OKGENWEB NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by any other organization or persons. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material, must obtain the written consent of OKGenWeb State Coordinator. Presentation here does not extend any permission to the public. This material cannot be included in any compilation, publication, collection, or other reproduction for profit without permission. Files may be printed or copied for personal use only. HENRY E. ASP Vol 3, p. 1134-1135 photo A distinguished member of the Oklahoma bar, Mr. Asp is engaged in the practice of his profession in Oklahoma city, where he is the head of the representative law firm of Asp, Snyder, Owen & Lybrand, with offices in Suite Nos. 608-14 Terminal Building. He established his residence in Oklahoma in the year following the creation of the territorial government, and is thus to be designated as one of the pioneer lawyers of both the territory and the state. Further than this his high sense of civic loyalty and stewardship has made him a constructive force in connection with the governmental affairs and general industrial progress in Oklahoma, where he has given earnest co-operation in movements and enterprises projected for the general good of the commonwealth and its people, especially valuable having been his influence in conserving a due portion of the public domain for the promotion and support of education. He was a prominent member of the state constitutional convention and has been a leader in the councils of the republican party in Oklahoma during the entire period of his residence within its borders. Henry E. Asp was born at New Boston, Mercer County, Illinois, on the 1st of January, 1856, and is a son of John A. and Christina Asp, both natives of Sweden and sterling representatives of that valuable Scandinavian element that has proved a benignant power in connection with the development and upbuilding of many of the states in the western portion of our great national domain. The mother of Mr. Asp died in 1857, when he was an infant of one year, and his father's life was sacrificed in the Civil war, so that virtually he has no remembrance of either of his parents. He was a child at the time of his father's removal from Illinois to Iowa, and at the inception of the Civil war his father, John August Asp, enlisted in an Iowa Regiment of Engineers, with which he proceeded to the front and with which governmental records show him to have been a faithful and valiant soldier. He participated in the siege of Vicksburg, in which city he died shortly after it had capitulated. His vocation after coming to the United States was that of a blacksmith, and his loyalty to the land of his adoption was shown with all of significance when he laid down his life in defense of the nation's integrity. In 1866 Mr. Asp was taken by his guardian from Iowa to Illinois, and thus he was reared to adult age in his native state. He began to assist in the work of the farm when a mere boy and remained with his guardian until he had attained the age of sixteen years. In the meanwhile his privileges and educational advantages had been of meager order and he had referred to this period of his career as being one of hard work and hard knocks. Alert mentality and ambitious purpose where not, however, to be denied their legitimate functions, and to such determined and valiant souls success comes as a natural prerogative. At the age of sixteen years Mr. Asp initiated an apprenticeship to a trade and later he was enable to complete a one year's course in a business college. In the meanwhile he had formulated definite plans for his future career, and in consonance with his ambitious purpose he began the study of law under the preceptorship of a prominent attorney at Winfield, Kansas. When but seventeen years of age he tried his first case and he has been engaged in active practice since that time, though he was not formally admitted to the bar until he had attained to his legal majority, this distinction having been granted him in 1878, at Winfield, Kansas. In that city he formed, in 1883, a law partnership with William P. HACKNEY, under the firm name of Hackney & Asp, and they continued in active general practice at Winfield until 1890, when a short time after the creation of Oklahoma Territory, they removed to Guthrie, the territorial capital, where their effective professional alliance continued until 1892, when impaired health compelled the retirement of Mr. Hackney from the firm. Mr. Asp then formed a professional alliance with James R. COTTINGHAM, under the title of Asp & Cottingham, and this partnership continued, at Guthrie, until 1907, when it was dissolved, this being the year in which Oklahoma was admitted to statehood. Close application and onerous professional responsibilities had made severe inroads on the physical health of Mr. Asp, and after his retirement from the firm he passed one year on a farm, for the purpose of recuperating his energies. He then resumed the practice of his profession at Guthrie, where he remained until 1912, when he removed to Oklahoma City, where, on the 1st of April of that year, he became a member of the present and prominent law firm of Asp, Snyder, Owen and Lybrand, which controls, a very