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cont.

JAMES M. ARMSTRONG has been identified in many ways with the financial and business affairs of Duncan and this part of Oklahoma. He was one of the organizers of the First National Bank of Duncan in 1900, and served as a director, second vice-president and as cashier at the time he disposed of his interests of G. H. Connell The following year, in 1904, in company with J. D., W. A., Thomas and C. S. Wade, he organized the Duncan National Bank, with a capital of thirty thousand dollars. Other promoters of this bank were John O'Neill, J. G. Miller, W. W. Payne and R. J. Allen. Mr. Armstrong was elected president and has served the bank in that capacity since it was opened for business on August 8, 1904.
    Besides being one of the leading bankers of southwestern Oklahoma, Mr. Armstrong has made a creditable record in other lines. His career is the story of a man who in early life was left an orphan and through struggles for existence that marked his boyhood has gradually risen to be one of the leaders in his community. He was born in Maury county, Tennessee, June 25, 1856. His parents, James M. and Lucinda (Hickman) Armstrong, left Tennessee in the year after his

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birth and moved to Vernon county, Missouri, where the father was the first man in the county to enlist in the Confederate service. He died while home on a furlough in 1864. His wife had passed away in 1859. Their three children were: Sophronia, who married John Murray, and died in Missouri; Francis M., a business man of Elk City, Oklahoma; and James M. The last named lived with his married sister until her death, but from that time was thrown entirely on his own resources. From a lad of ten years he had worked to support himself, and as a result of his circumstances he enjoyed only six months schooling to fit him for the responsibilities of a career. He came to manhood upon a farm, but in 1878 he and his brother began a strenuous acquaintance with western life. From Pueblo, Colorado where they were a short time, they began prospecting and working in the mines, of the Elk Mountain range. When the Ute Indians were removed from their reserve, the brothers and six other men began prospecting for minerals in the abandoned reservation, and for months lived in that wild and untraveled region, seldom seeing a stranger. They uncovered some good prospects, but finally pooled their claims with some Denver parties who formed, the Susie Fisk Mining Company, the brothers taking stock for their property. After months of hard work and spending all that he made, James Armstrong walked out of the country, with his sole possessions a can of baked beans and half a blanket. Texas was the next scene of his endeavor, where he hired out to ride the range for twenty dollars a month. Later he entered the employ of Brown brothers at Bowie, who had range privileges in Indian Territory, and was sent to join the outfit in this country. During 1885 the camp was located where the town of Comanche now stands, and the following year was moved to a spot one and a half miles southwest of the site of Duncan, and for several years remained in the vicinity of the present county seat. It was the savings from these years of range life that laid the foundation for Mr. Armstrong's business success. Twenty-five dollars a month "and found" was sufficient in time to furnish capital for engaging in the cattle business in a small way on his own account. For several years he was an individual cattle operator. One year while he was in the grocery business at Duncan a stranger came into town, named R. J. Allen, and asked for an interest in the business, which had formerly been conducted by the pioneer William Duncan. With less than an hour's acquaintance Mr. Armstrong sold the newcomer a share in the store, and he is now fond of recalling this incident of his personal estimate of his business associate, whom he found to be every inch a man, and who has since continued one of the strong business men of Duncan. While in the cattle business Mr. Armstrong represented for several years the commission firm of Campbell, Hunt and Adams of Kansas City. Since entering the banking business his activities have been directed to a more varied field of enterprise, and he has numerous interests in this part of Oklahoma.
    Mr. Armstrong married, in August, 1898, Miss Wannie Mays, a daughter of J. G. Mays, a Tennesseean, Mrs. Armstrong was housekeeper for her bachelor brothers when Mr. Armstrong met her and induced her to take his name. They have two children, Ima Gay and Frances Day. Mr. Armstrong is a Democrat but not active in politics.

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cont.

JAMES P. SAMPSON, who is the present clerk of the county court of Stephens county, came to Duncan in 1892, as one of the early settlers of the town, and has since been closely identified with affairs of this section, He has a share in the newspaper history of the state, since he was founder of the Duncan Banner, shortly after corning here, and was its active editor and proprietor until 1901; when he disposed of this property to his son, who still conducts that well known journal in southern Oklahoma. For several years he was engaged in insurance and real estate business, and with the establishment of courts and county organization, after statehood he was appointed by Judge Admire as clerk of his court.
    A career of remarkable variety and experience furnishes the material for a sketch of Mr. Sampson's life. A member of one of the oldest southern families, he was born in Red River county, Texas, June 10, 1842, came to man's estate in Hunt county, and completed, his education in Chappel Hill Academy. At the beginning of the war he entered the Confederate army as a private in Company D. Thirty-second Texas Cavalry, under Captain Weaver and Colonel Ector. He saw service in Missouri and Arkansas, fighting at Oak Hill and Elkhorn, in Generals McCullough and Vandorn's army, then, when the command was transferred east of the Missis-

