McClain County, Oklahoma

 

Biographies

 

Frank Richard

 

Frank Richard had a medical practice in Hopkins County, Texas for some years but, following the death of his wife, he moved to McClain County, Chickasaw Nation, Indian Territory, in 1898. He then worked in both Purcell and Wayne, OK., but also rode a circuit (horse and buggy) into Garvin County to the west and Pottawatomie County to the east. His own health suffered, probably due to his work style, and he quit his practice in 1902, moved to Gainesville, TX and died soon thereafter.

Dr. Frank A. (sic) Finney is listed in the 1900 U.S. Census of Chickasaw Nation, Indian Territory along with his three children, Virgie R., Orville, and Annie.

Information on this family comes from a granddaughter, Louanna Moore, 15904 NE 133rd St., Redmond, Washington 98052. Was submitted by Jo Ann Hatch

 

 

Richard Martin Fields



Richard Martin Fields, is one of the industrious and reliable farmers of Washington Township, classed with those who are acknowledged to be as broad and scientific in their methods as the workers in any other branch of modern industry. A full-blooded Cherokee, he was born two miles south of Fort Gibson, in the Cherokee Nation, now Oklahoma, August 3, 1855, and is a son of Wert and Sarah (Woddord) Fields, natives of Tennessee and members of the Cherokee Race.

The mother of Mr. Fields was the first to come to the West, being brought here among the first settlers of what was to later become the State of Oklahoma by her mother, with whom she returned to her native place. Later, when the Cherokees were removed from Tennessee by the United States Government she again came to the Indian Territory, and in the vicinity of Fort Gibson met and married Wert Fields. He died in 1857, and she was subsequently married to Cal Riley, and had two daughters by that union. By her marriage with Mr. Fields she was the mother of three children: William, who died at the age of seventeen years; Mrs. Ella Smith, who is now deceased; and Richard Martin, of this notice. During the early days in Tennessee, the Fields family was a wealthy and prominent one, Richard Fields, the grandfather of Richard M., having been the owner of a large plantation and of many negro slaves, as was also his son, Wert. The latter, on coining to Indian Territory, devoted himself to agricultural pursuits, and continued to be a tiller of the soil and a raiser of livestock up to the time of his death. He was an industrious and hard-working man, gaining prosperity by his earnest application and keen foresight, and was highly respected and esteemed by those among whom he lived.

Richard Martin Fields was reared in the vicinity of Fort Gibson, and was brought up on the farm, receiving the greater part of his education in the public schools, although he also attended the Cherokee Male Seminary, at Tahlequah, which was conducted by the Cherokee Nation, and where he was a student for a period of ten months. As a young man he removed to Webbers Falls, now in Muskogee County, Oklahoma, where he followed farming until 1900, and at that time came to his present property in Washington County, a tract of 100 acres, the greater part on the Caney River, his home being located two and one-half miles north of Dewey. Mr. Fields has devoted his entire attention to agricultural pursuits, and now has a valuable and productive farm, with modern improvements, substantial buildings and good equipment. He uses up-to-date methods in his work, and is known as one of the substantial men of his community, standing high in the esteem of all who know him. He is a democrat in politics, a member of the A. H. T. A., and a Master Mason.

In 1883 Mr. Fields was married to Miss Texanna Barnes, who was born three miles west of Fort Gibson, September 2, 1867, a daughter of Albert and Nan (Harper) Barnes, natives of the Cherokee Nation. Mrs. Fields' father died when she was about six or seven years of age, while her mother survived until September 25, 1894. She had been married before, and had one child: James Keys, who is now a resident of Tulsa, Oklahoma. Mrs. Fields was the only child by her parents' marriage. To Mr. and Mrs. Fields there have been born five children, as follows: Charles, a successful farmer of Washington County, Oklahoma, who married Myrtle Hines; Wert, who is also successfully engaged in farming in this county, married Cora Teague; Jesse, who prepared for college at Tonkawa, and now a student in the medical department of the State University at Norman, securing a training for a professional career; Pearce, who resides at home; and Claude, who met his death by drowning, May 26, 1905, in the Illinois River, aged nineteen years, seven months, being a student in his senior year at the Cherokee Male Seminary at Tahlequah.


