Home |  PublicationsEncyclopedia |  Telle, Alinton

The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture

Alinton Telle
(19610, Emma Alinton Telle Collection, OHS).

TELLE, ALINTON (1859–1903).

Choctaw rancher and lawyer Alinton Telle was born on September 30, 1859 (some sources give 1858), at Lukfahta, Choctaw Nation, Indian Territory (present McCurtain County), to Ima-no-bubbi and Kate Wright. Orphaned at the age of eight, Telle moved to Boggy Depot and resided with his uncle, Allen Wright. Telle graduated from Southwestern Presbyterian University, Clarksville, Tennessee, and then attained a law degree from Union University in Albany, New York. In 1881 the federal court in Fort Smith, Arkansas, hired him as a Choctaw interpreter. In 1886 he was appointed as national secretary for the Choctaw Nation, a position he held until 1889. In 1890 he opened an Atoka law practice with G. A. Pate. Also in 1890 Telle married Emma Leary and they had two children, Alinton Russell and Nanima Louise. From 1897 until 1900 the elder Telle served as a member of the Choctaw Commission, which worked with the Dawes Commission to make the final Choctaw allotment rolls. In 1900 Telle formed a partnership with J. H. Chambers and resumed a law practice.

In 1881 Telle located a ranch and farm six miles northeast of present Wapanucka, and he imported from Missouri one of the area's first Hereford bulls. A successful and well-respected rancher, Telle was usually the area stockmen's choice as the annual spring roundup captain. In 1899 he had twelve hundred head of cattle and 250 acres of cultivated land. A strong Atoka civic leader, he served on the city council, was a member of the Masonic Order and the Methodist church, and built the town's first two-story brick building. On March 8, 1903, Alinton Telle died in Atoka.

Larry O'Dell

Bibliography

Indian Journal (Eufaula, Indian Territory), 13 March 1903.

H. F. O'Beirne, Leaders and Leading Men of the Indian Territory: With Interesting Biographical Sketches, Vol. 1 (Chicago: American Publishers' Association, 1891).

William H. Underwood, "A History of Atoka County" (M.A. thesis, University of Oklahoma, 1931).

J. B. Wright, "Ranching in the Choctaw and Chickasaw Nations," The Chronicles of Oklahoma 37 (Fall 1959).


Citation

The following (as per The Chicago Manual of Style, 17th edition) is the preferred citation for articles:
Larry O'Dell, “Telle, Alinton,” The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture, https://www.okhistory.org/publications/enc/entry?entry=TE006.

Published January 15, 2010

Copyright and Terms of Use

No part of this site may be construed as in the public domain.

Copyright to all articles and other content in the online and print versions of The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History is held by the Oklahoma Historical Society (OHS). This includes individual articles (copyright to OHS by author assignment) and corporately (as a complete body of work), including web design, graphics, searching functions, and listing/browsing methods. Copyright to all of these materials is protected under United States and International law.

Users agree not to download, copy, modify, sell, lease, rent, reprint, or otherwise distribute these materials, or to link to these materials on another web site, without authorization of the Oklahoma Historical Society. Individual users must determine if their use of the Materials falls under United States copyright law's "Fair Use" guidelines and does not infringe on the proprietary rights of the Oklahoma Historical Society as the legal copyright holder of The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and part or in whole.