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cont.

WALTER C. STEVENS. The senior partner in the firm of Stevens & Myers is deservedly placed among, the ablest attorneys of the state. A wealth of experience in practice, a due meed of success in his profession, a large and important practice in Oklahoma during the past fifteen years, and an intimate activity in political and civic affairs, are the principal items in a summary of his career and distinguish him among Oklahoma lawyers.
    Born in Androscoggin county, Maine, but coming west when a child with his parents, who lived for a time in Iowa and in I871 came to Kansas, he was reared and edt1cated in Beloit, in Mitchell county, of the latter state, and studied law in the law department of the Uni-

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versity of Kansas at Lawrence, where he was graduated in the class of 1886. The first years of his practice were passed at Beloit, and he had already attained considerable success when he came to Oklahoma in August, 1893. His home for the following eight years was at Hennessey, Kingfisher county, but his activity brought him in touch with the territory at large. He was elected and served as probate judge of Kingfisher county, 1896-98; in 1898 Was elected a member of the legislature from the sixteenth representative district, was re-elected in 1900 and in that year was chosen speaker of the house of representatives. As speaker his conduct was marked by parliamentary ability and notable fairness. The session of which he was speaker is particularly remembered for its long and bitterly contested public buildings bi1l, which finally passed, after a fierce parliamentary fight. In his first term as representative, Mr. Stevens was chairman of the important judiciary committee. He introduced the bill, which became a law, providing for the erection of the Cashion Monument at Hennessey, in memory of the first volunteer soldier who was killed in the Spanish-American war. In the same session the territorial election laws were amended, under his supervision as chairman of the committee having the amendments in charge. Through his influence a number of revenue laws were amended, and in varirus other ways he spent a busy, hardworking career in the legislature. .
    August 6, 1901, at the founding of Lawton, Mr. Stevens established his home in the new town and has been identified with its growth and affairs ever since. The Republican party in Oklahoma owes much to Mr. Stevens, for he has always been foremost in shaping its affairs. As a conciliator he has exerted influences that have often adjusted and smoothed over differences between contending factions. Mr. Stevens is a member of the order of Odd Fellows and several other orders at Lawton. He married at Beloit, Kansas. Miss Alice E. Casley of that city, and they have a daughter, La Verne Stevens.

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cont.

JOE T. WHITE. Ranking a close second in importance to the land office, another government institution, the postoffice, had to be opened for business on that memorable opening day of August 6th. The transactions between the settlers and the land office were usually final, but the postoffice was a pub1ic convenience that grew in extent and necessity with each day of added growth to the town. Joe T. White, the first and the only postmaster Lawton has had, played a part in the early days of the town that makes his experience unique among Oklahoma boomers.
Up to 1901 he had been a hustling and successful traveling salesman in the southwestern country, but resigned his position and secured the commission as postmaster of the proposed town of Lawton. The day of the opening, when thousands of homeseekers and adventurers took possession of the townsite in a few hours, found him on the spot ready for business. His first postoffice was in a tent on the square now occupied by the court house.
    Here, standing in sand several inches deep, day and night, greatly overworked, he and the clerks whom he had hastily selected for the purpose, handed out mail and extended the facilities of the postal department to the thousands who sought letters or were sending them to anxious friends and relatives. Rude as it was, this first postoffice did an immense business and Served the purposes of its establishment. Like other early business institutions, it was soon moved to more substantial and fitting quarters. On the completion, during that fall, of the first two-story, building in Lawton, on C avenue, the postoffice was moved to that, and remained there until October, 1907, when it was moved to the substantial brick building erected especially for its use.
    The Lawton postoffice has a unique record in the history of the postal department. It enjoys the distinction of being the only postoffice that, was raised from fourth to second class, missing the third class entirely. The remarkable increase in its business is indicated by the report for the first year ending March 31, 1907, when its receipts totaled more than $20,000. The growth of this western postoffice was so marvelous, in fact, that the red tape at Washington could not be unwound fast enough to supply its vigorous, leaping growth. During the first year or so, because of this inability of the postal authorities to realize that the rapid growth of the town justified an extraordinary use of material, Mr. White had to suffer many inconveniences and even serious interruptions to the service by having his requisitions for supplies cut down by the officials at Washington. During the first few months. also, he had to take extra precautions against danger from robbery of the large amounts of money that was handled by registered mail through his office, both

