Stephens County, Oklahoma Biographies

Stephens County, OK
Biographies

Ed J. Leeman
Proprietor and editor of the Duncan Banner, Ed J. Leeman, is one of the successful newspaper men of Southern Oklahoma. To journalism he has brought the ability which would have enabled him to succeed in lines of business much more remunerative, and since boyhood has been through all the grades of service in the Fourth Estate, from printer to editor, and from a salaried position to independent publisher.
The Duncan Banner which he is now so successfully upholding to the breeze of public patronage has the distinction of being the oldest paper of Stephens County. It was established in 1892. The equipment was purchased in Texas, shipped by railroad to Pauls Valley, and from there hauled by wagon to Duncan. Its politics is democratic, and the Banner enjoys a large circulation and influence both in Stephens and surrounding counties. The offices and plant are located in the rear of the City National Bank Building, near the corner of Main and Eighth streets.
Ed J. Leeman was born at Blackjack Grove, Texas, September 23, 1874. The Leeman family is of Scotch Irish ancestry, and were settled many years ago in the State of Kentucky. J. A. Leeman, father of the Duncan editor, was born in Kentucky in 1847, and after fully half a century of useful service in the medical profession is now living at Pecos, Texas. He came to Lamar County, Texas, just prior to the Civil war, and in 1862 enlisted in a Texas regiment and was with the Confederate army until the close of hostilities. He was once taken prisoner. After the war he graduated from the Louisville Medical College, first located in Hunt County, and began the practice of medicine in Hopkins County, Texas. He practiced there and in West Texas for at least half a century, retiring from his work in 1914 when elected county treasurer of Winkler County, Texas, the office to which he now gives all his time. He is a democrat, a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and of the Masonic fraternity. Doctor Leeman married Miss Mattie Armor, a native of Mississippi. Their children are: Sam M., who is connected with the Waurika News-Democrat at Waurika, Oklahoma; Flora, who married J. L. Mann, a merchant at Clyde, Texas; Ed J.; William B., who is in the newspaper business at Clyde, Texas; and Lucy, wife of a railroad man at Toyah, Texas.
Ed J. Leeman was educated in country schools and in a high school in West Texas, but at the age of sixteen began his practical career in learning the printing business in Stonewall County, Texas, being connected with the Rayner News for three years. The next three years were spent in the Merkel Mail in Taylor County and at the end of that time he bought the plant and edited the Mail until 1904. He then removed to Fort Worth and was in the drug business one year. Mr. Leeman came to Duncan, Oklahoma, in 1905 and bought a half interest in the Banner, his business associate and partner being F. E. Sampson. On February 1, 1915, Mr. Leemau bought Mr. Sampson's interest and is now enjoying the entire responsibilities of management and is the owner of one of the best newspaper enterprises in the southern part of the state.
Mr. Leeman is a democrat, served three years on the Duncan Town Council, and has been secretary of the Democratic Central Committee since the date of statehood. He is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and affiliates with Mistletoe Lodge No. 17 Knights of Pythias and is secretary of the Duncan Chamber of Commerce.
While living in Texas at Abilene on December 4, 1898, he married Miss Alice Herring, whose father, now deceased, was an educator well known at Waco and other places in Texas. Mr. and Mrs. Leeman have five children: Wi, a junior in the Duncan High School; Edwin, Terry and George, all in school; and Judson.
[Source: A Standard History of Oklahoma Volume 4 By Joseph Bradfield Thoburn - Submitted by a Friend of Free Genealogy]

Louis Allen Morton
A resourceful and widely experienced educator is now superintendent of schools for Stephens County. Louis A. Morton has some high ideals as an educator, and has done much to give practical efficiency to the various school systems under his charge at different times, and can properly be given credit for a share in the remarkable progressive movement which has been under way in Oklahoma school matters for the past five or six years since he is by no means among the least influential and able of the men who are carrying forward this great work.
Louis Allen Morton was born in Russellville, Arkansas, August 19, 1877, a son of Reuben O. and Madrid (Love) Morton. There are few older families in America than the Mortons. They came originally from England, the emigrant ancestor having been John Morton, who served as secretary to Governor Bradford of the Massachusetts colony. Mr. Morton's great-grandfather, though descended from this New England settler, was for half a century a sea captain, and was at first impressed into the service by the British, and, later, sailed under the American flag on the Atlantic.
