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(page 531)
JOEL ROBINETT, proprietor
of Rock Springs Farm, a valuable estate of two hundred
and forty acres in Earlsboro township, near the town
of Shawnee, is one of the best-known citizens of the
community, and has resided here since 1896. At that
time he bought an allotment from Indians, the Little
Bears, which contained an old log house and a
few acres under cultivation. In the early days of
the territory Rock Hill Farm was a favorite resort
for the Indians, as it contains many springs of clear,
cold water. It is now one of the best-improved homesteads
in the township, containing many large and substantial
532
buildings, and the land is devoted to
the raising of diversified crops.
During the seven years previous to his
coming to Oklahoma Mr. Robinett had resided
in Indian Territory, farming on lands which he leased
from the Indians in the Chichasha Nation, but he was
born in northern Georgia, January 5, 1854, a son of
Joel Robinett, who was born in North Carolina
and died when his son and namesake was but a babe
of eight months, leaving a wife and nine children,
three sons and six daughters, and two of the daughters
are living in what was Indian Territory, and two,
Nancy Burnett and Adelia Hamlin, in
Oklahoma. Mr. Robinett, Sr., was a farmer all
of his life, and both he and his wife were of the
Missionary Baptist faith. They reared their children
to lives of usefulness on the farm, and when the son,
Joel, had reached his nineteenth years he left
home and spent the two following years on a ranch
in Texas. Returning then to his home state of Georgia
he farmed there for three years, and going again to
Texas he took his mother and a sister with him and
located in Grayson county. The mother died in that
state, and later, in 1888, Mr. Robinett went to Indian
Territory, which continued as his home until his coming
to Pottawatomie county, Oklahoma, in 1896.
In Gordon county, Georgia, in 1890,
he married Miss Nevada, a daughter of John
and Armina House, all of whom were born in that
state. Mr. and Mrs. Robinett have three children,
Celestia, Jessie and John Red, aged
respectively sixteen, fourteen and thirteen years,
and they also lost two in infancy, Joe Lee
and Lafayette. Mr. Robinett is a believer
in Democratic principles, and the family are of the
Missionary Baptist faith.
S. L. WHITLEY,
proprietor of the Bronze Medal Orchards of Brinton
township, Pottawatomie county, is one of the best
known fruit growers in this part of the state, his
residence in Oklahoma covering the intervening period
since 1893. His orchard is one of the best in Oklahoma,
and at the St. Louis exposition in 1904 he received
the bronze medal for the best apples grown in Oklahoma.
His estate embraces eighty acres of rich and fertile
land, and forty acres of this is devoted to the orchard
and is known as the Bronze Medal Orchards.
Mr. Whitley was born in Leavenworth
county, Kansas, June 27, 1867. His father John
Whitley, a Confederate soldier under General Joe
Shelby, settled in Kansas at the close of the Civil
war, from whence he later moved to Kentucky, and going
from there to Missouri was married to Mary Alexander,
a daughter of one of the early pioneers of Johnson
county, that state. For a time after their marriage
Mr. and Mrs. Whitley lived in Osage county,
Kansas, and in 1878 the family moved from there to
Grayson county, Texas, later, in 1883, coming to Ardmore,
Indian Territory, and just ten years afterward, in
1893, they continued their journey to Oklahoma, locating
on the farm now the property of their son, S. L.,
where the father died in 1901, at the age of seventy-two
years. His entire business career was devoted to the
farm, and he was politically a Democrat, of the stanch
Jackson type, and was a member of the Missionary Baptist
church. His widow is still living, a member of the
Methodist Episcopal church. Their children are Alice,
Artie, Cora, S. L. and John, the sons both
residents of Brinton township, Pottawatomie county.
S. L. Whitley grew to manhood's
estate on Kansas and Texas farms, and in the latter
state he married Almeda Smith, who was born
in Burnett county, that state, a daughter of Michael
and Rebecca (Hogue) Smith, of Comanche county,
Oklahoma, and the parents of nine children. Four children
have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Whitley: Joseph,
Alice, Artie and Ollie. Mr. Whitley is
an earnest worker in the ranks of the Democratic party,
and for five years he served his township as a trustee,
also serving as a delegate to conventions, and in
October, 1907, he represented his party at the Farmers'
National Congress at Oklahoma City. He is an Odd Fellow,
belong to Brown Lodge No. 82.
O. W. GRIMWOOD.
Pottawatomie county numbers among its best-known business
men and pioneers O. W. Grimwood, who has been
prominently identified with its
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533
business interests since 1893. During
the first years of his residence here he lived on
a farm just south of the town of Brown, and then forming
a partnership with A. B. Ramsey they bought
the general store of T. D. Williamson, which
they conducted from 1900 until 1905. The style of
the firm was then changed to Ramsey & Tarbox,
and still later the Brown Trading Company was organized
with O. W. Grimwood as manager. O. W. Grimwood
is also the proprietor of the Brown Gin Mill, which
has a capacity of fifteen hundred bales of cotton
per annum, and they do a large and constantly growing
business.
He was born in Knox county, Ohio, in
1866, a son of W. J. and Henrietta (Lybarger) Grimwood.
