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 54
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he is identified with the Knights of Pythias, and while living in Kansas occupied the various of- fices in his home lodge.
As a companion along the journey of life. Judge Cease chose Miss Minnie Reese, a native of Columbus, Ohio, their marriage taking place in Kansas, August 4, 1877. They became the parents of nine children. Death did not invade the happy home circle until January 24, 1001, when one son, George Howard Cease, died at seven years of age. The children are being given good educations and training for the se- rious duties of life, and the elder sons, ener- getic, manly youths, are carrying on the farm where the family reside, near the corporation limits of Lexington.
JOHN HALL is an unusually prosperous agriculturist of Oklahoma, having land in two sections of Logan county. His home- stead comprises the northwest quarter of section 19, township 16, range 3 west, Guthrie being his postoffice. The additional forty acres are in Cedar township, on section 23, township 16, range 4.
Mr. Hall came originally from Ross county, Ohio, where he was born August 3, 1850, and is a son of Henry and Margaret (Leasure) Hall, also natives of Ross county. John Hall was surrounded by the usual influences that are to be met with in a well-conducted and prosperous agricultural region, working with his father as occasion demanded, and studiously availing himself of the advantages of the common schools. When twenty-one years of age he de- cided to start out in the world for himself. and having no funds for the purchase of land, he rented some land in Ross county which he brought to a high state of cultivation, and upon which he lived for thirteen years.
October 26, 1871, Mr. Hall married Elizabeth Harpster of Ross county, where she was born. educated, and grew to womanhood. Mrs. Hall was an orphan, her father having been drowned when she was an infant, and her mother surviy- ing him but a short time. In 1889 Mr. Hall changed his residence from Ross county to Phelps county, Neb., purchasing a quarter sec- tion of land upon which he lived until com- ing to Oklahoma. He here succeeded in buying off a man who wished to dispose of his claim. and his first efforts were directed towards erect- ing a suitable barn in which they lived until after the land was prepared and the crops put in. The house that was then built is large and com- modious, and is a source of pride to the owner who constructed it in its entirety with his own hands. Eight acres of the claim are devoted to a fine orchard.
G. P. JOHNSTON, M. D., AND SON, Lexington.
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The political. affiliations of Mr. Hall are with the Republican party, his first vote having been cast for U. S. Grant in 1872. He has served his county as school director for several years, and as constable for eight years. He was elected road-overseer, but declined, owing to pressure of business of a more personal nature. He is a member of the Anti-Horse Thief Association and treasurer thereof, and a member of Guthrie Lodge No. 3, I. O. O. F.
To Mr. and Mrs. Hall have been born five children, four of whom are living: Maggie, is the wife of W. E. Kelley, of Montgomery county, Kans., and has one child; Harley, Henry, and Tillie are at home; William died in Oklahoma at the age of fifteen and is buried at Prairie View cemetery, which is located on his father's claim.
G EORGE P. JOHNSTON, M. D. The pio- neer physician of Lexington, Cleveland county, Dr. Johnston deserves the credit of being one of the founders of the place, as he was the first to suggest the advisability of laying out a town here. From that time until the pres- ent he has spared neither time nor expense in ad- vancing the interests of Lexington, and is held in high esteem by the people of this region.
The doctor is a native of Athens county, Ohio, his birth having occurred forty-eight years ago. His elementary education was supplemented by a course in the medical department of the Uni- versity of Iowa, and, after his graduation, he engaged in practice at different points in Iowa, Minnesota, the Dakotas and Colorado. Hap- pening to be in Colorado at the time of the great Leadville "boom," he devoted his attention to mining for a short time, and secured some good claims. He was prominent in the organization of the Silver Plume Mining Company, and acted as its manager for a period. Then, crossing the plains to California, he practiced his profession for about a year, after which he was a citizen of San Luis Obispo for two years, and during the mining excitement in Arizona, in the carly part of the 'Sos, he went to Willcox, on the Santa Fe Railroad, where he pursued his accustomed call- ing, also making investments in good mining property.
