John G. Land, whose intimate friends call him Jack and who is representing the Prudential Life Insurance Company of America as manager for the territory embracing Oklahoma, Arkansas and Texas, was born in Springfield, Missouri, May 26, 1878, and is a son of J. G. and Nancy A. (Berry) Land, both of whom are deceased.
The son was educated in the public schools of St. John, Kansas, and in Marmaduke College at Sweet Springs, Missouri. When sixteen years of age he took up the study of telegraphy and for fifteen years was an operator. In 1898 he came to Muskogee as telegraph operator for the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railroad Company. During the Spanish-American war he volunteered as a member of Company C of the United States Signal Corps and was sent to Tampa, Florida, whence he went to Havana, Cuba, being on duty until mustered out at the close of the war with the rank of first-class sergeant. He then resumed his work in telegraphy and was thus engaged until 1907, when he turned his attention to the insurance business, becoming identified with the Prudential Life Insurance Company of America as agent. Acquainting himself with every phase of the business, he has been promoted to the responsible position of manager for the company over the district including Oklahoma, Arkansas and Texas and he is today one of the well known and successful insurance men of the southwest.
In 1899 Mr. Land was married to Miss Addie McDuff of Cana than ancestry, with a sixteenth strain of Choctaw Indian blood. They have become parents of two interesting children: Jack G. and Virginia.
Mr. Land is a member of the Masonic fraternity, in which he has received the honorary thirty-third degree. He is likewise a member of the Mystic Shrine. He belongs to the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks, the Knights of Pythias and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and is a member of the Wauhillau and Sequoyah Clubs. He greatly enjoys fishing and hunting and turns to these sports for recreation and relief from the strain of onerous business cares.
