Stephens County,
Oklahoma
Biographies
FRANK
FUQUA. is
honored with the
fatherhood
of Duncan, Stephens
county. He
came
to the
town site when
it
appeared like any other portion
of
the prairie, and, with his
companion, W. H. Breedlove,
erected
one of the first
business
structures
and
among the
first
houses, thus
laying the foundation
of the community.
He was also
chosen
the pioneer mayor
of the place, and
his fellow
townsmen insisted in
placing
him in the municipal
chair
for three terms. It was
in
February,
1891,
that Mr. Fuqua cast his lot with the
unmarked spot, which has developed into
such a prosperous
community, and
with Mr. Breedlove built a gin in the hollow
about two
blocks east of the
electric power house. . Mr. Fuqua was
born in Stewart county,
Tennessee,
on
the 10th of January,
1858, and
quite
early in his life, his
parents
removed to
Metropolis,
Illinois, in
whose
public
schools he received
the
bulk of his education. In 1876,
a
young man of twenty-three, he
located in Cook
county,
Texas, and
was first
employed by Reasan Jones, an honored Pioneer of
that
section, whose daughter he
afterward married. Ginning
and
farming were the
chief
occupations
of his later years.
In
1891, still with only limited
resources
at his command,
Mr. Fuqua
left near
Valley View, and became
one of the
strongest
factors in
the
founding and growth
of
Duncan. Theodore J.
Fuqua,
the father of Frank was
born near
Richmond, Virginia, in
1822, and by
occupation
was a
carpenter and builder. He was
educated and reached maturity in
the
Old Dominion, and
when a young man
removed to
Tennessee, where he learned
his
trade and married Margaret
Lowe.
After several years of
married
life
in
Stewart
county, that
state, the family home
was
transferred to Metropolis,
Massac county,
Illinois, where the father busied
himself
at his trade until his
death
in
1882.
His
wife had
preceded him
several
years, and they
are both buried
at
Metropolis. The
following were their
children: D.
N., a resident of
Duncan;
Frank of
this sketch; James M., of
Dunklin county,
Missouri;
Marcellus, of
Memphis,
Tennessee, and Edward F.,
of
Dallas,
Texas. In 1878 Frank
Fuqua married
Elvira
Jones, who died
in 1891 without
surviving issue. In
1893 he married
Miss
A. Jones,
daughter of
Maston C. Jones, a Texan and
the
issue of this union are,
Nolan,
now
fourteen years of age,
and
Herbert, aged twelve.
LEWIS H.
HARRISON
is a
pioneer
settler in this
section of
Oklahoma, a builder of
its
first school house and church,
and
especially identified
with the
grazing interests of
Stephens county south of
Duncan. He has a
small
but profitable stock farm
near
Bailey, which he occupies
in
summer, and moves to Duncan
in the
autumn where they have
the benefit
of
superior
schools. Mr.
Harrison was born
near
Caffrey station, Choctaw Nation, on
the 23rd
of May, 1866,
his father, who was a quarter
blood
of that tribe, having
married
a pure
Choctaw woman. His
mother
died while he was yet an infant,
and
the boy was
reared and
educated
by his paternal
grandparents. Although his
education was
neglected, his
surrounding
influences were
morally
good.
When he
was about fourteen
years of
age his
father brought him
from the Choctaw
to the
Chickasaw
country and
here he took
the
trail
as a cowboy and followed it until
his marriage.
After
his marriage in 1890 he
located at Doyle, in a short
time
removed to a
point southwest
of
Duncan, and still
later to
Bailey, where the family
remained
for seven years
and where
they
received their allotments for
land. Mr. and Mrs.
Harrison
own some
1,400 acres
there, a large tract in
Grady
county
and
property in the city of
Duncan. Mr.
Harrison bears a strong resemblance to
his
mother's
people. While without a
technical knowledge of the forms of good
English, he is
possessed of a
remarkable vocabulary and is
really
an
entertaining conversationalist,
and although he
failed to acquire a
thorough
education himself, he has the
wisdom
to bestow it upon all
his
children.
Dr.
Williamson
Marlow and his wife,
Martha
Jane, a relative of
Daniel
Boone, first
established
a
homestead
in
this area
during the early
1800's.
The site of the
original Marlow
family home is reported to
have been
located just north of
Redbud
Park. Somewhat of
a
nomad by nature, Dr.
Marlow provided medical
treatment to many
settlers
in this
portion of Indian
Territory
and to many cowboys
driving
cattle up the Chisholm
Trail.
He
also
farmed while his
sons
reportedly herded horses,
selling
many the animals to the
U.S.
Army located at
neighboring Ft. Sill. Dr.
Marlow died
in 1885.
In
1888 his five sons
were accused
of
horse-stealing, a charge which
was later
proven to be
unfounded.
Four of the
brothers (Charlie, Alfred, Boone and
Lewellyn) were
arrested and
transported by a U.S. Marshall
to
the Federal
Court
in Graham, Texas,
for trial.
