Edgar E. COCHRAN
"In spite of its political aspect, the Grandfather Law, so called, that was adopted as an amendment to the Oklahoma Constitution in 1910 operated in sections of the state in favor of the white man's government. As a matter of fact, the political aspect was inconspicuous in a reasonable consideration of the law in a community where negroes either dominated or held a balance of power. Although the law was held unconstitutional by the United States Supreme Court in 1915, it was rigidly and patriotically enforced by many election officials while it was in force. The four years of its operation, therefore, constitute a period of political history not of secondary interest.
A unique situation arose in McCurtain County, a problem the solution of which required extraordinary patriotism and courage. Two voting precincts of the county contained a predominance of negro voters. An attempt to enforce the Grandfather Law there meant nothing short of bloodshed, for the negroes were goaded by their own ideas of alleged unfair treatment and the spirited propaganda of the political party that sought to control their vote.
Mr. Cochran, whose name heads this review, had been appointed secretary of the McCurtain County Election Board and to him principally was given the solution of the problem. To put the conduct of the election in the negro precincts in the hands of negroes meant that suffrage would be as free there as citizenship, and that no attempt would be made to enforce the literacy test. After some conferences the board concluded to abolish the voting precincts in these communities. This was undeniably a radical step, and one that well nigh provoked bloodshed. Complaints were made to the United States officials on the ground that state officials were interfering with the right of men to vote for federal officers, and following that representation marshals and deputies came into McCurtain County and made an investigation. Prosecutions never ensued, however, probably for the reason that arrests were made in another county to test the constitutionality of the law. The two voting precincts abolished were those of Shawneetown and Harris, and up to this writing (1915) they have not been reinstated.
Mr. Cochran had been a pioneer settler of the county. In fact, he was the fifth of the line of lawyers that settled there after the establishment of Idabel in 1902. He had been a party leader for several years before statehood and was appointed secretary of the county election board immediately after Oklahoma's admission. It would require much space to adequately describe conditions as they existed in the early years of statehood in their relation to the exercise of the ballot in Indian Territory, where men of a second generation had never voted. It was the duty of the secretary of the county election board to teach men their new duties of citizenship, and he became truly a pioneer reformer and educator. Misunderstandings twice caused him to be haled before the District Court on a writ of mandamus, but at no time was he shown to have acted other than within his province.
Mr. Cochran was advanced in his political career in 1911 by appointment to the post of county judge to succeed Judge T. J. BARNES, who resigned. In 1912 he was reelected to succeed himself and held the office until January, 1915. One of his principal duties as judge was probate work relating to Indian guardianships and estates, and in 3 ½ years of service he approved 700 dead claim deeds. There is an interesting story of his early day experiences that will aptly illustrate the virgin state of the county at the time of statehood. A client who was charged with theft near Valliant objected to trial before the justice of the peace there, and a change of venue was granted to the court of Justice COX, who lived two days' travel up in the Glover Mountains. Cochran, his client, a witness and the county attorney traveled on horseback to the seat of the court of Justice COX. It was bitter cold weather in January and the slow journey was like unto those taken by the pathfinders of the Indian country. The trial consumed a day and the defendant was acquitted.
Mr. Cochran was born June 18, 1880, at Boenhmond, Arkansas, and he is a son of Martin M. and Harrriet A. (HOLMAN) COCHRAN. His father and paternal grandfather were Baptist ministers in Arkansas, the latter a man of considerable note in Arkansas and Indian Territory as a powerful preacher of the Word. He was murdered near Wheelock Academy in what is now McCurtain County, Oklahoma, while traveling back to his Arkansas home after a prospecting trip that took him as far as Denison, Texas. A negro employed at the country house where he spent a night enroute followed the old gentleman into the timber the next morning, assaulted him with an axe, robbed him, and left his victim to die. He made his escape, but a possse later captured him and he confessed to the heinous crime and paid the penalty of his deed. Dudley COCHRAN was widely known, not alone as a minister of the gospel but as a legislator in the State of Arkansas, and in his native state he filled other positions of public prominence. The maternal grandfather of the subject was Joseph HOLMAN, now living at the advanced age of eighty. He was a pioneer settler in Sevier County, Arkansas, and once was judge of his county and a member of the State Legislature. He lived a highly useful and creditable life, and when retired from active life by reason of his age his county lost the services of a man who had been faithful to it through long years of active life.
Edgar COCHRAN had his early education in the public schools of Arkansas, and in 1905, he was graduated from the law department of the University of Arkansas, receiving his law degree at that time. In September of the same year he began the practice of his profession at Ashdown, Arkansas, but in December decided to move to Idabel, Indian Territory, where he might find more ready opportunities in a newer country, and later removed to Valliant. Mr. Cochran was in practice in Valliant until 1911. While there he was associated in partnership with Edmund GARBER, a well known Choctaw Indian lawyer, and later he became a partner of William P. STEWART, who was a member of the first State Senate of Oklahoma. Mr. Cochran's first practice in Indian Territory was before Judge SPAULDING, who was United States commissioner at Garvin. He came to Idabel in 1911.
Mr. Cochran was married April 16, 1907, at Benloman, Arkansas, to Miss Nancy Louise MEREDITH. They are members of the Baptist Church, and Mr. Cochran is fraternally identified by his membership in the Woodmen of the World and the Masonic Order, being well advanced in the latter. He is a member of the County and State Bar associations and in 1915 was president of the county body. He was one of the organizers and is now a member of the board of directors of the First National Bank of Valliant, that being the first bank organized there, and one of the most prosperous and well conducted Institutions' of its kind to be found there at the present time.
Mr. Cochran has one brother, D. M., who is a teacher and is now located at Valliant."