Wagoner County, Oklahoma Biographies

Wagoner County

Biographies

ARCHIE EARLE CARDER, M. D.
Dr. Archie Earle Carder, a successful physician and surgeon of Coweta, with offices in the First State Bank building, has been a representative of the medical profession here for the past two decades and is the oldest practitioner of Wagoner county. He was born at Marshall, Texas, on the 29th of May, 1864, a son of George W. and Ellen M, (McDaniel) Carder, who were natives of Beverly, Virginia, and of North Carolina respectively. The father made his way to Arkadelphia, Arkansas, in 1849 and beÂcame a merchant there. At the outbreak of the Civil war he enlisted for service in the Confederate army and was in the commissary department most of the time but served as a courier on the staff of General Fagen for a short period. When the war was over he returned to Arkadelphia, where he continued to reside throughout the remainder of his life, his death occurring in March, 1904, when he had reached the age of seventy-four years. For sixteen consecutive years he served as mayor of Arkadelphia, giving to the city a most progressive and businesslike administraÂtion that resulted in many needed reforms and improvements. For about six years he survived his wife, who departed this life in April, 1898, at the age of fifty-six.
Though a native of Texas, Archie E. Carder was reared and educated in Arkadelphia, Arkansas, for 'his mother was a resident of the Lone Star state only during the period of the father's serÂvice in the army. His early training in the public schools was supplemented by a course of study in the Baptist high school and he also studied for two years under a private tutor. After putting aside his textbooks he spent three years in the employ of the Pacific Express Company and then entered the internal revenue service under President Cleveland at Little" Rock, Arkansas, where he reÂmained for four years. On the expiration of that period he reÂmoved to 'I'exarkana, where he held the position of cashier in the office of the Pacific Express Company until 1891. He assisted in building the water and light plant at Arkadelphia and for three years served as superintendent thereof. It was in June, 1895, that he came to Wagoner, Indian Territory, and embarked in the lumÂber business. He had always been interested in medicine, howÂever, having begun the study of the science as a boy, and in 1897 he disposed of his lumber interests at Wagoner and entered the. Beaumont Hospital Medical College of St. Louis, from which he was graduated as a member of the class of 1901. During vacation periods he practiced at Gibson Station, Wagoner and Coweta, Oklahoma, but in the year of his graduation he located permanently at Coweta, where he has remained continuously throughout the intervening period of two decades. He is today the oldest representative of the profession in Wagoner county and his pracÂtice has steadily increased in volume and importance as he has demonstrated .his ability to cope with the intricate problems that continually confront the physician in his efforts to restore health and prolong life. As a member of the Wagoner County Medical Society and the Oklahoma State Medical Society he keeps in close touch with the advanced thought and progress of the profession. His holdings; here include gas producing property and he has drilled a number of wells.
On the 10th of February, 1892, Dr. Carder was united in marriage to Miss Nettie Rowley, a daughter of John C. and Elizabeth (Shaw) Rowley, both of whom were natives of Ohio. The father, who for a number of years engaged in the milling business at Arkadelphia, Arkansas, came to Wagoner, Oklahoma, in 1896 and eight years later took up his abode in Coweta, here making his home with Dr. Carder until called to his final rest in March, 1905, when seventy-four years of age. Mrs. Rowley died on the 13th of November, 1914, when eighty-two years of age.
Dr. Carder has always given his political allegiance to the democratic party and from 1910 until 1919 served as county superÂintendent of public health on the state board. He was likewise a member of the board of aldermen in the old town of Coweta during the years 1902 and 1903 and during the period of the World war served on the medical exemption board for Wagoner county. Fraternally he is identified with the Masons and the Modern Woodmen of America, while his religious faith is indicated by his membership in the Christian church. His life has been upright and honorable in every relation and he enjoys in unusual degree the respect and confidence of his professional colleagues and conÂtemporaries.
[Source: Page 35-37, Benedict, John Downing,. "Muskogee and northeastern Oklahoma : including the counties of Muskogee, McIntosh, Wagoner, Cherokee, Sequoyah, Adair, Delaware, Mayes, Rogers, Washington, Nowata, Craig, and Ottawa". Chicago: S.J. Clarke Pub. Co., 1922. Submitted by Nancy Piper]

