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JOHN B. DOOLIN
The Chronicles of Oklahoma
Volume XX
September, 1942
Number 3
JOHN B. DOOLIN
1879 — 1939
By Robert L. Williams
John B. Doolin, born March 9, 1879 in Caldwell County, Missouri, was the son of John and Alice (Tobin) Doolin. His grandfather, John Doolin, was born in Ireland about 1816 and emigrated
and settled in Caldwell County, Missouri, where he died on December 24, 1891. His mother, Alice Tobin, came from Ganaoque,
Ontario, Canada, and taught' school at Cameron in said county,
where she married his father, John Doolin, by whom she had four
sons, John B., the oldest, and three others who died in infancy.
The father and the three children were interred at Cameron, Missouri, and the mother later died at Mitchell, South Dakota, with
interment there.
John B. Doolin,was seven years old when bereaved by death
of his parents, and then lived with 0. C. Crawford, his guardian.
He attended the local schools, graduating from the Cameron High
School, and when, not so engaged worked on a farm, until twenty
years of age, qua then came to Oklahoma Territory'^nd settled
at Alva in Woods County, establishing himself in the clothing business with C. M, Deppen.
Having reached the age of 21 years, and being affiliated with
the Democratic Party, he was given the Democratic-Populist fusion
nomination for register of deeds for said county, which then embraced the territory now in Alfalfa and Major Bounties, in addition
to the greater part of what is now Woods County. Canvassing with
a team and buggy he personally met practieally every voter, and
being elected served the two-year term.
The late Judge Jesse J. Dunn, Pat JvOates, Judge Jeff Bower,
Henry France and others for county attorney, sheriff, judge, treasurer, etc., were on that ticket, the majority of whom later attained
success professionally, politically, and in business—Dunn as chief
justice of the Oklahoma Supreme Court and as a lawyer, and Oates
as assistant sergeant of arms of the Constitutional Convention, and
assistant warden of the Oklahoma Penitentiary at McAlester, where
he was killed in a prison outbreak, and Doolin became a leader in
business and politics. The late Roy Stafford and Clark Hudson, then
operating a newspaper at Alva, gave them their support, and afterward each reached eminence in the state as newspaper men.
