George Krumme

RS: This is Regan Siler with the Bristow Historical Society in Bristow, Oklahoma. This interview is part of the historical society’s ongoing oral history project. The date is May 20, 2024, and I’m sitting here with Mr. George Krumme at the Bristow Library Annex. He’s going to tell us a little about his life, his history with Community Bank and his history with the Bristow community. Can you please tell me your full name?

GK: George William Krumme.

RS: Okay, and do I have permission to do this interview?

GK: Certainly.

RS: Okay. Can you tell us when and where you were born?

GK: I was born December 15, 1922 at a farm about three miles northeast of Okemah, Oklahoma.

RS: Okay, and can you tell us about the people in your family? 00:01:00Let’s start with your parents. What was your father’s full name?

GK: My father was Roy Archibald Krumme [8/28/1892 – 2/25/1975]. He never liked the name Archibald, so he, generally, signed Roy A. or R.A. Krumme. My mother’s name was Ruth Bryan [1888-1963]. She had no middle name, so her name was Ruth Bryan Krumme.

RS: Okay, and did you have any siblings?

GK: I have three older siblings and a younger. The oldest child was Margaret [Margaret Ruth Krumme Pickett 7/6/1913-2/8/2003]. Rachel [Rachel Augusta Krumme McMillen 1916-1990] was next. And then my brother, Harlan [Roy Harlan Krumme 5/19/1919-11/22/1998], whose actual name was Roy Harlan, but always called Harlan. My younger brother was Jefferson Bryan [Jefferson Bryan Krumme 1924-2008], named for his maternal grandfather.

RS: Okay, alright. And 00:02:00what type of work did your parents do?

GK: My father was reared a farmer. He was born in 1892, and at that time, the vast majority of citizens in this country were farmers. His family was a large family, which was not all that unusual. His grandfather was, paternal grandfather was an immigrant from Germany, and his maternal grandmother was named McBride. She was Scotch-Irish, and we never knew where they came from, but the family, his grandfather, actually, ran a shoe store in St. Joseph, Missouri. His family, 00:03:00his father was a farmer and farmed the glacial soils, much better soil than Oklahoma’s in northwestern Missouri. The family moved to Chandler in Oklahoma territory about 1900 because my maternal grandmother, pardon me, pardon me. My paternal grandmother McBride’s [Dora Ellen McBride Krumme 1873-1972] father, John McBride [John Wesley McBride 1840-1904] had purchased a homestead. That is to say, he worked at the homestead at Chandler [Oklahoma] in the Sac, Sac Indian.

RS: The Sac and Fox?

GK: No. No, I’m sorry. I take it back. It was not Sac and Fox. It was the Iowa Tribe; 00:04:00a very small tribe that had surplus that was made available by run. The person, the man who made the run really was a speculator. All he wanted was the property, and he did not go very far. He sold it for $25 to my Grandfather McBride. At any rate, my parents came at his invitation and insistence, I suppose, from good farm land in Missouri to questionable farm land in the hills and black jacks and post oaks west of Chandler [Oklahoma].

RS: Okay.

GK: And they, he was elderly, and they occupied his, part of his 00:05:00168 acres of land, and when he died, by the time he died, which I think was about five years later, they had been there farming, doing most of the farming, because I think he was [indecipherable] and I believe that he was rather elderly. All this is a little bit unessential, but nevertheless, the farm family was quite large. The Krumme, the J.W. Krumme family, my grandfather’s family had fifteen children born in it. My father was the number two. His older sister, he had an older sister, but he was the oldest boy, and as such, he 00:06:00really was the assistant, shall we say, principal assistant as most children, boys particularly, were in the farming part of it. The ladies looked after the homes more than the farms, of course. Although, they worked, too, really. At any rate, my father, therefore, had to learn an awful lot and be more ambitious or aggressive member of the family. He really was quite enterprising. But the family, in 1906, after my great-grandfather died, had an opportunity, or saw the opportunity, to go to Indian Territory because the allotees, the Indian allotees and 00:07:00Freedman allotees, were selling, quite frequently, there allotments. So, they, the full family came to northeast of Okemah [Oklahoma], not where I was born but about a mile away, and bought, eventually. They leased for years. I never knew when they finally did buy it, but they leased half of a Creek Indian allotee woman, allotment, because the allotment was split into two different 80’s about a mile apart, 80-acre tracts. They leased one and built a house on it, and, eventually, bought it, including half of the mineral rights which was quite common in those days. The Indians would keep half of the mineral rights in case, someday, something was found there.

RS: Right, so, you said you were born 00:08:00a few miles outside of Okemah [Oklahoma], how long did you live there as a youngster?

GK: One year.

RS: You only lived there one year?

