-150-

JUDGE JOSEPH A. MANGAN. It was but a short time after the opening of the Kiowa-Comanche reservation, when attention was directed to the Big Pasture, which it was known would next be thrown open to settlement. This brought about several very interesting movements, among them the founding of the town of Chattanooga, now one of the most enterprising and progressive of the smaller towns of southwest Oklahoma. One of the founders of the town and the most active and public-spirited of the promoters who are still engaged in advancing the welfare of the town is Judge Joseph A. Mangan, who has been United States commissioner at Chattanooga for the territorial and federal seventh district court, having jurisdiction in both civil and criminal cases, and gets his title from this office not that he is a lawyer.
    The Chattanooga Town Company was organized to establish a town in the southern part of the old Comanche county along the line of the Big Pasture, which it was then thought would soon be opened to settlement. Judge Mangan, then a resident of Lawton, N. E. Sisson, Dennis Flynn, William Grimes and a number of others, some of whom were officials of the Rock Island Railway Company were the principal stockholders and promoters of the enterprise. The first thing to be done. as preliminary to the founding of a town, was

-151-

the extension of a branch of the Rock Island Railroad southwest from Lawton to the proposed townsite, a distance of twenty-two miles. With the completion of the road in 1903, the town at once began to grow. But the full fruition of the plans of the promoters was delayed by the failure to open the Big Pasture, which did not take place until the spring of 1906. That event has proved a wonderful impetus to the town. Hundreds of enterprising young farmers, landseekers and investors came into this territory at the opening and as many of them secured land and have already begun to improve it and placed their homes in this country, their presence is a substantial basis for the foundation of a town center, and Chattanooga has profited accordingly. It is now one of the busiest and most promising little cities of the state.
    Chattanooga is located on the southwest quarter of section 34, township 1 south, range 14 west, and is on the line between Comanche and Tillman counties. The selection of the site could not have been happier, for it lies beautifully located in the midst of a great expanse of level country, with the Big Pasture on the south, and the Wichita mountains forming a magnificent landscape on the north; The entire surrounding country is rich in agricultural resources, watered by numerous streams, and producing fine crops of alfalfa, wheat, corn, cotton, etc., besides all kinds of fruit, and both climate and location are especially favorable for stockraising. The citizens of the Big Pasture are an unusually intelligent, thrifty and desirable class, interested in making a good country to live in rather than desiring to gel rich off the land and carry their wealth away. Chattanooga as the railroad point for all this country is growing with almost every day, and has banks, stores, and all branches of business enterprise backed up by ample capital. As a large owner of and dealer in town and farm property, Judge Mangan is the recognized leader in promoting the interests of the town. He and his associates have shown farsighted wisdom in carrying out their plans, in that business has not been the sale end of their endeavors. They have realized that in making a permanent and prosperous community, certain institutions are as vital as the opportunities for gaining a livelihood. Therefore, in July, 1907, was organized at Chattanooga the largest and strongest school district in Comanche county, including high school facilities. With the establishment of first-class public schools, it will then be the object of the leaders in the community to obtain more advanced educational institutions, and thus in time make Chattanooga one of the centers of education and culture for southwest Oklahoma.

-151-
cont.

GEORGE EDWARD PARKHILL. Among other things that have marked the rapid growth of the town of Chattanooga during the last two years was the organization, in the fall of 1906, of the Bank of Chattanooga, as a state bank, with a capital stock of $10,000. Opened for business October 22, 1906, during the first month its deposits were $12,260, and at the end of four months were $24,627, and seven months after the founding they were $30,714. The principal organizer and the president and managing officer is George Edward Parkhill, formerly of Otter Tail county, Minnesota, whence have come the capital and enterprise for the bank, the other officers and stockholders being some of the best known business men of that part of Minnesota. The vice-president, Mr. O. M. Carr, is president of the First National Bank of Pelican Rapids, Minnesota, and a merchant who has large stores located at various points in Minnesota, North Dakota and Montana. Another stockholder and a director of the Chattanooga bank is C. R. Frazee, who has large affairs and financial interests in Minnesota, principal among which is the ownership, with his brothers, of the Great Eastern Elevator Company, which is one of the largest concerns of its kind in the northwest and maintains a chain of elevators through a large territory.
    Mr. Parkhill came to Chattanooga and decided upon the establishment of a bank at this point after a thorough and extensive prospecting trip over the entire territory. He is a native of Otter Tail county, Minnesota, born in 1877, a son of a pioneer settler of the county, George P. Parkhill, who was born in Michigan and was, a business man of wide travel and experience. Though reared on a farm, Mr. Parkhill has had business experience since boyhood, and in addition received splendid educational advantages. He attended the State Normal at Morehead, Minnesota, and later, in 1903, was graduated from the University of Chicago. Besides teaching in the State Normal at Morehead, he also had charge of the schools at Hawley, Minnesota. Before coming to Oklahoma he was a resident of Fergus Falls, and Pelican Rapids. At the former place he was married, in January, in January,

-152-

1907, to Miss Christine Goetzinger. Before her marriage, Mrs. Parkhill had attained to distinction as an educator in the schools of Minnesota. Educated mainly at the State Normal schools, she was a teacher in the public schools of Fergus Falls, for six years was county superintendent of schools in Otter Tail county, and just previous to her marriage had been offered a chair in the State Normal at Morehead, and also the position of assistant to the state superintendent of public instruction—a series of honors which indicate her prominence in Minnesota educational circles.

