2
10
101
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https://bristoworalhistory.org/files/original/4eaed6c2f7548b736f5a2294202ec60c.jpg
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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
Early Drilling Near Bristow
Subject
The topic of the resource
Oral Histories of Drilling in the early 1900s
Description
An account of the resource
Oral accounts of drilling for oil and natural gas near Bristow in the early 1900s
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
Bristow Historical Society, oral history collection
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Oral History
Oral History
A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge.
Interviewer
The person(s) performing the interview
Robert L. “Bob” McCarty
Interviewee
The person(s) being interviewed
Oliver "Tracy" Kelly
OHMS Object
This field contains the OHMS Hyperlink (link to the XML file within the OHMS
Viewer)
https://bristoworalhistory.org/ohms/viewer.php?cachefile=OHP-0002-02_Oliver_Kelly.xml
Interview Keyword
This field adds keywords to the Omeka Oral History item type. Keywords are
included in the OHMS XML, this field in Omeka will allow for full data migration
between OHMS XML and the Omeka Record. This field does not impact the
OHMS / Omeka integration and is optional if you do not need to map the
“keywords” field in the OHMS XML to the corresponding Omeka record.
banks
oil
cotton
OHMS Object Text
This field contains the OHMS Index and / or Transcript and is what makes the
contents of the OHMS object searchable in Omeka
5.4 OHP-0002-02 Oliver " ; Tracy" ; Kelly OHP-0002-02 Bristow Historical Society - Oral History Archive Oil Drilling - The Early Years Bristow Historical Society, Inc. First Banks and Cotton gins in Bristow banks oil cotton Oliver " ; Tracy" ; Kelly Robert L. “Bob” McCarty MP3 1:|13(3)|28(11)|52(5)|66(5)|75(3)|84(4)|94(4) 0 https://bristoworalhistory.org/interviews/OHP-0002-02 Kelly, Tracy.mp3 Other audio 0 Cotton Gins in Bristow BM: October 13, 1976, 10:45. pause in tape BM: To your knowledge, when was the first gin built in this part of the county? TK: Bob, I don’t know about the first gin, but I do know of my father, Albert Kelly, and W.O. Baker were partners, and their gin was established in Bristow right down by the railroad track where the old ice plant, and the Farmer’s Custom Gin started in 1913. And they were gin and cotton, they had all set up—gin and cotton in the fall of 1913. And they—some very interesting stories about how they, getting that equipment in from the old Loomis Gin people, into Bristow and getting it set up. And I’m sure they wouldn’t have started the gin unless there was a substantial amount of cotton in the area to support a gin facility. So if I were estimating, I would say that cotton came into the Bristow community in the nineteen-nines and nineteen-ten and –eleven, around in there. That’s the best of my—you know, that’s to, about as good a target date as I would, could get. Cotton gins in Bristow Albert Kelly ; Bud Long ; cotton ; cotton gin ; Farmer's Custom Gin ; Joe Abraham ; Loomis Gin ; Mills Friarson ; W.O. Baker cotton gin 148 Banking and Oil Drilling BM: What year did your father go into the banking business? TK: 1932. BM: 1932? TK: Back during the lean days of the banking world. He was invited in to the American National Bank stock ownership because of desperate need at that time to shore up their capital positions, because banks were having a very difficult time in those days. Discussion of the early bank in Bristow as well as agriculture and oil agriculture ; American National Bank ; banking ; banks ; Community State Bank ; Fath ; FDIC ; First State Bank ; Frisco ; oil ; rail ; stock agriculture ; banking ; oil drilling In this brief 1976 interview, Oliver “Tracy” Kelly (1926-2012) discusses the first banks and cotton gins in Bristow, Oklahoma, as well as the nature of the industry in the area at that time, which was primarily agriculture and oil. BM: October 13, 1976, 10:45. pause in tape BM: To your knowledge, when was the first gin built in this part of the county? TK: Bob, I don' ; t know about the first gin, but I do know of my father, Albert Kelly, and W.O. Baker were partners, and their gin was established in Bristow right down by the railroad track where the old ice plant, and the Farmer' ; s Custom Gin started in 1913. And they were gin and cotton, they had all set up--gin and cotton in the fall of 1913. And they--some very interesting stories about how they, getting that equipment in from the old Loomis Gin people, into Bristow and getting it set up. And I' ; m sure they wouldn' ; t have started the gin unless there was a substantial amount of cotton in the area to support a gin facility. So if I were estimating, I would say that cotton came into the Bristow community in the nineteen-nines and nineteen-ten and --eleven, around in there. That' ; s the best of my--you know, that' ; s to, about as good a target date as I would, could get. BM: What year, Tracy--you stated the other night that there was five banks in Bristow at one time. TK: Yeah, and before we get off of the cotton gin, there were five cotton gins in Bristow at one time. BM: There were five-- TK: --operating at the same time, that' ; s when cotton was king, back in the late teens and twenties. BM: Do you know the names of all of them? TK: The banks or the cotton gins? BM: The cotton gins. TK: No, but I can, I think I can do a little research and come up with some of them. Joe Abraham had a gin, Albert Kelly had a gin, Mills Friarson (ph) had a gin, there was--Bud Long (ph) had a gin, and anyway, there was-- BM: That' ; s four. TK: That' ; s four of them. BM: What year did your father go into the banking business? TK: 1932. BM: 1932? TK: Back during the lean days of the banking world. He was invited in to the American National Bank stock ownership because of desperate need at that time to shore up their capital positions, because banks were having a very difficult time in those days. BM: How many banks back in the --nine, -tens, up until this Heritage (ph) came in, how many banks were there in the city of Bristow? TK: Well, at one time I think, Bob, there were five banks and that was before they had to do a lot of--that was before the days of FDIC and federal insurance and that sort of thing. BM: Offhand, do you know the names of those banks? TK: No, I could--again, I could research them and find out, there was--I, off the top of my head I can' ; t tell you the names of them. I know that there was a First National and there was a First State and there was a Community State and there was American National, but BM: In your opinion, would you say that the banks that were in the Bristow area was a major factor in the development of that--this community? TK: I would attribute part of the inertia in the development in this area, certainly, but more importantly than that, in my judgment, was the fine agriculture and ultimately the oil production. Agriculture and oil is really what put Bristow on the map and thank goodness it had some good arteries of transportation, it had a rail--the main line of the Frisco was through here. But the natural resources of agriculture and oil really were the reason for Bristow being the quality of town that it was. BM: Do you remember hearing say--it had been brought to my attention that there was a geographical survey made of this country by the United States whenever they laid out the railroad. Do you think possibly that this survey was the cause of oil being established? TK: Bob, the U.S. Geodatic Survey, the engineers, when they came through this country, they performed certain geological findings that were bound to have attracted the early day oilman because there was a man by the name of Fath, and there is still talking around the oilpatch about the ' ; Fath highs.' ; These were the geological high structures that were even identified by the Fath engineering and geological surveys back in the early days. It' ; s been amazingly accurate, some of those geological pronouncements that were back there at the turn of the century. BM: At one time was there a Bristow geographical survey company that surveyed out of Bristow? TK: To my knowledge, Bob, I' ; d have to defer that to someone else. To my knowledge I don' ; t know of any, but I' ; m kind of a johnny-come-lately in that score. There are other old oilpatchers around here that would probably have a better feel for that than I. I don' ; t know. end of interview 1 audio 0 https://bristoworalhistory.org/ohms/viewer.php?cachefile=OHP-0002-02_Oliver_Kelly.xml OHP-0002-02_Oliver_Kelly.xml
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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
Oliver "Tracy" Kelly
Description
An account of the resource
In this brief 1976 interview, Oliver “Tracy” Kelly (1926-2012) discusses the first banks and cotton gins in Bristow, Oklahoma, as well as the nature of the industry in the area at that time, which was primarily agriculture and oil.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
OHP-0002-02
Subject
The topic of the resource
First Banks and Cotton gins in Bristow
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1976-10-13
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
audio
-
https://bristoworalhistory.org/files/original/cd1168c93325d2d2c2919056bd1767b1.jpg
36d19139284163f00d3fc3ff007e1319
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
Early Drilling Near Bristow
Subject
The topic of the resource
Oral Histories of Drilling in the early 1900s
Description
An account of the resource
Oral accounts of drilling for oil and natural gas near Bristow in the early 1900s
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
Bristow Historical Society, oral history collection
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Oral History
Oral History
A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge.
Interviewer
The person(s) performing the interview
Robert L. “Bob” McCarty
Interviewee
The person(s) being interviewed
Ralph R. "Brick" Kirchner
OHMS Object
This field contains the OHMS Hyperlink (link to the XML file within the OHMS
Viewer)
https://bristoworalhistory.org/ohms/viewer.php?cachefile=OHP-0002-03_Ralph_Kirchner.xml
Interview Keyword
This field adds keywords to the Omeka Oral History item type. Keywords are
included in the OHMS XML, this field in Omeka will allow for full data migration
between OHMS XML and the Omeka Record. This field does not impact the
OHMS / Omeka integration and is optional if you do not need to map the
“keywords” field in the OHMS XML to the corresponding Omeka record.
oil
geology
OHMS Object Text
This field contains the OHMS Index and / or Transcript and is what makes the
contents of the OHMS object searchable in Omeka
5.4 OHP-0002-03 Ralph R. " ; Brick" ; Kirchner OHP-0002-03 Bristow Historical Society - Oral History Archive Oil Drilling - The Early Years Bristow Historical Society, Inc. oil oil geology Ralph R. " ; Brick" ; Kirchner Robert L. “Bob” McCarty MP3 1:|12(2)|22(2)|47(7)|73(1) 0 https://bristoworalhistory.org/interviews/OHP-0002-03 Kirchner, R.R..mp3 Other audio 0 Bristow Quadrangle BM: …some of the information that we need. Now then, Mr. Kirchner, on the survey company, what was the name of that survey company that surveyed this community? BK: It was done by Dr. Fath and is called The Bristow Quadrangle and it was made by the U.S.G.S. That’s the United States Geological Survey. BM: And to your knowledge, what year was that done? Discussion of the United States Geological Survey and the Bristow Quadrangle Bristow Quadrangle ; Dr. Fath ; drilling ; George Krumme ; oil ; United States Geological Survey ; Virgil Vann ; W.O. Baker Bristow Quadrangle ; oil drilling 175 Bristow Dutcher fields and Claude Freeman BM: --and who— BK: It was Claude Freeland and some relative of theirs that drilled the first well that I recall in seventeen-nine, they’re the ones that opened the pool in 16-9, they opened the Bristow Dutcher fields. MM: Where was that? The Bristow Dutcher fields? Discussion of the Bristow Dutcher fields and Claude Freeman Bristow ; Bristow Dutcher fields ; Claude Freeman ; drilling ; well Bristow ; oil drilling In this brief 1976 interview, Ralph R. “Brick” Kirchner (RK) (1893-1990) discusses a 1925 United States Geological Survey geological report covering the “Bristow Quadrangle” oilfield area. BM: --some of the information that we need. Now then, Mr. Kirchner, on the survey company, what was the name of that survey company that surveyed this community? BK: It was done by Dr. Fath and is called The Bristow Quadrangle and it was made by the U.S.G.S. That' ; s the United States Geological Survey. BM: And to your knowledge, what year was that done? BK: Oh, let me see, I don' ; t know but it was the first one that had been done in its entirety of the geology and topography of the area and it gives all of the wells that were drilled at that time and the history of them. I would say it was around 1913 or ' ; 14. BM: To your knowledge, I was told--to your knowledge, do you know of the well that was drilled in here on the Violet Williams (ph) or this Jesse Mosquito (ph) say in about 1911? BK: No, I do not, but if that well was drilled there, it would be--there would be a write-up of it in The Bristow Quadrangle. BM: That information was given to me by Virgil Vann, he said the first well to knowledge was drilled a mile south of the W.O. Baker place, which the W.O. Baker place would' ; ve been the Big Mosquito. BK: Yeah, I drilled on the Baker place. BM: You drilled here on the Big Mosquito-- BK: I drilled on the Mosquito. BM: And he said--Virgil Vann told me that well was drilled in about 1911. BK: Mm. BM: But you would say, just personally yourself, without the records, you would say roughly that the first well, that would be roughly the first well that was drilled. BK: That' ; s what I think, but that would be disclosed in that--in the write-up on 17-9 and the Bristow Quadrangle, which you can get from George--Mr. George Krumme. BM: Okay. pause in recording BM: --and who-- BK: It was Claude Freeland and some relative of theirs that drilled the first well that I recall in seventeen-nine, they' ; re the ones that opened the pool in 16-9, they opened the Bristow Dutcher fields. MM: Where was that? The Bristow Dutcher fields? BM: Where was that located? BK: That' ; s on out east of town here in 16-9, east of Bristow. BM: The opened up the one in 16-9 and you' ; re sure that they' ; re the one--reasonably sure that they were the one that drilled the first one in 17-9. BK: Yes, sir, I am. I am. BM: I had talked to Carl Glen (ph) on the phone, I talked to him and he hasn' ; t been much help as yet on it. BK: Well, he' ; s just recovering from eye surgery and he hadn' ; t completely recovered yet. BM: So his thinking isn' ; t-- BK: That' ; s right. BM: --isn' ; t too strong. And at a later date probably his thinking will be better and he will be able to remember a lot of these things that he was in on there with Claude, why he will remember about that. BK: That' ; s right. end of interview 1 audio 0 https://bristoworalhistory.org/ohms/viewer.php?cachefile=OHP-0002-03_Ralph_Kirchner.xml OHP-0002-03_Ralph_Kirchner.xml
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4410
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
Ralph R. "Brick" Kirchner
Description
An account of the resource
In this brief 1976 interview, Ralph R. “Brick” Kirchner (RK) (1893-1990) discusses a 1925 United States Geological Survey geological report covering the “Bristow Quadrangle” oilfield area.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
OHP-0002-03
Subject
The topic of the resource
oil
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1976-10
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
audio
-
https://bristoworalhistory.org/files/original/7aa2d912ecbddfac8736b6e44e59e344.pdf
dbe251e18f79be313ad5fb177260c279
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
Video Histories
Subject
The topic of the resource
Video with transcript
Oral History
A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge.
Interviewer
The person(s) performing the interview
George Krumme
Interviewee
The person(s) being interviewed
Promotional movie
OHMS Object
This field contains the OHMS Hyperlink (link to the XML file within the OHMS
Viewer)
https://bristoworalhistory.org/ohms/viewer.php?cachefile=OHP-0001-V_Geo_Krumme_How_Oklahoma_Millionaires_Are_Made.xml
Interview Keyword
This field adds keywords to the Omeka Oral History item type. Keywords are
included in the OHMS XML, this field in Omeka will allow for full data migration
between OHMS XML and the Omeka Record. This field does not impact the
OHMS / Omeka integration and is optional if you do not need to map the
“keywords” field in the OHMS XML to the corresponding Omeka record.
Krumme Oil Company
Cushing-Webb Oil Company
Cushing Oil Field
Tom Slick
OHMS Object Text
This field contains the OHMS Index and / or Transcript and is what makes the
contents of the OHMS object searchable in Omeka
5.4 OHP-0001-v How Oklahoma Millionaires Are Made - George Krumme 38:44 Bristow Historical Society, Inc. How Oklahoma Millionaires Are Made Krumme Oil Company Cushing-Webb Oil Company Cushing Oil Field Tom Slick Promotional movie George Krumme m4v OHP-0001-V Krumme How Oklahoma Millionaires Are Made.m4v 1:|19(1)|60(8)|75(11)|94(2)|117(3)|136(2)|157(9)|174(4)|188(1)|214(12)|233(6)|259(10)|279(9)|302(1)|317(1)|333(6)|344(1)|367(11)|386(11)|398(15)|433(1)|459(4)|482(1)|496(2)|513(8)|526(8)|546(2)|560(9)|573(13)|587(13)|613(5)|631(1)|642(6)|678(5)|700(13)|715(1)|734(9)|755(3) 0 https://bristoworalhistory.org/interviews/OHP-0001-V Krumme How Oklahoma Millionaires Are Made.m4v Other video English 0 How Oklahoma Millionaires Are Made “How Oklahoma Millionaires Are Made” Narrated by George Krumme GK: My name is George Krumme. I’m a partner in Krumme Oil Company of Bristow, Oklahoma. In the early 1980’s, J. B. Red, a Stillwater oil man, contacted my brother and me with a proposition. A friend of his, Sam Myers, had saved a four-reel, silent moving picture made for his father’s company many decades earlier. Background to preserving the movie " ; How Oklahoma Millionaires Are Made" ; , filmed in 1917-1918 Cushing Field ; Cushing Oil Field ; Cushing-Webb Oil Company ; J. B. Red ; Krumme Oil Company ; manually operated camera ; Oilton ; Oklahoma State University ; Sam Myers background ; Cushing Oil Field ; Cushing-Webb Oil Company ; Oilton https://www.tulsahistory.org/halloffame/george-krumme/ George Krumme 87 A WEEK'S TRIP IN THE GREAT CUSHING OIL FIELD IN OKLAHOMA FOUR REELS REEL ONE THE LARGEST HIGH GRADE OIL FIELD IN THE WORLD OIL FIELD TOWNS OILTON 15 YEARS AGO The caption says Oilton 15 years ago, but it should say Oilton today and Oilton 15 years ago, because the first scenes are of downtown Oilton during the boom. Oilton was not even founded until 1915, three years after the discovery well was drilled. Scenes of 1917-1918 Oklahoma, both small town Oilton, near where the discovery well was to be drilled, and a country home. 101 Ranch ; Creek County ; Cushing Field ; Five Civilized Tribes ; Montgomery Ward ; Oilton ; Pawnee County Authentic scenes of early Oklahoma ; log houses ; Scenes of Oilton 36.085046, -96.586629 15 Oilton, Oklahoma https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miller_Brothers_101_Ranch Miller Brothers 101 Ranch https://www.britannica.com/topic/Five-Civilized-Tribes The Five Civilized Tribes 228 BUSY OILTON TO-DAY AND WHAT MAKES IT Cushing Field was discovered in 1912. It was named for Cushing even though the town is 10 or 12 miles west of the field. At the time, it was the closest town. Drumright was founded near the discovery well during the following year, and Oilton was founded a couple of years later. The Cushing Field discovery well and a brief introduction to Tom Slick. C. B. Shaffer ; Cushing ; Cushing Field ; Drumright ; Drumright (Okla.) ; King of the Wildcatters ; Oilton ; Slick, Tom, 1883-1930 ; Tom Slick ; Wheeler farm Cushing Oil Field discovery well ; Tom Slick " ; King of the Wildcatters" ; https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/57951944/thomas-baker-slick Tom Slick 284 DRUMRIGHT FOUR YEARS OLD POPULATION 15000 At the first strong showing of oil and gas, Slick had the driller fill the hole with mud and water and invert a wash tub over the casing with a heavy drilling tool on top. He then cut the telephone line to the Wheeler home Tom Slick discovery well as the beginning of the Cushing Oil Field Cushing ; Drumright ; landman ; Tom Slick ; Wheeler home first strong showing of oil and gas ; livery teams and notaries in Cuishing ; Wheeler home https://www.dictionary.com/browse/landman Landman 321 BUILDING A DERRICK Drilling with cable tools was fairly well standardized in the early days of the industry. All of the original drilling in the Cushing Field was done with what was called a standard rig, using steam power. Building an oil derrick in 1917 - 1918 boiler ; rig irons ; rotary drilling ; standard rig ; steam engine ; wire lines building a derrick ; oil derricks in 1917 - 1918 363 DRILLING Drilling was done using the walking beam, but the tools had to be below floor level before it could be used. So to start the well, a spudding line was run from the crank to a sliding shoe which was hooked over the drilling line just above the bull wheels. Drilling using a waling beam is described. sliding shoe ; spudder ; spudding line ; walking beam drilling using the walking beam ; spudder replaced the standard rig ; starting a well with a spudding line https://ethw.org/Walking_Beams Walking Beams 401 UNLOADING CASING AT THE RAILROAD If the well turned out to be a producer, the steam engine was replaced with a big single cylinder engine, and the rig and derrick were kept to pump and service the well. If the derrick was blown down, the rig was kept in operation but was referred to as a bob tailed rig. Scene of unloading casing from a railroad car using mules and a wagon. bob tailed rig ; gin poles ; single cylinder engine ; unloading casing unloading casing ; unloading casing from railroad cars ; using mules to unload casing 460 LOADING CASING AT THE CIMARRON RIVER NEAR OILTON As you can see, the casing being loaded here is too large to be production casing. Big casing was used in drilling the well. Drilling at the Cushing Field was difficult because there were numerous shallow sand formations that produced water. Casing being loaded from the banks of the Cimarron River to a wagon on the bridge over the river. Narration includes the completion of the discovery well. Bartlesville producing sand ; Cushing Field ; Oswego limestone ; production casing ; uralitic phase ; Wheeler farm ; Wheeler sand discovery well completed ; drilling at the Cushing field ; loading casing to be used in drilling https://www.dictionary.com/browse/uralite Uralite 551 HAULING CASING TO THE WELL Teamsters prefer horses instead of mules for hauling in the oil fields. Draft horses were bigger and stronger. Farmers, and the US Army in World War I, preferred mules because they were heartier, but they were also more stubborn. Casing is being hauled to the drilling site. The narration includes a comparison of the Cushing Field peak daily production in 1915 to the entire state of Oklahoma average daily production in 2002. Bartlesville sand ; Cushing Field ; draft horses ; mules Cushing Field peak production ; hauling casing using wagons and mules ; Oklahoma average barrels per day ; test well drilled to Bartlesville sand 597 MOVING HOTEL BETWEEN MEALS Ironically, some of the biggest Bartlesville wells were not in the Bartlesville sand at all. The Cushing structure is bald-headed. Scene of horses pulling a wagon with a hotel across a wooden bridge. Some biggest Bartlesville wells were not in the Bartlesville sand. bald-headed ; Bartlesville sand ; Mississippi lime ; Simpson sands ; Wilcox sand Bartlesville wells ; Horses moving a hotel across a bridge 618 PREPARING THE EATS NOON Between Drumright and Oilton, in an area of a few square miles, even the Bartlesville is missing and the drill goes directly from the Redfork into productive Arbuckle limestone. Some Arbuckle wells made five or six thousand barrels a day. Arbuckle limestone ; Bartlesville sand ; Drumright ; Oilton ; Redfork ; Sinclair worker ; United States Geological Survey ; USGS Survey drilling into Arbuckle limestone ; missing Bartlesville sand ; Workers washing and eating https://pubs.usgs.gov/bul/0658/report.pdf USGS Bulletin Geologic Structure in the Cushing Oil and Gas Field, Oklahoma 1917 681 A WEEK’S TRIP IN THE GREAT CUSHING OIL FIELD IN OKLAHOMA FOUR REELS REEL TWO CASING CREW AT WORK In a standard rig, the big bull wheels which held the drilling cable blocked the face of the derrick so the casing wrap was placed opposite the crank, and the casing was wagoned in from the walking beam side using a front wagon and a back wagon. This pipe looks like seven-inch casing so it may be the final inside production string. Crew working to attach more casing pipe segments, including using front and back wagons and a " ; never slip" ; which is a device used to hold the upper part of a drill string. bull ropes ; bull wheel ; bull wheels ; casing pole ; casing wrap ; d-thread casing ; half-wheel ; never-slip ; round-thread casing ; seven-inch casing ; tug pulley casing string ; drilling terms ; screwing pipe together ; standard rig casing 771 HAULING STORAGE TANK TO THE TANK FARM Back to the subject of the Arbuckle limestone, one Arbuckle well north of Drumright still makes about a hundred and fifteen barrels a day along with ungodly amounts of water. New wells are still occasionally drilled to the Arbuckle. Short scene showing a tractor pulling a string of wagons, and commentary on the Arbuckle limestone production as of the time of the narration (2003). Arbuckle limestone production ; hauling storage tanks 791 SHOOTING THE WELL THE SHOOTER ARRIVES Liquid nitroglycerin is highly unstable and very dangerous to handle. Shooting continued to be the most popular way to stimulate a well until the development of sand fracking around 1950. Shooting a well with nitroglycerin and with sand fracking. jelled water ; napalm ; Nitroglycerin ; nitroglycerin ; sand fracking contemporary fracking with jelled water ; early sand fracking proportions with napalm ; preparing to shoot the well 823 SOUNDING FOR DEPTH Stanolind Oil Company got a patent on the sand fracking process and it collected royalties on every job. Workers estimating the depth of the well and talk of the Stanolind Oil Company patent on sand fracking. Amoco ; sand fracking ; Standard Oil of Indiana ; Stanolind ; Stanolind Oil Company ; the house that frack built ; Tulsa estimating well depth ; sand fracking patent 841 PREPARING THE CHARGE I’m sorry to say I don’t know what the washing in the bucket is accomplishing. By the time we started in the business a blasting gel had been developed and it was much safer than nitroglycerin. The shooter preps the tubes for the nitroglycerin, and description of using a " ; go devil" ; to set off the shot. A " ; go devil" ; is a dart dropped into an oil well to explode the dynamite or nitroglycerin go devil ; Zero Hour Bomb Company blasting gel safer than nitroglycerin ; setting off the shot 897 POURING NITRO-CLYCERINE INTO TUBE AND LOWERING IN THE WELL When sand fracking put the well shooting trade out of business, the Zero Hour Bomb Company shortened its name to Zebco and began manufacturing fishing reels. The shooter adds nitroglycerin into the tube and the well is shot, resulting in a gusher. gusher ; sand fracking ; Zebco ; Zero Hour Bomb Company a gusher ; Pouring nitroglycerin into the tube ; Zebco making fishing reels 948 LAYING PIPE LINE TO THE TANK FARM The Cushing Field has produced about a half billion barrels of oil. Early flush production overloaded the hastily constructed pipelines. It broke the price of oil and kept it low for several years. But Tom Slick and others found a solution. A crew screws together pipe joints for a pipe line. The narrator relates the Tom Slick solution for storing oil during times of low prices. Bristow ; building a pipeline ; Cushing Field ; Frisco Railroad ; latongs ; Oil storage tanks ; oil tanks ; pipe-jack ; pipeline ; Tom Slick oil storage tanks ; screwing together pipe jointss 1026 THETANK FARM Like Tom Slick, others built tank farms, and at one time about 23 million barrels of oil was stored at or near the Cushing Field, which is part of the reason why Cushing became “the pipeline crossroads of the world.” About 30 million barrels of oil storage capacity is currently located in the vicinity of Cushing. Short scene of a tank farm. Cushing ; Cushing Field ; the pipeline capital of the world ; Tom Slick Tank farms for storing oil 1051 A FEW SCENES AMONG THE OIL WELLS ADJOINING OILTON OIL WELLS IN THE CIMARRON RIVER The Cimarron River between Drumright and Oilton ran through one of the richest parts of the field. Ownership of the mineral rights under the river bed up to the line of highest water was claimed by both the federal government and the state of Oklahoma, but their claims were disputed by the owners of the adjoining Indian allotments. Oil wells are shown along the Cimarron River, and even on raised land in the middle of the river. The federal, state, and Indian governments all claimed ownership. Cimarron River ; Drumright ; Indian allotments ; mneral rights ; Oilton ; river bed ; river bed leases Oil wells built along the Cimarron River ; river bed mineral rights 1104 A SCENE FROM THE CUSHING-WEBB OIL CO'S SUB-DIVISION The Santa Fe built a railroad line from Cushing into Oilton with a spur to Drumright, and the Oil Belt Terminal Railroad tied into the Short Line from Jennings to Oilton. Both lines carried passengers, but their main goal was to deliver supplies and take out crude oil. Scenes of oil derricks, tanks, and plains of the Cushing-Webb sub-division. Bernard Jones introduces Tom Slick and Bernice Frates. Bernard B. Jones ; Bernard Jones ; Bernice Frates ; Bristow ; Cusing ; Depew ; Drumright ; Frates ; J.A. Frates ; Jennings ; Joseph A. Frates ; Joseph Frates ; Oil Belt Terminal Railroad ; Oilton ; Okmulgee ; Santa Fe ; Santa Fe Railroad ; Shamrock ; Short Line ; Tom Slick Bristow to Okmulgee railroad ; oil derricks ; oil tanks ; Santa Fe railroad ; Tom Slick marries Bernice Frates 1207 HAULING FLOW TANK TO THE WELL (Sound of horses) flow tank 1221 A WEEK’S TRIP IN THE GREAT CUSHING OIL FIELD IN OKLAHOMA FOUR REELS REEL THREE LAYING OIL PIPE LINE FROM THIS FIELD TO THE GULF OF MEXICO Numerous pipelines were built to carry away the flood of crude oil. The Texas Company and Magnolia both laid a line all the way to the Gulf of Mexico. Note that this scene was posed. Men in suits don’t just stand around very often, and this prehistoric Ditch Witch is rotating but not moving forward. Pipelines were built to transport oil. The McMan Oil Company built a pipeline to Healdton to tie into the Magnolia gathering system. Magnolia had a pipeline to the Gulf of Mexico. Arbuckle ; Cushing ; Ditch Witch ; Gulf of Mexico ; Healdton ; Healdton (Okla.) ; James Chapman ; Magnolia ; McMan Oil Company ; Robert McFarland ; Texas Company Magnolia gathering system ; pipeline built by McMan to Healdton ; The McMan Oil Company 1292 OIL FIELD CATASTROPHES INSURANCE COMPANIES ARE THE LOSERS TANKS STRUCK BY LIGHTENING OIL FIRE ON TIGER CREEK During the flush production days, lots of Cushing oil was stored in big earthen pits, and there were several spectacular fires set by lightening. Lightening also set tanks afire. Sometimes a 55 thousand barrel would catch fire and burn at the top of the tank. Oil fires are shown in earthen pits, tanks, and the Tiger Creek. Companies used a cannon to blow a hole in the bottom of a tank for the oil to drain which could then be recovered. cannon ; Cushing ; Drumright Oil Field Museum ; earthen pits ; oil tank first ; struck by lightening blowing a hole in the tank ; draining a tank on fire ; earthen pit fires ; oil pit fires ; oil tank fires set by lightening 1349 RESULT OF A 00000 GASOLINE EXPLOSION FIVE MILES OF CUSHING-WEBB OIL CO’S SUB-DIVISION Notice that these tanks are riveted tanks. Pressure vessels had to be riveted because electric arc welding had not yet been perfected. Most of the oil field tanks in those days were bolted tanks, and all the stock tanks and big storage tanks were bolted. Tanks that were damaged in a huge gasoline plant explosion are shown. The narrator talks about the Chapman and McFarland ties to Tulsa, the Glenn Pool, and the sale of McMan Oil Company to Magnolia. Glenn Pool ; Holdenville ; Holdenville Oil and Gas ; James Chapman ; Phillip Chapman ; riveted tanks ; Robert McFarland ; Sapulpa ; Tulsa ; weldd tanks Remains after a huge gasoline explosion 1462 JUNK CREW SAVING WHAT'S LEFT The Chapman’s and McFarland were already well-off, but they really made their money when they drilled leases they took in the Cushing Field. At times the McMan was the major producer in the field. A crew is seen loading scrap left after the gasoline explosion. Chapman and McFarland were very successful in the Cushing Field. Horace Bernard ; James Chapman ; McMan ; mCmAN ; Mrs. James Chapman ; Pawhuska ; pAWHUSKA ; Robert McFarland ; Tall Grass Prairie Preserve ; tALL gRASS pRAIRIE pRESERVE Chapman family charitable foundation ; crew loading scrap ; horse drawn wagons carrying scrap metal https://www.nps.gov/tapr/index.htm Tall Grass Prairie Preserve 1548 GASOLINE PLANTS & ; REFINERIES NEAR OILTON The one non-family owner of the McMan was E. T. Harwell, who owned one-sixth of the stock so he became quite rich. He built a mansion at 22nd Street and Riverside which his widow gave to the Arts and Humanities Council of Tulsa and today Harwelden is the council’s home. A gasoline plant and refinery near Oilton is shown, with tanks, and pipelines. E. T. Harwell is introduced. Casing-head gas, or drip gasoline, is discussed. Wooden tanks are described, as is oil and gas waste and the attempts to recover oil waste. anticline ; Arts and Humanities Council of Tulsa ; casing-head gas ; circulating tank ; Cushing Field ; dam ; drip gasoline ; E. T. Harwell ; East Texas pool ; Harwelden ; Magnolia ; McMan ; natural gas ; Prudhoe Bay ; Prudhoe Bay (Alaska) ; railroad tank cars ; redwood ; Riverside ; Riverside Drive ; skimming crafts ; stratigraphic traps ; tank cars ; Tiger Creek ; transportation facilities shortage ; Tulsa ; wooden tanks anticlinal traps and stratigraphic traps ; collecting drip gasoline ; collecting wasted oil with skimming crafts ; Cushing Field production compared to East Texas and Prudhoe Bay ; drip gasoline available for pumpers ; McMan oil storage tanks ; oil and gas waste ; skimmer on Tiger Creek ; water tanks made of redwood https://www.facebook.com/Harwelden Harwelden 1814 A WEEK’S TRIP IN THE GREAT CUSHING OIL FIELD IN OKLAHOMA FOUR REELS REEL FOUR As I related earlier, Joseph Frates promoted a town site in the edge of a new oil pool on the route of his new railroad from Bristow to Okmulgee. Since Tom Slick had put up most of the money, Frates chose him to be the president of the railroad, and he also named the town after Slick. A tank farm is shown in the movie. The narrator continues the story of the railroad being built from Bristow to Okmulgee and the connection to Tom Slick Bristow ; Joseph Frates ; Okmulgee ; Slick ; Tom Slick Bristow to Okmulgee railroad ; scenes of a tank farm ; Slick, Oklahoma 1874 FILLING TANK CARS WITH GASOLINE Soon after the Cushing Field was discovered, Tom Slick’s best friend, Charles F. Urschel, married Tom’s sister Mary, and took over the management of Slick’s business affairs. When Slick died at the age of forty-six in 1930, Urschel became trustee of the estate. The movie shows tank railroad tank cars being loaded with gasoline. The narrator relates the story of Tom Slick's death, Mary Slick Urschel's death, Charles Urschel marrying Bernice Frates Slick, and of Charles Urschel's kidnapping. Bernice Frates Slick ; Charles F. Urschel ; Charles Urschel ; Dallas ; Depression ; FBI ; George " ; Machine Gun" ; Kelly ; Mary Slick ; Oklahoma City ; Urschel kidnapping ; Urschel, Charles F., 1890-1970 Charles Urschel kidnapping ; Railroad tank cars being filled with gasoline ; Tom Slick, Bernice Frates Slick, Charles Urschel, and Mary Slick Urschel https://oklahoman.com/article/4626874/july-22-1933-machine-gun-kelly-kidnaps-wealthy-oilman Charles Urschel kidnapping 1984 MR. O.A. BREWER DIRECTOR OF STANDARD OIL OF WYOMING AND A LOT OWNER IN THE CUSHING WEBB OIL CO’S SUB-DIVISION MR. PAUL A. WINTERSTEEN OUR SECRETARY MR. S.M. MYERS OUR TREASURER OUR CHIEF ENGINEER INTERIOR OF OUR OFFICE CUSHING-WEBB OIL CO’S OFFICE LETTERS OF RECOMMEDATION BETTER BUY A LOT AND GET ONE OF Along with the film itself, we got a copy of some remarks made by Sam Meyers who had saved his father’s movie all those decades. Included was a message that probably was part of a flyer or brochure for the benefit of the people who had watched the film. Here’s the pitch: The final segment shows some of the Cushing-Webb officers, engineer, offices, letters of recommendation from local Stillwater entities, and a stock certificate. Cimarron River ; Cushing ; Cushing Oil Field ; Cushing-Webb ; Cushing-Webb Oil Company ; Drumright ; How Oklahoma Millionaires Are Made ; Jennings ; Mr. O.A. Brewer ; Mr. Paul A. Wintersteen ; O.A. Brewer ; Oilton ; Paul A. Wintersteen ; S. M. Meyers ; Sam Meyers ; Tulsa ; Yale area map showing drilling site ; capturing the pitch on film ; Cushing-Webb office ; Cushing-Webb officers ; letters of recommendation ; lot numbers ; the pitch to invest in the discovery well A promotional video of the Cushing Oil Field filmed in 1917 or 1918 to promote the sale of interests for a new well to be drilled by the Cushing-Webb Oil Company. Commentary added by George Krumme in 2003. " ; How Oklahoma Millionaires Are Made" ; Narrated by George Krumme GK: My name is George Krumme. I' ; m a partner in Krumme Oil Company of Bristow, Oklahoma. In the early 1980' ; s, J. B. Red, a Stillwater oil man, contacted my brother and me with a proposition. A friend of his, Sam Myers, had saved a four-reel, silent moving picture made for his father' ; s company many decades earlier. J. B. had just seen the picture and said to himself " ; This movie ought to be preserved, but the old celluloid film will not last indefinitely." ; So he talked to someone at Oklahoma State University and their audio-visual center agreed to copy the 35 millimeter film onto new 16 millimeter film, and make several copies, if some group would subsidize the costs. As I remember it, we paid a third of the cost and in return got a copy of the film. The movie covers the Cushing Oil Field, and it was made in 1917 or 18 when the field was five or six years old. Sam Myers father was a principal in the Cushing-Webb Oil Company of Stillwater which planned to drill a well near the Cushing Field northwest of Oilton. The company made the film to promote the sale of interests in the well. Mr. Myers hired a professional photographer from Oklahoma City who used an early style, manually operated camera. The well was drilled by the way, and it was a dry hole. With that as the background, let' ; s start the action. A WEEK' ; S TRIP IN THE GREAT CUSHING OIL FIELD IN OKLAHOMA FOUR REELS REEL ONE THE LARGEST HIGH GRADE OIL FIELD IN THE WORLD OIL FIELD TOWNS. OILTON 15 YEARS AGO (Background music) The caption says Oilton 15 years ago, but it should say Oilton today and Oilton 15 years ago, because the first scenes are of downtown Oilton during the boom. Oilton was not even founded until 1915, three years after the discovery well was drilled. (Native Americans riding though camp) The Cushing Field and the proposed wildcat well were both located in Creek County in the Creek Nation, but the Indians shown in this movie are certainly not Creek Indians. The Creeks were one of the Five Civilized Tribes, originally from Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia, and teepees, feathered headdresses, and buffalo were not part of their world. These Indians are clearly plains Indians. Oilton is only a few miles from Pawnee County, so these may well have been Pawnee Indians, or perhaps they were Indians who performed at the old 101 Ranch who were hired as extras to add some exotic color to the film. Either way, these are honest Indians and not Hollywood Indians. The white man tied to the stake and the white woman pleading for his life may have been employees of the Cushing-Webb Company, who as a bonus were allowed to appear in the movies. (Piano music playing) Somehow I don' ; t think there were any wild bison in Oklahoma in 1917, and I doubt very much if this particular animal was killed by a spear or a bow and arrow. Authentic scenes of early day Oklahoma add color to the film. By 1917 the most common draft animal should have been the mule, and oxen should have been rare. Log houses chinked with mud would have been unusual, too. The film was made near the end of horse and buggy days when electricity was available only in towns, running water in country homes was unheard of, and outdoor privies were regularly stocked with Montgomery Ward catalogs. BUSY OILTON TO-DAY AND WHAT MAKES IT Cushing Field was discovered in 1912. It was named for Cushing even though the town is 10 or 12 miles west of the field. At the time, it was the closest town. Drumright was founded near the discovery well during the following year, and Oilton was founded a couple of years later. (Background chatter) The discovery well was drilled by the legendary Tom Slick, later called " ; King of the Wildcatters." ; Slick was not yet 30 but he had already built a reputation. Unfortunately, it was a reputation for drilling dry holes, because during the previous seven or eight years he had drilled or participated in about 10 dusters without a single hit. At the time it was said that he was " ; broke as flat as a pancake" ; . He could toss up a dollar and it would change into ten cents before it hit the floor. Even though he still had some backers, he had to go to Chicago to persuade an old employer, C. B. Shaffer, to lend him eight thousand dollars to drill the well, and he had to borrow a hundred dollars in order to pay for the trip. DRUMRIGHT FOUR YEARS OLD POPULATION 15000 At the first strong showing of oil and gas, Slick had the driller fill the hole with mud and water and invert a wash tub over the casing with a heavy drilling tool on top. He then cut the telephone line to the Wheeler home and high tailed it to Cushing where he hired every livery team and every notary in Cushing in order to delay his competitions' ; landmen. Meanwhile, Slick and his associates began taking oil and gas leases. Even though they did obtain many, so did others, and many a fortune was made in the field during the next few years. BUILDING A DERRICK (Sawing and rig building sounds) Drilling with cable tools was fairly well standardized in the early days of the industry. All of the original drilling in the Cushing Field was done with what was called a standard rig, using steam power. In those days, rotary drilling was generally confined to the soft rocks of the Gulf Coast and California because the early rotary bits did a poor job of drilling in hard rocks. To build a standard rig, rig irons and lumber were hauled in and everything was assembled on the location. A boiler, a steam engine, and lots of casing completed the setup leaving only the wire lines and the tools which were furnished by the drilling contractor. DRILLING Drilling was done using the walking beam, but the tools had to be below floor level before it could be used. So to start the well, a spudding line was run from the crank to a sliding shoe which was hooked over the drilling line just above the bull wheels. As the crank turned, the sliding shoe pulled and then slackened the line, which raised and lowered the tools. The same principle operates a spudder, which was the cable tool machine that replaced the standard rig. A spud, by the way, was originally a spade used for digging roots, which is why starting to drill is called spudding, and why potatoes are called spuds UNLOADING CASING AT THE RAILROAD If the well turned out to be a producer, the steam engine was replaced with a big single cylinder engine, and the rig and derrick were kept to pump and service the well. If the derrick was blown down, the rig was kept in operation but was referred to as a bob tailed rig. This is a primitive but practical way to unload casing. When our company first started in the oil business in the late forties, we bought a few railroad cars of casing. We did not own a truck with tall enough gin poles, so we unloaded the casing exactly the same way as they' ; re doing here, except that we used a truck or a pickup instead of a team of mules. LOADING CASING AT THE CIMARRON RIVER NEAR OILTON As you can see, the casing being loaded here is too large to be production casing. Big casing was used in drilling the well. Drilling at the Cushing Field was difficult because there were numerous shallow sand formations that produced water. Drilling in a hole full of water is very slow. To dry up the hole, the drillers installed a string of big casing, and then as more water sands were reached successively smaller strings were run. Four or five strings of pipe were generally run to reach the Bartlesville producing sand in the Cushing Field. This represented quite an investment and most often the bigger strings would be stripped out either at the completion of the well or sometime later, leaving only the inside one or two strings. None of the casing was cemented, that technological improvement occurred in the 1920s. The discovery well in the Cushing Field was completed at about 2200 feet, in an uralitic phase of the Oswego limestone. The pay zone was promptly named the Wheeler sand because it was found on the Wheeler farm. HAULING CASING TO THE WELL (Sounds of wagons being pulled) Teamsters prefer horses instead of mules for hauling in the oil fields. Draft horses were bigger and stronger. Farmers, and the US Army in World War I, preferred mules because they were heartier, but they were also more stubborn. A year or so after the discovery well was drilled, a test drilled deeper to the Bartlesville sand found a far better pay sand and in another year or so production peaked at 300 thousand barrels a day from about three thousand wells. For comparison, the total oil production for the entire state of Oklahoma in 2002 averaged about 180 thousand barrels a day, only a little more than half the peak production of the Cushing Field in 1915. MOVING HOTEL BETWEEN MEALS (Horses walking across wooden bridge) Ironically, some of the biggest Bartlesville wells were not in the Bartlesville sand at all. The Cushing structure is bald-headed. Over most of the structure the Mississippi lime is missing, and the Bartlesville lies directly on the ore division, Wilcox, and other Simpson sands. PREPARING THE ' ; EATS' ; NOON (Sounds of chickens, washing, talking while eating) Between Drumright and Oilton, in an area of a few square miles, even the Bartlesville is missing and the drill goes directly from the Redfork into productive Arbuckle limestone. Some Arbuckle wells made five or six thousand barrels a day. It was a long time before operators realized that the pay zone was not only not Bartlesville sand, it wasn' ; t even sand. An old Sinclair hand once told me that one reason they didn' ; t realize it was limestone was that the flow of gas and oil was so strong they never saw the cuttings. A Drumright oil man told me that they first recognized that it was not sand production when their separators and receiving tanks filled up with chunks of limestone that the heavy flow of oil and gas had carried from the formation into the tanks. A United States Geological Survey bulletin printed as late as 1917 doesn' ; t even list the Arbuckle as one of the productive formations. A WEEK' ; S TRIP IN THE GREAT CUSHING OIL FIELD IN OKLAHOMA FOUR REELS REEL TWO CASING CREW AT WORK In a standard rig, the big bull wheels which held the drilling cable blocked the face of the derrick so the casing wrap was placed opposite the crank, and the casing was wagoned in from the walking beam side using a front wagon and a back wagon. This pipe looks like seven-inch casing so it may be the final inside production string. When the picture comes to the rig floor, you can see the driller turn the throttle control wheel and in the background you can see two ropes in the form of a figure eight. These are the bull ropes which carried power from the band wheel to the bull wheels, somewhat like a long, fat, round v-belt. The principle reason for the figure eight was to give the rope greater friction on the bull wheels and on the tug pulley which was bolted to the band wheel. Early rigs used the bull wheels to run casing. Later standard rigs used a separate chain driven reel much smaller so naturally it was called a half-wheel. You can see the half-wheel behind the driller. And yet they are running casing using the bull wheels, why I cannot say. To screw the pipe together the crew is using a " ; never slip" ; , a rope, a casing pole, and six men. Our company used to drill with cable tools but we used only four men. But then we were running round thread casing rather than the older style D-thread casing. HAULING STORAGE TANK TO THE TANK FARM Back to the subject of the Arbuckle limestone, one Arbuckle well north of Drumright still makes about a hundred and fifteen barrels a day along with ungodly amounts of water. New wells are still occasionally drilled to the Arbuckle. SHOOTING THE WELL THE SHOOTER ARRIVES Liquid nitroglycerin is highly unstable and very dangerous to handle. Shooting continued to be the most popular way to stimulate a well until the development of sand fracking around 1950. The first sand fracking jobs were done using napalm, that is, jellied gasoline. The early standard frack job was a thousand pounds of sand and a thousand gallons of jell. Now a days jelled water is used and the job might be a hundred times as big. SOUNDING FOR DEPTH Stanolind Oil Company got a patent on the sand fracking process and it collected royalties on every job. Stanolind soon constructed a large research lab in the corn fields at the edge of Tulsa at 41st Street and Yale. It was very appropriately called " ; the house that frack built." ; PREPARING THE CHARGE I' ; m sorry to say I don' ; t know what the washing in the bucket is accomplishing. By the time we started in the business a blasting gel had been developed and it was much safer than nitroglycerin. In the early days a shot was set off by dropping a short piece of pipe called a " ; go -devil" ; to hit a firing cap at the top of the torpedo. By the time we were in the business, the shot was set off with a time bomb made in Tulsa by the Zero Hour Bomb Company. POURING NITRO-GLYCERINE INTO TUBE AND LOWERING IN THE WELL When sand fracking put the well shooting trade out of business, the Zero Hour Bomb Company shortened its name to Zebco and began manufacturing fishing reels. Before the development of the time bomb, there was no way to tamp the shot. That is, to confine it in some way. So when the shot went off, it would blow whatever was in the hole out. This made some impressive photographs possible, and it was a good time to have company officials or investors around to watch. (Sound of a gusher) LAYING PIPE LINE TO THE TANK FARM The Cushing Field has produced about a half billion barrels of oil. Early flush production overloaded the hastily constructed pipelines. It broke the price of oil and kept it low for several years. But Tom Slick and others found a solution. Slick erected twelve giant tanks on the Frisco Railroad at Bristow and built a twenty-mile pipeline to carry his oil into storage until the price went up. Note the use of a pipe-jack to hold the line pipe in line while the crew is screwing the joints together using latongs. Where two crews worked together they timed their actions in synchrony with the strokes of a worker who hammered the pipe near the collar. The hammering not only synchronized the working of the tongs, it also caused a vibration of the pipe that made it easier to screw the joints together. Regardless of his personal traits, the hammer man was called a pecker. THE TANK FARM Like Tom Slick, others built tank farms, and at one time about 23 million barrels of oil was stored at or near the Cushing Field, which is part of the reason why Cushing became " ; the pipeline crossroads of the world." ; About 30 million barrels of oil storage capacity is currently located in the vicinity of Cushing. A FEW SCENES AMONG THE OIL WELLS ADJOINING OILTON OIL WELLS IN THE CIMARRON RIVER The Cimarron River between Drumright and Oilton ran through one of the richest parts of the field. Ownership of the mineral rights under the river bed up to the line of highest water was claimed by both the federal government and the state of Oklahoma, but their claims were disputed by the owners of the adjoining Indian allotments. The state of Oklahoma sold river bed leases and many wells were drilled along the banks of the Cimarron. A decade and a half later, the court decided in favor of the Indians. Some wells were even drilled in the middle of the river on tiny islands built for that purpose. Most of the time there were few problems, because the Cimarron was wide but shallow. " ; A mile wide and a foot deep" ; as they say on the high plains. In flood times it was a different matter. A SCENE FROM THE CUSHING-WEBB OIL CO' ; S SUB-DIVISION The Santa Fe built a railroad line from Cushing into Oilton with a spur to Drumright, and the Oil Belt Terminal Railroad tied into the Short Line from Jennings to Oilton. Both lines carried passengers, but their main goal was to deliver supplies and take out crude oil. As the field was extended southward, a railroad entrepreneur named Joseph A. Frates built a similar spur from Depew to Shamrock which eventually connected to the Santa Fe at Drumright. But Joseph Frates had another tie to the history of the Cushing Field. Frates had a 25-year old daughter. He also had a friend who was a banker in Bristow. The banker was none other than Bernard B. Jones, one of Tom Slick' ; s principal associates. Jones introduced Bernice Frates to his bachelor friend, and within a few months Tom Slick and Bernice Frates were married. So J. A. Frates, who liked to build railroads, had a wealthy son-in-law. For years afterwards, Slick furnished the capital for railroad and real estate ventures promoted and managed by his new father-in-law. One of these ventures was the construction of a railroad from Bristow to Okmulgee about 1920. The principle attraction for that particular route was a recently discovered oil pool about ten miles east of Bristow. The railroad skirted the edge of the pool and Frates plans included a railroad stop and a town site to service the new pool. I' ; ll tell more about that later. HAULING FLOW TANK TO THE WELL (Sound of horses) A WEEK' ; S TRIP IN THE GREAT CUSHING OIL FIELD IN OKLAHOMA FOUR REELS REEL THREE LAYING OIL PIPE LINE FROM THIS FIELD TO THE GULF OF MEXICO Numerous pipelines were built to carry away the flood of crude oil. The Texas Company and Magnolia both laid a line all the way to the Gulf of Mexico. Note that this scene was posed. Men in suits don' ; t just stand around very often, and this prehistoric Ditch Witch is rotating but not moving forward. The best Arbuckle production at Cushing was owned by the McMan Oil Company whose principal owners were Robert McFarland and James Chapman and his father. The McMan built a 130 mile, eight inch line all the way to the Healdton area to tie into Magnolia' ; s gathering system there. The McMan maintained that the pipeline was a private line, not subject to the common carrier rules and with a capacity of 22,000 barrels a day it handled only McMan' ; s own crude production. An experienced crew could lay even a big pipeline very fast. Today most pipelines are welded rather than screwed together. OIL FIELD CATASTROPHES INSURANCE COMPANIES ARE THE LOSERS TANKS STRUCK BY LIGHTENING (Sound of fire burning) During the flush production days, lots of Cushing oil was stored in big earthen pits, and there were several spectacular fires set by lightening. Lightening also set tanks afire. Sometimes a 55 thousand barrel would catch fire and burn at the top of the tank. The companies learned that if they could drain the tank into the moat surrounding the tank, they could pump the oil out of the moat and save lots of oil. So the companies set a cannon, just like the old civil war cannons, to fire at the base of the burning tank so they could generate a hole big enough to drain the tank and pump away the oil. The Drumright Oil Field Museum still has a cannon on display. RESULT OF A 00000 GASOLINE EXPLOSION FIVE MILES OF CUSHING-WEBB OIL CO' ; S SUB-DIVISION Notice that these tanks are riveted tanks. Pressure vessels had to be riveted because electric arc welding had not yet been perfected. Most of the oil field tanks in those days were bolted tanks, and all the stock tanks and big storage tanks were bolted. Electric arc welding was developed during World War I and welded tanks gradually became the standard. Even so, leases drilled in the forties in our area were still being outfitted with bolted tanks. Chapman and McFarland' ; s ties to Magnolia were quite strong. In 1917 the McMan sold all of its production to Magnolia at the unheard of price of 39 million dollars, which was a lot of money in 1917 dollars. The sale included other properties besides the Cushing production. It was the biggest sale in the industry up to that time, and it stayed a record breaker for more than 30 years. To those of you not familiar with Tulsa, the names Chapman and McFarland were important here. Originally ranchers from Holdenville, Phillip Chapman had married Robert McFarland' ; s sister so their son James Chapman was McFarland' ; s nephew. Before the Glenn Pool was discovered in nineteen-five, McFarland had bought a forty-acre tract near Sapulpa. Instead of leasing their land, they decided to drill it themselves. They formed Holdenville Oil and Gas, found prolific oil, and became well-to-do. James Chapman soon married McFarland' ; s daughter, his first cousin, so it was a rather closely interconnected business relationship. Both families eventually moved to Tulsa and were very active in business and civic affairs. JUNK CREW SAVING WHAT' ; S LEFT (Horses walking on bridge) The Chapman' ; s and McFarland were already well-off, but they really made their money when they drilled leases they took in the Cushing Field. At times the McMan was the major producer in the field. Now-a-days charitable foundations created by members of the Chapman family distribute about 50 million dollars every year, much of it to non-profit organizations in the Tulsa area. The Tall Grass Prairie Preserve north of Pawhuska was originally the property of James Chapman and Horace Barnard. Barnard was Robert McFarland' ; s brother-in-law, and therefore Mrs. James Chapman' ; s uncle. He had also been an associate in the family' ; s oil business. (Sounds of horse' ; s whinny, ' ; git up' ; , and loading large pieces of scrap) GASOLINE PLANTS & ; REFINERIES NEAR OILTON The one non-family owner of the McMan was E. T. Harwell, who owned one-sixth of the stock so he became quite rich. He built a mansion at 22nd Street and Riverside which his widow gave to the Arts and Humanities Council of Tulsa and today Harwelden is the council' ; s home. At least a dozen gasoline plants operated in the Cushing Field to recover as much gasoline as possible from the casing-head gas. Most of the gas was quite rich and lots of gasoline could be recovered. In fact, drips had to be installed in the gas lines near the producing wells to catch the liquids that would gather in the lines. Drip gasoline burned quite readily in the simpler automobiles of the day, and many a pumper had a plentiful supply of tax-free gasoline to power his Model-T. Modern cars will not run on drip gasoline. Wooden tanks were common in the early oil fields. Virtually all the water tanks were made of wood - redwood, because its straight grain and resistance to decay makes redwood ideal for a water tank. The big engines and compressors of the gas plants required lots of cooling capacity, but even the smaller single cylinder engines of the pumping wells required a modest wooden circulating tank. Gasoline plants recovered liquids that would have otherwise been wasted. But lots of oil and gas was wasted in the Cushing Field anyhow. Much of the natural gas was vented, and one gas well making an estimated 50 million cubic feet a day burned wild for several weeks. In addition, much Cushing crude oil was lost into various gullies and creeks and finely into the Cimarron River. Two men built a dam and a trap to catch oil floating on Tiger Creek and collected about 6,000 barrels of oil over a very short period of time. Other entrepreneurs copied their example, and skimming crafts became common. Grease skimming crafts were even constructed across the Cimarron River. The last skimmer on Drumright' ; s Tiger Creek was finely abandoned in the early thirties when the field was about 20 years old. One old timer said he had seen oil run down Tiger Creek two or three feet deep. The shortage of pipeline and railroad transportation facilities made other waste inevitable. In the great fire of 1914, almost one million barrels of oil was converted to smoke. Evaporation and seepage from oil stored in open pits were continual losses. The McMan alone had 60 thousand barrels of crude in two giant pits at one time, and even after they had erected and filled thirty-seven 55 thousand barrel tanks, they still had about three thousand barrels of oil in an open pit. Occasionally you will see in the background a locomotive pulling tank cars. Magnolia alone had about a thousand tank cars, each holding two hundred barrels to transport oil or gasoline. A barrel of crude oil contains 42 gallons. The Cushing Field is on a distinct anticline that shows on the surface. An anticline is an elongated dome of rocks, originally deposited as horizontal layers and it is a common kind of trap for oil or gas. Many of the oil pools discovered in the earliest days of the industry have been stratigraphic traps not located on an anticline. And therefore the theory that oil collected in domes and anticlines have been challenged by competing theories. The Cushing Field was one of the largest fields discovered up to that time, and it was clearly an anticlinal trap. It has been frequently credited with being the first real confirmation of the anticlinal theory of oil accumulation. After the Cushing Field was discovered, oil companies established geological departments and blanketed prospective areas with surveying crews mapping the outcrops and looking for surface anticlines. The Cushing Field, as important as it was with a half-billion barrel cumulative recovery, barely ranks as a giant field. It does not compete with other giant and super giant fields of the world, or even of the United States. For example, the East Texas pool, the largest in the contiguous United States, has produced more than five billion barrels of oil, and the Prudhoe Bay field in Alaska will ultimately produce 12 or 13 billion barrels. In the year 2000, the Cushing Field proper was still producing about 24 hundred barrels a day. A WEEK' ; S TRIP IN THE GREAT CUSHING OIL FIELD IN OKLAHOMA FOUR REELS REEL FOUR (Birds) As I related earlier, Joseph Frates promoted a town site in the edge of a new oil pool on the route of his new railroad from Bristow to Okmulgee. Since Tom Slick had put up most of the money, Frates chose him to be the president of the railroad, and he also named the town after Slick. Contrary to the assumptions of many people, Slick had nothing to do with the discovery or the development of the Slick pool, which was named for the town, rather than the other way around. The railroad was never built all the way to Okmulgee. Automobiles, trucks, and pipelines took away the need for a railroad and soon spelled its end. As for the Slick town site, it boomed to about five thousand, and gradually dwindled to about a hundred and fifty inhabitants today. FILLING TANK CARS WITH GASOLINE Soon after the Cushing Field was discovered, Tom Slick' ; s best friend, Charles F. Urschel, married Tom' ; s sister Mary, and took over the management of Slick' ; s business affairs. When Slick died at the age of forty-six in 1930, Urschel became trustee of the estate. Mary Slick Urschel died the next year, but Urschel did not remain a widower long. In 1932 he married Tom' ; s widow, Bernice Frates Slick, and so united in a new way the Slick and Urschel families and fortunes. Keeping it all in the family seems to be an oil field tradition. Needless to say, Urschel and his wife were quite well off. The next year, on July 22nd, 1933, George " ; Machine Gun" ; Kelly and a confederate broke up a bridge game at Charles Urschel' ; s home in Oklahoma City, kidnapped him, and held him for a quarter of a million dollars ransom. A quarter of a million dollars is a respectable figure even these days, but it represented a lot more in 1933 dollars in the middle of the depression. After the ransom was paid, Urschel gave every clue he could remember to the FBI, including his observation that a plane flew over the hideout at the same time every afternoon during his nine-day captivity, except on Tuesday. There weren' ; t many scheduled flights in 1933 and the police found that an afternoon flight westward out of Dallas had been cancelled on that very Tuesday. With this and other clues, they located the farm house where he had been held. The two kidnappers were subsequently caught and given life sentences. MR. O.A. BREWER DIRECTOR OF STANDARD OIL OF WYOMING AND A LOT OWNER IN THE CUSHING WEBB OIL CO' ; S SUB-DIVISION Along with the film itself, we got a copy of some remarks made by Sam Meyers who had saved his father' ; s movie all those decades. Included was a message that probably was part of a flyer or brochure for the benefit of the people who had watched the film. Here' ; s the pitch: MR. PAUL A. WINTERSTEEN OUR SECRETARY " ; When you saw our canvas banner flying on Main Street, inviting you to see this picture titled " ; How Oklahoma Millionaires Are Made" ; , you wondered why we were here and just what we were selling. My friends, we' ; re not here to sell you anything. We are here to show you how many of your neighbors MR. S.M. MYERS OUR TREASURER in Oklahoma are taking advantage of the golden opportunity they have to acquire riches by investing in the great Cushing Oil Field. You' ; ve seen our picture, you' ; ve seen how people from Tulsa and elsewhere daily debark from the passenger train at Drumright, to participate in the rush to acquire a piece of the action in the great Cushing Oil Field, hoping to improve themselves financially. You' ; ve seen in our picture how oil, black gold, comes out of the ground, often OUR CHIEF ENGINEER flowing over the crown blocks of the wooden derricks, into wooden tanks or earthen pits in an excess of a thousand, two thousand, three thousand, or five thousand barrels per day. At a market price of a dollar to a dollar and a half per barrel, this sometimes means a monthly income from one well of a hundred and fifty thousand dollars, or often much, much more. We would have preferred to have you visit Oklahoma INTERIOR OF OUR OFFICE and the Cushing-Webb company offices, and to see in person on the ground of the great Cushing Oil Field. But like Mohammad, when the mountains wouldn' ; t come to him, he went to the mountain. Since it was impossible for you to come to us, we have come to you. You have seen in the movie and our offices the recommendations from our bank and from our chamber of commerce and the officers of our company, and the potential oil property we own and proposed to develop adjacent to the great Cushing Oil Field." ; That is the end of the message. Here we have an example of the crucial part of a presentation, the closing. But there' ; s also another important stage in the life of a project, the ending. I remembered well the advice of an old hand of the business of spending other people' ; s money looking for oil. " ; If your well is dry" ; he said, " ; keep your acreage and tell all your investors something might turn up later to make it valuable. And occasionally" ; , he said, " ; something did turn up. But in the meantime you have kept some hope alive, and disappointment is accepted much more gracefully if the realization is spread out over time" ; . CUSHING-WEBB OIL CO' ; S OFFICE In contrast to some promotions that have been made in the oil business, this project was advanced by a reputable company in a very original manner, and we have been able to look back almost a century because the company was enterprising enough to present its wares in a new medium, on film. LETTERS OF RECOMMEDATION You can see that Cushing-Webb was a legitimate operation. The northern most town is Jennings, and the town to the left is Yale. To the east of Yale, you can see the hand and finger pointing to the proposed well, which as I have said proved to be a dry hole. Oilton is the town in the bend of the Cimarron River. Southwest of Oilton is Cushing, and to the east of Cushing at the edge of the field is Drumright. Needless to say, the inhabitants of Drumright prefer to call the field the Drumright oil field. The field actually extends another seven or eight miles south of the wells shown on this map. I' ; m not sure how their lot system worked, but a thirty-dollar investment seems reasonable for almost anything. BETTER BUY A LOT AND GET ONE OF THESE And remember, the investment came with an Oklahoma guarantee. SEE OUR REPRESENTATIVES WE THANK YOU THE CUSHING WEBB OIL CO GENERAL OFFICE STILLWATER OKLAHOMA Thanks for watching the show with me. Reproduction courtesy of Krumme Oil Company Bristow, Oklahoma Produced by George Krumme Written & ; Narrated by George Krumme " ; How Oklahoma Millionaires Are Made" ; Copyright 2003 Krumme Oil Company video 0 https://bristoworalhistory.org/ohms/viewer.php?cachefile=OHP-0001-V_Geo_Krumme_How_Oklahoma_Millionaires_Are_Made.xml OHP-0001-V_Geo_Krumme_How_Oklahoma_Millionaires_Are_Made.xml
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Title
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How Oklahoma Millionaires Are Made - George Krumme
Description
An account of the resource
A video of the Cushing Oil Field filmed in 1917 or 1918 to promote the sale of interests for a new well to be drilled by the Cushing-Webb Oil Company. Commentary added by George Krumme in 2003.
