-10-
cont.

THOMAS M. RICHARDSON.  Of that little group of financiers who, immediately on arriving at the Oklahoma City site, April 22, 1889, organized the Bank of Oklahoma City, the best known and remembered is Thomas M. Richardson, whose career as a banker and lumberman has identified him very closely and prominently with the city since it was founded on that eventful day. Mr. Richardson was elected vice-president of the new bank, and a complete set of officers were chosen and organization completed before a building had been started for the accommodation of this important institution. It is recalled that while his partners were struggling to get the lumber unloaded for the building, Mr. Richardson accepted at least one check for deposit in the bank. As soon as the charter could be secured under the national banking act, the Bank of Oklahoma City became the First National Bank, of which Mr. Richardson later became president. Among others who were associated in the founding of this concern was Mr. George T. Reynolds, one of the noted cattle men of Texas and now a prominent banker and business man of Fort Worth.
    The first National Bank building, which still stands as one of the most substantial business edifices in Oklahoma City, was the pioneer of its kind, being erected in 1890-91. The lot originally purchased by Mr. Richardson for the bank building was the one now occupied by the Bump jewelry store, on Broadway, near Main. It cost him $300. A few days later, on May 1, 1889, when he bought the adjoining lot (now occupied by the Baker pharmacy), the same number of front feet cost $1,800. A few more days passed, and when he bought the next lot, at the corner of Main street, which was decided upon as the site for the new building, he paid the then fancy price of $2500. That fall and winter the bank building was erected, and when Mr. Richardson sold this property in 1900 he obtained $34,000 for it. In erecting this building at that early day Mr. Richardson displayed unusual judgment and good faith in the future of the city. It is three stories in height, fronting 85 feet on Broadway and 135 feet on Main street, built of brick and stone, having a handsome and substantial appearance, and for many years has been a credit to the city and a monument to Mr. Richardson's early enterprise and public spirit.

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    The same remarks apply to the beautiful residence erected by Mr. Richardson in those early days, at the corner of Sixth and Robinson streets, which has ever since remained his home; it was erected in 1890. For a number of years, or until the city reached metropolitan proportions, it was the finest residence property in Oklahoma, and is yet numbered among the best. It was built by Mr. Richardson with the best possible material and without stint of expense, and for a long time was one of the show places of the city. Its architecture combines the French renaissance and the Queen Anne styles; it is three stories high, surmounted by a Roman tower, from which in the earlier years, before the city was built up and spread out, the town of Edmond to the north could be seen, as well as a majestic view of all the surrounding country. In this residence are twenty-three rooms finished variously in cherry, cypress and oak, and its entire construction and artistic appearance, both exterior and interior, are a fine tribute to Mr. Richardson's generosity and thoughtful care of the comfort and pleasure of his family.
    As in its earliest period of development, Mr. Richardson has also in the city's more recent growth and marvelous development taken an active part, and among other notable enterprises he was one of the promoters of and is now the owner of the splendid Baltimore office building on the corner of Grand avenue and Harvey street.
   Before Mr. Richardson came to Oklahoma he had been a resident of Texas for many years, a large part of the time engaged in the lumber business on an extensive scale. He was born at Okolona, Chickasaw county, Mississippi, in 1848, and was reared and educated there and in the schools of Aberdeen. In 1874 he removed to Texas, locating at Ennis, where he became engaged successfully in business enterprises. Later he removed to Albany, in the same state, where he went into the lumber business and became one of the founders and incorporators of the M. T. Jones Lumber Company, one of the largest in the southwest and a concern of national reputation.
    On coming to Oklahoma, and after getting his banking enterprise started here, he began establishing lumber yards throughout the territory, and with this industry he is still actively identified. He is the president and the principle owner of the Western Lumber Company, with a line of lumber yards throughout Oklahoma and Texas. A business man of large affairs, Mr. Richardson is also a citizen of influence in the public and political life of the new state. During the Cleveland administration he was the national Democratic committeeman from Oklahoma, and at that time was prominently mentioned for appointment as governor of the territory. His career as a banker during the hard times following the panic of 1893 was of the strictest rectitude; his bank easily withstood the drain of the panic days, offering money freely an din plenty to its depositors, while other financial institutions were compelled to restrict payment or close up entirely.
    With the present prosperity of Oklahoma, its remarkable growth and widespread activities in every field of useful endeavor, Oklahoma takes a much higher position upon becoming a state than any other territory heretofore admitted; and for these thing the present generation owes more than it can realize to the indomitable spirit and courage of such city builders as Mr. Richardson, who, sticking to it through the darker years of its early struggling for a foothold, should now be given the chief credit for one of the most splendid achievements of modern history.
    Mr. Richardson's wife was before her marriage Miss Helen M. Brown, who, like himself, was born and reared in Okolona, Mississippi. They have eight children, as follows: D. C. Richardson, a prominent lumberman of Shreveport, Louisiana, being at the head of a two-million dollar corporation; Thomas M. Richardson, Jr., of Stamford, Texas; D. B. Richardson, a miller of Sayre, in western Oklahoma and mayor of that town; Will C. Richardson, vice-president of the Western Lumber Company at Elk City, Oklahoma; Paul Richardson. The daughters are: Mrs. R. B. Young of Fort Worth, Texas; Mrs. Geo. E. Woodward of McLean, Texas; Mrs. John E. DuMars of Oklahoma City.

