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Marion County
Biographies
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ALFRED B. BEARD
One of the sterling pioneer citizens of Oklahoma, Mr. Beard is a well known and highly esteemed citizen of Sapulpa, Creek County, and his is the distinction of being one of the gallant patriots who served as soldiers of the Union in the Civil war and did well their part in preserving the integrity of the nation.
Mr. Beard was born in White County, Illinois, on the 13th of August, 1840, and, as the date indicates, he is a representative of a pioneer family of that section of the state. He is a son of Thomas and Jane (Ogburn) Beard, the former of whom was born in Maury County, Tennessee, and the latter of whom was a native of North Carolina. Their marriage was solemnized in Marion County, Illinois, where Mr. Beard established his residence as a young man of twenty-two years and where his wife had accompanied her parents on their removal from North Carolina to number themselves among the pioneer settlers of Illinois. Thomas Beard was a resident of Bartlesville, Oklahoma, at the time of his death, in May, 1884, and attained to the age of sixty-seven years. His wife passed the closing period of her life at Fredonia, Kansas, where she died in 1875, at the age of fifty-four years, the greater part of their lives having been passed in Illinois and Kansas. After the close of the Civil war Thomas Beard removed with his family to Pleasant Hill, Missouri, the trip from Illinois having been made with team and wagon, and from that locality they later removed to Wilson County, Kansas, where occurred the death of the devoted wife and mother, the active career of Thomas Beard having been one of close and effective association with the fundamental industries of agriculture and stock-growing. Of the family of five sons and three daughters Alfred B., of this review, is the eldest; Harriet became the wife of Pliny Chapman, of Siloam Springs, Arkansas, and later they became pioneer settlers in Oklahoma; William Henry, of Neosho, Newton County, Missouri, served three years as a soldier in the Civil war, he having been a member of the One Hundred and Eleventh Illinois Volunteer Infantry and having been held as a prisoner for some time prior to the close of the war, his capture having been effected in connection with one of the engagements in which he had taken part; John W. died in 1866, as a young man; Sarah became the wife of Albert Troxel and both are now deceased; Philip is a resident of Coffeyville, Kansas; and Lee, who is the widow of David H. Cowls, resides at Fayetteville, Arkansas.
Alfred B. Beard remained with his parents and continued his association with the work and management of the home farm until there came to him the call of higher duty, with the outbreak of the Civil war, his educational advantages in the meanwhile having been those afforded in the common schools of his native state. In response to President Lincoln's first call for volunteers, he enlisted, in July, 1861, as a private in Company I, Fortieth Illinois Volunteer Infantry, and with this valiant command he continued in active service until 1863, when he was honorably discharged, on account of physical disability. He took part in numerous eugagements, including the memorable battles of Shiloh and Corinth, and after his discharge he returned to his home in Illinois. In the autumn of 1865 he accompanied his wife and her parents to Kansas and established his residence on a pioneer farm two miles distant from Fredonia, the county seat, which now thriving little city then had only five houses to denote its being. He continued as one of the representative agriculturists and stock-growers of that section of the Sunflower State until after his sons had numbered themselves among the pioneers of Oklahoma City, soon after the opening of Oklahoma Territory to settlement, in 1889, when he joined them in the new territory and became associated with the two sons, Henry and John, in their industrial operations. Later he removed to Shawnee, prior to the opening of that section to settlement, and there he continued his identification with agricultural pursuits until the line of the Frisco Railroad was extended through that section, when he became associated with the location and development of town sites along the railroad. He was virtually the fouuder of the Town of Woodville, Marshall County, and became its first settler. He was associated in the organization of the First National Bank of Woodville, was one of its original board of directors and erected the building in which it initiated business. In 1911, Mr. Beard established his residence at Sapulpa, where he has since lived practically retired, as one of the sterling pioneers of the vigorous young state of his adoption. He did the first drilling for oil in Marshall County and developed there the first two productive oil wells of importance. He has been worthily concerned with the civic and industrial progress of Oklahoma and is a citizen to whom is accorded the fullest measure of popular esteem.
In politics Mr. Beard accords unfaltering allegiance to the republican party, and he cast his first presidential vote for President Lincoln, he having been at the time a soldier in the field. He is affiliated with the Grand Army of the Republic, and both he and his wife are active members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, of which they have been connected during the period of their residence in Oklahoma.