The grandfather was Thomas H. Morton, who became a large planter and slave owner in Mississippi, died at Meridian in that state. Reuben O. Morton was born on his father's plantation in Kemper County, Mississippi, in 1847, and is still living with home in Arkansas. Though but a boy at the time he served during the last two years of the war between the states, having enlisted at the age of fifteen in the Thirty-third Regiment of Mississippi Infantry. In 1869 ho removed to Russellville, Arkansas, and in 1884 to Pottsville in that state. Farming has been his regular vocation, though for a few years he was in the drug business. He is now president of the Citizens Bank of Pottsville. He became a charter member of the Masonic Lodge in his home locality in Arkansas many years ago, is a past master, and is now and has been for many years clerk in the Baptist Church. His wife was born in Pope County, Arkansas, June 1, 1851. Their children are: Thomas H., who when a young man entered the railroad service, and at the age of twenty-six was on his way South to visit the Texas oil wells, and was killed in Houston, the circumstances of his death indicating that he was waylaid and robbed; Annie, who died in childhood; Louis A.; Hugh D., a resident of Arkadelphia, Arkansas, who in 1915 was graduated A. B. from the Ouachita Baptist College of Arkansas; Lorenzo D., who is a traveling salesman with headquarters at Amarillo, Texas; Lillie, who was educated in the Mountain Home College and the Ouachita Baptist College in Arkansas, and is now the wife of W. H. Rankin, who is the owner of a large cotton plantation and owns and operates several cotton gins along the Arkansas River and lives in Russellville; Corrine, who is graduated in art from the Mountain Home College and the Ouachita Baptist College and is the wife of J. E. Allmon, a cotton planter and gin owner at Pottsville, Arkansas; Arkadelphia, who acquired her education in the Mountain Home and the Ouachita Baptist colleges, and is now the wife of Neal Campbell, principal of the high school at Gravelly, Arkansas; Blanche, who was educated in the same institutions attended by her sisters, and is now living with her parents.
Louis A. Morton spent his early years on his father's farm in Arkansas until 1897, and in the meantime had acquired the fundamentals in the public schools of Pottsville, and graduated from the high school of that place with the class of 1896. In 1907 he took the degree A. B. from the Ouachita Baptist College at Arkadelphia. However, he had early in life taken up the practical work of education, and for four years before his graduation from college served as county examiner or county superintendent of schools in Baxter County, Arkansas. He was president of Mountain Home College four years, 1902-1906. From 1907 to 1911 Mr. Morton was city superintendent of schools at Comanche, Oklahoma. During 1911 and 1912 he taught Latin and Science in Duncan public schools, and in November, 1912, was elected county superintendent of schools of Stephens County, beginning his official duties in July, 1913. By re-election on November 6, 1914, he has another two year term to serve. His jurisdiction as county superintendent extends to seventy-two schools in the county, one hundred fifty teachers and a total enrollment of 8,371 scholars. In many ways he has helped to coordinate the instruction and training of the local schools with the practical needs of modern life, but has probably gained his chief reputation over the state as an educator through his having originated the plan to get every school in his county to build "a mile of good roads," and as a result of his leadership in this matter forty miles of first-class highway have been constructed in Stephens County up to the present writing, May 15, 1915. In this connection it should be noted that Mr. Morton is secretary of the Stephens County Good Roads Association.
In politics he is a democrat. He is a deacon in the Baptist Church and a superintendent of the Sunday School, and fraternally has affiliations with Duncan Lodge No. 61, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons; Duncan Chapter No. 21, Royal Arch Masons; Border Queen Lodge No. 60, Knights of Pythias at Comanche, of which he is past chancellor; Duncan Camp No. 515, Woodmen of the World; Duncan Chapter of the Order of Eastern Star, of which he is worthy patron. He is a member of the Duncan Chamber of Commerce.
On September 13, 1904, at Mountain Home, Arkansas, Mr. Morton married Miss Nell Love, daughter of W. A. Love, a farmer of Mountain Home. To their marriage were born five children: William Allen, who died at the age of fifteen months; Louis A., Jr., who was born April 29, 1909; Nell, who died at the age of four years; James R., who died at the age of three weeks; and Joy Louise, born September 4, 1915.
