This and That Newsletter
www.OklahomaHistory.net
Vol 25 Issue 1,254 Circulation 5,000 February 4, 2021
Ardmore, Oklahoma
My email address: butchbridges@oklahomahistory.net
580-490-6823"What we have done for ourselves alone dies with us
What we have done for others and the world remains and is immortal."
A Glimpse Into The Past
Rose Hill Missionary Baptist
Back in 1909 a brush arbor laid the foundation for the Rose Hill Missionary Baptist Church, three miles south and two miles east of Wilson. On March 22, 1910 the church was organized with nine charter members.
The charter members were Mrs. Rosa Thompson, Mrs. Alice Bynum, Mr. and Mrs. Hargroves, Mrs. Fannie Hargroves, Miss Mary Dowdy, J.F. Rambo, Juna Hill and Mrs. Ella Hill.
Although not at all times has the church had a regular pastor, there has not been a Sunday since the church organized on which Sunday School was not held. There have been 450 names entered on the church roll since 1910.
The original church house was torn down in 1946 and a new one built to replace the old one.
-Carter County History book 1957
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos21a/RoseHillBaptismService.jpgDecember 1982
Vandals damaged 25 grave markers at the Lone Grove Cemetery. Police Chief Dearl Cathey said the sad thing about this is the damage occurred in the oldest part of the cemetery, no families left alive to replace the broken monuments.December 1950
Southern Oklahoma proved to be lavish country Olin Sparks and two companions caught 12 of the fur-bearing animals. The pelts are worth about a dollar a piece.December 1969
The Rural Electrification Administration approved a $674,000 loan to Chickasaw Telephone to help serve new customers and construct new lines. Royce Gaunt, company president, said most of the funds would be spent in Lone Grove. We have had more growth in Lone Grove in the past six months than in the previous 10 years and have been told that 1,000 new residents will be coming in to Lone Grove every year for the next 10 years.As of today we have reached more people about unclaimed property totaling over $557,430.77. And the search continues.
So with the above being said, how long has it been since you checked your name or a family member's name? Its easy to do a search at the Oklahoma State Treasurer link below. I think every state in the union has a unclaimed property website through the respective state treasures website.
https://OKtreasure.comQ. What outlaw gang robbed a train in Wharton (Perry) in 1891?
A. The Dalton Gang https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dalton_GangQ. What member of the 45th Infantry Division drew cartoons in WWII?
A. Answer in next week's newsletterSome mail from this week's MAILBAG.....
Butch, I don't know how I missed the story about the Ardmore Coin Club when it originally appeared but I certainly remember the meetings at the Chamber of Commerce office. Ossian Cameron was my dad and I began my first Whitman Lincoln penny book when I was 4 years old when we lived at Lake Ardmore. I actively collected coins until 1966. By that time it was difficult to find key coins in circulation.
When I was in grade school and junior high, my dad would bring bags of coins home and my sister, Sharon, and I would sit at the dining room table and go through coins every evening. At that time you could fill a penny book with maybe the exception of the 1909 SVDB cent. You could fill a Jefferson nickel book with coins out of circulation as well as a Mercury dime book. It was a wonderful activity because it introduced me to historical figures and made history more real.
Some of the junior members in the club were John Murphey, John Revelle and Oz Latrobe. There were about three others but I can't recall their names. One of the members that came for every meeting was from Sapulpa. I remember him because about 1964 he bought a Ford Model T out of a farmer's barn somewhere close to where he lived. The car had 9 miles on the odometer.
Over the years my dad took us to two American Numismatic Association nation conventions in Chicago and Houston. We also attended the monthly shows in Dallas that were held at the Baker Hotel downtown.
I think it was about 1964 that Billie Zak Graybill bought a 1942 overstrike Mercury dime from someone out of town. He was charged in Ardmore with a felony and my dad was the star witness for the prosecution. When he was called to the witness stand he was presented with the dime in question, answered a couple of questions and then used his fingernail to lift the overstrike off the coin proving the crime (In 1942 there was a die used where the mint cut a "2" over the "1" from the prior year's minting and they didn't catch it before some coins were released into circulation).
