PO Box 2, Ardmore, Oklahoma 73402
Email: butchbridges@oklahomahistory.net
Phone: 580-490-6823
A piece of Ardmore’s history will be coming down soon. The Chickasaw Towers at G and West Broadway is scheduled to be razed. It has out lived its usefulness so the decision has been made to tear it down.
Most of you who have lived in Ardmore for years will remember when the Chickasaw Towers was built the talk was it wouldn’t last long, it would just fall down someday. It was about the first prefabricated (prefab) building built in Ardmore. The concrete walls and floors were all lifted into place by a crane. The building was a triangle with the center of it hollow, with grass and open top. Renters would sit on benches out in the courtyard without ever going actually “outside”. The building was completed in 1973.
https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos14a/ChickasawTowers071014.jpg
Q. “Butch, can you tell me how to get to Springdale School from Ardmore? I think it’s on Springdale road, but can’t remember where that is. I was invited to an event at the school, but it’s been awhile since I was in that area. Thanks!!!”
https://oklahomahistory.net/maps/OldSpringdaleSchoolMap.jpg
Q. Back in the 50s there was a Smith Cafe in Lone Grove, Oklahoma. Anyone remember it? Where was it located exactly? Who were the owners? When did it start business? Anyone remember when it stopped being Smith Cafe? The cafe was a big hang-out for many in the Lone Grove area.
A. Linda J Gillispie said: The old Smith’s cafe was torn down and when whoever bought the land built the Boomerange/Beane’s building. The old Smith cafe sat farther back from the street, it had a bigger parking lot. Between where Boomerang is located and where the bowling alley sits; there used to be an old laundromat with an apartment in the back.
Beth George said: Lilly and Buster Smith were the owners. The original Longhorn caf? was owned by my Mom and Dad (Wanda Hyde Proctor and Elvin Proctor ). It sat where the Lone Grove Community Bank is now. They bought it from Bob and Pat Schoonover. It was called Schoonies Cafe.
June 1930 – Daily Ardmoreite
James Allred, a fiery young attorney from Wichita Falls, Texas spoke on the topic of “The menace of chain stores” to a standing room crowd at Ardmore’s convention hall. “Their operations,” he said, “are undermining the prosperity of the land, breaking down the standard of living, and cheating the public of its just dues.”
A.J. Cook is running for Justice of the Peace, Lone Grove township, in the primary election. Charles Cummings, Ollen Woodley, and G.A. Smith are in the running for Lone Grove Constable.
June 1954- Daily Ardmoreite
Services for John Cleveland Williams, 69, a former Justice of the Peace, who died suddenly wile attending a political rally in Lone Grove, were held Thursday in the First Baptist church. He had been in a hospital for several weeks previous to death. Burial was in the Bomar Point Cemetery.
Kenneth Eck left Healdton the other day with his family to drive to Maryland for a vacation. He later sent a card to his boss. It read, “having a wonderful time, wish you were here.” It was postmarked Lone Grove.
A former Carter County Negro is making a success as an agricultural official in Washington D.C. He is Antoine H. Fuhr, 60 years old, who is an official of the Farm Credit Administration in the nation’s capitol and is working with farmers and ranchers to promote soil conservation and better farming. He was raised on a red clay farm in Oklahoma County and moved to Carter County after graduation from Langston University. He taught in the old Roosevelt school near Caddo Creek, and operated a cotton jin at Tatums for awhile. He served as county agent in Muskogee county before called to Washington D.C. in 1947.
June 1965- Daily Ardmoreite
Reports of extensive use of the Memorial Hospital and announcement of a major expansion in the near future marked the 10th anniversary of the big hospital which was built with more than a million dollars contributed by 1,800 southern Oklahomans. The hospital was completed and opened in June 1955, at the cost of about $1.6 million, including Hill-Burton federal hospital funds.
June 1986- Daily Ardmoreite
Shooting fireworks in the Lone Grove city limits is illegal according to Fire Chief Leo Potts. “Persons shooting fireworks inside the City limits, if caught, will be fined $100.”
