PO Box 2, Ardmore, Oklahoma 73402
Email: [email protected], Phone: 580-490-6823
This week I almost didn’t get out my newsletter. I have had an internet connection problem since tuesday night and still am working in my spare time to correct it. So this week’s newsletter is coming to you from my laptop instead of my usual PC. So this issue is going to be a short one. Hopefully this weekend I will have time to work on the internet connection problem and get back to my PC. Wish me luck as I haven’t made much progress testing with the limited time I’ve had working full time.September 1933The Adam’s Trio singers from Prairie Valley provided entertainment at the Lone Grove park with the assistance of Miss Edith Swan vocalist. The Adam’s Trio composed of Miss Dorothy Adams, Miss Juhree Adams and Miss Lillian Adams sang four selections.September 1933Speaking of old times, John Galt, said he was a big 14 year old boy when he came to Lone Grove. That was some time before the Santa Fe came to Ardmore. Lone Grove when I first knew it had one large general store conducted by Sweet Price. His was the only business for a long time. When he discovered that I could handle a team fairly well, he entrusted me with hauling goods from Gainesville to Lone Grove. His shipments usually consisted of dry and wet goods about equally divided, and as there was a demand for both kinds in the Indian Territory I guess he made a good profit on his investment.September 1962Citizens of Dougherty, Oklahoma are jubilant over a recent turn of events. After nearly 12 years of near isolation caused by the washout of the bridge over the Washita River, the construction of a new bridge across the Washita, a scenic approach to the new bridge, and plans for a 13 million dollar lake has been announced by the U.S. Congress. The series of events promises to make Dougherty a beehive community no longer disappearing because of near isolation.September 1962Jim Snow, a Lone Grove farmer, harvested the first bale of cotton in the area. It weighed in at 1,660 pounds of seed cotton and ginned out at 430 lbs of lint cotton. Snow was paid $0.32 a pound, which was a premium price as it was the first of the year in this area.A couple of the pavers I sandblasted this week.https://oklahomahistory.net/bricks/BlackjackDogPaver.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. Oklahoma born Woody Guthrie was an American singer-songwriter who is regarded as one of the most significant figures in American folk music; his songs, including social justice songs, such as “This Land Is Your Land”, have inspired several generations both politically and musically. Where in Oklahoma stands a life size bronze statue of Woody Guthrie?
A. Okemah, Oklahoma.
Q. Where in Oklahoma is the Centennial Land Run Monument that was completed in 2015?
A. Answer in next week’s newsletterBelow is from This and That newsletter archives of October 21, 2005“Roy Rogers and Dale Evans came to southern Oklahoma in 1946 to shoot the movie “Home in Oklahoma”. Scenes were shot at the Flying L Ranch near Davis, the Hereford Heaven Ranch near Sulphur, and at Turner Falls. In late 1947, they returned to the area and were married in a private ceremony at the Flying L Ranch on December 31, 1947. The next day, they repeated their vows in a public ceremony at Ardmore’s Civic Auditorium. Music was provided by the Sons of the Pioneers and admission was fifty cents.” -Mark Coe
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“Roy Rogers and Dale Evans appeared at Civic Auditorium in Ardmore sometime between July 1946 (when I moved to Ardmore) and Aug. 1948. Dale used crutches because of a broken leg. I went with a group of girls.” -Voncille
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“The dugout was there during the early 1900s, when he was an adult. He had a house at LG and probably used the dugout as a place to stay between Wilson area and LG. My grandfather said in the early 1900s there were 16 gates between Wilson and Ardmore that had to be opened and closed to make the trip so it is easy to see why he would need an in-between place to stay, especially if he was out at night. The dugout is no longer there.” -mindy <—– Click Here
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“I finally put the names of the 12 military passengers who died in the Annapolis, MD crash of the C-119F (March 19, 1954) on the Ardmore AAFld/AAFB site. I still don’t have the hometown or ages of most of them and that will be hard to get unless someone who knows sees the site and contacts me. They now have their names on the “wall.” Four of them were with the Air Force “Drum and Bugle Corps.” -Gary Simmons <—– Click Here
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“Butch, This map must be 1904 or earlier. The two railroads shown as paralleling each other going east from Ardmore were the Frisco and the Rock Island. The Frisco from Ardmore to the point where the two lines went their separate ways (built in 1902-1903) discontinued operation in 1904 and the Frisco used the Rock Island from there into Ardmore after that. There were hardly any roads worthy of the name in 1904.” -Wes Leatherock [email protected] <—– Click Here
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Butch, you brought back a few memories when you showed the Ardmore Hotel. The Glider Room in the basement was a fun place to go. The mezzanine was one place to have luncheons…I forget the “social” club that used to honor Senior girls every year but they had a luncheon there. Thanks for the memory!!!!”
