This and That Newsletter
www.OklahomaHistory.net
Vol 25  Issue 1,257    Circulation 5,000      February 25, 2021
Ardmore, Oklahoma
My email address:  [email protected]
580-490-6823

"What we have done for ourselves alone dies with us,
What we have done for others and the world remains and is immortal."

A Glimpse Into The Past

Pentecostal Holiness Church Wilson Oklahoma

The Pentecostal Holiness Church of Wilson had its beginning in a tent revival meeting and late in 1932 the Lee Hargiss organized the group into the Pentecostal Holiness Church and brought it into the Oklahoma Conference.

Charter members included Mamie Penn, Florence and Sam Sipes, Mr. and Mrs. Sam Spence, Mr. and Mrs. Tom Chastain, Mr. and Mrs Will Keel. and Lottie Robbins.

Secretaries have been Mrs. Tom Chastain, Ina Blackburn, Hazel Keel, Mamie Penn, Ida Sisco, Bonnie Reed and Esther Porterfield.

During the tenure of Reverend Ralph Robbins, the frame church building was moved to the present location and a parsonage was purchased. The exterior of the church building was faced with stone a few years later.
 -from Carter County History book 1957

The church is located at 301 Ash Street in Wilson, Oklahoma

http://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos21a/WilsonPentecostalChurch1957.jpg

The Mulkey school was located north of Dickson, Oklahoma 2 miles north to Ponderosa Road then back east 7/10th of a mile on the south side of Ponderosa Road.

http://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos21a/MulkeySchool1923.jpg

http://oklahomahistory.net/maps/MulkeySchoolMap2.jpg

Young School was located somewhere in the northwest part of Carter county at the "Ardmore and Sulphur Road". I wish I knew the exact location.

http://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos21a/YoungSchool1923.jpg

Marion Thomas Pierce was Carter County Commissioner for District 2 from 1921 to 1928.

http://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos21a/MTPierceCommissioner.jpg

Marion Pierce is buried in the Graham Cemetery.

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/11274633/marion-thomas-pierce

Joe T. Taylor was Carter County Commissioner from 1919 to 1922 for District 3. I been trying to find where Joe Taylor is buried, but so far with no results. Maybe someone knows???

http://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos21a/JoeTTaylorCommissioner.jpg

Bridgeman Building, 300 West Main. Thomas Bridgeman and Frank Cardwell Insurance 1920

As of today we have reached area people about unclaimed property totaling over $690,100. And the search continues....

So with the above being said, how long has it been since you checked your name or a family member's name? Its easy to do a search at the Oklahoma State Treasurer link below. I think every state in the union has a unclaimed property website through the respective state treasures website.
https://OKtreasure.com

Q. What governor said "Oklahoma is OK"?
A.  Raymond Gary

Q.  Where in Oklahoma is the Fudge Factory?
A.  Answer in next week's newsletter

Some mail from this week's MAILBAG.....

Hello from Western Carter County Butch. The article of the jail escape last week mentioned Deputy Shorty Clayton having a gun pulled on him. Shorty was a great guy. Shorty's granddaughter is OU's women's basketball coach Sherri Coale. Sherri spent a great deal of time with her grandparents in Healdton. -Vince Freeman
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Q. I had a request for info on the TNT Club south of Ardmore. I posted the request on my Facebook and below are just a FEW of the comments.

It was just south of Oswald Road and Highway 77 in Love County (Greenville community). -Tony Lawson

It was built and owned by Jack and Maxine Terral. It was called the TNT club. It was a bottle club you brought your own bottle of liquor and they sold the ice cups and soda, water to mix it with. James Wolfe and Charles Young were bouncers there. Every week end when I was a young deputy sheriff in the early 80's we would assist them when problems arose. -Mike Buxton, Marietta

Last time I was there I saw Dottie West. -Gary Harris

Jack Terrill owned the TNT. He built it and the name is the initials of his oldest daughter, Teresa. I went there a lot. After I got to know Jack, I exercised his horses. After he died his sons and family from first marriage took over the club, and the house that his second wife, her mother, and his 2 daughters lived in. Far as i know they sold it all out from under Maxine and her mother, and 2 girls. Left them with nowhere to live. -Kim Shaw Ford
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Below is from This and That newsletter archives of February 26, 2009

"Dear Butch, The article about Healdton in your last This 'n That prompted the following memory. As a young man my father, Albert DeFratus, worked in a drug store in Healdton. He lived in the storeroom at the back. This would have been in the early or mid 1920's. Evidently at that time, Healdton was a "wild and wooly" place because he slept with a shotgun under his bed.

In that storeroom was an old soda fountain in need of repair. My dad got it working again and after the store closed, he opened the back door and served fountain drinks to the African American townspeople who, due to the segregation of the time, could not be served in the store itself.