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sippi, was in the engagements at Richmond, Kentucky, Stone River and Chickamauga. At Chickamauga he was among the prisoners taken by General Thomas, and was sent to Camp Douglas, Illinois; March 3, 1864, by bribing the guard he effected his escape in citizen's clothes. He walked across the state to Rock Island, where he worked two weeks to earn enough to carry him to an uncle, David Rowe, a southern sympathizer, who lived at Atalissa, Iowa. The uncle refused to compromise his neutrality by giving money to his country's enemies, but provided the funds necessary to take him to Canada. Arriving at Windsor, in the British dominions, Mr. Sampson registered his name and command at the hotel, and was quickly the object of much curious attention from the citizens. Ohio's famous "Copperhead." C. L. Vallandigham, was at Windsor, in exile, and meeting the young Confederate, advised him to remain in Windsor, supplying him with clothing and money to pay his bills. A young Virginia officer, also recently escaped, soon joined him, and they remained together until the close of the war. While at Windsor a regiment of colored troops, across the river in Detroit, were paid their bounty money, and at once got drunk and started a riot, firing the city. The Windsor fire department was sent to check the flames, and the two Confederates went along in search of such adventure as they might meet. Naturally they were not friendly to the colored soldiers, and proceeded to assess such of them as they met, with the result that at the conclusion of the night's experience they had enough funds to meet their needs for some months to come. From Windsor the two went to Toronto, and in the spring of 1865 to Baltimore, where they obtained commissions as sutlers in Grant's army then operating around City Point. In this capacity they sold goods to officers and men in the Union army for two months, selling cigars to Grant himself. They were in Washington during the closing days of the war, and were auditors at Ford's Theatre every night with the exception of the fatal night when Lincoln was shot. From the capital they set out to Cincinnati together, and from that point the Virginian took an up-river boat for his home, and Mr. Sampson began his homeward journey on the steamer General Anderson. Enroute he made friends with a federal officer bound for Little Rock, and was complimented with transportation to that place. After an absence of four years he reached Texas in August, 1865. Following this eventful life as a soldier, he took up civil pursuits as a stock farmer. In 1888 he engaged in the insurance and abstract business at the county seat of Montague county, and from there moved to Duncan in 1892. Since reaching majority Mr. Sampson has been an active worker in the Democratic party. Inheriting his political faith from worthy ancestors, he has continued its advocacy, and especially as a newspaper man yielded an effective influence in the campaign which brought the new state into Democratic ranks.
    To sketch briefly the history of the worthy family of which Mr. Sampson is a member, it is necessary to go back to the colonial period. His ancestors were among the early Irish settlers of the Atlantic coast. James and William Sampson, brothers, who, being Protestants, were imprisoned for their refusal to renounce their faith, were finally, after twenty years, released from prison and exiled, with other Protestants, to North Carolina. There a colony was formed, and the brothers being leading members, Sampson county was named in their honor. On account of some differences, the brothers later separated, William going to New York and James remaining in the south and adhering to its institutions. Among William's posterity have been some national characters—notably the admiral of the Spanish war. All of them upheld the Republican principles, while the descendants of James have been equally loyal to the opposite party. The oldest son of every James was named James, and the first of each generation from William has borne his name.
    Rev. James Sampson, grandfather of the Stephens county official, was a son of James, the original American settler, and was born about 1796, and early joined the Presbyterian church. He was one of the dissenters who promoted the movements which resulted in the organization of the Cumberland branch of the church. As a minister, he was one of the first workers of the denomination in the new country of Texas, and organized two well known educational institutions, those at Tehuacana and Chappel Hill. He died at Paris, Texas in 1856. The oldest son of this Presbyterian pioneer was James W., who was born in Middle Tennessee in 1821 and accompanied his father to Arkansas when a boy and to Red River county, Texas, in 1841. He engaged in the stock business in Fannin

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county in 1843, and three years later, with twelve others, organized the county of Hunt, being chosen its first sheriff. He was thereafter closely identified with the affairs of the county, and at the beginning of the Civil war became quartermaster of a regiment in the Western Department and served until his death in 1862. His wife was Elvira Sandifer, daughter of Patrick Sandifer, of pure Irish stock, who lived in Sevier county Arkansas, where the Sampsons also had their home for a time. The children of this marriage were as follows: James P., whose life has been sketched; Robert F., of St. Jo, Texas; William, of Hunt county, Texas; Maggie, who married Henry Hater, of Snyder, Texas; Jane, wife of Lee Johnsy, of Memphis, Texas.
    James P. Sampson, who thus represents the fourth generation of this family in America, was married July 15, 1866, to Ann O. Terry, daughter of Colonel James F. Terry, who was a Texas pioneer from Illinois. Their children are as follows: Ella, wife of J. L. C. Guest, of Duncan; Kate, wife of A. S. Pace, of Shawnee; Maggie, wife of D. B. Bradshaw, of Roff, Oklahoma; James W., of Ryan; Fred E., who now publishes the Duncan Banner, O. O., a contractor and builder at Faxson, Oklahoma; and Ross, of Roff, Oklahoma.

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cont.

