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 98

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 98

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).

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HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA

Henry is also a farmer in that county. Augusta is the wife of Bruce Hendricks, a farmer in the Caney Valley of Osage County. Charles was married February 14, 1915, to Minna A. Chambers, and they live in Pawhuska. Theresa, the youngest child, is still at home with her mother.

WALDO E. MORRIS, a prominent young attorney of Harper County, now filling the office of county attorney, has been identified with that section of the state for the past fifteen years, was a homesteader and farmer, then took up the law, and a few years ago gravitated into journalism, and is now cditor and manager of the May Record at May.

He was eighteen years old when his family came to Oklahoma. Mr. Morris was born in a log house on a farm in Jasper County, Illinois, March 25, 1883, his parents being James and Ora J. (Melton) Morris. His father was born April 9, 1854, in Ohio, and has spent his active career as a farmer and merchant. In 1901 he brought his family to Oklahoma, and he is now in the hotel business at May. In 1879 he married Miss Melton, who was born in 1860, a daughter of John Melton, a native of Illinois, and her death occurred February 14, 1890. She is survived by five children, four sons and one daughter, as follows: Clinton, born in 1881 and a farmer in Ellis County, Oklahoma; Waldo E .; Emmons Gray, born December 20, 1884; Verna Valeria, born September 20, 1887, was married in 1906 to Robert V. Patton, a farmer of Ellis County; and John Israel, born August 31, 1889, and a farmer in Ellis County.

Waldo E. Morris received his public school education in Jasper County, Illinois. When he came to Oklahoma in 1901 he located a claim of Government land in Woodward County, and vigorously followed up his business as a practical farmer and homesteader until 1909. With such money as he had been able to acquire and save he entered Washburn College at Topeka, Kansas, and was graduated LL. B. from the law class in 1912. In that year he began practice at May, and has done very well in his profession.

In 1914 he was elected county attorney of Harper County. His election came on the Socialist ticket and for several years he has been a recognized leader in that party in Oklahoma. In 1914 he bought the May Record and has made it a vigorous exponent of the principles of socialism, and has not only extended its circulation throughout Harper County, but to many remote points in the state. Individually and through his paper he has constantly espoused the cause of political reform. Mr. Morris deserves the credit of having inaugurated a state usury league, and this league brought about the passage of new usury measures through the State Legis- lature.

On February 20, 1909, Mr. Morris married Miss Lilly Frances Getz, who was born in Effingham County, Illi- nois, September 20, 1889, a daughter of William and Elizabeth Getz, who were also natives of Illinois. Mr. and Mrs. Morris have four children: Lillian Eliza- beth, born November 6, 1909; Theodore Earl, born December 20, 1911; Thera May, born April 20, 1913; and Erma Catherine, born February 20, 1915.

CLYDE MUSGROVE. Though for a number of years his principle work has been in the postoffice at El Reno, where he is now senior clerk under the civil service rules, Clyde Musgrove is a well known newspaper man and writer, and as cartoonist, correspondent, editor and publisher was identified with several of the prominent early papers in the western section of the state.

He was born December 11, 1874, at South Haven,

Kansas, son of Jacob R. and Isabella C. . (Graham) Mus- grove. The late Jacob R. Musgrove was prominent as a pioneer both in Kansas and Oklahoma. He was born in Jackson County, Ohio, of which state his parents were also natives, and of Scotch stock Reared on a farm, Jacob R. Musgrove served full four years as a private in Company E of the Twenty-second Ohio Volunteer Infantry. He was with his regiment in all its battles and campaigns, followed Sherman on his march from Atlanta to the sea, and was finally mustered out at Washington, D. C.

