Comanche County Oklahoma Biographies

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Comanche County Oklahoma Biographies

Thomas P. Gore, was a popular (and populist) senator from Oklahoma - the state's first senator, and the Senate's first blind member. He served from 1907-1921 and again from 1931-37, losing his bid for renomination in 1920 to a fellow Democrat because he opposed the League of Nations, and losing in '36 because of his opposition to the popular FDR. (In between, he returned to private law practice.) As a child, the young Vidal would often accompany his grandfather to the floor of the Senate, occasionally being permitted to sit in the chair reserved for the vice president. Sen. Gore sent campaign postcards to constituents during his losing 1936 re-election bid. "Don't trade a TRUE friend for a new friend," says the card. "Don't swap parachutes in mid air." Touting his well-known, anti-interventionist, anti-foreign-war stand - and borrowing from Shakespeare as he does it - the senator promises: "I will never rob the cradle to gorge the dogs of war." He lost the election, thus ending his political career.

FERRIS, SCOTT (1877-1945)

Long prominent in state Democratic politics, U.S. Representative Scott Ferris was born in Neosho, Missouri, on November 3, 1877, to Scott and Annie M. Ferris. He graduated from Newton County (Missouri) High School in 1897 and Kansas City School of Law in 1901. That same year he settled near Lawton, Oklahoma, and began practicing law. In 1904 he was elected to the Oklahoma Territorial House of Representatives, representing the Twenty-Second District. In June 1906 he married Grace Hubbert of Neosho. At statehood, Ferris was first elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, and he served from November 16, 1907, until March 3, 1921. Originally representing Oklahoma's Fifth District, he represented the Sixth after the 1914 election. He chaired the Committee on Public Lands from 1913 to 1919. He also sat on the Indian Affairs, Territories, and the Expenditures in the Department of Labor committees. In 1912 and 1916 he was a delegate to the Democratic National Conventions. In the 1920 primary for a U.S. Senate seat, Ferris beat incumbent Thomas Pryor Gore, who had opposed Pres. Woodrow Wilson's war and peace policies. The contest split the party wide open, and because of this and voter backlash against the administration, Ferris lost the general election to Republican John William Harreld. From 1921 to 1924 Ferris worked in the oil business in New York City. Returning to Oklahoma in 1925, he continued his business interests and resumed his law practice. In 1924 Oklahoma's Democratic Party chose him as national committeeman, and he served in that position until 1940. In 1934 he failed to secure candidacy for state attorney general, but because he supported E. W. Marland for governor, he became chairman of the Highway Commission. Ferris also owned and managed the Cotton Exchange Building in Oklahoma City. He died in Oklahoma City on June 8, 1945, and was interred in Rose Hill Cemetery.

GENSMAN, LORRAINE MICHAEL (1878-1954)

Born on a farm near Wichita, Kansas, on August 26, 1878, Lorraine Michael "Nick" Gensman was the son of Nicholas and Kansas Osborne Gensman. The future congressman attended various rural schools, the Garden Plain Graded School, the Wichita Commercial College, Lewis Academy, and the Kansas State Normal School at Emporia. After he left the normal school, he served as principal of the Andale, Kansas, schools in 1896 and 1897. Following graduation from the law department at the University of Kansas in 1901, he opened a law practice in Lawrence, Kansas. The lure of the land attracted the young attorney. Two weeks before the Kiowa and Comanche lands in southwestern Oklahoma were opened on August 6, 1901, Gensman arrived with a group of other pioneers. Although he opened a law office in Lawton, he served as a federal bankruptcy referee from 1902 to 1907. During this time he married fellow University of Kansas graduate Lucia Van Cleef on April 6, 1904. Gensman first sought elective office in 1918 when he became Comanche County attorney, a position he held only one term. In 1920 he launched a campaign for the U.S. House of Representatives and defeated Democrat Elmer Thomas in the Republican landslide. During his one term in Congress Gensman was a member of two committees, Indian Affairs and Insular Affairs. Although he was not reelected in 1922, he again made an unsuccessful campaign for the seat in 1936. He never held an elective office after 1922, but he remained a staunch advocate of the Republican Party. He continued to practice law until his retirement in 1953. He also was involved in the oil business. In addition, the former lawmaker and his wife made several trips abroad. During World War II he hosted a Lawton radio show and commented on the world as seen through the eyes of a traveler. He died in Lawton on May 27, 1954, and was interred in Highland Cemetery.

