Honorable John B. Connors was born in St. Louis, Missouri, and came to McAlester, Oklahoma, in 1881 as paymaster and shipping clerk for Teoc Lumber Company at the No. 7 Switch near Krebs. He married Fannie Anderson, the daughter of a prominent Choctaw family and was made a citizen of the Choctaw Nation. He was elected judge of Toucksy, renamed Coal County, and served as revenue collector for the first district of the Choctaw Nation for four years. When statehood came in 1907, Connors was elected the first president of the State Board of Agriculture and was instrumental in founding agricultural schools at Warner, Tishomingo, and Lawton. He was also a member of the State Prison Control Board.