USA > Oklahoma > Oklahoma County > Oklahoma City > The story of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma : "the biggest little city in the world" > Part 14
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1903-IN EARNEST ABOUT STATEHOOD
A statehood convention held in Oklahoma City on January 6 this year was the most largely attended and the most en- thusiastie of all meetings to that date held in the people's pursuit of self government. It voiced the keynote of future activities of that pursuit during the year. It was a year of enlightenment for Congress and for the Nation. The sub- ject of statehood was among the paramount subjects in Wash- ington, and of New York even, for men of the Empire State were coming to Oklahoma in considerable numbers and in- vesting millions.
This convention drew together more men of prominence than any of its predecessors. Five thousand persons were assembled. Ex-Governor W. M. Jenkins was conspicuous among the leaders. Henry M. Furman, afterward a member of the Criminal Court of Appeals of the new state, repre- sented Ada. W. H. P. Trudgeon, a republican wheelhorse of Purcell, represented a section of the Chickasaw Nation. W. L. Alexander, a pioneer of the city who had drawn a home- stead in Kiowa County, was a delegate from his section of the new country. Woods County was represented by JJesse J. Dun of Alva, a democratic leader, a lawyer of distinction. and after statehood a member of the first Supreme Court. Thomas J. Leahy, a young lawyer and business man of action. who afterwards was accounted one of the state's most useful citizens, brought greetings from the rich lands of the Osages. William Tighlman, the marshal and the celebrated foe of out- laws, was in the delegation from Chandler. In the Noble County group were Judge Thomas Doyle, a political leader of prominence who after statehood was for many years a member of the Criminal Court of Appeals, and W. M. Bowles. afterward a district judge and a democratic candidate for governor of the state. W. D. Cardwell, an early-day political leader, came over from Weatherford. And there were dozens
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of other men from over the two territories who were trail- blazers in their communities and whose names subsequently were linked with the fortunes of the new Commonwealth. Bands came from Duncan, Muskogee and Chickasha.
In the caucus of the Indian Territory delegation Gideon Morgan of Ardmore was elected chairman and H. B. Johnson of Chickasha, secretary. In the caucus of Oklahoma Terri- tory C. B. Ames was elected chairman and R. E. Stafford, sec- retary. John Palmer, an educated and influential member of the Osage Indian tribe, was elected president of the conven- tion and Jesse Dunn of Alva, secretary. The resolutions adopted declared the delegates favored a statehood bill in- troduced by Senator Nelson. The convention elected a new campaign committee consisting of C. B. Ames, Roy Hoffman of Chandler, Thomas Doyle of Perry, W. H. P. Trudgeon of Purcell, W. A. Ledbetter of Ardmore and W. H. Hutchins. The committee went almost immediately to Washington and it returned January 20 with the discouraging message that the passage of the statehood bill that winter was very un- · likely.
On April 29, which was the one hundredth anniversary of the Louisiana Purchase, and in commemoration of that event, a local organization of statehood workers consisting of C. B. Ames, A. H. Classen, M. L. Turner, H. H. Howard, Lee Van- Winkle, J. W. Johnson, R. E. Stafford and others, sent to C. E. Castle of Wagoner, chairman of the Single Statehood Executive Committee, a formal request that he issue a call for a meeting of the committee to consider the advisability of calling a Constitutional Convention. Chairman Castle re- sponded almost immediately and sent a call to members of the committee to meet in Oklahoma City on May 25. The committee met on that date but refrained from issuing a call for a Constitutional Convention, choosing rather to sub- mit the matter to the people. Whereupon the chairman issued a call for a delegate statehood convention to meet in Shawnee on June 24. The call asked for 400 delegates from each of the territories. Oklahoma City in due time selected a dele- gation of sixty-three, of which Seymour Heyman was elected chairman and R. E. Stafford, secretary. The Shawnee con- vention was well attended. It was enthusiastie but unusually
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deliberative. The proposition of calling a Constitutional Con- vention was voted down and the delegates concluded to make another effort to secure action by Congress. An exhaustive resolution setting forth the claims of the people was adopted and a committee, consisting of C. B. Ames, HI. G. Beard of Shawnee, C. B. Douglas, of Muskogee and W. A. Ledbetter of Ardmore, was appointed to present the resolution to Con- gress. In the preliminary organization of the Shawnee con- vention Robert W. Dick of Ardmore, who in later years was an oil operator and prominent property owner in Oklahoma City, was chosen chairman of the Indian Territory caucus.
