Thomas Hampton Fancher. Now in his second term as prosecuting attorney of Hughes County, Thomas H. Fancher has been a lawyer at Holdenville since 1909, and came to Oklahoma with a broad and varied experience in the law and in practical affairs in his native State of Arkansas. Mr. Fancher is an able lawyer and has deserved the confidence of the people repeatedly shown in his election to important places of trust and responsibility.

He was born in Carroll County, Arkansas, January 24, 1867, a son of Hampton B. and Eliza Olive (McKennon) Fancher. His father was born in Tennessee January 9, 1828, and died at the age of eighty-one in 1909, at Berryville, Arkansas. The mother was a native of Tennessee and died in Arkansas in 1892 at the age of fifty-four. They spent all their married lives in Carroll and Boone counties, Arkansas, where the father was an active farmer. He also made a record of important service during the Civil war. He was captain of a company in the state troops at first, and later was with the regular Confederate army on courier duty most of the time. Of the family of six daughters and two sons, there are now living Thomas H. Fancher and his two sisters: Bettie, wife of J. H. Walker of Hughes County, Oklahoma; and Clevie, wife of W. M. Bunch of Hughes County.

It was the wholesome and sturdy discipline of a farm in Arkansas that gave Mr. Fancher his early ideas and ideals and a vigorous mental and physical constitution. From the homestead he went to Clarksville, Arkansas, and began the study of law with his maternal uncle, Capt. A. S. McKennon, who has since become a well known member of the bar at McAlester, Oklahoma. Admitted to the bar at Russellville, Arkansas, November 16, 1893, Mr. Fancher soon afterwards returned to the farm after the death of his mother, married, and assisted his father in rearing the younger children. Later he moved to Berryville, where he was engaged in the practice of law for several years. While there he was elected county judge of Carroll County, an office he held for two terms or four years. Then resuming private practice he continued in Arkansas for two years more, and in 1909 established his home and office at Holdenville, Oklahoma. He was soon enjoying a promising practice as a lawyer, and in 1912 he responded to the wishes and urgings of his friends and became a candidate for the office of county attorney. He was elected, and in 1914 his first administration was given a vote of confidence by his reelection.

Mr. Fancher has been a democrat ever since casting his first ballot. In Masonry he takes an active part in the lodge and Royal Arch Chapter and has filled all the chairs in these branches. In January, 1896, he married Miss Carrie Keener, who was born in Missouri in 1869, but was reared in Arkansas, being a daughter of the late Judge William Keener. Mr. and Mrs. Fancher’s three children are all at home, their names being Eliza, Mary and Paul.