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 97

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 97

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In 1887 Mr. Jones was married to Miss Laura Roberts, who was born in 1867, in Illinois, and to this union there have been born four children: Anna Fay, who is the wife of Fred D. Riddle, of Cushing; George W., a tele- graph operator for the Prairie Oil and Gas Company at Independence, Oklahoma; Lottie, who is the wife of Jesse Jones, a telephone operator for the Magnum Oil Company; and Walter Wilberforce, who is attending high school at Cushing, Oklahoma.

ADAM FOCHT. The world looks on with peculiar satis- faction and pleasure when a career of struggle and adversity meets an overflowing and abundant prosperity. None could justly begrudge Adam Focht and wife the fortune that has rewarded their later years. Mr. Focht was one of the early settlers in Payne County, resides at Stillwater, has been a farmer there for a quarter of a century, but is rapidly being made wealthy through a foresighted investment he made a few years ago in Creek County, where he owns land in one of the richest oil fields of the world.

About forty years ago Mr. and Mrs. Focht were com- bating with grim determination and industry the vicis- situdes of life on the western prairies. Both had been reared in Iowa when that state was almost on the frontier. They married and started life poor. After renting for a time they went out to Gage County, Nebraska, in 1875, at the time the Otoe Indian Reservation was opened for settlement. Adam Focht was the ninth white settler to locate on that reservation. People of the present time have difficulty in understanding what difficulties and hardships the early settlers of Nebraska endured. There was a long chain of evils, dry weather, grasshoppers, hot winds, uncertain crops, lack of markets, dugouts and sod houses, and hardly was one obstacle overcome before another even greater sprung up.

Mr. and Mrs. Focht struggled along, both of them hiring out at times in order to make a little money to pay household expenses. At one time it seemed that their cup of misfortune was full and running over. Without money in the house, they lost their only cow, and one of their team of horses was crippled. Mr. Focht wanted to sell his claim then, but his wife said no, stick and we will get along some way. Persistence has its reward. They remained, developed a good farm, and with better times they had some money when they came to Oklahoma, the year after it was opened to settlement. In Payne

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HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA

County they took another stake in a new country, and there gradually developed a good farm, and from the proceeds Mr. Focht was able to buy a tract of cheap land in Creek County, but which today is situated in the midst of the great oil fields around Shamrock. At the present writing Mr. Focht has twelve producing oil wells, the first one brought in on December 23, 1915, and the last one only a few days before this is being written. In the five months and eight days from Decem- ber 23, 1915, to June 12, 1916, his royalties from all amounted to $35,213.85. There is still room for more wells on his farm and it would be impossible to estimate the ultimate value of his property. Cousidering all they went through in the early years, certainly Mr. and Mrs. Focht deserve a bright fortune to illuminate their clos- ing years. Their thought now is chiefly of their children, and the wealth which is coming in from the royalties is being chiefly invested in farms for his sous.

Adam Focht was born in Auglaize County, Ohio, April 27, 1847, a son of Lewis and Martha (Balyliff) Focht. His father was boru in Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania, of German ancestry. The mother was born probably in Philadelphia, of English parentage, and she was reared a Quaker. They were married in Ohio, and the mother died there at the age of thirty-two. Later the father, who was a farmer, moved to Fremont County, Iowa, and bought a farm where he spent the rest of his days, dying at the age of seventy-five. He was a democrat.

Adam Focht was about seven or eight years of age when his father moved out to Iowa. He grew up on the home farm, and received a limited education in the graded schools. When about seventeen his own carcer of adventure began. During 1862-63 he crossed the plains, driving a team with provisions to Julesburg, Colorado, and subsequently taking provisions to Fort Laramie, Wyoming. That was a time when the Indians were on the warpath, and he witnessed much of the exciting scenes of the period. He witnessed a massacre in 1863 in which thirty-five white men were killed by the Indians near Poll Creek. Returning home, he rented one of his father's farms for three years, then operated the home place two years, and in the meantime having married he set out in 1875 for the recently opened Indian reservation in Gage County, Nebraska. He and his good wife lived there for thirteen years.

In 1890 he came to Oklahoma and took up a home- stead in Payne County. He proved up his claim, and has lived there ever since, though he also has a residence in Stillwater and lived there for the purpose of educating his children in the local schools. While his family were in town he spent most of his time on the farm.

