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M. A. LOONEY
Vol. 3, p. 1272

Many men attain honors in middle life or advanced age, after many
years spent in earnest endeavor; to have won them in early youth is
something less frequently accomplished. One of the youngest men in
Oklahoma to hold a commission under the Federal Court was the subject
of this memoir, M. A. Looney, who was appointed by United States
Judge Ralph CAMPBELL for the district embracing Johnston County. Mr.
Looney was then but twenty-one years old, and had just begun the
practice of law, having been admitted to the practice of law in the
courts of Indian Territory by United States Judge Hosea TOWNSEND.

Mr. Looney was born in 1886 at Vienna, Johnson County, Illinois, the
son of Dr. J. T. and Fannie (JONES) Looney. He is a grandson of Dr.
W. A. Looney, a graduate of Rush Medical College, Chicago, who for a
number of years was a prominent man in his part of the state and
served in the Illinois Legislature. Dr. J. T. Looney, father of M.
A., was born in Illinois and was, like his father, graduated from
Rush Medical College, being shortly afterwards appointed physician-in-
chief of the Southern Illinois Penitentiary at Chester. For a number
of years he was surgeon for the Big Four Railroad Company, and is now
surgeon for the Rock Island Railroad Company at Tishomingo, Oklahoma,
of which place he has been a resident since 1901.
Doctor Looney was a member of the first faculty of the Secondary
State Agricultural and Mechanical College at Tishomingo, holding the
position until 1914. He is president of Johnston County Medical
Society and chairman of the Republican Central Committee of Johnston
County; also a director of the Farmers National Bank of Tishomingo. A
Free mason of high rank, he belongs to the Commandery of Ardmore, the
Consistory at McAlester and the Shrine at Oklahoma City. The Looney
family is of Scotch-Irish origin and at an early date was settled in
the Isle of Man. One the maternal side Mr. Looney is a grandson of F.
M. Jones, who held an officer's commission in the Union Army during
the Civil war, and for many years subsequently was one of the leading
citizens of his county, for sixteen consecutive years holding the
office of county clerk.

M. A. Looney was educated in the school and high school at Vienna,
Illinois, and at the University of Illinois, subsequently graduating
in law from the St. Louis Law School of Washington University at St.
Louis. In 1907 he began the practice of his profession in Tishomingo,
having been admitted to the bar under the territorial regime, and for
a time was associated with H. O. Newman.

Mr. Looney was but a lad of sixteen when he came to the territory
and he had not been here long when he had a adventure, the possible
consequences of which, however, he did not realize at the time. It
was during the campaign for governor of the Chickasaw Nation in 1903,
and the contest had given rise to such bad blood that the rumor was
rite that in case of the election of Douglas H. Johnston the ballot
boxes were to be seized and either destroyed or the men in charge of
them murdered. It was necessary that the ballots be put in a place of
safekeeping. The place selected was the home of a farmer near Durant,
in the Choctaw Nation, for so loose were the regulations governing
elections that ballots were frequently transferred to another nation.
Any Indian citizen who undertook to carry the ballots away would be
in danger of his life. After a secret debate among the leaders young
Looney was selected to perform the dangerous task. The ballots sealed
up in a small package, were handed to him and he was instructed to
how to proceed. He was to take a Rock Island train at Tishomingo,
make transfer to another railroad that would take him to Durant, hire
conveyance at Duramt amd drive to the home of the man selected to
keep the ballots until danger was passed. He was to keep his mouth
closed, answer no questions and brook no delays. Young Looney did not
know until afterwards of the dangers he was incurring, that he might
be killed on sight, nor did he know that upon that journey depended
the policies of that nation for a good many years. Fortune favored
him, however, as he made the trip and accomplished his mission
without accident or incident, never being suspected by any man of the
opposing faction. Governor JOHNSTON was elected and his
administration was generally satisfactory.

Mr. Looney's appointment at the age of twenty-one as United States
commissioner has already been narrated. After serving for a few years
in that office he retired from law and associated himself in the
banking business with B. R. BRUNDAGE and C. B. BURROWS. He spent a
year in Clarita, Oklahoma, as vice president of the State Bank of
Clarita. Then, disposing of his banking interest there, he returned
to Tishomingo and again engaged in the practice of law, this time as
a partner of J. S. RATCLIFF, the style of the firm being Ratcliff &
Looney. His firm is legal representative of the Farmers National Bank
of Tishomingo and owns a stock ranch in this vicinity that is being
improved. Mr. Looney is a director of the bank above mentioned.

He is a member of the county and state bar associations, of the
Commercial and Good Roads clubs of Tishoming and of the Delta Ki
Legal fraternity of Washington University; also of the M. W. A., the
Knights of Pythias and the Masonic order. In the last mentioned he is
past master of Tishomingo Lodge, past high priest of the Chapter of
Royal Arch Masons, a member of the Council of Tishomingo and of the
Consistory at McAlester. Religiously, he belongs to the Presbyterian
Church. Although a republican in politics, he served for a time as
assistant county attorney under G. F. LEFLER, a democrat.

Mr. Looney was married June 24, 1912, to Miss Helen DUDLEY, daughter
of a pioneer resident and hardware merchant of Tishomingo. Mr. Looney
has one brother Robert T. Looney, cashier of the Farmers National
Bank, of Tishomingo.

Typed for OKGenWeb by Charmaine Keith, January 19, 1999.