Charles Nathaniel Haskell (March 13, 1860 – July 5, 1933) was an American lawyer, oilman, and politician who was the first governor of Oklahoma.

His widowed mother, Jane H. Haskell (née Reeves), worked for the local Methodist church as a bell ringer and custodian to support her six children.

[1] At the age of 10, Haskell started working as a farm boy for a farmer named Miller in Putnam County, Ohio.

In 1888, Haskell started work as a general contractor; for the next 16 years, his business career gave him an understanding of American industrialism.

Their children were Norman, who became a lawyer in Muskogee, Oklahoma (where the family moved in 1901); Murray, who worked as a bank cashier; and daughter Lucie.

Haskell gained increasing influence in the politics of Indian Territory and drew the attention of the leaders of the Creek Nation.

The Creek selected Haskell as their official representative to the conventions, in the position of vice-president for the Five Civilized Tribes, held in Eufaula, Oklahoma in 1902 and Muskogee in 1905.

U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt blocked the attempt to create Sequoyah, as he opposed the potential of another Democratic-majority state.

Although he had publicly worked for a separate state for Indian Territory, privately, he was thrilled to see the Sequoyah proposal defeated.

After congressional passage of the Enabling Act in 1906, Haskell was elected as a delegate by the largest margin in the new state, representing the seventy-sixth district, which included Muskogee.

Taft's disapproval of Oklahoma's proposed constitution and his recommendation that the people vote against it seemed to increase support for the Democrats.

On November 16, 1907, five minutes after it was known that Oklahoma had officially become a state, Guthrie Leader editor Leslie G. Niblack administered the oath of office to Haskell.

Haskell's inaugural address at Guthrie, delivered on the south steps of the Carnegie Library, quickly lifted him into national prominence.

Although it did not occur until after he left office, his efforts, as well as the works of the Progressive-era leaders, provided for the passage of the Seventeenth Amendment to the United States Constitution in 1912.

In the state legislature's first session, under Haskell's leadership, Oklahoma carried out various reforms[2][3] including laws regulating banking in the state, while the old territorial prison system was reformed and the public protected from exploitative railroads, public utilities, trusts and monopolies.

Haskell also initiated a law insuring deposits in case of a bank failure, a landmark piece of legislation in the nation.

A grandfather clause was also enacted by the 2nd Oklahoma Legislature by the state's Democratic leaders, effectively excluding blacks from voting.

Haskell would spend the remainder of his term enforcing prohibition, regulation of railroads and other trusts, and the moving of the state capital to Oklahoma City.

Though he was the leader in the deliberations of the committee on county lines and county seats, when hundreds of towns had committees attending the sessions with heavy purses, he left these deliberations lean and poor, and by the time he retired from the governor's office he had become utterly impoverished.

In debate he ignored the graces of oratory and instead marshaled facts, arrayed statistics and piled up figures, using his cutting wit and grim humor to carry his point.

[5] Not only a powerful figure in Oklahoma politics, Haskell's progressive roots and populist nature granted him national clout.

Two months later, he was forced to resign his treasurer position after allegations were leveled against him of taking illegal contributions from the Standard Oil Company.

Haskell entered the oil business after finishing his term as governor,[9] a profession he would stay in until the end of his life.

Haskell lost consciousness on July 4th that same year, and died the next day, in the Skirvin Hotel in Oklahoma City at the age of 73.