It was in 1911 that Mr. Focht went to Creek County and bought 200 acres near where the Town of Shamrock now stands. In 1912 he moved to this land, cleared some of it, and in the following year rented it to his son. Then in the fall of 1915 it was included in the rich strike of oil, and one of his twelve wells now produced 2,500 barrels. He has leased the property to the Gipey Oil Company and receives an eighth royalty. He sold an interest in part of his land, but what he still owns is a fortune.

On New Year's day, in 1872, Mr. Focht married Miss Addie Fletcher. She was born in Fremont County, Iowa, August 29, 1856, a daughter of Vardaman and Drusilla (Shaw) Fletcher. Her father was a native- of Indiana and her mother of Tennessee, and they were married in Buchanan County, Missouri, and from there moved to Fremont County, Iowa. Vardaman Fletcher was the second white settler in Fremont County and was there at such an early time that once or twice he was driveu out by hostile Indians. He spent many years in Fremont and Mills counties and was a very successful farmer.

In 1875 he also went out to Nebraska and improved land in that state, and in the year that Oklahoma was first opened to settlement he again took up pioneering, though then well advanced in years, and secured a homestead in Payne County, which after improving he sold. For a time he was engaged in the grocery business at Perkins, and then made his home with his children until he died, in 1898, when about seventy-five years of age. His wife had died in Nebraska iu 1891 at the age of sixty-four. He was a member of the Methodist Church.

Mrs. Focht remained iu the old home until her mar- riage, and then she, too, showed her dauntless spirit by becoming a pioneer with her husband, and by her exhibi- tion of nerve in the face of adverse conditions she deserves a great share of the credit for the prosperity that has since come to them. Mrs. Focht is a member of the Methodist Church and of the Ladies' Aid Society. On July 6, 1916, Mr. Focht rounds out forty years of active membership in the Independent Order of Odd Fellows.

Through all their days of struggle they were encour- aged by the thought that what they were doing was for the benefit of their children. Into their home came thirteen children, five of whom died in childhood, but the other eight are still living. James W. is a farmer in Payne County; Emma E., now living at St. Joseph, Missouri, is the widow of Dennis Johnson; Jessie is the wife of George Webb of Ripley, Oklahoma; Russell C., Lewis Lloyd, Ralph L. and Charles G. are all farmers in Payne County, Charles living with his parents. The youngest is Myrtle May Clendening, at home.

HON. WALTER R. EATON. Few of Oklahoma 's citizens have been engaged in equally as many business enter- prises as has Walter R. Eaton, of Muskogee, member of the State Legislature from Muskogee County, and probably none has accomplished more important things. Since shortly before the advent of statehood, his name has appeared as an officer or director of nearly a hundred corporations, among them railroads, interurbans, oil and gas developing companies and other large enterprises. A conservationist of scientific thought, his motives have been tinged with a hue for the public weal, while out of his projects at the same time he has prospered indi- vidually.

Walter R. Eaton was born at Bucyrus, Crawford County, Ohio, in 1874, and is a son of Reason B. and Margaret (Hayes) Eaton. His father, a native of Ohio, was a farmer of repute, who unselfishly gave considerable of his time to politics for the public good. Mr. Eaton's mother, a native of Pennsylvania, was a cousin of Presi- dent Rutherford B. Hayes. In the family there were five sons and two daughters: Walter R., of this review; Mrs. Ethel Richie, who is the wife of a practicing attor- ney of Lima, Ohio; Mrs. Walter B. Richie, who is also the wife of a Lima lawyer; Horace P., who is engaged in the manufacturing business at Kalamazoo, Michigan; J. H., who is a merchant at Bucyrus, Ohio; John A., who is a Kansas City lawyer; and Reason B., who resides some place in the West.

