The following is a story told to me by Ella Bone (1892-1981) back in the 60s.
Ella and her husband A.B. Bone lived in the NE corner of 4th and F Street NE when I was a wee lad. In 1907 my grandfather Stanley Carmon of Gainesville was in Ardmore laying brick on the outside of the 2nd Ward School (later renamed Washington School) at 5th and G NE. My grandmother Addie Wilson (same age as Ella Bone), was just inside in the school in class. She passed a note to Stanley through her classmate Ella Bone who was by the window, and Ella handed it to my grandfather outside. They got married in June that year. The rest is history. This is a photo of the 2nd Ward school at 5th (now Martin Luther King Blvd) and G Street NE in Ardmore.
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos16b/4thWardSchool1910.jpg
July 1932
O.K. Darden has served the Masonic Lodge as treasurer for over 30 years. He has also been a pecan grower for many years. When he bought his farm on Caddo Creek, he was advised not to cut a certain tree since it yielded income of $35 to $40 a year in pecans. Darden figured if one tree could do that, 20 or 200 more pecan trees could make him a successful farmer. He got to work and in three years he had three paper shell pecan orchards. He's now working on his fourth orchard. Of course he has other interests. He was elected to the first board of Carter County Commissioners and has served 14 years since statehood.
July 1988
The New Mexico trial of John N. Sanders, a Lone Grove man accused of fraud and racketeering, has been moved forward. It is now expected in late September. Sanders and co-defendant Kenneth and Thomas Lundberg are named in the 29 count indictment. It is alleged that the defendants conspired to engage in a pattern of racketeering and other fraudulent activities including misappropriation of funds of the Carlsbad Employees Pension Fund.
A friend found this while going through her her mother's things. She thought it might be something from the Ardmore airbase days. Maybe someone will recognize these "wings."
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos16b/AirforcePin.jpg
You can find current gas prices for a particular Oklahoma town by entering the name or zip code in the GasBuddy search box.
http://www.oklahomagasprices.com/
Q. Where is the longest cave in
Oklahoma?
A. Duncan Field System. Adair, County. Length is 8.9 miles and 124
feet deep.
Q. Where are the tallest trees
in Oklahoma to be found?
A. (answer in next week's T&T)
From This and That newsletter archives of August 24, 2002:
Last week there was a wedding at the Ardmore Garden Center (old Carnage Library) and they had a horse drawn carriage giving rides to the
Ardmoreite Ann Randolph brought me by a
1906 Oklahoma History book this week. What really caught my eye in this history
book was the 1875 map of Oklahoma that was inside it. Ardmore was not even on
the map, just Fort Arbuckle and Tishomingo for this area. Not even an Oklahoma
City or Tulsa is shown. Here are the details of this history book.... History of
Oklahoma by Joseph B. Thoburn and Isaac M. Holcomb. Doub and Company, San
Francisco, 1908. Price 65 cents. Exchange 15 cents. 266 pages. And here is a
scan of the 1875 map of Oklahoma.
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/maps/MapIndianTerritory1875.jpg
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I took a group photo this week of the
Carter County Assessors Office employees. They were going to use it in the
newspaper. I see them almost daily, and they are a great bunch of people to work
around. I think my little digital camera did a good job too. Sometimes I feel
like I have the best job in the world, since I get to work with so many
wonderful people at the courthouse. From the 4th floor, to the 1st floor, to the
Annex Building, to the Sheriffs Office, to the County Barns, I get to work with
some of the best. Here's that group pic of the Assessors Office.
http://www.OklahomaHistory.net/ttphotos/group2a.jpg
-------------------------------------------------
Also this week we in the Annex building at
the courthouse had a little birthday party for County Commissioner Joe
McReynolds. The girls at the office put some balloons around his office door and
baked a cake. We had vanilla ice cream to go with the chocolate cake. Sure hard
to beat plain ole vanilla ice cream. Most of you know I work for 3 bosses...
county commissioners. There is Joe McReynolds, Dale Ott and Kevin Robinson and
they have been good to me. When you work with these three guys everyday like I
do, you get to know them pretty well. There is a lot of good these three men do
for people of this county that never makes the news. Now here is that pic of one
of my bosses, Joe McReynolds, cutting his birthday cake! Happy birthday Joe!
http://www.OklahomaHistory.net/ttphotos/mcreyaug.jpg
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Gary Simmons and I went out to Wilson
Monuments in Lone Grove this week and approved the final draft of inscriptions
to be placed on the new memorial for those men who died in training at the
Airpark when it was a military training base. It kind of makes you nervous,
knowing that once the sandblasting starts, there is no going back. But Gary and
I have checked and double checked the names and information, and believe we have
it as accurate as humanly possible. The granite stone will be sandblasted in a
few days.
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"Hey Butch, I too, remember the machine
you could see the bones in your feet, but as I recall, the one I remember was a
regular shoe store on the west side of Kresses (now J.C. Yeatts). I don't
remember the name of it, but it had glass doors, with glass door handles."
----------------------------------------------------
"Hello Mr. Bridges, I was doing some
research on Hoffman Arms, formerly of Cleveland Ohio and found a reference to
your web site through Yahoo. Hoffman Arms was one of the premier firearms
manufacturers in the USA in the 1920's through the 1930's. The company moved to
Oklahoma about 1925 and then to Texas in the 30's and may have been active there
through WW2, but I haven't found too much about it yet. I am persistent (or
dense)."
----------------------------------------------------
"Dear Butch, I haven't heard mention of a
corner grocery store that I so vividly remember from my youth in Ardmore. It was
called "Sperry's Grocery" and was located on the corner of 6th and D N.W. I
remember my grandmother, Nell Rorick, taking me in there as a kid and getting
some of the best roasts and steaks in town. The owners, Paul Sperry and his wife
always had a smile and a wide variety of candy LOL Thanks for all the hard
work."
