From Shuck's History of the Bench and Bar of California, 1901.
Certainly, one of the funniest named jurists ever to be elected to office in the United States, Judge Oval Pirkey of California held a seat on the Superior Court of Glenn County during the early years of the 20th century. He was born in Alexandria, Tennessee on February 22, 1861, and inherited his odd name courtesy of his father, also named Oval Pirkey. Pirkey sR. (1833-1912) was a prominent figure in educational circles, being a professor at the Christian University in Canton, Missouri, and former president of both the Lawrence College in Tennessee and the Abingdon College in Illinois. He married in 1859 to Sallie McClelland and later had several children, of which Oval Pirkey II was the second born. Young Oval attended college at the Christian University in Canton, Missouri, and graduated from here in the class of 1883.
Pirkey embarked upon a career in law after the completion of his schooling and was admitted to the Washington Territorial Bar in 1885. He later moved to California to continue his law practice and married here in 1900 to Marion Moore Rice (1871-1948), and the couple is recorded as having at least one son, Oval Jr. (1901-1986) who was later involved in vaudeville. In 1898 Pirkey won election to the Superior Court of Glenn County, California, and took his seat on the bench in 1899.
His service on the court lasted only a few years (1899-1905) but was not without controversy. In 1903 Pirkey became the judge in the case of Swan vs. Talbot in Willows, California. During the trial proceedings, attorneys for the defense leveled charges of bias against Judge Pirkey, which he vehemently denied. Pirkey went as far as to file affidavits denying all of the charges, as did attorneys for the plaintiff, who noted that Judge Pirkey had never appeared biased or had shown favoritism during past cases. An article on the brouhaha concerning the trial appeared in the June 6, 1903 edition of the San Francisco Call and is shown below.
In the 1904 election season, Pirkey was defeated for re-election to the Superior Court, losing to Democratic candidate William Finch by a vote of 875 to 623. Following his loss, Pirkey removed to Washington and resided there for the remainder of his life. Although a resident of Washington, notice is given as to his practicing law in Portland, Oregon, and serving as city librarian in Vancouver, Washington, later being succeeded in that office by his wife Marion. Pirkey died at the St. Joseph's Hospital in Vancouver County on August 29, 1923, at age 62 and was later buried at the Blaine Cemetery in Blaine, Whatcom County, Washington. Marion Rice Pirkey survived her husband by many years, dying in Washington in 1948 at age 77. A burial location for her is unknown at this time.
Judge Oval Pirkey, from the Glenn County Superior Court website.
From the Havre Daily News, October 29, 1951.
Longtime Havre, Montana resident Oval Sethal Hatler is another "Oval" who ran for public office, in his case serving multiple terms as mayor of Havre. A yardmaster for the Great Northern Railway and a former Havre city alderman, Hatler died in office in 1956 after undoing an operation at a Seattle, Washington hospital. The son of Leonard Pendleton and Lydia Jane (Elsea) Hatler, Oval Sethal Hatler was born in Moberly, Missouri on February 17, 1892.
Hatler removed with his family to Havre, Montana in 1902 and in 1907 began work with the Great Northern Railway, in the road and freight service. By 1913 he had worked his way to the post of switchman and in 1924 succeeded to the post of yardmaster, which he would continue to hold during his tenure as mayor. In June 1915 Hatler married Mary Garnet Dry (1894-1995), and the couple's near four-decade marriage saw the births of six children, Caleb (1914-1967), Jeanette (1915-2001), Francis Oval (1917-2008), Mary Louise (birthdate unknown), Carol Lynn (birthdate unknown) and Kenneth (1924-1990).
Oval S. Hatler first entered Havre politics late in his life, winning election to the Havre city council in 1947. He was reelected in 1949 and became president of the council in 1950 in the wake of the resignation of Mayor Harry Soderberg. With Soderberg's resignation, Hatler became acting mayor of Havre, and in 1951 was elected to a term in his own right, garnering 1, 173 votes in the April 3rd city election. In total Hatler would serve three terms as mayor (1950-56) and during this time the city built new sewer and water lines and "lights were added to the newly developed south and west sections of the city".
In early 1956 Hatler traveled to Seattle, Washington to undergo an unspecified operation and on March 9, 1956, died in that city while recuperating. He was later returned to Havre for burial at the Highland Cemetery. Hatler was survived by all his children and his wife Garnet, who lived to become a centenarian, dying shortly before her 101st birthday on August 8, 1995.
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