Walter R. Eaton acquired his rudimentary education in the public schools, and in 1898 passed the bar examina- tion for entrauce to the University of Michigan, at Ann Arbor, but did not enter that institution as he was forced into politics. Prior to that time, in 1894, he had been appointed private secretary to Walter B. Richie, of Lima, Ohio, supreme chancellor of the Knights of Pythias, and served in that capacity two years, at the end of that; period succeeding himself as private secretary to the successor of Mr. Richie, Philip T. Colgrove, of Hastings, Michigan, the latter term of two years. expiring in 1898. In 1886 his parents had removed to Winfield, Kansas,

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and there Mr. Eaton made his home until going to Lima in 1894. In 1898 he began the practice of law at Hast- ings, Michigan, and continued there until 1901 when he moved to Oklahoma and settled at Muskogee, this being but a few years before the advent of statehood and the conditions being therefore favorable for profitable promo- tion of industries. Mr. Eaton became associated with C. N. Haskell of Muskogee, who afterwards was governor of the state, in various business ventures, and during the next few years was a moving spirit in no less than 100 important undertakings in the eastern part of the state. He has been engaged in the building of railroads, the sale of real estate, the establishment of townsites and the development of oil and gas properties. As president of the park board of the City of Muskogee he supervised the laying out and beautifying of parks until no other city in the Southwest has an equally modern and beau- tiful park system. Mr. Eaton has evolved a modern park and civic improvement plan which he intends to publish and it will probably be adopted by the State Civic Improvement Association, of which he is a member. His theory deals with the utilization of ground for reasons of thrift rather than of beauty, although he is a lover of the beautiful in park architecture.

Mr. Eaton is the author of the work entitled "Eaton 's Method of Pheasantry," which has been adopted as a text for the propagation and rearing of pheasants in all parts of the country. For fifteen years he has made a study of game breeding and is one of the best informed men in the country on the subject. His ideas depart from those of sportsmen who advocate propagation, and he preaches rather the doctrine of game creation as fundamental in dealing with the game problem. His game breeder's bill, introduced in the State Legislature in 1915, is said to be one of the most advanced in the United States. Among his latest achievements may be mentioned the establishment of the Town of Oilton, in the heart of one of the leading oil and gas regions of the state. Eaton & Dunn promoted and have the sale of the townsites of Oilton, Shamrock and Pemeta, all in the oil belt.

Mr. Eaton was elected to the Oklahoma Legislature, on the democratic ticket, in 1914, leading the ticket in both the primary and general elections. He was made chairman of the committee on revenue and taxation and a member of the committees on public buildings, public roads and highways, code, impeachment and removal from office, oil and gas and fish and game. He was the author of a bill changing the method of making tax assessments and issuing tax receipts, a measure he esti- mated, if adopted, would save taxpayers $150,000 an- nually. He was the author also of a bill providing for the removal of necessity for notice before property adver- tised for delinquent taxes should be shorn of penalty if paid before October 1st; a bill providing means of breeding game and fur-bearing animals; a bill accepting the authority conferred by Congress on county courts with reference to Indian matters; a bill providing for appcal from county courts in taxation matters; a bill creating a county excise board, and a bill providing for the establishment of school and municipal playgrounds. He was joint author of a bill providing the establishment of a Pasteur Institute for the treatment of hydrophobia and of the bill providing for a tax on the gross produc- tion of oil and gas. He is a candidate for re-election in the fall of 1916.

Mr. Eaton was married in December, 1911, to Miss Lillian Pittman, daughter of Judge L. P. Pittman, of Shawnee, Oklahoma, one of the most widely known law- yers and legislators of his day in Oklahoma. By a former wife Mr. Eaton has two children: Marquis,

aged sixteen years, who is a student at Wentworth Mili- tary Academy, Lexington, Missouri; and Richie, who lives with his parents and attends school at Muskogee.

Mr. Eaton is a member of the Episcopal Church, He is fraternally identified with the Knights of Pythias, in which he has filled all the chairs, and the Dramatic Order of Knights of Khorassan, of which he has been royal vizier and is now royal prince. Mr. Eaton also holds membership in the Muskogee Chamber of Com- merce and the Muskogee Rotary Club.

EARL W. SINCLAIR of Tulsa is president of the Exchange National Bank, the largest bank in Oklahoma and one of the largest financial institutions in the Southwest. He is interested in the Sinclair Oil and Refining Corporation, which owns refineries and pro- ducing properties all over the Mid-Continent field.

During the greater part of his active business career he has been identified with banking and other interests at Independence, Kansas, but about three years ago transferred his home to Tulsa, Oklahoma. Mr. Sinclair is a man who has come up from the ranks relying on his keen intelligence and steady industry to promote himself to favor and position in affairs.

