Herman Kirkwood lives in Oklahoma City and is president of the Oklahoma Outlaw and Lawmen Association. Herman called the other day to tell about a front page write-up in The Ada News along with photos on the 1909 hanging of four men in that city. The hanging made headlines all over the country. If one does a google search for "ada hanging" one will find plenty of reading material to keep you occupied for hours. The Ada News article was in the February 15, 2015 issue.
Also a nice write-up in The Oklahoman on Sunday February 8, 2015 about the hanging with photos. Below is a link to a webpage I typed up on the Ada hanging years ago.
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/adalynch.html
Ardmore, Oklahoma
A few recognized businesses
1960
#11 West Main - My Five and Ten Cent Store
111 West Main - Duke and Ayres Five Cent Store
119 West Main - Kress S H & Company
208 West Main - Sears Roebuck and Co (catalog)
216-222 West Main - Montgomery Ward
1957
111 West Main - Duke and Ayres Five Cent to One Dollar Store
119 West Main - Kress S H & Company
208 West Main - Sears Roebuck and Co (catalog)
209-211 J.C. Penney Dept Store
1955
#11 West Main - My Five and Ten Cent Store
111 West Main - Duke and Ayres Five Cent Store
200 West Main - Coxey Sporting Goods
209-211 J.C. Penney Dept Store
216-222 West Main - Montgomery Ward
217-219 Babcock Brothers Auto Supply
226 West Main - Peoples Federal Savings and Loan
228-230 Von Weise Bldg Room 207-210
229-231 White's Auto
After many years of being absent from the internet, we now have a webpage dedicated to history of Russett, Oklahoma in Johnston County. The webpage is maintained by Paula Stout-Burke who was raised in Russett. Anyone from the Russett area who has some history and photos to share, let Paula here from you.
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/russett/
We had a snow last evening and this morning pretty much all across Oklahoma. I snapped these pictures this morning as the sun peeked through the eastern sky and it's rays fell on the newly fallen snow, it makes for a beautiful sunrise exposing nature at its best.
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos15a/Snow030515a.jpg
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos15a/Snow030515b.jpg
Last Friday afternoon there was a retirement reception for Nancy Royall Miller for her 25 years of service in the Carter County Court Clerks Office here in Ardmore. We had a great turnout even if it was starting to ice outside. Everybody had a good time wishing Nancy the best in her retirement years. Today we placed a paver in the sidewalk on the west side of the Courthouse. I was proud to make this paver for Nancy.
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos15a/NancyMillerPaver.jpg
Google is now blocking crapware in search results, ads, and chrome
http://www.howtogeek.com/210568/google-is-now-blocking-crapware-in-search-results-ads-and-chrome/
This week I received my emergency cellphone charger I paid $3.23 (including postage). Works great. If you crank it a couple minutes that gives you a couple more hours of talk time. Guess I'm ready when the spring storms and our electricity goes out.
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos15a/CellphoneCharger030415.jpg
TruVision is still working great for me. I'm down over 10 lbs in a month. I received another 50 Trial Packs ($20 each) this week so I have plenty in stock. If anyone wants to try it give me a holler. It's been like a miracle for me and it can be for you too. Check it all out at the link below.
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/truvision.html
http://butch.truvisionhealth.com/
Q. What is Oklahoma's official
state animal?
A. Buffalo
Q. In the Oklahoma Land Run, people
could claim how may acres?
A. (answer in next week's T&T)
From This and That newsletter archives of March 6, 1999:
In the 70s Ardmore had someone better then
a meteorologist when it came to predicting rain. He was a full blood Choctaw
Indian by the name of Buster Ned. I never personally met Buster Ned, but I'd see
him around town many times during those years. Buster Ned had instilled within
himself, this uncanny ability to predict rain. One of his main signs for
forecasting came from the hoot owl. There were other signs he'd look for, but
the hoot owl proved to be the most reliable. In the late afternoons, around 4pm,
if he heard the hoot owl on the land he lived on near Durwood, Oklahoma, he knew
it would rain within two or three days. He was renowned throughout the area and
respected by all. Buster Ned was quoted many times by Ardmoreite columnist "Mac"
McGalliard. Buster was born to Frank and Elizabeth Parker Ned in the Marshall
county community of Simpson, Oklahoma March 9, 1924.
