Charles N. Haskell was
born in Ohio in December 1861. Left an orphan, he was thrown
upon his own resources at a very early age. His boyhood years
were spent in hard work on the farm during the greater part of the
year, with limited schooling during the winter seasons
At the age of sixteen he
began to teach school, an occupation which he followed for a number of
years. While teaching he took up the study of law. After
his admission to the bar he began the practice of law at Ottawa, Ohio.
He took an active interest
in politics from the time that he attained his majority, and was
affiliated with the Democratic Party.
In addition to his legal
business he became interested in railway construction. After
having been the unsuccessful nominee of his party for governor of
Ohio, he moved west, locating at Muskogee in 1900. In his new
home his capacity for leadership in the material development of a
rapidly growing town soon attracted notice. He first became
prominent politically in the new state when he took the lead in
shaping the work of the Sequoyah Constitutional Convention in the
summer of 1905. In 1906 he was elected a delegate to the
Oklahoma Constitutional Convention, of which body he became the
recognized leader. His subsequent nomination and election as the
first governor of the new state gave him a very prominent place in its
history.
Source: A
History of Oklahoma by Joseph B. Throburn and Isaac M.
Holcomb, Doub and Co., San Francisco 1908.