In 1882 Dr. Johnston went to Florida and passed two winters in that land of the orange groves, himself owning some orchards, When Minneapolis was on the top wave of prosperity. in 1884-85, he took up his abode there, and at the end of two years located in Watertown, S. D., where he remained until the fall of 1888, when he came to Purcell, I. T., and was ap- pointed local surgeon for the Santa Fe. He kept an office there until 1891, and built a residence,
which, however, was burned at the time that the Clifton House was destroyed by fire. O11 that celebrated April 22, 1889, he came into Oklahoma, making a perilous trip across the Canadian river, which was a raging spring tor- rent. He fortunately secured a good claim, and soon afterwards the town of Lexington was laid out, he having made the suggestion to Judge Green and other authorities. Thus it happened that his own property adjoins the town site on the north, and the first house put up in this lo- cality was the one erected by him upon his farm. About two years afterward, when the country hereabouts was becoming populated, he removed his office to Lexington, and since that time has been in great demand throughout this portion of the territory. Owing to a growing need of a well-equipped drug store, he established one here five years ago, and this enterprise he is still managing with merited success. His only son, Marshall, who is a young man of ability and promise, assists in the drug store when he is at home. He is a graduate of the University of Kansas, and will complete his medical education in New York.
Dr. Johnston is a member of the Territorial Pharmaceutical Association. In the fraternities he is a Mason, a Knight of Pythias, a member of the Woodmen of the World, and is past grand in the Odd Fellows order. Politically he is a Democrat, and strives to advance his party's in- terests in legitimate ways. He was a member of the first board of health of Cleveland county, was its vice-president for some time, and is in- fluential in everything relating to the prosperity of this immediate community. On his home- stead he has made good improvement's, and with true enterprise makes a point of raising high- grade live stock. Substantial farm buildings, a thrifty orchard and vineyard and other features make the place an ideal country home, and the fact that it is so near to the city limits adds much to its value. It was not his fault that the railroad was not built through this town, as he expended means and energy in endeavoring to secure that valuable adjunct to prosperity.
The marriage of Dr. Johnston and Miss Lawson, a native of Scotland, was solemnized at Lexington in 1897.
MAR J. EATON. The records of Okla- homa abundantly prove that success eventually rewards the man of industry and perseverance, and of the number is Omar J. Eaton, who within a few years has become well-to-do. He is a representative of a family which has taken an active part for several gener- ations in the arduous task of converting the wilderness into the abode of civilization, and, in
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his turn, has followed the example of his an- cestors.
His grandfather, Benjamin Eaton, of English descent, was a native of Virginia, where his fore- fathers had dwelt from early colonial days. Going to Kentucky, he spent some years there and married Abigail York, a native of the state. About 1834 they removed to the then new state of Illinois, and there passed the remainder of their exceptionally long lives, Mr. Eaton dying at one hundred and six years, and his wife at one hundred years. He participated in some of the early wars with the Indians, and for a long period was a local preacher of the Bap- tist denomination. Five of their ten children are yet living.
Michael, father of O. J. Eaton, was born in Coles county, Ill., in 1837. When the Civil war came on he enlisted in Company E, One Hundred and Sixteenth Illinois Volunteer In- fantry, and during the siege of Vicksburg was wounded on May 19, 1863. For a long time he was in the hospital at Memphis, and later was at Jefferson Barracks, St. Louis, Mo., finally being honorably discharged from the service on account of disability. In 1868 he went to Nebraska, where he dwelt for two years, and during the ensuing nine years was numbered among the' agriculturists of Republic county, Kans. For. a like period he then lived in Rus- sell county, same state, and was a resident of Sumner county, Kans., at the time of Okla- homa's opening. Making the race from Buffalo Springs, he secured a claim in section 7, and the following spring commenced improving his present homestead. He is a justice of the peace and is highly respected in his community. In 1861 he married Martha Shoemaker, and of the ten children born to them two have passed away.
Omar J. Eaton was born in Macon county, Ill., in 1866, and was reared upon a farm, receiving a liberal education in the pub- lic schools of Kansas. Coming to Okla- homa with a team, two cows and twenty dollars as his sole capital, he became the owner of his present farm February 21, 1890, purchasing the place of the original claimant, who had made but little improvement upon the land. Erecting a cabin of one room, the young man was sheltered in that humble fashion for three years, and then added other rooms. He has placed one hundred acres under the plow, and raises good crops of wheat and oats, and cach year his large orchard and vineyard yield an abundance of fruit. Two wells afford plenty of water for the household and live stock, and other features add to the convenience of this model farm.