Source: A Standard History of Oklahoma Volume 4 By Joseph Bradfield Thoburn

Submitted by Barb Z.



 

William Henry Walker


A veteran newspaper man, with forty years of active experience comprising all the details of the newspaper profession, ranging from office boy and typesetter to editor and manager, William Henry Walker spent the first fourteen years of his professional career in Missouri, but for the past quarter of a century has been located at Purcell, where he is now secretary of the Register Company and editor of the Purcell Register.
 

Of old Southern stock, the Walkers having been a mingling of Scotch, Welsh and Irish lines, and emigrating from Wales to North Carolina in colonial days, William Henry Walker was born at Yanceyville, North Carolina, March 25, 1854. His father, Wyatt Walker, who was born in North Carolina in 1811 was reared in that state and married there Miss Permelia Gilchrist. She was born in North Carolina, in 1818 and died at Windsor, Missouri, in 1881. Wyatt Walker was a wagon maker by trade, but for many years effectively preached the Gospel under the auspices of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. In 1859 he moved his family to Whitmell, Virginia, and in 1869 moved to Windsor, Missouri, where he died in 1885. He was a democrat and an active member of the Masonic Fraternity. He and his wife had the following children: Mary, deceased; Newton, deceased; Fannie, who lived at Slater, Missouri, the widow of Sylvester Calvert, who was a farmer; Theodore, deceased; Ellen, a dressmaker at Windsor; Reginald, deceased; Nannie, who is with her sister Ellen at Windsor; Alice, who died in 1911 near Windsor, as the wife of W. A. Garrett, a fanner near Windsor; and William H.

The youngest in this large family of children, William H. Walker had a fairly comfortable home in his youth, but early assumed the responsibilities of his own self support and advancement. The first schools he attended were in Whitmell, Virginia, and he continued his education at Windsor, Missouri, until the age of sixteen. His first regular employment was in a tin shop at Windsor, where he remained several years. In 1876 he started the Windsor Review, and was associated with the destinies of that Missouri paper until 1890.

In 1890, just a year after the original opening of Oklahoma Territory, Mr. Walker identified himself with the town of Purcell, Indian Territory. After nine months as an employee with the Purcell Topic, he bought an interest in the Pureell Register and for fully a quarter of a century has been its editor. The Register was established in 1887, and it is now owned by a stock company of which R. H. Parham is president, with Mr. Walker as secretary. What the Register has accomplished in the way of influence and general business success is largely due to Mr. Walker's experience and energetic management. He is personally familiar with all phases of Southern Oklahoma's life and development, knows all the big men of the state, in polities or business, and has made the Register a forceful factor in community life. It is a democratic paper and has a large circulation in Cleveland, McClain and surrounding counties. The offices of the plant are situated on Canadian street at the corner of Main street in the Crawford Building.

Mr. Walker is himself a democrat and served several years as a member of the city council at Purcell. He is a vestryman in the Episcopal Church. He is past chancellor commander of Purcell Lodge No. 108, Knights of Pythias, and also past grand chancellor of the state, and is a member of Purcell Lodge No. 1260, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. He formerly belonged to the Oklahoma Press Association.

In 1883 at Windsor, Missouri, Mr. Walker married Miss Lelia D. Smith, whose father, the late Dr. B. F. Smith, was for many years a physician and surgeon at Windsor. To their marriage were born three children: Frank, who is now a pressman at the Agricultural and Mechanical College in Stillwater; Bonnie, who is unmarried and is employed in an abstract office, making her home with her parents; Oscar, who died in 1910 at Purcell at the age of twenty-two.


Source: A Standard History of Oklahoma Volume 4 By Joseph Bradfield Thoburn

Submitted by Barb Z.

 


 

Judge William Hunter Woods

Seldom are thorough qualifications for public service given more distinctive recognition than in the appointment by President Wilson of William Hunter Woods to the office of United States Probate Attorney for the district of which Purcell is the official headquarters.

