James I. Phelps

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James Ivey Phelps (June 20, 1875 – 1947) was an American attorney and judge who served on the Oklahoma Supreme Court. Born in Newton, Texas, to Elza V. Phelps and Mary A. Simmons Phelps, he finished public school in Newton, attended Ford College, and earned a law degree from Texas State University (now the University of Texas at Austin) in 1899. The next day he moved to El Reno in the Oklahoma Territory and joined the Territorial Bar. He became Police Judge in El Reno (1900–01), then Probate Judge for Canadian County until Oklahoma became a state in 1907. He was active in the Democratic Party and chaired the Canadian County Democratic Central Committee. In 1918 he was elected judge of the 13th District Court and served until 1924, when he was appointed to fill the unexpired term of Supreme Court Justice Matthew J. Kane. He served on the Oklahoma Supreme Court from 1925 to 1929 and again in the mid-1930s, resigning in 1938 for ill health. He married Lydia B. Malcolm on February 1, 1903, an El Reno teacher, and they had two children, Thelma and Frank T.