-68-
WILLIAM T. McCADDEN,
a pioneer business man of Oklahoma, became a resident of the
city when it was a frontier community, when muchof its business
was carried on in tents. He started a small grocery and
feed store on North Broadway, where he remained in business
until 1899. In that year he retired from active mercantile
life. During the nine years in which he was so prominently
identified with the business interests of Oklahoma he worked
very hard, passing through the trying early period of development
and the panic days of 1893, but in spite of all he built up
a large business and made money, being numbered among those
brave pioneers who remained true to the interests of the city
in its critical period, and is now a man of strong financial
standing, owning valuable real estate and property interests
in the city. The McCadden business block between Second and
Third on North Broadway, the site of his first business enterprise,
is a first-class three-story brick structure, in keeping with
the handsome improvements in the Threadgill Hotel block. This
he erected in 1903. He bought the lot on which this building
stands in 1899 for four hundred dollars, it then containing
a small house, and the property, with the building which he
has put thereon, is now worth at a conservative estimate twenty-five
thousand dollars it being in the path of the business development
of the city, which tends northward along Broadway. During
the past several years he has devoted most of his attention
to his property interests in Oklahoma City.
Mr. McCadden was born in Santa Fe, New Mexico,
in 1853, a son of William and Margaret (Hoolihan) McCadden,
both of whom were of Irish ancestry. His paternal grandfather
was a British army officer for twenty-five years, and it was
while in this service that William McCadden was born
on a British man-of-war on the west coast of Africa. He came
to America in 1847 and enlisted in the United States army
for service in the Mexican war. After the close of the conflict
he was stationed at Santa Fe, New Mexico, and vicinity. He
also served in the Civil war under Gen. McClellan. Mrs. McCadden
was born in the south of Ireland, and, like her husband was
of the best Irish stock.
William T. McCadden was reared to frontier
life, his boyhood days having been spent mostly in Santa Fe,
where he received the best of educational facilities, spending
five years as a student in St. Michael's College in the quaint
old Spanish town. On attaining his majority he went to Kansas
and worked on a farm, finally acquiring a good farm of his
own near Wamego in Pottawatomie county. He, however, longed
for the more picturesque life of the southwest, and returning
to New Mexico he worked for about seven years as manager of
a lumber company's store in the timber district of the mountains
back of Las Vegas. In about 1888 he returned to Pottawatomie
county, and in the fall of 1889 came to Oklahoma City, which
has ever since been his home.
Mr. McCadden married, in Kansas, Miss Minnie
Elizabeth Goddard, a native of Indiana and they have four
children: Maudie, Beatrice, Marguerite and Francis
Patrick. They had the misfortune to lose by death their
eldest
-69-
son, William Parnell McCadden, who died
in 1903 at the age of twelve, he having been a bright and
promising boy. The family reside in an attractive home on
West Tenth street, west of Virginia avenue, a beautiful site
commanding an impressive view of the city.
|

Return to top
-69-
cont.
CLARENCE A. COMPTON.
Within sixty days after the founding of Oklahoma City the
site on Broadway that is now occupied by the Lee Hotel Annex
was occupied by the Compton Hotel. This was built by a pioneer
of the city, Clarence A. Compton, who came to this
site on April 22, 1889, and staked off the lots on Broadway
that are now among the most valuable real estate of Oklahoma
City. For several years he conducted the Compton Hotel himself,
and since then has been actively though variously identified
with the business life of this city. He was one of the founders
and until 1907 was president of the American Brick and Tile
Company, which has a large plant on the western edge of the
city and is extensively engaged in the manufacture of brick
and tile. As the owner of valuable interests and a capitalist
of high standing, Mr. Compton is an excellent type of the
pioneer citizen of Oklahoma.
Mr. Compton was born in Luzerne county, Pennsylvania,
in 1844, that county having been the home of the family for
many years. He was reared and educated there and lived there
until about 1884. Coming west, he was located for a time at
Wahoo, Saunders county, Nebraska, and then moved to a farm
in the Platte bottoms. He is still interested in farming,
and owns a splendid farm in Canadian county. While a resident
of Pennsylvania he was active in local public affairs, filling
various offices, and in the early years of Oklahoma City was
elected a member of the school board, giving his influence
and active assistance to the cause of education when it was
most needed. Mrs. Compton before her marriage was Miss Bessie
Miller, a native of Virginia. There are five children:
Mrs. Frances Ruth Tarpenning, James Blair, Ivy G., Walter
A., and Clarence A., Jr.
Mr. Compton takes great pleasure in the hunt
and is a successful sportsman.
|

