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cont.

GEORGE J. SHIELDS, ex-city treasurer and one of the well known real estate men, came to Oklahoma City on the opening day from West Texas, where he was also a pioneer citizen. Mr. Shields has had an unusually varied career even for an Oklahoman. Born in Frederick county, Maryland, in 1839, reared in that county and at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, he enlisted at the latter place, when the war came on, in the Union army, being mustered into the Fifteenth Pennsylvania Cavalry at Carlisle. This independent regiment under the command of General Palmer was used largely in the detached service—participating in the battle of Antietam, and in numerous engagements in Tennessee and Georgia, among them Nashville, Resaca, Murfreesboro, Atlanta, etc.
    At the close of his military service he attended Eastman's Business College at Poughkeepsie, New York, and also spent a short time at St. Joseph, Missouri. Two years after the war he permanently identified himself with the southwest by locating at Dallas, Texas. That was then a mere village on the banks of the Trinity, and no railroad had yet penetrated North Texas. About 1870 he moved out to what was then one of the outposts of civilization, to old Fort Griffin, in Shackleford county. As a government contractor and a cattleman he became intimately connected with the events and affairs of that interesting country during that most stirring period. Indian depratdations, all the ups and downs of the cattle business, the wild life of the cattle range, are familiar pages in his book of experience. For a number of years he resided and was a prominent citizen of Shackleford county.
    Since April 22, 1889, Mr. Shields has had his permanent home in Oklahoma City, though he was absent four years, which he spent at Roswell, New Mexico, returning in the fall of 1906. At the time he went to New Mexico he was serving a second term as city treasurer of Oklahoma City, resigning from that position after two years of honorable service. He has been more or less identified with real estate business ever since coming to the territory and is now associated with his sons in that business. His oldest son, John W. Shields, has built up and promoted large real estate interests in Oklahoma City, having Opened Shields' South Oklahoma Addition, consisting of 260 acres in the south part of the city, besides having other successful enterprises to his credit. Willis G. Shields is the other son who is connected with the firm. Mr. Shields' wife is even more

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of a Texas frontiersman than himself, since she was born on the Texas frontier, where both her father and grandfather met death at the hands of the Indians. Her maiden name was Martha A. Dobbs. The five children of their marriage were all born in Texas, namely: Nora Lee, John W., Willis Gay, Laura, Lou.

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cont.

FRED E. SUTTON.   Some of the most interesting features of Oklahoma City's pioneer days center around the neighborhood of the Lee Hotel building. At number thirteen North Broadway was erected the first brick building in the town. In its basement was located the city jail, and the second floor was police headquarters. The rest of the building was occupied by Fred E. Sutton's agency for the Anheuser Busch Brewing Association, and of all who have at various times been identified with this locality Mr. Sutton bears the palm for permanent residence, this block of the city having been his business home ever since the first months of the town's existence, and for several years he has occupied his present office in the Lee Hotel building. He secured the agency for the Anheuser Busch Company on coming to Oklahoma, and after living at Guthrie one year, he has since been permanently connected with Oklahoma City's growing business affairs.
    When Mr. Sutton reached Guthrie on the train from Arkansas City, on the great opening day, he possessed $25 in cash, owed a debt of $800 in St. Joseph, Missouri, and had a wife and two children to support. It will be to the lasting credit of Oklahoma and that character of its first settlers, that men so handicapped financially could engage in affairs and almost at once assume a position in the community dignified by useful labor and by fair rewards. Since the first years spent in getting a start, Mr. Sutton has become well known among the influential business circles of Oklahoma City. His special forte has consisted in securing outside capital for large building enterprises, which have been a very important factor in making this city the metropolis of the territory. Through his business associations with financiers in St. Louis and other cities he secured the capital for the building of the three big hotels of the city, the Lee, the Threadgill and the Saratoga, and his activity in the same direction may be counted upon for future undertakings of importance to the city.
    Mr. Sutton, who is just in the prime of his powers, was born in Marshall, Michigan, in 1860, son of P. D. and Mary (Allen) Sutton. The parents, who now live in Kansas City, came west in 1869, locating in Atchison. The family lived on a farm near that place, but the father, being a railroad contractor, helped build the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad through Kansas. Fred Sutton lived at home till eighteen, and before moving to Oklahoma spent several years in St. Joseph, Missouri. In Oklahoma City he is well known outside business circles, especially in Masonic affairs, being prominent in York Rite Masonry and also a Shriner. He is a member of the Elks and other orders. As an active, energetic and public-spirited citizen he has contributed much to the permanent welfare of his city. He was a member of the first and second delegation that went to Washington in behalf of statehood.
    While Mr. Sutton has been a member of the city school board and always interested in education, he gladly resigns to his wife the credit of having made an enduring impress on educational affairs in Oklahoma City, so that her name is inseparably linked with the early history of education here. Mrs. Jennie (Cox) McKeever, as her name was before becoming Mrs. Sutton, came from her home at Tonganoxie, Kansas, on Oklahoma's opening day, joined the host of boomers, and with an independence and courage that marked her as a true pioneer, took up a claim on the South Canadian river, in what is now Cleveland county, about twenty miles south of Oklahoma City. A dugout was her first home, and she gathered some children of the settlers about her and taught a school the first year. She taught the first school in Oklahoma City also, and a tent was the schoolhouse. At the same time she proved up her quarter section, met with unflinching fortitude the hardships of the early years of drouth, was an example of womanly courage and self-reliance amid the disorganized conditions that prevailed during the first months, and her accomplishments were no small addition to the pioneer work by which Oklahoma became a seat of civilization. From the beginning she has taken an important part in the educational affairs of Oklahoma City, teaching in its schools for a number of years, and since her marriage to Mr. Sutton, which took place in 1895 she has been frequently employed by the school board for special work as a teacher, her eminent qualifications as such being recognized by all. Mr.