Subject
The topic of the resource
How Oklahoma Millionaires Are Made
Date
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1917
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video
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60615430ec9a2e7d39fe65094427396f
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Title
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Pinehill Histories
Subject
The topic of the resource
History of the Pinehill area north of Bristow
Description
An account of the resource
Several interviews were done by Mary and Bob Mc Carty of people who grew up in the Pinehill area north of Bristow. This collection is the Pinehill subset of the Bristow Oral Histories
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Bristow Historical Society, oral history collection
Type
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Oral history.
Oral History
A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge.
Interviewer
The person(s) performing the interview
Robert L. “Bob” McCarty
Interviewee
The person(s) being interviewed
Abner Dalton Bruce
Mary Lee (Fuller) McCarty
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https://bristoworalhistory.org/ohms/viewer.php?cachefile=OHP-0004-02_Abner_Bruce.xml
Interview Keyword
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Pinehill
Heyburn
oil
school
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5.4 OHP-0004-02 Abner Dalton Bruce OHP-0004-02 Bristow Historical Society - Oral History Archive Pinehill Community Bristow Historical Society, Inc. Pinehill Community and School Oil Pinehill Heyburn oil school Abner Dalton Bruce Mary Lee (Fuller) McCarty Robert L. “Bob” McCarty MP3 1:|15(13)|37(12)|69(1)|88(12)|113(1)|126(3)|142(2)|167(13)|191(15)|207(3)|222(2)|235(13)|253(16)|281(10)|302(10)|337(4)|375(6) 0 https://bristoworalhistory.org/interviews/OHP-0004-02 Bruce, Abner.mp3 Other audio 0 Abner Bruce family history BM: This is a personal interview with Abner Bruce and his wife sitting in their living room. MM: We want to put the date on so other people can— BM: October 3, 1976. Alright, Abner, to your best knowledge, do you know of some of the first people that settled in this part? Or when did your folks come into this part of the country? AB: Bob, I can’t tell you any—[indecipherable] they came into Oklahoma, but I don’t know for sure what time they went in to this right here. Abner Bruce discusses his family Abner Bruce ; Alpha Bruce ; Coleman Bruce ; Cora Belle Bruce Carson ; Frank Bruce ; J. Smith Bruce ; James Bruce ; Moten Bruce ; Roy Bruce ; Theodocia Bruce Abner Bruce ; family members https://www.geni.com/people/Coleman-Bruce/6000000036577893136 Family Records 166 Quail, Crops, and Cattle BM: Alright, whenever they first come in to this part of the country, Abner, what source of income did they have? I already know these questions, I want you to answer them yourself. AB: Well, the main thing my dad used to talk about was the market and hunting quail. They came in here and paid to ride a horse to Mannford or somewhere and come home. That was when they shipped these quails to Kansas City. And I don’t know whether that—of course, I know they farmed, but I don’t know, that’s the thing that stuck out. BM: Do you remember what, did you ever hear him say what crops that they planted? At that time? Discussion of selling and shipping quail and cattle cattle ; corn ; crops ; open range ; quail ; stockade fence ; trains selling cattle ; selling quail ; shipping cattle ; shipping quail 337 First Oil Well BM: Now then, number four question: Do you remember hearing say, Abner, or—when was the first cotton planted in this part of the country or community? Do you remember hearing say— AB: I don’t. BM: Okay, now here’s a ques—here’s a question that I was told that you would probably be the only one in the country that could answer this question. When was the first oil well drilled in this community? AB: I can’t tell you that one, but I—in this area right here, why I would think— Discussion of the first oil well drilled in the Bristow area 1922 ; drilling ; Elsa Self ; Mike Hartman ; oil well First Oil Well in Bristow 497 School and Township Fairs BM: Okay. Okay, now then, we’ll come on down here to number six, which would be the school situation—the school. Now, Leo gave us a lot of this information on the schools. AB: Leo would know a lot more about it. BM: When was the first school built? Now, Leo said that he remembered the first school being built in 1903. And his first teacher was a teacher by the name of Nell Watson. Discussion of the school house and township fairs church meeting ; community meeting ; election ; Nell Watson ; school ; teacher ; township fair school ; township fair 675 Development of Heyburn Lake BM: What year did the government come in go to buy up all that land? (pause) Can I tell? AB: [Indecipherable] I think it was about ’49, ’48 or ’49. BM: To your knowledge, Abner, whenever the government come in and went to buy this land up, to your knowledge how many families was affected by it? AB: I couldn’t tell you. I don’t have a recollection of the [indecipherable]. Discussion of the development of Heyburn Lake government ; Heyburn Lake ; lake Heyburn Lake 806 School Teachers at Pinehill BM: Who was your first teacher? Would that be any chance Mr. Bob Lucas? Or was that Mr. Taylor? MM: He said, “Not really.” AB: Before that. BM: Well it must’ve been—well, now, just a minute. Discussion of teachers and classmates at Pinehill school Bob Lucas ; Mark Shockley ; Minnie Mayes ; Nancy Curtis ; pinehill school ; teacher classmates ; Pinehill School ; school 887 Watermelons and Chicken Roasts MM: Oh, just a minute! Who raised the best watermelons? When you was a young who—who, who got some good, who raised the best watermelons? AB: I always thought Joe Fobbs (ph) did. MM: Who? That’s the one you stole the most of? AB: Huh? MM: Is that who you stole the most of them from? Discussion of watermelon stealing and chicken roasts chicken ; Greer ; Joe Fobbs ; W.O. Baker ; watermelon chicken ; watermelon 952 School Teachers BM: Well, I—who was your first teacher, Eunice (ph). UW2: Oh, I started school down at [indecipherable], so I didn’t come here until I was ten years old. BM: Alright, what was your first teacher’s name? Discussion of teachers at Pinehill School Bob Lucas ; Charlie Thomas ; Mark Schockley ; Pinehill School ; school ; teachers Pinehill School ; teachers 990 Oil Companies in Bristow AB: [Indecipherable] started out the Prairie and then Sinclair and then [indecipherable]. BM: Sinclair and what other—which other—what others was in here on that, Abner? AB: Prairie, Prairie Oil Company. BM: Prairie Oil Company. Discussion of the oil companies in the Bristow area Conoco ; drilling ; Mid-Continent ; oil ; Prairie Oil Company ; Shell ; Sinclair ; Sun Oil Company ; Sundocks drilling ; oil ; oil companies In this 1976 interview, Abner Dalton Bruce (1918-1987) describes his early life in the Pinehill Community outside Bristow Oklahoma including his family’s income from the quail market in Mannford, farming, shipping cattle on the railroad, early oil drilling in the community, participation in fairs, and the impact of the construction of Heyburn Lake upon the community. BM: This is a personal interview with Abner Bruce and his wife sitting in their living room. MM: We want to put the date on so other people can-- BM: October 3, 1976. Alright, Abner, to your best knowledge, do you know of some of the first people that settled in this part? Or when did your folks come into this part of the country? AB: Bob, I can' ; t tell you any--[indecipherable] they came into Oklahoma, but I don' ; t know for sure what time they went in to this right here. BM: What--when I said folks-- AB: Well he did though, he had a sign, 1895, that was [indecipherable]. BM: Eighteen-ninety-five, okay. On 1895, Abner, do you know how many of the boys was that come in here at that time? How many of the Bruce boys come in here at that time? AB: Why, I think their father-- BM: What was his name? AB: --brought the family in here. Coleman Bruce. BM: Coleman Bruce. Alright, then there was five brothers, is that right? AB: [Indecipherable] I believe they' ; re[indecipherable]. BM: Alright, what was their names? AB: Five brothers and one sister. BM: Okay, let' ; s have ' ; em. AB: Abner Bruce was the oldest, and my dad, Frank Bruce, and-- BM: Mote? AB: Smith! BM: Smith? AB: And then-- BM: Then Mote. AB: Then Mote. Then Roy. BM: Then Roy. AB: Then the sister' ; s name was Cora. BM: Cora. Alright, we' ; ll go on--get just a little bit further here now. Whenever they come in here-- AB: Here' ; s why--[indecipherable] grandmother was--she came in here with my grandfather. B: Grandfather and grandmother moved the family in to this part of the country. MM: What was the grandmother' ; s name? BM: What was the grandmother grandfather' ; s name? AB: Coleman and Alpha, I believe, was her given name. She was formerly Moore but [indecipherable]. BM: Alright, whenever they first come in to this part of the country, Abner, what source of income did they have? I already know these questions, I want you to answer them yourself. AB: Well, the main thing my dad used to talk about was the market and hunting quail. They came in here and paid to ride a horse to Mannford or somewhere and come home. That was when they shipped these quails to Kansas City. And I don' ; t know whether that--of course, I know they farmed, but I don' ; t know, that' ; s the thing that stuck out. BM: Do you remember what, did you ever hear him say what crops that they planted? At that time? AB: I sure don' ; t remember. BM: Alright, we' ; ll go a little further. Now, the quail that you say that he--they also had a few cattle in there too, didn' ; t they? AB: Yeah, yeah. BM: They had cattle and they had, they had the quail market. Why, I do know that during that time they planted corn and stuff to grow-- AB: Yeah, I would think so. BM: --planted corn and high gear and feeds, feed-- AB: But another thing, there wasn' ; t enough fences in here for these cattle, so [indecipherable] at that time-- BM: It was all open range. AB: --the fences. ' ; Cause they had to have a stockade fence. BM: Had another question, where did they take it to sell it? Where did they take their product to sell? AB: Well back on the cattle, as far as I know, Oklahoma City. They shipped them on the trains. BM: Alright. AB: And the quail I was speaking about, they shipped them to Kansas City. BM: You stated there that they shipped their cattle to Oklahoma City, their quail to Kansas City. How did they get these cattle into Oklahoma City? AB: They drove them to the stockyards in Bristow. And they' ; d load them on there and [indecipherable]. BM: And the quail, they' ; d dressed them-- AB: Dressed them and iced them, and some were [indecipherable], I don' ; t know, back in there at that time, cold weather' ; s when you hunted, they dressed them out and ideally [indecipherable]. BM: Now then, number four question: Do you remember hearing say, Abner, or--when was the first cotton planted in this part of the country or community? Do you remember hearing say-- AB: I don' ; t. BM: Okay, now here' ; s a ques--here' ; s a question that I was told that you would probably be the only one in the country that could answer this question. When was the first oil well drilled in this community? AB: I can' ; t tell you that one, but I--in this area right here, why I would think-- BM: I mean, that would be over here on the Elsa Self, then back up north up here around Louis' ; s, that, now, see that would be this community. AB: That was all [indecipherable]. This over here, I think 1922. BM: Nineteen-twenty-two. Do you have any--do you have any idea who drilled that first well? AB: A man named Mike Hartman (ph), I think. B: That' ; s great. And where was it drilled? AB: Well, it was one of these--Harjose (ph). BM: Harjose (ph). Harjose (ph) lease. AB: Offset to this place of place of my dad' ; s. BM: And that would be drilled in 1922. AB: I believe so. BM: Do you have any idea, Abner, if that well--that first well--do you have any idea how many barrels, or did you hear them say how many barrels-that that well made? When it came in? AB: No, it was pretty light and it--it didn' ; t last but a short while. BM: It didn' ; t last but a short while. Then they went to developing that--drilling around the rest of the community. AB: Well now, they drilled offset on my dad' ; s, it was still producing. BM: The offset drill from the first well that was drilled on your dad' ; s is still in production. Do you have any idea how much the offset well produced when it came in? AB: No, I couldn' ; t [indecipherable]. BM: Okay. Okay, now then, we' ; ll come on down here to number six, which would be the school situation--the school. Now, Leo gave us a lot of this information on the schools. AB: Leo would know a lot more about it. BM: When was the first school built? Now, Leo said that he remembered the first school being built in 1903. And his first teacher was a teacher by the name of Nell Watson. AB: [Indecipherable.] BM: Yeah. And, now then, on this school-- AB: Wait, I would like to ask you, where did he tell you it was built? BM: Well right up here on the north part, right up here on the corner. Which would be-- AB: I know, I know the location. BM: Look, look at this map, it' ; d be right here. That you got right there in your hand, it' ; d be right there. This other one down here was the church. And it went--moved up to here. There were two burned here, and the last one was here. Alright, Abner, here' ; s another question I want to ask you: What all purposes was that school used for? AB: Well, the last one is the only one I' ; m familiar with. BM: Okay, do it. What all was it used for? AB: About every committee or community meeting, or church meeting. It was used for the churches. [Indecipherable.] BM: It was used for churches. AB: Well, fairs--township fairs and election purposes. That was about it. BM: Alright, now then, you' ; re the third person that I' ; ve heard this " ; fairs" ; from. I don' ; t remember it. You said " ; township fair." ; What all was exhibited at these fairs? AB: Oh, at that time-- BM: The ones that you remember, Abner. AB: Well, I remember stock--horses, cattle, and crops. And a few of the crops at that time were cotton and corn and [indecipherable] and et cetera. BM: In other words, it' ; s just like the fairs of today, then. It was held at the, at the school. AB: Yeah. BM: What year did the government come in go to buy up all that land? (pause) Can I tell? AB: [Indecipherable] I think it was about ' ; 49, ' ; 48 or ' ; 49. BM: To your knowledge, Abner, whenever the government come in and went to buy this land up, to your knowledge how many families was affected by it? AB: I couldn' ; t tell you. I don' ; t have a recollection of the [indecipherable]. BM: Okay, we' ; ll go on down here to the last question: How do you feel about this lake? AB: You might want to get me in trouble. BM: No, I don' ; t want to get you in trouble, I want your honest opinion. I want your honest opinion, I' ; m asking everybody that, that question. I need it for the park recreation and planning. These tapes will help with the park recreation and planning. MM: Well, you know, it [indecipherable] if we don' ; t want it to, you don' ; t have to. BM: They want to know. They want to know this family' ; s situation-- pause in recording as tape switches sides BM: --the reason I hit you with that. They want to know how the people feel. Now that' ; s, that' ; s the reason I hit you with that question. AB: Well, I was against it before it started and I haven' ; t changed my mind, but it' ; s all done and done, but it never was [indecipherable] put down our throats is how I think about it, don' ; t sound right but that' ; s the way I' ; ve always felt. pause in recording BM: Who was your first teacher? Would that be any chance Mr. Bob Lucas? Or was that Mr. Taylor? MM: He said, " ; Not really." ; AB: Before that. BM: Well it must' ; ve been--well, now, just a minute. MM: He knows, he' ; s got a list of ' ; em-- BM: It wasn' ; t Nancy Curtis (ph), then, no it must' ; ve been Minnie L. Mayes (ph). AB: Mark Shockley (ph). BM: Mark Schockley (ph). MM: You was wrong. BM: No! I wasn' ; t wrong on that either! Mark Shockley (ph) come in there after Killian (ph). See, Killian (ph) was in there and then Mark Shockley (ph), and then Bob Lucas (ph). AB: Just one year for him. BM: Right. MM: Who was the first--who was the first [indecipherable] Sunday school-- AB: Well, I was talking to them today, the graduating students who were in eighth grade because they had changed. Of course my cousins--Eva (ph) and Nolan (ph) and myself and (pause) is all I can think of at that time. MM: Was Valerie in your class? AB: Yeah! Valerie was. I guess she was? BM: Yeah. Alright, Abner, let' ; s-- MM: Oh, just a minute! Who raised the best watermelons? When you was a young who--who, who got some good, who raised the best watermelons? AB: I always thought Joe Fobbs (ph) did. MM: Who? That' ; s the one you stole the most of? AB: Huh? MM: Is that who you stole the most of them from? AB: No, I didn' ; t have to steal from any of these [indecipherable]. MM: Who' ; d you steal one of those off of? AB: I never stole but one watermelon in my life (laughs) and I got caught in that, but Greers. BM: Mr. Greer over there, he lived over on the W.O. Baker place. AB: Yeah. MM: How about them chicken roasts, did you ever go on any of them? AB: Well, I heard about them but I, I didn' ; t, no. MM: Some of the younger kids, I think, did that [indecipherable] steal from their own folks and take them and roast them. AB: No, I never--I didn' ; t take that--I heard them talk about them. MM: [Inaudible.] BM: Well, I--who was your first teacher, Eunice (ph). UW2: Oh, I started school down at [indecipherable], so I didn' ; t come here until I was ten years old. BM: Alright, what was your first teacher' ; s name? UW2: Oh I can' ; t remember that far back. BM: Why now, say, Mark Shockley (ph) was Abner' ; s, and you come in here when you was ten years old, so therefore it had to be about eight or-- UW2: Bob Lucas, I think that Bob Lucas taught at [indecipherable]. MM: Charlie Thomas (ph), then. AB: You went to the new schoolhouse, when you started school. MM: Did you ever go to Pinehill School? UW2: [Inaudible.] AB: You was in this township. BM: You was in the township but you wasn' ; t in this district. pause in recording AB: [Indecipherable] started out the Prairie and then Sinclair and then [indecipherable]. BM: Sinclair and what other--which other--what others was in here on that, Abner? AB: Prairie, Prairie Oil Company. BM: Prairie Oil Company. AB: I believe they' ; re actually the ones that built it. And then Sinclair bought the Prairie Oil Company. MM: I need some information on the early oil companies-- BM: Now, did Sundocks or Sun Oil Company--didn' ; t they some stuff in here, too? AB: They never did down in here. They had some stuff over there north of Louis--where Shell is. BM: Shell. AB: And I believe, I believe it' ; s Sun. BM: Sun and Shell both-- MM: Did Mid-Continent have-- AB: But they was both out of here before-- MM: Mid-Continent-- B: Mid-Continent and Conoco, Conoc--Mid-Continent was over there, too. AB: Well that' ; s, that' ; s what they call Sun now. BM: That' ; s what they call Sun. AB: Yeah, I called them Sun but it was, it' ; s Mid-Continent, yeah. MM: How many [inaudible]. BM: No, we' ; re going to have to go, we got some more stuff we got to do. end of interview audio 0 https://bristoworalhistory.org/ohms/viewer.php?cachefile=OHP-0004-02_Abner_Bruce.xml OHP-0004-02_Abner_Bruce.xml
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Abner Dalton Bruce
Description
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In this 1976 interview, Abner Dalton Bruce (1918-1987) describes his early life in the Pinehill Community outside Bristow Oklahoma including his family’s income from the quail market in Mannford, farming, shipping cattle on the railroad, early oil drilling in the community, participation in fairs, and the impact of the construction of Heyburn Lake upon the community.
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OHP-0004-02
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Pinehill Community and School
Oil
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1976-10-03
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audio
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Pinehill Histories
Subject
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History of the Pinehill area north of Bristow
Description
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Several interviews were done by Mary and Bob Mc Carty of people who grew up in the Pinehill area north of Bristow. This collection is the Pinehill subset of the Bristow Oral Histories
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Bristow Historical Society, oral history collection
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Oral history.
