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CHARLES F. COLCORD
Vol. 3, p. 1126, 1127
Book has photo

Among the vital, strong and resourceful citizens who may
consistently be designated the founders and builders of the vigorous
young State of Oklahoma, a place of distinctive priority must be
accorded to Charles F. Colcord, who was a pioneer cattlemen in Indian
Territory and whose splendid initiative and constructive ability have
made him one of the foremost men in the development and upbuilding of
the State of Oklahoma, where his activities and capitalistic
interests are varied and of most important order, so that his status
is essentially that of one of the most prominent and influential
citizens of this commonwealth, even as he is one of the best known
and most popular. In the present day, when his time and attention are
engrossed by large business and industrial interest, it is well to
pause and pay tribute to him for the splendid service which he gave
in public office in the formative period of territorial and state
government and especially in the establishing and maintenance of law
and order at a time when Oklahoma was overrun with all manner of
lawless, irresponsible and predatory personalities. His character is
the positive expression of a resolute and sincere nature, and he has
put forth a really dynamic force in the furtherance of enterprises
and measures that have inured wonderfully to the advancement of the
civic and material progress and prosperity of Oklahoma. There have
been no esoteric or equivocal phases in his career, and thus the
story of his life may be told simply, directly and briefly, undue
adulation being avoided as essentially repugnant to the man himself
and all he represents.

Charles F. Colcord was born in Bourbon county, Kentucky, in the year
1859, and is a son of Col. Wiliam R. and Maria E. (CLAY) Colcord, his
father having been a gallant officer of the Confederate forces in the
Civil war and his mother having been a daughter of Hon. Green Clay,
of Paris, Kentucky, who was a lineal descendant of Sir John Clay of
England and of the same family line as the great American patriot and
statesman, Henry Clay. In his native state Charles F. Colcord
acquired his rudimentary education and he was about ten years of age
when, in 1870, his parents removed to Texas. His father established a
home in Nueces County, that state, and became one of the prominent
and influential representatives of the cattle and horse industry in
Southwestern Texas, besides having been influential in public affairs
in that section of the state.

In the Nueces region of the Lone Star State Charles F. Colcord
acquired thorough training and broad experience in connection with
the cattle business, at a time when the great open ranges were still
available. In 1876 he drove a large bunch of cattle from Texas to the
North, over the old Chisholm Trail, and he established his herd in
the old Cherokee Strip of Indian Territory, his range headquarters
having been near old Fort Supply, on the salt plains of the Cimarron
Valley, in what is now Woodward County, Oklahoma, and his business
headquarters having been just across the line in Evansville, Comanche
County, Kansas. Here he organized what was known as the Comanche
County Pool, a power organization of stock interests that at one time
owned 60,000 head of cattle. Until the Cherokee Strip was opened to
settlement, in 1893, this company was one of the principal occupants
of that region and its operations were of broad scope and importance
under the old regime of the cattle business in what is now the State
of Oklahoma.

