Biographies of Sequoyah County, Oklahoma

Seqouyah County
Biographies

Richard Frederick Campbell
What is now Sequoyah County, Oklahoma, has profited by the stable citizenship and faithful industry of the Campbell family for a quarter of a century. Practically all bearing the name have been interested to some extent in agriculture, but their services have been extended also to politics, education, religion and society. A worthy representative of this name is found in Richard Frederick Campbell, who in 1914 was elected county treasurer of Sequoyah County, an honor rarely conferred upon one of his years in a county of the size and importance of this. In spite of his youth, however, or perhaps because of it, he is proving an able, energetic, conscientious official, who has ideals in regard to the responsibilities of public service.
Mr. Campbell was born in Crawford County, Arkansas, June 30, 1884, and is a son of Benjamin F. and Orra (Thompson) Campbell, and the grandson of a Confederate soldier. Benjamin F. Campbell was born in Tennessee, to which state the family had come from its original settlement in Virginia, and was about sixteen years of age when taken by his parents to Arkansas, in 1870, the journey being made by wagon. There he grew to manhood as a farmer and met and married Orra Thompson, who had been born in Georgia and was a girl when taken to Arkansas, and in that state they resided until 1890, when they removed with their children to the Indian Territory, settling in what is Sequoyah County. Mr. Campbell has since continued to be engaged in farming and stock raising, being one of the substantial men of his community and one who tins worked out his own success through industry and integrity. Mrs. Campbell passed away in 1898, having been the mother of two children: Richard Frederick, of this review; and Viola, who is the wife of Cyrus Grady, of Riverside, California.
Richard Frederick Campbell was reared on his father's farm and after attending the public schools entered a business college at Fort Smith, Arkansas, where he pursued a commercial course. In 1904 he was married to Miss Ella Wood, and at that time established a home of his own and settled down to farming. While thus successfully engaged, he interested himself to some extent in civic and political affairs, and in 1910 was made deputy county clerk, a capacity in which he acted for one year. This appointment' was followed by one to the position of deputy county treasurer, in 1911. and after he had discharged the duties of that office for three years he was elected, in the fall of 1914, to the treasure ship and became the incumbent of that office July 6, 1915. He has conscientiously and ably discharged the duties of his post, and has already firmly established himself in the confidence of the people.
Mr. Campbell is a sturdy democrat and has been faithful in his allegiance to the principles of his party and its candidates. He is interested in fraternal affairs, being a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Woodmen of the World and the Ancient Order of United Workmen, and with his family belongs to the Baptist Church. Mr. and Mrs. Campbell are the parents of four children, namely: Perry Benjamin, William Worth, Freda and Richard Frederick, Jr.
[Source: A Standard History of Oklahoma Volume 4 By Joseph Bradfield Thoburn - Submitted by a Friend of Free Genealogy]

