PO Box 2, Ardmore, Oklahoma 73402
Email: [email protected], Phone: 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
The Bob Fraley Lumber Company at A street and 4th Northeast Ardmore open for business July 2, 1948.
The original staff included for full-time employees and a part-time bookkeeper. Delivery equipment consisted of a Jeep panel delivery and a flatbed truck was added a few weeks later.
A branch yard was added in December of 1949 at Marietta.
In 1954 the company moved across the intersection into a new and more adequate office building as well as sheds and warehouses. A yard to serve the oilfield was added in Madill early 1956. The three yards handle timber, mud and chemicals for the oil fields in this area. They specialize in all types of building materials and nearly anything needed for the home, farm or industry.
The Personnel numbers about 22 regular employees, many with years of experience in their line.
https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos21b/BobFraleyLumberAerial1957.jpg
This is a 2019 aerial view of the same area. On the corner is the present day Ardmore Plumbing Company.
https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos21b/ArdmorePlumbingAerial2019.jpg
This is a 1957 photo of the yard crew working at the Fraley lumber yard.
https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos21b/BobFraleyLumberYard1957.jpg
Robert E. “Bob” Fraley (1908-1978) is at the far right in the photo below.
https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos15b/BobAndMaryFraley.jpg
Lewis Robert Marston was born in Maine in 1851. We have talked about Mr. Marston in a T&T last year and how he came to Ardmore, Indian Territory in 1901 and began pouring the first concrete sidewalks in town. Marston’s named can still be found imbedded in some of the older concrete sidewalks in the downtown area. When new sidewalks were poured around the courthouse last year (2006), we were able to save one of those pieces of concrete with L.R. Marston on it. It is on display on the south side of the courthouse. Last summer Lewis Robert Marston’s granddaughter, Lorena Lowenstein, stopped by with her great nephew, Garret Bell, to see the piece of history. Below is a photo of Lorena and Garret standing beside the Marston marker.
https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos7a/LorenaLowenstein2007.jpg
https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos6a/MarstonContractor.jpg
https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos6a/LewisMarston6a.jpg
Below is a PDF file about Platt National Park in Sulphur – 1930.
https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos21b/PlattNationalPark1930.pdf
Back on July 4, 1964 an Ardmore, Oklahoma landmark was destroyed by fire. It was the old, wooden, oil soaked creosote, 5th Avenue viaduct originally built in 1908 over the railroad tracks. All my life, myself, and the rest of Ardmore has been led to believe some kids playing with fireworks started the fire. After all, the news medias all reported the same thing, kids started that fire. A life long friend of mine from Washington School has come forward with the true story, as he was there that July 4th. Only he and one of his friends knew the whole story, and has kept it secret for 51 years. As Paul Harvey said on each of his broadcasts, and now the rest of the story.
https://oklahomahistory.net/viaductfire.html
This guy snuck in the old Ardmore High School at 2nd NW and North Washington and took a video. Its dated May 2021.
We’ve gone over the $932,100 mark, so we are making progress locating people or their kin with unclaimed property at the State Treasurers office in OKC. As of today we have reached area people about unclaimed property totaling over $910,357. 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://apps.ok.gov/unclaimed/
Q. Where was the first oil boom town in Indian Territory?
A. Tulsa changed from a small frontier town to a boomtown with the discovery of oil in 1901 at Red Fork, a small community southwest of Tulsa and on the opposite side of the Arkansas River. Wildcatters and investors flooded into the city and the town began to take shape.
Q. What town in Oklahoma is nick named the quarter horse capital of the world?
A. Answer in next week’s newsletter
Some sent me a message/email a week ago inquiring about a couple graves at the McAlister cemetery at Overbook. I guess I’ve lost that email, please contact me again.
