The Daily Ardmoreite June 4, 1919
Second Ardmoreite Awarded Coveted Croix De Guerre
French Government Honors Captain Willis L. Pearce, Who Died While Fighting
The Ardmoreite is in receipt of a letter from Mrs Ada D. Pearce of Healdton giving the information that a French Croix De Guerre has been post-humously awarded her husband Captain Willis Pearce (1881-1918), Company F, 142nd Infantry, 36 Division for special act of bravery during the Battle of Saint Ettlenne. “Though early wounded in the chest, Captain Pearce led his men to an advance position in the line. Later he was again attacked, this time through the legs, and while being helped from the field was killed by a bursting shell.”
Captain Pearce was well known in Ardmore having made his home here several months. He was connected with an oil company. This is the second Croix De Guerre to be awarded to an Ardmore man, the first being awarded to Lieutenant Walter W. Drew.
Captain Willis Pearce is buried in Arlington National Cemetery
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/57193501/willis-l-pearce
Anyone recognize these from Healdton High School 1960s?
The daughter of Kenneth Echer (Tracy Echer Anderson) reminded me of something from my childhood days. I was proably 14 years old at that time. I will never forget Kenneth (and his brother Jimmy) and all the fun (and mischief) we had at 702 2nd NE in Ardmore. And I sure remember that big tree to the right too. Kenneth threw a iron spear trying to stick the spear in the tree. Instead, it ricocheted off the tree into my lower leg calf. Thankfully the spear had a REALLY DULL point. I could hardly walk for a week. LOL
Did you know that you can rent your local VFW Post 4574 for $100 reunions, baby shower, anniversary, luncheon, pretty much anything you need a place to meet up. Food truck owners we have a parking area and shade. Support your local Veterans of Foreign Wars. Contact Bill Hartman, Commander. billhartman1969@gmail.com or 580-768-4904
From the Mailbag
Q. When did Ardmore’s Sonic on Grand Avenue open for business?
A. April 1963 by Ned Albert, Manager
HAM Talk by KC5JVT via Echolink
There were 82 Hams check in to the Boredom Breaker Net yesterday between Noon and 2pm CST. The Net was formed April 3, 2020 and since then nearly 90,000 Hams have checked in. It all very interesting, and if any of you Hams have not checked it out, I encourage you to do so. I use Echolink to join in. Always crystal clear audio.
RCWA Repeater in Claremore, Oklahoma: FM frequency 147.090 positive offset (+.600) PL=88.5 (Allstar node 49562; Echolink N5XQK-R; YSF XLXOKL A; Dstar XLXOKL A; DMR TGIF 49562; Hamshack Hotline 94002.) The RCWA AllStar node (49562) and Echolink (N5XQK-R) are linked in 24 hours a everyday.
Below is the check-ins last Sunday at 8pm to the local Ardmore net. I hope to hear more Hams checking in this coming Sunday night.
Below is from my newsletter dated
February 24, 2001 – Issue 201
I travelled over to the Blue River Hunting and Fishing Resort five miles north of Tishomingo, Oklahoma last Saturday. Tish is 30 miles east of Ardmore. Blue River was cresting that day from all the previous days of rain. There were people even trying to catch fish in the rushing river. Here’s a couple pics.
On the way over to Tish I went through Russett, Oklahoma. The first thing I noticed in Russett was an outhouse behind this old house at Highway 1 and Pettijohn Road.
Speaking of outhouses. When I was in my late teens the outhouse below was located at #37 E Street NE by the SW corner of the house and could be seen from the street.
Last week I talked about Mr. Basil Moran and his grocery store on 6th NE across the street north from the old Washington Elementary school back in the 50s. Mr and Mrs Moran called me this week to say they had received many lovely calls and letters because of the article. What I failed to mention in my article was the man in the photo is the store’s owner, Basil Moran.
I have been trying this week to find a relative and hopefully a photo, of Mr. Arthur D. Wilkinson (1883–1973). Back in the 60s Mr. Wilkinson lived at 812 Carter SE here in Ardmore. But he also ran a printing shop adjacent to Hunts Grocery (west side) at 726½ 3rd NE. I can remember so well watching Mr Wilkinson, who was in his 80s, placing sheet after sheet of paper n the press, as his huge printing machine roller went across that flat inked surface, just before the roller went across the type then to the paper.
