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Regan Siler
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Albert "Kell" Kelly
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6.0 June 20, 2025 OHP-0073 Albert "Kell" Kelly OHP-0073 00:31:41 Bristow Historical Society, Inc. bristowhistory Albert "Kell" Kelly Regan Siler 0 https://bristoworalhistory.org/interviews/OHP-0073 Kelly, Kell.mp4 Other video 0 Background/Birth Regan Siler 00:00
 ; This is Regan Siler with the Bristow Historical Society in Bristow, Oklahoma. This interview is part of the Historical Society's ongoing oral history project. The date is June 20, 2025 and I'm sitting here with Kell Kelly at the Bristow Library Annex. He's going to tell us about how he helped save the Bristow Train Depot. Can you please state your full name? 
 ; 
 ; Kell Kelly 00:21
 ; Sure. My full name is Albert Charles Kelly, Jr.
 ; 
 ; Regan Siler 00:25
 ; Okay, and you go by Kell, right? 
 ; 
 ; Kell Kelly 00:26
 ; Everyone goes, calls me Kell.
 ; Albert Charles Kelly, Jr. was born on November 21, 1954. He was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He lived north of Bristow on a ranch called the Wild Horse Prairie. Bristow Historical Society ; Bristow (Okla.) ; Kell Kelly ; Bristow Library Annex ; Albert Charles Kelly, Jr. ; Tulsa (Okla.) ; Wild Horse Prairie Birth 0 51 Parents and Grandparents Regan Siler 00:51
 ; Okay, and I want to ask, I know today we mainly want to focus on saving the depot, but I would also like to touch on your family. Can you tell me their full names and dates of birth, if you have that.
 ; 
 ; Regan Siler 01:04
 ; How many family members would you like me to tell you about? 
 ; 
 ; Regan Siler 01:05
 ; Well, just your parents, sorry!
 ; 
 ; Kell Kelly 01:08
 ; Well, I'll go back one generation before that, if possible. 
 ; 
 ; Regan Siler 01:11
 ; Oh, sure.
 ; Kell's parents were Albert Charles Kelly, Sr. and Katherine McGee Rewerts. Kell's grandfather came to Bristow in 1902 to farm. He met a lady (Dorcas) who treated him for something at the hospital that she had started. Kell's grandfather married Dorcas, and they had five sons. Kell's father was the oldest of the boys. Kell's mother, Katherine was from western Kansas. Katherine's father started the first hospital in Golden City, Kansas. Albert Kelly ; Kansas ; Bristow (Okla.) ; Dorcas B. Kelly ; Katherine McGee Rewerts ; Garden City (Kan.) ; Harvard College ; Boston (Mass.) ; World War II ; Navy ; Joe Ihle ; Albert Charles Kelly, Sr. Parents ; Grandparents 0 301 Bob Chadderdon Regan Siler 05:01
 ; Oh yeah, okay, all right. Well, let's talk about the depot. We want to, we know you were instrumental in helping save the depot, and I would kind of like to hear your perspective on that, so you just, I guess, start from the beginning.
 ; 
 ; Kell Kelly 05:23
 ; Well, the beginning of the depot can't begin without involving the late Bob Chadderdon. Bob was a remarkable fellow. He'd been a fighter pilot in World War II in Europe, and had left Bristow at some point after that with $50 in his pocket that his friend Paul Joseph had loaned him, and he made his way to New York and became successful in the international trade of heavy oil and gas machinery at a time when they were discovering that the Middle East and other places had lots of stores of oil. And so Bob and his determined manner jumped right in. He was proud of the fact that he had the address on on in Washington, excuse me, in New York, that was One Carnegie Center. So, he was, he was right on the, he was right in the middle of New York and Times Square and every place else. Along about 1980, Bob and his wealth transferred back to Bristow. He wanted to always come back to Bristow, and he became almost a one man philanthropy store. However, he was never satisfied with with doing it by himself, and so he drug everybody into it that he possibly can. My father had already passed away, and so somehow he focused on on me to be his kind of his his guy, his monkey boy, to do whatever he would tell me to do. I'd come back to Bristow when I was practicing law with Joe Sam Vassar and Harry McMillan. And Bob had asked me to speak to the Class of 40 that was having its 40th reunion in 1980, and so I did. And from that point on, he would involve me in all of his many, many ventures that he wanted to give back to Bristow.
 ; 
 ; Bob Chadderdon, a wealthy philanthropist led efforts to preserve the depot. Bob had been a fighter pilot in Europe during World War II. He left Bristow and went to New York sometime after the war with $50 that his friend had loaned him. He became successful in the international trade of heavy oil and gas machinery. Around 1980, Bob transferred back to Bristow with his wealth. Bristow Train Depot ; Bob Chadderdon ; World War II ; Europe ; Bristow (Okla.) ; Paul Joseph ; New York ; Middle East ; Times Square (New York, N.Y.) ; Albert Charles Kelly, Sr. ; Joe Sam Vassar ; Harry McMillan Bob Chadderdon 0 459 Saving the Depot Regan Siler 07:39
 ; Do you know how, what, where he came up with the, I mean, like, where, where did it, how did the idea come up that he wanted to save the depot and preserve it for Bristow?
 ; 
 ; Kell Kelly 07:50
 ; Well, I think the idea came up that when you would drive down the streets in Bristow, why Bob would, Bob would be able to tell you who lived there in 1930. And, so, those he had the, he had the great desire to try and convey to the next generations what Bristow had been, what Bristow had evolved to, but at the same time, with an eye to what, what, who those that came before. He used to talk about one gentleman, as he said, he met every train, because his brother had gone to World War I, and he was this was a gentleman that had had some mental deficiency, but his brother had gone to World War I, and he left on the train. And Bob could Bob when the trains were running, this gentleman would meet every train, thinking that his brother would be there. This was the way that they went to Tulsa. This was the train, the train was the lifeline for towns and towns that received trains, and train access grew. Those that didn't, really, pretty well failed, or at least were minimized. 
 ; 
 ; Regan Siler 08:59
 ; So, who owned the depot at the time?
 ; Kell was practicing law with Joe Sam Vassar and Harry McMillan in Bristow. Bob asked Kell to speak to the Class of 1940 during their 40th reunion. After that, Bob involved Kell in his many ventures to give back to the Bristow community. Bob started The Bristow Historical Society and designated Kell as the president. The train depot was owned by Burlington Northern. They were tearing down depots across the state. Bob put up a fight and eventually with the help of Kell's neighbor, Bill Farha, Sr. the depot was purchased for $1. Bob Chadderdon ; Joe Sam Vassar ; Harry McMillan ; World War I ; Tulsa (Okla.) ; Burlington Northern Inc. ; Joe Ihle ; Francis Hayhurst ; Main Street ; Bristow Historical Society ; Bill Farha, Sr. ; Senator ; Mary Farha ; Governor ; David Boren Saving the Depot 0 1180 Renovating the Depot Kell Kelly 19:40
 ; And, so, after that, why, it was no holds barred, Bob went full bore into the campaign to sell bricks with people's names on them. They and raised money in all kinds of different ways.
 ; 
 ; Regan Siler 19:56
 ; Do you remember what year that was that the depot the actual renovation of the depot began?
 ; 
 ; Kell Kelly 20:02
 ; I don't really remember, you know, it was in the early 80s.
 ; 
 ; Regan Siler 20:05
 ; Okay.
 ; 
 ; Kell Kelly 20:07
 ; But working for Bob was a full time job. Once in a while, I'd get to practice law, but he had great vision. And if you go look at it today, it's beautiful. His his idea of doing many of the things that that have been done down there are somewhat elaborate, I think, and sometimes maybe a little difficult for a little town to afford. But, through the good work of the, continued work of the Bristow Historical Society, why, they've been able to renovate that and do that as as you most people know, that there is a an area that, not sure exactly what to call it, but it comes off of Main Street and it's open. It's an area that 
 ; After the train depot was purchased, the big job of renovating began. It began in the early 1980's. Bob had a vision and was even later honored at a ceremony when Mayor Washington was serving. Others have helped preserve Bristow history over the years. Kell mentions the great work that the Trigalets now do for the Historical Society. Bob Chadderdon ; Bristow Historical Society ; Town Square ; Mayor Washington ; Christmas ; Francis Hayhurst ; Chrysler Tower ; Main Street ; Joe Trigalet ; Linda Trigalet ; Route 66 ; Tulsa (Okla.) ; Yale College ; Tommy Thompson ; Calvin Foster ; Navy Renovating the Depot 0 1679 Wisdom Regan Siler 27:59
 ; Well, I know just in the time that I've been managing the oral histories, whether it's been working on old ones or the new ones that I've done, I have learned so much about Bristow's rich history, and it has a very interesting history, and it's really gotten me excited to be more involved with the Historical Society. And you know, we always hope that by doing this, and you know, getting it out to the public, that it'll get them excited and to appreciate and to give back also. And you know, we have so many people from all over the country that visit the depot, and you really just want your even your hometown people to appreciate it and love it as much as we do.
 ; 
 ; Kell Kelly 28:48
 ; Well, I agree with that. And any time that you lose, in this case, the depot, I mean, once it's gone, stories are gone. Once it's gone, there's not the place that has the ingrained history to to locate all of the historical documents and and items that that the Historical Society has has put in place. You know, you had so many different people that came through that depot. You know, you had Gene Autry was, was the station master for a while. And you have, you know, Woody Guthrie, just down the road in Okemah, who obviously passed through this area regularly. All of those things, I think, are, are small, small bits of heritage for this area. And you know, one of the things that I have always found to be very accurate, and that is my late uncle, Tracy had on his desk a painted rock and it said, bloom where you're planted. And you'll see that that is also a slogan that's over my desk, because I believe we never know really. Life gives you twists and turns, and you're never really quite sure where you're going to be or what you're going to be responsible for, but whatever that may be, bloom where you're planted. And I think if people can take that as a, as a, as really a watch word phrase, as opposed to just just ignoring it, I think there'll be a lot, lot better, because sometimes where you're planted is where you're supposed to prosper and where you're supposed to contribute. And that, I think, is one of the most important things we can take from, from everything here. I mean, Bristow, the center of the country. It's not New York, it's not Rockefeller Center, and and, you know, that's where, where Bob was. If I said it is Rockefeller Center. I hope I said that, but he took great pride in that address, by the way.
 ; Kell finishes the interview with some words of wisdom. He says to do your work well and to try to make a place better for others. Kell says that you can't control what happens to you, but you can control how you respond. He says to try to make the most of setbacks because everyone has them. Wisdom ; Gene Autry ; Woody Guthrie ; Okemah (Okla.) ; Tracy Kelly ; New York ; Rockefeller Center ; Bob Chadderdon ; Bristow (Okla.) Wisdom 0 MP4 Kell Kelly talks about his role in saving the Bristow Train Depot. Kell, born in Tulsa on November 21, 1954, shares his family history, including his grandfather Albert Kelly's arrival in Bristow in 1902 and his father's service in World War II. Kell recounts how Bob Chadderdon, a wealthy philanthropist, led efforts to preserve the depot, which was owned by Burlington Northern and in disrepair. Despite initial resistance, they acquired the depot for $1 and raised funds for its renovation. The depot now serves as a historical centerpiece, reflecting Bristow's heritage and the vision of the Greatest Generation. NOTE TRANSCRIPTION BEGIN 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:21.660 This is Regan Siler with the Bristow Historical Society in Bristow, Oklahoma. This interview is part of the Historical Society's ongoing oral history project. The date is June 20, 2025 and I'm sitting here with Kell Kelly at the Bristow Library Annex. He's going to tell us about how he helped save the Bristow Train Depot. Can you please state your full name? 00:00:21.660 --> 00:00:25.484 Sure. My full name is Albert Charles Kelly, Jr. 00:00:25.484 --> 00:00:26.864 Okay, and you go by Kell, right? 00:00:26.864 --> 00:00:28.239 Everyone goes, calls me Kell. 00:00:28.239 --> 00:00:31.300 Okay. And do I have permission to record this interview? 00:00:31.300 --> 00:00:32.259 You do. 00:00:32.259 --> 00:00:36.840 Okay, um, can you tell me when and where you were born? 00:00:36.840 --> 00:00:51.479 Yes. I was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in November the 21st of 1954. I was brought back to a house out in the country that was Wild Horse Prairie, still known as Wild Horse Prairie, which is north of Bristow. 00:00:51.479 --> 00:01:04.000 Okay, and I want to ask, I know today we mainly want to focus on saving the depot, but I would also like to touch on your family. Can you tell me their full names and dates of birth, if you have that. 00:01:04.000 --> 00:01:05.079 How many family members would you like me to tell you about? 00:01:05.079 --> 00:01:08.799 Well, just your parents, sorry! 00:01:08.799 --> 00:01:11.319 Well, I'll go back one generation before that, if possible. 00:01:11.319 --> 00:01:11.840 Oh, sure. 00:01:11.840 --> 00:02:47.060 My grandfather, Albert Kelly, came to Bristow in 1902. He came in a wagon and brought two of his sisters from Kansas. He had a third grade education, and he came here to farm. He was a farmer. So, he started his his agricultural effort out near the where the airport is now, and began his farming career. Over the years, why he prospered and did pretty well. And somewhere around the early 1920s, why, a lady came to Bristow to start a hospital. And that was my grandmother, whose name was Dorcas [Dorcas B. Kelly]. And Dorcas did start a hospital and, ultimately, ended up treating my grandfather for something. And these people who had neither ever been married, but had a 25 year age difference between them, got married my grandfather at at 47 and my grandmother at 25 or 22, if I'm doing math correctly. They had five sons over 19 years, and my dad was the oldest one. So, that kind of gives you a brief background of of the family. I could go into a lot more detail than that, if you'd like. I, also, will address since you asked my name, my my name, everyone called me Albert, but then they called me Little Albert. And my mother was so concerned that I would be this age and people would be looking for Little Albert, so she came up with a nickname, Kell, and it just stuck. And as much as you try to get away from it, wherever you travel, that's where it sticks. 00:02:47.060 --> 00:02:52.060 How interesting! And then, so tell me about your parents. What their names are. 00:02:52.060 --> 00:03:39.669 My mother was from western Kansas. Her name was Katherine, and she, her father, Charles, started the first hospital in Garden City, Kansas. And so she was in and around Garden City, Kansas through her teenage years. My father was a, graduated from Bristow High School and the Class of 1940, which I'll get to in a minute. And he attended Harvard College in in Boston, in Cambridge, and through, he attended that, obviously, in the fall of 1940 because World War II fell in at that time, they graduated him early. So, his class graduated in 1943 and he went into the Navy and, ultimately, into the submarines. And was very emotional for him the rest of his life, because I think he had survivor's guilt from all of his friends that never came back. 00:03:39.669 --> 00:03:41.120 Greatest Generation. 00:03:41.120 --> 00:03:56.900 Oh yeah, Lots of great stories about them. And really, 1940 the Class of 1940 was pretty much the greatest class. 00:03:56.900 --> 00:04:05.719 I read somewhere though they were the most philanthropic or generous class for the community of Bristow. 00:04:05.719 --> 00:04:27.125 As far as I know, there could be someone else, but as far as I know, the last member of the Class of 1940 still living is Joe Ihle. So, Joe is a pecan producer here, and he's 102 years old, and he and my father were great friends and and, so I really regard Joe highly and and amazed at him. 00:04:27.125 --> 00:04:29.870 Yes. So, your dad's name was 00:04:29.870 --> 00:04:31.660 Albert Charles Kelly, Sr. 00:04:31.660 --> 00:04:35.680 Okay, and I have his birth date as 12/28/1922. Does that sound? 00:04:35.680 --> 00:04:36.699 That is correct? 00:04:36.699 --> 00:04:39.480 Okay. And then what was your mother's name? 00:04:39.480 --> 00:04:44.579 Katherine McGee Rewerts. R, E, W, E, R, T, S. 00:04:44.579 --> 00:04:48.660 Okay, and I have her birth date 11/17/1918. 00:04:48.660 --> 00:04:49.199 That's correct. 00:04:49.199 --> 00:04:58.199 Okay, alright, um, so then your family has been in the Bristow area for since the what the 20? 00:04:58.199 --> 00:04:59.339 Since 1902. 00:04:59.339 --> 00:05:00.060 1902. 00:05:00.060 --> 00:05:01.379 When my grandfather got here. 00:05:01.379 --> 00:05:23.620 Oh yeah, okay, all right. Well, let's talk about the depot. We want to, we know you were instrumental in helping save the depot, and I would kind of like to hear your perspective on that, so you just, I guess, start from the beginning. 00:05:23.620 --> 00:07:39.019 Well, the beginning of the depot can't begin without involving the late Bob Chadderdon. Bob was a remarkable fellow. He'd been a fighter pilot in World War II in Europe, and had left Bristow at some point after that with $50 in his pocket that his friend Paul Joseph had loaned him, and he made his way to New York and became successful in the international trade of heavy oil and gas machinery at a time when they were discovering that the Middle East and other places had lots of stores of oil. And so Bob and his determined manner jumped right in. He was proud of the fact that he had the address on on in Washington, excuse me, in New York, that was One Carnegie Center. So, he was, he was right on the, he was right in the middle of New York and Times Square and every place else. Along about 1980, Bob and his wealth transferred back to Bristow. He wanted to always come back to Bristow, and he became almost a one man philanthropy store. However, he was never satisfied with with doing it by himself, and so he drug everybody into it that he possibly can. My father had already passed away, and so somehow he focused on on me to be his kind of his his guy, his monkey boy, to do whatever he would tell me to do. I'd come back to Bristow when I was practicing law with Joe Sam Vassar and Harry McMillan. And Bob had asked me to speak to the Class of 40 that was having its 40th reunion in 1980, and so I did. And from that point on, he would involve me in all of his many, many ventures that he wanted to give back to Bristow. 00:07:39.019 --> 00:07:50.500 Do you know how, what, where he came up with the, I mean, like, where, where did it, how did the idea come up that he wanted to save the depot and preserve it for Bristow? 00:07:50.500 --> 00:08:59.514 Well, I think the idea came up that when you would drive down the streets in Bristow, why Bob would, Bob would be able to tell you who lived there in 1930. And, so, those he had the, he had the great desire to try and convey to the next generations what Bristow had been, what Bristow had evolved to, but at the same time, with an eye to what, what, who those that came before. He used to talk about one gentleman, as he said, he met every train, because his brother had gone to World War I, and he was this was a gentleman that had had some mental deficiency, but his brother had gone to World War I, and he left on the train. And Bob could Bob when the trains were running, this gentleman would meet every train, thinking that his brother would be there. This was the way that they went to Tulsa. This was the train, the train was the lifeline for towns and towns that received trains, and train access grew. Those that didn't, really, pretty well failed, or at least were minimized. 