Later in the year the new Statehood Executive Committee met in Oklahoma City and C. G. Jones was elected chairman, Seymour Heyman, vice chairman; C. E. Castle, secretary, and A. H. Classen, treasurer. The committee invested itself with authority to write a statehood bill to be introduced in Congress in the autumn.
Under its new constitution the Chamber of Commerce early in the year set about the business of city building with enthusiasm and vigor. President Heyman appointed chair- men of the several committees as follows: Agriculture, parks and roads, W. S. Guthrie: entertainment, Henry M. Scales; advisory, A. H. Classen; arbitration, Sol Barth; auditing, G. B. Stone; education, Jasper Sipes: house, C. M. Strong ; mer- cantile and library, N. E. Butcher; membership, R. E. Cha- pin; manufactories, D. F. Harness: municipal legislation. M. C. Milner; railroads, W. F. Harn ; state and national legisla- tion, John Shartel: trade extension, Lee Van Winkle; trans- portation, Buran House. John R. Rose, who was employed temporarily as secretary, two months later was elected per- manently to the position on a salary of $165 a month, out of which he was to pay a stenographer. Mr. Rose had talent for the work and he put into it nmch enthusiasm and energy. These attributes were especially manifest when he assumed leadership in the conduct of what to that time was the most extensive trade trip the business men had made. As a repre- sentative of the city he accompanied a delegation of Okla- mans to the World's Fair in St. Louis in charge of a car of agricultural products that had been assembled by Ewers White, chairman.
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At the last formal meeting of the Chamber of Commerce in December directors for the following year were elected as follows: Seymour Heyman, T. F. MeMechan, G. G. Sohilberg, Weston Atwood, Lee Van Winkle, J. B. Murphy, H. N. Leon- ard, Dr. A. K. West, V. V. Topping, F. S. Sparrow, A. H. Crews, Jasper Sipes, George Gardner, and I. M. Putnam. The directors chose Mr. Sohlberg president, Mr. MeMechan, vice president ; Mr. Rose, secretary, and Weston Atwood, treasurer.
With Fort Sill less than 100 miles away, the Chamber of Commerce found available for entertainment purposes of- ficers and men stationed there, and when a program was being arranged for the annual meeting of the Oklahoma Live- stock Association, Lieut. Col. Charles Morton permitted the Twenty-ninth Battery of Artillery and Troops A and D of the Eighth Cavalry to be secheduled for the parade. They came with full marching equipment, the Battery in command of Capt. E. E. Goyle, Troop A in command of Capt. C. W. Farber, and Troop D in command of Captain Donaldson. Colonel Morton himself also took part in the parade and other festivities. The convention brought 20,000 visitors here. They were welcomed by Mayor Jones and officials of the Chamber, and so well were they entertained that the association men- bers voted to hold the next annual meeting here.
Some subsidiary organizations of the Chamber of Com- merce were organized this year. Among them was the Asso- ciation for the Promotion of Home Industries, of which Sey- mour Heyman was elected president, A. S. Comellee, vice president, S. C. Bowers, secretary, and Weston Atwood. treasurer. It was representative of the Trades Association and the Manufacturers Association as well as of the Chamber of Commerce. Another was the Oklahoma City Real Estate Association, of which J. C. Gillogly was elected president. Joseph Hess, vice president : I. M. Putnam, secretary, and A. J. Vance, treasurer. Two other associations became affil- iated with the Chamber. They were the Oklahoma City Man- ufacturers Association, which at its annual meeting elected A. S. Connellee president. I. N. Phelps, vice president : T. D. Boydson, secretary, and N. S. Sherman, Jr., treasurer, and the Oklahoma City JJobbers Association, which at its ammal
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meeting elected Lee Van Winkle president, J. P. Brough, vice president, J. J. Hartnett, secretary, and Eugene Miller, treas- urer. The latter body made complaint against the railroads charging them with maintaining unfair and discriminatory freight rates, which resulted in the Chamber later holding a mass meeting to voice a protest of all shipping interests.
The county commissioners in January of this year pur- chased from Allen M. Noyes and Clarence O. Russell twelve lots as a site for a county courthouse and jail, paying therefor $4,000. The lots were described as being situated between Main Street and Grand Avenue and Walker and Colcord Avenues. The commissioners proposed the erection of a court house to cost $150,000.
