PORTRAIT AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD OF OKLAHOMA 1901
Biographies on this page:
Taylor, Guy W.
Wattson, George F.
Thompson, A. J.
Trulock,R. S.
Bothell, David C.
Perry, J. W.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
GUY W. TAYLOR, M. D.,
a gentleman of wide experience in the practice of medicine, is one of the most successful practitioners of El Reno. Born in Nacogdoches, Tex., August 14, 1860, he is a son of Dr. D. T. and Mary (Fall) Taylor. His grandfather, James, was born in Georgia and was a planter of that state. He moved with his family to Jacksonville, Tex., where he engaged in the hotel business, in addition to farming, until his death. He was of New England stock, and came from the same family as Dr. Isaac E. Taylor. Dr. D. T. Taylor was born in Georgia, and at an early age took up the medical profession. He received the degree of Doctor of Medicine from a medical college in New Orleans, and studied under Drs. Flint and Stone. Beginning to practice in Chireno, Tex., he later located at Nacogdoches, Tex., and removed to Hot Springs, Ark., in 1881, where he has been engaged in practice ever since. He married Mary Fall, who was born in Georgia, and was one of the first graduates in classics and music at Montgomery College, of LaGrange, Ga. Her father, Dr. John N. Fall, was a very brilliant man and was prominent in the upbuilding of the state of Texas. He was born in Georgia and was a very early settler in Texas, locating at Chireno, Nacogdoches county, where he was a prominent physician. He was associated with such men as Samuel Houston, Rusk and Ochiltree, and served in the state senate. Seven children, six sons and one daughter, were born to this union, our subject being the oldest and the only one who has located in Oklahoma Territory.
Dr. Guy W. Taylor received his intellectual training in the public and high schools of his native county, and in Kosse Academy, of Kosse, Limestone county, Tex. In 1881 he went to Hot Springs with his father, under whom he there took up the study of medicine. He entered the Missouri Medical College and finished his course in the Memphis Hospital Medical College at Memphis, Tenn., graduating in 1887, with the degree, of Doctor of Medicine. Since then he has taken other hospital courses and by constant study has kept abreast of the times. In 1887 he began practicing at Hot Springs, Ark., and continued there for four years, when he went to his old home at Chireno, Tex., to settle some business. Five years later he returned to his practice at Hot Springs, and there remained until the fall of 1897, when he located at El Reno. He devotes all his time to his profession and has a large general practice in medicine and surgery. He has made many friends since he has been located here, and stands high in the esteem of all with whom he is acquainted.
Dr. Taylor was united in marriage at Beckville, Tex., to Beulah Kirkley, who was born in St. Augustine, Tex., and they have one son, Guy Horace. Fraternally, he is a member of the Masonic Order, and belongs to the Oklahoma Territory Medical Association. Religiously, he is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church South. In politics he supports the Democratic party.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
HON. GEORGE F. WATTSON,
a veteran of the Civil war, who saw service throughout that dreadful conflict, is a prominent man of El Reno and is now serving as postmaster. During his long career he has held many offices of public trust, and never has failed to discharge his duties in a most satisfactory manner to his constituents.
Mr. Wattson was born in Adrian, Mich., August 19, 1843, and is a son of Charles R. and Jane (Mathews) Wattson. His grandfather was Job Wattson, who was born in Philadelphia. The latter was a glazier by trade, but later followed the hotel business. He was living at Adrian,
Mich., at the time of his demise. The family is of English extraction and was early established in Philadelphia, where it was prominent in the Friends Society. Charles R. Wattson was born in Philadelphia, Pa., and when a young man moved to Adrian, Mich., where he was a commission merchant. His first warehouse there was at the end of the Erie & Kalamazoo Railroad (now the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railroad). He also engaged in the grain business until 1847, when he became totally blind and gave up his business. In 1852 he removed with his family to Delaware county, Iowa, and later to a farm seven miles east of Decorah, Iowa, in Winneshiek county. In 1865 he removed to Worth county, where his sons were living, and in 1872 went to Poway Valley, Cal., dying near San Diego at the age of sixty-eight years. Religiously, he was of the Episcopal faith. He married Jane Mathews, who was born in Glamorganshire, Wales, and died in Michigan. Her father was a man of wealth and traveled round the world twice. The Mathews family record is traceable back to the ninth century, and its members have all been of high caliber. Mrs. Wattson died in 1847. Three children blessed this union: Edward, who went to California in 1859, and died at Port Townsend, Ore.; Charles Chauncy, and George F., whose name appears above. Charles C., who served in Company D, Third Iowa Infantry, lost an arm in the battle of Hatchies Run. He now lives at Poway Valley, Cal., and formerly was a member of the lower house of the California legislature.
