About 2 weeks ago I was contacted by the sister of a lady who died in an airplane crash in 1971 near Milo, Oklahoma. I had gone there in the ambulance to retreive the 3 bodies and take to the funeral home. The sister made a trip here some back trying to find the exact location where the plan went down with no luck. She wanted to visit the location and get some closure where her sister lost her life in the wee morning hours of October 23, 1971.
I knew about where the location was but it had been 50 years and was not sure exactly where the crash site was at Milo. So I started doing some research and through the help of a couple friends I was able to find the exact location.
Thanks to Carl Stewart at Milo and with the permission of the land owner I was able to visit the crash site January 31st where 3 people died when I was working for the ambulance service. The site is located about 1/4 mile south of the Milo Cemetery. It is such a peaceful place with open land, plush Bermuda grass and leisurely grazing cows.
But what I learned from the sister of the lady who died in the crash was a cousin to me way back in our Murphree family lines, all the way back to Alabama. I would have never known the lady in that crash 50 years ago was a distant cousin if not for genealogy and the Internet. I will never forget pulling those 3 bodies from the plane Oct 23, 1971 and now, knowing Kittie Vercher was a distance cousin, I’m glad I was there at that terrible and sad time.
Below is a picture of my distant cousin who died in the plane crash along with 2 others.
Below is a link to Kittie Vercher’s memorial page on Find-A-Grave.
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/14672136/kittie-mchugh-vercher
I wanted to highlght an awesome singer who is on my Facebook. Deanna Wood Priddy is a talented professional singer who resides in Texas. Deanna is Chief Dancing Star Woman of the Northern Towns District Tsalagiyi Nvdagi Texas Cherokee. Below is a link on Youtube to Deanna singing The Hardest Thing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GU5iDUZCNz4
Mail from the Mailbag
Vince Freeman, who wrote about Staunton school in last Thursday’s newsletter, was a first grade classmate of Jymmie Lea Pass at Dundee. Teacher was Mrs. Crisp..Jymmie’s mother, Georgia Pass, taught 4th grade. Any other 1st grade classmates around? -G K Stanton gks1959@gmail.com
And always remember that Meads Fine Bread is Soft Twisted.
Used that to get out of a speeding ticket in Ardmore in January 1964.
Officer who pulled me over said; do you know the speed limit through here is 35 MPH and I clocked you at 45 MPH? My mouth just let it out; no Sir, but do you know Meads Fine Bread is Soft Twisted? He laughed, said I can’t give you a ticket, so you have been warned. -Poss in Norman
HAM Talk by KC5JVT via Echolink node number 101960
My Raspberry Pi-3 is up and running, I have the program iaxRpt installed on my laptop for running Allstar. Fighting the install of those two programs was like fighting a grizzly bear. I have connected and talked with a couple of Allstar Nodes around the U.S. and in England. But the sound quality is not like the perfect sound I have when I use Echolink. I’ve been told that packets are being dropped. So for now, I’m rating Allstar a 3 out of 10. In summary, if you are a HAM and want to get into the digital world of HAM easy and fast, Echolink is the way to go. You can be up and running in 10 minutes. So easy to setup, even a 10 year old kid can get you transmitting in minutes. lol
Below is a roster of last Sunday’s Arbuckle 97 Net called at 8:00pm. Any HAMs in this area are welcome to join us. The Net is held every Sunday evening at 8pm.
Below is from my newsletter archives dated
January 31, 2008 – Issue 575
Its been over a month or two since I updated everyone on a memorial stone for those killed in the Great Explosion of 1915. Last week I stopped by Wilson Monuments at Lone Grove and Billy showed me a granite marker he would donate to the cause at no charge. Its only smooth on the front which will work fine for the purpose we need it for.