00:08:59.514 --> 00:09:01.899 So, who owned the depot at the time? 00:09:01.899 --> 00:10:11.575 At the time the depot, at the time that we embarked upon this, why, the depot was owned by Burlington, Northern. And Bob had a tenacity that all of those Greatest Generation people had. My dad, Joe Ihle, Bob, really any of those people that you have ever encountered, they had already gone through the worst that they could go through. They'd already gone through watching their friends pass away. They'd already gone through loss. They'd already gone through leaving their Bristow and never thinking they'd come back. And, so, their friends images were very much in there, very much with them all the time, but also what they result, what that resulted in is nothing really scared him. They'd seen the worst of the worst, and it didn't matter what it was. Nothing scared them. They were willing to take any venture. And, so, when Bob would come tell you that he had some great idea, you would tell, you would say, tell it to yourself, well, I can't be a part of that. And while your head was was shaking, no, why, you'd go, of course, Bob, I'll do whatever you want me to do. And that happened more times than I can tell you. 00:10:11.575 --> 00:10:11.899 Right. 00:10:11.899 --> 00:11:13.000 But he embarked on the park. He put it in four stages. Joe Ihle was the was the principal person on that. You know, Bob would bring in the his Class of '40 classmates as often as he could, Francis Hayhurst, he always reminded me, was president of the class, and Francis was a gracious man. But Bob built a pretty good amount of money that he put together both for the park, and we did it in four stages, and it's still remarkably beautiful. It's been remarkably well done. He had the class of 1940 Scholarship Fund, which he would interview kids and, invariably, give away a lot more money than, probably, was in the fund that day. But, he believed in in the youth, and he believed in in heritage. He looked both ways. He looked back and said, people need to know why these things happen and how this was, and people need to look ahead. And, so, one of the things that he wanted to have was not just a main street renovation, but he wanted to have the the depot as a centerpiece. 00:11:13.000 --> 00:11:13.051 Yes ma'am. 00:11:13.051 --> 00:11:13.360 Was it, was it in, was there a threat of it being torn down? Do I remember that correctly? 00:11:13.360 --> 00:11:14.559 Okay. 00:11:14.559 --> 00:11:26.860 Burlington Northern, there had been an appeal by 00:11:26.860 --> 00:11:28.960 And I may be jumping ahead in the story, I don't know. 00:11:28.960 --> 00:11:45.000 No, you're not. There had been an appeal by some folks in the city. I don't, I don't recall exactly who, to try and preserve the depot. The Burlington Northern was tearing down depots at that time across the, across the state. 00:11:45.000 --> 00:11:48.120 Just because they didn't want them anymore or were they in disrepair? 00:11:48.120 --> 00:11:55.080 They had no use for them. They weren't, they were not in the passenger train business. 00:11:55.080 --> 00:11:55.539 Okay. 00:11:55.539 --> 00:16:31.000 And they had no use for those. So, Bristow's was allowed to become very dilapidated. Had a good, a good population of pigeons and other birds. It was not, it was not well taken care of at all. It wasn't taken care of period. And, so, that was their plan of letting it get to a place where it wasn't really going to be too much of a loss to lose this supposed eyesore. They, the idea was that, at one time, just as I talked about the fellow that met all the trains, why, the depot was the place you departed from. The depot was a place that you came back from, or came back to. And, so, you know, there, there were, immediately people would gravitate up to Main Street, which is a block away. And that was how a lot of commerce, a lot of citizens, a lot of people came. There were, there were some modest hotels that surrounded that area. And, so, lots of lots of memories and lots of commerce. Bob felt like you could make the depot something that would be historically very good, and so he started the Historical Society on his own and designated me as the president, which, of course, I was saying, no, Bob, I don't think I'll do that, but I couldn't get those words up. So, I said, yes, of course. And, so, that's kind of how the Historical Society was, was started. And then we had a lot of, we had a lot of ladies that were vintage 1940 Class of '40, Class of '35, Class of '44 all that really took, took to a lot of the work trying to trying to make Bob's dream a reality. So, as he worked on the park, why, he also worked on the on the depot. And the one problem we had with the depot was that we didn't own it. One day, a backhoe showed up and took out half of the half of the platform. And, so, that was, again, the idea of gradual, gradual deterioration and ultimate knocking it down. So, Bob and his in it in a way, found out, inevitable way, found out that there was a gentleman in Tulsa who somewhat ran the the depot, depot decisions or whatever. And, so, he got a got us meeting with that and with that gentleman. And, once again, I accompanied, accompanied him up there. And I learned that day of a Chadderdon strategy that I violated, which was, you stay in the room until you get your way. But, this guy was really, he was a big fellow, and he was really fairly obnoxious, saying there's no, no way you're going to get this thing. We're going to tear it down. And he would be very explicit in the fact that he wanted to, us to understand that we lost by just by being involved, we've lost. And so, you know, I eventually, in my youth, got angry and told Bob, let's get out of here. And Bob would, would, would continue to defer. And, eventually, he left with me and, and the lesson that he gave me that day, he says, you stay long enough you're going to win this argument. Which I thought was fairly absurd, but I accepted it. And, so, we were, we were faced with the only thing we could do, which was to file an injunction, or ask for an injunction so that they not tear down the depot. So, the city approved that we could file it in my, in my youth of lawyering, why, I actually filed that, I think I filed it on behalf of the city, if I'm remembering correctly. But I was the only one that, you know, I was only operative, so to speak, once again, doing what Bob had suggested. And, so, we kept that, we preserved the depot because they couldn't get around the injunction. However, that injunction was not going to ripen into a permanent injunction. It was a temporary injunction, and because it was Burlington Northern's property, and because we could not show a true interest, other than a an interest of preserving heritage, that didn't that did not counter the ownership interest that Burlington Northern had. So, we while we preserved it for quite some time, as the city attorney then told me, he said, you know, you're going to run out of time. You're, you're, you're not going to be able to do this and keep this forever. 00:16:31.000 --> 00:16:40.080 Do you think the guy was just being obstinate? Because it seems like if there was an interested party and wanting to buy it, that they would be willing to sell it. 00:16:40.080 --> 00:19:19.410 His mission was to get rid of the depots that were not functional anymore, which were most of them. And he was a good company man, and that was what he is, that's what he was going to do. They didn't want the liability that they thought might attach to that. And that was a decision that, I assume, was made at the company board level. Um, so we sort of knew we were backed up against the wall, and we didn't know that we had too much leeway left. At the time, I was living on Sixth Street, and one of my neighbors was a guy by the name of Bill Farha, Sr. Bill was a was a character known far and wide by by many. I would regularly see the either the governor's car or the governor's, a governor wannabes car or the Senator's car, or Senator wannabes car sitting next door because they wanted to come, they wanted to come visit Bill and and Mary and see you know what wisdom they could could give him, and what support and this sort of thing. And, so, he was a generally wonderful man, wonderful person to live next to. Was always a character. Gave my children money for me to take him to to the ice cream store even when it was dinner time. And he enjoyed that, that sort of, that sort of jocularity. But one of the, one of the frequent stops that was there was a was Senator Boren, and when Bob heard about this, because, excuse me, when Bill heard about it from talking with Bob, why, Bill went to a little bit of back channeling and work, which, of course, worked in those days and still works in these days. But, David Boren either served on the board of Burlington Northern or was very close to the people that served on the board. I really never went back and researched that. But once Bill got Senator Boren involved, while nothing outwardly happened, I got a call from the big guy that we had met with one afternoon, and I could tell his teeth were clenched. I could tell he was, he was less than happy, and in his clenched teeth, he said, I'll sell you that depot for $1 and get the paperwork ready. And, so, we cut a check for $1 and we got the paperwork ready, and that's how we got the depot. 00:19:19.410 --> 00:19:20.000 Wow! 00:19:20.000 --> 00:19:40.339 And, so, of course, Bob claimed victory because he knew we were going to win all the time. He just didn't know how. But that was how we were able to get the depot. We delayed it with the litigation. We did about everything but lay down the old fashioned logs in the road to stop the train, 00:19:40.339 --> 00:19:40.759 Right. 00:19:40.759 --> 00:19:56.404 And, so, after that, why, it was no holds barred, Bob went full bore into the campaign to sell bricks with people's names on them. They and raised money in all kinds of different ways. 00:19:56.404 --> 00:20:02.525 Do you remember what year that was that the depot the actual renovation of the depot began? 00:20:02.525 --> 00:20:05.285 I don't really remember, you know, it was in the early 80s. 00:20:05.285 --> 00:20:07.400 Okay. 00:20:07.400 --> 00:20:51.424 But working for Bob was a full time job. Once in a while, I'd get to practice law, but he had great vision. And if you go look at it today, it's beautiful. His his idea of doing many of the things that that have been done down there are somewhat elaborate, I think, and sometimes maybe a little difficult for a little town to afford. But, through the good work of the, continued work of the Bristow Historical Society, why, they've been able to renovate that and do that as as you most people know, that there is a an area that, not sure exactly what to call it, but it comes off of Main Street and it's open. It's an area that 00:20:51.424 --> 00:20:52.240 The town square? 00:20:52.240 --> 00:22:33.519 Yes, it's the town square, but you come off of Main Street, walk through what was a building, Bob had, has a very elaborate roof on that. And then you come down and overlook the, overlook the depot, and there are steps there. Bob used to call those the steps to nowhere, meaning that it was going to be up to another generation to build from the steps to the depot. And under Mayor Washington, why, that was done, and they had a ceremony that honored Bob that night, which was a night of, it was around Christmas time. And there was a nice, it was a nice tribute to the fact that his vision, and I'm sure that many others had, had become a reality. And so, today, the depot is used by the historical society. It is a place of a lot of activity and a lot of things that reflect on Bristow's history. So, were he able to communicate with us, he would be pleased about that, and he would, also, obviously say, I told you, so if you just stay in that meeting long enough, why, you're going to be just fine. So, but anyway, lots of fond memories, and lots of fond memories of of that class, especially since my dad was in that, why, working with Joe and working with Bob and Francis Hayhurst and others, really was enriching to me and gave me something that I wouldn't otherwise have. And, and those, those, all those gentlemen and ladies, became very, very dear to me. And, so, I'm glad that I was able to function a little bit to to achieve their dream. 00:22:33.519 --> 00:22:33.900 Right. 00:22:33.900 --> 00:23:39.200 And leave something for the next generations to come, and certainly, the Historical Society today that's preserving that just as they tried, just as they're moving the Chrysler Tower to Main Street and other things. I mean, they're, they're well, they're very well, well administered, and just doing a super job. And other places in town, such as Bristow, I think would would do anything to have that type of an administrator over, not just the depot, but over the history of the town, and trying to continually bring that back. The Trigalets do great work. They've been, Joe's been involved in Route 66, which is the anniversary, 100th anniversary, of Highway 66, and I think that's helped Bristow greatly. I want to note that my contribution has been that my half of the class made Joe Trigalet, who went to high school with me, made his top half of the class possible. 00:23:39.200 --> 00:23:51.799 Well, you know, I love the Trigalets, and I think they've done a fantastic job, and I've enjoyed working with them, and very thankful that they have preserved the depot and moved it forward. 00:23:51.799 --> 00:23:53.299 Sure. It's great. 00:23:53.299 --> 00:24:08.319 So, I had also heard that there, and this was coming from Joe, that there was in the midst of all of this, that there was a Yale educated attorney, maybe, that said he'd gotten "hometowned". I don't know. Do you recall that? 00:24:08.319 --> 00:24:38.484 I really don't, but it was possible we did. We, I mean, we, we were able to take every favorable disposition that we might have, we might have encountered, as far as the depot is concerned, and when we did that in the court of law, we certainly never objected to a judge that sided with us and gave gave us more time. 00:24:38.484 --> 00:24:38.845 Yeah. 00:24:38.845 --> 00:24:59.920 The problem is, we got the short term. We couldn't have gotten the long term through, the through the court. And I don't want it to seem that we, in any way, or doing anything where the judges were doing anything that was incorrect. They just have to rule one way or the other. And you know, sometimes those Tulsa attorneys don't think they should lose in small towns. Matters not if you lose. You always say you're hometowned. 00:24:59.920 --> 00:25:17.000 Right, right, right. Well, is there anything else that you can think of that would be an interesting add to, I guess, you know, the contributions from Bob or some of the other Class of '40, or even you and your family? 00:25:17.000 --> 00:27:59.140 Oh, well, I mean, I think you always try to put back. And I think that the the efforts that culminated in the Class of '40, which were, which received wide support from other classes, I think that that was predicated upon generosity and also predicated upon a view of the future. If you, if you hold these folks up to be reflective of what happens historically, oftentimes that gets you in a situation where you you can understand the future, maybe, a little bit better. I know that, I know that we had, Bristow is fortunate at this time to have another, what I would call Bob Chadderdon aficionado, and in Tommy Thompson. And Tommy was a counselor at the school for a number of years, and really worked hand in glove trying to promote the same thing that Bob tried to promote, which was education. Get out of Bristow, go get your good education. If you come back, come back. And he was instrumental, I know, in pushing several kids into the service academies, one of whom, Calvin Foster is an admiral today in the Navy in charge of an enormous cadre of ships and people. They've, I think, you could go down the list of people from Bristow that have had the opportunity to go out and make something of themselves and of the world. And some of them may have have done nothing more than go be very successful welders or be very successful truck drivers. Those are everything is just as important as anything else. And it's not a matter of, it's not a matter of a particular position or affluence. It's a matter of contribution and and living a life that contributes to your to the to the good of the whole. And I think that's what that's what was recognized. That's one of the things that if you look back through those, those that 1940 class log, you'll see people that that were highly regarded, that didn't survive the war. But yet their friends did, and their friends took a special meaning in trying to take that spark that had been their friend forward in in by what's reflected in the works that they did. And I think that was part of what was trying to be passed on, hopefully, was passed on, that your work as an individual, whatever it is, do your work well and try to try to make a place better for others. And that's that's the I think that was reflected in everything that was done at that time. 00:27:59.140 --> 00:28:48.740 Well, I know just in the time that I've been managing the oral histories, whether it's been working on old ones or the new ones that I've done, I have learned so much about Bristow's rich history, and it has a very interesting history, and it's really gotten me excited to be more involved with the Historical Society. And you know, we always hope that by doing this, and you know, getting it out to the public, that it'll get them excited and to appreciate and to give back also. And you know, we have so many people from all over the country that visit the depot, and you really just want your even your hometown people to appreciate it and love it as much as we do. 00:28:48.740 --> 00:30:47.345 Well, I agree with that. And any time that you lose, in this case, the depot, I mean, once it's gone, stories are gone. Once it's gone, there's not the place that has the ingrained history to to locate all of the historical documents and and items that that the Historical Society has has put in place. You know, you had so many different people that came through that depot. You know, you had Gene Autry was, was the station master for a while. And you have, you know, Woody Guthrie, just down the road in Okemah, who obviously passed through this area regularly. All of those things, I think, are, are small, small bits of heritage for this area. And you know, one of the things that I have always found to be very accurate, and that is my late uncle, Tracy had on his desk a painted rock and it said, bloom where you're planted. And you'll see that that is also a slogan that's over my desk, because I believe we never know really. Life gives you twists and turns, and you're never really quite sure where you're going to be or what you're going to be responsible for, but whatever that may be, bloom where you're planted. And I think if people can take that as a, as a, as really a watch word phrase, as opposed to just just ignoring it, I think there'll be a lot, lot better, because sometimes where you're planted is where you're supposed to prosper and where you're supposed to contribute. And that, I think, is one of the most important things we can take from, from everything here. I mean, Bristow, the center of the country. It's not New York, it's not Rockefeller Center, and and, you know, that's where, where Bob was. If I said it is Rockefeller Center. I hope I said that, but he took great pride in that address, by the way. 00:30:47.345 --> 00:30:58.565 Well, it's funny, because I was gonna, my final question I was gonna ask you was, if you had any wisdom you would like to leave or share for future generations, but I think you've kind of just answered that. I like that. 00:30:58.565 --> 00:31:24.650 Yeah, I think that's what I would say, you know you you can't control, necessarily, what happens to you, and you can't control, necessarily, the environment that it happens to you in, but you can control how you respond and how you, how you try to make the most out of, out of a setback or an unexpected relocation, or things such as that. Everybody's going to have those. 00:31:24.650 --> 00:31:36.275 Yes, well, your interview will become an important part of our oral history Archives for the museum. Thank you for your time talking with us and thank you for sharing your recollection of saving the depot. 00:31:36.275 --> 00:31:38.275 You're welcome. Thank you. NOTE TRANSCRIPTION END ]]> video 0 https://bristoworalhistory.org/ohms/render.php?cachefile=OHP-0073_Kell_Kelly.xml OHP-0073_Kell_Kelly.xml
Dublin Core
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Title
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Albert "Kell" Kelly
Description
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Kell Kelly talks about his role in saving the Bristow Train Depot. Kell, born in Tulsa on November 21, 1954, shares his family history, including his grandfather Albert Kelly's arrival in Bristow in 1902 and his father's service in World War II. Kell recounts how Bob Chadderdon, a wealthy philanthropist, led efforts to preserve the depot, which was owned by Burlington Northern and in disrepair. Despite initial resistance, they acquired the depot for $1 and raised funds for its renovation. The depot now serves as a historical centerpiece, reflecting Bristow's heritage and the vision of the Greatest Generation.
