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cont.
MAX HAHN PACKING CO.
In the meat packing industry, Oklahoma offers comparatively
a virgin field. For years its broad territory has furnished
thousands of herds for the slaughter pens of Kansas City,
Chicago and other well known packing centers, but the development
of a home industry is a subject of very recent history. On
the south, Fort Worth has been an important market for some
years, and on the north Wichita has reached considerable importance
in this field, but the broad expanse of Oklahoma has been
a factor in the meat industry mainly as a source of supply.
Oklahoma City was a natural point for the location
of a plant that would draw its supply from the Oklahoma stock
farms. In 1899 the first considerable effort was made to establish
such an industry. In that year the Hoefer Packing Company
of St. Joseph, Missouri, built a branch in this city. In 1902
the business passed into the hands of the Oklahoma Packing
Company, which had been organized by Mr. E. F. Sparrow,
of the American National Bank, who became president of the
company. After three years the Oklahoma Packing Company discontinued
operations. The plant had not been entirely a success, due
perhaps to the lack of proper and experienced management of
the details of the business.
The plant lay idle for some time, awaiting the
enterprise and experience necessary to make a success of the
business. These requisites were found in the person of Max
Hahn. who came from Dallas, Texas, in the summer of 1907,
and after looking over the abandoned plant decided to re-establish
the business. Mr. Hahn had been a successful retailer and
meat packer in Dallas for twenty years. Born in the province
of Rheinpfalz, Bavaria, in 1863. he early learned the butcher's
trade and has followed the business all his life. On coming
to America at the age of fourteen, he was an employe in shops
in New York city and state, and later went to work in one
of the big packing plants at Kansas City, where he mastered
the details of the business and laid the foundation for his
independent career. In 1887 he began the retail meat business
in Dallas in a small way, but with the development of that
town into one of the important southwestern cities he expanded
his business accordingly, and soon had three large meat markets
supplying his retail trade in that city. From the retail shop,
and to supplement it,
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he established a packing plant, and began supplying
a large country trade. This branch of his enterprise at first
met with obstinate competition, but he pushed it along until
his Dallas packing house was recognized as one of the important
business assets of the- city. Furthermore, his achievement
was such as to win the admiration of the leading business
and financial interests of the city, and with this backing
and encouragement he was able to secure favorable commission
arrangements at the Fort Worth stockyards, enabling him to
buy stock there on an equal footing with the big Chicago packing
companies who control the Fort Worth yards; a result that
no independent packer hitherto had been able to accomplish.
The Hahn Packing Company now has its principal
plant in Qklahoma City, the old one at Dallas being continued
as a branch. This concentration of the business here was due
to the faith of its founder in the greatness of Oklahoma City
as the commercial center of the new state, and also a keen
appreciation of the advantages to the company that will utilize
and develop the new field of Oklahoma as a packing supply.
The new plant started under good auspices, and its initial
capacity for slaughtering about 400 head of cattle and about
1,200 hogs per week will be increased as business warrants.
The Max Hahn Packing Company plant is on the east side of
the Santa Fe tracks at the intersection of Frisco street.
The buildings are large and commodious, and under Mr. Hahn's
supervision have been re-equipped with the best of modern
machinery and every facility for the expeditious and economical
handling of the business. The stockyards in connection are
conducted with a liberal policy that is certain to be broadly
beneficial to the city. No commission charges exacted from
stock shippers, who, after shipping their stock to this point,
are allowed, if not satisfied with the local market, to re-ship
to Kansas City or other points, without charge for water and
pens. Whether Oklahoma City is destined to become a great
stock market depends upon future developments, but it can
be said with assurance that the establishment of this one
plant here, fostered by its liberal business policy, will
be directly beneficial to the live-stock industry in Oklahoma
by offering a market to the small shippers who previously
could not, profitably, ship stock to distant markets in less
than carload lots. To nearby stock growers it also offers
advantages in that the stock suffers less depreciation in
transit. Mr. Hahn, at the head of the business, is thoroughly
experienced in its every detail, is a competent business manager,
and has ample financial resources for the promotion of this
large concern. His entrance into the industrial field means
much for the future development of Oklahoma City. Associated
with him are his two sons, Carl and Max, Jr.,
both of whom are capable young business men.
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cont.
D. W. F. TURBYFILL
is an architect of well known ability and renown in eastern
Oklahoma, and his professional career here covers the period
of the city's remarkable expansion to its present metropolitan
proportions. One of the most notable buildings which stand
as a monument to his wonderful skill as an architect is the
magnificent Masonic Temple at Guthrie, of which he was the
architect not only of the original building, but of the more
recent additions to the beautiful structure. He designed the
dormitory for the Langston University, the Christian church
of Chickasha and the Christian church of Oklahoma City. He
is also the architect of several bank buildings throughout
Oklahoma, notably of the Hite Brothers Bank of Anadarko, the
Finnerty Bank at Cordell, the bank of the Purcell Bank and
Trust Company, the First National Bank of Elk City, two bank
buildings at Wynnewood, the Thomas (Oklahoma) National Bank
and many others of the finest structures of the state. Of
those mentioned nearly all are of a .c1assic style of architecture.
