Payne Co.: Stillwater

The Stillwater Gazette

January 31, 1913

DURHAM
Mrs. Malissa Durham was born in Hamilton county, Illinois, September 7, 1861 and died at the family home east of Stillwater, Okla., January 22, 1913, after an illness of six weeks, during which time every possible thing that loving hands and hearts could do was done for this devoted wife and mother, whose entire life was so lovingly given for the benefit or her family's success, advancement and pleasure.
Mrs. Durham's parents moved from Illinois to Kansas in 1876. She united with the Advent church at the age of 16 years, her father [Jacob French, b. Dec. 12, 1808, near Amity, PA] being a minister of the church, but recently she became a member of the Christian church at Stillwater. She was married to A. J. Durham in 1880, moved to Oklahoma in 1889 - a noble pioneer woman settling on their farm at the opening of this country, no one knowing better than she the trials and hardships of those early days. She bore them patiently and bravely. Her time and strength were willingly shared with all her neighbors and friends in their hours of sickness or trouble. She was a good Christian mother, a helpful neighbor, never too busy to lend a hand to those needing assistance. One of the best traits in her character was the tender heart she so unhesitatingly shared with her family and others. There is scarcely a neighbor but could tell you that she came to them in their hour of trial or grief and watched through long hours ministering to the sick or comforting the sorrowing.
The deceased leaves a husband, two sons and four daughters, Samuel Bert in the Philippines, William of Arkansas City, Kansas; Mrs. May Wilde [ Sophronia May Durham] of Terlton; the Misses Pearl [Edna Pearl] and Ferne [Fern Joy], and little Alpha [Sarah Alpha]. Two children have preceded the mother to the better world [Maud (9 days) and Myrtle Durham (6 years - see above photo)]. The family were all with her during her illness, except Samuel B. Durham, the eldest son, who soon after being graduated from the Agricultural and Mechanical college went to the Philippines, where he has for number of years held a position as an instructor in the Agricultural school, consequently was unable to be at his mother's bedside.
Besides the immediate family, there are brothers and sisters left to mourn her loss, but they mourn not as one without a hope.
The funeral service was conducted by Rev. L. C. Ilsley, whose remarks were a tribute to the mother of this home. A quartet sang "Nearer My God to Thee" and "Asleep in Jesus." E. J. Smith sang very effectively, as a solo, the deceased's favorite hymn, "Beautiful Isle of Somewhere." The friends in both city and country showed their sympathy and love by their presence and the tokens of the rarest of white carnations, narcissus, pink lillies and choice ferns which completely covered the beautiful casket. The pall-bearers chosen from the daughter's classes in college, carried very tenderly, the flower laden casket to its last resting place.
Those in attendance from abroad besides the family were Mrs. Durham's sisters, Mrs. Cora Young, of Tulsa, and Mrs. Elizabeth Martin, of Arkansas City. Somewhere the sun is shining, Somewhere the song-birds dwell; Hush ! Then, thy sad repining, God lives, and all is well.
The many friends all over the county and elsewhere extend their deepest sympathy to Mr. Durham and family in this sad hour, and may the guiding hand of this mother lead them to meet her in the better land.

Note: [Malissa's Father, Jacob French, b. Dec 12, 1808, near Amity, PA; d. Dec. 14, 1880, Arkansas City, Kansas; married (1st) Sarah Elizabeth LeFevre. Children were Naomi; Jelia Ann; Minor; Asa; Charles Lemuel. married (2nd) Dica McMann, widow of Levi Baker. Children were Elizabeth; Jacob; Malissa Emaline (Durham); Willaim Samuel; Ama and Ida (twins); Cora; Sophronia. Malissa's father was a Baptist preacher, but late in life became an Adventist. In 1849 he traveled overland from Kosciusco County, Indiana, to California, in search of gold.]
Submitted by

Jack Durham [email protected]
http://myweb.cableone.net/4jdurham/durham/family.html

