Washington County, Oklahoma Biographies

Washington County, OK

Biographies

H. H. BOWEN
Among those who are doing effective work in connection with the development of the rich oil fields of northeastern Oklahoma is numbered H. H. Bowen, a successful operator residing at Ochelata, who is the possessor of considerable creative ability which he has utilized to good advantage in this field of activity. He was born in Adams county, Ohio, October 27, 1868, of the marriage of Reuben R. and Kate Bowen, the former a native of Virginia, while the latter was born in Ohio and was left an orphan when but an infant. The father devoted his attention to the buying of timber and became a pioneer of Indiana, passing away in 1907.
H. H. Bowen acquired his education in the common schools of Indiana and in 1905 he came to Oklahoma, first locating at Bartlesville and later removing to Ochelata, where he entered the oil business, in which he has been very successful. He owns improved property in both Bartlesville and Ochelata and has a one hundred and thirty acre tract of land situated two and a half miles southwest of Ochelata, on which he has five wells which at first produced one hundred and fifty barrels per day, while their present output is about forty barrels daily. He has done all of the development work on this property with his own funds and has devoted much thought to oil development work, which has resulted in the invention of a sand trap for oil wells, and he has also invented a wench for pulling rods and tubing from oil wells, the device being so made that it can be adjusted to the rear wheels of an automobile, which furnishes the motive power and is a great saving over the old method. Mr. Bowen is also interested in the Ochelata Mercantile Company and likewise owns a farm of one hundred and forty acres near Fort Recovery, in Mercer county, Ohio, and has made nine trips from Oklahoma to that state by automobile.
In 1902 Mr. Bowen was united in marriage to Miss Dora Cochran, a native of Indiana and a daughter of William and Anna (Brown) Cochran, who were also born in the Hoosier state. To this union has been born a daughter, Magdalene M., who is attending Forest Park College at St. Louis, Missouri. Mr. Bowen owns two residences, one being at Bartlesville and the other at Ochelata. He is a keen, farsighted business man whose energy and determination have enabled him to carry forward to a successful issue whatever he has undertaken, and Oklahoma has greatly benefited through his labors. (Source: Page 38-39, 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)

C. O. DAVIS.
C. O. Davis, one of the enterprising and progressive young agriculturists of northeastern Oklahoma, residing five miles northeast of Dewey, devotes his attention to the pursuits of farming and stock raising with excellent success. He was born in Chicago, Illinois, on the 7th of December, 1889, and there pursued his education. It was in 1909, when a young man of twenty years, that he came to Oklahoma, locating in Dewey, where he was placed in charge of the gas department of the W. F. Cowen Cement, Oil & Gas Company and laid all of their pipe lines here. Subsequently he took charge of the Joe .A. Bartles gas plant in Dewey, being thus engaged for three years. In 1915 he turned his attention to agricultural pursuits, which have since claimed his time and energies and in which connection he has won a most gratifying measure of prosperity, He owns three hundred and twenty acres of land, has two hundred and eighty acres more under lease and is extensively engaged in the cultivation of corn, oats and wheat, planting one hundred and fifty acres to wheat in 1921. In connection with the tilling of the soil he devotes considerable attention to the raising of cattle, including beef cattle, and also' conducts a dairy. He utilizes a tractor and modern machinery to facilitate the work of the fields and is widely recognized as one of the most progressive and up-to-date farmers of the community, There is a fine residence, together with substantial outbuildings on his property-the visible evidence of his life of well-directed industry and thrift. .His holdings include one hundred and eighty acres on the river bottom and there is oil on all of his land, there being twenty-five wells altogether.
On the 27th of October, 1914, Mr. Davis was united in marriage to Miss Anna Anderson, a daughter of Samuel and Josephine (Bullett). Anderson, both of whom were born in Kansas, of Delaware extraction, and became pioneer settlers of the Indian Territory. Mrs. Davis was educated at Chilocco, Oklahoma, and also pursued a course of study in Haskell Institute at Lawrence, Kansas. By her marriage she has become the mother of two children, William and Annette, the former now six years of age. Mr. Davis is fond of motoring, driving an Apperson car, and both he and his wife are well known and highly esteemed throughout the community in which they make their home. (Source: Page 15-16, 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)

J. S. FOUTS.
Modern progressive agriculture finds a worthy representative in J. S. Fouts; who owns a valuable farm near Dewey, in Washington county, on which he has placed many improvements, while his land also contains oil, from which source he derives a large addition to his income. A native of Kansas, he was born April 14, 1862, and his father died during his infancy. When but five years of age he was brought by his mother to the Cherokee Nation and three years later her death occurred, so that he was left an orphan when very young. He is of Delaware extraction and was reared by his maternal aunt, Mrs. Susie Elkhair, the wife of Charley Elkhair. His education was acquired in the mission schools in the eastern part of Oklahoma and after laying aside his textbooks he chose the occupation of farming, which he has since followed successfully, also engaging in stock raising. He resides on a ten acre farm situated three miles north of Dewey, on the main road to Copan, on which he has built a good home and substantial outbuildings, and he also owns a tract of one hundred and fifty acres on the Little Caney river, a mile northwest of his home place, this land being rich in oil, from which he draws about five hundred dollars a month in royalties. He likewise has a ranch of forty acres situated two and a half miles north of Copan, a portion of which is used as pasture for his stock, and his farming operations are conducted along the most practical and progressive lines, resulting in the attainment of a substantial measure of prosperity.
In 1899 Mr. Fouts was united in marriage to Mrs. Minnie (Bullet) Longbone, who by her former marriage to William Longbone became the mother of a son, Ray. Her parents are both deceased. She owns forty acres of land a mile northeast of the home farm and although no oil wells have as yet been drilled on this property it will no doubt be developed in the near future, as it lies within the oil section. She likewise has an eighty-acre tract a mile distant from the home place and from the oil wells on this property she derives a good revenue.
Mr. Fouts is the possessor of a fine physique, being six feet, one inch in height, and weighing two hundred and fifty pounds. He is a self-made man, deserving of all the praise which the term implies, for he has worked his way upward entirely through his own efforts, placing his dependence upon the substantial qualities of industry, perseverance and integrity, and Washington county numbers him among its leading agriculturists and substantial citizens. (Source: Page 47-48, 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)

