USA > Oklahoma > Oklahoma County > Oklahoma City > The story of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma : "the biggest little city in the world" > Part 23
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to pay a balance due the state under a rental and expense agreement, and he asked Mayor Grant to proclaim a holiday that solicitors might have right of way for a final canvass. The amount was raised in due time and on June 5, State Treasurer Dunlop gave Mr. Coleord the state's official receipt showing the debt paid in full.
With appropriate exercises and in the presence of a large crowd the first dirt was turned in construction of the capitol on July 20. Governor Cruce, who made an address, opened the soil with a pick presented to him by J. E. O'Neil, manager of the Richards & Conover Hardware Company, and W. B. Anthony, chairman of the capitol commission, dug deeper into the soil with a silver shovel presented to him by the Simmons Hardware Company of St. Louis. The Chamber of Commerce was represented by Ed S. Vaught, who delivered the second address of the day.
Former Justice Jesse J. Dunn of the Oklahoma Supreme Court came from his California home in August with author- ity to speak for officials of the Panama-Pacific Exposition Company and he urged Oklahoma to make the best possible showing at San Francisco. On December 8, C. H. Russell, then secretary-treasurer of the Oklahoma exposition com- mission and who had been responsible for much of the interest manifested, resigned. He was succeeded by Mrs. Fred Sut- ton, one of the organizers of the company. In this enterprise, as in many another since the founding of the city, Mrs. Sut- ton concentrated her best thought and effort.
When in July the Tax Efficiency League discovered, ac- cording to its best lights, that the city government's expense budget for the ensuing year seemed entirely too high, it sent its president, Judge B. F. Burwell, to confer with the mayor. J. H. Jolmston, an official of the league, had reported that the budget totaled $125,000 more than in the previous year. By reason of the league's insistence some reductions were oh- tained. One of the objects of the league, which had been formed but recently, was to secure an amendment to the city charter to create the office of city manager. A committee appointed by Judge Burwell to prepare amendments consisted of E. H. Cooke. R. A. Vose, C. E. Bennett, I. P. Martin and M. D. Scott. The object, said Mayor Grant in a public state-
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ment expressing his disapproval, was to create a position for Mr. Johnston. +
It was generally believed at this time that efforts to secure sufficient water from wells to supply the city's requirements were doomed to failure, and this belief was strengthened on November 8 of this year when F. H. Newell, chief of the United States Reclamation Service, expressed positive dis- approval of well projects. Mr. Newell spent the day here as a guest of City Commissioner W. H. Hampton and Water Superintendent J. W .. Bennett and continued his journey to Lawton where he investigated for the Goverment the moun- tain source of water supply for that city and Fort Sill. Ar- tesian wells are for small towns and not for cities, he said. and he pointed out that Dallas and Denver had been compelled to seek supplies elsewhere. The hope of a city, he said. is in the storage of flood water. The opinion of the reclamation service chief was responsible in large measure for the city later securing its permanent water supply from a reservoir created by the damming and dredging of the North Canadian River.
Several district good roads associations were merged this year into the first permanent Oklahoma Good Roads Associa- tion, of which W. J. Milburn of Johnston County and later a resident of the city, was elected president, and Alfred Hare of Oklahoma City, secretary. The subject of good roads had been an abstract one, in spite of the efforts of I. M. Putnam. Mr. Milburn and others in the Legislature and of Col. Sidney Suggs, state highway commissioner, to educate the public to appreciate advantages of improved highways. More or less sporadic efforts at state organization had been made dur- ing the preceding few years; and it was about this time that motor-car concerns, which had been carrying on an unprece- dented business, offered encouragement and support to the movement. Delegates from various parts of the state attended this meeting, and they were welcomed in speeches by Presi- dent Coleord of the Chamber of Commerce and Mayor Grant. Among them was Col. A. N. Leecraft, afterwards state treas- urer.
A resolution was adopted at the ammal meeting of the stockholders of the Oklahoma State Fair Association in No-
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vember authorizing the directors to increase the capital stock from $100,000 to $250,000. The fair had maintained the re- markable growth that characterized its first few years and had become beyond peradventure a permanent and necessary institution. J. F. Warren was reelected president and G. B. Stone, vice president, and I. H. Mahan, secretary. J. M. Owen was elected treasurer.
