Bio of James S. Latimer (l356) - Latimer County, Oklahoma

Submitted by:  Ginger McCall  <call6@mynewroads.com>  5 Sep 2003
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James S. Latimer
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 307-308, Illustration

JAMES S. LATIMER, of Patterson, is a member of the body which framed the 
constitution of the new state of Oklahoma, and has also been honored in 
the naming of the county which bears his name, the suggestion coming from 
a well known member of the Constitutional convention itself. Mr. Latimer 
is a native of Linn county, Kansas, and was born December 10, 1855, some 
twenty-five miles north of Ft. Scott. The family was of English ancestry 
and was established in the southwest by Samuel Latimer, the grandfather of 
James S. This pioneer settled in southwestern Missouri and married a 
French woman and became the father of Dr. George W., the father of James 
S. Dr. George W. prepared himself for his profession and practiced 
medicine in Kansas during the troublous times of the border warfare while 
that state was in its formative period. He left Kansas before the outbreak 
of the Civil war, returned to Missouri and was for a time a surgeon in 
General Price’s Army. A few years after the war he moved to Benton county, 
Arkansas, where he lived until the early seventies when he located at 
Boonville, but some time prior to his death took up his residence at 
Springdale, Arkansas. Dr. Latimer married Miss Nancy B. Cowan and the 
children born to them were as follows: Mrs. Mary E. Castleberry, of 
Boonville, Arkansas; Mrs. Rilla Williams, who died in St. Louis, Missouri, 
and left two children; James S., of this review; Mrs. Della Griffey, of 
Boonville; Mrs. Ida Fulton, of Fayetteville, Arkansas; and Marvin G. 
Latimer, of Patterson, Oklahoma.

James S. Latimer, of this sketch, began his school career near Marshfield, 
Missouri, and finished his education at the Ft. Smith high school. Soon 
afterward he became a drug clerk at Boonville, Arkansas, for several years 
followed railroad work in that state, and in 1892 became a permanent 
settler of the Indian country. For a time he served as operator in the 
office of the superintendent of the Choctaw, Oklahoma & Gulf Railroad, at 
McAlester, and within the succeeding seven or eight years held the 
position of station agent and operator at Red Oak, Fanshawe and Wilburton. 
In the meantime, by marriage he had acquired the rights of a Choctaw 
citizen and at the conclusion of his railroad work located on a tract of 
land near the present site of the village of Patterson. As his means would 
allow he cultivated this tract of land and engaged in the buying and 
raising of live stock, subsequently taking his personal allotment of land. 
His wise management of these interests as the years passed gave him a 
considerable standing in the community and marked him for public 
preferment. His wide business experience, his substantial foundation of 
general information and his positive traits, united with his agreeable 
social qualities, commended him to his Democratic supporters as a suitable 
man to represent their district in the Constitutional convention. He was 
therefore made a candidate of his party and elected as a delegate from the 
Ninety-ninth district. When the convention assembled he was made a member 
of the committee on primary election, on public roads and highways, 
private corporations, mines and mining and oil and gas and he supported 
Mr. Hanraty for chairman of the convention, worked for the initiative and 
referendum and other important measures which were subsequently 
incorporated into the constitution. When the naming of the counties came 
before the convention, Representative A. H. Ellis, of Garfield county, 
suggested the christening of Latimer county as it is now known and his 
wish was carried into effect.

While station agent at Fanshawe, Mr. Latimer married, September 6, 1893, 
Miss Allie Brashears, daughter of Judge Turner Brashears, who was of 
Choctaw blood. Mrs. Latimer was born near Brazil, Indian Territory, August 
5, 1875. Their children are Winifred, Alvin Leo and Marie Kathleen 
Latimer. Fraternally, Mr. Latimer is a member of Wilburton Lodge No. 108, 
F. and A. M.
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