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and Mrs. Sutton have four children: Edwin B., who is assistant United States bank examiner; Monte Cochran, teller in the Security National Bank, Oklahoma City; Laverne, wife of Dr. W. A. Aitken of Enid; and Inez. Mrs. Sutton's mother, Mrs. Mary Cox, was one of the matrons at the Indian school at Pawnee in the early days.

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cont.

CAPT. RICHARD T. JACOB, who is now in the real estate business in Oklahoma City, having retired from the army some years ago, is one of the oldest military men who saw service in the southwestern country, and for a number of years his duties kept him in the old Indian Territory. His first service was at Fort Gibson, and after a few weeks he was transferred to Fort Arbuckle in the Chickasaw Nation. At that time he was nineteen years old, and yet had been commissioned (October 1, 1867) as second lieutenant of Company E, Sixth United States Infantry, in the regular army. He was born in November, 1848, in Louisville, Kentucky, and was reared and educated there, finishing his education in the Kentucky Military Institute at Frankfort.
    When General B. F. Grierson selected the site of Fort Sill in 1868, Captain Jacob was in his company, and is now probably more familiar than any other man in Oklahoma with the facts connected with the founding of that historic military post. It was about that time that the soldiers were having trouble with the Arapahoe Indians and until Fort Sill was established old Fort Cobb was the nearest headquarters to the Cheyenne and Arapahoe reservations. From Fort Sill Captain Jacob went to Fort Supply in what is now Woodward county. Altogether he saw four years of service in Indian Territory during those early years. Fort Dodge, Kansas, was also one of his headquarters, and from there he was transferred to service in North Dakota, where he saw eight years campaigning in the Sioux country, his headquarters for seven years being Fort Buford. For five years in North Dakota he was in command of the Indian scouts. During the latter part of his career as an officer of the regular army he was in Colorado on service during the Ute uprising. He left the service at Fort Lyon, Colorado, in 1881, and returned to Louisville to engage in business, and for a time was a deputy U. S. marshal. At the outbreak of the Spanish-American war he received a commission from President McKinley as captain of Company K, Eighth United States Volunteer Infantry. This regiment was organized and for some time was located at Fort Thomas, Kentucky, later at Chickamauga. It was mustered out March 6, 1889.
    On March 29, 1906, Captain Jacob established his home and place of business in Oklahoma City, returning to a highly developed country which nearly forty years before he had known as an Indian country. He has a successful real estate and loan business in the city. His wife before her marriage was Miss Louise Williams, of a family of prominence in Lexington, Kentucky. They have three children: Mrs. Louise Stewart, Richard T. and Harry C.

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cont.

THOMAS J. McCOMB. The first insurance commissioner of the state of Oklahoma, elected in September, 1907, is Thomas J. McComb, a well known life insurance man of Oklahoma City, who has been the resident general agent of the Franklin Life Insurance Company of Springfield, Illinois, since 1900. Because of his thorough knowledge of the insurance business, a deep student of actuarial science, and an expert in the technical side of the business, he was a natural choice for this important position, and his nomination, which came practically unsolicited, was a deserved tribute to his eminent fitness. In the relations of the new state to the insurance companies and the general subject of insurance—one of the most vital of modern problems in civics—Mr. McComb is in a position to be of splendid service to the state, and be electing him the people have shown complete confidence in his high standards of honesty and ability in the insurance business.
    Mr. McComb is a native of the southwest, born at Kentuckytown, Grayson county, Texas, February 1, 1876, and a son of Dr. J. W. and Ida (Ray) McComb. The family have been prominent in Texas and elsewhere for several generations. His father, born in Missouri, came to Grayson county with his parents while he was a boy, became a physician in that county, and in 1882 moved with his family to Jacksboro, Jack county, Texas, where he still lives, actively engaged, as he has been for many years, in the practice of medicine. Ida (Ray) McComb, the mother, was born in that community of Grayson county, which was originally settled by people from Kentucky and took its name from that source. To public life in Texas the McComb family have furnished several well known

