Anton H. Classen was born on October 8, 1861, in Pekin, Illinois, into a German American family.

[1] After graduation, he participated in the Land Run of 1889 originally settling in Guthrie.

In 1897, President William McKinley appointed Classen receiver in the U.S. Land Office in Oklahoma City.

He also founded the Oklahoma Railway Company with John Wilford Shartel.

He helped bring Theodore Roosevelt's Rough Riders annual reunion to Oklahoma City in 1900.