USA > Oklahoma > Tulsa County > Tulsa > The history of Tulsa, Oklahoma > Part 28
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WASHINGTON E. HUDSON
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neys of Nashville, and in the following autumn matriculated as a student in Vanderbilt University of that city. His previous law study and his close appli- cation enabled him to complete the three years' course in one year, and he was graduated in June, 1892, with the LL. B. degree. Immediately afterward he was admitted to the bar and entered upon practice in Nashville, where he soon gave demonstration of his ability in the trial of cases and also as a counselor. The excellent qualities he displayed in his initial practice secured for him the appointment of assistant, from Robert Vaughn, the district attorney, and he remained in that office for seven years, gaining valuable experience in all phases of legal work. The supreme court of Tennessee declared that he was the ablest indictment draftsman in the state-this statement being due to the fact that dur- ing his seven years of service as an assistant to the district attorney not a single error was found in any indictment drawn by him. He resigned his posi- tion at Nashville in 1902, after having served as the youngest assistant district attorney in the state, and made his way westward because of his health.
Mr. Hudson has been connected with Oklahoma since May, 1902, at which time he took up his abode in Lawton, the county seat of Comanche county, and there he served as assistant county attorney for two years. Moreover, he took an active part in organizing the democratic forces in that part of the state, which had formerly been the Kiowa and Comanche Indian reservation that had been opened to settlement in 1901. He continued in law practice in Lawton until the year of Oklahoma's admission to the Union, and then removed to Frederick, Tillman county, where he remained until 1912. In the latter year he became a resident of Tulsa, where he has since made his home, and through the inter- vening period has become a most prominent lawyer, closely associated with prac- tice that has had to do with the development of the oil and gas interests of the state. In fact he is accounted one of the foremost trial lawyers of Oklahoma. His handling of a case is always full and comprehensive, his reasoning clear. his deduction sound and logical, and the court records bear testimony to the many important legal battles which he has won.
At Hopkinsville, Kentucky, on the 8th of May, 1894. Mr. Hudson was married to Miss Annie Dade representative of one of the distinguished families of Virginia. Mr. and Mrs. Hudson have become parents of two children : Bes- sie, who married Sidney S. Smith of Tulsa, Oklahoma; and Robert, who is in his second year at Vanderbilt University. The family is prominent socially.
Politically Mr. Hudson has always been a stalwart democrat and a recog- nized leader in the ranks of his party, since coming to Oklahoma. In 1914, without solicitation on his part, he was made a candidate for the state legislature and was elected to the fifth general assembly, serving in 1915 and 1916. Dur- ing the fifth session of the house he was one of the leading candidates for the speakership, but before the end of the contest withdrew in favor of the Hon. Alexander McCrory, who was elected. Mr. Hudson was appointed chairman of the committee on oil and gas, and was the author of several bills that were designed to remedy many unjust conditions existing in the oil fields. As an earnest supporter of the administration of Governor Williams he did his part in fostering legislation insuring retrenchment and reform. 1le was also selected from the general assembly as one of a committee of three to draw articles of impeachment against A. P. Watson, one of the corporation commissioners of the state, and after the articles were presented to the house of representatives he was chosen one of the prosecutors of Mr. Watson, who was most ably defended by a firm of prominent lawyers, but Mr. Hudson and his colleagues so presented the case that Mr. Watson was impeached, under several of the impeachment
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charges. It was practically left to Mr. Hudson to sum up the evidence in the case and it is the consensus of opinion of all who heard his speech that it was one of the most powerful and brilliant speeches ever made in the state of Oklahoma.
Aside from his activity in the political field Mr. Hudson was a charter mem- ber of the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks in Nashville, Tennessee, and now belongs to the Knights of Pythias of Tulsa. He is also actively identified with the Tulsa County and Oklahoma State Bar Associations, and is a valued rep- resentative of the Tulsa Chamber of Commerce. In fact, the city numbers him among its prominent and honored residents, while his professional position is a most enviable one.
EUGENE LORTON.
Eugene Lorton, publisher and owner of the Tulsa Daily World, was born near Middletown, Missouri, May 28, 1869. His father, R. R. Lorton, a native of Mis- souri, pioneered in Texas and Kansas, and was actively identified with develop- ment of the south and west, devoting his life to farming and stock raising.