John N. Davis
Earnest and effective service as a teacher in the public schools of Oklahoma has given to Mr. Davis no little prestige in educational circles in the state, and his secure place in popular esteem is indicated by his having been called upon to represent Sequoyah County in the Fifth General Assembly of the State Legislature, to which he was elected in 1914 and in which he proved a loyal, progressive and judicious worker on the floor of the lower house and in the deliberations of the various committees to which he was assigned. He maintains his residence at Sallisaw, Sequoyah County, and is a leading representative of the pedagogic profession in that county.
John N. Davis was born at Huntsville, the judicial center of Madison County, Arkansas, in the year 1881, and was the first in order of birth of fifteen children born to Jos. W. and Joanna (Powell) Davis, the other, surviving children being as here noted: Zemri is principal of the high school at Gore, Sequoyah County, Oklahoma; James B. is a prosperous agriculturist in the State of Oregon; Albert is a successful farmer near Braggs, Muskogee County, Oklahoma, as is also Oswald T.; and Charles C., Luther, Ollie and Nettie remain at the parental home, near the village of Braggs, this state. The father of Mr. Davis was born in Illinois and became one of the pioneer farmers of Madison County, Arkansas, where he established his residence about the year 1872 and where he remained until his removal to Oklahoma. His wife is a native of Arkansas, her father having been a sterling pioneer of that state and having served as a valiant soldier of the Union in the Civil war.
To the public schools of Arkansas and Oklahoma John N. Davis is indebted for his early educational discipline, and in 1906 he completed a course in the High School Department of Hiram-Lydia College, at Altus, Arkansas, after which he attended the school of mechanical engineering of the University of Arkansas for one year. For six years Mr. Davis was successfully engaged in teaching in the schools of his native state, and an equal period of service in this line has been given by him during the period of his residence in Oklahoma, within whose borders he established his home in 1908, the year following the admission of the state to the Union. For four terms he held the position of principal of the public schools at Roland, Sequoyah County, and thereafter he served one term as president of the high school at Gans, this county. While a resident of Roland he was called upon also to serve as township clerk and as justice of the peace. In 1914 further public honors were conferred upon him, in his election as representative of the same county in the Lower House of the State Legislature, in the Fifth General Assembly of which he served as a member of the following named house committees: Education, General Agriculture, Congressional Redistricting, Public Buildings, Fish and Game, and Relation to the Five Civilized Tribes and other Indians. Mr. Davis introduced a bill for the enabling of county commissioners to levy a tax of one-half mill for the acquiring of building sites and the erection thereon of homes for neglected and dependent children, to whom is thus granted also the privilege of attending school. Another bill introduced by him makes provision for the uniform rate of three per cent interest on daily deposits of all state and county funds. As a legislator he manifested special interest in the furtherance of measures tending to advance the general educational facilities and systems of the state. He supported measures for the benefit of the Northeastern State Normal School, at Tahlequah, in which he intends to complete his training for his profession, and for other educational institutions in his section of the state, He was particularly active in promoting measures providing for the county unit system in educational work.
Mr. Davis is a democrat in his political allegiance and both he and his wife hold membership in the Christian Church. At Roland he is affiliated with the lodge of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and has passed the various official chairs in the same. He is a prominent member of the Sequoyah County Educational Association and is identified also with the Oklahoma Educational Association.
At Ozark, Arkansas, in 1906, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Davis to Miss Emma Eichenberger, her maternal grandfather, Rev. F. M. Payne, D. D., having been a pioneer missionary of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, among the Indians of Indian Territory, where he was stationed for varying intervals at Fort Gibson, Port Coffey, Fort Towson and other points, his wife, who was one of the revered pioneer women of the territory, having died in 1914, at the venerable age of ninety-two years and having long survived her husband. Mr. and Mrs. Davis have two children, Lucille and Edward.
[Source: A Standard History of Oklahoma Volume 4 By Joseph Bradfield Thoburn - Submitted by a Friend of Free Genealogy]

Jason Giles McCombs
Jason Giles McCombs, prominent lawyer, ex-judge of the County Court of Sequoyah County, and a leading and influential citizen of Sallisaw, is a native Mississippian, born in Tate County, October 15, 1863, a son of William F. and Margaret Caroline (Jackson) McCombs. the former a native of North Carolina and the latter of Alabama. The McCombs are of Scotch-Irish lineage and in America are descendants of three brothers who came from Scotland at an early date, one going to the North and the other two drifting to the South, where one of the latter located in North Carolina and the other in Texas. The father of Jason G. McCombs was reared in North Carolina and Mississippi and was living in the latter state at the time of his enlistment in the Confederate army for service during the war between the states, in which he met a soldier's death on the battlefield of the second engagement at Corinth. Mrs. McCombs later married Larkin W. Echols, who was a planter and resident of the vicinity of Huntsville, Alabama, in which city Judge McCombs was reared in the home of Mr. Echols' mother.
Jason Giles McCombs received his preliminary education in the public schools of Huntsville, Alabama, and after some further preparation entered the University of Alabama, which institution he received his degree in Bachelor of Arts in 1880. Later he pursued a law course in the same institution, being given his Bachelor of Laws degree, but did not at once enter upon the practice of his calling, but instead went to Fort Smith, Arkansas, where for nine years he was assistant cashier of the Merchants Bank, now the Merchants National Bank. His health tailing him, he resigned his position, and after traveling for a time located, in 1893, at Muskogee, Oklahoma, where he was soon admitted to the bar. Not long thereafter, he was appointed by United States District Judge Charles B. Stewart, to the position of United States commissioner at Tahlequah. His duties in this capacity required his holding court in portions of what are now Cherokee, Adair and Sequoyah counties, and in 1896 he located at Sallisaw, where he has since resided. He held the position of commissioner until January l, 1901, and at that time engaged actively in the practice of his chosen profession.
From the time of the organization of the Democratic Central Committee in Indian Territory, Judge McCombs has been active in the councils of his political party. He was one of the organizers of this committee and up to statehood and after, until 1912, served as a member thereof. He was a member of the Sequoyah Constitutional Convention, in which body he served as a member of the corporative committee, of which, as chairman, he wrote the corporative part of the constitution which was adopted. Among other positions held by Judge McCombs was that of city attorney of Sallisaw, in which he acted for several years, and in 1912 his friends prevailed upon him to make the race for the county judgeship. He won the nomination of his party for this office, and in the election that followed was successful over his opponent, but served only one term, when he retired to again devote himself to the general practice of his profession. He is known as one of the leaders of the Sequoyah County bar, a man thoroughly versed in every department of his profession and a supporter of its highest ideals and best ethics. He is a Master Mason and a Pythian, and a communicant of the Episcopal Church.
In 1885 Judge McCombs was married to Miss Lillie Marcum, a daughter of Col. Tom Marcum, of Muskogee, one of the most distinguished legists of Oklahoma. Mrs. McCombs death occurred in 1899, at which time she left two children: Lillian, who is now Mrs. W. V. McClure of Muskogee, Oklahoma; and Thomas Marcum, a literary and law graduate of the University of Oklahoma, who is associated with his father in the practice of law at Sallisaw, under the firm name of McCombs & McCombs. In 1904 Judge McCombs married for his second wife Miss Jessie Rigsby, of Sallisaw, Oklahoma, but a native of Illinois. One daughter, Margaret Caroline, has been born to this union.
[Source: A Standard History of Oklahoma Volume 4 By Joseph Bradfield Thoburn - Submitted by a Friend of Free Genealogy]

