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Oral History
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Interviewer
The person(s) performing the interview
Georgia Smith
Interviewee
The person(s) being interviewed
Gerald Guy Henshaw
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Viewer)
https://bristoworalhistory.org/ohms/viewer.php?cachefile=OHP-2021-17_Gerald_Henshaw.xml
OHMS Object Text
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5.4 June 30, 2021 OHP-2021-17 Gerald Henshaw OHP-2021-17 'Bristow Historical Society-Oral History Archive' Bristow Historical Society, Inc. Gerald Guy Henshaw Georgia Smith mp3 1:|77(2)|117(3)|188(7)|220(2)|260(2)|305(11)|341(12)|386(1)|441(4)|484(8)|546(2)|583(6)|643(9)|697(5)|742(5)|770(6)|824(2)|880(5)|938(2)|967(12)|1010(2)|1039(16)|1076(9)|1115(2)|1146(4)|1184(8)|1250(2)|1282(7)|1333(2)|1369(1)|1409(5)|1443(3)|1496(4)|1532(4)|1570(1)|1624(6)|1662(8)|1676(4)|1721(6)|1765(13)|1793(12)|1816(5)|1863(16)|1894(15)|1919(5)|1941(8)|1956(13)|1983(3)|2023(4)|2045(2)|2069(12) 0 https://bristoworalhistory.org/interviews/OHP-2021-17 Henshaw, Gerald.mp3 Other audio 0 Introduction and Family History GS: This is Georgia Smith with the Bristow Historical society in Bristow, Oklahoma. And this interview is part of the Historical Societies ongoing oral history project. Today is June 30th, 2021 and I’m sitting here with Gerald Henshaw and his friend Jim hurt, who I’ve just interviewed. And he’s going to tell me a little bit about his history in Bristow and Jim might chime in if he has any memories as we go along. So Gerald could you give me your full name? GH: Gerald Guy Henshaw GS: Okay, and Jim could you give me your full name again? JH: Jimmy Allen Hurt GS: Thank you. Okay Gerald what was your name at birth? GH: Gerald Guy Henshaw Bonita Childress ; Bristow Historical Society ; Farmer ; Franklin A. Henshaw ; Franklin S. Henshaw ; Georgia Smith ; Gerald Henshaw ; Helen Henshaw ; Irene Rush ; Jim Hurt ; Norma Hallman ; Oil Worker https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/228596411/franklin-abile-henshaw Franklin A. Henshaw https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/22766193/rosa-irene-henshaw Irene Rush Henshaw https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/228570988/naomi-ann-henshaw Naomi Ann Henshaw https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/22766187/franklin-s-henshaw Franklin S. Henshaw 334 Early Childhood GS: Okay, tell me about what life was like at home when you were growing up? GH: At home, let’s see, I had my brothers- let’s see, two of my brothers was living there and of course we was in fights all the time, they was fightin’ me all the time. GS: Yeah GH: And then, course the girls- I was the king [indecipherable] of the girls. You know, I keep charge of them and, and so we kinda just- we’s kinda really on our own basically cause dad worked nights, and we were kinda. Then well and I’ll tell ya about another story about we had lighting [Indecipherable] house we lived in. First all, we had corduroy lights. GS: Okay GH: Had [indecipherable] by the corduroy lights and then we got a- when dad come in put gas lights in, we had gas line go across the property 1950 ; Midwest City ; Oklahoma Tire and Supply ; Rory Rogers ; Tommy Earl Henshaw https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/26833064/tommy-earl-henshaw Tommy Earl Henshaw 757 School Life GS: Oh goodness, where did you first attend school Gerald? GH: Where? GS: Uh-huh GS: First grade I was in Edison, and then they decided well [Indecipherable] anyone come in a ride the bus had to go over to Washington. GS: Okay GH: So we went over to Washington and stayed there, so I guess, what, sixth grade maybe? GS: Yes GH: And then came back to the middle school Bristow High School ; Edison ; FFA ; Fusco ; grade school ; jalopy ; junior high ; List Motors ; Mr. Pow ; Mrs. List ; School ; Washington ; Wendell List https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/25204414/wendell-oliver-list Wendell List https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/25204411/mignon-list Mignon List 1155 Church Life GS: Yeah. Okay and now I know that Jim went to a church as a child, did you go to church as a child? GH: My mother I understand was really a stout Christian, and she’d took us to church every day. Dad didn’t go, but, but then I was baptized at the first Baptist church here in Bristow. GS: Okay, do you remember who your pastor was? GH: Day GS: Day? JH: Vernon Day (ph) GH: Vernon day, yeah. Yeah he was the pastor and I really remember going home and telling dad that I’d got baptized that day, and I’ll tell ya a little story about him too, he was [Indecipherable] because I was, I still remember today, of course we always would. But Whenever my mother passed away, we had these do gooders that’d come in from Church ; First Baptist Church ; Vernon Day 1302 Entertainment and Medical/Dental Care GS: Can you tell me anything about the entertainment that we had in Bristow? GH: Entertainment, oh yeah we had three, two- two shows GS: Okay GH: [Indecipherable] GS: Okay GH: And one drive in theater out at the— GS: Pirate drive in GH: Pirate drive in, take my little 39’ ford and fold out seat. The back of it was welded, the trunk was welded shut, it had this seat to get into— you had to raise the seat to get in the back of— you had to pile in the back of there, and close the seat down. Drive to the window Amphitheater ; Carnivals ; Creek County Fair ; Crest Toothpaste ; Dental School ; Doctor ; Doctor King ; Drive-in theater ; Entertainment ; Oklahoma City ; Parades ; Peggy Durham ; Pirate Drive-In ; polio ; Rodeos ; Silver Plunge ; Skating Rink http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/28659 Pirate Drive-In 1722 Jobs, Businesses, and Education GS: As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up? GH: Old GS: Amen GH: Now I’m old. [Indecipherable] I guess I wanted to be a cowboy GS: A cowboy? GH: [Inaudible] I always wanted to be [Inaudible] and stuff GS: Right GH: Silver [Inaudible] GS: Very romanticized image of the cowboy GH: Right GS: What was your first job other than farm? Allstate ; American Lines ; Bristow Community Bank ; Contract Administration ; Contract Administrator ; cowboy ; DLA ; Hamburger King ; Hi-Cafe ; J& ; J Cafe ; John Sukabody ; JR Childress ; Locker Plant ; mechanic ; Moon Shop ; Oklahoma Tires Supply ; Okmulgee, Ok ; OSU Okmulgee ; OSUIT ; Palace Drug ; Social Degree ; State Farm 2224 Military Service GS: Yes, yup, yeah you never can predict them a lot of times. So what branch of the service were you in? GH: I was in the air force GS: In the air force? And what was your— what were your duties there? GH: My duties in the air force I’ll tell ya that story. I went in and [Indecipherable] and I were friend, we lived out in [Indecipherable] county. Anyway, we went in, the recruiter says “Okay you boys can stay together. While you were in the service, we decided that you boys are really good”. Well we went- we worked together one night in base ; we went into basic training, got through with that. 8th Air force police force, 8th Air force police. We got wiped out in ol’ Korea. So this whole platoon went into the air police except one. It was [Indecipherable]. Him and ol’ [Indecipherable]. GS: Wouldn’t you know Air Force ; Altus ; Canine School ; Korea ; Korean War 2447 Bootleggers and Prohibition GS: Yup, Did I miss something Jim? JH: Yeah, the bootleggers GS: Oh the bootleggers! We mentioned them but we didn’t go any further! Tell me about the bootleggers, one of ya. GH: Well the bootleggers- GS: Well you talked about buying the white lightening and then feeling guilty about spending the buck on it GH: Yeah, well it wasn’t my dollar, it was my dad’s dollar. GS: Yeah JH: No Frank Junie (ph) lived down the road from me, and everybody knew he was a bootlegger, and his daughter married a bootlegger whose name was Smith who lived across from J& ; J Café upstairs. But anyway, Frank had a boat with a cover over it and he’d go to Missouri and pick it up and come back so— otherwise you drove one of these big cars and loaded it down the back end the highway patrol would stop you and then take all your merchandise Bootleggers ; Frank Junie ; J& ; J Cafe ; Jonny Baker ; liquor ; Prohibition ; Texco Cafe ; White Lightening 2530 Wheat Harvest and Adult Life GH: I forgot to tell you about wheat harvest GS: Tell me about that wheat harvest GH: Wheat harvest, yeah we went to wheat harvest up in Kansas GS: Yes GH: And I drove the truck up there GS: Uh-huh GH: To wheat harvest. [Indecipherable] International truck GS: Yes GH: Stick, shift gears GS: Uh-huh Wheat ; Wheat Harvest 2736 Closing Thoughts and Hamburger King GS: Well yes I would too. That just wasn’t right at all! I’m gonna ask you the same question I asked Jim. As you see it now, what are some of the biggest problems that face our nation and how do you think they could be solved? GH: Biggest problem that I can [Indecipherable] is selfishness GS: Yeah GH: People who haven’t had to work, are not working, they think the big government is gonna take care of them for the rest of their lives. Talking about giving them free college, and free this free that, which I think is wrong and way to turn that around is to give a persona a hand up instead of a hand out. GS: Give them an incentive GH: Give them something [Indecipherable] teach them out to fish and all that stuff GS: Exactly Bob Wills ; Bristow Historical Society ; BristowHistoricalSociety.org ; Donald Crawford ; Golden Eagle Cafe ; Hamburger King ; J& ; J Cafe ; Jonny Lee Wills ; Kellyville ; Lucian Tiger ; Luke Fry ; Route 66 https://www.bristowhistory.org/ Bristow Historical Society In this 2021 interview, Gerald Henshaw shares his experience growing up in Bristow alongside his friend Jim Hurt. He discusses life on a farm, numerous jobs, and together Gerald and Jim share stories from their young adult lives. Interviewer: Georgia Smith (GS) Interviewee: Gerald Henshaw (GH) Other Persons: Jim Hurt (JH) Date of Interview: June 30, 2021 Location: Bristow, Creek County Oklahoma Transcriber: Abby Thompson 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. GS: This is Georgia Smith with the Bristow Historical society in Bristow, Oklahoma. And this interview is part of the Historical Societies ongoing oral history project. Today is June 30th, 2021 and I' ; m sitting here with Gerald Henshaw and his friend Jim hurt, who I' ; ve just interviewed. And he' ; s going to tell me a little bit about his history in Bristow and Jim might chime in if he has any memories as we go along. So Gerald could you give me your full name? GH: Gerald Guy Henshaw GS: Okay, and Jim could you give me your full name again? JH: Jimmy Allen Hurt GS: Thank you. Okay Gerald what was your name at birth?GH: Gerald Guy Henshaw GS: And when were you born? GH: October 11, 1936 GS: Okay, and were you born here in Bristow? GH: North of Bristow GS: North of Bristow, in a house? GH: In a house GS: Were you delivered by a doctor or midwife? GH: Doctor. My granddad was the first medical doctor here in Bristow, Oklahoma JH: I didn' ; t know that GS: I didn' ; t know that, what was his name? GH: Franklin, Franklin A. Henshaw GH: Franklin A. Henshaw, first doctor here in Bristow GH: Yes, he was the first medical doctor here in Bristow GS: About what year was that? GH: Oh goodness that had to have been, oh I don' ; t know, about 30' ; s? GS: Was that, okay it was, we were a state GH: Yeah, yes GS: Yeah, okay. So your grandfather delivered you? GH: Yes GS: Oh, that' ; s a cool story GH: Right GS: What were your parents' ; names? We' ; ll start with your mother' ; s maiden name. GH: My mother' ; s name was Irene Rush, Rush Thompsons note: Franklin Abile Henshaw (1857 -- 1954) -- Find A Grave MemorialThompsons note: Rosa Irene Rush Henshaw (1899 -- 1942) -- Find A Grave MemorialGS: Okay GH: And dads name was Franklin S. Henshaw. GS: Okay GH: And they, she was out of Kansas. She lived in Kansas, and they got married in Kansas [Indecipherable] questions. GS: Okay GH: They were married in Kansas then came here to, I guess start a family, start a life [Indecipherable] GS: Do you know what brought them to Bristow? GH: I have no idea. GS: Okay. GH: Probably a wagon (Laughter) GS: I bet it was! Do you know about approximately the year they were married? GH: No, I don' ; t GS: That' ; s okay, that' ; s okay GH: I' ; ve got that information, well I' ; ve got that information JH: Who said they were married GS: Right, right GS: How many children did you have? GH: We had eleven GS: Did your parents have? GH: Parents had eleven. GS: Eleven! GH: Eleven children GS: And where did you fall in that rank? Thompsons note: Franklin S. Henshaw (1889 -- 1959) -- Find A Grave MemorialGH: I was the sixth one, sixth born GS: Oh my goodness, you were smack dab in the middle. GH: Just about, I have a lot of older sisters and four younger sisters GS: Okay, are any of them still living? GH: Four girls are living GS: Oh GH: You had one died in birth, and she' ; s buried out here in Bristow GS: Okay GH: Yeah, they' ; re all still here. Well, in fact, there' ; s three of- two of them live here in Bristow. One lives in Midwest city, one lives over in hu- not Hugo, but over east of here. GS: Okay what are the name of the ones here in Bristow? GH: Norma Hallman GS: Okay GH: You probably know her, and then Bonita Childress GS: Okay JH: Oh yeah GS: What did your father do for a living?GH: He was an oil worker and a farmer GS: An oil worker and a farmer. GH: What happened to him was he was in an oil rig and it blew up with him. And it messed his whole leg up, he lost- he didn' ; t lose the leg but he lost a lot of the muscle in the leg. GS: Yes GH: And so the only people that got any money out of that was the attorney. And so we, then went and got a farm out north of here and started farming. GS: Probably wasn' ; t easy farming with one leg. Thompson note: Naomi Ann Henshaw (1932 -- 1934) -- Find A Grave MemorialGH: No, he- yeah he knew it. He didn' ; t have a, you know, just, it wasn' ; t a- he just didn' ; t have any muscle in the leg. GS: I see GH: He could walk, but he couldn' ; t just stay very long at a time, ya know. GS: Right, yeah. I' ; m sure all the kids helped with the farm of course too. GH: Oh yes, yeah. Well my brother, oldest brother, he had a dairy- he brought a dairy out there GS: Okay GH: And I remember having to get up in the morning and milk these cows by hand, and before I went to school. And I' ; d drink hot milk with my cereal before going to school. And then later on we got a little stance thing that you put over the back of cows and had to sit on it, and then it was called a class B farm, which you didn' ; t have to have cement floors ; you could have a dirt floor in this kind of a farm. GS: Okay GH: So, but then we got out of that business because he couldn' ; t-- he couldn' ; t run it and I couldn' ; t help him after. GS: Oh GH: So we got out of that, and we just raised hay and stuff like that after that. And cattle, we had some cattle. GS: Sure, yeah. What about your mother, what did she do? GH: She' ; s a homemaker GS: Sure GH: As far as I know, she died about 42' ; maybe. GS: So how old were you when she passed away?GH: I was probably about, well I was born in 36' ; so I was probably about six GS: Aww GH: Six years old yeah. GS: That' ; s sad. GH: My youngest sisters born pretty close to the time she passed away. GS: Wow GH: Yeah GS: She didn' ; t die in child birth GH: No, it wasn' ; t child birth. I don' ; t know what she died of really, I don' ; t know. GS: Okay, are you married Gerald? GH: Yes. GS: Okay and your spouse' ; s name? GH: Helen Henshaw GS: Helen GH: Parick Henshaw GS: And is this the same spouse you' ; ve had your entire life? GH: Yeah, she' ; s put up with me all sixty-something years. GS: Sixty-something years, that' ; s wonderful. GH: Yeah GS: How many children do you have? GH: I have two children, one daughter and a son. Daughter has two children, a son and a daughter, and I have a great grandchild GS: Wonderful GH: Yeah GS: Wonderful, you' ; re blessed GH: Yes GS: Okay, tell me about what life was like at home when you were growing up? GH: At home, let' ; s see, I had my brothers- let' ; s see, two of my brothers was living there and of course we was in fights all the time, they was fightin' ; me all the time. GS: Yeah GH: And then, course the girls- I was the king [indecipherable] of the girls. You know, I keep charge of them and, and so we kinda just- we' ; s kinda really on our own basically cause dad worked nights, and we were kinda. Then well and I' ; ll tell ya about another story about we had lighting [Indecipherable] house we lived in. First all, we had corduroy lights. GS: Okay GH: Had [indecipherable] by the corduroy lights and then we got a- when dad come in put gas lights in, we had gas line go across the property GS: Right GH: So was able to tap into that GS: About what year do you think you got gas? GH: I know it' ; s kinda early on. I would say probably 36' ; , thirty- GS: Mid thirties GH: we had probably late thirties maybe. GS: Late thirties GH: Yeah GS: Okay, go ahead. GH: Because then-- but he would just run the gas line right along the ceiling and around and then drop a light off of that. [Indecipherable] line did you know (Laughter) GH: And so, but then after that, he hooked up a generator, and it had a washing machine motor on the-- back in washing days then, we had to wash it by hand. Anyway, took one of them motors and took it out there in the little building and put it on a generator and then we got lights. Of course, you had to go out there and start the generator-- start that motor up to get a lights. GS: Oh, it was electricity then? GH: Right, yeah, after that. JH: Ohhh GH: Yeah. And then we didn' ; t have running water, we had to shower-- we had a big, like a big building-- not a building, but a big tub type of thing, it wasn' ; t a tub anyway JH: Tank? GH: Tank, yeah. GS: Okay GH: And, on top of this building you' ; d go out there and take a shower. GS: And you had to leave the house to go take a shower? GH: Yeah to take a shower, had to leave the house to go to use the bathroom. GS: Okay GH: Oh yeah, we' ; d all that stuff GS: Oh okay, you had an outhouse, yeah. GH: Yeah, had to- two holer. Had a two holer, we' ; s a [Indecipherable] GS: Oh I bet JH: They refer to that as the good ol' ; days (Laughter) GH: Yeah, but anyway. We had a good time, I had a horse, horses to ride. We used the horses to plow the fields and all that kind of things. GS: Did you have to work most of the time or did you get time to have fun? GH: I worked all the time. I worked all the time, yeah. Yeah, took-- only time we had fun was when there somebody come out there and get lost and we could make fun of em' ; (Laughter) GS: Now where is it you lived again? GH: I lived out three miles north of Bristow. GS: On 48 or 66? GH: No on 66, right off of 66. GS: Oh okay GH: It' ; s about, I don' ; t know what the name of that road is, do you know where that cemetery is out there that- GS: Yes GH: You take that road right north of that cemetery and take it around. GS: Okay GH: We lived out there GS: Okay GH: Yeah GS: Did you have any toys as a child? GH: Toys? Oh yeah, yeah, oh yeah- had a horse. (Laughter) JH: Stick GH: Yeah, a stick horse. Oh but, I was one-- one Christmas I wanted a chaps, so I could be a good cowboy GS: Oh GH: Dad got me a little chaps and a gun holder and two guns, I still got the guns by the way. GS: Oh how neat! JH: Oh cool! GH: And Rory Rogers (ph) guns, so I was king of the [Indecipherable] whenever I [Indecipherable] (Laughter) GS: Now were you older than your sisters? GH: I was older than four of them GS: That' ; s what I was thinking GH: And I had one older sister, yeah. GS: So that' ; s why you were the king [Indecipherable]. GH: Yeah that' ; s right, yeah I was the only boy there, ya know JH: (Laughter) GS: So did the sisters do a lot of the cooking? GH: Well, I' ; ll tell ya about that. We cooked, no they didn' ; t much cook. We had a black lady one time GS: Uh-huh GH: That came and she cooked for us meals. And my younger sister, she says " ; I' ; m not gonna eat that, d' ; you see them black hands go in that" ; GS: Aww JH: (Laughter) GH: And so she, my dad cooked most all the meals, yeah, when I was in school and all that. [Indecipherable] My brother would pick us up from school and take us back out to the house and he' ; d have a bowl of soup or stew or something like that fixed for us. GS: Was he a pretty good cook? GH: He was a good cook. GS: Oh okay JH: Which one? GH: My dad. JH: Oh I thought you said your brother. GH: No, Tommy. He worked at Oklahoma tire and supply. GS: Okay GH: For the Griffins JH: Oh Tommy, I remember Tommy. GS: Yes GH: Yeah GS: Virgil (ph) and Earl? GH: No, Virgil and- no it' ; s not here. No it' ; s not GS: That' ; s okay. GH: Virgil Earl GS: Earl, okay. JH: Virgil Earl. GS: I think Earl was Virgil' ; s wife. GH: Yes, Earl was his name- Earl Virgil-- in fact that' ; s my doctor in Midwest city, is the nephew of those guys. GS: Oh! Well that' ; s a small world! Thompsons note: Tommy Earl Henshaw Sr. (1929 -- 2007) -- Find A Grave MemorialJH: Wow GH: Anyway GS: Yeah. Okay so, did you grow most of your own food, or did you come into town to buy it? GH: Well, some of both. We grew a lot of it, we ate what was on the field. GS: And did you can? GH: No we didn' ; t can much, no. When we' ; d have mom, but of course wasn' ; t around. GS: Right GH: But no we didn' ; t can much. GS: Probably a bit much to try the canning. GH: Yeah GS: What about livestock? Did you do your own butchering? GH: Yes, butchered the hogs in the wintertime. Put em' ; in a smoke house, keep them so we could keep em' ; and eat em' ; along the way. GS: Right GH: Yeah. GS: What kind of clothes did you wear? GH: Clothes did we wear? We' ; d wear regular clothes. GS: Well, what would be regular clothes? GH: A shirt and pants. GS: Overalls, blue jeans? GH: Yeah mostly blue jeans, I didn' ; t wear overalls much. I don' ; t like overalls. Jeans and shirt, or no shirt. Most of the time in the summer time we had no shirt, yeah. GS: [Indecipherable] Yeah, and the girls probably all wore dresses. GH: Yes, they all wore dresses, yes. GS: What did you-- did you ever get to get out of the house to go do something fun like maybe at church or? GH: Oh yeah, let me-- let me tell you about this story. GS: Okay GH: Back in about 1950 GS: Uh-huh GH: Television came to Bristow JH: Ohhh GH: And one of the guys, Mrs- JH: Anyway GH: Anyway, her son won a television GS: Oh how nice GH: And gave it to her, and she let us come up there on Saturday nights GS: And watch TV GH: And watch wrestling JH: Outside, right? She put it on the front porch or in the house? GH: No, no she put it in the house. We' ; d have wood stove- JH: This wasn' ; t Solomon GH: No, no. JH: Okay go ahead. GH: I can' ; t think of her name now. Anyway, she let us come up there and the girls and boys would all meet up there on Saturday night and watch wresting and watch [Indecipherable] and throw the [Indecipherable] out. GS: Yes GH: Yeah, so we had a good time doing that. And then later on we got a TV and [Indecipherable] (Laughter) JH: A big TV GH: Yeah, a small TV, yeah. GS: Oh goodness, where did you first attend school Gerald? GH: Where? GS: Uh-huh GS: First grade I was in Edison, and then they decided well [Indecipherable] anyone come in a ride the bus had to go over to Washington. GS: Okay GH: So we went over to Washington and stayed there, so I guess, what, sixth grade maybe? GS: Yes GH: And then came back to the middle school GS: Okay GH: Here, and then graduated out of Bristow High School right out here. GS: Okay GH: But I went to both schools. GS: Okay, who was your first grade teacher?GH: Mrs. List (ph) GS: Mrs. List was your first grade teacher GH: Yes GS: I' ; m wondering if it was the same List that taught me in upper elementary GH: I don' ; t know, he-- they owned the List motors. GS: It was GH: Yeah, and my brother worked for em' ; GS: Okay GH: Yeah, yeah so she was-- I was telling you that story JH: Wendell List GS: Wendell List JH: Yeah, I don' ; t remember her name GS: Do you remember his old jalopy he used to drive in the parades? Thompson note: Wendell Oliver List (1903 -- 1986) -- Find A Grave MemorialGH: Oh yes! Yeah, yeah. JH: She' ; s bringing back memories (Laughter) GH: Yeah, yeah JH: You must be older than you look GS: Well 82 GH: Well she' ; s listened to a lot of people, she' ; s listening to a lot of people (Laughter) GS: I remember that old jalopy in those parades GH: Yeah, yeah. He brought it every year. GS: It' ; s a rather memorable car to- Okay any good memories from grade school? GH: Grade school? GS: Usually kids don' ; t have a lot of memories from grade school GH: I didn' ; t have a lot of memory, I know we had a lot of fun like I' ; s telling you a while ago, playing out in recess time. GS: Yes GH: That' ; s what I like best, was your recess time, yeah. GS: Definitely so. GH: But I don' ; t have a whole lot of memories. That one I was telling you about first grade, I was crying all year all day long. [Indecipherable] GH: Can' ; t get rid of it GS: And you were only like four or five years' ; old GH: About five years old, yeah. Five years old. GS: When you started school GH: Yeah I started first grade GS: First grade GH: Yeah my sister, oldest sister, brought me in and set me down and walked out of the room and that was in- that was bad news. (Laughter) GS: Bad thing to do to a little guy GH: Yeah GS: Okay well what about junior high, [Indecipherable] GH: Well junior high, let' ; s see. What' ; d we do in junior high? JH: Lots to do with the farming or the, whatever [Indecipherable] GH: Yeah, FFA, I had a lot of FFA stuff there. GS: Okay, was that through the school? GH: Yeah, Mr. Pow (ph) taught us, we had a lot of shows [Indecipherable] One time I had this pig that I was gonna show, I had it in the back of the trailer, I was gonna take it out to the fairgrounds, but the thing got out, so I chased it all over the world out there. But I finally got it back in the trailer and it died. GS: Aww GH: And my brother wanted it butchered and I said " ; We can' ; t butcher that, that' ; s my hog" ; So we didn' ; t even get the meat from it GS: OH, what caused it to die? GH: Oh it just go exhausted running around over all the [Indecipherable] tryna get it back in that trailer, it just- for a pig nothing before me I' ; m not chasing it (Laughter) GS: Alright what about high school? GH: Oh high school, yeah we had a lot of fun in high school. We did all kinds of dumb stuff in High School GS: Were you into sports like Jim was? GH: No, I-- reason I couldn' ; t get into sports cause I' ; d have to ride the bus home GS: [Indecipherable] GH: They did everything after school GS: Yes GH: And if I stayed for sports, I' ; d have to walk home, because I didn' ; t have any transportation GS: I' ; ve heard that story several times too GH: Yeah, but later in High School I finally got me a car so JH: But you' ; d have any- you were in band. GH: Oh yeah I played, yeah I tried [Indecipherable] GS: What did you play in band? GH: I played the clarinet GS: Clarinet, I played the clarinet too GH: Is that right? GS: Yeah, who was your band director? GH: [Indecipherable] Fusco, Fusco (ph) GS: He was mine also GH: Is that right? Yeah JH: Oh she is older than she looks (Laughter) GS: Hey I graduated in 72' ; JH: That' ; s a long ways from 50' ; s. [Indecipherable] those old guys hung around forever GS: Yes they did GH: Yeah I forgot about that, yeah JH: No that' ; s another thing [Indecipherable] here, a lot of times, you' ; ve got the different classes of this n' ; that n' ; other. The athletes are here, ya know GH: Yeah JH: And the band people are here, and that n' ; other. Well he was in band and I was in sports, but we' ; re the best buds since you could ever ask for GS: That' ; s wonderful JH: And I don' ; t know exactly why he liked me GH: Ah, well we hunted a lot, we' ; d went huntin' ; and fishin' ; GS: Ah, you had that in common GH: Yeah, we used to go out and get the pecans, ya know, during Christmas time you had to have money. GS: Yes GH: If you' ; s gonna buy anything for anybody. GS: Yes GH: So we' ; d go out pickin' ; pecans up GS: Uh-huh GH: Sell them and picked them up on the halved out at the, north of town. And this guy, he let us pick them up on the halves. So we got a little money to buy a gift. GS: Now what does that mean by pick them up on the halves? GH: Well, like you' ; d pick up two of them and he gets one of them. GS: Okay, I kinda thought that' ; s what it meant (Laughter) GS: But just in case GH: Cause it' ; s his pecans, but you was doin' ; the labor for him so, yeah. But most of them didn' ; t even do it on, most of them only done it on the thirds. GS: Oh okay GH: But he did it with us on the halves, yeah GS: Good for him GH: Yeah GS: So GH: But we hunted and Jim wasn' ; t- he came out hunting, we hunted together. GS: Okay, what did you hunt? GH: Squirrel and rabbit GS: Okay GH: Eat them too GS: Okay GH: Yeah, people don' ; t even eat squirrel today GS: No, no GH: Wouldn' ; t even think about killing one of them lil' ; GS: Cute little fluffy things GH: Yeah running around on top of the house. The rabbit out in this yard, yeah [Indecipherable] GS: Okay GH: Wanna talk about global warming GS: Yes GH: We had, of course we were very short then too, but we' ; d have snow, ya know, up to your knee, and it' ; d be on there for several days, weeks maybe. GS: True GH: But today, if you get a little, ya know two-inch snow, it' ; s gone the next day and nobody thinks about it. So it has to be something to do with global warming. GS: I imagine it does. I imagine it does. JH: (Laughter) [Indecipherable] (Laughter) GS: Are you an environmentalist? GH: No, not really. GS: Not, not really. GH: Not really. GS: Okay, any other memories from High School? GH: High school, no, yeah like I was telling you a while ago that going there in the twelfth grade I was [Inaudible] GS: Okay now you were in band, did you ever go to the tri state music festival? GH: Yes, yes I did. GS: Was that a bit highlight in your year? GH: That was a big highlight but I was never a very good player. GS: Oh GH: I remember I kinda just-- mediocre, ya know. GS: Uh-huh. GH: But we had a good band though. We had a band [Indecipherable] we went to tri state, where was that up in GS: Enid GH: Enid, yeah, you' ; re right. GS: I went so (Laughter) GH: Yeah, yeah we went up there GS: Yeah. Okay and now I know that Jim went to a church as a child, did you go to church as a child? GH: My mother I understand was really a stout Christian, and she' ; d took us to church every day. Dad didn' ; t go, but, but then I was baptized at the first Baptist church here in Bristow. GS: Okay, do you remember who your pastor was? GH: Day GS: Day? JH: Vernon Day (ph) GH: Vernon day, yeah. Yeah he was the pastor and I really remember going home and telling dad that I' ; d got baptized that day, and I' ; ll tell ya a little story about him too, he was [Indecipherable] because I was, I still remember today, of course we always would. But Whenever my mother passed away, we had these do gooders that' ; d come in from JH: Oh boy GH: Come out there and they were gonna- one of them was with the government. And they were gonna take the kids and divide them up GS: Oh no GH: Oh yeah. So he took a little gun, a shot gun to run them off. We never seen them since. GS: Well good, yeah. That' ; s horrible! GH: Yeah they come out there " ; Well you can' ; t take care of those kids" ; GS: Oh my goodness GH: So he' ; d run them off GS: Well good for him GH: We' ; d see them in the fence GS: Well good, that' ; s a good thing. Were you baptized in the church? GH: Yes, baptized in [Indecipherable] GS: I mean in the church physically GH: In the church, in the church yeah. GS: Okay, do you have any good memories of church growing up? Well I mean like, special events or anything, plays, choir, whatever. GH: Well I was- in the high school I was in a play. I was in, what you call, [Indecipherable] GS: Oh okay! GH: Yeah and I was the sergeant [Indecipherable] They' ; d tell my dad to come too GS: Oh [Indecipherable] GH: And I' ; d say " ; Yeah we can, we can- church" ; let' ; s see, thinking, of course they had to give [Indecipherable]. Christmas time they' ; d do that, an orange, an apple, and then [Indecipherable] candles GS: Yeah. So you were in this play in high school, were you in speech, drama, and debate? GH: No, I don' ; t exactly how I got into it, they just needed somebody and they had a competition and they picked, I don' ; t remember exactly why I was, cause I wasn' ; t in speech GS: Can you tell me anything about the entertainment that we had in Bristow? GH: Entertainment, oh yeah we had three, two- two shows GS: Okay GH: [Indecipherable] GS: Okay GH: And one drive in theater out at the-- GS: Pirate drive in GH: Pirate drive in, take my little 39' ; ford and fold out seat. The back of it was welded, the trunk was welded shut, it had this seat to get into-- you had to raise the seat to get in the back of-- you had to pile in the back of there, and close the seat down. Drive to the window JH: Pay for one (Laughter) GH: Pay for one person JH: He' ; s to confessing now GS: I see that, I see that. Well now that I think about once a week, didn' ; t they have a- you know, everybody could stuff into the car for so much? JH: That was after our time GS: What about on the fourth of July, did they have the special event there? GH: We had-- well we did. We went out at the park GS: Okay GH: Most-- a lot of families. And we went out to the car ; we had tubs of ice [Indecipherable] That' ; s the only day of the year you ever got all 71 to drink. You didn' ; t care, you' ; d just go get you one, open it, drink it, this was on the 4th of July. Then that evening, they would have the fireworks. GS: Okay GH: Yeah we always had a good time at the [Indecipherable] GS: Well sure GH: Fun things they' ; d play GS: Yeah GH: There were several things get from the country [Inaudible] GS: Were there any other events like that that Bristow did back then that you can remember? JH: I can add one GH: Okay JH: Right now, what you' ; re thinking about the amphitheater, which I been to in the last two or three years. They still have a little bit of stuff out, but when I was young we was there and I can remember a gal in a wheelchair that one evening they were having a musical or whatever thing she sang " ; I' ; ll Never Walk Alone" ; You' ; ll never walk alone GS: Aww JH: So I' ; ve always-- that song' ; s always meant so much to me and all, but she had had polio I guess is what is was those days GS: Yeah JH: I' ; m glad that they' ; re using the amphitheater again a little bit GS: Yes, we are too JH: Yeah GS: It' ; s a good asset for the city of Bristow JH: And then we used to cross the street from that on the south side had the barns where we' ; d had the county fair-- not the county fair GH: No, the city fair GS: Oh no county fair was there JH: I thought it was GS: It was, we had the creek country fair there until they moved it to Sapulpa JH: Yeah GH: They used to have rodeos there when I was in school GS: Yes, yes they did GH: And parades, lots and lots of parades all the time JH: And they used to have carnivals out in that area, and one thing about [Indecipherable] maybe it was Porsche, Gerald I don' ; t know how we' ; re gonna decide who' ; s the [Indecipherable] and all, but I went there-- GH: [Indecipherable] (Laughter) JH: I was in about the third or fourth grade I went with Peggy Durham and her older, little bit older, friend and the three of us went to the fair and we was wanting to ride a ride. Well, all I had was a nickel or dime and so they pitched said " ; Well let' ; s just pitch our money all together and we can ride" ; So they pitched the money together and the three of us got to ride the Ferris wheel or something and so, you know (Laughter) GH: [Indecipherable] I never claimed to be poor because I didn' ; t know I was poor GS: Exactly, you know I thought-- JH: It' ; s the way it is GH: It' ; s the way it was GS: I think most people back then didn' ; t consider themselves poor, ya know. They had enough to eat, they had clothes on their back, and they were happy. GH: Absolutely, back then [Indecipherable] GS: Yup, yup. Can' ; t ask for much more than that. Did you ever have to go to the doctor when you were a kid? GH: Yeah I had to go- went to Doctor King of course GS: Yes GH: Talked about that a while ago GS: Uh-huh GH: About [Inaudible] GS: Okay GH: And they' ; d come to the school some and they' ; d- I know GS: Okay GH: I remember Crest- Crest toothpaste would give you a crest toothpaste and a toothbrush, and- GS: I' ; d forgotten that GH: And they gave that to us and, you know, take care of your teeth. And when I was in the service, first day I was in the service at boot camp, the guy says " ; How do you brush your teeth?" ; and of course I didn' ; t have any ideas. He said " ; Well the way you brush them is to brush them up and down" ; GS: Uh-huh GH: And so I brushed my teeth up and down ever since then GS: Sure GH: Then I went to dental school over here in Oklahoma City, and this doctor came in and said " ; How do you brush your teeth?" ; and I said " ; I brush them up and down" ; and he said " ; Well how come you do that?" ; and I said " ; Well that' ; s what I learned in the service, how to brush my teeth" ; . So he put it in his books, and you get his books now they have how to brush your teeth and brush them up and down. GS: I' ; ve heard that it should be up and down and not back and forth GH: Yeah, and the reason for- you know what the reason for that is? GS: No GH: Because you get your gums GS: I see GH: Gums down and massages your gum GS: Okay GH: And that' ; s what keeps your teeth in GS: Okay JH: Hmm GH: I' ; ve got all my teeth JH: Hmm GH: What JH: I just said ' ; Hmm' ; (Laughter) JH: Just thinking here, no yeah, Hmm GH: Well [Indecipherable] GS: Can you tell me anything else about entertainment in Bristow when you were growing up? GH: Let' ; s see GS: I know you didn' ; t get to come in often from the farm GH: No, swim. We used to come in and swim on special, I think it' ; s Saturdays maybe, I don' ; t know. GS: Was that at the silver plunge?JH: Silver plunge GH: Yeah, yeah GS: Okay GH: When we swam, of course we swam around ponds and [Inaudible] GS: And now GH: Swam in a lot of ponds and lakes GS: Yes, uh-huh. Yesterday in an interview I did, the man was telling me that there was a, of course the skating rink GH: Oh yeah, I forgot about that JH: Mhm GS: And that in the wintertime for a few years they had bowling on that skating rink floor. Do you-- either one of you remember that? JH: No GH: Barely, skating rink barely GS: Did you ever go skating in the rink?JH: Oh yeah, yeah yeah GS: Were you pretty good? JH: Well, I learned. GH: After many falls [Inaudible] GS: Yeah JH: Better now to stay up GS: Did you ever climb that long stairway up to the bathroom with your skates on? (Laughter) GH: Oh, I guess so, guess so. I forgot about that skating rink JH: I did too, it' ; s been on Facebook things here recently. GS: Did you ever go as a group, or did you just go individually? GH: We would go individually, I' ; d just [Inaudible] GS: Yeah. What about you, did you ever go Jim? JH: A few time, but I wasn' ; t a good skater at all GS: Aw okay GH: [Inaudible] Also it we used to skate the ponds, [Indecipherable] the ponds would freeze over GS: Yes GH: [Indecipherable] ice GS: Thick ice GH: And you could get on then and so my dad bought me a pair of ice skates GS: Yes JH: Hmm GH: And so I get that [Inaudible] of course I [Indecipherable] back then (Laughter) GS: As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up? GH: Old GS: Amen GH: Now I' ; m old. [Indecipherable] I guess I wanted to be a cowboy GS: A cowboy? GH: [Inaudible] I always wanted to be [Inaudible] and stuff GS: Right GH: Silver [Inaudible] GS: Very romanticized image of the cowboy GH: Right GS: What was your first job other than farm? GH: Other than farm? GS: Yeah GH: Probably mechanic GS: Okay GH: My brother had a mechanic shop GS: Okay GH: There at the high school, in fact GS: Oh GH: And right there in the high school. And I worked for him at nights after school GS: Okay GH: He said " ; you' ; re doing a great job" ; and [Inaudible] JH: I' ; ll share a little bit of something here about we didn' ; t get into my first job and all. I was- first of all selling papers said ten and eleven, selling papers on the street GS: Okay JH: And back to the California people ; they come through, we had parking meters that you put your nickel, dime, or throw a pen there and pens turn the crank and it' ; d go down. But somebody taught us that if you chew gum and stick it up in there, then they would stick it up in there and crank and [Indecipherable] go on in J& ; J Café (ph) or in the Hamburger Shop and we could come along with a pocket knife and flip out the [Indecipherable]. But also I sold papers as I said on the street and I' ; d go in the pool hall and I' ; d go up to guys playing their dominos and everything, said " ; Well paper paper! Paper paper!" ; and no and one said " ; I can' ; t read" ; another woger (ph) said " ; C' ; mere" ; when they tell you that, you tell them " ; Well can you smell?" ; " ; Well yeah it' ; s all BS anyway" ; (Laughter) JH: So yeah you' ; re bringing back- we' ; re having memory time here GH: I will tell ya about the Oklahoma Times Supply (ph) GS: Oh yes GH: Well I guess one of the last ones, first job. It' ; s Christmas time they had flowers. GS: Uh-huh GH: And I delivered the flowers all over, part of it not all the city, but it was part of the city GS: Sure GH: The guy who worked with me, he' ; d throw his in the trash, in the trash JH: Nooo GH: And he wouldn' ; t deliver his GS: Well shame on him! GH: Yeah I know! GS: He wasn' ; t doing an honest day' ; s work for his job, was he? GH: No GS: He was not GH: Well he' ; d make fun of me JH: Told ya that sin and nature started a long time ago GS: Did you- do you have anything else on your paper there about any of the business or entertainment in Bristow that you? GH: Well yeah I tell you today about this John Sukabody (ph) guy, I don' ; t know GS: I' ; ve heard of the Sukabodys, but I don' ; t know much JH: Ohhh, feed store GH: He had a feed store GS: Yes JH: Yeah GS: Sukabody feed store GH: There on main street. Well he-- he hired little boys during the summer, worked at JR Childress (ph) [Inaudible] GS: Okay GH: And we got to be pretty good-- he was a really nice guy ; course he drank a lot [Inaudible]. But he was really a nice guy. So anyway when I got out of service, I was in there talking to him one day and I [indecipherable] any idea of what I was gonna do. But I knew it was gonna be brutal cause I went in to get the GI bill for school GS: Right GH: So he-- I said " ; I don' ; t know" ; I said " ; I' ; m thinking about going into plumbing" ; He said " ; Oh no" ; he said " ; You don' ; t wanna go into plumbing" ; he said " ; That' ; s a cold job, dirty job. What you need to get into is electronics" ; says " ; You' ; ve got air conditioning, you' ; ve got everything you need right there" ; So that sounded pretty good to me, so that' ; s what I did. I went in, went to school for [Indecipherable] electronics at OSU in Okmulgee GS: At Okmulgee, uh-huh, yeah JH: I [Indecipherable] forgot about that [Inaudible] GS: So did you do the two-year thing? GH: Oh yeah I did the two-years, got a job with the government, stayed in JH: Quite a successful [Indecipherable] I might add GH: Yeah, I thought life was pretty good with electronics, but I can' ; t even turn the radio on now. Can' ; t even-- can' ; t even operate my phone JH: Yeah I know GH: And I-- I was pretty sharp with electronics GS: It' ; s a different world now GH: Well you keep up with it GS: Yeah GH: [Indecipherable] Anyway that' ; s [Inaudible] GS: So is that how you made your living for years as an electrician? GH: Not electrician, electronics. GS: Electronics GH: Yes GS: Okay GH: Yeah I was in it for [indecipherable] Went to work for the government after I got out of OSU GS: Okay GH: [Inaudible] GS: Yeah OSU GH: yeah GS: Tech, school of technical training, yes GH: I got myself a social degree GS: Okay, yeah GH: So that' ; s what I got [Indecipherable] He said " ; What do you got?" ; I said " ; I' ; ve got two years' ; college" ; he said " ; No you' ; ve got a social degree" ; GS: There ya go GH: So [Indecipherable] social degree, one step up GS: There ya go GH: Anyway, I went to work for them then I went to work for-- Well I might tell you this story. Contract Administration, we would go out-- too much time? GS: No I just like to make sure it' ; s still running because I' ; ve had the battery go dead on me before GH: Oh, anyway, [Indecipherable] and went to work as a contract administrator. We were the ones who bought product for the government. Ya know, five-thousand-dollar hammer GS: Uh-huh GH: And get your groceries for fifty cents. Anyway, we bought those kinds of products. Well one of the products was [Inaudible] went to the moon. And what they did was they took some metal out to the moon with them and come back and made these little medallions saying " ; Moon Shop" ; GS: Oh yes GH: And the contractor that I was working with made the clothes, made the suits GS: Oh how wonderful GH: And so I was the guy that bought those suits, so anyway I got one of those with me [Indecipherable] GS: Oh that' ; s a wonderful keepsake GH: Yeah, I still- I can' ; t tell you where it is right now but I know I' ; ve still GS: But you' ; ve got it JH: You' ; ve got it (Laughter) GS: You' ; re sure of that GH: Anyway, that' ; s among some of the other things. But I had a lot of experience in that field GS: Sure GH: Ya know, all the products that they bought I bought them from American Lines to-- GS: So who did you work for at that time? GH: Worked for the federal government GS: For the federal government, okay GH: Contract Administration GS: Okay GH: DLA (ph) GS: Okay, very good. Okay so any other businesses or anything else you' ; ve got written on that paper you wanna tell me about? JH: While he' ; s lookin' ; I' ; ll tell you about my first job other than selling newspaper and delivering newspapers over the street. I was carrying five gallons of ice cream from the Locker Plant down to the Palace Drug where I worked for a short period of time. GS: Okay JH: With one of his aunts GS: Oh JH: Anyway, yeah Palace Drug GS: And you had to make sure that ice cream didn' ; t melt, didn' ; t ya JH: Yeah ya had to walk fast GH: What was that other one right there on North end of town? That little ol' ; - JH: The other what? GH: Café. Was it Ki-way (ph) GS: Ki-way Café? JH: Oh Hi-Café was good, yeah GH: is that the one on the north? GS: It was on the north JH: It was by the Locker Plant GS: North of ninth and main GH: Yeah JH: Yeah GH: Yeah GS: Yeah, that was a good place to eat GH: Yeah that was- I don' ; t remember that GS: Did you eat there often? GH: Oh I didn' ; t have nothing to eat GS: Yeah GH: I was in there a lot, but I didn' ; t-- cause somebody else was in there but GS: Yeah GH: But no I didn' ; t eat there very much. GS: yeah GH: I' ; ll tell ya about my first loan GS: Okay GH: At Bristow Community Bank GS: Okay GH: I went in there to get a loan, I wanted to buy a car. Well, they-- one of the banks wouldn' ; t loan it to me and I went to the other bank anyway. And I had [Indecipherable] for collateral, had to put my vehicle up for collateral. Then I went to buy insurance, and I went down to this friend of ours, so called, and State Farm. I said " ; I need to get some insurance" ; said " ; I' ; m not selling you any insurance" ; he says " ; You' ; s like a pig in a puddle" ; I' ; m like ' ; Okay' ; so GS: Well GH: Yeah I don' ; t know why he [Indecipherable], called me a catfish and called me all kinds of stuff GS: Well he didn' ; t want business very badly, did he? GH: [Indecipherable] I guess GS: I guess not GH: I kept thinking, his wife was [Indecipherable] she' ; s the one who took care of the girls and all kinds of things. Anyway, went in finally and when I went over to Allstate, and bought-- they sold me insurance for the car and then [Inaudible] GS: Well good GH: People are people GS: Yes, yup, yeah you never can predict them a lot of times. So what branch of the service were you in? GH: I was in the air force GS: In the air force? And what was your-- what were your duties there? GH: My duties in the air force I' ; ll tell ya that story. I went in and [Indecipherable] and I were friend, we lived out in [Indecipherable] county. Anyway, we went in, the recruiter says " ; Okay you boys can stay together. While you were in the service, we decided that you boys are really good" ; . Well we went- we worked together one night in base ; we went into basic training, got through with that. 8th Air force police force, 8th Air force police. We got wiped out in ol' ; Korea. So this whole platoon went into the air police except one. It was [Indecipherable]. Him and ol' ; [Indecipherable]. GS: Wouldn' ; t you know GH: Yeah, yeah I was in the air police, then from there I went to the canine school, and I had a canine, [Inaudible]. Reason I had a canine is cause I didn' ; t wanna go overseas. GS: Yeah, yeah I don' ; t blame ya there GH: I was like " ; Ehh" ; GS: Now this was in the late fifties, so Vietnam might have been looming on the horizon, wasn' ; t it? GH: Right at the end, right at the end. In 58' ; maybe GS: Well Vietnam ended in the early seventies GH: Not Vietnam, Korea GS: Korea GH: Maybe I said Vietnam GS: Yeah I said Vietnam, you were thinking Korea GH: Korea, yeah Korea GS: Yeah at the end of the Korean war so you might have had to have gone to Korea if you hadn' ; t done the canine thing. GH: Yeah GS: Well that was a smart move GH: Yeah that' ; s what I thought too GS: Yeah JH: But the dang dog like to eat [Inaudible] GS: Wasn' ; t your best friend? GH: No that dog I had he was mean as could be. When I' ; d go on vacation, they had to put a chain on his food bowl, they wouldn' ; t even go in there and feed him. GS: Oh my goodness GH: And they put a chain on his bowl to pull it out, put food in it, put it back in there. GS: You never couldn' ; t nicen him up?GH: No he would bite ya, he would- I' ; d give him a command he would growl at me. GS: Aww GH: Then I had to keep a muzzle on him anytime we was around any other dogs. GS: Aw, that' ; s a shame GH: But he was a good- GS: So what were they trained for? GH: They were trained for patrol GS: Okay, and did you take yours out on patrol? GH: Oh yeah, yeah every night GS: Did he make believers out of people? GH: Yeah, oh yes. (Laughter) GH: Yeah, the way they trained him of course, ya know, [Indecipherable] he' ; d be hiding out there in the woods somewhere in the grass, and the dog had to sniff him out. JH: Ohh JH: Attack them [Indecipherable] But anyway the reason I got out of service, I was thinking about staying in for four years, but they let me on post. They didn' ; t pick me up come daylight, they had to come pick the dogs up at daylight GS: Oh GH: So they never come pick me up, so about 8 O' ; clock I kept hollering and blowing the whistle. So finally I just walked up there to the shop, said I' ; d take me-- I was up in Clinton, Oklahoma at that time. It was at base at Altus and Altus was doing [Indecipherable] and they were sending us up to Clinton. So I walked in there and said " ; I' ; m good now [Indecipherable] Check me out" ; . So they sent me back down to the Altus [Indecipherable]. So that' ; s how I got out. GS: Aw, I guess it was you had been in there long enough to- you could do that too GH: I guess I' ; d learned then that- I learned then didn' ; t I? GS: I guess you did! Teach them to leave you on post! GH: Yeah they could be [Indecipherable] JH: You never do [Indecipherable] GH: But they had to put the dogs up anyway. GS: Yup, Did I miss something Jim? JH: Yeah, the bootleggers GS: Oh the bootleggers! We mentioned them but we didn' ; t go any further! Tell me about the bootleggers, one of ya. GH: Well the bootleggers- GS: Well you talked about buying the white lightening and then feeling guilty about spending the buck on it GH: Yeah, well it wasn' ; t my dollar, it was my dad' ; s dollar. GS: Yeah JH: No Frank Junie (ph) lived down the road from me, and everybody knew he was a bootlegger, and his daughter married a bootlegger whose name was Smith who lived across from J& ; J Café upstairs. But anyway, Frank had a boat with a cover over it and he' ; d go to Missouri and pick it up and come back so-- otherwise you drove one of these big cars and loaded it down the back end the highway patrol would stop you and then take all your merchandise GS: So are you saying he kept his white lightening in the boat? JH: No it wasn' ; t white lightening, it' ; s just liquor GS: Oh, that was bought JH: That' ; s right, yeah. And then the Texco (ph) Café somebody told me to-- was it you or somebody else that [Indecipherable] No, Jonny Baker, whoever run the Texco (ph) Café that' ; s where people stopped driving through from Chicago to California and need some liquor and they need to call over and Frank would bring it over to them and all GS: Okay JH: Yeah, but we- GS: And was that during prohibition or? JH: Oh yeah, it' ; s yeah. GS: Yup GH: I forgot to tell you about wheat harvest GS: Tell me about that wheat harvest GH: Wheat harvest, yeah we went to wheat harvest up in Kansas GS: Yes GH: And I drove the truck up there GS: Uh-huh GH: To wheat harvest. [Indecipherable] International truck GS: Yes GH: Stick, shift gears GS: Uh-huh GH: Come up [Indecipherable] had to hold it down and shift the gears. Anyway, of course he couldn' ; t afford to get a [Indecipherable], take the time out to get it fixed, he had to do it this weekend. Anyway, so when we got wheat done, we had bailed stubble, and then you cut the wheat about [Indecipherable] GS: Uh-huh GH: And then we had all this stubble. And he was bailing it, and the way they bailed it was they bailed it then run it off on another run. [Indecipherable] half the thing, and then they' ; d this pole, put it down in the ground, and hold it against them- push the bails off the skid. GS: Okay GH: Well I wasn' ; t big enough or strong enough, so when they put me on that one the thing tumbled on top of me GS: Oh no! GH: Rod came down, so the guy says " ; You need to go home" ; [Indecipherable] the wheat harvest then come home (Laughter) GS: Oh my goodness, Well, I know that wasn' ; t easy work and I do know a lot of young men did the wheat harvest too GH: Oh yeah JH: It' ; s pretty good money [Indecipherable] GH: [Indecipherable] GS: Yup, can' ; t beat that. Anything else that you can think of that we haven' ; t hit on Gerald? GH: No, but I was gonna tell you about the money though back when I went into service, I had a little money in the bank and I didn' ; t figure I' ; d ever come back to the service [Inaudible]. Anyway I gave all the money I had to my dad to put water into the house, when we lived down on the farm GS: aww, yes GH: And then I went on in the service, [Indecipherable] I came back. GS: Yeah. So you graduated in 54' ; and is that when you went into the service? GH: Yes, yeah GS: Okay, and you got the GI bill, you got your education paid for, and you went to Okmulgee. GH: I wouldn' ; t say it was paid for, I starved to death there too. My wife worked, we went to Okmulgee GS: Uh-huh GH: My wife worked in the library, and [Indecipherable] I worked for fifty cents an hour GS: Yes GH: Up there at the [Indecipherable]. Oh I' ; ll tell you about that story. One night we put the money, after you work and [Indecipherable] and you put it in wall. Well, you' ; d put it in a sack and drop it down the wall [Indecipherable]. Well one day, we came around and money wasn' ; t there. But I wasn' ; t working, the other guy was working. JH: [Indecipherable] GH: Yeah absolutely, but I had to pay for it anyway. But anyway, he accused us of stealing the money. I said " ; I didn' ; t steal, I don' ; t even have it, I don' ; t know what you' ; re talking about" ; so anyway we got with the cops and they put us in [Indecipherable], in a bag and put it behind this wall. Come to find out, this kid was watching and he' ; d climb through one of the windows right there and went over there and got the washers and they called. Well, he wanted us to pay and started making us pay a dollar a paycheck to pay that money back that he' ; d lost in that [Indecipherable] and I said- GS: And you didn' ; t even take it! GH: Did not! He just [Indecipherable] so that' ; s when I quit. GS: Well yes I would too. That just wasn' ; t right at all! I' ; m gonna ask you the same question I asked Jim. As you see it now, what are some of the biggest problems that face our nation and how do you think they could be solved? GH: Biggest problem that I can [Indecipherable] is selfishness GS: Yeah GH: People who haven' ; t had to work, are not working, they think the big government is gonna take care of them for the rest of their lives. Talking about giving them free college, and free this free that, which I think is wrong and way to turn that around is to give a persona a hand up instead of a hand out. GS: Give them an incentive GH: Give them something [Indecipherable] teach them out to fish and all that stuff GS: Exactly GH: And I think that' ; s what' ; s gonna have to take place, now whether it' ; s gonna take place or not, it' ; s very doubtful that the way that we' ; re running the government now that we' ; re doing anything right. People from these other countries come in ; Cartels are just eating us up down here, kids up, people up, costing us millions of dollars. And somebodies having to pay for all that. Anyway, I think the problem is that the government is getting too big to control for its own good. GS: Yeah, I have to agree with you there GH: And I think the only way you can change it is probably through elections. GS: Yup GH: If you can find [Indecipherable] GS: Amen, amen. Anything else you wanna tell me that I haven' ; t hit on or that you' ; ve got in your notes there that we didn' ; t hit on? GH: I think we covered just about everything, that' ; s what I think. JH: Well you' ; ve got a lot of stories now, don' ; t you? GS: Yes, we do. We have a lot of stories and it' ; s so fun doing this. It' ; s really nice to-- JH: And someday will I be able to get onto the internet and see something? GS: Yes, I can' ; t tell you when it' ; ll be. But there are some on there already, BristowHistoricalSociety.org, BristowHistoricalSociety.org. You can go on there and listen to some of them that are on there. We' ; ve got Mr Krumme JH: So, .BristowHistoricalSociety.org GS: .org JH: Okay GH: Of course [Indecipherable] Hamburger King, I don' ; t know if we ever talked about that. GS: We didn' ; t talk about Hamburger King, what are your memories of the Hamburger King? GH: Memories of the Hamburger King is that we met down there about every night GS: Uh-huh GH: Kids would meet there and have dates and all this kind of stuff. Then we' ; d come down there and reminisce once in a while. Of course I didn' ; t have a car at that time, I' ; d have to either catch a ride or walk home. GS: Right GH: And sometimes I could catch a ride and sometime I didn' ; t, so I' ; d have to walk home. But we' ; d- that' ; s a gathering spot for people [Indecipherable]. GS: Okay was it mostly for the younger generation? GH: Oh yeah, just for the high schoolers. GS: Yeah, well did they have music or anything like that? GH: I don' ; t remember having music in there, did we? JH: Only when Jonny Lee Wills or one of the big bands came through that' ; s always where they either stopped there or out at Lucian Tigers place where Luke Fry now lives out between Slick and Kellyville, they also had big parties out there. But yeah, the big country bands, Jonny Lee Wills, Bob Wills, and all of them, they would stop at Hamburger King GS: Yeah JH: Then the J& ; J Café was always fancy for the more wealthy people and all the society-- GS: To eat at JH: --that went to the J& ; J Café. But the black people I don' ; t remember if we mentioned or what but they had to park around at the back and knock on the door and the guy would come out and take their order and go back in and fix it and then bring it out and they had to eat in their car. But you know that' ; s why this route 66 in [Indecipherable] Chicago and went to where in California? GS: I don' ; t remember JH: Santa Maria, it wasn' ; t where people from Los Angelas, Santa-- GH: Santa? JH: No, Santa something or other, but anyway yeah there' ; s lots of memories from Hamburger King GS: Okay, alright well GH: Yeah we used to when Jim was talking about parking a wagon behind those stores, we did that, that' ; s how I came to get to go to town, by wagon. We either came there by horse, or walk, or wagon. GS: uh-huh GH: And sometimes you could catch a ride on the wagon, the wagon would come by and you' ; d run out there and get on the back of it and hitch you a ride to town GS: Well sure! GH: So you didn' ; t have to walk. So anyway, they parked it, you tied em up behind those stores and there had to be somebody down there with them all of the time because people would come in and steal stuff out of the wagon. GS: So were there more wagons or more automobiles? JH: [Indecipherable] more wagonsGS: More wagons at that time JH: Yeah more wagons, I don' ; t know [Inaudible] GH: There was also a little restaurant and a little hotel type thing down there, Donald Crawford, boy you' ; re really pulling up now, but it was there right across the ally and then there behind that behind Thorpe' ; s and the fay and [Indecipherable] was where all the wagons parked in there and left them, ya know, they just tied them up and walked-- take care of their business GS: What Block would that be Jim? JH: You know where the big café at sixth, right? GS: Uh-huh JH: Okay GS: Golden Eagle Café? JH: Yeah, right just east there to the back ally and then there and then run- yeah GS: Okay yeah I see, that' ; s really interesting. Well thank you both very much for coming today. I appreciate it so much Gerald. I' ; ve not had a chance to tell any of my neighbors that I said you' ; re related to that- or you told me you' ; re related to, I haven' ; t got a chance to tell them I' ; ve spoken with you so thank you very much, I really appreciate it. audio 0 https://bristoworalhistory.org/ohms/viewer.php?cachefile=OHP-2021-17_Gerald_Henshaw.xml OHP-2021-17_Gerald_Henshaw.xml
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Gerald Henshaw
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In this 2021 interview, Gerald Henshaw shares his experience growing up in Bristow alongside his friend Jim Hurt. He discusses life on a farm, numerous jobs, and together Gerald and Jim share stories from their young adult lives.
