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TWYFORD Vol. 3, p. 1169 Book has photo That a young man still in his early thirties should have been able to display such marked abilities as to obtain a foremost position among the leading lawyers of Oklahoma City evidences beyond fear of question the possession of great and unusual faculties and talents; that such a position has been attained through individual effort and without the aid of outside influences makes this record a still more noteworthy one. James S. Twyford, to whom the foregoing refers, one of Oklahoma City's leading legists and at various times the incumbent of high and responsible official positions, was born at Florence, Marion County, Kansas, June 17, 1883, the youngest son of Samuel B and Lucy (FRENCH) Twyford, and a descendent, on the paternal side, of an old Welsh family. Samuel B. Twyford was born at Terre Haute, Indiana, and as a youth went to Illinois, where, when but fourteen years of age, he succeeded in enlisting in an Illinois volunteer regiment for service in the Union army during the Civil war. Although but a lad, his ingenuity, courage and activity commended him for scout duty, and in this capacity he acted throughout the period of warfare. At the close of hostilities he went to Mississippi, where he married and for a number of years was a planter, but later returned to Illinois and subsequently removed to Kansas, settling in Marion County, where he engaged in farming. When Oklahoma was opened to settlement, he made the run, was successful, and located a homestead in the vicinity of Waterloo, Oklahoma County, where he continued to be engaged in farming until the time of his death, in 1899. Mrs. Lucy (FRENCH) Twyford was born in Ohio, but was reared in Greene County, Illinois, whence she was taken as a child. She was given good educational advantages, and after her graduation from the Illinois State Normal School, at Bloomington, Illinois, entered upon a career in teaching which was remarkable in many respects, covering a period of thirty years in various sections of the country. After the close of the war between the North and the South, Mrs. Twyford went to Mississippi, where she became the teacher of the first free school in the state for negroes, and was thus engaged when the notorious Ku Klux Klan began its operations. This organization, said to have been founded in 1866, at Pulaski, Tennessee, originally for purposes of amusement only, soon developed into an association of "regulators" and became widely known for the deeds of violence committed in its name, particularly in the determined struggles to withhold from the emancipated slaves the right of franchise. Mrs. Twyford fell under the ban of this organization as one who was trying to instill knowledge in the minds of the blacks and she was accordingly ordered to close her school. This she did, but for only one day, July 4th, when she left the county, but the following day reopened her school and courageously continued to teach there until the close of the regular school year. Mrs. Twyford accompanied her husband to Oklahoma in 1889 and continued to be prominently identified with school matters, being the first principal of the first public school at Edmond, Oklahoma County, and a member of a committee which wrote the first school laws for the first Territorial Legislature in 1890, and which laws were so admirably prepared that they still exist, with only slight modification to meet present conditions. A regularly ordained minister of the Congregational Church, this remarkable woman built and was pastor of the churches at Deer Creek, Bethel and Victory, all located in Oklahoma County. She reared two sons and two daughters to sturdy, self-reliant man and womanhood, educating them herself and preparing them for the positions in life which they have since been called upon to fill. She still survives, being seventy-two years of age. James S. Twyford received his literary training under the inspiring preceptorship of his mother, and then, turning his attention to the law, became a student at Washburn College, Topeka, Kansas, where he was graduated in 1906, with the degree of Bachelor of Laws. During his law course he worked as a typesetter and at journalistic labors, in order to pay the expenses of his studies, and before being regularly admitted to the bar was appointed assistant city attorney of Topeka, thus early evidencing the abilities and talents that have since carried him to high position. At the time of his graduation, in June, 1906, he resigned his official position and at once came to Oklahoma City, where he was admitted to the Oklahoma bar and at the same time made assistant city attorney of Oklahoma City under Edward E. REARDON. His incumbency of this office was made notable by the prosecution of many murder cases, prominent among which was the notorious Mingle case, which attracted widespread attention. He resigned his office in 1908 and the same year was elected city attorney, on the republican ticket, serving not only the full term of two years but a period under the new commissioners, and then entering general practice. In 1911 he was the republican candidate for mayor of Oklahoma City. While city attorney, he originated, instituted and prosecuted until a final decision, the "Telephone Refund Case," which resulted in declaring the rate provisions void and the refund of $61,000 to the telephone subscribers. This action he started while city attorney, but after he had left that office remained in the case without remuneration until its final adjustment. Mr. Twyford also took the lead in the charter litigation, which resulted in the present form of commission government being declared constitutional, and from that time has given the greater part of his attention to constitutional and municipal law, in which branches of his profession he has no superior in the city and probably none in the state. His high standing has been evidenced on various occasions by his appointment as special judge in the Superior and County courts in special cases. Mr. Twyford is a thirty-second degree, A. & A. S. R. Mason, and belongs to Oklahoma City Lodge, No. 36, A. F. & A. F.; Oklahoma Consistory, Valley of Guthrie; and India Temple, A. A. O. N. M. S. He also holds membership in the Knights of Pythias, the 1889ers' Association and the Oklahoma City Men's Dinner Club. With his family, he attends the Congregational Church. In a professional way, he is connected with the Oklahoma County Bar Association, of which he was secretary from 1907 to 1911, and in 1912 and 1913 vice president, and with the American Bar Association. In September, 1912, Mr. Twyford was married to Miss Gladys A. FREES daughter of Mr. and Mrs. L. S. FREES, from St. Antony's Park University, a branch of the University of Minnesota, and taught domestic science in the graded and high schools of Oklahoma City for several years preceding her marriage. Mr. and Mrs. Twyford have a daughter, Aileen Margret, born November 8, 1914. The family home is at No. 1821 West Park Place, Oklahoma City. Typed for OKGenWeb by Susan Bradford, 28 Oct 1998.