Oklahoma Genealogy and History - presented by Genealogy Trails

Kay County, Oklahoma Biographies

Henry Bellmon former Oklahoma Governor and US Senator was the son of George Bellmon , was a native of Kansas who had come to No Man’s Land with his parents and lived in a dugout beside the Beaver River. The family gathered buffalo bones and hauled them to Liberal, Kans., and that’s how they got their “little bit of money,” Bellmon said. Bellmon’s father’s first wife died on Armistice Day at the end of World War I. Bellmon’s mother, who was the second wife of Bellmon’s father, George, taught school and looked after her parents until they died. Edith Caskey Bellmon was about 34, and Bellmon’s father, was about 10 years older when they met and married. Henry Bellmon was the oldest of the four boys of his mother, Edith, and his father, George. His father was a staunch Republican who worked as a teamster, but he always kept land. He was kind of a philosopher who had many sayings, Bellmon said. One of the more important sayings was: “You ain’t learnin nothing when you’re talkin,” Bellmon said. Bellmon took that philosophy into public life many years later. “My mother managed to keep what I think of as a happy house, a happy home for four boys who were pretty competitive. I think she’s probably the greatest woman I ever knew, with the exception of my wives. She was determined that we get good educations. She was involved in church work,” Bellmon said. The last time he saw his mother was when he left to go into the Marine Corps. She worked as a school teacher during the war until she got leukemia, and died while he was overseas. Bellmon, a Marine tank commander, was part of a Marine group at Tinian Island getting ready to go to Iwo Jima for what would become a hellish battle. “They called me on the tank radio and told me that my mother died,” Bellmon said.

When he returned to the farm, he met Shirley Osborn. Their families had been friends and the Osborns lived six miles from the Bellmon farm. They married in January 1947. Bellmon says she was the reason for his success in politics. She organized the Bellmon Belles, a group of women who helped support him in his campaign for governor which he won in 1962, becoming the first Republican elected governor. She was part of his campaigns for the U.S. Senate and for a second term as governor. Shirley died unexpectedly in 2000 while the family was on vacation in Massachusetts. In 2002, Bellmon married Eloise Bollenbach. Eloise and her late husband, Kingfisher rancher Irvin K. Bollenbach, were longtime friends of the Bellmons.

The Bellmon homestead is not far from his present farmhouse. His father bought it probably 105 years ago, Bellmon said. It had two rooms then but was expanded over the years. “This area was part of the Cherokee Strip, settled with homesteaders on each 160 acres. That was enough to get by with subsistence style of living, but when the drought of the 30s came and the crash of 29, they reduced the price of wheat and cattle down to ridiculously low levels,” Bellmon said.

Donald Lee Nickles (born December 6, 1948) is an American businessman and political leader who was a Republican United States Senator from Oklahoma from 1981 until 2005. He was a fiscal and social conservative. Don Nickles was born and raised in Ponca City, Oklahoma, where he attended the public schools. To help pay for their education at Oklahoma State, he and his wife operated a janitorial service (Don Nickles Professional Cleaning Service) in Stillwater, Oklahoma. He was a member of Beta Theta Pi fraternity at Oklahoma State University, and earned a BA in business administration in 1971. After college, he went to work for Nickles Machine Corporation in Ponca City, a business started in 1918 by his grandfather, Clair Nickles. He rose to be Vice President and General Manager. He also served in the United States National Guard from 1970 until 1976. A formative experience was the distress his family suffered following his father's (1961)death, when Nickles was thirteen. They also had to sell off part of the family business raise cash to pay the estate tax due

Ernest Whitworth Marland, Democrat. Served from 1935 to 1939. A native of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Marland was born May 8, 1874. He was educated at Park Institute of that city and received his LL.B. from the University of Michigan, in 1893. He began his law practice at Pittsburgh, but engaged in the oil production business after moving to Oklahoma. HE was president of the Marland Oil Company until its consolidation; Member of the Seventy-third United States Congress from 1933 to 1935; Governor of Oklahoma from January 15, 1935, to January 9, 1939. Before Marland left office, nearly 90,000 Oklahomans were working on 1,300 WPA projects. Marland provided leadership in the development of the Oklahoma Highway Patrol and the Interstate Oil Compact. He died October 3, 1941. His civic contributions to Ponca City included the Pioneer Woman Statue.

The originator of rodeo steer wrestling, or bulldogging, Bill Pickett is believed to have been born December 5, 1870, in Travis County, Texas, about thirty miles north of Austin. He was one of thirteen children of Thomas Jefferson Pickett and Mary Virginia Elizabeth Gilbert Pickett.

After acquiring a fifth-grade education, Bill Pickett went to work on a ranch. He soon learned to "bulldog" a steer by grasping it by the horns, twisting its neck, biting its nose or its upper lip, and making it fall on its side; this biting technique he had learned by observing how herder dogs controlled steers. Soon he and his four brothers (B. W., J. J., C. H., and B. F.), established their own horse breaking business in Taylor, Texas. Pickett Brothers Bronco Busters and Rough Riders advertised "catching and taming wild cattle a speciality."

Bill Pickett entered his first rodeo in 1888 at the fair in Taylor. By the early 1900s he was a popular rodeo performer. In 1905 Pickett joined the Miller Brothers 101 Ranch and Wild West show. Billed as the "Dusky Deamon" [sic] he performed with that outfit for over a quarter century. In 1907 he moved his family from Texas to the 101 Ranch, near Ponca City, where in the off seasons he worked as a cowboy and also competed against white contestants in hundreds of rodeos around the West. In order to enter these events, Pickett was often identified as being an Indian, not an African American. His "bite-'em-down" technique of felling a steer evolved into steer wrestling, which remains one of rodeo's most important events.

