Vol 29 Issue 1,476 May 15, 2025

There were a lot of questions after a skeleton was discovered in a landmark building (the old IOOF Lodge #6) at 24 North Washington in downtown Ardmore. A human skeleton was found in a casket during a building inspection at the old Odd Fellows Building on North Washington Street in Ardmore, Oklahoma. The Ardmore Fire Department discovered the skeleton in December 2024, and it was subsequently turned over to the medical examiner because there was no paperwork associated with it. The skeleton was likely a medical skeleton used for rituals within the Odd Fellows lodge. Since my grandmother, Addie Carmon, was a member of that Lodge I’m sure she knew a lot about the skeleton. She even took me to a couple of their meetings when I was pre-teen.

Ardmore Police Department – 1987. I knew nearly everyone in this picture by first name. But now nearly 40 years later, some names slip my mind 🙁

Edens Fine Foods 205 West Main, Ardmore Oklahoma c. 1950

Mail From The Mailbag

Tricia and I were in Yellowstone last week and headed for home when we were slowed because of bison on the highway. We both thought it was a crane across the river and Tricia took this picture through my window as we were slowly moving. When we got home she blew it up and discovered it was a pelican. She checked the bird book and it showed pelicans could be found in Yellowstone. This is the first pelican we have ever seen inland. -Monroe in Big Sky MT

Butch > Speakin’ of amazing finds in and around this part of “Little
Dixie”, my brother Tom found a USMC knife/bayonet while looking for
treasures around Lake Texoma during his employment days at Texoma
Lodge. He found it when he dropped his zippo lighter. The blade was
slightly pitted from years of being in the dirt. It had to have been
dropped by a soldier standing guard over German POWs during the
construction of Lake Texoma. He was quite the knife collector, and
this was one of his most prized finds. It cleaned up nicely, and he
proudly displayed it. My nephew in Texas now has it displayed in his
home.

In regards to your search to find some way to have a name added to the
monument you spoke of without breaking the bank > contact Ronnie Bible
in Ada. He is a stone cutter I came across years ago at Rose Hill.
His phone # is 580-436-0982. His email address is
ronnie_bible@yahoo.com

Great stuff in the 1475 newsletter > gonna be hard to top this one

Thanks for the memories, -Steve Miller (like the band)

Butch > I remember traveling with pappy when I was a wee lad; there
would be roadside car doors and hoods painted with messages. These
were leaning against barbed-wire fences, and most were advertising
Burma Shave. This would have been during the late 50s and early 60s.

Speakin’ of Enoch Watterson & Otto Powell > Betty Watterson told me
years ago that Enoch would take Otto to the campaign rallies when they
were running against each other. He would then take Otto back home
after the rally where Otto had just bad-mouthed Enoch. Everybody knew
this was going to happen, and had a big laugh. Otto brought color to
the rallies and drew large crowds. -Steve Miller (like the band)

HAM Talk By Butch Bridges KC5JVT – Allstar node # 58735

The HAM radiio meeting this month is this coming Saturday May 17th at 9am at Ardmore’s Parairie Kitchen. Hope to see more HAMs there! This is not a formal meeting of any HAM club, just a gether of HAMs for fun, food and fellowship. All HAMs are welcome.

There was a really good turnout for the HAMs who checked in at 8:00pm on the 970 Net plus the Net Control Officer, Russ Keeton WD5HCK. I think 18 is a record!

Below is from my newsletter archives dated
June 5, 2008 – Issue 593

I finally got a picture of all 3 dogs this week who visit us almost daily. They won’t hardly stand still long enough to get a pic of the group, but after about 5 tries, I finally got the pic below. That’s Bigboy in the foreground with Repeat on the left and Pete on the right. Pete just recently received a summer hair cut, and I can tell he is not used to it yet.

https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos8a/BigboyPeteAndRepeat052908.jpg

Jill and I were over at Wilson, Oklahoma last weekend, trying a hamburger mentioned to us a couple weeks ago. For years this place was known as Dusty’s and was located just south of Highway 70 at the west entrance to Wilson. Marlin Isaacs and Tommi Sue Idleman own the convenience store today and put out a really good hamburger. It had a big thick piece of meat, crisp lettuce and pickles, and onion. I guess the only thing I can say I wished, is the buns were browned a little more. I could hardly tell the buns touched the grill. Outside that, this burger was a good’un!

