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cont.

G. F. BORDER, M. D. The medical fraternity of Greer county has no finer representative than G. F. Border M.D. widely and favorably known throughout thi s section of Oklahoma as founder of the Mangum Hospital, which is a source of pride to the residents of the town and a credit to its promoters. A son of George F. and Eliza A. (Brooks) Border, he was born in San Augustine, Texas, February 22, 1873, and was there brought up on a farm.
     George F. Border was born in England, and as a young man came to this country in search of fame and fortune, locating at Galveston, Texas, where he was engaged in the hardware business until 1846. Entering the services of his adopted country, he fought valiantly in the Mexican war, at its close settling in San Augustine, Texas, where he carried on a successful business until his death, in 1883. He married, in Texas, Eliza A., daughter of Gen. T. G. Brooks, a veteran of the Confederate army, a man of considerable prominence. General Brooks reared four children as follows: M. L., now a congressman from Beaumont, Texas; Harris, an attorney-at-law, served in the Confederate army; James A., who served during the Civil war as colonel in the Confederate army; and Eliza A. The latter, widow of George F. Border, still resides in San Augustine, Texas. She is a woman of many Christian virtues, and a member of the Methodist church. She bore her husband five children, namely: Mrs. May Falk; Mrs. Mattie Burleson; Mrs. Cora Roberts; Charles L., high sheriff of San Augustine county, Texas; and G. F., of this sketch.
     Completing the common and high schools of his native town, G. F. Border was graduated from Christian University, after he read medicine with Dr. Alexander, of

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Louisville, Kentucky, at the same time assisting, as clerk, in a drug store. He subsequently served on the staff of the Louisville Hospital, then entered the Louisville Medical College, from which, after taking four full courses, he was graduated in 1895. Later in that year, Dr. Border took a course in surgery in St. Louis, Missouri, and thus equipped for his future work, he began his professional practice at Dougherty, Indian Territory, where he became surgeon for the Denison & Northern Railway Company. In 1897, the Doctor took a special course in surgery at the New York .Polyc1inic Institute, and in 1898 was in the United States Marine Hospital quarantine service in Cuba. Subsequently locating at Holland, Texas, Dr. Border remained there eight months, meeting with eminent success in his professional work. Going from there to St. .Louis, Missouri, he opened an office, and there. built up an excellent practice, remaining there until 1900, when he took a special course in railway surgery, thus further fitting himself for his chosen vocation. Coming in the latter part of that same year to Oklahoma, the Doctor located at Mangum, and from that time until the present has held a position of eminence among the most skillful and noted physicians and surgeons of the state.
     Dr. Border is professionally connected with various railroad companies, being surgeon for the M. and C. division of the Chicago Rock Island & Pacific Railway and for the Frisco Railway system. He is consulting surgeon for the Segur Hospital; is United States Pensioner Examiner; vice president of the Greer county board of health; in 1902 was commissioned by the governor to represent Oklahoma at the American Congress of Tuberculosis, held in Washington, D. C.; is associate editor of the Oklahoma News Journal, a member of the International Medical Association of Railway Surgeons and of the American Medical Association of Railway Surgeons. In each of these organizations he is active and influential, his medical skill, knowledge, advice and counsel being recognized and appreciated by the members of his profession.
     Dr. Border opened a hospital in Mangum soon after coming here, commencing on a small scale in a frame building containing but eight rooms, and, although small this hospital had from the start especially fine equipments, and a corps of most skillful nurses. Meeting with unquestioned success in the management of this hospital, the Doctor, in order to meet the demands of his many patrons erected, at Border Heights, a larger frame building, with superior accommodations for his patients, but just as it was completed the building, which was not insured, caught fire from a defective flue, and was burned to the ground. He subsequently removed the original hospital, first dividing it, converted the parts into residences for rental purposes, and on its site, near the business center of Mangum, erected in 1907, the present spacious brick building now used for the hospital. It is of modern architecture, especially designed for the purpose for which it is used, three stories in height, and with its deep red bricks, and cream colored brick trimmings, is handsome and attractive. The operating and sterilizing rooms are finished throughout with white enamel, and, in common with the remaining rooms, twenty-six in all, are well lighted and ventilated. All are appropriately furnished and equipped, having telephones, electric call bells, and enunciators within reach of each patient. The sanitary conditions are special features of the hospital, and its equipments and appliances vie with that of any similar institution west of the Mississippi river, including among others an electrical vibrator, an electrical cauterizing outfit, vibratory massagers, nebulizers, and German resonators. There are also powerful X-ray machines, which are used for the benefit of the patients free of cost, With all of these up-to-date furnishings it is needless to say that the hospital is always well filled, patients coming here from a distance for treatment, at times so filling the rooms that serious thought is being given to enlarging the hospital to at least double its present capacity. In 1907 a stock company was formed to assume management of the institution, it being incorporated under the laws of the state, with a capital of $25,000, with Dr. Border as a large stockholder. Dr. Campbell was made president; Dr. Hollis, vice president; and Dr. Border, secretary and treasurer. There are four directors of the institution of which Drs. Campbell and Border have charge. Dr. J. F. Campbell is an eminent physician and surgeon, well qualified for the work in which he is engaged. He was born in Barnesville, S. C., was graduated from the Atlanta, Georgia, College of Physicians and Surgeons, after which he came to Oklahoma, locating first at Olustee, Greer county, where he achieved wonderful

