This and That Newsletter
Vol 14 Issue 679 Circulation 5,000 January 28, 2010
PO Box 11
Ardmore, Oklahoma 73402
email address: [email protected]
580-657-8616
This week Cinnamon Carter had something happen that is nothing short of a miracle regarding a piece of history stolen 70 years ago in Texas. The "A Friend" Indian statues were created by Ardmore oil millionaire Wirt Franklin and placed in front of his service stations all over Southern Oklahoma back in the 20s and 30s as an advertising gimmick to increase gasoline sales (that worked well by the way). One statue was on display in Ballinger, Texas, but was stolen by person or persons unknown 70 years ago and never seen again. That is until this week. Here it is in her own words:
"Look at what a man found in a trash pit on the piece of property he recently purchased 70 miles from Ardmore, OK!!!! He did not know anything about it and through FATE, while researching it on the computer along with some other junk in the pile, he discovered our Ballinger News Indian Hill page and our project and realized he had the same Indian!!!!! We are working out a few minor details, but it looks like the kids and I may be making a journey that was made almost 70 years ago to bring home the Indian once again!!!! A year after we officially began the process to restore another similar Indian to Indian Hill at the city park, fate smiled on us and through mere miraculous circumstance shined on us BIG TIME! A trash pit and he was just waiting there for the right person to come along and save him!!!! I am just happy beyond happy... I surprised the kids today in a meeting now that I am sure will be able to acquire him and they were THRILLED. The looks on their faces was priceless!!!! Just had to share with some of the people who have been such a help in this whole journey! Our project just added a "road" and now we must figure out how to restore Friend and where we are going to put him as well as continue on with his "son" (the new bronze one)!!!!!! Holding off on the press release for now until all details are worked out with the acquisition." -Cinnamon Carter
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos10a/TexasIndian2010a.jpg
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos10a/TexasIndian2010b.jpg
Walter Clyde Caldwell came to Ardmore in 1899 from Bosque County, Texas, where he was born. He settled in Overbrook with his mother and father. He was the oldest of five children. They came in wagons to this part of the country, and the trip was long, and a hard one. While still young he worked in the asphalt mines close to Criner Hills. In the winter of 1900 Clyde Caldwell returned to Texas to bring his grandfather here. Just before arriving in Indian Territory, the elderly Caldwell died. The family had to take a floor out of a log cabin to build a coffin. In the midst of a snowstorm, with the help of a family friend, Sid Bourland, Edward H. Caldwell was buried at the foot of Criner Hills.
Walter Caldwell married Lula Effie Caudell in May 1912, in Blanchard, Oklahoma, and moved back to Ardmore in 1920. He worked as a dirt contractor, utilizing teams and wagons, and built tanks, roads, and oil field pits. He also moved houses. In 1939 the Caldwells moved east of Ardmore on highway 199 and developed what is now known as Caldwell Hill. He was instrumental in providing homes for many families. Mr. Caldwell passed away in 1974 and worked long past 80 years of age. Mrs. Caldwell was active in homemaker clubs and the Primitive Baptist Church.
The Caldwells had five children: Evelyn, born September 20, 1913. She was first married to Billy Hensley, and secondly to Roy H. Williams. Francis J. Caldwell, born July 18, 1918. He married Anna Wilson. Dola Belle was born February 14, 1917 She married L. H. Wilkerson. Walter Hamp was born November 17, 1918. He married Lou Williams. Elberta was born April 23, 1928. She married W. B. Mitchell. -from the book Indian Territory and Carter County Pioneers 1983
Note: on the map below you will see Crinerville is incorrectly spelled with 2 n's.