Some other important events of the year were these : Elmer E. Brown, a pioneer of the city, an early-day publisher, re- cently superseded as postmaster, and altogether one of the city's worthiest and most progressive citizens, became seere- tary of the Chamber of Commerce: on March 10, Justice R. . L. Williams resigned from the Supreme Court to enter the race for governor and was succeeded by Stilwell H. Russell of Ardmore who was appointed by Governor Cruce, the new justice serving, however, only until May 16, when he died; on April 14, Jolin Fields was nominated on the republican ticket for governor and Judge John H. Burford for United States . senator : a little later Jolm P. Hickam of Stillwater was nomi- nated on the progressive ticket for governor and J. M. Morrow of Oklahoma City for lieutenant governor; in the November election, Judge Williams was chosen governor, E. M. Trapp. lieutenant governor, T. P. Gore, United States senator, W. L. Alexander, state treasurer, E. B. Howard, state auditor, Frank Gault, president of the state board of agriculture. A. L. Welch, state insurance commissioner, William Ashton. state labor commissioner, W. D. Matthews, commissioner of charities and corrections, S. P. Freeling, attorney general, Ed Boyle, chief mine inspector, R. H. Wilson, state super- intendent of education, Fred Parkinson, state examiner and inspector, J. L. Lyon, secretary of state. A. P. Watson, cor- poration conmissioner, W. M. Franklin, clerk of the Supreme Court, Summers Hardy, J. F. Sharp and G. A. Brown, jus- tices of the Supreme Court, and James R. Armstrong, justice of the Criminal Court of Appeals. On August 18, occurred the death of J. A. J. Bangus, an Eighty-niner and former county superintendent of schools; and on December 7. oc- curred the death of Col. J. W. Johnson, municipal counsellor. at the age of sixty-seven, his death marking the passage of a prominent and useful citizen, since the founding of the city. Vol. 1-26
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1915-PASSING OF PIONEERS
Three of the city's pioneers, all of them men of promi- nence, who had had a conspicuous part in commercial, civic and religious progress, passed away during the year. In the matter of leadership in paramount enterprises, and particu- larly in the quality of executiveship, Henry Overholser doubt- less was the chief of these. The others were Dr. John Thread- gill and Judge H. Y. Thompson.
Mr. Overholser's death occurred on August 24, after a prolonged illness that caused his absolute retirement from business. He was one of less than a dozen men of '89, ac- counted business leaders of the early years, who lived through the succeeding quarter century and retained a position among the leaders. He was born in Ohio in 1846 and had come West as a young man. As one of the early settlers of the city he built the first hotel and the first theater. To him was credited the first suggestion of the organization of a county fair, which was the initial step toward organization of the State Fair Association. He was one of the promoters of the Chamber of Commerce which succeeded the Oklahoma City Club and his was the first name written on the member- ship roll.
Representative men of the city were genuinely devoted to him and to the policies he so long advocated, and through them was reflected a city-wide sentiment of regret over his demise. Dr. J. G. Street, acting for the absent mayor, issued a proclamation asking business houses and offices to close and that flags be flown at half mast during the period of the funeral. Exercises were conducted at the First Christian Church by the Rev. E. C. Van Horn, pastor. The pallbearers were A. H. Classen, C. F. Coleord, W. J. Pettee, Jolm Fields. E. H. Cooke, B. F. Burwell. E. E. Brown, R. J. Edwards. J. I. Wilkin and J. F. Warren. . Appropriate resolutions adopted by the Chamber of Commerce were drafted by a
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committee consisting of Ed S. Vaught, S. L. Brock, J. E. O'Neil, Frank Wikoff and James Chenoweth.
