake, a few miles south of Dewey, and opened a store and at the same time put in a sawmill on the Verdigris River, some twenty-five miles east, the mill being the first institution of the kind ever seen in this section of the country. After two or three years he moved his store and residence to Whiteturkey Creek and continued business there for several years and at the same time opened a big farm just west of this city and used every means within his power to pro- mote agricultural development and achieved great suc- cess in that direction.

"Then he began the construction of the big flouring mill that still stands a monument to his energy and enterprise on the bank of the Caney, some three miles south of the city. He entered upon this undertaking against the strenuous advice of his family and friends, whose opposition was of such a character as would have discouraged a less sturdy and determined man. In a few years he had induced many farmers to locate throughout the surrounding country and develop wheat lands, furnished them seed and implements on long credit and in other substantial ways helping them to get a start, until eventually he demonstrated that this valley was one of the greatest wheat producing sections of the world, and his mill and store became one of the greatest distributing points in the Southwest. At the same time he was extensively engaged in the cattle business and many other enterprises all of which proved successful.

"This industrialism and enormous productiveness was hampered by the primitive methods of transportation prevailing at that time and to overcome this disadvantage Colonel Bartles conceived the idea of building a railroad and telegraph and telephone lines and thus to get in closer touch with the outside world. He organized a company and became its president and general manager and at his own expense began at once the construction from Caney, Kansas, south of what is now the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad, and when graded from Caney to Collinsville, he sold it to the company under whose name it is now operated. Desiring a more suitable location than the one on the river and one better adapted to all his pursuits and varied interests, he came up on to the high rolling prairie about four miles north and laid out and platted a townsite, and commemorative of the world-famed hero whose marvelous exploit in Manila Bay just at that time had stirred the civilized world and fired the hearts of his countrymen with a military ardor almost beyond conception-Admiral George Dewey-he gave to the future city the name of Dewey. This was accomplished in 1898 and Colonel Bartles pro- ceeded to move his holdings on the river to the new town, the most healthful, beautiful and accessible point on the line of his new railroad and away from floods, marshes, swamps, impure water, and in every way superior to his former location on the river or what is now the city of Bartlesville.

"It has been charged that Colonel Bartles founded Dewey in a spirit of selfishness and self aggrandizement, prompted by a desire to obliterate the growing settle- ment of Bartlesville that had sprung into existence at his former location ou the river, the fact of its growth

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HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA

bringing into existence interests competitive with his own. The statement is unfounded in fact and conceived in fiction and refuted by the footprints along the trail of his indefatigable efforts to develop a new country, every change he made being inspired by advancing con- ditions of the development he sought and au ambition to conserve to the utmost the rapidly growing com- mercial and community interests of the wouderful new country he loved and whose future greatuess was re- vealed to this remarkable man and pioneer almost with the eye of prophecy.

"In passing from the story of the birth of Dewey to Col. J. H. Bartles, its founder, a tribute is due. He was the pioneer merchant, miller and farmer aud was the first man to establish in the state electric light and waterworks plant; was always the first and foremost and the most liberal in promoting educational, moral and all public utilities and in all these undertakings was generous to a fault. In founding and building Dewey he was prompted and governed by the same spirit and judgment that had directed his actious throughout the whole of his busy and successful life. In 1908 he died after laying down his manifold interests and with the happy reflection that Dewey was on the high road to a realization of his ambitions of a splendid city, and time and the future will reveal that there was nothing chimer- ical in his scheme to meet the demands of a new and magnificent commonwealth, and this city will remain for all time a monument to his genius and magnanimity."

ARCHIBALD W. TURNER. At Alexandria, the judicial center of Rapides County, Louisiana, July 9, 1869, recorded the birth of the present county attorney of Payne County, Oklahoma, and in the vital young state of his adoption he has gained secure place as one of the able and successful members of its bar; his place of residence has been City of Stillwater, the county seat, since 1911.

