PO Box 2, Ardmore, Oklahoma 73402
Email: butchbridges@oklahomahistory.net, Phone: 580-490-6823
A GLIMPSE INTO THE PAST
Nine miles north of Ardmore, Oklahoma is the small town of Springer (population 694). It had been a town long before statehood in 1907. It became a U.S. post office on September 1, 1890. Springer is named for W. A. Springer, pioneer cattleman and rancher at Springer. In 1910 this little bustling city almost became a town in name only. On a Friday evening in September, a fire broke out in the Post Office. Before the fire could be stopped, many Main street businesses would be destroyed, including the Post Office, D.M Sellers General Store, Eskew Drug Store, Kuntz Bros Blacksmith Shop, the building used by the Masons, Woodmen of the World, and the Oddfellows. Also several buildings owned by Robert Scivally would be destroyed. (Mr. Scivally was the first County Commissioner of Carter county.) When townspeople and firefighters saw their town was about to be totally destroyed by the raging fire, they resorted to dynamite to stop the flames.
In 2002 Ardmoreite Neal Freeman (1940-2019) published his 190 page book Le Chene Tondu. Its a true story of a few Oklahomans who were sent to the front lines in the Argonne Forest of France with the 112th infantry 28th division of Pennsylvania in World War 1. I now have the book as a PDF file if anyone is interested in the book. Just contact me.
https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos20a/LeCheneTonduFrontPage.jpg
After 38 years working for the City of Lone Grove, Pam Keeton is retiring. Congratulations Pam, and wishing the best in your new life as a retiree.
https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos20a/PamKeetonRetirement.jpg
November 1984
Lone Grove Mayor Lincoln Stanley recently underwent a series of vaccinations due to bites he received when attacked by three dogs. Town trustees voted at a special meeting last week to pay the City of Ardmore $3.00 per animal taken to that city’s animal shelter.
As of Jan 14th Microsoft no longer updates or supports Windows 7 which my 10 year old PC has had on it since day one. Works perfectly. I finally decided to upgrade it to Windows 10 and at a cost of only $10 to get a Windows 10 upgrade from Microsoft. Everything works great and I’m ready for 2020 and beyond. In the link below I tell of my experience and how I did the changeover from Win 7 to Win 10. By the way, Win 7 will work fine after Jan 14th, just no updates will be available from Microsoft. Below is my experience upgrading my old Hewlett-Packard PC.
https://oklahomahistory.net/windows10upgrade.html
Update: If you still need/want to download Windows 10 for free the following link will get you started from Microsoft. How long this link will work is up to Microsoft.
Q. Where is a hiking trail in western Oklahoma that’s not only surrounded by beautiful grasslands, but was once home to an 1800s battlefield?
A. Washita Battlefield National Historic Site is located is located in Cheyenne on the Oklahoma/Texas border in western Oklahoma. CLICK HERE
Q. Where in Oklahoma is the Barn Quilt Trail?
A. Answer in next week’s newsletter
Below is from This and That newsletter archives of January 24, 2008
Below are links to the 1943 cotton gin fire photos Leroy McDaniel took as a teen age apprentice working for a local photographer.
Photo one, photo two, photo three, photo four, photo five, and photo six.
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“I’m pleased to announce my e-Book, Volume One of “American Synagogues: A Photographic Journey” is now complete and available for purchase! After the year-end crunch to finish, and many more hours of work to tie up all the loose ends, the first volume is done and ready to be enjoyed by all those interested in synagogue architecture and American Jewish history. Volume One contains approximately 3200 original color photos of over 1400 individual U.S. synagogue buildings from all 50 states plus Washington, DC. Many of these synagogues are no longer used as Jewish houses of worship and many are located in small isolated communities. More information is available at my website…….
