PO Box 2, Ardmore, Oklahoma 73402
Email: [email protected], Phone: 580-490-6823
A Glimpse Into The Past
Ardmore, Oklahoma
Sunday, March 29, 1925
STROMAN WORKS FOR BIGGER AND BETTER ARDMORE
Only Dealer in Auto Replacement Supplies in This Section of State
The Stroman Motors Supply Co., located at 224 West Main street, Ardmore, is the only jobber of automobile replacement supplies in Southern Oklahoma. The business was started by E. J. Stroman and W. C. Davis in January 1923. They began in a small way and their business has grown to be a fair sized wholesale house. They have built up a reputation in the Ardmore trade territory for giving service and for fair dealing.
Mr. Stroman says that although their business has grown continually, yet they are still operating at a loss. This was expected. It takes several years to get a jobbing business on a paying basis. However, as expressed by Mr. Davis if their already long list of customers and friends increase during 1925 as it did in 1924 The Stroman Motor Co., should go safety over the top by the end of 1925, and Southern Oklahoma can boost of having a real wholesale automobile replacement supply house.
These men belong to the Chamber of Commerce. They are shouldering their share of the church and civic work. They merit success. And it is believed the business men and citizens of Ardmore and Southern Oklahoma will give them their hearty support.
This is good video reporting on the Ringling Brothers Circus and the town of Ringling, Oklahoma.
American Pop and Jazz singer Kay Starr’s home in Dougherty, Oklahoma
https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos17a/KayStarrHomeDoughertyOK.jpg
Ardmore’s Tivoli Theater 1963.
https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos17a/TivoliArdmore1963.jpg
A couple of pavers I sandblasted the other day.
https://oklahomahistory.net/bricks/JasonHowardPaver.jpg
https://oklahomahistory.net/bricks/DaleStonePaver.jpg
You can find current gas prices for a particular Oklahoma town by entering the name or zip code in the GasBuddy search box.
http://www.oklahomagasprices.com/
Q. Where in Oklahoma is a secret cave that was once the hideout of the legendary outlaw Marlow brothers?
A. Marlow, Oklahoma. The outlaw Marlow Brothers hid out in the cave during the cattle drives on the Chisholm Trail in the 1800s.
http://www.kswo.com/story/7373181/marlows-outlaw-cave-declared-landmark
Q. Who was the Oklahoman 100+ years ago that would catch wolves by jumping off a horse?
A. Answer in next week’s newsletter
Below is from This and That newsletter archives of May 6, 2005
I was going out West Broadway last weekend and I saw a sign that read: Charlie Freds BBQ. Boy, did that catch my attention, so I had to check it out. This BBQ is located inside the Food Mart at 801 West Broadway next door to CableOne. Come to find out Charlie Fred used to have a BBQ stand on P Street SE just south of the baseball complex, and his son is carrying on the tradition now of making fine BBQ. The cashier asked me if I wanted the small ($1.99) or the large sandwich $2.49) so you guessed it, I ordered the large. Boy, its some great tasting BBQ and there is even a little dining area inside the convenience store where you can set down and enjoy your meal!
https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos5a/CharlieFredsBBQ5a.jpg
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Here’s a pic I took last weekend of the construction going on behind the Central Park pavilion. I guess some of you will remember us talking about this being the same area where ‘old central cemetery” was located around 1900. It was later moved to Rose Hill.This is a reply I received from Bill Hamm a few years ago: “When Ardmore became a city in 1887, the cemetery was on the west side of town and was called Old South. As the city began to grow the city leaders realized that the cemetery was too close to the community and decided to move it to another location. The cemetery was moved about 1895 or 1896 to its present location south of the City and the new cemetery was called New South Cemetery, later it was named Rose Hill Cemetery. When the graves that were in Old South Cemetery were moved, the workers were only able to move the graves that had markers and the rest were left behind. The area of the Old South Cemetery is now part of Central Park, the Episcopal Church and the houses west of the area. When that area was being developed it was not unusual for the builders to dig into a burial site. I have found several people who had been buried in Old South Cemetery, but could not find any record of them as being moved to Rose Hill Cemetery.”
https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos5a/CentralParkConstruction5a.jpg
New South Cemetery (Rose Hill) was platted off in December 1894.
