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[page 250]WILLIAM H. PAYNE. One of the strong personal factors in the upbuilding of the town of Marlow, has been William H. Payne, whose career has been closely connected with this [page 251] section of the old Chickasaw Nation and Oklahoma for a quarter of a century. In the town itself, since it was started, he has shown ample confidence and has invested his capital in enterprises that further the welfare of the place. He was the first president of the Bank of Marlow, and is the principal factor in the recently organized Payne Lumber Company. He has also erected a business house and two dwellings in the town.
    Mr. Payne's career has not been monotonous nor without interesting change from boyhood to the present. Born in Shelby county, Missouri, April 1, 1851, he grew up through boyhood with educational advantages that resulted from the primitive surroundings of that time and locality. After his sixteenth year he began hiring out for farm work, and turned most of his wages over to his parents, as was the old custom. He lived at home until he was about twenty-five, and then, with team and wagon, pioneered his way to Texas, crossing Red river at Delaware Bend and making his first stop at Loren's ranch in Cooke county. He rented some land of Loren and made a corn and cotton crop, but from 1879 on for several years he followed the cattle trail as a cowboy, and in this occupation first went over the ground in the vicinity of the present town of Duncan. After his marriage he located on a farm in Montague county, Texas, and began housekeeping with an extremely limited equipment. From Montague county he moved into the Chickasaw Nation, and at Velma built up his interests both as farmer and stockman. Five years later he brought his home and business to the vicinity of Marlow where he has since remained. At this writing he still has a lease and runs some five hundred head of cattle, but it is his intention to close this part of his career and continue along quieter lines of activity. With the opening of the Comanche country Mr. Payne got a claim in what is now Tillman county, and while his family lived there to prove it up, he continued his stock business in the Indian Teritory [Territory], and without neglecting business finally secured a patent to his land. In addition he has purchased some six hundred acres in the same vicinity, and eight or ten tenants are engaged in the improvement and labor of production on his large farm.
    Mr. Payne's personal history connects him with the south. Though he was born in Missouri, his grandfather, William C. Payne, was a native of Loudoun county, Virginia, and had lived a time in Kentucky before moving the family to Missouri. The Paynes were established in Shelby county as early as 1833, and there the grandfather finished his life, passing away in 1865, at seventy-six. His wife was Sarah Hamilton, who also died in Missouri, and their children were: William, who died in Shelby county; Thomas H., father of the Marlow citizen above mentioned; Levi N., who died at Shelbyville, Missouri. Thomas H. Payne, living in a new country and without much assistance from home, gained his schooling in a log cabin and had only a small amount of the world's culture. He became a plain, honest citizen, and a man of worth wherever he lived. During the war he served with the militia in defense of the Union. The last years of his life were spent in Texas, where he died in 1882. He was an active man in the Democratic party. He married Martha Marshall, whose father, Sam M. Marshal, was a Virginian who had first moved to Kentucky and then to Missouri. Martha Payne died at Marlow, Oklahoma, in 1904, having reared a family of ten children, namely: Elizabeth, wife of John O'Neal, of Duncan; Kate, wife of Thomas Joyner, of Oklahoma; Samuel M., of Stephens county; William H., whose career has been sketched; Winfield, near Red Moon, Oklahoma; Levi N., of Wewoka, Oklahoma; Josephine, wife of L. F. McClannahan, of Duncan; Lula, wife of Allison Scott, of Duncan; Thomas B., who died at Duncan, leaving four children; and Walter W., of Duncan.
    William H. Payne married, in 1882, Mrs. Hattie A. Long. Her parents were John B. Brown and Adaline Trowbridge, Vermont people, whose other children were: John B., of California; Irene, wife of H. M. Case; Hiram, who died at Velma, Oklahoma; Hale J., of Los Angeles, California; and Joseph R., of Montrose, Colorado. Mrs. Payne was born at Quincy, Illinois, July 28, 1859, and by her first marriage has a son, Ed. H. Long, of Fort Worth, who married Myrtle Payne and has a son, Willie Virgil. Mr. and Mrs. Payne have two children, Joseph R. and Lee B.

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[page 251] JOHN R. PRENTICE is the cashier of the First National Bank of Duncan, one of the oldest arid most reliable financial institutions of the territory. The First National is the successor of the Duncan Bank and was founded in June of 1900 with Wade Atkins as president [page 253] and J. T. Jeanes as cashier. In March, 1901; G. H. Connell became interested in the institution and was made the president, while Frank Jones became its vice-president and H. L. Overton the cashier. Later J. M. Armstrong was made cashier, and when he sold his interest, John R. Prentice was appointed to the office and has since been largely instrumental in the maintenance of its high reputation for careful and systematic transaction of all business entrusted to its keeping. The capital stock of the bank is valued at $50,000, with a surplus of $25,000 and deposits at the close of 1907 amounting to $131,538.44, which shows a healthy increase and indicates a live and vigorous institution.

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cont.