-152-
cont.

BENJAMIN F. SAWYER. With the transfer of the Kiowa-Comanche country from Indian land to the permanent occupation of farming and allied industry, the former grazing regions were devoted to varied kinds of productive agriculture, not least being the raising of cotton. For several years the cotton crop of Comanche county has been an important resource. Its importance and value in. the vicinity of Walter are indicated in the record of the pioneer gin in that town. Benjamin F. Sawyer erected a modern gin here in 1903, equipping it with four 70-saw Murray gins, and the cotton pick of the vicinity was brought to this plant. In the first year only 452 bales were turned out. The following year 2,988 bales were ginned, 1,700 in 1905-06, 3,102 in 1906-07, and during the last season 1,400 bales.
    The proprietor of this gin has been actively identified as citizen and business man with Walter since 1903. He has been connected with the cotton industry of the Southwest for many years, having come to Walter from Tarrant county, Texas. Born in Union county, Arkansas, November 5, 1856, after a brief amount of schooling, ending with a six months' term when he was fourteen years old, he came to Texas at the age of twenty, and for some years was engaged in farming in Tarrant county. During the early nineties he was made manager of the Farmers' Alliance gin at Arlington, and eventually purchased the plant and conducted it as his individual enterprise. This was the first modern gin in Tarrant county. With the establishment of the Arlington Cotton Oil Mill he became manager, and continued in that capacity until he moved to Walter in 1903.
    Mr. Sawyer is a member of an old Southern family. His grandfather, Benjamin F. Sawyer, was a South Carolinian, a millwright by occupation, who died in Union county, Arkansas. By his wife (nee Johnson) he had the following children: Lucinda, wife of Thomas Smith; Elizabeth and Nancy, who married men named Langston; Minnie; who married Jacob Kinard and died in Louisiana; Ancel, who died in Union county, Arkansas; and George W., who died in Tarrant county, Texas, in 1878. George W. Sawyer, the last named, was born in Alabama in 1834, came to Arkansas in 1848, was reared among the primitive conditions then prevailing in Arkansas, and soon after his conversion adopted the profession of the ministry. He was also a miller, and during the Civil war his services as miller were so much needed by his home people that he was released from the ranks of the Confederate army to perform a greater service in. the gratuitous grinding of grain for the widows and the wives and children left at home. At the time of his death Rev. Sawyer was pastor of the church at Arlington. and also had other charges in that part of Texas. His first wife was Elizabeth Johnson, of whose five children Benjamin F. was the only one to reach maturity. His second wife, Martha Melton, died without issue.
    Benjamin F. Sawyer married at Arlington, July 20, 1817, Sarah E. McKinley, daughter of H. H. and Ann (Stanley) McKinley. Her father, who was of Irish origin, died in Tarrant county, in 1884. Mr. and Mrs. Sawyer's children and Jesse T., assistant cashier of the Walter National Bank; Joseph Alonzo, of Walter; William E., associated with his father; Robert De W., an engineer; and Benjamin F., Jr. Mr. Sawyer is a Master Mason and a member of the Knights of Pythias; politically a Democrat, and religiously a. member of the Baptist church.

-152-
cont.

NATHANIEL P. GILES, chairman of the board of commissioners of Jefferson county, is a progressive citizen and. successful farmer of Hastings. He was born in Franklin county, Texas, on the 18th of December, 1869, son of James K. Polk Giles, who settled in that county with his father, late in the fifties. The family had migrated from Houston county., Georgia, where James K. P. Giles had been born in 1846. The paternal grandfather was an Irishman by birth, who finally settled in Titus county, where he died. The deceased was the father of seven sons and two daughters, mention of six of the former being made as follows: Elijah died in Montague county, Texas, in 1885, the father of a family; Luke