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banks and individuals making use of this medium of exchange. During part of that time he did not even have a safe, and had to resort to primitive methods in secreting and guarding his cash. But he now has the satisfaction of knowing that he safeguarded a very important institution through a trying period, thus conserving the interests of business and the general public, and as a result of almost constant effort has kept the facilities and equipment of the office in step with the growth of the town.
    Postmaster White was born in Dublin. Wayne county, Indiana, was reared there and finished his education at Earlham College, in the same county, in 1887. Soon afterward he came west, locating in Kansas, and became one of the. most widely known and successful traveling salesmen in that state and Oklahoma. For sixteen years his headquarters were at Arkansas City, Kansas, the leading town on the border of the territory, and during the greater part of this time he represented southern Kansas houses in wholesale groceries, his trade being scattered all through southern Kansas and northern Indian Territory and Oklahoma. One of his entertaining reminiscences is concerned with a hunting trip in 1887, when he shot. wild game in the very locality where the metropolitan limits of Oklahoma City now include a numerous population and high degree of civilization. The Santa Fe Railroad had recently been built and a water tank was the only landmark on the site of the present city. He lived at Arkansas City during its lively frontier period prior to and a few years succeeding the opening of the territory in 1889, and he became thoroughly identified with the life and customs of the southwest before taking up his residence at Lawton. While living in Arkansas City he was married to Miss Luna Ware, who presides over their Lawton home.

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cont.

WILLIAM R. JULIAN. On the very first day of its existence, Lawton became one of the most cosmopolitan cities in the country. Although it was and is a pre-eminently American town, its founders had practically only one trait in common—the pioneer spirit that impels men to seek homes in new lands. The invading host comprised men who followed all the occupations, whose previous experience had been gained in quiet routine or strenuous activity in every state of the Union, and whose combined character and enterprise have since built up one of the best towns of the southwest. It is to be expected, therefore, that the careers of the foremost citizens of Lawton will reveal many unusual incidents of fortune, many characters that have been beaten into form by adventures and undertakings that are unknown ill quiet, settled communities. The impulse to go out into new and strange countries, to become a pioneer and lay the foundations of civilization for future generations, and to engage in enterprises of hazard and hardship, .has been the active cause in the career of the present city clerk of Lawton; it brought him here on the day of the opening and it had previously led him into paths that few men traverse. His father was possessed of the same spirit, and both should be considered as pioneers.
    On becoming a citizen of Lawton, William R. Julian at once established an abstract business, together with real estate and the Julian Abstract Co., with which his nephew, H. E. Julian is also associated, has been successfully engaged in this business ever since. Mr. Julian has served as city clerk since April, 1905, and it is noteworthy that when he was re-elected in April, 1907, he and one other Republican were the only ones of that party to be endorsed by the people.
    Mr. Julian, who was born near Springfield, Greene county, Missouri, in 1869, is a son of S. H. and Sarah (Vestal) Julian, the mother, who was a native of South Carolina, having passed away in the summer of 1906. S. H. Julian is still living at the age of eighty-six, in Neodesha, Kansas, having retired to ease and quiet after a very active life. Born in Tennessee, and an early settler of Greene county, Missouri, he established near Springfield a live-stock business—cattle, horses and mules—that grew to large proportions. He was a real frontiersman, traveled all over the west, and in the early history of this region engaged in several expeditions that were marked by danger and tragedy. In 1849 he went across the plains to California with a herd of stock, and among the famous men he met and accompanied during part of this journey were Kit Carson, California Joe and other noted scouts and plainsmen. In all western annals no tragedy will live longer than the Mountain Meadow massacre by the Mormons in southern Utah. One of the participants, and one who narrowly escaped with his life, was Mr. Julian. On a later trip he went to the far north, to the Caribou country in the Dominion of Canada. His interests in the cattle and horse trade took him to all parts of the

