Mark D. Libby. Engrossed in the business avocation which brings him his daily wage, the ordinary individual is approximately representative of the nation’s citizenship. This is the normal type; his life begins and ends, perhaps, with nothing to differentiate him from the mass. It is the unusual type that commands attention, and it is the influence of the men belonging thereto, exerted upon their community, and the record of their lives, that are valuable and interesting as matters of biography. In the professions, and particularly in the law, the opportunities for usefulness and personal advancement depend almost entirely upon this unusually gifted individual, and here natural endowment is as essential as is thorough preparation. The bar of El Reno has its full quota of brilliant men, and one of its foremost members is Mark D. Libby, who both in private practice and as a representative of the Government has displayed the possession of eminent talents.

Mark D. Libby was born at Vassalboro, Kennebec County, Maine, February 28, 1858, and is a son of William T. and Hannah M. (Brown) Libby, natives of the Pine Tree State. His father was one of the adventurous souls who crossed the plains at the time of the discovery of gold in California, in 1849, and the greater part of his life thereafter was passed in the West. In 1867 he removed his family to Idaho, but when Mark D. Libby was fifteen years of age his mother took him and the other children to Maine, in order that they might secure better educational advantages.

In 1879 Mark D. Libby graduated in engineering from the University of Maine, and immediately thereafter went to Kansas, from whence, in the summer of 1880, he removed to Wyoming. There he became deputy United States surveyor, a position which he held for several years, at the same time carrying on activities as a mining engineer, not only in Wyoming, but in Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona. Returning to Kansas, he was for two years county surveyor of Kingman County, and in the meantime applied himself to the law, studying so assiduously that he was admitted to the bar in 1887. Mr. Libby began the practice of his profession at Kingman, Kansas, and in 1889 became a practitioner before the United States Land Office in Oklahoma, as an attorney, and from that time to the present has been identified with affairs in Oklahoma, although it was not until 1893 that he took up his residence at El Reno. Here he has arisen to a high place in his profession, and is generally acknowledged to be a thorough, learned and painstaking lawyer and a stirring and public-spirited citizen. He has always been a stanch republican in politics, and wields some influence in his party, for the interests of which he has always worked faithfully. His professional connections include membership in the state and county bar associations.

In 1889 Mr. Libby was united in marriage with Miss Cornelia Gillette, daughter of the distinguished jurist, Judge F. E. Gillette, of El Reno. Mr. and Mrs. Libby have two daughters: Cornelia and Anna.