Johnston Murray

 

                                                        Johnston Murray

When I was 8 or 9, I went on a field trip with my class to the state capitol, in Oklahoma City. As we were walking down a hall – I believe it was outside the senate chambers – a man walked up to my mother and said, “Hi Jim, how have you been doing?”-  At that time everyone called her “Jim” instead of Wenonah. They talked for a while and then the man walked on.

I asked, “Who was that?”

She replied, “That was the governor, Johnston Murray.” While I stood there with my mouth open, she explained that her brother Homer “Snip” Paul had been a senator, and that she knew a lot of people at the state capitol. There were pictures on the walls of each of the state legislatures, and we found Snip in several of them.

 Snip decided to run for the state legislature in 1926 and he won, much to everyone’s surprise – he was only 20 years old at the time of the election - becoming the youngest person ever elected to the Oklahoma House of Representatives. He was reelected to the House twice after that, and in 1932, ran for the senate and won, becoming the youngest person at that time ever to be elected to the Oklahoma State Senate. 

“Alfalfa” Bill Murray was in his second year as governor in 1932, Snip's first term as a senator, and his son, Johnston, recently divorced from Marion, my violin teacher, was working as a service man for Consolidated Gas Utilities Company in Tonkawa, Oklahoma. By the end of his father’s term as governor he had worked his way up to plant manager.[i]

Wenonah was in school at OU at the time, living with her other brother Haskell, who had a job at the state capitol as head attorney for the School Land Department, a job that Snip got him. Patronage was frowned upon, even then when there were no laws against it, but in the middle of the Depression, politicians practiced it openly. My mother said it was the only way her family survived. 

She didn’t have a very high opinion of “Alfalfa” Bill. She said he was an “uncouth old reprobate.” One day, as she was walking down a street she saw him sitting on the curb, chewing tobacco and spitting into the street. My mother had no patience for people who were slovenly or uncouth. I asked her why Johnston was so different from his father, and she said, “because his mother raised him. Bill had nothing to do with it.” 

Wenonah's brothers, Snip and Haskell, had a different opinion of Bill Murray. Snip had supported his candidacy for governor and later, some of his proposals in the legislature. Haskell told me that one day Murray had called him into his office and asked him to be lenient with the farmers who were delinquent on their loans from the School Land Department. 

I don’t know when Wenonah would have met Johnston Murray, but it was probably around the time his father was governor. She was in school at OU during that time, often at the state capital visiting her brothers. She even dated one of the senators. 

In 1942, the year I was born, Johnston Murray, decided to go to law school, and in 1946 he got his degree and passed the bar. He rose quickly in the party ranks, and in 1950 ran for governor. He didn’t always agree with his eccentric father on issues, but “Alfalfa” Bill supported him anyway. He said that he’d vote for his son “even if he were not related to me,” and that he, “if elected … will be as diplomatic and careful as his mother’s uncle …Otherwise, he is a Murray. ‘A chip off the same block.’” [ii] Johnston’s mother’s uncle was, of course, the dignified Chickasaw Governor, Douglas H. Johnston.  

Murray’s campaign was almost cut short by some dirty politics by his opponent, Bill Coe, who claimed that he had deserted his first wife, Marion, and left her and his son, Johnston Jr. without any support, but she put an end to his claim with this letter, printed in the Daily Oklahoman newspaper, just before the election. 

Dear Son:

            You and I have too long been in the news as a result of half-truths and outright falsehoods for me to remain silent any longer.

            It is absurd for anyone at any time to say that your father, my former husband, Johnston Murray, ever deserted or failed to provide for you. He just doesn’t do that sort of thing. Particularly, it is absolutely false for anyone in public or private life to say that he ever deserted his family.

            I am so sorry that you and I have been so wrongfully brought into the news by Mr. Coe. We both can stand it, and certainly Johnston Murray can stand it too.

                                                                                   Affectionately,

                                                                                  Your mother, Marion[iii] 

Johnston Murray won the election and became the first Oklahoma governor of Native American descent. Murray’s plans to cut government spending were thwarted by the state legislature, and then his second wife, Willie, decided to run for governor, since Oklahoma law prohibits governors from succeeding themselves. 

