Joseph A. Innis. The
present efficient incumbent of the office of county surveyor of
Woodward County has served consecutively in this position since 1900,
and is one of the sterling pioneers and honored and influential
citizens of the county, where he established his residence at the
time when this section was thrown open to white settlement, as a part
of the historic Cherokee Strip, or Outlet. Mr. Innis is the owner of
valuable farm property in the county and has been one of the valiant
and resourceful men who hate been foremost in the development of
Woodward County along both civic and industrial lines.
On the homestead
farm of his parents, in Ripley County, Indiana, Joseph A. Innis was
born on the 8th of May, 1861, and he thus came into the world about
the time when his native land was plunged into the vortex of
fratricidal war. He is a son of James and Sarah (Runner) Innis, both
natives of the Hoosier state, and representatives of sterling pioneer
families of that commonwealth. James Innis was born in Ripley County,
Indiana, in 1832, and at the time of his death, in 1901, he was a
resident of the Village of May, Woodward County, Oklahoma, his entire
active career having been one of close and successful identification
with the basic industries of agriculture
and stock growing, though in his youth he served for a time
as a teacher and a civil engineer. He first came to what is now the
State of Oklahoma in 1887, but after remaining for a time in the
section long designated as No Man’s Land, which included the present
County of Beaver. He thus became a resident of Oklahoma even before
the territory of this name had been created from the original Indian
Territory. His son, Joseph A., subject of this review, had preceded
him to this frontier region by about a year. The marriage of James
Innis to Miss Sarah Runner was solemnized in 1853, and Mrs. Innis
died in what is now Beaver County, Oklahoma, in 1889, the year that
the new territory was thrown open to settlement. She was born in 1833
and was a daughter of David Runner, who immigrated from Germany and
became a pioneer settler in Indiana. Of the children of James and
Sarah (Runner) Innis the eldest is Milford Taylor, who was born in
1859; Joseph A., of this sketch, was the second in order of birth;
John Newton was born in 1863; Eward was born in 1867 and died in
1869; James D. was born in 1870; William Isaac in 1873; Robert E. in
1878; and Archibald D. in 1882. All save one of the children are
living.
Joseph A. Innis was
reared and educated in his native state, where he was reared to the
sturdy discipline of the home farm and made good use of the advantages
afforded in the public schools of the locality and period. In 1884,
as a young man of twenty-three years, he came to the West and
established his residence in Barber County, Kansas, as a pioneer of
that section of the Sunflower state. In 1886 he came to the No Man’s
Land of the present State of Oklahoma, and in that section of the
Indian Territory he became a pioneer agriculturist and Stock grower.
He there continued operations until the Cherokee Strip was thrown
open to settlement in 1893, when he participated in the rush into the
new country, and entered claim to a homestead in what is now Woodward
County. He vigorously instituted the reclamation and improvement of
this property and on his land was eventually established the now
thriving Village of May, of which he was virtually the founder, and
which was named in honor of the only daughter of his first marriage.
Mr. Innis developed
his land into one of the well improved and valuable farms of Woodward
County and there he continued to maintain his home until 1900, when
he was elected county surveyor and removed to the City of Woodward,
judicial center and metropolis of the county. He had gained broad and
practical experience as a civil engineer in the days of his youth,
and his technical facility has been reinforced by careful study, so
that he is eminently qualified for the important office which he has
held consecutively since the year noted, the popular estimate placed
upon his official services being indicated by his re-election at
successive intervals of two years. He has done a large volume of
important surveying work in the county and has had supervision also
of much other civil engineering, of even more technical order. He
still retains ownership of his farm, is significantly vital and
progressive in his civic attitude, is always ready to give his
co-operation in the furtherance of measures and enterprises advanced
for the general good of the community, and is a citizen who is not
only one of the well known pioneers of this section of the state, but
also one whose circle of friends is limited only by that of his
acquaintances. He is a stalwart advocate of the
cause of the republican party, is affiliated with the Independent
Order of Odd Fellows, and both he and his wife hold membership in the
Methodist Episcopal Church, South.
At Butler, Missouri,
on the 2nd of August, 1881, Mr. Innis wedded Miss Mary Maple, who was
born in Bates County,
that state, in 1864, a daughter of Jehu and Harriet (Fuller) Maple,
and she died on the 23rd of April, 1888, soon after the family home
had been established in what is now Beaver County, Oklahoma, and
about one month after the birth of her only daughter, the three
children who survive her being: Harry B., born in 1883; Asa J., born
in 1885; and Mary Prudence, born March 11, 1888.
On the 23rd of June,
1904, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Innis to Miss Etta C.
Strong, who was born in Parke County, Indiana, on the 21st day of
August, 1877, and who is a daughter of John and Mary (Jones) Strong,
likewise natives of that county. Mr. and Mrs. Innis have five
children, whose names and respective dates of birth are here noted:
Joseph T., March 9, 1905; Eva May, December 13, 1907; Charles T.
Bruce, November 29, 1909; Lester Gail, February 6, 1913; and Crystal
Elnora, February 14, 1915.