James Albert Minton. In a long and uniformly successful career the versatile abilities of James Albert Minton have found expression in activities as a minister of the gospel, as a business man, as an agriculturist, and, in recent years, as an attorney. A resident of Erick, Oklahoma since 1900, he has here risen to a leading place among the legists of the extreme western part of the state, and is now in control of a clientèle as important as it is satisfying in a financial way.

Mr. Minton was born at Gravelly Springs, Lauderdale County, Alabama, January 13, 1862, and is a son of John and Jennie Delila (Cannon) Minton, and a descendant of a family of English origin whose founder in this country settled in South Carolina in Colonial days. John Minton was born in South Carolina in 1801 and from that state moved to Gravelly Springs, Alabama, where he was married and engaged in farming. Later he went to Hardin County, Tennessee, where he continued his farming and stockraising operations, and died there in 1895. He was an elder in the Christian Church for many years and a man universally respected and esteemed. By his first marriage he was the father of four children: Ivey, who is deceased; Lewis, a farmer of Gravelly Springs, Alabama; Jack, now deceased, was a resident of Waynesboro, Tennessee, engaged in farming; and Foster, who carries on agricultural pursuits at Gravelly Springs, Alabama. Mr. Minton was married the second time to Miss Jennie Delila Cannon, who was born in Tennessee in 1829, and died at Erick, Oklahoma, in 1913, and they became the parents of two children: James Albert, of this review, and C. B., who is a farmer and raiser of stock at Erick.

James A. Minton attended the public schools of Gravelly Springs, Alabama, following which he spent two years at Mars Hill (Alabama) College. He was graduated from the Georgia Robertson Christian College, Henderson, Tennessee (then known as the West Tennessee Christian College), with the class of 1890, receiving the degree of Bachelor of Science, and for fifteen years was a minister of the Christian faith, holding various pastorates in Tennessee. In the meantime he had been engaged in the study of law, and in 1895 was admitted to the Tennessee bar. His advent in Oklahoma occurred in 1897, when he located at Oklahoma City as general manager of the Mutual Life Insurance Company of Kentucky, having the general agency for the territories of Indian Territory and Oklahoma. After three years of this work, he resigned and came to Erick, where in 1900 he was admitted to the bar. He has since been engaged in a general practice in civil and criminal law- and has been the representative of large and important interest’s, his practice carrying him into all the courts of this part of the state. His offices are now located in the First State Bank Building. He holds membership in the Beckham County Bar Association and the Oklahoma Bar Association, and is generally regarded by his fellow-practitioners as a broad-minded and progressive practitioner and a careful observer of the courtesies and amenities of the vocation. Politically he subscribes to the principles of the democratic party. His relations with the fraternal brotherhood make him a member of Erick Lodge No. 237, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, Henderson (Tennessee) Chapter, Royal Arch Masons, and Erick Lodge, Independent Order of Odd Fellows.

Mr. Minton was married in 1883, in Hardin County, Tennessee, to Miss Elizabeth Haddock, daughter of the late J. L. Haddock, a farmer, who died at Erick. Mr. and Mrs. Minton have been the parents of three children: Melrose L., a graduate of Cumberland (Tennessee) University, class of 1914, degree of Bachelor of Laws, who is associated in practice with his father at Erick; Laura May, who is the wife of E. E. McLane, and resides on their farm, two miles west of Erick; and Robertson, who is in charge of his father’s agricultural interests in Greer County. When he came to Erick, in 1900, Mr. Minton filed on a claim of 160 acres in Beckham County, which he proved up, and which was sold by him in 1905.

He still continues to be interested in agricultural affairs, and at this time is the owner of 960 acres of valuable land located in Greer County.