Return to top
-69-
cont.
JOSEPH J. NOVAK.
In the business of real estate, insurance, farm loans and
city loans, and investments, Joseph J. Novak is not
only a successful man among many others engaged in similar
lines of business in this city, but has added distinction
as being one of the leaders of his race in the southwest.
Mr. Novak is of Bohemian parentage, and while in all essential
respects a representative and public-spirited American citizen,
is also connected prominently with the Bohemian societies
in America, and is himself an authority on Bohemian history
and literature. His parents, who were born in Hungary, came
to America and settled in Johnson county, Iowa, in 1851. They
were among the first of their race to settle west of the Mississippi,
and were pioneers of the large number of Bohemian people who
came later and formed such extensive settlements in Iowa and
Nebraska. The parents are still living in Johnson county,
where the father is one of the wealthiest and most prominent
farmers.
Joseph J. Novak was born in Johnson county,
June 23, 1863, and though reared on a farm had the advantages
of the schools of Iowa City, the county seat, where he graduated
from the academy and the commercial school in 1882. After
graduation he was employed as bookkeeper at Cedar Rapids,
for a year, and during that time taught Bohemian school at
night. Returning to Iowa City in the fall of 1883, he engaged
in the abstract and loan and real estate business. This was
interrupted in 1886 when he was elected county recorder of
Johnson county, and served two terms, until 1890, when he
resumed his former business in Iowa City until 1900. Since
the latter year he has been a resident and leading business
man of Oklahoma City. While a resident of Iowa City he married
Miss Hattie Belle Clark, a niece of Samuel J. Kirkwood,
the war governor of Iowa. Their two children are Loraine
and Hortense.
|

Return to top
-69-
cont.
JAMES C. POWERS.
"The largest industry of its kind in Oklahoma" is
an assertion that may be made with confidence of the O. K.
Cut Stone Works of Oklahoma City. And the business is interesting
not alone as the most extensive in the state and as such a
large factor in the building operations, but also as a result
of remarkable enterprise and management in building it up
to this successful point in the course of less than a decade.
The O. K. Cut Stone Works were established in Oklahoma City
in 1900, by James C. Powers. Previous to this time
Mr. Powers was stonecutters' foreman, and since 1891 had lived
in Oklahoma City and been engaged in the stone work in buildings
in that city, in Guthrie and throughout the two territories.
He had learned
-70-
the stonecutter's trade when a boy, and is thus
fitted by training and experience for the success which has
come to him in ample measure. Born at Granville, New York,
in 1869, he was reared and educated there, but at the age
of fifteen went west to Denver and there learned his trade.
Since founding his business in 1900, it is a
conservative estimate to say that he has handled two-thirds
of the important cut-stone contracts in the two territories
that now form the state of Oklahoma; while in Oklahoma City
he has taken care of even a larger per cent of the total business.
As a cut-stone contractor he long ago established a reputation
for honesty and for durable and artistic work that has brought
him practically all the big building contracts in this city.
In this sketch it will be interesting to enumerate the more
important buildings for which Mr. Power's company furnished
the cut stone work. In Oklahoma City the list comprises: The
Pioneer Telephone Company's building, the Alta Hotel, the
old Lee Hotel, the annex to the Lee Hotel, the Lee office
building, the Culbertson building, the Baltimore building,
the Overholser and Avery building, the Alexander Drug Company's
building (both old and new), the Martin building, the Bassett
building, Western Union building, Security building, the Wooldridge
and Maney building, the Christian church, St. Anthony's hospital,
Baptist Orphans' Home, the Henry Overholser residence, Mt.
St. Mary's Academy, and seven out of nine of the city's public
school buildings. Mr. Powers can drive through the city and
point out whole blocks on nearly every hand where he has done
the stone work. Outside of Oklahoma City the list is now less
impressive including the Odd Fellows' Home at Carmen, the
new hotel at Lawton, the buildings of the Agricultural and
Mechanical College at Stillwater, and numerous bank buildings
and business blocks.
Mr. Powers is one of the prominent Masons of
Oklahoma City, having attained the thirty-second degree and
the Shrine. He has held all the chairs in the local lodge
of Odd Fellows. In Oklahoma City he was married to Miss Emma
G. Olmstead, a native of Iowa, and they have two children,
Mabel E. and J. Clifford.
|