Although so closely allied with the progress
and development of Oklahoma Mr. Turbyfill is a native son
of North Carolina, born in Lincoln county in 1867, and he
is of English ancestry. On coming to this country the family
first located in Virginia, and to a member of this family
belongs the distinction of building the first house in Petersburg,
that state. In 1880 the Turbyfills moved from Lincoln county
to Texas, first locating in Cooke county, and thus D. W.
F. Turbyfill attended school in both states. Returning
after a time to North Carolina he attended Concordia College
in Catawba county, and his professional education was obtained
principally in the Maack School of Architecture in St. Louis,
but he also pursued courses in architecture in Dallas and
other of the principal cities of Texas. He began his work
in what was formerly Indian Territory, spending a year or
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so at St. Paul's Valley and Wynnewood, and continuing
at Guthrie, Oklahoma. In 1899 he located permanently in Oklahoma
City, and his professional career here covers the period of
the city's remarkable growth and development, while during
all this time he has engraved his name indelibly on the pages
of its history.
Some of the handsomest and most substantial structures, both
business and residence, in this city are of his designing.
He was the architect of the Gault building, the McCord-Collins
building, the Martin building, and one of his latest business
structures is a three story brick building for the Britton
Brothers on Third street. He designed the residences of M.
L. Turner, Dennis Flynn, O. A. Mitscher, John Alexander
and F.E. Fulton, these being among the finest in the
city.
Mr. Turbyfill married in Wynnewood Miss Mattie
Winbray, who was born and reared in Texas, and they have
one son, M. Angelo Turbyfill.
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cont.
EVERETT JAMES GIDDINGS
has become one of the able lawyers of Oklahoma City and is
also one of the prominent Democrats of city and state, being,
so it is understood, in line for promotion by his party to
the office of governor of the state. Mr. Giddings was born
at San Antonio, Texas, August 4, 1874, son of Colonel George
H. and Julia M. (Thompson) Giddings. His father was a
Confederate soldier, and commanded the Sixth Texas Infantry
in the last engagement of the civil war. On the mother's side,
also, Mr. Giddings has a military record as a heritage, his
mother being the granddaughter of the gallant Commodore Truxton,
the hero of the brief period of hostility between the United
States and France in 1799.
Mr. Giddings was educated in the public schools
of New York City, and graduated from the University of Texas
in 1893 with the degree of LL.B. At the beginning of his career
as a lawyer he practiced in San Antonio, with the firm of
Sweringer and Brooks for a year and a half, and was in independent
practice at Gainesville, Texas, until the outbreak of the
Spanish-American war, at which time he enlisted in the Third
Texas Infantry, U. S. V. He was commissioned first lieutenant,
but his regiment never left the United States for active service..
Since then Mr. Giddings has practiced his profession in Oklahoma
City.
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cont.
R. PARKS BENNETT,
president of BennettShennan Realty Company and well known
throughout Oklahoma City and the state as a dealer in real
estate and a promoter of business and industrial enterprises
on a large scale, is a native of St. Charles, Missouri, where
he was born on the 11th of August, 1870. He is a son of George
D. and Mamie (Parks) Bennett, and obtained his education
in the public schools of Dallas, Texas, and his early business
training also in that city. His first experience in the commercial
world was with Sanger Brothers drygoods house of Dallas, as
a stock boy in their notion department. When eighteen years
of age he was appointed their salesman for Texas, remaining
in that capacity until 1904, when he continued his career
as a commercial traveler by going to St. Louis in the interest
of Adolph Glazier & Company, dealers in white goods. While
with this house, his territory comprised Texas, Oklahoma and
Indian Territory, and his combined experience gave him a broad
outlook over a very important field of the Southwest.
In 1905, Mr. Bennett located in the progressive
and virile city of Oklahoma, and he at once became a stalwart
figure in its many activities. He organized and incorporated
the Bennett-Sherman Realty Company, of which he has been president
from the first. Although primarily devoted to real estate
and insurance, the business of the company has been conducted
along the broadest lines, and has included the promotion of
many large enterprises and industries, such as the Max Hahn
Packing Company and the Pintch Compressing Company. Through
the individual endeavors of Mr. Bennett and the platting,
sale and donation of city real estate many projects have been
centered in Oklahoma City and redounded to its substantial
growth as well as the prosperity of its citizens, so that
while furthering his own interest to a noteworthy extent,
at the same time he has been a public benefactor. Mr. Bennett
married Miss Ethel Cavanaugh, of Dallas, Texas, and
they have two daughters, Muriel and Frances.
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cont.
CHARLES EDWARD JOHNSON
is one of the ablest young lawyers in Oklahoma. He has been
engaged in the practice of law in Oklahoma City since August,
1902. He is a member of the firm of Burwell, Crockett &
Johnson, who have an extensive practice, with well equipped
offices in the Lee Building. Mr. Johnson was born in Sweden,
coming
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to the United States when he was eighteen years
of age. He graduated in the law department of the University
of Texas in 1901, with Bachelor of Laws. He is affiliated
with the Masons, Odd Fellows and Elks, and is a member of
the India Temple, and of Consistory.
In 1905 Mr. Johnson was married to Miss Mary
Milner, daughter of M. C. Milner, one of the pioneer
business men and capitalists of Oklahoma City. Mr. Johnson
takes an active interest in civic affairs, and is president
of the Board of Trustees of the Carnegie Public Library.