-153-

Is a resident of Morris county, Texas, and Hiram of Brandon, Texas; Jack was sheriff and tax collector of Titus county, Texas, and a Confederate soldier, who died in Greer county, Oklahoma; W. Green is of Jasper, Texas, and J. K. Polk Giles, the father of Nathaniel P.  J. K. Polk Giles, married Julia Murphree, daughter of a farmer and stockman from Louisiana, died in 1879, his wife passing away in 1877. They became the parents of Nathaniel P.; David, cashier of the Santa Fe station at Navasota, Texas; and Ella, wife of W. H. Boyd, of Fisher county, Texas.
   Nathaniel P. Giles was reared in the home of his uncle W. G. Giles in Hill county, and the country schools provided him with a somewhat 1imited education. At the age of seventeen he went out into the world as his own master and hired to a farmer as a wage earner; at the age of twenty began to farm as a renter, and thus continued, with a reasonable degree of success, until after his marriage. Later he was attracted to the gulf country of Texas and was making progress fruit business when the Galveston flood destroyed his property and his homestead. Again he bravely commenced the struggle a competency and a standing, and resumed farming at his old home in Brandon, Texas. In 1903, with a small capital, he came to Oklahoma and purchased a relinquishment southwest of Hastings, sold the place the following year at a good profit and then bought a tract adjoining the townsite, selling the latter at double the purchasing price. In September, 1907, Mr. Giles was elected county commissioner for the first district of Jefferson county, running handsomely on the Democratic ticket. At the second organization of the board he was chosen its chairman, the only order of special importance promulgated being that which called for the opening of the public highways in the part of the county, as well as for their improvement. On August, 7, 1892, Mr. Giles was married in Hill county, Texas, to Miss Florence B., daughter of Marcellus H. and Celestia (Moreman) Jones.  Mr. Jones, who was a Mississippian, died in Hill county in 1899, his children being as follows: Annie, wife of C. A. Walling, of Comanche county, Oklahoma; Rouncy, Mrs. W. E. Roberts, of Greer county, this state; Lizzie, who married J. F. Goodwin, of Wise county, Texas; Mrs. Giles, born March 17, 1869; Cora, wife of J. M. Ware, a merchant of Brandon, Texas; Zachariah, of Galveston, Texas; Addie, wife of T. K. McDaniels, of Hill county, that state; Mittie, now Mrs. E. L. Butler, of Terry county, Texas; Thaddeus, also of Hill county; Carrie, wife of R. E. Harper, of the county named; Celeste, wife of P. R. Beaty, of Terral, Oklahoma, and Henry, of Brandon, Texas. The children born to Mr. and Mrs. Giles are Homer, Oscar, Edna, Albert, Pearl, Dollie and Haskell.

-153-
cont.

ALEXANDER C. SAVAGE, vice president of the First National Bank of Hastings, Comanche county, is one of the pioneers of this section of the young and virile state, and has been a leader in its best progress—in its substantial and honorable prosperity, as well as in its educational progress. At the opening of the reservation, he located on his claim near Hastings, which is the northwest quarter of section 22, township 22, range 8 and which he selected on No. 430. While improving his land he resumed the occupation of previous years, that of teaching in the public schools. In January, 1906, he associated himself with a few gentleman [gentlemen] (having sold his farm) and founded the First National Bank of Hastings, originally established as the Farmers' Exchange Bank but nationalized May 14th of that year. It was organized as a national bank with a capital of $25,000.
    Mr. Savage came to Oklahoma from St. Jo, Texas, having resided in Montague county for some twenty-four years, and having taught school in nearly every town in the county. He was born in Linn county, Oregon, December 6, 1865, the family migrating early in his life to Solano county, California and in 1872 to Montague county, Missouri. His father was a minister of the Christian church, and was engaged on the Pacific coast for many years in preaching, mining and teaching. The education of Alexander C. Savage was acquired in Montague county, Missouri, and was largely self-acquired. At the age of nineteen years he commenced to teach, and was admirably adapted to the profession that he followed it with unvarying success until his advent to Hastings. While at the height of his active and notable work in this field he was made county superintendent of public instruction, the last official to occupy that position in Montague county. Be-

-154-

sides being actively identified with the First National Bank as its vice president, Mr. Savage is serving as mayor of Hastings. With the assistance of the council and interested citizens he has cleared up the title to the town site, and secured the adoption of the water and light proposition. In his religious and fraternal relations, he is a Baptist, and a member of the Masonic order and the Knights of Pythias.
    The paternal grandfather of Alexander C. Savage died in Grayson county, Texas, at the age of ninety years, and was the father of five sons, four of whom served in the Confederate army. The children of his family were as follows: John and Luke, both residents of Texas, the latter of Sherman; Rev. James W. Savage, father of Alexander C.; Samuel and Frank, deceased; Susanna, deceased, who married Henry Dunaway, of Grayson county, and Mary, who became the wife of Richard Fuller, of that county. Rev. James W. Savage was born in Cole county, Missouri, in 1829, acquired a common school education, possessed strong native ability and was gifted as a conversationalist and a public speaker. While a youth he volunteered for the Mexican war, but was rejected on account of his age, and afterward went from Texas as a gold seeker to the California fields, in which for several years he was identified with mining enterprises. At the age of forty he was converted, entered the ministry of the Christian church, and attained such success in his work that he was sent as an evangelist to north and northeast Texas. Returning to the Pacific slope he engaged for years in mining, preaching and teaching, and in 1872 re-located in Texas, and died in Montague county in 1900. His wife, whom he married in Oregon, was Charity, daughter of C. M. Vernon, of that state, and passed away in Montague county in 1885. Their children were: Philip, a resident of Tulare Lake, California; Serepta A., wife of T. L. Shults, of Montague county; Mary R., wife of F. M. DeHart, of St. Jo, Texas; George W., of Denton, Texas, who served a term in Texas senate and is now an editor in Denton; J. Oscar, who died at Ardmore, Oklahoma, and left a family; Frank, of Comanche county, Oklahoma; Alexander C., of this article; William, of Jefferson county, Oklahoma, and James M., of Lindsay, Oklahoma. On January 17, 1892, Alexander C. Savage married in Montague county, Texas, Mollie D., daughter of Elisha and Frances (Whaley) Wilson, her father being a Georgia farmer. The children of the marriage are: Clifford E., Carl D., C. Ferol, Lois and Jo Alexander Savage.