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south in the years before the war, while much of this region was still unoccupied by white settlers. He drove horses and mules to Louisiana and cattle to Indian Territory, Texas and New Mexico, and on the return brought cattle for the eastern markets. Not many of the regular cattle trails, and of course none of the railroads, had been established in the west at that time, and it required almost the extremes of alertness, fearlessness and energy to engage in such work successfully. During the Civil war he saw service in the Union army in Tennessee and other states of the south. It is another illustration of the division of sentiment that occurred within families in certain parts of the country during the war, that one of his brothers was an officer in the Confederate army. There was much bitter factionalism in Missouri, and the region about Springfield in particular was bitterly divided on the issues of the war, as a result of which the families that were left behind were often subjected to danger, first from one side and then from the other. While S. H. Julian was in the army, his wife was taken from home and kept for awhile in jail. After the war, S. H. Julian continued his stock business, and his large interests brought him into prominence as one of the leading stockmen of the southwest. In 1883 he moved his family to southwestern Kansas, locating where the town of Kiowa was located about a year later on the completion of the railroad to that vicinity. There, he continued his cattle business for several years, and then moved to Neodesha, where, as stated, he is passing his declining years in honorable retirement. He is one of few members of the old guard of western pioneers that still remain, and it is a pleasure to hear him talk of frontier life, drawing from his personal experience many of adventure that never fail to entertain. His direct ancestry is French, and the Huguenot stock, members of which came to America many years ago.
    William R. Julian early followed the tend encies, probably inherited from his father, toward exploration and adventure. At the age fifteen, he made a trip on horseback, alone, western Kansas to his home near Springfield. It seemed to be his father's intention he should early become self-reliant through schooling by hardship. Notwithstanding such early experiences, he received a very good education. Besides attendance at the schools in Missouri and at Kiowa, Kansas, he spent about four years in the Southern Kansas University at Eureka and at Garfield University at Wichita. He look up the study of law, under the direction of Hon. Thomas M. Mechan, now of Oklahoma City, but who then had an office in Wichita and was admitted to the bar in Kiowa in 1892. In 1897, Mr. Julian began what might be called a tour, which lasted four years, during which time he became acquainted by active experience with all the Puget Sound country, British Columbia, Alaska, Dawson City and Russian Siberia. The first gold discoveries of the Klondike, in 1897, had attracted him to undertake the journey. From Seattle to Skagway he made the voyage as stoker on a steamship, and in Alaska he and his partner penetrated every part of the country accessible man. One time he undertook the hazardous task of transporting a load of mail nine hundred miles, and got through successfully. He made frequent trips to White Pass, in the severest periods of the Arctic winter, assisting in transportation of gold-seekers. He has experienced the extreme temperature of 70 below zero at Dawson and other points in the interior of Alaska. One of his trips was made by sleds on the ice, a distance of 2,100 miles down the Yukon, to the northern most coast of Alaska. He also crossed the Bering straits to Siberia, spending some time in the bleak and desolate region the north part of that country. With typical American fortitude and adaptability to circumstances he went through all the haps and mishaps that these four years brought him, and is all the stronger for the experience. Soon after he had returned to Kiowa in the summer of 1901 he was attracted to the opening of the Kiowa-Comanche reservation, and thus became one of the first citizens of Lawton on August 6th. Mr. Julian is a member of various fraternal orders, among them the Elks) and is a Knight Templar Mason.

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cont.

COL. R. A. SNEED. One of the former government Indian traders on the Fort Still reservation, now a well known resident and business man of Comanche county, is Col. R. A. Sneed, who received an appointment as Indian trader in 1886, during the Cleve1and administration. One of the reminders of his service of four years in this connection is the well known "Red Store" building, between Lawton and Fort Sill, which still stands as a landmark in this vicinity. Colonel Sneed erected this building in 1886, hauling the lum-

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ber from Henrietta, Texas. At that time there was not a wire fence in all the country between Henrietta and Caldwell, Kansas.
    Between the end of his term as Indian trader and his location in Comanche county at the opening of the reservation in August, 1901, Colonel Sneed was engaged in merchandising, at Paul's Valley, Indian Territory, seven years. At the opening of the Kiowa-Comanche reservation he took up a quarter section of school land at Mount Scott, seventeen miles northwest of Lawton, where he established his permanent home. Probably not another farm in Oklahoma has a more picturesque location than this which lies on the banks of Medicine creek, the Wautaugh of Oklahoma, and at the foot of Mount Scott, the most prominent peak of the Wichita mountains, and on the identical spot where Capt. Geo. B. McClellan camped in 1852, when he named Mount Scott for Gen. Winfield Scott. He conducts a general farming business. Colonel Sneed is one of the leaders in public affairs in his county, and on June 10,1907, was nominated by the Democratic party for the office of register of deeds, to which office he was elected in the following November.
    For many years before coming to Oklahoma, Colonel Sneed led an active and eventful life. Born in Tallahatchie county, Mississippi, in 1845, of Virginia and North Carolina ancestry, he was reared and educated in Madison county, Mississippi, and was but a boy when called into the strife between the states. On his father's side were ancestors who fought at the battle of King's Mountain in the Revolution, and in the Civil war the family contributed its full possible share to the Confederate cause, his three brothers and his father also going into the army, the father being sixty-four years old at the time and the youngest boy being but fourteen. R. A. Sneed enlisted in 1862 in Company C, Eighteenth Mississippi Infantry, and served with distinction, for so young a soldier, throughout the entire Virginia campaign under General Longstreet, being wounded at the battle of Fredericksburg. After the war he entered mercantile pursuits at Jackson, Tennessee, and soon became one of the best known merchants of the town during his residence there he served eight years in the position of district clerk of Madison county. Having passed the greater part of the last twenty years in the Oklahoma country, he has an unusually intimate knowledge of its history and affairs. While living at Jackson, Tennessee, Colonel Sneed married Miss Annie R. Bullock, who was a native of that state. They have six children: Susan M., Francis S., Richard R., Lucien B., Mrs. Mary Dudley Lovell, and Annie L.

