Pioneer Genealogical Society - Ponca City, Oklahoma

Additional Burials in or near Kay County, Oklahoma

Contributed by Loyd Bishop

John H. Bowman, one of our oldest and best known citizens, died at his home on South Second Street at 11:30 a.m. today, after a long illness. John H. Bowman was born in Jackson County, Indiana 71 years ago. He served through the civil war in the 67th Indiana Infantry. At the close of the war, he was married and in 1884 removed to Arkansas City, Kansas, where he remained until the opening of this country to settlement, when he came here in the run located on a quarter section, now embraced in the Shelby tract, at the northwest edge of Ponca City, which he afterwards lost in contest proceedings. He has resided here continuously since the settlement.
A W. Davis passed away Monday morning, July 29 (sic), 1901.
Mr. Davis was born in New York state, Dec. 29, 1837, and moved with his parents to Michigan when about four years of age, and remained there until grown to manhood. He lived several years in Ottawa, Illinois, and when the civil war broke out he enlisted in Co. K of the 3rd Reg. Ill. Cav. Volunteers. Newkirk Republcan, July 25(?), 1901
David Walter Goldsmith 92, the next to the last Civil war veteran in Noble county, died Tuesday morning at his home in Billings. oldsmith enlisted in the 15th Iowa Commandery 1 at the age 18. He was a member of the G. A. R. honorary member of the American Legion, and as initiated in the I. O. O. F. in 1866 and was member of the Rebekah lodge in Billings and the Tonkawa encampment No. 33.

Charles F. Klinger, 94, last member of the G. A. R. in Ponca City, died late Sunday night at the home of his son, Fred, four and one-half miles west of the city. Born in Prisen, Germany in 1940 (sic) Klinger came to America when he was 14 years old, living in New York, Wisconsin, and Illinois before coming to Ponca City early in the century. While living in Illinois, Klinger enlisted in the 12th Illinois Cavalry, serving with Frank Watson and J. T. Martin, late members of the Ponca City G. A. R. post. He served with the federal forces from 1861 till the end of the Civil war, taking part in the battles of Gettysburg and Antietam (sic) At Gettysburg, Klinger was slightly wounded and had his horse shot from under him.
William A. Leech, whose death and burial occurred during the past week at Newkirk, lived to be 80 years and 9 months old, although he was left for dead on the Cedar Mountain Va., battlefield, and remained on the field three days before it was discovered that he was alive. Later on May 3, 1863 he was again wounded and taken prisoner during the battle of Chancellorsville, receiving wounds from which he never recovered and which were the cause of his being discharged from the service in April, 1864. He had enlisted at Darlington, Wis. Just seven days after Ft. Sumpter was fired on, in the Third Wisconsin infantry. He was in the service over four years, was twice wounded, twice taken prisoner, and was confined both in Libby and Bell Island prisons. He came to Oklahoma when the Cherokee Strip was opened in 1893 and homesteaded on a claim near Kildare, this county, but moved into Newkirk about six years ago.
William McCaig was a Captain with the 14th Illinois Volunteers, and was wounded in the Battle of Shiloh. At the time of his death in December 1924, McCaig was living with his only son, William, Jr., in Oklahoma City. Captain McCaig’s body was returned to Gill Mortuary in Ponca City for funeral services. Born near Cornwell, Ontario, Canada on February 25, 1839, McCaig moved with his family to Ogle County, Illinois. McCaig seemed to be a pioneer, after the war he took a freighter to Laramie, Wyoming where he worked in the lumber camps. He was next called by “gold fever” to Colorado, and worked as a timekeeper during the construction of the first transcontinental railroad for union Pacific. The Land rush of 1893 brought him to Oklahoma. Mr. McCaig was interred near his old home in Elmwood, Nebraska
William R. Reynolds served during the Civil War as a Sergeant with Company H, 41st Missouri Militia. Born in Crab Orchard, Kentucky, on 22 June 1835. He moved with his parents in 1854 to Missouri. There he married Jane Bristol there on April 28, 1859. He and his family removed to Emporia, Kansas in 1873, and in 1907 came to Ponca City to live with his daughter, Mrs. Rufus R. Moon. Left to mourn Reynolds when he died on June 8, 1920 were six sons one daughter. Reynolds obituary did not state in which cemetery he was interred; possibly he was taken back to Emporia, Kansas and buried beside his wife who died there in 1878.

Benjamin H. Riggs, 86-year-old Civil war veteran, who died at Princeton, Mo., Thursday from injuries he received in an automobile accident near that city Wednesday, will be held at 2:30 o’clock Sunday afternoon from the chapel of the Gill funeral home. The Rev. Cornelius Bowles, pastor of the Baptist church, will officiate. The body will arrive Friday night or Saturday morning, Gill said.Riggs had made is home here and in Kaw City for a number of years. He is survived by seven children, two of whom, John Riggs and Nora Simmons live here. Another daughter, Mrs. Anna Cain lives in Kaw City. Mr. and Mrs. Johns Riggs who went to Princeton Thursday, are accompanying the body home.

Daniel F. Stiles died in Oklahoma City on September 11, 1900. Stiles was born in Massachusetts in 1841, and was with a volunteer army from the District of Columbia. Stiles was a career military man. He was commissioned a Second Lieutenant in 1867 and was promoted eventually to Colonel. In the early 1870s he was stationed in Oklahoma at Fort Sill and Fort Reno. In 1889 he was transferred from his post in Colorado to Oklahoma where he acted as Provost Marshall during the period following the opening of the Unassigned Lands. In 1893, he retired from the military, and staked a claim that became part of the town site of Ponca City. His claim was contested but after a litigation of a few years was settled in his favor. At the time of this death on, he was disposing the greater part of the land to lot claimants. The “Stiles Block” building on East Grand Avenue was under construction, also. He was married to Margaret and they had two sons, Charles and George. It is not certain that the Stiles family ever lived in Ponca City, in 1900 they resided in Oklahoma City. However, there is no doubt of his influence on Ponca City history. He is probably buried in Oklahoma City.
J. C. Thomas was born on 22 December 1836 in Wood County, Ohio, not far from Toledo. He died at his residence in Ponca City on December 6, 1895. During the Civil war, he served with Battery G, 21 Ohio Light Artillery. He left Ohio in March 1877 and went to Kansas where he resided until the opening of the Cherokee Strip. A wife and four children survived him. The remains of Mr. Thomas were interred in Parker Cemetery, Arkansas City, Kansas.
James Whitewater was a full blood Otoe and an influential leader with the Otoe-Missouria Tribe often traveling with delegations to Washington, D. C. to negotiate with the federal government about tribal issues. Born in the 1830s, probably in Missouri, Whitewater was a Corporal with Company B, 13th Kansas Infantry. After the war, he had some trouble with the law and served several years in the penitentiary before being pardoned by President Benjamin Harrison. Whitewater died on October 1, 1899, at the Otoe Agency in Noble County. He is buried in the cemetery at the Agency.