Dr. John Threadgill died May 14. He was not a pioneer of Oklahoma City, as pioneers were designated in these days, having come here in 1901, but he had come to the territory in 1895, six years after the opening. His influence as a citizen of the territory was kindred to that of the metropolis; for the latter had been, and still is, so inseparably a part of the territory that it would be impossible to write a history of one without drawing largely upon the more or less venerable sources of the other. A native of North Carolina, Dr. Thread- gill, after sojourning for a few years in Brenham and Taylor, Texas, settled in Norman, Okla., in 1895, and established a sanitarium. Although a veteran of the Confederacy, he was a sincere republican and his party twice sent him to the Ter- ritorial Council (upper house of the Legislature). In 1905 he was appointed a member of the territorial board of edu- cation. Coming to Oklahoma City, he was one of the organ- izers and was first president of the Commercial National Bank. Later he was a director of the State National Bank. In 1903 he was president of the city board of education. At Second and Broadway he built a hotel that for many years bore his name. Newspapers of that day spoke of the struc- ture as being one of the finest in the Southwest. He was in- tensely devoted to the interests of the veterans of the Lost Cause and for many years his was a familiar figure at their state and national reunions. On July 19th, veterans of the state assembled at St. Luke's Church to do honor to his mem- ory. Addresses were delivered by Gov. R. L. Williams. Gen. D. M. Hailey of MeAlester and others.
Judge Thompson, who in the previous autumn election had been elected county attorney, died on April 16th. at the age of sixty-two. Although a native of Ohio, the many and varied scenes of his career lay in the Middle and Farther West. He went to Portland, Oregon, as a young man. studied law and seven times in succession was elected prosecuting attorney of that county. Later for several years he was attorney for the Great Northern Railway Company. He came to Oklahoma City in 1903 and thereafter was active in public and pro- fessioral life. In 1907 he was president of the Chamber of
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Commerce. In 1913 he was assistant to County Attorney D. K. Pope and in the campaign of 1914 defeated Herbert Peck, the democratie nominee, for county attorney.
The corner stone of the Capitol was laid with Masonic and publie ceremony on November 16th, the eighth anniversary of the advent of statehood. A proclamation concerning it was issued by Governor Williams on November 9th and the Cham- ber of Commerce and other organizations arranged to take part in the exercises. These consisted of a parade initiated in the business district and extended to the Capitol site, Masonie ceremonies led by E. A. Monroney, most worshipful grand master of the Masonie Lodge, addresses by Governor Williams and Chief Justice M. J. Kane, a prayer by Bishop F. K. Brooke and a song entitled "Oklahoma," by the Apollo Club. The occasion warranted a partial holiday and thou- sands of persons witnessed the ceremonies and heard the ad- dresses.
Former State Senator P. J. Goulding of Enid was, on . March 23d, elected chairman of the Capitol Commission. The governor at that time, showing appreciation of the vital in- terest that residents of the city entertained, appointed an advisory committee of citizens whose duty was to assist the commission in the selection of plans, consideration of esti- mates and the awarding of contracts. This committee con- sisted of E. K. Gaylord, Joseph Huckins and Ed S. Vaught of Oklahoma City and also H. W. Gibson of Muskogee and Thomas Hale of MeAlester. A law passed by the Legislature early in the year provided that the commission should meet only on call of the chairman or of the governor. In June, the commission, with consent of the advisory committee, awarded a contract for construction of the building to James Stewart & Company of New York, the contract price being slightly over $1,500,000. John HI. Frederickson, a brother of George Frederickson of Oklahoma City, was appointed construction superintendent.
The chief political events of the year were the inaugura- tion of Judge Williams as governor, in which the city's society participated, and the election and inauguration of Edward Overholser as mayor. The first appointment made by the governor was of A. N. Leecraft of Colbert as his secretary.
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J. L. Lyon of Oklahoma City, who had been elected secretary of state largely through the influence of organizations of trav- eling salesmen, of which he was a member, took his office with other state officials on January 11th and selected Charles MeCafferty, former treasurer of Oklahoma County, as his chief assistant.
Governor Williams in his message to his first Legislature, which convened in January, recommended an appropriation of $5,000 for paying expenses of Oklahoma's exhibit at the Panama-Pacific Exposition. William A. Durant introduced a bill appropriating $6,000 for that purpose. It was passed by the House but rejected by the Senate.
Mr. Overholser, a son of the distinguished pioneer, Henry Overholser, was elected mayor over W. D. Gault, the demo- cratie nominee. Fifteen years earlier, W. J. Ganlt, father of this candidate, defeated Henry Overholser for mayor. Mike Donnally was elected commissioner of accounting and finance, defeating Robert Parman, the republican nominee, and Dr. J. G. Street was elected commissioner of public property, defeat- ing H. G. Eastman, late postmaster, the republican nominee. J. B. Norton was the independent nominee for mayor and W. R. Gallion, the socialist nominee.
