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DAVID NELSON MEEK is proprietor of the Fairview Farm, in which connection he is a worthy representative of the agricultural interest of Pottawatomie township and Pottawatomie county. In fact, he is numbered among the proinent, intelligent and early settlers of this locality, having come here in pioneer times. The year of his arrival was 1891 and he has since been an active, helpful and influential factor in what has been accomplished as the work of development and improvement have been carried forward. A native son of the Buckeye state, he was born in Belmont county, Ohio, January 1, 1855, and comes of a good family, noted for integrity, diligence and courage. His father, Henry Meek, was born in Pennsylvania and was a son of George Meek, also a native of that state, of Pennsylvania German extraction. Henry Meek, haivng arrived at years of maturity, was married to Miss Catherine Lucas, who was born in Ohio, and was a daughter of David Lucas, a native of the Empire state. Mrs. Catherine Meek died in Ohio at the advanced age of eighty years. Her husband had previously passed away, dying at the age of seventy years. Both were devoted and consistent members of the Methodist Episcopal church and led earnest Christian lives. Mr. Meek followed farming throughout the entire period of his manhood and in all of his business relations was reliable and trustworthy. His political allegiance was given to the Democracy. In the family were thirteen children, seven sons and six daughters, but David N. Meek is now the only one living in Oklahoma. He has one brother who yet occupies the old homestead in Ohio.
    David N. Meek was reared upon the old home farm and was early trained in the habits of industry, perseverance and integrity. The public schools afforded him his educational privileges and in the periods of vacation he worked in the fields, becoming familiar with the best methods of plowing, planting and harvesting. At the age of twenty-seven years he made his way westward to Nebraska and worked on teh college farm at Lincoln. He afterward removed to Portland, Oregon, and subsequently went by water to San Francisco, California. While in the Golden state he was employed upon a ranch in Napa county, Californis, for eighteen months, after which he returned eastward to Kansas City, Missouri. His next removal took him to Harper county, Kansas, where he remained upon a ranch for a year and half. He afterward spent two years in Colorado and was engaged in freighting there and also took up a tree claimi n the southeastern part of the state. He freighted from Lamar, Colorado, and afterward from Trinidad to the mountains, while subsequently he went to Golden, Colorado, and as a freighter hauled lumber to the mining camp. He is familiar with all of the experineces of frontier life on the plains and in the mountain districts of hte west and has met many of the hardships and privations incident to such experiences. In 1889 he came to Oklahoma and on the opening of the territory filed a claim in Payne county. Later, however, he came to Pottawatomie county with the Sac and Fox Indians, freighting under Isaac McCoy.
    While thus engaged Mr. Meek was united in marriage to Miss Jennie Monroe, a lady of intelligence, education and culture, who was educated in the government school at Wasbash, Indiana, and later became a teacher in the government school in this locality. She was born in Kansas and was a stepdaughter of Isaac McCoy. Her father was a member of the Ottawa tribe and her mother of the Sacs and Foxes. On teh apportionment of government territory Mrs. Meek received about one hundred and fifty-seven acres of land, while Mr. Meek purchased one hundred and five acres. Their holdings, therefore, comprise two hundred and sixty-two acres, constituting one of the best farms in Pottawatomie county, known as the Fairview Farm. There is no better land in the valley, it being especially adapted to the production of grain and to the raising of cattle. Mr. Meek's first house upon this place

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was a log cabin, but he has since erected a modern residence at a cost of six thousand dollars. It stands upon a hill overlooking the valley, commanding a splendid view of the surrounding country. It is modern in all of its equipments, containing nine rooms with attic and cellar and bath. It is furnished in elegant manner, indicating the refined and cultured taste of the inmates and the other buildings upon the place are such as are always found upon a model farm. There is a large barn and windmill and large corral and, in fact, it is a model farm property. Broad acres are devoted to the raising of alfalfa, while in the pastures are found high grades of cattle. Everything about the place indicates the progressive spirit of the owner, who thus keeps in touch with the advancement made in modern farming, and who in his well controlled and intelligently directed business affairs is meeting with gratifying success.
    The home of Mr. and Mrs. Meek has been blessed with seven children, namely: Rilla; Susie, a student in the Haskell Institute at Lawrence, Kansas; Thurman; Leah; David; Ethel; and Ella Beatrice.
    Mr. Meek has been a Democrat of the Jefferson school, yet has a warm admiration for President Roosevelt. In matters of citizenship he is loyal and gives his support to many movements for the public good, and throughout the community he has a large circle of friends and is recognized not only as a business man of ability but one whose word is as good as his bond.

