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ANTON H. CLASSEN
Vol. 3, p. 954
Book has photo

Anton H. CLASSEN was born at Pekin, Illinois, in 1861, and is of
German decent. His childhood and youth were spent amid surroundings
that were typically characteristic of the great class which has
contributed so much to the America of today Trained to habits of
industry, with a fair common school education and a good degree of
business ability, Mr. Classen matriculated in the law school of the
University of Michigan several years after attaining his majority and
graduated in that institution in 1887. Two years later he came to
Oklahoma, entering with the rush on that memorable 22nd of April,
1889. After stopping at Guthrie for a time he settled at Edmond,
where he became thoroughly identified with the pioneer life of the
community. Besides engaging in the practice of law, he edited and
managed the Edmond Sun for four or five years, and also looked after
the operation of a farm adjoining the town. He was the leading spirit
in the effort which resulted in securing to Edmond the first normal
school established in the state. He stimulated a spirit of civic
pride in the early development of that city by planting many trees
not only on his own property but on public property at his own
expense. Although from the first he took an active interest in public
affairs, and during the first year after the opening, when the time
arrived for the people to organize their respective parties, was
chosen as one of the members of the Central Committee and took an
active part in the organization of the republican party, he did not
hold any political position until his appointment as receiver of the
United States Land Office at Oklahoma City in 1897 by President
MCKINLEY. At the expiration of his term, four years later, he was
appointed register of the same office, which position he resigned in
the latter part of 1902 to devote his whole time and attention to his
rapidly increasing business interests.

Mr. Classen has been an active factor in the phenomenal development
of Oklahoma City. He was elected president of Oklahoma City
Commercial Club in 1899 and was re-elected for three consecutive
terms, and from that time that body (the present Chamber of Commerce,
as reorganized) has found in him one of its chief workers and
supporters. He took an active part in the struggle for the union of
the two territories into one state, and for the purpose of helping to
urge the necessary legislation spent some time in Washington on
several occasions, and in that respect was not in harmony with his
party, the majority of which was in favor of making two states out of
the Indian Territory and Oklahoma Territory. His faith in the future
of Oklahoma City was seemingly unbounded. Property was very cheap in
and around Oklahoma City in those days and he evidenced his faith in
its future by investing all of his modest capital in what was then
outside property but which is now the heart of the best close-in
residence sections. There were older (and professedly wiser) heads
who regarded his ventures in this line as rash beyond the point of
reason, but Mr. Classen platted his newly acquired property and lined
its tenantless streets with trees which were carefully cultivated and
pruned. The end more than justified his careful calculations, and in
time he came to be regarded as a shrewd and skillful real estate
operator. In 1902 his real estate holdings were transferred to the
Classen Company, of which he is president and principal stockholder.
In 1902 he secured a franchise which had been granted for the
building of a street railway in Oklahoma City. The work of laying the
steel on the first car service was inaugurated in February 1903. From
this beginning the present Oklahoma Railway, with its splendid
electric traction system and its radiating interurban lines, has been
developed.

Although Mr. Classen is a man of positive views, there are few of
his fellows who dislike him, and there is perhaps no man who is more
generally and highly respected by the citizens of Oklahoma City and
the state. He holds the firm friendship of those who know him best,
not because of what he has but because of what he is. Aside form his
success in a business way he has distinguished himself as a friend
and liberal patron of education and art. He is devotedly fond of
flowers.

Mr. Classen was married in January 1903 to Miss Ella D. LAMB of
Oklahoma City. Mrs. Classen, like her husband, was a native of
Illinois and a pioneer of Oklahoma, having come to Oklahoma City in
1890. Both her father's and her mother's people were pioneers in
Illinois. Her father's people came from Massachusetts to the West in
the early '40's. They were of English descent. Her father, James
Lamb, bore the same name as his great-grandfather, who was a soldier
in the Revolution. Mrs. Classen says that she has thoroughbred
pioneer blood in her veins, and that she was an Oklahoman in spirit
long before she came here to reside; that as a young girl, while
living in Champaign, Illinois, she remembers hearing her father many
times read and talk about the prospective opening of Oklahoma, and
express himself as determined to make his home in this land of
opportunity when that time should come. It was with this ultimate
plan in view that her father, with his family, came to Wichita,
Kansas, to reside for a time. The father died in Wichita in 1887 and
the family plans were changed somewhat, but Miss Lamb (with her
mother and a younger brother and sister) was able later on in the
early years after the opening to establish her residence in Oklahoma,
thus carrying out for the family the long-cherished hope of the
father, and finding here a realization of her fondest dreams. Mrs.
Classen vies with her husband in active effort for the encouragement
of those things which promote the interests of good citizenship and
aid in the progress of the community.

Typed for OKGenWeb by: Vickie Neill Taylor January 4, 1999.