USA > Oklahoma > Tulsa County > Tulsa > The history of Tulsa, Oklahoma > Part 20
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CHARLES WILLIAM KERR, D. D.
Rev. Charles William Kerr, who is serving for the twenty-second year as pastor of the First Presbyterian church of Tulsa, has the distinction of having held the longest pastorate of any minister in the state of Oklahoma. His birth occurred at Slippery Rock, Pennsylvania, on the 2d of April, 1875, his parents being T. A. and Annie (Miller) Kerr. The mother passed away in 1875, but the father is still living and for more than forty years has been act- ively engaged in the mercantile business at Parkers Landing, Pennsylvania. Both the paternal and maternal grandparents of Rev. Mr. Kerr were of Scotch descent and came to the new world from the north of Ireland, taking up their abode among the early settlers of western Pennsylvania.
Charles W. Kerr began his education in a country school and subse- quently became a student in the Slippery Rock State Normal School, from which he graduated in 1893. He holds a life certificate as a teacher and for two years following his graduation from the above named institution he taught in the schools of Parkers Landing, at the same time making up college studies under a private tutor. In the fall of 1895 he entered the Western Theological Seminary at Allegheny, Pennsylvania, for he had determined to devote his life to the work of the ministry. Three years later he was graduated from the McCormick Theological Seminary of Chicago, while in 1918 the degree of D. D. was conferred upon him. The day following the completion of his course at the McCormick Seminary he started for Edmond, Oklahoma, and from the 10th of May, 1898, until February 10, 1900, he served as pastor of Presbyterian churches at that place and at Waterloo. Since the latter date he has held the pastorate of the First Presbyterian church of Tulsa, covering a period of more than twenty-one years, during which the membership of the
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church has kept pace with the remarkable growth and development of Tulsa, which was a village of only one thousand population when Mr. Kerr took up his ministerial duties here. Under his guidance the congregation has steadily grown in numerical strength until the members now number two thousand one hundred and sixty-five and the church has become a potent force for moral progress in the community. The small church at the beginning was able to pay Dr. Kerr but four hundred and twenty-five dollars, while the remainder of his salary of eight hundred dollars was contributed by the Home Mission Board. Today the First Presbyterian church of Tulsa is in a prosperous and flourishing condition and the pastor has the whole-hearted and loyal support of his congregation.
On the 6th of September, 1898, at Parkers Landing, Pennsylvania, Rev. Mr. Kerr was united in marriage to Miss Anna E. Coe, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. S. W. Coe of that place. They have become the parents of two chil- dren: Hawley Coe, nineteen years of age, a junior in the University of Tulsa; and Margaret R., who is a maiden of sixteen summers and is a junior in the Tulsa high school. In his wife Dr. Kerr has an able and devoted assistant in all of his church work.
Politically Dr. Kerr maintains an independent attitude, always standing for good government, irrespective of party. Fraternally he is identified with Tulsa . Lodge, No. 71, A. F. & A. M., and Indian Consistory, No. 2, of Mc- Alester, Oklahoma. He is a director of the City Club and has been a trustee of the University of Tulsa from the time of its establishment here thirteen years ago. He is chairman of the Home Mission Committee of the Tulsa Presbytery and has also been an active member of the Religious Work Com- mittee since the organization of the local Y. M. C. A. Throughout the period of the World war he served as one of the Four-Minute men for Tulsa county, assisted in all the war drives and devoted some time to Y. M. C. A. work in Texas camps. His career has been one of great usefulness and worth, for with consecrated zeal he has labored untiringly for the upbuilding of his church and community.
ยท PATRICK M. MISKELL.
Patrick M. Miskell, possessing tact, force and ability of the highest order and in fact all the qualities which are deemed of value in the attainment of success, is now a prominent figure in the oil circles of Oklahoma, and is a valued resident of Tulsa. He was born in Dublin, Ireland, September 29, 1876, and is one of the five living children in a family of six, whose parents were Thomas and Mary (Murphy) Miskell, likewise natives of the Emerald isle. When thirty-three years of age the father came to the United States with his family, settling in Pennsylvania, where he entered the employ of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company. He now resides at Kane, that state, but has retired from active business.
