This and That
Newsletter
A Weekly Publication
Vol 17 Issue 845 Circulation 5,000 April 4, 2013
PO Box 2
Ardmore, Oklahoma 73402
email address: butchbridges@oklahomahistory.net
580-657-8616
Last week a Reader shared two old photos taken outside the Carter County Courthouse around 1915 or so. It is a group of about 100 men, most wearing some kind of ID tag on their coats. I would assume it was some kind of meeting or gathering. If anyone knows more about this photo, or recognizes anyone in the group, let me know.
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos13a/MysteryPhoto2a.jpg
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos13a/MysteryPhoto2b.jpg
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos13a/MysteryPhoto2c.jpg
Dwane Stevens of Lone Grove shared a couple pictures he took in 1999 of the old Sinclair storage tanks that stood in the NE corner of West Broadway and Rockford.
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos13a/WestBroadway1999a.jpg
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos13a/WestBroadway1999b.jpg
Oklahoma is the Land of the Red Man. There are 38 Indian tribes in Oklahoma recognized by the Federal Government.
http://www.ncsl.org/issues-research/tribal/list-of-federal-and-state-recognized-tribes.aspx#ok
In 1985 the Carter County Courthouse
was added to the National Registry of Historical Places. The framed
document presented to the county commissioners in 1985 is on display in the west
entrance of the courthouse.
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos13a/NationalRegistryEasel.jpg
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos13a/NationalRegistryPlaque1985.jpg
I'm getting this brick sandblasting down to a fine art. My sandblasting unit is doing a nice job on lettering bricks. I have made several the past couple weeks as tests, and they all have turned out ok. These are standard size bricks, 4" X 8". Below is one I made last week for Shirley Christian who retired in 2010 from the Sheriffs Office after 27 years of service.
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos13a/ChristianBrick033113.jpg
Over two years ago I started using a program called LastPass to keep track of the dozens of passwords I use all over the place. The program has been a lifesaver for me, because I thought I was going to go crazy trying to memorize so many passwords. This program does it all and its free. I could not live without my LastPass now.
Q. How many eagle feathers adorn the
current Oklahoma state flag?
A. A Reader sent in a listing he found on the internet mentioning the 7
tribes.
http://www.ehow.com/info_8452183_list-indians-oklahoma.html
Q. What President was born in
Oklahoma?
A. Well, no one fell for this trick question. There were none from
Oklahoma. lol
Q. Where is the lowest
elevation point in Oklahoma?
A. (answer in next week's T&T)
From This and That newsletter archives of April 1, 2000:
About 50 miles east of Ardmore is
Coalgate, Oklahoma. For many years there was one thing that Coalgate was noted
for.. the home of Hudson's Big Country Store. When I was a teen I drove all the
way over there to buy some cowboy boots. But one thing I didn't have with me was
one of those Hudson's tokens.
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/photos/HudsonsColgate.jpg
----------------------------------------------------
I was digging around in a
chest of drawer the other day and found a ring I handmade when I was a teen. I
would take a fifty cent piece (they were solid silver in those days) and a
spoon, to create a ring. It would take me about a month of beating on that ring,
round and round and round, before I had it down to the size to fit my finger.
I'd then take a drill bit and carefully drill it out. You could see the date and
some of the wording on the inside. A person could use a present day fifty cent
piece, but remember it has copper in the center. I used a tablespoon and by the
time I had the ring made, the bottom of that spoon looked like it had been
through a war.
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/photos/MyCoinRing.jpg
----------------------------------------------------
"I notice that your courthouse photo
collection doesn't have one from Bryan County courthouse in Durant, so I'm in
low-speed pursuit. Ours is a little bit unique - out in front there's a statue
of a Confederate solder, with his musket, at parade rest. It was a contribution
many years ago of the DAR. When I ask people if they have one I get an almost
universal "No I don't--but I wish I had one." We got side tracked a little the
other day when someone came up with an old color photo of Durant's now-gone Tom
Tom Tavern. Don't suppose you'd be interested in starting a page of famous
Oklahoma beer joints."
http://www.civilwaralbum.com/indian/durant1a.htm
----------------------------------------------------
"Hi Butch. There used to be an old feller that
rode a mule, and behind him trailed a train of horses. This feller also had a
white beard, and was seen riding the roads of carter, love, jefferson, and
countless other countys. If I remember correctly he was called whiskers, and was
a horse trader. Not many people knew anything about whiskers. He reminded me of
the bearded man riding the bike in ardmore."
