PO Box 2, Ardmore, Oklahoma 73402
Email: [email protected], Phone: 580-490-6823
Ardmore area is really soaked after an over 5 inch rain this past weekend, again. Why is it either fast or famine? We need a break from all the rain, but the weather forecasters predict more rain this weekend. With all the rain the past 2 weekends, and now 4-5 inches more predicted, I may have to invest in a boat. And an interesting note there was is a poem sent in by a Healdtonite Wayne Pierce back in 2006 about Oklahoma rain, I have included it at the end of this newsletter.
August 1934
To combat a jack rabbit plague, commissioners of one county offered a $0.05 bounty on each pair of rabbit ears for 60 days.August 1934
George Churchwell and wife, Bonnie, of Lone Grove are now at liberty on bond for the part they played in the smuggling of saws into the jail for Hubert Mooney’s escape. Mooney sawed his way to liberty and killed two brothers as he escaped.Q. Where in Oklahoma is a one-of-a-kind elephant ranch that is home to the second largest herd of Asian elephants in America?
A. Hugo, Oklahoma
https://www.onlyinyourstate.com/oklahoma/elephant-sanctuary-ok/Q. Deep in these Oklahoma mountains sits a uniform forest that looks like something out of a horror movie. It has over 20,000 trees, planted exactly 6 feet apart in every direction, and it’s rumored to be haunted. Where are these mountains?
A. Answer in next week’s newsletterBelow is from This and That newsletter archives of October 12, 2006
Roy M. Johnson was a pioneer Carter county resident before statehood and a Carter County Commissioner. He’s been mentioned in past T&Ts. There was nice write-up about Roy Johnson in the 1976 Rodeo Program.
https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos6a/RoyJohnsonStory1966.jpg
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Also in the 1976 Shrine Club Rodeo Program is a picture of the old Stromberg-Carlson Plant that used to be at the Ardmore Airpark. Some of you wrote in saying you worked for Stromberg-Carlson years ago.
https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos6a/MaxWestheimerPhoto.jpg
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Also in the 1976 Shrine Club Rodeo Program is a picture of the old Stromberg-Carlson Plant that used to be at the Ardmore Airpark. Some of you wrote in saying you worked for Stromberg-Carlson years ago.
https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos6a/StrombergCarlsonPhoto.jpg
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Speaking of statistics, the Carter County Assessor’s website topped the 1 million mark in page views last week. With over 32,000 parcels of land online, its one of the most visited websites in this county.
http://www.cartercountyassessor.org/
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When I was looking through the 1976 Shrine Club Rodeo Program, there was a photo of it just before it was torn down.
https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos6a/VonKellerHosp1970.jpg
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“The Beatles charted in his 1964 USA tour a plane Lockheed Electra L188C to AFA , which crashed in april 1966 (I know you site American Flyers Memorial ). I would like receive any information about that American Flyers Airline experience with The Beatles in 1964 (and 1965) from any former AFA employee in Ardmore. Thanks you.” -Alejandro Flores. Beatles searcher and anthropologist in Santiago, Chile [email protected]
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“Thank you for the Colvert story and pictures. When I was just a soda jerk at Wade Drug, here in Healdton…. we really enjoyed dispensing Colvert’s products. Mac McCharen was our delivery man and we looked forward to him coming into the store regularly to deliver the products. He was such a jolly fellow and a good friend to all of us jerks. In those days Colvert Co. would do anything for their dealers. I remember they painted a huge picture of their name and products on the side of our building at no cost. (*this was later on when I owned part of Taylor Drug) But back to the soda jerk days –we really liked to be called fountaineers or Fizzicians instead of jerks. Ha. One time Colvert took all of the fizzicians in Ardmore and the surrounding area to OU for a fountain seminar. They taught us how to make everything look more appetizing, how to make whipped cream for toppings, how to keep down waste of material. Just a better way to make everything we served more acceptable. How to improve our participation in customer relations etc. It was an all day seminar and my good friend Bill Raper who was working at that time either at Langston Drug or Cantrell McKnight….not sure which……was the only other participant from Healdton. The Colvert Brothers took us up there in a caravan of cars and we had a great meal at a restaurant on our way back to our homes. . Most of us had never been treated so royally. I would like to remind you that Bill Raper was the father of Linda Lambert, who lives in Healdton, but at that time he was single and very young. We were presented a diploma, which made us feel better about our job, and just a little more important. Not just a soda jerk, but an important cog in the business of the drug store.” -Kenneth Eck
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“Butch, I’m trying to help a friend locate the family of her biological father. His name was Louis Hill and he married Vivia Dickey in Foss, Ok on Dec. 1, 1934. They divorced in April of 1937 and was not seen again. If anyone has any information on this man or his family it would be greatly appreciated.” -Karen Piece at [email protected]
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————————————————————————Some mail from this week’s MAILBAG…..