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success in his profession, remaining there until March, 1900, when, forming a partnership with Dr. Border, he came to Mangum, and has since been resident physician and surgeon at the Mangum Hospital.
     A more striking proof of the high estimation in which the worth and ability of Dr. Border is held throughout this and the surrounding country cannot be given than that which occurred in 1905 , at the time of the terrible cyclone at Snyder. Physicians and surgeons from this part of Oklahoma and from Texas rushed to the scene as fast as steam could carry them. Dr. Border, on account of delayed trains was twenty-four hours late in arriving at the scene of disaster, but the moment his presence became known he was voted almost unanimously as the Chief of Surgeons, and remained there until the Emergency Hospital was closed, when he returned to Mangum, bringing with him the remaining victims of the disaster in order to care for them at his hospital. As an appreciation of his services on that occasion, the Relief Committee in charge presented him with a jeweled gold medal containing forty-five diamonds.
     At Hobart, Oklahoma, in 1895, Dr. Border married Maud E. Holcomb, a daughter of S. A. Holcomb, and granddaughter of Lewis H. and Martha (Akers) Holcomb, life-long residents of Virginia. S. A. Holcomb was born, January 4, 1854, in Virginia, being the seventh child in a family of thirteen children. Migrating to Texas in 1878, he spent three years in Waxahachie, after which he lived in several Texas towns and cities, being identified with various lines of industry, finally going to Indian Territory, where for three years he was a cotton buyer. Coming to Oklahoma in 1901, at the opening of the Kiowa country, he secured a farm claim at Hobart, and has since been a citizen of prominence in that part of the state. He has served as county commissioner, arid has platted the Holcomb addition to the city. He married Ida T. Yates, daughter of ________ Yates and a Miss Waldrop, natives of South Carolina, where Mr. Yates, a planter and slave owner, entered the Confederate army as a soldier, and was killed while in the service. His widow, Mrs. Yates, subsequently died at Coldwater, leaving two children, Mack, a merchant in Coldwater, Mississippi, and Mrs. Ida T. Holcomb. Mr. and Mrs. Holcomb became the parents of two children, Maud E., now Mrs. Border, and Stephen E., who died in infancy. Mrs. Holcomb died, at Hobart, Oklahoma, January 24, 1905. She was a true Christian woman, and a member of the Baptist church, the denomination in whose faith she was bred. The Doctor and Mrs. Border have no children.

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cont.

GEORGE W. WILEY, M. D. A man of culture and talent, devoting his time and attention to the demands of his profession, George W. Wiley, M. D., of Granite, Oklahoma, holds a noteworthy position among the successful physicians and surgeons of Granite. A son of Dr. Joseph F. Wiley, he was born, October 8, 1874, in Clay county, Alabama, and during his early days resided on the home farm. His grandfather, John Wiley, moved from Virginia, his native state, to Alabama, where he was a successful and popular school teacher for many years, and was also engaged to some extent in general farming. Prominent 'in public affairs, he held many offices of trust, and after the reconstruction of his county served as its first county judge, and, also, as justice of the peace. He, reared a large family of children, seven daughters and four sons, the latter being as follows: Mark, of Texas; John T.; Joseph F., M. D.; and Cicero.
     Born, bred and educated in Alabama, Dr. Joseph F. Wiley was fitted for a physician by study and practice, and followed that profession throughout his active career. He was in practice in Texas until 1891, when he located in the southwestern part of Greer county, Oklahoma, where he practiced for a few' years, meeting with excellent success. He is now retired from active work, and spends a large part of his time in traveling, finding great pleasure in visiting different parts of our beautiful country. He married, in Alabama, Melissa Walker, who was born in that state, and died, in Texas, in 1886. Four children were born to them, namely: Largus W., engaged in mercantile business in Eldorado, Oklahoma; George W., of this sketch; Susie, wife of William Harvey; and Flora, wife of C. Hutchison.
     Having obtained an excellent knowledge of medicine while studying with his father, George W. Wiley, subsequently entered the Medical Department of the Fort Worth University, at Fort Worth, Texas, and there received the degree of M. D., being graduated with the class of 1900. After practicing a very short time in Hollis, Texas, Dr. Wiley located that same year in Granite, Oklahoma,

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where his professional skill and ability met with ready recognition, the many difficult cases which he has been called to treat haying, gent}rally, yielded to his wise treatment. He comes in contact during his practice with the diseases common to the south and west, often in a milder form, and on the whole considers Oklahoma a very healthful state. He has served as physician and surgeon for the Rock Island Railroad Company and has been examining physician for nearly all of the old line insurance companies. Dr. Wiley is active in social circles, belonging to the County, the State, and the Southwest Medical societies.
     Dr. Wiley is a man of fine business tact and judgment, and is influential in advancing the financial condition of this part of Greer county as vice president of the First National Bank of Granite. This bank was first organized at the opening of the town as a state bank, having a capital of $10,000. This was afterwards reorganized, and its capital increased to $25,000. In 1906 the bank was sold to Missmore Brothers, who nationalized it, and conducted it successfully for a year. It was then sold, Mr. D. A. Bellmore and. Dr. George W. Wiley becoming the controlling stockholders, and it was again reorganized, with D. A. Bellmore as president; G. W. Wiley, vice, president, and P. W. Reamer as cashier. These three gentlemen, with the assistance of the able board of directors, are carrying on a successful banking business. The bank's loans and discounts amount to about $32,000; its deposits aggregate $100,000; and it has a capital and surplus of $32,000. The institution carries on a general .banking business, buying and selling exchanges, &c., and it owns its home, which is a fine brick building advantageously located on a corner lot. Dr. Wi1ey has also made other investments of value, owning three hundred and twenty acres of good land, and a commodious residence in Granite.
     In October, 1901, Dr. Wiley married Alma Bellmore, a daughter of D. A. Bellmore, president of the First National Bank of Granite, as just mentioned. A native of Canada, Mr. Bellmore has been associated with the development of the lumber business of the United States for many years. He was at first located in Wisconsin, where he remained until 1889. Coming in that year to Oklahoma, he was in business first in El Reno, from there coming to Granite. He is also interested in New Mexico lumber; having a yard at Tucumcari, where he has an extensive trade. Mr. Bellmore is identified politically with the Democratic party, and is a member of the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, and of the Ancient Order of United Workmen.. Mr. Bellmore married Susan Young, a native of Maine, and they have two children, namely: Alma; wife of Dr. Wiley; and Albert, engaged in the lumber business in New Mexico.
     The Doctor and his wife have one child, George A. Wiley, born May 9, 1904; Dr. Wiley is) a thirty-second degree Mason; a member of the Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine; of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, in which he has filled all of the chairs, and has represented as a delegate to the Grand Lodge; of the Knights of Pythias; and of the Modern Woodmen of America. Mrs. Wiley belongs, to the Order of the Eastern Star, and to the Daughters of the Revolution.

