USA > Oklahoma > Oklahoma County > Oklahoma City > The story of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma : "the biggest little city in the world" > Part 21
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One illustration among many of the increase in real estate values in the city was related this year. J. M. Bowen, who filed on a homestead at the time of the opening-a tract of 160 acres now bounded by the Santa Fe on the cast and Walker Avenue on the west and Tenth Street on the south and Thirteenth Street on the north-found his rights con- tested. William J. MeClure, who provided the funds to prose- cute the contest, and JJudge Frank Dale of Guthrie, who pro- vided the legal wherewithal. succeeded in winning the contest and for their services were given one-half of the tract. They divided the eighty acres, MeClure taking the east half of it and Judge Dale the west half. The Dale share lay between Harvey and Walker Avenues. It is not of record easily ac- cessible how much money MeCInre received out of the lots he sold, but Judge Dale's receipts amounted to $250,000. Four of the city's leading churches, with property valnes totalling over $500,000, are on Dale lots.
The interests of the Pioneer Telephone Company and the Missouri & Kansas Telephone Company were merged May 1. and E. D. Nims, president of the former, retired from that office. Among directors retained were Mr. Nims. Jolm M. Noble, who was elected general manager, E. E. Westerfelt.
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who was elected secretary-treasurer, David Mckinstry and Henry Asp. The new organization had assets of the value of $40,000,000.
Other events of the year included a strike of employes of the Oklahoma Railway Company that was settled after a few days of exciting moves, ineInding an order from the governor for troops to be in readiness for service, the re- seinding of the order and an agreement between officials and emploves; dedication of the high school on March 3 with ceremonies participated in by Governor Cruce, President Workman of the Chamber of Commerce, Dr. A. Grant Evans, president of the State University, City Superintendent W. H. Brandenburg, Ed S. Vaught, the Rev. Thomas H. Harper and B. F. Nihart, a pioneer teacher; announcement of the Oklahoma Railway Company on April 10 that it had floated a bond issue of $12.000,000 preparatory to completing inter- urban lines to El Reno, Guthrie and Norman; celebration of the Opening on April 22 with a fiesta parade, simliar to that of the preceding year, in which Russell Pryor was Rex Aprillis and Miss Mildred MeNabb Aprillis La Reine: the graduation of 105 students from the high school; the resig- nation of Paul M. Pope as a member of the city park board: the purchase by J. L. Wilkin of the Night & Day Bank ; the resignation of Dr. A. Grant Evans as president of the State University and the election of Dean J. C. Monett as acting president : the beginning of the radiation of a good roads sentiment over the state inspired by Col. Sidney Suggs, state highway commissioner: and the election of Dr. Charles Evans as president of the Central State Normal School at Edmord.
1912-A FIGHT AGAINST EXPENSES
A laughable situation arose once when on the same day it was announced that the Legislature was coming down from Guthrie as guests of the Oklahoma City Chamber of Com- merce, the chief of police issued an ediet forbidding the operation of bootlegging joints. The publie was no more chagrined by the officers' revelation of the existence of open violation of the prohibition law than was the body of statute builders against whose motives the chief of police had slung a slur.
And somehow it is just as amusing, viewed through the perspective of a decade, to witness the serious faces of a few of the city's commercial stalwarts, who-the packeries and the capital having been obtained and the city's population increased to 50.000 and the taxable wealth proportionately in- creased-met with a peek of trouble for a subject and set about constructing schemes to eut expenses! They were in dead earnest. The subject seemed to require immediate consid- eration. No less a personage than the governor had said that if the state, the county and the municipality didn't cease bur- dening themselves with debt, they would bankrupt the state.
From that meeting resulted the Citizens Protective League, the primary object of which was to curb expenses and teach economy in goverment. Charles F. Coleord was elected president and O. P. Workman, secretary. Other dirce- tors were Joseph Huekins, JJ. M. Bass, G. G. Sohilberg, Leon Levy, E. Il. Cooke, J. M. Owen and S. M. Gloyd. It found a great many people of like mind on this subject and its membership grew almost as rapidly as a list of names on a petition asking for a constitutional amendment, that is to say. with extraordinary rapidity. In a short time the league had 1,000 members in Oklahoma County, 1,000 members in Gar- field County and 500 members each in Washington and Creek counties. Agents of the league, all of them representative
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business men of the city, became foreign missionaries and traveled into all populous regions of the state, preaching the doctrine of seeking first the kingdom of economy.