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OHP-2021-17
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2021-06-30
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Ralph R. "Brick" Kirchner
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https://bristoworalhistory.org/ohms/viewer.php?cachefile=OHP-0015-01_Kirchner,_R_R_Rotary_Club.xml
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oil drilling, Bristow Rotary Club, Ralph Kirchner,
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5.4 OHP-0015-01 Ralph Kirchner at Bristow Rotary Club OHP-0015-001 Bristow Historical Society - Oral History Archive Oil Drilling - The Early Years Bristow Historical Society, Inc. oil drilling, Bristow Rotary Club, Ralph Kirchner, Ralph R. " ; Brick" ; Kirchner N/A MP3 1:|17(6)|27(6)|44(7)|61(15)|70(12)|80(2)|93(2)|106(2)|122(3)|135(2)|146(14)|158(2)|170(8)|178(6)|188(3)|198(9)|216(2)|226(13)|236(13)|245(13)|256(7)|266(10)|277(15)|285(7)|295(6)|308(7)|318(9)|327(1)|338(10)|349(10)|369(3)|382(11)|389(14)|401(8)|417(13)|425(15)|436(9)|450(12)|460(1)|473(4)|482(5)|496(16)|513(12)|524(14) 0 https://bristoworalhistory.org/interviews/OHP-0015-01 Kirchner, R.R. Rotary Club.mp3 Other audio 0 Introduction of Ralph " ; Brick" ; Kirchner EM: We’ll have to be real quiet on this now. (Pause in recording) EM: [inaudible] He has attained the ripe of age of ninety-one. His father made the run in to Oklahoma territory in…1889? BK: Ninety-three. EM: Ninety-three, back here when the state [inaudible]. BK: That’s correct. EM: Brick attended the Oklahoma A& ; M College, for those of you who are not familiar with that, it’s now Oklahoma State University. Brick is also the dean of the Bristow District Rotary Government, having served since 1931 and 1932. There are many more facts about Brick Kirchner that I’d like to bring out is that Brick Kirchner is—or was, at one time—in the newspaper publishing business. Brick Kirchner owned half interest in a newspaper in Ada, Oklahoma. Having seen the error of his ways, he took his money out of the newpaper— Guest speaker Ralph " ; Brick" ; Kirchner is introduced by Ed Mackenson Brick ; Bristow Rotary Club ; Congress ; Oklahoma A& ; M College ; Ralph R. " ; Brick" ; Kirchner Introduction of Ralph " ; Brick" ; Kirchner 143 Ralph Kirchner Early Years BK: [inaudible] No, I don’t care. Am I speaking into this? Okay. Mr. Steward, thank you very kindly for that very nice and very liberal education, and I’m happy that my [indecipherable] section is here, too. (chuckling) BK: And the [indecipherable] section’s been here for a long time. I thought, too, it was kind of odd, Doc Yourman got the program for Don Kitchens, and Don Kitchens couldn’t be here, so Ed McMillan—I mean, Ed Mackenson introduced me for Don Kitchens. Now that beats around the bush a little bit. (laughter) Ralph " ; Brick" ; Kirchner speaks about his early years in college and in the military. Army ; Ed Mackenson ; Gulf Oil Production ; Gypsy Oil Company ; J.D.Ward ; Oklahoma A& ; M Ralph Kirchner Early Years 372 Ralph " ; Brick" ; Kirchner sells real estate BK: Now that’s something, too! And I went to Perry. That’s my old hometown. And Perry is—was about eighteen, twenty miles—about twenty miles, I guess—southeast of Garber, and Garber was really booming then. Plenty of production around there, but Garber was really booming of that fine, high-grade oil. And my dad was in the real estate business and he would buy royalties. So he and two other gentlemen that I knew bought royalty under the Wolf (ph) farm about two miles south of Garber. And my dad had told me, and so had Mr. Mauser (ph) that they would like to sell their interest if they could get $15,000 for it. So I thought that I’d use that as a starter and I went to Enid and I managed to sell that royalty—represented that I owned its individual interest and could deliver it for $22,500. And that’s quite a bit of profit. So I had to buy it first, so when I came home that evening I went to my banker, Mr. John Hanson (ph), the Bank of Commerce, and explained the deal to him and I said, I’d like to borrow the money from you to buy this. He said, Alright, I’ll do it. I’ll tell you how I’ll do it: I’ll do it for half of the profit. (laughter) Ralph " ; Brick" ; Kirchner talks about buying and selling royalties in Oklahoma. Enid ; Garber ; Mr Hanson ; Perry ; royalty Ralph " ; Brick" ; Kirchner sells real estate 537 Ralph " ; Brick" ; Kirchner goes into the oil business So I was acquainted with Jim Sloane (ph). Jim was the tool pusher for the Roxanna Oil Company. And a tool pusher—that means he had charge of all their drilling tools, and hiring the men and so forth and operate the rigs. And so Jim and I decided to go into partnership and buy a string of tools, which we did. And Jim was fortunate enough to get his assistant pusher—to get his assistant pusher appointed to fill his position at the Roxanna. Here’s the deal: that enabled us to borrow from [indecipherable], this assistant, any tools that we didn’t have! So that made a nice deal for me, too. Brick begins a partnership and starts Kirchner & ; Sloan, Inc. Billings Petroleum Company ; doodlebug ; Jim Sloane ; Kirchner & ; Sloan, Inc ; oil ; Roxanna Oil Company ; tools ; Yukon Ralph " ; Brick" ; Kirchner goes into the oil business 759 Getty Oil Company Contract But by that time, it was necessary that we got our rig moved because we had a contract with the Getty Oil Company. The Getty Oil Company was owned by J. Paul Getty. This location was on a main (ph) six miles east of Billings. J. Paul owned the Getty Oil Company. His father, Colonel Getty, was the big dog Getty in the oil business at that time. He owned the Minnehoma Oil Company and had mass production in the Garber field. We drove this well for Mr. Getty and we had our bunkhouse there, and it was the cook shack also. Some of the crew stayed in the house and we cooked our meals there. And our meals was either hot dogs or hotcakes. Hotcakes for breakfast and hot dogs at the other two meals. Ralph " ; Brick" ; Kirchner drills for Getty Oil Company Bank of Commerce ; drilling ; Getty Oil Company ; Hoover sand ; J. Paul Getty ; Kirchner & ; Sloane, Inc. ; Minnehoma Oil Company ; Mr. Hanson ; oil ; Santa Fe Station Getty Oil Company Contract 1005 Ralph " ; Brick" ; Kirchner drills for J.D. Means BK: Well, I have a lot written down here. (laughter) BK: Our next well, after Mr. Getty’s well, was for J.D. Means, and it was by the northeast offset to Mr. Getty’s. And while we were drilling that well for Mr. Means, Marland Oil Company was drilling in the northeast corner of the section and we were in the southeast corner of that same section. We made a small well for Mr. Means, but Mr. Getty—I mean, Mr. Marland, on his location up there, got a nice well and that was the discovery well for the great Oklahoma Three Sands pool. And incidentally the north offset to that, my dad had some royalty that he purchased under that, too, that offset—that well was dry. The east offset and for a mile and a half or two miles north and south, and a mile and a half wide, was the Garber field, and it was a dandy. [There are a] few wells producing there today. Ralph " ; Brick" ; Kirchner drills for J.D. Means and discusses life in the oilfield boarding house ; Bristow ; bunkhouse ; Caufield Oil Company ; Garber field ; J.D. Means ; John Phillips ; Krumme ; Marland Oil Company ; oil scouts ; Oklahoma Three Sands Pool ; Phillips Petroleum Company ; Red Fork ; rig Ralph " ; Brick" ; Kirchner drills for J.D. Means 1408 Drilling in Slick, Oklahoma Well, we got started at Slick. We were on fuel number one, and after we got a little below a hundred feet we went through the line and left the tools in the hole. We had about three feet of line—the line broke about three feet up above the tools. And those drilling lines, as most of you know, have six strands. They’re six to nineteen line, they’re called. There’s six—there’s three big strands and nineteen little strands in there. Well, we had the casing rolled down to get over the tools to pick ‘em out but I couldn’t get over it on account of that size of wire there. And we ran a light down the hole to see what condition it was, because you could look down there and see it with a light in there. And it was frazzled out, and I said, If that wire was cut off at the top of that socket, we could fish those tools out. And one of the men volunteered to go down and I thought, That’s a foolish trip. And we had [indecipherable] it’d break our company for sure. So I went down myself. And I put a felt hat on and filled it with waste up there because you could hear chunks go down there and hit the water around those tools and go ka-PLUNK and you didn’t know whether it was a big chunk or a little chunk or whether it was a rock or a piece of shale. Nevertheless, I went down and it wasn’t dangerous. However, we were drilling an 18” hole and right on top of the ground was cable tools you stomp, you know, and put a little water in the hole and stomp down there and bail out what you’ve mixed, that’s the way they drill with cable tools. Ralph " ; Brick" ; Kirchner discusses drilling near Slick, Oklahoma and for Caufield Oil Company on the Sewell Farm Barney Sewell ; Caufield Oil Company ; control head ; drilling ; Dutcher ; eight-mile corner ; explosion ; oil ; Sewell ; Sewell Farm ; shell ; Slick Drilling in Slick, Oklahoma and for Caufield Oil Company 1872 Ralph " ; Brick" ; Kirchner discusses Jim Sloane BK: --he said, No sir, mister, [indecipherable], said, We done closed the rolls. (laughter) BK: [Indecipherable.] –my partner in Kirchner & ; Sloane, Inc. was Jim Sloane (ph). Jim wanted to continue drilling on a contract basis. I wanted production. So we dissolved partnership and dissolved the corporation and I got—and divided up the tools. We had two strings at that time. And I got a lease on the Henry Fisher farm south of here, and many of you are familiar with the Fishers and some of ‘em buy their eggs there, I imagine. But we drilled a well on it, I sold some interest in it for to raise a little money to drill it with and I sold Art Stone (ph) on the interest on those. And Art was out there the day we were to hit the sands. And I was in to fifteen-ten (ph) and it was looking good, and I sold Art Stone a ninety-sixth (ph) interest for $3,000 on the derrick floor there just by a shake of the hands—and that’s the way many, many deals were closed, just by a shake of the hands. And it wasn’t an hour until we’d hit—until we hit the sand. And when she started smoking gas we started out of the hole, but the oil beat the tools out of the hole. And did we feel good! And so we had the tanks up anticipating a well, and we had the tanks up so we got out of the hole and tools and closed that control head and turned it into the tanks and it was flowing into the tanks. And we went home that night, nice little fortune between the [indecipherable] bungalow. I figured, I think we’re rich. What in the world could we do now for our poor relatives? Ralph " ; Brick" ; Kirchner discusses Jim Sloane and how they dissolved the partnership Art Stone ; Jim Sloane ; Kirchner & ; Sloane, Inc Ralph " ; Brick" ; Kirchner discusses Jim Sloane 2063 Gotham Oil Company BK: Let’s see. The next one—I moved from there over to [indecipherable] 15-10 for the Gotham Oil Company. The Gotham Oil Company was out of Washington, D.C. And M.M. Wyville (ph) was the major holder in the Gotham Oil Company. And M.M. Wyville (ph) was secretary to William Jennings Bryan when Bryan secretary of war under Woodrow Wilson, to give you a little line-up on that. We drove that well for, for Gotham and when she started smoking gas—we had the control head on—we turned it into the pit, turned the well into the pit in case it wouldn’t flow. And Mr. Wyville (ph) and I went to Bristow to order out the tanks. We did, we ordered out a full tank and two 250s. Tanks then were all folded tanks, they weren’t welded like they are today. But when we got the tanks set—the well’d flowed twice into the pits when we got back. When we got the tanks set we picked up 450 barrels of good oil out of the pits. And [indecipherable] wanted to drill the well six inches, and we tried to hit the string on six inches—six inches above the clamps—and clipped it to the clamps, and it didn’t change the motion at all. And when it drilled off, it came out of that hole. That well made 450 barrels. That was sixty-one years ago now, today. Sixty-one years ago and that well is still producing between seven and eight barrels in the Meisner sand. Drilling for the Gotham Oil Company and discussion of Claude Freeland Albert Kelly ; Claude Freeman ; Corporation Commission ; gauger ; George Fargo ; Gotham Oil Comapany ; Levan ; M.M. Wyville ; Poor Farm ; Prairie Oil and Gas ; William Jennings Bryan ; Woodrow Wilson Claude Freeland ; Drilling for the Gotham Oil Company ; Prairie Oil and Gas 2390 Bristow is a Boom Town BK: Bristow was a—Bristow was a real boom town and my time’s about gone, but I wanted to tell you some of the things that aren’t here now that I saw here. We had three refineries here. A Bristow Refining Company out here on the Kelly farm here right at the north edge of town. Wilcox Refinery across the railroad track east of it. And then the Sun Company Oil Refinery up on the hill—one of the old [indecipherable] refineries. We have no refineries here now. We used to have the Republic Supply Company here—that’s an oilfield supply company. Across the street was the Oil Well Supply Company. Then after that was the National Supply Company. A couple of blocks north and a half east was the— Bristow was a " ; real boom town" ; with many refineries and oil businesses. American Tool Machine Company ; Bristow ; Bristow Pipe and Machine Company ; Bristow Refining Company ; Chester ; Cushing ; Ed Abraham ; National Supply Company ; Oil Well Supply Company ; Producer Supply Company ; refineries ; Republic Supply Company ; Sun Company Oil Refinery ; Wilcox Refinery Discussion of Bristow as a boom town In this 1979 interview, Ralph R. “Brick” Kirchner (1893-1990) speaks extensively about the oil drilling industry in Bristow, Oklahoma in the early 1900s, business involvement with J. Paul Getty, anecdotes about Tom Slick, how people handled their new-found oil wealth, and restrictions upon Indians regarding the handling of their own finances. EM: We' ; ll have to be real quiet on this now. (Pause in recording) EM: [inaudible] He has attained the ripe of age of ninety-one. His father made the run in to Oklahoma territory in--1889? BK: Ninety-three. EM: Ninety-three, back here when the state [inaudible]. BK: That' ; s correct. EM: Brick attended the Oklahoma A& ; M College, for those of you who are not familiar with that, it' ; s now Oklahoma State University. Brick is also the dean of the Bristow District Rotary Government, having served since 1931 and 1932. There are many more facts about Brick Kirchner that I' ; d like to bring out is that Brick Kirchner is--or was, at one time--in the newspaper publishing business. Brick Kirchner owned half interest in a newspaper in Ada, Oklahoma. Having seen the error of his ways, he took his money out of the newpaper-- (laughter) EM: Brick also has--I don' ; t know whether this is a distinction or--but Brick has stood for public office. Brick ran for Congress in the fourth congressional district on the Republican ticket and I think that' ; s the reason I got to introduce you today, Brick, is because I ran on the Democratic ticket about twenty years later. (laughter) EM: I asked him what year he ran, he couldn' ; t tell me. He said, What year did you run? I said, I don' ; t remember either. (laughter) EM: Without any further accolades, I' ; d like to introduce to you, our dean of the Bristow Rotary Club, Brick Kirchner. (applause) BK: [inaudible] No, I don' ; t care. Am I speaking into this? Okay. Mr. Steward, thank you very kindly for that very nice and very liberal education, and I' ; m happy that my [indecipherable] section is here, too. (chuckling) BK: And the [indecipherable] section' ; s been here for a long time. I thought, too, it was kind of odd, Doc Yourman got the program for Don Kitchens, and Don Kitchens couldn' ; t be here, so Ed McMillan--I mean, Ed Mackenson introduced me for Don Kitchens. Now that beats around the bush a little bit. (laughter) BK: But I' ; m happy to be here, and I want to endeavor to give you some interesting points about the life of a ninety-one-year--of a ninety-one-year-old oilman. When I got out of school at Oklahoma A& ; M, I went to work for the Gypsy Oil Company in Tulsa. Gypsy Oil Company was the production department of the Gulf Oil Corporation, and I was in the production department at seventy-five dollars a month, if you please. Not bad! It wasn' ; t--I wasn' ; t there too long until I had an opportunity for a better salary and I went to Collinsville for Mr. J.D. Ward at a hundred-and-a-quarter a month, and then I was in tall cotton. I thought that was something. I got my first production-- (pause) Well, I was with Mr. Ward and he encouraged me, and then he said, You ought to get something for yourself. So I acquired a lease on eighty acres east of Owasso, Oklahoma and I sold it the superintendent of the Bartlesville Yanks (ph) Company, provided he would drill a well and carry me into the tanks and first well. That he did. We got a little well on the Bartlesville, around 7,800 feet and didn' ; t amount to very much. So I was fortunate enough to sell the well and lease and get Mr. Gardstock' ; s (ph) money back for him out of the deal. But nevertheless that was--that was my first real introduction in it where I' ; d get a little grease on my hands. That, that' ; s oil business. I [indecipherable] to the Army from Collinsville, and my employer, Mr. Ward, got me a deferment for a while, and then I volunteered in the Army for the--in the F-A-C-O-T-S. That' ; s Field Artillery Central Offices Training School at Camp Taylor, Louisville, Kentucky. I had letters from my employer that when I got out of the Army that he had great things planned. But I had something planned, also. I figured if I had made money for him buying and selling real estate and leases, I certainly ought to be able to do it for myself. So I got my discharge from the army and incidentally I got my discharge and my commission in the same envelope. (laughter) BK: Now that' ; s something, too! And I went to Perry. That' ; s my old hometown. And Perry is--was about eighteen, twenty miles--about twenty miles, I guess--southeast of Garber, and Garber was really booming then. Plenty of production around there, but Garber was really booming of that fine, high-grade oil. And my dad was in the real estate business and he would buy royalties. So he and two other gentlemen that I knew bought royalty under the Wolf (ph) farm about two miles south of Garber. And my dad had told me, and so had Mr. Mauser (ph) that they would like to sell their interest if they could get $15,000 for it. So I thought that I' ; d use that as a starter and I went to Enid and I managed to sell that royalty--represented that I owned its individual interest and could deliver it for $22,500. And that' ; s quite a bit of profit. So I had to buy it first, so when I came home that evening I went to my banker, Mr. John Hanson (ph), the Bank of Commerce, and explained the deal to him and I said, I' ; d like to borrow the money from you to buy this. He said, Alright, I' ; ll do it. I' ; ll tell you how I' ; ll do it: I' ; ll do it for half of the profit. (laughter) BK: Well, now, he didn' ; t hurt himself any--if seventy-five--that' ; s $3,750 is all he was going to charge me for that $15,000 for about thirty days. And that was our last--I was pleased that I could get the money so I told my dad and I went home and I said, I' ; d like to buy your Wolf (ph) royalty. He said, You' ; d like to buy my royalty? Now, how in the hell would you--could you buy it? (laughter) BK: Well, I couldn' ; t have that morning, but I-- (laughter) BK: I could that evening because I had arranged for the credit! He said, Well, I' ; ve decided I don' ; t want to sell mine. Now that was a shock to me, first. The other gentlemen that I knew that had that like interest was in Amarillo. I didn' ; t know whether he' ; d be in, so I did manage to acquire the interest of a gentleman in Pawnee and I delivered it and I got my $22,500, Mr. Hanson (ph) got $3,750 and I got $3,750 out of it, and I thought I had about half the money in the world. Me, with $3,750 and owed no one! I felt mighty good. I wanted to put that money to work. So I was acquainted with Jim Sloane (ph). Jim was the tool pusher for the Roxanna Oil Company. And a tool pusher--that means he had charge of all their drilling tools, and hiring the men and so forth and operate the rigs. And so Jim and I decided to go into partnership and buy a string of tools, which we did. And Jim was fortunate enough to get his assistant pusher--to get his assistant pusher appointed to fill his position at the Roxanna. Here' ; s the deal: that enabled us to borrow from [indecipherable], this assistant, any tools that we didn' ; t have! So that made a nice deal for me, too. And we--we' ; d brought our rig up here north of Yukon, Oklahoma. And we moved it up to Billings where we had a contract for the--for the Billings Petroleum Company. Our company name was Kirchner & ; Sloan, Inc. And we had to have this well started by September 5 to validate Billings Petroleum Company' ; s leases there. So we rigged up and we run the socket out of the back window that you' ; re familiar with, and screwed onto our big-holed stem to bring it into the rig, put the bit on and starts spudding, and we got it up at about a forty-five-degree angle and this thing broke square in two in the middle. We just pulled the top half of it into the rig and spudded with half of a stem, no bit on it! (laughter) BK: Ran the driller, got a little mud out of the hole and dumped it in the cesspit and the lease was validated. Then we were in business, we' ; d made good. (laughter) BK: We had finished that well for the Billings Petroleum Company--finished our contract, I mean--we had no oil. That location that I drilled for them was made by what was called then a doodlebug. A doodlebug were an oil smeller and this doodlebug--this doodlebug or oil finder--he had two black whale bones about that long and about a quarter inch square fastened together at the point with a little bottle on it. And I found out later that little bottle had crude oil in it, and it had crude oil that was produced in the area where he would work. Well, he' ; d made that location, he said, Now there' ; s shallow gas along here, and there' ; s deeper oil along here, so we' ; ll dig this location right where they cross, we' ; ll have shallow and we can get the gas for fuel, ' ; course everything was steam then, and at--do future development on the lease. We completed our contract-no oil, no gas, no nothing. And they paid it. But they wanted to go deeper. That doodlebug knew there was oil down there, so we agreed to drill it deeper at $7 a foot and they paid us over 100 feet. Drill it we did, we drilled it 300 feet deeper and they paid us every hundred feet. But by that time, it was necessary that we got our rig moved because we had a contract with the Getty Oil Company. The Getty Oil Company was owned by J. Paul Getty. This location was on a main (ph) six miles east of Billings. J. Paul owned the Getty Oil Company. His father, Colonel Getty, was the big dog Getty in the oil business at that time. He owned the Minnehoma Oil Company and had mass production in the Garber field. We drove this well for Mr. Getty and we had our bunkhouse there, and it was the cook shack also. Some of the crew stayed in the house and we cooked our meals there. And our meals was either hot dogs or hotcakes. Hotcakes for breakfast and hot dogs at the other two meals. Mr. Getty came out when we were approaching what was to be the objective sand--which was the Hoover sand--and he--I recall he had a little wax moustache, short, that just stuck square off. And when he opened his coat he had a deputy sheriff' ; s badge on his shirt. He wanted to get some Oklahoma tan to carry back to L.A., so he would walk up and down the highway here up by the rig with his hat off and his shirt unbuttoned to get a little tan. Well, he got the sunburn, anyway! We made him a well at twenty-two-sixty. Twenty-two-hundred-and-sixty-feet in the Hoover sand. Made about sixty barrels of that lovely, high-grade oil. And Mr. Hanson, with the present Bank of Commerce, he financed our operation all the way. And I wanted to get the money for the well so I could pay Mr. Hanson and stop that interest. I made out my bill immediately and took that and the log and certificate and I went up to the rig the next morning. And Mr. Whitsun (ph), J. Paul' ; s superintendent, said, Well, now, J. Paul won' ; t be out here. J. Paul' ; s on his way to Los Angeles, and if you don' ; t catch him before he gets away, you' ; re liable to be two months getting your money. I said, Where is he? And he said, He' ; s at the Santa Fe station in Perry. And I hustled right in to the Santa Fe station in Perry. And we had a few [indecipherable] and went in to the waiting room and there was Mr. Getty, and we had a few pleasantries and then I presented my bill and told him the bank and I needed the money. And he said, I' ; m sorry, crookster, but I don' ; t have any checks on my bank. Well, I said, I can fix that. And I stepped up to the ticket window and I got a blank check on the Bank of Commerce at Perry, changed it to his bank in Los Angeles, and made out--filled in the amount of the bill for Kirchner & ; Sloane, Inc. and presented it to Mr. Getty, and he signed it. And we were happy. (laughter) BK: I waited around with him until his train came in and he left. And I haven' ; t seen him from that day ' ; til this. But he' ; s done alright, I understand. (laughter) BK: Richest man in the world. That was quite an experience. He was very pleasant, and very nice. (pause) (papers rustling) BK: Well, I have a lot written down here. (laughter) BK: Our next well, after Mr. Getty' ; s well, was for J.D. Means, and it was by the northeast offset to Mr. Getty' ; s. And while we were drilling that well for Mr. Means, Marland Oil Company was drilling in the northeast corner of the section and we were in the southeast corner of that same section. We made a small well for Mr. Means, but Mr. Getty--I mean, Mr. Marland, on his location up there, got a nice well and that was the discovery well for the great Oklahoma Three Sands pool. And incidentally the north offset to that, my dad had some royalty that he purchased under that, too, that offset--that well was dry. The east offset and for a mile and a half or two miles north and south, and a mile and a half wide, was the Garber field, and it was a dandy. [There are a] few wells producing there today. Now after we finished that well for Mr. Means, I loaded a flatcar. Loaded a string of tool on a flatcar and started for Bristow. And I followed it--that flatcar--in my automobile. And I found out that five bucks here and there in some of these yards will get your car moved pretty fast. It worked in west Tulsa that way--Red Fork, I mean, that way. And we got in to Bristow, there was no trucking contractors then, everything was moved by teams. Most of it was most by teams. So we got Doc Martin (ph), a teaming contractor here, to move us out to Slick, eight miles east and two south of here, for the Caufield (ph) Oil Company. They had claimed this block of acreage there, which acreage and wells in production is now owned by the Krumme brothers. Harlan' ; s here today. By owned by Harlan and George. And I loaded a 14x28 boxcar house for myself and I had the deluxe job: I had a screened-in porch on each end of it and I had a sub-roof over my roof, about eight inches up, where the sun couldn' ; t hit my--the roof of our house directly and the air can circulate under there. So we thought that was pretty deluxe for us. And I built a 14x40 bunkhouse there and I built it right by the bathhouse, and near the boarding house, because all the leases then, if they had any size and employed very many men, they had a bunkhouse and boarding house and a warehouse, just as the Caufield (ph) Oil Company did. I remember, we had a good boarding house there. And it happened that the driller--a driller that worked for me was the husband of the lady that ran the boarding house, and while I wasn' ; t using him on the rig, she was running him around the country buying groceries for the boarding house! So I thought, Well, he can' ; t be doing his work. I went down there about three o' ; clock one morning and there he was, sound asleep on the driller' ; s stool, the tools just swinging, motion very slow, just swinging, wasn' ; t even hitting bottom. So I didn' ; t wake him up, I just wrote his check out because you would carry a time book and a checkbook in your pocket then, and fire a man if you wanted to, because you didn' ; t have to account for his social security or any other take-out. So I just wrote his check out and put it in the headache box there at the rig and told his tool dresser, who was awake, I said, Just call that to his attention when he wakes up. I paid him off. We had a lot of fine experiences out there at that time. I remember at that time the companies--the larger companies--all had oil scouts. And I recall one in particular that came to our rig to get information. They wanted to know how you were coming so that they could buy leases if necessary. I remember one of the Phillips boys--John I think was his name, John Phillips of Phillips Petroleum Company. He wasn' ; t one of the rich ones, that was Waite and his--Waite Phillips and his brother. And this boy, this Phillips, was about my age--around twenty-six I was then. And he came to our rig scouting our rig to see how deep we were, and if he could catch any--take any samples that we had there of sand that we had encountered. And he got to be quite a big shot then. At that time the companies furnished the rig, pipe, fuel, and water on the location for a drilling well. They' ; d build a rig, and the rig was all wooden--no steel rigs then, and they had a 250-barrel tank on both sides of the engine house there for water, and they had water the tracked to the tank. It was filled up, the 250-barrel wooden tank. Well, we got started at Slick. We were on fuel number one, and after we got a little below a hundred feet we went through the line and left the tools in the hole. We had about three feet of line--the line broke about three feet up above the tools. And those drilling lines, as most of you know, have six strands. They' ; re six to nineteen line, they' ; re called. There' ; s six--there' ; s three big strands and nineteen little strands in there. Well, we had the casing rolled down to get over the tools to pick ' ; em out but I couldn' ; t get over it on account of that size of wire there. And we ran a light down the hole to see what condition it was, because you could look down there and see it with a light in there. And it was frazzled out, and I said, If that wire was cut off at the top of that socket, we could fish those tools out. And one of the men volunteered to go down and I thought, That' ; s a foolish trip. And we had [indecipherable] it' ; d break our company for sure. So I went down myself. And I put a felt hat on and filled it with waste up there because you could hear chunks go down there and hit the water around those tools and go ka-PLUNK and you didn' ; t know whether it was a big chunk or a little chunk or whether it was a rock or a piece of shale. Nevertheless, I went down and it wasn' ; t dangerous. However, we were drilling an 18" ; hole and right on top of the ground was cable tools you stomp, you know, and put a little water in the hole and stomp down there and bail out what you' ; ve mixed, that' ; s the way they drill with cable tools. I went down there and [indecipherable] to it, but they let a lantern down on a string so I could see what I was doing and I had a hammer and a sharp chisel and they let me down on derrick line around me so I could stretch out a little bit and sliver myself any time where I didn' ; t figure there was much hazard to it. But I chipped those strands off of there and I [indecipherable] they pulled me out of the hole. However, they did drop the line that had the lantern on it, and it went on down the hole. And then we let the casing roll down over it and put the slips over it and gosh, it came with no difficulty at all getting the tools out once we got over them. But on the next well that I drilled with was for the Caufield (ph) Oil Company and it was the variant north offset to this first well. And we got to the well--I mean, got to the sand around 2,700 in the Dutcher--and the Dutcher over in the Slick area was black oil around thirty-four to thirty-six gradients (ph). And when the--we' ; d shoot a well, they shot all of them over there, when they' ; d shoot on ' ; em, when they' ; d shoot a well, they would load the oil--the well with oil on top of the shot right up to where it was running over the control head because if they didn' ; t fill it clear full they' ; d--when that shot went off it would break the pipe at the top of the fluid. And we tried it once just filling it up into the control head and it broke the control head! So after that, we ran it over. Well, when that shot goes off, it blows that hole full of oil in the air, and that' ; s why it was such a beautiful sight over there. When you come out from Bristow, top that hill by the eight-mile corner--every drilling well was clean, white pine just about the color of that piece of paper, and the producing wells were black because they had been shot, and were all covered with oil. And we used steam for fuel and every drilling well there was that white, crisp steam and it was a beautiful sight. Well that' ; s the drilling well--that fuel drilled up pretty rapidly. Now that-- (pause) Oh, yes, I' ; m on the Sewell (ph) farm there--I mean, yeah. Barney Sewell' ; s (ph) farm, that' ; s where this well was. Second well that I drilled for Caufield (ph). And they were putting the shot in. We drilled the well and we were gonna shoot it. We used shots before--did sixty quarts of liquid nitroglycerin: glycerin shells around four inches in diameter and about five feet long. And you would hang it onto the hook there that would stay hooked as long as there was any tension on the line. And you had to be in there when the shooter was there, some of the crew did. And I' ; m telling you right: when that shooter gets that shell--that glycerin can up there--and poured it down in there, when that hit the bottom of that shell, I mean, it just kind of sets the hair on you a little. (laughter) BK: It looked scary to me! Well, we had a little more gas in that Sewell (ph) than we did in the fuel, and we were putting the last shell in. We got down in the hole a ways and the shooter--the shooter operated the reel that lets the shell down the hole--and his line went slack, which showed that that shell was coming up the hole. And it had unhitched! That gas with [indecipherable] gas in there is gonna blow that--have a good chance to blow that shell out of the hole. And it started going pretty good. The shooter hollered, Catch that shell! And I said, Hell on earth. (laughter) You catch your own shell if you want-- (laughter) And I did like he did, and all the rest of them: I ran! (laughter) And sure enough, the shell came out of the hole and blew the Caufield (ph) Oil Company' ; s rig down. Clear down. None of us were hurt, fortunately, and that wasn' ; t so bad, except for the delay in production and the dollars that it cost to replace this rig. It didn' ; t hurt my tools any. And-- because those shots will go off naturally in seventy-two hours at that depth and in that area. In seventy-two hours that shot will go off by itself due to the heat and pressure on it. And that' ; s what happened on this well of [indecipherable] out there. (Break in recording) BK: --he said, No sir, mister, [indecipherable], said, We done closed the rolls. (laughter) BK: [Indecipherable.] --my partner in Kirchner & ; Sloane, Inc. was Jim Sloane (ph). Jim wanted to continue drilling on a contract basis. I wanted production. So we dissolved partnership and dissolved the corporation and I got--and divided up the tools. We had two strings at that time. And I got a lease on the Henry Fisher farm south of here, and many of you are familiar with the Fishers and some of ' ; em buy their eggs there, I imagine. But we drilled a well on it, I sold some interest in it for to raise a little money to drill it with and I sold Art Stone (ph) on the interest on those. And Art was out there the day we were to hit the sands. And I was in to fifteen-ten (ph) and it was looking good, and I sold Art Stone a ninety-sixth (ph) interest for $3,000 on the derrick floor there just by a shake of the hands--and that' ; s the way many, many deals were closed, just by a shake of the hands. And it wasn' ; t an hour until we' ; d hit--until we hit the sand. And when she started smoking gas we started out of the hole, but the oil beat the tools out of the hole. And did we feel good! And so we had the tanks up anticipating a well, and we had the tanks up so we got out of the hole and tools and closed that control head and turned it into the tanks and it was flowing into the tanks. And we went home that night, nice little fortune between the [indecipherable] bungalow. I figured, I think we' ; re rich. What in the world could we do now for our poor relatives? (laughing) BK: And I went out the next morning: Lo and behold, there' ; s a hundred and thirty-six barrels in the tank and eighteen hundred feet of water in the hole and the well had stopped flowing. (laughing) BK: And, well, we put tubing rods in it and produced it for a while, but it would never pay off. I think I was the only one that got my money back out of the deal on it, and that was on account of that $3,000 I got offered by Art Stone. (laughing) BK: Let' ; s see. The next one--I moved from there over to [indecipherable] 15-10 for the Gotham Oil Company. The Gotham Oil Company was out of Washington, D.C. And M.M. Wyville (ph) was the major holder in the Gotham Oil Company. And M.M. Wyville (ph) was secretary to William Jennings Bryan when Bryan secretary of war under Woodrow Wilson, to give you a little line-up on that. We drove that well for, for Gotham and when she started smoking gas--we had the control head on--we turned it into the pit, turned the well into the pit in case it wouldn' ; t flow. And Mr. Wyville (ph) and I went to Bristow to order out the tanks. We did, we ordered out a full tank and two 250s. Tanks then were all folded tanks, they weren' ; t welded like they are today. But when we got the tanks set--the well' ; d flowed twice into the pits when we got back. When we got the tanks set we picked up 450 barrels of good oil out of the pits. And [indecipherable] wanted to drill the well six inches, and we tried to hit the string on six inches--six inches above the clamps--and clipped it to the clamps, and it didn' ; t change the motion at all. And when it drilled off, it came out of that hole. That well made 450 barrels. That was sixty-one years ago now, today. Sixty-one years ago and that well is still producing between seven and eight barrels in the Meisner sand. George Fargo (ph), who was superintendent for the P-O-N-G, Prairie Oil and Gas, he wouldn' ; t believe it that we' ; d only drilled it that far in. When he--he drilled the offset for his company and he drilled it in two feet. His well was plugged in a year and a half, he got it in the water too far! And this one, I think--this one makes water now, but it still produces between seven and eight barrels. And I drilled a seven-hundred-foot well there and we pumped the water into that, that Boomer (ph) sand, I think it is. Let' ; s see now. (pages rustling) Man, alive. Well, some of you' ; ll want to know how we--how do you get your money for your oil? When you got a tankful, you call the gauger, he comes out and gives you a written--gives your tank top and the bottom and then peeks at it to see how much b.s. and water there is in it and if there' ; s too much of that basic sediment and water in there, why the gauger' ; ll say, Clean your tank, like they told us on this ticket here. (laughter) BK: It says, Clean tank. And they gave you a ticket for each tank and they would pay you on about the twenty-sixth of the month--the twenty-sixth of the following month. Rotary is much faster than drilling with cable tools, so Claude Freeland--which some of you know, he built that home first--home west of the Presbyterian Church here in Bristow. Claude Freeland drilled a well out in the Poor Farm area, which was discovered--the Poor Farm area was discovered by Albert Kelly, Levan' ; s dad--discovered the Poor Farm pool. Claude Freeland had a well that had started off with 10,000 barrels a day of this black Dutcher oil. A grand well. Carter had the offset. They wanted some of that, so they moved a rotary in. That' ; s the first rotary that was in this country, on that offset. And they drilled it down there, set by to drill the hole dry and drilled the sand and made ten million in gas. No oil. They let it blow wide open in the air thinking that it would blow onto oil. But it didn' ; t. You can' ; t blow one open that way today, the Corporation Commission' ; ll be on ya--you got to shut that well in. If you don' ; t they' ; ll shut it in for ya and charge ya. (noise) Pardon me. And, well--this well of Claude' ; s--and Claude would ride with me out to the rig once in a while and we' ; d visit--he told me about that particular well. He said, That well made a million dollars' ; worth of oil in sixty-seven days and never made another barrel of oil. Not a million barrels' ; full, a million dollars' ; worth. And I imagine then that oil was worth about $2.45 a barrel. That' ; d be nice to have in the family, believe me. (laughter) BK: Bristow was a--Bristow was a real boom town and my time' ; s about gone, but I wanted to tell you some of the things that aren' ; t here now that I saw here. We had three refineries here. A Bristow Refining Company out here on the Kelly farm here right at the north edge of town. Wilcox Refinery across the railroad track east of it. And then the Sun Company Oil Refinery up on the hill--one of the old [indecipherable] refineries. We have no refineries here now. We used to have the Republic Supply Company here--that' ; s an oilfield supply company. Across the street was the Oil Well Supply Company. Then after that was the National Supply Company. A couple of blocks north and a half east was the-- UM: Producer. BK: Producer Supply Company. The [indecipherable] was here. Also the American Tool Machine Company and the Bristow Pipe and Machine Company run by Mr. Cushing. Mr. Cushing had a son, Chester--when you' ; d go in there for any fishing tools, old Chester--you' ; d tell him what you want, Chester' ; d say, Oh hell you don' ; t want that, you want to have this, show' ; d me this or that. But after Chester got to drilling for himself he found out that the people that knew pretty well what they wanted when they went in there. And Chester drilled a well for himself just about a quarter of a mile south of this new project on south Chestnut and a quarter west up on the hill. He drilled it with cable tools ' ; til the [indecipherable] broke sand, made a little, well, and his wife dressed tools for him on that well. Drilled it in daylight, and his wife dressed tools. That' ; s something. I only want to give you interesting things, I think. Out northwest of town we had some big wells. I recall one that was drilled on the Abraham, the Ed Abraham farm out there and it got away and went into the air and the wind was right that it blew oil from that well into Bristow and spotted clothes that were on the line, and oil spots on your car. Three miles away! (papers rustling) That' ; s all of it. (laughter) UM: [Inaudible.] BK: No, I don' ; t want to shoot the breeze all afternoon. I' ; m too [indecipherable] have to go, it' ; s time to go on and [indecipherable] around here. Well let' ; s see if there' ; s anything else that I think you, you can' ; t live without. (laughter) Yes, I tell you what it is! Bristow was a boom town, the streets were full and the sidewalks were full, in fact I' ; ve seen teams lined from Slick two miles north to the eight-mile corner of a morning. Just teams loaded out with pipe and rig stuff. And people would like to see--individuals would like to see people mill up and down those sidewalks, and some of them would park their car at a point of vantage and walk home, and then walk back downtown and get in their car in view of the people walking up and down the streets and sidewalks because it was that interesting. That' ; s the Bristow that a lot of you have never known. Thank ya. (applause) Tape ends. audio 0 https://bristoworalhistory.org/ohms/viewer.php?cachefile=OHP-0015-01_Kirchner,_R_R_Rotary_Club.xml OHP-0015-01_Kirchner,_R_R_Rotary_Club.xml
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Ralph Kirchner at Bristow Rotary Club
Description
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In this 1979 interview, Ralph R. “Brick” Kirchner (1893-1990) speaks extensively about the oil drilling industry in Bristow, Oklahoma in the early 1900s, business involvement with J. Paul Getty, anecdotes about Tom Slick, how people handled their new-found oil wealth, and restrictions upon Indians regarding the handling of their own finances.