STEPHEN WALKER RYAN. With the building of the Rock Island Railroad south through the Chickasaw Nation, and the attendant town development along the line, begins the history of Ryan as the principal commercial center of the present Jefferson county. All the present generation know how Ryan got its name, and it is unlikely that any un informed citizen off the town during the course of many later years would confess to ignorance of the town's name. But it is deemed well here to set it down, as a matter of historical record, that Ryan was given its name in honor of the man who owned the land on which the townsite was laid, and who for more than thirty years has lived in this locality and gained substantial wealth and esteem the while. In 1872 Stephen Walker Ryan came to Indian Territory with his father, John Gilford Ryan, who stopped at Tishomingo and made application to the Choctaw council for enrollment as a citizen. The application having been rejected, the family in 1875 established a home on Red river near the present site of the town of Ryan. A few ranchmen had cattle on the ranges of this country when the Ryans came—Sugg brothers, and Cloud and Putman being the firms who owned the largest outfits. The cattleman was king, and as yet his sovereignty was scarcely questioned by the farmer with his fences and implements of tillage. The Ryans were therefore inviting trouble when they built a shanty one mile south of the site of the present town and began the stock business in connection with the cultivation of the soil. Denison and Gainesville were the supply points for all this country at that time, and the nearest postoffice was many miles away. Some years later, with the extension of the Wichita Valley branch of the M. K. & T. Railroad, the town of Belcherville gave a closer trading point.
    By his marriage with a Chickasaw, Mr. Ryan acquired indisputable rights as a citizen of the Territory. Having identified himself with the cause of the permanent settler, and the actual development of the country's resources, he became a strong factor in the contest which for years continued between the cattle and farming interests of Indian Territory, the main points in the history of which are given on other pages. Mr. Ryan fenced large tracts of land in what is now Jefferson county, and when the Rock Island Railroad built its line a station was established on land controlled by him, and he platted and sold the townsite of Ryan. Some of the early purchasers of lots at that sale still reside in the flourishing little town, and have ever since been identified with its highest welfare. Among them may be mentioned John R. Ralls, O. B. Garrison and James K. Mulcock.
    Mr. Ryan's personal and business activities have broadened with the years of his residence. He has long been one of the prominent cattle shippers from this region. He early became connected with the First National Bank of Ryan. His business experience has also included extensive .handling and transfer of lands and mortgages. With the resources and history of this part of Oklahoma Mr. Ryan is familiar to a greater degree probably than any other resident.
    Stephen Walker Ryan was born at Hot Springs, Arkansas, February 20, 1856. The family moved west to Indian Territory in 1872. One uncle, a doctor, died in Mississippi, and another, Joseph, died in Paris, Texas. The father was a Confederate soldier. His widow, Elizabeth (Garner) survives and makes her home with her son at Ryan. John G. and Elizabeth Ryan had the following children: James, Stephen W.; Mary, wife of D. D. Dawson, of Ninnekah, Oklahoma; A. J.; and O. H., of Ryan, Oklahoma; and Albert, of Lindsay, Oklahoma. Stephen Walker Ryan had a very limited education so far as the schools were concerned, but a varied experience and intimate connection with affairs have given him a readiness and facility in all the relations of life, faculties that could never have been supplied by the schools anyhow. Although

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a Democrat in politics, the privilege of United States citizenship has only recently been conferred, and he expects to cast his first vote for president in November, 1908. For twenty years he has been an elder in the Cumberland Presbyterian church, and has attended many Presbyteries of the church as delegate. He is a Master Mason. Mr. Ryan was married at Tishomingo, December 15, 1875, to Carrie Cheadle, daughter of Thomas Cheadle, an old time resident of the Territory. At her death in 1894, she was survived by the following children: Serena Bell, wife of Samuel L. Wray, of Terral; Daisy, wife of William B. Wray, of Ryan; Thomas, of Ryan, who married Miley Brown; Ada, wife of Don Campbell; Gussie, wife of Walter Morris, of Ryan; and Elbert. August 6, 1897; Mr. Ryan married Sallie Wiley, daughter of John and Alice Wiley. Their children are: Carrol, Birdie, Stephen Wiley and Sarah.

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cont.

