USA > Oklahoma > Portrait and biographical record of Oklahoma; commemorating the achievements of citizens who have contributed to the progress of Oklahoma and the development of its resources, V. 1 > Part 14
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Mr. Canon was born in Forest City, Mo., in
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October, 1876. His boyhood was passed prin- cipally in Kansas. Until he was eight years of age he resided in Brown county, and then, for two years, his home was in Riley county, after which he went with the family, in an overland trip, to Comanche county. He accompanied the family to Frisco, Okla., where he received good educational advantages. In September, 1894, he entered the University of Oklahoma, where he carried on his studies for two years. In 1896 he took a position as clerk in a dry- goods store, but, after giving his attention to that business for six monthis, returned to his studies, being for a period a pupil in the El Reno high school.
May 10, 1897, Mr. Canon entered upon the duties of a clerical position in the Citizens' State Bank of El Reno. He continued to act in the capacity of a bookkeeper there until January I, 1900, when he tendered his resignation in order that he might embark upon an independent en- terprise. Buying out Mr. Menger's shoe store, he energetically set about the task of supplying the public with high-grade goods in his line, and is meeting with gratifying success. Having been identified with the boot and shoe business since his boyhood, he is thoroughly familiar with all of its details. His well-equipped store on the corner of Rock Island avenue and Russell street speaks of the excellent judgment of the proprietor. Reared in the faith of the Repub- lican party, he is a stanch adherent to its prin- ciples and is as devoted to the success of his party as he is to the progress of his home city.
J OSEPH L. CARON, a prosperous farmer of Banner township, Kingfisher county, is a native of Canada, his birth having occurred near Montreal, in 1860. He is of French extrac- tion, and for four generations his family lived in Canada. Some of themi took part in the Can- adian revolution, but for the most part they have led quiet, peaceful lives, leaving to others the conflict and strife of politics and warfare.
His father, Joseph, was born in the province of Quebec, and in his early manhood he qualified himself as a mechanic. Moving to Michigan in 1866, he followed his trade at Saginaw for about nine years, and then went to Pratt county, Kans., where he engaged in agricultural pur- suits. For some years he operated three hun- dred and twenty acres of land, and raised large crops of grain, also keeping considerable live stock. He now resides in the vicinity of Gar- ber, Garfield county, Okla., and is a much re- spected citizen of that community. His wife was Miss Philmena Doe in her girlhood, and of the (leven children born to them all but one sur- vive. With the exception of David, who lives
in Montana, the sons are farmers of this terri- tory, Albert being located at Osage, Frank near Garber, and Jolin in Kingfisher county. Louisa is the wife of Moses Thyfault. Rose, wife of Napoleon Rabeau, and Della, Mrs. Wilfred La- lone, dwell in Canada. Emma and Mary are yet with their parents on the homestead near Gar- ber.
Though he was only six years of age at the time of his removal from Canada, his native place, the memories of our subject's early years were so pleasant that he visited the familiar scenes again in 1894, while making a trip to the east. His education was obtained in the public schools of Michigan and Kansas, and ere he reached maturity he had become a practical agriculturist. In 1877 he accompanied his par- ents to Kansas, and five years later took up a claim in Pratt county. Improving the same, he engaged in its cultivation for three years, then locating upon another farm.
It was not until February, 1891, that Mr. Caron left Pratt county, Kans., where he had met with fair success in a business way. Then, coming to Oklahoma, he purchased a quarter section of section 33, Banner township, and for several months his family lived in a small house, 12×14 feet in dimensions. Within the first year, however, he erected his present convenient resi- dence, and from time to time made other im- provements about the premises. In the fall of 1900 he erected a large barn, 40x44 feet, with twelve-foot posts and with room for thirty head of stock. Having reduced his land to a high state of cultivation and garnered several abun- dant harvests, he was enabled, in 1895, to buy another quarter section of land, this property being situated in section 3, Grant township. In January, 1900, he bought the quarter section ad- joining his homestead, and cultivates his entire property, devoting about two hundred acres to wheat. He also is successful in the live stock business, and raises a good grade of short-horn cattle, horses and mules. His well-kept orchard is now productive, and the four hundred fruit trees, of different varieties, and a thriving vine- vard, add considerably to the owner's income. He owns his own threshing machine, so he is able to thresh his grain without waiting on others.
Mr. Caron is a stockholder in the Farmers' Grain Elevator Company, of Kingfisher, and is a member of Kingfisher Lodge No. 4, I. O. O. F. Politically he supports the platform of the Populist party, and in 1896 was a delegate to the county convention. For two years he served as the treasurer of Banner township, and for five years, while he was a director of the school board, he acted as treasurer of that body.