Byron D. Shear was selected by the mayor as municipal counsellor to succeed Judge W. R. Taylor, who had been ap- pointed as the successor of the late Col. J. W. Johnson. Mr. Shear, a graduate of the University of Wisconsin, had been clerk of the United States District Court under Judge B. F. Burwell from 1898 to statehood and since that time had practiced his profession. On recommendation of a large mm- ber of bankers, business men and professional men, John E. Dickson was appointed city treasurer. Loyal J. Miller suc- ceeded O. L. Price as municipal judge, and W. B. Nichols was named chief of police.
A mardi gras ball was the important feature of the enter- tainment of the Eighty-niners Association this year, and pre- ceding it was the annual banquet. Governor Williams and his staff attended the festivities and the governor crowned the queen of the ball, Miss Caroline Coleord, who had been se- lected for the honor in a popularity contest conducted by the Women of Eighty-nine. The king, her attendant, was Eu-
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gene Whittington. Officers elected by the association were C. F. Coleord, president, W. O. Church, vice president, A. L. Welch, secretary, and Fred Sutton, treasurer. Directors were J. M. Owen, J. J. Weitzel, A. H. Classen and W. J. Pettee.
The war in Europe, which began in the previous year, was spreading its tentacles across the seas, and in Oklahoma City, as everywhere else in the Nation, preparedness was a topic of important discussion. President Wilson in December issued a statement favoring some form and measure of prepared- ness. The Women of Eighty-nine was the first organization in the state to express an opinion on the subject. It adopted a resolution and forwarded a copy to the President and to each member of the Oklahoma delegation in Congress in which it asserted that "as mothers and wives we abhor and deplore war in all its details; we are loath to give up our husbands and sons for cannon fodder; but if compelled to defend on country and our homes, we demand such a measure of pre- paredness as will give them the fighting chance to which they are entitled."
Oklahoma women had for ten years been as forward in literary and civic enterprises as had women of the other states, but, with a few exceptional instances, they had sought little recognition in public affairs. They had been content prin- cipally with fostering civic pride through the planting of trees and the beautifying of parks and with the conduct of the public schools and the churches and the building and oper- ation of the public library. Several efforts to create a state- wide interest in woman suffrage had failed, although a few faithful ones in the cause never let the fires burn low. But the city had now become a playground of joyriders and a center of picture-show enthusiasm and festivities. Jazz had not been defined but its symptoms had been experienced in their incipiency. The women were the first to sense the need of reform in the character of pictures exhibited, and when "Inspiration" was flashed upon the screen and became the subject of street-corner conversation, they organized, under direction of the Women's Christian Temperance Union, and marched upon the city's capitol. They asked Mayor Overhol- ser to appoint a censor board. The mayor replied that he himself would be censor, and he had an ordinance passed
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granting him that authority and forbidding the exhibition of pictures calculated to corrupt public or private morals. The mayor fared forth upon a new mission. The first exercise of authority took place on the east side where he barred " In- spiration" from a negro picture house.
The new board of directors of the Chamber of Commerce in January chose E. K. Gaylord, president; Ed S. Vaught, vice president ; R. J. Edwards, second vice president, and D. W. Hogan, treasurer. Mr. Gaylord announced that he had in mind a year of get-acquainted activities, and these he ac- counted of as great moment as efforts to secure enterprises of the equal of the packing plants and the state capitol. Owing to the call of business that kept him out of the city for sev- eral months, Mr. Gaylord resigned on November 1st and the directors elected Mr. Vaught to serve out the unexpired term. At the regular December meeting for that purpose a new board of directors for the ensuing year was chosen, consisting of E. H. Slack, William Mee, E. S. Malone, Fred S. Gum, I. S. Mahan, Ed S. Vaught, R. A. Vose, G. A. Nichols, G. G. Kerr and J. M. Bass.
Since Oklahoma City had been awarded the capital and had received a large vote over the eastern part of the state, Muskogee, then the leading city of the east side, felt that Oklahoma City should not begrudge it the honor of being the seat of a State Fair recognized by law and supported by appropriations of the Legislature. Directors of the State Fair Association had not asked recognition of the Legisla- ture nor had the Chamber of Commerce, but both this year found themselves facing a fight to prevent Muskogee getting recognition by the state. The fight was provoked by a bill introduced in the House by Representative N. B. Maxey of Muskogee which proposed official recognition of a fair con- ducted at Muskogee and making appropriations for buildings and to pay premiums. The bill failed of passage, but that was not by any means the end of Muskogee's efforts: indeed. she in later years was rewarded with a measure of victory.