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names. Dr. McComb's brother, Hon. John E. McComb, a lawyer of note, was United States District attorney for the eastern district of Texas during the first administration of President Cleveland, and was also on the Cleveland electoral ticket, receiving the highest vote thereon. Another brother of Dr. McComb, the late William P. McComb, was the representative of his district in the Texas state senate, and at the time of his death had practically received the nomination of his party for Congress.
     Thomas J. McComb was trained for the profession of law, which is an additional equipment for the work he now has in hand. Reared and educated at Jacksboro, Texas, he finished at the North Texas Baptist College at that place, and then taking up the study of law was admitted to the bar at Jacksboro in 1897, where he practiced a short time. His interest was soon directed to life insurance, and after becoming actively identified with it he gave up his law practice, and has since devoted all his energies to the business. The Franklin Life Insurance Company appointed him general agent for Oklahoma and Indian Territory in 1900, and in the same year he established his office and residence in Oklahoma City. In 1904 Mr. McComb organized the Life Underwriters Association of Oklahoma, and was president of that body continuously until the summer of 1907. From the first Mr. McComb has been interested in the technical side of insurance, as well as in the business-getting department, and is known in other states than Oklahoma because of numerous addresses he has delivered before conventions on this subject. By his marriage to Miss Lizzie Jackson of Brenham, Texas, Mr. McComb has four children: Louise Preston, Thomas Marvin, Ida Priscilla and Mildred Mae.

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cont.

HENRY C. SCHILLING. The present mayor of the beautiful suburb, Capitol Hill, is Henry C. Schilling, one of the charter citizens of Oklahoma territory, and a man of varied and successful experience in the business and public affairs of this region both before and since the territory was opened to settlement. He first became acquainted with the old Indian Territory in 1873, as a cowboy connected with one of the numerous outfits that grazed cattle on these ranges. For some time he drove cattle over the trails leading across the territories from Texas to northern markets, and finally got into the cattle business for himself, with successful results. He bought cattle in North Texas, usually pastured them in the eastern part of Indian Territory near the Arkansas line, and drove them to market at Kansas City or other centers. In the course of his operations, he twice took cattle from Texas to Glasgow, Scotland, during the early years of the export trade in live stock. Kingman county, Kansas, was his headquarters for several years, and on the opening of Oklahoma Territory in 1889 became one of the original citizens of Guthrie, where he had the distinction of being elected a member of the first school board organized in the territory and in that capacity he assisted in starting the first public school in Guthrie, which was the first school building in the territory. On the opening of the Sac and Fox reservations in 1892, he transferred his residence to Chandler, until the following year, when he took part in another opening, that of the Cherokee strip, at which time he located at Perry. Since 1897 he has been a resident of Oklahoma City and vicinity. He was in the retail meat business for awhile, but success in real estate operations has gradually brought him into prominence in this business specialty. In 1902 he purchased the Boyd quarter section of land adjoining Oklahoma City on the southeast and adjoining the new suburb of Capitol Hill on the east, and divided it into town lots that rapidly grew in value with the advance of general real estate values and the extension of the city in this direction. Schilling's Addition, or East Capitol Hill, as it is variously known, is a corporate part of the town of Capitol Hill, and its beautiful situation, commanding a fine view of Oklahoma City and of the rich farming region lying to the south, makes this one of the attractive residence districts of the Greater Oklahoma City. Since his election as mayor of Capitol Hill in April, 1907, Mr. Schilling has been very industrious in improving his town and administering its affairs. He was instrumental in building the first school house on East Capitol Hill. Having removed from Oklahoma City to a residence in his addition in 1906, he is retired from all business activities except those connected with his property interests and with his office.
    Mr. Schilling has been identified with the southwest nearly all his life and is thoroughly western in spirit and in enterprise. He was born at Cardington, Morrow county, Ohio in 1848, was reared and went to school there,

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living with an uncle after the death of his father. He had made several trips west before he was of age, and did not finish his schooling until he was past twenty-one, his last school being Oberlin College. From a busy and successful career, he has found time for other congenial activities. In the order of the Knights of Pythias he is one of the foremost members in Oklahoma, having been a member of the grand lodge of the territory for twelve years, and in 1907 was honored by being elected to the long term of grand trustee of the grand lodge for both Indian Territory and Oklahoma. He has done a great deal of appreciated work in this order, particularly in the way of lecturing and delivering the unwritten work. Mr. Schilling's wife was before her marriage Miss Lottie A. Young, a native of Ohio. They have two children: Mrs. Miriam Schilling Amburn and Moses Schilling.

