-120-
cont.
H. D. McKNIGHT.
The first register of the United States land office
at Mangum, Greer county, was Major H. D. McKnight,
who for several years had been a successful lawyer at Perry
until his appointment to that office in 1897. His opening
of the office at Mangum was the first official federal act
following the well remembered decision of the U. S. supreme
court that Greer county was a part of Oklahoma instead of
Texas. Major McKnight remained in the office at Mangum until
April, 1901.
In the following July he was appointed register
of the land office at Lawton, and in such was in active charge
of the opening of the Comanche and Kiowa reservation, which
took place August 6, 1901, and as one of the famous events
of Oklahoma history is narrated in detail on other pages.
Major Mc-
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Knight has continued at the head of the Lawton
office ever since, one of the most important subsequent events
in which this office was concerned being the opening of the
Big Pasture, lying south of Lawton.
Major McKnight has seen continuous service as
register in Oklahoma since March 31, 1897, with the exception
of a period of less than three months, serving now under his
fourth official appointment, a record that proves his standing
with the department, and it is also conceded by his fellow
citizens that he is a highly efficient and capable and just
official. While he holds an office that is usually regarded
as apart from the regular institutions of a community, he
has become thoroughly identified as a citizen with the growth
and development of southwestern Oklahoma, having interests
both at Mangum and Lawton.
Major McKnight is a lawyer by profession and
has spent most of his career in practice. He was born at Ironton,
Lawrence county, Ohio, April 11, 1844, son of William F.
and Margaret (Higgins) McKnight. His mother is still living
in Ironton, aged eighty-six, his father, who was a native
of Virginia and of Scotch-Irish ancestry, died there in 1901,
at the age of eighty-three. After spending the first twenty
years of his life in Lawrence county, where he was educated,
he went into the army service during the last year of the
war, enlisting July 13, 1864, in Company A, Eighty-eighth
Ohio Infantry. His service was mostly in the quartermaster's
department, in the command of General Thomas, Army of the
Cumberland, while it was fighting those memorable battles
in the last year of the war about Franklin, Nashville and
other portions of Tennessee. The several years following the
war were spent mostly at Ironton and in Washington, D. C.
He studied law and was admitted to the bar, and for a number
of years had a large practice in Washington, conducting pension
and other claims in the departments of the federal government.
At the time the Cherokee Strip in Oklahoma was opened for
settlement, he established himself in law practice at Perry
and continued actively in his profession until the appointment
as register of the land office in 1897. He is a Republican
in politics, and in the first election, under the new constitution
in 1907, he was strongly urged by representatives of that
party to become a candidate for Congress in the fifth congressional
district. Major McKnight's wife is Harriet A. (Honaker)
Mc Knight, a native of West Virginia. They have four children:
Rufus D., Hal B., H. .Howard, and Mrs. Clara M.
Nankivel.
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cont.
FRANK P. CEASE. During
the uncertain period in Oklahoma government between the opening
of the territory on April 22, 1889, and the organization under
the territorial act a year later, Guthrie as the chosen capital
of the new territory and its most important city teemed with
a life and varied activity that makes its early history unique
among American cities. The entire territory being without
law from a regularly instituted source, it was but natural
that in adapting themselves to this anomalous condition, the
people resorted to some expedients and practices that, while
preserving the content and spirit of American law, were at
least unknown in American custom if not somewhat arbitrary.
A meeting of Guthrie residents having been called
soon after the opening, it was found that there were representatives
present from every state in the Union, and, according to the
usual picturesque fashion of a new country, it was decided
to elect an administrative council composed of one member
from every state in the Union. This council should administer
government provisionally until a regular system should be
furnished. The council, consisting of about forty men, organized
for business and elected a mayor, a chief of police, a police
judge and other minor officials, a committee drew up a set
of ordinances for the government of the city, and, until the
organization of the territory the following year, Guthrie
flourished under the guidance of a government that was as
nearly representative is could be found in the history of
democratic peoples.
In the administration of justice, the police
court was supreme, and in reality had jurisdiction in and
tried all cases both criminal and civil. This court had the
unique distinction of being the only one in the United States,
outside of the supreme court, from which there was no appeal;
all cases were tried and passed upon with final judgment,
and, while the court remained in existence, the litigants
had no further recourse. New lawyers from the states were
at first amazed by this unique tribunal, but most of them
soon acquiesced in its judgments, and it is highly complimentary
to the judge of the court that when his decisions were afterwards
reviewed by federal courts, they were upheld without a single
reversal. The first judge of this
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court was Frank P. Cease, now a well
known lawyer and citizen of Lawton. Judge Cease's court did
a rushing business from the first day and continued for several
months, the docket average, in number of complaints filed
and decisions rendered, about fifty a day. It was a busy institution
during the first months of Guthrie's history, with some fifteen
or twenty policemen engaged in preserving order in town and
bringing offenders to court or haling them to the hastily
improvised jail. A large portion of the litigation. consisted
of disputes over lot jumping, which was the highest crime
in the catalogue during those days. Some desperate characters
were involved in such cases, notably the Dodge City gang,
headed by Ben Tillman and his friends, and the trials
required the carefulest handling. Old-timers of Guthrie say
that while Judge Cease administered justice with an even hand,
he at the same time displayed a coolness and firmness that
more than once saved him from death and won him the respect
of even the most hardened offenders. Before this court during
the early months passed a long line, not only of lot-jumpers,
but also of more common criminals, such as gamblers, bootleggers,
dive and dance-hall keepers, and it required a discriminating
and wise judge to give each his deserts. And yet, as the later
rulings after the formation of the territory indicate, the
ordinances adopted by the provisional government were based
on principles of justice and common sense, and they
were administered with equal fairness by the presiding judge.
