USA > Oklahoma > Oklahoma County > Oklahoma City > The story of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma : "the biggest little city in the world" > Part 24
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Three hundred women attended a mass meeting at the Congregational Church the evening of December 3d. It was a meeting of protest and to devise ways and means of cutting expenses and of assisting the poor who could not pay high prices for food and clothes. It was presided over by Mrs. R. M. Campbell, president of the City Federation of Clubs, and it was addressed by Sidney L. Broek and Mont R. Powell. Mr. Brock dwelt upon the necessity of practicing economy. Mr. Powell urged the women to enter into a crusade against profiteering. Mrs. Campbell asked the women to assist her in a movement to aid the poor.
The Housewives' League met on December 11th with 200 present. At this meeting was initiated probably the first movement in Oklahoma toward the practice of self-denial in food needs and the practice of conserving foods most needed for the Allies in France. The members agreed to eat fewer potatoes and fewer eggs. Miss Louise Hopkins, head of the domestic science department of the Central State Normal School, at Edmond, agreed to furnish a list of substitute foods for those denied. Miss Leno Osborne, an expert in the domes- tie science art. agreed to furnish menos for simple and whole- some meals. Simplicity in foods was the watchword. Mrs.
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M. E. Reynolds, chairman of the philanthropie committee of the City Federation, discussed the wages of the poor and asked for assistance in distributing food and clothing to the needy. Such meetings as these awakened the people to a fuller realization of conditions facing civilization, and their influence was extended and widened until it became a powerful and patriotic force in the days of sterner realities when Amer- ica joined the Allies in the greater fight for civilization.
While the women imbued with the idea of food economies began their work in an organized way this year, another body of women completed the foundation of a structure that was to become a suceor to the poor and unfortunate and a place of refuge and comfort to the worthy bereft, down into other generations. This body was known as the Community Club, and its members and the Rev. W. H. B. Urch, then pastor of the Pilgrim Congregational Church, erected on the south side what was called the Pilgrim Community House. It was dedi- cated on December 8th with appropriate exercises during which addresses were made by Mayor Overholser and Col. 1. N. Leecraft who represented Governor Williams. The club was short $5,000 of the amount necessary to pay all debts of the enterprise, and on the day of the dedication a donation of that amount was made by B. B. Jones, a wealthy oil man. Mrs. Ed Overholser was president of the club, Mrs. B. B. Jones, vice president. and Mrs. Frank P. Johnson, secretary.
It was a year of big philanthropy. A fund of $300,090 was subscribed with which to erect and equip a building for the Young Men's Christian Association. The enterprise ap- pealed to virtually all the people and, although some days of hard work were allotted toward the end of the campaign to subscription-taking committees, some of the city's biggest hearted and wealthiest men booked themselves for substantial donations. For instance, a committee of nineteen men. the first that was organized for solicitation purposes, at its first meeting made each a subscription of $2,500. These men were A. J. McMahan, D. I. Johnston, G. G. Kerr, R. A. Klein- schmidt, George G. Sohlberg, C. C. Roberts, E. B. MeKillip. A. H. Classen. Walter Caldwell, Ed Overholser, Edward Vaught, J. H. Everest, Leon Levy, C. B. Ames, S. S. Smith. Allen Street, J. E. O'Neil, Henry Hoffman and S. M. Gloyd.
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RESIDENCE OF C. P. SITES
Vol. 1-27
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This committee's activities were directed by an executive com- mittee selected during a mass meeting held on October 29th. This committee consisted of A. J. MeMahan, G. G. Kerr, George G. Sohlberg. C. C. Roberts and R. A. Kleinschmidt. The original program contemplated the raising of $250,000, but at a banquet of the workers held on November 25th, which was attended by 700 persons. it was agreed that $300,000 should be raised. During this banquet there reappeared some of that singular brand of Oklahoma enthusiasm and while it held the audience with its thrill R. J. Edwards announced that he would make a further donation of $10,000. Then pioneers came to the fore again. An Eighty-Niner of the hickory blend appears never to have met defeat. Charles F. Coleord and Anton H. Classen arose simultaneously and announced addi- tions of $5,000 each to their subscriptions. Possibly there were others equally large. The fund was raised in due time and it constructed one of the finest Y. M. C. A. buildings in the Southwest.
The chief municipal enterprise of the year was the voting of bonds totalling one and one-half million dollars to be used in creating a water reservoir a few miles northwest of the city and extending the water system. The issue was voted on May 20th. Plans for this great enterprise were drawn by Guy V. MeClure, city engineer, and they were approved by competent engineers of St. Louis, Chicago and Houston. They provided in the main for the construction of a dam and the creation of a storage basin capable of holding six billion eight hundred million gallons of water. At that time the amount of water works bonds outstanding was $1.210,000.
