Washita County, Oklahoma Biographies

Washita County

Biographies

ANDREW MONROE BEETS
One of the leading members of the Washita County bar is Andrew Monroe Beets, who since 1908 has been engaged in practice at Cordell. He was born at Edgar Springs, Missouri, October 1, 1881, and is a son of J. E. and Mattie (Lamar) Beets. The Beets family originated in Holland and came to America during colonial days, settling in North Carolina, where the grandfather of Andrew M. Beets was born in 1832. From North Carolina he moved to Tennessee, residing at Knoxville until 1879, in which year he drove through with an ox-wagon to Edgar Springs, Missouri, where he became a pioneer farmer and stockman. In 1898 he retired from active pursuits and took up his residence at Vinita, Oklahoma, where he met his death two years later when his house was destroyed by fire. He married Miss White, who was born in 1835, and who still survives him and lives at Edgar Springs, Missouri.
J. E. Beets was born at Knoxville, Tennessee, in 1857, and in 1878 moved to Texas, but in the following year moved to Edgar Springs, where he was married to Mattie Lamar, who had been born there in 1864. He engaged in farming and raising stock, but in 1890 went to Wheatland, Hickory County, Missouri, where he still resides, being a well known and successful breeder of blooded stock, both horses and mules. He is prominent and influential in civic affairs, taking an active interest in the success of the republican party. His religious support is given to the Methodist Episcopal Church, and fraternally he is affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. Mr. and Mrs. Beets were the parents of the following children: Andrew Monroe; Edmonia, who died in infancy; Oliver, a druggist of Redlands, California; Luella, who is a teacher of expression in the Oklahoma schools; Clyde, living with his parents, who served a full term of enlistment in the United States army, being stationed along the Mexican border; Bertha, who is a teacher in the schools of Wheatland, Missouri; Ola, who is a senior in the Wheatland High School; and Edgar, who is a freshman at that institution.
Andrew Monroe Beets received the advantages of the public schools of Wheatland, Missouri, from 1890 until 1896, when his parents returned to Edgar Springs, and there he completed a high school course. He began in 1898 and for three years was engaged in teaching school as principle of the Yancy Mills school for three years. In 1901 he entered upon the study of law in the office of Robert Lamar, of Houston, Missouri, who was subsequently elected to Congress. In the meantime, in 1902, he had been admitted to the bar and had commenced practice at Houston, but in the fall of 1903 removed to the City of St. Louis, where he remained until May, 1906. Mr. Beets' next field of practice was Foss, Oklahoma, and in October, 1908, he came to Cordell to engage in practice in the county seat of Washita Count}-, where he occupies well-appointed offices in the State National Bank Building. His practice is general in its character, and Mr. Beets has been connected with a number of the leading cases tried in Washita County since his arrival. He is admitted to practice in all the courts, has a large and representative clientele, and has made steady advancement in the confidence of his fellow-practitioners, as witnessed by his position as secretary of the Washita County Bar Association. He also belongs to the Oklahoma Bar Association. He has been a member of the Cordell Commercial Club since the time of its organization, and during six years of this time has been a member of its executive committee. Every progressive and beneficial movement has received his hearty support. He was the originator of the movement which resulted in the securing of a Carnegie Library for Cordell. In 1912, at a cost of $9,000, and since its inception has been vice president, of the board. In polities a democrat, Mr. Beets served Cordell as city attorney from 1909 until 1911 and rendered excellent service to the city of his adoption in that capacity. Fraternally, he is affiliated with Cordell Lodge No. 127, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. With his family, he belongs to the Methodist Episcopal Church.
While a resident of Dixon, Missouri, Mr. Beets was married to Miss Nora Bysart, daughter of R. M. Bysart, a well known farmer of Canute, Oklahoma, and to this union there have been born three children: Dorothy, Walter and Helen, all of whom are attending school. ("A Standard History of Oklahoma" Volume 4, 1916, By Joseph Bradfield Thoburn - Transcribed by Cathy Ritter)

