Bird Segle McGuire

Bird Segle McGuire (October 13, 1865 – November 9, 1930) was an American politician, a Delegate and the last U.S. Representative from Oklahoma Territory. After statehood, he was elected as an Oklahoma member of Congress, where he served four consecutive terms. He retired from politics in 1915. He was a cousin of William Neville.

Early life Born in Belleville, Illinois, McGuire moved to Randolph County, Missouri with his parents in 1867. He attended public school, and moved to Chautauqua County, Kansas, in the spring of 1881; and then to Indian Territory. He engaged in the cattle business, and attended the State Normal School at Emporia, Kansas.

Career McGuire taught for several terms, and later attended the law department of the University of Kansas at Lawrence. He was admitted to the bar in 1889 and commenced practice in Sedan, county seat of Chautauqua, Kansas. He registered as a Republican the first time he voted, and remained in that party for the rest of his life. He served as prosecuting attorney of Chautauqua County, Kansas from 1890 to 1894.

After moving to Pawnee in Indian Territory in 1894 he opened a law practice there. He was appointed assistant United States Attorney for Oklahoma Territory in 1897, in which capacity he served until after his nomination for Congress.

McGuire was recognized as the leader of one wing of the Oklahoma Republican Party and battled with the last territorial governor Frank Frantz over party leadership and patronage appointments. The infighting resulted in McGuire's being the only Republican elected to Congress from Oklahoma in 1907.

He was then elected as a Representative to the Sixtieth and to the three succeeding Congresses and served from November 16, 1907, when Oklahoma was admitted as a State into the Union, until March 3, 1915. He served as chairman of the Committee on Expenditures in the Department of the Interior (Sixty-first Congress). He was not a candidate for renomination in 1914 to the Sixty-fourth Congress.

He married Ruby Ridgeway of Kansas City, Missouri on June 2, 1911. When his term expired in 1915, he moved his residence from Pawnee to Tulsa, where he resumed his law practice until his death.