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CHARLES NATHANIEL HASKELL
Vol. 3, p. 1067-1069

The first governor of the State of Oklahoma, Charles N. Haskell, has
been one of the most striking figures in the life and affairs of the
new state. Whether as governor or as a business man he has never been
content to be a mere figurehead, and his positive personality, his
firmness in decision and action, and his courageous leadership, has
necessarily placed him between two hostile factions of opinion and
his career is almost as much distinguished for the enemies he has
made as for the thousands who have accepted his leadership and given
a prompt and loyal following to his principles and policies.

Charles Nathaniel Haskell was born at Leipsic, Putnam County, Ohio,
March 13, 1860. His father, George Haskell, was born in Vermont, and
came to Ohio in 1848, first locating in Huron County, and in 1854
settling on a wilderness claim in Northwestern Ohio, twelve miles
from any other clearing. He was a cooper by trade and died in
January, 1863, before the future governor had passed this third
birthday. The Haskell ancestry is traced back to two brothers, Henry
and Jonathan Haskell, who came from England to this country in 1622
and located in the Massachusetts colony.

As one of a family of five fatherless children, Mr. Haskell had to
begin earning his own living as early as possible. In 1870, at the
age of ten, he became a hired boy to a farmer named MILLER, whose
home was in the country, six miles from town. With that family he
remained until the spring of 1878. There he grew to manhood,
developed strength and capacity in body and mind, and while his
employment interfered with regular attendance at school, he confesses
a lasting debt to Mrs. Miller, the farmer's wife, whose training and
influence were the largest single factor in the development of his
plastic character. Mrs. Lydia J. Miller is still living in Wood
County, Ohio. She had been a school teacher, and was a woman of
thorough Christian character. She took charge of his education, and
under her direction he studied at night and on Sunday, and made such
advancement that on March 12, 1878, he took the examination and was
granted a certificate to teach common school. During the following
three years until March 4, 1881, he taught two terms each year and as
a teacher he spent more days in a schoolroom than at any other time
as a student. In the meantime he had studied law under the direction
of Jacob WARNER, a lawyer at Leipsic, and was admitted to the bar at
Columbus, December 6, 1880. On March 7, 1881, he opened his office
and began practice at Ottawa, Ohio, and soon rose to a position as a
successful lawyer and likewise attained some influence as a leading
democrat in that section of Ohio. In addition to the practice of his
profession he soon became interested in the work of general
contractor and from 1888 to 1900 built the first sections of six
different railroads in Ohio and Michigan. His first work as a railway
builder was in his native county in 1888, and in 1895 he assisted in
constructing the railway north and south from Lima, Ohio, to Adrian,
Michigan.

Mr. Haskell came to Muskogee, then in Indian Territory, in April,
1901, as a railway contractor. He organized and built all the
railroads running into that city with the exception of the Missouri,
Kansas & Texas. His first work was the construction of what is now
the Muskogee Division of the Frisco Road in Indian Territory. In 1902
he constructed a portion of the Midland Valley Railroad, and in 1904
the M. O. & G. Railroad, and started the Muskogee street railway. In
1911 he built the Interurban from Muskogee to Fort Gibson. During
1914-15 he built the Oil Belt Terminal Railway from Jennings into the
Cushing oil field, but sold this property in March, 1915.

Before his election to the office of governor Mr. Haskell is said to
have built and owned fourteen brick buildings in Muskogee. He was
probably the most active promoter of large industrial and business
affairs in that city. It is said that when he arrived in Muskogee in
1901 he found the capital of the Creek Nation a sleepy village of
4,500 people, but that immediately on his arrival the town took new
life, business blocks were constructed, Mr. Haskell himself having
erected the first five-story business block in the territory, street
car lines and railways were promoted, and through his influence
Muskogee grew to be a center of business and industry with 20,000
inhabitants.

