On Septembe 27, 1915 what would come to be known as The Great Explosion took place in downtown Ardmore. About 50 people lost their lives in an instant. Below is a documentery video on Youtube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eq2_7fVTyV8
Photo of the inside of the Ardmore Light & Power Company 1919.
Link to my unclaimed property webpage
https://oklahomahistory.net/unclaimed-property-in-oklahoma/
HAM Talk by KC5JVT via Echolink
Below is the local area HAMs who checked in to our Net Control last Sunday at 8:00pm. All licensed HAMs are welcome to join us on Sunday evening.
Below is the info on the Boredom Breaker Net in Claremore, Oklahoma. It starts everyday at noon Central Time. Yesterday we had 65 HAMs check in dur the two hour session. Lots of interesting fun. Hope to hear some of you HAMs out there check in.
From this week’s Mailbag
Who owns Heritage Hall Ardmore OK?
The City of Ardmore is the owner of Heritage Hall which is located at 220 West Broadway. Since March 16, 2015, the City has had an agreement with Two Frogs Grill, Inc. to operate and manage the facility on behalf of and for the benefit of the City of Ardmore.
Butch, In one of your latest newsletters you included photos past and present of an Ardmore home. That house happened to be my grandparents’ home for 20 years – 205 C Street SW. They were Maurice and Natalie Bridge. He once owned a jewelry store in downtown Ardmore. For some time my great-grandmother lived in an apartment on the right hand side of the home. It was great to see its beauty back in the day, and the current owners seem to be keeping the place looking grand. I’ve spent many an hour playing on that front porch, and my grandfather always walked us to and from the post office each day when we visited. I’ve included a photo of a lovely drawing accompanied by a bit of the house’s history. Thanks for adding to our family memories with your posted photos. We always enjoyed our trips to Ardmore. -Donna Tuttle Holt, Quitman, Texas
Pappy had coin operated radios all over southern Oklahoma and north Texas. After the war folks were traveling by cars more, therefore motels & travel courts became popular stays. And yes, people would pay to listen to a radio > 2 hours for a quarter. IMAGINE THAT ! Tell that to a millennial, and see the reaction you
get. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/21994634/emmett-oscar-miller
PHOTOS OF PLASTIC BANK E.O. MILLER KEPT ON HIS WORK BENCH
Butch, here are some photos to go with my email to you about my pappy’s coin-operated radio business after WWII. -Steve Miller
EO MILLER’S BUSINESS CARD FROM THE 50’s > > Butch, this was the radio business pappy had when I was a wee lad > I would travel with him as a helper & ”go-fer” when he serviced his accounts. I remember an old B&W movie where one of the characters was entering a motel room > as soon as the door swung open, there was one of pappy’s coin-operated radios just waiting for a quarter…… -Steve Miller
Fire at Wirt Oklahoma
I remember using these car heaters at the Skyview Drive In theater back in the 1960s. If you found one that worked, you were lucky.
Old photo of Countyline in the far northwest part of Carter county.
Below is from my newsletter archives dated
September 4, 1999 – Issue 124
Last week I told about Love county Deputy Sheriff Walter Tate being killed in the line of duty in 1917. I went to Oswalt last Saturday and found his grave. South of Ardmore about 12 miles on I-35 is the Oswalt Road exit. If you go west about 11 miles you find the intersection of Oswalt Rd and Hembree Rd. Turn north and go about 1/4 mile curving back to the west is Oswalt cemetery. I found Walter Tate’s tombstone near the south end of the cemetery. His marker was not resting on it’s base, but was laying flat on the ground. I asked myself how could I get his marker back to it’s base. A couple days later at a local auto parts house, and met Mrs. Mary Wilson, owner of Wilson Monuments in Lone Grove, Oklahoma. I told her the story and she ask me to draw her a map where Walter Tate is buried. She said they had a monument to sit in Leon, Oklahoma and would drop back by Oswalt cemetery and fix Deputy Tate’s tombstone free of charge. Here is the full story of Deputy Walter Tate’s death.
The Marietta Monitor
Marietta, Oklahoma
Friday, September 21, 1917
OFFICER SHOT IN DISCHARGE OF DUTY
A deplorable tragedy was enacted near Oswalt Sunday night when Walter Tate, a deputy sheriff was shot and perhaps mortally wounded while in the discharge of his duty by Ben Canty. The shooting occurred at the home of Hugh Allison, an uncle of Canty, who lives about a mile and a half east of Oswalt.