These are a couple of shots of a female moose eating the last leaves off one of our trees just off the porch. Three days ago she ate every flower on every plant on the porch. This is the one time of the year when the moose come right up to the house to eat the last of the green things in the yard. Oh, did I mention it is snowing also. -Monroe in Big Sky, Montana
https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos18b/MooseMunch100918a.jpghttps://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos18b/MooseMunch100918b.jpg
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Hi Butch— I enjoy reading your weekly newsletters – my great-grandparents (Clark Jones and Mabelle Henderson Jones) lived in Wilson from the mid-1910s until about 1930, and my granddad was born there in 1919. The photos you shared of Lorena Park in last week’s newsletter reminded me of some photos from my great-grandmother’s album of them swimming somewhere in the Wilson or Ardmore area in the 1920s. Just wondering if you or any of your readers might recognize the pools (or river/waterfall) that appear in these photos.Thanks for sharing so much about the history of the area.
Cheers,
Kevin (in Arlington, VA)
https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos18b/WilsonOKswimminghole1.jpghttps://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos18b/WilsonOKswimminghole2.jpg
https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos18b/WilsonOKswimminghole3.jpg
https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos18b/WilsonOKswimminghole4.jpg
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Hiya, Butch!Checking the T&T archives, I can’t find that anyone ever answered the question about Mrs. Busby’s stolen children that you reprinted in this week’s T&T. Coincidentally, I’ve been digging around this old story recently. Mrs. Pollyanna Busby (no kidding) was a Confederate widow in Meridian, Mississippi. At the end of the Civil War a local man who was moving to Texas kidnapped the boys to use as farm labor. Fifty-eight years later, Mrs. Busby was reunited with her sons, a blessing she attributed to daily prayer. I’ve attached a copy of the front page of the Daily Ardmoreite from March 9, 1923, with the whole story. -Rusty Williams
Red River Bridge War: A Texas-Oklahoma Border Battle (Texas A&M University Press)
My Old Confederate Home: A Respectable Place for Civil War Veterans (University Press of Kentucky)
Historic Photos of Dallas in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s (Turner Publishing)
Available from your favorite local or online bookstore
Newspaper article in PDF format in upper left hand corner.
https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos18b/BusbyStolenChildren081923.pdf
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My morning paper is the Old Farmers Almanac.
Things you can learn from it—
Most folks don’t know the difference between a walnut and a Butter Nut— Walnuts has one nut to the limb– Butter nuts has 2 to 3 together. Butter nuts are smaller and have a little different taste. Walnut has a stronger taste and larger.
https://www.arborday.org/trees/treeguide/TreeDetail.cfm?ItemID=803————————————————-
Civil War?
Old hunters and Indian fighters of the pre-Civil War era wore blue or light gray so they would not stand out at a distance. This tradition was carried over into the selection of army uniform colors. Because the United States (Union) regulation color was already dark blue, the Confederates chose gray. However, soldiers were often at a loss to determine which side of the war a soldier was on by his uniform. With a shortage of regulation uniforms in the Confederacy, many southern recruits just wore clothes from home. When cloth became scarce in the South, the principal source of Confederate uniforms became captured Union uniforms. The dark blue uniforms were boiled in a solution with walnut hulls, acorns, and lye. The resulting color was light tan, which the southerners called “butternut.”https://www.FarmersAlmanac.com/
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———————————————–Oklahoma Rain
by Wayne Pierce (Healdton graduate)
October 2006Tis for those I shall surely cry,
Who ne’re trod an Oklahoma lane,
If you are less fortunate than I,
And walked in the Oklahoma rain.Each droplet is a blessing true,
Erasing from the heart all pain,
Purges depths of the soul anew,
This regenerating Oklahoma rain.Er’re my time has breathed it’s last,
Just scatter my ashes on the plain,
So I may catch a glimpse of my past,
As my Lord sends the Oklahoma rain.And when the angel approaches me,
With the message, “I can not remain”,
Then let my soul release to Thee,
Soaring thru the Oklahoma rain.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
http://cartercountyok.us