Norman Oklahoma

Biography of Oliver C. Wilkerson

Oliver C. Wilkerson is one of the enterprising and progressive young business men of Washington County, his home being about three miles north of Dewey, where he resides with his parents. He was born at Claremore, Oklahoma, on the 5th of March, 1899, and is a son of Richard Wilkerson and a grandson of Thomas Wilkerson. The family are full-blooded Cherokees. Richard Wilkerson was born August 26, 1866, in the Choctaw Nation, his parents being Thomas and Lizzy (Tenewey) Wilkerson, both of whom were full-blooded Cherokees and were natives of Georgia. In childhood they were brought by the United States … Read more

Biography of Hon. J. J. Smith

Hon. J. J. Smith, an able representative of the Miami bar, who has here practiced his profession since 1915, is specializing in criminal law, in which branch of jurisprudence he has been very successful, and he has also done effective service for the public good as a member of the state senate. He was born June 23, 1889, near Ranger, in Eastland county, Texas, upon the farm of his parents, Benjamin F. and Catherine (Simpson) Smith, the latter also a native of that section of the Lone Star state, while the former was born in Madison county, North Carolina. While … Read more

Biography of Mrs. Ellen Howard Miller

Mrs. Ellen Howard Miller is a woman of broad interests and accomplishments, her greatest pleasures centering around those things that are instructive and up building to herself and the people and conditions around her. To her the realm of civics is one of unlimited interest, in which she loves to spend her time when business, home and Church interests will allow, and in this field many enterprises and activities of economic value owe their birth and fostering to her inspiration and initiative. One of the earliest of these enterprises was the forming of an organization of the women of Vinita, … Read more

Biographical Sketch of Clarence Alexander Ambrister

Clarence Alexander Ambrister, engaged in the general practice of civil law at Muskogee, was born in Nebraska City, Nebraska, on the 10th of February, 1888, and is a son of Samuel Alexander and Sallie (Gillispie) Ambrister. The father was engaged in the operation of a cottonseed oil mill. The son was accorded liberal educational advantages, which he pursued at Norman, Oklahoma, following the removal of the family to this state. He supplemented his early training with a university course. He became a resident of Norman in 1892 and through the intervening period has resided in this state, where he has … Read more

Fort Gibson Conference with the Indians, 1834

Catlin Painting a Chief at the Base of the Rocky Mountains

One of the most important Indian conferences ever held in the Southwest, occurred at Fort Gibson in 1834 for it paved the way for agreements and treaties essential to the occupation of a vast country by one hundred thousand members of the Five Civilized Tribes emigrating from east of the Mississippi; to the security of settlers and travelers in a new country; to development of our Southwest to the limits of the United States and beyond and contributed to the subsequent acquisition of the country to the coast, made known to us by the pioneers to Santa Fe and California traveling through the region occupied by the “wild” Indians who, at Fort Gibson, gave assurances of their friendship. It is true, these assurances were not always regarded, and many outrages were afterwards committed on the whites and by the whites, but the Fort Gibson conference was the beginning and basis upon which ultimately these things were accomplished.