Willie was kind of interesting in her own right. She had been a concert pianist- Johnston seemed to have a thing for musicians – and while living at the governor’s mansion, hosted weekly open houses, often providing the entertainment. Johnston supported her candidacy, but their relationship went down hill after she was defeated. After a bitter divorce, Johnston was ruined financially - he should have stayed with Marion. But she was probably better off without him. She married again, this time to a violinist named Thede, and they played together in the Oklahoma City Symphony. 

Johnston married again too, to Helen Shutt – I don’t think she was a musician, and they moved to Ft. Worth. He was driving a limousine there when he ran into an old friend from the Oklahoma State legislature, Gene Stipe, who convinced him to return to Oklahoma and practice law, which he did.[iv]

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[i] “Johnston Murray,” Oklahoma City (Oklahoma) Daily Oklahoman, 8 October 1950. 

[ii] James R Scales, Danney Goble, Oklahoma Politics: a History,(Norman, Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press, 1982) 268.

[iii] “Resenting the Distorted Statements Made by Bill Coe, Mrs. Unger Recently Wired Her Son…,” Oklahoma City (Oklahoma) Daily Oklahoman, 23 July 1950.

[iv] Erin Dowell, “Johnston Murray,” Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History Culture,      https://www.okhistory.org.

  

 

"Alfalfa" Bill Murray in Bolivia

 

                                                                           

                                                    Marion Unger Thede

When I was in the fifth grade and had been playing the violin for about a year, I had the good fortune to have as a teacher at our gradeschool, a wonderful lady named Marion Unger. I remember one day she remarked that I would make a good second violin. At this stage of immaturity I became highly offended that I would become anything but a first violin. Mrs. Unger patiently explained to me that it took a lot of talent to listen and fit in with the other parts of the orchestra, and that playing second fiddle was a very important role. As I found out later, Mrs. Unger  played in the Oklahoma City Symphony, and was the principal of the second violin section. 

While I was making a fool of myself acting offended by Mrs. Unger's compliments, my mother, who almost everyone found it easy to talk to, was getting acquainted with her. As it turned out, her name hadn't always been Unger. Her first husband had been Johnson Murray, the son of "Alfalfa" Bill Murray, and they had gotten married just before "Alfalfa" Bill decided to go down to Bolivia. She was 20 at the time. The conditions in Bolivia were primitive. She had to work hard cooking on an open fire and cleaning by hand, while her husband Johnston worked to build living quarters and prepare the fields for planting. Soon she became pregnant. When the baby came, Johnston Jr., "Alfalfa" Bill said with characteristic confidence, "I'll deliver it. How hard could it be?"

Lucky for everyone, Marion's delivery was easy and little Johnston Jr. was strong and healthy. She got out of there as quick as she could though, returning to Oklahoma, where her mother could help with the baby. 

Meanwhile back in Bolivia, the cotton Murray had planted was eaten by locusts, and the brave souls he had taken with him gave up and returned to Oklahoma. He and his son Johnston were still struggling  to bring in a good crop using local workers, to convince the Bolivian government the project was still viable, and to recruit  more pioneers to join him, when war broke out between Bolivia and Paraguay. That was the last straw for Murray's brainchild, and it was all the remaining settlers could do to get out before they were caught in the conflict. "Alfalfa" Bill had sunk all the money he had raised, around $84,000, into the Bolivian project. He and his son Johnston returned home penniless. Johnson worked for a while for Standard Oil in Bolivia and then went to law school. His father, "Alfalfa" Bill, borrowed $42 from the Bank of Tishomingo and ran for governor of Oklahoma. 

Marion got a job teaching to support herself and her son, and she and Johnson Murray never got back together. She continued to teach English, Spanish and violin, and to perform. Over the years she developed an interest in folk music and travelled throughout the state and the country, visiting fiddle players and  collected their tunes. She developed her own notation system for transcribing their styles and in 1969 published a collection of 150 fiddle tunes, The Fiddle Book, under her final name, Marion Thede. The book is still a stand by for would be fiddlers. It's one of my prized possessions. 