GK: My father, at the age of 18 or 19, applied and passed, pardon me, passed an examination to be a rural mail carrier, in addition to, he did some farming, but he had worked other places. He had actually worked for a bridge company, just as a teenager. Even as far as Kay County, as I said, he was quite enterprising. He passed the examination and was allowed to be, hired to be a rural mail carrier out of Okemah [Oklahoma] and did so for a half a dozen years, while 00:09:00moonlighting, shall we say, also, buying land and farming on his own. And leasing, he bought land and leased it out and let other people farm it. It was quite common. But, at any rate, he had bought this particular 80 for himself, where I was born. My two sisters were born in the metropolis, shall we say, of Okemah, Oklahoma, but by the time my older brother was born, we had actually, the family had moved to the farm northeast of Okemah [Oklahoma]. And I was born three-and-a-half years later in the same place. But I only lived there a year because my father had, in his business affairs, buying land on credit, had dealt with a banker named C.C. Walker [C.C. “Kit” Walker] at, I think it was, First National 00:10:00Bank of Okemah [Oklahoma]. At any rate, Walker had put together, a couple of decades earlier, a community north of Okemah [Oklahoma], 18 miles where he had built a cotton gin and a general store, which he ran for a decade or so. And then got interested in the bank at Okemah [Oklahoma], at any rate, he was an officer of the bank. And he had taken to leasing out his land, and he owned more than two thousand, somewhere between one thousand and three thousand, not all owned, some of it was leased from the Indians who had kept it, but did not live 00:11:00on it. At any rate, he leased to my father the entire package, and the little village. It was hardly even a village. There were only a half a dozen or so houses close to the store and the gin. He leased it for a five-year period for $5000 a year because he had faith in my father. And my father would have been in his early 30’s which is quite young to absorb that much responsibility. But, as I say, he was quite competent. At any rate, we moved there was when I was one-year-old, because the lease began in 1924, and he kept that lease by three renewals of five years, and then one year afterwards. So, 00:12:00he was there 16 years.

RS: So, when did you actually, when did your family move to Bristow? How old were you?

GK: I would have been six-years-old. Let me see, I would have been seven.

RS: Seven.

GK: It was 1930. My two sisters and my older brother needed to go to high school, junior high for some, but high school, I think for Margaret. For, maybe two years, certainly a year, my two sisters lived with a boarding house with a woman that my mother had become acquainted with, because mother didn’t want one girl to be there by herself. I think they were 13 and 15 or 14 and 12. I don’t know about that. But, at any rate, they lived there, but then when Harlan got close, they decided that we should 00:13:00move to Bristow. And one year we moved, renting, that is, mother and just the children. Dad stayed at Tuskegee [Oklahoma], mostly, although he came in on the weekends. At any rate, we rented a house for one year, and then the next year in 1930, we bought our home at 409 West 11th Street [Bristow, Oklahoma].

RS: Okay.

GK: He bought our home at 409 West 11th Street.

RS: Okay. Well, can I ask you a little bit about your early childhood and your home life? I just wanted to get a few details from you, maybe. Do you remember having any favorite toys or games that you played?

GK: One of the favorite games for all, not just country people, but city people, was croquet.

RS: Croquet?

GK: And I don’t know that anybody plays croquet anymore, but it was a very good game and quite enjoyable, and we played 00:14:00croquet on the lawn. We had Bermuda grass lawn, and we had court with wickets and stakes, and we played croquet. There was not an awful lot, of course, in the country to do, but I do remember one of the things that we did was roll a hoop, a steel barrel hoop, maybe about eight or ten inches around from a little barrel. But it was a flat hoop which rolled in front of us with a stick, with a little guide, shall we say, at the bottom of it. And that was a quite common thing for kids to do.

RS: Well, that’s interesting.

GK: And, of course, the cotton gin being there, we roamed around and spent quite a, often, I should say, in 00:15:00the cotton house, because the cotton seed house. The cotton seed sticks together quite well, and because of the lint that’s on the seed until it goes to further treatment from a cotton gin. We used to play in there digging caves and so forth. And, of course, the cotton gin had to have water because it was a steam engine power, and we swam in the pond in the summer time. We all learned to swim when we were quite young.

RS: Well, that sounds like fun. Did you have any particular chores that you were expected to do when you were a youngster?

GK: Actually, my brother, older brother was old enough that he had to milk a cow. Not always, because dad had several hired people who did it, and I don’t remember exactly when it began. I did learn 00:16:00to milk a cow, but I never was really responsible because we left when I was seven.

RS: Okay, okay. And, did you have any hobbies or anything that you enjoyed growing up as a youngster?

GK: I can’t say I had hobbies, but, of course, we played the children’s games with the other kids. Marbles, for example, and I don’t remember that we ever played Keeps, which you couldn’t [indecipherable] if you prevailed in flipping a marble out of a ring. You could keep that marble.

RS: Oh! Okay.

GK: We were less aggressive, shall we say. But we did play marbles. The girls played jacks, but I don’t think we boys ever were such sissies as to play jacks.

RS: Well, that’s interesting.

GK: I never had chores. Really, my father favored us as fat as that’s concerned. 00:17:00I probably didn’t pick cotton except just for fun. I say for fun, maybe five minutes. I mean, virtually none.

RS: Right.

GK: Of course, picking cotton is a terrible chore.

RS: A tough job.

GK: It’s very hard on the back, but it was a common occupation, shall we say, in the fall harvesting, because cotton was the cash crop in the country.

RS: Yes.

GK: You raised corn for your cattle and horses and did not sell much if any. I can’t say because I was not really involved in it. But, at any rate, my father never did really have us work in the farm. But in 1930, we moved and began 00:18:00to go to school and lived in Bristow, except that on the weekends, we two boys, George and Jeff [Jefferson Bryan Krumme], had to go with mother because we were young and she didn’t want to leave us in town on weekends, because she wanted to be with dad as much as she could. It was 18 miles in from Tuskegee to Bristow, just as it happened to be 18 miles south to Okemah [Oklahoma]. The reason we, actually, turned to Bristow rather than Okemah when we had to go to school, was that Tuskegee is located just one mile inside Creek County, which was a little bit of a reason to go to Bristow. The honest reason was Deep Fork River flowed south 00:19:00about on the county line, about a mile and a quarter south of Tuskegee, and there was an extensive bottom, probably two or three miles wide that, when it flooded, you could not make it to Okemah.