Back of the tribunal, and supporting its judge in dealing
out justice, stood the great majority of the citizens of Guthrie,
who were law-abiding by habit and previous training and were
earnestly endeavoring to build up a good country, with as
few of the frontier characteristics of looseness and wildness
as possible.
Judge Frank P. Cease, whose career as
the first police judge of Oklahoma, serving from April to
September, 1889, gives him a unique place in the history of
that period, was born in Mason county, Illinois, in 1851,
being of Holland ancestry, both parents coming from Pennsylvania.
While growing up to manhood on a farm in Mason county, he
had few opportunities to attend school, and is mainly self-educated.
In 1875 he located in Kansas, first in Allen county, and then
at Greensburg, the county seat of Kiowa county, in the southwest
part of the state, and from there went to join the rush into
Oklahoma, immediately taking a prominent position among his
fellow citizens of the new capital city. On leaving the office
of police judge, he then founded the Noble Courier, a weekly
newspaper, at Noble, in Cleveland county, but on the location
of the county seat at Norman the following December, he moved
to that place, and in January, 1890, was elected the first
probate judge in Oklahoma for Cleveland county. He served
in that office four years, and in the meantime studied law
and Was admitted to the bar. From Norman he moved to Lexington,
in the same county, where he continued the practice of law
until July, 1901, when he prepared to join in the settlement
of the Kiowa-Comanche reservation and on the opening day,
August 6th, became one of the first citizens of Lawton, where
he has since been a resident and a general practitioner in
all the courts, both federal and territorial. Judge Cease
was married in Kansas in 1877 to Miss Minnie C. Reese.
She is a native of Licking county, Ohio. Of their ten children,
a son, George, is deceased, and the others are: James
H., Ernest J., Carrie, Bertha, Josie, Frank, Helen, Glenn,
Marguerite.
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cont.
HECK THOMAS. One
of the most active, vigilant and efficient of the criminal
officers who preserved law and order in the old Indian Territory
during the eighties is Heck Thomas, who now lives in
Lawton and has been city marshal since the town started six
years ago. His career and contact with criminal element of
the southwest cover more than thirty years, and a review of
his personal history will recall many events and noted criminals
of this period.
Mr. Thomas no doubt inherits much of his fighting
ability from an ancestry that has long been noted as soldiers.
His father, Colonel Lovick P. Thomas, during the war
between the states, was commander of the Thirty-fifth, Georgia
Infantry, C. S. A., and won distinction in the conflict. Two
of Heck Thomas' paternal uncles were also brilliant
soldiers Col. Henry Thomas commanding the Sixteenth
Georgia Infantry, anod [and] Gen. Edward Lloyd Thomas
being advanced, toward the close of the war, from command
of the Forty-ninth Georgia to rank of brigadier general in
command of the Thomas brigade. It was for the latter that
Heck Thomas, then twelve years old, served as a courier
at the front in the fighting in Virginia in J862, and although
born in 1850, he has the unusual distinction
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of being practically a veteran of the Civil
war. He remembers distinctly the stirring events connected
with the remarkable military campaigns waged by the two armies
in Virginia in 1862 and 1863. The Thomases have been prominent
in Georgia for many years. Col. Lovick P. Thomas was
the first city marshal of Atlanta after the war, and his son,
Lovick P. Thomas, Jr., was also city marshal of that
city and for several years following was sheriff of Fulton
county, and is now a prominent and wealthy resident of the
city.
Born in Athens, Georgia, but reared and educated in Atlanta,
Heck Thomas came to Texas in 1873, and for the following
ten years was express messenger and agent for the old Texas
Express Company, on the Houston and Texas Central Railroad,
principally on the run between Denison and Galveston. That
was the first road built into northern Texas, and along this
pioneer line occurred many robberies and other exciting incidents
in which he was more than once a participant. Among them was
the well remembered holdup of the train of which he was messenger,
at the little station of Hutchins, near Dallas, in 1876. The
noted outlaw, Sam Bass, was the leader in this attempta
desperado who a year or so before had placed himself in the
front rank of train robbers by getting away with $60,000 in
gold from an express car on the Union Pacific Railway. Owing
to Mr. Thomas' foresight and strategy, in secreting the large
amount of cash in his keeping that night and placing a number
of "decoy" packages in the safe, the robbers got
nothing of any value and the train had gone safely on its
way before they discovered the deception. However, the holdup
had not been accomplished without a fight, and in the shooting
Mr. Thomas was so badly injured that he was taken off from
the messenger run and made agent for the company at Fort Worth,
in which position he remained about six years and a half.
