Email: butchbridges@oklahomahistory.net Phone: 580-490-6823 My, my, my, how times flies when you’re having fun.  I can hardly believe next week’s newsletter will be issue 1,000. There has been several times over the past years I thought about discontinuing my weekly publication. But when I mentioned it in my newsletter, here come the email into my…

Email: butchbridges@oklahomahistory.net Phone: 580-490-6823 Thomas McClure ‘Mack’ Fraser (1912-1986) was Carter County Commissioner for District 3 from 1959 to 1978. Before statehood the Fraser family home was located where the Carter County Courthouse parking lot is now (south of courthouse). Mack’s father, David Stoddard Fraser, opened Fraser and Sons Grocery-Wholesale Meats at 419 East Main…

Email: butchbridges@oklahomahistory.net Phone: 580-490-6823 Thought I share an email from years ago I received from Gary Simmons. He recalls some history of the property where the present day Carter County District 1 Barn is located at Springer. Feb 8, 2003:  “The airport at Springer (where the county barn is now) was owned by the city…

PO Box 2, Ardmore, Oklahoma 73402 Email: butchbridges@oklahomahistory.net Phone: 580-490-6823 I think everyone enjoys a mystery. The following story was told to me by a northeast childhood friend of mine and took place not very far at all from my stomping grounds at 3rd and H Street NE. True or not true, I don’t know……

PO Box 2, Ardmore, Oklahoma 73402 Email: butchbridges@oklahomahistory.net Phone: 580-490-6823 Carter County lost a history buff extraordinaire last week. Mary Wilson of Lone Grove helped me numerous times over the years when I was stumped at a piece of history I couldn’t quite put my thumb on, but to my rescue came Mary Wilson with…

PO Box 2, Ardmore, Oklahoma 73402 Email: butchbridges@oklahomahistory.net Phone: 580-490-6823 A GLIMPSE INTO THE PAST 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.…

PO Box 2, Ardmore, Oklahoma 73402 Email: butchbridges@oklahomahistory.net Phone: 580-490-6823 From my January 5, 2002 newsletter:  “Butch, back in the late 50s and early 60s I had a little league baseball coach named Skinny Stewart at Wilson, Oklahoma. He had been a major league ball player, but had become paralyzed in a car accident. Also, his…

PO Box 2, Ardmore, Oklahoma 73402 Email: butchbridges@oklahomahistory.net Phone: 580-490-6823 Before Oklahoma became a state, Ben Collins was an Indian policeman for the Chickasaw Nation. He lived 5 miles south of Milburn, Oklahoma. One evening around 10pm in August 1906, Ben Collins was standing on the porch with his wife, when he was gunned down…

PO Box 2, Ardmore, Oklahoma 73402 Email: butchbridges@oklahomahistory.net Phone: 580-490-6823 I received an email last week along with a photo about Ardmore’s world renown trick roper Hardy Murphy. This is a “Tuck’s” postcard of Hardy Murphy and Silver Cloud. The back of the card reads “Hardy Murphy of Ardmore, Oklahoma and his trained horse Silver…

Email: butchbridges@oklahomahistory.net Phone: 580-490-6823 Well, I just knew last week’s newsletter would be my last because I was sure I’d win that Gazillion dollars with the one powerball ticket I bought. But I guess someone wanted me to continue publishing my weekly ezine. That’s right, I didn’t win. Anyway, buying those 3 acres amongst those…