Patrick M. Miskell obtained his education in the public schools of Kane and like his father entered the railway service, being connected with the Penn- sylvania system for eleven years in various positions in the operating depart- ment. He afterward entered the employ of the Kane Bank & Trust Company, with which he served five years, and then became identified with the Barnsdall Corporation, oil pipe line contractors, laying pipe lines in Oklahoma and Kansas.
PATRICK M. MISKELL
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After three years spent in that connection he returned to Pennsylvania, settling at Bradford, where he was in charge of the estate of William Barnsdall for five years. On the expiration of that period he became associated with the American Refining Company and in June, 1916, this corporation was acquired by the Empire Refineries, Inc., a subsidiary of the Cities Service Company, and Mr. Miskell was made manager thereof. The qualities he has displayed show him to be a high grade, all-around business man, possessed of honesty, energy and indefatigable industry.
In 1909 Mr. Miskell was united in marriage to Miss Katherine Miller, a daughter of E. E. Miller, superintendent of schools at Bradford, Pennsyl- vania. Mr. and Mrs. Miskell have won many friends during the period of their residence in Tulsa, and occupy an enviable social position. He is well known as a member of the Country Club and the Petroleum Club, also of the Mid-Continent Oil and Gas Association, and is a member of the executive com- mittee of the Western Petroleum Refiners Association. He belongs to the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, and his political support is given to the republican party, but his time and attention are concentrated upon busi- ness affairs rather than upon politics or club life, and when one discusses any phase of the business with which Mr. Miskell is identified he recognizes that he is thoroughly acquainted therewith and is in every way master of the situa- tion.
ROBERT EDWARD FULLER.
It is impossible to determine what would be the history of Oklahoma were it not for its oil fields. The development of its oil resources within the past few years has been to the state what the automobile industry is to Detroit, what the packing industry is to Chicago. The oil fields have constituted a mammoth source of revenue and their development has called forth the labors of men of keen insight, of broad vision and of marked business ability. In this class belongs Robert Edward Fuller of Tulsa, who was born on a farmi near West Union, Fayette county, Iowa, December 6, 1888. His father, William E. Fuller, was a native of Pennsylvania and was a member of the bar who not only engaged in the practice of law but aided in framing the laws of the coun- try as a member of congress. Later he became assistant attorney general of the United States under President Mckinley. He married Louise Harper, who passed away in 1901, after rearing seven of their nine children. Mr. Fuller died in Washington, D. C., in 1918.
Robert E. Fuller obtained a public school education in Iowa and later attended the Bordentown Military Institute of New Jersey, from which he was graduated in 1906. He spent two years as a student in the Upper Iowa University. The year 1909 witnessed his arrival in Tulsa, at which time he became identified with the oil industry and is now extensively engaged in pro- ducing oil properties. The operation of the oil fields under his control has not only contributed to his individual prosperity but has also been an element in the development and progress of the state.
On the IIth of March, 1913, Mr. Fuller married Miss Gladys Green, of Los Angeles, California. They have two children: Robert E., Jr., four years of age; and Betty, in her first year. Mr. Fuller belongs to the Masonic lodge, to the Chamber of Commerce and to the Country Club of Tulsa. He is like- wise identified with the University and Athletic Clubs of Los Angeles and the
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Los Angeles Country Club. He is also a member of the Mayflower Society and of the Sons of the American Revolution-associates that indicate his an- cestral line, which can be traced back to the earliest period of settlement in that section of the country, and the fact that his ancestors were among those who fought for American independence in the Revolutionary war. Mr. Fuller is a republican in his political views and religiously is connected with the First Methodist Episcopal church of Tulsa.
JOSEPH ALBERT GILL.
The history of the bar and bench of Oklahoma would be incomplete and unsatisfactory were there failure to make reference to Joseph Albert Gill, a distinguished member of the bar and a man who in many ways has been con- nected with the state's development and progress, his progressive spirit leaving an indelible impress upon events which have largely shaped the records of Tulsa and of Oklahoma. Mr. Gill was born in Wheeling, West Virginia, February 17, 1854. His father, John W. Gill, was one of the early manu- facturers of iron, of silk and of paper at Wheeling, West Virginia, where he conducted business interests of large extent. He was a member of the So- ciety of Friends and Quakers and died in that faith in Springfield, Illinois, in 1872. His wife, who bore the maiden name of Rhoda S. Smith, was born in Columbus, Ohio, and was a daughter of Judge David Smith, who at one time served on the bench of the county court and was also editor of the Columbus News. The family numbered eight children, three of whom passed away in infancy, and five are living.