-11-
cont.

GEORGE W. CARRICO.   A good many examples may be found in Oklahoma today of men, now prosperous and influential in business and affairs, who came to the territory practically penniless. For the most part these successful men had sufficient foresight to secure a firm situation in the country before it had begun to develop and when it required little capital to become landowners, and then, with the rapid development of the country and the phenomenal increase in values, they have benefited and prospered out of all pro-

-12-

portion to the original investment. The rewards of the pioneer in America have justly been great, and few can be found to begrudge the affluence that succeeds a period of self-denial and toil and hardship, such as the first settlers in every land have had to experience.
    It is an interesting story that describes the career of George W. Carrico, now one of Oklahoma City's prominent property owners, and is an historical illustration of the statements just made. When he came to Oklahoma City a few days after the opening in 1889 he had only enough money for current expenses, and yet such was his confidence in the country and his desire to become identified with its future progress, that he borrowed four hundred dollars and bought from the original owner the claim to the northwest quarter of section 14, town 11, range 3. This piece of land now adjoins Oklahoma City on the southeast, and it is sufficient proof of the sure and conservative business ability of Mr. Carrico to mention that in the spring of 1907 he sold a part of this tract for $20,000, and still retains a part that is worth at least that much more. The tract lies about one mile east of Capital Hill, and is being developed as a subdivision.
    Between the day when he borrowed a few hundred dollars to buy this land and the day when he could sell a part of it for a small fortune, lies a period of remarkable productivity and improvement. On the land still stands a one-room house, 12 by 16. Mr. Carrico built this as his first home, and in this house his only child was born, so that much sentiment attaches to the place for him and is a reminder of humble yet honest beginnings. During the first year of his residence here he plowed up the sod on his land. Even to accomplish this he had to resort to an unusual expedient. He borrowed yoke cattle to do the plowing, and to pay for the rental of the animals he worked them in the fields of their owner one day and then plowed his own land the next. Five years of farming, with such energy and enterprise as this incident indicates, gave him a sufficient start to engage modestly in other enterprises. He had already formed some business relations with C. G. Jones, having helped the latter in the construction of the first flour mill in Oklahoma City, and also helped prepare the flour that took the first prize at the Chicago's World Fair. Another step upward in his early career in Oklahoma was his appointment, in 1890, as enrolling clerk for the first territorial legislature, and honor that came to him unsolicited and as a tribute to his ability to do the work satisfactorily. Through Mr. Jones he becomes connected with some of the companies that were organized to build the various new railroads in Oklahoma and which after their completion were absorbed by the Frisco System. He served as auditor of the Oklahoma City and Western Railroad Company, which built the line from Oklahoma City to Quanah, Texas, and was secretary of the Arkansas Valley and Western Railroad, built from Red Fork, Indian Territory to Avard, Oklahoma, which was completed in 1903. He was also secretary of the Arkansas Valley Townsite Company, which owned the townsites along the latter line. In recent years Mr. Carrico has devoted his time mainly to the management of his properties and to the general real estate business. His career may be taken as one point in proof that strict honesty and the conscientious performance of duties are not without generous reward. In December, 1906, he was appointed a county commissioner.
    Before coming to Oklahoma, Mr. Carrico had spent his entire life mainly in Illinois and Kansas. He was born in Vermillion county, Illinois, near Danville, in 1851, his father having located in that county in 1835. The paternal ancestry is French, members of the family having come from France to Maryland to help Lafayette during the Revolution. From their first abode near Harper's Ferry, one branch of the name went south and the other west. Mr. Carrico was reared in Vermilion county and lived there until he was thirty years old, being a school teacher for several years of that time. About 1881 he moved to Marysville, Kansas, and likewise taught school there, living in that state until the Oklahoma opening. Mr. Carrico's wife is Mrs. Hattie (Trosper) Carrico. Their daughter, Miss Mabel, is an accomplished violinist, and well known in the musical circles of the city.