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OHP-0073
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2025-06-20
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video
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https://bristoworalhistory.org/files/original/9cbb03a573f6143ed5dc2bb7a461e19e.jpg
42afb2ca62598ebdc34e04b11f114f1a
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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/.
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Video Histories
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Video with transcript
Oral History
A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge.
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Viewer)
https://bristoworalhistory.org/ohms/viewer.php?cachefile=OHP_0002_V_1959_Bristow_Here_We_Live.xml
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5.4 Unknown Date OHP-0002-V 'Bristow Here We Live' OHP-0002-V 00:28:48 'Bristow Historical Society-Oral History Archive' Bristow Historical Society, Inc. m4v 1:|44(3)|64(2)|86(3)|101(8)|126(2)|144(1)|144(2)|144(3)|144(4)|146(11)|164(1)|196(1)|196(2)|198(40)|230(4)|233(1)|233(2)|255(7)|288(2)|312(32)|326(1)|354(4)|362(1)|362(2)|389(5)|391(24)|412(18)|423(2) 0 https://bristoworalhistory.org/interviews/OHP-0002-V 1959 Bristow Here We Live.m4v Other video 154 Mr. Arthur Foster-Community State Bank H: [indecipherable] Hugh H: Thank you H: Mr. Arthur Foster started with the Community State Bank in 1927 running errands, and when were you made president Mr. Foster? AF: 1954 H: And we have an old time resident here who is quite young uh in ideas maybe a little old in years but Mrs. Groom how long have you been in Bristow and do you mind telling us your age? MG: No, I’m 84 and I’m still running the hardware and furniture store and when I get old I shall retire. H: (laughter) Mr. Foster do you think you’ll make 84 years? I don’t know whether I ever will. AF: I don’t know ether, but I sure hope so. H: I sure hope I’m this young and spry when I’m 84 I’ll tell you that. AF: Well I always hoped so, Mrs. Groom was my neighbor and I always hoped that I could have the speed that she has and then the outlook on life that she has when I’m half that old. H: Well both of you have seen a lot of Bristow. How has the growth of Bristow compared uh this past 10 years compared to the recent 10 years? AF: In the last 10 years Bristow has grown in the way of uh housing and the volume of business has grown, the dollar volume has increased quite a bit. H: Both of the banks here have grown along with it Arthur Foster ; Community State Bank ; Mrs. Groom 257 Moe Einstein-Chamber of Commerce H: Moe Einstein is a transplanted Texan ; he came to Bristow some 10 years ago. This year was honored as president of the Chamber of Commerce. Moe, what caused you to come to Bristow, Oklahoma? ME: I married a Bristow girl and Oklahoma is my home now. H: Well that’s wonderful, you’ve uh certainly over the past 10 years done very well here and this year being honored as president of the Chamber of Commerce. Let’s talk a little but now about the aims of the chamber this year ME: Well we have a progressive little town here. We have some wonderful people, friendly people, we have good industrial sites. We’re trying to get industry to come to Bristow, and we’re succeeding in getting industry to come to Bristow. We feel Bristow is the hub of eastern Oklahoma roadways, we have the turnpike, we have Highway 66, 48, 27, in other words we can go North, South, East or West. H: Now a few years ago, Bristow was one of the cities, and there were many, that felt the turnpike might almost put them completely out of business. Has that happened? ME: No Hugh it hasn’t. H: As a matter of fact, you’ve gone forward since the [indecipherable] ME: We have and we’re going to go forward more H: Well with men like you at the helm who have the future of Bristow at heart well I don’t see how it do anything but go forward. Chamber of Commerce ; Highway 27 ; Highway 48 ; Highway 66 ; Moe Einstein ; SprayLine Boat Manufacturing Company ; Turnpike 357 Virgil and Earl Griffen-Otasco H: Virgil and Earl Griffin literally grew up with Otasco. Virgil uh when did you first start to work for them? VG: In February 1938. H: And Earl when did you start? EG: June 39 I believe it was. H:Well you fellas have had quite a bit of experience with em. Actually Otasco closed this store down in what year? VG: Uh 42 due to the work conditions, (indecipherable), and manpower along with five other stores. H: And then a little later on you and Earl uh purchased the stores and associate stores. VG: That’s correct, 1947, we’ll be here 13 years in May. H: Now its unique in that you have two stores here in Bristow across the street from each other. VG: That’s right. H: And uh I understand you’re going however to put the entire Otasco line under one roof shortly. VG: Possibly in about 12 months. S: Well fine. Earl has it been a rewarding experience for you in the last 13 years? EG: It sure has. Earl Griffen ; Oklahoma Tire and Supply Store ; Otasco ; Virgil Griffen 565 Film-Fire Department, SprayLine Boats, and Police Department 697 Mr. H Cunningham-Cunningham Chevrolet H: [Indecipherable] Cunningham was a teacher and superintendent of schools for 21 years. 5 years ago he moved to Bristow from Beggs, Oklahoma and now has the Cunningham Chevrolet Company. Mr. Cunningham that’s quite a chance from school teaching to the automobile business. Uh what prompted you? MC: Uh my first interest was that we might gain finically and second that we might have something more stable that we wouldn’t have to move around as often as superintendent of schools would move and third we had two young boys coming along that we thought would be uh given them an opportunity to learn something other than just books. H: Mr. Cunningham how is the acceptance of the 1960 Chevrolet been? MC: Uh I feel that it has been the best of any car that we’ve ever had since I’ve been in the Chevrolet business, and I’ve been in for 10 years’ present time. H: Now uh you mentioned that many folks who drive the Chevrolet for the first time this year are amazed at the luxury ride they get, uh better than any previous car? MC: That’s right. If we can get them to take a ride in a Chevrolet and do uh the driving themselves, I’ll guarantee they’ll be satisfied with it. H: Fine, thank you. It looks like you’ve learned the automobile business quite well over the past few years. This is Glenn Cunningham, who has a famous name, and is a sophomore down at the University of Oklahoma. What are you studying down there Glenn? GC: I’m studying letters, which is comprised, its comprised of history, English and philosophy H: Preparatory to a possible teaching profession? GC: Correct or perhaps law. H: You’re also going out for the football team down there aren’t you? GC: Yes, sir. Cunningham Chevrolet ; Football ; Glenn Cunningham ; University of Oklahoma 817 Film-Office, Café and Hospital 963 Tom McAdams-McAdams Pipe and Supply Company H: Here in McAdams pipe and supply company in Bristow, Oklahoma we’re talking to Tom McAdams. Tom what kind of a machine is this? TM: This is a pipe threading machine with threads from five inch through eight inch. It is a Bignog Kitter machine with a tangent head on it, has the very latest in air chucks on it and has a tapered attachment on it. It’s the very latest type of pipe threading machine equipment. H: Tom this is one of three pipe threaders that you have isn’t it? TM: That is right. We can chop pipes from two inch through thirteen inch in these pipe machines. H: You have an additional [indecipherable] to the pipe threading machines here quite a supply to don’t you? TM: We have a general office supplies specializing in secondary [indecipherable] equipment primarily. We handle both new and used and reconditioned equipment. H: Now when did you start here in Bristow? TM: We came, we moved to Bristow in 1947. H: And uh how many stores do you have now? TM: We have four stores in Oklahoma, one store in Kansas. My dad and I are in business together here H: How many employees did you start with? TM: We had five employees tha- initially now we have approximately 50 employees. H: Boy that’s been quite a growth over 13 years hasn’t it? TM: That is right Kansas ; McAdams Pipe and Supply Company ; Pipe Threader ; Tom McAdams 1021 Film-Library and School Grounds 1114 Harold Sims-Bristow Superintendent H: Mr. Harold Sims has been the school teacher for 31 years. He has been in the system here in Bristow for how many years Mr. Sims? HS: Since 42 H: And you have been superintendent for the last 4 years? HS: Yes, sir. H: How many schools do you have under your jurisdiction? HS: We have three um well four of course. Two elementary schools, a junior high and a senior high school. H: And Mr. Sims what do you feel is the primary need in education circles today? HS: Well I, for Bristow schools our biggest need is to have more money and with which to employ uh teachers in special education field to take care of those marginal students who really should not be in the regular classrooms. H: It is unfair to them and to the student who are progressing uh in a normal way that they should be in that class isn’t that right? HS: That is right yes sir. H: And of course the big problem with specialized education is that it takes uh one teacher to about six or seven students HS: That’s right, yes sir. Elementary ; Harold Sims ; High School ; Junior High 1191 Mrs. Glaser-The Globe Store H: One of the pioneer stores here in Bristow is the Globe store. Mrs. Glaser(ph), your father founded this store didn’t he. MG: That’s right. H: What year? MG: In 1916 H: And then in 1920 you MG: When I got married in 1920 why we bought the store from my father H: And now you’re carrying on that tradition in that the co-owner is your son in law here, Moe, right? MG: That’s right. I hope so (laughter) H: Moe, you’re not only interested in the Globe store here but you’ve done a fine job with the Chamber of Commerce, your president of the chamber this year. You have a beautiful store and this is part of the modernization program isn’t it? ME: That’s correct. Yes, that’s correct, this is part of our faith and progress of Bristow H: Well fine, that’s just last August that you opened this remodeled store MG: Yes. Chamber of Commerce ; Globe Store ; Moe Einstein ; Mrs. Glaser 1259 R.L Rhodes-Bristow Mayor H: [Indecipherable] Rhodes has been mayor of Bristow for the past 11 months, prior to that time for 30 years he was with the Deep Rock Oil Company as superintendent of pipelines in this district. Mr. Rhodes what possessed you to run for mayor? MR: Well it was a lot of things that I figured need to be done in Bristow and I had quite a bit of time on my hand and I could make a full time mayor, something Bristow hadn’t had for years. I don’t know when there was a full time mayor for Bristow and we’re getting things done that uh need to be done. We got a bond issue coming up, we wanna get our streets fixed up and uh water system up to date and uh streets we need uh quite a bit of our streets down there and the water department both uh so good things to make time, save time and working, save labor. H: When did you first come to Bristow? MR: I came to Bristow in uh July the 19th 1914. H: What was your first job here? What did you do? MR: Well I get a look around and uh get acquainted with people, didn’t make it into this [indecipherable] where I stayed I just had a little grit with me and I had three shirts, one dirty one, one clean one and uh one on my back, that’s all I had. [Indecipherable] where I stopped and that was where I stayed all night. Deep Rock Oil Company ; Mayor ; R.L Rhodes 1365 Mr. and Mrs. Camp-Deep Rock Oil Company H: Mr. and Mrs. Camp started in the oil business in 1946 after being in the grocery business. Mrs. Camp, when did you take on the distribution of Deep Rock products? MC: In the fall of the 1956. H: You operate how many stations here in Bristow of your own? MC: Two H: And how many do you service approximately? MC: About 12 H: I understand Mr. Camp that you’re building another station, this one in Sapulpa. Is that right? MC: That’s right. H: When do you plan on opening that? MC: We’re gonna try to open it May the first. H: There was a trend a few years ago toward the 10-W-30 motor oil, it that still continuing? MC: Yes, uh to a great extent H: Does it take ; do you have a special type car normally which is best suited to that? MC: Well yes uh not necessarily but a car has got to be in good condition to uh that will require a 10-W-30 motor oil. Deep Rock Oil Company ; Mr. Camp ; Mrs. Camp 1398 Film-Churches 1502 E. Massey-Halliburton Oil Well Cementers H: Mr. Elide(ph) Massey(ph) has just reached superintendent at the Halliburton Oil Well Cementers in Bristow. Mr. Massey how many service points do you have around world? MM: We have about 282 service points in the United States and foreign countries. H: When was this one in Bristow established? MM: Um this camp was established in 1938. H: How many employees do you have here? MM: We have about 35 employees present time H: You have, you were telling me you have equipment in Russia, but do you have any men over there? MM: No, we don’t have any men over there. All of our equipment uh in countries uh like that, why we build equipment and sell it to them outright. H: But in other countries in the world you also have your men there don’t you? MM: We have men in practially all foreign countries. H: Mr. Massey I know that Bristow and talking to the folks here are very proud to have Halliburton Oil Well Cementers here as part of their community. MM: Well we are very happy to be part of the Bristow community H: Thank you very much. E. Massey ; Halliburton Oil Well Cementers ; Russia 1547 Film-Amphitheater, Pool, and Lake 1728 Ray Baker-B.F Goodrich H: We’re visiting with Mr. Ray Baker, of the B.F Goodrich store here in Bristow. Mr. Baker how long have you associated with Goodrich? RB: Since 1948 Hugh. H: How is the fourteen inch tire coming now, is it one of the most popular? RB: Its uh vastly uh taken over as your most popular tire its coming on your new automobiles, its original equipment on in low price field. H: What’s the advantage of it? RB: Uh, it lowers your frame of your automobile closer to the ground which gives the driver a better steering qualities and then also it gives you a little better ride. H: Are most tires low pressure tires these day? RB: Most tires uh what’s is uh comes on like a sound new automobiles are low pressure tires. Now you get into some of your commercial uh light equipment why uh they’re-they’re not low pressure, but even some of your uh half ton pickups coming out now are on low pressure tires which gives a little better ride even. H: What’s the most significant uh advancement you feel over the past 10 or 15 years as far as Goodrich is concerned? RB: Oh I definitely feel that the tubeless tire which is a first of B.F Goodrich has been uh has put our company on the map in the rubber business and all your other companies has followed the same trend. Appliances ; B.F Goodrich ; Ray Baker ; Tires Interviewer: Interviewee: Other Persons: Date of Interview: Location: Bristow, Creek County Oklahoma Transcriber: Riley Wilson Organization: Bristow Historical Society, Inc. Original Cassette Tape Location: Abstract: 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. H: [Indecipherable] Hugh H: Thank you H: Mr. Arthur Foster started with the Community State Bank in 1927 running errands, and when were you made president Mr. Foster? AF: 1954 H: And we have an old time resident here who is quite young uh in ideas maybe a little old in years but Mrs. Groom how long have you been in Bristow and do you mind telling us your age? MG: No, I' ; m 84 and I' ; m still running the hardware and furniture store and when I get old I shall retire. H: (laughter) Mr. Foster do you think you' ; ll make 84 years? I don' ; t know whether I ever will. AF: I don' ; t know ether, but I sure hope so. H: I sure hope I' ; m this young and spry when I' ; m 84 I' ; ll tell you that. AF: Well I always hoped so, Mrs. Groom was my neighbor and I always hoped that I could have the speed that she has and then the outlook on life that she has when I' ; m half that old. H: Well both of you have seen a lot of Bristow. How has the growth of Bristow compared uh this past 10 years compared to the recent 10 years? AF: In the last 10 years Bristow has grown in the way of uh housing and the volume of business has grown, the dollar volume has increased quite a bit. H: Both of the banks here have grown along with it AF: Both banks have increased their resources and uh have grown. H: Well Mr. Foster we want to thank you very much for allowing our here we live cameras to visit the Community State Bank in Bristow and it just so happened Mrs. Groom was here and we' ; re very happy for that to. Thank you very much AF: We' ; re happy to have you in town H: Thank you H: Moe Einstein is a transplanted Texan ; he came to Bristow some 10 years ago. This year was honored as president of the Chamber of Commerce. Moe, what caused you to come to Bristow, Oklahoma? ME: I married a Bristow girl and Oklahoma is my home now. H: Well that' ; s wonderful, you' ; ve uh certainly over the past 10 years done very well here and this year being honored as president of the Chamber of Commerce. Let' ; s talk a little but now about the aims of the chamber this year ME: Well we have a progressive little town here. We have some wonderful people, friendly people, we have good industrial sites. We' ; re trying to get industry to come to Bristow, and we' ; re succeeding in getting industry to come to Bristow. We feel Bristow is the hub of eastern Oklahoma roadways, we have the turnpike, we have Highway 66, 48, 27, in other words we can go North, South, East or West. H: Now a few years ago, Bristow was one of the cities, and there were many, that felt the turnpike might almost put them completely out of business. Has that happened? ME: No Hugh it hasn' ; t. H: As a matter of fact, you' ; ve gone forward since the [Indecipherable] ME: We have and we' ; re going to go forward more H: Well with men like you at the helm who have the future of Bristow at heart well I don' ; t see how it do anything but go forward. ME: No, we' ; ll-we' ; ll go forward. Uh we' ; re trying to get industry in and we' ; re succeeding at getting industry in as I said before. Last year we got SprayLine boat manufacturing company to locate here. Uh we have the industrial sites, we have the man power, we have the electricity, we have the water facilities, we have an industrial board. And we are gonna go forward. H: Fine, thank you very much. ME: Yes, thank you. H: Virgil and Earl Griffin literally grew up with Otasco. Virgil uh when did you first start to work for them? VG: In February 1938. H: And Earl when did you start? EG: June 39 I believe it was. H:Well you fellas have had quite a bit of experience with em. Actually Otasco closed this store down in what year? VG: Uh 42 due to the work conditions, [Indecipherable], and manpower along with five other stores. H: And then a little later on you and Earl uh purchased the stores and associate stores. VG: That' ; s correct, 1947, we' ; ll be here 13 years in May. H: Now its unique in that you have two stores here in Bristow across the street from each other. VG: That' ; s right. H: And uh I understand you' ; re going however to put the entire Otasco line under one roof shortly. VG: Possibly in about 12 months. S: Well fine. Earl has it been a rewarding experience for you in the last 13 years? EG: It sure has. H: Um, Virgil uh how about the associate store now uh do you feel that it offers a businessman the opportunity to be on his own and still be a part of an organization of buying? VG: Well I definitely do, I feel that uh it certainty eliminates you of a lot of salesman' ; s, and uh figuring out advertising promotions and after all they have a trained personnel to handle those things and knowing big in furniture business what that amounts to, it certainly uh well it' ; s just something you get in the average, ordinary store H: Fine. Thank you very much. Virgil and Earl Griffin, the co-owners of the associate store here in Bristow of the Oklahoma Tire and Supply Stores, Otasco. H: [Indecipherable] Cunningham was a teacher and superintendent of schools for 21 years. 