Johnston County Oklahoma Biographies - presented by Genealogy Trails

Johnston County, Oklahoma Biographies

Since the election of Gov. Bill Anoatubby in 1987, the Chickasaw Nation entered the twenty-first century as a successful economic and political entity. From its tribal headquarters in Ada, Oklahoma, the nation had expanded its tribal enterprise programs and provided employment opportunities to tribe and non-tribe members throughout the United States. Gaming revenues were used to establish or expand business ventures, including tobacco shops, travel plazas, a publishing company, and an electrical utility. The Chickasaw population reached approximately thirty-seven thousand with some twenty-six thousand resident in Oklahoma. Those tribe members received a wide range of services, including family assistance, housing, health care, and education and training. Heritage preservation and the study of Chickasaw language, culture, and history remained a primary focus of tribal leaders. The Chickasaw Nation had achieved political and economic stability that boded well for the future of its people.

Neill Ford Armstrong (born March 9,1926 in Tishomingo, Oklahoma) is a former football player and coach whose career spanned more than 40 years at both the collegiate and professional levels.Armstrong played college football at Oklahoma A&M from 1943-1946, and was drafted in the first round (eighth overall) of the 1947 NFL draft by the Philadelphia Eagles. Playing both at wide receiver and defensive back. Armstrong helped the team capture the NFL championship in both 1948 and 1949. Armstrong concluded his playing career in the early 1950s playing for the CFL's Winnepeg Blue Bombers.In 1962, Armstrong's professional coaching career began when he was hired as an assistant coach with the Houston Oilers. After serving two years in that capacity, he shifted back to Canada as head coach of the Edmonton Eskimoes. In his six years, the team reached the postseason three times. Armstrong was hired as an assistant with the Minnesota Vikings in 1970, and became an integral part of developing the team's dominating defense. After helping the team reach the postseason in all but one of the next eight years, he was hired as head coach of the Chicago Bears on February 16, 1978. In four years at the helm of the Bears, he was only able to compile a record of 30-35, with one playoff appearance in 1979. He was fired on January 3, 1982, but hired less than two months later as an assistant with the Dallas Cowboys. He spent the next eight seasons with the team before announcing his retirement on February 22, 1990.