Oral History
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Interviewer
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Robert L. “Bob” McCarty
Interviewee
The person(s) being interviewed
Louis Edward Masterson
Virginia (Bruce) Masterson
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https://bristoworalhistory.org/ohms/viewer.php?cachefile=OHP-0004-01_Louis_Masterson.xml
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Pinehill
school
fairs
community
crops
livestock
Heyburn Lake
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5.4 OHP-0004-01 Louis Edward Masterson OHP-0004-01 Bristow Historical Society - Oral History Archive Pinehill Community Bristow Historical Society, Inc. Pinehill Community and School Heyburn Lake Crops and Livestock Pinehill school fairs community crops livestock Heyburn Lake Louis Edward Masterson Virginia (Bruce) Masterson Robert L. “Bob” McCarty MP3 1:|8(4)|35(6)|71(7)|108(3)|139(7)|154(17)|184(8)|211(11)|228(2)|245(1)|277(2)|301(12)|333(7)|352(7)|373(7)|399(3)|418(3)|433(12)|446(4)|470(6)|501(10)|539(7)|556(4)|595(7)|613(9)|629(2)|661(2)|685(4)|716(12)|755(10)|773(10)|795(2)|814(13) 0 https://bristoworalhistory.org/interviews/OHP-0004-01 Masterson, Louis & ; Virginia.mp3 Other audio 0 Family History BM: --during the 1900s, starting back about 1900 up to the present time of 1976, second day of October 1976. Sitting on their front porch. The first question, Louis, I’ll ask you, who was the first, or do you know who the first people—white people—that came in and settled in this community? LM: I sure don’t know, Bob, I don’t know. Family history of the Masterson Family Abner Bruce ; Alpha Bruce ; Coleman Bruce ; Cora Bruce Carson ; family ; J. Smith Bruce ; James Bruce ; Moten Rheudulph Bruce ; Pinehill ; Roy Clyde Bruce ; Theodocia Bruce Family history https://www.geni.com/people/Coleman-Bruce/6000000036577893136 Family History 163 Crops and Livestock BM: Alright, now then. They were some of the first ones that came in and settled in this part of the country. For their livelihood at that time, what was their main source, do you remember hearing them say? Of livelihood? LM: You mean farming? BM: The way they made their livin’ when they first came in here. LM: Well, they just what little—Dad, they farmed, you know, like corn and stuff and they, what they lived on— Discussion of crops and livestock cane ; cattle ; cattle drive ; corn ; crops ; farming ; maize ; oats ; railway ; sorghum molasses ; wheat cattle ; cattle drive ; crops ; farming ; livestock 331 Selling Eggs and Butter VM: --grandma’d churn her butter, take it in on, you know, Saturdays, to Bristow and they’d sell their eggs there. They’d drive ‘em in the wagon, you know. Dad’d take ‘em in the wagon, take all their stuff that they had to sell on Saturday ‘cause— MM: Cream. Selling eggs and butter for grocery money and clothing butter ; cream ; eggs ; wagon butter ; eggs 382 First Oil Wells BM: Now, Louis, to your knowledge, do you have any idea when the first oil well was drilled in this community. LM: No I don’t, Bob, I don’t know where they was [indecipherable] ’22 or ’23, so they done a lot of drilling after then but I don’t know what the first well drilled. They drilled on the Elsa Self when I come here, he had drilled on it and Frank Lucas (ph) had some on his. BM: Are some of the wells that were drilled in 19-and—when you came here, then, are they any of those wells still in production? The first oil wells drilled in the Pinehill community barrels ; drilling ; Elsa Self ; Frank Lucas ; Moten Bruce ; oil ; oil well ; well drilling ; Oil well ; Pinehill 515 Schoolhouse and teachers BM: Okay, now then, we’ll go into the school itself. Leo gave, said he was around when the first school was built. VM: Up on the hill? BM: Up on the hill south, a mile south from where the last school was. He gives pretty good stories there about it. To your memory, what—which one of the schools did you go to? VM: I went to that one up on the hill, just right west of— Discussion of school teachers at Pinehill School Miss Easton ; Mr. Hicks ; Pinehill School ; school ; teachers school teachers 676 School House and Community Activities BM: Do you remember them having those old time literaries that they had? VM: I remember them but I don’t know when it was, you know. But I know dad was always on the school board from the time the school started. Dad was always on the school board. BM: What—was the schoolhouse ever used for anything besides school? LM: Well, they had church there and— VM: Yeah, they had— Schoolhouse being used for community activities and memories of fairs canning ; church ; community assemblies ; elections ; fair ; literaries ; pie suppers ; schoolhouse ; sewing ; voting election ; pie suppers ; Pinehill school ; schoolhouse 924 Lake Heyburn BM: What year, Louis, did they come in here, the government come in and buy up this land along Polecat Creek and Skeeter Creek? LM: They started in ’48. BM: Nineteen forty-eight. LM: And they, they didn’t get the dam built until the next couple of years, you know. VM: That was ‘51. LM: They had to gorge all of this out. VM: ‘Cause Elsa, Elsa went down there and worked on it, when he was, he came back from— Building of Heyburn lake and the families displaced Boyds ; Canfields ; cattle ; dam ; Ellis Head ; farming ; Frank Bruce ; Hennessey Jones ; Heyburn ; John Wilson ; Les Wilson ; Mr. Bruce ; Nehemiah Jones ; Pinehill ; Polecat Creek ; Reeds ; Skeeter Creek displacement ; Heyburn Lake ; Pinehill 1202 Watermelons and daily life MM: Just a minute. Ask him—Virgie didn’t tell why she doesn’t know watermelon. You ask her— BM: Okay, now Virgie what meanness—when you were going to school as a little girl, what meanness did you get into? MM: What real funny happened? Memories of stealing watermelons and chicken fries chicken ; chicken fries ; Mr. Bruce ; watermelon chickens ; watermelons 1306 Community Parties VM: No, I sure wasn’t. We went to parties, brother used to take us to a lot of parties with him, but as far— (all talking at once) VM: Yeah, we had town parties, you know— MM: What about the singings in the school I’ve heard about? LM: Yeah, didn’t we— Discussion of town parties Crawford ; Dunham ; parties ; play parties ; town parties ; Vann ; Victor's Chapel parties ; town parties 1426 Games BM: What kind of games did you play? VM: Oh, Skip-to-the-Lou-My-Darling and (laughs) BM: Go on. You never did play Post Office? VM: Oh, yeah. We played Post Office, oh sure. And Ditch ‘Em! BM: Ditch ‘Em? Games played at town parties cake ; Ditch 'Em ; games ; Post Office ; town parties games ; town parties 1570 Creeks and falls BM: Now there’s another question, on these old falls around, like this, the upper falls and lower falls, that upper falls is the one that would be there coming across the creek here— LM: That was down by Frank’s. BM: That was down there by Frank’s. VM: And the other falls was, you know, where we lived there on the creek, where we’d go across the big—that was our big swimming hole, what was called the Old Biloxi (ph). LM: That wasn’t a falls, there. Creek and falls in the Pinehill area cornfield ; creek ; falls ; Ned Butts ; Old Biloxi ; Shepherd Fall ; Snake Fall ; swinging bridge creeks ; falls 1700 Gravestones Near School MM: What about them little gravestones at the schoolhouse? LM: Which schoolhouse would that be? MM: At the Pinehill School [indecipherable]. VM: Crawford—it was just up the hill where Crawford lived, but it wasn’t any kin to us. We just knew it was a grave there and they knew who was buried there, but I can’t remember who mama said it— Gravestone near Pinehill School gravestone ; Jack Claver ; Pinehill School gravestone 1753 Town Parties MM: When you mention town parties where [indecipherable] and them were eating, do you think it would have real pot lucks or something for they—they called them town parties and you took food and stuff in to them. I thought that’s what you were talking about. VM: No, that was just for a party we’d go to. MM: Well that’s what I thought you meant, was town parties, and town—you know, or two married couples sometimes— Town parties and weenie roasts by the creek creek ; pot luck ; town parties ; weenie roast town parties 1793 Frozen Creeks in the Winter MM: Well, has anybody ever been skating on them creeks, on there? LM: Well, [inaudible] (interference on tape) would get up there on the ice and everybody’s get up there and skate all the way [inaudible] (interference on tape) in ’29 or maybe ’30 when we had that bad winter. Man that froze up! And I had some reels down there in that [indecipherable] and I couldn’t leave them in the water and we didn’t have no water in the wells, we had to often times carry ‘em and wash ‘em in the creek. And you’d, you’d fall down and it was froze up, you couldn’t walk— Walking to school and bonfires near the frozen creek Birdie Reed ; bonfire ; Creek ; frozen creek ; ice ; John Wilson ; Pinehill School ; Skeeter ; Willa Greenwood frozen creeks ; walking to school In this 1976 interview, Louis Edward Masterson (1903-2000) and wife Virginia (Bruce) Masterson (1909-2002) discuss the early settlement of the Pinehill community in Creek County, Oklahoma including the crops and livestock that were raised by farming families, daily life, school life, social life including town parties and socials, the establishment of the Pinehill School, early oil well drilling in the area, the construction of the Heyburn Lake dam and its impact on the local families as their land was seized by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for its construction. BM: --during the 1900s, starting back about 1900 up to the present time of 1976, second day of October 1976. Sitting on their front porch. The first question, Louis, I' ; ll ask you, who was the first, or do you know who the first people--white people--that came in and settled in this community? LM: I sure don' ; t know, Bob, I don' ; t know. BM: Well, now, would--do you have any idea when Moten, Frank, Rowe, and them came in? Do you, Virgie? (pause) Were they in here before statehood? VM: Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Mmm-hmm. MM: [Inaudible.] BM: Well then let' ; s kind of put this--put a date on that, say, around-- MM: Let' ; s let her look it up, she can see-- BM: --around 1900. LM: Well they was here before 1900. VM: Oh, yeah. LM: They were here before 1900? VM: Oh, yeah. BM: Well let' ; s go back, on back then, say around 1890. LM: [Inaudible.] MM: Leo was born up here in 1897. LM: Well, Moten was only [inaudible]. VM: You mean Uncle Alvin? BM: Leo was born-- VM: Leo. BM: Leo was born here in 1897, I believe is what he said on that. VM: Mmm-hmm. BM: So that would throw them somewhere around 18-and--in the neighborhood of 1895, -4, -5, somewhere in that neighborhood. LM: Yeah. BM: And there was four brothers, is that right? LM: Yeah. VM: No, there was five boys. BM: Five boys. VM: Five of ' ; em. BM: Okay, who were those boys? VM: Uncle Abner, Uncle James, Uncle Smith, dad, and Uncle Roy BM: " ; Dad" ; would be Moten. LM: Mmm-hmm. BM: Alright, now then. They were some of the first ones that came in and settled in this part of the country. For their livelihood at that time, what was their main source, do you remember hearing them say? Of livelihood? LM: You mean farming? BM: The way they made their livin' ; when they first came in here. LM: Well, they just what little--Dad, they farmed, you know, like corn and stuff and they, what they lived on-- BM: Alright, you said " ; corn and stuff," ; now what, what other stuff did they plant besides corn? LM: Maize, I think-- MM: Little bit louder, Louis. BM: They planted corn and maize-- VM: High gear. BM: High gear, wheat-- VM: Wheat. LM: Wheat, oats. BM: Oats. VM: Oats. BM: And that was their farm products, and they raised cattle. VM: Yeah, and they raised cattle. MM: What was that crop-- BM: Whatever they, you know-- BM: Where did they go, if they went to sell any of this, of their farm product, where did they take it to? VM: Well, they shipped their cattle to Kansas City and Oklahoma City. BM: They shipped their cattle to Kansas City and Oklahoma City. VM: Yeah. BM: Their grains and corn was such as that if they sold any of that they would' ; ve had to take to a railway- VM: They just sold it to the neighbors and things, you know-- BM: Sold it to the neighbors-- VM: --raised it and sold it to the neighbors that didn' ; t raise, you know, the farming stuff. BM: They raised it for themselves and if the neighbor got in trouble and had a little burnout or hard luck, why they all chipped in and helped one another out. LM: You know, they take ' ; em farmer teams and that' ; s the way certain of ' ; em would do it-- VM: Yeah, they' ; d farm a lot of cane and a lot of sorghum molasses. LM: [Indecipherable] cane and sorghum-- BM: Louis, you said a while ago that they shipped their cattle to Kansas City and Oklahoma City. How did they get the--how did they get their cattle to those points? LM: Well, we' ; d drive up about three hundred head from here to Kellyville [indecipherable]. MM: It was community cattle drives? BM: You had the community cattle drive. LM: [Inaudible.] (dog barking) pause in tape VM: --grandma' ; d churn her butter, take it in on, you know, Saturdays, to Bristow and they' ; d sell their eggs there. They' ; d drive ' ; em in the wagon, you know. Dad' ; d take ' ; em in the wagon, take all their stuff that they had to sell on Saturday ' ; cause-- MM: Cream. VM: Yeah. And their cream. MM: What' ; d they do with the money? VM: Well, that' ; s what they bought their groceries with. BM: That' ; s what they bought their staples with. (all talking at once) VM: and their, what they had to use for our clothes, you know, and just their living [indecipherable]. BM: Now, Louis, to your knowledge, do you have any idea when the first oil well was drilled in this community. LM: No I don' ; t, Bob, I don' ; t know where they was [indecipherable] ' ; 22 or ' ; 23, so they done a lot of drilling after then but I don' ; t know what the first well drilled. They drilled on the Elsa Self when I come here, he had drilled on it and Frank Lucas (ph) had some on his. BM: Are some of the wells that were drilled in 19-and--when you came here, then, are they any of those wells still in production? LM: Yeah, the Elsa Self lease is still in production. BM: Elsa Self lease is still in production. Now up here where you live, is there any of those wells to your knowledge that were drilled during that time? LM: Well, they-- VM: They were drilled in, uh, 19-and-- LM: --' ; 22. They' ; s had--I was here for that first discovered well in this field here. He had drilled on Moten Bruce' ; s and the drilling started in ' ; 27, ' ; 6 or ' ; 7. BM: Twenty-six or ' ; 27. LM: And they drilled all this in here. BM: To your knowledge, how much--how much did the first well produce? LM: That kind were making all the way from a hundred to three hundred barrels, these wells right here, these. BM: A day. LM: They were flowin' ; well. BM: They were flowing well. LM: At that time. BM: And there' ; s still some of those wells still in production. (pause) Virgie, do you remember any of the earlier ones than that? VM: [Inaudible.] BM: Alright. LM: And these wells all were drilled here [indecipherable]. VM: Brucie was a baby. ' ; 26 and ' ; 27 [indecipherable]. BM: Okay, now then, we' ; ll go into the school itself. Leo gave, said he was around when the first school was built. VM: Up on the hill? BM: Up on the hill south, a mile south from where the last school was. He gives pretty good stories there about it. To your memory, what--which one of the schools did you go to? VM: I went to that one up on the hill, just right west of-- BM: Is there anything in particular that you remember that went on at that time? (pause) Your first teacher was who? VM: Hicks. Mr. Hicks. BM: Professor Hicks. VM: Mmm-hmm. BM: You know his first name? VM: No, I don' ; t. We always had to call him Mr. Hicks, and that the way we were about--mom and dad always made us call her Miss Easton (ph) when we didn' ; t know their name. BM: And your, you said Miss Easton (ph)? VM: Mmm-hmm. BM: Now Miss Easton (ph), was she your second teacher? VM: Mmm-hmm. BM: She was your second teacher. Who went to school with you at that time? VM: [Inaudible.] BM: How many other--others went to school with you that you can remember? That went to school at the same time that you did? VM: Myrtle and Ellen. BM: Myrtle and Ellen who? VM: Crawford. BM: Who else? VM: And, well, [indecipherable] Bruce. BM: Any more that you can think of? VM: Well-- LM: [Indecipherable.] VM: Yeah, Claude. BM: Claude Bruce. VM: Yeah, Claude Bruce. And Larry and Annie Pinehill. BM: Pinehill. Yeah, their last name (poor tape quality) VM: --and Martha Day-- BM: Do you remember them having those old time literaries that they had? VM: I remember them but I don' ; t know when it was, you know. But I know dad was always on the school board from the time the school started. Dad was always on the school board. BM: What--was the schoolhouse ever used for anything besides school? LM: Well, they had church there and-- VM: Yeah, they had-- LM:--church and pie suppers and all that stuff, you know, and get-togethers. BM: They used it for church activities. VM: Mmm-hmm. BM: Any other activities besides church? VM: Yeah, -- LM: I guess they did have some literaries there but, you know, I never did go to one of those, you know, and-- BM: Would they use it for a place for the people in the community to go to-- LM: Community assemblies, that' ; s what it was. VM: Mmm-hmm. BM: The school was used as a community center or meeting place for everybody. It was used, then, for several different activities. LM: Yeah. BM: Do you remember of the tri-county state--tri-county fair being held there? VM: The school over there? Yeah! BM: So there was fairs up there. VM: Yeah, there was a fair out there. BM: Okay, what--how was this fair conducted? Was it conducted then as it is today? As these county fairs are conducted today? VM: Well, it was more or less, you know, like people canned stuff and bring there. I don' ; t remember bringing the stock and stuff, but they--you know, exhibit their--what they bake or, and what they can, and what things they made like quilts and dresses. BM: What did you take? Did you ever take anything to one of these fairs? VM: No, but Plessy did, I don' ; t know what-- BM: But Plessy taking-- VM: Plessy took something but I don' ; t remember what it was. I think it was canned. MM: [Inaudible.] VM: The more I think about it, she said that she did sewing. She didn' ; t [indecipherable] and she took sewing. And penmanship, she, you know, she-- BM: Penmanship and sewing. VM: Mmm-hmm. LM: Well when I come up to this country, your dad and Moten was both on the board there, and they was on the board for often years and years. BM: Louis, did you ever take anything to one of those fairs that was out there? LM: No, no, I didn' ; t, you see I was gone-- BM: There has been brought up that a--there was a, at one time there was a talking movie presented at Pinehill Schoolhouse. Do you know or do you remember or know anything about it? MM: Valerie said she-- BM: Valerie said--Valerie' ; s the one that came up with that. VM: It must' ; ve been after I [indecipherable]. BM: But the school was used for all different activities. VM: Where they went and voted and things, you know, they' ; d hold-- LM: It was open [indecipherable]. BM: What year, Louis, did they come in here, the government come in and buy up this land along Polecat Creek and Skeeter Creek? LM: They started in ' ; 48. BM: Nineteen forty-eight. LM: And they, they didn' ; t get the dam built until the next couple of years, you know. VM: That was ' ; 51. LM: They had to gorge all of this out. VM: ' ; Cause Elsa, Elsa went down there and worked on it, when he was, he came back from-- BM: Built in ' ; 51, the dam was built in ' ; 51. What year was it completed? LM: That was when it was completed, in ' ; 51. BM: They completed it in ' ; 51. VM: ' ; Cause he worked down there in ' ; 49. LM: He was running with the sand and the concrete and the [indecipherable] but now it' ; s washed in [indecipherable]. BM: How many--to your knowledge, how many people was affected or that lived in these bottoms that had to leave here? Had to leave this community on account of all of the--on the account of the government coming in and buying up this land where they wouldn' ; t have a way to make a living? LM: Well, now, I figure, Bob, was at least fifty families--and they all had families and all that, the head of families--moved-- BM: Fifty head of the family. LM: Yeah. [Indecipherable] when they bought it they had to move, you didn' ; t have no place to go when you accepted like they had [indecipherable]. Frank Bruce place [indecipherable] stay. And those others all just about newcomers come in here since [indecipherable] and built these homes that' ; s in here now. BM: Can you name some of the people that was affected by, that farmed these bottom lands-- LM: Yeah, you-- BM: --they was farming these bottom lands whenever the government came in and bought the land up. LM: Well, you, there' ; s Ellis Head for one, and Les Wilson, and John Wilson, see it took all their farm, and they took from that over at Mr. Bruce' ; s place, and there was families all in here [indecipherable] in here was a farm. Hennessey Jones (ph), Nehemiah Jones (ph), they had a bunch of stuff in--Canfields, Reeds, Boyds, they was [indecipherable]. Then I know there was every bit of fifty of, you know, head of families. Head family. BM: Well, here' ; s another question I want to ask you: What do you think that this lake dam being built in this community do you think, what' ; s your opinion on it? What' ; s your opinion on this lake-- LM: Well, I just think, Bob, that it just had no business to build it because it took so much good land out of it that the farmers need to make a livin' ; on and put people to movin' ; and they had to go and relocate and things and left me, now I [indecipherable] up here now, cost me around four thousand dollars to move the house out from around there so I could move off of government land. They took all our good land and left the hills, and so-- BM: About all there' ; s left to do now, there' ; s no farming land, about all there' ; s left to do now is to run a few cattle. LM: Yeah, run a few cattle. And they' ; ve talked about taking it away from [indecipherable] state have it. BM: Let the state have this land down here now. LM: Is there anything else you can think of? MM: Does he have a list on who sits on Pinehill [indecipherable] of the families on something I thought that you could get it, and I don' ; t-- LM: Yeah, I' ; ve got that list here of every people that was affected to this dam, their name [inaudible] (interference on tape). BM: Okay. MM: Just a minute. Ask him--Virgie didn' ; t tell why she doesn' ; t know watermelon. You ask her-- BM: Okay, now Virgie what meanness--when you were going to school as a little girl, what meanness did you get into? MM: What real funny happened? BM: What real funny, come on, tell us something real funny. VM: Aww! (laughs) BM: Tell us something real funny. MM: Tell us something funny on Louis, or one or the other, we' ; ve got to have something funny. BM: We gotta have something funny on you. VM: Well, the only thing I can think is Louis' ; d come to the schoolhouse when I, you know, when we were going together and I' ; d walk home with him after all the evenings up there, and I--course he would just kiss me, I guess! (laughs) LM: And Bob Lucas, he never did run me off! I' ; d go up there and get her and then go take her home! BM: Did you never--did you ever go watermelon stealing, Virgie? VM: No, I really didn' ; t. I never did. MM: Who raised the best watermelons? VM: Huh? BM: Louis, who raised the best watermelons during that time? LM: I don' ; t know, I stole a lot of ' ; em. I never tore no patches up, I just go get it, and-- VM: We just never thought about stealing any watermelons. Grandpa always raised-- BM: We got to have your vote on the one that raised the best ones. LM: Well, I don' ; t know for sure but I believe that' ; d been Mr. Bruce up there, my dad, you know, raised the best watermelons but he didn' ; t have ' ; em. BM: Moten raised the best watermelons? LM: [Inaudible.] VM: Not really [indecipherable]. BM: You never did go on some of these old chicken fries, did you, Louis, these old--go out here, steal somebody' ; s poor old farmer' ; s hen? LM: No, not up there. I did where I come from. VM: Now my brother and them did. BM: Now, Virgie, never was in the middle of it, was you? VM: No, I sure wasn' ; t. We went to parties, brother used to take us to a lot of parties with him, but as far-- (all talking at once) VM: Yeah, we had town parties, you know-- MM: What about the singings in the school I' ; ve heard about? LM: Yeah, didn' ; t we-- VM: Oh, yeah, we used to go--oh, yeah! We would all--what was it, Crawfords and that Marvin, oh, what was their name? MM: Some of the Vanns, wasn' ; t it-- LM: I can' ; t think of Marvin' ; s name now. MM: Was it some of the Vanns? VM: We' ; re kin to Crawfords, now. LM: Yeah, you take the Vanns, they--there' ; s also their land [indecipherable]. MM: What about them singings. We need something on tape on that. [Indecipherable.] VM: Well, yeah, we used to go over there out at the schoolhouse of a night and sing, you know. Even had--some of them, some of the teachers give us singing--you know, singing lessons and things. MM: Did you go to other communities? VM: Oh, we' ; d gather at our houses, like Crawfords and-- MM: I mean, did other communities come and sing, people from other communities would--? LM: Oh, yeah, they-- VM: Oh, yeah! Mmm-hmm, yeah. Come from up from Victor' ; s Chapel (ph) up there, and Dunham (ph), and-- LM: Dunham (ph), and [indecipherable]. MM: How long did they last? VM: Oh, they didn' ; t last more than a couple hours, I guess, over there, gatherings and things. MM: Did you go to the other places, then, when they had singings? VM: No, we went to parties, we threw--we' ; d walk to the town parties or ride horses to the town parties [indecipherable] ride a horse. BM: What kind of parties was them, Virgie? These old play parties? VM: Yeah, just play parties, yeah. BM: What meetings did you-- VM: We' ; d have town parties, like a cake, and take a cake down there, you know. BM: What kind of games did you play? VM: Oh, Skip-to-the-Lou-My-Darling and (laughs) BM: Go on. You never did play Post Office? VM: Oh, yeah. We played Post Office, oh sure. And Ditch ' ; Em! BM: Ditch ' ; Em? VM: And play, you know, they' ; d come in and they' ; d say, " ; Who do you love?" ; you know, and they' ; d tell all who they just loved, how much they loved certain-and-certain people, you know. But all they wanted ' ; em to say was just, say " ; Who do you love?" ; (laughs) BM: Now this party that--Ditch ' ; EM, now how was that played? VM: Well, you' ; d take a certain boy that, you know, [indecipherable] and if he didn' ; t--if he wasn' ; t the right one then you would start over-you' ; d ditch ' ; im! And run back to--in the house, and get another! All the girls done all the ditchin' ; . (laughs) And ditched the boys! BM: Is there anything else you can think of? LM: You turn that porch light off, them bug' ; s' ; ll-- MM: That' ; s fine. Turn it off-- BM: Okay, I' ; ll turn it-- pause in recording BM: Alright, about these town parties. VM: Well, one time they had a town party down there at Uncle Frank' ; s house, set down the road there? And Cora went with all of us girls, they was about--Flossie (ph) and Hazel (ph) and Vivian (ph) and Velma (ph) and I forgot. And Cora went with us. And she was carrying the cake, and we as all trying to get--to help her, you know. But she went followin' ; , you know, with the cake, and she run off. She fell with it. But we saved the cake! It didn' ; t hurt it at all, so Velma at that party--and I don' ; t know who all else brought cakes like that, you know, well we played party games and that' ; s all there was to it. BM: Now there' ; s another question, on these old falls around, like this, the upper falls and lower falls, that upper falls is the one that would be there coming across the creek here-- LM: That was down by Frank' ; s. BM: That was down there by Frank' ; s. VM: And the other falls was, you know, where we lived there on the creek, where we' ; d go across the big--that was our big swimming hole, what was called the Old Biloxi (ph). LM: That wasn' ; t a falls, there. BM: No, that wasn' ; t a falls there, that was a-- VM: But there was a rock. LM: The other fall is down here, the Shepherd fall (ph) is down here to the Snake fall (ph). VM: But it was just a rock fall. BM: Now that fall went across--which way did that go across there on Shepherd' ; s fall (ph) there. LM: You know right there, Bob, where that going-in place where they go in and go--make that bend around there where the--where you put your boats in there? BM: Mmm-hmm. LM: Well, it just went across that--there used to be a cornfield in there, a big field in there, I rode through there often. BM: Well there was an old swinging bridge across that, that field right there-- LM: Yeah, that was a little further up past the way. [Indecipherable] just [indecipherable] and they had an old train[indecipherable], big long thing that was there for years and years. VM: And Ned Butts (ph) built a swinging bridge across the--down here at the--just across from the old Indian cemetery. BM: Where that swinging bridge went across there, that was where--called the old Thomas place, wasn' ; t it? Didn' ; t they call that the old Thomas place? LM: No, I don' ; t know if I, if that' ; s true. [Indecipherable] was the last year I lived down there but the guy owned [indecipherable] over there, but the last time was in ' ; 23 was the guy--oh, I can' ; t think of his name. MM: [Inaudible.] LM: He--I can' ; t think of the guy' ; s name now, but I always had [indecipherable] one of them girls. And I don' ; t know what her name was. She--Lynn, Lynn, that' ; s right. Boomer and Lynn [indecipherable] they was there then in ' ; 23 when they come in. And they kept it up so the schoolkids from the sidewalk crossed it [indecipherable]. MM: What about them little gravestones at the schoolhouse? LM: Which schoolhouse would that be? MM: At the Pinehill School [indecipherable]. VM: Crawford--it was just up the hill where Crawford lived, but it wasn' ; t any kin to us. We just knew it was a grave there and they knew who was buried there, but I can' ; t remember who mama said it-- MM: We had some of the other kids ask about them graves in there close to the schoolhouse. VM: Yeah, there' ; s a, there' ; s a grave just right there on the-- BM: Which way from the schoolhouse, Virgie? VM: It' ; d be west. BM: Be west up on top of the hill. VM: West and a little back north, uh-huh. BM: Be up in there somewhere, then, about-- VM: Just be like straight north of Jack Claver' ; s (ph) house, I believe, I don' ; t know where it-- BM: Be right straight north up there, then, north of where Ennis' ; s house was up on the hill. VM: Mmm-hmm. BM: Well I never did know that there was a graveyard out-- LM: The old schoolhouse is up there, you know, the old one was up there where the old [indecipherable] was. But they had this new one built when I come here, I don' ; t know how long it' ; d been built. MM: When you mention town parties where [indecipherable] and them were eating, do you think it would have real pot lucks or something for they--they called them town parties and you took food and stuff in to them. I thought that' ; s what you were talking about. VM: No, that was just for a party we' ; d go to. MM: Well that' ; s what I thought you meant, was town parties, and town--you know, or two married couples sometimes-- LM: There' ; s [indecipherable] weenie roast that we did about every--every week, pretty much, [indecipherable] marshmallows and we' ; d have a roast, maybe be 25-30. BM: Twenty-five or thirty couples get off by the creek-- LM: Yeah. VM: Mmm-hmm. LM: Build up a big fire. BM: Big bonfire and have a big weenie roast. LM: Big weenie roast. MM: Well, has anybody ever been skating on them creeks, on there? LM: Well, [inaudible] (interference on tape) would get up there on the ice and everybody' ; s get up there and skate all the way [inaudible] (interference on tape) in ' ; 29 or maybe ' ; 30 when we had that bad winter. Man that froze up! And I had some reels down there in that [indecipherable] and I couldn' ; t leave them in the water and we didn' ; t have no water in the wells, we had to often times carry ' ; em and wash ' ; em in the creek. And you' ; d, you' ; d fall down and it was froze up, you couldn' ; t walk-- VM: I remember that I stayed all night with Birdie Reed (ph) and we started to school, that' ; s when my house was all--the house was right (pauses) --you know where Willa Greenwood (ph) lived, didn' ; t you? They lived in that house. LM: We lived up on that corner of Skeeter--[indecipherable]. VM: Well we come and John Wilson lived over at Aunt Sally' ; s house, was down the other side of the road where-- LM: Where the schoolhouse was when I come here-- VM: Well I and Birdie got to playing and cuttin' ; up and playin' ; in that snow ' ; til we froze our hands and feet. John Wilson and Ida took us in and thawed our feet out and then we went on to school, but we was tardy, but ohh we froze our hands playing. And Dorothy was with us, she tried to get us not to, you know. MM: What did they do, go out and build a big bonfire on the creek and then skate and play around it? VM: We was just going to school, but we just got to playing in the snow and the ice on the way there, when we froze our hands and feet. MM: Well. How far is the farthest you ever walked to school? VM: Well, we went downhill on the creek where we--the houses were, down here where we was talking about, where Coleman was born down there, where, and Bruce, he--well, Raymond was born down there. The house sit not too far from the creek down here. LM: Be about a mile and a half. Mile and a half. VM: And that was the furthest we ever walked. BM: Louis, you was on the school board here for quite a while. How, how deep did--how much land area did the school district cover? MM: How many miles wide-- BM: How many miles wide and how many miles long? LM: Well, the it went plum out to this 33 highway up here, it went to back in the corner right in here [inaudible] (interference on tape) where you started coming down that blacktop. BM: So that was the south edge of it. LM: Where Elsa' ; s, that was the south edge of it, right along-- VM: Then it took the, the old Livingston place. LM: --everything off the 48 highway right there, way down the place where the Vanns live [indecipherable] on the schoolhouse. Went up this way with the--the other line was down here to [indecipherable] where that guy built that house [indecipherable], everything inside that was Pinehill. BM: Everything inside of that would be Pinehill, then. MM: Well, so, he' ; s better off than I thought. BM: Yeah. He was better off than I thought he was. LM: But I don' ; t remember just how many miles it was in the square here, in this district. But you see, that took in Jones, Shady Jones (ph), the horse-stealin' ; all going on out there toward-- MM: Point at that map, it shows about ten miles square. LM: I imagine it is, that just about covers it. BM: Now this map, the--our teacher, she' ; s end of interview. audio 0 https://bristoworalhistory.org/ohms/viewer.php?cachefile=OHP-0004-01_Louis_Masterson.xml OHP-0004-01_Louis_Masterson.xml
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Title
A name given to the resource
Louis and Virginia Masterson
Description
An account of the resource
In this 1976 interview, Louis Edward Masterson (1903-2000) and wife Virginia (Bruce) Masterson (1909-2002) discuss the early settlement of the Pinehill community in Creek County, Oklahoma including the crops and livestock that were raised by farming families, daily life, school life, social life including town parties and socials, the establishment of the Pinehill School, early oil well drilling in the area, the construction of the Heyburn Lake dam and its impact on the local families as their land was seized by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for its construction.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
OHP-0004-01
Subject
The topic of the resource
Pinehill Community and School
Heyburn Lake
Crops and Livestock
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1976-10-02
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
audio
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https://bristoworalhistory.org/files/original/411367f5f3b7767e49262235dff6485d.jpg
923e640f8860c105361aa8238e760a76
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Pinehill Histories
Subject
The topic of the resource
History of the Pinehill area north of Bristow
Description
An account of the resource
Several interviews were done by Mary and Bob Mc Carty of people who grew up in the Pinehill area north of Bristow. This collection is the Pinehill subset of the Bristow Oral Histories
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
Bristow Historical Society, oral history collection
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Oral history.
Oral History
A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge.
Interviewer
The person(s) performing the interview
Robert L. “Bob” McCarty
Interviewee
The person(s) being interviewed
Ira Lester Jones
Bonnie Muriel (West) Jones
OHMS Object
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Viewer)
https://bristoworalhistory.org/ohms/viewer.php?cachefile=OHP-0005-01_Ira_Jones.xml
Interview Keyword
This field adds keywords to the Omeka Oral History item type. Keywords are
included in the OHMS XML, this field in Omeka will allow for full data migration
between OHMS XML and the Omeka Record. This field does not impact the
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“keywords” field in the OHMS XML to the corresponding Omeka record.