H. S. MATHIS. The name of Professor Mathis stands in the front rank in the history of education in Pottawatomie county. His identification with the work covers the long period of thirty years, and in that time he has always kept in touch with educational advancement, giving special attention to the improvement that is continually being made in methods of teaching. The school over which he now has charge was built in 1905 at a cost of five thousand dollars, and has a total enrollment of two hundred and forty-five pupils. Professor Mathis spares himself no work to make the school of the highest possible standard, and his zeal is appreciated by the citizens.
    Born on a farm in Butler county, Missouri, near Poplar Bluff, in 1859, he was reared to the healthy life of a farmer in that state and in Illinois, a son of Thomas and Sarah (Lightner) Mathis. The father met a soldier's death in the Confederate army during the Civil war, leaving a wife and three children, but the wife and mother, a native of Tennessee, is also now deceased. By attending the district schools near his home and by study at home their son obtained a fair elementary education, and finally became a student at the normal school at Cape Girardeau. When a young man of eighteen he began teaching, and taught for several years in his home state of Missouri, and for twenty years he was identified with the educational interests of Arkansas and Louisiana. In 1905 he went to Indiana and later to Oklahoma, where he took charge as principal of the Wanette schools. He votes with the Democratic party, is a member of the Masonic and Knights of Pythias fraternities, and is a valued member and earnest worker in the Methodist Episcopal church. He has served both his church and Sunday school in an official capacity.
    In Varner, Missouri, in 1884, Professor Mathis wedded Anna Ezell, a native of Kentucky and a daughter of Marshall Ezell. Their four children are Gertrude, Dean, Oliver and Alton A. The eldest daughter has also become interested in the work of teaching and is now a teacher in Holdenville, Oklahoma.

J. F. GILBERT, one of the most prominent farmers and stock raisers in Eason township, came to Pottawatomie county, on the 17th of December, 1890, coming from Pottawatomie county, Kansas, near Lewisville, where he had lived for several years. He was born in Tazewell county, Illinois, November 14, 1861, and is of Scotch descent on the paternal side. His father, Thomas Gilbert, was born in Illinois, while his mother, nee Marie Beard, was also born in that state and was of Scotch-Irish descent. Both had brothers in

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the Union army during the Civil war. In 1871 Thomas Gilbert and his family left Illinois for Sumner county, Kansas, where he died at the age of fifty. His life's occupation was farming, and he was a Democrat politically. His wife is now living near Wheatland, North Dakota, aged sixty. Of their family of six children, four sons and two daughters, two sons are living in Oklahoma, the brother, A. E., residing three miles northwest of Wanette.
    J. F. Gilbert was ten years of age when the family left his native state of Illinois for Kansas, and he spent the remainder of his boyhood days on a Kansas farm. In 1884 he located in Pottawatomie county, that state, where a few years afterward, in 1887, he was married to Laura Lewis, who was born in Wabaunsee county, Kansas, and was educated at Lewisville, that state. Her father, Wesley Lewis, is a prominent pioneer resident of Pottawatomie county, Oklahoma. In the fall of 1890 Mr. and Mrs. Gilbert made the overland journey with team and wagon to this state, locating on a farm which they now reside, but the land at that time was wild and unimproved. As the years have passed, however, he has developed and improved the farm, and the homestead, known as Fairview, is now one of the most valuable places in Eason township. Mr. Gilbert is extensively engaged in the raising of stock, being a stockholder in the Wanette Horse Company, and he has some high grade Durham and Jersey cattle.
    Mr. and Mrs. Gilbert have had four children, namely: W. W., in school at the State University, Norman, Oklahoma; Nellie L.; Charles E.; and Roy W. Mr. Gilbert is a prominent worker in the local ranks of the Democratic party, and for ten years he was a central committeeman of precinct No. 1 in Eason township. He is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows.