ANGUS A. SPRING, for years a successful stock man of Ryan, Jefferson county, and a resident of Oklahoma since 1886, has always performed a good citizen's part in the public affairs of the place. He has filled some of the minor offices, has been a firm supporter of higher education, and has ever been ready to share his means to improve the material, intellectual or moral welfare of his community. Mr. Spring's youth and early manhood were passed on his father's farm in Louisiana, and what little education he acquired he fully earned by many miles of footwork. In his young manhood he began active life as a renting farmer, but gradually drifted entirely into the cattle business. In 1883 he left Louisiana, and, in the cattle interests of M. S. Newsome, removed to Fisher county, Texas, that gentleman having also live stock in Jones county. In payment for his services, he soon entered into partnership with Mr. Newsome, his compensation being a portion of the increase of the herd. In 1888 they divided the cattle, according to agreement, and Mr. Spring brought his portion across the Red river into the "territory." Establishing himself twelve miles northeast of Ryan, and being a citizen by blood (his great-grandfather was a full blooded Choctaw), Mr. Spring fenced a generous tract of country in this locality, and occupied it as pasture land. For ten years he handled his stock at a substantial profit, marketing it off the grass. He then began feeding somewhat extensively, but unsatisfactory selling prices ate up most of his former profits. He has since returned to his old plan, so that fluctuations no longer seriously affect him, and he has continued to handle from three to six hundred animals yearly with most satisfactory results. He is an especially well known shipper in the markets of Kansas City, St. Louis and Fort Worth. .
    Angus A. Spring is a native of Tangipahoe parish, Louisiana, where he was born on the 21st of May, 1858. His father, John S. Spring, a farmer, was born in Pontotoc county, Mississippi, in the year 1838, and died in the Louisiana parish named, in 1907. He was a man of rather limited education, and was a son of a slave owner. During the Civil war he served as a lieutenant in the Confederate army, and the result of hostilities was practically to ruin the family. An active Democrat, after the war he played quite a part in Louisiana politics, serving for twelve years as sheriff of Washington parish. William Spring, the grandfather, was also born in Mississippi and died in Louisiana, at the age of eighty years. He was a half breed Choctaw Indian and married Mary Franklin, a woman of the same blood. The paternal great-grandfather was a full blooded Choctaw and a farmer, and his wife (a Miss Morris) died in Mississippi.
    John S. Spring, father of our subject, married Drusilla Cooper, a daughter of Henry and Martha (Stecker) Cooper, of Louisiana. The wife still resides in Washington parish, that state. The children of this union are: Angus A., of this article; John F., Paugus T. and Bartola P., all of Washington parish; Glaris T., who resides in Fisher county, Texas, and Ruble, of the home parish in Louisiana. .
    Mr. Spring married in 1878 Miss Dora Elliott and they are the parents of five children: Clatile, Edith, Earl, Vernice, and Letrice.

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cont.

GEORGE M. BOND. The first county judge of Jefferson county is George M. Bond. He won the nomination after an interesting contest, by one vote in the primary, and at the election in September, 1907, easily defeated his Republican opponent. Nearly forty years of residence and varied business activity in Indian Territory have fitted Judge Bond perhaps to a greater degree than any other man who might be named for offices where the public welfare is to be impar-

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tially conserved. As an educator, as former county judge of the Choctaw Nation, as a business man and farmer, he has been identified with southern Oklahoma in a conspicuous manner. Judge Bond is a Democrat by nature and training, his grandfather having voted for Thomas Jefferson and his father for Andrew Jackson.
    Judge Bond in 1871 was on a prospecting trip through the west. While at Fort Smith, Arkansas, he learned that teachers were needed over in the Indian country, and having acquired a liberal education in the east in the schools of Baltimore, he went to Boiling Springs (now Red Oak) and became teacher of a Choctaw school. The vocation thus accidentally adopted continued his principal occupation for fifteen years, during which time he accomplished a great deal for the cause of education that is worth recording. He organized the first teachers' meeting ever held in the Territory. He was also one of the first school examiners of the Territory. The friends of Indian education often called attention to the efficiency of his work, and his influence as an educator extended beyond his own school to the benefit of the entire work of education in the Territory. Being more or less active in politics while a resident of the Choctaw Nation, he finally left the school room to take the office of county judge of Toboxy county. He studied law and was admitted to practice before the national courts. For some years he was active in opening the coal deposits of the Choctaw country, especially in his capacity of prospector. He bought the sites and laid out the towns of Hartshorn and Wilburton. In the latter place, after opening the coal mine and operating it for a time, he sold it to Degnan. Since moving into the Chickasaw country in 1899, Judge Bond has been engaged in farming a body of the choicest land in the Red river valley, almost adjoining Terral.
    George M. Bond was born in Howard county, Maryland, December 2, 1847, being a member of one of the oldest American families. The Bonds came from Scotland in colonial days and settled among the colony founded by Lord Baltimore. His father, George Bond, also a native of Howard county, and who died in Baltimore in 1887, was a man of varied activity, having farmed, kept a hotel in Baltimore, and was active in politics and held office in Howard county. He married a member of one of the oldest families of the state, Miss Rebecca Ridgley, who died in Baltimore in 1891. Her children were: George M.; Wallace, who died in Indian Territory in 1895, having been private secretary of Governor McCurtain of the Choctaw Nation and otherwise active in the affairs of that nation; and Ridgley, now of Kinta, Oklahoma. Judge Bond, having become identified with Indian Territory when twenty-four years of age, has spent practically all his active life in this country, and aside from his school days in Baltimore all the events of his career have occurred here. He has been twice married; first, in old San Bois county, to Miss N. McClure. She died at McAlester in 1891. His second wife was Miss Lula Routon, of McAlester.

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cont.

