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 32
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).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90 | Part 91 | Part 92 | Part 93 | Part 94 | Part 95
H ON. WILLIAM H. MERTEN, a promi- ment and influential citizen of Guthrie and a member of the first legislature of the territory, is now president and manager of the Merten Commission Company of Guthrie and has a very extensive business.
Mr. Merten was born in Delaware county, Iowa, March S. 1845, and is a son of Frederick and Catherine (Klaus) Merten. His grandfather. Herman Frederick Merten, a native of Prussia. brought his family to this country when the father of our subject was but fourteen years old. He settled at St. Charles. Mo., on a farin and there lived until his death. Frederick Merten was born in Prussia, Germany, and was reared on a farm near St. Charles, Mo. After his mar- riage he located near Colesburg. Delaware county, Iowa, on a farm of one hundred and sixty acres, and this he operated until his death. meantime becoming an extensive land owner. Besides the management of his farm, he was an ordained German Methodist minister, and preached in various places in Iowa, Illinois and Wisconsin, actively following that vocation from 1850 to 1880, when he retired. He was a close student, was well informed in classics and theol- ogy and contributed largely to the press and church papers. His death occurred in the fall of 1898 at the age of seventy-three years. He was a strong AAbolitionist and Republican.
The marriage of Frederick Merten united him
with Catherine Klaus, who was born in Hanover, Germany, and came to America with two brotli- ers. She died in 1807. Nine children blessed this union, as follows: John S., who lives on the old home farm, and who served in the Seventh lowa Infantry during the Civil war: William H .: Benjamin F., who died at Byers, Colo., in Au- gust, 1899, and who was superintendent of city schools in Clay county, Kans., for twenty years, also county superintendent for four years ; George P., a merchant of Garner, Iowa; Sam- uel W., also a merchant of Garner, Iowa; Joseph, who is on one of the old homestead farms at Colesburg, Iowa; Elias and Frederick. both of Garner, Iowa; and Mrs. Anna Klaus, of Earlville, lowa.
William H. Merten was reared on different farms and at different places where his father preached, receiving his education in the public schools. In 1862 he entered Baldwin University and in 1863 went to Missouri, where he enlisted in Company B, Forty-third Missouri Infantry, being mustered in at St. Joseph. After having served in different parts of the state of Missouri he was mustered out at Jefferson Barracks in the spring of 1865. He then returned to Savannah, Mo., where he had started in the nursery busi- ness before his enlistment. After continuing there for a short time he sold out and returned to Delaware county, lowa, where he en- gaged in farming summers and teaching school during the winters. From 1872 to 1876 he was superintendent of schools of Delaware county, and from 1880 to 1884 served in the house of rep- resentatives of Iowa. He was a member of the Eighteenth and Nineteenth assemblies, which elected Senator Wilson of Iowa to the senator- ship. From 1882 until 1888 he engaged exten- sively in the live-stock business in Texas and Colorado. April 23. 1889, he came to Guthrie, and embarked in the commission business in the same block where he is now located. From the first he met with success and in 1895 incorpor- ated the Merten Commission Company, of which he is president and manager. He is a general commission merchant, both shipping and re- ceiving shipments, and is a wholesale dealer in fruits and produce. In 1899, during one month, he shipped three hundred cars of produce, con- sisting of watermelons and fruits.
At The Grove, Cook county, Ill., Mr. Merten was united in marriage with Catherine Seley, who was born in Wisconsin and died at Earlville. Iowa. They were parents of two children : Ed- win Frederick, who is in business with his father ; and Mrs. Alice Tabor, of Pottawatomie county, Okla. The second marriage of Mr. Merten united him with Nellie Ketcham, who was born in Cook county. Ill., and they became the parents of three children: Birney R., Robert, and one
J. E. BURNS, Kingfisher.
oh 205
PORTRAIT AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.
who died at the age of three years as a result of a fall.
In his support of the Republican party Mr. Merten has always been enthusiastic. He was a member of the first territorial legislature and was nominated for speaker of the house in the party caucus, but through treachery of two of the ma- jority he was defeated and a Populist elected. ln 1898 he was elected to the fifth general asseni- bly and elected speaker pro tem.' He introduced some good bills in the house, but took a strong land in curbing useless legislation. He has been a member of the board of education four years and its president three years. He is a member of the territorial committee, chairman of the county committee, and on the executive com- mittee. Fraternally he is connected with Guthrie Lodge No. 2, A. F. & A. M., and the Knights of Pythias, being past chancellor and ex-represent- ative to the Grand Lodge. He is also a charter member and director of Guthrie Club.
