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 permissions to the public. This
material can not be included in any compilation, publication,
collection, or other reproduction for profit without permission. Files
may be printed or copied for personal use only.
=====================================================================

JUDGE ALEXANDER GULLETT
Vol. 3, p. 1087-1088

Among the various avenues to distinction law and politics present
special attractions to the ambitious; yet, of the great number who
set out on the road many fall by the way and only a few achieve an
unqualified success. In the political field accident often prevents
an able man from reaching the ultimate goal of his ambitions, but in
law a high degree of ability usually brings its reward in time. One
of the foremost citizens of Tishomingo, Oklahoma, is Judge Alexander
GULLETT, whose career has been marked by notable achievements in both
the fields of activity to which reference has been made above. Judge
Gullett was born at Union City, Indiana, June 26, 1844, a son of
Samuel and Fannie (WASSON) Gullett. His paternal family is of French
Huguenot extraction, some of its early members, after the Revocation
of the Edict of Nantes, fleeing to Ireland, whence they later came to
the United States. Among them was Thomas GULLETT, who was a preacher
in the Colonies during the Revolution. The paternal grandfather of
Judge GULLETT was born in North Carolina. The maternal grandfather,
Rev. Davis WASSON, was a native of Ireland, of Scotch and Irish
extraction, and at an early date settled in Ohio, bringing with him a
Masonic lodge demit from Ireland, dated 1807. The WASSONS were long-
lived, the last son of Rev. Davis WASSON dying a few years ago at the
age of ninety-four.

Alexander GULLETT acquired his early education in the public schools
of Indiana. During the Civil war, being then a young man under age,
he obeyed the call of the patriotism, joined the Sixty-ninth Indiana
Regiment and was wounded at Vicksburg. His public school education
was supplemented by a scientific course at Holbrook University,
Lebanon, Ohio, and still later by a special course in the
Northwestern Christian University at Indianapolis, after which he was
engaged in teaching for three years. In 1870 he was appointed clerk
of the Committee on Indian Affairs of the National House of
Representatives, under Chairman John C. P. SHANKS, of Indiana, and
served for three years, during which time he studied law in a night
school connected with Georgetown University. In 1872 he began the
practice of his profession at Union City, Indiana, and shortly
afterward was elected district attorney, a position he filled one
term, returning then to the regular practice of law. While in
Washington he had made the acquaintance of James A. GARFIELD, who
afterwards became President, and the two became fast friends, young
Gullett being a member of Garfield's Sunday school class. In 1880
Judge Gullett, having formed an intimate friendship with Senator
TELLER, moved to Colorado, locating at Gunnison, where he lived for
eighteen years. Here his abilities attracted attention and he began
to come into public notice. For six years he was a member of the
State Penitentiary Commission. He was a friend of MOFFATT, the
railroad builder, and sought to have MOFFATT build the Denver and Rio
Grande Railroad over a more direct route into the West, a route that
would have required the digging of a tunnel through the backbone of
the Continent, with an exit into fertile valleys and lucrative mining
districts beyond. His activities while a resident of Colorado for
eighteen years were a not inconsiderable factor in that state's
development. He was a prominent figure in political circles and a
close friend of many of the leading men in the state. In 1896 Judge
Gullett refused to head a delegation to the National Republican
Convention when he saw the probability of his old friend Senator
TELLER and the senator's friends walking out of the convention
because of their stand on the silver question. In 1900 Judge Hosea
TOWNSEND, who had been Judge Gullett's friend in Indiana, was
appointed judge of the United States Court of the Southern District
of Indian Territory. There was a vacancy in the office of United
States commissioner in the district and Judge Gullett was asked to
accept the appointment, which he did. During the next few years he
tried many interesting cases at Ardmore, Duncan and other points.
Later he was transferred to Tishomingo and in 1905 was appointed
assistant United States attorney. He was one of the first men of
Indian Territory to advocate single statehood for the two
territories, and at a time when such advocacy was very unpopular.
Judge Gullett took a lively interest in the election of delegates to
the Constitutional convention and for a time was chairman of the
Republican Central Committee of the county. He organized the
Tishomingo State Bank here, but for a number of years his activities
have been confined chiefly to the practice of law, making a specialty
of real estate and title practice. For half a century Judge Gullett's
associations have been with men of public affairs, many of them of
national reputation. In the National Republican Convention of 1884,
to which he was a delegate from Colorado, Judge Gullett's friends
laid the groundwork by which, had Chester A. ARTHUR been the nominee
rather than James G. BLAINE, he would have been governor of Colorado.
On a previous occasion, four years earlier, when he first settled in
Colorado, had political fortune taken the turn in his favor, he would
have been judge in that state of the United States District Court.
These disappointments, however, he took in a philosophical spirit,
playing the game of politics largely for the sport of it, and
devoting himself studiously to his profession, to
the forming of friendships and to the material and moral advancement
of the communities in which he has lived.

Judge Gullett was married August 6, 1864, at Union City, Indiana, to
Miss Susanna TURNER. He is a member of the Christian Church, the
Masonic order, the Johnston County Bar Association and the local post
of the Grand Army of the Republic.

Typed for OKGenWeb by: Donald E. Conley, 6 November 1998.