Hugh M. Bear. A residence of nearly fifteen years at Okeene has been amply sufficient time for Mr. Bear to establish a sound reputation as an able lawyer and counselor, and in addition to his large and extensive general practice in all the courts of his district his name has been associated with the substantial welfare of that community.

The original American ancestor of Mr. Bear was Adam Bear, who came from Germany during colonial times and made settlement in the famed Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, where he developed a plantation and spent the rest of his life. Some intermediate ancestors came West and became identified with the pioneer settlement of Central Missouri. Cooper County in that state has been the home of the Bear family for several generations. Hugh M. Bear was born at Tipton, Cooper County, Missouri, February 19, 1872, while his father, J. H. Bear, was born in the same locality in 1836. His father is still living at Tipton, and one and the same farm has been his home for more than half a century. This farm, comprising 160 acres, is located five miles north of the Village of Tipton. The senior Mr. Bear, though in advanced years, still looks after his farm and has been very successful in the raising of stock. He is a deacon in the Baptist Church. His wife’s maiden name was Mary D. Morris, who was born in St. Clair County, Missouri, in 1844, and died in Cooper County in 1913. They were old-fashioned parents in that they brought into the world and did their best to train to honorable and useful manhood and womanhood a large number of children. These were ten in number and a brief record of them is as follows: Minnie is the wife of Oliver Groves, a farmer and stock man in Cooper County, Missouri; Annie married Holbert, a brother of Oliver Groves, and they live on a farm in Cooper County; Alfred is a farmer in Cooper County; the next in order of age is Hugh M.; Mary, who lives at Bunceton, Missouri, is the widow of Robert Davis, who was a farmer; Martha married Alfred White, a farmer in Cooper County; Nannie is the wife of Robert Franks, a farmer in Oregon County, Missouri; Ada, who died in 1900, married William Davis, who is a farmer in Cooper County; Alma is the wife of Fred Shrout, who owns a farm near Bunceton, in Cooper County; and George V., who was graduated from the Warrensburg Normal School of Missouri with a life certificate to teach in that state, and also has a life certificate in Texas, and is now identified with school work at Me Allen in Hidalgo County in Southern Texas.

Hugh M. Bear, like his brothers and sisters, acquired his early education in the country schools of the Baxter District in Cooper County. In 1892 entering the University of Missouri he completed the normal course in three years, and while in the university was a military cadet for one year, and thus received training as a citizen soldier. For about five years he alternated between the work of teaching and the study of law. For two years he was principal of schools in Cooper County, spent one year in the same work at Thomasville, in Southern Missouri, and again for one year was connected with the Cooper County schools. After two years in the law department of the University of Missouri Mr. Bear was graduated LL. B. in 1900, and admitted to the Missouri bar the same year.

In April, 1901, he established his home at Okeene, Oklahoma, and here his best work both in his profession and as a citizen has been accomplished. Mr. Bear handles a large amount of litigation both in the civil and criminal jurisdiction, and everyone in that community is familiar with Attorney Bear, whose offices are over the Citizens State Bank. In 1914 he was an unsuccessful candidate for the office of county attorney. He is a member of the County, State and American Bar associations, is a democrat in politics, a member of the Baptist Church, and is affiliated with Okeene Lodge No. 43 of the Knights of Pythias. For two years he was a member of the local school hoard, and his name is carved on the cornerstone of the handsome new school building, with the erection of which he had much to do. Among other interests Mr. Bear owns a farm of 160 acres in Kingfisher county, seven miles east and five miles south of Okeene, and operates it through tenants.

At Jefferson City, Missouri, in 1906, he married Miss Dessa Powell. Her father, C. W. Powell, is a substantial farmer of Cooper County, Missouri. They are the parents of two children: Louise, born September 28, 1907; and Elna, born November 22, 1913.