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CHARLES O. BLAKE
Vol. 5, p. 1839

Charles O. BLAKE, of El Reno, for the past nine years has been the
Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad attorney for Oklahoma. He is
one of the pioneer lawyers of the old Oklahoma, having located in El
Reno in 1890, after five years of practice in Southern Kansas. His
work and reputation as a lawyer have been fully proportionate to his
long experience as a resident in this state.

Born at Blake's Landing, Ohio, October 29, 1860, he is a son of C.
B. and Gratia (FULLER) Blake, both natives of Ohio. His father was
born on the farm where his father before him was born, and has spent
his entire active career as a farmer and stock raiser, and is still
living on the old homestead in Ohio. He finished his education in the
college at Marietta, Ohio, and at the outbreak of the Civil war
organized a company and entered the Federal service, where he
continued until mustered out in 1863 for disability. In 1857, he
married Miss Fuller, who died May 22, 1915, after nearly sixty years
of married companionship. They were the parents of six sons: A. F.,
an oil operator at Louisville, Kentucky; C. O.; Edward, a farmer in
Canadian County, Oklahoma; Clarence, who died at the age of six
years; Ernest E., a lawyer at Oklahoma City; and C. B., an oil
operator at Louisville, Kentucky.

Charles O. Blake studied law in the Cincinnati Law School, and in
1883 was admitted to practice at Indianapolis, Indiana. He soon
afterwards came west and in 1885 located at Coldwater, Kansas, where
besides his private practice he was elected on the republican ticket
as county attorney of Comanche County.

It was in 1890 that Mr. Blake came to El Reno, and with his brother,
Ernest E., established a law office under the firm name of Blake &
Blake. In 1900 Mr. Blake became local attorney for the Chicago, Rock
Island & Pacific Railway, and in 1907 was appointed attorney for
Oklahoma and Indian Territory to represent the interests of the Rock
Island Line. He still holds the same office, though his official
designation has been changed to correspond to the admission of the
two territories as a single state.

During the last quarter century, covering almost the entire
political history of old and new Oklahoma, Mr. Blake has been active
in republican politics, though he never sought an office for himself.
He served as a member of the board of regents of the State
Agricultural and Mechanical College and of the Oklahoma State
University at different times. Fraternally he is affiliated with the
Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks and the Independent Order of
Odd Fellows.

On February 18, 1885, he married Miss Cora BRYAN, daughter of
William H. and Julia Bryan of Gallipolis, Ohio, but natives of
Virginia. Mr. and Mrs. Blake have four children: Bryan T., Marion,
Bordwell and Ansel.

Transcribed for OKGenWeb by Connie Ardrey on Tues, 20 July 1999.

SOURCE: Thoburn, Joseph B., A Standard History of Oklahoma, An
Authentic Narrative of its Development, 5 v. (Chicago, New York: The
American Historical Society, 1916)