On the 5th of September, 1889, Mr. Eaton married Paralee Ethell, daughter of Orlando
Ethell, formerly of Ohio, and now a citizen of Logan township, Kingfisher county. For three terms Mrs. Eaton taught the school in district No. 71, and since that time has been employed in other localities in the capacity of a teacher. She also has a class in the Sunday-school of the Presbyterian Church, and is successful as an in- structor of the young. Mr. Eaton, as well as his wife, is identified with the church, and is an elder and superintendent of the Sunday-school at present. Animated by the true Christian spirit of helpfulness, they strive to "do good to all as they have opportunity," and have opened their hearts and home to a young girl, Lida Carver, whom they are educating in Kingfisher College. For the past six years Mr. Eaton has been a director of the local school board, and has been clerk of the same for some time, as well as clerk of Logan township. Politically he favors the platform of the Populist party.
AMES EARLEY, who has been continu- ously in the employ of the Frisco Railroad
Company for a period of thirty-one years, is prominently known in railroad circles, and is now serving as division foreman of that road at Oklahoma City.
Mr. Earley was born in Boston, Mass., Feb- ruary 22, 1854, and is a son of Capt. James Earley. The latter was born in Ireland, where his father followed the occupation of a farmer, and when a mere boy went to sea, working his way up to captain. As captain of a vessel, he sailed over the entire world, but the reflection of the water weakened his eyes, and at the age of fifty-four years he was totally blind. He was obliged to retire from sailing, and settled in Boston, where, after a period of five years, his sight was fully restored. He remained in that city the balance of his life, dying at the age of sixty-four years. His wife, Mary Dougherty, was born in Ireland and died in Boston. They had seven children, four of whom are now living. Two sons served in the Civil war: Patrick was captain of a company in the Ninth Massachu- setts Infantry, and was killed in the seven days' battle at Malvern Hill; Bernard served on a man-of-war in the United States navy, and died while home on sick leave.
After gaining his primary education in the public schools of Boston, at the age of thirteen. James Earley went to Exeter, N. II., to make his home with Hon. Amos Tuck, an attorney-at- law and a member of congress, and there at- tended the public and high schools. Mr. Tuck was land commissioner of the Frisco Railroad Company, and our subject came west with him to St. Louis, in 1869, entering the freight office of that road, and beginning as a clerk. In 1870
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he was apprenticed to the trade of a machinist and boilermaker at Pacific, Mo., near St. Louis. The shops were subsequently moved to Spring- field, Mo., whither he went, serving an appren- ticeship of five years. He continued to follow his trade there until 1887, when he was trans- ferred to Bluff City, Kans., as foreman of the roundhouse. Two years later he was sent to Anthony, Kans., where he served as foreman from 1889 to 1897, and in October of the latter year went to Arkansas City as division foreman. He continued there in that capacity until No- vember 13, 1899, he was transferred to his present office at Oklahoma City. He holds a most responsible position, having charge of engineers and firemen, engines and cars, and he has discharged his duties in such a manner as to gain the hearty approval of his superior of- ficers and the good-will of the men under his direction. -
Mr. Earley was united in marriage, at Spring- field, Mo., with Miss Mary F. Riley, who was born in Jacksonville, Ill. They are parents of ten children, as follows: A. T., a fireman on the Frisco Road; Edna; J. O., a machinist at Oklahoma City; George, Alice, Dixie, Frank, Ralph, Gay and Harry. Mr. Earley was made a member of the Masonic fraternity at Bluff City, Kans., and is connected with the St. Louis Railway Club and the Knights and Ladies of Security. In national politics he is a Democrat.
F RANCIS HANSON DIXON, formerly the efficient deputy sheriff and warden of the county jail at Oklahoma City, was born in Stockton, Durhamshire, England, June 20, 1853. His father, Thomas Dixon, was a native of the same place and a blacksmith by occupa- tion. He was an artilleryman in the Crimean war, and participated in the battle of Sebastopol. The grandfather of our subject, Francis H. Dixon, was also a member of the English army, and had command of a battery in the same siege, and also at the battle of Waterloo. under Wel- lington. After his retirement from the army he served as gamekeeper for Lord Marquis of Londonderry or Duke of Wellington.
