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JOHN A. WIMBERLY
1865-1933
John A. Wimberly, the subject of this sketch, was born in Henry
County, Tennessee, April 20, 1865, and died at the Ponca City hospital,
Oct. 24, 1933. The immediate cause of his death was pneumonia, al-
though he had been in poor health for several years. He was the young-
est of five children, and while he was yet a small boy the family moved
to Illinois where he was reared and where he received his education.
When he had reached the years of self-assertion the lure of the West
induced him to migrate to western Kansas, where he loated and
engaged in farming with an older brother in 1882. When the talk of
opening Oklahoma to settlement, and when Captain David Payne was
carrying on his aggressive campaign, he too, imbibed the boomer spirit
but was not old enough at that time to file on public land. When the
proclamation of President Harrison was issued opening Oklahoma to
settlement, April 22, 1889, young John Wimberly was on the line waiting
for the big rush for homesteads. He was a real 89er and was fortunate
enough to locate a quarter section of land in what is now Kingfisher
county.
He opened up and put in cultivation his homestead and made that
his place of residence more than ten years. His home was first in
Canadian county but a change of the county lines made him a resident
of Kingfisher county. In fact, his farm was near Kingfisher and he
was recognized as a Kingfisher man.
He was united in the bonds of marriage to Miss Martha J. Gilhan,
Jan. 1, 1890. To this union four children were born, two of whom, with
their mother survive. The children living are Miss Martha Wimberly,
a school teacher at Webb City, Oklahoma and Mrs. Fern Saxon, of
Eureka Springs, Arkansas.
The Shidler Review of October 26, states: "The funeral services
for John A. Wimberly were conducted at the Presbyterian church in
Shidler by Rev. Percy Nickless of Ponca City (the pastor under whom
he professed his religious faith, and who baptized him a number of
years ago) the auditorium of the church being packed to overflowing
by his old friends and neighbors, and huge floral tributes attested the
high degree of esteem in which he was held by all who knew him.
Following the services the body was taken to Pawhuska where interment
was made in the family lot by the side of a daughter, who preceded
him across the Great Divide a number of years ago."
But few men were more closely identified with the history and
development of the Territory of Oklahoma than John A. Wimberly.
When he arrived in '89 he was young, ambitious and public spirited.
He took great interest in the political organization of the new Territory
and was always identified with the Republican party. At the first
election for members of the Territorial legislature, he was elected to
the House from Canadian county. Of the two other members from
the same county, one was a populist and the other a democrat. Political
lines were not closely drawn, personal popularity of the candidate and
local interest determined the results. While he was the youngest
member of either house, yet he was soon recognized as a man of