Since 1912 Henry E. Shipley has been a member of the Haskell bar and he has also become a well known business man with valuable mining and oil interests in Oklahoma and other states. He is a native of Illinois, his birth having occurred in Petersburg on the 15th of November, 1887. His parents, Clement Washington and Evelyn (Nance) Shipley, are natives of Menard County, Illinois, and the father is now living retired in that state. For many years he devoted his attention to agricultural pursuits, in which he was very successful, and he is now heavily interested in cotton plantations in Mississippi. The mother also survives.
Reared in his native city, Henry E. Shipley there attended the grammar and high schools, after which he became a student in the law department of the University of Illinois, from which he was graduated with the class of 1910. Going to the Pacific coast country, he entered upon active practice at Portland, Oregon, where he remained for six months, and then removed to Redmond, that state, where he resided for a similar length of time. In 1912 he came to Haskell, Oklahoma, where he has since successfully followed his profession. With the passing years his practice has steadily increased and his law business is now one of a most important character. He displays keen discernment in the solution of intricate problems of the law and is seldom at fault in the application of a legal principle. He prepares his cases with great thoroughness and his arguments are forceful and convincing, while his deductions are at all times logical. An astute business man, he has become interested in copper, zinc and lead mines in Arkansas and coal fields in Oklahoma and is one of the largest stockholders in the B. & A. Mining Company of Okmulgee, Oklahoma. He has also made investments in oil lands, owning property in Creek and Okmulgee counties and in other sections of Oklahoma and also in Texas and Arkansas.
On the 30th of October, 1912, Mr. Shipley was united in marriage to Miss Jessie Marie Richmond, of Rockford, Illinois, and they have become the parents of two sons: Richmond H., who was born December 18, 1913; and Robert C., born December 3, 1914.
Mr. Shipley is a faithful member of the Presbyterian Church, in the work of which he is actively and helpfully interested, now serving as one of its elders. His political allegiance is given to the Democratic Party, for he deems that its policy best conserves national progress and promotes public stability, and he has been called to public office, serving as city attorney, in which connection he made a highly commendable record, characterized by efficiency and marked devotion to duty. He belongs to the Sigma Nu and Phi Delta Phi fraternities and is a member of the Muskogee County and Oklahoma State Bar Associations. He is likewise prominent in fraternal circles, being a life member of the Elks Lodge, No. 517, at Muskogee, and he also stands high in Masonry, belonging to the commandery and Shrine at Muskogee, and to the consistory at McAlester, in which he has taken the thirty-second degree. He has firmly established himself in the public regard as an able lawyer, while in business affairs he manifests that forcefulness and determination which enable him to carry forward to a successful completion whatever he undertakes, and Haskell numbers him among its foremost citizens.