Return to top
-70-
cont.
WILLIAM T. HALES.
Oklahoma City, despite its youth as a commercial center, has
several enterprises that are foremost of their class. It is
known that in this city is located the largest mule sales
barn in the state. Other localities may produce more mules
in the aggregate than Oklahoma City, but nowhere can be found
a market under individual control that surpasses that of William
T. Hales. Mr. Hales is almost a pioneer of this city,
and has built up his business since coming here. Born in McDonald
county, Missouri, in 1867, and reared on a farm and accustomed
from boyhood to the handling of livestock, he moved to the
new town of Oklahoma City early in 1890, and as soon as he
could get enough means together started a small feed stable
and yard. With an almost inborn knowledge of live stock and
with the faculty of trading and dealing in this line of business
highly developed in him, he has always been in the way of
success, although he had hardly a dollar in the world when
he came to Oklahoma City. His business grew and expanded and
the buying and selling of mules developed as a natural adjunct
of his other enterprise, and for some years the latter business
has absorbed his principal activities. His buyers are constantly
moving in various parts of the southwest, gathering in hundreds
of mules to this center and from here they go to market all
over the United States, Mexico and other southern countries.
The extent of his business may be partly estimated from the
size of his credit accounts, since he has constantly outstanding
from two to three hundred thousand dollars in paper due him
for mules sold.
Mr. Hales is a good example of the young man
who has "made good" in Oklahoma City. Through hard
work, good judgment, and a thorough understanding of, and
natural aptitude for his business, he has made a comfortable
fortune. He is the owner of some of the most valuable property
in Oklahoma City and vicinity. His main business headquarters,
the sales stables at the southeast corner of Second and Hudson
streets, is in itself a very valuable piece of property, right
in line of the business growth of the city. The stable is
a substantial brick structure, built with all the modern conveniences
for its purpose, equipped with a finely furnished office and
other appurtenances for carrying on the trade. Other business
property in this neighborhood is owned by Mr. Hales, for example,
the Kingman-Moore Implement Company building, the Kross Hotel,
and the Security buildingall of them high-priced properties
in the heart of the city, and constantly increasing in value
with the growth of the city. Mr. Hales has a wife and three
children. Mrs. Hales was born in Texas and before her marriage
was Miss Oneta Burnsides. Their children are: Viva
Oneta, Hattie Bell and William T., Jr.
|

Return to top
-71-
cont.
CHIROPRACTIC.
During the first session of the Legislature of Oklahoma, one
of the interesting, instructive and ably conducted fights
for independent recognitions, was that conducted by Drs. Willard
Carver and L. L. Denny, with their attorneys, assistants
and associates for Chiropractic. These gentlemen were at Guthrie
publicly and vigorously working in the interest of that science,
frankly and openly arguing its cause with the legislators
and public generally. During this time, Dr. Carver delivered
two lectures on the science of Chiropractic to the Houses
of the Legislature in joint assembly. The opponents were the
medical and osteopathic professions, which through their representatives
endeavored to secure the passage of a bill preventing the
practice of Chiropractic. While the science failed in securing
independent recognition, it so completely won legislative
and public favor as to prevent the passage of the law of exclusion,
and secured the passage of a law containing the most circumscribed
and fair statement of who shall be deemed to be practitioners
of medicine of any state in the Union, the controlling provisions
of which are as follows: "The following persons shall
be deemed as practicing medicine, first: Those who prescribe
or administer any drug or medicine now or hereafter included
in materia medica. Second, those who practice major or minor
surgery for the relief or cure of injury or deformity of human
beings."
Chiropractic was discovered September, 1895.
The name means "done with the hand." The science
consists in the adjustment of joints of the skeletal frame
for the removal of abnormal pressure from nerves. It is purely
mechanical and is connected in no way with therapy, being
entirely unlike osteopathy, magnetic healing, massage, etc.,
and has nothing in common with medicine and surgery.
The basic principle of the science is that abnormal
pressure upon nerves causes all abnormal function. Abnormal
pressure upon nerves, generally speaking, can only occur where
they emanate from the spinal cord through movable openings
between the joints of the vertebrae, and in bony furrows and
cartilaginous grooves in other movable joints. When, from
any cause, shock, fall, sprain or poison, these joints are
thrown or drawn from normal articulation, abnormal pressure
upon the nerves results, with abnormal function at their periphery.
Chronic pressure upon spinal nerves results when, because
of the occluded nerve stimuli, the cartilaginous cushions
between the vertebrae are lessened in thickness, bringing
the vertebrae closer together, thus shortening the foramen
longitudinally. The conditions resulting from this pressure
have been classified as chronic diseases.
Chiropractic adjustment places all joints in
normal position, permits nature to restore normal thickness
to cartilage, proper length and tension to ligaments and muscles,
and through the vaso-motor nerves, normal circulation to the
abnormal parts, securing normal depuration and consequently
normal assimilation, which condition, it is needless to say,
is health. This is a very brief statement of the principles
of this science, which applies equally to all forms of abnormality
and their removal.
Chiropractic makes no extravagant claims. It
is anatomically exact and capable of physicological demonstration.
It has made a wonderful record and is to say the least the
peer of all other methods for the treatment or removal of
disease. 
The chief representatives of Chiropractic in
Oklahoma are Drs. Willard Carver
and L. L. Denny, the former being the president of
the Carver-Denny Chiropractic College of Oklahoma City. Dr.
Carver was born at Davenport, Iowa, and was reared in Mahaska
county of that state. He received his preliminary education
in the public schools of that county and Oskaloosa College,
finishing his education at Drake University, Des Moines, Iowa.
He prepared for the law, graduated from the law department
of Drake University in 1891 with the degree of LL. B. In
the same year was admitted to the Iowa bar and for fourteen
years conducted a large and successful practice in the courts
of that and adjoining states. A total breakdown of heath in
1897 accidentally resulted in his attention being called to
Chiropractic, by the application of which science his life
was saved. He at once became a student of the science and
later an authority on the subject, writing a large amount
of chiropractic literature for publication and lecturing widely
on the subject while still in the practice of the law. His
knowledge of the merits of the science and the opposition
which it would meet in its
-72-
establishment led him to abandon the practice
of law and take up the business of instructing in chiropractic
and working for the passage of laws to protect it, and for
the purpose of advancing this end the college of which he
is Dean of the Faculty and principal lecturer was established.
Dr. Carver has the distinction of having been
one of the first delegates of the new state to the International
Tuberculosis Congress of September-October, 1908, and the
first member of his school of doctors to receive official
recognition or appointment for any purpose whatever.
Dr. L. L. Denny is the president of the
Carver-Denny Chiropractic Infirmary Company which conducts
two excellent institutions of that kind in Oklahoma City.
Dr. Denny is vice-president of the college and a member of
the faculty. As superintendent of the infirmaries, Dr. Denny
has the widest observation of clinic of any man in his profession,
which together with his splendid ability renders him a leading
authority on that subject.
The college was established in June, 1906, and
since that time has enrolled about two hundred students. The
present class numbers sixty-five.
|

