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 34
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Coming to Oklahoma in the fall of 1889, Mr. Dilley located first on a farm in Payne county, where he operated two years. In that county he married Miss Lucinda E. Gimer, who was a na- tive of McCartha, Vinton county, Ohio.
Mrs. Dilley located land at the opening of the territory and now owns the northeast quarter of section 13, range 2 west. The two resolved it was better to join their financial interests, so Mr. Dilley sold his land and the two settled upon her claim. They removed from there to Orlando in 1896. Of this union there are three children. Maude Hazel, John Robert and Charles Dewey Dennis.
Mr. Dilley is a stanch supporter of the Re- publican party. He has never sought office, but takes a lively interest in local and national af- fairs, keeping himself posted upon current events. He became a member of the Grand Army of the Republic in Iowa.
W ILLLAME RITZHAUPT. Visitors from eastern cities never fail in expressing as- tonishment at the wonderful growth and prosperity of Guthrie and Oklahoma in general. They are genuinely surprised at the enterprise of our merchants and at the beauty of our stores and public buildings. When, in their wander- ings through the busy streets of the business
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section, they come to the Vienna Bakery and Café, they are impressed with this fine estab- lishment, of which any metropolis in the land might well be proud. The proprietor, who is a man of wide experience as a caterer, is employed by the leading citizens of this place, and within a few years has won an enviable position in the commercial world.
William Ritzhaupt is the son of Henry and grandson of Ferdinand Ritzhaupt, of Heidel- berg, Germany, and, like them, he has followed the trade of a baker since he arrived at maturity. His grandfather served under the great Napo- leon in the famous march to Moscow, and Henry Ritzhaupt took part in the revolution of 1848. Then, like many others of his fellow-patriots, he fled to England, where he remained until the intense feeling had subsided in his native land. He lived in Southampton during his stay in Eng- land and when he went back to Heidelberg he resumed his old occupation and made a success of the business. He served as one of the city councilmen and was looked up to as one of influ- ence and profound judgment. He departed this life when in his fiftieth year, and within a twelve- month he was followed to the grave by his de- voted wife, then forty-five years of age. She was Miss Margareta Klare prior to their marriage, and of their three sons and three daughters two are deceased. two daughters reside in Chicago, Ill., and George in Wisconsin.
William Ritzhaupt is a native of Heidelberg, born July 8, 1863. He was eight years old when he was left an orphan, and then he became a ward of his maternal uncle, who also was a skilled baker and caterer. Before he was six- teen years of age the youth had not only mas- tered the trades of the relatives mentioned, but also had spent about two years in learning that of making confectionery. In the spring of 1880 he sailed for New York City, on the steamship "Meine." and at once went to Gallion: Ohio, where he worked at his trade for about one year. lle then went to Chicago and for three years was employed as a fine pastry cook in the Palmer House and for two years was the head pastry cook at the Tremont House.
In 1885 Mr. Ritzhaupt embarked in business on his own account, and for eight months con- ducted a large and remunerative trade at his lo- cation, on Milwaukee avenue, Chicago. Then, selling the bakery to his brother-in-law, he took a position as head pastry cook at the Transit House, same city, and was connected with that hotel for two and a half years. He then resigned his place in order to take charge of the Centrop- olis Hotel. in Kansas City, Mo. After two years' experience in that venture, in which he was quite successful, he disposed of the business and for the next eighteen months was the head pastry
cook at the Coates House, in the same city. Then again he embarked in the bakery business. and was located on East Twelfth street, Kansas. City, for a period. In April, 1894, he came to Guthrie and started the Vienna Bakery, which now is so justly popular. Until the spring of 1900 this place of business was at No. 11I Harri- son avenue, but recently he opened his new. complete bakery and cafe at the corner of Okla- homa avenue and Broad street. Personally he attended to the building of this substantial store. which is 25x140 fect in dimensions and two sto- ries in height. It is well appointed in every re- spect and the great ovens, which have a capacity of three hundred loaves of bread at a time. bake from two to three thousand loaves cach day in order to meet the demand. The proprietor has made a great reputation as a manufacturer of iee cream, and his attractive cafe parlors are well equipped with comforts, including fans run by electricity. He makes a specialty of catering for socials, parties and banquets, and invariably gives entire satisfaction to the public.