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OHP-0015-001
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1984
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audio
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Oral History
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Nancy Carolyn Camp Foster
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Edith Mills
Lucy Mae Mills
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https://bristoworalhistory.org/ohms/viewer.php?cachefile=OHP-0020_Mills,_Edith_Lucy_Mae.xml
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5.4 Unknown Date OHP-0020 Edith and Lucy Mae Mills OHP-0020 0:00-1:04:33 'Bristow Historical Society - Oral History Archive' Bristow Historical Society, Inc. Edith Mills Lucy Mae Mills Nancy Carolyn Camp Foster MP3 1:|58(8)|72(3)|106(10)|133(8)|165(7)|198(17)|246(8)|287(13)|328(2)|363(6)|404(3)|463(5)|491(9)|531(10)|562(3)|598(5)|607(8)|629(2)|681(3)|738(8)|756(4)|791(2)|818(9)|828(5)|856(5)|902(3)|946(11)|971(11)|990(8)|1043(2)|1080(8)|1096(16)|1135(9)|1168(6)|1213(14)|1253(10)|1284(6)|1322(2)|1380(9)|1418(1)|1438(10)|1458(6)|1503(5)|1537(10)|1559(2)|1587(8)|1644(1)|1659(5)|1700(6)|1725(7)|1754(6)|1788(11)|1817(10)|1845(2)|1876(2)|1912(2)|1965(2)|2010(8)|2041(10)|2080(10)|2122(11)|2149(9)|2183(10)|2207(1) 0 https://bristoworalhistory.org/interviews/OHP-0020 Mills, Edith & ; Lucy Mae.mp3 Other audio 451 Introduction and History Read Aloud NF : Ms. Mills , we’re so happy that you had us today. Let us come and talk to you about this, because I have a feeling you have information and things that happened that maybe nobody else that we’ve come in contact with would even know. EM: I’ll read this first and see if there’s anything before you record. NF: Okay. EM: Now well, I didn’t know whether you don’t need to leave Mr. Mills name or anything like that but that’s what I had on the recording— NF: Uh-huh. EM: I mean on my history. He came here to this area in 1890 from Guthrie and he helped lay the Frisco Railroad road bed. He— by hauling ties with his mule team, between Tulsa and Oklahoma City. They— he and his brother— first his two brothers and one brother dropped out. They lived on deer meat and wild turkey which were plentiful. The deer came up to the door. They hated to kill the deer because they came up for salt— NF: Mm-hmm. EM: —and they could just rope them and they had their deer meat. NF: Wow. EM: Or salt and let’s see— which were plentiful. The deer came up to the door for salt and the wild turkeys roosted in trees at night. They’d catch all they wanted at night. Indians taught them how to make (Indecipherable) from corn. So they had plenty of meat and then they had the (Indecipherable) that the Indians taught them to make. Then here in Bristow, I had a note here on the old Skinner Barn was located right down here. Arthur Foster ; Claire Diehl ; Country Club ; Edith Abbott ; Ethan Mills ; Frisco Railroad ; Guthrie ; JC Penny ; Mr. Meirs ; Ms. Fox ; Oil Field ; Oklahoma City ; Ranny Foster ; Skinner Barn ; Superstitious ; Tulsa https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/158473193/nancy-carolyn-foster Nancy Carolyn Camp Foster https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/25330257/edith-n.-mills Edith N. Stansbury Mills https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/25330447/ethan-a.-mills Ethan A. Mills https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/25184927/arthur-morgan-foster Arthur Morgan Foster https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/22434083/ranny-foster Ranny Morgan Foster https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/188777833/claire-edith-diehl Claire Edith Foster Diehl https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/19551981/edith-edna-abbott Edith Edna Morgan Abbott 640 3A and 4B NF: Ms. Mills where was the school in which you taught here in Bristow? EM: Where was what? NF: Where was the school where you taught? Where was it located. EM: Oh, it was an old building. It’s been torn down. NF: Was it up here at Washington? EM: No. NF: Over— EM: It was across it. NF: Across it on the other side? EM: That’s right. NF: Yeah. Did you have a number of grades in one room? Or were there enough children to have a teacher for each grade? EM: Let me tell you, I had sixty in one room. WS: Oh! EM: I had sixty and they were mixed. I had a few colored too. Jack Abraham ; Mrs. Gee ; Old Brother Morgan ; Ray Powers https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/147624787/jack-abraham Jack Abraham https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/25330206/raymond-l.-power Raymond L. " ; Ray" ; Power 847 First Home and Carnegie Library NF: Did you live in town here in Bristow, or did you live out on the ranch? When you and Mr. Mills married. EM: Oh, well I was living with my aunt— NF: No, but I mean when you married Mr. Mills did you— did you— was your home here in town? LM: Across the street. EM: No. NF: Across the street. EM: Oh, across the street. NF: Yeah, uh-huh. EM: You mean our first home? NF: Your first home, yes. EM: Uh-huh. NF: Yeah. Anna Bullington ; Baptist Church ; Burnett ; California ; Carnegie Library ; City Library ; George Bullington ; Mr. Mills https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/140585804/george-e.-bullington George E. Bullington https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/224757804/anna-e.-bullington Anna E. Bullington 1104 The Depression Era and Mrs. Roosevelts Visit NF: Do you remember many things of The Depression era? Now that’s dropping back more to the present. EM: What years was it? NF: Well, what were they? Twenty-nine, thirty, thirty-one, thirty-two, thirty-three? WS: Twenty-nine probably— NF: Twenty-nine. WS: —when it started. EM: Well I’d have to— (Chuckling) EM: —think quite a— quite a lot if I remember— if I do remember anything I— NF: I remember when I first came to Bristow in thirty-five, we were fairly close— close to the railroad, and men were turning— would often turn up at the back door wanting to be fed. EM: Oh. NF: But you may have been far enough from the railroad they didn’t come here. EM: No I had— I had some. Creek ; Indians ; Mr. Black ; Mrs. Roosevelt ; Oral Roberts ; Railroad ; Soup Kitchen ; The Great Depression ; Youth Center ; Yuchi 1413 Mr. Mills Pioneer Log Cabin and The Commonality of Tuberculosis LM: Mother had been working with the NRA and the something then hadn’t you mother? She had been working on a lot of those things. NF: Oh. EM: I’ve worked on so many things, I’ve forgotten (chuckling) NF: Yeah. EM: So, yes I was— NF: I remember those young men lived out at the Youth Center and made furniture— EM: Yes. NF: If I remember right. EM: Mm-hmm. Yes. NF: Now whose cabin is this? EM: This is Mr. Mills pioneer log cabin. NF: Oh my! EM: That is Mr. Mills standing there— NF: Yeah. EM: —and that’s me. I preferred to sit down and be out of the picture. NF: Yeah. EM: So (Chuckling) NF: Well now, is this a breezeway between it or is it just a— EM: A breezeway— Chandler ; Diphtheria ; Guthrie ; Indian Territory ; Iowa ; Mills Chapel ; Mr. Mills ; Nashville, Tennessee ; Nells Chapel ; NRA ; Small Pox ; Tuberculosis ; Youth Center 1776 Clubs, Catalogs, and Cotton WS: Now did you help organize the Culture Club? EM: Let me see, did I or did I not? If I didn’t, I was right— the next one— I was right close because so many people thought that I did. So I don’t know whether I was in the first organization or not. Mrs. Cheeton (ph) was the main go ahead in the— WS: The Embroidery Club and the Culture Club were the— LM: There used to be a Dalcam (ph) society here years ago. WS: Yes, that was after that. Uh-huh. LM: Was it after, well I didn’t know when— WS: My mother and Ms. Lefflar (ph) I know. I can remember— the volumes you see in the libraries. UI: Uh-huh WS: Dalcam (ph) EM: Your mother was very active in everything. She helped a lot to build Bristow beginning and— WS: Well it’s a wonder with five children that she had the— (Laughter) EM: Well yes! And believe me, they weren’t just children, they were busy bodies. Those twins (Chuckling). I went there to— George McMillian (ph) was having a demonstration of this new kind of washer. You know the kind that kind of tipped forward and over a hump. I don’t know whether you remember it or not. And they couldn’t— you couldn’t step one way or the other without stepping on one of those twins. American National Bank ; Burmont Oil Company ; Carson Pirie Scott ; Chicago ; Cotton ; Dalcam Club ; Embroidery Club ; George McMillian ; Mrs. Cheeton ; Ms. Lefflar ; Oil Business ; Oil Field ; Old Skinner Barn ; Safeway ; The Culture Club ; Wagon 1964 A Picture Worth More than 1000 Dollars EM: Here’s a sweet picture. That’s Jack Abraham . He was one of my pets, but people didn’t know it. (Laughter) NF: Oh, isn’t he cute! LM: That’s the one that brought the apple everyday wasn’t it? EM: Huh? LM: He was the one that brought the apple to the teacher. EM: He brought an apple every day. NF: Ah! EM: Everyday an apple. NF: (Indecipherable) EM: He was a darling student. He wasn’t spoiled! He didn’t— he scarcely ever do anything wrong. Jack was ideal. NF: Well. Well, he’s a cute little boy. I had a little Thompson (ph) last year that looks an awful lot like him. She’d be a great niece. She’s— EM: Oh. NF: She’s— her daddy lives down in this Spanish style house down here. What’s that Abraham— LM: Gene (ph)? Gene Thompson (ph)? Oh, Herby (ph). NF: Herby! She’s Herby’s granddaughter. Bristow Historical Society ; Gene Thompson ; Herby Abraham ; Jack Abraham ; Lucy West ; Mrs. Dye ; Mrs. Mcclendon ; Orval Eden ; Ruth Appleview ; The Bristow Enterprise ; The Bristow Record https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/609440/viola-dye Viola Dye https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/230577892/lucy-clay-west Lucy Clay Longacre West 2117 The Pony Express to Phillipsburg LM: You need to tell them that dad used to run the Pony Express to Phillipsburg. NF: Oh really! EM: What? LM: He used to run that Pony Express from Phillipsburg. EM: Oh. NF: Pony Express. EM: Ethan did, yes. He rode the Pony Express for years to Phillipsburg. There was no Slick then and very few people know about Phillipsburg. NF: Arthur was telling us yesterday lunch that there was a Phillipsburg and was the other Robertsburg (ph)? He gave about three or four community names that I have never hear of. EM: Well the mail— Ethan took the mail just to Phillipsburg. NF: To Phillipsburg, and that was near Slick? EM: Yes. LM: About a mile and a half west of Slick, but they say the foundations are still out there. NF: Oh. Chandler ; Livery Stable ; Mr. Holocomb ; Phillipsburg ; Pony Express ; Robertsburg ; Sac and Fox ; Shamrock ; Slick ; Stillwater 2265 Wild Game and Snake Indians WS: There was plenty of wild game too in that time. EM: Oh yes! WS: You outta see, talk about the turkeys and the deer and oh, they just must have been so much. EM: The deer would come up to the door for salt and you just felt guilty capturing them when they were so tame. NF: Uh- huh. EM: And the wild turkeys— LM: (Inaudible) EM: Oh (Chuckling) an explosion! NF: Okay. EM: They’ve been blasting. I’ve heard at the noon hour. NF: Hmm. EM: Yes, those wild turkeys, you could just go out and sit out any night and make the trees and just choose whatever bird you wanted. NF: Now the buffalo had— if there had ever been here, were long gone weren’t they— by that time. EM: Yes. Buffalo ; Clad Purdy ; Deer ; Indians ; Snake Indian ; Turkey ; Wild Game 2663 The Building of Home WS: And did you always live in town? Or did you live out on the ranch? EM: We lived across the street. WS: Oh across the street. EM: Yes. WS: Uh-huh. EM: Ethan’s first wife and family lived out there on what we call the Home Place. WS: Mm-hmm. LM: It’s where Anna (ph) and Sonny (ph) live— were living now. NF: Uh-huh. LM: Just a little bit south of— NF: Uh-huh. Uh-huh. LM: That’s where I was born and Ernest was born. EM: They still have the old Home Place, but they’ve built a new— Mr. Jackson (ph) built a new house for the— what’s their names? Claude Freeland ; Ekdahl House ; Ernest Mills ; L.LCurl ; Leonard Martin ; McMillian House ; Mills Chapel Schoolhouse ; Mr. Jackson ; Mr. Owens ; The Great Depression ; The Old Home Place ; World War I ; World War II https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/25330445/ernest-h-mills Ernest H. Mills 2993 Excitement in Bristow NF: Can you think of anytime in Bristow that there was a real exciting time? How about when the refinery caught on fire. Do you remember that? EM: Yes, I remember. But there wasn’t— it didn’t seem to me like there was a terrible lot of excitement about it that I recall. EVERYONE TALKING AT ONCE EM: The most exciting days were when the school building burned up here and when Eleanor Roosevelt came to town. (Laughter) EM: I think— I think Eleanor’s visit was the most exciting. NF: Yeah. WS: Do you recall that wreck out there close to Heyburn? Two trains, you see. EM: Oh railroad. WS: Railroad wreck. EM: I don’t recall. Chandler ; Cyclone ; Eleanor Roosevelt ; Glen Acres ; Heyburn ; Kansas ; McAlister ; Mills Chapel ; Miss Sneed ; Nellie West ; Oklahoma City ; Railroad ; The Great Depression ; Train ; Tulsa https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/189646870/nellie-a-west Nellie A Rhoads West 3229 Baking and Preserving During The Great Depression EM: During the Depression in the Depression days, you couldn’t— I guess you’d call that Depression days, you couldn’t get flour. Couldn’t get whole— whole— or white flour. WS: Yes. EM: And my— Ethan’s mother would— she baked a lot and she wouldn’t use that new kind of flour at all. So I loaded up a fifty-pound sack, put it in a gunny sack, and boarded the train and took her a sack of flour (chuckling) NF: Oh! EM: But was she happy. She was really happy. LM: To Chandler. EM: Chandler, yes. NF: Yeah. WS: That was hard for us to get accustomed to, I recall— EM: Oh! WS: —you took flour you know because— EM: You recall. WS: Yes. EM: Those were pinchy days. We didn’t bake. We quit baking much of anything. Biscuits, white loaves, (Indecipherable Chandler ; Ethan Mills ; Preserves ; The Great Depression 3440 Clothing Making and Shopping NF: Well about their clothing now, did women made most of their own clothing in those days? They didn’t buy readymade dresses and— EM: No. They didn’t. They didn’t have very many for sale in small towns. In large cities I suppose they had plenty. NF: Uh-huh. EM: But they didn’t have very many small towns. NF: Did you have a town dress maker or did everybody sew for herself. EM: (Indecipherable) Hallman (ph) was the town dress maker and she— people who wanted good things went to (Indecipherable) Hallman (ph). NF: Well now, this is before she worked in the post office? EM: Yes. NF: I just supposed she’d been always worked in the post office. Well. EM: No for years— LM: She used to have a shop up there in the old stone building. EM: She made all of Lucy Mae’s clothes for years. LM: I still have the top to a real pretty white wool. Had an accordion pleated skirt that was an old white wool, had the fine lace all around. Clothing ; Dress Maker ; Ethan Mills ; Hookens Hotel ; Main Street ; Mr. Jackson ; Mrs. Klingensmith ; Oklahoma City ; Taxi ; Train 3872 College and Education in Bristow NF: Well I remember the first teachers meeting I went to. We went to Tulsa on the train. EM: You did? The first teachers meeting was in Tulsa? NF: Well after I started teaching— yeah. EM: (Indecipherable talking in background) LM: After she started teaching— NF: Uh-huh. Thirty-one years ago. The first time— EM: Oh! NF: —the first state teachers meeting happened to be in Tulsa that year, and we went up on the train. EM: Oh. Old timers. NF: Uh-huh. (Chuckling) LM: When I went to school I went on the train to Chicago and to Chicago changed over to— to Madison. NF: Where did you go, Lucy Mae? LM: Wisconsin. Bristow Junior College ; Chicago ; Christmas ; E.H. Black ; Ethan Mills ; Kansas City ; Madison Wisconsin ; Ms. McCormick ; Music Club ; Navy ; Oklahoma A& ; M ; Railroad ; Train ; Tulsa ; University of Wisconsin ; Water Wells Interviewer: Nancy Carolyn Camp Foster (NF) Interviewee: Edith Mills (EM) Other Persons: Lucy Mae Mills (LM) Unknown Woman (WS) Date of Interview: Unknown Location: Bristow, Creek County Oklahoma Transcriber: Macy Shields 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. (Indecipherable) NF: Ms. Mills, we' ; re so happy that you had us today. Let us come and talk to you about this, because I have a feeling you have information and things that happened that maybe nobody else that we' ; ve come in contact with would even know. EM: I' ; ll read this first and see if there' ; s anything before you record. NF: Okay. EM: Now well, I didn' ; t know whether you don' ; t need to leave Mr. Mills name or anything like that but that' ; s what I had on the recording-- NF: Uh-huh. EM: I mean on my history. He came here to this area in 1890 from Guthrie and he helped lay the Frisco Railroad road bed. He-- by hauling ties with his mule team, between Tulsa and Oklahoma City. They-- he and his brother-- first his two brothers and one brother dropped out. They lived on deer meat and wild turkey which were plentiful. The deer came up to the door. They hated to kill the deer because they came up for salt-- NF: Mm-hmm. EM: --and they could just rope them and they had their deer meat. NF: Wow. EM: Or salt and let' ; s see-- which were plentiful. The deer came up to the door for salt and the wild turkeys roosted in trees at night. They' ; d catch all they wanted at night. Indians taught them how to make (Indecipherable) from corn. So they had plenty of meat and then they had the (Indecipherable) that the Indians taught them to make. Then here in Bristow, I had a note here on the old Skinner Barn was located right down here. NF: Now that would be here on Chestnut? EM: Yeah, on Walnut Street. LM: First. NF: On Walnut. EM: And Main. NF: Uh-huh. EM: Mainly on Walnut and Main. NF: Walnut and Main. EM: Old Skinner Barn. NF: Now was that a livery stable thing or a barn to store stuff? EM: For oil field-- NF: Oh-- EM: --hauling. NF: Yeah. EM: It was mules-- mules mainly. No trucks in those days. They located at Fourth and Washington Street that is right down here one block. This was before the trucks took over. Horses were then the only means of transportation. Another location was between Chestnut and Oak. They had one right here. NF: Uh-huh. EM: And located the large one between Chestnut and Oak. Mr Meirs, M-E-I-R-S I think it was spelled, operated that out there. And that' ; s just about all I had. I might be able to answer some questions but I don' ; t know. NF: Well when did you come into this area? EM: What did you say? NF: When did you come into this-- EM: 1915. NF: In 1915. EM: Mm-hmm. I came here to teach, I taught school. NF: Yeah. EM: Came here to teach. Well, I came to visit my uncle and aunt. I was going to take a year' ; s vacation. I thought I needed it. I had taught-- let' ; s see, I' ; d taught six or seven years at that time, I think seven years. And I thought I needed a vacation, so I came here but they needed a teacher (Chuckling). I broke the rule. NF: (Chuckling) EM: And we taught not very long. Ms. Fox (ph) took my place. I met Ethan and we were married in February (Chuckling). I had taught from September to February-- NF: Wow! EM: --and was married. NF: Yeah. WS: February 1916, huh? EM:19-- I came here in 1915-- WS: But you married in 1916? EM: That' ; s right. LM: Fifteen-- NF: Well I remember the first time-- EM: February the 13th. NF: February the-- (Chuckling) EM: The way that I know-- (Chuckling) -- he almost passed out because he was so superstitious and I never was about anything. NF: Uh-huh. EM: But it was February the 13th like it or not. NF: (Chuckling) WS: My mother was superstitious that way too. I think that was-- that' ; s Syrian. Mm-hm. EM: I think it' ; s too bad because it gives you a lot of unhappiness that' ; s unnecessary. LM: Yes! Yes! (Laughter) EM: But that' ; s sad. I wouldn' ; t have thought, your mother' ; s so happy go lucky I wouldn' ; t have thought she was superstitious at all! She was one of the happiest persons I' ; ve ever met. NF: Yeah. EM: Liked to meet and be around. I worked on the country club. WS: I recall that you worked on the country club cook book with her-- EM: -- together. WS: Mm-hmm. EM: Crowd had such a good time. NF: Well a long time ago, when I first came to Bristow, I met you in JCPenny' ; s store. And I had my daughter Claire in the buggy pushing her, and I think that was the first time we met and you said then that you had known Arthur and Louis' ; s (ph) mother quite well. EM: Oh my, yes. We were very dear friends. NF: Well. Well, that' ; s good. Interesting to me because I didn' ; t ever get to know her of course. EM: Ranny? NF: Uh-huh. EM: Yes. She was a precious person. NF: Well. EM: Wonderful person. NF: Yeah. EM: And I knew her sister too, but-- NF: Edith, yeah. EM: Ranny was-- really came in before her sister-- NF: Uh-huh. EM: --did. Yes, she was a wonderful person. You don' ; t see people-- or meet them very often like Ranny Foster. NF: Yeah. EM: She was a doll. NF: Well, that always makes me happy to hear things like that because I' ; ve never felt that I' ; ve known her, you know? We loved Aunt Edith so-- EM: Oh well yes! This Ranny was absolutely without fault. You couldn' ; t find a-- NF: Well. EM: --fault of any kind with Ranny. Not any, she just is a doll. NF: Well EM: You' ; re just kind of ruining your mommies-- (Chuckling) LM: Here come here. EM: --dress. Why don' ; t you get down hmm? I put a chain on her so she wouldn' ; t be too friendly. She runs and gets on the company' ; s lap. She thinks they' ; ll be friendly but she thinks theres the least doubt shes apt to bit em' ; . (Laughter) EM: Get the first bite. NF: Ms. Mills where was the school in which you taught here in Bristow? EM: Where was what? NF: Where was the school where you taught? Where was it located. EM: Oh, it was an old building. It' ; s been torn down. NF: Was it up here at Washington? EM: No. NF: Over-- EM: It was across it. NF: Across it on the other side? EM: That' ; s right. NF: Yeah. Did you have a number of grades in one room? Or were there enough children to have a teacher for each grade? EM: Let me tell you, I had sixty in one room. WS: Oh! EM: I had sixty and they were mixed. I had a few colored too. NF: Yeah. EM: Yes. Some school-- LM: What grades did you teach? EM: --and you remember the old man Morgan (ph)? That lived out-- NF: Oh Brother Morgan (ph)-- EM: Yes. NF: --the one they called Old Brother Morgan (ph)? EM: Brother Morgan. I had his son. NF: Well. LM: You had Jack Abraham didn' ; t you, grandma? EM: I had to send Brother Morgan' ; s (ph) son home to take a bath once or twice. (Laughter) EM: (Indecipherable) There might be some relatives around, I don' ; t know. But they were nice people. NF: Uh-huh. EM: They-- I' ; d take that they was just careless with the boy. I think he-- NF: Well he may have hid out on bath night too. (Chuckling) EM: That' ; s right. NF: Boys are still like that sometimes. EM: Oh yes, boys are boys. Can' ; t make anything else out of them. WS: Now what grade was that-- did you attend-- EM: When I came here, I came to visit my uncle and aunt. And the vacancy occurred in the 3A and 4B grades. And I filled out until I-- NF: So those were not kids from grade one through six, they were grades in the third and fourth grade. EM: 3A and 4B-- NF: And you had sixty? EM: Had sixty. NF: Well Bristow was evidently growing. EM: Yes. NF: Fast at that time-- EM: And there was another teacher over here that had the same grade. Mrs. Gee (ph). G double E. NF: Yeah. WS: Hmm. EM: She was a very good teacher. Very good. LM: She had the same grade on this side of town? EM: Yes. LM: You had two elementary schools then? EM: At one time we did. Now I wouldn' ; t say that they kept that up, but at one time there was, and I' ; m quite sure. We had a good superintendent, he was so sharp. NF: Uh-huh. EM: What was his name? And what was it-- Oh my stars. He passed away not too long ago. The principal-- WS: Ray Powers? EM: Ray Powers. WS: Mm-hmm. EM: That' ; s right. Everybody liked Ray. He wasn' ; t very much on discipline (Chuckling) but he was a good ole boy. We all liked him. WS: He was my first teacher. EM: Really? WS: Mm-hmm. Sixth grade. Over there at that school. EM: Well I declare. Well we all liked Ray. NF: Did you live in town here in Bristow, or did you live out on the ranch? When you and Mr. Mills married. EM: Oh, well I was living with my aunt-- NF: No, but I mean when you married Mr. Mills did you-- did you-- was your home here in town? LM: Across the street. EM: No. NF: Across the street. EM: Oh, across the street. NF: Yeah, uh-huh. EM: You mean our first home? NF: Your first home, yes. EM: Uh-huh. NF: Yeah. EM: Across the street. LM: Mr. and Ms. Bullington were living with him before you were married weren' ; t they? EM: Oh yes, he lived with Bullington. NF: With George and-- EM: George. NF: Oh-- EM: And Anna. NF: George and Anna. EM: Yes. Yes. He lived with them. NF: Well. EM: And then I lived with em for a little while-- NF: Uh-huh. EM: --until they found another location that they liked. NF: Uh-huh. Well. EM: They' ; re good people, George and Anna. NF: Yes. We loved them too. In fact, our son, George is named after-- EM: Oh really? NF: After George Bullington. EM: Well. LM: Hmm. EM: We like George ; in fact, we' ; ve got to see George pretty soon. NF: (Chuckling) Well George will be back from vacation-- EM: Oh he' ; s gone? NF: --this weekend. He' ; s been to Cal-- he' ; s been in California. EM: Oh! Well I' ; m glad to know that, I won' ; t bother to make an appointment until-- until I know he' ; s back. NF: Yeah. So you just taught the one term then. EM: Not a whole term. NF: Not even a whole term? EM: Hmm-nnNF: Yeah. EM: I just-- I was just filling in. NF: Uh-huh. Filling-- EM: Anyway, you know. And I just-- I didn' ; t come here to teach. NF: Uh-huh. Well has the-- now when did the Baptist Church move where it is now. The Bap-- was it Baptist Church there on ninth? EM: I was going-- I joined the Baptist Church down there in that old church building down on the other corner. NF: Oh! Uh-huh. EM: Mr. Mills joined up here at this location. NF: Uh-huh. Yeah. EM: Yes. We had quite a busy life. Different ways. NF: Now you-- you helped start the city library too, did you not? WS: Yes! EM: Yes, let me see. I was-- did I or did I not-- anyway, we organized. NF: Uh-huh. EM: It had been helter-skelter and we organized the-- got it organized and going in the right direction, I would say. NF: There had-- there had been books to check out-- EM: Oh yes. NF: --before that time. EM: It had been a library before my time. NF: Uh-huh. EM: But it didn' ; t have much of an organization. Burnett (ph) was a wonderful person-- NF: Uh-huh. EM: --to work with. NF: Uh-huh. WS: Did Carnegie give the money for the building? Wasn' ; t it called the Carnegie Library? Didn' ; t he give the-- EM: I don' ; t-- I don' ; t think that-- WS: I don' ; t remember whether it was for the building or for books or something, but I thought he helped. EM: They may have-- we (indecipherable) Carnegie donation. I had forgotten about that, but the records would show. But I' ; ve really forgotten. NF: Do you remember many things of The Depression era? Now that' ; s dropping back more to the present. EM: What years was it? NF: Well, what were they? Twenty-nine, thirty, thirty-one, thirty-two, thirty-three? WS: Twenty-nine probably-- NF: Twenty-nine. WS: --when it started. EM: Well I' ; d have to-- (Chuckling) EM: --think quite a-- quite a lot if I remember-- if I do remember anything I-- NF: I remember when I first came to Bristow in thirty-five, we were fairly close-- close to the railroad, and men were turning-- would often turn up at the back door wanting to be fed. EM: Oh. NF: But you may have been far enough from the railroad they didn' ; t come here. EM: No I had-- I had some. NF: Did you? EM: Yep. Yes, I had a few I recall. NF: And I wondered if you remembered about the-- anything about the soup kitchen that I' ; ve heard Arthur say that his dad helped organize downtown where different restaurant owners gave leftovers and groceries. And they fixed a soup I guess it was and gave to anybody-- EM: Yes. NF: --who needed food. EM: And some people donated different things. Some delicacies and-- NF: Uh-huh. EM: --some just plain food. NF: Uh-huh. EM: Different people donated but I didn' ; t know very much about the soup kitchen, really. NF: Uh-huh. Uh-huh. EM: Didn' ; t hear very much about it. NF: I don' ; t think it lasted too long until government stepped in and began to do things. Well you' ; ve really lived in a period where you' ; ve seen it grow from a sure enough pioneer times to-- EM: Oh, yes! NF: --we' ; re about to be a metropolis I guess! (Chuckling) EM: And Mr. Mills really came in in the very early times and there was only two-- he heard-- he and another fellow were the only two white men in this whole area and he never met any other white men. He tried his best but he couldn' ; t. And the Indians, the Yuchi and Creek were very friendly-- NF: Uh-huh. EM: --and he loved them all and they loved him. So it was a-- the stories he had to tell were very, very interesting. I got left out of this picture, I was co-hostess with Mr. Black (ph) when I was-- I guess you' ; d call it co-hostess. He was host and I was co, and they left me out of the picture and set me right there. They wanted to get the men. NF: Oh! EM: Over here and that is Mrs. Roosevelts visit. NF: Oh, that' ; s the time Mrs. Roosevelt came to-- EM: Yes. Mr. Black (ph) and I were on the committee, Receiving Committee. NF: Well, now that' ; s interesting. EM: I didn' ; t want to serve, but Mr. Black (ph) just absolutely forced me into it and so that was that. But she was a very gracious person, but I' ; ll never forget her eyes. She and who else-- I believe its Oral Roberts, someone I' ; ve met seemed to be looking way, way. They don' ; t see anything around them, they see way, way beyond. I' ; ll never forget those eyes. Wonderful eyes. NF: Well I barely remember ; we were-- we went out when-- didn' ; t she dedicate the Youth Center out on the hill? EM: That' ; s-- NF: As I remember, she had on a lovely, blue, medium blue colored, suit. Do you remember the-- EM: Yes. NF: Uh-huh. Such a pretty blue. LM: Very nice. EM: It-- it looked so nice on her. NF: Mm-hmm-- LM: Mother had been working with the NRA and the something then hadn' ; t you mother? She had been working on a lot of those things. NF: Oh. EM: I' ; ve worked on so many things, I' ; ve forgotten (chuckling) NF: Yeah. EM: So, yes I was-- NF: I remember those young men lived out at the Youth Center and made furniture-- EM: Yes. NF: If I remember right. EM: Mm-hmm. Yes. NF: Now whose cabin is this? EM: This is Mr. Mills pioneer log cabin. NF: Oh my! EM: That is Mr. Mills standing there-- NF: Yeah. EM: --and that' ; s me. I preferred to sit down and be out of the picture. NF: Yeah. EM: So (Chuckling) NF: Well now, is this a breezeway between it or is it just a-- EM: A breezeway-- NF: --porch on it? It' ; s a breezeway. EM: It' ; s a breezeway. NF: Uh-huh. EM: they built so many when they didn' ; t have air conditionings, they built so many breezeways. NF: Uh-huh. Well they were-- they were smart. They knew there was going to be an energy shortage someday, didn' ; t they? (Laughter) EM: They must' ; ve looked ahead about fifty years. NF: Well. LM: That was located just west of Nells Chapel (ph) NF: Oh. EM: I didn' ; t see that. That was torn down for that new, brick, Mills Chapel building. NF: Oh I see. EM: I say-- I hated to see it go down. NF: Well it' ; s a shame that we couldn' ; t have preserved it. EM: Yes, it could have been preserved. I really hated-- WS: There is one at Nashville. It' ; s still at Nashville. EM: What? WS: One at Nashville, Tennessee just like that. That' ; s that-- they preserved in a park there. Probably rebuilt it. EM: Oh you mean-- WS: One like it-- that cabin. Yes. Breezeway and everything. NF: Well it looked like a nice, big, comfortable, one. EM: Oh, he said it was. It was just-- it was nice on the inside was finished-- NF: Uh-huh. EM: --it was finished quite nicely on the inside. NF: Uh-huh. EM: These two rooms. NF: Uh-huh. Now you say his two brothers didn' ; t stay in this part of the country? EM: No, Dan (ph) and Jessie (ph) Jessie died and Dan didn' ; t want to stay, so Ethan toughed it out. NF: Yeah. EM: Himself. He was a pretty good cook. So he just toughed it out. NF: Had he grown up around Guthrie? EM: Well, while he was-- let' ; s see he was-- he was fourteen years old when they came. Let me think-- LM: He came over here, mother. EM: To Guthrie. Am I right? LM: Uh-huh. He came from Iowa in 1898. NF: Oh, uh-huh. LM: He was in that run to Guthrie. NF: Oh! The run to Guthrie. Oh yes! Uh-huh. EM: And then from-- LM: And then he moved to Chandler, and he and the boys came on over here. NF: Uh-huh. Just crossed into Indian Territory. EM: From Guthrie-- LM: His folks moved to Chandler. EM: --came over here and the brothers-- one died-- I don' ; t think Jessie died here. He died of TB and I think he died at Chandler. NF: Uh-huh. EM: But Dan, the other brother stayed awhile and then left and Ethan batched it out by himself. NF: You know, in our talking with people to tell of the past, I have been surprised at how many people seem to have had Tuberculosis. That two genera-- one gen-- two generations ago. And it must' ; ve been a quite common disease. EM: It was. You know, there is a year where Small Pox will be common and then a year where Diphtheria takes a wave and then a year that TB-- NF: Uh-huh. EM: --or years really. Several years. NF: Well did people usually go ahead and die when they had Tuberculosis or did they ever get over it? EM: I don' ; t know of anyone that survived-- NF: Uh-huh. EM: --in the early days, I don' ; t. NF: Uh-huh. EM: I don' ; t. I don' ; t think they did. NF: Well, we' ; ve certainly come a long way-- EM: His-- NF: --in medicine. EM: His father really-- they thought-- in those days, they couldn' ; t tell exactly what they had. They didn' ; t diagnose very well. But he thought his father died of TB. NF: Well you know, I think from things that have-- that people have said about Arthur' ; s grandfather that after-- see he died within five years after he' ; d come to Bristow and he was comparably young man. I just wondered if it could have been Tuberculosis. It was about a year' ; s length illness and it sounded much like it. EM: That' ; s just about the time it took to take them after they-- NF: And they came in 1901. That left her a widow with about five children. Mm-hmm. WS: Now did you help organize the Culture Club? EM: Let me see, did I or did I not? If I didn' ; t, I was right-- the next one-- I was right close because so many people thought that I did. So I don' ; t know whether I was in the first organization or not. Mrs. Cheeton (ph) was the main go ahead in the-- WS: The Embroidery Club and the Culture Club were the-- LM: There used to be a Dalcam (ph) society here years ago. WS: Yes, that was after that. Uh-huh. LM: Was it after, well I didn' ; t know when-- WS: My mother and Ms. Lefflar (ph) I know. I can remember-- the volumes you see in the libraries. UI: Uh-huh WS: Dalcam (ph) EM: Your mother was very active in everything. She helped a lot to build Bristow beginning and-- WS: Well it' ; s a wonder with five children that she had the-- (Laughter) EM: Well yes! And believe me, they weren' ; t just children, they were busy bodies. Those twins (Chuckling). I went there to-- George McMillian (ph) was having a demonstration of this new kind of washer. You know the kind that kind of tipped forward and over a hump. I don' ; t know whether you remember it or not. And they couldn' ; t-- you couldn' ; t step one way or the other without stepping on one of those twins. (Laughter) EM: They were the busiest little boys, but they were good. They weren' ; t bad at all, but oh they were busy. I will never forget ' ; em. NF: Well did George McMillian (ph) have a store? EM: No. NF: He was just demonstrating? EM: He wanted to-- he could get a free-- NF: Machine? EM: --washing machine, by selling so many. NF: Oh I see! EM: So he had a demonstration. LM: He had that in the old days too! NF: Well (Chuckling) EM: George (ph) didn' ; t enter in to very many things like that. I was just surprised, but he was-- WS: But I can recall that with ones in our family, that he' ; d order through a catalog. I think it was Carson Pirie Scott from Chicago, and these things would come in. Rugs and different pieces of furniture and things of that sort! EM: Oh! He ordered more than washing machines and-- WS: I guess so! Mm-hmm. EM: Well I never-- WS: From that catalog. (Laughter) EM: I expect for a lot of the relatives he was-- I didn' ; t know there was anything besides washing machines, but they were good machines! NF: Well what did George (ph)-- what did George (ph) do? You know his occupation. WS: He was in the oil business too. NF: He was in the oil business. WS: Mm-hmm. NF: Uh-huh. Well I guess-- EM: He started with the Jones (ph)-- NF: Oh. EM: I don' ; t know whether he ended up independently or not, but he was with the Jones (ph) a long time wasn' ; t he? WS: Yes, the Jones' ; s (ph) had the Burmont (ph) oil company. EM: Yes. WS: And then there was the JoMac (ph) which was Jones (ph) and McMillian (ph) you see. EM: That' ; s right. NF: Mm-hmm. WS: At Mr. McMillian. NF: Well about what time did all this oil business come to a head? Now when your husband came in 1890 there was no oil business, was there? EM: 1916 I would say-- NF: 1916. EM: --was when it come to a head. That is when we got our first oil well. NF: Uh-huh. EM: And there were quite a few strikes east of town at that time too. I think 1916 was our first oil well out there on the home place. And it was pretty good one. Pretty good one. LM: Still is. (Laughter) EM: We had two. How many did we have on that one location? LM: I don' ; t know, there' ; s one of ' ; em still pumping though. (Inaudible) NF: Well. EM: Yes, this was a busy place. LM: Did-- EM: I recall this logging camp down here on the Old Skinner Barn it was called. Was the headquarters for the oil field hauling. And was located at Fourth and Washington Street that' ; s down here. This was before the trucks took over. Trucks were unknown. NF: Uh-huh. EM: Just horses. Horses then were the only means of transportation and another location was this block right here. NF: Mm-hmm. EM: Two-- two locations. Two different companies. NF: Well. Well I expect the people really poured into this part of the country during those years didn' ; t they? EM: (Chuckling) I wouldn' ; t take a thousand dollars for this picture. This is a street scene in Bristow and it was before my time. This was when the old dirt road went through Bristow and the cotton wagons drove in and people that wanted to buy cotton crawled up on the wagons and bid on-- NF: Oh. EM: (Indecipherable) look one way and load. NF: Now is this the-- that' ; s-- that building-- that' ; s the Safeway-- old Safeway parking lot now isn' ; t it? Looks to me like-- EM: That' ; s-- isn' ; t that the American National Bank building? NF: Well. LM: One of them is still (Inaudible) EM: I thought it was, but I may be wrong. NF: Something back, it could be the old American Nat-- this could be the American National Bank. LM: That would be across the street from where the parking-- NF: Yeah. The-- yes-- cattycorner. That' ; s a good picture. EM: This was a-- where was this? LM: This is a later date. That' ; s Bristow. EM: Huh? LM: That was Bristow. You found Ernest was in that. EM: Ernest was in that. That was a little parade that they-- LM: That' ; s a later date in Bristow. EM: I didn' ; t-- I wasn' ; t (Inaudible) NF: Down the Main Street? EM: --Bristow now. NF: Yeah. EM: Here' ; s a sweet picture. That' ; s Jack Abraham. He was one of my pets, but people didn' ; t know it. (Laughter) NF: Oh, isn' ; t he cute! LM: That' ; s the one that brought the apple everyday wasn' ; t it? EM: Huh? LM: He was the one that brought the apple to the teacher. EM: He brought an apple every day. NF: Ah! EM: Everyday an apple. NF: (Indecipherable) EM: He was a darling student. He wasn' ; t spoiled! He didn' ; t-- he scarcely ever do anything wrong. Jack was ideal. NF: Well. Well, he' ; s a cute little boy. I had a little Thompson (ph) last year that looks an awful lot like him. She' ; d be a great niece. She' ; s-- EM: Oh. NF: She' ; s-- her daddy lives down in this Spanish style house down here. What' ; s that Abraham-- LM: Gene (ph)? Gene Thompson (ph)? Oh, Herby (ph). NF: Herby! She' ; s Herby' ; s granddaughter. LM: Karen (ph) NF: She' ; s Carolyn-- she' ; s Carolyn' ; s (ph) daughter. She looks a lot like this. Has the same expression in her eyes. EM: Well on an old hot day not very long ago, Carolyn (ph) drove up to the door with a dish of ice cream. (Laughter) EM: It was such a hot day! NF: Oh! Who' ; s this handsome man? LM: (Indecipherable) NF: Let' ; s see I can' ; t-- EM: I don' ; t know them but they (indecipherable) LM: Yes. EM: Can you read it? LM: This came to me from this (Indecipherable) girl. Her sister, Mrs. Mcclendon no? EM: It' ; s an old, old picture. LM: It was, he was-- oh, let me get my glasses. He was a editor of the early newspaper here in Bristow. NF: Oh I see! Eden (ph) Orval Eden (ph) I think. Orval Eden (ph). Does that sound right? LM: Something. I don' ; t know. This is Mrs. Dye sent these to me. Viola Dye, that used to be here years ago. She used to teach school about the time I-- Orval Eden-- editor of the Bristow enterprise or possibly The Record, in Bristow Indian Territory. The year of 1905. He married a Ruth Appleview (ph) of Bristow, Oklahoma. This picture may possibly be of interest to the local Bristow Historical Society. NF: Well, it will be! (Inaudible) NF: A number of times in the history at the library. But I hadn' ; t known that she was the sister to Mrs. Abraham (ph) EM: Yes. Mm-hmm. NF: Did-- now did Lucy West have a husband and children? EM: She was a maiden. NF: She was a maiden (indecipherable). WS: Well I seen that name Lucy West but I didn' ; t realize who-- the relationship before but I never can recall that (Indecipherable) Abraham (ph) was a West. EM: She was a very good teacher but a very strict one. She was very good to tell me. LM: You need to tell them that dad used to run the Pony Express to Phillipsburg. NF: Oh really! EM: What? LM: He used to run that Pony Express from Phillipsburg. EM: Oh. NF: Pony Express. EM: Ethan did, yes. He rode the Pony Express for years to Phillipsburg. There was no Slick then and very few people know about Phillipsburg. NF: Arthur was telling us yesterday lunch that there was a Phillipsburg and was the other Robertsburg (ph)? He gave about three or four community names that I have never hear of. EM: Well the mail-- Ethan took the mail just to Phillipsburg. NF: To Phillipsburg, and that was near Slick? EM: Yes. LM: About a mile and a half west of Slick, but they say the foundations are still out there. NF: Oh. LM: Mr. Holcomb (ph) says he knows exactly where it is-- NF: I see. LM: --mother had been there but she forgot about it. NF: You know, probably somebody should check on those-- on that. EM: Somebody should write a history of Bristow and some of those things. LM: I' ; ve got this book. The Ghost towns of Oklahoma' ; s. Slicks a ghost town and Shamrocks a ghost town. EM: There should be records of ' ; em down here at the Post office, you know? If Phillipsburg-- NF: Oh well they' ; re not ghost towns. EM: Ethan rode the Pony Express there. LM: But he didn' ; t have the (Indecipherable) WS: Where did he come from, Chandler or Sac and Fox? EM: He came from Chandler. WS: From Chandler to Phillipsburg. EM: Yes. LM: He came from-- there is a Sac and Fox agency-- NF: That was his run. LM: There is a Sac and Fox agency just north of Chandler. There is also the big one down here north of-- west of-- south of Stroud. NF: Uh-huh. LM: But there was a little one north of Chandler. WS: And that' ; s the one, huh? NF: And he rode from north of Chandler to-- LM: So far as we know. NF: Uh-huh. LM: He just gave the Sac and Fox agency. NF: Uh-huh. LM: But if you go that little road that goes from Chandler straight north to Stillwater-- NF: Yeah. LM: You run onto where that old Sac and Fox-- one Sac and Fox agency was. NF: Oh! Uh-huh. LM: They used to have a sign there. I used to (Indecipherable) His father had kind of a livery stable didn' ; t he? Or he rented out horses and things. NF: Uh-huh. LM: And of course-- EM: That' ; s at Chandler. LM: (Indecipherable) NF: Mm-hmm. LM: But that was before he came here to stay. He was just about fourteen years or something. EM: The livery stables were long before (Chuckling) the automobiles. NF: Uh-huh. WS: There was plenty of wild game too in that time. EM: Oh yes! WS: You outta see, talk about the turkeys and the deer and oh, they just must have been so much. EM: The deer would come up to the door for salt and you just felt guilty capturing them when they were so tame. NF: Uh- huh. EM: And the wild turkeys-- LM: (Inaudible) EM: Oh (Chuckling) an explosion! NF: Okay. EM: They' ; ve been blasting. I' ; ve heard at the noon hour. NF: Hmm. EM: Yes, those wild turkeys, you could just go out and sit out any night and make the trees and just choose whatever bird you wanted. NF: Now the buffalo had-- if there had ever been here, were long gone weren' ; t they-- by that time. EM: Yes. NF: And the Indians were not the wild west kind, they were-- EM: No, they were-- NF: --quite civilized. EM: There were no atrocities-- NF: Uh-huh. EM: --whatsoever that-- you didn' ; t think there was any, they were quite civilized NF: I noticed in the paper-- in looking through those old papers, it talked about the Snake Indian-- Indian Uprising. That they were afraid the Snake Indians are gonna come in through here and how they put guards around different places. Now that was probably around 1900 I think or 19-- EM: Ethan didn' ; t know anything about that-- NF: Well that was in Clad Purdy' ; s (ph) history, come to think of it. EM: Oh I see, way back. NF: Yeah, way back. Uh-huh. And I think it' ; s before he came probably. Before they came. Probably was heresy. EM: He said that all of the Indians were very friendly. NF: Uh-huh. EM: Very-- and very honest to deal with. NF: Uh-huh. EM: Of course they loved their costume jewelry. You could do almost anything with a bracelet or a ring-- NF: Yeah. EM: All the-- he could tell the most interesting things in those early days. My-- I should' ; ve written them all down, but you know how you-- NF: Time goes fast. EM: And he was really ill when he had time to talk those things and I didn' ; t want him to talk too long. NF: Uh-huh. WS: And did you always live in town? Or did you live out on the ranch? EM: We lived across the street. WS: Oh across the street. EM: Yes. WS: Uh-huh. EM: Ethan' ; s first wife and family lived out there on what we call the Home Place. WS: Mm-hmm. LM: It' ; s where Anna (ph) and Sonny (ph) live-- were living now. NF: Uh-huh. LM: Just a little bit south of-- NF: Uh-huh. Uh-huh. LM: That' ; s where I was born and Ernest was born. EM: They still have the old Home Place, but they' ; ve built a new-- Mr. Jackson (ph) built a new house for the-- what' ; s their names? LM: Anna (ph) and Sonny Davis (ph). NF: Anna (ph) and Sonny (ph)-- and they didn' ; t save the old house? LM: Yes, it' ; s there. NF: It' ; s still there? LM: I was looking for pictures-- EM: Yes! LM: --the other night. We don' ; t even have a picture of that. I had a picture of the old Mills Chapel Schoolhouse-- NF: Uh-huh. LM: --before they built the new one. But I don' ; t have any of the other-- the old place. WS: Can you recall living out there? LM: Oh I was just four years old-- WS: Four years old. LM: When they were married. Mother and dad were married. EM: Yes. She was just a baby when Ethan and I were married. LM: We went to live with my aunt in town-- our Aunt Ella (ph) my father' ; s sister. My brother was seven and I was four. NF: Uh-huh. LM: When we came back here. NF: Well. EM: Ernest said that he-- he told me that all he could remember of his mother-- first mother, he always said first mother-- was that he-- let' ; s see, he cut his finger, thumb or something and she came and bandaged it for him. NF: Oh. EM: And he remembered that incident. NF: Uh-huh. EM: She hurried out and covered that. LM: (Inaudible) EM: But that' ; s all he could remember-- anything at all. Of course Lucy Mae was quite young. NF: Mm-hmm. EM: Too young to remember much. WS: So you' ; ve always lived right here in this little (indecipherable) then haven' ; t you? EM: Yes. WS: And as far as you know-- LM: It' ; s just (Indecipherable) the city limits. EM: We-- LM: We had that big field over there. The high school used to (Inaudible) NF: Oh it did, you mean in this whole block down here? LM: This was all our pasture and field and barn and everything over there. EM: There was ten acres over there and Ethan said to me one day, " ; If you want to sell this off in lots-- if you want to bother with it, then we' ; ll build a home over on these two and a half acres that I had bought." ; And of course, you know me, I got busy. (Chuckling) And we sold that off in lots and sold plenty too. And I remember he got excited and he ordered three carloads of brick (Chuckling) I mean train-- trainloads! Flat cars, three of em' ; and so those brick that are over there at Claude Freeland' ; s. He just gave Claude the balance of brick that was left. NF: Oh my! EM: They made the swimming pool. (Laughter) EM: Or it helped them make it. NF: Well they went through a period that they certainly built houses well-- EM: Yes. NF: --here in Bristow. Who built yours? Do you remember? EM: Yes, Mr. Owens (ph) was the main man. He was real-- let' ; s see he did most of it, yes. Mr. Owens, I forgot his initial, but he was killed an accident-- a car accident shortly afterwards. Mr. Martin finished, Leonard Martin. NF: Mr. Leonard, yes. Uh-huh. EM: Finished the job. NF: Uh-huh. LM: L.L Curl (Indecipherable) EM: Let' ; s see, this fellow was killed before and Mr. Martin did the rest of the work. Mr. Martin was a wonderful builder. WS: Yes. EM: If he hadn' ; t of