Born in Tioga, Texas on September 29, 1907, Gene Autry was raised in Texas and Oklahoma in Johnston County. Discovered by humorist Will Rogers, in 1929 Autry was billed as "Oklahoma's Yodeling Cowboy" at KVOO in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He gained a popular following, a recording contract with Columbia Records in 1929, and soon after, performed on the "National Barn Dance" for radio station WLS in Chicago. Autry first appeared on screen in 1934 and up to 1953 popularized the musical Western and starred in 93 feature films. In 1940 theater exhibitors of America voted Autry the fourth biggest box office attraction, behind Mickey Rooney, Clark Gable, and Spencer Tracy.Autry made 640 recordings, including more than 300 songs written or co-written by him. His records sold more than 100 million copies and he has more than a dozen gold and platinum records, including the first record ever certified gold. His Christmas and children's records Here Comes Santa Claus (Right Down Santa Claus Lane) and Peter Cottontail are among his platinum recordings. Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, the second all-time best selling Christmas single, boasts in excess of 30 million in sales. From 1940 to 1956 the public listened to him on Gene Autry's Melody Ranch radio show that was heard weekly over the CBS Radio Network, featuring Autry's trademark theme song Back In The Saddle Again. In addition, Autry's popularity was apparent during his personal appearance tours. The first performer to sell out Madison Square Garden, his concert and rodeo appearances throughout the United States and Europe are legendary and served as a model for other performers. Autry did two shows a day, seven days a week, for 65 to 85 days at a stretch. Entertainer Gene Autry joined the Army Air Corps in 1942 and became Sgt. Gene Autry. During the war, he ferried fuel, ammunition, and arms in the China-India-Burma theater of war and flew over the Himalayas, the hazardous air route known as "The Hump." When the war ended Autry was reassigned to Special Services, where he toured with a USO troupe in the South Pacific before resuming his movie career in 1946. In 1950, Autry became the first major movie star to use the television medium. Always a man of vision, Autry excelled and for the next five years through his Flying A Pictures he produced and starred in 91 half-hour episodes of The Gene Autry Show for CBS Television. This success lead him to produce such popular TV series as Annie Oakley, The Range Rider, Buffalo Bill Jr., The Adventures Of Champion as well as the first 39 episodes of Death Valley Days. He carried his love for entertaining and sharp business sense into broadcasting, where, under the Golden West Broadcasters banner, he owned such award-winning stations as KMPC radio and KTLA Television in Los Angeles as well as other stations across the country. Autry's great love for baseball prompted him to acquire the American League California Angels in 1961. Active in Major League Baseball, Autry held the title of Vice President of the American League until his death.Autry's long-cherished dream came true with the opening in November 1988 of the Gene Autry Western Heritage Museum, since acclaimed as one of the finest museums on the West. Autry intended to give something back to the community that had been so good to him. In January 2004 the museum merged with the Southwest Museum. As part of this affiliation, an umbrella company was created. The new AUTRY NATIONAL CENTER consists of three entities: the Southwest Museum of the American Indian, the Museum of the American West, and the Institute for the Study of the American West. Today thousands of visitors, children and adults alike, learn the fascinating history of America's West through world-class collections of art and artifacts. Autry is the only entertainer to have all five stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, one each for Radio, Recording, Motion Pictures, Television, and Live Theatre/performance. He was a 33rd Degree Mason and Honorary Inspector General and was given the prestigious award of the Grand Cross of the Court of Honor. Among the many hundreds of honors and awards Autry has received were induction into the Country Music Hall of Fame; the American Academy of Achievement Award, the Los Angeles Area Governor's Emmy from The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences; and the Board of Directors Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Achievement in Arts Foundation. Gene Autry was also inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame, The National Cowboy Hall of Fame, the National Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame, and he received The Songwriters Guild Life Achievement Award. He was also honored by his songwriting peers with a lifetime achievement award from ASCAP. Gene Autry died at his home in Studio City, California on October 2, 1998. He was 91 years old.

George W. Barnett
George Washington Barnett was born March 25, 1856 at Hood, Texas to William B. Barnett and his wife Eliza Jane. He married Rosealina Sintha Reed on March 10, 1881. We find him on the 1900 census in Pontotoc, Chickasaw Nation, Indian Territory. He and his wife had three children that I have found records on: Nellie Gertrude (Barnett) Pannell, Lutie Azilla (Barnett) Ayres and Virgil Newton Barnett. He lived the remainder of his wife at Pontotoc. His wife died on January 27, 1933 at Pontotoc, Johnston County, and G.W. lived many years after. He died on February 14, 1958 at the age of nearly 102 at Pontotoc, Johnston County, Oklahoma
[Submitted by Linda Craig]

A traditional Native storyteller, Te Ata, also known as Mary Frances Thompson Fisher, was born in Emet, Chickasaw Nation, near Tishomingo, on December 3, 1895. Her parents were members of the Chickasaw Nation. Her father, T. B. Thompson, the last treasurer of the Chickasaw Nation, operated stores in Tishomingo. Te Ata's uncle, Douglas H. Johnston, was the last governor of the old Chickasaw Nation. Mary Thompson attended Bloomfield Academy in the far southeast corner of Johnston County. Later she attended high school in Tishomingo, encountering "white" children for the first time. In school at Tishomingo Te Ata found a role model in teacher Muriel Wright. Later attending Oklahoma College for Women in Chickasha, she acquired another mentor, Francis Densmore Davis, an active researcher and writer on Indian cultures. Davis recognized the young woman's talent for drama, and soon Mary began to use the name Te Ata, reflecting her Indian heritage. Te Ata worked on a Chautauqua circuit managed out of St. Louis, and she began to develop her style of storytelling using various American Indian sources. Her readings, storytelling, and dance were often accompanied by classical and other music played on piano. She eventually also used small drums, rattles, and other common, traditional instruments. With Davis's encouragement she attended Carnegie Institute of Technology in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, for one year. From Pittsburg she moved to New York City where she worked in theater and entertained the city's social elite. There Te Ata met Clyde Fisher, a naturalist and eventual curator of the Haden Planetarium, and they married in 1933. In 1933 Te Ata performed for the first state dinner given by Pres. Franklin Roosevelt. Many of her performances in the 1930s were at summer camps throughout New England and New York state. In 1939 she performed again for the Roosevelts at their home in Hyde Park, New York, on the occasion of a state visit by the king and queen of Great Britain. Later, Te Ata toured Europe, giving performances for royal families and heads of state. The Fishers traveled in South America and extensively in the United States, often observing Native ceremonies and learning different traditions. Te Ata incorporated these experiences in performances later in her storytelling. In 1958 Te Ata was recognized by the Oklahoma Hall of Fame, and in 1976 she received the Governor's Award (Oklahoma), and was named Woman of the Year by The Ladies Home Journal. Her performances are preserved in a c. 1971 film, God's Drum, and on a video recording of a storytelling festival sponsored by the Oklahoma City Arts Council. She died in Oklahoma City on October 26, 1995. Te Ata Fisher's influence on the appreciation of Native traditions and the art of storytelling is an enduring legacy. Her name, Te Ata, means "Bearer of the Morning." She preserved and promoted great affection for old ways, American Indians, and natural beauty.

