LETTERS FROM PIONEERING OKLAHOMA ATTORNEYS

A collection of letters written by pioneering Oklahoma attorneys C.O. Blake and Ernest Blake to their parents between 1884 and 1906. In a letter from Indianapolis dated January 12, 1884, C.O. Blake (1860–1924) laments the struggle he was having setting up a legal practice: "Being in an office, having my shingle out and some stationary printed looks a good deal of being a lawyer with a practice…sometimes I think I’ll just let the law go and go at something else to seek fame and bread and butter." Despite what seemed like an inauspicious start to his legal career, Blake became a successful attorney and pillar of his community. Soon after this letter, he relocated temporarily to Coldwater, Kansas, where he was elected Comanche County attorney on the Republican ticket. In a letter dated October 6, 1885, he wrote to his parents about the election: "Got 30 out of 35 delegates. How is that for high. I think I will have no trouble to get elected." In 1890 he relocated to El Reno, Oklahoma, where he and his brother, Ernest E. Blake, established the law firm Blake and Blake. He soon became the railroad attorney for the Rock Island Lines in Oklahoma. Much of the expansion of Rock Island in the Southwest is credited to his ability to keep the railroad in good standing with the State Corporation. He also served on several civic organizations and became president of the board of regents for Oklahoma University having received his appointment from Governor Barnes. Blake wrote from the Hotel Frantz in Enid, Oklahoma, to his mother on April 27, 1903, about his work for the railroad: "I have been very busy. I was here all last week and will have to be here a good part of this week. I tried a case last week for running over a boy of 13 and cutting off his leg and won it. I then tried a case for killing a man and the jury came in today with a verdict for $2,000, but I think I will be able to get away from it all right, as the evidence did not entitle the plaintiff to recover anything. The man was himself to blame. I tried another today where the plaintiff claims he was crippled in alighting from a train and the jury is still out. You can see it has been a strenuous ten days." Ernest Blake’s letters concern family matters. A long letter from C.O.’s wife, Cora, includes information about a new massage-based medical treatment she was receiving from a "vital healer" for problems with her hip: "He said it was not out of place but held too tightly in its place by reason of the muscles being so contracted and set." The Blake’s are descended from a long line of notable ancestors. One was the captain of the artillery who captured Aaron Burr in his expedition to Mexico; another was Israel Putnam, leader of the Green Mountain Boys; and their great-great-grandfather was the organizer and leader of the Boston Tea Party. In total, this collection of letters includes: nine complete letters and a partial letter from C.O.; eight letters and short notes from Ernest to his parents; two letters from others and a death announcement for Fremont Smith; a four-page letter from Cora Blake, C.O.’s wife, to his mother; and six pages of apparently incomplete letters by unknown authors.