J. E. BURNS, acting in the responsible office of clerk of Kingfisher county, is a hero of the Civil war. On the threshold of early manhood he devoted four years to his country, and faithfully stood at his post of duty, then, as now, relegating all personal interests to a sec- ondary place. Needless to say he is as highly esteemed by the boys who wore the blue as he. in his turn, holds his old comrades, and honors have been bestowed upon him in all of the varied walks of life, but none beyond his merits.
The great-grandfather of our subject, on his father's side of the family, was a native of Scot- land, who, leaving his old home in Ayrshire. brought his family to Pennsylvania at an early period. His son John. grandfather of J. E. Burns, was born in Scotland also and was a pio- neer of Columbiana county, Ohio. He was found dead on the highway, his horse returning home liderless. Ilis son, P. R., father of our subject. was born on the pioneer homestead in the county just mentioned, and in his youth learned the carpenter's trade. Going to West Virginia he married Elizabeth Elliott. a native of Brooke county, that state. and of Scotch-Irish ancestry. In 1843 the couple located in Florence, Mo .. and five years later Mr. Burns was honored by election to the office of assessor of the county. In 1850 he was elected sheriff and at the expira- tion of his term was favored with re-election. In 1856 he was chosen to act as representative of his district in the state legislature. and five years later was elected to the county clerkship for a term of six years. In all of these responsible positions he gave the public entire satisfaction, and finally he was fiscal agent for the county for
ten years at the time that the county was engaged in the construction of the Boonville branch of the Missouri Pacific railroad, and thus he disbursed about $100,000. Death put an end to all of his labors in 1890, when he was in his seventy-third year. His wife, Elizabeth, died soon after their removal to the west in 1844.
J. E. Burns was born May 29, 1843, in Wells- burg, W. Va., and was reared in Morgan county, Mo., where he received excellent educational advantages, completing his studies in Versailles Academy. August 16, 1861, he enlisted in Com- pany A, Thirty-ninth Indiana Volunteer Infan- try, and was mustered into the service at Indianapolis. Assigned to the army of the Cum- berland, he served with that gallant body during the great campaigns which included many of the hardest fought battles of the war, among them Shiloh, Perryville, Stone River, Chickamauga and Missionary Ridge. At Stone River, for instance, fifty per cent of the Thirty-ninth Indi- ana regiment were numbered with the killed, wounded or captured. In 1864 Mr. Burns was appointed special military agent of the state of Indiana at Nasliville, and among other affairs entrusted to his care issued eighteen thousand furloughs to troops desiring to attend the fall elections of 1864. Subsequently he was assigned to duty at the headquarters of Gen. J. F. Miller, post commandant at Nashville, and took part in the battle at that place. On the following Christ- mas day he started from New York to Savannah, where lie joined his regiment, which had made the historic march to the sea through Georgia. During the ensuing weeks several hard fought battles occurred in which the regiment took an active part, including Bentonville and Averys- boro, in the latter losing fully one-third of its men. Mr. Burns served in various capacities during this period of the war, as corporal, ser- geant and hospital steward. He was retained in North Carolina in the trying days of the re- construction, and finally started northward July 22, 1865, to be mustered out of the service in Indianapolis, August 8, his time in the army thus lacking only eight days of being four years.
Returning to Missouri Mr. Burns became a deputy in the office of his father, then county clerk, and within two years engaged in farm- ing near Peru, Ind. From 1868 to 1870 he resided in Iola, Kans., and then pre-empted a farm in Wilson county, same state. In 1876 he embarked in the grocery business in Iola, and two years later turned his attention to running a hardware and implement business in the same town. From 1880 to 1882 he acted in the capac- ity of county clerk, and in 1884 became a sales- man for a large implement house. In 1886 he located in Harper, Kans., though still traveling in the same line of trade. In 1888 he was
206
PORTRAIT AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.
chosen to serve as deputy to the county register of deeds, but resigned in order to come to Okla- homa in the spring of 1889.
On that 22nd of April Mr. Burns arrived in Kingfisher and sixteen days later was appointed city clerk, an office which he retained only until the following November, when he went to live upon the claim which he had taken up in Cimar- ron township, five miles northeast of the city. In January, 1890, however, he was appointed contest clerk in the United States land office and served as such for eighteen months. For sev- eral years, or until 1896, he remained on his farm, and then accepted a position as salesman with the W. H. Mead Agricultural Implement Company. In 1898 he was nominated and elected to the county clerkship, receiving a majority of one hundred and forty-nine votes, though he defeated a fusion ticket, which, two years previously, had received a majority of three hundred and sixty-nine votes. He has always been a stalwart Republican, and was one of the organizers of that party in this territory. For four years he was the chairman of the King- fisher County Republican Central committee, and his influence cannot be overestimated. In every official capacity he has given complete satisfaction, and as county clerk he is adding fresh laurels to those already won. He so thor- oughly keeps up with his work that, far from being dilatory with his accounts, as men in a similar position frequently are, hie has his tax rolls finished two months or more before the allotted time for their completion.