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cont.
JAMES
A. McLAUCHLIN, A. B., A. M., LITT. D.
Prominent among the most active, popular and successful educators
of Oklahoma is Dr. James A. McLauchlin, president of
the Central State Normal at Edmond, Oklahoma. Inheriting from
his parents a healthy mental and moral constitution, and being
endowed by scholarly tastes and ambitions, he has ever been
a diligent and conscientious student, and is eminently fitted
for the important and responsible position which he is now
filling. A son of the late John C. McLauchlin, he was
born June 15, 1867, in Wadesboro county, North Carolina, of
sturdy Scotch ancestry.
The Doctor's paternal grandfather, Duncan
McLauchlin was born in Argyleshire, Scotland, and, with
his wife, Katherine McLauchlin emigrated to this country,
settling in Cumberland county, North Carolina. Obtaining large
tracts of land in that county, he became closely identified
with several of the industries of that part of the state,
taking an especial interest in the development of the turpentine
industry. In po1itics, he belonged to the old Whig party.
Both he and his wife, true to the religious faith in which
they were brought up, were strict Presbyterians. They were
the parents of six children, as follows: Neill D.,
who served as a Confederate soldier throughout the Civil war;
John Calvin, the Doctor's father; Sarah Jane (Holt),
William A., who died while in the Confederate service;
Benjamin, also died while serving as a soldier in the
Confederate army; and Katherine Ann.
John Calvin McLauchlin was a life-long
resident of North Carolina, and died at his home in Wadesboro,
May 24, 1906. He graduated from the University of North Carolina
in 1857, after taking the A. B. course. He served in the late
Civil war as captain of Company "K," Pee Dee Wild
Cats, Twenty-Sixth North Carolina Regiment. He was wounded
at Malvern Hill during the seven days' fight; and again at
Gettysburg, this time losing his left thumb and, for a time,
the use of his left hand. His regiment entered the battle-field
at Gettysburg on the first day with about eight hundred men,
and came out of the third day's fight with scarcely one hundred
men, after having made the charge with Col. Pickett up the
slope of Cemetery Ridge. At the close of the war in 1865,
he moved to Wadesboro and engaged in the mercantile business.
On February 18, 1863, he was united in marriage to Miss Mary
Elizabeth Caraway, who for twenty-nine years shared with
him his joys and sorrows. Nine, children were the fruit of
this union, five of, whom still live: James A., the
subject of this sketch; Katherine, wife of B. G.
Covington; Duncan, foreman of a newspaper in Wadesboro,
North Carolina; John E., advertising manager of the
Daily Georgian, of Atlanta, Georgia; and Wilfred C.,
principal of the Darlington, South Carolina, High School.
In writing the obituary of the late Captain John C. McLauchlin,
Judge R. T.
Bennett said: "He came to Anson county to teach our
youth and lead them along the road to culture. His success
was immediate; he grew upon the people; his full stature in
outline was made manifest, and he became an inspiration to
many. In 1874, he was elected clerk of superior court and
judge of probate and held the office for twenty-eight years.
No man ever knew him derelict of speech, action or conduct.
Such was his towardliness to friends, that his words and actions
became living things, immortal things, walking about in their
hearts. No despisements took refuge in his dear soul. His
habits were as regular as the sun. His second wife, a lady
of many graces, survives him. His children are rich in accomplishments
of mind and heart. He will live in his labors begun, prosecuted
and ended here." Captain McLauchlin was a lifelong Democrat,
a zealous member of the Masonic fraternity, and a ruling elder
in the Presbyterian church, having represented his church
on several occasions as commissioner to the General Assembly.
Being graduated from the public schools of Wadesboro,
James A. McLauchlin entered Davidson College, in Davidson,
North Carolina, and was there graduated with the degree of
A. B., in 1887, his average during the four years that he
was in that institution being
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ninety-seven and one-half. Taking a postgraduate
course in the same college in 1894, he was awarded the degree
of A. M. A fine student, standing as leader in his
class, he received commendations from his instructors, and
was heartily recommended , by the president of the college
for the professional work in which he intended to engage,
that of a teacher. Since his graduation, the doctor has taken a very
prominent part in educational work, having served as conductor
or instructor in twelve different Normal Institutes held in
his native state, Texas or Oklahoma. He has added much to
his efficiency as an educator since entering upon his professional
Career by taking a post-graduate course at the University
of Chicago, and doing summer Normal work at the University
of North Carolina. He holds first grade certificates for Kansas,
averaging ninety-seven; for North Carolina, averaging one
hundred; and for Oklahoma, averaging ninety-nine and four-sevenths,
this being the highest average ever made in Greer county,
Oklahoma, and as far as known, the highest in the state. He
holds permanent certificates for the states of Texas and Oklahoma,
and in 1900 King College, Tennessee, conferred upon him the
honorary degree of Doctor of Literature.