ALVIN BINGAMAN
Prompt adaptation to opportunity, a capacity for gauging the possible increase in values and the well developed speculative instinct which places the natural broker in a class by himself, arc factors which have contributed to the business success of Alvin Bingaman, formerly a legal practitioner, but of more recent years a dealer in loans and investments, at Cordell. Mr. Bingaman belongs to a family which originated in Germany and migrated to America during colonial days, settling in Pennsylvania. He was born at Quincy, Adams County, Illinois, September 28, 1870, and is a son of Albert and Mary (Welcome) Bingaman.
Albert Bingaman was born in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, in 1836, and as a youth of eighteen years made his way to California, where he continued to be engaged in prospecting and mining until 1864. He then went to Illinois and took up his residence at Quincy, where he established himself in the agricultural implement business, continuing there until 1871, when he moved to Nodaway County, Missouri. From that time forward, Mr. Bingaman was engaged in farming and stock-raising until his death, which occurred on his farm in 1913. He was a man of industry, who made money in each of his several ventures, being possessed of versatile talents in a business way. His religious belief was that of the Presbyterian Church, while fraternally he was a Mason and politically a democrat. His strict integrity placed him in the confidence and esteem of his fellow citizens. Mr. Bingaman married Miss Mary Welcome, who was also born in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, in 1850, and died at Burlington, Kansas, in July, 1911. They became the parents of four children: Alvin, Nena, whose home is in Nodaway County, Missouri, but who at this writing (1915) is on a visit to California: Lydia A., who married Fred E. Diss, a mechanic of Nodaway County, Missouri; and Harry, who is engaged in the loans and investment business at Creston, Iowa.
Alvin Bingaman attended the graded schools of Nodaway County, Missouri, and was graduated from the Maryville (Missouri) High School with the class of 1892. He then attended the State University of Missouri, at Columbia, finishing the sophomore year, and returned to Maryville, where ho took up the study of law in the office of Edwin A. Vinsonhaler, being admitted to the bar in 1894. For a time Mr. Bingaman was engaged in practice at Maryville, but he had become interested in the farm loan business, and when he came to Cordell, in 1910, gave up the law entirely to devote his whole time and attention to the farm loan and investment business, taking notes and mortgages. He is the owner of a farm eight miles southwest of Cordell, a tract of 160 acres of valuable land, and another property, of 240 acres, eleven miles southeast of Cordell. He handles considerable stock and in this venture, as in his others, he has been more than ordinarily successful. Mr. Bingaman is alert, active and progressive in his views. He has evinced commendable public spirit and zeal, and in all his transactions has been guided by probity, sagacity and good judgment. His offices are located in the Kerley Building. A democrat in political matters, Mr. Bingaman has served as president of the school board of Cordell, and was a member of the Missouri State Democratic Committee while residing at Maryville. With his family, he belongs to the Presbyterian Church. He is well known in fraternal circles, being past noble grand of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows at Maryville, a member of the Encampment there, Maryville Camp of the Modern Woodmen of America and Maryville Camp, Woodmen of the World. He is an enthusiastic member of the Cordell Commercial Club and has been active in its work.
Mr. Bingaman was married in June, 1900, at Maryville, Missouri, to Miss Ada A. Alderman, a daughter of Hon. Ira K. Alderman, a resident of Maryville and ex-judge of the District Court. To Mr. and Mrs. Bingaman there has come one daughter, Helen Kemper, born May 31, 1913. ("A Standard History of Oklahoma" Volume 4, 1916, By Joseph Bradfield Thoburn - Transcribed by Cathy Ritter)

BRETT, RUTHERFORD, lawyer, Cordell, born March 21, 1867, son of Alexander and Sophia (Rutland) Brett. Educated Carson College, Jefferson City, Tenn.; Cumberland University at Lebannon, law department, class of 1889. After school, went to Huntsville, Ala., and Columbia, Tenn. Went to Cordell, Okla., in 1902. Is a Democrat and was elected county attorney of Washita county in 1907; held till 1909 and resigned. Was appointed member supreme court commission in 1915 by Gov. Williams, which position he still holds, with temporary residence in Oklahoma City. HIs family lives at present at Norman, where children have advantages of State University. Is a Master Mason, K. of P., W. O. W., and M. W. A. Married to Miss Gertrude Whitaker, of Blue Buckle, Tenn., June 6, 1893. Eight children, four girls, four boys: Rutherford H., 20; John A., 18; Rebecca Ward, 14; Olivia, 12; Bettie, 9; Mary Dale, 6; Ned Carmack, 4; Thos., Marshall, infant.
(Source: Men of Affairs & Representative Institutions of Oklahoma, 1916. Submitted by Vicki Hartman)