Alfalfa Bill Murray and the Chickasaws

 

 

                                                     

                                                             "Alfalfa" Bill Murray

 

I mentioned Bill Murray, 9^th governor of Oklahoma, in my last post, and it reminded me that I know a few more tidbits about him than I included in my brief characterization.

 First of all, Murray owed his prominent place in Oklahoma history to the Chickasaw Indian Tribe, my tribe. He was born in Texas, in 1869 – he was actually older than my grandparents, who was born in 1876 and 77. He was an enterprising young man, and by the time he came to Indian Territory in 1898, he had already earned a college degree in education, passed the Texas state bar, and run for the Texas state senate. In Indian Territory he began farming, started a law practice handling Indian land claims, got acquainted with Douglas Johnson, the Chickasaw Governor, and married his niece, Mary Alice Hearell.  

 At that time the Indian nations’ land had been divided into allotments and distributed to tribal members. Many of the Indians had no concept of the value of their allotments since their tradition was for tribal land to be held in common, so they were easy targets for unscrupulous men who would have them sign over their land for a pittance. Indian children were assigned guardians who would sell their land and squander the proceeds - that happened to my grandfather and his brother - and there were many marriages that lasted only long enough for the husband to obtain an allotment by claiming to be an intermarried tribal citizen[1]. The Chickasaws needed plenty of legal advice to protect their interests.

  

State of Sequoyah

 

When the issue of Oklahoma statehood arose, the tribes petitioned Congress to be admitted to the Union as a separate state, the state of Sequoyah, in honor of the creator of the Cherokee alphabet. I have a map of the proposed state of Sequoyah hanging in my study. The Indians held a constitutional convention. Bill Murray was a delegate, as was my grandfather, William H. Paul[2]. Murray was a vice-president of the convention, and my grandfather was assistant secretary. The constitution was ratified by Indian Territory in a landslide vote of 86%, but the Indians’ quest for statehood failed, partly because the Republican controlled Congress was unwilling to admit two Democratic states, and partly because of racial prejudice against Indians, but when the Oklahoma constitutional convention was held, Bill Murray was elected president, and the Sequoyah constitution was used as a model.

 

                                                                    William H Paul

 

A lot has been made of Bill Murray’s gruff, uncouth manners, and personality, but he was a brilliant lawyer and politician. He was Speaker of Oklahoma’s first legislature, and then served two terms in Congress. After an unsuccessful run a third term, he returned to his farm and his law practice, but, always restless, Murray soon cooked up a scheme to start an agricultural colony in Bolivia. In 1924, he packed up his family and headed for South America.

 

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[1] Angie Debo. And Still the Waters Run, Princeton, NJ,  Princeton University Press, 1940

[2] "Convention of Mock Heroes,” Oklahoma City Daily Oklahoman, 22 Aug. 1905

Walter M. Smith and The Optometry Practice Act of 1937

 

                                                                    Walter M Smith

A couple of years ago I got reacquainted with a childhood friend from Pauls Valley, Mel Smith. As I mentioned in my book, Wenonah’s Story, all during my childhood, my parents and I went to Pauls Valley every other weekend to visit my grandmother, Victoria Paul. We ran errands for her, and took her driving – she usually wanted to go out to the cemetery to take flowers and clean up around the grave sites of our family members, and in the spring we always drove around town to see the iris in bloom.  

While my mother and father were doing what they could for Grandmother, I was left to entertain myself, and that usually included going down the street – nothing in Pauls Valley is very far from anything else – to visit my cousin, Phillip, My uncle Haskell’s son. That’s how I got to know Mel. He was Phillip’s best friend. 

Anyway, I Mel and I hadn’t seen each other since childhood when he showed up at a little talk I gave in Pauls Valley about my book. As it turns out he’s also a history buff, and knows a lot about the history of the region. He actually worked with Mike Tower, who wrote the book, Outlaw Statesman, that I used a lot in researching my family’s history. Mel was good enough to send me pictures of several areas where my family used to live. 

Since then, Mel and I have been exchanging e-mails. Here is one that particularly interested me about a connection between Mel’s father and my uncle, Homer Paul, who was in the Oklahoma state legislature for 22 years. 