Dr. McLauchlin served in public school work
four years in Kansas and five years in his native state and
those whom he served have given him full and hearty indorsement
of his work both as teacher and citizen. For seven years he
was Professor of Mathematics at Austin College, Texas, during
which time his salary was twice increased, and he had been
elected for the eighth year and had served through the summer
term when he accepted the superintendency of the Mangum Public
Schools. This change as well as each of the other changes
referred to, was a distinct promotion, especially in the matter
of salary. Dr. McLauchlin reorganized the school system at
Mangum and so improved the schools during his four years of
service that the public schools of Mangum are not surpassed
in efficiency by those of any other city in the state. With
a two-year kindergarten course, primary, grammar school and
high school courses the graduates from which enter the university
of the state without examination; with modern school buildings
of the most approved architecture and surrounded with beautiful
lawns adorned with trees and flowers; with every department
properly equipped for its work, there being well furnished
laboratories, maps, globes, charts, measures, weights, drawing
models, etc., and with special apparatus for teaching geometry,
geography, physiology, zoology, agriculture and physics, with
all these evidences of progress, the citizens of Mangum have
great reason to be proud of their public schools. In these
four years, Dr. McLauchlin secured such increases in the salaries
of the Mangum teachers that for the spring term of 1908, the
average salaries paid were the highest in Oklahoma and the
cost per pupil was the lowest of any city in the state. The
officers and members of the Mangum Board of Education, who
elected Dr. McLauchlin in 1904, served with him for four years,
and were re-elected for the fifth time; this being the highest
possible tribute to the members of the board and to the superintendent.
His tireless efforts and efficient work to promote and advance
the educational standing of the Mangum schools, and his faithful
though modest service in the interest of the Democratic party
had much to do with his being elected by the Board of Regents
to his present position as President of the Central State
Normal at Edmond, the largest and most important educational
institution in Oklahoma. If we may judge by the energy and
wisdom with which Dr. McLauchlin has taken hold of his new
work, it may be said, without a doubt that he is the right
man in the right place.
In 1888, in North Carolina, Dr. McLauchlin married
Frances E. Tillman, who was born in that state in 1870,
a daughter of Dr. David C. Tillman, and a cousin of
Senator Tillman, of South Carolina. Dr. Tillman was a skillful
physician and surgeon and served during the Civil war in the
Confederate army. He was a stanch Democrat, a member of the
Masonic fraternity, and died in 1903. His wife and eight children
survive him, as follows: Frederick S., farming on the
old homestead; Frances E., wife of Dr. McLauchlin;
Arnold, a successful commercial salesman; Elizabeth,
wife of Hon. J. W. Stitt, of Fort Worth, Texas; William
L., a merchant; James E., a farmer; Richard
H., an electrical engineer in New York; and Rosa.
Dr. and Mrs. McLauchlin are the parents of five children:
Anna, born in 1889; Katherine, born in 1895;
John Calvin, born in 1898; Rosamond, born in
1900; and Frances, born in 1906. Both the Doctor and
Mrs. McLauchlin are members of the Presbyterian church. He
has been an
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elder in that church ever since he was twenty-one
years of age. He served both as ruling elder and as clerk
of the session at Meriden, Kansas; Wadesboro, North Carolina;
Sherman, Texas; and at Mangum, Oklahoma. He is a member of
the Beta Theta Pi college fraternity and like his father is
an enthusiastic Mason. He is a member of the Knights of as,
the Woodmen of the World, the Modern Woodmen, and the Fraternal
Union of America. He also carries insurance in four leading
old line companies. Besides being an educator, he enters heartily
upon his duties as a citizen, and is a successful business
man, having acquired a large landed property.
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cont.
HARDY C. ANGLEA.
Edmond, though now a town of several thousand inhabitants,
with business blocks, banks, industries and other institutions,
began its existence at the time of the opening in April, 1889,
with four original settlers. These four pioneers were the
following: Colonel E. B. Townsend, J. D. Turner, Wheeler
Turner, and Hardy C. Anglea. These men started
at the Kickapoo line, and riding on horseback, reached the
site of Edmond at 1:40 p. m. of the opening day. The southeast
quarter of section 35, adjoining the town on the south, and
now being developed for city residence purposes, was homesteaded,
by Mr. Anglea, who lived here ever since the opening and was
an active factor in the progress of Edmond.
Mr. Anglea was in the live-stock business, during
the first years of his residence at Edmond. In 1898 he became
actively connected with the real estate business, and was
instrumental in bringing many settlers to this country, where
they have found and made prosperous homesteads. His brother,
J. M. Anglea, is cashier of the First NationaJ Bank
of Edmond. Mr. Anglea was one of the influential Democrats
of the county, having been chairman and delegate in many conventions
and also acted as campaign manager.
Mr. Anglea was identified with the Oklahoma
country before its opening to settlement, having been appointed,
in 1888, superintendent of the Indian farm for the Ponca Indians,
near White Eagle, in what later became Oklahoma Territory.
He held that position until the opening. Mr. Anglea was born
at Castalian Springs. Sumner county, Tennessee, in 1860, son
of W. R. and Martha (Cryer) Anglea, both representing
old an well known families of Tennessee. The paternal ancestors
originally lived in Virginia. On his mother's side, Mr. Anglea
was grandson of Rev. Hardy M. Cryer, who was one of
the ablest ministers in the early history of the Methodist
church in Tennessee. Mr. Anglea had in his possession some
treasured letters that were written to his grandfather by
Andrew Jackson, and it was owing to the advice and
influence of "Old Hickory" that the former entered
the ministry.
