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 79
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EDWARD E. BEACH, Lincoln County.
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spending nine years there, he became a member of the bar of McCook, same state, and at the end of four years went to New Whatcom, Wash. Two years' residence on the Puget Sound proved sufficient for him, and, returning to McCook, he resumed his practice. It was not until Sep- tember, 1897, that he concluded to cast in his fortunes with Chandler, and here, as elsewhere, . he soon won the esteem of the general public and his professional brethren.
The marriage of Mr. Rittenhouse and Miss Louisa J. Brown took place in Seymour, Iowa. She is a native of Appanoose county, Iowa, and by her marriage is the mother of five children, namely: Olive, George B., May, Austin and Robert.
That Mr. Rittenhouse has been an influential worker in the Democratic party is shown by the fact that for fifteen years he served as a mem- ber of the Nebraska state central committee, and also belonged to the executive committee of his party. In 1884 he was sent as a delegate from Nebraska to the national Democratic con- vention in Chicago, where Cleveland received his nomination for the presidency. The only fraternity with which Mr. Rittenhouse now is actively identified is the Independent Order of Odd Fellows.
E DWARD E. BEACH. The life of Mr. Beach, prior to associating himself with the farming industry of Lincoln county, to which he came in December of 1891, was a busy and interesting one, and that he should still be in the possession of all his faculties, and an ele- ment of thrift and progress in his locality, argues well for the disposition of his time, and the correctness of his life.
Mr. Beach was born in Hartford, Conn., in 1834. His father, L. Nathan Beach, was born in Chasta, of the same state, and removed to Hartford many years ago, where he successfully engaged in the meat business. In 1848 he went to New York city, and continued his former occupation for five years, going thence to Cleve- land, Ohio, and in 1871 settling in Pomeroy, Wyandotte county, Kans., where he died at the ' age of seventy-six. The ancestry of the Beach family is English, and the first to come to America were three brothers who landed in the United States before the Revolutionary war, and who settled, one in Connecticut, one in New York, and one in the south. The mother of Edward Beach was formerly Mary Ann Bullard and her father served in the Revolutionary war. Mrs. Beach became the mother of seven chil- dren, five of whom are living. She died in Mil- waukee, Wis., at the age of sixty years. One of her children, Mrs. Chester Steele, is living
in Milwaukee; Henry, who died at Pana, Ill., July 19, 1900, was agent for the "Big Four" Railroad, having held the position forty years; Mrs. J. W. Careweis at Rollen, Ohio; Edward E., is a farmer in Lincoln county, Okla .; Mrs. George Russell lives in Los Angeles, Cal.
While being reared in Hartford, Conn., E. E. Beach was educated in the public schools, and later removed with his father to New York city. Just before the Civil war he went to Chelsea, Mich., and after arriving there enlisted in 1861 in Company D, Fourth Michigan Volunteer In- fantry. This was just after the fall of Fort Sumter. He afterwards became sergeant of the company and served for one year, taking part in the battle of Bull Run and Yorktown. In 1862 Mr. Beach was discharged for disa- bility, and returned to his former home in Mich- igan. After sufficiently recovering, he acted as drill master for new recruits at Jackson, Mich., and went south with the Twenty-third Michigan Regiment as drill master, 'and remained with them for one year.
When peace was restored Mr. Beach under- took railroading, and began on the St. Louis & Terre Haute, now the "Big Four," as brake- man, and finally rose to be baggage-master. In the latter '6os he spent a couple of years in the Pennsylvania oil region, and in 1869 returned to his former occupation on the railroad, and secured the position as baggage-master with the Missouri Pacific road, his route being between Leavenworth, Kans., and Pleasant Hill, Mo. In 1871 he took up his residence in Pomeroy, Kans., and engaged in the general merchandise business, and in 1876 became agent for the Mis- souri Pacific Railroad at Pomeroy.
In the fall of 1891 Mr. Beach made the run into the territory, and located on the northeast quarter of section 30, Union township, Lincoln county, in March of 1892. From a wide expanse of timber land he has developed a fertile and remunerative farm, and now has eighty acres under cultivation. The crops are composed of cotton, corn and general produce, and the rais- ing of stock is also largely entered into. In the thrifty orchard are one hundred and fifty apple trees, two hundred peach trees, and fifty pear trees, and there is also a vineyard. In 1899 hc built the large white house which is the distin- guishing mark of the place, and which is two stories high, and contains seven rooms. It is the largest residence in the county.