BEN E. FLYNN
A resident of his present property, which is located 3 ½ miles north of Dewey, since 1900, Ben E. Flynn has seen the arrival of the railroad in this part of Washington County, as well as the other developments which have marked the settlement and progress of this fertile and productive part of Oklahoma. His entire career has been devoted to agriculture, in which he has achieved a satisfying success as a farmer and stock-raiser, and at the present time he is accounted one of the substantial men of his community.
Ben E. Flynn was born March 16, 1858, in Warren County, Tennessee, and is a son of Ben and Sally (Monaghan) Flynn, natives of that state and both of Irish parentage. The father, who was a farmer throughout his career, died about the close of the Civil war, but his widow survived him for many years, passing away in 1908. when she had reached the remarkable age of ninety-four years. She reared nine children to manhood and womanhood and all were married and had families: Gilbert; Mrs. Elizabeth Knight; Mrs. Lucy Hill: Mrs. Caroline McWilliams; Mrs. Minerva Murphy; James; John, a resident of Paris. Texas; Ben E.; and Charles, a resident of Houston, Texas, all being deceased with the exception of the last three.
Ben E. Flynn was given a public school education in the country districts of Warren County, Tennessee, and as a young man engaged in driving a stage and carried on an average of 1, 000 people annually over the mountains from his home locality to Beersheba Springs, Tennessee. He remained in Tennessee until the year 1886, at which time he came to the Cherokee Nation, where he has since resided. Four years after his arrival, he came to the farm he now occupies, a tract of eighty acres of land, where he has numerous improvements, this property being 3 ½ miles north of Dewey. At that time the railroad had not penetrated to this locality and few improvements were to be seen in the way of churches, schools or even substantial buildings, but in the quarter of a century that has followed all these and many other innovations have been made, and this part of Washington County is now one of the most advanced in the northern part of the state.
In his native state Mr. Flynn was married to Miss Mattie Tate, a Cherokee, who died at Fort Smith, in 1886, leaving; three children: Benjamin who met an accidental death in Arkansas, in 1911; Jennie, who is the wife of Albert Echols, of Braggs, Oklahoma; and William, who is engaged in farming in the same neighborhood as his father. Mr. Flynn's first wife's parents were wealthy farming people in Tennessee and were not compelled to come to the West. His children were left out of their allotments because their papers were not made out properly. In 1900 Mr. Flynn was again married when he was united with Mrs. Martha E. (Manning) Needham. the widow of Jesse Needham. She was born in the Cherokee Nation, about the year 1861, a daughter of Wosta and Susan Manning, the former a full-blooded Cherokee and the latter a white woman. During the Civil war, Mr. Manning enlisted in the Confederate army, and the Tennessee home was broken up by war's insatiable demands. Both parents are now deceased, and so is Mrs. Flynn's only brother. Napoleon. By her first marriage. Mrs. Flynn was the mother of six children: Valentine W. Needham, a resident of Washington County Susie J., who is the wife of Owen Greenwood, of this county; John D., engaged in the mail order business at Yale. Oklahoma; Sally M., who is the wife of Frank Reynolds, of Washington County; Fannie P., the wife of Thomas Kitterman, of Washington County; and Jesse G.. also of this county. All of these children received their allotments, and all have oil wells on their properties. While Mr. Flynn has a number of oil wells on his land, he does not need to worry about the price of oil. for his gold mine at Dallas, in Paulding County, Georgia, is doing very well if specimens of pure gold and ore which he has at his home may be taken as any indication. He is accounted one of his community's substantial men, willing to lend his aid to the support of beneficial movements, and a friend of education and good citizenship.
[A Standard History of Oklahoma , by Joseph B. Thoburn , 1916 -- Transcribed by Cathy Ritter]

E. H. HUFF
E. H. Huff is well known in business circles of Bartlesville as a successful contractor, engaged in road construction work, and owing to his thorough knowledge of his chosen occupation and his reliable and progressive business methods, success has attended his efforts. A native of Missouri, he was born November 11, 1897, and in 1900 was taken to Oklahoma by his parents, J. W. and Bessie (Williamson) Huff, who are also natives of that state. For many years the father followed contracting in the oil fields of this state but he is now living retired in Bartlesville and the mother also survives.
In the acquirement of an education E. H. Huff attended the public schools of Bartlesville and Kendall College at Tulsa, after which he became a student in the Bartlesville Business College, from which he was graduated in 1917. He then entered the cigar and confectionery business but later disposed of his store and for a time was identified with oil interests, abandoning that line of activity to engage in contracting. He is now at the .head of the Huff Construction Company and is doing road construction work for the state, being most thorough and conscientious in the execution of contracts and rendering excellent service to the commonwealth.
On the 22d of September, 1917, Mr. Huff was united in marriage to Miss Viola Tayrien, a daughter of Andrew J and Fannie Tayrien; members of one of the oldest and most prominent families in the state. Mrs. Huff is a native of Oklahoma, her birth having occurred in Osage county, west of Bartlesville, and by her marriage she has become the mother of a daughter, Betty May. The family reside in a beautiful home at No. 521 East Eighth street. Mr. Huff's fraternal connections are with the Masons and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. He is a progressive and capable young business man, who displays sound judgment, energy and determination in the conduct of his interests, and judging from what he has already accomplished his future will be well worth the watching, while his personal qualities are such as make for popularity. (Source: Page 30-31, 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)