In 1870, some years after the close of the war, he moved into the sparsely settled and undeveloped districts of Southern Kansas, acquiring a tract of Government land in Pottawatomie County. In 1872 he opened one of the first stores at Winfield, Kansas. In 1873 he founded the Town of South Haven in Sumner County. For a number of years he was one of the leading merchants - along the South Kansas border, erecting stores at old Salt City, Guelph and South Haven. He was the first and for many years was postmaster at South Haven. His stores along the border of Indian Territory were conducted largely as Indian trading posts. In the early days be organized and maintained an ox wagon freighting train for the hauling of supplies to the Fort Reno and Darlington agency.

In 1889 the late Jacob R. Musgrove participated in the original Oklahoma opening, and located at old Reno City. The railroad avoided that town, and he moved and identified himself with the new railroad station at the present City of El Reno, having acquired a home- stead right near the town. This homestead is still a part of his estate, and is situated a mile east of El Reno. Jacob R. Musgrove was a prominent republican, and took part in the organization of Canadian County. He was a member of the Masonic order and of the Grand Army of the Republic. His death occurred at South Haven, Kansas, July 28, 1899.

Jacob R. Musgrove and wife were married January 27, 1874. They were the parents of two sons and two daughters, namely: Clyde; Birdie, deceased; Carl, a resident of Oklahoma City; and Edith, deceased.

Clyde Musgrove acquired his early education in the public schools of Winfield, Kansas, and also attended the Southwestern Methodist College at Winfield. When eight- een years of age he entered a printing office and learned the trade. In time he became versed in all the phases of the printer's trade and the newspaper profession, and in 1896 he established and for five years was editor of the News at El Reno, now the El Reno American. He made this one of the most influential newspapers of old Okla- homa Territory, and as a political cartoonist his work received recognition and appreciation over the state. He served as city editor of the Oklahoma City Star during its existence, and in 1901 founded the News at Lawton, soon after the opening of that section of the state.

After his father's death Mr. Musgrove returned to El Reno and accepted a clerkship in the postoffice under civil service, and is now senior clerk.

On August 19. 1905, at Girard, Kansas, he married Miss Alice E. Firmin. She was born in London, Eng- land, September 20, 1875, a daughter of John T. Firmin, also a native of England. Mr. Musgrove has made him- self a considerable factor in El Reno affairs and since 1910 has been a member and is now president of the board of directors of the Carnegie Library. -

NAT. EMMONS LIGON. That integrity and ability, as combined with untiring industry and good judgment, will not lack recognition and appreciation has been signifi-

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IIISTORY OF OKLAHOMA

cantly shown in the meteoric career of Mr. Ligon, who is now serving as counsel for the Mid-Co. Petroleum Company and Mid-Co. Gasoline Company, two of the largest independent oil producing aud oil refining com- panies operating in the great mid-coutinent field, with offices in the City of Tulsa, Tulsa County, Oklahoma.

Having already served for two years as assistant pros- ecuting attorney for Tulsa Couuty, from which office he was elevated to that of United States Probate Attoruey for the Creek Indians, aud, later, at the age of twenty- six years, employed as chief legal representative of two large corporations whose combined property holdings aggregate millions of dollars in value, and whom he rep- resents both as legal adviser aud in litigatiou involving hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of property, Mr. Ligon bears the distinction of being the youngest corporation lawyer in the state.

Fine personal address, buoyant and optimistic nature and unbounded kindliness and geniality have gained to Mr. Ligon a wide circle of friends in the state of his adoption, and all rejoice in his success, for the same has been won entirely through his own ability and earnest endeavors. His brilliant achievements have placed him foremost in the ranks of the younger generation of pro- fessional meu, and it is gratifying to accord him recog- nition in this history.

A scion of staunch old Southern stock, Mr. Ligon was born at Gloster, Amite County, Mississippi, on the first day of September, 1888, and he is the sou of William O. Ligon and Jennie D. (Faust) Ligou, the former of whom was one of the earliest settlers of Amite County, and the latter of whom was born at Liberty, Mississippi, their present home being at Gloster, Mississippi. Wil- liam O. Ligon served for twelve years as Deputy United States Marshal and for three years as United States Marshal in the Southern Judicial District of Mississippi, with official headquarters in the cities of Vicksburg and Jackson, respectively. In early life he was a prosperous planter and merchant, and during the Civil war he served the Confederacy under General Wirt Adams of Mississippi. He resigned from the office of United States Marshal in July, 1914, and returned to Gloster where he is now living, virtually retired.

