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SAMUEL C. TIMMONS
Vol. 3, p. 1152

The life story of Samuel C. TIMMONS is one that is inspiring to
contemplate, for it shows the evolution of a man's success by various
strenuous stages from the humble rank of newsboy to the influential
position of bank president. It is one more fascinating version of the
fine American story of perseverance, thrift, industry, ambition: and
these are the stuff of which democracy and the worthiest aristocracy
are made.

One paragraph we must give to a consideration of the life of Mr.
Timmons' father and his immediate family. Josiah Timmons was a native
of Indiana, where he was born in 1820. He entered and was graduated
from the United States Military Academy at West Point. It was
therefore natural that he should become prominent in the Civil war
when that conflict absorbed all the best energies of our nation.
Josiah TIMMONS gave gallant service as a lieutenant, even though he
paid the price of several of the best years of his prime and
thereafter endured the effects of those years of strenuous exertion,
excitement and exposure. In 1860 he had married, in Danville, Ohio,
Miss Elizabeth CLAYTON, daughter of John and Elizabeth Clayton,
natives of Ohio. Elizabeth Clayton Timmons was a woman of beautiful
character, a loyal churchwoman who all her life was a communicant of
the Episcopal Church. She was a worthy helpmeet of the husband who
was forced so soon after their marriage to part from her in response
to the call from the army's front. After the war, Josiah TIMMONS
turned to teaching as the profession by which he and his family must
live. In that worthy but modestly paid work he gave noble service,
his pedagogical life being spent chiefly in Carrolton, Missouri, and
in Kansas. He died at Wichita, in the latter state, in 1898; and his
widow closed her earthly life at the same place on September 20,
1911. Their family had numbered seven children, of whom four survive.
One son, Frank, is now deceased, as are also two daughters. Mary and
Jessie. Minnie Timmons became Mrs. N. P. EVANS, now widowed; Emma is
Mrs. M. J. SHIELDS, of Savannah, Georgia; Druzilla, Mrs. Joseph
MOSBACHER, resides in Coffeyville, Kansas, where her husband is a
prominent merchant.

It was while Josiah Timmons and Elizabeth, his wife, were residents
of Carrolton that the schoolmaster's home was brightened by the
advent of the child who received the name of Samuel C. The date of
his birth was December 16, 1873, and he was one in whom rapid
development of mind and talents was early noted. His was the good
fortune of professional tutelage at home, and such was his progress
that he was permitted to aid in his own support at the early age of
twelve. The size of the young family and the frailty of his father's
health were no discouragement to the ambitious lad, but rather served
as a spur to his best efforts. It was in Wichita, Kansas, that he
first fared forth as wage earner. After three years of this
unpretentious association with newspapers, the alert lad entered the
office of the Wichita Daily Journal, where he swiftly and thoroughly
learned the trade of printing. He spent several years, observing,
from that excellent vantage point, all practical phases of newspaper
production. In 1892 he became manager of the Daily Star of Oklahoma
City. In 1895 he returned to Kansas and in Valley Center he
established a paper which he christened the Index. As both editor and
publisher of this sheet, he remained in Valley Center for three
years. At the end of that time, he purchased The Wichita Star, which
he edited for one year. He then became reporter of The Daily Beacon,
another Wichita newspaper, with which he remained for several years.
In 1905 he bought The Ingersoll Review, of which he had charge for
three years. At the conclusion of that successful period, Mr. Timmons
became interested in Aline and her affairs and purchased The
Chronoscope. Ever since that time he has been one of Aline's most
patriotic citizens and has steadily grown in influence and in the
esteem of his fellow citizens. In 1909 he was appointed postmaster at
Aline, where he held that important and responsible office for the
term of four years. In 1913 he became president of the Bank of Aline,
one of the leading financial institutions of Alfalfa County. He is
also one of the proprietors of Aline's only drug store. It is thus
easily to be seen that, efficient in his several important
capacities, Mr. TIMMONS is really one of the indispensable as well as
leading citizens of Aline.

Mr. Timmons' home life began in 1899. On May 5th of that year, he
was united in marriage with Miss Della MCPHERSON, daughter of Samuel
and Rachel McPherson, of Sedgwick County, Kansas. Mrs. Timmons is a
native of Illinois, where she was born September 18, 1880. She and
her husband are the parents of one child, Margaret Lois, who was born
June 27, 1902, at Valley Center, Kansas.

The TIMMONS family are social leaders in the community. Mr. Timmons
is a popular member of both the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and
of the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons. He is one of those to whom
the citizens of Aline and the surrounding communities look for
leadership in coming growth and progress of this section of Oklahoma.

Typed for OKGenWeb by Donald E. Conley 29 October 1998.