Five-term governor of the Chickasaw Nation, Cyrus Harris was born near Pontotoc, Mississippi, on August 22, 1817. He began his formal education in 1827 at the Monroe Missionary Station in Mississippi. From 1828 to 1830 he attended a school for Indians in Tennessee. Harris and his mother, Elizabeth Oxbury, a Chickasaw and Cherokee mixed-blood (Harris's father's identity is uncertain), left for Indian Territory in 1837 and arrived at Blue River in present Johnston County, Oklahoma, in 1838. Harris moved three more times before settling at Mill Creek, where he resided until his death. Harris began his political career in 1850. He was elected the first governor of the Chickasaw Nation (created in 1855) in 1856, and was reelected in 1860, 1866, 1868, and 1872. The Chickasaw Nation aligned with the Confederacy during his second term. His 1872 acceptance speech dealt with several important issues facing the Chickasaws, including post-Civil War reconstruction, education, and lawlessness. Supporters of Harris submitted his name for governor in 1878, but in a contested election Benjamin C. Burney won by five votes. To maintain order, Harris withdrew and retired from politics. Harris was married three times and had eleven children. He died at his home in Mill Creek on January 6, 1888, and was buried nearby. In 1961 his remains were reinterred at Drake in Murray County, Oklahoma.

Governor of the Chickasaw Nation from 1898 to 1902 and 1904 to 1939, Douglas Henry Johnston was born at Skullyville, Choctaw Nation, Indian Territory, on October 13, 1856. Named after Douglas H. Cooper, Johnston was the son of Col. John Johnston, Sr., a white man, and Mary Cheadle Moncrief, a Chickasaw. They lived on a plantation along the South Canadian River until the Civil War, when the family moved to Blue in present Bryan County, where both parents soon died. Douglas was raised by his half-brother Tandy Walker and educated at Tishomingo and the Bloomfield Academy. After completing his studies, Johnston worked as a farmer and stockman. In 1881 he married Nellie Bynum. In 1884 he was appointed superintendent at Bloomfield Academy, serving until 1897. Before Nellie died in 1886, she gave birth to two sons. In 1889 Johnston married Lorena Elizabeth Harper, a Chickasaw, and the union produced a daughter. In 1898 the Chickasaw National Party nominated Johnston as a candidate for governor. His opponent, Hindman H. Burris, was more experienced, but Johnston won a decisive victory. While he enjoyed popular support, Johnston's political opponents attempted to unseat him. Critics charged that his lavish lifestyle was made possible at tribal expense. Although the accusations led to an indictment in 1905, no wrongdoing was proved. Johnston's mansion near Emet became known as "the Chickasaw White House" and served as a center for tribal business and social gatherings. Under Johnston the Chickasaw Nation ratified the Atoka Agreement in 1897, and he worked within its framework to achieve the best terms for his people. He pressured Washington politicians into passing the Supplemental Agreement of 1902. This legislation modified the Atoka Agreement and allowed the Chickasaw and the Choctaw to create a "Citizenship Court" to rehear tribal citizenship cases that had been accepted by the Dawes Commission. The court eventually revoked nearly four thousand fraudulent Dawes Roll admissions claims, saving the tribes some $20 million. In 1907 the State of Oklahoma attempted to nullify the Atoka Agreement provision that disallowed taxation of allotted lands for twenty-one years. Johnston led those opposing the action, and in 1912 the Supreme Court upheld the treaty stipulation. Another victory for Johnston's administration came in 1924, when the Chickasaw gained permission to file suit against the federal government in the U.S. Court of Claims to recover funds the government illegally obtained from tribal resources. Johnston served the Chickasaw as governor until his death on June 28, 1939. He was buried at Tishomingo.