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/maps/CrinervilleMap.jpg
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/maps/CaldwellHillMap.jpg
Crinerville. In Carter county, 6 miles southwest of Ardmore. A post office from November 10, 1885 to October 31, 1902. It was named for John Criner, prominent early day settler. -Oklahoma Place Names
Someone emailed me this week asking if the first Hamburger Inn in Oklahoma could have been located in Mangum, Oklahoma and referred to the website below. I know back in 1999 I talked to the first owner of Ardmore's Hamburger Inn, Ernest Brown, at his house in the SW part of Ardmore, and he told me he started in 1938 across the street where the Ardmore's present day Hamburger Inn is located. Mr. Brown built the present Hamburger Inn in 1956. From reading the website below it looks like the Hamburger Inn in Mangum started in 1928.
http://hamburgerinnmangum.com/
There was mention a couple weeks ago of the old Dr. J.J. Boyd's home on F Street NE. Here are a couple of pictures I took years ago.
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos10a/DrBoydHomeplace.jpg
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos10a/DrBoydHomeplaceBurns02.jpg
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos10a/DrBoyd1958.jpg
I had a request for info on Wheeler, Oklahoma and Sneed, Oklahoma. Wheeler was located SEC 26 3S 2W which is about 10 miles NW of Lone Grove.
Wheeler: In western Carter county, 7 miles north of Wilson. Post office established May 8, 1896, and named changed to Oil City, October 15, 1909. Named for William Wheeler, early day hotel propietor. SEC 26 3S 2W -Oklahoma Place Names
Sneed: 7 miles northeast of Healdton. A post office from May 29, 1901 to February 29, 1912. Named for Colonel R. A. Sneed, later secretary of state and state treasurer. SEC 25 3S 2W -Oklahoma Place Names
Here is a listing of towns of Carter county, many no longer in existence.
http://www.okgenweb.org/~okcarter/carcitie.htm
Last week I mentioned free Microsoft's Security Essentials and how great this program is at keeping viruses and spyware off your computer. Whatever anti-virus you choose to install on your computer, be sure you only have one. If there are two anti-virus programs running at the same time, it will eat up memory, slow your computer, and cause who knows what. So if you install Security Essentials be sure to uninstall Norton, or McAfee or whatever anti-virus you have installed. Only one per computer.
Gas prices today in the Ardmore area......
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/gasprices.html
Q.
What was the first Capital of Oklahoma?
A.
Guthrie, Oklahoma
Q. What Oklahoma governor
set the 45 MPH speed limit?
A.
(answer in next week's issue)
Some mail from this week's MAILBAG.....
FYI; there was a Cobb Town in Carter County, It was located in the extreme northeast part between two mountains, now part of the Goddard Ranch. The last of it burned in the 40s or 60s. It was, on what was then, the main road between Dickson and Sulphur, now 177, you went from north to Dickson to Baum to Setliff Store, to Cobb Town, to Nebo, to Drake, to Buckhorn, then on to Sulphur, with the small stores being around 5-6 miles apart."Your article about "Making Myself a Moped" reminded me of a moped I bought for transportation when stationed in Japan. I was stationed at Camp Whittington, Kagohara, Honshu, Japan during my tour February 1955 to April 1957. I wanted to see the country side of that part of Japan but could not afford to buy a car. One day I spotted a used homemade moped at a Japanese used bicycle shop located at Kagohara, a small Japanese town located only a half mile from the camp. I used the moped for several trips in and about the local area and to Kumagaya City, a city of about 50,000 population located 5 miles from the camp. The speed limit in Japan at that time was only 30 miles per hour and strictly enforced by the Japanese highway patrol. Being law-obedient, the Japanese people strictly obeyed the traffic laws Due to their obedience to traffic laws I never observed a traffic violation during any of trips about the countryside of that area of Japan. By the way, the Japanese drive on the left side of the road, not the right side as we here in the USA do. Took a little while to adjust. Although the top speed of my moped was only 30 mph it was powerful enough to provide sufficient speed for carrying two adults and one infant, myself, my wife, and our first child. "When in Rome do as the Romans do." And, I did. At that time in the 50's much of the population of Japan rode regular bicycles and mopeds. Japan was still recovering from WWII." -Elmer G. West
Butch; Here's a link to a 2008 study about geological faults and earthquake probabilities in the lower 48 states. There is information in there about Oklahoma.