MARSH CORGAN.
Wagoner numbers among her native sons Marsh Corgan, who, as sheriff of Wagoner, has the distinction of being the youngest man to hold that office in the United States. He is tireless in his devotion to the duties devolving upon him in that office and has gained the trust, confidence and goodwill of his fellowmen. Mr. Corgan was born in Wagoner, on the 6th of October, 1895, a son of John M. and Anna E. (Easton) Corgan, the former a native of Illinois and the latter of Iowa. John M. Corgan went to Iowa at an early age and subsequently to Indian Territory, locating in what is now Wagoner county, near Gibson. He operated a tie camp there, selling to the railroad, and he achieved substantial sucÂcess in that connection. Later he engaged in teaming and ranchÂing and he was active along those lines until his demise in March, 1918, at the age of sixty-five years. Mr. Corgan served as a snare drummer in the Confederate army during the Civil war. He tried to enlist in the Union army but was refused because of his extreme youth. Mrs. Corgan survives her husband and she is residing in Wagoner.
In the acquirement of an education Marsh Corgan attended the common schools of Wagoner and after putting his textbooks aside was employed as engineer of the ice plant for a period covering three or four years. In 1917, however, he put all personal interests aside and enlisted for service in the World war. He was a member of Company C, Three Hundred and Fifty-eight Infantry, Ninetieth Division, and he was active in the battle of St. Mihiel. At the time of the armistice he was in an Officers Training Camp at Langres, France, where he was commissioned second lieutenant. He received his honorable discharge from the army in March, 1919; and returned to his old job in the ice plant here, in which connection he remained until November of the year 1920. In that year he was elected to the office of sheriff of Wagoner county, at this time being the youngest man ever elected to that office in the United States. Mr. Corgan was offered a contract with the White Sox to play professional baseball at a considerably larger salary than he receives as sheriff, but he refused.
Since attaining his majority Mr. Corgan has given his political allegiance to the republican party, in the interests of which he takes an, active part. Fraternally he is identified with the Woodmen of the World and as a veteran of the World war he holds membership in the American Legion. He is a consistent member of the Presbyterian church, in which faith he was reared, and he is a generous contributor to its support. Mr. Corgan has many friends in the community who have known him from boyhood and they are, proud of the sucess he has attained.
[Source: Page 29-30, Benedict, John Downing,. "Muskogee and northeastern Oklahoma : including the counties of Muskogee, McIntosh, Wagoner, Cherokee, Sequoyah, Adair, Delaware, Mayes, Rogers, Washington, Nowata, Craig, and Ottawa". Chicago: S.J. Clarke Pub. Co., 1922. - Submitted by Nancy Piper]