The father, born in Toronto, Canada, served in the
Union army during the Civil war for four years as
an aide to a colonel, and he died at the age of fifty-nine
years in Pottawatomie county. His wife was fifty-six
years of age at the time of her death. Their children
were O. W., Charles, Nelly Tarbox and Jessie
E. McFall, all of Oklahoma, and Frank, William
and Anna, who live in Kansas. The eldest of
the children, O. W. Grimwood, was but a boy
at the time of the removal of the family to Hornellsville,
New York, where they lived on the Canisteo river for
three years, then lived near Chillicothe, Missouri,
for five years, and they then went to Chase county,
Kansas, settling near Cottonwood Falls. In that state,
in 1886, he married Mary F. White, who was
born in Ohio, and her father, William White,
is now a resident of Kiowa county, Oklahoma. He was
a soldier in the Civil war and is a member of the
Grand Army of the Republic. Of the nine children born
to Mr. and Mrs. White only two are living in
Pottawatomie county, Mrs. Grimwood, and her
brother, George White. Four children have been
born to Mr. and Mrs. Grimwood, namely: Cora
B., a popular and successful teacher in the home
schools; Retta E. Butler, whose home is in
Brinton township, and Alta and Charles W.
Mr. Grimwood is an active worker in the local
ranks of the Republican party, and at one time was
a candidate for the office of registrar of deeds.
He is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows,
Lodge No. 82, of Brown.
RICHARD F. KING,
one of the leading business men of Pottawatomie county,
is a native son of the Lone Star state of Texas, born
in Wise county, in 1865, a son of Lycurgus and
Sarah (Giddens) King, born respectively in Missouri
and Kentucky. The father was a Confederate soldier
during the Civil war, and leaving his native state
of Missouri he journeyed to Texas and from there in
1869 to Kansas, settling near Emporia in Lyons county,
where he died at the age of fifty-eight years. He
was a prominent stockman and farmer during his lifetime,
a Jackson Democrat politically, and both he and his
wife were members of the Baptist church. Of their
family of six children, four are living, but Richard
F. King is the only representative of his family
in Oklahoma.
He was reared to manhood on a Kansas
farm, and received a part of his educational training
in a government fort in New Mexico. At the age of
twenty, in 1886, he enlisted in the United States
army, Company H, Tenth United States Infantry of Volunteers,
under Colonel Douglas, and was stationed in
New Mexico in General Miles' command. For two
years he was also a member of the hospital corps at
Fortress Monroe, Virginia, and his entire military
service covered a period of five years, years of faithful
and honorable service. In 1892, an early period in
its history, Mr. King came from Chicago, Illinois,
to Pottawatomie county, Oklahoma, where he has since
been prominent in business, and is now the owner of
Lookout Hill Farm, a valuable estate of one hundred
and sixty acres. His first home here was a little
log cabin fourteen by sixteen and a half feet, but
in 1902 this gave place to his present commodious
and pleasant home. He is a partner with Mr. Grimwood
in a gin mill at Brown, has served his party, the
Democratic, as a delegate to conventions, and has
also been the incumbent of the offices of township
clerk and justice of the peace. His fraternal (p.
534) relations are with the Independent Order of Odd
Fellows, Brown Lodge No. 82.
In Lyons county, Kansas, in 1891, Mr.
King was united in marriage to Mary Kemp, born
and reared in that state, a daughter of Joshua
and Mary (Pike) Kemp. Seven children have been
born of this union: James, Richard, Harry, Carl,
Ella and Elsie, and a son, Ralph,
who is deceased.
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H. G. CAMPBELL,
M. D. Among those who are practicing
medicine and surgery in Asher and at the same time
demonstrating their ability to cope with disease is
numbered Dr. H. G. Campbell, who located in
this city in 1907 and is now in partnership with Dr.
Byrum. He is an honorary graduate of the University
of Nashville, Tennessee, with the class of 1903, serving
the following year as intern in the city hospital
at Nashville. In the winter of 1905 he took a post-graduate
course at the New York Polyclinic Medical School,
of New York. Dr. Campbell is a native son of
Arkansas, born June 24, 1872, to Rev. John W. and
Charlene Kavanaugh (Davis) Campbell. The father
was born in Kentucky and was a minister of the gospel
in the Cumberland Presbyterian church, a man honored
and revered by all who knew him and one whose memory
is yet enshrined in the hearts of his many friends.
He died in 1880, at the age of forty years, leaving
a widow and two children, one of whom S. D. Campbell
is a resident of Newport, Arkansas, and an attorney.
Dr. H. G. Campbell spent the
early years of his life in his native state of Arkansas,
receiving a high school and college training at Lacrosse
and Batesville, and for eight years thereafter he
was engaged in teaching school in Newport and other
towns of that state. He was married at Batesville
in April, 1907, to Pearl Reeder, a daughter
of Mrs. Emma Reeder. Dr. and Mrs. Campbell
are Presbyterians in religion, and the Doctor is also
a member of the Masonic order and of the Benevolent
and Protective Order of Elks. His profession connects
him with the Pottawatomie County Medical Society and
the Pauls Valley Medical Society, and his political
affiliations are with the Democratic party.
REID RIGGINS,
the president of the Canadian Valley Bank of Asher,
has been a resident of this city since 1902, but since
1899 he has been prominently identified with the banking
and other interests of Oklahoma. He was born in Clinton,
Henry county, Missouri, September 18, 1868, and is
a member of a well know family of that community.
