Volume 12 , Issue 46

F. M. Cowgill - Advice Not Wanted

It has been spread around through stories of the past and news articles that F. M. Cowgill was one of the best men and the best lawyers and one of the best fathers and the best citizens and one of the most congenial. At the same time on of the most indifferent and uncongenial men that ever lived in Oklahoma or anywhere else.

If you had heard it from Jesse J. Dunn, Cowgill and he loved each other like David and Jonathan. Not sure who the David and Jonathan was that Dunn referred to nor shall I ever know, because Jesse Dunn has long since been deceased. Anyway, Dunn and Cowgill were two men in many particulars who could scarcely differ temperamentally to a greater extent.

After Cowgill was elected to the bench in northwest Oklahoma, he concluded to quit practicing law and went into the general store goods business, opening this stock at Alva, Oklahoma. He had for one of his clerks long, lean lanky, sarcastic Tom Adams. Business flourished. Tom ascribed it to his employer's lack of congeniality and lack of ability to mix with the trade in a proper way.

As the story goes, one day Cowgill came into the store and said, "Tom, I don't want your advice, but I want to know what you think about it. I've got a notion to move this stock to Dakota. What do you think about it? Tom looked him over in a quizzical way, and in his halting speech said, "W-w-w-ell, M-mr. C-c-cowgill, y-y-y-you m-might t-t-try it a wh-wh-while. It w-would be a h-y-year be-be-before the-the p-p-people g-get acc-ac-acquainted w-wi-with y-you, and the=then y-you c-c-could m-mo-move ag-gain."   |  View or Add Comments (0 Comments)   |   Receive updates ( subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

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