2
10
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https://bristoworalhistory.org/files/original/041eea22b70fe7ed4f09e619ba4ce710.jpg
e2103a83190ef8b8447baebc700de5de
Dublin Core
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Title
A name given to the resource
Pinehill Histories
Subject
The topic of the resource
History of the Pinehill area north of Bristow
Description
An account of the resource
Several interviews were done by Mary and Bob Mc Carty of people who grew up in the Pinehill area north of Bristow. This collection is the Pinehill subset of the Bristow Oral Histories
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
Bristow Historical Society, oral history collection
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Oral history.
Oral History
A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge.
Interviewer
The person(s) performing the interview
Robert L. "Bob" McCarty
Interviewee
The person(s) being interviewed
Clarence "Boyd" Myers
OHMS Object
This field contains the OHMS Hyperlink (link to the XML file within the OHMS
Viewer)
https://bristoworalhistory.org/ohms/viewer.php?cachefile=OHP-0008-01_Myers_Clarence.xml
OHMS Object Text
This field contains the OHMS Index and / or Transcript and is what makes the
contents of the OHMS object searchable in Omeka
5.4 OHP-0008-03 Clarence " ; Boyd" ; Myers OHP-0008-01 Bristow Historical Society - Oral History Archive Pinehill Histories Bristow Historical Society, Inc. Clarence " ; Boyd" ; Myers Robert L. "Bob" McCarty MP3 1:|13(4)|39(15)|61(1)|87(2)|112(5)|135(1)|155(11)|174(13)|190(8)|211(3)|226(10)|238(14)|254(7)|288(6)|300(8)|326(7)|345(11)|363(5)|413(8)|433(5)|456(14)|488(2) 0 https://bristoworalhistory.org/interviews/OHP-0008-01 Myers, Clarence.mp3 Other audio 0 Boyd Myers Family History BMC: This is an interview with Boyd Myers [indecipherable] 10/13/76, time 7:15. BM: That aggravates me every time I think of that—I think the government gave six thousand dollars to that plant down in Texas. And they say it’s gonna be covered with water. BMC: Boyd, on the Pinehill community, to your knowledge when did your dad come into that country? BM: You asked me that on the phone, I think it was 1908, I’m not sure. Boyd Myers talks of his family history in the Pinehill community Bernice ; Boyd ; Boyd Myers ; Bristow ; Burl ; Fay ; Kelly ; Mule Ellen ; Naomi ; Nellie May Blythe ; Pinehill ; Ray ; train ; Virgil Boyd Myers ; family history ; Pinehill Community 232 School Days BMC: To your knowledge, your mother never did go to school there at Pinehill, did she? BM: Oh, I definitely don’t think she did. BMC: How many of you children went to school there at Pinehill? BM: I guess all nine of us did. BMC: Do you remember your first teacher? Memories of school and fairs in the Pinehill community canning ; cattle ; crops ; Effie Curtis ; elections ; fairs ; pie suppers ; Pinehill School ; sewing ; township fair cattle ; crops ; fairs ; school 454 Oil wells, hunting, and school memories BMC: It was on a smaller scale. Well, do you remember hearing say when the first oil well was drilled in that community? BM: No, that was mentioned a while ago. I don’t remember where the first well was drilled. BMC: How old was you when you saw the first well in operation? BM: Well, Bob, most of the wells around there was gas wells. I can remember that they would drill for oil and probably get gas [indecipherable] and they didn’t have any way to cap these wells in like they do now and that gas would roar, come right down the creek and sound like it was close to the house as we were from the creek. And they would blow like that for days before they’d get stopped. Memories of the first oil well, hunting, and school friends and graduation hunting ; Milton Snow ; oil ; oil well ; Olive ; Olive High School oil wells ; Olive High School 705 Work after high school and trying tobacco BM: Well, I went the summer of 1933, after I graduated, I went to the wheat harvest in Kansas. I worked for a dollar and a quarter a day and that wasn’t an eight-hour day, that was from daylight to dark. BMC: That was from sunup, daylight, ‘til dark. BM: And we ate four meals a day. And then later on I came to Tulsa in 1936 and I begged to get a job making thirty-five cents a day. That a seven-day-a-week job, no overtime. I was born at the wrong time. BMC: Anything that you can think of that you’d want to add? Discussion of working after high school graduation, more school memories, and trying tobacco for the first time Beechnut tobacco ; Earnest Rhinehardt ; Floyd Wilson ; Kansas ; light bread ; syrup bucket ; wheat harvest trying tobacco ; working in wheat harvest 935 Farming and a new table BMC: When was the first time that you saw one of the old sorghum mills? BM: Well, now, that wasn’t a cane country right in there so I really don’t remember—seemed like Smith Bruce had one, I believe. Pulled it with a mule, I believe, I’m not too sure of that. BMC: I know there was quite a bit of sorghum cane, I expect about— MM: What did your dad raise out there? What did he raise on his farm? BM: In the agricultural line? Farming memories and the making of a table from a walnut tree corn ; cotton ; grain ; Smith Bruce ; sorghum ; soybeans ; Winkey Creek Bridge Farming ; tables ; walnut 1126 Motorcycles and College BMC: What year—I know that what all [indecipherable] I know that Burl and his first wife made certain trips to California on [indecipherable]. What year did you boys start riding motorcycles? BM: Well, I’d have to do some figuring. I was sixteen when I got my first one. Burl started prior to that, so thirteen to sixteen would be— MM: Twenty-nine. BMC: Twenty-eight or ’29. BM: That’s about it. But Burl started probably in ’24 or ’25. Memories of riding motorcycles and college Bristow ; Business College ; California ; college ; Edmond ; Junior College ; motocycles college ; Riding Motorcycles In this 1976 interview, Clarence “Boyd” Myers (1913-1979) discusses his father’s arrival in the Pinehill Community, his siblings, the Pinehill School and his classmates, early agriculture and cattle, oil drilling in the community, social events such as pie suppers, his early adulthood working in Kansas during the wheat harvest, and the first time he ever tried chewing tobacco. BMC: This is an interview with Boyd Myers [indecipherable] 10/13/76, time 7:15. BM: That aggravates me every time I think of that--I think the government gave six thousand dollars to that plant down in Texas. And they say it' ; s gonna be covered with water. BMC: Boyd, on the Pinehill community, to your knowledge when did your dad1 come into that country? BM: You asked me that on the phone, I think it was 1908, I' ; m not sure. BMC: Now we' ; re on tape. How many brothers came in there with him? How many came in there with him with the Myers family? Do you-- BM: He came alone. BMC: He came alone? BM: He came in on the train, I remember time and time again he told me that he had $7.50 in his pocket when he got in Bristow. BM: When he settled in there, he settled there on the old home place? Or did he settle some place else and then buy the old home place up here? MM: [Inaudible.] BM: I don' ; t know. BMC: Did you ever hear him say what the first place that he lived? BM: I don' ; t remember. MM: [Inaudible.] BM: You got that tape on now? BMC: Yep. BM: Let me tell you something that it wouldn' ; t hurt for this to be taped: You know his nickname was Mule Ellen (ph), did you ever hear that? BMC: Yep, I did. BM: Well, he got the name right there at that school. He was showing off for the girls there, and he rode that mule around that school building and I guess he done everything to-- MM: That sounds like your dad. BM: --that you' ; d expect a mule to do, and they all laughed and carried on ' ; cause the mule didn' ; t behave too well, and that' ; s where he got the name Mule Ellen (ph). BMC: What year, Boyd, was your dad and mother married? BM: I don' ; t know that, either. Well, Verna' ; d (ph) have that in the Bible, she' ; s got the old Bible. MM: We gone and talked to her on-- BMC: I talked to her about forty-five minutes last night. Do--your mother and dad' ; s marriage, how many children were there? I know the answer to it, but-- BM: Nine. BMC: Nine. There was--names were what? BM: Burl, Virgil, Bernice, Boyd, Kelly, Ray, Fay, and (inaudible). BMC: And Naomi. MM: You forgot Naomi. BM: I skipped one, didn' ; t I? Naomi was just younger than Kelly, right. BMC: Right. MM: He needs your mother' ; s maiden name. BMC: Your mother' ; s maiden name was-- BM: Nellie May2. BMC: Nellie May Blythe. BM: B-L-Y-T-H-E. Most people called them " ; Bly," ; B-L-Y, but it' ; s B-L-Y-T-H-E. MM: (inaudible) BMC: To your knowledge, your mother never did go to school there at Pinehill, did she? BM: Oh, I definitely don' ; t think she did. BMC: How many of you children went to school there at Pinehill? BM: I guess all nine of us did. BMC: Do you remember your first teacher? BM: Yes, Effie Curtis (ph). She whopped me about every day. MM: (laughing) BMC: You must' ; ve been an ornery little stinker. UW: [Inaudible.] BM: Don' ; t tell Mike this. UW: --more like our grandson. BMC: What all activities--to your knowledge, what all activity was the school used for? BM: Other than the ABC' ; s, you mean? BMC: Other than the ABC' ; s, other than school purposes. What all was the school used for? What was all the schoolhouse used for, besides the ABC learning? BM: Well, I can remember the pie suppers, I can remember the fairs that I mentioned, and I can remember the elections, and the voting precinct, well elections, I mentioned that. UW: Church. BM: It was used for church, also. BMC: And singing groups. UW: [Inaudible.] BM: Well, church is all I remember. BMC: You said something on--you said fairs. I want you to confirm what I already have: What type of fair was this? BM: It' ; s what they called a township fair. It was a small community fair. BMC: At this fair, what all was exhibited? BM: Oh, just home products like you would at the county fairs, only on a small scale. BMC: Did you ever take anything to these county fairs? BM: I definitely did. BMC: What did you take? BM: Cattle and crops that we grew on the farm. BMC: Did you personally, did you ever win anything at these fairs? BM: Oh, I don' ; t recall but I' ; m sure we did. BMC: To your knowledge, who was the judges at these fairs? BM: I don' ; t remember. MM: [Indecipherable] Dowdy was judge at the-- BM: I think he did, but I don' ; t remember. MM: What did the women show at the fair? BM: Well, they had their sewing and canning and just like they would at the larger fairs, only it was on a smaller scale. BMC: It was on a smaller scale. Well, do you remember hearing say when the first oil well was drilled in that community? BM: No, that was mentioned a while ago. I don' ; t remember where the first well was drilled. BMC: How old was you when you saw the first well in operation? BM: Well, Bob, most of the wells around there was gas wells. I can remember that they would drill for oil and probably get gas [indecipherable] and they didn' ; t have any way to cap these wells in like they do now and that gas would roar, come right down the creek and sound like it was close to the house as we were from the creek. And they would blow like that for days before they' ; d get stopped. BMC: Well they can' ; t cap those-- MM: Did you ask him about the [indecipherable] BMC: Whenever you were growing up, what game was there in that part--in that community? For hunting purposes? BM: Oh, rabbits and squirrels. We' ; d try to trap skunks and opossum and maybe go opossum hunting at night. And fish, we' ; d go down there and catch these little catfish about that big. But we didn' ; t have much time for that, dad kept us busy all the time. BMC: Oh, I know. MM: [Inaudible.] BMC: And your schooling there in Pinehill, do you remember the kids that graduated with you from the eighth grade? BM: Yes, I do. Milton Snow (ph). BMC: Would you name the ones that graduated from the eighth grade with you? BM: Name all of them? BMC: If you can. BM: Well he' ; s definitely one of them, and I can' ; t--I don' ; t remember the rest of them. BMC: What year was that? BM: Well that little old [indecipherable] and I was five when they started, I was born in 1913. BMC: Well, that would put you in school about 1918. MM: [Inaudible.] BMC: And that would put you roughly graduating from Pinehill school in either ' ; 26 or ' ; 27. BM: Well, you figure eight years from the time I started, that' ; d been ' ; 28. BMC: Let' ; s check back here and make sure that that' ; s right. Check back here on 1918, see what, what' ; s on the school rolls in 1918. (sound of pages flipping) BM: I say it' ; d be ' ; 27. BMC: What year, Boyd, did you leave that community? (sound of pages flipping) BM: Well, I went to high school at Bristow for three years, then I missed a year and wound up at Olive and graduated from high school. BMC: You graduated from Olive High School? Then after you graduated from high school you went into what type of business? BM: Well, I went the summer of 1933, after I graduated, I went to the wheat harvest in Kansas. I worked for a dollar and a quarter a day and that wasn' ; t an eight-hour day, that was from daylight to dark. BMC: That was from sunup, daylight, ' ; til dark. BM: And we ate four meals a day. And then later on I came to Tulsa in 1936 and I begged to get a job making thirty-five cents a day. That a seven-day-a-week job, no overtime. I was born at the wrong time. BMC: Anything that you can think of that you' ; d want to add? MM: Did he steal any watermelons? BMC: What, honey? MM: Did you ever steal any watermelons? BM: Not any more than I could eat. MM: Who raised the best watermelons? BM: I really don' ; t know. No, we didn' ; t--I can truthfully say I don' ; t remember us stealing watermelons. MM: Did you ever steal any chickens? BM: Oh, no, no. MM: You didn' ; t go on any of them chicken roasts? BM: No, never did. I' ; ve tried to carry two watermelons on a horse and if you think that isn' ; t fun--and the horse steps on a watermelon. MM: Who was the best girl, who was your girlfriend while you was going to school? BM: Oh, I liked all the girls. But you know, I didn' ; t know there was a difference between boys and girls ' ; til I was about six! BMC: About six you found out-- MM: [Inaudible.] BMC: Yeah, tell me about that, that boy [indecipherable] little bit better than that, he found out about three, I think. MM: Did you ever put any girls' ; pigtails in the inkwell? BMC: Some mischief, what mischief did you get in at school? MM: And I' ; m sure he must' ; ve done some-- BM: Well, I don' ; t know whether you' ; d call this mischief or not but I don' ; t mind telling it, I told you this--they had those outdoor houses at that time, and we was out there one day and that' ; s when I was five years old, that was my first year at school, and Earnest Rhinehardt (ph) and Floyd Wilson (ph) came up there. And they had some Beechnut tobacco and they insisted that I take a chew of tobacco. Well, I didn' ; t want it but they insisted and I started to--well, I put it in my mouth, I couldn' ; t hide it, it burned my mouth. I started to spit it out and they said, " ; Don' ; t spit it out!" ; They said, " ; It' ; ll get sweet after a while." ; Well I don' ; t know whether it got sweet or not, but I started going in circles. And I had the biggest piece of vanilla cake in my gallon bucket that I carried my lunch in, and I couldn' ; t no more eat that cake than I could fly. Oh, it made me sick. MM: What kind of bucket? Syrup bucket or a lard bucket? BM: Syrup, it was a syrup bucket. MM: What' ; d you carry in lunches, we' ; ve never asked anybody. What' ; d they put in your lunches? Biscuits? Probably biscuits. BM: Mom made a lot of light bread. I imagine it was light bread sandwiches. MM: What' ; d you put on ' ; em? BM: Well, I remember one thing was peanut butter and jelly. MM: Your dad always killed a lot of hogs so you had plenty of meat. BMC: Boyd, when was the first time-- MM: Probably sausage sandwich, that I would imagine. BMC: When was the first time that you saw one of the old sorghum mills? BM: Well, now, that wasn' ; t a cane country right in there so I really don' ; t remember--seemed like Smith Bruce had one, I believe. Pulled it with a mule, I believe, I' ; m not too sure of that. BMC: I know there was quite a bit of sorghum cane, I expect about-- MM: What did your dad raise out there? What did he raise on his farm? BM: In the agricultural line? MM: What did he raise, uh-huh, something besides kids? (laughs) BMC: In the agricultural line, what all did Alex3 raise? BM: Well, the money crop, if there was any money, was cotton. And corn and small grain. But in the later years they tried to grow soybeans--and grow ' ; em but they didn' ; t have any way to harvest them. MM: Your mother was good at canning and stuff. BM: Oh, mom worked all the time. She would churn this old-type churn and be reading the Bible or some other book at the same time. BMC: I can' ; t think of anything else. MM: Oh what about that--who made that table and chairs, and talk about how that was made up, your mother [indecipherable]. Somebody told me that you [indecipherable] something you made, a dining room set. BM: Oh, that' ; s after we got into high school. Fay and Ray made the chairs, I think Kelly made the table. MM: Tell us about that. BM: Well, this was mom' ; s idea again. Money was very scarce, we didn' ; t have any money. Lot of times we' ; d be Sunday' ; d roll around and they' ; d all go to town and I wouldn' ; t even go to town. Why should I go to town, I didn' ; t have any money. So this big nice walnut tree was down there close to Winkey Creek Bridge and mom suggested we cut that tree and cure it and use it in the school--at Bristow High School. So that' ; s where the table and chairs went. MM: Tell us about-- BMC: That' ; s what table and chairs-- MM: I know, but I want to know what kind of table, I want him to tell us about it-- BM: Well they was walnut. MM: Walnut? BM: Walnut dining table. MM: How many sit the table, how many chairs? BM: Well I believe there was six chairs, isn' ; t that right? UW: Did Bernice have those? Didn' ; t she have those? BM: No, Fay and Ray made the chairs. And Kelly made the table. UW: Well I know--who has them, though? I know who made them but who has them? BM: Well [inaudible]. BMC: In later years-- BM: Bernie has them now. BMC: Bernie has them now. BM: Right. BMC: Is that right? MM: I' ; ve heard about those, that they were things of outstanding beauty, like art. BM: Well, I' ; ll show you what I made for [indecipherable]. MM: Okay, what did you make? BMC: Uh-- BM: I made a chifforobe out of solid oak. MM: Cut it off the property again? BM: No, no, I did not. BMC: What year--I know that what all [indecipherable] I know that Burl and his first wife made certain trips to California on [indecipherable]. What year did you boys start riding motorcycles? BM: Well, I' ; d have to do some figuring. I was sixteen when I got my first one. Burl started prior to that, so thirteen to sixteen would be-- MM: Twenty-nine. BMC: Twenty-eight or ' ; 29. BM: That' ; s about it. But Burl started probably in ' ; 24 or ' ; 25. BMC: And how many of you boys at the present time, how many boys still ride those motorcycles? BM: Fay rides as a hobby. MM: Kelly? Does he ride? UW: Burl still rides [indecipherable]. BMC: Well that time I talked to Burl, he was, he was talkin' ; about hunting, hunting deer. BM: Well he sold his motorcycle and I doubt whether he rides now or not. MM: Kelly probably rides to games-- BM: Well I' ; m sure Kelly rides with his kids. BMC: Well is Kelly, is he still in the trick riding business? BM: Oh, no, no. Kelly got banged up and then he, he wouldn' ; t look at a motorcycle until the kids got of age and then he got back into it again. But no trick riding or anything like that. BMC: Just normal, just normal everyday riding. MM: Well the kids your age, all of you kids are better than average educated. How many of you went to college? BM: Well, I don' ; t know whether we' ; re better than average. We, we finished high school and Kelly went a little bit to the junior college there in Bristow. UW: Brooke (ph) went on to business college. BM: Yeah, she went to business college. UW: And Bernice-- BM: Well, now, she went to Edmond. UW: She was-- BM: --to teacher' ; s college. UW: --engineering-- BM: But she probably wouldn' ; t even want to hear about that. She started, and would go a while and then have to teach and then go back again and have to teach on account of finances-- UW: I think it' ; s commendable that people can do that-- BMC: Yes, I agree, but I really think that-- MM: I think, I think, I know that they did better than average-- UW: It' ; s hard to do, but they, you know, she did it. BM: Well, mom was the driver along that line. She always encouraged education. And believe it or not, they wanted to send me on to engineering school, but I couldn' ; t--I couldn' ; t stand for them to be working at home and me be off to school. UW: [Inaudible.] end of interview audio 0 https://bristoworalhistory.org/ohms/viewer.php?cachefile=OHP-0008-01_Myers_Clarence.xml OHP-0008-01_Myers_Clarence.xml
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5300
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Clarence "Boyd" Myers
Description
An account of the resource
In this 1976 interview, Clarence “Boyd” Myers (1913-1979) discusses his father’s arrival in the Pinehill Community, his siblings, the Pinehill School and his classmates, early agriculture and cattle, oil drilling in the community, social events such as pie suppers, his early adulthood working in Kansas during the wheat harvest, and the first time he ever tried chewing tobacco.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
OHP-0008-01
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1973-10-13
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
audio
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https://bristoworalhistory.org/files/original/c1ab0c67e25e46c9be4e27b571bb34c0.jpg
6ff0971fa09eb2bb198fae103d74491d
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Pinehill Histories
Subject
The topic of the resource
History of the Pinehill area north of Bristow
Description
An account of the resource
Several interviews were done by Mary and Bob Mc Carty of people who grew up in the Pinehill area north of Bristow. This collection is the Pinehill subset of the Bristow Oral Histories
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
Bristow Historical Society, oral history collection
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Oral history.
Oral History
A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge.
