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00:00:00 - Grandfathers

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Partial Transcript: HC: Well, my first memories about Bristow started when I was real young. I was pretty active around the place. My Grandfather Chapman (Isaac “Clay” Chapman), would take me around with him and my Grandfather Tyus (Thomas E. Tyus) is, he was pretty active in the Bristow settlement because he came from Birmingham, Alabama and moved his family up there. He was a United States Marshal of Birmingham while his uncle was a United States Senator. After his senator decided not to run in anymore, why he was reduced to a [indecipherable] United States Marshals sent to Indian Territory.

Segment Synopsis: Hyatt talks about his grandfathers, Thomas E. Tyus and Isaac "Clay" Chapman.

Keywords: Birmingham (Ala.); Gainesville (Tex.); Isaac "Clay" Chapman; Red River; Tol Foster; U.S. Marshal; schooner wagon; Thomas E. Tyus

00:03:01 - Alfalfa Bill Murray

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Partial Transcript: HC: And that is, a, one of the things that, and Tol Foster come over to my house while I lived in Bristow and told me about that. That was his deal while he was on this assignment, why he became friends with Alfalfa Bill Murray.
HK: And what was his name? Now this was your mother's father.
HC: Tom Tyus (Thomas Edwin Tyus).
HK: Tom Tyus. Okay.

Segment Synopsis: Hyatt talks about his grandfather, Thomas E. Tyus befriending Alfalfa Bill Murray and his grandfather being a U.S. Marshal.

Keywords: Bill Tilghman; Murray County; Red River; Thomas E. Tyus; Tol Foster; Alfalfa Bill Murray

Subjects: U.S. Marshal; Alfalfa Bill Murray

00:05:17 - Chandler Homestead

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Partial Transcript: HK: Where did your father come from to Bristow?
HC: My father?
HK: Your father.
HC: He, my grandfather and my father came from Chandler. They settled on a homestead over, uh, four miles north of Chandler and two east. And, they, when the run was on, well, they moved down there.
HK: Yeah.
HC: And, then they settled on, I think it was 160 acres over there. And my grandfather didn't particularly like the thing and he came to Bristow and bought the place out east of town where he lived until he died. And my father also bought a little tract out there east of town.

Segment Synopsis: Hyatt tells about his father and grandfather settling in Chandler on 160 acres. His grandfather didn't like it there and moved to Bristow.

Keywords: cotton gins; Chandler, (Okla.)

Subjects: Chandler homestead

00:06:50 - Bristow Jail

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Partial Transcript: HK: Well, getting back to your grandfather just, for just a second. It seems to me that I've heard you say he had something to do with the, one room, single cell jail that was, that was on the property between 7th and 8th Street, where Wells Food Market is now. It'd be just across the road from the [indecipherable] station.
HC: That's right. while he was Assistant Deputy United States Marshal there, they built that little jail. And that was the escape proof jail in this part of the country that the biggest part of the marshals, Uncle Billy Freshour, bringing people into that jail and the marshal from Guthrie bring it in. And that jail remained there until just about maybe a year and a half or two years ago.

Segment Synopsis: Hyatt and Harlan discuss the Bristow jail.

Keywords: Bristow jail; Guthrie (Okla.); Uncle Billy Freshour

Subjects: Bristow jail

00:08:34 - Washington School

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Partial Transcript: HK: Well, if you were born in 12, then where did you start to, where did you start school? Where was the school when you first started school?
HC: The school that I started to was the old Washington School. It was the old brick square building that finally burnt down there. Oh, I guess I'd been going to school there for two or three years and it, burned. And then we had to go to school in the churches.

Segment Synopsis: Hyatt talks about starting school at Washington School.

Keywords: Washington School

Subjects: Washington School

00:09:48 - Grandfather Thomas E. Tyus

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Partial Transcript: HK: Well, I don't want to leave your grandfather too quickly now. You were saying that he got killed and, and, do you remember about what year this was and what the circumstances were?
HC: Yes, from, what they told my mother and my uncle.
HK: Yeah.
HC: My granddad served as Deputy United States Marshal until he resigned there, and then he went as City Marshal for this little town of settlement of Bristow. And where the Presbyterian Church now stands, there was a story and a half building there. Well, I'm getting ahead of my story. While, he was City Marshal, he run the livery stable. The livery stable was where the Roland Hotel is right now.

