Leroy Kershaw (1880–1969) was an American attorney, banker, businessman, cattleman and political candidate.
He is one of the pioneers of the Muskogee, Oklahoma, area and the founder of Morris, Oklahoma, in 1904. Kershaw was a delegate to the Republican National Convention in 1924, and was later a candidate for the Governor of Oklahoma in 1930. Kershaw was a founder of the Eastern Oklahoma Electric Traction Company, and a pure-bred Aberdeen Angus breeder, with over 500 head of cattle. His prize-winning herd of black angus cattle brought buyers from all over the country to his 4,000 acre (16 km²) farm south of Muskogee. His herd was the second largest herd in the country, and the largest herd in Oklahoma. His illustrious career began as a real estate salesman after graduating from college, which later expanded into banking, farm management, oil & gas development, real estate development, homebuilding, political service and pedigreed cattle breeding.
Personal L.R. Kershaw, also known as Leroy Kershaw, was born in Elmwood, Illinois, on December 6, 1880, to David R. Kershaw and Jennie M. (Cole) Kershaw.Alumni Records, University of Illinois, Student ID 2136 He was an outstanding athlete in high school, as an accomplished running back in football and as a champion discus thrower in track & field events. He was the leading scorer on the 1900 Elmwood High School football team, which was undefeated.
Early Indian Territory and Oklahoma land development
Kershaw graduated from Elmwood, Illinois, High School and worked his way through college waiting tables, selling nursery stock and selling real estate. Kershaw graduated from the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, where he was a charter member of the honorary law fraternity, the Benjamin D. Magruder chapter of Phi Alpha Delta in 1904. Professionally, he first became an Immigrant Agent for the St. Louis-San Francisco Railway, also known as the Frisco railroad, selling land to farmers for farms along the wide railroad right-of way in Northeastern Oklahoma. He bought many farms along the way, and in 1904 moved to Oklahoma himself. He was one of the founders of the Farmer's State Bank in Morris (in 1905) and the First National Bank of Morris (in 1908), (Indian Territory) Oklahoma. In 1910 he purchased the controlling interest in the National Bank of Okmulgee, Oklahoma. With the connections he had established with the railroad, he platted the town site of Morris, Oklahoma. The town of Morris was named after H. E. Morris,Origin of town name, Morris, Oklahoma a railroad executive with the Frisco railroad. The railroad went through the center of town, between Ft. Smith, Arkansas, and Tulsa, Oklahoma. The town of Morris was founded in 1904, before statehood. Oklahoma became a state in November 1907.
In Morris, Oklahoma, many of the street names were named after towns Kershaw was familiar with in Illinois, such as Elmwood, his place of birth, along with Pekin and Peoria. Hughes Street, the main street of Morris was named in honor of the General Immigration Agent for the Frisco Railroad, and President of the Frisco System Land & Immigration Association, Samuel A. Hughes. He also named a short street Frisco, after the railroad which brought him to Oklahoma, and streets were named after several presidents, including Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, Jackson as well as one after Benjamin Franklin, one of the early leaders of the United States.
Kershaw always maintained strong financial ties to Muskogee, including his appointment in 1910 as an agent for the Bartholomew Motor Company, of Peoria, Illinois, representing the Muskogee area. The Bartholomew Company produced the Glide (automobile company) car, an entry-level 4 to 7-passenger touring car. Kershaw used one of these touring cars to transport potential buyers interested in buying farms in the area. His appointment as an automobile dealer was short-lived as he foresaw the future being more profitable in the real estate sales and development business than in the sale of automobiles.
Kershaw was a delegate representing the City of Muskogee at the Trans-Mississippi Commercial Congress held in Kansas City, Missouri, in November 1911. In December 1911, Kershaw was a delegate representing the State of Oklahoma at the Nineteenth National Irrigation Congress in Chicago, IL. The Congress was influential in recommending conservation and reclamation of arid lands in the newly populated areas of the country. The Congress helped draft legislation for the creation of water reservoirs for the future drinking water and hydro-electric power generation needs of the country. Over time, Oklahoma developed more man-made reservoirs of water than any other state and today has more lakeshore frontage than any other state in the country, with the exception of Minnesota.
Career in registered Aberdeen Angus exhibition and breeding
In 1912, Kershaw began a long career as a cattleman, with the initial purchase of a herd of registered Aberdeen Angus cattle from the Gatewood herd of Texas and the Nicholas herd in Iowa.Lawsuit citation, as Bank Receiver He recognized the potential of raising high-quality show and breeding stock of a breed of cattle which were well-suited for the short grass of Oklahoma and the long, dry summers. Angus cattle could be cross-bred with the Texas longhorn, and the product would be a hornless breed of cattle. Angus bulls were popular with cattle breeders for their first cow because the calves would be small, and easy to deliver for the new cows. Kershaw was elected a Director of the Oklahoma Free State Fair in Muskogee in 1913. It was the largest free State Fair and exposition in Oklahoma at the time. On August 30, 1917, one of Kershaw's prize bulls, winner of 19 championships, Ben Hur of Lone Dell, was featured on the front cover of the Breeder's Gazette, the leading publication in the country at the time, advocating pedigreed cattle stock. Kershaw's champion herd was featured on the front page of the Oklahoma Employer Journal in February, 1918. Muskogee Boy the 1917 International Grand Champion Steer was pictured on the front cover of two magazines: the Ohio Farmer on March 23, 1918 and on the National Farmer Magazine in April, 1918. Plowman, the champion of champions, the winner of more laurels than any other bull, living or dead, was featured on the front cover of the Kansas Stockman magazine on May 1, 1920.
