Volume 17 , Issue 1

Tribute To Alpha G. Updegraff

This tribute was written by Thomas Jefferson Dyer, son-in-law of Scott Cummins. Another one of Tom Dyer's tributes to one of his old saddle mates. Thanks to Joy Sherman for sharing her grandfather's writing with our Okie Legacy website.

Alpha G. Updegraff

Alph Updegraff is dead. These words caused a tremor of sadness to pervade my entire being when first I heard them uttered.

It had been scarce two weeks ago that I met and talked with him in Alva, and in his usual way he greeted me with that kindly smile, and cordial "Howdy do, Tom." The friendly hand shake made you realize he was your friend.

I visited the mortuary where his lifeless remains lie in the cold embrace of the "Reaper whose name is Death." After looking for a few moments on that inanimate clay, I could only say these parting words: "Good-bye, Old Boy, good-bye."

Alpha Updegraff is gone. What does this really mean? It means that a real pioneer has gone from among us.

In number of years spent in Woods County, Alph was second only to one other person, I refer to our good friend Wiley Cowan.

It is more than a half century since Alph came to what is now Woods County, Oklahoma. He spent the winter of 1873 in a cow camp just north of the present site of Alva, in what was then called Ash Grove. Later he became foreman of the Major Drumm Ranch, with headquarters camp located at the mouth of the Medicine River.

Alph Updegraff was a trustworthy and painstaking representative of the public, always looking after the interests of his constituents, as well as the interests of the territory and state at large.

In 1900 he was chosen as a member of the council from the twelfth district, and served as a member of the sixth and seventh assemblies of the territorial legislature. In 1907 he was returned as a state senator, and served in the first and second sessions of the state legislature, after statehood, 1907, 1908 and 1909.

After the opening of the Cherokee Strip, he secured a claim near the town site of old Augusta. Selling this place he later secured a home in the Fairvalley neighborhood and followed farming and stock raising until a few years ago.

The passing of this man is a distinct loss to our county. He numbered his friends by those who knew him, as he was a friend to everyone. This is best illustrated by those beautiful lines by Samuel Foss: "Let me live in a house by the side of the road, and be a friend to man." Such a person was Alph Updegraff. Next to his children, and immediate relatives, he will be missed most by the old time cowboys who knew him best.

No more will he saddle his favorite cayuse (saddle horse), and attend the old time round up. He has crossed the great divide. We boys who are left will sooner or later answer to this same summons which called or friend Alph, and when we have all been gathered in that Great Beyond, and have attended the last great roundup, may we meet again, and throughout eternity be permitted to live in the valley called Paradise.
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