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cont.

THOMAS H. LINDLEY. With western Oklahoma producing the greater part of the broom corn grown in the United States, it is natural that some very extensive agencies should have been established to care for this valuable product. In Beaver county and at other points the annual crop is marketed in large quantities, and along the line of the Rock Island from El Reno west broom corn forms one of the important railroad shipments. For several years Thomas H. Lindley, of Oklahoma City, has given all his energy to the development of this important industry of Oklahoma, and is president and principal owner of the Oklahoma Broom Corn and Warehouse Company, which he organized to handle and promote the broom corn business. The company has warehouses at several towns west of El Reno, but its headquarters an [and] most important interests are at Oklahoma City, where in 1906 Mr. Lindley established an extensive broom factory and warehouse on West Main street at Blackwelder avenue, occupying a large and substantial brick structure equipped with the best and most modern machinery for manufacturing brooms on a large scale. The plant and its allied interests give employment to a large number of workmen and has a capacity of 150 dozen brooms per day. Mr. Lindley's success in building up the industry has been a decided gain for the industrial activities of the city and at the same time has stimulated a valuable branch of agriculture in the new state.
    Thomas H. Lindley was born in McLean county, Illinois, in 1865, being a member of an old established and prominent family of that county, where he was reared on a farm and lived until after he reached manhood. He lived in Iowa for several years, and in 1896 moved to Oklahoma Territory. He established a business at Custer City, in Custer county, much of which at that time was given over to the cattle interests. Mr. Lindley was himself engaged on a large scale in the cattle business, having 37,000 acres under lease as pasture ground for his cattle. He was also identified with the financial history of Custer City, having established and owned the Citizens State Bank at that place, which he sold when he turned his attention exclusively to the broom corn business. Mr. Lindley was married in McLean county, Illinois, to Miss Josie Marshall of that county. They have seven children: Mattie J., Marshall H., Viola, Juanita, Linden, Era, and Lois.

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cont.

JAMES W. TEAM. The cotton industry in western Oklahoma, although now one of its principal agricultural resources, was stimulated and developed after the settlement of the country and the extension of railroad lines through the western counties. It is largely due to the energy and enterprise of experienced cotton growers from other localities that cotton became such a valuable factor in this part of the state. One of the men to whom much credit must be given for developing the industry is now a well known real estate owner and operator of Oklahoma City, Mr. James W. Team, whose interests in cotton growing along the western extension of the Choctaw Railroad have continued since the railroad was built. With a long experience as a successful cotton producer and operator in Mississippi, he came to western Oklahoma in 1901, and established his home and business headquarters at Foss (in what is now northern Washita county) before the railroad had been completed to that point. A pioneer of the country, he was likewise one of the first to undertake the cotton business on an extensive scale. He built gins at Foss and several other towns along the new railroad, and developed his business to large proportions, and in such a way that it benefited the entire tributary country. Many of the northern farmers who followed him into that section with the intention of continuing their farming according to northern methods were induced to grow cotton, and as a result this has become one of

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the richest cotton-growing region[s] in the southwest.
    James W. Team was born in the Kershaw district of South Carolina, in 1859, a son of James W. and Mollie (Broach) Team. The family has been prominent in the Carolinas for several generations. His great-grandfather, Adam Team, a Pennsylvania German, was a soldier during the Revolution and fought in the battles at King's Mountain and Cowpens. Mr. Team's father, who was born and reared in the Kershaw district, South Carolina, was a Confederate soldier who fought with distinction and was killed in the conflict between the states. This southern soldier's mother, Martha (Woods) Team, is still living in Kershaw county at the advanced age of ninety-eight. There is some interesting family history on the mother's side also. The Broach family is an old one in that section of South Carolina, and the mother's father was one of the early settlers and erected the first store at the town of Rockhill, South Carolina.
    Soon after the war, in 1868, James W. Team accompanied his mother to Meridian, Mississippi, where he grew up, being thrown on his own resources at an early age, and was thoroughly trained for business pursuits, Meridian being an important commercial center and noted for its enterprise. His father during his lifetime was an extensive cotton planter, the son having been for a time established in the horse, harness and buggy business at Meridian and Jackson, Mississippi. In 1904, Mr. Team removed from western Oklahoma to Oklahoma City, and while still retaining most of his business interests in the west now devotes a large share of his attention to the real estate business, dealing largely in his own property. Among the large deals which he has promoted should be mentioned the East Grand avenue section for manufacturing and industrial purposes. He has become one of the representative, progressive and public-spirited citizens of Oklahoma City, thoroughly identified with all its best interests. Mr. Team was first married to Miss Bonnie Lockard, of a prominent family of Alabama, where she died. There were four children of their union: Mrs. Bonnie Belle, wife of Dr. S. W. Scales, of Starkville, Mississippi, (she is a graduate of Roanoke University, Virginia); James W., Edward L., and Robert B., now finishing their education at A. N. M. College, Mississippi. At Mobile, Alabama, Mr. Team was married to Miss Edith Batchelder, of Mason City, Iowa. They are the parents of three children: Wilbur L., Earl L., and Leslie.

