Monroe U. Ayres. Some of the pioneers of old Indian Territory who settled on the fertile lands along Red River are for the most part reaping the rich rewards produced by the courage and hardihood of their forbears, yet there is that in the young generation that gives evidence of the same sort of courage that marked the lives of those pioneer settlers. These are the years when the pioneers are retiring and leaving the future of the country in the hands of their sons and grandsons. The fact is of interest in this region because the present generation is sitting, as it were, on the front porch of the preceding generation and reading in the fields and woods and streams the stories of fifty years that are fraught with examples of courage and of hardships that were not surpassed in frequency or intensity in the annals of many of the older states. One of the young men of the present who is building well on the foundation set by his father is Mr. Ayres, son of William A. Ayres, a native of North Texas, who for fifteen years has been a leader in the development of Southern Oklahoma. The elder Ayres was among the early settlers of Grayson County, Texas, which is just over the river from the region surrounding Woodville. The latter’s father was a pioneer merchant of McKinney Texas, and the family has been prominent in the agricultural and industrial development of North Texas for the past sixty years.

Monroe U. Ayres was born at Denison, Texas, in 1883. He was educated in the public schools of Grayson County and in Harshaw’s Business College at Denison. His first experience in business was as a clerk in the office of the “Katy” car accountant at Denison, before he was seventeen years old. Fifteen years ago he crossed into the Indian country and became a clerk in a general merchandise store. Later he entered the First National Bank as a bookkeeper and in due time he was promoted to the position of cashier. The First National Bank of Woodville has a capital stock of $25,000 and is one of the foremost financial institutions of Marshall County. J. T. Ingram is president and S. W. Henry is vice president. The bank got its charter as a national organization in 1905, prior to which time it had been conducted as a private bank by a number of its present stockholders.

Mr. Ayres was one of a family of five children, and he has two brothers and two sisters. Earl Ayres is a merchant in Woodville. Ernest is operating a farm in the vicinity of this town. One sister is the wife of Ollie Beard, a cashier of the Merchants National Bank of Lehigh, Oklahoma, and the other, Aletha, is the wife of a Mr. Luttrell of Lehigh.

Mr. Ayres is a member of the Church of Christ, and of the Oklahoma Bankers Association. He has held various offices in local government and his citizenship is of a high order. he owns a nice orchard near Woodville, and is generally interested in the agricultural enterprise. He has his residence in Woodville.