gotten ahold (Chuckling) of this house when he did, I' ; m afraid there would' ; ve been a disaster because the fellow in charge was just trying. LM: That was that L.L. Curl (ph) wasn' ; t it? EM: Hmm? LM: That was that L.L. Curl (ph), you had trouble with-- EM: Curl. C-U-R-L. Yes. C-U-R-L. LM: He was working under this other guy-- NF: Uh-huh. LM: --that was killed. WS: Mr. Martin built our house in ' ; 40 and ' ; 41 and possibly was the last one that he built. EM: You have a good house. WS: Yes. LM: This was started during the Depression. You started before the Depression. You had to end it. She was asking you a while ago about the Depression. Don' ; t you remember, you had trouble getting things for a while. EM: Yes. LM: Because of-- NF: Oh really! EM: Lots of trouble. NF: Uh-huh. LM: Right after-- right around first World War. Just-- they started before that-- NF: Uh-huh. Yeah. LM: --and then were still building. NF: Well. EM: Mr. Martin built quite a few houses here in Bristow. I never kept tab on them-- NF: Yes. EM: --quite a few. They were all well-built. NF: Mm-hmm. EM: I always said a person should be proud of any house that was built. But Mr. Martin-- they had something, a prize. NF: That' ; s right, something that would last. Something beautiful. WS: Well ours was in ' ; 40 and ' ; 41 when we were you know going into the World War II. NF: Uh-huh. WS: So things were hard to obtain too. It held us up toward the last, you know waiting for certain things to come in. NF: Was yours about the last big home that he built in Bristow? WS: I believe so. LM: I believe it was too. WS: And-- EM: About the last that Mr. Martin built. WS: Yes. EM: I think so. WS: And the only one built right in that period, and then you know Bristow went for quite a long time before we needed more homes here in town. NF: Well now did Mr. Martin build the Ekdahl house and the McMillian house over on-- WS: I don' ; t believe so there was another man-- NF: He didn' ; t. Uh-huh. WS: Now he could' ; ve built one of em' ; I' ; m not sure. NF: Can you think of anytime in Bristow that there was a real exciting time? How about when the refinery caught on fire. Do you remember that? EM: Yes, I remember. But there wasn' ; t-- it didn' ; t seem to me like there was a terrible lot of excitement about it that I recall. EVERYONE TALKING AT ONCE EM: The most exciting days were when the school building burned up here and when Eleanor Roosevelt came to town. (Laughter) EM: I think-- I think Eleanor' ; s visit was the most exciting. NF: Yeah. WS: Do you recall that wreck out there close to Heyburn? Two trains, you see. EM: Oh railroad. WS: Railroad wreck. EM: I don' ; t recall. LM: I don' ; t think I remember much about (Indecipherable) NF: We' ; ve never had a bad storm have we? Where it' ; s destroyed the town? EM: Well, I was visiting at my sisters, when we had our small cyclone that struck out near Mills Chapel. NF: Uh-huh. EM: Lucy Mae was here. LM: That was just a few years ago. NF: Was that the one that happened about twenty years ago that blew away the little pink church down on the road south and killed a couple of negro men? If I remember right. EM: I think that' ; s right. LM: Tore up trees-- NF: Uh-huh. LM: --and buildings and everything south of here. NF: I guess that is the worst storm. LM: That' ; s the only one I know of. NF: Uh-huh. LM: My father was living here when they had the bad storm at Chandler, and he didn' ; t hear about it for two or three days. And he loaded up his wagon with supplies-- EM: (Laughter) LM: --and things and then went on down there. EM: Food of all kinds (Chuckling). NF: Well. LM: It was two or three days after it happened before the word got back. NF: Uh-huh. LM: That was when he was batching out in the country. NF: Uh-huh. LM: That' ; s when they had that cyclone in Chandler. My grandmother' ; s house was blown over the hill there-- NF: Well. LM: --and destroyed. Destroyed all of her pretty dishes. EM: I was in Kansas when that storm came to Bristow. LM: That hadn' ; t been very long ago. That' ; s when you' ; re talking about that little pink church was destroyed out there, mother. NF: Yes, I remember. Uh-huh. LM: When the little pink church was destroyed out there. Well, Nellie said she had one brick in you know? EM: Oh, yes! Yes. NF: Well that little-- pink church has been built back and it' ; still just as pink-- LM: That' ; s what she' ; s saying. She gave a dollar, so that was her brick. Nellie West. EM: Nellie didn' ; t have much money to do with, but she was pretty hearted and every time we' ; d go by, she' ; d say, " ; There' ; s my dollar." ; (Laughter) EM: She got a lot of joy out of that dollar and that was-- it was really a sacrifice-- NF: Uh-huh. EM: --for her to give. Beside what she gave to her church here. NF: Yeah. Well don' ; t you feel like we are going into a new period of growth here? It seems to me that Bristow at one time grew very rapidly and then after the Depression it coasted along and has for years and stayed about the same size. EM: Well I' ; m wondering if we are picking up. I' ; m just wondering about it. I don' ; t see much indication, do you? NF: Well when you ride out in the country, there' ; s a trailer under every oak tree (chuckling) EM: Oh, I see! (Laughter) WS: So many out in the country and then their group of houses close to the railroad over on the west side and then the ones that are over here that have been put up. NF: Well its-- its grown. I' ; ve been here forty-three years-- EM: out in that McAlister area that they' ; re building, I don' ; t know anything about it. I haven' ; t been out there. LM: Where Miss Sneed (ph) used to have those places out there. EM: That was Sneed ( Indecipherable) LM: EM: I don' ; t know. NF: Down near the football field, in that area? LM: No, it' ; s the one out west of town where-- EM: Indecipherable NF: Oh, Glen Acres. LM: Glen Acres. LM: (Indecipherable) NF: Uh-huh. LM: There are lots of houses every way you go. Everybody seems to be moving to the country. That is disturbing to me rather than fixing up the places in town. NF: Uh-huh. LM: And we were talking the other day about this railroad. Gosh when I went to school, you could get out of town on the railroad or bus. There was lots of way to go, and now days you can' ; t get out of town except you (indecipherable) NF: Well I think the bus still runs, but it runs under protest. They-- LM: It runs every four hours. NF: Oh does it? LM: You used to go to Oklahoma City and come back in one day or you could go to Tulsa and come back in one day. Can you now? NF: No, you can' ; t go any place on the railroad. LM: Bus either, I mean. NF: And I don' ; t know about the bus. But half the town takes off for Tulsa every day. EM: During the Depression in the Depression days, you couldn' ; t-- I guess you' ; d call that Depression days, you couldn' ; t get flour. Couldn' ; t get whole-- whole-- or white flour. WS: Yes. EM: And my-- Ethan' ; s mother would-- she baked a lot and she wouldn' ; t use that new kind of flour at all. So I loaded up a fifty-pound sack, put it in a gunny sack, and boarded the train and took her a sack of flour (chuckling) NF: Oh! EM: But was she happy. She was really happy. LM: To Chandler. EM: Chandler, yes. NF: Yeah. WS: That was hard for us to get accustomed to, I recall-- EM: Oh! WS: --you took flour you know because-- EM: You recall. WS: Yes. EM: Those were pinchy days. We didn' ; t bake. We quit baking much of anything. Biscuits, white loaves, (Indecipherable WS: We certainly did use the corn mill then didn' ; t we? EM: Didn' ; t we though? WS: Because back when (Indecipherable) you see on long distances. Especially if things had to go far or anything like that. EM: You know that (indecipherable) is really good if you learn to make it right. Really good bread. NF: Oh, that was a bread then. I thought it was maybe something like a hominy or something. EM: Well, it was a soft bread. NF: More like a mush or a porridge? EM: No, we baked our (indecipherable) in a big pan. NF: And made it more like cornbread then. EM: And we could lift out a piece about that size-- NF: Well. Uh-huh. EM: It was good. Real sweet. LM: They used to pick wild fruits and put ' ; em down in-- EM: Do what? LM: They used to dry their wild-- I mean their wild fruits. They used to dry them on boards on top of their house too didn' ; t they? NF: Grapes. Would it be grapes and dried fruits. LM: Different dried fruits and they' ; d dry them up on-- EM: I guess I' ; m getting hard of hearing. LM: I know you can' ; t hear (indecipherable) They used to dry their things up on-- corn and wild things up on top of their house. EM: Yes, yes. Lots of that. LM: (Indecipherable) EM: We did a little of that over there. LM: But they did that when he was all together when he was young you' ; d get your wild grapes. And what they had apples around here too didn' ; t they? He said. What were the fruits that they had around in here? When dad first came here. And I think they put some down in big crocks didn' ; t they? EM: Well they made a lot of preserves in crocks. Lots of them. You remember these-- you might not. These old crocks. They were about so big around and they came up to gradually. When they got so high, then they came in gradually and there was a top with a-- NF: Oh a smaller opening. EM: Yes, with a smaller-- do you ever remember seeing any of those? NF: Yeah. EM: Your grandmother should have had some of them. NF: Yeah. EM: And they did a lot of their canning in those preserves especially. Watermelon preserves that we cut the watermelon in pieces about that long and about that wide. And make preserves really good. NF: Well I' ; m sure they ate well and they didn' ; t worry about calories. (Laughter) EM: I don' ; t think they ever heard of calories. (Laughter) EM: They sure didn' ; t worry about them. NF: Well about their clothing now, did women made most of their own clothing in those days? They didn' ; t buy readymade dresses and-- EM: No. They didn' ; t. They didn' ; t have very many for sale in small towns. In large cities I suppose they had plenty. NF: Uh-huh. EM: But they didn' ; t have very many small towns. NF: Did you have a town dress maker or did everybody sew for herself. EM: (Indecipherable) Hallman (ph) was the town dress maker and she-- people who wanted good things went to (Indecipherable) Hallman (ph). NF: Well now, this is before she worked in the post office? EM: Yes. NF: I just supposed she' ; d been always worked in the post office. Well. EM: No for years-- LM: She used to have a shop up there in the old stone building. EM: She made all of Lucy Mae' ; s clothes for years. LM: I still have the top to a real pretty white wool. Had an accordion pleated skirt that was an old white wool, had the fine lace all around. NF: Oh. LM: (Indecipherable) dress. I was looking at a picture with that on last night. But I still got the top I didn' ; t save the-- NF: Well. LM: --the accordion pleat, I was just about eight or nine years old. NF: Now what about Mrs. Klingensmith (ph)? When I came to town she was sewing for people. EM: Yes, she-- she was-- she did good work. LM: She made the hats. NF: Oh, she did. EM: Mainly hats, that' ; s right. NF: Well. LM: She had a regular hat shop downtown. She used to make lots of our hats. NF: Well could you buy women' ; s shoes here at that time? EM: Mr. Jackson (ph) was the first person to-- that I recall Ethan ordered (Indecipherable) from him. NF: Yeah. EM: And finally, he took orders for women' ; s shoes, and eventually carried. NF: I see. EM: Then Cats (ph) came to town. NF: Uh-huh and Cats (ph) had nice, nice things. EM: Everything was good quality. NF: Uh-huh. LM: We used to go to Oklahoma City a lot to shop, didn' ; t we? EM: Oh yes. LM: I remember Beaver Hat you got me in Oklahoma City when I was just a kid. EM: We' ; ve been to Oklahoma City practically all together. We didn' ; t shop in Tulsa for years. LM: The train went down. NF: Uh-huh. EM: Train connections were pretty quite good. NF: And then what would you do when you got to the station in Oklahoma City? You took a cab? EM: Yes. NF: A taxi cab up town? EM: Mm-hmm. NF: Yeah. And then you managed to come back the same evening? EM: We could late in the evening. LM: The train station-- train was just a little ways from town-- NF: Uh-huh. LM: --the old station. NF: Uh-huh. LM: It was right-- no. I think it stopped almost on Main Street there. You could almost watch-- NF: That' ; s right because it still does. It comes right across-- WS: (Indecipherable talking in background). -- close to the Hookens (ph) hotel-- NF: Mm-hmm. Yeah. LM: (Indecipherable talking in background) WS: --if you stayed all night, you stayed at the Hookens (ph). NF: Yeah. LM: Cause you could practically walk on that town after you got there. NF: Well. LM: I remember one time I was a little kid, and mother had gone on to town for something and I was to meet her down (Indecipherable) we was going on the train and I didn' ; t wear any hat. And even little kids wore hats in those days (Chuckling). She was so (Indecipherable) cause I was going to Oklahoma City and didn' ; t have my hat. (Laughter) NF: Well I remember the first teachers meeting I went to. We went to Tulsa on the train. EM: You did? The first teachers meeting was in Tulsa? NF: Well after I started teaching-- yeah. EM: (Indecipherable talking in background) LM: After she started teaching-- NF: Uh-huh. Thirty-one years ago. The first time-- EM: Oh! NF: --the first state teachers meeting happened to be in Tulsa that year, and we went up on the train. EM: Oh. Old timers. NF: Uh-huh. (Chuckling) LM: When I went to school I went on the train to Chicago and to Chicago changed over to-- to Madison. NF: Where did you go, Lucy Mae? LM: Wisconsin. NF: Wisconsin. University of Wisconsin. LM: Yeah. NF: Well. Now you-- LM: And I came back one year from Madison, came through Kansas City and trains were late, it was Christmas. And some old (indecipherable) you know how hopeful they used to be. He-- as I came in there, he said, " ; What train are you going on? And I said, " ; I' ; m going-- had a reservation on the train going to Tulsa." ; He says, " ; It' ; s just about ready to leave. Come on, I' ; ll getcha on it." ; (Laughter) LM: He did, we just went across tracks and everywhere. I got on it! WS: As the rural people came down, at least your relatives and maybe some others to see you off too! It was quite the thing to go down to the train. EM: It makes me think of Ethan' ; s niece, Helen (ph) used to live with us. She taught (indecipherable) lessons here. And she would phone down and tell ' ; em that she' ; d be a little bit late, to hold the trains. (Laughter) EM: I used to get so (Indecipherable) I could throw a brick at her. (Laughter) EM: And sometimes they did. " ; I' ; ll be a little bit late, please hold the train." ; (Laughter) WS: The trains you see just had to stop in Bristow to get water. EM: Yes. WS: Our water was considered ; you know so much better than these other towns. NF: Oh. WS: Yes, so trains stopped for us. NF: Oh! WS: Here when the-- EM: The water was-- they had soft water wells here I think for the railroad, didn' ; t they? Weren' ; t they more soft than usual? NF: Well I know Bristow water is comparatively soft. It' ; s-- we have-- we have good water. EM: Mm-hm. NF: Yeah. EM: It' ; s not real hard. NF: Uh-uh. EM: That is like some that-- NF: Uh-huh. EM: --you used to just scum (indecipherable) NF: Yes. EM: --and pull the lime off. (indecipherable) Skim it off. LM: I noticed in the paper they were talking about those Junior Colleges. The Junior College that was had here in Bristow. You remember when we had that ' ; 28 reunion? NF: Uh-huh. LM: This boy asked how many of those had gone. It started in ' ; 29, you know. How many of those had gone to those Bristow Junior College and there will a big bunch that held up their hands if you need any, I have the addresses to most of that group that will be here. NF: Oh. LM: And then (Indecipherable) Fox (ph) sat next to me. I remember she held up her hand. NF: Uh-huh. LM: And-- NF: Well that' ; s good to know. LM: If they can' ; t get-- NF: (Indecipherable) Now according to paper, it sounds as though they had Junior College a couple of years, and then didn' ; t have it, and then had it again. Is that right? Or was that wrong? LM: I don' ; t-- I don' ; t recall. I went-- I didn' ; t stay here that year, I went up to Belmont. But they had-- that was the first time they ever had it-- NF: Mm-hmm. LM: --in ' ; 29. NF: In ' ; 29. LM: And they were still-- they were having-- they had it also when I was teaching up here. That was I think the last group, because Ms. McCormick (ph) who was teaching with me had some college students. NF: Uh-huh. LM: I didn' ; t. The last year I taught I had some from A and-- from Oklahoma A& ; M that came over for observation. The state-- NF: Oh. LM: --for several weeks. But I didn' ; t teach in the Junior College. NF: Uh-huh. LM: (Indecipherable) the one that was connected here in Bristow. But they did have it then when I was teaching, ' ; cause I remember she had some classes. NF: Uh-huh. LM: College classes. But I don' ; t know too much about it. But I notice a lot of those kids held up their hand. NF: Well a whole group of that age group started here. LM: Mm-hmm. NF: Uh-huh. LM: And I noticed (Indecipherable) held up her hand so. And there were-- Oh! The boy that asked about it, not the (Indecipherable) boy, the other fellow, I think (Indecipherable) did go to, but there was-- well ten or twelve that night that held up their hands anyway. That they attended that first Junior College that Black (ph) started here. NF: Well I think we were blessed with having E.H. Black (ph) in charge of the schools here. I think he set a standard-- EM: He was a wonderful fellow. Some people didn' ; t like his-- because it was so strict in some ways. NF: Uh-huh. EM: That was good. NF: Uh-huh. Well he set standards that you can still see traces of ' ; em in our school system. EM: Yes! NF: It' ; s made us hold to standards that a lot of schools have given up. EM: Mm-hmm. WS: And of course, Ms. Black (ph) taught too, didn' ; t she in the schools. EM: Yes. WS: Yes. Everyone talking at once EM: And he had two or three little girls. I don' ; t know whether it' ; s two or three little girls. LM: Mr. Black, yes (Indecipherable) NF: Yes, he has two daughters. Two daughters. EM: I know there was two, but I wasn' ; t sure about the third. NF: Well I think the whole town had some advantages over similar towns, in that we had fine music teachers and people with high educational standards and demands for the schools to be done a certain way, don' ; t you think it made us have a better school system? WS: There was a Music Club here at one time. EM: Yes, a good Music Club at one time. NF: Uh-huh. EM: I didn' ; t belong to that. I' ; m not very music minded, but they had a real good club. NF: Well it' ; s kind of interesting to observe how students have turned out who' ; ve gone through Bristow schools. We lose track, we don' ; t really realize and something will drift in. Well for instance, this year we went to our grandson' ; s graduation from Med School and here on the program was this youngster who finished high school here about ten years ago and had gone in the Navy, and I' ; m sure was doing it through the Navy help, but here he was finishing Med School. The boy that-- what' ; s his name? I can' ; t even think of his name now. LM: I saw that in the paper. NF: Uh-huh. End of interview audio 0 https://bristoworalhistory.org/ohms/viewer.php?cachefile=OHP-0020_Mills,_Edith_Lucy_Mae.xml OHP-0020_Mills,_Edith_Lucy_Mae.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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Georgia Smith
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Bill Dalpoas
Beth Dalpoas
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5.4 June 3, 2021 OHP-2021-18 Bill and Beth Dalpoas OHP-2021-18 00:00 - 53:53 'Bristow Historical Society - Oral History Archive' Bristow Historical Society, Inc. Bill Dalpoas Beth Dalpoas Georgia Smith MP3 1:|62(11)|84(4)|121(4)|138(16)|168(3)|198(2)|232(7)|255(1)|305(11)|343(5)|385(2)|411(16)|430(2)|470(4)|509(11)|552(4)|591(4)|618(9)|638(5)|666(3)|696(8)|729(14)|772(12)|795(3)|814(12)|857(7)|892(7)|924(5)|943(10)|981(12)|1000(14)|1049(7)|1073(4)|1118(6)|1147(8)|1162(3)|1178(3)|1203(6)|1229(7)|1251(4)|1268(3)|1287(13)|1305(2)|1327(7)|1358(11)|1388(5)|1407(9)|1438(9)|1468(8)|1493(9)|1513(11)|1523(16)|1543(5)|1563(8) 0 https://bristoworalhistory.org/interviews/OHP-2021-18 Dalpoas, Bill and Beth.mp3 Other audio 0 Introduction BD: Here we go BD: Red light is on GS: Yup, and it’s running so here we go. BD: Okay GS: Alright, this is Georgia Smith with the Bristow Historical Society in Bristow, Oklahoma., and this interview is part of the historical societies ongoing oral history project. The day is June 3rd, 2021 and I am sitting here at the home of Bill and Beth Dalpoas, who are going to tell me a little bit about their history in the Bristow area. Now, I’ll start with you Beth ; give me your full name and your date of birth. BD: Wow. Elizabeth Ann Long Dalpoas. Birthday: March 19, 1939, in Hartshorne, Oklahoma. GS: Okay thank you, and Bill what was your full name at birth and birth date, and place. Dick List ; Elizabeth Ann Long Dalpoas ; Hartshorne, Oklahoma ; J.L. Bobson ; J.L. Turner ; McAlester, Oklahoma ; William Raymond Dalpaos 185 Local Businesses GS: Well we’re glad you didn’t. So what job did you come to here? BD: I was manager of a store. We opened in the old Safeway location, which is now Homestead. GS: Okay that’s right, Safeway was there BD: Right off the corner GS: 8th in Main, uh-huh. BD: And we opened the store and it was kinda [Indecipherable] store, we’d get big baskets of socks that were not even matched and we had to go through all of them and match them GS: Oh wow BD: It was nationwide department stores, wasn’t it? Ben Franklins ; Cleo Pinson ; Department Stores ; Dollar General ; Hi-Way Cafe ; Homestead ; Safeway Stores, Inc. ; Travis Paten ; Walmart ; Wolverton Mountain https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/186812043/cleo-wayne-pinson Cleo Pinson https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QpmztcX_BtI Wolverton Mountain 643 Organizations and Church Life GS: Okay so when you moved here, did you get active in any of the organizations here in town? BD: Yeah we— GS: I’ll start with Bill, and then I’ll jump to you Beth BD: We had started a JC Program GS: Okay BD: I was president of JC’s for two years. We had a hundred members GS: Wow! BD: But— BD: Now that’s a certain age group, the JC’s are. GS: Okay Ashley Vandever ; Barbara Hutten ; Danny Ashley ; Dunaways Funeral Home ; First Baptist Church ; JC Program ; Johnny Carmichael ; Joule Dean Masterson ; Linda Suther ; Mary Hellen Holmes ; Morris Hancock ; Stacey James ; Sue Tapana ; Swimming Pool Project ; Western Heritage 1003 Special Memories and Events GS: Okay so do you have any anecdotes about those years, or special memories of events that happened during that time? BD: Well at one point in time I was a Welcome Wagon hostess for Bristow GS: Very good! BD: And the business professional women, we had a big committee of that— or group of that GS: Yes BD: And they got Jane Ann Jurough (ph), the reigning at that point in time, to come down. GS: Yes BD: And they— they had decorated the force field house with the big swing and all of that, and as the welcome wagon hostess, I got to go out to the [Indecipherable] house west of town GS: Yes Ally Reynolds ; Ashland, Oklahoma ; Buddy ; Corwins Dentistry ; Danny Hanks ; David Leflar ; Dowell Matthews ; Dr. Copiague ; Fort Cob ; Hartshorne, Oklahoma ; Jane Ann Jurough ; Johnny Darnell ; Jones Foundation ; Mr. Wells ; Myrtle Alexander ; Presbyterian ; Robert Jones ; Steve Holland ; Thurmans Hotel ; Welcome Wagon 1910 Entertainment GS: Yeah. Okay so you had a lot of the youth in your home BD: Yes GS: What else did you do for entertainment Bill? BD: Well we went dancing a lot GS: Oh where did you go dancing? BD: Anywhere there was a dance BD: Anywhere—When we first got married, we’d go to a dance every week GS: Were there dances here in Bristow? BD: No BD: No, that was before we moved here, there was Italian place in McAlester that would have us come at—it wasn’t Pete’s place, it was [Indecipherable] Big George Joseph ; Cara Jean Thompson ; Dana Dalpoas ; dance ; dancing ; Danny Dalpoas ; Jitterbug ; Pete's Place ; Roland Hotel ; Saturday Night Fever 2084 Work GS: Okay so Beth tell me about your time at Edison Elementary BD: Well, when we moved out here in 1976, and we got all settled and everything, I didn’t have anything to do. Both of the children were in school, he was at work, and so I went to Doctor Carmichael and I said “I’m ready to go to work. Is there anything available” you know? Well there was two or three jobs available, and I said “put me where you want me” and he put me as kindergarten aid. So for two or three years, I had my own room, where home alone is now, and I had every kindergartener every day. GS: Wow BD: They would come to my room, ‘cus we only had half day kindergarten then GS: Yes BD: And so one room—one half of the room was for morning kindergarten, the decorations and stuff, and the other room was—half was afternoon. And that went on and I mean the decorations were what they did. I mean, we had a— Bill drew a great big tree and we put it and we decorated it for every holiday, they did paperwork. Plus, then I as given the attendance books for Edison Elementary to keep on top of that GS: Okay Betty Lindsay ; Brent ; Doctor Carmichael ; Joann Free ; Judy Vise ; Lomenick ; Mr. Sanford ; Olivia Neil ; Rex Kearly ; Scott ; Warren Carmichael https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/26832848/warren-c-carmichael Dr. Warren Carmichael 2523 Influential Figures GS: Looking back at the decades again, who were some of the more influential people that you think have come through Bristow that have helped Bristow? BD: Well number one Doctor Warren Carmichael (ph) GS: Okay, he was the Superintendent for the schools BD: When I was on the school board they hired him, and when he came to Bristow, Bristow’s schools were stagnant. We had old building, and that’s what we jumped on first. We started building buildings, and it just went in a different way after he came here. He got retirement for the maintenance people and all of— BD: Support people BD: Support people GS: Yeah, yeah BD: Which they appreciate it GS: Which before they didn’t have? BD: No BD: He had a chain of command, you didn’t just— GS: No you didn’t Bob Chatterton ; Dick List ; Doctor Warren Carmichael ; Joann List ; Tara Montgomery 2848 Military Service GS: That brings up a good, different direction to go in. Did any either of you or your children serve in the service? BD: I did GS: What branch? BD: Army GS: Army? BD: 11 years GS: Were you— was it during peace time or did you go overseas? BD: I didn’t go overseas because I belonged to a division that was a training division GS: Okay BD: We trained troops to go over there GS: And what years were you with the Army? BD: Oh, I enlisted when I was in high school, 1956 until 64’ and I resigned, but the army kept me on 24-hour standby for three years 45th Division ; Army ; Okmulgee 2997 Biggest Societal Impact and COVID GS: Yes, it does. It definitely does. I usually ask people looking back over your lifetime, what do you consider the biggest, maybe not invention, but the invention or situation that changed things the most, or made the most impact on society or your life? BD: Wow GS: Yeah that’s a biggie BD: When you live as long as we have, there’s been a lot GS: Yes, there has BD: Technology GS: Definitely. I think technology is a lot like Pandora’s box BD: Yes, yes BD: I think we’ve had too much. I’m like the guy in the Tulsa paper today that complained about all the computers failing and everything, and he called 911, well their computer was down, he called the police and their computer was down, so he called the chief of police and asked him ‘have they outdated pencil and paper?’. But I think we’ve got too much communicating. When I was a kid growing up in Elementary school, if I got in trouble we didn’t have a home phone, but if I got in trouble before I came home that evening, my mother already knew about it. BD: True, so true COVID ; Elementary School ; Social Distancing ; Technology ; Tulsa Paper ; Vo-Tech In this 2021 interview, Bill and Beth Dalpoas share about life in Bristow as young adults. Together, they talk about the organizations they were active in, different businesses, and entertainment during that time. Interviewer: Georgia Smith Interviewee: Bill and Beth Dalpoas Other Persons: Date of Interview: June 3, 2021 Location: Bristow, Creek County Oklahoma Transcriber: Abby Thompson Organization: Bristow Historical Society, Inc. Original Cassette Tape Location: OHP-2021-18 at 00:00 to 53:53 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. BD: Here we go BD: Red light is on GS: Yup, and it' ; s running so here we go. BD: Okay GS: Alright, this is Georgia Smith with the Bristow Historical Society in Bristow, Oklahoma., and this interview is part of the historical societies ongoing oral history project. The day is June 3rd, 2021 and I am sitting here at the home of Bill and Beth Dalpoas, who are going to tell me a little bit about their history in the Bristow area. Now, I' ; ll start with you Beth ; give me your full name and your date of birth. BD: Wow. Elizabeth Ann Long Dalpoas. Birthday: March 19, 1939, in Hartshorne, Oklahoma. GS: Okay thank you, and Bill what was your full name at birth and birth date, and place. BD: William Raymond Dalpoas, and I was born in Hartshorne, Oklahoma, August 5, 1938. GS: Very good, wow. Okay and what year were you two married, Beth? BD: Oh, 1959 October the 4th in Hartshorne, Oklahoma. GS: In Hartshorne, Oklahoma. BD: We repeated our vows five years later First Baptist church in Bristow with reverend Dick List (ph) performing the ceremony. GS: Oh how wonderful! And what prompted you to do that? BD: Well, it was a promise that I had made my parents that we would do this, and-- but they didn' ; t show up. But the ladies at the church decorated with the colors that we had used in our wedding, and our son Danny carried our rings for us GS: Aw how sweet BD: And there was a reception at the church afterwards just like when we got married GS: Aw that' ; s-- that was pretty neat, that' ; s pretty neat. Well what brought you to the Bristow area Bill? BD: Well I was working in a store in McAlester, Oklahoma GS: What kind of store? BD: It was a general merchandise store, clothing. GS: Okay BD: It was a company owned by J.L. Dobson (ph). BD: Turner. J.L. Turner-- okay. BD: Out of Kentucky, and when I found out they were gonna move me to Bristow, we drove up here and looked the town over. GS: Very good BD: And we were not very impressed GS: Oh you weren' ; t? BD: No. There was [Indecipherable] and a Penny' ; s (ph) and two drug stores, two jewelry stores, and that' ; s just about all. And there was a Safeway, but that' ; s about all there was. I counted eleven empty buildings. GS: Wow, and that was in what year? BD: 1962 GS: My goodness BD: And I almost backed out when I saw the town, but I didn' ; t GS: Well we' ; re glad you didn' ; t. So what job did you come to here? BD: I was manager of a store. We opened in the old Safeway location, which is now Homestead. GS: Okay that' ; s right, Safeway was there BD: Right off the corner GS: 8th in Main, uh-huh. BD: And we opened the store and it was kinda [Indecipherable] store, we' ; d get big baskets of socks that were not even matched and we had to go through all of them and match them GS: Oh wow BD: It was nationwide department stores, wasn' ; t it? BD: Yeah it was a nationwide, and it morphed into what is now Dollar General store. GS: Oh okay! And Dollar General store is presently where a different old Safeway was (Laughter) BD: And the first person that we saw when we came to Bristow, really, was Cleo Pinson standing on the corner there by the store, singing Wolverton Mountain. GS: Oh my goodness BD: And after we looked the town over and ate at Hi-way Café, we drove around town awhile looking at houses, not knowing which side of town to look on or anything, got wound up out by the swimming pool and there was Cleo still singing Wolverton Mountain (Laughter) GS: How wonderful, Cleo was a main stay in Bristow for many years BD: Yes, and he never called me Beth, it was Beverly GS: Really? Well. BD: Beverly, the whole time, yes. GS: Okay, so how long were you with Nationwide? BD: Well, I was with them from 61' ; until 64' ; GS: Okay, and what caused you to leave them then? BD: I was hired by Travis Paten GS: Okay, to do what? BD: Be an assistant manager at a variety store, which was planned [Indecipherable] was gonna leave Bristow, and he bought the building and we opened a Ben Franklin store there. GS: I remember that, yes. So he hired you to be the manager of it? BD: Yes GS: How long did Ben Franklin' ; s last in Bristow? Well first off where was it? BD: Oh, it was right directly across the street from Safeway GS: Okay, so between 7th and 8th street on the West side BD: Yes BD: Where the parking lot is now GS: For the Mexican Restaurant BD: Right GS: Uh-huh, okay. And how long were you with Ben Franklin store? BD: Oh, till 1978 and I opened the men' ; s store GS: And what was the name of that store? BD: Bills [Indecipherable] GS: I remember that. And did you open it in Ben Franklins or in a different location-- I mean in the same building or a different location? BD: No, different location. GS: Okay, and so did-- was Ben Franklin' ; s still there, or-- and they had a different manager BD: Yes, it was still there, yes. GS: Okay, and how long did you have Bills [Indecipherable]? BD: Oh, what three years? BD: I believe so BD: Three years, and then I bought the Ben Franklin store GS: Oh okay! Okay, how long did you own it then? BD: Not very long, it burned. GS: I remember that BD: I think about two or three years later GS: Aww BD: We had it in 1982 because my dad' ; s clock that he had at the naval base in McAlester was in there that burned, Danas little flowers that she had in a coronation in high school were in there, and dads big roll top desk, remember? It was in there. BD: Yeah GS: Can you tell me anything Beth about some of the businesses that were on each side of the street? BD: I thought Bristow was a neat little town, I thought it was busy, but you know, I wasn' ; t a merchant so I-- I do know that there was-- when I was trying to find a house for us, or whatever, Chamber of Commerce wasn' ; t too happy about us moving to Bristow, but-- GS: Really? BD: Yeah, but it was-- GS: Why on earth not? BD: ' ; What kind of business are you putting in?' ; That was one of the questions, and I said " ; Well it' ; s a general merchandise, sir" ; and da-da-da, and they just weren' ; t too receptive, you know. GS: Well, that' ; s unusual BD: It really-- it really was GS: You would think they would' ; ve welcomed all business. BD: But-- no they weren' ; t, you know, because it was, you know, we had sharps, or not sharps at that time it was-- GS: Pennys (ph) BD: Pennys, and Shamus (ph) GS: Yes BS: and-- GS: Clothe stores BD: Yes, those. And we had men' ; s store, and it was like infringing on their business GS: Yes, I see BD: Which, in a way-- GS: And Patens Place (ph) BD: Yes, well Paten still had Ben Franklin, the small store. GS: Okay BS: It was-- GS: Well, but didn' ; t they have a clothing store too? BD: Yes, later on they did. GS: Oh, not right then BD: No, Pauline Paten (ph) GS: Okay BS: That was Pauline' ; s GS: I didn' ; t realize that, okay. BD: So it was-- I mean the people were great! The people themselves, you know, but I can sorta understand the business part, just like how we felt when we heard that Walmart was coming in. GS: Right, yes. BD: Bill made a comment when that happened, they said " ; What are you gonna do when Walmart opens" ; and he said " ; It wouldn' ; t matter if I had the Dallas cheerleaders dancing naked out on main street, they' ; d still go to Walmart" ; GS: Yeah BD: Which is-- GS: And Walmart has really hurt mainstream, downtown America. BD: If you look at any town that' ; s-- they have messed up main street America. I know everybody needed a job, but they had jobs before that in a different area. But it' ; s, yeah it has. BD: Yeah Walmart took 75% of my business the very first day GS: Wow, wow BD: At the time before Walmart moved in, I had 13 women working for me, and I ended up with two. GS: Oh my goodness, yeah that would be really disheartening BD: Yeah, it was GS: Yeah it would be. BD: People used to park on Main street on Saturday night because that was the late night to stay open just to see who was coming to town and to look inside the stores GS: Really? BD: It was really neat, yes GS: I like that! BD: They did! Certain people would have certain parking places every Saturday night and they parked on main street to watch the foot traffic and to see what was going on and it was really-- GS: Did we have the vertical parking then, or the horizontal? BD: We had both! GS: Okay BD: It was the vertical then we had the horizontal, and I think the ODOT said, you know, since it was a state highway, we had to do the-- BD: Parallel BD: Parallel parking GS: Yes, parallel parking BD: Whatever-- yeah, whatever that was, and so. GS: Okay so when you moved here, did you get active in any of the organizations here in town? BD: Yeah we-- GS: I' ; ll start with Bill, and then I' ; ll jump to you Beth BD: We had started a JC Program GS: Okay BD: I was president of JC' ; s for two years. We had a hundred members GS: Wow! BD: But-- BD: Now that' ; s a certain age group, the JC' ; s are. GS: Okay BD: And we were instrumental in doing a lot of things. We bought a siding machine and all the-- we did all the street signs, and put them up GS: Oh that' ; s awesome! BD: And we were instrumental in the swimming pool project GS: Yes BD: And we did a lot of-- lot of good things. GS: They have been a good organization in Bristow, they have BD: But it' ; s made up of young business men GS: Uh-huh BD: And Bristow ended up not having any GS: Yeah, yeah. Not very many, we had a few but not too many anymore, yeah. Most of them that we do-- BD: What we have now are good, but back then it was--really we went to state conventions and everything and made little Indian necklaces to represent Oklahoma. I mean the Women ; the JC Janes were the co-whatever' ; s of the JCs. GS: Were you a member of the JC Janes? BD: Yes, Barbara Hutten (ph), Ashley Vandever (ph), Sue Tapana (ph), Linda Suther (ph), yes, I mean we were all. Well I have a silver plate that says " ; Charter Member" ; For Stacey James (ph), Mary Ellen Holmes (ph), yes. GS: Yes BD: We were very active. I mean, we raffled Christmas items off, we' ; d sit and sew sequins on Christmas tree skirts and raffle those off. We were the backbone mainly of the JCs. I mean we were the support group of the JCs. Whatever they were active in, we went along with it. GS: So you didn' ; t do your own thing, you were there to back up the JCs? BD: Right GS: Okay very good, yeah. BD: And the JCs were the backbone of western heritage BD: Yes BD: We had gun fights GS: I remember, I was a kid and loved to go down to the gun fights and the stage coach coming in, bicycles build for two BD: Yes, yes GS: Lots of fun things BD: My best memory of that was I was due to get shot, and I got shot and I think it was Dunaways (ph) funeral home that had an old horse drawn hearse GS: Oh my goodness really? BD: Yeah and they come down and put me in that thing GS: Oh my goodness BD: Now this is in August bear in mind, no air conditioning, nothing BD: And it was hotter than blazes, I couldn' ; t hardly wait to get out of that thing BD: They took him ; I don' ; t know where they-- on up north main BD: they rode around with me for a while GS: Oh my goodness, I' ; d have said-- it probably wasn' ; t air conditioned, was it BD: No, no GS: Oh my goodness sakes BD: Joule Dean Masterton (ph) is -- I think I' ; ve donated the pictures, I' ; m not sure but there she is over and she' ; s tickling him trying to get him to move, but I mean he' ; s been shot you know. (Laughter) BD: But Joule Dean was trying to get him to move or something, then they loaded him up in that GS: I' ; d love to have some copies of some of those pictures BD: Okay GS: That would be just marvelous, that would be wonderful. So besides the JCs and the JC Janes, are there other organizations you were involved in? BD: Well we were very active in the First Baptist Church, we were both Sunday school teachers for Junior high, and he coached baseball-- BD: Yeah BD: For-- GS: Little league baseball? BD: Well we had church leagues then GS: Oh okay BD: If you didn' ; t attend Sunday school you didn' ; t-- GS: Play baseball BD: you didn' ; t play that week or whatever GS: Uh-huh BD: So it was-- BD: And I still have-- well there were a few that played on my team in Bristow and they still call me coach GS: Aww that' ; s nice BD: Or Papa Bill-- or Daddy Bill! BD: Yeah Daddy Bill BD: Daddy Bill, because that' ; s what Danny called him, ya know was Daddy Bill. GS: Danny? BD: Our son GS: Oh okay BD: Our son called him Daddy Bill, so I mean there were Danny Hanks, and-- my goodness BD: Ashley BD: Ol' ; Danny Ashley BD: Danny Ashley (ph) BD: Yes BD: Johnny Carmichael (ph) BD: Yes, his dad was a highway patrol man here, the Carmichael' ; s BD: And Morris Hancock (ph) GS: Yes BD: Yes. Yeah, I still keep up with them on Facebook GS: He came into the museum over tabbouleh fest BD: Oh really? GS: He did, I got to see him, I hadn' ; t seen him in years. BD: Well that' ; s great! We haven' ; t either. GS: Okay so, you mentioned Danny, your son. How many children did you have? BD: We have two children ; Danny was nine months old when we moved up here GS: Okay BD: And then Dana is our daughter and she was born in February of 64' ; out here in Bristow medical center-- or the hospital then! The Baptists had it then GS: Yes BD: And Danny was born at Saint Marys' ; hospital in McAlester GS: Okay BD: So, our families were not too happy when we moved up here, but-- GS: I' ; m sure BD: You' ; ve gotta do what you' ; ve gotta do GS: That' ; s right, jobs take you where they take you BD: Right GS: Okay so do you have any anecdotes about those years, or special memories of events that happened during that time? BD: Well at one point in time I was a Welcome Wagon hostess for Bristow GS: Very good! BD: And the business professional women, we had a big committee of that-- or group of that GS: Yes BD: And they got Jane Ann Jurough (ph), the reigning at that point in time, to come down. GS: Yes BD: And they-- they had decorated the force field house with the big swing and all of that, and as the welcome wagon hostess, I got to go out to the [Indecipherable] house west of town GS: Yes BD: And give her gifts from the local merchants GS: Oh how wonderful! BD: So that was-- and I understand she' ; s still a TV announcer in Oklahoma City GS: Uh-huh, I' ; ve seen her a time or two BD: That was a, something. And then Ally Reynolds (ph) one of the baseball-- BD: Yeah one of the baseball field was dedicated out here, which now football--high school football has taken it over GS: Okay BD: And I had a New York Yankees baseball that my Anna gave me, and I took it up to him and had him resign under his name GS: Aww how wonderful! Do you still have that? BD: No GS: Aw BD: I gave it to my son and he sold it on Ebay-- BD: Ebay or something GS: Aww, that' ; s a shame. BD: But he does have a baseball signed from-- when we had the t-shirt shop, it was in the summer time in the Fort Cob boys. There was a little team from Fort Cob baseball, and they' ; d come in the store and they ordered t-shirts that had certain lettering on them, well our daughter Dana could do the lettering real good, she and Bill did that, and they were not allowed to swim on--and they were staying at Thurman' ; s hotel up on North main, and every time they' ; d win a game, they' ; d bring those little shirts in and I' ; d wash them for them and they' ; d have new lettering put on [Indecipherable]. And they got into the finals, and they would just lay around in the store because it was air conditioned, they didn' ; t bother anything or anybody, they' ; d do little errands and they were the nicest young men. And their coaches were fantastic, and they got in the championship game over in Mannford, and they won. GS: Oh wonderful BD: And the first people they came to show the trophy was Bill and I GS: Aww BD: So that really-- GS: Spoke a lot to them BD: Yes, so Dana-- I brought all their shirts home, washed them on Saturday night so they could have them on Sunday to be able to go back to Fort Cob, but we heard from one of the coaches' ; wife for quite a few years, and they offered to come get us for their picnic in a private plane, but we didn' ; t go. GS: That would have been a fun experience BD: Oh--maybe! Maybe so BD: I still have their baseball bat there BD: Yeah, they signed us a baseball GS: Aww BD: And I have the baseball from my team too from 1966 GS: Oh that' ; s wonderful, 1966 BD: Yeah we' ; re a collector of ' ; things' ; , I mean just-- BD: Well I had-- she had a birthday party for me, and they all came to the house and that' ; s when they signed the baseball GS: Awww that' ; s perfect! That' ; s just the perfect present BD: Our house was the party house and the whatever house that the kids wanted to come to, because was it the bachelors that? BD: Yeah BD: They used to come practice in our living room, the band BD: Oh boy GS: That takes some patience to put up with that now BD: Yes, yes. Yeah that--but they did-- GS: Who was in that band? Was that Steve Hollands band? BD: No, that was before Steve I think BD: Yeah it was BD: Or maybe it was in between-- I don' ; t remember, there was Danny Hanks (ph), gosh we went all through that just recently, who was in what band. And then they would have teen town on Friday nights, was it? BD: Yeah BD: At the Presbyterian basement. GS: Oh in the Presbyterian basement! I never went to it there BD: I--yes it was because we lived on West fifth street, the house has been torn down now GS: That was probably before I lived here BD: Yes, yes GS: When I went to Teen town, it was on east ninth I believe BD: No that was before the Presbyterians sponsored it GS: Was after it? Presbyterian was before or after the east ninth teen town? BD: Yes, yes. It was before. GS: Before BD: Yup GS: Okay, and then it moved from the east ninth location to seventh street and it didn' ; t last very long on east seventh. About where that church is, the Cornerstone church BD: Oh okay GS: My memory' ; s a little fuzzy but about there BD: I don' ; t remember--I mean GS: When I was, oh maybe a sophomore in high school BD: Oh okay GS: So around 71' ; maybe, I moved here BD: Okay GS: Okay so looking back at the decades you' ; ve been here ; what decade do you think was the best for Bristow? BD: 60' ; s GS: The 60' ; s? BD: Definitely the 60' ; s GS: What do you think made it the best? BD: The people GS: The people? BD: They were together. I mean they worked together, business was good, schools have always been great, he served on the school board for-- BD: Nine years BD: Nine years, and then I worked for Edison for 27 years, and how long did you work at-- BD: Seventeen years BD: Seventeen years, so. It' ; s been great, really. We have no--well people were motivated in the 60' ; s, you know? The families in the 70' ; s were alright. We moved in our present home where we are now in 1976 in June. In September of that year, school had started and our son comes home and says " ; I volunteered the carport to build our float" ; (Laughter) BD: The big nails are still out in the carport framing, and they were out here-- I mean BD: I came home from work, and it was dark, and I turned the corner and came in the driveway and I had kids on the roof GS: Oh my goodness BD: They were everywhere BD: Well this was all woods then, so we were the second home to build out here. This was all a wooded area GS: Oh my goodness, and now look at all the houses around you. BD: Yes, this 40 acres was bought by Mr. Jones and Mr. Leflar from a little Indian-- GS: Robert Jones (ph) and David Leflar (ph)? BD: No GS: The lawyers? No? BD: David Leflar and-- BD: Well Leflar was the--he had the Jones foundation BD: Yes GS: Okay, those Jones BD: And they kept telling me--when we were building this was not in the city limits and I said " ; Yes it is" ; " ; No it isn' ; t" ; so I went to city hall one day when Johnny Darnell (ph) was still with us in the city clerk, got my coke and peanuts, and I went through all the records that Johnny would let me go through GS: Uh-huh BD: And I found a school board minutes one time and there' ; d been a [Indecipherable] on there cus' ; Mr. Leflar was also the school attorney GS: Oh okay BD: So he had added that on that this was--this 40 acres was in the city limits GS: There you go, good for you! BD: So I-- we, well they weren' ; t gonna give us any city utilities or anything GS: Oh yeah BD: We still have our own water well, we don' ; t have city water GS: Really? BD: But that' ; s okay, we don' ; t have a water bill GS: Yeah, exactly yeah BD: And it' ; s good water too GS: That' ; s good, that' ; s very good BD: So we did-- this was all red clay when we moved here GS: Lots of red clay in Bristow BD: Yes, yes. And the Matthews home on the hill was the first home built out here because Dowell (ph) and Leflar owned this GS: Okay BD: Dowell Matthews and David Leflar. GS: Okay, and did they develop-- did they build all the houses or just they sold the lots? BD: The lots, we bought two lots ' ; cus we lived where Corwins dentist office is in a two story house GS: Oh okay! Uh-huh! BD: And we had the first tree that was ever had Christmas lights outside on it GS: Aww BD: And they tore ' ; em down GS: Aww that hurt, didn' ; t it? BD: Yes, yes it did. Especially when you found out it was someone in your Sunday school class GS: Aww (Laughter) BD: But it--then when the grocery store burned, Mr. Wells, who was the owner of the grocery store, started buying lots. Bill and I had said to ourselves " ; When we get to x amount of dollars, we' ; ll sell" ; GS: There you go, uh-huh. BD: He did! GS: Wow! Very wonderful BD: So we used that money