Pinehill
School
OHMS Object Text
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contents of the OHMS object searchable in Omeka
5.4 OHP-0005-01 Ira and Bonnie Jones OHP-0005-01 Bristow Historical Society - Oral History Archive Pinehill Community Bristow Historical Society, Inc. Pinehill Community and School Pinehill School Ira Lester Jones Bonnie Muriel (West) Jones Robert L. “Bob” McCarty MP3 1:|24(9)|46(5)|88(2)|106(10)|137(8)|158(4)|193(2)|225(8) 0 https://bristoworalhistory.org/interviews/OHP-0005-01 Jones, Lester & ; Bonnie.mp3 Other audio 0 Life in Pinehill BM: What year, Lester, wait a minute, let me back up a minute. This is a tape of Lester Jones and his wife in their home living room, 10/18/76, time 7:30. Lester, what, what year was it that you was in the Pinehill community? LJ: Nineteen-and-twenty-five. BM: Did you ever go to school here? LJ: No. Life in Pinehill and the cattle operation cattle ; Indian land ; Lester Jones ; Molton Bruce ; Pinehill cattle ; Pinehill 120 Blackberry Thicket MM: What about the blackberry thicket? BM: What about that blackberry thicket that you— LJ: That blackberry— BM: --started telling me about a while ago. Memories of picking blackberries blackberry blackberry 184 People of Pinehill LJ: Yeah. I remember Walt Bolin (ph). BM: Up in the north. LJ: He lived on the north side of Polecat going straight north to Pinehill school. And his mule kicked him! And he had a scar of this mule’s foot on his-a lot of, some people called him “Mule Tracks.” BM: Do you remember a Frank Bruce? The people of Pinehill and Indian allotments Allotment of land ; Arthur Roberts ; Bob Lucas ; cemetery ; Curtis Scott ; Elsa Self ; Frank Bruce ; Indians ; oats ; Pinehill School ; Polecat ; slaves ; Smith Bruce ; steam thrasher ; Sunrise ; two room school ; wagon ; Walt Bolin ; wheat Allotment of land ; Pinehill 371 Moving to Pinehill and more Pinehill classmates BJ: Now didn’t you go to school at Pinehill? LJ: No, no. BJ: I thought you went to school there! Just lived there? Remembering more people in the Pinehill Community Ed Abraham ; Florence Stanley ; Pickett Prairie ; Pinehill ; Posey Place ; Theodore Abraham ; Velma Carson Classmates ; Pinehill School In this 1976 interview, Ira Lester Jones (1908-1988) and wife Bonnie Muriel (West) Jones (1908-1983) discuss their early life in the Pinehill Community outside Bristow in Creek County, Oklahoma, including picking blackberries, thrashing wheat and oats with a steam-powered thrasher, and the names of some of their classmates and neighbors in the community. BM: What year, Lester, wait a minute, let me back up a minute. This is a tape of Lester Jones and his wife in their home living room, 10/18/76, time 7:30. Lester, what, what year was it that you was in the Pinehill community? LJ: Nineteen-and-twenty-five. BM: Did you ever go to school here? LJ: No. BM: What was some of the things that you remember happening there in the Pinehill community? LJ: Well, one of the main things was Mote Bruce' ; s cattle operation. BM: What do you mean by Mote Bruce' ; s cattle operation? LJ: The way, now on these places that he had this Indian land range and he always reserved the stock field. And he grazed these, these cattle and these, in those creek bottoms in the wintertime, that' ; s where he wanted them. BM: Anything else that you remember? LJ: And remember real well a one-legged colored man that-- BM: What was his name? LJ: All I remember is " ; Big Boy." ; He had both of his legs--I' ; m sorry, he--both legs were off. And, one below his knee and one above his knee. And he picked cottons walking on his knees, and he pick four-fifty, four hundred fifty pounds of cotton a day out of the, out of the creek bottoms. BM: You said something while ago that you knew my mother and you knew my dad. What year did you get acquainted with them? LJ: Well I got acquainted with them in 1924. BM: Anything in particular that you remember happened, that was before my time. Anything that you remember happened that--with them in particular? LJ: Well, yeah. I thought about what a nice neighbor they, that family was a lot of times. Real, real nice people. MM: What about the blackberry thicket? BM: What about that blackberry thicket that you-- LJ: That blackberry-- BM: --started telling me about a while ago. LJ: --more rabbits in it, more blackberries, and a few snakes, than any patch of blackberries I ever seen in my life. It was one acre of solid wild blackberries. Me and Casey went over and we picked a tubful of blackberries in about three hours. Number--number one washtub. BM: You remember that spring that was here by that old blackberry patch? LJ: No. No, I don' ; t remember a spring. BM: It was right south of the blackberry thicket. LJ: Oh is that right? BM: Uh, no, it wasn' ; t that blackberry thicket, it was right around it. It was right around that spring. LJ: Yeah? Well we just went in the west side over there next to Casey' ; s place and we just, we just went out in there, in there, and we just picked right in one little spot there. Oh, it was place bigger than this house, you see. But I never, I ain' ; t never seen such-- MM: Just picked until you got tired? LJ: Ma' ; am? MM: Just picked until you got tired? LJ: Just picked ' ; til we got a tubful and went to the house. BM: Now this old spring that I was speaking about a while ago, it' ; s still there as of today. LJ: Yeah? MM: The blackberry patch is not there. BM: The blackberry patch is gone. LJ: Yeah. I remember Walt Bolin (ph). BM: Up in the north. LJ: He lived on the north side of Polecat going straight north to Pinehill school. And his mule kicked him! And he had a scar of this mule' ; s foot on his-a lot of, some people called him " ; Mule Tracks." ; BM: Do you remember a Frank Bruce? LJ: Real well. Used to work for Frank, let' ; s see--I was about, about thirteen or fourteen, just getting big enough to go to the thrashin' ; and help ' ; em thrash. We hauled a bundle wagon. Hauled wheat and oats in to his place down in the pasture. The Roberts boys here at Bristow, colored--these two colored men? They, they were, they had that was their thrashing machine. Steam thrasher. BM: You mentioned Roberts a while ago. Did you by any chance know that they were some of the freedmen that were in this community? LJ: No, but I figured maybe they was. I figured maybe they was. MM: But you did know that the freedmen were out here to the allotments along this-- LJ: Oh yes, they, they were slaves of the Indians, right. BM: This Arthur Roberts, Arthur Roberts still lives on his allotment that he was allotted whenever they--his dad came to this part of the country and had taken out his allotment. Arthur Roberts still lives on his land of allotment. LJ: Yeah. BM: His sister, Irene, lives on hers. LJ: Yeah. MM: And Elsa Still still lives on-- BM: Elsa Self still lives on his original-- LJ: We used to--or I went to school at Sunrise when Elsa' ; s wife was teaching. But she was--they had a two-room school and Claudie was in--he taught the other grades. I was in the, in the, Self' ; s-- BM: Well, Elsa taught there, taught there too. LJ: Yeah. BM: He' ; s got a miniature school building of the first Pinehill--uh, Sunrise school-- LJ: Yeah, we' ; ve seen it. We' ; ve seen it. BM: --with all the pictures and everything in it. LJ: He had it over to the cemetery one day, at Sunrise. BM: Who was some of the other people that you remember in there, Lester? LJ: I remember the-- BM: I mean at that time, now. At that time. LJ: Curtis Scott (ph). He lived a mile and a half south of Pinehill school. And ' ; course I knew all the, all the Bruce family. Not, not all of them. Smith Bruce, he lived in there. And Bob Lucas, knew them well, goes to school there at Pinehill. MM: Mrs. Lucas comes to the reunion every year and won' ; t eat bite, she' ; s afraid she' ; ll miss some gossip. LJ: Oh, well that' ; s--(laughs) MM: [Inaudible] is something else. LJ: Yeah, that' ; s where I first--first knew him was at-- BJ: Now didn' ; t you go to school at Pinehill? LJ: No, no. BJ: I thought you went to school there! Just lived there? LJ: No, we--I went to school with Casey, the fall of ' ; 25, and of course I was out in there for the whole two years Casey was there, you see. But we moved from right here on the Posey place, we moved to Pickett Prairie. BM: When you left the Posey place, then you moved to Pickett Prairie. LJ: Mmm-hmm. BJ: Now we could talk about Pinehill [inaudible]. LJ: Yeah. BJ: They even went to school there. LJ: There was a Florence Stanley, the name is Florence, and Jake--he lived [inaudible] (tape garbled). BM: [Indecipherable.] MM: Ellen and-- BM: Ellen was [inaudible] (tape garbled). LJ: And-- BM: Ellen was the oldest, then Myrtle. MM: Myrtle. LJ: Yeah. That' ; s--was a Carson girl that married Claude Bruce. BM: That was Velma Carson. LJ: Velma, yeah. MM: We interviewed Claude yesterday. LJ: Yeah? Claude' ; d be a lot of help on that thing. BM: No, he hadn' ; t [indecipherable] brother was more help than--[inaudible] (tape garbled) BM: --baby brother was more help. MM: They are writing a history but I' ; ve heard [inaudible] (tape garbled) BM: Claude did real well on his [inaudible] (tape garbled) LJ: Yeah. BM: When you were in there [inaudible] (tape garbled) BM: Did you ever help out [inaudible] (tape garbled) LJ: And I tell you something [inaudible] (tape garbled) LJ: Theodore Abraham, he had a big cattle--[inaudible] (tape garbled) LJ: --bought the cattle, and Ed Abraham was his father. BM: Right. LJ: And they were a big operator, had a big store and they dealt with the farmers a lot. That was Theodore, they used to be a [indecipherable] here. BM: Can you think of anything else you might want to ask him? end of interview audio 0 https://bristoworalhistory.org/ohms/viewer.php?cachefile=OHP-0005-01_Ira_Jones.xml OHP-0005-01_Ira_Jones.xml
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The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Ira and Bonnie Jones
Description
An account of the resource
In this 1976 interview, Ira Lester Jones (1908-1988) and wife Bonnie Muriel (West) Jones (1908-1983) discuss their early life in the Pinehill Community outside Bristow in Creek County, Oklahoma, including picking blackberries, thrashing wheat and oats with a steam-powered thrasher, and the names of some of their classmates and neighbors in the community.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
OHP-0005-01
Subject
The topic of the resource
Pinehill Community and School
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1976-10-18
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
audio
-
https://bristoworalhistory.org/files/original/390a9319380f40e02caf7c81f40044b4.png
970f989c348115d6f4a2ad2d17e9c41c
https://bristoworalhistory.org/files/original/0dfbdb28ebea35763771af93610a4f8a.jpg
e22db369e9b50ac3244350c869f2e342
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Pinehill Histories
Subject
The topic of the resource
History of the Pinehill area north of Bristow
Description
An account of the resource
Several interviews were done by Mary and Bob Mc Carty of people who grew up in the Pinehill area north of Bristow. This collection is the Pinehill subset of the Bristow Oral Histories
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
Bristow Historical Society, oral history collection
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Oral history.
Oral History
A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge.
Interviewer
The person(s) performing the interview
Robert L. “Bob” McCarty
Interviewee
The person(s) being interviewed
John Rossander
Iva Irene (Millhouse) Rossander
OHMS Object
This field contains the OHMS Hyperlink (link to the XML file within the OHMS
Viewer)
https://bristoworalhistory.org/ohms/viewer.php?cachefile=OHP-0005-02_John_Rossander.xml
Interview Keyword
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included in the OHMS XML, this field in Omeka will allow for full data migration
between OHMS XML and the Omeka Record. This field does not impact the
OHMS / Omeka integration and is optional if you do not need to map the
“keywords” field in the OHMS XML to the corresponding Omeka record.
Pinehill
oil
farming
cotton
OHMS Object Text
This field contains the OHMS Index and / or Transcript and is what makes the
contents of the OHMS object searchable in Omeka
5.4 OHP-0005-02 John and Iva Rossander OHP-0005-02 Bristow Historical Society - Oral History Archive Pinehill Community Bristow Historical Society, Inc. Pinehill Community and School Pinehill oil farming cotton John Rossander Iva Irene (Millhouse) Rossander Robert L. “Bob” McCarty MP3 1:|27(6)|49(2)|67(3)|83(2)|91(9)|105(9)|129(4)|150(7)|183(1)|215(14)|233(12)|265(5)|309(3)|344(7)|365(8)|401(9)|416(10)|436(14)|447(11)|466(5)|480(2)|488(18)|502(6)|514(3)|532(9)|550(8)|564(11)|591(3) 0 https://bristoworalhistory.org/interviews/OHP-0005-02 Rossander, John & ; Iva.mp3 Other audio 0 Making the move to Pinehil BM: --here with John Rossander and Iva Rossander in their home, 10/22/1976 time 20 minutes ‘til four. pause in tape BM: John, what year did your mother and dad come into this community? JR: Nineteen-nine. BM: What was their names? JR: Zeke and Sarah Rossander. Discussion of moving to the Pinehill community Iva Rossander ; John Rossander ; Pinehill ; Sarah Rossander ; Zeke Rossander Pinehill ; Rossander 91 Pinehill School BM: How many of them went to the Pinehill School? JR: Well, every one of them except—no, let’s see, there’s four: Rubilee (ph)—I mean Maudie (ph), Rubilee (ph), Alice (ph) and Evelyn (ph) didn’t go. They died when they were young. BM: Whenever your folks came to this part of the country, where did they migrate in here? JR: Right from north of Drumright. Going to school at Pinehill and first teacher Edith Whiteneck ; Pinehill ; Pinehill School ; teacher Pinehill 183 Oil and Cotton BM: What did you family do for a liv—what did you or your parents do for a living whenever they came to this part of the— JR: (laughs) Farmed. Cotton. BM: They had a cotton farm. JR: Yep. Family's cotton farm and the first oil well in the Pinehill area cotton ; drilling ; Elsa Self ; farm ; Hennesson Ware ; Iva Ware ; oil ; Owen Ware ; wells Farming cotton ; Oil wells 346 Members of Pinehill Community BM: What year did you and Iva get married? JR: In ’26. BM: Well, we better back up a little bit. You said a while ago that you remember Jake Roberts (ph). Discussion of where Pinehill community members lived Jake Roberts ; L.J. Florence ; log house ; Pinehill ; Smith Bruce ; Vann log house ; Pinehill 505 First Pinehill School MM: Where was the first school he went to? BM: Where was the first school that you went to, John? JR: Victory Chapel. BM: You went to Victory Chapel first, then— Location of the first Pinehill school Abner Bruce ; Leo Pinehill ; Mosquito place ; Pinehill ; Pinehill school ; Victory Chapel Pinehill school 578 Location of Pinehill School MM: Did you check and see if it’s running? (pause) There weren’t but one. BM: There’s been talk that there was one schoolhouse here, possibly two. Now do you know anything about that? JR: Well now, that don’t seem right to me. But there wasn’t but one. And it was right in the corner, in the northeast corner of Mosquito Creek. That’s where it sat. I can show you the rock, I think, where it sit. It wasn’t in the corner on Pinehill, this was close to the road where it turns down— Discussion on the location of the Pinehill school Abner Bruce ; Mosquito Place ; Murta Mosquito ; Pinehill ; school ; schoolhouse Pinehill school 748 Second Pinehill School JR: Because they built the new schoolhouse over here, then. BM: They built a new schoolhouse up on the hill. JR: On the Grandpa Bly’s (ph) place. BM: On the Grandpa Bly (ph) place. JR: Yeah, other word to it was, I guess it was Phoebe Bruce’s. No? Location of the second Pinehill school Bly ; Phoebe Cairnly ; Pinehill ; Pinehill School Pinehill School 802 Activities at the school house BM: What all, what all activities was the school used for? JR: Well, when I went to school? BM: Yeah, when you went to school there, from the time that you remember the school starting— JR: It was just baseball and— The many activities that took place at the Pinehill schoolhouse baseball ; Christmas Programs ; church ; fairs ; literary ; pie supper ; Pinehill ; polling precinct ; school ; Sunday School activities ; Pinehill ; school ; schoolhouse 906 Mark Saxon BM: Who done the fighting? JR: Who? BM: That you remember? JR: (laughs) Uh, Mark Saxon (ph) and oh, I can’t think of that other guy’s name. That was the first fight I ever seen. Seeing Mark Saxon get in a fight and his family history Arthur Barnes ; Bill Baker ; Ellen ; fights ; Gertrude ; Mark Saxon ; Pinehill ; Skeeter Creek ; Smith Bruce Mark Saxon ; Pinehill 1088 Rabbits for dinner JR: Well, now, on this same place I can’t think of them people that lived there. After that, a while after that, they had two girls and one boy and they was great big old husky girls and what their names was now I can’t think of it. I used to tease Homer about one of them girls. In 19—I don’t know what. They killed rabbits and it was a baaaad winter. Hunting rabbits during a bad winter hunt ; Rabbits ; winter hunting rabbits 1191 John and Iva marry BM: What year did you and Iva, what year was you and Iva married? JR: In ’26. BM: 1926. JR: Third day of February. The date of John and Iva Rossander's marriage 1926 ; Iva Rossander ; John Rossander ; marriage Marriage 1224 Poem from the Literary BM: --you said while ago that you [inaudible] (tape garbled) --or you know a poem that—literary-- IR: --remember it—[inaudible]. (tape garbled) BM: Well, let’s have it! Iva recites the poem from the literary literary ; poem literary 1313 Working Days MM: You want to ask him about the [indecipherable]? BM: You, John, what all work have you done since you and Iva were, had been married? JR: Well, I mostly farmed, but we went to New Mexico in ’36. I worked for a rancher out there and I worked seven days a week from sun ‘til sun for two dollars a day. And I kept wantin’ them to give me a day off, ‘cause it was just driving me crazy. Memories of working and various jobs biscuits ; Culverson Saw Mill ; drop herds ; Edward Hunt Sheep Company ; farm ; lamb ; mutton ; sheep ; sidelined ; work farming ; sheep ; work 1530 Jake Roberts Place BM: What about the Jake Roberts place, you said something about the Jake Roberts place, the Jake Roberts lease or place? Earlier? JR: Well, Jake Roberts, they, they used to when we first came here, they had all the good horses. Good horses. They was workin’ negroes. Colored folks. Really working. And there was Jake, he was old as I am, and then there was Johnny Roberts (ph) and Walk Roberts (ph), and—Walk lives over here this side of the 66 yet. Arthur, that’s Arthur. Discussion of Jake Roberts and slaves allotted ; freedman ; horses ; Indian Slaves ; Indian Territory ; Jake Roberts ; Johnny Roberts ; Rubin Moore ; slavery ; Walk Roberts ; white slaves Indian Territory ; Jake Roberts ; slaves In this 1976 interview, John Rossander (1904-1984) and wife Iva Irene (Millhouse) Rossander (1905-1999) discuss their childhood and the early days of their marriage spent in the Pinehill community outside Bristow, Creek County, Oklahoma, as well as time spent working in New Mexico at a sheep farm during their early marriage. John describes childhood events such as tracking a missing hog for a neighbor. He also works with the interviewer to pinpoint the locations of neighbors and the locations of early Pinehill school buildings on a map. John also discusses the Jake Roberts, an African-American freedman living on an Indian allotment who was a successful horse breeder. BM: --here with John Rossander and Iva Rossander in their home, 10/22/1976 time 20 minutes ' ; til four. pause in tape BM: John, what year did your mother and dad come into this community? JR: Nineteen-nine. BM: What was their names? JR: Zeke and Sarah Rossander. MM: [Inaudible.] BM: What was your mother' ; s name before-- JR: Stanton. BM: Stanton. How many children were they to that marriage? JR: Twelve. BM: Would you give me their names? JR: Well (laughs), yeah, I can give--Vera (ph)--I mean, Esther (ph), then Vera (ph), John (ph), Cecil (ph), Homer (ph), Marcella (ph), Buford (ph), Rubilee (ph), Maudie (ph), Alice (ph), and Evelyn (ph). (talking in background) JR: I named Homer (ph). IR: Hilma (ph)! JR: Oh, Hilma (ph)! MM: [Inaudible.] JR: She was born after Evelyn (ph). BM: How many of them went to the Pinehill School? JR: Well, every one of them except--no, let' ; s see, there' ; s four: Rubilee (ph)--I mean Maudie (ph), Rubilee (ph), Alice (ph) and Evelyn (ph) didn' ; t go. They died when they were young. BM: Whenever your folks came to this part of the country, where did they migrate in here? JR: Right from north of Drumright. BM: What, do you know or did you hear them say what year they came to the state of Oklahoma? JR: Yes sir--oh! State of Oklahoma, oh, they were more or less raised here. Grandpa came from Kansas and dad came down here when he was twelve years old, out on the homestead. BM: They come down from Kansas, then, when he was twelve years old? JR: Yeah. BM: Who was your first teacher at Pinehill School? JR: Well, really I can' ; t really tell you for sure, but I think it was Edith Whiteneck. I was small for my age. BM: What did you family do for a liv--what did you or your parents do for a living whenever they came to this part of the-- JR: (laughs) Farmed. Cotton. BM: They had a cotton farm. JR: Yep. BM: What year do your--what year do you remember seeing the first oil well in this community? JR: Let' ; s see, [indecipherable] a well, it was--I guess it was 1912. Believe it was. BM: Was it--what do you remember about the old Ware (ph) place over there? JR: Owen Ware (ph)? I just, myself, the only thing I can remember, well, I can remember several things but I remember when they lived there, Iva Ware (ph) and all them was there, and Old Man--old Hennesson Ware (ph) had a hog to get out, a big old spotted sow, and he came over there to dad' ; s and wanted dad to take and go and get her in, get her for him, because he couldn' ; t--he couldn' ; t get her in, couldn' ; t find her. And somebody' ; d told him that we had a dog that' ; d trail a hog up might near, regardless how old the scent was. And we went off east of his house and found a track, which it looked dim to me. And I took that old--dad told him that he couldn' ; t, but he said I could. So I took my dog and went over there and I pointed down at the track, I said, " ; Get it, Nigs." ; And he took off. And he, he bayed that hog back east of Elsa Self, way back over in them hills in there. But what year that was, I can' ; t tell you. MM: You don' ; t remember drilling early oil wells on the Ware (ph) place, do you? BM: Do you remember the early oil wells that was on the Ware (ph) place? JR: No, I don' ; t remember what year that--I remember ' ; em but I don' ; t know what year it were. BM: What year did you and Iva get married? JR: In ' ; 26. BM: Well, we better back up a little bit. You said a while ago that you remember Jake Roberts (ph). JR: Yep. BM: You said also that you remembered when he came into this part of the country. Where did he settle first? JR: Over here east of Smith Bruce' ; s on Browder (ph), Browder' ; s (ph) place. In an old log house there. And Smith Bruce and them used to live there and in 1910 they built their log house over here. And they moved on that twenty acres. He bought twenty acres and he moved on it in 1910. BM: And he built a log house there in ' ; 20 that he bought-- JR: Yeah. In 1910. BM: In 1910. JR: And Jake lived there in that house down there I guess 1910, I don' ; t know what year it were. I can' ; t tell you that. BM: Then whenever they left, whenever they moved from the Browder Bruce (ph) place, they moved down over, then, and [indecipherable] the school, is that right? JR: No. BM: Where did they move to from there? IR: North of the school. BM: North of the school. JR: No, when they left there, they moved from there over to--they went from there over to L.J. Florence' ; s (ph) close to over here, and lived in a little old tent right over here by the big pecan tree and picked cotton for L.J. Florence (ph). Which that was their uncle. Yeah, that' ; d be Ella (ph) and them' ; s uncle. BM: When you say over here, back over here pointing back over here, what place would that be, John? JR: Well, that' ; d be the Vann place, used to be the Vann place, or BM: Step out there and get that map, Pat. We' ; ll come back to that in a minute, so get that map and then we can pinpoint, he can pinpoint the exact place that it was. MM: Where was the first school he went to? BM: Where was the first school that you went to, John? JR: Victory Chapel. BM: You went to Victory Chapel first, then-- JR: And they wouldn' ; t let us go up there because we was in a different district. BM: You were in Pinehill District? JR: Pinehill District. BM: So they stopped you from going to Victory Chapel. JR: Yeah. MM: [Inaudible.] BM: Now that first Pinehill School that you remember, where was it located at? JR: That I went to? BM: Yeah. First Pinehill School that you remember, where was-- JR: Oh, well I remember the one right there where [indecipherable] to Abner Bruce' ; s. Sat there in the corner on [indecipherable], one of the Mosquito places. BM: In other words, you remember this one here, then. JR: Yeah. BM: You remember the first one, then, that was built on Leo Pinehill. JR: Yeah, yeah. Well, it wasn' ; t Leo' ; s, wasn' ; t it? BM: Yeah, it-- JR: It was his dad' ; s, wasn' ; t it? BM: It' ; s Pinehill allotment, Leo--Leo' ; s JR: Yeah. BM: Leo' ; s, Pinehill' ; s allotment. JR: Yeah. MM: People argue that there wasn' ; t one. Some says that there was just one there and some say there were two. pause in recording MM: Did you check and see if it' ; s running? (pause) There weren' ; t but one. BM: There' ; s been talk that there was one schoolhouse here, possibly two. Now do you know anything about that? JR: Well now, that don' ; t seem right to me. But there wasn' ; t but one. And it was right in the corner, in the northeast corner of Mosquito Creek. That' ; s where it sat. I can show you the rock, I think, where it sit. It wasn' ; t in the corner on Pinehill, this was close to the road where it turns down-- BM: That runs east and westward. JR: Yes. It was in the northeast corner of that Mosquito place. MM: [Inaudible.] JR: I don' ; t know what section that' ; s in, but-- MM: [Inaudible.] JR: The section line goes east toward Abner Bruce' ; s. It sat right across the road in the northeast corner, right there. BM: Well that must' ; ve been there on--evidently, now, there had--there was two, there was two schools there, then. MM: Yeah. BM: There was two schools built there on that corner, then. The first one was built--this is that road that goes across there-- JR: This is north. BM: Right. This is the road that runs up and down the creek here. MM: [Inaudible.] BM: This right here is the road going across toward Abner Bruce' ; s. The first one was built on, over here on this Leo. And you said the other one was built in the northeast corner, so this' ; d have to be in here on this Murta M-U-R-T-A, Murta Mosquito, or something like that. JR: Yeah, it was built right in the corner. BM: Well, that would be right in this corner in here, then. JR: Well, I don' ; t know. I don' ; t understand-- MM: [Inaudible.] BM: That would be right here in that northeast corner. JR: And you know what happened to it, don' ; t you? BM: Well, they tell me this one here burnt in about 1908. The one up on the hill burnt in about 1908. And-- MM: Ask him what happened to that one. BM: What happened to this one? JR: Well, it burnt down, them boys, big boys, would go in there and have their parties and things in there and they, they just burnt it down. MM: See, now, he-- BM: Well how long-- MM: What year? BM: What, about what year was that, John? JR: Well, it was after 1909, I don' ; t know when. MM: About ' ; 12, I was told. JR: I can' ; t tell you that. IR: [Inaudible.] JR: Because they built the new schoolhouse over here, then. BM: They built a new schoolhouse up on the hill. JR: On the Grandpa Bly' ; s (ph) place. BM: On the Grandpa Bly (ph) place. JR: Yeah, other word to it was, I guess it was Phoebe Bruce' ; s. No? MM: [Inaudible.] JR: Grandpa Bly (ph) lived there, I don' ; t remember what year he came there. But it was built in the southeast corner of that place. BM: Down at Phoebe, Phoebe-- JR: Phoebe Bruce, Cairnly (ph). BM: Yeah, it' ; d be Phoebe Carinly (ph). JR: Yeah. Well, that' ; s where it was built. BM: Well that shows it to be right there. Then what year did that school burn, John? JR: I don' ; t know. BM: But it burnt too, did it or did it not? JR: Yeah. Yeah. MM: Three of them. BM: Then they built one down on the other hill. JR: Yeah. BM: Is that right? JR: Yeah. BM: What all, what all activities was the school used for? JR: Well, when I went to school? BM: Yeah, when you went to school there, from the time that you remember the school starting-- JR: It was just baseball and-- BM: What I' ; m trying to say, John, is this--was it used for other things than school activities? Now this goes back to the time that you remember the first school until it closed. What all different activities was it used for? JR: Well, they had a literary there and they had pie suppers there and they had Sunday school and church and--huh? MM: [Inaudible.] JR: And anyway, Christmas programs, all of them, they had them there. And that' ; s--huh? MM: [Inaudible.] JR: Yeah, they had fairs but I don' ; t know what year that were. But I think it were in--see I was about 14 or 15 years old. I guess I was 14, ' ; cause the year before I went to Inola. BM: Well was there any other activities that it was used for, besides what you had named? JR: Well, not that I can think of. BM: Did it ever, did the old--did the school ever use, was it ever used as a polling precinct? JR: Oh yeah, lots of--lot of fights there! BM: Who done the fighting? JR: Who? BM: That you remember? JR: (laughs) Uh, Mark Saxon (ph) and oh, I can' ; t think of that other guy' ; s name. That was the first fight I ever seen. BM: Sexton (ph)? JR: Mark Saxon (ph). BM: S-A-X-T-O-N? JR: Yeah. BM: Or S-A-X-O-N? JR: I, I don' ; t know which way it' ; s spelled. BM: Now, by any chance did he have two sisters? JR: Well-- BM: That you know of. JR: Now, Mark had, had two daughters. BM: Okay, now then, this--this is kind of light, now. That would be Gertrude and, oh-- JR: Ella-Ella-- BM: Ellen, Ella or something. I think it' ; s Ellen. Ellen. JR: Yep. BM: Gertrude and Ellen, that was their father. JR: Yeah, yeah. BM: Okay, where did they live, John, or do you remember? JR: Mmm-hmm. I don' ; t know who owned it, but I think Bill Baker owned it. Over on--well, let me see, it' ; d be three--one, two, three. It' ; d be three miles south and a mile east over here. Other words it' ; d be three miles straight south right down here by Smith Bruce' ; s. It' ; d be three miles straight south on the hill, the rocky hill up there. You know where Arthur Barnes lived. And it' ; s, it' ; s just built right around--and there' ; s a branch come in from the, the south and east, and then Skeeter Creek was on the west of it. And the house sat right up on that old rocky point. BM: In other words, they lived out on the very south end of the school district? JR: Yeah, yeah. Right on the south edge. BM: Right on the south edge of the school district. JR: Yeah. The section line runs through here and I think their house wasn' ; t as far as from here to the window to the highway. To the road. BM: To the road. But it was right on the south edge of the Pinehill district. JR: Yeah. BM: Alright. We get back to this, this thing I' ; ve got here, isn' ; t right. We know it isn' ; t, in fact it doesn' ; t cover enough south. MM: Well, but I was just going to say that poem from the literary-- IR: [Inaudible.] BM: And that' ; s one reason that I want you and Iva, when we get this other map and put these things down on it, you come up with some more information where people lived and anybody that I hadn' ; t run across yet. JR: Well, now, on this same place I can' ; t think of them people that lived there. After that, a while after that, they had two girls and one boy and they was great big old husky girls and what their names was now I can' ; t think of it. I used to tease Homer about one of them girls. In 19--I don' ; t know what. They killed rabbits and it was a baaaad winter. You could just go out with a club and just knock ' ; em in the head. And they had a barrel full of hind legs and backs. Backs. Of rabbits. Barrel full. And they had about a half a barrel full of front legs and the ribs and stuff. Sorted them! That was their meat for that summer. BM: But they used the rabbit as their--they used the rabbits as their meat. JR: Yeah, I told--that year, and they had them in the barn! Had these barrels out in the barn. BM: What year did you and Iva, what year was you and Iva married? JR: In ' ; 26. BM: 1926. JR: Third day of February. BM: Was there any children to that marriage? JR: No. [Inaudible.] (tape garbled) BM: --you said while ago that you [inaudible] (tape garbled) --or you know a poem that--literary-- IR: --remember it--[inaudible]. (tape garbled) BM: Well, let' ; s have it! IR: (reciting) " ; I jumped up in the cold morning in high glee and put on a [indecipherable] coat and [indecipherable] pants--Miss Kate [inaudible] (tape interference) when I got over there, there sat Bud Fat (ph)-- I did no more expect to see him sitting there than I' ; d expect to see a hare hid behind Uncle Tom Smith' ; s bald head. We got over there, we thought we' ; d go [indecipherable] hunting [inaudible] (tape interference) --one of these great big old squabby bullfrogs. He knew how to holler just as well as I did, he goes " ; WHOOO!" ; Knocked Miss Kate off in the creek half-waist deep. Old Fool Bud Fat (ph) ran down the creek to get a pole to help Miss Kate out and I jumped in there and I had her out in a little while! I ask her if she loved me to squeeze my hand, and she squeezed and she squeezed and she squeezed it off! My, how that felt. The next time Old Fool Bud Fat comes over to my house, I' ; m going to souse his head in the slop bucket." ; BM: (laughs) MM: You want to ask him about the [indecipherable]? BM: You, John, what all work have you done since you and Iva were, had been married? JR: Well, I mostly farmed, but we went to New Mexico in ' ; 36. I worked for a rancher out there and I worked seven days a week from sun ' ; til sun for two dollars a day. And I kept wantin' ; them to give me a day off, ' ; cause it was just driving me crazy. And they wouldn' ; t let me off. So I quit ' ; em. I' ; d been telling ' ; em I' ; d quit ' ; em. So I went to Culverson (ph) Saw Mill. And I begin to work at the mill. And I worked at the mill there for, oh, three to four days, a week, and they was supposed to get me some help and they wouldn' ; t do it--they didn' ; t do it. So I quit them and I worked for the--what' ; s his name? Hunt, Edward Hunt Sheep Company. And I picked up the drop herds. BM: When you say drop herds, what do you mean by the drop herds? JR: Well, the old ewes that had young and they wouldn' ; t claim ' ; em lot of times. And I had a thing concern with jointed pole and I' ; d hook them old ewes, I could see that they' ; d had young, and I' ; d hook them with that pole, catch ' ; em around the leg, and I' ; d hold ' ; em and I' ; d sideline ' ; em. And then I' ; d push a little lamb up there and they' ; d nurse, and I' ; d turn her loose. I mean, let her go. I' ; ve leave her sidelined. BM: What does sideline mean? JR: Well, I just put, tie her one front foot and one back foot together. That is, you know, where they can walk but still they couldn' ; t kick ' ; em or anything. And if you let ' ; em nurse one time, well then they' ; d take ' ; em and go on. BM: They' ; d take the, the little ones then and go on and raise the little ones? JR: Yeah, yeah. And I had to go to the sheep camp every day. I didn' ; t have to work only about--well, I' ; d start out early of a morning and then I' ; d have to go to the sheep camp and get there about 11:30. And I had to report in and every day I was there. There was hard tack biscuits and mutton and brown beans. That was the regular meal. MM: [Inaudible.] BM: Well how long were you in New Mexico? Why were you in New Mexico? JR: Well, I went out there more or less so maybe it' ; d help Iva, and she--other words, she had poor health and I thought maybe it' ; d help her, and she was homesick for her folks. BM: You mean Iva was still momma' ; s baby. JR: No, she was--she' ; s pretty good, but still she' ; s homesick. BM: She wanted to go see momma. MM: [Inaudible.] BM: What about the Jake Roberts place, you said something about the Jake Roberts place, the Jake Roberts lease or place? Earlier? JR: Well, Jake Roberts, they, they used to when we first came here, they had all the good horses. Good horses. They was workin' ; negroes. Colored folks. Really working. And there was Jake, he was old as I am, and then there was Johnny Roberts (ph) and Walk Roberts (ph), and--Walk lives over here this side of the 66 yet. Arthur, that' ; s Arthur. Walk is dead, that' ; s right. And them and then there, the old Rubin Moore' ; s (ph), back there across the road over there. We went right through their yard all the time. BM: The Robertses, then, the dealings that you had with Jake Roberts was buyin' ; horses off of him, is that right? JR: Oh, we didn' ; t buy any off of him, but they just had them-- BM: You weren' ; t trading with him, or-- JR: Huh-uh, no, we just knew him well, they was good clean colored folks. BM: Well you knew that, did you, or did you know that they, Jake Roberts was a freedman, out of slavery? Did you know that? JR: Well, yeah, yeah. BM: I' ; ve been trying to pinpoint down why that those colored people had been allotted land in the Indian territory. Some said they were Indian slaves. Others said no, they were white slaves. JR: I don' ; t know what, now, whether-- IR: There was-- JR: --Indians or whites, I can' ; t tell you that. IR: They were the Indian' ; s slaves. BM: Well that was report-- IR: They moved back here from the east, they had these slaves. BM: They were Indian slaves. JR: But I can' ; t tell you-- BM: Well, that there--that is what I wanted to make sure of. IR: [Inaudible.] BM: Speak up a little bit louder. IR: Oh, I' ; m just [inaudible]. BM: Okay. JR: But, I can' ; t, I can' ; t tell you that, but I do-- end of interview audio 0 https://bristoworalhistory.org/ohms/viewer.php?cachefile=OHP-0005-02_John_Rossander.xml OHP-0005-02_John_Rossander.xml
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Title
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John and Iva Rossander
Description
An account of the resource
In this 1976 interview, John Rossander (1904-1984) and wife Iva Irene (Millhouse) Rossander (1905-1999) discuss their childhood and the early days of their marriage spent in the Pinehill community outside Bristow, Creek County, Oklahoma, as well as time spent working in New Mexico at a sheep farm during their early marriage. John describes childhood events such as tracking a missing hog for a neighbor. He also works with the interviewer to pinpoint the locations of neighbors and the locations of early Pinehill school buildings on a map. John also discusses the Jake Roberts, an African-American freedman living on an Indian allotment who was a successful horse breeder.