Having been reared and educated in his native
county, Mr. Anglea, in 1883, was given a position with Captain
Bates of Tennessee, brother of Governor Bates in the work
of surveying and constructing the first street railroad at
El Paso, Texas, of which work Captain Bates was then in charge.
Following this, for two years, Mr. Anglea was in the railroad
train service between El Paso and the City of Mexico, and
shortly afterward came to Oklahoma. Mr. Anglea's first wife
was Miss Daisy Collier of Sumner county, Tennessee;
who died at Edmond in 1895, leaving two children, Robert
and Hardy C., Jr. He afterwards married Miss Eva
Link, of Moberly, Missouri. They had one son, William
K. Mr. Anglea died October 26, 1907.
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cont.
WILLIAM S. PATTEN.
At the opening of the territory in 1889, when the town of
Edmond was established on the line of the Santa Fe Road some
miles north of Oklahoma City, a banking enterprise Was also
founded, called the Bank of Edmond. In 1893 the Peop1e's Bank
was established, and after going along for some years these
two were consolidated, in 1898, and in 1902 a national bank
charter was obtained and the present First National Bank of
Edmond established. The First National has capital stock of
$25,000, and at this writing the surplus is $5,000, while
its deposits are over a hundred thousand dollars. It is a
sound institution, with capable men as it's officers and directors,
and has exerted a beneficial influence in the business of
a large community.
The president is William S. Patten, whose
ability as a financier has peen tested by residence and. business
activity in the northern part of Oklahoma county since the
early years of territorial history. He was cashier of the
former consolidated bank, and when the national charter was
taken out was elected president. His associates in the bank
are J. W. Howard, vice-president; John M. Anglea,
cashier. Mr. Patten is also a director of the Bank of Arcadia,
and has many business interests in Oklahoma county. As a member
of
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the younger set of enterprising and public-spirited
business men who are making Oklahoma a great state, Mr. Patten's
training and ability fit him for the responsible position
he now occupies. Born at Sandwich, DeKalb county, Illinois,
he was reared on his father's farm, his father being one of
the most prominent stockmen of that part of the state, and
besides being a pioneer settler was also a pioneer in the
breeding of short-horn cattle. William S. Patten has also
been identified with the stock business for several years
in Oklahoma, and began his career in that line. After getting
his education at Sandwich, he went to Story county, Iowa,
and though only a boy in years engaged in the stock business.
On taking up his residence in Oklahoma in 1891, he homesteaded
a quarter section near Edmond. Mr. Patten's wife is Erma
(Howard) Patten. They have two children, William Howard
and Mabel Erma.
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cont.
THOMAS PRYOR GORE.
In the country at large much interest was aroused by
the fact that Oklahoma had chosen a blind senator to represent
the, new state at Washington. A blind orator in the upper
house was a distinction that no other state could share. But
when the blind senator first engaged in debate with some of
the veteran leaders of the senate, and suffered no disparagement
in logical statement and skill of pointed repartee in comparison
with his colleague, this interest was heightened to surprise
and admiration, with the result that in the first session
Senator Gore acquired a position of respected influence in
the legislative chamber noted for its conservatism and observance
of precedents. At
home Senator Gore's ability has been well known for several
years, and it seemed a well merited honor that he should be
chosen to the first rank of officials who represent the new
state.
Thomas Pryor Gore is a Mississippian
by birth, and less than forty years of age, so that he is
among the junior members of the senate. Born in Webster county,
Mississippi, December 10, 1870, a son of Thomas Madison
and Carrie Elizabeth (Wingo) Gore, he met his first physical
misfortune when a child of eight years, losing his left eye
by being accidentally struck with a stick by a playmate. Three
years later an arrow from a cross-bow pierced the other eye,
and since that time, without the priceless gift of sight,
has attained position far in advance of average attainment.
Of a studious nature, he acquired knowledge by having others
read to him, and depended on a wonderfully retentive memory
and active mind to remold his knowledge for his practical
use. At the age of twenty he was graduated from the normal
school, at Walthall, Mississippi, and in 1892 received the
degree of B. LL. from the Cumberland University, Tennessee,
and was admitted to the bar the same year. He had been a school
teacher during 1890-91, and before he was twenty-one years
old had been nominated, for the state legislature, his minority
preventing him from conducting an active campaign for the
office. After practicing law in Mississippi, he moved to Texas
in 1895, where he joined the Populist political movement and
at once took a leading part. He was a delegate to the national
Populist convention at St. Louis in 1896, and in 1898 was
nominated by the sixth Texas districts candidate for Congress,
being defeated. With the decline of the Populist movement
and the incorporation of many of its principles and personal
adherents in the Democratic party, Mr. Gore became a Democrat
in 1899, and in 1900 campaigned, as the blind orator, in South
Dakota and other states, and repeated this party work in the
campaign of 1904. Mr. Gore moved to Oklahoma at the time of
the Kiowa-Comanche opening in 1901, and has lived in Lawton.
He was elected and served in the territorial council during
190205, and following a successful campaign for the United
States senatorship in the summer of 1907 was elected by the
first legislature of Oklahoma in November. Senator Gore married
at Palestine, Texas, December 27, 1900, Miss Nina Kay.
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cont.
