Mary and Lee Tatum are the founders of Tatum, Oklahoma in the northwest part of Carter County. The link below is from the Red River Historian website maintained by Robin Cole-Jett. Robin has done extensive research on the once bustling town of Tatums and its history.
“Lee and Mary Tatums founded an eponymous community surrounding their hotel and store after applying for a post office. Tatums in northwestern Carter County, Oklahoma became an important center of black life in the early 20th century, especially when oil discoveries led to the founding of an-all black owned refinery operation. Using some funds from the Rosenwald Foundation, citizens built a large school in the 1920s, the same decade in which the silent movie, “Black Gold,” was filmed in town. A decade later, “Pretty Boy” Charles Floyd laid low in Tatums for a while, too.” -excerpt from the Red River Historian website
https://www.redriverhistorian.com/post/tatums-carter-county-oklahoma
The 1928 film Black Gold was filmed entirely at Tatums, Oklahoma. The film is about the discovery of oil on the range-land near Tatums, and the subsequent abandonment of ranching to drill wildcat oil wells. A story of the mad rush for oil in Oklahoma. The plot depicts a rancher who stakes everything he owns on a well and then is destroyed when the town banker conspires against him. No print survives of this 1928 feature film by the Norman Film Mfg.
Note: I remember in the late 1970s Sheriff Robert Denney telling me Tatums is the only town in this county you have to leave the county to get there. It is located on State Highway 7, 20 miles west of Davis Oklahoma.
Below is a link to my Unclaimed Property (insurance) webpage.
https://oklahomahistory.net/unclaimed-property-in-oklahoma/
HAM Talk by KC5JVT via Echolink
I hope more southern Oklahoma and north Texas HAMs will start checking-in on Sunday evenings at 8:00pm
I think we almost set a new record yesterday for the Boredom Breaker Net, nearly 75 HAMs check in between Noon and 2pm Central Time. The Net is held everyday.
Q. What is SDR (Software-Defined radio receiver)?
A. Northern Utah WebSDR
Pete KE5GGY from Denton TX uses that WEB SDR Software defined radio uses that SDR so he can hear people better when they are checking into the 3.916 HF nets.
The SDR Receiver will connect to the computer via the USB cable the software installed on the computer, I have a SDR receiver that will cover 100 khz to 1500 mhz. A WEB SDR is a SDR receiver that interfaces to the web for remote users to control the SDR Receiver such as frequencies and modes etc.
-Eddie Collins W5WBB
From this week’s Mailbag
Butch, greetings from Oregon.
Gerald in Tishomingo asked if I knew of any info on baseball teams in the early part of the 1900’s. I searched a bunch of info on the internet but I could not find anything. His ancestors played.
He had this photo that I have attached.
Do you have any sources/persons, or maybe your Readers, that he might talk to for early baseball stuff? -Richard Craven
Q. Do you remember the little old man that walked around town, aways carrying a coffee cup and lived at the Belvedere apts? -Billy
A. Wayne Grimes
https://www.craddockfuneralhome.com/obituary/6256318
Below is from my newsletter archives dated
September 25, 1999 – Issue 127
Just a little additional info about Chock Thompson at the Hamburger Inn. About 1972 Chock got mad because the then owner, Jimmy Brown, would not give him a pay raise. So Chock quit and went across the street (east side of North Washington) from the Hamburger Inn and opened up his own burnt onion hamburger place. Not too many months went by and Chock decided he’d close his hamburger joint and go back to work at the Hamburger Inn. I talked to the original owner of the Hamburger Inn, Ernest Brown, this week. He and his wife Lillian opened their first Hamburger Inn across the street from its present day location. The first one was opened by Brown in 1938 at #32 North Washington. Ernest built the present Hamburger Inn at #27 North Washington in 1956. Here are photos of both establishments.
By the way, the Hamburger Inn has 13 round stools lined along the length of the counter…. that’s all the seating.
Charlie lives in the Mojave desert in California. Six miles from his house in the middle of nowhere is a bullet riddled telephone booth. For a long time now, Charlie stops at the payphone to answer the hundreds of calls it receives daily…. people calling from all over the world, just to call Charlie and see how its going in the middle of the Mojave desert in CA. Charlie is fast becoming an international celebrity! The number is 760-733-9969. When I get hold of Charlie, and find out the latest, I’ll let everyone know… hope the line ain’t busy! haha
NOTE: Removal. The telephone booth was removed by Pacific Bell on May 17, 2000, at the request of the National Park Service. Per Pacific Bell policy, the phone number was retired.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mojave_phone_booth
This is the tower clock in front of the Garfield County Courthouse in Enid, Oklahoma. I wonder how old the clock is? I assume it rings out the time?
