Back in the late 1970s Alfred “Al” F. Davis was a bail bondsman in Ardmore. I transported his wife, Lois Davis, several times in the ambulance. As a thank you Al gave me a solid black German shepherd puppy. About all I remember is going over to his house near Chickasaw Boulevard and Cottonwood Street when the puppies were old enough for me to pick mine up. On his living room wall he had a big oil painting of the puppies parents. I named him Inky since he was all black. I had Rick Feiler of Ardmore PD install in a chain link fence around my backyard on E Street SW. (Rick was installed fences on his day’s off.) Inky kept digging out and every time I’d find him at this kid’s house in the 300 block of F Street SW. I finally just gave up and just let the kid keep Inky. For years I’d see that kid (now a grown man) walk by my house with Inky beside him. I could tell Inky was showing his age, his walk was not that good. I sure loved that dog. Now the reason for this story:
Al Davis was the only bondsman in Ardmore who Sheriff Robert Denney would allow to write a personal check when posting someone’s bond. I watched Al a number of times on the 2nd floor of the old jail (106 Hinkle Street) give a personal check to the jailer. Try that today. lol
These two Big Bear bald eagles, Jackie and Shadow, below are taking turns sitting on their 3 eggs. Big Bear valley is just east of Los Angeles. The chicks should hatch any day now. The Youtube link below is a live video Cam.
Someone asked me today if some kind of park was near Ardmore’s Greater Southwest Historical Museum on Sunset years ago. Yes, it was a City Park at the far north end where Sunset stops, West Main and Sunset (originally called S Street). The park never really mounted to much, seldom visitors.
We had crazy kooks 100 years ago just like today
The Daily Ardmoreite April 16, 1922
To Bomb City With Planes, Warns Sheriff
A horrible spectacle of war, with bombing airplanes soaring overhead expelling giant bombs on Ardmore’s courthouse, was pictured in an unsigned letter to Ewing London, Carter County Sheriff (1922-1929), yesterday.
Sheriff London said that he believed the letter to be the imaginative creation of some disturbed mind or a practical joker. Apparently the writer found it difficult to disguise the letter and some words were misspelled and other spelled correctly although equally difficult.
From the Mailbag
Your story and photos last week of Ray’s Backyard Corner brought back a flood of memories to me. Ray Dewberry was quite the character and a delight to be around. I would stop in just to hear his stories. He had quite the sense of humor, as evident in your photo of him wearing a bell. He did this so that if he ever got lost, he could find himself. I bought a sign from him that said: ”I Have Gone To Look For Myself, If I Should Return Before I Get Back, Keep Me Here”. My brother Tom always hung that sign at his fishing camp-sites. I sent you a couple of photos of outdoor items procured from Ray’s Corner Store. I also sent you a photo of a matchbook that Ray gave me of another Hwy 77 stopover from back in the day. He was always finding stuff hidden within the nooks & crannies of that old gas station. Hwy 77 was a well traveled Oklahoma route, of which that old gas station was a common refueling post. -Steve
Butch, I think drip gas is the same as white gas. In my early days in the oil patch I saw some of this in some the old oilfields. The guys used it to burn in gas lanterns and as a cleanup fluid. It’s actually naphtha and I would not recommend putting it in an internal combustion engine. Coleman makes this kind of fuel. -Jim Bridges
Last October I added the Chickasaw Lake Crest Casino near Lake Murray to the Google Maps. Since then there have been over 100,000 look-sees. So people are making plans to visit. By the way, my cousin Sue Phillips and her busband, Jeff, of Gainesville did all the floor tile, wall tile, columns and carpet, and resilient base in the casino and the hotel. I’m sure proud of them. The casino is planning to open sometime near the end of April. I am anxious to see their craftsmanship on display for all to see.
Funeral services for my uncle Donald Bridges will be this Saturday at 1:00pm at the Craddock Funeral Home on South Commerce here in Ardmore
https://www.craddockfuneralhome.com/obituary/donald-bridges
HAM Talk by KC5JVT via Echolink
Hope to hear some of you Ardmore area HAMs out there checking in this coming Sunday night at 8:00pm.
Below is from my newsletter dated
March 10, 2001 – Issue 202
Below is a photo of the old Cornish Orphanage school we talked about last week.
The Cornish Children’s Home that began as a dream for Moses E. Harris, who taught school at the Chickasaw Chapel near Marietta. He dreamed one night that he built a magnificent orphanage. Shortly after his dream, Harris began securing funds to build such a place in Cornish, Oklahoma.
The frame structure was started in October 1903. Then in 1917 the three-story wooden structure caught fire. It was a sad day for all the kids who lived in the home, but it didn’t take long for rebuilding to begin. Funds were slow to come in so Wirt Franklin, a local oilman, paid for the completion of the building after striking oil near Oklahoma City.