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cont.

COL. ALGERNON SIDNEY REAVES. One of the men of ability and fine attainments who became citizens of Lawton on the opening day, August 6, 1901, was Colonel Algernon Sidney Reaves, who was a prominent Confederate officer during the Civil war, likewise commanded a regiment in the Cuban war in 1898, and is now president of the Oklahoma Society of the Sons of the Revolution and an esteemed and valued citizen of the state. He was born in Chambers county, Alabama, in 1840,500 of John and Hanna. (McWhorter) Reaves. His claims to Revolutionary ancestry are well substantiated, his paternal great-grandfather, John Reaves (and two of his brothers), being soldiers in that war. The Reaves family, of Scotch-Irish descent, settled originally in Spottsylvania county, Virginia, and later in North Carolina and Georgia, both of Colonel Reeves' parents being born in the latter state.
    After being reared to manhood in Randolph county, Alabama, Mr. Reaves became a private in Company D, Thirteenth Alabama Infantry, enlisting at Montgomery in June, 1861, after running away from Bowden College, Georgia, to enter the war. His service as a soldier was distinguished by ability and bravery, and he was promoted from one grade to another until in the second year of the war he was a major, and as such was practically commander of his regiment because of the disability of the colonel and lieutenant-colonel. His service, most in Virginia, included participation in all the historic battles in that state, Williamsberg, Yorktown, Seven Pines, the battles below Richmond, Sharpsburg. Winchester, Chancellorsville, Fredericksburg, Gettysburg. the Wilderness, etc. He was a member of Stonewall Jackson's army when the latter was killed at Chancellorsville. At Gettysburg, in Archer's Brigade, he led his regiment in the famous Pickett's charge, which resulted in the loss of four-fifths of his men. He himself was severely wounded both at Gettysburg and Sharpsburg (Antietam), and in the Wilderness Was captured and kept a prisoner until the close of the war.
    For several years following the war he was in the mercantile business at Tuskegee and Eufaula, Alabama, and in 1868 moved to Ten-

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nessee and bought the Hart farm—a noted place in that vicinity—at Hartsvi11e, in Trousdale county. He married Miss Mittle Hart, a member of the old family that had lived in that county for several generations and owned a large estate. For nearly thirty-five years his Tennessee farm was his home, until he was attracted by the choice opportunities of the new Oklahoma country and became one of the founders of the city of Lawton, in August, 1901. In Lawton he has been honored in various ways. He was Democratic nominee for county commissioner of Comanche county in the first election under the new state constitution. In 1906 he was elected president of the Oklahoma Division of the National Society of the Sons of the American Revolution, the Oklahoma branch of this society having been organized February 22, 1905. He is also commander of Gen. Henry W. Lawton Camp, No. 6, Spanish-American War Veterans. Colonel Reaves' service in the war with Spain began in June, 1898, when he received the appointment from President McKinley as colonel of the Third United States Volunteer Infantry, which was recruited in Georgia, South Carolina and Florida. The regiment was rendezvoused at Macon, Georgia, and thence was sent to Santiago, Cuba, where they were part of the forces that took charge of that duty after the battle and naval engagement, cleaning up the city, and policing the district during the rest of the war. Colonel Reaves was discharged from the army in December, 1898.
    Mrs. Reaves died at the old home in Trousdale county, Tennessee, in 1878. There are two sons. Hart Reaves and A. S. Reaves, Jr.

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cont.

JAMES M. POWERS. Among the agencies that perform a recognized public service in the development of new countries there can be no question that the land company is one the most active. The ability of these companies to colonize settlers in unoccupied regions to break up the great single tracts into small farms, and place on each one an industrious family is a conspicuous feature of modern development that will have a place in history. There are a number of these land companies in Oklahoma which, because of the extent of their operations, have become pretty well known throughout the country as well as in Oklahoma. One of them is the Powers Land and Loan Company, which during the past five years has been very active in promoting the newly opened country in the southwestern part of the state, around Lawton, where the company has its headquarters.
    The president of the company is James M. Powers, a man of splendid energy and business ability, of public-spirited citizenship and alert to the best welfare of this country. It is his conviction that Lawton lies in the midst of one of the richest agricultural regions, and has tributary to it larger and more varied natural resources than any other city in the southwest, and he sees in the Lawton of the future a city of splendid commercial and industrial wealth and magnitude. He has not been afraid to back up this confidence, and has spent money generously in advertising the country abroad, has printed and circulated booklets, maps and other forms of information, prepared at large expense, and has brought into this country a great many investors, whose stay he has made pleasant by entertaining them with drives and automobile rides about the city and surrounding country. Mr. Powers on his own part was induced to locate in Lawton because of his careful investigation of the resources and possibilities of the country, which he would now impress upon hundreds of. other homeseekers and investors. He established the Powers Land and Loan Company in 1902, and Citizens of Lawton say that its influence in promoting the interests of the country has always been wholesome and effective, and that much of the credit for building up Lawton and the vicinity must be given to Mr. Powers and his company.
    In coming to Lawton Mr. Powers merely transferred his energy and ability from another city, where he had made broad success in business and bad built up enterprises that have long been valuable assets in the total resources of the city. In Streator, Illinois, Mr. Powers is probably better known even than in Lawton, and having been in business there thirty years, has contributed much to making that one of the principal industrial centers of Illinois. Mr. Powers was born in Marshall county, Illinois, in 1856, a son of James M. and Mary (Powers) Powers. His father was a native of Schuyler county, Illinois, while his mother, who, although of the same name, was not related to his father's people, was born near historic old Jamestown. Virginia, and came with her father to Illinois in pioneer days. In 1875 when eighteen years old, Mr. Powers and his brother, George Y., started a small store in Streator with the firm name of Powers Bros. This firm is still in existence,