to build this home GS: Very good! BD: So, he was-- there was a lot of fun times over there on 7th street too. I mean, the folks over there were really good too-- GS: Good neighbors BD: Yes, yes. The Methodist church was right across the street GS: Yes BD: And, ohh what was her name? Alexander-- Myrtle GS: Myrtle Alexander (ph) BD: Yes. I would crank up the stereo if I was cleaning a house and open the door and she' ; d go sweeping down the sidewalk to tell them about [Indecipherable] BD: Dancing GS: How wonderful BD: She was-- she was a keeper for sure. GS: I' ; ve heard many good things about her BD: Then we had--there was a little--did Buddy just have one leg? The little black guy who had the shoe shine? BD: Hm, yeah BD: There was a little black guy' ; s first name was Buddy. I have heard his last name ; someone has told me but I' ; ve forgotten. He had a little shoe shine place in the alcove of where-- BD: Where Penny' ; s (ph) was BD: Yes, where-- GS: Okay, yes BD: There' ; s a little alcove in there and Buddy had a shoe shine stop GS: Oh how wonderful! BD: And he would talk by our house and one day he just stopped and he--we just had the best conversation because he told us, told me who had built lived in that house. It was a doctor Copiague. Now I don' ; t know which Copiague it was, but he told me that he took care of his horses, little paint horses, their little team. And when Doc Copiague (ph) would go out at night, Buddy said I would go, and he said that this porch right here on this house ; when it got hot, the girls would sleep out on this, and I said " ; Really Buddy?" ; and he said " ; Yeah" ; . And he said " ; On all the sides on this side of town, you see the little houses on the ally? Well that' ; s where the house keepers stayed" ; or whatever. And he said " ; We just had a lot of fun. Doctor Copiague was so nice" ; GS: Aw BD: I just thought ' ; Wowie' ; , ya know. And he said this house had a big wrought iron fence all the way around it, because we dug and found--we didn' ; t know what was going on, but it was--We moved from a five room house to a nine room house GS: Oh my goodness, that' ; s wonderful BD: And the nine room house people moved into our five room house (Laughter) BD: That was a busy, busy night GS: Downsizing and upsizing BD: Yes, yes. But we' ; ve-- this is home GS: Yes BD: You know ; we weren' ; t raised here. Bill was raised is Hartshorne, and I was raised in Ashland, which is a farming community. GS: What--where is that in Oklahoma? BD: That' ; s south west of McAlester BD: Yeah GS: Oh okay BD: My dad was called to the naval base, it used to be a navy base, it' ; s an army base now. GS: Yes DD: Now I' ; ve still got a ashtray and stuff from that navy base. And dad worked for the rock Island, he went to work from-- he was manager southern ice in Haileyville, and then we went to work for Rock Island Railroad and hated it, then when the war broke out, my dad had a fantastic memory for numbers. And they needed somebody to dispatch the railroad cars, so basically he was drafted. I mean he was-- had too many dependents to be drafted. But it was like ' ; give up your job-- ' ; GS: I' ; m just gonna check and make sure we' ; re going great, yes we are. BD: And worked at the navy base GS: Oh, uh-huh BD: So dad worked out there for twenty something years before he retired GS: Oh BD: So, and then we moved on--McAlester was here, Navy base was here, Ashland was here, Hartshorne was on the other side-- east of McAlester, we were Ashland was west. We were 45 miles apart when we were dating, so big drive. (Laughter) You' ; d drive that way-- BD: I put a lot of miles on my car GS: I bet you did Bill BD: And how many months, we dated? BD: Six months GS: Ahh BD: Our first date was April the 15th, 1959 income tax day GS: Oh my goodness, yes. BD: And we got married October the 4th GS: Oh, well that' ; s a pretty speedy courtship there BD: Yeah. Be 62 years this October GS: Well congratulations BD: I guess BD: Yeah GS: Yeah. Okay so you had a lot of the youth in your home BD: Yes GS: What else did you do for entertainment Bill? BD: Well we went dancing a lot GS: Oh where did you go dancing? BD: Anywhere there was a dance BD: Anywhere--When we first got married, we' ; d go to a dance every week GS: Were there dances here in Bristow? BD: No BD: No, that was before we moved here, there was Italian place in McAlester that would have us come at--it wasn' ; t Pete' ; s place, it was [Indecipherable] GS There was a large settlement I think the Italians in that area BD: Right [Indecipherable] And we go--they' ; d ask us to come dance Tuesday night to get people to come out on the dance floor and dance, then they' ; d give us our meal free GS: Oh how wonderful! Well that was pretty good for a newlywed couple BD: Yeah that helped a lot, that helped a lot. GS: I think Ted would' ; ve learned a dance BD: Danny and Dana both danced. We had-- we went to Sapulpa and Danny and Cara Jean Thompson (ph) went to Stroud and a contest, like Saturday Night Fever or whatever, they were very good, they could-- GS: And was it 50' ; s type dancing or ballroom dancing? BD: Bill and I, both GS: Both BD: Uh-huh, yeah. He was very good dancer BD: Jitterbug GS: And you could Jitterbug? BD: Oh yeah GS: Oh I wish I could see you Jitterbug BD: I wish I still could (Laughter) GS: I understand that BD: You could if you wanted to, you could if you wanted to. But we-- GS: So did you go to Tulsa to dances from Bristow? BD: No, they used to have quite a few dances. I mean, and up on top of the Roland Hotel is a big ballroom GS: Oh okay BD: And on top of JC Penny was, is a ballroom GS: Yes BD: But the J.C.' ; s used to have our-- some of our new year' ; s parties up there. When Big George Joseph (ph) and all of those were-- GS: Yes BD: Big George had a pig onetime that had been roasted, and that was our centerpiece and [Indecipherable] so, yeah. GS: Was it staring back at ya? BD: Yes BD: Yeah, it had an apple in its mouth BD: Cherries for the eyes BD: I didn' ; t eat too much GS: I understand that BD: But that--there' ; s a very nice dance floor up there. And on top of the Penny' ; s building was also-- BD: Well they used to have dances out at the country club. GS: Okay, were you members of the country club? BD: For a while, yeah GS: Uh-huh, any other organizations, like the Elks or anything? BD: No I belonged to the Lions for a while GS: The Lions club, okay. BD: Did you belong to the Rotary or was it Travis? BD: No, the Lions club. I didn' ; t belong to the Rotary BD: Okay GS: Okay so Beth tell me about your time at Edison Elementary BD: Well, when we moved out here in 1976, and we got all settled and everything, I didn' ; t have anything to do. Both of the children were in school, he was at work, and so I went to Doctor Carmichael and I said " ; I' ; m ready to go to work. Is there anything available" ; you know? Well there was two or three jobs available, and I said " ; put me where you want me" ; and he put me as kindergarten aid. So for two or three years, I had my own room, where home alone is now, and I had every kindergartener every day. GS: Wow BD: They would come to my room, ' ; cus we only had half day kindergarten then GS: Yes BD: And so one room--one half of the room was for morning kindergarten, the decorations and stuff, and the other room was--half was afternoon. And that went on and I mean the decorations were what they did. I mean, we had a-- Bill drew a great big tree and we put it and we decorated it for every holiday, they did paperwork. Plus, then I as given the attendance books for Edison Elementary to keep on top of that GS: Okay BD: So it was running all the papers for the two teachers at that time, and myself, plus taking the attendance for Edison. And when Christmas came, it was Brent, Scott, Lomenick, all that group. I had made little Christmas ornaments for every one of them. And one of the mothers told me not long ago they she still have it GS: Aw that' ; s so sweet BD: So I' ; m going ' ; Okay' ; but it was out of clothespins and glue and paint, and then we moved down to-- what building is it did they used? Now it was where that third grade building, I don' ; t know what they use that building for, it' ; s not the administration building, But there was Joann Free (ph) and Betty Lindsay (ph) and I was will their aid in the room, I was there all the time. So I went from one to the other, but I loved those little ones. It was-- I can still remember ' ; Sounds like Gurple, but it' ; s Purple' ; ya know. But teaching them their colors and kindergarteners are so much more advanced for the time they-- I mean we' ; ve got a great granddaughter that' ; ll go in kindergarten this next year and she' ; s gonna be bored at first. GS: Aw, pretty sharp BD: She' ; s very sharp GS: She already reading? BD: Yes, yes. BD: Yeah her mother' ; s a teacher so that helps GS: Yes, it does. BD: Yes, they' ; re the ones who were here this past weekend to visit us GS: Aw that' ; s wonderful BD: So we had a sleep over. They slept in here and it was-- it was great but I loved my time at Edison because I worked in the office, or back in the office for I don' ; t know how many years, and then Mrs. Vise, Judy Vise (ph) was the principal and she said " ; Would you like to move to the media?" ; Because the lady out there was gonna be leaving, last name was Neil, I can' ; t think of her first name right now. Olivia. And I said " ; I would love to" ; I mean, and that' ; s, the library was my thing GS: Oh that' ; s wonderful BD: I love to read, I-- GS: So how long were you at Edison? BD: 27 years GS: So you retired from Edison BD: Right, right. GS: Very good, and what year was that? BD: I don' ; t know, ' ; cus I still substitute at the high school GS: I knew that you did. Do you still substitute today? BD: I didn' ; t this last year because of the COVID, but hopefully and the Good Lord willing, the creek don' ; t rise, and my health holds up, I' ; ll go back this next year. GS: Well bless you and more power to you. BD: I love-- Why the high school? I don' ; t know. But I love history, we' ; re lacking in that. I don' ; t know music that well, but I love to substitute for Mr. Sanford in the Choir. And fact is a couple years ago, I taught a young man how to dance for the prom. He didn' ; t know how to dance, and I said " ; if you step on my toe one time we' ; re gonna quit" ; because he was a big young man. But I still love the kids. GS: Aw that' ; s wonderful, it' ; s good for you, good for you. What year did you retire Bill? BD: 2001 GS: And you retired from what business BD: From--I was maintenance supervisor at the school GS: At the school. So when did you go to work for the school? After Ben Franklin burned? BD: Yeah, I was in my 40' ; s and when the store burned, I was, you know, I didn' ; t. And I tried reopening a store in the location where homestead is GS: Okay, uh-huh BD: And that didn' ; t last. Walmart was still-- when I opened the store, Walmart sent clerks into the store with notepads writing down everything I' ; d put in that store GS: Aw BD: And then they' ; d go back and put it in Walmart at a lower price, so. GS: Aw that makes me sad BD: Then I went to Doctor Carmichael and asked him if there' ; s anything available at the school, and he said " ; give me a few days and I' ; ll get back to you" ; . So he came back and said " ; I want you to be the night supervisor for house cleaning" ; , so I did that for a year, and then Rex Kearly (ph) retired and he hired me to be the maintenance director GS: Okay BD: Then that' ; s where I stayed, till I retired GS: In 2001, very good. Have you been active in anything since you retied? Hobbies or organizations? BD: Oh I' ; m [Indecipherable] but I still worked after I returned, I mowed for the school for what, 14 years BD: Yes GS: Very good, it' ; s good to stay active BD: Oh yeah, I miss that now but I can' ; t be very active GS: Oh I know, I understand that totally BD: He' ; s still a good guy, he' ; s a keeper GS: Looking back at the decades again, who were some of the more influential people that you think have come through Bristow that have helped Bristow? BD: Well number one Doctor Warren Carmichael (ph) GS: Okay, he was the Superintendent for the schools BD: When I was on the school board they hired him, and when he came to Bristow, Bristow' ; s schools were stagnant. We had old building, and that' ; s what we jumped on first. We started building buildings, and it just went in a different way after he came here. He got retirement for the maintenance people and all of-- BD: Support people BD: Support people GS: Yeah, yeah BD: Which they appreciate it GS: Which before they didn' ; t have? BD: No BD: He had a chain of command, you didn' ; t just-- GS: No you didn' ; t. BD: No, it was--it was entirely different and everybody-- a lot of people complained about the yearly picnic we had, but--and every once in a while when insurance stuff would come up, we' ; d all meet in the old junior high auditorium. He kept us updated on our insurance, all the school, the cafeteria would fix all the chicken before the picnic. But every school was to bring certain dishes and we' ; d meet out at the high school for that. So Dr. Carmichael had a great deal to do, and coming on down the line honey, who would you say? BD: Influential people? BD: Yeah GS: In Bristow yeah, that have helped it quite a bit. BD: Hm, well we had a few merchants that were active and-- GS: Go getters BD: Yes, they started fixing up their storefronts, which helped the main street GD: Definitely, definitely did BD: That helps a great deal to have--even if the store is basically empty, if the windows are decorated or something it has great appeal to folks. Well so many, though, really have done a lot that have not been recognized, you know. GS: Very true BD: Behind the scenes that, you know, I commend Tara Montgomery (ph) for all that she' ; s done for the swimming, you know GS: Yes, definitely BD: And-- GS: We know Bob Chatterton (ph) with the city lake, that' ; s a big asset to Bristow BD: Oh Bob Chatterton in his class of 40' ; did wonders. I did the first 1940 thing for Bob Chatterton GS: Oh really BD: Yes, I did, when I went to the school he came in and we visited and then Christmas that year I got this humongous, now we' ; re talking big, poinsettia type tree. And it was from Bob Chatterton and the 1940 class GS: Aww BD: And he didn' ; t forget, I mean that was--because I had typed up all of those for-- all the students that had been had submitted things for scholarships. Bob Chatterton did a lot for the depot, he did a lot for the students, he did a lot for our town. BD: He did football field to BD: Yes GD: Oh he did? I didn' ; t know that BD: Yeah he played for the track BD: Track GS: I didn' ; t even realize that BD: First--the first asphalt track GS: That' ; s a nice track BD: Yes, it is, yes it is. And Gosh you caught us off guard on that because GS: Sorry about that BD: We' ; ve admired and been friends with a lot of people. GS: You' ; ve probably known a lot of business men, a lot of pastors BD: Oh yes, the Pastor when we moved here was Dick List GS: Okay BD: And his wife, and we visited every church that Dick and Joann-- they were very, very close friends out ours. Every church, and they even served in England too, they went overseas, and there was one church that we didn' ; t visit Dick and Joann. We went to Louisiana, or [Indecipherable] Mississippi where their church was and visited some of the Antebellum homes there while we were. I mean, when they came to Bristow, this was their home. They were here. And he calls sometimes, he was in the military, he was a chaplain. GS: Oh! How wonderful BD: And he did that when the Vietnam war, he went in. And I went in and said " ; Dick why did you do that?" ; and he said " ; How can I minister to the families of these young men if I don' ; t know what' ; s going on?" ; and that' ; s just the kind of pastor that he was. I mean, he was-- GS: That brings up a good, different direction to go in. Did any either of you or your children serve in the service? BD: I did GS: What branch? BD: Army GS: Army? BD: 11 years GS: Were you-- was it during peace time or did you go overseas? BD: I didn' ; t go overseas because I belonged to a division that was a training division GS: Okay BD: We trained troops to go over there GS: And what years were you with the Army? BD: Oh, I enlisted when I was in high school, 1956 until 64' ; and I resigned, but the army kept me on 24-hour standby for three years GS: So you were still doing army when you came here and started working for Nationwide, right? BD: Yeah GS: Well that kept you busy, didn' ; t it? BD: Yeah BD: They didn' ; t have a slot for him here at the reserve, so he had to drive to Okmulgee GS: Oh BD: Well Bristow had a 45th division here GS: Okay BD: And they were artillery, and all my background was infantry GS: Ah BD: So I had to drive to Okmulgee GS: Makes sense BD: But, he is eligible for VA benefits because the time that he served was during what they call the Cold War BD: Well they' ; ve got me written down for Korea service, but I never went to Korea GS: Praise the Lord BD: Yeah BD: But I was in that time frame GS: You were training men to go over there BD: Yes, and Vietnam they got me down for that, but I never went to Vietnam. I probably should have, but I didn' ; t. GS: Yeah, well it' ; s not for lack of you, they thought you did better work here probably BD: Yeah, I' ; ve always felt a little guilty about not doing it because I was trained for it GS: Right, well you go where they put you BD: Yeah and I had two little kids and a wife, so that made a difference GS: Yes, it does. It definitely does. I usually ask people looking back over your lifetime, what do you consider the biggest, maybe not invention, but the invention or situation that changed things the most, or made the most impact on society or your life? BD: Wow GS: Yeah that' ; s a biggie BD: When you live as long as we have, there' ; s been a lot GS: Yes, there has BD: Technology GS: Definitely. I think technology is a lot like Pandora' ; s box BD: Yes, yes BD: I think we' ; ve had too much. I' ; m like the guy in the Tulsa paper today that complained about all the computers failing and everything, and he called 911, well their computer was down, he called the police and their computer was down, so he called the chief of police and asked him ' ; have they outdated pencil and paper?' ; . But I think we' ; ve got too much communicating. When I was a kid growing up in Elementary school, if I got in trouble we didn' ; t have a home phone, but if I got in trouble before I came home that evening, my mother already knew about it. BD: True, so trueGS: Okay we' ; ve been-- we' ; re at the tail end thank goodness of this COVID pandemic. How has that changed life for you Beth? BD: Well, it kept me out of the school this past year, for one thing. But we both have had out two shots and we were very cautious when we went out, we didn' ; t go out that much, the grocery stores and-- GS: Yeah I-- no I' ; s just checking my recorder BD: Oh, okay. Grocery store, doctor, that' ; s about the only time-- we didn' ; t attend any basketball games or any social stuff, but we wore our masks and it' ; s been kind of rough in some ways, but we' ; ve done a lot of visiting with our neighbors out on the porch that way we were-- GS: Social distancing BD: Right GS: And you have the outside air and, yeah, yeah. BD: So we were--fact is out Christmas was with the ones that were here this past weekend. We had it on our deck, they came down the day after Christmas ; we had out masks on, we were outside, the little ones played in the backyard and in the garden, and so it was a beautiful day. God took care of us and neither of us had any signs of COVID and we got our shots over at Vo-Tech so we were Ok. GS: Wonderful, that' ; s wonderful. How about you Bill, can you add anything to that? BD: No, I' ; ve kinda liked staying at home so it worked out good for me (Laughter) BD: Very true GS: Good deal. Okay is there anything you can thing of story wise, personal information, town wise that we haven' ; t thought to mention that you would say " ; Oh that would be good to tell her about" ; ? BD: Oh we' ; ll think of it after you leave Georgia GS: Of course, of course. Well I sure do appreciate you giving us your time for this oral history interview and it' ; ll be remembered for a long time BD: Well we' ; ve enjoyed it I think, right Bill? BD: Yeah GS: Oh well thank you so much, I' ; ve enjoyed it tremendously. audio 0 https://bristoworalhistory.org/ohms/viewer.php?cachefile=OHP-2021-18_Dalpoas_Bill_and_Beth.xml OHP-2021-18_Dalpoas_Bill_and_Beth.xml
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Bill and Beth Dalpoas
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In this 2021 interview, Bill and Beth Dalpoas share about life in Bristow as young adults. Together, they talk about the organizations they were active in, different businesses, and entertainment during that time.
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OHP-2021-18
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2021-06-03
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Oral History
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George Krumme
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5.4 Unknown OHP-0027-01 George Krumme OHP-0027-01 0:00-14:38 'Bristow Historical Society - Oral History Archive' Bristow Historical Society, Inc. George Krumme MP3 1:|51(9)|63(9)|75(9)|87(11)|101(13)|116(3)|129(1)|142(3)|155(11)|169(13)|183(14)|196(10)|209(5)|222(9) 0 https://bristoworalhistory.org/interviews/OHP-0027-01 Krumme, George.mp3 Other audio 0 The Woodland Queen GK: This is George Krumme bringing you a centennial moment about the early days of the oil industry in Bristow. In the 1920’s, local boosters called Bristow the ‘Woodland Queen’, where oil flows and cotton grows. Nowadays, you would have to leave the county to find the cotton field, and flowing oil wells are mostly a thing of the past. The first big well drilled near Bristow was drilled by a continental petroleum company, composed mostly of Bristow investors led by A.A Rollstone and Claud Freeland. In October, 1921, continental completed its number one well on the Dunlap farm two miles east of town for sixteen hundred barrels a day in the Dutcher sand. Within a few months, continental sold out for five million dollars. The pool steadily expanded until it reached the very edge of Bristow. A virtual forest of derricks covered the eastern skyline of Bristow by the mid 20’s. This is George Krumme closing a centennial moment of about the early days of the oil industry in Bristow A.A. Rollstone ; Claud Freeland ; Dunlap Farm ; George Krumme ; Woodland Queen 78 Bristow Poor Farm GK: This is George Krumme bringing you a centennial moment about the early days of the oil industry in Bristow. Before old age assistance and cover social services were made available by the state of Oklahoma, counties were authorized to establish central residences for poor and aging citizens who had no family to take care of them. They were called Poor Farms because they were located on enough land to allow the residents to raise livestock and plant a garden. Our county Poor Farm was located on a hundred and eighty-acre track about two miles southwest of Bristow. In 1920, Homer Wilcox discovered oil just east of the Poor Farm and wells were subsequently drilled on the farm by Wilcox Oil and Gas. He best well was completed at twenty-eight hundred barrels per day ; the pool was formerly named ‘The Poor Farm Pool’, and the creek county Poor Farm was declared to be the richest poor farm in the world. This is George Krumme closing a centennial moment about the early days of the oil days in Bristow. George Krumme ; Homer Wilcox ; Poor Farm ; The Poor Farm Pool ; Wilcox Oil and Gas 149 Strange Curve in Highway 66 GK: This is George Krumme bringing you a centennial moment about the early days of the oil industry in Bristow. About two miles west of Bristow on Highway 66, there is an inexplicable kink in the pavement about a half mile west of Kelly Lake and just before you get to the country poor Farm cemetery. Nowadays, there seems to be no reason for this bend in the road, and it turns back westward in the next hundred yards or so. But in 1926, when Highway 66 was built and for several decades thereafter, the reason for the double bend was obvious ; a couple of years before the road was constructed, Wilcox Oil and Gas Company had drilled their number two Harjo Well. If the road had not been deviated slightly, it would’ve run almost into the standard rig, which was pumping the well. So the road zigged just enough to zag around the well, which has long since been plugged. This is George Krumme closing a centennial moment about the early days of the oil industry in Bristow George Krumme ; Highway 66 ; Kelly Lake ; Poor Farm ; Wilcox Oil and Gas 219 Tom Slick and Slick, Oklahoma GK: This is George Krumme bringing you a centennial moment about the early days of the oil industry in Bristow. Most people, including the writers of some Oklahoma histories presume that a new town platted in 1920 was named Slick because Tom Slick had discovered oil near the town side. Actually, Tom Slick had no part in the discovery of the pool. Here’s how the town was named: Slick had made a lot of money after it had discovered oil at the Cushing pool, he was married to the daughter of J.A. Freitas (ph), who was a professional real estate developer. Freitas convinced his son-in-law to put up much of the money to construct a railroad from Bristow to New [Indecipherable], with the intention of eventually extending the line to Okmulgee. Part of the promotion was to found a town side on the railroad ten miles east of Bristow and that town was named from the man who furnished the money, so the town was named Slick and the oil pool, which had already been discovered, took its name from the town side instead of the other way around. This is George Krumme closing a centennial moment about the early days of the oil industry in the city of Bristow George Krumme ; J.A. Freitas ; Slick, Oklahoma ; Tom Slick 289 Roland Oil Company GK: This is George Krumme bringing you a centennial moment about the early days of the oil industry in Bristow. In 1912, Frank Barns promoted a well on the earnest Alex, east three miles southwest of Bristow. The well was dry at 28,084ft and the oil lease expired. Eight years later, A.A. Rollstone took the new lease on the Alex farm. Rollstone had just formed a new company with Claud Freeland, which they called ‘The Roland Oil Company’. The Roland Hotel, Roland Creek, and the Roland addition are also named after Rollstone and Freeland. Roland stated [Indecipherable] well Alex, near the old dry hole and struck prolific production in Dutcher sand about two hundred feet deeper than the Frank Barns duster had been drilled. Their number one Alex was the second biggest well ever completed in Creek County, so I guess the lesson to be learned is never give your well up as a dry hole until you drill is 200ft deeper. This is George Krumme closing a centennial moment about the early days of the oil industry in the city of Bristow. A.A. Rollstone ; Claud Freeland ; Creek County ; Frank Barns ; George Krumme ; Roland Creek ; Roland Hotel ; Roland Oil Company 354 Wilcox Oil Company GK: This is George Krumme bringing you a centennial moment about the early days of the oil industry in Bristow. In 1924, Homer Wilcox staked a Wildcat on a block of acreage around the Sac and Fox Indian Reservation South of Stroud. Wilcox got a dry hole in the deep sands, completed three wells, and a shallower sand. Nice little poo sand wells, but nothing to get excited about. So Wilcox allowed all the other leases he had taken in the area to expire and drill. It was ten years before Wilcox noticed they the three wells had refused to decline like wells normally do, which indicated that the poo reservoir was much better than he had believed. Wilcox quietly bean began leasing again [Indecipherable] drop ten years before. After assembling a size of a block, Wilcox began drilling poo sand wells. He eventually completed more than 100 producers with almost no dry holes. This is George Krumme closing a centennial moment about the early days of the oil industry in the city of Bristow. Homer Wilcox ; Sac and Fox Indian Reservation ; Wilcox Oil Company 420 Chester Cushing Bristow Adventure GK: This is George Krumme bringing you a centennial moment about the early day of the oil industry in Bristow. Almost all of the early wells around Bristow were drilled with cable tools and at one time, there were hundreds of wooden Derrek’s standing in our vicinity. I know of only one standard wooden Derrek erected anywhere after 1940 and it wasn’t Bill Ryan Oil company, this was by Chester Cushing, a Bristow man who was running what was left of the Tim Cushing tools and supply. In 1944, he decided to drill a wildcat well just south of Bristow, across from South Ridge on the west side of highway 48. Chester pieced together nan authentic standard rig, bull wheels, walking beams, steam engines bordering all of the trimmings. Chester didn’t have much money, so he drilled the well himself. His wife Ann was his tool [Indecipherable]. They struggled about four years off and on and finally gave up. But as they say, easy come easy go. However, they should’ve received some personal satisfaction in knowing that they had possible drilled the last well to ever drill with a standard rig. This is George Krumme closing a centennial moment about the early days of the oil industry in Bristow. Bill Ryan Oil Company ; Chester Cushing ; Chester Cushing Bristow Adventure ; George Krumme ; Tim Cushing Tools and Supply 490 How Oil Barrels Became 42 Gallons GK: This is George Krumme bringing you a centennial moment about the early day of the oil industry in Bristow. If you bought a barrel of crude oil, would you get 55-gallons? Most people think so because they remember the 55-gallon drum in which the motor oil is sold. In reality, a barrel of crude oil means 42-gallons. In the early days of the industry, crude oil was actually shipped in wooden barrels, a standard barrel was supposed to contain 40-gallons, but exact measurement was difficult and a 5% variation in the contents of a barrel was allowed. 5% of 40-gallons is 2-gallons, so if a barrel contained between 38 and 42 gallons, it was acceptable. As pipelines and tank cars replaced barrels for the transportation of crude, the need for a 5% variation disappeared but the custom of the purchaser getting 42-gallons in each barrel did not. So a barrel of crude oil was officially declared to mean 42-gallons and it still does. This is George Krumme closing a centennial moment about the early days of the oil industry in Bristow. 42 gallons ; 55-gallon ; crude oil ; George Krumme 557 How Barrel Became BBL GK: This is George Krumme bringing you a centennial moment about the early day of the oil industry in Bristow. The abbreviation for barrel should include only one ‘B’, yet the standard abbreviation for barrel in the oil industry is BBL, and there’s a historical reason for this oddity. In the early days in the industry in Pennsylvania, all the crude oil was shipped in wooden barrels. Naturally, the capacity of any individual barrel varied according to the scale of the [Indecipherable] who made it. It was soon noticed that the barrels furnished by the firm run by a certain John D. Rockefeller were consistently good barrels. In order to easily identify his barrel, Rockefeller had them all painted blue. The blue barrel became the standard used in the field and reference was common and made to so many blue barrels in the measurement of crude. The abbreviation of Blue Barrel became ‘BBL” and this abbreviation is still used industrywide to this day. This is George Krumme closing a centennial moment about the early days of the oil industry in Bristow. BBL ; Blue Barrel ; George Krumme ; John D. Rockefeller 625 Charlie Tibbons GK: This is George Krumme bringing you a centennial moment about the early day of the oil industry in Bristow. In 1920, Charlie Tibbons drilled three shallow gas wells on the [Indecipherable] allotment 5 miles south of Bristow. There were good gas wells, but he found the real bonanza when he drilled in the deeper Dutcher sand. The number four [Indecipherable] made 90 barrels an hour. [Indecipherable] was a full blood [Indecipherable] engine and still owned the land on which the discovery was made. Her granddaughter and only living heir is [Indecipherable] Tiger Fry, who lives on a ranch about 10 miles east of Bristow. Eventually, more than 40 wells were drilled on the 160-acre allotment. More than one gathering company laid pipelines with the [Indecipherable] tank battery. Years ago, punk Corey told me that Tibbons daily production was so important, that every morning Tibbons would have representatives of the pipeline companies appear in his office to bid against one another, with the highest bidder being allowed to buy all that days production. This is George Krumme closing a centennial moment about the early days of the oil industry in Bristow. Charlie Tibbons ; George Krumme ; Tibbons Daily Production 694 The Roland Gusher GK: This is George Krumme bringing you a centennial moment about the early day of the oil industry in Bristow. When Rolland Oil Company staked its number one Alex in January of 1922, as a long step out from the new Poor Farm pool, they naturally hoped for a good Detrol oil well. They’d get a lot more than what they bargained for. When the oil sand was struck, the gas blew the string of cable tools up the hole, and somehow the tools became lodged near the top of the casing. The drillers ran in a string of fishing tools which they promptly lost in the hole. Soon, the well began flowing oil. At 1:30 in the morning, they turned the well into the only tank on the location. The well filled the five-hundred-barrel tank in the first hour with both string of tools still in the hole. With great difficulty, the drillers shut the well in and Rolland began erecting more tankage and building earth and dams with horse draws slips and scrapers. The daily Oklahoma reported that the well was making 12 thousand barrels a day through a small crack in the six inch of valve with two strings of tools still in the hole. The Bristow record declared that the Alex was the best well in the state, and that 23-year-old Eugene Clifford Alex, the [Indecipherable], had just bought himself a Packard twin six with his royalties. But Rolland wanted the tools out before they caused trouble that might lead to chunking the hole. They decided that the flow was so strong that it might blow the fishing tools out of the hole if the well were allowed to flow wide open. So one morning, a week or so later, they opened the control head and allowed the stream to flow unchecked straight up through the wooden Derrek. Sure enough, shortly afterwards, they heard a bloops at the control head and saw a thousand pounds of steal fly up the Derrek and fall back to the rig flower. Much pleased, they quickly rotated the control head to divert the flow back into the tanks. What they didn’t anticipate was that the heavy flow had also dislodge the drilling string, which they had lost in the hole, and that it was following the fishing tools. The half-ton of drilling tools hit the control head with such momentum that it broke the head into pieces. The well was then flowing wild, completely out of control, spraying oil over a mile straight to the north, and speckling houses all the way into Bristow three miles away. Working in slickers and praying that the oil would not catch fire, within six to eight hours, the crew succeeded in screwing on a new control head and the well was under control again. The Bristow record reported that the wild well had furnished more excitement per square inch than anything else ever known in Bristow or anywhere else. This is George Krumme closing a centennial moment about the early days of the oil industry in Bristow. Eugene Clifford Alex ; George Krumme ; Poor Farm ; Roland Gusher ; Roland Oil Company The following programs recorded in 1998 by George Krumme, a longtime Bristow oilman. In the following programs, George Krumme discusses the early oil industry in Bristow. Interviewer: George Krumme Interviewee: Other Persons: Date of Interview: Location: Bristow, Creek County Oklahoma Transcriber: Abby Thompson Organization: Bristow Historical Society, Inc. Original Cassette Tape Location: OHP-0013 Side B at 00:00 to 14:38 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. GK: This is George Krumme bringing you a centennial moment about the early days of the oil industry in Bristow. In the 1920' ; s, local boosters called Bristow the ' ; Woodland Queen' ; , where oil flows and cotton grows. Nowadays, you would have to leave the county to find the cotton field, and flowing oil wells are mostly a thing of the past. The first big well drilled near Bristow was drilled by a continental petroleum company, composed mostly of Bristow investors led by A.A Rollstone and Claud Freeland. In October, 1921, continental completed its number one well on the Dunlap farm two miles east of town for sixteen hundred barrels a day in the Dutcher sand. Within a few months, continental sold out for five million dollars. The pool steadily expanded until it reached the very edge of Bristow. A virtual forest of derricks covered the eastern skyline of Bristow by the mid 20' ; s. This is George Krumme closing a centennial moment of about the early days of the oil industry in Bristow. GK: This is George Krumme bringing you a centennial moment about the early days of the oil industry in Bristow. Before old age assistance and cover social services were made available by the state of Oklahoma, counties were authorized to establish central residences for poor and aging citizens who had no family to take care of them. They were called Poor Farms because they were located on enough land to allow the residents to raise livestock and plant a garden. Our county Poor Farm was located on a hundred and eighty-acre track about two miles southwest of Bristow. In 1920, Homer Wilcox discovered oil just east of the Poor Farm and wells were subsequently drilled on the farm by Wilcox Oil and Gas. He best well was completed at twenty-eight hundred barrels per day ; the pool was formerly named ' ; The Poor Farm Pool' ; , and the creek county Poor Farm was declared to be the richest poor farm in the world. This is George Krumme closing a centennial moment about the early days of the oil days in Bristow. GK: This is George Krumme bringing you a centennial moment about the early days of the oil industry in Bristow. About two miles west of Bristow on Highway 66, there is an inexplicable kink in the pavement about a half mile west of Kelly Lake and just before you get to the country poor Farm cemetery. Nowadays, there seems to be no reason for this bend in the road, and it turns back westward in the next hundred yards or so. But in 1926, when Highway 66 was built and for several decades thereafter, the reason for the double bend was obvious ; a couple of years before the road was constructed, Wilcox Oil and Gas Company had drilled their number two Harjo Well. If the road had not been deviated slightly, it would' ; ve run almost into the standard rig, which was pumping the well. So the road zigged just enough to zag around the well, which has long since been plugged. This is George Krumme closing a centennial moment about the early days of the oil industry in Bristow. GK: This is George Krumme bringing you a centennial moment about the early days of the oil industry in Bristow. Most people, including the writers of some Oklahoma histories presume that a new town platted in 1920 was named Slick because Tom Slick had discovered oil near the town side. Actually, Tom Slick had no part in the discovery of the pool. Here' ; s how the town was named: Slick had made a lot of money after it had discovered oil at the Cushing pool, he was married to the daughter of J.A. Freitas (ph), who was a professional real estate developer. Freitas convinced his son-in-law to put up much of the money to construct a railroad from Bristow to New [Indecipherable], with the intention of eventually extending the line to Okmulgee. Part of the promotion was to found a town side on the railroad ten miles east of Bristow and that town was named from the man who furnished the money, so the town was named Slick and the oil pool, which had already been discovered, took its name from the town side instead of the other way around. This is George Krumme closing a centennial moment about the early days of the oil industry in the city of Bristow. GK: This is George Krumme bringing you a centennial moment about the early days of the oil industry in Bristow. In 1912, Frank Barns promoted a well on the earnest Alex, east three miles southwest of Bristow. The well was dry at 28,084ft and the oil lease expired. Eight years later, A.A. Rollstone took the new lease on the Alex farm. Rollstone had just formed a new company with Claud Freeland, which they called ' ; The Roland Oil Company' ; . The Roland Hotel, Rolland Creek, and the Roland addition are also named after Rollstone and Freeland. Roland stated [Indecipherable] well Alex, near the old dry hole and struck prolific production in Dutcher sand about two hundred feet deeper than the Frank Barns duster had been drilled. Their number one Alex was the second biggest well ever completed in Creek County, so I guess the lesson to be learned is never give your well up as a dry hole until you drill is 200ft deeper. This is George Krumme closing a centennial moment about the early days of the oil industry in the city of Bristow. GK: This is George Krumme bringing you a centennial moment about the early days of the oil industry in Bristow. In 1924, Homer Wilcox staked a Wildcat on a block of acreage around the Sac and Fox Indian Reservation South of Stroud. Wilcox got a dry hole in the deep sands, completed three wells, and a shallower sand. Nice little poo sand wells, but nothing to get excited about. So Wilcox allowed all the other leases he had taken in the area to expire and drill. It was ten years before Wilcox noticed they the three wells had refused to decline like wells normally do, which indicated that the poo reservoir was much better than he had believed. Wilcox quietly bean began leasing again [Indecipherable] drop ten years before. After assembling a size of a block, Wilcox began drilling poo sand wells. He eventually completed more than 100 producers with almost no dry holes. This is George Krumme closing a centennial moment about the early days of the oil industry in the city of Bristow. GK: This is George Krumme bringing you a centennial moment about the early day of the oil industry in Bristow. Almost all of the early wells around Bristow were drilled with cable tools and at one time, there were hundreds of wooden Derrek' ; s standing in our vicinity. I know of only one standard wooden Derrek erected anywhere after 1940 and it wasn' ; t Bill Ryan Oil company, this was by Chester Cushing, a Bristow man who was running what was left of the Tim Cushing tools and supply. In 1944, he decided to drill a wildcat well just south of Bristow, across from South Ridge on the west side of highway 48. Chester pieced together nan authentic standard rig, bull wheels, walking beams, steam engines bordering all of the trimmings. Chester didn' ; t have much money, so he drilled the well himself. His wife Ann was his tool [Indecipherable]. They struggled about four years off and on and finally gave up. But as they say, easy come easy go. However, they should' ; ve received some personal satisfaction in knowing that they had possible drilled the last well to ever drill with a standard rig. This is George Krumme closing a centennial moment about the early days of the oil industry in Bristow. GK: This is George Krumme bringing you a centennial moment about the early day of the oil industry in Bristow. If you bought a barrel of crude oil, would you get 55-gallons? Most people think so because they remember the 55-gallon drum in which the motor oil is sold. In reality, a barrel of crude oil means 42-gallons. In the early days of the industry, crude oil was actually shipped in wooden barrels, a standard barrel was supposed to contain 40-gallons, but exact measurement was difficult and a 5% variation in the contents of a barrel was allowed. 5% of 40-gallons is 2-gallons, so if a barrel contained between 38 and 42 gallons, it was acceptable. As pipelines and tank cars replaced barrels for the transportation of crude, the need for a 5% variation disappeared but the custom of the purchaser getting 42-gallons in each barrel did not. So a barrel of crude oil was officially declared to mean 42-gallons and it still does. This is George Krumme closing a centennial moment about the early days of the oil industry in Bristow. GK: This is George Krumme bringing you a centennial moment about the early day of the oil industry in Bristow. The abbreviation for barrel should include only one ' ; B' ; , yet the standard abbreviation for barrel in the oil industry is BBL, and there' ; s a historical reason for this oddity. In the early days in the industry in Pennsylvania, all the crude oil was shipped in wooden barrels. Naturally, the capacity of any individual barrel varied according to the scale of the [Indecipherable] who made it. It was soon noticed that the barrels furnished by the firm run by a certain John D. Rockefeller were consistently good barrels. In order to easily identify his barrel, Rockefeller had them all painted blue. The blue barrel became the standard used in the field and reference was common and made to so many blue barrels in the measurement of crude. The abbreviation of Blue Barrel became ' ; BBL" ; and this abbreviation is still used industrywide to this day. This is George Krumme closing a centennial moment about the early days of the oil industry in Bristow. GK: This is George Krumme bringing you a centennial moment about the early day of the oil industry in Bristow. In 1920, Charlie Tibbons drilled three shallow gas wells on the [Indecipherable] allotment 5 miles south of Bristow. There were good gas wells, but he found the real bonanza when he drilled in the deeper Dutcher sand. The number four [Indecipherable] made 90 barrels an hour. [Indecipherable] was a full blood [Indecipherable] engine and still owned the land on which the discovery was made. Her granddaughter and only living heir is [Indecipherable] Tiger Fry, who lives on a ranch about 10 miles east of Bristow. Eventually, more than 40 wells were drilled on the 160-acre allotment. More than one gathering company laid pipelines with the [Indecipherable] tank battery. Years ago, punk Corey told me that Tibbons daily production was so important, that every morning Tibbons would have representatives of the pipeline companies appear in his office to bid against one another, with the highest bidder being allowed to buy all that days production. This is George Krumme closing a centennial moment about the early days of the oil industry in Bristow. GK: This is George Krumme bringing you a centennial moment about the early day of the oil industry in Bristow. When Rolland Oil Company staked its number one Alex in January of 1922, as a long step out from the new Poor Farm pool, they naturally hoped for a good detral oil well. They' ; d get a lot more than what they bargained for. When the oil sand was struck, the gas blew the string of cable tools up the hole, and somehow the tools became lodged near the top of the casing. The drillers ran in a string of fishing tools which they promptly lost in the hole. Soon, the well began flowing oil. At 1:30 in the morning, they turned the well into the only tank on the location. The well filled the five-hundred-barrel tank in the first hour with both string of tools still in the hole. With great difficulty, the drillers shut the well in and Rolland began erecting more tankage and building earth and dams with horse draws slips and scrapers. The daily Oklahoma reported that the well was making 12 thousand barrels a day through a small crack in the six inch of valve with two strings of tools still in the hole. The Bristow record declared that the Alex was the best well in the state, and that 23-year-old Eugene Clifford Alex, the [Indecipherable], had just bought himself a Packard twin six with his royalties. But Rolland wanted the tools out before they caused trouble that might lead to chunking the hole. They decided that the flow was so strong that it might blow the fishing tools out of the hole if the well were allowed to flow wide open. So one morning, a week or so later, they opened the control head and allowed the stream to flow unchecked straight up through the wooden Derrek. Sure enough, shortly afterwards, they heard a bloops at the control head and saw a thousand pounds of steal fly up the Derrek and fall back to the rig flower. Much pleased, they quickly rotated the control head to divert the flow back into the tanks. What they didn' ; t anticipate was that the heavy flow had also dislodge the drilling string, which they had lost in the hole, and that it was following the fishing tools. The half-ton of drilling tools hit the control head with such momentum that it broke the head into pieces. The well was then flowing wild, completely out of control, spraying oil over a mile straight to the north, and speckling houses all the way into Bristow three miles away. Working in slickers and praying that the oil would not catch fire, within six to eight hours, the crew succeeded in screwing on a new control head and the well was under control again. The Bristow record reported that the wild well had furnished more excitement per square inch than anything else ever known in Bristow or anywhere else. This is George Krumme closing a centennial moment about the early days of the oil industry in Bristow. audio 0 https://bristoworalhistory.org/ohms/viewer.php?cachefile=OHP-0027-01_Krumme_George.xml OHP-0027-01_Krumme_George.xml
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George Krumme
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The following programs recorded in 1998 by George Krumme, a longtime Bristow oilman. In the following programs, George Krumme discusses the early oil industry in Bristow.