Bill Pickett also performed in a number of motion pictures and is credited with being the first black cowboy star. Richard E. Norman Studios, of Jacksonville, Florida, an all-black film production company, featured Pickett in Crimson Skull (1921) and The Bull-Dogger (1922), both filmed in Oklahoma. Bill Pickett died April 2, 1932, of head injuries inflicted by a rogue horse at the 101 Ranch. He was buried on the ranch near the White Eagle Monument.

The ranch had humble beginnings in 1879 and was founded by George Miller. Control of the ranch soon passed to the three Miller sons Zack, Joseph and George. Perhaps more than anything else the ranch was known for its raucous Wild West shows. Traveling the country and the world the ranch put on Wild West dramas for millions of people over the years.

Prosperous from its inception, the ranch, however, hit hard times in the late twenties. The Depression hurt matters as did the untimely deaths of brothers George and Joseph. Zack Miller, perhaps the brother most incapable of handling business matters, was left in charge of the entire operation. It didn't take long before the situation for the ranch took a turn from bad to worse.

By the early 1930s Zack Miller was facing foreclosure and the end of his family's ranching empire. By this time 101 Ranch was over $600,000.00 in debt, and Zack was turning to desperate measures. News was released that Al Capone, the infamous gangster, was interested in purchasing the ranch. The Capone purchase of the 101 was Zack’s last hope, and when it turned out to be a publicity stunt on the part of the Capone family, all was lost for the Miller family.

It was on this date in 1936 that Zack Miller watched as the last of his possessions were brought from his house on the ranch and auctioned to the highest bidder. Crowds from around the state gathered at the ranch to watch the Miller brother’s empire disappear forever. A reporter at the scene noted that Zack Miller, "stood in the shadows of the white house today . . without visible emotion, although his face set in hard lines as one by one his personal belongings went on the block ending another era of the Old West."

The 101 Ranch in Oklahoma represented for many Americans a genuine image of the true Wild West. Situated on more than 100,000 acres in-between Ponca City and Stillwater, the 101 Ranch, some say, received its name because it had 101 thousand acres. It was more like a self contained city than a typical Oklahoma ranch. The establishment featured wheat, corn, cotton, and soybean fields as well as large tracts of orchards and other miscellaneous crops. Cattle, hogs, sheep, and goats were raised on the grounds as well, with all butchering and meat-packing done at the ranch.

The ranch also held extensive oil reserves and all drilling, pumping, refining, and manufacturing was done on site, including the sale and distribution of the official ranch gasoline, "101 Brand Fuel". In addition to agriculture and petroleum industries, the ranch held a thriving tourism business with hundreds of different Wild West souvenirs manufactured on site.

LOUIS HAINES WENTZ (November 10, 1877 to June 9, 1949) Lew Wentz, the son of a blacksmith, was reared with six brothers and sisters in Pittsburgh, PA. He was born in Tama City, Iowa. He loved children, Shetland ponies, the Republican Party and baseball: playing, organizing teams, and coaching. He even tried to buy the St. Louis Cardinals in 1934.

An introvert who never married, Wentz wasn't shy about work. Too poor for college, Wentz was coaching high school ball and campaigning door to door for the GOP when he rang John McCaskey's bell. The wealthy McCaskey gave Wentz a chance to go to Ponca City, Oklahoma, and join E. W. Marland's oil venture on the 101 Ranch. In 1911, Wentz moved into Ponca's Arcade Hotel, and lived there the rest of his life.

Oil made Lew Wentz "the world's richest bachelor" by 1927. His mother's stern Methodist principles made Wentz a generous benefactor even in his lean years. Wentz secretly bought shoes, coats, and Christmas presents for children in Ponca City, sometimes borrowing money to fund his annual commitment.

Wentz lived a life of service. He provided funding for the Oklahoma Crippled Children's Society, built a public pool and camp in Ponca City, and quietly supported many worthy causes with the words: "When you mention my name, emphasize the "We" in Wentz." Wentz was known as "Daddy Longlegs."

In 1926, Lew Wentz established foundations for student loans at four Oklahoma colleges called the Lew Wentz Foundation. Wentz sold his oil interests just before the stock market crash of 1929 and increased his support for higher education. Shortly before his death, Wentz acquired a number of Texas oil leases.

Lewis Haines Wentz owned the Arcade Hotel that he lived in and Rock Cliff Ranch, northeast of Ponca City. He died at the Arcade Hotel June 9, 1949 and was buried in the Ponca City, International Order of Odd Fellows (I. O. O. F.) Cemetery located in Ponca City, OK. (1030 South Waverly).

In 1960, the Foundation petitioned the courts to make a unique addition to the loan policy. The prestigious Lew Wentz Work/Service Scholarship was established, giving students a chance to "work off" college costs through on-campus jobs.

Today, Wentz Scholarships of $2,500 per year. The Wentz emphasis on repayment continues as a debt to society; scholars are selected for performance, potential, and commitment. Wentz Research Project Award of $4,000 per year are also awarded as an investment in the future. Undergraduates apply for project funding in tandem with a faculty mentor. Applications outline a research project and summary paper that can be completed within an academic year. Research scholars use their funds for research materials and travel to professional conferences.

Lew Wentz Foundation has provided support to students who found success as Truman Scholars, a Rhodes Scholar, a National Honors Council Board Member and a national research award winner. The future is bright for all Wentz award winners.

Since the death of Lew Wentz, a four-member, volunteer board of directors has managed Lew Wentz Foundation. The first members were friends of Wentz, committed to preserving his values concerning public service, hard work, and his investments philosophies.