Mayor Jones, then president of the company that built the southwestern extension of the Frisco Railroad, took mem- bers of the city council and W. T. Hale as his guests to St. Louis, traveling in his private car, Wanderer. They were en- tertained by Mayor Wells and B. F. Yoakum, president of the Frisco, and newspaper account of the visit related that the party visited and inspected a brewery.
The growing influence and power of Mr. Jones in both polities and business and the extension of his activities into newer and wider fields made him a victim of enmity, and perhaps of jealousy, among some business interests, but more particularly among leaders of his political party. The influ- ence of his opponents was made manifest in the spring city campaign, and, although he actively sought the renomination for mayor, he was defeated. The nominee was the Rev. Thomas H. Harper, pastor of the Pilgrim Congregational Church, who made an active personal and speaking campaign in which he advocated measures of reform that had been in the minds of forward-looking pioneers for a member of years. The nomination of a preacher was another of many unusual things characterizing the practices of these peculiar people, who had abandoned the climes of the major points of the compass and abolished sectional antagonism, and who had a happy, original and refreshing way of doing things by their own exclusive patterns. Everybody watched the popular preacher-politician. In the secret camp of the enemies of reform no special fault was found with him, save the pos-
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sibility of his being a harbinger if not an actual forerunner of day of depression for the saloon keeper. Doubtless he had a premonition of irksome responsibility when he chose for his sermon text for the following Sunday morning, "Thy soul shall be required of thee." But this was a democratie year and Lee Van Winkle, a former mayor, was elected by a com- fortable majority.
The retirement of Mayor Jones was an occasion of coffee, sandwiches and cigars, speeches effulgent of good will and the official farewell of the executive who said he bore no ill thoughts against his opponents and bespoke a term of progress for the new administration.
Organization of the Farmers State Bank, forerunner of the Farmers National Bank of today, was perfected this year, and it was the ninth banking institution for the city. The capital stoek was $25.000 and the incorporators were H. N. Atkinson, J. N. Ritchie, J. F. Warren and C. L. Henley. Dur- ing the year also the Oklahoma City Savings Bank was con- solidated with the American National Bank. E. F. Sparrow, who had recently moved down from Pawhuska and become an official of the Oklahoma Packing Company, was elected presi- dent. Frank P. Johnson, who had been president of the savings bank, was elected cashier of the American National. Johnson was an astute and alert young financier who five years before had come up from Mississippi and promoted the organization of the Union Trust Company which was sue- ceeded by the savings bank. George G. Sohlberg, the miller, was elected vice president. Another change in financial in- stitutions was perfected when the Oklahoma Trust & Bank- ing Company was converted into the Commercial National Bank, and of this Dr. John Threadgill was elected president. C. F. Coleord, vice president : John C. Hughes, eashier, and Elmer C. Trueblood. assistant cashier. During the year the State National Bank increased its capital stock from $50,000 to $200,000.
A contract was awarded early in the year for construction of a railroad to Coalgate. This enterprise had support of the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railway Company and the road was built to Atoka, where it tapped the main line of that company between St. Louis and Texas. Preliminary arrange-
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ments were being made in Kansas City to construct the Kan- sas City, Mexico & Orient Railway Company's line through Oklahoma, and overtures were made by the promoters to the Oklahoma City Chamber of Commerce. Concessions and a bonus were offered, but unfruitfully, for the line crossed the western part of the territory.
In March the First Christian Church was dedicated. The building and lot had cost $25,000 and the structure probably was among the most modern in the territory. The dedicatory sermon was delivered by Dr. F. M. Raines of Cincinnati, Ohio. The Rev. S. D. Dutcher was pastor and J. II. Everest was chairman of the board of directors. On September 20 the corner stone of St. Paul's Episcopal Church was laid with Masonie ceremony, Bishop F. K. Brooke being in charge of the dedicatory program. On October 30 the contract was awarded for construction of the First Methodist Church, the cost of which was to be $40,000. In April the corner stone of the administration building of Epworth University was · laid with impressive ceremony, Governor Thompson G. Fergu- son delivering the principal address.