Segment Synopsis: Hyatt remembers his grandfather, Thomas E. Tyus, being a Deputy US Marshal and a City Marshal and some memories that went with those jobs.

Keywords: Cushing, (Okla.); Deputy U.S. Marshal; Slick, (Okla.); Tom Slick; city marshal; livery stable; Thomas E. Tyus

Subjects: Thomas E. Tyus

00:13:32 - Early Freighters

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Partial Transcript: HK: Right. Well, did he supply, do you know, did he supply, he supplied rigs, uh, which I suppose was a buggy and a team, or maybe a buggy and one horse, I don't know. Did he also supply team and wagons to haul equipment with?
HC: No, he had hacks, what they call hacks and buggies.
HK: Yeah. Used the hacks.
HC: And, he didn't do that, but there was people there later on that did. Now my Grandfather Chapman, he, when he came from Chandler over there and settled at this place, he had, three, three teams and he was a freighter from Guthrie to Bristow. And it'd take him about six or seven days to go to Guthrie and come back with a load of groceries.

Segment Synopsis: Hyatt talks in depth about the early freighters and where they traveled and what they hauled.

Keywords: Chandler (Okla.); Drumright (Okla.); Guthrie (Okla.); Jim Bogle; Jim Jackson; L.M. Wolfe; Tulsa (Okla.); Wilbur Harrington; buggies; freighter; hacks

Subjects: freighters

00:16:53 - Brick Streets

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Partial Transcript: HC: Oh, yes, he got into other kind of hauling even before, uh, even while he was hauling from Guthrie over here. He sold sand that he dug out of the Sand Creek bottom on his farm there. All the sidewalks in Bristow on all the concrete streets in Bristow, has got sand that was hauled, that he hauled in from there into Bristow to the contractor that put the cement for the sidewalks and the concrete streets down.
HK: So that brings up another thing. All the brick streets in Bristow are bound to be on a bed of sand.
HC: Yeah he furnished their sand.

Segment Synopsis: Hyatt talks about his grandfather hauling the sand from his homestead to the town of Bristow when they were bricking the streets.

Keywords: Arthur Foster; brick streets; Sand Creek

Subjects: brick streets

00:19:17 - Oil Teaming Contractors

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Partial Transcript: HC: There's, when the oil fields came into Bristow, the, my dad went into the, well, my dad, helped my grandfather haul from Guthrie over to Bristow, and he had his own team. And when the oil fields started coming in around Drumright, why, he'd go from Bristow to Drumright and do, uh, teaming from one well to the other, haul the tools from one well, because he didn't have trucks, and they all had to be moved by teams. And my dad was a teaming contractor, and my granddad was, my uncle was too. And in Bristow there was five different oil field teaming contractors there, and one was a fella that moved from Drumright over to Bristow. His name was Doc Martin (Howard “Doc” Martin), and his barn was right where your office used to be before he moved over on 9th Street.

Segment Synopsis: Hyatt tells about the various teaming contractors and what they hauled.

Keywords: Alex McCutcheon; Basil Henson; Drumright (Okla.); Elliott McCutcheon; Howard "Doc" Martin; L.C. Jones; L.C. Jones Trucking; Seminole (Okla.); oil fields; teaming contractors; Guthrie (Okla.)

Subjects: teaming contractors

00:22:48 - Banks at 7th & Main

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Partial Transcript: HC: And there was a, oh, any number of teaming contractors there in the early days. But, getting back to the early Bristow, uh, at 7th Street and Main Street, on each corner there was a bank. And, when, they first started there, there was no pavement. It was all dirt other than this water tank sitting out for the horses sitting out in the middle of the street. When you walked across the street, why, you'd have to walk in mud.
HK: Yeah, right.
HC: And, so they finally decided they'd put crosswalks from each side, east to west there.