JOHN R. HOOD, M. D. The village of Indiahoma, Comanche County, figures as the professional headquarters and place of residence of Dr. John Robert Hood, who has built up a substantial practice in this county and is one of the honored and progressive citizens of his home village.
Doctor Hood was born at Columbia, Adair County, Kentucky, on January 1, 1870, and he is a scion not only of a pioneer family in the fine old Bluegrass State, but also of one that was founded in the historic Old Dominion Commonwealth of Virginia prior to the war of the Revolution, the lineage tracing back to staunch German origin and the original orthography of the name having been Hutt. Adair County, Kentucky, figures also as the place of nativity of the parents of Doctor Hood, who is a son of Joseph and Frances (Waggoner) Hood, both of whom there passed their entire lives, the mother having been summoned to eternal rest in 1898 and her birth having occurred in 1833; the father was born in 1835 and during his entire active career he was closely identified with the agricultural and live-stock industries in his native county, where his death occurred in 1905. Joseph Hood was a gallant soldier of the Union during three years of the Civil war, having been a member of a Kentucky regiment of volunteer infantry and having participated in many engagements. At the battle of Lost Mountain he received a severe grape-shot wound under the left eye, and from the effects of this injury he continued to suffer to a greater or less degree until the close of his long and worthy life. He was a stalwart adherent of the democratic party and was affiliated with the Masonic fraternity and the Grand Army of the Republic. Both he and his wife were consistent members of the Methodist Church, South. Concerning the children the following brief record is entered : Maria is the wife of John Riall, a farmer in Adair County, Kentucky; Susan is the wife of John Bault, a farmer at Cane Valley, that state; Joellen is the widow of George Harden and resides at Elkhorn, Kentucky; Eliphalet is a substantial farmer near Monroe, Kentucky; Dr. John R. of this review was the next in order of birth; Mary is the wife of William Burkhead a prosperous farmer near Grandfield, Tillman County, Oklahoma. In the public schools of Columbia, Kentucky, Dr. Hood continued his studies until his graduation in the high school, as a member of the class of 1892. Thereafter he gave his attention to teaching school and to attending the Hospital College of Medicine in the City of Louisville until his graduation in that institution, in 1897, with the degree of Doctor of Medicine. He continued in the practice of his profession in his native state until 1900, when he came to Oklahoma Territory and established his residence at Carrier, Garfield County, where he continued his professional activities until the autumn of 1902, when he removed to his farm, seven miles south of Indiahoma, where he continued in practice until 1912, in the meanwhile giving his supervision to the improvement and general operation of his farm, which he still owns and which he had developed into a valuable property. In 1912 the doctor removed from his rural home to the village of Indiahoma, where he is the only resident physician and surgeon and where he controls a large and representative practice which extends throughout the wide area of country normally tributary to the village. Dr. Hood is actively identified with the Comanche County Medical Society and the Oklahoma State Medical Society, besides holding membership in the American Medical Association. In a fraternal way he is affiliated with the Modern Woodmen of America, the Woodmen of the World and the Independent Order of Oddfellows, being medical examiner for the local organization of both the former in his home town. Both he and his wife are zealous members of the Christian Church at Indiahoma and he is serving as a deacon of the same. His political fealty has never been deflected from the democratic party and as a citizen he is progressive and liberal. He has served as deputy health officer of Comanche County, and prior to his removal from his native state he had held the position of assistant health officer of Casey County, Kentucky. At Casey Creek, Kentucky, on the 22d of December, 1896, was solemnized the marriage of Dr. Hood to Miss Minnie McWhorter, daughter of Charles B. McWhorter, who is now a successful agriculturist in Tillman County, Oklahoma. Doctor and Mrs. Hood have four children : Nina, Bernice, Robert and Edwin, all of whom are attending the public schools in their home village with the exception of the youngest. [A STANDARD HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA, By JOSEPH B THOBURN, Published in 1916 - submitted by K. Torp]

Toby Morris (February 28, 1899 - September 1, 1973) was a U.S. Representative from Oklahoma. Born in Granbury, Texas, Morris moved to what was then Comanche County, Oklahoma, in 1906 and to Walters, Oklahoma, in 1913. He attended the public schools, leaving high school in his senior year, during World War I, to enlist in the United States Army. He served successively as private, corporal, and sergeant with the 110th Combat Engineers, attached to the 35th Division, from October 1917 to May 1919. He studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1920. Morris was a court clerk of Cotton County, Oklahoma from 1921 to 1925 and a prosecuting attorney from 1925-1929. He began the private practice of law in Walters, Oklahoma, in 1929. He served as district judge of the twenty-first judicial district of Oklahoma from 1937 to 1946. Morris was elected as a Democrat to the 80th and to the two succeeding Congresses (January 3, 1947-January 3, 1953). He was an unsuccessful candidate for renomination in 1952 to the 83rd Congress. He served as district judge of the fifth judicial district of Oklahoma from January 1955 to December 1956. Morris was elected to the 85th and to the 86th Congresses (January 3, 1957-January 3, 1961). He was an unsuccessful candidate for renomination in 1960 to the 87th Congress. He served as judge for the Oklahoma State Industrial Court, July 1, 1961, to July 17, 1963. He served as district judge for the State of Oklahoma, retiring in January 1971. After retirement, Morris resided in Lawton, Oklahoma, where he died September 1, 1973. He was interred in Sunset Memorial Gardens.

