This and That
Newsletter
A Weekly Publication
Vol 15 Issue 756 Circulation 5,000 July 21, 2011
PO Box 2
Ardmore, Oklahoma 73402
email address: butchbridges@oklahomahistory.net
580-657-8616
The Lone Grove Telephone Company was built by George L. Evans of Newport, and soon afterward, Evans sold it to Cole Johnson. In 1909 Mr. Johnson, later a Carter County Commissioner, purchased a team of mules from John W. Gauntt on credit, with the intention of paying for the team in the Fall, after harvesting the crop. The crops did poorly that year, and Mr. Johnson's crop didn't make. He came to John Gauntt, explaining the situation, and asked if there was anything he owned that Mr. Gauntt would be willing to accept in trade for payment other than money. They went through a list of items, none of which were of interest to John Gauntt. John then asked if there was anything else at all he owned, Mr. Johnson, supposing there would be no interest, said, "Well, I have this little telephone exchange in Lone Grove of 35 telephone poles". John Gauntt said he would accept that and the deal was made. In 1937 Royce Gauntt, the youngest son took over management of the company. -From the 1983 book Indian Territory and Carter County Pioneers.
http://www.chickasawphone.com/about.html
A T&T Reader sent in a picture this week of an old tobacco smoking pipe now in his possession. It is supposedly new about 200 years ago, since it does have a handwritten note dated August 28, 1938 from Charles Bohannon to a Laura Youngblood inside its leather carrying case stating the timeline. Maybe someone knows about what this piece of Ardmore history might be worth?
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos11a/PipeNote1810.jpg
Here are 2 pics of the smoking pipe.
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos11a/pipe1810a.jpg
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos11a/pipe1810b.jpg
A Reader in OKC sent in a picture she took of a bell in Hennessey, Oklahoma (Kingfisher County) this week. Its a really nice bell to add to my Bells of Oklahoma Collection.
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos11a/HennesseyOKbell.jpg
According to the weather forecasts, looks like no relief for the next 7 days to the Oklahoma dry spell. Come on rain.
http://www.drought.unl.edu/dm/monitor.html
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos11a/DeerAndFawn071711b.jpg
I appreciate all the happy birthday wishes posted on my Facebook 3 days ago (July 18th). I wanted to say thanks to each and every one, but I lost count at over 500 and knew I could not do a personal thank to so many. Thanks everybody who posted on my Facebook, each and every one was appreciated!
From This and That
newsletter archives of July 18, 1998:
Here in south central Oklahoma, the heat is unbelievable. They are predicting
even higher temperatures over the next week or so. This means temps way over 100
degrees F. We've had several deaths here in Oklahoma from the high temperatures.
The ground is so dry, the grass is dead and brown. Many cities have either banned
watering or have imposed watering restrictions of some kind. If you are a
praying person, we need your prayers here in southern Oklahoma. We need rain so
much.
The Daily Ardmoreite
Thursday, July 15, 1915
AUTOMOBILE FOR POLICE DEPARTMENT
COST OF LIVERY RIGS SOON EAT UP THE
PRICE OF A CAR - PURCHASE WILL BE MADE SOON
Commissioner London stated this morning that it was about decided to purchase an
auto for the police department, as a glance at the accumulated bills for the
necessary auto hire for the past two months has convinced the commissioners that
it was far cheaper to own a car than to pay livery bills.
Mr. London stated that he had not decided what car the department would buy, but
that the Ford seemed to be the best suited for their purpose. It has been
adopted by Oklahoma City and several other places in the state, and was giving
good satisfaction with a minimum cost of upkeep.
The police department has been handicapped for the want of some means of
transportation of prisoners when arrests are made, especially if they are in
some remote part of the city and inclined to be rough. The best they can do at
present is to call for livery cars, and the bills paid monthly by the city would
soon pay for a car.
It is the purpose of the commissioner to keep his department to the highest
point of efficiency, but this is hard to do unless they have the necessary
equipment, and the most necessary thing at present is a means of transportation.
The car will probably not be purchased before the first of the coming month.
Q. What is
Oklahoma's official state fish?
A. White Bass
(Sand Bass)
Q. In what town was the
first Boy Scout Troop of America formed?
A. (answer in next week's newsletter)
Gas prices today in the Ardmore area......
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/gasprices.html
Some mail from this week's MAILBAG....."I was out watering about 8:30 the other morning and in flew a pretty little humming bird going from leaf to leaf. I first thought he was looking for flowers and I apologized to him because in this heat our flowers are not blooming! Then I realized that he was drinking from the water drops on the leaves of the crepe myrtles. He was really busy and then I noticed that he had gone into a place where several limbs came together and he was rubbing his little body against the bunches of leaves and fluffing his feathers. He was taking a bath!!!!!! I put my finger over the nozzle to make it spray lightly and gently and slowly moved the water stream over where he was hovering. He stayed in that position with his head raised towards the water and fluffing his wings for what seemed like a long time before flying away!!!!!! I love my birds and love watching all their capers." -Pat
"I don?t remember the exact years Carl's Coney Island was in business?I am guessing maybe the late 70?s & early 80?s. I think Carl & Susan Green were the owners of that business. They did have wonderful chili, cheese ?dogs? and taco salads. And they were very clean in their kitchen. I worked at B.L. Owens Furniture during that time and all of us that worked there loved their food." -Gay Segler
"Does anyone know where to get those old fashioned longhorn okra seeds; the kind that grows up to 12" long and still tender. Ours got crossed with another okra years ago so no longer edible. Bought something this year called "Cowhorn okra" but it isn't the same." -Virginia in Durant
"My sister camped on Blue River this past weekend and said the water was barely ankle deep over the low water crossing. This drought is taking its toll across Oklahoma." -Mike
"Would you remind all your T&T readers to please keep plenty of 'fresh' water out for the birds and their animals. In the afternoon when it is so hot, the water gets scalding hot too! I will put some cubes of ice in the water to help it stay cool for a little while and I try to run out and put fresh out often. I try to keep small amounts in several shaded areas or in the shrubs."
