Joe S. Robison, the man who with a partner built the First Federal Building and who owns the opera house at Main and C Street Southwest, had another brainstorm about 1907, streetcars for Ardmore. He organized and was president of the Ardmore Traction Company which functioned until 1924 when it fell victim to the automobile age. Two second-hand trolley cars were obtained from Fort Worth, Texas. The first conductor was J. W. “Bill” Moore and the fair was 5 cents in town and 10 cents to the end of the line at Lorena Park. The trolley followed a route from the Santa Fe Depot west on Main Street to C Street, then north along C Street to 8th Avenue Northwest, then west along 8th to Wolverton and north on Wolverton out of town to the car barn, 1 mile north of town, then to Lorena Park, also a Robison conception, on the ridge near Dornick Hills Country Club. In time the equipment increase from 2 cars to 6 which included to “summer cars” consisting of mounted benches shaded by canopies overhead. This transportation venture was popular but not lucrative, particularly after the advent of the automobile. In 1922 service was discontinued and during the 1930s the tracks were removed as a project of the WPA. –Sally Gray, Territory Town, The Ardmore Story published 2006
Leon, Indian Territory July 5, 1902: About 25 miles Southwest of Marietta, Oklahoma along the Red River is Leon, Oklahoma. Before Oklahoma became a state (1907) a former Ardmoreite, Dave Putty, had moved to Leon to operate a barber shop there in Leon. This particular afternoon there happened to be a picnic going on in town and Dave Putty, being intoxicated, decided to crash the party. Deputy Marshal W.E. McLemore out of Ardmore was attempting to arrest Putty, he resisted arrest, and was shot once in the head by Marshal McLemore. Dave Puddy died instantly.
Commerce and West Broadway – Ardmore
Veteans Lake dam a Sulphur being built 1930
Link to my unclaimed property list I’ve been maintaining. CLICK/TAP HERE
HAM Talk by KC5JVT via Echolink
We are still averaging 50 HAMs daily checking-in with the Boredome Breaker net control. Any HAMs reading this is welcome to check-in between 12 Noon and 2pm Central Time.
From this week’s Mailbag
Hi! My great grandfather wrote a song called the Ardmore Explosion. I was wondering if it was the same song, but the link was broken. Thank you for your letters. I really enjoy them. -Laura
Note: I send an email to the original email for an updated link, no response. If anyone know the link to the song mentioned above, please let me know.
Butch, you may already have a picture of this bell but in case you do not here it is. This is the bell from the original bell tower steeple at Wickline United Methodist Church, 417 Mid-America Blvd, Midwest City, OK. The church was built about 1943 and the bell removed from the steeple about 5 years ago. -Dennis
Avon files for bankruptcy in face of 200 lawsuits linking its talc products to cancer
https://www.avon.com/
Below is from my newsletter archives dated
August 14, 1999 – Issue 121
Let me take just a minute and tell everyone there are a lot of smiling faces around the courthouse right now. Last Tuesday voters approved a 1/4 cent sales tax for Carter County Government. We’ve been told it should bring in $700,000 to $1 Million Dollars a year, to be split three ways…. 1/3 to roads, 1/3 to law enforcement and 1/3 to the courthouse. The reason I’m mentioning this, is a lot of people worked hard to see the proposal a success. But I want to give special recognition to the following 57 Carter county government employees who donated some of their evening hours manning phones and preparing flyers:
Cynthia Anderson, Theresa Jackson, Ruth Holley, Beth Allen, Cleta Wood, Marilyn Palafox, Juanita Conway, Karen Volino, Teresa Morgan, Nancy Miller, Jeannie Harper, Debbie Douthit, Joan Smith, Jodie Jones, Pam Taylor, Daria Porter, Don Waters, Barbara Eads, Allen Flowers, Brenda Waller, Lori Jones, Sam West, Norma Robinson, Trish Darity, Carolyn Davis, Joleta Duck, Gary Matthews, Jim Rozzell, Kim Cain, Sheryl Wood, Jay Christian, LaDonna Miller, Marsha Collins, Linda Hunt, Jane Cummings, Lori Cain, Joe McReynolds, Cheryl Rogers, Jerry Eubanks, Doyle Hamilton, Don Mitchell, Keith Smith, David Fuller, Mary Allen, Joyce Harris, Helen McReynolds, Kevin Robinson, Jon Walker, Chuck Stewart, Justin Kyle, Larry Milson, Dale Ott, Tammy McClendon, Donnie Collins, Butch Bridges, Phyllis Russell, and Michelle Bray.