The particulars of the shooting as told us by an officer are about as follows: Tate had a warrant for Canty who was charged with obtaining money under false pretense and went to the home of Allison in company with two or three other parties to arrest Canty. Allison was requested to light a lamp and open the door, which he did after some delay. Upon entering the room he was fired upon by Canty with a winchester, the ball striking him in the abdomen and passing through his body. After being shot Tate fired upon Canty the shots taking effect in his hands, both of which were mangled by the shots.
The wounded officer was taken to the sanitarium where he is now with little hope for his recovery.
Canty went to Brock to have his wounds dressed and was carried from there to the sanitarium at Ardmore from which he was secured by the Sheriff and brought to this place and is now in jail.
Allison was also arrested and is in jail charged with being an accomplice to the affair.
In 1883 an English colony was incorporated near Harper, Kansas and was known as Runnymede. It was named after the Runnymede in England (the famous place where King John signed the Magna Carta 1215). A few years later, in 1893, the colony of Runnymede would be moved from Kansas to Alva, Oklahoma. Here is a photo of the present day Runnymede building in Alva. The citizens there are discussing converting it into a Cultural Center.
The Carter County Clerks’s Office here is now doing some high tech file transmissions via modem. The county barn at Healdton (western Carter county) is transmitting daily by modem their Purchase Orders to the clerk’s office for processing. This saves employees having to drive the 50 mile round trip to hand deliver the POs to the courthouse. It’s working flawlessly!
Maintenance crews at the Carter County courthouse have been busy the last couple of weeks renovating the Honorable Judge Charles Tate’s courtroom. New carpet and a new coat of paint on the walls sure has brightened up the Special Judge’s courtroom.
Also James Lindsey in Maintenance has done some staining on the handrail that goes from the first floor to the second floor in the Carter County Courthouse. It sure looks nice with a fresh coat of dark stain. James is a true craftsman. He can fix or build almost anything that is given him to do
“Butch, I am sending you a copy of a letter received in your this week’s T&T – It is of particular interest to me because I was the State Senator that caused the road on the east side of Lake Murray to be completed from the Old Rock Tower site to it tie in with what is now HW 70 east. I took a map of Lake Murray & presented it to the State Highway Commission, along with my proposed route drawn on it to show where the road should be excavated & completed…. I should mention that I knew the Paschall’s well & it was through inspiration from them that motivated me to pursue the effort. By the way, the route was charted by flying over the area with a helicopter. The Superintendent of Lake Murray, Junior Dobson, actually drafted the route as he flew over the area with the helicopter pilot.” Ernest Martin
“KKAJ radio in Ardmore, Oklahoma will be “LIVE AUDIO STREAMING” beginning THURSDAY, Sept 1, 1999. Tell everyone you know AROUND THE WORLD to log on.” https://www.kkaj.com
On Caddo street just north of the present day Caddo Cafe, is an old rock building with the following inscription at the top: “Ella Hunter – 1939”. Ella Hunter was an early day business woman of Ardmore, Oklahoma. She was a boarding house owner and also owned a small cigar stand in the corner of the Whittington Hotel at Caddo and Main. One long time Ardmoreite told me Ella Hunter would buy property anytime she had some extra cash, eventually even owning property as far away as Houston, Texas. Ella was a young widow and reared three children- Virgil, Amelia, and Maude. Amelia Hunter Hall would go on to be renown throughout the country for her theater and musical talents. In the link below the date looks like 1999, but it is 1939. Ella Hunter 1864-1952 The Ella Hunter building is at A Street and 2nd Northeast.
Ella Hunter on Find-a-Grave.
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/21489876/ella-hunter
We have a lady at the courthouse named Juanita Conway who takes care of some of the janitorial needs in the building. She has been telling me for a long time, “Butch, those computers are going to drive you crazy”. After this week, she may be closer to the truth than she knows. This week I had promised friends I’d take care of some things for them while they were gone to Las Vegas a few days. I told him I would do it Thursday evening. I lost track of time and didnt even know when Thursday got here. He called me from Las Vegas Friday and then the truth came out. I was 24 hours late in doing what I promised, thinking it was Thursday, when really it was already Friday. I sat down Friday night and starting counting the computers I provide TLC for at the courthouse…. I was dumbbfounded… 95 and still counting. Boy, I think I need to slow down a little. Anyone know some good places to take a vacation?
“Our Government is the potent, the omnipresent teacher. For good or for ill, it teaches the whole people by its example. If the Government becomes a lawbreaker, it breeds contempt for law: it invites every man to become a law unto himself; it invites anarchy. To declare that in the administration of the criminal law the end justified the means– to declare that the Government may commit crimes in order to secure the conviction of a private criminal– would bring terrible retribution. Against that pernicious doctrine this court should resolutely set its face.” -Louis D. Brandeis 1856-1941
Butch and Jill Bridges
Ardmore, Oklahoma
580-490-6823
