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ROBERT T. LOONEY
Vol. 3, p. 1275-1276

It is an old adage that "Blood will tell," and we often find it
exemplified in the history of entire families, whose members in their
lives and characters show the force of heredity, modified at times by
environment, but seldom or never suppressed. Coming of good northern
stock, Robert T. Looney, cashier of the Farmers National Ban of
Tishomingo, Johnston County, is well qualified both by nature and
experience to assume rank among the progressive and forceful men who
are building up and developing the youthful State of Oklahoma into a
rich and flourishing commonwealth, the peer of many of the older
states whose symbolic stars adorn the flag of the Union.

Mr. Looney was born at Simpson, Illinois, January 5, 1889, the son
of Dr. J. T. Looney, now one of the leading physicians of Johnston
County. His father, and also his grandfather, Dr. W. A. Looney, were
graduates of Rush Medical College, Chicago. The father was at one
time physician-in-chief of the Southern Illinois Penitentiary of
Chester, later was surgeon of the Big Four Railroad Company, and is
now surgeon of the Rock Island Railroad Company at Tishomingo,
Oklahoma, having resided there since 1901. Until 1914 he was a member
of the first faculty of the Secondary State Agricultural and
Mechanical College at Tishomingo, and is now president of Johnston
County Medical Society and chairman of the Republican Committee of
Johnston County, also a director of the Farmers National Bank at
Tishomingo. In Freemasonry he had advanced as far as the Consistory.
Mr. Looney's mother was in maidenhood Fannie JONES, a daughter of F.
M. Jones, who served as an officer in the Union army during the Civil
war.

Robert T. Looney was educated in the public schools of Vienna,
Illinois, and came to Indian Territory at the age of fourteen, his
father having preceded him and made settlement at Tishomingo. At the
age of twenty he entered the American Nation Bank of Tishomingo as
bookkeeper in order to learn the banking business. In 1911 he and
associates established the First State Bank of Milburn, Oklahoma, of
which Mr. Looney took charge. Later the bank was sold and he returned
to Tishomingo and became cashier of the American State Bank, which
was afterwards consolidated with the Farmers National Bank. This
institution has a capital of $30,000 and is one of the leading banks
of the county. It is a member of the Federal Reserve System. C. B.
BURROWS is president and C. B. THOMAS vice president. Mr. Looney is a
member of the Tishomingo Commercial Club and of the Johnston County
Good Roads Club; also of the Johnston County and Oklahoma Bankers
Association. He is a thirty-second degree mason and, religiously,
belongs to the Presbyterian Church. Taking an active interest in the
agricultural development of the county, he is serving as a member of
the directorate of the Johnston County Fair Association, and he and
his wife are the owners of some valuable farm land that is being
scientifically developed.

On July 28, 1910, Mr. Looney was married to Miss Jennie RENNIE, and
they have two children, Robert Tullis, Jr., aged four, and Mary, aged
two years.

Mrs. Rennie is the daughter of William R. Rennie, formerly one of
the leading men in this section, who died in 1909 at the age of about
fifty-one years. Her mother's maiden name was Mary Ellen CAMPBELL,
and she was a sister to Charles Campbell of Mince. The career of
William R. Rennie is conspicuously interwoven with the history of the
Chickasaw tribe of Indians, he having descended from the line of
Chickasaw blood that produced the successful financiers of the
Johnson family of Norman, Chickasha and Mince; also the BOND family,
a member of which is Hon. Reford Bond of Chickasha, who is the
credited attorney before the departments in Washington of the
Chickasaw tribe, and the Campbell family of Mince that produced
Charles Campbell, who was one of the leading men of the Chickasaw
Nation for many years, he having been of this blood. Mr. Rennie's
talent made him an important figure in tribal affairs and at one time
he was treasurer of the Chickasaw Nation.
For a number of years he was engaged in the general mercantile
business at Tishomingo. He served several terms in the Chickasaw
Legislature, being a member body capital was torn down in 1898 and
another constructed of granite obtained from the quarries near
Tishomingo. At various times he appeared before the departments at
Washington in the interest of tribal affairs and was intimately
acquainted with a number of men prominent to public life in the
United States. He was an intimate personal friend of former Governor
HARRIS of the Chickasaw Nation. He was devoted to the name and
history of old Tishomingo and served one or more terms as its mayor.

The wife of William R. Rennie, who died in 1915, was a modern,
progressive woman, possessing much literary talent and a warm
personal interest in the progress of the Indians. She organized the
Cemetery Association of Tishomingo and was an active leader in church
and club affairs. She was reared near Mince when it was the principal
town in a wide scope of prairie country over which buffalo roamed,
and the seat of the big cattle industry that her relatives pursued on
a magnificent scale before the advent of the white lessees of the big
reservations.

The children of Mr. and Mrs. Renney are: Mrs. Robert T. Looney, of
Tishomingo; Miss Nora Looney of Tishomingo; Mrs. Arthur NESBITT, wife
of a business man of Tishomingo; Cecil, a farmer living near Hickory,
Oklahoma; and Claude, who is engaged in business in Thishomingo. It
will thus be seen that not only is Mr. Looney of good stock himself
but he is directly connected through marriage with some of the best
blood in what is now the State of Oklahoma. His person record is such
as to inspire confidence in his fellow citizens and his business and
public activities are proving a useful facto in the upbuilding and
improvements of the community.

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