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ZADOC J. HARRISON
Vol. 3, p. 967-968

From a historical and general civil standpoint one the most
gratifying of the conditions and influences that mark the present era
in the vigorous young State of Oklahoma is that involved in the fact
that here are found as representatives figures in profession and
business life and as progressive and liberal citizens concerned with
governmental and other public affairs many sterling native sons who
can claim a strain of Indian blood in their ancestry and
personalities and who are honoring the Indian as well as the white
race by their character and achievement. Such a citizen is Mr.
Harrison, who has won for himself strong vantage-place as one of the
representative citizens of Bryan County. Apropos of his career the
following appreciative statements have been written and they are well
worthy of perpetuation in the connection:

"That Indian citizens of this generation have made progress equally
as meritorious as that of the white man has no better illustration
than that afforded by the fact that in Oklahoma so many young men of
Indian blood are filling positions of honor and responsibility,
further interest being implied in the circumstance of their having
received their early education in the leading schools of the various
Indian Nations that were formerly constituent parts of Indian
Territory. In the Choctaw Indian section of Oklahoma there are now
very few instances to be found in which educated Indians revert o the
customs of their ancestors, though such action in former years proved
a discouraging element in connection with education work among the
youth of the various Nations.

"The Jones Academy at Harshorne, Pittsburg County, in which scores
of Indian boys have been educated, undoubtedly is to be considered as
one of the institutions of foremost rank in its service to the Indian
youth and in the number of young men it has prepared for business and
professional vocations. From this school came Zadoc J. Harrison, and
from it in recent years have come also many other sterling young men
of Indian lineage who are making themselves places of usefulness and
honor in professional and business activities of the State of
Oklahoma. It is probable that of the schoolmates of Mr. Harrison a
majority have become identified with the banking business. Every
county in the former Choctaw Nation has a few of these young men in
its banking institutions; others have entered the legal profession
and have gained success in the same.

"The admirable intellectual and professional training which Mr.
Harrison acquired eminently betokens the interest manifested in
education by the Choctaws of recent years. The percentage of Indian
boys who reached the academy stage of education and who have then
become definitely ambitious for the gaining of more liberal education
has proved to be appreciably larger than that of the white boys of
the same locality and generation. Many of the youth of Indian strains
of blood have attended from two to six schools before initiating
active careers of usefulness. For example, Mr. Harrison was afforded
the advantages of the public schools of Lehigh and then continued his
studies in the Baptist Academy at Atoka. Later he was a student in
Spencer Academy of the Choctaw Nation; Harrell Institute at Muskogee;
Jones Academy at Hartshorne; the law school of Epworth University in
Oklahoma City; and Draughon's Business College in the same city. That
he has distinctive business ability is evidenced by his successful
association with banking institutions since receiving his education."

Mr. Harrison was born at Atoka, the present judicial center of the
Oklahoma county of the same name, and the date of his nativity was
July 29, 1888. He is a son of Robert W. and Sarah (SCOGGINS)
Harrison. His father was born in Kiamichi County of the former
Choctaw Nation, and in his maturity became a prominent and
influential citizen of that nation, in thelegislature of which he
served with marked loyalty and efficiency, besides which he held for
eight years the office of clerk of Atoka County while that county was
still a part of the Choctaw Nation. After the admission of Oklahoma
to statehood he continued his effective service as county clerk for a
further period of four years. He retired from this office in 1912 and
he and his wife have since maintained their residence on their well
improved homestead farm near Kenefick, Bryan County.

Zadoc Harrison, grandfather of him whose name introduces this
article, came with the Choctaws from Mississippi to Indian Territory
in 1832, and he settled at what is know Kent, in Choctaw County,
where he engaged in the mercantile and live stock business and
influential men of the Choctaw Nation. The maternal great-grandfather
of the subject of this sketch was an interpreter of the United State
Government and assisted in the transferring of the Indians to Indian
Territory. He died in Vicksburg, Mississippi, after returning to the
state for another detachment of Indians.

Zadoc J. Harrison was admitted to the Oklahoma bar in 1911, but from
that time forward until August 1915 he was actively concerned with
the banking business. In this field of endeavor he initiated his
service in the Oklahoma State Bank at Atoka, under J. D. LANKFORD,
who has since served with marked ability as State Bank Commissioner
of Oklahoma. After two years Mr. Harrison was transferred to the
Planters' State Bank at Tushka, Atoka County, where he remained one
year. He then, in 1913, assumed the position of assistant cashier of
the Oklahoma State Bank at Caddo, Bryan County, and of his position
he continued the incumbent until August 1915, when he was appointed
by the superintendent of Union Indian Agency, at Muskogee, as
appraiser of Indian lands. He has done effective work in his
profession, has proved himself a loyal and public-spirited citizen of
board and well-fortified convictions concerning governmental
policies, is affiliated with the Masonic fraternity, and both he and
his wife, hold membership in the Baptist Church.

In 1911, at Tushka, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Harrison to
Miss Frances HERNDON, and they have a winsome little daughter,
Francile, who celebrated her third birthday anniversary in 1915.

Typed for OKGenWeb by Marti Graham, August 1999.