F. M. Connor was born near Joplin, Missouri, March 29, 1852, the son of William Connor (a farmer, mill-wright and mechanic,) and Drucilla Davis. His grandfather, Caleb Connor, was one of the first settlers in Indiana. When but five years old, the subject of this sketch accompanied his father to the Cherokee Nation, settling on Grand River, Delaware district, in 1857. He was partly educated at Asberry Mission, in the Creek Nation, but his parents dying in 1868 and in 1870, he was forced to take care of himself at an early age. In 1871, when only eighteen years old, he conducted a boarding house on Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railroad, at the same time, by close application during leisure hours, he completed his education. In 1874, he returned to Delaware district, and in the same year married Rebecca Duncan, daughter of Green Duncan, one-fourth Cherokee. By this marriage Mr. Connor has four children, Alonzo, Crawford, Lulu and Leonard. In 1887, the subject of this sketch was elected member of council, and held the office for two years, when he was nominated by the chief, and confirmed by the senate, as town commissioner for the Cherokee Nation. On November 24, 1891, he was re-elected by unanimous vote to fill the same office; up to November 1891, the commissioners have collected, and turned over to the nation, $7,000. Mr. Connor is the second white man who has ever been elected as representative in the Cherokee national council, William Howe being the first. In the contest on that occasion, Mr. Connor competed against five Cherokees, and received the largest majority in the district. Mr. Connor has 600 acres of land in cultivation, near Fairland, a rapidly growing little town on the Frisco Railroad, and which promises to be the best town in the nation, surrounded as it is by the finest agricultural lands. Mr. Connor is owner of the land on which the town is being built, having purchased the same from W. B. Ritter, and is also owner of the Fairland Hotel, besides a small herd of cattle and horses. The subject of this sketch is a pleasant gentleman, and an active energetic man of business, trustworthy, reliable and exceedingly popular in this district.