RS: Right.

GK: So, really it was impractical although, obviously, in good weather, we, quite frequently, went to visit the family.

RS: And how did you travel? In what manner did you travel?

GK: By the twenties, cars were quite common.

RS: Cars.

GK: Yeah.

RS: Do you remember you first car your family had?

GK: I remember the first one was, one of the first ones was a Dodge Coupe when I was young. However, we had a second car, but I do know that my father in his mail carrying had already, 00:20:00I think in 1917, had, maybe ’18, had bought a Model-T Ford. Half of the cars in the country clear into the mid-twenties were Model-T Fords. Model-T was the most practical. It was really the car of the century.

RS: Right, right.

GK: But we did own a Dodge Coupe, because I can remember riding in it when I was probably three-years-old or four, when you first remember. But I can’t, I don’t remember what the other car was.

RS: Okay, that’s okay.

GK: Dad, well, go ahead and ask me the next question.

RS: Okay, well, I wanted to ask you a little bit about your school life. Where did you attend elementary school?

GK: My mother’s family, my mother was one of eight. She was the next to the youngest child. 00:21:00Her father [Jefferson Scott Bryan 1849-1894] had died when she was six-years-old of tuberculosis, the white death. They lived at Republic, Missouri, just out of Springfield. Grandfather, Jefferson Bryan was his name. Mother’s name was Bryan as I told you. Had contracted tuberculosis which was quite common, even, I think, worse in England than here, that I have seen the numbers of famous people who died of tuberculosis in the late 1800’s in England, and it’s astounding. But it was also became common in the United States, and my grandfather, my mother’s father contracted it and was dying. They RS: Wasn’t it very contagious, though?

GK: It was quite contagious.

RS: I wonder how they contained it within their family 00:22:00without the whole family GK: No one else in the family got it.

RS: That’s amazing.

GK: Well, I cannot say that. Nobody else in the family…if anybody got it, they survived.

RS: Right.

GK: Mother never said whether others did pass. But, at any rate, he was obviously dying, and he was a carpenter. He went to Arizona where the dry air was supposed to be RS: Better.

GK: Beneficial. He was there only, I’m sure he took the train. He was there only one week, and he had gone to a doctor in a small town near Phoenix [Arizona], and had hired somebody, it was a wagon, to take him into Phoenix, I do not know why, but there was a newspaper article that I have a copy of about the fact that on the way 00:23:00in the, in the wagon, he died. He had been there less than a week.

RS: Oh, no.

GK: He was buried in the original Phoenix [Arizona] graveyard downtown RS: Wow!

GK: Because it was 1895 and it wasn’t a very big town at all.

RS: Right.

GK: At any rate, nobody was there for the funeral, obviously, it was too far by car. And he never had a gravestone until the late 20’s, when we finally, the families went west and put a gravestone on his grave. But, at any rate, as far as RS: Your schooling, elementary school?

GK: All this background is to say that my mother was one of eight girls, pardon me, six girls and two boys. The two boys were both young. One was just older than her, and the other one was just younger. 00:24:00The others concentrated on teaching. Several of them, I won’t say all of them, but several of them taught, including, eventually, my mother, briefly. But my Aunt Nell [Nellie Bryan Woford 1882-1953], her next oldest sister, lived in Okemah [Oklahoma] and, of course, I will say my father and mother both were living near Okemah [Oklahoma]. My mother only [indecipherable], my grandmother, my mother’s mother, had bought on credit, everybody had to buy on credit, an 80 acres only a mile or so from my father’s place was. They met there. At any rate, her sister, a few years older, five or six years older, was teaching 00:25:00at a time that I was to go to school. She was a widow with only one child, a boy, just six months older than I. Charles was his name. Charles B. Woford [Charles Bryan Woford]. My, I’m sure it was at the arrangement of my father, she was hired to teach at Tuskegee’s elementary school, the first four grades. When she came, it was time for Charles to go to school because I was turning six.

RS: You went, too, didn’t you?

GK: I was still five, but he had turned six and was going to first grade, and she wanted me as his best friend and closest, to go to school 00:26:00at the same time. So, even though I was not quite six yet, I was born in December and school started in September, so I started to school at five, because of Charles being with my teacher, Aunt Nell. Now, my memory is that there were about twelve in our first-grade class. It’s vague. But we sat on benches. I don’t remember that we even had backs. Surely, we did. They were not desks. I do remember that.

RS: Right.

GK: We may have had backs. But, at any rate, I went to school to her for two years. But the next year was when we moved physically to Bristow.

RS: So, in doing research on you, I learned that you graduated from Bristow High School at sixteen. Is that because your Aunt Nell was teaching you really early?

GK: Well, it’s a combination. I had two years under Aunt Nell at Tuskegee. When 00:27:00I went to Bristow, the principal of the school, Mrs. Wolfe, I believe, interviewed me for placement. Bristow, at the time, was crowded in schools because the oil boom had started in 1920, and although it had expired by 1930, the schools had adopted, during the meantime, something which was not terribly rare, of having school divided so that you could enter a child who had not yet entered at six in September, you could enter in first grade in January.

RS: Oh, okay. Right.

GK: So, they had, therefore, in every class had a 1A, which had gone first in September, and then class 1B, which was in, 00:28:00no I’m backward. 1B was, now let me stop and think.

RS: A was probably September.

GK: Yes, no. September was A and…at any rate.

RS: I get what you’re, I get.

GK: I can’t remember. All I know is that she said you are ahead of the kids who are going into third grade at September. I’m going to move you a half grade ahead to the ones who came in September, which I think was 3A.