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos9a/BusterNed.jpg
----------------------------------------------------
This week I happened to be in the office
of one of this area's long time, area politicians. He does not have a computer.
But he asked me to pass along the following words for thought:
"Nearly every reform that has taken place
takes a bad situation and makes it worse and cost the taxpayers more money."
----------------------------------------------------
Last Saturday several people, myself
included, met at the Carter County Annex Building to clean, index, and repair
some of the old Carter County Court Clerk record books stored there. Some of
these old 'red books" go back to statehood. Those who volunteered their time
that Saturday were: Robin Ezell, Teresa Morgan, Angie Cox, Karen Volino, and
myself. I tried my hand at recovering several of the books with some heavy
canvas, while the girls were busy cleaning, indexing, sorting, etc.
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos15a/TeresaMorgan1999.jpg
Here's a pic of the old Robert Maxwell
Harris building aka Bank of Chickasaw Nation in Tishomingo built in 1902. They
are presently remodeling it. On Sunday, February 21, 1999 The Daily Ardmoreite
did a feature story on this old building and the restoration in progress.
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos9a/BusterNed.jpg
----------------------------------------------------
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Gas prices today in the Ardmore area......
http://www.oklahomagasprices.com/index.aspx?mss=152754
Non-ethanol gas (pure gas) stations in the Ardmore area.
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/puregas.html
Some mail from this week's MAILBAG.....
"Butch, In the early 1970s I was working for the University of Oklahoma Vending Service in Norman and I was in and out of every campus building that had a vending machine. At that time OU had a computer on North Base (Westheimer Drive) that occupied a large room. It was built by students and staff. I no longer remember what they used it for except research, but when it operated it was so hot because of all the vacuum tubes. It was several feet in length and I remember it as being about six feet tall. In 1981 I was working for Conoco at a chemical plant in Chocolate Bayou, Texas. We were in a joint venture with Monsanto at their site and it was necessary for Conoco to buy out Monsanto's share of the joint venture. The deal was valued at $250 million. The last sticking point was the Radio Shack computer that Monsanto used to run the linear program for the plant. Monsanto valued that computer at $10,000. It was comical." -Monroe CameronThe old house you had in this weeks newsletter was the Bill Wilcox home for many years. Bill worked for Fred Chapman.
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos15a/RussettHome.jpg
My Uncle said to stay away from that old house it was haunted!!! But me and my cousin wanted to see for ourselves so we went up on the old rotten porch that just had a few board on it . We had to step carefully to keep from falling the holes in that old porch. The old house did have windows that I can remember and just a old falling down screen door. Inside as you came through the door there was a narrow stairs going up to the top floor me and my cousin waited tell about midnight the moon was full and it was a real bright night. So we make it across the old porch with difficulty and get to the to of those spooky old stairs there a room. On both sides at the top of the stair like an old scary movie. First we look at the room on the left nothing! Then we pushed the door to the room on the right and heard the scariest noise I ever heard !!! I don't remember going across that old porch LOL . But I do remember me and my cousin came down those narrow stairs at the same time (those stairs only had room for one person at a time) we ran down the road about a 1/4 of a mile LOL Next day IN THE DAY LIGHT we went back to the old house a went up stair and found nests of baby birds they were the noise that scared us so bad. Still to day wonder how we made across that old porch without braking a leg LOL. -Luther Wooly
"Just read your newsletter and as usual very informative and interesting. I have a deer lease out by Russett and have driven by that old house many times. Most of that land is owned by Bill Chapman and we drive on Church Road to get to the back part of our lease. The Russett cemetery is on this road and has some markers well over 100 years old. Still well kept even though very few people still live at Russett. I fact it looks like a ghost town now." -Carl
