Robert Cosad

ROBERT COSAD DIED THURSDAY
VICTIM OF PARALYSIS FAILED TO OVERCOME THE DESTROYER AND CHOCTAW COUNTY MOURNS
History of a Pioneer Who Was One of County's Most Widely Known and Best Loved Citizens
The Hugo Husonian April 11, 1912 - transcribed by Ron Henson

    Died at his rooms in Grant, Thursday morning, at 12:20 o'clock, Robert S. Cosad, aged 45 years.
    With the passing from life of Robert Cosad at Grant, Choctaw county lost a pioneer resident and one of its foremost citizens, possibly the most loved resident of the entire county. Deceased had been stricken with paralysis sometime in the night of March 28, being found the next morning in his room, unconscious, and from that attack the merchant never rallied, save for a few moments at a time. His entire right side had been paralyzed and death was expected from the first moment after he was found.
    Robert Cosad was a citizen in all that the term implies. Rugged, lovable and loving, he was friend to any man who respected friendship, and his charity was next to a fault, for it was unstinted and was given without hesitancy in any and all instances and to whomsoever he knew to be in need. Mr. Cosad was born in 1868, in Green county, Ohio, but moved with his parents to Pottawatomie county, Kansas, in 1871. In 1874 the family removed to Barry county, Missouri, near Cassville, where Mr. Cosad was reared and there he played an important part in development and history making of that Missouri county. His father was a farmer and stock raiser, and the young man early took an interest in that avocation. In 1893 Mr. Cosad graduated with the highest honors of his class in the Central Business College of Sedalia, Mo. In 1896 he was elected assessor of Barry county and held that important office for four years.
    At the expiration of his term of office in Barry county, Mr. Cosad came to what is now Choctaw county, arriving here in 1900 and has been a resident of Grant since that time. Following the constitutional convention in Oklahoma, Mr. Cosad was made county clerk of this county and served it with efficiency and to the complete satisfaction of the people. He was also elected state committeeman and had a statewide acquaintance with the democratic politicians of Oklahoma as well as of Missouri. Mr. Cosad was a farmer and stock raiser, and also operated a drug store in Grant. As merchant and citizen he stood second to none in the county and his friends were restricted only to those who made his acquaintance. A pioneer, he resided in this section during the wilder days, and was a peacemaker, the hand or voice of Robert Cosad being never raised against any man, and the difficulties he has been arbiter of and the feuds he has caused to end in peace are so numerous that no man can tell the number or have knowledge of the particular instances.
    Mr. Cosad was a Mason, going the Knight Templar route. He was also a member of the Hugo lodge of Elks, a W.O.W. Maccabees, and the Order of Eastern Star.
    Mr. Cosad was never married. His parents, Mr. and Mrs. S.W. Cosad, had but two children and the sister Louie, resides with her parents at Cassville, Mo., she, too being unmarried. The father, mother and sister arrived at Grant on the first train after being notified of his illness, and remained there during all of the time, doing all they could for the son and brother.
    The remains were sent to Cassville Thursday for interment. Thomas Dickson and William J. Oakes of Grant were delegated by lodges to accompany the stricken family to the former Missouri home, where the last rites of burial were conducted.
    Deceased will leave a place hard to fill in Choctaw county. A giant in physique, and with a spirit that was never daunted and an optimist in the superlative degree, Robert Cosad was so well known and generally admired, that not alone in Grant, but throughout Choctaw county all will remember him as one of the big men in the building of this section of Oklahoma. The regret is the more because he was stricken in his very prime, when it seemed but a few days prior to his death that he was to be granted a long life, and that his life was one of every day comfort and hope to all with whom he dealt is best manifested by the statement that the news of his death has caused sorrow in almost every home throughout the county in which he lived and where he had done so much toward creating the prosperity and comfort now existent.

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