Alpha Gordon Updegraff

     Alpha Gordon Updegraff was born on 13 May 1856 at Topeka, Shawnee County, Kansas Territory, USA.² He was the son of Derrick Updegraff and Martha [—?—].¹ Alpha Gordon Updegraff married, at age 37, Effie Moore on Wednesday, 12 July 1893.³ Alpha Gordon Updegraff died on 5 November 1929 at Freedom, Woods County, Oklahoma, at age 73 years, 5 months and 23 days.²
     He Taken from 'Pioneer Footprints Across Woods County, Oklahoma'

Alph moved from Topeka, KS about 1872 to what is now Woods County, OK and lived near Ash Grove, which is just north of where Alva, OK is now located. He worked as a cowboy for several years on cattle drives to Kansas and Texas. By 1886, he was a foreman of the Major Drumm Ranch (T-5 Ranch) at the mouth of the Medicine River. After he and Effie were married they made the Cherokee Strip Run their homestead and staked a permanent claim on Horse Creek, near Carmene, where they built a sod house. In 1896 they bought a ranch near Fairvalley and moved there in 1903. Alph became involved in the territorial and state politics. He was chosen a member of the Council from the 12th District and served in the 6th and 7th Territorial Assemblies. When Oklahoma became a state in 1907, Alph was elected a senator and served in the first two legislatures, 1907 - 1909. In 1909 he returned to fulltime stock raising on his ranch near Fairvalley, where he also operated a general merchandise store where the cattle trail from Hennessey to Freedom passed through. After Effie died, Alph moved to Freedom, OK to live with his son Sam. He was Cowboy/Senator.