Soon after the close of the war the regiment was sent here and there until finally mustered out in Nashville; receiving an honorable discharge at Clinton, Iowa. He was never seriously wounded, but was slightly injured many times and had many narrow escapes. After the war he engaged in the mercantile business at Northwood, Worth county, Iowa, for two years, then started in the drug business there. He continued in that vocation for nine years, and in the meantime, in 1873, was elected sheriff of Worth county. He held that office for six years, then was mayor for one year, and served in the council for three or four years. In 1881 he was appointed postmaster of Northwood, Iowa, and after holding that office a year resigned, and in 1883 was elected representative of the eighty-sixth district, comprising three counties. He served in the twentieth general assembly, which re-elected Allison to the United States senate, was chairman of different improvement committees, and was very active in the work of that session, but refused a renomination for that office. Having drawn up a railroad measure to strengthen the railroad commission and give the state the power to bring suit, he secured its passage, and it not only now is the law of Iowa, but also was adopted by Wisconsin and other states. It compels railroads to run trains over the roads where they hold a charter, thus establishing a precedent which originated with him. He continued in the drug business at Northwood until 1888, when he was burned out, and in the fall of 1889 removed to Vernon, Tex., because of poor health. He engaged in the real estate business there until March, 1892, when he located at El Reno. There he was employed in the same line of business, and in a short time located a claim in Canadian county, which he improved. Later returning to El Reno, he was appointed postmaster of El Reno in July, 1897, in which capacity he has since efficiently served.
Mr. Wattson was married in Northwood, Iowa, to Felixem Wardall, who was born in Springfield, Ill., and died in El Reno in 1895. They had four sons and one daughter, as follows: George H., who is in the hardware business at Chamberlain, S. D.; Mrs. Carrie G. Gunn, of El Reno; Charles G., chief clerk in the El Reno postoffice; Robert K., and Kenneth E. He formed a second matrimonial alliance at El Reno with Mrs. Ada Birney, a native of New Hampshire.
Initiated into the Masonic order at Northwood, Iowa, Mr. Wattson now is a Royal Arch Mason of El Reno. He now belongs to El Reno Post No. 7, G. A. R., and is past commander of the Iowa post to which he formerly belonged. He is a member and trustee of the Methodist Episcopal Church. In politics he is a Republican and is president of the El Reno Club.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A. J. THOMPSON,
the present popular postmaster of Okarche, and one of the leading business men of this place, was born in Crawford county, Pa., and is a son of George and Eliza (Gearheart) Thompson, natives of Vermont and Pennsylvania, respectively. In early life the father moved to the Keystone State, and in 1841 to McHenry county, 111., where he spent the remainder of his life, both he and his wife dying there at the age of eighty-four years. He was a member of a Vermont regiment in the war of 1812, and was a farmer by occupation. In his family were ten children, eight of whom are still living.
On the home farm in McHenry county, Ill., A. J. Thompson grew to manhood. Soon after attaining his majority the Civil war broke out and he enlisted in Company F, Fifteenth Illinois Volunteer Infantry at the first call for troops. He was on detached duty most of the time in the commissary department at Memphis and New Orleans, but participated in the battle of Shiloh, with his regiment, and was wounded in that engagement. After three years of faithful service, he was honorably discharged at Springfield, Ill., in 1864.
Mr. Thompson spent the next three years in Colorado and Nebraska. He was engaged in trading, merchandising and mining in Alpine, Tin Cup and Frisco, Colo., and carried on milling at McCook, Neb., for five years. He made the race for a claim when this section of the territory was opened up, April 19, 1892, and located on what is now the Henry Bumboff farm, near Okarche, but finding his claim disputed, he soon left it and settled in Okarche, where he raised a tent, 18x48 feet, and commenced dealing in fuel and agricultural implements. The same fall he built a warehouse, and has since enlarged his place of business to meet the growing demands of his trade. He carries a large and well-selected stock of farm machinery, and also deals in grain and coal. Here he has steadily prospered and is to-day quite well-to-do. Besides his business property, he owns a comfortable and commodious home, and another nice residence in the village, also two or three good farms aggregating four hundred and eighty acres.
