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GEORGE W. SIEVER, agent of the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railway Company at Marlow, Stephens county, has held that position for the past ten years, and is one of the most widely acquainted and popular men in this section. He is not only a sound business man, but is a fluent and finished speaker, and no public discussion or function of the county is considered complete without his presence and participation. Although his antecedents are of the stern Republican type, he has always applied his individual judgment on the questions of public moment and early in his manhood became a Democrat. He cast his first presidential vote for Grover Cleveland and since has voted for Mr. Byran. But, regardless of party affiliation, he stands for righteousness in politics, weighing a candidate solely upon consideration of official competency. He was born at Petersburg, West Virginia, on the 3rd of September, 1865, both his father and grandfather being farmers of the Old Dominion. When he was eight years of age the family removed to Ohio, where he obtained a common-school education. As a youth of sixteen he removed with other members of the household to Jackson county, Kansas. George W. attended Campbell University at Holton, where, among other studies, he mastered telegraphy. He began life, however, as teacher in the country schools of the county, attending also the county institutes and pursuing for three years all the methods of a modern pedagogue. In 1890 he established the Independent, a newspaper at Edna, Kansas, but abandoned this enterprise after a year and prepared himself for the career of a railroad man. He entered this field, at Florence, Colorado, on the 13th of February, 1891, as an operator, his training at Campbell University thus coming into use. In 1892, Mr. Siever was transferred to Abilene, Kansas, in the same capacity, and afterward for some months he served as relief agent for the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Road. In the latter capacity he began his service on the 13th of September, 1894, and on January 15, 1898, was appointed by that company its agent at Marlow. Since his coming, a decade ago, the volume of business at that point has increased from insignificance to large proportions, the importance of the railroad agency having, grown in like ratio.
    Moses Siever, father of our subject, was born in Rockingham County, Virginia, in 1828, the son of Abraham Siever, an honest farmer who died at Petersburg, West Virginia. Moses Siever followed the vocation of his father, but left the fields to join the Union forces of the Civil war, serving in the Home Guard. During this period of his life he was a most radical Republican and an earnest supporter of President Lincoln's policies. In 1873 he removed his family to Marysville, Ohio, where he remained engaged in farming for eight years, going then to Jackson county, Kansas, where he died in 1889. His wife was formerly Harriet Smythe, daughter of William Smythe, who still resides at Holton, Kansas, a venerable lady and mother of eighty-three years. The children of this union were: Jacob, who died at Winesap, Tennessee, and left a family of ten children; Mary, of Holton, Kansas, who married J. D. Poling; Philip H. of Alvord, Texas; Maggie, of Holton, Kansas; John, deceased; George W., of this notice; Lloyd A., of Marlow. Oklahoma; Albert W., of Comanche, Oklahoma; Dr. Charles M., of Alvord, Texas, and Lillie A., passed away at Holton, Kansas. George Siever was wedded in Pueblo, Colorado, January 13, 1892, to Ella Moore, daughter of John Moore, who came to Kansas from Iowa. . Mrs. Siever is a native of the Hawkeye state, born in 1873, and her mother's maiden name was Mary Smiley. Mr. and Mrs. Siever have a son, Elwin, a youth of fifteen who is attending the public schools.

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cont.

THOMAS T. EASON. One of the most successful merchants of southern Oklahoma is Thomas T. Eason, who began business at Marlow a few years ago with one of the smallest

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stocks in town. His trade now extends all over northern Stephens county, and into the adjoining counties, and amomts to sixty thousand dollars annually. His stock averages about twenty-five thousand dollars' value, though when he and his partner began business they invested but six hundred dollars in goods.
    Mr. Eason was born in Denton county, Texas, March 14, 1876, and after attending school in Queen City, Texas, until thirteen, he began the practical work of life by working two years at the carpenter's trade, at Quanah, where his parents had located. For three years he followed the trade at Bowie, Texas, and was there induced to buy a half interest in a confectionery business by O. C. Summers. The firm did a good business and after two years sold out and entered the same line at Ennis, Texas. From Ennis these partners came to Marlow and purchased the small stock of hardware with which they made their first ventures for mercantile success in this town. Their store was a small iron building, and from the start they prospered. During the first year, Mr. Eason bought out the interest of Mr. Summers, and has since conducted the business alone. With the increasing demands of his business he finally purchased a large double store, in a two-story building, on Main street, and the entire building, except the office room in front, is occupied by his large stock. His wareroom is filled with implements, and his harness and saddlery establishment is the largest in Stephens county.
    Mr. Eason belongs to a southern family, his grandfather, William Eason, having died on his Georgia farm. He left a widow and a family of children, and the widow, Mary J. Eason, about 1850, gathered her household about her and made the long journey from Fayetteville, Georgia, to Texas. She reared her children to lives of usefulness and worth, and spent her last days at Bright Star, Arkansas. Of the children, William Rice Eason, who is the father of the Marlow merchant, was boy when he came to Texas, and learning the trade of carpenter, followed that occupation practically through his life. During the war he was in the cavalry service of the Confederacy, and while a resident of Cass county, Texas, served a time as deputy sheriff. Since 1907 he has lived at Clovis, New Mexico. His wife, Mary Eason, died in 1886, being the mother of the following children: Thomas T., of Marlow; Elijah D., of Oklahoma City; Alvie S. and Ross P., of Bright Star, Arkansas.
    Thomas T. Eason married, in Ennis, Texas, November 21, 1900, Annie Lee, daughter of John J. Doran, who was master mechanic of the H. & T. C. Railroad at that point. Mrs. Eason's mother was Miss Mollie Duren before marriage, Mrs. Eason was educated in the Ursuline convent at Dallas. Her children are: Winston T. and Margaret H.  Mr. Eason is a Democrat, and has served on the city council three terms. Fraternally he is a blue lodge Mason and an Odd Fellow.