Jack Spencer is in his 14th year as a find-a-grave volunteer and has just provided new information to findagrave for Healdtonite James Hutchison. We need to credit N. Dale Talkington who created Mr. Hutchison’s Find-A-Grave page. Dale took the information and edited, then update the page. And let’s not forget Keena and Lonnie Moon who took a beautiful picture of the headstone. Mr. Hutchison died from his wounds trying to make an arrest in Healdton in 1930. Over the past 80 years Jim Hutchison’s death had been all but forgotten, with no recognition of his line of duty death. But that has changed now. Generations to come will be able to read and remember the sacrifice this Healdton police officer made in 1930.
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=128128185
On the evening of July 4th my neighbors’ dogs are so afraid hearing all the fireworks they came to my house to seek refuge under my legs. It sounded like a war zone here south of Lone Grove. That’s Trixie on the left and Boomer on the right. They are so sweet.
https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos14a/TrixieBoomer070414.jpg
This week we saw the 2 turkeys in our backyard again. But this time one has her flock with her, 7 little cuties following her around. We had been seeing her for weeks, almost daily, and this we see the babies. They were trying to eat our grapes. Beautiful.
https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos14a/Turkeys070514.jpg
After having to restore my computer from a backup after using Slimware Cleaner about 3 weeks ago, I am giving the program another try. I only used the “cleaner” part of the program first that gets rid of old internet files and stuff that is no longer needed. That part of the program worked really well, getting rid of 100’s of megabytes of trash from my computer. I did that clean about a week ago.
This is a screenshot of the options available on the left. Like I said above, I only ran the “clean” module and everything worked ok when the program finished.
https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos14a/SlimCleanerScreen1.jpg
This second screenshot is after SlimCleaner analyzed my hard drive and found nearly 675 megabytes of trash that needs to be removed. As you can see Internet Explorer cookies wins the prize for putting the most crap on my computer.
https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos14a/SlimCleanerScreen2.jpg
I suggest if you are going to try the free Slimware cleaner program, only run the “clean” part of it first, and leave the other modules alone for now. That’s what I am going to do. So far no problems.
Q. Who is the oldest living person in Oklahoma?
A. Oklahoma City resident Ora Holland celebrated her 113th birthday last December.
http://newsok.com/oklahoma-city-resident-celebrates-113th-birthday/article/3917625
Q. In 1912 it was reported a gold mine was found in Carter County, bigger than California’s or Alaska’s. Where was this gold mine supposedly?
A. (answer in next week’s T&T)
From This and That newsletter archives of July 1, 2000:
Mrs. Lewis Hahn of Carbondale, Illinois. She was looking for any info on her Hahn and Silkwood kinfolk that lived in Ardmore about 1900. They were in Ardmore searching, but found no one. If you know any people with those last names from Ardmore, she’d love to hear from you. Her phone number is 1-618-549-2644. She does not have email.
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“I wanted to let you know that I was the purchasing agent for American Flyers Airline when 183-H crashed, and was charged with the responsibility of seeing what remained of it. We were able to salvage one “hot section” from one of the engines, and I sold the rest of the $3,000,000 airplane to OK Iron & Metal in Ardmore for $125.00″
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“They told me they had been searching for Pleasant Mound cemetery for several weeks. After sharing what I had accumulated over the last few years. They agree with me that Pleasant Mound became Legate. Legate got a P.O. in 1905 and their records for Pleasant Mound ended in 1904. I am still trying to find a territorial map that may show Pleasant Mound.”
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“Could give any information about a place called Paradise court or cove outside of Ardmore? I believe it was on highway 70 in the early 1900.”
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“Did you know that just north of Ames, Oklahoma, in Major county there is….. A local oil field that is one of only three in the western hemisphere drilled on an ancient meteor crater; that is around 450-million to 600-million-year old crater… AND… It is eight miles in diameter and supports 65 wells.”
Update 07/01/14 – “We were out there on a job the other day. A company called MidStates. Quite a few more wells out there now, 300-400.” -Mike Stewart
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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
Non-ethanol gas (pure gas) stations in the Ardmore area.
https://oklahomahistory.net/puregas.html
Some mail from this week’s MAILBAG…..