February 28, ISSS, occurred the marriage of
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Mr. Caron and Emma B. Jones, daughter of Jackson Jones, a leading farmer and active Re- publican of Tipton county, Ind. Two of Mrs. Caron's brothers, George W. and John E., were soldiers in the Union army during the Civil war. The former now resides in Pratt county, Kans., and the latter is deceased. Mary Alice, elder daughter of our subject and wife, was born in Pratt county in 1889, and the younger, Clara Marie, was born in this township in 1898. In 1893 Mr. and Mrs. Caron attended the World's Fair, in Chicago, and before returning to Okla- homa Mrs. Caron visited for two months at her old Indiana home.
M ATHIAS CARNAHAN, a prosperous and successful farmer residing on the north- east quarter of section 6, El Reno town- ship, Canadian county, Okla., is a native of Armstrong county, Pa., and a son of David Car- nahan, who was born in Westmoreland county, same state, while the grandfather, James Carna- han, was a native of Ireland and an early settler of Pennsylvania. About 1855 the father, who was a farmer and mason by occupation, moved to Jackson county, Iowa, where he died in 1864. He was a Presbyterian in religious belief. He married Sarah Ringle, also a native of Pennsyl- vania and a daughter of John Ringle, a pioneer of that state. By this union eleven children were born, six of whom are still living, namely: James, a resident of Chicago, Ill .; Mathias, our subject; William, a resident of Wisconsin; David, of Iowa; Robert, of Colorado; and Ellen, wife of Harvey Lair, of Bremen, Ind.
Our subject was only ten years old when, with his parents, he removed to Jackson county, · Iowa, and there he grew to manhood and was educated in the common schools. He remained at home until 1865, when he moved to Indiana, where he was married, in 1868, to Miss Elsie Crumpacker, a daughter of John Crumpacker, and to them were born eight children, namely: Mary, now the wife of Henry Lassen; John, a farmer of Cheyenne county; Albert; Marion Ida, deceased; Edwena; Ella; Emily, and Lena.
Mr. Carnahan continued his residence in In- diana until 1877, when he removed to Nuckolls county, Neb., and later made his home in Sew- ard and Butler counties, same state. Selling his interests in Butler county, in 1893, he came to Cheyenne county, Okla., locating five miles southwest of the city of El Reno. He bought two hundred and twenty-two acres of raw land on section 21, El Reno township, Canadian county, one hundred and eighty acres of which he has placed under a high state of cultivation, and he also took up a homestead of one hundred and sixty acres in the vicinity, and this he also
has improved. In 1895 he bought his present farm east of El Reno, which he has since greatly improved by the erection of a good frame resi- dence and substantial outbuildings. He also has good wells operated by wind pumps, and is well equipped to irrigate his land. Though success- fully engaged in general farming, his specialty is the raising of potatoes, five hundred bushels a year being his average crop. He has owned and operated several threshing machines, and for twenty-eight seasons engaged in threshing throughout Iowa, Nebraska and Oklahoma. Bringing his outfit with him from Nebraska to Canadian county, Okla., and having the only one in the locality at that time, he was very suc- cessful in its operation. He raises considerable fruit, having a fine orchard upon his place. Mr. Carnahan has prospered through his own un- aided efforts, being enterprising, energetic and industrious, and is to-day the owner of three hundred and eighty acres of valuable farming land besides property in the city of El Reno. In his political views he is a Populist.
G EORGE W. EBERSOLE, one of the men who fought so bravely for the preservation of the Union during the Civil war, and a. prominent farmer of Canadian county, his home being on section 34, El Reno township, was born in Knox county, Ohio. His father, Jacob Ebersole, spent his entire life in that state, and is one of the leading farmers in his community. He also was one of the pillars in the Methodist Episcopal Church for several years. The grand- father, John Ebersole, was a native of Pennsyl- vania and an early settler of Ohio, where in the midst of the forest he cleared and improved a large tract of land. He died at the advanced age of one hundred and one years upon the farm which he had entered from the government. He also entered land in Iowa. The Ebersole family was founded in America by four brothers, na- tives of Germany, who located here prior to the Revolutionary war. Our subject's mother. who bore the maiden name of Harriet Worthington, was a native of Virginia and belonged to quite a prominent family of that state. In early life she removed with her parents to Ohio. She was a very active and influential member of the Methodist Episcopal Church and served as a local preacher. Her children were Mrs. Eliza- beth Stevens; George W., our subject: John, who was living in Dakota when last heard from, and Sheridan, of Independence, Kans.