The league was organized in March. Its first statewide meeting was held in Oklahoma City on June 19 and 20, and it was attended by 200 members representing probably a score of counties. It was at this meeting that Governor Cruce propounded the doctrine of economy in state government. The delegates supported almost unanimously a plan projected by the directors to initiate two proposed amendments to the constitution. One was to provide that the tax limit should be 12 mills, of which 1 mill should be for state purposes. The other proposed a commission form of government for coun- ties, the governing board to consist of three commissioners and a judge. A committee to draft the bills consisted of Judge B. F. Burwell, Judge J. R. Keaton and Henry G. Snyder. Whether or not the bills were drawn is not a matter of vital concern, for one month later officials of the league announced that, owing to the time before the November elec- tion being too short in which to circulate petitions, the league had concluded to forego initiation of the measures, but that its officers would be employed in influencing so far as possi- ble the carrying out of its ideas of economy.
The last word had not by any means been said on the capital matter, for Guthrie in her discontent was not in the least mollified by the decision of the United States Supreme Court. She came back with the strength of a new organiza- tion and asked the governor to call another election that she might have it out with Oklahoma City single-handed and alone. The petition filed with the secretary of state con- tained over 50,000 names. Of these nearly 5,000 were ob- tained in Logan County and a majority of them were obtained in Logan, Pottawotamie, Tulsa, Garfield and Payne counties. Oklahoma County itself supplied over two hundred. The pe- tition was presented by H. T. Swearingen, chairman of the Guthrie committee, and Fred L. Wenner, secretary. Governor Cruce in due time issued a proclamation calling for an eler- tion on November 5. The campaign was waged as diligently. but less spectacularly, than that of 1910 and the Oklahoma City organization expended about $15,000, or a little less
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than $1 a vote in the majority figures. This majority, small as it appeared, was not discouraging, however, for over 25,000 persons who voted at the election did not vote on this question. The vote was decisive enough and it was the signal of Guth- rie's ultimate surrender.
Governor Cruce in January had reached an agreement with the Capitol Building Company whereby he would accept for the state 6,050 acres of land selected for the capitol and $100,000 in cash and release the company from obligation. Early in February a mass meeting was held and the city com- mission was prevailed upon to call an election to submit a bond issue, out of the proceeds of which the Capitol Building Company and the Packingtown Development Company could be relieved of capitol and packery bons obligations. The bonds in due time were authorized at an election and sold. Ostensibly they were for park and playground purposes and to provide a terminal for a proposed railroad that was to enter from the northwest, a project that John Shartel took an active interest in and which he hoped to carry out. The Capitol Building Company received from the bond proceeds the needed $100,000. The remainder, $150,000, was distrib- uted, $20,000 to a committee of bankers, acting as a board of trustees, to be held for use in obtaining terminals for rail- roads, $60,000 to pay a mortgage executed by the Packing- town Development Company, and the remainder to complete a bonus promised the Schwarzschild & Sulzberger Packing Company. On May 24 the Capitol Building Company de- livered to the governor a warrant for $100,000 and deeds and abstracts to all tracts in the capitol gift save fifty-five aeres the title to which had to be secured in cont.
The quarter-section of land embracing this fifty-five aeres was filed upon as homestead on April 22. 1859, by the Rev. Hemy Howe. During the intervening twenty-three years title to it had been elonded by contests and the Government never had issued a patent. In the meantime the original claimant had died. Two sons, E. W. Howe and Dr. C. F. Howe of Atchison, Kan., never relinquished their claim as heirs of the father's estate. The Capitol Building Company reached an agreement with the heirs and the latest contestant whereby judgment should be taken in favor of the heirs, and whereby
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these, the contestant and officials of the company, should have a joint interest in the Howe Developmem Company, which was organized with a capital stock of $300,000. Title in due time was perfected and the fifteen acres on which the per- manent capitol is located spreads over a part of the historic homestead of the preacher.
