Major county was
named for John Charles Major, county resident and
representative to the state's 1906 Constitutional
Convention. |
JOHN CHARLES MAJOR
1863-1937
John Charles Major was born May 20, 1863, at Albion, New
York, son of John Major and Mary J. Major, nee Anderson, his
paternal grand parents being George Anderson and Mary Tweedy
Anderson, from County Down, Ireland. He attended the common
schools in Orleans County, New York, spending three years in
the Albion Academy, at a nearby town, paying a tuition of six
dollars every ten weeks. His principal business in which he
engaged in New York was farming. Thence he came west to
Kansas, settling near Goddard, where he resided for several
years, engaging in farming, during which period he was a
Township Trustee for four years. In 1893 at the opening of the
Cherokee Strip in Oklahoma Territory he made the run,
obtaining a homestead constituting a quarter-section of land
in Township 21 North, Range 14 West, Indian Meridian, in Woods
County as constituted prior to statehood. He aided in the
building of a log schoolhouse near said homestead, it later
being converted into a frame school building, and, in 1920,
with his participation that district was consolidated with
three other districts constituting the Cheyenne Valley
Consolidated School with six teachers. This school and his
homestead are now located in Major County, which was created
out of a portion of Woods County at the erection of the State
of Oklahoma. He was a member of the legislature of Oklahoma
Territory beginning January 13, 1903 and concluding on March
13, 1903. To the Convention which framed the Constitution of
the proposed state of Oklahoma, he was elected and served as a
member from District No. 7. He was also elected and served as
a member of the first Legislature of the State of Oklahoma. He
was a member of the Thirteenth Legislature of Oklahoma, and
also of the Legislature which was elected in November 1936,
attending the called session thereof which convened on
November 23, 1936, but after the Legislature assembled in
regular session, he died on January 30, 1937. He served for
four years as a Deputy Sheriff during the administration of D.
C. Oats as Sheriff of Major County, and from 1913 to 1915 as
County Treasurer of said county, and from January 1915 for
four years, by appointment, he served as a School Land
Examiner and Appraiser, during the administration of Governor
Robert L. Williams. His first wife was Susie A. Densmore whom
he married on January 20, 1882, residing in Orleans County,
New York, until 1891 when he migrated to Kansas. His first two
children were born there. His wife died in Oklahoma in 1923.
On June 6, 1931, at Syracuse, New York, at the home of his
sister, he married Margaret Humphrey, whom he had known in his
youth, and who had married Fred L. Rice in 1884, but who died
in 1921. She and the following children by his first wife
survive him: John Charles Major, Jr., Caldwell, Kansas; Justin
W. Major, Orienta, Oklahoma; and Morris Major, Orienta,
Oklahoma. John Charles Major was a Democrat and a member of
the Methodist Church. His entire life was characterized by
acts of good citizenship. As one has said of him, "he has been
a builder, public spirited, and long in service." He served
his township in Kansas, his school district, county and the
territory, and then the State of Oklahoma in various
capacities at public service—A record of long and faithful
service for the people, with Christian fortitude. He is
entitled to rest in peace not only here but also in the sphere
beyond. |