In Grand Army circles Mr. Burns is extremely popular. A charter member of Kingfisher Post No. 8, G. A. R., he is past commander of the same. In 1891 he was appointed to the post of assistant adjutant-general of the department of Oklahoma, in 1896 was appointed assistant to the adjutant-general. and in 1899 was raised to the position of adjutant-general with the rank of colonel, besides which he has acted on the staffs of two national commanders. He is also a Mason, first belonging to Versailles Lodge No. 117, in Missouri, and now being connected with Kingfisher Lodge No. 8. A. F. & A. M., of which he is now the secretary.
In 1865 the marriage of Mr. Burns and Miss Sarah A. Duff, a native of Miami county, Ind., was solemnized in Mexico, Ind. Their eldest child, Rhoda, is the wife of L. C. Gould, of Thomas, Okla., and P. R., the next in order of birth, is a farmer in that locality. Sarah E., who for several years was successfully engaged in teaching, is a deputy county clerk. James A. and Elgia L. complete the family. Mrs. Burns is actively associated with the Ladies of the G. A. R., is past president of the local circle, and past president of the department of Oklahoma.
She is also a valued worker and member of the Presbyterian Church of this city.
H. L. MILLER., a retired and highly es- teemed citizen of Guthrie, is deserving of a place on the rolls of honor of his coun- try, as he gave some of his best years to her preservation, and has ever striven to promote the permanent welfare of every state in which he has dwelt. The prosperity which he now enjoys is justly merited, as for several decades he was actively occupied in business enterprises and amassed his competency by hard, honest labor and good financial ability.
The Miller family, of which he is a worthy representative, originated in Pennsylvania sev- eral generations ago. His grandfather, Peter, and his father, John Miller, were also natives of the Keystone state, as was his maternal grand- father. In the pioneer days of Columbiana county, Ohio, John Miller became one of its settlers, and there met and married Rebecca Carroll, whose birth had occurred in that local- ity in 1809. In 1835 the couple went to Wil- liams county, same state, when it was an almost uninhabited wilderness. Buying a farm of the government at the regulation price of $1.25 an acre, the father diligently set about the great task which was before him, the clearing away of the heavy timber with which it was encumbered. It was not until 1864 that he sold the homestead and removed to Bryan, the county seat, where he passed the remainder of his life, his death occurring in 1888, when he was in his eighty- fourth year. AAfter surviving him three years the devoted wife passed to the silent land. Their eldest child. Mrs. Sabina Rowley, resides in An- gola, Ind .; William, who was one of the pioneer gold prospectors in California, lives in Williams county, Ohio: Mrs. Harriet Willett is a resident of Bryan, Ohio; Mrs. Lydia A. Galbraith has her home in Yale, Iowa; Daniel B. is one of the prominent cattlemen of Mitchell, S. D., and Mrs. Ellen Preston lives at Coon Rapids, Iowa.
The birth of H. L. Miller occurred December 13, 1840, on tlie old farm near Unity, Williams county, Ohio. Completing his education in the high school of Unity, he then started on a trip through the west. At St. Joseph, Mo., in 1860, he joined the pioneer stage driver, "Bob" Wil- lard. and at the end of six weeks spent in trav- ersing the Platte and South Platte river courses and the intervening territory arrived at Denver. Then he proceeded to Black Hawk, Idaho Springs and other points, and for three months was engaged in mining. In the autumn he turned his face toward home and crossed the plains with a freighting party.
When Fort Sumter was fired upon by the
207
PORTRAIT AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.
Confederates young Miller lost no time in volun- teering to assist in putting down the rebellion, but was prevented in his purpose of enlisting in the service by his friends and relatives. How- ever, in July, 1861, he was about to join the First Ohio Cavalry, but on account of a little dissen- sion in regard to officers finally enlisted in the ranks of the Third Ohio Cavalry, August 21st, and was mustered into the service as a private. In the gallant army of the Cumberland, which saw as hard campaigns as any waged during the war, he participated in the battles of Stone River, Chickamauga, Chattanooga, Missionary Ridge and Lookout Mountain, and in the spring of 1864 marched through Georgia, where, for months, he and his comrades were under almost constant fire. He was actively engaged in the important battles of Dallas, Resaca, Peach Tree Creek, Buzzards' Roost. siege of Atlanta, Love- joy's Station and Jonesboro. In October, 1864, he was mustered out as quartermaster's sergeant, at Columbus, Ohio, after having been in the service for thirty-seven and a half months.