District Judge Thomas Walker had written a check to Wilson Monuments in Lone Grove which I took to Billy Wilson to start work on the monument. Billy would not except the check saying he wanted to donate the granite to the cause. I returned the check back to Judge Walker. Billy Wilson was a wonderful man to help in community projects. He and his mother, Mary M. Jones WIlson, had helped me several times in the past at no charge. I sure miss my talks with Billy Wilson.
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/172677473/billy_thomas_wilson
There is only two places in Oklahoma where granite can be quarried. The Arbuckle Mountains, mainly Johnston county, and the Wichita Mountains in western Oklahoma; Greer, Kiowa and Jackson counties. Granite, Oklahoma is named Granite because of the granite quarried there in Greer county. The town also has the Oklahoma State Reformatory, the first all-male prison in the nation to have a female warden, Mrs Clara Waters in 1928. The penitentiary was built using prison labor in 1909 and granite from nearby Granite Mountain. The gray granite offered by Wilson Monuments comes from the granite quarries near Granite, Oklahoma. Below are a couple photos I took of the granite stone on the lot at Wilson Monuments.
https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos8a/GraniteMarker012208a.jpg
https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos8a/GraniteMarker012208b.jpg
Below is the finished granite memorial by Billy Wilson in his shop at Lone Grove.
Note: I’ve been told the granite memorial will be placed in front of locomotive Engine 1108 at Depot Park.
UPDATE: 02/04/25 – “Butch, this is currently a work-in-progress. It has not gone by the wayside. There will be a history of this on the platform in front of the train that is in the works.” -Kelly Bell
Since I didn’t have a gin pole I called James Shrader of Shrader Electric at Lone Grove to see if he would use his bucket truck to put up the 3 sections of my HAM radio tower. No problem he said and by 9am the next day James was at the my property and ready to work. Even with some delay in getting the bolts to match up in 2 sections, James had the 40 ft tower up in less than 2 hours. Its sure nice when you have the right equipment, and sure a lot safer than a using a gin pole.
https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos8a/JamesShrader012608a.jpg
https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos8a/JamesShrader012608b.jpg
“Butch and anyone interested I have started to catalog the abandoned Henderson cemetery north of Gene Autry. When the cemetery is fully cleaned by the Chickasaw nation Scheryl and I will clean all of the tombstones to a readable state. Click on any link to see what tombstones I have located and what the tombstones look like. remember this cemetery has been abandoned for all of my life and probably more like a 100 years.” -Doug Williams
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gsr&GScid=98616
GPS: 34.318278890327214, -97.0124594071545
Doug Williams has an extensive database online of area cemeteries at the link below.
https://winterfamily.smugmug.com/History
“Butch, Boy did the cotton jin fire in last weeks T&T bring back some vivid memories. I was about five years old when the cotton gin burned down, and we lived at the corner of “B” and 5 Street SW at the time. So we were only four or five blocks from the gin. I remember the black, black smoke billowing high into the air, and the stench of burning cotton. My dad would take me walking on Sundays, and we usually walked right past the gin, but for a long time we were unable to get near it because of the heat. The fire lasted several weeks as best I remember, mostly just smoldering with occasional flare-ups, but always very hot. I remember another big fire a few years later. It was the B.L. Owens Furniture Co. warehouse just east of the tracks on main street. I’m not sure what year that was, but I remember it was a spectacular event. Thanks for the memories, and keep up the good work.” -Bowden Miller, La Vernia, TX