Speaking of Mr. Wilkinson, I looked in my garage and found an old printer’s tray that came from his printing (726½ 3rd NE) shop back in the early 60s. It is a true antique, so I got it out, put a couple of hangers on the back and hung it on my frontroom wall, and turned it into a shawdow box. Across the top I even lined it with all these little bottles of liquor that a friend of mine had given me over the years, with each trip they made to Las Vegas. Makes for an interesting conversation piece.
“Hello Butch, The newsletter was wonderful as usual… I wanted to thank you for quoting the Wynken, Blynken and Nod poem … I had not heard that since I was young until I watched Dennis the Menace the other night with my nephews… Thanks again,”
“In your various responses about Cornish did not so far see anything about the cemetery out there. Maybe because few could find it. We did awhile back. Main purpose in looking was because my wife (Virginia Gilstrap Farrington) has a grandfather, a great grandfather and an uncle buried there.The grandfather was one who rode the “old Chisholm Trail as a cowboy! His name was Thomas Jefferson Gilstrap, Known as “Little Jeff” It was in a nice quiet setting when we were there although possibly a little run down after all these years. By the way, congratulations on 200th issue- a whopper- printed off 16 pages! Wow. You will have to increase your “subscription” price!! Haha. And thanks for “making our day” on Saturdays, or if I stay up long enough Friday evening, can even catch it then much of the time.”
“To the San Francisco resident looking for a “Seth Thomas Ship’s Clock”. I happened to have one of these clocks. Was taking a load of wheat in an “oil tanker” to Sudan, on the Red Sea below the Suez Canal. I was the “radio operator” on this ship. After unloading the wheat we went to Karachi and sold the ship for scrap. Will give you one guess as to where the clock went? Sorry, but would not part with my clock.”
“Butch, You have to remember, I am from a small town. We have no roads in or out of Juneau, Alaska. We have two trolley cars in the summer but they are powered by gas engines. As long as there are telephone poles to hide behind, I get along fine. We do have 10 stop lights in Juneau. It took many hours to get to work when they were first put in. The Red lights kept Blinking on and off and everyone kept stopping and going, stopping and going as it blinked on and off. Sometimes you could make 2 feet when the light was off. Was sure glad when they finally let them turn green for a few minutes. (LOL) I go to work early so I miss all the stopping and going. I also start home early also so miss it that direction also. I only live 6.2 miles from home. Soon to be 7.2. We bought a new house a mile farther from town and a mile closer to the Glacier. We will only be about 3 miles from it when we get moved.” -Claude Roberts aka Grampes in Alaska (note: Claude passed away in Medford, Oregon)
“Here are 3 pictures of a contraption on some older Oil Wells that make a substance known as Drip”. My Father says that drip is a gas in the casing that when it hits air condenses to a raw form of gasoline. I’m not for sure on the lead content. My Dad says that it was mostly used in the oil field way back when to wash off tools and stuff. But he said some people used to run it in their cars a long time ago. He used to run it in his 1955 Ford Pickup, and said you could smell someone running drip in their vehicles from 5 miles away. I guess it sinks. He said that you could run it in your engine and turn the key off and the engine would run for about 15 minutes before it would die. He also said that if you had an old car that didn’t want to start you could mix about 5 gallons of gas with 5 gallons of drip and the car would start up everytime just like a new one. When he was running a hot oiler truck, if a pumpjack had an engine that ran off of the natural gas from the casing, when you would run hot oil down the casing you would have to cut off the gas from the casing and switch it over to a propane source. Sometimes when the pumpers would forget to switch the gas to propane and when the hot oil would go down the casing some of the drip would get into the line going to the gas engine and it start running 90 miles per hour. he he he. Dripu3 shows the line coming out of the well head and running into the bushes. Dripu2 shows the line going into a home made drum to collect the condensed drip. DripU shows the drip running out of the faucet after I opened it. Pretty neat huh? Do you happen to know anything about this or any of your readers? -Dwane
“Elvis has left the building.” This line was used at the end of all, or close to all, of Elvis’ shows, except when in Las Vegas and Lake Tahoe, where he stayed at the hotel. The announcer’s name was Al Dvorin.
See everyone next Thursday!
Butch and Jill Bridges
Ardmore, Oklahoma
580-490-6823