George W. Ebersole was reared to agricul- tural pursuits upon the home farm, and acquired his education in the common schools. Prompted by a spirit of patriotism he enlisted in Company
J. G. SHROCK, Okarche.
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A, Twentieth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, which was assigned to the Third Brigade, Third Di- vision, Seventeenth Army Corps. The first im- portant battle in which he participated was that of Fort Donelson and was followed by the bat- tles of Shiloh, Vicksburg, Raymond and Cham- pion Hill. At Vicksburg he lost his hearing irom the concussion of a shell, and has never fully recovered from the effects of the same, while during the Atlanta campaign he was wounded July 22, 1864, and was confined in a hospital at Marietta, Ga., for six weeks, rejoin- ing his regintent at Atlanta in time to take part in Sherman's celebrated march to the sea. He also took part in the grand review at Waslı- ington, D. C., and was, discharged at Louisville, Ky., July 15, 1865. He has just cause to be proud of his army record, for his company was never defeated and never known to retreat, al- though it entered the service with one hundred and twelve men and had only sixteen when mus- tered out. Mr. Ebersole received a medal for veteran service from the state of Ohio.
In 1866 Mr. Ebersole married Miss Sarah Welsch, also a native of Ohio, and a daughter of Nathan Welsch, a prominent attorney of Mount Vernon, that state, who died at the early age of twenty-eight years. They have an adopted son, William Keffer, who was reared by them from the age of six months and is now suc- cessfully engaged in farming in El Reno town- slip, Canadian county, Okla. He married Wil- helmina Roe and has one child, Rowland.
In the spring of 1866, Mr. Ebersole moved from his native state to Tama county, Iowa, where he lived on his grandfather's farm three years. The following three years were spent in Adams county, same state, and in 1872 he re- moved to Barber county, Kans. His wife being the first white woman to locate in the county, on that account she was given a lot in Medicine Lodge. There our subject owned and success- fully operated a ranch of two hundred and forty acres, which he improved from wild prairie, and in connection with general farming engaged in cattle raising, but during the water spout on Medicine river in 1885, he lost $6,000 worth of property in one hour, thus being left without lionse or honte. In 1887 he started for Beaver county, Okla., with one horse and $2 in money, but being unsuccessful in that locality, when this section was opened for settlement, April 22, 1889, he became one of the homesteaders and located upon his present farm on the following day. He filed his claim, but it was contested for three years before he received the deed. Here Mr. Ebersole began life in a dug-out, but int 1892 built a good frame house, has planted an orchard, set out a small vineyard, and placed fifty acres of his land under a high state of cul-
tivation. He lias won quite a reputation as a market gardener and his products command the highest prices and are eagerly sought by the people of El Reno. He raises all kinds of vegetables and watermelons.
In his labors Mr. Ebersole has always been ably assisted by his estimable wife, who has in- deed proved a true helpmeet to him. He is a member of El Reno Post No. 13, G. A. R., and is a Republican in politics. While a resident of Barber county, Kans., he served as coroner for two years.
J. G. SHROCK is a pushing and energetic dealer in general merchandise at Okarche, and though still a young man, possesses in a marked degree the confidence and respect of the community. He was born in Hickory county, Mo., in 1869, and has had a more varied and extensive experience than usually belongs to his years.
J. J. Shrock, the father of the Okarche mer- chant, is now living at Lafayette, Ind., near which city he has farming interests. He has carried on a milling business for many years, and stands well among the business men of his section. The Shrock family came from Switzer- land nearly two hundred years ago and settled in Pennsylvania near the present city of Johns- town. They have always been honest and hard- working people, and many of them have occu- pied important positions. Rachel (Hirshberger) Shrock, the mother of the subject of this article, was born in Pennsylvania, is the mother of ten children, two of whom are now residing in Okla- homa. Mr. Shrock has a brother working for him in the store. A sister, Mrs. David, who is now doing missionary work in the territory, expects very shortly with her husband to take a charge in Syria.
J. G. Shrock was reared to manhood in the Indiana home, and enjoyed the usual common- school advantages. At an early age he applied himself to trade and became a carpenter. He was a very successful workman, and was engaged in this line for several years. In 1895 he made a brief visit to Okarche, but did not locate here permanently at that time. He spent a year more in Indiana and cante back to Okarche in 1897 to open up a furniture and undertaking establishment which, under his fos- tering care, became at once a pronounced suc- cess. The next year he added a full stock of general merchandise, dry goods, groceries and similar goods, and now carries a fine stock, aggregating in value more than $8.000. Feb- ruary 15, 1900, he moved into the new Thomp- son building. It has more than three thousand feet of flooring, and with good light and ventila-
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tion is one of the most pleasant stores in the place.