In Oklahoma City, Mr. Thompson married Mrs. Mary Rainey, who died in Okarche, leaving two daughters, Myrtle and Mary. He was one of the organizers and a prominent member of Sherron Post No. 27, G. A. R., of which he is past commander, and also a member of Pawnee Tribe No. 17, I. O. R. M., of which he is the present sachem. While not a politician, he takes an active interest in politics, is a stanch supporter of the Republican party, and has been a member of the county central committee from Harrison township. He is now efficiently serving as postmaster of Okarche, having been appointed to that office by President McKinley. He has taken an active part in the upbuilding and development of the town, was the first to erect a dwelling there, gave the use of his tent for the first religious service, helped to build the first church, and has been first in business undertakings generally.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
R. S. TRULOCK
is one of the gentlemen who exercise their influence and invest their capital in such a manner as to advance the conditions of Oklahoma, and he enjoys the reputation of being one of El Reno's most progressive and enterprising citizens. He was bom August 11, 1868, near Pine Bluff, Ark., and is a son of N. B. Trulock, and grandson of James Trulock.
The Trulocks originated in England, and the family settled in Maryland at an early clay, from which state several of the name moved to Georgia. James Trulock was born in the state last mentioned, where he was a planter until 1849, when he moved to a plantation nine miles below Tine Bluff, Ark., there living until death claimed him in the year prior to the Civil war. He married Miss Amanda Beardsley, who was a native of Connecticut, and whose ancestors were in the Revolutionary war. N. B. Trulock was born near Brunswick, Ga., and after the Civil war he and his brother, J. B. Trulock, engaged in the banking and real estate business at Pine Bluff, Ark. He married Miss Marianna Phelps Lewis, of Bridgeport, Conn., and a daughter of Joseph C. Lewis, also a native of Connecticut. He was a carriage manufacturer at Bridgeport, but had his main office in New York City. Isaac Lewis, her grandfather, was a silversmith at Bridgeport. The Lewis family originated in, Wales, and the first of the line who came to America was a passenger in the "Mayflower" in 1620. Our subject's mother is still living and is a devoted member of the Episcopalian Church. Of the three children born to N. B. Trulock and wife, our subject and Walter N. are still living. The latter is a cotton buyer at Pine Bluff, Ark.
R. S. Trulock received his early schooling at Pine Bluff, Ark., and at fifteen went to Bridgeport, Conn., to enter Park Avenue Institute, there to prepare for college, but after he arrived at Bridgeport his ambition to earn his own livelihood led him to seek employment in a gas plant, of which his father was a large stockholder. He secured a position and by the time he was seventeen was manager'of the same for his father. When that plant was sold, he began clerking in a hardware st6re, and at the end of a year became billing clerk in a wholesale grocery, in which his father was interested. He retained that position three years, and in 1894 came to El Reno, to
take charge of the El Reno Ice and Coal Company, in which his father, uncle and himself are interested. Their plant covers about five acres, on which they have a large cold-storage house and several artificial wells. This company ships ice to all parts of the territory, and uses the Boyle improved ice machinery, which can turn out seventy-five tons per day. Our subject is a member of the Southwestern Ice Manufacturing Association, and also is interested in the grain business, being a stockholder in the Choctaw Mill and Elevator Company, which was organized in 1897. This company buys a large amount of grain during the year, and besides having an elevator in El Reno they have no less than eight elevators located at different points along the Choctaw Railroad. The Trulocks also own considerable real estate in and around El Reno. Their success is due to good business ability and untiring energy, and honest and straightforward business methods have won for them hosts of friends, who hold them in high esteem.
Mr. Trulock was married at Pine Bluff, Ark., to Miss Joe Johnson, a native of Pine Bluff, and a daughter of Willis D. Johnson, who was born in Mississippi, but now is an attorney and real estate dealer in Pine Bluff, Ark. Mr. Trulock is a believer in Christian Science and politically is a strong Free-Silver Democrat.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
DAVID C. BOTHELL,
a thorough and skillful agriculturist, residing on the northeast quarter of section 10, township 14. range 7 west, Canadian county, was born in Armstrong county, Pa., March 28, 1843. am' when thirteen years of age removed to Wetzel county, W. Va., with his parents, David and Diana (McQuimbey) Bothell. Two years later the family went to Pike county, Ohio, where the father purchased land and engaged in the sawmill business, which he made his life work.
During his boyhood David C. Bothell received a fair common-school education. The Civil war having broken out, he enlisted at the age of twenty, with the intention of entering the heavy artillery service, but abandoned that plan and went in pursuit of Morgan. Later he joined Company H, One Hundred and Seventy-sixth Ohio Infantry, with which he served until the close of the war. During the battle of Nashville he was knocked from the breastworks and had his shoulder broken; in spite of the injury he did not go to the hospital, but carried his gun on the left shoulder. He was finally discharged in June, 1865.
Returning to his old home in Pike county, Mr. Bothell lived there until 1869, during which time he was employed on the Ohio canal, and after making one trip was promoted to be. captain. On leaving there he went to Osage, Osage county, Kans., where he bought property and made his home for twenty years, being extensively engaged in the stone quarry business and having one hundred men in his employ.
