This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Surnames: Love Classification: Biography Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/xYB.2ACE/1620 Message Board Post: source: CHRONICLES OF OKLAHOMA >>>> VOLUME 4 NO. 3 >>>> pages: 288, 289, 290, and 291 >>>> SEPTEMBER 1926 BIOGRAPHIES Page 288 JUDGE OVERTON LOVE The subject of this sketch was born in Marshall County, Mississippi, on the 6th of September, 1823. He was educated Page 289 in the common schools of that state, and at the age of twenty years, came with his father to Indian Territory. The family settled on the north bank of Red River, in what is now Love County, the county being named for the Love family, as was also the valley in which they settled, Love?s Valley, about six miles east of Marietta, the county seat of Love County. At one time the Judge owned as many as eight thousand acres of Red River bottom land in this valley, as fine land as there is in the state of Oklahoma; here the judge lived for a period of fifty years or more, engaged in farming and stock raising. Judge Love was one of the outstanding characters of Indian Territory, no man excelled him in the choice of land, location, business affairs or in anything pertaining to his interests or that of his people, the Chickasaws. While he was a farmer and business man, he was none the less successful as a national councilman, county and district Judge, or as a delegate to represent his! people in Washington. The Judge was known far and near as a man of integrity, liberal in his views, unselfish in his habits and manners of life, equal in his considerations of all men, the poor as much so as the more fortunate, no hungry man was turned away empty from his door, and no one who really wanted to work, applying to him, was ever rejected; he was a friend to man. The writer first met the Judge at his home in the valley, the year 1888, and was afterwards a frequent guest in the home, and can speak advisedly, when we say, that any one having been a guest in the Love home, will always have an appreciation for the splendid spirit that prevailed in the home life. The Judge carried on extensive farming interests, and consequently had to do with different types of men, all of whom had a chance to succeed with Judge Love, he gave every man a chance to prove himself, failing in that he had to move to some other quarter. This brings to mind a little incident that shows the true character of the man; he was always mindful of the interests of himself as well as the interests of others, as is shown in the matter of building for school and church purposes, as he did, a house on his land where church services and school accommodations were made possible for all who would take advantage of them. So interested was Judge Love in the matter, that he bu! ilt the house and furnished it throughout, free of cost to anyone, and turned it over to the commu- Page 290 nity, with the understanding that his renters would attend services of some kind, and patronize the school. The Judge was what we termed then an infidel, his wife was a member of the Presbyterian church. The minister, of whatever faith he might be, always had an invitation to stop in the Love home, and the most of them did so, and the Judge always attended services at the eleven o?clock and evening hour, and saw that every one behaved, and that the dogs stayed on the outside, and that the young men who were disposed to be rowdy, came on the inside or left the premises. Seeing this interest on the part of the Judge, one day I asked him this question: Judge Love, you do not make any pretensions as to being a believer in the Christian religion, why is it you have built this house and are so careful as to order during the hour of service? His answer is as follows: "I may not be a believer in the sense you Christian people profess, but I am a believer in common decency and that w! hich tends to civilization, and I find that the ones who profess to be Christians believe in the same things, and that they make the best renters on my farm, they are not always in trouble, and they do not try to beat me out of my rent, and in return for this, I am willing to help them in the matter of their religious life." The writer feels justified in saying that from our acquaintance with Judge Love, made possible by frequent visits in the home, where one learns to know people, that the Chickasaw Nation never made a greater contribution to prosperity in its march to a higher civilization than that given in the person of him whose name appears at the head of this article. To have known such a character, to have been associated with him and the family, to have been acquainted with him in his views of life, as they had to do with business affairs on the farm, political interests of his people, along with the social development of his community, is a privilege to be highly ! esteemed by those who have been so favored. While Judge Love was not a Christian, in the sense in which that word is commonly interpreted, yet there was something in his makeup, that likens him to the things that are eternal. In the constitutionality of my friend there was more than one of the essentials to Christianity; there was fidelity to a trust, loyalty to a cause, the unselfish spirit, magnanimous in its reaches, that enabled him to overlook the defects Page 291 in a fellowman, if he discovered any, that proved him a friend to man. The treasurer of the Oklahoma Historical Society, Mrs. Jessie R. Moore, is a niece of Judge Love, and is in every sense a worthy kinswoman of the illustrious Love family. J. Y. BRYCE.