Courthouse maintenance has been busy the past month cleaning the old coats of paint off the copper dome of the courthouse here in Ardmore. After the old paint comes off, removing the old green stuff will be next. But you know, some people pay money to put that green stuff on their copper. It’s call patina I wonder if we should just leave the green patina alone?
Side note: While maintence Dalton Cain was on the dome running the electric brush cleaning off the paint, the brush head flew off. They didn’t know where it went. Several of us walked around the grounds below looking for it. At 5:00pm we found out where it ended up. I left work to get in my pickup and my windshield was busted from the metal brush hitting it. Commissioner Joe Dean McReynolds told me to take it to Glass Service on Lloyd Noble Parkway and charge it to the county.
Below is the 1910 photo of the Waynoka, Oklahoma Santa Fe RR reading room.
This photo was taken about 1982 near Pecan Grove at Lake Murray, just south of Ardmore. It is a motorcycle-auto wreck. One man lost his leg, the other man lost an arm. I was the ambulance attendant and Bill Lewis was the driver. EMT volunteer Dennis Dill, far left, was helping that day on the ambulance. Dennis worked at the guard shack at Uniroyal Tire Plant, and helped us on the weekends. The Trooper in the pic is Terry Dickson. Terry and I only lived a couple of blocks from each other during childhood days.
Here are a couple pictures I took of the clock in the dome of the Love county courthouse.
About a month ago I told everyone I snapped a photo of the old Tyler, Oklahoma school bell from years ago. The bell is now at a residence near McMillan, Oklahoma. Tyler and McMillan are only about 5 miles apart, both just a few miles west of Madill, OK.
On November 29, 1967 little 6 year old Scott Allen Compton was stuck by a pickup truck driven by 19 year old Jerry Wayne Kendrick while crossing the street at Lake Murray Drive and “C” Street SE here in Ardmore. The Compton child was unconscious and not breathing as a result of his injuries. Patrolman Ed Burton, an Ardmore police officer, was on patrol that afternoon and worked the accident. But what no one knew at the time, except for the guardian angel of little Scott Allen Compton, was that Bill Allen, the only respiratory therapist for a 50 miles radius was behind that pickup truck and witnessed the accident. Bill jumped from his car and went to the aid of the boy who was not breathing. Bill administered resuscitation and went along in the ambulance with the boy to the hospital. My friend Bill Allen had just moved to Ardmore one year ago. No ambulances or hospitals in our area had respiratory therapist prior to 1967, although Pauls Valley hospital and Purcell hospital were starting to use R.T.s from Oklahoma City to some degree. Bear in mind that when a person was brought into the emergency rooms in our area not breathing, such as Scott Allen Compton, there was no sophisticated equipment like there is today to start that person breathing again nor respiratory therapist on staff. The only piece of equipment in the hospitals at that time to hopefully revive a non-breathing person was a piece of equipment called the E&J Resuscitator. Very seldom did it bring a person back from the brink of death.
On January 15, 1968 Bill Allen received a recognition award from Woodmen of the World representative, James Floyd, here in Ardmore for his heroic efforts. Little Scott Allen Compton lived.
Twenty eight years later, Bill Allen would have a brush with death while working at the Guest Inn here in Ardmore on Father’s Day 1995. Bill was doing maintenance on an elevator and something went wrong while he was under it. The elevator took his arm off. Surgeons would successfully re-attach Bill’s arm. What is ironic, is a man came to Bill’s aid and helped stop the bleeding, who was a member of Houston’s Guardian Angels. He was Mario Castillo. Mario was working on a construction job at Uniroyal and temporarily staying at the Guest Inn. Mario Castillo probably saved Bill’s life while waiting on paramedics to arrive. Today Bill Allen, also known as Willie Lump-Lump, is doing fine, and he’s more ornery then ever! This is a 1967 photo of William “Bill” Allen.
“Not sure if you have ever posted a photo of the old Washita River Bridge north of Mannsville, Oklahoma. Was messing around the other day with the new digital camera and thought the old bridge would be a good shot. Back in the 70’s a gangster movie was filmed in the area. One of the scenes was of an old car being pushed off the bridge.” (The movie was Dillinger – 1973)
Don’t believe anything you hear, and only half what you see.
Butch and Jill Bridges
Ardmore, Oklahoma
580-490-6823
