Subscription schools were located north, east, and southwest of Lone Grove in the early days, but none in the town itself. By 1887 the population had increased and a two-story frame school building was completed in the north part of town. Members of the Masonic lodge and Eastern Star used the second floor for meetings. Fire destroyed this building in 1902. Classes were held in several small buildings in the community until a new school was finished in 1904. Teachers included professors Ingram, Baker, Wallace and Thurston as well as assistants Mrs Pete Harper and Nell Poole.
In 1910, M. L. Thurston supervised the construction of a two-story brick building located in the northeast part of Lone Grove. It was used from 1911 until 1929. A 2-year high school was accredited in 1919 under superintendent Paul X. Patton. In 1921 school board members, chosen according to the size of their families, included John A. Heartsell, C. W. Young, and Mr Plummer.
When the Blue Ribbon School consolidated with Lone Grove in 1927, two school buses were purchased. Bunker Hill and Broad Tree schools were added to the consolidated district in 1938. Later, other schools added were Cheek in 1951, Brock in 1954, and the separate school of Cheek-Love. The black students were transported to the separate School in Ardmore.
The Daily Ardmoreite July 2, 1910
Sulphurites see sights high in the heavens, brilliantly lighted and traveling at a terrific speed, an airship passed over Platt National Park last night at 9 o’clock. The aerial navigator was traveling due west. Many entered automobiles and pursued the route of the airship, but it quickly left the speeding autos far behind and passed from view over the Arbuckle mountains fifteen miles away. The airship was so high that only its lights could be seen, but the hum of its motors could be distinctly heard. The swift passage of the airship with its brilliant lights and humming motors attracted more attention in this city than Haley’s comet ever did. The two protractors meetings lost their audiences and the shows, dance pavilions, bowling alleys, and other amusement features their crowds. Even the merry bathers left the natatorium and rushed out up in the streets in their bathing suits to see and hear the aerial navigator in its passage over the National Park.
The Mailbag
Indian Territory Sun
An African-American publication – Ardmore, OK
January 21, 1904
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Q. So this sign is in Greenville (Love County). Is this a little town here or just a sign. Do you know anything about it? -Amy Buxton-Greenwood
A; Orinne was the orignal name for Greenville before it was changed to Greenville. It is 6 miles north of Marietta
Museum Memories
Compiled by Melinda Taylor
The Wilson News
July 13, 1917
ARMORED MOTOR CAR TOURING THE WEST
Quite a little excitement was caused in New Wilson the first of the week by the appearance on the streets of an armored motor car. This car was built by the Wichita Automobile and Tractor School of Wichita, Kansas, and is an exact reproduction of the armored cars now being used on the fighting lines in France by the Allies. The U. S. Government is also making use of this type of fighting machine.
The car sent out by the Wichita Automobile School is built on a regular Ford chassis and it took thirty days to complete. The entire super structure is made off steel and covered with twenty gauge sheet steel. It has a gasoline tank large enough to hold a supply for a 300-mile trip.
The car is in the charge of Mr. P. D. Van Ausdale and it will cover a tour of about 10,000 miles before it completes its journey. The states to be visited are Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, Colorado, Nebraska, Missouri, and Arkansas.
The Wilson Historical Museum is open Fridays and Saturdays 10:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. or visit us online at http://www.wilsonhistoricalmuseum.org
We think my wife’s mother, Georgia Lee Pass, was the last teacher at Pooleville school, we do know she left in 1956 to start teaching at Ringling. She would have been at the Pooleville school for two years. -G.K. Stanton
Speaking of the Dalton Gang, made me remember a story by my dad who had cousins in Kansas named Dalton (no kin) but their bank in the small town of Virgil, KS. Was robbed by the Dalton gang. Strange things happen! -R. Helms
Butch, this is an excerpt from a longer story about old six guns. It caught my eye when it mentioned Ardmore and Ragtown. Have you heard of this G. R. Tucker?
The Colt Bisley found its way into many cowboy holsters such as John K. Rollinson’s who worked for the M-Bar Ranch in Wyoming in the 1890s. “We all carried guns. I remember that each of the six men had guns almost exactly alike,” Rollinson said. “We all preferred the Colt single-action six-shooter. Some liked the Bisley model, others the Frontier model.”
At the age of 19, Texas cowboy G.R. Tucker drifted into the pages of history as a “regulator” in the infamous Johnson County War of Wyoming in 1892. Tucker was part of the paid mercenaries from Texas sent to clean out the rustlers and squatters who infested the open range of north-central Wyoming. Working from a death list from the Wyoming Stock Growers Association, the regulators started their lethal work. After a few lopsided “battles,” the tables turned on the regulators when the local populace rose up in force and trapped the regulators on a remote ranch. Tucker managed to stay alive during the two-day siege until the U.S. Army arrived to quell the dispute.
Tucker drifted back south and became a U.S. Deputy Marshall, then Assistant Chief of Police in Ardmore until moving on to Ragtown during the oil boom in 1915. He must have fallen into a large sum of money because he purchased a nickel-plated Colt Bisley engraved by none other than Cuno Helfricht. The gun is stunning with mother of pearl grips sporting a steer head on the right side. It currently resides in the Autry Museum of the American West.