-12-
cont.

J. Q. ADAMSON. The Citizens Bank of Edmond, which has a state charter, was incorporated in 19000, by some influential citizens of Edmond and vicinity. It is a flourishing and successful institution, and is thoroughly identified with the growth and development of the town and surrounding country. Its capital stock is $25,000 and it does a general banking business.
    The vice-president of the Citizens Bank and

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one of the original incorporators is J. Q. Adamson, a pioneer of Oklahoma and one of the successful stockmen and business men of Oklahoma county. On coming to the county and territory in 1889, he first located in Seward township, Logan county, and was president of the first school board in that township but later took up a homestead that he still owns, at Waterloo, in Edmond township, Oklahoma county. Farming and stock-raising, to which was later added fruit-growing, were the productive lines of industry on this farm. Mr. Adamson has known Oklahoma both during the thin and the fat years, and as a farmer he bore the hardships common to other Oklahomans during the drouths and the hard times of the early nineties. He persisted when many gave up, and as a result had a substantial basis of success by the time prosperity reached this part of the country. From farming and stock-raising he extended his business interests to the town of Edmond, and several years ago established his home here, mainly for the purpose of giving his children the advantage of the splendid educational facilities of the town. Besides raising stock he does an extensive business in buying and shipping, and twenty-two years' active connection with the live-stock industry makes him one of the leaders in the business. He is a member of the Live Stock Breeders Association. He has taken premiums both in 1907 and 1908 at the Fort Worth, Texas, Fat Stock Exhibit in the swine department. He was the first to ship high-grade cattle in to Oklahoma. Eight head were shipped October 1889, and this proved to be a success. In 1886, registered cattle were purchased in Iowa and with later additions from Kansas the breeding of registered cattle continued till April 1, 1906, when the entire herd was disposed of.
    Mr. Adamson was born in Henry county, Indiana, in 1848. Both he and his wife belong to pioneer families of Indiana. His father, of Scotch descent, came to eastern Indiana from North Carolina in 1828, being part of the large migration from that and neighboring states into Indiana during the early decades of the nineteenth century. The father's integrity and honesty of character are well proved in a monument of his early industry which still stands at his old home in Richmond, Indiana,—a bridge across the Whitewater which he helped construct in 1835 and which at last accounts was still in service. For the first sixteen years of his life, Mr. Adamson lived on the home farm in Henry county, and then became one of the boy soldiers of the Union. In 1864 he enlisted in Wayne county, Indiana, in the One Hundred and Forty-seventh Indiana Infantry, and served throughout the campaign in the Shendoah Valley in the Army of the Middle West. In 1870 he married Miss Sarah J. Mills, a native of Randolph county, Indiana where her parents settled from North Carolina. Two years after their marriage they moved west, to Cass county, Iowa, where they bought land for fifteen dollars an acre, and began farming and stock-raising. In his town and township of Edmond, Mr. Adamson has been an active citizen as well as business man, having served as township trustee six years and a member of the town council. During this time much of the new roads were opened up and bridged. He is an Odd Fellow, and he and wife are members of the Presbyterian church. He was a member of the building committee to build the Presbyterian church at Waterloo in 1894 and also a member of the building committee to erect the new Presbyterian church of Edmond during 1897. They are the parents of the following children: Larrean A., Mrs. Nora Whistler, Loring D., Mrs. Lizzie Denton, Jesse, Goldie B., Harry.

