Volume 11 , Issue 37

1905 - John B. Doolin, Alva OK

I found this 1905 cartoon of John B. Doolin in the December 1905 newspaper of The Oklahoman. I believe this John B. Doolin must have been the father of the John Doolin that my father, Gene McGill, and his brother, Bob McGill, grew up with as young boys after 1914 in the northwest Oklahoma community of Alva.

The December 1905 front page, "Pages From the Cartoon Book, Men of Affairs in Caricature," The Oklahoman said, "When John B. Doolin was five years old two unfortunate things happened; both his parents died.

But this didn't discourage young Doolin who was thrown upon his own resources at an early age.

"Misfortune is more often like the storm which buffets the young oak, causing it to take a firmer hold upon the earth that it may grow stronger and expand. John gleaned most of his education format he three best teachers: observation, experience and books. Then he began to see opportunities.

"He left his home at Cameron, Missouri, where he was born in 1879 and moved to Oklahoma. This was in 1896. In the new country Mr. Doolin entered the dry goods business. Over in Woods county the people wanted him to be register of deeds because he was a democrat and capable. His plurality was 533. At that time he was the youngest public office holder in Oklahoma, being 22 years of age. His democracy is undisputed. He declares he has been of that political faith since the memory of man runneth not to the contrary.

"John's friends assert that if he should ever change his politics he will have to change his name, because it is a synonym for democracy and then both begin with "D." Doolin and Democracy -- alliteration, the student of rhetoric would call it. Now Mr. Doolin is in the abstract, loan and insurance business at Alva, where he has the only complete set of abstract books in Woods county.
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