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OHP-0005-02
Subject
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Pinehill Community and School
Date
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1976-10-22
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audio
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550
-
https://bristoworalhistory.org/files/original/48853fe23390fca3475b7f00b848da41.png
4aa32e6e4b9b30faaa5da0527bf4aeda
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
The topic of the resource
Oral accounts of various family histories
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
Bristow Historical Society, oral history collection
Oral History
A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge.
Interviewer
The person(s) performing the interview
Robert L. “Bob” McCarty
Interviewee
The person(s) being interviewed
Floyd Luther Blythe
OHMS Object
This field contains the OHMS Hyperlink (link to the XML file within the OHMS
Viewer)
https://bristoworalhistory.org/ohms/viewer.php?cachefile=OHP-00010-01_Floyd_Blythe.xml
Interview Keyword
This field adds keywords to the Omeka Oral History item type. Keywords are
included in the OHMS XML, this field in Omeka will allow for full data migration
between OHMS XML and the Omeka Record. This field does not impact the
OHMS / Omeka integration and is optional if you do not need to map the
“keywords” field in the OHMS XML to the corresponding Omeka record.
Cato
moving
OHMS Object Text
This field contains the OHMS Index and / or Transcript and is what makes the
contents of the OHMS object searchable in Omeka
5.4 OHP-0010-01 Floyd Luther Blythe OHP-0010-01 Bristow Historical Society - Oral History Archive Pinehill Community Bristow Historical Society, Inc. Cato Cato moving Floyd Luther Blythe Robert L. “Bob” McCarty MP3 1:|19(14)|38(3)|64(12) 0 https://bristoworalhistory.org/interviews/OHP-0010-01 Blythe, Floyd.mp3 Other audio 0 Camping on the creek FB: --and of course he helped the baby up and put out the fire, and they said they sold every hog and every [indecipherable] they had and every hog and everything they had. You know, they camped on the creek there for a few days. I don’t know how long, now. But they killed every living thing they had. He kept one horse that he traveled a little on. He took it out to the middle of the cornfield and tied it up. Corn was big and tall, you know, old horse was [inaudible] and they didn’t tie their hogs. Discussion of camping near a creek in Missouri camping ; Cato ; creek ; hogs ; Missouri Camping ; creek 68 Finding a Cemetery BM: Now then, how, how did you find the cemetery? MM: What was you doing— FB: Oh— BM: What was you doing? Memories of finding a cemetery Blythe ; cemetery ; Georgie ; Mary cemetery 150 A Broken Hip BM: This is Floyd telling as much as he can remember on how Aunt Sis or Mary Jane got her hip broke. FB: Well, the Johns (ph) were on their way to the reunion and she somehow or another, Aunt Sis broke her hip. And they brought her back to the house and left her and went on to the reunion. And that’s about all I can say on that. Floyd telling of a broken hip hip ; reunion broken hip In this 1976 interview, Floyd Luther Blythe (1911-1994) briefly discusses some early family history outside Cato, Missouri. FB: --and of course he helped the baby up and put out the fire, and they said they sold every hog and every [indecipherable] they had and every hog and everything they had. You know, they camped on the creek there for a few days. I don' ; t know how long, now. But they killed every living thing they had. He kept one horse that he traveled a little on. He took it out to the middle of the cornfield and tied it up. Corn was big and tall, you know, old horse was [inaudible] and they didn' ; t tie their hogs. MM: About whereabout was that, that happened? Whereabouts did that happen? FB: That happened two miles from here, it' ; s two miles east. BM: Two miles east from here. FB: Uh-huh. MM: Could you hear, were they screaming, everybody-- BM: [inaudible] could you give a pretty good description of where, where it' ; s at-- FB: Well, it' ; s two miles east of Cato (ph), Missouri [indecipherable] MM: Okay, now about this-- BM: Now then, how, how did you find the cemetery? MM: What was you doing-- FB: Oh-- BM: What was you doing? FB: Well, I--I don' ; t know, I was over there one day haying, I think, and this cemetery was growed up in sprouts and bushes pretty thick, all in it, and I got out in there, I don' ; t remember why, but I did. I got out in the brush. I found this marker, this stone that said Blythe on it. And I looked after some questions about it and found out on the [indecipherable] side of the creek there and my grandfather and grandmother. MM: I thought this was back when--I bet Georgie' ; s (ph) buried there, and Mary (ph). FB: Well that, that' ; s dad' ; s brother. MM: Your dad' ; s brother? FB: Uh-huh. MM: There' ; s two Georgie' ; s! (ph) FB: Oh, there is two there. MM: There' ; s two of them. FB: But I don' ; t know that thing was--it may have been Uncle George' ; s [indecipherable]. They had about three, I think, buried there. MM: [Inaudible.] pause in tape BM: This is Floyd telling as much as he can remember on how Aunt Sis or Mary Jane got her hip broke. FB: Well, the Johns (ph) were on their way to the reunion and she somehow or another, Aunt Sis broke her hip. And they brought her back to the house and left her and went on to the reunion. And that' ; s about all I can say on that. BM: Okay, that' ; s--that' ; s good enough. end of interview audio 0 https://bristoworalhistory.org/ohms/viewer.php?cachefile=OHP-00010-01_Floyd_Blythe.xml OHP-00010-01_Floyd_Blythe.xml
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1600
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
Floyd Luther Blythe
Description
An account of the resource
In this 1976 interview, Floyd Luther Blythe (1911-1994) briefly discusses some early family history outside Cato, Missouri.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
OHP-0010-01
Subject
The topic of the resource
Cato
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1989-09-21
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
audio
-
https://bristoworalhistory.org/files/original/af3f7521ef02b10c14ecf1acd9e83a9a.jpg
2f8d03aa1f5fc1487b1e7799d32770ba
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
The topic of the resource
Oral accounts of various family histories
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
Bristow Historical Society, oral history collection
Oral History
A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge.
Interviewer
The person(s) performing the interview
Robert L. “Bob” McCarty
Interviewee
The person(s) being interviewed
Ruth Vermont (Hailey) Stumpff
OHMS Object
This field contains the OHMS Hyperlink (link to the XML file within the OHMS
Viewer)
https://bristoworalhistory.org/ohms/viewer.php?cachefile=OHP-0010-02_Ruth_Stumpff.xml
Interview Keyword
This field adds keywords to the Omeka Oral History item type. Keywords are
included in the OHMS XML, this field in Omeka will allow for full data migration
between OHMS XML and the Omeka Record. This field does not impact the
OHMS / Omeka integration and is optional if you do not need to map the
“keywords” field in the OHMS XML to the corresponding Omeka record.
Cato
OHMS Object Text
This field contains the OHMS Index and / or Transcript and is what makes the
contents of the OHMS object searchable in Omeka
5.4 OHP-0010-02 Ruth Vermont (Hailey) Stumpff OHP-00010-02 Bristow Historical Society - Oral History Archive Family Histories Bristow Historical Society, Inc. Family Histories Cato Ruth Vermont (Hailey) Stumpff Robert L. “Bob” McCarty MP3 1:|22(10)|33(3)|44(14)|74(8)|84(6)|96(3)|109(6) 0 https://bristoworalhistory.org/interviews/OHP-0010-02 Stumpff, Ruth Hailey.mp3 Other audio 0 Blythe Family BM: This is a history affair with Mrs. Dewey MM: Her name is-- RS: Well, I think you look like Gary Hall! MM: --Ruth Stumpff. Go on, say Ruth Stumpff. This is Ruth Stumpff. RS: Ruth Hailey Stumpff! (ph) BM: Okay, this is an interview with Ruth Hailey Stumpff (ph) here in Cato, Missouri on the morning of the 20th—21st day of September 1989. Memories of the Blythe family buggy ; Cato, Missouri ; fence ; horse back ; Ruth Stumpff ; William Blythe ; wood fence Blythe ; rail fence 207 Boyfriends, marriage, and children BM: What about, did you flirt with the boys? RS: And count— BM: Did you flirt with the boys? RS: We, we claimed ‘em! BM: Oh, you claimed the boys! Memories of boyfriends and flirting boys ; flirt ; Ozark Hills ; Sam Blythe Boyfriends ; Ozark Hills 349 Mary Jane Wilson MM: What about Aunt Sis (ph)? RS: Oh yeah, I’m—Aunt Sis Wilson, she was a neighbor of ours and she was a tall, hands—tall, beautiful lady and in her elderly days she lived alone right about a mile and a half from us and she—the way I remember her best is when I would kick along to school when I was near the eighth grade, Sis would come along now, what was her other name? Sis, or? Memories of a neighbor, Mary Jane Wilson Absalom Stubblefield ; cuff sleeves ; Sis Wilson Sis Wilson In this 1976 interview, Ruth Vermont (Hailey) Stumpff (1896-1990) briefly discusses the Blythe family history outside Cato, Missouri. BM: This is a history affair with Mrs. Dewey MM: Her name is-- RS: Well, I think you look like Gary Hall! MM: --Ruth Stumpff. Go on, say Ruth Stumpff. This is Ruth Stumpff. RS: Ruth Hailey Stumpff! (ph) BM: Okay, this is an interview with Ruth Hailey Stumpff (ph) here in Cato, Missouri on the morning of the 20th--21st day of September 1989. MM: Seven! BM: Or ' ; 87. We' ; ll get this right, here directly. Now, Ruth, you said that you have some history on William J. Whit Blythe (ph) family. So at this time will you repeat the history that you have for me. RS: Oh, they lived about this--Whit Blythe' ; s (ph) family lived about two miles from my home at Cato, Missouri. Now, then, we were together a lot in those days because families visited then. And the girls and we--how many, let' ; s see, how many were, there were seven--seven of those children who lived with us. Well, so we were together quite often, we had good times. And we were country girls and we knew what the country was like and we liked to do things that the country did, so those girls' ; d come over to our house and we' ; d go down to their house and we had to cross a creek and we' ; d ride a horse back down there or either go in a buggy. And those girls' ; d come up here on horseback. Alright. And we would get out and play and romp around in the woods a little, pastures. And one girl that--we had real fences then, made out of trees that were split--and this one girl, Emma Blythe, could--could jump over a rail fence without ever touching it. That was, that was one of my best things of remembering the Blythe girls, is that she jumped over the fence without touching it. And now then, MM: On that [inaudible] BM: Now then, Mrs. Hailey, what was all those kids' ; names? What was all of Whit Blythe' ; s (ph) kids' ; names to the best that you remember? RS: They were Martha, let' ; s see, Martha, Emma, and Molly May (ph), and Mary Ellen, Charles H. (ph), Laura I. (ph), James Bryce (ph), Carl B. (ph), and Bertha E. (ph). That was the name of the Whit Blythe (ph) family. Now those girls and the Hailey, I was a Hailey before I married [indecipherable], and those girls and we were together just any time, oh, every Sunday or every other Sunday. Or more often than that. So we would go out into the wild woods and enough wildflowers and listen to the birds sing and we had real fences then-- BM: What about, did you flirt with the boys? RS: And count-- BM: Did you flirt with the boys? RS: We, we claimed ' ; em! BM: Oh, you claimed the boys! RS: We just claimed ' ; em. BM: Which one of the Blythe boys was your boyfriend? RS: Cliff. BM: Oh, Cliff. Cliff' ; s a good one. RS: I [indecipherable] about Cliff. BM: Oh, okay. RS: (laughs) And he was my boyfriend and my sister, younger than me, my baby sister, she and Dewey (ph) went together. They were real sweet on each other. And then my sister Celie (ph), older, married Whit Blythe' ; s (ph) brother, Sam Blythe' ; s son, oldest son, Clete (ph) Blythe. So the Blythes and the Haileys are connected. And I now, my sister, Celie (ph) that married the Blythe is dead and her husband Clete (ph) is dead. But they had three children and--two girls and a boy that the girls are yet living, one lives in Haskell (ph), Missouri and her name is Helen Blythe Neely (ph) and the other girl lives in Republic, Missouri close to Springfield and her name is--well--Colleen (ph). I named her Haddock (ph). Colleen Blythe Haddock (ph). She married a Haddock. And I named her Colleen because I had a girlfriend in school that I liked and I called her--I named this girl Colleen. Now then, the two girls are alive and the little boy died in infancy. And now, that' ; s the--Sam Blythe, he' ; s a relative to Whit (ph) Blythe. And now then, Whit Blythe (ph)--these girls and the Hailey girls were all very intimate. We, we loved each other well. And so then they, they finally left the Ozark Hills and went down into Oklahoma country. And now then, I have some of the offspring that are here today in my house in Cato, Missouri and in the house I was born in. And this house here is, is 91 years old and it was built by a Chicago carpenter and it' ; s built like the houses down in Eureka Springs, Arkansas. MM: What about Aunt Sis (ph)? RS: Oh yeah, I' ; m--Aunt Sis Wilson, she was a neighbor of ours and she was a tall, hands--tall, beautiful lady and in her elderly days she lived alone right about a mile and a half from us and she--the way I remember her best is when I would kick along to school when I was near the eighth grade, Sis would come along now, what was her other name? Sis, or? MM: Mary Jane. RS: Or Mary Jane, but her--we kind of named her Sis and I just never did--Sis Wilson. She married a Wilson and she lived there alone and I' ; d meet her on the road and she had on a beautiful dress with cuff sleeves and long sleeves and the way I remember most about her dressing--instead of having buttons down the front of her dress she had just straight pins about an inch apart all along down the front of her dress and that always attracted me. When I think of her I think of those pins. And finally, she died and her son came and got her and took her to Oklahoma and gave her a very wonderful burial--a over $600 burial. And so that' ; s my way of remembering. And then they are tied up with one of our neighbors who was called Absalom (ph) Stubblefield. And this is, this is the record as much as I can tell about the [indecipherable] went to Oklahoma. end interview audio 0 https://bristoworalhistory.org/ohms/viewer.php?cachefile=OHP-0010-02_Ruth_Stumpff.xml OHP-0010-02_Ruth_Stumpff.xml
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6100
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
Ruth Vermont (Hailey) Stumpff
Description
An account of the resource
In this 1976 interview, Ruth Vermont (Hailey) Stumpff (1896-1990) briefly discusses the Blythe family history outside Cato, Missouri.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
OHP-00010-02
Subject
The topic of the resource
Family Histories
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1989-09-21
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
audio
-
https://bristoworalhistory.org/files/original/95af63492ca087da6ff78344917db4d0.jpg
5df859174cbdae685f6069a9c4637ecc
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Pinehill Histories
Subject
The topic of the resource
History of the Pinehill area north of Bristow
Description
An account of the resource
Several interviews were done by Mary and Bob Mc Carty of people who grew up in the Pinehill area north of Bristow. This collection is the Pinehill subset of the Bristow Oral Histories
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
Bristow Historical Society, oral history collection
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Oral history.
Oral History
A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge.
Interviewer
The person(s) performing the interview
Robert L. “Bob” McCarty
Interviewee
The person(s) being interviewed
Leo Frank Bruce
OHMS Object
This field contains the OHMS Hyperlink (link to the XML file within the OHMS
Viewer)
https://bristoworalhistory.org/ohms/viewer.php?cachefile=OHP-0012-01_Leo_Bruce.xml
Interview Keyword
This field adds keywords to the Omeka Oral History item type. Keywords are
included in the OHMS XML, this field in Omeka will allow for full data migration
between OHMS XML and the Omeka Record. This field does not impact the
OHMS / Omeka integration and is optional if you do not need to map the
“keywords” field in the OHMS XML to the corresponding Omeka record.