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----------------------------------------------------
Some mail from this week's MAILBAG.....
"Seeing the pictures of Tower Motel with others brings back memories. My dad owned Ardmore Tile and Mantel and furnished and installed the ceramic tile in all the baths at the Tower. The owner (I think was Roy Allen) not sure about that but, to get a good price on the tile work, he allowed my dad to use all his leftover tile from other jobs to complete the baths. Dad was allowed to select whatever tile he had and came up with some unusual combinations." -Dale Young
"Your mention of Commerce Street brought back memories of 1950. My family moved to town and into Mr. Hudson's rent house on the corner of McLish and Commerce. It was a nice place but Highway 77 was Commerce so that meant traffic 24 hours a day. It was really bad on the OU-Texas football weekend. We soon bought a house on N. 6th Street but my mother missed shopping At Jimmy Lewis' grocery store. His meat market was the best!" -R. Helms
Museum Memories
Compiled by Melinda Taylor
The Wilson News
February 9, 1917
W.O.W. TO INITIATE
The drill team of Ardmore Camp, W. O. W., will come to New Wilson next Tuesday night to initiate 20 candidates of this place into the mysteries of that order.
Much new life is being infused into the local camp, and they are planning big things. Organizer, J. D. Grisham is responsible for much of this activity. He has been here most of the time for the past three weeks, stirring up interest among local Woodmen. A degree team will be organized at once.
February 16, 1917
VICTROLA FOR HIGH SCHOOL
The long, uneventful hours of the school room are a thing of the past in the New Wilson high school. A $100 Victrola has been purchased and will now lessen the hum-drum of school life by discoursing sweet strains of the latest music.
It is claimed by many educators that talking machines are a valuable thing in the school room, familiarizing the pupil with different kinds of music and teaching him to discriminate between the bad and the good. The softening influence of music on the child's nature is also said to be beneficial.
Teachers, how about a field trip to the Wilson Museum. Museum Hours: Tues., Thur., Fri., Sat. 10:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m. http://www.wilsonhistoricalmuseum.org/
The Daily Ardmoreite
May 22, 1949
Reporter's Notebook - Mac McGalliard
Mrs. J. A. Bivens was principal of Fourth Ward schools in 1899 when schools first started in Ardmore. She taught in a two-room box house. In the early days of the school she had as pupils, Kate Galt Zaneis, Willis Whittington, Mary Galt Cox and Marie Whittington.
Mrs. Bivens said Mr. Buck was the first Ardmore superintendent and J. R. Hendricks was second Mrs. Mary V. Niblack, Mrs. S. S. Carr and Miss Nannie Pulliam were among the teachers. In all there were 17 teachers.
The large homes in Ardmore when the schools first opened, said Mrs. Bivens, were the A. C. Cruce home, the home of Joe F. Robison, and the home of C. L. Herbert. Van McCullough, a brother of Sam McCullough, was killed the first year of school. He was riding horseback. Van was a fine lad and well educated and cultured and seemingly he had a marvelous career ahead of him.
W. S. Banks built a two-story box house and rented it to the school board to use as its Third ward school building.
A teacher named Neff was placed in charge of the King school the first year of city schools. King college was located where J. C. King has his Motor company now (1949). T. R. Dunlap was placed in charge of the Dunlap college building where the Second ward pupils were taught. Mr. Dunlap sold his college building to the city school system.
Among the early-day teachers was Miss Meida Smith, a sister of Mrs. J. B. Wall. She became Mrs. J. G. Abernathy later.Does anyone remember or have seen the local board game Sun Country by Ardmore's Sunshine Industries in Ardmore in the 1970s? Here are a set of pictures.
http://mariettaok.com/suncountry/
At the link below are more scans of old postcards including Twin Rocks near Bromide Springs at Sulphur, Tucker Tower at Lake Murray, a Tishomingo street scene, Rustic Lodge at Lake Murray's Campfire Girls campground, dipping beer in the streets of Oklahoma City after prohibition, photos of Mammie Hutchins, Pearl Lorwell, Ingram Bruce and Mr. and Mrs, G.H. Bruce. -Robert Hensley
http://oklahomahistory.net/postcards
"1000 year old bison skull found in the bank of the Red River by Ott Ladner and Brian Ladner II in the mid 1990s. It's fully intact and if you visit the Love County Pioneer Museum you will see the Red River sand still sifting out." -Laquitta Ladner
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos16b/BisonHeadMariettaMuseum.jpg
"Do not squander time for that is the stuff life is made of." -Benjamin Franklin
See everyone next week!
Butch and Jill Bridges
PO Box 2
Lone Grove, Oklahoma 73443
Vicious Dog Attacks in Oklahoma
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/viciousdogs.html
Bells of Oklahoma
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/bellpage.html
Carter County Courthouse Paver Project
http://www.brightok.net/cartercounty/pavers
Ardmore High School Criterions Online
http://www.ArdmoreCriterion.com/
Oklahoma Bells:
http://www.OklahomaHistory.net/bellpage.html
Bill Hamm's Cemetery Database
http://www.usgwarchives.net/ok/carter/cartercm.htm
American Flyers Memorial
Fund - Administration Webpage
http://www.OklahomaHistory.net/crash66.html
Official American Flyers
Memorial Website
http://www.brightok.net/~wwwafm
Ardmore Army Air Field/Ardmore Air Force
Base Website
http://www.brightok.net/~gsimmons
Mirror Site of the Ardmore Army Air Field/Ardmore Air Force Website
http://www.OklahomaHistory.net/airbase/
Carter County
Government Website
http://cartercountyOK.us/
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