Joseph Albert Gill obtained his education in the schools of Springfield, Illinois, and with a desire to make the practice of law his life work began preparing for the bar. In 1880 he passed the required examination before the supreme court of Illinois and entered upon the active practice of law in Spring- field, that state, where he remained for three years. On the expiration of that period he removed to Astoria, Oregon, where an equal time was passed, and later he took up his abode at Colby in western Kansas, there residing for thirteen years, engaged in the active practice of law. From President Mc- Kinley he received appointment to the position of judge of the northern district of Indian Territory, being named for the office in December, 1899, and serving continuously until 1907. He was reappointed by President Roosevelt in 1904 and continued to act in that position until Oklahoma's admission into the Union. In many ways he has been closely identified with the development and progress of the state. He was one of the commissioners on the board to secure Oklahoma's admission to the Union, his colleagues in that work be- ing Judge William H. H. Clayton and Tams Bixby.
Mr. Gill has continuously resided in Oklahoma since December, 1899, when he located at Vinita, and through the intervening period there is probably no representative of the bar who has become more widely known or whose ability entitles him more to public respect and professional confidence. Mr. Gill, as justice of the court of appeals in Indian Territory, wrote many opinions deciding causes appealed to that court which are reported in the seven volumes of Indian Territory reports and he has also been well known as the editor of various papers in Kansas and on the Pacific coast. He has long been a close student of men and events. His insight is keen, his deductions sound and
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logical and his enterprise unfaltering. He is a lawyer of wide learning and one who has written his name high on the keystone of the legal arch of Oklahoma.
In December, 1887, Mr. Gill was united in marriage to Miss Nannie Don- ahue of Omaha, Nebraska, a daughter of Michael Donahue of Clinton, Illi- nois. The children of this marriage are: Mrs. Edna Mcclintock, whose husband is Roy M. McClintock, a journalist, and editor of the Courier News of Fargo, North Dakota; Rose Miriam, a teacher in the English high school at Vinita ; and Joseph A., who was born in Oklahoma, and who is engaged in the coal business with his father near Tulsa.
Mr. and Mrs. Gill hold membership in the Baptist church, in the work of which they take an active and helpful part, contributing generously to its sup- port. Mr. Gill gives his political allegiance to the republican party and is most loyal in all matters of citizenship. He is a thirty-second degree Mason, having become identified with the consistory and he also belongs to Akdar Temple, A. A. O. N. M. S. He has membership with the Knights of Pythias and there is no good work done in the name of charity or religion which seeks his aid in vain. His wife is especially active and helpful in church work and in the social interests of Vinita and the labors of both have been resultant fac- tors for good, accomplishing much for public benefit, while at the same time Mr. Gill has long occupied a position of distinction as one of the leading lawyers of his adopted state.
JAMES A. VEASEY.
James A. Veasey is one of the leading attorneys of Oklahoma, practicing at Tulsa. Residing in Tulsa he is a representative of important oil and gas interests, having confined his attention to corporation law, and he is now counsel for the Carter Oil Company. Mr. Veasey was born near Louisville, Kentucky, October 24, 1876, a son of Joseph M. and Sarah R. (Rogers) Veasey. After attending a preparatory school he continued his education in the University of Michigan, at Ann Arbor, from which he won the Bachelor of Arts degree, gaining his LL. B. degree from the same school in 1902. He was reared in Jeffersonville, Indiana, and in 1902 came to Oklahoma, settling at Bartlesville in 1904. In 1913 he removed to Tulsa and became associated with Roger Sherman in a partnership that was maintained for two years. He has always given his attention to civil practice and particularly to corporation law, and is now chief counsel for the Carter Oil Company. Prior to entering upon this connection he had been a member of the law firm of Sherman, Veasey & O'Meara. His experiences have thus been broad and varied and his capability has been developed along lines that have made him one of the prominent representatives of the Oklahoma bar. The Carter Oil Company, which he now represents as general counsel, is one of the largest in the United States. Moreover, he is a non-resident lecturer on law of oil and gas for the University of Michigan, and the lectures which he has there delivered have been published in the Michigan Law Review.