Some mail from this week’s MAILBAG…..Butch, I have a story about Jesse. He tuned my mother’s eight pianos when I was growing up. He was the best at it. He would always take a cab to work. Since he was blind no one checked his eyes and Dad was an Optometrist! Well one day in the late 70’s or early 80’s He had cataract surgery which returned his sight. Mom called me and was crying because Jesse pulled up to tune her piano in a brand new car! -Don Martin
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Your interviews with Cedric brought back a lot of memories. Raised in NE Ardmore has its bright moments and sad moments. We lived in the 700 block of I street NE. One of the bright moments is one that cannot be overlooked when speaking of NE Ardmore. That is Raymond’s bar-b-q on I street and 7th NE. My family bought many weenie and chili buns there. When you walked into the little shanty, to the right was a couple of chairs. Against the west wall toward the north was a glass case with candy and other odds and ends. South of the candy case was a wooden pop box with a block of ice in the water, the coldest pop in town. Along the south wall was Raymond’s stove and counter top, behind which Raymond sat on his stool. After placing your order, he would pull a sheet of waxed paper from the roll and it on the counter. Take a boiling weenie from the pot and with a long sharp butcher knife slice the weenie into four pieces long ways. Lay a bun on the paper and the weenie pieces on the bun and then get a ladle full of chili from a different pot and spread it over the weenies on the bun. He would then cover the fixins with the other half of the bun, fold the edges of the wax paper over the top and stab a tooth pick through the center. He would sack up your order and with a smile send you on your way. To Mr. Raymond Wilson for making a wonderful memory for so many NE poor folks. -David
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Does anyone recall a column written by Homer Moyers? He an I attended Ardmore School back in the late 40s and early 50s. (I hope I got the name right). -Marion Patton [email protected]
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Below is from This and That newsletter archives of July 9, 2009“Hey Butch, some buddies of mine and I were riding to Meers, Oklahoma to eat when we ran across this critter. None of us had been drinking and went a mile past it before anyone admitted that they’d seen it at all! Boy was I glad I wasn’t the only one who’d seen it.” -Lynn
https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos9a/MeersCamel09a.jpg
https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos9a/MeersCamel09b.jpg
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“HI BUTCH. HAVE ENJOYED YOUR NEWSLETTERS FOR SOME TIME. THOUGHT YOU WOULD LAUGH AT OUR SURPRISE WHEN WE RETURNED HOME THIS MORNING FROM OUR DAILY THREE MILE WALK. MY WIFE WENT INTO OUR GARAGE AHEAD OF ME. I HAD STOPPED TO CLEAN UP THE TRASH FROM TACO BELL. I HEARD HER SCREAM. I RUSHED IN AND SHE WAS PRETTY SHOOK UP. I CALMED HER DOWN A LITTLE AND SHE SHOWED ME A SNAKE BY THE DOOR GOING INTO HOUSE. I HAD NEVER SEEN ONE THIS LARGE. WE CALLED ANIMAL CONTROL. HE DIDN’T GET HERE SOON ENOUGH TO PLEASE MY WIFE. I WAS TRYING TO ACT BRAVE. WE CALLED STEVEN HARRIS AT JERRY’S GUN SHOP. HE WAS HERE IN MINUTES. THE CONTROL OFFICER ARRIVED AT SAME TIME. WE DECIDED NOT TO KILL IT FOR SOME REASON. WE GOT IT OUTSIDE AND FOUND IT TO BE A BOA CONSTRICTOR. ABOUT THREE FOOT LONG AND THE SIZE OF YOUR ARM. I GUESS IT WAS SOME ONES PET. BUT MY WIFE SAID IT WAS NOT HER PET. I DONT KNOW WHERE HE TOOK HIM AFTER I PUT HIM IN BUCKET WITH AIR HOLES. THAT IS HOW OUR MORNING STARTED.
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Jot and tittle – Every minor detail. A jot is the horizontal mark on the
letter “t”, and a tittle is the dot above an “i” or a “j”.
See everyone next week!
Butch and Jill Bridges“Friends Make Life Worth Living”Ardmore, Oklahoma
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Vicious Dog Attacks in Oklahoma
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Bill Hamm’s Cemetery Database
http://www.usgwarchives.net/ok/carter/cartercm.htm
American Flyers Memorial Fund – Administration Webpage
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Ardmore Army Air Field/Ardmore Air Force Website
https://oklahomahistory.net/airbase/
Carter County Government Website
http://cartercountyok.us
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