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cont.

JOHN F. WARREN.  The development of institutions and interests in a comparatively new country constitutes a more conclusive test of individual strength of character and personal initiative than participation in the progress of settled communities. In the latter numerous opportunities are already created and it only requires intelligence and clear perception to seize them and turn them into the channels of personal profit. In the newer country the opportunities are not only few, but often have to be created; so that there is a constant demand upon originality, enterprise, self-sacrifice and acumen in all its forms. Thus it is that such characters as John F. Warren, of Oklahoma City, should be given generous and high credit for their successful participation in the furtherance of the development of the western country with which they have cast their lot.
    Mr. Warren stands now as one of the leading factors in the business, financial and agricultural development of Oklahoma, the center of his broad operations and large interests being the city. He is in the most useful period of a strong man's life, having been born near

-14-

Renssealaer, Jasper county, Indiana, in the year 1859. He was reared and educated in that county and attended school for a brief period at the State University, Bloomington. Engaged in farming until he was twenty-five years of age, he taught six years in his native county, making such a record that he was elected county superintendent and served for ten years in that capacity. He was also deputy county auditor for three years, also served as treasurer of the school board, and has been connected in some capacity with public life ever since he has been of age.
    In 1901, Mr. Warren located in Oklahoma City as one of the founders of the Atkinson, Warren & Henley company, farm loans. The firm is composed of Indiana people throughout, and its marked success in business is therefore somewhat a matter of state pride. The business proved to be the basis of the Farmers State Bank, of Oklahoma City, established in 1903, with Mr. Warren as one of its organizers and its vice president. He has since become president of the institution. With a capital stock of $50,000, its business has been conducted along conservative lines and, without undue exploitation, its scope has been expanded and its prestige raised to a high plane. Through its farm loan department, especially, has the Atkinson, Warren & Henley Company been one of the most potent forces in this section in the opening of large bodies of rich new lands in Oklahoma, and in the consequent growth and development of the country. Mr. Warren has had especial charge of farm loans, and his experience and efficiency in this capacity have been large influences in the growth of a business which has bestowed such important public benefits.
    Upon locating in Oklahoma City, Mr. Warren became actively interested in its public affairs, giving earnest and effective assistance to all movements and enterprises which have redounded to the marvelous growth of the city for the past six years. He is alderman from the fifth ward and president of the city council, and as such has given largely of his time and influence in the interest of wise municipal improvements. He is a typical man of modern affairs, giving his best strength of mind and body to the progress and uplifting of one of the most promising sections of the southwest.
    Mr. Warren married Miss Amanda W. Osborne in 1885, and they have two children: Bernice, who married L. M. Farnam; and Carrie, who married C. H. Phelps.

-14-
cont.

JOHN HOSZAPFEL has lived in Oklahoma City from that memorable day in 1889. Between the time when it was a city of tents and the present when it is a city of brick and stone, he has experienced both the prosperous and the hard times, but his loyalty to his adopted town has never wavered and he has come out successfully. He has participated in other openings of reservations since coming to the territory, notably the one at Lawton, where he drew Claim No. 97, which he proved up and still owns. In the real estate business and as a citizen he has continually been one of the most prominent and public-spririted in promoting the growth and development of Oklahoma City. To honor him properly in a history of Oklahoma City, it is necessary to include him among that group of men who have been most active in the movement which within a few years has made this one of the most prosperous cities in the country and a remarkable example of city building.
    Mr. Holzapfel was born at Berea, Cuyahoga county, Ohio, in 1856, his parents, Nicholas and Sabina (Noll) Holzapfel, both being natives of Germany and locating in Cuyahoga county soon after coming to America. In 1858 the family moved to Kansas, and belong among the pioneers of that state, which was still in the throes of contention and vactious strife over the slavery issue. From Baldwin, their first location, they moved to Anderson county in 1875; where the father, who had followed farming most of his life, died in 1891, and where the mother is still living. At Baldwin, Kansas, John Holzapfel was reared and received most of his education. For fifteen years before coming to Oklahoma he lived in Anderson county. Since reaching young manhood he has followed no other business than real estate and enterprises connected with that business.
    He was married at Neodesha, Wilson county, Kansas, to Miss Luella Curnutt. They have one daughter, Ruth A.