Interviewer
The person(s) performing the interview
Bob McCarty
Interviewee
The person(s) being interviewed
George Krumme
OHMS Object
This field contains the OHMS Hyperlink (link to the XML file within the OHMS
Viewer)
https://bristoworalhistory.org/ohms/viewer.php?cachefile=OHP-0002-04_George_Krumme_Oct_1976.xml
Interview Keyword
This field adds keywords to the Omeka Oral History item type. Keywords are
included in the OHMS XML, this field in Omeka will allow for full data migration
between OHMS XML and the Omeka Record. This field does not impact the
OHMS / Omeka integration and is optional if you do not need to map the
“keywords” field in the OHMS XML to the corresponding Omeka record.
natural gas, drilling, Hoppy Toad Oil Company,
OHMS Object Text
This field contains the OHMS Index and / or Transcript and is what makes the
contents of the OHMS object searchable in Omeka
5.4 OHP-0002-04 George Krumme Bristow Quadrangle OHP-0002-04 Bristow Historical Society - Oral History Archive Pinehill Bristow Historical Society, Inc. natural gas, drilling, Hoppy Toad Oil Company, George Krumme Bob McCarty MP3 1:|9(4)|20(13)|30(1) 0 https://bristoworalhistory.org/interviews/OHP-0002-04 Krumme, Geo.mp3 Other audio 0 Drilling in Bristow Quadrangle GK: According to Bulletin 759 by A.E. Fath of the Oklahoma Geolog-of the United States Geological Survey on the geology of the Bristow Quadrangle in Creek County, Oklahoma which was printed in 1925 but the work began on it-field work for it-began in 1915, the first well drilled in 17-93 was drilled in section 36 by Oklahoma Natural Gas Company. Drilling of the second and third successful natural gas wells in the Bristow Quadrangle A.E. Fath ; Bristow Quadrangle ; drilling ; Glen Freeman ; Hoppy Toad Oil Company ; Oklahoma Natural Gas Company Drilling for natural gas in Bristow Quadrangle https://pubs.usgs.gov/bul/0759/report.pdf Geology of the Bristow Quadrangle Creek County, Oklahoma In this brief 1976 interview, George Krumme (1923- ) discusses a 1925 United States Geological Survey geological report covering the “Bristow Quadrangle” oilfield area and early oilfield companies in the area. BM: This is an interview with George Krumme from the oil company on the location, the survey company, of the first well that was drilled in the Pinehill Community. GK: According to Bulletin 759 by A.E. Fath of the Oklahoma Geolog--of the United States Geological Survey on the geology of the Bristow Quadrangle in Creek County, Oklahoma which was printed in 1925 but the work began on it--field work for it--began in 1915, the first well drilled in 17-9 was drilled in section 36 by Oklahoma Natural Gas Company. They drilled--they found a gas stand at a depth of 990 to 1,010 feet, which would be, I' ; m sure, the Cleveland sand, and they encountered an initial flow of seven million cubic feet a day. They turned the gas into their twelve-inch line which at that time ran through just south of where that well would be and carried gas to Oklahoma City from the oilfields of eastern Oklahoma. In 1917, the well was re-opened after having been shut down for some time and at that time its open flow capacity was 350,000 cubic feet a day and the rock pressure was 375 pounds. It was the second successful well in the Bristow Quadrangle according to Fath. pause in recording GK: --Fath, in 1913, another well was drilled in 17-9 in section 29 and also in 1913 a well was drilled in section 33, 17-9. And unless I' ; m wrong, that well in section thirte--33 was the well they called the " ; Hoppy Toad Well" ; because it was drilled by the Hoppy Toad Oil Company which was one of the companies of the Freeland brothers. Glen Freeland worked on that well and my brothers--my brother and I, my brother Harlan and I--are married to sisters. Their father, F.S. Freeland, worked on that well in 1913 out on Wild Horse Prairie, just north of highway 66, and was drilling on it and caught some--I forgot whether it was typhoid or some ailment and didn' ; t finish completing the well. And he told us about where the well is, I know exactly where it is, on the north side of the road on Wild Horse Prairie. So those are the first three wells drilled according to Fath. end of interview audio 0 https://bristoworalhistory.org/ohms/viewer.php?cachefile=OHP-0002-04_George_Krumme_Oct_1976.xml OHP-0002-04_George_Krumme_Oct_1976.xml
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4620
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
George Krumme
Description
An account of the resource
In this brief 1976 interview, George Krumme (1923- ) discusses a 1925 United States Geological Survey geological report covering the “Bristow Quadrangle” oilfield area and early oilfield companies in the area.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
OHP-0002-04
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1976-10
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
audio
-
https://bristoworalhistory.org/files/original/f46113fbec414894ffd66d03e610e7eb.jpg
3fc831f302d7bf4708bb7f2aa192eb57
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Pinehill Histories
Subject
The topic of the resource
History of the Pinehill area north of Bristow
Description
An account of the resource
Several interviews were done by Mary and Bob Mc Carty of people who grew up in the Pinehill area north of Bristow. This collection is the Pinehill subset of the Bristow Oral Histories
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
Bristow Historical Society, oral history collection
Type
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Oral history.
Oral History
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Interviewer
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Robert L. "Bob" McCarty
Interviewee
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Bob Moore
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https://bristoworalhistory.org/ohms/viewer.php?cachefile=OHP-0002-01_Bob_Moore.xml
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Pinehill, tool dresser, oil rigs, wood rigs, steam engine, dances, square dance, Two Little Sisters
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5.4 October 18, 1976 OHP-0002-01 Bob Moore OHP-0002-01 43:20 Bristow Historical Society - Oral History Archive Parkhill Bristow Historical Society, Inc. Drilling in the early 1900s in northern Oklahoma Pinehill, tool dresser, oil rigs, wood rigs, steam engine, dances, square dance, Two Little Sisters Bob Moore Robert L. "Bob" McCarty MP3 OHP-0002-01 Moore, Bob.mp3 1:|26(1)|52(1)|79(3)|96(10)|109(16)|129(7)|141(49)|152(9)|178(2)|197(1)|219(2)|232(9)|246(11)|271(2)|275(66)|287(7)|313(2)|332(2)|360(18)|374(2)|394(58)|409(5)|416(8)|439(3)|457(10)|469(8)|473(40)|481(1)|493(17)|514(2)|537(9)|558(24)|572(1)|597(2)|619(9)|634(15)|645(12)|664(2)|675(4)|696(15)|735(2)|765(2)|788(3) 0 https://bristoworalhistory.org/interviews/OHP-0002-01 Moore, Bob.mp3 Other audio 0 Drilling in the Pinehill community B: …in your home on the Pinehill community. The date is 10/18/1976, time five o’clock. Now then, Mr. Moore. BM: Yeah. B: They tell me that back in your younger days that you drilled, helped work, or helped drill wells in this community, is that right? BM: That’s right! B: Where did you work at in this community? BM: Well, I worked on the Albert Biggs (ph) Mosquito allotment, right on the side of a crick. B: That would be on the side of Mosquito Creek. Bob Moore discusses drilling for oil in the Albert Biggs freedman allotment near Mosquito Creek in the Pinehill area near Bristow. Albert Biggs ; allotment ; Charlie Lowe ; Mosquito allotment ; Mosquito Creek ; Pinehill 35.950855, -96.375456 17 Pinehill Community NE Bristow 103 Drilling for Barnes and Freeland B: Naw. Where else in the community did you help drill? BM: Well, we drilled one over on, you know where this forty-eight runs up there. For Freeland. B: For Freeland. BM: Yeah. B: Do you remember the Indian allotment that that would drill on? BM: Oh, let me see. Yeah! The Morrisons (ph). B: It was on the Morrisons (ph)? BM: Yeah. B: You know that that Morrison (ph) was the freeman, didn’t you? BM: Yeah, yeah. We—that was the first well we worked on that had electric power. Bob Moore talks about working for various drillers and oil men. Bob McCarty reads from material provided by George Krumme about a gas well drilled to 900 feet. 1925 ; Albert Mosquito ; Barnes ; Big Mosquito ; Brick Kirchner ; Claude Freeland ; electric power ; Glenn Freeland ; Hoppy Toad ; Indian allotment ; Morrison 512 Hoppy Toad Oil Company and cable tools B: This was pub—this information that I have was published in 1925, although I do have records here of the Hoppy Toad Oil Company. BM: The who? B: The Hoppy Toad Oil Company. BM: Oh, yeah. B: Here is some of the Hoppy Toad and here is the C.L. Freeland Oil Company. BM: Yeah. B: Does that bring back memories to you? BM: That does, yeah. Well, Glen worked on this Hoppy Toad, dressed tools up there. I remember him talkin’ to me about it, and that was before I was—well, I was, had worked the oilfield a little but then since then I hadn’t. For a while I was— B: I just, this log here that I have in my hand is a log of a well “C.L. Freeland Oil Company Mexi-Farm.” Now where would that be? Bob talks about the Hoppy Toad Oil Company and early drilling with cable tools like a tag line or manila line. C. L. Freeland Oil Company ; cable tool rigs ; Ernie Moore ; Hoppy Toad Oil Company ; Manila line ; Mexi-Farm ; rag line ; tag line Drilling lines ; The Hoppy Toad Oil Company http://www.petroleumhistory.org/OilHistory/pages/String/rope.html “Manila” line is made out of hemp or sisal 840 Dressing tools B: You mentioned a while ago about dressing tools? How was the old tools dressed or sharpened or whatever you might do? How was that done? BM: Well, dressin’ tools is, uh—a driller and a tool dresser work together on a tower, and a tool dresser, he assisted the driller. The driller’s supposed to know more than the tool dresser did, but lots of times they didn’t know as much. I dressed tools for about twelve years before I started drilling because it was much easier on me and no responsibility. Well, I guess where they got the name “tool dresser,” when they dress a bit they’d put ‘em in a forge, they’d heat ‘em up to white heat and then dress ‘em out to gauge. They had a gauge that you’d dress ‘em out to. B: You had a gauge that slipped over the end of that bit, is that right? BM: Yeah, that’s right, that’s right. When a bit got in sand formation or after drilling so long, it’d wear out and make the hole small so that the pipe wouldn’t fall, so when it got out of gauge we had to pull the bit off and put it in a forge and dress it, but they always had another bit they put on and we’d be drilling while the bit was heatin’. B: What kind of point was on that? BM: Well, we’d dress it to both sides and would come right out the gauge in a side of a circle on the gauge [indecipherable] and we’d work it out the gauge and pound the worn surface off and it was kind of a bevel on a point and a bottom. Bob talks about dressing, or reforming, the drilling bit. Different ways of heating the bit and reforming it are discussed. dressing tools ; driller ; ram ; sand formation ; tool dresser Dressing the bit on a drilling rig 1114 Steam engines and wooden derricks B: This here is the old boiler that— BM: That’s the boiler, that’s the boiler. B: That is what, now then—you said this boiler, what part did this boiler play? BM: That made steam to run the engine on! (laughs) B: Oh, it was operated by an old steam engine? BM: Oh, yeah! That was fired with oil and sometimes they fired it with gas. Gas was much better because it was cleaner. B: It was cleaner than the oil? BM: Yep. It carried about 120 pounds of steam and the boilers were rated anywhere from thirty to forty-five horsepower boilers. That was the way they rated them. B: Well now, then, go just a little bit further. What happened, say you’re moved into an area that there wasn’t gas and there wasn’t any oil, how did you fire—what did you use to fire that— BM: We used to fire with wood or coal. Whichever one they get, which was the cheapest. B: If coal was cheaper, why you’d fired with coal. BM: Yeah. They [indecipherable] fired with wood. But boy, that