-154-
cont.

MARSHALL SCOTT, manager of the Hastings Hardware Company, is a native of Pontotoc county, Mississippi, born on the 20th of September, 1874. At the age of six years he came with his parents to Texas and settled in Kaufman county. His father, Alfred M. Scott, was born in Georgia in 1833; his mother (nee Martha A. Cox) in Alabama during 1838. William Scott, the grandfather, was a slave-holding planter before the war, married Polly Bowlin and died in Mississippi. Their children were: Joseph, Robert B., Frank. Alfred M., Cicero, Madison, Jane, who married Marion Cox, and Polly, who became the wife of a Mr. McDowell. Of these only Alfred and Robert B. left Mississippi and they both died as farmers of Texas. Throughout the war of the Rebellion Alfred M. Scott was a commissary officer in the army of General Joseph E. Johnston; afterward he returned to agricultural life, attained substantial success and standing, and became known in the politics of Kaufman county as an influential Democrat. He was also a well known member of the Baptist church and a Master Mason. He died in July, 1885, while his wife (an Alabama lady) passed away in November, 1905. The children born to this union were as follows: Ada M., who died in 1891, as the wife of Jesse Hearn; Robert E., of San Angelo, Texas, an architect of that place; Jennie, now Mrs. S. J. Fender, of Hastings; Walter W., a resident of Randlett, Oklahoma; Bettie, who married E. W. Boykin, of Kaufman county, Texas; Mattie, wife of Robert Thompson, of the same county; Ina, who married Calaway Williams and also lives at Randlett; Clara, wife of David Hart, of Kaufman county, Texas, and Marshall of this notice.
    Marshall Scott spent his youthful days in attendance upon the country schools, finishing his education at the Kaufman and Myrtle Springs high schools and King's Business College, the last named at Dallas, Texas. He commenced teaching at the age of twenty, and engaged in educational work until he crossed the Red river into Oklahoma. Upon locating in this educational field he was first employed to teach in the schools of Ryan and supervise the system. After remaining

-155-

two years at this point, he left the schools and teaching and entered commercial and mercantile pursuits.
    When he removed to Hastings he engaged in the hardware business in partnership with William Hearn, and the resulting firm of Hern and Scott existed from June, 1904, to October, 1906. At the latter date the Hastings Hardware Company was organized, being now composed of S. J. Fender and Mr. Scott, who is also manager of the business. The stock of the company is large and complete, in conformity with the extensive trade which it controls and which is continually increasing. Mr. Scott was married in Kaufman county, Texas, on September 14, 1898, to Eva Coleman, daughter of W. G. Coleman of Tippah county, Mississippi, where Mrs. Scott was born. The issue of their marriage is as follows: Darwin, eight years old; Clarence, six; Walter, three years of age, and Jed, one year. The family is unified with the Baptist church, Mr. Scott being on the committee which arranged for the purchase of the denominational institute known as the South Western College, and turned it over to its new management. He is church treasurer, and, as to the fraternities, he is a member of both the Modern Woodmen and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows.

-155-
cont.