In 1883 he was one of the candidates for city marshal in Fort
Worth, being defeated by only 22 votes.
About this time, in an ugly neighborhood fight
in Indian Territory, four menJim and Andrew
Roff, Jim Guy and Guy Kirdendalwere killed
by two desperate characters, Jim and Pink Lee.
A reward aggregating $5,200 was offered for the capture of
the slayers. Mr. Thomas took up the chase, and after four
months of continuous pursuit he affected the capture of both
and got the reward. Fort Smith, Arkansas, was then headquarters
for the United States district court for the western district
of Arkansas, which at that time had jurisdiction over all
Indian Territory. After the event just mentioned, Mr. Thomas
located at Fort Smith, and under the first Cleveland administration
was appointed deputy U. S. marshal for service in the territory,
and held a commission as officer under that court for nearly
ten years.
In those early days the outlaw and criminal
class had things about their own way in the territory, and
it was an extremely difficult and dangerous matter to contend
with them. But after having made this country their rendezvous
and hiding place for many years, they were finally driven
out, thanks to the vigilance and bravery of such officers
as Heck Thomas, and the thousands of settlers who came
to Oklahoma after its opening to settlement in 1889 found
it a peaceful and law-abiding country.
During the latter part of Mr. Thomas' service
under federal jurisdiction he was deputy marshal under U.
S. Marshal Harry Thompson at Anadarko. This brought him in
close touch with the great Kiowa-Comanche reservation country,
and knew it perfectly before it was opened to settlement in
August, 1901. On the day of the opening he became a citizen
of Lawton. Besides the respect due his office as city marshal,
he commands the high esteem of all his fellow citizens, and
one of his most cherished prizes is a medal, of gold presented
to him as a token of their esteem and affectionate regard.
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cont.
GEORGE M. PASCHAL.
The First National Bank of Lawton, whose president is George
M. Paschal, has a history continuous from the date of
the founding of the town, on August 6, 1901. The First National
and the City National both started on that day, the first
home of the former being under a tent. On June 6, 1904, the
First National was reorganized, the directors electing a new
president, George M. Paschal, who had been connected
with the City National as its president from the day of its
founding. Under the present management, since the, organization,
the deposits in the First National have increased from $66,000
to over one million dollars in March, 1907, a remarkable growth
indicating a wonderful progress in town and country, as well
as successful bank management. The capital is $100,000, with
surplus and profits of $10,000, and the bank is a United States
depository. It is as sound as a financial in-
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stitution can be, is thoroughly identified with
the business interests and agricultural development of the
rich new country tributary to Lawton, and enjoys the patronage
and confidence of the public to an exceptional extent.
Mr. Paschal, its president, although still a
young man, is one of the pioneers of this country, and having
preceded other white immigration, is familiar with all the
varied phases of its history. Born and reared and educated
in Smith county, Tennessee, his parents being J. W. and
A. E. (Smith) Paschal, he came to northern Texas during
the early seventies, living there five or six years, and since
the year 1878 has been closely connected in a business way
with the Indian country of southwest Oklahoma, which at that
time was still Indian Territory. In 1885 he established his
home permanently in the Comanche reservation, in what is now
Comanche county, his business being that of Indian trader
and contractor. He has engaged in this line of business for
a period of twenty-one years in the territory, since he is
still carrying on trade with the Indians, having a store for
this purpose at Fort Sill Sub-Agency, near Fort Sill, which
was his home and headquarters for a long number of years.
The opening of the Comanche reservation did not come until
twelve years after the Oklahoma settlement of 1889, so that
for nearly a quarter of a century his business interests were
with the Indians. Mr. Paschal was married in Tennessee to
Miss Sarah Shields, a native of Putnam county, that
state. They have two children, Virginia and Hilda.
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cont.
W. H. QUlNETTE
is vice president of the First National Bank of Lawton. Although
banking has absorbed the greater part of his business energies
since this part of Oklahoma became the white man's country
and the seat of many thriving towns and widespread industry,
his connection with the country antedates by many years the
opening of the reservation. For thirty years he has known
Fort Sill and the Indian tribes about it probably as intimately
as any man living.
A native of St. Louis, where he was educated,
and where he qualified himself for business, Mr. Quinette
formed a partnership with Captain F. R. Rice, a retired army
officer, and a welt known cigar manufacturer of St. Louis,
to engage in post trading. Mr. Quinette was to carry on the
active operations of the firm in the Indian country, and for
this purpose came to Fort Sill on October 1, 1878. It is noteworthy
in connection .with this history that Rice & Quinette,
which is still the firm name, is now the only firm of post
traders actively engaged in business in the United States,
all others having discontinued. It will be understood, of
course, that there is a distinction between post traders and
those who are licensed by the government to trade with Indians,
the former being more of a recognized institution and having
definite contractual relations with the federal government.
Mr. Quinette himself has a license permitting him to do trading
with Indians, and has always engaged in traffic with them.