His father, George Riggins, died when his son
Reid was but three years old. He was a well known
contractor and builder of Clingon, Missouri, whither
he moved from his native state of Illinois, and during
the Civil war he served as a member of the Confederate
army, principally on the Mississippi river. He was
a Democrat politically, and religiously a member of
the Cumberland Presbyterian church. His death occurred
when he was but thirty years of age, leaving a wife
and two children, Reid and Wyatt, the
younger the assistant cashier of the National Bank
of Bowie, Texas. His widow is a resident of Austin,
that state.
Reid Riggins was a lad of
six at the time of his mother's removal to Texas,
and there he grew to manhood's estate and received
an excellent educational training in the graded and
high schools and in a normal college. After leaving
school he was for two years engaged in railroad work
for the M., K. & T. and T. & P. railroads
at Whitesboro, Texas, and for ten years identified
with the Santa Fe Railway Co. at Gainesville, Texas;
for five years of this time as cashier of the company.
Then going to Duncan, Indian Territory, assisted in
organizing the Duncan Bank, a national institution,
and continued as its cashier until 1901. The bank
at that time changed hands, and Mr. Riggins
went to Atoka, in the same territory, and assisted
in organizing the Atoka National Bank, and became
its cashier, but a short time afterward he accepted
the position of assistant cashier of the First National
Bank, of Holdenville, Indian Territory, and remained
there until he came to Asher to enter upon his successful
connection
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535
with the Canadian Valley Bank, which
is capitalized at ten thousand dollars and is under
the supervision of Reid Riggins, president,
and F. J. Richards, cashier, while the directors
are Reid Riggins, A. T. Douglas and F. J.
Richards, all men of prominence and well known
ability, and the bank is one of the solid financial
institutions of the county.
In Anderson, Indiana, in 1892, Mr. Riggins
married Fay Mershon, a successful teacher before
her marriage and a daughter of J. D. Mershon
and a sister of W. R. Mershon, both prominent
and well known residents of Pottawatomie county. The
three children of Mr. and Mrs. Riggins are
Russell, a lad of eleven years; May Josephine,
who is three years of age, and Percy, named
in honor of Captain P. M. Percy, of the U.
S. navy and a cousin of his mother. Mr. Riggins
gives a stanch support to the Democratic party, an
active worker in its local ranks, and fraternally
he is a member of the Masonic order, the Independent
Order of Odd Fellows and of the Knights of Pythias.
The family are of the Methodist faith.
I. B. ALBERT.
Among the efficient financiers and officials
of Oklahoma is recorded the name of I. B. Albert,
who is now serving in the office of justice of McComb,
and office equivalent to that of judge in other places.
During two terms, beginning in 1903, he was the justice
of Burnett township, and he also represented the Democratic
party as a delegate to its convention in 1906. Throughout
the period of his residence here he has been actively
interested in all measures advanced for the good of
the people, has performed his full share in the development
and improvement of the city and county, and many of
the finest buildings of McComb and vicinity stand
as monuments to his skill. During his early life he
learned the carpenter's trade, and has become an excellent
contractor and mechanic.
Justice Albert was born in Clay
county, Indiana, in March, 1853, a son of Isaac
and Elizabeth (Haney) Albert, both of whom were
born in Pennsylvania and were of German ancestry.
They were farming people, and both are now deceased,
the father dying in Texas when he had reached the
age of sixty years, and the mother's death occurred
in Colorado at the age of sixty-seven years. Their
family numbered eight children, among whom was the
present justice of McComb, I. B. Albert. When
a youth of fourteen he went to Benton county, Missouri,
and going from there to Montague county, Texas, in
1874, he spent eighteen months there and then returned
to Missouri. Again moving, he was in Cherokee county,
Kansas, spent one year in Texas, and then came to
Oklahoma, where in Pottawatomie county he now stands
prominently forth on the pages of its political and
industrial history.
Mr. Albert married, in Benton
county, Missouri, in 1874, Miss Magdalena Johnson,
who was born, reared and educated in that county.
Her father, John F. Johnson, served as a soldier
in the Union army during the Civil war, and he died
in Henry county, Missouri, near Clinton, at the age
of seventy-four years. He was a member of the Baptist
church. His wife, Mary Wilhelm, died twenty-nine
years ago in Missouri, at the age of forty-five years.
Of their three children two are living. Of the ten
children born to Mr. and Mrs. Albert, five
sons and two daughters are living: Mildred, Etta,
Jennie, Darrie, Noble, Eugene and Teddy R.
The youngest, a little lad of eight years, was named
in honor of President Roosevelt. Mrs. Albert
is a member of the Baptist church. Mr. Albert
has membership relations with the Independent Order
of Odd Fellows, Lodge No. 207, of McComb and also
represents a good fire insurance company.
E. E. CORNELL.
For six years the name of Professor Cornell
was inseparably interwoven with the history of the
educational interests of Oklahoma, and he was prominently
before the people as the principal of the McComb public
school. Here he had supervision over a four-room building
with an enrollment of eighty-eight pupils, and the
school is in a prosperous condition. The principal
stood in the front rank of the educators of Oklahoma,
and his ever broadening influence upon the educational
interests
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536
of Pottawatomie county is incalculable.
In the spring of 1908 Professor Cornell gave up teaching
to engage in mercantile business.
