PO Box 2, Ardmore, Oklahoma 73402 Email: butchbridges@oklahomahistory.net Phone: 580-490-6823
I mentioned a couple weeks ago about ordering a book about the 1862 hanging of 40 plus people in Gainesville, Texas. This week I received the book and it is almost in perfect condition, even the jacket (dust cover) is a great shape. Now to get to reading it!
https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos12a/TaintedBreeze120812.jpg
Here is the printed part of the inside jacket, both front and back, that give a insight into the book itself.
https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos12a/TaintedBreezeJacket.jpg
Times they are a changing. I’ve lived here in Carter county my entire life and never heard of an American badger catch. But last week one was caught in a trap on the north side of Lone Grove near Brock Road and Highway 70. Claude Roberts in Alaska remarked this week after I posted it on my Facebook, “Oh my, a long ways from home. Look at its nails and teeth and just be glad you are not cornered by it. They attack Brown Bear and are the winner every time. They are vicious. Like Red Fox used to say, “A souped up Chain Saw”.
https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos12a/Badger120712.jpg
I learned this week Healdton, Oklahoma now has a Redbox movie rental. We use the one in Ardmore several times a month, love it. Now to get one in Lone Grove! You’d think we qualify if Marietta, Oklahoma has two Redbox locations. Let’s start a petition!
https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos12a/RedboxLocations.jpg
I found the following program will stop annoying ads from popping up if you have Google Chrome or Firefox as your internet browser. I installed it in Google Chrome and it works fine. Stop those companies from invading your privacy and gather your data. Block annoying ads automatically, no distractions and browse faster and safer.
Q. Which of the frontier forts was the first in Oklahoma?
A. Fort Gibson in eastern Oklahoma
In 1824 Col. Matthew Arbuckle, commander of the Seventh Infantry, moved elements of his regiment from Fort Smith and established a military post on the east side of the Grand River, about a mile north of its confluence with the Arkansas River. The first U.S. military post in what would become the state of Oklahoma, the facility was originally called Cantonment Gibson, in honor of U.S. Army Commissary General George Gibson. Located farther west than any other existing U.S. post, it was built to protect the nation’s southwestern border and to maintain peace on the frontier, particularly between the feuding Cherokee and Osage. Troops assigned to the post in the early years constructed a stockade, barracks, and other facilities and blazed roads in addition to their peace-keeping duties.
After passage of the Indian Removal Act of 1830, the facility, redesignated “Fort” Gibson in 1832, became increasingly involved in the removal of eastern tribes to Indian Territory. When immigrant Indians from the East complained about hostility from Plains Indian tribes and the Osages federal officials created a commission chaired by Montfort Stokes, a former governor of North Carolina, to address the problems. The Stokes Commission convened at FortGibson, and troops at the post were ordered to support the commission’s work. Beginning in 1832 a series of expeditions from the post marched west in search of the nomadic southern Plains tribes. The first excursion failed to make contact, but its journey was documented in the journals of many of its members, including Washington Irving’s A Tour on the Prairies. An expedition in 1833 also encountered no Plains Indians. An 1834 dragoon expedition finally established contact and led to negotiation of the first treaty with the Indians of the southern plains, but enduring peace would not be established for more than thirty-five years. Although the expeditions to the plains did not provoke hostility from the tribes, many of the men who marched from the post were stricken by debilitating fevers which produced high mortality. In fact, one West Point officer assigned to the post in the mid-1830s claimed the expeditions to the plains were considered almost a death sentence by the men.
Q. How many Bureau of Indian Affairs, Indian Schools, can you name?
A. (answer in next week’s T&T)
From This and That newsletter archives of December 11, 1999:This week I got an original photo taken of a building at Galveston, Texas. The photo was taken about two months ago by a lady here in Ardmore while she was in Galveston on a tour. On the side of the building is an image of a man. The image was at the top of the building where the dark square is, this is where they tried to sandblast the image off. But it re- appeared in a square below. Has anyone heard of this mystery? The building is somewhere on the shoreline in Galveston, TX?
https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos12a/GalvestonFace.jpg
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An employee of Carter County Government (who will remain nameless to save face) got his goose cooked a couple of Thanksgivings ago. A friend of his went goose hunting and bagged one. He decided he would give the goose to his friend to cook for Thanksgiving. This county employee had a real nice cooker and placed the goose in the cooker along with water in the pan. He let the goose cook about 6 or 7 hours, but didn’t know he was suppose too regularly add water to the pan. Hours later, here is what a person might call one really cooked goose?https://oklahomahistory.net/photos/goose97.jpg
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A couple weeks ago I mentioned in my T&T about a bear being killed in 1915 at Enville, Oklahoma. Bears were thought to be extinct for several years in that area. An employee at the courthouse who read the article, told me one of his relatives had participated in the bear kill back in 1915 and his family had a photo. He brought me the photo, I scanned it, and here it is! His family member, Tom Vinson, is one of those listed on the back of the photo.
https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos12a/EnvilleBear1915.jpg
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“In 1978 Ardmore had a large train wreck in the general area of the Yamaha dealership. The entire neighborhood had to be evacuated because of toxic fumes escaping from one of the cars.”
