Charles Nathaniel Haskell (March 13, 1860 – July 5, 1933) was an American lawyer, oilman, and politician who was the first governor of Oklahoma. As a delegate to Oklahoma's constitutional convention in 1906, he played a crucial role in drafting the Oklahoma Constitution and gaining Oklahoma's admission into the United States as the 46th state in 1907. A prominent businessman in Muskogee, he helped the city grow in importance. He represented the city as a delegate in both the 1906 Oklahoma convention and an earlier convention in 1905 that was a failed attempt to create a U.S. state of Sequoyah.
During Oklahoma's constitutional convention, Haskell succeeded in pushing for the inclusion of prohibition and blocking the inclusion of women's suffrage in the Oklahoma Constitution. As governor, he was responsible for moving the state capital to Oklahoma City, establishing schools and state agencies, reforming the territorial prison system, and enforcing prohibition. The constitution prohibited persons from having successive terms in the governor's office. Lee Cruce succeeded Haskell, who returned to his law practice and related business activities. Haskell died of a stroke in 1933.
Early life and education Born in West Leipsic, Ohio on March 13, 1860, Charles Haskell was the son of George R. Haskell who died when the boy was three years old. His widowed mother, Jane H. Haskell ( Reeves), worked for the local Methodist church as a bell ringer and custodian to support her six children.
At the age of 10, Haskell started working as a farm boy for a farmer named Miller in Putnam County, Ohio. He lived and worked there for eight years as he grew into adulthood. Miller was a school teacher, but the young Haskell did not have time to attend school because of his work. Instead, Miller's wife taught him at home, and Haskell earned a teaching certificate at age 17.
Private career Haskell became a schoolteacher at age 18 and taught for three years in Putnam County. After "reading the law" as an apprentice with an established firm, on December 6, 1880, he passed the bar exam. He became a practicing attorney at age 20, setting up his practice in the village of Ottawa, Ohio. In his work as an attorney in Ottawa, he became one of the most successful lawyers in the county seat. He also became prominent in the Democratic Party in northwestern Ohio. In 1888, Haskell started work as a general contractor; for the next 16 years, his business career gave him an understanding of American industrialism. During this time, he lived part of the time in New York City and in San Antonio, Texas.
Marriage and family Haskell married Lucie Pomeroy, daughter of a prominent Ottawa family, on October 11, 1881. Their children were Norman, who became a lawyer in Muskogee, Oklahoma (where the family moved in 1901); Murray, who worked as a bank cashier; and daughter Lucie.
Lucie Pomeroy Haskell died in March 1888. Her widower remarried in 1889, to Lillie Elizabeth Gallup. They also had three children together: Frances, Jane and Joseph.
Move to Muskogee
Following the Land Run of 1889 and passage of the Organic Act in 1890, migration of European Americans to Oklahoma Territory increased dramatically, raising the territory's status on the national scene. Haskell moved his family to Muskogee, the capital of the Creek Nation, in March 1901. When he arrived, Haskell found Muskogee a "dry", sleepy village of some 4,500 people. He built the first five-story business block in the town and in Indian Territory.
Haskell organized and built most of the railroads running into Muskogee. He is said to have built and owned 14 brick buildings in the city. Through his influence, Muskogee developed as a center of business and industry, and its population grew to more than 20,000 inhabitants. He often recounted that he hoped Muskogee would become the "Queen City of the Southwest".
Haskell gained increasing influence in the politics of Indian Territory and drew the attention of the leaders of the Creek Nation. During this time, the Native American nations in Indian Territory were talking of creating a state and joining the Union under the name of the State of Sequoyah. The Creek selected Haskell as their official representative to the conventions, in the position of vice-president for the Five Civilized Tribes, held in Eufaula, Oklahoma in 1902 and Muskogee in 1905.
Of the six delegates at the Muskogee convention, only Haskell and William H. Murray were not of Native American descent. U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt blocked the attempt to create Sequoyah, as he opposed the potential of another Democratic-majority state.
Haskell wrote a large portion of the proposed state's constitution. Although he had publicly worked for a separate state for Indian Territory, privately, he was thrilled to see the Sequoyah proposal defeated. Haskell believed it would force the Indian leaders to join in statehood with Oklahoma Territory.