While still a resident of Ohio Mr. Haskell served in 1892 as a
delegate to the Democratic National Convention from the Fifth Ohio
District, and again in 1908 was a delegate at large to the Democratic
National Convention and chairman of the committee which wrote the
national platform. Of his political career in Oklahoma leading up to
his election to the office of governor, perhaps the best and most
intimate account will be found in an article published in 1908, while
Mr. Haskell was still governor. Briefly stated, he was a delegate in
1905 to the Separate Statehood Constitutional Convention, and in 1906
and 1907 was a delegate in the Oklahoma Constitutional Convention,
followed by his election and service as governor during 1908-09-10.
In the Sequoyah convention he wrote a large part of the Sequoyah
Constitution. "With this he became a permanent power in the politics
of Indian Territory. For the constitutional convention called in
response to the enabling act of June 16, 1906, he was elected a
delegate from the Seventy-sixth District, including Muskogee, by the
largest majority of any member in the entire new state. Mr. Haskell
owned the 'New State Tribune' and through its editorial columns
advocated certain specific propositions for the new constitution,
most of which he eventually saw, in substance if not in form,
incorporated in the basic law. Among these provisions were some that
affected the Labor problems, and which had been advocated by the
representatives of organized labor. It is said that Governor Haskell
during his business experience covering many years of handling and
dealing with the various classes of labor was particularly successful
in avoiding difficulties and never had a strike among his men. In
1905, when all the contractors of Indian Territory were having
trouble with the labor unions, he immediately signed the scale and
his men lost not an hour.

"As constitutional delegate Mr. Haskell was present every roll-call
and voted on every proposition during the eighty-seven days of the
session.,"

In reply to some information concerning his career, Governor Haskell
recently wrote to a young friend at Norman a letter giving some of
the biographical facts already stated, and concluding with a
paragraph which is of special interest both as biographic and
historical material. In response to a question as to the most
effective and beneficial single act in official life done by him,
Governor Haskell writes: "I believe it was one of the first rules
adopted by the Oklahoma Constitutional Convention, which you can find
in the records and which I wrote and endorsed. The purpose of which
was to prevent and limit the work of lobbyists before the
Constitutional Convention. I well remember that when the Convention
assembled at Guthrie the 20th day of November, 1906, practically all
of the best rooms in the hotel had been engaged for the winter by
paid lobbyists for the great corporations. In several instances,
suites of five or six rooms, well stocked with cigars and drinks to
make the lobbyists and visitors comfortable and probably hilarious.
The day this rule limiting lobbying was adopted, these lobbyists
vacated all their hotel rooms and removed to Oklahoma City, intending
to entertain members of the convention, who would be invited to go to
Oklahoma City at night and over Sundays. This was on Tuesday. The
following Friday an invitation was extended at the instance of these
lobbyists to the whole Constitutional Convention to come to Oklahoma
City Saturday afternoon on a special free train and receive a banquet
Saturday night and return to Guthrie on a special train at their
pleasure. It will be remembered that when this invitation was
presented to the convention, I made a motion to lay the invitation on
the table without acceptance, among other reasons for the following:
(1) It would not be a good idea for the Constitutional Convention to
waste time on junketing trips over the two territories. (2) It would
not be proper for the convention to accept a free train from any
railroad. (3) It was not proper for the convention to accept a free
banquet from any lobbyists or agents of special interests who desired
to influence the convention. By an almost unanimous vote the
convention adopted my motion, and from that time until the end of the
Constitutional Convention I believe that no body of men ever worked
with more loyalty to the public welfare and with more freedom from
improper influences. I have always considered that the membership of
the Oklahoma Constitutional Convention drafted our State Constitution
in the interest of the mass of the people and absolutely free from
corrupt or improper influences."

