Volume 10 , Issue 2

Pioneer John B. Doolin - Alva, OK

John B. Doolin who was a resident of Oklahoma since 1899. He was one of the vigorous, progressive and public-spirited citizens who brought to bear dynamic, well directed energy in furthering the civic, material development of this northwest commonwealth of Oklahoma Territory.

John B. Doolin was also one of the influential figures in the councils, activities of the Democratic party contingent in Oklahoma; served as state fish & game warden from 1911 until the 1st of January 1915, and achieved splendid work in bringing efficiency to this department of the state government; and he was a business man successful in his operations.

Doolin maintained his home at Alva, Woods county, Oklahoma where he was one of the interested prinicipals in the Schaefer-Doolin Mortgage Company, one of the leading concerns of the kind in the state.

Since 1906 he had been prominently identified with the affairs of the Democratic party in Oklahoma, as a loyal, public-spirited citizen, his influence in connection with the industrial progress of the vital young commonwealth had of recent years been specially directed in the development of oil and gas producing enterprises, in which line he was classed among the representative independent operators in the state.

John B. Doolin was born in Caldwell County, Missouri, March 9, 1879, and was a son of John and Alice (Tobin) Doolin, who were early settlers of that section of the state, where the father was a prosperous farmer, merchant at the time of his death, which occurred when he was only 32 years of age. John's father was a native of Caldwell County, Missouri.

The parents of Mrs. Alice Tobin came from Ireland to America in 1830 and first made settlement in the Dominion of Canada around 1816, before they moved to Missouri in 1874.

John B. Doolin acquired his early education in the public schools of his native county. His discipline included a course in the high school at Cameron, Missouri. Thereafter he was engaged in farming and in the mercantile business in Missouri until 1899, when, at the age of 20 years, he numbered himself among the pioneers of Woods County, Oklahoma where he engaged in the general merchandise business at Alva, Oklahoma and two years later, at the age of 22, he was elected Register of Deeds of Woods county, a position of which he remained the incumbent one term.

Upon his retirement from public office John B. Doolin engaged in the farm loan business, and his enterprise, fairness and well formulated policies made the business successful from its initiation.

In 1906 he amplified the scope of his operations by entering into a partnership association with John H. Schaefer, and this effective alliance had continued under the title of the Schaefer-Doolin Mortgage Company. The company had extended its operations over 12 or more counties in Western Oklahoma and its business in the extending of loans on approved real estate securities was more extensive than that of any other independent firm or company conducting business in the state West of Oklahoma City.

John Doolin was known to be well fortified in his opinions concerning governmental and political matters. He had been an active, effective worker in the ranks of the Democratic party during the entire period of statehood in Oklahoma. In 1906 Judge Jesse Dunn, chairman of the Oklahoma Democratic Central Committee, appointed Doolin a member of the committee assigned to the drafting of rules for the primary election of that year in which were to be nominated delegates to the State Constitutional Convention, and the rules formulated by this committee were observed in lieu of a definite primary law. In the state campaign, that of 1907, Doolin was selected manager of the campaign of Honorable Lee Cruce, the Democratic candidate for governor, and he distinguished himself for his finesse in the maneuvering of the political forces at his command.

In 1908 Doolin was chosen assistant treasurer of the National Democratic Campaign Committee, and under Governor Haskell, treasurer of the committee, he served in this important capacity at the national headquarters of the party, in the City of Chicago, his work having there been continued after Hon. Herman Ritter, of New York, had succeeded Governor Haskell as treasurer of the committee.

In 1910 John B. Doolin was appointed state fish ?& game warden, and he continued the able, valued incumbent until the close of the administration of Governor Cruce. Doolin devoted much thought and time to systematizing and making effective the work of his department and one of the noteworthy achievements of his administration was the establishing of the bird day in Oklahoma -- a day set apart for instructing children in the public schools in knowledge and appreciation of the wild birds, and their proper treatment, protection and perpetuation.

In addition to his extensive operations in the mortgage loan business, Mr. Doolin had been prominently concerned with the oil industry in Oklahoma since 1912, when he and his associates became actively identified with development work in the Schulter Field, of Okmulgee county, where they, in 1916, controlled some of the best producing properties in the district.

John B. Doolin was a member of the board of directors of the Aetna Building & Loan Association of Topeka, Kansas, this being recognized as one of the largest organizations of the kind in the United States. Doolin was affiliated with Alva Lodge, No. 1184, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, having been one of the five men who applied for and obtained the charter for this lodge.

On July 3, 1913, John B. Doolin married Miss Lee Museller, daughter of Judge A. R. Museller, who was one of the advisory editors of A Standard History of Oklahoma, 1916 history books.

The above information was taken from the 1916 history book of Oklahoma, A Standard History of Oklahoma, pg. 1541, Vol. 4, by Joseph Thoburn.

There was a John Doolin (became a Justice of the Oklahoma Supreme Court) who grew up with my Father, Gene M. McGill (born 1914), and uncle, Robert L. McGill (born 1916) -- attended a birthday for the young Gene M. McGill and friends. Perhaps this was the son of John B. Doolin.
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