"Butch, in regards to the old cabin between Dickson and Ardmore with a spring down the hill closer to the road, I spent the summer of 1954 there with my sister and brother-in-law. They didn't live there long, but at that time they had up behind the cabin a big open building that they raised chickens, I suppose for market or maybe had a contract with someplace to buy them. Anyway, the cabin had one big room on the front, a leanto type room on the back that served as a kitchen, they had a pump on the spring that was down below the cabin and got water into the kitchen that way. I had a small cot like bed in one end of the kitchen, my sister, her husband and one son had a bed in the big room, I think the son slept on the couch. In my pictures I have a pic of my younger brother and sisters along with my nephew along side that cabin outside wall, I think on the west side. At that time the cabin was in very good shape and was for many years after that, it is gone now but the memories still linger on. My nephew was killed in an accident in 1960. My sister and brother-in-law are long gone, and I am now 78 years old. I was at that time 17." -Madge Franks Gentry, Antlers, Oklahoma
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos15a/VolinoCabin2b.jpg
"You may remember me sending you a photo of an oil painting I have of that old log cabin, by Neva Brown. We lived in it for a couple of months in 1951. I was there for my 6th birthday, which is 10/13. It was in a bit better shape than in your pictures. And about the outhouse--I've seen it from the inside many times :^) The spring was down at the bottom of a path downhill on the east side of the house." -Jim at Whitesboro
April 5, 2003 archives - "I have an oil painting of that log cabin that was painted by a judge Earl Brown's wife, Neva Brown, back in the sixties. The old cabin finally fell down a couple of years ago. It's about 2 miles west of Dickson on the North side of the highway. At the time we lived there, Ardmore AFB was in full swing and there weren't many rent houses available. We stayed there for a few months until something else came available. It had two rooms and a path. The outhouse was on the west side, and there was a spring under the hill on the east where we got water. It was a bit primitive even for the fifties. I remember my mother shooting a rat off the top log in the back room one night with her .22." -Jim at Whitesboro
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos/logcabin55.jpg
April 12, 2003 archives - "Butch, The old log cabin that was referred to in this T & T is where my father-in-law, Carroll Volino, was born. I too have a painting of it but I don't know the artist name right off hand. I'll have to find out and let you know. At one time he talked about have the cabin moved to his back yard, but he got sick and never got it done before he passed away. I always looked at the cabin every time I drove by it and his granddaughters always did too. We hated it when it finally gave in. We were really sad to see it go." -Karen Volino
"My grandmother was born Martha Easter Holcomb in Duncan in 1894. I have much of her history. It is my grandfather I am trying to build a timeline on. His name was John Reid McAtee. He arrived in southwestern Oklahoma sometime around 1910 from South Texas and was I believe a deputy sheriff for a while. If I am correct, he was in southwestern Oklahoma, around Ardmore, but not sure. Would you know of a website or be able to direct me to a person or place that could assist me in looking at a master list of sheriff?s deputies or something that could filter down his whereabouts in Oklahoma around that time. They eventually wed in 1924 while in Oklahoma moved to Dallas shortly after. Any help is appreciate" -Harvey McAtee SPARRELL_H_MCATEE@homedepot.com
The Story Behind The Song Told By Stuart Hamblen
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNzcGxl5nk8&feature=youtu.be
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCm83w1dAPE
"Please review attachment regarding the ?True Grit? Event in Stillwater, Oklahoma including my band and I in concert there on April 11, 2015." -Les Gilliam, ?The Oklahoma Balladeer?
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos15a/TrueGritStillwater2015.jpg
A snowflake is one of God's most fragile creations, but look what they can do when they stick together!
See everyone next week!
Butch and Jill Bridges
PO Box 2
Lone Grove, Oklahoma 73443
Follow me on the TruVision lose weight program
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/truvision.html
Vicious Dog Attacks in Oklahoma
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/viciousdogs.html
Bells of Oklahoma
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/bellpage.html
Carter County Courthouse Paver Project
http://www.brightok.net/cartercounty/pavers
Ardmore High School Criterions Online
http://www.ArdmoreCriterion.com/
Oklahoma Bells:
http://www.OklahomaHistory.net/bellpage.html
Bill Hamm's Cemetery Database
http://www.usgwarchives.net/ok/carter/cartercm.htm
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://cartercountyOK.us/
All previous issues of This & That can be found on my
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