In 1888 Mr. Ritzhaupt married, in Chicago, Miss Ettie Risser, daughter of Hiram and Anna (Dusky) Risser, natives of West Virginia. She, too, was born in that state, and was left father- less when two years of age. He was financially interested in the oil wells of that region, but Daniel Dusky, grandfather of Mrs. Ritzhaupt, was one of the old planters of the state, and con- tinued to reside on his fine estate until his death, at three score and ten. During the Civil war he and two of his sons were commissioned offi- cers in the Federal army, and one of the sons was killed while fighting for his country. The Dusky family is descended from a Polish gentle- man who was exiled during political revolutions. and. coming to this land of the free, took up his abode in West Virginia. After the death of her husband Mrs. Anna Risser married Lewis Wick- man, who was a leading blacksmith and carriage manufacturer of Kansas City for some years and in 1803 came to Guthrie and established a shop here.
The union of Mr. and Mrs. Ritzhaupt has been blessed with three children, namely: Lewis II .. George and William, Jr. The wife and mother is a lady of excellent education and attainments. for she completed her higher studies in the St. Joseph Academy at Kansas City and received good school advantages. She is a member of the Christian Church and moves in the best social circles of this city.
Our subject was influential in organizing the local lodge of the Sons of Herman, and was its president. The society is now known as the Germania Society. He also belongs to the Child Fellows order and the Ancient Order of United Workmen. Religiously, he adheres to the creed
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in which he was reared, that of the Evangelical Lutherans. Politically, he casts his ballot and influence on the side of the Democratic party.
J LOE M. ROADS. Special aptitude and abil- ity in any line of activity in the business world commands success, sooner or later, when associated with that necessary quality, per- severance. J. M. Roads has won a truly won- derfully large patronage and the genuine re- spect of those who have had dealings with him, and thus is on the high road to wealth. As one of the representatives of the young business men of Guthrie he deserves special mention, and the following history of his career has been com- piled, knowing that it will prove of interest to many.
Born October 12, 1868, in Worcester, N. Y., he was reared in that flourishing city, where his father, Emanuel Roads, was actively engaged in business for several decades, and now is living retired, in the enjoyment of the competency which his own labors acquired. He is a native of England and when in his thirteenth year he accompanied his father, William Roads, to this country. At first the family dwelt in Albany, litt later located upon an Otsego county ( N. Y.) farm. Emanuel Roads, having a genuine me- chanical talent, left the farm and commenced working in sawmills and afterwards. became a machinist, conducting a large establishment in Worcester. His wife, Mary Jane, was the daugh- ter of Samuel Robbins, also a fine machinist. lle carried on a shop in Worcester until he finally retired to private life, and his genius found Vouit in several inventions of marked merit. .
J. M. Roads is the eldest of three children, his brother. Orange J., being a resident of Green- bn-h, N. Y., and his sister, Viana J., wife of Capt. R. B. Huston, lives in Guthrie. The captain was formerly an attorney here. but during the Span- ich-American war he was honored with the cap- rainey of Troop B. Rough Riders, and served in the Santiago campaign. He was promoted to the position of paymaster. and when the Forty-seventh United States Infantry was or- Lanized he was commissioned captain of a com- feny of volunteers and ordered to the Philip- pines, where he died.
In his youth our subject received a liberal edu- vation in the grammar and high schools of his vative city. He inherited his father's genius as a machinist, and from an early age worked at in- tervals in his senior's shop. At sixteen he com- menced a regular apprenticeship under his father's instruction, and two years later went to Schienevous, N. Y., where he became head wtor in a sawmill and aided to manage the establishment. Later he was employed in the
Onconto machine shops, and when he reached his majority he decided to accept a paying posi- tion in the Phoenix Furniture Factory, at Grand Rapids, Mich., the largest factory of the kind in the world. At the end of four months he went to Eldon, Iowa, and then, during the ensuing three years or more,. he was employed as a ma- chinist and foreman in the Johnson Rufiler Works. of Ottumwa, Iowa; planing mills in Kansas City, Mo., and Hannibal, Mo., and in Chicago, Ill. Having mastered every department of the business, he thus has long been fully com- petent to carry on a large concern of his own. Returning home, in accordance with the wishes of his father, he took charge of the old' shops until they were sold. The attractions of the west appealing most to him, he soon was back at his former post in the Kansas City planing mills, where he had been foreman and general ma- chinist for a year, and this time he continued with the firm for eighteen months. For the suc- ceeding year he was employed in St. Louis, as foreman in a large bicycle repairing shop, and there became an expert at the work.