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having continued business under the same name longer than any other firm in Streator. For many years they were engaged in the retail hardware business, but have more recently branched out into a wholesale and manufacturing business, continuing under the original firm name, while the retail hardware is conducted by the Powers and Williamson Hardware Co., Incorporated. In earlier years, when Streator was just beginning to build up as a manufacturing center, the Powers brothers entered the industrial affairs. They helped start the first glass bottle works, which has since become the leading feature of industrial Streator aside from the coal mines. Among the companies in which they have been interested are the Cathedral Glass works, the Art Glass Company, the Flint Glass works, etc.

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cont.

RICHARD A. JONES. Among the number of primitive shelters that covered the site of Lawton on the opening day in August, 1901, comprising the only quarters for home and business that then existed, was one tent near the center of the townsite in which Richard A. Jones, the present mayor, had already exposed for sale a stock of drugs and the sundries most needed by this new community. For six days before the opening he had camped on the boundary of the tract, assigned for the townsite, and where the buildings of this prosperous city now stand closest he cut hay for his horses and walked freely across lots that are now the foundations for homes and business houses. In the subsequent six years, like other business houses established at that time, the Jones drug store has grown to be one of the leading commercial houses of Lawton. Frank S. Jones is also a partner, with the firm name of Jones Brothers, and besides the large general drug store in Lawton they have a store at Hobart.
    Since April, 1905, Lawton has enjoyed the administration of Richard A. Jones as mayor. He had been a member of the city council some time before being elected to the chief executive office in 1905, and in April, 1907, was re-elected for another term of two years. The resu1ts of civic enterprise during his administration form an important part of Lawton's history. Its most ambitious projects in the way of public improvement have been carried out during this time, and with an excellent system of sidewalks, sewers, water works, the citizens on their part have been stimulated to erect business buildings and residences of a substantial character in keeping with public improvement. As a result, Lawton has a broad-guaged basis upon which to build to metropolitan size, and what has been accomplished in the last six years will be an occasion for pride through many succeeding stages of civic development.
    Although a pioneer of Lawton, Mr. Jones had not been identified with any other section of this state previous to the summer of 1901. He is one of the citizens furnished to Oklahoma by the adjacent state of Missouri. He was born in Macon county, Missouri, in 1874, and was reared on a farm in that rich section of north-central Missouri, where his parents were early settlers. He himself owned and operated a fine farm in Macon county for twenty-two years. He also learned the profession of pharmacy in Macon, the county seat, and was in business there until his removal to Oklahoma.

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cont.

SAMUEL P. LOWERY. For typical experience in Oklahoma and other parts of the southwest and intimate, first-hand knowledge of men and conditions attending the opening of various parts of this state to settlement, one of the most interesting and reliable informants is Samuel P. Lowery, a successful hardware merchant of Lawton. He has lived on the frontier of the southwest for nearly thirty years Fond of adventure and possessed of those hardy qualities that mark the American pioneer, he has chosen to be of the vanguard in the army of civilization since the southwestern country became a goal of permanent settlement. The dominant qualities in his character may be inherited from an ancestry that, racially, belongs to the most daring explorers and pioneers known in American history. On his father's side he is of Scotch-Irish descent, and on the mother's side the ancestry is French. He was born in Fayette county, Kentucky, in 1849, son of John and P. A. (Deweese) Lowery, and the family having moved to Washington county, Indiana, in 1861, the father became a soldier in an Indiana regiment during the war and was killed during the conflict.
    After spending the first thirty years of his life in the quiet occupations of an Indiana farm, Samuel P. Lowery came to western Kansas in 1879 and at once found himself amid scenes and activities that can be appreciated only by those who lived through them. Dodge City, was his first residence, and soon after, Meade county. Dodge City was still a wild