Locating upon a one-hundred-and-seventy- five-acre farm, Mr. Miller was numbered among the agriculturists of Bryan, Ohio, until the fall of 1868, when he settled near Panora, Guthrie county, Iowa. During the fourteen years of his residence there he improved a farm and became well known as a successful business man. His high standing in the community was shown by his being called to the important office of county commissioner, and, after acting in that capacity five years, he resigned and went to Coon Rapids, Iowa, where he started the private city bank. The institution was in a most flourishing condi- tion while he was at its head-some twelve years -- and in the spring of 1894 he sold out and came to Guthrie. He still owns some excellent Iowa farms and has considerable money invested in live stock, being fed for the markets. He also is the owner of several valuable farms in Logan county, and built the handsome modern house in which he dwells, six years ago.
In 1867 Mr. Miller married Elizabeth A. Stough. in Pulaski, Ohio, of which place she is a native. Her grandfather. William Stough, and parents, Col. William and Sarah (Reading) Stough, were born in Pennsylvania. and were pioneers of Richland county, Ohio. The father, who dwelt in Williams county. same state, for many years, lived in Dakota for a period. but spent his last years in the Buckeye state, dying in his seventy-eighth year. While the Civil war was in progress he served as captain of Company H, Thirty-eighth Ohio Infantry, and resigned on account of poor health. Later he became a cap- tain in the Ninth Ohio Cavalry, and was pro- moted to the rank of colonel, being brevetted brigadier-general ere he was mustered, out. One
of his sons, William E., saw service in the One Hundredth Ohio Infantry, and now resides in Bryan, Ohio, and a daughter, Mrs. Mary Yetter,. lives in Cedar county, lowa. Their mother de- parted this life at her Ohio home when in her forty-sixth year, and seven of her children have passed to the better land. Mr. and Mrs. Miller have lost three children, namely: Josephine, Winona and Fay Edna, aged, respectively, six, three and thirteen years. Mrs. Clara Whitacre, of Magnolia, Ohio, is a graduate of Drake Uni- versity; Frank S., now managing a large farm adjacent to Guthrie, is a graduate of Drake University, and Charles W., a successful attor- ney-at-law in San Francisco, received his higher education in the Iowa state university and was graduated in Leland Stanford College, Cal.
Politically Mr. Miller is affiliated with the Re- publican party. While a resident of Coon Rap- ids, he was initiated into Masonry, and has taken the Knight Templar degree, being a member of the lodge, chapter and commandery. He also is a Grand Army man, still holding his membership in Perry Wright Post, in Coon Rapids, which he joined in 1881, and also is connected with the Ancient Order of United Workmen of that place. Mrs. Miller is a Presbyterian in religious faith, and both are loyal supporters of religious and benevolent work.
EORGE NEWLAND. G I For seventeen years George Newland has been actively engaged in the grain business of the great central west and has handled enormous quanti- ties of the cereals which are bringing vast wealth into the country and spreading the fame of the United States to the uttermost parts of the earth. During the eight years of his residence in Okla- homa he has been a prominent factor in its up- building and prosperity, and is well entitled to a permanent place in her pioneer history.
The father of the above-named gentleman. Thomas Newland, was born in Brighton, Eng- land, and at the age of twenty-one came to this land, becoming a resident of Saybrook, McLean county, Il., where he soon was numbered among the well-to-do, practical agriculturists. He de- parted this life in 1862, and his devoted wife died in 1886. She bore the maiden name of Eliza Owens, and was a native of Xenia. Greene county, Ohio. Her father, Samuel Owens, like- wise was born in the Buckeye state, and was one of the early settlers in the vicinity of Saybrook.
Of the seven children born to Thomas and Eliza Newland six survive, and of the number, George Newland, the third in order of birth. was born in Saybrook March 18, 1850. He was reared to the duties of the farm and received his elementary education in the local schools, com-
208
PORTRAIT AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.
pleting his studies in the Saybrook high school. Then he commenced farming upon his own ac- count and remained in Illinois until the Centen- nial year, when he went to Union county, lowa. There he again was occupied in agricultural pursuits for two years, after which he entered the employ of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad, at Creston, lowa, and was a machinist in the shops.