Return to top
-72-
cont.
EDGAR
S. VAUGHT. The superintendent of the Oklahoma City
schools from 1901 to 1906 was Edgar S. Vaught, whose
distinguished success in this and other fields of Oklahoma
educational progress calls for some detailed mention of his
career in connection with the history of education, although
at the present time he is engaged in the practice of law and
is one of the able members of the bar of Oklahoma City.
The territorial government recognized Mr. Vaught's
services in the cause of education, by honoring him with several
positions where he has had important relations with the progress
of education in the territory. For three years he was a member
of the board of education of Oklahoma Territory, and in May,
1907, he was appointed by Governor Frantz a member of the
board of regents of the Territorial Normal Schools, three
in number, and at this writing is secretary of the board.
Mr. Vaught's name and influence have been associated with
some of the most important forward movements in Oklahoma,
not only in the field of education, but in municipal improvement
and moral progress. Popular as a citizen, and a man of interesting
and versatile personality, he is of the high type of citizenship
that of recent years has been making better and greater cities
in America.
Mr. Vaught was born in Wythe county, Virginia,
in 1873. His ancestors, who originated in Holland, were among
the earliest settlers of that region of romantic history,
made famous by such characters as Parson Brownlow,a
section of country embracing southwestern Virginia, southeastern
Kentucky and northeastern Tennessee, that is most notable
because it has produced men of great valor in war, strong
in purpose and of sturdy mental calibre. The Vaught family
have lived in Wythe county for several generations, the great-grandfather
of Edgar S. having built the first flour mill there.
The education of Mr. Vaught was received largely at Carson-Newman
College, Jefferson City, Tennessee, where he graduated, and
in Emory and Henry College of Virginia. He had begun teaching
while in college and after finishing his scholastic education
in 1896 his success as a teacher was recognized by the people
of Jefferson county to the extent that they elected him for
three successive terms to the office of county superintendent
of schools. In the meantime he had been studying law, and
in 1898 was admitted to the bar at Dandridge, Tennessee, and
began practice in that city. In 1901 he located permanently
in Oklahoma City, and since severing his active connection
with the schools has resumed the practice of law, forming
a partnership with John E. DuMars and Samuel A.
Calhoun, with the firm name of DuMars, Vaught and Calhoun.
This firm has had unqualified success from the start, and
is known both to the profession and to the public as enjoying
one of the largest general private practices of the law in
Oklahoma. Their offices are equipped with an extensive working
law library. Mr. Vaught is recognized as a lawyer of a high
order of talent, and the success he has achieved is proof
that legal practice based on the higher ideals of the profession
does not go unrewarded. By intellectual equipment and training
he is peculiarly well fitted for his work, and enters into
his cases with the confidence that comes from mastery of the
questions involved. Mr. Vaught was married at Dandridge, Tennessee,
to Miss Mary Holtsinger, of that city. They have two
children, Eleanor and Edgar S. Jr.
|