In 1854 the father of our subject brought his family to the United States, and first settled in Philadelphia, Pa., but in 1857 removed to Ot- tawa, La Salle county, Ill., and a year later to St. Joseph, Mo., where he worked at his trade for a year. In the spring of 1859 he located in Troy, Doniphan county. Kans., where he was similarly employed until his death, which oc- curred in the fall of 1860. His wife is still living in that state. She bore the maiden name of Melinda Elizabeth Barlow, and is a daughter of John Barlow, who spent his entire life as a
farmer in Ireland. She was born in County Sligo, Ireland, but after being left an orphan at the age of fourteen years, was reared in Eng- land. Our subject is the oldest and only sur- vivor in a family of three children, his brothers, Thomas and Edward, having both died in Kan- sas.
It was during his infancy that Francis H. Dixon was brought by his parents to America, and he was only six years of age when they lo- cated in Kansas, where he attended the public schools and was reared to farm work. At an early age he commenced earning his own liveli- hood. He lived with an uncle until twelve years old, and then worked as a farm hand in Doni- phan county, Kans., until nineteen years of age, when he began farming on his own account. In 1883 he purchased eighty acres of land three miles south of Severance, Kans., which he oper- ated until coming to Oklahoma county, Okla., in April, 1893, when he purchased the north- west quarter of section 32, Crutcho township. on the Choctaw, Oklahoma & Gulf Railroad. four miles east of Oklahoma City. The Choc- taw and Frisco junction is near his place. Mr. Dixon has placed the land under a high state of cultivation, and made many improvements thereon, including the planting of a forty-acre orchard. The farm is one of the finest in the county. He is engaged principally in the raising of grain, his specialty being wheat, but also gives considerable attention to the breeding of full- blooded Poland-China swine.
Mr. Dixon was married, in 1873, to Catherine Morley, who bore him five children: Thomas, now a resident of Hartshorne, I. T .; William, Frank, Edward and Maggie. October 28, 1890, in Kansas City, Mr. Dixon was united in mar- riage with Miss Agnes Cole, a native of Bir- mingham, England, and to them have been born two children, Agnes and Bryan, both at home. Mrs. Dixon passed away October 10, 1900, at her home in Crutcho township.
Mr. Dixon affiliates with Oklahoma Lodge No. 2, I. O. O. F., of which he is Past Noble Grand, and which he has twice represented in the grand lodge. He is also a member of the Encampment and Daughters of Rebekah of the same order, and the Woodmen of the World. By his ballot he supports the men and measures of the Democratic party; is a member of the county committee, and was chairman of the campaign committee in 1898, at which time the party was victorious. On the 3d of January, 1899, he was appointed deputy sheriff and war- den, and most creditably and satisfactorily dis- charged the duties of that office for a period of fifteen months. In religion he is connected with the Episcopal Church. He belongs to that class of men whom the world terms self-made,
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for, beginning life empty-handed, he has con- quered all the obstacles in his path to success, and is now the owner of a well-improved prop- erty.
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JOHN JENSEN. In the discharge of the various responsibilities which have been the natural outcome of his recognized ability, Mr. Jensen has brought to bear many of the ex- cellent and substantial traits of mind and char- acter usually associated with sons of Germany. In 1862 Mr. Jensen left his native land and asso- ciated his fortunes with the thousands of his countrymen who have added to the stability of American institutions. His first location was in Milwaukee, Wis. He was called upon almost immediately to aid the cause of his adopted land, and in 1863 enlisted in the First Wisconsin Heavy Artillery as second lieutenant, and served until May 10, 1866. The majority of his war experience was received in Kentucky during the reconstruction days, and he was assistant quartermaster at Bowling Green, Columbus, and at Paducah.
In January of 1868, Mr. Jensen went to Gen- eva, Fillmore county, Neb., where he engaged in farming, and attained considerable promi- nence in the community, particularly in a polit- ical way. For three years he was chairman of the board of supervisors, and for one term repre- sented Fillmore county in the Nebraska legis- lature. He was also county clerk and clerk of the court in the same county for four years, and caucus nominee for speaker of the house in 1893. His influence was further extended by his position as president of the Citizens Bank of Geneva, and as president of the State Board of Agriculture during 1891-92.
