Généalogie Wylie » George Sidney Suggs (1853-????)

Données personnelles George Sidney Suggs 

• Il est né le 15 janvier 1853 dans Tippah County, Mississippi.
• Un enfant de Isaac Thomas Suggs et Jane Hester Fullwood
• Cette information a été mise à jour pour la dernière fois le 20 juin 2011.

Famille de George Sidney Suggs

(1) Il a/avait une relation avec Dixie Barnhart.

Enfant(s):

1. Velie C. Suggs  > 1868-????
2. Kate Suggs  > 1869-????

(2) Il a/avait une relation avec Minnie Murray.

Notes par George Sidney Suggs

Page 101

When the hand of death
reached forth and touched the brow of Colonel Sidney Suggs, one of the
outstanding stalwarts of the Southwest, was called to his reward. He died
peacefully at his home on February 9, 1935, without pain, without a struggle;
alert and active to the last the frost of 83 winters, sat lightly upon his
shoulders and he looked hopefully to the future with all the ardour of his
younger years. Death came as he often expressed the wish that it would come,
suddenly, silently, to end his labors here below. He died as he had lived with a
smile upon his face, and could we but know, it probably would be revealed that
in his heart reposed a benediction for all mankind.

Colonel Suggs loved the world
and its people, and his heart, large though it was, there was in it no room for
envy or hate to find lodgment, no place for greed or malice to abide. During an
intimate acquaintanceship with Colonel Suggs extending over a period of more
than a quarter of a century the writer never saw him perturbed or angry, never
heard him utter an unkind word about a single human being. He did hear him say,
however, on more than one occasion that life was too short and living too sweet
to devote a single moment to criticism of anybody. "I love the world and
everybody in it, I want to live and so conduct myself so everybody will love and
think well of me," was a favorite expression of his.

Colonel Suggs was ambitious
but his ambition was not based on selfish motives. He wished to see everybody
happy and prosperous, he wanted to make the world around him a better place in
which to live, and with an eye single to his purpose, gave freely of his time
and means.

Sidney Suggs was born near
Tupelo, Mississippi, January 15, 1853, son of Dr. Isaac T. and Jane (Fullwood).
Suggs who emigrated to Mississippi from South Carolina.

Page 102

When 14 years of age his
parents moved to Mt. Pleasant, Texas, where he attended public schools and began
to take part in commercial life. For many years he was connected with a large
machinery establishment in Dallas, Texas, and when his connection with that firm
was severed he came to Indian Territory and entered business with a younger
brother at Berwyn where they operated a store and cotton gin.

After selling his business
interests at Berwyn, Colonel Suggs came to Ardmore and purchased the Daily
Ardmoreite on June 18, 1897, paying $600 for the plant and good will. He saw
a future for Ardmore and saw that he must equip to keep up with the parade. He
purchased the first linotype machine to operate in Indian Territory. He
published the Ardmoreite until 1917 when he sold his interests to devote
his time to promoting good roads, a subject to which he was firmly wedded.

While publisher of the
Daily Ardmoreite Colonel Suggs began to advocate good roads. He wanted
farmers to have an opportunity of coming to market centers over passable
highways, and where there was no organization to promote such a purpose, he
organized business men of Ardmore and they constituted the first good roads
committee in the territory. Every public movement for the betterment of the
people received his whole-hearted support, and his paper became the good roads
organ of the two territories. Colonel Sidney Suggs was appointed first state
highway commissioner of Oklahoma by the late Governor Lee Cruce, and although
the appointment was more vocal than material as he was not provided with
anything to work with, he began to study highways more intensely and urged the
building of good highways and improvement of the ways to rural sections to every
county. His voice was heard in road conventions in every southern state, and he
took the question of national aid to congress and the president, and planted the
seed that afterwards bore fruit in federal aid for highways. Colonel Suggs, like
many other great leaders was just a few years ahead of his time, but when
overtaken it usually was discovered that he had been preaching truths for years
that were being put into use. One achievement of which he was particularly proud
was the mapping of the Indian trails which survey was afterwards adopted by
those who surveyed U. S. Highway number 70 across the southern part of Oklahoma.

Page 103

Colonel Suggs always enjoyed
the association of newspaper editors and publishers. He had long been a member
of the Oklahoma Press Association and never missed an annual meeting. Even after
he had retired from the paper business he attended these meetings of the
newspaper people, and no one was more welcome nor contributed more to the
entertainment of members of the press association. Who has not enjoyed hearing
him play his accordian and sing those old time folk lore songs?

As an evidence of the
appreciation and esteem in which he was held by the newspaper fraternity, at the
annual meeting held at Shawnee May 27, 1932, the association passed a resolution
to have a bronze plaque made to the honor of Colonel Sidney Suggs and that the
same be placed on the wall of the Oklahoma Historical Building. The inscription
is as follows:

SIDNEY
SUGGS

ARDMORE,OKLAHOMA
COMMEMORATING HIS WORK AS A
PIONEER OKLAHOMA
NEWSPAPER MAN
AND GOOD ROADS BUILDER
AUTHOR OF LAW CREATING
STATE
HIGHWAY DEPARTMENT
AND FIRST HIGHWAY COMMISSION
PRESENTED BY
OKLAHOMA
PRESS ASSOCIATION
MAY 27, 1932

This plaque has upon it an
embossed profile of Sidney Suggs.

Colonel Suggs had been
married three times. He was first married in 1876 to Miss Dixie Barnhart of
Texas by whom he had six children, only two of whom survive; they are: Velie C.
Suggs of Little Rock, Arkansas, and Mrs. Kate Suggs Jeter, of Gonzales, Texas.
Their mother died in 1891. The Colonel was again married in 1892 in Dunham,
North Carolina to Miss Minnie Murray who only survived a few months. His third
wife was the widow of Judge Olive of Texas, whom he married in 1895; she had
three children, Miss Vera Olive and Mrs. Zoe Olive Evans, of Ardmore, and John
Olive, of San Antonio, Texas; Mrs. Suggs died March 18, 1932. Colonel Suggs was
a member of First Presbyterian church of Ardmore; fraternally he was affiliated
with Masonic bodies, the Odd Fellows, Elks and Woodmen.

Page 104

Colonel Sidney Suggs was one
of the most colorful and one of the most lovable characters who ever lived in
Oklahoma. His life was dedicated to service in behalf of others. So inherrent
was this trait and so fixed was it in his life that he seldom thought of his own
affairs or his personal welfare. He was a man of prolific ideas and once an idea
appealed to him he prosecuted it with all the vigor he possessed. His life was
endowed with constructive ideals, he had only tolerance and pity with the
iconoclast, or with any one who voiced the principle that "my way is the only
right way." Colonel Suggs was a dreamer, but his dreams were always of rosy hue,
and albeit, many of them never came to pass, his life and the world was the
better for his having dreamed.

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