Robert L. Williams

Robert Lee Williams (December 20, 1868 – April 10, 1948) was an American lawyer, judge, and the third governor of Oklahoma. Williams played a role in the drafting of the Oklahoma Constitution and served as the first Oklahoma Supreme Court chief justice. He also served as a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit and as a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Oklahoma. As third Governor, Williams oversaw the state's response to the recent United States Supreme Court's ruling against Jim Crow laws and its involvement in the First World War (1914/1917-1918). He instituted the Oklahoma State Board of Affairs (later reorganized into the current Oklahoma Department of Central Services) which provided central purchasing services to various state departments, agencies, boards and bureaus. Due to his direct administrative role and concentration of power, Governor Williams counteracted the previous loss of executive power and disagreements with the Oklahoma Legislature under previous second Governor Lee Cruce (1863-1933, served 1911-1915).

Early life and education

Williams was born on December 20, 1868, near Brundidge, (Pike County), Alabama. Williams earned a Bachelor of Arts academic degree in 1892 and a Master of Arts degree in 1894, both from the old Southern University, (founded 1856) then located in Greensboro, Alabama. currently still located in Greensboro, Alabama. One degree studied for by young Williams included a study of Methodist (Protestant / Christian) religious / theological doctrines, entitling him after graduation to become an ordained minister (elder / presbyter / pastor) in the old Methodist Church, if he so chose. He however also read law and passed the Alabama bar exam in 1891 at the age of 23 and began his practice in Troy, Alabama. At the age of 25, Williams, in 1893, moved west to the Cherokee Outlet section in the Indian Territory following its opening where he briefly practiced law in Orlando. After briefly moving back to Alabama, Williams returned to the Indian Territory shortly afterwards in 1897 and settled in Durant. He became increasingly involved in local politics and a driving force behind the Democratic Party in modern-day eastern Oklahoma in his earlier role as a member (National Committeeman) of the Democratic National Committee, representing the old Indian Territory in the political party's councils.

Statehood convention delegate

Selected to represent Durant and the surrounding area at the Oklahoma Constitutional Convention, Williams traveled to Guthrie where he would meet two men that would have profound effects on both his and Oklahoma's future: Charles N. Haskell and William H. Murray. Through their labors, Oklahoma's Constitution was established and Oklahoma became a state on November 16, 1907. On that same day, Haskell was inaugurated as the first Governor of Oklahoma.

Oklahoma Supreme Court Chief Justice

Through his friendship with Haskell and his own skill as an attorney, Williams was appointed by Haskell to the Oklahoma Supreme Court. Once on the Court, Williams was selected to serve as the Court's first chief justice. He was reappointed that post again in 1908 and would serve in that office until 1914, the only position he would hold on Oklahoma's highest court.

In 1914, before the end of Oklahoma's second governor's term, Governor Lee Cruce, Williams resigned from his position as chief justice in order to place his name in the Democratic primaries for Governor of Oklahoma. His fame as Chief Justice easily won him the Democratic nomination. Williams was fiercely conservative, possessed an assertive personality, and held a high sense of duty. Williams' Republican opponent was John Fields, the editor of a farm-related newspaper based in Oklahoma City. Williams faced a difficult fight for the governorship with Fields' paper granting him the majority of the farm-related voters' vote. Despite this Williams' popularity won him the victory by a narrow margin. He was inaugurated as the third Governor of Oklahoma on January 11, 1915.

Governor of Oklahoma

On January 1, 1917, Williams officially moved into the new Oklahoma State Capitol in Oklahoma City, which had been under construction since June 1914, before it was completed and dedicated later that summer. On July 1 of that year the state officially took control of the building. The next year on March 18, 1918, the Oklahoma Legislature would hold its first sessions, meeting in the two elaborately decorated chambers of its new permanent home. Despite the state's adoption of the building, it was not actually really totally completed until two years later in 1919, because of wartime conditions and supply problems. Even upon its completion, it still lacked a crowning dome or tower. In 2000, Governor Frank Keating proposed that a dome be finally added. Two years after Governor Keating's proposal, the building was finally "completed" with the erection 85 years later of the originally envisioned dome (from architect Solomon Layton's plans and drawings) on November 16, 2002.

When Williams took office, Oklahoma was suffering terrible economic troubles. Hoping to save the state, he implemented policies that he believed would solve the problems and bring improvement. First, Williams proposed legislation levying new taxes while appropriations for various state institutions were decreased in order to reduce the state's budget deficit.

Oklahoma Governor Williams supported fellow Democrat and 28th President Woodrow Wilson (1856-1924, served 1913-1921), during World War I (1914/1917-1918). President Wilson was the first Democrat to be elected Chief Executive since Grover Cleveland in two decades, in 1884 and 1892, and before of James Buchanan way back in 1856. He would later appoint former Governor and state Chief Justice Williams as a federal judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Oklahoma.

One of William's greatest advances in the state's economy came when he instituted the Oklahoma State Board of Affairs, (later reorganized into the current Oklahoma Department of Central Services) which provided central purchasing services to state agencies. along with Mothers' pensions and several labor laws.

The Williams administration was marked by two events. The first was the landmark Supreme Court of the United States case Guinn v. United States in 1915.

Death Williams died at his home in Durant, Oklahoma, on April 10, 1948, after a stay in Wilson N. Jones Hospital in Sherman, Texas. He is buried in City Cemetery in Durant.

Electoral history

State of the State Speeches First State of State speech Second State of the State speech Third State of the State speech

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