In view of the fact that a long and bitter controversy the governor had with his state board of education over the adop- tions of textbooks for the public schools of the state touched educational affairs of the city and several representative men of the city before its termination next year, some incidents of the controversy will not be out of place here.
Governor Cruce was not pleased with a conclusion of the board reached just before a final adoption vote and he asked that a vote be deferred. Members of the board interpreted the request as a reflection upon their judgment and integrity and a majority expressed displeasure, with the consequence that the governor asked for the resignations of Robert Dun- lop, W. A. Brandenburg, Scott Glenn and Frank Hayes. When they refused to grant his request, the executive issued an order summarily removing them and then reappointed Mr. Brandenburg and filled the other presumed vacancies with Ira L. Cain of Muskogee, the Rev. C. C. Weith of Ardmore and D. I. Johnston and J. F. Warren of Oklahoma City. When members of the original board sought relief in District Judge Clark's court it was denied. On November 17 the matter was again presented to Judge Clark and he granted an order enjoining the new board from action, saying that he had not been fully advised when the order was prayed for originally. Attorney General West then appeared in behalf of the governor and asked for a writ of supersedeas to defer application of the injunction. This was denied and the attorney general announced he would appeal to the Supreme Court.
Governor Cruce's next move was to convene the Senate in extraordinary session, on December 3. On December 7 it re- ported to the executive that it had concluded to reject con- firmation of members of both boards, and asked that names of other men be submitted. This the governor took under advisement. Meantime the holidays were approached and
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teachers in state schools were denied their warrants because of there being no recognized authority to issue them. To relieve this situation Governor Cruce appointed a temporary board. It was composed of C. F. Colcord, James Chenoweth, E. F. Bisbee and Dr. JJ. A. Ryan, and they immediately convened and transacted necessary urgent business.
Dr. Newell Dwight Hillis was the speaker at the annual banquet of the Chamber of Commerce this year, held March 4. Eight hundred men were in attendance. It was presided over by President Frank J. Wikoff who revealed that the Chamber was working on plans for elevating the tracks of the Rock Island Railroad and the straightening of sections of the channel of the Canadian River. Shortly before this date President H. U. Mudge of the Rock Island, who visited the city with a party of minor officials, had stated that the com- pany had about completed plans for elevating the tracks. Doctor Hillis said: "I have been lecturing for seventeen years and during that time have delivered over twelve hun- dred lectures. During many of them I have devoted about thirty minutes of time to telling of the advantages of the Northwest. But I want to tell you that during the next sev- enteen years I shall devote some time in each lecture to tell- ing of the advantages of the Southwest." This banquet opened the annual campaign for membership that resulted in the acquisition of nearly five hundred members. Among them was Bishop William A. Quayle of the Methodist Church. .
In the autumn the first home products show was held, under direction of a subdivision of the Chamber of Commerce. It was so successful that members of the Home Products and , Manufacturers Association resolved to perpetuate the or- ganization and to separate it from the Chamber. C. E. Van Cleef was elected president, J. R. Harris, vice president, Paul B. Smith, secretary, and Carl Weihener, A. M. Lehr, D. C. Collins, G. G. Sohlberg, C. W. Rathbun, Bunn Booth, J. B. Klein, E. K. Fitzpatrick and Walter I. Crawford, directors.
S. M. Gloyd was elected president of the Chamber at the December ammal meeting, and he and James Chenoweth, H. C. Upsher, J. E. O'Neil, E. F. Bisbee, Fred T. Miller, John J. Iten, Ed S. Vaught, Joseph Hnekins, Leon Levy and F. S. Lamb constituted the board of directors.
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Seymour Heyman, a former president of the Chamber, who, in fact, was credited with being its founder, died on June 20. The demise of no other man in the city was more profoundly or more generally regretted. He was a native of New York, had come West as a young man and lived in Law- rence and Topeka, Kan., and had come to Oklahoma City in 1897, when he became a member of the clothing firm of Hey- man & Goldstandt. He was the founder of the retail mer- chants association, had been president of the baseball asso- ciation, and the board of education and had taken an active part in every laudable publie undertaking during his residence of fifteen years. He was an Elk and a Shriner and represen- tatives of these lodges took part in the funeral ceremonies. In its resolution condoling his death, the Chamber of Commerce said: "In the capacity of president, director and member of the Chamber of Commerce he served the people with a self- sacrificing devotion that took no account of the demands of his own private interests, and in every move looking to the general good he could be and was relied upon for efficient and effective service." A host of friends attended the funeral which was in general charge of a committee of the Chamber of Commerce consisting of O. P. Workman, G. B. Stone and C. F. Coleord.
