Phil D. BREWER
"Phil D. Brewer was born and raised in Sebastian County, Arkansas, near Fort Smith, where his father, John O. BREWER, was born. His mother, Sarah Louisa COUNCIL, was born in Alabama, and died at Fort Smith, Arkansas, March 23, 1915, at the age of seventy-nine years. His grandfather, William Lewis BREWER, a Methodist minister, located in that state in a very early day, when it was yet a territory, and settled in southern Arkansas, now Pike County. The family is of Scotch origin, and originally settled in North Carolina, from whence the members drifted west through Kentucky and Tennessee, being a part of the early pioneers who settled those regions. About the time of the Louisiana Purchase the father of William Lewis BREWER settled on the Missouri River, near the present city of Boonville, Missouri, from which place they, with several other families, migrated principally by boats, to Arkansas, where they settled on a small stream, then unnamed, and called it the Little Missouri.
Phil D. Brewer, having been born during the Civil War, had in his early youth very limited opportunities for an education. But what few opportunities he had, however, which consisted of country summer schools and one year in DePauw University, he employed to the fullest extent, and this want of and defect in his early training has been largely overcome by many years of careful and diligent study. He taught a country school when nineteen years of age, and when about twenty-four studied law under the instruction of Hon. John S. LITTLE, then a lawyer of repute and later a member of Congress and governor of Arkansas. In 1890 he was elected from Sebastian County as a member of the Arkansas Legislature. In 1894 he married Annie L. GARNER, nee MAYFIELD, and the next year settled in Indian Territory, now Eastern Oklahoma, at Cameron. In 1897 he moved to McAlester, where he practiced law until 1909, when he was appointed by Governor Haskell judge of the Superior Court. In 1910 he was elected to a four-year in this office, but resigned in August, 1911, to accept a judgeship as a member of the Supreme Court Commission, the appointment being made by the Supreme Court. This commission was an auxiliary to the Supreme Court, designed to assist the court with its over-burdened docket. He has continued to serve ever since on this commission, through different appointments, and is at present (1915) presiding judge of Division No. 1. His opinions are scattered through Volumes 30 to 45 of the Oklahoma Reports, and Volumes 117 to 155 of the Pacific Reporter.
The lodge activities of Judge Brewer have been confined to Masonry. He has been Worshipful Master of Amity Lodge, F.&A.M., at Hackett, Arkansas; of South McAlester Lodge, No. 96, at McAlester, Oklahoma. He became a member of the Masonic Grand Lodge at Wynnewood in 1898, has attended every annual communication since, save two; was Grand Orator, Grand Senior Warden, Deputy Grand Master and Grand Master of the Grand Lodge, A.F.&A.M., of Oklahoma. He regards the honor of having been elected Grand Master of Masons his greatest distinction."