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Ed Cadenead
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5.4 August 1979 Ed Cadenhead OHP-0028-01 00:00-25:47 'Bristow Historical Society - Oral History Archive' Bristow Historical Society, Inc. Ed Cadenead MP3 1:|55(2)|68(7)|80(3)|90(6)|101(4)|113(7)|124(13)|135(6)|146(8)|157(6)|169(6)|180(4)|192(2)|203(1)|215(2)|223(9)|234(5)|245(3)|254(4)|264(13)|275(8)|286(15)|296(10)|305(11)|318(2) 0 https://bristoworalhistory.org/interviews/OHP-0028-01 Cadenhead, Ed.mp3 Other audio 0 Introduction and Spot Announcements EC: Okay, spot announcement for the week of August the 5th ; This is Ed Cadenhead, history professor at the University of Tulsa, and I am in Bristow this summer under a grant from the Oklahoma Humanities Committee and the National Endowment for the Humanities, collecting information on the history of Bristow. If you have information, photographs, or scrapbooks, please call or come by the chamber of commerce office. Chamber of Commerce ; Ed Cadenhead ; Oklahoma Humanities Committee ; Spot Announcement ; Western Heritage Days 70 Early Radio in Bristow EC: Article on radio. One of the editions to Bristows history, that is mentioned by most people, is the radio station KFRU. Unfortunately, there are some different memories of the fact ; while some believe it was the first radio station in Oklahoma, a few even remember it as the first radio station in the nation. It was not even the first in Bristow ; often forgotten as the fact that Merit Delano (ph) and others had a station on main street in the Joe Matton (ph) building. This station was Bill McGinnis ; Catfish Band ; Cowboy String Band ; Delano Radio and Electric Company ; Jimmy Wilson ; Joe Matton ; KCOU ; KFRU ; KVOO ; Merit Delano ; Roland Hotel 167 Bristow Oil Boom EC: Article on oil boom. Virtually every resident in Bristow is aware of the oil boom that the city once witnessed. Most of the stories are predictable, for anyone who has seen or heard about a boom town. Some details and information, however, are harder to get. Exactly when the boom hit Bristow is hard to say, since the activity in Cushing and Slick affected Bristow. But the years in 1915-1923 would probably cover the main period. 1915-1923 ; Brick Kirshner ; Chamber of Commerce ; Lucy West ; Oil Boom ; Wallis Winshield 350 Bristow Schools Beginning EC: Article on Bristow’s Schools. One continuing story in Bristow’s history is the pride and interest shown in the local schools. The story apparently started in 1898, when Mrs. Lucy West was contacted, and $400 was raised to build a school ; yet, the Tulsa World reported the 1898 that school started in Bristow with J. H. A. Dumas (ph), his wife, and Mrs. C. B. Colburn (ph), his teachers. There’s hope that some accurate information about the connection between Dumas and West at this early date can be found. Aiyana Green ; Aiyana Greenhopper ; Alice Rue Williams ; Ashley Ohlerly ; Bristow Schools ; C. B. Colburn ; Charles Hutton ; Ethan Mills ; Ford Hardware ; Gordon Castleberry ; Gray Powers ; J. H. A. Dumas ; Jonathan West ; Lahore Motel ; Lloyd P. Loseur ; Lucy West ; Maude Vann ; Mrs. Stickler ; Orable Heinekins ; P. A. Spice ; Ralph Corey ; Russel Banks ; Stella Hanktons ; Tulsa World ; W. W. Green ; Waldo Stickle 523 County Seat Location Fight EC: Article on county seat fight. Well, one of the earliest and perhaps most important political contests in which Bristow was involved related to the location of the county seat. Beginning before statehood and then issued for many years, Sapulpa and Bristow contended for the advantage of being the county seat. Bristow lost the first fight in 1902, and Sapulpa was made a court town of the western judicial district of Indian territory, and Bristow was able to get only an occasional commissioners court. Bristow ; C. B. Rockwood ; county seat ; County seat fight ; George McMillan ; Guthrie ; Indian Appropriation Act of 1906 ; J. A. Boyed ; J. H. M. Cobb ; Keifer ; L. B. Jackson ; Lawrence Davis ; Momen Cruet ; Sapulpa ; Shafer county ; T. L. Ingram ; Tulsa ; W. W. Banks ; William A. Murray 768 Chief Crazy Snake Rebellion EC: Article on Crazy Snake. One of the most often mentioned with little remembered events in early Bristow history is the Crazy Snake Rebellion. As late as 1901, there were still some creek Indians who disliked the events of civilization, and refused to accept the allotments of land by the Daws commission. Chief Crazy Snake ; Crazy Snake ; Crazy Snake Rebellion ; Creek ; Creek Indians ; Daws Commission ; General Harjo ; Jesse Allen ; Thomas Tiger ; Yuchi Indian 899 Bristow's General History EC: General Article on Bristow’s History. All too often, students at any level of history think of the subject matter as only a collection of names and dates. That’s often true, I’ve discovered, with people in Bristow, who say they really do not remember much that is important. While it is true that names and dates are a necessary part of history, stories of unimportant incidents provide the flesh for the otherwise bare bones. Bristow History ; Leo Bennett 1066 Founding of Bristow EC: Article on earliest Bristow. You might think the easiest thing about writing a history of Bristow would be finding out when and by who is was founded, this is just not so. One source reports that Bristow started as a trading post in 1897, with actual buildings begun in 1898. An article in the chronicles of Oklahoman refers to the founding of Bristow in April 25, 1898, while the Daily Oklahoman says Bristow was founded on January 16,1899. According to the Tulsa World, it was officially a town in 1902. Bristow Chamber of Commerce ; Charles L. Wood ; Charles O. Crane ; J. C. W. Bland ; John Egan ; Tulsa World ; Two Bob Saloon 1230 Church History EC: Bristow Church History. Though many residents in Bristow have shown pride in their churches, there is a shortage of accurate information about them. One type of written history the Catholic church has been acquired, along with short written histories of several of the other churches. Apparently, the Methodists were the first to hold services in Bristow, at the home of A. R. Bokle (ph). A. R. Bokle ; B. T. Benskid ; Baptists ; Bristow Church History ; Canterbury ; Catholic Church ; Christian Science Society ; Church of Christ ; F. A. Roberts ; Masonic Temple ; Methodists ; Presbyterian ; Reverend Gregory ; S. H. Johnson ; S. L. Grigsby 1460 Conclusion and Repeat Spot Announcement EC: Repeat of a spot announcement to be used during the week of August 5th ; This is Ed Cadenhead, history professor at the University of Tulsa. I am in Bristow this summer under a grant from the Oklahoma Humanities Committee and the National Endowment for the Humanities, collecting information on the history of Bristow. Ed Cadenhead ; Oklahoma Humanities Committee ; Spot announcement ; Western Heritage Days The following programs were composed by Dr. Ed Cadenhead, a History professor at Tulsa University. He discusses many different aspects of Bristow, including the oil boom, Chief Crazy Snake Rebellion, and the founding of Bristow. Interviewer: Dr. Ed Cadenhead Interviewee: Other Persons: Date of Interview: August 1979 Location: Bristow, Creek County Oklahoma Transcriber: Abby Thompson Organization: Bristow Historical Society, Inc. Original Cassette Tape Location: OHP-0028-01 Side A at 00:00 to 25:47 Abstract: The following programs were composed by Dr. Ed Cadenhead, a History professor at Tulsa University. He discusses many different aspects of Bristow, including the oil boom, Chief Crazy Snake Rebellion, and the founding of Bristow. 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. EC: Okay, spot announcement for the week of August the 5th ; This is Ed Cadenhead, history professor at the University of Tulsa, and I am in Bristow this summer under a grant from the Oklahoma Humanities Committee and the National Endowment for the Humanities, collecting information on the history of Bristow. If you have information, photographs, or scrapbooks, please call or come by the chamber of commerce office. EC: Spot announcement for the week of August the 12th ; This is Ed Cadenhead, history professor at the University of Tulsa. On Saturday, August 18th, at 12:45 at the national guard armory, I will be presenting a slide talk on the history of Bristow, prepared under a grant from the Oklahoma Humanities Committee, from the national endowment for the humanities. You are all invited, the talk will be presented at 12 noon by potluck lunch in as part of the Western Heritage Days. Hope to see you there. EC: Article on radio. One of the editions to Bristows history, that is mentioned by most people, is the radio station KFRU. Unfortunately, there are some different memories of the fact ; while some believe it was the first radio station in Oklahoma, a few even remember it as the first radio station in the nation. It was not even the first in Bristow ; often forgotten as the fact that Merit Delano (ph) and others had a station on main street in the Joe Matton (ph) building. This station was KFJK, one of the Watts stations run by Delano Radio and Electric company. It may even have had te call letters KCOU at one time. This station, built in 1923, would not last long before the most remembered station was opened in the Roland Hotel. This later station was much stronger and became widely known. Newspapers carried stories about its programs, talent was recruited from Bristow and surrounding high schools, as well as colleges. Well known of groups of entertained were Jimmy Wilson (ph) and his Catfish Band, and Bill McGinnis (ph) Cowboy Strong Band. At some point, equipment from KFRU was sold to a college in Columbia, Missouri. The later station as subsequently sold to interests in Tulsa. The differing memories as to whether the call letters were changed to KVOO before or after the move to Tulsa ; in any event, radio played an early and important part in the life of Bristow. EC: Article on oil boom. Virtually every resident in Bristow is aware of the oil boom that the city once witnessed. Most of the stories are predictable, for anyone who has seen or heard about a boom town. Some details and information, however, are harder to get. Exactly when the boom hit Bristow is hard to say, since the activity in Cushing and Slick affected Bristow. But the years in 1915-1923 would probably cover the main period. The influx of people is the strongest memory, with figured ranging from 13,000 to 25,000 population being given ; the most likely population figure without census to measure was 15,000. Finding a place for so many to live was impossible. Every available room was rented, some in shifts, and local residents would have to find workers sleeping on their porches, in their garages, or on their yard swings. Prices of property jumped ; Mrs. Lucy West had two lots, with one room shacks that had costed $100 each to build, that were rented for $125 per month. One enterprising business woman paid $2,500 just for the right to lease the upstairs of a building on main street. The movement of pipe and other material was another notable aspect of Bristow' ; s boom. Pipe was unloaded at the depot, and numerous teams of mules from several liberty stables transported it. One owner of a team, Wallis Winshield (ph), had his mules so well-trained that they could raise and lower pipes on voice command to the amusement of bystanders. Alvin [Indecipherable] remembers the large amounts of lumber that the four or five lumber yards in the area sold for the construction of oil rig bases. Brick Cershner (ph) remembers the appearance of those rigs once in place at Slick. The well was in, the wooden rigs were black, otherwise they were clean. Others have vivid memories of some of the problems created by them boom. Some young ladies were not allowed to, or were afraid to be in town after dark. Robberies did occur and killings were not unusual ; gambling in some local establishments, as well as under automobile headlights out in the country were not unusual. An increase in the number of places that sold whiskey, or otherwise provided entertainment for the young men without families was predictable. Bristow, at one point, established a curfew for all under a certain age, and had to employ six or seven peace officers to keep up with the expanding business. Interestingly, with all the photographs that have turned up showing the cotton boom days in Bristow, none have yet appeared to show the oil boom. If you have such items, please drop them by the chamber of commerce office so that copies can be made. EC: Article on Bristow' ; s Schools. One continuing story in Bristow' ; s history is the pride and interest shown in the local schools. The story apparently started in 1898, when Mrs. Lucy West was contacted, and $400 was raised to build a school ; yet, the Tulsa World reported the 1898 that school started in Bristow with J. H. A. Dumas (ph), his wife, and Mrs. C. B. Colburn (ph), his teachers. There' ; s hope that some accurate information about the connection between Dumas and West at this early date can be found. Either before or after the building from Mrs. West was erected, classes were held in what was also used as a dining room for the Lahore Motel (ph). The one room frame building on east sixth street, which the first school building was built by Jonathan West, Lucy' ; s husband. The brick building was built in 1903, and Bristow had five teachers by this time. Gordon Castleberry (ph) taught the students above the fourth grade in the brick building. P. A. Spice (ph) and Stella Hanktons (ph) had the third and fourth grades in the Methodist church, and Lucy West and Maude Vann (ph) taught the first and second grades in the Christian church. In 1906, Bristow' ; s first high school graduation took place ; Graduates were Alice Rue Williams (ph), Ralph Corey (ph), Aiyana Greenhopper (ph), and Waldo Stickle (ph). In 1904, a second school building was erected and in 1909 a third. It was this last building that burned in 1920, a well-remembered fire for many schools. One of the schools located where Ford Hardware now stands is remembered as only being painted to look like bricks. Growth was rapid, one teacher recalls, having sixty students in a room ; another had forty in the morning and a different forty in the afternoon. Certainly by 1920, Bristow already had shown an interest in providing education opportunities for its youth, and more was yet to come. The names associated with the Bristow schools are truly too numerous to list them all ; some that have been mentioned are Mrs. Sickler (ph), W. W. Green (ph), Aiyana Green (ph), Gray Powers (ph), Mrs. Ethan Mills (ph), Lloyd P. Loseur (ph), Mrs. Orable Henkins (ph), Mrs. Russel Banks (ph), Mrs. Ashly Ohlerly (ph), Charles Hutton (ph), to name only some of the earlier ones. EC: Article on county seat fight. Well, one of the earliest and perhaps most important political contests in which Bristow was involved related to the location of the county seat. Beginning before statehood and then issued for many years, Sapulpa and Bristow contended for the advantage of being the county seat. Bristow lost the first fight in 1902, and Sapulpa was made a court town of the western judicial district of Indian territory, and Bristow was able to get only an occasional commissioners court. The second step in the contest favoring Sapulpa came with the passage of the Indian Appropriation Act in 1906 that named Tulsa and Sapulpa as court towns. The enabling act of the same year provided for the creation of districts to allow delegates to a constitutional convention. Sapulap democrats supported T. L. Ingram (ph) as their candidate to delegate, while Bristow supported W. W. Banks (ph). The [Indecipherable] was held in Bristow' ; s opera house, resulting in the Sapulpa democrats bolting and supporting the labor convention candidate, the same T. L. Ingram. Before the bolt occurred, Lawrence Davis (ph), a Bristow attorney, made a speech asking for fair procedures. For his efforts, he was later burned in [Indecipherable] and accused of double crossing Bristow. Others who ventured to support Sapulpa were led to the city limits and told not to reenter Bristow. One local citizen remembers seeing such an individual literally being run out of town on horseback. When the democrats divided, J. H. M. Cobb, the republican candidate from Sapulpa was elected at the polls in November. Even so, Bristow still expected the county seat, and the local newspaper reported this fact in December of 1906. At the convention in Guthrie, however, Cobb supported governor William A. Murrays (ph) rush to get an entire map [Indecipherable], even though it showed Bristow as the county seat. Subsequently, Murray apparently made the change to Sapulpa as a member of the County Boundary Committee. There' ; s still one more vote took place at the constitutional convention, Bristow again lost to Sapulpa. At the same time, the designation of creek county was [Indecipherable] instead of [Indecipherable]. As it originally was called at the Momen Cruet (ph), an Oklahoma City Attorney. After ratification of the constitution, Bristow, by petition, sought an election to determine the county seat. It was called for August the 12th, 1908 ; arguing vote for the center C. B. Rockwood (ph) and George McMillan (ph) led the Bristow campaign. With J. A. Boyed (ph) and L. B. Jackson (ph) as Sapulpa leading spokesmen. A rather quiet election day showed Sapulpa as the winner, bur Bristow alleged gross irregularities in voting that Sapulpa and Kiefer and filed [Indecipherable] in the supreme court. Allegations of intimidation, women dressing as men to vote, and the bind if votes with liquor were also included. Though Bristow maintained its hope through months of litigation, in June 1912, the courts simply ordered a new election, and again Sapulpa was victorious, and again Bristow filed suit alleging voting irregularities. On August the 1st, 1913, the Sapulpa Light published news of their final victory, not one word about the court' ; s decision was printed in the Bristow records. Efforts to form a new county called Oil County failed as did a petition to be part of Shafer county, which Cushing residents tried to create. Seven years of election and court battles have ended, but the oil well lasted for a short time and became part of the legends involved in Bristow. EC: Article on Crazy Snake. One of the most often mentioned with little remembered events in early Bristow history is the Crazy Snake Rebellion. As late as 1901, there were still some creek Indians who disliked the events of civilization, and refused to accept the allotments of land by the Daws commission. One group of these [Indecipherable] banded together under the leadership of General Harjo, otherwise known as Chief Crazy Snake. One day in 1901, Thomas Tiger (ph), dressed in war paint, rode into town, posted notices and delivered personal letters to several residents, saying the snakes were on the war path and intended to destroy Bristow unless everyone left. The population received the news with will alarm ; women and children were hidden in churches and in cellars while some 200 men armed themselves and guarded the town. The committee of townspeople asked Jesse Allen (ph) to aid them. Allen was a quarter blood Yuchi Indian who had served as deputy U. S. Marshall, and had married into a creek family. Allen, along with a companion, met Crazy Snake outside town, said a few words to him in Creek and Crazy Snake turned back. Allen' ; s children states that their father had never revealed what he had said to Crazy Snake. Whether it was because of this exchange or because of other pressures, or perhaps because no real attack was intended, peace was restored. The Snakes were arbitrarily assigned lands by the government, some of it not too desirable, but ironically later proven to be oil producing. Whatever the true seriousness of the situation, the consternation in Bristow was honest. One resident, Joe Eaves (ph), a blacksmith, made himself a bulletproof vest, which was later used as a weight to close his gate, and as a reminder of the Crazy Snake Rebellion. EC: General Article on Bristow' ; s History. All too often, students at any level of history think of the subject matter as only a collection of names and dates. That' ; s often true, I' ; ve discovered, with people in Bristow, who say they really do not remember much that is important. While it is true that names and dates are a necessary part of history, stories of unimportant incidents provide the flesh for the otherwise bare bones. It is interesting to read, for instance, that in 1898, a traveling cord was set up by U. S. Marshall Leo Bennett (ph) to travel along the railroad in Indian Territory. That cord in Bristow, only a shack and tent town at the time, caused what was called a general exodus of gamblers, bootleggers, and different riffraff reside on the north of shack town, as it approached from the south. Memories of watching boys blowing glass at the glass factory, [Indecipherable] with two shows a day, professional wrestling, or bartering a gallon of whiskey for a new tire, a fourth of July picnic at Coles park, a circus parade, these are all useful. Certainly longtime residents want to keep alive the knowledge of their state championship football team, or a prize winning band, or any other such victory. While some might disapprove, a story about a local resident dispensing his Christmas cheer from a bag under the backseat of his car, or an accountable local boarding house owner parading their new tenants around main street, adds an extra ingredient to history. A surprised witness to a bank robbery asked me if he can take his hands down, and being told that no one told him to put them up in the first place, adds a humorous touch to an otherwise serious event. An accountable red flag being attached to a water tower so the traveling oilmen could find their way home when the roads were nonexistent. Tell something about the oil business only the participants remember. Clearly then, many people hearing this may have something to add to the collection of information about Bristow. Please contact the chamber of commerce office and dig out those old photographs for reproduction and for preservation. EC: Article on earliest Bristow. You might think the easiest thing about writing a history of Bristow would be finding out when and by who is was founded, this is just not so. One source reports that Bristow started as a trading post in 1897, with actual buildings begun in 1898. An article in the chronicles of Oklahoman refers to the founding of Bristow in April 25, 1898, while the Daily Oklahoman says Bristow was founded on January 16,1899. According to the Tulsa World, it was officially a town in 1902. There is general agreement that the town was founded by Charles O. Crane (ph), who was the first postmaster and named the town. But the Tulsa World credits J. C. W. Bland (ph) and John Egan (ph) as being the founders. It also seems clear that Charles L. Wood (ph) did survey the town site in 1901. The site was approved by the interior department in December of 1902. Obviously there is still room for debate over who founded Bristow and when ; I received excellent cooperation from people that I have contacted and have a committee that is still taking some interviews, but there have not been as many photographs, or scrapbooks, or diaries turn up as I would like. People should realize that we are trying to collect all these materials and place them in the Bristow Library for safe keeping. Also, if the owners want to hold on to such items, we will just copy them. Anyone who has anything of possible interest is urged to contact me at the Bristow Chamber of Commerce office. One thing I have had plenty of are names of people who ought to be interviewed ; what I need most are photographs. A few ideas of subjects that are still of interest would be the location and history of a place, such as the Two Bob Saloon, or particularly information about the oil period. Strangely enough, no photographs of the oil industry have turned up in spite of all the vivid memories that people have. There are a lot of other things about Bristow that are going to be forgotten or lost, unless a real community effort is made to collect, preserve, and house the information while people still remember it. The involvement of a lot of people is really needed. EC: Bristow Church History. Though many residents in Bristow have shown pride in their churches, there is a shortage of accurate information about them. One type of written history the Catholic church has been acquired, along with short written histories of several of the other churches. Apparently, the Methodists were the first to hold services in Bristow, at the home of A. R. Bokle (ph). The subsequently, in 1900, met in a frame building located in seventh in chestnut. In 1905, under the leadership of S. H. Johnson (ph) and his son, construction was begun on a new building on tenth and main ; for some reason, work was moved to seventh and chestnut. At this point, there is some confusion ; the cornerstone for a new church was laid in 1900, but apparently the frame building was used until 1917 and sold to the Church of Christ and moved to sixth and walnut. The disciples held their first service in 1899, with F. A. Roberts (ph) as minister. They seemed to have completed their building before the Methodist church was completed ; their present building was erected in 1920. The Baptists organized a church in January of 1902, meeting for a time in a school building. By 1903, a white framed church building was erected, with parsonage added in 1909. In 1920, plans were made to build at sixth and chestnut, with a cornerstone of the new building laid in November 1921. The [Indecipherable] erected a building in 1905in seventh and elm after meeting for a time in the Methodist church under the rectorship of B. T. Benskid (ph). The Presbyterians organized at the [Indecipherable] in1917, and their first pastor was installed S. L. Grigsby (ph) the following year ; they began a building at sixth and elm in 1921. Members of the Church of God began their meeting in Bristow in the home of Reverend Gregory (ph), and later rented a hall in main street ; they purchased lots on Walnut between third and fourth in 1915 to begin their church. A Christian Science society was organized here in 1928, meeting in homes and rented rooms until they finally rented the [Indecipherable] church in 1933, the building they bought in 1946. The first Catholic mass in Bristow was probably said in the Canterbury home in 1909, but one source suggests that the first service held was in 1902. Later, Catholics met at various places, including the masonic temple and the [Indecipherable] church before building at sixth and elm around 1919 ; the building was moved to eighth and elm at about 1924. Until the newspaper files are worked, or until information is compiled by the various churches themselves, a lot of important information about the religious life in Bristow will be lost. It' ; s also surprising that photographs of old church buildings have not surfaced. Each church in Bristow would be glad at some future date if written history was compiled now while there' ; s still members around who can provide information. EC: Repeat of a spot announcement to be used during the week of August 5th ; This is Ed Cadenhead, history professor at the University of Tulsa. I am in Bristow this summer under a grant from the Oklahoma Humanities Committee and the National Endowment for the Humanities, collecting information on the history of Bristow. If you have information, photographs, or scrapbooks, please call or come by the chamber of commerce office. Anything you wish returned will be, otherwise material collected will be preserved in the Bristow Library. EC: Repeat of a spot announcement for use the week of August 12th ; This is Ed Cadenhead, history professor at the University of Tulsa. On Saturday, August 18th, at 12:45 at the national guard armory, I will be presenting a slide talk on the history of Bristow, prepared under a grant from the Oklahoma Humanities Committee and the national endowment for the humanities. You are all invited, the talk will be presented at 12 noon by a potluck lunch as part of Western Heritage Days. Hope to see you there. audio 0 https://bristoworalhistory.org/ohms/viewer.php?cachefile=OHP-0028-01_Cadenhead_Ed.xml OHP-0028-01_Cadenhead_Ed.xml
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Ed Cadenhead
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The following programs were composed by Dr. Ed Cadenhead, a History professor at Tulsa University. He discusses many different aspects of Bristow, including the oil boom, Chief Crazy Snake Rebellion, and the founding of Bristow.
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1979-08
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Family Histories
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Jack Carman
Reba Carman
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5.4 June 7, 1979 OHP-0040A Jack Carman OHP-0040A 0:00-25:30, 25:33-35:25 Bristow Historical Society - Oral History Archive Bristow Historical Society, Inc. Jack Carman Reba Carman Ed Cadenhead 1:|9(2)|25(2)|40(3)|50(5)|68(2)|85(5)|97(10)|111(3)|129(2)|144(1)|154(7)|165(12)|188(2)|209(12)|228(8)|249(8)|266(5)|284(10)|292(2)|303(5)|310(13)|326(12)|342(13)|354(14)|367(5)|380(1)|399(13)|411(3)|435(4)|467(8)|476(7)|492(3)|503(9)|514(10) 0 https://bristoworalhistory.org/interviews/OHP-0040A Carman, Jack.mp3 Other audio 4 Family history of Jack Carman EC: This is an interview with Jack Carman, June 7, 1979. Why don’t we start with just you. Tell me where your folks came from? What you know about why they came if you do, anything like that. JC: Well, my folks came from Billings, Missouri out of Springfield, Missouri a little ways. And my dad used to buy cattle in the early day and down in Indian Territory and took [indecipherable] train back to St. Louis, and he got acquainted in this country. Finally, he moved down, moved his family down. He had five children, and [inaudible]. Yeah, he just had one child then, and the rest of us was born here in Bristow. Family history of Jack Carman including their move from Billings, Missouri Billings Oil Company ; Billings, Missouri ; buying land ; cattle business ; oil boom ; Springfield, Missouri ; trading with Indians 121 Childhood memories in Bristow EC: Well, when were you born? JC: 1905. EC: Alright, what were some of your early memories about your childhood? Anything special, you know? What do you remember about Bristow and what life was like, what you did? JC: My dad had a Model T Ford Agency here in Bristow during the boom, and I wasn’t but about 12 or 13 when I learned how to drive one of those Model T’s pretty early in life. Every time we sold one to a farmer, why I’d have to teach them how to drive. They never had driven before or hardly ridden in a car. That was quite an experience for me. Childhood memories in Bristow including working at Model T Ford Agency date of birth ; driving ; Model T ; Model T Ford Agency Childhood memories in Bristow 170 Attending School EC: You went to school here? JC: Yeah, and graduated and went to OU, and graduated there, and coached a couple of years. I decided I didn’t want anymore of that, so I came home and started farming and bull dozing and a little bit of everything. EC: What were the schools like when you went to school in Bristow? Attending school in Bristow and college at OU bull dozing ; farming ; Mr. Hutton ; OU ; sliding on railing ; superintendent ; two-story school Attending School 260 Oil Boom EC: You mentioned the oil boom. When you think of the boom, what years do you mean? JC: Well, I don’t know exactly but it was about ’23 or something. EC: Right. JC: That’s way back there, and I was, I was born in 1905. But they had two or three after that and that was the first one anyway. EC: What do you remember about the town of Bristow as the boom hit? Do you remember any changes? JC: Yeah. We used to have dirt streets, mostly, I think, when the boom hit. I remember there was dirt streets and they had wooden sidewalks, they followed along in front of the stores and buildings. And if you was pretty heavy and you could step on the outside of one of those boards was about four foot wide in front of the building, while then the other ones would fly up. EC: Well, do you remember the cotton days and all the wagons in the street? JC: Yeah, gosh yeah. We had a lot of fun playing on the wagons that came in town. What the town of Bristow was like during the oil boom 1923 ; born 1905 ; cotton days ; dirt streets ; oil boom ; wagons ; wooden sidewalks 338 Jobs in School EC: Did you have any jobs that, oh in high school or as a teenager? Did you work around town at all? JC: Yeah, I worked plenty but it was for my dad. EC: In the Ford Agency, mainly? JC: Well, I was just kind of a small kid, and when they’d get a car load of Model T’s in the train, why they had the body off of them and the chassis, you know, all in the same box car. My job was to put the body on the chassis and bolt it down, so they would go together. He worked for his dad at the Ford Agency putting cars together and teaching farmers how to drive driving ; Ford Agency ; jobs ; Model T Jobs in School 410 Jobs after College EC: After you got out of college, what kind of business did you go into? JC: Well, like I say, I coached two years over at Poteau. That was the start of the depression. We got married that year and graduated. Let’s see what else did I [inaudible], huh? Yeah, had my first new car. I was really on top until I found I didn’t like coaching too well. Jobs after college including coaching at Poteau for two years coaching ; new car ; Poteau ; The Depression 438 Memories from Youth EC: Did you, when you were a child, what kind of things did kids do? Horseback riding or what was the fun part of life when you were a kid? JC: That’s a hard question. [inaudible] EC: Any of them pranks? JC: Oh yeah. Had one past time of Halloween, you know we all had outhouses, and at night we’d shove ‘em over. Then they modernized those out houses, you know, and put water system in them in the outhouse and it was a little harder to push over then with plumbing in there. Memories from youth including pranks and 4th of July picnics 4th of July ; fireworks ; ice cream ; outhouses ; picnics ; pranks 524 Events During the Oil Boom EC: Did Bristow seem crowded to you during the oil boom? JC: Yeah, it was crowded. There was about twenty-five to thirty thousand people here compared with five or six they got now, counting the cotton wagon [indecipherable]. EC: Was it a typical oil town in the sense that there was fights and gambling or whatever? JC: Yeah, money changed hands pretty freely, and fortunes were made and lost over night or gambling, you know. EC: There’s a former marshal I have only heard about, Uncle Billy? JC: Billy Freshour. The population of Bristow grew during the oil boom which made for gambling and fights and the need for US Marshal, Billy Freshour. Billy Freshour ; cotton wagon ; gambling ; jail ; Paul Jones ; population ; The Depression ; US Marshal ; Well's Grocery Events During the Oil Boom 715 Politics in Bristow EC: Were you ever involved in politics in Bristow? JC: Yeah, I run for County Commissioner once and that’s [indecipherable] from now on. EC: Who were some of the people who were involved in politics? Were there two sides? Was there democrats versus republicans or were there factions in town? How would you describe the politics in Bristow? JC: Well, [inaudible] I never did take part. Yeah, my dad was a republican, of course, I was, too, and all us kids. I never forget my dad never did take much part in politics, but my mother and brother did, my older brother. He got beat, too. Jack ran for County Commissioner and Mark Schrader was mayor county commissioner ; politics ; republican ; town leaders ; WWII 837 Notable Events in Bristow JC: On harvest day, you know, everybody got their guns up shooting, you know, celebrating. Somebody accidently shot the rope from the flag pole, and they thought there was a traitor there in the crowd shooting the flag down. EC: Well, had there been any, particularly, oh, amusing things that have happened in Bristow over the years or exciting things that you happened to see? Were you involved in any of those bank robberies or anything like that? Notable events in Bristow including harvest day, bank robberies and race relations bank robberies ; harvest day ; Ku Klux Klan ; race relations ; riot ; Tulsa 966 Indian Relations and Moonshine EC: How do you feel that the relationship between Indians and whites has been? JC: We hadn’t had any trouble there. They weren’t very [indecipherable] but they did get along and didn’t get in much trouble. They liked liquor like all other Indians. EC: Where did the liquor come from in Bristow? JC: Huh? EC: Where did the liquor come from in Bristow? JC: Oh, moonshine mostly. Made it out in the country. Once instance when I was out on the farm, this fellow came up and said, “Say you making whiskey over on the back side of your place?” I said, “Hell no!” He said, “Well, you got a still running over there.” And I said, “Well, hell, let’s go over there and look at it.” Indian relations and a moonshine still on Jack's property Indians ; liquor ; moonshine ; still Indian Relations and Moonshine 1045 Major Land Owners EC: Who were some of the major land owners around Bristow? JC: Oh, the Kelly’s has been some of the first. My dad, of course, was in that early. Used to, all you had to have was a bottle of liquor and a deed and you could buy land pretty cheap. And then the court had to approve all the Indian deals, of course. EC: Do you think there was a good bit of that done? JC: Yeah, there was some of it, but more and more crude work on the lease and all that. The oil business was trading land, you know. Major land owners included Jack's dad and the Kelly Family Indian land deals ; liquor ; The Kellys 1086 Building of Heyburn Lake EC: I know what I wanted to ask you about, this Lake Heyburn? JC: Who? EC: Lake Heyburn or Heyburn Lake out here? JC: Yeah, Heyburn Lake. EC: I judge there was some controversy about the building of that. JC: There was on my part. EC: Well, tell me about it. Tell me about it. I don’t know anything about the story. JC: Well, Brick Kirchner and I bid on the clearing of the lake, you know, getting the brush off of it. First job we ever had that large and that kind of a job. We started the clearing on it, a $120,000 job, and about three-fourths done [indecipherable] was good up to that date. Jack and Brick Kirchner worked to clear the land for Heyburn Lake just in time for floods to ruin their progress Brick Kirchner ; building Heyburn Lake ; floods ; Heyburn Lake ; lawsuit Building of Heyburn Lake 35.9526° N, 96.3027° W 17 Heyburn Lake https://corpslakes.erdc.dren.mil/visitors/projects.cfm?ID=M507500 Heyburn Lake 1198 Sports EC: I take it that sports were pretty big in Bristow in your high school days…sports, athletics? JC: Oh yeah, because the oil boom mostly. The men had the money and they wanted to bet on the team. They wanted Bristow to win, and if we had a weak spot on the team why the coach or somebody would hire this kid’s dad whose job was here and that he would be living in Bristow legal to play on the Bristow team. It was several pictures there of boys that had been moved in, you know, from [indecipherable]. We played for the state championship down in Oklahoma City against Norman. Sports and betting on sports was big during the oil boom in Bristow athletics ; betting ; cheating ; Norman ; oil boom ; Oklahoma City ; sports ; state championship 1307 Travel EC: You mentioned, speaking of trips, you mentioned earlier that you used to go to Colorado in the summers. Where did people from Bristow go for vacations? Colorado? JC: Well, yeah, Joe Abraham had a big family, and he did about like my dad. He’d go out there and rent one of those houses, you know. They had a big family, and dad would just lay around there and enjoy the cool nights and rest up. And us kids was kind of on our own. I sold newspapers and did a little guide. A whole lot of people wanted the kids to show them where just sight-seeing tour was. People often vacationed in Colorado and most of Jack's business connections were in OKC business connections ; cattle market ; Colorado ; Norman ; Oklahoma City ; Siloam Springs ; travel ; vacations business connections in OKC ; vacation to Colorado 1391 Buildings Around Town EC: Let me ask you, what are some of the houses or buildings still standing that you remember as being some of the oldest? JC: [Indecipherable] Grocery on west sixth street, Dr. Schrader (ph) had this kind of nice house right here next to the park. [Inaudible] EC: Okay, any others? Bill Cheatham (ph) house on 11th. JC: Joe Abraham had this large brick house on 8th Street that’s still standing. One of the daughters lives in it. EC: What about downtown? Are there any of the buildings that are the original old ones? Jack's dad built the first brick building and made the bricks for the building Bill Cheatham ; Community State Bank ; Dr. King ; Dr. Schrader ; first brick building ; first hospital ; Joe Abraham ; making bricks ; Mrs. Albert Kelly, Sr. ; Reba Carman Buildings Around Town ; First brick building ; First hospital 1571 Reba's Family EC: Tell me about your family. Who was your father and where did he come from? RC: My father came, my family came from Tennessee. And the day we landed in Bristow, I was six-months-old, and he had just graduated from medical school in Tennessee and had taken a trip out in Oklahoma, down in the southern part of the state, way down in the south part of the state to find a location. And he didn’t like what he had seen in the south and he started back home on the train and met a drug salesman. He told him that there was a little settlement, Newby, 10 miles south of Bristow here, that badly needed a doctor. So he went down and he liked it, so we went back to Tennessee and brought the family out. And we lived in Newby about four years. Reba's family came from Tennessee when she was six-months old where her dad, Dr. Wells settled their family in Newby Dr. Wells ; family ; Newby ; Tennessee Dr. Wells ; Reba's family 1639 Reba's Memories of Bristow EC: What are some of your memories of Bristow as a child? RC: Well, I can remember how rough it was during the oil boom. EC: Rough? How? RC: Well, women just couldn’t go out on the streets alone. We lived, at that time, over on East 7th Street, and right down there where Well’s Grocery Store is, was a livery stable. And on that main street, right across from where Johnny Roberts now lives, was the livery stable. And I remember how carefully we used to have to walk by there, because it was a pretty rough place. Women didn't go out at night alone during the oil boom because the streets were rough. Bristow felt small enough to feel close but large enough to have things like the Chautauqua and Billy Sunday in OKC. Billy Sunday ; Chautauqua ; flu epidemic ; oil boom ; The Depression ; WWI doing without during The Depression ; Rowdy times during the oil boom ; seeing Billy Sunday ; the Chautauqua visiting https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chautauqua Chautauqua 1816 Town Doctors & ; First Hospital EC: Now, your father was a doctor. I’ve heard some interesting stories about some of the doctors here in town. Do you have any… RC: Not my father. EC: No, no, but… RC: I can guarantee you that! [Inaudible] RC: Well, they’re the ones that ruled the town. EC: They ruled the town? RC: You’re right. The town and the politics of the town. Reba's dad, Dr. Wells, along with three other doctors, formed the Bristow Clinic & ; Hospital. Bristow Clinic & ; Hospital ; Bristow Memorial Hospital ; doctors ; Dr. Bisbee ; Dr. Hollis ; Dr. Wells ; Dr. Williams ; John Collins ; Mrs. Kelly ; politics Bristow Clinic & ; Hospital ; Bristow Memorial Hospital ; doctors were town leaders 1970 Church Involvement & ; Catholic Relations EC: Well, have there been any particularly exciting or amusing things in Bristow that I haven’t asked about that you remember? Things that happened to you or that you saw? RC: Um, I don’t think so. My mother and family were very much involved in the Methodist Church, and I have grown up in the churches and have been familiar with all of them here in Bristow and watched their growth and their organization. The first brick church, first church we had in Bristow was the First Christian Church and it was over on East 9th Street. And the little church that sits down here next to the new City Hall was one of the original. It’s been used by several different congregations. The Catholic used it. The Presbyterian used it. And the Christian Science have it now. Reba was very involved in the churches of Bristow, attending the Methodist Church, and recalls Catholic relations being good. The first brick church was the First Christian Church. Catholics ; church ; Ed Abraham ; first brick church ; First Christian Church ; Lebanese ; Methodist Church ; Syrians ; Useph Abraham attending the Methodist Church ; Catholic relations ; First Christian Church MP3 1979 interview with Jack Carman and his wife, Reba. Jack spoke on the oil boom, growing up around Bristow, working at his dad's Ford Agency and the depression. He also spoke on his part in building Heyburn Lake. Reba spoke about her childhood, moving to Newby where her dad practiced medicine, and, eventually, moving back to Bristow at the age of six. Her dad was a physician and integral part of medical care in Bristow, establishing the first Bristow Clinic and Hospital with three other physicians. She described growing up in Bristow and the Chautauqua coming through. She was also involved with the churches of Bristow, specifically the Methodist Church. EC: This is an interview with Jack Carman, June 7, 1979. Why don' ; t we start with just you. Tell me where your folks came from? What you know about why they came if you do, anything like that. JC: Well, my folks came from Billings, Missouri out of Springfield, Missouri a little ways. And my dad used to buy cattle in the early day and down in Indian Territory and took [indecipherable] train back to St. Louis, and he got acquainted in this country. Finally, he moved down, moved his family down. He had five children, and [inaudible]. Yeah, he just had one child then, and the rest of us was born here in Bristow. EC: I' ; ve noticed there were several people from Bristow who came, their families came from Billings, Missouri. Was there any connection that you know of? JC: Well, yeah, dad was the first one come down, and he got to trading with the Indians, you know, and got acquainted, and got to making a good bit of money was one reason in the cattle business, of course, and buying land. Then it wasn' ; t very long after that the oil boom came, and that' ; s when things did start happening. He had to organize his Billings Oil Company. There was so many people down here from Billings, and they sold stock in there, and I think they made a little money but not a whole lot on that. EC: Well, when were you born? JC: 1905. EC: Alright, what were some of your early memories about your childhood? Anything special, you know? What do you remember about Bristow and what life was like, what you did? JC: My dad had a Model T Ford Agency here in Bristow during the boom, and I wasn' ; t but about 12 or 13 when I learned how to drive one of those Model T' ; s pretty early in life. Every time we sold one to a farmer, why I' ; d have to teach them how to drive. They never had driven before or hardly ridden in a car. That was quite an experience for me. EC: You went to school here? JC: Yeah, and graduated and went to OU, and graduated there, and coached a couple of years. I decided I didn' ; t want anymore of that, so I came home and started farming and bull dozing and a little bit of everything. EC: What were the schools like when you went to school in