Pinehill
oil
OHMS Object Text
This field contains the OHMS Index and / or Transcript and is what makes the
contents of the OHMS object searchable in Omeka
5.4 OHP-0012-01 Leo Frank Bruce OHP-0012-01 Bristow Historical Society - Oral History Archive Pinehill Community Bristow Historical Society, Inc. Pinehill Community and School Pinehill oil Leo Frank Bruce Robert L. “Bob” McCarty MP3 1:|28(7)|60(9)|78(12)|100(9)|122(15)|142(8)|165(10)|205(2)|229(4)|247(8)|258(8)|279(1)|314(10)|345(3)|358(4)|383(7)|409(1)|420(8)|439(11)|471(2)|496(2)|518(4)|546(8)|572(15)|598(15)|607(2)|614(14)|631(13)|647(4)|650(11)|661(13)|671(7)|693(3)|712(3)|727(1)|745(11)|759(8)|777(14)|785(8)|798(3)|810(5)|827(4)|847(12)|858(7)|876(6)|885(4)|905(9)|925(7) 0 https://bristoworalhistory.org/interviews/OHP-0012-01 Bruce, Leo.mp3 Other audio 0 Family History BM: This is [indecipherable], 10—or 11/12/1976, ten minutes until four o’clock. Leo, whenever— MM: What was [inaudible] BM: What was your mother and dad’s name? Leo Bruce discusses his family history Abner Bruce ; Clarence Bruce ; Ella May ; Leo Frank Family History 158 Pinehill School BM: You stated here a while back, Leo, that you remembered when the first school was built there. LB: Well, I should be able to give you that [indecipherable] description, but I can’t and I don’t know— BM: Why, Leo, we—we uh— Discussion of the first Pinehill School being built Pinehill ; Pinehill School ; schoolhouse Pinehill School 240 Location of Childhood Home BM: At that time, Leo, where did your parents live? LB: They lived—well, now, they lived in a little—I’m turned around. I get my directions crossed up there. But the road that goes down to, past where Abner Bruce lives now? Well they lived on down that road at the foot of that hill, you know, there’s quite a hill there. Discussion of the location of his childhood home 1908 ; log home ; statehood childhood home 359 Pinehill School and Teachers BM: Tell us about what’s in that first schoolhouse being built. LB: Well, I was so small it’s hard for me to— MM: Tell us--you kind of played around it, [inaudible] while they was building it [inaudible]. Discussion of building of Pinehill School and teachers Nell Evans ; Nell Watson ; Pinehill School ; schoolhouse ; Witty McKeehan Pinehill School ; Teachers 511 Pinehill Classmates and Teachers BM: Who all went to school with you there at that time, Leo? That you can remember? LB: Well, that was— BM: Take your time now, and think. Memories of classmates and teachers and Pinehill School Big Mosquitoes ; Biggs ; Bill McEwan ; Charlie Stubblefield ; Clarence Myers ; classmates ; Ernest Sawell ; Frank Bruce ; Leo Pinehill ; Letch Stubblefield ; Mayes ; Pinehill ; Rosie Lindsey ; Sammy Stubblefield ; Tom McEwan ; Will Wilson ; Willie Mayes classmates ; Pinehill School ; Teachers 814 Moving back to Pinehill and running a store BM: In later years, then, Leo, in later years you went to—you came back in that country. You came back in that country. Did you or did you not? LB: Yes, it was several— BM: In later years, several, several years after that— LB: In later years. Discussion of moving back to Pinehill and opening a store armistice ; canned goods ; Coleman Bruce ; flour ; Pinehill ; Polecat Bridge ; tobacco Pinehill ; store 976 Father as County Clerk BM: When your parents moved into the Sapulpa area, what did your father—what was your father’s occupation at that time? LB: Well, of course he was a farmer, well then he was elected. He ran for county clerk. And he was elected county clerk. BM: He was elected country clerk. MM: What year? Leo Bruce's father is county clerk County Clerk ; election ; term county clerk 1090 Marriage and Children MM: What did your mom and dad do? Did they move back to the Pinehill community? LB: No. BM: At the present time, do you still-you still own some land out in that part, do you or do you not, Leo? LB: Yes. BM: Let’s back up. What year, Leo, did you get married? Discussion of marriage and children Cherry Creek ; Elesia Montaguerrez ; Francisca Alexius ; Ida Shockley ; Kay Don Bruce ; Robert Bruce ; Troy Livingston children ; marriage 1268 Locations of Pinehill Schools MM: How many Pinehill school buildings do you remember? [Inaudible.] LB: Well I don’t know whether there’d have been three, there were three, wasn’t there? BM: Well we’ve got reports of three, we’ve got reports of four, so we don’t know. MM: The one that [inaudible]— Discussion of the locations of the Pinehill Schools John Rossander ; Pinehill ; Pinehill school Pinehill School 1375 Creek County Sheriff BM: Was your dad—wasn’t your dad elected to a term as sheriff? In Creek County? LB: Yes, he served two terms as sheriff. BM: He served two terms as sheriff of Creek County. Well then, he was—that was in what year, Leo? Do you remember? LB: No, I don’t. I’m not sure, I’d have to look that up. Leo Bruce's father as Creek County Sheriff Creek County ; Sheriff Sheriff 1506 Activities at Pinehill School BM: --I never had got that off any of the, anybody else but you. (pause) Is there any funnies that you can—that you remember that went on at the school during your school days there? Is there anything, any funny happened that you remember? LB: Well, I can’t think of anything amusing right now. BM: To you memory, then, what, what all was the school used for, Leo? LB: It was—they had church there a lot, as I remember it, and then they had a literary society there in the community. I can remember those meetings were a lot. They’d have—they’d come in there of an evening and I guess they had a certain night of the week that they’d have the literary but I can’t remember when. Activities held at Pinehill School church ; dialogues ; kangaroo court ; literary ; Pinehill School ; recitations ; schoolhouse ; Virgil Vann ; voting Activities ; Pinehill School ; schoolhouse 1721 Family Tree MM: As far as we know, and as far as we’ve been able to tell, Leo, you were the first white child born in that community. Leo Frank Bruce. And you was born (pause) what the date was—10/01/1897. October the— LB: Ten the eighteenth. The family tree of Leo Bruce Abner Louis Bruce ; Adam Bruce ; Alpha Bruce ; Alpha Stephens ; Balsora Dalton ; Coleman Bruce ; Jonathon Bruce ; Katie Bruce ; Leo Frank Bruce ; Morton Bruce ; Pleasant Bruce ; Richard Bruce ; Susan Bruce ; Wesley Bruce Family Tree ; Leo Bruce 1901 Pinehill Memories and a Story of Shoes for a Dog LB: Well I was—I don’t know how to describe it. I really liked the community out there, you know, and of course the mental [indecipherable] child, why, they usually appreciate or like the child more than they do after they get grown and have to get out and face the— BM: Face the world. LB: --cold, cold world. MM: Well, you were never really apart from it. Your folks has always been there, you’ve been back and forth the whole dang—your life, haven’t you? Memories of growing up in Pinehill and a story about shoes for a hunting dog Coleman Bruce ; community ; dog ; fish ; Heyburn ; hunting ; Pinehill ; Polecat ; shoes ; swimming hole memories ; Pinehill 2200 Oil Industry and Crossing a Cold Creek MM: Do you remember any of the early oil industry in there, or anything like that? LB: Well now, see, when I had the store out there they had a (pause) I think they called it a booster station, didn’t they, the Texas Oil Company had a station right down below the hill there from where the store was. BM: Be out west. Discussion of early business including oil and crossing a cold cree, creek ; Oil ; oil industry ; Old Stockade House ; pipeline ; Polecat ; telegraph operator ; Texas Oil Company creek ; oil 2488 Surrey with a Fringe on Top MM: I believe you told me one time about you and Charlie Blythe watching the first surrey with a fringe on top. Do you remember that? It was there at your grandpa’s, and— LB: Yes, I just barely, I can remember. Well, I can remember that was kind of a, kind of a meeting place for a lot of people over the country there at my grandparents’ house. I think Charlie—seems like I can remember Charlie stopping in there more than once— MM: What about surrey with a fringe on top? Memories of seeing a surrey with fringe on top Charlie Blythe ; Cherry Creek ; fringe ; surrey Surrey 2556 Talks of Visiting and the Location of Leo Bruce's Property BM: You can still drive down—or you could, you could still drive down to that old crossing there on Cherry Creek. You could here a few years back. I don’t know whether you still can or not. Down by where the Old Stockade House was. There was a cross there, that was the roadway where the crossing was there on Cherry Creek, went right down to Polecat, on down to just above what they call the lower falls. LB: Those lower falls, I don’t know if I was ever right at that location or not. But I can remember the people speaking of the lower falls and— Discussion of visiting the Pinehill area and the location of Leo Bruce's property Cherry Creek ; Dan Masterson ; lower falls ; Loyd Bruce ; Mastersons ; Old Stockade House ; Pinehill ; Polecate ; Roy Bruce Pinehill ; property records In this 1976 interview, Leo Frank Bruce (1897-1990), the first white child born in the Pinehill Community outside of Bristow, Oklahoma, describes his life in the area prior to statehood including their early home structures and the approximate location of their homesteads. He also identifies some of the first schoolteachers and his schoolmates in the community. He discusses talks about running a small dry goods store prior to refrigeration/electricity, his family’s subsequent move to Sapulpa when his father was elected as the first Creek County clerk, and subsequently as the Creek County sheriff. Finally, he describes social events in the Pinehill community such as literaries, fishing, and the first time he ever saw a surrey with a fringe on top. BM: This is [indecipherable], 10--or 11/12/1976, ten minutes until four o' ; clock. Leo, whenever-- MM: What was [inaudible] BM: What was your mother and dad' ; s name? LB: My dad' ; s name was Abner, his middle initial was L.--Abner L. Bruce, but he was just known as Abner, you know, mainly everyone knew him as Abner Bruce. Now, my mother' ; s name was Ella May. I don' ; t remember how she spelled it--whether she spelled it M-A-Y or M-A-E, probably with a Y. I think they most--heared it spelled it back in those days. BM: Her maiden name was what? LB: Stowe. BM: Stowe. LB: S-T-O-W-E. BM: How many children were to that marriage, Leo? LB: Well, there were three children. Is it too warm in here for you folks? BM: No, it' ; s fine for me. UM: It' ; s a little bit too warm for me, but [inaudible]. MM: [Inaudible.] BM: There were three children to that marriage. LB: Yes. BM: And their names were what, Leo? LB: Well, let' ; s see--let me get the Bible. BM: Okay. pause in recording BM: There were three children. LB: Iva' ; s the oldest. Leo Frank. MM: Born in what year? BM: What year were you born, Leo? LB: Oh, in 1897. BM: 1897. LB: October the 18th. BM: Then? LB: Then Clarence Bruce was born March 3, 1902. And he died in infancy, didn' ; t live but a few days. And there was a girl born, oh the first--no, she was born February 4, 1906, and she didn' ; t--she died in infancy. She died May 1, 1906, that same year. MM: You were the sole-- BM: You' ; re the sole, you are the only one that-- LB: The only child. BM: The only child. LB: Mmm-hmm. BM: You stated here a while back, Leo, that you remembered when the first school was built there. LB: Well, I should be able to give you that [indecipherable] description, but I can' ; t and I don' ; t know-- BM: Why, Leo, we--we uh-- LB: [inaudible] BM: --we have the-- LB: --already-- BM: --we have the description and all of that. You stated, though, that you remembered when the first school was--first schoolhouse was built. Is that right? LB: Yes, sir. BM: Any particular thing happen during the building of that school that you remember of? LB: Nothing that was really of importance. I knew that I was just very small boy and I was standing around and getting where I was in the way when they were--the people were putting up the school, building the school. And they--some of them got after me for being in the way there, I can remember that part of it. BM: At that time, Leo, where did your parents live? LB: They lived--well, now, they lived in a little--I' ; m turned around. I get my directions crossed up there. But the road that goes down to, past where Abner Bruce lives now? Well they lived on down that road at the foot of that hill, you know, there' ; s quite a hill there. BM: Yeah. On that hill there. LB: Mmm-hmm. They lived on the, right past Abner' ; s. They lived on the left. BM: On the left-hand side-- LB: Left-hand side of the road right at the foot of the hill. BM: Right at the foot of that hill. LB: Mmm-hmm. BM: That would be on the north side of the road there, then. What' ; s that road run east, east and west. They lived here right at the foot of the hill, then, before they got down to that little creek where Frank' ; s house was. Is that right? LB: Yeah. Mmm-hmm. BM: What type of a house was that, Leo? LB: It was a log a house. BM: It was a log house. So, how many rooms was it? LB: I believe it was just two rooms. BM: How long did they live there in that house? LB: They lived there until statehood, you know, more of [indecipherable]. What would' ; ve been the election, you know, when they--in the fall of the year before statehood, would' ; ve been 1907, and I think statehood was January 1908. And they moved to Sapulpa in the fall of the year prior to statehood. BM: They moved to Sapulpa prior to statehood. MM: [Inaudible.] BM: Tell us about what' ; s in that first schoolhouse being built. LB: Well, I was so small it' ; s hard for me to-- MM: Tell us--you kind of played around it, [inaudible] while they was building it [inaudible]. LB: Well, I can' ; t remember that the--it was just out in open land, there, you know, and I don' ; t know whether they had any fences to speak of at that time that cut through there. Maybe it was just open land and I was just--didn' ; t have anything else to do that I would just, just knew of the men that were working there and a big part of the time I was in their way. MM: And they kind of chased you off. BM: Uh-- MM: And you started school in the year-- BM: You started to school there when the--in that year of 19--when the first school opened, then. Is that right? LB: Yes. BM: And that teacher-- LB: Well, it must' ; ve been Nell Evans (ph). BM: Nell Evans (ph)? Or Nell Watson (ph)? LB: Nell, Nell Watson (ph), now wasn' ; t she-- BM: She was the one that was in 1903. LB: --wasn' ; t her maiden name Evans? BM: Well I--it could' ; ve been, I don' ; t know. LB: And I think she married a Watson there in Bristow, could that be right? LB: Well, now that, that-- MM: No, Nell Evans was the third one. BM: Nell Evans was the third teacher down. LB: Oh, well-- MM: Might be the same one if she-- LB: I' ; m, I' ; m sorry--Witty McKeehan (ph) was the first teacher that, wasn' ; t that right? MM: No, Nell Watson-- BM: Nell Watson and then Witty McKeehan (ph) was the second teacher. LB: Is that right. Well, I don' ; t believe I went to school with a teacher Nell Watson on my time, I can' ; t remember that. Because I always had the impression that--well, Witty (ph) and I talked about it, but I told people that Witty (ph) was my first schoolteacher. BM: Mmm-hmm. LB: But that might' ; ve been wrong, but as I remembered it, and I can remember with Witty (ph) teaching school there, and I was thinking that he was my first schoolteacher. MM: And what do you remember about Witty (ph)? BM: What do you remember about Witty McKeehan (ph) as a teacher? LB: Well, I thought that--of course, it was easy for me to somehow make an impression on me, you know, but I thought he was really smart. (laughs) MM: [Inaudible.] BM: Who all went to school with you there at that time, Leo? That you can remember? LB: Well, that was-- BM: Take your time now, and think. LB: It' ; s hard to remember many of them because they' ; re so--there was a family by the name of Campbell. I don' ; t remember for sure how they spelled their name, I think it was C-A-M-P-B-E-L-L Campbell. I think they went to school there. And there was (pause) and there was two (pause) I want to say scholars, pupils, that were, they were practically grown. [Indecipherable] a boy and a girl, they--they were--to me they were man and a woman. BM: Mmm-hmm. LB: --went to school there, and I can remember that. And then there was, I think there was more than one Stubblefield, I believe. There' ; s a Charlie Stubblefield, I think Charlie Stubblefield is still there, and there' ; s--we knew him as Letch, was that his actual name? BM: I have a Letch Stubblefield-- LB: Letch Stubblefield. BM: There was a Letch Stubblefield as well as a Charlie Stubblefield. LB: And then Sam, there was a Sammy Stubblefield. Those three might' ; ve gone to school there. And I' ; m pretty sure Clarence Myers went to school there. And the Mayes (ph) children, Miss [indecipherable] Mayes (ph) was [indecipherable] a teacher there. And her brother, Willie, his name was Willie Mayes (ph), they went to school there. And a Tom McEwan (ph), I think his father' ; s name was Billy--Bill McEwan (ph), he would' ; ve been a nephew to the teacher, Woody. BM: To Woody. LB: [inaudible] Now that first year I can' ; t be sure about that but those are the pupils that I remember that went to school to Pinehill there in the early days. And Rosie Lindsey (ph) went to school there. And she was always in school. That was before she and Frank Bruce were married. BM: Your mother taught school there too, in case you hadn' ; t-- LB: That' ; s right. BM: Do you have any idea--there had been a story and we had been told that she didn' ; t complete her term there for some reason or other. Do you have any idea what that reason was, Leo? LB: Well, it' ; s possible that it could' ; ve been her--they moved to Sapulpa there. I don' ; t know. MM: No, that she-- BM: No, they said something about her health or something or other, about that time. LB: Can' ; t remember that. BM: Clarence Myers was the one that told us that. Now, could it have been possible that it could' ; ve been on the count of the youngest girl. LB: That' ; s possible. [inaudible] BM: I believe on her-- LB: It was 1906 when she died, that-- BM: Yeah, in 1906. So it' ; s very possible then, that the reason your mother didn' ; t complete that term of school was on the count of your sister. LB: I don' ; t know. MM: Do you remember Ernest Sawell? BM: Do you remember Ernst Sawell? S-A-W-E-L-L? LB: No, I don' ; t recall. MM: He finished the term [inaudible]. BM: He finished the term, that term, for your mother. That was according to Clarence Myers. MM: Do you remember Will D. Wilson (ph)? LB: [Indecipherable.] BM: He came in, Will D. came in, after your mother taught there. LB: It was the next term, probably, wasn' ; t it. BM: And Ernest Sawell, the next term, well then Will D. Wilson came in and taught the next term. LB: Hmm. Well I--you asked who went to school there, I' ; m sure Leo Pinehill went to school there. MM: Yes, [inaudible]. LB: And [indecipherable] probably Mary and-- MM: Mary. BM: The--all three of those kids. LB: --Pinehill children. UW: I don' ; t know whether the Biggs went that early or not. And some of the Big Mosquitoes (ph). LB: [Inaudible.] BM: In later years, then, Leo, in later years you went to--you came back in that country. You came back in that country. Did you or did you not? LB: Yes, it was several-- BM: In later years, several, several years after that-- LB: In later years. MM: About what year was that? BM: About what year was did you come back out in there, Leo? LB: Oh, (pause). When was the [indecipherable] war, well that' ; s--I just read it in the history--day before [indecipherable], World War I? When the armistice was signed? MM: [Inaudible.] BM: Nineteen-eighteen or 1919. LB: It was about two or three years before that, prior to that, that I was out there. BM: Was any you--when you came back out there, then, where did you, where did you move to at that time? LB: Oh, I just stayed there with my grandparents, Coley Bruce--Coleman Bruce. And I ran a store for a few years. BM: You ran a store there. Alright, where was that store located at? LB: It was about--how far would it be from where the last school was there east across--just across Polecat Bridge there, and about a quarter-- MM: Quarter east and a quarter north-- BM: No, half east and a quarter north-- MM: Half a mile east and quarter north. BM: Half east and a quarter north. MM: Alright, what kind of store, how big a store, tell us about it. BM: How big a store was that, Leo? LB: Oh I just--couldn' ; t really call it a store, it was more--in this day and time you' ; d think of it more as a concession stand because we had no refrigeration, you know, and didn' ; t even keep ice, but about all I kept was flour and canned goods and stuff that was not perishable, couldn' ; t spoil. And tobacco, cans of tobacco. MM: How long did you run it? LB: Didn' ; t even have, didn' ; t even have sodee pop. (laughs) BM: How long did you run that store, Leo? LB: I think it was a little over two years. BM: When your parents moved into the Sapulpa area, what did your father--what was your father' ; s occupation at that time? LB: Well, of course he was a farmer, well then he was elected. He ran for county clerk. And he was elected county clerk. BM: He was elected country clerk. MM: What year? BM: What year was he elected county clerk? LB: Well, that would' ; ve been in 1907, wouldn' ; t that be right? Nineteen-seven, prior to statehood. Statehood I think was January 1908. MM: How many years did he serve? LB: He served seven years [inaudible]. The election they held before statehood--or the first election as I remember it was an off year, and when they had the next election why, they held it when--on the regular year that the elections have always been held since and the [inaudible]-- BM: On an even year, then. LB: --the terms were two years, two year terms. And his first term as I remember it was only a year there. He just served a year until the next election and then it was like a regular term, for two more terms. BM: Now he was elected down near the--the first term, then, he would' ; ve been elected. He went in, then in about 1909. His first term would' ; ve been about 1909. MM: No, 1907-- LB: A full term. BM: A full term, first year--first term. MM: What did your mom and dad do? Did they move back to the Pinehill community? LB: No. BM: At the present time, do you still-you still own some land out in that part, do you or do you not, Leo? LB: Yes. BM: Let' ; s back up. What year, Leo, did you get married? LB: That would' ; ve been 19--(pauses), that would be 1927. It was [indecipherable]. MM: He was married October 18, 18--no. LB: It may not give it. MM: March 26, 1927. LB: [Inaudible.] BM: And what was her name? LB: Ida Shockley. BM: Ida Shockley. And to that marriage how many children were there, Leo? LB: Two. BM: Two. What were their-- LB: Two boys. BM: Two boys. What were their names? LB: Kaye Don, K-A-Y-E Don D-O-N, Kaye Don Bruce, and Robert Bruce. BM: Kaye Don and Robert Bruce. Are those children still alive? LB: Yes. BM: Where is Kaye Don at, at the present time? LB: He' ; s in Richmond, Washington. State of Washington. BM: And Robert? LB: He' ; s in Mexico City. BM: Mexico City. He' ; s down with all them pretty senoritas, then. LB: Well, both those boys married senoritas. BM: Oh, they did! MM: Kaye Don was married to Francisca Alexius (ph) and Robert married Elesia Montaguerrez (ph). BM: Kaye Don, I know, went to school out here. I remember Kaye Don going to school out there at Pinehill. LB: [inaudible] that' ; s right. BM: Kaye Don went to school out there. LB: About one year. BM: Yeah, and he--at that time, I think, my best memory, it was just--you lived just west of Cherry Creek (ph) on the south side of the road. In later years the house burned. Troy Livingston (ph)-- LB: Was living in there-- BM: Troy and Plessie (ph) was living in the house when it burned. I believe it' ; s right, is that-- LB: That' ; s right, that' ; s right. MM: How many Pinehill school buildings do you remember? [Inaudible.] LB: Well I don' ; t know whether there' ; d have been three, there were three, wasn' ; t there? BM: Well we' ; ve got reports of three, we' ; ve got reports of four, so we don' ; t know. MM: The one that [inaudible]-- BM: But when do you remember the ones that you remember, Leo? Where were they located at? LB: West--well the first one, of course, was there at the crossroads where--and the next one was (pause) Well, you see, the next one as I remember it was a higher elevation than the last one. BM: Yeah. LB: It was kind of up on the hill-- BM: It would' ; ve been a mile--the second one that you remember would' ; ve been a mile north and about a quarter of a mile west of where the first schoolhouse was built. Then the third one was built down in under the hill. LB: As I remember-- BM: Is that--that' ; s the way you-- LB: As I remember it, yes, but if there were four buildings, why-- MM: The first one apparently-- LB: --that could' ; ve been crossed up some way there, see. BM: The first one-- MM: The one they think was the second one only lasted three years before it was burned, from 1909 to 1912. LB: Could it' ; ve been where the last one burned? And then-- MM: No, one was a quarter of a mile--a mile south of the last one and about--what, a quarter east? BM: The first one, from the first school house, where the first one was built, was a mile south and about a quarter east, kind of sitting on the hill up there on the prairie. Was the third where you remember the first one being built, is that right? That would be at the crossroads. LB: That' ; s right. BM: That would be a mile south of the last schoolhouse. LB: That' ; s right. BM: And about a quarter east. Or was it right in the corner? LB: Seems to me like it was right at the road, almost at the road there. BM: Well on this, that would be the one John Rossander was talking about, then. MM: John Rossander says he can show you the foundation, he must know. LB: I guess so. MM: ' ; Course he-- BM: So then they tell me that there was another one built up on top of the hill, which would be east of the one on the crossroads. LB: [Inaudible] it' ; s possible, but I wouldn' ; t remember that. BM: Was your dad--wasn' ; t your dad elected to a term as sheriff? In Creek County? LB: Yes, he served two terms as sheriff. BM: He served two terms as sheriff of Creek County. Well then, he was--that was in what year, Leo? Do you remember? LB: No, I don' ; t. I' ; m not sure, I' ; d have to look that up. BM: Well they did Mote-- LB: Mote ran for sheriff but he-- BM: After Abner was-- LB: After Abner served just two terms, yes. BM: That' ; s what I--that' ; s the way I remember it but I never had got that-- LB: That' ; s right. BM: --I never had got that off any of the, anybody else but you. (pause) Is there any funnies that you can--that you remember that went on at the school during your school days there? Is there anything, any funny happened that you remember? LB: Well, I can' ; t think of anything amusing right now. BM: To you memory, then, what, what all was the school used for, Leo? LB: It was--they had church there a lot, as I remember it, and then they had a literary society there in the community. I can remember those meetings were a lot. They' ; d have--they' ; d come in there of an evening and I guess they had a certain night of the week that they' ; d have the literary but I can' ; t remember when. BM: We' ; ve got different reports on these literaries, but we never have really pinpointed it down to just what all went on at these literaries. LB: I can remember they had the dialogues and recitations and they' ; d have songs. They didn' ; t have a musical instrument there, but I think sometimes someone would try to sing a song, I can remember that. But the main thing that I remember was the recitations and dialogues and I can' ; t remember--I can' ; t remember the church meetings so well. That--I' ; m sure that they did have church in the first building. BM: Also we have been told that it was used for a voting precinct in later years. It was used as a voting precinct. And in the early days they held court in that school. Do you know anything about that? LB: No. BM: We' ; ve been told something about a kangaroo court and I' ; ve tried to pinpoint that down. LB: Mm-hmm. No. BM: I forgot now who it was that--Virgil Vann, I believe it was, that was telling us about the kangaroo court, but I never could get him pinned down. Tried to find out if the kangaroo courts--that they put on during one of these literaries meetings or whether it was a real honest to goodness kangaroo court. But I' ; ve never been able to get it pinned down. MM: [Inaudible.] BM: Okay. MM: As far as we know, and as far as we' ; ve been able to tell, Leo, you were the first white child born in that community. Leo Frank Bruce. And you was born (pause) what the date was--10/01/1897. October the-- LB: Ten the eighteenth. MM: --ninety-seven. Your father was Abner Louis Bruce and he was born 09/23/1871, died 01/18/1952. His brothers were Frank--James Franklin, J. Smith, and Moten R. and Roy Clyde and his sister was Cora Belle. Your mother was Ella May Stowe, she was born 06/27/1876 and died 05/09/1948. Your grandfather was Coleman Robert Bruce, he was born in 1847 and died in 1926. His broth--your uncles and aunts was--his brothers and sisters was Pleasant Alfred, James A. (ph), John H. (ph), Richard H., Moten (ph), Charles F. (ph), Wesley A., George Washington (ph), Adam Vivian, Alpha Ann, Laura E. (ph), Susie Jane, Dora Ree (ph) and Katie V. LB: There was a bunch of them. MM: And his wife was Alpha Ann Moore, she was born in 1848 and died in 1923. Your grandfather--your great-greatfather, then, was James Thomas Bruce, he was born August 1824 and married in March 1846, he married Francis S. Vivian pause in recording as tape switches to Side B MM: --Bruce was born December 1802 and died March 1885, he was married Elizabeth L. Swinney and I think that' ; s enough of the tree to go back on there. I just found the tree on his father' ; s side. His mother' ; s tree is here also but I don' ; t think we' ; ll run anything on it. This was from Leo Bruce' ; s family Bible. Leo, what do you remember--what did you think about Pinehill? What does it mean to you? LB: Well I was--I don' ; t know how to describe it. I really liked the community out there, you know, and of course the mental [indecipherable] child, why, they usually appreciate or like the child more than they do after they get grown and have to get out and face the-- BM: Face the world. LB: --cold, cold world. MM: Well, you were never really apart from it. Your folks has always been there, you' ; ve been back and forth the whole dang--your life, haven' ; t you? LB: Mmm-hmm. Yeah, I remember several times that we moved to town here, why, during my school vacation, why, I would go out there and when I' ; d go out there, why, I planned to stay all summer! And spend the summer vacation out there. But just a little while I, I' ; d get homesick, I' ; d want to see my folks and come back to Sapulpa and that, that' ; d be about the end of my vacation. BM: About the end of your vacation. MM: What' ; d you do on vacation out there? LB: Well, they--I pretended to help a little with the farming and I remember my grandfather Coleman Bruce, he and I fished a lot and I really enjoyed that. MM: Where' ; d you fish? LB: Fished in Polecat. MM: What' ; d you catch? LB: Well, we didn' ; t catch anything but little old--little fish. Perch and catfish. Sunfish. MM: Did you ever hunt? LB: Not much. I' ; ve hunted some but I' ; m not much of a hunter. MM: Where was your swimming hole? LB: Well the main swimming hole there was--it was in Polecat there, and it was just this side of where, where we lived, you know, when Don went to school there at Pinehill. Just this side there, down--walk to what would be the south side of the road there, just a little ways from the road. MM: Did you get in on them watermelon stealing on them summer vacations? LB: No, I can' ; t remember stealing any watermelons. But I can remember, I can remember the Polecat there, it wasn' ; t anything like it was in later years. I can remember one place on further down--can you two remember where the falls was? BM: Yes. I do. LB: I think since Heyburn' ; s been built, Heyburn dam' ; s been built there, I guess there' ; s not any falls there anymore, it' ; s filled up. But just above--just north of where the falls were there, I can remember at one time there was a big hole there and it was deep. And I can remember several times, people talking about it, that they were impressed with it--that you could take regular cane fishing pole, you know, and you couldn' ; t-- BM: Couldn' ; t touch bottom. LB: Couldn' ; t touch bottom. BM: Now, was that the hole that they call the old Blokesie (ph) Hole? LB: I wouldn' ; t know. I [inaudible]. MM: Was any hunting done, any--do you remember any hunting? LB: Well, not to speak of. I can remember my uncle Frank Bruce, I can remember that he hunted quite a bit and I can' ; t be sure about that. I don' ; t know--I noticed you said that in the [indecipherable] there, you read where they sold quails on the market, but I can' ; t--I don' ; t know if he ever sold quail on the market or not. But I can remember he had a bird dog that he was real proud of, and that poor old dog would--he hunted with him so much that he had, his feet would get sore. And I can remember he tried to--it wasn' ; t a success, he couldn' ; t do much good with it, but he would try to make shoes or moccasins for this poor old dog, for his feet. Course he wouldn' ; t keep them, couldn' ; t keep them on, you know, but that worried him a lot that-- BM: Thought the old dog' ; s feet would get so sore. LB: Mmm-hmm. MM: Do you remember any of the early oil industry in there, or anything like that? LB: Well now, see, when I had the store out there they had a (pause) I think they called it a booster station, didn' ; t they, the Texas Oil Company had a station right down below the hill there from where the store was. BM: Be out west. LB: And, yes, that' ; s right. They worked several men, I don' ; t--I can' ; t remember how many men, but there were several men worked there. And I know they had a telegraph operator. Of course they had the old line that went right along with the pipeline there, you know. MM: What, did they send messages to local people if they needed it? LB: No, not much, they may have but I didn' ; t hear of it. But they used it for the old business down there. But I can remember that the line walkers--they' ; d have a line walker that would walk this line and I think they had [inaudible] can remember more than one line walker that they had that' ; d stop in there at the store and-- MM: Do you remember any flooding caused at Polecat before the dam up in that area? LB: No, I don' ; t think it flooded much but I can remember that--I can remember the creek would really get high and they had more rain than they have now. I can remember you hear could the creek roar. You could hear the roar of the waters. I remember one time, I don' ; t know whether it would be of interest to you or not, it wasn' ; t very important, but really made an impression on me when--you see, my grandfather, that was the house where I was born as I remember it. They referred to it as the Old Stockade House. The logs were built, or placed, up-and-down and not--how do I want to say it? Horizontal? BM: They were vertical but wasn' ; t horizontal. LB: Mmm-hmm. And it was a story-and-a-half house, I guess. See, I know they had rooms or a room up above, they had a stairway I know. But I know that was the house where I was born, this Old Stockade House. Well I can remember one time my uncle Mote Bruce--we were going from that--as I remember it, now--we were, I was behind him on a horse, and we were trying to go from this Old Stockade House over to where my parents lived there at the foot of the hill where I told you about. I can remember the creek being up. And it was probably right there about where the bowl where the falls was, you can remember there was a crossing there. And I remember that he stopped there on the-- BM: Bank of the creek. LB: --other side of the bank of the creek and watched that water for, oh, several minutes. He didn' ; t say anything, you know, just sit there, we sit there on the horse and just watching the water. And he finally said to me, he says, Now Leo, you hang on to me real tight, you hear? Of course that made an impression on me and I grabbed ahold of him and we slid down into the water there. And course the water came right up to our waist, you know, we were--and all you could see of the poor old horse was just his head and ears sticking up there right in front of us and I can remember the logs and stuff floating down the river, the creek there. And I can remember that horse was really pulling, but we swam the creek to get on the other side but I never knew what was so important that he had to get from my grandfather' ; s house over there back to our house. He might' ; ve just been wanting to get rid of me! (laughs) He swam that creek to get-- BM: He swam the creek with the old horse to-- LB: To get back to where [indecipherable]. BM: To get back-- MM: I believe you told me one time about you and Charlie Blythe watching the first surrey with a fringe on top. Do you remember that? It was there at your grandpa' ; s, and-- LB: Yes, I just barely, I can remember. Well, I can remember that was kind of a, kind of a meeting place for a lot of people over the country there at my grandparents' ; house. I think Charlie--seems like I can remember Charlie stopping in there more than once-- MM: What about surrey with a fringe on top? LB: --on Sundays, you know. But what I remember, one time, there was a surrey that crossed that little--there was a little--oh, we called it--it was probably Cherry Creek. It was Cherry Creek would' ; ve been right there. I can remember that surrey with a fringe on top coming and crossing that creek and coming up right up by our--my grandparents' ; house. MM: Was it pretty or what-- LB: But who they were--yeah, it was, I thought it was a really fancy carriage. But I can' ; t remember who was driving it, who they were, or anything about it. BM: You can still drive down--or you could, you could still drive down to that old crossing there on Cherry Creek. You could here a few years back. I don' ; t know whether you still can or not. Down by where the Old Stockade House was. There was a cross there, that was the roadway where the crossing was there on Cherry Creek, went right down to Polecat, on down to just above what they call the lower falls. LB: Those lower falls, I don' ; t know if I was ever right at that location or not. But I can remember the people speaking of the lower falls and-- BM: Now, this next summer, when we present and dedicate this thing to the state of Oklahoma, we' ; d like--I want you to come out and if the Lord is willing, I' ; ll try to take you back up Polecat as far as we can and show you where the old falls that you remember crossing on the horse, where it is located today and show you where the old lower falls were there on Polecat and try to show you where the old roadway used to go down through there. LB: Mmm-hmm. BM: You can drive down quite a ways down in there by where the Old Stockade House used to be. What you would--at the present time you would have to cross from where you lived there where the house burned for Troy and Plessie (ph) lived, and it burned, you would have to come back east across Cherry Creek, to Cherry Creek. There' ; s Little Cherry and Big Cherry Creek. Big Cherry Creek-- LB: Yeah, that' ; s what I was wondering about-- BM: Big Cherry Creek was the one that you were talking about the old crossing was down by the Old Stockade House-- MM: I don' ; t think you asked him where his property he owns out there is. BM: --come back to where, oh, it' ; s about two hundred yards east of Little Cherry Creek, there' ; s a road that goes south, goes back off down, winds back around, down almost to where the Old Stockade House used to be. And where the old crossing was down here. At the present time I think Louis or Andrew, one of them, has it fenced in and you can' ; t drive all the way down to where the old crossing was. LB: I was--oh, several times I went over there when we lived out there, you know, in the house that burned, you know, when Troy and Plessie (ph) lived there. I went there several times, I went over to that location but it' ; s changed so much, it' ; s-- BM: It' ; s really changed now. LB: --wouldn' ; t, wouldn' ; t know it was the same place. BM: It' ; s changed, it' ; s changed altogether now to what it was then, even. MM: Ask him where his property is [inaudible]. BM: The property that you still own out there at the present time, Leo, where is it located? LB: Well, it' ; s right there at the corner of the road where the road, one road goes over to what is Shepherd Point and the other [inaudible] and seventy acres. BM: You own seventy acres there. LB: But I really don' ; t own that place because--see, I just had forty acres and that road goes right through that forty so forty in here a few years ago, I bought the surface thirty acres from the allottee, I forget who she was, she lives down at Okmulgee. That joins there on the west there, thirty acres, so I really have what you and me would call for seventy acres but the road takes up a lot of it, I don' ; t know how many acres [inaudible]. But part of that goes right where the, goes right up where--you remember where Loyd Bruce used to live there. I don' ; t know, you folks--did you ever [inaudible]. Because that' ; s--oh, Mastersons lived there a while, one of them. BM: Yeah, right there in the corner, say, Roy Bruce had the house right there in the corner with a cedar tree in the yard. LB: Yeah. Mmm-hmm. BM: We didn' ; t live there in that corner there. Dan, Dan Masterson (ph) lived there in the corner. And Louis lived south over there on--well, just north of the Old Stockade House. LB: Mmm-hmm. BM: Where the Old Stockade House was. LB: Mmm-hmm. BM: And we lived on south down there, well it' ; d just be right there on the banks of the creek. And we moved over in the field, back over west of there in a field by the old Blokesie (ph) hole, the old swimming hole. LB: Mmm-hmm. MM: [Inaudible.] BM: Then we moved back up-- end of recording. BM: This is [indecipherable], 10--or 11/12/1976, ten minutes until four o'clock. Leo, whenever-- MM: What was [inaudible] BM: What was your mother and dad's name? LB: My dad's name was Abner, his middle initial was L.