In political affiliation Mr. Beach is with the Republican party, and cast his first presidential vote for Lincoln. While living in Pomeroy. Kans., he served as railroad agent, express agent, Justice of the Peace, postmaster, and road overseer. He is a member of the Grand Army of the Republic, of the Burnside Post in
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Kansas City, with which he has been associated for many years. Mr. Beach was united in mar- riage in 1892 with Emma Renfrow, of Wyan- dotte county, Kans. Mrs. Beach is a daughter of John E. Renfrow, a native of Georgia, who came to Kansas before the war and served in Company H, Sixteenth Kansas Cavalry. Dur- ing the war he contracted a disease from which he died, May 19, 1898. He was a prominent man in the localities in which he lived, and was a prominent politician, having held. the position of justice of the peace for many years. He was a Mason, and was identified with all the forward movements with which he was sur- rounded. As a preacher in the Baptist Church he wielded a wide influence for good, and preached for years in Pomeroy, and in the sub- sequent places where he lived. His wife was formerly Martha Ann Daniel, who becante the mother of five children, viz .: Susan, the wife of James Henson ; Eliza K., the wife of I. K. Steele; James. John E., and Mrs. Beach. To Mr. and Mrs. Beach have been born three children, Eliza- beth S., Chester and Edward E. Jr.
A. M. McELHINNEY. Not only in Chan- dler, his present place of residence, but also in Guthrie, where he formerly made his home, Mr. McElHinney is well known and highly honored. Like so many of Oklahoma's most influential men, he dates his residence in the territory from April 22, 1889, the great day of the opening of lands to settlement. About one month later he was at the head of a drug store which he had opened and which was far better equipped than might be expected of a new town. The management of this business he continued for some years. Meantime, in 1891, he opened a drug store in Chandler, which he has since managed, although he did not re- move to this city until 1895. During that year a cyclone destroyed his store and stock, and it was only by a seemingly providential act that the family escaped injury or death. In fact, the baby was carried sixty feet by the terrific wind, but when found was uninjured, and no member of the family received even the slightest injury, save the oldest son, who was left with a broken arm. The loss of his store and stock did not daunt Mr. McElHinney. Building another store and buying another stock of drugs. he once more began for himself in the town. Since then he has met with no catastrophe, but has con- ducted the business prosperously and continu- ously.
The birth of Mr. MeElHinney took place in Marietta, Ohio, February 23, 1838. He was one of eight children, all but two of whom attained mature years, and three are now living. The
oldest son, Joseph, was a member of an Ohio regiment during the Civil war. The father, Joseph McElHinney, Sr., was a native of County Derry, Ireland, and accompanied the members of his father's family to America, settling on a farm in Ohio, near Marietta. The family is of Scotch extraction. He married Mary Miller, who was also a native of County Derry, and died in Ohio; she was of English descent.
On a farm near Marietta, Mr. McElHinney passed the years of youth and received his edu- cation in the high school and college of Mari- etta. For three years he taught school. In 1861 he went to Pittsburg, Pa., and embarked in the mercantile business, remaining in the city for four years. During three years of this time he had a boat on the Ohio river, and an- nually made a trip down the river, starting in the spring and trading at various points along the Ohio as far as Diamond Island, above Evansville, Ind. On selling out his stock of goods, he each time returned to Pittsburg. Very soon after the location of the capital of Ne- braska at Lincoln, he settled there, in 1866, and engaged in the real-estate business. Three years later he removed to Rosita, Colo., in 1875, a new mining town that was the county seat of Custer county, and there he carried on a mer- cantile business. From there he went to Silver Cliff, now the county seat of Custer county. The original town of Silver Cliff was laid out on one hundred and sixty acres that he platted. There he engaged in a mercantile, drug and real-estate business, and at the same time estab- lished and conducted a stage line from there to Canon City, thirty miles distant. Besides his other enterprises, he became interested in min- ing. He shared in the prosperity of Silver Cliff. which in one year from the time of its first settlement had grown to be a city of twelve thou- sand souls. On the establishment of the post- office there, he was appointed postmaster and held the office for six years. On the organiza- tion of the city council, or provisional govern- ment, he was chosen mayor of the new town.
Leaving Silver Cliff in 1885, he settled in Aspen, where he engaged in merchandising for a year, and then spent six months in a grocery in Denver. On the opening of Oklahoma to set- tlement, he came to Guthrie, and since then he has been intimately associated with the growth and development of territorial interests. His home was at first in the incorporated village of Capitol Hill, and he was its second mayor. On the consolidation of four towns into Guthrie. he was chosen a member of the first city coun- cil, and was elected the second mavor of Guth- rie. During his incumbency of the office the city water-works were built, and at the time these were said to be the best of any in the territory,
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M J. FOLEY, Ralston.
