Ardmoreite Robert Hensley sent in the above photo this week of the new Carter County Courthouse dome. What a magnificent building even at 115 years old! Of course I may be a little bias as I spend 18 years there. I love that old building.
The song “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot” was composed in present-day Oklahoma. A couple known as Uncle Wallace and Aunt Minerva were slaves in the old Choctaw Nation in the mid-1800s. Periodically, Wallace and Minerva were sent to work at Spencer Academy, a Choctaw boys’ school. They were great favorites of the students during these periods because of the songs they sang while they worked. The school’s superintendent also grew to love the couple and their music, and he eventually sent six of Uncle Wallace’s songs to the Fisk Jubilee Singers.
The songs composed by Uncle Wallace became well-known spirituals. “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot,” “Roll, Jordan, Roll,” “Steal Away to Jesus,” “I’m A-Rollin’, I’m A-Rollin’,” and “The Angels Are A-Comin’” are among the most popular and best loved. Learn more about Uncle Wallace and Aunt Minerva in “The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture”
Photograph of the Spencer Academy’s, school for Choctaw boys near Caddo, Indian Territory, Choctaw Nation, student body, c. 1892. Photo by William M. Caldwell, Paris, TX.
We received some hail last Thursday, April 3rd. Some parts of the county, mostly in the Healdton/Fox area received even high winds damaging roofs, etc.
Carter County District 3 installed a badly needed new bridge this week on Timber Road, replacing an old wooden bridge whidh was about to cave in. Thank you!
Goodbye DSL and hello high speed Fiber internet. Chickasaw Telephone is installing fiber on my road and are within 1 mile of my house and heading this way. Bring it on!
Mail from the Mailbag
There is a new news outlet for Ardmore called The Ardmore Leader. It is geared toward local news in this area.
About Ardmore Leader
We live in southern Oklahoma and know the importance of local news, and Ardmore Leader wants to Advance Local News by connecting with people wherever they are –through a 24/7 website, a weekly podcast, and a monthly printed edition mailed to every Ardmore mailbox for free.
https://www.ardmoreleader.com/
SOUTHERN LIVING named the Chicken Fried at Cattlemen’s in OKC as the country’s best. I’ve eaten there many times over the years, usually opting for the T-Bone but I guess I’ll have to make a visit this fall and check it out. We can get wonderful steaks here in Montana but they don’t know how to make a good chicken fried steak.
The restaurant recently changed hands but apparently, things are still good. It’s a better restaurant than when I began eating there in 1970. I used to shop across the street because that store sold Washington DC long sleeve button down chambrey shirts. They were sized and back then they cost $3.68.
-Monroe
HAM Talk by Butch Bridges KC5JVT – Allstar node # 58735
The Arbuckle 97 Net conducts a check-in every Sunday night at 8:00pm. Any licensed HAM is welcome to check-in. Yes,
To all Amateur Radio operators: The next Arbuckle 97 Net breakfast will be April 26th @ 9am at Swadey’s BBQ in Ardmore, Oklahoma. This is not affiliated with any HAM club. Any licensed HAM is welcome to come and enjoy fellowship with other HAMs. Yes, Swadley’s does serve breakfast with 10 breakfast items on the menu!
https://swadleys.com/swadleys-bbq-menu/?rid=86
Below is from my newsletter archives dated
May 1, 2008 – Issue 588
Nelda Keck of Woodford, Oklahoma (northern Carter county) stopped by last week to share a photo. Not just any old photo, but one she took a couple years ago of a bell in her yard. Nelda stepped out of her house at the foot of the Arbuckle Mountains one evening back in December 2006 and looked west toward the setting sun, and there the bell, the U.S. flag, the pond, and the setting sun came together in the most beautiful array imaginable. She grabbed her camera, snapped a picture, and little did she know at the time, but the photograph taken that evening would received national recognition in 2007 by the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) in Washington DC. Keep in mind that this scene in her yard on Highway 53 West was not planned, or rehearsed, or waited for, or put together by software and a computer. But just in a brief window of time, Nelda was fortunate enough to get a glimpse of almost a miracle of nature, and she caught it on film. When I saw the photo for the first time last week, I just stared in awe at the picturesque scene, it really brings out patriotism. Thanks Nelda for sharing this extraordinary photo with everyone.
https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos8a/KeckBell8b.jpg
Speaking of Woodford, Oklahoma, when I drive through that little community and see Akers on the mailbox, I think how the first sheriff of this county and his family hailed from Woodford. He was Holmes Akers and some of his kin are still residents of Woodford. What an honor it must have been for Holmes Akers back in 1907, to become a part of history in the making as he was sworn in to enforce the laws of a brand new state. There has been many sheriffs since then, but only one “first sheriff”.
https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos8a/AkersHolmes03a.jpg
And something else needing researched in The Daily Ardmoreite archives at the library: It seems its taken for granted by the historians that WKY in Oklahoma City was the first radio station to take to the airwaves in Oklahoma back in 1922. But it seems the whole state has forgotten that Ardmore’s Dr. Walter Hardy might have first started broadcasting from his radio station on the second floor of his hospital at Caddo and East Main back in 1921. True, both radio stations received their licenses from the government in 1921, but I would almost bet an old fashion hamburger Dr. Hardy also started broadcasting as WOAA that same year. By the way, Dr Hardy established the first air ambulance in Oklahoma the following year, 1922.