JAMES RICHARD TRUE. One of the largest stock dealers and shippers of Jefferson county is James Richard True, who has been identified with this section of Oklahoma since 1895, but has lived in the vicinity, on the south side of Red river, since he was nine years old. He was born in Graves county, Kentucky, May 30, 1870, and moved with his parents to Clay county, Texas in 1879. In his youth he had only such educational advantages as were afforded in a new country, where a rough schoolhouse, rude furnishings and apparatus and inadequate teachers impaired the general quality of education. However, Mr. True, by these means, obtained a practical acquaintance with the elements of learning, and got a fair knowledge despite the early date at which he left school. Knowledge of farming came as a matter of course, for he was daily engaged in its duties, and while in his teens began work on a ranch for wages. As an employe of Henry Bartlett he accompanied a large bunch of cattle across the plains and mountains to Junction City, Colorado. Starting in April, they crossed the Panhandle, entered Colorado just north of the Spanish Peaks, passed the Raton mountains and the San Luis valley, and thence through the Gunnison river country. While crossing the plains country there was a period of 65 hours during which time the cattle were without water, notwithstanding that one day of the drive was along the banks of the Cimarron river in New Mexico. But the banks were so steep it was impossible to get the stock to it for miles. This trip across plains and mountain consumed six months, and on his return Mr. True devoted the savings from his wages to increasing his schooling. He began studying in the public schools at Bel-

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cherville, Texas, and when his funds were exhausted he coaled engines for the Katy Railroad at Henrietta and for seven months had charge of the horse ranch of R. S. Witherspoon, after which he resumed his schooling.
    In such ways Mr. True had become a man of broad experience in his varied contact with the world even before reaching his majority. After a brief experience as a teacher at Fleetwood in what is now Jefferson county, he borrowed some money and went into the stock business. He managed his business, small though it was, with such capability that despite the natural reverses that befall the cattle industry he succeeded rapidly, and in time has come to be one of the most important stockmen of the Red river valley. His ranch comprises five thousand acres, and he handles from three to four thousand steers each year. He is well known in the markets of Kansas City and Fort Worth, where he sells his stock, and also among the stockman along the Red river. He is a stockholder in the Ryan Cotton Oil Mill, and is owner of land in New Mexico, West Texas, besides his interests in Jefferson county.
    Mr. True's father, Jesse True, was born near Richmond, Virginia, in 1820, and passed his life as a stock farmer, dying in Clay county, Texas, in 1885. He married Medora Wilkes, who was of a Tennessee family. She died in December, 1906, aged sixty-five. Their children were: Mrs. Marcus L. Winn, of Portales, New Mexico; Mrs. Laura Diffey, of Henrietta, Texas; Eula, wife of R. A. Farmer, of Paducah, Texas; Alice, wife of Sterling P. Strong, of Bowie, Texas; Wiley W., of Montana; James R.; and Edward C., of Ryan. Mr. James R. True married, at Belcherville, October 8, 1895, Miss Jessie Looney. They have one child, Lucile. Mr. True is a member of the Missionary Baptist church, and his entire career has been marked by business ability and qualities of public-spirited citizenship.

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cont.

PHILIP T. HAMILTON. The citizens of the news county of Jefferson chose as their first county attorney, by a vote of 1,571 to 500 for the Repub1ican nominee, Philip T. Hamilton, an experienced lawyer who has been located in the Chickasaw country since 1902. Born in Fulton county, Arkansas, April 7, 1872, he spent his years before majority on the home farm getting a few months' schooling in the country each year. In order that he might get advanced schooling he picked cotton and did other manual labor in his neighborhood, and with these savings spent about two years in the high school at Viola, Arkansas. He taught country school in Arkansas until 1898, and on moving to Dallas county, Texas, continued that work until 1901, his last school being at Lawson. In the meantime he was studying law. He prepared for the bar by reading in the office of Dye and Gillespie at Dallas, at the same time assisting in the clerical work of the office. He was admitted to the bar at Dallas, before Judge Eckard, in 1901, and his admission by the supreme court of Texas in 1902 entitled him to practice in all the courts of Indian Territory. His first case was in Dallas county, wherein he defended a man charged with shooting hogs. By securing his client's acquittal of this charge, he likewise prevented an impending suit for damages, and for that reason felt quite proud of his first legal success. Moving to Indian Territory in 1902 and locating at Tishomingo, he became city attorney and gave some valuable service to the incorporation in defending the city in some damage suits, by his activity in prosecuting the collection of taxes, and by his timely counsel in the course of some condemnation proceedings for light and power extension. On leaving Tishomingo in the fall of 1906 he bought a farm at Cornish, in what is now Jefferson county, and remained in that community until his election to the county office, when he moved to the county seat at Ryan.
    Mr. Hamilton was married in Fulton county, Arkansas, October 11, 1891, to Eva Stark. She is a native of Kentucky, born in 1880, and moved to Arkansas with her mother (whose maiden name was Emma) and step-father, Dr. W. E. Pollett. She obtained her education in the Viola high school and in Mountain Home College, and for a time was a teacher in the schools of Arkansas. Mr. and Mrs. Hamilton's children are, Vernon, Gladys and Thelton. Speaking of Mr. Hamilton's family history, his grandfather was. Thomas Hamilton, a miller by trade, and a soldier of the Confederacy, who died in Arkansas. His children were: David, in Oklahoma; John, of Little Rock, Arkansas; William, of Cushman, Arkansas; Joseph, of Colorado; Melissa, wife of John McCandless, of Fulton county; and Scott. Scott Hamilton, the last named, was the father of the present county attorney of

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Jefferson county. He was born in 1837, moved to Arkansas just after the Civil war, and has always followed -the occupation of farming. He married Mary A. Green, who came to Arkansas from Illinois, and who died in Jefferson county, Oklahoma, in 1906. Her children were: Philip T.; Newton, of Roswell, New Mexico; George, of Cornish, Oklahoma; Henry, of Coalgate, Oklahoma; Letha, wife of Thomas Oakley, of Cornish, Lizzie, wife of Elmer Bettes, of Coalgate; Susie, wife of James Herring, of Tishomingo; Malisa, wife of H. M. Claxton, of Coalgate; Emma, wife of T. L. Price of Coalgate.