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cont.

WADE ATKINS, president of the First National Bank of Comanche and at the head, also, of the Waurika National Bank of Waurika, was a pioneer in the mercantile field of north Texas and retains important ranch interests in the Lone Star state, which he founded before becoming an enterprising and substantial citizen of Oklahoma. In all the affairs of business, financial and civic life he has exhibited the same spirit of independence, honesty and bravery, which were his dominant traits in the days when the Confederacy was born, as well as when it fell with the fortunes of war. He was born in Choctaw county, Mississippi, on the 25th of. December, 1847, and is a son of Thomas Atkins, a slave owner and successful planter of the county named. The father was born in Tennessee, May 24, 1817, and was, in turn, the son of Joseph Atkins, a native of the Old Dominion. The paternal grandfather was born in 1787, and, endowed with the instincts of patriotism which have always characterized the family, fought under General Jackson in the war of 1812 and the Seminole war in Florida.
    The remote American ancestors of the Atkins family were George and William Atkins, brothers who emigrated from Wales as colonial settlers and located in Virginia. They afterward separated, George and his posterity migrating south, and William and his descendants planting themselves in Pennsylvania, and thence passing into various of the states further to the west. Joseph Atkins, the grandfather of Wade Atkins, had seven brothers, among whom were Bartlett, William and George, all of whom were Tennesseeans and engaged in farming. This founder of one of the southern branches of the family married Polly Camp, and their issue were as follows: Sallie, wife of John Brook, who died in Mississippi; Lewis, a soldier of the Confederate

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army who was drowned in the gulf of Mexico while returning home; Fannie, who married and died in Texas; Thomas, who died in Forestburg, Texas, in 1880; Joseph, who passed away in the military service of the Confederacy, and Caroline, now Mrs. John Riddle, who resides in Choctaw county, Mississippi. Thomas Atkins, father of our subject, was a prosperous and contented planter at the outbreak of the Civil war, but as he was strongly imbued with the family traditions, as well as with the home sentiment, he enthusiastically entered into the defense of the cause which he would naturally espouse. He raised a company of his associates and friends, of which he was made captain, and served throughout the war, returning to his home plantation, at its conclusion, and bravely resumed the struggle of civil life, under the new order logically brought about by the outcome of the, Rebellion. As a Democrat, he afterward became an active politician, and was called to fill such offices as tax assessor, representative in the legislature of his county. In 1880 he came to Texas to visit his son, and died at his home two weeks after his arrival. The wife of Thomas Atkins was Nancy Harvey, daughter of Thomas Harvey, formerly a resident of Alabama, and she died in Choctaw county, Mississippi, at the age of sixty-three years, having become the mother of the following: Harvey, killed in the battle of Shiloh, while fighting in the Confederate ranks; Ann, wife of John Shannon, who passed away in Mississippi; Joseph, who died in the Confederate service as a member of the Fifteenth Mississippi Infantry; Seth, who died as a soldier of the Thirty-first Mississippi Regiment of Confederate troops; Wade, of this notice; and Appalonia, wife of Lon Pulliam, of Ardmore, Oklahoma.
    Wade Atkins passed the best years of his youth in the ranks of the Confederate army, joining the Thirty-first Mississippi regiment as a substitute for his brother, Seth, who was then home on a furlough. For one summer he served regularly in the state militia, and was then promoted from the ranks to the second lieutenancy of Dorr's Battalion, an independent command, which participated in many skirmishes along the Mississippi river. He concluded his service with Jo Blackburn, at Bolivar, Mississippi, the war having terminated. Returning home, he endeavored to partially complete his education, which had been so effectively interrupted, but was finally forced to relinquish his purpose and commence earnest work on his father's neglected plantation. After a manly struggle of a few years, however, he decided that his duty and more prosperous future lay toward the southwest, beyond the Mississippi river. In 1870, with a party of like-minded southerners, he started for Little Rock, Arkansas, and there buying a pony rode over into Texas in search of work. With a scant wardrobe, forty dollars in gold and the stanch little pony named, he found employment on the famous Loring ranch, which then embraced a large part of Cook county, and his three years of faithful work there, at twenty dollars a month, laid the basis of his future prosperity, for it furnished him with a small capital and an abundance of valuable experience in ranching. Prior to embarking in the cattle business, however, he enjoyed a long and successful career as a Texas merchant. In 1873 he opened a store at Forestburg, Montague county, hauling his stock from Gainesville. The surrounding country was then a wild section of the state, swarming with cattle rustlers, Indians and general desperadoes. As Forestburg's chief merchant, his place became a favorite resort, as well as the objective point of not infrequent Indian raids. This period was really exciting even to one who had seen service in the Civil war. At this time among his interesting neighbors on Clear creek were the James boys and their father-in-law, before the outlaws had emerged into criminal history. In 1882, Mr. Atkins closed his business at Forestburg, and established himself as the pioneer groceryman of Bowie, continuing there both as a retailer and a jobber until 1892. He also established a branch at Belhoer, as well as a bank in association with Captain Jeanes. In 1892, however, he disposed of all his mercantile interests and engaged regularly in banking. He organized the City National Bank of Bowie, being its president and chief stockholder, and was identified with that institution until 1902, when Colonel Stone and C. H. Boedecker purchased the stock and thereafter he became a leader in the development of Oklahoma institutions. It was in 1893 that Wade Atkins became interested in the Duncan Bank, then conducted by his friend Captain Jeanes, becoming one of the organizers of the First National Bank of that city. Later he organized the First National Bank of Comanche, having actively remained in connection with that institution.