-14-
cont.

JAMES H. McCARTNEY.  The party from Anderson county, Kansas, who entered the territory on April 22, 1889, from the south line, consisted of about fifty prominent citizens, some of them from counties adjoining Anderson. This party was well organized for carrying out the definite plan they had decided upon. Among those mainly concerned

-15-

in perfecting and achieving the success of their plans were James H. McCartney, now a prominent real estate man of Oklahoma City, C. P. Walker and brother, Dr. Delos Walker, John Holzapfel, and others. Preliminary to the opening day rush two of these drove through the territory from the north to south, starting from Arkansas City, and following the line of the Santa Fe Railroad as far as Purcell, Indian Territory, which was just south of the border of the proposed territory. On this trip they picked out the spot that is now Oklahoma City as the probable location of the best town in the new land, basing their judgment on its central location and its position in a rich valley, surrounded by the best agricultural land in the territory. Their plans were accordingly laid with the excellence of this site in mind.
    On the morning of the day of the opening, which was to take place at high noon on Monday, Mr. McCartney and his associates (some of the original members had joined other parties to make the rush from different locations) chose as their starting place Jenning's Ford, twelve miles southwest of the proposed Oklahoma City. As a result of their previous reconnoitering this place had been selected as the nearest available point for starting, which it proved to be, being much nearer than Barrow's Ford and other places from which hundreds made the start. Without any undue haste, therefore, this party rode to the site of Oklahoma City, arriving at exactly one o'clock and nineteen minutes. With this as a fixed date in history, it may be accurately said that Mr. McCartney and his half dozen associates were the first settlers of Oklahoma City, which, at the time of their arrival, consisted of a little wooden station set in the midst of a vast expanse of tall grass in a virgin and unoccupied country. But before nightfall at least seven thousand persons had congregated in that locality, forming the "pioneer" population of the metropolis, heavily loaded trains on the Santa Fe having brought in the greater number.
    Referring now to some particular facts in Mr. McCartney's experience here, it may be said that he was one of the original founders of the city, for it was his intention to take up a lot in the proposed new town rather than a quarter section of farm land. Accordingly he staked out the lot on Grand avenue, on which Canadian Block is built. This spot is now exceedingly valuable ground in the heart of the business district. When he looks about the flourishing city which has grown up in half a generation, it is very natural that he often falls into a reminiscent mood and tells of many of the stirring events which made the founding of the city an occasion notable and unique in the world's history. He has been identified with the real estate business, as owner, buyer and seller, and his success has fluctuated with the ups and downs that mark the city's history, and at the present time can justly take great pride in being one of the pioneer citizens in one of the best cities in the country. For four years he served in the city council as alderman from the first ward, and he was also honored with the position of chairman of the townsite board under the Cleveland administration. Mr. McCartney is a native of Jacksonville, Illinois, where he was reared and educated. Moving to Kansas in 1870, he soon afterward made a more extensive western trip, to Colorado and California, in which later state he remained a year. In 1876, after his return to Anderson county, Kansas, he engaged in the sheep business near the town of Colony, and for thirteen years was a successful sheep rancher and one of the representative citizens of Anderson county until the Oklahoma opening. Mr. McCartney, in 1893, married Mrs. M. J. Sherman, formerly of Wichita, Kansas.

-15-
cont.