THOMAS, JOHN WILLIAM ELMER (1876-1965)

U.S. Representative and U.S. Senator John William Elmer Thomas ranks among Oklahoma's most important political leaders during the state's first four decades. Born to William and Elizabeth Thomas September 8, 1876, on a farm in Putnam County, Indiana, Elmer Thomas was seventh among seven boys and five girls. The young man found "general farm work was my lot, but not to my liking." Upon graduation from the one-room school at Brunerstown, the fifteen-year-old weighed 130 pounds and had passed six feet in height. Thomas's mother, a former teacher, encouraged him to pursue a pedagogical career, and while attending Central Normal College, Danville, Indiana, he taught at Happy Hollow, a one-room school. He graduated from Central in l897. During the 1896 presidential contest twenty-year-old Thomas met and vigorously campaigned for William Jennings Bryan. Thomas recollected, "I thought I was able to explain the free silver 16-1 issue...to small town audiences." This experience led him to study law at De Pauw University, where he debated, edited the yearbook, and graduated in 1900. Thomas turned his attention toward Oklahoma after viewing a poster advertising a Rough Riders reunion in Oklahoma City. Visions of opportunity flashed through his mind, and he hastily decided to go west. Arriving on November 16, l900, he at first taught English, received a license to practice law, went into business with Jay M. Jackson, a real estate agent. In the summer of 1901 Thomas moved his practice to Lawton. On September 24, l902, he married Edith Smith. They had one child, Wilford Smith Thomas, in 1904. Water proved Lawton's scarcest commodity, and seeing a business opportunity, Thomas developed a partnership with Hal A. Lloyd of Altus. They opened Medicine Park Resort on Medicine Creek, near Mount Scott. The resort featured a dam that diverted water to Lawton, fifteen miles away. Thomas often hosted gatherings at the resort, earning him the sobriquet "the Sage of Medicine Park." Elected to the first Oklahoma Senate in l907, he achieved a number of successes. He served as president pro tempore from l910 to l913 and for ten years chaired the appropriations committee, a position responsible for funding the new state capitol project. He also helped establish the state game and fish department and oversaw installation of the state's first fish hatchery, at Medicine Park. Although he won the Sixth District Democratic nomination for U.S. Representative in l920, he lost the November election. In l922 he ran again and won. In Congress he served on the House Committee on Public Lands and Claims and maintained a keen interest in Indian Affairs and the farm problem. Between l922 and l926 he supported Indian education measures, the McNary-Haugen Farm Relief Bill, and legislation expanding farm credit. In l926 he defeated former governor Jack Walton in the Democratic primary for U.S. Senator, attacked the Coolidge administration for its insensitivity to farmers, and defeated Republican incumbent J. W. Harreld. In the Senate Thomas received assignment to the Committee on Agriculture and Forestry. During the Hoover administration he again supported McNary-Haugenism, as well as an export debenture bill, and he reluctantly backed Hoover's Agricultural Marketing Act in l929. As the Great Depression intensified, he vainly advocated paying the soldier's bonus, liberalizing Federal Reserve policies, and currency expansion. Standing for reelection in l932, he defeated Gomer Smith of Oklahoma City in the primary and Republican oilman Wirt Franklin of Ardmore. Hard times dominated Thomas's second term. The new crisis reminded him of the farm plight of the 1890s, and his solution remained the same inflation and bimetallism. Proclaiming "We've got a surplus of everything but money," the Oklahoman gained leadership of a growing number of inflationists. An enthusiastic New Dealer, he crafted an ingenious legislative proposal became known as the Thomas Amendment to the Agricultural Adjustment Act of May l933. The amendment combined four major inflation suggestions into one omnibus measure and granted the president permissive powers to use none, one, or any combination of inflation techniques. After meeting with Thomas, the president accepted the amendment, and it became part of the "One Hundred Days" legacy of the Roosevelt administration. Thomas's New Deal credentials and his state boosterism transformed dust into lakes, brought about a host of public works projects, and secured the location of Tinker Air Force Base in Oklahoma. When Roosevelt visited in l938, he urged voters to reelect him, and Thomas easily defeated Republican Harvey O. Glasser in November. Thomas, who knew Quanah Parker and had witnessed Geronimo's Christian baptism at Medicine Park, considered himself a friend to American Indians. He chaired the Committee on Indian Affairs between l935 and l944. Thomas maintained a keen interest in European geopolitics. A supporter of the League of Nations, the World Court, and the Kellogg-Briand Peace Pact in l927 and l928, he visited Paris as a delegate to the Inter-Parliamentary Union and made side trips to Moscow and Berlin. He voted for neutrality legislation in 1935 and l937 but proclaimed military preparedness his main concern. In 1923 he had been commissioned lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army, and he served in military intelligence. He retained that rank in the Reserves. In June l938 he became chair of the Sub-Committee on Military Appropriations, and after inspecting numerous bases found the country's defenses "in critical condition." During World War II his subcommittee secured funding for the top-secret atomic bomb project. In the 1944 election he defeated Republican William J. Otjen. By the late l940s Thomas ranked third in Senate seniority and chaired the Committee on Agriculture and Forestry from 1944 to1946 and l949 to l950. He represented the Agriculture Committee at food conferences in Quebec and Copenhagen in l945 and l946, witnessed the Nuremberg War Trials, and in l949 toured fourteen European capitols to audit Marshall Plan funds. In the l950 primary septuagenarian Thomas contested the youthful A. S. "Mike" Monroney. Thomas's position favoring the private power companies over the rural electric cooperatives and farmers may have cost him the race. He lost by 14,653 votes. Leaving the Senate, Thomas opened a law office in Washington, served as a delegate to the l952 Democratic national convention, and in l953 spoke at the dedication of the new dam at Lake Tenkiller. "The Sage of Medicine Park" retired to Lawton in l957 and died there September 19, l965.

