JAMES RICHARD TRUE. One of the largest stock dealers and shippers of Jefferson county is James Richard True, who has been identified with this section of Oklahoma since 1895, but has lived in the vicinity, on the south side of Red river, since he was nine years old. He was born in Graves county, Kentucky, May 30, 1870, and moved with his parents to Clay county, Texas in 1879. In his youth he had only such educational advantages as were afforded in a new country, where a rough schoolhouse, rude furnishings and apparatus and inadequate teachers impaired the general quality of education. However, Mr. True, by these means, obtained a practical acquaintance with the elements of learning, and got a fair knowledge despite the early date at which he left school. Knowledge of farming came as a matter of course, for he was daily engaged in its duties, and while in his teens began work on a ranch for wages. As an employe of Henry Bartlett he accompanied a large bunch of cattle across the plains and mountains to Junction City, Colorado. Starting in April, they crossed the Panhandle, entered Colorado just north of the Spanish Peaks, passed the Raton mountains and the San Luis valley, and thence through the Gunnison river country. While crossing the plains country there was a period of 65 hours during which time the cattle were without water, notwithstanding that one day of the drive was along the banks of the Cimarron river in New Mexico. But the banks were so steep it was impossible to get the stock to it for miles. This trip across plains and mountain consumed six months, and on his return Mr. True devoted the savings from his wages to increasing his schooling. He began studying in the public schools at Belcherville, Texas, and when his funds were exhausted he coaled engines for the Katy Railroad at Henrietta and for seven months had charge of the horse ranch of R. S. Witherspoon, after which he resumed his schooling.
    In such ways Mr. True had become a man of broad experience in his varied contact with the world even before reaching his majority. After a brief experience as a teacher at Fleetwood in what is now Jefferson county, he borrowed some money and went into the stock business. He managed his business, small though it was, with such capability that despite the natural reverses that befall the cattle industry he succeeded rapidly, and in time has come to be one of the most important stockmen of the Red river valley. His ranch comprises five thousand acres, and he handles from three to four thousand steers each year. He is well known in the markets of Kansas City and Fort Worth, where he sells his stock, and also among the stockman along the Red river. He is a stockholder in the Ryan Cotton Oil Mill, and is owner of land in New Mexico, West Texas, besides his interests in Jefferson county.
    Mr. True's father, Jesse True, was born near Richmond, Virginia, in 1820, and passed his life as a stock farmer, dying in Clay county, Texas, in 1885. He married Medora Wilkes, who was of a Tennessee family. She died in December, 1906, aged sixty-five. Their children were: Mrs. Marcus L. Winn, of Portales, New Mexico; Mrs. Laura Diffey, of Henrietta, Texas; Eula, wife of R. A. Farmer, of Paducah, Texas; Alice, wife of Sterling P. Strong, of Bowie, Texas; Wiley W., of Montana; James R.; and Edward C., of Ryan. Mr.James R. True married, at Belcherville, October 8, 1895, Miss Jessie Looney. They have one child, Lucile. Mr. True is a member of the Missionary Baptist church, and his entire career has been marked by business ability and qualities of public-spirited citizenship.