After Harris reached old age he sold the 297 acres and home for $7,000 with the understanding that the home would keep going. After about two years it sold to an individual and the doors were closed forever. The home ultimately housed over 1,700 homeless children.” -Recorded by Betty Carroll October 17, 1984
March 31, 2001 email: “Butch, I have the two books that were written by Moses E. Harris, From the Cradle to Old Age, this is how he worked hard to get some education- he could not read or write at the age of eighteen. He became a teacher and editor. This is his life story of growing up . He was born Dec. 13, 1869 and this book was written in April 1945, at the age of 75 years and 5 months. The second book is A Story of The greatest Human Interest. The story of a plain country boy and the greatest institution in Oklahoma, where hundreds of homeless orphan children are given a chance for a better life. These two books have pictures of the first orphanage and after the fire how he struggled and rebuilt the second home with the help of Wirt Franklin, many children from Carter County and all around came to this home, he even traveled and picked them up. This is the complete story of how a man had so much love to give to children and let them know what it was like to be loved and have a safe place to live. All of the pictures of all the orphans, the matrons, the rules the children had to go by and the work and the schooling they were taught. I would have liked to have met such a man that so much love and giving of himself, and still had a family of his own that found a way to bring happiness. “
Last week I talked about my grandfather building the Methodist church in Hobart, Oklahoma. Here’s a pic of Hobart in 1901.
Here’s a pic of downtown Dougherty, Oklahoma up in the Arbuckle Mountains in 1998.
Back in the early 1980s we had a snow fall in the Ardmore area. I probably shouldn’t have even been on the streets, but decided to go to the old Safeway Supermarket (now Homeland) on North Commerce and pick up some things. When I left the store, an elderly white-haired man was in the parking lot trying to get his car started (He was George Cecil Button 1909-1994). I thought to myself, at his age he shouldn’t even be out in this kind of weather. Anyway, I went over to help. I had jumper cables in my car, so I jump-started his dead battery. I closed the hood on his car and went around to the passenger side, he had the door open. He said, “I’m Cecil Button and I own Button’s Auto Electric and I want to thank you for helping me. I’m also a Gideon.” He opened his glove compartment, and pulled out a little bible. He said, “here son, I want you to have this”. I never meet Mr. Button again. But I still have that little Gideon bible.
This story is because I received an email this week from my long time friend Rome Engle. Rome and I go back a long way, to when I worked on the ambulance in the early 70s and also the sheriffs office, and Rome worked as a State Game Ranger.
But first a little information so everyone knows who Rome is: Rome was a former Game Ranger or Game Warden from the Southern Oklahoma Area. He retired 2 or 3 years ago from the State job, and is now working almost full time with the Gideons. He lives in Tulsa now, and is currently on a Gideon trip to Kenya, Africa doing what Gideons do, handing out bibles. Lisa is Rome’s wife. Now for his email this week….
From: Rome Engle, Nairobi Serena Hotel
To: ‘RomeLisa@brightok.net’
Date: Monday, March 05, 2001 12:03 PM
“Hi Lisa, Just a note to tell you about my first full day of work in the Lord’s ministry in Kenya. My partner for the day, Brad Wilson, of the great state of Oregon, and I went to 12 grade schools today. We placed about 3500 testaments in Swahili and English in those little hands. The children were so well disciplined and mannerly. We would tell them “good morning” and they would in unison say “good morning, sirs.” The smiles were from ear to ear, and the eyes were bright and sparkling. We cried all day long. We saw children with cleft palates, cancers on their faces… our hearts broke all day long, not only with the sick and halt and maimed, but with the happy faces. Every school wanted to sing for us. The sound of those lovely voices singing to us will be with me for the rest of my life. Sell the house, buy some tickets and let’s get on with this… Gotta go, forward this letter to everyone you think will be interested in it. I love you, Pray for us……..Rome.”
Carter County Commissioner Kevin Robinson went over the hill last week. The girls at the commissioners office fixed up the area with banners and balloons, and we had some delicious taco soup at noon in celebration of his birthday. Just wait til he’s 50, they’ll really fix him up!
And now a picture of the old man himself!
A reader told me about a cotton gin that used to be in operation here in Ardmore up until around 1951 on South Washington. The reader said his dad used to take him there when they sold their crops. I did some checking and found out the gin was located right across the street west from the Honda Shop in the 500 block of South Washington. It was called the Murphey Milling and Feed Company, owned by John L. Murphey (1890-1950) and his wife Maude (1892-1976). Mr and Mrs Murphey lived next door to the mill at 515 South Washington. The mill manager was W. E. Buchanan, the assistant manager John McGraw, and Coley Wallace was the secretary/treasurer. The mill was originally called the Choctaw Cotton Mill starting in 1918 and ran by John Murphey all through the years until the name was changed to Murphey Milling and Feed about 1949. Murphey Milling was sold to Comet Feed Mills about 1957. I wonder if anyone has a photo of this mill?
