DEGRAW, CORREL C.
The present court clerk of Beaver County, one of the most popular residents of that section of the state, is
an original Oklahoma eighty-niner, though he was only a child at the time. The DeGraw family settled in Kingfisher
County, and its members have been closely associated with developments here for more than a quarter of a century.
The DeGraw family came to Oklahoma from Kansas. Correl C. DeGraw was born in a stone house on a farm in Pottawatomie
County, Kansas, July 26, 1879, a son of Byron and Anna (Bothsell) DcGraw. His father was born in 1847 in Iowa,
a son of Joseph and Jane DeGraw, the former a native of Canada and the latter of Pennsylvania. Byron DeGraw has
been a farmer all his life, combining that occupation with stock raising. He went from Iowa to Kansas in 1872,
lived in Pottawatomie County a number of years, and in 1883 moved to Stafford County, where he was engaged in farming
until the notable year of 1889. Though he was not a participant in the grand opening of Oklahoma, he arrived in
August, about four months after the opening, and secured a tract of government land in Kingfisher County near the
present City of Hennessey. That was his home for eight years, and he is now engaged in farming in Dewey County.
Miss Anna Bothsell, whom he married in 1876, was born September 22, 1852, at Quincy, Illinois, a daughter of Joseph
Bothsell, also a native of Illinois. Mrs. DeGraw died August 17, 1897, at Hennessey, Oklahoma. There were seven
children, four sons and three daughters, mentioned briefly as follows: Correl C.; Joseph Parks, born January 10,
1881, now a farmer in Beaver County; Guy, born August 20, 1884, a farmer in Blaine County, Oklahoma; Flossie, born
December 23, 1887, married in 1903, John Dugan, and they now live in Blaine County; Ionia, born December 23, 1889,
and died January 2 1890; Bessie, born March 3, 1893, who was married 1914, and lived in Kansas City, Missouri;
Rector, born March 15, 1895, and now engaged in farming in Dewie County.
Correl C. DeGraw was ten years of age when he came to Oklahoma with his parents. His subsequent education was
obtained from the public schools of Hennessey, as his early youth was surrounded by the conditions typical of an
Oklahoma farm during the decade of the '90s. In 1904 Mr. DeGraw took the Civil service examination the Indian school
service, and soon afterward was appointed an industrial teacher at the Pierre Indian Schools in Pierre, South Dakota.
He remained in the work in South Dakota for three years. In 1907, having returned to Oklahoma, he located at Beaver,
and engaged in merchandising. In 1911 he bought a farm two miles north of Beaver, and that is where he now makes
his home.
For a number of years he has taken an active part in republican politics, and it was on the republican ticket
that he was chosen to his present office. In 1912 he was appointed clerk of the County Court of Beaver County an
office he held two years. In 1914 he was elected court clerk of the same county. He is a member of the Masonic
Order and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows.
On August 1, 1900, at Watonga, Oklahoma, Mr. DeGraw married Miss Laura Boston, who was born September 21, 1882,
in Johnson County, Missouri, a daughter of James W. and Eva (Thistle) Boston, both of them natives of St. Louis.
Mr. and Mrs. DeGraw are the parents of three children, two sons and one daughter, namely Correl James, born May
14, 1901, at O'Keene, Oklahoma; Alva Byron, born September 11, 1904, at O'Keene and Fern, born July 10, 1910, at
Beaver. [Source: “A Standard History of Oklahoma” Volume V; by Joseph B. Thoburn; copyright 1916; Transcribed by
Andaleen Whitney]
CHARLES JENKINS
Charles Jenkins of Pottawatomie county was born in Oneida county, New York, in the year 1805. He lived there
a number of years and then moved to Lassalle county, Illinois. In the spring of 1855 he settled in Pottawatomie
county, Kansas. He died in April 1873 near Westmoreland, Kansas. (Transactions of the Kansas State Historical Society
1907-1908, Vol. X, edited by Geo. W. Martin, Secretary, State Printing Office, Topeka, 1908, page 211)
ANDREW J. MEAD
Andrew J. Mead, member of the free-state legislature for Riley and Pottawatomie counties, was born about 1819 and
reared in New York city. He came to Kansas from Cincinnati Ohio, in 1866, for the Cincinnati & Kansas Land
Company, of which he was a member, to locate a town site. He brought with him a surveyor and located the town of
Manhattan, of which he was the first mayor. He was nominated state treasurer by the free-state delegate convention,
December 28, 1867, and was elected under the Lecompton constitution, January 4,1868, by a majority of 371 votes
over Thomas J. B. Cramer, pro-slavery. He signed the call for the railroad convention of 1860, and was a member
of that body from Riley County. In October 1868, Mr. Mead left Kansas for New Orleans, finally settling in New
York City. He was an ardent free-state sympathizer, and did much effective work for the cause. Mr. Mead died at
Yonkers, N. Y., Saturday, November 12, 1904, in his eighty-ninth year. (Transactions of the Kansas State Historical
Society 1907-1908, Vol. X, edited by Geo. W. Martin, Secretary, State Printing Office, Topeka, 1908, page 205)
