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. 2 > Part 30
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Mr. Dobson was married October 17. 1880. to Miss Alice Butler, of Butler county, and a native of Franklin county. Kans. She is a daughter of Andrew J. and Mary (Mahan) Butler. They have seven children: Maude, who married Amos Brandon, and has one child, Robert Louis; Hat- tie, living at home: Hazel and Mabel, born in Kansas: Jackson. Bennett, Ruby and George Raymond.
Mr. Dobson is a Bryan Populist. In 1804 he was nominated for the legislature by the Poput- lists, but. was defeated, after canvassing the dis- trict and making many speeches. In 19oo he
was elected county clerk on the Democratic ticket. He has served as chairman of the Pop- ulist committee, and served as delegate to all of the meetings held in the territory. He is a member of the Knights of Labor in Guthrie and the Ancient Order of United Workmen.
C LIVER S. RUSSELL, a large land-owner who is living retired in Oklahoma City, traces his ancestry, on the paternal sile, back thirteen hundred years to Olaf, king of . Rerik, in Scandinavia, one of whose descendants, Trustain, settled in Normandy at the time of its conquest by the Northmen, and became pos- sessor of the barony of Briquebec and the castle Rozel, near Coen. In 1066 Hugh de Rozel was a knight in the army of William of Normandy, and fought for him at the battle of Hastings. His name and that of a brother. are re- corded on the roll of battle. A younger Hugh de Rozel and a brother went to the wars of the Crusade, and the brother was killed in a battle with Saladin.
After Hugh de Rozel returned from the Cru- sade, he settled in England and changed his name from Rozel to Russell. Among his de . scendants were the dukes of Bedford, the Lords and Earls of Russell in England. In the early part of the seventeenth century Robert Russell, a descendant of the second Earl Russell, came from England to Massachusetts, settling in or near Andover; from him descended Governor Russell of Massachusetts. One William Russell, a descendant of this Robert Russell, moved from Andover to North Carolina, near the line of Virginia, and from him, in direct descent, came the present governor of North Carolina, Daniel L. Russell. William Russell, the great-grand- father of our subject, was a native of Andover. Mass., and moved to North Carolina, where he owned a plantation. During the Revolutionary war he was a commissioned officer. and his son. Thomas Jeffrey, also served in that war, under General Lee and "Wild" Anthony Wayne. The latter's son, Daniel Russell, was born in North Carolina in 1802, and was left an orphan at ten years of age. With his brothers, Louis, John and Henry, and his sister Mary, he migrated to West Virginia and settled in Cabell county. There he married Lucy Lane, one of the belles of Vir ginia, a lady who had traveled much, and whose family descended from Sir Walter Raleigh. She was well acquainted with Andrew Jackson and danced with him on one occasion at a ball in Alabama.
Daniel Russell had a brother. John, who died in West Virginia, and whose son, Judge Thomas A., is a prominent attorney in St. Louis, Mo. For some years Daniel Russell followed flatboating
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on the Ohio and Mississippi rivers as far south as New Orleans, dealing in meat, fruit and vegeta- bles. Richand alluring prospects coming from the great west, he was induced to migrate to Mis- souri, with his wife and their children: Audley G., eight; Virginia, four; and Oliver, two years of age. Settling in Carroll county, six miles cast of the county-seat, Carrollton, he entered upon farming and stock-raising with success. There three children were born, Penelope, Mary and Presley.
Born in Cabell county, W. Va., September 17, 1837, Oliver. S. Russell grew to manhood in the wilderness of Missouri, meantime attending common schools, the seminary at Carrollton and taking a law course in the Missouri University at Columbia. Soon after he obtained a license to practice the Civil war broke out and he en- listed on the side of the south, his father being a slaveholder. He took part in the following bat- tles: Carthage, Springfield, Dry Wood and Lex- . ington. During the attack on Blackwater, Saline county, Mo., he narrowly escaped being taken prisoner. He served in Company B, First Mis- rouri Infantry, as a corporal, under Colone! Hughes. After the Blackwater capture he re- turned home and for a time taught school.
December 29, 1863, Mr. Russell married Mary E., daughter of Michael and Martha Burrus. Her father, who sprang from a family of note in Virginia, was born in Howard county, Mo., moved thence to Carroll county, the same state, and until his death, which took place at an early age, was known as one of the most successful farmers in northern Missouri. His wife was a member of the Blythe family, and her mother was a Miss Lay, of a prominent St. Louis family, related to the Fergusons of Virginia.