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In September, 1907, he organized the Waurika National Bank of Waurika, of which he is the president. While Mr. Atkins has closely guarded and strongly developed his banking interests, he has also retained a profitable connection with his Texas ranch. Originally he purchased twenty sections of land in Wheeler county, Texas, at a dollar per acre, and this grazing area has since been enlarged to twenty-eight sections, over which range his large and sleek herds, this important enterprise being actively conducted by his sons. Throughout the establishment and development of these numerous institutions, mercantile, agricultural and financial, Mr. Atkins has devoted considerable of his time to political and public affairs. While a resident of Forestburg, he was chosen commissioner of Montague county, serving in that office for eight years, and being also postmaster for some time. He is an unfailing Democrat. In Masonry, he is a member of the Blue Lodge at Bowie, Texas; of the Fort Worth Commandery, and of the Hella Shrine, Dallas. Mr. Atkins was married at Forestburg, Texas, on the 15th of December, 1874, to Mary, daughter of Allen Penton, from Macon county, Missouri, where the birth of Mrs. Atkins occurred June 15. 1855. Mr. Penton married Nancy Magee and was the father of the following: Mrs. Wade Atkins; John, Lee and Price, all of Cooke county, Texas, and William Edward, of Kaufman county, that state. The children born to Mr. and Mrs. Wade Atkins are: Harvey, of Wheeler county, Texas; Annie, wife of E. M. Ralls, cashier of the First National Bank of Comanche, Oklahoma; Alma, who died in Bowie, Texas, in 1903; Temple Houston, on the Wheeler county ranch, is married to Ada Small and has a son, Temple Harvey Atkins; Marie, wife of First Myers, who is selling goods at Atkins, on the Texas ranch; Wade, Jr., a graduate of a military academy and already offered a naval cadetship at Annapolis; and Pauline, living at home.

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cont.

EDGAR ALAN BOURNE, a leading newspaper man of Comanche, Stephens county, also engaged in real estate transactions, is one of the recent substantial additions to this section of the new state. He was born at Martinsville, Morgan county, Indiana, on the 24th of July, 1854, the early American ancestors of his family being natives of Virginia. His father died when he was seven years of age, the widow married again and the family removed to Iowa. Edgar A. attended the public schools of Oakland, that state, two terms, walking three miles morning and night, and one term in the home school, a rural district presided over by Miss Mary Foote of Iowa Falls. He removed with his family to Nemaha county, Nebraska, in 1863, where he attended the common schools of the county going to the State Normal School at Peru in said county for one year, in 1873 and 1874. In the summer of 1874 he went back to Morgan county, Indiana, where he taught school a number of years, afterwards assuming the study of the law. In 1883 he graduated from the law department of the Iowa State University, but removed to Nemaha county, Nebraska, for practice, remaining there for the succeeding ten years. He largely devoted himself to the collection field, until he left the state to become identified with the opening of Oklahoma. In 1893 he joined a few friends and relatives at the border of the Cherokee Strip, seven miles east of Hennessy Booth, to make the run into the new country. Mounted on a wheel, he rode five miles to Hackberry creek, where he planted his flag, and soon after commenced to make his improvements. The tract was the southwest quarter of section 31, township 21, range 5, and as several flags were planted thereon, at different times, the contest over it was quite warm and covered altogether a period of five years; but the secretary of the interior finally decided in Mr. Bourne's favor. In the spring of 1894, Mr. Bourne shipped a newspaper plant to Waukomis, and established the Cherokee Republican, the second town journal and an unprofitable venture. He turned his most serious attention, however, to farming and the handling of stock, and came down into the Comanche country at the time of the drawing. Although he failed to draw, he disposed of his upper Oklahoma interests, bought land in Comanche county and became identified with the new state. He resided on this land until 1906, when he became a resident of the town of Comanche and engaged in the real estate and loan business. On April 2, 1905, he was admitted to the bar of Oklahoma, and therefore is a representative of growing interests of a professional and business nature. Fraternally, he is a Knight of Pythias, and is a Republican in his political relations. During the initial campaign of 1917 he served as chairman of the county central committee, and although