For nearly thirty years, therefore, Rice. & Quinette have
been a part of the various activities and affairs that constitute
Fort Sill.
Mr. Quinette's memory of the events and incidents in this
part of Oklahoma affords some interesting facts of history.
In 1878 the nearest railroads were at Caddo, I. T., distant
190 miles to the east, and Caldwell, Kansas, 200 miles on
the north. Travel was wholly dependent then by stage coaches
between Fort Sill and railroad points which consumed about
forty hours' time by relays of horses, every twenty-five miles
at ranches. Fort Sill at that time was occupied by four troops
of the Tenth Cavalry and four companies of the Sixteenth Infantry,
the post commander being General J. W. Davidson, Lieutenant
Colonel Tenth Cavalry. The Comanches were then in four distinct
tribesthe Quo-haddies; the Noconas, the Penetethkes,
and the Yamparekas. They were true aborigines, living according
to primitive habits, none of them wore "store clothes,"
and had absorbed hardly a minimum of civilization which some
of them have taken on in later years through contact with
the whites. One of his oldest acquaintances among the leading
Indians is the celebrated Quanah Parker, who has been the
Comanches' chieftain so many years, though his mother was
a white woman. Mr. Quinette's close association in a business
way with the Indians, and his knowledge of the country through
his numerous hunting and exploring expeditions give him a
fund of information about southwestern Oklahoma and its resources
not possessed by any other one person.
During the past six years he has established
many interests and become closely identified with the rising
town of Lawton. Depending for some of its important interests
on the co-operation of the federal authorities,
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as all the towns in this locality have been
compelled to do, it has at various times fallen to Mr. Quinette
to journey to Washington in behalf of matters of public welfare
to Lawton and the surrounding country.
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cont.
JULIAN W. HADDON.
The Fort Sill School for Comanche Indian children was established
by the government in 1890, and the following year Julian
W. Haddon was appointed its superintendent. Among the
Indian schools of the country this is considered one of the
best, credit for which must be given to Superintendent Haddon,
who has occupied the position of principal responsibility
in its conduct and management for twelve years. His term of
service has not been continuous, he having been called to
similar places in other Indian schools during four years,
one, year in Wyoming, one year in Dakota, and one year as
superintendent and agent for the eastern Cherokees in North
Carolina.
More than twenty years' experience in the work of education
among the Indians has given Professor Haddon a place of distinction
among the superintendents of Indian schools under the federal
government. The future of the Indian depends on the training
that the younger generation is now receiving to fit it for
the responsible duties 'which this race will hereafter be
called to meet, and as an educator among the Indians for the
past two decades it seems that Mr. Haddon has performed a
work hardly surpasse9 iii essential good by that of any engaged
in the federal service. His dose connection with this line
of education in Oklahoma during the greater part of twenty
years makes him an authority on this department of .education.
He was well fitted for his present profession
by the varied activities of law, journalism and teaching in
the state of Mississippi. Born in Abbeville county, South
Carolina, and reared on his father's plantation, he received
the greater part of his education at Erskine College in his
native county, graduating from that school in 1875. In 1876
he moved to Pontotoc, Mississippi, where he lived seven years.
Read law and was admitted to the bar, he now combined the
professions of law, journalism and teaching while a resident
of Pontotoc, and for the greater part of the time was editor
and publisher of a newspaper in that town. In J889 he was
appointed by the Department of Interior as superintendent
of the Riverside Indian School for Wichita and Caddo children
at Anadarko, Indian Territory, now part of Caddo county, Okla.).
Since then he has been continuously in this department of
education.
Mr. Haddon is prominently identified with the
Masonic fraternity in Lawton, being master of the blue lodge
and is also a Knight Templar. While living in Anadarko he
was married to Miss Nannie F. Freeman, of Pleasant
Hill, Missouri, who was a teacher in the Anadarko Indian school
at the time. Their four children are Robert F., S. Elkins,
Julian B., C. Page.
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cont.
JOHN
McLAIN YOUNG. All who had the privilege of seeing
the constitutional convention in session and of getting some
insight into tile practical workings of that body will appreciate
and honor the ability that maintained the organization of
clerks and stenographers at such a constant state of efficiency
and kept the clerical machinery of such a convention moving
with never a serious delay or break. The busiest man throughout
the session of the convention was the secretary, upon whom
devolved so much of the actual labor of drafting the new constitution,
and whose services were highly commended by all the delegates.
All agreed that it was a wise choice that selected John
McLain Young, a rising young lawyer of Lawton, for the
responsible position of secretary, and in the future, when
this convention and its work shall have become historic, it
will be just that his services receive a due share of the
honor bestowed upon the convention. It should be mentioned
that he received no pay for his services, which were given
as a matter of patriotism, and actually incurred financial
loss owing to the inadequacy of the federal appropriation
for the convention. As a tribute to Mr. Young's ability, the
convention elected him as president of the supreme election
board of the new state, but, as is well known, this board
has been abolished by subsequent court decision.