FRANK
McMASTER, At the opening of the Kiowa and Comanche
reservation on August 6,1901, and the founding of the town
of Lawton which received its birth the same day, hundreds
participated in those stirring initial events who never made
more than a temporary impression on the life and affairs of
the new country. With equal truth it may be said that among
those who rode into Lawton that August day were some men who
from that time to this have never ceased for a single day
to be active, energetic factors in civic or business life.
A town of tents one day had become a well organized
civic community almost the day after, and within a few months
all the important activities and institutions of a populous
center were well established in Lawton. But it may be readily
per-
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ceived that such rapid development required
organizers, men of initiative, of great public spirit, unselfishly
devoted to the public good. Lawton fortunately had several
such. But when the historical inquirer turns his questions
this way, the citizens usually have a name to head the listFrank
McMaster. Among other things, Mr. McMaster is identified with
the foundation of a public school system in Lawton. He was
first president of the school board, and, going about his
duties with great energy and without regard for his own time
and expense, he had constructed within a very short time three
wooden school buildings in which the public school system
was inaugurated, and within sixty days there were twelve hundred
pupils occupying modem furniture. He was also a member of
the first board of county commissioners.
While Mr. McMaster belongs in peculiar and intimate
relation to Lawton, he has been an Oklahoman since the first
opening day, and what he has done and what he has been in
the subsequent while are features of Oklahoma history that
cannot be confined to any one locality. In another chapter
it is related how he came to Oklahoma City on the opening
day and at once established a daily paper, the Daily Galzette,
which he conducted for a little over five years.
His career has been varied, eventful and spiced
with the ardor, the independence and forcefulness of his own
character and temperament, from boyhood up. Born in Cook county,
Illinois, in what is now within the city limits of Chicago,
in 1842, he was reared and educated in that city, and for
a year or so before the war gained a dual experience in newspaper
work and in studying law. He was in Chicago at the time of
the political excitement over the first campaign and election
of Lincoln and got a first-hand knowledge of noted men and
events of the time. The breaking out of the Civil war caused
him to enlist at Chicago, and his record as a soldier throughout
that conflict was marked by bravery and efficiency. He was
a member of Company G, 52d Illinois Infantry, First Brigade,
Second Division, Left Wing, 16th Army Corps. Army of the Tennessee,
and was first Post Commander of Grant Post, G. A. R, Oklahoma
City, Oklahoma. On coming out of the army he resumed newspaper
work and in a short time was admitted to the bar. His examination
was -conducted before the supreme court at Ottawa, one of
the members of the court being Judge Sidney Breese, one of
the most noted jurists of Illinois. For a time he practiced
law in Kane county, Illinois. It is of interest as showing
his varied knowledge of men and affairs that he was connected
as reporter with the old Chicago Times during the early career
of Wilbur F. Story, and he was connected with that
paper at the time it was suppressed by order of General Burnside,
the same day that Abraham Lincoln was buried at Springfield.
A few years later he became editor and owner of the Quincy
Herald.
From Illinois his next field of experience was
in the west, during the latter sixties and early seventies,
and he participated in some of the exciting history recorded
there about the time the Pacific railroads were pushing toward
Colorado and the Pacific coast. Among his numerous claims
to distinction is the fact that he was one of the founders
of the town of Gunnison, Colorado. He owned the original townsite
and during the boom days effected enormous sales of town lots.
Mr. McMaster, as may be judged from what has been told, is
a pioneer, and as such his name is mentioned at the outset
of the history of various localities and enterprises. During
a period while he was living in Denver, he was one of the
attorneys for the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad, then in
course of construction, and as such was an actor in some of
the contests .over rights of way with other companies, from
each of which might be woven a story of more than ordinary
interest. Later he had a law office in Kansas City. But his
pioneer spirit has caused many interruptions in his legal
career, and his desire to be abreast of the advance of civilization
into new countries led him to Oklahoma when it was opened,
and he has been identified with the territory ever since.
After leaving the management of the Oklahoma City Gazette
he practiced law there until the Lawton opening, and that
has also been his active profession in Lawton.
This Oklahoma lawyer and pioneer is essentially
of the militant type, original and independent in his intellectual
equipment, has principles and upholds them fearlessly. His
enemies say he is hard and bitter in his combats, whether
as a newspaper writer, as a public speaker or as a lawyer.
But it is probably more just to say that he is such a man
as can never "trim" his views to conform to public
opinion, and prefers to maintain his own atti-
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tude of thought rather than take the usual groove
merely for the sake of being agreeable. Though a lifelong
Democrat, he found, on coming to the territory, that he was
out of sympathy with the Democrats of Oklahoma, and in his
publications he was a severe critic of the Democratic. as
well as the Republican parties. He has been prominent in some
of the legal and political struggles since the opening in
1889. After leaving the Daily Gazette he published, for several
years, a monthly, McMaster's Magazine, which gained a large
clientage of readers, and was noted for the incisive, crisp
and original articles, many of them being documents of historical
interest for Oklahoma.
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cont.
SAMUEL A. JOYNER.