To quote again from the article above mentioned "At Tulsa on March
26, 1907, during the recess before the final adoption of the
Constitution by the Convention, was held the big democratic banquet
and love feast, attended by 500 or 600 of the leading democrats of
the new state, at which the first campaign was formally inaugurated.
It was during the course of the evening that Charles N. Haskell was
presented by his friends for the honors of the gubernatorial
candidacy. Thomas DOYLE of Perry, and Lee CRUCE of Ardmore, were
already in the field for the governorship, and with the primaries set
for June 8th, Haskell had only brief time to present his cause to the
people. During the campaign Mr. Haskell made eight-eight speeches in
forty-five days, and reached nearly every county, while the
lieutenants of the respective candidates were vigorously working the
school districts and securing support in every community. The
intensity of the campaign will long be remembered by those who passed
through it. Haskell's victory in the primaries was gained by over
4,000 majority and he immediately confronted a new opponent in the
opposite party, the republican territorial governor, Frank FRANTZ,
who was nominated in Tulsa. A former Rough Rider, a friend of the
President, and with the federal prestige and support backing him, he
was the strongest candidate the party could have presented. There
were several interesting features of the campaign between the two
candidates. Mr. Haskell challenged his opponent in joint public
discussion throughout the state, and every problem concerned with the
administration of the new state came up and was debated during the
campaign. It is claimed that the large corporate interest of the
country joined in the opposition to the democratic candidate, and
that material support was furnished Haskell's opponent by the
railroads and other trust interests. It is of interest to recall that
both Mr. BRYAN and Mr. TAFT spoke during the campaign, and the
latter's disapproval of the constitution and his advice that the
people vote against it undoubtedly reacted in favor of democratic
success. After Hr. Haskell's election and the approval of the
constitution on September 17th, a republican approached the governor-
elect and is reported to have said, 'You have so written the
constitution and carried on this fight in a way that the republicans
can't get anything in the state for fifty years.' Mr. Haskell's eyes
had a twinkle in them when he rejoined, 'well, that's soon enough,
isn't it?'

"Governor Haskell impresses the stranger who is acquainted with his
identity as governor, first of all by his evident business ability,
and this distinction of practical and astute executive capacity is
more prominent than some of the less valuable characteristics that
are often associated with statesmanship. In dealing with Mr. Haskell,
either in official or business affairs, one would expect
straightforward, incisive handling of the subject under
consideration. Circumlocution and specious argument would be out of
place in the governor's office." For a detailed account of his
administration as governor, the reader is referred to other pages of
this publication. Since only five years have passed since he left the
gubernatorial chair, it is too early to give a concise judgment on
his varied performances in that office. There is no question as to
his vigorous and effective leadership and his fearless independence
in acting and advocating measures which he believed to be essential
to carrying out the many ideals of the democratic plan on which
Oklahoma came into the Union. Since leaving the office of governor
Mr. Haskell has lived in Muskogee, has continued his work as a
railway builder, and has also acquired extensive interest in the oil
and gas fields of the Southwest.

Governor Haskell was married in October, 1881, to Miss Lucye
POMEROY, of Ottawa, Ohio. She came from a prominent New England
family, of colonial settlement and represented by soldiers in the
Revolutionary war. To this union were born three children: Norman, a
lawyer of Oklahoma City; Murray, president of a bank in Muskogee; and
Lucie, wife of Prentiss HILL. Mrs. Haskell died in March, 1888. The
present Mrs. Haskell was Miss Lillie GALLUP, of Ottawa, Ohio. Her
parents were Josiah and Naomi (COX) Gallup. Her father was born in
Ohio June 12, 1830, and was a soldier in the Union army during the
Civil war. The ancestry in the paternal line goes back to John
Gallup, who cam from England to American colonies in 1633. In the
maternal line the ancestry of Mrs. Haskell is traced to an ancestor
who came over on the Mayflower and located in Rochester,
Massachusetts. Both Governor Haskell and his wife are eligible to
membership in the Society of Sons and Daughters of the American
Revolution. Mr. Haskell is a woman of many accomplishments, and while
prominent as a social leader has devoted her time principally to the
rearing of her children. Her three children are: Frances, wife of
Col. L. G. NIBLICK of Guthrie, Jane, wife of Joseph L. HALL; and
Joseph, who is now actively associated with his father in the oil
business.

Typed for OKGenWeb by Charmaine Keith, November 20, 1998.