After his marriage Mr. Russell settled down to farming; also served one term as county judge. He began with two hundred and thirty acres, six miles east of Carrollton, and added to it until he owned four hundred and forty acres. On this place he carried on a large stock busi- ness. In January, 1892, he came to Oklahoma and selected a farm, which is now said by many to be the finest farming land in the territory. It comprises two hundred and twenty acres of high bottom land, all tillable. The Choctaw Railroad runs through the farm and Council Station adjoins. On this place he engaged in raising wheat until 1898, when he moved to
Oklahoma City and built a residence on West Reno avenue. He still owns his farm here and also two hundred and forty acres in Carroll county, Mo., besides a ranch in Arkansas. For years, in Missouri, he was superintendent of a Baptist Sunday-school and has also worked in the Sunday-school since coming to Oklahoma. In 1892 he was the People's party candidate for
the territorial council (or senate), but as there was no fusion that year, he, of course, failed of election. In Combs township, Carroll county, Mo., he was president and director of the board of education for a period of thirteen years, and was among the first to advocate the stock law in that county. Fraternally he is connected with the Ancient Order of United Workmen.
Mr. and Mrs. Russell have reason to be proud of their family, as they are unusually gifted and promising. The eldest, Eldon Jewell, graduated from the Carrollton high school, the St. Louis Medical College, at St. Louis, Mo .; the Bellevue Hospital Medical College and Post-Graduate School of New York City, where he had the ad- vantage of study under the most renowned str- geons of the world, among them Esmark, of Germany, and Annondale, of Scotland. After graduating he began to practice his profession, and was already meeting with marked success when, little more than a year after his gradua- tion, he died, at the age of twenty-six years. The second son, Clarence Otho, left school at sev- enteen and spent some time as a mercantile clerk in Kansas City and Chicago, also was in the real-estate business for a year at Stuttgart. Ark., and then settled in Council, Okla., where he dealt in wheat for a short time. While there he married Ruby, only daughter of Isaac and Mary Furry, of Carroll county, Mo. Since then he has been a dealer in grain and other products, with his home in Oklahoma City.
Otto Surry Russell, after finishing the high school course in Carrollton, Mo., entered Wil- liam Jewell College, in Liberty, Mo., and six years later graduated from the theological de- partment with high honors. He accepted the pastorate of the Baptist Church at Princeton, Mo., at which place he married Alice, daughter of William and Martha Ballew, her father a large and wealthy lumber dealer. After Otto's marriage, he came to Oklahoma and accepted the pastorate of the Baptist Church at Norman. At the expiration of a year he was called to the First Baptist Church of Higginsville, Mo. After a year there he felt that he could accomplish greater good in the ministry if he would pursue a post-graduate course, so he resigned his pas- torate and entered the Baptist Theological Sem- inary of Rochester, N. Y., from which he gradit- ated in June, 1900. He is now pastor of a church at Slater, Mo.
The only farmer among the sons is Cecil, who lives at Council, eight miles west of Oklahoma City, on one of the finest farms in the territory. He is a successful stock-raiser and grain pro- ducer. The two youngest sons are Lloyd Bur- rus and Bedford Wagner, promising youths of nineteen and fourteen years, respectively.
Ulvus Lionel Russell, M. D., the fourth son in
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this family, is a remarkably promising young physician of Oklahoma City. He was born in Carrollton, Mo., October 9, 1871, and studied in the Carrollton public schools and under private instruction. In 1890 he entered the St. Louis Medical College, from which he graduated in 1893, with the highest honors of his class, and received a gold prize valued at $50. By competitive examination, he was appointed resi- dent physician in the City hospital, where he remained one year, and was then made house physician in the same institution. One year later he was appointed assistant superintendent, and, as the superintendent soon afterward died, he acted in that capacity until he resigned during the latter part of the year. His experience there has been most helpful to him, as diseases of every form were brought under his observation. The City hospital is a municipal institution which treats over ten thousand cases annually, hence its physicians have exceptional opportunities for the study of every form of disease.