He was born at Wheeling, West Virginia, May 15, 1874, a son of John and Phoebe (Simmons) Sinclair. His father was born at Woodsfield, Ohio, and died April 1, 1896, at the age of fifty-one. His mother was born in Wheeling, West Virginia, and is now living at the age of sixty-two. Both the sons, Earl W. and Harry F., are well known and prominent men at Tulsa. John Sinclair was in the quartermaster 's department of the Union army during the Civil war. After the war he engaged in the drug business at Wheeling, and in 1884 removed to Independence, Kansas, where he continued in the same business until his death. In politics he was first a democrat and later a republican, and both he and his wife were members of the Congregational Church.

Earl W. Sinclair finished his public school education at Independence, then attended the Northern Indiana Normal School at Valparaiso. His first business expe- rience came as clerk in the freight department of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railway at Chicago, and after about five years there he moved to St. Louis and spent about four years with a lumber company. It was at Independence, Kansas, that he received a solid posi- tion in business affairs. After locating there he was agent for the Independence Gas Company for a time, until the plant was taken over by the Kansas Natural Gas Company, with which he continued as agent for several years.

On January 6, 1907, he helped organize the State Bank of Commerce at Independence, and became its cashier. Consolidated with and became vice president of the First National Bank of Independence on January 17, 1910. On January 14, 1913, Mr. Sinclair came to Tulsa and became vice president of the Exchange National Bank of this city, and in January, 1916, was elected president of the bank succeeding P. J. White.

Some of his important business interests and rela- tions are thus described by The Oil and Gas Journal: "When the Sinclair Oil & Refining Corporation took over the Milliken, Chanute and other properties in Okla- homa, making it the largest oil producing and refining company in business in Oklahoma outside of the Standard Oil Company, Earl Sinclair was unanimously chosen secretary and treasurer. After three months' service he found the duties of the office too onerous and resigned the treasurership but is still secretary and a director of the company. In addition to his banking interests in Tulsa, he is one of the directors of the State National

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Bank at Oklahoma City, and is a large stock holder in several Kansas City and New York financial institutions. He has devoted himself almost exclusively to banking during the last ten years. "

Mr. Sinclair is a member of all the bodies of Masonry, including Wichita Consistory of the thirty- second degree and Akdar Temple of the Mystic Shrine. He belongs to the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, the Tulsa Commercial Club and the Country Club, and in politics is a republican. On May 20, 1902, he married Miss Blanche Stich of Independence, Kansas. They have two children. Besides his beautiful home in Tulsa Mr. Sinclair has a summer home on Buzzard Bay, Massachusetts.

PROF. C. E. TOPE. The superintendent of the Chandler public schools is one of the leading educators of Central Oklahoma, is a man whose experience in educational work began when he was a boy, and has shown exceptional ability in all phases of school work. Under his adminis- tration the Chandler schools have reached a standard hardly second to any in Oklahoma. The Central School Building was erected in 1900 at a cost of about $15,000, with eight rooms and a corps of seven teachers. In 1903 another building was erected of four rooms, with four teachers. The colored schools of the city are in charge of three teachers. In the white schools there is an enrollment of nearly 500 pupils, and 110 are in the high school proper. The Chandler schools are conducted for nine months in the year, and it has been the pride of local citizens and those officially connected with the schools to keep them up to the highest standards in equipment and efficiency of instruction.

C. E. Tope was born at Gallipolis on the Ohio River in the State of Ohio, February 6, 1885. His father, Richard Tope. was a native of Ohio, and his ancestors had settled on the Chesapeake Bay, Maryland, during colonial times. The family have contributed farmers, mechanics, teachers and members of the various profes- sions. Grandfather Tope was a carpenter. Richard Tope married Rebecca Irvin, also a native of Ohio, but rep- resenting early English settlers in Pennsylvania. When Professor Tope was about one year old, the mother died, leaving three children.

C. E. Tope grew up on a farm, developed his body as well as his mind, received training in the public schools, and began his career as a teacher at the age of sixteen. He taught in the schools of his native county, and during intervals of teaching attended the Oak Hill and Rio Grande colleges of Ohio, from which he was graduated in 1905. He continued teaching in Ohio until 1907 and then moved to Oklahoma and was superintendent of the public schools at Mulhall for two years. Professor Tope has been identified with the Chandler public schools since 1909, and it is a reflection of credit upon him to say that the local schools have enjoyed their greatest period of improvement and advancement in all lines since he took charge.