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cont.

SIMON PETER TREADWELL. The admission of Oklahoma to statehood and the division of counties under the new constitution caused an unwonted political interest and a realignment of political parties in the newly formed counties along the 98th meridian, part of which had been in the old Oklahoma and part in the Chickasaw Nation. With the formation of the new county of Jefferson, and the prospects of an entire new set of county officials with the adoption of the constitution, candidates came forward in numbers of two or more for all the offices. The shrievalty was an especial prize, and in the primaries of the Democratic party were six competitors. The plurality vote at the primary and the winner at the polls in the following September was Simon Peter Treadwell, who was elected by a majority of 472 votes and on November 16, became the first sheriff of Jefferson county. Sheriff Treadwell has been an active and vigilant officer, and since his incumbency has been called into service by the commission of two murders and numerous minor offenses within the county.
    Mr. Treadwell was born in Searcy county, Arkansas, October 22, 1856, son of William Treadwell, a stockman and farmer who had settled in that county in 1845, and died there in 1891. The grandfather was William F. Treadwell, an Englishman, who died in Wayne county, Tennessee; in his family besides William, were Daniel, who died in Tennessee; Dock, who died in Arkansas; Stephen, who died in Tennessee; Amos, who died in Arkansas; Bettie Maupin, who died in Arkansas; and Nancy, who married Daniel Stricker and died in Arkansas. William Treadwell, who followed farming during his active career, married Malinda, daughter of William Harness. She died in 1884, leaving children: Mary J., wife of G. W. Jackson, of Searcy county, Arkansas; William Jr., who died in Arkansas; Thomas, of Oklahoma; Malinda, wife of Winfield Cotton, of Searcy county; Simon P.; Lucinda, wife of J. E. Treece; Maggie, wife of Mark McCaslin, of Searcy county; Dina, widow of N. W. Dorsey and a resident of Salt Lake City.
    Simon Peter Treadwell grew up at a time and under circumstances when educational opportunities were most limited, and he carne to man's estate with scarcely a common school education. When twenty years old he became a clerk in the store of G. B. Greenhaw in Marshall, Arkansas, and after ten years in that work could see no brighter prospects that would justify continued labor, so he brought his family to Indian Territory. For three years he rode the range as an employe of the once noted cattle firm of Belcher and Belcher. Their cattle, marked by the familiar brand, ranged from the home ranch in Montague county, Texas, to a broad stretch of country north of Red river, their leases for grazing probably covering 60,000 acres of range. Having acquired a few hundred dollars' capital by 1889; Mr. Treadwell decided to embark in the cattle business for himself. He collected a herd of 200 heifer yearlings, and leased a pasture for them twenty miles east of the present town of Ryan. He kept from two hundred to five hundred head running his lease, and he also did some farming to produce feed for his stock. During the last two years of his experience as cattleman he was in Washita and Caddo counties. Before the opening of the country to settlement he sold off his stock and retired permanently from the business. Having disposed of his stock, he became a resident of Ryan and was engaged for a time in the grocery business as a member of the firm of Henderson and Treadwell. From this he withdrew to conduct his canvass for the office of sheriff. Besides his larger political activity in the county, Mr. Treadwell has served on the common council of Ryan. He is a Master Mason and a Woodman of the World. He married in Searcy county, Arkansas, February 13, 1881, Belle Stephenson, daughter of J. W. Stephenson, a farmer and settler from Tennessee. Mrs. Treadwell was born in Arkansas in 1860. They have the following children: Hugh, Seth, Pearl, Frank, Fred, Floy and Bennie.