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cont.

ANDRES MARTINEZ, a Castillian Spaniard residing on a fine farm eight miles from Anadarko, Caddo county, has one of the most remarkable histories of any citizen within the bounds of Oklahoma. He was born near Las Vegas in New Mexico in the year 1856, his parents, Juan and Paulita (Padillo) Martinez, being of pure Castillian blood. His paternal grandfather, was born in the province of Castile, Spain, as a youth came to Mexico with his parents, and later the family became pioneers of New Mexico. The mother of Andres was born in Santa Fe, and was married to Juan Martinez in 1841. The young couple first lived at Los Alamos, New Mexico, subsequently settling at San Geronimo, about twelve miles west of Las Vegas, where, Andres Martinez was born.
     Living on the frontier; the Martinez family had constantly to guard against the murdering and marauding bands of Mescalero and Apache Indians, who during the Civil war and the consequent withdrawal of the regular troops became especially bold. Next to the scalping of a mature man, the stealing of a child was considered their greatest triumph; but, notwithstanding the vigilance of the Martinez family, on October 6, 1863, when Andres was seven years of age, he was captured by the Apaches while herding cows near his home. At the same time his little cousin, Pedro, was killed. When the older members of the family returned from the harvest at noon, they summoned what few neighbors

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were then residing in the neighborhood and gave chase to the savage thieves and murderers, but after a fruitless pursuit of several days were obliged to return. The Apaches had escaped into Arizona, and after about a year they sold their captive to the Kiowas. The change was a welcome one, for in accord with their traditional character for cruelty the Apaches had even treated the helpless boy with such cruelty that he had tried to end his life. The Kiowas, however, treated him kindly, taught him their language, and he lived with them contentedly for a number of years, fully adopting their dress and customs. He even accompanied them in a number of their marauding expeditions against the white settlers, once into northern Texas; but the greater portion of this portion of his life was spent in their allotted home in southwestern Indian Territory.
With the opening of the Indian reservation, however, and the more frequent entrance of the white man into his life, the natural instinct of his race to abandon the aimless pastoral form of existence for that of settled civilization commenced to assert itself with even greater strength. His peculiar appearance was finally noted by the Indian agents, and finally under a severe cross examination by Dr. Hugh Tobin, army surgeon at the Kiowa agency, Anadarko, Andres was able to recall his original name and the fact that he had at one time lived in New Mexico. Accordingly, in January, 1883, Dr. Tobin began a correspondence with parties in that territory, which, after several months of tedious investigation, resulted in the location of the Martinez family at their old home. The mother was still living—the father dead—and the older brother, Dionicio Martinez, came to the Kiowa agency to identify the wanderer of twenty years. This he was able to do, most conclusively, and Andres returned to his old home in New Mexico. Later, however, he decided to resume residence in the Kiowa county, and, although he did this, he abandoned the Indian life, obtained a speaking and writing acquaintance with the English language, and settled on his present fine farm of 320 acres on the Washita river, eight miles below Anadarko. In 1907 he removed to the town, and now spends only a portion of his time on his farm. For some time Mr. Martinez was an industrial teacher in the Methvin Institute, a training and religious school for Indians at Anadarko. It had been established by the Women's Home Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church South, and was in charge of Rev. J. J. Methvin; hence its name. It was while a teacher that he met Miss Emma McWhorter, also a teacher there, a daughter of Rev. P. T. McWhorter of the Indian Mission Conference. Mr. Martinez was married to her at the institute, October 17, 1893.
     It may be added that the story of Mr. Martinez' remarkable life has been made the subject of an interesting book, entitled "Andele, the Mexican-Kiowa Captive," by Rev. J. J. Methvin. Andele, a corruption of Andres, was the name by which he was known to the Kiowas.

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cont.