5 years ago he moved to Bristow from Beggs, Oklahoma and now has the Cunningham Chevrolet Company. Mr. Cunningham that' ; s quite a chance from school teaching to the automobile business. Uh what prompted you? MC: Uh my first interest was that we might gain finically and second that we might have something more stable that we wouldn' ; t have to move around as often as superintendent of schools would move and third we had two young boys coming along that we thought would be uh given them an opportunity to learn something other than just books. H: Mr. Cunningham how is the acceptance of the 1960 Chevrolet been? MC: Uh I feel that it has been the best of any car that we' ; ve ever had since I' ; ve been in the Chevrolet business, and I' ; ve been in for 10 years' ; present time. H: Now uh you mentioned that many folks who drive the Chevrolet for the first time this year are amazed at the luxury ride they get, uh better than any previous car? MC: That' ; s right. If we can get them to take a ride in a Chevrolet and do uh the driving themselves, I' ; ll guarantee they' ; ll be satisfied with it. H: Fine, thank you. It looks like you' ; ve learned the automobile business quite well over the past few years. This is Glenn Cunningham, who has a famous name, and is a sophomore down at the University of Oklahoma. What are you studying down there Glenn? GC: I' ; m studying letters, which is comprised, its comprised of history, English and philosophy H: Preparatory to a possible teaching profession? GC: Correct or perhaps law. H: You' ; re also going out for the football team down there aren' ; t you? GC: Yes, sir. H: What do you think your changes are? Pretty confident? GC: Well it' ; s pretty tough, I hope to get a place on this next year. H: How does the squad look? GC: I think we look real well .H: [Indecipherable] What one more week before? GC: We have one more week before the varsity [Indecipherable] game H: Good luck Glen. Well we wanna wish you the best of luck down here [Indecipherable] GC: Thank you very much H: Mr. Cunningham we want to wish you the best of luck for many many more years here at Cunningham Chevrolet. MC: Thank you. People have been very nice to us here at Bristow. We appreciate the business we' ; ve had. H: Thank you H: Here in McAdams pipe and supply company in Bristow, Oklahoma we' ; re talking to Tom McAdams. Tom what kind of a machine is this? TM: This is a pipe threading machine with threads from five inch through eight inch. It is a [Indecipherable] machine with a tangent head on it, has the very latest in air chucks on it and has a tapered attachment on it. It' ; s the very latest type of pipe threading machine equipment. H: Tom this is one of three pipe threaders that you have isn' ; t it? TM: That is right. We can chop pipes from two inch through thirteen inch in these pipe machines. H: You have an additional [Indecipherable] to the pipe threading machines here quite a supply to don' ; t you? TM: We have a general office supplies specializing in secondary [Indecipherable] equipment primarily. We handle both new and used and reconditioned equipment. H: Now when did you start here in Bristow? TM: We came, we moved to Bristow in 1947. H: And uh how many stores do you have now? TM: We have four stores in Oklahoma, one store in Kansas. My dad and I are in business together here H: How many employees did you start with? TM: We had five employees tha- initially now we have approximately 50 employees. H: Boy that' ; s been quite a growth over 13 years hasn' ; t it? TM: That is right H: Well Tom uh we' ; ll look at some of the other operations, this is just one of the many operations that you have here in the McAdams Pipe and Supply Company isn' ; t it? TM: That is correct. We have pipe testing equipment, all kinds of general office supplies H: Thank you very much H: Mr. Harold Sims has been the school teacher for 31 years. He has been in the system here in Bristow for how many years Mr. Sims? HS: Since 42 H: And you have been superintendent for the last 4 years? HS: Yes, sir. H: How many schools do you have under your jurisdiction? HS: We have three um well four of course. Two elementary schools, a junior high and a senior high school. H: And Mr. Sims what do you feel is the primary need in education circles today? HS: Well I, for Bristow schools our biggest need is to have more money and with which to employ uh teachers in special education field to take care of those marginal students who really should not be in the regular classrooms. H: It is unfair to them and to the student who are progressing uh in a normal way that they should be in that class isn' ; t that right? HS: That is right yes sir. H: And of course the big problem with specialized education is that it takes uh one teacher to about six or seven students HS: That' ; s right, yes sir. H: And that becomes quite uh expensive, but it you find more students who have that problem today than 10 years ago don' ; t you? HS: Yes, we have been told um that that number is increasing and we think so by observing their own schools. H: Well Mr. Sims we certainly hope that in the future the population of this city and many cities throughout the nation will see fit to provide adequate financing for this specialized type of education because it certainly on the upsurge, there' ; s no question about that. HS: Right. H: Thank you very much. HS: Yes, sir. H: One of the pioneer stores here in Bristow is the Globe store. Mrs. Glaser(ph), your father founded this store didn' ; t he? MG: That' ; s right. H: What year? MG: In 1916 H: And then in 1920 you MG: When I got married in 1920 why we bought the store from my father H: And now you' ; re carrying on that tradition in that the co-owner is your son in law here, Moe, right? MG: That' ; s right. I hope so (laughter) H: Moe, you' ; re not only interested in the Globe store here but you' ; ve done a fine job with the Chamber of Commerce, your president of the chamber this year. You have a beautiful store and this is part of the modernization program isn' ; t it? ME: That' ; s correct. Yes, that' ; s correct, this is part of our faith and progress of Bristow H: Well fine, that' ; s just last August that you opened this remodeled store MG: Yes. H: And have you always been an exclusively ladies store? MG: No we weren' ; t, up until uh 1929 we weren' ; t. When we opened, we started in 1932 turning it into a ladies store, exclusively a ladies' ; store. H: You' ; ve certainly done a great job over the years MG: I think we have a beautiful store H: Yes, you certainly do. And folk may we suggest that you visit the Globe store here in Bristow, and visit with Mrs. Glaser and Moe here and all of the other fine folks. H: [Indecipherable] Rhodes has been mayor of Bristow for the past 11 months, prior to that time for 30 years he was with the Deep Rock Oil Company as superintendent of pipelines in this district. Mr. Rhodes what possessed you to run for mayor? MR: Well it was a lot of things that I figured need to be done in Bristow and I had quite a bit of time on my hand and I could make a full time mayor, something Bristow hadn' ; t had for years. I don' ; t know when there was a full time mayor for Bristow and we' ; re getting things done that uh need to be done. We got a bond issue coming up, we wanna get our streets fixed up and uh water system up to date and uh streets we need uh quite a bit of our streets down there and the water department both uh so good things to make time, save time and working, save labor. H: When did you first come to Bristow? MR: I came to Bristow in uh July the 19th 1914. H: What was your first job here? What did you do? MR: Well I get a look around and uh get acquainted with people, didn' ; t make it into this [Indecipherable] where I stayed I just had a little grit with me and I had three shirts, one dirty one, one clean one and uh one on my back, that' ; s all I had. [Indecipherable] where I stopped and that was where I stayed all night. H: Mr. and Mrs. Camp started in the oil business in 1946 after being in the grocery business. Mrs. Camp, when did you take on the distribution of Deep Rock products? MC: In the fall of the 1956. H: You operate how many stations here in Bristow of your own? MC: Two H: And how many do you service approximately? MC: About 12 H: I understand Mr. Camp that you' ; re building another station, this one in Sapulpa. Is that right? MC: That' ; s right. H: When do you plan on opening that? MC: We' ; re gonna try to open it May the first. H: There was a trend a few years ago toward the 10-W-30 motor oil, it that still continuing? MC: Yes, uh to a great extent H: Does it take ; do you have a special type car normally which is best suited to that? MC: Well yes uh not necessarily but a car has got to be in good condition to uh that will require a 10-W-30 motor oil. H: Now in the dead of Summer many people say I use 20 weight all year round actually they should use a about a 30 sometimes even a 40 weight shouldn' ; t they? MC: Well uh in heavier, heavy equipment, or heavy trucks it' ; d be uh that would be okay to use a heavier oil H: We wanna thank you very much Mr. and Mrs. Camp for visiting with us on " ; Here we Live" ; and you folks are in Bristow be sure and stop by at either of the two fine Deep Rock stations here or the new station soon to be open in Sapulpa. H: Mr. Elide(ph) Massey(ph) has just reached superintendent at the Halliburton Oil Well Cementers in Bristow. Mr. Massey how many service points do you have around world? MM: We have about 282 service points in the United States and foreign countries. H: When was this one in Bristow established? MM: Um this camp was established in 1938. H: How many employees do you have here? MM: We have about 35 employees present time H: You have, you were telling me you have equipment in Russia, but do you have any men over there? MM: No, we don' ; t have any men over there. All of our equipment uh in countries uh like that, why we build equipment and sell it to them outright. H: But in other countries in the world you also have your men there don' ; t you? MM: We have men in practically all foreign countries. H: Mr. Massey I know that Bristow and talking to the folks here are very proud to have Halliburton Oil Well Cementers here as part of their community. MM: Well we are very happy to be part of the Bristow community H: Thank you very much. H: We' ; re visiting with Mr. Ray Baker, of the B.F Goodrich store here in Bristow. Mr. Baker how long have you associated with Goodrich? RB: Since 1948 Hugh. H: How is the fourteen inch tire coming now, is it one of the most popular? RB: Its uh vastly uh taken over as your most popular tire its coming on your new automobiles, its original equipment on in low price field. H: What' ; s the advantage of it? RB: Uh, it lowers your frame of your automobile closer to the ground which gives the driver a better steering qualities and then also it gives you a little better ride. H: Are most tires low pressure tires these day? RB: Most tires uh what' ; s is uh comes on like a sound new automobiles are low pressure tires. Now you get into some of your commercial uh light equipment why uh they' ; re-they' ; re not low pressure, but even some of your uh half ton pickups coming out now are on low pressure tires which gives a little better ride even. H: What' ; s the most significant uh advancement you feel over the past 10 or 15 years as far as Goodrich is concerned? RB: Oh I definitely feel that the tubeless tire which is a first of B.F Goodrich has been uh has put our company on the map in the rubber business and all your other companies has followed the same trend. H: You' ; re selling a lot of nylon tires today? RB: The nylon are-is getting more and pop-more popular all the time and it' ; s taken over uh I' ; d say over the rayon. Now it hasn' ; t come out on original equipments yet, but been some talk of it coming out and I think possibly in the near future it will be. H: Thank you very much. Folks when you' ; re in the need of tires, or television or any of the other fine appliances that are sold here at B.F Goodrich be sure to stop by and see Mr. Baker and all of the other fine folks who serve you here at the B.F Goodrich store in Bristow, Oklahoma. End video 0 https://bristoworalhistory.org/ohms/viewer.php?cachefile=OHP_0002_V_1959_Bristow_Here_We_Live.xml OHP_0002_V_1959_Bristow_Here_We_Live.xml
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Bristow Here We Live
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https://bristoworalhistory.org/files/original/fb5ab4fc507ea90359ea365327d288de.jpg
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Quince Brown
WWII
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5.4 Unknown Date OHP-0003-V Quince Brown, Bristow's WWII Fighter Ace OHP-0003-V Brown, Quince 00:30:01 'Bristow Historical Society-Oral History Archive' Bristow Historical Society, Inc. Quince Brown WWII Flying Ace Fighter Pilot m4v OHP-0003-V Brown, Quince 1:|57(1)|66(10)|74(1)|84(3)|92(3)|99(3)|102(5)|107(11)|112(5)|116(7)|120(4)|127(4)|133(13)|141(2)|150(3)|153(10)|161(1)|166(17)|172(3)|183(1)|193(7)|202(10)|207(9)|213(7)|219(4)|229(9)|239(12)|250(4)|261(2)|268(11) 0 https://bristoworalhistory.org/interviews/OHP-0003-V Brown, Quince.m4v Other video 42 George Krumme's Introduction My name is George Krumme and I was a Bristow boy, Quince Brown1 was a slightly older Bristow boy, who became an ace fighter pilot in World War II before he was shot down and killed over in Germany 3 months after D Day. When I learned that his nephew, Rusty Brown, had a video showing clips of Quince’s fighter group, I thought it appropriate that a shortened video be made from it for those of us who have an interest in the history of World War II with a particular emphasis on Quince’s outstanding record. So, here it is! Ace Fighter Pilot ; Bristow ; George Krumme ; Germany ; Quince Brown ; World War II https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/21363700/quince-lucien-brown Quince Lucien Brown's Grave 267 78th Fighter Group. P-47 Era 1943-1944 This is Bob Ebee speaking on this January day in 1987 the 16-millimeter film on this videotape was shot in 1943 and 1944 at the Duxford airbase located 10 miles South of Cambridge, England. The 78th fighter group arrived in England in November of 1942 and flew their first combat mission from Duxford on April 13, 1943 (Pause in recording) This is Col. Armond(ph.) Peterson, the first group commander of the 78th. He served from May 1942 until his loss on a combat mission July 1st, 1943. Lt. Harry Dayhuff was the first 82nd squadron commanding officer who served until August of 1943. 1943 ; 1944 ; 1987 ; 364th Squadron ; 78th Fighter Group ; 82nd squadron ; 83rd Squadron ; Bob Ebee ; Bombers ; Cambridge England ; Col. Armond Peterson ; Col. Jim Stone ; Combat mission ; Duxford Air Base ; Jake Oberhansley ; Lt. Harry Dayhuff ; Major McBay ; Mission briefing 300 Lt. Maddle U.S Combat Film No. 141 This is the first of about 15 minutes of selected 78th group combat film. Note that the title gives the pilot's name, the squadron, the date and the target. Note also the English gives the day first and the month second thus 30 dash 7 means July 30th. You note the pieces of the German plane flying by. 78th Fighter Group ; Combat Formation ; German Plane 337 Lt. Pompetti U.S Combat Film No. 150 This isn’t very clear, but those big object in the background are our b-17 bombers. The mission of July 30th, 1943 held the record for first in the 78th combat history. It was the first belly tank mission and extended the p-47 range to permit crossing the border of Germany for the first time. 1943 ; B-17 Bombers ; Belly Tank ; Germany ; P-47 374 Maj. Roberts U.S Combat Film No.191 Major Gene Roberts shot down 3 German planes to become the first U.S pilot to get a triple air victory on one mission. Charlie Linden(ph.) shot down his fourth and fifth planes to become the first U.S ace in the European theater Charlie Linden ; European Theater ; German Plane ; Maj, Gene Roberts ; Triple Air Victory ; U.S Ace ; U.S Pilot 422 Capt. Price U.S Combat Film No. 192 Jack Price had a total of five air victories. We lost our second group commander on this July 30th mission, when Lt. Col. Melvin McNickle was shot down on his first mission and became a prisoner of war. Flak in the lower left. Capt. Jack Price ; Flak ; Lt. Col. Melvin McNickle ; Prisoner of War 468 Lt. Brown U.S Combat Film No. 194 and 425 The final first on July 7th -er July 30th, 1943 is shown here when Quine Brown dropped down to the deck on his return from escorting the bombers (Pause in recording) to become the first us fighter pilot to shoot up a ground target in a European theater. Bombers ; European Theater ; Ground Targets ; Quince Brown ; U.S Fighter Pilot European Theater in World War II — US Army Divisions (armydivs.com) European Theater 491 Maj. Roberts U.S Combat Film No. 550 Lt. Col. Gene Roberts CO of the 84th had the third-highest number of air victories for the 78th group with a total of nine 78th Fighter Group ; 84th Fighter Group ; Air Victories ; Lt. Col. Gene Roberts 543 F/O Pompetti U.S Combat Film No. 421 Pete Pompetti was another leader in air victories with six. He was shot down in early 1944 and was a prisoner of war. Good hits. It’s too bad the exposure isn’t better. Unfortunately, a lot of the combat film I have was not originals and some clarity is always lost in making copies and then more clarity is lost in converting 16 millimeter to video. 1944 ; Air Victories ; Fighter Pilot ; Pete Pompetti ; Prisoner of War 578 Lt. C.R Clark Combat Film No. 164 This is a little better being able to see the clouds, and this is-this is one of the more clear of the series. 78th Fighter Group ; 82 Squadron ; Fighter Pilot 615 Lt. J.J Hockery U.S Combat Film No. 165 John Hockery was the fifth leader in air victories with seven. This is another fairly clear exposure compared to many of them. He’s getting good hits there’s pieces of the German plane flying by. (Pause in recording) This film was used to convert-confirm victories for the pilot. Air Victories ; German Plane ; John Hockery 630 1st LT. Q.L Brown U.S Combat Film No. 310 Quince Brown was the leading ace of the 78th with 13 victories before he was lost on a strafing run. (Pause in recording) There’s are good hits for being at greater than 300-yard range. Again you can see the B-7 bomber in their combat formation in the background. 