It was either in evidence or imagined by representative members of the Chamber of Commerce early in the year that the organization's vitality was abnormally low and that its activities were draggy. Quite probably it was experiencing a necessary reaction following the great accomplishments of the two preceding years. The assumption appeared to be con- tagious and on June 11th the board of directors announced its intention of resigning in a body " in behalf of an expansion movement." The movement was set going at once after the resignations were in. Pep committees were set to work under a new program and on July 11th the membership committee
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reported that it had obtained 1,800 members, and at one of those characteristic onward and upward meetings set its goal at 2,000 members. At a later meeting the new organization elected a board of directors consisting of Ed S. Vaught, J. E. O'Neil, G. G. Kerr, Joseph Huekins, S. L. Brock, C. F. Col- cord, Ed Overholser, A. H. Classen, G. G. Sohlberg, William Mee, E. B. MeKillip and Dr. Phil C. Baird. The board re- elected Mr. Vaught president.
A revolution in Mexico that resulted in depredations be- ing committed on soil of the United States caused an invasion of Mexico this year by American troops under leadership of Gen. John J. Pershing, and in this invasion soldiers of the Oklahoma National Guard participated. The mobilization order of the War Department was issued June 18th. It called for concentration of Oklahoma troops at Chandler. Col. Roy Hoffman of the Oklahoma regiment proceeded to pre- pare the camp at Chandler and Adjt .- Gen. Frank Canton to set the troops in motion. Recruits were called for and an intensive drilling was under way immediately. Before any men were sent to Chandler the War Department changed its order and commanded that the guardsmen be mobilized at Fort Sill. On June 24th the first troop train moved out of Oklahoma City bearing all men and officers of the companies of the guard in the city. Down to that date the demonstration was the greatest ever held in the city. Twelve thousand per- sons assembled and listened to a patriotic speech by President Vaught of the Chamber of Commerce.
Governor Williams on June 28th issued a call for volun- teers for the National Guard, indicating that seven hundred to eight hundred able-bodied men were needed for training. On July 8th it was announced from Fort Sill that Maj. Charles Barrett of the first battalion and Maj. Winfield Scott of the third battalion were found physically unfit for border serv- ice. On JJuly 19th the troops entrained at Fort Sill for the Mexican border. The patriotic celebration on July 4th this year, held at Belle Isle, was a genuine demonstration of Amer- ican patriotism and incidentally it was a record-breaking patriotic event of a decade. Among the speakers were Mr. Vanght, Col. Harry W. Pentecost, Col. A. N. Leecraft and Capt. H. H. Harrelson.
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An illustration of the truth of the proverb that all great bodies move slowly may be discovered in discussions of this year on the subject of a nion railway station for the city. On March 6th, the corporation commission issued an order commanding the Rock Island and Frisco railway companies to erect a union passenger station, and directing that their engineers submit plans for the station by June Ist and that the station be completed by January 1, 1917. Officials of the companies announced that they had plans in the making for a seven-story station and office building to cost about seven hundred thousand dollars. On October 10th, Commissioner George A. Henshaw reported that the commission had granted the railroads an extension of time to September 1st and that the commission would not tolerate a delay longer than De- cember 1st. Meantime engineers' plans had been approved by Mayor Overholser on behalf of the city and the roads had selected the original site of the Frisco passenger station for the union passenger station. The commission finally granted the roads until July 1, 1917, to complete the station. In later years union-station matters again became topics of discussion, but great bodies still were moving slowly at the end of 1921 and the city still was withont a union station and still suffer- ing the inconvenience of grade crossings.
In later years George Kessler, noted landscape architect of St. Louis, took a part in railroad station and city-planning discussions. It was in October of this year that Mr. Kessler made his first visit to Oklahoma City. He came on invitation of the park commission to make plans for laying out and beautifying Harn Park in the Harndale Addition, and he advised making plans for a larger parking system and boule- vards.
At the annual meeting of the Eighty-Niners Association it was announced that during the year twenty-five members had died. The meeting was well attended and special ad- dresses were delivered by Claude Weaver and Judge Preston S. Davis of Vinita. New officers and directors elected were A. L. Welch, president : John E. Carson, vice president ; T. M. Richardson, Jr., secretary : Fred Sutton, treasurer, and E. IT. Monwell, J. L. Wyatt, A. M. DeBolt and George Carrico, directors.
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State officers elected this year were Campbell Russell, cor- poration commissioner, defeating J. L. Brown, the republican nominee; W. D. Humphries, corporation commissioner, who had been appointed by Governor Williams to succeed A. P. Watson on the commission; Matthew J. Kane, member of the Supreme Court, defeating Horace Speed, the republican nominee; C. M. Thacker, member of the Supreme Court, and T. H. Doyle, member of the Criminal Court of Appeals. Joseph B. Thompson of Pauls Valley defeated G. H. Dodson of Oklahoma City for Congress from the Fifth District.