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frontier town, one of "the wickedst in the world." The buffalo of the western plains was nearing his final extermination, and it was part of the unique experience of Mr. Lowery that soon after coming to southwest Kansas he engaged as an employe of "Hoodoo" Brown, a famous character, who was then one of the army of buffalo skin hunters. During the three months spent on the hunt, Mr. Lowery was driver of the "chuck wagon" and general helper around the camp.
    In the latter part of 1879 he started a restaurant and eating house in Meade Center, the then promising county seat of Meade county. If Meade county were part of Oklahoma, it would be very profitable to follow in detail the experiences of Mr. Lowery while proprietor of this establishment. Meade Center was headquarters for the cowboys, desperadoes and the floating elements of western life, and the events that occurred in the town in the course of a year would furnish material for thrilling stories by half a dozen writers. Sometimes Mr. Lowery's place became the scene of a typical western fracas. He was aware that an "innocent bystander" is usually the one who gets hurt, and to avoid accidents he had constructed a trap door through which, at the beginning of a battle, he would drop into safety in a pit underneath his little building, usually finding on emerging that his domicile had been well ventilated with bullet holes. For ten years he was a resident of western Kansas, with headquarters in Meade county, and took a prominent part in the many booms and succeeding hard times, in county seat fights, and the varied events of that now well ordered and quiet country.
    April 22, 1889, joining the Oklahoma rush, he became a resident of Kingfisher, in Kingfisher county taking up a quarter section near town and later engaging in business. As is well known, Kingfisher has furnished a large share of the criminal annals of this territory during its early years, and Mr. Lowery became acquainted with that side of its hisory perhaps as well as any other man. In 1889 the Dalton boys, with their mother, located on a farm three milesnorth of Kingfisher, on Kingfisher creek, coming there from the Creek Nation, which had been their former rendezvous. Living in the same neighborhood, Mr. Lowery, of course, became as well acquainted with those noted outlaws as law-abiding citizens could well do. It will be remembered that the Dalton boys ended their career in the fight following the bank at Coffeyville, Kansas, in 1892. Another criminal character of the southwest with whom he gained some personal acquaintance was Sam Robinson. After a residence of about eight years at Kingfisher, Mr. Lowery spent a year in California, for his pleasure and health. In the various openings by which Oklahoma territory was gradually expanded, he took part in the settlement, including the Sac and Fox, the Kickapoo, the Cherokee Strip, the Cheyenne and Arapahoe, and on August 6, 1901, joined the multitude who sought homes on the Kiowa-Comanche reservation and became one of the original citizens of Lawton. For several years he was in the real estate and loan business, and in 1906 established the hardware business of S. P. Lowery and Son, which is one of the leading establishments of the kind in Lawton.
    Mr. Lowery enjoys a large acquaintance and friendship with leading men of affairs throughout Oklahoma, and is one of the best known among the pioneer Oklahomans. He has at his tongue's end the history, the physical features and the natural resources and business possiblities of Comanche county and southwestern Oklahoma, and by spreading this knowledge in other states has done much good in promoting the development of this section. A member of the National League of American Sportsmen, he was largely instrumental in securing the annual outing of this association at Lawton and the adjoining Wichita Mountain reservation in the fall of 1907.
    Mr. Lowery's wife is also a typical pioneer. As a girl, Miss Flora Belle Kerns came from her native state of Indiana to western Knasas, and her early years were filled with frontier experiences, one of which, a remarkable achievement for a girl, was when she rode horseback three hundred miles with a party that were fleeing from Las Animas, Colorado, to Kansas, pursued by a band of Ute Indians. She was married to Mr. Lowery at Meade Center. Their son, Charles H., is junior member of the firm of S. P. Lowery and Son.

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cont.

DAVID R. RANKIN. The late cashier and chief organizer of the Merchants' and Platers' Bank of Lawton, David R. Rankin, had been identified with banks and banking practically all his life. He assumed the position of cashier when the bank was organized in 1903, and held it at the time of his death.
    Born at Nashville, Tennessee, in the year