A. T. MORE. This narrative will treat of the More and Isaacs family. A. J. More is one of the pioneers of Oklahoma, having resided here ever since 1893. He was born near St. Joseph, Buchanan county, Missouri, in 1875, of an old Missouri family of pioneer fame. His father was Joseph More, a native of Missouri, and a soldier in the Confederate army under General Price. The mother was Sally (Black) More, born in Missouri. The children of this union were five sons and one daughter, including A. T. More, who was reared on a Missouri farm and taught to work and lead an honest and upright life. He went to Oklahoma and settled in Bales township, Pottawatomie county, in 1893. In 1899 he was united in marriage to Mrs. Conie (Isaacs) Bainum, who homesteaded the place where they now reside in May, 1893. She was then a widow, but with true courage and grit such as genuine pioneers are made of built her a house—an eight by ten shack, with a dirt floor—which she called home and where she royally received all who chanced to call that way. She was born near Princeton, Illinois, daughter of A. B. Isaacs, a native of Indiana, and Pauline Seger, of Ohio. Mr. and Mrs. Isaacs were united in marriage by Rev. Lovejoy, the great Abolitionist, of Illinois and when sixteen years of age, with her parents, went to Kansas, locating at Moran. The father died in 1907, having been a merchant and postmaster several years. Politically, he was a sound Republican and in religious faith, a member of the Christian church. The mother lives at Moran, Kansas, and is now over seventy-one years of age. They had nine children—six sons and three daughters. One son, D. W. Isaacs, lives at Shawnee, Oklahoma, a cattle dealer. Mrs. More was united in marriage to A. B. Bainum, by whom she had five children—two deceased and three living: Neil, Eugene and Eva. Mrs. More was among the pioneer English teachers and taught in Oklahoma City for three years and two years at McLoud. She also taught in the Indian government school at Darlington, Oklahoma. Her uncle, J. H. Seger, was the government superintendent of this school, and opened the school at Fort Reno. As a teacher she was a very successful instructor, and popular among the people. Many of the fist she taught among the

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Indian pupils have come to be prominent men, both in business and the legal and medical professions, as well as in the ministry. Her work will stand long after she has laid down life's burdens and cares.
    The homestead which she braved the dangers of pioneer life to defend and keep in good title has come to be a magnificent farm, with beautiful shade trees and groves of timber flourishing, which gives ever a feast to the eye of the weary passer-by. Her house is modern and well planned. Mr. More being an excellent farmer, has kept all in perfect shape, and tills his fields with taste, profit and care, even to the minutest detail. The "Bainum Farm" is known far and near, not only as a landmark of Old Oklahoma territory days, but as one of the pretty agricultural spots of the early nineteenth century.

WILLIAM H. BRANT is a self-made man, who, starting out in life empty-handed at an early age, is now the prosperous and well known proprietor of the Orchard Valley Farm and one of the most extensive fruit growers of Pottawatomie county. His place is located in Earlboro township and there he is extensively engaged in horticultural pursuits. He is one of the oldest settlers of this part of the state, having taken up his abode here in the spring of 1881, since which time he has been an active and helpful factor in developing the interests and promoting the welfare of this locality. A native of Ohio, he was born in Harrison county in 1854 and is a son of Porter Brant, also a native of the Empire state. The father served his country as a soldier in the war of 1812 and was wounded in battle, being shot in the leg. He married Miss Olive Smith, who died in Ohio, and the father has also passed away.
    William H. Brant, whose name introduces this review, had but few opportunities, educational or otherwise, in his youth, and at the age of twelve years started out in life on his own account. He went west to Michigan, settling in Berrien county about the close of the Civil war. He worked in the pineries and on the head waters of the Mississippi river in Minnesota. He was connected with the lumber drives and in floating the rafts down the streams to market, meeting all of the experiences of a lumber camp with its hardships and pleasures. For nine years he was thus employed in the pineries of the north, and in 1873 he returned to Michigan, working in the pineries along the Muskegon river for three years. On the expiration of that period Mr. Brant continued on his westward way until he reached Wabaunsee county, Kansas, and made a location there about forty miles west of Topeka. There he continued until he came to Oklahoma, arriving here in the year of 1881.
    Mr. Brant had been married previously in Kansas, the wedding being celebrated in Alma, Wabaunsee county, in 1879, Mrs. Hannah Cummings becoming his wife. She was reared and educated in the Sunflower state and was a daughter of Samuel Cummings, who served his country in the Mexican war. He was a native of Boston, Massachusetts, but left that state at the age of fourteen years. His first wife was Mary (Wells) White, who was born in Wisconsin, and died in Wabaunsee county, Kansas, when Mrs. Brant was a child. She left five children, of whom one son, Henry, Cummings, is now living in Pottawatomie county, Oklahoma. The father died here in October, 1904, at the age of seventy-four years. Having lost his first wife he married again, and his widow now draws a pension in recognition of the valiant aid which he rendered to his country during the dark days of the Civil war.
    When William H. Brant came to Pottawatomie county it was a new and undeveloped district. The plow had not turned the furrows in the fields and the work of improvement had scarcely been begun. He lived in a tent until he could build a log house, and the latter structure was only twelve by fourteen feet. When he moved into it it had no door or window and boxes or blocks served for chairs. As the years have advanced he has entirely transformed the appearance of his place, which comprises one hundred and sixty acres of rich and productive land in Earlboro township. The soil is alluvial, being all bottom land, particularly well adapted to the production

