started work as a general contractor; for the next 16 years, his business career gave him an understanding of American industrialism. During this time, he lived part of the time in New York City and in San Antonio, Texas. Marriage and family Haskell married Lucie Pomeroy, daughter of a prominent Ottawa family, on October 11, 1881. 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. Lucie Pomeroy Haskell died in March 1888. Her widower remarried in 1889, to Lillie Elizabeth Gallup. They also had three children together: Frances, Jane and Joseph. Move to Muskogee Following the Land Run of 1889 and passage of the Organic Act in 1890, migration of European Americans to Oklahoma Territory increased dramatically, raising the territory's status on the national scene. Haskell moved his family to Muskogee, the capital of the Creek Nation, in March 1901. When he arrived, Haskell found Muskogee a "dry", sleepy village of some 4,500 people. He built the first five-story business block in the town and in Indian Territory. Haskell organized and built most of the railroads running into Muskogee. He is said to have built and owned 14 brick buildings in the city. Through his influence, Muskogee developed as a center of business and industry, and its population grew to more than 20,000 inhabitants. He often recounted that he hoped Muskogee would become the "Queen City of the Southwest". Haskell gained increasing influence in the politics of Indian Territory and drew the attention of the leaders of the Creek Nation. During this time, the Native American nations in Indian Territory were talking of creating a state and joining the Union under the name of the State of Sequoyah. 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. Of the six delegates at the Muskogee convention, only Haskell and William H. Murray were not of Native American descent. U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt blocked the attempt to create Sequoyah, as he opposed the potential of another Democratic-majority state. Haskell wrote a large portion of the proposed state's constitution. Although he had publicly worked for a separate state for Indian Territory, privately, he was thrilled to see the Sequoyah proposal defeated. Haskell believed