PORTRAIT AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.
for the money invested in them. His office was no sinecure. The territory was new, conditions were in some respects peculiar, and every mayor in the territory had to cope with many difficul- ties; this was especially true of the mayor of the capital city, but he proved himself equal to every emergency, and was a trustworthy and efficient official.
At the organization of the Guthrie Pharma- ceutical Association, which was the nucleus of the Oklahoma Pharmaceutical Association, Mr. McElHinney was selected as its president, an office which he filled with credit. While in Sil- ver Cliff, and also in Guthrie, he served as presi- dent of the school board. Since coming to Chandler he has served as treasurer of the town for two years. Politically he affiliates with the Republicans. He was made a Mason in Silver Cliff, Colo., and served as an officer in the local lodge.
In Greempsburg, Ky., Mr. McElHinney mar- ried Lizzie P. Ellis, daughter of Dr. Samuel Ellis, who removed from Kentucky to Silver Cliff, Colo., later settled in Chandler, Okla., and died in Bristow, I. T., in November, 1899. Mr. and Mrs. McElHinney are the parents of seven children now living, viz .: Lucy A., Mrs. Strader, living in Bristow, I. T .; Samuel A., a physician in the state of Washington; Mary, at home; Ray B., a pharmacist, who assists his father in the drug store; Alexander S., a student in the University of Oklahoma; Marshall and Au- brey.
M ICHAEL J. FOLEY. A son of Cornelius and Julia Foley, this worthy citizen of Ral- ston, Pawnee county, was born in Ireland in 1849, and was brought to this country when he was two years old. The family lived in Roch- ester, N. Y., for two or more years, then settled in Kalamazoo, Mich., where the youth of our subject was passed. Thirty years ago he em- barked on his business career by going to Chicago and learning the trade of a plasterer, which he followed for several years.
As it happened, the great fires in that city in 1871 and 1873 afforded a large amount of work in his line, and for several months after the first and most widespread conflagration he was em- ployed by the city authorities in a relief corps. For two years he worked for his brother, who was in the liquor business on Canal street, Chicago. Next he turned his attention to rail- roading, for eighteen months serving as a brakesman, and then for three years acting as a conductor on what is now the New York, Ohio and Pennsylvania Railroad. In that position he met with an 'accident. and later, for eighteen months, ran a local freight between Cleveland
and Toledo on the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railroad. For a year he then oper- ated his father's farm near Kalamazoo, after which he returned to railroading on the Pan- hadle, in Ohio, having charge of a train for eighteen months.
In 1879 Mr. Foley returned to Chicago, and was employed again by his brother for a year and a half, when he obtained a position on the construction of the West Side water-works, and later assisted in the erection of the Panorama Building on Wabash avenue, in which the "Bat- tle of Gettysburg" was exhibited. Coming fur- ther west he helped to build an addition to asy- lum No. 2, at St. Joseph, Mo., and, continuing to work at his trade, lived in Coffeyville, Kans .. and Bartlesville, I. T. Then followed a period spent among the Indians, when he became fa- miliar with the language of the Osage Nation, and won the good will of the influential chiefs. with most of whom he is well acquainted. At Pawhuska he was employed in butchering cattle allotted to the red men, and in the following spring he demonstrated to the Indians the use and wisdom of plastering their houses, and was well paid for the work he did for themin that line.
In 1892 Mr. Foley returned to Chicago, and in the spring of the following year his father died at Kalamazoo, having survived the mother twelve years. Returning to Grayhorse, I. T., Mr. Foley was ready to make the race into this territory from the northern line, but did not succeed in locating a claim. In March, 1894. he came to Ralston, Pawnee county, and started the foundations of the first building erected here. He bought a lot, put up a small building, and on the Fourth of July celebrated the day by open- ing his restaurant, which, in time, was supplanted by his large hotel, occupying three lots. The hotel, which he carries on with marked ability. is a credit to Ralston and to the county. As is generally known, this town, situated, as it is, in the extreme northern part of Pawnee county, in the beautiful valley of the Arkansas river, is a place of great natural attractions and advan- tages. It is plain that only a railroad is needed to make it one of the most desirable and flour- ishing cities of the territory, and the citizens are watching, with much interest, the move- ments which are being made to extend the Eastern Oklahoma Railroad from Pawnee, con- necting with the main line at Elgin, Kans., and the enterprise is promised to be completed by April 1, 1901.