Return to top
-73-
THOMAS MOORE MILAM,
principal of the Draughon Business College in Oklahoma City
is an educator of ability, a successful executive, and a man
of high standing in this city. He has been intimately connected
with the work of commercial education in this city for the
past five years. On coming to the city on August 23, 1902,
he bought the old Southwestern Business University, which
had been established in 1900, and soon gave the school a reputation
for efficient instruction and thorough work. In the meantime
Druaghon's College entered the field purchasing the Oklahoma
City Business College. The Draughon Company recognized in
Mr. Milam their most powerful rival, and at the same time
appreciated his ability as an educator and business man so
much that they concluded to purchase the Southwestern Business
University and in their negotiations for the purchase of the
university it was stipulated that Mr. Milam should remain
as principal of the consolidated school. The consolidation
of the two schools was effected October 14, 1905, and since
that date Mr. Milam has been principal and superintendent.
Mr. Milam has a national reputation, having
become a master of practically every subject taught in a business
college. Having written articles, by request, for the leading
professional journals along the line of commercial education,
such magazines as the Typewriter and Phonagraphic World of
New York City, and the (Western) American Penman, he perhaps
enjoys as extensive an acquaintance among the leading business
college men of the country as any man of his age.
Outside of his work as an educator, Mr. Milam
has important interests in Oklahoma City, especially in real
estate, and both the professional and business men of the
city recognize in him a man of prominence and civic worth.
He was born at Tyro, in Tate county, Mississippi, September
29, 1872, and the greater part of his career has been spent
in educational activities. His parents, John J. and Alice
(Cathey) Milam, who are residents of Oklahoma City, belonged
to the large planter class in Mississippi before the war,
but that conflict practically swept away all their property.
The father is a lawyer and teacher by profession. The family
ancestry includes the name of the famous Ben Milam,
of Texas history, who was a cousin of the great-grandfather
of the Oklahoma City educator. Our Mr. Milam is also closely
related to Gen. Robert E. Lee of Virginia and of Civil
war fame. Owing to the reduced circumstances of his family
during his youth, Thomas M. Milam had practically no
schooling while a boy, a fact that makes his success the more
noteworthy. It was only when he began to earn his own way
that he was able to secure the advantages it was his constant
ambition to improve. He studied in the Galveston Business
University, the Springfield (Mo.) Normal School, and the Chillicothe
(Mo.) Normal Schoolin all of which institutions he was
also employed as a teacher. He began teaching as a career
at the age of twenty, beginning his first school December
5, 1892. He taught two years in the Chillicothe (Mo.) Normal,
and two years in the Springfield (Mo.) Normal.
Mr. Milam was married in Kansas City to Miss
Hallie K. Gowin of Buffalo, Missouri.
|

Return to top
-73-
cont.
MARY D. COUCH. The
perfecting of the organization of the first high school in
Oklahoma City was the work of Mary D. Couch, whose work as
an educator makes her name worthy of permanent remembrance
in the history of the city and county's schools. Mrs. Couch
came to Oklahoma City and undertook the practical work of
establishing a high school in 1892. During the following eight
years she was connected with the city schools as ward principal
and teacher of eighth grade work. In 1901 she was elected
superintendent of public instruction for Oklahoma county under
the territorial organization, and was re-elected in 1903.
She retired from the position for two years, and with the
advent of statehood government was again elected to the office.
In every case she has been a popular and logical choice for
the office, the result of her zeal and sound judgment in the
conduct of an office which is so closely connected with the
public welfare.
Education as a career was her ambition and choice
early in life, and she has attained a worthy position in this
field. Mrs. Couch was born at Des Moines, Iowa, October 26,
1870, a daughter of George W. and Emily H. (Butler) Dunn.
Her father was a farmer, having resided formerly at Galesburg,
Illinois, and later at Arkansas City, Kansas. In the latter
place the daughter received
-74-
her education in the public schools, and has
perfected herself for teaching by various normal courses and
a live interest in the work from the time she taught her first
school to the present. From 1889 to 1892 she was a teacher
in the schools of Labette and Cowley counties, Kansas. Having
spent some of her early years on the southern Kansas border,
she was familiar with all the movements and events of the
Oklahoma boomer days, and three years after the opening of
the territory she became a resident and an organizer in educational
affairs.
In 1892 she was married to John M. Couch,
brother of Captain Couch the noted successor of Payne in command
of the boomers. There is one daughter, Mary Emily.
|