Colonel Rosemary Hogan

Rosemary began life on March 13, 1912, the daughter of Francis M. and Mary A. Hogan. Born in rural Ahpeatone, Oklahoma, Rosemary Hogan attended school in neighboring Chattanooga, where she was class valedictorian and earned a nursing scholarship. After receiving training in Texas, she joined the U.S. Army Nurse Corps at Fort Sill in 1936. One of the first woman heroes of WWII, and one of the first nurses to be awarded a purple heart, Rosemary Hogan of Chattanooga, Oklahoma, was known as one of the “Angels of Bataan” for her acts of courage and service to others during the war and while a Japanese prisoner of war. For a small-town girl who had never been out of Oklahoma, becoming an army nurse and seeing the world was an exciting adventure. She landed on the Philippine Islands in December, 1941, and shortly afterward the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. Heavy fighting also broke out in the Philippines and Nurse Hogan was sent to Bataan Peninsula to set up a 1,000-bed hospital. On Christmas Eve, 1941, she took 25 U.S. Army nurses and 25 Filipino nurses with her to Bataan. What had in the beginning been beautiful scenery, was now a frightening piece of jungle. The nurses arrived at the site of the first hospital in Limay, and found a warehouse with hospital equipment packed for overseas shipment in lieu of an operating hospital. The nurses unpacked, inventoried the supplies and set up medical stations. Soon the hospital was ordered to move closer to the fighting, to a place called “Little Baguio.” Hogan served as Assistant Chief of Nurses until she was wounded April, 1942 while she and another nurse were assisting a surgeon in an operating while they were under attack. They finally took refuge in foxholes. Hogan was badly wounded sustaining shrapnel wounds, for which she received the Purple Heart and the hospital at Bataan was destroyed. Hogan and the other wounded were taken to Corregidor to recover. As the were being evacuated, their plane was forced to land on Mindanao Island and they were captured by the Japanese. Hogan was imprisoned at Santo Tomas prison Manila until the liberation by American forces in 1945. After the war, Hogan transferred to the Air Force Nurse Corps, where she served as Chief Nurse at Boling Air Force Hospital; at Technical Training Air Force Base at Biloxi, Mississippi; and at the Tactical Command, Langley Air Force Base, Virginia, the position from which she retired. Hogan was among the first four women to attain the rank of full Colonel. She married Air Force Major Arnold Luciano and after retirement they made their home in San Antonio, Texas. Colonel Rosemary Hogan died in 1964 and is buried at Arlington National Cemetery and is buried in the nurses' section. In October 1978 Hogan Hall at Sheppard Air Force Base, Wichita Falls, Texas, was dedicated to her memory, and in November 1997 she was posthumously inducted into the Oklahoma Aviation and Space Hall of Fame.