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of cotton, potatoes and alfalfa. These crops he raises on an extensive scale and for his products finds a ready sale on the market. In 1903 he erected a modern home thirty by thirty-two feet. There is a porch across the front and a piano and other furnishings are indications of the cultured and refined taste of the inmates. The house stands upon a natural building site and near by are all the necessary sheds and outbuildings for the shelter of grain, stock and fruit. Mr. Brant is particularly well known because of his horticultural pursuits, being more extensively engaged in fruit-raising than any than any other resident of the county. He has twenty-three acres planted to apples and also there are four hundred peach and pear trees upon the place. He likewise has two acres planted to grapes and his farm is appropriately named the Orchard Valley Farm. He has closely studied the conditions of soil and climate in regard to his fruit-raising and the production of his crops and his work has been based upon practical ideas, resulting in success.
    Mr. and Mrs. Brant have three sons and two daughters: Lewis, who is now a young man of twenty years and assists in the work of the home farm; Walter, seventeen years of age; Naomi, fourteen years of age; Sam, who is in his twelfth year; and Alice, two years old. They also lost three children: Eva, who was the first born and died at the age of eighteen years; Selja Nelson, who died at the age of twenty-four years in October, 1905; and Tracie, who died in December, 1903.
    Mr. Brant gives his political allegiance to the Democracy, although he was formerly a supporter of the Republican party. He belongs to the Fraternal Order of Eagles, while in religions faith he is liberal. His wife, however, is a member of the Catholic church. Mr. Brant is one of the best known citizens of Pottawatomie county, not only because of his long residence here but also owing to the fact of the active part which he has taken in the development of the county and in the promotion of its successful business interests. He is much esteemed by all who know him and well deserves the high regard in which he is held.

DR. L. K. TRUSCOTT was a boy of thirteen when he went with his parents to Texas, and for a number of years thereafter he employed his time as a cowboy on the range, studying meanwhile as he rode over the plains on his horse. In the same way he also pursued his medical studies for four years, and at the time of his entrance in the Missouri Medical College of St. Louis he ranked well in his studies and graduated with high standing with the class of 1891. During the seven years following his graduation he practiced in Chatfield, Texas, and from there came to Remus in 1898. The Doctor owns a valuable little farm of eighty acres in Pottawatomie county, where he has an excellent orchard of forty-five hundred trees, comprising fruits of all kinds grown in this climate. He is thoroughly familiar with Oklahoma and its resources through his long identification with its interests and although his residence here dates only from 1898 he came into the territory as early as 1876 with his cattle from Texas, driving them over the first cattle trail across the plains, and he stopped on Deer Creek, near where Guthrie has since been built, with the first herd of stock cattle located in the territory of Oklahoma. He is thoroughly familiar

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with the pioneer experiences of the southwest, and his life is in harmony with its wonderful development, for as a cowboy on the range he has risen in only a few short years to rank with the most able physicians and surgeons of Pottawatomie county, one of the largest and most progressive counties of the state.
    At Paducah, Kentucky, in 1891, Dr. Truscott was united in marriage to Maria Tully, a daughter of Judge John D. Tully, of that place, and their four children are Losetta Estelle, Lucius King, Patsy Bryan and Dixie. The Doctor is an active worker in the local ranks of the Democratic party and is a member of the medical societies, and of the Woodmen and the Knights of Pythias.