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1867, Mr. Rankin was a son of Judge William R. and Louise (Stocken) Rankin. The father named above was a native of East Tennessee, who came to Nashville when a young man and virtually spent his life as a resident of that city. For years he was one of the leading members of the Nashville bar, which ranked in substantial ability, as well as brilliancy with the best in the nation. In all likelihood, he would have reached the state supreme bench of Tennessee, had not death cut short his career in 1902. During the Civil war he was a member of the state legislature and later became assistant attorney general. His last years were spent in partial retirement from active practice during which time farming was his chief vocation. His wife, who is still living, was born and reared in Nashville, where her father, William Stockell, was an early settler, it being recalled that he was one of the organizers of the Nashville fire department.
    A thorough education, both grammar and collegiate, was a valuable preparation for the career which David R. Rankin was to follow. Almost as soon as he left college he became connected with a bank at Chattanooga, Tennessee, being afterward identified with the Chattanooga Savings Bank and similar institutions of the city. In October, 1901, soon after the founding of Lawton, he established his home in this new country, and soon thereafter married Agnes Meek, a native of Arkansas. The union resulted in three children, as follows: Louise and Frances (twins) and Charles Thomas. The deceased was a prominent member of the Methodist Episcopal church. South, and at the time of his death was treasurer of the Oklahoma conference, formerly known as the Indian Territory Missionary Conference. This is one of the largest conferences of the denomination, embracing both Oklahoma and Indian Territory and having a membership of about 35,000, with 275 charges.

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cont.

HARRY B. HOLT. The first postmaster of the town of Walter was appointed December 16, 1901. Harry B. Holt was the appointee, and during the following five years, until he gave up the office on July 1, 1906, he witnessed and was an active factor in a growth and development that resulted in the permanent establishment and extension of the town and all its varied interests, not least of which being the postoffice. During his term the Walter post office became the center of four rural delivery routes, and its receipts and facilities were an excellent index to the rapid growth of the community of which Walter is a center. As one of the first residents, he was identified with all the movements that decided the permanent welfare of the town. On the first townsite, in the bottom, he erected the first two-story building. Despite this permanent improvement he allied himself with the forces that were determined upon obtaining a perfect townsite with a secure title, and as a result he moved his building twice before it was placed within the limits of the present town. He was one of a dozen men to contribute to the fund to purchase the second quarter section for townsite purposes, and acquired an eighth interest in it. The town of Walter as it now exists was the result of money and enterprise offered generously by its friends during the contest of endurance between this and rival towns. Mr. Holt is one of the old guard who finally accomplished their ends and have the satisfaction of beholding a substantial commercial center, with its future practically. secured against the assaults of adversity. He fought stubbornly against the proposition to move the townsite up to the railroad station, and was also instrumental in settling the problems involved in setting aside lots for park purposes, in establishing water works for fire protection, in the negotiations with the Rock Island Company, and other matters of concern. Mr. Holt was one of the early city clerks, and has held the office of town trustee. In 1904 he established the Model Drug Company, and since retiring from the postoffice has given most of his attention to this growing business.
    Mr. Holt was born in Keokuk, Iowa, July 2, 1873. His father, Joseph C. Holt, was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1828, left there as a young man, locating in Hancock county, Illinois where he flowed his trade of contractor and builder. Later moving to Keokuk, Iowa, he was identified with the upbuilding of that city and the neighboring town of Fort Madison, and spent his last days in Oklahoma, dying at Walter in 1905. He was a practical Christian, being a member of the Methodist church, and was a Sunday school worker, carrying- on the work of extending Bible knowledge and influence among the convicts at the penitentiary at Fort Madison, Iowa, for twelve years. He married Betty A. Banks, whose father, John Banks, a miller by trade, moved to Illinois from Kentucky. Mrs. Holt

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still resides in Walter. Besides her son, Harry B., she has a daughter, Anna, who is the wife of Henry R. Smith of Walter.
    Harry B. Holt, after finishing his school days at Keokuk at Fort Madison, became a clerk at the age of sixteen, and when about of age took up the trade of painter and decorator, which he followed seven years, until his removal to the Oklahoma country. He was married in December, 1901, to Miss Mayme M. Meigs of Kansas City, Missouri. They have one daughter, Doris. Mr. Holt affilates with the Odd Fellows, the Knights of Pythias, the Modern Woodmen and the Royal Neighbors.

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cont.