Mr. Turner is a scion of one of the patrician old French families that was founded in New Orleans, Louisi- ana, when that state was still a province, and the original orthography of the family name was Tournaire. Mr. Turner is a son of Squire Turner aud Sally (Stone) Turner, and his father was born in Louisiana, where he was reared and educated, and where he continued to maintain his home until 1872, when, immediately after his marriage, he removed to Missouri, his father, Archi- bald Tournaire, having been a native of France and having come to America soon after the battle of Waterloo brought disaster to the imperial forces of the great Napoleon, under whom he had served as a soldier in a cavalry command. Upon coming to America he estab- lished his residence in Louisiana, and he was the owner of a fine plantation near Alexandria, Rapides Parish, that state, at the time of his death. The mother of the subject of this review was born at Richmond, Kentucky, and she now passes her time in the homes of her children, who accord to her the deepest filial love and solicitude, she having celebrated in 1915 the seventy-second anni- versary of her birth, and her honored husband having died at Columbia, Boone County, Missouri, in 1906, at the age of seventy-two years. Mrs. Turner is of stanch Scotch lineage, her ancestors having settled in Maryland in the colonial era of our national history, and representa- tives of the family having been valiant soldiers of the Continental line in the war of the Revolution, and one of her ancestors, Thomas Stone, having been a signer of the Declaration of Independence. He whose name initiates this article is the eldest in a family of three children: Mary Hood is the wife of Edward W. Hinton, who is head of the chair of evidence and pleading in the law department of the great University of Chicago; and

Catherine Elizabeth is the wife of Judge Oliver M. Spencer, who resides in St. Joe, Missouri, and who is now chief counsel of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Rail- road Company for the territory west of the Mississippi River.

Archibald W. Turner was about three years old at the time of the family removal to Columbia, Boone County, Missouri, where he was reared to maturity, and where he acquired his early education iu the public schools. There he was graduated in the law department of the University of Missouri, as a member of the class of 1892, and after thus receiving his degree of Bachelor of Laws he continued to be engaged in the practice of his profession at Columbia until 1908, when he came to the newly organized State of Oklahoma and engaged in practice at Altus, county seat of Jackson County. About one year later he removed to Hobart, judicial center of Kiowa County, and iu 1911 he established his permanent home at Stillwater, the thriving capital of Payne County, where he has since continued in the suc- cessful general practice of law and has built up a sub- stantial and representative business, in connection with which he has appeared iu much of the important litigation in the courts of this section of the state. He served two terms as city attorney of Columbia, Missouri, and in 1914 he was elected county attorney of Payne County, an office in which he is giving a most vigorous and effective administration. Mr. Turner is a stalwart in the local camp of the democratic party, is a loyal and pro- gressive citizen, and in a fraternal way he is affiliated with the lodge of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks at Hobart.

In 1910 was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Turner to Mrs. Clara Farley, whose first husbaud is survived by one son, Max, a sturdy boy who gives cheer to the home circle, no children having been born to Mr. and Mrs. Turner.

Mr. Turner's paternal and maternal ancestors werei slave holders, and both families were earnest supporters of the Confederate cause during the period of the Civil war. It is thus but natural that Mr. Turner himself should retain a full sympathy with the principles forf which the Southern States contended as their inherent right, though his loyalty to the now undivided nation of his birth is of the most insistent order.

HON. WILBERFORCE JONES. Among the leaders of the Payne County bar, no name is held in higher esteen than that of Hon. Wilberforce Jones, a thorough, learned and talented legist, a practical citizen of public-spirited views and a courteous, finished gentleman of the ole school. He has been engaged in practice at Cushing since January 1, 1913, and during this time has added to the reputation which he gained first in Missouri and later in Lincoln County, Oklahoma. Mr. Jones was bor in Cass County, Michigan, April 27, 1846, and is a so of William H. and Catherine (Messike) Jones.

The great-grandfather of Wilberforce Jones was th original settler of the family in America, coming from Wales and locating in Virginia as early as 1792. Late he became a pioneer of Madison County, Indiana, se tling on virgin land in the vicinity of what is no Pendleton, where he passed the remaining years of h life in clearing the timber and brush, draining tl swamps, and making a home for his family. His deat occurred in 1835. His son, Smith Jones, was born Virginia aud accompanied his parents to Indiana, when his early years were passed amid pioneer surrounding He was an industrious and energetic man and throug years of hard work managed to accumulate a satisfying property. His death occurred in 1834, in Indiana, al there the grandmother also died.

