Clyde H. Wyand. Presiding with characteristic ability on the bench of the county court of Woodward County, Judge Wyand is one of the representative Oklahoma lawyers and jurists who can revert to the fine old Hoosier state as the place of his nativity, and by his achievement is doing honor alike to the commonwealth of his nativity and that of his adoption. He is one of the liberal and progressive citizens of the City and County of Woodward, where he established his permanent residence in 1903.

Clyde Hiram Wyand was born at Hillsboro, Fountain County, Indiana, on the 27th of September, 1872, and is a son of Hiram C. and Elizabeth (Rynearson) Wyand, whose marriage was solemnized in that county in 1859.

Hiram C. Wyand was born in the State of Maryland, in 1836, and there he was reared and educated, besides which in his youth he became skilled as a carpenter, the earlier part of his independent career having been given principally to work as a carpenter and builder. At the age of nineteen years he removed to Indiana, and eventually he engaged in the mercantile business at Hillsboro, that state, where he continued his residence until his death, and where he long held prestige and honor as one of the sterling and influential citizens and representative business men of Fountain County. He served one term, 1896-1900, as county clerk, and for eight years held the office of postmaster at Hillsboro.

In politics he was a stalwart advocate of the principles of the republican party, and he was one of the prominent and influential representatives of his party in Fountain County. He passed to the life eternal on the 24th of January, 1914. Mrs. Elizabeth (Rynearson) Wyand was born in Ohio, in 1839, and was a child at the time of the removal of her parents to Indiana, where they became pioneer settlers in Fountain County. She was a daughter of Ezekiel Rynearson, who became one of the substantial and prominent citizens of Fountain County, where both he and his wife continued to reside until their death. Mrs. Wyand was summoned to eternal rest on the 13th of April, 1881, a gentle and gracious woman, whose memory is revered by all who came within the sphere of her influence. Of the five children the first born was Arthur, who died in infancy; the next being Annette, who was born in 1869, and whose death occurred in 1892; Frederick C., who was born in 1871, is now engaged in the hotel business at Connersville, Indiana; Judge Clyde H., of this review, was the next in order of birth; and Lena May, who was born in 1875, is the wife of Louis Wood, a successful merchant at Hillsboro, Indiana.

Judge Wyand is indebted to the excellent public schools of his native town for his earlier educational discipline, and his higher academic training was acquired in DePauw University, at Greencastle, Indiana, in which institution he was graduated in 1896, having had the distinction of being chosen valedictorian of his class. After leaving the university Judge Wyand devoted four years to effective service as a teacher in the public schools of Indiana, and in the meanwhile gave close attention to the reading of law, with the definite intention of preparing himself thoroughly for the profession in which it has since been given him to achieve marked success and high honors.

At Covington, Indiana, the judicial center of his native county, Judge Wyand was admitted to the bar in the year 1898. At that place he opened an office and served his professional novitiate, and that he impressed himself and his ability upon the barricades that protect and foster success in the law business needs no further voucher than the statement that in 1900 he was elected prosecuting attorney for the Twenty-first Judicial District of Indiana, as a candidate on the republican ticket. Of this office he continued the efficient incumbent for two years, and soon after his retirement therefrom he severed the ties that bound him to his native state and cast in his lot with the people of Oklahoma Territory. He came to Oklahoma in 1902, and established his residence at Woodward, the judicial center of the county of the same name. Here he continued in the active practice of his profession until his election to his present office, and before his elevation to the bench he had gained secure vantage-place as one of the leading members of the bar in the western part of the state, even as he had become known for his civic loyalty and insistent public spirit. He was elected to the bench of the county court in 1910, and by successive re-elections, in 1912 and 1914, he has since continued his services as judge of this tribunal, the affairs and work of which he has administered with great discrimination, circumspection and efficiency, his rulings having at all times shown the mark of true judicial wisdom as well as comprehensive knowledge of law and precedent.

Judge Wyand has been unfaltering in his allegiance to the republican party and has been an influential factor in connection with the directing of public thought and action during the period of his residence in Woodward County. He has been affiliated with the Masonic fraternity since 1894, and both he and his wife hold membership in the Methodist Episcopal Church, with which he has served as a member of the official board of the church at Woodward during the entire period of his residence in Oklahoma, besides which he has served eight years as superintendent of its Sunday school. He has also served as president of the local Epworth League and as president of the Methodist Episcopal Brotherhood of the Woodward church. He was elected a delegate to the General Conference of the Methodist Church, which convened at Saratoga Springs, May 1st, 1916.

On the 16th of April, 1893, was solemnized the marriage of Judge Wyand and Miss Tessie May Hesler, who was born on her father’s homestead farm, near Hillsboro, Fountain County, Indiana, on the 17th of November, 1874, and who is a daughter of Jacob T. and Nancy J. (Bever) Hesler, old and honored citizens of that section of the Hoosier state. Judge and Mrs. Wyand have two children: Russell Sage was born February 20, 1894, and was graduated in the University of Oklahoma as a member of the class of 1917; and Hesler Hiram, who was born July 17, 1898, graduated from the Woodward (Oklahoma) High School, in 1916.