One of the well known newspaper men of the state is Mark A. Leftwich, proprietor of the Coweta Times-Star. He was born in Bedford county, Virginia, in May, 1852, a son of Thomas and Maria (Warwick) Leftwich, natives of Virginia. The father was an extensive planter and he served as Major in the Confederate army for three years. He was discharged at the termination of that time, because of poor health and he then went to Missouri, locating in Carrollton, Carroll county, where he became a dentist. He practiced there, enjoying substantial success, until his death, at the age of sixty-eight years. Mrs. Leftwich was sixty-four years of age at the time of her death.
Mark A. Leftwich was reared and educated in Carrollton, Missouri, and Lebanon, Illinois, and after putting his textbooks aside he went to Texas, where he secured a position driving cattle across the country. He made several trips to Abilene and Baxter Springs, Kansas, and in 1868, between trips, he went to work on the “Examiner,” learning to set his first type. For five years he lived in Lexington, Nebraska, where he published the Dawson County Herald, and he then removed to Steelville, Missouri, where he published the Crawford County Democrat. For some time he published the Madison Times in Madison, Missouri, and in 1900 he came to Oklahoma, locating in Shawnee, where he published the Shawnee Quill until 1905. On the 13th of July, that year, he came to Coweta, and established the Coweta Times. In 1918 he purchased the Coweta Star and consolidated the two. His plant is up-to-date, having the most modern appliances, and his paper is one of the most popular sheets published in the county. Mr. Leftwich also has a large job printing business, handling work for a number of large concerns in Tulsa and Muskogee.
On the 21st of April, 1879, was celebrated the marriage of Mr. Leftwich to Miss Mary E. Willis and to their union five children have been born : Ralph, who is an oil producer and lives in Coweta; Brenda C., the wife of H. L. Benson of Muskogee; Morris M., owner of the Leftwich Monotype Company, in Denver, Colorado; Sallie B., the wife of Noel C. Ownby of Muskogee; and Augustine R, Manager of the Times-Star at Coweta.
Mr. Leftwich gives his political allegiance to the Democratic Party and in 1893 he was elected to represent the thirtieth district of Nebraska on the Democratic state committee and was active in that capacity for five years. Fraternally he is identified with the Masons, being an exemplary member of the craft and his religious faith is that of the Presbyterian Church. Mr. Leftwich is known as one of the reliable and straightforward men whose word may be implicitly accepted and whose influence is always exerted in behalf of the best interests of the community.