Home |  PublicationsEncyclopedia |  Massingale, Samuel Chapman

The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture

MASSINGALE, SAMUEL CHAPMAN (1870–1941).

Born in Quitman, Mississippi, on August 2, 1870, U.S. Rep. Samuel Chapman Massingale was the son of George M. and Martha McGowan Massingale. Educated in the public schools, he attended the University of Mississippi. He moved to Fort Worth, Texas, in the early 1890s and worked as a section hand. He also studied law privately and was admitted to the bar in 1895. During the Spanish-American War Massingale served as a private in Company D, Second Texas Infantry. After the war Massingale moved to Cordell, Oklahoma Territory, and practiced law. In 1902 he was elected to the Oklahoma Territorial Council. The following year he married Anna Canaday, and they had four children.

In 1906 Massingale unsuccessfully campaigned for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. He did not seek elective office again until 1934 when he was elected to the first of four terms as a Democrat representing Oklahoma's Seventh District. While in Congress, he served on various committees, including Elections Number One, Insular Affairs, Public Lands, War Claims, Immigration and Naturalization, and Judiciary. As a leader of the farm bloc he insisted on full parity for farmers. He also advocated more adequate pensions for the aged.

On January 17, 1941, Massingale died suddenly of influenza in Washington, D.C. He was interred in Lawnview Cemetery in Cordell.

Carolyn G. Hanneman

Learn More

Biographical Directory of the American Congress, 1774–1996 (Alexandria, Va.: CQ Staff Directories, 1997).

Daily Oklahoman (Oklahoma City), 18 January 1941.

Rex F. Harlow, comp., Makers of Government in Oklahoma (Oklahoma City: Harlow Publishing Co., 1930).

Tulsa (Oklahoma) Daily World, 18 January 1941.

Citation

The following (as per The Chicago Manual of Style, 17th edition) is the preferred citation for articles:
Carolyn G. Hanneman, “Massingale, Samuel Chapman,” The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture, https://www.okhistory.org/publications/enc/entry?entry=MA036.

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.