http://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2008/1128/pdf/OF08-1128_v1.1.pdf
There is a small map on Page 10 that shows Oklahoma. Thought you might enjoy this 128 page document. http://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos10a/OklahomaFaults.jpg
Gerald Whitworth
Glenpool, Oklahoma
"My brother installed a gasoline engine on his bicycle. You can see it demonstrated on YouTube." -Jean H.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tEKoWJIknmU
"Liked the fried pie piece this week; I remember every time we went to Ardmore (which was very frequent), we always stopped at the store on 12 NW and would get a couple of dozen to go. By the time we got back to Davis (23 miles), we may have six or seven left over. They were certainly good tasting and I can almost taste one now." -Poss
"It is like a winter scene found in the movie Dr Zhivago here in Bayfield, Colorado. Before the snow started to fall Tuesday, we had a compacted base of 17 inches of snow. So far we are close to measuring 40 inches of snow on our snow gauge here 6 miles north of Bayfield, Colorado. Up at vallecito lake in the higher elevations they are about 3 to 4 inches ahead of us in snowfall. You can see an evening view of our snow packed back patio that seems like a scene from Dr. Zhivago." -Linda
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OasLJddGank
"I've been searching for some information about the rock and wire fence posts that are so common around the Madill area but have been unsuccessful so far. Wondering if anyone has any information about them or know someone who does. I need to build some fence on our place here in Arizona but the rock (calichi as they call it here) is a major issue with digging holes for traditional fence posts. These could be a viable alternative. Maybe a Reader can tell us more about building this type of fence" -Kim Collins [email protected]
Q. "My sister in California and I (near Houston) have been gone from Pooleville for many years. We enjoy your newsletters. They often remind us of things we have long forgotten. In June I drove around the south side of the old Ardmore AFB. There were several 727’s parked there. What is being done there? Thank you." -Ralph Kettlewell
A. "They are old planes that are ready to be salvaged and it is cheaper to store them there than at a large airport." -Doug Williams
"Hand colored postcard found on Ebay with Ardmore IT on it - $25.00 plus shipping. Just thought you'd like to see it." -Mary Lou
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos10a/ArdmoreITpostcard.jpg
Drivers License Renewals
The Oklahoma Department of Public Safety now allows you to give them an email address so you can be notified 45 days prior to your license expiration. They are not mailing notices to your address anymore due to budget issues, so if you do not fill this out, you will not be notified. Here is the link: http://www.dps.state.ok.us/renewal
FOLLOW UP ON JOHN MUNRO CAMERON: Attached is the July 1, 1917 Financial Statement for the Great Western Petroleum Corporation. At this point, the company had been in operation for a little over eleven years. My grandfather was Treasurer and General Manager of the company and had built the plant in Erie, Kansas.
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos10a/GreatWesternPetroleum1917a.pdf
1966-67 Miller, Missouri
"We had moved into a farm house close to the pump station/pipeline terminal where I am working. This is located on old Hwy 66, near Mt. Vernon, Mo. The place is an old two story farm house with barns and chicken coops, and a big garden spot. A fellow I am working with Ralph Gwin, is renting the farmland to run cattle as he owns the farm just behind us. He and his wife, Pauline, become our real good friends. Lots of stories to tell about Miller, and Mt. Vernon, Mo. Where shall I start? Here is a good one.