The marriage of Mr. Foley and Miss Maggie Bennett, daughter of Matthew and Frances Bennett, took place March 28, 1803. She was born in Indiana, and was reared to maturity in Kansas. Our subject and wife have two chil- dren, Cornelius, a fine little fellow, four years
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old in April, 1901, and Emmett, born February 10, 1901.
Politically Mr. Foley is a Democrat, and re- ligiously a Catholic. He is serving as a justice of the peace in this township, and, though he has sometimes been urged to make the race for the position of sheriff, he has steadily declined the honor, as he finds his time already well occu- pied. He is very popular with most of the citi- zens of Ralston, and greatly enjoys its rapid rise and prosperity.
C. J. BOWMAN is one of the enterprising men who entered Oklahoma at the time of its opening April 22, 1889, locating near Edmond. At this writing he holds office as recorder of deeds of Oklahoma county. He was born January 29, 1867, in Woodford county, Ky. His grandfather, William Bowman, was a native of Virginia, of English descent, and set- tled in Woodford county, Ky. During the war of 1812 he served in the American army.
E. J. Bowman, the father of our subject, was also born in Woodford county, Ky., and there engaged in farming until 1879, removing at that time to Clinton County, Mo., where he now con- ducts general farming and cattle-raising enter- prises. Although sixty-eight years of age, he is hearty and hale, He married Miss Louise M. Smith, also of Woodford county, Ky. They are the parents of seven, children, all of whom with the exception of our subject, now reside in Clinton county, Mo. E. T. Bowman is a farmer there, while another brother, P. V., is county assessor.
Reared on his father's farm in Kentucky C. J. Bowman received a good education in the public schools and at Troy College. When his parents went to Missouri in 1879 he entered Chapman's private school at St. Joe, Mo., and after gradu- ating he commenced to clerk in a store in that city. Upon the opening of Oklahoma Terri- tory he made the run on April 22, 1889, and succeeded in getting one hundred and sixty acres five miles west of Edmond. He remained in that place until the following year, when he sold out, and going to Edmond he embarked in the mercantile business as a member of the firm of Lott & Bowman. They erected a store- room and succeeded in establishing a good busi- ness, but in the fall of 1893 Mr. Bowman sold out. December 31, 1893, he was appointed postmaster of Edmond by President Cleveland, and served in that capacity four years and six months, until June 31, 1898. After his retire- ment from office he resumed the mercantile busi- ness, but in September. 1898, he again sold out. having been nominated on the Democratic ticket for county recorder of deeds. At the elec-
tion he received a majority of over four hundred votes, and on the Ist of January, 1899, took his oath of office for a term of two years. In 1900 he was re-clected by a majority of five hun- dred and twelve. The duties of his office he has discharged in a faithful and able manner. He is numbered among the substantial citizens of Oklahoma county and has hosts of warm friends who hold him in high esteem.
At Edmond, this county, Mr. Bowman mar- ried Miss Edna Thatcher, a native of Leba- non, Ill., and a daughter of R. Thatcher, who served as the first president of the Normal School at Edmond. Their marriage has been blessed by two children, Blanche and Marian. The educational advantages received by Mrs. Bowman were excellent; she is a graduate of a college in Kansas and also of Knox College at Galesburg, Ill. Our subject is a strong Dem- ocrat and has served two years as city clerk. He is a member of Oklahoma City Lodge, A. F. & A. M., also the Knights of Pythias, in which he serves as past chancellor. The Com- mercial Club, of Oklahoma City, which is com- posed of the leading business men of the place, numbers him among its active workers. He is a member of the Baptist Church.
G EORGE BULLARD, deputy clerk of the I district court for Lincoln county, is in the
prime of early manhood, and possesses the enterprise and public spirit which conduce largely to the welfare of a community. He comes of a pioneer family of Ft. Wayne, Ind., or of that immediate vicinity, and was born in that city on Christmas day, 1865. His grandfather, George Bullard, a native of New York state, was a successful farmer near Ft. Wayne during almost his entire life, which covered the greater part of this century, ninety-three years. His wife also attained an extreme age, dying in her eighty-seventh year.
The parents of the subject of this article are S. L. and Jennie M. (Evans) Bullard, now resi- dents of this township. Both are natives of In- diana, the father's birth having occurred on the old homestead near Fort Wayne, and the moth- er's birth having taken place in the same county. She is a daughter of John K. Evans, an cariy settler in the Hoosier state, where he became a capitalist, owning large tracts of valuable land in desirable sections of the country, and also city real estate. Both he and his wife were long- lived, also, he being about four-score years old at the time of his death, and his wife reaching the ninetieth milestone in life's journey.