“Butch, ran across this old Ham radio photo from the late 40’s or early 50’s of some members of the Ardmore Amateur Radio Club.” -George Pretty
https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos14a/W5PGIHamRadioGroup.jpg
“Dear Mr. Bridges, this photo was taken around 1950 and we were in front of the Globe theater in Main Street, I am with my two friends, Mr. Blanco in the left and Mr. O’Brien at right. The other picture my friend Nodar and I were with Valaska, I know she died some time ago and I am very sorry about that, she was the manager of the Globe theater when we played baseball in Ardmore, a beautiful lady and a very good friend she was a very nice person and we will miss her very much. Well Mr. Bridges that is my story of The Globe Theater, Give my regards to your wife Jill and have a nice 4th of July. Your friend.” -Ernie
https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos14a/GlobeTheater1950b.jpg
1973 Version of the film……
“This was one of the fun things that I was able to experience during my life. This DILLINGER movie was filmed in several towns, but they actually were on location in and around Ardmore for about 2 weeks. Numerous locals were used as extras. I was one of the ones chosen, due to having been in several Little Theatre plays locally. You will find me shortly after Ben Johnson (played Melvin Purvis, head of FBI) lights his cigar, which was the chosen signal to start the ambush of the Dillinger gang, who were hold up in a hunting and fishing lodge. I was one of a few guys who were being held hostage by the Dillinger gang. I was sent out the door, and said: “What the hell is going on out here” Melvin Purvis said: “Hold it, FBI agents” Then they shot me, and I fell back thru the window, then dead on the porch. Richard Dryfeuss (Baby Face Nelson) who was later in Close Encounters, and Jaws, held a Thompson Sub-Machine gun over my head and started shooting back at the FBI. It was a lot of fun and I followed the crew around for both weeks, watching how movies are filmed, watched the stunt men work, and the special effects men. It was a great experience. I later was able to get in costume, and was supposed to ride a 1919 model Harley Davidson motorcycle, in a movie name Moonbeam Rider, with David Carradine and Brenda Vaccaro. However, after getting in costume, was told by the special effects men that they had already filmed the scene a Lawton, Ok. in order to send the motorcycles back to Hollywood, and save on their rental fees. Oh, well, life goes on! I recently found that this was on You Tube, so I thought I would send it out to those who might be concerned! Hope that you enjoy it!” -Larry Smith
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p5AIgPLVU7I&app=desktop
Butch, I’ve attached a section of a USGS Topographical Map that shows where the Santa Fe RR (originally the Oklahoma, New Mexico & Pacific) crossed Hwy 70 in Lone Grove. I also sectioned together the entire route of the line into one large map at the link below. It’s quite large so you will have to scroll around a lot to view it all. It covers Ardmore, Lone Grove, Wilson, Cobalt Junction, Healdton and Ringling.
https://oklahomahistory.net/maps/RRLoneGrove.jpg
The rails were left underneath the pavement where the line crossed Meridian north of Hwy 70. You can still see the ends of the rails sticking out of the east and west sides of Meridian when the grass is cut short. Here’s a video I made showing the abandoned one mile section of the line just west of the Michelin Plant. At the end of the video you can see the cut off ends of the rails at Meridian I mentioned above.
-Dwane Stevens
Dear Mr. Butch and Jill, There are lots of memories in this weeks newsletter. I left Ardmore, in 1957, of course we come back to visit family. My recollection ends about the time I left. The old Elks Lodge building, wasn’t there a plumbing company there, Stockdale or Rainbow? Some reason I want to connect these names. Blue River! How Beautiful. My mother in law’s husband Clyde Simms loved to fish there. He lived in Denison, Texas, and drove over there several times a week to fish for trout. How we feasted when we came. He would save them in their freezer till we our visit. Some of your readers might remember him as he drove the school bus for the athletes at Denison High also was a plumber for the school system.
Mr. George Connely, an institution at Washington Grade School. I graduated with Clifford. I know he had a younger sister, vaguely remember the little brother John Mark. So sorry to hear of this loss. Our condolence to his family. Thanks for the picture of Mr. Connely, looks just like he did when we were there in the 40’s except he always wore a white shirt with a tie. Most of the time also wore a suit coat. It does make a difference.
The first hospital in Ardmore, at Main and Caddo, interesting, I remember it as the Martin Drug Store. Growing up there I did not like to walk down Main Street past the City Drug. You had to go that way to Daube’s. At Daube’s they had a wonderful jewelry counter. One could purchase really nice pieces for $1. After Christmas and July sales they could be purchased for 50 cents. Just before you got to Martin Drug on that corner there was a fabulous factory outlet of fabric remnants. Josephine Hignight Shirley and I loved to go and dig thru. I remember a lovely Chinese patterned paisley with a gold thread I made a pair of slacks with a looong stole to go with it. A luxurious grey wool I made into a dress in Mrs. Bush’s homemaking sewing class. When I showed her my pattern by Helen Tragier she rolled her eyes. But my Mother bought me a black velvet cape sprinkled with rhinestones to wear with it.