“Adolphus “Doll” Bridges. Do you recognize this name? I am into genealogy and hope that you can give me a clue as to this person. He married Nora Maddox and they had one son that I know of– James Bridges. A time frame is only a guess. Nora was born Oct 1879 and died 1939 and is buried in Stephens Co., OK. I have been told that Nora and Adolphus married in Carter Co but I do not have a marriage license. Also believe that he (Doll) is buried in Carter Co. Nora was also married to John R. Sanders at one time but do not know who was the first spouse. Please help if you can and I would appreciate your response. (Connected the name Bridges thru your mailing of This and That. Thank you for keeping the news coming out of Carter Co.”
“Well Butch: Looks like all through these years I have been living under the allusion that the east side of the old building on the NW corner of Caddo & Main was badly damaged upstairs & therefore the brick replaced the sand stone in the 2nd floor level. Although the picture makes it appear sound, I still believe the damage was worse than it appears & caused the upper structure to be redone in brick. Actually the picture in this weeks T&T, also shows that the Whittington Hotel, which was across Main street to the south, appears to be in recoverable shape. But, Mrs Whittington told me that the uppermost part of that building was so badly damaged that those floors were removed and the Hotel was renamed “THE NEW WHITTINGTON HOTEL”. That name remained on the old building until it was closed & dismantled many years ago. I remember the Whittington Hotel served many people that were arriving on the train. It was very plush and also accommodated many a traveling salesman that remained loyal throughout its remaining years. Now, for the so called old Hardy Hospital building, its lower floor on the west side of the stairs housed a cafe known as the Innman Inn when I first knew of it. The east side of the down stairs, housed Drug stores for most, if not all, of its years… That part of the building was leased at the time of the Explosion (1915) by Mr. Adcock, an old-time Pharmacist. Mr. Adcock told me that at the time of the explosion, all of his fixtures fell face down to the middle of the floor. He leased the Drugstore from a Mr. Ramsey who would only lease the Store for 5 years at a time. Mr. Adcock said that after he suffered through the damage of the explosion & his 5 years time was up, that Mr. Ramsey would not renew his lease. Years later, in the 1930’s, my Dad acquired interest in the McCan & Stewart Drug Store which was in that building. Mr. Ramsey’s estate still owned the place & Dad continued to lease from his daughter for the rest of his life. The Drug Store went under the name of Martin Drug Co. until his death in 1968. The Pharmacy is now gone & the building remains empty at this time.”
“Butch: Some time back you were speaking of the Indian Statue at the Arbuckle Mountains Look-out station at Turner Falls. Today, I ran across this snapshot which was probably made around 1947 or 1948. The girl is my young sister-in-law, visiting here from Mississippi. This is the statue that was used by the Palacine Service Stations – owned by Wirt Franklin. (I think). My sister once had a heavy bronze colored cigarette ash tray, fashioned in it likeness, that was heavy enough to be used for a door stop….or to crown someone with. She no longer has it, nor knows what has happened to it. Maybe one will show up at the Greater Southwest Historical Museum someday, I hope.”
“Hey Butch, here’s a picture from the Ardmore Balloon Kaleidoscope at Western Lodge on Ft. Gibson Lake near Wagoner, OK. The event was Campflite, on Aug 27th,28th, and 29th (1999). The pictures were taken by balloon team member Barbara Riley of Ardmore 1930-2017.”
“I came across your web pages and got so intrigued with reading your “delightful” information, that I really spent too much time on the computer. I told my son that I could have read forever. The reason I was searching OK to see if I could find any information about a trial that was held in the early 30’s. It involved 2 policemen shooting a Mexican boy (who was the relative of some Mexican ruler). The boy and two others were students at a Catholic college in Kansas and were on their way home to Mexico. Have you ever researched this? It happened in Ardmore. If it is already on one of your past newsletters, could you let me know? By the way, I subscribed to your newsletter.”
https://oklahomahistory.net/shooting-incident-in-1931/
“I had an elderly neighbor from Ardmore, OK….Zora Palmer and Bill Palmer. She left OK and lived in Fontana and then Rialto, CA. She told me an interesting story about 4 years ago about her father (a farmer) being shot in his wagon because of some land dispute. This was probably in the 20’s. I don’t know what her maiden name was… and in the meantime, she passed away.”
Last week my beloved pickup almost met its Waterloo. It was parked on the east side of the courthouse and the workers who are cleaning the Dome, lost a wire brush off their electric cleaner. It fell, striking my windshield. But everything worked out. Commissioner Joe Dean McReynolds had me get a new one in a few hours. And also this week I had a tooth pulled. Things didn’t go too well, a piece of it broke off as my dentist pulled it, so he had to “dig” it out. Not a good week. -Butch
No wait, not all week was bad. A friend at the courthouse had a 1.44 diskette crash on which 20 or so very important documents were stored. I was able to recover nearly every file using Norton Utilities. She was so happy she brought me a coconut cream pie! And her husband said he didn’t care either. hahahaha Friends….. they make life worth living.
“We don’t remember days, we remember moments.”
-Cesare Pavese 1908-1950
Butch and Jill Bridges
Ardmore, Oklahoma
580-490-6823