The United States Congress and President Roosevelt agreed that the Oklahoma and Indian territories had to combine to enter the Union as one state, the State of Oklahoma. After congressional passage of the Enabling Act in 1906, Haskell was elected as a delegate by the largest margin in the new state, representing the seventy-sixth district, which included Muskogee. Traveling to Guthrie and the Oklahoma Constitutional convention on November 20, 1906, Haskell would meet William H. Murray from the Muskogee convention and Robert L. Williams. Due to their presence at both conventions, Haskell and Murray became lifelong friends.
The delegates to the Guthrie convention included many who had served in the Sequoyah convention. Numerous elements proposed for the new constitution were based upon the Sequoyah constitution. Haskell owned the New State Tribune, and through its editorial columns advocated for the elements he wanted in the new constitution. Most were incorporated, in substance if not in form. While Murray served as the convention's president, delegates recognized Haskell's power in the body. A local newspaper during the time, the Guthrie Report, called Haskell "the power behind the throne".
Haskell had a perfect attendance and voting record during the session. He advocated for provisions that affected both territories’ labor problems, and advocated for representatives of organized labor. Haskell also drafted a report drawing up county boundaries, led the crusade for state prohibition, introduced Jim Crow laws, as were prevalent among Southern states to restrict African Americans to second-class status; and successfully kept female suffrage out of the state constitution.
Gubernatorial campaign
At Tulsa on March 26, 1907, during the recess before the final adoption of the constitution by the convention, Haskell held a large Democratic Party banquet at the Brady Hotel, attended by between 500 and 600 of the leading Democrats of the new state. During this banquet, the first campaigns for governor were formally inaugurated. During this evening, his friends proposed Haskell for the Democratic gubernatorial candidacy. Among the other potential candidates were Thomas Doyle of Perry and Lee Cruce of Ardmore. Haskell, like other prominent Democrats at the time, had the strong support of labor and agriculture leaders.
The party primaries for governor were set for June 8, and Doyle and Cruce had already been campaigning; Haskell had little time. During his campaign, Haskell made 88 speeches in 45 days, and reached nearly every county. The lieutenants of the respective candidates were vigorously working in the school districts and securing support in every community. Haskell's hard-working nature led him to win the Democratic nomination. Haskell won the Democratic primary by a more than 4,000-vote majority. Frank Frantz, the Republican territorial governor, was nominated as the Republican candidate at their caucus at Tulsa.
Frantz was a former Rough Rider and a friend of U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt, who had appointed him. He was a very strong candidate for the Republican party. Haskell challenged Frantz to joint public discussions throughout the state; they discussed every problem facing administration of the new state during the campaign.
In addition, two nationally prominent figures spoke at various locations: Republican presidential nominee William Howard Taft and Democratic presidential nominee William Jennings Bryan. Taft's disapproval of Oklahoma's proposed constitution and his recommendation that the people vote against it seemed to increase support for the Democrats. Haskell won the gubernatorial race by more than 30,000 votes on September 17, 1907. On the same day, the voters ratified the new Oklahoma Constitution.
Governor of Oklahoma
On November 16, 1907, five minutes after it was known that Oklahoma had officially become a state, Guthrie Leader editor Leslie G. Niblack administered the oath of office to Haskell. The ceremony took place privately in Haskell's hotel apartments in the presence of his immediate family, Robert Latham Owen, United States Senator-elect, and Thomas Owen of Muskogee, Haskell's former political manager. Haskell's inaugural address at Guthrie, delivered on the south steps of the Carnegie Library, quickly lifted him into national prominence.
Haskell's old friends William H. Murray and Robert L. Williams also came into power with the state's founding; with Murray as the state's first Speaker of the Oklahoma House of Representatives and Williams appointed, by Haskell, as the first Oklahoma Supreme Court chief justice. Haskell set the precedents for the use of executive power.
During the 1st Oklahoma Legislature, Haskell delivered a message creating a commission charged with sending a message to the U.S. Congress: amending the United States Constitution to provide for the election of U.S. senators by a direct vote of the people. Although it did not occur until after he left office, his efforts, as well as the works of the Progressive-era leaders, provided for the passage of the Seventeenth Amendment to the United States Constitution in 1912.
Though Guthrie was the official capital of the state, Haskell set up his administration from Oklahoma City. Oklahoma City quickly grew in industry and prominence, with a booming population of 64,000, shadowing the smaller city of Guthrie, which was located just miles from the growing city. Haskell personally led the move to change the capital from Guthrie to Oklahoma City. First, he moved the official home of the Great Seal of Oklahoma and Oklahoma Constitution. Slowly, all government functions moved to the Oklahoma City area.