Henry P. Hosey. It was during the administration of Henry P. Hosey as city attorney of Idabel that a spirit of humanitarianism with respect to Indians was injected into the current of municipal affairs. In other words, he ended that practice whereby the city treasury was enriched weekly by the payment of fines from Indians who, being intoxicated, disturbed the peace and dignity of the community. His was the advice of a brother rather than that of the lawyer. One Indian, in particular, had for months been paying regularly a fine of $10 each week. Mr. Hosey found that the man’s family was in need of the money, and felt that morally the city should not continue extracting fines from him. His plain advice, given to the Indian in a way that he could understand, was to leave off drinking, but if he failed in that resolve, to go to some place removed from the public highway and thus keep himself inconspicuous and avoid arrest. The former course was beyond the red man, but he acted upon the latter clause of the advice, with the result that the peace of the town for a long time remained undisturbed by him. This incident is related to show Mr. Hosey’s acquaintance with the frailties and nature of the Indian, a knowledge that led him to pursue a course that gave the Indian as much of the protection of society as possible. He had come from a section of Mississippi where the Choctaws lived before the migration to Indian Territory, and in which many live yet. His uncle, S. P. Wade, long after the Civil war, had thirty Choctaw families as tenants on his extensive plantation.

Henry P. Hosey was born in Jasper County, Mississippi, Juno 10, 1871, and is a son of William T. and Lucy (Atwood) Hosey. His father, a native of Mississippi, followed planting throughout his life, and served as a soldier of the Confederacy during the war between the states. His paternal great-grandfather was the first tax assessor and collector of Jasper County, Mississippi, and a man of influence and prominence in his community, and his great-grandfather’s mother was a Terrell who lived in Georgia and a member of a family from which have sprung many men of prominence in public affairs in Georgia, Mississippi, Texas and Oklahoma. A. W. Terrell, for many years prominent in Texas history, is a member of this family, as is also Joseph Terrell, of Hobart, Oklahoma, who has been a member of the Oklahoma Legislature and a prosecuting attorney of his county, a leading lawyer and a man of influence and wealth. The father of Joseph Terrell was for a number of years a member of the Supreme Court of Mississippi and a jurist who lent dignity and strength to the bench. The activities of Isaac Hosey, an uncle of Henry P. Hosey, are found prominent in the annals of the Creek Nation, in which he served as a deputy United States marshal under one of the administrations of President Cleveland. Isaac Hosey married a woman of Creek blood, and in recent years has made his home at Paden, Okfuskee County. William T. and Lucy (Atwood) Hosey were the parents of four children: Henry P.; Isaac, who is a stockman and farmer of Bay Springs, Mississippi; Mrs. J. W. McNeece, who is the wife of a farmer at Enloe, Texas; and Mrs. M. T. Windham, who is the wife of a farmer-stockman at Taylorville, Mississippi.

Henry P. Hosey secured his education in the public and high schools of Mississippi, this being supplemented by much home study, and with this preparation began teaching in the public schools of his native state. During the several years that were thus employed, he devoted himself closely to the study of law, and, being admitted to practice, engaged in his profession in 1905, at Seminary, Mississippi. In 1909 Mr. Hosey came to Oklahoma and took up his residence and opened an office at Idabel, and here he has since continued in practice. Not long after coming to this place, he formed a partnership with James M. Leggett, an association which continued for two years, and in August, 1914, the present professional combination of Gore, Hosey & Jones was formed. This concern appears in all the courts, carries on a general practice of an important character, and has on its books some of the foremost firms and individuals in this part of the state. Mr. Hosey’s ability was given recognition when he was elected city attorney of Idabel, but at the expiration of his term of office he retired from public life, preferring to give his entire time to his pressing and constantly-growing professional duties, He is an ardent and consistent democrat, and while still a resident of Mississippi served one term as state election commissioner under Governor James K. Vardeman.

Mr. Hosey was married at Vossburg, Mississippi, in 1892, to Miss Laura Ariington, and they have four children, as follows: Mrs. Winnie Croft, who is the wife of a business man at Idabel; Mrs. Fannie Leggett, who is the wife of a well known attorney of Idabel; Miss Edna, who is a student in the State College for Young Women, at Chickasha, Oklahoma; and William Henry, six years of age, who resides at home. Mr. and Mrs. Hosey are members of the Baptist Church. He is fraternally affiliated with the Masons and the Woodmen of the World, and professionally with the McCurtain County Bar Association and the Oklahoma Bar Association.