After resigning from the hospital Dr. Russell engaged in practice at Horton Place, St. Louis. In the fall of 1896 the illness of his brother Cecil caused him to come to Oklahoma City, and, while here, he met Dr. Ryan, who proposed a partnership. He accepted, returned to St. Louis, settled up affairs there, and in March, 1897, be- came a member of the firm of Ryan & Russell, of Oklahoma City. The partnership was dis- solved in November, 1899, since which time he has practiced alone, carrying on a general prac- tice in medicine and surgery, with a specialty of the latter. For a time he held the position of superintendent of public health in this county. He is a member and treasurer of the territorial examining board for physicians, and is connected with the City Hospital Society of St. Louis and the Territorial Medical Association. In national politics he is a Republican. In 1900 he married Edith Barrows, of Oklahoma City, daughter of John and Alice Barrows, her father at one time sheriff of Oklahoma county, now deceased.
C ONRAD G. EPLEY was born in Center county, Pa., January 20, 1835. and is a son of Conrad G. and Catherine (Neidigh) Epley. The elder Conrad was born in Berks county, Pa., upon the farm where his father had located on his arrival in America, before the Revolutionary war. When a young man he went to Center county, and while there married his employer's daughter.
When Conrad G., Jr., was a small boy his parents went to Stephenson county. Ill., where the father became identified to a substantial de- gree with the settlement of his locality, and was engaged in conducting a mill, an interest
in which he had purchased. He helped to or- ganize the county, and was a member of the board of supervisors for a number of years. During his years of activity he accumulated con- siderable of this world's goods, and died at the comparatively early age of forty-two. He was the father of four sons and two daughters, of whom his son Conrad, the third oldest, was seventeen years of age at the time of his father's death.
Until his marriage to his first wife, Mary A. Lord, who was a descendant of the Lords who settled .in Crawford county, Pa., Mr. Conrad lived upon the home farm, and at the same time learned the carpenter's trade, at which he worked in the winter. His educational opportunities were above the average, and, after studying at the public schools, he attended the Freeport Academy for one term. Mr. Epley married for his second wife Hannah Kelley, of Ohio, and a ยท native of Massachusetts. Her parents were Richard and Susan S. (Peabody) Kelly, who removed to Vermont while she was quite young. She was favored with a fair common-school education, and has been of valuable assistance to her husband in the prosecution of his various interestsa Her acquaintance with Mr. Epley dates back to his connection with the paper mill in which she was at the time employed. After their marriage, Mr. and Mrs. Epley returned to Illinois, and resided upon a farm until 1865, when they went to Cass county, Mo., and bought eighty acres of land, which Mr. Epley improved and to which he added until he was the possessor of over two hundred acres.
On first coming to Oklahoma, in 1889, Mr. Epley did not expect to settle here permanently, but he was so well pleased with the country that he decided to seek a home here. In 1893 he made the run, settling on section 29, town- ship 23, range 4 west, Garfield county, upon which he has since made his home. The tempo- rary dwelling place of the family was a shanty. 8x12 feet, in which they lived for six months. The following fall was erected part of the pres- ent home, and in 1899 the whole was completed. There is an orchard of five acres, which entered upon its fruit-bearing career in 1899, and there are also numerous forest trees.
As a progressive and enterprising Republican. Mr. Conrad has had much to do with the under- takings of his party in his district. He cast his ballot for Lincoln in 1860, and has voted for every Republican candidate since. He has served as delegate to several conventions. He was appointed township clerk, being the first to hold the office in his township, and this was ste- ceeded by his position as trustee and assessor. which he held for two years. In 1898 he was elected county commissioner and chairman of
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A. S. MEEK AND FAMILY, Kingfisher County.
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the board, a position which he has since held. During the smallpox epidemic he served on the board of health, and rendered valuable assistance by the wise and timely suggestions he was en- abled to offer. Fraternally he is associated with Lodge No. 318, A. O. U. W., and has filled all of the chairs of the organization, and repre- sented it in the Grand Lodge for two terms. To Mr. and Mrs. Epley have been born two chil- dren. Omar H. was born in Stephenson county, Ill., and lives five miles from Enid, where he has three quarter-sections of land; he married Laura B. Hopkins, of Miami county, Kans., and she is the mother of one son, Roy. Susan Kath- erine, who was born in Stephenson county, Ill., married John C. Hopkins, and is the mother of five children, viz .: Mary Augusta, Conrad G., Wendell Phillips, Ella May and Otto.
A1 BRAM S. MEEK. The Meek family comes of stanch Puritan stock, and numbers among its members many who have distin- guished themselves in various lines of occupa- tion, and who fought bravely for their country during the Revolutionary war.