In the fall of 1894 Mr. Roads came to Guthrie, and in a modest way commenced the business which has grown to extensive proportions. His first shop was 16x24 feet in dimensions, and foot- power was used, but in the second year of resi- dence here he bought out Mr. Carver, and, re- moving into larger quarters, remained there until the building was destroyed by fire, in Au- gust. 1896. His next location was at the cor- ner of Harrison and Division streets, and steam- power was used for carrying on the work. Since the spring of 1898 the shops have been situated at No. 204 East Oklahoma avenue. Mr. Roads owns the building, which is twenty-five by one hundred and forty feet in dimensions, and two stories and basement in height. Steam-power is used and a full line of fine modern machinery is in use. A specialty is made of plumbing, and an extensive stock of hot water and steam-heat- ing apparatus is carried, as well as a complete line of plumbing material. The finest work is done by this establishment of any in the city, and the machine shops are easily ahead of all in the territory. A department is devoted to the repairing of bicycles, threshing machines, en- gines and other complicated machinery, and, in addition to his other enterprises, Mr. Roads transacts a large amount of business in windmills and pumps. He represents the Chicago Aer- motor, and in 1800 bought out A. H. Meal, who had been engaged in the same line of business here.
In 1896 the marriage of Mr. Roads and Mrs. Ella Huston, daughter of Alexander Fish, of Ohio, took place in Guthrie. She is a native of the Buckeye state, and by her first marriage had
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two children. A son and two daughters bless the home of our subject, named, respectively, Clyde, Beulah and Ruby.
While a resident of Schenevous, N. Y., Mr. Reads was initiated into the Masonic order, and still retains his membership there. In his polit- ical belief he is a Republican, strongly in favor of the principles of that party.
J. G. SEELY. Covering the long period of his years of activity, Mr. Seely has been en- gaged in many enterprises, all of which have developed more or less satisfactory results, and have contributed to render his life one of interest and usefulness. The apparent misfor- tune attending his entranee to the territory in 1889, at which time he failed, owing to his tardy arrival, to secure a claim, was later proved to have been a blessing in disguise. In 1896 he again tried his luck, and succeeded in home- steading a claim near Watonga, which for wealth of resources in the marble and salt line could hardly be surpassed. By developing either of these commodities one might reap an independ- ent fortune, so practically exhaustless is the supply.
Although radically differing from our precon- ceived ideas of the elaims in Oklahoma, this particular one has many interesting features that appeal to the enterprise of all would-be pur- chasers of land in the territory. Mr. Seely lo- cated on his claim in 1896, and bought up adja- cent property, until at the present time his land is composed of nearly half a section, upon which are several large salt springs. They empty at the rate of seven and a half barrels per minute. the solution containing thirty-three and one-half per cent of salt, and representing a capacity of three thousand barrels a day. The springs are located eleven miles north and one mile west of Watonga. Blaine county, fourteen miles from O'Keene, and thirty-eight miles from Kingfisher, near a canon with natural bridges and resplendent with fine scenery. The canon is three hundred feet deep, and contains a vein of marble seven feet thick. without a crack in it. This valuable marble deposit would in itself con- stitute a vast source of revenue, but it is as vet undeveloped. Over this canon Mr. Seely has built a publie swing one thousand and four hun- dred feet long, which is open for the public use. and is a great convenience as well as pleasure. Mr. Seely has justifiably bright expectations in regard to the resources of his claim, and is put- ting forth every effort towards their realization.
Previous to taking up his residence in King- fisher, Mr. Seely led a somewhat eventful life. lle was born in Knoxville. Tioga county, Pa, March 23, 1828, and is of Scotch-English descent.
His father, Eleazer Seely, was a native of Sten- ben county, N. Y .; his mother, Mary (Conant) Seely, was born in Onondaga county, N. Y., and was a daughter of Samuel Conant, a Methodist Episcopal minister, who moved to Steuben county at a very early day, and when at an ad- vanced age came to his death from the accidental falling of a tree. Mrs. Seely died in Corning. N. Y., in 1896, at the age of ninety-three years. To Mr. and Mrs. Seely were born eleven chil- dren, seven of whom reached maturity. J. G. being the sixth oldest. One brother, Eli, was in the Civil war, enlisting in a Wisconsin regi- ment, and is now living in Oshkosh, Wis. The paternal great-grandfather, Ebenezer Seely, was a native of Connecticut, and moved to New York, where for many years he was a successful farmer. During the Revolutionary war he served with courage and distinction. In his younger years he married Mabel Todd, also a native of Connecticut.