After finishing the course in the common schools of Missouri and Kansas, Eugene Lorton started out in the business world by serving an apprenticeship at the printer's trade in Medicine Lodge, Kansas. He then tried railroading, but a jolt from a freight car in Kansas City discouraged this line of endeavor, and after recovering from the accident he went to Idaho territory, where he published weekly papers in Salubria, Emmett and Boise. In 1896 he returned to Kansas and purchased the Linn County Republic at Mound City. In 1900 he moved to the state of Washington, where he became actively interested in politics and the newspaper business. He became managing editor of the Walla Walla Daily Union and was the founder of the Walla Walla Daily Bulletin. Upon the elec- tion of Governor Cosgrove, whose campaign he managed, he was appointed chair- man of the state board of control. The only other political office he ever held was mayor of Mound City, Kansas. In 1916 he was a member of the finance committee of the Republican National Committee.
In the fall of 1911 he purchased an interest in the Tulsa Daily World and in 1917 became sole owner. Whatever success has come to the World is due to his progressive policies, his decided views on all public questions and independent thought and action.
Mr. Lorton is an Episcopalian in religious faith, an Elk, a Mason and a Shriner, and is a member of the City Club.
WILLIAM JAMES KIRKWOOD.
William James Kirkwood, numbered among Tulsa's oil producers and by reason of his activity in the oil industry classed with those men who are the real builders and promoters of the commonwealth, was born in Westmoreland, Pennsylvania, May 17, 1855, and is a son of James and Lucetta (Laughfer) Kirkwood, the former a native of Pennsylvania, and one of a family of eleven children. The grandfather came to the new world from Scotland and settled in Pennsylvania. The grandfather in the maternal line came from Germany.
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James Kirkwood was a farmer by occupation, following that pursuit in the Keystone state until 1877 and removed to Abilene, Dickinson county, Kansas, where he carried on farming to the time of his retirement from active business life in 1882. He then took up his abode in the city of Abilene, where he con- tinued to make his home until his demise in 1904. His political faith was that of the republican party and his religious faith that of the Presbyterian church. He was a man of very religious nature, untiring in his efforts in behalf of the church work and his influence was widely felt.
William James Kirkwood was the second son of a second marriage and his mother died when he was but five years of age. He had the opportunity of attending school only until he reached the age of twelve, when he left home and as a youth of fourteen began working in the rolling mills at Leechburg, Penn- sylvania, where he remained for six months before the family knew where he was. He afterward returned to Parnassus, Pennsylvania, where he engaged in telegraphic work, following this pursuit for a time. He later learned en- gineering and was employed at different periods as fireman, as engineer and as extra telegraph operator on the Allegany Valley Railroad until 1877. In that year he entered the employ of the United Pipe Line Company as a gauger in Pennsylvania. His knowledge of telegraphy and machinery made him able to fill various responsible positions and he was made extra engineer and operator for the United Pipe Line Company, acting in that capacity for a period of eight years.
