The Oklahoma Bar Journal September 2024

W omen in L aw

Jessie Randolph Moore

J ESSIE ELIZABETH RANDOLPH MOORE WAS BORN ON A PLANTATION in the Chickasaw Nation, Panola County (now Bryan County), on Jan. 30, 1871, to William Colville Randolph and Sarah Ann Tyson Randolph. In 1874, her parents – along with 10 other families – moved to the White Bead Hill region north of the Washita River in what was then Pontotoc County. They established the Randolph settlement north of what is now Maysville. Ms. Moore first attended school in a log schoolhouse built on the Randolph ranch, but the family later moved to Gainesville, Texas, where she attended school at St. Xavier Academy in Denison, Texas, and later Kidd Seminary at Sherman, Texas. Kidd Seminary was known as the “alma mater for the daughters of many prominent families from the Indian Territory.” 1

charities and corrections from 1924 to 1925. In this position, Ms. Moore and Mabel Bassett, commissioner of charities and cor rections, were attorneys of record on a reponed decision seeking the release of a juvenile from the state reformatory in Granite. 2 In a 1926 election, which she won by a handsome majority, Ms. Moore became the first woman elected clerk of the Oklahoma Supreme Court and Criminal Court of Appeals. With the victory, she also became the second woman in Oklahoma history elected to a state office. She served in that position until 1931. Of her bid for a second term as clerk, an article in Harlow’s Weekly stated that to hold the office was “something to be justly proud of. But to have filled that office with success and credit and to have it truthfully said that you have kept the faith is some thing to be more than proud of; because the voters of the state have

helped to make the first possible, but to have given satisfying ser vice from this office is fulfilling a sacred trust, and something that rests entirely upon the shoulders of the person elected to the office.” 3 Elaborating on the duties of the office, it was noted that more than 1,000 new appeals were filed each year, and Ms. Moore was responsible for the maintenance of all briefs, records and petitions. She was also required to answer all requests for information from attorneys. Otherwise, she said, the lawyer “situated at a distance from the state capitol is discommoded.” 4 The article described the Supreme Court Clerk’s Office as one of the busiest offices at the state Capitol, saying that Ms. Moore “continues daily to wait upon 22 law clerks from three high courts, as well as the Supreme Court referee and the constant stream of lawyers visiting her office for information regard ing their cases.”

The Randolph family eventu ally returned to the ranch in the Chickasaw Nation, and Ms. Moore spent a year teaching at Pierce Institute, a Methodist school estab lished in 1884. After marrying U.S. Marshal Elisha Mac Moore in Knoxville, Tennessee, in 1899, the couple lived on a ranch south of Purcell for 10 years before moving to Pauls Valley in 1901. The Moores had four children: Thomas R. Moore, Eula Catherine Moore, Sarah Moore and Imogene Moore Rockwood. After the death of her husband, Ms. Moore moved to Oklahoma City. Entering public life out of necessity rather than choice, she became deputy clerk of the Oklahoma Supreme Court and Criminal Court of Appeals in 1914. It was during this time that she studied law with Judge Doyle. In addition to her duties with the Supreme Court, Ms. Moore was assistant state commissioner of

Statements or opinions expressed in the Oklahoma Bar Journal are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the Oklahoma Bar Association, its officers, Board of Governors, Board of Editors or staff.

14 | SEPTEMBER 2024

THE OKLAHOMA BAR JOURNAL