While living on the home farm in Pennsyl- vania, J. G. Seely worked hard in assisting with the various duties incident to country life in the early pioneer days. The school advantages were indeed limited, and confined to the few winter months, when he trudged through the snow and almost impassable roads to a little log school- house, with slab desks and seats. When only eight years of age he began to help his father with the teaming, driving long distances with loads of lumber. At twenty-two years of age he undertook farming during the summer months. and each winter laboriously drove through the country with heavy loads of lumber, going to Addison, N. Y., and other lumbering points. He was also engaged in logging, and rafting lumber down the Susquehanna, to Columbia. Point Deposit, and Harrisburg. In 1874 his prospects were temporarily destroyed, owing to a destructive fire, which consumed his lumber mill and entailed a loss of $35,000.
With the call to arms in 1861, Mr. Seely left his lumbering interests on the Susquehanna and enlisted in Company I, One Hundred and First Pennsylvania Infantry, at Harrisburg. and was later mustered in and commissioned captain by Governor Curtin. He raised a company at Knoxville, which, however, was never called into action.
The year after the destruction of the sawmill. Mr. Seely started life anew in Pawnee county, Kans., and engaged in the hotel business in Larned, which he continued to manage until 1891. It was an hotel devoted to the wants of farmers, and the proprietor derived considerable revenue therefrom. He also became interested in farming and stock-raising on a large scale. and owned and utilized nine quarter-sections of land in the various departments of work, which
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included the manufacture of cheese. These in- trests were all abandoned when he moved to llahoma territory in 1892. For the first three years of his residence near Kingfisher he en- gaged in the mercantile business, and built the Farmers' hotel, of which he has since been the proprietor. He is also the possessor of a fine res- idence in Kingfisher.
Mr. Seely has been thrice married, his first wife having been Olivia C. Bulkley, who was born and died in Knoxville, Pa. Four of her children are living: Julia is the widow of Tim McCarthy, president of the State Bank of Larned; Edward G. is engaged in the cattle busi- ness at Larned, Kans .; Alfred C. is a railroad engineer on the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad; and Charles B. died in Texas. The second Mrs. Seely was formerly Elvira C. Hus- ted, born in Chenango county, N. Y. She was the mother of three children, and died in King- fisher, Okla. Of the children, Carrie is now Mrs. Walcher, of Columbia, Okla .; Fred is liv- ing in Kingfisher; and Burt is employed by the Missouri Pacific Railroad Company, with head- quarters at Coffeyville, Kans. Mr. Seely's third wife, formerly Mrs. Sarah B. Dodge, is a daughi- ter of Horace Stow, an early settler in La Salle county, Ill., and later a pioneer of Kansas, where he died, in Benton county. Her mother, Sal- lie (Matthew) Stow, died in Kansas. By her former marriage Mrs. Seely had three children, one of whom survives -- Charles H., of Blaine county, Okla.
Mr. Seely has been a Mason for fifty years, having joined that fraternity in Knoxville, Pa., and he has been a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows for fifty-one years. At all times he is a member of the Republican party, and was one of the original organizers of the same.
C OLUMBUS FRANKLIN ROY. We find this thriving citizen of Logan county oc- cupying the southwest quarter of section 12, township 19, range 2 west. The outline of his interesting and important history is as fol- lows: A native of Pulaski county, Ky., Mr. Roy was born October 19, 1836, and is the son of Zachariah and Elizabeth (Wilson) Roy. the de- scendants of fine old families on both sides. He spent his youth on the farm with his parents, receiving a good common-school education. . At the age of eighteen he started out to seek his fortune, migrating first to Cornell county, Ind., where he worked for a few months on a farmi. Next he secured a situation on a flat boat freighting to New Orleans, on which he made one trip, then returning to Evansville, Ind., took train for Terre Haute, and from there footed it
to Edgar county, Ill., where he hired out to Colonel Blackburn on a farm and worked for him four years. He saved his money and in 1858 crossed the Mississippi into Marion county, Iowa. There he hired out to Hon. Greene T. Clark, the first representative from that county, and a cousin of young Roy by marriage. He made his home with that family one winter. In 1859 he rigged up a breaking team of four yoke of oxen to break prairie sod and was employed at this until 1860, when he drove to Coffey county, Kans., with oxen and a span of horses and there rigged out another outfit to break prairie land, but the ground was so dry that he found the task impossible, so he repaired to Kansas City and loaded up his wagon with freight for Pike's Peak. He proceeded as far west as Benton's Ford, but being warned that the Indians were on the war path and that it would not be safe to go further, he sold out his merchandise to some Mormons who needed sup- plies, receiving $13 per hundred for flour.
