Hon. James Thomas McIntosh. The election of 1912 brought to the State Senate from Bryan County, as representative of the Twentieth Senatorial District, a thoroughly successful lawyer, a brilliant orator, and a tactful and efficient worker among his colleagues in the Senate. Senator McIntosh during his legislative career has been one of the most persistent workers in behalf of sound conservative legislation. Living in the county from which Governor Williams comes, he was in harmony with the administration program and has wielded an important influence in maintaining harmony between the Legislature and the governor.

James Thomas McIntosh was born in Chickasaw County, Mississippi, July 23, 1879, a son of R. K. and Mary Bell McIntosh. His father was a planter and merchant and descended from a Scotch family that settled in America in early days. The grandfather, M. M. McIntosh was a planter and slave owner in Mississippi before the Civil war, and as a result of the war and the emancipation act had to release more than 100 slaves. Senator McIntosh’s mother, Mary Bell Boone, was a great granddaughter of Daniel Boone. Her father was killed in the battle of Vicksburg during the Civil war. Senator McIntosh has six brothers and sisters living: Murdoch, who is secretary-treasurer of the Hemingway Furniture Company at Alexandria, Louisiana; R. K., who is county superintendent of Bryan County and lives at Bennington; W. E., a pharmacist at Caddo, Oklahoma; A. E., an electrical engineer at Houston, Mississippi; Mrs. Kittie D. Foster, wife of a planter at Houston, Mississippi; and Mrs. Lorena Priest, wife of a physician at Houston. Senator McIntosh himself is unmarried.

His early education was acquired in the public schools, finishing with the high school at Houston, Mississippi, in 1896. Then followed two years as a teacher in public schools as principal at Louisville, Mississippi, and one year as principal of the high school at Okalona, Mississippi. In 1902 Mr. McIntosh graduated Bachelor of Arts from the University of Mississippi, and during his college career was a member of the Kappa Alpha fraternity. In 1903 he completed a law course in the University of Texas, and later in the same year began practicing at Durant, Oklahoma. As an able lawyer and effective pleader, he was soon drawn into public affairs, and in 1907 was elected the first prosecuting attorney of Bryan County, and was re-elected in 1908. Mr. McIntosh was the choice of the Twentieth District for the State Senate in 1912. In the Senate he distinguished himself as a forcible public speaker. His discipline in this accomplishment began in college where, during his sophomore and junior years, he won medals in debate and oratory. His first assignment in the Senate was as chairman of Judiciary Committee No. 2. During that session he advocated bills abolishing certain county offices and assigning their duties to other officers, besides other bills which would tend to reduce the expense of county and state government. In the Fifth Legislature Senator McIntosh was chairman of Judiciary Committee No. 1, and a member of committees on constitution and constitutional amendments, appropriations, privileges and elections, fees and salaries, state and county officers, fish and game and legislative and judicial apportionment.

Senator McIntosh is a master Mason, is affiliated with Lodge No. 45 at Durant, a member of Durant Lodge No. 792 of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, of the Modern Woodmen of America at Durant, and his church membership is with the Methodist Episcopal, South. For ten years he has been identified with the Bryan County Bar Association and is a member of the State Bar Association.