In 1883 Mr. Newland'embarked in the grain business at Emerson, Iowa, and during the fol- lowing ten years was extensively interested in the trade. In December, 1892, he came to Okla- homa, which was rapidly coming into the front ranks of cereal producing countries, and, set- tling in the town of Yukon, was the first grain dealer of that vicinity. He built the first elevator there, and as its capacity was ten thousand bush- els he handled a large amount of grain in the course of a season. Remaining in the place until 1898 he then removed to Waukomis, where he erected the first elevator there. At the end of a year he sold out his interest in the business and came to Kingfisher. Here, within a little more than a year, he has become well known in business circles, and has established an enviable reputation for enterprise and integrity. He is the manager and buyer for the El Reno Mill & Elevator Company, and the elevator which he supervises has a capacity of twenty thousand bushels. Mr. Newland is identifying himself with numerous local enterprises and is liberal and public-spirited. Fraternally he is connected with the Woodmen of the World, and politically he is independent.
Recently Mr. Newland built a pleasant mod- ern residence for himself and family in an at- tractive section of the city. He was married in Afton, Iowa, September 18, 1879, Miss Mary O. Comstock being the lady of his choice. She is a native of Illinois, her birth having occurred near Peoria. The five children of this sterling couple, Gerlia O., Aura W., Yale .A., Aral L. and Beree F., are living under the parental roof.
F RANK OLSMITH, who holds the record for the best shooting in this part of the country, is a gunsmith at Guthrie, and in his store, at No. 115 Division street, carries a fine line of guns and general sporting goods.
Mr. Olsmith was born in Winesburgh, Holmes county, Ohio, and is a son of George F. and Anna E. (Kinsley) Smith. His great-grand- father was Rev. George Fred Smith, a Lutheran minister and a college professor of Germany. Christian Smith, the grandfather of our subject, was born in Wurtemburg, Germany, in 1797. and was a goldsmith and jeweler by trade. He and Elder Drexel came to America on the same
ship in 1817, settling in Philadelphia. He fol- lowed his trade there, and later organized a Ger- man colony and founded the village of Wines- burgh, Holmes county, Ohio, where he engaged at his trade.
George F. Smith was born in Philadelphia, Pa., and became a farmer and a merchant at Winesburgh, Ohio. In 1855 he went west to Kansas, to assist the free state men, taking his family there two years later. He settled on a tract of one hundred and sixty acres and con- tinued there until the war. He served as adju- tant of the Twenty-first Kansas Infantry, and was in Price's raid at Westport and Blue River. He also served in the Mexican war as a lieuten- ant-colonel in the First Ohio Rifles, continuing throughout the war. He had previous to that time been a captain in the Third Ohio Regiment. He continued to farm in Kansas until his death in 1897, at the age of seventy-three years. He married Anna E. Kinsley, who was born in Can- ton Berne, Switzerland, and comes of an old family of Wurtemburg, Germany. The family left there about the year 1500, going to Switz- erland, and one of its members was a member of the "Peace Conference" at The Hague in the in- terests of peace. Her grandfather was a tanner in Switzerland. Her father, Samuel Kinsley, brought the family to this country and located at Winesburgh, Ohio, where he followed his trade as a tanner and engaged in farming until his death at the age of seventy-six years. Mrs. Smith died in Kansas. Of ten children born to them but four are now living. All but our sub- ject reside in Ohio.
Frank Olsmith was born April 26, 1849, and was reared in Ohio until 1857, when he removed with his parents to Kansas, where he attended the district schools. In the fall of 1863 he en- listed in Company I, Sixteenth Kansas Cavalry, and was mustered into service at Fort Leaven- worth, Kans., and from there sent to Missouri. He participated in the battles at Westport, Inde- pendence, and Blue River, and then his company was detached to patrol the Missouri river. La- ter, as a body guard, they accompanied Vice- President Foster and a congressional committee to Fort Union, N. M .. to investigate the Indian troubles. They returned to Leavenworth, Kans .. with Kit Carson; and were mustered out of ser- vice in May, 1866. During the war his company also served as escort to the paymaster at Fort Gibson. He remained in Kansas until 1868, in 1866 having taken up the trade of a gunsmith in Lawrence. In December, 1869, he was appointed "gunsmith for the Sac and Fox Agency, and re- mained there until 1879. His postoffice was at Okmulgee, and a colored man by name of Smith received a greater part of his mail. ITis name pre- vious to this time had been Oliver F. Smith, but
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.