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HARRY B. DRAKE
Vol. 3, p. 1269-1270

Twenty miles from a railroad, in a secluded and picturesque nook of
the Kiamichi Mountains, and in the little Village of Smithville that
the ambitious but visionary Billy BURKHART, of Chicago, sought to
build to metropolitan proportions in a night, began the career of
Harry B. DRAKE in Oklahoma. It was in the duties of a teacher in a
school conducted under supervision of the United States government,
that Mr. Drake was first occupied, and that school was attended
almost exclusively by full-blooded Choctaw Indians, some of whom knew
not a word of the English language. The experience of Mr. Drake in
teaching the language of the white man to descendants of Indians whom
the Government had set about educating three-quarters of a century
before was like borrowing a half year from the early history of the
nineteenth century. Pioneers of Kentucky and Tennessee never entered
a more virgin region than this, and it differed only in being less
hazardous, for most of the dangerous wild beasts of the Kiamichis had
been done away with by the natives. Here, hidden away from
civilization for six months, Mr. Drake studied the nature and
characteristics of the Indians. He visited them in their homes and
listened to their romantic recitation of the lore and legendary of
their people. He picked out of their veneer of civilization their
ingrained notions of faith and honor --notions that had been
considerably seared and changed in their not too satisfactory
relations with their white brothers. It was this study of aboriginal
attributes that enabled him later to be of inestimable service in
other and larger capacities while in the employ of the United States
Government.

Among the students in this little school conducted by Mr. Drake,
were the children of Elom JOHNSON, a Choctaw County judge of
considerable ability and of wide reputation. Also children of Tom
WATSON, a sheriff of Wolf County of the Choctaw Nation, whose
reputation was extended to the boundaries of that Nation.

While at Smithville, Mr. Drake became intimately associated with
Billy Burkhart, Chicago newspaper man, and they became fast friends.
In Smithville Mr. Burkhart had found what he believed to be an ideal
spot for the building of a mountain city that should have a
nationwide reputation. He believed that its natural qualifications
were such that it would grow like magic, with a little publicity, and
to that end he advertised the project throughout the United States.
Settlers came and went. The town grew and declined. Smithville today
is a prosperous village, and Mr. Burkhart, its founder and sponsor,
still ambitious for his dream, is one of its leading spirits.

Mr. Drake served the Government two years more before leaving the
teaching profession -- one year being spent at Tomaha Academy and
another year at Matoy, both of them Indian Villages of the Choctaw
Nation. Then, after being associated in law for a year and a half
with Alexander RICHMOND, he entered the service of the United States
Indian Agency at Muskogee, and was assigned to the office of a
district agency at Holdenville.

While at Holdenville Mr. Drake was associated with one "Billy"
BAKER, a district Indian agent, whose activities in safeguarding the
interests of minor and orphan Indians earned him a national
reputation of which he might well have been proud. The Notable Wewoka
investigation in the Seminole Nation was conducted by these two men
in their official capacities, and it resulted in the indictment of
several men of prominence, and in drawing the state into the
controversy as well. The well remembered instructions to the grand
jury by Judge WEST were dictated to Mr. Drake, and he Typed for
OKGenWeb the indictments drawn by Attorney-General Charles West. It
was a stormy period, during which Drake found it necessary to arm
himself in defense of his associate, Billy Baker, and of other
officials of the Government. The whole county was stirred. Friends of
the parties concerned took sides, and at times the community seemed
on the verge of incipient civil war. The investigation finally
resulted in the establishment of certain important reforms in the
Seminole Nation as regards to the guadianships and estates of Indians.

After the Seminole investigation Mr. Drake resigned from the
Government service and entered the law school of Epworth University
in Oklahoma City, paying his way through that school one year by his
own earning activities as a stenographer in the office of the law
firm of SHARTEL, KEATON and WELLS. While there he assisted Alexander
RICHMOND and other financiers in the organization of the Mutual
Savings & Home Association. After another year his former associate,
Mr. Baker having in the meantime become supervising district agent.
Drake was made probate attorney and was placed in charge of
headquarters at Durant. Later he was transferred to Ardmore, his
services in these positions giving him supervision over all maters of
a probate nature in Indian affairs. He resigned in the latter part of
1911 to engage in practice in Idabel, where he has since conducted an
office, and where he has a wide and continually growing clientele.

It should be said that Mr. Drake was born in Hamilton, Texas in
1881. He is a son of Joseph Cullen and Martha (FALMER) Drake. The
father was an native of Long Branch, New Jersey, but was a pioneer
settler in Hamilton County, Texas, where he early engaged in farming
and stock raising. He was one of the first men in his section of the
state to fence his grazing land with barbed wire after that product
was introduced into Texas by John W. GATES, and his testimony, it is
said brought about the first convictions of wire cutters in Hamilton
County during a period when men with herds on the open range objected
to fencing on the part of land owners.

Young Drake had his primary schooling in the public schools of Texas
and later he was graduated from the high school at Event, Texas, and
was class valedictorian. He then entered upon a normal course for
teachers, and when that was completed went into the teaching
profession. He taught one year in his native county, and in 1904 went
to the Indian Territory to take the position offered him at
Smithville by Territorial Superintendent of Schools BALLARD. His
career from that time down to the present date has already been
outlined with more or less attention to detail.

Mr. Drake married in April 1914, to Miss Elsie Emilyn ROBERTS of
Idabel, and they have a daughter, Dorthea Emilyn. He has six brothers
and sisters, concerning whom mention is briefly made as follows:
Irving L. Drake is a practicing physician at Smithville, Oklahoma. S.
P. Drake is a merchant and farmer at Hamilton, Texas, the old family
home. Mrs. M. P. WINTERS is the wife of a farmer and ranchman at
Stringtown, Texas. Mrs. J. R. CARTER lives at Center City, Texas, and
Mrs. E. J. HARLIN lives at Mangum, Oklahoma.

Mr. Drake is a member of the County and State Bar associations, and
he is secretary of the Republican Central Committee of McCurtain
County. He is a Mason of high degree and he and his wife have
membership in the Baptist Church. They are young people of splendid
character, and represent an element of citizenship that is highly
creditable to their city and county.

Typed for OKGenWeb by Jean Owens October 28, 1998.