Arthur N. Leecraft
Arthur N. Leecraft
“His merchandising trade is constantly increasing, forcing him to enlarge his stock, and his straightforward dealing has secured to him a creditable reputation in business circles…remarkably successful for so young a man.”
Biography
Colonel Arthur Neal Leecraft was born in South Carolina and moved with his family to Texas in 1870. He moved to White Bead Hill in Garvin County, Oklahoma Territory, in 1885 and went to work for his uncle in a general mercantile store. He later moved to Denison, Texas, and became a successful salesman at the “Old Star” store. He moved to Colbert in Bryan County in 1895 and established The Leecraft Mercantile Company. Col. Leecraft moved to Oklahoma City in 1914 to serve as private secretary to Oklahoma Governor Robert Williams and later was appointed to a number of state offices including Commissioner of Highways, State Capitol Building Commission, and the State Board of Public Affairs. He became Oklahoma’s State Treasurer in 1919 and was appointed Colonel on the staff of Oklahoma Governor Jack Walton in February of 1923. After a four-year term as State Treasurer, Leecraft moved to Durant, Oklahoma, and served six consecutive terms as State Representative of Bryan County (1927-1939).
Fun fact
Arthur Leecraft and his wife Lelah were married in two separate ceremonies on the same day in 1893. The first was under a grove of trees in Indian Territory according to Lelah’s heritage and Chickasaw Tribal law, and the second was in the First Presbyterian Church in Denison, Texas, according to Arthur’s heritage and Texas law.
Oklahoma connections
Leecraft came to work in his uncle’s mercantile store in Garvin County, Oklahoma Territory, in 1885.