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Biographies
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J. Q. Adamson.
The Citizens Bank of Edmond, which has a state charter, was incorporated in 1900, by some influential citizens of Edmond and vicinity. It is a flourishing and successful institution, and is thoroughly identified with the growth and development of the town and surrounding country. Its capital stock is $25,000 and it does a general banking1 business. The vice-president of the Citizens Bank and one of the original incorporators is J. Q. Adamson, a pioneer of Oklahoma and one of the successful stockmen and business men of Oklahoma county. On coming to the county and territory in 1889, he first located in Seward township, Logan county, and was president of the first school board in that township but later took up a homestead that he still owns, at Waterloo, in Edmond township, Oklahoma county. Farming and' stock-raising, to which was later added fruit-growing, were the productive lines of industry on this farm. Mr. Adamson has known Oklahoma both during the thin and the fat years, and as a farmer he bore the hardships common to other Oklahomans during the drouths and the hard times of the early nineties. He persisted when many gave up, and as a result had a substantial basis of success by the time prosperity reached this part of the country. From farming and stock-raising he extended his business interests to the town of Edmond, and several years ago established his home here, mainly for the purpose of giving his children the advantage of the splendid educational facilities of the town. Besides raising stock he does an extensive business in buying and shipping, and twenty-two years' active connection with the live-stock industry makes him one of the leaders in the business. He is a member of the Live Stock Breeders Association. He has taken premiums both in 1907 and 1908 at the Fort Worth, Texas, Fat Stock Exhibit in the swine department. He was the first to ship high-grade cattle in to Oklahoma. Eight head were shipped October 1889, and this proved to be a success. In 1886, registered cattle were purchased in Iowa and with later additions from Kansas the breeding of registered cattle continued till April 2, 1906, when the entire herd was disposed of. Mr. Adamson was born in Henry county, Indiana, in 1848. Both he and his wife belong to pioneer families of Indiana. His father, of Scotch descent, came to eastern Indiana from North Carolina in 1828, being part of the large migration from that and neighboring states into Indiana during the early decades of the nineteenth century. The father's integrity and honesty of character are well proved in a monument of his early industry which still stands at his old home in Richmond, Indiana,—a bridge across the Whitewater which he helped construct in 1835 and which at last accounts was still in service. For the first sixteen years of his life, Mr. Adamson lived on the home farm in Henry county, and then became one of the boy soldiers of the Union. In 1864 he enlisted in Wayne county, Indiana, in the One Hundred and Forty-Seventh Indiana Infantry, and served throughout the campaign in the Shenandoah Valley in the Army of the Middle West. In 1870 he married Miss Sarah J. Mills, a native of Randolph county, Indiana, where her parents settled from North Carolina. Two years after their marriage they moved west, to Cass county, Iowa, where they bought land for fifteen dollars an acre, and began farming and stock-raising. In his town and township of Edmond, Mr. Adamson has been an active citizen as well as business man, having served as township trustee six years and a member of the town council. During this time much of the new roads were opened up and bridged. He is an Odd Fellow, and he and wife are members of the Presbyterian church. He was a member of the building committee to build the Presbyterian church at Waterloo in 1894 and also a member of the building committee to erect the new Presbyterian church of Edmond during 1897. They are parents of the following children: Larrean A., Mrs. Nora Whistler, Loring D., Mrs. Lizzie Denton, Jesse, Goldie B., Harry.
Henry C. Schilling.
The present mayor of the beautiful suburb, Capitol Hill, is Henry C. Schilling, one of the charter citizens of Oklahoma territory, and a man of varied and successful experience in the business and public affairs of this region both before and since the territory was opened to settlement. He first became acquainted with the old Indian Territory in 1873, as a cowboy connected with one of the numerous outfits that grazed cattle on these ranges. For some time he drove cattle over the. trails leading across the territory from Texas to the northern markets, and finally got into the cattle business for himself, with successful results. He bought cattle in North Texas, usually pastured them in the eastern part of Indian Territory near the Arkansas line, and drove them to market at Kansas City or other centers. In the course of his operations, he twice took cattle from Texas to Glasgow, Scotland, during the early years of the export trade in live stock. Kingman county, Kansas, was his headquarters for several years, and on the opening of Oklahoma Territory in 1889 became one of the original citizens of Guthrie, where he had the distinction of being elected a member of the first school board organized in the territory, and in that capacity he assisted in starting the first public school in Guthrie, which was the first school building in the territory. On the opening of the Sac and Fox reservation in 1892, he transferred his residence to Chandler, until the following year, when he took part in another opening, that of the Cherokee strip, at which time he located at Perry. Since 1897 he has been a resident of Oklahoma City and vicinity. He was in the retail meat business for awhile, but success in real estate operations has gradually brought him into prominence in this business specialty. In 1902 he purchased the Boyd quarter section of land adjoining Oklahoma City on the southeast and adjoining the new suburb of Capitol Hill on the east, and divided it into town lots that rapidly grew in value with the advance of general real estate values and the extension of the city in this direction. Schilling's Addition, or East Capitol Hill, as it is variously known, is a corporate part of the town of Capitol Hill, and its beautiful situation, commanding a fine view of Oklahoma City and of the rich farming region lying to the south, makes this one of the attractive residence districts of the Greater Oklahoma City. Since his election as mayor of Capitol Hill in April. 1907. Mr. Schilling has been very industrious in improving his town and administering its affairs. He was instrumental in building the first school house on East Capitol Hill. Having removed from Oklahoma City to a residence in his addition in 1906, he is retired from all business activities except those connected with his property interests and with his office.