large and important law business. Mr. Asp has appeared in much important litigation in both the territorial and state courts and is known as a careful, steadfast and resourceful trial lawyer and well fortified counselor, as well as one who insistently maintains the highest appreciation of professional ethics and of the dignity and responsibility of his chosen vocation. From 1889 until 1907 Mr. Asp had charge of the law department for Oklahoma of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad Company, and he resigned this position in the latter year, when his law partner, Mr. Cottingham, was appointed Oklahoma solicitor for this company. While a resident of Guthrie he served several months as assistant United States district attorney, a position which he resigned to give his undivided attention to his private law business. Mr. Asp represented the Twenty-fifth District of Oklahoma as a delegate to the state constitutional convention, in 1906, and was assigned to membership on the judiciary committee and the legal advisory committee. He prepared personally, and with remarkable ability and circumspection, the draft of the complete state constitution, and this is presented to the convention. He and his supporters made such a vigorous championship of the measure and so earnestly urged its adoption in its entirety that they became known under the facetious cognomen of the "Twelve Apostles." Mr. Asp had much to do with the framing of the constitution that was finally adopted as the basis for claims to statehood and he loyally supported the cause of Oklahoma until the desired end had been gained and it had become one of the integral commonwealths of the nation. Of his unremitting and zealous efforts in securing to the new state the full benefits from the school lands high commendation was given by Hon. John R. WILLIAMS, secretary of the state school land commission, in an article that was published in the Daily Oklahoman of April 26, 1914, and the following extracts from the articles are eminently worthy of reproduction in this connection: "In the early part of the year 1893, and after three great openings of lands to homestead settlement with reservations for public schools only, it was found by a few public-spirited citizens, notably Hon. Henry E. Asp and Dr. David R. BOYD, the latter then president of the State University of Oklahoma, that soon the public domain would be exhausted and that we would have no lands reserved for donation to the future state for higher education and public buildings. A bill providing for the opening of the Cherokee Outlet was then pending before Congress. Asp and Boyd appeared in Washington and endeavored to secure and amendment to the bill, reserving Section 13 in each township for higher educational purposes and Section 33 in each township for public-building purposes, but, owing to stern opposition, failed to secure its adoption by the committee on territories. Senator Orville H. PLATT, of Connecticut, the then chairman of the committee, was in sympathy with the purpose of these men and, sharing their disappointment, conceived and suggested another plan whereby the result might be wrought, and with his own hands drafted an amendment to the bill, which authorized the president of the United States, after making in his proclamation reservations of sections 16 and 36 for public schools, 'to make such other reservation of lands for public purposes as he may deem wise and desirable.' This act was approved by President Harrison on the last day of his term, March 3, 1893. "Upon the inauguration of President Cleveland Mr. Asp and Dr. Boyd interceded with him along the lines of securing additional reservations of land for higher educational and public-building purposes. The result was that, on August 19, 1893, President Cleveland issued his proclamation opening the six-million acre strip to homestead settlement, reserving Section 13 in each township, where not otherwise disposed of, for university, agricultural- college and normal-school purposes; also Section 33 in each township, where not otherwise reserved, for public buildings. These two reservations were made subject to the approval of congress, and were approved by that body May 4, 1894." For his effective interposition in the above connection the State of Oklahoma must owe to Mr. Asp a perpetual debt of gratitude and commendation, and in many other ways has he manifested his deep and abiding interest in all that touches the present and future welfare of the state of his adoption. In the Masonic fraternity Mr. Asp has completed the circle of the York Rite and received also the thirty-second degree of the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite, in Oklahoma Consistory No. 1, Valley of Guthrie. He is also a member of the adjunct organization, the Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine. He and his wife are communicants of the Protestant Episcopal Church and in the capital city their attractive home is at 416 West Thirteenth Street. In the year 1880 was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Asp to Miss Nellie M. POWERS, daughter of Nathan M. and Ellen M. Powers, of Winfield, Kansas. They have no children save an adopted son. Typed for OKGenWeb by Earline Barger, December 16, 1999.