Mr. Roy now retraced his steps to Coffey county and from there drove his oxen through to Decatur county, Ill., where he traded for a horse team, throwing in a sack of salt he had hauled all the way back from the mountains. In Sangamon county, Ill., he applied to a lady for something to eat, telling her he had been taking his meals on the ground and he wanted a "square" meal at a table. She' had a pair of twins, and told him one was a Lincoln and the other a Douglas child, adding that while her husband favored Lincoln, she was for Douglas and he could have a meal at the table if his sympathies were the same. Our subject was for Douglas and prophesied that if Lincoln was elected there would be a war. The lady agreed with him, but Mc Wilton, who was along, laughed at him. He told them he had heard enough while in New Orleans to know the south meant war. Upon leaving he drove to Edgar county, Ill., again entered the employ of Colonel Blackburn and was trusted by him to go out and buy cattle in Indiana and other. points. August 18, 1861, he was united in marriage with Miss Margaret Bell, a relative of John Bell, who ran for president with Breckenridge. She was born in Edgar county, Ill., and was the daughter of Robert and Susan (Caldwell) Bell.
The year following, 1862, Mr. Roy enlisted in Company A, Seventh Illinois. Cavalry. and went with his regiment to Tennessee and Mississippi. While near LaGrange, the former state, he was kicked in the breast by his horse and as there was no hospital near, his captain, William Black- burn, ordered him sent to his own tent. Just before the Coffeyville skirmish they were or- dered back and camped near a little mill. They had nothing to eat except grain they found in
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the mill. This they had ground and to hungry men it tasted good. After falling back to La- Grange a hospital was established and Mr. Roy was placed in it. He suffered from the results of his disability about fourteen weeks and his mind was in such a state that the time was a blank. Before being able to stand alone he was sent to Edgar county, Ill., and on his way north from Memphis became unconscious, falling on the ground on his arrival at Pana. He was picked up by a bystander and put on the train for Paris, where, after his arrival, he was carried by an- other man (Lieutenant Morisson) to a doctor's office. For about twenty-three years he had been trying to find this man, and also William Horsley.
Finally recovering from his disability, Mr. Roy, with his family, in 1864, located in Ring- gold county, Iowa, where he engaged in the stoek business. He was thus occupied eight years, then on account of failing health sold out and drove baek to Kentucky among his own people, including his brothers, who were south- ern sympathizers. They notified him he could not talk abolition doctrine there, but he main- . tained his principles and they soon concluded to let him alone. After about a year of convales- eence, he returned to Ringgold county, Iowa, and resumed his former business of cattle buyer but soon found this was too severe so he loaded his belongings in a wagon. He was so weak that a man was obliged to attend him and wait upon him. Proceeding to Nodaway county, Mo., he located on a fine farm of forty acres of new land. Ile put up a little cabin and lived tliere eight years. He took with him two of his nephews, whose father had died, and they were like sons to him, working faithfully for him while he permitted them to attend school all that was possible.
Upon selling out in Nodaway county, Mr. Roy drove through to Douglas county, Kans., and located on a farm belonging to Major Kenedy, who assigned to him sixty acres and told him to make what he could upon it. He was a true friend and a noble man. Ile remained there till August of that year, then set out for Hot Springs, Ark., in hopes to regain his failing health. When reaching Linn county, Kans., he was so ill that he could not proceed any farther, and Captain Cook there put him in the way to trade for eighty acres of land. AAbout that time he applied for a pension, but could not get it for lack of evidence to prove the justice of his claim. He was so patriotic he thought Uncle Sam needed it, and so let it go. However, through the efforts of W. H. Campbell, he was finally granted a pension of $12 per month.
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