BURTON A. BARNES, the first to hold the office of county clerk of Stephens county and to inaugurate the system of accounts as provided by law, had a recognized fitness for the office as a result of long experience in clerical detail and administration. Allied with the Democratic party by personal choice, a choice that has characterized the family for generations, he announced himself as a candidate for the nomination in the primaries preceding the statehood election, and after winning the nomination over two opponents by 55 votes, he handily defeated the nominees of the opposite party by a majority of 2,212, and was sworn in on November 16, 1907; as the first county clerk.
    Mr. Barnes was born in Nacogdoches county, Texas, August 26, 1880; and when ten years of age moved with the family to a farm on Mud Creek in Indian Territory. At that time the entire country about there was crude, and in nothing more strikingly so than in the schools. A small board house served for school purposes, and "Burton' Barnes and himself were the only ones in his class," to quote one of his descriptive expressions concerning those early school days. Later, he received the advantages of the town schools, Duncan, and finished his education by attendance at the Fort Worth Polytechnic College. At the age of seventeen he had begun earning his own way. He was clerk in the Duncan postoffice three years and a half, then clerked in the store of Whisenant and Company and in J. P. McGee's Mississippi store. Joining his uncle, J. W. Weaver, he opened a store at Duncan, but in about a year the stock was traded for land and cattle in Throckmorton county, Texas. After disease had carried off the cattle and caused a failure of this enterprise, Mr. Barnes returned to Duncan in September, 1901, and for a year was a clerk in the postoffice under Mr. Elliott, the postmaster. He then moved to his farm fourteen miles east of Duncan, where he followed farming until taking charge of his present office.
    Mr. Barnes' ancestors were farmers and plain every-day people, but of genuine worth and useful citizenship. His grandparents were Absalom and Mary W. (Trawick) Barnes, from Alabama, who settled in Nacogdoches county, Texas. They had two sons, Absalom and Warren, and by a former marriage the grandfather had a son and a daughter. Warren Barnes, father of the county clerk, was born in Dale county, Alabama, in 1858, and for many years followed farming near Linn Flat in Nacogdoches county, Texas. With few education privileges in youth, he began the battle of life and earned his living by hard labor. For a number of years from 1890 he was a stock and grain farmer on Mud Creek in Indian Territory, but for several years has been a resident of Coleman county, Texas. By his marriage to Mary J. Weaver, daughter of Claiborn Weaver, formerly of Tennessee, he had three children—Burton A., Anna and Mattie. The mother of these children died in 1891, and he later married Eva Owens.
    Burton A. Barnes undoubtedly owes some of his success in affairs to his social nature, and his ability to make friends and hold them to him., Fraternally he is affiliated with the Odd Fellows and the Woodmen of the World. Mr. Barnes married, in September, 1901, Mary E. Colbert, daughter of Christopher C. and Nancy Colbert. The late C. C. Colbert was of Choctaw and Chickasaw blood, and was born in the Choctaw Nation, July 8, 1844, and died at Gainesville, Texas, March

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25, 1883. His father, James Colbert, was one of the noted white pioneers in southern Indian Territory, settling at the mouth of Boggy creek on Red river about 1838-40, and building up a business as farmer, cotton ginner and ferryman. He had married, near Holly Springs, Mississippi, Caroline Moore, of the Chickasaw race, and from that locality came to their western home, bringing their slaves with them. James Colbert, who died in 1854, had six children: James, who died in 1883 at Savannah; Sophia, deceased, wife of Charles Messick; Nathaniel A., deceased; Christopher C., father of Mrs. Barnes; Rebecca, deceased, wife of W. V. Alexander; and Jennie Lind, deceased, wife of Joseph Moore.   C. C. Colbert was in the service of the Confederacy during the Civil war, joining the regiment organized by General Cooper, then agent for the tribes. He served as a private a year, until compelled to leave the ranks on account of illness. By his marriage to Nancy Bourland he had six children. The children of Mr. and Mrs. Barnes are Samuel Paul, Mary and Burton C. When the land of the Chickasaws was allotted in severalty the family received a splendid tract on Wild Horse creek as their individual property.

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cont.