MILES C. JONES
One of the oldest residents of Eastern Oklahoma is Miles C. Jones, who for a number of years has been a resident of Dewey and is now a merchant of that little city and also one of the county commissioners of Washington County. Mr. Jones, who is now past three score and ten, claims the unusual distinction of being a native son of Oklahoma. His father was one of the prominent early missionaries among the Cherokees, and in fact the family have lived in old Indian Territory since the removal of the Indian tribes west of the Mississippi.
Miles C. Jones was born in what is now Adair County, Oklahoma, November 30, 1844, a son of Rev. Evan and Pauline (Cunningham) Jones. His father was a native of Wales and died at the venerable age of eighty-four years at Talequah in the Cherokee Nation in 1873. He spent his early life in London, England, and had a brief experience in merchandising there, but abandoned that work early in life in order to become a Baptist minister. He finally emigrated to America, locating at Philadelphia, and soon after became a missionary among the Cherokee Indians in Tennessee and North Carolina. He had charge of a large party of these Indians when they were removed from their old home to the Indian Territory, and continued his work as a missionary among the tribe and about 1835 established a mission in what is now Adair County near Westville. He was one of the prominent spiritual leaders of the Cherokees until the Civil war and in 1862 entered the Union army as a chaplain and his services continued until the close. The Missionary Board then had him take charge of the Pottawattamie Mission near Topeka, Kansas, for two years, and for a time he lived at Chetopa, Kansas. He finally returned to the Cherokee Nation and labored among those people so far as his strength would permit until his death. He is one of the men who for his devoted labors as a missionary among the Indian tribes will always have a high place in the early history of Indian Territory.
Rev. Evan Jones was first married in London, England, to Elizabeth Lannigan, and she and her four children accompanied him to America. She was the mother of six children, as follows: Evan, who died as a young man soon after the family came to Indian Territory; Elizabeth, who married Doctor Parks; Samuel, who was killed during the Quantrell raid upon Lawrence, Kansas, during the Civil war; Anna, who married W. R. Latta, and both are now deceased; Hannah, who was the first of these children to be born in America, married Rev. B. H. Pearson, a Presbyterian minister who died at Fort Smith, Arkansas, when ninety years of age; and Rev. John B., who was educated for the Baptist ministry in New York, labored for many years as a missionary among the Cherokees, and was said to speak the Cherokee language better than the natives of that tribe, and his death occurred in Colorado while seeking health. About 1830, while in Tennessee, Rev. Evan Jones married Pauline Cunningham, who died at Talequah, Oklahoma, in July, 1876, at the age of sixty-seven. The children of this marriage were: Pauline D., now deceased, who married Richard Bird of Little Rock, Arkansas; Mary L., deceased, who married C. N. Smith of New York; Pracilla, who died when about twenty-two years of age; Herman Lincoln, who was third in order of birth, and was killed while serving as a Confederate soldier; Johanna V., who was the youngest of the children born in Tennessee, and who died at Tacoma, Washington, in December, 1914, as the wife of G. H. Hard; Evan, who died in Indian Territory in 1852 at the age of twelve years; Miles C.; and Ella P., who is now living at Lawrence, Kansas, as the widow of O. W. McCallister.
Miles C. Jones spent his boyhood up to the Civil war on a farm at the old Baptist Mission in what is now Adair County, and attended a school taught by a missionary, W. P. Upham, from Boston. In 1862 the family removed to Kansas, and while there he attended the public schools of Lawrence a few months. In 1864, at the age of twenty, he enlisted in a Kansas regiment of militia, the Third Kansas Cavalry, and was with the command on its campaign through Missouri, Kansas and Arkansas during the fall of 1864. His parents remained at Lawrence until 1866 and for two years he had practical experience at the hardware trade. In the spring of 1866 he returned to Indian Territory and located at Fort Gibson, but after a year went to Chicago and was a student in a business college in that city for six months. Returning to Fort Gibson in 1867, he engaged in the hardware business for himself, and for nearly half a century has been almost continuously identified with business affairs in Eastern Oklahoma.
In 1868 Mr. Jones married Miss Margaret Stevens of Schenectady, New York. After several years in Fort Gibson he sold his hardware store and became a farmer and stock raiser. It was in 1879 that Mr. Jones located at what was then called Cotton Valley, now located in Washington County, Oklahoma. He has thus been a witness of all the remarkable development that has occurred during the past thirty or forty years in this section of the state. For a number of years he continued farming and stock raising, and about 1902 moved to Dewey as one of the pioneer settlers in that town. For about ten years he was a grain buyer and shipper, but that business became of less importance through the development of the oil resources, and Mr. Jones, like nearly anybody else who had any capital to invest, became more or less of an oil operator, and lost considerable money in that way. Since 1911 he has been in the grocery business at Dewey, and now divides his time between his store and his duties as county commissioner, to which office he was elected in 1914. Before Oklahoma became a state he served as treasurer of the Town of Dewey and was its mayor at the time the territory was admitted to the Union. Mr. Jones has always been a democrat, and is radical in his adherence to that party. For four different terms he was elected assessor of Dewey. He is also owner of a farm, and it is situated in the oil district, and he has several oil wells on his land. Mr. Jones is a member of the Baptist Church at Dewey. His father was for forty years one of the most intimate friends of John Ross, the famous chief of the Cherokee Nation. Mr. Jones is affiliated with the Masonic order and with the Loyal Order of Moose. His only child, Eva P., now living at home, was educated in the School for the Blind in Kansas City and in spite of her affliction is a young woman of most happy temperament, keeps in close touch with everything that goes on in Dewey, and often drives about the country alone. ["A standard history of Oklahoma", Volume 3, 1916; By Joseph Bradfield Thoburn - Transcribed by Cathy Ritter]

W. A. KIDD
W. A. Kidd, an astute, energetic and successful business man, is well known in commercial circles of Washington county as head of the W. A. Kidd Lumber Company of Bartlesville and in the conduct of his interests he displays foresight, determination and Â marked executive ability. A native of Pennsylvania, he was born March 9, 1869, and after completing his public school course entered an academy in that state. After reaching mature years he went to Bowling Green, Ohio, and there engaged in drilling oil wells as a contractor until 1900, when he went to Bakersfield, California, where for three years he was similarly occupied. From there he came to Bartlesville and for three years operated four strings of tools here, at the end of which period he disposed of his interests along that line, and in 1906 he became a member of the firm of Kidd & Bailey, later purchasing the interest of his partner, since which time he has conducted the enterprise independently. He handles lumber, catering to the retail trade exclusively," and obtains his stock from Texas and Arkansas. He has built up a business of large proportions, giving employment to seven people and utilizing four delivery trucks. In 1922 he opened up a yard at Shidler, Oklahoma. He is also engaged in the tile business and. in fact, handles everything pertaining to the building of a house. He has also invested heavily in oil stock and he likewise owns a lumberyard at Tulsa, this state, where he employs six men, being one of the most successful lumber operators in northeastern Oklahoma. He is deserving of great credit for what he has accomplished in a business way for when he left California he was two thousand dollars in debt and upon reaching Bartlesville had to borrow the sum of thirty-five dollars, but through economy, industry and the wise management of his affairs he has managed to payoff all indebtedness and is now the possessor of a substantial competence.
On April 21, 1905, Mr. .Kidd was united in marriage to Miss May Layton, a native of Missouri, who previous to her marriage was a teacher in the public schools of Bartlesville. They have two sons: Coburn Byron and Theodore Conlin, aged, respectively, twelve and ten years. By a former wife, now deceased, Mr. Kidd has a son, Kenneth, who is a young man of twenty-seven years.
W. A. Kidd is a prominent Mason, having taken the thirty- second degree in the consistory, and he is also connected with the Knights of Pythias, while Mrs. Kidd is a member of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, of which she is a past president. Mr. Kidd possesses in large measure that quality which has been termed the commercial sense. In other words, he realizes and embraces the opportunities for business development. He has fought life's battles unaided, his marked force of character, persistency of purpose and untiring industry enabling him to overcome all obstacles and difficulties in his path, and he deserves classification with the self-made men and progressive citizens of Bartlesville and Washington county. (Source: Page 39-41, 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)