The Daily Ardmoreite, May 11, 1922: Bud Ballew’s body was removed to an undertaker’s establishment at Wichita Falls, where it was embalmed, and, in the mean time, his friends were communicated with here in Ardmore. The tragedy took place at 1:35 o’clock on Friday afternoon, all parties agree. On word of the killing reaching Ardmore, Ballew’s friends secured the use of the ambulance plane of the Hardy Sanitarium, and in it Pilot Askew and Undertaker Herbert Harvey flew to Wichita Falls, leaving here at 3:15 Friday afternoon. The remains had been brought to the landing field there, and a good sized crowd had gathered to witness the unusual method of transporting a corpse. The remains were placed in the cock-pit of the plane where patients are placed to be brought to the hospital and the return flight was made, the party arriving at Ardmore at 8:00 o’clock, being just about dark. The body was taken to the Harvey Bros Undertaking Parlors and at once a stream of people filled the institution for purpose of viewing the remains. This crowd continued to visit the undertaker’s rooms all day Saturday, and even during the rain of Sunday morning.
https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos8a/BudBallew.jpg
In the above 1922 newspaper clipping the article just reads “Pilot Askew”. Ardmoreite Gary Simmons has provided us with probably the full name of the early day Ardmore pilot. Here it is in his own words: “That would probably be Dorsey Askew who was a partner with Arthur “Art” Oakley at the Oakley-Askew Airport that operated 1921-1933 north of Ardmore. The airport hanger burned, Feb. 7, 1933, and was not rebuilt. Askew left the partnership in 1926 when he took a job flying mail from Dallas to Chicago for United Airlines. He was the first pilot to fly mail from Dallas to Chicago. I have information that he died unexpectedly sometime later but don’t know whether he died from natural causes or crashed. Askew and Oakley were WWI pilots.”
One more comment from a 2003 T&T: In 1924 the Oakley-Askew airport hanger was in the SE corner of Locust Street NW and Chickasaw Blvd.
I heard on the news today some oil field truck tried to cross the Norton Bridge north of Mannsville with too much weight, and broke it down. We are planning to travel out east to Mannsville Friday, get a burger at Sweet Mama’s and then on over to the bridge, get some pics.
“Hi Butch: I read your article where you mentioned an occurrence of gilsonite in Oklahoma south of Sulphur, Oklahoma . “I am a petroleum engineering, University of Oklahoma, 1952, after the navy. Some will remember the times. There are numerous occurrence of gilsonite in Oklahoma. Most are at the southern flanks of the Arbuckle Mountains. One large one mine was between Loco and Alma in Carter County. It operated for several years around the years of 1917. I also found gilsonite in Alfalfa, Count, North of the city of Helena. That occurrence was on the banks of the old inland lake that made the Great Salt Plains of Oklahoma. I walked along the escarpment of the ancient lake and found numerous chucks of gilsonite. Apparently the ancient lake was flooded with petroleum from reservoirs that eroded out of the ground. The sun baked the petroleum until it was solid like coal but would melt and flow like oil when heated. The largest production of gilsonite was in Utah about 30 miles south east of Vernal, Utah. Gilsonite was produced there for years by Union Oil Company. The gilsonite was used for news print. Then the news print would smear on anything it touched. Finally news print is really an ink and the gilsonite mines were abandoned. However, the last time I was there the pits were still opened but not supervised.” -W. Carey Hardy
“Butch, We used to swim in an asphalt pit about where you described 5 miles south of Sulphur then turn right (south or west) and go about 2 or 3 miles and on the right 20 yards from the road are high walls and a deep pool we jumped off those cliffs and into the water the water always had an oily film on it. (you can see the high walls and pool from the road. The pit is just a half mile or so from the Holly Lake community in case you want to go there. the only other asphalt pits that I knew of were just south and west of the lake Arbuckle dam- my dad worked there from time to time That was Southern Rock Asphalt company and was in business until around 1959 or 60 There was a train spur there that took the Asphalt to Dougherty Max Myers (sp) was the engineer.” -George Peveto
“When the Snow is on the Roses” by Sonny James 1972
When the snow is on the roses
when the bluebirds flown away
In my arms well both remember
all the love we share today
All the love we share today
Sonny James 1928-2016
Butch and Jill Bridges
Ardmore Oklahoma
580-490-6823
https://oklahomahistory.net