a valuable oil well was struck near Cleveland, in Pawnee County, at a depth of 1,625 feet. This was followed soon after by the bringing in of two wells near Jennings, in the same county, establishing a field in that region.

The greatest oil and gas development in this Territory so far has been along the eastern side of the Osage Indian Reservation, where oil wells of great value and large product have been developed for a number of years and where new wells are being constantly added to the district. The oil is marketed from Bartlesville and the pipe lines recently completed there, and is found at a depth varying from 110 to 1,600 feet. Many valuable gas wells developed in this region are closed up or abandoned because of the absence of manufacturing towns and interests to utilize the product. Recently this field has been extended westward by the drilling of two or three gas wells at Pawhuska, in the Osage Nation, one of the wells having one of the largest flows of natural gas in the West and found at a depth of 1,996 feet. These wells also showed an oil sand. Valuable oil wells have also been developed in the northern part of the Osage Nation.

The prospect drilling that has been done in Oklahoma heretofore has been mostly to depths of less than a thousand feet, with a few wells reaching a depth of 1,600 or 1.700 feet, but the recent valuable wells developed at Pawhuska and in Pawnee County, which are the farthest west of commercial wells in eastern Oklahoma, show that there is a gradual dip downward to the westward in the gas and oil formation of the Kansas and Indian Territory fields, and that the regions that have developed gas and oil in smaller quantities have not yet reached their true oil and gas level. The great worth of natural gas as a fuel to the towns of Oklahoma has induced many communities and cities to attempt to develop it, and as the field of successful development moves west, as it is constantly doing, more and more drilling will be done until no doubt many parts of Oklahoma will be producing oil and gas, and manufacturing interests will be developed accordingly, as in the other natural-gas fields of the West.

LABOR SUPPLY.

During certain seasons there is a greater demand for labor than can be supplied. This is particularly true during the wheat harvest and the cotton chopping and picking season.

No man need be idle at any time, as there is work for all. Manufactories are springing up in many of our cities, which give employment to large numbers of men.

Several cities are grading and paving streets, putting in sewer and water systems, and erecting public buildings that require labor more or less skilled.

The large amount of railroad building that has been accomplished during the past year furnished employment to a vast number of men. Since the completion of the above-mentioned lines railroad shops at different localities have given many machinists and other laborers employment.

Our mercantile and wholesale houses are increasing in number. All industries are in their infancy, and as necessity develops them the demand for labor increases.

OKLAHOMA BAR ASSOCIATION.

[Charles H. Woods, secretary.]

The Oklahoma Bar Association grew out of, or extended from, an organization of attorneys in Guthrie known as the Logan County Bar Association. The leading figures in the organization of this county association were Harper S. Cunningham, since member of the Territorial legislature and Territorial attorney-general; Charles Berger, who was the probate judge of Logan County; S. L. Overstreet, at one time United States attorney of the Territory of Oklahoma; Col. Tom Soward, also prominent as a citizen and lawyer. This county organization was perfected directly after the granting to the Territory of its organic act.

The present association, organized to cover and embracing the entire Territory as it then existed, was organized during the term of the supreme court of the Territory, in the year 1890. Its first president was Harper S. Cunningham. Its first secretary was Charles Freeman, who was the first county attorney of Logan County. Mr. Cunningham was repeatedly reelected and held the office of president of the association from 1890 to 1897, inclusive. Mr. Freeman remained secretary from 1890 to 1892. He was followed as secretary by Mr. A. H. Houston, who remained in office until 1894. Mr. Houston has been county attorney of Logan County and member of the council of the legislative assembly from his home district. Mr. Houston was followed as secretary by Mr. Charles Filson, who was at one time clerk of the supreme court and is now chairman of the Territorial Republican executive committee. He was in turn followed by Mr. Edgar West Jones, who was also clerk of the supreme court and has filled the office of county attorney of Logan County and member of the lower house of the legislative assembly. Mr. Jones's incumbency extended from January, 1897, to January, 1899, when his successor, J. L. Calvert, of Guthrie, was elected. Mr. Calvert remained secretary from 1899 to January, 1901, inclusive.

As said before, Mr. Cunningham remained president to January, 1897, when John W. Shartel, of Oklahoma City, was elected president. Mr. Shartel was at that time attorney for the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway Company, and has since been general attorney for the Choctaw, Oklahoma and Gulf, and has been prominent in all lines of city interest.

Judge J. C. Strang was elected president in January, 1899, and served through that year, and in January, 1900, was reelected to serve for one year. Judge Strang was a member of the Kansas supreme court before coming to Oklahoma. Since that time he has been county attorney of Logan County and Territorial attorneygeneral, and has been prominent throughout the Territory politically and professionally.