RS: Right. That makes sense. That makes sense.

GK: The A was there. But, when I was in the fifth grade for the next year, they cut out all the half grades, and they divided the ones who were not quite 00:29:00as fast went back and repeated a half year, and the ones who were ahead went ahead to the next grade.

RS: And, you went ahead.

GK: And, so I skipped a half grade there, which meant that I really was a graduate of high school at sixteen.

RS: That’s amazing. So, I also read that you attended college at Texas A&M as a music major?

GK: No, it was Oklahoma A&M.

RS: Oklahoma A&M.

GK: At Stillwater.

RS: Okay.

GK: Not Texas, I’ve never been.

RS: Okay, so that wasn’t right. Okay.

GK: I went there two years. The first year, since I had played in the band, seriously, and fancied that I had some musical talents, I planned on being a band major, drum, pardon me, a 00:30:00band teacher, a band director.

RS: Right.

GK: So, I was in music school, and it did not take me more than a semester or so to realize that I neither had the talents, I had never learned to play the piano. And that’s an awful nice ability for any musician.

RS: Right.

GK: And, also, I was not talented enough really interested in being a band director, so the second year, I enrolled as a in pre-law is what they called it.

RS: Pre-law. Okay, and this was at Oklahoma A&M?

GK: Stillwater.

RS: Okay. Alright. And then I also read, did you attend Spartan School of Aeronautics?

GK: This would have been 00:31:00in 1941, and they had just passed, sometime the previous period, a draft. And, while I would have not been eligible yet for the draft, we faced draft and were concerned about going to war. And my cousin, Charles, had already quit. He was going to Stillwater, but he only went one year and was going to Spartan School of Aeronautics studying mechanics. He convinced me that if I would enroll in the weather school at Spartan School of Aeronautics, I would be in a vital industry, and I would be free from the draft. I was 18-years-old. I had finished two years when I enrolled in Spartan School of Aeronautics and took 00:32:00a, supposedly, a year training program. It was supposed to be a full year.

RS: Right.

GK: However, half-way through, this would have been ’41 when I began in probably June or May, at any rate, at the end of school, the war started. They desperately needed people to teach weather to aviation cadets. And I think all twelve of us, or however many there were, were hired.

RS: So, you were only 18 whenever you did that?

GK: I was hired, I was 19 by the time I was, let’s see was I 19? Yes, I was 19 by the time I was hired to teach aviation cadets, and I did teach at, 00:33:00I was a junior instructor in meteorology, I believe it was, hired by the civil service at $2000 a year. I taught at Perrin Field in Sherman, Texas for the most of the rest of 1942. And, there, Major Bligh (ph) who was head of the ground school said, I’ll try to get you commissioned as a second lieutenant, because you have, certainly, the background, but at the same time, I read a pamphlet that was there that I could apply for a training in the air corp as an enlisted man. Oh, well, first, I left out something. I was still teaching as a civilian when my father 00:34:00told me that his friends at the draft board said George is going to be drafted soon. This was in November or December, and so I, rather than be drafted, Major Bligh (ph) said why don’t you enlist right here. I hate to lose you as a teacher, and you can be assigned. I’ll have the camp commander assign you back to teaching. So, I taught as a private.

RS: Wow.

GK: Rather than a civilian, and that’s when he said, I can, perhaps, get you a commission, but I had an opportunity to enlist in what was called a pre-meteorology sea program. There were about fifteen liberal arts schools. There were about 250 of us in the one 00:35:00that I attended, which was at Pomona College in Claremont, California. So, anyhow, I went there for a full year, and then, unfortunately, after the end of it, the program, every program was canceled of that sort. They even canceled most cadets because they needed soldiers more than they needed, they did not need that many weather officers. They even knew it, I’m sure.

RS: Right.

GK: But, at any rate, a few of us out of the 200 of us who were originally in the program, a few of us were sent to the infantry, so I was sent to the infantry in, I think it was March or April of 1943, and I became a machine gun trainee, shall we say, in Company G, 274th Infantry Regiment, 70th 00:36:00Infantry Division. I went overseas with them and was in our first, by the time I went overseas, I was promoted to be squad leader. I had four men under me, a machine gunner and an assistant machine gunner and two ammo bearers who [indecipherable] and a spare barrel for the machine gun, which was the light air-cooled machine gun, not the water cooled. But I was squad leader by the time we got overseas.

RS: So, were you like 19 or 20 at this time?

GK: I was 20-years-old.

RS: Twenty-years-old. Oh, my goodness.

GK: Let me see. No, when I went overseas, we went overseas in ’44, and so I would have been 21.

RS: Twenty-one, wow! Okay.

GK: I would have been almost 22, but at any rate, our first action 00:37:00was against, invading a small regiment of Germans who had infiltrated, single-file and captured a little town in Alsace, northeastern France. We had been there only a week or so, brand new and untrained, unexperienced, I should say. But, at any rate, our battalion happened to be charged to drive them out. There were two hundred and…no 725 of them had invaded and it took three or four days for various entities to drive them out. But my battalion was the last one, and it was successful. Only 225 Germans 00:38:00escaped. The rest were either captured or wounded or killed. But my company was involved in the very last act. I was, I performed an act, at least that I got a sliver star for.

RS: A silver star?

GK: In that, and several weeks later when I was awarded the silver star, I was also commissioned as Second Lieutenant and became a platoon leader as a Second Lieutenant for the rest of the war.

RS: Can I ask you, during that time, being a young man, how did you feel? I can’t imagine being sent over there. How did you feel?