Return to top
-74-
cont.
JOHN M. HILL. To supply
the technical preparation for business affairs, such as cannot
be obtained in the ordinary public school, the business college
has been developed as a necessity of modern commercialism.
One of the institutions in Oklahoma City that offer splendid
facilities in this field is Hill's Business College, of which
John M. Hill is president and proprietor. Established February
4, 1907, the college has prospered remarkably and has already
filled a worthy place in its particular field of educationthe
training of young men and women for the special knowledge
and handling of business matters. The third floor of the building
on northwest corner of Broadway and Main streets where the
school is located, is commodious and well arranged for the
purposes of the school, has plenty of light, ventilation and
every comfort and convenience for the student. The school
is completely equipped with the furniture adapted to its special
work and with all devices for carrying on the business practice.
Half a dozen of the better known departments of business are
represented, such as banks, commission houses, wholesale and
freight house, and the pupils get training, by these means,
that is as nearly practical as is possible outside of actual
participation in business. The shorthand and typewriting departments
are furnishing another class of business helpers. The Gregg
system of shorthand is used and the touch system of typewriting.
One of the best pensmen in the country teaches penmanship,
and each department of the college is in charge of an expert.
The atmosphere of the school is clean and wholesome and an
air of enthusiasm prevails.
The peculiar fitness of the president of the
school for his undertaking is both a recommendation of the
school and a subject of interest for biography. His work is
his profession since it developed from his own business experience
and a natural aptitude for teaching and helping others to
higher positions in business life. Born at Butler, Bates county,
Missouri, in 1857, when he was four years old the family moved
to Georgetown, which was then the county seat of Pettis County,
but after the building of the railroad the neighboring town
of Sedalia grew into the important center and metropolis of
that part of Missouri. In the earlier years, however, Georgetown
was a pretentious little city and was noted particularly for
the excellence of its private schools. Mr. Hill attended Georgetown
Academy, whose principal was a graduate of Yale; later was
a student in Pettis County College (also at Georgetown), from
which he graduated at the age of 17, in 1874. After teaching
country school three years, he became connected with the mercantile
business in Sedalia, and at the same time studied shorthand
and bookkeeping. At the age of twenty-four he went to St.
Louis where he completed his business education in Bryant
and Stratton's well known business college. On his return
to Sedalia where in the meantime had been established the
division headquarters, railroad shop, and other departments
of the Missouri Pacific Railroad, he took a position n the
office of the superintendent of that railroad and in a short
while was promoted to chief clerk.
It was while in this position, where expert
business methods were prerequisites to success, that he made
the beginning of the business which has occupied the latter
part of his career. He kept night school in his own home,
at first with only one pupil, who was taught in the kitchen
as school-room. More pupils came making it necessary to move
to the more dignified surroundings afforded by the parlor.
For fifteen years he continued teaching pupils at night while
working at his position of chief clerk during the day. On
resigning his position with the railroad on January 1, 1900,
he established a regular day and night business college in
Sedalia. Opening with five pupils in seven
-75-
years he had built up his school into one of
the recognized educational institutions of Sedalia, with an
annual enrollment of six hundred students. Desire for a large
field caused him to pay a visit to Oklahoma City, where he
was so impressed with the present attainments and the future
possibilities of the city, that he decided to establish a
business college for the special training of the many assistants
demanded by the commercial and other business interests of
the city and state. Professor Hill has become one of the permanent
residents of the city, having purchased a fine home, and in
the prime of a busy and useful career is building up the educational
institution of which citizens are justly proud, and which
will make its influence felt in the commercial life of the
country.
|

