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HON. THOMAS F. MEMMINGER
Vol. 3, p. 1088-1089

With a long and varied experience as banker, farmer, stockman and in
the political life of Nebraska, Thomas F. MEMMINGER came to Indian
Territory in 1905. In the past ten years his interests have grown to
become an important factor in the eastern section of the state,
particularly at Atoka. The first year in Indian Territory he spent at
Durant, but since that time his home has been in Atoka.

In 1908 he bought an interest in the Atoka State Bank, of which he
is president, with John RAY vice president and Charles Memminger, his
son, assistant cashier. Other directors are A. S. BURROWS, president
of the First State Bank of Denison, Texas; and O. L. DULANEY, of
Wayne, Oklahoma. This bank, which is capitalized at $20,000, has the
unique distinction of never having a law suit or mortgage
foreclosure. Since coming to Eastern Oklahoma Mr. Memminger has
acquired extensive land holdings around Atoka, and has proved a vital
factor in the agricultural development of that region.

In fact, it is as a practical business executive that Mr.
Memminger's greatest influence has been exerted. He has done more
than merely share in the routine accomplishment of the world, and has
usually been a leader in formulating and developing material affairs
wherever he has lived.

Those in close touch with and students of Oklahoma political affairs
since statehood gave Mr. Memminger great credit for his influence as
a legislator during seven years; membership in the State Senate.
However, he is himself inclined to disparage his political
activities, is averse to being termed a politician, and asserts that
he takes no interest in politics, only for the good of the state and
county in which he lives. Senator MEMMINGER has drawn an interesting
and praiseworthy distinction which is deserving of much
consideration. In reading history he has been impressed by the fact
that the greater part of the narrative is devoted to war and battles.
Hence, the student frequently becomes imbued with the idea that to
become prominent one must be a soldier. A similar error, in his
opinion, is made in writing the annals of men in the modern times of
peace and industry. As a result so much prominence is given to
politics as to lead to the belief that the only way to be successful
is to hold office.

A great many people will be found to agree with Senator Memminger
that in the American democracy political activity is only one
manifestation of good citizenship, and that there are many other
fields equally worthy as objects of attainment and aspiration. Mr.
MEMMINGER was first elected to the Upper House of the Oklahoma State
Legislature in 1907, as a colleague of Senator Jesse HATCHETT of
Durant, from the district comprising Atoka, Bryan and Coal counties.
During the first session of the Legislature he was chairman of the
committee on public indebtedness and contingent expenses. The work
assigned to the committee was most important because of the
indebtedness incurred in framing the constitution, and as a widely
experienced banker and business man he was able to render service in
sifting claims and in properly conserving the financial resources of
the new state. During the next session he was chairman of the
committee on printing, and here, too, he was able to be useful, since
there was a strong influence at work to limit the public printing
account, particularly in view of the fact that one of the gravest
charges made against the territorial government was that of printing
extravagance. During the third session Senator Memminger was chairman
of the committee on appropriations. Thus throughout his seven years
in the Senate he was one of those called upon to safeguard the public
treasury. During the last session of which he was a member he was
chairman of the committee on insurance and chairman of the committee
on mines and manufacturing. His second term as senator ended in 1914.
He was consistently an opponent of excessive appropriations, but just
as consistently an advocate of justly necessary appropriations. He
was in the Legislature that created and established practically all
state institutions not provided in the constitution, and was author
of the bill creating the State School for the Deaf, subsequently
located at Sulphur.

Thomas F. Memminger was born at Wheeling, West Virginia, in 1869.
Five of his sisters still live at Wheeling, where his mother also
resides. Another sister is Mrs. C. B. BURROWS of Tishomingo, Oklahoma.

Reared and educated in that section of the East, he came West at the
age of twenty-one and at Clinton, Iowa, entered the meat packing
business in partnership with a Mr. ZECKEAR, a German who had been a
close friend of his father in West Virginia. With varying degrees of
success he remained in Clinton for two years, and then became
associated with Mr. LUIKHART in the purchase of a bank in Madison
County, Nebraska. There during the next twenty years his activities
related to banking, agriculture, live stock and politics. His banking
associations became extended and at one time he was an officer in
three financial concerns. He assisted in the organization of the
Elkhorn Valley Life and Accident Association, of which he is still
vice president and director. Associated with him during a part of the
time spent in Nebraska was John ROBINSON, who he had known in West
Virginia, and who served two terms in Congress from Nebraska.

While in Madison County, Nebraska, Mr. Memminger was twice elected
county treasurer, being the youngest man in the state to hold that
post. He took a leading part in the campaign that resulted in the
election of Judge W. V. ALLEN of Madison County to the United States
Senate. Mr. Memminger's business associate, Mr. LUIKHART, had become
a member of the Legislature, which doubled the support Madison County
offered his candidate. J. Sterling MORTON, who had been secretary of
agriculture under President CLEVELAND, held a handful of democrats
under control after the populists had nominated Judge ALLEN, and it
was only after five days of a deadlock in the Legislature that he
released his followers and thereby insured the election of Mr. Allen.
In recognition of the services rendered by Mr. Memminger, Senator
Allen chose him as his secretary and the latter remained in
Washington three years. After returning to Nebraska he was elected a
member of the Legislature from Madison County and served two terms,
beginning in 1899. In that section of the state the democrats up to
that time had nearly always been unsuccessful. During his campaign
for reelection he was employed in the Madison State Bank at Tilden
and took little part in the canvass. While in the Legislature he
secured an appropriation of $100,000 for the rebuilding of a state
insane asylum at Norfolk, Madison County, which had been burned, and
the rebuilding of which was stoutly opposed by interests at Lincoln,
where another similar institution was located. Mr. Memminger is
affiliated with the Masonic Order and the Benevolent and Protective
Order of Elks.

In 1890, while in Nebraska, he married Miss Maggie BURROWS, whose
father was for many years a prominent man of Clark County, Iowa. They
have two children: Charles and Martha. The daughter has spent a year
in the Oklahoma State University. Charles Memminger, the son, was a
page in the first Legislature and in 1914 graduated from the
University of Oklahoma. He assisted in the organization of the Young
Men's Christian Association at Atoka, the first organization of the
kind in Indian Territory. He is now assistant cashier of the Atoka
State Bank.

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

[03-2000 CMemminger Kilgo writes: [DKilgo@mmcable.com]
Thomas F. Memminger was my grandfather. I have some articles and
letters with info. about his business connections with Luikhart and
Burrows, and will share.]