Among that worthy host of pioneer citizens of Lawton, who
located here on the opening day and have since entered so
heartily and energetically into community affairs that some
share of the credit for the building of the city and the development
of the surrounding country belongs to each one of them, may
be mentioned the present county surveyor of Comanche county,
Samuel A. Joyner, who was elected to that office at
the regular election in the fall of 1902, on the Democratic
ticket, being re-elected in 1904 and 1906, has surveyed and
mapped Comanche county until he is more thoroughly familiar
with this important part of Oklahoma than any other man. His
work in the office has been of essential importance to the
land development of the county.
Mr. Joyner has been engaged in surveying and
civil engineering for about twenty years and is thoroughly
acquainted with the southwest. Born in 1860 on a plantation
nine miles from Little Rock, Arkansas, where he was reared,
he had come to Texas in young manhood and for three years
lived in Austin, San Antonio and other portions of southwest
Texas. His parents had been pioneers of Arkansas. His father,
Thomas A. Joyner, a native of North Carolina, had come
to Pulaski county, Arkansas, about 1845, and his mother, Louisa
(Douglas) Joyner, daughter of John Douglas, was
of still earlier residence in Arkansas. From Texas, where
he spent the years from 1884 to 1888, Mr. Joyner went to New
Mexico, and was a druggist in Roswell until ill health compelled
him to seek outdoor vocations. With that he began his connection
with surveying and engineering, and for a time was with the
forces that built the Santa Fe line through New Mexico. For
the most part, however, he worked independently as a general
surveyor. He was a pioneer of Chaves county, having crossed
the Texas plains to that region when the nearest railroad
was two hundred miles away and before beginning had been made
of the irrigation that now makes that valley famously productive.
A citizen of New Mexico for fifteen years, he became well
known and took some part in public affairs, serving during
the winter of 1896-97 as journal clerk of the senate. At Lawton,
Mr. Joyner is a past chancellor commander of the Knights of
Pythias. He has two children: Iwilla is the daughter
of his first wife, who before her marriage was Miss Ray
Armstrong. By his present wife, Pauline (Bingham) Joyner,
who was born in Illinois, he has one child, Loumeda.
Mrs. Joyner has a daughter, Dorothy, by former marriage.
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cont.
RON. J. ELMER THOMAS.
The seventeenth senatorial district comprises the counties
of Comanche, Stephens and Jefferson, a considerable portion
of southwest Oklahoma and one of the richest agricultural
areas. of the state. At the Democratic primaries, June 10,
1907, J. Elmer Thomas, a prominent young lawyer of
Lawton and a resident of Comanche county since the opening
of the country, was nominated for the first senator from this
district, and in the succeeding November was elected.
In after years an increasing historical interest
will be evinced in the principles for which the members of
the first state legislature avowed their support, and which,
aside from the personality of the candidate, have been the
vital facts in the recent campaign. The principal planks in
Mr. Thomas' platform were the following: Separate schools,
coaches and waiting rooms for the colored race; uniform system
of public highways; laws against the consolidation of firms
and corporations into trusts and monopolies: ample power to
railroad commission to regulate rates and prevent discrimination;
strictest economy in expenditure of public money; immediate
sale of school lands (lessee to have preference right of purchase)
on long time at low rate of interest; establishment of two
state penitentiaries. one for long time, hardened criminals,
and the other, a reformatory for short-time prisoners, the
latter to be located if possible in the Wichita mountains,
where prison labor may be used for cutting stone for state
buildings and preparing ballast for public roads; free text
books for public schools and compulsory attendance.
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Senator Thomas, who will have an active part
in the work of the first legislature, and as an able lawyer
will assist in the enactment of a new civil and criminal code
to conform with the new constitution, is thoroughly qualified
for these duties both by talents and training. Born in 1876,
on a farm near Greencastle, Putman county, Indiana, he has
been
largely identified with the interests of the soil both by
residence and occupation throughout his career, having spent
the first twenty-four years of his life on his father's farm.
At the age of sixteen he secured a license to teach school,
and after teaching three terms entered college, where he was
able to remain by working outside, keeping books, running
a boarding club, etc. Graduating from the Central Normal College
of Danville, Indiana, in 1897, he also got a year's scholarship
in DePauw University by winning an oratorical contest, and
was graduated from DePauw with the class of 1900. As a public
speaker, Mr. Thomas has a fame dating from college days. In
1899 he represented his university on the debating team against
the University of Indianapolis, and in the campaign of 1896,
young as he was, he made many speeches for William J. Bryan,
and in both the following presidential campaigns he advocated
both the principles and the personality of Mr. Byran. His
address, "The Philosophy of Reform," delivered before
his fellow alumni in 1906, was later republished and used
as a part of his campaign literature, its main declarations
being still expressive of his attitude as a candidate and
those upon which he based his strength with the people.
Soon after graduation from the university, Mr.
Thomas came to Oklahoma, in October, 1900, and when the Kiowa-Comanche
country was opened in August, 1901, became a resident of the
county and the city of Lawton, where he has practiced law.
He is considered a successful man and the interest in his
personal career is enhanced by the fact that he has made his
success through his own efforts since was a boy.
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cont.
CAPT. BEN KING. The
Lawton Engineer Corps. which in point of efficiency has a
foremost ranking not alone in the Oklahoma National Guard
but in similar branches of service throughout the country,
has been captained during the last. F0ur years by Frank Ben
King, of Lawton, a young man who has made a distinguished
record in military science and as a military officer in the
engineering corps. His connection with military affairs covers
all the period of his life since coming of age, and comprises
a full and eventful career.
