Sargent Prentiss Freeling (January 25, 1874 – April 18, 1937) was an American politician who served as the 2nd

attorney general of Oklahoma The attorney general of Oklahoma is the State Attorney General for the state of Oklahoma. The attorney general serves as the chief legal and law enforcement officer of the Oklahoma, State of Oklahoma and head of the Office of the Oklahoma Attorn ...

between 1915 and 1922.

Early life and education

Sargent Prentiss Freeling was born to John William Freeling and Rosa Minerva Cantrell on January 25, 1874, in McNairy, Tennessee. He attended Southwestern Baptist University and graduated from

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

in 1899 before attending Southern Law College for one year.

Move to Oklahoma and political career

Freeling moved to

Shawnee, Oklahoma Shawnee () is a city in and the county seat of Pottawatomie County, Oklahoma, Pottawatomie County, Oklahoma, United States. The population was 29,857 in 2010, a 4.9 percent increase from the figure of 28,692 in 2000. The city is part of the Oklah ...

in 1900. Shortly after moving, he was admitted to the Oklahoma Bar. He was the elected county attorney for Pottawatomie County from 1902 to statehood. He ran against Charles West for the office of

in 1907, but lost the election. He would go on to win the race for attorney general in November 1914.

Attorney general

While attorney general, Freeling lead the Red River litigation which officially establish the border between Oklahoma and

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

. Freeling lead the state investigation of the

Tulsa Race Massacre The Tulsa race massacre was a two-day-long white supremacist terrorist massacre that took place in the Greenwood District in Tulsa, Oklahoma, between May 31 and June 1, 1921, when mobs of white residents, some of whom had been appointed as ...

, charged Black Tulsans for the riot, and blamed the riot on Black Tulsans "intimidating white people."

Later life and death

Freeling resigned in 1922 to focus on the Red River litigation. He practiced law in Oklahoma City after his retirement. In 1924, Freeling ran in the 1924 United States Senate election in Oklahoma, but lost the primary. He would later represent the mastermind of the

Osage Indian murders The Osage Indian murders was a serial killing event that took place in Osage County, Oklahoma, United States, during the 1910s–1930s. Newspapers described the increasing number of unsolved murders and deaths among young adults of the Osage Nat ...

, William K. Hale, in his murder trial in 1926. He died on April 18, 1937, in Oklahoma City, where he was later buried. He never married, had no children, and was survived by a sister in

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Freeling, Sargent Prentiss 1874 births 1937 deaths 20th-century Oklahoma politicians District attorneys in Oklahoma Harvard University alumni Oklahoma attorneys general Oklahoma Democrats Oklahoma lawyers People from McNairy County, Tennessee People involved in the Tulsa race massacre Union University alumni