December 10, 1933
The Daily Ardmoreite
Officer Escapes Assailants Fire
Two men attacked Lorenz Boyd, Ardmore city officer
Boyd sought to question accupants of motor car
Attackers flea after shooting
Police are in search of two men in a new model coupe who Friday night fired on Lorenz Boyd, city policeman, when he sought to question them. Bullets from the guns penetrated the windshield above Boyd’s head and punctured the police car radiator. Boyd was by himself when he encountered the two men.
The fugitives are in a car bearing a New York license tag, it was said.
Boyd saw the car on the street and it’s occupants aroused his suspicion. He trailed them for some time finally coming up on the men at the end of B Street Northwest.
As he drove alongside to question the men, one opened fire. After shooting, the car sped away. By the time Boyd was able to stop the police car and get free from the wheel the men were out of range.
Police are not informed as to any reason for the men firing on the officer. it is believed that they are probably wanted in some other town and did not intend to surrender.
Apparently the fugitives believed Boyd had a companion because the shot fired through the windshield was evidently aimed at the right hand side of the front seat where the gunner usually sits in a police cruiser.
Well Tennyson and Raymond shoemaker, two of the plain clothes men of the department are in Sherman texas, where they went to bring back two stolen cars and two prisoners which accounts for the one man patrol last night.
Third Attempt On Boyd
This is the third time that Boyd’s life has been menaced by outlaws in the relative short time he has been a member of the force. Soon after he became patrolman, a bandit fired on him from a dark alleyway (1931), the bullets flying through the officer’s cap. Sometime later he was seized by thugs and manhandled when he sought to investigate prowlers near the Swift company warehouse.
Description of the car in which the men were riding, has been supplied to neighboring officers.
December 10, 1933
Auditorium is to be erected at Plainview
Construction of a one-story auditorium at Plainview school, district 27, have been given official approval of the state CWA and actual work will be started as quickly as possible, it was announced by J. E. McCarty, county superintendent.
J.W Davis Grocery 213 C Street NW. He sold 9 different kinds of cheese!
Paul Bucher sent in this picture of a Deep Rock motor oil sign. I remember Deep Rock motor oil cans years ago and road maps. Deep Rock was based in the Oklahoma oil fields and had an extensive marketing presence throughout the midwest. Shaffer Oil and Refining was the “parent” company with Home Oil Company most likely being the local distributor. A product of Kerr-McGee.
Bob and Paul Sperry (brothers) had 3 grocery stores. 619 3rd NE and 623 6th NE and 621 C Street NW. The above photo was taken at the 619 3rd NE store located just 1 block from where I grew up. I guess when the Sperry’s went out of business the store name was changed to Shady Grocery. It had already ceased being a grocery store when I was a kid. Its gone now, just a empty lot. There is a home (still standing) across the street from where the grocery was located made out of the same rock. I wonder if the same builder built them both? Before the Sperrys, the store was owned and ran by Mr. Ed Davis and his twin daughters, Eddie Lou and Betty Sue and his wife in the 1930s and 1940s.
Q. When was the worst winter in Oklahoma history?
A. This occurred on February 12th, 1899, which also was the day in which Oklahoma City saw its coldest temperature in recorded history. On this date in 1905, very cold temperatures were recorded over the state of Oklahoma. The low temperature at Vinita plummeted to 27 degrees below zero.
Q. Where in Oklahoma is a 2 acre children’s discovery garden?
A. Answer in next week’s newsletter
Some mail from this week’s MAILBAG….
I was reading Butch Bridges’ blog last week and his mention of the oldest house in Ardmore brought back memories of when we moved into town from Lake Ardmore and my dad rented the house at 405 Stanley Southwest. Sharon and I received our first bicycles our first Christmas in that house and learned to ride on the sidewalk in front of the house.
I now know that the woman who lived in the house next door, on the corner of Stanley and D Street, was there when my dad grew up around the corner on D Street. The woman had a line of bushes that ran from the southeast corner of her home to the corner. The bushes were planted along a short barbed wire fence that kept anyone from cutting the corner across her lawn. In the two years we lived in that house I only saw that woman twice. Both times were at Halloween when we rang her doorbell for treats.
Our first friend was Beverly Edwards who lived across the street in the house that Dana now owns. Our mother became best friends with Bev’s mother Estelle. Estelle made the first German chcoolate cake I ever ate. Her husband, Troy, was the lineotype operator for the ARDMOREITE. In the early 50s He was already concerned about his job being replaced by machines. Bev was a champion swimmer in school and I remember attending one of her matches at the pool in Whittington Park.
Bev took us trick or treating for the first time.and we went as far as F Street to the west and around the streets that encircled the library. Someone gave us popcorn balls and that was the first time I had ever seen those. Some time after that I taked my mother into making some. The day after Halloween our mother told us to select 5 pieces of candy from our bags and asked for the rest. We didn’t complain because we knew that we weren’t allowed to eat candy except for special occasions.
At that time, people were allowed to raise chickens in town and there was an old chicken coop in our back yard. It was well constructed so my dad had no problem converting it to a club house. It’s funny but I have few memories abuut it. One day I was walking across the street from Bev’s and I could see a woman in the alley next to our house wringing a chicken’s neck. The headless chicken hit the dusty alley and ran around until the woman picked it u and walked back down the alley to where she lived.