· In 1896 Mr. Shrock and Miss Amelia E. Litt- weller were united in marriage. She is a daugh- ter of Peter Littweller of Okarche, and is a worthy helpmate to her husband. They have a pleasant home, and their future is bright. Mr. Shrock has made rapid progress in his business and exhibits those qualities of mind and heart that niake for success in any calling.
A LONZO A. COSBY. No county official has greater responsibilities devolving upon him than Mr. Cosby, who is sheriff of Can- adian county, and no one is more worthy of the trust placed in him by his fellow citizens. He was born July 3. 1869, in LeSeuer county, Minn., a son of Eli Cosby, and a grandson of Benjamin Cosby, both natives of Jefferson county, Ind. The family is of Scotch descent, and on coming to America settled in Virginia, where Richard Cosby, the great-grandfather of Alonzo'A., was born and reared, although he afterwards became a pioneer of Jefferson county, Ind. Benjamin Cosby removed from Indiana to Minnesota in 1856, locating in Dakota county, where he took up land, on which he engaged in general farm- ing until his death. He participated in the In- dian wars of 1862, fighting against the Sioux in one severe battle.
Eli Cosby was born in 1846, and was a boy of but ten years when he accompanied his par- ents to Minnesota, where he assisted in the im- provement of the home farm until he was six- teen years of age. August 15, 1862, he enlisted in Company G, Tenth Minnesota Infantry, which guarded the Indian reservations of Min- nesota for a year. In 1863 he went with his regiment to the front, joining the army of the Tennessee, and taking part in the engagements at Tupelo, Nashville, Mobile, Spanish Fort and Blakeley Fort, remaining in the south until Au- gust, 1865, when he was discharged from the service. Returning to LeSeuer county, Minn., he there engaged in farming and milling for a while, but subsequently transferred his opera- tions to Winsted, MeLeod county, where he re- sided until 1893. Coming then to Canadian county, Okla., he carried on farming and stock- raising until 1899, when, having been appointed deputy sheriff of the county, he removed with his family to El Reno. He is a Republican in politics, and a member of the El Reno Post, G. A. R. His first wife, whose maiden name was Jemima West, was born in Jennings county. Ind., a daughter of Israel West, who removed from his early home in Kentucky to Indiana, thence to Illinois, where he enlisted in an Illinois regiment during the Civil war, serving several
months in the army. She died in March, 1879, in Minnesota, leaving three children, namely :. Alonzo .A., the subject of this sketch; Eva, now Mrs. Roush, residing in El Reno; and Estella, also of El Reno. His second wife, Emma L. Carty, was born in Ohio, and of their union three children were born, Annie, Charles, and Martha.
Alonzo A. Cosby received a practical com- mon-school education in Minnesota, and at the age of twelve years began the battle of life on his own account, working as a clerk in various cities, chiefly in Nebraska, Kansas and Missouri. Coming to Oklahoma in the fall of 1889, he located a claim in the northwestern quarter of section 23, township 13, range 6 west, on which he put up a residence and commenced life as a farmer, engaging principally in stock raising. Subsequently selling his first claim, he purchased one hundred and twenty acres of bottom land in section 5, township 12, range 6 west, where he carried on a successful business as a stock raiser and dealer, at the same time being inter- ested to a considerable extent in real estate and building. In 1895 Mr. Cosby was appointed chief deputy sheriff under John M. Canon, with whom he served three years. In 1898 he was nominated for sheriff of Canadian county by the Republicans, and was elected by two hundred and seventy-five votes, the largest majority ever attained by a sheriff, running ahead of his ticket, notwithstanding the fusion element. In Janti- ary, 1899, he took the oath of office and removed with his family to El Reno.
Mr. Cosby was married January 31, 1888, in Wellington, Kans., to Miss Emma Riley, who died in El Reno, November 11, 1898, leaving two children, Lillie and Leola.
Fraternally he is a member of the Independ- ent Order of Odd Fellows, Red Cloud Tribe No. 3. Order of Red Men, and of the Modern Woodmen of America.
T THOMAS A. COOKSEY, who came to Ok- lahoma from Sumner county, Kans., in May, 1889, and now is successfully engaged in general farming and stock raising on the southwestern quarter of section 12, El Reno township, Canadian county, was born in south- western Kentucky, a son of Townsend and Celia Ann Cooksey, who died during the infancy of our subject. The father, a farmer by occupation, was born in Maryland, near the District of Co- lumbia, but lived many years in Caldwell county, Ky., where he died at the age of fifty-five.