78th Fighter Group ; Ace ; B-7 Bomber ; Fighter Pilot ; Strafing Run 655 LT. Col. H.J Dayhuff U.S Combat Film No. 245 There’s are good hits for being at greater than 300-yard range 78th Fighter Group ; Fighter Pilot ; Harry Dayhuff 696 Lt. M.S Martinez U.S Combat Film No. 249 Again you can see the B-7 bomber in their combat formation in the background. Very good hits for that range. B-7 Bomber ; Combat formation 729 Lt. G.M Turley U.S Combat Film No. 879 Hell that German pilot has put his wheels down perhaps to slow down so the American pilot will overrun him. Grant Turley had six air victories before not returning from a combat mission. He’s going to get proof positive of a victory as you see the German pilot beel(ph.) out in a moment. American Pilot ; Combat Mission ; German Pilot ; Grant Turley 744 Lt. P.H. Hazelett U.S Combat Film No. 2062 Ground strafing was very exciting but much more hazardous than aerial combat the higher loss ratio resulted from intense ground fire. 78th Fighter Group ; Ground Strafing ; Lt. Hazelett ; World War II 764 Capt. W.L Boone U.S Combat Film No. 2054 Direct hits from ground fire was not too common for fighter planes at high altitudes. 78th Fighter Group ; Fighter Pilots ; Ground Fire ; World War II 802 Lt. B.M Watkins U.S Combat Film No. 2055 The 78th group set the record for the European Theater when they destroyed 135 planes on the ground on their mission of April 16th, 1945. The 78th flew a total of 450 combat missions from April 13th, 1943 to April 25th, 1945. 1945 ; 78th Fighter Group ; Combat Mission ; European Theater 837 LT. J.J Hockery U.S Combat Film No. 2150 The group destroyed three hundred thirty-eight and a half German planes in the air and three hundred fifty-eight and a half on the ground for a total of six hundred ninety-seven German planes destroyed for a loss of 167 P-47s and P-51’s. This is a ratio of four German planes lost for one U.S plane lost. A P-47 cost $104,260 in 1943 and today a modern jet fighter cost several million dollars in comparison. 1943 ; 78th Fighter Group ; German Planes ; Jet Fighter ; P-47 ; U.S Plane 969 Capt. N.D Munson U.S Combat Film No. 2298 The 78th group flew P-38’s in 1942 while in the States and while training for combat in England. Priorities in North Africa in late 1942 resulted in all our P-38’s and all but fifteen or sixteen pilots being transferred to North Africa. We received P-47s in early Jan of 1943 and flew them for two years when they were replaced by P-51s in early 1945. The 78th was the only group to fly all three of the first-line air force fighter planes. 78th Fighter Group ; Doug Munson ; England ; First-Line Air Force Fighter Planes ; Ground Strafing ; Ground Targets ; Locomotive ; North Africa ; P-38's ; P-47's ; P-51's 997 Lt. J.W Wilkinson U.S Combat Film No. 2293 Jim Wilkins was credited with shooting down 7 and a half German planes before being lost 2 days before D-Day on a strafing run in England. When the steam comes out of the locomotives like that you know you’ve destroyed a lot of the boiler tubes. D-Day ; England ; German Planes ; Jim Wilkinson ; Locomotive ; Strafing Run 1037 Capt. W.W May U.S Combat Film No. 2287 I edited out -uh -uh seemed like quite a 20 or 30 seconds Willy Mays chasing this plane for what seems like long enough to run out of ammunition, but in a few seconds, you will see one of the most spectacular shots of a German plane being shot down as he shoots the left-wing of here in a few moments. 78th Fighter Group ; German Plane ; Willy Mays ; World War II 1125 Lt. Juchheim U.S Combat Film No. 3687 Alex Juchhiem was our second leading ace with 11 air victories. An interesting statics is four of our top seven aces were lost. A total of 11 of the 78th pilots became aces while flying with our group. They had a total of 79 and a half air victories of or 23% of the 338 and ½ air victories for the group. I think the pilot is going to beel out of this one in a moment. 78th Fighter Group ; Ace ; Air Victories ; World War II 1144 Lt. P.H. Hazelett U.S Combat Film No. 3687 78th Fighter Group ; U.S Pilot ; World War II 1514 Maj. Bob Ebee Here I am. You can see I’m a major now, so it's sometime in mid-1944 and I must be out of pipe Tabaco, as the only time I smoke cigarettes is when my supply of mixture 79 was en route from the states. This is the first of my 3 P-47s, named for my daughter Vivian Gaile(ph.). Gaile was 2 months old when I left her and (indecipherable) in California and took a troop train to Camp Kilmer, New Jersey, and the Queen Elizabeth troopship to Scotland. This plane was shot down on a mission with another pilot flying it in February of 1944. 1944 ; 50 Caliber Gun ; Barges ; California ; Camp Kilmer ; Cockpit ; Combat ; Crew Chief ; D-Day ; Dive-Bombing Mission ; Dolly Parton ; France ; German Truck ; Ground Fire ; Ground Personnel ; Locomotive ; Major ; Marshaling Yard ; May West ; ME-109 ; New Jersey ; Queen Elizabeth Troopship ; Scotland ; Sgt. John Harris ; Skip Bombing ; Spitfire Pilots ; Strafing Mission ; Supply Train ; Yanks 1800 Quince Brown and The Bristow Connection This is George Krumme again, we’ve come to the end of the commentary by Bob Ebee, but for those of us interested on Quine Brown and the Bristow connection here are some additional comments. Quince was born in 1917, he graduated from Bristow High school and attended Bristow Junior College and Oklahoma A & ; M college briefly, before earning his air-core wings at Kelly Field on April 25th, 1941, 7 months before the beginning of World War II. He severed as a flight instructor at Randolph, Kelly, and Majors airfields in Texas and taught a year at the Enid army flying school. " ; Gott Strafe England" ; ; 78th Fighter Group ; A& ; M College ; Air Cadets ; Air Medal ; Air-Core Wings ; Aircraft ; Anti-Aircraft Fire ; Bristow ; Bristow High School ; Bristow Junior College ; Combat Duty ; Dale Mayberry Flying School ; Distinguished Flying Cross with Four Oak Leaf Clusters ; Duxford Air Base ; Enid, Oklahoma ; Florida ; French Croix de Gurre ; Full Military Honors ; George Krumme ; German Airfield ; Germany ; Kelly Field ; Leading Ace ; London, England ; Machine ; Majors Airfield ; Oak Leaf Clusters ; Oklahoma Aviation and Space Hall of Fame ; Oklahoma Military Hall of Fame ; Prisoner of War List ; Quince Brown ; Quince L. Brown Parkway ; Randolph Airfield ; Republic P-47 Thunderbolt ; S.S Representative ; Silver Star ; Strafing Fighter ; Texas ; Vance Airbase ; War Bond Drive ; World War I ; World War II N 35° 49.731 W 096° 24.321 17 Quince L. Brown - VFW War Memorial - Bristow, OK Quince Lucien Brown Jr | American Air Museum in Britain American Air Museum in Britain Croix de Guerre | French military award | Britannica French Croix de Guerre Oak leaf cluster | Military Wiki | Fandom (wikia.org) Oak Leaf Clusters Air Medal: Eligibility and History - Medals of America - Military Blog Air Medal Distinguished Flying Cross (United Kingdom) - Wikipedia Distinguished Flying Cross Oklahoma Military Hall of Fame (okhistory.org)- OK Military Hall of Fame Oklahoma Fly-Boy - MEDALS & ; DECORATIONS - U.S. Militaria Forum (usmilitariaforum.com) Quince Brown- Medals and Decorations Vance Air Force Base > ; Home (af.mil) Vance Air Force Base-Enid OK Gott Strafe England | The Western Front Association Gott Strafe England-Germany WWI Narrator: George Krumme (GK) Narrator: Bob Ebee (BE) Other Persons: Quince Brown Date of Narration: January 1987 Location: Bristow, Creek County Oklahoma Transcriber: Riley Wilson Organization: Bristow Historical Society, Inc. Original Cassette Tape Location: OHP-0003-V Brown, Quince Abstract: This DVD contains films from the cockpit of Fighter Groups flying during World War II from the years 1942-1944. Among the pilots was Quince Brown, a Bristow native, who was named the leading ace in the 78th fighter group with more than 130 combat missions. Quince remained the leading ace throughout the remainder of the war and after his death. 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. GK: My name is George Krumme and I was a Bristow boy. Quince Brown1 was a slightly older Bristow boy, who became an ace fighter pilot in World War II before he was shot down and killed over in Germany 3 months after D-Day. When I learned that his nephew, Rusty Brown, had a video showing clips of Quince' ; s fighter group, I thought it appropriate that a shortened video be made from it for those of us who have an interest in the history of World War II with a particular emphasis on Quince' ; s outstanding record. So, here it is! BE: This is Bob Ebee speaking on this January day in 1987 the 16-millimeter film on this videotape was shot in 1943 and 1944 at the Duxford airbase located 10 miles South of Cambridge, England. The 78th fighter group arrived in England in November of 1942 and flew their first combat mission from Duxford on April 13, 1943 (Pause in Narration) This is Col. Armond(ph.) Peterson, the first group commander of the 78th. He served from May 1942 until his loss on a combat mission July 1st, 1943. Lt. Harry Dayhuff was the first 82nd squadron commanding officer who served until August of 1943. This is Col. Jim Stone, the first 83rd squadron CO until promoted to group commander in August 1943. Gene Roberts was first 84 squadron commanding officer later group exec. and still later group commanding officer of the 364th fighter group. Major McBay, the group intelligence officer, and his staff are preparing the briefing room map for a combat mission briefing. The weather officer is advising the cloud formations and winds to be expected in route to the rendezvousing with the bombers and on the way home. (Pause in Narration) Jake Oberhansley(ph.) is advising key details of the mission as he is the group leader of the simulated mission briefing which was staged for the benefit of the photographer. (Pause in Narration) The pilots leaving the briefing room are in a somewhat more jovial mood than would be normal for a real briefing. (Pause in Narration) This is the control tower from where all instructions (Pause in Narration) landings at the Duxford field. Duxford was a grass field which had some advantages and some disadvantages. Only 2 fighter planes could take off together on paved runways we could take off 8 at a time which saved precious fuel circling the field waiting to form up after the takeoff. Note the belly tanks, for extending the range on this mission. The group leader would fly out for 2 and 1/2 minutes and then make a slow wide turn to come back over the field. All 48 planes plus spares would be in formation and on course to the target or rendezvous area by the time the lead plane was back to the field. (Pause in Narration) BE: This shows the group formation for-for climbing out to the combat area where the flights and squadrons would then spread out to combat formation. (Pause in Narration) This is the first of about 15 minutes of selected 78th group combat film. Note that the title gives the pilot' ; s name, the squadron, the date and the target. Note also the English gives the day first and the month second thus 30 dash 7 means July 30th. You note the pieces of the German plane flying by. (Pause in Narration) This isn' ; t very clear, but those big object in the background are our b-17 bombers. The mission of July 30th, 1943 held the record for first in the 78th combat history. It was the first belly tank mission and extended the P-47 range to permit crossing the border of Germany for the first time. Major Gene Roberts shot down 3 German planes to become the first U.S pilot to get a triple air victory on one mission. Charlie Linden(ph.) shot down his fourth and fifth planes to become the first U.S ace in the European theater. (Pause in Narration) Jack Price had a total of five air victories. We lost our second group commander on this July 30th mission, when Lt. Col. Melvin McNickle was shot down on his first mission and became a prisoner of war. Flak in the lower left. (Pause in Narration) The final first on July 7th -er July 30th, 1943 is shown here when Quine Brown dropped down to the deck on his return from escorting the bombers (Pause in Narration) to become the first us fighter pilot to shoot up a ground target in a European theater. (Pause in Narration) Lt. Col. Gene Roberts CO of the 84th had the third-highest number of air victories for the 78th group with a total of nine. (Pause in Narration) Pete Pompetti was another leader in air victories with six. He was shot down in early 1944 and was a prisoner of war. (Pause in Narration) Good hits. It' ; s too bad the exposure isn' ; t better. Unfortunately, a lot of the combat film I have was not originals and some clarity is always lost in making copies and then more clarity is lost in converting 16 millimeter to video. This is a little better being able to see the clouds, and this is-this is one of the more clear of the series. (Pause in Narration) John Hockery was the fifth leader in air victories with seven. This is another fairly clear exposure compared to many of them. He' ; s getting good hits there' ; s pieces of the German plane flying by. (Pause in Narration) This film was used to convert-confirm victories for the pilot. Quince Brown was the leading ace of the 78th with 13 victories before he was lost on a strafing run. (Pause in Narration) There' ; s are good hits for being at greater than 300-yard range. (Pause in Narration) Again you can see the B-7 bomber in their combat formation in the background. BE: Very good hits for that range. Hell, that German pilot has put his wheels down perhaps to slow down so the American pilot will overrun him. Grant Turley had six air victories before not returning from a combat mission. He' ; s going to get proof positive of a victory as you see the German pilot beel(ph.) out in a moment. (Pause in Narration) There he is. He' ; s not shooting at the pilot, he' ; s- there' ; s a switch to put the camera on only. Ground strafing was very exciting but much more hazardous than aerial combat the higher loss ratio resulted from intense ground fire. Direct hits from ground fire was not too common for fighter planes at high altitudes. (Pause in Narration) Planes lined up in a row like on this last film and on this one resulted in heavy losses for the Germans. The 78th group set the record for the European Theater when they destroyed 135 planes on the ground on their mission of April 16th, 1945. The 78th flew a total of 450 combat missions from April 13th, 1943 to April 25th, 1945. The group destroyed three hundred thirty-eight and 1/2 German planes in the air and three hundred fifty-eight and 1/2 on the ground for a total of six hundred ninety-seven German planes destroyed for a loss of 167 P-47' ; s and P-51' ; s. This is a ratio of four German planes lost for one U.S plane lost. A P-47 cost $104,260 in 1943 and today a modern jet fighter cost several million dollars in comparison. The 78th group flew P-38' ; s in 1942 while in the States and while training for combat in England. Priorities in North Africa in late 1942 resulted in all our P-38' ; s and all but fifteen or sixteen pilots being transferred to North Africa. We received P-47' ; s in early Jan of 1943 and flew them for two years when they were replaced by P-51' ; s in early 1945. The 78th was the only group to fly all three of the first-line air force fighter planes. One of the most spectacular ground strafing explosion is on this series of Doug Munson. His is a very unusual combat film as it includes air to air, a larger number of planes being shot on the ground plus -uh shooting up a locomotive and other ground targets. (Pause in Narration) Isn' ; t that spectacular! Look at those pieces flying, he has to fly through. Doesn' ; t show up yet but he has a German plane trying to land before getting shot down. There it' ; s coming into view. I don' ; t recall whether Doug caused that plane to crash, or whether it landed before he was out of control. Jim Wilkins was credited with shooting down 7 and 1/2 German planes before being lost 2 days before D-Day on a strafing run in England. When the steam comes out of the locomotives like that you know you' ; ve destroyed a lot of the boiler tubes. (Pause in Narration) I edited out -uh -uh seemed like quite a 20 or 30 seconds Willy Mays chasing this plane for what seems like long enough to run out of ammunition, but in a few seconds, you will see one of the most spectacular shots of a German plane being shot down as he shoots the left-wing of here in a few moments. (Pause in Narration) There it goes. Alex Juchhiem was our second leading ace with 11 air victories. An interesting statics is four of our top seven aces were lost. A total of 11 of the 78th pilots became aces while flying with our group. They had a total of 79 and 1/2 air victories of or 23% of the 338 and ½ air victories for the group. I think the pilot is going to beel out of this one in a moment. There he comes. I selected these 23 mission combat films for not only being some of the most spectacular examples but also because the original exposure was far better than normal. A lot of clarity is lost in converting this 43-year-old film to video and much of the group combat film was far from being a good exposure when taken. (Pause in Narration) BE: Here I am. You can see I' ; m a major now, so it' ; s sometime in mid-1944 and I must be out of pipe Tabaco, as the only time I smoke cigarettes is when my supply of mixture 79 was en route from the States. This is the first of my 3 P-47' ; s, named for my daughter Vivian Gaile(ph.). Gaile was 2 months old when I left her and [indecipherable] in California and took a troop train to Camp Kilmer, New Jersey, and the Queen Elizabeth troopship to Scotland. This plane was shot down on a mission with another pilot flying it in February of 1944. I was hit by ground fire 3 times while flying and had to leave the second V. Gaile on an emergency field in France 2 weeks after D-Day with 2 or 3 cylinder heads shot off and leaking oil quite rapidly. The cockpit of the P-47 was very roomy, the spitfire pilots claimed that to take evasive action in combat, the yanks just loosened their seatbelts and ran around the cockpit. I flew spitfires for a month and the cockpit were very cramped by comparison The vest I am wearing is for floatation emergencies if you found yourself in the water for whatever reason. It was dubbed a May West for reasons which were more obvious when it was inflated, today I suspect it might be called a Dolly Parton. This is Bill Vicory(ph.), assistant crew chief of the V. Gaile, and the other man is Harold Zonn(ph.), the radio maintenance man for my flight. Note the 50 caliber gun sticking out the leading edge of the wing. And this is Sgt. John Harris crew chief for all three of the V. Gailes. The [indecipherable] man is servicing the four 50 caliber in each wing, this was standard procedure each time the gun was fired. Ground personnel were highly competent and were dedicated to keeping their planes in perfect condition with no regard to long hours often required to get a plane to combat readiness. BE: I took this picture of a bridge before releasing two 5oo pound bombs on this skip bombing-bombing mission. I had spotted two locomotives on my approach and got the first shots at them, the first one coming up here. There' ; s normal procedure for everyone in the flight to follow in trail on these strafing missions like this. (Pause in Narration) I got hit in the windshield by ground fire while strafing this marshaling yard, the bulletproof glass in front of my face deflected the bullet out the top of the canopy. This is strafing -uh supply train. Another train. (Pause in Narration) There' ; s a locomotive, -uh that is the target on this -uh run. More supply trains. (Pause in Narration) Still more supply trains. We' ; d