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cont.

FRANK A. BEEBE. The first commercial orchard in Oklahoma was planted by Frank A. Beebe, who is still, notwithstanding the immense development of horticulture during the last few years, accounted the largest individual fruit grower and shipper in Oklahoma. Mr. Beebe first became identified with Oklahoma in 1892 in his capacity as postoffice inspector, and while still performing the duties of this office he bought and established in 1894, a fruit farm in Oklahoma county, seventeen miles east of Oklahoma City. Fruit had been raised in Oklahoma by individual settlers before, as a matter of course, but it is asserted without contradiction that this was the first important venture in commercial fruit raising. Having embarked in the business after a thorough consideration of its possibilities, and having continued it with increasing energy and success, Mr. Beebe deserves the prominence he has attained as the pioneer horticulturist of Oklahoma.
    It is interesting to know that when he established his original fruit farm, he located it in what was almost a wilderness, since the nearest railroad was at Oklahoma City, and he must have had great confidence in the future development of the country to foresee a time when he should have facilities for shipping his product. He was led to locate his farm where he did because he believed the land there to be the best adapted for the raising of the fruit, and with that condition fulfilled he expected that the transportation and market would come to him. The "Beebe Fruit Farm," as it is known pretty well throughout the state, lies within what is known as the big bend of the Canadian river, which forms there a natural situation of advantage as regards soil, moisture, frost conditions, etc., and constitutes an ideal section of country for fruit, demonstrating Mr. Beebe's early judgment of it. During the earlier years of this industry, several varieties of fruit were raised, including apples, peaches and plums, but in recent years the farm has become best known through its large production of apples. Seventy acres of the farm, which altogether contains one hundred and sixty acres, is devoted to raising Jonathan apples, and the Beebe apple orchard is without doubt the largest in the state. As a matter for comparison, it may be

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stated that Mr. Beebe in 1902 shipped one third of all the carload shipments of fruit that left Oklahoma, and in the following year shipped one fifth of the product of the territory. In 1898, four years after he set out his first orchard, the Frisco Railroad, from Oklahoma City to Sapulpa, was completed. The road skirted the Beebe fruit farm, and at this point was established the town of Jones, now a prosperous village in the center of a rich agricultural and horticultural region. The railroad gave the best of shipping facilities, and Mr. Beebe is the largest shipper from Jones Station.
    One of the primer movers in the formation of the Oklahoma Fruit Growers Association, Mr. Beebe is still a member and very active in promoting the prosperity of the fruit-growing interests and in procuring favorable shipping and market facilities. His business interest have been most successful, and he has acquired large real estate interests in Oklahoma County.
    Mr. Beebe was born in Cooper county, Missouri, in 1860 and was reared on a farm, receiving his education at Aurora, Illinois, and in the Northwestern University at Evanston, Illinois. Coming out of college in 1878, in the following year he was appointed to a place in the postal service, and for twenty-four years was continuously identified with that department, until his retirement to devote himself to his expanding private business. During this time he occupied various positions of responsibility; for four years he had charge of the transportation of the mails at St. Louis, and loaded the first"fast mail" that went out from that city. Later he was appointed inspector, and while discharging the duties of this position he first came to Oklahoma. Mr. Beebe is a Republican, and was a candidate for delegate to the constitutional convention in 1906. but notwithstanding the fact that he lacked but eighty votes of receiving a majority vote of the votes cast for his three competitors, he was counted out on a technicality involving failure of the clerks of election to indorse the ballots. Mr. Beebe married Stella Mitchell who is now cashier of the Bank of Jones. They have two children, Louise and Frances Elberta.

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cont.