FOSTER, George H.
He may well be counted among those who fortunately have chosen that life vocation for which they best are fitted. The natural and temperamental endowments which in him contribute to a strongly marked character, easily lend themselves to the facile and successful accomplishment of the many responsibilities and labors inevitable to the life of a newspaper man. Successively educator, lawyer, banker and journalist, it has been in the last-named field that he has won distinction, not alone as editor and publisher of the Wagoner County Record, but as president of the Oklahoma Press Association, which high honor he attained by election in 1915.
George H. Foster was born in Wapello County, Southeast Iowa, December 16, 1867, and is a son of Caleb and Matilda (Pickens) Foster. He was reared in his native state, but in 1884, when but seventeen years of age, and possessed only of an ordinary education, he determined to lace the world alone, and accordingly made his way to Kansas, where during the next ten years he was engaged in teaching school, a capacity in which he won a reputation as an efficient and popular instructor. In the meanwhile, he had been devoting his leisure time to the study of law, securing such books as he could, and often applying himself to them until late into the night. This assiduous study soon brought its reward, for in 1895 he was admitted to the bar of Kansas and immediately took up his practice at Olathe, the county seat of Johnson County. Mr. Foster continued as a practitioner in the Sunflower State until 1901, in which year he removed to Guthrie and formed a law partnership with his brother, Judge J. C. Foster, who is now deceased. Later Mr. Foster and his wife engaged in the banking business with Judge Foster, at Ripley, Oklahoma, the Judge being a silent partner, and when this business was sold, George H. Foster entered upon his journalistic career as the publisher of a paper at Broken Arrow.
In 1908 Mr. Foster changed his headquarters to Wagoner, where he and Mrs. Foster became equal owners, and editor and associate editor, respectively, of the Wagoner County Record, a weekly publication, and the very first newspaper established in Eastern Oklahoma. This they have continued to own and publish, and have developed it into one of the leading organs of this part of the state, with a large circulation and a reputation as an excellent advertising medium. Mrs. Foster, who bore the maiden name of Edith Harnett, was born in Illinois, was given good educational advantages, and for several years was a teacher in the schools of Johnson County, Kansas. From 1897 until 1901 she served as county superintendent of schools in that county, and in the latter year was married to Mr. Foster. They are members of the Methodist Church, in the work of which they take an active interest, and are well known in literary and social circles of Wagoner. In 1915 Mr. Foster was honored by his fellow-members of the craft by election to the office of president of the Oklahoma Press Association. He is a republican in his political views and an influential member of his party in Wagoner County, and is fraternally affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. Mr. Foster has shown his faith in the future of Oklahoma by investments in realty here, and at the present time is the owner of a nice little ranch of 600 acres twelve miles east of Wagoner, which is well stocked with cattle and hogs and upon which he and his wife spend a considerable part of their time. His best efforts have always been given to the advancement of the interests and institutions of his adopted community, and in every respect he is accounted one of Wagoner's most progressive, stirring and helpful citizens.
[Source: A Standard History of Oklahoma Volume 4 By Joseph Bradfield Thoburn - Submitted by a Friend of Free Genealogy]

GRAVES, James W.
One of the honored old residents of Wagoner is James W. Graves, whose long career has been spent in various states, chiefly in Indiana, and who has resided at Wagoner for the past seven years.
It was near the battlefield of the famous battle of Tippecanoe in Tippecanoe County, Indiana, that James W. Graves was born November 17, 1839, a son of Benjamin and Mary E. (Pierce) Graves. His father was born in Virginia and became a pioneer settler in Indiana. The Graves family is of English origin, and the American progenitor was named Benjamin and came from England to America about 1650, subsequently settling in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. The Pierce family is of Scotch-Irish lineage, and also located in Virginia at a very early date. The Graves family has paid tribute to the nation by furnishing soldiers in all its wars from the Revolution to the Spanish-American, and of very few other American families can that be said.
James W. Graves grew to manhood in Indiana, and gained a fair common school education. On the outbreak of the Civil War he enlisted as a Union soldier, entering the ranks as a private, and continuing throughout the entire war, for four years, at the end of which time he was honorably discharged as first lieutenant of his company. He was in the infantry branch of the Union army, and for the greater part of the time was under the command of General Sherman. At the close of the war he marched with the victorious troops of that leader in the Grand Review at Washington, and soon afterward resumed the life of a civilian. He has long been a member of the Grand Army of the Republic, and from the age of twenty-one a member of the Masonic fraternity. Politically his support has been stanchly given to the republican party, though he never held office but once, and that was during his residence in Minnesota, where he served as sheriff of Nicollet County during the turbulent times following the Civil war.
Shortly after his marriage Mr. Graves removed to Minnesota and lived in that state until 1876. He then returned to Indiana, settling in Newton County, and became identified with merchandising at the Town of Morocco. His reputation for fair dealing and his nn- . swerving honesty brought him a large trade, and when he sold out possessed a competence sufficient for his needs. He then removed to a farm in Newton County, and finally after selling his property in Indiana in 1908 moved to Wagoner, Oklahoma. He has since been a resident of that city, and while he has investments there and in that vicinity has no business cares that require his constant attention.
Mr. Graves married Miss Jemima B. Brennisholtz, who was a native of Montgomery County, Indiana. Her father, John Brennisholtz, was born in the Susquehanna Valley of Pennsylvania, being of Swiss lineage on the paternal side and maternally of French and Irish blood. To James W. Graves and wife were born four children: Orlando M., who is a detective by profession; John C.. a well known lawyer at Wagoner; Cora, wife of R. W. Sutcliff of Wagoner; and Sherburne, a real estate man of Wagoner.
[Source: A Standard History of Oklahoma Volume 4 By Joseph Bradfield Thoburn - Submitted by a Friend of Free Genealogy]