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“It wasn’t just the pecan pie store, it was a full service restaurant that we stopped at many times for lunch or dinner. Very good food–and they did have the pies for sale. The Field pie factory still exists in the south part of Pauls Valley, on or near Airport Road, and has a sales kiosk where they sell frozen Field’s pies. I think it may be under other ownership now. For a while the factory had several other flavors, but they apparently were not as successful and they now appear to make just the pecan pies, which are indeed superior. Their web site is www.fieldspies.com. < —– Click Here
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“Hello Butch. I do so enjoy reading your newsletter. I live in California and know very little about Oklahoma. I do have friends from Oklahoma and have heard them talk about the state from time to time. We Californians are all “from somewhere else.” I came with my family from Texas back in the early 1940s. I see in your newsletter this week where it is mentioned that some are searching for grave sites of relations. My family has been searching for the final resting place of my great-great-grandfather Col. Almanzon Houston for many years. Col. Almanzon fought with General Sam Houston in 1835 in Texas. The Colonel lived in Texas. But, died in Louisiana while stopping over at a daughter’s home there. He was retiring from Washington, DC, where he had made a journey on military business. If anyone knows anything at all about Col. Almanzon Houston, I would so much appreciate hearing. I thank you very much – Marge Israel in Stockton at: [email protected]
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“Butch, I really enjoy the T&T! Since I retired and moved to Tulsa, it is one of my very best ties back to home. I had a wonderful career in Southern Oklahoma and served for 32 years as Game Warden. The last 16 years of my career was spent as Supervisor to the Wardens from the Red River to Stillwater. Southern Oklahoma is some of the most beautiful country in the world. The people are friendly and for the most part law-abiding. I really miss my friends, and my church, Crystalrock Cathedral. My quartet, (the Eastland Quartet) has been singing at homecomings and church services all over the state. Thanks for your T&T, it means a lot.” -Rome Ingle
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“I was on the internet the other evening playing “free poker” at PokerParty.Com and two of the players were from Oklahoma – one from Tulsa and the other from Altus. As we were playing it hit me that Tulsa and Altus are spelled with the same letters just different – man did I ever feel dumb that I had never noticed this after all these years. Makes one wonder how much they really do know about their home State of Oklahoma.”
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“True, the welders caused a blaze at the old Ardmore Hotel but it wasn’t as drastic as reported. Welders, in the process of cutting up and removing the hotel’s main water tank (a huge steel gravity tank housed in its separate blockhouse in the top of the building), accidentally ignited some of the wood bracing used to support this tank. The tank’s steel plates were being cut up to facilitate removal. The resulting fire, while hot and smoky, was limited to this only and was in a small area of the top floor. It was extinguished without much fanfare. It was not a threatening fire. This occurred in 1963, at the beginning of the renovation of the hotel into Lincoln Center…not in the 1980’s as mentioned. Lincoln Bank opened the following February, 1964, upon completion of this remodeling/renovation. Prior to that time, during its life as a hotel, no major changes were made to the structure other than the drilling of a private water well in the basement of the hotel in 1956 during the severe summer drought. It is still there and operable as far as I know.”