-R. J. Woodbridge DVM
Retired
Below is from my Vol 4 Issue 182
October 14, 2000 newsletter:
Twenty five miles north of Ardmore is Davis, Oklahoma. About 1850 after migrating to Indian Territory, the Nelson Chigley family settled in that area, eventually acquiring nearly 2,000 acres of land. The land would be called Chigley Flat. When the Santa Fe came through in 1887-1888, railway officials made arrangements with Mr. Chigley to survey part of the land into lots, so began the town of Davis. These lots were chained off by government surveyors and sold for $5.00 for a 50 foot lot. Mr. Chigley, a civic minded man, donated four corner lots to be the Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian and Christian denominations, and no doubt, the land on which the Davis city park is located.
Mr. Chigley built a two story house in the east part of Davis in 1891. He hired teachers and boarded Indian children in order that they might have an education. That house still stands today, and is known as the Chigley Mansion. It’s present owners are B.J. and Connie Wigley. They have turned the Chigley Mansion into a Bed and Breakfast. B.J Wigley stopped by to see me this week and invited me up to eat at their Seafood Restaurant which they just opened at the mansion. Besides the seafood platter, they also serve the more traditional foods, hamburgers, chicken fried steak, burrito plate, ham and beans, baked taters and fixins and plenty more good food to cure the hungries.
UPDATE: “Butch, the Chickasaw Nation owns the Chigley Mansion now and they have attempted to restore it. It is not open to the public at this time.” -Darryl McCurtain
This week the maintenance crew put a new coat of Spar Varnish on the dome of the courthouse. Those of you who have been getting my T&T for a year or more, will remember it is Spar Varnish that we found would keep the copper dome from forming that green tarnish (petina). After its first coat a year ago, it still had no green tarnish forming. This week’s coat of varnish will insure the tarnish does not come back for a long time.
“Hi Butch: In the last issue of This & That you mentioned something about “some kind of ‘airport’ used to be located south of Lake Murray in the 50s”, and you asked: “Does anyone remember this airport?” You may be thinking about the landing strip at Two Lakes Skyway Courts which was owned and operated by my in-laws, Bert and Mabel Paschall, from 1948 until 1970. The landing strip was located at the southeast corner of the Lake Murray State Park property about two miles east and a little south from the dam. It was across the road from the store and courts. After the second crash about 1954 or 1955 which killed two men Bert discontinued operation of the landing strip. He plowed it up and planted peanuts and later changed the name to Paschall Village. I have somewhere a photo I took of the first crash in front of the store which did not kill the pilot, but it sure shook him up. Bert and I fished and hunted all up and down Hickory Creek and we hunted ducks and quail all over Love County during the ’50s and 60’s. I don’t recall ever seeing an airport or landing strip anywhere near the south end of the Hickory Creek bridge on highway 77 Scenic. The Marietta city dump and a few oil wells were located in that immediate area. It was all very rough around there and not suitable for an airport or landing strip without moving a lot of dirt to level it out. It was only when you went up on the escarpment a few miles south of the bridge that the topography was flat enough to lend itself to any kind of airport or landing strip. If one was up there somewhere I never saw it. My wife and I really enjoy reading This & That. It often brings back a lot of fond memories. Thanks. – Pat & Don Davidson, GRAND RANCH, Brenham, Texas.”
“Butch: The airport south of Lake Murray Dam was located immediately west of the Enville store across the road. The Enville store is now closed but was run for many years by Von Dee Lemons and his wife. Keep up the good work.”
“Hi Butch, I also grew up in Ardmore, and reading your glimpse into the past, really brought back my childhood there. I have a picture of the old Tyler & Simpson Co. That was taken the year we were born. It also has the names and pictures of the people working there. My grandfather E.W Clifton and aunt Kathryn Clifton both worked there. The picture below was taken in1949. Left to right – Leland Jones, Eddie Ellis, Red Hawkins, C.G Stout, Ted Hensley, Wilton Nelson, J.T Nutting, Marion King, Bill Goddard, Carl McCann, Billy Hayes, Kathryn Clifton, Dale Trotter, R.H McConnell, Clariuce Bridgemore, E.W Clifton, Truck driver for Mrs Tuckers, Hicks Stamps, Dick Bagwell. I didn’t go to school in Ardmore, I went to Dickson. Remember the Daube’s window at Christmas, the Sky View drive-in and the super dog?”
“Yes, I remember Mrs. Hart’s canaries ( Hart’s Grocery at SW corner of 3rd and P street NE) and my brother and I bought my mother one for her birthday, she had him for many years before he died! I can still hear him sing!”
“Hi Butch, I found a couple pictures of Oklahoma from the Fort Sill area. One is the Guard House on the Military grounds back in 1941-2. He said he would probably spend a lot of time there. Well, he did. He ended up being a Military Police (MP) and spend hours on guard there.”
“The next one is the Officers Club where my dad said that the only time he will ever get to go into it is if he was cleaning it up. The picture was also taken in 1941-2. He never did say weather he ever got to go inside.”
“The world is so empty if one thinks only of mountains, rivers and cities; but to know someone here and there who thinks and feels with us, and though distant, is close to us in spirit – this makes the earth for us an inhabited garden.”
-Johann von Goethe
See everyone next week!
Butch and Jill Bridges
Ardmore, OK
580-490-6823