FREEMAN, DR. IRVING S.
One of the pioneer families of Tennessee sent its representatives into Texas back in the '80s when Dr. W. H. Freeman settled in Denton County. He was born in Macon County, Tennessee, in 1855, and went to Denton County in 1884, the following year moving on to Cook County, Texas. There he engaged in the practice of his profession and also conducted a drug store in the Town of Era, where he settled. In 1901 the doctor withdrew from professional activities, moved to Floyd County, Texas, and there engaged in the real estate and loan business. Four years later he came to Cordell, Oklahoma. He is now retired from business, though he owns several alfalfa farms in Floyd County, Texas, and near Rocky, Oklahoma. He is a democrat, and served two terms in the Texas State Legislature in the years 1895-6 and 1897-8. He was county health officer of Floyd County for four years. He is a member of the Masons and the Knights of Pythias, and of the Christian Church.
Doctor Freeman married Laura Seagraves, who was born in Macon County, Tennessee, in 1868. Five children were born to them. Eva died at the age of two years. Dr. Irving S. was their second child. Mary died when three years old. Katy, born in 1897, was graduated in the Cordell High School class of 1915. She is now attending the State University at Norman, Oklahoma. Eunice, born in 1899, is a student in the Cordell High School.
Irving S. Freeman was born in Era, Cook County, Texas, on February 5, 1885. He attended the schools of that county and the Lockney Christian College at Lockney, Tennessee, completing his academic work there in 1904. 'For two years thereafter he devoted himself to farm life in Floyd County, Texas. He then took a year's course in pharmaceutics in Texas Christian*University at Fort Worth and in 1906 passed his examinations before the Texas State Board of Pharmacy, receiving his certificate. For a year thereafter he was employed as a pharmacist in Lockney.
In April, 1907, Doctor Freeman came to Oklahoma and was examined before the state board of pharmacy, after which he opened a drug store at Braman, Oklahoma, and was engaged in business there for two years. In 1909 he returned to Fort Worth and entered the medical department of the Texas Christian University once more, and on May 14, 1913, he was graduated with the degree M. D. He was an interne at St. Anthony's Sanitarium, Amarillo, Texas, for a period of six months, then came to Oklahoma, settling at Texola, and in May, 1914, the Oklahoma Examining Board gave him permission to engage in medical practice in Oklahoma. He remained in Texola a very short time and on February 1, 1914, opened an office in Rocky, where he has since continued in a general medical and surgical practice.
Doctor Freeman is a member of the county, state and medical societies. His politics are democratic and he is a member of the Christian Church. His fraternal affiliations are with the Masons, the Odd Fellows, the Modern Woodmen and the Woodmen of the World. His Masonic ties are with Rocky Lodge No. 373, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, and Rocky Chapter 262, Order of the Eastern Star. His college fraternity is the Phi Chi, Chi Iota Chapter.
Doctor Freeman was married on April 27, 1906, in Tonkawa, Oklahoma, to Miss Eva Cook, daughter of C. M. Cook, a locomotive engineer with the Santa Fe for the past thirty years, now residing at Florence, Kansas. One child has been born to Doctor and Mrs. Freeman,- Wilmat, born August 29, 1911.
[A standard history of Oklahoma", Volume 4, 1916, By Joseph Bradfield Thoburn - Transcribed by Cathy Ritter]