Return to top
-75-
cont.
GEORGE
CHILDS JONES, LL.D. The Oklahoma College for Young
Ladies and Conservatory of Fine Arts was established in June,
1906, by George Childs Jones, LL. D., who is the owner
of the institution and president of the faculty. The first
classes were organized in September, 1906, and with a faculty
of fifteen efficient instructors till close of the first year's
successful work allowed a total enrollment of 125 pupils.
This school is undenominational and the only one of its kind
in Oklahoma, and in the latter history of the state when all
the facilities and institutions of education have grown in
corresponding degree with population and wealth. It will be
the distinction of this school that it was a pioneer in the
education of women in this state.
, The college has a most fortunate location, on Putnam Heights,
with a campus of ten acres, overlooking the entire city and
the surrounding country. Its buildings and equipments are
excellent, including dormitories ample for the accommodation
of a large number of girls. The patronage of the school is
drawn from the city and a large scope of country round about.
The ideals of the management are high, and a visitor is at
once impressed by the atmosphere of culture and moral and
intellectual refinement that surrounds the institution. Under
Dr. Jones' able management there are ample financial resources
carry out his plans to make this the most important educational
institutions for women in the state. Besides the regular literary
courses, leading to degrees, music, and other fine arts are
taught in the Conservatory of Fine Arts,
Dr. Jones, the president and proprietor of the college, is
an educator "to the manner born." Coming of a family
of educators, he was born in 1859, at Jackson, Tennessee,
where his father, Rev. Amos. W. Jones, a Doctor of
Divinity in the Methodist church, was for fifty years president
of the Memphis Conference Female College. Since the death
of this venerable educator in 1894, his son, Dr. Amos B.
Jones, has assumed the presidency, having formerly been
president of Huntsville (Alabama) Female College. A brother
of the late Rev. Dr. Jones was the Rev. Dr. Turner M. Jones,
also deceased, who for a long number of years was president
of the Greensboro (N. C.) Female College. The mother of our
Oklahoma educator was Amanda (Bigelow) Jones, who was
born and educated in Massachusetts and came as a teacher to
Jackson, Tennessee, where she met her husband.
Reared in a scholastic atmosphere, Dr. Jones received a fine
education and has been teaching and a student all his life.
He graduated with the Bachelor's degree from the Southwestern
Baptist University at Jackson in 1876, and in 1879 with the
Master's degree from Vanderbilt University at Nashville. In
1885 the degree of LL. D. was conferred upon him by the Southwestern
Baptist University. For several years he was engaged in teaching
in the faculty under his father at the Memphis Conference
Female College, but in the meantime went abroad for study
and at the University of Berlin sat under the inspiring lectures
of Helmholz, the great physicist. On returning from Europe
he took charge of and practically established the Arkadelphia
Methodist College at Arkadelphia, Arkansas, building it up
to a high standard of efficiency and financial soundness,
and finally deeded the property, worth some $75,000, to the
Arkansas Methodist Conference. Having been invited to come
to Oklahoma City and join the faculty of the new Epworth University,
which was established in 1903, in 1904 he accepted the chair
of sciences in that institution, and occupied it two years
until he turned his attention to his present school. Dr. Jones
possesses that rare combination of thorough executive and
business ability with exceptional strength as an educator.
As a business man
-76-
he has become closely identified with other
substantial interests in Oklahoma City, being a director in
the Columbia Bank and Trust Company and a director of the
Davis Wholesale Hat Company, and also a director in the Citizens
Life Insurance Company of Louisville, Kentucky. Dr. Jones
married Miss Lelia L. Moore, whose father, John
G. Moore, was one of the founders of the city of Terrell,
Texas. They have four children; namely, Georgia Sue, Mary
Dale, George C., Jr. and Thomas J.
|

Return to top
-76-
cont.
HENRY MINOR SCALES.
The present chief executive of Oklahoma City, elected in the
spring of 1907, is Henry Minor Scales. By an efficient
and progressive administration of the affairs of this growing
city he has not only proved the wisdom of his choice by the
majority of the voters but is also
contributing o the permanent welfare of the entire city. In
its present mayor the city has a fine representative of the
young men of business and affairs who are the principal factors
in making this a rich metropolis.
In business life Mr. Scales is a member of the Harter Company,
real estate. They have transacted one of the largest real
estate deals of the year, in the purchase, during the summer
of 1907, of the corner of Main and Harvey streets, and the
erection thereon of a large modern office building. Many other
important transactions could be mentioned to their credit,
and the firm is one of the best known in this business in
Oklahoma City. Mr. Scales was born at Holly Springs, Marshall
county, Mississippi, in March, 1869, son of Henry Minor
and Sallie (Banks) Scales. His father, a Virginian by
birth and ancestry, was a prominent citizen of northern Mississippi,
and died at his home in Holly Springs before the birth of
his son who bears his name. The mother, who is living with
her son in Oklahoma City, is a member of a well known Georgia
family, far whom Banks county, Georgia, was named, and which
produced a number of distinguished citizens of the south.
During boyhood Henry Minor Scales moved with his mother
to middle Tennessee and lived in that state until he came
to Oklahoma. He was highly educated, attending the University
of the South at Sewanee and later Vanderbilt University at
Nashville, where he was graduated in 1891. He was educated
far the profession of law, having studied to that end while
in college, and was admitted to the bar at Nashville, in June,
1891. Bath at Nashville and Clarksville, Tennessee, he was
known as a practicing lawyer, and from the latter place moved
to Oklahoma City in 1901. In the meantime he had become identified
with the insurance business, representing the Prudential Life
Insurance Company, and his coming to Oklahoma was far the
purpose of taking the general management of the company's
business in Oklahoma territory. He has not been an active
member of the bar since coming to Oklahoma, and after resigning
his position with the insurance company he entered a partnership
with H. P. Harter in the company above named.
|