----------------------------------------------------
Gas prices today in the Ardmore area......
http://www.oklahomagasprices.com/index.aspx?mss=152754
Check gas prices by town or zip code anywhere in U.S.
http://www.kmov.com/traffic/gas-buddy
Some mail from this week's MAILBAG.....
"Butch, this bell is from the
USS Cario sunk in the
Mississippi River during the fight for Vicksburg, Mississippi. It was under
water over 100 years." -Doug Williams
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos13a/USSCarioBell.jpg
"My Father, Arthur (1898-1976), came to Ardmore, OK in 1918 & worked for his 20-years-older brother Robert (Bob 1880-1950) who had been in Oklahoma for several years. Brother Bob was one of the many competitors for property, position & money in a more or less wide-open frontier environment. Everyone was armed, gunplay was frequent with now and then a killing. My Dad's job was that of kind of a Man-Friday, which included being driver and body guard. He would walk about 5 steps behind his bro with his hand on his gun. As driver, he recalled on country roads, Bob would sit in the passenger seat, firing at fence posts as they passed. They had been in favor with the Sheriff Buck Garrett regime but eventually fell out for reasons I never learned. Events that followed may have been spin-offs from that - not necessarily in chronological order.
Summer time, Bob's office was on West Main and B street, upstairs over Frame's drugstore. Too hot to wear his suit jacket, went downstairs without his .38 Smith & Wesson to get a cool something at the soda fountain. He was met on the stairs landing by two hard cases bent on doing a work-over with brass knucks. Brother Bob dealt with them by firing thru his pants pocket with his double barrel derringer, shooting one of them in the leg. That one turned out to be the Sheriff's son, Raymond Garrett. Bob had bought a new Buick that was soon stolen. A few days later my Dad saw it in the used car lot of the Buick dealer & confirmed it by finding a place on the seat that had been torn and my Dad had sewed up with store string. Reporting to brother Bob, he was told "If they are bold enough to steal a car and offer it for sale, same town, same dealer, all in the same week, it's too big for us. Insurance is paying for the car."
Many years later my Dad & I were driving on F street NE near where it joined 11th avenue crossing the railroad tracks. Dad said this is were Bob got shot -- & told me the story. Around 1922 as near as I can figure, Bob & wife were driving on Sunday afternoon, slowed down at the abovementioned turn when a car came across the tracks and sideswiped them. The driver stopped & Bob found him 'drunk as a skunk' and was taking him to the police station. Bob got behind the drunk, pushing him into the back seat of his car - the drunk turned and fired a shot into Bob's belly and fired again as he turned to fall. He then got in his car & drove away, not drunk at all. It was not uncommon for relatives to be in the operating room in those days. Dad said he saw Doc Hardy take Bob's innards out, wash them, sew them up, put them back and sew him up. Bob lived another 27 years. Among other assets he left a 10,000 acre ranch. Neither my Dad nor I benefitted a dime. The Buck Garrett regime eventually fell of its own weight. Investigations had been tried for years and finally one resulted in an indictment. A new sheriff took office but nobody did any time. Apparently the charges were not specific enough to make anything stick & I never heard of any misdeed that wasn't dealt with locally & legally, at least for its time.
