J. Edgar Buffington, a representative of an honored pioneer family of Oklahoma, figures prominently in financial circles of northeastern Oklahoma as President of the Vinita National Bank, in which connection he is controlling one of the most substantial moneyed institutions in this part of the state. He was born in that portion of Indian Territory known as the Cherokee Nation, on the 13th of March, 1881, of the union of Ezekiel and Anna (Scarcewater) Buffington and when but an infant lost both of his parents. His boyhood was spent as an inmate of the Cherokee Orphans’ Home at Salina, in which he received his early education, and later he entered the Tahlequah Male Seminary, which he attended for two years, afterward completing a course in a business college at Kansas City. He then came to Vinita, securing a position in the institution which he now represents and with which he has since been identified. Beginning at the bottom of the ladder, he worked his way steadily upward, his diligence and ready adaptability winning him promotion from one position to another of greater importance and responsibility until he is now serving as President, having been chosen to fill that office in 1919, following the death of his cousin, Lucien W. Buffington, who was one of the founders of the institution and a very able financier. Mr. Buffington is well qualified for this office, for he has devoted his entire life to the banking business and broad experience and careful study have given him a comprehensive understanding of the complex problems of modern finance. In controlling the bank he tempers aggressiveness with a safe conservatism and is laboring effectively to broaden the scope of the institution. He also has other interests, having made judicious investment in Craig County lands.
Mr. Buffington is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and his political allegiance is given to the Democratic Party. His social nature finds expression in his identification with the Hillcrest Country Club and he is an enthusiastic devotee of golf. He has fought life’s battles unaided and come off a victor in the strife, for he started out in the business world empty-handed and through persistency of purpose, energy and the wise utilization of the talents with which nature endowed him, has won his present enviable position. He worthily bears a name that for many years has stood as a synonym for energy, integrity and progressiveness in business circles of Vinita and he is a man whom to know is to esteem and admire.