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“I did find that grapette was made at the old 7’Up plant at 2nd and Cst N.W. in Ardmore, and was distributed by the Williamson family. Sure do remember those good ole days when I was a kid growing up in my families downtown business, would make several trips to the old Firemans Lunch Box each day to get a cold bottle of grapette. Seems I remember 7’Up was sold to one of the larger area bottlers and the grapette was phased out in Ardmore.”
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“On your list of used to be’s… how about a product called Rosebud salve? I used to sell it when I was a kid and won a lot of great prizes.”
http://www.rosebudsalve.com/e-commerce-solutions-catalog.html
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“Funny you should mention Pecan trees. Not having been raised in OK (born in OKC), I’m not really familiar with Pecan trees and didn’t even know we could grow them here in California. However, when I moved to Stockton there were several pecan trees in my yard and now I have pecans all over the ground. I gathered as many as I could find and started shelling them but obviously I’m not doing it right… got about 1/2 cup in an hour of shelling . Thought there might be some “trick” to it. The shells on my pecans are hard, the insides moist, and it all comes out in itsy bitsy pieces. Have to concentrate so hard to get anything that there’s no energy for doing anything else. Had the same problem once with Walnuts, but soon found the trick to it and now all I get are nice, clean Walnut halves. Maybe they have different kinds of pecans in Oklahoma?”
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“I enjoyed your T&T. I read it last night. And, then went out and bought the new Celine cd. I had heard it was really good and your review just pushed me over.”
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“In Sulphur, we have a city park across from the City Hall that is decorated as the “Avenue of the Angels.” The angels are purchased by local citizens and dedicated to loved ones who have died. The centerpiece of the display is the largest lighted angel in Oklahoma.”
https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos12a/SulphurAngel.jpg
Fast forward from 1999 to 2012: “Unfortunately the City of Sulphur decided not to put it up this year–Sad!! My Dad was Henry Parks and owned Parks Drug store in Ardmore until 1967 when he died of cancer.’ -Cinda Fink
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“I was looking at your photo. You really are a handsome old geezer aren’t you?! By the way I have never seen or tasted pecan nuts before. What do they taste like?” – Ireland
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“Hello Butch, Here is a picture of Devil’s Den (Tishomingo, OK) taken early 50’s. You can see in the background that the “ROCK” is almost round and quite large. The folks in the foreground didn’t want their picture to show so I “fuzzed” their faces, but wanted to be able to show the difference in the size of people to the rock.”
https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos12a/DevilsDen1950s.jpg
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Gas prices today in the Ardmore area……
http://www.oklahomagasprices.com/index.aspx?mss=152754
Check gas prices by town or zip code anywhere in U.S.
http://www.kmov.com/traffic/gas-buddy
Some mail from this week’s MAILBAG…..
