Orva Gilson Williams (1865-1930), Orva Chester Randall (1873-1963), Orva Gallogly (1867-1926)

From "Profitable Advertising", June 1905.

   Unique in name and in line of work, Ohio native Orva Gilson Williams was long affiliated with the advertising novelty manufacturing business, and following his removal to Illinois continued success in his field, being the founder and president of the O.G. Williams Company. An active Democrat both prior to and after his resettlement in Illinois, Williams would enter politics in 1910, being an unsuccessful aspirant for Congress and two years later served as a Democratic National Convention delegate. 

  The son of Richard Gilson and Elmira (Frost) Williams, Orva Gilson Williams was born in Salineville, Ohio on April 25, 1865. He would study at Mt. Union College located in Alliance, Ohio, and also attended the Cincinnati Law School. Beginning in the early 1880s, Williams entered the advertising novelty business in Ravenna, Ohio, and later took employment with the Tuscarora Advertising Co. of Coshocton. He soon hit the road as a traveling salesman for that company, selling advertising novelties and signage. Traversing over thirty states and countless territories, Williams followed that route until joining the Standard Advertising Company in Coshocton and by 1894 had assumed the post of vice president and treasurer.

  Williams' four-year tenure with that company saw it achieve a "most phenomenal growth", and with his connection to its sales department, the business could boast of $400,000 in sales in 1898. At the time of Williams' departure the following year, they had "branch offices in fourteen cities and foreign countries" and employed over thirty salesmen. Orva Gilson Williams married to Josephine Stack Ryan (1859-1932) in 1894. The couple had three children, Elsie, Dorothy, and Orva Gilson II (1896-1938).

   After selling off his interest in the Standard Advertising Company in early 1899, Williams removed with his family to Chicago. Soon after his resettlement, he partnered with businessman Edward Donker to form the Donker & Williams Co., "Manufacturers and Importers of Advertising Specialities and Art Novelties." Incorporated in September 1899, Williams served that company as its secretary and treasurer, and in the succeeding years became a familiar name in Chicago civic affairs. He would hold a directorship in the Chicago Civic Federation, was chairman of the ways and means committee of the Chicago Association of Commerce, and was president of the Ohio Club of Chicago. Williams was also an active club-man in his adopted city, holding memberships in the Masonic Order, the Knights of Pythias, the Elks Lodge, the Iroquois Club, and the Chicago Athletic Association.

  Several years after the founding of the Donker Williams Co., Orva Williams left that business to form his own company, and by 1908 was president of the O.G. Williams Mfg. Co, dealing in "calenders, leather goods, general novelties, and signs." One of his highest business honors came in 1908 when he was elected president of the National Association of Novelty, Leather, and Celluloid Manufacturers at that organization's annual convention. His full dates of service remain unknown at this time.

From the Omaha Bee, July 21, 1910.

   Long an active Democrat, Williams was a firm backer of William Jennings Bryan's third presidential run in 1908, being affiliated with the National Businessmen's Bryan and Kern Association. After casting aside previous calls for him to run for public office, Orva Williams announced his bid for Congress in 1910. Hoping to garner the Democratic nomination for U.S. Representative from Illinois' 2nd district, Williams was one of two primary candidates hoping to oust seven-term Republican James Robert Mann. Unfortunately for Williams, he lost that race to John C. Vaughan, who would, in turn, lose the general election to Mann that November.

  Despite his congressional defeat, Williams later aided his party in a different capacity, and in 1912 served as part of the Illinois delegation to the Democratic National Convention in Baltimore, where Woodrow Wilson and Thomas R. Marshall were nominated as the party standard-bearers. This election year also saw Williams join the Illinois sector of the campaign of Ohio Governor Judson Harmon, then a candidate in the Democratic presidential primary race. 