GEORGE W. CONOVER. One of the oldest residents of Southwest Oklahoma, land an authority on its history since the beginning of white occupation, is George W. Conover, who for more than a quarter of a century has lived just south of the site of Anadarko, though that town has had no existence until within the latter years of his residence. He was connected with the Indian service, both military and civil, in this country from the year 1867, and in later years, as farmer, stockman and citizen, has been one of the best known characters of Southwest Oklahoma. He was born in Philadelphia in 1848, and comes of an old and distinguished American family. In New Jersey the Conovers is one of the oldest and best known family names, and in New Brunswick, their ancestra1 home in that state, George W. was reared. On the maternal side his ancestry is Scotch, also of long American connection. His mother's father was Dr. Mackintosh, and the latter's father was Donald Mackintosh. Donald Mackintosh was a soldier under General Wolfe in the capture of Canada, and was the first settler of Vergennes, Vermont, as shown by the inscription on his tombstone still standing in that historic town. He was born in Scotland in 1720 and settled in Vergennes in 1766.
In 1863, at the age of sixteen, George W. Conover enlisted in the Thirty-ninth New Jersey Infantry, and during his service in Virginia participated in the battles of Petersburg, Fort Stedman, Hatcher's Run, etc. His experience in the war attracted him to military life, and after a year at home following the close of the war he enlisted for service in the regular army in the Sixth Infantry, which was assigned to the frontier. With his regiment he came to Indian Territory in 1867,

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and was on the ground when the construction of the present Fort Sill was begun in 1869 and finished in the following year. His term of service expiring in 1870, he accepted a position as clerk, store-keeper and interpreter for the Indian agency at Fort Sill, and was thus employed until 1873. At that date he began his active connection with the cattle business, and later took up farming in addition. His ranch for a number of years was on the Little Washita, in the country of the Kiowas and Comanches, his headquarters being located not far west of the 98th meridian. In 1880 he moved to his present place, one mile south of the site where Anadarko was founded at the opening of the country to settlement in 1901. His farm of three hundred and twenty acres, being the south half of section 22, in township 10, range 7, has become a very valuable property both because of the richness of its soil and the excellence of the improvements, and because of the remarkable growth and development of the country since 1901. The farm practically adjoins the city of Anadarko on the south, and in time will probably form a part of the town corporation. For four years after the opening in 1901 Mr. Conover was in the mercantile business in Anadarko, conducting what is now the Romick store. Mr. Conover is a Mason in both the York and Scottish Rites, of the thirty-second degree, a Knight Templar, and a member of India Temple of the Mystic Shrine at Oklahoma City. He has three sons: Andrew J., William R. and John M.

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cont.

MORRIS L. HITE. For several years before the opening of the Kiowa-Comanche country Morris L. Rite had been one of the prominent cattlemen of the district, operating some extensive leaseholds. With the opening of the reservation to white settlement in August, 1901, he engaged in the banking business at Fort Cobb, Caddo county. Under the firm name of Rite Bros., bankers, (his brothers O. M. and B. D. being his associates), the Caddo County Bank at Fort Cobb has been one of the substantial financial institutions of Southwest Oklahoma ever since the country began its development. Anadarko, the county seat, is also included in the business enterprise of the Rite Brothers. Morris L. Rite has resided there for several years. They have recently completed at Anadarko a new bank building for the home of their new bank in this city, known as the Anadarko State Bank, which was opened for business January 11, 1908. This bank building is one of the handsomest and best equipped for its purposes in the southwest. It was constructed for individual purpose as a bank, being of the one-story type which has recently become so popular as a marble, with Corinthian columns in front, and bank home. It is built of white Carthage the main room being lighted by skylight. No expense has been spared to make this a model bank building, fitted with every modern device and convenience.
     In Caddo county the name of Morris L. Rite has been well known in other spheres than business and finance. With the installation of the first county officials under state government he completed his second term as treasurer of Caddo county, and is in every way associated closely with the material and social progress of this part of Oklahoma. Mr. Rite was born in Jefferson county, Kentucky, in 1872, but the family moving to Hill county, Texas, in 1878, he spent practically all his youth in the southwest country. He was a cowboy almost as soon as he could ride a horse, and much of his youth was passed in the duties of the range. He has never entirely relinquished his cattle interests. While working for others he was connected with some of the famous outfits of Texas, controlled by men whose names are foremost in the history of the cattle industry, particularly the Witherspoon Brothers of Gainsville, for whom he worked as cowboy and foreman for twelve years. When he went into the cattle business for himself he and his brothers obtained leases in the Kiowa-Comanche country, and he thus became identified with that part of Oklahoma where he has since made so prominent a figure in business and affairs. He first brought cattle here in 1898. Mr. Hite's fraternal connections are with the Elks. Mrs. Hite before her marriage was Miss Marie Campbell.

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cont.

TIMOTHY C. PEET, now a resident of Anadarko, where he has some substantial business interests, is an old Indian trader, and as such has been identified with Southwestern Oklahoma since 1870. His first trip to this country was almost co-incident with the establishment of Fort Sill, and he soon after went into the business of buying arid shipping out furs, hides, buckskins, buffalo robes, etc., handling great quantities of these commodities. He saw much more Indian life than that of civilization, and as a result acquired a familiarity with Indian life, customs, habits, language that is probably