Judge Strang was followed as president by John H. Cotteral, of Guthrie, one of the prominent lawyers of the Territory. His term of office extended from January, 1901, to January, 1902. He was followed by W. S. Denton, of Enid, 1902 to 1903; he, in turn, by Jesse J. Dunn, of Alva, who held the office from 1903 to 1904. The present incumbent was elected January, 1904, and is Col. Roy V. Hoffman, of Chandler.

The present secretary of the association is Charles H. Woods, of Guthrie, who has held the office since January, 1901.

The treasurer of the association is S. S. Lawrence, of Guthrie, who has held that office since January, 1900.

The meetings of the association have always been held at Guthrie because of its being the capital and the seat of the supreme court, and usually at the time that the supreme court has its regular January term. Usually two days are given by the supreme court at the beginning of the term for the session of the association.

The membership of the association has grown from 30 or 40 members in 1890 to about 300 in 1904, and is composed of the more prominent attorneys in all the cities of the Territory.

The meetings of the association attract the general interest of the members because of the opportunity to listen to the carefully prepared papers, the reports of the committees, and, not least of all, because of the opportunity thus given to the attorneys to meet and become acquainted with their brother attorneys in other localities. This latter was of special value to lawyers living in a comparatively new community.

In addition to the regular programme rendered by members of the association an effort has always been made to secure the presence of some attorney who has attained interstate fame to deliver what is known as the annual address." Among those who have so consented to address the association are William Jennings Bryan, John A. Atwood, of Leavenworth, Kans., and Samuel W. Moore, of Kansas City, Mo.

The programme of the January meeting, 1904, is given herewith as a sample of the character of the annual meetings:

JANUARY 6-1.30 P. M.

President's address, by Mr. Jesse J. Dunn, Alva. "Lawyers, past and present," by Col. Roy V. Hoffman, Chandler. 'Oklahoma school lands," by Prof. Frederick S. Elder, University of Oklahoma, Norman, and Mr. John Golobie, Guthrie.

64

JANUARY 7.

The law and the Indian," by Mr. John Palmer, Pawhuska. "Sales of personal property in Oklahoma," by Mr. William A. Maurer, Elreno. "Shakespeare, lawyer and poet," by Mr. F. C. Hunt, Stillwater.

"Humors of the law," by Mr. J. B. A. Robertson, Chandler; Mr. B. B. Blakeney, Tecumseh, and Mr. J. W. Quick, Perry.

The annual address, subject, Comparative jurisprudence," by Mr. Samuel W. Moore, Kansas City, Mo.

This was followed by reports of standing committees, election of officers, general business of the association, and the annual banquet.

The chief value of the association to others than its members consists in its uniform efforts to raise the standard of the profession, by regulating admission to its ranks and insisting upon strictest observance of legal ethics by its members; also in closely watching proposed legislation affecting the Territory as a whole, and in recommending such legislation as the lawyer peculiarly knows the need of. Foreshadowing the possible union of the Territory of Oklahoma with Indian Territory, steps are now being taken to consolidate the bar associations of the two Territories. This step will be for mutual good during the progress of the organization of the State and the legislation necessary and incident thereto.

The proceedings of the association, including the papers read and reports of committees, are printed each year and are not only distributed to the members but exchanged for the reports of the other bar associations in the United States.

The Oklahoma Bar Association keeps in touch with the American Bar Association and each year sends its quota of delegates to the meeting of the latter.

TELEGRAPH AND TELEPHONE COMPANIES.

The Western Union and Postal Telegraph companies have extensive interests throughout the Territory, and each has made extensions and improvements in the various counties.

Telephone wires, both public and private, completely cobweb the Territory, connecting all cities and towns and many farm residences. The following is a complete list of the telephone companies which have been incorporated in the past:

Wakita Telephone Company, R. C. Rhine Telephone Company, C. B. Wilson Telephone Company, Blaine County Telephone Company, B. M. and R. Telephone Company, Central Oklahoma Telephone Company, Cherokee Nation Telephone Company, Coulter Construction Telephone Company, Eagle Telephone Company, Francis Western Telephone Company, Geary Telephone Company, Guthrie Telephone Company, Long Distance Telephone Company, The Pioneer Telephone Company, Quapaw Valley Telephone Company, S. S. S. Telephone Company, Shawnee Telephone Company, Southern Telephone Company, Southwestern Telephone Company, Oklahoma Southwestern Telephone Company, Texas Telephone Company, W. W. Oder Telephone Company, Washita Valley Telephone Company, Grand Telephone and Telegraph Company, Ames Telephone System, Home Enterprise Telephone Company, Topeka and Elreno Telephone Company, Kingfisher (Okla.) Telephone Exchange, Mangum Telephone Company, Missouri and Kansas Telephone Company, Oklahoma and Kansas Telephone Company.