Return to top
-76-
cont.
ORLANDO C. ALSPAUGH.
Chief clerk 0f the Railway Mail service for the Oklahoma district
of the Eleventh Division is Orlando C. Alspaugh, who
was promoted to this office in October, 1902, and has since
had his headquarters and residence in Oklahoma City, where
he is a well known and public spirited citizen. His jurisdiction
embraces practically all the R. P. O. routes in Oklahoma,
extending from Newton, Kansas, Monett, Missouri, and Fort
Smith, Arkansas, west and south in to Texas, with about one
hundred and twenty-five clerks under his supervision. Mr.
Alspaugh's district is one of the most efficiently conducted
in the entire Railway Mail Service, and has a high standing
in the department. Indefatigable in his efforts to improve
the service, and popular with his subordinates and with the
public, he is in a position to be of substantial benefit to
the general business interests of the state. Mr. Alspaugh
has been connected with the postal department during the greater
part of his active career, and in this service has known Oklahoma
since it was opened to settlement. Born at Lafayette, Linn
county, Iowa, in 1872, where his parents were pioneer settlers,
he received most of his schooling at Normal, in McLean county,
Illinois, where his parents located in 1869. Owing to the
death of his father he was early thrown up an his own resources,
and at the age of fourteen came to Kansas owing
-77-
to the grasshopper plague and continued drouths,
During his residence in Marion county, Mr. Alspaugh became
postmaster at the town of Bethel, in the northeast part of
the county, and has since been identified with this department
of the federal service. In 1889, having passed the necessary
examinations, he was appointed to a position in the Railway
Mail Service, his run being the Newton and Galveston R. P.
O. For nearly thirteen years his run was on the Santa Fe south
from Newton through Oklahoma to Texas, his first work being
shortly after the opening of Oklahoma in 1889. Through the
different grades he was promoted into the position he now
occupies. Previous to that time his residence was at Newton,
Kansas. Mr. Alspaugh was married in Marion county to Miss
Minnie R, Evans, who was a native of Philadelphia.
They have four children, Grace, William E., Frank and
Helen.
|

Return to top
-76-
cont.
WILLIAM PHILLIP HARPER
is a member of the Oklahoma bar and gained a large part of
his legal training in this state. He was born in the little
village of Wheeling, Delaware county, Indiana, February 18,
1859, son of Charles A. and Mary J. (Wendell) Harper,
His father, a native of Ohio, was a lawyer by profession,
and was engaged in practice for some years at Muncie, Indiana.
It was in his father's office at Muncie that Mr. Harper began
his legal studies. From 1876 to 1885 he was a resident of
Clinton county, Indiana, then for three years lived in Kansas,
and in December, 1889, located in the new town of Oklahoma
City, where he resumed the study of law and was admitted to
the bar in 1891. Judge Harper was first chosen judge of probate
in 1894. en the Republican ticket, and after his term of two
years was completed, he continued his law practice in the
city. In 1902 he was again elected probate judge, and has
held over through 1907 pending adoption of statehood. Popular
among the people and excellently qualified in the law, he
occupies a place of high regard among the people of the city
and county. Judge Harper was married in Oklahoma City to Miss
Cora B. Gregory. They have three children, Annabel,
Wendel and William P., Jr.
|

Return to top
-77-
cont.
ELI O. PARSONS.
In connection with the extensive improvement of streets in
Oklahoma City, particularly the miles of cement and brick
sidewalks that are now pointed with pride by the citizens,
it should not be forgotten that much of the credit for this
lies with the contractors and builders who make a business
of laying sidewalks. On West First street, extending to Main,
is a large plant for manufacturing cement walks, from which
has come most of the material for the sidewalks laid in Oklahoma
City during the last few years. Eli O. Parsons, the
owner, has gained the reputation of being the largest sidewalk
contractor in the new state. Miles of sidewalk, both brick
and cement, in this city testify to the extent of his business
and to the thoroughness of his management and methods. He
has twenty years' experience as a guarantee of his reliability,
and since coming to Oklahoma City in 1900 has built up his
splendid business by the most exacting rules of business success.
He employs a large force of skilled workmen, and besides the
making of sidewalks is a manufacturer of various other kinds
of cement structures.
Mr. Parsons came to this city from Kansas City
where he began contracting for sidewalk building when a young
man, some years before the era of cement construction had
arrived, at which time brick and flagstone were the popular
materials. He is a native of Indiana, born in 1861. and was
reared in Hamilton county of that state. He married Sarah
L. Parsons of Kansas, and has five children. Goldie
M., William P., Orval and Laverne and Leferne,
twins.
|

Return to top
Next
|