HUBBARD, THOMAS HIRAM
Postmaster of Cordell and a resident of the town since 1907 was born in Halifax County, Virginia, the ancestral home of the Hubbard family, on June 30, 1845. He is a son of Dr. H. C. and Ann Maria (Osborne) Hubbard, both now deceased.
Dr. H. C. Hubbard was born in Halifax County, Virginia, in 1804. In 1850 he left his native county and moved to Cumberland County and in these two counties he spent his entire life, with the exception of a two year period which he passed in Tennessee. He was a graduate of the Cincinnati Medical College, and his life was spent in the practice of medicine and surgery in Virginia. He was a whig in politics, a member of the Baptist Church and a Mason. He died in Cumberland County in 1872. His wife, Ann Maria Osborne, was of Virginia birth and parentage also. She died while on a visit to her old home in Buckingham County, Virginia, though her own home was then maintained in Cumberland County. She died in 1852 and Doctor Hubbard afterward married Sallie Swan, who survived him seven years. By his first marriage Doctor Hubbard had four children. John Milton, who died at the age of twenty-one years; William O., a farmer in Buckingham County; Thomas Hiram, the subject of this review; and Henry C., now deceased. By his second marriage Doctor Hubbard had a daughter Rosa, who married a Mr. Garland and is now a widow.
Thomas Hiram Hubbard attended the public schools in Cumberland County, Virginia, and in 1801 ho was graduated from the high school of his home town. He promptly enlisted in Company "C," Twenty-first Virginia Regiment of Volunteer Infantry, serving four years in the Confederate army, and seeing a great deal of the hottest fighting of the war during his service. He was wounded at Cedar Mountain, his injuries incapacitating him for duty for several months. He was in the Seven Days Battle around Richmond, at Malvern Hill, Kerntown, Winchester, and many other engagements in which his regiment participated. After he had recovered from injuries received at Cedar Mountain, young Hubbard was transferred to Stuarts Cavalry, Fitzhugh Lee's Division of the Fourth Virginia Cavalry, Company "G," and was mustered out a corporal at Farmsville.
The war over, Mr. Hubbard returned to Cumberland County, there to gather up the broken threads of life, and he farmed under the greatest difficulties until 1871, when he moved to Tallahatchie County, Mississippi, and there farmed for one year. He taught school in Coahoma County, Mississippi, for five years, after which he went to Helena, Arkansas, and engaged in the cotton planting business. He was ten years in that work, when ho gave it up, returned to Mississippi and resumed school-teaching. In 1902 he went to Memphis, in the Panhandle in Texas, and taught for one term, after which he came to Oklahoma. In July, 1905, he settled in Foss, Washita County, this state, and taught school in that place for two years. In 1907 Mr. Hubbard was elected county superintendent of education for Washita County, and moved into the county seat, Cordell, where he filled the office for 5% years. On July 1, 1913, he became postmaster of Cordell, by appointment of President Wilson, and is giving splendid service in that office.
Mr. Hubbard is a democrat, as might be inferred, and is an elder in the Presbyterian Church, of which ho has long been a member. Fraternally, he is associated with the Masons as a member of Cordell Lodge No. 127, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons.
On April 7, 1880, Mr. Hubbard was married in Brownsville, Tennessee, to Miss Julia Nixon, daughter of William C. Nixon, a merchant, now deceased. Three children have been born to them. Henry C. is assistant in the post office under his father. Margaret Louise married Dr. H. S. Andrews, and they live in Minden, Nebraska, where Doctor Andrews is engaged in practice. Annie died at the age of ten months. ["A Standard History of Oklahoma", 1916, By Joseph Bradfield Thoburn - Transcribed by Cathy Ritter]

LEE, DR. THOMAS J.
The Lee family, one of the best known and most highly honored in America today, was first established in Virginia by its English representative in Colonial times. Dr. Thomas J. Lee, practicing his profession in Rocky, Oklahoma, is of the same branch as was Gen. Robert E. Lee, of Civil war fame. Doctor Lee was born in Monroe, Union County, North Carolina, on October 15, 1860, and is a son of Joshua and Eliza (Doster) Lee.
Joshua Lee was born in South Carolina in 1830, and he died at Lyerly, Georgia, in 1910. From South Carolina he went to Monroe, Union County, North Carolina, and there married. In 1868 he moved to near Rome, Georgia, where he spent his remaining years in farming, an occupation to which he had been reared and always followed. He served four years in the Confederate army as a volunteer from North Carolina. He was with General Lee at Appomattox and was breveted colonel in appreciation of his gallant service to the Southland. He was a life-long member of the Baptist Church and a deacon for forty-five years. His wife, now a resident of Chattanooga, Tennessee, was born in North Carolina in 1836. She was the mother of ten children. The three eldest, Flora, J. Monroe and G. S., are deceased. William Ellison, a Methodist preacher, lives in Purcell, Oklahoma. Robert E. is a contractor and builder in Gainsville, Florida. Dallas P. is a Baptist preacher and is located at Elba, Alabama. Willis W. is pastor of the Calvary Baptist Church at San Antonio, Texas. Frank S. is with the Richmond Oil Company at Chattanooga, Tennessee. Charles R., pastor of the South Rome Baptist Church, is living at Rome, Georgia, long the home of the family.
Thomas J. Lee was the fifth born child of his parents. He was reared on the home farm, had a common school education in the Rome schools and remained at home until he was twenty-one years old. In 1883 he was graduated from the medical department of Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee, with the degree M. D. Since that time he has taken numerous post graduate courses, among them training in Atlanta, Georgia, Tulane University, New Orleans and the New York Post Graduate School.
In 1883, soon after his graduation, Doctor Lee began practice in Stilesboro, Georgia. He was there three years, then moved in 1886 to Childersburg, Alabama, where he remained in practice until 1895. In that year ill health caused him to give up his work there and pioneer it to Oklahoma, where he settled in Pauls Valley. He found the climate suited to him, and his health improved. He resumed practice and was there occupied until the year 1902, when he went to West Hobart and bought a farm of 160 acres. He had not been seriously enough inoculated with the agricultural "bug" to induce him to take to actual farming, so he sold the place soon after and took up practice in Hobart, where he continued successfully for a year. It was not until 1905 that Doctor Lee came to Rocky, and here he has since continued in active practice, enjoying a good deal of popularity and success in his professional work.
The doctor has his offices in the Rocky Drug Store. He is a democrat and has served the town as health physician. He has been prominent in politics and has done good work for the party in county and state conventions. He was one of the original Wilson men of the county and ably asisted in the campaign that made Mr. Wilson president. Especially in educational affairs of the community has Doctor Lee shown himself interested, and he has exercised an excellent influence in the town along those lines. He is an active member of the Baptist Church and a teacher in the Sunday school. He has been vice president of the Oklahoma Baptist Convention, was a member of the Oklahoma Baptist Educational Committee, and is a member of the board of trustees of the Oklahoma Baptist University, located at Shawnee, Oklahoma.
His professional ties are with the County, State and American Medical societies, and he is fraternally identified with Rocky Lodge of the Odd Fellows, being past grand of Alabama Lodge.
Doctor Lee was married in 1885 at Jonesville, South Carolina, to Miss Josie Fowler, daughter of E. T. Fowler, a farmer of that state, now deceased. Three children have been born to them. Mary Virginia is a graduate of the Oklahoma Baptist College, with the degree of A. B., and is a teacher in the Clinton High School. Joshua is an instructor in public speaking at the Oklahoma Baptist University. He won the oratorical contest at the state university at Norman, Oklahoma, and as an entrant in the Intercollegiate Prohibition Contest of Oratory, won the local, state and interstate contests. It is his intention to engage in the national contest in 1916, and his chance of winning is everywhere conceded to be a most excellent one.
Thomas J. Jr. was graduated from the Granite High School in 1915.
[A standard history of Oklahoma", Volume 4, 1916, By Joseph Bradfield Thoburn - Transcribed by Cathy Ritter]