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he brought out the full strength of his party his fine management was unavailing.
Edgar A. Bourne married, October 22, 1876, Mary J., daughter of Joseph and Martha (Allen) Taggart, the father being of Irish birth. Besides, Mrs. Bourne, the Taggert children are: James, of Waukomis, Oklahoma; John G., of Kingfisher, Oklahoma; William H., of Garfield county, Oklahoma; Thomas E., of the same county; Belle, wife of B. R. Parnell, also of that county; Annie, now Mrs. Joel E. Joseph, of Waukomis. Oklahoma; George N., of Hastings, Oklahoma; and Franklin K., of Garfield county, also that state. The issue of the marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Bourne are as follows: Frances M., wife of Henry H. Shayler, of Waurika, Oklahoma; Mabel R., now Mrs. John Payne, of Douglas, Oklahoma; Jessie A., who married Pinkney W. Tucker and resides at Comanche, Oklahoma, and Joseph A. and Harry McKinley Bourne, both of Comanche.

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cont.

GUY W. KIRBY. The public schools of Duncan, of which Guy W. Kirby was superintendent since 1905, date back from the, present efficient system to the first primitive school which was held in 1892, with T. F. M. Smoot in charge. The original school was not graded, and several years passed before grading was completed. During the next two years W. B. Anthony and G. W. Harris were each in charge, and in 1896 George A. Witt became superintendent and finished the grading of the school during his two years' term. Mr. Witt returned to the schools after a one year term by U. Z. Usry, and in 1900, S. T. Vaughn was elected superintendent remaining three years. His successor was C. L. Brooks. During Prof. Riley's superintendency Guy W. Kirby was principal of the high school, and succeeded to the superintendency. The school enrollment reflects the growth of the town. For 1903-04, it was, in round numbers, 500; in 1904-05, 600; in 1905-06, 700; in 1906-07, 750; and in 1907-08 the census shows a school population of 950. The high school was established in 1898, and the graduates of the first class were, Susie Fowler; John Wharton, George McConnell, Will Taylor. Floyd Wharton, and Randel Patterson. The class of 1903 included Iona Caldwell, and that of 1904 consisted of Claud Frensly, Katie Pettigrew and Mabel Long. In 1905, Bessie Frost was the only graduate, and in 1906, Wilton Witt, Alonzo Wharton, Anna Hotchkiss and Bessie Frost. In 1907 the graduates were Emma Cox, James Hollingsworth, and Sidney Skinner, and in 1908 a class of twenty completed their work.
    After entering upon his duties Superintendent Kirby conducted the Duncan schools with the results of progress as above noted. The schools, from being viewed as merely one of the necessities of social life, have become an institution of which the citizens are very proud, and few if any towns of equal size in the new state can show more efficient educational facilities than Duncan. There is a faculty of thirteen teachers, besides the superintendent, and by means of their weekly and monthly meetings, they work as a unit in the advancement of the school work and in raising their own standards of excellence. Mr. Kirby is a member of the State Teachers' Association, and was president in 1907 of the Rock Island Teachers' Association. At the session of the State Teachers in 1907 he discussed the subject "The qualifications for a high school teacher."
    Guy W. Kirby was born in Jackson county, Alabama, July 19, 1872. He graduated from the public schools of Scottsboro, Alabama, and at the age of sixteen went to Winchester Normal and a year later entered Scottsboro College and Normal, from which he graduated in 1891 with the degree of B. S. He was engaged in country school work three years, and was then principal of schools at Kirby town and Hennegar, Alabama. After being for three years in charge of the DeKalb Normal, he became principal of the schools at Petty, Texas, for three years. After taking B. A., M. A. in mathematics, at the University of Virginia he became instructor of mathematics at Royce College, but after a year resumed his connection with public schools, as principal at Roscoe, Texas, where he remained three years, until coming to Duncan to assume the duties of principal of the high school.
    Mr. Kirby is a member of an old southern family. His grandfather, Rev. Richard Kirby, who was born about 1783, coming from Virginia, established the family in Alabama at an early date, and was identified with Jackson county as a Methodist minister, a politician and a farmer. He was well fitted for leadership. His speeches and counsel were often used for the benefit of the Democratic party, and he