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not surpassed by any resident of Oklahoma. For two winters he remained entirely in the Comanche Indian camps for the purpose of buying buffalo skins, and during that time was entirely without white companions and had to speak the Comanche language altogether. In this business, and in general merchandising with the Indians, at various times associated with Col. F. L. Fred, William Matthewson (the original Buffalo Bill, now of Wichita, Kansas and J. R. Mead. For Mr. Mead he ran a wagon freighting service between Wichita, Kansas, and Fort Sill for something over a year. For a number of years he was clerk and store manager for Colonel Fred at old Anadarko, as the Indian agency was called, at that point, which adjoi ns the site of the present city of Anadarko. He located there about 1881, so that he was a resident fully twenty years before the opening of this region to white settlement.
     Mr. Peet was born in Sheffield, Berkshire county, Massachusetts, in 1843, of parents who were of an old New England family of Scotch ancestry. The family moved to a farm near Columbus, Ohio, about 1854, and that remained the home of the parents until their death. About 1860 Timothy C. located at Springfield, Illinois, and in 1864 went to Camp Douglas, Chicago, and enlisted in what was known as the "Second Board of Trade Company" the Seventy-second Illinois Infantry. His service was mostly in the army of the west, along the Mississippi, at Vicksburg, Mobile and other points. Having returned to his old home at Columbu s, after the war, and begun work as a clerk, in a store, he there met J. R. Mead the Indian trader with whom he afterward had such close business relations. Mead had established a trading post at the Whitewater agency in Indian Territory, and soon induced Mr. Peet to return with him to the Territory and take a position in his store. He accepted the position with no thought of becoming a permanent resident of this country, being moved thereto largely by a spirit of adventure and a desire to see the new country. But since he first came out to Whitewater in 1869 he has never been away from the old Indian Territory country for any long period of time. He has not been engaged actively in business since the Kiowa-Comanche country was opened for settlement, but has kept some financial interests in business, particularly with the well known firm of Romick and Company at Anadarko.

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cont.

THOMAS F. WOODARD. One of the oldest and most prominent residents of the Kiowa-Comanche country, who was identified with the Indian service there years before its opening to settlement, and who has since, been prominent in business affairs as a resident of Anadarko, Caddo county, is Thomas F. Woodard. Later residents will immediately connect his name with banking, since he was one of, the founders and is president of the First National Bank of Anadarko. This bank began business in a tent in a cornfield August 6, 1901, the date of the opening of the reservation and the founding of the town of Anadarko.
     Mr. Woodard has been identified with the Indian country since 1868, and in this respect has a record equaled by few of the active citizens of Oklahoma. Born in Parke county, Indiana, in 1847, reared on a farm and attending country schools, at the age of nineteen he came west to Kansas, and in 1868 made his first trip into the Cherokee Nation, Indian Territory, with a post trader named Black, whose headquarters were on the Big Caney river. He returned to Lawrence, Kansas, but soon came again to the Indian country, this time to Fort Sill, in the southwestern portion that has long been known as the Kiowa-Comanche country. He accompanied Jonathan Richards this time, the latter having been appointed sub-agent for the Wichitas and affiliated bands. Their headquarters were established on the Washita river, adjoining what is now the city of Anadarko, in the year 1870. Mr. Woodard has never lived away from this place since coming here. As assistant and general utility man he continued with Richards for sometime, and subsequently was, advanced to various positions of trust in the Indian service, being employed in clerical and other capacities at the Anadarko agency and at Fort Sill, and often supplied the place of regular agents during their absence. He finally became a member of Kiowa town site commission, and for several years past has held the position of Indian farm agent, having charge of the leasing of Indian lands and other matters in connection with the agricultural rights of the Indians connected with the Kiowa agency. The Indian agency still remains where it was established in 1870, at Anadarko, but is now known as the Agency.
     As a citizen Mr. Woodard is taking active and public-spirited interest in estab-

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lishing good wagon roads from the farming districts into Anadarko, believing this to be the most effective way of helping the town and the individual farmers. He himself owns a couple of fine farms in Caddo county. He has two sons, Lyman Allen Woodard and Marcus O. Woodard. Fraternally he is affiliated with the Masonic bodies, being a Knight Templar, a Shriner and a member of the thirty-second degree of Scottish Rite.

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cont.

DR. GEORGE O. JOHNSON. The state senator from the fifteenth senatorial district comprising Caddo and Grady counties is Dr. George O. Johnson, a prominent physician who has been identified with the Kiowa-Comanche country since its opening in 1901 and since 1902 has been permanently located at Fort Cobb in Caddo county. Though a physician of high standing and for many years devoted to his practice, he has also taken an active part in public affairs, and his election to the first state senate in September, 1907, came as a merited recognition of his value as a citizen and representative of a large constituency both in the Democratic party and among the people at large. He was also president of the Pension Board during President Cleveland's first term.
     Senator Johnson was born at LaGrange, Lorain county, Ohio, in 1845, and when eight years old removed with his parents to Jones county, Iowa, where he was reared and educated. In Jones county he gained his first promotion in political experience, having served as county superintendent of schools. His father, Hon. W. S. Johnson, was one of the leading Democrats of that section of Iowa, and served in the state legislature as representative from the district then composed of Dubuque, Clayton and Jones counties. He was a native of Connecticut, and of old New England stock. Dr. Johnson's mother came from New York state. In preparation for his profession Dr. Johnson received the best training offered by the schools of this country, and since engaging in practice has constantly kept pace with the rapid progress of medical science. After two years in the medical department of the University of Michigan, he finished his course in the University of Maryland at Baltimore, graduating in 1869. He began practice in the town where he was reared, Wyoming, Jones county. Five years later, being offered an opportunity to engage in practice in the home town of one of his uncles in Connecticut, he continued his practice there for nearly five years, and during this time had the advantage of further medical study in the medical school of Yale University at New Haven, where he came under the instruction of the famous surgeon, Dr. Nathan Smith. Then returning to Iowa, he continued a successful practice for nearly twenty years at Maquoketa, the county seat of Jackson county. On the opening of the Kiowa-Comanche reservation in 1901 he acquired some property interests and in the following year took up his residence and began practice at Fort Cobb. He has gained a fine reputation among the medical profession of the western half of the new state for his professional ability and ethical standing. He is owner of two good farms south of Fort Cobb, and is in every way closely connected with this new country's development and progress. He is a member of the County, State and American Medical associations, and in Masonry has attained the Knight Templar degrees. He is an active worker being a Past Master, High Priest and Eminent Commander. Dr. Johnson has three children: Elza C., George M. and Norma L. His oldest son, Elza C., was one of the organizers of the Forty-ninth Regiment, Iowa State Militia, and on the breaking out of the Spanish-American war, being captain of his company, went with his regiment to Cuba, in the command of Fitzhugh Lee at Havana. The younger brother, George M., was first lieutenant in the same company. Both sons had a college education, with military instruction, at the University of Iowa.