While unusually prosperous in Nebraska, Mr. Jensen yet longed for broader fields of ac- tivity, and, recognizing the latent possibilities of pioneership in Oklahoma, decided that it should henceforward be the field for his useful- ness and enterprise. September 16, 1893, he took a claim in the vicinity of Enid, and lived upon it until July 27, 1898, at which time he was appointed Indian agent of the Ponca, Otoe, Pawnee and Tonkawa tribes, by President Mc- Kinley, with headquarters at the Ponca agency. During his residence here, Mr. Jensen has per- ceptibly improved the prevailing conditions, and instituted several important reforms in manage- ment. His activities are along the same broad lines experienced during his life in Nebraska. and he is among the most ardent supporters of the elevating institutions and influences of his locality. He is one of the directors of the Noble County Bank, at Perry, and is connected with local and county undertakings, political and
otherwise. Fraternally he is associated with the Masonic order, Royal Arch Chapter, and is a member of the Loyal Legion of Nebraska. As a member of the Grand Army of the Republic, he is associated with the McDowell Post at Enid.
In 1871 occurred the marriage of Mr. Jensen to Eva T. Hooker, of Milford, Neb., a descend- ant of the famous General Hooker. Of this union there are four children, viz .: Charles D .. cashier of the Noble County Bank; Jessie F .: Maude E., widow of W. H. Hailman; and Philip.
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JOHN H. KNIGHT. While occupied with the agreeable duty of managing a finely int- proved and remunerative farm, Mr. Knight has demonstrated his worthiness to be ac- counted one of the successful and progressive agriculturists of Payne county. Of English de- scent, he is a native of Sterling Hill, Conn., and was born in 1855. His parents, John and Catherine (McKinley) Knight, were born in England. John Knight was a mill-hand in Eng- land, and after coming to the United States in 1850, settled in Polk county, Iowa, where he engaged in farming for the remainder of his use- ful and busy life. He died in 1884. His wife still survives him, and is now living in Kansas, whither they had removed previous to the death of her husband.
The early years of John H. Knight were spent on his father's farm in Iowa, and his education in the public schools was continued after his removal to Kansas. When old enough to do something for himself, he went back to Iowa, and entered the employ of G. W. Ferguson, of Marshalltown, who operated the best breeding and training barn in the state, where he re- mained for two years, and has been identified with the horse business more or less ever since. He was married in 1879 to Martha Pentico, a daughter of George and Fyanne Pentico, farm- ers of Republic county, Kans. Of this union there have been two children: John M. and George H., both born in Kansas, and both living at home, the former being nineteen and the lat- ter sixteen years of age.
In April, 1889, Mr. Knight left his home in Kansas and decided to try his luck in the newly opened territory of Oklahoma. He made the run from the north line, and located on the northwest. quarter of section 33, township IS. range I east. To the improvement of this claim he has since turned his attention, with the re- sult that it has become a paying and profitable venture. Twenty-five acres are devoted to a fine orchard, wherein are raised all kinds of fruits, with a preference given to pears. A house has
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GEORGE M. SOUTHGATE, Pottawatomie County.
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been recently erected, the claim is well fenced, and there is a living spring near the barn, an- other spring being located in the western part of the land.
In national politics Mr. Knight is a Repub- lican, and has filled several local offices in the county. He is now serving as township treas- urer and also as road overseer. Fraternally he is associated with the Odd Fellows, having joined that organization in Nebraska.
J. W. KUKUK conducts the largest and best- . equipped meat market in the city of Perry.
He was the first to engage in the business in the new town, and is the only one among the early merchants in the same line who has with- stood the vicissitudes incident to all growing localities. At first he opened a store on the corner of Eighth and C streets, which he after- wards sold, and bought one of the finest sites in the city, on the corner of Seventh and D streets, the northwest corner of the square. He person- ally attends to all of the details of his business, does his own slaughtering, and, to accommodate his trade as a buyer and seller of cattle, has a sixty-acre pasturage. He has all the modern appliances for successfully conducting his en- terprise, and among other conveniences has a cocler which holds at least a dozen beeves. As a retail and wholesale dealer he does a fine busi- ness and is patronized by a large portion of the community.
Mr. Kukuk was born in Chicago, Ill., March II, 1860, and spent his youth and early manhood in the busy metropolis. Of German parentage, his father, Fred Kukuk, was born near Berlin, Germany, and came to America with his uncle, Frank Martin, when but a boy. Upon locating in Chicago he engaged in the transfer business, and later removed to Somonauk, Ill., where he is at present, retired from active business life. The mother, formerly Hannah Martin, was born in Chicago, Ill., and died in 1892, in Somonatk. Of her three children, J. W. is the subject of this article; Lena is Mrs. Myers, of Somonauk; and Fred is a farmer in Weldon.
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