Portrait from the 1912 Oklahoma Red Book.
We continue our stay in Oklahoma for a peek at the life of Delphos Green Harned, a transplant to that state from Breckinridge County, Kentucky. A farmer and clothing merchant following his resettlement, Harned served as a member of the Oklahoma Constitutional Convention of 1906-1907, helping to frame the laws of the then-newly admitted 46th state. Born on January 11, 1872, in Hudson, Kentucky, Delphos G. Harned was one of several children born to Henry Clay and Martha Jane (Green) Harned.
Little is known of Harned's life in Kentucky, except notice of his marriage in Breckinridge County to Euzada Americus "Zada" Board in January 1895. The couple's fifty-four-year union saw the births of six children, Wallace Elbert (1896-1911), Owen Gilbert (1898-1983), Wilbur Lee (1901-1970), Edith Irene (1904-1997), Velma Beatrice (1907-1988), and Harle Cruce (1911-1983).
By the late 1890s Delphos Harned had moved to Oklahoma and after establishing roots in the town of Ringwood farmed and raised stock. In 1906 he was elected as a Democratic delegate from the territory's 9th district to the Oklahoma Constitutional Convention. Taking his seat in late 1906, Harned served on the committees on Education, Enrollment, Privileges and Elections, State and School Lands, Liquor Traffic, and Public Health and Sanitation.
From the Breckinridge News, February 20, 1907.
Sometime following his service in the state constitutional convention Delphos Harned resettled in Durant, Oklahoma. Here he would establish Harned's, a store that sold men and women's clothing, including shoes, hats, undergarments, and suits. Little is known of Harned's life after this point, except for mention of his residing in Guthrie, Oklahoma in the early 1920s. Harned died in Stillwater, Oklahoma on April 7, 1949, at age 77. His wife Zada survived him by one year, and following her death in December 1950 was interred alongside him at the Fairlawn Cemetery in Stillwater.
Portrait from the Texas Bar Journal, 1941 (Vol. 4.)
On October 7, 2017 (just three months following the above write-up on Delphos G. Harned) another "Delphos" was discovered--Delphos Washburn Harrington of El Paso, Texas. A lawyer for nearly four decades, "Del" W. Harrington briefly served in the Texas House of Representatives, having been elected to that body to fill a vacancy in late 1914. A native of Pike County, Illinois, Del W. Harrington was born in that county on May 14, 1867, being the son of Daniel Webster and Emmeline (Shelly) Harrington.
Harrington's early schooling occurred in the county of his birth and he later attended the Northern Illinois Normal School in Dixon. Early in his life, he moved to Texas, and following his settling in the town of Dalhart was engaged as an insurance salesman and newspaper editor. Admitted to the Texas bar in 1903, Harrington married the following year to Mary Stringer (1874-1933), with whom he would have two daughters, Laura Katherine (1905-1966) and Mary (1907-1980). Harrington's residency in Dalhart saw him win election as Dalhart's mayor, serving in that post from 1905-07.
Several years after establishing himself in Dalhart Harrington removed to Amarillo to continue his practice, and in September 1914 was elected to fill a vacancy in the Texas House of Representatives from the 125th legislative district. This vacancy had been occasioned by the August 18th resignation of Hilton R. Greer, and Harrington officially took his seat in the legislature on September 11th. He served through the remainder of the 1914-15 session (which concluded on January 12th of the new year) and declined renomination, preferring to return to his law practice.
Following his brief stint in state government, Del Harrington moved his practice to El Paso in 1915, joining the firm of Davis and Goggin. Shortly after his resettlement, he was retained as counsel for the El Paso Cattleman's Association and later became a member of the El Paso and Southwestern Railroad Company's legal staff. He retired from that position in 1938, and in the following year was returned to political office when he was elected as a justice of the peace, a post he would hold until his death.
Widowed in 1933, Del W. Harrington died at age 74 on August 19, 1941, having suffered a heart attack while at work in an El Paso courtroom. He was later interred alongside his wife at the Concordia Cemetery in El Paso.
From the Dalhart Texan, August 20, 1941.
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