HARRIS, JAMES A., real estate and farms, Wagoner, bornm at Henry, Marshall county, Ill., July 26. 1870, son of Geo. H. and Emma H. (Rowe) Harris. Common schools and business college education. Engaged in mercantile business in Wagoner in 1893, since then real estate and banking director First National Bank of Wagoner; also interested in oil production. Mr. Harris in a Republican and always has taken a leading part in state and national politics, prior to statehood, he was chairman of the Creek Nation committee of Indian Territory: was a member of the Oklahoma constitutional convention in 1907: was a delegate-at-large to the Republican national convention, 1908: chairman Republican state committee, mill to 1912; member the Republican national committee, 1912 to present time. Methodist. Belongs to the Elks and Muskogee Country clubs. Unmarried.
(Source: Men of Affairs & Representative Institutions of Oklahoma, 1916. Submitted by Vicki Hartman)

HUNT, Albert C.
Albert C. Hunt, son of Judge William T. and Mattie (Rose) Hunt, is a comparatively recent addition to the legal fraternity of Oklahoma but has already gained a well-established position for himself in legal circles. He was born at Clarksville, Arkansas, July 30, 1888, and was granted good educational advantages, in 1906 graduating from the Missouri Military Academy with honors. He next became a law student at Vanderbilt University, and was graduated there from in June, 1909, with his degree, and since that time has been engaged in active practice at Wagoner, in association with his father. He was the first incumbent of the office of city attorney of Wagoner, under the commission form of government, and established an excellent record in that capacity, a service which marked him indelibly as a young man of great promise. Mr. Hunt is a thirty-second degree Mason, a Knight Templar and a member of the Mystic Shrine, and is very popular in fraternal, social and professional circles. He was reared in the faith of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and has remained true to its teachings. On November 24, 1914, Mr. Hunt was married to Miss Essie Hayden, who was born in the Cherokee Nation, daughter of C. Hayden, a prominent banker and stockman of Oklahoma.
[Source: A Standard History of Oklahoma Volume 4 By Joseph Bradfield Thoburn - Submitted by a Friend of Free Genealogy]

