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ALEX RENNIE
Vol. 3 p. 1093

Among the enterprising and successful business men of the growing
young commonwealth of Oklahoma are some who mingle in their veins the
blood of the white settlers with that of the original possessors of
the soil. Of this type is Alex Rennie, now engaged in the insurance,
real estate and loan business in Tishomingo, Johnston County. Mr.
Rennie was born in Tishomingo in 1872, the son of Alex and Mary
(HUMPHREY) Rennie. The father, a native of Toronto, Canada, came to
Fort Washita, Indian Territory, in 1859, and during the Civil war was
a soldier in the Confederate army. He was one of the first merchants
in Tishomingo and served a term as treasurer of the Chickasaw Nation.
Mr. Rennie's paternal grandfather was a native of Scotland. His
maternal great grandmother was a full blood Chickasaw. His maternal
grandfather was a pioneer farmer of the Chickasaw country and for a
number of years operated a mill near Tishomingo. Holmes COLBERT, a
half brother of his mother, was one of the foremost men of the
Chickasaw country and represented the nation for several years in
Washington.

Mr. Rennie was educated in the public schools of Denison, Texas,
including the high school, and at the Denison Business College, being
graduated from broth the last named institutions. When eighteen years
old he entered the employ of an uncle at Lehigh, Oklahoma, and
remained there for three years. Subsequently returning to Tishomingo,
he engaged in the insurance, real estate and loan business and has
since been thus occupied. It was partly under his supervision that
the Tishomingo town site, as now platted, was laid out, when the Rock
Island road built here. The original town site had been platted under
tribal government and lacked uniformity in lots and streets, and in
making the new plat much confusion ensued. As an instance of this,
Mr. Rennie found that after the new plat was made practically all of
seven acres he owned on the original plat had been consumed in
streets. Many of the streets of the town, which covers 545 acres, are
named after prominent Indian families and other pioneers of the
Chickasaw Nation. In addition to his regular business already
mentioned, Mr. Rennie owns some valuable farms in Jackson County, and
is an advocate of scientific, progressive farming. At one time he
held a position under the tribal government, being collector of the
one per cent revenue tax on merchants. His brother William, now
deceased, was treasurer of the Chickasaw Nation during the first per
capita payment to the tribe, at which time Charles Carter, now a
member of Congress from Oklahoma, was secretary of the nation.

Mr. Rennie was married in 1900, at Stonewall, to Miss Lulu BURRIS,
daughter of one of the leading men of the Chickasaw Nation for many
years, who held nearly every office in the Indian government save
that of governor. Mr. and Mrs. Rennie are the parents of four
children: Louise, Helen, Dorothy and Alexia. Mr. Rennie is a member
of the Presbyterian Church, of the Tishomingo Commercial Club, and of
the Royal Arch and Scottish Rite divisions of the Masonic order. He
has a brother, John F., who is a railroad man at Denison, Texas, and
a sister, Mrs. U. S. ALLENDER, wife of a druggist at Pauls Valley.
Giving evidence more of the Caucasian blood in him than of the Indian
blood, and possessing the progressive characteristics of the leading
white men who have made this old nation a land of happy homes,
thriving farms and commendable public institutions. Mr. Rennie is
typical of the generation that is accomplishing most for a higher
civilization here.

Typed for OKGenWeb by: Earline Sparks Barger, December 1, 1998.