Wilburn Cartwright


Wilburn Cartwright was an American lawyer, educator, politician, and United States Army officer in World War II. The town of Cartwright, Oklahoma is named after him. He self-styled himself "the most elected man in Oklahoma government" and served in elected office in both the Oklahoma [House of Representatives] and the Oklahoma Senate, as a school superintendent, United States House of Representatives member for Oklahoma's 3rd congressional district, Oklahoma Secretary of State, Oklahoma State Auditor, and on the Oklahoma Corporation Commission.

Early life

Born on a farm near Georgetown, Tennessee, Cartwright moved with his parents to the Chickasaw Nation, Indian Territory, in 1903. He attended the public schools at Wapanucka and Ada, Oklahoma, and Southeastern [Oklahoma State University|State Teachers College] at Durant, Oklahoma.

Early career

As an educator he taught in the schools of Coal, Atoka, Bryan, and Pittsburg Counties in Oklahoma from 1914 to 1926. During World War I he served as a private in the Student Army Training Corps in 1917 and 1918. He studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1917. He was graduated from the law department of the University of Oklahoma at Norman in 1920. Afterwards he began a law practice in McAlester, Oklahoma. Additionally he took postgraduate work at the University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois. He served as member of the Oklahoma House of Representatives from 1914 to 1918, and then as a member of the State Senate from 1918 until 1922. Cartwright was a vocational adviser for disabled veterans at McAlester, Oklahoma, in 1921 and 1922. He was an unsuccessful candidate for the Democratic nomination for Congress in 1922 and 1924, and served as Superintendent of schools at Krebs, Oklahoma from 1922 to 1926.

Family

Wilburn's great-great uncle was Peter Cartwright, who had defeated Abraham Lincoln in an Illinois legislative race.
His two daughters were Wilburta May Cartwright and actress Lynn Cartwright.
His nephew, Jan Eric Cartwright, was the Oklahoma Attorney General from 1979 to 1983.
His siblings were Floyd, Gerty, McKinley, Shafter, Dewey, Cecil, Keith, and Clifford (Buck). The last two were also Oklahoma state legislators.
His father, Jackson Robert Cartwright, was a Baptist preacher and served in the Oklahoma House of Representatives in 1929 and 1931.

United States Congress

Cartwright was elected as a Democrat to the Seventieth and to the seven succeeding Congresses. He served as chairman of the Committee on Roads. He was an unsuccessful candidate for renomination in 1942. Cartwright was a supporter of the New Deal public works projects in his district.

Military career

He served as a major in the United States Army, Allied Military Government, with service in Africa and Europe from 1943 until he was injured. He returned to the United States as an instructor at Fort Custer, Michigan, in 1945. He was employed with the Veterans' Administration at Muskogee, Oklahoma, in 1945 and 1946.

Later life

Cartwright was elected Secretary of State of Oklahoma for a four-year term in 1946. Cartwright was elected State auditor for a four-year term in 1950. Cartwright was elected State corporation commissioner for a six-year term in 1954 and reelected in 1960 and 1966. He was a resident of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma until his death there on March 14, 1979. He was interred in I.O.O.F. Cemetery, Norman, Oklahoma.