ALBERT L. WELSH, now the junior partner of the prominent real estate firm of Owen and Welsh, was assistant cashier of the old Citizens Bank when it was organized shortly after the founding of Oklahoma City. He arrive in the new town in May, only a few days after the opening of the territory to settlement, and with the late James Geary, who was president, and Lawson Gilbert, who became cashier, and others, he helped to organize the bank, which opened for business about May 15 in a hastily constructed frame building on the corner of Main and Broadway, where the American National Bank, in the Lee Hotel block, is now located. The country being new and everybody practically a stranger, banking required unusual care and discrimination, and for many months not much business could be transacted with safety except to receive deposits and issue exchange.
    Before coming to Oklahoma City, Mr. Welsh was assistant postmaster and money order clerk at Newton, Kansas, having lived in that state for six years. He was born in

-16-

Geauga county, Ohio, in 1866, his parents, who were of English and Irish ancestry, having been old settlers of that county, the paternal grandfather settling there after spending part of his life as a sea captain. Mr. Welsh was reared on a farm, and had come west to Newton, Kansas, in 1883, being first employed in the bridge and building department of the Santa Fe Railroad, then in the postoffice until he moved to Oklahoma. After remaining with the Citizens Bank nearly two years, which was followed by a brief sojourn in Texas, he engaged in the real estate business in Oklahoma City. In December, 1893, the firm of Owen and Welsh was organized, and on the subsequent incorporation of this firm as the Owen and Welsh Company, Mr. Welsh became and has continued as the vice-president. This is the oldest abstracting firm in the city (as told in a sketch of Mr. Owen), and as a general loan and financial agency it has become a very important factor in the financial affairs of Oklahoma City. Some of the largest deals in city property in recent years have been effected through the medium of this firm's efforts. Mr. Welsh is an ex-alderman of the second ward, and also served one term on the city school board. He was married in Oklahoma City to Miss Annie L. Robertson, a native of Kentucky. They have a son, Francis R. Welsh.

-16-
cont.

GEORGE W. R. CHINN.   Some of the largest business enterprises that the city now boasts had their origin in a humbel beginning during the first day of the town's existence. The story of several banks and other institutions have already shown this. but a more picturesque history could hardly be imagined than that of the beginning of the O. K. Transfer Company,now a prosperous business and one of the largest of the kind in Oklahoma.
    On April 22, 1889, there arrived on the site of Oklahoma City, about the middle of the afternoon, a party of settlers who had made the run from the east line, from a point about two milesnortheast of where Choctaw City now stands. At the beginning there were about 125 men in this party, and they had chosen as their captain, George W. R. Chinn. Mr. Chinn brought a wagon and team, and within an hour after his arrival in the seething chaos of the new town had recognized and seized a business opportunity that promised quick reward and was a means of valuable service to the settlers. On the side of his wagon he painted the letters "O. K." and at once soliciting patronage as a drayman, in the course of the same afternoon he drove his wagon to the Santa Fe depot and hauled a load of goods out into town. This was the first transfer business formally established in Oklahoma City, and out of this modest start has grown the business of today, still known under the original title of O. K. Transfer Company. The company was incorporated by Mr. J. H. Chinn, a son of the Mr. Chinn of this review, in 1898, since which time Mr. Chinn devoted his attentin to property interests.
    Besides being an 89'er and one of the first business men and the first auctioneer in Oklahoma City, which calling he followed for a brief period only, Mr. Chinn has been identified with public affairs and other interests of the city. The lots which he staked off in the course of his first day's residence here, he still owns, having received his title from the government, and on one of them is located his home, 420 West Frisco avenue. Before the consolidation of the town of South Oklahoma City with the city proper, he was twice elected an alderman of the former, and has since served as alderman from the third ward. Twice, by appointment, he has been chief of police of Oklahoma City.
    This well known pioneer citizen was born in Bourbon county, Kentucky, March 19, 1843. He was reared on a farm and attended school in Adams county, Illinois where his parents located when he was a child. The family were living in Knox county, Missouri, at the time the war broke out, and Mr. jChinn, then eighteen years of age, enlisted (at Sulphur Springs) on Governor Jackson's first call for state troops for the Confederate service, and later was mustered into Company F, Second Missouri, of the Confederate troops. His service during the war was mostly in Missouri, and largely under General Price, being with that noted Confederate leader at the battle of Lexington. In scouting duty, which was the larger part of his service, he made a record for efficiency that received high praise from his commanding officers. From the close of the war until the opening of Oklahoma in 1889, Mr. Chinn lived in Platte county, Missouri.
    His service during the war has brought him prominence among the United Confederate Veterans in Oklahoma. He holds the commission as brigadier general of the First Brigade, Oklahoma Division, and is second

-17-

in command of the Department of Oklahoma. Mr. Chinn's wife is Hattie M. (Davis) Chinn. Their oldest son, John Lewis, born in Platte county, is now deceased. Their five living children are: Mrs. Hattie Lee Barkis, George, Mrs. Lillie M. Pelcher, James H. (of the firm of Snodgrass and Chinn, Oklahoma City), and Miss Ollie H.

