Daniel Zene CHRISTIAN Daniel Walter CHRISTIAN Andrew Jackson CHRISTIAN Cleva Inez CHRISTIAN Harvey Leon CHRISTIAN Vernon Garth CHRISTIAN Harold Keith CHRISTIAN James Dwayne CHRISTIAN Sallie Hester JENKINS Ora Montez CHRISTIAN Minnie CHRISTIAN Infant Daughter CHRISTIAN Elizabeth Mahala PETTY Mini tree diagram
Grover Cleveland CHRISTIAN

Grover Cleveland CHRISTIAN1,9,7,10,8,3,6,4,1,2

3rd Apr 18845,3,6,4 - 20th Feb 19395,3,4,2

Life History

3rd Apr 1884

Born in Bryans Mill, Cass, Texas.5,3,6,4

1900

Resident in Justice Precinct 3, Cass County, Texas.6

between 1910 and 1920

Residence2 in Mountain View Township, Kiowa, Oklahoma.7,8

26th Nov 1911

Married Sallie Hester JENKINS in Duncan, Stephens, Oklahoma.10

1st Oct 1912

Birth of daughter Cleva Inez CHRISTIAN in Kiowa County, Oklahoma.11,12,9,13,14,4

31st Dec 1915

Birth of son Harvey Leon CHRISTIAN in Mountain View, Kiowa, Oklahoma.3,5,9,8,15,16,17,18

5th Aug 1919

Birth of son Vernon Garth CHRISTIAN in Mountain View, Kiowa, Oklahoma.19,3,9,20,4,16

10th Jun 1922

Birth of son Harold Keith CHRISTIAN in Lone Wolf, Kiowa, Oklahoma.12,11,5,9,21,22

7th Oct 1924

Birth of son James Dwayne CHRISTIAN in Kiowa County, Oklahoma.12,9,23

1930

Residence3 in Dill, Kiowa, Oklahoma.9

between 1938 and 1939

Residence4 in Chickasha, Grady, Oklahoma.1,1,2

20th Feb 1939

Died in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, Oklahoma.5,3,4,2

Uremia and Bilateral Renal Calculi

21st Feb 1939

Buried in Rose Hill Cemetery, Chickasha, Grady County, Oklahoma.3,4

Notes

  • Grover Cleveland Christian went by the name Cleve.  The 1900 census lists Cleve as Cleveland.

    1900 Federal Census, Cass County, Texas, 13 January, Justice Precinct 3, District 22, page 13A, Hse/Fam #40
    Christian, D Z  Head  W M  Feb 1858  42 Widowed MS England AL Farmer
    Christian, Walter  Son  W M  Nov 1879  20  TX MS TX Farm Laborer
    Christian, Jack  Son  W M  Jan 1883  17  TX MS TX Farm Laborer
    Christian, Cleveland   W M  Apr 1884  16 TX MS TX Farm Laborer
    Christian, Ora  Dau W F Apr 1887  13  TX MS TX At School
    Christian, Minnie Dau W  Sep 1889  F 10 TX MS TX At School

    In 1910 Cleve is working on his own, boarding with an older man, Benjamin Fletcher.  He is now in Mountain View township (but not Mt View town) in Kiowa County, Oklahoma.

    1910 Federal Census, Kiowa County, Oklahoma, 13 January, Mountain View Township, District 142, page 5B, Hse #244, Fam #249
    Christian, Cleve C  Boarder M W 24 TX US US Farmer

    In 1918, Cleve registered for the military draft.  He gives his address as Bismark, McCurtain, Oklahoma, but his wife Sallie's address (registered as nearest relative) is Mountain View, Oklahoma.  He registered at Idabel in McCurtain County.  He had kinfolks in Idabel.  I later learned he owned a ranch there.  His occupation in the draft registration is given as Stockman.  In 1920, he is enumerated with Sallie and his children in Mountain View, and he is described there as a Rancher.

    1920 Federal Census, Kiowa County, Oklahoma, 13 January, Mountain View, District 142, page 5B, Hse/Fam #40
    Christian, Cleve   Head  M W 36 TX TX TX  Rancher
    [Other sources report his father born in Mississippi, including Harold Christian's family information]
    Christian, Sallie Wife   F W 26  OK TX TX
    Christian, Cleva daughter F W 7 OK TX OK
    Christian, Harvey   son  M W 4  OK TX OK
    Christian, Vernon  son  M W 5mos OK TX OK (makes him born about July 1919)

    In 1918, Cleve registered for the military draft.   In June of that year he registered in Idabel, the county seat of McCurtain County, Oklahoma, in the southeast corner of the state.  He gives his address as Bismark, McCurtain, Oklahoma, but we know that he maintained his primary residence in Kiowa County, Oklahoma, in the west central part of the state.