HUNT, Judge William T.
William T. Hunt of Wagoner, possesses a very large circle of friends in professional and public life. Just as the names of various business men and public officials who have passed into the history of Wagoner suggest the fulfillment of important enterprises, so also the name of Judge Hunt will be identified with the early legislation and founding of education here for many years to come.
William T. Hunt was born in Dickson County, Tennessee, July' 23, 1859, and is a son of James C. and Serena P. (Slayden) Hunt. His father, a native of Tennessee, but of South Carolina parentage and of English lineage, is still living in Dickson County, at the age of seventy-six years. The mother of Judge Hunt was also born in the Big Bend State. William T. Hunt was reared amid agricultural surroundings and acquired his early education in the local schools in the vicinity of the family homestead, this being supplemented by a course of study at Cloverdale (Tennessee) Seminary. At the age of eighteen years he began teaching school, and after two years in his native state removed, in 1880, to Clarksville, Arkansas, where he entered upon the study of his chosen profession, the law. In 1884 he was licensed to practice in Arkansas, and entered upon his professional career at Clarksville, where he resided until March, 1895, at that time taking up his residence at Wagoner, Indian Territory. From early manhood he had been active in politics as a democrat, and while living at Clarksville had served as a member of the school board, as mayor of the city, and, in 1893, as a member of the Arkansas Legislature. Upon locating at Wagoner, he at once began active service in the upbuilding of his adopted community. He was instrumental in securing the incorporation of the town of Wagoner, the first to be incorporated in what is now the State of Oklahoma, and as the attorney who drafted the petition praying for articles of incorporation before the federal judge, has the distinction of being one of the real '' fathers of the city.'' Always a friend of education, his former services as a member of the school board of Clarksville, Arkansas, gave him experience which was valuable to him when he exerted his influence and abilities in founding, in May, 1896, what was the first public school not only at Wagoner, but in what is now the state, and for several years thereafter be continued to serve as a member of the board. As county judge of Wagoner County, in 1913 and 1914, he made friends and admirers throughout this part of the state, and at all times upheld the dignity and best traditions of the Oklahoma bench. As a thorough and learned lawyer in all branches of jurisprudence, he has a large and important practice, and is justly accounted one of the foremost men of his profession in Wagoner County. He keeps in close touch with the professional brotherhood, belongs to various fraternal and social organizations, and is a consistent member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South.
In 1884, while still a resident of Arkansas, Judge Hunt was married to Miss Mattie Rose, and to this union there have been born ten children, namely: Rose, who is the wife of H. H. Townsend, of Wagoner; Albert C.; Percy S., who was first an attorney and later a minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and died in 1914, at La Veta, Colorado, where he was serving as pastor; John P., who is a law student at Georgetown University; a daughter who died in infancy; William T., Jr., a graduate of Wagoner High School; and James C., Cecil, Elizabeth and Francis Russell, who reside at home.
[Source: A Standard History of Oklahoma Volume 4 By Joseph Bradfield Thoburn - Submitted by a Friend of Free Genealogy]

LONG, Hon. William E. Long
The representative from Wagoner County in the Oklahoma Legislature of 1915-16 is one of the interesting personalities of the legislative body and is a native Oklahoman, descended from one of the early Cherokee families in the eastern part of the state.
He was elected to the State Legislature from Wagoner County in 1914, and served in both the regular session of 1915 and the special session of 1916. One fact of his legislative record that deserves special mention is that ho was author of the resolution appointing a committee to investigate A. P. Watson, corporation commissioner, after charges has been preferred against the commissioner. This resolution was adopted by unanimous vote. Mr. Long also served on a number of important committees, including banks and banking, and was a member of the inauguration committee when Governor R. L. Williams was installed in the executive chair in 1915.
Representative Long was born at Webbers Falls in Old Indian Territory, October 13, 1886. His father was William P. Sheppard, who was a native of the Cherokee Nation and died in 1889, when his son was in infancy. He was quite active in Cherokee affairs and at the time of his death was a member of the old Cherokee Council. He was a one-eighth Cherokee, while the mother of Representative Long was a native of Tennessee and of Irish stock. He maiden name was Mattie F. James, and after the death of her first husband she married James E. Long, and her son, was legally adopted, hence the chance in his name. James E. Long was born in Texas in 1859, but has been a resident of Oklahoma for the past twenty years, and is now a well known farmer in Wagoner County. Since statehood he served four years in the office of sheriff of Wagoner County. Mr. and Mrs. James E. Long also have a daughter Sallie, who is a graduate of the University of Oklahoma, and is now instructor of English in the high school at Durant.
William E. Long received his early education in the Cherokee schools and also attended the university at Fort Smith, Arkansas. After graduating he had his first practical experience as bookkeeper for a mercantile house nt Wagoner, but since then has been active in the real estate business.
He early took much interest in democratic politics and prior to his election as representative served as city assessor of Wagoner and was a delegate to several county and state conventions.
Fraternally he is affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. On September 12, 1912, at Wagoner he married Miss Hattie A. Kuykendall, who was born in Arkansas in 1890. Mrs. Long is a graduate of the Cherokee Normal at Tahlequah. To their marriage has been born one child, Hattie Ernestine, born September 30, 1913.
[Source: A Standard History of Oklahoma Volume 4 By Joseph Bradfield Thoburn - Submitted by a Friend of Free Genealogy]

