Dan Diehl. The solid citizenship of many states and countries has been transplanted to Oklahoma and has continued to flourish in the new and wholesome environment of this state. For many years one of the finest agricultural families in the vicinity of Mattoon, Illinois, has been that of Diehl, a name which originated in Germany and was brought across the ocean to the Province of Pennsylvania during Colonial days. From the East George Diehl carried the thrifty character of the family to one of the early farms of Illinois, and was a prosperous agriculturist there until his death.

One of the best known farmers, stock raisers and citizens in Mattoon at the present time is T. J. Diehl, who was born on the farm which he still occupies as his home on January 17, 1847. He has spent his life as a farmer and stock raiser and has had unusual relations with public affairs. At the age of twenty-one he was made a school director, and though he did not hold the office the following year was again elected at the age of twenty-three, and for forty-three consecutive years gave his attention to the management of his home school district, being re-elected every three years without a contest, and finally retiring from the office on account of advanced years. He is a democrat, and has also served as a justice of the peace. Mr. T. J. Diehl is a member of the Masonic fraternity. He was married to Kitty B. Hackley, was born in Kentucky in 1849. Several of their children are now performing useful parts in the citizenship of the State of Oklahoma. Anna L., the oldest, is demonstrator for a canning club at Okemah, Oklahoma, under the auspices of the United States Government; Charles R. is a farmer at Okemah, and has served as deputy county clerk four years; Mary still lives with her parents at Mattoon; George is a farmer residing seven miles southeast of Hobart; William is a farmer at Mattoon, Illinois; Erma married J. W. Korte, a nurseryman at New Haven, Missouri; the next in age and seventh in the family is Dan Diehl; Floy is still at home with her parents.

Dan Diehl was born on the old farm at Mattoon, Illinois, December 16, 1880. The first nineteen years of his life were spent in Illinois, where he gained a substantial education and an agricultural training according to the high standards of the Prairie State. In 1899 he came out to Kay County, Oklahoma, farmed there for two years, and at the opening of the Kiowa, Comanche and the Caddo reservations participated in the drawing and secured a homestead of 160 acres situated eleven miles southeast of Hobart. After proving up this claim and making a farm of it he sold out five years later and then bought 160 acres ten miles south of Gotebo, Oklahoma, in the spring of 1907. He still owns this farm and on it conducts diversified agriculture and stock raising.

His progressive attitude towards agricultural matters made him a man of note in his section and on November 16, 1907, the day that Oklahoma became a state, Governor Haskell appointed him to membership in the State Board of Agriculture. He served one year by virtue of that appointment, and was then regularly elected to the position by an almost unanimous vote for a term of four years. In 1912 Mr. Diehl was elected clerk of the district court, and on November 6, 1914, following the change of office designation and duties made by the preceding Legislature was elected court clerk, and served the two-year term to which he was then elected. On January 3, 1917, he will retire from the office and devote his attention to raising Jersey cattle, residing on his farm.

Mr. Diehl is a democrat, and while an active party man is best known in Kiowa County as a progressive agriculturist and public spirited citizen. He is affiliated with Hobart Lodge No. 881 of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks and the Hobart Lodge No. 2775 of the Brotherhood of American Yeomen. On January 4, 1915, at Hobart he married Miss Edna Vera Bailey, daughter of W. A. Bailey. Mr. Bailey resides on a farm four miles northeast of Hobart.