John H. Burford

John H. Burford (February 29, 1852 – September 2, 1922) was an American judge who served as justice of the Territorial Oklahoma Supreme Court from 1892 to 1906, serving as the final Chief Justice of that court from 1898 to 1903. After the territorial supreme court was dissolved at statehood, Burford served as City Attorney for Guthrie, Oklahoma, where he had made his home. He was the Republican Party nominee for U. S. Senator in 1914, but lost the election.

Ancestry and early life John H. Burford was born in Parke County, Indiana on February 29, 1852. His father was Reverend James Burford, a Baptist minister in Indiana, who had various ministries in that state, and where he lived out the rest of his life. The Burford ancestral background was English, Scottish and Welsh; the original immigrant, Elijah Hastings Burford, came from Oxfordshire County, England to Amherst County, Virginia in 1713.

John Burford got nearly all his formal education in Indiana, and graduated from the Indiana University (from what is now Maurer School of Law) with a Bachelor of Laws degree in 1874. After graduation, he went to work for Judge D. V. Burns in Indianapolis, as both a student and assistant. Some time later, he moved to Crawfordsville, Indiana, where he opened an independent law office. He also served two terms as prosecutor in the 22nd Judicial Court of Indiana. Becoming active in Republican Party politics, and a member of the state central committee in 1888, he strongly supported Benjamin Harrison's campaign for the President of the United States.

Three years after settling in Crawfordville, Burford was elected prosecuting attorney for the 22nd Circuit. He won several high-profile cases, including one in which the defendant was found guilty of murder and hanged – the first legal hanging in the county. Subsequently, he was chosen as chairman of the Republican Party Central Committee for Indiana, which secured the election of Benjamin Harrison as President of the U.S. in 1888. He remained a friend of Harrison until the president died. In 1912, he was elected to a 4-year term in the state senate. He continued in the leadership of the state Republican Party, which rewarded him by making him their unanimous choice candidate for the office of U. S. Senator in 1914. He, along with the complete Republican slate, lost that election. His body was shipped to Oklahoma City, where he was buried in Rose Hill Burial Park, after a service at the First Methodist Church.