The convention's secretary was born at Pana,
Illinois, December 28, 1872. His parents were Daniel W.
and Mary (McLain) Young, the former a native of Virginia
and an early settler in central Illinois. From 1873 to 1889
the family lived at Paris, Edgar county, Illinois, and in
the latter year came to southern Kansas, locating at Medicine
Lodge. Soon after the opening of the Cherokee Strip in Oklahoma
in 1893, they moved to Enid, where the parents still reside.
John McLain Young received a good edu-
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cation in the schools of Paris and of Medicine
Lodge. Having come to Kingfisher, Oklahoma, January I, 1893,
he participated, on September 16, in the memorable stampede
which marked the opening of the Strip to settlement. The new
town of Enid became his home, and while that city was building
up he was reading law in the office of Denton & Chambers,
the former being Judge W. S. Denton and the latter
Tom Chambers, city attorney of Oklahoma City. In 1897
he was admitted to the bar in Enid, and began a practice that
was successfully continued four years. August 6, 1901, he
took part in another famous opening, and with the founding
of the city of Lawton on that day he became identified with
its interests as one of the leading lawyers. Since arriving
at his majority he has done practical work for the Democratic
party as a member of city and county central committees. His
influential position in the party enabled him to take the
lead in organizing the Democratic party in Comanche county,
under authority from the state committee, and he was selected
the first territorial committeeman from this county. Mr. Young
justly considers the highest honor that has come to him in
his political and public career to have been his selection
as secretary of the constitutional convention which adjourned
in March, 1907, after framing the constitution of the forty-sixth
state of the union.
In Lawton Mr. Young is president of the Wichita
Mountain Club, which was organized to promote outdoor sports
and recreations, especially in the Wichita mountains. He served
as grand chancellor of the Knights of Pythias of Oklahoma
in 1894 and 1895. He married, at Enid, Miss Elizabeth Wittemeyer,
and they have two children, Margaret Christine and
John Maurice.
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cont.
MILO A. NELSON.
At the establishment of the First National Bank in Lawton
on the very day the town was founded, when a tent was used
for a banking room, the organizers of the bank chose for their
assistant cashier Milo A. Nelson. It is significant
of the versatile ability characterizing the first citizenship
of Lawton that men of talent and integrity were found who
could at once assume the tasks involved in starting the machinery
of business and civil government on the first day. In a few
hours almost, Lawton had become organized and the various
departments were running as completely as though the town
had. Grown up through all the usual stages of progress in
a city's life. Here on the opening day were many men whom
previous experience and whose ready ability fitted to enter
upon new duties and discharge them successfully. So in the
case of Mr. Nelson, who had been engaged in banking for a
number of years previous to coming to Oklahoma, and who at
once proved a valuable assistant in the affairs of the First
National. He remained officially connected with that institution
about two years, until the confining nature of his duties
made a change of occupation necessary. Since then he has been
in the real estate and loan business, and is one of Lawton's
successful and public-spirited citizens.
Mr. Nelson was born in Trumbull county. Ohio,
in 1856, but was reared in Berrien county, Michigan, to which
place his parents removed when he was an infant. His father
died when he was six years old, and be practically supported
himself after he was ten years old. He attended school two
years at the Michigan Agricultural College at Lansing, and
one year at the Northern Indiana Normal College at Valparaiso.
Leaving Michigan in 1878, his subsequent career has been spent
largely in the southwest. For three years, from 1878 to 1881,
his home was at Appleton City, St. Clair county, Missouri.
In 1882 he helped organize and erected the first brick building
at the new town of Eldorado, Cedar county, Missouri, adjoining
St. Clair county on the south, and here he was postmaster
for more than two years. From there in 1885 he moved to southwestern
Kansas, to the new country of which one of the settlements
was Greensburg, where he located. He soon after assisted to
organize Kiowa county, and was appointed the first county
clerk by Governor Martin. In 1895, he returned to Appleton
City and remained there until the summer of 1901, when he
came to Oklahoma and took part in the opening of the Kiowa-Comanche
reservation on August 6. Mr. Nelson was married in 1882 to
Miss Mary E. Peck, of Illinois. She died January 29.
1906. There is one son, Paul Nelson, born in 1891.
In Masonry, Mr. Nelson is one of the best known
members in Oklahoma. He is a Knight Templar and a thirty-second
degree Mason and also a Shriner.
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cont.
DR. DAVID A. MYERS
was prepared to take a case the first day of Lawton's history,
and has been one of the leading physicians and surgeons there
ever since. Dr. Myers. who
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was born at Cambria, Columbia county, Wisconsin,
and was educated at the Marshfield, Wisconsin, high school,
and at the State University of Minnesota, received his medical
education in one of the most noted schools in Americamedical
department of McGill University, Montreal, Canada, where he
graduated in the class of 1898. His first practice was at
Colby, Wisconsin, then at his home town of Prentice in the
same state. Later he was house surgeon of St. Mary's Hospital,
Oshkosh, and also served for eight months as surgeon to St.