One day in the first grade Valerie Westheimer brought a stuffed bird to school. It was a small bird and I have no idea about what kind it was. It seems like it had died in their yard at home and her mother performed a bit of taxidermy on it, stuffing the body cavity with salt. It was a neat show and telll experience for first graders. About 14 years ago, Wendall invited Tricia and me to a party in Santa Fe restaurant and Valerie’s brother was there and we talked about that bird. Small world.
I think my first male friends in the neighborhood were Charles (Chig) and Keats French. I remember their mother spent time in Europe and their maid looked after them. I remeber the four of us going fishing once at Lake Murray. Whenever I walked over to their house I passed the Scotta’s house which I always liked but I no longer remember why.
My other close friends were Larry Newell and his brother, Tommy. They lived on the west side of the library. Their room was upstairs and overlooked the street. They had a big box of comic books they kept under one of their beds. My mother wouldn’t let me have comic books so anytime I was at Larry’s it was wonderful. Later, when I was going to Charles Evans, I was allowed to read MAD MAGAZINE. My sense of funny was forever changed.
My mom bought an Army helmet liner for me at the Army.Navy store that used to be on lower Main. One day we had one hell of a hail storm with hail the size of softballs and I begged my mother to allow me to go out and dodge the bombs from the sky. I’ll never forget the sound they made when they hit the ground in the front yard. No, she never let me out of the house that afternoon.
Saturdays were always special because the Tivoli offered serials, comics and westerns. Sharon, Bev and I would walk downtown on Saturday and that was always an adventure because I would always look in the windows at Luke’s Music Store. One Saturday Hopalong Cassidy came to Ardmore and appeared at the Tivoli. That afternoon he also appeared at the new supermarket on South Washington just north of the miniature golf course. All the children got Hoppy rings.
Ed Luke was one of my dad’s oldest friends because they only lived three blocks apart growing up. Growing up, all my records came from Luke’s as did all my trains. On my 10th birthday, my first shotgun came from Luke’s. As long as I lived in Ardmore the same woman was Ed’s bookkeeper. I would buy pieces for my Lionel train there on lay-a-way so I would see her every month. Nipper, the RCA mascot, sat in the window next to the front door greeting customers. Major applliances occupied the front of the store, then the music department with the listening booths on the east wall. Sporting goods were in the back. I loved the smell of that store.
There was also a little toy shop in a woman’s garage in the block west of Lincoln school named the Toy Cupboard. My mother would buy me Dinky Toys in that shop occasionally. Barbara remembered the name of the shop and the owner’s name but I have forgotten the woman’s name.
The two years in the early 1950s we lived in that house were some of the best in my childhood I think that was true because of my age and it was the first time we had lived in town. The neighborhood was the best playground I could have had. At times I would just walk the streets to see what was around the next corner.
Ardmore was a wonderful place to grow up. -Monroe Cameron in Big Sky, MT
Note: What many do not know is Cameron Road at Ardmore’s Valero Refinery is named after Monroe Cameron’s grandfather back around 1920. Also Cameron Lake later renamed Santa Fe Lake. 1920 photo of Cameron Refinery. Years later the Santa Fe Lake because of silt was drained. Map of Santa Fe Lake.
Cameron Refinery, then Wirt Franklin Refinery, Ben Franklin Refinery, Bell Oil Refining Company, Vickers Refinery, Total Petroleum Inc. UltraMar Diamond Shamrock and lastly Valero Refinery.
Below is from my Vol 3, Issue 137 Devember 4, 1999 newsletter:
I’ve received another one of those great history photos from fellow Ardmoreite Robert Hensley! It’s Ardmore’s first birthday held at Whittington Park in Southeast Ardmore way back on July 28, 1888.
Just west of Ardmore 7 miles, in Lone Grove, Oklahoma, is a beautiful little gem. It’s an old Canadian surrey owned by Nathan and Shirley Christian. They own Christian’s Auction in Lone Grove and the surrey is parked behind their store.
The last few issues of my T&T, several wrote about the train wreck near Wapanuka, Oklahoma when all the Texas Schlitz beer was scattered all over the tracks. Everyone said the accident happened in the Fall of 1961. Guess what? A resident of the Wapanuka, OK area who has been gone for 30 years (now in Oregon) has a photo of this infamous train wreck. Here it is, a one and only photo! A glimpse into the past!
On the courthouse grounds there are 13 pecan trees. They were planted about 1910 by the first county commissioner, O.K. Darden. This week, because of blustery winds, the pecans have really been falling all around the property. Leland McDaniel, the OSU Extension Agent for Carter County, and I went from tree to tree this week and Leland identified each tree by type. Below is a diagram I drew of the location and type of pecan trees at the Carter County Courthouse from the information Leland provided.
Would you like to see some of the pecans James Lindsey (in maintenance) and I picked up the past few days? We put them in the Commissioners Office for visitors to crack and eat when they are visiting the office. Everyone enjoys cracking their own!
“It is never too late to give up your prejudices.” -Henry David Thoreau
See everyone next Thursday!
Butch and Jill Bridges
Ardmore, OK
580-490-6823