On February 7 The Oklahoma Publishing Company an- nounced that Edward K. Gaylord had purchased an interest in the company and been elected business manager of The Daily Oklahoman. In a few years the paper under direction chiefly of R. E. Stafford has become without question the most influential factor in the development of the city and the territory. It was now metropolitan of dress, its type was set on machines and its modern presses the boosting inhab- itants liked to compare with the latest that Kansas City af- forded. Mr. Gaylord entered vigorously into the business of the publishing company, bringing fresher ideas from metro- politan centers, and earnestly into the fascinating passion for building a metropolis of the future state. For many years the teamwork of Stafford and Gaylord-stars on the pin- nacles of prosperity-was accounted an influence incompar- able and without which, or an equally potent contemporary. the future of the city would have been insecure. It was of small concern to these men whether minor policies were popu- lar; their hearts were set emulatively on those progressive vie-
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tories of great American municipalities that have given Amer- ica leadership of the entire world.
Baseball took on a professional aspect this year. Man- ager Frank Quigg of the Statehoods -- which was the name originally given the city team-carried his passion for a stemwinding team with a stemwinding reputation into other communities, with the result that the Southwestern League was organized. In it were clubs at Oklahoma City, Arkansas City, Shawnee and Enid. Subsequently plans were laid to bring Guthrie. Wichita, Emporia and Salina into the organi- zation.
A visitor of distinction this year was Ethan Allen Hitch- cock, Secretary of the Interior, who remained over for a day on his way to visit the new towns of the Kiowa and Comanche Indian country. He was entertained otherwise but impor- tantly as a guest of the mayor who gratuitously and gra- ciously chartered a street car and put on a trolley party. The visit of Secretary Hitchcock was significant, for residents of the new country were almost on the verge of doing violence to local representatives of the Department of the Interior be- cause of apparently unseemly delays of the department in returning town-lot money in the form of publie improve- ments as had been promised. He returned to Washington with a proper conception of the requirements of the new- country residents and positive that Oklahoma was entitled to become a state. Hitchcock exercised unusual influence in the national administration and when he announced in Wash- ington that he favored immediate statehood for the territory his words were construed by senators as having much sig- nificance. But the words got no results.
When June rains threatened to bring floods down the Canadian River, as they had done before in many springs and summers, residents of the lowlands demanded relief. Where- upon the Oklahoma County River Improvement Association was formed with A. J. Henthorn as president and J. A. J. Baugus as secretary. A committee was appointed to solicit memberships and funds and a resolution was passed memo- rializing Congress to make an appropriation for river im- provement.
On December 16 the Secretary of War designated Okla-
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homa City as headquarters for officials of the Southwestern military distriet, which included Oklahoma, Texas, New Mex- ico and some other states. The choice appears to have been made upon recommendation of Lientenant Colonel Smith, who had been sent out from Washington for that purpose. He chose a suite of eleven rooms in the Baltimore Building, and on January 15 of the next year Maj. Gen. S. S. Summer was placed in charge. General Sumner soon was enamored of the life he found in the newest section of the Southwest, shortly grew fond of the worthwhile people, and took an active part in the civic, social and commercial life of the city. Earlier in the year the Oklahoma Military Institute had been estab- lished, under permission of the Secretary of War, with Capt. James S. Bruett in charge.
Other events of the year were the voting of $100,000 in bonds to erect a county courthouse : the appointment of Mark H. Kesler of Guthrie as chief of the fire department ; serious discussion of a bond issue of $350.000 for water extensions ; a baby show at Delmar Garden, in charge of Seymour Heyman and at which E. E. Brown, Jolm Dibble (said to have been extremely bashful) and W. R. Taylor, bachelors all. acted as judges; announcement of O. A. Mitscher, a former resi- dent of the city who had been appointed Indian Agent at Pawhuska, that he was going to Washington to make an effort to get Osage lands allotted.
A writer of this period said of Mayor Van Winkle: "As mayor of Oklahoma City Mr. Van Winkle won for himself the thanks and good will of all the honest people for his able and determined fight for clean, wholesome administration of civic affairs. It will be recalled that at one time he brought about the indictment of six out of ten members of his city council for unbecoming conduet, known by a more familiar name as grafting. His administrations can be accepted as the point of origin for practically all the better public improvements such as paving, before the close of his second term had given Oklahoma City more miles of paved streets than almost any city in the Southwest, and also the establishment of a mu- nieipally owned waterworks system.