Dr. Walter M. Smith & Oklahoma Senator Homer "Snip" Paul 

My father, Walter Melvin Smith, Sr., graduated from the Northern Illinois College of Optometry in Chicago, Illinois in 1933. He returned to Pauls Valley, Oklahoma, where his father Melvin Brice (M.B.) Smith was in the jewelry business.  They came to PV from Cordell in 1924 when my grandfather bought a jewelry store in Pauls Valley. 

After my dad established himself in his Optometric practice he was approached by members of a group of optometrists who solicited his help in establishing a legal basis for the practice of Optometry in Oklahoma.  Apparently their motive for soliciting father's help was the fact he was from Pauls Valley and Homer Paul was as well. As my dad often said (when mentioning Snip as he was termed by family and those who knew him)   "he was the wheel horse" of the Oklahoma legislature.

[21st President Pro Tempore Homer Paul -  Democrat  from Pauls Valley - 20th Legislature from 1945 to 1947.] 

Actually Homer was first elected to the House of Representatives in 1926, serving until 1932, when he ran for the Senate, and won, serving until 1948, when he was finally defeated. He was the youngest person ever elected to the House at the time, and also the senate. When he campaigned for a seat in the House, he hadn’t yet turned 21.   

They asked my father's help in that they wanted him to talk with Snip to see if he would support the passage of new laws governing the practice of Optometry in Oklahoma.  My father said he would if after reviewing their proposals that he believed the legislation would be fair, honest and protective of the public.  After checking things out he agreed to go to Snip's office and approach him about his support of same.  After Snip's personal review of the proposed legislation and finding my father's assurances were true that the legislation would benefit Oklahomans Snip was receptive and agreed to support it. 

He asked my dad to come to the legislative session during which he planned to introduce the matter to the Senate.  He asked my father to sit in the gallery above the floor of the Senate and introduced my dad to the assembly. Following the introduction of the proposed legislation and its subsequent approval, the measure was passed into law. 

My father was appointed by the Governor to be the Secretary of the five member Optometry Board of Examiners that was established by the new law and was reappointed under four subsequent  Governors. My youngest brother Mike has an Optometric practice in Oklahoma  City and told me that the Oklahoma Optometric law has been used as model legislation in several other states. 

There are or have been six optometrists or ophthalmologists in my family.  (Oklahoma (1-OKC, 1-PV, 1-Alva) Texas (Dallas), Colorado (Canon City), and California (Palm Springs)

That's the story.   Mel

 

Since Mel sent me this e-mail I’ve been looking for more information about what the issues were at the time, and what changes were made to the law. All his father told him was that there was an issue with optometrists or people claiming to be optometrists working out of jewelry stores and department stores.  I called Dr. Russell Laverty, Secretary of the Oklahoma State Optometry Board, who referred me to Dr. George Foster, former dean of the Northeastern State College of Optometry, who was kind enough to give me a useful outline and some colorful stories about the history of Optometry in Oklahoma. 

1911: First Optometry Practice Act passed. Licensing standards were established. The law prohibited price advertising of eye exams. This restriction was supported by the  medical association, possibly to prevent competition. This led to the issuing of a warrant for the arrest of two optometrists in Duncan, Oklahoma, for advertising. They escaped into Texas on horseback. 

1923: Price advertising restriction repealed. 

1931: Optometry Practice Act amended. 

1933: Governor (Alfalfa) Bill Murray proposed repeal of Optometry Practice Act but was blocked in the legislature. 

I can’t resist saying a little something about Governor Bill Murray, easily the most colorful governor in Oklahoma history.  He was called “Alfalfa” Bill because he claimed to be the first farmer to grow alfalfa in Oklahoma, but Bill Murray wasn’t really a farmer. He was a lawyer, and a politician. 