usually work our way back along the railroad track when returning on the deck from a mission. There' ; s a German truck trying to hide in this row of trees. You can see him moving right there. He didn' ; t make it, he had something burning, made a pretty good fire. Barges also carried supplies, I would think it would take a lot of 50 caliber bullets to do too much damage to them. This is an ME 109 -uh on the ground -uh, not at an airfield. He probably had to make an emergency landing. This supply train is burning pretty good. Another German vehicle. Another truck trying to hide in the trees. Note the broad pattern of the 850 caliber guns. This trucks on fire. Another truck. We hit something explosive on this dive-bombing mission. Less than half of my combat film turned out good enough to transfer to video because of bad underexposure. (Pause in Narration) GK: This is George Krumme again, we' ; ve come to the end of the commentary by Bob Ebee, but for those of us interested on Quine Brown and the Bristow connection here are some additional comments. Quince was born in 1917, he graduated from Bristow High school and attended Bristow Junior College and Oklahoma A & ; M college briefly, before earning his air-core wings at Kelly Field on April 25th, 1941, 7 months before the beginning of World War II. He severed as a flight instructor at Randolph, Kelly, and Majors airfields in Texas and taught a year at the Enid army flying school. He then applied for operations and after advanced training at Dale Mayberry field in Florida in April of 1943 he joined the 78th fighter group at the Duxford airbase, south of London England. The plane the group used was a republic P-47 thunderbolt, a heavy fighter with unusual four-bladed propellers. The P-47 were excellent strafing fighters because they could take considerable punishment and still return home. The word strafe was coined by the Germans from their world war I slogan " ; Gott strafe England!" ; , that is God punish England. And the Thunderbolt could certainly punish, strafing with eight machine guns at up to 450 miles per hour at an altitude at times less than 100 feet above the ground. But piloting a fighter plane was dangerous, particularly while strafing. The 78th fighter group with a normal flying compliment of 36-48 planes lost 167 of its aircraft during two years of action and 93 of its pilots were killed. In this scene, you can see a pilot pull his plane up as he suddenly saw an electric line in his path. Watch carefully as he approaches the hanger and you may be able to see the wires. Quince' ; s crew chief told Rusty Brown that occasionally planes would come back with wire and tree branches stuck to the wing, on one occasion Quince even returned with bent propeller tips. At 27 Quince was one of the older pilots, but was renowned for his keen eyesight and his flying skills. He was officially credited with 12 and 1/3 air to air victories and with two planes destroyed on the ground. After a year of service in mid-1944, Quince came back to the States for a couple of months and led war bond drives across the nation. He returned to combat duty in August. Less than a month later on September 6th, 1944 while strafing a German airfield, Quince' ; s plane was struck by anti-aircraft fire. Unable to continue he parachuted and was seen to land safely, gather his parachute, and disappear into the woods. It was presumed that his name would soon appear on the prisoner of war list, but after several fruitless months, it was determined that he had apparently been turned over to civilians only to be executed by the local S.S representative, who, after the war was identified and tried for murder. Quince flew more than 130 combat missions and was awarded the Silver Star, the Distinguished Flying Cross with four Oak Leaf Clusters, the Air Medal with four Oak Leaf Clusters, and the French Croix de Guerre. Quince has been inducted into the Oklahoma Aviation and Space Hall of Fame and into the Oklahoma Military Hall of Fame. Moreover, the Quince L. Brown Parkway serves as the entry into the Vance Airbase in Enid, where Quince instructed air cadets for a year. Even though the war continued for eight months after he was killed, Quince remained the leading ace of his fighter group. When the war ended, Quince' ; s remains were eventually transferred to Bristow where he was buried with full military honors in the family burial plots. GK: I hope you' ; ve enjoyed this brief look backward in time. video 0 https://bristoworalhistory.org/ohms/viewer.php?cachefile=OHP-0020-V_Brown_Quince.xml OHP-0020-V_Brown_Quince.xml
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5.4 OHP-0001-v How Oklahoma Millionaires Are Made - George Krumme 38:44 Bristow Historical Society, Inc. How Oklahoma Millionaires Are Made Krumme Oil Company Cushing-Webb Oil Company Cushing Oil Field Tom Slick Promotional movie George Krumme m4v OHP-0001-V Krumme How Oklahoma Millionaires Are Made.m4v 1:|19(1)|60(8)|75(11)|94(2)|117(3)|136(2)|157(9)|174(4)|188(1)|214(12)|233(6)|259(10)|279(9)|302(1)|317(1)|333(6)|344(1)|367(11)|386(11)|398(15)|433(1)|459(4)|482(1)|496(2)|513(8)|526(8)|546(2)|560(9)|573(13)|587(13)|613(5)|631(1)|642(6)|678(5)|700(13)|715(1)|734(9)|755(3) 0 https://bristoworalhistory.org/interviews/OHP-0001-V Krumme How Oklahoma Millionaires Are Made.m4v Other video English 0 How Oklahoma Millionaires Are Made “How Oklahoma Millionaires Are Made” Narrated by George Krumme GK: My name is George Krumme. I’m a partner in Krumme Oil Company of Bristow, Oklahoma. In the early 1980’s, J. B. Red, a Stillwater oil man, contacted my brother and me with a proposition. A friend of his, Sam Myers, had saved a four-reel, silent moving picture made for his father’s company many decades earlier. Background to preserving the movie " ; How Oklahoma Millionaires Are Made" ; , filmed in 1917-1918 Cushing Field ; Cushing Oil Field ; Cushing-Webb Oil Company ; J. B. Red ; Krumme Oil Company ; manually operated camera ; Oilton ; Oklahoma State University ; Sam Myers background ; Cushing Oil Field ; Cushing-Webb Oil Company ; Oilton https://www.tulsahistory.org/halloffame/george-krumme/ George Krumme 87 A WEEK'S TRIP IN THE GREAT CUSHING OIL FIELD IN OKLAHOMA FOUR REELS REEL ONE THE LARGEST HIGH GRADE OIL FIELD IN THE WORLD OIL FIELD TOWNS OILTON 15 YEARS AGO The caption says Oilton 15 years ago, but it should say Oilton today and Oilton 15 years ago, because the first scenes are of downtown Oilton during the boom. Oilton was not even founded until 1915, three years after the discovery well was drilled. Scenes of 1917-1918 Oklahoma, both small town Oilton, near where the discovery well was to be drilled, and a country home. 101 Ranch ; Creek County ; Cushing Field ; Five Civilized Tribes ; Montgomery Ward ; Oilton ; Pawnee County Authentic scenes of early Oklahoma ; log houses ; Scenes of Oilton 36.085046, -96.586629 15 Oilton, Oklahoma https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miller_Brothers_101_Ranch Miller Brothers 101 Ranch https://www.britannica.com/topic/Five-Civilized-Tribes The Five Civilized Tribes 228 BUSY OILTON TO-DAY AND WHAT MAKES IT Cushing Field was discovered in 1912. It was named for Cushing even though the town is 10 or 12 miles west of the field. At the time, it was the closest town. Drumright was founded near the discovery well during the following year, and Oilton was founded a couple of years later. The Cushing Field discovery well and a brief introduction to Tom Slick. C. B. Shaffer ; Cushing ; Cushing Field ; Drumright ; Drumright (Okla.) ; King of the Wildcatters ; Oilton ; Slick, Tom, 1883-1930 ; Tom Slick ; Wheeler farm Cushing Oil Field discovery well ; Tom Slick " ; King of the Wildcatters" ; https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/57951944/thomas-baker-slick Tom Slick 284 DRUMRIGHT FOUR YEARS OLD POPULATION 15000 At the first strong showing of oil and gas, Slick had the driller fill the hole with mud and water and invert a wash tub over the casing with a heavy drilling tool on top. He then cut the telephone line to the Wheeler home Tom Slick discovery well as the beginning of the Cushing Oil Field Cushing ; Drumright ; landman ; Tom Slick ; Wheeler home first strong showing of oil and gas ; livery teams and notaries in Cuishing ; Wheeler home https://www.dictionary.com/browse/landman Landman 321 BUILDING A DERRICK Drilling with cable tools was fairly well standardized in the early days of the industry. All of the original drilling in the Cushing Field was done with what was called a standard rig, using steam power. Building an oil derrick in 1917 - 1918 boiler ; rig irons ; rotary drilling ; standard rig ; steam engine ; wire lines building a derrick ; oil derricks in 1917 - 1918 363 DRILLING Drilling was done using the walking beam, but the tools had to be below floor level before it could be used. So to start the well, a spudding line was run from the crank to a sliding shoe which was hooked over the drilling line just above the bull wheels. Drilling using a waling beam is described. sliding shoe ; spudder ; spudding line ; walking beam drilling using the walking beam ; spudder replaced the standard rig ; starting a well with a spudding line https://ethw.org/Walking_Beams Walking Beams 401 UNLOADING CASING AT THE RAILROAD If the well turned out to be a producer, the steam engine was replaced with a big single cylinder engine, and the rig and derrick were kept to pump and service the well. If the derrick was blown down, the rig was kept in operation but was referred to as a bob tailed rig. Scene of unloading casing from a railroad car using mules and a wagon. bob tailed rig ; gin poles ; single cylinder engine ; unloading casing unloading casing ; unloading casing from railroad cars ; using mules to unload casing 460 LOADING CASING AT THE CIMARRON RIVER NEAR OILTON As you can see, the casing being loaded here is too large to be production casing. Big casing was used in drilling the well. Drilling at the Cushing Field was difficult because there were numerous shallow sand formations that produced water. Casing being loaded from the banks of the Cimarron River to a wagon on the bridge over the river. Narration includes the completion of the discovery well. Bartlesville producing sand ; Cushing Field ; Oswego limestone ; production casing ; uralitic phase ; Wheeler farm ; Wheeler sand discovery well completed ; drilling at the Cushing field ; loading casing to be used in drilling https://www.dictionary.com/browse/uralite Uralite 551 HAULING CASING TO THE WELL Teamsters prefer horses instead of mules for hauling in the oil fields. Draft horses were bigger and stronger. Farmers, and the US Army in World War I, preferred mules because they were heartier, but they were also more stubborn. Casing is being hauled to the drilling site. The narration includes a comparison of the Cushing Field peak daily production in 1915 to the entire state of Oklahoma average daily production in 2002. Bartlesville sand ; Cushing Field ; draft horses ; mules Cushing Field peak production ; hauling casing using wagons and mules ; Oklahoma average barrels per day ; test well drilled to Bartlesville sand 597 MOVING HOTEL BETWEEN MEALS Ironically, some of the biggest Bartlesville wells were not in the Bartlesville sand at all. The Cushing structure is bald-headed. Scene of horses pulling a wagon with a hotel across a wooden bridge. Some biggest Bartlesville wells were not in the Bartlesville sand. bald-headed ; Bartlesville sand ; Mississippi lime ; Simpson sands ; Wilcox sand Bartlesville wells ; Horses moving a hotel across a bridge 618 PREPARING THE EATS NOON Between Drumright and Oilton, in an area of a few square miles, even the Bartlesville is missing and the drill goes directly from the Redfork into productive Arbuckle limestone. Some Arbuckle wells made five or six thousand barrels a day. Arbuckle limestone ; Bartlesville sand ; Drumright ; Oilton ; Redfork ; Sinclair worker ; United States Geological Survey ; USGS Survey drilling into Arbuckle limestone ; missing Bartlesville sand ; Workers washing and eating https://pubs.usgs.gov/bul/0658/report.pdf USGS Bulletin Geologic Structure in the Cushing Oil and Gas Field, Oklahoma 1917 681 A WEEK’S TRIP IN THE GREAT CUSHING OIL FIELD IN OKLAHOMA FOUR REELS REEL TWO CASING CREW AT WORK In a standard rig, the big bull wheels which held the drilling cable blocked the face of the derrick so the casing wrap was placed opposite the crank, and the casing was wagoned in from the walking beam side using a front wagon and a back wagon. This pipe looks like seven-inch casing so it may be the final inside production string. Crew working to attach more casing pipe segments, including using front and back wagons and a " ; never slip" ; which is a device used to hold the upper part of a drill string. bull ropes ; bull wheel ; bull wheels ; casing pole ; casing wrap ; d-thread casing ; half-wheel ; never-slip ; round-thread casing ; seven-inch casing ; tug pulley casing string ; drilling terms ; screwing pipe together ; standard rig casing 771 HAULING STORAGE TANK TO THE TANK FARM Back to the subject of the Arbuckle limestone, one Arbuckle well north of Drumright still makes about a hundred and fifteen barrels a day along with ungodly amounts of water. New wells are still occasionally drilled to the Arbuckle. Short scene showing a tractor pulling a string of wagons, and commentary on the Arbuckle limestone production as of the time of the narration (2003). Arbuckle limestone production ; hauling storage tanks 791 SHOOTING THE WELL THE SHOOTER ARRIVES Liquid nitroglycerin is highly unstable and very dangerous to handle. Shooting continued to be the most popular way to stimulate a well until the development of sand fracking around 1950. Shooting a well with nitroglycerin and with sand fracking. jelled water ; napalm ; Nitroglycerin ; nitroglycerin ; sand fracking contemporary fracking with jelled water ; early sand fracking proportions with napalm ; preparing to shoot the well 823 SOUNDING FOR DEPTH Stanolind Oil Company got a patent on the sand fracking process and it collected royalties on every job. Workers estimating the depth of the well and talk of the Stanolind Oil Company patent on sand fracking. Amoco ; sand fracking ; Standard Oil of Indiana ; Stanolind ; Stanolind Oil Company ; the house that frack built ; Tulsa estimating well depth ; sand fracking patent 841 PREPARING THE CHARGE I’m sorry to say I don’t know what the washing in the bucket is accomplishing. By the time we started in the business a blasting gel had been developed and it was much safer than nitroglycerin. The shooter preps the tubes for the nitroglycerin, and description of using a " ; go devil" ; to set off the shot. A " ; go devil" ; is a dart dropped into an oil well to explode the dynamite or nitroglycerin go devil ; Zero Hour Bomb Company blasting gel safer than nitroglycerin ; setting off the shot 897 POURING NITRO-CLYCERINE INTO TUBE AND LOWERING IN THE WELL When sand fracking put the well shooting trade out of business, the Zero Hour Bomb Company shortened its name to Zebco and began manufacturing fishing reels. The shooter adds nitroglycerin into the tube and the well is shot, resulting in a gusher. gusher ; sand fracking ; Zebco ; Zero Hour Bomb Company a gusher ; Pouring nitroglycerin into the tube ; Zebco making fishing reels 948 LAYING PIPE LINE TO THE TANK FARM The Cushing Field has produced about a half billion barrels of oil. Early flush production overloaded the hastily constructed pipelines. It broke the price of oil and kept it low for several years. But Tom Slick and others found a solution. A crew screws together pipe joints for a pipe line. The narrator relates the Tom Slick solution for storing oil during times of low prices. Bristow ; building a pipeline ; Cushing Field ; Frisco Railroad ; latongs ; Oil storage tanks ; oil tanks ; pipe-jack ; pipeline ; Tom Slick oil storage tanks ; screwing together pipe jointss 1026 THETANK FARM Like Tom Slick, others built tank farms, and at one time about 23 million barrels of oil was stored at or near the Cushing Field, which is part of the reason why Cushing became “the pipeline crossroads of the world.” About 30 million barrels of oil storage capacity is currently located in the vicinity of Cushing. Short scene of a tank farm. Cushing ; Cushing Field ; the pipeline capital of the world ; Tom Slick Tank farms for storing oil 1051 A FEW SCENES AMONG THE OIL WELLS ADJOINING OILTON OIL WELLS IN THE CIMARRON RIVER The Cimarron River between Drumright and Oilton ran through one of the richest parts of the field. Ownership of the mineral rights under the river bed up to the line of highest water was claimed by both the federal government and the state of Oklahoma, but their claims were disputed by the owners of the adjoining Indian allotments. Oil wells are shown along the Cimarron River, and even on raised land in the middle of the river. The federal, state, and Indian governments all claimed ownership. Cimarron River ; Drumright ; Indian allotments ; mneral rights ; Oilton ; river bed ; river bed leases Oil wells built along the Cimarron River ; river bed mineral rights 1104 A SCENE FROM THE CUSHING-WEBB OIL CO'S SUB-DIVISION The Santa Fe built a railroad line from Cushing into Oilton with a spur to Drumright, and the Oil Belt Terminal Railroad tied into the Short Line from Jennings to Oilton. Both lines carried passengers, but their main goal was to deliver supplies and take out crude oil. Scenes of oil derricks, tanks, and plains of the Cushing-Webb sub-division. Bernard Jones introduces Tom Slick and Bernice Frates. Bernard B. Jones ; Bernard Jones ; Bernice Frates ; Bristow ; Cusing ; Depew ; Drumright ; Frates ; J.A. Frates ; Jennings ; Joseph A. Frates ; Joseph Frates ; Oil Belt Terminal Railroad ; Oilton ; Okmulgee ; Santa Fe ; Santa Fe Railroad ; Shamrock ; Short Line ; Tom Slick Bristow to Okmulgee railroad ; oil derricks ; oil tanks ; Santa Fe railroad ; Tom Slick marries Bernice Frates 1207 HAULING FLOW TANK TO THE WELL (Sound of horses) flow tank 1221 A WEEK’S TRIP IN THE GREAT CUSHING OIL FIELD IN OKLAHOMA FOUR REELS REEL THREE LAYING OIL PIPE LINE FROM THIS FIELD TO THE GULF OF MEXICO Numerous pipelines were built to carry away the flood of crude oil. The Texas Company and Magnolia both laid a line all the way to the Gulf of Mexico. Note that this scene was posed. Men in suits don’t just stand around very often, and this prehistoric Ditch Witch is rotating but not moving forward. Pipelines were built to transport oil. The McMan Oil Company built a pipeline to Healdton to tie into the Magnolia gathering system. Magnolia had a pipeline to the Gulf of Mexico. Arbuckle ; Cushing ; Ditch Witch ; Gulf of Mexico ; Healdton ; Healdton (Okla.) ; James Chapman ; Magnolia ; McMan Oil Company ; Robert McFarland ; Texas Company Magnolia gathering system ; pipeline built by McMan to Healdton ; The McMan Oil Company 1292 OIL FIELD CATASTROPHES INSURANCE COMPANIES ARE THE LOSERS TANKS STRUCK BY LIGHTENING OIL FIRE ON TIGER CREEK During the flush production days, lots of Cushing oil was stored in big earthen pits, and there were several spectacular fires set by lightening. Lightening also set tanks afire. Sometimes a 55 thousand barrel would catch fire and burn at the top of the tank. Oil fires are shown in earthen pits, tanks, and the Tiger Creek. Companies used a cannon to blow a hole in the bottom of a tank for the oil to drain which could then be recovered. cannon ; Cushing ; Drumright Oil Field Museum ; earthen