“Dear Butch and Jill, So happy to see Mr. Cameron’s note about the refinery and the Santa Fe Lake. I had looked for it on the maps but did not recognize it. Thanks! We spent many weekends at the Santa Fe Lake, with Mama and Papa Lloyd (Ella and Henry). In the summers sat on the front porch and watched the cars and smelled the buses go by on old highway 70 and the spearmint planted beside the porch and dreamed of the onion towers in Moscow, Russia. They kept cane poles for us to fish with and worms could be found easily. There was a very kind older man who kept the pump house for the steam engines on the railroad. I do not remember his name. The concrete wall near the pump house was a wonderful spot to fish. He helped my little brother Newman and I as we would catch hundreds of the little gold fish there and at the end of the session would throw them back in. When Ardmore, had the tornado, Mama and Papa Lloyd’s garage was picked up and disappeared no where to be found. The next summer when the lake level dropped it was in the middle of the lake. Their house was destroyed they and the Edmondson family living with them at the time were all safe in the cellar. The neighbors and friends came out and rebuilt the house for them. I remember going there for the house warming when it was all ready to move back in. Seems like we had kerosene lamps for light. Many people came for that time. As Mrs. Lloyd was quite well known by many people of all walks of life. Papa Lloyd, had worked on the railroad but was disabled as long as I can remember he had something like Parkinson’s. He loved to sing to we kids. I still remember a line from an old folk song: I went a courting down to the old man’s house just below………something about churning butter milk and gray hairs…… Our family owned property that joined the refinery, eventually owned the Lloyd place but lost the lake lease when our Dad passed away and our Mother did not know to renew the lease. The people who obtained the lease broke the dam to make the lake bed a grazing lot for cattle. I was gone from Ardmore, by that time my news then was just what we heard on our visits back. Our daughter Callie and her husband Marty Thompson were married there at the Lloyd property as we called it under a big tree with the refreshments and cake under the large wrap around veranda with the white fence and Martin houses in the background. It was a beautiful occasion. A few years ago our Brother sold the property, it had a lot of good childhood memories for all of us. Lots of history and stories from that time. Best wishes for your move to your new home in Lone Grove.” -F and J in Baton Rouge, LA
“Here is a link to a website that will give you info on how to talk to a
LIVE person when calling customer service. There is a huge listing of companies and how to break through all of the menus and get to a live representative. I heard about it on TV from a Consumer Advocate. Thought it might be helpful… http://gethuman.com/
“For your list of Carter county stores in Woodford, Oklahoma: Akers store and post office, Greer’s, Dickson, Quaid, Frank Hitt. In Newport, Oklahoma: Oliver Ashley, Jim Cross, Joe Balthrop and Mrs Christian still runs her store”.
“Butch – my husband and I live on 150 acres at Tater Hill and Dickson Rd. We have been told that there is an old wagon trail located somewhere close to our property and an artesian well that the wagon trains would overnight at. Does anyone have any info on this?”
The Wilson News 8-4-1915 submitted by Mindy Taylor
The Indians Will Exhibit at Fair
The Indian Agricultural Exhibit will be held again at the ninth annual Oklahoma State Fair and Exposition, September 25 to October 2.
This interesting feature attracts thousands. It shows that the noble red men follow pursuits opposite to popular belief. That he is today a devotee of agriculture in preference to hunting and successfully too, as is proven in these exhibits. Trophies and diplomas are offered for the best tribal and school displays. E. A. Porter, professor of agriculture in the United Sates Indian school at Chilocco, is in charge of this department.
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9-23-1915
First Christian Church
On Sunday, Sept. 19th, 1915, there was organized a Sunday school by the First Christian Church at the Theater building. A nice crowd was present nd officers were elected to take care of the school. We wish to extend an invitation to any and every body to attend our Sunday school. O. N. Pardue, Superintendent.
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9-23–1915
Ward Bros. Break Record
Ward Bros. broke the state record for threshing this season. They used their 24 inch J. I. Case threshing machine. The state manager said that they were the only people in the state that were able to meet their notes. They threshed 4,000 bushels of grain this season and say that they expect to thresh out 75,000 next season.
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We have a listing of orphans who lived at the Cornish Orphanage in the early half of the 1900s ~~ Wilson Historical Museum. Fri., & Sat., 10:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.
https://www.wilsonhistoricalmuseum.org/
We have always held to the hope, the belief, the conviction that there is a better life, a better world, beyond the horizon. -Franklin D. Roosevelt
See everyone next week!
Butch and Jill Bridges
Ardmore Oklahoma
580-490-6823
https://oklahomahistory.net