OBITUARY
PERCY
CONSTANCE SIMONS
1870-1962
One of Oklahoma's pioneer lawyers and a territorial
attorney general, Percy C. Simons of Enid died in his home. March 8, 1962. Mr. Simons was born in Hamburg, Fremont County,
Iowa on Christmas Day 1870.
His parents moved to Sidney, Iowa,
and later to Caldwell, Kansas. He was educated in the public schools of both cities. In
1890 he graduated from the University of Kansas law school and practiced law in
Sidney, Iowa and Caldwell and Wellington, Kansas. He made the run into the Cherokee Outlet in 1893,
but was unable to find a claim that suited him, so he waited until one that interested
him was relinquished. Such a claim
developed south of Renfrow in Grant County. Simons acquired it and proved his title while
still maintaining his law office north across the state line In Caldwell, Kansas.
He later moved to Pond Creek in Grant
County, then the county seat, and practiced law with Judge A. M. Mackey until
January, 1904.
Simons was appointed the Attorney General for the Territory
of Oklahoma by Governor Thompson Benton Ferguson on February 1, 1904. He succeeded Judge J. C. Robberts of Kingfisher
who had resigned. Simons was reappointed
March 17, 1905 by Governor Ferguson for a term to expire in 1907. Under the laws of the Territory the attorney general
was required to appear for the Territory and prosecute and defend
all actions and proceedings, civil or criminal in the territorial Supreme Court in which the
Territory was an interested party. He
was authorized to give legal opinions to the Governor, other territorial officials,
the Legislature and to prosecute any official bond or breach thereof and to
prepare officials contracts and other drafts which the Territory might require.
The respect with which Governor Ferguson
held Mr. Simons is demonstrated by a letter the Governor wrote to his close
friend. Dennis Flynn, following the appointment of Simons. Wrote Ferguson: "I appointed (as attorney
general) as good a lawyer, in my judgment. as there is in the territory, one upon
whose integrity, and ability and friendship I can rely."
As an aggressive and competent attorney general, in the
two years he represented the Territory. he lost only one case. His work load was heavy for in his first year in
office he appeared for the Territory in thirty six criminal cases before the
Supreme Court. Before the United States
Supreme Court he successfully argued that the conviction of John T. New, who
had been convicted in Washita County for the murder of his brother-in-law and given
a life sentence, should be sustained. Undoubtedly
his most important case as attorney general was against the American Bonding
Company of Baltimore in which he argued that the company should be compelled to
reimburse the territory for the defunct Capital National Bank of Guthrie. The Surety company had executed a bond for
$250,000 to protect the territorial funds on deposit in the bank and had refused
to pay the bond. Before the Supreme
Court. Simon's position was sustained and the Company paid the bond. He also recovered $18,000
of the Territory's funds which had been deposited with the bank shortly before its
collapse.
Attorney General Simons gained much notice for his vigorous prosecution
of illegal practitioners of medicine in the Territory. Quick to catch flaws in the laws passed by the
Territorial Legislature, he asked that the revenue laws be amended and that the
oil inspection law and the board of health legislation be amended so that they
would have greater strength.
Although Simon's term did not expire until 1907, he submitted
his resignation to Governor Frantz shortly after the latter was inaugurated in
January 1906 in order that Frantz
might appoint as attorney general someone of his own choosing. Simons was succeeded April 1, 1906 by W. O. Cromwell
of Enid. Simons himself went to Enid,
which he called a "splendid and thriving city," to enter into the practice
of law with C. H. Parker.
Joe Glasser, one of Simon's colleagues at the bar, has called
the late Attorney General, “A complete advocate, one who studied not only his
side of the case, but his opponent's side as well.” Among his colleagues Simons was regarded as a
giant of a lawyer and possessed of a keen intellect. His office hours were seldom less than ten
hours a day and often included Saturday and Sunday as well. As an outstanding lawyer he was retained as
local counsel by many large eastern corporations that had great capital
invested in Oklahoma, including the New York Gas Company, American Investment Company,
Prudential Insurance Company, Pillsbury Mills, U. S. Fidelity and Guaranty, Equitable
Life Assurance Society of the United States, Sears Roebuck, the Maryland Gas Company and the Travelers
Insurance Company. He had many prominent
Oklahoma clients including Judge M. C. Garber, whom he represented before the United
States Supreme Court in Crews vs. Garber,
the George E. Failing Company, Eason Oil Company, Enid Elevator Corporation,
Oklahoma Natural Gas, W. B. Johnston Grain Company, Continental Grain Company,
and banks in Enid, Meno, Hunter and other Northwestern Oklahoma cities. His legal associates included C. H. Parker. E.
B. Mitchell, L. E. McKnight, Joe Neal and R. W. Simons.
A life long Republican, Simons was active in the affairs
of his party and was a delegate to numerous state conventions and was a delegate
to the 1916 Republican National Convention.
Mr.
Simon's first wife was Lillian Williamson of Caldwell, Kansas, whom he married on
December 27, 1892. Some years after her
death, he married Miss Dorothy Ballard on November 12, 1953. Mr. Simon's son, R. W. Simons, was killed in
an automobile accident in 1961; Simon's daughter Mrs. R. W. Tripett, now
resides in Bartlesville. Former Attorney
General Simons was buried July 10, 1962 in the Enid Cemetery.
Mr. Justice Jackson of the United States Supreme Court
himself once a county seat lawyer wrote: "The county seat lawyer who always
gave to each the best there was in him has been an American institution. Such a man understands the structure of
society and how its groups interlock and interact because he lives in a
community small enough that he can keep it all in view. He sees how this society lives and, works under
the law and adjusts its conflicts by its procedures. He knows how disordered and hopelessly
unstable it would be without law. He knows
that the only true civil liberties are those which some lawyer respected by his
neighbors will stand up to defend. The county
seat lawyer was as American as a hooked rug, a pine chest or maple sugar."
P. C. Simons of Enid, Oklahoma, was truly this kind of
county seat lawyer.
Norman, Oklahoma
The Oklahoma Chronicles, Volume 41, Page 225