  Williams' continued prominence in his field after his time as a delegate, serving on the board of directors of the Associated Advertising Clubs of America, and in 1918 was the president of the Council of State Societies of Chicago. He continued residence in Chicago, and on November 5, 1930, he lost his life in a tragic accident. While visiting Akron, Ohio Williams' car collided with another vehicle during a snowstorm, and he later succumbed to his injuries. Also injured in the crash was his sister Iola, a high school principal in the city. The driver of the other vehicle, J.A. Stewart, was subsequently charged with manslaughter, due to having "failed to observe a boulevard stop" before the crash.

  Williams was survived by his wife and children, and following funeral arrangements, his remains were removed to Alliance, Ohio for burial at the Alliance City Cemetery.

From the New Philadelphia, Ohio Daily Times, November 6, 1930.

From the Nebraska State Blue Book, 1930.

    The obscure Orva Chester Randall served Nebraska's 82nd legislative district in the state house of representatives for two terms, 1929-33. Born in Illinois in September 1873, Randall removed to Nebraska with his family at age 10. He would attend the Holdrege high school in Phelps County, and in 1896 married Minnie Cain (1878-1920), with who he had three sons, Leslie, Harry, and Ralph. Following his wife's death in 1920, Randall remarried in July of the following year to his wife's sister Nellie (1889-1957), who he also survived.

  A farmer for the majority of his life, Randall held the posts of secretary and treasurer of the Phelp's County Farmer's Union and later was secretary-treasurer of the Nebraska Farm Bureau. Prior to his legislative service, Randall held two local elective offices in Holdrege, serving on the township board and school board. Elected to his first term in the Nebraska House of Representatives in 1928, Randall served in the session of 1929-31 and won a second term in 1930. A former president of the Federal Land Bank of Holdrege, Randall resided in that town until his death at age 89 in July 1963. He was interred at the Prairie Home Cemetery in Holdrege. 

  In addition to the above, two sources, politicalgraveyard.com and Findagrave, record Randall under the first name Orvis. This is an error, as Randall himself notes his first name as Orva on his 1917 draft registration card. This name is also recorded in period sources such as the 1930 and 1932 Nebraska Blue Books, and the 1920 Census.

Portrait from the Souvenir of the Nebraska Legislature, 1901-02.

  Another "Orva" that entered Nebraska politics was Orva Gallogly, who was noted as a "firm friend of the farmers and stockmen" in the Nebraska Blue Book. A one-term member of that state's house of representatives, Gallogly was native of Wisconsin, being born in 1867, the son of Francis and Frances (Murphy) Gallogly. He removed to Iowa with his family at an early age, and by 1883 had resettled in Nebraska. 

  Establishing roots in Chapman in Merrick County, he farmed here and in May 1891 married to Frances Young (1869-1939), with whom he adopted a child. In 1898 he and his family relocated to Johnston in Brown County, where he was engaged in "cattle raising and the general merchandise business." In 1900 he was elected to the Nebraska House of Representatives as a representative from Brown and Rock County, and during the 1901-03 session was a member of the committees on Apportionment, Live Stock and Grazing, Penitentiaries, and chaired the Fish and Game committee.

  Little could be found on Gallogly's life after his time in state government. Sometime after his term he and his family moved to Idaho and following his resettlement was a dealer in livestock in Oakley, located in Cassia County. At an unknown date, Gallogly removed to Boise, where he died of stomach cancer at his home on February 1, 1926, aged 58. He was survived by his wife and was later interred at the Pleasant View Cemetery in Burley, Idaho.

From the Burley Bulletin, February 4, 1926.

Almoth Dowden Rogers (1866-1931)

Portrait from the Pioneer History of Wise County, 1907.

    From Limestone County, Texas and Angero Gray Camp we journey North to Wise County to highlight the life of another oddly named Texas legislator, Almoth Dowden Rogers. Born in Pontotoc, Mississippi on March 12, 1866, Almoth Dowden Rogers lost both his mother and father by the time he was six years old. Despite his being left parentless at such a young age, Rogers persevered, and during his youth worked the farm and attended school at both the "country institutions" and Lebanon, Tennessee.

