Photo Credit: Jason Verschoor
History of Oklahoma Abstract Company
by Chad Bledsoe, George Moses and Dale Nicklas
The Oklahoma Territory opened for settlement in 1901 with the allotment of lands for towns and homesteads. A tent city grew up overnight, and a great deal of buying and selling of land followed. Landowners needed a means to prove ownership of their land, and abstract companies-the Moncrief-Cook Abstract Company among them - put up tents and opened for business to fill this need.
Walter Jordan came to Lawton and bought the Moncrief-Cook Abstract Company in 1914. In 1917 Harry T. Miller, an attorney, had come to Lawton to practice law. He bought the Cassin Abstract Company books, and he and Walter Jordan went into business together as Guaranty Abstract Company. Miller later acquired Jordan's interest in Guaranty Abstract Company, and thereby became the sole owner of the company he renamed "Oklahoma Abstract Company."
Henry Miller later bought the records compiled by the T. H. Bixby Abstract Company. By these several purchases, Harry Miller and his Oklahoma Abstract Company came to own a complete set of indexes, as required by law, and an abstracted take-off of every real estate instrument filed with the Comanche County clerk since 1901. Thus, an abstract could be prepared without going to the courthouse, except to check the tax rolls and the court records.
On November 1, 1946, Charles E. Bledsoe and T. D. Nicklas, attorneys, purchased the Oklahoma Abstract Company from Harry T. Miller.
Oklahoma Abstract Company added title insurance when the demand arose, and in 1986 added closing (escrow) services for real estate sales and refinancing transactions.
Charles E. Bledsoe and T. D. Nicklas each had three children which gave rise to six ownership units: Chad Bledsoe and wife Dianne, Jon Bledsoe and wife Hergart, the late Judy (Bledsoe) Moses, now represented by her surviving spouse, Col. George Moses (ret.), Lyntha (Nicklas) Wesner, Dale Nicklas, and Polly (Nicklas) Urquhart with husband Doug. These children have been active in the management of the company since the mid-1970s, and now constitute the board of directors. All but two of them have been employed in the daily operations of the company at one time or another.
We began to overhaul our company in 2000 with the help of Lisa Sparks and Tina Beltran, supervisor of the abstract department. Since that time our staff has grown from sixteen employees to over forty, we have adopted state-of-the-art closing, escrow and title insurance service technology, and the most highly rated title plant software, which permits us to provide same-day or one-day service on most abstract orders.
Lisa Sparks went to work for Oklahoma Abstract Company in 1983 while in high school. She began as courier, and worked her way through every aspect of the business except bookkeeping. When we opened a closing department in 1986, Lisa learned that as well, ultimately becoming supervisor of that department.