On the 12th of March, 1865, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Beard to Miss Catherine C. Gee, who was born in Marion County, Illinois, on the 27th of May, 1842, and who there continued to reside until the time of her marriage. She is a daughter of John W. and Lucy (Roby) Gee. Mr. Gee was born in Kentucky, where his parents established their home upon their removal from Virginia, but he was reared and educated in Indiana, where his father was a pioneer farmer. His wife was born in Massachusetts and they were pioneer settlers in Washington County, Indiana, whence they later removed to Marion County, Illinois, where they passed the remainder of their lives. Mr. Gee was a first cousin of the maternal grandfather of Hon. William Jennings Bryan, whose mother was a Jennings. John and James Jennings, maternal uncles of Mr. Gee, were patriot soldiers in the War of the Revolution, and William Ogburn, maternal grandfather of Mr. Gee, likewise was a valiant soldier of the Continental line in the great conflict for national independence. John W. Gee, a brother of Mrs. Beard, is now a resident of Jefferson, Oklahoma, and in the Civil war he served as a member of Company C, One Hundred and Eleventh Illinois Volunteer Infantry, from 1862 until the close of the war, it having been his privilege to participate in the grand review, in the City of Washington, after victory had thus crowned the Union arms. Mr. Beard perpetuates his vital interest in his old comrades of the Civil war through his association with the Grand Army of the Republic, and his unequivocal popularity in its ranks is indicated by the fact that at the time of this writing, in 1915, he is serving as commander of John A. Logan Post, No. 49, at Sapulpa. In the concluding paragraph of this article is entered a brief record concerning the children of Mr. and Mrs. Beard.
Henry G., the eldest of the number, is individually mentioned on other pages of this work. John W. is a representative citizen of Ada, the judicial center of Pontotoc County, Oklahoma, and he served as a soldier in the Spanish-American war, in which he was a member of a volunteer regiment from Oklahoma Territory. Lola is the wife of Samuel R. Wilson, of Watsonville, Colorado. Lyman F., who served with the celebrated Roosevelt Rough Riders in the Spanish-American war, is now a resident of Siloam Springs, Arkansas. Laura B. is the wife of David A. Spears and they maintain their home at Billings, Montana. Claude R. died in July, 1907, at the age of twenty-seven years. Oliver is cashier of the First National Bank of Lehigh, Oklahoma. Hersehel, the youngest of the children, died in infancy.
[Source: A Standard History of Oklahoma Volume 4 By Joseph Bradfield Thoburn - Submitted by a Friend of Free Genealogy]
WILLIAM JENNINGS BRYAN
BRYAN, William Jennings, (father of Ruth Bryan Owen), a Representative from Nebraska; born in Salem, Marion County, Ill., March 19, 1860; attended the public schools and Whipple Academy, Jacksonville, Ill.; was graduated from Illinois College, Jacksonville, Ill., in 1881; studied law at Union College in Chicago; was graduated in 1883 and commenced practice at Jacksonville, Ill., in 1883; moved to Lincoln, Nebr., in 1887 and continued the practice of law; elected as a Democrat to the Fifty-second and Fifty-third Congresses (March 4, 1891-March 3, 1895); declined to be a candidate for reelection in 1894; unsuccessful candidate for election to the United States Senate in 1894; delegate to the Democratic National Conventions in 1896, 1904, 1912, 1920, and 1924; unsuccessful Democratic candidate for President in 1896, 1900, and 1908; was endorsed by the Populist and Silver Republican Parties in the first and second campaigns; during the Spanish-American War raised the Third Regiment, Nebraska Volunteer Infantry, in May 1898 and was commissioned colonel; established a newspaper, “The Commoner,” at Lincoln, Nebr., in 1901; engaged in editorial writing and delivering Chautauqua lectures; Secretary of State in the Cabinet of President Wilson and served from March 4, 1913, until June 9, 1915, when he resigned; resumed his former pursuits of lecturing and writing; established his home in Miami, Fla., in 1921; died while attending court in Dayton, Tenn., July 26, 1925; interment in Arlington National Cemetery.
[Source: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1774-Present; transcribed by A. N.]
