Clarence B. Douglas
Clarence B. Douglas
“Oklahoma…yesterday we were a million and a half of political orphans, misunderstood, misgoverned and mistreated. Today we stand erect, clothed with the full panoply of American citizenship, in all things the equal in fact as well as in name, of the proudest people of the Nation.”
Biography
Colonel Clarence B. Douglas was born in Missouri and came to Indian Territory in 1884. He was an architect, but was admitted to the bar of the Southern District of Indian Territory in 1896 and was elected to represent the white people of Indian Territory before Congress. From 1900 to 1902 Douglas worked for the Dawes Commission in eastern Oklahoma. He purchased the Muskogee Daily and Weekly Phoenix, which he published and edited. He also organized Company A, Indian Territory Volunteer Militia of Muskogee and was elected colonel of the first Regiment of Indian Territory Volunteer Militia. Douglas came to Tulsa in 1916 as managing director of the Chamber of Commerce, served as President of the State Association of Commercial Executives, and was a member of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. In Tulsa, he joined in organizing and financing the Mayo Hotel and the Claremore Baths Company.
Fun fact
While in Muskogee, Col. Clarence Douglas organized the first Indian Congress ever held and formally was adopted by the Pueblos and given the Indian name, Oshotawa-Chemushata, meaning “man with hair on his face from East.”
Oklahoma connections
Douglas came to Indian Territory in 1884 and settled in the town his father founded, Ardmore, in 1893.