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HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA

William H. Jones was born near Pendletou, Madison County, Indiana, in 1818, and after a number of years spent in farming there went to Cass County, Michigan. In the spring of 1853 he started from Michigan in an ox-team, traveling slowly across the country and finally arriving at his destination in Brown County, Kansas, in November of that year, and locating in the vicinity of what is now Hiawatha. He was an abolitionist and became a squatter under the Abolition Aid Society. This was at a time when the slavery and abolition parties were engaged in a series of conflicts, which continued for sev- eral years, fights taking place, towns being burned, and illegal voting freely indulged in. In these contests William H. Jones was a frequent participant. In 1855 there came to Kansas John Brown, who afterward fre- quently made his headquarters at the home of Mr. Jones, but the latter, while a warm friend of this impulsive opponent of slavery, endeavored in every way to keep him from going to Virginia, trying to impress upon him the fact that his act would be looked upon as one of treason. Wilberforce Jones still retains a vivid memory of John Brown, who, as is known, went to Virginia, surprised and captured the arsenal at Harper's Ferry, October 16, 1859, but on the following day was wounded and captured and taken a prisoner by the Virginia militia, and was tried and executed at Charlestown, December 2, 1859. Mr. Jones remembers that his father traveled with Brown through Kansas, that they would talk for hours, and that for one whole day Brown pleaded with the elder Jones to become one of the party in the journey to Virginia that resulted so disastrously.

During the Civil war William H. Jones served the Union cause as captain of Company B, First United States Colored Infantry, and at the close of the struggle returned to Kansas, where for a short time he resumed his agricultural operations. In 1866 he removed witl: his family to Jasper County, Missouri, and that state continued to be his home until his retirement from active participation in farming and stock raising, when he removed to San Benito County, California. There he died in 1893. Mr. Jones was married at Pendleton, Indiana, to Catherine Messike, who was born in Hardin County, Kentucky, and reared in Indiana, and whose death occurred in San Benito County, California, in 1899, when she was seventy-six years of age. They were the parents of four sons: Chester G., who served in Com- pany A, Ninth Kansas Cavalry, for 41/2 years during the Civil war period, and died at Hiawatha, Kansas, in 1905; D. C., of Newton County, Missouri, who served 11/2 years as a member of the Thirteenth Kansas Infantry during the Civil war; Wilberforce; and James M., whose death occurred in a runaway accident at San Francisco, Cali- fornia, in 1912.

Wilberforce Jones was a lad of seven years when he accompanied his parents in the long overland journey from Michigan to Kansas, and his boyhood was passed amid the turbulent scenes that preceded secession. He was only ten years of age when he began to show his allegiance to the republican' party by carrying a banner ratifying the nomination of Fremont in a republican parade, and from that time to the present has been a stalwart supporter of the Grand Old Party. On February 26, 1863. when not yet seventeen years of age, he enlisted in Company C. Seventh Kansas Cavalry, with which he served until receiving his honorable discharge at Leaven- worth, September 29. 1865, participating in a number of engagements, and, despite his youth, displaying courage and faithfulness to duty at all times. In November, 1864, under special act of Congress allowing soldiers in the field to vote, he cast his first ballot, in support of Abraham Lincoln, His vote was challenged, as he was under age, but-Adjt. Maj. John Utt, who was one of

the judges of election, demanded that he be permitted his franchise on his military record.

After the war Mr. Jones went with his family to Missouri, but soon left home for the western plains, where he spent five years in the hard and exciting life of the cowboy. When he returned to Missouri he began the study of law, after some years spent in farming, and was admitted to the bar at West Plains, Missouri, in 1887, with permission to practice in the state and federal courts. He soon gained an important and satisfying practice and took an active part in public affairs, and in 1899 was elected to the Fortieth General Assembly of Missouri, a body in which he discharged his duties capably and energetically. He remained in Missouri until 1906, when he came to Oklahoma and settled in Lincoln County, where for one term, 1910 to 1912, he served in the capacity of county attorney. Since Janu- ary 1, 1913, his field of practice has been the City of Cushing, where he is recognized as one of Payne County's most able practitioners. Mr. Jones has maintained his interest in his old army comrades and is a valued and popular member of the local post of the Grand Army of the Republic, and was department commander of the Grand Army of the Republic of Oklahoma in 1912. With his family he attends the Christian Church.

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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