Murray moved to Indian Territory in 1898, where he became a prominent attorney, dealing with Indian land claims. After chairing the state constitutional convention in 1906, Murray represented Oklahoma in Congress for two terms. After a failed run for governor, he disappeared into Bolivia where he spent the next 12 years, and $84,000 on a scheme to set up an agricultural colony. In 1930 he  returned to Oklahoma penniless, just in time to run for governor. He borrowed $42 from the Bank of Tishomingo, bought a newspaper, and announced his candidacy, traveling the state, proclaiming his plan to tax the rich and provide jobs for the poor. Murray’s ideas resonated with the struggling farmers and many others hit by the Depression, and he was elected by a landslide.  

Living up to his eccentric image, Murray turned his inauguration into a square dance, with himself as caller. He plowed up the front lawn of the governor’s mansion to grow potatoes for the poor, and he released over 2000 prisoners from state prisons as a cost cutting measure.

In spite of his outlandish behavior, Murray was a shrewd politician. He filled key government positions with loyal allies to protect himself from impeachment, the fate of Oklahoma’s two previous governors. Then he proposed a complete overhaul of the state’s tax system, eliminating property taxes which were drowning the farmers, increasing corporate taxes and taxes on the rich, and creating a tax commission, to improve collections.

Used to dealing with rebellious governors, the state legislature ignored Murray’s proposals, all except for the tax commission, and increased appropriations by $9 million. Murray countered by submitting his plan to the people, but was defeated, probably because it rained the day of the election, and the rural vote turnout was light. As a result, the state sank further and further into debt.  

Defeated by the powers that be, Murray continued to do what he could by executive order. He halted tax sales of farms, nullified Oklahoma City Health Department’s order to stop distribution of food to the poor, and trimmed expenses in the government departments he controlled. His attempt to repeal the Optometry Practice Act in 1933 was probably part of this austerity program, although he had originally signed the bill in 1931.  

1937: Comprehensive Optometry law passed. Included eye exam requirement to drive car. Used as model for other states. 

This 1937 act initiated by Dr. Walter Melvin Smith, my friend Mel’s father, and supported by Homer Paul, my uncle, was a revision of the Optometry Practice laws passed in 1911 and 1931. I couldn’t find any newspaper articles about the act, and there is no record of the senate debates at the time, but I was able to get copies of the legislation. The part about requiring an eye exam to drive a car was probably part of another bill.

The 1937 law made several important changes:

It raised the standards for granting a license, requiring that the candidate be a graduate of a school of optometry, whereas the prior law had recognized apprenticeships. Also it required that the candidate pass a much more comprehensive exam, including basic sciences, physics, chemistry, bacteriology, pathology, general anatomy, psychology, physiology, neurology, as well as optics and skills used in the eye exam, whereas the 1931 law only required knowledge of anatomy of the eyes, laws of optics and refraction, and use of the ophthalmoscope and retinoscope. 

Another change in the 1937 act was to list offences for which a license could be revoked. Whereas the 1931 law only listed fraud, conviction of a crime, unprofessional and unethical conduct, drunkenness, excessive charges, false representation of goods and contagious disease, the amended version prohibited house to house sale of glasses or exams, the employment of an optometrist by a store or company, or practicing under an assumed name, and it gave the optometry board the power to expand these rules at its discretion. 

The 1937 act also repealed a 1931 clause that allowed licensing of someone who had practiced optometry for five years in another state. 

1939: Gov. Phillips introduced legislation to eliminate bd of examiners, but was blocked by the legislature. 

The 1937 Optometry Practice Act was only challenged once in the next 18 years, by another eccentric governor, Leon Phillips. I won’t bore you with another biography, but Governor Phillips was a demagogue. He silenced opponents by hiring investigators to dig up dirt on them.  Like Bill Murray he tried to cut spending, but without Murray’s concern with the poor. He claimed communists were behind FDR’s New Deal, and discontinued programs as soon as their terms expired. He attacked patronage and bureaucracy and tried to eliminate departments that he considered superfluous. His attempt to eliminate the Optometry Board was probably part of this effort.   

The Optometry Practice Act of 1937 stood until 1955, and was a model for other states. By helping get the legislation passed, and by serving on the Board of Examiners for many years, Dr. Walter M Smith was a true pioneer in his field. He deserves recognition by his profession and the pride of his family.

                                                                    

                                                                        Homer Paul