The Daily Ardmoreite – Feb 21, 1922
No Charges Filed in Shooting Affray
Officials hold conference to decide action
Attorney General says affair “purely local” and
he can see no need for interference
Five bullet holes found in office
Hodge takes charge of probe and charges will be filed later
Oklahoma City – No occasion for an investigation of the shooting Friday in the Carter County Courthouse at Ardmore yesterday by the state attorney general’s department is seen by George F. Short, Attorney General. He said today he termed it a “purely local affair”.
Whether charges will be filed against any of the participants in the shooting affray at the office of the County Attorney Monday afternoon, when four men were slightly injured, had not been decided by Assistant County Attorney John L. Hodge this afternoon. He said that he would know definitely after he had talked over the matter with sheriff Ewing C. London.
All of the wounded men have been returned to their homes and are reported resting well today.
Mr. Hodge is taking the case in hand and has been busy all morning questioning witnesses. At noon he said he had nothing to give out, that he was still seeking a motive or cause for the shooting.
Mr Hodge intimated later in the afternoon the charges would be filed but could not say as yet who the parties would be. At the time he made the statement, he was about to begin a conference with sheriff London and County Attorney James H. Mathers.
Blood spots make a shaky path from the front of the door into the big outer room of the county attorney’s office and many persons have been following up this to hedge a possible conclusion. The officers are disregarding the blood spots on the floor.
Five defined bullet holes have been located thus far, and four of them are in the door of the office, ranging from the inside.
One bullet hole is through the glass facing on the right side of the door about 12 or 14 inches from the floor. Two are in the right facing, about 3 and 1/2 ft up, going straight through, and the other glancing in the side. A forth bullet hole is found almost in the center of the door a few inches below the glass, while the fifth is in the left wall of the room and apparently glanced.
Just what actually occurred in the locked room is hard to determine because when shots began everything turned to turmoil. Sheriff London, according to his own version walked into the county attorney’s office with former deputies, Bud Ballew, Whitson and Earl Young and began a conversation that was entirely friendly. Shortly afterwards Martin walked in. He immediately centered his remarks to London and finally asked if London was armed, according to the infromation coming to the Ardmoreite. When London answered in the negative he advanced toward him, and the fight began.
All witnesses up to this point are agreed.
Somehow or other the door leading into the county attorney’s office was locked about that time. Just who did it or why is not known.
Ballew jumped in between London and Martin attempting to end the fight, it was said. Sheriff London bears this out.
At this point somebody tried to open the door into the county attorney’s office. Deputy sheriffs Cowles and Short were among those who tried the door.
Then two shots were fired, it could not be determined who began firing. When the first shots were fired the glass in the locked door was smashed and the firing became general.
Note: Below is from my March 2011 newsletter. I think the bullet holes mention above is a difference set of holes to those mentioned below.
This week an email came in from a law student at Oklahoma City University (graduates in May) asking about info on Ardmore’s famous attorney, James Mathers (1877-1961). Mathers was the first County Attorney after statehood in 1907, but soon resigned to defend Clara Hamon at her murder trial. The OCU student is researching State of Oklahoma vs James Mathers. I really don’t know much about him, but he’s been mentioned several times over the years in my newsletters. The one that stands out is the incident many years ago on the 2nd floor of the courthouse here in Ardmore where Mathers was a County Judge.
The story goes that a murder defendant, ‘Wobblin’ Willie, had a gun and fired at Judge Mathers. Judge Mathers pulled the gun from his desk, returned fire and killed the defendant. Just 3 or 4 years ago a person could still see the bullet holes in the entrance doorway to the DAs offices. Those bullet markings on the door facing was the result of that shoot-out between Mathers and the murder defendant. About 3 years ago (2008?) maintenance crews were replacing the door facings during some remodeling, and not knowing the historical value of the bullet holes, disposed of the door facing with the bullet holes. I remember several years prior when some remodeling was going on at the DAs offices, and the then DA, Gary Henry, told maintenance, “don’t remove that one door frame, its a piece of Carter county history.” I guess several years later that directive was forgotten by maintenance, and the doorway was removed.
I did get a picture 2001 of that famous door facing at the DAs office and its bullet hole before it’s removal.
Information on Wobblin’ WIllie
On November 15, 1911 William Ballow AKA Wobblin’ Willie was a defendant in a murder case in the Carter county courthouse. Wobblin’ Willie did not like the way things were going, so he decided to shoot the county judge, James Jimmy Mathers, who was presiding over the trial. When the judge saw what was about to happen, he grabbed a gun from a man, returned fire, and killed Wobblin’ Willie.
I’ve seen several articles where Willie’s last name was spelled Ballew, Balleu and other variations.