The general election on November 5 resulted in Senator R. L. Owen defeating Judge J. T. Dickerson of Oklahoma City for United States senator, the defeat by Dick T. Morgan of Judge John J. Carney for Congress, the defeat by Ben F. Wilson of Dr. John Threadgill for the State Senate, the defeat by D. K. Pope of Al Jenings for county attorney, and the election of John Hayson, county judge, Harold Lee, clerk of the Superior Court, W. W. Storm, county clerk, M. Cor- nelius, register of deeds, Mrs. Anna B. Love, superintendent of schools, Thomas Kirby, clerk of the District Court, George Baker, treasurer, and M. C. Binion. sheriff.
L. E. Patterson and associates during the year sought an entrance for their street cars into the city along Robinson Avenue. An extended colloquy ensued that attracted public attention and when Mayor Grant and the commissioners re- fused a permit for use of that thoroughfare. Patterson took the matter to court. When the case reached the Supreme
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Court on appeal that tribunal held that only an ordinance adopted by the City Commission could grant the use of streets for a railway enterprise and that the election previously heid, in which Patterson was granted a franchise, was only ad- visory. Mayor Grant contended that the election had not been held according to law and therefore was invalid.
Three large churches were dedicated during the year. Four thousand persons attended the two services at the First Baptist Church on March 24th when the pastor, Dr. Carter Helm Jones, delivered two sermons of a dedicatory nature. On June 30th the First English Lutheran Church was dedi- cated by the Rev. E. E. Stauffer, president of the Synod of Kansas. It was of Gothic architecture and the site and the building represented an outlay of $50,000. It contained three memorial windows, one of which was presented by A. H. Classen, another by Mrs. N. F. Gates and Mrs. John J. Weitzel in memory of their mother, and the third by four sons of Mrs. Mary Hansen, who had died recently. On October 20th the University Place Christian Church, located at Twenty-eighth Street and MeKinley Avenue, was dedicated by Rev. E. T. Lane, the pastor.
Dr. Carter Helm Jones on July 7th submitted his resigna- tion to his official board and announced that he had been called to a pastorate in Seattle. He was one of the most learned pastors, one of the greatest preachers and one of the most beloved men that had filled a pulpit in Oklahoma City, and this was attested by resolutions of the Chamber of Com- merce, the Ministers Alliance, the Men's Dinner Club and the Virginia and Tennessee Societies asking him to reconsider. His successor was Dr. H. H. Hulton, who came from a pastorate at Charlotte, N. C.
Theodore Roosevelt again visited the city this year, this time as the nominee of the progressive party for President. His coming worked a more marked division between the ranks of the Roosevelt and the Taft supporters. Alva MeDonald of El Reno was chairman of the progressive party in the state. Nels Darling of Oklahoma City was among the party stump speakers of the campaign. J. A. Harris, who had been elected republican national connnitteeman, resigned as state chairman Vol. 1-24
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during the campaign and was succeeded by Arthur Geissler of Oklahoma City who had been vice chairman.
Other interesting happenings of the year included these : H. G. Eastman succeeded E. E. Brown as postmaster and the new half-million-dollar Federal Building was formally opened; Carlton M. Greenman, secretary of the Retailers Association, was elected assistant secretary of the Chamber of Commerce; Robert Galbreath, then of Tulsa, defeated John B. Doolin of Oklahoma City for democratic national commit- teeman; Dr. Stratton D. Brooks of Boston was elected presi- dent of the State University and was inaugurated October 21st ; 109 students graduated from the high school; the death of Mrs. Whit M. Grant, wife of the mayor, occurred on June 9th; on July 1st, Fred T. Miller was appointed to succeed the late Seymour Heyman as a member of the Board of Educa- tion and J. O. Mattison was elected president of the board; . W. L. Bradley resigned as secretary to Mayor Grant and was succeeded by C. J. Kendle : John Fields resigned as president of the Oklahoma State Fair Association and was succeeded by J. L. Wilkin : the Rotary Club held its first annual banquet at the Skirvin Hotel, attended by 200 persons.
