Biffle Researchers

Family Group Record: James Wesley Biffle and Emma Mikel

Information supplied by: Janet M. Roseen


If you have additional information or corrections to this report on this family, please contact the editor.
As always, use this information as a guide to your own research, documenting as you go along.


Husband
   James Welsey Biffle 
   Born: March 12, 1866 Place: Tuscaloosa, Alabama
   Married: January 30, 1887 Place: Gainesville, Texas
   Died: May 24, 1940 Place: Jefferson County, Oklahoma; he and his wife are buried in Addington Cemetery, Waurika East, Oklahoma
   Parents: Jacob Barnett Biffle and Sarah Ann Lusk

Wife
   Emma E. Markel  
   Born: June 8, 1867 Place: Texas
   Died: December 16, 1956 Place: Jefferson County, Oklahoma
   Parents: J.W. Markel

Children

1 Virgil Biffle
Sex Born: January 23, 1888 Place: Myra, Cooke County, Texas
M Married: Emily Dunford Place:
   Died: July 30, 1959 Place: Waurika, Jefferson County, Oklahoma

2 Jessie Biffle
Sex Born: July 24, 1889 Place: Myra, Cooke County, Texas
F Married: before 1910; James Reuben Brown Place: Oklahoma
   Died: March 19, 1973 Place: Jefferson County, Oklahoma; she and her husband are buried in the Ryan Cemetery, Ryan, Jefferson County, Oklahoma

3 Martha Biffle
Sex Born: July 9, 1891 Place: Myra, Cooke County, Texas
F Married: Earl Morris Place:
   Died: Place:

4 John Barnett Biffle
Sex Born: October 7, 1892 Place: Myra, Cooke County, Texas (possibly Gainesville, Texas)
 M Married: Josephine Belli Place:
   Died: Place:
  He was educated in the Grady, Oklahoma, schools and enterd the army June 23, 1914. He trained at Ft. Logan and was ordered to the Mexican border. He was transferred to the Quartermaster's Corp. and later promoted from Private to Sargeant. He did not go overseas and was still in the army in 1921. In 1940 he was living in Fallon, Nevada.

5 Sarah Belle Biffle (Sallie)
Sex Born: Place: Myra, Cooke County, Texas
F Married: (1) Allen Wright; (2) after 1940; Dan Voss Place:
   Died: Place:

6 Ruby Biffle
Sex Born: October 10, 1896 Place: Myra, Cooke County, Texas
F Married: Isaac Kelly Place:
   Died: July 16, 1925 Place: She is buried in Duncan, Oklahoma

7 Mary Elizabeth Biffle
Sex Born: March 15, 1898 Place: Myra, Cooke County, Texas or Oklahoma
F Married: Richard Lang King (1896-1950) Place:
   Died: November 2, 1988 Place: Alameda, California

8 James Wesley Biffle
Sex Born: February 23, 1900 Place: Grady, Oklahoma
M Married: Frances Lemons Place:
   Died: January 1978 Place: Waurika, Jefferson County, Oklahoma

9 Emma Fay Biffle
Sex Born: October 18, 1902 Place: Grady, Oklahoma
F Married: (1) Floyd Contway; (2) after 1940; Logan Campbell Place:
   Died: Place:

10 Ruth Biffle
Sex Born: ca. 1906 Place: Grady Oklahoma
F Married: Hershel Raymond Alexander Place:
   Died: Place:

11 Yvonne Biffle
Sex Born: February 27, 1910 Place: Oklahoma
F Married: Charles Mendenhall Gale Place:
   Died: June 12, 1978 Place: Albuquerque, New Mexico; she is buried in Jefferson County, Oklahoma

  • 1910 U.S. Census, Brown Twp, Jefferson County, Oklahoma, T624-1254, p. 302; E.D. 151, pg. 11B
  • 1920 U.S. Census, Grayson Township, Jefferson County, Oklahoma, T625-1466, E.D. 214, pg 14b
  • 1930 U.S. Census, Grady County, Oklahoma, T626-1904, p. 15B, E.D. 38, James, Emma, and Yvonne; Mary E. King is found at Oklahoma City, Oklahoma County, Oklahoma, T626-1919, p. 5A, E.D. 83; Ruth Alexander is found at Jefferson County, Oklahoma, T626-1907, p. g 9B; E.D. 18

From A Standard History of Oklahoma by Joseph B. Thoburn, Volume III. Chicago: The American Historical Society, 1916, pp. 187-88.

James W. Biffle. At the age of seventeen years, James W. Biffle entered upon his career in true, independent Southwestern style, as a cow-puncher on the open range. From that time to the present (1916, ed.) his life has been one of steady advancement, until today he finds himself the owner of a handsome stock farm, located on Mud Creek, in Jefferson County, and the incumbent of the office of sheriff, a position which he has held continuously since 1912. Sheriff Biffle is essentially a self-made man, and the esteem in which he is generally held has been fairly won. He was born in Wayne County, Tennessee, March 12, 1866, and is a son of Jacob and Maud (Lusk) Biffle. (Ed. note: I have her name as Sarah Ann Lusk; Maud may be a nickname.)