Agnes Hospital, Fond du Lac, Wisconsin. With this variety
and thoroughness of experience, he came to Oklahoma and took
part in the founding of Lawton, August 6, 1901, where he has
acquired an excellent reputation as a careful and able practitioner.
He is an ex-president of the Comanche County Medical Society,
of which he is president, and is a member of the Oklahoma
Medical Society and the American Medical Association. With
Drs. Turner and he founded the Lawton Hospital, which a private
hospital in 1907. In 1908, he helped to establish the Lawton
General Hospital. He is superintendent of the county board
of Health. Fraternally he is a member Masons, Elks and several
other orders. Dr. Meyers married Mrs. Daisy M. Herriott
of Plattsburg, Missouri, and they have a daughter, Wanda
Myers.
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cont.
DR. JAMES LANG LEWIS,
who established himself in practice at Lawton August 6, 1901,
the day of the opening, is a graduate from the medical department
of Northwestern University at Chicago, class of 1901. Having
been well prepared, he has practiced with success in Lawton,
and is one of the able, high-minded young practitioners who
have done so much in placing the medical profession in Oklahoma
on a very high plane. One of the leading physicians in his
own city, he also keeps thoroughly in touch with the profession
at large. He is a member of the Comanche county and Oklahoma
medical societies and the American Medical Association. He
and Dr. William M. Turner own and conduct the Turner
and Lewis private hospital and training school for nurses
and he is secretary and treasurer of the U. S. pension examining
board at Lawton. Dr. Lewis, who is the son of Rev. James
Lewis, a Presbyterian minister, was born at Detroit, Michigan,
in 1873, and received most of his education and rearing at
Joliet, Illinois, where his father lived for several years
as pastor of one of the Presbyterian churches of that city.
His advanced schooling was obtained at Knox College, Galesburg,
Illinois, where he graduated in 1897, afterwards taking up
his medical studies. At Joliet Dr. Lewis married Miss Bessie
S. Palmer. They have two children, Dorothy E. and
Olive D.
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cont.
DR. R. H. TULLIS.
In 1905 the medical profession at Lawton was deprived of one
of its esteemed members and a man of the finest character
and standing as a physician, in the death, by typhoid fever,
of Dr. R. H. Tullis, who had practiced here as a. partner
of Dr. Lewis. The late Dr. Tullis was born in Ohio, receiving
his medical education in the medical department of Northwestern
University, where he graduated in 1892. He practiced for a
time in Colorado and then came to Oklahoma, where he was one
of the most prominent and best known physicians. At the time
of his death he was president of the Oklahoma Territorial
Medical Association, and previous to that had been president
of the Comanche County Association. He was very popular among
the members of the profession, and took great interest in
organizing the medical societies and in advancing the standards
of the profession by all possible means. He had been established
in practice at Lawton since the opening day, August 6, 1901.
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cont.
WM. H. HORNADAY.
WhiIe no newspapers were published in the Oklahoma territory
previous to the opening in 1889, this region, because of the
activity of the boomers and the general interest of the outside
public in the country, originated a great quantity of news
matter that was collected on the ground by enterprising correspondents
of the large metropolitan dailies. One of these early Oklahoma
newspaper men, who wrote and sent from this field many articles
that were published as leaders in papers of Chicago and St.
Louis, is now a prominent business man and man of affairs
in Oklahoma. Since the opening of the. original territory
in 1889 he has been identified with but one newspaper enterprise
here, having had editorial management of the Republican-Courier
of Ponca City, from 1900 till the opening of the Kiowa Comanche
reservation on August 6, 190I.
This former correspondent and newspaper man is William
H. Hornaday, who has been prominently identified with
business affairs in Lawton since the founding of that city,
and, by election in 1907, is commander of the Okla,-
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boma Department of the Grand Army of the Republic.
Since he was seventeen years old his career has been marked
by varied and eventful experiences. Born in Marion county,
near Indianapolis, Indiana, in 1844, he was a son of Isaiah
Hornaday, a North Carolinian who became one of the early
settlers of that portion of Indiana and was a figure in the
early political and public life of his county. He was one
of the organizers of the Republican party in Indiana, and
one of his son's boyhood recollections is of going with his
father through the Fremont campaign. At the age of seventeen,
in 1861, the son enlisted at Indianapolis in the Eleventh
Indiana, Gen. Lew Wallace's Zouaves, and later joined
the Sixty-third Indiana, as a member of which organizations
he served with distinction throughout the war. In Chicago,
after the war, he began his career as newspaper man, being
reporter and then advancing to the more responsible rank of
correspondent. He was an employee of nearly all the old Chicago
dailiesthe Times, the Tribune, etc. He became a member
of the fire department and as such saw duty in one of the
greatest fires of history, the Chicago fire of 1871. A short
time later he entered politics, and for awhile was deputy
county clerk of Cook county. Newspaper work was more in his
line, however, and he continued it in Chicago, and a while
in New York, until 1884, when he joined the newspaper fraternity
of Topeka, Kansas, where he was correspondent for New York,
Chicago and St. Louis papers.