In late '60s I was here visiting my Dad. He says "You'll never guess who came to see me last week ---- Raymond Garrett. There was a time we would both been reaching for our guns -- but we had a real nice visit talking about him living in California & old times ----- but not about everything." I guess people do change and there is a factor of forgive & forget involved. I recall reading in archives of the Daily Ardmoreite newspaper, the account of Bob's shooting having occurred on Caddo (notorious and legendary "bloody Caddo" street, now A street NE ), but when my Dad told me, we were some 10 blocks North and six blocks East of that location." -Bob McCrory"Butch, I have loved T&T for years and I thank you for it. In last week's article about the 1930 Organization Certificate, #4 was a man named Earl Appleton Brown. I was named Monna Gay Appleton at birth in Hardy Sanitarium. I was adopted, my entire name was changed, but have long searched for anyone named Appleton in Ardmore. I would love for anyone with knowledge of Appleton people in the past to write to me! I have a picture of my great-grandfather with a group of other police officers in the 1930's, I believe, but don't know his first name." susanbnance@cableone.net
"Hi, Butch. A possible answer to the 7 Eagle Feathers on the State Flag might be Biblical. The number 7 is used in both the Old and New Testaments. It is often referred to as ?God?s number?. Enjoy reading This and That. Look forward to being in Ardmore, Sept. 27th and 28th, 2013. When the Class of 1963 will be hosting their ?50th Class Reunion?. For those classmates who have not attended, please return for this ?Big One?. -Fran Conroy Patterson
"Photos of new spur track, "Y" track and loop track construction work at Ardmore, Ok. Industrial Air Park. The spur track will tie into BNSF's Red Rock Sub Mainline between MP 462-463 north of Gene Autry, Ok." -Dwane Stevens
Photo Album:
https://plus.google.com/photos/105596720221202276873/albums/5860863918148742033
Additional Info:
http://www.atgcontractor.com/project/ardmore-air-park-industrial-rail-spur/?show=gallery
"Hi Mr. Bridges: I believe the Seven Feathers represent the seven Indian Tribes of Oklahoma. Enjoy your newsletter every week. My wife, L Vada Briscoe grew up in Fox". -Al
"Hagler mystery: Several years ago I wrote you that I was a witness to the mystery in the Arbuckles. When I told my husband about it I mentioned that it was in 56 and the coroner said the dental work the victim had was done in Germany. I had forgotten that during WWII there was a German prisoner of war camp at Daugherty and it was rumored that several prisoners refused to return to Germany after the war. We thought that possible the two could be put together to make it even a more mysterious story. It certainly would be possible for a German POW to hide out in the Arbuckles for 10 years." -Charlene
"One of my oldest and dearest friends, Noveline Uhles Norton passed from this earth to her home in Heaven last night about 7:30 PM. She will be missed here but welcomed by friends and loved ones who made the journey before her including my dearest Carrie Jane. Funeral services will be at Crossway Baptist Church, Sulphur, Oklahoma at 11 AM, Thursday, April 4th." -Roy Miller
Note: Below is a brick I made in 2006 for Noveline at the request of my friend Bill Uhles of Sulphur (now deceased). The brick is from the old Sulphur High school where Noveline and Bill graduated. -Butch Bridges
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos6a/NovelineNortonBrick.jpg
It is interesting that Hagler knew Police Chief Cato Hightower, Waco, Texas for 10 years, they were neighbors.
http://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth134911/m1/1/zoom/?zoom=3&lat=5196&lon=4458&layers=BT
It's spring fever. That is what the name of it is. And when you've got it, you want - oh, you don't quite know what it is you do want, but it just fairly makes your heart ache, you want it so! -Mark Twain
The spring rains the past few days has made everything new again.
Morning Has Broken - Composed 1931, sung by Cat Stevens 1971
Sweet the rain's new fall, sunlit
from heaven
Like the first dewfall, on the first grass
Praise for the sweetness of the wet garden
Sprung in completeness where His feet pass
Mine is the sunlight, mine is the morning
Born of the one light, Eden saw play
Praise with elation, praise every morning
God's recreation of the new day
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kKoRp05L95c
See everyone next week!
Butch and Jill Bridges
PO Box 2
Lone Grove, Oklahoma 73443
Save on long distance calls, just a couple cents a
minute!
http://www.CheapLongDistance.org
Ardmore High School Criterions Online
http://www.ardmorecriterion.com/
Oklahoma Bells:
http://www.OklahomaHistory.net/bellpage.html
American Flyers Memorial Fund - Administration Webpage
http://www.OklahomaHistory.net/crash66.html
Official
American Flyers Memorial Website
http://www.brightok.net/~wwwafm
Ardmore Army Air Field/Ardmore Air Force Base Website
http://www.brightok.net/~gsimmons
Mirror Site of the Ardmore Army Air Field/Ardmore Air Force Website
http://www.OklahomaHistory.net/airbase/
Carter county schools, past and present
http://community.webshots.com/user/oklahomahistory
Carter County Government Website
http://www.brightok.net/cartercounty/
Ardmore School Criterions
http://www.ArdmoreCriterion.com
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