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“Butch, It is a young milk snake.” -Tom, University of Kentucky <—– Click Here
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“Depending on where Ardmore is, that’s either a Texas Rat snake or a Black Rat Snake. Both are harmless and feed on rodents.” <—– Click Here
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“here is the West Side Garage in Sulphur, Oklahoma.” < —– Click Here
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“Was looking through your emails and when I saw the email about the railroad I thought I would post a question for all of your readers. I just turned 57 years old and up until I was in my mid 20’s I always thought I had some exotic first name. My aunt Juanita was half Cherokee Indian and look full blood. She named me Tarva my mom added Annette. When I finally asked her one day what my name meant in Indian she was quite amused and proceeded to tell the story of my name. She said originally the name would have been for her daughter but she and my uncle only had one son. I was the next to come along and she and my mom were close so my first name became Tarva and mom named me Annette. My aunt told me one evening while on the way home in Miami, Oklahoma they had to stop for the train to pass. She said she counted almost 100 cars that day. One of the cars had the initials T.A.R.V.A. on the side and she liked it. So my dreams of being named after some wonderful Indian princess were pretty much squashed the day she told me I was named after an acronym. Box car Annie I was called…HA! My question to all of you out there is (drum roll): Do any of you know what it stands for? What rail company might have had it on their cars? I wrote a couple of places but no one ever wrote me back. I would really like to know what my name means…hope to hear from someone.” -Annette Nickles
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“Stella LeFlore. The reason I’m looking for this person is that I have come into possession of a “charm” necklace made from silver quarters, most dated in the 1870s to 1880s with personal engravings presumably of meaning to the owner. Several of the engravements have the name Stella LaFlore. Other engravings of note are “Oklahoma City”, “my beautiful girl with the lovely voice”, several “Italian” mementos, “take my car”, etc. My research to date has lead me to Estella LeFlore, daughter of a Charles M. LeFlore and Mary Angeline Guy of the Ardmore area 1860s-1890s. I believe this is the most likely candidate for the ownership in that there is no record of a Stella LaFlore of that area and time period. The previous owners of the necklace thought the person (Stella) was either a popular singer or opera singer at that time. They acquired the necklace in the 1970s in the Denver area. The piece of jewelry for antique value is probably limited. It may have some historic value and or some value to descendants of Ms. LeFlore. If this is something you might have information about or you would like to research for me, I can be reached at my office. The records on Ms. LaFlore indicate that she married George H. Webb September 5, 1883 in Limestone Gap, Choctaw Nation. Apparently father Charles M. LeFlore was a lawman with the Indian police and her mother was possibly related to an early Territorial Governor of Oklahoma. Any help on this is appreciated”
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“Came across your web site while researching for subject who lived in Ardmore around 1910-1930 according to US Census, perhaps before that. I think he was in Ardmore in 1900. He married my great aunt (nee Carney) in Spring Place (Murray Co) GA about 1884 they went to Ardmore and she died. He came back and married my aunt Margaret Ellen Carney 1897-1900 and again back to Ardmore where she also died. (Must have been a bad period for the residents). How would I find dates of death and burial places for them if all died in OK, Carter CO or Ardmore? Thanks for any help.”
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“Butch, you might let the readers know that Roy and Dale were married at Sulphur. You can obtain a copy of their marriage license from the county court house there. Mine cost .50 a few years ago. Also tell the readers that the foremost authority on the Dalton family is LT.Co. Nancy Samuelson from Sacramento. She says the Daltons were never at the location where the museum is. By the way Butch the oldest know bridge in the state is north of Konawa, OK crossing salt creek 6 miles north of Konawa. You can find great pictures of the old bridge on the net. A friend of mine down loaded me some of the pictures. Butch also I still have a few copies of the Dalton Book written by Mrs. Samuelson. It is quite a popular book. It sells for 25.00 if anyone is interested call me at 405-946-2096. I also have the new Catchem Alive Jack Abernathy book that also sells for 25.00. Butch tell Anne Tate Boland that Richard Jones has copies of the ‘He Made It Safe to Murder’ for $30 availible in hardback. It is over 700 pages and over 100 stories. You can reach Richard at 405-631-2355 or [email protected] -Herman Kirkwood
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“Dear Butch, Do you have any history about the Oklahoma City Coliseum? My mother’s family used to go watch wrestling there. I can’t find anything else on the internet. I would be grateful for any info you could pass along.” -Kelly in Oklahoma City [email protected]
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“Hello Mr. Bridges, I need to be in the library there in Ardmore trying to find My Wife’s Great uncle Charles P Jones of wilson. We were up there and found his grave but being as he was a U S Deputy Marshal and speaker pro tem of the Oklahoma House it seems we should be able to find a few articles ref him or his family. I tried searching THIS & THAT; found one item where he was running for Justice of the Peace. Would you have any suggestions that might be a help towards that end?”