-17-
cont.

I. M. PUTNAM.  In a city where development and growth have been so rapid as in Oklahoma City during the last decade, it is natural that some individuals should keep pace with the general progress, and make some remarkable success in business. Hardly a citizen could be found who had not in some way been benefited by the prosperity of Oklahoma City, but it is here desired to cite the example of a young man whose rapid rise in the business world is considered remarkable even among a multitude of successes.
    When Israel Mercer Putnam came to Oklahoma City in 1901, having just graduated from the law department of the University of Georgia, he had as little capital as the new lawyer is usually said to possess, and he looked forward to only the average success of a lawyer in a western town. But while he was getting his first cases during the summer of 1901, he was also learning to appreciate the potential greatness of this city. Some farsighted visions must have convinced him that Oklahoma City was on the eve of great growth. His conviction was sufficiently strong to cause him to invest his first fees in town lots. He followed the familiar method of "turning over" his investments and re-investing as quickly as possible, and being successful from the start, it was a matter of only a few years until I. M. Putnam became the leading individual real estate operator in Oklahoma City, and succeeded in acquiring a fortune while really in the beginning of his career. The plan on which he has conducted his operations consisted in buying acreage property, subdividing it into lots, and promoting the sale of this subdivision by making it one of the most attractive residence tracts in the city. He has done this repeatedly, and the lands platted and sold by him are now considered among the choicest parts of Oklahoma City. The widest, longest, most popular and most beautiful boulevard in the city or state has been laid out by him through his properties. Putnam Heights, Military Park, Epworth View, part of the University Place Additions, Lakeside addition, and other valuable residence property, all lying in the northwest section of the city,have been put on sale and built up by the agency of Mr. Putnam's company, known as Putnam Company, through which the real estate business is conducted.
    Mr. Putnam has accomplished his rapid rise to affluence through his own initiative and business enterprise, unaided by outside help or influence. He seems to be a natural leader in business, and had he followed his original intention of practicing law, the business world would have lost a very valuable factor. His individual success has not been accomplished without corresponding benefit to his home city, to the up-building of which he is public-spiritedly devoted. He has been especially interested in education and has made several large donations for the establishment and location of schools and colleges. He is prominent in the activities of the Chamber of Commerce, the Real Estate Exchange and is one of the directors of the 150,000 Club. For two years he was a director of the Chamber of Commerce. In addition to his other interests he has acquired a large amount of Oklahoma agricultural lands. He has utilized his early training on the farm and developed this land with a modern farmer's enthusiasm, and is ranked among the most extensive farmers of his section of the state. His farm interests have naturally evolved his active support in another important movement connected with rural development, and that is, the good roads movement. The statistical proofs published from time to time are hardly necessary to show the intimate connection between good roads and farmer's prosperity, and it is now a question of devising practical means to build roads by which the country can be brought into convenient communication with the city markets. Mr. Putnam has taken up the solution of this problem in the State Legislature and in its local application, with enthusiasm, and is one of the strongest advocates of improved roads.
    I. M. Putnam is much younger than the extent of his achievements would indicate. He was born on a farm in Early county, Georgia, December 19, 1873, son of Jesse Mercer and Zenia (Lofton) Putnam, and descended on his father's side from the Putnams of Revolutionary War fame. His great-grandfather, Israel Henry Putnam, moved from Massachusetts to Georgia about 1800, where he established a plantation. His grandfather,