It was in 1884 that Mr. Kirkwood arrived in Abilene, Kansas, where he se- cured a position on the police force, being appointed to the office of chief. In that connection he made a record of which any man could be proud. Those who know him speak of him as a bright, clean, energetic man, who is a force for good in the world. He continued a representative of the police department for five years, during which time Abilene had a reputation as a cattle town and all of the gun men of the country were there. There would have been an era of crime and lawlessness had not the police force been thoroughly organized and ready to cope with the situation, Mr. Kirkwood contributing in large measure to the mainte- nance of law and order. In 1889 he returned to the oil game, as he felt that he had served long enough as police officer. He then went to Pennsylvania and or- ganized the Kirkwood Oil Company, operating in Venango county, that state, with good success. In 1890, however, he disposed of his interest in the east and became identified with the Producers & Refiners Company of Oil City, Pennsyl- vania, building stations, iron tanks and refining stations. While at Oil City, Pennsylvania, he was for two terms councilman of the Ninth Ward and had been reelected for the third term, but left for Marietta, Ohio. He made no solicitation whatever for this position. He became one of the first successful pumpers of refined oil through to the Gulf and with the company remained until 1899, when he went to Marietta, Ohio, with W. H. D. Chapin, general manager of the United States Oil & Gas Company, operating in Ohio, West Virginia and Pennsylvania until 1904. In the latter year Mr. Kirkwood engaged as a producer and contrac- tor on his own account in Ohio and West Virginia. This he followed until 1905. when he went to Kentucky, operating in the oil fields at Campton, Wolfe county. He had charge of the John H. Morgan Company of Lexington, Kentucky, with which corporation he remained until he came to Tulsa in 1907, supervising the drilling done for that corporation. After coming to Oklahoma Mr. Kirkwood was first with W. H. Johnson of the Sagamore Oil Company, in charge of pro- duction and field work. Shortly afterward he went to Nowata, Oklahoma, with the firm of Powell & Frazier, who had properties all over that district and whom
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he represented as superintendent. Late in 1908 he became associated with Archie Campbell as senior partner in the firm of Campbell & Kirkwood. He did his own drilling in Nowata and Washington counties, Oklahoma, and in 1910 became as- sociated with H. W. Kennedy, under the style of the Knickerbocker Oil Com- pany of Nowata in the Childers field. Mr. Kennedy was president and Mr. Kirkwood was secretary and treasurer. This company was one of the best pro- ducers in the Nowata field. Mr. Kirkwood is now owner of the Pooler Creek Oil & Gas Company of Copan, Oklahoma, also is part owner and manager of oil production in Nowata and Creek counties, known as the Kirkwood & Kennedy properties. He also owns considerable production property in Nowata and Rog- ers counties, and his possessions include city property. He is likewise a stock- holder in several large oil and gas companies aside from those already mentioned.
Mr. Kirkwood was united in marriage to Miss Maude M. Kirkwood, a daugh- ter of James Kirkwood, a very distant relative of the father of William James Kirkwood. To this marriage have been born two children : May, who is the wife of Charles F. Theobald of Nowata, who is superintendent of Mr. Kirkwood's properties and by whom she has a daughter, Ruth Elizabeth; and Charles W., an oil producer of Texas, living, however, in Tulsa. He is married and has one son, Charles Kent. Mr. Kirkwood has always been an athlete, has never had any bad habits and today is an unusually perfect specimen of manhood for his age. His political endorsement is given to the republican party and he is well known in fraternal circles as a Mason, belonging to American Union Lodge, No. I, A. F. & A. M., of Marietta, Ohio; American Union Chapter, No. I, R. A. M .; Trinity Commandery, No. 20, K. T., of Tulsa; and the Scottish Rite Consistory of Cin- cinnati. He is likewise identified with Akdar Temple of the Mystic Shrine at Tulsa. Almost his entire life has been spent in the oil fields and his capability and fidelity have been potent forces in winning his steady advancement with vari- ous companies and bringing him at length to a place where his activities are a source of substantial income to him and at the same time an element in the state and city's growth and improvement. He has belonged to the Methodist church for forty years and has been on its official board for over twenty years, is now serving on the board of the First Methodist Episcopal church in Tulsa and has also taken an active part in the Sunday school work for over twenty years in Tulsa and other towns in which he has lived.
EDISON E. OBERHOLTZER, M. A., LL. D.
Edison E. Oberholtzer, who for the eighth year is filling the office of superin- tendent of the public schools in Tulsa, has with marked capability met and dis- charged the increasing duties that have devolved upon him as the result of the rapid growth and development of the city. University training of a most thorough character well qualified him for the onerous and responsible duties of the profession and his initiative has enabled him to meet the conditions that have arisen through Tulsa's rapid expansion. Mr. Oberholtzer is a native of Indiana, his birth having occurred on a farm in Owen county, near Patricks- burg, on the 6th of May, 1880. His father, Augustus Oberholtzer, was born in Holmes county, Ohio, and became a mill contractor and lumber mill worker. A life of activity was brought to its close when in October, 1894, he passed away at Harrison House, Indiana, at the age of fifty-two years. He belonged to the Presbyterian church and was very active in its work. He wedded Mary A.
EDISON E. OBERHOLTZER
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Collins, born in Hardin county, Kentucky, who first united with the Methodist Episcopal church and later with the United Brethren church. They had a fam- ily of eleven children, five sons and six daughters.