Claude Weaver, whose term as a member of Congress ex- pired March 4th, was appointed postmaster to succeed H. G. Eastman who submitted his resignation on February 17th. Mr. Weaver was installed on April 1st. Some other appoint-
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ments of the year were these: J. D. Lankford, who was state bank commissioner during the administration of Governor Cruce, was reappointed by Governor Williams; W. R. Samuel of Vinita, who later for a number of years was secretary of the Oklahoma Bankers Association in Oklahoma City, was appointed a member of the state banking board; A. L. Walker, who later was a member of the corporation commission, was appointed chairman of the state election board; John Embry, of Central Hundred fame and who had been United States district attorney, was appointed county attorney for the un- expired term of the late II. Y. Thompson; R. J. Edwards, for some years one of the leading bond dealers of the state, was elected president of the city board of education; Dr. LeRoy Long of MeAlester, who subsequently was a representative physician of the city, was appointed dean of the medical de- partment of the State University, succeeding Dr. C. R. Day of Oklahoma City.
Other outstanding events of the year included these: It was announced in January that bank deposits on the first of the year had totaled $111,000,000, an increase of twenty per cent over the total of that date in the preceding year: a pro- posed bond issue of $240,000 for water extensions was de- feated June 15th; on June 27th, it was announced that Dr. R. A. Chase was to retire as pastor of the First Methodist Church and that his successor would be Dr. I. F. Roach of Madison, Wis., to whose pulpit Doctor Chase had been as- signed; on July 17th, the State National Bank absorbed the City State Bank and W. D. Caldwell of the latter was elected a vice president of the former, and among the new directors of the State National was E. W. Sinclair of Tulsa: Justice G. A. Brown of the Supreme Court, one of the ablest law- vers and jurists of the state, died on October 25th and his body was sent to Mangum, his home, for burial, and Governor Williams appointed Charles M. Thacker of Mangum to fill the vacancy.
Henry Overholser was born April 20, 1846, on a farm near Dayton, Ohio, where his childhood and youth were spent. In his young manhood he spent several years in Indiana, after which he settled at Ashland, Wis .. where he engaged in busi- niess. He came to Oklahoma City when the country was first
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opened to settlement, bringing several carloads of building material with which a number of small frame business struc- tures were erected. From the first he was recognized as a leader in the affairs of the new community, where his keen, shrewd business judgment often helped to tide over times of troubles and perplexity. One day in July, 1893, two of the four banks in Oklahoma City closed their doors and a heavy run soon started on a third bank. Mr. Overholser was one of the bondsmen of the territorial treasurer. He hurried to Guthrie and demanded every dollar in the treasury for deposit in the distressed bauk. The treasurer had only $5,000, which was on deposit in the Guthrie banks. It was drawn out in silver and gold coins and placed in sacks. Other coin sacks were filled with iron washers. When Mr. Overholser returned to Oklahoma City he was accompanied by four or five men, each carrying two heavy sacks. The first of the sacks to reach the paying teller's window were opened and the yellow and white coins rolled out in plain sight, with the result that the line of anxious depositors melted away almost instantly. When he was elected a member of the board of county com- missioners of Oklahoma County in 1894, county warrants were being sold at 40 cents on the dollar. As the result of his vigorous insistence and management they were soon selling at par. During his last years Mr. Overholser was president of the State Fair Association, to the affairs of which he de- voted nmich time and personal attention, thus insuring the success of the enterprise. He died at Oklahoma City, August 25, 1915 .- Thoburn.
1916-THE FOOD STRIKERS
Because of the World war, food production had so slack- ened in Europe that it became necessary for the United States to furnish a large part not only of the food that soldiers required but that of women and children and other non- combatants. Enormous exports of food to Europe by virtue of the law of economy produced gradually rising prices of food in this country. So rapidly did the prices mount in some instances that housewives believed merchants were prof- iteering. In Oklahoma City they believed it, and they told the merchants so. The merchants made stout denial but stout denial did not affect the skyrocketing living-expense account.
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