James Jackson McAlester, also known "J.
J." McAlester, contributed to the development
of the Choctaw Nation in Indian Territory and later emerged as
a prominent and influential leader in the
state of Oklahoma. He has been hailed as "the
Father of Eastern Oklahoma," and
contemporaries acclaimed him as the founder of
the Oklahoma coal industry and the
southeastern Oklahoma town of McAlester. McAlester served as one of Oklahoma's
most respected businessmen and politicians.
Born in Sebastian County, Arkansas, on
October 1, 1842, McAlester spent his formative
years in Fort Smith, Arkansas. Volunteering
for service in the Confederate Army at the
outbreak of the Civil War, he rose to the rank of captain prior
to discharge. At the conclusion of war
McAlester boarded with Oliver Weldon while
pursuing studies in Fort Smith. Weldon, a
former engineer who had surveyed Indian
Territory, gave McAlester his memorandum book
that detailed vast coal fields at the Cross
Roads area in Indian Territory. With this
valuable information, McAlester left school
and moved to Indian Territory. At age
twenty-four he entered the Choctaw Nation. He
found employment with the Indian trading firm
of Harlan and Rooks. Later he worked for
Reynolds and Hannaford, a firm of post
traders. Eventually McAlester bought out his
partners and established a store near the
outcroppings of coal.
In
1872 McAlester courted and married Rebecca
Burney, a Chickasaw
girl and sister of Ben Burney, a future
governor of the Chickasaw Nation. This union
brought McAlester full citizenship and rights
in both Choctaw and Chickasaw nations. His
citizenship entitled him to stake a claim to
coal deposits within a one-mile radius from
point of discovery. Over time, McAlester's
interests in coal burgeoned, and with the
arrival of the Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railway through the
Cross-Roads area, the J. J. McAlester
Mercantile Company flourished as coal
production soared.
During McAlester's colorful lifetime he
worked in politics, mining, banking, business, law enforcement, and ranching. In 1893 U.S.
President Grover Cleveland appointed him the
U.S. Marshal for Indian Territory. He served
one term ending in 1897. From 1907 to 1911 he
acted as a member of the Oklahoma Corporation
Commission. In 1911 the people of Oklahoma
elected him lieutenant governor under Gov. Lee Cruce. On September 21,
1920, J. J. McAlester died in the town that
bears his name.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Coleman
Cole Collection, Western History Collections,
University of Oklahoma, Norman, Oklahoma.
Linda C. English, "Inside the Store, Inside
the Past: A Cultural Analysis of McAlester's
General Store," The Chronicles of Oklahoma 81
(Spring 2003). J. J. McAlester Collection,
Western History Collections, University of
Oklahoma, Norman, Oklahoma. Dawes Roll Census
Card, 22 September 1904, "James Jackson
McAlester," Vertical File, Research Division,
Oklahoma Historical Society, Oklahoma City.
Paul Nesbitt, "J. J. McAlester," The Chronicles of
Oklahoma 11 (June 1933).
Author: LaRadius
Allen
Oklahoma Historical
Society
J. J. McAlester
James Jackson McAlester (October 1, 1842 –
September 21, 1920) was an American Confederate Army soldier and merchant. McAlester was the
founder of McAlester,
Oklahoma,
as well as a primary developer of the coal
mining industry in eastern Oklahoma. He served
as the United States Marshal for Indian Territory (1893–1897), one of
three members of the first Oklahoma Corporation Commission (1907–1911), and the
second Lieutenant
Governor of Oklahoma (1911–1915)
He was born in Sebastian County, Arkansas, on October 1, 1842.
He grew up in Fort Smith, Arkansas. After the defeat of
the Confederacy he returned to Fort Smith,
where he met engineer Oliver Weldon, who gave
him details of the location of coal deposits
in the Cross Roads area of Indian Territory
(now the McAlester area of Oklahoma). In 1866
he went to the Choctaw Nation and worked as a
trader to the Indians.
On August 22, 1872, he married Rebecca
Burney (born 1841 in Mississippi - died May 4,
1919, in Oklahoma), a member of the Chickasaw Nation. This made it
possible for him to gain citizenship in, and
the right to own property in, both the Choctaw
and Chickasaw nations. Using the knowledge he
had gotten from Weldon, he was able to make
many lucrative coal claims in the area and to
establish what eventually became McAlester
Coal Mining Co. His trading company, J. J.
McAlester Mercantile Company, was the company store for the miners,
since much of their pay was issued in the form
of scrip redeemable only at
J. J. McAlester Mercantile.
McAlester House, J. J. McAlester's
home in McAlester, is on the National Register of Historic Places
listings in Pittsburg County, Oklahoma.[2]
He was elected as Lieutenant Governor
of Oklahoma, and during his tenure McAlester
had the occasion to serve as acting governor
of Oklahoma, during the absence of Governor Lee Cruce from the state, as
evidenced by a pardon he issued in 1915 in the
case of Sibenaler v. State (1915 OK CR
45).[3]
He
died on September 21, 1920, in McAlester.[1] Rebecca
Burney predeceased him. They had four
children, including a set of twin girls, all
born in Indian Territory:[4][5]
1.
Liza McAlester, 1873–1874
2.
Sudie McAlester, 1873–1959
3.
James Burney "Bunn" McAlester,
1875–1937
4.
William Berry McAlester, 1879–1937
J.J. McAlester,
his wife, and three of their four children
are buried in Oak Hill Memorial Park in
McAlester. Liza McAlester is buried in
North McAlester Cemetery. [5]
J.
J. McAlester's store served as the basis for
the store visited by U.S. Marshal Rooster Cogburn
in the 1968 novel True Grit
by Charles Portis (and the subsequent 1969 and 2010 feature film versions).[6]
References
1. Biography of James Jackson McAlester
(1842-1920). - Encyclopedia
of Oklahoma History and Culture. - Oklahoma
State University.
2.
State Historic Preservation Office
listing for McAlester House. - Oklahoma Center
for Geospatial Information (OCGI) at Oklahoma
State
University.
3.
Sibenaler v State (1915 OK CR 45). - The Oklahoma
Supreme Court Network. - 15 May 1915.
4.
Genealogy of Rebecca Burney
5. McAlesters buried in McAlester,
Oklahoma. Find A Grave.
Hoefling, Larry J.
(2008). - "Pittsburg County". - Images of
America. - Charleston, South Carolina:
Arcadia Publishing. - pp.17-21. - ISBN 978-0-7385-5182-1.
James Jackson
McAlester
2nd Lieutenant Governor of Oklahoma
In office:
January
9, 1911 – January 11, 1915
Born
October 1, 1842, Sebastian County, Arkansas
Died
September 21, 1920 (aged 77),
McAlester, Oklahoma
Political party
Democratic
Spouse(s)
Rebecca Burney
Profession
Confederate States Army captain, politician, coal mine owner, banker, merchant, United States Marshal and rancher