SEGER, JOHN HOMER (1846 - 1928)

Born to Andrew and Louisa Knox Seger in Geauga County, Ohio, on February 23, 1846, John Homer Seger was raised in Illinois. Enlisting in the Union Army in 1864, he participated in Gen. William T. Sherman's "March to the Sea" through Georgia. Afterward, he worked in Wisconsin and by 1872 was living in New Malden, Kansas. In Indian Territory a reservation had just been established for the Cheyenne and Arapaho people under the terms of the 1867 Treaty of Medicine Lodge. Seger was hired in 1872 as a mason-carpenter by John D. Miles, the U.S. Indian agent at the new agency headquarters at Darlington on the Cheyenne-Arapaho Reservation. Seger's assignment would be to build houses and buildings at the agency school.

As he worked at the agency, Seger developed a rapport with the Cheyenne and Arapaho people. In 1875 Miles asked him to serve as superintendent of the Arapaho Manual Labor and Boarding School, which had opened in 1872. It was federally funded but operated by missionaries of the Society of Friends (Quakers) under the "Quaker Peace Policy" of Ulysses S. Grant's presidential administration. When the Cheyenne students were separated into the Cheyenne Manual Labor and Boarding School in 1879, he supervised that also. As the Indian Service began its policy of forced assimilation through manual arts training and religious education (the "Pratt system"), the curriculum expanded to include craft training and especially farming and herding for the male students. Seger was very successful in helping the students build up a herd of cattle to supplement meager institutional income. He remained with the schools until May 1882 and thereafter apparently made a living building fences for cattle companies that leased grazing land on the reservation, by running a mail route from Darlington to Mobeetie, Texas, and by running a sawmill and a small horse ranch near Cobb Creek, about fifty miles southwest of Darlington.

By 1885 the Cheyenne and Arapaho faced the land allotment process being proposed in Congress. Indian agent Jesse Lee asked Seger to establish one of four "colonies" that would concentrate Indian families in agricultural communities many miles distant from Darlington. In 1886 he convinced 120 people, many his former students, to move to good farm land on Cobb Creek. "Seger Colony" as it came to be called, was a dispersed rural district of about a thousand square miles. The Mennonites opened a mission in 1889. In 1896 the Dutch Reformed Church established a mission, operated by Frank Hall Wright, Walter Roe, and others.

John Seger built the federally funded Seger Industrial Training School (at present Colony) in 1893 and for twelve years served as superintendent. In 1890-91 he became a special agent appointed to help allot the reservation lands to individual tribe members. He was an annual attendee of the Lake Mohonk Indian Conference in New York. After he retired in 1905, Seger continued to live in Colony, where he died on February 6, 1928. Seger Indian Training School, which operated through 1932 as a boarding school and into the 1940s as a day school, is listed in the National Register of Historic Places (NR 71001080).
(Source: Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History & Culture)

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