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cont.

HON. DYKE BALLINGER. The first county clerk of Caddo county, following its organization after the opening in August, 1901, was Dyke Ballinger, of Anadarko, a prominent lawyer and influential citizen of his section of the state. He was appointed to the office of county clerk by Governor Jenkins, and has ever since taken an active part in public affairs in Caddo county. In 1903 he was elected to the territorial legislature on the Republican ticket, and re-elected in 1905. His record in connection with meritorious legislation enacted during those years deserves comment. During the session in 1903 he was credited with having had more bills passed than any other member, and in the 1905 session his record was second in this respect. In his second term he was chairman of the important ways and means committee, and in the latter part of the same session was chairman of the "Sift

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ing” committee, as well as member of various other committees.
     Mr. Ballinger had been identified with Oklahoma in some very interesting relations for a period of twenty years. Born in Blount county, east Tennessee, in 1866, reared there until 1887, in that year he came west and took up his residence in the country that for a long time was designated on the school geographies as No Man's Land, the strip along the Panhandle that was later attached to Oklahoma as Beaver county and under the present constitution composes three counties. He became a cow puncher at Beaver City, cattle raising being almost the sole interest of the country at the time. Mr. Ballinger is witness to the unorganized condition of affairs in that truly no man's land, when no organized courts or civic jurisdictions extended their authority into this region. As a result the population was very heterogeneous, containing many outlaws and fugitives from justice, the better class of citizenship being represented by the old-time cow man, with his inherent sense of justice and the square deal, while many of the cowboys working for them were young fellows from eastern schools and colleges.
     While Mr. Ballinger was a resident there, the provisional government, with the name of Cimarron Territory, was formed, but never recognized by Congress or the president. After spending a year in this country he returned to Tennessee, but in 1890 again located at Beaver City, which by that time had become the county seat of Beaver county as a part of Oklahoma Territory. He had made many friends among the cattlemen of this section, and they were glad to assist him in his first start in public life. He received the appointment as clerk of Beaver county, and then received two successive elections to that office. While in office he pursued a thorough course of law by private reading and in 1896, following his admission to the bar at Beaver City, he was elected county attorney. He remained one of the leading citizens of Beaver county until the opening of the Kiowa-Comanche country in 1901. At Anadarko, besides a large general practice, he is interested variously and in the most public-spirited way in the growth and development of the city and surrounding country, being vice-president of the Commercial Club. As a leader of the Republican party, he has a considerable influence in the public affairs of the new state. Mr. Ballinger was married at Beaver to Miss Della Groves, a native of Indiana. Their three children are Harry, Geneva and Bryce.

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cont.

JAMES I. PHELPS, a leading lawyer and public official of EI Reno, Canadian county, and also one of the prominent Democrats of this section of the state, is a native of Texas, born on the 20th of June, 1875. His father was born in Louisiana, but was a pioneer of Texas, and the son received his education in the schools of the Lone Star state. James I. Phelps completed his professional course in the University of Texas, duly received his degree of LL. B., and in 1899 located for practice at El Reno. The nine years of his residence since have brought him pronounced public honors and professional advancement. His Democracy has always been of the stanchest. In April, 1901, Judge Phelps was chosen police magistrate of El Reno, resigning that office in the following year to accept the probate judgeship of Canadian county, which he ably held for six years. On leaving the bench he resumed private practice, in partnership with M. B. Cope, who is now a member of the state legislature from Canadian county. The firm is one of the best known in this locality. Outside of his professional field, Judge Phelps has wide prominence as a fraternalist, being a charter member of the B. P. O. E. and having filled all the offices in the I. O. O. F. and I. O. R. M. He is also an earnest member of the Christian church.
     Elza, the father of James I. Phelps, when two years of age was brought to Texas by his own father, coming from his native state of Louisiana. Thus the paternal grandfather, E. S., and his son, Elza, became pioneers of the Lone Star state, and the latter still resides in San Augustine county. He married Mary A. Simmons, daughter of Richard J. Simmons, the girl, when two years of age, coming into Texas with her parents from the state of Mississippi. The Simmons and the Phelps families settled on adjoining farms, with the natural consequence of acquaintance and marriage between the young people. The maternal grandfather was an officer in the Confederate army. In February, 1903, James I. Phelps, the son of Mr. and Mrs. Elza Phelps was married to Lydia B. Malcolm, a native of Missouri and daughter of J. F. Malcolm. Mr. Malcolm is a Union veteran of the Civil war, and now resides at Sapulpa, Oklahoma.

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The children born to Mr. and Mrs. J. I. Phelps are. as follows: Thelma, December 1, 1903, and Malcolm, October 16. 1905.

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cont.