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“Is anyone riding in the bicycle race in Tishomingo this weekend? I have never really spent much time around the area, except for the swimming area. Does anyone know what the scenery is like in that area? We will be traveling on 377 to highway 7 to Milburn, then back toward the starting point. Traveling from the Dallas area, and was always around the Ardmore area.” Cecil Higginbotham, TX [email protected]
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“Dougherty Building Remodel Underway…Workers lift a steel beam last week onto one of the oldest buildings in the county, located in Dougherty, as it is being rebuilt. Fire gutted the building in July. A burned-out building that has a past as colorful as the town of Dougherty got a new lease on life last week as workers began rebuilding it. The two-story rock building, built in 1887, was gutted by fire about three months ago. It had served as the town’s post office for 43 years and an ice cream parlor. It was reportedly the oldest Masonic Lodge Building in the nation and featured in the 1972 movie “Dillinger”. At the time of the fire, building owner Jo Ann Riddle said she would try to do what’s best for the town of Dougherty, and to her, re-building is the best thing for the town.” <—– Click Here <—– Click Here <—– Click Here———————————————–
———————————————–Some mail from this week’s MAILBAG…..Good morning Butch,I really enjoy your weekly report and recently discovered something of interest. In reorganizing some of the Marietta Monitor archives, we discovered a very small photo of the day that President Truman spoke from his rail car in Marietta. I scanned, retouched and attached the photo, taken on September 28, 1948. Marietta was his fourth of ten speeches that day. He began in Sherman Texas, then went to Whitesboro, Gainesville, Marietta, Ardmore, Davis, Pauls Valley, Purcell, Norman and Oklahoma City. His “Whistlestop Speaking Tour” schedule is available, along with transcripts of many speeches, athttps://trumanlibrary.org/whistlestop/study_collections/1948campaign/large/docs/campaignstops.php
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This may be a deja vu —My Father, 1898-1976, was a great people person, a conversationalist and raconteur. His gun shop, 1960s, on So. Commerce, visiting was as much a product as selling his wares. Sam Wood was a frequent counterpart in that they spent quite a lot of time down memory lane. Wood, well known business man, was quite a lot older but they had experienced early-day Oklahoma and had a lot in common.
I was very interested in Sam’s early experiences.
This story 1960s, came about when he brought his pistol, a .41 DA Colt Thunderer, out to the shop to show my Father. He was orphaned as a kid about age 14. Early 1890s, he was in a cattle drive from Texas, North thru Oklahoma.
On the cattle drive one of the cowboys constantly bullied him, mistreating miserably. The Trail Boss tried to keep a lid on it but couldn’t be on hand all the time. When the herd was near Wichita Falls he took young Sam into town and bought him this pistol – told him he could defend himself. I guess the offending cowboy didn’t know about the gun and kept up his thing. During one of the events Sam said he shot the miscreant five times. He recovered and in the end it turned out well and they both benefitted from the experience. Sam said they became fast friends.Sam rode horseback to California and back. It was in Arizona, I think, he looked back and saw a rider following him back about quarter mile. Stopped and waited, thinking it would be good to have some company. The rider stopped too. He went on and after a while stopped and waited again. Same thing, repeated it again, same. Sam decided the follower was up to no good. That night to avoid a possible visit, he build a fire and rode on a while before putting down his bed roll. Couple, maybe three days went by same thing.
He decided to put an end to what he took to be a menace. At this point he was in a kind of flat land with mountains coming down and disappearing in the flat. Riding around the points rather than over the ridges, he showed with his hand pressed against the counter with fingers indicating the mountain ridges.Sam said he took his Winchester, laid down and held about four feet over the rider and fired one shot. The rider “rolled out of the saddle” and he never saw him again. He went on to comment that he often wondered if maybe the bullet passed too close for comfort or the rider saw the smoke when he fired and he dodged, knowing what was coming, or if he did hit him. -Robert McCory———————————————————————————————-A people without the knowledge of their past history, origin and culture is like a tree without roots.See everyone next week!Butch and Jill Bridges“Friends Make Life Worth Living”PO Box 2
Lone Grove, Oklahoma 73443
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