Born at Ashton, Lee county, Illinois, in 1878,
Captain King, after receiving some of his early schooling
at Aurora, was brought west to Oberlin, Kansas, when seven
years old, and there continued his education, supplemented
by two years in the high school at Kansas City. Moving to
Arkansas with his father in 1898, while the Spanish-American
war was in progress he first entered military life, enlisting
on June 30th, at Dardanelle, as a private in the Second Arkansas
Infantry, U. S. V. Though his term of enlistment was spent
at Chickamauga Park and Anniston, Alabama, until he was mustered
out February 25, 1899, he thereby acquired the taste for military
affairs and displayed aptitudes for military science that
really formed his subsequent career. He soon organized a company
of infantry in the National Guard of Arkansas, and was elected
its captain in 1901. In September of that year he joined his
father who had located at Lawton only a few weeks after the
founding of the town, and from this point as a residence and
the center of his civil life, he has continued his interest
in military matters. June 30, 1903, he was commissioned first
lieutenant of the Lawton Engineer Corps, Oklahoma National
Guard, which he had organized, and the following August 4th
was promoted to captain of this organization, the position
that he still holds.
Ever since he first joined the army in 1898
Captain King has displayed the highest efficiency as a soldier
and a military officer. He has been a close, constant and
ambitious student, never being satisfied unless he excelled
in every branch of military science that he took up, and the
honors that have come to him are the result of his indefatigable
energy in attending to his studies and his duties. His skill
and ability were early recognized by the war department at
Washington, and in the latter part of 1903 he was commissioned
by the department to attend the garrison military school at
Fort Sill, Oklahoma. During that winter he spent all his available
time as a student in that school. In November, 1904, he received
similar perrmission to attend a military school at Fort Crook,
Nebraska, where in higher grades he made other brilliant records,
being in compete-
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tion with numerous captains and lieutenants
who had received their education and training at West Point.
As a student he has excelled in general military science and
tactics, but his career has been particularly noted for success
in engineering and marksmanship. He is considered one of the
best marksmen in Oklahoma, and as an engineer has draughted
some maps, particularly of the Fort Sill military reservation,
that have received the highest commendation of the war department.
As a tribute to his skill in marksmanship, he received a commission
from the war department, through the Oklahoma National Guard,
to coach the latter's team of marksmen in the National Shoot
at Sea Girt, New Jersey, which took place in August and September,
1906.
In practical work Captain King and
his company of engineers have rendered some valuable services
to Okalahoma, a particular instance of which may be cited
in connection with the cyclone at Snyder on May 7, 1905. In
the midst of the distress and devastation wrought by this
calamity, Captain King and the company of Lawton engineers
arrived on the scene and immediately began to restore order
out of chaos. The splendid services they rendered there in
protecting life and property and in giving all possible comfort
to the stricken people received the highest praise from the
press and public. One of the brightest young military men
in the southwest, it should be said to the credit of Captain
King that he has made himself what he is through hard work
and constant application. In the National Guard of Oklahoma
he has had opportunities to receive promotion to higher rank
than captain, but prefers to remain as at present, at the
head of his excellent company of engineers at Lawton, where
he considers he can do most good.
In civil life Captain King is assistant city
engineer of Lawton, where he and his wife make their home.
He married at Guthrie, July 29, 1906, Miss Alice Sherer
of that city. Captain King is the son of Judge Andrew J.
King, one of the best known citizens
of Lawton, where he has been practicing law almost since the
beginning of the town, and who was prominent in other places
before he identified his interests with this new country.
Judge Andrew J. King was born at Rochelle,
Ogle county, Illinois, 1848. Of New England stock, his grandparents
settled at Conneaut, Ohio, in the early days before Ashtabula
county was organized, and there both father and mother were
born, reared and married, and in the latter thirties moved
to Illinois, stopping first at Chicago, then at Aurora, and
a little later locating at Rochelle, when their son, Andrew
J., was born and reared. In 1864, though only sixteen,
Andrew J. King joined the federal army at Dixon, Illinois,
being received into one of the old Illinois regiments, the
Forty-sixth. Being sent to New Orleans, he took part in the
last great military engagements of the war in the. gulf states,
fighting in the battles at Spanish Fort, Fort Blakely and
the general movements around Mobile bay that ended the war
in that region. Following the close of the war and his return
home, he completed his education and then studied law at Aurora,
being admitted to the bar before the Illinois supreme court
at Ottawa in 1882. After practicing for a time at Aurora,
he moved to western Kansas in 1885 and for nine years lived
and practiced at Oberlin, Decatur county. Other places at
which he engaged in practice before coming to Oklahoma were
Kansas City, for two years, and at Dardanelle and Ola in Arkansas,
where he was located from 1898 until taking up a permanent
residence at Lawton in September, 1901, soon after the founding
of the town. Judge King married, April 26, 1871, Miss Lydia
E. Gilbert, a native of Illinois. At her death in 1898
she left two children: Mrs. Mina K. Graves, who now
lives at Walters, Oklahoma; and Captain Frank Ben.
Judge King has since married Miss Mary L. Kyle, a native
of Arkansas, and they have a daughter, Maurine King.
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