James R. Keaton

James R. Keaton (1861 – 1946) was a justice of the Territorial Oklahoma Supreme Court from 1896 to 1898.

Early life Keaton was born in Carter County, Kentucky on December 10, 1861, to Nelson F. (Fredrick) and Mary A. (Huff) Keaton. He started his education in the public schools, but later went to private schools in Grayson and Louisa, Kentucky. He got his higher education at National Normal School in Lebanon, Ohio, graduating with the Bachelor of Science degree in 1884. He then attended Georgetown University, where he earned the Bachelor of Laws degree in June 1890. For the next four years, he taught school. He spent three years as a principal at Hico in Hamilton County, Texas and one year as principal at Duffau in Erath County, Texas. From 1886 to 1888, he was the editor and owner of the Hico Courier newspaper. He then read law in the office of Judge C.K. Bell of Hamilton. (Judge Bell was later elected as Texas Attorney General and still later as a member of the U.S.) House of Representatives from Fort Worth.

Oklahoma Keaton was admitted to the bar in the District of Columbia in June 1890, admitted to practice law in Oklahoma Territory in September, 1890 and to appear in the U.S. Supreme Court in December 1898. He moved to Guthrie, Indian Territory in July, 1890, where he began practicing law on his own. He went into partnership with Judge John H. Cottrell in 1894, which lasted until Keaton was appointed to the Territorial Supreme Court in September, 1896. (He was a delegate to the 1896 Democratic Party Convention in Chicago, which chose William Jennings Bryan as its nominee for President.) On March 22, 1898, President William McKinley appointed a fellow Republican H. F. Burwell of Oklahoma City to succeed Judge Keaton. An obituary characterized him as "...a stickler for legal ethics, a crusader for governmental reforms and economy in all branches of government." It noted that he was a leader in the fight to impeach Governor Walton, and that he refused to run for election as Corporation Commissioner in the Walton administration.