J. J. McAlester

James Jackson McAlester (October 1, 1842 – September 21, 1920) was an American Confederate Army soldier and merchant. McAlester was the founder of McAlester, Oklahoma, as well as a primary developer of the coal mining industry in eastern Oklahoma. He served as the United States Marshal for Indian Territory (1893–1897), one of three members of the first Oklahoma Corporation Commission (1907–1911) and the second lieutenant governor of Oklahoma from 1911 to 1915.

James Jackson McAlester
2nd Lieutenant Governor of Oklahoma
In office January 9, 1911 – January 11, 1915
Governor	Lee Cruce
Preceded by	George W. Bellamy
Succeeded by	Martin E. Trapp
Oklahoma Corporation Commissioner
In office November 16, 1907 – January 9, 1911
Governor	Charles N. Haskell
Preceded by	Position established
Succeeded by	George A. Henshaw
United States Marshal for Indian Territory's Central District
In office March 1, 1895 – April 19, 1897
Preceded by	Position established
Succeeded by	Jasper P. Grady
United States Marshal for Indian Territory
In office April 6, 1893 – March 1, 1895
Preceded by	Thomas B. Needles
Succeeded by	Position replaced with multiple districts
Personal details
Born	October 1, 1842 Sebastian County, Arkansas, U.S.
Died	September 21, 1920 (aged 77) McAlester, Oklahoma, U.S.
Political party	Democratic Party
Spouse	Rebecca Burney
Relatives	Benjamin Burney (brother-in-law)
Military service
Allegiance	Confederate States of America
Branch/service	Confederate States Army
Rank	Captain
Battles/wars	American Civil War Battle of Pea Ridge

McAlester was born in Sebastian County, Arkansas, on October 1, 1842, and grew up in Ft. Smith, Arkansas. He joined the Confederate States Army at the start of the war and reached the rand of captain.^[1] He fought at the Battle of Pea Ridge.^[2] After the defeat of the Confederacy he returned to Ft. Smith where he met engineer Oliver Weldon who gave him details of the location of coal deposits in Indian Territory (near now-McAlester, Oklahoma). In 1866 he moved to the Choctaw Nation and worked for the trading companies "Harlan and Rooks" and "Reynolds and Hannaford," before buying out the later.^[1]

On August 22, 1872, he married Rebecca Burney (born 1841 in Mississippi - died May 5, 1919, in Oklahoma) a member of the Chickasaw Nation and they had five children.^[3][4] Burney was the sister of Chickasaw Governor Benjamin Burney.^[5] This made it possible for him to gain citizenship in and the right to own property in both the Choctaw and Chickasaw nations.^[1]

By 1870, McAlester was running his own business at the "Crossroads" in Indian Territory, which later became McAlester, Oklahoma. He sold everyday goods and tools, and provided a stable supply of imported manufactured goods to Choctaw people in the area.^[6] He lobbied Missouri–Kansas–Texas Railroad to bring the railroad through the Crossroads with trains first arriving in 1872. His role in bringing the railroads to the area led to the first post office for the area being dubbed "McAlester."^[7]

Using the knowledge he had gotten from Weldon, McAlester was able to make many lucrative coal claims in the area and to establish what eventually became McAlester Coal Mining Co.^[1] Since there was not enough labor in the Choctaw Nation to support the growing coal industry, immigrant workers from the United States and Europe were recruited to work in the mines, including a large Carpatho-Russian community.^[8]

His trading company, J. J. McAlester Mercantile Company, was the unofficial company store for some miners since portions of their pay was issued in the form of scrip redeemable only at the store.^[9] Some miners pay was also directly paid from the company to McAlester to cover debts or as store credit.^[10] A review of his stores sale logs show price discrepancies between customers purchasing the same item, indicating some price discrimination, but no clear pattern of discrimination was determined.^[11]

McAlester's selling of coal caused conflict with Choctaw Nation Chief Coleman Cole. Under Choctaw law, any tribal citizen who sold "part of the land" was to be sentenced to death and Cole interpreted the coal sales as a violation of the law. After McAlester was arrest by Choctaw Lighthorse alongside two other intermarried whites, the three men escaped.^[12] McAlester claimed he later messaged Cole and settled the dispute, while other accounts say he lived in exile in the Muscogee Nation until the end of Cole's term in 1878.^[a] In the 1880s, Green McCurtain led an unsuccessful effort to nationalize the Choctaw Nation's coal deposits.^[15]

On April 6, 1893, President Grover Cleveland appointed McAlester U.S. Marshal for Indian Territory and he served until March 1, 1895, when he became the U.S. Marshall for Indian Territory's Central District until April 19, 1897.^[16] He was elected to the Oklahoma Corporation Commission and took office in 1907. He did not run for reelection in 1910, instead running for Lieutenant Governor of Oklahoma.^[1]

As a member of the Democratic Party he was elected as Lieutenant Governor of Oklahoma with 118,544 votes (49.3%), winning against Republican Gilbert Dukes with 94,621 votes (39.4%), with Socialist candidate John G. Wills reaching nearly 10%.^[17] During his tenure McAlester had the occasion to serve as acting governor of Oklahoma, during the absence of Governor Lee Cruce from the state, as evidenced by a pardon he issued in 1915 in the case of Sibenaler v. State (1915 OK CR 45).^{[18][original research?]}

He died on September 21, 1920, in McAlester.^[19]

McAlester House, J. J. McAlester's home in McAlester, Oklahoma, is on the National Register of Historic Places listings in Pittsburg County, Oklahoma.^[20] A 2.5 ton chunk of coal sits from McAlester's mines was displayed at the 1921 World's fair, left in his yard for several years, and then given to McAlester High School where its been displayed outdoors since the mid-1980s.^[21]

Historians' opinions of McAlester have shifted over time. Early to mid-twentieth century scholarship on his legacy was more likely to view him as a frontier businessman bringing civilization to Indian Territory, while later scholarship is more critical of his exploitation of Choctaw law and the effects of his business on the Choctaw Nation.^[22] Historian Linda English described him as an "ambitious man who continually demonstrated his commitment to progress."^[23]

J. J. McAlester's store served as the basis for the store visited by U.S. Marshal Rooster Cogburn in the 1968 novel True Grit by Charles Portis (and the subsequent 1969 and 2010 feature film versions).^[24]

• English, Linda C. (Spring 2003). "Inside the Store, Inside the Past: A Cultural Analysis of McAlester's General Store" (PDF). Chronicles of Oklahoma. 81 (1): 34–53. Retrieved 27 September 2024.
• Hightower, Michael J. (Spring 1984). "Cattle, Coal and Indian Land: A Tradition of Mining in Southeastern Oklahoma" (PDF). Chronicles of Oklahoma. 62 (1): 4–25. Retrieved 27 September 2024.
• Hightower, Michael J. (Summer 2024). "Old Reliable: The First National Bank of McAlester and the Extraordinary Legacy of Clark and Wanda Bass". Chronicles of Oklahoma. 102 (2): 147–164.
• Meserve, John Bartlett (Summer 1936). "Chief Coleman Cole" (PDF). Chronicles of Oklahoma. 14 (1): 9–21. Retrieved 27 September 2024.
• Nesbitt, Paul (Summer 1933). "J. J. McAlester" (PDF). Chronicles of Oklahoma. 11 (2): 758–764. Retrieved 27 September 2024.