His coin, paper money and first edition books became my parent's retirement fund. I would have loved to have his paper money collection because he spent his life collecting it and it made a beautiful display.
Monroe Cameron
https://flashbackdallas.com/2017/11/27/the-baker-hotel/----------------------------------------------------------
I remember the joke in school when a student asked where you were born and you said Hardy Sanitarium they thought you was born in an insane asylum. -Robert Hensley
http://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos21a/HardySanitariumArdmoreOK.jpg
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----------------------------------------------------------Below is from This and That newsletter archives of January 29, 2009
"Hi Butch, Couple weeks ago you showed a picture of inside an early store in Ardmore. Here is another one. A family picture (about 5x7"), it shows L.D. Mason in his furniture store that was on Caddo, on West side, first building next to the alley off Main street. Note that the electric cord has not straightened out. Obviously the picture was taken shortly after the building was electrified, maybe around 1912. Mason lived at 1201 B NW and passed in 1940, buried in Rose Hill with two wives, had no children. Second wife was my great aunt." -Bob McCrory
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos9a/MasonStoreCaddo.jpg
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"Mr. Bridges: I have been reading your e-mails for a couple of years, and find it very interesting. My name is Dan Broughton, my father is Walter A. Broughton, who was the airplane mechanic you mentioned at one time in a reprint of an article re: the Springer Airport. He was there shortly after WW II when Bob Goddard owned it.This week you had some information regarding Oil Creek. The actual reason it was named Oil Creek was because there was an oil seep on the west bank just below the Falls. When the 97 acre lake was established it covered the seep. I was raised on the Goddard Ranch and spent many hours on the Creek." -Dan Broughton
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Re: Colonel Sidney Suggs
My great-great-grandmother, Jane Clementine Suggs Simpson was sister of Dr. Isaac Suggs, father of Col. Sidney Suggs. Dr. Isaac Suggs was in charge of Confederate Hospital in Tupelo, and then moved to Mount Pleasant, Texas, following war. There were many Suggs and Simpson and Rogers relatives in Franklin and Titus Counties. Jane Clementine Suggs married HJM Simpson in Madison County, Mississippi, and moved to Texas in 1854 where a number of her brothers were already established. They are all buried in Hopewell Cemetery in Franklin County, across from Cumberland Presbyterian Church founded by our family. Dr. Isaac Suggs was one of the founders of the Presbyterian Church in Mount Pleasant, Texas and is buried in Edwards Cemetery there. I am the fifth generation of Suggs/Simpson to still live on the land settled in 1854. Col. Sidney has always been a rather mythic character to my line, and yes, the bronze plaque is in the Oklahoma Highway Department building. I saw it there about ten years ago. Also, he is noted in the history of Oklahoma newspapers, published by their Press Association. A lady in the archives was very helpful to me, and showed me a banjo or mandolin which belonged to Col. Sidney there in Oklahoma City. After Col. Sidney moved to Oklahoma, he convinced a number of relatives to move up there near him. Many of them were living in the Greenhill Community north of Mount Pleasant, Texas where they were members of one of the earliest Presbyterian churches in Texas. The Suggs name has basically died out in our area, having passed through the female line and been lost. Would love to correspond and meet my Suggs cousins." -Robert Sterling Long, 4932 S E Access Rd, Mount Vernon, Texas
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"Butch, found this old photo of me the other day taken with Clu Gulager, an actor from back in the 60's where he was on "The Virginian" and "Wagon Train". Anyway, my dad was an assistant manager at the old Gibson's Discount Store at 12th Avenue and North Washington. I don't remember exactly why the actor was at Gibson's that day, but my dad was adamant about my brother & me having our pictures made with Mr. Gulager. That's my dad (Ray Pritchard) to the left with the dark Ray-Bans on. I think I was about 10 in this picture which would've made this about 1966 when the photo was taken. Man, did that hair cut of mine. I haven't had bangs since the 7th grade. HA!!!" -Kathi George, Fayetteville, Arkansas
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos9a/CluGulager.jpg
