WILLIAM E. CONNER, president of the Waurika Realty Company and one of the original settlers of the town site, has been identified with the late substantial development of the country, as was his father with the growth of the cattle interests in the previous generation of pioneers. He came to the town on June 19, 1902, and for the first four years was engaged as a trader and a dealer along various lines until 1906, when he promoted the Waurika Realty Company, with a capital of $100,000. The company obtained the title to half a section of land adjoining the old town site, has platted two additions (Conners and the Railroad), and through its efforts many valued' settlers pave invested and located here. Besides his real estate interests he enjoys other important connections, being a stockholder in the Waurika National Bank, and an active member of the Commercial Club. ,
     William E. Conner is a native of Bert county, Nebraska, born on the 23rd of February, 1867, son ofJefferson F. and Rachel (Luthers) Conner. The paternal grandfather was Andrew Conner, of Irish stock, who was born at Logansport, Indiana, where he reared a family. He died before the Civil war. He was a millwright in his early life, worked in New Orleans, and afterward removed to Indiana.
     Jefferson F. Conner studied law, entered practice, and in the late seventies became quite prominent in the Greenback movement in Kansas. He was for some time located at Medicine Lodge, that state, and was a neighbor and admirer of Jerry Simpson. At the organization of the People's party in 1892 he also gave that his earnest support. He was a man of decided natural ability. He is a resident of Major county, Oklahoma, and pastured his cattle on the Cherokee Strip long before the great rush of 1889. He has been an active and strong force in the growth and politics of the new state of Oklahoma. By his marriage to Rachel Luthers (whose parents were natives of Missouri and Nebraska) his children were as follows: Catherine, wife of C. E. Gannon, of Enid, Oklahoma; William E., of this article; David, of Comanche county, Oklahoma; Eva, Mrs. James Gender, of that county, and Cynthia, who married William Beckner, of Higgins, Texas.
      William E. Conner obtained only a limited education, and remained identified with his father's ranching interests until he became of age. He was in the Strip as a cowboy when the soldiers were patrolling the country and was not infrequently driven out with his cattle. When old Oklahoma was opened he started from the southern line of the Strip, and, making twenty miles in record breaking time, located a claim on the famous Campbell Creek bottom, which he improved, proved up and sold. After disposing of his claim he engaged in buying and shipping stock at Kingfisher, dealing in horses and mules, and at the opening of the town of Waurika came hither and established himself as one of its working and substantial factors. Mr. Conner was married in Kingfisher, Oklahoma, September 21, 1895, to Annie, daughter of J. K. Wilcox, who came from Quincy, Illinois. Mrs. Conner was born in Kansas in 1876, and has become the mother of the following: Hazel, born in April, 1896; James, born in April, 1898; and Glen, born in December, 1899.
       William E. Conner is an ardent admirer of the principles. of Thomas Jefferson, Andrew Jackson and William Jennings Bryan.