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served as one of the early commissioners of the county. He married Sallie Parks, by whom he had three children—John P., Hugh (who died in Jackson county), and Lucinda Jenkins. Rev. Kirby died in 1877. John P. Kirby, father of Superintendent Kirby, was born in Scottsboro, Alabama, in 1837, was reared on his father's plantation, receiving a fair education, and early indulged his taste for business. After the war he became one of the prominent merchants and business men of Scottsboro. He served with the Confederate army one year. He was a Democrat and a member of the Methodist church. He married Jane Gullatt, daughter of James and Amanda (Harper) Gullatt, the former of whom died in 1904, while the latter resides in Comanche county, Oklahoma. James Gullatt was for twenty-four years an official of Jackson county, Alabama, and had also seen long and rigorous military service, as a soldier in the Mexican war, in the service of the Confederacy, and later on the Texas frontier, where he was a ranger for a time. He and his wife had ten children. John P. and Janie Kirby had the following children: Guy W., being the oldest; Earnest, who died young; Ethel, wife of Dr. Patterson of Comanche county, Oklahoma; Mamie, wife of William Rollings, of Comanche county; Homer and Eugene of the same county; and Annie, wife of Cicero Howard, of Chattanooga, Tennessee.
    Guy W. Kirby married, December 25, 1900, Miss Ada Clark, of Lamar county, Texas. They have two children: Mary Edith and Guy Hubert. Mr. Kirby spent the latter part of the spring and the summer of 1903 m the University of Chicago doing work in higher mathematics. In April, 1908 he was elected to the chair of mathematics in South-western Normal located at Weatherford, Oklahoma, in which place he now serves the people of Oklahoma.

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cont.

GEORGE A. KINCAID, widely known in connection with the real estate, loan and insurance business in Comanche, Stephens county, and also a leader in the civic development of the place, was born in Cherokee county, North Carolina, on the 19th day of May, 1862. He is of Scotch-Irish ancestry and comes of substantial yeoman stock. George A. also owed his sturdy development to farm work, and reached manhood with a fair education derived from the modest schools of his home neighborhood. He remained on the family homestead until past his majority, and continued farming until two years after his marriage in 1883, when he opened a small store. The business venture proved so disastrous that he was obliged to borrow money with which to bring himself and family to Oklahoma. After scoring another mercantile failure in Comanche, Mr. Kincaid pluckily engaged as a clerk for W. A. Yates, with whom he remained for six years. On the opening of the Kiowa and Comanche country he made an unsuccessful effort to obtain a claim, and then started an insurance agency at Comanche. He wrote the first policy on town property, and has since added the real estate and loan features to his business, making it one of the prosperous institutions of the place. In his capacity as a citizen, Mr. Kincaid was actively identified with the initial efforts to establish municipal government, and served as the first mayor of Comanche. He also holds the office of justice of the peace for the town.
    Elisha P. Kincaid, the father of George A., was born in Burk county, North Carolina, in September, 1816, and was, in turn, a son of John Kincaid, a Scotch-Irishman, who passed his life in farming and married Mary Perkins. Of this union the only child was Elisha P. By a second marriage there was a large family. Elisha P. Kincaid acquired a good education for his day in the subscription schools of his home community. He was identified with the transfer of the Cherokee Indians from their original home in North Carolina to Mississippi, whence they finally came to Oklahoma. He then returned home, married Margaret D. Bristol, and in 1844 took up his residence in Cherokee county. There the parents spent the remainder of their lives as substantial factors in the agricultural community, the father dying in 1899 and the mother in 1900. Although Mr. Kincaid's offer of service in behalf of the Confederacy was refused because of his age, the Civil war reduced his estate (he was a slave owner) to the bare land. The children born to Mr. and Mrs. Elisha Kincaid were: Mary, who died in 1892, as the wife of Hugh Hays, and left a family in North Carolina; Mattie C., now Mrs. Arthur Spears, of Oakland, Florida; Clara E., wife of L. H. McClure, of Clay county, North Carolina; John B., who died in Milam county, Texas, in 1890, the father of a family;

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Emma, of Cherokee county; North Carolina, who is the wife of M. A. Hyatt; Margaret, residing in the home county of North Carolina ; Elisha P., who died there in 1907, leaving a family, and George A. Kincaid, of this notice. The last named married, December, 31, 1883, Susie, daughter of Joseph S. McGuire, of Irish stock and Tennessee nativity. Mr. McGuire married Lydia Jones, and the union resulted in nine children: Ross, who married Maggie Hakk and resides in Comanche, Stephens county; Emma, Boyd, Clyde, Roy and Gross. Mr. Kincaid is well known and much honored in his business relations, as well as in fraternal and church circles. He has been master of the Masonic lodge at Comanche, is a Knight of Pythias and an earnest Baptist.

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cont.