WILLARD H. ADMIRE. The first incumbent of the office of county judge in the new county of Stephens, chosen by the people at the statehood election, is Willard H. Admire. A well known fitness for the office, a broad public spirit, a competent knowledge of the law, gained for him the confidence of the people and enabled him to win the honor of being the first judge to inaugurate the work of this office. Judge Admire has been a resident of this section of Oklahoma since 1901, when he located in the newly founded town of Comanche, at the edge of the Kiowa-Comanche country, included, by the recent division, in the county of Stephens. For a dozen years previously he had been a member of the profession in Montague county, Texas, and in his home town of Nocona won his first cases. Judge Admire was born in Boone county, Indiana, December 5, 1861, and grew to man's estate on the home farm. He attended the country schools, and after some courses in the well known academy at Pea Ridge, Arkansas, began teaching school. While thus occupied he read law, and before his admission to the bar had tried some cases before the petty courts. He completed his course of reading with the firm of Rudgely and Walker, in Montague county, Texas, where he had located in 1886, and he soon afterward began active practice at Nocona. Here he served as mayor and also as city attorney, so that he had official as well as professional experience before coming to Oklahoma. At Comanche he also served as city attorney, and with the approach of statehood became a candidate for the office of county judge of the newly created Stephens county. He won the nomination with little effort and was elected on the Democratic ticket. His family has been identified with the Democratic party almost since the beginning of its existence.
    The family history begins with two brothers who settled in Virginia during colonial days. The grandfather of Judge Admire was Squire Admire, who was born in Kentucky, and died in Jasper county, Illinois. His children were: James, Thomas, Granville, William K, Jane Mason, and Lizzie Varble. William K. Admire, father of the present judge of Stephens county, was born in Oldham county, Kentucky, and early became identified by residence with Boone county, Indiana. He was liberally educated for the time and became a teacher, a work that was so congenial that he never deserted it until age forced his retirement. During the latter sixties he was elected to the lower house of the Indiana legislature, serving two years. He refused to support the equivocal candidacy of Horace Greeley, and therefore lost the support of his party for re-election. His wife was Mary E. Young, daughter of James Young, of Johnson county, Indiana. In 1876 they took their family to Benton county, Arkansas, and later moved to Salt Lake City, where they are now passing their declining years. They were parents of the following children: Allie, wife of Thomas Edwards, of Owen county, Indiana; Willard H.; James, a railroad man in Indiana; Van, of Tarrant county, Texas; Glennie, wife of John Cranford, of Salt Lake City; Livy, a farmer of Tarrant county, Texas; Lula, wife of James Goodner, of Clay county, Texas.
    Judge Admire married, in December, 1884, in Benton county, Arkansas, Miss Laura J. Weaver, daughter of J. B. Weaver, now a resident near South McAlester. Seven children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Admire: Allie, wife of Oscar Raley, of Duncan; Matilda, William, Clara M., deceased, Bertha, Isaac, Thomas and Minnie. Judge Admire affiliates with the Masons, the Odd Fellows and the Woodmen of the World.

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RICHARD A. EDWARDS, manager of the hardware concern of Gilkey-Jarboe Hardware Company at Duncan, has held a position of responsibility and trust with this well known firm for the past eight years, and his capabilities as a business man and his qualities as a citizen have won him high standing. The Gilkey-Jarboe Hardware Company interests are the most important of the kind in Stephens county, and their successful handling is an evidence of exceptional ability possessed by their guiding and leading force. Besides having a financial interest in the company for which he is a manager, Mr. Edwards is identified with the Duncan Oil Mill Company and is a stockholder and director in the Duncan National Bank.
    A native of Tarrant county, Texas, Mr. Edwards was born at Fort Worth on the 4th of August, 1877, son of Nicholas G. and Sallie O. (McFall) Edwards. The family appears to have originated in Virginia, and to have combined elements from Scotch-Irish and English ancestry. The parents of Richard A. Edwards, now residents of Chickasha, Oklahoma, came to Texas from Louisiana, Missouri, in 1874, and after a short period spent in merchandising at Fort Worth moved to a farm in Tarrant county, Texas. In 1880 the family made another change of location to a farm near Weatherford, Parker county, which remained their homestead until 1889, when it was transferred to the present residence town of Chickasha, Oklahoma. The father is a Tennesseean, born in 1843, and the mother a Kentuckian, the year of whose birth is 1845. The elder child is, Mamie, wife of W.H. Gilkey, vice-president of the Gilkey-Jarboe Hardware Company and manager of the Chickasha House, and Richard A., of this notice. On June 2, 1904, the latter married Kate Darnell, daughter of Dr. W. A Darnell, of Whitesboro, Texas, who came to the Lone Star state from Tennessee in 1883. Frances Elizabeth has been born of this union.

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cont.

JAMES B. MASON is not only a farmer of substance, who is assisting to lay the most enduring kind of prosperity for the new state of Oklahoma, but is also a faithful citizen of broad judgment who is participating in the equally important work of laying the foundations of good government. He is a native of Polk county, Arkansas, born January 24, 1858, and at the age of sixteen, after receiving but a meager education, commenced his working life as a farm laborer. Later he followed the occupation, on shares, and at the age of twenty-one brought his small accumulations into Johnson county, Texas. He continued there as a landowner and a cultivator from 1871 to 1902, when he disposed of his interests and moved his family to the Chickasha Nation, where opportunities for the future seemed more promising. He first leased land in the Grass reserve near Duncan, and when Congress placed it on the market he purchased a quarter section four miles west of the county seat, and it is to this tract that he is devoting his attention, having cultivated it profitably to cotton and corn and otherwise improved it. He has also entered with deep interest into the civic development of his new home. In 1905 he was chosen a member of the city council of Duncan, leading his ticket in strength of majority. While thus serving he was of material aid in pushing the one vital measure before that body, the floating of the bonds for the erection of the fine city school building. In September, 1907, he was selected by the Democrats to be their candidate for county commissioner, was easily elected, and upon the organization of the board was chosen its chairman. Thus he has the honor of having served as the first chairman of the first board of commissioners of Stephens county. In addition to the work of examining and auditing bills against the county, the board has been charged with the task of filling vacancies in the township offices, caused by resignation or refusal to qualify, and as chairman of the body, Mr. Mason has shown excellent abilities, both executive and judicial. In his church relations, he is known as an earnest and leading Methodist, being one of the trustees and a member of the board of stewards of the local organization.
    Willis E. Mason, the father of James B., was an old-time overseer of South Carolina, who in the fifties migrated toward the southwest, his destination being Texas. He stopped in Arkansas for several years, and was there overtaken by the Civil war, enlisting in the Confederate service and dying in the service. He married Annie B. Henderson, of Elbert county, Georgia, who died in Polk county, Arkansas, in 1901, at the age of seventy-one years. The following children were born to Mr. and Mrs. .Willis E. Mason: William, of Dyer, Arkansas; Martha, who died unmarried in that state; Thomas, who died in Texas; Sarah, who died single; James B., of this sketch; and Jefferson M., who died in Texas,