March 6, 1914

DURHAM
Andrew Jackson Durham died at the family home, east of Stillwater, Saturday, February 28, 1914, at 2 o'clock a.m., after an illness of several weeks, aged 58 years, 7 months, and 10 days. The funeral was held at the home Sunday at 2 o'clock. Interment was made in Fairlawn cemetery. Mr. Durham was a native of Kentucky and came to Oklahoma at the time of the opening in 1889 and has lived in Payne county since then. Six children survive him, Bert S. [Samuel Bert], William J., Mrs. C. A. Wilde [Sophronia May], Mrs. R. O. Baird [Edna Pearl] and the Misses Fern and Altha [Alpha]. All his children are here except Bert, who is in the Philippines. Mr. Durham was a good man, honest, and upright, respected by his neighbors and one who will be greatly missed by his children and his friends. His wife preceded him into the great beyond January 21, 1913 [Listed as January 22, 1913 in Malissa Durham's obituary].
Submitted by
Jack Durham [email protected]
http://myweb.cableone.net/4jdurham/durham/family.html

Dec. 14, 1923 Friday

FERNANDES
Mrs. Clara FERNANDES, 73, died at her home in Stillwater, Ok, Saturday morning, December 8, 1923. Funeral services were held at the home, 309 West street, Sunday afternoon at 1:30 o’clock, conducted by the Rev. Allen S. Divis. The body was taken to Guthrie for interment. Mrs. FERNANDES was the mother of Miss Grace FERNANDES, an instructor in the school of home economics at Oklahoma Agricultural and Mechanical college. Mrs. FERNANDES was an early resident of Stillwater, coming here with her family in 1902. A few years later the family moved to Guthrie, where Mr. FERNANDES died. Two years ago Mrs. FERNANDES returned to Stillwater with her daughter.
Mrs. FERNANDES was born in Indiana, July 20, 1850.
Submitted by Lawrence E. Powell Jr. [email protected]

July 5, 1938

Stillwater Daily Press, pg.1

Fred W. HEMME born June 18, 1853 and died July 3, 1938. He was the husband of Mary A. Roseman Hemme.  Mary was born in 1852 and died Dec. 22, 1931

