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Biographies
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CHECOTE, SAMUEL
(1819-1884)
A Creek Methodist minister and politician, Samuel Checote was born near Fort Mitchell, Alabama, in 1819. A full-blood Creek, he received instruction at the Asbury Manual Labor School near Fort Mitchell. After removal to Indian Territory Checote and his parents settled west of Okmulgee in 1829. There, under the influence of John Harrell, a Methodist missionary, Checote attended Harrell's academy and from thence devoted his life to preaching. When the Lower Creek Council in 1832 and 1844 passed a law forbidding any tribal member to preach, Checote successfully appealed to Chief Roley McIntosh to repeal the law.
Checote joined the Indian Mission Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, October 28, 1852. Only during the Civil War did he exchange his devotion to the word of God to that of the sword. He began his Confederate service as captain of Company B of the First Regiment of Creek Mounted Volunteers on August 13, 1861, and on August 19, 1861, he became lieutenant colonel of his regiment.
Postwar strife between Upper and Lower Creeks continued. Upper Creeks had been pro-Union, and Lower Creeks had fought for the South. When Checote was elected principal chief of the Creek Nation in 1867, the factional conflict accelerated during the Green Peach War. His tenure as chief lasted for twelve years, and the Creek people saw a number of administrative and moral changes due to his leadership. He was selected a delegate to the Ecumenical Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1882; however, he was too ill to attend. Checote died in his Okmulgee home September 3, 1884
[Source: Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture]
BOARD, Hon. Charles W.
His membership in the Oklahoma Constitutional Convention and active participation in the construction of many of the leading provisions of the state's basic law have given special value to Senator Board's work in the State Senate during the Fourth and Fifth Legislatures. Senator Board identified himself with the old Indian Territory ten years ago, and is a farmer-stockman at Okemah. Without show or publicity he has been a consistent and earnest contender for legislation of a progressive nature, such as is calculated to increase the value of the state's resources and the financial, educational and moral advantages of the people. Senator Board is one of those broad minded, level headed, charitable men of affairs whom his friends admire and trust.
Charles W. Board was born in Bates County, Missouri, in 1869, a son of Nehemiah and Elizabeth (Moorman) Board. His father, descended from a Virginia ancestry and a native of Kentucky, settled in Missouri in 1866, and for many years was known as a druggist and farmer in that section. Senator Board has three brothers and three sisters: J. W. is a physician and ranch owner at Dexter, New Mexico; A. W. is a telephone system owner and farmer at Hope, New Mexico; M. A. is a druggist at Okemah; and Misses Lucy, Annie and Emma are teachers and live at Okemah.
Senator Board received his early educational training in the public schools and later took academic courses in Butler and Appleton City, Missouri. Leaving school at the age of twenty-two, he became a farmer, and for the fourteen succeeding years combined farming and teaching in Missouri. On coming to Indian Territory, in 1905, he located at Okfuskee, a town now situated in the county of that name. For a few years he was a farmer and merchant, and now owns and operates a well improved ranch for agricultural products and stock near Okemah.
In 1906 Mr. Board was elected a member of the constitutional convention from the Seventy-third District of Indian Territory. Besides his constructive work on subjects of more importance in that body, his idea was adopted by the convention in the creation of Okfuskee and Okmulgee counties. In 1907 he was elected the first register of deeds of Okfuskee County, and was re-elected to the same office. In 1912 he had no opposition in the democratic party at the primaries as candidate for the nomination to the State Senate from the Twenty-second Senatorial District. He took his seat as a member of the Fourth Legislature, and became chairman of the committee on privileges and elections and was a joint author of a revised election code adopted by that legislature. He was author of a law placing limitations on guardians in the interests of minor children and their estates. In the Fifth Legislature Senator Board was chairman of the committee on privileges and elections, and a member of the committee on ways and means, revenue and taxation, roads and highways, enrolled and engrossed bills, irrigation and drainage, geological survey, legislative and judicial apportionment and oil and gas. He was author of a bill establishing a system of cotton weighing, and with Senator McIntosh of a bill providing for the payment of election inspectors. He also assisted in the preparation of a bill relating to libel, designed to limit public speech during a political campaign. He was joint author of the home ownership bill, and gave close and studious attention to the consideration of some of the leading measures of the session, voting always in the interest of economy, efficient government and better administration of public affairs. As a resident of old Indian Territory he paid special attention to the matter of good roads legislation.
