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PHILIP E. WINTER
Vol. 3, p. 1175-1176
Book has photo

Many of the older states of the Union have contributed to the
personnel of the bar of Oklahoma, and the representative lawyer whose
name initiates this review claims Illinois as the state of his
nativity, passed his childhood and youth in Iowa, and came to
Oklahoma from Washington, D.C., where he had served for eight years
as an assistant attorney in the office of the assistant attorney-
general for the department of the interior. Mr. WINTER is engaged in
the successful practice of his profession in Oklahoma City, where he
maintains his offices at 616 Terminal Building, and he has been a
resident of this city since the autumn of 1910.

Philip Ernst Winter was born in the City of Chicago, Illinois, on
the 1st of November, 1859, and is a son of Wilhelm and Wilhelmina
(FIEGENBAUM) Winter, both natives of Germany. In 1844, shortly before
the memorable exodus of the refugees of the German revolution to
America was instituted, Wilhelm Winter's parents immigrated to the
United States, accompanied by all of their children except their
eldest son, and the family disembarked in the City of New Orleans,
whence the voyage was continued up the Mississippi River to St.
Louis, and settlement was made in Warren County, Missouri. Wilhelm
Winter was a young man at the time of the family immigration to
America and it was soon afterward his privilege to give significant
assurance of his loyalty to the land of his adoption.-a country that
has had much to gain from its valuable German element of citizenship,
both in past and present generations. Early in 1846 Wilhelm Winter
tendered his services as a soldier in the Mexican war. In the City of
St. Louis he enlisted in a cavalry regiment of volunteers, and soon
afterward proceeded with his command to the state of polemic
activities. He was with his regiment in the command of Gen. Winfield
SCOTT when that gallant leader entered the City of Mexico, and he
took part in various engagements marking the progress of the conflict
between the United States and Mexico, his service having continued
until the close of the war.

After victory had crowned the arms of the United States, Mr. Winter,
a youthful veteran of the war, returned to his home in Warren County,
Missouri, in which state he remained until 1852, when he immigrated
to Iowa and became one of the pioneer settlers of Louisa County,
where he had been granted a tract of government land in recognition
of his services in the Mexican war. He vigorously instituted the
reclamation of this land and continued his activities as one of the
pioneer farmers of the Hawkeye State until 1856, when he severed his
association with the great basic industry of agriculture and, with
characteristic zeal and ability, prepared himself for the ministry of
the German Methodist Episcopal Church, as a clergyman of which
denomination he labored with all of consecrated devotion and fruitful
results for a quarter of a century, his first charge having been Rock
Island, Illinois, and his last, Davenport, Iowa. He was a man of
broad intellectual ken and lofty ideals, the sincere friend of
humanity, and his gracious and kindly personality drew to him the
staunchest of friends and confidence and esteem of all who come
within the sphere of his influence. He died at Davenport, Iowa, in
1882, and his memory shall be held in lasting honor through his
effective services as a soldier of his adopted country and of the
church militant.

Mrs. Wilhelmina (Fiegenbaum) Winter proved a devoted wife and
helpmeet to her husband and was ever earnest in her co-operation in
and sympathy with his zealous labors in the uplifting of humanity.
She was but an infant at the time of her parents' immigration from
Germany to America, in 1833, and here she was reared and educated.
This noble woman, now venerable in years, maintains her home at South
Omaha, Nebraska, with her youngest daughter, who is principal of one
of the public schools of that city.

Philip E. Winter acquired his early education in the pioneer schools
of Iowa and in pursuance of higher academic discipline he finally was
matriculated in the Iowa Wesleyan University, at Mount Pleasant, in
which institution he was graduated in 1878, with the degree of
bachelor of arts, and from which he later received, in 1881, the
degree of master of arts, the intervening period having been by him
devoted to successful work as a teacher in the public schools: he
taught one year in a district school in Logan County, Illinois, and
two years in the grade schools at Beardstown, that state. In
consonance with his ambition and well formulated plans for his future
career, Mr. Winter then entered the Union College of Law in the City
of Chicago, and in this institution he was graduated as a member of
the class of 1883, of which Hon. William Jennings BRYAN likewise was
a member, and he duly received his well earned degree of bachelor of
laws. Mr. Winter may consistently be designated a natural student,
and is known for his high academic and professional attainments and
for his keen appreciation of the best literature of general and
professional order.
On the 1st of November, 1883, Mr. Winter entered upon his
professional novitiate by engaging in practice at Wymore, Gage
County, Nebraska, where he built up a substantial law business and
where he served three terms as city attorney. He continued to be
numbered among the leading members of the bar of Gage County until
April, 1891, when he entered a broader field of endeavor by removing
to the City of Omaha, where his ability and insistent devotion to the
work of his profession gained him a large and representative
clientage. He remained a valued and popular member of the Omaha bar
for ten years, and within this period served four years as deputy
county attorney, besides having given effective service as a member of
the board of education of the Nebraska metropolis.

Mr. Winter continued his successful professional labors at Omaha
until in August, 1900, when he was appointed as assistant to the
United States attorney general for the Interior Department and
removed to the national capital, where he served as a legal
representative of the Department of the Interior until 1910, when he
retired from his government post. In November of that year Mr. Winter
came to Oklahoma and established his residence at Oklahoma City,
where he has since held high vantage ground as one of the
representative members of the bar of the new commonwealth and where
he controls a large and important law business, in connection with
which he practices in all the State and Federal courts.

Though independent in politics and not in the least constrained by
partisan lines, Mr. Winter permitted himself to be nominated as the
candidate of the progressive party for the office of judge of the
thirteenth judicial district of the state in the election of 1914,
but he was defeated, with the other local candidates of the newly
created political party. Mr. Winter is affiliated with the Masonic
fraternity, as well as the Phi Delta Theta college and Phi Delta Phi
law school fraternities, and while attending the law college in the
City of Chicago he there served two years as a member of the fine old
First Infantry Regiment of the Illinois National Guard. Both he and
his wife are members of the First Methodist Episcopal Church in their
home city, where their circle of friends is coincident with that of
their acquaintances.

Mr. Winter has manifested specially deep interest in and
appreciation of the best traditions of the land of his forbears and
especially in the lives and labors of the sterling German element
that has wielded powerful influence in the furtherance of civic and
material progress and prosperity in the United States. His interest
has found concrete exemplification, in that for several years past he
has been devoting earnest attention to the authoritative compilation
of a history of the German people in the United States, a work to
which he is bringing his fine intellectual powers and literary
ability, so that the published edition when issued is certain to
become a valuable contribution to American history.

On June 3, 1884, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Winter to Miss
Alta S. KAUFFMAN, of Mount Pleasant, Iowa. She is a descendant of
Michael Kauffman, a Swiss Huguenot, who immigrated to America in 1707
and settled in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.

In Oklahoma City the pleasant and hospitable home of Mr. and Mrs.
Winter is at 1636 West Fortieth Street. They have four children,
concerning whom brief data are given in conclusion of this article:
Max Wilhelm is a special agent for the United States General Land
Office, with official headquarters at Cheyenne, Wyoming; Jean Grace
is a successful and popular teacher in the public schools at Perry,
the judicial center of Noble County, Oklahoma; Gladys Kauffman is the
wife of Harold F. BRADBURN, contract agent of the Pioneer Telephone &
Telegraph Company, at Oklahoma City; and Winifred Else is a student
in the University of Missouri, where she is a member of the class of
1917.

Typed for OKGenWeb by Linda Ricco November 14, 1998.