   As a young man, Rogers worked at various clerkships in Kentucky and was also employed as a traveling salesman for a time. In October 1889 he married in Mississippi to Lila Stone, with whom he had seven children: Christine, Eloise, Shelton, Mary, Corinne, Jess, and Almoth Dowden Jr. (1905-1979). The Rogers family would reside in Jackson, Mississippi for several years before removing to San Antonio, Texas in 1894, where Almoth began work as an insurance agent. His time as an insurance agent saw him move to both Ft. Worth and Decatur, Texas, finally settling in the latter town in January 1896.

   Following his resettlement in Decatur, Rogers "followed clerking and merchandising" for a time and in 1898 entered local politics when he successfully ran for Wise County Treasurer. He remained in that post for four years and continued his political ascent in 1910 when he was elected as Wise County's representative to the Texas General Assembly. Taking his seat at the start of the 1911-13 session, Rogers would serve on the house committees on Agriculture, Education, Insurance, Judicial districts, and Representative districts. During his term, Rogers was named as part of the Texas delegation to the Democratic National Convention of 1912 that nominated Woodrow Wilson for the Presidency.

   Reelected in November 1912, Rogers was named to several new legislative committees, including Banks and Banking, Commerce and Manufactures, Internal Improvements, and State Asylums. His service as a state representative was profiled in the September 1913 edition of the Texas Railway Journal, which relates that Rogers made:

"An enviable record as a real progressive, a man who has always stood for the material good of the whole people and a man whose vote was not the only power exercised, but strong and convincing argument has been heard on many of the most important questions considered by the Texas legislature, by Mr. Rogers, and no man has been more successful in his legislative career than he. Mr. Rogers has ever stood for the right, no matter what class of people supported or opposed his position."

Almoth D. Rogers, from the Texas Railway Journal, September 1913.

  Almoth D. Rogers' second term concluded in January 1915. He would reemerge on the political scene in 1926 when he announced his candidacy for U.S. Representative from Texas' 14th district. Facing off against Republican nominee Harry M. Wurzbach (1874-1931), Rogers placed second in the vote count on election day, losing to Wurzbach by a vote of 10, 633 to 14, 224. Little is known of Rogers's life following his defeat for Congress, excepting notice of his death in San Antonio on December 5, 1931. A burial location for both Rogers and his wife remains unknown at this time.

Freeze Quick (1871-1946)

   The name would be Freeze Quick. Ponder that for a minute. Freeze Quick. While this intriguingly named Pennsylvanian may sound like he has a made-up name, he was, in fact, a real person, being a prominent resident in his native Columbia County. I first discovered this obscure figure via the politicalgraveyard website many years ago and in all that time Mr. Quick remained one of the most mysterious people I've stumbled across, having no available birth or death dates, parent's names, education or burial location!

   With this distinct lack of information on him, I was beginning to think that Mr. Quick would forever remain that obscure Pennsylvania Democratic National Convention delegate with the seemingly made-up name-- that was until I established some e-mail correspondence with the Columbia County Historical and Genealogical Society in early December of last year!  With these e-mail exchanges, Columbia County Historical Society director Bonnie Farver came to my rescue regarding Mr. Quick, and through our correspondence, a number of new details on Quick's life have come to light, including some background on his highly unusual name. Bonnie also sent the above picture of Mr. Quick as well as an obituary/internment record for him, which helped out significantly in terms of information!

   Freeze Quick's story begins with his birth on September 10, 1870, in Rupert, Pennsylvania, being the son of William McBride Quick (born 1841) and Mary Gosse Freeze. Quick's 1946 obituary in the Morning Press newspaper notes that he "was born and raised in Rupert" and most likely attended the public schools of this town. Quick remained a lifelong bachelor and was recorded as making his home with a Ms. Maud Derr in Bloomsburg. Little else could be found in regards to Quick's early life or education, so we jump forward now to 1899 when Quick was elected as Secretary of the Bloomsburg Town Council. Quick was one of three candidates for the office and was noted by the Bloomsburg Columbian as being elected on the second ballot.

