Volume 8 , Issue 15

Town Fathers of Woods County, Oklahoma...

These are just a few of Woods County, Oklahoma's town fathers of that helped shape and build this northwest part of the State. In the coming weeks in "The OkieLegacy Ezine" we will be featuring more of our "Pioneer Town Fathers" from northwest Oklahoma Territory.

J. A. Stine -- Native of Pennsylvania; came to Missouri when a young man and lived there several years; thence to Harper, Kansas, where he was engaged in the drug business, and in the latter eighties moved to Amarillo, Texas. In the fall of 1894 he came to Alva and started the organization of the Exchange Bank, which was perfected Feb. 15, 1895, by the election of J. A. Stine, president; Geo. W. Crowell, vice-president, and Percy R. Smith, cashier; a few months afterward bought the old Alva State Bank and consolidated them, making the Exchange the oldest bank in the county, which was made a National bank, Oct. 1, 1899. Mr. Stine and family owned four banks and he was president of all of them. (First National of Alva, First National of Woodward, Bank of Ingersoll, and Waynoka State Bank.) He was also the first president of the Alva Commercial Club, which was organized in the fall of 1896, which position he ably filled for three or four years; and to the old "Push" club, as it was called. Capt. Stine, in the presence of several members of the club and other citizens, March 19, 1898, drove the locating stake of the Normal college. That stake still stands where the main tower of the Castle on the Hill once stood. He was also elected mayor of the city when it was organized as a city of the first class in May, 1901, and his name will always remain prominently in the history of Alva. On the southwest corner of Alva's government square, southwest corner of 6th Street & Barnes Avenue, stands the Stine building today.

Jesse James Dunn -- Dunn was a native of Illinois. He came with his parents to western Kansas in the eighties. He was a graduate of the law department of Kansas University. He came to Alva, Sept. 16, 1893, and opened a law office. He was always ready to give a liberal share of his time and assistance in city and county affairs of public interest. He was elected county attorney in 1896 and re-elected 1898, served four years and made a creditable record. Mr. Dunn is one of the best known lawyers of Oklahoma and was president of the Oklahoma Bar Association 1903. He was one of the ablest and most entertaining public speakers in the west. Cowgill & Dunn, lawyers, hade a large acquaintance and lucrative practice back in 1904.

H. Clay McGrath -- Clay McGrath - Alva Pioneer was a native of Illinois, came to Barber County, Kansas, in the early eighties.One among the first to reach Alva, Sept. 16, 1893, secured the farm that is now the southeast quarter of the city, was the first elected sheriff of the county all of 1894, re-elected 1896; first to offer 40 acres of land for the Normal college and campus, but on account of delay in receiving his patent from the government, J. T. Fryer gave 40 acres of his land for the college and Mr. McGrath paid him for half of it. Mr. McGrath was a splendid officer and citizen. He sold all his property here and in 1909 was living at Larned, KS.
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