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MAURICE E. BIVENS
Vol. 5, p. 1852
Book has photo

The present mayor of Vici, Oklahoma, is a man who has been engaged
in the mercantile business in this region for the past fifteen years.
It was not until the year 1911, however, that he established a place
of business in this town, and when the enterprise at Vici was well
under way Mr. Bivens withdrew from his mercantile activities in the
towns of Seiling and Cestos, since which time he has confined his
interests to the upbuilding of the business here. Mr. Bivens has been
successful in the field of merchandising to which he has devoted
himself, and his present place of business is a center for trading in
hardware, implements and furniture. As one of Vici's leading business
men he is well entitled to the prominence he has won, and as mayor of
the town he is rightfully regarded as the first man in the community.

Maurice E. Bivens was born in Madison County, Illinois, on November
11, 1874, and he is the son of Charles N. and Martha (MCGILVERY)
Bivens. The father was of Scotch-Irish parentage and the mother
Scotch, Welsh and English. Charles N. Bivens was born in Madison
County, Illinois, and he died in Denver, Colorado, in 1888. He spent
his life in Madison County up to the year 1880, when he went to
Denver, unaccompanied by his wife, but in 1884 the family joined him
and located in Burden, Cowley County, Kansas, where Mrs. Bivens yet
lives. Mr. Bivens went to Denver in search of health, and died there
in 1888. While resident in Madison County and Denver he served as a
policeman, and while in Denver he also conducted a cigar factory for
some time. He was a veteran of the civil war, and served in Company
K., Eightieth Illinois volunteer Infantry for three years. He saw
much of the less attractive side of war, and was in action in many
important engagements of the long conflict. Mr. Bivens was a church
member all his life, and was identified with a number of the more
prominent fraternal organizations.

In Illinois he was married to Martha MCGILVERY, who was born in that
state in 1850. She was the daughter of Martin McGilvery, who
emigrated from Scotland in young manhood and settled in Madison
County, where he spent the remainder of his life as a farmer and
stockman. He was a man of many sterling qualities and he was a leader
in his community as long as he lived. Coming into Illinois in its
pioneer days he did his full share in shaping the destinies of
Madison County, and his influence on that section of the state is
felt today in the progressive spirit that has ever marked its life.

To Charles N. and Martha (McGilvery) Bivens were born five children,
two of whom, daughters, died in infancy. Laura May, the eldest,
married John BURCHELL, a farmer, and she now lives in Oklahoma City,
Oklahoma. The second child was Maurice E., of this review. Arthur,
the youngest, lives on his homestead farm in the vicinity of Cestos,
Oklahoma, and is a prosperous farmer.

After the death of Mr. Bivens in 1888 his widow married Edmond E.
RHODES, a Kentuckian, and two children have been born to them, H. Ray
Rhodes, who is associated in business with his half brother, Maurice
E. Bivens, the subject, and Mabel, who died in infancy.

Mr. Bivens as a boy had such educational advantages as usually fall
to the lot of a country boy, and it might be said that he had no
actual schooling after he was sixteen years old. However, he has in a
larger sense gone to school all his life, for it is in the great
school of experience that he has had his best training. After he left
his books he applied himself to farming in Cowley County, Kansas,
where the family then resided, and he was there until the latter part
of 1897, when he came to Dewey county, Oklahoma, and filed on a
homestead claim of 160 acres near the Town of Cestos. He lived on
that place until 1900, when he proved title thereto. Mr. Bivens still
owns the land, which is steadily increasing in value, and which lies
three miles east and a half-mile south of Cestos.

In 1901 Mr. Bivens engaged in the mercantile business in the Town of
Cestos with a Mr. INGLE as his business partner. They prospered, as
the result of good management and a natural tact for the economical
administration of a small business house, both men being fortunate in
their possession of that invaluable quality, and as time went on they
established branch houses in Seiling and Vici. They broadened their
lines from time to time, until they carried very complete stocks in
hardware, farm implements and furniture. The Vici branch was
established in 1911, and the growth of the business at this point
broadened so rapidly that Mr. Bivens decided to discontinue the
stores at Cestos and Seiling, so that the Vici establishment is the
only one now controlled by Mr. Bivens. The firm is called M. E.
Bivens & Company, and beside himself it includes his mother and his
half-brother, H. R. Rhodes.

This enterprise is undeniably one of the most successful in the
county, and it draws its patronage from the counties of Dewey, Ellis
and Woodward. Splendid business principles have been the rock on
which the house has made its stand, and its growth has been sure and
steady. The house has the confidence of the public and its patronage
follows as a natural sequence.

In 1912 Mr. Bivens became mayor of Vici and he is still serving in
that office. He has proved himself to be capable and wide-minded
citizen, equipped in every way to guide the actions of the city
council, and in his administration of local affairs he has made an
excellent record for himself. The same sturdy qualities that have
spelled success for him in his business career have entered largely
into his work as mayor of Vici, and the results have been credible to
him and invaluable to the city.

Mr. Bivens is a socialist in the matter of his politics and he is a
member of the Christian Church. He has long served the local church
as deacon and elder, and while at Cestos he was superintendent of the
Sunday school for four successive terms. He is a Mason, with member
of Cestos Lodge No. 80, Independent Order of Odd Fellows. Other
business connections are with the Home Investment Company and the
Aetna Insurance Company, in both of which he is a stockholder.

In June 1904, Mr. Bivens was married to Miss Esther GATES; daughter
of G. W. Gates, now living retired in Orange, California. They were
married in Seiling, then the home of the Gates family. Three children
have been born to them. Martha Euleta was born November 26, 1905;
Arthur Lewis on September 5, 1907, and Randall Ray on August 5, 1909.
All three attend the Vici High School, and they are popular and
prominent young people in their circles. The family is prominent
socially in Vici, and has many friends.

Transcribed for OKGenWeb by Kathy Bridges, 27 July 1999.

SOURCE: Thoburn, Joseph B., A Standard History of Oklahoma, An
Authentic Narrative of its Development, 5 v. (Chicago, New York: The
American Historical Society, 1916)