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LOOFBOURROW, ROBERT H.
Vol. 5, p. 1811

Judge Loofbourrow retired from the distinguished office of associate
justice of the Supreme Court of Oklahoma on the 1st of January, 1915,
after having declined nomination for a second term, and his
incumbency of this position fully established his prestige as one of
the leading lawyers and jurists of the state within whose borders he
has maintained his home since 1890. The judge is a scion of a staunch
old Scottish family that is of patrician lineage and that was founded
in America prior to the War of the Revolution, the name having been
prominently and worthily identified with the civic and industrial
development of various of the sovereign commonwealths of the Union.
The genealogy is traced back to Lord Loofbourrow, whose descendants
immigrated to America in the colonial days and established a home in
North Carolina, where they became citizens of marked prominence and
influence. Representatives of a later generation became identified
with the pioneer history of Kentucky, and from the old Bluegrass
State went forth members of a still later generation to become
sterling citizens of Ohio. Judge Wade Loofbourrow was long one of the
most honored lawyers and jurists at Washington Court House, Fayette
County, Ohio, and by his will he devised to that attractive little
city, the judicial center of the county, his extensive and well
selected law library, which is still maintained as a public law
library at that place, the bequest having been the valuable nucleus
around which has been gathered one of the best technical libraries of
its kind to be claimed by any of the non-metropolitan counties of the
Buckeye Sate. Judge Wade Loofbourrow served on the bench of the
Circuit Court and was a lawyer of specially high attainments, so that
his great-grandson may consistently be said to have as natural
heritage a predilection for the profession in which he has achieved
marked success and distinction.

Judge Robert H. Loofbourrow was born on a farm in Marion County,
Illinois, on the 29th of January, 1873 and is a son of Orlando J. and
Sarah T. (WILSON) Loofbourrow. The judge was a boy at the time of the
family removal to Missouri, and a short time thereafter removal was
made to Kansas, where his father became a successful agriculturist
and stockgrower and where he remained until 1890, when the family
came to Oklahoma Territory and settled in Beaver County. Orlando J.
Loofbourrow was born at Washington Court House, Ohio, but was reared
and educated in Illinois, and it was his to gain a full quota of
pioneer experience in the West. After coming to Oklahoma he became
one of the representative exponents of the agricultural and live-
stock industries in the territory.

To the public schools of Kansas Judge Loofbourrow is indebted for
his early educational discipline, and in preparation for his chosen
profession he entered the Iowa College of Law, in the City of Des
Moines, from which institution he withdrew prior to graduation.
Thereafter he continued the study of law under effective private
preceptorship, at Beaver, Oklahoma, where, in 1896, he was admitted
to the territorial bar, upon examination before the District Court of
Beaver County. He initiated the practice of his profession at Beaver,
where he has since continued to maintain his home and where he soon
gained place as one of the leading members of the bar of Beaver
County, besides proving one of the most loyal and progressive
citizens of that section of the present State of Oklahoma. From 1897
to 1899 he served as county attorney, and for the ensuing two years
his services continued to be enlisted in the position of assistant
county attorney. In 1904 he again became county attorney, and of this
office he continued the valued incumbent until the admission of
Oklahoma to Statehood, in 1907. Higher honors then became his, for
under the new state regime he was elected to the bench of the
Nineteenth Judicial District. He gave a most able and effective
administration and his possession of exceptional judicial acumen
gained to him further and distinguished recognition, since, on the
1st of September, 1913, he was appointed associate justice of the
Supreme Court of the state, to accept which preferment he retired
from the District Court bench. As associate justice of the Supreme
Court his earnest and admirable services are now an integral part of
the history of that tribunal, from which he retired in January, 1915,
owing to his desire to resume the private practice of his profession
at Beaver, the judicial center of the county of the same name.

Judge Loofbourrow is a member of the directorate of the Bank of
Beaver and is the owner of valuable real estate in his home city and
county. In the Masonic fraternity he has attained the eighteenth
degree of the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite, besides which he is
affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Benevolent
and Protective Order of Elks, and the Knights of Pythias, in which
last mentioned he is past chancellor of Beaver Lodge, No. 7.

On the 16th of May, 1897, was solemnized the marriage of Judge
Loofbourrow to Miss Bertha L. GROVES, daughter of Ansel Groves, of
Beaver, and they have three sons, Harold, Bernard and Hale.

Typed for OKGenWeb by Carole McAnally, July 18, 1999.

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