JOHN C. GIPSON, of Temple, Comanche county, is a prominent real estate dealer and citizen of affairs, a former leader in the Republican politics of North Dakota and a note worthy figure in the western circles of the Grand Army of the Republic. He has been identified with the growth of Comanche county and Oklahoma since November, 1903, corning from Valley City, North Dakota, where he had been engaged in the real estate business 1888. Soon after his corning he entered the same field in Temple, where his shrewd investments, sound business methods and honorable personality have brought him, into the ranks of the most prosperous citizens of the locality. Mr. Gipson carne to Oklahoma to escape the cares of business, but after a residence of three months became so inspired with a liking for the country and a confidence in its progressive future that he bought property in the place and commenced business. Later, he purchased a farm, but not until 1908 did he decide to take an all-summer vacation, and, with his wife, visit the scenes of his boyhood days in the picturesque country of the Adirondacks and St. Lawrence river. In addition to his business duties, Mr.Gipson also performs the function of United States Commissioner, to which, office he was appointed by Judge Gillette, May 4,1905. He was one of the organizers of the Farmers' and Merchants' Bank of Temple, serving as its first president. This institution is now the Farmers' National Bank. The continuous and influential part which he has played in the affairs of the Grand Army of the Republic is elsewhere given in detail.
    John C. Gipson is a native of Jefferson county, New York, born on, the 25th of May, 1842, obtaining a good education in the neighborhood of Felt's Mills, and commencing his working life as a carpenter. While employed on a farm, in August, 1861, he enlisted in Battery C, First New York Artillery, under command of Captain A. Barnes, now of Washington, District of Columbia. The command was attached to the Fifth Corps, Army of the Potomac, and Mr. Gipson was under fire for the first time at the second Manassas fight. Later, he participated in the historic engagements at Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Spottsylvania, Cold Harbor, Gettysberg, Antietam, Petersburg and the battles leading to the fall of Richmond. During the three years and twenty-five days of his military service he was in twenty-one engagements, and never received a bullet wound or lost a day's time in the, hospital, being mustered out with honor on the 5th of September, 1864, and a participant of the Grand Review at Washington. Since the war he has naturally taken a deep and ever increasing interest in the affairs of the Grand Army of the Republic, the ardor of whose, survivors glows more intensely as its ranks are thinned by the busy hand of death. Immediately after the close of the Rebellion he returned to his home in Jefferson county, New York, where for several years he conducted a profitable business as a dealer in horses. Thence he removed west, first settling at Bridgewater, South Dakota, where for about four years he was engaged in agricultural operations and acted as agent for the F. M.P. A., an insurance society whose membership was among the farmers of the state. From Bridgewater he removed to Valley City, North Dakota., in 1888 where he remained as a successful land honored citizen until his departure for. Oklahoma. It was during this period that Mr. Gipson came so prominently before the people as a Republican

-156-

and a Grand Army man. In 1902 he was elected state commander of the great fraternity of patriotism and in the following year participated in the national encampment at Washington, where, at his instance, the Department of North Dakota was honored with an extended audience by the president. Mr. Gipson's influential activity in Republican politics also led to his appointment as state oil inspector at a handsome salary, and later he served for one term as a member of the board of managers of the State Normal School. His regular attendance upon conventions of his party became a matter of course, and the men of the state who guided the policies of the party became his acquaintances, friends and coworkers.
    James Gipson, the paternal grandfather, was a Maine farmer and lumberman, his father, in turn, having been a Revolutionary patriot and a Valley Forge hero. The sons of the family to come to maturity in the Pine Tree state were William, John, James S. and Cyrus. Although James S. was born at Groton, Massachusetts, he was reared to manhood on the banks of the Kennebec river, Maine and died at Felts Mills, New York, in 1868. Besides farming and lumbering, he engaged at the work of carpentry. He married Tamson Felker, a daughter of Maine pioneers and, like the Gipsons, lumbermen and farmers. They were of mixed Scotch and English stock. Mrs. Gipson was born in 1822 and died in 1906, the mother of the following: Angelina, wife of David Williams, of Ontario, Canada; Havilla, who died unmarried; Rosilla, wife of Ephraim Burdick, of Leroy, New York; John C., of this sketch; and Lucy, who married O. V. Woodward, of Streator, Illinois. In 1867, John C. Gipson married Mary E. daughter of Benjamin P. Smith and Perses (Shedd) Smith, the ceremony taking place in his native county of Jefferson. New York, on the 1st of January, 1861. Mr. Smith was well known as one of the pioneer Republicans of Vermont, his native state. The children born to Mr. and Mrs. Gipson are: James S., of Temple, Oklahoma, a farmer by occupation; John E., a railroad man who, in 1903, died at Waurika, Oklahoma, leaving a family at Miles City, Montana; and Charles B., a resident of Alexandria, South Dakota.

-156-
cont.

AMIL H. JAPP. The first representative from the district comprising the counties of Comanche and Stephens is Amil H. Japp, a lawyer, real estate man and farmer from Lawton. The Democrats of this district endorsed him on June 10, 1907, and in the following November he was elected a member of the first legislature, which during the early months of statehood will largely determine the attitude of the state toward all the important civic problems of the day, in addition to formulating the fundamental laws of the common-wealth. Mr. Japp is heartily in sympathy with the new constitution and will direct his endeavors toward carrying out the essential provisions of that instrument in definite laws.
    Representative Japp was born in Scott county, Iowa, and in young manhood came to Texas. At Fort Worth he studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1900, and after living awhile at Enid, Oklahoma, he located at Lawton in August, 1901, with the opening of this country to settlement. Besides carrying on a successful law practice, he owns and lives on a nice farm two miles east of town, and since locating here has also been in the land business in connection with his brother, G. F. Japp.

-156-
cont.