[Source: A Standard History of Oklahoma Volume 4 By Joseph Bradfield Thoburn - Submitted by a Friend of Free Genealogy]

John O'Neill
The late John O 'Neill was born in County Tyrone, Ireland, August 27, 1845, and was in his seventieth year when he died. His father, Patrick O'Neill, was born in the same county of Ireland in 1813, lived there a farmer all his life and died in 1901. John O'Neill spent his .early life in Ireland, was educated there, and in 1863 at the age of eighteen went to Scotland, but after a year or two returned to Queenstown, and in 1866 took passage for the New World. He landed in Philadelphia, remained there about six weeks, then went to Mount Sterling, Kentucky, and his farming experience in that state continued until 1879. .
It was about thirty-five years ago when John O 'Neill came to the Southwest and first located in the vicinity of Sherman, Grayson County, Texas. He was one of the early farmers and ranchers in that locality, but about 1881 moved to another place in Montague County, near the Red River boundary of Texas. His residence in Southern Oklahoma dates from 1885, when he was one of the pioneer white ranchers to secure a foothold on the Indian lands in the vicinity of Wild Horse Creek. His operations as a rancher and farmer continued there on an increasing scale until 1904, when he relaxed in some degree the strenuous activities that had engaged him to that time, and moved into the town of Duncan. His work and influence are visibly impressed upon the general business and civic progress of Duncan. For a time he had a dry goods store and was also one of the directors of the First National Bank of Duncan, and was one of the founders and a director in the Duncan National Bank, which was established August 8, 1904. In 1905 he was instrumental in having the bank erect its new stone building on Main street. His creditable work in the upbuilding of Duncan should never be passed over without honorable mention. He was a patron of the local schools and helped the village improve its institutions and establish its prosperity on a sound basis. Though he long stood as a leader, he had no aspirations for office, and contented himself with voting the democratic ticket. He was a member of the Catholic Church.
John O'Neill married Elizabeth Payne, who was born within three miles of the county seat of Shelby County, Missouri, acquired her education in that and other counties of Missouri and in the Baptist College at LaGrange in that state. She and her daughter now occupy the fine residence built by the late Mr. O 'Neill at the corner of Third and Hickory streets in Duncan. In addition to this town home the real estate comprises a splendid tract of a thousand acres of land twenty miles east of Duncan, of which 800 acres are under cultivation, and also a stone business building at the corner of Main and Eighth streets, Duncan. Mrs. O'Neill has two daughters. Annie Josephine was married at Duncan November 27, 1907, to James R. Sparks, he is a Duncan hardware merchant, and they have one child living, Mary Patricia, born March 8, 1914. Bird, the younger daughter, is Joint administratrix with her mother of the O'Neill estate. She is a graduate of St. Joseph's Academy at Guthrie, Oklahoma.
Mrs. O'Neill is a daughter of Thomas H. and Martha (Marshall) Payne. The Payne family is of Scotch Irish ancestry, and was established in Virginia before the Revolutionary war, and after that struggle moved across the mountains into Kentucky. Thomas H. Payne was born in Bourbon County, Kentucky, in 1821, and died in Montague County, Texas, in September, 1884. The principal places of his residence were in Bourbon County, Kentucky, in Palmyra, and Shelby County, Missouri, and late in life he removed to Montague County, Texas.
He was a farmer and stock raiser during the greater part of his active career. During the war he participated on the Federal side for about one year, having first served in the Missouri militia under John Glover and continued with those troops when they were regularly enrolled in the Federal army. He was stricken with pneumonia while in the service and given an honorable discharge for disability. Martha Marshall, the mother of Mrs. O'Neill, was born in Kentucky in 1827 and died in Montague County, Texas, in October, 1900. Mrs. O'Neill was the oldest of their ten children, and some mention of the others of the family is as follows: Harriet Katherine, who now lives in Idaho, is the widow of the late Thomas Joiner, a farmer; Samuel, who lives on a farm near Marlow, Oklahoma: William, a farmer at Marlow; Winifred, at Butler, Oklahoma; Newton, a farmer near Wewoka, Oklahoma; Gallic, wife of Fred McClannahan, a carpenter and builder who lives at Holbrook, Arizona ; Lulu, wife of Allison Scott, a retired railroad man at Fort Worth, Texas; Thomas, who was a rancher and died at Duncan at the age of forty-three; Walter, a farmer and rancher at Duncan.