PARKINSON, Terry A.
In the management of the affairs of the counties of Oklahoma, one of the most important departments is the office of county clerk, in the direction of which there are required advanced abilities ot an executive nature. These are possessed in a prominent degree by the present county clerk of Wagoner County, Terry A. Parkinson, a resident of Wagoner since 1890 and a citizen who has displayed progressive views and energetic activities both as a business man and a public official.
Mr. Parkinson is a native of Coffey County, Kansas, and was born May 12, 1866, a son of James and Emma Jane (Randell) Parkinson. His father, born in Knox County, Illinois, May 18, 1840, was a small lad when taken from the Prairie State to Iowa, and there he was reared amid agricultural surroundings, being given ordinary educational opportunities, such as were offered by the district schools. In 1855, when but fifteen years of age, he left the parental roof, determined to enter upon a career of his own, and made his way to Kansas, where, being ambitious and energetic, he soon secured employment, and for several years was engaged in teaming across the plains to New Mexico, for the pioneer firm of Fuller & Carney, for which concern he subsequently was engaged in buying cattle for the United States military posts in Kansas. While engaged in the latter occupation, Mr. Parkinson first visited what is now Eastern Oklahoma. When the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railroad was being constructed in what was then Indian Territory, James Parkinson became a sub contractor in the construction of this line, and in that capacity built a stretch of twenty miles of track. Later he continued to be identified with this road in other capacities, principally in supplying railroad ties. Deciding to enter mercantile lines, Mr. Parkinson established a general store at Honey Springs, near where Checotah now is, but subsequently removed to the old Creek Indian Agency, where he also was proprietor of a mercantile establishment, continuing to conduct that venture until removing his family from LeRoy, Kansas, to Muskogee, in 1874. In 1882 he went to Springfield, Missouri, but soon decided no opportunities were to be found there as they were in the newly-opened country, and in the next year returned to Indian Territory and located at Red Fork. In 1892 he established his residence at Wagoner, Oklahoma, and here has continued to make his home, being alert and energetic in spite of his seventy-five years. His business experiences have been of a varied character and wide in their range, but in each line he has maintained a high reputation for integrity and probity, and he still remains a respected citizen and is numbered among Oklahoma 's worthy and venerated pioneers.
Terry A. Parkinson obtained a common school education, was reared on the home farm in Kansas, and was eight years of age when his father removed the family to Muskogee. In January, 1890, following in his father's footsteps, he established himself in business as a merchant at Wagoner, but after three years disposed of his interests in that direction and turned his attention to the handling of cattle a venture in which he had engaged as a side line several years before, and which grew and developed to such an extent that it demanded his undivided attention. In this line he continued with varied success until his appointment, December 20, 1913, as county clerk, to fill a vacancy, and in 1914 he was chosen by the voters as his own successor in that office. In the discharge of his official duties, he has shown himself thoroughly competent and faithful, and his administration has been marked by many movements which have tended to strengthen the county's prosperity as well as to conserve the interests of the taxpayers. His only public experience prior to his entering the county clerkship, was as mayor of Wagoner, a position in which he had served one term. Clerk Parkinson is a democrat. A Mason fraternally, he has filled all the chairs in the blue lodge, chapter and council, and is generally popular with his fellow-members in the order, as he is in all the other walks of life.
In 1891 Mr. Parkinson was married to Miss Addie Cobb, daughter of Joseph B. Cobb, of Wagoner. They have eight children, all living, and the two oldest daughters are married and each have two children.
[Source: A Standard History of Oklahoma Volume 4 By Joseph Bradfield Thoburn - Submitted by a Friend of Free Genealogy]