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"Butch, I remember the day the steel collapsed at the High School Auditorium. I was in Mr. Cobb?s classroom on the third floor of the Junior High. I was a newly minted 7th grade student to the block I was going to be on for the next 6 years. It was in the closest room to the auditorium in the Junior High and the windows were wide open. I remember Mr. Cobb, my home room teacher, jumping under or behind his desk because the noise was tremendously loud as the steel fell. The remainder of us in the room looked like deer in the head lights and we all got great enjoyment from watching Mr. Cobb. Later that day, we heard that three of the iron workers had ridden the steel to the ground and all had lived. It was a miracle they survived because the steel had been topped out at the level you see today.Mr. Cobb was a great teacher, but he only lasted a few more weeks, until he was replace by an equally good teacher, Mrs. Juanita Cox. Mr. Cobb was called to active duty by the Berlin Crisis in 1961 as I remember. He returned to teaching about a year later. Mrs. Cox was much less of a disciplinarian than Mr. Cobb and we thought we could get away with almost anything. Well that was true until someone put a rubber snake in her desk. I remember who, but that information will go to my grave. Mr. Cobb?s and Mrs. Cox?s desk saw a lot of action that first semester and the classroom rules became much more defined in the second half of the year. I remember thinking if the remainder of my time on the block was as exciting as the first semester, the remaining 7 semesters were going to be a snap and they were.
I would like to hear from those guys who were activated in 1961. Did they go to Berlin? What did they do during the Berlin Crisis? I?d also like to hear about others who where in high school or junior high on the day the red iron collapsed. What do they remember?" -Dan Mahoney
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"Butch, Concerning "Old Wilson" vs. "New Wilson", I remember that "Old Wilson" was located west of Red Everett's old store on the same county road. The last time I was there to the best of my memory, I think you could still see the remains of dirt cellars and some "foundation" stones/rocks."
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"My book, 'Baseball in the Cross Timbers', is at the printer and should be delivered by month end. It has 313 pages of text, 300+ photos and illustrations, and extensive tables and index." -Peter G. Pierce, Norman ppierce2@cox.net
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos9a/BaseballCrossTimbers2009.jpg
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"Hi Butch, I saw in this weeks issue that someone was asking about any photos of the Santa Fe railroad freight depot that was just south of the passenger station. Here are a couple of photos I took many years ago when I was in high school. I was a big fan of the Santa Fe, and often went to the train station on weekends to watch and photograph the trains.The main subject of each photo is Santa Fe's southbound train #15, the Texas Chief. This passenger train ran daily between Chicago and Houston, through Kansas City, Wichita, Oklahoma City and Fort Worth, and of course Ardmore. I rode this train many times, mostly between Ardmore and Oklahoma City, and watched it go through Ardmore a hundred times.
In the first photo you can see the freight depot in the background, behind the locomotives. The second photo was taken while standing on the platform of the freight depot itself. Both photos were taken in 1970. At this time the freight depot was no longer used, or at least I never saw any activity there. Looking through the windows I could see a lot of debris, old desks, etc, scattered helter-skelter and piled on top of each other, looking like no one had been in there in years." -John Gow
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos9a/ATSF15ArdmoreOkla.jpghttp://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos9a/ArdmoreOkTr15.jpg
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"Butch, I don't have Monroe Cameron's e-mail but in answer to his story of the soldered mint mark--It was a D mint mark which was soldered to a dime dated 1916 making it a rare and scarce 1916-D in very fine condition. It was his dad who discovered the fraud and he who filed charges in Carter county. The subject pled guilty and was given a 6 month sentence in Carter County jail." -Rick Feiler
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-----------------------------------------------------"How far you go in life depends on you being tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving and tolerant of the weak and the strong. Because someday in life you will have been all of these." -George Washington Carver
See everyone next week!
Butch and Jill Bridges
"Friends Make Life Worth Living"Ardmore, Oklahomahttp://www.OklahomaHistory.netSubscribe to T&T Newsletter
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