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the father of a family. James B. Mason was first married, in Johnson county, Texas, in 1881, to Nannie T. Byers, daughter of Isaac Byers, formerly a resident of Alabama. She died in 1892, leaving these children: Charles, who married Lillie Barnes and is a farmer of Stephens county; Willis E., of Musselshell, Montana; Elmer, a student of the Duncan schools, and Nannie T. In October, 1894, Mr. Mason married as his second wife Janie A. Heath, whose father was a Texas pioneer who originally came from Georgia. Mrs. Janie Mason is a native of Cass county, Texas, and is the mother of Vera and Erin, who died young, and Jim, a daughter now six years of age.

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cont.

IRA LOYD, for several years one of the leading merchants of Duncan, Stephens county, and still one of its foremost young business men and property owners, is a native of Italy, Texas, where he was born on the 1st of April, 1874. The family originated in Mississippi, whence his father migrated to Ellis county, eastern Texas, with whose agricultural interests he was long prominently connected. Here Ira Loyd reached the later years of his youth, acquiring his schooling in Italy. He came to Duncan in 1898. At the time of his coming the village numbered but a few hundred people, and he brought into the community three hundred and sixty dollars in cash and an accomplished pianist as a wife. He bought a piano that the latter might continue her profession as a musician, and then laid in a small stock of groceries in the block just east of the railroad, where he now owns a brick business block. Husband and wife lived in the rear of the store. For five years Mr. Loyd sold groceries at this place, afterward adding dry goods to his stock, and in 1906 moved into the Frensley building, one of the most commodious business edifices in the city here, at the close of 1907, he found himself with a stock of thirty-five thousand dollars, the outgrowth of his insignificant investment in 1898. Having decided to devote himself to other pursuits, he disposed of his goods at a "cost sale," in the early part of 1908, and now enjoys a business connection which is less confining than a mercantile career. He has foreseen the substantial future of Duncan, and has wisely invested his surplus funds in real estate and in the erection of substantial buildings on Main street. He owns six residences, has erected two business houses near the Masonic Hall and pays taxes on other city property; he also owns a half-section of land in Stephens county, so that he is rightly accounted one of the real upbuilders and promoters of the town.
    Edward Loyd, the father of Ira, was born in Mississippi in the year 1843, and was the son of Alfred Loyd who brought his family from that state into Ellis county, Texas, where he became a close friend of the famous David Crockett and a promoter of the pioneer farming and stock interests of east Texas. Alfred Loyd died in this county December 4, 1906. In this locality also passed away his wife, who was a niece of President Zachary Taylor. The children born to them were: Andrew, of Ellis county; John M., of Mills Station, Texas; Edward, father of our subject, and Thomas, both of Italy, Texas. Ed Loyd, as he was called, established himself on a farm in Ellis county at an early day, and the town of Italy was located right against his property. Here, for many years, he successfully conducted his live stock and other pursuits, and is still numbered among the most substantial men of .his community. His wife, known before marriage as Georgia Couch, is a daughter of Captain Couch, a sea captain who built the first log house on the town site of Chicago and, it is claimed, was the original owner of the famous Loyd steamship line. In 1849 Captain Couch joined the rush to the California gold fields and died on the coast. His wife was a cultured English lady, daughter herself of a sea captain, and had the honor of officiating as a flower girl at the coronation of Queen Victoria in 1819. Her mother died in her child's girlhood, and thus for some years she was on her father's ship. In it she made a half-dozen trips across the Atlantic to different ports, and it was during one of these voyages that she made the acquaintance of Captain Couch. After their marriage they made their home in Ellis county, Texas, from which point the husband joined the western caravan to the gold diggings of California, never to return. The widow, who survived until 1902, was the mother of three children: Mrs. Edward Loyd, of Italy; Elizabeth Couch, of Forreston, Texas, and James Couch, who passed away in Ellis county, Texas. Mr. and Mrs. Edward Loyd became the parents of the following; Elizabeth, wife of E. C. Cross, of Italy, Texas; Fred, a young business man of that place, who died in 1901; Ira, of this sketch, and Ina, who died unmarried. In August, 1896, Ira Loyd

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married Mamie E. Eskew, who is a native of Hunt county, Texas, born in 1879.