JOSEPH W. HARLEY, of Walter, Comanche county, a leading druggist of the place and vice president of the First National Bank, has been identified with the town since 1903, removing thence from Enid, Oklahoma, where he was a member of the Watrous-Harley Drug Company, having been a resident of that county (Garfield) for ten years. He came into the west in 1892, spent a year in Floyd county, Texas, as a farmer, and staked his future on teh speed of his good horse at the opening of the Cherokee Strip, in the fall of the next year. He was born in Chickasaw county, Mississippi, July 12, 1868, his father being a platner and a slave owner who located there before the Civil war. J. W. Harley attnded the common schools of his native county and of Bowling Green, Kentucky, completing his education at Normal College and a business college at Memphis, Tennessee. Beginning business life as a clerk in his home county, a year later he removed to Floyd county, Texas, whence he joined the rush into Garfield county, Oklahoma, at the second opening of lands. He made the thirty-two miles to his location in two hours, and seven minutes, and was among the first five to reach that goal. Having planted his flag and watered his faithful horse, he spent the first night at his new home in the open air. He secured his patent, by the usual legal processes, at the southwst quarter of section 10, township 24, range 5, and after selling it engaged in teh drug business at the county seat. This he sold, preparatory to his removal to Walters, as stated. While yet a resident of Enid, he had become a stockholder in the First National BVank, and when he settled at Walters his first active business connection was with the Harley-Mudd Mercantile Company. Withdrawing from the latter, he purchased the Owl Drug Company (its stock and good Will) and renamed it the Harley Drug Company. While still giving his closest attention to the development of its affairs, he has always been influential in the public affairs of the town. He has been an active Democrat and has served acceptably as city clerk.
    Moses J. Harley, the father, was a native of Tennessee .and descended from Dutch ancestry. .Although a man of limited education he was a most successful farmer. During the Civil war he served as a member of the Home Guard of Chickasaw county, Mississippi, whither he migrated as a young man. He died in that state in 1878, at the age of sixty-six years. The deceased married Elizabeth Gable, a Mississippi lady, born in 1833, who now resides in Calhoun county, that state, the venerable mother of the following: Joshua, who at his death left a family at McAlester, Oklahoma; Jane, who married N. S. Crawford and died in Mississippi, the father of a family; George, who passed away in Fisher county, Texas, with a family; John of Webster county, Mississippi; Alonzo, of Chickasaw county, also that state; Callie, wife of N. S. Crawford, Jr.; Joe W., of this notice, and Sallie, wife of John Walton, of Calhoun county, Mississippi. Joseph W. Harley was married in Enid, Oklahoma, November, 28, 1899, to Mary Alice Wise, daughter of Peter Wise, formerly of Kokomo, Indiana. The child of this union is Margie Etta Harley.

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cont.

PETER M. BAKER, M. D., mayor of Walter, Comanche county, and one of its prominent physicians, has been identified with the town since October I, 1906, where he established himself here for the practice of his profession. He comes of an old southern family, many members of which were planters. The father of Peter M. Baker, however, was a successful physician and surgeon, whose career was determined by his experiences of the Civil war. The younger physician is a native of Boaz, Alabama, near which he was born July 7, 1868. He finished his literary education, commenced there, in the high school at Walnut Grove, that state, and in 1890 commenced to read medicine with Dr. J. W. Boyd, of Sneed, Alabama. He was matriculated at the Southern Medical College, Atlanta, Georgia, from which he was graduated in 1892. He commenced practice in his home town of Boaz, among his old acquaintances and friends, and continued there until his departure for Oklahoma in 1906. While in the Alabama town he

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served as county health officer for many years, and was a member of the County Medical Society and the County Medical Board. His old-time friends also elected him mayor, and before he had resided in Walter a year (in May, 1907) he was chosen to the same office by his new Democratic associates and fellow citizens. In the town of his later choice he is considered one of the most substantial builders of its fortunes. He has erected several residences in. Walter, is a director of the National Bank, and, aside from his high standing as a physician, is a citizen of wide influence. Dr. Baker is a Master Mason; is a member of the subordinate lodge, I. O. O.F., having filled all the chairs and visited the grand lodge of Alabama; and is also identified with the Modern Woodmen, of which he is an examiner. He holds the latter relation to several other insurance orders and societies. Both he and his family are earnest Methodists.
    Dr. H. W. Baker, the father, was born in Winston county, Alabama, in the year 1840, son of a modest planter and. slave owner, who was born in Tennessee of South Carolina ancestors, and, further removed, of English stock. The grandfather died at Boaz, Alabama, in 1884, at the age of eighty-one. H. W. Baker had but just reached manhood on his father's plantation, when he enlisted in the Confederate service and was assigned to the hospital corps. The experience thus obtained gave him an insight into the essentials of his profession, theoretically, and a wide experience in actual work. At the close of the war he entered into the practice of medicine in Winston county, Alabama, where he not only acquired a good professional standing, but became a useful citizen of the community. He was a stanch Democrat and a deacon of the Baptist church, and his death occurred in 1903. The deceased married Mary, a daughter of Clayton Cook. The widow still survives, the mother of the following: James C., a prosperous farmer of Horton, Alabama; H. M., of Walter, Oklahoma; Dr. P. M., of this notice; Alfred F., of Clayton, Texas; Rev. Reuben C., of Leon, Oklahoma; Dr. George W., of Birmingham, Alabama, and Martin Baker, of Walnut Grove, Alabama. Dr. Peter M. Baker was united in marriage March 6, 1892, in Alabama, to Nannie Snead, daughter of Logan and Dicy (Beeson) Snead, and Mrs. Baker (who was born at Walnut Grove, Alabama) is the youngest of six chi1dren. The Doctor, by this marriage, has become the father of Zula, born June 5, 1895.