pits ; oil tank first ; struck by lightening blowing a hole in the tank ; draining a tank on fire ; earthen pit fires ; oil pit fires ; oil tank fires set by lightening 1349 RESULT OF A 00000 GASOLINE EXPLOSION FIVE MILES OF CUSHING-WEBB OIL CO’S SUB-DIVISION Notice that these tanks are riveted tanks. Pressure vessels had to be riveted because electric arc welding had not yet been perfected. Most of the oil field tanks in those days were bolted tanks, and all the stock tanks and big storage tanks were bolted. Tanks that were damaged in a huge gasoline plant explosion are shown. The narrator talks about the Chapman and McFarland ties to Tulsa, the Glenn Pool, and the sale of McMan Oil Company to Magnolia. Glenn Pool ; Holdenville ; Holdenville Oil and Gas ; James Chapman ; Phillip Chapman ; riveted tanks ; Robert McFarland ; Sapulpa ; Tulsa ; weldd tanks Remains after a huge gasoline explosion 1462 JUNK CREW SAVING WHAT'S LEFT The Chapman’s and McFarland were already well-off, but they really made their money when they drilled leases they took in the Cushing Field. At times the McMan was the major producer in the field. A crew is seen loading scrap left after the gasoline explosion. Chapman and McFarland were very successful in the Cushing Field. Horace Bernard ; James Chapman ; McMan ; mCmAN ; Mrs. James Chapman ; Pawhuska ; pAWHUSKA ; Robert McFarland ; Tall Grass Prairie Preserve ; tALL gRASS pRAIRIE pRESERVE Chapman family charitable foundation ; crew loading scrap ; horse drawn wagons carrying scrap metal https://www.nps.gov/tapr/index.htm Tall Grass Prairie Preserve 1548 GASOLINE PLANTS & ; REFINERIES NEAR OILTON The one non-family owner of the McMan was E. T. Harwell, who owned one-sixth of the stock so he became quite rich. He built a mansion at 22nd Street and Riverside which his widow gave to the Arts and Humanities Council of Tulsa and today Harwelden is the council’s home. A gasoline plant and refinery near Oilton is shown, with tanks, and pipelines. E. T. Harwell is introduced. Casing-head gas, or drip gasoline, is discussed. Wooden tanks are described, as is oil and gas waste and the attempts to recover oil waste. anticline ; Arts and Humanities Council of Tulsa ; casing-head gas ; circulating tank ; Cushing Field ; dam ; drip gasoline ; E. T. Harwell ; East Texas pool ; Harwelden ; Magnolia ; McMan ; natural gas ; Prudhoe Bay ; Prudhoe Bay (Alaska) ; railroad tank cars ; redwood ; Riverside ; Riverside Drive ; skimming crafts ; stratigraphic traps ; tank cars ; Tiger Creek ; transportation facilities shortage ; Tulsa ; wooden tanks anticlinal traps and stratigraphic traps ; collecting drip gasoline ; collecting wasted oil with skimming crafts ; Cushing Field production compared to East Texas and Prudhoe Bay ; drip gasoline available for pumpers ; McMan oil storage tanks ; oil and gas waste ; skimmer on Tiger Creek ; water tanks made of redwood https://www.facebook.com/Harwelden Harwelden 1814 A WEEK’S TRIP IN THE GREAT CUSHING OIL FIELD IN OKLAHOMA FOUR REELS REEL FOUR As I related earlier, Joseph Frates promoted a town site in the edge of a new oil pool on the route of his new railroad from Bristow to Okmulgee. Since Tom Slick had put up most of the money, Frates chose him to be the president of the railroad, and he also named the town after Slick. A tank farm is shown in the movie. The narrator continues the story of the railroad being built from Bristow to Okmulgee and the connection to Tom Slick Bristow ; Joseph Frates ; Okmulgee ; Slick ; Tom Slick Bristow to Okmulgee railroad ; scenes of a tank farm ; Slick, Oklahoma 1874 FILLING TANK CARS WITH GASOLINE Soon after the Cushing Field was discovered, Tom Slick’s best friend, Charles F. Urschel, married Tom’s sister Mary, and took over the management of Slick’s business affairs. When Slick died at the age of forty-six in 1930, Urschel became trustee of the estate. The movie shows tank railroad tank cars being loaded with gasoline. The narrator relates the story of Tom Slick's death, Mary Slick Urschel's death, Charles Urschel marrying Bernice Frates Slick, and of Charles Urschel's kidnapping. Bernice Frates Slick ; Charles F. Urschel ; Charles Urschel ; Dallas ; Depression ; FBI ; George " ; Machine Gun" ; Kelly ; Mary Slick ; Oklahoma City ; Urschel kidnapping ; Urschel, Charles F., 1890-1970 Charles Urschel kidnapping ; Railroad tank cars being filled with gasoline ; Tom Slick, Bernice Frates Slick, Charles Urschel, and Mary Slick Urschel https://oklahoman.com/article/4626874/july-22-1933-machine-gun-kelly-kidnaps-wealthy-oilman Charles Urschel kidnapping 1984 MR. O.A. BREWER DIRECTOR OF STANDARD OIL OF WYOMING AND A LOT OWNER IN THE CUSHING WEBB OIL CO’S SUB-DIVISION MR. PAUL A. WINTERSTEEN OUR SECRETARY MR. S.M. MYERS OUR TREASURER OUR CHIEF ENGINEER INTERIOR OF OUR OFFICE CUSHING-WEBB OIL CO’S OFFICE LETTERS OF RECOMMEDATION BETTER BUY A LOT AND GET ONE OF Along with the film itself, we got a copy of some remarks made by Sam Meyers who had saved his father’s movie all those decades. Included was a message that probably was part of a flyer or brochure for the benefit of the people who had watched the film. Here’s the pitch: The final segment shows some of the Cushing-Webb officers, engineer, offices, letters of recommendation from local Stillwater entities, and a stock certificate. Cimarron River ; Cushing ; Cushing Oil Field ; Cushing-Webb ; Cushing-Webb Oil Company ; Drumright ; How Oklahoma Millionaires Are Made ; Jennings ; Mr. O.A. Brewer ; Mr. Paul A. Wintersteen ; O.A. Brewer ; Oilton ; Paul A. Wintersteen ; S. M. Meyers ; Sam Meyers ; Tulsa ; Yale area map showing drilling site ; capturing the pitch on film ; Cushing-Webb office ; Cushing-Webb officers ; letters of recommendation ; lot numbers ; the pitch to invest in the discovery well A promotional video of the Cushing Oil Field filmed in 1917 or 1918 to promote the sale of interests for a new well to be drilled by the Cushing-Webb Oil Company. Commentary added by George Krumme in 2003. " ; How Oklahoma Millionaires Are Made" ; Narrated by George Krumme GK: My name is George Krumme. I' ; m a partner in Krumme Oil Company of Bristow, Oklahoma. In the early 1980' ; s, J. B. Red, a Stillwater oil man, contacted my brother and me with a proposition. A friend of his, Sam Myers, had saved a four-reel, silent moving picture made for his father' ; s company many decades earlier. J. B. had just seen the picture and said to himself " ; This movie ought to be preserved, but the old celluloid film will not last indefinitely." ; So he talked to someone at Oklahoma State University and their audio-visual center agreed to copy the 35 millimeter film onto new 16 millimeter film, and make several copies, if some group would subsidize the costs. As I remember it, we paid a third of the cost and in return got a copy of the film. The movie covers the Cushing Oil Field, and it was made in 1917 or 18 when the field was five or six years old. Sam Myers father was a principal in the Cushing-Webb Oil Company of Stillwater which planned to drill a well near the Cushing Field northwest of Oilton. The company made the film to promote the sale of interests in the well. Mr. Myers hired a professional photographer from Oklahoma City who used an early style, manually operated camera. The well was drilled by the way, and it was a dry hole. With that as the background, let' ; s start the action. A WEEK' ; S TRIP IN THE GREAT CUSHING OIL FIELD IN OKLAHOMA FOUR REELS REEL ONE THE LARGEST HIGH GRADE OIL FIELD IN THE WORLD OIL FIELD TOWNS. OILTON 15 YEARS AGO (Background music) The caption says Oilton 15 years ago, but it should say Oilton today and Oilton 15 years ago, because the first scenes are of downtown Oilton during the boom. Oilton was not even founded until 1915, three years after the discovery well was drilled. (Native Americans riding though camp) The Cushing Field and the proposed wildcat well were both located in Creek County in the Creek Nation, but the Indians shown in this movie are certainly not Creek Indians. The Creeks were one of the Five Civilized Tribes, originally from Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia, and teepees, feathered headdresses, and buffalo were not part of their world. These Indians are clearly plains Indians. Oilton is only a few miles from Pawnee County, so these may well have been Pawnee Indians, or perhaps they were Indians who performed at the old 101 Ranch who were hired as extras to add some exotic color to the film. Either way, these are honest Indians and not Hollywood Indians. The white man tied to the stake and the white woman pleading for his life may have been employees of the Cushing-Webb Company, who as a bonus were allowed to appear in the movies. (Piano music playing) Somehow I don' ; t think there were any wild bison in Oklahoma in 1917, and I doubt very much if this particular animal was killed by a spear or a bow and arrow. Authentic scenes of early day Oklahoma add color to the film. By 1917 the most common draft animal should have been the mule, and oxen should have been rare. Log houses chinked with mud would have been unusual, too. The film was made near the end of horse and buggy days when electricity was available only in towns, running water in country homes was unheard of, and outdoor privies were regularly stocked with Montgomery Ward catalogs. BUSY OILTON TO-DAY AND WHAT MAKES IT Cushing Field was discovered in 1912. It was named for Cushing even though the town is 10 or 12 miles west of the field. At the time, it was the closest town. Drumright was founded near the discovery well during the following year, and Oilton was founded a couple of years later. (Background chatter) The discovery well was drilled by the legendary Tom Slick, later called " ; King of the Wildcatters." ; Slick was not yet 30 but he had already built a reputation. Unfortunately, it was a reputation for drilling dry holes, because during the previous seven or eight years he had drilled or participated in about 10 dusters without a single hit. At the time it was said that he was " ; broke as flat as a pancake" ; . He could toss up a dollar and it would change into ten cents before it hit the floor. Even though he still had some backers, he had to go to Chicago to persuade an old employer, C. B. Shaffer, to lend him eight thousand dollars to drill the well, and he had to borrow a hundred dollars in order to pay for the trip. DRUMRIGHT FOUR YEARS OLD POPULATION 15000 At the first strong showing of oil and gas, Slick had the driller fill the hole with mud and water and invert a wash tub over the casing with a heavy drilling tool on top. He then cut the telephone line to the Wheeler home and high tailed it to Cushing where he hired every livery team and every notary in Cushing in order to delay his competitions' ; landmen. Meanwhile, Slick and his associates began taking oil and gas leases. Even though they did obtain many, so did others, and many a fortune was made in the field during the next few years. BUILDING A DERRICK (Sawing and rig building sounds) Drilling with cable tools was fairly well standardized in the early days of the industry. All of the original drilling in the Cushing Field was done with what was called a standard rig, using steam power. In those days, rotary drilling was generally confined to the soft rocks of the Gulf Coast and California because the early rotary bits did a poor job of drilling in hard rocks. To build a standard rig, rig irons and lumber were hauled in and everything was assembled on the location. A boiler, a steam engine, and lots of casing completed the setup leaving only the wire lines and the tools which were furnished by the drilling contractor. DRILLING Drilling was done using the walking beam, but the tools had to be below floor level before it could be used. So to start the well, a spudding line was run from the crank to a sliding shoe which was hooked over the drilling line just above the bull wheels. As the crank turned, the sliding shoe pulled and then slackened the line, which raised and lowered the tools. The same principle operates a spudder, which was the cable tool machine that replaced the standard rig. A spud, by the way, was originally a spade used for digging roots, which is why starting to drill is called spudding, and why potatoes are called spuds UNLOADING CASING AT THE RAILROAD If the well turned out to be a producer, the steam engine was replaced with a big single cylinder engine, and the rig and derrick were kept to pump and service the well. If the derrick was blown down, the rig was kept in operation but was referred to as a bob tailed rig. This is a primitive but practical way to unload casing. When our company first started in the oil business in the late forties, we bought a few railroad cars of casing. We did not own a truck with tall enough gin poles, so we unloaded the casing exactly the same way as they' ; re doing here, except that we used a truck or a pickup instead of a team of mules. LOADING CASING AT THE CIMARRON RIVER NEAR OILTON As you can see, the casing being loaded here is too large to be production casing. Big casing was used in drilling the well. Drilling at the Cushing Field was difficult because there were numerous shallow sand formations that produced water. Drilling in a hole full of water is very slow. To dry up the hole, the drillers installed a string of big casing, and then as more water sands were reached successively smaller strings were run. Four or five strings of pipe were generally run to reach the Bartlesville producing sand in the Cushing Field. This represented quite an investment and most often the bigger strings would be stripped out either at the completion of the well or sometime later, leaving only the inside one or two strings. None of the casing was cemented, that technological improvement occurred in the 1920s. The discovery well in the Cushing Field was completed at about 2200 feet, in an uralitic phase of the Oswego limestone. The pay zone was promptly named the Wheeler sand because it was found on the Wheeler farm. HAULING CASING TO THE WELL (Sounds of wagons being pulled) Teamsters prefer horses instead of mules for hauling in the oil fields. Draft horses were bigger and stronger. Farmers, and the US Army in World War I, preferred mules because they were heartier, but they were also more stubborn. A year or so after the discovery well was drilled, a test drilled deeper to the Bartlesville sand found a far better pay sand and in another year or so production peaked at 300 thousand barrels a day from about three thousand wells. For comparison, the total oil production for the entire state of Oklahoma in 2002 averaged about 180 thousand barrels a day, only a little more than half the peak production of the Cushing Field in 1915. MOVING HOTEL BETWEEN MEALS (Horses walking across wooden bridge) Ironically, some of the biggest Bartlesville wells were not in the Bartlesville sand at all. The Cushing structure is bald-headed. Over most of the structure the Mississippi lime is missing, and the Bartlesville lies directly on the ore division, Wilcox, and other Simpson sands. PREPARING THE ' ; EATS' ; NOON (Sounds of chickens, washing, talking while eating) Between Drumright and Oilton, in an area of a few square miles, even the Bartlesville is missing and the drill goes directly from the Redfork into productive Arbuckle limestone. Some Arbuckle wells made five or six thousand barrels a day. It was a long time before operators realized that the pay zone was not only not Bartlesville sand, it wasn' ; t even sand. An old Sinclair hand once told me that one reason they didn' ; t realize it was limestone was that the flow of gas and oil was so strong they never saw the cuttings. A Drumright oil man told me that they first recognized that it was not sand production when their separators and receiving tanks filled up with chunks of limestone that the heavy flow of oil and gas had carried from the formation into the tanks. A United States Geological Survey bulletin printed as late as 1917 doesn' ; t even list the Arbuckle as one of the productive formations. A WEEK' ; S TRIP IN THE GREAT CUSHING OIL FIELD IN OKLAHOMA FOUR REELS REEL TWO CASING CREW AT WORK In a standard rig, the big bull wheels which held the drilling cable blocked the face of the derrick so the casing wrap was placed opposite the crank, and the casing was wagoned in from the walking beam side using a front wagon and a back wagon. This pipe looks like seven-inch casing so it may be the final inside production string. When the picture comes to the rig floor, you can see the driller turn the throttle control wheel and in the background you can see two ropes in the form of a figure eight. These are the bull ropes which carried power from the band wheel to the bull wheels, somewhat like a long, fat, round v-belt. The principle reason for the figure eight was to give the rope greater friction on the bull wheels and on the tug pulley which was bolted to the band wheel. Early rigs used the bull wheels to run casing. Later standard rigs used a separate chain driven reel much smaller so naturally it was called a half-wheel. You can see the half-wheel behind the driller. And yet they are running casing using the bull wheels, why I cannot say. To screw the pipe together the crew is using a " ; never slip" ; , a rope, a casing pole, and six men. Our company used to drill with cable tools but we used only four men. But then we were running round thread casing rather than the older style D-thread casing. HAULING STORAGE TANK TO THE TANK FARM Back to the subject of the Arbuckle limestone, one Arbuckle well north of Drumright still makes about a hundred and fifteen barrels a day along with ungodly amounts of water. New wells are still occasionally drilled to the Arbuckle. SHOOTING THE WELL THE SHOOTER ARRIVES Liquid nitroglycerin is highly unstable and very dangerous to handle. Shooting continued to be the most popular way to stimulate a well until the development of sand fracking around 1950. The first sand fracking jobs were done using napalm, that is, jellied gasoline. The early standard frack job was a thousand pounds of sand and a thousand gallons of jell. Now a days jelled water is used and the job might be a hundred times as big. SOUNDING FOR DEPTH Stanolind Oil Company got a patent on the sand fracking process and it collected royalties on every job. Stanolind soon constructed a large research lab in the corn fields at the edge of Tulsa at 41st Street and Yale. It was very appropriately called " ; the house that frack built." ; PREPARING THE CHARGE I' ; m sorry to say I don' ; t know what the washing in the bucket is accomplishing. By the time we started in the business a blasting gel had been developed and it was much safer than nitroglycerin. In the early days a shot was set off by dropping a short piece of pipe called a " ; go -devil" ; to hit a firing cap at the top of the torpedo. By the time we were in the business, the shot was set off with a time bomb made in Tulsa by the Zero Hour Bomb Company. POURING NITRO-GLYCERINE INTO TUBE AND LOWERING IN THE WELL When sand fracking put the well shooting trade out of business, the Zero Hour Bomb Company shortened its name to Zebco and began manufacturing fishing reels. Before the development of the time bomb, there was no way to tamp the shot. That is, to confine it in some way. So when the shot went off, it would blow whatever was in the hole out. This made some impressive photographs possible, and it was a good time to have company officials or investors