                                             From the April 17, 1902 Bloomsburg Columbian.

   In the year following his service as secretary, Quick became employed as an assistant to then Columbia County prothonotary and clerk of courts C.M. Terwilinger. Quick was elected to the office of Columbia County prothonotary in his own right in 1908 and reelected in 1911 for another term of three years. Quick also held the post of clerk of the Court of Quarter Sessions and of the Orphan's Court during this time period and is listed as such in the article below.

  While Freeze Quick's service as Columbia County's prothonotary can be considered an elected public office, it is his service as a delegate to the 1912 and 1916 Democratic National Conventions that earns him a place here. The Democratic National Convention of 1912 was held in Baltimore that year and Quick traveled to Maryland to take part in the convention proceedings. The New York Herald notes that Quick stayed at the Belvidere Hotel in that city, and many of his fellow delegates and hotel guests were perplexed by his unique name, as evidenced by the article below!

From the June 1912 New York Herald.

   Quick's odd name and service as an alternate delegate to the 1916 Democratic National Convention in St. Louis. Missouri gained him plenty of attention in newspapers of the time. In one of those strange historical twists, there was another interestingly named delegate to this convention. His name? Icy W. Day of  Mississippi! This odd side story was picked up by the New York Sun, which published an editorial that stated: "If any newspaper reader, or newspaper owner, managing editor, telegraph editor, telegrapher, linotyper, proofreader, stereotyper or copyboy passes up these opening words lightly because of refusal to believe that there is a Mississippi delegate named Icy Day or a Pennsylvania alternate named Freeze Quick, he's making a consummate ass of himself, that's all."  After reading the below write-up on the convention, one can almost imagine these two oddly named characters palling around the St. Louis Convention Hall together!

From the June 1916 edition of the New York Sun.

   In the years that followed his service as a DNC delegate, Quick continued to be a prominent figure in Bloomsburg, maintaining memberships in a number of local fraternal organizations. His obituary in the Morning Press notes that he was a past governor of the Bloomsburg  Lodge #623 of the Royal Order of Moose on several occasions and was the lodge's representative to Great Britain at an international conference. Quick was also a past librarian for the Columbia County Fair Association, a member of the Washington Lodge #265 of Free and Accepted Masons, and a parishioner at the St. Paul's Episcopal Church. In addition to his various civic activities, Quick is mentioned as being an experienced hunter and fisherman.

  Freeze Quick died at age 75 on July 31, 1946, at the Bloomsburg Hospital. His obituary notes that he had been in a period of declining health for two years, and during his hospital stay his name was featured in a "Ripley's Believe It Or Not" newspaper cartoon. The Morning Press obituary below appeared on August 1, 1946, and was graciously sent to me by Bonnie Farver.

   A few days following his death, Freeze Quick was interred at the Old Rosemont Cemetery in Bloomsburg. Several Freeze's relatives and descendants are also buried in this cemetery, including his grandparents William Grier Quick (1815-1879) and Sarah MacBride Quick, who died in December 1887. In addition to the above obituary, Bonnie Farver was also kind enough to send me a print of Freeze Quick's internment record at Rosemont, a portion of which is shown below. This record also notes Quick's death was caused by "chronic myocarditis". 

  As stated in the lengthy introduction to Quick's profile here, this article would not have been possible without the generous help and research of Bonnie Farver and the Columbia County Historical Society. Because of their extensive input and fact-finding, Freeze Quick now has a face to place with his amazing name, and with all of the information that I was graciously supplied with by the above-mentioned folks, he now has at least one substantial biography online that details his life and exploits! A thousand thanks for all of your help!!

  The picture of Freeze Quick shown above was featured in a 1940 Bloomsburg newspaper print that was sent to me by Bonnie Farver. A full version of the above picture is shown below.

                                Freeze Quick is shown on the extreme right in the above portrait.