In his native place Thomas A. Cooksey grew to manhood among strangers, receiving a very limited education, and in 1854 moved to Joli- son county, Mo., where he lived until after the Civil war broke out. In the spring of 1862 lie
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went to Jefferson county, Kans., and for a time was a member of the Kansas State Militia, after which he made one trip as a freighter from Kan- was City to Fort Scott. After the war he sold his farm and returned to Missouri, where he was engaged in agricultural pursuits until 1876, when he went to Nemaha county, Kans .. and followed railroading two years, being connected with the building of roads. Later, he located in Sumner county, Kans., where he owned and operated a farmi until 1889, and was also interested in cat- tle, at times having several hundred head on the Cherokee strip.
At Knobnoster, Mo., Mr. Cooksey was mar- ried, in 1856, to Miss Eliza Workman, a daugh- ter of Samuel Workman, who moved from Pennsylvania to Missouri in 1840, and to them have been born eleven children, namely: Thomas Melvin; Alice, wife of W. H. Thompson; Charles; Ella, wife of Morris Rowen; W. Grant. a resident of Kansas City, Mo .: Sallie, wife of Harvey Williams; Katie, wife of Leport Camp- bell, of Caldwell, Kans .; Walter A., of Ren- frow, Okla .; Fannie, a school teacher of El Reno, Okla .; Frank, a resident of El Reno; and Carrie, at home with her parents.
About 1878, Mr. Cooksey took up his resi- dence in Caldwell, Kans., which continued to be his home until coming to Oklahoma in 1889, when he sold his land in that state and also some of his cattle and bought a tract of govern- ment land, where he now resides. He has placed acre after acre under the plow until he now has one hundred acres under a high state of culti- vation and is making a specialty of the raising of wheat. He also has a good bearing orchard of over one hundred apple trees, and a vine- vard, and devotes considerable attention to fruit culture. He raises a good grade of Short-horn cattle and Poland-China hogs, and in all his un- dertakings is meeting with well-deserved suc- cess. As a Republican he always has taken an active interest in political affairs, assisting in organizing the party in his locality. In district No. 33 he served as the first school director, and continued to fill that office in a most creditable manner for several years.
W. S. DE BAUN, an honored veteran of the Civil war and a prominent early set- tler of El Reno township, Canadian county, came here front Arkansas in 1889. He is a native of Indiana and a son of Samuel De Baun, who is still living in Farmersburg, that state, and is still quite active despite his eighty Years. The family is noted for longevity. Our subject's paternal grandfather, Samuel De Baun, Sr., removed from Kentucky to Indiana at an
carly. day, and there both he and his wife died of cholera when their son Samuel was quite small. The latter, who for four years operated a coal mine in Shelbyville, Ill., later became quite a prominent farmer and stock man of Indiana. He has been twice married, his first wife being Phylinda Shattuck, who died in 1866, leaving five children, namely: Amanda, wife of T. K. Sherman, a merchant of Sullivan, Ind .; Maggie, wife of William Gaskins, of Farmersburg, Ind .; Emma, wife of W. H. Bennett; Isabel, wife of Joseph McClain; and W. S., our subject. For his second wife the father married Mrs. Susan (Riggs) Ernest.
On the home farm in his native state, W. S. De Baun grew to manhood, and engaged in agri- cultural pursuits until the Civil war broke out, when he enlisted as a private in the Eighth Indiana Volunteer Battery, but was mustered out as a sergeant after three years and three months of faithful service, his regiment being in the Army of the Cumberland. He was in a hand-to-hand encounter during the battle of Chickamauga and narrowly escaped being killed. while in the same engagement his clothes were pierced by seven bullets.
After the war, Mr. De Baun returned to In- diana, where he remained two years, and in 1867 moved to Shelby county, Ill., where he improved half a section of land and successfully engaged in general farming for several years, removing to Nevada county, Ark., in 1880. There he was engaged in railroad work as a contractor, con- structing a section of the Iron Mountain and Cotton-Belt roads. He also built a part of the line from Texarkana to Shreveport. Coming to Oklahoma in 1889, he located on the southwest quarter of section 3, El Reno township, Can- adian county, and soon transformed the place into a fine farm, placing one hundred and twen- ty-five acres under the plow, and planting an orchard of one hundred and fifty peach trees, besides other fruit. In connection with general farming he is engaged in stock raising, making a specialty of thoroughbred Short-horn cattle.
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