The Biffle family were early pioneers of the State of Tennessee, where Jacob Biffle was born in 1821 [Ed. note: I have a different birth year]. From Tennessee he removed to Cooke County, Texas, in 1876 but resided there only a short time, when, in the same year he decided to pay a visit to a ranch which he owned in what afterward became Wichita County, Oklahoma. It was while making this visit that he was murdered by one of his employees. During the Mexican war he served in the army of the United States, and in 1861 when the Civil war came on, his sympathies were with the South and he enlisted in the army of the Confederacy, remaining therein for four years and rising to the rank of colonel. For the former service Mrs. Biffle long drew a pension from the Government. She was born in Tennessee, in 1840, and died in June 1912, having been the mother of seven children as follows: J.T., who is farmer and stockman and resides at Myra, Cooke County, Texas; Anna, who is the wife of James Brewer, a resident of Louisiana; Ella, who married John Stout, a railroad engineer residing at Cleveland, Texas; James W., of this notice; William, who is engaged in trading in Kansas; Fay, who is the wife of Carl Shutes, a farmer of Ringling, Oklahoma; and Minnie, who is deceased.

James W. Biffle was only ten years of age when his father died, but the mother managed to keep the little family together and to give her children good common school advantages in the way of education. At the age of seventeen years, after leaving the public schools, he secured a position as a cow puncher in Wilbarger County, Northwest Texas, where he remained for five years, then returning to Cooke County. There he followed the same line of work until 1898, when he came to Mud Creek, Jefferson County, and invested his earnings in a farm, and continued to cultivate his land and raise stock until 1912, when he was elected sheriff of Jefferson County on the democratic ticket. His first term in that office won the commendation of the voters, who re-elected him for a second term in 1914, and he still occupies that office. During his administration he has shown himself to be a brave and fearless officer, determined, resolute and untiring in dealing with the criminal element, and possessing the ability to follow a clue to its finish. He has resided at Waurika since the time of his first election, his offices at this time being in the courthouse, on East D. Avenue. Mr. Biffle belongs to the Methodist Episcopal Church, as do the members of his family. He is fraternally connected with Waurika Lodge of Masons, No. 315, and Grady Lodge No. 227, Independent Order of Odd Fellows. Since attaining his majority he has supported democratic principles and candidates and is known as one of the county's active party workers.

In 1887, in Cooke County, Texas, Sheriff Biffle was united in marriage with Miss Emma Markle, daughter of the late J.W. Markle, a furniture dealer of Stephens County, Oklahoma, who died there in 1914. Eleven children have bee born to this union: Virgil, who is a stockraiser of Grady, Oklahoma; Jessie, who is the wife of Rube Brown, who is the partner of her brother, Virgil; John, who is a soldier in the United States army, at Fort Meade, South Dakota; Martha, who is the wife of Earl Morris, a painter and paper hanger of Ringling, Oklahoma; Sally, who is the wife of Allen Wright, connected with a furniture business at Fort Worth, Texas; Ruby, who is a sophomore at the Waurika High School; Mary, who is a freshman in that school; James, who is in seventh grade in the public schools; Fay, in the sixth grade; Ruth, in the fourth grade; and Yvonne, the baby.

Obituary:
The Oklahoman, May 25, 1940, p. 2
James Wesley Biffle, 74-year-old pioneer state cattleman and since 1934 chief of the state capitol police, died of a heart ailment Friday night at St. Anthony hosiptal. He lived at 2109 Glen Ellyn place. Born March 12, 1866, at Tuscaloosa, Alabama, the son of Brig. Gen. Jacob B. Biffle (ed. note: I don't think his father was a Brig. Gen., but was a Colonel) Jacob B. Biffle, of the Confederate army, Biffle was married Jan. 30, 1887, to Miss Emma Mikel at Gainesville, Texas. He came to Oklahoma in 1899 and settled at Grady. Moving to Waurika in 1912, he was sheriff of Jefferson county from that year until 1916. Biffle had made his home here since going to work at the capitol. He was a member of St. John's Methodist church. Survivors include his wife; three sons, Virgil and James Jr., both of Waurika, and John, Fallon Nev.; seven daughters, Mrs. Ruben Brown, Cox City; Mrs. Earl Morris, Waurika; mrs. Allen Wright, Chicago, Ill.; Mrs Lang King, Gallup, N.M. Mrs. Floyd L. Contway, Clinton; Mrs. H.R. Aldexander, Duncan, and Mrs. Charles M. Gale, Shawnee, and 24 grandchildren and four great-grandchildren. Rite will be at 9 p.m. Saturday at the Street and Draper chapel and at 3 p.m. at Waurika. Burial also will be at Waurika.




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