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PHIL D. BREWER
Vol. 3, p. 1223

Phil D. Brewer was born and raised in Sebastian County, Arkansas, near
Fort Smith, where his father, John O. Brewer, was born. His mother,
Sarah Louisa Council, was born in Alabama, and died at Fort Smith,
Arkansas, March 23, 1915, at the age of seventy-nine years. His
grandfather, William Lewis Brewer, a Methodist minister, located in
that state in a very early day, when it was yet a territory, and
settled in southern Arkansas, now Pike County. The family is of Scotch
origin, and originally settled in North Carolina, from whence the
members drifted west through Kentucky and Tennessee, being a part of
the early pioneers who settled those regions. About the time of the
Louisiana Purchase the father of William Lewis Brewer settled on the
Missouri River, near the present city of Booneville, Missouri, from
which place they, with several other families, migrated, principally
by boats, to Arkansas, where they settled on a small stream, then
unnamed, and called it the Little Missouri.

Phil D. Brewer, having been born during the Civil War, had in his
early youth very limited opportunities for an education. But what few
opportunities he had, however, which consisted of country summer
schools and one year in DePauw University, he employed to the fullest
extent, and this want of and defect in his early training has been
largely overcome by many years of careful and diligent study. He
taught a country school when nineteen years of age, and when about
twenty-four studied law under the instruction of Hon. John S. Little,
then a lawyer of repute and later a member of the Congress and
governor of Arkansas. In 1890 he was elected from Sebastian County as
a member of the Arkansas Legislature. In 1894 he married Annie L.
Garner, nee Mayfield, and the next year settled in Indian Territory,
now Eastern Oklahoma, at Cameron. In 1897 he moved to McAlester, where
he practiced law until 1909, when he was appointed by Governor Haskell
judge of the Superior Court. In 1910 he was elected to a four-year
term in this office, but resigned in August 1911 to accept a judgeship
as a member of the Supreme Court Commission, the appointment being
made by the Supreme Court. This commission was an auxiliary to the
Supreme Court, designed to assist the court with its over-burdened
docket. He has continued to serve ever since on this commission,
through different appointments, and is at present (1915) presiding
judge of Division No. 1. His opinions are scattered through Volumes 30
to 45 of the Oklahoma Reports, and Volumes 117 to 155 of the Pacific
Reporter.

The lodge activities of Judge Brewer have been confined to Masonry. He
has been Worshipful Master of Amity Lodge, F. & A. M., at Hackett,
Arkansas; of South McAlester Lodge, No. 96, at McAlester, Oklahoma. He
became a member of the Masonic Grand Lodge at Wynnewood in 1898; has
attended every annual communication since, save two; was Grand Orator,
Grand Senior Warden, Deputy Grand Master and Grand Master of the Grand
Lodge, A. F. & A. M., of Indian Territory, to which last position he
was elected at Tishomingo in 1903. He is now, with all other past
Grand Masters, a life member of the Grand Lodge, A. F. & A. M., of
Oklahoma. He regards the honor of having been elected Grand Master of
Masons his greatest distinction.

Typed for OKGenWeb by: Marti Graham, March 2002..