Paul Nesbitt

Nesbitt was born April 3, 1872, at Milford, Iowa, the son of James and Evaline Nesbitt.[1] His father was a first lieutenant in the United States Army and his grandfather was an Irish immigrant who served under George Washington in the American Revolutionary War.[1]

Growing up in Nebraska, he was educated at Chicago Medical College and practiced medicine in Vinton, Iowa, El Dorado Springs, Missouri, and finally in Watonga, a town in Oklahoma Territory, in 1899.[1] Nesbitt briefly owned the Watonga Herald.[2] He abandoned his practice in 1904 and went to St. Louis, Missouri, to apprentice as a cub reporter and later worked for the Joplin Globe.[1]

In 1906, he returned to Oklahoma to direct the publicity campaign for the Democratic candidates wanting to serve as delegates to the Oklahoma constitutional convention.[2] He did not support the nomination of Charles N. Haskell in the Democratic primary, but ended up serving as secretary for Oklahoma's first governor.[1][3] and helped carry the state seal from Guthrie, Oklahoma, to Oklahoma City in 1910.[1]

Nesbitt represented Pittsburg County in the Oklahoma Legislature during the sessions of the 5th, 6th, and 7th Oklahoma Legislature legislatures.[4]

He supported John C. Walton for governor and served as a Cabinet member under Walton.[1]

Nesbitt died July 22, 1950, in Talihina, Oklahoma, of a cerebral hemorrhage.[1]