around to watch. (Sound of a gusher) LAYING PIPE LINE TO THE TANK FARM The Cushing Field has produced about a half billion barrels of oil. Early flush production overloaded the hastily constructed pipelines. It broke the price of oil and kept it low for several years. But Tom Slick and others found a solution. Slick erected twelve giant tanks on the Frisco Railroad at Bristow and built a twenty-mile pipeline to carry his oil into storage until the price went up. Note the use of a pipe-jack to hold the line pipe in line while the crew is screwing the joints together using latongs. Where two crews worked together they timed their actions in synchrony with the strokes of a worker who hammered the pipe near the collar. The hammering not only synchronized the working of the tongs, it also caused a vibration of the pipe that made it easier to screw the joints together. Regardless of his personal traits, the hammer man was called a pecker. THE TANK FARM Like Tom Slick, others built tank farms, and at one time about 23 million barrels of oil was stored at or near the Cushing Field, which is part of the reason why Cushing became " ; the pipeline crossroads of the world." ; About 30 million barrels of oil storage capacity is currently located in the vicinity of Cushing. A FEW SCENES AMONG THE OIL WELLS ADJOINING OILTON OIL WELLS IN THE CIMARRON RIVER The Cimarron River between Drumright and Oilton ran through one of the richest parts of the field. Ownership of the mineral rights under the river bed up to the line of highest water was claimed by both the federal government and the state of Oklahoma, but their claims were disputed by the owners of the adjoining Indian allotments. The state of Oklahoma sold river bed leases and many wells were drilled along the banks of the Cimarron. A decade and a half later, the court decided in favor of the Indians. Some wells were even drilled in the middle of the river on tiny islands built for that purpose. Most of the time there were few problems, because the Cimarron was wide but shallow. " ; A mile wide and a foot deep" ; as they say on the high plains. In flood times it was a different matter. A SCENE FROM THE CUSHING-WEBB OIL CO' ; S SUB-DIVISION The Santa Fe built a railroad line from Cushing into Oilton with a spur to Drumright, and the Oil Belt Terminal Railroad tied into the Short Line from Jennings to Oilton. Both lines carried passengers, but their main goal was to deliver supplies and take out crude oil. As the field was extended southward, a railroad entrepreneur named Joseph A. Frates built a similar spur from Depew to Shamrock which eventually connected to the Santa Fe at Drumright. But Joseph Frates had another tie to the history of the Cushing Field. Frates had a 25-year old daughter. He also had a friend who was a banker in Bristow. The banker was none other than Bernard B. Jones, one of Tom Slick' ; s principal associates. Jones introduced Bernice Frates to his bachelor friend, and within a few months Tom Slick and Bernice Frates were married. So J. A. Frates, who liked to build railroads, had a wealthy son-in-law. For years afterwards, Slick furnished the capital for railroad and real estate ventures promoted and managed by his new father-in-law. One of these ventures was the construction of a railroad from Bristow to Okmulgee about 1920. The principle attraction for that particular route was a recently discovered oil pool about ten miles east of Bristow. The railroad skirted the edge of the pool and Frates plans included a railroad stop and a town site to service the new pool. I' ; ll tell more about that later. HAULING FLOW TANK TO THE WELL (Sound of horses) A WEEK' ; S TRIP IN THE GREAT CUSHING OIL FIELD IN OKLAHOMA FOUR REELS REEL THREE LAYING OIL PIPE LINE FROM THIS FIELD TO THE GULF OF MEXICO Numerous pipelines were built to carry away the flood of crude oil. The Texas Company and Magnolia both laid a line all the way to the Gulf of Mexico. Note that this scene was posed. Men in suits don' ; t just stand around very often, and this prehistoric Ditch Witch is rotating but not moving forward. The best Arbuckle production at Cushing was owned by the McMan Oil Company whose principal owners were Robert McFarland and James Chapman and his father. The McMan built a 130 mile, eight inch line all the way to the Healdton area to tie into Magnolia' ; s gathering system there. The McMan maintained that the pipeline was a private line, not subject to the common carrier rules and with a capacity of 22,000 barrels a day it handled only McMan' ; s own crude production. An experienced crew could lay even a big pipeline very fast. Today most pipelines are welded rather than screwed together. OIL FIELD CATASTROPHES INSURANCE COMPANIES ARE THE LOSERS TANKS STRUCK BY LIGHTENING (Sound of fire burning) During the flush production days, lots of Cushing oil was stored in big earthen pits, and there were several spectacular fires set by lightening. Lightening also set tanks afire. Sometimes a 55 thousand barrel would catch fire and burn at the top of the tank. The companies learned that if they could drain the tank into the moat surrounding the tank, they could pump the oil out of the moat and save lots of oil. So the companies set a cannon, just like the old civil war cannons, to fire at the base of the burning tank so they could generate a hole big enough to drain the tank and pump away the oil. The Drumright Oil Field Museum still has a cannon on display. RESULT OF A 00000 GASOLINE EXPLOSION FIVE MILES OF CUSHING-WEBB OIL CO' ; S SUB-DIVISION Notice that these tanks are riveted tanks. Pressure vessels had to be riveted because electric arc welding had not yet been perfected. Most of the oil field tanks in those days were bolted tanks, and all the stock tanks and big storage tanks were bolted. Electric arc welding was developed during World War I and welded tanks gradually became the standard. Even so, leases drilled in the forties in our area were still being outfitted with bolted tanks. Chapman and McFarland' ; s ties to Magnolia were quite strong. In 1917 the McMan sold all of its production to Magnolia at the unheard of price of 39 million dollars, which was a lot of money in 1917 dollars. The sale included other properties besides the Cushing production. It was the biggest sale in the industry up to that time, and it stayed a record breaker for more than 30 years. To those of you not familiar with Tulsa, the names Chapman and McFarland were important here. Originally ranchers from Holdenville, Phillip Chapman had married Robert McFarland' ; s sister so their son James Chapman was McFarland' ; s nephew. Before the Glenn Pool was discovered in nineteen-five, McFarland had bought a forty-acre tract near Sapulpa. Instead of leasing their land, they decided to drill it themselves. They formed Holdenville Oil and Gas, found prolific oil, and became well-to-do. James Chapman soon married McFarland' ; s daughter, his first cousin, so it was a rather closely interconnected business relationship. Both families eventually moved to Tulsa and were very active in business and civic affairs. JUNK CREW SAVING WHAT' ; S LEFT (Horses walking on bridge) The Chapman' ; s and McFarland were already well-off, but they really made their money when they drilled leases they took in the Cushing Field. At times the McMan was the major producer in the field. Now-a-days charitable foundations created by members of the Chapman family distribute about 50 million dollars every year, much of it to non-profit organizations in the Tulsa area. The Tall Grass Prairie Preserve north of Pawhuska was originally the property of James Chapman and Horace Barnard. Barnard was Robert McFarland' ; s brother-in-law, and therefore Mrs. James Chapman' ; s uncle. He had also been an associate in the family' ; s oil business. (Sounds of horse' ; s whinny, ' ; git up' ; , and loading large pieces of scrap) GASOLINE PLANTS & ; REFINERIES NEAR OILTON The one non-family owner of the McMan was E. T. Harwell, who owned one-sixth of the stock so he became quite rich. He built a mansion at 22nd Street and Riverside which his widow gave to the Arts and Humanities Council of Tulsa and today Harwelden is the council' ; s home. At least a dozen gasoline plants operated in the Cushing Field to recover as much gasoline as possible from the casing-head gas. Most of the gas was quite rich and lots of gasoline could be recovered. In fact, drips had to be installed in the gas lines near the producing wells to catch the liquids that would gather in the lines. Drip gasoline burned quite readily in the simpler automobiles of the day, and many a pumper had a plentiful supply of tax-free gasoline to power his Model-T. Modern cars will not run on drip gasoline. Wooden tanks were common in the early oil fields. Virtually all the water tanks were made of wood - redwood, because its straight grain and resistance to decay makes redwood ideal for a water tank. The big engines and compressors of the gas plants required lots of cooling capacity, but even the smaller single cylinder engines of the pumping wells required a modest wooden circulating tank. Gasoline plants recovered liquids that would have otherwise been wasted. But lots of oil and gas was wasted in the Cushing Field anyhow. Much of the natural gas was vented, and one gas well making an estimated 50 million cubic feet a day burned wild for several weeks. In addition, much Cushing crude oil was lost into various gullies and creeks and finely into the Cimarron River. Two men built a dam and a trap to catch oil floating on Tiger Creek and collected about 6,000 barrels of oil over a very short period of time. Other entrepreneurs copied their example, and skimming crafts became common. Grease skimming crafts were even constructed across the Cimarron River. The last skimmer on Drumright' ; s Tiger Creek was finely abandoned in the early thirties when the field was about 20 years old. One old timer said he had seen oil run down Tiger Creek two or three feet deep. The shortage of pipeline and railroad transportation facilities made other waste inevitable. In the great fire of 1914, almost one million barrels of oil was converted to smoke. Evaporation and seepage from oil stored in open pits were continual losses. The McMan alone had 60 thousand barrels of crude in two giant pits at one time, and even after they had erected and filled thirty-seven 55 thousand barrel tanks, they still had about three thousand barrels of oil in an open pit. Occasionally you will see in the background a locomotive pulling tank cars. Magnolia alone had about a thousand tank cars, each holding two hundred barrels to transport oil or gasoline. A barrel of crude oil contains 42 gallons. The Cushing Field is on a distinct anticline that shows on the surface. An anticline is an elongated dome of rocks, originally deposited as horizontal layers and it is a common kind of trap for oil or gas. Many of the oil pools discovered in the earliest days of the industry have been stratigraphic traps not located on an anticline. And therefore the theory that oil collected in domes and anticlines have been challenged by competing theories. The Cushing Field was one of the largest fields discovered up to that time, and it was clearly an anticlinal trap. It has been frequently credited with being the first real confirmation of the anticlinal theory of oil accumulation. After the Cushing Field was discovered, oil companies established geological departments and blanketed prospective areas with surveying crews mapping the outcrops and looking for surface anticlines. The Cushing Field, as important as it was with a half-billion barrel cumulative recovery, barely ranks as a giant field. It does not compete with other giant and super giant fields of the world, or even of the United States. For example, the East Texas pool, the largest in the contiguous United States, has produced more than five billion barrels of oil, and the Prudhoe Bay field in Alaska will ultimately produce 12 or 13 billion barrels. In the year 2000, the Cushing Field proper was still producing about 24 hundred barrels a day. A WEEK' ; S TRIP IN THE GREAT CUSHING OIL FIELD IN OKLAHOMA FOUR REELS REEL FOUR (Birds) As I related earlier, Joseph Frates promoted a town site in the edge of a new oil pool on the route of his new railroad from Bristow to Okmulgee. Since Tom Slick had put up most of the money, Frates chose him to be the president of the railroad, and he also named the town after Slick. Contrary to the assumptions of many people, Slick had nothing to do with the discovery or the development of the Slick pool, which was named for the town, rather than the other way around. The railroad was never built all the way to Okmulgee. Automobiles, trucks, and pipelines took away the need for a railroad and soon spelled its end. As for the Slick town site, it boomed to about five thousand, and gradually dwindled to about a hundred and fifty inhabitants today. FILLING TANK CARS WITH GASOLINE Soon after the Cushing Field was discovered, Tom Slick' ; s best friend, Charles F. Urschel, married Tom' ; s sister Mary, and took over the management of Slick' ; s business affairs. When Slick died at the age of forty-six in 1930, Urschel became trustee of the estate. Mary Slick Urschel died the next year, but Urschel did not remain a widower long. In 1932 he married Tom' ; s widow, Bernice Frates Slick, and so united in a new way the Slick and Urschel families and fortunes. Keeping it all in the family seems to be an oil field tradition. Needless to say, Urschel and his wife were quite well off. The next year, on July 22nd, 1933, George " ; Machine Gun" ; Kelly and a confederate broke up a bridge game at Charles Urschel' ; s home in Oklahoma City, kidnapped him, and held him for a quarter of a million dollars ransom. A quarter of a million dollars is a respectable figure even these days, but it represented a lot more in 1933 dollars in the middle of the depression. After the ransom was paid, Urschel gave every clue he could remember to the FBI, including his observation that a plane flew over the hideout at the same time every afternoon during his nine-day captivity, except on Tuesday. There weren' ; t many scheduled flights in 1933 and the police found that an afternoon flight westward out of Dallas had been cancelled on that very Tuesday. With this and other clues, they located the farm house where he had been held. The two kidnappers were subsequently caught and given life sentences. MR. O.A. BREWER DIRECTOR OF STANDARD OIL OF WYOMING AND A LOT OWNER IN THE CUSHING WEBB OIL CO' ; S SUB-DIVISION Along with the film itself, we got a copy of some remarks made by Sam Meyers who had saved his father' ; s movie all those decades. Included was a message that probably was part of a flyer or brochure for the benefit of the people who had watched the film. Here' ; s the pitch: MR. PAUL A. WINTERSTEEN OUR SECRETARY " ; When you saw our canvas banner flying on Main Street, inviting you to see this picture titled " ; How Oklahoma Millionaires Are Made" ; , you wondered why we were here and just what we were selling. My friends, we' ; re not here to sell you anything. We are here to show you how many of your neighbors MR. S.M. MYERS OUR TREASURER in Oklahoma are taking advantage of the golden opportunity they have to acquire riches by investing in the great Cushing Oil Field. You' ; ve seen our picture, you' ; ve seen how people from Tulsa and elsewhere daily debark from the passenger train at Drumright, to participate in the rush to acquire a piece of the action in the great Cushing Oil Field, hoping to improve themselves financially. You' ; ve seen in our picture how oil, black gold, comes out of the ground, often OUR CHIEF ENGINEER flowing over the crown blocks of the wooden derricks, into wooden tanks or earthen pits in an excess of a thousand, two thousand, three thousand, or five thousand barrels per day. At a market price of a dollar to a dollar and a half per barrel, this sometimes means a monthly income from one well of a hundred and fifty thousand dollars, or often much, much more. We would have preferred to have you visit Oklahoma INTERIOR OF OUR OFFICE and the Cushing-Webb company offices, and to see in person on the ground of the great Cushing Oil Field. But like Mohammad, when the mountains wouldn' ; t come to him, he went to the mountain. Since it was impossible for you to come to us, we have come to you. You have seen in the movie and our offices the recommendations from our bank and from our chamber of commerce and the officers of our company, and the potential oil property we own and proposed to develop adjacent to the great Cushing Oil Field." ; That is the end of the message. Here we have an example of the crucial part of a presentation, the closing. But there' ; s also another important stage in the life of a project, the ending. I remembered well the advice of an old hand of the business of spending other people' ; s money looking for oil. " ; If your well is dry" ; he said, " ; keep your acreage and tell all your investors something might turn up later to make it valuable. And occasionally" ; , he said, " ; something did turn up. But in the meantime you have kept some hope alive, and disappointment is accepted much more gracefully if the realization is spread out over time" ; . CUSHING-WEBB OIL CO' ; S OFFICE In contrast to some promotions that have been made in the oil business, this project was advanced by a reputable company in a very original manner, and we have been able to look back almost a century because the company was enterprising enough to present its wares in a new medium, on film. LETTERS OF RECOMMEDATION You can see that Cushing-Webb was a legitimate operation. The northern most town is Jennings, and the town to the left is Yale. To the east of Yale, you can see the hand and finger pointing to the proposed well, which as I have said proved to be a dry hole. Oilton is the town in the bend of the Cimarron River. Southwest of Oilton is Cushing, and to the east of Cushing at the edge of the field is Drumright. Needless to say, the inhabitants of Drumright prefer to call the field the Drumright oil field. The field actually extends another seven or eight miles south of the wells shown on this map. I' ; m not sure how their lot system worked, but a thirty-dollar investment seems reasonable for almost anything. BETTER BUY A LOT AND GET ONE OF THESE And remember, the investment came with an Oklahoma guarantee. SEE OUR REPRESENTATIVES WE THANK YOU THE CUSHING WEBB OIL CO GENERAL OFFICE STILLWATER OKLAHOMA Thanks for watching the show with me. Reproduction courtesy of Krumme Oil Company Bristow, Oklahoma Produced by George Krumme Written & ; Narrated by George Krumme " ; How Oklahoma Millionaires Are Made" ; Copyright 2003 Krumme Oil Company video 0 https://bristoworalhistory.org/ohms/viewer.php?cachefile=OHP-0001-V_Geo_Krumme_How_Oklahoma_Millionaires_Are_Made.xml OHP-0001-V_Geo_Krumme_How_Oklahoma_Millionaires_Are_Made.xml
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How Oklahoma Millionaires Are Made - George Krumme
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A video of the Cushing Oil Field filmed in 1917 or 1918 to promote the sale of interests for a new well to be drilled by the Cushing-Webb Oil Company. Commentary added by George Krumme in 2003.
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How Oklahoma Millionaires Are Made
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1917
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video