REV. JOHN T. RILEY, D.D. The presiding elder of the Oklahoma City district of the Methodist church is Rev. John T. Riley, D. D., who has been identified with the work of the Methodist church in Oklahoma since 1894. A preacher of force and eloquence, a scholar versed in the humanities as well as in theology, a man of genial and attractive nature, broad-minded and of great personal popularity and influence, he has served effectively in the work of church construction and organization almost from the first years of Methodism in Oklahoma. For two years he was pastor of the First M. E. church at Oklahoma City, in 1896 was chosen presiding elder of the East district, and since 1901 has been presiding elder of the Oklahoma City district. At Edmond, in Oklahoma county, he built the Riley Memorial church in honor of his mother, and in numerous other ways has served the cause of his church. His home for many years has been Oklahoma City, where he has built a beautiful residence at 720 West Fifteenth street.
    Dr. Riley was born at Waynesburg, Green county, Pennsylvania, in 1843. When he was six months old his father died, and at the age of nine years he lost his mother, so that he was compelled to depend upon his own efforts to gain independence in life. He educated himself, by working his way through college. In May, 1861, when a boy of eighteen, he enlisted at Washington, Pennsylvania, in company K, Sixteenth Pennsylvania Cavalry, and for three years served with the Army of the Potomac in Virginia. He served in the Rappahanock campaigns, and was a participant in such noted battles as Fredericksburg, Gettysburg, and others. After the war he entered Allegheny College, at Meadville, Pennsylvania, and was graduated in the class of 1868 with the degree of A. B. Three years later his advancement was recognized by conferring upon him the degree of A. M., and in 1896 he received the degree of D.D. from the Iowa Wesleyan University. Having pursued his theological courses while in college, he was admitted a minister to the Pittsburgh Pennsylvania conference in 1868, and was assigned to Stoystown and Hopewell, in Somerset county, as his first charge. For twenty-seven years he was one of the prominent ministers of Pittsburg, being pastor successively of the Braddock, Bingham Street, the Fifth and Avenue churches of that city. As the results of his successful ministry he counted over four thousand persons who had been converted and become members of his churches. He is still remembered in Pittsburg as one of its most efficient and successful ministers. He was married in Pittsburg to Miss Elizabeth F.

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Challinor, of a prominent family of that city. They have one daughter, Ruth.

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cont.

SAMUEL MURPHY, of Oklahoma City, a pioneer of '89, was the first territorial treasurer, appointed by Governor Steele in 1891, and by reappointment served under the succeeding Governor Seay and for ten months during the administration of Governor Renfrow, until he resigned from the office. In Republican politics and public affairs generally, Mr. Murphy is one of the most prominent men of Oklahoma. Coming to the territory on the opening day, April 22, 1889, he bought a quarter section adjoining the townsite of Oklahoma City, and as soon as the city had become settled as a business community he took up the practice of law. He was offered the Republican nomination for member of the first territorial legislature in 1890, but declined to run.
    In Oklahoma City his best known public service was as postmaster, having been appointed to that office in July, 1898, by President McKinley, and serving a little more than four years. In the recent election for the members of the first state legislature, Mr. Murphy was Republican candidate for senator from the district comprising Oklahoma and Canadian counties, but was unsuccessful against the heavy Democratic majority of the district. Mr. Murphy is now retired from the practice of law, but is an influential citizen of his city and state.
    As a stalwart Republican, Mr. Murphy has been so unfortunate as to pass most of his active career in Democratic states, and has not participated so actively in official affairs as he would if he had lived in other states. He was born at Kingston, Madison county, Arkansas, January 31, 1845, a son of John and Perlenta (Davis) Murphy. His great-grandfather, a native of Ireland, settled in South Carolina and from that colony volunteered and fought as a soldier in the Revolution. The grandfather, John Murphy, a native of South Carolina became a planter in Tennessee, and was a soldier in the war of 1812. The father, whose name was also John Murphy, was born at Murfreesboro, Tennessee, and as a representative of the third generation of the family in America moved the family home still further west, beyond the Mississippi, he being one of the pioneer settlers of Madison county, Arkansas, near Kingston. He married Miss Perlenta Davis, a native of Tennessee and of Welsh ancestry. The Murphy family, though living in the south for several generations, were strongly opposed to slavery, and in the Civil war five sons of this John Murphy joined the Union army—namely, Isaac, John, Vincent W., Samuel and Alexander.
    Samuel Murphy enlisted in 1863, at the age of eighteen, in Company A, Second Arkansas Cavalry. In Arkansas he saw service at Cheatham's Farm, Jasper, Mudtown, Fayetteville and Richland, and also east of the Mississippi. Toward the close of the war he was detached for service as clerk in Brigadier General Phelp's headquarters. He was mustered out at LaGrange in August, 1865. Directly after the war he lived in Springfield and Osceola, Missouri, and for a time conducted a ferry on the Osage river. His education had been interrupted by the war, and for the purpose of completing it he went to Golcona, Illinois, where he attended school a few months, and then entered Ewing College in Franklin county, Illinois. For about two years he was engaged in teaching school in Missouri and in Arkansas, and in 1870 became an instructor in Flowermont Academy, in Denton county, Texas, where he was also principal one year. Returning to Arkansas, he studied law a year, and in 1874 was admitted to the bar at Harrison, where he was engaged in practice until 1876. He concluded his education and professional preparation by a senior course in the law department of the University of Michigan, where he graduated with the degree of LL.B. in 1877. At Harrison, Arkansas, he was successfully engaged in practice until 1889, excepting a period as postmaster and internal revenue collector at Eureka Springs. His political prominence first came into note in 1876, when he refused the Republican nomination for Congress from the fourth Arkansas district. He refused because he desired to continue his law studies, but when the same opportunity came round again in 1880 he accepted the nomination and succeeded so far as to reduce the regular Democratic majority by a large number of votes. In Cass county, Missouri, Mr. Murphy married Miss Delilah Floyd, who died in Arkansas, leaving one child, Anna, who is the wife of Henry Overholser of Oklahoma City. At Ann Arbor, Michigan, Mr. Murphy married for his present wife Miss Louise Berry, a native of York, England. They have four children: Mrs. Pearl Griffith, Paul, Clyde and Hazel.