On the 19th of November, 1904, Mr. Veasey was united in marriage to Miss Olive Bolen of Missouri, and they have become parents of three children : Mary Elizabeth, Dorothy and James A., aged respectively, fifteen, thirteen and eight years.
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Mr. Veasey gives his political allegiance to the republican party. Fra- ternally he is a Mason, having taken the degrees of both the York and Scottish Rites, while with the Nobles of Akdar Temple of the Mystic Shrine he has crossed the sands of the desert. He belongs to the Country Club, which is a golf club, and greatly enjoys the game on the links. His religious faith is that of the Presbyterian church, and his membership along strictly professional lines is with the Tulsa County, the Oklahoma State and the American Bar Associations.
CHARLES LOUIS HUONKER.
The story of the oil find and the development of the oil fields of Oklahoma reads like a romance. There is much that is thrilling in the tale of oil activity here, yet back of all that has been accomplished there is scientific investigation, logical deduction and indefatigable industry. This is manifest in the life record of Charles Louis Huonker, who is a partner in the firm of King & Huonker, oil producers of Tulsa. He was born in St. Louis, Missouri, April 19, 1875, his parents being Charles Louis and Fannie (Lowman) Huonker. The father, a native of Wurttemberg, Germany, came to the United States when eighteen years of age and settled in St. Louis, where he was employed as a machinist and engaged also in the plumbing business for more than forty-five years, his energy and enterprise winning for him substantial success as the years passed. He served four years in the Civil war in the First Missouri Infantry, though he was not yet a naturalized citizen of the United States. He was also very prominent as a chapter and commandery Mason and was a member of the Lutheran church.
Charles L. Huonker attended the public schools and a business college of St. Louis and afterward learned the machinist's and plumber's trade thoroughly under the direction of his father. He was then admitted to a partnership in the business under the style of C. L. Huonker & Sons, being thus associated until 1896, when he became a partner in the Broadway Jewelry Company of St. Louis. In March, 1904, he arrived in Tulsa, where he organized the National Plumbing Company, for that was just being introduced into Tulsa. He was appointed gas and electrical inspector of Tulsa under Dr. C. L. Reeder and likewise served under Mayor John O. Mitchell. He next became interested as secretary and treasurer in the Hawley Engineering Company, construction engi- neers, and while engaged in that business organized the West Tulsa Belt Rail- road, of which he became secretary and treasurer, a line that connected the St. Louis & San Francisco with the Midland Valley Railroad. These railroads took over the West Tulsa Belt Line. The Hawley Engineering Company also operated the sand plant which furnished the sand used in the first paving of the city. Throughout his business career Mr. Huonker has been continually watchful of opportunities and his alertness and enterprise have enabled him to recognize chances and advantages which many others have passed by heedlessly. Thus from time to time he has changed his business connections or broadened the scope of his activities. In 1912 he became secretary and treasurer of the Tulsa Portland Cement Company and was active in the management and con -. trol of its affairs until 1917, when he became a partner of C. E. King and under the firm name of King & Huonker, they have since been well known as oil operators in the Nowata field. C. L. Huonker enlisted at St. Louis at the
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outbreak of the Spanish-American war and went out as first lieutenant of "E" Company, known as the "Rainwater Rifles," First Regiment Missouri National Guard, and served at Chickamauga Park. He joined the Missouri National Guard as a boy of seventeen and went up from private to first lieutenant. He was active in military circles up to 1904, when he came to Tulsa.