A. E. MYERS.
One of the most attractive establishments of Bartlesville is that conducted by Mr. and Mrs. A. E. Myers, who have here carried on both a wholesale and retail florist business during the past four years. Mr. Myers was born in Iowa on the 13th of September, 1879, and when a little lad of five years accompanied his parents on their removal to Indiana, in which state he obtained his education. Experience that well qualified him for his present line of business came to him during six years' employment on the Coles Rose Farm at Kokomo, Indiana. In 1912, when a young man of thirty-three years, he carne to Bartlesville, Oklahoma, and assumed the duties of manager of what is now the Steinhauser Florist & Nursery Company, then owned by George B. Keeler; He served in that capacity until 1917. In the latter year he embarked in the florist business on his own account, establishing his present place at Eleventh and Shawnee streets, where he owns three acres of land devoted largely to the propagation of flowers of all varieties. He sells to both the wholesale and retail trade and has enjoyed a constantly growing business, having already twice enlarged his facilities and expecting to do so again in the near future. He now has about fourteen thousand feet under glass.
On the 22d of August, 1902, Mr. Myers was joined in wedlock to Miss Mary Lambdin of Indiana, and they have a fine home near the greenhouse. Mr. Myers is a Scottish Rite Mason and also belongs to the Woodmen and to the Red Men. His social characteristics are such as have won him wide popularity, while as a business man he has gained recognition and prosperity through enterprising, progressive and honorable methods. (Source: Page 11-12, 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)

ROBERT LATHAM OWEN, JR.
A successful attorney in Indian Territory (I.T.) and prominent U.S. senator, Robert Latham Owen, Jr., was born on February 2, 1856, in Lynchburg, Virginia, the son of Robert Latham Owen, Sr., a railroad president, and Narcissa Chisholm, part Cherokee and originally from I.T. Owen attended preparatory schools in Lynchburg and in Baltimore, Maryland, and college at Washington and Lee University, earning a master's degree in 1877. Two years later, following the untimely death of his father, Owen and his mother moved to I.T., where he became the principal teacher in the Cherokee Orphan Asylum at Salina, and after eighteen months, secretary of the Cherokee Board of Education.
During the early 1880s Owen studied law, passed the bar, edited the Vinita Indian Chieftain for several months, and presided over the Indian International Fair at Muskogee. Demonstrating shrewd understanding of expanding economic opportunities, he unsuccessfully attempted to rent 250,000 acres of grazing land in the Cherokee Outlet. He did successfully acquire an oil lease for the entire Cherokee Nation, though no producing well was drilled before the rights expired.
In 1885 officials appointed Owen to head the Union Agency overseeing the Five Civilized Tribes. In his four-year tenure he dealt steadfastly with white intruders, citizenship disputes, and political controversies among tribal factions. During his last two years as agent he also used his position to personal advantage, injecting himself into the debate over re-leasing the Cherokee Outlet and taking sides in a controversial townsite dispute in Wagoner. He also purchased a ranch in the northwestern corner of the Cherokee Nation.
From 1889 to 1907 Owen primarily practiced law in Indian Territory, frequently handling important cases for the Five Civilized Tribes. In 1893 he helped sixty Cherokees locate quarter-section claims in the Cherokee Outlet prior to the land run there. He also played a major role in acquiring compensation for the Choctaws and Chickasaws for their residual claims to lands in western Oklahoma. In the early 1900s he took up the cause of other Cherokees, helping them gain millions of dollars in the "Eastern Cherokee" case and reportedly drawing $160,000 in lawyer's fees for himself.
When the Dawes Commission finalized allotment agreements with the Five Civilized Tribes at the turn of the twentieth century, Owen undertook several controversial speculative ventures. In the Cherokee Nation, he induced dozens of his illiterate fellow tribesmen to take their surplus allotments on his ranch and then acquired long-term leases from them for very little money. In the Creek Nation, his Indian Land and Trust Company made rental contracts so suspect that the U.S. Department of the Interior filed suit to invalidate them. In his hometown of Muskogee he purchased several town lots at a fraction of their value. In addition, he and his representatives made questionable contracts with Mississippi Choctaws who were entitled to move to Oklahoma and take allotments.
As statehood approached, Owen turned his attention to politics. As committee person for the Democratic Party, he represented Indian Territory at the national conventions in 1892 and 1896. Throughout the 1890s and early 1900s he organized meetings to discuss statehood for Indian Territory separate from Oklahoma Territory and played a major role in the Sequoyah Convention in 1905. The next year he lobbied for both woman suffrage and prohibition at the Oklahoma Constitutional Convention in Guthrie. In 1907 he announced his candidacy for the U.S. Senate, campaigning on the popular opposition to monopolies and trusts and promising to push for removal of restrictions on the sale of Indian lands. He won the non-binding preferential primary held by the Democrats, and the state legislature officially elected him late in 1907, along with Thomas P. Gore of Lawton.
In 1908 Owen helped pass the Removal of Restrictions Act, making thousands of Indian allotments available for sale in Oklahoma. As senator he consistently protected the economic interests of a majority of his constituents, including those in the oil industry. On national issues he spoke frequently and passionately against special interests and supported presidential candidate William Jennings Bryan in his "Let the People Rule" campaign of 1908. Owen also sided with so-called "Insurgent" Republicans, who later took the name "Progressives" in their struggle within their own party. In 1910, reflecting the reform mentality of the day, he introduced an unsuccessful bill to create a cabinet-level department of health, decades before the creation of a similar department.
In 1912, when self-styled progressive Democrat Woodrow Wilson won the presidency, the newly reelected Owen began taking a major role in legislation. Most significant, as chair of the committee on banking and currency, he cosponsored the Federal Reserve Act, arguably the most important banking legislation of the twentieth century. Owen considered this law his crowning achievement as senator, and other politicians and his constituents agreed. The Keating-Owen Child Labor Law of 1916 also reflected his effectiveness.
When the United States joined the conflict raging in Europe in 1917, Owen proved one of the staunchest senatorial allies of Wilson and the war. He also supported Wilson's League of Nations in 1919, working to effect a compromise, but the Senate rejected those efforts. Following the war, Owen's influence waned with the Republican ascendancy. In 1923 he shocked many of his constituents by announcing that a Russian-French conspiracy had actually caused the Great War. He declined reelection in 1925 after three terms.
In retirement Owen remained in Washington, D.C., as a lawyer-lobbyist and frequent commentator on public events. In 1928 he became the first nationally prominent Democrat to bolt in favor of Herbert Hoover, but he returned to his party after the election of Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1932. During the Great Depression Owen advocated various schemes to bring about inflation to stimulate the economy, and he criticized Federal Reserve policies. Following World War II, blind and in failing health, Owen invented an international alphabet that he hoped would be used by diplomats. He died of complications from prostate surgery on July 19, 1947, and was mourned as the state's most influential national figure in the early statehood era.
(Source: Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History & Culture)