Born in Arkansas, near Mountain Home,
in the centennial year of 1876, he is a son of Abraham
and Abbie (Melcher) Cornell, natives respectively
of the states of New York and Maine. The father was
a mechanic, a soldier in the Union army during the
Civil war, a Republican politically, and his death
occurred in Arkansas. Of the six children born to
Mr. and Mrs. Cornell, three sons and three
daughters, one son is now deceased. Mrs. Cornell
is a member of the Baptist church. The educational
training of the son, E. E. Cornell was received
in the public schools of Arkansas, and by diligent
study at home, and for some years after entering business
life he worked in a saw mill. Since attaining the
age of twenty-four years he has been identified with
school work. In political matters he upholds the principles
of the Republican party, and fraternally he has achieved
high rank in the Independent Order of Odd Fellows,
holding membership in Lodge No. 207, and he has represented
the order in the Grand Lodge. He is also a member
of the order of Masons.
In McComb, in April, 1907, Mr. Cornell
married Blanche Pitman, who was born in Indian
Territory, but reared and educated in Oklahoma. Her
father is J. H. Pitman. Professor Cornell
takes a sincere interest in the welfare of McComb
and Pottawatomie county, and his genial personality
makes and retains him many friends.
ALPHEUS M. TRIBBEY.
The name borne by Alpheus M. Tribbey
is closely identified with the history of Tribbey
and Pottawatomie county, and he worthily bears the
name of the father of the town. He came to Oklahoma
from Indian Territory, and securing a homestead in
Pottawatomie county platted and laid out thereon the
town of Tribbey in October of 1905, and throughout
the three succeeding years he has been closely allied
with its interests and upbuilding. He is of the highest
type of business man, and his enterprise and ability
have achieved results. He is the genial proprietor
of the only hotel of the town, the Tribbey House,
being well fitted for this position by two years of
hotel proprietorship at Tecumseh, the county seat
of Pottawatomie county, and is the proprietor of two
drug stores, one in Tribbey and the other at Maud,
in this county, conducting the latter in company with
his son, Thomas Tribbey. In addition to all
this Mr. Tribbey owns his homestead farm of
one hundred and sixty acres. As a business man in
many lines of endeavor, as a citizen, and above all,
as the founder of Tribbey, we would preserve the record
of his career among a people who have learned to honor
and esteem him.
Born in Knox county, Illinois, near
the town of Galesburg, June 10, 1856, he is the son
of a farmer, Joseph W. Tribbey, who was born
in Ohio, and was one of three brothers who served
their country faithfully and well in the Union army
during the Civil war. He died in Indian Territory
at the age of seventy-four years, and his wife, nee
Elizabeth Kibbey, passed away in Texas when
sixty-two. Her family were also represented in the
Union army in the Civil war, where three brothers
fought during the conflict. At her death she left
six children, and three are yet living: George
W., a resident of Tonkawa, Oklahoma, and Paul
Lincoln, whose home is in Cumberland Hill, this
state.
Alpheus M. Tribbey, the third
of the surviving sons, spent the early years of his
life on a farm in Illinois, and at the age of twenty-one,
after receiving a common school education, he went
to Denton, Jack county, Texas, and in Tarrant county,
of that state, in the following year, he wedded Mrs.
Catherine (Bower) Salicinus, whose people were
from Tennessee, and their children are: Martha
A., Julia, whose home is in Maud, this county;
Thomas H., Arthur, a student in the State University;
Floyd, in the drug store with his brother,
Thomas, in Maud; Roy, in school, and
Virgie Lulu, at home. The eldest son, Thomas
H., is a graduate of pharmacy at the State Normal,
where he was a member of the college football team,
and he is now the proprietor (p. 537) of a drug store
in Maud. Mr. Tribbey cast his first presidential
vote for a Republican candidate, R. B. Hayes,
but he now supports the principles of the Democracy.
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WILLIAM WESSELHOFT,
the postmaster of McComb, was born in Nazareth, Pennsylvania,
in 1832, of German parents, John G. and Johanna
(Monsees) Wesselhoft. The father was excellently
educated in his native language, and was an educator
and writer of note and was the editor of the "Old
and New World," the first German paper of any
importance published in the United States. This publication
was widely circulated all over the United States and
brought its editor into prominence as a writer. He
died at the age of fifty-nine years, a Lutheran in
religion, and his wife was only thirty-seven at the
time of her death. She left two children, one of whom,
William Wesselhoft, was well educated in two
of the large cities, Philadelphia and St. Louis, completing
his studies at the latter place, and afterward, for
a time, he assisted his father in his work in a book
store at St. Louis. At the age of twenty-one he went
to Hermann, Missouri, working there on a farm and
in vineyards and nurseries some thirteen years. He
then, after serving as postmaster and county and circuit
clerk, became secretary and treasurer of the Bluffton,
Missouri, Wine Company, which transacted a large business
for some time until, through some fault or act of
the directory of the company at St. Louis, it was
dissolved, and Mr. Wesselhoft, after working
a few years in Sedalia and Columbian, Missouri, went
to Wichita, Kansas, and was employed there in the
city's clerk's office, until he came to Oklahoma in
the fall of 1891. This was soon after the opening
of the Pottawatomie county to settlement, and he entered
a claim here and became a notary public and the fist
postmaster of Burnett. At the establishment of the
office at McComb in July of 1903 he was made the postmaster,
and he was further one of the chief promoters of this
office. The receipts for the first year of the McComb
office were $322.66, and in the year of 1907 they
had increased to $733.66. The office is well managed,
and now has two rural routes, one of which was established
eighteen months ago and the other about four months
ago, and each supports daily carriers. Mr. Wesselhoft
is a stanch and efficient supporter of the Republican
party and voted for General Fremont in 1856, he having
ever since supported its nominees. He is a Thirty-second
degree Mason and an Odd Fellow, and his religious
affiliations are with the Lutheran church.