Willie is buried beside his mother, Gemmima Ballow, in the family plot in Lone Cedar cemetery (row 9) north of Ada at Francis, Oklahoma.
William “Wobblin’ Willie” M. Ballow 2/11/1871 – 9/15/1911
Gemmima Jane Smith Ballow 3/25/1840 – 8/10/1918
David Ballow 1/28/1869 – 2/6/1939
Walton A. Ballow 10/23/1873 – 12/6/1939
The cotton gin below in Tishomingo was ran by John Domron Fryer in 1917 under J. D. Fryer & Sons, Independent Ginners, “We buy seed and seed cotton”. He was born under the name Albert Frank Fryer in Mississippi on 3 July 1853, son of R. H. M. Fryar and Nancy C. Unknown, he died in Oklahoma in 1936 of pnuemonia and is buried in the old section of Tishomingo City Cemetery, Johnston County, OK. For unknown reasons, he migrated to Arkansas.
Above the west entrance of the Carter County Courthouse.
HAM Radio Talk
I’m still making new contacts using my Echolink program on my PC. New contacts have slowed down somewhat, but I’m still HAMing it up with previous contacts on a daily basis. Sure been fun. I guess the most fun has been logging into https;//hamcam1.net (10:00am) where today we had 14 participants!
232. 04/06/23 3:00pm G8JLM Patrick in Maldon, England
https://www.qrz.com/db/G8JLM
233. 04/06/23 3:15pm G4SSV Stan in Lincoln, England
https://www.qrz.com/db/G4SSV
234. 04/10/23 7:25pm WS4TOT Charlie in Georgia
https://www.qrz.com/db/WS4TOT
235. 04/10/23 9:00pm KJ6LRB Michael in California
https://www.qrz.com/db/KJ6LRB
236. 04/12/23 9:00pm KE8WPP Brian in Ohio
https://www.qrz.com/db/KE8WPP
237. 04/12/23 9:30pm AB2GU Bruno in Long Island, NY
https://www.qrz.com/db/AB2GU
Some mail from this week’s MAILBAG….
Butch, I met you one evening in 1999 at the sheriff’s department when helping out Mike Key in dispatch while I was a Carter County Deputy Ranger when Don Waters was sheriff. I stumbled upon your webpage and man, a lot of memories came flooding back while reading some of the stories and a lot of GREAT people that I haven’t thought of in years! I just wanted to say please keep the stories coming, I sure enjoy them.
Our first deputy ranger meeting/orientation was the evening of July 13, 1999, why I remember that I do not know, but anyway I was 14 at the time and the main ones coordinating the program initially was Steve Henson, Lee Ann Welch, Gary Smith and Allen Flowers. Ruben had already went to APD by the time it was all started. It wasn’t long at all after the program was started that Gary and Steve resigned from the department and Jansen Bazzrea filled their shoes, Rick Taylor and Jerren Almon helped out some, then Jansen became the resource officer for Springer then Gregg Johnson (Jennifer’s husband at the time) pretty much ran it until Harvey disbanded it when he took over.
I also learned a great deal about dispatching from Jennifer and Mike Key (with his contagious smile and good humor) while I was there, I still use the knowledge from what I learned from the deputies and dispatchers to this day. -Josh Adams
I enjoyed your AI poem, Beautiful Ardmore, except for the line about Main Street being full of life. The last several times I’ve visited Ardmore I have tried to avoid driving down Main Street. Growing up, there were many times when you had to adjust your walking speed because of all the foot traffic on Main.
One time a few years ago I got on Google Maps and, using the street view, walked from the Ardmore Hotel to the train tracks and found only 37 people on the sidewalks.
Tricia and I do all of our shopping in Bozeman, WY. When we bought our building lot in Big Sky in 1991, Bozeman’s population was just under 23,000. Today the population is 53,000. The first time I saw Bozeman was 1965 and the population was about 15,000.
It has been interesting watching Bozeman grow through the years. Their Main Street has remained the center of town I can’t think of a single empty storefront on Main.
Thanks for the recap of Coleman Jones. I used to see him most often, around town, in the summer on his bicycle.
When I was young and my family would visit my dad’s mother in Laguna Beach, California they had a man who lived there and you could find him every day at a specific intersection and he was known as “The Greeter” who welcomed everyone to town. -Monroe Cameron
Mr. Bridges: I lived on the Goddard Ranch (north of Dickson) from about 1948 till left in 1964. Mr. Rickey is indeed buried there, I was told because he loved the Ranch and country. The horse, Little Joe, was not his, it was a stud, quarter horse, that belonged to Mr Charlie Goddard. He stayed in a lot by the Red Barn, just outside our home. He was the best looking horse I had ever seen. I recall also a famous painter, do not remember his name, painted a picture of him, very nice job. Not sure where the picture is now. Little Joe died in his 20s. Across the drive way from Mr Rickey’s grave was an open well, it was the sweetest, cold water on the Ranch. Can still remember that water.
