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JAMES B. DIGGS
Vol. 3 p. 1114-1115

Since he identified himself with the pioneer bar of the old Cherokee
Strip more than twenty years ago, the career of James B. Diggs has
brought him a constantly enlarging volume of legal business and a
reputation second to none among the able embers at the Tulsa bar. Mr.
Diggs has lived in Tulsa for a number of years, and has a commendable
record for straight forward and high professional conduct, and his
success has been gained with honor and without animosity. He
possesses a broad and comprehensive knowledge of the law, and though
at various time he has interested himself actively in democratic
politics, he has concerned himself chiefly with the pressing and
constantly broadening duties of his profession.

His family and antecedents were such that he could well derive
inspiration and encouragement for his individual success. He was born
at Cahaba, Dallas County, Alabama, October 20, 1862, a son of James
S. and Katherine (EVANS) Diggs. His father was born at New Orleans,
Louisiana, in 1839, received his early education in that city, and
began the study of law there. James S. Diggs was a descendant from
Edward Digges, [sic] who was the fourth colonial governor of
Virginia. Another branch of the ancestry was the notable BRISBANE
family of England. At the beginning of the Civil war James S. Diggs
volunteered as a soldier joining the celebrated Cahaba Rifles, and
was with his command until the end of the war except when detailed
and put in charge of several government concerns by Confederate
authorities. James S. Diggs was a son of James B. Diggs, who was a
wealth planter and banker of New Orleans, and had fought under Andrew
Jackson at New Orleans as colonel of the provisional mounted guard.

James S. Diggs completed his education at Poughkeepsie College at
New York, and after returning South engaged in practice at Cahaba,
Alabama. Late he removed to Selma, when the county seat of Dallas
County was removed to that place, and continued to be engaged in
active practice until the time of his death on January 3,1893. A
democrat up to the close of the war, he then allied himself with the
republican party, and served four years as solicitor of Dallas County
district. He was married in 1860 to Miss Katherine EVANS, who was
born at Nashville, Tennessee, and who died March 11, 1908, at the age
of sixty-seven. She was a granddaughter of R. W. WHYTE, justice of
the Supreme Court of Tennessee, and was also a niece of Judges George
R. and James I. Evans of Selma, Alabama, and her family was allied
with the DONELSONS and JACKSONS of Tennessee. To the marriage of
James S. and Katherine Diggs were born five sons, four of them still
living. Next to the oldest in the family, James B. Diggs entered the
public schools at Selma, Alabama, and subsequently began the study of
law under the capable direction of his father. He was admitted to the
bar in 1884, and practiced at Selma until 1893. In that year he came
West and settled at Perry, Oklahoma, about the time of the opening of
the Cherokee Strip. he made himself a factor in the bar and in
citizenship in that locality until the fall of 1905, and during that
time was assistant attorney of "P" County, afterwards Noble County.
On March 11, 1894, he was appointed probate judge of Noble County,
and acted in that capacity for the remained of the term.

After leaving Perry Mr. Diggs spent a short time at Pawnee and then
came, on August 6, 1906, to Tulsa. His offices are on the seventh
floor of the Central Building. Since October, 1908, he has been head
of the legal department of the Gulf Pipe Line and affiliated
companies in Oklahoma. Since his arrival he has been one of the busy
lawyers of Tulsa, and among the numerous and interesting cases which
he has conducted to a favorable conclusion it is difficult to
specialize, he having appeared in most of the leading cases in the
state. As a citizen he has done his full share in assisting movements
for civic betterment and progress, and in political matters is a
democrat.

On June 24, 1908, Mr. Diggs married Miss Edith MACLARY, a native of
Maryland. To them have been born two sons: James B., Jr., born March
7, 1910, and Robert Maclary, born January 14, 1912.

Typed for OKGenWeb by: Earline Sparks Barger, October 3, 1998.