He was married at Belleville, Illinois,
to Emma Metz, and their two children are George
and Sadie Hartman. The son is a carpenter and
merchant of McComb, also a farmer, and they also had
a daughter, Jessie, deceased, she having died
when a young woman of nineteen at Sedalia, Missouri.
J. W. FORSTER.
As the proprietor of one of the leading gin
and sawmills in Tribbey, J. W. Forster is well
known in the business circles of Pottawatomie county.
His residence in this section of Oklahoma covers the
intervening period from January 27, 1893, when he
located on a homestead five miles south of Tribbey,
township 7, range 3 east, section 19, and during the
first ten years of his residence here operated a gin
at Moral. From there he came to Tribbey and entered
actively into the business life of the town. His gin
was built in May, 1905, and contains a fifty-horsepower
engine and boiler, housed in a room eighteen by twenty-six
feet, while the mill proper is a building twenty by
sixty feet, with a corn burr room twelve by fourteen
feet. The capacity of the mill is thirty bales a day
of ten hours, and during the season of 1907 the output
of the mill was nine hundred and sixty bales of cotton.
Tribbey's popular gin and sawmill proprietor,
J. W. Forster, was born in Belmont county,
Ohio, September 5, 1845, and was reared on a farm
in Hancock county, that state, one of thirteen children,
eight sons and five daughters, born to William
and Jane (Sheldon) Forster, who came originally
from Maryland. They were farming people, and both
died in Ohio. When he had attained the age of twenty-seven
J. W. Forster married Susan Babcock,
who (p. 538) was born and reared in Franklin county,
that state, a daughter of Jacob Babcock, and
in 1881 he moved with his wife to Morgan county, Missouri.
Ten children have been born to them, but only eight,
five sons and three daughters, are now living, namely:
Bertha, Jesse, whose home is in Portland, Oregon;
Retta, and one other deceased; Lawrence,
Jacob O., Nancy, Washington L., who has been a
successful and popular teacher in the county for six
years; Porter, an engineer, and Clara.
The political affiliations of Mr. Forster are
with the Democratic party, and he has fraternal relations
with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows.
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THOMAS F. SOUTHGATE
is a banker of high standing in the commercial
circles of Pottawatomie county, and is the assistant
cashier of the First National Bank of Wannette, the
successor of the Old Bank of Wannette and of which
he was the first cashier. He was born in Kentucky
on the 25th of January, 1866, and he was reared on
the old homestead of his father, B. Southgate,
in that state, attending both its common and high
schools. (See his brother George's sketch for
family record.)
In 1892 he came to the then territory
of Oklahoma and located four miles east of Shawnee,
in Pottawatomie county, and this farm he yet owns
and has it improved in a fine manner and well supplied
with valuable stock. It is a valuable farm of rich
and fertile land and conveniently located near the
growing town of Shawnee. When the old bank of Wanette
was organized in 1903, Mr. Southgate was made
its first cashier, but previously he had served as
Assistant cashier in the First National Bank of Tecumseh,
so that he is a banker of long standing and experience
and has made a success of the business.
In January of 1902, in Tecumseh, Mr.
Southgate was united in marriage to Hattie Durham,
who was born in Texas but she was reared and educated
in Tecumseh, Oklahoma, and is a daughter of William
and Sarah Durham, prominent and well-known citizens
of Mobeetie, Texas. Mr. Durham is well remembered
as a former treasurer of Pottawatomie county. Mr.
and Mrs. Southgate have had two sons, but the
first born, W. M., died when but two years
old, and the second, Thomas F., Jr., was born
January 24, 1907. Mr. Southgate is a Mason,
a member of the chapter and commandery and Indian
Temple in Oklahoma.
DR. R. M. C. HILL.
Among those who have attained prestige in the
practice of medicine and surgery in Oklahoma stands
Dr. R. M. C. Hill, of McLoud. He is one of
the prominent representatives of the profession of
medicine. He is a graduate of the class of 1883 at
the Hahnemann Medical College, of Chicago, Illinois,
and three years later he graduated at the Toledo (Ohio)
Medical College.
The Doctor is a native of Prospect,
Marion county, Ohio, born thirty-seven miles north
of Columbus, June 19, 1860. His father, the Rev. Caleb
Hill, was a well-known minister in the Methodist
Episcopal church and was a native of Delaware county,
Ohio. The Hills are noted for their patriotism and
loyalty to their country, and they have been represented
in the Indian, Revolutionary and Civil war. Of the
same family is Senator Hill, of New York, and
General Hill, both men of note. Rev. Caleb
Hill died at the age of seventy-one years, leaving
three children: Mrs. J. W. Freeman, of Prospect,
Ohio; Mrs. C. W. Moots, of Toledo, that state,
and R. M. C.
The early years of the life of Dr.