Nat Emmons Ligon (universally known and referred to as Nat Ligon), the youngest in a family of six sons, acquired his early education in the public schools of his native state and thereafter entered the University of Mississippi at Oxford. For two years he was a student in the academic or literary department of the university and later entered the university law school. On account of financial reverses which came to his parents, Mr. Ligon remained in the university only through endurement of untold difficulties and hardships. For a time he earned his own expenses by directing the university band and orchestra, for which the authorities allowed him board and tuition. While thus engaged he, as president of the sophomore class, was largely instrumental in organiz- ing the Students Self Help Bureau, which has since enabled hundreds of worthy young men of limited resources to be self-sustaining while pursuing their course of study. He took an active interest in debating and public speaking and his present effectiveness as a trial lawyer is due largely to his forensic ability. He won two class medals for oratory, represented his alma mater in a collegiate state oratorical contest and in a collegiate inter-state debating contest and was undefeated during his scholastic career. Financial difficulties and ill health finally forced him to withdraw from the law school three months prior to the graduation of his class, and he came direct from Oxford to Tulsa, Oklahoma, where he arrived on the 8th day of March, 1911.

With his finances at the lowrest possible ebb and with-

out au acquaintance iu the city, he was uot discouraged but turning his face toward the dawn of a new day for him, he sought employment that would enable him to provide the necessities of life and, at the same time, con- tinue his study of the law. He was received as a clerk in the first office to which he applied for admission, that of Davidsou & Williams, attorneys, where he remained and eked out a scanty subsistence for the first year of his residence in the new and growing city. At night he vigorously continued his study of the science of juris- prudence and in the following June he was admitted to practice in the courts of Oklahoma-the same week in which his class in the law department of the University of Mississippi was graduated.

In June, 1912, Mr. Ligon was employed by the city authorities of Tulsa to revise and codify the municipal ordinance, and this work demanded his attention for three months. In August, 1912, with his work for the city scarcely begun, he was appointed to the position of assistant prosecuting attorney of Tulsa County under Pat Malloy. Only a few weeks after his appointment to this office Mr. Ligon gained prominence for himself and drew words of lavish praise from the press in Oklahoma, and throughout the country, for his master- ful efforts in the prosecution of Mrs. Laura T. Reuter, and her co-conspirators, for the murder of her husband, Charles T. Reuter, a prominent attorney of Tulsa. In three successive trials of the different defendants in this famous case, Mr. Ligon made the opening address for the prosecution to the jury. In speaking of his argument in the first of these trials, the Tulsa Daily World of October 30, 1912, used, in part, the follow- ing language :

"Probably never before in the history of criminal practice has a better argument been made by an attorney with so few years on his shoulders than that of the young assistant prosecutor who has just passed his twenty-fourth birthday. It was his second appeal to a jury and it happens that the first appeal was also in a murder case. Old attorneys who listened for two hours and a half while Ligon reviewed the evidence and made a strong plea for the maximum penalty, death, were unanimous in their opinion that his effort was worthy of a man years older, both in age and experience."

In February, 1914, Mr. Ligon resigned as assistaut prosecuting attorney to accept an appointment as United States Probate Attorney for the Creek Indians, with official headquarters in the City of Sapulpa, Creek County.

The United States Government spends the sum of $85,000.00 annually in the employment of probate attor- neys, one in each of the counties inhabited by citizens of the Five Civilized Tribes in Oklahoma, whose duty it is to guard the interests of minor and incompetent Indian allottees against the inroads made on their estates by corrupt guardians and designing persons. During the first twelve months that he held this office, Mr. Ligor saved and recovered for the estates of minors and incom petents in Creek County alone, more than $90,000.00, 0' more than the entire annual appropriation of Congres! for the salaries and expenses of twenty other probate attorneys in Oklahoma.