took a lot of wood to heat that water up to where you get 120 pounds of steam. B: What was this well here made out of? Bob talks about the steam engines used in early drilling, the fuel used, different beams in the wooden derricks, and how these beams and cranks and belts fit together to drill. bandwheel ; boilers ; bullwheel ; generator ; Nowata ; rig builder ; smudge pot ; steam engine ; wooden derrick ; yellow gold Steam engines used in early drilling for oil ; Wooden derricks used in early drilling for oil 1359 Working conditions B: Now they had all this drilling, whenever they started drilling the wells before electric came in here, they just drilled in daylight, did they or did they not? BM: No, we drilled night and day, twelve hour shifts. B: What kind of light did you use at night? BM: Oh, we had a generator that made electric light. B: You made electric light with a generator that operated off of this steam? BM: Yeah, on the steam. But the first, before they had the generator, we used what they called the “yellow gold.” That was an oil pot come up with two spouts and a piece of hemp in each one of ‘em and we’d light that to work by. B: Worked by that smudge pot— BM: Yeah. Drilling through the night and smudge pot lighting " ; yellow gold" ; ; electric light ; shifts ; smudge pots Drilling shifts ; Light from smudge pots 1469 Time to drill a well, fishing tools, casings, building the derrick, moving in the tools B: About how long did it take to drill one of these wells? BM: Here? In this area? B: Yeah, in this area. BM: Well, ya done well to drill one in about thirty-five days if they didn’t have a fishing job losing tools. B: Uh-oh, now then, how did that come about? How did that— BM: Well, sometimes the lines would break, you know, and sometimes they would lose the tools by breaking the line and then they’d go in there and fish ‘em out. B: What kind of a deal did they use to fish ‘em out with? BM: Oh, Lord, they had a lot of fishin’ tools. The one thing that, if they had the line on it, they had what they called a three-prong grab. It was a tool that screwed onto the end of a stem and it had three long prongs on it with little wickers that come up. Oh, they were big as, oh, couple inches big. And they’d get ahold of the, try to get ahold of the line and pull them out. B: How much, how deep where they, or have you ever helped fish out one? BM: Yeah, I’ve fished one out over at Yale about thirty to a hundred, and I fished one out at Utah, was about two hundred feet. Now that was a fishin’ job. We was out there seventy-nine miles from any town, forty miles from any neighbor, and they hauled the groceries out in trucks. We used what they called a Clark engine. That was operated by gasoline. Didn’t use a boiler there. That was all sand formation and sand would drill close and would sometimes stick the tools. And we stuck the tools about, oh, I guess about two hundred feet deep, and the sand and gypsum around ‘em and we couldn’t pull ‘em out. So we cut the line and filled the hole with tools—stems after stems—and put all forty sticks to drill by it first, with the small tools. We started a twenty-inch hole there. We drilled by it with the small tools and put all forty sticks of dynamite on it. Bob talks about losing tools in the well, fishing them out, how long it took for the derrick to be built, and how long for the tools to be brought in. build a derrick ; dynamite ; fishing tools ; grasshopper derrick ; rig builder ; steel derrick ; wooden conductor Drilling a well in 35 days ; Losing tools and fishing jobs 2017 Early pay for drilling work BM: But about four days. And we worked twelve hours a day and when we was rigging up, all four of us would go out the last day and finish rigging up and the driller and tool dresser would stay there and start, they’d work about eighteen hours that day. B: What was the pay during that time, Bob? BM: Well, I was getting’ about eight, nine dollars a day. B: Eight or nine dollars a day? BM: Yeah. B: Now today their wages’d be— BM: Quite a bit more. B: Yeah, I’d say, what—what would you say the wages would be today on a modern-day rig? BM: Well, I don’t know what they’re gettin’ now, but when I quit drilling, that was about, oh, I was getting’ twelve, thirteen dollars a day, but I was only workin’ eight hours. Well I started workin’ eight hours about, oh, about 1930. B: You started workin’ eight hours a day runnin’ three shifts. BM: Yeah. Pay for oil field work in the 1910's, going to World War I, coming back to work in the oil fields, and the price of oil then. driller pay ; early oil worker pay ; shifts ; tool dresser pay ; work day 2444 Oil field workers fun MM: What did they do for fun, them oilfield guys? B: What did they do for fun, you oilfield boys workin’ out there in the oilfield, what did you guys do for the fun? To have fun? BM: Oh, we’d get—not me, but most of ‘em ‘d get drunk and get into a fight, and something like that. Play craps and play poker and run around with the women— UW: When you stayed, lived around Yale? BM: What? UW: Lived around Yale and worked, what did you all do for fun there? BM: When? B: When you lived around Yale, what did you guys do for fun up there? BM: Oh! I went to dancin’ about twice a week. B: About twice’st a week?? What oil field workers did for fun and Bob square dance calling of " ; Two Little Sisters" ; . dancing ; drunk ; fight ; play craps ; poker ; square dance calling ; square dancing ; women ; Yale In this 1976 interview, Bob Moore discusses working as a tool dresser on oil rigs in the early 1900s in northern Oklahoma at a time prior to electricity, when rigs were built of wood, powered by a steam engine, and lighted at night by burning pots of crude oil. He also describes going to dances in Yale, Oklahoma in his spare time and calls a square dance named “Two Little Sisters” for the interviewer. B [Bob McCarty, Interviewer]: --in your home on the Pinehill community. The date is 10/18/1976, time five o' ; clock. Now then, Mr. Moore. BM [Bob Moore, Interviewee]: Yeah. B: They tell me that back in your younger days that you drilled, helped work, or helped drill wells in this community, is that right? BM: That' ; s right! B: Where did you work at in this community? BM: Well, I worked on the Albert Biggs Mosquito allotment, right on the side of a crick. B: That would be on the side of Mosquito Creek. BM: Yeah, that, that' ; s right! B: Right on the side of Mosquito Creek. BM: Yeah. And I worked for Charlie Lowe he was drillin' ; a well there. He was a contractor. B: Charlie Lowe was a contractor. BM: Yeah. B: Uh, do you remember, Mr. Moore, do you remember the depth that that well was? BM: I think it was about 3,200 feet. B: Did you get oil at that time, or did it-- BM: Yeah, yeah. We got oil there. It was a small well but it was a producer. B: It was a producer. BM: Yeah. B: Roughly what would you say that that well would make a day? BM: I' ; d say about fifty barrels at that time when we brought it in. B: You dug, when it came in, it came in at fifty barrel a day? BM: Yeah, something like that, yeah. MM [Mary McCarty, Interviewer]: Is that too strong? (sound of cups clinking) B: Naw. Where else in the community did you help drill? BM: Well, we drilled one over on, you know where this forty-eight runs up there. For Freeland. B: For Freeland. BM: Yeah. B: Do you remember the Indian allotment that that would drill on? BM: Oh, let me see. Yeah! The Morrisons. B: It was on the Morrisons? BM: Yeah. B: You know that that Morrison was the freeman, didn' ; t you? BM: Yeah, yeah. We--that was the first well we worked on that had electric power. B: The Morrison well was the first one that you had electric power to? BM: Yeah. B: What year was that, Mr. Moore? BM: Oh, let' ; s see--that must' ; ve been about 1925. B: Nineteen-and-twenty-five? When you first went to work in the oil field working the drilling, was there any other wells located around in that part of the country? BM: Yeah, there was a well or two around in there. Freeland had some production over in that part of the country. B: Do you have any idea where that production was? BM: Well, it was right around in there, quite a little bit of it, and then, oh, Glen Freeland, he' ; s still alive, he could tell you where it is. B: Now I talked to Glen the other night-- BM: You did? B: --and I found out from Brick Kirchner that Glen Freeland has had an eye surgery and his thinking at the present time is not very much. It' ; s pretty weak, he doesn' ; t remember. When I asked him about it, he said, " ; I don' ; t remember. I just don' ; t remember." ; BM: You know, I' ; ve known Glen Freeland for practically all his life. When he was about--when he first come from West Virginia, up around Nowata. B: Did you know Claude Freeland? BM: Oh, yeah. Yeah. I worked for Claude Freeland once. B: Our deed according to the records that we have on the, this oil survey that was made through here, Claude Freeland and--where' ; s that notebook at? (pause ; sound of pages flipping) Uh--it was drilled-- BM: He drilled a well right up here about a half a mile called the Hoppy Toad. B: There you go, now we' ; re gettin' ; somewhere! BM: Yeah. B: We' ; re getting' ; somewhere now! BM: Yeah. B: This is some stuff I got from Albert--or George Krumme-- BM: Yeah. B:--and it gives in here the first well that was actually drilled in this community. It was Barnes and Freeland, was it or was it not? BM: Yeah! Barnes and Freeland. Yeah. I knew Barnes. I knew Freeland, too. See when I first come to Bristow in 19-3. I was just a small kid then, then I come in 1911. B: See, this thing here, (referencing publication) " ; on April 11 one-third of a mile to the northwest in section thirty-six," ; which would be way over here, " ; township seventeen north, range nine east, with a depth of nine hundred and ninety feet to a thousand ten feet, it was encountered of the initial flow of seven million cubic feet per day." ; BM: That' ; s gas. B: Gas. BM: Yeah. B: (continues reading) " ; This well' ; s flood was turned into a twelve-inch line of this company, which at that time carried gas to the Oklahoma City area until the pressure decreased to a flood of which it would no longer force gas into the pipeline. The well was again connected to the pipeline in February 1917 when its open flow capacity registered 350,000 cubic feet a day with a rock pressure of 375 pounds." ; Alright, now then, on this rock pressure, what did they mean by that rock pressure? BM: That was, I don' ; t know. I don' ; t know what they meant by that rock pressure. You see, we never drilled very many gas wells. We were drillin' ; for oil, mostly. B: Drillin' ; for oil, mostly. BM: Yeah. B: Now, this well that you were talkin' ; about, what year was it--what year that you drilled here on the Big Mosquito--Albert Mosquito, what year was that? BM: Let' ; s see, oh, must' ; ve been about 1930, 19--, let' ; s see, about 1920-25. Between 1925 and 1930, I' ; d say. (woman talking in background) BM: You got a record of that, haven' ; t you? B: No, I don' ; t have a record of that one. BM: No, you don' ; t. B: I' ; ve got ' ; em up to, uh, oh, looks like about-- MM: [Indecipherable] published that in ' ; 23 so he wouldn' ; t have anything on ' ; 25 [indecipherable], remember? B: This was pub--this information that I have was published in 1925, although I do have records here of the Hoppy Toad Oil Company. BM: The who? B: The Hoppy Toad Oil Company. BM: Oh, yeah. B: Here is some of the Hoppy Toad and here is the C.L. Freeland Oil Company. BM: Yeah. B: Does that bring back memories to you? BM: That does, yeah. Well, Glen worked on this Hoppy Toad, dressed tools up there. I remember him talkin' ; to me about it, and that was before I was--well, I was, had worked the oilfield a little but then since then I hadn' ; t. For a while I was-- B: I just, this log here that I have in my hand is a log of a well " ; C.L. Freeland Oil Company Mexi-Farm." ; Now where would that be? BM: The Mexi-Farm? B: The Mexi-Farm Well Number One. Where would that be located? BM: [Indecipherable.] B: (reading) " ; Township seventeen north, range nine east, section twenty-nine." ; BM: Well-- B: Section twenty-nine. MM: Bob, why don' ; t you question him about the rigs, that