Hill were spent in traveling a Methodist circuit,
thus attending various schools, and later pursuing
post-graduate work at the University of Tennessee.
He received the honorary degree of Master of Science
in 1888 at the Ohio Normal University, of Ada, Ohio,
now the Ohio Northern University, and was elected
a member of the Toledo Medical faculty, but ill health
prevented him from accepting the honor. He was a member
of the visiting staff of the Toledo Protestant Hospital,
and leaving that city he went to Knoxville, Tennessee,
where he was in practice for nine years. In that time
he was made professor in the Tennessee Medical College
of Knoxville, was also the secretary and treasurer
and a member of the medical staff of the Tennessee
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Medical and Surgical Institute, and
was also a physician in charge of the Mt. Rest Home
for Aged Women, of Knoxville. But again ill health
made it necessary for him to seek a change of climate,
and resigning his various positions in Knoxville,
he went to Delphos, Ohio, where he was in practice
for three years. Going then to the northwest in search
of health and strength, he was at St. Paul, Minnesota,
for two years, and from there he came to McLoud, Oklahoma.
He is now professor of principles and practice of
medicine in Oklahoma Medical College, of Oklahoma
City, and president of the Canadian Valley Medical
Association.
Dr. Hill has been twice married,
wedding first at Lafayette, Ohio, Alice Mehaffey,
and their only child is Miss Alice M. Hill.
On the 26th of November, 1907, in Oklahoma, he wedded
Mrs. Rosa B. Blalock, from Tennessee. Dr.
Hill is a stanch and true Democrat, and was at
one time a candidate for the legislature. He has served
as a delegate to many of its conventions, and he is
a member of the Odd Fellows' order and the Court of
Honor. He belongs to the Methodist Episcopal church,
and his wife to the Baptist.
GEORGE A. STROUSS.
One of the most beautiful resorts in Oklahoma,
known as The Dam, the property of George A. Strouss,
who owns half interest with John Provvens.
It is located on the North Canadian river at the Big
Dam and Mill, and is a most delightful place for fishing,
bathing and boating, and is unsurpassed in beautiful
scenery. The river is a beautiful stream fully six
miles in length, with a safe, sandy bottom at the
resort for bathers, and ten boats are kept in excellent
repair for those who care to enjoy the pleasures of
boating. The old grist mill is one of the most picturesque
scenes along the river, and is a favorite spot for
picnics and pleasure parties, and at the resort there
is also a dancing pavilion twenty-two by forty feet.
Mr. Strouss has been a tireless worker in promoting
the interests of The Dam, and his efforts have been
amply rewarded for the resort has become famous throughout
Oklahoma and is almost unsurpassed in beautiful scenery.
George A. Strouss is a native
of Germany, born there forty-five years ago, and he
was a lad of seven when he came with his parents to
the United States. The family first located in Brown
county, Kansas, near Hiawatha, from whence they later
moved to Nemaha county, that state, near Seneca. At
the opening of Oklahoma to settlement Mr. Strouss
made the race and secured a claim near the present
city of Oklahoma City, but his land was afterward
contested by a "sooner," and some years
later Mr. Strouss sold it and bought his present place.
He built the mill there and has splendidly improved
his farm of one hundred and thirty-five acres.
In Oklahoma, in 1893, he was united
in marriage to Mary Crawford, who was born
in Kentucky, but was reared and educated in this state,
and their two children are Eva and George.
Mr. Strouss gives his political support to
the Democratic party. Mrs. Strouss is a teacher
and a member of the choir in the Sunday-school of
the Union Sunday school.
JAMES G. EVANS,
proprietor of Sunny Slope Farm in Earlsboro
township, was born in Cherokee county, Georgia, near
Canton, on the High Tower river, July 16, 1852, a
son of John Miller and Jane (Garvin) Evans,
natives respectively of Georgia and South Carolina.
The father, who was a farmer, died in 1854, a member
of the Baptist church, and the mother died in 1886,
leaving three children, but only the two now living
are James G. and Artie, the latter a
resident of Georgia.
James G. Evans spent the early
years of his life on a Georgia farm, but in 1878 left
the state of his birth for Erath county, Texas, locating
fifty miles west of Fort Worth, near Stephenville
and Bluffdale. After eight years there he came to
Oklahoma and secured a claim of one hundred and sixty
acres one mile from Norman, but after pre-empting
the land and farming it for some time he went into
the Creek Nation of Indian Territory and from there
came to Pottawatomie county in 1903 and
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540
secured his present homestead, now known
as Sunny Slope Farm. The farm contains one hundred
acres of good land, much of it improved and under
cultivation, and the homestead is located three miles
east of Shawnee. In addition to this farm he also
owns a good business building in Holdenville, Oklahoma.
At the age of twenty-one years Mr. Evans
was united in marriage to Margaret Turner,
who has proved to him a loving companion and helpmate
in the establishment of their home in the new southwest,
and their union has been blessed by the birth of eight
children: Otilla Belle Dennis; Albert S., whose
home is in Seattle, Washington; Artemas Musson;
Yuree Alice; Lula Maud Schneither, of Shawnee;
Nora Oklahoma, whose birth occurred in this
state; James William, and Joseph Ellsworth.