Kershaw showed the Grand Champion Steer of All Breeds, Muskogee Boy at the International Livestock Exposition in Chicago in 1917. (Kershaw was the first Angus breeder from the Southwest to be honored with champion show cattle at the International.) In March 1918, this prize steer was offered for sale in a public auction held in the lobby of the Lee-Huckins Hotel in downtown Oklahoma City for the benefit of the American Red Cross. (The Lee-Huckins Hotel served as the State Capitol from 1910 to 1917).
The auction brought $3.16 a pound for the steer, for a total of $5,890 for the Red Cross Fund. This sale price set a new world record for the sale of a champion steer. This was in the middle of World War I and the funds were used to help American soldiers. The coat from the steer was made into an overcoat for President Woodrow Wilson and the meat was processed for General "Blackjack" Pershing's staff in France who shared it with wounded soldiers. Later that year, Kershaw was elected President of the Southwest American Livestock Show, one of the premier livestock shows in the Southwest.
Whenever possible, Kershaw would use an International grand champion bull or a son of one in his breeding program. One such bull was Plowman (son of the 1911 International grand champion, Kloman). Kershaw purchased Plowman for $3,050 after he won his class at the 1917 International Livestock Exposition in Chicago, IL. In 1919, Kershaw won the Grand Champion Steer (over All Breeds) trophy, with Muskogee Boy II, the brother to Muskogee Boy at the Texas State Fair in Dallas. That same year, his prize bull, Plowman, won the Grand Champion Bull trophy at five of the nation's most prestigious livestock shows, including the American Royal Livestock Show in Kansas City, MO; the Southwest American Livestock Show in Oklahoma City, OK; the National Western Stock Show in Denver, CO; the Southwestern Exposition and Fat Stock Show, which was later named the Southwestern Exposition and Livestock Show in Fort Worth, TX and also at the Kansas National Live Stock Show in Wichita, KS.
After an extensive show career Plowman, (the Champion of Champions, who claimed 57 grand championships as a 2,250-lb. 3-year-old show bull, more championships than any other bull in America, living or dead) the bull was sold in Kershaw's 1920 sale for $40,000 – a price unheard of at that time and a world record for many years. The dispersion sale of his herd at his ranch south of Muskogee in 1920 brought experienced buyers from all over the country to bid on some of Kershaw's prize stock. In this sale was also included Twin Burn Pride 5th, crowned champion cow with 37 championships to her credit. He had intended to sell his complete herd at this 1920 sale, but instead held back one of his prize bulls and started all over with new cattle.
There has never been another herd of cattle that has shown over as wide an area of country and won so many premiums as that belonging to Kershaw. The Kershaw herd of registered Aberdeen Angus cattle won more championships than any other breeder in America. The herd had won 266 grand championships, 685 first-place rankings, 376-second-place, 186 third-place, 79 fourth-place and 53 fifth-place rankings, within a period of six years, bringing to the owner innumerable cups and silver trophies. His herd was shown in more than 22 cities in more than eight states in the Southwest and Midwest and in Canada.
As President of the Southwest American Livestock Show, he saw the need for a new facility to show cattle in Oklahoma City, which was founded in 1889. He convinced officials with the Armour and Company packing house in Chicago to contribute $200,000 charged to advertising to go towards the construction of a Livestock Pavilion at the Oklahoma City stockyards. The fund raising began in 1920 and the new facility, the largest of its kind in the Southwest, was completed in 1922. In its time, the Oklahoma City stockyards and its related suppliers became one of the largest industries in the city. Kershaw continued to serve on the board of directors of the Stock & Industrial Exposition in Tulsa, as a board member of the Oklahoma Free State Fair in Muskogee, and as board member of the Oklahoma Co-Operative Livestock Association.
He continued to raise show and breeding cattle through 1948. From 1916 through 1948 he served in various leadership capacities within the Oklahoma Aberdeen Angus Breeder's Association and the American Aberdeen Angus Breeder's Association, serving as President and director, respectively. At one time his herd was the second-largest registered and accredited Aberdeen Angus herd in the country. During the many years he raised and sold cattle, a number of luminaries would travel to his farm to bid on his prized cattle. They included James Cash Penney, the founder of the J. C. Penney stores; Tom Slick, a world-renowned oil man; C. R. Anthony, the founder of Anthony's stores; Armand Hammer, the Chairman of Occidental Petroleum and Robert S. Kerr, U. S. Senator from Oklahoma, the "uncrowned King of the Senate" from Oklahoma, and co-founder of the Kerr-McGee Company.