was something, you know, ask him another [inaudible]. B: Now this, this picture here, is--that is one of the first rigs that operated, the old cable tool rigs, is that right? BM: Yeah, that' ; s right, I remember rigging up [indecipherable] in Kansas. B: That was in Kansas. BM: Yeah. B: But that is-- BM: [Indecipherable] Charlie Lowe and dress [indecipherable] name is Ernie Moore. B: Ernie Moore and Charlie Lowe. BM: Yeah, you don' ; t want to leave somebody but he dressed tools for Charlie. B: Now this Charlie--this Charlie Lowe, was he one of the people that drilled in here, too? BM: Oh, yeah. B: You mentioned that a while ago. BM: Yeah. B: Could you tell me how the old cable tool rig operated with comparison of the [indecipherable] of today? BM: Well, the [indecipherable], it drills much faster. The cable tools was much slower. And they used what they called a rag line--that, uh, manila line--that' ; s manila line that Charlie Lowe' ; s drillin' ; with there. (interference in tape) But they generally spun it in, the first of the hole with a rag line because it' ; s much easier on the rig and it' ; s much easier on everything. MM: [Inaudible.] BM: We would kind of leash a wire line in a manila line when we first started, we called that a cracker. And we drilled with a cracker at first because it was easy on the rig. Oh, that old manila line just used to, just grunt and groan and sing along with us--it was really nice to work with one of them. There wasn' ; t many drillers in my day that knew how to run a rag line--uh, manila line. B: Uh, was that a pretty complicated thing to do? BM: Yeah, it was a little complicated, it is, but the manila line would stretch out, you know, like a rope--that' ; s what it was, a rope line. B: It was actually a tag line. BM: Yeah. B: You' ; d call it a tag line of today. BM: Yeah. And it would--well, we' ; d drill about five or six feet by the rag line and it' ; d be about nine feet by the time we got through because it' ; d stretch out. B: It would stretch out four feet. BM: Yeah, three or four feet. B: Mmm-hmm. MM: Ask him [inaudible]. B: Was it--especially when you first started the hole with that-a-way, was it pretty hard to keep that hole straight? BM: No, it was fairly easy, we' ; d rig it up and guide the stem and boards across and go close to the stem and then guide the stem. B: You mentioned a while ago about dressing tools? How was the old tools dressed or sharpened or whatever you might do? How was that done? BM: Well, dressin' ; tools is, uh--a driller and a tool dresser work together on a tower, and a tool dresser, he assisted the driller. The driller' ; s supposed to know more than the tool dresser did, but lots of times they didn' ; t know as much. I dressed tools for about twelve years before I started drilling because it was much easier on me and no responsibility. Well, I guess where they got the name " ; tool dresser," ; when they dress a bit they' ; d put ' ; em in a forge, they' ; d heat ' ; em up to white heat and then dress ' ; em out to gauge. They had a gauge that you' ; d dress ' ; em out to. B: You had a gauge that slipped over the end of that bit, is that right? BM: Yeah, that' ; s right, that' ; s right. When a bit got in sand formation or after drilling so long, it' ; d wear out and make the hole small so that the pipe wouldn' ; t fall, so when it got out of gauge we had to pull the bit off and put it in a forge and dress it, but they always had another bit they put on and we' ; d be drilling while the bit was heatin' ; . B: What kind of point was on that? BM: Well, we' ; d dress it to both sides and would come right out the gauge in a side of a circle on the gauge [indecipherable] and we' ; d work it out the gauge and pound the worn surface off and it was kind of a bevel on a point and a bottom. B: It had a beveled point on it? BM: Yeah. We used to have to dress it with--the big bits you' ; d used to have to dress with sledgehammers. Then we got to where we used a ram--that ran off of a crank of machinery. B: That made tool dressin' ; a lot easier and a lot quicker. BM: Oh, yeah, a lot easier. B: A lot faster. BM: Yeah. B: All you had to do was heat it up to the white hot that you wanted it and take this ram and batter it out there like you wanted it. BM: That' ; s right. B: And if you got-- BM: I was pretty good on a ram. I was hittin' ; ' ; em too nice one day. (both laugh) BM: But they was much better. B: The ram itself in later years came into quite a accomplishment, or quite a labor-saving device than the old-time tool dressing. BM: Yes! Yeah. We used to, when I was young, we started a twenty or twenty-four-inch hole. As you can imagine them bits would be quite hot. You stand up alongside of them you got cooked. B: That' ; s right. BM: So we used that ram to drive ' ; em out the gauge. B: Ram ' ; em out there, flat end of it out the side you wanted it? If you got it flared out too big, well then how did you work it down? BM: Well, we was careful not to do that. When you got it too big you had to pound it down with sledgehammers. B: She wants to ask you a question now. BM: Okay. MM: What about that one? That picture? B: What about that picture there? BM: On that picture is a picture taken at El Dorado, Kansas. MM: But it' ; s the same kind of drilling bit, too. BM: I was on a--I worked up there one winter, that was at El Dorado. B: That was at El Dorado, Kansas. BM: Yeah. B: This here is the old boiler that-- BM: That' ; s the boiler, that' ; s the boiler. B: That is what, now then--you said this boiler, what part did this boiler play? BM: That made steam to run the engine on! (laughs) B: Oh, it was operated by an old steam engine? BM: Oh, yeah! That was fired with oil and sometimes they fired it with gas. Gas was much better because it was cleaner. B: It was cleaner than the oil? BM: Yep. It carried about 120 pounds of steam and the boilers were rated anywhere from thirty to forty-five horsepower boilers. That was the way they rated them. B: Well now, then, go just a little bit further. What happened, say you' ; re moved into an area that there wasn' ; t gas and there wasn' ; t any oil, how did you fire--what did you use to fire that-- BM: We used to fire with wood or coal. Whichever one they get, which was the cheapest. B: If coal was cheaper, why you' ; d fired with coal. BM: Yeah. They [indecipherable] fired with wood. But boy, that took a lot of wood to heat that water up to where you get 120 pounds of steam. B: What was this well here made out of? BM: That derrick is made out of wood. B: It' ; s an old wooden derrick. BM: Old wooden derrick, right. It was about seventy-two feet tall. B: What kind of wood was--BM: Pine. B: Pine? BM: Yeah. B: That would be made out of two-inch stuff, three-inch stuff, or what? BM: Oh, yeah, it was made out of two-inch stuff, the derrick was. But the big timbers like the beam, which were the biggest parts, that and the main cell, the beams and Samson post, sat in the main cell. That was the biggest timber in the whole rig. And the walkin' ; beam was next and they were slotted out and keyed with wooden keys--that was hardwood keys and drive it in with a sledgehammer They was dovetailed, the timbers was dovetailed to fit. That was built by rig builders. B: Had to be a rig builder to do that? BM: Yeah. MM: [Inaudible.] B: And now then, on this first well that worked your walkin' ; beam that operated your bit, there was a big bullwheel on that, was there or was there not? BM: Oh, yeah. The bullwheel, they would wind up the cable that the stem was to, and the walkin' ; beam, after it got about, oh, it spun. You had a gangway at about a hundred feet and that' ; d hook onto the walkin' ; beam. B: It would hook onto the walkin' ; beam at about a hundred feet? BM: Yeah. And this would go onto a crank that run to the belt, to the belt on the bandwheel. And it hooked the [indecipherable] up to the timber down here, it had a whole--had a whole band of ' ; em who put that on this crank to come through the bandwheel. And the engine run here in this engine house with about a twelve-inch belt that run over the bandwheel and operated the bandwheel and the crank that operated the walkin' ; beam that the tools was on the end of it. B: Now they had all this drilling, whenever they started drilling the wells before electric came in here, they just drilled in daylight, did they or did they not? BM: No, we drilled night and day, twelve hour shifts. B: What kind of light did you use at night? BM: Oh, we had a generator that made electric light. B: You made electric light with a generator that operated off of this steam? BM: Yeah, on the steam. But the first, before they had the generator, we used what they called the " ; yellow gold." ; That was an oil pot come up with two spouts and a piece of hemp in each one of ' ; em and we' ; d light that to work by. B: Worked by that smudge pot-- BM: Yeah. B: --that old smudge pot at night, then? BM: Yeah. Called that the " ; yellow gold." ; B: Was those smudge pots pretty dangerous? Workin' ; at night? BM: No, they wasn' ; t dangerous. You soon learned not to get too close to ' ; em, you get yourself burned. B: Well, after you got a well down, oh, down into the gas sands-- BM: Then it was dangerous. B: Then these smudge pots was dangerous. BM: That' ; s right, that' ; s right. But I don' ; t think they had ' ; em in this--well, they had derricks, they had to' ; ve been up there around Nowata where they wells is about 600 feet deep and they worked with a machine, [indecipherable] and [indecipherable], a machine like that. B: About how long did it take to drill one of these wells? BM: Here? In this area? B: Yeah, in this area. BM: Well, ya done well to drill one in about thirty-five days if they didn' ; t have a fishing job losing tools. B: Uh-oh, now then, how did that come about? How did that-- BM: Well, sometimes the lines would break, you know, and sometimes they would lose the tools by breaking the line and then they' ; d go in there and fish ' ; em out. B: What kind of a deal did they use to fish ' ; em out with? BM: Oh, Lord, they had a lot of fishin' ; tools. The one thing that, if they had the line on it, they had what they called a three-prong grab. It was a tool that screwed onto the end of a stem and it had three long prongs on it with little wickers that come up. Oh, they were big as, oh, couple inches big. And they' ; d get ahold of the, try to get ahold of the line and pull them out. B: How much, how deep where they, or have you ever helped fish out one? BM: Yeah, I' ; ve fished one out over at Yale about thirty to a hundred, and I fished one out at Utah, was about two hundred feet. Now that was a fishin' ; job. We was out there seventy-nine miles from any town, forty miles from any neighbor, and they hauled the groceries out in trucks. We used what they called a Clark engine. That was operated by gasoline. Didn' ; t use a boiler there. That was all sand formation and sand would drill close and would sometimes stick the tools. And we stuck the tools about, oh, I guess about two hundred feet deep, and the sand and gypsum around ' ; em and we couldn' ; t pull ' ; em out. So we cut the line and filled the hole with tools--stems after stems--and put all forty sticks to drill by it first, with the small tools. We started a twenty-inch hole there. We drilled by it with the small tools and put all forty sticks of dynamite on it. B: Forty sticks of dynamite? BM: Yeah. [Indecipherable] put on twenty-five and I had fifteen left, and I said to Charlie, I said--we was livin' ; in a camp thar that had two small boys, and I said, " ; Before somebody gets hurt, let' ; s just put ' ; em all on, instead of hidin' ; ' ; em some place, we' ; ll just put ' ; em all on." ; And we filled the hole full of tools and pulled ' ; em out. But it broke the beam and there wasn' ; t a piece of timber in that part of the country big enough to make a beam out of and they sent to Florence, Colorado to get a piece of timber big enough to make a beam out of. And then once we got the beam out of it, ah, why, then we pulled ' ; em out. MM: [Inaudible.] B: What is the difference between the early casing and the casings of today? BM: Well the early days started a well with a wooden conductor. B: A wooden conductor. BM: Yeah. It was made like a pipe. If we started a twenty-inch hole we' ; d get about a twenty-two-inch wooden conductor, and that was just about twenty feet long, and as we drilled we would put the wooden conductor in and then reduce the hole to a fifteen-inch hole, or eighteen, and go on from there. B: Now, this wooden conductor that you' ; re speaking of, that would be what we would call today the surface pipe. Is that right? BM: Yeah. That' ; s right. B: The only thing in the early days, the surface pipe, or wooden conductor, it was made out of wood but today it' ; s made out of steel. BM: Made out of steel, that' ; s right. MM: What kind of wood? B: What kind of wood would they be made out of? BM: That was made out of two-by-fours and two-by-sixes, about twenty feet long. B: Oh, you made it yourself? BM: No, they made--a company made it. B: The company made it. BM: Yeah. It was a company that made the conductors. MM: What year did they quit using them? B: What year did they quit using that wooden conductor? BM: Oh, it was, I supposed, about nineteen, nineteen eighteen. B: Then they went to the regular steel surface pipes. BM: Steel surface pipes, right. MM: [Inaudible.] BM: You had to have something, you know, to keep the hole from caving in, and protect the drilling root. Stem. MM: [Inaudible.] B: What year--or do you know--what year did they go to the steel derricks instead of the old wooden derricks? BM: Well, they used wooden derricks up until, well, I guess they still use some of them now. But they got to where they make units out of steel and hardwood and turnbuckles and things like that they started in on that about, oh, about 1920. MM: [Inaudible.] B: What year did they do away with these derricks and go to the type that they' ; re using out here now, what they call a grasshopper? BM: Oh, that' ; s just been late years. B: That' ; s been here in the later years? BM: Yeah. B: Say, from uh, 1960, then? BM: Well-- B: Fifties or ' ; 60s. BM: ' ; Bout that time. B: What kind of wagon and teams did they use to get, to, uh, wait a minute, let me back up a minute. On puttin' ; up one of these wells before you--you started drilling, how long did it ordinarily take you to put one of them up? BM: A derrick? B: Put up a derrick and get all set up to go to drillin' ; . BM: Well we probably put up a derrick in about four days and then we would move the tools in, that' ; d take us about four days. B: Now then, let' ; s say that again. BM: I said it' ; d take about four days to build a rig. The rig builder' ; d do that, there was a crew of about, generally about five men. And they worked hard. And fast. And they worked daylight. Then we would move our tools in, that' ; d take us about four days to rig up, to get ready to start. And then we' ; d start drilling in about four days. B: You' ; d start then, it' ; d take roughly from the time they rig builders moved in and everything was completed, ready to go to drilling, it' ; d take about twelve days, is that right? BM: Well, no, it didn' ; t take quite that long. B: Ten to twelve days. BM: If we didn' ; t start up in four days after we started rigging up, why, the contractor would get on our tail! (both laughing) BM: But about four days. And we worked twelve hours a day and when we was rigging up, all four of us would go out the last day and finish rigging up and the driller and tool dresser would stay there and start, they' ; d work about eighteen hours that day. B: What was the pay during that time, Bob? BM: Well, I was getting' ; about eight, nine dollars a day. B: Eight or nine dollars a day? BM: Yeah. B: Now today their wages' ; d be-- BM: Quite a bit more. B: Yeah, I' ; d say, what--what would you say the wages would be today on a modern-day rig? BM: Well, I don' ; t know what they' ; re gettin' ; now, but when I quit drilling, that was about, oh, I was getting' ; twelve, thirteen dollars a day, but I was only workin' ; eight hours. Well I started workin' ; eight hours about, oh, about 1930. B: You started workin' ; eight hours a day runnin' ; three shifts. BM: Yeah. B: Three eight-hour shifts, and of the eight hours you' ; d draw about twelve dollars a day? BM: Yeah. Ten to twelve. B: Ten to twelve dollars a day. BM: Yeah. B: The drillers, what did the driller draw? Was that the driller' ; s--BM: The driller' ; d draw two dollars or a dollar more than a tool dresser did. B: Say the tool dresser drawed twelve dollars a day then the driller would draw about fourteen dollars a day. BM: Yeah. B: What year did you start in working in the drilling business? BM: Oh, 19-well, I first started in it as a kid, I was, I was sixteen years old. I worked on a cleaning-up rig up around Little Fall. It was [indecipherable] shallow stuff. And that was, oh, that was about 1912 or ' ; 13. And then I got fired because I was too little to dress bits, the contractor thought. But I had a good driller by Charlie Lowe who' ; d drilled, and he was big and strong as an ox. And he took a lot of work off of it. Well then, about, oh, about 1914, why I started back again. B: About 1914 you started back in again, into the oil pipe work. BM: Yeah. I worked ' ; til World War I and I went to the Navy, I was drawing fourteen dollars a day working twelve hours over in Yale when I went to the Navy in 1918 for--well, I worked six months and drawed fifty dollars. Which was quite a comedown. (laughs) B: That would be quite a cutback in pay. BM: Yeah, it sure was. And I wondered if it was a good idea for me to quit a fourteen-dollar job to go to--fourteen dollars a day--to go to war. But since then I' ; ve been drawing a little pension, about sixty-two dollars, and I guess if I live to be a hundred I' ; ll get the money back. B: You' ; d probably have to live to be about a hundred and fifty! BM: Yeah. (laughs) Which I don' ; t think I' ; ll [indecipherable]. B: What year did you--then after you came out of the Navy, did you go back in to the oil pipe-- BM: Oh, yeah, I was working for the Carter Oil Company then, and he-- B: Carter Oil Company? BM: Yeah. Over in Yale. And the company had a plan that if you went into the service, well when you come back they' ; d give you your same old job back. And I went for it. B: You went right back to work for the same people that-- BM: Right back to work, and I recollect, yeah. B: Then what year did you finally give up the oilfield, settle down and say " ; to heck with it?" ; BM: That' ; s when I starved to death! B: That' ; s when you starved to death? BM: Yeah! Oil business was pretty good but you worked maybe two or three months and the company shut down and you' ; d be off for a month or two. And it was hard to get a job. But I was pretty lucky, I was a good tool dresser, and was always able to go to work. Lots of tool dressers would be drunk or into a fight or something, but I was always able to go to work and generally had a job if anyone else did. I worked for Wilcox for, oh, about two years. B: What year did you finally completely quit the oilfield and leave it alone? BM: Let' ; s see, well I come out here in 1929, I' ; d been out of a job for about thirty days, and damn near starved to death, and I' ; d had one job since then, I worked about thirty days, and when that, well, when we--by that time I was quit, or--couldn' ; t get a job. B: At about 19-and-29, then, is when you actually left the oilfield? BM: About 1930. B: About 1930 is when you actually left the oil--oil pipes for good. BM: Yeah. B: I believe that' ; s-- MM: [Inaudible.] B: How important was that oil in this community? BM: Well, it was not quite as important as it is now, we didn' ; t have to buy foreign oil, and we had plenty of oil the fact of the matter is that there was times when they cut the production of the wells down to where they were only producing so much a day. They prorated. MM: How much a barrel? B: How much a barrel at the beginning, how much a barrel did that oil sell for? BM: I think about two dollars a barrel. B: About two dollars a barrel? BM: Yeah. B: What would you say it is today? BM: Oh, I imagine about fifteen dollars. B: I believe it' ; s more than that. BM: You do, well, that' ; s probably worth it. B: I would say, I would say about twenty-three to twenty-five dollars a barrel today. BM: Yeah, well that depends on the grade of oil, of course, and the way gasoline is selling I expect it ought to be worth more than that! B: Yeah, I would too! (laughs) B: [Indecipherable], is there anything you wanna ask him? You got ' ; im talkin.' ; MM: [Inaudible.] UW [Unidentified woman, Bob Moore' ; s wife]: Ask him out loud. MM: What did they do for fun, them oilfield guys? B: What did they do for fun, you oilfield boys workin' ; out there in the oilfield, what did you guys do for the fun? To have fun? BM: Oh, we' ; d get--not me, but most of ' ; em ' ; d get drunk and get into a fight, and something like that. Play craps and play poker and run around with the women-- UW: When you stayed, lived around Yale? BM: What? UW: Lived around Yale and worked, what did you all do for fun there? BM: When? B: When you lived around Yale, what did you guys do for fun up there? BM: Oh! I went to dancin' ; about twice a week. B: About twice' ; st a week?? BM: Yeah! UW: They had square dancin' ; . B: You mean them old feet got-- BM: Yeah! Listen, they couldn' ; t start a dance ' ; til I got there! B: Oh, oh! BM: I was a dancer. I liked to dance. UW: Tell them about how far you walked to work each night. BM: Oh, sometimes we walked three miles ' ; round [indecipherable] B: You walked three miles? BM: --horse, you get a horse and buggy and sometimes quick to get up when you couldn' ; t get over with a buggy and' ; d have to walk. B: Did you ever call for any of these square dances? BM: Oh, yeah! B: What was some of the calls that you called? BM: Oh, I called a hundred of them. B: Call a little bit for me! BM: Well, let' ; s see--how ' ; bout " ; Two Little Sisters?" ; B: That' ; s good! Let' ; s have it! BM: (calling, clapping, and stomping in rhythm) Two little sisters form a ring/ dosey out and dosey in/ two little sisters ready again/ back to your partner and everybody sway/ two little sisters out to the right/ pick up one little sister and three little sisters form a ring/ back to your partner and everybody sway/ four little sisters form a ring/ get back to your partner and everybody sway/ four little sisters form a ring/ back to your partner and everybody sway. That' ; s one of ' ; em. B: That' ; s mighty good, Bob, mighty good. UW: Bob and I have danced a million miles. BM: That was when she would answer my callin' ; . She don' ; t do anything I tell her now. (laughs) B: We' ; re gonna have another little get-together. end of interview audio 0 https://bristoworalhistory.org/ohms/viewer.php?cachefile=OHP-0002-01_Bob_Moore.xml OHP-0002-01_Bob_Moore.xml
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Bob Moore
Description
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In this 1976 interview, Bob Moore discusses working as a tool dresser on oil rigs in the early 1900s in northern Oklahoma at a time prior to electricity, when rigs were built of wood, powered by a steam engine, and lighted at night by burning pots of crude oil. He also describes going to dances in Yale, Oklahoma in his spare time and calls a square dance named “Two Little Sisters” for the interviewer.
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OHP-0002-01
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Drilling in the early 1900s in northern Oklahoma
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1976-10-18
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audio
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Pinehill Histories
Subject
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History of the Pinehill area north of Bristow
Description
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Several interviews were done by Mary and Bob Mc Carty of people who grew up in the Pinehill area north of Bristow. This collection is the Pinehill subset of the Bristow Oral Histories
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Bristow Historical Society, oral history collection
Type
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Oral history.