“Butch, This is in response to the following post made by one of your readers. Three of my girlfriends and I went camping in a cabin just a few miles north of this building. We stopped and took pictures on 12/1/12. I would also like to know what this building used to be?” -Susan
https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos12a/AsphaltumDoughertyOKa.jpg
https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos12a/AsphaltumDoughertyOKb.jpg
A. “Prior to Dolese having a rock crusher south of Dougherty, Oklahoma in the 1920’s and 30’s, during the height of the depression, several of the locals created a rock quarry on some of my family’s land just a block over from my home. They blasted the rock with dynamite, and then gathered the rock up with an old cable shovel (steam shovel) and then loaded it onto flat bed trucks and ferried it to the tracks. Not very productive, but, they made enough money to keep going. The concrete building that is in the photo started out as an asphaltum plant. Asphaltum is abundant here. There is another plant just like it on the road to the spillway at the lake. Once the asphaltum played out, then they installed some homemade rock breaking equipment and began making gravel. That is what I have been told, but I do not know how accurate the story is. I was born in 1946, and the supposed tale taking place in the Great Depression? Well, I was not even born yet. LOL I do know for a fact that the building on the spillway road was an asphaltum rendering plant. There are tailing across the road of the unprocessed ashpaltum still standing there. Hope this helps.” -tuklo
“Hi Butch, Concerning Grapette: WalMart bought the company and discontinued many of the flavors but now you can find Grapette in cans and Orangette in 2-liter bottles at many of their stores. I for one would like to see them bring back several of the other flavors (Lemonette, etc.). The original flavors used real fruit juices and real sugar in the drinks but the new flavors are as close to the originals as I can remember. My dad sold the product in his ‘Kendrick Grocery’ store (in Britton, Oklahoma) while I was growing up, and I’m one of the folks who actually remembers the story of how the flavors were developed. The flavor names were purchased from a liquor company in Illinois as I recall, and the flavors were developed by a chemist in Arkansas who founded the company (in Camden, Ark.) In order to compete with all those other flavors, the company developed that unique smaller bottle (with somewhat thinner glass) which took up less space, and put 30 bottles to the case at the same price of those other 24 bottle cases, and then had special (smaller) delivery trucks to deliver the product to the grocery stores and other sales outlets. It worked, and folks were delighted with the unusual ‘realistic’ flavor.” -Roy Kendrick
“Butch, Every Wal-Mart carries Grapette and Orangette in larger bottles but it is the same formula, taste, and smell. Check this link. My grandparents in Ardmore, the John Henry Bennetts, used to take me downtown to Sam McDaniel’s distributorship across from the old post office, back her canary yellow Cadillac into the garage and load up cases of Grapettes ( then in wooden cases ) and she would also get a few cases of Cokes -all 6 oz. bottles. Uncle Henry loved Grapette floats with Cooper Farms vanilla Ice cream. Ugly color but great taste.” -Chef John Bennett
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grapette
“The article last week on D. Allen Wint’s restaurant brought back a lot of good memories. My brother, Carl Long, married Mildred McFarland in the party room Sunday afternoon Dec. 5, 1948. I was honored with a baby shower there in Dec. 1952. Attended a lot of parties there. It would be nice to see those prices on the menu again but not the income that we had in those days.” -Francis Dunlap
“The story about Sweetpea reminded me of our neighbors dog recently. He was sick and taken to the vet. The Vet said he had distemper and would not live over a couple of days and wanted to put him down. He said dogs never recover from distemper. Sandy took him home and began a rigorous round of Olive Tree extract from the health food store. She gave him the adult dose every four hours. He is alive and well and beautiful today. He is an African dog, Basenji.” -Fern and Joanna
“Dear Jill and Butch, we are ok. and nothing happened to our house except for some shingles that flew from the top during the storm Sandy. it was a really a very scary time but the people from NJ are strong and with the God’s help everything will be normal, it will take a long time. Thanks very much for your concern and thanks for your editorial that I receive every week, you know I love Ardmore and I never forget the town and the people who treat me like one of their own back in the 1950s. Take care and my wife and I wish you and your family a great Christmas.” -Your friend Ernie Wallerstein in New Jersey ernestomewa1723@aol.com
https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos6a/IndiansReplica4.jpg
“Hi Butch, enjoyed your #827 issue very much, as I am an ole’ Thackeville-ite who really enjoys reading stories about Brown Springs. We used to go (walk) from the Thackerville School for our end of the school year picnic. This was always in the daytime, but we still had those chills, etc. when there. We liked the trip however as we were out of school for the entire day and had a nice picnic lunch. I was telling the stories about Brown Springs at lunch on Sunday. My grand daughter who is now grown up and working in Oklahoma, was home and was quite intrigued by my story. She had never heard any of the Brown Springs stuff before. Her friend, a young man from the Lone Grove area had heard of the ghosts reportedly to have been seen there, and many of the other stories surrounding that area, some we know are very true.” -Betty
https://oklahomahistory.net/brownspr.html
O Come All Ye Faithful – Celine Dion 2009
O come all ye faithful joyful and triumphant
Oh come ye O come ye to Bethlehem
Come and behold him born the King of angels
O come let us adore him Christ the Lord
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WAJd3Do0Q8
See everyone next week!
Butch and Jill Bridges
Ardmore Oklahoma
PO Box 2
Lone Grove, Oklahoma 73443
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Ardmore High School Criterions Online
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Oklahoma Bells: https://oklahomahistory.net/bellpage.html
American Flyers Memorial Fund – Administration Webpage
https://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
https://oklahomahistory.net/airbase/
Carter county schools, past and present
http://community.webshots.com/user/oklahomahistory
Carter County Government Website
http://www.brightok.net/cartercounty/
Ardmore School Criterions
http://www.ArdmoreCriterion.com
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