JOEL B. WILKINSON, of Comanche, Stephens county, is one of the able, progressive attorneys of the state, and for twenty-two years has been identified with the best development of the Chickasaw country. It was more than two decades ago that his parents established themselves within its boundaries, having come from Montague county Texas. In his childhood days they had migrated from Green county, Missouri, to Pale Pinto county, in the Lone Star state. The father was a physician, and after practicing there for a time removed to Montague county. In these Texas counties and in Chickasaw county, Joel B. acquired a common-school education, and worked as a farmer until he was twenty-two years of age. He then decided to seek a more congenial life, and selected the legal profession as the goal of his ambition. On September 17, 1897, he passed his examination for admission to the bar before Judge Kilgore, at Chickasha, and commenced practice at Comanche. His first case was one in which the town proceeded against C. S. Brown to abate a nuisance in the public streets. For a time he was in partnership with his brother, Ulysses G., but is now a member of the well known legal firm of Admire and Wilkinson. He has always been engaged in general practice, and is regarded as a most capable and reliable member of the profession. He is also a leading Democrat and managed the Stephens county campaign at the first election in 1907. In his professional capacity, Mr. Wilkinson represents the First National Bank of Comanche. He also served for several years as president of the Commercial Club of Comanche, and was a member of the City Council until he declined further election. As to the fraternities, he is a Mason and a Woodmen of the World.
    The father of Mr. Wilkinson was a native of Tennessee, born in 1822 of British parents, and his death occurred in Oklahoma in 1900. He served in the army as a member of Phelps' regiment, General Curtis' army, being wounded at the battle of Pea Ridge. He was self-educated and a man of strong character, and followed his profession in Missouri, Texas and Oklahoma, all his life with the exception of his term of military service, as mentioned. His wife was known before marriage as Mary Ann Davis, and she still resides with a son in Comanche, being the mother of the following: Palmyra S., widow of J. W. McMasters, of Comanche, Oklahoma; Ulysses G., of the same place; Sherman, who died young; Louella, widow of G. W. Purdin, of Comanche; Thomas B., a resident of Illinois; James R. and Benjamin F., also of Comanche, and Joel B.
    Mr. Wilkinson was married in Comanche, on the 7th of February, 1892, to Sarah A. Paschal, a daughter of J. C. Paschal, who migrated to this locality from Arkansas. The children of their union are as follows: Ona P., Warlick, Carroll, Thelma and Haskell.

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cont.

HENRY B. LOCKETT. A pioneer lawyer of southern Oklahoma and one of the most diligent and successful members of the bar of Stephens county is Henry B. Lockett, who came to the little town of Duncan in 1893, and with James Wolverton and U. S. Commissioner Monroe constituted the bar of this vicinity. He had just severed relations with an able and prominent firm of lawyers in north Texas, and the experience gained during that association was of great value in laying the foundation for his successful career. From year to year he has found himself connected with more and more of the legal business of this part of the country, and has represented one side or another in several of the causes celebres of Indian Territory. Larceny and felony constituted the chief criminal offenses during his early practice as also later, and he gained wide note as a lawyer for the defense. He secured the acquittal of Jesse West for murder, and defended the notorious Ben Grow thirteen times for larceny, setting him at liberty. During the years of 1904 and 1905 his criminal practice along the line of the Rock Island Railroad

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gave him such prominence that in this class of practice he easily held first place. Among the cases that had large general importance, he was for a time associated with the Martha Jones citizenship case, the final settlement of which affected some eighty heirs and involved property to the value of half a million dollars. In the name of Martha Jones this case was brought as a test suit to determine the rights of a certain class of citizens to be enrolled as members of the Chickasaw Nation. It was decided in favor of the contestants in the first trial, that decision was affirmed by the United States supreme court, but the department of interior has refused to grant titles and the matter is still pending at this writing. Another suit which affected the Territory as a whole was the one, brought by the incorporated towns against the railroads to compel them to pay taxes within the corporate limits, a suit in which all the railroads pooled issues against the towns and which was fought out to the end, resulting in a victory for the towns. The brief prepared by Mr. Lockett for the plaintiff in this case was pronounced by Judge Townsend to be one of the ablest efforts in the case.
    Mr. Lockett has resided in Comanche since 1899, and has been a part of the growth and enterprise of the little town, which is rapidly developing as one of the chief centers of Stephens county. Besides his law practice he has become interested in business. He was attorney for the Bank of Comanche, is interested in the Comanche Grain and Elevator Company, is president of the Comanche Mercantile. Company, and is attorney for the Comanche Ice and Cold Storage Company. He also owns some of the business houses and other property of Comanche. In politics, Mr. Lockett is one of the well known Democrats of the southern part of the state. In 1907 he was a logical choice as district judge for the district comprising Stephens, Jefferson, Caddo and Grady counties. He carried the first three counties and also nine of the voting precincts of Grady, but the final decision awarded the office to his opponent by votes.
    Henry B. Lockett was born in Austin, Texas, October 30, 1868. His father, Rev. A. Lockett, was widely known throughout central and western Texas as a revivalist and passed fifty years in the Methodist ministry. Born in Virginia in 1822, he left home as a boy, but acquired a liberal education despite his circumstances, and entered the work of the gospel when a young man. Possessed of a powerful voice that became an effective instrument for expressing the logic and conviction of his heart and mind, he early became noted as a preacher of remarkable persuasion and, effectiveness, especial1y qualified for evangelistic work. During the Civil war he was chaplain of a regiment of Confederate troops, and after the war continued his ministry in Texas until the close of his fruitful life. By his first marriage, Rev. Lockett had the following children: M. E., president of Georgetown (Texas) Mercantile Company; Rev. S. C., a Presbyterian minister; W. A., of the state of Washington; Fannie, who died in Texas the wife of William Loyd; and C. A., of Fort Worth. Rev. Lockett married (second) in Grayson county, Texas, Miss Alice Shipp, who died in Burnett, Texas, in 1882. Their children were: Henry B., of Comanche; Loula, wife of J. B. Sisk, of Wichita Falls, Texas; Nora, widow of Mr. Bursey, Fort Worth; Mattie, wife of Ed Truett, of Comanche; and Walter M., manager of the Comanche Mercantile Company.
    After attending the common schools until the age of sixteen, Henry B. Lockett entered Centenary College and pursued a two years' course that equipped him for teaching. For two years he taught at Crockett, Texas, then for a year near Fort Worth, and while teaching in the country schools of Montague county, he decided to study in preparation for the law. His studies were carried on in the office of Jameson and Becker in the county seat, and when ready for admission he presented himself before Judge Garnett at Gainesville. The examining committee appointed by the judge consisted of Yancey Lewis, since chief justice of Indian Territory, and Claude Weaver, now a prominent lawyer of Oklahoma and a leading candidate for the Democratic nomination for Congress in the Fifth Oklahoma district in 1907. The trio constituted a formidable examining committee, and his admission to practice was a real victory at the very beginning of his legal career. He entered into partnership with Jameson & Becker, and was so associated from 1891 until he came to Duncan in 1893. He has practiced in the Texas state courts, and he has become a familiar figure in the federal courts at Ardmore and Paris as attorney in cases originating in the Territory. Fraternally, Mr. Lockett is connected with the grand lodge

