C. E. Foley here, As you'll know, I hate standing up here and talking, but my wife, Rosa Lee, told me I had to, so you young folks would understand what it took to build this here metropolis. I would rather be spiking ties for the Katy Rail road as I was doing in 1873 when I came to North Fork town, than standing up here talking to you. North Fork was short lived after I arrived, since the Railroad decided to build the station here, all the merchants from North Fort packed up and moved the couple of miles to the station and formed the beginnings of the city of Eufaula, but that's getting a little ahead of the story.

I was born in Davenport Iowa. My parents, Patrick and Mary were immigrants from Ireland. At that time Ireland simply had too may people for the food it produced, and when a fungus attacked the potato crop, The food supply dried up and hundreds of thousands of people died. Many more people died than there were resources to safely dispose of the bodies and Cholera took as many people as starvation. The resulting economy could not support even the smaller number of the people left, and those in-charge eliminated this problem by paying ship captains to bring the people, weather they wanted to or not, to North America and Austria. This is how my parents arrived in the United States. They chose Iowa, after they arrived, because a family friend had written a letter back to Ireland describing the area in glowing terms.

My parent's situation was hardened by their Irish experiences, life on the farm was tough and I left at an early age. The principle thing gained from my youth was a common school education. Education coupled with my experiences of working from the bottom-up gave me a respect for business and how it operates.

When the KATY built through Muskogee, I was laying track. I met J. A. Patterson and he recognized my business ability and he staked me as a partner to open one of the first Mercantile Businesses in Eufaula. This store sold everything for toothpicks to guns. The upward progress of Eufaula's economy gave me the foundation to parlay this business into an number of additional businesses including: Hardware store, Stock Exchange, Home Construction Contracting, Real Estate, and the Foley Banking company. You may know the Foley bank as the First National, the organization that it eventually became.

I have been blessed with many friends over time and in 1895 they decided to elect me as the Mayor. I am proud to say they continued to re-elect me for 8 years. These same friends sent me to the US Congress in 1900 and again in 1903 to petition for regular representation in Congress for the Indian Territory. Although it did not turn out, as I wanted, this effort eventually evolved in Oklahoma Statehood.

Enough about my business experiences, Let me tell you about my family. My son Marshall was on the Ironheads all-stars football team in xxx. He graduated form New Mexico Military institute, was the Eufaula Football coach for several years and since 1946 until he retired he ran the Western Auto Store in town. Marshall and Mildred have two children and three grand children.

I believe I have been supported by the following organizations in my efforts, these include blue lodge of Masonry of Eufaula, The Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry, Oklahoma Historical Society, and 1st Methodist Church. Organizations like these are important to provide feedback, support and record progress.

Well that's about it. How we did it. Now it is yours. What do you think your going to do? If a poor Irish kid can build a bank and go to Congress, so can you. Go to it!