Later, Albert moved to Sulphur where he became a pharmacy apprentice to John Seeton of Seeton's Drug. At that time, one could serve as an apprentice and then take the state pharmacy board exam and be licensed. Eventually my father bought the drug store and after returning from WWII, Bob Gowan became a partner. They ran the store together for many, many years. The store was sold to Mitch Hull and David Pittman in the 1970's and Albert often served as relief pharmacist. He was opening the store when he had his final heart attack and died in the place where he had been such a vital part of the life of Sulphur." -Mary Lou DeFratus Heltzel
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Q. "There is single grave on the East side of Hwy 177, South of Sulphur, appx. 100 yards S of Buckhorn Creek on a ridge. The grave is that of a horse thief and it was unmarked for years. It has a tombstone now. Does anyone know the story behind the hanging and does anyone know the name of the man buried there?" -Mindy Taylor

A: Aug 2009
"In This 'n' That several months ago, a man wondered about a lone grave near Buckhorn Creek in Murray County on Highway 177 south of Sulphur. The story of that grave was briefly mentioned in Dennis Muncrief's weekly column, "Arbuckle Footnotes", in the Aug. 6 edition of the Sulphur Times Democrat. Mr. Muncrief states "Some time ago we covered the life of William Taylor who was killed by Texas Rangers on Buckhorn Creek south of Sulphur. Young William was a horse thief and the Rangers killed him on the morning of January 17, 1877 where upon they drug his body to a nearby hilltop and buried him. His grave can still be seen."
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Healdton Herald 4-4-1924
John Huckaby, 14-years-old, while rabbit hunting, his dog unearthed an old skunk hide wrapped around $10,000 in currency. The money was believed to have been buried half a century ago as printing is almost illegible. The money was sent to the currency department in Washington for redemption.
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The Daily Ardmoreite September 3, 1916

Old Pioneer Tells Story of Early Days
Time has bequeath to SI LOVE, an old time negro, a rich legacy of highly prized memories of pioneer life in this country. Si was with BOB LOVE and from the famous LOVE family of the Indians, he took his name. He was born near Colbert 67 years ago. He has spent most the years about where Marietta and Ardmore are now. He and other boys captured buffalo calves where the city of Ardmore now stands. He has chased and captured many wild turkeys in this state.

But Uncle Si has aided in the capture of bigger game than the buffalo and it is this game that he likes most to talk of. He knows a dozen different tribes of Indians. He lived here with the peaceful Chickasaws and Choctaws and was their friend and they were his. But when the wild tribes made their raids in here, it was then, that Si shouldered his gun and went with other men in defense of the tribal estate. Some of his relatives were slain by the Indians and his mother, who is now 100 years old, and who contentedly lives with her son south of Lone Grove two miles, bears the scars of the arrow of the Indian which was aimed at her to snuff out her life.

Si says he has been over many a fresh battle ground. He helped gather the dead white men and bury their bodies, but he never found in the battlefield the body of an Indian. "I known now why it was," he said, "when the Indian went into battle, he was tied to his horse. If he received a fatal shot, his horse often escaped and took the body of the dead Indian away." The way to fight the Indians says this old warrior is to shoot the horses down. The Indian depends on his horse for protection, he is so skilled at riding that he can lie on the side of the animal and shoot over his back. With the horse out of the way, the Indian is a poor fighter.

In the early days the Indians here sold many cattle. There were no banks close where money would be deposited and if there had been one, the Indians would have been afraid of them. He took his pay for cattle in gold and that gold was kept about the Indian cabins. Uncle Si says there should be some valuable deposits of gold found near here. At a place two miles south and a little west of Ardmore, a vast sum of money was buried and that money is there today.

For 13 years Uncle Si has lived near Lone Grove. He owns an 80 acre farm and for six years prior, he lived in Ardmore. All the old timers know him. He knows as much about human nature as a man of the prairies can know and he knows more than any of the college professors can ever learn. He is a child of the prairies, he was brought up in the early days when men had to be men. They had to look to themselves for their own protection. Those were times when only the stout hearted braved the wilds and remained here. There were no soft spots of living. Those were times when men sat peacefully and contentedly in their own cabins except when there were raids made by the wild tribes and when they were all Minute Men and went to their arms with a stubborn resolve to drive the intruders back to the mountains.

There are but few people living now who went through those times that tried the souls of men. And these men are entitled to the respect and admiration of those living here now. It was the spirit of adventure that grew in their bosoms that conquered the wild west, that made it inhabitable. The work of those men paved the way for the school, for the church, for civilization. Some one had to undergo those hardships that a peaceful country might be handed down as heritage to others. They did their work well and just how well is shown by the civilization that has followed in the wake of the Indian raids. When this class of old heroes are gone, much of the history of the country will be buried with them. They will have no successors. When their candles are snuffed out, there will be no class of men to relight them. The traditions of the early days will largely pass with them.
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Last week we had that terrible winter snow blizzard hit the area. But the last few days has been so beautiful. Can Spring not be too far off?

No winter lasts forever; no spring skips its turn. -Hal Borland

See everyone next week!

Butch and Jill Bridges

"Friends Make Life Worth Living"
Ardmore, Oklahoma
http://www.OklahomaHistory.net

Oklahoma History Website #2 (backup website)
http://www.okiehistory.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
Ardmore Army Air Field/Ardmore Air Force Website
http://www.OklahomaHistory.net/airbase/
Carter County Government Website
 http://cartercountyok.us

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