Thomas Jefferson Watts
With the exception of a short period at Sallisaw, the entire professional career of Thomas Jefferson Watts has been passed at Muldrow. Admitted to the bar of Oklahoma in 1898, he has attained a position of leadership among the fraternity here through his own efforts and ability, and has always used his fine legal talent in the furtherance of movements for the community welfare. Mr. Watts is an Arkansan by nativity, his birth having occurred at Fort Smith, Sebastian County, July 4, 1876, and is a son of Alfred J. and Mary (Reed) Watts. His parents, natives of Tennessee, went as children to Arkansas with their respective families and there met and were married, and in 1876 removed from Fort Smith to a farm located on the present site of Muldrow, in Sequoyah County, Oklahoma. There the parents continued to be engaged in the pursuits of farming and stock raising during the remaining years of their active lives.
Thomas Jefferson Watts was an infant when brought by his parents to Sequoyah County and here grew to manhood. His early education was secured in the district schools while he was helping in the work of the home farm and later he further pursued his studies at Hiram and Lydia College, in Arkansas. Thus prepared, he began teaching in the public schools, but after two or three years devoted to this vocation entered upon the study of law in the office of Winchester & Martin, attorneys of Fort Smith, Arkansas, a concern with which he remained for several years, first in the capacity of student and later as clerk. Mr. Watts began the practice of his profession at Muldrow in 1898, and here has continued to energetically represent and protect the interests of his clients, with the exception of the short time passed at Sallisaw, as before noted. Mr. Watte is possessed of an excellent practice, both civil and criminal, and seems to be thoroughly trained in each branch of his calling. As a citizen he has been concerned as an active factor in his support of or opposition to almost every measure of vital importance, for he has been as strong in denouncing movements which he has believed bad as he has in promoting enterprises which his judgment has told him would be beneficial. Politically a strong and active democrat, he has not sought public office, preferring to devote himself to his large and constantly growing professional business. He belongs to the various associations of the profession, and is fraternally identified with the Masons, in which he has attained the master's degree, the-Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Knights of Pythias and the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. Aside from the law, Mr. Watts is widely interested in agriculture, being the owner of 1,000 acres of river bottom land and 150 acres of land devoted to the raising of alfalfa, perhaps one of the largest and best of its kind in Oklahoma.
Mr. Watts was married December 7, 1900, to Miss Zoe A. Wyly, daughter of the late Judge R. T. Wyly, who was attorney general for the Cherokee Nation for a number of years. To this union there have been born three daughters, namely: Mildred, Mary and Helen.
[Source: A Standard History of Oklahoma Volume 4 By Joseph Bradfield Thoburn - Submitted by a Friend of Free Genealogy]