ZACHARIAH TAYLOR PRESTON.
Zachariah Taylor Preston, who is successfully engaged in farming a mile north of Ramona in Washington county, was born on Grand river, twenty-five miles east of Vinita, Craig county, , Oklahoma, on the 23d of January, 1883. His father, Charles Henry Preston, was a native of Virginia and on coming to the Indian Territory settled near Grove. He was a surgeon and served in the Confederate army during the Civil war. He practiced medicine and surgery in the Indian Territory and in the state of Oklahoma until fifteen years prior to his death, passing away at the home of his son, Z. T. Preston, in 1917, at the notable old age of one hundred and three years. He never used a cane and could read ordinary print without the aid of glasses to the end of his life. He possessed notable physical endurance, was never ill and, in fact, was around the house until within fifteen minutes of his demise when he laid down upon his bed and passed away without the least suffering. "The weary wheels of life at length stood still" and as one falling into a peaceful sleep death came to him. His wife, who in her maidenhood was Martha Elizabeth LaMar, was a native of Illinois and was brought to the Indian Territory by her parents during her childhood days. She was of Cherokee extraction and is now living in Ramona, at the age of fifty-eight years with her son, George Floyd Lane, who was born of her second marriage.
Z. T. Preston, whose name introduces this review, pursued his education at Hickory. Grove in Craig county about eight miles south of Fairland and when nineteen years of age he began farming on his own account. For three years he devoted his attention to the tilling of the soil on a farm near his birthplace and afterÂward removed to Washington county, where he cultivated a farm of eighty acres, which he owned, two and a half miles south of Oglesby. In 1903 he removed to the farm of eighty acres which belongs to his son, Herman J. D. Preston, and his daughter, Goldie Agnes Preston. This farm is situated a mile north of Ramona and is an eighty-acre tract, splendidly improved and developed. He has an unusually fine country home and all modern buildings on the place and there is no accessory or convenience of the model farm of the twentieth century that is not found here. Mr. Preston rents his own farm, located near Oglesby. He is thoroughly progressive and modern in all of his methods, carrying on his work according to the most advanced scientific principles, practicing the rotation of crops, doing all work systematically and producing reÂsults which are most gratifying. He carries on general farming and in addition raises fine hogs, of which he has every reason to be proud. He has one sow which had a litter of seventeen pigs. The farm which is now the family home is situated on the state highway and the splendid appearance of the place is due entirely to the efforts of Mr. Preston, for he made all of the improvements on the property.
In 1902 Mr. Preston was united in marriage, at Miami, to Miss Perilina Chadwell, a daughter of Andy J. and Sarah Alice (Williams) Chadwell of Missouri, who came to the Indian Territory a quarter of a century ago. Her father is still living but the mother has passed away. Mr. and Mrs, Preston have become parents of the following named: Goldie Agnes, Herman J. D., Maudres, Sarah Alice, Everett Leon, Martha Lane, Mary Magdelene and Estilaine Levon. The family is widely known in their section of the state and they have many warm friends. Mr. Preston is a man of most progressive spirit, constantly advancing toward higher standards in all that he undertakes and his labors are proving a most potent force in the agricultural development of Washington county. (Source: Page 26-28, 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)

WILLIAM GRANT ROGERS.
William Grant Rogers, a member of one of the honored pioneer families of Oklahoma, has the distinction of being the oldest settler in Dewey, coming here long before the establishment of the town. He has been called to public positions of honor and trust and for many years has been engaged in general farming and stock raising in this section of the state but is gradually retiring from the more arduous cares of business, devoting his attention to the supervision of a well improved ranch lying adjacent to the town. He was born April 13, 1865, in the neutral land of the Cherokee Nation, which was sold after the Civil war for "bread money," and his parents were Hilliard and Martha (Fields) Rogers, both of whom were of the Cherokee tribe, the former a native of Georgia, while the latter was born in Chattanooga, Tennessee. The father acted as interpreter of the Cherokee language for President Zachary Taylor during the Mexican war. In 1866 he came to Indian Territory, settling on the Caney river, one and a half miles north of the present site of Bartlesville. Here he devoted his attention to general farming and stock raising, the country being at that time in a wild and undeveloped state. He passed away in 1871, when still a young man. He was a stanch supporter of democratic principles and was actively interested in the welfare and success of the party. The mother was a daughter of John and Sarah Fields, who also became residents of Indian Territory. Her grandmother died at Maysville, Arkansas, and Mrs. Rogers passed away on the old homestead eight months prior to the death of her husband.
As the parents of William Grant Rogers both died when he was very young; he was reared by N. F. Carr, who was a sincere friend of the family and also came to the territory in 1866, the year of their arrival. On reaching manhood Mr. Rogers took up the occupation of farming and also engaged in stock raising, being very successful in the management of his business affairs. He is now living practically retired, although he is farming an eighty-acre tract situated a half mile south of Dewey, his principal crops being alfalfa and grain, and he also raises horses and cattle. He likewise owns some good oil-producing property on Sections 31 and 36, in Washington county, and his investments have been most judiciously placed. For nine years he devoted his attention to merchandising, successfully conducting a hardware and furniture business in Dewey and later selling his mercantile interests to R. B. Myers.
In 1891 Mr. Rogers was united in marriage to Miss Lillie Washington, a native of the Cherokee Nation, born in the Delaware district, and a daughter of William and Eliza (Conner) Washington, who died when she was very young. She attended the Cherokee Orphans' Home on Grand river, in the Saline district, in which institution Mr. Rogers also acquired his education, and seven children were born to their union, all of whom reached adult years: Lula M., the eldest in the family, died soon after her marriage and her daughter, Beautis Lillian Sexton, makes her home with her grandparents. William E., twenty-seven years of age, married Bess Knight and they have one child, Patsy Bess. The other children are Rilla B., Eliza J., A.rthur M., Joseph E. and Dewey L., aged, respectively, nineteen, sixteen and thirteen years. The daughter, Eliza J., married William Clark and they have one child, Lula May, The family live in an attractive home on the outskirts of Dewey and their warm-hearted hospitality is often enjoyed by their many friends.
Mr. Rogers is related by marriage to George B. Keeler, who married his cousins, Josie Gillstrap and Josie Cass. Mr. Rogers keeps well informed concerning all matters of public moment and has been a close student of the early history of Indian Territory, being deeply interested in all that pertains to the welfare and progress of his community, state and nation. He has taken an active part in public affairs, serving as deputy United States marshal when Hon, I. O. Parker was judge of the federal court at Fort Smith, Arkansas, He was also treasurer of Dewey township for two terms, while for four years he was connected with the work of the federal court at Fort Smith. He is a capable business man who has displayed sound judgment, energy and determination in the management of his affairs and his present success is due entirely to- his own efforts. His life has been spent in this state and his mind is stored with many interesting incidents relating to the early days. He has ever led an upright, honorable life, his earnest toil bringing him prosperity and his integrity bringing him the high regard of all who know him, and Oklahoma numbers him among her honored pioneers. (Source: Page 54-56, 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)

