One day in the early 70’s when I was District Attorney, I entered the courthouse from the west side and noticed Mr. Berry sitting high on his stand, head resting against the wall, with feet on the footrests. He was fast asleep and quietly snoring. I couldn’t resist playing a little prank on him. Without…

It was in Harper’s livery stable on North Caddo, that the Great Fire of 1895 started, wiping out or damaging all buildings in Ardmore’s business district. 46 structures were destroyed and nine others sustained damage. The fire burn through the area bound by A Street northwest, North Caddo, Broadway and Main Street, taking with it…

My maternal grandparents, Stanley and Addie Carmon, were early day pioneers of Ardmore, Oklahoma. Stanley was born in Gainesville, Texas in 1889. His parents, Howard and and Ada (Jacobs) Carmon, had moved to Gainesville from Huntingdon county, Pennsylvania. Stanley’s parents died when he was around 12 years old. There is an interesting obituary in the Hesperian Newspaper,…

OKLAHOMA’S CONFEDERATE HOME (1911 – 1942)The United Daughters of the Confederacy in 1906 began a temporary establishment in McAlester, Oklahoma, to house indigent veterans, their wives and their widows, but this was only temporary. Action toward the construction of a permanent building began on Feb. 20, 1909, when eight Confederate veterans met in Oklahoma City,…

Ada, Oklahoma Mystic Finds Body The Daily ArdmoreiteArdmore, Oklahoma Thursday, October 16, 1930MYSTIC FINDS BODY OF MISSING FARMERBody of Alton Edgar, Who Disappeared From His HomeNear Madill on Night of Oct. 7, Is Found in RavineSouth of Madill With Bullet Wound in Head. MADILL, Oct. 16. – (Special) – Oriental mysticism today played a major…

My life with theCarter County Sheriffs Officeas a Reserve DeputyAugust 1, 1975 – December 31, 2016 By Butch BridgesLone Grove, OklahomaOnline August 19, 2021Updated: December 31, 2023 In 1973 during my employment with the Southern Oklahoma Ambulance Service (1970-1986 full time) I was the only ambulance driver who resided inside the Ardmore city limits besides the ambulance…

This week’s newsletter will be a short one. My new website is still under construction, fine tuning and cosmetic changes. We’ve had one technical problem after another, but we are making progress. So bear with us until its all done.  A Glimpse Into The Past  Three R’s in a wagon Mrs Nora Hoffman says that…

This week’s newsletter will be another short one. My new website is still under construction, but coming along nicely. Most of the actual webpage have been converted to the new WordPress format. Now to copy over 20,000 photos from the old website, and paste them into the new one, within their respective Folders. So bear…

Oklahoma History Website Continuance Plan Go Fund Me Program Administered by Butch BridgesArdmore, Oklahoma580-490-6823 This webpage updated 05/25/22 Online since 01/21/22 Email Butch Bridges butchbridges@oklahomahistory.net Purpose: Money received will be used to pay for the yearly expenses of my website Expenses would include among others, the $156 a year to the Hosting Service where the…

I was searching for something the other day in my archives and ran across the link below. I had bookmarked it on my PC several years ago and forgotten about it. It is a wealth of Carter county history. Its 130 pages entitled Carter County Then and Now by Bob Burke and Eric Dabnet and commissioned by…