The grandfather, William Meek, is supposed to have been born in Ohio, and his family were among the first settlers in the state. His son, Rev. George W. Meek, the father of A. S., was born in Grant county, Ind., and removed to Missouri, June 9, 1855, settling in Sherman township, Harrison county, where he spent the remainder of his useful life, and died at the age of sixty-five years. He was a farmer and a min- ister in the United Brethren Church. preaching the gospel of kindliness and good will for thirty- five years. He assisted in establishing a United Brethren College at Avalon, Mo., toward the maintenance of which he contributed large sums of money. Many churches he also built up and endowed with considerable means. He was a life member of the Foreign Missionary Society of the United Brethren Church. In the politics of his locality he was much interested, and helped to organize Harrison county, but was never a seeker for political preferment. He mar- ried Mary Ellen Shockey, who was born in Virginia, of German parentage, her grandfather having emigrated from Germany to Virginia. She became the mother of the following-named children: Martha E., who is the wife of Alfred N. Cave; Sarah A., deceased; Ellen, who is mar- ried to John Cole; Griffith, deceased; Henry H .; A. S .; Rev. P. F. Meek, pastor of the Church of Christ in Christian Union, in Sherman township; Ruey, the wife of W. T. Parnell; Al- fred N., of Missouri, and Emma, wife of David Joseph. Mrs. Meek makes her home in Harri-
son county, Mo., but is now visiting in Okla- homa.
A. S. Meek was born February 5, 1855, and was taken to Missouri with his parents when a baby. In Harrison county he received a good ed- ucation in the public schools, and further studied at Avalon College. As a means of livelihood, he immediately engaged in farming, and with the exception of two years spent in Republic county, Kans., in 1877-78, he lived in Missouri until 1885. He took up a timber claim of eighty acres in Kansas, but became dissatisfied with the prospects, and went back to Missouri. After a time he returned to Kansas and located a home- stead in Decatur county, which he improved. and upon which he lived for three years. - In 1889 he came across the Cherokee strip with the soldiers, and camped at Buffalo Springs, and made the race on the 22nd of April. He was fortunate in securing a claim located on the southeast quarter of section 18, Sherman town- ship, and the family came the next fall. He at once began the improvement of the land, and set out a fine orchard, in which are grown all kinds of fruit. In March of 1900 he sold his farm and purchased three hundred and twenty acres, comprising the old Davis place, which amount of land was more in accord with his con- tinually growing interests. Here he has about two hundred acres in wheat, and deals to some extent in stock, horses and mules. He is also the possessor of a complete threshing outfit.
Mr. Meek is a Republican all the time and under all circumstances, and active in all the undertakings of his party. During the early days of the territorial occupation, before the district was organized, he was president of the school board, and has since been a member thereof. At the second election of Kingfisher county he was elected a county commissioner, and was made chairman of the board. One of the duties of the board was the division of the county into congressional townships of six miles square, also the naming of these townships. To him was given the honor of naming Sherman town- ship, which he named after the township where he was reared, in Harrison county, Mo. The board also built the county jail, Mr. Meck being a member of the building committee. He served as justice of the peace for two years. Worthy of mention is the substantial interest evinced by him in work pertaining to the Church of Christ in Christian Union. In June of 1890 he helped to organize the church in his district, with a membership of fourteen members, and was at that time elected elder, an office which he has since held. Toward the maintenance of the church he has been a liberal supporter, and at the tenth anniversary of its origin, in 1900, read a paper before the meeting, giving a full history
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of the congregation from its starting point to the present time, when it has a membership of one hundred and sixty. He has been superin- tendent of the Sunday-school for eight years.
In 1876 Mr. Meek was united in marriage with Arminda M. Sigler, who was born in Missouri. They are the parents of ten children, viz .: Ira, Bert, Lloyd, Odis, Kestler, Victor, Lawson, Les- lie, Rolla and Zelma Irene.
