Edward Everett Tracy
was the fourth child born to the marriage of Nepthali Tracy and Nancy Caroline
Swindle Tracy. E.E. attended college at Swindoll College at Corsicana,
Missouri. This was a small college instituted by one of his uncles;
James Swindle. E.E. obtained his law degree about the time of his
marriage to Flora Young. Soon afterward,
they moved to Clarendon, Texas, where they
resided until April 19, 1892, when the Cheyenne-Arapaho Lands were opened
for settlement.
Flora and E.E. arrived a few days before
the run, assembled with other runners on the east side of the Texas
Panhandle, on the Oklahoma Territory/Texas line, in anticipation of a
great race to stake a claim of 160 acres. The morning of April 19, 1892,
was misty, foggy and some say a dusting of snow on the ground. The U.S.
Cavalry from Ft. Elliott patrolled the line to prevent the "Sooners"
from crossing the line ahead of the others. E.E. was twenty-seven years
of age, six foot, seven inches tall and quite athletic. He had run track
while attending college. He took off on foot to run some twenty miles
east to the newly plotted town of Cheyenne, which was to be the county
seat of county "F". (The name of the county would be voted
Roger Mills later that year by the people).
E.E. became one of the early civic
leaders of the community. E.E. was a Democrat and elected as County
"F" Judge on November 8, 1892, and re-elected on November 6,
1894. He was elected as the first County Superintendent of Schools in
1896 and served two years; later served as County Judge from 1907-1913;
later as a Judge of the County Court; Justice of the Peace; retained an
individual law practice and at times in partnership with his brother,
D.W. Tracy (who later became Beckham County Judge at Sayre, Oklahoma) and was
a Charter Member of the Masonic Lodge.
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