“Hi Butch, I left some things out of the Drip Gas story. The production of the Drip from oil required a piece of equipment called a “Heater Treater”. Its function was to heat the oil, causing the water to fall out of the oil. The vapor off the heated oil condensed back into gasoline as it cooled, and was captured in the barrel. The gas to fire the fire the heater was usually captured from the wells themselves. The gasoline produced by the cross country pipeline was commonly called “Casing Head Gas”. The gasoline off the heater was called “Drip” because it dripped into the capture barrel, out of the line coming from the heater, as it cooled from vapor into gasoline.”
“Hi Butch, I certainly enjoy reading and re-reading all of your columns. Keep up the good work. I do have a question for any of your readers. I am interested in finding out about any old Wild West Shows that may have been around Wilson, OK and Ardmore. I have heard a few stories that a William Daniel of Reck, OK, may have had one. If so, he was a relative of mine. If any of your readers know anything about these shows or if anyone may have a picture, I would sure be interested in hearing or looking. Thanks again for all of your efforts, Del Daniel in Southern California where it is cold and getting ready to rain again.”
“Dear Butch: Tribbey, Oklahoma was named after Walter Tribbey’s family, and he was born there, I understand. Walter was owner of Tribbey Drug Store, first in Wirt, and then in Healdton. He was also a county commissioner at one time. He was a neighbor of mine for a number of years, both Walter and his wife Ollie are deceased.”
“Hi Butch, I can’t tell you how much I enjoy T&T. It keeps me informed about home and brings back many memories. I was raised in Ardmore and lived at 814 A st. N.E for most of my youth. I left Ardmore for the Air Force in 1954 and have not lived there since, but still call it home. You may already know that “Caddo” street is nothing more than the first 3 blocks of A st. My Grandpa Garnand lived on the east side of Caddo st. across from the Martin & Fedler building. He made knives, saws and sharpen all kinds of tools, so I spent a lot of time on Caddo until his death in 1953. Several weeks ago you had a picture and comment about the large mound of earth on the east side of I-35 on the old Navy Base at Norman Okla. Someone said it was part of an artillery range. That was not quite right. It was the backstop (bullet catch) to the rifle and pistol range. The mound is only about half of what it was before they put I-35 in. Keep up the great work you are doing with T&T. THANKS!” (Note: I took this picture in the early 1970s with a Kodak 35mm camera -Butch)
“Hi Butch~~I am a new subscriber to This and That and enjoyed my first letter very much. I was born and raised in Ardmore, born in l940 and my maiden name was Lamb. My grandfather, W.G. Lamb and my dad, Don Lamb owned grocery stores there in Ardmore. The first one was on the corner of “E” street SE and Lake Murray Drive and I have many wonderful memories of that store, it’s customers, and the neighborhood. The other grocery store was at the corner of l2th and E. NW. If you have any memories or facts about the Lamb men or the grocery stores, I would love to hear them. My aunt was Marynette Parker who lived on the corner of Carter Ave. and Lake Murray Drive. She played the organ at Emmanuel Baptist Church forever.”
“Butch, this may have been before your time but John Small’s bakery was originally in the 800 block of 3rd NE right next to his home. Later it was moved to the corner of H and 2nd. This means of course that I am older than you but I remember it well.”
“Butch Bridges forwarded your letter to me and asked me to answer your question. Well, certainly I’m no expert but I am an observer. I noticed a crack in the side of the old building several weeks ago and started taking pictures of the building. The crack gradually became noticeably wider. The authorities at the police Department were notified, but there was nothing done to guard against the possibility of the wall falling on someone – thankfully no one was hurt. The building is very old & completely unoccupied but after the sand stone wall fell, it appeared that the roof had been leaking for quite some time. I too will be interested to know what the inspectors come up with for an answer as to “why the wall fell.” (NW corner of East Main and Caddo Street)
“Hi Butch, We’re still enjoying your newsletter out here in Nevada. It’s always good to read about the old hometown. I noticed someone mentioned the Raleigh Salve you use to be able to buy. Does anyone out there remember selling Cloverine Salve from door to door? That was back in the thirties and if you sold enough, you got a reward for it in the form of various items you could get from their catalog.”
“This picture from the McGalliard Collection shows the building at Caddo and Main Streets before the sandstone to brick changes to the front and east sides of the building. The autos indicate the picture date to be in the 1915-1920 era (I’m guessing).”
The best vitamin for a friend…… B1
See everyone next Thursday!
Butch and Jill Bridges
Ardmore, Oklahoma
580-490-6823