Bristow? JC: Well, my dad and the superintendent were good friends, so that put me in a different category from the rest of them. But the school house that I went to school in had been torn down. That' ; s right across from the gymnasium now. It was a rock school. Several pictures of it around town here. Mr. Hutton (ph) was the superintendent then. It was two-story, and they had a nice slick railing, you know, from the first story to the bottom story and the street level. The bell would ring and we' ; d scoot on out while all us boys would slide down that railing. The superintendent didn' ; t like that very well, so he just drove some nails, two or three of them, into the railing just high enough that it would catch your britches, not your skin. That stopped the sliding. EC: You mentioned the oil boom. When you think of the boom, what years do you mean? JC: Well, I don' ; t know exactly but it was about ' ; 23 or something. EC: Right. JC: That' ; s way back there, and I was, I was born in 1905. But they had two or three after that and that was the first one anyway. EC: What do you remember about the town of Bristow as the boom hit? Do you remember any changes? JC: Yeah. We used to have dirt streets, mostly, I think, when the boom hit. I remember there was dirt streets and they had wooden sidewalks, they followed along in front of the stores and buildings. And if you was pretty heavy and you could step on the outside of one of those boards was about four foot wide in front of the building, while then the other ones would fly up. EC: Well, do you remember the cotton days and all the wagons in the street? JC: Yeah, gosh yeah. We had a lot of fun playing on the wagons that came in town. EC: Did you have any jobs that, oh in high school or as a teenager? Did you work around town at all? JC: Yeah, I worked plenty but it was for my dad. EC: In the Ford Agency, mainly? JC: Well, I was just kind of a small kid, and when they' ; d get a car load of Model T' ; s in the train, why they had the body off of them and the chassis, you know, all in the same box car. My job was to put the body on the chassis and bolt it down, so they would go together. Of course, I had two or three school kids that helped me. One day there was a farmer that brought a car in and said, Mr. Carman, seems like this seat is trying to get away from the chassis. Dad looked around a little on it and found out I didn' ; t put the body bolts in that connected. It was just sitting on there. And that was the last time I had any school kids to help me. I had to do it by myself. EC: After you got out of college, what kind of business did you go into? JC: Well, like I say, I coached two years over at Poteau. That was the start of the depression. We got married that year and graduated. Let' ; s see what else did I [inaudible], huh? Yeah, had my first new car. I was really on top until I found I didn' ; t like coaching too well. EC: Did you, when you were a child, what kind of things did kids do? Horseback riding or what was the fun part of life when you were a kid? JC: That' ; s a hard question. [inaudible] EC: Any of them pranks? JC: Oh yeah. Had one past time of Halloween, you know we all had outhouses, and at night we' ; d shove ' ; em over. Then they modernized those out houses, you know, and put water system in them in the outhouse and it was a little harder to push over then with plumbing in there. EC: Did you, do you remember the Fourth of July picnics? JC: Well, they had one every year, and I don' ; t know-- EC: Well, that' ; s what I mean, I just heard that was an annual affair, and I wondered what one was like. [inaudible] JC: Well, mostly what I can remember about it was they had a lot of banners, you know, and just a red, white and blue and flags like all decorated, band stand in front of the stores, setting off fire crackers and [inaudible]. Yeah, had a lot of times free ice cream. EC: Did Bristow seem crowded to you during the oil boom? JC: Yeah, it was crowded. There was about twenty-five to thirty thousand people here compared with five or six they got now, counting the cotton wagon [indecipherable]. EC: Was it a typical oil town in the sense that there was fights and gambling or whatever? JC: Yeah, money changed hands pretty freely, and fortunes were made and lost over night or gambling, you know. EC: There' ; s a former marshal I have only heard about, Uncle Billy? JC: Billy Freshour. EC: What can you tell me about him? JC: Well, he was short with a large stomach. He was daring, and I don' ; t think anybody was afraid of him, and he wasn' ; t afraid of anybody at all. Let' ; s see, he lived to be pretty old to be a sheriff. They had the jail down about where [inaudible]. What' ; s the damn grocery store down there? Well' ; s, yeah, it was down there in the Well' ; s corner of the Well' ; s grocery store down there. They finally got a new enough courthouse. EC: You were about to tell the story about the jail, I think. JC: Oh well, an instance in junior high or high school it was. Let' ; s see, how' ; d that go? Oh, after school were shooting craps up in the gym, you know. One fellow, Paul Jones, went out to the police station, and he swept the police station out. They made it up against us that the law was to come up there and arrest us for shooting craps, you know. So, two or three laws came up and took us down and put us in the jail. Policeman said, " ; Now you want to turn this joke around while you just tell them that you found out that Paul Jones is the one that turned you in, you see." ; We did, and we didn' ; t see Paul, you know, for a day or two because he was hiding out. EC: When the depression came, what evidences of it did you notice in Bristow? JC: That was 1930 when I got out of college. That' ; s when I found out. I got married. I had a car and all that I found out where all this money was coming from. People just didn' ; t have fans. Didn' ; t have a lot of things. The oil boom, of course, helped out on that deal. EC: Were you ever involved in politics in Bristow? JC: Yeah, I run for County Commissioner once and that' ; s [indecipherable] from now on. EC: Who were some of the people who were involved in politics? Were there two sides? Was there democrats versus republicans or were there factions in town? How would you describe the politics in Bristow? JC: Well, [inaudible] I never did take part. Yeah, my dad was a republican, of course, I was, too, and all us kids. I never forget my dad never did take much part in politics, but my mother and brother did, my older brother. He got beat, too. EC: Who would you say ran the town in those days? JC: Who ran the town? EC: Who ran the town? JC: Oh, Mark Schrader (ph) was the mayor two or three times here, and he was [inaudible]. Who? Oh, Jimmy Weaver [inaudible]. EC: What about World War II? Any particular effects on Bristow that you recall? JC: Well, it didn' ; t affect me too much. I was too old for World War II, and I wasn' ; t old enough for WWI, so I came in between there. None of my family, luckily, didn' ; t have to go. Of course, I had my cows and I still kept [indecipherable]. [Inaudible] JC: On harvest day, you know, everybody got their guns up shooting, you know, celebrating. Somebody accidently shot the rope from the flag pole, and they thought there was a traitor there in the crowd shooting the flag down. EC: Well, had there been any, particularly, oh, amusing things that have happened in Bristow over the years or exciting things that you happened to see? Were you involved in any of those bank robberies or anything like that? JC: Well, I saw one bank robbery. I saw them come out shooting. I forgot what bank it was. I just happened be going down the street, you know, and I saw this old boy come out, and somebody had gotten up on the building across the street shooting at this bank robber. I saw where the brick, you know, shell went in the building into the brick. EC: When you think of Bristow, do you think of it now, this many years later, do you think of it mainly as a farming area, cattle raising or what? JC: Well, I had a little part in all of it, I think, pretty well, around the town. You can make a living if you work at it, you know. EC: You told a story earlier, the part about the Ku Klux Klan. Do you remember there being a Klan here in Bristow? JC: I don' ; t know if there was any here or not, but I remember reading, you know, all over the country about it and this and that. EC: How do you feel relationships between the races have been in Bristow? Have there been any problems? JC: No. I remember that one up in Tulsa. They had a big riot up there, you know. People from here went up there with guns. I remember that. [Inaudible] EC: How do you feel that the relationship between Indians and whites has been? JC: We hadn' ; t had any trouble there. They weren' ; t very [indecipherable] but they did get along and didn' ; t get in much trouble. They liked liquor like all other Indians. EC: Where did the liquor come from in Bristow? JC: Huh? EC: Where did the liquor come from in Bristow? JC: Oh, moonshine mostly. Made it out in the country. Once instance when I was out on the farm, this fellow came up and said, " ; Say you making whiskey over on the back side of your place?" ; I said, " ; Hell no!" ; He said, " ; Well, you got a still running over there." ; And I said, " ; Well, hell, let' ; s go over there and look at it." ; And there was one over on the back side, wasn' ; t but about a mile from where I lived. There was an old copper boiler and actually with fire under it right in operation, you know. It had two or three fifty-gallon barrels, wooden barrels, sitting around. Of course, nobody was there that heard us coming up, I guess. [indecipherable] didn' ; t have a chance to move his still. I took a team. I had a team wagon those days and took it over there I hauled the mash home and fed it to the hogs. I had the copper to sell. I had a little spring over there. That' ; s how come they [indecipherable] how it got there or whose it was. EC: Who were some of the major land owners around Bristow? JC: Oh, the Kelly' ; s has been some of the first. My dad, of course, was in that early. Used to, all you had to have was a bottle of liquor and a deed and you could buy land pretty cheap. And then the court had to approve all the Indian deals, of course. EC: Do you think there was a good bit of that done? JC: Yeah, there was some of it, but more and more crude work on the lease and all that. The oil business was trading land, you know. EC: I know what I wanted to ask you about, this Lake Heyburn? JC: Who? EC: Lake Heyburn or Heyburn Lake out here? JC: Yeah, Heyburn Lake. EC: I judge there was some controversy about the building of that. JC: There was on my part. EC: Well, tell me about it. Tell me about it. I don' ; t know anything about the story. JC: Well, Brick Kirchner and I bid on the clearing of the lake, you know, getting the brush off of it. First job we ever had that large and that kind of a job. We started the clearing on it, a $120,000 job, and about three-fourths done [indecipherable] was good up to that date. A big flood came and washed all a lot of trees down in what he had already cleaned up. The government made us go back and clean what we had cleaned up, [indecipherable] and we figured it was acts of God, and we wasn' ; t liable for it, you know, getting all the flood water down on that. It liked to washed the Heyburn Dam out anyway. But we sued the government, but we didn' ; t do any good. Just about broke even on the deal, so that was lucky. EC: I take it that sports were pretty big in Bristow in your high school days--sports, athletics? JC: Oh yeah, because the oil boom mostly. The men had the money and they wanted to bet on the team. They wanted Bristow to win, and if we had a weak spot on the team why the coach or somebody would hire this kid' ; s dad whose job was here and that he would be living in Bristow legal to play on the Bristow team. It was several pictures there of boys that had been moved in, you know, from [indecipherable]. We played for the state championship down in Oklahoma City against Norman. We had a special train left at Bristow and went to the city with four or five cars on it. I wasn' ; t on it but they said that was pretty rough. Plenty of liquor and drinking going on. Had five cars [indecipherable]. Norman football game, we lost. Come to find out the referees did have money on the game. One instance [indecipherable] ran out, trained to run out of bounds. The umpire overruled that. Then they said, well, he was a holding back up the way of somebody at Bristow. EC: You mentioned, speaking of trips, you mentioned earlier that you used to go to Colorado in the summers. Where did people from Bristow go for vacations? Colorado? JC: Well, yeah, Joe Abraham had a big family, and he did about like my dad. He' ; d go out there and rent one of those houses, you know. They had a big family, and dad would just lay around there and enjoy the cool nights and rest up. And us kids was kind of on our own. I sold newspapers and did a little guide. A whole lot of people wanted the kids to show them where just sight-seeing tour was. EC: Did you go to Siloam Springs at all? JC: Just drove over there for the weekend or day. EC: Were your business connections in Bristow through Tulsa or through Oklahoma City or Kansas City or where? JC: Mostly Oklahoma City. Sold cattle down on the Oklahoma City market, and I borrowed my money for school [indecipherable] and went to school at Norman, so that put me down in Oklahoma City more than it would have Tulsa. EC: Let me ask you, what are some of the houses or buildings still standing that you remember as being some of the oldest? JC: [Indecipherable] Grocery on west sixth street, Dr. Schrader (ph) had this kind of nice house right here next to the park. [Inaudible] EC: Okay, any others? Bill Cheatham (ph) house on 11th. JC: Joe Abraham had this large brick house on 8th Street that' ; s still standing. One of the daughters lives in it. EC: What about downtown? Are there any of the buildings that are the original old ones? JC: Yeah, there' ; s a lot of them. Of course, a lot of them burned and a lot of them tore down. My dad had the first brick building in Bristow. He met the brick guy here on east 8th Street, there was a little creek out there had water and right kind of sand or brick material. They had an old mule or something like, you know, squeezing sorghum. They put this mixture in his box and the mule would turn it to mix the mortar to make brick with. And they had mold where they made it. Then they had a fire they call it, you know, to heat them to make the brick where they' ; d stand up to weather. He made the brick for this first brick building in Bristow. When they tore it down about two or three years ago, I saved a lot of the brick out of it. Some of the brick. Deteriorating the brick and, then I forget who owned it then, plastered it, plastered over it. Then that got to deteriorating, so they put a new brick wall on the outside of it and all that' ; s old was still in there. Then when they opened the Community State Bank (ph) [indecipherable]. Then when they decided to build the new Community State Bank (ph), they had to tear all the inside brick out of it, as well as, the new outside. EC: This is Mrs. Jack Carman (RC) RC: The first hospital that I ever remember is down here on North Main, next door north of the Masonic Temple. It' ; s still standing. It' ; s an apartment house now. And Mrs. Albert Kelly, Sr. had charge of it. That was before she married Mr. Kelly. Of course, the doctors all had offices upstairs downtown in the building over the stores downtown. My father had an office in the same building as Dr. King and Dr. Schrader. EC: Tell me about your family. Who was your father and where did he come from? RC: My father came, my family came from Tennessee. And the day we landed in Bristow, I was six-months-old, and he had just graduated from medical school in Tennessee and had taken a trip out in Oklahoma, down in the southern part of the state, way down in the south part of the state to find a location. And he didn' ; t like what he had seen in the south and he started back home on the train and met a drug salesman. He told him that there was a little settlement, Newby, 10 miles south of Bristow here, that badly needed a doctor. So he went down and he liked it, so we went back to Tennessee and brought the family out. And we lived in Newby about four years. [Inaudible] RC: Oh, yes, drove a horse and buggy. Then we came to Bristow before I was six-years-old, and we' ; ve been here ever since. EC: What are some of your memories of Bristow as a child? RC: Well, I can remember how rough it was during the oil boom. EC: Rough? How? RC: Well, women just couldn' ; t go out on the streets alone. We lived, at that time, over on East 7th Street, and right down there where Well' ; s Grocery Store is, was a livery stable. And on that main street, right across from where Johnny Roberts now lives, was the livery stable. And I remember how carefully we used to have to walk by there, because it was a pretty rough place. It was a dirty place, of course. But women didn' ; t go out at night without someone being with them, because it was pretty rough. I can remember the terrible flu epidemic we had during WWI, how my father worked night and day, and how we would beg him to stop. But, no, he was needed. But that was a terrible time. I can remember that. That flu epidemic was [indecipherable]. EC: What other things stick in your mind about growing up in Bristow? RC: Well, I think it' ; s been a marvelous place. It' ; s been just small enough that it was close. And, big enough, we had Chautauqua. Do you remember the Chautauqua and the [indecipherable] courses? We had those in the summer time, and they were up here this, back where the library stands now, along in there. You remember that, Jack? The Chautauqua? And we were close enough even to Tulsa and Oklahoma City, anything big that went on, we would take the train and go to the city [indecipherable]. And when Billy Sunday was in Oklahoma City, the big evangelist, why we all went down to hear Billy Sunday. But I think it' ; s been a fine place. [Inaudible] EC: What, thinking of the Chautauqua, did they have the tent? RC: Oh yeah, great big tent and chairs and everybody just smothering to death and fanning like mad. EC: Do you remember any of the people that came through? RC: No, off hand, I don' ; t. No, I really don' ; t. EC: That would have been about what years? RC: Oh, that would have been in, in the early 20s or late eighteen, nineteen, somewhere along in there. EC: Do you have any memories of the depression that stick in your mind? RC: Well, no. We were married, and of course, had three little tiny kids, so that was depression enough, you know. Just the usual things. Nothing in particular. We just didn' ; t buy anything we didn' ; t HAVE to have. EC: Now, your father was a doctor. I' ; ve heard some interesting stories about some of the doctors here in town. Do you have any-- RC: Not my father. EC: No, no, but-- RC: I can guarantee you that! [Inaudible] RC: Well, they' ; re the ones that ruled the town. EC: They ruled the town? RC: You' ; re right. The town and the politics of the town. EC: They did? EC: About how many doctors were there in those days? RC: Well, I remember from the enterprise, oh, we had nine or ten [indecipherable]. EC: And the hospital that Mrs. Kelly, did she run it? RC: Yes. Uh huh. EC: Who actually started it? Do you know? RC: No, I don' ; t recall who actually started it. That' ; s my first recollection of it is that she was running the hospital, and my father being a doctor, I expect that' ; s the only reason I remember that part of it. And it was there, then, until my father and Dr. Hollis and Dr. Bisbee and Dr. Williams organized a clinic, and went into the building, now occupied by Schumacher Funeral Home, and it was called the Bristow Clinic. And they were there several years. Then they built, just across the street, east of the American Legion Hut. They built the Bristow Clinic and Hospital was the new first new hospital they ever had. And they ran that for, well, I don' ; t know many years. It was the Bristow Clinic and Hospital. And then Bristow began to get bigger and the need was there for more hospitalizations and better care, a graduate nurse, for instance, and things like that. So then, John Collins was really instrumental. EC: Who? RC: John Collins in starting, as I recall, the movement for the hospital out here, Bristow Memorial Hospital. But the need was there, definitely. And my father and the three partners dissolved up in years and sold out to the sister and Todd (ph) [indecipherable] from Tulsa. Dr. [indecipherable] sister is still in Tulsa, as well as, one of the young boys. [Inaudible] EC: Well, have there been any particularly exciting or amusing things in Bristow that I haven' ; t asked about that you remember? Things that happened to you or that you saw? RC: Um, I don' ; t think so. My mother and family were very much involved in the Methodist Church, and I have grown up in the churches and have been familiar with all of them here in Bristow and watched their growth and their organization. The first brick church, first church we had in Bristow was the First Christian Church and it was over on East 9th Street. And the little church that sits down here next to the new City Hall was one of the original. It' ; s been used by several different congregations. The Catholic used it. The Presbyterian used it. And the Christian Science have it now. EC: Have you been aware of any anti-Catholic feelings in Bristow in your life here? RC: I don' ; t think so, particularly, there has been some, I think. As I can recall, now I' ; m not saying it' ; s true, but as I recall, most of the Catholic people were the, what we call Syrians then, but they call themselves Lebanese now, came into Bristow, Cejul (ph) and Ed and Useph Abraham, the three brothers came to Bristow. And, of course, they were all Catholic. I believe that' ; s my first memory of that, and then, of course, as other people moved in, people from back east in the oil [indecipherable] so it changed from being predominantly foreign-born people to more like it is today. EC: Had there been any major controversies in Bristow that you remember? Things like arguments over whether to, oh, pave the streets or whether to build the new City Hall? Or has there been anything that' ; s really controversial? RC: I don' ; t think of anything, really. I think we' ; ve done pretty well through the years without any big fights over anything. Do you remember anything? EC: This is an interview with Jack Carman, June 7, 1979. Why don't we start with just you. Tell me where your folks came from? What you know about why they came if you do, anything like that. JC: Well, my folks came from Billings, Missouri out of Springfield, Missouri a little ways. And my dad used to buy cattle in the early day and down in Indian Territory and took [indecipherable] train back to St. Louis, and he got acquainted in this country. Finally, he moved down, moved his family down. He had five children, and [inaudible]. Yeah, he just had one child then, and the rest of us was born here in Bristow. EC: I've noticed there were several people from Bristow who came, their families came from Billings, Missouri. Was there any connection that you know of? JC: Well, yeah, dad was the first one come down, and he got to trading with the Indians, you know, and got acquainted, and got to making a good bit of money was one reason in the cattle business, of course, and buying land. Then it wasn't very long after that the oil boom came, and that's when things did start happening. He had to organize his Billings Oil Company. There was so many people down here from Billings, and they sold stock in there, and I think they made a little money but not a whole lot on that. EC: Well, when were you born? JC: 1905. EC: Alright, what were some of your early memories about your childhood? Anything special, you know? What do you remember about Bristow and what life was like, what you did? JC: My dad had a Model T Ford Agency here in Bristow during the boom, and I wasn't but about 12 or 13 when I learned how to drive one of those Model T's pretty early in life. Every time we sold one to a farmer, why I'd have to teach them how to drive. They never had driven before or hardly ridden in a car. That was quite an experience for me. EC: You went to school here? JC: Yeah, and graduated and went to OU, and graduated there, and coached a couple of years. I decided I didn't want anymore of that, so I came home and started farming and bull dozing and a little bit of everything. EC: What were the schools like when you went to school in Bristow? JC: Well, my dad and the superintendent were good friends, so that put me in a different category from the rest of them. But the school house that I went to school in had been torn down. That's right across from the gymnasium now. It was a rock school. Several pictures of it around town here. Mr. Hutton (ph) was the superintendent then. It was two-story, and they had a nice slick railing, you know, from the first story to the bottom story and the street level. The bell would ring and we'd scoot on out while all us boys would slide down that railing. The superintendent didn't like that very well, so he just drove some nails, two or three of them, into the railing just high enough that it would catch your britches, not your skin. That stopped the sliding. EC: You mentioned the oil boom. When you think of the boom, what years do you mean? JC: Well, I don't know exactly but it was about '23 or something. EC: Right. JC: That's way back there, and I was, I was born in 1905. But they had two or three after that and that was the first one anyway. EC: What do you remember about the town of Bristow as the boom hit? Do you remember any changes? JC: Yeah. We used to have dirt streets, mostly, I think, when the boom hit. I remember there was dirt streets and they had wooden sidewalks, they followed along in front of the stores and buildings. And if you was pretty heavy and you could step on the outside of one of those boards was about four foot wide in front of the building, while then the other ones would fly up. EC: Well, do you remember the cotton days and all the wagons in the street? JC: Yeah, gosh yeah. We had a lot of fun playing on the wagons that came in town. EC: Did you have any jobs that, oh in high school or as a teenager? Did you work around town at all? JC: Yeah, I worked plenty but it was for my dad. EC: In the Ford Agency, mainly? JC: Well, I was just kind of a small kid, and when they'd get a car load of Model T's in the train, why they had the body off of them and the chassis, you know, all in the same box car. My job was to put the body on the chassis and bolt it down, so they would go together. Of course, I had two or three school kids that helped me. One day there was a farmer that brought a car in and said, Mr. Carman, seems like this seat is trying to get away from the chassis. Dad looked around a little on it and found out I didn't put the body bolts in that connected. It was just sitting on there. And that was the last time I had any school kids to help me. I had to do it by myself. EC: After you got out of college, what kind of business did you go into? JC: Well, like I say, I coached two years over at Poteau. That was the start of the depression. We got married that year and graduated. Let's see what else did I [inaudible], huh? Yeah, had my first new car. I was really on top until I found I didn't like coaching too well. EC: Did you, when you were a child, what kind of things did kids do? Horseback riding or what was the fun part of life when you were a kid? JC: That's a hard question. [inaudible] EC: Any of them pranks? JC: Oh yeah. Had one past time of Halloween, you know we all had outhouses, and at night we'd shove 'em over. Then they modernized those out houses, you know, and put water system in them in the outhouse and it was a little harder to push over then with plumbing in there. EC: Did you, do you remember the Fourth of July picnics? JC: Well, they had one every year, and I don't know-- EC: Well, that's what I mean, I just heard that was an annual affair, and I wondered what one was like. [inaudible] JC: Well, mostly what I can remember about it was they had a lot of banners, you know, and just a red, white and blue and flags like all decorated, band stand in front of the stores, setting off fire crackers and [inaudible]. Yeah, had a lot of times free ice cream. EC: Did Bristow seem crowded to you during the oil boom? JC: Yeah, it was crowded. There was about twenty-five to thirty thousand people here compared with five or six they got now, counting the cotton wagon [indecipherable]. EC: Was it a typical oil town in the sense that there was fights and gambling or whatever? JC: Yeah, money changed hands pretty freely, and fortunes were made and lost over night or gambling, you know. EC: There's a former marshal I have only heard about, Uncle Billy? JC: Billy Freshour. EC: What can you tell me about him? JC: Well, he was short with a large stomach. He was daring, and I don't think anybody was afraid of him, and he wasn't afraid of anybody at all. Let's see, he lived to be pretty old to be a sheriff. They had the jail down about where [inaudible]. What's the damn grocery store down there? Well's, yeah, it was down there in the Well's corner of the Well's grocery store down there. They finally got a new enough courthouse. EC: You were about to tell the story about the jail, I think. JC: Oh well, an instance in junior high or high school it was. Let's see, how'd that go? Oh, after school were shooting craps up in the gym, you know. One fellow, Paul Jones, went out to the police station, and he swept the police station out. They made it up against us that the law was to come up there and arrest us for shooting craps, you know. So, two or three laws came up and took us down and put us in the jail. Policeman said, " ; Now you want to turn this joke around while you just tell them that you found out that Paul Jones is the one that turned you in, you see." ; We did, and we didn't see Paul, you know, for a day or two because he was hiding out. EC: When the depression came, what evidences of it did you notice in Bristow? JC: That was 1930 when I got out of college. That's when I found out. I got married. I had a car and all that I found out where all this money was coming from. People just didn't have fans. Didn't have a lot of things. The oil boom, of course, helped out on that deal. EC: Were you ever involved in politics in Bristow? JC: Yeah, I run for County Commissioner once and that's [indecipherable] from now on. EC: Who were some of the people who were involved in politics? Were there two sides? Was there democrats versus republicans or were there factions in town? How would you describe the politics in Bristow? JC: Well, [inaudible] I never did take part. Yeah, my dad was a republican, of course, I was, too, and all us kids. I never forget my dad never did take much part in politics, but my mother and brother did, my older brother. He got beat, too. EC: Who would you say ran the town in those days? JC: Who ran the town? EC: Who ran the town? JC: Oh, Mark Schrader (ph) was the mayor two or three times here, and he was [inaudible]. Who? Oh, Jimmy Weaver [inaudible]. EC: What about World War II? Any particular effects on Bristow that you recall? JC: Well, it didn't affect me too much. I was too old for World War II, and I wasn't old enough for WWI, so I came in between there. None of my family, luckily, didn't have to go. Of course, I had my cows and I still kept [indecipherable]. [Inaudible] JC: On harvest day, you know, everybody got their guns up shooting, you know, celebrating. Somebody accidently shot the rope from the flag pole, and they thought there was a traitor there in the crowd shooting the flag down. EC: Well, had there been any, particularly, oh, amusing things that have happened in Bristow over the years or exciting things that you happened to see? Were you involved in any of those bank robberies or anything like that? JC: Well, I saw one bank robbery. I saw them come out shooting. I forgot what bank it was. I just happened be going down the street, you know, and I saw this old boy come out, and somebody had gotten up on the building across the street shooting at this bank robber. I saw where the brick, you know, shell went in the building into the brick. EC: When you think of Bristow, do you think of it now, this many years later, do you think of it mainly as a farming area, cattle raising or what? JC: Well, I had a little part in all of it, I think, pretty well, around the town. You can make a living if you work at it, you know. EC: You told a story earlier, the part about the Ku Klux Klan. Do you remember there being a Klan here in Bristow? JC: I don't know if there was any here or not, but I remember reading, you know, all over the country about it and this and that. EC: How do you feel relationships between the races have been in Bristow? Have there been any problems? JC: No. I remember that one up in Tulsa. They had a big riot up there, you know. People from here went up there with guns. I remember that. [Inaudible] EC: How do you feel that the relationship between Indians and whites has been? JC: We hadn't had any trouble there. They weren't very [indecipherable] but they did get along and didn't get in much trouble. They liked liquor like all other Indians. EC: Where did the liquor come from in Bristow? JC: Huh? EC: Where did the liquor come from in Bristow? JC: Oh, moonshine mostly. Made it out in the country. Once instance when I was out on the farm, this fellow came up and said, " ; Say you making whiskey over on the back side of your place?" ; I said, " ; Hell no!" ; He said, " ; Well, you got a still running over there." ; And I said, " ; Well, hell, let's go over there and look at it." ; And there was one over on the back side, wasn't but about a mile from where I lived. There was an old copper boiler and actually with fire under it right in operation, you know. It had two or three fifty-gallon barrels, wooden barrels, sitting around. Of course, nobody was there that heard us coming up, I guess. [indecipherable] didn't have a chance to move his still. I took a team. I had a team wagon those days and took it over there I hauled the mash home and fed it to the hogs. I had the copper to sell. I had a little spring over there. That's how come they [indecipherable] how it got there or whose it was. EC: Who were some of the major land owners around Bristow? JC: Oh, the Kelly's has been some of the first. My dad, of course, was in that early. Used to, all you had to have was a bottle of liquor and a deed and you could buy land pretty cheap. And then the court had to approve all the Indian deals, of course. EC: Do you think there was a good bit of that done? JC: Yeah, there was some of it, but more and more crude work on the lease and all that. The oil business was trading land, you know. EC: I know what I wanted to ask you about, this Lake Heyburn? JC: Who? EC: Lake Heyburn or Heyburn Lake out here? JC: Yeah, Heyburn Lake. EC: I judge there was some controversy about the building of that. JC: There was on my part. EC: Well, tell me about it. Tell me about it. I don't know anything about the story. JC: Well, Brick Kirchner and I bid on the clearing of the lake, you know, getting the brush off of it. First job we ever had that large and that kind of a job. We started the clearing on it, a $120,000 job, and about three-fourths done [indecipherable] was good up to that date. A big flood came and washed all a lot of trees down in what he had already cleaned up. The government made us go back and clean what we had cleaned up, [indecipherable] and we figured it was acts of God, and we wasn't liable for it, you know, getting all the flood water down on that. It liked to washed the Heyburn Dam out anyway. But we sued the government, but we didn't do any good. Just about broke even on the deal, so that was lucky. EC: I take it that sports were pretty big in Bristow in your high school days--sports, athletics? JC: Oh yeah, because the oil boom mostly. The men had the money and they wanted to bet on the team. They wanted Bristow to win, and if we had a weak spot on the team why the coach or somebody would hire this kid's dad whose job was here and that he would be living in Bristow legal to play on the Bristow team. It was several pictures there of boys that had been moved in, you know, from [indecipherable]. We played for the state championship down in Oklahoma City against Norman. We had a special train left at Bristow and went to the city with four or five cars on it. I wasn't on it but they said that was pretty rough. Plenty of liquor and drinking going on. Had five cars [indecipherable]. Norman football game, we lost. Come to find out the referees did have money on the game. One instance [indecipherable] ran out, trained to run out of bounds. The umpire overruled that. Then they said, well, he was a holding back up the way of somebody at Bristow. EC: You mentioned, speaking of trips, you mentioned earlier that you used to go to Colorado in the summers. Where did people from Bristow go for vacations? Colorado? JC: Well, yeah, Joe Abraham had a big family, and he did about like my dad. He'd go out there and rent one of those houses, you know. They had a big family, and dad would just lay around there and enjoy the cool nights and rest up. And us kids was kind of on our own. I sold newspapers and did a little guide. A whole lot of people wanted the kids to show them where just sight-seeing tour was. EC: Did you go to Siloam Springs at all? JC: Just drove over there for the weekend or day. EC: Were your business connections in Bristow through Tulsa or through Oklahoma City or Kansas City or where? JC: Mostly Oklahoma City. Sold cattle down on the Oklahoma City market, and I borrowed my money for school [indecipherable] and went to school at Norman, so that put me down in Oklahoma City more than it would have Tulsa. EC: Let me ask you, what are some of the houses or buildings still standing that you remember as being some of the oldest? JC: [Indecipherable] Grocery on west sixth street, Dr. Schrader (ph) had this kind of nice house right here next to the park. [Inaudible] EC: Okay, any others? Bill Cheatham (ph) house on 11th. JC: Joe Abraham had this large brick house on 8th Street that's still standing. One of the daughters lives in it. EC: What about downtown? Are there any of the buildings that are the original old ones? JC: Yeah, there's a lot of them. Of course, a lot of them burned and a lot of them tore down. My dad had the first brick building in Bristow. He met the brick guy here on east 8th Street, there was a little creek out there had water and right kind of sand or brick material. They had an old mule or something like, you know, squeezing sorghum. They put this mixture in his box and the mule would turn it to mix the mortar to make brick with. And they had mold where they made it. Then they had a fire they call it, you know, to heat them to make the brick where they'd stand up to weather. He made the brick for this first brick building in Bristow. When they tore it down about two or three years ago, I saved a lot of the brick out of it. Some of the brick. Deteriorating the brick and, then I forget who owned it then, plastered it, plastered over it. Then that got to deteriorating, so they put a new brick wall on the outside of it and all that's old was still in there. Then when they opened the Community State Bank (ph) [indecipherable]. Then when they decided to build the new Community State Bank (ph), they had to tear all the inside brick out of it, as well as, the new outside. EC: This is Mrs. Jack Carman (RC) RC: The first hospital that I ever remember is down here on North Main, next door north of the Masonic Temple. It's still standing. It's an apartment house now. And Mrs. Albert Kelly, Sr. had charge of it. That was before she married Mr. Kelly. Of course, the doctors all had offices upstairs downtown in the building over the stores downtown. My father had an office in the same building as Dr. King and Dr. Schrader. EC: Tell me about your family. Who was your father and where did he come from? RC: My father came, my family came from Tennessee. And the day we landed in Bristow, I was six-months-old, and he had just graduated from medical school in Tennessee and had taken a trip out in Oklahoma, down in the southern part of the state, way down in the south part of the state to find a location. And he didn't like what he had seen in the south and he started back home on the train and met a drug salesman. He told him that there was a little settlement, Newby, 10 miles south of Bristow here, that badly needed a doctor. So he went down and he liked it, so we went back to Tennessee and brought the family out. And we lived in Newby about four years. [Inaudible] RC: Oh, yes, drove a horse and buggy. Then we came to Bristow before I was six-years-old, and we've been here ever since. EC: What are some of your memories of Bristow as a child? RC: Well, I can remember how rough it was during the oil boom. EC: Rough? How? RC: Well, women just couldn't go out on the streets alone. We lived, at that time, over on East 7th Street, and right down there where Well's Grocery Store is, was a livery stable. And on that main street, right across from where Johnny Roberts now lives, was the livery stable. And I remember how carefully we used to have to walk by there, because it was a pretty rough place. It was a dirty place, of course. But women didn't go out at night without someone being with them, because it was pretty rough. I can remember the terrible flu epidemic we had during WWI, how my father worked night and day, and how we would beg him to stop. But, no, he was needed. But that was a terrible time. I can remember that. That flu epidemic was [indecipherable]. EC: What other things stick in your mind about growing up in Bristow? RC: Well, I think it's been a marvelous place. It's been just small enough that it was close. And, big enough, we had Chautauqua. Do you remember the Chautauqua and the [indecipherable] courses? We had those in the summer time, and they were up here this, back where the library stands now, along in there. You remember that, Jack? The Chautauqua? And we were close enough even to Tulsa and Oklahoma City, anything big that went on, we would take the train and go to the city [indecipherable]. And when Billy Sunday was in Oklahoma City, the big evangelist, why we all went down to hear Billy Sunday. But I think it's been a fine place. [Inaudible] EC: What, thinking of the Chautauqua, did they have the tent? RC: Oh yeah, great big tent and chairs and everybody just smothering to death and fanning like mad. EC: Do you remember any of the people that came through? RC: No, off hand, I don't. No, I really don't. EC: That would have been about what years? RC: Oh, that would have been in, in the early 20s or late eighteen, nineteen, somewhere along in there. EC: Do you have any memories of the depression that stick in your mind? RC: Well, no. We were married, and of course, had three little tiny kids, so that was depression enough, you know. Just the usual things. Nothing in particular. We just didn't buy anything we didn't HAVE to have. EC: Now, your father was a doctor. I've heard some interesting stories about some of the doctors here in town. Do you have any-- RC: Not my father. EC: No, no, but-- RC: I can guarantee you that! [Inaudible] RC: Well, they're the ones that ruled the town. EC: They ruled the town? RC: You're right. The town and the politics of the town. EC: They did? EC: About how many doctors were there in those days? RC: Well, I remember from the enterprise, oh, we had nine or ten [indecipherable]. EC: And the hospital that Mrs. Kelly, did she run it? RC: Yes. Uh huh. EC: Who actually started it? Do you know? RC: No, I don't recall who actually started it. That's my first recollection of it is that she was running the hospital, and my father being a doctor, I expect that's the only reason I remember that part of it. And it was there, then, until my father and Dr. Hollis and Dr. Bisbee and Dr. Williams organized a clinic, and went into the building, now occupied by Schumacher Funeral Home, and it was called the Bristow Clinic. And they were there several years. Then they built, just across the street, east of the American Legion Hut. They built the Bristow Clinic and Hospital was the new first new hospital they ever had. And they ran that for, well, I don't know many years. It was the Bristow Clinic and Hospital. And then Bristow began to get bigger and the need was there for more hospitalizations and better care, a graduate nurse, for instance, and things like that. So then, John Collins was really instrumental. EC: Who? RC: John Collins in starting, as I recall, the movement for the hospital out here, Bristow Memorial Hospital. But the need was there, definitely. And my father and the three partners dissolved up in years and sold out to the sister and Todd (ph) [indecipherable] from Tulsa. Dr. [indecipherable] sister is still in Tulsa, as well as, one of the young boys. [Inaudible] EC: Well, have there been any particularly exciting or amusing things in Bristow that I haven't asked about that you remember? Things that happened to you or that you saw? RC: Um, I don't think so. My mother and family were very much involved in the Methodist Church, and I have grown up in the churches and have been familiar with all of them here in Bristow and watched their growth and their organization. The first brick church, first church we had in Bristow was the First Christian Church and it was over on East 9th Street. And the little church that sits down here next to the new City Hall was one of the original. It's been used by several different congregations. The Catholic used it. The Presbyterian used it. And the Christian Science have it now. EC: Have you been aware of any anti-Catholic feelings in Bristow in your life here? RC: I don't think so, particularly, there has been some, I think. As I can recall, now I'm not saying it's true, but as I recall, most of the Catholic people were the, what we call Syrians then, but they call themselves Lebanese now, came into Bristow, Cejul (ph) and Ed and Useph Abraham, the three brothers came to Bristow. And, of course, they were all Catholic. I believe that's my first memory of that, and then, of course, as other people moved in, people from back east in the oil [indecipherable] so it changed from being predominantly foreign-born people to more like it is today. EC: Had there been any major controversies in Bristow that you remember? Things like arguments over whether to, oh, pave the streets or whether to build the new City Hall? Or has there been anything that's really controversial? RC: I don't think of anything, really. I think we've done pretty well through the years without any big fights over anything. Do you remember anything? audio 0 https://bristoworalhistory.org/ohms/viewer.php?cachefile=OHP-0040A_Jack_Carman.xml OHP-0040A_Jack_Carman.xml
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Jack Carman
Description
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In this 1979 interview with Jack Carman and his wife, Reba, Jack spoke on the oil boom, growing up around Bristow, working at his dad's Ford Agency and the depression. He also spoke on his part in building Heyburn Lake. Reba spoke about her childhood, moving to Newby where her dad practiced medicine, and, eventually, moving back to Bristow at the age of six. Her dad was a physician and integral part of medical care in Bristow, establishing the first Bristow Clinic and Hospital with three other physicians. She described growing up in Bristow and the Chautauqua coming through. She was also involved with the churches of Bristow, specifically the Methodist Church.