Moran Grocery Store at 6th and G street NE was in the block where I was born and family still there. I did not know the original wood building was moved. The one there now looks very much like the one I remember being there. It must have been rebuilt. I know there was a laundry there and then an upholstery shop, now the Sand Creek Ceramics.Are Basil and Lena Moran still living there in Ardmore? They are fondly remembered. Our Mother went to their store each afternoon for her break and drank a Dr. Pepper. She would try to slip off without any of us. If we realized she was gone we would follow, she would give us a sip and tell us to get back home. Ronnie Priddy worked there, he would see her coming and have her Dr. Pepper opened and ready for her.” -Joanna T. S.
“Butch, the account of the killing of Ardmore Police Officer, Oscar Wilkes, brought back a lot of memories. I lived across the street from that address on Hargrove NW until going away to college. I can remember that night somewhat, as I was only six years old. I remember my father going to the front door and trying to see what was going on. (By the way the account of the shooting states that the house was/is in the middle of the block. Actually, it’s on the corner.) Anyway, it was a terrible thing.” -Jay
https://oklahomahistory.net/wilkes.html
“Butch: This is an amazing 2 minute video created by a 17 year old showing the history of the world.”
http://marcbrecy.perso.neuf.fr/history.html
“Butch, Just viewed the website you cited in a recent issue of ?This & That? regarding the ?Largest Oak Tree in Oklahoma, Maybe the World? also referred to as the ?Tamaha Oak Tree?. The page did not give the dimensions of the giant tree so I cannot be sure it was actually the largest. I monitored a large bur oak tree on Medicine Bluffs Creek at Fort Sill for over 30 years that measured 16 feet around the trunk at chest level. It was approximately 250 years old and dominated the surrounding forest. I authored a book in 2010 called ?Silent Witness, The Diary of a Historic Tree at Fort Sill? (Donning Company Publishers, Virginia Beach, VA) which relayed the history of Oklahoma (emphasis on SW OK) from the perspective of the tree. The history is depicted in the first person by the tree, with myself serving as the ?Interpreter?. Unfortunately, the massive ice storm of 2010 killed the tree when the giant trunk exploded effectively ending its tenure. A most unusual story told in a most unusual manner! If interested, contact usscout1870@sbcglobal.net
-Towana Spivey
Duncan, OK
http://www.lawtonfortsillchamber.com/index.php?src=gendocs&ref=BooksforSale&category=Main
“Here is an image of the old OG&E power plant in Oklahoma City. It was located east of Penn Square Mall. There is another small strip mall located in that area with a Wal-Mart Store. The power plant supplied power for the trolley cars (Oklahoma Railway) Some folks will remember the old ?Classen Circle? by Horn Seed Company. This is where the trolleys turned around to go back downtown. The center median on Classen was where the cars ran. There was a trolley stop at 17th & Classen Blvd. This plant was demolished on 1-23-1999. (Photo Cecil Elliott)” -Cecil
https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos14a/OGEpowerplantOKC.jpg
Q. Looking for a Ardmore area beekeeper to remove bees on Rockford Road.
A. Donald Boydston (580-221-1883)
https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos9a/BoydstonBeeService09c.jpg
How To Fold A Fitted Sheet In Seconds!
http://blog.petflow.com/i-never-knew-how-to-fold-a-fitted-sheet/
All that glitters is not gold. -Shakespeare
See everyone next week!
Butch and Jill Bridges
Ardmore Oklahoma
PO Box 2
Lone Grove, Oklahoma 73443
Vicious Dog Attacks in Oklahoma
https://oklahomahistory.net/viciousdogs.html
Bells of Oklahoma
https://oklahomahistory.net/bellpage.html
Carter County Courthouse Paver Project
http://www.brightok.net/cartercounty/pavers
Save on long distance calls, just a couple cents a minute!
http://www.CheapLongDistance.org
Ardmore High School Criterions Online
http://www.ArdmoreCriterion.com/
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/
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