-18-

James Madison Putnam, was born on this plantation in Putnam county, Georgia, in 1810. Until he was fifteen, I. M. Putnam lived on a farm in his native country, and in Pike and Coweta counties of the same state, and while a boy enjoyed only meager educational advantages, confined to a one-room country school. His parents both died in his eleventh year and he was left without the means to pay for an education. At the age of fifteen he went to work in Chattanooga, Tennessee, in the insurance office of his cousin, Mr. L. D. Drewry. After one year he quit this position to become a new agent on the trains. He worked at this and other vocations for near two years and then again took a position with his cousin at Chattanooga. To this relative he owes much encouragement and assistance and feels greatly indebted. Determined to have an education he worked with this in view and finally succeeded, but it was by many sacrifices, hard work in summer vacations and the years when in as well out of school. In 1899 he graduated from Vanderbilt University at Nashville. The next year was spent at newspaper work out of school and then he took up the study of law at the University of Georgia, where he was graduated prepared to practice law, with the class of 1901. He came immediately to Oklahoma City.
    In 1906 Mr. Putnam married, at Shawnee, Miss Harriet Cockrell, a native of Nevada, Missouri, and later of Springfield, that state. In September, 1907, Mr. Putnam was elected, on the Democratic ticket, a representative to the first state legislature of Oklahoma and was one of the most energetic and hard working members.

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cont.

JOSEPH HUCKINS.  Enterprise and progression are strong elements in prosperity, and they were found strongly blended in the life so recently ended. During fifty years of his life time Joseph Huckins was identified with hotel life, and in that time was connected with the old Parker House of Boston, the Green's of Philadelphia and the Ballard of Richmond. About 1860 he went to the old Lindell Hotel, St. Louis, later was associated with the Southern of that city, and for some years was Potter Palmer's right hand man in the Palmer House, Chicago.
    It was about twenty-five years ago that Mr. Huckins opened the old Marquand Hotel at Texarkana, Arkansas, which was destroyed by fire in the summer of 1886, and in March, 1887, the present Huckins House was opened, and through his identification with this well known house he became one of the most widely known hotel men in the southwest. In April of 1906 he purchased from Oscar G. Lee the Lee Hotel in Oklahoma City and thus began a career of usefulness in this city which ended with his death before the completion of the Annex. The Lee was the first large and modern hotel in Oklahoma, and for many years has remained the most noted hostelry in the state, continuing on its way to fame and prominence as the Lee-Huckins Hotel. Late in the year of 1907, Late in the year of 1907, Mr. Huckins began the erection of a handsome seven-story fire proof annex to the hotel, which was completed under his son's management in 1908, making the Lee-Huckins the largest hotel in the new state. This house is intimately identified with the growth and progress of Oklahoma City particularly as the favorite headquarters of numerous conventions and public gatherings of note.
    The old five-story portion of the hotel was burned the night of August 15, 1908, and while no lives were lost the building was a total loss. It was the most spectacular and most disastrous fire, in property lost, during the history of Oklahoma City.
    The late Joseph Huckins was born at Effingham Falls, New Hampshire, August 17, 1836, and as above stated during fifty years of his life time was identified with the hotel business, but on Saturday of March the 14th, 1908, his beneficent and useful life was ended in death, dying at the North Louisiana Sanitarium at Shreveport, Louisiana, following an operation for peritonitis, and the funeral services were held at Texarkana, Arkansas, on the following Sunday. He is survived by his wife, who before her marriage was Miss Augusta Stock of St. Louis, and several children. His sons have followed his worthy example and are rapidly winning for themselves names and places in the front rank of the business men of the southwest as hotel men and proprietors. The Hotel Caddo of Shreveport, Louisiana, is managed by Leon W. Huckins, and Paul G. Huckins is the manager of the Huckins House, Texarkana, both hostleries of fame and prominence.
    His son and namesake, Joseph Huckins, Jr., is the manager of the Lee-Huckins Hotel at Oklahoma City. He was born in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1870, and has been continuously in the hotel business, principally associated

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with his father, for twenty-two years. He established his residence in Oklahoma City in 1906 as the manager of the Lee-Huckins, in association with his father, and since the latter's death he has had entire charge of the family's interest in this city. He was married at Texarkana, Arkansas, to Miss Olive Mills, of that city, and their two children are Joseph 3d and Glory.