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JOHN R. RALLS, vice-president of the First National Bank of Ryan, Jefferson county, was for many years a successful merchant of that place and is now not only a strong financial factor in the community, but has extensive ranching interests in the state of Texas. He comes of a prominent family of Georgia planters, and is himself a native of that state, being born in Monroe county, on the 13th of November, 1862. John R. Ralls grew up on the ancestral estate which has been located in that county for several generations and received a thorough preparatory education under the tutelage of private teachers. He had reached the senior year in college, which he was about to enter, when, by the death of his father, the management of the plantation was thrown upon his shoulders. Profiting by the experience furnished by the latter in his unfortunate speculations in cotton, the son determined to devote himself solely to the growing of the crop, and to this occupation he confined himself for three years; but the management of negro labor was distasteful to him, and he therefore decided to remove to the southwest and engage in some commercial enterprise, locating in Bowie, Texas, he became a member of the grocery firm of Hardy Ralls, which soon expanded into a wholesale business. By the admission of Wade Atkins to the firm, the firm became Atkins, Hardy & Company. In a few years Mr. Ralls bought out Mr. Hardy, and remained a member of the, firm until Mr. Atkins sold his interest in the business at Be1cherville, whither the firm had removed. Ralls & Garrison succeeded the old firm of Atkins & Ralls, and in 1893 removed from Belcherville to Terral, Indian Territory, but the panic had struck this locality with such force that, after a year, the business was transferred to Ryan, then just platted.
    Mr. Ralls became one of the original purchasers of the town site. In 1898 the firm of Ralls & Garrison was dissolved, and the former continued in business alone until 1905 when he exchanged his stock and business for a ranch in Crosby county, Texas. This embraces ten thousand acres of land, with thousands of head of cattle. In the same year that he came into its ownership he was chosen president of the First National Bank of, Ryan, and was made its vice president in 1907. The successful conduct of such extensive interests mark Mr. Ralls as one of shrewdest and broadest, business men in this section of the state. He is executive, farsighted, a student of conditions and has a profound understanding of correct principles of finance and business. Mr. Ralls is a member of Ryan Lodge No. 66, A. F. & A. M. and of the Consistory, Valley of Guthrie.
    John R. Ralls comes of German ancestry, the original spelling being Rahl. His grandfather, John R. Ralls, was born in the fatherland, was an officer of the German army who emigrated to the United States and became a soldier in the war of 1812. He afterward settled in Virginia, but removed to Monroe county, Georgia, and there entered land in 1818. He became an extensive planter, owned many slaves, and the estate which he founded is still in possession of his posterity. His two brothers went to Ohio and Kentucky, but all trace of them was lost. He had two sons, John R., the father of our subject, and William, who settled in Florida and there reared a family. Like the grandfather, the father was an extensive planter, but lost much of his wealth during the Civil war and by the panic of '73, yet before his death in 1880 was able to recuperate partially, both from his profits as a grower and dealer. He married Fannis Bird, daughter of Braxton Bird, who came to Monroe county, Georgia, from the Old Dominion. She died in Ryan, in 1906, at the age of sixty years, the mother of the following: John R., of this sketch; E. Manton, cashier of the First National Bank, of Comanche, Oklahoma; Percy B., a merchant of Ryan; Mrs. Minnie C. Winship, of Macon, Georgia; and Alice V., wife of Jack Blalock, of Columbia, South Carolina, who there holds the position of state agent of the Aetna Life Insurance company. John R. Ralls was married in Henrietta, Texas, to Dollie Martin daughter of John S. Martin, who is a Missourian engaged in the real estate business at that place for many years.

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cont.

WILLIAM JASPER CHAPMAN. Among the several competitors for the nomination for the office of county treasurer in Jefferson county, the successful one, after a brisk contest, was William Jasper Chapman. At the election in September, 1907, he was elected as the first incumbent of the office by 1307 votes against his Republican opponent's 746. Mr. Chapman has resided within the limits of the present Jefferson county for many years, and is one of the esteemed and public-spirited citizens. He came to

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this part of Indian Territory in 1889, the same year as the original opening of Oklahoma, and locating at Grady in. the east side of what is now Jefferson county, leased the Brown farm and continued the vocation of farming until his removal to Ryan in January, 1908.
    Mr. Chapman was born in Alabama, January 25, 1857. His father, James O. Chapman, who was a life long farmer, moved from Alabama to Mississippi before the war, and in 1870 came to Hill county, Texas, where he died in 1891, aged seventy-four. He served in the Confederate army, and after surrendering with General Pemberton's army at Vicksburg did not re-enlist. He had been left an orphan in boyhood, growing up in the home of a Mr. Vaughan in Tennessee; and though he had little schooling and access to but few books, he delighted in history and was a well informed man. He married Mary J. Williams, daughter of William Williams, an old Alabama stockman who died in the scene of his activities. Mrs. Chapman died in Liberty county, Texas, in 1885, aged sixty-two. Their children were Ruthy Ann, who died in east Texas, wife of John Helton; William J.; Martha E., who died at Duncan, Oklahoma, wife of George R. Tucker; John W., of Iverson, Louisiana; James E., of Liberty county, Texas.
    In company with his parents William J. Chapman moved to Texas at the age: of fourteen. Both before and after that time his schooling was limited to brief periods in log-cabin schools, and his education has been due to subsequent application and the sharp training of contact with the world rather than to the schools of his youth. A fever in early childhood had left his left arm paralyzed, but notwithstanding this affliction he continued the vocation of his father and until recently has been quite successfully identified with farming. From 1876 to 1887 he lived, with the family in Bosque county, Texas, and for the following two years in Montagtue county. On February 4, 1878, he was married, in Bosque county, to Susan E. Wales, daughter of John and Rebecca (Miller) Wales, her father a Mississippian and a farmer. Mrs. Chapman, who was born in Fort Bend county, Texas, February 20, 1861, has a brother and sister living in Bosque county—Anna E., wife of P. Williams, and John M.  Mr. and Mrs. Chapman's children are: Bertha May, wife of H. E. McDonald, of Grady, Oklahoma; Lula O.; Minnie Lee, wife of Ruel Hamilton, of Grady; Miss Johnnie C.; Walton; Hayden Hayes; and Grace Truman. The son Hayden Hayes took his name from two noted Baptist ministers, the first, Rev. Hayden, having been a preacher of power and influence in Texas. Rev. Hayes was one of the early ministers of Indian Territory whose name is deserving of remembrance. He ministered throughout the Chickasaw Nation, and the twenty years of his activity in bringing the comforts of the gospel to Indians and white settlers were marked with hardships that could never again be duplicated in any territory of the United States. He preached to the people in their dugouts, and many a night while passing over the country from one settlement to another had to sleep in the open air with his saddle for a pillow. The Chapman family are all Baptists, Mr., Chapman being active in the work of his home church and for twelve years a deacon.