[Source: A Standard History of Oklahoma Volume 4 By Joseph Bradfield Thoburn - Submitted by a Friend of Free Genealogy]

James Osman Wharton, M. D.
While building up a successful practice as a physician and surgeon at Duncan during the past ten years, Dr. Wharton's name has also become known over the state at large in medical circles through his service on the State Board of Medical Examiners, and his service and attainments are such as to give him rank among the best representatives of the medical fraternity in Oklahoma.
James Osman Wharton was born at Russellville, Arkansas, October 15, 1879, a son of Dr. J. T. and Kate (Williamson) Wharton. The Wharton family has been one of distinction in this country since it came from England prior to the Revolutionary war and settled in Virginia. Dr. J. T. Wharton was born in Louisville, Kentucky, in 1840, and died at Duncan, Oklahoma, in 1911. Both before and after the Civil war he studied medicine at the Eclectic Medical Institute of Cincinnati, and was in practice for many years in the State of Arkansas. In 1889 he became the pioneer physician at Duncan in the Indian Territory, and lived there and practiced until his death. He was a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church and the Masonic fraternity. His wife, a native of Arkansas, is still living at Duncan. Some mention should be made of their ten children. Minnie, the oldest, is the wife of T. J. Smith, who is in the lumber and timber business at Guatemala City in Guatemala; Jesse Lawrence is a graduate of the Memphis Hospital Medical College and a practicing physician at Salina, Oklahoma; Susie May married W. F. Angel, in the insurance business at Collinsville, Oklahoma; Dr. James O. is the fourth in age; John Thomas is a graduate of the Bennett Medical College at Chicago and a physician and surgeon at Ketchum, Oklahoma; Cloyd W. Is bookkeeper for the Caddo Cotton Oil Company at Caddo, Oklahoma; Alonzo is clerk of the post office at Duncan; Bettie, a twin sister of Alonzo, married Guy C. Short, a member of the Duncan Hardware Company; Annie is the wife of Carl Erymire, a jeweler at Fort Sumner, New Mexico; Sydney Phillip is connected with the drug business at El Reno, Oklahoma.
James O. Wharton has lived at Duncan the greater part of his life since he was ten years of age. Following his graduation from the Duncan High School with the class of 1899 he became a farmer, and was engaged in looking after a herd of cattle seven miles southeast of Duncan until 1901. His ambition was for a profession, and he followed in the footsteps of his father in his choice. In 1903-04 he attended the Memphis Hospital Medical College, and spent the years 1905-06 in the Physio-Medical College at Dallas, Texas, where he was graduated in the class of 1906 with the degree M. D. He began practice at Duncan but during the years 1907-08-09 was located at Chickasha, with which exception his practice has been confined to the Duncan community. His offices are in the City Drug Store Building on Main street. Besides the large private practice which has come to him he has served for the past five years as city physician of Duncan, and for the past four years has been a member of the State Board of Medical Examiners. He is a member of the County and State Medical Societies and the American Medical Association, and has served as secretary and treasurer of the State Association of Physio-Medical Physicians and Surgeons in Oklahoma.
Dr. Wharton is a republican in politics, and a member of the Presbyterian Church. In Mistletoe Lodge No. 17 of the Knights of Pythias in Duncan he is a past chancellor and is now serving as chancellor, and other fraternal relations are with Duncan Camp No. 515, Woodmen of the World, with Grove No. 33 of the Woodmen Circle, with the Modern Order of Pratorians, and ho is also active in the Duncan Chamber of Commerce.
As Chickasha, Oklahoma, in 1908, Dr. Wharton married Miss Oma Guthridge, whose father, Reuben Guthridge, is a farmer at Cement, Oklahoma. Dr. and Mrs. Wharton have one daughter, Winifred Jewell, who was born December 18, 1913.
[Source: A Standard History of Oklahoma Volume 4 By Joseph Bradfield Thoburn - Submitted by a Friend of Free Genealogy]

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