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of the Oklahoma Knights of Pythias. He married, first, December 31, 1893, at Duncan, Miss Eula Boon, of Belcher, Texas. She died in 1899, leaving a son, Luther. Mr. Lockett married, second, October 1, 1902, Miss Catherine C. McNabb, of Decatur, Texas. They have a daughter, Cathleen.

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cont.

JOHN S. LEFTWICH, a leading merchant of Comanche, Stephens county, and also one of the active and public spirited citizens of the place, is a native of Chicot county, Arkansas, born on the 9th of April, 1866. His original American ancestry was established in Virginia, more recent progenitors migrating to the state of Tennessee. It does not require a far tracing into the past to discover that he is of brave stock, as his grandfather was a staunch soldier of the Mexican war and his father a true soldier of the South, and, when its cause was lost, a faithful and loyal American merchant. John S. took the part of a man in contributing to the family support and maintaining himself, from the age of twelve years, his education, consequently being but fragmentary and incomplete. He lived with his mother until of age, his father having died when he was but ten years old, and married at Benham, Texas, to which he had removed some time previous. After then spending five years as a farmer, he became a citizen of Duncan, Oklahoma, there engaging for two years in the transfer business. During the four succeeding years he was a clerk in a mercantile establishment, and in 1889 located in Comanche, where he was similarly occupied. In the meantime he had also become interested in the insurance business, in which he has had considerable experience. In 1904 he opened a grocery store, as an independent venture, and the enterprise has met with an encouraging degree of success. Mr. Leftwich has also donated a commendable share of his time and means to the welfare of the community, having served with credit on the school board. In his politics, he is a Democrat, both from inherited tendencies and strong convictions. Married on the 1st of January, 1888, to Mollie Davis, daughter of Mrs. Dabbt, his life has thus been fairly rounded on the domestic side. His wife is a native of Newton county, Missouri, where she was born in May, 1866. In his fraternal relations, Mr. Leftwich is a member of the Knights of Pythias, and in his religious faith, a Methodist.
    Jesse Leftwich, the paternal grandfather, was a Virginian of Bedford county, and raised a company of cavalry for the Mexican war, taking them out as captain. After their term expired he returned to Virginia and raised a company of infantry. He was rejoining the American army with his new command, of which he was also captain, when the boat upon which they had taken passage was wrecked in the Gulf of Mexico and all on board were lost. Captain Leftwich had been twice married, his second wife (formerly a Miss Stratton) being the mother of John S. Leftwich, Sr., Jeannette Leftwich, a daughter by a previous marriage, was prominently connected with one of the charitable institutions of Texas. After his father's death, John F. Leftwich, Sr., went to live with Dr. Leftwich, a relative living in Mt. Pleasant, Tennessee, where he was educated, as well as in the schools of Columbia. Leaving his native state, he traveled toward the southwest and stopped for a time at Chicot county, Arkansas, where, in 1868, he married and temporarily engaged in teaching school. He continued this occupation both in Arkansas and Louisiana, until nearly the commencement of the Civil war. He then joined a Mississippi regiment, being in its ranks during Grant's campaign against Island No. 10. As a prisoner he was taken to St. Louis, Missouri, and placed in the Gratiot street prison, where for a time he acted as a nurse to the Confederate sick and wounded there confined. He was finally made a government pilot on the lower Mississippi river, and it was thus engaged in the vicinity of his home that he effected his escape in a skiff, reaching his surprised household after an absence of more than three years, during which no member had been able to obtain, tidings of his whereabouts. Following the war he engaged in merchandising at Floyd, Louisiana, for some time, and then as clerk on a packet plying on the lower Mississippi returned to the familiar life on the river. He finally purchased a stock of goods at Rosedale, Mississippi, and there finished his life as a merchant, dying December 12, 1876. John S. Leftwich, Sr., was twice married-first, to Sarah E. Owen, a Tennessean, born in 1830. The children of this union are: Arthur, of Duncan, Oklahoma; John S., of this sketch; Jessie, wife of W. A. McCoy, of Lindsay, Oklahoma; James, of Loco, that state; Taddie, now Mrs. John S. McClure, of Duncan, and George, also residing in that

