Frank Frantz - Return To Oklahoma

Return To Oklahoma

Upon the conclusion of his military service, Captain Frantz returned to Oklahoma Territory and settled in Enid. There with his brother, Montgomery, he opened a hardware and lumber business, Frantz Brothers Hardware and Tin Shop. While in Enid, Frantz met Matilda Evan of Oklahoma City, and married her in March 1901. Their union would produce five children.

Three years later, Roosevelt was elected Vice President on the Republican ticket to serve under US President William McKinley. On September 6, 1901, President McKinley was shot at the Pan-American Exposition. McKinley died on September 14, and Roosevelt succeeded him to the Presidency.

Frantz's wartime association with now President Roosevelt became a lifelong friendship. Frantz would, on several occasions, travel to the White House to spend time with the Commander-in-Chief. On his visits to the White House, Frantz, an athlete and a boxer, engaged in several matches with Roosevelt, knocking him out on three occasions.

Immediately, Frantz’s friendship with the new president proved beneficial. Frantz, a fellow Republican, was named the postmaster of Enid by President Roosevelt before the end of 1901. Frantz would serve in this post for another two years, when Roosevelt appointed him Indian Agent of the Osage Agency at Pawhuska. Roosevelt again demonstrated his friendship with Frantz by elevating him to the governorship of Oklahoma Territory. Frantz assumed the office on January 5 and would be inaugurated on January 16, 1906, being the seventh and (at age 34) youngest governor to serve in the Territory’s history.