Volume 9 , Issue 41

OkieLegacy Centennial Moment

Did you know that Oklahoma's first Governor, C. N. Haskell, had a double? The double was a mexican immigration agent, E. R. Shannon.

1907 - Brass Band For Haskell's Double -- This article was found in The Oklahoman, dated Sept. 29, 1907, page. 9, concerning the Mexican immigration agent taken for the new governor of Oklahoma. This was special to The Oklahoman, Muskogee, I. T., Sept. 28, 1907.

"There is one man besides C. N. Haskell who is benefitting from the election of the new governor of Oklahoma already. His name is E. R. Shannon and he is a Mexcian immigration agent, traveling in the interest of some townsite and land companies in Mexico, though he is an American himself.

"Mr. Shannon is Mr. Haskell's double. The similarity is so great that in many parts of the new state he is taken for the new governor. This he uses to his advantage. When an enthusiastic admirer rushes up and congratulates him on having been elected governor, Mr. Shannon smiles, accepts, finds out his friend's name and then gradually drifts around to the advantages of mexican properties and reveals his real name.

"But in the meantime he has amde acquaintances that get him business and he is happy. At one town in the territory a prominent democrat rushed up to Mr. Shannon, called him Governor Haskell, and told him "some of the boys would be dropping around to see him."

"Pretty soon local democrats commenced to drop in and the first thing Shannon knew there was a brass band out in his honor. This was too much for him and after a hasty explanation that there was a mistake, he ducked.

"Mr. Shannon is about the same age as Governor Haskell, has the same piercing eye, a firmly set jaw and brushes his hair exactly the same way Mr. Haskell. When seen together there is, of course, considerable difference, but the likeness is so strong that it takes an intimate acquaintance to distinguish off hand which is the governor-elect and which is the immigration agent."
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