GK: Oh, I was one of millions, so I didn’t feel strange at all. It was just part of it.

RS: You just did it. You just did it. You didn’t have time think you were scared or worried.

GK: There was no point in concern 00:39:00about it.

RS: That’s amazing. How long were you active in the military before you returned to Pomona College?

GK: From the time I enlisted, I was in 3-1/2 years because when the war was over, since I had, we had arrived there late, we stayed for an extra six or seven months before we could be sent home. So, I came home in April or May of 1946 and applied at Pomona and they were willing to accept me. And since I had so many hours at A&M [Oklahoma A&M], plus a full year of concentrated, I could graduate with a degree in one semester, which I did. I got out in January of 00:40:00’47. My father had already offered my brother an opportunity to join a company that he had just formed in the previous few years, Krumme Oil Company. He offered me the same opportunity, although my brother had a degree from OU [University of Oklahoma] in petroleum engineering, just at the war ended. He had no experience, but nevertheless, the two of us worked with him first, mainly, as drilling contractors, drilling with cable tools, but eventually, building up a company that had production.

RS: Right, so and you also told, so you got your bachelor’s degree from Pomona?

GK: No, no, I got my bachelor’s from Pomona. I did not get my masters until I had worked in the field for RS: Okay, for a while.

GK: More than 10 years.

RS: Oh! Okay!

GK: We were living, my wife, 00:41:00Eddy Krumme [Edwynne “Eddy” Rollstone Freeland Krumme 9/10/1923- 5/10/2011] was, we were living in Bristow. Our two boys were still in elementary school, but she wanted to move to Tulsa. She was not satisfied being there. So, I was being a push-over, and we moved to Tulsa, and I was forced for the next 50 years to commute to Bristow every year from Tulsa, but she went to school there. And the kids went to, we had two boys, went to school there in Tulsa. So, I really have lived in Tulsa since 1960. And, that’s when I started going to night school and got my masters of petroleum engineering at TU [University of Tulsa] going at night school for five years, and then when I finished that, I was worn out, 00:42:00so I rested for a year. But then I got interested and wanted a course in geology and got started again and spent the next six or eight years getting a PhD in geology, and I forgot what year I graduated, but nevertheless, I will say this, my dissertation for my PhD was deemed worth enough that the Oklahoma Geological Survey printed it as Bulletin #131.

RS: That’s amazing!

GK: Well, I was quite pleased, obviously, and always been proud of it.

RS: That’s amazing. Well, you mentioned your wife, so let me, if you don’t mind, let me ask you about your first wife. When and where did you meet her?

GK: We met when she was, probably, a sophomore and I was, well, just graduated, 00:43:00a freshman. I was, had just graduated as a junior. And, so, we went together all the time I was in high school, and even when I was at A&M [Oklahoma A&M], I came home for her, and I’ve never had another date with any girl.

RS: And can you tell me what her full name is, please?

GK: Her name is Edwynne Rollstone Krumme. We always called her Eddy.

RS: Eddy. Okay, okay. And then I understand that your wife passed away from an illness?

GK: She developed dementia in her last decade or two, decade or so, and died after dementia in 2011.

RS: Okay, okay. And then can you tell me what your second wife’s name 00:44:00 is?

GK: Her name was Aldean Thompson Krumme [Grace “Aldean” Thompson Newcomb Krumme 11/19/1928-8/14/2021].

RS: Aldean Thompson Krumme.

GK: She was Aldean Thompson and a Bristow girl who actually lived only two doors from us, but she was six years younger than I, and since I left at 16, I was not interested in a girl 10-years-old anyhow, besides, I already had a girlfriend.

RS: Right.

GK: We became acquainted only, really only, after, oh I would say, in the mid oughts, because her husband. No! We had contact, I won’t say became acquainted. We had contact because her husband was a chief geologist for Amaron Petroleum, and is in one of my classes.

RS: Okay.

GK: Night classes of petroleum engineering, and he had asked Aldean, do you know anybody from Bristow named George 00:45:00Krumme? And, of course, she did. But, at any rate, we did not really become acquainted until several decades, forty years later.

RS: Okay, can you tell me how many children you have and what their names are, please?

GK: Two sons. Eddy and I had David in 1948, and David William Krumme [2/1/1948-2/15/2013], and Robert Bryan Krumme in 1950.

RS: Okay.

GK: May 27th.

RS: Okay. Can you tell me, do you have grandchildren?

GK: I have four grandchildren, two living in, David’s two children live in Estes Park, Colorado, or the area and have no children. Robert’s two children, a boy and a girl, live with, also all three of them live in the south 00:46:00part of Jenks [Oklahoma], live in Jenks.

RS: Okay.

GK: Those two children, Jay, his name is John, but is called Jay, has a boy and a girl. And Carolyn has two daughters, so both families are close.

RS: Okay, and then you had mentioned to me that you spent your entire career in the oil business. Was that just with family business with Krumme Oil?

GK: Krumme Oil Company, yes.

RS: Okay, okay. Well, now that we have a little background on you, I would like to talk to you a little bit about your involvement with Community Bank. I know this is the centennial year for them and you’ve been an integral part of the bank. What is your involvement with Community Bank? Can you tell us how you’re involved with them?

GK: Well, my father 00:47:00being at Tuskegee and being, shall we say, mayor of Tuskegee, of course, with just a half a dozen houses, there was no formation. But, nevertheless, he was recognized as being a leader in the country, and since it was only eighteen miles from Bristow, for whatever reason, they invited him to be a member of the board when, at the same year that we bought the house in Bristow, so he became a member of the board in 1930.