J. N. ROBERSON, a promising young practicing attorney of El Reno, Canadian county, is a native of Pikeville, Tennessee, born on the 16th of January, 1875. He is a son of James and Penelope P. (Spears) Roberson, both of his parents being also natives of Tennessee, where they still live, respected citizens. Mr. Roberson was educated in the schools of Tennessee, and in 1901 graduated from the law department of the Cumberland University. In September of that year he came to El Reno, and has since practiced with results creditable to his professional reputation and his standing as an honorable citizen. Although appointed justice of the peace to fill a vacancy, the duties of which office he thoroughly discharged, he has no ambition for public preferment, his serious aim in life being to succeed in honoring his profession and himself; and in its realization he is well along the road. A young man of high character, a substantial present and a bright future, Mr. Roberson is an earnest advocate of modem fraternalism, enjoying .membership in the B. P. O. E., A. O. U. W. and Knights of Pythias.

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cont.

L. A. WILSON, president of the First National Bank of El Reno, Canadian county, since March 24, 1908. and a notable force in several other financial institutions of the state, well illustrates the type of young manhood which is pushing along the substantial deve1opment of Oklahoma and the new southwest. He was born in Michigan on the 19th of November, 1874, his father being a well known pioneer of that State, and originally of an old New York family. The son was first educated in the public schools, after which he enjoyed a four years' course at theagricu1tura1 college Lansing, from which he received the degree of B. S. He afterward attended the Michigan University (Law Department), at Ann Arbor, in which he remained three years and from which he obtained LL. B. He had evinced remarkable talents in debate and oratory, early in his student career and in 1899 had been selected by his college to be one of the three who were to debate against the representatives from the University of Pennsylvania. He himself led the debate on "Feasibility of National Disarmament," and his team carried the day. In 1900, while still a student, he did effective campaign work for Bryan, having been an enthusiastic Democrat even before he arrived at the voting age. In 1901, after graduating from the university law school, Mr. Wilson became financial agent for several large Chicago concerns, and his ability to get practical results was speedily recognized. With two years of this successful and valuable experience to his credit, he took a prospecting trip through Oklahoma, and was so attracted to the country and the people that he determined to locate there. In 1904 he settled at El Reno, and in connection with H. C. Bradford engaged in the banking business. Together they bought the First National Bank, of which Mr. Wilson became cashier, and in less than four years they have raised its deposits from $140,000 to over $500,000, with $300,000 in cash and sight exchange. This remarkable record for the financial institution of a new country has been largely the result of the courteous and energetic methods of its cashier. He and Mr. Bradford are also proprietors of the State Bank of Calumet, Erick State Bank and the Beckham County State. Bank of Sayre, all of which have had a splendid growth under the direct management of Mr. Wilson, being president of the three banks. His clearness of judgment and decision of character were recognized throughout the state, when during the financial stringency of 1907 he was appointed chairman of the committee which formulated the rules under which the Oklahoma banks resumed business on limited cash payments, at the meeting held in Guthrie, October 31st of that year. He is also vice president for Oklahoma of the American Bankers Association. Outside his financial interests, he has become a large property owner, and although he wisely participates in the guidance of public affairs, he has neither time nor desire to seek office. He is, however, a member of the El Reno Library Board, and is always ready to forward the causes of education and morality. In 1899 Mr. Wilson was united in marriage with Miss Matie Deubel, of French lineage whose ancestors were active in the Napoleonic wars. She is a daughter of William Deubet; and is a native of Michigan. Mr. Wilson is social in his disposition, and is a natural fraternalist, enjoying membership in the Masonic order (thirty-second degree) the P. O. E., and other organizations of prominence.

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MORELAND E. MONSELL. The government survey preliminary to the opening of the Kiowa-Comanche reservation was done by Moreland E. Monsell, now a prominent citizen of Anadarko, and a noted civil engineer who has been connected with important surveys and engineering work in various parts of the country for many years. His career before coming to Oklahoma was passed in the northern woods and mining regions of Wisconsin, Minnesota and Michigan. He came to the southwestern part of Oklahoma in the early part of 1900, having been appointed United States surveyor as assistant to C. F. Mesler, the United States Indian inspector, who had general supervision of the surveys and other preliminary work in connection with the opening to settlement of the country of the Kiowas, Comanches, Apaches, Wichitas and affiliated bands in this section of Oklahoma.
     One of Mr. Monsell's most notable achievements in this work was the identification of the initial point of the Morrill survey, made in 1873, upon which depended the determination of the northern boundary of the Kiowa-Comanche-Apache reservation, involving what was known as the "Neutral Strip." This initial point had escaped the search of a government engineer who had previously been over the ground in 1889. It was his intimate knowledge of trees that enabled Mr. Monsell, without other datum, to locate the desired Point. A tree had been blazed to mark the point, some twenty-seven years before by the Morrill engineers. In the meantime the tree had overgrown the blaze marks, and they were discoverable to outside observation only to one who can see such evidence from long years of experience. By such evidences Mr. Monsell determined the tree, and when the trunk of the tree was split the blaze marks were clearly revealed. The two sections of the tree were sent to Washington where they were important exhibits in deciding the boundary question.
     Monsell's work in connection with the surveying of these lands involved long months of tedious and intricate labor, and also the exercise of much tact, patience and ability in his relations with the Indian owners and the establishment of the lines to their headrights. He was highly complimented for his success in the work by official letters from the Interior Department, and Mr. Mesler, the Indian inspector, especially commended him for his faithful and efficient services and his absolute honesty in a position where others have sometimes taken advantage of the situation to work a private graft.
     When labors for the government were completed, and the country opened for settlement in August, 1901, Mr. Monsell sent for his family and established a permanent residence at the new town ,of Anadarko, where he has since continued, with industry and success, the practice of his profession. He has been city engineer ever since the town was founded, and is the designer and builder of its sewer system, one of the best in the new state.
     Mr. Monsell was born in Fairhaven, Connecticut, April 19, 1850, a son of Isaac N. and Sarah D. (French) Monsell. On the paternal side he is of French ancestry, his grandfather having come from France with Marquis de La Fayette to help the Americans during their struggle for independence. During the winter of 1777 he was quartered with Washington at Valley Forge. Isaac N. Monsell, son of this soldier patriot, was born at Suffolk county, Long Island, in 1800, and in 1855 moved west to Wisconsin, locating in the pine woods of Adams county and later in Waushara county. In early life he had followed the sea, but in Wisconsin he took up mechanical pursuits and civil engineering. He was a soldier in the Mexican war, and died at his home in Wisconsin in 1813. His second wife and the, mother of Moreland E. was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut, of English descent, and is still living at her home in Wisconsin.
      The part of Wisconsin where the family settled was a frontier country during the youth of Moreland F. Monsell, and he took naturally to rugged outdoor pursuits. He early learned civil engineering, largely by practical experience with his father. He took advantage of all the schooling he could get in his youth, especially mathematical studies. He was adapted, seemingly by nature, for the vocation of civil engineer, and his early surroundings were such that he had full opportunity for exercising his talents. He was a woodsman almost from childhood, and for many years followed surveying in the wooded regions of the north. This experience has made him a practical naturalist, and has more than once been of great value to him in making surveys in raw new country, without previously established marks or data, where his woodcraft and intuitive sense of direction often gave him more aid than the technical rules