At Mulhall, Oklahoma, in 1908, Mr. Tope married Rosa McCall, a woman of thorough education and culture, who was also born in Ohio, a daughter of James McCall. Professor Tope is active in Masonic circles, having affilia- tion with Lodge No. 58, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons; with the Royal Arch Chapter, No. 51; the Knight Templar Commandery, No. 4, and Consistory of Guthrie, Oklahoma. He has held chairs in the local lodge and has been high priest of the chapter and is also a member of the Scottish Rite team at Guthrie. He and his wife take much part in the Presbyterian Church in which he is teacher of a class of thirty men. He possesses the broad sympathy, the thorough under- standing of young people, so necessary to the equipment

of the educator, and possesses the faculty of imparting not only information but the more valuable one of inspiring his pupils to work for themselves.

JULIAN TRUMBLY. The City of Pawhuska honored one of the most distinguished men of the old Osage Nation by naming for him one of its beautiful streets, Trumbly Avenue. The Trumbly family have their home at 119 North Trumbly Avenue. The late Julian Trum- bly, while identified with Pawhuska from its beginning, spent the greater part of his active lifetime on his farm near the Kansas line, and died there May 20, 1912.

He was not only one of the pioneers and active mem- bers of the Osage Nation but a citizen whose interests extended in many directions, including large business affairs, and he was frequently delegated for official duties in connection with the tribal government and every posi- tion of honor and trust was well bestowed in his case.

Inheriting his Osage citizenship through his mother, Julian Trumbly was born at Kansas City, Kansas, Sep- tember 13, 1850, a son of Francis Louis and Lorene Trumbly. His father was of French ancestry and his mother partly French and a quarter blood Osage. They were regularly enrolled among the tribe in Neosho Coun- ty, Kansas, and both died at St. Paul in that state. They were survived by three sons: Francis, Julian and John Baptiste, all of whom are now deceased.

In the late '60s Julian Trumbly accompanied the other members of the Osage tribe to Indian Territory and in company with the venerable Indian agent of that time, Isaac Gibson, assisted in locating the old agency at what is now Pawhuska. He was employed in a store for several years until after his marriage, and in 1875 moved to a farm near the state line in the Caney Valley, and for forty years that farm was his home and the center of his extended activities in business.

In 1906 Mr. Trumbly served as an Osage. townsite commissioner, and helped to lay out all the towns in Osage County, including Pawhuska. He was prominent in tribal affairs from the early days and made many trips to Washington as an Osage delegate. He spent one entire winter, four months, in Washington acting for the Osage people in company with William T. Leahy. For many years he was a member of the Osage Council, and at one time declined the high honor of election as chief of the nation. In a business way the late Mr. Trumbly was interested in the Southern Kansas Supply Company of Elgin, was identified with the First National Bank of Pawhuska and had interests in three other banks, was a stockholder in the Pawhuska Oil & Gas Company and the Pawhuska-Cleveland Oil & Gas Company. For many years he gave active supervision to the large landed inter- ests of his family, their aggregate allotment comprising about twelve sections of land. In politics Mr. Trumbly was a democrat, and was reared in and was always faith- ful to the Catholic Church.

On February 10, 1873, he married Miss Eliza Ann Tinker, who was born in Neosho County, Kansas, Sep- tember 11, 1854, and came to Indian Territory with the removal of the Osages from Southern Kansas. Her par- ents were George and Lucretia (La Shappel) Tinker, and through her mother she inherits one-fourth French blood and three-quarters Osage. The Tinker family has long been prominent in the Osage country, and further infor. mation concerning its members will be found on other pages. Mrs. Trumbly is still living at the old family resi dence in Pawhuska. She was the mother of nine children George Francis is a farmer in Osage County. Mary E. i: the wife of A. J. Mcclintock of Osage County. Maude C is the wife of Bruce Todd of Osage County. Clarence A is a merchant at Elgin, Kansas. Oliver W. lives on the old homestead in the northern part of Osage County

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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