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“Butch, I really enjoy “This and That”. So many times it brings back wonderful Ardmore memories. You should give Jean Ilniski a ribbing about the picture in Sunday’s Ardmoreite. She never misses “This and That”. We were at Mt. Rushmore when the picture was made. That was quite a trip and anyone who’s never been to South Dakota should take the opportunity to experience that incredible piece of U.S. history as well as that area of this beautiful country. In this age of bigger, better and fast travel options we forget the wonderful back roads and countryside. One of my accounts once told me we live in a “disposable society”. Everyone wants everything right now with no cost and no waiting. Then we throw it away when it’s time for a new one. I think that’s a perfect analogy for today’s world. I’ve been fortunate to travel extensively with my job but the trips I treasure most were in a car, with family, enjoying side roads or times before the Interstate Highway system. The drive from Ardmore through Kansas, Nebraska and into South Dakota is filled with beauty as well as history. It’s amazing to see where the wagon trails all converge in Nebraska and absorb the history. What’s even more amazing is to think about the Rocky Mountains as they journeyed even further west and imagine how the pioneers endured. We made that road trip even more fun by coming back through Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico and Texas before returning to Ardmore. What a road trip! The four of us stopped when we wanted and took alternate routes if it struck our fancy. Does anyone realize the “World’s Largest Ball of Twine” is in a small Kansas town near the geographic center of the 48 contiguous states? That’s another picture you could ask Jeannie about…..LOL. My sister came up with the idea of these road trips. Anyone who knows Donna would expect something like that. We made another road trip last year and I saw parts of Oklahoma I’d never seen. And of course we’re already planning another for this year. These are stories from my generation that I can pass along to my grandchildren. I was fortunate enough (as were our girls with both their great-grandmothers) to hear many stories from my Grandmother and her childhood. Those are recorded in our family history program. You’d be amazed how many times our grandchildren have used our family history for school projects. I urge everyone to take the opportunity to sit with family and record those voices and memories. Then pass them on to future generations. They are priceless and lost if we don’t take the time to make a permanent record. But then I think any family history is a treasure.” -Jan Ilniski Baker
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The Daily Ardmoreite, July 13, 1947
Mrs. J. HARLEY LAYMAN, the former CALLIE THOMASON, daughter of a pioneer family, has lived in Ardmore for the past 50 years. She well remembers when wild horses came close to her father’s place and he stood with a gun in hand ready to shoot if they should break into their house lot. Another vivid recollection of those early days was the time their pet dog went mad and had to be killed. The Thomasons lived in the northwest part of town near the old WALCOTT place, and later moved to the country. Mrs. Layman says Ardmore was a barren spot then with no trees, beautiful streets and homes, but only barbed wire fences as far as the eye could see. Their old home near Ardmore still stands but Mrs. Layman hasn’t been out there in a long time. She says it has been unoccupied and that transients have pulled off the boards and wrecked it but she likes to go there for it is a pleasant spot in summer and always beautiful. Her father was E. CAL THOMASON and her mother was a sister of the late Mrs. W. B. FRAME.
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10 years ago from the files of the Daily Ardmoreite July 27, 1927
W. S. SPEARS turned the first shovelful of dirt for the new Orthodox Baptist church.
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Some mail from this week’s MAILBAG…..“I noted in your newsletter that you purchased some LED bulbs for the kitchen. I learned something very useful about them I thought you might be interested in.
We live in the boonies, and have a big picture window in the house, plus many regular windows. At night in the spring and summer, the moths, june bugs and many flying critters will be swarming the windows and banging into them trying to get to the indoor light. At times it?s almost deafening!
I replaced all my bulbs with LED, plus outdoor flood lights, and now nary a bug comes by to stay. Now all we hear are crickets and frogs. The secret is getting the daylight spectrum bulbs and your bug swarms will diminish greatly. I learned about this from a lighting expert.” -Skip J
“I am standing upon the seashore. A ship at my side spreads her white sails to the morning breeze and starts for the blue ocean. She is an object of beauty and strength, and I stand and watch until at last she hangs like a speck of white cloud just where the sea and sky come down to mingle with each other. Then someone at my side says, ‘There she goes!’ Gone where? Gone from my sight … that is all. She is just as large in mast and hull and spar as she was when she left my side and just as able to bear her load of living freight to the place of destination. Her diminished size is in me, not in her. And just at the moment when someone at my side says, ‘There she goes!’ there are other eyes watching her coming and their voices ready to take up the glad shouts ‘Here she comes!” -Henry Van Dyke 1852-1933
See everyone next week!
Butch and Jill Bridges
“Friends Make Life Worth Living”
PO Box 2
Lone Grove, Oklahoma 73443https://oklahomahistory.net
Vicious Dog Attacks in Oklahoma
https://oklahomahistory.net/viciousdogs.html
Oklahoma Bells: https://oklahomahistory.net/bellpage.html
Bill Hamm’s Cemetery Database
http://www.usgwarchives.net/ok/carter/cartercm.htm
American Flyers Memorial Fund – Administration Webpage
https://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
https://oklahomahistory.net/airbase/
Carter County Government Website
http://cartercountyok.us