"My husband gave me your name in hopes some of your Readers might have the answer to a question. I recently purchased two cloth feed sacks that look like a pillow case at the top. On the front is the label from Blue Ribbon Feeds and the Ardmore Milling Co. I was curious is to how old these might be. Any info anyone might have would be much appreciated. Here is a picture of the front of one." -Becky
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos11a/ArdmoreMillingSack.jpg
Downtown Ardmore Theaters: "Mrs. Eritts May be a couple of years older than I for I remember all theatres except the Paramount. However after reading about it I have a vague recollection. My dad worked for the theatres as a teenager and told me the Tivoli was the Princess and there was another, one block West on the South side, The Palace. It would have been next door to the Baptist youth building. That would mean downtown Ardmore had six downtown movie theatres at one time. As a teenager in the 50's I worked for the theatres and there was the Tivoli, Park (Ritz) Globe and Jewell, which was across the tracks. Also in that era there were three drive-in theatres. The Starlight on South Commerce (Highway 77), the 77 North at Grand and Commerce, and the Skyview on old Hy.70 East. Dad said the Palace and Princess were also vaudeville theatres and had famous acts along with the movie. One of them had a huge pipe organ which was played during silent movies." -George Davis - Class 60
"Hi Butch, Here is an article that may be of interest to folks. It is the old Borden plant that used to be on Broadway Ave here in OKC. It closed in 1994. I documented it in 1994. There is an article, but the pages are out of sequence with the pictures. I thought that you might like a little history." -Cecil on OKC
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos11a/BordenMilkOKC1994a.jpg
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos11a/BordenMilkOKC1994b.jpg
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos11a/BordenMilkOKC1994c.jpg
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos11a/BordenMilkArticle1994a.jpg
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos11a/BordenMilkArticle1994b.jpg
"Just now reading your note about finding a copperhead snake in the flower bed. We should be extra careful at night when snakes are active; too hot during the day for them. I had a home health nurse tell me that an elderly patient stepped out onto her back patio to feed her dog after dark, and there lay a copperhead snake by the door sill. Luckily she had a flashlight, too. Also, another lady told me that she was picking vegetables from her garden early one morning; pulled back a big Swiss chard leaf, and there was a big copperhead. It bit her on her hand. She was hospitalized for several days, and when I saw her hand I cringed ! It looked bad ! She said that she had lived in Oklahoma all her life, and always used a stick to look under things in the garden, but just that once she did not have a stick with her. So please be careful, everyone." -Anna Marie (Glennan) Wilson
Q. "I am a geography professor in Texas (OU, 1968, 1969) and am doing research on a band of Caddo Indians that had a village in the Dougherty area in the 1840s. The village was located on the boundary between T3S, R2W and T3S, R3W (northeast of Ardmore west of the Washita).
Period literature suggests they made use of an oil spring called Bird or Byrd Spring. It is most likely somewhere between Gene Autry and Dougherty, Oklahoma on the west side of the river. It was used by folks from Arkansas and Texas in the mid-to-late 1800s. Any Readers know where such a camp might have been?"
Jim Tiller
Professor of Geography
Sam Houston State University
Huntsville, TX
JimTiller@shsu.edu
This bell is located at Bluebell, Oklahoma on Highway 33 about
10 miles west of Sapulpa, Oklahoma.
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos11a/BluebellOKBell072011.jpg
Next are 2 photos of a model jet plane taken on a Farm to Market Road just off
of Hwy 78 going to Lamasco, Texas between Durant and Bonham Texas.
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos11a/LamascoTexasJet072011a.jpg
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos11a/LamascoTexasJet072011b.jpg
This house is on the bank of the Red River just east of the Highway 78 bridge
going over the Red River. Bet there's not another house closer to the
Oklahoma/Texas border than this one.
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos11a/RedRiverCabin072011.jpg
Map showing about where the cabin located along the Red River (south side) near Sowell's Bluff.
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos11a/RedRiverCabinMap072011.jpg
-submitted by Russell Martin
"I put a tape measure down into my well (on my business property) yesterday to check the water level and discovered that the level is still MORE than 1/2 way to the surface! Now you must realize a couple of things though. First of all, there's still more than 13 feet of water in that well, and the well is only 23 feet deep! My property is directly above the Oglala Aquifer that runs from Nebraska to San Antonio, Texas; and there are still several wells in our area. A few years ago (after an extended drought) the water level in that well was down to 7 feet. I've never seen it less. Last spring when there had been lots of rain here and to the north, the level rose to within 23 inches of the concrete floor surface and I was very concerned because of many collectibles stored on that concrete floor. At that time, I moved the most easily damaged ones up onto pallets. Yesterday's Perry Daily Journal (local newspaper) asked folks to use water more in the mornings or during the night. There's NO water shortage here but the water plant cannot process potable water fast enough to supply the usage that's occurring during the late afternoon / early evening hours. Interesting!" -Roy Kendrick, Perry, Oklahoma
The race is not always to the swift, but to those who keep on running. -author unknown
See everyone next week!
Butch and Jill Bridges
PO Box 2
Lone Grove, Oklahoma 73443
Save on long distance calls, just a couple cents a
minute!
http://www.CheapLongDistance.org
Ardmore High School Criterions Online
http://www.ardmorecriterion.com/
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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