CHARLES SNOOK belongs to the group of influential and enterprising merchants who during the past few years have made Asher one of the principal retail centers of Pottawatomie county. The Asher Mercantile Company was organized here in 1906, and from that time until the present its interests have been constantly enlarging and advancing until it now occupies a creditable position among the business establishments in this part of the state. The president of the company is Charles Snook and the secretary and treasurer, N. W. Janes, both business men of well known reliability, and in their store room, located on the main street of Asher, they carry a full and complete line of everything to be found in a general mercantile establishment. During 1907, as an outside line, they shipped one hundred cars of posts and wood from Asher, and the president of the company has also served his city as a postmaster.
    He was born in Kansas City, Missouri, in 1873, a son of G. W. and Lucy S. Snook. The mother died in 1898, but the father is still living and a resident of Fort Madison, Iowa. During the Civil war he served in the Federal army as a member of Company I, Thirtieth Iowa Infantry, and he now maintains pleasant relations with his old army comrades of the blue by his membership in the Grand Army of the Republic. His political affiliations are with the Republican party. At the mother's death she left three children, Charles, Ida Chapell, whose home is in Kansas City, Missouri, and E. R., a manufacturer of engines at Fort Madison, Iowa.
    Charles Snook was reared on a pioneer farm in Western Iowa and in Ness county, Kansas, there laying the foundation for his subsequent successful business career, and during the first eight years of his business life he was a telegraph operator for railroads in different places. In 1904 he was united in marriage to Lillian Blanche Hull, who was born in Quincy, Illinois, a daughter of James and Mary M. Hull, and she was a successful and popular teacher before her marriage. Mr. Snook is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church, and is a Republican politically, an active worker in local political ranks, and he has served his party as a delegate to conventions. He is frank and genial in his manner, and is one of Asher's prominent and popular citizens.

REV. WESLEY F. SWIFT, for many years an efficient laborer in the cause of Christianity in the southwest, is a local minister in the Methodist Episcopal church, South, and preaches once a month at Oak Grove church, which was built in 1904. This congregation has a membership now of one hundred and ten, with an enrollment of eighty in the Sunday-school. Rev. Swift is a pleasant and forcible speaker, earnest in the presentation of the truth and his efforts have been amply blessed.
    He was born near Columbia in Boone county, Missouri, December 20, 1846, a son of Henry, who was born in Maryland, and a grandson of a Revolutionary and Indian war soldier and who lived to the remarkable age of one hundred and one years. He was of English descent. Henry Swift died at the age of sixty-three, leaving a widow, Asenath (Selby) Swift, a native of Bourbon, Kentucky, and five children, four sons and a daughter, and two of the sons, Wesley F. and Milton E., were Civil war soldiers. Milton served in the Eleventh Iowa Infantry, and was held as a prisoner at Andersonville, his death occurring there.
    Rev. Swift spent the early years of his

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life in his native state of Missouri, and in August of 1862, at the call of Lincoln for three hundred thousand more men, he enlisted in Company E, Third Cavalry, and served for three years, principally in General Sherman's army. He was first under the command of GeneralSteele in the taking of Little Rock, Arkansas, and later under the gallant cavalry leader, General Wilson, fighting in Alabama, Mississippi and Georgia. At Gun Town, Mississippi, he was shot through the leg just above the knee, and was in a hospital at Memphis, Tennessee, for five months, and he was honorably discharged at Davenport, Iowa, in June, 1865, his record as a soldier being one of which he may well feel proud. He was the youngest as well as the smallest man in his regiment, familiarly known as the "baby of the regiment," and he served for some time as a bugler in the regimental band.
    In 1889 Rev. Swift left Texas for the Chickasaw Nation in Indian Territory, and in 1900 he located on his present homestead in Moore township. He bought improved land at twelve dollars and a half an acre, and in the meantime he has placed the land under an excellent state of cultivation, has planted a good orchard and has made the farm one of the valuable ones of the township. His land is well watered and very fertile. Rev. Swift is a member of the Masonic order, being a charter member of Adel Lodge, from which he transferred his membership to Wanette Lodge, and he is a stanch supporter of Prohibition principles.
    He was first married in Missouri to Lizzie Dilton, who was born in Virginia and died in Missouri, leaving three daughters, Sarah T. Wilmuth, Amanda Belle and one deceased. In Cooke county, Texas, in 1867, Rev. Swift married Lucretia Gabriel, who was born in Arkansas, but reared and educated in Texas, a daughter of William and Emily (Hargrave) Gabriel. The mother was born in Alabama, and is a cousin of Bishop Hargrave, a prominent Methodist divine. She is now living in Texas at the advanced age of ninety-two years, but her husband is deceased. The four children of this union are Cora M., Theodore J., Agnes L. and Susan W.

