St. Clair County Obits

CHARLES M. MCCLAIN

CHARLES MORGAN McCLAIN, son of John Trousdale McClain and Susan Parker Morgan, born April 18, 1840, at Osceolla, St. Clair County, Missouri, died January 22, 1915, at Purcell, Oklahoma. His great-grandfather was Judge William McClain of Carthage, Tennessee. His mother was a daughter of General Morgan of Revolutionary fame. Charles Morgan McClain attended the common schools in St. Clair County, Missouri, until he was eighteen years of age and then went to Carthage, Tennessee, where he read law in his grandfather’s law office, being admitted to the bar at said place just as the Civil War was beginning, at which time he enlisted in the Confederate Army and served until the close of said war, when he removed to Texas, settling at Gainesville in Cook County, engaging in the mercantile business until 1885, when he removed to Purcell, Indian Territory, where he resided until his death. He was elected a member of the Constitutional Convention to frame a constitution for the proposed State of Oklahoma from District No. 86, and was chairman of the committee on insurance, and also a member of the committees on Ordinances, and Legislative Department. At the election at which the constitution was ratified he was elected as register of deeds of the County of McClain, which was named for him by said convention. Purcell being the county seat. In 1910 he was re-elected as register of deeds. On January 13, 1915, he was appointed chief assistant to the State Game & Fish Warden. The following survive him, his wife Mrs. Tinsey P. McClain, Norman, Oklahoma, and children, Mrs. Mary Belle Murray, Los Angeles, California, Mrs. Kate M. Nelson, Norman, Oklahoma, Win. H. McClain, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, Charles R. McClain, Ardmore, Oklahoma, and Harvey T. McClain, Los Angeles, California. He belonged to sturdy pioneer stock, courageous, just, and honest.

Submitted by Dee Mathews