In September, 1915, while serving as probate attorney further professional distinction was conferred upon Mi Ligon, when he was elected special judge to preside i. the trial of an important murder case in the Distric Court of Creek County. The youngest jurist who eve presided in the trial of a murder case in Oklahoma, h' thus occupied the position on the bench for three day !! and his rulings bore the stamp of true judicial wisdom and a broad and accurate knowledge of the law.

Mr. Ligon is a Royal Arch Mason, a member of th

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Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, and holds membership in the secret order of Kappa Alpha, a Greek letter college fraternity. He is a member of the First Baptist Church at Tulsa.

On January 20, 1916, Mr. Ligon was happily married at Sapulpa, Oklahoma, to Miss Zula Lee Nash, formerly of Austin, Texas. Mrs. Ligon was born in Bastrop County, Texas, and is the daughter of Horace Nash and Lillian L. (Billingsley) Nash, both of Bastrop County, Texas. The forefathers of her mother (the Billingsleys) are well known in Texas history, having been active in establishing the independence of Texas. Long before this time, however, her ancestors had won fame in the struggle for the American Independence and their deeds of virtue engraved on the tablets of American history. Her ances- try dates back to the tenth century, she being the direct descendant of the historic Puleston family in England, and of Edward I of England and Ferdinand, King of Spain.

The proud descendant of a family with a long list of noble achievements, one of the Southland's fairest daughters and a typically American woman, Mrs. Ligon represents the crowning success of her husband's many brilliant attainments. 1

CAMPBELL RUSSELL. Coming to Indian Territory as a youth of seventeen years, Senator Russell has had a broad and varied experience in pioncer life on the frontier and has been a prominent and influential force in connection with the civic and industrial development of what is now the State of Oklahoma. He has shown himself a man of resourcefulness and decisive action, and stands today as one of the vigorous and successful representatives of the agricultural and live-stock inter- ests of this commonwealth, the while his civic loyalty and public spirit are indicated in the fact that he was a member of the first State Senate after the admission of Oklahoma to the Union and that he is at the present time a member of that body, as representative of the Twenty-seventh senatorial district. The senator's liber- ality and progressiveness have been of noteworthy order and have inured greatly to the march of development and advancement in the vital young commonwealth within which he has maintained his residence for more than thirty years.

Campbell Russell was born in Northern Alabama, on the 22d of October, 1863, and is a son of Thomas and Margaret (Stringer) Russell, the former a native of North Carolina and the latter of Kentucky, in which state her father was a pioneer settler. Thomas Russell, as a young man, established his home in the northern part of the State of Alabama, where he became a pioneer teacher in the common schools and where he was long a prosperous agriculturist and influential citizen. Both he and his wife continued their residence in Alabama until their death, the former having passed away in 1895 and the latter in 1901.

After availing himself of the advantages of the com- mon schools of his native state Senator Russell com- pleted, in 1881, a course in the business college of the University of Lexington, in the metropolis of Ken- tucky. In the same year he immigrated to Indian Territory and found employment on the Three Bar Ranch, which was at that time the largest cattle ranch in the Cherokee Nation and which was situated twelve miles distant from Muskogee. This great ranch was owned and controlled by Gen. Pleasant Porter and C. W. Turner, the former of whom was the principal chief of the Creek tribe. Eventually Senator Russell engaged in farming and stock-growing on his own account, and in 1895 he handled 14,000 head of cattle, this representing

the largest herd that up to that time had ever been assembled in Indian Territory. His ranch was in Younger's Bend on the Canadian River, this bend hav- ing been named for the well known bandits, the Younger Brothers, of Missouri, who there maintained a rendez- vous during their days of outlawry on the frontier, the locality having likewise been a headquarters for Belle Starr, a woman known throughout the Southwest as an accomplice and associate of the Younger Brothers.