On the 24th of March. 1904, Mr. Huonker was married to Miss Beulah Hall, a native of Oswego, Kansas. Her father, Harry C. Hall, was born April 10, 1841, in Belfast, Tennessee, and died in Springfield, Missouri, March 10, 1895. He was a son of Hugh A. and Esther ( Ramsey ) Hall and was descended from Revolutionary war ancestry. His boyhood and youth were passed in Tennessee. where he acquired his education and at nineteen years of age he went west, having many interesting experiences as a frontiersman while engaged on the preliminary work for the Union Pacific Railroad between Omaha and Ogden. He acted as a guide with the old scout, David Mount, obtaining supplies and provisions for the troops. He became a contractor in the early '6os on the Union Pacific and afterward established a store in a tent at Rawlins, Wyoming. In 1872 he removed to Oswego, Kansas, where he engaged in the milling busi- ness in connection with Robert Howell, father of his wife. In 1880 the mill was destroyed by fire and he then reentered the contracting field in connection with the building of the St. Louis & San Francisco Railroad between Vinita and Sapulpa, the line passing through Tulsa and Red Fork. The operation of trains was begun in 1883 and in the previous year Mr. Hall operated a commissary store in Tulsa and thus became one of the pioneers of the city. He conducted his business under the style of H. C. Hall & Company and the business steadily and rapidly developed until his interests had reached mammoth proportions. He also had stores at Sapulpa and Mounds. His younger brother, J. M. Hall. conducted the Tulsa store and the first services of the Presbyterian church ever held in Tulsa were held in his store. Mr. Hall, however, was a member of the Episcopal church, but being broad-minded, assisted in any good work done in the name of religion. He was a Mason, belonging to the lodge, chapter and commandery at Oswego, Kansas, and became a consistory Mason before a lodge was established in Indian Territory. His actitude on educational matters was that of a most progressive man and at all times he was widely recognized as an upright and useful citizen. He was married in Oswego, Kansas, to Miss Hettie C. Howell, who was born in Watertown, Wisconsin, a daughter of his partner in the mill and a descendant of Daniel Greene of Revolutionary war fame. She now resides in Tulsa. They became the parents of two children, the younger being Robert H. Hall, who established the Indianola Telephone Com- pany, the first telephone company in Tulsa. The daughter is Mrs. Beulah (Hall) Huonker.
Mr. Huonker has long been a faithful adherent of Masonic teachings and is prominent in the chapter and commandery. . He became one of the early members of Tulsa Lodge, No. 71, A. F. & A. M., and assisted in organizing Petroleum Lodge, No. 474, A. F. & A. M., of which he is not only a charter member but also a life member. He has taken the degrees of Capitular and Chivalric Masonry as a member of the chapter and commandery and he belongs to Indian Consistory, No. 2, of which he is a life member, and to Akdar Temple, A. A. O. N. M. S., of which he is recorder, having been elected May 13, 1921. He is much interested in the Patrol and has been its secretary-treasurer since 1915. Mr. Huonker is secretary and treasurer of Trinity Commandery drill team, the crack drill team of Oklahoma. His political endorsement has always been given to the republican party and while he fully meets the duties and obliga-
Vol. III-13
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tions of citizenship he has never sought nor desired public office. He was one of the five who organized the Episcopal church of Tulsa and gave generously for the building of a house of worship. He also served for some time as secre- tary of the vestry. Each Christmas he has a big Christmas tree, builds electric railroads and tunnels and invites all of the children in to participate in the joys of that happy season. Fond of society he is a leader in many social affairs and at the same time is ever ready to lend aid to one who needs assistance. He has ever been a great reader, being especially fond of current literature and the popular magazines and has kept thoroughly informed concerning advance- ment made along mechanical and electrical lines. Ambitious, honest, and conser- vative there is little to be said against him and much to be said in favor and commendation of Charles Louis Huonker.
MORTIMER A. HOUSER, M. D.
. Dr. Mortimer A. Houser was the first physician in Tulsa to confine his practice exclusively to surgery and the consensus of public opinion names him as the leading surgeon of this part of the west. Born in Mondovi, Wiscon- sin, April 30, 1880, he pursued his early education in the public schools of his native city while spending his youthful days in the home of his father, Hon. W. L. Houser. Following his graduation from the high school of Mondovi he entered the University of Wisconsin and later became a student in the University of Chicago, from which he was graduated with the class of 1898. His preparation for a professional career was made in Rush Medical College of Chicago and the Milwaukee Medical College and his completed collegiate training gained for him the degrees of A. B., A. M. and M. D. With high professional ideals he entered upon active practice, concentrating more and more largely upon surgery, to which for some years he has given his undivided time. In fact he was the first physician in Tulsa to confine his practice exclusively to surgery. He dates his residence in this state from 1910, and steadily forging to the front in a calling where advancement must depend entirely upon individual merit and capability, he may without invidi- ous distinction be called the leading surgeon of this part of the west.
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