Mr. Brown, later secretary of the Chamber of Commerce of Oklahoma City, was a resident of this city for more than a quarter of a century, and during this time was engaged in a variety of pursuits, in all of which he was connected more or less closely with the growing commercial and civic develop- ment.
He was born in Wyandotte County, Ohio, July 17, 1861. He secured his early education in the public schools of his native locality. this being supplemented by a course at the Normal School at Paola, Kan., and thus prepared entered upon his career as an educator, being engaged in teaching school for two years. In 1887 he moved to what was known as No Man's Land. a tract of land which had been ceded to the United States Goverment by Texas, in 1850, but which for a number of years had no government. This is now in- eluded in Beaver County, Oklahoma, and there is probably no man in the state who is more familiar with the history of this interesting locality. He is considered an authority and has been frequently called upon to settle disputes regarding its
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history. There he devoted his attention to newspaper work, for which his talents peculiarly fitted him, and it was in this same capacity that he made his appearance in Oklahoma City in July, 1889.
Mr. Brown continued to be engaged in journalistic labors with several newspapers here until 1903, and in the meantime identified himself with polities, so that in 1895 he was ap- pointed chief clerk of the Territorial Senate. His work in that body impressed itself favorably upon the administration, and in 1901 he was appointed territorial oil inspector, a posi- tion which he held during that and the following years. He continued his newspaper connections while holding office, but in 1903 again entered public life, when he was appointed postmaster of Oklahoma City, and retained that office until 1912, having at that time completely abandoned newspaper work. During his administration the service was greatly im- proved, and he made a record which established him in the confidence of the people and gave him the reputation of being a man who could accomplish things. Always an enthusiastic booster of Oklahoma City's interests, when he left the post- master's office in 1912, he was chosen as secretary of the Cham- ber of Commerce. He has no membership in clubs or secret societies, and is unmarried.
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1913-A PREACHER'S FAREWELL
"I see an Oklahoma City of the future, a city beautiful, prosperous and happy; a city in which the spirit of Christ is like an advance of summer awakening flowers, sympathy and love; a center of every influence for good; its business conducted by men who recognize the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man; its homes presided over by Godly, praying mothers; its citizens taught of the Lord from the least to the greatest."
This was the farewell message of Dr. J. H. O. Smith, for six and a half years pastor of the First Christian Church, who resigned in November to accept a similar pastorate at Little Rock, Ark. It was the end of his last sermon delivered to his congregation on November 2d. Three days later he had a formal leave taking of the Chamber of Commerce, of which he was an active and devoted member, and the regret and the well wishes of the membership were expressed by President S. M. Gloyd. Later, in the parlors of the church, his pa- rishioners and other city pastors bade him an affectionate good-bye.
For the simple reason, no doubt, that Doctor Smith proba- bly was the most human of popular pastors of the decade he was best loved inside and outside of his congregation. He was a genial and cordial gentleman to whom material diversions and unconventionalities strongly appealed, an excellent mixer, an apt and forceful speaker on any stump. a minister of un- common virtues, a preacher of uncommon parts, and withal spiritual and always abounding in good works for the church. Next to his church he loved his city, and his city loved him, and it was with genuine regret that his city gave him np.
The departure in May of this year of Dr. Thomas H. Harper, who for many years had been pastor of the Pilgrim Congregational Church. for Spokane. Wash., where a like pastorate awaited him. likewise was generally regretted.
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Doctor Harper, an Eighty-Niner, during his residence of twenty-four years, and by virtue of that long residence, prob- ably exercised a greater influence for good in citizenship, civies and government than any other preacher that lived in the city. If his influence ever was restricted, and there is little doubt that it was during the last few years of his resi- dence, it was because of his partisanship in political matters. His friends led him into politics, several times nominating him for public office, and made him a target for the arrows of unscrupulous politicians. But those who knew him inti- mately never countenanced a charge that he had less interest in political and civil reforms than in the honors that come to men in political and civic authority.
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