JOSEPH ST. CLAIR.   The distinction of being amongst the first registered practicing physicians of Oklahoma belongs to Dr. Joseph St. Clair, of Romulus. He became a resident of Oklahoma in 1891, and of Romulus in 1907, but many years previous to this time, on the 26th of August, 1868, he had graduated from a medical college at Cincinnati, Ohio, and practiced first in Carroll county, Missouri. Leaving that state in 1891 he moved to Montgomery county, Kansas, and a short time afterward came to Oklahoma, living first in Moral, and from there he came to Romulus in 1907, and has since been one of the leading physicians and surgeons of this place.
    Dr. St. Clair was born in New Jersey May 21, 1845, a son of Isaac and Eveline (Brown) Countryman. When a small boy he was adopted by the St. Clair family, and has ever since retained their name. He is a member of an old American family who trace their ancestry to the French and to patriots of the Revolutionary war. When the Civil war came on Dr. St. Clair, then a lad of eighteen, responded to the call of his country and went to the front as a member of the One Hundred and Forty-fifth Pennsylvania Infantry, Company F, his military career covering three years of faithful and valiant service. After a time he was made a member of Chapin's Battery of New Jersey, and served with that command until his final discharge. At the battle of Hatcher's Run he was quite severely wounded.
  In Carroll county, Missouri, in 1880, Dr. St. Clair married Minnie L. Neal and their children are Florence, Jonas, Kate, Fanny, Alex. and Dewey. The Doctor is a member of a family of musicians, and is a natural band leader. He has played in some of the leading bands of the United States, and the St. Clair Band, of which he is now the leader, is very popular and much sought after for public gatherings. He plays efficiently on many instruments, including the violin, bass viol and the mandolin. He maintains pleasant relations with his comrades in arms by his membership in the  

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Grand Army of the Republic. In political matters he votes with the Republican party, and he is a member of the fraternal order of Modern Woodsmen of America.

W. J. CARSON is at the head of one of the leading industrial institutions of Tecumseh, the Tecumseh Hardware Company, and is also the proprietor of a large drug business. But perhaps he is best known as a Friend and Quaker. The society built a mission forty years ago near Shawnee and presented it to the government in return for a tract of land. Mr. Carson is an active and efficient worker for his church, and has done much to further its interests in the community.
    He was born in Buchanan county, Iowa, May 16, 1864, to J. M. and Jane (Hoover) Carson, both of whom were born in Ohio. They were married in that state in 1847, and in 1878 moved to Kansas, where J. M. Carson became prominently identified with farming and stock raising interests. His wife died there in 1886, when forty-nine years of age, and three years afterward the husband came on to Indian Territory and settled in South McAlester. After two years in the stock business there he came to Pottawatomie county, Oklahoma, his present home, but he is now living retired after many years of active business life. He upholds the principles of the Republican party but is an independent voter, and has ever been an active factor for the good of the people, a man of high moral and religious character.
    W. J. Carson also became a resident of Oklahoma in 1891, entering at once into the mercantile life of Tecumseh, and with the passing years his business has broadened and increased until at the present time he owns the most of the stock in the Tecumseh Hardware Company and also gives his personal supervision to his large drug business. He is a member of the Masonic lodge in Tecumseh.
    In 1900 Mr. Carson married Miss Alice I. Crist, born in Ohio, and their three children are: Ethel, born July 21, 1901; Lewis W., born February 15, 1905; and Edith Fay, born October 1, 1907. One daughter, Laura, died in infancy.