Nothing in the early youth of Professor Oberholtzer foreshadowed his future career as one of the prominent educators of this state. He attended the district schools and afterward the high school of Clay City, Indiana, and then became a student in Westfield College at Westfield, Illinois, where he studied in 1895- 96. He was afterward graduated from the Indiana State Normal School at Terre Haute in 1906, with the Bachelor of Arts degree and received the degree of B. L. from Lincoln-Jefferson University, while his work in the University of Chicago won him the Ph. B. degree in 1910 and the Master of Arts degree in 1915. He has completed considerable work toward the Doctor's degree at the University of Chicago and in Columbia University of New York, and on the 3Ist of May, 1921, the degree of LL. D. was conferred upon him by the Uni- versity of Tulsa. To a reporter for Tulsa School Life, President J. M. Gordon of the University of Tulsa said: "To my mind there are two things necessary for an honor of this kind to have its fullest weight. In the first place, the in- stitution conferring the degree must have been exceedingly careful and sparing in its bestowal of honors, lest they become commonplace. In the entire twenty- six years of the history of Henry Kendall College only two men have had an honorary degree conferred upon them by the institution, and in each case the degree Doctor of Divinity was given. The other thing is that for an honor of this or any other kind to bring its fullest satisfaction it must come unsought. I happen to know very definitely that in this case there was never a suggestion either directly or indirectly from your superintendent that this be done. The University of Tulsa is happy because at its first commencement it is able to give definite recognition for the great system of public schools in Tulsa and to honor the man who is largely responsible for the fine work that is being done."
Long before pursuing his university courses Mr. Oberholtzer had entered upon the profession of teaching, taking up that work in Indiana in 1898, when in his nineteenth year. He has devoted twenty-three years to teaching, being first engaged as an instructor in Clay county, Indiana, from 1899 until 1903. Dur- ing the following two years he acted as superintendent of schools at Carbon, Indiana, and in 1906 became a teacher in the department of mathematics in the Indiana State Normal School at Terre Haute. From 1907 until 1909 he served as supervising principal of the Terre Haute public schools, while in 1910 he was made district superintendent of public schools at Evansville, Indiana, and during the years 1911 and 1912 acted as public school superintendent at Clinton, Indiana. In 1913 he came to Tulsa to accept the position of superintendent of the city schools. Here he has since remained and has done a splendid work in the upbuilding and development of the public schools of the city, being rec- ognized not only as an educator of great ability but as a splendid executive. He has thoroughly organized the work under his direction and, moreover, he inspires teachers and pupils under him with much of his own zeal and enthu- siasm. He belongs to the National Education Association and is its director for the state of Oklahoma. He is also a member of the council of the National Education Association and through his connection with this organization and through private study and investigation is constantly seeking out new methods which will add to the effectiveness and value of the work of the Tulsa schools.
When Mr. Oberholtzer took charge of the Tulsa city schools in 1913 there was an enrollment of four thousand eight hundred and forty-two pupils. In 1921 this number totals fifteen thousand and eighty-two, an increase of over three hundred
Vol. III-18
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per cent. This trebling of the school population has made necessary a similar increase in school buildings and in the teaching force, the development of a business system and the organization of a supervisory and administrative force. Since he has had charge of the city schools a strong home economics department, manual training, kindergarten, art, music, physical training, and health depart- ments have become permanent features of the school system. Junior high schools, departmentalized work in the sixth, seventh and eighth grades, a four- year schedule and twelve months pay for teachers and an all-year school for pupils who need extra time, have been permanently established.
On the 26th of March, 1899, Dr. Oberholtzer was married to Miss Myrtle May Barr, a native of Indiana and a daughter of James F. and Louisa Barr. They are the parents of three children : Kenneth E., sixteen years of age, now a student in the University of Illinois; Esther A., fourteen years of age; and Edison E., Jr., a lad of four summers.
Dr. Oberholtzer finds his recreation in the out-of-doors and he is connected with the City Club as one of its board of governors, while of the Young Men's Christian Association he is a director. He is likewise a thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason and a member of Akdar Temple of the Mystic Shrine. He likewise holds membership with the Knights of Pythias and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and is serving on the board of stewards of the First Methodist Episcopal church. An eminent American statesman has said: "In all this world the thing supremely worth having is the opportunity, coupled with the capacity, to do well and worthily a piece of work the doing of which shall be of vital significance to mankind." The opportunity and capacity have been and are his and the splendid school system of Tulsa stands as the monu- ment to his high standards and his activity in his chosen field.