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OHP-0040A
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1979-06-07
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audio
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230
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https://bristoworalhistory.org/files/original/dedd07f33684f61979b1ac3090d831c9.jpg
182c5945e4e0c4ab68b3b7df4a1646bd
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Family Histories
Type
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Oral History
Subject
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Oral accounts of various family histories
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Bristow Historical Society, oral history collection
Oral History
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Interviewer
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Ed Cadenhead
Interviewee
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Curt Gillaspie
Jack Carman
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https://bristoworalhistory.org/ohms/viewer.php?cachefile=OHP-0040B_Curt_Gillaspie.xml
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5.4 June 7, 1979 OHP-0040B Curt Gillaspie OHP-0040B 0:00-23:45 Bristow Historical Society - Oral History Archive Bristow Historical Society, Inc. Curt Gillaspie Jack Carman Ed Cadenhead 1:|11(7)|53(2)|67(15)|74(9)|90(8)|105(5)|117(10)|135(15)|144(1)|153(8)|168(2)|175(4)|186(10)|190(5)|196(7)|204(2)|220(2)|232(8)|245(14)|264(4)|276(14)|292(5)|301(8) 0 https://bristoworalhistory.org/interviews/OHP-0040B Gillaspie, Curt.mp3 Other audio 0 Family History EC: Your name is Curt Gillaspie? CG: Yeah. EC: And when did you come to Bristow? CG: 1901 EC: Did your parents bring you? CG: Oh yeah. EC: Where did they come from? CG: Harrisonville, Missouri. EC: Why did they come to Bristow? Do you know? CG: Well, they didn’t want [inaudible] that’s where we lived, a German settlement and they drank quite a bit and mother didn’t want us to drink. Curt tells about coming to Bristow from Harrisonville, MO and what about what his dad did for a living. black smith ; cotton wagons ; general mercantile ; grist mill ; Harrisonville, Missouri Family History 62 Early Memories EC: What are some of your earliest memories of growing up in Bristow? CG: Oh, there was cotton wagons that had main street blocked. Everybody raised cotton. They didn’t have much money. EC: Did you go to school here in Bristow? CG: Oh yes. EC: What do you remember about the school? CG: Well, Mrs. West was my first teacher. She was the sister to Mrs. Joe Abraham. She had one son and his name is Van (ph) West, and he hadn’t seen me in 25 years. He came the other day and paid me a visit and took me out to dinner. We went over to Cotton’s for dinner. EC: Did you ever get in any trouble while you were in school? CG: Oh yeah, we had some little fist fights. We had some boys that could whoop every boy in town, and if one of them couldn’t do it, then two of them would jump on them. Curtis remembers Mrs. West as one of his teachers and getting into fist fights alongside Walter Reed. He recalls Walter giving his adversary a " ; dinner bucket massage" ; . cotton wagon ; dinner bucket massage ; fist fights ; Mrs. West ; school ; Walter Reed Early Memories 256 Jobs EC: Did you work any as a kid in town? CG: Oh yeah. My father had a store, and I had to work unloading cars. They’d sell a car load of feed, and, oh, I don’t know, bunch of wheat in the spring of the year. And then they had the delivery team and I had to drive that. EC: These were box cars coming in? CG: Oh yeah. EC: Trains? EC: Well, let’s see, you worked as a, what, fire station? Chief of the fire station, weren’t you? CG: Oh yeah. American LeFrance ; fire chief ; fire department ; lumbar yard fire ; Model T Ford ; oil boom ; unloading box cars ; volunteer department 461 Interesting People EC: Well, who were some of the most interesting people that have lived in Bristow over these years that you remember? CG: Oh, George Carman (ph), Old Man Stone… EC: What was interesting about George Carman (ph)? CG: Well, he was a hardware man. He built the first brick building in Bristow. And [indecipherable] there was another brick building. They made the brick down there on 7th Street and burned them with wood, cured them with wood. Curtis tells about interesting people he remembers such as George Carman, A.H. Stone and Billy Freshour. A.H. Stone ; Ben Greenwood ; Billy Freshour ; first brick building ; George Carman ; jail ; making brick ; oil boom ; police chief ; US Marshal 619 Bank Robberies EC: Oh my. Were you around at the time of either of the big bank robberies that I heard about? CG: Oh yeah. EC: Did you see any of it? CG: I heard it. I was standing on the corner of 8th and Main. [Indecipherable] was the first one, I think, at the Community State, and then the [indecipherable] held the other one up. Curt tell about hearing the Community State Bank robbery when he was standing at 8th and Main. bank robbery ; Community State Bank 659 Indian Relations EC: Speaking of Indians, since you were here earlier than most, what do you remember about the relationship between the, I guess, the full bloods and the people in Bristow? CG: Well, the full bloods wouldn’t talk to you. They’d have an Indian girl, she’d be an interpreter, but they could talk, speak English. Hannah Brown (ph) was an interpreter. She’d come in the shop, and she’d say so-in-so wants his horse shot. And father would ask her, [indecipherable]. She’d ask the Indians, do you want [indecipherable] and then she’d turn around and tell my father. When he’d get through, why the Indian, he would speak a little Indian. He would turn his back to my father. He’d say, “How much do you owe me?” And he had his money in a tobacco sack and he’d open it up and he’d get out some money. Then when he’d get ready to put it back in the sack, he’d turn the sack from my father and put it back in. The Indians had interpreters and lived on allotments. allotments ; Creek Freedmen ; Hannah Brown ; Indians ; interpreter ; Newby Creek Freedmen ; Indian Relations 967 Dance Hall EC: You said dance, that reminds me of something I haven’t heard from anyone else. There was a dance hall back of, what, the Bristow Drug Store during the oil boom? CG: Oh yeah. [Inaudible] CG: Oh that’s where Kemp’s is. That little drug store. [Inaudible] Us boys over there in the little alley way between us. There was some windows in the dance hall and the boys would get to dancing real big. Then they’d take a little snuff and put it in a pipe and blow it over into the dance hall, and everybody would be a sneezing and going on. Curtis tells about the dance hall in the back of Bristow Drug Store. Jack tells about Dick Cahill's pool hall. Bristow Drug Store ; dance hall ; Dick Cahill ; Kemp's ; oil boom ; pool hall ; snuff Dance Hall ; Pool Hall 1107 Traveling from Missouri EC: You’re how old? CG: 82. EC: 82. CG: I was three-years-old. Father brought mother and us children from Harrisonville, Missouri in a covered wagon and we had to ferry the Arkansas River [indecipherable] and it had taken us fifteen days to come that 300 miles. We’d have to stop and put…[inaudible]. It took Curt's family 15 days to travel 300 miles by covered wagon from Harrisonville, MO. Arkansas River ; covered wagon ; ferry ; Harrisonville, Missouri 1148 Story about Jack Abraham JC: This is off the record, maybe. Jack Abraham, you remember him [inaudible]? EC: I haven’t met him, but I know who he is. JC: You know who he is? EC: Yeah. JC: Well, he and I were trapping together. You know, we had steel traps everywhere and we’d run them [indecipherable] over there on the creek about eight blocks. Then we’d beat ‘em right after school, you know, and go home. One morning, we caught a opossum in a trap, but he died in the trap. Old Jack was just a little bit smarter than I was ; a cotton farmer. Jack tells the story of trapping a opossum with Jack Abraham and selling the hide to Curt's dad. grist mill ; hides ; Jack Abraham ; opossum ; trapping 1255 Oklahoma Statehood EC: Curt, you were here at the time when Oklahoma became a state then? CG: Yeah 1907. EC: Do you recall anything about it? Were there big celebrations? CG: Well, they had an election. They closed the polls before time to close them. They had one election and then they was afraid it wouldn’t go over? EC: Oh? CG: So they just closed the polls in all of Oklahoma. EC: I see. Curt recalls Oklahoma's statehood, elections, and Indian Territory. Jack tells a story about hunting with his dad and Curt. 1907 ; election ; hunting ; Indian Nation ; Indian Territory ; statehood ; Tom Flynn Hunting ; Oklahoma Statehood In this 1979 interview with Curt Gillaspie, he shares about his family history, bank robberies, Indian relations, statehood, and what it was like to attend Bristow Schools and some mischief he got into. He also shares about working for the Bristow Fire Department and what it was like to be chief. Users are warned that there may be words and descriptions which may be culturally sensitive and which might not normally be used in certain public or community contexts. Terms and annotations which reflect the creator' ; s attitude or that of the period in which the item was written may be considered inappropriate today. EC: Your name is Curt Gillaspie? CG: Yeah. EC: And when did you come to Bristow? CG: 1901 EC: Did your parents bring you? CG: Oh yeah. EC: Where did they come from? CG: Harrisonville, Missouri. EC: Why did they come to Bristow? Do you know? CG: Well, they didn' ; t want [inaudible] that' ; s where we lived, a German settlement and they drank quite a bit and mother didn' ; t want us to drink. EC: Ah. What kind of business was he in? Was he-- CG: He was a blacksmith and a they had a general mercantile store and a [indecipherable] grist mill. EC: You were born here, when? CG: Oh no. EC: Oh no. You came-- CG: When I was about three-years-old. EC: What are some of your earliest memories of growing up in Bristow? CG: Oh, there was cotton wagons that had main street blocked. Everybody raised cotton. They didn' ; t have much money. EC: Did you go to school here in Bristow? CG: Oh yes. EC: What do you remember about the school? CG: Well, Mrs. West was my first teacher. She was the sister to Mrs. Joe Abraham. She had one son and his name is Van (ph) West, and he hadn' ; t seen me in 25 years. He came the other day and paid me a visit and took me out to dinner. We went over to Cotton' ; s for dinner. EC: Did you ever get in any trouble while you were in school? CG: Oh yeah, we had some little fist fights. We had some boys that could whoop every boy in town, and if one of them couldn' ; t do it, then two of them would jump on them. EC: Yeah. CG: When we was coming one night from school, one of the boys was a fellow by the name of Walter Reed (ph) and he had a gallon dinner bucket with some dishes in it that he carried for his dinner bucket. One of these boys keeps pushing one of them up on him and he eased over to me and said, " ; You keep that one off of me and I' ; ll whoop that fellow." ; I said, " ; Well, I' ; ll try." ; I got back and got me a pop bottle with a short neck, it was about that long. Old Walter, he was giving him a dinner bucket massage, and the blood was running. The other fellow, he run up there, McKay (ph) was his name, and he started to get into the fight. I pushed him back, and I hit him right between the ears with that pop bottle and it went about three foot high. And that old boy got me down, and Walter had to come over and give him a little massage and then I could handle him. So, we both got a lickin' ; from the professor for that. EC: Did you work any as a kid in town? CG: Oh yeah. My father had a store, and I had to work unloading cars. They' ; d sell a car load of feed, and, oh, I don' ; t know, bunch of wheat in the spring of the year. And then they had the delivery team and I had to drive that. EC: These were box cars coming in? CG: Oh yeah. EC: Trains? EC: Well, let' ; s see, you worked as a, what, fire station? Chief of the fire station, weren' ; t you? CG: Oh yeah. EC: What was that like? What kind of equipment did you start out with? CG: Oh, we started out with an old Model T Ford. Then we got an American LeFrance. We had it for years. Then we got a Chevrolet fire truck in ' ; 38, and it' ; s still down there. Now they got them Fords and Chevrolets. [Inaudible] EC: Was this a volunteer fire department at one time? CG: Yeah, we had 15 members, and we had three paid men. And then after it got, let' ; s see, ' ; 33, it became partially paid and partially volunteer and it' ; s still that way. EC: What were some of the biggest fires or emergencies that happened while you were working there? CG: Well, the old Pickton (ph) Lumber Yard was pretty bad. You just don' ; t put them lumber yard fires out. EC: When did you start with the fire station? CG: Well, I started when I was 20, I think. 1920. EC: Okay, 1920. So, you were there during at least part of the oil boom? CG: Oh yeah. EC: How far out of town did the fire station operate? CG: Oh, we didn' ; t really go out of town. We didn' ; t take the fire trucks because it would take so long out of duty and didn' ; t [indecipherable] come back in service. EC: Well, who were some of the most interesting people that have lived in Bristow over these years that you remember? CG: Oh, George Carman (ph), Old Man Stone-- EC: What was interesting about George Carman (ph)? CG: Well, he was a hardware man. He built the first brick building in Bristow. And [indecipherable] there was another brick building. They made the brick down there on 7th Street and burned them with wood, cured them with wood. EC: Who else do you think of? CG: Uncle Billy Freshour, he was the old United States Marshal. He was 80-years-old and they appointed him Chief of Police during the oil boom because they was having so much trouble of putting people in jail. Ben Greenwood was the mayor. He said that, my goodness, said the whole police force can' ; t do nothing but put them in jail. Said then " ; How' ; s that 80-year-old man?" ; Ben Greenwood said, " ; Well, I' ; d like to put him on and try him." ; So he wasn' ; t on very long, so they had a big street fight down there on 7th and Main. He told the desk sergeant, he said, " ; Johnny, take care of the desk, and I' ; ll bring the boys up." ; So he went down there and slapped one of them old big boys on the shoulder and said, " ; You' ; ll have to go up to the station." ; He said, " ; You couldn' ; t take me anywhere." ; And he hauled off and slapped Uncle Bill down and he just rolled over on his belly and pulled out the little .38. When the smoke cleared away there was two of them laying on the pavement. And he got up and said, " ; Now boys, if you don' ; t want to see some strange faces in hell, get to walking towards the police station. I' ; ll be behind you with the little gun." ; EC: Oh my. Were you around at the time of either of the big bank robberies that I heard about? CG: Oh yeah. EC: Did you see any of it? CG: I heard it. I was standing on the corner of 8th and Main. [Indecipherable] was the first one, I think, at the Community State, and then the [indecipherable] held the other one up. EC: Speaking of Indians, since you were here earlier than most, what do you remember about the relationship between the, I guess, the full bloods and the people in Bristow? CG: Well, the full bloods wouldn' ; t talk to you. They' ; d have an Indian girl, she' ; d be an interpreter, but they could talk, speak English. Hannah Brown (ph) was an interpreter. She' ; d come in the shop, and she' ; d say so-in-so wants his horse shot. And father would ask her, [indecipherable]. She' ; d ask the Indians, do you want [indecipherable] and then she' ; d turn around and tell my father. When he' ; d get through, why the Indian, he would speak a little Indian. He would turn his back to my father. He' ; d say, " ; How much do you owe me?" ; And he had his money in a tobacco sack and he' ; d open it up and he' ; d get out some money. Then when he' ; d get ready to put it back in the sack, he' ; d turn the sack from my father and put it back in. EC: Where did most of the Indians that came into Bristow live? CG: Well, they had allotments. You' ; d take, uh, you had some Creek Freedmens here. Creek Freedmen is a slave for the Creek Indians back east where they came from. And they got allotments, too, the Creek Freedmen. Oh, I don' ; t, can' ; t remember who all was Creek Freedmens that I knew. I forgot. [inaudible] Well, he was the United States Marshal under [inaudible]. He was the leader of the Indians. Well, we had old Billy Vann (ph) down in Newby. He kind looked after that bunch of colored boys down there. And we had, oh, there' ; s three or four around. And some white fellow had trouble with some of those colored boys. My dad would go tell them, " ; Now boys we' ; d like to have you around here as neighbors. Let' ; s straighten up and fly right or the little black wagon will back up and get ya." ; I know one that said, " ; Deal." ; Young colored boy knocked an old man down. Old man Scanlon (ph), he was a share cropper. The old man Scanlon (ph) he let his crop grow up in grass. The old man Scanlon (ph) told him, said " ; You' ; ll have to clean this crop up or I' ; ll have to put some teams over here to clean it up." ; So he didn' ; t clean it up and Scanlon (ph) went over with a team and got into it again and knocked him down and went over to Billy Vann' ; s (ph) house and he told one of those share croppers of his, he said, " ; Here' ; s some money. I wished you' ; d go get some liquor and put on a dance down at your house on Saturday night, and we don' ; t want that nigger around here. That was your normal [indecipherable]. EC: You said dance, that reminds me of something I haven' ; t heard from anyone else. There was a dance hall back of, what, the Bristow Drug Store during the oil boom? CG: Oh yeah. [Inaudible] CG: Oh that' ; s where Kemp' ; s is. That little drug store. [Inaudible] Us boys over there in the little alley way between us. There was some windows in the dance hall and the boys would get to dancing real big. Then they' ; d take a little snuff and put it in a pipe and blow it over into the dance hall, and everybody would be a sneezing and going on. EC: Were there any other places like that in Bristow? Dance halls or? CG: Yeah. [Inaudible] CG: Oh [indecipherable] down there just this side of Johnny' ; s [indecipherable]. And he carried a billy club and give them a massage if they got unruly. EC: Where was this Dick Cahill (ph) name? JC: He had a pool hall, you know, down here, and he got [indecipherable] because of letting kids in there to play pool, you see. So he put a bunch of these old hats in the back table, and when we played pool we had to put on eof those hats on so the women folk looked back there and see--Wound up owning 80 or 90 houses here in town. He was a drug store-- CG: Yeah and on top of that he was a Jew, and his brother was a [indecipherable]. EC: You' ; re how old? CG: 82. EC: 82. CG: I was three-years-old. Father brought mother and us children from Harrisonville, Missouri in a covered wagon and we had to ferry the Arkansas River [indecipherable] and it had taken us fifteen days to come that 300 miles. We' ; d have to stop and put--[inaudible]. JC: This is off the record, maybe. Jack Abraham, you remember him [inaudible]? EC: I haven' ; t met him, but I know who he is. JC: You know who he is? EC: Yeah. JC: Well, he and I were trapping together. You know, we had steel traps everywhere and we' ; d run them [indecipherable] over there on the creek about eight blocks. Then we' ; d beat ' ; em right after school, you know, and go home. One morning, we caught a opossum in a trap, but he died in the trap. Old Jack was just a little bit smarter than I was ; a cotton farmer. He said, " ; God damn, they always die in the trap." ; Well, they' ; re hide' ; s no good, you know, when they die in the trap. I said, " ; Well, what are we going to do with him?" ; He said, " ; Oh, I' ; m going to throw him right here in the weeds." ; So he threw him over there, and we went on to school. He got out of school, at that time, a little earlier than I did. He went down and got this opossum and skinned him and sold him to Curt' ; s dad and he had little gristmill down there and [indecipherable]. So we [indecipherable] down there a lot, you know. We had corn cob pile back there where, you know, they shell corn and have corn cob fight. That evening, I went by there, you know, kind of had a few words with Curt' ; s dad, visited a little while, he says, " ; Well, I see you boys caught a opossum last night." ; And I said, " ; Yeah, but he died in the trap and the hides no good." ; He had to tell him it was a different because Jack had already been there and sold him the hide. [Indecipherable] I haven' ; t brought that up to old Jack in years. I don' ; t know if he would like it or not. EC: Curt, you were here at the time when Oklahoma became a state then? CG: Yeah 1907. EC: Do you recall anything about it? Were there big celebrations? CG: Well, they had an election. They closed the polls before time to close them. They had one election and then they was afraid it wouldn' ; t go over? EC: Oh? CG: So they just closed the polls in all of Oklahoma. EC: I see. CG: Years ago, mother used get letters from Missouri, and they was marked I.T., Indian Territory. But, before that, before the Indian Territory, it was Indian Nation. The first grocery store that was ever here was right back of the printing office up there. It was about 20x20, I guess. A fellow by the name of Tom Flynn [indecipherable]. JC: My dad and his dad was hunting with the superintendent at school. We were all hunting together a lot, you know. Curt was just a whole lot better shot than my dad or the superintendent. And they go out and practice, you know, before they' ; d go hunting. My dad would shoot a target way off, you know, have me down there and bring back the score, you see. Dad would shoot way off one side of the target and wouldn' ; t even put a hole in it. When they got ready to bring the shots back [indecipherable] right close there' ; d just be blistering marks, just a little bit. I' ; m a better shot than you thought. I don' ; t know what' ; s a happening. CG: Oh yeah my father back of Jack' ; s old home back there, they had some pictures [indecipherable]. I' ; ll go get them. There in the house, there. audio 0 https://bristoworalhistory.org/ohms/viewer.php?cachefile=OHP-0040B_Curt_Gillaspie.xml OHP-0040B_Curt_Gillaspie.xml
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Title
A name given to the resource
Curt Gillaspie
Description
An account of the resource
In this 1979 interview with Curt Gillaspie, he shares about his family history, bank robberies, Indian relations, statehood, and what it was like to attend Bristow Schools and some mischief he got into. He also shares about working for the Bristow Fire Department and what it was like to be chief.
Identifier
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OHP-0040B
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1979-06-07
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audio
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https://bristoworalhistory.org/files/original/c0ed8040a7cbed3c1f3af59e498da131.jpg
9b3b3e44a5fc16f931346a78a6b50f4a
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Family Histories
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Oral History
Subject
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Oral accounts of various family histories
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Bristow Historical Society, oral history collection
Oral History
A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge.
Interviewer
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Wanda Newton
Interviewee
The person(s) being interviewed
Jonas Thompson
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https://bristoworalhistory.org/ohms/viewer.php?cachefile=OHP-0041A_Jonas_Thompson.xml
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5.4 November 28, 1990 OHP-0041A Jonas Thompson OHP-0041A 0:00-28:08 Bristow Historical Society - Oral History Archive Bristow Historical Society, Inc. Jonas Thompson Wanda Newton 1:|27(4)|46(2)|65(14)|79(9)|109(11)|133(15)|152(16)|184(3)|207(9)|223(9)|235(13)|260(4)|285(1)|304(2)|330(7)|350(10)|371(10)|399(6)|426(2)|444(8)|478(5)|527(6)|561(9)|578(12)|603(13)|617(10)|641(14)|676(6) 0 https://bristoworalhistory.org/interviews/OHP-0041A Thompson, Jonas.mp3 Other audio 0 Early Life & ; Family WN: On November 28, 1990, I’m down at the Rainbow Nursing home, and I’m interviewing a patient who’s down here. And I want him to tell you his name and when he was born. JT: We have to do that now? WN: Yeah, you tell me your name. JT: Jonas Thompson. WN: Jonas Thompson. JT: I was born 1902. WN: 1902. And where were you born, Mr. Thompson? JT: In Alabama Jonas talks about moving from Tuscaloosa to Muskogee, and finally, to Bristow. Alabama ; family ; farming ; Indians ; Muskogee ; Tuscaloosa early life ; family 114 Cotton Farming WN: What did you raise on that farm? JT: Mostly cotton. WN: Did you work in the cotton field? JT: Sure! Picked cotton and chopped cotton. WN: Do you remember the most you ever did? JT: Well, I did a lot of that picking cotton. I used to, after I got grown, I’d pick through 580 pounds a day. WN: What’s the most money you ever made picking cotton on a day? Do you remember? JT: Well, it wasn’t paying very much. I don’t remember what we was getting, but I think it was right at a dollar, dollar and a half maybe. Jonas talks about picking and chopping cotton and how much he made from working on his family's cotton farm. chopping cotton ; cotton ; earnings ; farming ; Muskogee ; picking cotton Cotton farming 316 Food WN: Well, what about your food? Do you remember your mother making soap or killing hogs? JT: Yeah, we killed hogs and had soap. WN: Well, tell me how you did the hogs. Do you remember how you did the hogs? JT: Yeah, we kill them and put ‘em on a [indecipherable] and feed them that yellow dead corn for four, five, six months and then take ‘em out and, I tell ya, they was in good shape. WN: Well, how did you kill ‘em? JT: Take ‘em out there with an ax, one of them ball-faced ax, as I call it. WN: Uh huh. On the farm, they slaughtered hogs for food and stored them in the smoke house. food ; food theft ; hogs ; poor ; slaughtering ; smoke house ; soap 484 Attending School WN: Were you able to attend school? JT: Oh yeah. We went to school at the old place when we come from Muskogee here, we lived close to Tallahassee, we called it. We went to school up there at Tallahassee. WN: Was it a one-room school or? JT: Yeah, it was a one house school. WN: How far did you have to walk? JT: Oh, about three miles to school. That was the only way we could get there is to walk. If walking was bad, my dad would carry us up there in a bucket. Jonas tells about what it was like to attend school when he was young. books ; lunch ; Muskogee ; reading ; school ; Tallahassee 596 Chores WN: And you had chores to do after school? JT: Yeah, I had to feed the hogs and the chickens. Other than that, that’s probably all we had to do. Of course, after we moved up there, the rest of us [indecipherable] had chickens to feed. Of course, that was several years after we moved from Muskogee. We stayed in Muskogee six months before we found a place to move. We didn’t want to stay in town. They wanted to raise us in the country. Wanted to learn how to pick cotton and chop cotton, so that’s where we moved. Jonas had to feed the chickens and the hogs after school. chores ; feeding livestock ; Muskogee ; picking cotton Chores 639 Home Life WN: Do you remember any of the dust storms we used to have? JT: Oh yeah, we used to have them things so bad. It was so dusty you couldn’t see hardly. Yeah, it was bad. It looked like sundown in a cave it was so dusty. I mean that dust would choke you. WN: What kind of a house did you live in? JT: Well, just an ordinary, plain house. WN: How many rooms were there? JT: Let’s see, there was three rooms if I can remember. WN: Can you remember when you got…or tell me about how did you study? You had coal oil lamps or kerosene lamps? JT: Yes, coal oil lamps. Even though they were poor, Jonas talks about never being cold or hungry. They didn't really have money, so they traded for the things they needed. coal oil lamps ; dust storms ; home ; outdoor Johnnies ; poor ; The Depression ; trading home life 752 Church Life WN: Well, what about your religious training? Did you attend church regularly? JT: Well, after I got old enough I did, cause then I went to Sunday school. Had a primer you called it. You remember a primer? WN: Yes I do. I remember that. JT: That’s the only book I had, a primer. Went to school up there from Tallahassee. [indecipherable]. WN: Where is that exactly? Can you tell me where that Tallahassee school is not there now. JT: I know it isn’t. It was north of Muskogee. I’m trying to remember. That’s been several years ago. Jonas talks about attending Sunday school. church ; primer ; Sunday school ; Tallahassee Church life 802 Indian Relations & ; Integration WN: Well, how about the Indians, then, were you all… JT: Well, we wasn’t bothered too much with the Indians cause they [indecipherable]. Of course, there was quite a bunch of them around here at that time. WN: Well, can you tell me of any bad incidences that happened to you or anything between the whites the blacks before integration? JT: No. Never have had that. I’ve been very fortunate. WN: Well, I think in our community we’ve always had good relationships, don’t you think? JT: Yeah, that’s true. They are very nice. Jonas recalls Indian relations being good and desegregation being a positive experience. Freedmen ; Indians ; integration ; The Depression Indian relations ; segregation 916 Social Life WN: Well, let me ask you, what did you do for your social life? How did you entertain each other? JT: Well, just go to someone’s home and entertain them, talk and [indecipherable] back then. WN: Did you ever go to any dances? JT: Oh, no. After I got grown, I did. But I never could dance. My feet would be in the way. I never could dance. I was ashamed of myself [indecipherable]. Couldn’t dance. WN: Were you ever in the service at all? JT: No. Sure wasn’t. A social life for Jonas included visiting a friend's house. He didn't attend dances until he was older but said he could never get the hang of dancing. dances ; social life ; visiting friends social life 1059 Food Storage WN: Do you remember anything about when you, how you kept your food from spoiling in your home? JT: We had an old smoke house. It was a pretty good smoke house. WN: How did you keep things cool? Did you have a spring? JT: Spring? WN: Uh huh. JT: Yeah we had a spring about a quarter from the house, west of the, I mean, yeah, west of the house. I mean south of the house. It was about a quarter down there to the spring. Jonas talks about the various ways they kept food from spoiling. food storage ; smoke house ; spring ; well food storage 1126 Discipline WN: Do you remember anything, in particular, about your childhood, like a spanking? Did you ever get a spanking at school? JT: Oh yeah. WN: You did? JT: I was bad, I guess. It must have been. I got it. WN: Was the discipline, do you remember, a teacher that disciplined you particularly for something horrible you did? You don’t remember anything that you got the spanking for? JT: Well, I guess I was bad. I didn’t get my lessons done, maybe? Jonas talks about getting a spanking when he misbehaved. childhood ; discipline ; spanking discipline 1180 Medical Treatment WN: Can you tell me any kind of medicines that you used to take? When you had something, and ear ache or anything, can you remember anything that your mother used to do for you? JT: Yeah, they’d put some kind of, uh, let’s see, what kind of oil you call that? I forget the name of it. But they’d put that in your ear. WN: Do you remember going to the doctor or anything? JT: Oh, no, we never go to no doctor. We’d always have a home remedy of some kind. You wouldn’t have to go to the doctor. WN: If you had a stomach ache, she gave you something? JT: Yeah, some turpentine. Jonas tells about home remedies they used and how much he loved Dr. King. doctor ; Dr. King ; medicine ; turpentine medical treatment 1258 Family WN: Jonas can you tell me where your father came from? JT: From Alabama. WN: He came from Alabama, too. And your mother was from Alabama, too? JT: Uh huh. WN: How many children did you have, Jonas? JT: How many? WN: Uh huh. JT: Me? WN: Uh huh. JT: One. WN: One? JT: A daughter. WN: A daughter? JT: Yes. She lives in Chicago. Jonas tells of his parents coming here from Alabama and having one daughter that lives in Chicago. Alabama ; Chicago ; church ; daughter ; father family 1378 Integration WN: I’m glad. But now, Jonas, tell me about integration of the school and how it affected you with desegregation. Do you think… JT: No, we didn’t have that. All them kids I went to school with was just as nice, like I was one of the family. WN: Do you think that it had been better since we integrated, or do you think, how do you feel about that? JT: I think it was a good thing. We are all human beings. God made us all. We shouldn’t be separated from one another in my book. Jonas describes how integration affected him. integration ; kindness integration 1436 Nursing Home Life WN: Alright, now then, tell me how you feel about your old, your aging process with how has it affected your life since you’ve given up your home and come to the nursing home. Can you tell us how you feel about that? JT: Well, I kinda hate to leave my home cause that was on account of my leg, I had to, but we still had it so, the Lord willing, some day we may go back there. WN: Well, that’s true. JT: Yeah, your brother is waiting for me and I’ll be here [indecipherable]. WN: Oh, that would be wonderful. Have you got another leg to replace that one that’s missing? JT: Then I’ll go back home. Jonas is hopeful to return to his own home at some point, but due to his leg, had to move to the nursing home. nursing home nursing home 1488 Things to Remember WN: Alright, now, Jonas before we sign off, is there anything that you’d like to say to leave a message or anything for the people who come after us? This is going to be in the library for anybody to listen to a tape to check if there looking back for any ancestors or? Is there anything that you’d like to say? JT: What’d you mean? Jonas is thankful people were always nice to him and believes you should treat people how you want to be treated. kindness kindness 1613 Dr. King JT: You know I think about old Dr. K (ph), he was a wonderful doctor. WN: Yes he was, and very generous, wasn’t he? JT: Oh yeah. I bet he pays for a lot of people owe him. I bet so! I wouldn’t be surprised if people owed that old doctor. Not a better doctor that ever walked on his feet. He was. I loved him. WN: I think a lot of people love Dr. King. Jonas tells about how much he loved Dr. King and what a wonderful doctor he was. Dr. King ; kindness Dr. King MP3 In this 1990 interview with Jonas Thompson, he talks about moving from Alabama to Muskogee and, finally, to Bristow. He talks about his family, early life and what it was like growing up on a cotton farm. Even though times were tough, he talks about the importance of kindness. WN: On November 28, 1990, I' ; m down at the Rainbow Nursing home, and I' ; m interviewing a patient who' ; s down here. And I want him to tell you his name and when he was born. JT: We have to do that now? WN: Yeah, you tell me your name. JT: Jonas Thompson. WN: Jonas Thompson. JT: I was born 1902. WN: 1902. And where were you born, Mr. Thompson? JT: In Alabama. WN: Can you tell me where in Alabama? JT: Well, as far as I know it was Tuscaloosa, they called it. Tuscaloosa. WN: Tuscaloosa. How long did you live there? JT: Oh Lord, I guess I was pretty near a grown man. We come in to Muskogee from Alabama. And we stayed there in Muskogee, I think, about six months, and my dad found a place west of Muskogee [indecipherable] on a bridge and run on west about three miles, west of there, from that bridge. We stayed down on that farm and farmed it for, oh I don' ; t know, several years. WN: Were you tenant famers or did you own the land? JT: No, no, it belonged to an Indian. We stayed there, I guess, four or five years, and, finally, moved off of that place. WN: Do you remember the Indian' ; s name? JT: No, I don' ; t. It' ; s been so long. It belonged to him. WN: Wasn' ; t that your mother and daddy, now, with you? JT: Yeah, and my brother. I had three brothers and two sisters. WN: What did you raise on that farm? JT: Mostly cotton. WN: Did you work in the cotton field? JT: Sure! Picked cotton and chopped cotton. WN: Do you remember the most you ever did? JT: Well, I did a lot of that picking cotton. I used to, after I got grown, I' ; d pick through 580 pounds a day. WN: What' ; s the most money you ever made picking cotton on a day? Do you remember? JT: Well, it wasn' ; t paying very much. I don' ; t remember what we was getting, but I think it was right at a dollar, dollar and a half maybe. WN: For the whole day or? JT: Yeah, sure. Maybe one and a half or two dollars. That was way back then, you know. Times was tough and bad. We finally moved off that place then. We moved to Muskogee and stayed in Muskogee six months. Then after that, we moved here. Right here in Bristow, Oklahoma from Muskogee. We rented that place, and we finally moved off that place and moved onto another place. I don' ; t know just how far we did go west, but it was quite a little ways. That' ; s all I know about is farming, picking cotton and chopping cotton, picking cotton. WN: When did you come to Bristow? JT: From Muskogee? WN: Uh huh. JT: Well, we stayed there six months and then left Muskogee, and I don' ; t remember just exactly when we come here to Bristow. I was quite a boy at that time, you know. I was born in 1902, so I was pretty young. WN: Can you remember any kind of stories your mother and daddy ever told you? JT: Well, it' ; s been so long. I don' ; t know. WN: Were they, do you remember, did they say anything about slavery in those days or do you remember anything about your grandparents? JT: No, I don' ; t remember. WN: Do you remember, uh-- JT: I do remember my grandma. WN: You remember your grandma. JT: Yeah. WN: Did she come from the south with you? JT: Yeah. No. She come over here with some other people. WN: Oh. JT: And we all come here with daddy and mother. WN: How did you get here? JT: Well, we come from Alabama to Muskogee and dad rented us a place west of Muskogee. WN: I know, but how did you travel? JT: Oh, uh, most of the time we was in the [indecipherable] didn' ; t have no cars then. I don' ; t remember a car at all then. WN: Well, what about your food? Do you remember your mother making soap or killing hogs? JT: Yeah, we killed hogs and had soap. WN: Well, tell me how you did the hogs. Do you remember how you did the hogs? JT: Yeah, we kill them and put ' ; em on a [indecipherable] and feed them that yellow dead corn for four, five, six months and then take ' ; em out and, I tell ya, they was in good shape. WN: Well, how did you kill ' ; em? JT: Take ' ; em out there with an ax, one of them ball-faced ax, as I call it. WN: Uh huh. JT: Had big on one end and other part on the other end was [indecipherable] have someone hold it with a rope so it wouldn' ; t run off. Then my dad would always hit him right between his eyes. WN: And it killed him instantly? JT: Yeah, it killed him. Dead as door nail. WN: Well, how did you handle him then? JT: Well, after you' ; d do that, he would fall over, and the time he would fall over, and my dad had a big long knife. He would stick that knife through his heart, and he' ; d go to bleeding. Then he' ; d bleed out all that blood out of him. Then he' ; d take him up there and lay him on a table. They' ; d cool a little bit, then cut him up, cut the hams up, have them all set, and the ribs, and all that. Neck and feet and then have him ready to put in a pot to eat. WN: Well, did you have a smoke house? JT: Oh yeah, we had an old smoke house. It wasn' ; t too good, but we had to put it in there because we didn' ; t have another place to put it. So it happened one night, dad had butchered a hog, two, three hogs, and we got up one morning and one of them was gone. WN: Oh! What happened? JT: Guess somebody that didn' ; t have no meat come and got it. WN: Oh, I bet your daddy was angry, wasn' ; t he? JT: Huh? WN: Was your father angry? JT: Well, I don' ; t think he was too angry because times was tough back then. WN: Yeah. JT: I' ; m telling you it was tough days back then that time. WN: Do you ever remember being hungry? JT: No, I don' ; t. He sure was good about trying to have food his children. There was eight boys and three girls. WN: How wonderful. JT: And I know sometimes I wonder how he feed all of us. WN: And how did he clothe you? JT: Well, some way or another, I don' ; t know hardly how he did it, but he already had something for us to put on. WN: Were you able to attend school? JT: Oh yeah. We went to school at the old place when we come from Muskogee here, we lived close to Tallahassee, we called it. We went to school up there at Tallahassee. WN: Was it a one-room school or? JT: Yeah, it was a one house school. WN: How far did you have to walk? JT: Oh, about three miles to school. That was the only way we could get there is to walk. If walking was bad, my dad would carry us up there in a bucket. WN: What did you do for your lunch? JT: Well, we carry us a lunch from home to school. WN: What did you usually have for lunch? JT: Well, most of the time just some biscuits and, uh, butter mixed in that biscuit. Of course, it' ; d eat good then. I don' ; t know how it' ; d eat now. That was good eatin' ; .WN: Well, of course it was. JT: Yeah. Always have some kind of sweet, a cookie, or something to mix with it. WN: How about your books? How did you get your books? JT: Dad got ' ; em some way. I don' ; t know how he got ' ; em but he had my books. I always had me a reader, it' ; s what you called it, and then dad would teach us how to read, learned how to read. WN: You saw that you got your lessons after school? JT: Oh yeah. WN: And you had chores to do after school? JT: Yeah, I had to feed the hogs and the chickens. Other than that, that' ; s probably all we had to do. Of course, after we moved up there, the rest of us [indecipherable] had chickens to feed. Of course, that was several years after we moved from Muskogee. We stayed in Muskogee six months before we found a place to move. We didn' ; t want to stay in town. They wanted to raise us in the country. Wanted to learn how to pick cotton and chop cotton, so that' ; s where we moved. WN: Do you remember any of the dust storms we used to have? JT: Oh yeah, we used to have them things so bad. It was so dusty you couldn' ; t see hardly. Yeah, it was bad. It looked like sundown in a cave it was so dusty. I mean that dust would choke you. WN: What kind of a house did you live in? JT: Well, just an ordinary, plain house. WN: How many rooms were there? JT: Let' ; s see, there was three rooms if I can remember. WN: Can you remember when you got--or tell me about how did you study? You had coal oil lamps or kerosene lamps? JT: Yes, coal oil lamps. WN: And outdoor Johnnies. JT: Yeah. WN: Yeah, I remember those. I remember one time a chicken pecked me on an outdoor Johnny and I thought I was snake bit! But anyway, do you remember being very poor during the depression? JT: Oh yeah. We was poor. Hard times. Money--we didn' ; t have no money then. Money was something that was kind of unusual. WN: You just kind of traded around? JT: Yeah, tried to do right and the best we could. WN: I remember my daddy taking potatoes in sometime for payments and just whatever you could get is what you took, wasn' ; t it? JT: Yeah. It was hard times. I' ; m telling you, it was rough. WN: Were you ever cold and hungry? JT: Well, no, not probably cold because we had daddy' ; s [indecipherable] and plenty of wood. Of course, we weren' ; t living in that good of a house, but we had plenty of wood to keep us warm and dry. WN: Well, what about your religious training? Did you attend church regularly? JT: Well, after I got old enough I did, cause then I went to Sunday school. Had a primer you called it. You remember a primer? WN: Yes I do. I remember that. JT: That' ; s the only book I had, a primer. Went to school up there from Tallahassee. [indecipherable]. WN: Where is that exactly? Can you tell me where that Tallahassee school is not there now. JT: I know it isn' ; t. It was north of Muskogee. I' ; m trying to remember. That' ; s been several years ago. WN: Well, how about the Indians, then, were you all-- JT: Well, we wasn' ; t bothered too much with the Indians cause they [indecipherable]. Of course, there was quite a bunch of them around here at that time. WN: Well, can you tell me of any bad incidences that happened to you or anything between the whites the blacks before integration? JT: No. Never have had that. I' ; ve been very fortunate. WN: Well, I think in our community we' ; ve always had good relationships, don' ; t you think? JT: Yeah, that' ; s true. They are very nice. WN: And everybody tries to help one another. JT: Yeah. If you didn' ; t have a good problem, I made a good problem [indecipherable] they' ; re good about that. WN: That' ; s wonderful. JT: People are nice. They was all nice. The Indians, I called them the Freedmen. They was all nice to me. WN: Can you tell me a little bit about the Freedmen? JT: The who? WN: The Freedmens. JT: Well, all I can say about them is they was really nice. They treated people like they wanted to be treated. WN: But let me ask you this, do you remember anything about The Depression at all? JT: Well, no I can' ; t remember too much about The Depression, because we always had something to eat and a house to live in. It wasn' ; t a good one, but we still had to live in that. And dad always had plenty of wood. That was the only way we could keep warm was plenty of wood and food to eat. WN: Well, let me ask you, what did you do for your social life? How did you entertain each other? JT: Well, just go to someone' ; s home and entertain them, talk and [indecipherable] back then. WN: Did you ever go to any dances? JT: Oh, no. After I got grown, I did. But I never could dance. My feet would be in the way. I never could dance. I was ashamed of myself [indecipherable]. Couldn' ; t dance. WN: Were you ever in the service at all? JT: No. Sure wasn' ; t. WN: Do you remember your mother and father ever telling about the Civil War or anything, or your grandmother, or anything like that? JT: Grandmother had passed several years after we come here. WN: And where was she buried? Do you remember that? JT: I sure don' ; t. I don' ; t remember where she was buried. WN: Do you remember how it was in early Bristow down here? Do you remember Bristow in the early days at all? JT: Well, no not in the early days. I don' ; t remember. WN: Now, about when did you come to Bristow, did you say? Do you have any idea when you came to Bristow? JT: Let' ; s see, I don' ; t remember exactly when we come here to Bristow. Not exact. WN: Can you tell me kinda sorta when you came? Was it in the 20' ; s or the 30' ; s or? JT: Let' ; s see, it must have been in the 20' ; s, I guess. WN: Did you ever work in the oil fields? JT: Never worked in no oil fields. The only thing I did was chopped cotton and picked cotton. WN: Who, what--do you remember any of the early people that you worked for? Do you remember going to the cotton mills? Do you remember the Bishop' ; s or the? JT: No, didn' ; t really know the Bishop' ; s. [Indecipherable] Dad already took his cotton to the gin. WN: Yeah. JT: [Indecipherable] WN: Do you remember anything about when you, how you kept your food from spoiling in your home? JT: We had an old smoke house. It was a pretty good smoke house. WN: How did you keep things cool? Did you have a spring? JT: Spring? WN: Uh huh. JT: Yeah we had a spring about a quarter from the house, west of the, I mean, yeah, west of the house. I mean south of the house. It was about a quarter down there to the spring. WN: And you kept things, did you keep things in the spring sometime? JT: Yeah [indecipherable] kind of a well, but it was just about eight or ten feet deep. We' ; d always put the stuff down in there for it to keep. We didn' ; t have no icebox or deep freeze or nothing. WN: You didn' ; t have a well by your house that you had dug or anything like that? JT: There was an old there when we moved. WN: Oh, there was a well? JT: Dug well. It was about 20-30 feet deep. WN: Do you remember anything, in particular, about your childhood, like a spanking? Did you ever get a spanking at school? JT: Oh yeah. WN: You did? JT: I was bad, I guess. It must have been. I got it. WN: Was the discipline, do you remember, a teacher that disciplined you particularly for something horrible you did? You don' ; t remember anything that you got the spanking for? JT: Well, I guess I was bad. I didn' ; t get my lessons done, maybe? WN: How do you think our boys and girls of today compare, like if they' ; d say, you were bad. You' ; d think they would laugh at what you were bad for, wouldn' ; t they? JT: Yeah, they would. WN: Yeah, they would. WN: Can you tell me any kind of medicines that you used to take? When you had something, and ear ache or anything, can you remember anything that your mother used to do for you? JT: Yeah, they' ; d put some kind of, uh, let' ; s see, what kind of oil you call that? I forget the name of it. But they' ; d put that in your ear. WN: Do you remember going to the doctor or anything? JT: Oh, no, we never go to no doctor. We' ; d always have a home remedy of some kind. You wouldn' ; t have to go to the doctor. WN: If you had a stomach ache, she gave you something? JT: Yeah, some turpentine. WN: Yes, I can remember my grandmother used to put my hand in turpentine if I cut it or anything. JT: Yeah. WN: Or if I cut something, sometimes she' ; d sprinkle salt all over it. JT: Yeah, that turpentine was a big medicine back then. WN: Yes. Do you remember Dr. King? JT: Oh, Lord, yes. He was a good a doctor as ever walked on two feet in my book. WN: Yes, and he was kind to everybody. JT: Yes, he was. I bet he died [indecipherable]. WN: Oh, sure you know they did. JT: I bet that' ; s true. WN: I' ; m telling you when my father died-- WN: Jonas can you tell me where your father came from? JT: From Alabama. WN: He came from Alabama, too. And your mother was from Alabama, too? JT: Uh huh. WN: How many children did you have, Jonas? JT: How many? WN: Uh huh. JT: Me? WN: Uh huh. JT: One. WN: One? JT: A daughter. WN: A daughter? JT: Yes. She lives in Chicago. WN: Is she still living? JT: Yeah, she lives in Chicago. WN: Does she ever get to come down here? JT: Oh yeah. Quite often. WN: That' ; s wonderful. JT: Yeah, she sure is sweet and she is mine. WN: You probably raised her right. JT: I sure did. WN: Do you remember any disasters that you had, any tornadoes or any floods or? JT: No. Never was in none of that. WN: Never was in any of those? Do you remember any kind of hobbies that you ever had. Did you ever do anything musical, Jonas, or did you ever wood carve, or did you sing with your church or? JT: Oh yeah. I' ; d go to church and sang up in the church. WN: And you sang in the church? Can you remember anybody in Bristow that was important to you, that helped you in any way? Do you remember any early people that? JT: Way back? WN: Or anytime in your life that was a good friend to you. JT: For one, I' ; ll say one, your brother' ; s one of them. WN: Oh really? JT: He' ; s a main [indecipherable] to me. WN: That' ; s a nice thing to say, Jonas. JT: He is. That' ; s the truth. I think so much of your brother. WN: Well, good. JT: He sure is a loving person. WN: Well, that' ; s-- JT: And I believe he' ; d do anything, God willing, for me. WN: Well, that' ; s nice, Jonas. JT: He is. He' ; s really nice. I think a lot of him. WN: I' ; m glad. But now, Jonas, tell me about integration of the school and how it affected you with desegregation. Do you think-- JT: No, we didn' ; t have that. All them kids I went to school with was just as nice, like I was one of the family. WN: Do you think that it had been better since we integrated, or do you think, how do you feel about that? JT: I think it was a good thing. We are all human beings. God made us all. We shouldn' ; t be separated from one another in my book. WN: That' ; s in my book, too. JT: That' ; s right. I sure mean this is the best way it ought to be. Not segregated at all cause God made one and made us all. WN: Alright, now then, tell me how you feel about your old, your aging process with how has it affected your life since you' ; ve given up your home and come to the nursing home. Can you tell us how you feel about that? JT: Well, I kinda hate to leave my home cause that was on account of my leg, I had to, but we still had it so, the Lord willing, some day we may go back there. WN: Well, that' ; s true. JT: Yeah, your brother is waiting for me and I' ; ll be here [indecipherable]. WN: Oh, that would be wonderful. Have you got another leg to replace that one that' ; s missing? JT: Then I' ; ll go back home. WN: Yeah. JT: Then I' ; ll [indecipherable]. He' ; s a nice person. I think so much of him. WN: Well, at least he' ; ll try. JT: I know it. He' ; s a good person. WN: Alright, now, Jonas before we sign off, is there anything that you' ; d like to say to leave a message or anything for the people who come after us? This is going to be in the library for anybody to listen to a tape to check if there looking back for any ancestors or? Is there anything that you' ; d like to say? JT: What' ; d you mean? WN: Well, I mean would you like to tell us anything, any kind of advice you' ; d like to give for the people that are going to come after us that we don' ; t even know about or is there any story you' ; d like to tell for them to remember about your early days? What would you like to leave for our heritage for these people that are coming after us? JT: Well, one thing I' ; d like to leave is, as far as I know, since I' ; ve been big enough to know anything, I' ; ve been very fortunate to have the people being nice to me. I' ; ve never been pushed back or nothing like that. I' ; ve been where I can really enjoy. Of course, now some people said people was kind of selfish, but I have never been [indecipherable]. WN: Well you get what you give out, don' ; t you? JT: Yeah, that' ; s true though. You be nice, then people will be nice to you. WN: That' ; s right. JT: But now, you get up and get ugly, then they will, too! WN: That' ; s right. My mother used to say when I' ; d say, " ; Make Kenneth stop doing that." ; She' ; d say, " ; Every ugly thing he knows, you taught him. Shame on you." ; JT: But that is true. You be nice to people and more than likely they going to turn the same thing back to you. WN: That' ; s right. JT: You know I think about old Dr. K (ph), he was a wonderful doctor. WN: Yes he was, and very generous, wasn' ; t he? JT: Oh yeah. I bet he pays for a lot of people owe him. I bet so! I wouldn' ; t be surprised if people owed that old doctor. Not a better doctor that ever walked on his feet. He was. I loved him. WN: I think a lot of people love Dr. King. JT: Yeah, I sure did. And like I said, a lot of people were waiting for him when he died. WN: That' ; s right. JT: Because he' ; d sure come. He told me he everyone at our house was sick and it was at night and checked to see how I was doing. WN: Isn' ; t that wonderful? JT: Oh, he was lovely. WN: Yes, we were fortunate to have Dr. King. JT: That' ; s right. WN: We were all young. JT: He was about a good a doctor that ever walked on two feet. WN: That' ; s right. JT: It makes me cry to think about it. WN: Well, don' ; t weep with tears, Jonas. We gotta sign off on a happy note. I want to thank Jonas for talking with me today, and so-- JT: Oh, I enjoyed it! WN: Well, I' ; m glad you did. JT: And I want to say again, I think about you and your brother, God bless you. WN: Well, thank you. JT: Kenneth will do anything, I believe, for me. audio 0 https://bristoworalhistory.org/ohms/viewer.php?cachefile=OHP-0041A_Jonas_Thompson.xml OHP-0041A_Jonas_Thompson.xml
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Jonas Thompson
Description
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In this 1990 interview with Jonas Thompson, he talks about moving from Alabama to Muskogee and, finally, to Bristow. He talks about his family, early life and what it was like growing up on a cotton farm. Even though times were tough, he talks about the importance of kindness.
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OHP-0041A
Date
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1990-11-28
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audio