Segment Synopsis: Hyatt recalls the banks that were located at 7th & Main and the wooden sidewalks that were built to keep citizens out of the mud.

Keywords: wooden sidewalks; banks

Subjects: wooden sidewalks; banks

00:26:07 - Dad Senter & Family

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Partial Transcript: HC: It really is. Well, getting back to Bristow, there's an old fella down there that the Bristow people will know. And his name, they called him Dad Senter. And he did more for Bristow along, all of the young ones knew him. He sold produce there, garden stuff. He raised a large family.
HK: Senter?
HC: Yeah, S E N T E R.
HK: S E N T E R.
HC: Dad Senter. Okay, he had, I believe one, two, three sons and maybe a daughter or two. Henry Senter, he, his wife was postmaster there. He was postmaster until he died. He got burned in a gasoline explosion.

Segment Synopsis: Hyatt talks about the influence Dad Senter had on the town of Bristow.

Keywords: The Great Depression; Dad Senter

Subjects: Dad Senter

00:27:46 - Maltby Hotel

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Partial Transcript: HC: And, there was a lady there who ran a little hotel. It's about where Shamus’ Grocery, I mean, Shamus’ Dry Goods Store is, upstairs. I believe her name was Maltby. Maltby Rooms (ph). And the people didn't think very much of her. They all wanted to run her out of town and all that stuff. Because, see, her hotel wasn't just exactly what it was meant to be.
HK: You wouldn't call it real high class.
HC: Well, no, it wasn't a high-class hotel. People didn't think very much of her.

Segment Synopsis: Hyatt remembers the Maltby Hotel and Dad Senter running a soup kitchen out of it during The Great Depression.

Keywords: Dad Senter; Shamus Dry Goods; The Great Depression; soup kitchen; Maltby Hotel

Subjects: soup kitchen; Maltby Hotel

00:32:04 - School

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Partial Transcript: HK: Well, let's get back to some of your early school and after your grade school, after your grade school, uh, was there a junior high school in Bristow at the time you went into the seventh grade?
HC: Yes, sir. Yes, sir. There was a junior high school there. It was where the junior high school was right back of the old high school building.
HK: Yeah.
HC: There on 9th Street at the back of the 9th Street, the big, square high school building that's there now. It used to be the high school. That was junior high school.

Segment Synopsis: Hyatt talks about the different schools he attended when he was young.

Keywords: Arthur Foster; Bristow High School; Texas A & M College; The Great Depression; Edison School

Subjects: School

00:35:35 - Teaming & Trucking

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Partial Transcript: HK: Okie doke. Well, your dad was in the teaming and trucking business.
HC: He was in the teaming and trucking business.
HK: Didn't you work with him for a while in, in that part of the business before you, uh, went out on your own?
HC: Yes, I've worked, I helped him drive teams on, in the summertime. He had three teams and, when school was out in the summer when I was, uh, around 11 or 12 years old, he would fire a skinner and I'd drive the team.

Segment Synopsis: Hyatt talks about the teaming business and the transition into the trucking business.

Keywords: Davenport (Okla.); Drumright (Okla.); Kellyville (Okla.); Sapulpa (Okla.); Sinclair Oil Company; Slick (Okla.); boiler wagon; oil derricks; sludge pit; tool pushers; trucking; teaming

Subjects: teaming business

00:45:00 - Remembering the First Oil Well

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Partial Transcript: HK: Do you remember the first well that you ever saw drilling, where it was? A drilling well?
HC: Yes, I do. It was number one Red Bank, and it was out east of my dad, on the farm out there. And it was half a mile east of our house. Dad would put me on his back. I'd piggyback over there after supper. We'd piggyback over there and sit on the lazy bench and visit with the driller and tool dresser while they was drilling. And it was an old steam cable tool job. And it was, where this place was, it was a mile and a half west of Maye's Corner and three quarters of a mile north.

Segment Synopsis: Hyatt recalls the very first drilling rig he ever saw and where it was located.

Keywords: Maye's Corner; Tim Cushing; Wayne Hopper; oil well

Subjects: oil well