PAYNE, Chauncey W. was born on December 6, 1862 in Mayfield, Graves County, Kentucky, the son of Chauncey Smith Payne and Cynthia Florilla Chipman Payne. In the 1870 U. S. Census, it shows the family was living in Union City, Obion, Tennessee. By 1880, the family had moved to Jackson Township, Texas County, Missouri.
On December 22, 1886, Chauncey W. Payne and Sarah Louise Brackett were married in Houston, Texas County, Missouri. They had four sons, Cassius Melvin, Arthur W., Earnest Joseph, and Chauncey Smith Payne II. In 1900, they were living in Jackson Township, Texas County, Missouri.
In about 1908, they moved to Creek Township, Wagoner County, Oklahoma. They came by wagon, and started farming in Wagoner County. The youngest son, Chauncey Smith Payne II, rode his horse all the way from Missouri behind the covered wagon. "Old Bill" was an Appaloosa, black with an iron gray rump, and he was a really great horse.
Along with farming, Chauncey W. and his boys worked hauling water for the City of Wagoner from the Grand River using wagons and teams of horses.
During the Great Influenza Epidemic of 1918, known as the Spanish Flu that lasted until June of 1920, Chauncey W. Payne contracted the flu. His death certificate shows that he died within seven days. His son, Earnest Joseph died thirteen days later, also of the Spanish Flu.
They are buried in a plot along with Earnest Joseph's wife and little son in Elmwood Cemetery, Wagoner, Wagoner County, Oklahoma.
(Source: Written by Charlotte Stevens Schneider with excerpts from Granddaughter, Jeani. Great Granddaughters of Chauncey W. Payne)

THOMSON, Herbert Ellis
The incumbent of the office of postmaster of Wagoner since his appointment, April 1, 1915, Herbert Ellis Thomson has proved during the comparatively short period of his official service a thoroughly capable, energetic and faithful public servant. His long and active career has embraced a number of activities, in which he has displayed the possession of versatile talents, and the benefit of his experience is being given unreservedly to his office and to the good of the service.
Mr. Thomson was born in Navarro County, Texas, May 14, 1860, and is a son of James R. and Lucebra (Edwards) Thomson. His parents, Kentuckians by birth, removed to Texas about the year 1858 and James R. Thomson was engaged in merchandising at Brenham for several years. He then disposed of his mercantile interests to adopt the vocation of traveling salesman, but gave up that occupation to establish himself in business again, this time as the proprietor of a hotel at Brenham. At the recommendation of his son-in-law, Thomas C. Harrill, Mr. Thomson brought his family from Texas to Oklahoma in 1894, and took up his residence at Wagoner, where he passed the remaining years of Ms active life. Mr. Thomson entered a company of Texas volunteers at the outbreak of the war between the states, for service in the Confederate army, and through conspicuous gallantry was successively promoted from private to the rank of captain. Both in Texas and Oklahoma he was hold in high esteem as a man of integrity and a citizen of much public spirit.
Herbert Ellis Thomson was reared at Brenham, where he received a public school education, and at the age of nineteen years engaged in railroading, a vocation which attracts many young men, but in which few remain as long as did Mr. Thomson. For a quarter of a century he continued to be identified with this business at various points in Texas, rising from shipping clerk to the position of station agent, a capacity in which he acted for many years. In 1905 he gave up railroading, and in 1898 came to Oklahoma and established his home at Wagoner, where he has since continued to reside. On his arrival he became the proprietor of a hay and grain business, and later associated himself with others in the feeding of cattle, and continued to be occupied in this way until receiving the appointment as postmaster of Wagoner, the duties of which position he assumed April 1, 1915. Mr. Thomson has always been a stanch democrat in his political views and an active and influential worker during campaigns. In his present capacity he is courteous and affable in his dealings with the people, an able administrator of the affairs of the postoffice. and a helpful factor in advancing the efficiency of the mail service.
Mr. Thomson was married in 1887, to Miss Nena I. Chaplin, of Brenham. Texas, and to this union there have been born two daughters and four sons.
[Source: A Standard History of Oklahoma Volume 4 By Joseph Bradfield Thoburn - Submitted by a Friend of Free Genealogy]