    In his draft registration he gives his wife Sallie's address (registered as nearest relative) as Mountain View, Oklahoma.  Further, we have seen that in 1920 he is enumerated with Sallie in their home in Mountain View, Kiowa County.  They are enumerated in Kiowa again in 1930.

    I interpreted his occupation in the draft registration as Stockman.  To clarify this, I was later informed by Charles O Christian, a descendant of Cleve's cousin, that Cleve owned a ranch near Wright City, Oklahoma.  In January 2008, Charles reported to me that his father had told him of an incident in which Cleve had been a member of a sheriff's posse and was injured in a shootout with a criminal the posse was pursuing.

    More details of the event unfolded as Charles talked with his brother about this and traced down newspaper articles about the incident.  News stories reporting this incident in two local papers specifically state that Cleve lived in Mountain View but owned a ranch near Wright City.

    Two stories in local McCurtain County papers detail the story, the Valliant Tribune and the McCurtain Gazette (Idabel).  The stories appeared in the issues of Wednesday, 16 August, 1922.  The incident occurred on August 14, 1922.

    An article in the McCurtain Daily Gazette, Idabel, Oklahoma, said he was at the ranch on business when a shooting occurred and he was asked to join a posse.  On Sunday late afternoon 13 August 1922, a man named Clayton Thompson had killed two people on a farm owned by Sheriff Bud Felker's brother. Cleve owned a farm next door to Felker's farm.  This was about 6 miles north of Wright City, Oklahoma, in McCurtain County.

    Cleve, as a member of the posse, was driving the car containing Sheriff Felker, a deputy named Richard Jones and Cleve's friend John Bowling on their way to arrest the shooter in Wright City, Oklahoma.  It seems that Cleve was asked to join the posse because he knew the shooter.  The sheriff also knew Thompson.  They met Thompson walking on the road into Wright City, with a 30-30 rifle in his hand, which had been used to kill the farm manager and an 18-year-old worker.

    The four men approached Thompson in Cleve's car, and spoke with him initially.  However, Thompson shot the sheriff twice, killing him with the first shot.  A 3rd shot hit Cleve in the lower abdomen.  Before he ran out of ammunition, he shot Bowling in the shoulder. The shooter got away from this encounter, but was later shot by Deputy Jones as he resisted when Jones tried to apprehend him.  Thompson died the next day in the jail at Idabel, Oklahoma. Cleve and Bowling were taken to the Broken Bow, Oklahoma, hospital, where they recovered.

    On Wednesday after the Monday shootout, the Valliant Tribune reports on Cleve's condition:  "Cleve Christian was shot through the body and probably fatally wounded."  Cleve did recover, however.  The McCurtain Gazette reported that Cleve was initially paralyzed from the waist down, due to the inflammation and trauma, but the doctor's said he would fully recover, he apparently did.
    --  Full story from the McCurtain Gazette transcribed here, http://home.centurytel.net/lilla/1922_newspaper_ValliantMcCurtainCoOK_GeorgeWMoye_ConstableOfValliant_transcript.pdf

    A later article (date uncertain) in the Valliant paper reports that Cleve passed through Valliant, Oklahoma, en route to Enid, Oklahoma, stating he was able to walk but still weak and that the bullet was still in his body. This story also states that the bullet which hit Cleve was not the third one as the earlier story said, but the second one which hit Sheriff Felker in the back, went on through his body and hit Cleve.  The first shot, in Felker's temple, had killed him.  As he slumped forward, the second shot hit him in the back.

    The sheriff was in the back seat of the car, with his window down talking to Thompson before things got wild.  Cleve was driving the car. This would mean that the bullet had to go through the sheriff's body, the front seat and into Cleve's body.  Perhaps the velocity of a 30-30 shot could do this.

    One sumamry version of the story says Thompson had actually got into the car before the shooting began.