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of his profession. At the age of sixteen he began working for himself, at first running levels on the cranberry marshes of Wisconsin, and later taking up general land surveying. This took him on long expeditions, during one of which he laid out a townsite on the Rainy river, at the International boundary line in northern Minnesota. He was employee to do considerable engineering work on the famous Calumet and Hecla mines in northern Michigan, and also much government work in northern Minnesota. An expert in his profession, he became one of the well known citizens of northern Wisconsin, and served as county surveyor of Vilas and Oneida counties and as county engineer of Chippewa county. During the later years of his residence in Wisconsin he had his home at Rhine1ander. Mr. Monsell is a Mason of the higher degrees in the York Rite, and is a Knight Templar. By his marriage to Miss Rowena E. Page, who was born in Stevens Point, Wisconsin, he has three children: Elizabeth, the wife of Dr. Campbell of Anadarko; and Edwin and Rowena. Edwin, though still a student in college, has made a fine start in the practical work as civil engineer.

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cont.

C. A. BANNISTER. Prominent as an attorney, a stock-raiser, a Republican and a public man, C. A. Bannister is one of the strong men of El Reno and Oklahoma, having enjoyed that varied and broad experience in practical affairs which makes an especially valuable citizen in a new and developing country. He was born in Starke county, Indiana, on the 6th of November, 1854, being a son of James and Sarah (Odenbaugh) Bannister. The father was a native of Kentucky, and when thirty years of age removed to Ohio, where he married, his wife being a native of that state. After living for a short time in Indiana, the family went to Coloraao, and resided for fourteen years upon a fine homestead of 320 acres, fourteen miles north of Pueblo. The father and his growing sons made many improvements on the place, among which was the building of a reservoir, and the property is still known as Bannister's Ranch. The next shifting of the family residence was to San Jose, California, where the parents both died and are buried.
     C. A. Bannister received his education. at its early stage in the public schools of Colarado., and his first practical work in the world was on his father's ranch. He early commenced the study of law, in connection with the management of various live stock interests. In 1876 he went into Kansas in order to place. some cattle on the market, settling in Comanche county and remaining there for a short time. He then removed to Platte county, that state, where he remained until 1889 engaged in the cattle business and the study of the law. On the 24th of November, 1888, he was admitted to the Kansas bar, and an the 22nd of the following April attended the opening at El Reno, he being one of the first settlers upon the lands after the firing of the gun. He bought a relinquishment claim, lived on it and improved it for seven years, then sold the property and in 1896 moved into town. At his admissian to the Oklahoma bar in 1896, Mr. Bannister commenced practice at El Reno. With his good practice he has also carried along important interests of a political and a public nature, having become known as an active and influential Republican. In 1909, when Bird McGuire was a gubernatorial candidate, he was a member of the territorial Republican committee, and held the office of cattle inspector when the state board came into existence. Since he became a resident of Oklahoma, there are few Republican conventions in which his section is interested to which he has not been a delegate, and he was a member of the first Republican state canvention, March, 1908. For the past two years he has also served as oil inspector for Canadian county. All af which goes to demonstrate that Mr. Bannister, both as a pioneer and a citizen of today, is an Oklahaman of true spirit and worth. He was married in Kansas, on the 23rd of June, 1878, to Josephine W. Hanks, a native of that state and daughter of J. W. Hanks, who now resides in Enid, Oklahoma. The five children born to them are aS follows: Alvin E., who enlisted in the Sixth Cavalry, served in China and the Philippines, and is now connected with the gas company at El Reno; Charles Wesley, employed by the El Reno Electric Company; Dora, now the wife of Chauncey Andrews, and also living in that city, and Charles Rox and Benjamin Grover Bannister, both residing in El Reno, the former also in the employ of the electric company.