BROTHER JOHN LARACY, of the Sacred Heart Mission in Pottawatomie county, is one of the pioneer Christian workers of Oklahoma, and his life and achievements are worthy of a first place in the history of the state. It was on the 4th of December, 1879, that he came into the wilds of an Indian country to spread the gospel among the Red Men and the half civilized whites, outlaws and desperadoes who were then so numerous in the southwest, and from that early day to the present he has labored faithfully and earnestly in the building up of the community.
    Brother Laracy was born in Kilkenny, Ireland, fifty-seven years ago, and he was but a child when brought by his parents to the United States, they locating first at Newark, New Jersey, where the little lad received his education in the public and parochial schools. As above stated he came to Oklahoma in 1879 and joined the brotherhood of the Sacred Heart Mission, January 28, 1883, over twenty-five years ago, and for some time thereafter he taught school. Some time later a rude building was erected for the purpose of educating the freedmen or negroes, who had no other means of obtaining an education, and this was the first of its kind in Indian Territory. He at first boarded around among the negro families, living as best he could, but later he fitted up a room and obtained a negro cook. The school was located seven miles south of the Mission, and he spent four years of his life there, and the seed sown in that time has borne fruit a hundred fold in many cases. The negroes were of the Creek and Cherokee blood. After the close of his four years in the negro school Brother Laracy returned to the Sacred Heart Mission.
    During his early life in the southwest he had many interesting experiences, though it was fraught with many dangers and hardships. One of his co-workers in those days was Father Robot, the first postmaster of the Mission. He was a Frenchman and came to the Territory in 1876, and was a zealous and earnest worker among the people. His death occurred at McAlester when sixty years of age. Brother

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Laracy also served many years as the postmaster of the Mission, first during President Hayes' administration, and he is known far and wide as the Indian's friend and counselor.
    The school for Indian girls connected with the Mission is under the charge of the Sisters and has done much good work. It now numbers seventy-five pupils, including many white girls, the daughters of the cattlemen and many who have found a safe refuge here are now the mothers of some of the leading families of the state. The school for boys has an attendance of eighty, and is also doing an excellent work. The labors of "Brother John," as he is lovingly known, cannot be told in detail, for the good he has accomplished cannot be summed up in mere words, but the seed which he has sown has brought forth rich fruit. His path has been ever upward, both in a spiritual and temporal sense, one of nature's noblemen. But all his achievements are the result of patient effort and the outcome of an earnest Christian life.

DR. J. E. CULLUM, one of the most successful physicians and surgeons of Earlsboro, has practiced here since May of 1901. He is a graduate of the Gate City Medical College of Texas, and since then he has had many years of successful practice in Missouri, Indian Territory and Oklahoma.
    He is a native son, however, of the Hoosier state, born near Layfayette, in Tippecanoe county, Indiana, in 1859, a member of one of its pioneer families, Jeremiah and Abigail (Sleeth) Cullum. The parents both died when their son was young, he having been but eight at the time of his father's death, and he was reared by an uncle, receiving the greater part of his education by studying at home. Leaving Indiana he went to Mercer county, Illinois, residing for three years near North Henderson. From there he went to Coin, Page county, Iowa, where he worked at the harness maker's trade for some time, he having learned the trade while living in Alexis, and from there he went to Clearmont, Nodaway county, Missouri. It was there that Dr. Cullum married Velma Freeman, a daughter of Dr. J. D. Freeman, a prominent physician of Tecumseh. They have had the following children: Blanche, one of the successful teachers in Pottawatomie county; Vera, who is sixteen years of age; Lora, who died at the age of six; Charlie, also deceased; and Clifford E., a little lad of five years. The Doctor is a Democrat politically, and the family are members of the Methodist Episcopal church, in which he is an earnest and active member and at the present time the superintendent of his Sunday-school.

MARY BOURBONNAIS. The history of the removal of the Pottawatomie tribe of Indians to Oklahoma in 1872 involves the life history of one of the most interesting women of the state. Of the Indians removed in that year there were four families, numbering twenty-eight persons, who settled on the South Canadian river. There was not a Christian person among them but the idea of education was strong enough among them so that a house was erected from lumber hauled from Kansas and efforts made to begin a school for the children of the community. The first teacher, however, was a renegade white man and horse thief who left in the night, the second was a Catholic old maid and the third a Mormon preacher. The Quaker system of Indian control, which at that time had been made effective during the administration of President Grant, resulted in a large number of Quaker men of thorough capacity, as a rule, and of sterling honest, being located among the different Indian tribes of Oklahoma, and it was through one of this class that the first real teacher was obtained. Through the influence of the Quakers this little Indian community organized its first Sunday-school and for its first superintendent, the Indian agent selected Mary Bourbonnais, who at first declined to serve because she deemed herself unfit for the work but was later prevailed upon and from 1873 until 1900 continued as superintendent of this Sunday-school in what is now Pottawatomie county.
    The introduction of Christianity among these Indians is one of the facts of the history of the the Pottawatomie tribe. It is related that in 1877 a Friend missionary, by