Always a patriotic citizen, S. L. Bullard vol- unteered in the defense of the Stars and Stripes when the Civil war came on, and served as a
HON. A. H. BOLES, Perry.
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first lieutenant in the Forty-seventh Indiana Volunteer Infantry. After the war he was ad- mitted to the bar, and engaged in the practice of his profession at Fort Wayne for several years. Then, going to Hickman, Ky., he was engaged in the manufacture of lumber for about three years, but at the expiration of that period lost heavily, his plant being destroyed by fire. Concluding to try his fortunes in the trans-Mis- sissippi region, he became a citizen of Greens- burg, Kans., and devoted his attention, as form- erly, to his profession. When Oklahoma was opened, he went to Guthrie, and two years later came to Chandler, in both of which places he has continued the practice of law. Here he located a claim half a mile east of the city, and has dwelt there, giving much attention to the cultivation of fruit, in which he has met with gratifying success. His elder daughter, Mrs. Bertha Malone, resides in Dallas, Tex., and the younger one, Eva, is at home.
George Bullard, the eldest of the parental family, spent eighteen years of his life in Fort Wayne. He obtained a practical education in the city schools and in the local Methodist Col- lege, where he pursued a commercial course, thus amply qualifying himself for his business career. In 1884 he accompanied his father to Kentucky, and for two years was connected with the milling business there, then removing to Kingman, Kans., where he was employed in the national bank during one winter. Later he was made deputy county treasurer of Kiowa county, Kans., a position which he ably filled for more than two years. From 1889 until 1892 he was the bookkeeper of a large plumbing establish- ment in Salt Lake City, and then, coming to Chandler, he lent his assistance to his father in the culture of fruit and improvement of the farm. For one term of two years he served in the office of justice of the peace, and in 1898 was ap- pointed as deputy clerk of the district court of this county. He is making an excellent record, and is justly popular with the public.
Socially, Mr. Bullard is held in high esteem. He was initiated into the Masonic order in Chandler Lodge No. 10, A. F. & A. M., in No- vember, 1897, and at present holds the office of secretary. He is associated with the Knights of Pythias, and in his political creed is an uncom- promising Republican.
H ON. ALFRED H. BOLES. In the halls of legislation a prudent and wise counsel- lor, at the bar an able advocate of the true and just, and in political circles a recognized . power, Hon. Alfred H. Boles, of Perry, is ranked among the representative citizens of Oklahoma. Ile comes from stanch patriotic stock, and at
least three of his ancestors were heroes of the Revolution, of the war of 1812, and of early colonial wars with the Indians. . One, bearing his patronymic, though the name was then spelled Boals, was a commissioned officer under the great General Wellington. His grandfather, Thomas Boles, was born in Pittsburg, Pa., in which city his father had taken up his abode upon coming to America. He was a native of the Emerald Isle, being of the old Protestant Scotch-Irish branch of the Celtic race. At a very early period in the history of Tennessee, Thomas Boals (or Boles) became a pioneer planter of Humphreys county, and the red race then was in the great majority among his neigh- bors. The wife of his choice, a Miss Denning, was a daughter of a soldier of the Revolution and of the war of 1812. He, too, was one of the Tennessee pioneers, and was obliged to take part in many skirmishes with the Indians, who often threatened the white settlers.
The parents of the subject of this sketch were John and Mary (May) Boles. The father was born in Middle Tennessee, and removed to the territory of Arkansas in its frontier days, be- coming a wealthy planter and stockman of Yell county, his home being in the vicinity of Bluff- ton. He was a personal friend of Jackson, and was an ardent Democrat until about the begin- ning of the Civil war. He was ever loyal to the Union, and transferred his allegiance to the Union party on account of his convictions of right and duty. He died ere the conflict of the contending factions had ceased, but. carrying out his expressed wishes and intended action, his widow freed their slaves long before the emancipation proclamation. She also was a native of Tennessee, and was the only one of her own family whose sympathies were with the Union, and who was in favor of freeing slaves. Her father, Thomas May, likewise a native of Tennessee and an early settler of Yell county, Ark., owned a large plantation there, and died about the time when the Civil war began. His father, who was a native of Pennsylvania, was a soldier in the colonial army during the Revolu- tion. Mrs. Mary Boles is still living, her home being in Dardanelle, Ark .. and five of her seven sons and three of her seven daughters are yet living.
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