--Abner L. Bruce, but he was just known as Abner, you know, mainly everyone knew him as Abner Bruce. Now, my mother's name was Ella May. I don't remember how she spelled it--whether she spelled it M-A-Y or M-A-E, probably with a Y. I think they most--heared it spelled it back in those days. BM: Her maiden name was what? LB: Stowe. BM: Stowe. LB: S-T-O-W-E. BM: How many children were to that marriage, Leo? LB: Well, there were three children. Is it too warm in here for you folks? BM: No, it's fine for me. UM: It's a little bit too warm for me, but [inaudible]. MM: [Inaudible.] BM: There were three children to that marriage. LB: Yes. BM: And their names were what, Leo? LB: Well, let's see--let me get the Bible. BM: Okay. pause in recording BM: There were three children. LB: Iva's the oldest. Leo Frank. MM: Born in what year? BM: What year were you born, Leo? LB: Oh, in 1897. BM: 1897. LB: October the 18th. BM: Then? LB: Then Clarence Bruce was born March 3, 1902. And he died in infancy, didn't live but a few days. And there was a girl born, oh the first--no, she was born February 4, 1906, and she didn't--she died in infancy. She died May 1, 1906, that same year. MM: You were the sole-- BM: You're the sole, you are the only one that-- LB: The only child. BM: The only child. LB: Mmm-hmm. BM: You stated here a while back, Leo, that you remembered when the first school was built there. LB: Well, I should be able to give you that [indecipherable] description, but I can't and I don't know-- BM: Why, Leo, we--we uh-- LB: [inaudible] BM: --we have the-- LB: --already-- BM: --we have the description and all of that. You stated, though, that you remembered when the first school was--first schoolhouse was built. Is that right? LB: Yes, sir. BM: Any particular thing happen during the building of that school that you remember of? LB: Nothing that was really of importance. I knew that I was just very small boy and I was standing around and getting where I was in the way when they were--the people were putting up the school, building the school. And they--come of them got after me for being in the way there, I can remember that part of it. BM: At that time, Leo, where did your parents live? LB: They lived--well, now, they lived in a little--I'm turned around. I get my directions crossed up there. But the road that goes down to, past where Abner Bruce lives now? Well they lived on down that road at the foot of that hill, you know, there's quite a hill there. BM: Yeah. On that hill there. LB: Mmm-hmm. They lived on the, right past Abner's. They lived on the left. BM: On the left-hand side-- LB: Left-hand side of the road right at the foot of the hill. BM: Right at the foot of that hill. LB: Mmm-hmm. BM: That would be on the north side of the road there, then. What's that road run east, east and west. They lived here right at the foot of the hill, then, before they got down to that little creek where Frank's house was. Is that right? LB: Yeah. Mmm-hmm. BM: What type of a house was that, Leo? LB: It was a log a house. BM: It was a log house. So, how many rooms was it? LB: I believe it was just two rooms. BM: How long did they live there in that house? LB: They lived there until statehood, you know, more of [indecipherable]. What would've been the election, you know, when they--in the fall of the year before statehood, would've been 1907, and I think statehood was January 1908. And they moved to Sapulpa in the fall of the year prior to statehood. BM: They moved to Sapulpa prior to statehood. MM: [Inaudible.] BM: Tell us about what's in that first schoolhouse being built. LB: Well, I was so small it's hard for me to-- MM: Tell us--you kind of played around it, [inaudible] while they was building it [inaudible]. LB: Well, I can't remember that the--it was just out in open land, there, you know, and I don't know whether they had any fences to speak of at that time that cut through there. Maybe it was just open land and I was just--didn't have anything else to do that I would just, just knew of the men that were working there and a big part of the time I was in their way. MM: And they kind of chased you off. BM: Uh-- MM: And you started school in the year-- BM: You started to school there when the--in that year of 19--when the first school opened, then. Is that right? LB: Yes. BM: And that teacher-- LB: Well, it must've been Nell Evans (ph). BM: Nell Evans (ph)? Or Nell Watson (ph)? LB: Nell, Nell Watson (ph), now wasn't she-- BM: She was the one that was in 1903. LB: --wasn't her maiden name Evans? BM: Well I--it could've been, I don't know. LB: And I think she married a Watson there in Bristow, could that be right? LB: Well, now that, that-- MM: No, Nell Evans was the third one. BM: Nell Evans was the third teacher down. LB: Oh, well-- MM: Might be the same one if she-- LB: I'm, I'm sorry--Witty McKeehan (ph) was the first teacher that, wasn't that right? MM: No, Nell Watson-- BM: Nell Watson and then Witty McKeehan (ph) was the second teacher. LB: Is that right. Well, I don't believe I went to school with a teacher Nell Watson on my time, I can't remember that. Because I always had the impression that--well, Witty (ph) and I talked about it, but I told people that Witty (ph) was my first schoolteacher. BM: Mmm-hmm. LB: But that might've been wrong, but as I remembered it, and I can remember with Witty (ph) teaching school there, and I was thinking that he was my first schoolteacher. MM: And what do you remember about Witty (ph)? BM: What do you remember about Witty McKeehan (ph) as a teacher? LB: Well, I thought that--of course, it was easy for me to somehow make an impression on me, you know, but I thought he was really smart. (laughs) MM: [Inaudible.] BM: Who all went to school with you there at that time, Leo? That you can remember? LB: Well, that was-- BM: Take your time now, and think. LB: It's hard to remember many of them because they're so--there was a family by the name of Campbell. I don't remember for sure how they spelled their name, I think it was C-A-M-P-B-E-L-L Campbell. I think they went to school there. And there was (pause) and there was two (pause) I want to say scholars, pupils, that were, they were practically grown. [Indecipherable] a boy and a girl, they--they were--to me they were man and a woman. BM: Mmm-hmm. LB: --went to school there, and I can remember that. And then there was, I think there was more than one Stubblefield, I believe. There's a Charlie Stubblefield, I think Charlie Stubblefield is still there, and there's--we knew him as Letch, was that his actual name? BM: I have a Letch Stubblefield-- LB: Letch Stubblefield. BM: There was a Letch Stubblefield as well as a Charlie Stubblefield. LB: And then Sam, there was a Sammy Stubblefield. Those three might've gone to school there. And I'm pretty sure Clarence Myers went to school there. And the Mayes (ph) children, Miss [indecipherable] Mayes (ph) was [indecipherable] a teacher there. And her brother, Willie, his name was Willie Mayes (ph), they went to school there. And a Tom McEwan (ph), I think his father's name was Billy--Bill McEwan (ph), he would've been a nephew to the teacher, Woody. BM: To Woody. LB: [inaudible] Now that first year I can't be sure about that but those are the pupils that I remember that went to school to Pinehill there in the early days. And Rosie Lindsey (ph) went to school there. And she was always in school. That was before she and Frank Bruce were married. BM: Your mother taught school there too, in case you hadn't-- LB: That's right. BM: Do you have any idea--there had been a story and we had been told that she didn't complete her term there for some reason or other. Do you have any idea what that reason was, Leo? LB: Well, it's possible that it could've been her--they moved to Sapulpa there. I don't know. MM: No, that she-- BM: No, they said something about her health or something or other, about that time. LB: Can't remember that. BM: Clarence Myers was the one that told us that. Now, could it have been possible that it could've been on the count of the youngest girl. LB: That's possible. [inaudible] BM: I believe on her-- LB: It was 1906 when she died, that-- BM: Yeah, in 1906. So it's very possible then, that the reason your mother didn't complete that term of school was on the count of your sister. LB: I don't know. MM: Do you remember Ernest Sawell? BM: Do you remember Ernst Sawell? S-A-W-E-L-L? LB: No, I don't recall. MM: He finished the term [inaudible]. BM: He finished the term, that term, for your mother. That was according to Clarence Myers. MM: Do you remember Will D. Wilson (ph)? LB: [Indecipherable.] BM: He came in, Will D. came in, after your mother taught there. LB: It was the next term, probably, wasn't it. BM: And Ernest Sawell, the next term, well then Will D. Wilson came in and taught the next term. LB: Hmm. Well I--you asked who went to school there, I'm sure Leo Pinehill went to school there. MM: Yes, [inaudible]. LB: And [indecipherable] probably Mary and-- MM: Mary. BM: The--all three of those kids. LB: --Pinehill children. UW: I don't know whether the Biggs went that early or not. And some of the Big Mosquitoes (ph). LB: [Inaudible.] BM: In later years, then, Leo, in later years you went to--you came back in that country. You came back in that country. Did you or did you not? LB: Yes, it was several-- BM: In later years, several, several years after that-- LB: In later years. MM: About what year was that? BM: About what year was did you come back out in there, Leo? LB: Oh, (pause). When was the [indecipherable] war, well that's--I just read it in the history--day before [indecipherable], World War I? When the armistice was signed? MM: [Inaudible.] BM: Nineteen-eighteen or 1919. LB: It was about two or three years before that, prior to that, that I was out there. BM: Was any you--when you came back out there, then, where did you, where did you move to at that time? LB: Oh, I just stayed there with my grandparents, Coley Bruce--Coleman Bruce. And I ran a store for a few years. BM: You ran a store there. Alright, where was that store located at? LB: It was about--how far would it be from where the last school was there east across--just across Polecat Bridge there, and about a quarter-- MM: Quarter east and a quarter north-- BM: No, half east and a quarter north-- MM: Half a mile east and quarter north. BM: Half east and a quarter north. MM: Alright, what kind of store, how big a store, tell us about it. BM: How big a store was that, Leo? LB: Oh I just--couldn't really call it a store, it was more--in this day and time you'd think of it more as a concession stand because we had no refrigeration, you know, and didn't even keep ice, but about all I kept was flour and canned goods and stuff that was not perishable, couldn't spoil. And tobacco, cans of tobacco. MM: How long did you run it? LB: Didn't even have, didn't even have sodee pop. (laughs) BM: How long did you run that store, Leo? LB: I think it was a little over two years. BM: When your parents moved into the Sapulpa area, what did your father--what was your father's occupation at that time? LB: Well, of course he was a farmer, well then he was elected. He ran for county clerk. And he was elected county clerk. BM: He was elected country clerk. MM: What year? BM: What year was he elected county clerk? LB: Well, that would've been in 1907, wouldn't that be right? Nineteen-seven, prior to statehood. Statehood I think was January 1908. MM: How many years did he serve? LB: He served seven years [inaudible]. The election they held before statehood--or the first election as I remember it was an off year, and when they had the next election why, they held it when--on the regular year that the elections have always been held since and the [inaudible]-- BM: On an even year, then. LB: --the terms were two years, two year terms. And his first term as I remember it was only a year there. He just served a year until the next election and then it was like a regular term, for two more terms. BM: Now he was elected down near the--the first term, then, he would've been elected. He went in, then in about 1909. His first term would've been about 1909. MM: No, 1907-- LB: A full term. BM: A full term, first year--first term. MM: What did your mom and dad do? Did they move back to the Pinehill community? LB: No. BM: At the present time, do you still-you still own some land out in that part, do you or do you not, Leo? LB: Yes. BM: Let's back up. What year, Leo, did you get married? LB: That would've been 19--(pauses), that would be 1927. It was [indecipherable]. MM: He was married October 18, 18--no. LB: It may not give it. MM: March 26, 1927. LB: [Inaudible.] BM: And what was her name? LB: Ida Shockley. BM: Ida Shockley. And to that marriage how many children were there, Leo? LB: Two. BM: Two. What were their-- LB: Two boys. BM: Two boys. What were their names? LB: Kaye Don, K-A-Y-E Don D-O-N, Kaye Don Bruce, and Robert Bruce. BM: Kaye Don and Robert Bruce. Are those children still alive? LB: Yes. BM: Where is Kaye Don at, at the present time? LB: He's in Richmond, Washington. State of Washington. BM: And Robert? LB: He's in Mexico City. BM: Mexico City. He's down with all them pretty senoritas, then. LB: Well, both those boys married senoritas. BM: Oh, they did! MM: Kaye Don was married to Francisca Alexius (ph) and Robert married Elesia Montaguerrez (ph). BM: Kaye Don, I know, went to school out here. I remember Kaye Don going to school out there at Pinehill. LB: [inaudible] that's right. BM: Kaye Don went to school out there. LB: About one year. BM: Yeah, and he--at that time, I think, my best memory, it was just--you lived just west of Cherry Creek (ph) on the south side of the road. In later years the house burned. Troy Livingston (ph)-- LB: Was living in there-- BM: Troy and Plessie (ph) was living in the house when it burned. I believe it's right, is that-- LB: That's right, that's right. MM: How many Pinehill school buildings do you remember? [Inaudible.] LB: Well I don't know whether there'd have been three, there were three, wasn't there? BM: Well we've got reports of three, we've got reports of four, so we don't know. MM: The one that [inaudible]-- BM: But when do you remember the ones that you remember, Leo? Where were they located at? LB: West--well the first one, of course, was there at the crossroads where--and the next one was (pause) Well, you see, the next one as I remember it was a higher elevation than the last one. BM: Yeah. LB: It was kind of up on the hill-- BM: It would've been a mile--the second one that you remember would've been a mile north and about a quarter of a mile west of where the first schoolhouse was built. Then the third one was built down in under the hill. LB: As I remember-- BM: Is that--that's the way you-- LB: As I remember it, yes, but if there were four buildings, why-- MM: The first one apparently-- LB: --that could've been crossed up some way there, see. BM: The first one-- MM: The one they think was the second one only lasted three years before it was burned, from 1909 to 1912. LB: Could it've been where the last one burned? And then-- MM: No, one was a quarter of a mile--a mile south of the last one and about--what, a quarter east? BM: The first one, from the first school house, where the first one was built, was a mile south and about a quarter east, kind of sitting on the hill up there on the prairie. Was the third where you remember the first one being built, is that right? That would be at the crossroads. LB: That's right. BM: That would be a mile south of the last schoolhouse. LB: That's right. BM: And about a quarter east. Or was it right in the corner? LB: Seems to me like it was right at the road, almost at the road there. BM: Well on this, that would be the one John Rossander was talking about, then. MM: John Rossander says he can show you the foundation, he must know. LB: I guess so. MM: 'Course he-- BM: So then they tell me that there was another one built up on top of the hill, which would be east of the one on the crossroads. LB: [Inaudible] it's possible, but I wouldn't remember that. BM: Was your dad--wasn't your dad elected to a term as sheriff? In Creek County? LB: Yes, he served two terms as sheriff. BM: He served two terms as sheriff of Creek County. Well then, he was--that was in what year, Leo? Do you remember? LB: No, I don't. I'm not sure, I'd have to look that up. BM: Well they did Mote-- LB: Mote ran for sheriff but he-- BM: After Abner was-- LB: After Abner served just two terms, yes. BM: That's what I--that's the way I remember it but I never had got that-- LB: That's right. BM: --I never had got that off any of the, anybody else but you. (pause) Is there any funnies that you can--that you remember that went on at the school during your school days there? Is there anything, any funny happened that you remember? LB: Well, I can't think of anything amusing right now. BM: To you memory, then, what, what all was the school used for, Leo? LB: It was--they had church there a lot, as I remember it, and then they had a literary society there in the community. I can remember those meetings were a lot. They'd have--they'd come in there of an evening and I guess they had a certain night of the week that they'd have the literary but I can't remember when. BM: We've got different reports on these literaries, but we never have really pinpointed it down to just what all went on at these literaries. LB: I can remember they had the dialogues and recitations and they'd have songs. They didn't have a musical instrument there, but I think sometimes someone would try to sing a song, I can remember that. But the main thing that I remember was the recitations and dialogues and I can't remember--I can't remember the church meetings so well. That--I'm sure that they did have church in the first building. BM: Also we have been told that it was used for a voting precinct in later years. It was used as a voting precinct. And in the early days they held court in that school. Do you know anything about that? LB: No. BM: We've been told something about a kangaroo court and I've tried to pinpoint that down. LB: Mm-hmm. No. BM: I forgot now who it was that--Virgil Vann, I believe it was, that was telling us about the kangaroo court, but I never could get him pinned down. Tried to find out if the kangaroo courts--that they put on during one of these literaries meetings or whether it was a real honest to goodness kangaroo court. But I've never been able to get it pinned down. MM: [Inaudible.] BM: Okay. MM: As far as we know, and as far as we've been able to tell, Leo, you were the first white child born in that community. Leo Frank Bruce. And you was born (pause) what the date was--10/01/1897. October the-- LB: Ten the eighteenth. MM: --ninety-seven. Your father was Abner Louis Bruce and he was born 09/23/1871, died 01/18/1952. His brothers were Frank--James Franklin, J. Smith, and Moten R. and Roy Clyde and his sister was Cora Belle. Your mother was Ella May Stowe, she was born 06/27/1876 and died 05/09/1948. Your grandfather was Coleman Robert Bruce, he was born in 1847 and died in 1926. His broth--your uncles and aunts was--his brothers and sisters was Pleasant Alfred, James A. (ph), John H. (ph), Richard H., Moten (ph), Charles F. (ph), Wesley A., George Washington (ph), Adam Vivian, Alpha Ann, Laura E. (ph), Susie Jane, Dora Ree (ph) and Katie V. LB: There was a bunch of them. MM: And his wife was Alpha Ann Moore, she was born in 1848 and died in 1923. Your grandfather--your great-greatfather, then, was James Thomas Bruce, he was born August 1824 and married in March 1846, he married Francis S. Vivian pause in recording as tape switches to Side B MM: --Bruce was born December 1802 and died March 1885, he was married Elizabeth L. Swinney and I think that's enough of the tree to go back on there. I just found the tree on his father's side. His mother's tree is here also but I don't think we'll run anything on it. This was from Leo Bruce's family Bible. Leo, what do you remember--what did you think about Pinehill? What does it mean to you? LB: Well I was--I don't know how to describe it. I really liked the community out there, you know, and of course the mental [indecipherable] child, why, they usually appreciate or like the child more than they do after they get grown and have to get out and face the-- BM: Face the world. LB: --cold, cold world. MM: Well, you were never really apart from it. Your folks has always been there, you've been back and forth the whole dang--your life, haven't you? LB: Mmm-hmm. Yeah, I remember several times that we moved to town here, why, during my school vacation, why, I would go out there and when I'd go out there, why, I planned to stay all summer! And spend the summer vacation out there. But just a little while I, I'd get homesick, I'd want to see my folks and come back to Sapulpa and that, that'd be about the end of my vacation. BM: About the end of your vacation. MM: What'd you do on vacation out there? LB: Well, they--I pretended to help a little with the farming and I remember my grandfather Coleman Bruce, he and I fished a lot and I really enjoyed that. MM: Where'd you fish? LB: Fished in Polecat. MM: What'd you catch? LB: Well, we didn't catch anything but little old--little fish. Perch and catfish. Sunfish. MM: Did you ever hunt? LB: Not much. I've hunted some but I'm not much of a hunter. MM: Where was your swimming hole? LB: Well the main swimming hole there was--it was in Polecat there, and it was just this side of where, where we lived, you know, when Don went to school there at Pinehill. Just this side there, down--walk to what would be the south side of the road there, just a little ways from the road. MM: Did you get in on them watermelon stealing on them summer vacations? LB: No, I can't remember stealing any watermelons. But I can remember, I can remember the Polecat there, it wasn't anything like it was in later years. I can remember one place on further down--can you two remember where the falls was? BM: Yes. I do. LB: I think since Heyburn's been built, Heburn dam's been built there, I guess there's not any falls there anymore, it's filled up. But just above--just north of where the falls were there, I can remember at one time there was a big hole there and it was deep. And I can remember several times, people talking about it, that they were impressed with it--that you could take regular cane fishing pole, you know, and you couldn't-- BM: Couldn't touch bottom. LB: Couldn't touch bottom. BM: Now, was that the hole that they call the old Blokesie (ph) Hole? LB: I wouldn't know. I [inaudible]. MM: Was any hunting done, any--do you remember any hunting? LB: Well, not to speak of. I can remember my uncle Frank Bruce, I can remember that he hunted quite a bit and I can't be sure about that. I don't know--I noticed you said that in the [indecipherable] there, you read where they sold quails on the market, but I can't--I don't know if he ever sold quail on the market or not. But I can remember he had a bird dog that he was real proud of, and that poor old dog would--he hunted with him so much that he had, his feet would get sore. And I can remember he tried to--it wasn't a success, he couldn't do much good with it, but he would try to make shoes or moccasins for this poor old dog, for his feet. Course he wouldn't keep them, couldn't keep them on, you know, but that worried him a lot that-- BM: Thought the old dog's feet would get so sore. LB: Mmm-hmm. MM: Do you remember any of the early oil industry in there, or anything like that? LB: Well now, see, when I had the store out there they had a (pause) I think they called it a booster station, didn't they, the Texas Oil Company had a station right down below the hill there from where the store was. BM: Be out west. LB: And, yes, that's right. They worked several men, I don't--I can't remember how many men, but there were several men worked there. And I know they had a telegraph operator. Of course they had the old line that went right along with the pipeline there, you know. MM: What, did they send messages to local people if they needed it? LB: No, not much, they may have but I didn't hear of it. But they used it for the old business down there. But I can remember that the line walkers--they'd have a line walker that would walk this line and I think they had [inaudible] can remember more than one line walker that they had that'd stop in there at the store and-- MM: Do you remember any flooding caused at Polecat before the dam up in that area? LB: No, I don't think it flooded much but I can remember that--I can remember the creek would really get high and they had more rain than they have now. I can remember you could the creek roar. You could hear the roar of the waters. I remember one time, I don't know whether it would be of interest to you or not, it wasn't very important, but really made an impression on me when--you see, my grandfather, that was the house where I was born as I remember it. They referred to it as the Old Stockade House. The logs were built, or placed, up-and-down and not--how do I want to say it? Horizontal? BM: They were vertical but wasn't horizontal. LB: Mmm-hmm. And it was a story-and-a-half house, I guess. See, I know they had rooms or a room up above, they had a stairway I know. But I know that was the house where I was born, this Old Stockade House. Well I can remember one time my uncle Mote Bruce--we were going from that--as I remember it, now--we were, I was behind him on a horse, and we were trying to go from this Old Stockade House over to where my parents lived there at the foot of the hill where I told you about. I can remember the creek being up. And it was probably right there about where the bowl where the falls was, you can remember there was a crossing there. And I remember that he stopped there on the-- BM: Bank of the creek. LB: --other side of the bank of the creek and watched that water for, oh, several minutes. He didn't say anything, you know, just sit there, we sit there on the horse and just watching the water. And he finally said to me, he says, Now Leo, you hang on to me real tight, you hear? Of course that made an impression on me and I grabbed ahold of him and we slid down into the water there. And course the water came right up to our waist, you know, we were--and all you could see of the poor old horse was just his head and ears sticking up there right in front of us and I can remember the logs and stuff floating down the river, the creek there. And I can remember that horse was really pulling, but we swam the creek to get on the other side but I never knew what was so important that he had to get from my grandfather's house over there back to our house. He might've just been wanting to get rid of me! (laughs) He swam that creek to get-- BM: He swam the creek with the old horse to-- LB: To get back to where [indecipherable]. BM: To get back-- MM: I believe you told me one time about you and Charlie Blythe watching the first surrey with a fringe on top. Do you remember that? It was there at your grandpa's, and-- LB: Yes, I just barely, I can remember. Well, I can remember that was kind of a, kind of a meeting place for a lot of people over the country there at my grandparents' house. I think Charlie--seems like I can remember Charlie stopping in there more than once-- MM: What about surrey with a fringe on top? LB: --on Sundays, you know. But what I remember, one time, there was a surrey that crossed that little--there was a little--oh, we called it--it was probably Cherry Creek. It was Cherry Creek would've been right there. I can remember that surrey with a fringe on top coming and crossing that creek and coming up right up by our--my grandparents' house. MM: Was it pretty or what-- LB: But who they were--yeah, it was, I thought it was a really fancy carriage. But I can't remember who was driving it, who they were, or anything about it. BM: You can still drive down--or you could, you could still drive down to that old crossing there on Cherry Creek. You could here a few years back. I don't know whether you still can or not. Down by where the Old Stockade House was. There was a cross there, that was the roadway where the crossing was there on Cherry Creek, went right down to Polecat, on down to just above what they call the lower falls. LB: Those lower falls, I don't know if I was ever right at that location or not. But I can remember the people speaking of the lower falls and-- BM: Now, this next summer, when we present and dedicate this thing to the state of Oklahoma, we'd like--I want you to come out and if the Lord is willing, I'll try to take you back up Polecat as far as we can and show you where the old falls that you remember crossing on the horse, where it is located today and show you where the old lower falls were there on Polecat and try to show you where the old roadway used to go down through there. LB: Mmm-hmm. BM: You can drive down quite a ways down in there by where the Old Stockade House used to be. What you would--at the present time you would have to cross from where you lived there where the house burned for Troy and Plessie (ph) lived, and it burned, you would have to come back east across Cherry Creek, to Cherry Creek. There's Little Cherry and Big Cherry Creek. Big Cherry Creek-- LB: Yeah, that's what I was wondering about-- BM: Big Cherry Creek was the one that you were talking about the old crossing was down by the Old Stockade House-- MM: I don't think you asked him where his property he owns out there is. BM: --come back to where, oh, it's about two hundred yards east of Little Cherry Creek, there's a road that goes south, goes back off down, winds back around, down almost to where the Old Stockade House used to be. And where the old crossing was down here. At the present time I think Louis or Andrew, one of them, has it fenced in and you can't drive all the way down to where the old crossing was. LB: I was--oh, several times I went over there when we lived out there, you know, in the house that burned, you know, when Troy and Plessie (ph) lived there. I went there several times, I went over to that location but it's changed so much, it's-- BM: It's really changed now. LB: --wouldn't, wouldn't know it was the same place. BM: It's changed, it's changed altogether now to what it was then, even. MM: Ask him where his property is [inaudible]. BM: The property that you still own out there at the present time, Leo, where is it located? LB: Well, it's right there at the corner of the road where the road, one road goes over to what is Shepherd Point and the other [inaudible] and seventy acres. BM: You own seventy acres there. LB: But I really don't own that place because--see, I just had forty acres and that road goes right through that forty so forty in here a few years ago, I bought the surface thirty acres from the allottee, I forget who she was, she lives down at Okmulgee. That joins there on the west there, thirty acres, so I really have what you and me would call for seventy acres but the road takes up a lot of it, I don't know how many acres [inaudible]. But part of that goes right where the, goes right up where--you remember where Loyd Bruce used to live there. I don't know, you folks--did you ever [inaudible]. Because that's--oh, Mastersons lived there a while, one of them. BM: Yeah, right there in the corner, say, Roy Bruce had the house right there in the corner with a cedar tree in the yard. LB: Yeah. Mmm-hmm. BM: We didn't live there in that corner there. Dan, Dan Masterson (ph) lived there in the corner. And Louis lived south over there on--well, just north of the Old Stockade House. LB: Mmm-hmm. BM: Where the Old Stockade House was. LB: Mmm-hmm. BM: And we lived on south down there, well it'd just be right there on the banks of the creek. And we moved over in the field, back over west of there in a field by the old Blokesie (ph) hole, the old swimming hole. LB: Mmm-hmm. MM: [Inaudible.] BM: Then we moved back up-- end of recording. audio 0 https://bristoworalhistory.org/ohms/viewer.php?cachefile=OHP-0012-01_Leo_Bruce.xml OHP-0012-01_Leo_Bruce.xml
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Title
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Leo Frank Bruce
Description
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In this 1976 interview, Leo Frank Bruce (1897-1990), the first white child born in the Pinehill Community outside of Bristow, Oklahoma, describes his life in the area prior to statehood including their early home structures and the approximate location of their homesteads. He also identifies some of the first schoolteachers and his schoolmates in the community. He discusses talks about running a small dry goods store prior to refrigeration/electricity, his family’s subsequent move to Sapulpa when his father was elected as the first Creek County clerk, and subsequently as the Creek County sheriff. Finally, he describes social events in the Pinehill community such as literaries, fishing, and the first time he ever saw a surrey with a fringe on top.
Identifier
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OHP-0012-01
Subject
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Pinehill Community and School
Date
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1976-11-12
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audio