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the name of Franklin Elliot, who was located at Shawneetown, visited the community twice a month, traveling twenty-five miles in order to preach to them and as a result of this influence, Mary Bourbonnais and her husband, Antoine Bourbonnais, were converted and the former has continued from that time to this to be one of the strongest supporters of the Christian religion and its practice.
    Mary Bourbonnais is now sixty-eight years of age and is a very intelligent woman, considering her early opportunities, and in every sense is a true Christian. Her father was a Frenchman and her mother a Pottawatomie. She, herself, was born at New Orleans, April 1, 1840, while her parents were on a visit in that city and some time later the family moved to Council Bluffs, Iowa, and when she was seven years of age the tribe of Indians, among whom they made their home, went from Iowa to Kansas, where she was reared to womanhood. In the old St. Mary's school in Kansas, one of the best known of the Indian schools of the Southwest, she received her education, and at the age of sixteen was married. Her first husband was Lewis J. Harris, a Kentuckian, who died shortly after a trip to Pike's Peak in 1859. In 1862 his widow married Antoine Bourbonnais, of French and Indian blood, and as already mentioned, was converted to Christianity at the same time that his wife was and until his death, at the age of sixty-seven, was one of the upright and influential residents of Pottawatomie county, his death occurring on the mission farm here. By occupation he was a cattle man and remained a member of the Quaker church in this vicinity for twelve years. Five children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Bourbonnais: Aaron F., who's home is in Tecumseh; John A., of Tecumseh; Levi A., also of Tecumseh; Ozetta, the wife of W. F. Jenks, a teacher in the government school in Mexico, and Amelia Hudson, who is deceased.
    Though she has been actively connected with Sunday-school affairs and church duties, and resigned her position as superintendent in 1900, Mary Bourbonnais is still an active woman for one of her years and is consistent with the practice of her church through the early teaching of the Quaker missionary under whose influence she was converted. The honor of having established the first Sunday-school in this part of the state is one that entitles her to more than average distinction for a woman. She has also extended her efforts in other directions in church and charitable work and is an active worker and member of the Women's Christian Temperance Union. She was one of the most enthusiastic workers in promoting the state wide prohibition movement in 1907.

W. G. PRICE, who bears an honorable record for brave service in the cause of the southland during the Civil war, is at this date one of the three commissioners of Pottawatomie county. Mr. Price entered the Confederate army in 1860 and served during the war under Generals Early, Ewell and Wharton, and was a member of the Fifty-first Infantry. He was three times wounded during the struggle, at New Market, Fayetteville and Winchester, and was taken prisoner at Waynesboro by Gen. Phil Sheridan's army, made his escape at Strasburg, Virginia, later was recaptured at Stoneman and for a time held as a Confederate officer at Johnson's Island. From a private he had been promoted for meritorious service to sergeant major, later elected to first lieutenant, Company D, to captain, and was finally discharged as brevet lieutenant colonel of his regiment. After the war he taught school for several years in his native state of Virginia and then removed to Texas, where he engaged in farming and teaching school. In 1873, Mr. Price moved to Grayson county, Texas, in 1890 to the Chickasaw Nation in Indian Territory, where he leased and farmed Indian land until his removal to Oklahoma in 1898. He was elected county commissioner of Pottawatomie county in the fall of 1904 and re-elected in 1907. Since 1898 he has been prominently identified with the interests of the county.
    He was born in the old Dominon state of Virginia, Patrick county, in 1843, a son of Bernard and Louisa (Ayres) Price, who were also natives of that commonwealth,

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and the father was of Scotch and German descent. He was a well educated man, and in his day was one of the successful educators of Virginia, a man respected and honored by all who knew him. The three sons of Mr. and Mrs. Price were W. G. and Dallas M., and one who died in infancy.
    In March, 1867, when he had reached his twenty-fourth year, W. G. Price married Nancy Jane, a daughter of Don and Mary Weaver, all of whom were born in Pennsylvania, but moved to Virginia in early life. As a representative of the Democracy Mr. Price has served as a delegate to party conventions, and his party has further honored him by election to the office of county commissioner. He is a Royal Arch Mason and an Odd Fellow and a member of the Methodist Episcopal church. A man of pleasing personality and genial manner, he has won many friends in Tecumseh and vicinity, and as a county official he is firm in his convictions of the right.