Abrams, Abner

Funeral services for Abner Abrams, who died Sunday in Fort Worth Texas, at the age of 80 years, will be held at the Methodist Episcopal, church, South, Miami, at 2:30 o'clock Wednesday afternoon. The Rev. Ernest P. Lloyd, pastor of the church, will preach the sermon.
Mr. Abrams is survived by two sons, S. W. Abrams of this city and Earl B. Abrams of Baxter Springs Kansas and their mother, Mrs. M. J. Abrams of Baxter Springs. Burial will be in G.A.R. cemetery at Miami with the Masonic lodge in charge of the services at the grave. The following men will be honorary pallbearers: C. J. Fribley and S. C. Fullerton, of Miami; Fred Hall and L. D. Brewster, of Baxter Springs, and Riley Bingham and Isaac Bingham, of Quapaw Oklahoma. The body of Mr. Abrams, who was the father of S. W. Abrams of Miami, arrived here this morning. The Cooper undertaking company, Miami, is in charge of arrangements for the funeral.
The death of Mr. Abrams marked the passing of one of the most widely known and influential of the early residents of the Quapaw Reservation. The history of his life among the Indians of this section is most interesting and reflects in many ways his sterling character. About 20 years ago, a wandering missionary brought word to the Quapaw Indians of the splendid ability and aggressive spirit of Mr. Abrams. He was at that time a resident of Fulton Kansas. A delegation from the Indian settlement called upon Mr. Abrams, but he was reluctant to leave his comfortable mercantile business at Fulton for the very unpromising country which the Indians then occupied near here. A newspaper report that the Daws commission had decided to open the Quapaw Reservation to settlement after allotting to them 80 acres each, instead of the whole tract that had been give to them, was the deciding factor that brought Mr. Abrams to the rescue of the Quapaws.
The Quapaws were then very poor and had no money to employ aid. Mr. Abrams was of the Stockbridge Indian tribe, but the Quapaws had agreed to adopt him and his family and enable them to share with others of the tribe in the allotment of their lands. They had been given a strip seven miles wide and sixteen miles long in Oklahoma adjoining the Kansas border. When Mr. Abrams arrived in what is now Ottawa county Oklahoma after having sold his holdings in Kansas he was unable to find any of the Quapaws. Cattlemen from northern fields had turned their stock loose upon the farms of the Indians and what hay and grain they had raised was consumed and the Indians decided to move. Only one family was to be found. Learning that the Quapaws had joined the Osagee, Mr. Abrams rounded them up and persuaded them to move back to their original reservation.
About that time Mr. Abrams interested Sam J. Crawford, the first governor of Kansas, in an effort to bring about the proper allotment of the Quapaw lands. Long sessions with the governmental departments at Washington were finally crowned with success and the allotments of 240 acres each, part in timber, and part in prairie land, were assigned to each member of the tribe. The discovery of lead and zinc on the Indian lands was made on one of Mr. Abrams' farms near Lincolnville Oklahoma.
The Iowa and Oklahoma Mining Company was organized and were developed among them a number of valuable properties, Sunnyside Mine, the Good Luck Mine, White Eagle Mine and others which were very good mines in their day. In the early stage of the mining game, Mr. Abrams was associated with Governor Renfro. At one time these two men owned a large number of leases which embraced a great deal of the district which later provided the rich mining field of Commerce, Cardin and Picher Oklahoma.
Mr. Abrams did not regard this district as desirable as that around Lincolnville and with his associates, sold the leases to the American Lead, Zinc, and Smelting Company for approximately $15,000. Unfortunately for that company its managers had no more faith in the new field that had Mr. Abrams and Governor Renfro, and the leases were abandoned.
Notwithstanding the fact that Mr. Abrams did not get actively into the development of the mines in the richest section of the Tri-State field, he was a dominant factor in all the business dealings of the Quapaws and practically all the early day leases were under his supervision. His splendid character had enabled him to gain the confidence of both the Indians and the government and men who desired to deal with the Quapaws soon learned to respect and admire him for the steadfast fight he made on their behalf. Mr. Abrams was a member of the Baxter Springs Kansas Masonic lodge having received the Scottish rite and York degrees. He was also a member of the Temple of Shriners at Kansas City.
He was born at Fort Leavenworth Kansas and moved to Baxter Springs in 1900. He resided there for about 16 years. For many years he was connected with the Baxter Springs National Bank. He had served in the Civil War with the Union forces, having entered the army at the age of 11 years. It was while in the army that Mr. Abrams became acquainted with Governor Crawford of Kansas who assisted very materially in bringing about the distribution of the Quapaw lands to the Indians. Mr. Abrams was also influential in securing the construction of Frisco railroad line from Baxter Springs to Afton Oklahoma. In recent years Mr. Abrams has been engaged in the oil business at Fort Worth. Mr. Abrams is survived by two sons, S. W. Abrams of this city and Earl B. Abrams of Baxter Springs and their mother, Mrs. M. J. Abrams of Baxter Springs. Note: Mrs. Velma Nieberding's article about Mr. Abrams was not so kind as this newspaper article.