https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos8a/WilsonBurgerStore.jpg

https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos8a/WilsonBurger.jpg

“Hi Butch and Jill, I remember Mother, my sisters and I going to JC Penney’s to buy clothes for school and the sales lady would put money and their copy of the sales receipt on the pulley, back it came with our change. I also remember the swoosh tube. The sales lady would send it off with their copy of the receipt and money. Soon it would be back with change. I was so fascinated by that gadget. I use to watch if go off and wait for it to return, wishing I could get a hold of it and have a look to see how it worked. I use to chuckle when my boys were fascinated by the swoosh tubes at the bank drive by window. They use to get a kick out of it swooshing off and wait with their face against the car window for it to come back. Their fascination was more for fun than my curiosity.” -Leona M. Mars, Goldsby, Oklahom

“In the 1948 Berwyn School picture that Mae Scott sent in a couple of weeks ago I would swear the fifth person from the right on the top row is Marshall Mills my 5th grade teacher at Charles Evans.” -Greg DeBerry

https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos8a/1948-1949BerwynSchool.jpg

“Your article on lost cities of Oklahoma was very interesting. I travel Hwy 69 North to Grand Lake quite frequently hauling boats and there is a state highway sign near Lake Eufaula that shows Oktaha. I assume it is still there. Never turned off to see. You also mentioned how good rose petal jelly is. Well, I have made rose petal wine several times and it is delicious. It is a very pale pink color. Just like a fine Rose’ wines. The first time I made it I picked the petals from my wife’s rose bushes. After it had been fermenting a couple of weeks my wife mentioned that she had sprayed them with a herbicide before I picked them. Had to dump the whole 5 gallon batch. Learned a good lesson.” -Carl Garrett

Carl @ Boats 4 U

Walmart greeters, move over. For over 10 years there has been an unofficial greeter at the Ardmore post office almost every morning between about 7am to a little after 8am, Monday through Friday. He’s always got a hello or good morning to everyone who comes into the building to get their mail, as he waits to pickup the mail for Noble Foundation. He seems to know nearly everybody who walks in, or will before they leave if they stop and talk. And Chan has a mind as sharp as a tack when it comes to recalling things around Ardmore the past 30 years, things I had already forgot it has been so long since I been there, or done that, or bought there, and he reminds me. He is really quite a history buff in his own right when it comes to the 1960s forward. When I got to thinking about this unofficial greeter the other day, I decided to snap a picture of him in front of the post office. That’s Ardmoreite Chris Ridley 1949-2022 in the picture with him.
Meet Chan Brewster….

https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos8a/ChanAndChris060308.jpg

PS- Chan’s father, Jack Brewster 1928-1991, owned the Brewster’s Drive-In hamburger place at 708 Lake Murray Drive (later re-named the Burger Ranch).

Traveling from Lone Grove to Ardmore nearly every day of the week (7 miles) sometimes I think how 100 years ago people only had oxen and wagon to get from the west part of the county into Ardmore. There were no paved roads into Ardmore like Highway 70 is today, only dirt cow trails and wagon ruts. Just to get from Wilson to Ardmore required travelers to go through two gates because of private property lines. One and one-half miles west of I-35 on Highway 70 is a place the old timers 100 years ago called the Devil’s Backbone. This is a very high point between Ardmore and Lone Grove as you will see in the photos below.

One hundred years ago during the rainy seasons the slopes of the Devil’s Backbone were so steep, it was almost impossible to get over the top. Travel by wagon and a team of mules or oxen was slow going. On a dry day it was a full day’s travel to get from Wilson to Ardmore, a distance of 18 miles, by a team of oxen or mules pulling a wagon. So I can imagine the frustration by travelers trying to get over that hilltop with mud everywhere. Times were rough.

https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos8a/DevilsBackbone8a.jpg

Here we are looking down Highway 70 toward the west and Lone Grove. You can barely see that big huge American flag in front of the American National Bank.

https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos8a/DevilsBackboneLookingWest.jpg

This pic is looking east toward Ardmore

https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos8a/DevilsBackboneLookingEast.jpg

And this is looking south from the hilltop

https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos8a/DevilsBackboneLookingSouth.jpg

Speaking of times of long ago, I clipped this article from The Daily Ardmoreite sometime in the late 1960s about a lady named Florence Sonntag who lived in Woodward, Oklahoma in far NW part of the state who could witch for water (not Woodford, OK). I know my great grandmother Ida Murphree Miller witched for water using a willow tree just like Mrs Sonntag, but Ida was born on October 2, 1874, not October 8th or 10th as a requirement told by Mrs Sonntag.

