Muskogee County Court

The Muskogee County Court is one of the largest, if not the largest court of its class, in the United States. Some time ago the Muskogee Daily Phoenix published the following account of the scope of its work:

“Measured by the volume of business transacted, Muskogee County Court is the biggest court in the world. Administering upon the estates of approximately twenty-five thousand wards, it takes second place to the New York Probate Court in purely probate business.

“The scope of authority of the county courts in Oklahoma is wider than in any other state. Because of this, the Muskogee County Court returns more revenue by half than the District and Superior courts combined.

“Judge Enloe V. Vernor has a wider jurisdiction in both civil and criminal cases than the judge of the City Court. He has all the jurisdiction of a committing magistrate in felony cases, original jurisdiction in misdemeanor cases and jurisdiction in civil cases in which not more than $1,000 is involved.

“The County Court is also the juvenile court; it has exclusive jurisdiction in probate matters; it transacts the business of the state widows pension law; it issues marriage licenses; it collects the inheritance tax; it dispenses the Confederate soldiers’ pensions and sends old soldiers to the Confederate homes; it handles cases of insanity and its judge is chairman of the county excise board. The total value of the estates administered by the County Court will run into millions of dollars. One or two freedman estates alone are worth more than a million dollars each. At one time within the past two years, Judge Vernor had on hand about one hundred and twenty-seven thousand dollars.

“Never is his balance with the county treasurer less than $10,000. The larger part of this money comes from the sale of oil and gas leases on minors’ lands.”

Source: Benedict, John D. Muskogee and northeastern Oklahoma, including the counties of Muskogee, McIntosh, Wagoner, Cherokee, Sequoyah, Adair, Delaware, Mayes, Rogers, Washington, Nowata, Craig, and Ottawa. 3 v. illus., ports., facsims. 28 cm. Chicago, S.J. Clarke Pub. Co., 1922.

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