RS: Of Community Bank?

GK: Even though he had owned no interest in it beyond just qualifying shares.

RS: Okay.

GK: And he stayed on the board because he started a business in 1936, and, eventually, quit the Tuskegee operation. For several 00:48:00years, he really operated out of Bristow and hired somebody to run the Tuskegee operation. He founded Krumme Truck and Implement Agency selling international trucks and McCormick-Deering farm implements for several years. But, as farming went out, he, eventually, got the Oldsmobile automobile agency, and, briefly, the Cadillac. Then, in 1940, the Chamber of Commerce wanted to replace cotton, because cotton was going out completely as a cash crop, and they enticed him to build, move a peanut shelling operation. 00:49:00RS: Okay.

GK: He bought an expiring one that was in southern Oklahoma and built a peanut operation shelling. And my sister’s husband, Rachel’s husband, managed it, so he was involved in numerous things while this peanut operation was still going on is when he began going into the oil business. And, so, he was involved in numerous things, and that’s why, he had begun to buy operate, oil operate oil properties in ’42 or three or four. I don’t remember when. So, by the we came, Harlan and I came back, Harlan came back in ’46. I came back in ’47. He already had the nucleus of an oil business.

RS: Right.

GK: Now that’s the history that covers several things, I think.

RS: Right. And, so, basically it was because of your dad that you got into 00:50:00the Community Bank?

GK: And, when dad died in ’75, Harlan and I, since we were well-known businessmen, alternated being on the board.

RS: Oh, okay.

GK: Only about three years after dad died, the Foster brothers wanted to sell the bank, and there were several of us on the board who were children, sons of previous board members. Roger Collins was on the board. David Loeffler [10/20/1920-8/10/1986] was on the board. And Tom McAdams [4/6/1919-3/6/1991], all four of our fathers, had been on the board. And we decided to buy the bank. I think the year was 1978 is my guess.

RS: Okay.

GK: At 00:51:00any rate, we did join together and buy the banks. And without going into all the details, the subsequent presidents of the bank that we hired were aggressive enough that we bought two banks. One at Anadarko [Oklahoma] and one at Hugo [Oklahoma], so we had the ownership of three banks. One of the banks, the one at Anadarko had a serious loss, and we did have problems working the banks, but Community Bank, originally, of course, was Community State. It was formed in 1924 from a bankruptcy of a previous bank, First State Bank in ’24, and the city put together 00:52:00enough investors, local investors in Bristow, that it was called Community State Bank. All of those, eventually, sold out to a single person later, and it was, eventually, owned by the Foster brothers.

RS: Well, can I ask, I’m glad you talked about that, because whenever I was doing research, I know that I read about…it was kind of hard to understand, and I was hoping you could clarify it for me. There was First State Bank, but then was there a Bristow National Bank?

GK: Only a few months before First State Bank went under, it had merged, it had absorbed Bristow National Bank.

RS: Oh, okay.

GK: Bristow, at that time, had four banks, First National and 00:53:00American National at that time, at the intersection of Seventh Street. The other two banks, First State, was also at that corner in the southeast corner of that, so there were three banks at Seventh and Main. Bristow National was where Community is now, right on the corner, though.

RS: Okay.

GK: And it had a nice building. And when First State bought Bristow National, they elected to move to Bristow National’s location. But they did not last six months before they went under. The farm economy throughout the 20’s had suffered low prices and many, many banks, particularly in the south and Midwest, 00:54:00small country banks, went under, and so First National was not unique, nor Bristow National. It was, undoubtedly, due to the weak farm economy. But, as I say, what was the formation of Community Bank was quite unusual for the city itself to raise enough investors to justify buying the bank. And it did it as quite successful. It was a number of years before it was, eventually, bought by one of the owners instead of all of them. It, eventually, was owned by the two Foster brothers, and Arthur Foster [12/15/1912-7/22/1998] was running the bank when we bought it.

RS: So, what lessons were learned from the other banks failures which lead to the successful venture of Community State Bank, would you say?

GK: It was not only the good management of the bank, but also the bank, Community Bank was formed 00:55:00in 1924 and the Depression of 1929, which was October, generally, recognized as the beginning of the Depression, but for the next few years, bank failures were nationwide, actually, worldwide, because of the Great Depression was spread to Europe, as well as, the United States. Many banks went under. I suspect, that American National might have been in danger, although it never went under, but at that time, Albert C. Kelly [Albert Charles Kelly 12/28/1922-1/3/1977], old Albert, ended up owning virtually all of American National, because 00:56:00Albert’s farm had been, oil had been discovered and there were twelve wells, at least, drilled on Albert’s land. His son, young Albert, told me that his father told him that his income was $1000 a day. So, he had resources enough, so that my guess is, that he bought a troubled bank but had enough resources to tough it out, because American National did not go over.

RS: To keep it going.

GK: And Community State was able on its own to survive because, apparently, they were probably more cautious, shall we say, in their lending. At least, they were never threatened with receivership. Of course, in ’33, 1933 00:57:00when President Roosevelt declared a bank holiday nationwide, many governors had declared bank holidays in ’33 because things got so desperate, and it became universal, shall we say, and even Governor Murray had declared bank holiday before the national holiday. But President Roosevelt declared a national holiday, and began investigating all the banks to determine which one could survive, and after only a few weeks, both banks in Bristow were cleared and opened back from a holiday. In the meantime, there was no bank available in Bristow, and the Chamber of Commerce, made what was called scrip, 00:58:00which was used in place of money RS: I read about that.