Hearing
of his brother's
arrests, George Marlow
took the
entire
family to Graham to
clear his
brothers but soon
found himself
behind
bars. Boone Marlow
ultimately
escaped and
returned
to
the Marlow
area in Indian
Territory,
while his
four brothers were
scheduled
to be
transported to
a safer
(?)
jail in
Weatherford, Texas. Several
attempts
were
made
by Graham
citizens and law
enforcement
officials to lynch
the Marlows. On
the night of January
19, 1889,
the
brothers were
shackled
in
pairs~~George to
Lewellyn and
Charlie to Alfred~~ for
the trip to
Weatherford. When
the
group
reached
Dry Creek
outside of
Graham,
a signal was
given and a hidden mob
opened
fire
on the
seemingly
defenseless
Marlows. The
guards ran
to
join the mob
while the
brothers
leaped from
the wagon and
armed themselves with
guns taken
from
guards. In the
vicious
gunfight
that
followed, Lewellyn and
Alfred were
killed. Both
George and
Charlie were
seriously
wounded.
Retrieving
a dead
mob member's knife,
George
Marlow unjointed his dead
brothers' ankles. He and
Charlie used a wagon
to
escape the ambush
site.
Three
members of the mob were
also
killed and a number of others
wounded. Several members of
the mob
were
later prosecuted
and
convicted for the assault upon
the
brothers. Boon was
later
poisoned near Hell Creek west of Marlow. His
corpse
was
then shot in an attempt
to
obtain a
$1,500 reward, but
his
killers, too, were brought to
trial.
Alfred, Boone
and
Lewellyn are buried in a small
cemetery at what was once
Finis,Texas, outside of
Graham. George and Charlie Marlow
survived the attack,
eventually
moving their
families to
Colorado
where they
became
outstanding
citizens,
serving
as law
enforcement
officers.
In 1891,
after
sentencing
mob
members
for their part in the attack, Federal Judge
A.P.
McCormick was
quoted as saying,
"This is the first
time in the annals of history where
unarmed
prisoners,
shackled
together, ever
repelled a mob. Such cool courage that
preferred to fight
against such
great odds and die, if at
all, in
glorious
battle rather than die
ignominiously by a
frenzied mob,
deserves to be
commemorated in song and
story."
Source: The Marlow Outlaw
Cave
history.
JOHN S.
MCCLURE has been in
the real
estate and
insurance
business
in
Duncan since
August,
1906, for
a time
being associated
with James
P.
Sampson, the pioneer newspaper
man of
Duncan, who
retired in
1907,
and
since that time Mr. Newby
has been his
partner. Mr.
McClure
was identified
with some of the early
business
activities
of Duncan. He came
here
in 1892, and
started the third
grocery in town,
his old
stand being
now
occupied by the City
National
Bank. In 1900
he
retired from
merchandising and
engaged in the
cattle business
in
Castro
county, Texas. He
purchased some cheap lands and leased
others, but his enterprise as a whole was
marred by ill
luck, mainly
attributable to disease and hard winters that carried
off
many of his stock, so that no
profits were shown and
much
of his
capital
disappeared. After this venture he
returned to Oklahoma and for two years was
engaged, in
partnership, in a
grocery business at Lindsay. He has been very
active in
bringing the advantages of
Duncan to the
knowledge
of the
world. He
was
secretary of the
Democratic
committee during
the last
campaign.
He was
born in
Fannin county, Texas,
January 10,
1865, the family
having
been founded
in the Lone Star
state
by his father,
Washington S.
McClure, who was
one of the pioneers
and first settlers of
Bonham.
Washington S. McClure
was born
in Tennessee, a son of John
McClure, an
Irishman from
Baltimore, Maryland,
and
passed his
life as
a
farmer. He was a soldier
in the
Confederate army, and
passed away at Bonham,
Texas,
December 5, 1877. He married
Elizabeth Nally, who died before her
husband. He married,
January 16, 1889, Miss Taddie
Leftwich, of Bonham,
Texas, who
was born in
Bolivar
county, Mississippi.
W. A. "Wal" Williams is
said to
have
had such a reputation
for
effective law enforcement
against bootleggers that his
home in
Marlow was
blown up
with
dynamite the day he was sworn in as Sheriff of Stephens
County,
Oklahoma. If it was meant to discourage his crime
fighting
efforts, it
failed. Oklahoma
has a long
tradition of
bands of notorious outlaws made
up of brothers. In May of
1930,
another set of brothers was to enter that elite,
illegal fraternity. The Cunninghams would be
much
lesser
known than their
preceding
brethren, perhaps because
they
were only caught once, on
an
isolated
country road north
of
Duncan, Oklahoma.
The outlaw quartet had robbed three
banks and over 100 gas stations in Kansas and
Oklahoma
without being arrested.
On
the night
of May 12, 1930, they
robbed a gas station in the 1600
block of
South 11th
Street in
Lawton. Their take from
the holdup was minuscule but
bulletins were
broadcast to the neighboring areas. One of
the most
logical
escape routes for
the
bandits to take was
Highway 7 east to the Duncan "Y",
where it met Highway 81
going south
to the closest sizable town, Duncan. During
the
early morning hours of May
13, Sheriff Williams,
Undersheriff Ed Sumrill,
Duncan
Police Chief I.B. Gossett,
Assistant Chief Charles Coker,
Night
Policeman
W.F.