TRUMBO, Charles E.
It is in the field of banking and finance that Charles E. Trumbo has chiefly distinguished himself, and he came to Oklahoma about thirteen years ago after a varied country and metropolitan banking experience in his native State of Missouri. Mr. Trumbo is now cashier of the Citizens' State Bank of Wagoner, but has been president and otherwise officially identified with the executive management of several other institutions in the eastern part of the state, and has interests which would also classify him as a farmer.
His birth occurred on a farm in Linn County, Missouri, May 24, 1870. His parents were Charles W. and Mary F. (Carter) Trumbo, the former a native of Kentucky and the latter of Missouri. Charles W. Trumbo, who was of fine old Kentucky stock, went to Missouri when quite young and though possessed of little money started out with an energetic spirit and worthy ambition to gain for himself and family the best possible advantages of life and at the same time do service to others. For a number of years he lived on a farm in Linn County, and while in the active work of that vocation was one of the most successful agriculturists in his part of the state. About 1888 he extended his interests to the banking business at Linneus, and for many years was president of the Farmers & Merchants Bank of that city, continuing the active head of the institution until about five years ago, when he retired. He has now reached the eighty-second milestone on a well directed life, and from small beginnings has reached a success that makes him one of the wealthy men of Linn County. He reared a family of seven children, and their mother, a woman of many excellence of heart and mind, died several years ago. Charles W. Trumbo in polities has always been a stanch democrat, and served with distinction in the Thirty-fifth General Assembly of Missouri and has held several local offices. He has shown the example of high character to his children, and in addition gave them splendid educational advantages and other opportunities for successful beginnings.
The first eighteen years of his life Charles E. Trumbo spent on his father's farm near Linneus, and acquired his early education from the district schools in that neighborhood. After passing the entrance examination he became a student in the academic department of the University of Missouri, but after a year specialized in commercial law, and for a similar period was a regular student in the business or commercial course. He received a diploma from the commercial department of the university, as it was then maintained, and returned home to become cashier of his father's bank, the Farmers & Merchants Bank of Linneus. During nine years of service as cashier he gained an intimate knowledge of all details of the banking business, and supplemented that training by one year as mailing clerk and paying teller in the Traders National Bank of Kansas City. The stockholders and directors of that institution then sent him in October, 1902, to organize the Farmers & Merchants Bank in Coweta, Oklahoma, and he became its first cashier and held that post eight years. Selling his interests in the Coweta bank, he next organized the Security Abstract Company of Wagoner County. About that time his first and only important excursion was made into the field of practical politics. In 1910 he was elected on the democratic ticket to the office of county treasurer of Wagoner County. Soon after taking office he sold his interests in the abstract company, and for two and a half years devoted himself with characteristic fidelity and energy to his official work. On retiring from office, associated with other prominent citizens of the county, he bought the Central State Bank of Muskogee, the First State Bank of Webbers Falls and the Porter State Bank of Porter. In this chain of banks Mr. Trumbo became president of all of them. The next change in his financial relations came in January. 1915, when he sold his stock in the Central State Bank, removed from the City of Muskogee to Wagoner, and is now giving his principal attention to his work as cashier of the Citizens State Bank of that city. He is also vice president of the National Bank of Commerce of Coweta, near which town he owns one of the best improved farms of Wagoner County.
His career, as these facts indicate, has been essentially that of a banker, and he has won an enviable reputation and enjoys a large acquaintance among banking men both in this state and elsewhere. Fraternally he is a Master Mason, a Knight of Pythias and also a member of Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. In June, 1898, Mr. Trumbo was married at Columbia, Missouri, to Miss Nellie Newman.
[Source: A Standard History of Oklahoma Volume 4 By Joseph Bradfield Thoburn - Submitted by a Friend of Free Genealogy]

WATTS, CHARLES G., lawyer, Wagoner, born at Pawpaw, Indian Territory, February 8, 1875, son of Jeff and Martha (Blackard) Watts, of Cherokee extraction. Graduated from Hyram and Lydia College, Alius, Ark., and admitted to the bar in Wagoner, where he has practiced for twenty years. Is a Democrat and active party
worker. Was mayor of Wagoner two terms, 1905-6 and 1906-7. Was elected district judge of 3d judicial district, and was called by supreme court to serve on commission April 1, 1913, for one year, which service he has just finished. Is a Mason and member M. W. A. and I. O. O. F. Married Miss Flora Lindsey, November 4, 1906. Two children: Clyde, 8; Charles Gordon, 4.
(Source: Men of Affairs & Representative Institutions of Oklahoma, 1916. Submitted by Vicki Hartman)

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