B. F. ROWLAND, M. D.
Important and varied interests claim the time and attention of Dr. B. F. Rowland, a leading druggist of Ochelata, who also figures prominently in financial circles as vice president of the Ochelata State Bank, and he is likewise the owner of a good farm in this vicinity, his business affairs being most judiciously managed. He was born in Moniteau county Missouri, June 7, 1866, his parents being Powhatan and Mary W. (Longdon) Rowland, the latter a daughter of a circuit rider in Missouri, who was one of the well known ministers of the early days. B. F. Rowland's father engaged in general merchandising at Jamestown, Missouri, but in 1849 he joined the rush of gold seekers to California, where he won success in the mines, later returning to Missouri. In 1878 he moved to Kansas, where he passed away in 1902, at the venerable age of eighty-six, having long survived the mother, whose demise occurred in Kansas in 1886, when she was sixty-six years of age.
Their son, B. F. Rowland, acquired his early education in the public schools of Missouri, after which he completed a course in medicine at Fort Smith, Arkansas. In 1894 he opened an office at Oologah, in Rogers county, Oklahoma, where for two years he followed his profession, after which he removed to Ringold, there continuing in practice for three years. On the expiration of that period he purchased a drug store at Ochelata which he has since conducted, being recognized as one of the leading pharmacists of this part of the state. He carries a large stock of drugs and druggists' sundries and his reasonable prices and reliability in filling prescriptions have secured for him a large patronage. Widening the scope of his activities, he entered the financial field and is now serving as vice president of the Oklahoma State Bank, which is one of the sound moneyed institutions of northeastern Oklahoma, and he is also interested in farming, having a good ranch of two hundred and forty acres a mile south and eight miles east of Ochelata, which he is renting. He no longer follows his profession, having discontinued the practice of medicine in 1907, and his entire time is now concentrated upon his business interests, which are important and profitable.
On the 7th of December, 1897, Dr. Rowland was united in marriage to Miss Addie B. Thomas, a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. John Thomas. The latter passed away when Mrs. Rowland was but twelve years old. She was reared on Pryor creek and acquired her education in the Orphans" School at Salina, on the Grand river. To Dr. and Mrs. Rowland, five children were born: Samuel W., twenty-two years of age, who married Jettie Mullins; Robert T., who is a young man of nineteen and is a graduate of the Wentworth Military Academy at Lexington, Missouri; Minnie C., who was graduated from the normal school at Edmond, Oklahoma; and Mary Opal and Edgar C., who are still attending school. All of the children except Samuel W. are residing at home with their parents.
Dr. Rowland is a prominent .Mason, belonging to Ramona Lodge, No. 326, F. & A. M., and to the consistory at McAlester, Oklahoma, in which he has taken the thirty-second degree. His father was also identified with this order, which he joined in Virginia, three years being required at that time to become a member of the craft. The spirit of progress and enterprise has ever actuated Dr. Rowland, leading him into important connections, and his labors have at all times been of a constructive nature, contributing to public progress and prosperity, as well as to individual aggrandizement. In business circles of Ochelata his standing is of the highest and he is recognized as a loyal, public-spirited citizen, whose influence is at all times on the side of advancement and improvement. (Source: Page 24-25, 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)

L. W. SERVEY
The lumber industry of Washington county finds a prominent representative in L. W. Servey, who as president of the Ochelata Lumber Company is controlling a large and growing business, which he has developed through close application, capable management, energy and determination. He was born in Dempsey-town, Venango county, Pennsylvania, July 2, 1873, of the marriage of A.. J. and Adeline (Weikal) Servey, both now deceased. The father, who was a building contractor, went to Kansas in 1868 and there took up a homestead, which he improved and developed.
L. W. Servey completed a course in the high school at Iola, Kansas, after which he attended the normal school at Mankato, Minnesota, and a business college at St. Paul, that state. Following the outbreak of the Spanish-American war he became a member of the Fifteenth Minnesota Volunteer Infantry, commanded by Captain Spicer. After receiving his discharge Mr. Servey entered the employ of the Clark & Bates Lumber Company, first working in their plant at Gas City, Kansas. He was then sent by the firm to Bartlesville, Oklahoma, arriving there on the 1st of December, 1899, and eating his first meal at the National Hotel, which was the first good hostelry established in the town and was situated on the present site of the Model Clothing Store, being operated by Frank Overlees. The yards of the Clark & Bates Company were then located where the Union Bank now stands; Keeler's store was at that time in the old town of Bartlesville; and on the present site of the courthouse there was an oil well.
Mr. Servey also went to Collinsville and Ochelata in the interests of the firm, with whom he continued until 1916, during which period he acquired a comprehensive knowledge of the business. He then embarked upon an independent venture, establishing the Ochelata Lumber Company, of which he has since been the president and the directing head. They have two employees and their stock, which is valued at fifteen thousand dollars, consists of large timbers used in oil development work and they also handle paints and varnishes, their yards covering an area two hundred and sixteen by one hundred and twenty-eight feet. Mr. Servey's powers of organization and his executive ability have enabled him to build up a business of large proportions and he controls all of the lumber trade for several miles adjacent to Ochelata.
On October 18, 1905, was solemnized the marriage of L. W. Servey and Daisy Maude Castain of Iola, Kansas, and the circle of their friends is an extensive one. Mr. Servey gives his political allegiance to the democratic party and has taken a prominent part in public affairs. He has been chairman of the Washington county election board for the past twelve years and from 1903 to 1904 he acted as city clerk of Collinsville, while from 1906 until 1908 he served as mayor of Ochelata, giving to the town a businesslike and progressive administration, characterized by various needed reforms and improvements. When leisure permits he finds recreation in shooting and is considered an expert marksman. In all of his business career he has held closely to the rules which govern strict integrity and unabating industry and through the wise utilization of his time and opportunities has gained a substantial measure of success, while at the same time his labors have contributed to the development and upbuilding of his community, his worth as a man and citizen being generally acknowledged. (Source: Page 12-13, 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)

