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ROBERT L. PEEBLY
Vol. 3 p. 1184-1185

One of the essentially representative farmers and stockgrowers of
Oklahoma, Mr. PEEBLY has the distinction of being a pioneer of this
favored commonwealth and his finely improved landed estate is
eligibly situated in Oklahoma County, this homestead comprising 240
acres and being situated in close proximity to Oklahoma City, the
fair capital and metropolis of the state. He has achieved prominence
as one of the most progressive and successful stock-raisers of
Oklahoma, and his admirable herd of Jersey cattle has become
celebrated throughout the Southwest as well as for being the largest
in Oklahoma. Mr. PEEBLY has been one of the loyal and enterprising
citizens who have done much to further the civic and industrial
development and up building of the young and vital state of his
adoption, and he has represented Oklahoma County as a member of the
third and fifth sessions of the State Legislature.

Mr. Peebly claims Nebraska as the place of his nativity, and was
born in the year 1865, his parents, E. C. And Sarah J. (MCMAHAN)
Peebly, both natives of Missouri, having been numbered among the
sterling pioneers of Nebraska, where the father became a successful
farmer and stock-grower. He and his wife, now venerable in years,
reside upon their attractive homestead farm near that of their son
Robert L., in Oklahoma County, to which state they removed in the
territorial days.

After duly availing himself of the advantages of the public school
of his native state Robert L. PEEBLY supplemented this discipline by
a course in the Nebraska State Normal School at Peru, Nebraska. For
five years there after he was engaged in the retail grocery business
in Nebraska, and for the ensuing two years he was found employed as a
commercial traveling salesman. In 1893, he came to Oklahoma
Territory, having "made the run" at the opening of the famous
Cherokee Strip and having selected a homestead seven miles north of
Perry, the present judicial center of Noble County. He never made
settlement on this claim, however, and later leased a tract of school
land near Oklahoma City. In Oklahoma County he eventually purchased
several tracts of land and, as previously indicated, his present
homestead comprises 240 acres, the same constituting one of the best
improved and most valuable places in the county. He has given special
attention to the raising of the best grades of live stock, and in the
developing of his splendid herd of best bred Jersey cattle he has
availed himself of selection of the best types offered at sales in
other states of the Union. At the Oklahoma State Fair in 1914 his
Jersey bull took the grand premium, and in all exhibitions held by
the Oklahoma State Fair Association from the time of its organization
to the present he has maintained leadership in the winning of
premiums on registered cattle, swine and chickens, his attention
having been given definitely to the raising of Berkshire swine and
White Leghorn chickens, his reputation in these lines of enterprise
being on a parity with that which he holds as a breeder of fine
Jersey cattle. At six out of nine exhibitions held by the state fair
association he has taken the grand premium on Jersey bulls, and in
1914 he had the distinction of winning the highest premium offered by
the American Jersey Cattle Club. At the Oklahoma State Fair exhibits
he has won his live-stock premiums in competition with the fine
exhibits brought here from other states. It is needless to say that
his careful and progressive activities have had much influence in
raising the standard of the live-stock industry in Oklahoma, and
within recent years he has expanded the cope of his operations by the
extensive propagation of fruits, forty acres of his farm being given
to the raising of Elberta peaches, his orchard being given the best
scientific care and showing large profitable production.

Mr. PEEBLY was one of the organizers and first stockholders of the
Oklahoma State Fair Association and has done much to promote its
interests and to make it an effective exponent of the resources and
development of the state. He is president of the Oklahoma State
Dairymen's Association and of the Oklahoma Jersey Cattle Club,
besides holding membership in the Southwestern Cattle Breeders'
Association, the headquarters of which are in Kansas City, Missouri;
he is a member of the National Farmers' Educational & Co-operative
Association; the Farmers' Institute of Oklahoma County; and the
Oklahoma Anti Horse Thief Association. With characteristic liberality
and civic loyalty, Mr. Peebly has done all in his power to foster the
establishing and effective work of the agricultural colleges and
minor schools of Oklahoma, and to some of these institutions he has
sold blooded stock from his fine

In politics Mr. PEEBLY pays unfaltering allegiance to the democratic
party and that he has been prominent and influential in its
activities in Oklahoma needs no further voucher than the statement
that for twelve years he was a member of the Democratic Central
Committee of Oklahoma County and that for five years of this period
he was chairman of the same, besides which he has served also as a
member of the Democratic State Central Committee. He has held various
township and school district offices and has been twice elected to
the Legislature since the admission of Oklahoma to statehood. In the
Third legislature Mr. Peebly was chairman of the House Committee on
General Agriculture, and as a member of this committee was the author
of and ably championed to enactment the bill making imprisonment for
a term of five years the minimum penalty for horse-stealing, a
measure that has undoubtedly reduced by seventy-five per cent such
misdemeanors in the state. The same committee prepared the pure-feed
bill that was passed at the same legislative session, this measure
having resulted in great saving to the farmers of the state, as its
provisions require that different varieties of stock feed be so
labeled that the purchaser may know the amount and constituency of
the same. In the Fifth Legislature, that of 1915, Mr. Peebly was
again made chairman of the Committee on General Agriculture and again
proved his aggressiveness and maturity of judgment in the furtherance
of the interests of the agriculturists and stock-growers of the
state. In this Legislature he was assigned also to membership on the
following named committees of the House of Representatives:
Congressional Redistricting, Public Buildings, Public Health, and
Pure Food and Drugs. He was the author of a bill providing for the
transfer of school children and their pro rata part of the school
funds from one district to another, this valuable measure making it
possible for school children in rural districts to obtain high-school
advantages without additional cost. At this session Mr. PEEBLY also
formulated and introduced a bill defining poultry-stealing as a
felony, and as enacted this measure has proved a great protection to
poultry-breeders. As a legislator Mr. PEEBLY has stood firmly for the
economical administrations of the various departments of government
in the state and as the advocate of progressive policies. He was one
of the organizers and is an influential member of the Oklahoma Fruit
Growers' Association and the Oklahoma County Fruit Growers'
Association. Both he and his wife are members of the Methodist
Episcopal Church, South.

In Oklahoma County the year 1898 recorded the marriage of Mr. Peebly
to Miss Anna LEWIS, who is a lineal descendant of Francis LEWIS, one
of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. Mr. and Mrs.
Peebly have two children, James Sterling, who was born in 1899, and
Edmund Eugene, who was born in 1903.

Typed for OKGenWeb by Jacque Hopkins Wolski, October 29, 1998.