Read your Newsletter every week. Please do not quit.
Dan Broughton in Norman, OK
Submitted by Melinda Taylor:
The Daily Ardmoriete
2-13-1898
Note From Brock
Brock, I. T. – Feb. 12
Noticing in your paper an account of the burning of the school at Brock. I will make a statement of the burn.
In the first place, it is a mistake that the fire was incendiary. No such thought was entertained by anyone. I attended the box supper the night the house was burned, and think it caught fire from the stove. The stove was in a dilapidated condition and had been so for some time. The house was worth about $150. The school numbered 53 pupils.
Another house is being erected which greatly surpasses the former one. Thanks to the citizens of the community, and the good people of Ardmore for their liberal donations.
Respectfully yours.
J. H. Acree.
The Daily Ardmoreite
Hewitt
5-27-1903
Some unknown person set fire to the Iron Top school house about four miles north of Hewitt. The house was burned down.
Below is from my Vol 4, Issue 156 April 15, 2000 newsletter:
This week I was talking to some friends and they mentioned something about a “mad stone”. I had never heard of such a thing. They told me it was in their family for 80 or so years. When someone was bitten by a rabid dog, the “mad stone” was soaked in milk and held against the bite. It was suppose to some how render harmless the bites from the rabid dog. Using http://www.metacrawler.com I did find some information about the Mad Stone and its powers used by the Indians before 1900.
“I thought you might like to know about another airplane crash involving soldiers that was in the area. I remember being told years ago about an airplane that was also carrying troops, that crashed in Love County between Enville and Lebanon. As I recall, the crashsite was located on the Boog Lemons farm between Highway 32 and Lake Texhoma. I was told that Boog occasionally found items while farming at the crashsite and that many years later, an older couple came to visit the site because their son had died in the crash. And, thats when Boog showed the couple the things that he had found, they discovered their son’s class ring was in the box of things found. Sheriff Clyde McGill told me that very touching story during one of our many fishing trips together in the area.”
“I love your web page – one of the best I have visited. I am particularly interested in the history of Ardmore since my husband’s mother grew up there and I am currently researching her side of the family. Her mother was Zella Orr who was killed in the tornado of 1946. Of particular interest to me is Zella Orr’s father – John Williamson. He apparently owned a saddle and harness shop in the early days of Ardmore – do you have any idea of where I might obtain a picture of John Williamson or if anything has been written about him?”
“Dear Butch, I spoke to my husband Peter about our phone conversation a few weeks ago. The accident is not something we think about that often after all these years but it definitely was a life altering experience for us. Peter’s dad and I flew to Ardmore immediately upon hearing of the crash only to find he was already moved to the burn unit at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas. He spent the next year recuperating there. We met other survivors and their families and many wonderful people during this time. We actually were married in the hospital chapel that August (survivor Nick Leone’s mother stood up for me). You can imagine how excited we were to finally go home and start our new life together. We really never looked back although we often wondered about various people we had met along the way. Our life has been blessed – we have three grown children and five grandchildren. Our children gave us a 30th wedding anniversary celebration in 1996 where we renewed our vows in front of all our friends and family who were not present the first time. It really meant alot to us. We support your kind efforts and have sent a donation in rememberence of those who were not as fortunate as Peter.” Best regards, Gail Scaramuzzo
“Our 9th grade students are doing their research papers over people or events in Oklahoma history. One student wants to find out about a murder which took place in 1912 in Willis, Oklahoma. According to the story he was told, a man murdered men on the school board after his child was not allowed to go to school. We have tried to find information about this but have had no luck. Do you or your readers know anything about it? We would appreciate any info we can get. Thanks!”
“In answer to one of your email letters, I am not a medium but I am able to pick up spiritual/psychic energy and I personally did not experience anything at Brown Springs. However, if anyone is looking for local “hot spots” Ft. Washita is the most “energetic” place I have found so far. The Ft. Sill/ Mount Scott area is a close second. I have also experienced energy spots in Gainesville, The Alamo, The Loretto Chapel in Santa Fe and St. Mary’s Hospital in Grand Junction, Co.”
“When you give away a little piece of your heart, you’re giving away the only thing you can give away, which, after you do, you got more left than you had before you gave some of it away.” -Don Hutson, Green Bay Packers
See everyone next week!
Butch and Jill Bridges
Ardmore, OK
580-490-6823