GK: Which was actually paper money that was guaranteed by the Chamber of Commerce, and for a couple of weeks, it was circulated as money to be used as money because the banks were not available.

RS: I, actually, read about that. So, is there an actual story of how Community Bank was named?

GK: Only because the community went together. It was a community effort.

RS: Okay, okay. And, so, it was funded by multiple GK: Local investors.

RS: Okay, okay. Well, I read that the Bristow News Record sang the bank’s praises by reporting, and I quote, “The record is one that officials can justly be proud of as it is without parallel in the history of banking in this state. Community State Bank, a community project formed 00:59:00in the dark days when Bristow citizens had visions of losing their entire savings, is another success added to the list of a successful community.” So, what do you feel has made Community Bank successful all these years?

GK: Apparently, good management and being careful about making loans. Banks go under because of failed loans. It’s obvious, a long throughout the years, the management of Community Bank has been adequate enough so that they are never in any dangers, and certainly, have not been since I’ve been familiar with the bank.

RS: Right. Well, I was going to ask how you thought, like a new bank survived the Great Depression, but I’m guessing it’s kind of the same answer that they were cautious in their loans and investments.

GK: Yes, I would say that.

RS: Okay. 01:00:00And if the Great Depression wasn’t hard enough, that also transitioned into the Dust Bowl time period. What was life like for families and businesses during that time period of the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl era?

GK: Bristow claimed to have about 12,000 at one time. But by the time the Depression was over, it was down to about 3,000 or so. Now, I’m not sure about that. It might have been 4,000, but at any rate, it has maintained about 4,000 ever since. The Depression caused empty houses throughout Bristow. As a matter of fact, the police department threatened many kids who would go in an empty home and randomly graffiti 01:01:00throughout, and it was a real problem you find in the newspapers, which I have read that so many empty homes here in town. People went to California.

RS: Okay.

GK: And, of course, we’ve rebuilt as far as the real estate is concerned. And, also, the schools, school children were coming, particularly the farm children, because they suffered even more than in Bristow city.

RS: Right.

GK: Came to school barefoot, and I know the rotary club, at least one year, bought 200 pairs for kids, not just farm kids, you understand.

RS: Oh, wow!

GK: Because, they actually had no shoes.

RS: No shoes.

GK: So, they could attend school. And the rotary, the Edison School, 01:02:00elementary school created a cafeteria, because kids didn’t enough money, pardon me, enough food at school, at home, but they did charge for those could afford it, 10 cents per lunch. And it was a lunch. The rotary [indecipherable] created at Washington Elementary School in the southeast part of town, they ran the cafeteria there and, likewise, because food was so scarce for the school children.

RS: So scarce.

GK: So, the Depression really did affect Bristow like it affected the entire country.

RS: Yeah, what year did you take an active role with Community Bank, and can you tell us how that opportunity presented itself?

GK: I think it was in 1978, well, no my 01:03:00first was because my father died in ’75, and I suspect that Robert, pardon me, I suspect that my older brother Harlan was put on the board first as the older brother, and I normally went on there in 1976 or seven or something like that.

RS: Okay.

GK: But it was due to my father’s death that I made the first associations.

RS: So, what GK: Although, we had dealt with Community Bank for decades.

RS: Right, right. What vision or goals did you have for the bank, and do you feel they have come to fruition?

GK: Well, for it to be successful and continue to be a guiding part of Bristow, and I think it has. It has grown. Originally, Community, historically, was only 01:04:00about two thirds as big as American National Bank, because after 19, let’s see, the late 20’s there were only two banks. When Community Bank was formed, that made three banks, because two banks went under to make Community.

RS: Right.

GK: First National went under only four years later, so from that time on, there was only American National and Community State Bank.

RS: When did Community lose the State in the name?

GK: I think that occurred in about 1979.

RS: And do you know the reason for that?

GK: Yes. The president came, the new president that we had to hire because, 01:05:00obviously, the Foster’s had been president before, said it’s an awkward name to add state. Now, the original state law was that you had to have the word, if you were a state bank, you HAD to say that you were a state bank. And if you were a national bank, you had to say you were a national bank. That law was rescinded sometime far before that. I don’t actually know when, but that’s when the president who had just come said, there’s no reason to be named Community State Bank. And, more or less, dropped the name State. And, so we quite quickly, did. And I’m going to guess that was ’79.

RS: Okay. How did your involvement with the bank change through the years, and, if any, what impact do you feel it’s had on your life?

GK: Well, 01:06:00it’s, I will only say that my contact, aside from as a customer of the bank, but as a director, and while the group of us who had bought the bank stayed together until, gradually, the others sold. Eventually, my brother, Harlan and I ended up owning all the shares. And then in the mid 90’s, we divided our various assets, as far as the oil business was concerned and the banks, and Tom McAdams and I, first, I guess, owned most of it because the others had sold, and eventually, my son, Robert, began to manage the bank for Tom and me. He had experience. 01:07:00He has an MBA from Harvard, as a matter of fact, but anyhow, he came, although his previous business experience of several decades had not been either in the oil production nor in banking. With a background, he was able to adjust quickly. And he began to manage the banks, not as president, but just as general managing, overseeing. Eventually, as we had a holding company to operate the banks that we had bought, he became CEO of the holding company and really, I would say, the Krumme family has a very large ownership in, pardon me, in Sooner Southwest Bankshares, 01:08:00Inc., which owns the various banks that they have bought since then. Currently, Southwest, pardon me, Oklahoma Southwestern owns four banks. One in Bristow. One in Hugo. One in Heavener and on in Tulsa beginning a couple of years ago.

