Paris Pipkin. That highly patriotic sentiment and romance that exists in the old Choctaw Nation caused some young men of Antlers a few years ago to undertake the organization of a Choctaw Brigade of the Oklahoma National Guard. Mr. V. M. Locke, now principal chief of the Choctaw Nation, and Paris Pipkin, now a druggist of Antlers, proceeded to organize Company L of the National Guard. Both had seen service in the American Army, Locke as a volunteer during the Spanish-American war and Pipkin as a soldier in the regular service. Locke was appointed captain and Pipkin second lieutenant. On September 25, 1912, Mr. Pipkin was promoted to the rank of first lieutenant, a position he held until January 14, 1914, when he was commissioned by Governor Lee Cruce as captain. Later his business required attention and he resigned from the Guard, being succeeded by Ben Davis Locke, who was commissioned by Governor R. L. Williams. Mr. Pipkin during his years of service in the National Guard participated in all the important activities of that organization and ranked as one of its best officers.

The service of Mr. Pipkin in the United States army began in 1904 when he enlisted as a member of Company G of the Twenty-second Infantry. In April of that year his regiment was transferred to the Philippines and stationed on the Island of Mindanoa. During his year’s service there he participated in three minor engagements against the natives and with the exhibition of such qualities as to bring him special mention for bravery in the discharge papers which he received by purchase in April, 1906. After his regiment was returned to the States it was stationed at Alcatraz Island off San Francisco, where Mr. Pipkin was made overseer in a military prison. He left San Francisco for his former home in Indian Territory eight days before the great earthquake in 1906.

Paris Pipkin is a native of Indian Territory, having been born at Vinita in 1885. As a matter of interest it may be stated that the first school which he attended was the Harrell Institute at Muskogee, a Methodist institution which at that time was under the superintendency of Dr. Theodore F. Brewer, one of the advisory editors of this publication. He spent three years there and then attended school at Fort Gibson and at other points in the Chickasaw Nation and at Noble, in Cleveland County, Oklahoma. His father, being an itinerant Methodist preacher, moved about from place to place while the boy was growing up, and in consequence he never acquired a finished or college education. After returning from San Francisco he attended the University of Oklahoma School of Pharmacy, which enabled him to embark successfully in the drug business.

On locating at Antlers in 1906, Mr. Pipkin took a position in a drug store which his father had established there, and later he purchased the store. He is a member of the Oklahoma Pharmaceutical Association and is one of the very active and progressive young business men of Antlers. On April 2, 1913. at Antlers Mr. Pipkin married Miss Inez E. Farr. Her father, Maj. J. G. Farr. was one of the oldest and most prominent intermarried white citizens of the Choctaw Nation. To their union have been born two children: Estelle and Paris, Jr. Mr. Pipkin has a brother and two sisters: Charles B. Pipkin, in business in Pauls Valley; Mrs. J. M. Wright, wife of a farmer at Antlers; and Mrs. Kate Wallace, who is spending her widowhood with her parents.

While Mr. Pipkin’s individual career has been of considerable interest and no small degree of influence and usefulness in Oklahoma, there is equal interest attaching to the life of his venerable father, Rev. W. P. Pipkin. Rev. Mr. Pipkin was born in Missouri, but since 1888 has been a member of the Oklahoma Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. His wife’s maiden name was Mary E. Wingfield, and in 1915 they celebrated the fortieth anniversary of their wedding. The story of this fine old Methodist missionary and preacher, especially in his relations to Indian Territory and Oklahoma, is found in the following sketch.