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cont.

COLUMBUS S. PENISTON, merchant of Ryan, popularly known over all this vicinity as "Bud" Peniston, has been, identified with that section of the Red river country now included within Jefferson county since 1887. He came to Indian Territory in that year, with a meagre education and fresh from his father's Arkansas farm. Sugg brothers at that time had one of the largest ranch outfits in this locality, and for a couple of years he was in their employ as cowboy, beginning at a salary of fifteen dollars a month. After this experience he began his career in merchandising and during the following years was associated with the enterprises of several well known business firms on both sides of the river; was with J. H. Harper, hardware merchant of Terral for eighteen months; with Ralls and Garrison as their clerk in the same town. He came to Ryan in 1893, where he became clerk for J. H. Harper in the hardware and implement business. A year later he opened a grocery business of his own, the firm being Pinkard, Ralls and Peniston, but the destruction of the store by fire left him without capital and at the foot of the ladder again. For a time he worked for wages at any occupation he could find, and in the course of that period was representative over portions of Oklahoma and Texas for the McCormick Harvester Company. For four years he was with the estab-

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lishment of O. B. Garrison; was in the stock business two years, was clerk for Sid Webb at Bellevue, Texas, and on returning to Ryan became a member of the firm of Jackson and Company, general merchandise. When their stock was divided a year later, Mr. Peniston took the groceries and has, since conducted that line of business. During all his residence in this part of the country, Mr. Peniston has maintained a reputation of strictest integrity both in business and personal conduct and is a citizen of high standing. He is a member of the common council of Ryan, and in politics is a Democrat.
Mr. Peniston was born in Drew county, Arkansas, April 4, 1863. His grandfather, Anthony Peniston, was of English birth, and died in Petersburg, Virginia, in 1813. John G. Peniston, father of the merchant whose career has been above told, was born in Petersburg, Virginia, in the early years of the nineteenth century, and when he passed away at Ryan August 15, 1906, he was ninety-five years old. He had a rather remarkable life. Self-educated, he had worked as apprentice in a newspaper office in his native town until he was twenty-one. He was a soldier in the Creek and Florida Indian wars and was the last of the pensioners of those wars to die. From his native town he moved to Georgia and opened a watering resort at Catossa Springs. About 1854 he moved to Drew county, Arkansas, and thenceforth was identified with the pursuits of the farm. At the time of his death he was the oldest Mason in Oklahoma in point of years. His religious affiliation was with the Missionary Baptist church. His wife was Sallie Smith, of Georgia, who died in Drew county, Arkansas, January 26, 1876. Her children were: William G., of Ryan; Thomas, deceased; John G., deceased; Wayne, of Randolette, Oklahoma; Ernest, of Ryan; Virginia, wife of W. G. Wilson, of Drew county, Arkansas; Columbus S.; Mary, wife of Robert Scarborough, of Ryan; and Joseph, of Drew county, Arkansas

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cont.

LORENZO D. WRIGHT. One of the early business men of Ryan and still identified with its business activities, is Lorenzo D. Wright. For twenty years, a period covering practically all the history of southern Indian Territory and northern Texas as a developed country aside from its range cattle interests, he has been well known through his connection with the farming affairs of the section. In 1888 Mr. Wright became business manager for the Farmers Alliance of Wise county, Texas, that organization then being a power in the southwest. He later became lecturer for the order for the state of Texas. After about a year he became the Alliance's business agent in the cotton business. As a cotton buyer he is best known throughout the country. When the Alliance finally ceased to do business as an organization he located at Bowie, Texas, as representative of C. F. Witherspoon, now of Denton, Texas. For eight years he was Witherspoon's buyer, and in the meantime had established a grain business for him at Ryan. Somewhat later he became buyer for Wooten and Potts along the Rock Island System, but on January 1, 1908, obtained his release .from his contract with them in order to devote his time to his own business. After his separation from Mr. Witherspoon he continued the grain and feed business at Ryan, at first under the name of Wright and Johnson, but is now sale proprietor. The business now amounts to about ten thousand dollars a year, and as an adjunct of his regular business he buys some cotton on his own account. He is a well known business man and property owner of Ryan, and has a business credit that indicates the strength of his personal and business integrity in this community.
    Mr. Wright was born in Titus county, Texas, October 22, 1859, a son of William F. M. Wright, who settled there in 1852, from Alabama, and was a farmer and stock raiser. After the war he moved to Wise county, Texas, where he died in 1882, aged forty-eight years. He was a slave owner, and had served through the war as a private in the Confederate army. (William F. M. Wright's father was Joseph Wright.) William F. M. Wright married Nancy M. Phillip, daughter of an Alabama planter and slave owner. She now lives with her son in Ryan. Her children were: James M., who died in Wise county, Texas; Margaret, deceased wife of Charles Odom; and Lorenzo D., the second child. Lorenzo D. Wright spent his early life, until 1888, on a farm. In the line of educational advantages, he had about two months' schooling a year until he reached manhood, when he obtained a better equipment by a period of attendance at Goshen School in Parker county, Texas. After his father's death he became responsible for the care of his mother's affairs and remained with her

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until he married, since which time he has given her a home. On September 4, 1884, Mr. Wright married, in Wise county, Miss Mattie J. McCracken, daughter of J. L McCracken and Tyreisa Boren. Mrs. Wright is one of six children. Mr. and Mrs. Wright have three children, Dovie S., Lula and Pansy.