Oral History
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Interviewer
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Robert and Mary McCarty
Interviewee
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Charles Lionel Klock, Sr
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https://bristoworalhistory.org/ohms/viewer.php?cachefile=OHP-0011-01_Charles_Klock.xml
Interview Keyword
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Pinehill, Bristow, Oklahoma, fights, opossum, moonshine, Indian dance
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5.4 OHP-011-01 Charles Lionel Klock, Sr OHP-0011-01 20:39 Bristow Historical Society - Oral History Archive Pinehill Bristow Historical Society, Inc. Early childhood memories Pinehill, Bristow, Oklahoma, fights, opossum, moonshine, Indian dance Charles Lionel Klock, Sr Robert and Mary McCarty MP3 OHP-0011-01 Klock, Charles Sr.mp3 1:|71(1)|85(1)|101(1)|121(1)|133(14)|153(2)|185(14)|223(2)|240(2)|256(8)|277(2)|300(4)|309(13)|341(10)|362(1)|384(14)|397(8)|415(7)|424(7)|439(10) 0 http://bristoworalhistory.org/interviews/OHP-0011-01 Klock, Charles Sr.mp3 Other audio 0 Family Seventh - afternoon of June 7, 1977. We're talking to Charles Lionel Klock Charles Lionel Klock, and he's gong to tell us about his family. Lionel, what war you mother and dad's name? Charles Lionel Klock describes his family Beaumont ; brother ; family ; father ; Morgan City (La.) ; mother ; sister ; sisters ; Texas City Klock family 121 Pinehill school Did all of you children go to Pinehill school? No, just the three oldest - Daphine and myself and Vernon. I think that was the only ones that really went to the Pinehill school. How many years did you go? About two, I believe, because Lionel Klock describes going to Pinehill school. Annie over ; Mr. Thomas ; Pinehill ; school jumping gates ; Pinehill school ; riding a horse to school ; spankings 396 Chicken roasts Did you ever hear about - did you ever hear about those chicken roasts? Would you like to hear, would you like to hear a story - No, Daphine - Daphine, now I think Daphine - Would you like to hear the story about them? Yeah, I'd like to hear that. Interviewer Mary McCarty relates a story from Lloyd Bruce about stealing chickens and roasting them in a clay shell. chicken roasts ; Lloyd Bruce ; Lloyd, Bruce bake in clay ; chicken roasts 477 Opossum hunting and school spanking and fight with Bob Well, you missed the fun years out there, then. Well, maybe so. But I had plenty of fun. Going out to - going out in the - Do you remember the Christma - - you know, Dad' d take us out hunting at night. We'd go out and hunt opossum or it jsut so happened that many a times we'd - we'd run over with a old hound, we had an old hound that went out ahead of us. hound dog ; opossum ; skunk hound dog ; opossum ; skunk ; Striped skunk 537 School fight and fight with Bob You start talking about that fight, you said there was about eighteen of you: Oh, yeah, well - You told me while ago there was about eighteen of you got a whipping. How many of them was in school that year, if eighteen of you got a whipping? I don't know, I would say it was at least half of the school got it, but the fight really - I don't know exactly what Bobby's part of it is --- Lionel Klock and Bob McCarty reminisce about a fight and the switching they got from the school teacher. girl whipping ; school fight ; whipping school fight 785 Moonshine and a stomp dance Hey, Bobby, did you ever get up in the country there, especially up behind old Ellis Heads' house? You ever go up in there? You ever see those pigs laying up there in that mud - Yeah: - get so drunk on that sour, sour mash that tehm poor sows couldn't get up? Lionel Klock and Bob McCarty reminisce about a moonshiner and an Indian stomp dance. moonshine ; pigs ; sour mash ; stomp dance ; war party ; white lightening deputy sheriff ; Indian stomp dance ; moonshine ; white lightening 1146 Bobby can fight and Lena can dance What were some of the kids' names that went to school with you? Well, I really don't remember a whole lot of 'em. Naturally, Bob Imhousen, then Lena Hooky She must have been a pretty little girl. You keep talking about her. classmates ; dancing dances ; two-step In this 1977 interview, Charles Lionel Klock, Sr. (1927-2003) describes his very early childhood memories in the Pinehill Community outside Bristow, Oklahoma including fights with schoolmates, opossum hunting, the first time he ever tried corn mash alcohol (moonshine), and attending an Indian dance as a child. Interviewer: Mary Lee (Fuller) McCarty (1929-2007) (MM) Interviewee: Charles Lionel Klock, Sr. (1927-2003) (CK) Other Persons: Robert L. " ; Bob" ; McCarty (1927-2007) (BM) Date of Interview: June 7, 1977 Location: Drumright, Creek County Oklahoma Transcriber: Melissa Holderby Organization: Bristow Historical Society, Inc. Original Cassette Tape Location: OHP-0011 Side ALength: 0:20:39 Abstract: In this 1977 interview, Charles Lionel Klock, Sr. (1927-2003) describes his very early childhood memories in the Pinehill Community outside Bristow, Oklahoma including fights with schoolmates, opossum hunting, the first time he ever tried corn mash alcohol (moonshine), and attending an Indian dance as a child. Preface: The following oral history testimony is the result of a cassette tape interview and is part of the Bristow Historical Society, Inc.' ; s collection of oral histories. The interview was transcribed and processed by the Bristow Historical Society, Inc., with financial assistance from the Montfort Jones & ; Allie Brown Jones Foundation. Rights to the material are held exclusively by the Bristow Historical Society, Inc. The reader should bear in mind that he or she is reading a verbatim transcript of spoken, rather than written prose. Insofar as possible, this transcript tries to represent the spoken word. Thus, it should be read as a personal memoir and not as either a researched monograph or edited account. To the extent possible, the spelling of place names, foreign words, and personal names have been verified, either by reference resources or directly by the interviewee. In some cases, a footnote has been added to the transcript in order to provide more information and/or to clarify a statement. Some uncertainties will inevitably remain regarding some words and their spellings. In these scenarios, a (ph) follows a word or name that is spelled phonetically. The notation [indecipherable] is used when the transcriber has not been able to comprehend the word or phrase being spoken. The notation [inaudible] is used where there is more mumbling than words, or when interference on the tape has made transcription impossible. MM: Seventh--afternoon of June 7, 1977. We' ; re talking to-- CK: Charles Lionel Klock. MM: Charles Lionel Klock, and he' ; s going to tell us about his family. Lionel, what was your mother and dad' ; s name? CK: Dad' ; s name was Charles Ishmael Klock and mother' ; s name was Sybil Emmaline Klock. MM: What was your mother' ; s name before she married? CK: Williams. They was--had moved here to Drumright area and mother and dad married in that area. Followed the oilfields around here for a while and finally settled here in Bristow at the little pumping plant out north of town. MM: How many brothers and sisters do you have? CK: I have one brother and three sisters. MM: What' ; s their names? CK: Well, Daphine--do you want me to give their married names? BM: Yeah. CK: Daphine--Dorotha Daphine and her last name now is Holmes. She lives in Texas City, she' ; s a registered nurse. And Vernon Klock lives in Beaumont, Texas and he' ; s a retired--I guess you' ; d call him superintendent for the McDermott (ph) shipyard out of Morgan City, Louisiana. And we have Aline Sanders who is there in Beaumont, lives in Beaumont, her husband' ; s a butcher for the market [indecipherable]. And then my youngest sister which is Thelma Dean Ross (ph), and she lives in [indecipherable], Texas which is a little old town just about ten miles out of Beaumont. MM: Your mother and dad still alive? CK: No, mother' ; s living but dad died two years ago on Easter Sunday morning of a heart attack, there in Beaumont, Texas. MM: Did all of you children go to Pinehill school? CK: No, just the three oldest--Daphine and myself and Vernon. I think that was the only ones that really went to the Pinehill school. MM: How many years did you go? CK: About two, I believe, because--well, really, I went, I went--I started for three, but it just so happened that I was a little early in my going to school and so after about two or three weeks in school I can remember one day I got up behind the curtain on the stage and jumped out and hollered " ; Boo" ; at everybody and just immediately after that, Mr. Thomas sent a letter home to my momma and said, " ; Mrs. Klock, please keep Lionel home," ; says, " ; He won' ; t study and won' ; t let nobody else." ; So I had to stop and drop out that year and then I started again the next year. So hopefully that helps. MM: What kind of sports did you play? CK: Well, the only thing I can remember playing at Pinehill is that we had an excellent slide there, we got the old wax--paper wax off of the bread wrappers, off of the bread. And we put it as slick as you could possibly get it and then the only other sport that I ever really remember playing at the Pinehill was they could throw that ball over and catch it and then run around and hit somebody with it on the other side of the school. MM: Annie-Over. CK: What would you call that? MM: Annie-Over. CK: Annie-Over! Boy, we had a time with that, now. MM: Did you ever get in on any of those chicken stealing when you lived there? CK: No, no, I didn' ; t get into any of that, you know--we lived, when we first began to go to Pinehill, we lived over on the old Indian home. I don' ; t even remember what the Indian family was, but it was over close and had a neighbor by the name of Vann. We had five gates between us and school and we rode a horse. Daphine and I would ride the horse and mother and dad would always instruct us to be sure to stop at each one of those gates and open and close it when we went through. And so we did, we faithfully did our part--at least until we found out that the horse could jump and from that point on, I don' ; t believe we stopped to get any--to open any of them. But we--Bobby was showing me here, Minnie Davis (ph)? Is that where we was living? BM: That' ; s where he lived, yeah. CK: Out on the Minnie Davis (ph) place. Anyway, we never did stop to--from that point on, when that horse came to the gate it always jumped it and how we held on I don' ; t know, but we made it home safely anyway. MM: Did you mom and dad know you was jumping the gate? CK: (laughs) No, they didn' ; t. MM: Have you told your mother in later years? CK: Yeah, yeah. You know, I don' ; t know, we--in our going home, we had one place that we stopped off. I don' ; t know where [indecipherable] it was, don' ; t even remember the name of the family, but it was somewhere between after we turned off of a certain road going back over through to the house, we' ; d stop off at these people' ; s house and get warm! Well, I tell you, when we was coming home, it' ; d be cold, snow on the ground and our feet would get mighty cold and I tell you what, I didn' ; t particularly like the boots that I had and I burned the soles off of them at those people' ; s house by putting my foot up close to the fire. It got warmed, but I burned the heel--the sole off of ' ; em, anyway. (laughs) MM: About how many spankings a day did you get when you was going to school? Bob tells how many he got. CK: Oh, I was a good boy. I don' ; t know, I know I got some but it was mostly hold your hand out and with a ruler on it, you know, and a lot of that kind of situation. Only one time I really did get a switching from Mr. Thomas, but I wasn' ; t alone in that one. There was several others that got a whippin' ; on that one. MM: You didn' ; t go, though--if you got up to the seventh or eighth grade like Bob did, you' ; d have got a few more. CK: Maybe so, maybe so. MM: You missed a few things-- BM: I didn' ; t have to [indecipherable] MM: Did you ever hear about--did you even hear about those chicken roasts? Would you like to hear, would you like to hear a story--CK: No, Daphine--Daphine, now, I think Daphine-- MM: Would you like to hear the story about them? CK: Yeah, I' ; d like to hear that. MM: They would go to various famers, usually the one that was the crankiest in the community, and they' ; d steal a chicken. CK: Oh? MM: And they' ; d take it down to the creek and they' ; d wrap it in--they had a certain place where there was good clay, and they' ; d make a thick layer of that clay, just wring it' ; s neck off and make a thick layer of that clay on that chicken-- CK: Yeah? MM: And just throw it in the fire and let it bake