In that historic district Senator Russell cleared aud improved a ranch of 400 acres, and there he established the first free school for white children within the entire confines of Indian Territory, the schoolhouse having been erected by him at his own expense and he having defrayed individually also the expense of employing a teacher in the school each summer for a period of five years. As one of the most enterprising and energetic of pioneers, the senator made his constructive influence felt in many other avenues of progress. After his removal to Warner, his present home, he individually graded at his own expense sixteen miles of public road besides which he erected a schoolhouse, at a cost of $5,300, and donated the same to the township. Such is the spirit of liberality and unselfish devotion to the public weal that has ani- mated him and that has made an honored and influential citizen of the state of which he may consistently be termed one of the founders and builders.

After initiating the development of his ranch in the vicinity of the Village of Warner Senator Russell directed his attention definitely to the breeding of registered cattle, from select stock which he purchased in the northern states. He raised principally Shorthorn and Hereford cattle, and later he made disposition of much of his stock product in various years by means of public sales in Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Arkansas, Texas and Oklahoma, the proceeds of each of several of these sales was above $30,000. At the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, in the City of St. Louis, in 1904, Senator Russell won twenty-seven premiums on his exhibit of Hereford cattle and also a diploma as the champion breeder of Herefords in the sub-quarantine (or southern) division of the country. It may well be understood that he had done much to advance the standards of live-stock and agricultural industry in Oklahoma, and a detailed record of his progressive activities would make a context sufficient for an entire published volume.

As a resident of the domain of the Five Tribes, Senator Russell cast his first vote for Joel Mayes for chief of the Cherokees, and his next vote was for Green McCurtain for chief of the Choctaws. Having by mar- riage a "right" in both of these nations, he traveled on horse-back forty miles from outside of the Cherokee Nation to vote in a Cherokee election, and traveled sixty miles to exercise a similar function in a Choctaw elec- tion. The senator served three years as a member of the executive committee of the Farmers' Educational & Cooperative Union of Oklahoma; one term as president of the state union; and three terms as secretary of the board of directors of the national union. Upon his re- tirement from the latter office, on the 5th of September, 1911, the board of directors presented him with a hand- some gold medal, on which were inscribed the words, "Weighed in the balance and not found found wanting,"' a most consonant expression touching his character and services during the long years of his residence in what is now the State of Oklahoma. In 1896 the senator effected the organization of the Canadian District Protective Association, which later was merged with the Indian Territory division of the Anti-Horse-Thief Association. Of this latter and more comprehensive organization he served three years as president, one year as vice presi-

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dent, and has since continued a ucuber of its executive committee. During one year he captured uine men charged with the theft of horses and cattle, and he succeeded also in recovering during that year ten horses that had been stolen.

Senator Russell was a member of the first state senate of Oklahoma and in the initial session of the Legislature he came iuto special prominence as the chief champion of what became known as the "New Jerusa- lem" capital scheme, a measure that provided for the establishment of the capital of the new commonwealth near the geographical center of the state and which was carried at a popular election held in 1908. In the first session of the Legislature Seuator Russell was chair- man of the senate committee ou roads and highways aud at succeeding sessions his membership in the senate having been continuous, he has served as chairman of the committee ou agriculture. In the Second Legislature three of the first five bills passed in the senate were introduced and championed by him, and one of them authorized the establishing of county agricultural demon- stration farms; another prevented married minors from selling inherited real estate. In this session also he obtained in the senate the passage of a bill providing for the carrying out of the provisions of the "New Jerusalem " measure, but the bill failed to pass the House of Representatives. A constitutional amendment, of which he was the author, providing for per capita dis- tribution of tax paid by public-service corporations for school purposes, was five times given enactive approval by the senate, but three times the resolution was killed in the house, and twice it was submitted to the people. In the first popular election it received more than two- thirds of the votes but it was defeated by reason of not having met the requirement of receiving a majority of all votes cast in that election. In a special session of the Legislature, in 1913, the proposition was again submitted and carried by a substantial majority.

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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