RS: Okay, well, do you recall any particular very high or low times that you had with the bank that you can share with us?

GK: Yes! The 80’s were hard for most banks because of the oil business had failures, and it affected Bristow because it had several customers who were in the oil business.

RS: Right.

GK: So, those were difficult days. And, of course, in ’08 01:09:00there was a general recession, however, the bank was strong enough that, I don’t really think the bank had serious troubles in ’08, nor has it had since.

RS: Right, right. Do you have a favorite memory regarding yourself and the bank that you would like to share, or maybe even like your earliest memory of the bank?

GK: I really can’t say that I do, no.

RS: You probably have a lot memories, don’t ya?

GK: I do have a lot of memories, and it’s been a pleasant association.

RS: So, has Community Bank helped with significant enhancements in Bristow, and if so, what are you most proud of? So, for instance, say like, city improvements, community programs, Route 66 development, like what are you most proud of that the bank has done?

GK: Both banks in Bristow have been very civic-minded.

RS: Okay.

GK: I will say, and participated in MANY activities, and I’m very proud of the fact that Community has continued to 01:10:00do so. And I will say that one symptom of the appreciation that the bank, Community Bank has observed is that it has grown so that it is, almost, I don’t know whether it’s larger than the American National [Spirit Bank] or still slightly smaller, but it has grown to the point where it is an equal competitor rather than being the smaller of the two banks, which is a sign of both good management, but also of service to the community.

RS: Well, I would agree with that. How does Community Bank manage to keep its institution local and keep it from being bought out or merged with other financial institutions?

GK: That, actually, is a decision made by management 01:11:00of Sooner Southwest. And I’ve said the wrong word. Sooner Southwest is the name of the holding company, and I apologize for my poor memory.

RS: That’s okay. No, that’s okay!

GK: At any rate, Robert and others in management position have decided to maintain the banks as independent entities. All four banks owned by the holding company are independent. Whereas, most holding companies, rather, merge the banks under a common name, which is what, of course, American National did at the time, and had to adapt the name Spirit, because too many towns had American National Bank. And it could well be that Sooner Southwest will have to do the same thing.

RS: So, what 01:12:00sets Community Bank apart from other banks, and how does that benefit the community?

GK: Oh, I’m not sure that it sets it all that much apart. But I will say that I’m happy that it has a good record decades.

RS: Well, I would like to say, I’m a customer of Community Bank, and I think it sets apart because you feel very welcomed. It’s a personal experience. You kind of get the red-carpet treatment when you go in, and other banks aren’t like that.

GK: It’s the people who are running it.

RS: Yes sir, yes sir.

GK: They are service-minded and they’re friendly, and also, competent, so.

RS: Yes, and genuinely friendly.

GK: Well, I’m happy to have you say that, because that has been my observation, too.

RS: Yes.

GK: Welcoming to everybody.

RS: Yes, you have wonderful employees there. Okay, well let’s talk about the future of Community Bank. This might be a hard one. Where do you see it in the next 100 years?

GK: I 01:13:00have no idea about what will happen to anything in the next 100 years, but all I can do is anticipate that they will continue to be successful, and certainly, I hope so.

RS: Continued success. I think so, too. Well, shifting from bank history, I’d like to ask you a couple of fun questions, and we are about to wrap this up, okay? What would you consider to be the most important invention during your life time?

GK: Well, all I can say the thing that probably has turned the world upside down more than anything else, is electronics. The latest thing, which in communications and all that. Of course, both airplanes and cars had come in by the time that I was born. Radio was just really prospering when I was born. Bristow 01:14:00had one of the first radio stations in Oklahoma, which became, yes, which became KVOO and is now in Tulsa as a TV station. But radio was brand new but only when I was a child. Of course, TV came in, subsequently, and all of those had a great change, but I think the electronics has been more revolutionary than any of the others.

RS: I would agree. I feel like someone of your age has seen the whole entire gamut of change in the time period. So, as someone that’s, you’re 101-years-old, correct?

GK: Yes.

RS: Okay, so as someone that’s 101, what type of wisdom would you like to share with us of your secret to a long and healthy life?

GK: Oh.

RS: Tell us your secrets!

GK: I don’t really know 01:15:00that I have, would presume to give a secret. All I can say is, that I have tried to exhibit integrity, honesty and, I will say, continued attention to work. I believe I can say that. At any rate RS: You mean like having a purpose with your work?

GK: Well, of course, really that’s a little presumptuous to say. I better leave it there to say without trying to express what it takes to be successful. I have been successful, but I’ll also say, that for everybody who 01:16:00has, luck plays some part. Being at the right place at the right time.

RS: Right.

GK: And being fortunate enough to make the right decisions. A lot of it is luck, but of course, that’s built on both hard work and integrity.

RS: I agree with that.

GK: And some reasonable amount of intelligence, too.

RS: Right, right. So, just finally, I just want to know if you have any other wisdom you would like to share with us or anything that you feel that we haven’t covered today? Is there anything else you would like to share?

GK: I think I’ve expressed more than I really needed to.

RS: It’s been a wonderful interview.

GK: Told a little more than I needed to, I realize.

RS: No! Well, I just want to tell you thank you for sharing your time with us today. We really appreciate it. This will be an important part of our ongoing oral history, and then, obviously, for Community Bank as well, so we really appreciate you, Mr. Krumme.

GK: Well, thank you very much.

RS: Okay, thank you.