Luther W. Tarkenton.
Luther W. Tarkenton. For twenty years a resident of old Indian Territory and the State of Oklahoma, Luther W. Tarkenton completed his education here, and for the past fifteen years has been pursuing a varied commercial career, and is chiefly known as a real estate and farm land dealer at Waurika, and has also made himself a factor in the oil development of that district.
Luther W. Tarkenton was born near Russellville, Pope County, Arkansas, October 5, 1881, a son of John P. and Bettie (Jaenes) Tarkenton. The Tarkenton family were among the pioneer settlers of Tennessee. John P. Tarkenton, who was born in that state in 1840, moved to Pope County, Arkansas, and in 1895 established his home at Comanche, in Old Indian Territory. Early in his life he was conscripted for service in the Confederate Army, though he was opposed to secession. His active career was spent as a farmer and stock raiser, and in 1903 he retired from business and is now living at Ada, Oklahoma. He is a member of the Free Will Baptist Church. His wife was born in Tennessee in 1847 and died near Ada at Harwell in 1905. Their six children are given brief mention as follows: William T., who is a farmer and an oil well and deep water well contractor and lives at Ada; May, whose husband is a contractor and builder in New Mexico; Luther W.; Emma, who is unmarried and living in New Mexico; John P., who died at Ada at the age of twenty-two; Elsie, wife of L. L. Bedford, a Texas farmer.
Luther W. Tarkenton grew up on a farm and in his early boyhood attended the common schools of Pope County, Arkansas. In 1900 he finished his education in the high school at Comanche, and his first business connection after leaving the farm was as clerk in the general merchandise store conducted by W. A. Yates at Comanche. He was next sent to Temple, Oklahoma, as manager of the firm’s store in that place, and continued merchandising until 1908. Since the latter date his home has been at Waurika, where he has built up a large business in handling general real estate and farm loans. Quite recently he has become an oil promoter, and is now drilling a well a mile and a half north of Waurika. His offices are in the Leech Building on Main Street. Mr. Tarkenton owns a farm of eighty acres eight miles east of Waurika, another of 160 acres nine miles east of town, and one of 120 acres ten miles northeast. He has also leased upwards of a thousand acres in Jackson county. His own comfortable residence is on C Avenue in Waurika.
Mr. Tarkenton is an independent republican and a member of the Baptist Church, and is affiliated with the Woodmen of the World. He was married at Comanche in 1903 to Miss Hannah B. Howard, daughter of Rev. J. W. Howard, now deceased, who was for many years a Baptist minister. There are two children: Lucile, born in 1905, and Wilton W., born in 1908, both attending the Waurika public schools.