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WILLIAM A. WILLIAMS, a pioneer merchant of Duncan, Stephens county, long a prominent official of Montague county, Texas, is now retired from active business. He is a director of the First National Bank of that place, however, and an honored citizen to whose broad and sound judgment the community is always ready to defer. He has now been prominently identified with Oklahoma since 1893, coming into what was to become the new state from his native Texas. In Lamar county of that state, Mr. Williams was born on the 6th of May, 1842, and is descended from one of the pioneers of Texas, who shared in the grand work of founding the Republic of the Lone Star. William A. obtained only a fair education, and shared in the fortunes of the Confederacy in connection with Company F, Fourteenth Texas Cavalry, under command of Colonel Johnson. He was mustered into the service at Montague and the regiment was ordered directly to the battlefield at Shiloh. Although too late to participate in that engagement it was under fire at Farmington and Richmond, Kentucky. At the latter engagement, a cannon ball took off Mr. Williams' right leg, and ended his military service. After lying in hospitals, at Richmond, Lexington and Louisville, Kentucky, he was finally captured and sent to Camp Butler, Illinois, where he remained until May, 1863, when he was exchanged at City Point, Virginia, and returned home. In his crippled condition, he at once saw that an education was more than ever a necessity, and he therefore entered the school of J. W. P. McKenzie in Red River county, Texas, and there spent three years of faithful study. After teaching school for two terms in Cooke county, he opened a small general store at the head of Elm creek, in Montague county, and was engaged in merchandise until 1873. In that year he was elected district c1erk of the county, and in 1875 was elected to the newly created office of county clerk. By successive elections he held that position until November, 1892, making a continuous public service of nineteen years less two, 1886-88, and retiring from it only because of ill health. This record speaks for itself, without the indulgence of detailed eulogy. Upon his retirement from office, Mr. Williams settled his personal affairs in Montague county preparatory to becoming a citizen of the Chickasaw Nation, and in the spring of the following year (1893) took up his residence in Duncan. He at once opened a grocery there, and conducted it with profit until his removal to Custer county, where he engaged in farming and stock raising. He was absent from Duncan for two years, and since his return has lived a semi-retired life investing in city property, connecting himself with the developing enterprises of the place, and otherwise showing his faith in its future. In politics, he has always been a Democrat, and has supported religious and charitable movements for many years.
    Hiram Williams, the father, was born in Jardin county Tennessee, in 1818, and was there married to Polly Grant. His wife came with him to Texas in art ox-cart, following just behind an emigrant band of Choctaw Indians, then moving to their reservation in the Territory. The white emigrants were granted 1,280 acres of land where the town of Paris now stands, and later an additional 640 acres. They engaged in the stock business, erected the first house built on the town site, and here Polly Williams died. After profitably disposing of his land, Mr. Williams passed farther west, bought other land, and repeated his transaction. He was a typical pioneer of that country and those times, and particularly friendly with General Sam Houston and Davy Crockett. He was the father of the following: John W., who served in the Mexican war and among the rangers of the Texas frontier, and died finally at St. Jo, his last years being passed on a farm; Grant, who served in the Confederate army and died in Cooke county, Texas; Thomas and George, who both died unmarried; William A., of this notice; and Clara, who also died single. Hiram Williams married as his second wife, Mary Long, and their children were: McMillan, of Bowie county, Texas; Richard and Tillman, of St. Jo, Texas; and Ella, married and, lives near San Antonio, Texas., and there resides, unmarried. The father of this family died in Cooke county, Texas, in 1874. William A. Williams was married, in June, 1871, in Montague county, Texas to Alice C. Womble, daughter of John Womble, who at an early date migrated to Bowie county, Texas, from the state of Tennessee. The children of their union are as follows: Dovie, wife of Martin Sharp, of Ryan, Oklahoma ; Emmett C., of Portallis, New Mexico; Glenn, of Paul's Valley, Oklahoma, and Miss Willie B., who lives at home