THOMAS PEERY. The migrating course of the Peery family in the United States has been from Virginia, by way of Missouri and Texas, to Oklahoma, where one of its most worthy representatives, Thomas Peery, now resides as an enterprising citizen of Chickasha and the proprietor of large ranching interests in Grady and Caddo counties. He was born in Cooke county, Texas, on the 5th of September, 1867, whither his father had moved ten years before, from Clay county, Missouri, of which he himself was a native. Thomas Peery was mainly educated in the common schools of his native county, and at the age of twenty entered actively into the stock business of the same section. Until his marriage in 1891, he was associated with his father in Cooke county, but after that event he assumed charge of his own ranch and stock near Myra. This was the scene of his activities in the cattle business until the sale of the property in 1896. He then moved into Indian Territory and established himself near Purcell, McLain county, in 1900, leaving there and locating fifteen miles east of Chickasha, where he occupied a ranch in partnership with J. B. Sparks, of that place. This agreeable and profitable association continued until January 1, 1908, since which time Mr. Peery has conducted independent ranching operations both in Grady and Caddo counties. He makes his home in Chickasha, where he has

-157-

erected a comfortable residence on his block of ground between Fifteenth and Sixteenth streets and Oregon and Idaho avenues, thus manifesting a substantial faith in the future of the city.
    The Peery family originated in Ireland, and it was the grandfather, William Peery, who founded it in the United States, his birthplace being in Virginia. When Missouri was a new state he removed his family thither, and made his homestead in Clay county, where he resided until 1857, when he became a farmer of Cooke county. There he died in 1875, at the age of seventy-five years. He had married Nellie McCreary, and become the father of the following: Polly, who married a Mr. Hoover and died in Texas; James M., who also died in Texas; Elijah C., father of Thomas Peery; William, who died in Chickasha in 1906; Nannie, who became the wife of Jasper Fields and died in Montague county, Texas; Thomas, who was killed in the Confederate service during the Civil war; Belle, who died single; Hattie, wife of John Latimer, who died in Oklahoma; Samuel, of Montague county; and George, of Caddo county, Oklahoma. Elijah C. Peery is a native of Clay county, Missouri, born in 1832, and was widely known in that section as a large cattle man and landowner. During the Civil war he served in the Confederate commissary department of the west, and at the conclusion of the Rebellion was captain of a Texas ranger company, serving actively in such capacity for several months against the Indians. About this time he also commenced to participate in politics, and as a Democrat was the first district surveyor of the country along Red river and six years later served as county clerk of Cooke county. He acquired a large tract of land, which he stocked with cattle, but finally disposed of his Texas interests, and a few years ago removed to his present homestead and farm near Cement, Caddo county, Oklahoma. The elder Mr. Peery is inclined toward Presbyterianism and in Masonry is a Knight Templar. His wife was Sallie Bonner, daughter of George Bonner, a pioneer Texas farmer born in Tennessee, and by this marriage she has become the mother of the following: Eugenia, wife of P. W. Harrison, of Paris., Texas; Nellie, wife of J. H. Hancock, of the same place, and Thomas, of this sketch. On February 1, 1891, Thomas Peery was married in Cooke county, Texas, to Miss Minnie Gilbert, daughter of Mrs. Mary Gilbert, whose family is among the Texas pioneers. The issue of this marriage are: Eugenia, born November 12, 1896, and Thomas Elijah Peery, born November 6, 1907. In politics, Mr. Peery is a Democrat, and, fraternally, is a Royal Arch Mason.

-157-
cont.

ROBERT H. WILSON. Occupying a conspicuous place among the more active and forceful educators of Grady county is Robert H. Wilson, county superintendent of schools, who by reason of his superior talents, scholarly attainments, and good executive ability is eminently qualified for the important work in which he is engaged. He was born August 25, 1873, in Allen county, Kentucky, which was likewise the birthplace of his father, J. A. Wilson. His grandfather, F. A. Wilson, was a Virginian by birth and breeding, but as a young man he removed to Kentucky, where he reared his family, and resided until his death, in 1889.
    Born in Kentucky in 1846, J. A. Wilson was brought up on a farm, and finding that occupation congenial to his tastes started life as an agriculturist. Several years ago he removed to Fannin county, Texas, purchased land, and there continued his independent vocation. He married Mary E. Briley, a daughter of A. Briley, and among their children was Robert H., of this notice.
    Following in the footsteps of his ancestors, Robert H. Wilson began life as an agriculturist, learning grain arid stock farming in Kentucky, and cotton and wheat farming in Texas. In his youthful days his educational advantages were limited, his progress along the royal road to learning being often seriously impeded. Having a thirst for knowledge, however, he made, himself, the opportunity for acquiring it, and likewise the money to defray his school expenses. From the common schools of Texas, he entered Grayson Col1ege, at Whitewright, and by alternate farming and teaching completed the full course of study in five years, being graduated with the degree of B. S. in 1898. Mr. Wilson subsequent1y taught in the country schools of Texas for six years, and then came to Oklahoma, being elected principal of the Washington School, in Chickasha. Meeting with unquestioned success in that position, he was twice unanimously re-elected, and served the district most efficiently for two and one-half years retiring, only, when he assumed the duties of his present office.

