Bio of Walter C. Allen (a450) - Latimer County, Oklahoma

Submitted by:  Ginger McCall  <call6@mynewroads.com>  5 Sep 2003
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Walter C. Allen
Transcribed by G McCall from:
A HISTORY OF THE STATE OF OKLAHOMA

By Luther B. Hill, A. B., With the Assistance of Local Authorities, Volume 
II, Illustrated, The Lewis Publishing Company, Chicago / New York, 1909, 
Page 310-311

WALTER C. ALLEN, president of the First National Bank of Wilburton, has 
been thoroughly trained on the ranch, in the law school and in the 
counting room, and is therefore well seasoned and prepared to play a broad 
part in the arena of southwestern life. This invaluable preparation is a 
somewhat remarkable accomplishment in a man of thirty-four, and is 
partially explained by the pregnant phrase “blood will tell;” for Mr. 
Allen is a son of Judge J. P. Allen, of Oklahoma City, once probate judge 
of the county and active in its legal and political affairs since becoming 
a citizen of Oklahoma in 1894. Both father and son are natives of Attala 
county, Mississippi, the former born in 1850, serving the Confederacy in 
the last year of the Civil war. Judge Allen was a student in the 
University of Tennessee, read law with Jo P. Campbell, and practiced this 
profession in Mississippi until his removal to Oklahoma, his last location 
in the former being at Kosciusko. At Oklahoma City he promptly came to the 
front as an able lawyer and a Democratic leader; was chosen mayor of the 
place in 1897 and in 1901 elevated to the probate bench of Oklahoma 
county, serving two years in each office. Since his retirement from the 
probate judgeship he has devoted himself to his growing professional and 
business affairs.

Walter C., of this biography, who was born in Attala county, Mississippi, 
on the 28th of September, 1874, attended the public schools of Kosciusko 
as a preparatory step toward entering the state university, in which he 
spent six years, finally graduating from both the law and literary 
departments with the degrees of LL. B. and A. B. Then followed a most 
salutory experience of three and a half years upon the ranches of Texas, 
New Mexico, Colorado and Montana, this period from 1892 to 1895 concluding 
with a few months of law practice at Roswell, New Mexico, and the winning 
of the most important suit of his life--the one by which he became a 
married man. From Roswell, Mr. Allen removed to Oklahoma City, where he 
engaged in professional work and became identified with the New England 
Loan and Trust Company, the Bunnell & Eno Investment Company and finally 
with the Oklahoma Trust and Banking Company. He remained at Oklahoma City 
until 1903, when he opened the First National Bank of Wilburton as its 
assistant cashier, being rapidly advanced through several official grades 
to the presidency. When organized, with a capital stock of $25,000, James 
Degan was its president and L. W. Bryan, of McAlester, vice president. Its 
present officers are as follows: W. C. Allen, president; William Busby, of 
McAlester, vice president, and R. H. Lusk, cashier. Besides enjoying the 
leading connection with this substantial bank, Mr. Allen is a director and 
treasurer of the Bear Creek Lumber Company, of Oklahoma City and a 
director of the Oklahoma Mining Company. An earnest Democrat, but never a 
politician, his strong belief in the uplifting influences of popular 
education has induced him to participate in school affairs, as secretary 
of the local board, and as a member of the city council he has also 
rendered useful service to the municipality. Fraternally, he is identified 
with the Blue Lodge of Masonry, and is a Workman and a Woodman.

Mr. Allen’s wife, to whom he was married October 20, 1895, was a Miss 
Williamson, daughter of J. S. Williamson, a ranchman operating near 
Roswell, New Mexico. They have become the parents of two children--Glenn, 
born in 1897, and Constance, in 1898.
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