Mr. Schilling has been identified with the southwest nearly all his life and is thoroughly western in spirit and in enterprise. He was born at Cardington. Morrow county, Ohio, in 1848, was reared and went to school there living with an uncle after the death of his father. He had made several trips west before he was of age, and did not finish his schooling until he was past twenty-one, his last school being Oberlin College. From a busy and successful career, he has found time for other congenial activities. In the order of the Knights of Pythias he is one of the foremost members in Oklahoma, having been a member of the grand lodge of the territory for twelve years, and in 1907 was honored by being elected to the long term of grand trustee of the grand lodge for both Indian Territory and Oklahoma. He has done a great deal of appreciated work in this order, particularly in the way of lecturing and delivering the unwritten work. Mr. Schilling's wife was before her marriage Miss Lottie A. Young, a native of Ohio. They have two children: Mrs. Miriam Schilling Amburn and Moses Schilling.
submitted by Janice Rice
Mark H. Kesler,
On July 15, 1903, Mark H. Kesler was appointed chief of the fire department. Mr. Kesler is one of the country's famous fire fighters, and his energetic administration during the past four years is a record of many improvements in the efficiency and equipment of the department. When he took charge, the two stations, the central and the Maywood, had a force of ten men, including the chief. Station No. i now has fourteen men, and there are four at station No. 2, and four at No. 3—all paid firemen and brought up to the highest point of efficiency and discipline. Almost from the first hour of his appointment Chief Kesler has been persistent in his efforts with the city council for the passage of ordinances providing increased fire protection. The equipment he has added to the department, with the approval of the city council, is all of the most modern type and of the finest material and workmanship. The equipment at station No. I consists of a 65 foot aerial hook and ladder truck, manned by four men; a combination chemical and hose wagon with rubber tires and roller bearing axles, manned by five men and the assistant chief; one-third size Ahrens engine, three men making its crew; and one second-size Amoskeag steamer in reserve. At each of the other stations is a hose wagon and a four-men company. During this administration another great improvement has been the installation throughout the city of the Gamewell fire alarm system of the latest type, which cost $9,000.
The appointment of Mr. Kesler as chief of the department came about as a result of the general admiration for his work during the well remembered Oklahoma City fires when the Lion store was burned and, a little later, the conflagration near the Lee Hotel. At that time he was chief of the Guthrie department and brought a company of firemen to help out the Oklahoma City department. Mr. Kesler became connected with the Guthrie department in October, 1900, and in the following year was made its chief. Both in Guthrie and Oklahoma City his work had results that call for historical mention. Believing that a fire department should be composed only of men who are (or are willing to be) well trained and competent, and that local politics should in no way affect the personnel of the department or its conduct, he prepared, while chief at Guthrie, a statute embracing these ideas and placing the paid fire departments of the territory entirely on the merit system.
His measure was passed by the territorial legislature and became a law, and recently Mr. Kesler has the added satisfaction of seeing his beliefs incorporated in the new state constitution. Since the fire department is one of the principal divisions of the municipal government, it is evident that this law, so ably advocated by Chief Kesler, is one of the most important affecting the municipal welfare of Oklahoma cities.
Service as a fire-fighter constitutes Mr. Kesler's active career. The fire departments in American cities comprise a larger force than the standing army and are of far greater importance to the security and welfare of the nation. Among these "soldiers of peace" the present chief of the Oklahoma City department has a record that entitles him to rank among the foremost. Born in Andrew county, Missouri, November 5, 1867, he was reared, from the age of seven months, in Kansas City, and attended school there. His father, A. G. Kesler, while a member of the Kansas City council got a position in the fire department for his son, then seventeen years old. March 1, 1885, he was appointed a private, and during the following thirteen years rose by promotion based on merit to the rank of captain in the Kansas City department. His early training was under George C. Hale, for many years chief of Kansas City's fire department and one of the world's greatest fire fighters. Chief Hale said of Mr. Kesler that "he served with noted and distinguished efficiency, was remarkably active and energetic, always ready for duty and danger, had the quickest record known in America for hitching fire teams, and won more prizes as an all-round athlete than any other man in the department." Mr. Kesler, after two years as private, was made captain of chemical engine, from that to captain of hose company No. 8, and next to captain of hose company No. 2, with headquarters at the central station. While captain of No. 2. he trained the noted horses "Dan" and "Joe," for competition in the fast hitching contest at the Grand International Fire Congress at London in 1893, which team easily won first honors in that contest. After Mr. Hale's retirement from the Kansas City department. Mr. Kesler served under Chiefs Edward Trickett and J. C. Egner.
Chief Kesler is ex-president of the Oklahoma and Indian Territory Firemen's Association, and was one of the founders of the Southwestern Firemen's Journal. He was instrumental in securing for Oklahoma City the annual convention of the National Firemen's Association in September, 1907. Mr. Kesler was married in 1902 to Mrs. Mary E. Hunter and they have two children, Elmo and Goldie.
submitted by Janice Rice
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