This and That Newsletter
www.OklahomaHistory.net
Vol 23 Issue 1,159 Circulation 5,000 April 11, 2019
Ardmore, Oklahoma
My permanent email address: [email protected]
580-490-6823
Chickasaw Compress Company, Ardmore, Oklahoma
Cotton is still King in the South and scattered over the broad Southland are compresses through which the staple is hauled for a final reduction in bulk before it is ready for the spinners of the United States and Europe. Most of the output of the cotton gins of the Chickasaw Nation finds its way to Ardmore, where the big Chickasaw Compress is located. The capacity of the plant is from 1,000 to 1,200 bales of cotton in 10 hours, and the number of bales handled is about 50,000 per year, requiring a force of 65 men, who receive for their services from $1.50 to $2.50 per day. During the season of the compress presents a scene of life and activity. At this time the plant covers about 6 acres of ground, having been enlarged from time to time.
W. H. Murphy, the superintendent, is eminently qualified for the important position he holds, having formerly been identified with several compresses in Texas.
-Indian Territory and Carter County Pioneers book 1982Q. What city in Oklahoma has the most sunshine per year?
A. No 1 is Guymon, Oklahoma. Ardmore came in #8 out of 10.Q. The haunted Parallel Forest in Oklahoma is not for the faint of heart. Where is it located?
A. Answer in next week's newsletterFebruary 1984
Sanders Feed Store in Lone Grove opened for business. Larry Patton is manager. He is married to the former Louise Jones, whose family once owned a sawmill on South Cheek Road.February 1984
The body of Everett Hall, Maysville, 63, was found in an abandoned house south of Blue Ribbon Missionary Baptist Church. Hall had four gunshot wounds in the body when found. His pickup was found in the parking lot of the Lone Grove Bowling Alley by a Lone Grove Police Officer around midnight of the night of Hall's disappearance, February 11th.Below is a couple markers I made this week.
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/bricks/MarthaWilsonFlagstone.jpg
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/bricks/GarmonAndGauntlettPavers.jpg
Below is from This and That newsletter archives of April 12, 2007
"Hi Butch, I hope someone can check out any report of the murder of my grandfather, Robert William Bridges, in or around Addington or Waurika, Jefferson County, Indian Territory sometime between 1897 and 1903 by Willie Cain, a brother of Drusie Ella Cain, wife of Robert. I have exhausted all other sources I can think of, so how about it? Please see if you can find any information regarding this. I could not find any record of his burial in that area last October when I was in Ardmore. I drove out to Waurika and I did come up with info about sale of his 500 acres at Addington 1906-1911 by his younger brother William Joseph Bridges. I think that possibly he actually was killed around Houston, Texas, while visiting his wife's relatives there, but anyway. Thanks, nephew!" -Don Bridges, Sr. California.
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On a north wall of an old red brick building on Waurika's Main Street is a mural and bandstand. I can imagine on Friday and Saturday nights this summer local musicians singing and playing to entertain the Since Waurika still has many of their old red brick streets including Main Street still brick paved, I'm sure there would be some street dancing too. The mural is interesting, a depiction of the cattle drives that followed the Chisholm Trail through town over 100 years ago.
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos7a/WaurikaOK7a.jpg
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos7a/WaurikaOK7b.jpg
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We were at the Wilson Museum and just before we exited the building, George Pinches said something about some sun bonnets Mindy Taylor had made and was about to go on sale as a fund raiser for the museum. That caught Jill's attention and she wanted to see them. George took us to the back office where the bonnets had just arrived and not even set out at the front desk yet, so we got a pick of the bunch. Jill chose one that looked like a color and pattern my great grandmother Ida Miller would have wore when she went outside in the hot summer sun at 6th and H Street NE. Here is a pic I took of Jill modeling these unique sun bonnets from the past.
