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JOHN T. KRAMER
Vol. 3, p. 1294-1295

A scion of a sterling German pioneer family of the Hoosier State,
Mr. Kramer was there born and reared and in his native county he had
achieved distinctive success as an independent agriculturist and
stock-grower prior to coming to the Territory of Oklahoma, in 1903.
Here his success has been of unequivocal order and such as to fully
justify his confidence, circumspection and good judgment when he cast
in his lot with the now vital and progressive young state. He early
made judicious investment in lands adjoining and now an integral part
of the City of Tulsa, and through the rapid appreciation in the value
of this property, much of which has been platted into city lots, he
has realized large financial advancement. He is the owner also of a
large and admirably improved landed estate aside from this, and is
looked upon as one of the most enterprising and successful farmers
and stockholders of Tulsa County. Mr. Kramer is a man of solid worth
of character and of much ability, so that he has been influential in
civic affairs as well as those of industrial order, the while his
personal popularity has brought to him noteworthy official
preferment. His second consecutive term in the office of treasurer of
Tulsa County expired on the 1st of July, 1915, and his administration
of the fiscal affairs of this important county has been
characteristically careful, conservative and steadfast, his avowed
ambition having been to safeguard and advance the interests of the
county to the full extent of his power as an official and as a loyal
and public-spirited citizen, and his course having met with
unqualified popular approval.

Mr. Kramer was born in Spencer County, Indiana, on the 9th of
August, 1870, and was the tenth in order of birth of the five sons
and six daughters born to John H. and Johnnette (Becker) Kramer: four
of the children accompanied their parents on the immigration from
Germany and all of the others were born in Indiana. Of the children
three sons and three daughters are now living. Both parents were born
in the Rhine Province of Prussia, Germany, and in their native land
they were reared and educated. After their marriage they continued
their residence in their Fatherland until 1854, when, accompanied by
their four young children, they immigrated to the United States. The
voyage was made on a sailing vessel of the type common to trans-
Atlantic transit at that period, and proved so tempestuous that
thirty days elapsed ere the vessel dropped anchor in the port of New
York City, the officers and passengers of the boat having virtually
lost hope of ever reaching their destination, and shipwreck having
been avoided by a very narrow margin. From the national metropolis
the family forthwith proceeded to Indiana, where Mr. Kramer obtained
a tract of heavily timbered land, in Spencer County, and essayed the
herculean task of developing a farm. Almost entirely through his
individual labors he cleared and reclaimed this original homestead of
eighty acres, and through his unremitting application and judicious
management of affairs as an agriculturist and stock-grower he became
one of the most substantial farmers of that section of the state. He
was born in 1818 and was nearly sixty-six years of age at the time of
his death, on the 26th of February, 1884. His landed estate property,
all in Spencer County, and the excellent improvements, including
substantial buildings, gave tangible evidence of his thrift and good
management. John H. Kramer became a staunch supporter of the cause of
the democratic party and was influential in local affairs. Though he
had no desire for personal preferment of official order, it was
almost entirely through his efforts that his nephew, William Jacobs,
was elected the first democratic treasurer of Spencer County,
notwithstanding the fact that the county was a recognized republican
stronghold. His eldest son, Henry, succeeded Mr. Jocabs in the office
of county treasurer, and the influence which he himself wielded in
the community was due to his recognized integrity and his high civic
ideals. His wife survived him by a decade and was seventy-four years
of age when she passed to the life eternal, in 1895, both having been
devout communicants of the Lutheran Church, in the faith of which
they were reared.

Reared under the invigorating discipline of the home farm, John T.
Kramer continued to attend the public schools of Spencer County until
he had completed the curriculum of the high school at Rockport, the
county seat, after which he took an effective course in a business
college in the City of Lexington, Kentucky. In initiating his
independent career he engaged in the retail grocery business and
produce-commission business at Rockport, and after being identified
with this line of enterprise five years he resumed association with
farming and stock-raising, by purchasing in his native county the old
Stryker farm, bordering the Ohio River. On this farm was Stryker's
Landing, long a point of considerable prominence in connection with
navigation activities on the Ohio River. Mr. Kramer continued his
operations as one of the energetic and successful agriculturists and
stock-raisers of Spencer County until 1903, when he sold the farm and
came to Indian Territory. He purchased a tract of seventy-five acres
in close proximity to the ambitious little City of Tulsa, and there
turned his attention to farming. With the rapid growth and
development of the city his property increased greatly in value, and
the entire tract is now an integral part of Tulsa. Sixty acres have
been subdivided and platted into city lots and these have been placed
on the market in a successful way, so that the section has developed
into a most attractive and desirable residence district, the
remaining fifteen acres of the original tract constituting the
homestead place of Mr. Kramer and being one the fine homes of the
City of Tulsa. In the Fry District of Tulsa County, Mr. Kramer is the
owner of a well improved farm of 440 acres, devoted to diversified
agriculture and to the raising of high-grade live stock, especially
short-horn cattle and Poland-China swine. One hundred acres of this
farm is given to the cultivation of alfalfa, and the buildings on the
estate are of substantial order including four barns that have
recently been erected.

Incidental to the state constitutional convention of 1907, Mr.
Kramer was appointed temporary county clerk of Tulsa County, to
organize and supervise the first election in the county, and after
the admission of the state to the Union, in that year, he was
appointed secretary of the county election board, of which office he
continued the valued incumbent until his resignation, in 1910. He
became at that time democratic candidate for county treasurer. He had
an opponent in first election, and was re-elected in 1912, having
been re-elected for the second term without an opponent. His second
term of administration expired in July, 1915, and he declined to
become a candidate in the election of 1914.

Mr. Kramer has been a leader in democratic party circles in his
county, both he and his wife are communicants of the Lutheran Church,
and he is affiliated with Tulsa Lodge, No. 71, Ancient Free &
Accepted Masons, as is he also with the local organizations of the
Benevolent & Protective Order of Elks and the Modern Woodmen of
America.

On the 9th of August, 1892, was solemnized the marriage of Mr.
Kramer to Miss Amelia Bretz, who likewise was born and reared in
Spencer County, Indiana. She is the youngest of her parents' seven
children, and all of her brothers and sisters are married and living
near where they were born in and near Spencer County. Mrs. Kramer's
parents came from the old country, her mother having been born during
the voyage. She lived to be fifty-eight years old and the father died
at the age of fifty-four. Mr. and Mrs. Kramer have four children:
Forrest J. H., Philip J., Allen C., and John T., Jr.

Typed for OKGenWeb by: Annajo Limore, October 1, 1998.