Mrs. Evans is a daughter of Hayden and Polly
(Cantrell) Turner, North Carolina people, and
the father was a Confederate soldier during the Civil
war. They are members of the Christian church. Mr.
and Mrs. Evans are respectively members of
the Baptist and Christian faith, and Mr. Evans
is a Republican in his political affiliations.
DR. W. W. FARRIS,
one of the best known of the medical practitioners
of Moral, is a graduate of the College of Physicians
and Surgeons of St. Louis, Missouri, with the class
of 1907, and in the same year of his graduation he
came to Oklahoma and began practice at Moral, where
his large patronage is indicative of his skill and
ability.
The Doctor was born in Franklin county,
Illinois, near Mulkeytown, April 6, 1878. His father,
James K. Farris, is an Illinois farmer and
a native of Tennessee, and his mother is Julia
(Wade) Farris, and in their family were twelve
children, of whom five sons and five daughters are
yet living. The family are Methodists in religion,
and the father is a member of the A. F. and A. M.
Dr. Farris was reared to the
life of a farmer, and passing from the common schools
to Ewing College, in Illinois, he studied in that
institution for some time and later for four years
was a successful school teacher. He is a member of
the order of Masons and of the modern Woodmen of America,
and his politics are Democratic. He is a young man
of most pleasing personality, an din his practice
he has already shown that he is well informed concerning
the principles of medicine and surgery. On May 12,
1908, he married Miss Maude McGinnis, who was
born in Franklin county, Illinois, and educated in
the common schools and at Ewing College, where she
taught four years.
LEE TROUTMAN,the
clerk of Burnett township, has served in this official
capacity for three terms, elected in 1902, and his
administration has been characterized with efficient
service. Born in Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania,
near Mount Pleasant, forty-nine years ago, he is a
member of a German family and a son of Isaac and
Eliza (Hiner) Troutman, both of whom were also
born in that state. There were nine children in their
family, four sons and five daughters, but Lee and
a sister are the only representatives in the west,
her home being at Enid, Oklahoma.
Lee Toutman was a boy of nine
at the time of his parents' removal to Benton county,
Iowa, where he was reared on a farm, and he was afterward
in Missouri and Nebraska for a time. In 1881 he secured
a homestead claim in Graham county, Kansas, on which
he built a sod house and improved his farm of one
hundred and sixty acres. While in that state, in February,
1890, he was married to Josie Newkirk, who
proved an excellent helpmate in establishing the new
home in the west. She was born in Clinton county,
Iowa, but when nine years of age went with her parents
to Graham county, Kansas, and was reared and educated
in that then frontier settlement, attending a pioneer
sod schoolhouse near her home. Her father, Abraham
Newkirk, served in an Iowa regiment during the
Civil war, and he is now living in Idaho, but her
mother, Orpha (Gregory) Newkirk, died in Kansas.
After a number of years in Kansas Mr.
and Mrs. Troutman left their farm there to
begin
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541
anew in the rapidly developing section
of Oklahoma, and they first established their home
on a partially improved farm in Pottawatomie county,
but selling their land after a time they moved to
Tribbey and built a home there. Mr. Troutman
is an excellent contractor and carpenter, and commands
a large trade in those lines. In their family are
four sons and four daughters: Orpha, Goldie, Martha,
Luther, Newkirk, Ethel, Alfred and Le Roy.
Mr. Troutman is a Socialist politically, an
active worker for the party, and both he and his wife
are earnest members of the Church of Christ.
HON. JOHN F. LINN,
present postmaster at Dale, Pottawatomie county, Oklahoma,
has had more than the ordinary experiences which come
to men, and his career is probably not at its high
tide yet. He was born in Highland county, Ohio, near
Hillsboro, January 24, 1844, of a good family, who
early taught him the usefulness of industry and honesty.
He is the son of John S. Linn, a native of
Virginia. The mother was Margaret Brown, born
in Ohio. They moved to Knox county, Illinois, locating
near Galesburg, where the father died, aged fifty-two
years. He was a farmer all of his life. His good wife
died at Guthrie, Oklahoma. Two sons and three daughters
were born to this worthy couple, of whom Hon. John
F. was the fourth child. He accompanied his parents
to Illinois, and there attended the public schools.
When President Lincoln called for more troops
in 1862, to suppress the Rebellion, he enlisted in
the Eighty-ninth Ohio Infantry Regiment of volunteers,
with him who was later known as Governor Foraker
and who then was but seventeen years of age. Mr. Linn
accompanied Sherman on his famous "March
to the Sea," back through the Carolinas to Washington,
participating in the grand review, July, 1865. He
was honorably discharged with a splendid military
record. He left Illinois and went to Furnas county,
Nebraska, where he homesteaded for two years, and
in 1885 returned to Knox county, Illinois. He again
was seized with the "western fever," and
went to Hodgeman county, Kansas, remained until 1890,
when he went to Oklahoma, locating in Lyon county,
and there remained for two years, having held the
office of county commissioner by appointment of Governor
Steele. He served two months and was elected
member of the first territorial legislature, in the
autumn of 1890, when the Territory of Oklahoma was
organized. He removed to Mullhall and subsequently
to Kingfisher, Oklahoma. At the last named place he
was made the superintendent of an ice plant, which
he managed until 1895, when he moved to Perry, Oklahoma,
where he remained three months, moving to Shawnee
in 1896. Here he embarked in the hardware business,
but later moved to his farm three and one-half miles
from Dale, where he has a fine farm of a quarter section
of land, all well improved, and of considerable value.