Senator Board was married in Appleton City, Missouri, in 1893, to Miss Gertrude Raybourn. Their four children are: Guy, aged twenty-one, a graduate of the Okemah High School; Raymond, a student in the Okemah schools; and Mary E. and Gertrude. Senator Board has affiliations with Okemah Lodge No. 234, Ancient, Free and Accepted Masons, has taken the fourteenth degree in the Scottish Rite at Guthrie, has been through all the chairs in the local lodge of Odd Fellows, and is a past chancellor in the Knights of Pythias. He has like wise held the official honors of the local camp of the Modern Woodmen of America and belongs to the Okemah Lodge of the Royal Neighbors.
[Source: A Standard History of Oklahoma Volume 4 By Joseph Bradfield Thoburn - Submitted by Barb Ziegenmeyer]
JOHNSON, Glen Dale, a Representative from Oklahoma; born in Melbourne, Izard County, Ark., September 11, 1911; moved to Paden, Okla., 1920; attended the public schools; graduated from the University of Oklahoma Law School at Norman in 1939; was admitted to the bar the same year and commenced practice at Okemah, Okla.; member of the State house of representatives 1940-1942; resigned his membership in the house in January 1942 and enlisted in the United States Army as a private and was discharged as a captain in May 1946; resumed the practice of law; elected as a Democrat to the Eightieth Congress (January 3, 1947-January 3, 1949); was not a candidate for renomination in 1948, but was an unsuccessful candidate for the Democratic nomination for United States Senator; neutral arbitrator for National Mediation Board in 1949 and 1950; served as attorney in the Office of the Solicitor, Department of the Interior, Washington, D.C., 1961-1967; chairman, Oil Import Appeals Board, representing the Department of the Interior, Washington, D.C., 1967-1969; attorney in Solicitor’s Office, Department of the Interior, Muskogee, Okla., 1969-1972; was a resident of Okemah, Okla., until his death there on February 10, 1983. [Source: Biographical Directory of the U.S. Congress]
PHILLIPS, Leon Chase
(1890-1958)
Was born on December 9, 1890, on a farm in Worth County, Missouri. His parents were Rufus Putnam and Bertha Bressler Phillips. In 1892 his father bought land west of present Clinton, Oklahoma, later moving the whole family to their new home. After graduating high school from the local public education system,He was a member of the Democrat party. The eleventh governor since statehood he served from 1939 to 1943. Born December 9, 1890, in Worth County, Missouri, Phillips moved to Oklahoma at an early age. While a student at Epworth University in Oklahoma City, he studied for the ministry, but changed to law and received his LL.B. from the University of Oklahoma in 1916. He was admitted to the State Bar in that year and to practice before the United States Supreme Court later. He would serve his country throughout the war as a private in the artillery division of the U.S. Army. After service in World War I, he returned to Okemah where he practiced law. After returning to Okemah, Phillips became active in politics, serving in various party positions. These led to his election to the Oklahoma Legislature in 1932. While in the legislature, he served as speaker of the House of Representatives in 1935, as well as being Democratic minority leader in 1937. After being reelected in 1934 and 1936, he ran for governor in 1938 and won. He was Governor from January 9, 1939, to January 11, 1943. Throughout his term he received many honors, including and being made honorary chief of the Otoe tribe. He also made the presentation to the nation of the Will Rogers statue in the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington, D.C. Phillips was a member in many organizations, including the Oklahoma Bar Association, the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, the Knights of Pythias, and the Kiwanis. Phillips was married twice. His first wife was Myrtle Ellenberger of Norman. They were married on June 19, 1961, and had two children, Robert Rowe and Lois Ann. The couple later divorced in 1951. On April 24, 1953, he married Helen Conklin. After retiring from the office of governor, Phillips moved back to his farm near Okemah, and he continued to practice law. A decade and a half later Phillips would pass on, dying of a heart attack in the post office in Okmulgee on March 27, 1958.He lived in Okemah until his death March 27, 1958, and is buried in Weleetka. Interment at Hillcrest Cemetery.
[Source: Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture]
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