This year marked the beginning of interstate and con- tinental highway movements in this section of the country, and among the leading projects affecting Oklahoma City directly was that of Col. W. H. Harvey of Monte Ne, Ark., general manager of the Ozark Trails Association. That association held a convention here on November 20th, at the conclusion of a campaign for raising a fund of $10,000 that was required of the city by the association. A local motorists' club had been organized here and its influence was in a large measure responsible for the city becoming an objective point on the Ozark Trail. Of this club George G. Sohlberg was president.
Judge Selwyn Douglas, a highly esteemed pioneer and an influential resident of earlier years, died on June 28th, at the age of seventy-five. He was a graduate of the University of Michigan and began practising law in Kansas, moving to Oklahoma City in 1890. He was for five years receiver of the United States Land Office and later was referee in bank- ruptey. Ile was one of the founders of the Public Library Association and was its first president.
The death of Judge B. F. Burwell took place this year also, on April 2d. He was born in Pennsylvania in 1866 and came to Oklahoma City in 1891 as a law partner of Dr. A. C. Scott. In 1898 he was appointed associate justice of the Ter- ritorial Supreme Court, a position he held until the advent of statehood, when he became a member of the law firm of Bur- well, Crockett & Johnson. No decision of his while he occupied the bench ever was reversed by the United States Supreme Court. Virtually the entire city mourned his death. At his funeral Judge C. B. Stuart delivered the memorial address.
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Another death of the year was that of Joseph C. McClel- land, former state auditor and at this time vice president of the Tradesman's State Bank, of which he was one of the founders. He was fifty-nine years old, and a native of Mis- souri. He came to Oklahoma in 1893. He engaged in the banking business at Pond Creek and while there was for four years clerk of the United States Court. On proclamation of the governor all state departments were closed during the funeral. The pallbearers were former Governor Lee Cruce, C. F. Colcord, A. H. Classen, Frank J. Wikoff and Charles West.
Organization of the Employers Association of Oklahoma was formed on February 4th. Among members of the first board of directors were Frank Foltz, Dorset Carter, Bunn Booth and C. H. Anderson of Oklahoma City.
On February 24th, Ehmer E. Brown was reelected seere- tary of the Chamber of Commerce. He resigned later in the year and was succeeded by Leroy Gibbs of Sioux Falls, S. D.
Judge Samuel Hooker, formerly county judge and later assistant county attorney, was on January 5th appointed by Governor Williams as a member of the Supreme Court Com- mission.
The Lakeside Country Club was organized June 7th and incorporated by S. H. Ingham, C. S. Burton, and G. Misch. Its membership was to be limited to 500. It planned construc- tion of a $10,000 club house near the city lake and laying out an eighteen-hole golf course.
John A. Whiteford of St. Joseph, Mo., was on June 26th elected superintendent of schools to succeed Guy V. Buchanan.
The Oklahoma Railway Company operated its first inter- urban car to Guthrie on July 14th. Accompanying officials of the company on the initial trip were Jack Love, chairman of the Corporation Commission, representing the state, and City Commissioner J. T. Highley.
John Embry resigned as county attorney during the year to return to the private practice and was succeeded by Charles B. Selby.
Edgar S. Vaught was born in Wythe County, in South- western Virginia. in 1873. His ancestors were from Holland. and found homes among the pioneers of the noted mountain
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district of Western Virginia and Eastern Kentucky and Ten- nessee. He graduated from the Carson-Newman College of Jefferson City with the degree of Bachelor of Science in 1899. In the meantime he had also attended the Emory & Henry College of Virginia. In 1896 he was elected to the office of county superintendent of schools of Jefferson County, Ten- nessee, was reelected for the two succeeding terms, and at the same time was carrying on studies in Carson-Newman College and was also equipping himself for law. He was admitted to the bar at Dandridge. Tennessee, in 1898, and had some ex- perience as a lawyer in Dandridge before coming to Okla- homa.
In 1901 Mr. Vaught came to Oklahoma City to accept the post of principal of the city high schools. In less than a year he was made superintendent of the Oklahoma City schools. His services attracted the attention of the territorial govern- ment of Oklahoma, as coincident with his service as city school superintendent he was from 1902 to 1906 a member of the territorial board of education. In May, 1907, Governor Frantz appointed him a member of the board of regents of the territorial normal schools, three in number, and his mem- bership on that board was terminated by the entrance of Okla- homa into the Union on November 16. 1907.
In 1906. after severing his active relations with the public schools of Oklahoma City, Mr. Vanght formed a law partner- ship with John E. DuMars and Samuel A. Calhoun, under the firm name of DuMars, Vaught & Calhoun. In 1907 the firm became DuMars & Vaught. continuing as such until 1912. when it was dissolved. At that time Mr. Vaught became associated with James H. Ready, making the firm Vanght & Ready. Later the style of the firm was Everest, Vaught & Brewer.
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