WAITE PHILLIPS.
Waite Phillips was born in Conway, Iowa, January 19, 1883, his parents being Lewis F. and Lucinda (Faucett ) Phillips, and acquired a public school education there, after which he attended the Normal College of Shenandoah, Iowa. On the 30th day of March, 1909, Mr. Phillips was married to Miss Genevieve Elliott of Knoxville, Iowa, and they are parents of a daughter and son: Helen Jane and Elliott.
Mr. Phillips' first business experience was gained in Knoxville, Iowa, where he was employed by the Hawkeye Coal Company and afterwards by the Rex Coal & Mining Company. His residence in Oklahoma dates from 1906, in which year he settled in Bartlesville and there he became associated with his brothers, Frank and L. E. Phillips, in the oil business. Through the intervening period he has given his attention to all phases of this enterprise. In 1915 he began operations as an individual oil producer and has met with very substantial success in the conduct of his interests. He now owns some of the most valuable produc- ing properties in the mid-continent field and is also successfully engaged in transporting, refining and marketing petroleum products. In addition to his activities in the oil business Mr. Phillips owns and manages a large stock ranch near Denver, Colorado, where his family spend the summer months. So rapidly has he advanced that his rise partakes of the spectacular, yet an analyzation of his career shows that his progress has resulted from keen discrimination, sound judgment and indefatigable energy. He formulates his plans carefully and is
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determined in their execution and as the years have passed he has come to be ranked with the prominent oil producers of Oklahoma and is classed with the representative business men of Tulsa, where he resides.
WILLIAM DEAN SHEDDEN.
Among Tulsa's most prominent, enterprising and successful business men are those who are operating in the oil fields of the mid-continent district. Of this number is William Dean Shedden, who since 1909 has concentrated his attention upon the oil game. He was born on a farm near Shawnee, in Johnson county, Kansas, April 6, 1879, his birthplace being one of the typical log cabins of the frontier. His father, Clarence Russell Shedden, was born in Washingtonville, Montour county, Pennsylvania, January 2, 1854, and was a son of Andrew R. and Elizabeth Jane (Dean) Shedden. Clarence R. Shedden after reaching adult age wedded Mary Jane Tweed, who was born July 3, 1853, and both traced their ancestry back to Revolutionary times. The great-grandfather Tweed was a merchantman during the War of 1812 and it was a member of the Tweed family who established the first state paper in Pennsylvania. James Montgomery Shed- den, born August 12, 1744, became the owner of large land holdings in Virginia and died August 13, 1817. Clarence Russell Shedden, father of William D. Shedden, removed westward to Michigan in young manhood and in 1876 became a resident of Kansas, where he purchased lands and made his home until 1886. He then removed to Kansas City, Missouri, and became identified with D. M. Edgerton in building the first street railway tunnel on Eighth street. He also ran the first train and collected the first fare. The company built the viaduct and railroad connecting the two Kansas Citys, and after some years' connection with street railway operations in Kansas City, Mr. Shedden, in 1891, returned to his farm in Johnson county, Kansas, where he owned one of the finest farms and the best stock in that section of the country. He was a most enterprising and pro- gressive man and his advice was frequently sought upon business affairs and matters of public concern. His upright life gained for him the respect of all and was in consistent harmony with his profession as a member and elder of the Pres- byterian church. In politics he was a republican and his fellow townsmen, ap- preciating his worth and ability, frequently called him to public office.
William D. Shedden obtained a public school education in Kansas City, Mis- souri, and afterward worked his way through Park College at Parkville, that state. He devoted two years to teaching and became principal of the schools of Edger- ton, Kansas. In 1900 he turned his attention to the life insurance business at Topeka, Kansas, and later went to Kansas City, where he was general agent for the Franklin Life Insurance Company. In 1909 he went east and settling in Philadelphia there became engaged in the oil business, leasing and operating. He made valuable associations with eastern capitalists and as a result has operated in Indiana and Illinois. He is an independent operator and in 1913 came to Tulsa, since which time he has directed his efforts in the mid-continent oil fields.
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