Wagoner County Oklahoma Biographies

Wagoner County Oklahoma 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 became 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 administration 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 service 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 remained for four years. On the expiration of that period he removed 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 lumber business. He had always been interested in medicine, however, 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 practice 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 superintendent 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 contemporaries. [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 success in that connection. Later he engaged in teaming and ranching 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]

Chauncey W. Payne 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.
Written by Charlotte Stevens Schneider with excerpts from Granddaughter, Jeani. Great Granddaughters of Chauncey W. Payne

Vonette Zachary Bright, wife of Dr. William R. “Bill” Bright (See obit), co-founded Campus Crusade for Christ, with her husband in 1951. Since then the ministry has grown into its current size of 26,000 staff members, and 225,000 volunteers working in 191 countries.

Born in Coweta, Okla., Vonette received her bachelor's degree in home economics from Texas Women's University and did graduate work in the field of education at the University of Southern California. She taught in the Los Angeles school system from 1949-1952.

Concerned for the moral and spiritual values of America, Vonette founded the Great Commission Prayer Crusade in 1972. This movement united Christians to pray specifically and strategically for national and international concerns. As a member of the original Lausanne Committee for World Evangelization, founded in 1974, Vonette served as chair of the Intercession Working Group from 1981-1990. In 1984, she served as chair of the International Prayer Assembly for World Evangelization in Seoul, Korea. More than 3,000 people from 71 countries joined 100,000 Koreans for this event, which was directed by Dr. Joon Gon Kim, one of Korea’s leading Christian statesmen.

Vonette's commitment to prayer led to the founding of the National Prayer Committee in 1979, a group of prayer leaders who seek to motivate other Christians to unite in prayer for spiritual awakening. In 1988, as chair, she was successful in introducing legislation unanimously approved by both houses of Congress to make the first Thursday of every May the permanent date for the National Day of Prayer, which encourages American citizens to pray for the United States and its leaders.

Vonette has authored several books, including the My Heart in His Hands Devotional series (New Life Publications, 2002), The Woman Within (New Life Publications, 2003), The Sister Circle, co-authored with Nancy Moser, is her first novel in a a four-part series and was released in 2003 (Tyndale Publishers), and Building a Home in a Pull-Apart World (Thomas Nelson, 1995), which she co-authored with her husband.

Honors for Vonette include being named 1973 Churchwoman of the Year by Religious Heritage of America. Religion in America honored her in 1982 as International Church Woman of the Year. In that same year, she was named distinguished alumna of Texas Woman's University. In 1988, the Brights were inducted into the Religion in Media International Communication Galaxy of Fame at the International Angel Awards. In 1995, Vonette was named Christian Woman of the Year by the Christian Woman of the Year Association.

Vonette has two grown children, Zachary and Bradley, and grandchildren Rebecca, Christopher, Hamilton Keller, and Noel Victoria.

Vonette Bright resides in Orlando, Fla.