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REV. L. W. MARKS
Vol. 3, p. 1882

In the little City of Edmond, L. W. MARKS is distinguished for his work as minister, and also for his successful administration of the municipality in the office of mayor up to April, 1915. Perhaps the most important work by which Mr. Marks will deserve the gratitude of future generations has been that of historical secretary of the State Baptist Convention. The religious activities of the old Indian Territory cannot be passed over without robbing the history of that country of much of the romance that has made it inviting. The minister, of many denominations, was closely identified with the annals of the Five Civilized Tribes. Probably no man of recent years has done more toward revealing the lives of minister-missionaries in that region than Mr. Marks. In his position already named he has for the past eleven years delved into the lives of many early missionaries of the Baptist Church in Oklahoma. From what he brought out he has produced "L. L. Smith of Oklahoma, a Man of God on the Frontier," a little book that has been generally circulated over the state. He has also written, down to 1880, the most complete account of the Baptist Church in Oklahoma. His source of inspiration for the data of this manuscript was Dr. J. S. MURROW of Atoka, one of the editors of the "Standard History of Oklahoma," who is the dean of living missionaries in Oklahoma. Doctor Morrow furnished the "key" to many an Indian home and many an Indian story and legend in the land of the Five Tribes. Mr. Marks has written of the remarkable careers of Doctor Murrow, Dr. H. F. BUCKER and Jesse BUSHYHEAD, a Cherokee leader and preacher, and of John BROWN, for thirty years governor of the Seminole Nation. He learned that Bushyhead made settlement at a place called Baptist, near Tahlequah, and that there W. P. UPHAM of Boston, early in the '40s, published the first newspaper in Indian Territory.

L. W. Marks was born at Canton, Missouri, February 1, 1862, a son of George Edward and Mary J. (HENTON) Marks. He has one sister, Mrs. John L. HIGHBEE, wife of a farmer in Lewis County, Missouri. The mother, now at the venerable age of eighty-one years, lives with this daughter. The father of Mr. Marks was a captain in the Confederate army under General PRICE. A great-uncle, General Martin E. GREEN, was killed at Vicksburg. The maternal grandparents were among the first settlers on Upper Sugar Creek in Northeast Missouri during the early '30s.

Rev. Mr. Marks was educated in the public schools at Lewis County, Missouri, the LaGrange College at LaGrange, Missouri, the William Jewell College at Liberty, Missouri, and the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary at Louisville, Kentucky, from which he was graduated with the degree Master of Theology. He had entered the Baptist ministry in 1888, and finished his collegiate education after taking up active work as a pastor. For 2 ½ years he served as pastor of the Baptist Church at Lamar, Missouri, two years at Shelbyville, Missouri, two years at Meadville, Missouri, and for five years had charge of the church at Edmond, Oklahoma. For eleven years he was on the editorial staff of Word and Way of Kansas City, one of the leading Baptist publications in the country, and for ten years has represented that publication in Oklahoma. Besides being historical secretary of the Baptist State Convention, he has held the office of recording secretary and has been president of the board of trustees of the Baptist College at Blackwell, Oklahoma.

In whatever he undertakes Mr. Marks is known as a man of accomplishment, of great energy, and one who worked steadily and vigorously for the upholding of moral principles. Those characteristics followed him during his administration as mayor of Edmond, to which office he was elected on the democratic ticket in 1913. Fraternally he is affiliated with Edmond Lodge No. 37, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons. Mr. Marks was married at Memphis, Missouri, February 19, 1895, to Miss Sadie FREEMAN. Their ten children are: Zula, Paul Eaton, L. W., Jr., Frances, Nona, Walter, Joy, Marcus Marion, Ferrell and Bertie Lee.

Typed for OKGenWeb by: Dorothy M. Tenaza, July 18, 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).

[NOTE: Sherry Deal Jones (TYBEETIDE@aol.com) writes 09 Apr 2000 ~ Have many "copies" of personal letters and documents of Father Joseph Samuel Murrow, Missionary to Oklahoma "Terry". He was the brother of my gg grandmother, Mary Amelia Murrow 1. Pate 2. Bell. Father Murrow, F.A.M. was born 07 Jun 1835 in Georgia and d. 08 Sep 1929 in Oklahoma. I am searching for the origins of his parents, John Murrow and Mary Amelia L. Badger.

Joseph Samuel Murrow, F.A.M., was a missionary in the Oklahoma Territory to five tribes and spent his entire life as a missionary to the Indians and founded the Murrow Indian Orphanage. He was born in Jefferson Co., GA. Parents were John Murrow, son of William (one of Marion's men of Rev. War), and Mary Amelia Louisa BADGER of Charleston, daughter of Jonathan and granddaughter of Johan Severin HAHNBAUM of Charleston.]