William Watie Wheeler
Each successive year now is witnessing the removal of some of the historic characters who were most prominently identified with the older Indian Territory and with those movements and activities which crystallized in the new State of Oklahoma. A recent death which attracted wide attention over the state was that of William Watie Wheeler, who died at his home in Sallisaw, February 15, 1915. His own experiences and work gave him a notable place in the old Cherokee Nation, and through his family he was related with some of the most prominent men of the early days.
He was not yet seventy years of age when death called him. He was born in Fort Smith, Arkansas, December 14, 1847, a son of John F. and Nancy (Watie) Wheeler. John F. Wheeler, who was a son of white parents, spent his early life in Georgia and was there before the Cherokee Indians were removed to the west of the Mississippi. He married a Cherokee woman, Nancy Watie, daughter of David Watie, a full blood Cherokee. The brother of Mrs. John F. Wheeler was the celebrated General Stand (or Isaac) Watie, whose name will always be given prominence in the annals of Indian Territory during the Civil war. From New Echota, Georgia, John F. Wheeler and wife moved with other Cherokees to the Indian Territory in 1831. John F. Wheeler is credited with having been partly instrumental in providing the Cherokees with a written language. While the chief honor is given to Sequoyah, it was John F. Wheeler who supervised the casting of the type in Cincinnati in 1827, and he printed the first Cherokee document ever run oft a press. He did printing for the Presbyterian ministry both in Georgia and in Indian Territory. After his removal to Indian Territory his home was at Park Hill, near the site of the old Indian Mission, and one of the early landmarks of Cherokee history. In consequence of the factional warfare among the Cherokees which continued for a number of years after their settlement in Indian Territory, he left the nation and made his home in Fort Smith. He took his printing outfit to Fort Smith, and used it both for printing in the Cherokee language for the benefit of the missionaries and also for a secular English newspaper. He established at Fort Smith the first newspaper west of Little Rock, known as the Herald. He was proprietor of this paper until the close of the Civil war, and in 1868 he established the Wheeler's Independent. He was likewise prominent in public affairs at Fort Smith. He was elected county judge of Sebastian County, served as a member of both the lower and upper houses of the Arkansas Legislature, and during and after the war he was one of the leading democrats of this part of the state, though previously ho had been a whig. Though self-educated, he possessed many excellent attainments of mind and character and was one of the leaders of his time. He was active in church affairs, and was both a Mason and Odd Fellow. John F. Wheeler, who was born near Frankfort, Kentucky, died at Fort Smith in 1880 at the age of seventy two. His children, who were half-blood Cherokees, were: Theodore, who was killed near Pike's Peak in 1854 while going to California; Susan, who was brought from Georgia to Indian Territory as an infant, spent her life in Oklahoma and Arkansas, and married W. W. Perry; Mary A. died in 1863 as Mrs. E. B. Bright; Harriet married Argyle Quesenbury a native of Fort Smith, Arkansas and now lives in Sallisaw; Sarah P. married Clarence Ashbrook of Memphis, Tennessee, who is deceased, and later she married Captain Nelms, and lived at Vinita; John died in 1880 after his marriage to Lulu G. Sanders; William Watie was next in order of birth; and Nancy died unmarried in 1863.
While the life of William Watie Wheeler was not of unusual length, it was one of unusual experience and variety of activity. As a boy he lived in Fort Smith, attended the public schools of that city, and gained a practical education in his father's printing house. He was less than fourteen years of age when the war broke out, and not long afterward his ardent patriotism led him to enlist with the Arkansas troops, and with Price's army he took part in the campaigns around Little Rook and in Louisiana. Subsequently his fortunes attached him to his uncle's, Gen. Stand Watie, and he was with that noted chieftain through the latter part of the war. He fought at Jenkins Perry, Pleasant Hill and Mansfield, and came out of the war unscatched.
With all this experience he was still a boy when the war closed, and he soon afterward became connected with a drug house in Fort Smith, and from there moved to Indian Territory, not far distant from Fort Smith, and followed farming and trading among the Cherokees until 1880. In that year he became one of the pioneers of Sallisaw. He was there when the first railroad came, and thenceforward for thirty-five years was one of the progressive leaders in the development and upbuilding of the town. During the greater part of that time, for fully thirty years, he operated on a successful and extensive scale farming and stock raising, the was one of the pioneer fruit growers and developed one of the best orchards in Sequoyah County. When the Cherokee lauds were allotted, Jus share was a handsome portion on the east side or Sallisaw, and altogether he owned about twelve hundred acres in one body, and had various other business relations with Sallisaw. He was a director in the Merchants National Bank of Sallisaw, was interested in the Wheeler Lumber Company, was head ot the firm Wheeler &. Sons, cotton buyers and ginners, and held stock in the Sallisaw Cotton Oil Mill. His public spirit was equal to his business capacity, and for nine years he was president of the Sallisaw Board of Education and served several terms on the Sallisaw town council. In his younger years he had at one time served as chief of police in t ort Smith. He was an active democrat, and altogether one of the best known and influential citizens of Eastern Oklahoma at the time of his death.
On November 5, 1868, he married Miss Emma C. Carnall who was born at Fort Smith in March, 1848, daughter of John Carnall, who came from Virginia. The children of Mr. and Mrs. Wheeler were: John Perry, who married Nancy Benge; Fannie M., who married T. F. Shackelford; Dnisey E., who married Edgar T. Stevenson; Corrie F., who married Raleigh Kodel; William Watie, Jr., who married Jessie Meechem; Jessie V., who married W. B. Mayo; Carnall, who in 1909 graduated from the Virginia Military Institute; and Theodore F., who completed his higher education in the University of Missouri.
[Source: A Standard History of Oklahoma Volume 4 By Joseph Bradfield Thoburn - Submitted by a Friend of Free Genealogy]

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