When, in accord with the provisions of the presidential proclamation
issued on the 23d of March, 1889, 39,030 square miles in Indian
Territory were thrown open to settlement and, on the 22d of the
following month, came the great rush of 50,000 immigrants into this
new country, Mr. Colcord forthwith identified himself with the
founding and development of Oklahoma City, the present capital and
metropolis of the State of Oklahoma. From the position of one of the
leading stockmen of the territory he became prominent and made a
notable record as an officer of the law. In the summer of 1889,
somewhat more than a year prior to the formal creation of Oklahoma
Territory, Mayor Beal, of Oklahoma City appointed Mr. Colcord chief
of police of the embryonic city, and when W. D. Gault became mayor by
regular election Mr. Colcord continued in service as chief of police
until the autumn of 1889, when he was duly elected the first sheriff
of the newly organized Oklahoma county, an office of which he
continued the fearless and efficient incumbent for the ensuing two
years. Concerning local conditions and his administration the
following interesting statements have been made, and the same are
worthy of perpetuation in this connection: "The two years during
which Mr. Colcord served as sheriff of Oklahoma county are notable in
the records of the county and the territory, for at that time the
forces of law and order found themself confronted with the most
formidable of obstacles in their endeavors to restrain and drive off
the cohorts of vice that beset the new Territory and constituted a
constant menace to the law-abiding citizens who had come to the new
country in such large numbers. It is certain that never since has
there been in Oklahoma's condition of affairs demanding such vigorous
and courageous work on the part of official entrusted with the
maintenance of law and order, and it is altogether probable that at
no previous period had so great a task been imposed. In bringing to
an end the reign of outlawry in Oklahoma, one of the criminal
officers who deserves unqualified credit and honor for thorough
efficiency and straightforward service, untainted by corruption or
deviation from the strictest ideals of duty is Charles F. Colcord,
whose record as a public official may perhaps be forgotten in the
light of his latter day activities, which have been of great
magnitude and importance. After his retirement from the position of
sheriff Mr. Colcord held for five years the United States prison
contract at Guthrie, the territorial capital."

At the opening of the Cherokee Strip, in 1893, Mr. Colcord secured
large land holding in the district and established business interest
at Perry, the judicial center of Noble County as at present
constituted. In 1898 he returned to Oklahoma City, which has since
continued to be his place of residence, and here he has achieved
large and worthy success in connection with industrial and general
material progress, with the result that he is now looked upon as the
leading capitalist and most prominent citizen of the metropolis of
the state where he is serving a as a member of the municipal advisory
board. Mr. Colcord is president of the Colcord Investment Company and
the Colcord Park Corporation, both of which have had powerful
influence in fostering general development and progress in Oklahoma,
and his other capitalistic interests are of broad scope and
importance. In 1908 he erected in Oklahoma City the Colcord Building,
which is one of the most modern and attractive office buildings in
the city, the same being a fine twelve-story structure of thoroughly
metropolitan order. He organized and was president of the Commercial
National Bank of Oklahoma City, which consolidated with the State
National. He served as vice president of the State National Bank of
Oklahoma City, and he is still a member of its directorate, besides
which he is president of the Oklahoma City Building & Loan
Association and a director of the Oklahoma State Fair Association.
Thoroughly in accord with the high civic ideals and progressive
policies of the Oklahoma City Chamber of Commerce, which has the
distinction of being the second largest in the United States, Mr.
Colcord has been one of its most active and influential members and
he served as its president in 1914. He has extensive financial
interests in the oil and gas fields of Eastern Oklahoma.

In politics Mr. Colcord, though never imbued with ambition for
political preferment of official order, is a stalwart supporter of
the cause of the democratic party. In the time-honored Masonic
fraternity he has received the thirty-second degree of the Ancient
Accepted Scottish Rite, as a member of the Oklahoma Consistory of the
Valley of Guthrie, and he is affiliated also with Indian Temple,
Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine. He holds
membership also in the Men's Dinner Club and the Golf and Country
Club, representative social organizations of the capital city.

In September, 1884, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Colcord to
Miss Harriet SCORESBY, daughter of Rev. Thomas S. Scoresby, at the
time a resident of Hutchinson, Kansas, in which state he was a
pioneer clergyman of the Methodist Episcopal Church, having there
established his residence in 1870; he was descended from Captain
Thomas Scoresby, of Whitby, England, who was a gallant sea captain,
who made several voyages in search of the North Pole and who
discovered within the Arctic Circle Scoresby Land, which is named in
his honor. Mr. and Mrs. Colcord have six children--Ray, Marguerite,
Caroline, Sidney, Cadijah, and Harriet. The beautiful family home, a
center of much of the representative social activity of Oklahoma
City, is at 421 West Thirteenth Street.

Typed for OKGenWeb by Lee Ann Collins October 5, 1999.