I told Ralph our kids wanted to raise some chickens and it would give them something to do and would be a new experience for them. He said come over tonight and bring a flash light. I will give you some chickens. Well we went over to his house that night and went out in the barn pasture area. A lot of his chickens were roosting in the trees. He got a gunny sack and I shined the flashlight. He started picking chickens off the limbs. He had gathered up 12 hens and then got us two roosters. Told me we needed to build some nests in the barn cause these hens were laying. I told him, my mother always said hens would quit laying when you moved them. He allowed he hadn't heard that before. Well we took the chickens home and put them in the barn. Setting them on the rafters and wherever we could get one to sit. Not the next day but the day after that, the kids gathered 13 eggs! I went to work the next day and told Ralph about how many eggs we got out of 12 hens and he said "I wonder which one of the roosters ain't laying"? They continued to lay 12 to 13 eggs everyday as long as we had them. We had eggs and little chicks running out our ears. These were not game chickens, but they did lay colored eggs. Most of them were the prettiest blue/green you ever saw. We had chicken for dinner every Sunday, and quite a few times during the week. And I still like chicken!" -Ken@Wilson
"Butch, Enjoyed the criteria for hamburgers you published. When in high school in the mid 1960's I worked at the "Dairyland" on Boeing Drive at Air Depot Blvd in Midwest City. It was across the street from the popular Potter's Drive-In, for any readers that might have been to Midwest City around that time. There was another Dairyland on Reno a couple blocks east of Air Depot. Anyway, we scooped each hamburger patty from a large bag of fresh hamburger meat, weighed each scoop to exactly 1/2 pound and then flattened them in a hand press. We cooked them over a slotted grill with charcoal and they were called "Charburgers". These were the last 10 rated hamburgers I have ever eaten. My main pet peeve is to see people smash the hamburger while it is on the grill. One lady who worked with me smashed one hamburger right through the grill. Smashing is what makes hamburger patties dry and tough. The meat patty should be smashed and formed before it is placed on the grill. Then it should only be flipped for a juicier thicker hamburger. If you can see your hamburger being cooked next time and the chef smashes it on the grill, ask him/her why they do that. Most will say "because I thought you were supposed to" or maybe "my mom or dad always did it". They just do it without thinking about it. I have never heard of a good reason to do it. Maybe your Readers can tell us why they smash their burgers. Just my thoughts on the subject." -Dennis
"Butch, I'm sure that you are aware by now of the untimely death of Tom Allen, former DA investigator, police officer and deputy sheriff. Tom was one of the best criminal investigators I've ever worked with. He was a pit bull and bloodhound all rolled into one. If Tom told you he was going to move a mountain, you had two choices; get out of his way or grab a shovel and help because one way or another, that mountain was getting moved. He had many friends. He, I and David Willingham worked together at Ardmore PD back in the 70's. We had some very dedicated officers working to keep the community a little safer. Ed Burton, Larry Hignight, David Willingham, Lee Crowe, Ray Chaney, Randy Jackson and several others were all close to Tom and worked with him everyday. They will all tell you that he was "a policeman's policeman. There is a fund established for the family at Sulphur Community bank. Anyone who wishes to donate can do so at that facility. Please spread the word." -Lynn McCumber
http://www.brightok.net/sulphurtimes/news1.html
Q. "Hi Butch. Where can I get the program you were telling me about, to connect and see the screen of another computer to work on another computer. I was sure I downloaded it to use it at a later date but I can't find it anywhere." -Jiggs
The Daily Ardmoreite
January 1, 1919
New Negro School
The new Negro school building on Eighth avenue, northeast, is two stories, of brick, trimmed with white stone, and covers a ground space of 63 x 55 feet. There are six class rooms and one large assembly hall and it can comfortably house 300 students. The rooms are all plastered and painted, and the building is heated by gas. Cost of building is approximately $14,000. J. B. White was the architect, and Joe F. Pate the building contractor.
The Daily Ardmoreite
January 1, 1919
The Oklahoma Confederate Home addition has just been completed and approved. This is a two-story matface brick structure and is a twin building for the south wing of that institution. It was built to meet dormitory needs and to house a central heating plant and storage room for preserved fruits and vegetables.
