OCR Text |
Show GABE E. PARKER Animated by a sense of obligation to his own people, the Indian race, and especially to the Choctaw nation, ;which contributed from tribal funds to .pay for his education in the public Indian In-dian schools of Indian territory, Gabe ,E. Parker, appointed by the president commissioner of the Five Civilized 'tribes, takes up those duties with the ianxiety and hope to advance the interests in-terests and welfare of those intrusted to his charge. Muskogee, Okla., is his ,headquarters. Mr. Parker is one-eighth Indian. His Imother was one-quarter Choctaw. His father, a Kentuckian, owned a ranch .In- Indian territory, near Fort Towsen, mow in southeast Oklahoma, where Gabe E. Parker was born September ,29, 1878. He has one brother and two sisters. The country schoolhouse, an Indian school for the children of the Choctaw nation, provided him with the rudi- ments of his education. Later he went to Spencer academy, also an Indian institution of learning. He obtained his, degree as a bachelor of science from Henry Kendall college. Two things stand out i. his memory of college days: That he met his wife, who was a. fellow studat; that he closed his course as valedictorian of his class, graduat-. ing with the highest honors in 1899. The death of his mother diverted him from the study of law, and he re-, turned as an assistant teacher to Spencer academy after his graduation, and in three months was made principal teacher. After a year of teaching there, in 1900 he was transferred as principal to Armstrong academy, another Indian In-dian institution, and in 1904 was superintendent He was occupying this post when called to Washington to become register of the treasury. |