August 17, 1952

Stillwater News Press

DURHAM
A. & M.'s Pasture Specialist, Sam Durham, Dies in Tulsa
Sam Durham, a man who has done as much for farm people of Oklahoma as any person during the past 29 years through his statewide pasture improvement program, died Saturday morning at 8 a.m. in a Tulsa hospital at the age of 69 [born in 1883]. Funeral services will be held at the Strode Chapel, Monday at 3 p.m.
Widely Known
Durham has been a long-time employee of the Extension Service as pasture specialist and is widely known throughout Oklahoma. As Shawnee Brown, Extension Director, has so aptly said, "He is one of the men to whom the popole of the state owe a deep debt of gratitude. As we drive over the state, we see green pastures now growing in the fields that were not so long ago covered with rag weeds, poor jo, and tickle grass.
Sam was a pioneer in pasture improvement work. He had an inquiring mind and solved many of the secrets of how plants and soils behave. Through his long years of experience he developed pasture building practices that have enabled farmers and ranchers to restore thousands of acres of worn out land to productive use. A higher level of living for thousands of Oklahoma farm and ranch families can be attributed to the work of Sam Durham. Thousands of good pastures of grass, clover, and fertile land are a monument to his service."
Attended A. & M.
Sam was well qualified for his work as Pasture specialist. His academic training included a bachelor of science degree from Oklahoma A&M in 1904, with a major in dairying. He did graduate work at Kansas State College in Manhattan, Kansas, and received a master of science degree from the University of the Philippines, Manila, Philippine Islands.
But probably more instrumental in his successes in promoting pasture work was his uncanny knack of gathering information from experiments and demonstrations of actual farmer pasture development and passing it along for others to share.
Did Pasture Work
Prior to his work as extension pasture specialist he worked with the Dairy department of New Mexico A&M college. State College, New Mexico. He was chief of the Animal Husbandry department of the University of the Philippines from 1909 until 1914, and did dairy and pasture work with the Banker's Association in Mississippi for about ten years, where he laid the basis for dairy improvement and pasture work that has resulted in an outstanding dairy area.
He began his pasture work with the Extension Service back in 1929 when he was appointed as District Dairy Agent, devoting part of his time to pasture. His appointment as Extension pasture specialist came soon after.
His first year's activities listed four major phases of pasture work: (1) establishing acre demonstrations in all sections of the state, and fertilizing these plots. (2) holding pasture demonstrations on these plots. (3) keeping and publishing exact results obtained and the amount of grazing furnished and (4) furnishing county agents with condensed informationfor their use in furthering pasture work in their counties.
Personal Service
From that beginning the pattern of his work changed but little. As the demand for his services increased he necessarily changed his technique from the individual demonstration or the personal service type and adapted techniques that would spread his work to more people.
His heart was in pasture work and he lived it every day. He was equally at home in a share cropper's cabin or talking pastures with the larger land owners of the state. His services were in demand to the extent that he relinquished much of what should have been his personal time for service to others in building pastures. Came Here in 1889
Durham moved to Oklahoma in 1889 with his father, Andrew Jackson Durham. They staked out a claim two miles east of Stillwater, where they lived for a number of years. Durham rode horseback into Stillwater to attend A&M until he received his degree in 1904.
He had served on several boards and committees during his career and served five years on the selective service appeals board for district One, for which he received a commendation from President Roosevelt and then governor of Oklahoma, Robert S. Kerr.
Durham is survived by his wife, Pearl, of the home address in Yale; sons, Jack [Buford Jackson Durham], Wichita, Kansas; Sam, [Samuel Bert Jr.] Roswell, New Mexico; Ed, [Orlo Edwin Durham] Stillwater; one daughter, Mrs. Bob Riley [Lois Fern "Polly" Durham], Enid; Three sisters, Mrs. C. A. Wilde [Sophronia May Durham], Catoosa, and Fern [Fern Joy] Durham, Stillwater, and Mrs. Don Leister [Sarah Alpha Durham], Stockton, California; One brother, Will Durham, Stillwater, and several grandchildren.
Submitted by
Jack Durham [email protected]
http://myweb.cableone.net/4jdurham/durham/family.html

August 11, 1970 Tuesday

FERNANDES
Grace Charlotte Grace FERNANDES Dies:
Service Set Wednesday
First Presbyterian Church Minister James Struthers will officiate at 2 p.m. Wednesday funeral services for Grace Charlotte FERNANDES, 88, a Hearthstone Resident who died Monday, Aug. 10, 1970 at the nursing home.
The services will be held in Strode Funeral Home Chapel and friends may call at the funeral home until noon Wednesday. Burial will be in Summit View Cemetery, Guthrie, at 4 p.m. that day. Miss FERNANDES was born in Marion County, Indiana Aug. 17, 1881, the daughter of D.H. and Grace Clara FERNANDES. A member of the First Presbyterian Church here, she is survived by four cousins of Dallas and Chicago. In 1956, she retired as advisor with the State Department of Welfare. Before being appointed to that position, she was associate professor of sociology at OSU and had been employed here since 1923 with the division of home economics, the experiment station in the department of home economics research and with the department of sociology. She was an OSU alumnus, receiving the bachelor’s degree in 1923 and master’s in 1924. She had spent two years working toward the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the University of Chicago, where she placed emphasis on the study of economic and social problems of the family. In addition to her affiliation with the American Association of University Women, which covered the entire period since the branch was organized in Stillwater, she had been cited in American Woman, and was a member of Delta Kappa Gamma, Phi Kappa Phi, Kappa Delta Pi, Omicron Nu and Pi Gamma Nu. Her social affiliations included Alpha Delta Pi, PEO, and DAR.
Submitted by Lawrence E. Powell Jr. [email protected]