J OHN W.WEHR, an agriculturist and stock- raiser of Logan county, residing on section 2, township 17, range 4 west, was born in Butler county, Ohio, February 13, 1849. He is a son of Eli W. Wehr, of Butler county, and Lovina (Burkholder) Wehr, a daughter of Jo- seph Burkholder, a member of an old Pennsyl- vania Dutch family. His grandfather, Jacob Wehr, was one of the first settlers in Ohio, and owned and managed the first distillery in the state. His son Eli learned the business and for years ran one of his father's distilleries. He died at an advanced age and was buried on his father's farm, which property is now owned by his brother Jacob. Grandfather Jacob Wehr fought with courage and valor in the war of 1812. The family in general have been well represented in our wars; of four brothers-in-law and one uncle, the uncle was killed. William Pepers, who married one of the daughters of the family. and who was a soldier in the Civil war, Fifth Ohio Cavalry, was wounded several times and had several horses shot from under him; he is now living at Hamilton. Mr. Taylor, another brother-in-law of our subject, was a prominent veteran of the war, and died a few months ago in Knox county, Ill. His wife still lives in Knox county. Joe Weimer, a brother-in-law, also served during the Civil war, and is now living in Lafayette, Ind .; Mrs. Edward Jones, a sister, married a miner, and is living in Peoria county, Ill .; Miranda Wehr died in childhood; Jacob F .. who was born in Ohio in 1853, married Mary E. Tavlor in 1879 and has five children, who are now living in Crescent township, Logan county, Okla .; Joseph Ely is a farmer and lives in Cedar Vale township; L. D. married Miss Binkley and lives in Crescent township. All of the children were born in Ohio.
John W. Wehr made a trip to California when he was twenty-one years old, and upon his return his father died, and the body was taken to Ohio for burial. The farm was then sold, and the pro- ceeds were divided among the heirs. John W. remained in Illinois for about eight years and engaged in agriculture. He finally went to Cloud county, Kans., and at the opening of Okla- homa made the run from the north line, locating the claim which has since been his home. His
farm is well improved and is devoted to general farming and stock-raising, although a portion is as yet covered with brush and timber. Mr. Wehr prides himself on the excellent quality of his stock. Of especial interest is a stallion, Knowen, imported from Pekin, Ill., and raised by William Hoagman, one of Illinois' famous horse breeders; Knowen is a combination of Percheron and Norman and a descendant of old Louis Napoleon. Mr. Wehr has also imported from Adair county, Mo., two of the best jacks that old Missouri produces; these were pur- chased from Dr. W. E. Cheatham, a fancy stock breeder. The jacks are offspring of stock that brings the following prices: Animals one year old bring $800; two years old, $900; three years, $1,400; and four years, $1,500. The sire of one of these jacks sold last February for $1,000; the other sold for $1,500. Upon this farm are also raised Poland-China hogs and Plymouth Rock chickens.
Mr. Wehr was married in January, 1896, to Mrs. Emma J. Diller, a daughter of Rev. Jacob Holderman, who is of Pennsylvania-Dutch ex- traction and now resides at Lost Springs, Kans. The children of this union are: Lovina C., two years old; and Laura, ten months old. In poli- tics Mr. Wehr is a Democrat, and cast his first presidential vote for Samuel J. Tilden.
B ENJAMIN FRANKLIN RYLAND. To Mr. Ryland belongs the distinction of hav- ing started the first mercantile establishi- ment in Crescent City. The business was begun in a very modest and unassuming way, the vari- ous goods and chattels comprising the stock of necessities for the early settlers being deposited under a tent until such time as himself and part- ner, Mr. Brown, could erect a commodious log house, in which the business was successfully conducted for a year. Mr. Brown then disposed of his share in the enterprise to Mr. Ryland, who continued to minister to the wants of the settlers for three years. He then sold out and located on his claim, on the northwest quarter of section 13, township 17, range 4, seventy-five acres of which are under cultivation and forty acres represent Mr. Ryland's gift to the prospective city of Crescent. His own remain- ing share of the land is under a high state of improvement, having a good house, barns and outhouses, the whole well fenced in, and made more useful and attractive by a large windmill. In 1900 Mr. Ryland added to his possessions by purchasing another claim on the northwest quar- ter of section 7, township 17, range 3. Of this. one hundred acres are tillable, and are used principally for the cultivation of cotton, corn
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and wheat. This year (1900) Mr. Ryland had one hundred acres covered with cotton.
During the fall of 1889 Mr. Ryland induced a man to locate a saw-mill on his claim, and in it has been manufactured most of the lumber used in the construction of the houses in the town. Mr. Ryland and his family occupied a house one and one-half stories in height, and for three months after coming here Mrs. Ryland was the only woman in the settlement.
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