"Aside from his record of public service. Mr. Van Winkle has for a number of years been prominent in manufacturing
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and lumber circles in Oklahoma, and is also one of the leading Masons in the state.
"R. E. Lee Van Winkle was born at Van Winkle's Mills in Benton County, Arkansas, July 17, 1863. He acquired his early education in the home schools and in the University of Arkansas, and grew up in the rugged surroundings of the timber covered district of Northwest Arkansas. The home school which he attended was built and maintained by his father for a number of years. Four of the sons had been taught by private tutors in the home prior to the establish- ment of this school which was also attended by other children in the community.
"From early boyhood Mr. Van Winkle has been acquainted with the technical side of lumbering, gained by experience in his father's mill. For twelve years after leaving school he was in the retail humber business, and then turned his atten- tion to wholesale lumbering and manufacturing. In 1896 Mr. Van Winkle organized the Oklahoma Sash & Door Company. and served as its president and manager until 1904. In that year he disposed of his interests, and has since made the whole- sale business the object of his attention, and is at the head of the Van Winkle Lumber Company, with offices in the Lee Building at Oklahoma City. He still holds some extensive interests in manufacturing and wholesale concerns in the tim- ber belts of Arkansas."
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1904-IN BIB AND TUCKER AT ST. LOUIS
So admirably did the city distinguish herself at the Louis- iana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis this year that one Mr. Bunker, a member of the City Council, returning home with unsuppressable enthusiasm, conceived the notion that within twelve years Oklahoma City could teach the world a lesson or so in exhibitions and he asked the council to take preliminary action to that end. The city, indeed, had made a creditable showing at St. Louis; more creditable perhaps than many other cities of several times its proportions within the boun- daries of the Louisiana purchase. The inhabitants had be- come so accustomed to "selling" the city wherever and when- ever occasion chanced along, or was deliberately made, that they looked upon the St. Louis enterprise as a sort of fore- ordained event.
It was accorded one of the first honors bestowed by the exposition company when a portrait of Miss Mildred Morrow was imprinted on the first season tickets the company issued. The company neglected to print her name and place of resi- dence and the history of her home town upon the admittance slip, and Oklahoma City overcame the unintentional if not almost unpardonable slight by supplying the round world with the missing information. Miss Morrow was a daughter of J. S. Morrow, a pioneer grocer and at that time a retired capitalist of Oklahoma City.
September 5th was Oklahoma City Day at the Exposition, had been so ordered and advertised by the exposition com- pany. It was observed with one of those characteristic getting- on-the-map programs, formal at the beginning, hilarious at the ending. JJohn W. Noble, a former secretary of the inte- rior, who had accepted an invitation extended by O. D. Halsell, chairman of the World's Fair Club of the Chamber of Com- merce, delivered the principal address, semi-officially and with the enthusiasm and adjectives of an adopted son. Represen-
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tatives of the Apollo Club, an organization of forty young business and professional men, under leadership of J. E. Crawford, furnished the choicest music of the occasion. The address of welcome was delivered by Mayor Rolla Wells of St. Louis and responses were made on behalf of the Territory by Governor T. B. Ferguson, and of Oklahoma City by Mayor Lee Van Winkle and Miss Miriam Richardson. A poem writ- ten and dedicated to the city by Frank L. Stanton was read. It was entitled Atlanta's Greeting to Oklahoma City, and it follows :
A welcome that rings from Atlanta,
From the green hills that sigh for the sea ;
To the city that looms
As from wilderness glooms- A star on the flag of the free.
She came to us crowned with her sixteen bright years,
And we gave her a Godsend and sixteen glad cheers.
A welcome, the heart thrills to say it ; Wave flags over tower and wall.
Make musie, blithe drums ;
Like a robed queen she comes To the echoing hearts of us all.
On the bright path of progress she blazes her way
And makes of wild winter a dream of a day.
A welcome: her heavens are lighted With stars of the liberty gleam.
For her the bells are ringing.
For her the stars are singing.
And the world is the light of the dream.
She comes crowned with hopes-like a queen she appears.
And we give her all glory and sixteen glad cheers.
Credit for the success of the Oklahoma City exposition en- terprise probably should be given more to E. S. Rockwell than to any other single individual. He was secretary of the Okla- homa City exposition organization and devoted virtually all of his time to the duties of it for many months. His labors
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