His first connection with what is now Oklahoma
began in 1879, when, as a representative of the Chicago Times
and other eastern papers, he wrote up the Indian Territory
situation with special reference to the region even then called
Oklahoma. It was his fortune to meet. Capt. David L. Payne,
and accompanied the famous boomer on one of his expeditions
into the forbidden land. From that time on until the original
opening on April 22, 1889, he was more or less constantly
in touch with this country. Of the momentous and thrilling
events and incidents of April 22, 1889, he wrote accounts
that were published in the St. Louis Globe-Democrat and other
papers. As a newspaper man he was also gifted with ability
to make pen sketches, and in the days when photo-engraving
had not yet been adapted to newspaper publication, his sketches
were eagerly sought and in themselves were graphic portrayals
of many scenes connected with the first days of Oklahoma history.
In 1900, after spending the intervening years
mainly in newspaper work in the east, Mr. Hornaday returned
to Oklahoma in anticipation of the opening of the Kiowa-Comanche
reservation. Since locating at Lawton in August, 1901, he
has not been actively identified with the newspaper profession.
A few days after the opening he purchased claim No. 3, adjoining
the original townsite on the northwest corner (being the southeast
quarter of section 25, town 2 north). This well known location
has since been subdivided into lots and given the name of
Mountain View Addition to Lawton. Lying on an elevation that
overlooks the city, and with a splendid view of the Wichita
Mountains, Fort Sill and surrounding country, this is esteemed
to be the most beautiful and valuable addition to Lawton and
is now within the corporation. A company organized by Mr.
Hornaday is handling the property, in which he retains his
own homestead. He is vice president and one of the directors
of the Moncrief-Cook Company, real estate and financial agents,
representing large interests not only in Lawton but in other
sections.
Since coming to Lawton Mr. Hornaday has displayed
constant enthusiasm and public spirit in the upbuilding of
this new city of the southwest. He was one of the organizers
and one of the most enterprising members of the Lawton Chamber
of Commerce, which more than any other body has been influential
in advancing the commercial interests of the city. A strong
Republican in politics since he became old enough to vote,
he has been active in the interests of his party since coming
to Oklahoma, and in July. 1907, was chosen a member of the
Comanche county delegation to the new state Republican convention
at Tulsa.
Mr. Hornaday joined the Grand Army of the Republic
almost at its birth in the sixties in Chicago, and his comrades
have pushed him forward to many positions of honor in the
order, both in Illinois and Kansas, and recently, as above
stated, elected him department commander of Oklahoma.
While a resident of Chicago Mr. Hornaday married
Miss Nettie Jackman of that city her father being of
New England stock and an early settler of McHenry county.
They have two children, Wallace and Mrs. Clyde L.
Clauser, the latter living in Denver.
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DR. WILLIAM M. TURNER
established himself at Lawton as a representative of the medical!
profession on August 6, 1901, the day of the opening of the
reservation and the founding of the town. He has practiced
medicine here ever since, and is one of the ablest physicians
and surgeons of Oklahoma. Although he has gained considerable
distinction as a surgeon, his practice is a general one, and
he limits it to cases in Lawton, except when called out for
consultation. But in Lawton and southwestern Oklahoma, Dr.
Turner has gained much prominence outside of his profession,
especially through his public-spirited work in civic affairs.
Elected in 1903, he served two years as mayor of Lawton, and
his administration is spoken of as a definite period in the
town's history, during which many of the substantial improvements
of Lawton were begun, such as the municipal water works, the
city hall, and other enterprises.
Dr. Turner is a native of St. Clair county,
Alabama, his family being prominent early settlers of that
state, where his grandfather, a South Carolinian, located
in 1812. In preparing for his chosen profession he had the
advantage of the best educational facilities, studying medicine
in the medical department of the University of Alabama at
Mobile, where he was graduated in 1892, and at subsequent
periods he has done much post-graduate work, mainly in surgery.
Until taking up his residence at Lawton he had a successful
practice at Anniston, Alabama. He is surgeon for the Rock
Island Railroad at Lawton, and is a member of the Comanche
County, Central Oklahoma, Oklahoma Territorial Medical societies,
and the American Medical Association. Also, at this writing-,
he is president of the Comanche County Fair association. Dr.
Turner married, at Anniston. Alabama, Miss Ida Braden
of that city, and they have three children: Arvin, Flossie
and Maud.
He and Dr. James Lang Lewis own and conduct
the Turner and Lewis private hospital and training school
for nurses.
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cont.
ARTHUR W. MAXWELL.
The present receiver of the U. S. land office at Lawton is
Arthur W. Maxwell, who received appointment to that office
from President. Roosevelt on December 24, 1905, and who has
since been a resident of Lawton. Besides being known as a
capab1e public official, Mr. Maxwell is recognized as one
of the ablest newspaper men of the state. He is president
of the company that publishes the Semi-Weekly Star at Lawton.
It was in the newspaper business that Mr. Maxwell got his
start and first displayed that ability in the organization
and management of men and affairs that has made his careerhe
is only thirty-seven years of ageone of remarkable progress
and accomplishment. Shortly before coming to Oklahoma he had
taken a practical part in politics that gave him national
prominence during the campaign of 1904.
