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C. A. BANNISTER
Prominent as an attorney, a stock-raiser, a Republican and a public man, C. A. Bannister is one of the strong men of El Reno and Oklahoma, having enjoyed that varied and broad experience in practical affairs which makes an especially valuable citizen in a new and developing country. He was born in Starke county, Indiana, on the 6th of November, 1854, being a son of James and Sarah (Odenbaugh) Bannister. The father was a native of Kentucky, and when thirty years of age removed to Ohio, where he married, his wife being a native of that state. After living for a short time in Indiana, the family went to Colorado, and resided for fourteen years upon a fine homestead of 320 acres, fourteen miles north of Pueblo. The father and his growing sons made many improvements on the place, among which was the building of a reservoir, and the property is still known as Bannister's Ranch. The next shifting of the family residence was to San Jose, California, where the parents both died and are buried.
C. A. Bannister received his education. at its early stage in the public schools of Colorado, and his first practical work in the world was on his father's ranch. He early commenced the study of law, in connection with the management of various live stock interests. In 1876 he went into Kansas in order to place some cattle on the market, settling in Comanche county and remaining there for a short time. He then removed to Platte county, that state, where he remained until 1889 engaged in the cattle business and the study of the law. On the 24th of November, 1888, he was admitted to the Kansas bar, and on the 22nd of the following April attended the opening at El Reno, he being one of the first settlers upon the lands after the firing of the gun. He bought a relinquishment claim, lived on it and improved it for seven years, then sold the property and in 1896 moved into town. At his admission to the Oklahoma bar in 1896, Mr. Bannister commenced practice at El Reno. With his good practice he has also carried along important interests of a political and a public nature, having become known as an active and influential Republican. In 1909, when Bird McGuire was a gubernatorial candidate, he was a member of the territorial Republican committee, and held the office of cattle inspector when the state board came into existence. Since he became a resident of Oklahoma, there are few Republican conventions in which his section is interested to which he has not been a delegate, and he was a member of the first Republican state convention, March, 1908. For the past two years he has also served as oil inspector for Canadian county, all of which goes to demonstrate that Mr. Bannister, both as a pioneer and a citizen of today, is an Oklahoman of true spirit and worth.
He was married in Kansas, on the 23rd of June, 1878, to Josephine W. Hanks, a native of that state and daughter of J. W. Hanks, who now resides in Enid, Oklahoma. The five children born to them are as follows: Alvin E., who enlisted in the Sixth Cavalry, served in China and the Philippines, and is now connected with the gas company at El Reno; Charles Wesley, employed by the El Reno Electric Company; Dora, now the wife of Chauncey Andrews, and also living in that city, and Charles Box and Benjamin Grover Bannister, both residing in El Reno, the former also in the employ of the electric company.