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place as a druggist. Mrs. John S. Leftwich, after the death of her first husband, married a Mr. Robertson (in 1890) and since the death of her second husband has resided with her son in Duncan.

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cont.

WILLIAM GEORGE ENLOE, of Comanche, Stephens county, has been connected with the agricultural and stock-raising interests of the county tributary to that place for a period of thirteen years, and is now recognized as an important figure in these industries, as well as influential in financial and property matters. He is a representative of a substantial North Carolina family, and was himself born in Franklin county, that state, on the 11th of October, 1813. A fair country-school education in that section was all the intellectual training which was enjoyed by William G. Enloe, but all his inclinations were toward an active, outdoor life, and at the age of eighteen he began his independent career by cultivating a tract of his father's plantation. Afterward, a year of travel East and West, broadened his outlook, and gave him his first experience of the grand forests of the far Northwest, stopping as he did for some time in a logging camp near Spokane, Washington. Upon his return to his North Carolina home he resumed farming, and also engaged in the saw-mill business. One of his friends had in the meantime visited the country around Comanche, and in 1895 induced Mr. Enloe to join him there. The latter also decided to locate, first working as a farm hand and later on a ranch, Jule Kimbling being his employer in the latter line of work. He next began farming on rented land near Comanche, from time to time placing cattle on the range. His landlord at this time was John D. Wilson, but the inconvenient and lonesome life of a bachelor farmer was not suited to his temperament, so, in 1899, he married. When allotments were made, he selected as his homestead 1,500 acres of land, much of which is in a body near Comanche, and upon this goodly tract he has erected one of the handsomest farm houses in the county. He also leases five thousand acres adjoining it, for the grazing of his fine herd of cattle. He has also blooded hogs; has brought into the county a fine Percheron for the improvement of the home breed of horses; possesses the fairness and wisdom to provide his tenants with comfortable homes, and is altogether a
broad-minded, prosperous citizen. He is a stockholder in both the First National Bank of Comanche and in the Waurika National Bank, and is a good general financier, besides being a successful manager of his own affairs.
    Returning to the general history of the Enloe family, it may be stated that for several generations it has been honorably represented in Franklin county, North Carolina. Wesley Enloe, the paternal grandfather, was a Kentuckian and the founder of the family in that state. He was a farmer, and married a Miss Roane, dying in his vigorous manhood as the father of five children. Among his sons was Lucius, the father of William G., who was born in the county named in 1832. He was trained to agricultural work, in manhood, owned slaves and conducted a large plantation, was a character of strong personality and a leading citizen of his community. During the Civil war he served as a captain in General Johnston's army, but accepted the outcome of hostilities with philosophy and resumed his civic duties with complacency and earnestness. He was long a leading Democrat of the county, serving at one time as its sheriff. In the work of the Methodist church he was also prominent. Unlike many of his associates, survivors of the Civil war, the affairs of his plantation so prospered as to enable him to retire to a life of comfort in Atlanta, Georgia, where he still resides. Lucius Enloe married Mary Roan, a daughter of Thomas Roan, who came from Tennessee to North Carolina, where Mrs. Enloe was born in 1834. The issue of the marriage were the following children: Bascom, a farmer and stockman in Franklin county, North Carolina; James R., of Spokane, Washington; Ella, wife of George Bidwell, of Boston, Massachusetts; Lillie, of Atlanta, Georgia; Minnie, now Mrs. Charles Reed, of Springfield, Massachusetts; Jefferson H., who is on the old North Carolina homestead; William G., of this review; Nannie and Ida, of Atlanta, Georgia, and Charles, of Boston, Massachusetts.
    On the 3d of October, 1899, William G. Enloe was united to Wade, daughter of George Mordis, who, fourteen years ago, came into the Chickasaw Nation from Texas. The Mordis family are of the Choctaw tribe of Indians, and it is as an intermarried citizen that Mr. Enloe's name is placed on rolls. The children of this union are May and Lucius H. Enloe.