J. R. CHARLTON
Educator, historian, newspaper man, minister and legist, there is probably no better known figure in Washington County, Oklahoma, than J. R. Charlton, of Bartlesville. In each of the various fields in which he has labored, he has made an enviable reputation, and if an individual's true character may be determined by the opinion of those around him, his is irreproachable. To enumerate and describe the varied activities of his useful life would be to prepare a sketch which would transcend the limits of this volume. It must suffice that the biographer attempt an outline of the salient points in a career remarkable for its usefulness and helpfulness to his community and his fellowmen.
J. R. Charlton was born at Salem, Marion County, Illinois, July 21, 1858, and is a son of W. J. and Elizabeth Ann (Huff) Charlton. His maternal grandfather was Samuel A. Huff, who moved to Kansas in 1873 and took up Government land near Sedan, where he passed the remaining years of his life. His paternal grandfather, Isaac Bradbury Charlton, was a native of Virginia who went to Tennessee in 1820 and married a Miss Black, following which he moved to Marion County, Illinois, and located on the farm on which J. R. Charlton was born. There also was born W. J. Charlton, December 31, 1836, and in that community he was married to Elizabeth Ann Huff, who was born about six miles distant, March 28, 1838. They resided on the Charlton homestead until 1877, when they went to Chautauqua County, Kansas, traveling in true pioneer style by prairie schooner, and locating at Sedan, where they resided until about 1900 when they moved four miles north of Independence, Montgomery County, and there they still reside, typical Kansas farming people. At the age of seventy-eight years Mr. Charlton is still managing his own farm, doing all his chores, including the preparing of the wood for his wood fire. On his seventy-eighth birthday he was pleasantly surprised by his Sunday school class, the members of which brought their own implements and cut up enough wood to last him during the following year. He and his faithful wife are consistent members of the Christian Church, and have taken an active part in Sunday school work, and in politics he has been a stanch and lifelong democrat. They have been the parents of four children: J. R., of this review; Mrs. Adelia Hayward, who is deceased; Cora, who is the wife of Oliver Beemer, of Chattanooga, Oklahoma and Mamie, the wife of George Underwood, of Independence, Kansas.
J. R. Charlton was reared on the homestead farm in Illinois, received his early education in the public schools, and was nineteen years of age when he came to the West. He had graduated from the Odin (Illinois) High School, and had decided upon a career as a teacher, and when he came to Kansas his parents accompanied him. His first school was located six miles east of Sedan, Kansas, where he was teaching in 1878 when he was induced by his uncle, J. D. McBrian, who married Mr. Charlton's mother's sister, and resided at Sedan, Kansas, where he was a minister of the Christian Church and an attorney, to come into his office and study. There Mr. Charlton read law during two summers, teaching school in the winter terms and studying at night times, and was finally admitted to the bar August 16, 1880. He did not immediately enter practice, for he taught for two more years before opening an office, when he moved to Elk City, Kansas, and in March, 1884, began practice in Montgomery County, Kansas. There he continued until 1906, when he moved to his present home at Bartlesville, although he had lived within thirty-five miles of this place since 1877.
While in Montgomery County, in 1890, Mr. Charlton was elected county attorney on the democratic ticket, and served in that capacity during the famous Dalton raid at Coffeyville. It was through his efforts that Emmett Dalton was sent to the penitentiary, but in later years he also assisted in securing his freedom. He was re-elected county attorney in 1906, and since the close of that term, in 1908, has applied himself to the practice of law simply as a practitioner. His law practice is largely of a criminal character, and Mr. Charlton is probably one of the most capable and best known legists in this field in the state, having defended during the last four years twenty-eight persons charged with murder. One of the first of these cases was that of Nettie Brown and her step-son, Pete Brown, charged with the murder of Mrs. Brown's husband in Osage County. Mr. Charlton obtained a change of venue to Bartlesville, where Pete Brown turned state's evidence and the prisoner was sent to the penitentiary for life. Another case, and one of the most famous in the history of Oklahoma, was that of Mrs. Laura Reuter, who was accused of killing her husband, was convicted in this county, and was granted a new trial through the efforts of Mr. Charlton, who, with the assistance of two other attorneys, finally secured her acquittal. His professional career has been crowded with interesting incidents, among which may be mentioned the first law suit in the United States Commissioners Court at Bartlesville, in 1895, when there being no building to hold court in, temporary seats were erected in Pecan Grove. Mr. Charlton won his case over his opponent, W. A. Chase.