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HENRY W. FARRANT, of Duncan, Stephens county, is one of the prominent farmers and Republicans of the state, and a typical pioneer of the west, as was his father before him. Since early manhood he has been a promoter of new communities. All his active life he has been essentially a man of the frontier, and is perhaps a unique character in the west in that he has attended every opening of the public domain west of the Mississippi river which has occurred during the past thirty-five years. Mr. Farrant was born in Liverpool, England, on Christmas day, 1852, and is the son of a Methodist minister, who was also a Kansas pioneer. The son was educated in the West Philadelphia High School and under Professor Sides, a private instructor, and was about to enter college, when his father transferred the family to the prairies of Kansas. At twenty-one years of age, in Marshall county, that state, he began life as a farmer and stock grower, with a span of horses, harness and wagon. Eight years in this locality induced him to seek the more exciting life of a miner at Battle Mountain, Colorado, and after four years in that field he was ready to return to farming, selecting as his new location, Wilbarger county, Texas. He was thus employed for the three succeeding years, when he crossed over into Greer county, then in dispute between the United States and Texas. There he remained until 1891, when the Cheyenne and Arapahoe reservations were opened to settlement and he joined the rush and located the claim which embraced the camp ground of the two tribes. He reserved his homestead right, disposed of his location, remained in the new country a year and then went to Wellington, Kansas. At this point he tarried until the opening of the Cherokee strip, for which he had reserved the right of homestead, and he was able to stake his claim only after the most exciting experiences. The entire period of the opening was a continuous succession of the wildest and most startling of happenings. In preparation for the rush, Mr. Farrant purchased a race horse, a Texas "outlaw," as an assurance that he could cover the thirty-five miles required in record-breaking time. In company with I. H. Banks, he was on the line at 12 o'clock noon September 16, 1893, ready for the word "go." At the signal they at once took the lead of the cavalcade of flying horsemen and wagons, but had not covered more than six hundred yards when Mr. Bank's clothing became ignited from a box of matches which he was carrying. Soon his shirt and vest were ablaze, but, with the additional drawback of a lame arm, he held the reins in his teeth, and, with the aid of Mr. Farrant, his burning clothing was stripped from him and cast away. With their fierce speed unabated, they continued on to Deer Creek, but finding the choicest tracts there staked they directed their course toward Sand Mountain, on the Salt Fork. There, half an hour from the flying start, they drove their stakes, or flags. They spent the night on Hunnewell trail, where five hundred men indulged in an experience meeting, or love feast, with venison for breakfast. The next morning the couple started in search of their camp team, which, the following day, they located at Wellington. Mr. Farrant's claim was the northwest quarter of section thirty-four, township twenty-five, range eight, being located twenty miles southwest of Blackwell, the county seat. He successfully farmed and improved it until 1903, when he sold the property and came to Duncan. Upon the placing of the "pasture land'" on the market, he purchased a Quarter section four miles from town. While he resides on his farm, he devotes his time to his real estate and rental business at the county seat--a business which he established during the first year of his advent to Stephens county, then the Chickasaw Nation. Mr. Farrant has also continued his interest and activity in the politics of the community in which he now resides, and, although the Democracy is dominant, is widely honored as a public man. He is a member of the Republican County Central Committee; has served as a delegate to the Republican State Convention at Tulsa, and was also a delegate to the National Farmers' Convention. He is a member of the Knights of Pythias, and is a leading Methodist, being steward and trustee of the local church.
    Rev. J. P. Farrant, the father of Henry W., is a native of England, where he was born in 1828. He is the son of a sea captain, who served in the Crimean war and died in his native country. Rev. Farrant entered the ministry of the Methodist church in early life and married Lillie Ralston, who bore him the following children: Henry W., of this notice; Lillie, wife of Charles Cook, of Blue Rapids, Kansas; Alfred K., of Frankfort, that state; Frederick, of Kalamazoo. Michigan; William, of Oketa, Kansas; and Laura, now Mrs. Frank Allen, of Marysville, Kansas.

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In 1854, then twenty-six years of age, the young clergyman brought his family from England and first located at Galena, Illinois, removing three years thereafter to Philadelphia, where he held a pastorate for eleven years. In 1868 he went still further into the west, and settled the first prairie claim in Marshall county, Kansas. At that time it was believed by the settlers along the wooded strips of the creeks that the prairie country was virtually worthless, and his neighbors were wont to say, "Parson, you can't make it." But the elder Farrant did make such a success of his venture that his farm became one of the most valuable properties on Corndodger creek; and he still resides upon it, as a comfortable and attractive, homestead, his life of peace and ease being shared by his good and venerable wife, now seventy-two years of age.
    On June 30, 1878, Henry W. Farrant was united in marriage to Sarah E. Fryer, daughter of Elwood B. and Elizabeth (Houpt) Fryer, of Philadelphia. Their children are as follows: Mrs. Boldie Lawless, of Stephens county, Oklahoma; Cora Farrant, unmarried, and Blanche, wife of Hankiss Tarkinton.

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cont.