Note: The January 1, 1919 Daily Ardmoreite contains the "Second Annual Advancement" addition. It has quite a lot of information on Healdton with pictures of buildings and has a whole section that describes houses that were built in Ardmore during the 1918 year. That section also contains information about Ardmore, OKC, and Tulsa. -Mindy Taylor
Museum Memories
Contributed by Melinda Taylor
The Wilson News
May 25, 1916
NOTICE
The city of Wilson will receive bids on drilling a water well to furnish the city with water. If you are interested wire for details.
City Commissioners.
May 15, 1916
PIPE HAS ARRIVED WORK COMMENCED
The pipe for the city water works have arrived at last, and the work of the digging ditches and the laying of the mains will be started immediately. The contract has been let for the drilling of the well, and work will commence there Monday, in fact everything is supposed to be up and running by the fourth day of August.
September 14, 1916
The big steel water tower is just about completed and it won't be long until we can take the rope off of the well and throw it away.
September 21, 1916
NEW PUMP ARRIVES PLANT ABOUT COMPLETED
The new city pump arrived Tuesday and the work of installing same was commenced immediately, everything is here now except the dynamo, and it is on the way here, having already been shipped from the supply house, and will probably be here this week, the tower has just about been completed. It won't be many days now until the water will be turned into the mains, and then will commence the work of running lead lines to the houses which will be quite a job itself.
October 5, 1916
ELECTRIC LIGHTING SYSTEM AND WATER WORKS FOR WILSON
There has been erected a large standpipe to hold a reserve supply of water and this structure is 125 feet high, by 15 1/2 feet in diameter.
Water plugs for use in connection with large hose in case of fire, have been placed in where they were deemed most suitably located. A volunteer fire department will be formed and will have 500 feet of hose to start with.
November 3, 1916
PLANTS WERE TESTED AND PROVED SUFFICIENT
The public street arc lights were turned on last night for the first time for a try-out. Lights have been in use in business houses and residences since last Saturday night, but the arc lamps for the streets were delayed in shipment. The volunteer fire department built a fire and tried out the water pressure last night finding it to be excellent. Two streams of great force lost themselves in the murky haze far above the reflection of the lights.
Wilson Historical Museum Hours: 10:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m. Tues., Thurs., Fri., Sat.
It's Thursday evening around 6pm and I'm finishing up this issue of T&T. So far the ice and snow has missed Ardmore, but just a few miles to the north over on the north side of the Arbuckle Mountains and points north, its a different story. Lot's of ice, electric lines down, fallen tree limbs, and many vehicle accidents. When we awake Friday morning we'll see how much ice and snow Ardmore receives.
SNOW.......klahoma
Where the cold front's sweepin' down the plain
And the piles of sleet, beneath your feet
Follow right behind the freezing rain.
SNOW.......klahoma
Ev'ry night my honey lamb and I
Travel home from work and hope some jerk
Doesn´t wreck our car in passing by!
We know we belong to the land
But it sure needs some more salt and more sand!
That´s why we say.....WHOA!
We´re sliding the other way.......YIKES!
We´re only sayin´
You´re slick as snot SNOWklahoma
SNOWklahoma
SNOW-K-L-A-H-O-M-A
SNOWklahoma, SNOW-K!
by Donna Schneberger, LMS
Purcell Elementary School
809 N. Ninth Ave.
Purcell, OK 73080
405-527-2146 Ext. 208
See everyone next week!
Butch and Jill Bridges
Nashobish Ikana
PO Box 11
Ardmore, Oklahoma 73402
Save on long distance calls, just a couple cents a
minute!
http://www.CheapLongDistance.org
Oklahoma Bells:
http://www.OklahomaHistory.net/bellpage.html
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 schools, past and present
http://community.webshots.com/user/oklahomahistory
Carter County Government Website
http://www.brightok.net/cartercounty/
Ardmore School Criterions
http://www.ArdmoreCriterion.com
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