Benjamin Martin, who has been actively engaged in law practice at Muskogee for more than a quarter of a century, has also been a prominent factor in financial circles of the city as vice president and director of and attorney for The Commercial National Bank, which he has thus represented during almost the entire period of its existence, his efforts contributing largely to the continued growth and success of the institution.
His birth occurred on a southern plantation near Allendale, in Barnwell county, South Carolina, on the 7th of July, 1873, his parents being Benjamin and Catherine M. (Maner) Martin. He is a descendant of Landgrave Smith, the first colonial governor of South Carolina. His ancestors for many generations possessed large property interests in the sea coast section of that state, where they settled long prior to the Revolutionary war, in which many of the name served with distinction as officers.
Benjamin Martin of this review obtained his early education in private and public schools of his native state and when eighteen years of age removed to Washington, D. C., where he pursued a course of study in the Spencerian Business College. In 1895 he entered the law department of the Columbian University, now George Washington University, at Washington, D. C., from which institution he was graduated with the degree of Bachelor of Laws on the 8th of June, 1897. Immediately afterward he came to Oklahoma, and settled in Muskogee, then Indian Territory, where he was admitted to practice before the United States courts of the Indian Territory. Here he has continuously remained throughout the intervening period of twenty-five years, being accorded an extensive and gratifying clientage in recognition of his legal learning and professional ability. He became the first United States probate commissioner from the northern district of the Indian Territory at Muskogee.
On the 6th of June, 1900, in Muskogee, Indian Territory, Mr. Martin was united in marriage to Miss Laura V. Parish, a daughter of W. L. and Jane Parish of North Carolina. They have one son, Richard, now an honor student at Princeton University.
In politics Mr. Martin has been a lifelong democrat and he has often been solicited to accept state and federal offices, but has confined his efforts to his profession. His religious faith is indicated by his membership in the Methodist Episcopal church, South.
Fraternally he is identified with the Elks and the Masons and is a member of the Mystic Shrine. He also belongs to the Chamber of Commerce and to the Country Club. These associations indicate the nature of his interests outside of professional activity, so that he has become well known and popular in social as well as professional and financial circles of his adopted city.