Born and reared in Jefferson county, Iowa, he
had finished his education in the high schoo1 at Fairfield,
that county, and had then laid the foundation for his newspaper
career by learning the printer's trade in his home town. Some
time later he founded, and for thirteen years was editor and
publisher of the Seymour, (Iowa) Leader. The Leader was a
Democratic journal, and the ability with which it was conducted
soon brought it into prominence not only locally but as one
of the influential Democratic papers of the state. From observing
and influencing politics as an editor, he was soon transferred
to the practical work of political management. As a political
organizer and campaign manager he proved as efficient as he
had been in the editor's chair, and the result was that, although
a young man, he was rapidly promoted from the ranks until,
in the presidential campaign of 1904, he was made chairman
of the Iowa State Democratic executive committee, and was
also elected alternate delegate at large to the National Democratic
convention of that year in St. Louis. During the preceding
five years Mr. Maxwell had been a member of the state executive
committee. When the lines were being drawn in the contest
between the various candidates for the presidential nomination
by the Democratic convention, he championed the cause of William
R. Hearst in opposition to Judge Parker, in the sincere
belief that the corporate influences supporting Parker and
antagonistic to Hearst, made the latter's candidacy more consistent
with Democratic principles and more likely to achieve success
at the polls. As chairman of the state central committee he
effected a thorough organization in every county in Iowa to
support Hearst. He and his associates went out into all the
districts according to a systematic plan and by personal solicitation
enlisted the support of representative citizens in each
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County. As a result, notwithstanding bitter
opposition on the part of a number of politicians in the party,
Iowa sent a Hearst delegation to St. Louis. This is rightly
credited to Mr. Maxwell as a somewhat remarkable achievement,
when one takes into consideration the well known conservatism
of the average Iowan. The St. Louis convention placed the
Democratic party on such a basis, that Mr. Maxwell who was
a thorough admirer of the character and principles of Theodore
Roosevelt, decided to become an independent Republican and
accordingly on the 17th of July resigned the chairmanship
of the state central committee. During the rest of the campaign
he was, an active worker on the Republican side in Missouri,
making twenty-five speeches for Roosevelt in that state, and
no doubt was one of the effective influences that caused that
rock-ribbed Democratic commonwealth to give a majority to
Roosevelt. During the campaign he established, at Moberly,
Missouri, a Republican paper named the Tribune.
Mr. Maxwell knows the newspaper business from
the very fundamentals, and aside from his political activity,
that has been his chief occupation. He was married in Iowa
to Miss Clara M. Peterson and they have four childrenHarry
C., Clarence M., Raymond L. and Robert C.
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cont.
CHARLES M. MYERS.
The firm of Stevens and Myers is probably the leading law
firm of southwestern Oklahoma. To say that their clientage
and professorial business have more than kept pace with the
remarkable growth and development of this new country, is
the best proof of their successful position among the lawyers
of their section of the state. So far as priority of residence
is concerned, they have both been in Lawton since the opening
of the reservation in August, 1901, and have been active in
public professional affairs since that date; For several years
prior to the opening of the Comanche-Kiowa reserve, Mr. Charles
M. Myers had been an attorney and county official in southwestern
Kansas, in Comanche county. August 4, 1901, two days before
the opening, he camped on the boundary of the site of Lawton,
and on the day that Lawton was founded and grew to city size
in less than twenty-four hours, he established himself among
the other pioneers as a lawyer, and has been practicing ever
since. On the second day of the town's existence, he received
the appointment of deputy county clerk under his present law
partner, W. C. Stevens, who had been appointed county
attorney of Comanche county. He served in this capacity until
the territorial appointments expired. In December, 1901, he
formed a partnership with B. M. Parmenter, which continued
until January 1, 1906. Since then he and Mr. Stevens have
been partners in the large and successful law practice which
their ability and personal popularity have acquired.
Mr. Myers was born in Wyandotte county,
0hio in 1866. His parents, Michael and Charlotte (Plumb)
Myers, both now deceased, were early settlers of Ohio,
the father being a native of Pennsylvania and the mother of
New England stock, her ancestors having been among the Pilgrim
Fathers. Mr. Myers was educated largely in Putman county,
Ohio, whither his family moved, and at the age of eighteen
he came west to Coldwater, Comanche county, Kansas, where
he studied law and was admitted to the bar, May 18, 1898.
He had already served as district clerk of Comanche county
four years, and in November, 1898, he was elected county attorney,
serving two Years. He has been very actively identified with
the affairs of Lawton during the past six years. He was president
of the Lawton Chamber of Commerce from January 1, 1907, to
June 1, 1907, an in April, 1907, was the Republican candidate
for the office of mayor, and having accepted the nomination
he made such a popular campaign that he succeeded in reducing
the usual Democratic majority from 359 to 55, though he did
not win the election. Fraternally he belongs to the Elks and
the Masons. He was married in Comanche county, Kansas, to
Miss Anna Haelsig. Their children are Malvie M., Leslie
A. and Glen Eugene.
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