EUGENE E. MORRIS. A member of the bar and Republican leader who has been intimately concerned with public and business affairs of southern Oklahoma and Indian Territory since 1897 is Eugene E. Morris. As a resident of Ryan for ten years, he was appointed referee in bankruptcy by the United States district judge in 1898, resigning in 1900. In 1903 be was appointed by U. S. Judge Townsend to the office of United States commissioner, which he held until November 16, 1907, statehood day. As a lawyer he has engaged on one side or the other in much of the court business of his locality, and has long enjoyed the confidence of the people as an attorney who pursues his profession with a thoroughness, energy and ability that win conspicuous success. Though he came to Oklahoma from Texas, Mr. Morris has been identified with Republican politics. He was a delegate to and chairman of the first Republican congressional district convention for the fifth district, held at Chickasha when Major McKnight was nominated for Congress; was secretary of the .Indian Territory Republican convention which met at Purcell in 1900, and was the first chairman of the Stephens county Republican committee, and in 1904 was delegate to the Republican national convention which nominated Theodore Roosevelt.
    Mr. Morris was born in Rockwall county, Texas, February 14, 1874. His father being a lawyer, and he himself being ambitious for advancement into the broader fields of accomplishment when still a boy, he secured the advantage of education and began his career before attaining majority. After completing the course in the common schools of Rockwall county lie entered and graduated from Willis Male and Female College at Willis, Texas. He then spent two years in the Southwestern University at Georgetown, Texas, and, having resorted to a piece of strategy to overcome the restrictions on account of youth, he succeeded in entering Vanderbilt University at Nashville, Tennessee, where he also spent two years. Having completed his schooling when eighteen years old, he returned to Texas and the following year was appointed deputy district clerk of his native county. A special dispensation was necessary to remove his disabilities as a minor before he could take this office, which he continued to fill for three years. In the meantime he read law and was admitted to the bar before Judge J. E. Dillard, who gained a place of note in Texas history for having ousted the last "Carpet Bag" governor (Davis) from office in 1876. His first case at law was before a justice of the peace in Collin county, a "forcible entry and detainer" suit, which he won. He did not enter immediately on active practice after admission to the bar, but until a few months before moving to the Territory conducted a drug business.
    Mr. Morris is a son of George W. and Martha (Heath) Morris, who still reside in Rockwall. The grandfather was Mason Morris, who died in Indiana at the age of eighty-three, and who, with two sons, saw service in the Union army during the Civil war. George W. Morris was born at McLeansboro, Illinois, December 25, 1852, and on reaching his majority came to Texas, where for a time he was in mercantile business. When about thirty years of age he fitted himself for the practice of law, and was a well known member of the bar and business man of his county for many years. More recently his business activities have been centered about Dallas. His wife, Martha (Heath) Morris, is a member of a well known Rockwell county family, originally from Kentucky. Her father, John O. Heath, settled in Rockwall coun-

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ty before it was set off from Kauffman county and before the establishment of Rockwall, the county seat. The village of Heath was named in his honor, for it was about there that he conducted his business of merchandising and farming. George W. Morris and wife had the following children: Eugene E.; Augustus, of Rockwall county; Ollie M., of Dallas; and J. Walter, of Fort Worth. Eugene E. Morris married, November 17, 1897, at Fort Worth, Miss M. M. McCreary, daughter of W. M. McCreary, a merchant and early settler of Palo Pinto county, Texas. Of this marriage one child, Lenabelle, was born in October, 1898. Mr. Morris has many connections with fraternal orders, being a Woodman, an Eagle, an Elk, a Knight of Pythias and a Royal Arch Mason.

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JOHN THOMAS LITTLE. In selecting a citizen, from Democratic ranks, for the office of county treasurer, the people of Stephens county gave their preference to one of the well known and prominent old residents of this section of Oklahoma. John Thomas Little, the first treasurer of Stephens county, located at the mouth of Mud creek on Red river in 1884, and since that early year, in the history of the country has been actively identified with farming and with the ginning business. For ten years he operated a gin in different parts of the Chickasaw country, having established a gin in Cornish in 1891. Five years later he moved the gin to Arthur on Wild Horse creek, and after three years successful run, he sold the property and resumed farming. For the six years previous to his recent removal to Duncan he was a resident of Velma, where his children obtained school advantages. Mr. Little had two competitors for the nomination at the Democratic primaries, but at the election had no difficulty in winning over the combined opposition. He took office November 16, 1907.
    Mr. Little was born in Blount county, Alabama, February 4, 1848. His father was William Little and his grandfather John Little, a successful planter and slaveholder before the war. Both father and grandfather were quiet farmers, who voted the Democratic ticket when politics was an issue. William Little married a distant relative, Duley Little, and both passed away in Tippah county, Mississippi, to which locality they had moved from Albama. Their children were: Samuel, died unmarried at twenty-two; Elizabeth J., died at twenty-three, the wife of John Shelton; Sarah, died unmarried; John T., above mentioned; Margaret, who died unmarried; James and Monroe, twins, the latter deceased.
    John T. Little grew up during the Civil war period, when industry and institutions were paralyzed in the south. There were no common schools in Mississippi during the war, and he had chance to gain bur meager education. In 1868 he went to Van Zandt county, Texas. During the two following years, while working for wages, he kept his school books at hand for all possible study during night and leisure hours, and in this way supplied many deficiencies in his early training. While in Van Zandt county, about the time he came of age, he married Margaret Tarver. Before he left the county his wife and their two children, James I., and Walter L., were taken by death. He then moved to Cooke county, Texas, where he married Dolly Robinson, who lived only two months. In May, 1873, he married Eliza J. Harvell, daughter of Alexander Harvell, formerly of Tennessee. They lived near Gainesville on a rented farm until their removal to the Indian Territory in 1884. Mr. and Mrs. Little have had the following children: William A., of Duncan, who married Lucy Wadkins, a Choctaw woman; Lockie, who died in infancy; Annie, wife of John Cornish, after whom the town of Cornish was named; Thomas J., a farmer of Stephens county, who married Pearl Passmore; Grace, wife of Arch A. Lambert, of Stephens county; Effie; Edgar; and Hardy. Mr. Little has been master of the Masonic Lodge at Velma. He bas been a member of the Baptist church since 1864, and has served the church in every capacity but in the pulpit.