Crime in the Red River Valley
Like the rest of the world, the Red River Valley has not been spared from the criminal element. Its location may make its home-grown underworld a bit more interesting however. Here are some random stories of crime, criminals, and legal proceedings from the Red River Valley. -from the Red River Historian website
https://www.redriverhistorian.com/crime
I ran across this 7 minute history lesson on the E.J. Johnson Memorial Bridge at Lake Murray. The video is produced by my Facebook friend Karen Crowson. She has done an in-depth review of this bridge and its history.
Marker on 3rd Street Southwest in Ardmore. 1999 photo
First Baptist Church, Tulsa Oklahoma – 1908
Ardmore High School – 1945
Ada, Oklahoma 1908
My listing of Oklahomans with unclaimed insurance has grown a lot this month.
https://oklahomahistory.net/unclaimed-property-in-oklahoma/
From this week’s Mailbag
“Hi Butch, We have copies of Harold S. Pittman’s book History in your Hand for sale in our gift shop of the Greater Southwest Historical Museum! They are $5.00 each and members of the Museum get a 10% discount in the Gift Shop. Thanks for all you do!” -Cassandra
Q. I’m working on a detailed family history project and my grandparents lived in McCurtain, Oklahoma (Haskell county) from about 1907 until the mine accident in 1912. Grandpa John was a coal miner and luckily above ground that day or off-shift. The census records said they actually lived in Chant, Oklahoma on West Street. My grandfather bought two lots and built his own house… which they owned until around 1930… even though he worked all over Eastern Oklahoma coal country and lived for a while in Wilburton, Krebs, McAlister, Alderson, Coalton and finally settled near Schulter between Henryetta and Okmulgee… that is where my Dad was born and raised… a little community the locals called Pleasant Valley. Do you still have the book about Chant, Oklahoma in PDF format? -Chip in Phoenix AZ
A. Yes I do. Its from a 2016 newsletter of mine. It’s nearly 500mb, a very large file consisting of 206 pages. I suggest to not download it to your phone. Below is a link to download the filw to your computer, from my Dropbox.
HAM Talk by KC5JVT via Echolink
Below is from my newsletter archives dated
January 11, 2007 – Issue 520
Here is an old photograph Dee Ann Burris owns of the two men wearing the Woodmen of the World uniforms. Her kinfolk, Arley Weatherbee (1897 – 1918), is the man on the left. It seems like many people when they first see someone in these uniforms of long ago, thinks the uniform belongs to the Salvation Army. Woodmen of the World was a fraternal organization. -Dee Ann Burris
Here’s an interesting postcard Dee Ann brought in last week. Its titled Apache Ghost Dancers.
This is a photograph taken in 1932 near the front gate (east of the gate) of Rose Hill Cemetery of the burial spot of David Lee Dunn.
This is an old photo postcard Dee Ann Burris had in her possession of the Belleview Plunge in Sulphur, Oklahoma.
This is what looks like a 1950s photo of the fountain that stood at the front entrance to the old Seventh Day Adventist Hospital here in Ardmore. I remember the fountain being there in the early 1970s.
Linda Wagner, author of Okie Legacy of Alva, Oklahoma had a real toe tapping piece of history in her newsletter last week. It was a song I remember hearing as a kid many times. I probably shouldn’t tell this, because its on me, but I always misunderstood this one word in one line. The song was written by Stuart Hamlin in 1954 and really made popular a short time later by Rosemary Clooney. The song I’m referring to is “This Old House”. And what I misunderstood as a kid was, “….I’m getting ready to meet the Saints.” I thought Rosemary Clooney was singing, “….I’m getting ready to meet the train”. hahaha. Oh well, I know now, and its a beautiful upbeat song. And when you hear it, if it don’t make you want to tap your toe, then all I can say is, well, I don’t know what to say. Anyway, below is the song in a wav file format. Turn up your speakers!
https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos7a/clooney-thisoldhouse.wav
Jill and I were at Teepee Beach at Lake Murray last weekend. The water level is really down as you can tell from the two pics I took of the beach area. I remember back in the 60s when beautiful sand covered the entire area, all the way out to the wood float about 150 feet from the shore line.
I mentioned in the past two issues about no birds anywhere to be seen in my neighborhood since I started looking December 26th. Well, maybe the birds did know something was coming….. ice and snow and bitter cold predicted this weekend in Oklahoma and Carter county is expected to get ice. Boy I hate that stuff, sure hope Ardmore misses the blunt of the storm.
“A few issues of T&T ago you mentioned the “old” highway that runs by Dickson School (north). As a child my family lived at Mill Creek and we made trips to Ardmore to visit family here on that highway. Several years ago I sold real estate and was with Bob Longino Reality. I sold a house on the east side of Dickson school and was following the Title exam through Attorney Marvin Schilling at the time (1978). He told he had not been able to get the property clear. Reason was it mentioned Mulholland Highway as the west boundary. For some I recalled that I thought the highway back in the 30s was called such. He later called to tell me it was and the papers cleared. Thought you might like to know this, he got the information from the courthouse he told me. Keep up the great work with the T&T, sure enjoyed by a lot of folks, especially we old timers.” -Troy Seedig
Q: I ran across an article in the 1974 issue of The Daily Ardmoreite at the Chickasaw Library here in Ardmore, titled, “One Railroad In Oklahoma Has Tunnel.” Does anyone remember this tunnel?
A: This tunnel still exists and is used by the KCS railway. The entrances on both ends are brick lined. It was modified by the Frisco by increasing the clearance for pig flats by lining the ceiling with concrete. The center of the tunnel is in solid rock and is unlined. In fact it opens up into a fairly large cavern in the middle. I have ridden through it a couple of times, once in a caboose and once in the cab of a loco. I have also walked into south end beyond the brick lining. BTW, it is barely in Arkansas. Access to both ends is from Arkansas highways. -Mike Condren
“In the first place, we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace, or origin. But this is predicated upon the person’s becoming in every facet an American, and nothing but an American…There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn’t an American at all. We have room for but one flag, the American flag… We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language… and we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people.” -Theodore Roosevelt from a letter he wrote to the president of the American Defense Society on January 3, 1919, three days before Roosevelt died.
Butch and Jill Bridges
Ardmore, Oklahoma
580-490-6823