J. T. SHIPMAN
J. T. Shipman, a successful attorney of Bartlesville, where he has practiced continuously during the past fifteen years, is now associated with B. A. Lewis and is widely recognized as one of the able representatives of the legal profession in northeastern Oklahoma. He was born in Ashley county, Arkansas, on the 1st of February, 1874, and- began his education in the common schools there, later pursuing a high school course at Hamburg, that state. Subsequently he became a student in Ouachita College at Arkadelphia, Arkansas, which institution conferred upon him the degree of Bachelor of Arts, while his professional training was received in the law department of the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, from which he was graduated with the class of 1906. In the same year he came to Oklahoma and opened an office in Bartlesville, here beginning the practice of law in partnership with W. T. Sidell, who is now deceased. Throughout the period of his professional career he has devoted his attention strictly to civil law and his present associate is B. A. Lewis, the firm acting as attorneys for the National Oil & Development Company, the Dewey-Portland Cement Company, Tyler & Company, the Central National Bank and the Security- National Bank of Dewey. For four years, from 1911 until 1915, Mr. Shipman filled the office of county judge, making a most creditable and commendable record in that connection. He is likewise attorney for the Rome Savings Loan Association of" Bartlesville, which has assets of one million, five hundred thousand dollars and of which he is one of the directors. His clientage, which is now extensive and of an important character, has come to him in recognition of his pronounced ability in the handling of litigated interests.
On the 2d of June, 1910, Mr. Shipman was united in marriage to Miss Samuella McKorkle of Arkansas, and they occupy an enviable position in the social circles of Bartlesville and vicinity. Fraternally Mr. Shipman is identified with the Masons, being a past master and past high priest, and he also belongs to the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks. He gives his political allegiance to the democratic party but has never sought nor desired office outside the strict path of his profession. For two years he filled the office of city attorney, while at the present time he is acting as attorney for the board of education. His record both as a lawyer and citizen has been such as to commend him to the confidence and esteem of all who know him and the circle of his friends has constantly grown as the number of his acquaintances has increased. (Source: Page 42-43, 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)

LOUIS TINKER
Louis Tinker, a retired farmer and stock raiser of Bartlesville, Oklahoma, was born on the Neosha river, Kansas, and is a son of William H. and Lucille (Lessart) Tinker, both of whom were of Osage Indian origin. Both have passed away. Louis Tinker's parents removed with him to Oklahoma when he was a child, and on reaching adult years he there turned his attention to farming and stock raising. He followed this occupation in Oklahoma successfully for many years and as a result of his close application and industry he is now, at the age of fifty-four years, living retired from active business life, enjoying in well earned rest the fruits of his former toil. He has also made some judicious investments in oil and he and eight of his children who have oil holdings are receiving large royalties annually. Thus he is enabled to live in ease and comfort.
On October 5, 1890, Mr. Tinker was united in marriage to Miss Ida May Harness, also a native of Neosha county, Kansas. She is a daughter of John and Sarah (Meeks) Harness, the former a native of Illinois, while the mother was born in Platte county, Missouri. After the death of her husband Mrs. Harness married Duncan McIntyre, who has also passed away. She became the mother of seven children. She has now reached the age of seventy-nine years and is making her home with her daughter, Mrs. Tinker. She became a resident of Indian Territory in the early 70s. Mr. and Mrs. Tinker have become the parents of twelve children: William, born August 22, 1891; Bessie, born November 11, 1894; James, born November 10, 1896, who has passed away; Nora and Ora, twins, born May 14, 1898; Eva, born September 28, 1900; Isabell, born March 16, 1903; Rose, born May 4, 1905; Cora, born March 8, 1907-; Lela, born May 8, 1909; and Ida Bell and Louis, Jr., also twins, born August 28, 1915.
Mr. Tinker has very few outside interests, preferring to enjoy the companionship of his wife and family in their beautiful home at 600 Delaware, Bartlesville, Oklahoma. He still owns eight hundred acres of land in Oklahoma and is planning to return to his farm in 1923. (Source: Page 32, 35, 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)

