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JAMES H. SYKES
Vol. 3, p. 1041-1042
Book has photo

Representative of the important County of Tulsa in the Fifth General
Assembly of the Oklahoma Legislature, Mr. Sykes is engaged in the
active practice of law in the City of Tulsa and is one of the
prominent and successful younger members of the bar of his adopted
state, within which his high attainments and sterling character have
given him secure vantage-ground in popular confidence and approbation.

At Morristown, the judicial center of Hamblen County, Tennessee,
James H. SYKES was born on the 5th of January, 1880, and he is a son
of Joshua J. and Alice (BURNETT) Sykes. The father was one of the
early steamboat engineers on the Tennessee River and for many years
thereafter was one of the prosperous agriculturists and influential
citizens of Eastern Tennessee. He now maintains his home at Broken
Arrow, Oklahoma. His wife, a woman of most gentle and gracious
personality, was there summoned to eternal rest on the 31st of
December, 1914, at the age of fifty-six years, and she held the
affectionate regard of all who came within the sphere of her
influence. Her Father, Rev. M. D. L. Burnett, was one of the
distinguished clergymen of the Baptist Church in Tennessee and for
many years was a contributing editor of the Baptist Reflector, the
leading Baptist publication in the United States.

Hon. James H. Sykes is indebted to the public schools of Tennessee
for his early educational discipline, and in 1899 he entered Emory &
Henry College, at Emory, Virginia, where he continued his studies
until he had completed the work of his junior year, in 1901.
Thereafter he assumed a clerical position in the employ of Southern
Express Company, and within a year he was promoted to the position of
auditor in the company's office at Chattanooga, Tennessee. His
ambition was not to be deflected from its course, however, and while
thus employed he devoted close attention to the study of law as a
member of a night class in the law department of Chattanooga
University. The caliber of his mind and the strenuous zeal with which
he applied himself are fully shown forth in the fact that he
completed a three-year course in a single year and was graduated with
highest honors of his class, in 1905. He was class orator in his
senior year and at the commencement observances, and in addition to
receiving the well-earned degree of Bachelor of Laws he was duly
admitted to the bar of his native state. In 1906 Mr. Sykes engaged in
the practice of his profession at Chattanooga, and it will readily be
understood that to one whose valiant spirit had made a normal
prerogative when he applied himself with characteristic enthusiasm to
the practical work of his chosen vocation.

The intrinsic progressiveness of Mr. Sykes was again denoted when,
in 1908, he came to and thoroughly identified himself with the
progressive and vigorous young commonwealth of Oklahoma, in which he
discerned ample opportunity for effective service in his profession.
He established his residence in Tulsa, where he has since continued
in the active general practice of law and where he has built up a
specially substantial and representative practice, with attendant
distinction for facility and power as a trial lawyer and as well
fortified counselor. That Mr. Sykes soon came to the front in
connection with public affairs in the new state needs no further
voucher than the statement that in 1912 he was a candidate for the
democratic nomination for representative of the Third Oklahoma
District in the United States Congress. Though he was defeated in the
primary election he carried his own county and had the distinction of
being the only man who has thus defeated Hon. James. S. Davenport, of
Vinita, the present congressman, in Tulsa County. While still a
resident of Tennessee Mr. Sykes gained a statewide reputation as a
public speaker, especially through his effective services on the
stump in several campaigns---national, state and county. He was an
ardent supporter and champion of Hon. William J. BRYAN for President
in the national campaign of 1908 and for President Woodrow WILSON in
the campaign of 1912. At the early age of sixteen years Mr. Sykes was
known as one of the most talented young speakers or boy orators of
Tennessee, and his special forensic ability has inured greatly to his
success as a trial lawyer. At a very early state in his professional
career he achieved a notable victory when he appeared in the defense
of Tom CARTER, who was charged with murder, in Polk County Tennessee,
and in whose trial the jury promptly rendered a verdict of acquittal
after young Sykes' forceful and cogent speech for the defense, he
having been at the time only twenty-four years of age. He is an
active member of the Oklahoma State Bar Association and his ability
and genial personality have gained to him the high regard of his
professional confreres. Incidentally it may be noted that he is a
cousin of the distinguished New York Lawyer, Martin W. LITTLETON, and
of the laters brother Jesse, who for thirty years has been an eminent
member of the bar of Chattanooga, Tennessee.

Without support from the press and without making a personal
campaign in his own behalf, Mr. Sykes was nominated in 1914 as
representative of Tulsa County in the State Legislature, and he was
elected by a majority of 300 votes. In the Fifth General Assembly he
took a prominent part in the work on the floor of the House and in a
deliberations of the various committees to which he was assigned,
including the judiciary committee No. 1, the committee on legal
advisory code, and those on charities and corrections, oil and gas,
and roads and highways. He was a staunch supporter of the policies of
Governor WILLIAMS and earnestly strove to carry out the campaign
pledges of his party. He was specially interested in legislation
affecting the oil and gas industry, which is the most important of
all in his home county, and that relating to charities and
corrections. He is one of the most steadfast and effective exponents
of the cause of the democratic party to be found in Oklahoma, and
both he and his wife are member of the Boston Avenue Church,
Methodist Episcopal, South, at Tulsa.

At Flintstone, Walker County, Georgia, on the 18th of November,
1903, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Sykes to Miss Carrie MORGAN,
whose death occurred November 27, 1906, and who is survived by one
daughter, Carrie Brysea, who lives in the home of her maternal
grandmother, in Chattanooga, Tennessee. One the 31st of July, 1911,
Mr. Sykes wedded Miss Essie OVERTON, of Meridian, Mississippi. He is
a daughter of John W. and Minnie (GLASS) Overton, the Overton family
being one of the oldest and most influential in West Tennessee, and
Thomas Glass, of Dresden, Tennessee, maternal grandfather of Mrs.
Sykes, having been the son of a Revolutionary soldier. Mr. Sykes has
one brother, John, who likewise is engaged in the practice of law at
Tulsa, and his three sisters are Mrs. William W. MARKWOOD, of
Trinidad, Colorado; Mrs. David RUTHERFORD, of Terre Haute, Indiana;
and Mrs. Noel RUTHERFORD, of Broken Arrow, Oklahoma.

Typed for OKGenWeb by Charmaine Keith, December 7, 1998.