Of the above number, the following have reported as to their extensions and improvements during the past year:

The Pioneer Telephone and Telegraph Company: On February 13, 1904, the Pioneer Telephone and Telegraph Company, a corporation organized under the laws of Oklahoma, commenced doing business, and bought the property of the Pioneer Telephone Company, which had succeeded the Arkansas Valley Telephone Company; also bought the property of the Long Distance Telephone Company. It also bought telephone lines extending from Denison, Tex., to Wagoner, Ind. T., at that time, and since then bought the properties of the Indian Territory Telephone Company, the Muskogee National Telephone Company, the Weeleta and Fort Smith Telephone Company, the J. N. Coulter Construction Company, and the Guthrie Telephone Company, in which they had heretofore only owned one-half interest. During the past year all of these companies had built considerable telephone lines, and additional metallic telephone circuit was strung from El Reno, Okla., to South McAlester, Ind. T.; from Denison, Tex., to Wagoner, Ind. T.; from Oklahoma City to Stroud, and from Oklahoma City to Perry. Telephone lines formerly built with native oak poles have been rebuilt with cedar poles.

At this time the Pioneer Telephone and Telegraph Company operates 27 exchanges. They have toll stations at 250 towns in Oklahoma, Indian Territory, Kansas, Arkansas, and Texas, and operate at this time 1,500 miles of pole line and 5,000 miles of toll-line wire.

Arrangements are being made for extensive improvements in the way of additional circuits in order to better the service.

The Topeka and El Reno Telephone Company was organized in August, 1901, starting in to build a line from Chickasha to Anadarko, Anadarko to Lawton, Lawton to Marlow. From this starting out with a small capital stock, during

the fall the capital stock was made $100,000, and the real construction of the lines and exchanges of the Topeka and El Reno Telephone Company began. During the year 1903, in order to make the necessary amount of extensions needed to carry out the system, the capital stock was increased to $200,000.

The company now has 600 miles of toll lines running between and touching the following points: Anadarko, Apache, Bridgeport, Binger, Cement, Chickasha, Cordell, Cache, Chattanooga, Carnegie, Denton, Davidson, El Reno, Elgin, Frederick, Fort Cobb, Granite, Gotebo, Geronimo, Hobart, Hastings, Hinton, Headrick, Indiahoma, Laverty, Leger, Lawton, Lone Wolf, Mangum, Marlow, Minco, Manitou, Mountain Park, Mountain View, Pocassett, Richards, Rocky, Roosevelt, Sterling, Snyder, Siboney, Thornton, Temple, Union City, Vernon, Walters, Waurika, Wildman, Woodfil

They also have exchanges at the following points: El Reno, Lawton, Anadarko, Bridgeport, Chickasha, Mountain View, and Snyder.

The territory operated by the Topeka and El Reno Telephone Company contains practically all of the new country west, taking in Greer, Comanche, Kiowa, Washita, Caddo, and Canadian counties, and part of the Chickasaw Nation. It is the intention of this company to build extensions as fast as the territory will justify.

The Southwestern Telephone Company owns about 250 miles of telephone toll line in Oklahoma Territory and four exchanges, of which 33 miles of toll line, costing something over $300 per mile, was constructed within the last year. The exchange at Enid, Okla., of about 600 phones, was practically built in the same time. This exchange alone cost about $60,000. The exchange at Carmen and Cherokee, in Woods County, were also built during the last year and a half, and each have about 75 phones. The exchange at Alva was partially rebuilt during the last year. The Alva exchange has about 180 phones.

The Central Oklahoma Telephone Company has 350 miles of toll line, with the following exchanges: Okeene, Hennessey, Fairview, Cleo, and Taloga. Six miles of toll line and two exchanges were built during the past year.

The Texas Telephone Company has 74 miles of toll line in Comanche and Greer counties, with an exchange at Walter. Valuable improvements have been made on their lines during the year.

The Ames Telephone system has a mileage of 143 miles, 6 having been built during the past year. It connects three trading points in Woods and Garfield

counties.

The Perryman Telephone Company has 40 miles of wire and an exchange at Morrison, Noble County.

The Spencer Telephone line has 30 miles in operation, 6 of which were built during the past year.

The Blaine County Telephone Company has 20 miles of line in operation. The Quapaw Valley Telephone Company has 17 miles of wire, serving 14 patrons in the country.

The Kingfisher Telephone Exchange has 255 subscribers, 10 of which were added during the past year, and extensive improvements have been made.

BUILDING AND LOAN ASSOCIATIONS.

Several of the larger cities and towns have their local building and loan associations.

In addition to those heretofore reported, the following were incorporated during the past year: Mutual Building and Loan Association, Alva; Shawnee Building and Loan Association, Shawnee; El Reno Building and Loan Association, El Reno; Chandler Building and Loan Association, Chandler.

INSURANCE.

Below is given a statement of the secretary of the Territory, showing the amount of business done during the year 1903 by the various fire, life, casualty, and other companies licensed to do business in the Territory.