J. R. CHARLTON
Educator, historian, newspaper man, minister and legist, there is probably no better known figure in Washington County, Oklahoma, than J. R. Charlton, of Bartlesville. In each of the various fields in which he has labored, he has made an enviable reputation, and if an individual's true character may be determined by the opinion of those around him, his is irreproachable. To enumerate and describe the varied activities of his useful life would be to prepare a sketch which would transcend the limits of this volume. It must suffice that the biographer attempt an outline of the salient points in a career remarkable for its usefulness and helpfulness to his community and his fellowmen.
J. R. Charlton was born at Salem, Marion County, Illinois, July 21, 1858, and is a son of W. J. and Elizabeth Ann (Huff) Charlton. His maternal grandfather was Samuel A. Huff, who moved to Kansas in 1873 and took up Government land near Sedan, where he passed the remaining years of his life. His paternal grandfather, Isaac Bradbury Charlton, was a native of Virginia who went to Tennessee in 1820 and married a Miss Black, following which he moved to Marion County, Illinois, and located on the farm on which J. R. Charlton was born. There also was born W. J. Charlton, December 31, 1836, and in that community he was married to Elizabeth Ann Huff, who was born about six miles distant, March 28, 1838. They resided on the Charlton homestead until 1877, when they went to Chautauqua County, Kansas, traveling in true pioneer style by prairie schooner, and locating at Sedan, where they resided until about 1900 when they moved four miles north of Independence, Montgomery County, and there they still reside, typical Kansas farming people. At the age of seventy-eight years Mr. Charlton is still managing his own farm, doing all his chores, including the preparing of the wood for his wood fire. On his seventy-eighth birthday he was pleasantly surprised by his Sunday school class, the members of which brought their own implements and cut un enough wood to last him during the following year. He and his faithful wife are consistent members of the Christian Church, and have taken an active part in Sunday school work, and in politics he has been a stanch and lifelong democrat. They have been the parents of four children: J. R., of this review; Mrs. Adelia Hayward, who is deceased; Cora, who is the wife of Oliver Beemer, of Chattanooga, Oklahoma and Mamie, the wife of George Underwood, of Independence, Kansas.
J. R. Charlton was reared on the homestead farm in Illinois, received his early education in the public schools, and was nineteen years of age when he came to the West. He had graduated from the Odin (Illinois) High School, and had decided upon a career as a teacher, and when he came to Kansas his parents accompanied him. His first school was located six miles east of Sedan, Kansas, where he was teaching in 1878 when he was induced by his uncle, J. D. McBrian, who married Mr. Charlton's mother's sister, and resided at Sedan, Kansas, where he was a minister of the Christian Church and an attorney, to come into his office and study. There Mr. Charlton read law during two summers, teaching school in the winter terms and studying at night times, and was finally admitted to the bar August 16, 1880. He did not immediately enter practice, for he taught for two more years before opening an office, when he moved to Elk City. Kansas, and in March, 1884, began practice in Montgomery County, Kansas. There he continued until 1906, when he moved to his present home at Bartlesville. although he had lived within thirty-five miles of this place since 1877.
While in Montgomery County, in 1890, Mr. Charlton was elected county attorney on the democratic ticket, and served in that capacity during the famous Dalton raid at Coffeyville. It was through his efforts that Emmett Dalton was sent to the penitentiary, but in later years he also assisted in securing his freedom. He was re-elected county attorney in 1906, and since the close of that term, in 1908, has applied himself to the practice of law simply as a practitioner. His law practice is largely of a criminal character, and Mr. Charlton is probably one of the most capable and best known legists in this field in the state, having defended during the last four years twenty-eight persons charged with murder. One of the first of these cases was that of Nettie Brown and her step-son, Pete Brown, charged with the murder of Mrs. Brown's husband in Osage County. Mr. Charlton obtained a change of venue to Bartlesville, where Pete Brown turned state's evidence and the prisoner was sent to the penitentiary for life. Another case, and one of the most famous in the history of Oklahoma, was that of Mrs. Laura Reuter, who was accused of killing her husband, was convicted in this county, and was granted a new trial through the efforts of Mr. Charlton, who, with the assistance of two other attorneys, finally secured her acquittal. His professional career has been crowded with interesting incidents, among which may be mentioned the first law suit in the United States Commissioners Court at Bartlesville, in 1895, when there being no building to hold court in, temporary seats were erected in Pecan Grove. Mr. Charlton won his case over his opponent, W. A. Chase.
Mr. Charlton has been a regular ordained minister of the Christian Church since 1894. He has preached all over this part of the country, where he has dedicated over thirty churches, and is now pastor of the church at Dewey, where he held a meeting in February, 1915, and had 123 converts. He was the organizer of the Christian Church at Bartlesville, following a meeting which he hold at Bartles Grove or Park, in July, 1897, and had sixty-six members, continuing to preach here every other Sunday and driving all the way from Caney, Kansas, until June, 1900, when a church was dedicated here on the present site of the Masonic Building. When Mr. Charlton came to Bartlesville, in 1908, he found the Christian Church in Dewey with but twenty-two members, in a small frame building. He set about to build up this congregation, erected a new church which was dedicated in May, 1908, and now has the largest congregation in the city, consisting of 270 members. As a minister he is zealous, sincere and energetic, a friend as well as a spiritual advisor to his people and greatly beloved by them.
While his fraternal connections are not numerous, he is well known in the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, with which he has been identified as a member since 1890. Mr. Charlton is widely known as a speaker, not alone on religious subjects, but in the cause of morality, temperance, good citizenship and helpful living, and his services are in constant demand at various meetings and celebrations. He was state evangelist of Kansas in 1897, being selected by the state organization of the Christian Church, and occupied a prominent place on the program of the state convention of the Christian Church held at Oklahoma City, in June, 1915. In 1891, he was invited to Bartlesville by Col. Jake Bartles to deliver the Fourth of July oration, and for three days Mr. Charlton and his wife were entertained at the Bartles' home. A crowd of 5, 000 people from all over the countryside attended the three-day celebration, twenty beeves were barbecued, the Indians held their war dances, the park was lighted by electricity generated in Colonel Bartles' own mill, and the dances, boat rides and other festivities of the occasion made an impression on Mr. Charlton's mind that he will never forget. Incidentally, the United States marshal "roped in" about fifteen bootleggers, who, in the absence of a jail, were secured by being tied to trees, much to the edification of the crowd. Mr. Charlton delivers several lectures annually before the schools of this and other communities, and wherever heard is a general favorite with teachers and pupils alike, by reason of his interesting and instructive talks.
Mr. Charlton has lived a strictly temperate life, and has never tasted intoxicants or tobacco. His experiences during the early days were exciting and dangerous when he drove all over the country before the advent of the railroads. He often collected large sums of money for the harvester company which he carried on his person, but while the country was infested with criminals and "bad men" of all descriptions, to many of whom he was known personally, he never had any fear of being molested, nor was he. His experience as a newspaper man was while a resident of Elk City, Kansas; where for six years he conducted a weekly newspaper, the Elk City Enterprise. There he secured much valuable literary training, which was shown in his able chapter on Caney, written for the "History of Montgomery County, Kansas, " which was published in 1903.
As a voter, Mr. Charlton has always supported the democratic ticket. His first appearance in a court room was when, at the age of eight years, he went to hear a trial in which the presiding judge was Uncle Silas Bryan, the father of William Jennings Bryan. He later visited Judge Bryan's farm and became a personal friend of his son, William J., was a member of the Democratic State Central Committee of Kansas in 1900, and chairman of the Speakers Bureau, and campaigned with Mr. Bryan for two days when he visited Kansas. Mr. Charlton later attended the national conventions of the democratic party at St. Louis in 1904, and Denver in 1908.
On April 3, 1881, Mr. Charlton was married to Miss Hattie May Hutchison, who was born at Indianapolis, Indiana, October 18, 1861, a daughter of John Hutchison, who came to Kansas and settled near Lawrence in 1867, two years later removing to Elk City. Mr. and Mrs. Charlton were married at his farm, seven miles west of Elk City. They have one son: Roy Earl, born June 3, 1887, at Elk City, now deputy sheriff of Washington County, Oklahoma, and a resident of Bartlesville. He was married January 3, 1908, at Indianapolis, Indiana, to Miss Kittle Butler.
[A Standard History of Oklahoma , by Joseph B. Thoburn , 1916 -- Transcribed by Cathy Ritter]

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