Judge Woods is a lawyer of sound learning and long experience and resigned from the office of county judge of McClain County to accept his present post. While living in his native state of Texas he was a successful worker in the educational field. He was admitted to the Oklahoma bar fifteen years ago.

Born in Milam County, Texas, February 23, 1876, he was descended from an old American family and one that has furnished many useful citizens and hard working members of the industrial, professional and business callings. The Woods family is a commingling of Scotch, Irish and English stock and they became settled in Virginia and North Carolina in colonial days. Judge Woods' great-great-grandfather, whose name was either Samuel or John Woods, was a Revolutionary soldier. His great-grandfather John Woods was probably born in North Carolina, was a planter, and died in West Virginia. Judge Woods' grandfather Samuel Woods was born in Tennessee and died in the western part of that state where he was a planter and slave owner.

Dr. A. D. Woods, father of Judge Woods, was born in Tennessee in 1846, was reared in that state and married there Miss Mary A. Woods, who was a distant relative, and was born in West Tennessee in 1844 and died at Rogers, Texas, in September, 1914. From Tennessee Doctor Woods moved to Texas and lived in Milam and Bell Counties until his death near Rogers in the latter county in 1901. He was a graduate of the medical department of Vanderbilt University in Nashville and a man of rare ability and conscientious performance who devoted himself for many years to a large practice in the country districts of North Central Texas. For three years during the war between the states he was a member of the famous Forrest's Cavalry of the Confederate army and in one battle he had ten bullet wounds through his sleeve while one ball passed through his wrist. He gave some public service as a member of the school board, was a democrat, a member of the Presbyterian Church and of the Masonic Fraternity. Doctor and Mrs. Woods became the parents of five children: Carey H., who died in infancy; Frank L., who is a farmer and cotton ginner near Rogers, Texas; William Hunter, Samuel H., at Hereford, Texas; and Eva, who died in infancy.

William Hunter Woods spent his boyhood chiefly in Milam County, Texas, where he attended public schools, and in 1894 graduated from high school at Da villa, Texas. Then four years of successful work as a teacher in Milam and Bell Counties, and largely with the earnings from this work he paid his tuition for a higher education. He attended the medical department of the University of Texas in 1898-99, but on account of ill health abandoned the idea of a professional career in that line, and in November, 1899, went to a ranch near Purcell, Oklahoma, where he spent a year recuperating.

Thus for more than fifteen years Judge Woods has been a resident of McClain County. One item of his earlier service which should be remembered was four years as superintendent of the city schools of Purcell. In the meantime he had begun the industrious reading of law in the offices of Johnson and Carter at Purcell. He was admitted to the bar in 1901 but did not begin practice until 1905. From 1911 to December, 1913, he served as county judge of McClain County, resigning in the middle of his second term to accept appointment from President Wilson as a United States Probate Attorney.

Perhaps there is no position under the auspices of the Federal Government that requires a more tactful and delicate administration than that of Indian Probate Attorney. He is the legal representative for all "restricted Indians" in a large district, originally comprising McClain, Garvin, Stephens, Grady and Pontotoc, from which Pontotoc County has subsequently been separated. Judge Woods has been called upon to serve as the intermediary in all kinds of business transactions between the Indian wards of the government and the white people, and is called upon frequently to perform services for the Indians such as were never contemplated in the original instructions governing the duties of prohate attorneys. He has proved considerate, firm and just and has won the confidence of the Indians and is not only their official but real friend and adviser.

While living at Purcell, Judge Woods has served as city attorney and is president of the school board. He is a democrat, a member of the Presbyterian Church, is affiliated with Purcell Lodge No. 27, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, with Purcell Chapter, Royal Arch Masons, with Purcell Gamp of the Modern Woodmen of America, and belongs to the County and State Bar Associations.

At Lexington, Oklahoma, in 1905 Judge Woods married Eva F. Moseley. Her father, S. P. Moseley, is a merchant in Fort Worth, Texas. To their marriage have been born four children: Evaline, William H. Jr., Frank and Katherine, the three oldest being now students in the Purcell public schools


Source: A Standard History of Oklahoma Volume 4 By Joseph Bradfield Thoburn

Submitted by Barb Z.

 

 

 

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