The Territory of Oklahoma was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from May 2, 1890, until November 16, 1907, when it was joined with the Indian Territory under a new constitution and admitted to the Union as the state of Oklahoma.
James Brooks Ayres Robertson, sometimes called J. B. A. Robertson, was an American lawyer, judge and the fourth governor of Oklahoma. Robertson was appointed by the state's first governor, Charles N. Haskell, to serve as a district judge.
Frank Dale was the second Chief Justice of the Territorial Supreme Court of Oklahoma Territory, serving from 1893 until 1898. Born in Somonauk, Illinois, he pioneered both in Kansas and Oklahoma, becoming a well-known attorney in both states. Both the towns of Andale, Kansas, and Dale, Oklahoma, are named for him. In 1893, he settled in Guthrie, which became the capital of Oklahoma Territory, and was named Governor of the territory. Although originally a Republican, sometime after moving to Oklahoma, he became a Democrat. He continued to live in Guthrie until his death in 1930.
Bird Segle McGuire was an American politician, a Delegate and the last U.S. Representative from Oklahoma Territory. After statehood, he was elected as an Oklahoma member of Congress, where he served four consecutive terms. He retired from politics in 1915. He was a cousin of William Neville.
John Homer Seger was an American educator best known for his work with the Arapaho tribe in Oklahoma.
James Ivey Phelps was a justice of the Oklahoma Supreme Court from 1925 to 1929, and again in 1935.
James R. Keaton was a justice of the Territorial Oklahoma Supreme Court from 1896 to 1898.
James Waddey "J.W." Clark was a justice of the Oklahoma Supreme Court from 1925 to 1933. He was born in Allisona, Williamson County, Tennessee to Joseph Poindexter and Cora Belle Waddey. After finishing public school, James became a traveling salesman, then went into the mercantile business, and finally went into business for himself. He took a course in law in 1907 and 1908, then enrolled in Cumberland University in 1909. By 1910, he had opened a law practice and won election to the Oklahoma legislature. In 1912, he was elected County Attorney for Atoka County, Oklahoma and was reelected after his first two-year term expired. In 1917, he returned to private law practice in Atoka, where he remained until he won election to the Oklahoma Supreme Court in 1924, filling a vacancy and taking office in 1925. He was reelected for a full 6-year term in 1926.
John H. Burford (1852–1922) was a justice of the Territorial Oklahoma Supreme Court from 1892 to 1906, serving as the final Chief Justice of that court from 1898 to 1903. After the territorial supreme court was dissolved at statehood, Burford served as City Attorney for Guthrie, Oklahoma, where he had made his home. He was the Republican Party nominee for U. S. Senator in 1914, but lost the election.
Matthew John Kane was a justice of the Oklahoma Supreme Court from 1907 to 1923, serving as chief justice from 1909 to 1911. A native of New York state, he earned a law degree at Georgetown University. Joining the Land Run of 1889 in Indian Territory, he settled in Kingfisher, Oklahoma.
Robert Minter Rainey was a justice of the Oklahoma Supreme Court from 1917 to 1921, serving as chief justice from 1920 to 1921. Elected to the State of Oklahoma's first House of Representatives (1907-8), he is also noted as having written legislation to create the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals.
John H. Pitchford (1857-1923) was an American jurist from Walhalla, South Carolina, descended from Irish immigrant ancestors. Pitchdford was raised in Walhalla and completed his early education at Newberry College. He then studied law in a private law office, and was admitted to the bar on his 21st birthday. His first legal practice was in Clayton, Georgia, but he soon moved to the city of Gainesville, Georgia.
Gibson A. Brown was a native of Washington County, Texas. His parents were James P. and Mary A., both natives of Georgia who had moved to a farm in 1847. Brown became an attorney and moved to Greer County, Texas.
Samuel W. Hayes (1875–1941) was born in Arkansas, and moved to Texas with his parents when he was a small child. He completed his basic education in Texas, then attended the University of Virginia. He apparently did not graduate, but his college experience sufficed to qualify him as a school teacher. He spent the next three years teaching in the community of Ryan in the Chickasaw Nation, then part of the Indian Territory. He also began studying law in a local law office and was admitted to the Territorial Bar in 1899.
Andrew Gordon Curtis Bierer, more often written as A. G. C. Bierer, was a judge in Oklahoma Territory who served as an associate justice of the Territorial Supreme Court between 1894 and 1898.
Henry Wilson Scott (1866–1935), also known as Henry W. Scott or H. W. Scott, was a native of Illinois, who moved with his parental family while he was growing up. First to Iowa, then to Kansas, where Henry completed high school. After reading the law under the supervision of William J. Fuller, Esq., he was admitted to the bar in 1884. Scott opened a private law practice in Larned, Kansas until 1891, when he moved to Oklahoma City, then the second largest city in Oklahoma Territory.
Edward B. Green was an American attorney and jurist who was appointed by Benjamin Harrison as the first chief justice of the Oklahoma Territory Supreme Court on May 4, 1890. Green, presided over a three-man panel of judges, who were also appointed by President Harrison. The other two judges, known as Associate Justices, were John G. Clark, from Illinois and Abraham J. Seay, from Missouri. Other court officials included Charles H. Filson, as clerk, Warren G. Lurty, as marshal and Horace Speed, as United States Attorney.
Orel Busby (1890-1965) was born in Batesville, Arkansas on February 6, 1890. who came to the Indian Territory communities of Allen and Ada with his parents when he was about 10 years old, and finally settled in the community of Konawa, Oklahoma. His parents were G. C. Busby and E.C.. The father was reportedly a native of Alabama and a very successful farmer and rancher after moving to Indian Territory in 1901. He later quit farming and ranching to open a mercantile business at Allen. Harlow wrote that Orel Busby was born in Batesville, Arkansas, and that he lived in Allen from 1901 to 1906 and in Konowa from 1906 to 1912.
Thomas Henchion Doyle (1863–1949), a son of Irish immigrants who settled in Massachusetts in the early 19th century, moved to Kansas after birth with his father and four siblings after the death of his mother. He worked in railroad construction to help the family finances, became a lawyer by reading law with an experienced attorney, passed the bar exam in Ottawa, Kansas, married a woman in Kansas City, then moved to the newly formed Oklahoma Territory in 1903, where they settled in a village now known as Perry, Oklahoma.
James Fletcher Sharp (1865-1927) was a Justice of the Supreme Court of Oklahoma. He was born on a farm on March 2, 1865, in Adams County, Illinois to James and Permelia Jane Sharp. He was the first of four boys in the family and one of two who survived to adulthood. Although he grew up on a farm, he got his primary education in public schools. Then he spent four years at Craddock College in Quincy, Illinois. He then enrolled in Missouri State University where he earned an LL.B. in 1889. He was promptly admitted to practice in Howard County, Missouri.