Mr. Charlton has been a regular ordained minister of the Christian Church since 1894. He has preached all over this part of the country, where he has dedicated over thirty churches, and is now pastor of the church at Dewey, where he held a meeting in February, 1915, and had 123 converts. He was the organizer of the Christian Church at Bartlesville, following a meeting which he hold at Bartles Grove or Park, in July, 1897, and had sixty-six members, continuing to preach here every other Sunday and driving all the way from Caney, Kansas, until June, 1900, when a church was dedicated here on the present site of the Masonic Building. When Mr. Charlton came to Bartlesville, in 1908, he found the Christian Church in Dewey with but twenty-two members, in a small frame building. He set about to build up this congregation, erected a new church which was dedicated in May, 1908, and now has the largest congregation in the city, consisting of 270 members. As a minister he is zealous, sincere and energetic, a friend as well as a spiritual advisor to his people and greatly beloved by them.
While his fraternal connections are not numerous, he is well known in the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, with which he has been identified as a member since 1890. Mr. Charlton is widely known as a speaker, not alone on religious subjects, but in the cause of morality, temperance, good citizenship and helpful living, and his services are in constant demand at various meetings and celebrations. He was state evangelist of Kansas in 1897, being selected by the state organization of the Christian Church, and occupied a prominent place on the program of the state convention of the Christian Church held at Oklahoma City, in June, 1915. In 1891, he was invited to Bartlesville by Col. Jake Bartles to deliver the Fourth of July oration, and for three days Mr. Charlton and his wife were entertained at the Bartles' home. A crowd of 5,000 people from all over the countryside attended the three-day celebration, twenty beeves were barbecued, the Indians held their war dances, the park was lighted by electricity generated in Colonel Bartles' own mill, and the dances, boat rides and other festivities of the occasion made an impression on Mr. Charlton's mind that he will never forget. Incidentally, the United States marshal "roped in" about fifteen bootleggers, who, in the absence of a jail, were secured by being tied to trees, much to the edification of the crowd. Mr. Charlton delivers several lectures annually before the schools of this and other communities, and wherever heard is a general favorite with teachers and pupils alike, by reason of his interesting and instructive talks.
Mr. Charlton has lived a strictly temperate life, and has never tasted intoxicants or tobacco. His experiences during the early days were exciting and dangerous when he drove all over the country before the advent of the railroads. He often collected large sums of money for the harvester company which he carried on his person, but while the country was infested with criminals and "bad men" of all descriptions, to many of whom he was known personally, he never had any fear of being molested, nor was he. His experience as a newspaper man was while a resident of Elk City, Kansas; where for six years he conducted a weekly newspaper, the Elk City Enterprise. There he secured much valuable literary training, which was shown in his able chapter on Caney, written for the "History of Montgomery County, Kansas, " which was published in 1903.
As a voter, Mr. Charlton has always supported the democratic ticket. His first appearance in a court room was when, at the age of eight years, he went to hear a trial in which the presiding judge was Uncle Silas Bryan, the father of William Jennings Bryan. He later visited Judge Bryan's farm and became a personal friend of his son, William J., was a member of the Democratic State Central Committee of Kansas in 1900, and chairman of the Speakers Bureau, and campaigned with Mr. Bryan for two days when he visited Kansas. Mr. Charlton later attended the national conventions of the democratic party at St. Louis in 1904, and Denver in 1908.
On April 3, 1881, Mr. Charlton was married to Miss Hattie May Hutchison, who was born at Indianapolis, Indiana, October 18, 1861, a daughter of John Hutchison, who came to Kansas and settled near Lawrence in 1867, two years later removing to Elk City. Mr. and Mrs. Charlton were married at his farm, seven miles west of Elk City. They have one son: Roy Earl, born June 3, 1887, at Elk City, now deputy sheriff of Washington County, Oklahoma, and a resident of Bartlesville. He was married January 3, 1908, at Indianapolis, Indiana, to Miss Kittle Butler.
[A Standard History of Oklahoma , by Joseph B. Thoburn , 1916 -- Transcribed by Cathy Ritter]
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