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos7a/SunBonnet7a.jpg
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This pic was sent in by Toby Insenberg and is a bell located at the Coleman Baptist Church. Coleman is located about 10 miles south of Wapanuka in Johnston county. Its attached to the top of an "oil derrick" like mount.
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos7a/ColemanBaptistBell7a.jpg
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We've had many mentions of the Hamburger Inn in past issues of T&T. I noticed in the newspaper a lady who was a waitress there years ago died this week. Her name was Cecile Rogers, age 90.
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"While I can't answer your specific questions, townships in Oklahoma (and in many states) have nothing to do with towns or cities. They are part of the original survey into sections, ranges and townships. A township is six miles on a side, and so it contains 36 square miles; a "section" is a mile square, and the boundaries of it are called section lines.In the early days there was a provision for a rudimentary township organization--after all, six miles was a considerable distance with horse transport--but they mostly fell into disuse and eventually the idea of township "government" was abolished by either the legislature or a constitutional amendment, I don't recall which. I don't know if any townships still had an organization by then; they were pretty extinct by then as a political entity, but they still are very much alive as mapping and surveying units.
Towns and cities--municipalities--are an entirely different type of political organization.
Some places back east, that were never surveyed by the baseline and meridian method, have an entirely different form of township that still exists as a political entity.
Also note that Texas, then part of Spain and then Mexico, was never surveyed by the range and township method and so the boundaries of land titles are often still a mess to define sometimes in that state." -Wes Leatherock
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-------------------------------------------------------------------------Some mail from this week's MAILBAG.....
The Year Was 1955
I lived through these years but it’s hard to remember some of them, I do know that the minimum wage was $.75 an hour and if you could work 40 hours you were living in tall cotton. I was in the Air Force and going to Aircraft Maintenance School or teaching it and the pay was not very good. Because of my low pay Susie and I had a hard time of it until we moved to Lubbock, Texas and I went of flying status at Reese Air Force Base. I received $70 a month for flying with student pilots. $70 almost doubled my monthly income and when I received my Air Crew Wings my pay jump to $90 a month! WOW!!! -Roy Garnand
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Butch, I enjoyed the article about Ardmore Milling Co in this weeks issue. However, I would like to point out some errors in the history. My father started work for Ardmore Milling Co. in 1938 as a salesman and continued with the company for over 35 years. He was an officer in the Corporation at the time that the company was sold to Mr. B. J. Baker. Mr. Pearson did not purchase Ardmore Milling, as the company was not sold until about 1970. Mr. Baker did start a business named Comet Feed in the early 60's which was located on South Washington just prior to the overpass. The article leaves impression that Comet and Ardmore Milling were combined in 1955, which is not true. Mr. Baker did purchase all stock in the company and renamed the company Comet Feed around 1970. My father continued working for Mr. Baker for some 3-4 years after the purchase until he retired in mid 1970's.Mr. Underwood did not operate the business until age 81, as he died in 1971 at the age of 79.
Thanks. -Jim Wilmoth
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-----------------------------------------------High Flight
Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds - and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of - wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there
I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air.
Up, up the long delirious, burning blue,
I've topped the windswept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, or even eagle flew -
And, while with silent lifting mind I've trod
The high untresspassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand and touched the face of God.Pilot Officer Gillespie Magee
No 412 squadron, RCAF
Killed 11 December 1941https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IoL-KCFbIpA
See everyone next week!
Butch and Jill Bridges
"Friends Make Life Worth Living"
PO Box 2
Lone Grove, Oklahoma 73443
http://www.OklahomaHistory.net
Vicious Dog Attacks in Oklahoma
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/viciousdogs.html
Oklahoma Bells: http://www.OklahomaHistory.net/bellpage.html
Bill Hamm's Cemetery Database
http://www.usgwarchives.net/ok/carter/cartercm.htm
American Flyers Memorial Fund - Administration Webpage
http://www.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
http://www.OklahomaHistory.net/airbase/
Carter County Government Website
http://cartercountyok.us
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