http://www.americansynagoguearchitecture.comI believe that this e-Book is the largest collection of color photos of American synagogue buildings available anywhere. It is my hope that my new e-Book will not only prove to be interesting in its own right, but will do much to further the basic photo documentation of synagogue buildings in the U.S. Volume One is on a full CD-ROM disc with a beautiful disc and cover design. It is priced very reasonably at $18 including postage and can be ordered directly from me. Pricing for multiple purchases is available upon request. I hope that you will be interested in owning a copy of this unique e-Book. If you know of anyone else who might be interested, please let me know I would be happy to send them ordering information. Personal checks and Pay Pal are accepted. I thank you for your interest and I look forward to hearing from you!” jhp1963@yahoo.com -Mr. Julian H. Preisler
132 Harvard Court – Spring Mills
Falling Waters, WV 25419
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The Wilson News -submitted by Mindy Taylor
9-23-1915
School Notes
Our school was recommended for a three year accredited high school by state high school inspector, Mr. A. C. Parson who in company with Supt. Thurston paid us an official visit. Pupils under six years of age must pay $1.00 tuition per month in advance. This is the order of the school board. This money goes to the district. Debating clubs have been organized in four of the higher rooms and a very satisfactory showing was made last Friday. Athletics are also fully alive. The school has two teams each of boys and girls basket ball, three teams of volley ball and a tennis club. Chapel exercises every morning in charge of the teachers. Three preachers have held chapel for us.
10-7-1915
We believe Wilson has the best set of pupils in the county. There is less fighting and swearing and less cases of truancy than in any school its size we know of. A big electric bell has been installed in the hall downstairs and when Mr. Rogers tried it Tuesday evening many of the pupils thought it was the fire alarm and hustled out in a hurry. Parents please do not allow your children to go to the school house before 8:30 in the morning. Many of the children are on the campus before 8:00. We have asked them not to come so early and if they persist, we shall be forced to send them back home as 9:00 is the hour for books.The Wilson Museum has several shelves of Wilson School Annuals. Hours: Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday 10:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.
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“Butch I e-mailed you before but wanted to ask anyone on your news letter if they may have known of a John Pardue of Atoka back in the late50’s or so. He was my grandfather and he worked in the Stringtown Rock Quarry and lived in Atoka. He was married to my Step-Grandmother then( my own Grandmother died in a car wreck when she was 48.) and she worked as a waitress in a Cafe in Atoka. Her name was Stella Pardue. I have lost contact with my relatives and it would be nice to find out if anyone knew of them back then. I lived in Ardmore in 1955. moving from Atoka to Tishomingo to Ardmore in 1955. I was born in Milburn Okla. in 1940. We moved to Atoka when I was two. My Grandfather lived in Atoka till he died in the early 70’s. I know my Uncle John Jr. who lived in Denison TX. died when young and he had a wife named Sue and a son Named John Austin Pardue. I don’t know where my cousin is now. Haven’t see or heard from him since he was a young kid in the late 50’s. Anyone who lived in Atoka in the 50’s or early 60’s may have known my Grandfather John Pardue. Any help would be great.” -Bobbie Wilson Diiorio Bddiiorio@hotmail.com
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————————————————————————-Some mail from this week’s MAILBAG…..
This Tulsa World story has been shared with you: ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’ to begin filming in Pawhuska in March. CLICK HERE
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Q. Tricia and I were talking the other day and I was telling her about a restaurant in Ardmore that I think was named Bo’s Steakhouse. I want to say the timing was in the 1950s but I can’t remember where it was located.A. Uncle Beau’s Steakhouse, 32 M SW
From my T&T newsletter archives:
“I have to say that one of the best restaurants in Ardmore was Bullock’s Steak House. It was located on the southeast corner of Broadway and Commerce. It was directly behind the service station that was operated by Charles Buckholtz.Bob Bullock was the proprietor, and one of the nicest gentleman that you could know. His son, Bob Boykin (1931-2010), has been a DJ for several years for KVSO radio.
https://www.ardmoreite.com/article/20100113/NEWS/301139985Saturday mornings were great for coffee and conversation. Charles Buckholtz’s brother (Everett Buckholtz) operated the Texaco station on the northeast corner of that same intersection.”
