Fred Brasted. Known for his high literary and professional attainments, Mr. Brasted is one of the representative members of the Oklahoma bar, of which he has been a popular member since the late territorial days, and he is engaged in active general practice in Oklahoma City, with offices at 512-13 Colcord Building. He has furthered the educational work of his profession through contributions to its standard and periodical literature and is also the author of a number of works of fiction, some with historic basis, all of which attest his exceptional literary ability. The genealogy of Mr. Brasted is one of specially interesting order, in both the agnatic and distaff lines. The original American progenitor of the Brasted finally came from Holland in 1640 and settled on Staten Island, New York, the original orthography of the name having been Van Breestede, and the present spelling of the patronymic having been adopted by the third generation of the American branch of the family, which is of the staunch old Knickerbocker stock of the Empire State. John More, the maternal great-grandfather of Mr. Brasted, came from Scotland to America in 1772 and made settlement in Delaware County, New York. He was the maternal grandfather of the late Jay Gould, the railroad magnate. John More was a man of scholastic attainments and of strong individuality. He was educated in the University of Edinburgh, and that he held the rigid Scotch rectitude and determination, as well as being an ardent patriot in the land of his adoption, was significantly shown by his attitude at the climacteric period of the war of the Revolution. He prepared and issued a localized declaration of independence, to which he secured many signatures, and the general animus of which was shown by the last clause of the document, which prescribed that whosoever refused to sign the declaration should be banished from the State of New York.

The descendants of John More have a well-ordered family organization, and the same has been pronounced by the New York World to be the most complete and effective association of the kind in the United States. Chapters of the organization are maintained in New York City, Chicago and Denver, where annual meetings are held. Every five years a general assembly of the members of the association is held at the old homestead of John More, in Delaware County, New York, where has been erected a fine monument and a memorial church, the latter having been the bequest of Helen Gould prior to her marriage. In the interests of the association is published a periodical known as the More Family Journal, and its circulation is limited to the members of the organization.

While thus considering the family history of him whose name initiates this review, it may consistently be stated that his brother, Rev. Albert J. Brasted, is first lieutenant and chaplain in the coast artillery service of the United States army and is stationed at Fort Screben, Georgia. A sister, who became the wife of William F. Gray, passed several years in China and at Ragoon, Burmah, where she devoted close attention to the study of the languages and customs of these oriental lands. She finally returned to the United States and here her death occurred in 1907. Both in a direct and collateral way the Brasted family has been specially well known for literary ability and for exceptional academic attainments.

Fred Brasted was born at Findley Lake, Chautauqua County, New York, and is a son of Nathan Russell Brasted and Adaline (More) Brasted, the former of whom passed to the life eternal in 1910 and the latter of whom still maintains her home in the State of Iowa, she having celebrated her seventy-third birthday anniversary in 1914. Nathan R. Brasted was reared and educated in the old Empire State and when the Civil war was precipitated upon the nation he promptly manifested his loyalty to the Union by enlisting in the One Hundred and Twelfth New York Volunteer Infantry, with which gallant command he participated in many engagements marking the progress of the great internecine conflict and in which he held the non-commissioned office of orderly sergeant. In later years he perpetuated his interest in his old comrades/ in arms by his active affiliation with the Grand Army of the Republic. Mr. Brasted was for many years active and influential in the councils of the republican party and for a quarter of a century he was one of its prominent representatives in the State of Iowa, where he established the family home in 1884 and where he continued to reside until his death.

After duly profiting by the advantages afforded in the public schools of the Hawkeye State, where he was reared to adult age, Fred Brasted entered the University of Iowa, in which he was graduated as a member of the class of 1893 and from which he received the degree of Bachelor of Science. Thereafter he was a student in the law department of Drake University, in the City of Des Moines, Iowa, and in the capital city of the state he finally became court reporter for the Sixteenth judicial district, a position which he retained until 1898, when he became private secretary to Hon. Leslie M. Shaw, governor of Iowa, a post which he held during the years 1898-9. In 1899 he was admitted to the Iowa bar and in that state he was engaged in the practice of his profession until 1903, when he came to Oklahoma Territory and established his residence in Oklahoma City, where he has since continued in active practice and where he has built up a substantial and representative law business, the character and scope of which vouches alike for his technical ability and his personal popularity.

In politics Mr. Brasted accords unwavering allegiance to the republican party and he is an effective exponent of its principles and policies. He holds membership in the American Political Science Association, is affiliated with the Society of the Sons of the American Revolution, is a member of the Union League Club in the City of Chicago, and is actively identified with the American Bar Association, the Oklahoma State Bar Association, and the Oklahoma City Bar Association. In his home city he is affiliated with the Masonic fraternity and holds membership in the Men’s Dinner Club. Mr. Brasted has made valuable contributions to leading law periodicals and other professional publications, and, aside from his published works of individual order, he has given interesting sketches and other literary contributions to various magazines. He is the author of “The Gang,” published in 1910, and in 1914 were published his two works entitled, “Boss Bradgate” and “Mattie.” Both he and his wife are earnest and zealous members of the Baptist Church, and he served as second vice president of the Northern Baptist Convention, 1908-11, and as first vice president of the same in 1912-13.

The maiden name of Mr. Brasted’s wife was Estella M. Gleason, and she was born and reared in Iowa, being a daughter of John and Helen (Myrick) Gleason, of Ida Grove, that state. They have three children: Nathan R. II, named in honor of his paternal grandfather, and Helene Estella and Fred, Jr.