A cattle rancher and entrepreneur, Montford T. Johnson was born in November 1843 along the Blue River north of Tishomingo in present Johnston County, Oklahoma, the former Chickasaw Nation, Indian Territory. He was the son of Charles B. Johnson, an Englishman, and Rebekah Courtney, a Chickasaw. Raised by his maternal grandmother's family after his mother's death and his father's desertion, Johnson suffered from chronic illness throughout much of his life. Nevertheless, he built a ranching empire in present central Oklahoma and played a positive role in the growth of the Chickasaw Nation. Johnson was a contemporary and a friend of Jesse Chisholm, the legendary scout and trader, who convinced him to establish cattle ranches on the unruly western edge of the Chickasaw Nation. In 1868 Johnson established his first ranch, located about two miles northeast of present Washington in McClain County, and hired a Chickasaw freedman, Jack Brown, to run and share in the operation. This was the first of many business ventures manned by nonwhites that flourished under Johnson's leadership. Over the next twenty-five years Johnson expanded upon his operations, enlisting the support of the Campbell and Bond families, who were related through marriage. Those ranches ranged from Johnsonville, north of present Byars, Oklahoma, west to present Newcastle, and continuing west and north to present Chickasha and Tuttle. Silver City, where Johnson ran a trading store, was north of Tuttle and had the Chisholm Trail as its main street. For a number of years Johnson also maintained a ranch outside of the Chickasaw Nation at Council Grove, in present western Oklahoma City. Johnson was running cattle as far west as present Hydro, Oklahoma, in the late 1880s. As Johnson's children came of age, in particular his oldest son, Edward Bryant "E. B.," they played active roles in the family enterprises. E. B., who was college educated, and a partner, Joe Lindsay, bought out Montford Johnson's interest in the Silver City store in the early 1880s. E. B. later took over all of the family business operations. After Johnson's first wife, Mary Elizabeth Campbell, died in 1880, he married Addie Campbell and moved northeast of present Minco, Oklahoma, where he lived until his death on February 17, 1896. He left twelve children from the two marriages. E. B. Johnson consolidated their property into three ranches after the Dawes Commission allotments. He also expanded the family's cattle operations into the Texas Panhandle. The Johnson businesses continued to thrive until the 1980s when they were dissolved into individual holdings.