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MARK H. KESLER, On July 15, 1903, Mark H. Kesler was appointed chief of the fire department. Mr. Kesler is one of the country's famous fire fighters, and his energetic administration during the past four years is a record of many improvements in the efficiency and equipment of the department. When he took charge, the two stations, the central and the Maywood, had a force of ten men, including the chief. Station No. 1 now has fourteen men, and there are four at station No. 2, and four at No. 3—all paid firemen and brought up to the highest point of efficiency and discipline. Almost from the first hour of his appointment Chief Kesler has been persistent in his efforts with the city council for the passage of ordinances providing increased fire protection. The equipment he has added to the department, with the approval of the city council, is all of the most modern type and of the finest material and workmanship. The equipment at station No. 1 consists of a 65-foot aerial hook and ladder truck, manned by four men; a combination chemical and hose wagon with rubber tires and roller bearing axles, manned by five men and the assistant chief; one-third size Ahrens engine, three men making its crew; and on second-size Amoskeag steamer in reserve. At each of the other stations is a hose wagon and a four-men company. During this administration another great improvement has been the installation throughout the city of the Gamewell fire alarm system of the latest type, which cost $9,000.
    The appointment of Mr. Kesler as chief of the department came about as a result of the general admiration for his work during the well remembered Oklahoma City fires when the Lion store was burned and, a little later, the conflagration near the Lee Hotel. At that time he was chief of the Guthrie department and brought a company of firemen to help out the Oklahoma City department. Mr. Kesler became connected with the Guthrie department in October, 1900, an din the following year was made its chief. Both in Guthrie and Oklahoma City his work had results that call for historical mention. Believing that a fire department should be composed only of men who are (or are willing to be) well trained and competent, and that local politics should in no way affect the personnel of the department or its conduct, he prepared, while chief at Guthrie, a statute embracing these ideas and placing the paid fire departments of the territory entirely on the merit system. His measure was passed by the territorial legislature and became a law, and recently Mr. Kesler has the added satisfaction of seeing his beliefs incorporated in the new state constitution. Since the fire department is one of the principal divisions of the municipal government, it is evident that this law, so ably advocated by Chief Kesler, is one of the most important affecting the municipal welfare of Oklahoma cities.
    Service as a fire-fighter constitutes Mr. Kesler's active career. The fire departments in American cities comprise a larger force than the standing army and are of far greater importance to the security and welfare of the nation. Among these "soldiers of peace" the present chief of Oklahoma City department has a record that entitles him to rank among the foremost. Born in Andrew county, Missouri, November 5, 1867, he was reared, from the age of seven months, in Kansas City, and attended school there. His father, A. G. Kesler, while a member of the Kansas City council got a position in the fire department for his son, then seventeen years old. March 1, 1885, he was appointed a private, and during the following thirteen years rose by promotion based on merit to the rank of captain in the Kansas City department. His early training was under George C. Hale, for many years chief of Kansas City's fire department and one of the world's greatest fire fighters. Chief Hale said of Mr. Kesler that "he served with noted and distinguished efficiency, was remarkably active and energetic, always ready for duty and danger, had the quickest record known in America for hitching fire teams, and won more prizes as an all-round athlete than any other man in the department." Mr. Kesler, after two years as private, was made captain of hose company No. 8, and next to captain of hose company No. 2, with headquarters at the central station. While captain of No. 2, he trained the noted horses "Dan" and "Joe" for competition in the fast hitching contest at the Grand International Fire Congress at London in 1893, which team easily won first honors in that contest. After Mr. Hale's retirement from the Kansas City department, Mr. Kesler served under Chiefs Edward Trickett and J. C. Egner.
   Chief Kesler is ex-president of the Oklahoma and Indian Territory Firemen's Association, and was one of the founders of the Southwestern Firemen's Journal. He was