-158-

    As a teacher, Mr. Wilson's enthusiasm is unbounded, and his grasp of the fundamental principles of the educational problem confronting the world in these times is' both firm and effective. Although young in years, and comparatively limited in experience, he has a thorough understanding of the needs of the pupils, and shows much wisdom in his advice. While professionally employed in Texas, Mr. Wilson was an active member of the County Teachers' Institute that first petitioned the legislature of that state to pass a law requiring all voters in Texas to present a poll tax receipt on offering to vote, and this was eventually done. Since coming to Oklahoma, he has been a member of the Rock Island Teachers' Association, of which he was president in 1906, and 1907. He belongs to the Oklahoma State Teachers' Association and is president of the State School Officers' Association, and was solicited by the teachers throughout Grady county to make the race for county superintendent in 1907, and had the unusual honor of running for the nomination without a competitor. Elected by a majority of seventeen hundred and thirty votes, Mr. Wilson has labored assiduously since taking the position, having been occupied with the organization of new school districts from the Indian Territory side of the county, and has now under contemplation the grading of all town and village schools as rapidly as conditions will permit, and hopes soon to have all country schools similarly graded.
    At Whitewright, Texas, September 17, 1899, Mr. Wilson married Grace Womack, daughter of W. M. and Maggie (Blanton) Womack, of Fannin county, Texas, and they have one child, John Robert Lee. Religiously, Mr. Wilson is a Baptist, and fraternally he is a member of the Woodmen of the World.

-158-
cont.

ROBERT B. HUMAN, of Chickasha, Grady county, is president of the Human Stalkcutter Company and proprietor of the City Blacksmith Shops, twin institutions which are attracting considerable attention to the city. He is a native of Tyler, Texas, where he was born on the 22nd of April. 1871, the family name being closely connected with the founding of that town. The father, a life-long farmer, moved his family from Tyler to Tarrant county, Texas, when Robert B. Human was about fourteen years of age, the latter assisting upon the homestead wherever it was fixed until he neared his majority. He then went to work in a blacksmith's shop at Purcell, Indian Territory, and in three years was a master of his trade. He next opened an establishment of his own at Chickasha in 1895. For five years he was the leading blacksmith of the place, after which he removed to Colorado Springs, Colorado, where he equipped the best shop in the city and spent a like period there, only to return to Chickasha and repeat his success in the Oklahoma town. It is claimed that he is now proprietor of the most complete blacksmith shops in the state, if not in the southwest. He employs a large force of men on both repair and new work, and his annual business has reached the five-figure mark. But Mr. Human's mechanical talents have by no means been confined to the manufacturing branch of the field. On July 27, 1907, he received a patent on his stalk cutter which is attached to a disc cultivator, and since that time has been granted patents on an attachment to a stirring plow and on a cutter and pulverizer, the latter attached to a wagon. A company has been formed for their manufacture and sale, known as the Human Stalkcutter Company, with R. B. Human as president, B. B. Bridges and George P. Holland, vice presidents, and John H. Hartman secretary. It has been incorporated for $50,000, and since the sale of the first machine March 1, 1907, some 600 of the appliances have been placed in the hands of purchasers and users in this section of the country.
    Henry G. Human, father of Robert B., was born in Georgia in 1843, and in 1856 was brought by his father, Graves Human, to Smith county, Texas. The paternal grandfather was a shoemaker by trade, also a skilled tanner, and erected the second cabin on the townsite of Tyler, that county. He also built the first tannery of the place, which he developed into the first industry of importance in Tyler. Graves Human became the father of twenty-six children, by two marriages. His first wife, the mother of Henry G., bore him sixteen children, and met with a singular and horrible death, being pursued and killed by a coachwhip snake at Tyler. Henry G. Human, whose remote ancestors were German and spelt the family name Heeman, had, as American forefathers, early settlers of New York state. The Humans drifted south and west, Humanville, Missouri, being named after one of the fam-

-159-

ily. Henry G. Human, the father, removed his family to Tyler, Texas, to Tarrant county that state in 1885, and continued to farm there, as well as at Muskogee, Oklahoma, where his death occurred October 6, 1903. He had married Mary Hudnell, who died in Erath county, Texas, in 1885, the family having resided in that locality for a brief period. The issue of this marriage was Robert B. of this biography: George F., of Durant, Oklahoma: Harvey and Pinkney, both of Muskogee, Oklahoma. On November 12, 1895, R. B. Human was married to Fannie Darnell, daughter of James A. Darnell, a blacksmith of Chickasha and formerly a resident of Texas.

-159-
cont.

