Patrick J. Hodgins. A representative younger member of the bar of Oklahoma, Mr. Hodgins is engaged in the practice of his profession in Oklahoma City, and is also secretary and general manager of the Credit Reference Company, with offices at 301-305 Empire Building.

A native son of the West, Mr. Hodgins fully exemplifies its progressive spirit, not only along professional and business lines but also as a loyal and public-spirited citizen. He was born at Ponca, the judicial center of

Dixon County, Nebraska, on the 20th of September, 1883, and is a son of William and Mary (Cryan) Hodgins, who now maintain their home in Oklahoma City. William Hodgins was born and reared in the Province of Ontario, Canada, and in the late ’70s he established his residence in Dixon County, Nebraska, where he became a successful representative of the live-stock industry, in connection with which he gave special attention to the raising of high-grade Hereford cattle and fine horses. He there continued his residence many years, achieved distinctive success through his well ordered endeavors and is now living virtually retired in the capital city of Oklahoma.

The childhood and early youth of Patrick J. Hodgins were compassed by the conditions and influences of the home farm in Nebraska and there he continued his studies in the public schools until he had completed the curriculum of the high school. While attending high school he also devoted as much time as was possible to the study of law, under the preceptorship of a local member of the bar, and when seventeen years of age he severed his association with the operations of the home farm to become a representative of the pedagogic profession. For three years he was a successful and popular teacher in the rural schools of his native state, thereafter he was in the United States mail service one year, was for a time engaged in the insurance business, and then became a traveling commercial salesman.

In 1909 Mr. Hodgins established his residence in Oklahoma City, where he engaged in the real-estate business. In the meanwhile he had continued the study of law and he prosecuted his studies further in Oklahoma City, where he was admitted to the bar on the 9th of June, 1911, since which time he has been engaged in the general practice of his profession. In the year that marked his arrival in Oklahoma City Mr. Hodgins here organized the Credit Reference Company, and he continued in sole control of the business until 1912, when the company was incorporated under the laws of Arizona and with a capital stock of $5,000,000, John W. Burns, his former law partner being the first president of the corporation and Mr. Hodgins secretary and general manager. Mr. Hodgins has shown much initiative and executive ability as a business man and in addition to having developed in an admirable way the business of the Credit Reference Company, which exercises important and valuable functions, he is vice president of the National Provident Publicity Company, of Arizona, engaged in the advertising or trading stamp business, and secretary of the Oklahoma City Steel & Wire Works, a corporation engaged in the wholesale and retail dealing in building materials. He is secretary also of the Edmundson Investment Company of Oklahoma City, dealers in mortgages and other high-grade securities; is a large stockholder in and president of the Schrimpsher Oil & Gas Company, which has valuable holdings and is doing productive development work in the Oklahoma oil and gas fields, and he is financially interested in a number of other important industrial and commercial enterprises. In 1914 Mr. Hodgins initiated, under the title of the Inquisitor Publishing Company, the publication of a monthly magazine designated as The Inquisitor and defined as " a magazine of protest for the sake of human kind."

Mr. Hodgins was reared in the faith of the Catholic Church, of which he is a communicant, is a democrat in his political proclivities, is, in 1915, Grand Knight of Oklahoma City Council, No. 1038, Knights of Columbus, and State Advocate for the order in Oklahoma, is affiliated with Oklahoma City Lodge, No. 417, Benevolent & Protective Order of Elks; is Senior Councilor of the local organization of the United Commercial Travelers; and holds membership in the Brotherhood of American Yeomen, Lodge No. 192, Loyal Order of Moose, the Oklahoma Travelers Association, and the Fraternal Aid Union at Denver, Colorado. Mr. Hodgins is essentially vital and vigorous as a citizen, lawyer and business man, has achieved success worthy of the name and his circle of friends is limited only by that of his acquaintances. It may be noted that his paternal grandparents were natives of fine old County Tipperary, Ireland, whence they immigrated to Ontario, Canada, and became the founders of the family in America.

On the 17th of June, 1904, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Hodgins to Miss Sylvia Belle McDermott, daughter of Alfred J. McDermott, a prominent banker at Lohrville, Iowa, and an influential figure in the political affairs of the Hawkeye State. Mr. and and Mrs. Hodgins have two children, Bernice and Desmond, and the attractive family home, known for its generous hospitality, is at 1228 West First.