    -------------------
    A. W. Felker, Sheriff
    McCurtain County Sheriff's Office

    Sunday night, August 13, 1922, Sheriff Felker had gone to Wright City to investigate a double murder committed by a man named Clayton Thompson. About 8 A.M. the next morning, Monday, August 14th, Felker, his Undersheriff Richard Jones and a citizen named Cleve Christian found Thompson walking down a road carrying a 30-30 rifle. For unknown reasons the officers allowed Thompson to get in their car with the rifle. Shortly after Sheriff Felker started driving off, Thompson shot him in the head, killing him instantly. Thompson then shot Christian but Deputy Jones was able to escape the car. Jones took cover and watched Thompson go into a near by restaurant. When Jones tried to arrest Thompson inside of the restaurant they struggled over the rifle and Thompson was shot. Christian recovered from his wound but Thompson died the next night in his jail cell in Idabel. His wife and five children survived Sheriff Felker.
    --  Oklahoma Law Enforcement Memorial, http://www.oklemem.com/Agencies/McCurtain%20County%20Sheriffs%20Office.htm
    -------------------

    Charles says, "I think Cleve came by to see my Dad when he got out of the hospital because my brother remembers Dad talking about Cleve not being able to walk very well."

    1930 Federal Census, Kiowa County, Oklahoma, 9 April, Dill, District 4, page 5B, Hse #101, Fam #102
    Christian, Cleve  Head  M W 46  TX MS MS  Farmer
    [Note that birthplace of both parents has changed!]
    Christian, Sallie Wife  F W 36  OK TX TX
    Christian, Cleva daughter F W 17 OK TX OK
    Christian, Harvey  son  M W 14  OK TX OK
    Christian, Vernon  son  M W 10  OK TX OK
    Christian, Harold  son  M W 7  OK TX OK
    Christian, James   son  M W 5  OK TX OK

    Both of Cleve's parents are reported as born in Mississippi in 1930, but Texas in 1920.  Family sources and other sources indicate Cleve's father was born in Mississippi and his mother in Texas.

    At some time after this census, Cleve and Sallie moved to Chickasha.  They are listed in the Chickasha city directory in 1938.

    Chickasha (Oklahoma) City Directory 1938, p 52
    Christian Cleve (Sallie) farmer h 1108 W Minnesota av

    Chickasha was their residence when Cleve died the next year in an Oklahoma City hospital.  His death certificate tells us he was still a farmer while living in the town of Chickasha.

    Cleve's cousin Charles O Christian obtained a copy of Cleve's death certificate for me in April 2008.:

    Oklahoma Death Certificate
    Grover Cleveland Christian
    Residence Chickasha, Occupation Farmer
    Parents D Z Christian, born Mississippi and Lizzie Petty, born in Texas
    Died 20 February 1939 in the Polyclinic Hospital, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma;
    Signed by Dr Anson Clark in the Medical Arts Building
    Cleve's attending physician since June 1934
    Cause of death Uremia and Bilateral Renal Calculi
    Removed for burial in Chickasha, Oklahoma, undertaker W P Brown
    Informant Neil Yates (brother-in-law, husband of Mary Nettie Jenkins Yates, sister of Cleve's wife Sallie Hester Jenkins Christian]
    Filed 21 February 1939

    "CHRISTIAN, Grover Cleve, 3 Apr 1884 - 20 Feb 1939  (burial 21 Feb) (Block 36, Lot 106, N 1/2)"
    --  Rosehill Cemetery (Chickasha, Oklahoma) Registry, http://ftp.rootsweb.com/pub/usgenweb/ok/grady/cemeteries/rose03.txt

    Karen, who originally posted Cleve's memorial on Find a Grave, updated it with missing information I provided from my research.

    -----------------
    Grover C "Cleve" Christian
    Birth Apr 3, 1884 Bryans Mill, Cass County, Texas
    Death Feb 20, 1939 Oklahoma City, Oklahoma County, Oklahoma
    Spouse Sallie Hester Christian (1893 - 1982)
    Children:
    Cleva Inez Weaver (1912 - 2000)
    Harvey L Christian (1915 - 1987)
    Vernon G Christian (1919 - 1960)
    Burial Rose Hill Cemetery, Chickasha, Grady County, Oklahoma, Block 36 Lot 106
    Created by Karen Jul 05, 2010
    --  Find A Grave Memorial #54527635, http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=54527635
    -----------------

Sources

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