ANDREW S. GRAY, of Chickasha has been engaged for the past eight years in the produce commission business as a vocation, but outside the circles of trade has become widely honored as a leader in the religious and moral movements of the community. He was born in Dundee, Scotland, on the 27th of June, 1866, son of Alexander Gray, who died at Vineland, New Jersey, in March, 1908, at eighty-seven years of age. The birth of the elder Mr. Gray occurred at Banf, Scotland, and while a resident of his native land he passed the mature years of his life in charge of the sales department of the book firm of Virtue and Yorston, of London. In 1866 he brought his family to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and engaged in business as a florist until his retirement to Vineland, New Jersey, in 1898. Ten years later he died at that place. His widow (nee Jessie Callam) survives him, and is the mother of the following: John G., president of Queen and Company, one of the largest optical houses in in Philadelphia; Alexander, who died in Denver, Colorado, in 1893, leaving a daughter; Andrew S., of this notice; J. C., dean of the Pittsburg (Pa.) Law School and attorney for large interests in Pennsylvania; William and Thomas, who conduct a successful machine shop at Vineland, New Jersey; Robert R., who is a stock man located near Chickasha, Oklahoma, and Charles, also a resident of Vineland.
   Andrew S. Gray was a boy of ten when he came with other members of his father's family to Philadelphia. He was educated in the public schools of that city, became a proficient florist, but in 1878, at the age of twenty-two, left the, east and, with a brother, erected, a soap factory in Parsons, Kansas. By the burning of their plant, Mr. Gray was again thrown into the ranks of employees, locating in Cedarvale, Kansas, where he became a traveling salesman. He was thus employed until July, 1889, when (soon after the great rush into Oklahoma) he entered the territory and assumed charge of the dry goods department of the well known store of Houghton, Upp and Orme, at Purcell, then in the Chickasha Nation. There, as a "side issue," he embarked in the produce business, and when he removed to Chickasha,in 1900 he made it his permanent business. Besides making a great success of this venture, he has become the owner of the valuable block between Ninth and Tenth streets and Arkansas and Missouri avenues, this being the location of his residence. He is one of the organizers of the Chickasha Building and Loan Association and is its president; this institution has been very successful. Mr. Graves also a member of the Congregational church, and served as chairman of the building committee which erected the new edifice in 1907. In politics, he is a Republican; is a member of the Grady County Central Committee of that party; is vice-president of the Law Enforcement League and took an active part in the Statewide Prohibition movement. His wife, to whom he was married at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, April 4, 1884, was formerly Miss Tillie Cooper, daughter of Rev; Solomon Cooper, a Methodist minister, from Princess Anne county, Maryland, where Mrs. Gray was horn. The children of the union are, Ethel, Russell and Mary.

-159-
cont.

JAMES H. STINE, of Chickasha, and one of the large breeders and shippers of cattle in Grady county, wherein he concentrated his interests in 1906. He is a native of Clay county, Texas, in whose common schools he obtained such education as his uneasy and intensely practical disposition would allow him to imbibe. At sixteen years of age he mounted his cowpony to go forth as an independent worker in the world, and, his thrifty financial condition of today indicates that he did not overestimate his abilities to make progress in it. His first efforts as a wage earner in the cow business were made in the service of E. F. and W. S. Ikard, of Clay county, and, following their financial failure in 1887, he identified himself with Mr. Campbell at Fort Sill, that gentleman having the government beef contract for that military post. During the two years thus passed, he became the owner of a small bunch of cattle of his own, which on leaving Mr. Campbell he took to Fort Reno. He held them on the range there for another two years, and then returned to the Fort Sill country, where he continued to ranch until 1906, when his leases expired and he made grazing arrangements in Grady county. While in the Kiowa and Comanche country Mr. Stine became a member of the firm of Silberstein and Stine, of Dallas, Texas, and their operations in the cattle business were extensive and important. They had a lease on two townships of land, and some five thousand of their cattle developed in that locality annually, being brought into the Chickasha country for feeding and preparation for the market. Five hundred are now on full feed for the 1908 market, and the presence of such an industry adds to the commercial activity and importance of Chickasha.
    James D. Stine, the father, was born in Ohio in 1839, and was married in that state to Mary Ray, afterward going to Illinois, and thence to Adair county, Missouri. From the latter locality he migrated to Clay county, Texas, and on Red river, near Byars, he was a somewhat important figure in the cattle industries for many years. He is now a retired citizen of Henrietta, Texas. By his marriage to Mary Ray he became the father of James H., of this notice; Loss, of Denver, Colorado; Hub, of Clay county, Texas, and Fitch and Burl, engaged in the cattle business in El Paso county, that state. In July, 1901, James H. Stine was united in marriage with Miss Delia Thompson, daughter of A. C. Thompson originally from Illinois and at that time a hardware merchant of Henrietta. Texas. The children of this union are Grace, Jewel and Fred. Mr. Stine's residence on Eighth street and Florida avenue is One of the handsome properties in the city of Chickasha. It is in the choice South Hill section and is ideal as a site and a home.