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instrumental in securing for Oklahoma City the annual convention of the National Firemen's Association in September, 1907. Mr. Kesler was married in 1902 to Mrs. Mary E. Hunter and they have two children, Elmo and Goldie.

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DR. WILLIAM J. BOYD, who occupies the chair of Gynecology in the medical department of Epworth University, is an ex-army surgeon and one of the foremost physicians and surgeons of Oklahoma City, where he has been located and engaged in practice since 1901.
    A native of Genesee county, New York, Dr. Boyd was educated in the state normal school at Genesee and in the University of Rochester, graduating from the latter. Taking up the study of medicine, he pursed the preparatory courses in the medical department of the University of Buffalo, where he was graduated with the class of 1895. Following his collegiate course he took up hospital and post-graduate work in the John Hopkins College at Baltimore, and while there mad a specialty of gynecology. At the outbreak of the spanish-American War he was appointed an army surgeon and assigned to John Blair Gibbs Hospital, Lexington, Kentucky, then later transferred to division hospital, Macon, Georgia. Later on he was attached to the Fortieth Infantry with rank of captain and was transferred to the Phillippines, where he did active service, both in the hospitals and in the field, for two years. Soon after returning to the United States, Dr. Boyd came, in 1901, to Oklahoma City and established private practice here. As a practitioner he has a liberal following, and in his work as an instructor has been active in establishing the medical department at Epworth. He is a member of the county, state and American medical associations.

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JOHN SLOAN ALEXANDER. As a builder and promoter of high-class business enterprises, the presence of John Sloan Alexander in the public affairs of Oklahoma City and county was a source of lasting benefit, as best illustrated in the location and construction of the county courthouse, a magnificent structure that for years to come will be a source of pride to this section of the state. He was one of the chief influences in getting the courthouse located at its present site, in the block at Main street, Grand and Dewey avenues. A less sightly and less convenient location could have been secured elsewhere, but fortunately his ideas were followed in securing both grounds and building that would be in keeping with the growth of the city for years to come. J. S. Alexander is a brother of W. L. Alexander, and both brothers have been prominent in affairs of city and territory. As Democrats, they belong in the official records of the county for a number of years' service in the office of county treasurer. J. S. Alexander succeeded his brother in that office in 1901 and officiated during two terms, until 1905. It was during his incumbency in this office that he became so largely instrumental in directing the building of the $100,000 courthouse.
    In real estate circles the Alexander Company is probably the best known in the city in the general management of real estate and investments. Mr. Alexander is president of this company. His own interests in Oklahoma City are very extensive. In recent years he has become a well known contractor. When the new St. Luke's Methodist Episcopal church, on the corner of Eighth and Robinson streets, is completed in 1908, it will represent probably the finest ecclesiastical structure in the new state, and at the same time will be a monument to its building contractor, Mr. Alexander, who began work on this structure in July, 1907. This church will cost, it is estimated, $65,000.
    John S. Alexander has been a resident of Oklahoma City since the opening, in April, 1889. In view of the noteworthy success that has attended his business career, it is of interest to know that for several years after coming to the territory he taught school both in the city and county. He came into the territory on the opening from Texas, where the family had lived for a number of years. He was born at Charlotte, Mecklenburg county, North Carolina, in 1864, and was a child of six years when his parents moved to North Texas. The family have been prominent for a number of generations in America, a brief mention of earlier members being found in the sketch of W. L. Alexander. One of the earlier generations of the Alexander family was very prominent in promulgating the Mecklenburg declaration of independence, which was the pioneer document in the struggle for liberty from England. John S. Alexander is one of the leading Masons of the state, having attained the thirty-second degree of Scottish Rite, and is a Knight Templar and a

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Shriner. At Oklahoma City he married Miss Isabel McCafferty, and they have three children, Lotus, Vera, and John Sloan, Jr.