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cont.

GARRETT MAYS has been identified with the Red river country on the north side of the river in Indian Territory since 1887. He is accounted one of the successful stockmen and business leaders of Jefferson county. Born in Hickman county, Tennessee, August 11, 1858, he accompanied the family to Texas at the close of the Civil war and got his education for the most part while in the saddle and riding the range. Only a brief time was spent in attendance at the pioneer school in his neighborhood. He has been in the open, in the free life of the plains and pitting his strength against the problems of a cattleman's career ever since he was a boy. He abandoned the home farm as his headquarters in 1887, and on November 17 of that year arrived in Indian Territory with 620 head of cattle which he placed on the range in the Chickasaw country. In a few years when the range became more crowded, he leased and marked with fences some two thousand acres. For a score of years he has been engaged in the cattle business, and his average annual run of stock would be from four hundred to a thousand head. As a shipper he is well known in the markets at Kansas City and Fort Worth, and some of his surplus earnings are invested in Jefferson county land. With Ryan as his home he has made himself valuable as a factor in citizenship as well as in business. He is a Democrat in politics and he and his wife are members of the Methodist church. He is a stockholder in the Ryan Cotton Oil Mill. As a noteworthy event in his personal history, and one that also gave much concern to his community, he had an experience on October 24, 1907, that proves that the usually quiet occupation of stock farming is not without its dangers. While loading some cattle at Duncan, and while standing in a passage-way to count the animals, one of the steers suddenly became enraged and rushing upon him threw him into the air in a second's time before he had any chance to defend himself. The horn passed under the left jaw and up through the skull just behind the left eye, and almost tore the whole side of the head away. It was necessary to remove a large section of the jaw bone as also a portion of the parietal bone of the upper fore part of the cranium. In spite of the apparently fatal nature of the injury, Mr. Mays recovered sufficiently in four months to resume the management of his affairs.
    Mr. Mays is a member of an old southern family. His grandfather, John Mays, a native of Virginia, brought up his family in Hickman county, Tennessee, where as a horse and mule raiser he was known as a moneymaker and a man of influence. He was well educated, and during early life had been an active Whig. He died in 1891 when past ninety years of age. His wife's maiden name was Kersey, and their children were: William, of Hickman county, Tennessee; John, Miles, Thaddeus, Gentry, Ann, wife of George Biffle; Angeline, who married Edward Crouch and moved to Idaho. Of this family, John (father of Garrett) was born in Hickman county, Tennessee, October 5, 1828. He entered the Confederate service from that state as captain of a company, but resigned before the close of the war and started west with his family. After brief sojourns in West Tennessee and southeast Missouri, he reached Texas with a few teams and little money. He bought all the black land in Hill county that his money could cover at a dollar or two an acre, and establishing a permanent home, became in time one of the prosperous men of the county. At one time he owned two thousand acres and had extensive stock interests. As a Democrat he took much interest in public affairs and was frequently a delegate to the conventions. He died in November, 1893. He married Jane Biffle, daughter of Jacob Biffle, a southerner by birth and antecedents, and in business a successful horse and mule raiser in Hickman county. Mrs. James Mays died in Hill county, Texas, March 1, 1883. Her children were: Sarah, who died in Missouri while on the way to Texas; Mollie, deceased, wife of J. C. Roberts; Bamma, deceased, wife of Matt Scruggs; Garrett, mentioned above; William B., who died in Hill county; John A., deceased; and Mattie, wife of W. C. Faubian, of Waurika, Oklahoma.
Garrett Mays married, October 30, 1895, in Clay county, Texas, Nora Glenny, daughter of Robert and Olive (Matt) Glenny. Her father, who came from Iroquois county, Illinois, to a farm near Benvanue, Texas, in 1886, was born in Scotland in 1818, came to the United States in 1840, first settling at Chi-

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cago, died in Texas in August, 1900. There were the following children in the Glenny family: Sarah, wife of H. K. Marler, of Los Angeles, California; Eliza, wife of Frank Richardson, of Hebron, Indiana; Robert, of Lawton, Oklahoma; Henry, deceased in infancy; William, of Lawton; Mrs. Mays, born January 6, 1870; Malinda, wife of J. A. Zachary, of Ryan; Lucinda, wife of D. L. Harris, of Sibley, Missouri; George, deceased; Charles, of Byers, Texas; and Ernest, of Byers. Mr. and Mrs. Mays have one son, Vernie Biffle, born December 1, 1897.