McKinzey and
Operative A.B. Cooper headed for the Duncan "Y" to block
that
means of escape in case the robbers were coming that
direction. About two
and
one-half south of the "Y",
the
officers came upon a car
with four men in it.
Jess
Cunningham, the baby
brother at 18, was driving but he was
the baby of the
family in the same sense that a newborn
rattlesnake is a
baby...but still
full
of venom. His older brothers Forrest
(27), John (25), and Emanuel (23), were
packed into the
car along with a
small arsenal of rifles, shotguns, and pistols.
When Chief
Gossett approached the
driver's door and
demanded their
identification, Jess Cunningham pulled a
gun on him and took the Chief's
shotgun. As the other
officers
approached, a frantic gunbattle started. Sheriff
Williams was the first man hit, wounded three
times
in the
stomach, chest and
leg.
Chief Gossett was also
wounded. Forrest Cunningham was
fatally shot,
John and
Emanuel were
both disabled with two
wounds each but Jess escaped.
Sheriff Williams died
17 hours later. Chief Gossett
recovered through the
then-experimental medical technique
of a blood transfusion. Jess
Cunningham was later
captured
in
California. The three surviving brothers were
tried
and convicted. John died
while incarcerated and
Emanuel,
paralyzed from
the waist down by one
of his
wounds, served 15 years in prison. After being
pardoned,
he drowned with his
parents when their car ran into a creek.
Sheriff
Williams' wife, Minnie, was
sworn in to complete
the
remainder
of his
term as Sheriff of Stephens County.
Within a year of his death, Sheriff Williams
was given a
memorial near the spot
of his death. The citizens of Marlow and
Duncan
appropriated enough money for
a pink granite marker
to be
erected
near
the intersection of Highways 81 and 29
near Marlow. It reads: "Erected in
honor of all
peace officers and
dedicated to the memory of Stephens County
Sheriff W. A.
"Wal" Williams
(1869-1930) who gave his life
in the
courageous
performance of his duty
May 13,
1930."
HORACE
M.
WOLVERTON,
ex-United
States Commissioner of
the Chickasaw
Nation and formerly a
prominent
practicing
attorney of
that place.
He came
from
McNairy
county,
Tennessee,
where his birth
occurred
May 1,
1872, and where his
father is
still prominent in
the
profession
which he himself has
honored. He obtained
his education,
preparatory to his
professional
training,
in the common
and
high schools
of his native
county.
His first work as
an
independent factor
in the world
was
as a farm hand, at
eight dollars per month. As
early as
possible he left home
and
ventured
into the seductive country of the southwest.
Within
the present state of
Oklahoma, he stopped first at
Ardmore, Carter
county,
where
he
took
up the study
of law
with Ledbetter
and Bledsoe,
but
before
his admission to
the bar he
passed on to Duncan and
connected
himself with its
pioneer
fire
insurance business. At the same time he
continued his
law studies.
In 1894 he was admitted
to
practice,
and
continued his professional work in
connection
with the insurance
business. In 1897
he
was
appointed
by Judge
Hosea
Townsend of the
United
States
court to be United
States
Commissioner, and he
efficiently performed its duties until his
resignation of
the office in
1900. He was elected to
the City
Council of
Duncan in 1903,
and
then
served as city attorney for
two
terms. In 1900 he disposed
of
his insurance
business to
Sampson
and McClure. In
polities, Mr.
Wolverton is a stanch
Republican,
and his fraternal connection is
with
the
Masonic order, in which he
is a
Royal Arch.
The
Wolvertons
comprise one
of the
old
and historic
families of
America, his first
ancestors in
the United
States being
Charles
and Mary
(Dixon) Wolverton,
who settled
in Amwell
township,
Hunterdon
county, New
Jersey, in the
early years
of the
eighteenth century. James
T.
Wolverton
is a native
of Shelby county,
Tennessee, where he was born in 1845. At an early
age he
lost his parents, and was
reared as a hard working
boy on
a
farm, who was
able to obtain little access even
to
the primitive common schools of that
district. As a
youth he served three
years in
the Union army,
was
captured and
exchanged, being
placed
aboard the
steamer
"Susquehanna,"
and as one of
eighteen
hundred others started for
the
north. When a few miles above
Memphis the boat
was
literally blown
to pieces, and
only about three hundred of the passengers
escaped. Mr.
Wolverton, as one of
the fortunates, drifted
down the
river about
nine miles, was
finally
rescued and
taken to
Memphis. After the war he
was
connected for a
time with the
retail
liquor
business at
Adamsville, Tennessee,
and
subsequently
engaged in farming.
He
then studied
law,
with special
reference
to the prosecution
of
pension cases
at Washington, was
admitted by the
department of the
interior,
and has
since been profitably and
honorably
engaged
at Adamsville,
Tennessee, as United
States
pension
attorney. Horace M. Wolverton
was
married in Duncan, Stevens
county, April 29, 1894, to
Maggie
C.,
daughter of
Michael
Reynolds, who came to
Oklahoma from
Rockbridge
county,
Virginia.
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