The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1920-11-28
JAKE L. HAMON

JAKE l.. HAMON
In the passing of Jake L. Hamon, the
United States has lost one of its business
g%eniuses. He was a James J. Hill in railroad
building and in the operation Of railway
properties. He was a Rockefeller in OIL
development. In his brief career he had
achieved much more than either OF these
men for the number of years he worked.
Beginning as a clerk in a pioneer country,
then as a struggling young lawyer with
scarcely income enough to keep his rent paid,
he developed self-reliance and a business
ability that blossomed into a powerful force
when opportunity came to him to use his
latent ability and stored vitality. He was
ambitious to do things in the business world
and he played at the game Of politics only
as a diversion, as other men hunt or play
4 golf. There was no office whose emoluments
he sought. He could make in one day the
annual salary of a cabinet officer. He chose
to be the k%ing-maker in politics, rather than
TO be the king. He loved political power
only for the purpose of influencing legislation
that he thought would be helpful 10 the
country and to be placed in a position where
he could favor his friends. He believed that
a successful business career depended upon
a close acquaintance with details, and this
= theory made an unusually active man OF
him. He kept his fingers ends on his bust
ness for several years, but finally the gi-
gantic business machine which he started
grew to such proportions that he had to re-
linquish his hold upon the details, and it
was then that Frank L.. Ketch became indis-
penSable to the HamOn interests. With close
study and hard work, Mr.. Ketch mastered
the business, but the machine kept growing
until it had to be divided into departments.
While the detail work was divided, yet Mr..
Hamon and Mr.. Ketch both kept in unusually
close touch with all activities.
There was scarcely ever a time, day or
night, but that from one to a dozen men
were waiting at his office or hotel to see
him. He gave each man a hearing. He
kept wells drilling, plants building, townsites
selling, railroads moving, and in the midst of
it all he kept well informed on current events
and knew the financial trend of the country
at all times. His was a most wonderful
mind, and had he not been protected by a
very strong body he could never have under.
gone the strain his business placed upon
him. When Mr.. Hamon first began to make
money his friends flocked to him from every
point of the compass. Jake had always beer
a big-hearted man among them and they
were all seeking an opportunity to be put il
on big deals. This stream of friends coming
to his door was similar to the entreaties mad,
upon a president at the beginning of an ad
ministration.
If Mr.. Hamon could have remained OF
the firing line for twenty-five years more
rs nature had equipped him to do, there i
no way to calculate what his achievement
would have been. His energies and wealtl
and power would have reached across tn
seas.
His wife, Mrs. Jake /. Hamon. has had a
enviable place to occupy, To have won hi
love in the vivacity OF youth, to have inspirel
him and encouraged him in his years o
struggle with poverty in a pioneer country
to be the mother of his children. to hay
felt the strength and courage of his powerfU
mind, to have lived under such an influence
a beauty of living that comes to but fe,
women.
His children have been left a heritag
more valuable than the estate he left {
them in dollars. That heritage is the memor
of a father whose achievements are almo.
without parallel in The commercial worl
and whose charitiea reach across the cont
nent.
Because Of his passing, the world will
poorer off. There win be fewer railroad
fewer oil fields fewer relineries and few'