Oklahoma's governor from 1951 to 1955, Johnston Murray was born July 21, 1902, in Emet, Chickasaw Nation, Indian Territory, to William Henry "Alfalfa Bill" and Mary Alice Hearrell Murray. Johnston Murray was the second son of four boys and one girl. The family lived in Tishomingo, Oklahoma, where the children attended public school. Later, when his father served as a U.S. representative, the younger Murray attended school in Washington, D.C. Murray married Marion Draughon of Sulphur, Oklahoma, in 1923. Their only child was Johnston, Jr. Six years into their marriage, they divorced. In 1924 Murray graduated from Murray State School of Agriculture (now Murray State College), Tishomingo, where he had played football. After graduation he followed his father to Bolivia, where the elder Murray established an agricultural colony. On May 1, 1933, Murray married Willie Roberta Emerson. He received his law degree from Oklahoma City University in 1947. On January 9, 1950, Johnston Murray, a Democrat, announced his intention to run for governor. He won the primary runoff by 1,009 votes. His opponent, William O. Coe, an Oklahoma City attorney, decided to use the divorce proceedings filed by Murray's first wife accusing him of child desertion. To Coe's surprise, Marion Murray supported her ex-husband's candidacy. As governor Murray's plans to reduce state spending and to reform state government were thwarted by strained relations with state legislators. As Johnston Murray was prohibited constitutionally from succeeding himself, his second wife, Willie, decided to seek the Democratic gubernatorial election in 1954. However, she failed to gain enough support to win the election. Several months afterward, they endured a bitter divorce, with prologued proceedings in which Willie Murray accused him of public drunkenness and adultery. With the divorce finalized in February 1956, Murray later married Helen Shutt. Politically and financially ruined, he moved to Fort Worth, Texas, where he worked for an oil well servicing company and later a limousine service. While Murray was working at the limousine service, Oklahoma state senator Gene Stipe saw him and suggested that he return to Oklahoma to practice law. In February 1960 Murray formed a law partnership in Oklahoma City with Whit Pate, who had served as a legal assistant to the former Gov. J. Howard Edmondson. Murray later became a staff lawyer for the Oklahoma Department of Public Welfare. He died on April 16, 1974, in Oklahoma City, and was buried next to his father in Tishomingo.

U.S. Representative and governor of Oklahoma William Henry David "Alfalfa Bill" Murray was born in Toadsuck, Texas, near Collinsville, on November 21, 1869. He was the son of Uriah Dow Thomas Murray, a farmer, and Bertha Elizabeth Jones. He grew up in north central Texas before running away from home at the age of twelve. For seven years he worked as an agricultural laborer attending public schools sporadically. After attending College Hill Institute, a secondary school at Springtown, he became a public school teacher in Parker County. Murray often demonstrated his talent as an orator. He spoke widely in opposition to the Peoples or Populist Party while a member of the faction of the Democratic Party led by James Stephen Hogg. Murray campaigned actively for Hogg when the latter sought the governorship. Establishing himself as a leader in the alliance and the Democratic Party, Murray moved to the larger community of Corsicana where he founded a newspaper, the Corsicana Daily News; he served as both editor and publisher. Twice a candidate for the state senate, he lost both contests. The newspaper failed financially, and Murray moved to Fort Worth where, after reading widely in legal texts, he became an attorney. Admitted to the bar on April 10, 1897, Murray's practice did not flourish, and in March of 1898 he departed for Indian Territory. Murray settled in Tishomingo, the capital of the Chickasaw Nation, immediately establishing relations with tribal leaders. His legal practice proved lucrative, especially after he married Mary Alice Hearrell, niece of the Chickasaw governor on July 19, 1899. His ties to tribal leaders made him a prominent figure in the Nation, and he became deeply involved in Chickasaw politics. A major effort was made to obtain statehood for Indian Territory in 1905, and Murray helped to write the constitution for the proposed state of Sequoyah. While the movement failed, his role at the constitutional convention in Muskogee and his frequent speaking engagements gave him prominence in the Territory. Murray spoke extensively in support of the Democratic Party and for diversification of agriculture. His orations in favor of the cultivation of alfalfa led to his sobriquet, "Alfalfa Bill." After the movement for separate statehood for Indian Territory failed, a joint statehood convention with Oklahoma Territory was held in Guthrie, Oklahoma Territory, in 1906, and Murray and his allies dominated the meeting. Supported by delegates from Indian Territory and by alliance members he won election as president of the convention. Murray wrote major sections of the constitution using his authority as presiding officer to force inclusion of his ideas. Voters in the Twin Territories approved the proposal, and on November 16, 1907, Oklahoma was admitted to the union. Though conservatives such as William Howard Taft denounced Murray's handiwork, the Oklahoma Constitution included numerous examples of reforms being advocated nationally by Progressives in both major parties. Murray won a seat in the Oklahoma House of Representatives in the First Legislature, and his colleagues elected him speaker of the house. He battled for legislation to curb business excesses and to enhance agriculture during the next two years. Murray constantly defended "the boys at the fork of the creek," his rural supporters. Defeated for the Democratic nomination for governor in 1910, he sought election to the U.S. House of Representatives two years later and won an at-large seat. Following congressional reapportionment, he ran in the new Fourth District in 1914, winning another term. During his four years in Washington Murray made few significant legislative contributions, but he championed Pres. Woodrow Wilson's preparedness program. Isolationist sentiment in his district swept Murray out of Congress in 1916, and he again failed to win the gubernatorial nomination two years later. Strong support in rural southern and western Oklahoma could not overcome the opposition he roused in the towns and cities. Discouraged by successive defeats, Murray left the United States in the 1920s as he sought to establish an agricultural colony in southern Bolivia. Murray's sons and their spouses, with a few neighbors from Tishomingo, settled in Bolivia where they suffered numerous hardships when support from the Bolivian government failed to materialize. Harsh living conditions demoralized the settlers, and when the colony collapsed, Murray returned to Oklahoma where he found political and economic chaos. While some Oklahomans had enjoyed unprecedented prosperity in the 1920s, the state government was torn by the emergence of the Ku Klux Klan, the impeachment of two governors, and the ascendancy of the Republican Party. The collapse of agricultural prices and a catastrophic decline in the petroleum revenues fomented an economic crisis. Murray discovered that his reformist ideas and agrarianism now resonated with voters who faced financial ruin. In 1930 Murray ran for the governorship on a reform platform, and his fiery oratory swamped a wealthy oilman who opposed him in the Democratic primary. Despite the strenuous efforts of the metropolitan press to portray him as a radical, the flamboyant Murray won an overwhelming victory in the general election. Confusing notoriety with popularity, in 1932 Murray sought the Democratic nomination for president. In rumpled, ash-covered, food-stained clothes Murray campaigned across the country advocating his platform, "Bread, Butter, Bacon and Beans." He won only one delegate outside of Oklahoma, and his opposition to Franklin Roosevelt earned him the disdain if not hatred of many New Dealers. When his gubernatorial term ended, "Alfalfa Bill" retired to his farm near Tishomingo and began to publish books and pamphlets attacking the New Deal and Franklin Roosevelt. Murray's racism and anti-Semitism became ever more virulent as he defended segregation and condemned urbanization and industrialization. Defeat in the gubernatorial primary of 1938 proved his last political hurrah. Murray spoke out against Roosevelt in 1940, but the shaky, disheveled old man had few followers. Only in 1950, when his son Johnston Murray was elected governor, would the elder Murray return to the governor's mansion. Throughout his life he had championed agriculture and the family farm, often stating his firm belief that "civilization begins and ends with the plow." Murray died in Oklahoma City on October 15, 1956, after a paralytic stroke followed by pneumonia.

