Robert E. Lee Van Winkle was an American politician who served two nonconsecutive terms as the Mayor of Oklahoma City first between 1899 and 1901, and later between 1903 and 1905.

[1][2] Peter Van Winkle was born in 1814 in New York City into a Dutch family that immigrated to New Amsterdam in 1619.

He later moved to Arkansas, and built a lumber mill and plantaion style home in Benton County and owned at least 12 slaves.

[2] Robert Van Winkle's family fled to Bowie County, Texas when their estate was razed during the American Civil War.

After the war his family returned and by the 1870s the lumber mill dominated the regional market.