and then when it got done they' ; d just break that clay off and just eat it with their fingers. CK: Uh-huh. MM: So I asked Loyd Bruce on his tape, I said, " ; Loyd, did you remove any undesirable parts of those chickens?" ; And he paused a minute and he said he didn' ; t believe they did! But they said you can take the toughest old rooster or old hen and wrap it in that clay that way and it' ; d get tender and good. CK: I would suppose they would. (all laugh) MM: But they cooked it guts, feathers and all. CK: Oooh, boy! (laughs) BM: [indecipherable] CK: I think I' ; ll [indecipherable], I' ; ll tell you. MM: Did you steal any water--no, you wouldn' ; t even be big enough to steal-- CK: No, no, I, I didn' ; t, I never did really, I didn' ; t--let' ; s, let' ; s see, it must' ; ve been--so really first, second grade is about all that I really got to go there. Well, I tell you-- MM: Well, you missed the fun years. CK: Well-- BM: Then they moved up to Oilton. CK: Yeah, we moved up to Drumright and to Oilton in-between there. MM: Well, you missed the fun years out there, then. CK: Well, maybe so. But I had plenty of fun. Going out to--going out in the-- MM: Do you remember the Christma-- CK: --you know, dad' ; d take us out hunting at night. We' ; d go out and hunt opossum or it just so happened that many a times we' ; d (laughs) we' ; d run over with a old hound, we had an old hound that went out ahead of us. Instead of a opossum he found a, a good skunk. And run in on top of that skunk and it hit him right in the face. And I never (laughs), I never heard one dog holler so much and waller so much, throw his head on the ground and roll and squall and bawl and, you know? That ruined our hunt for that night. We didn' ; t get to go any further. (laughs) That old dog just--hooked him up and he went back to the house after that. MM: You start talking about that fight, you said there was about eighteen of you? CK: Oh yeah, well-- MM: You told me while ago there was about eighteen of you got a whipping. How many of them was in school that year, if eighteen of you got a whipping? CK: I don' ; t know, I would say it was at least half of the school got it, but the fight really--I don' ; t know exactly what Bobby' ; s part of it is, but I know I come home crying and dad said, " ; What you crying about?" ; and I said, " ; Well, somebody jumped on my back." ; And sometimes it was Bobby! Other times it might' ; ve been somebody else but that particular time it was Bobby. And he told me, he said, " ; Son," ; he said, " ; I' ; ll tell you what: If you come home tomorrow night and you' ; re crying because somebody jumped on your back and you hadn' ; t done nothing about it," ; he says, " ; I' ; m gonna spank you." ; Well, the next evening it just happened to be that Bobby was the one that jumped on my back. And for the next mile and half--next half a mile, really--it was either me on bottom and him on top or I was on top and he was on bottom, I don' ; t know how it all wound up like, but I assure you one thing, this is some--at least thirty-five or thirty-six years afterward and I' ; m still bearing the scars of those, that fight (laughs) in my face. MM: It' ; d have to be better than forty years, you didn' ; t go to school out there after you was ten. CK: Well, no, let' ; s see-- MM: Come on, now. CK: Well, five years--six years old, yeah! It' ; s got to be forty, forty-four years ago. About forty-four to--forty-three to forty-four years. That' ; d be it. But I' ; ll tell you what, I didn' ; t get a whipping when I got home, and I can' ; t say whether I got the best of the fight or Bobby got the best, or who got the worst, or what have you. I' ; ll tell you we both come out with plenty of scars, and not only us--you know, Alton (ph) and Daphine got into that, too. Alton (ph) wound up with a pretty good scar on his face over that rack--and Daphine had some pretty good nails and she shore did get him right across the face. BM: [inudible] CK: Clear from the forehead clear to the chin, I' ; ll tell you, he really got a good one. MM: And on top of all that, I believe your mother and Bob' ; s mother were best friends. CK: Ooo-hoo! (laughs) Yeah, yeah! And after that, Bob and I was pretty good friends, too! (laughs) BM: (laughs) MM: Our son that was killed and a boy got into it and knocked each other' ; s teeth loose and everything else and the next day they wanted visit each other and we said, " ; Mose (ph), we thought you were angry," ; and he said, " ; Why, just ' ; cause your fighting' ; s no sign that you' ; re mad at each other!" ; (all laughing) BM: But you know, Mr. Thomas didn' ; t like what he heard about that fight. He--the next day at school he begin to name off the ones that he wanted to talk to after school, and he kept the boys in one room and the girls in the other. The only thing is, he appointed Daphine and one of the other girls to go out and they was to pick the switch that we was to get switched with, and naturally for themselves they pretty--picked a pretty good, a very small little switch. But for the boys, I' ; ll assure you we got our--they got the right size. I don' ; t know if that was a peach limb or just what it was, but I' ; ll assure you--and when Mr. Thomas laid it on, he was--didn' ; t spare the rod. (laughs) I can remember it. Now, I also heard from other reports, though, that when he spanked the girls it--that just the skirt really got the blistering. It really never did get down next to the body on the girls. But the skirt really did get the blistered on. CK: I think everybody went down that south road and got a lickin' ; that day. BM: (laughs) Eighteen of us, at least. CK: I know' ; d it, anyway. MM: Well, you and the McIntyres (ph) got into it one time, didn' ; t you? CK: No, me and the Wilson boys got into it. MM: Wilson. CK: Hey, Bobby, did you ever get up in the country there, especially up behind old Ellis Head' ; s (ph) house? You ever go up in there? You ever see those pigs laying up there in that mud? BM: Yeah? CK: --get so drunk on that sour, sour mash that them poor sows couldn' ; t get up? (all laughing) BM: You know the last time, last time I talked to old Ellis--oh, before the lake was--had a lot of water in it. When I-- MM: Ellis died slow and hard with that cancer, he had a terrible time of dying-- BM: --I went out and bought some corn off Ellis to fatten out some hogs. And-- MM: --and Lord, that was twenty years ago. Almost twenty years ago. BM: --I got talking to him that afternoon, and " ; Say, Ellis, when is the last time you ran off a batch of corn?" ; He said, " ; Oh, Bob, it' ; s been a good long time." ; He said, " ; I' ; ll tell you what, I' ; ll tell you where there' ; s a twenty-gallon keg of it buried." ; He said, " ; I buried it and I runned it off." ; MM: I guess it' ; s still there! BM: As far as I know it' ; s still there. MM: So it' ; s--Bob' ; s been-- BM: You know, [indecipherable] CK: You know, I guess there might be others that would dispute it but I--according to my particular knowledge of it, he made some of the best that-- BM: That' ; s right! CK: --that was run off in our country. I know about the only time that I ever really got a good, I got exposed to it, so to speak, I think they come over to the house and three men and dad were standing out in the yard and they had the bottle and so they started off and tilt that bottle up, you know, and finally it went around to all four men and then finally dad handed it to me and says, " ; Here, son," ; he said, " ; Here, take a swig." ; Well, you know, I thought I had some sodee-pop. BM: Yeah? CK: And, boy, so I turned that thing up like I would a sodee-pop bottle and I got me a mouthful and I learned quickly that the white lightening didn' ; t its name just because it was a white, or clear. It had something else-- BM: (laughs) CK: It had a little fire! And I don' ; t know that I have ever been burned so in all my life. I think that did help me, though, to one extent--I never have touched the stuff very much since. BM: (laughs) One one of old Ellis--he always, when he was making, he had a few of ' ; em that would come around, he' ; d get ' ; em to come around and [indecipherable] with him, especially when he was running off a batch. And you could just almost tell when old Ellis would run off a new batch-- CK: (laughs) BM: --' ; cause there' ; d be some old boy around over the country throw a big dance that weekend. CK: Well, you know, this is a lot of memories that you can have about a place and I guess one of the things that I--stands out most in my memory, you know--Ollie Hooky (ph) was--I don' ; t know exactly how good he was at his particular trade in that area, but I do know he was pretty good at selling it, anyway. We went with him one night down to country out of--somewhere down below here, out on the--to an Indian dance. You know, called ' ; em Indian stomp dances. MM: They still have them. CK: And so--but unknown to us, the car was lined with white lightening, and he was selling it to the, to the different Indians there at the dance. Well, I' ; ll tell you, I had a ball! I had, I was just big enough that I could slip in and out of line and I' ; d get ahold of a fellow in front of me, I' ; d get ahold of his hip pocket and here I' ; d go around that bonfire, stomping and dancing. Well, if that fellow in the front of me happened to have a bottle in his pocket, I slipped out of line right quick. I didn' ; t stay behind him. I' ; d get behind somebody that didn' ; t have a bottle, anyway. But that particular night-- MM: Why would you do that? CK: Huh? MM: Why would you-- CK: Well, I wasn' ; t particularly wanting to--the man in my--he didn' ; t have a bottle in his pocket, but I didn' ; t want--I was trying to get somebody that was maybe, may not have been quite so drunk as the other one (laughs), but that night we, as we' ; s sitting--and sitting there, or as the stomp dance continued, the deputy sheriffs in this county happened to find one of the men that they were looking for, and they couldn' ; t catch him. And he had jumped on a truck and was taking off and so the deputy took his gun and fired and shot the man, really. The leaves that--he shot through the tree and the leaves that fell off of the tree fell right down in mother' ; s lap. If the bullet had been just a few inches lower she would' ; ve--well it probably would have hit her instead of the man. But I' ; ll assure you one thing: when that shot rang out, that stomp dance no longer was a stomp dance but it turned into a war party. Those Indians jumped out, went to their teepees and they come out with knives and guns like you never seen. Well, Ollie (ph) and dad beat it to that car, throwed us kids in the back seat and I want you to know, that was one wild ride out of there that night. Now that' ; s one thing that stands out in my memory about that. MM: What were some of the kids' ; names that went to school with you? CK: Well, I really don' ; t remember a whole lot of ' ; em. Naturally Bob Imhousen (ph), then Lena Hooky (ph)-- MM: She must' ; ve been a pretty little girl. You keep talking about her. CK: Well, Lena (ph) was--she was my dancing partner at the different dances and I' ; ll assure you, we could cut a pretty good rug, I guarantee you. We' ; d--especially when Lena (ph) and I got started dancing, well, the whole dance floor cleared off and I' ; ll assure you we did the two-step. Now, if you had it today--I don' ; t know what you' ; d call that dance today but I' ; ll tell you what, I sure did enjoy those few times that we did get to dance together. (pause) But now, really, some of the others, I' ; m sitting here trying to remember, but I--the names of many of those children, or young people at that day, I guess just doesn' ; t--you know, that' ; s forty-four years ago, it doesn' ; t stay with me. Or it didn' ; t stay with me. BM: That' ; s right. CK: They didn' ; t make an impression on me like Bobby. (laughs) MM: And Lena. Bobby can fight and Lena can dance, huh? BM: There you go! There you go! (all laughing) end of interview audio 0 bristoworalhistory.org/ohms/app/Ohms/interview/Version3.phpOHP-011-01_Charles_Klock.xml OHP-011-01_Charles_Klock.xml
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Charles Lionel Klock, Sr
Description
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In this 1977 interview, Charles Lionel Klock, Sr. (1927-2003) describes his very early childhood memories in the Pinehill Community outside Bristow, Oklahoma including fights with schoolmates, opossum hunting, the first time he ever tried corn mash alcohol (moonshine), and attending an Indian dance as a child.
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OHP-0011-01
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Early childhood memories
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1977
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audio