Mr. Linn was first married in Illinois,
to Sarah K. Housh, a native of Illinois, who
died in 1881, in Knox county, Illinois. He was married
the second time, in 1891, at Guthrie, Oklahoma, to
Dora B. Bowers, whose people came from Ohio
to Nebraska. His children are as follows: Bertha,
Earl, Raymond, Theodore, Lillie, and one deceased.
By the second marriage he was the father of one childHarold,
who died at the age of fourteen years.
Politically Mr. Linn is a stanch
Republican, who is a great admirer of President Roosevelt
and his public policy. He is an honored member of
the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and in his community
is esteemed for his many virtues and public spirited
disposition. He received the appointment as postmaster
at Dale, Oklahoma, January 20, 1908.
N. A. J. TICER
is one of the three commissioners of Pottawatomie
county and one of the leading merchants of Moral,
a prosperous and rapidly growing town on the railroad
four miles southeast of Tribbey. He was elected to
his present office on the 17th of September, 1907,
and has proved a safe and careful county official.
Oklahoma has been his home for twelve years, and he
is, therefore, numbered among the
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542
pioneers, his first home being on a
claim or farm four miles west of Moral, but later
he moved into the town and opened his store of general
merchandise, carrying a full line of dry goods, boots
and shoes, groceries and many other articles, and
his manly and straightforward dealings have secured
him an excellent patronage and many warm friends.
Mr. Ticer was born in Stone county,
Arkansas, April 6, 1861, and is a member of a very
old family of that state. His father, Hugh Clark
Ticer, was born in Alabama, and was a soldier
in the Confederate army during the Civil war. He was
a lifelong farmer, a Democrat politically and a member
of the Methodist Episcopal church, South, dying in
the faith of that denomination in June, 1898. His
wife, Sarah Caroline Rorie, was born in North
Carolina, and at her death left five children, one
of whom, James M., is a resident of Caddo county,
Oklahoma.
Another of her sons, N. A. J. Ticer,
was reared to the life of a farmer, and he attended
the public schools near his home during his boyhood
days, but his more specific training was received
by actual business experience. At the age of nineteen
he was married to Rosa Lawson, formerly of
Arkansas, and she died on the 20th of March, 1884,
leaving two children, one of whom is John W. Ticer.
His second wife, Zonietta Cartright, was also
a native of Arkansas, and at her death, April 11,
1899, she left four children: Henry Allen, Rosa
Pink, Mary Caroline and Newton Ed. On the
9th of January, 1905, Mr. Ticer married his
present wife, Sarah Weatherford, whose birth
occurred in Independence county, Arkansas, and by
this union two children have been born: Lillie
Jane and Oklahoma. Mr. Ticer is one of
the leading local workers in the Democratic party,
which he has represented in several conventions. He
was a member of the territorial convention of 1905,
and was a delegate to the state convention at Muskogee
in 1908. He is a prominent Odd Fellow, a member of
Moral Lodge No. 47, in which he has served in all
of the offices and as a representative to the Grand
Lodge; also a member of the A. F. & A. M. at Moral,
No. 33. When he was sixteen years of age, Mr. Ticer
united with the Methodist Episcopal church South,
and has been an active member since, taking part in
Sunday school and church work. Mrs. Ticer is
also a member of the same church.
JAMES HUTCHINSON,
manager of the Cary & Lombard Lumber Company,
of Wanette, has been a resident of Oklahoma for twenty-four
years, and since the 16th of March, 1904, has been
identified with the interests of Wanette. He was born
in Petersburg, Virginia, forty-four years ago, and
receiving a general literacy education he entered
the pharmacy department of Columbian University, Washington
D. C., and graduated with the class of 1884. Shortly
after his graduation and during Grover Cleveland's
administration he was appointed the government physician
of the drug department at Fort Reno, Oklahoma, and
continued in the government employ for four years.
From there he went to Perry, in this state, where
he had a good position as a druggist for five years,
and for some time after leaving that city he was in
Paul's Valley. It was from there that he came to Wanette
in 1904, and since allying his interests with those
of this city he has not only been active in its business
life as the manager of the Cary & Lombard Lumber
Company, but has also been prominent in its public
life, serving for three years as the city clerk and
is the present city treasurer.
Mr. Hutchinson is a son of Virginia
parents, Samuel C. and Margaret (Bruce) Hutchinson,
and on the paternal side he is of Scotch descent.
The father died in Petersburg, of the Old Dominion
state, in October, 1891, where he had long been a
prominent and successful physician, and his widow
is now living in Wanette with her son. James Hutchinson
was the second born of their eleven children, five
sons and six daughters. During his residence in Perry,
Oklahoma, in 1898, he married Mary A. Burch,
who was born in San Antonio, Texas, to J. E. and
Mary (Huntley) Burch. The father served the south
as a Confederate soldier during the Civil war. (p.
543) Mr. Hutchinson is a Democrat politically,
and his fraternal relations are with the Masonic order,
Lodge No. 88, in which he has filled all the offices;
the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, Wanette Lodge
No. 87; the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks,
Guthrie Lodge No. 426; the Knights of Pythias, Lodge
No. 7, and the Modern Woodmen of America. Both he
and his wife are members of the Baptist church.
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