The News Press

Thursday, March 4, 1999

Marian Elizabeth CHADA
Marian Elizabeth Chada, 87, died Tuesday, March 2, 1999, in Stillwater Medical Center.
Services will be March 5, in First Presbyterian Church with Dr. B. Gordon Edwards officiating.
Interment will be in Sunset Memorial Gardens under direction of Strode Funeral Home.
Mrs. Chada was born March 10, 1911, in Lyons, Iowa, to Frank Vincent and Ella Minnie (OUTZEN) WILLIHNGANZ. She married Harvey L. Chada on April 11, 1945, in Clinton, Iowa. They lived in Muscatine, Iowa, until 1949, when he was transferred to Weslaco, Texas. They moved to Denton, Texas, in 1951 and to Stillwater in 1961.
Mrs. Chada belonged to the Order of the Eastern Star, Good Cheer Extension Club, Carrousel Club, Sew and So Club and Second Mile Sewing CLub of First Presbyterian Church and was a 25-year member of the Stillwater Medical Center Auxiliary.
She was predeceased by her parents; her husband on Nov. 29, 1982; a brother, Vincent Willihnganz; and two sisters, Helen Willihnganz Ocken and Pauline Willihnganz.
Survivors include a son Robert L. Chada, Sr. and his wife Tammie, of Guthrie; Three grandchildren, Robert L. Chada Jr. , Evan V. H. Chada and J'Koa Chada ; nephews; and a niece.

Submitted & Researched by Tammie Chada [email protected]
http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~tammie/sur.htm

May 19, 1999

Stillwater Daily Newspress

Vivian Minnie (COOK) AKINS died at her home in Stillwater, Okla. on Monday May 17, 1999.
Services will be held in Strode Chapel on Friday May, 21, 1999 with Jerry KRUCKENBURG officiating. Burial will be in Grandview Cemetery in Tahlequah, Oklahoma at 3:00 p.m.
Mrs. AKINS was born Dec. 31, 1923 in Tahlequah, Oklahoma to Sam Wilburn and Rosa Bell (HANCOCK) COOK. She attended schools in Tahlequah and Bartlesville, Oklahoma.
On Aug. 28, 1939 she married James Robert SIMS who died in 1949. She married Herman Cornell "Carl AKINS in June 1953 in Tulsa, Okla. Mr. AKINS died in 1988.
In 1963 Mrs. AKINS moved to Enid, Okla. where she remained until 1984 at which time she moved to Stillwater, Okla. In addition to her husbands she was preceded in death by one son Jerry James SIMS, three brothers, Murriel Leo COOK, Donald Rae COOK and Marion Park COOK, two sisters, one grandson, Carl Dean DWINELL, one granddaughter Rhonda Kay WOODS, and one Great granddaughter Ashley.
Survivors include, three (actually only 2) sons, Wendell Robert SIMS of OK, Ira Earl SIMS of OK and 6 daughters, Mrs. Stella SIMS of Calif., Mrs. Naomi SIMS EUBANKS of OK. Leola SIMS CHOATE of OK. Mrs. Sandra WARRINGTON of OK. Mrs. Roberta SIMS BABB of OK. and Mrs. Glenda Sue SIMS WARREN of KS. 45 Grandchildren, 10 Great grandchildren, four brothers, Samuel Wilburn COOK, Jr. of Miami, Ok. Carl Eugene COOK of Okla. City, Ok., Charles Luther COOK of Stillwater, Ok. and William Arthur COOK of Grand Prairie, Tx. Two sisters, Mrs Ruth Ann COOK WHITE of Neb. and Mrs. Betty Jean COOK TAUTFEST of  OK.
Pallbearers are grandsons, David DENNIS, Murl Ray MEDLEY, Jr. Robert DWINELL Wayne Eldon MEDLEY, Steven DITTMEYER and Billy Joe DWINELL Honorary pallbearers are Gene BABB and Ray BABB, Jr.
Submitted by Bill Cook [email protected]