OKGENWEB NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any
format for profit or presentation by any other organization or
persons. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material, must
obtain the written consent of OKGenWeb State Coordinator.

Presentation here does not extend any permissions to the public. This
material can not be included in any compilation, publication,
collection, or other reproduction for profit without permission. Files
may be printed or copied for personal use only.
=====================================================================

CHARLES M. DELZELL
Vol. 3 p. 973

Through a participant in the opening of the Cherokee Strip in 1893,
Charles M. Delzell was not yet qualified by age to secure a
homestead. He was at that time a hard working youth, one of the
mainstays and props of his widowed mother, and while carrying such
responsibilities in advance of his years he had to provide for his
own education and advancement in the world. Few of Oklahoma's pioneer
settlers have gained a success that represents more real
accomplishments and effort than Mr. Delzell, who for many years has
been prominently identified with banking in Alfalfa County and was
one of the organizers and has since been cashier of the Farmers
National Bank of Cherokee.

Though most of his life has been spent either in Kansas or Oklahoma,
he was born in Hersey, Michigan, January 13, 1877. His father, Thomas
T. Delzell, was son of Pennsylvania parents, and Congressman John
Delzell of Pennsylvania is of the same stock. Thomas T. Delzell was a
farmer by occupation, and was one of the early settlers in Osceola
County, Michigan, and for ten years following the Civil war served as
register of deeds in that county. He died at Hersey, Michigan,
February 23, 1881. He was a lifelong member of the Baptist Church. He
made a record of service as a soldier in the Civil war, having
enlisted as a musician, but being detached from the regimental band
and made a bugler in the Ninetieth Pennsylvania Infantry. He was with
that regiment two years until discharged on account of disability. He
participated in many engagements, including the great battle of the
Wilderness, but was never wounded. In 1867 Thomas T. Delzell married
Jennie E. OSBORN. She was born June 29, 1845, a daughter of William
Osborn of Warren, Ohio, which was her birthplace. For several years
before her marriage she had been a teacher, and was principal of the
high school at Lima, Ohio. She is now living at the age of seventy
with a daughter in Los Angeles, California. Charles M. Delzell is the
fourth in a family of five children, two sons and three daughters,
the others being: Katie Estella, born June 10, 1868, was educated in
a college at Newton, Ohio, and in 1888 married Rev. John A. DAVIS, a
minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and they now live at Los
Angeles, their three children being Merrill Delzell, Ralph Emerson,
and Mildred. William Abner, born October 29, 1871, is postmaster at
Klamath Falls, Oregon, and by his marriage in 1897 to Edith May WHITE
has six children, whose names are Marjorie, Thomas W., Dorothy,
Jennie E., William A. and John L. Alice Maude, born February 28,
1875, was married in 1898 to William A. DAVIS, and they live at
Bellingham, Washington, and have two sons, Raymond D. and Russell.
Florence Winifred, the youngest, born October 20, 1880, married in
1902 Albert L. GARRISON, whose father, Col. William Garrison, was a
pioneer in Grant County, Oklahoma, and at one time a member of the
Territorial Council, and they now reside at Snyder, Oklahoma, and
have four children, Helen, William Delzell, Marjorie and Albert Lynn.

In 1885, at the age of eight years, Charles M. Delzell came with his
widowed mother and the other children to a farm in Harper County,
Kansas, near Attica. He and his brother from that time contributed a
large proportion of the means by which the family was supported,
working as farm hands and cowboys in Kansas and in the Indian
Territory. Such work and duties left him little opportunity to attend
school, and though his education was supplied mainly by self study he
was qualified for teaching when twenty years of age. In 1893, at the
age of sixteen, he participated in the opening of the Cherokee Strip,
and later for three years taught school in Grant County. In 1902 Mr.
Delzell became actively identified with banking as clerk in the First
National Bank of Pond Creek, and in the following year was promoted
to assistant cashier. In 1904 he and others organized the Bank of
Goltry and he was cashier of that institution six years. In 1910 the
national bank examiner in charge appointed him liquidating agent for
the First National Bank of Cherokee. While winding up the affairs of
that institution he and his associates at the same time reorganized
the institution under the new name, The Farmers National Bank of
Cherokee, and this bank soon opened its doors with Mr. Delzell as
cashier, a post he has held ever since. This is now one of the solid
and stable institutions among the banks of Northwestern Oklahoma, and
has a surplus of $5,000 and carries deposits aggregating $200,000.
Among other features of its business it is designated as one of the
government holding banks for United States Indian tribal funds.

On February 26, 1903, at Pond Creek, Oklahoma, Mr. Delzell married
Miss Ona C. BUTTS, a daughter of J. D. and Emma (TALLERDAY) Butts.
Mrs. Delzell was born at Elkhart, Indiana, May 19, 1875. Her father
was an early settler in Western Kansas, and came into Oklahoma at the
opening of the Cherokee Strip. At one time he was sheriff of Grant
County four years, and is now president of the Framers National Bank
of Cherokee. Mr. and Mrs. Delzell have one child, Charles Homer, who
was born February 25, 1906, and is now being educated in the Cherokee
public schools.

Mr. Delzell, in addition to his activities as a banker, has had
considerable part in local affairs. He was a member of the
Provisional Board of County Commissioner of Alfalfa County when that
county was first instituted, his office being by virtue of
appointment from the constitutional convention. In 1907 he was
nominated on the democratic ticket for representative from Alfalfa
County, but withdrew from the race before election. In 1916 he
served, by election, as president of group two of the Oklahoma
Bankers' Association. Fraternally he is a Knight Templar Mason and a
member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and with his family
worships in the Methodist Episcopal Church.

Typed for OKGenWeb by: Earline Sparks Barger, December 14, 1998.