In Pike county, Ohio, January 27, 1874, Mr. Bothell married Miss Mary J. Merritt, who was born, reared and educated there. They are now the parents of three children: Harry V., a student in the Agricultural and Mechanical College at Stillwater, Okla.; Icy Blanche, wife of Charles Standard, a teacher of Okarche; and Maude, a pupil in the schools of Okarche.
On coming to Oklahoma in May, 1889, Mr. Bothell located upon his present farm in Canadian county, his first home here being a frame shanty of one room, 12x14 feet. In the following June, through his efforts, a postoffice was established upon his place, it being the first postoffice south of Kingfisher. He laid out a town on the survey of the Rock Island Railroad, and expected to have a station here, but the railroad officials changed their plan and went west of his place. At one time there were three stores in the village, and the postoffice was kept up for nine years (long after one was established at Okarche), Mr. Bothell serving as postmaster during the entire time. As a Republican he takes an active interest in politics and attends the conventions of his party, but has never been a politician in the sense of office-seeking, though he was the first justice of the peace appointed in Rock Island township. He was reared in the Methodist Episcopal faith and attends the church of that denomination in Okarche.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
J. W. PERRY
is numbered among El Reno's representative business men. To his genius and painstaking care, as shown in our beautiful city park, comprising five and one-half acres, the citizens owe a debt of gratitude. He it was who planned and executed all of the landscape gardening, and his keen eye for beautiful effects quickly saw the possibilities and natural advantages of the tract of land set apart for the park and thus a great deal was accomplished with comparatively small expenditure.
Mr. Perry is a descendant of a fine old southern family, of English extraction. His grandfather, Roundtree Perry, was a native of North Carolina, whence he went to Tennessee, and there carried on a plantation. Later he was one of the pioneers of Illinois, his home being near Marion, Williamson county. He lived to the ripe age of eighty-four years. His son, Hardy W., father of J. W. Perry, was born in Tennessee, and was reared on the old Illinois homestead. He became an influential agriculturist and for many years occupied the office of a justice of the peace. Death claimed him when he was in the prime of life, forty-five years of age. His wife, who passed into the silent land when she was in her fifty-first year, was Miss Lethea Ann Spiller prior to their marriage. Her father, Jesse Spiller, was a native of Tennessee, and was
one of the very first settlers in Illinois. Mrs. Perry was born in Williamson county, and there made the acquaintance of her future husband. Of their eleven children, eight grew to maturity.
The eldest, J. W. Perry, was born November 7, 1844, on the old farm in Williamson county, and there learned the details of agriculture. Such education as fell to his share was obtained in the public schools, and it was not until he was in his twentieth year that he concluded to set forth upon an independent career. In 1865 he commenced working for the Chicago and Rock Island Railroad, serving that corporation as section foreman, with his headquarters in Bureau, Ill., for some four years.
In 1869 Mr. Perry came to the west, locating upon a farm near Douglas, Butler county, Kans., and there he was very successfully occupied in general farming and stock-raising until 1893. In the meantime he started a nursery on his farm, and for a decade carried the palm for having the largest and finest nursery business in that section of the state. In September, 1893, he located in Frisco, where he had started a nursery the previous year. From time to time he has extended its dimensions until he now has sixty-five acres closely planted, and another forty acres will be added in the spring of 1901, Thus he is easily the largest nurseryman in Oklahoma, and the same success which attended his efforts in Kansas is rewarding him today. The originator of the popular Hooker seedling apple, he has introduced the variety into all parts of this territory, and rnany other peculiar varieties of fruit and shade trees have long been raised by him.
In the spring of 1899 Mr. Perry turned his extensive nurseries into the hands of his son, Albert S., who is a thoroughly practical business man, well trained in his father's calling. In September, 1894, our subject came to El Reno, and embarked in his present undertaking. He owns five acres of land here and operates a large, well equipped greenhouse. He handles cut flowers of all kinds and makes a specialty of decorations and fine set pieces. Besides this, he furnishes a great variety of plants and all kinds of nursery stock. His greenhouse is the most extensive in western Oklahoma, and for some time he has been a valued member of the Oklahoma Nurserymen and Florists' Association.
In his native county in Illinois Mr. Perry married Miss Ellen Kellems, whose birth had taken place in Champaign county, same state. Their only child is Albert S., previously mentioned in this article. Mr. and Mrs. Perry are members of the Methodist Protestant Church. In his political preference, he is a Republican, and heartily believes in the policy adhered to by his party.