https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos8a/SonntagWaterWitcher.jpg

I received a phone call this week from a Johnny Hilton of Marietta, Oklahoma. Johnny was born in the Oil Springs area NE of Marietta (not to be confused with Oil Springs north of Dickson, OK) and is putting together some historical info on Oil Springs and Love Cemetery areas of long ago. He said before statehood there were hotels and schools and stores at Oil Springs, but now that is all gone. Remains of one of the hotels was still visible as late as 1982, but it was bull dozed by an oil company.

And another email this week sent in by Chuck Stallcup in Texas explained the mystery photo shared by Bob Kerr last week…… “Butch, The flag in the mystery photo last week is definitely a Salvation Army flag. The design is one used prior to 1882, but the flag could have been old when the photo was taken. I also found mention of the small US flag in the corner, but did not find an image of it. “Landing at Castle Garden in 1880, English Salvationists carried an Army flag with a small U.S. flag in the upper left corner.” -Chuck Stallcup

https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos8a/MysteryPhoto8a.jpg

https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos8a/MysteryPhotoFlags.jpg

The first part of the week a Reader mentioned to me that another building in downtown Ardmore was coming down. The drive-in bank across the street catty cornered from the First Baptist Church. The only thing left on the entire block now is the old Gene and Frances McFall homeplace (315 Stanley SW – now owned by the First Baptist Church). Frances’ maiden name was Owens, daughter of the famous B.L. Owens Furniture store on East Main years ago. Here’s a pic I snapped of the bank drive-in about to be demolished.

https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos8a/BankDriveInDemo053008.jpg

Speaking of downtown Ardmore, I saw an unusual setup on the west side of the old Reavis Drug Store on West Main and B Street. I knew it was hot this week, over the 90 mark, but I guess the workers inside this building lost their cool air and had to call in backup or melt. It was a trailer with some portable air conditioning equipment, piping cool air into the building.

https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos8a/PortableAir060308a.jpg

https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos8a/PortableAir060308b.jpg

From the 1923 Journal of Carter County Schools by Kate Galt Zaneis, County Superintendent of Schools: Schools Maintained in Carter County For Negro Children. All of the schools in Carter county maintained for Negro children are designed as separate schools, except Tatums, District 50, which is the only district in Carter County that has more Negro children of school age than there are white children of school age. There are in this district, according to the enumeration of January 1923, twenty white children and two hundred fifty-one Negro children. There are two buildings in District 50, a four-room concrete building at Tatums and Franklin, a two-teacher school, three miles south of Tatums to accommodate the Negro children in the extreme eastern part of the district. District 50 is strictly a farming section and the work of the vacation agricultural teacher, is not only a help in reaching the boys scientific farming, but this department also gives instruction to the adults of the community. The department of vocational agriculture is equipped with laboratory for seed testing, and germination, and also has a workshop where the boys are trained to do such work as will qualify them to meet the needs of the farm.

“Hi Butch, I came across your site recently when searching for some information on a relative of mine who left Australia some time ago. The site is certainly something with a wealth of information about your area with a huge range of topics and points of interest and more importantly oral history.

The person I was researching was Anne Ellen Riordan who was born in Wyrallah, New South Wales, Australia in 1871 the daughter of Irish settlers in Australia (1 of 9). All I had heard about her was that she had married a Dr. Hardy and moved to Oklahoma. As for when they met or how they met, I am still to find out. So I believe she may have married Walter Hardy but the only link I have at present is a photo on your website of the headstone in Rosehill Cemetery. It has the correct birth date but the name does not match although the spelling of her name is very close (Reirdon)

My question is – can anyone put me in the right direction to gather any further personal information on Walter Hardy and his wife or family if they had one? Any help would be appreciated.” -David McCallum in Australia margotdruce@bigpond.com

Watermelon Time by Leland B. Jacobs

Now watermelon time is here.
And when the day is warm and clear,
Our uncle thumps the green balloon
And says it’s ripe and very soon
A splash of pink comes into view.
We know exactly what to do.
We take a bit. We take a bite.
We eat and eat
And taste the summer pink and sweet.

See everyone next week!

Butch and Jill Bridges
Ardmore Oklahoma
580-490-6823
https://oklahomahistory.net