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Good Afternoon Butch,The Cude Filling Station picture with the truck that has “Shack’s Drugs” painted on the side appears to include my grandfather, H.S. Shackelford “Shack” standing next to his truck, third from the left. My grandfather of Wynnewood almost always wore a suit, and often a similar hat when outdoors. His first drug store was in Wynnewood when he bought the Cate & Hillebert Drug Store and immediately changed the name to Crescent Drug. He owned pharmacies for nearly 40 years starting about 1900 in several southern Oklahoma towns including Wynnewood, Davis, Sulphur, Healton, Maysville, and others at one time or another up until his death. His two sons and a brother-in-law took over some of the stores and others were sold to the pharmacists that ran them. He was also the owner, publisher editor for 2 newspapers in Wynnewood as well as being a correspondent/reporter for several other area newspapers in Pauls Valley, Davis, Sulphur, and Ardmore. H.S. Shackelford help found and served as a member of the Oklahoma State Board of Pharmacy as President for several years and later as Secretary/Treasurer as well as serving positions in the OK State Pharmaceutical Association for many years, and was a member of the Advisory Board for the Pharmacy School at the University of Oklahoma also serving as an adjunct Professor of Pharmacy. My father, Fay H. Shackelford (also called “Shack”) took over the drug stores in Wynnewood and Davis after my grandfather passed away. Some of the stores were named Crescent Drug Store, City Drug Store, and Shackelford Drug Store. I have attached a couple of pictures of Fay H. & H.S. Shackelford along with a picture of a matchbook cover from the Shackelford Drug Store in Davis (now City Drug Store) and a bottle from the pharmacy in Wynnewood owned and operated by my grandfather and still in business today as Crescent Drug Store. In both pictures, my grandfather H.S. Shackelford is on the far right and my father, Fay H. Shackelford is standing immediately to his left, and possibly John Seeton in the middle at the Wynnewood store circa 1928. Dad was 6’5″ tall and made my 6’0″ tall grandfather look shorter than he really was in these pictures. The Crescent Moon & Owl pictures are of the tiled entry to the Shackelford Drug Store in Sulphur that became the Crescent Drug Store, then the Shackelford-Seeton Drug Store and later the Seeton Drug Store. It was owned by Bob Gowan and Albert DeFratus before it closed and went out of business years ago, but was still operating as Seeton Drug in the 1970s. The building and tiled entrance still exist but it is no longer a pharmacy. Mr. Seeton died in 1942 at the age of 57 only 3 years after my grandfather passed away in 1939 at the age of 66. Boy what I wouldn’t give to have that old truck today!
Best regards,
Mickey Shackelford
mcshack@gmail.com
Is the Cude Station photo below dated or can it be dated by the vehicles or other means? I also love that fancy looking vehicle on the far right, can anyone identify it or the other vehicles? -Mickey
https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos20a/CudeFillingStation.jpg
https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos20a/CrescentDrugStoreBottle.jpg
https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos20a/DrugStore1928.jpg
https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos20a/FH&HSShackelfordca1930.jpg
https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos20a/HSShackelford.jpg
https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos20a/SeetonFloorCrescent.jpg
https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos20a/ShackelfordDrugStore.jpg
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Concerning Dr. Walter Gray Hathaway, the earliest I can find concerning his practice was in Provence, Oklahoma. It appears that he was there for several years between 1899 and 1910. He married a woman with the surname of Adams. Her father, Robert Lynch Adams, is buried in Provence Cemetery. Additional info concerning Dr. Hathaway, he and Miss Adams married in 1902 in Provence. I have found that he was practicing medicine in Provence as early as 1899. I found him in Pooleville/Poolville in 1918 when he registered for the draft. It was on that card he signed his name as Walter Grey Hathaway.
https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos20a/DrWalterHathaway.jpg
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———————————————–TREES IN WINTER
by Joh Gainey, Sulphur, OK
I am having trouble driving
with winter at the helm.
Every oak and maple,
every sycamore and elm
Paints such lovely lacy patterns
on the canvas of the sky.Each a delicate creation
to attract my roving eye.
Spring may offer brilliant foliage
summer’s verdure soothes the eye
But the lacy trees of winter
inking patterns in the sky
Are a bit of fascination
on a gray and wintry day
That fill my heart with gladness
and cause my eye to stray.See everyone next week!
Butch and Jill Bridges
“Friends Make Life Worth Living”PO Box 2
Lone Grove, Oklahoma 73443
Vicious Dog Attacks in Oklahoma
https://oklahomahistory.net/viciousdogs.html
Oklahoma Bells: https://oklahomahistory.net/bellpage.html
Bill Hamm’s Cemetery Database
http://www.usgwarchives.net/ok/carter/cartercm.htm
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 Government Website