Jonas Wolf, a son of Capt. James Wolf and his full blood Chickasaw Indian wife, was born near Horn Lake in what is today De Soto County, Mississippi, on June 30, 1828. Captain Wolf was a character of some prominence among the Chickasaws, having been a signer of the Treaty of October 22, 1832. He removed with his family in the Chickasaw removal party which departed from Memphis on November 1, 1838, arriving at Doaksville on December 22nd. Shortly thereafter the Captain removed to lands south of Boggy Depot but later effected his permanent settlement on the Blue in the vicinity of the present town of Milburn, Johnston County, Oklahoma, where he and his wife passed away some years later. Meager educational advantages were afforded young Jonas Wolf during his adolescent years. He briefly attended school at Boggy Depot but the school of experience reenforced by self-education were the factors which prepared him for the efforts which he later undertook. Farming and stock-raising became his gainful pursuits. Early in life Jonas Wolf established himself upon a farm along the north bank of the Washita some five miles west of Tishomingo and south of Ravia which remained his home until his death and where he lies buried. He saw no service in either the Union or Confederate armies during the Civil War. Jonas Wolf became a member of the Presbyterian Church, South and later was ordained to the ministry of that denomination. Active participation in tribal politics did not seem to enlist his interest until later in life. He served consistently as a member of the Chickasaw legislature but had reached the age of 56 years when he first became governor.