Corwin Henkins

Interviewer: Wanda Newton (WN)

Interviewee: Corwin Henkins (CH) (1899-1999)

Other Persons: Edward Fox (EF), Bill Newton (BN)

Date of Interview: March 16th 1990

Location: Bristow, Creek County Oklahoma

Transcriber: Macy Shields

Organization: Bristow Historical Society, Inc.

Original Cassette Tape Location: OHP-0024 Side A and Side B 00:00 to 42:10

Abstract: In this 1990 interview, Corwin Henkins (1899-1999) shares his experience of living in Bristow for the first twenty-seven years of his life. He discusses his parents making the run and settling in Bristow, along with his father's death when he was only nine years old. Corwin describes entertainment at that time, the first radio station, statehood, and the effects of the great depression.

Preface: The following oral history testimony is the result of a cassette tape interview and is part of the Bristow Historical Society, Inc.'s collection of oral histories. The interview was transcribed and processed by the Bristow Historical Society, Inc., with financial assistance from the Montfort Jones & Allie Brown Jones Foundation. Rights to the material are held exclusively by the Bristow Historical Society, Inc.

The reader should bear in mind that he or she is reading a verbatim transcript of spoken, rather than written prose. Insofar as possible, this transcript tries to represent the spoken word. Thus, it should be read as a personal memoir and not as either a researched monograph or edited account.

To the extent possible, the spelling of place names, foreign words, and personal names have been verified, either by reference resources or directly by the interviewee. In some cases, a footnote has been added to the transcript in order to provide more information and/or to clarify a statement. Some uncertainties will inevitably remain regarding some words and their spellings. In these scenarios, a (ph) follows a word or name that is spelled phonetically. The notation [indecipherable] is used when the transcriber has not been able to comprehend the word or phrase being spoken. The notation [inaudible] is used where there is more mumbling than words, or when interference on the tape has made transcription impossible.

WN: Ed Fox and-- Ed will you introduce your guest?

EF: This is Corwin Henkins from Seneca, Missouri.

WN: And Corwin will you tell me again now, that you knew my father?

CH: I worked for your father and Lloyd (PH) when they first bought the hardware from HL House (PH) I believe--

WN: Oh.

CH: Is that who they bought it from?

WN: Don't ask me, you're giving me information-- I don't know.

CH: I think that's right. I'm sure it is.

WN: Oh uh, that--

CH: and uh--

WN: --and you said you'd knew my mother--

CH: Yeah.

WN: --too? Nelly (PH)? Nelly Strain (PH).

CH: And, I especially knew one of her brothers and I can't remember which one it was--

WN: Well it was Walter (PH) I presume--

CH: --Was Walter (PH) a--

WN: --A wrestler--

CH: --A wrestler, that's--

WN: --he and Bob Williams (PH).

CH: That's-- I told you--

WN: (Laughter)

WN: I asked her. I asked him coming over if-- if she was kin to Bob Williams 00:01:00(PH) and he said no. Wasn't though--

WN: No but they were good friends, see.

CH: Well that's the connection there.

WN: Yeah.

CH: Just friends.

WN: Uh-- now first of all, I want to say this is March the 17th 1990. We are going to use this in our library for future historical reference, so I want to be sure--

EF: How about 16th?

WN: Is it the 16th? Oh gah, I'm always a day back or forward or something.

(Laughter from all)

WN: Okay, now tell me Mr. Henkins when were you born? The month, the day and the year.

CH: May the 1st 1899.

WN: That was my father's birthday! His was May 1st 1891.

CH: 91?

WN: Yeah, Uh-huh. Okay, now then can you tell me a little bit about your parents and your grandparents?

CH: Well, my father and mother moved here in 1902, to Bristow--

WN: To Bristow.

CH: -- and I'll tell you this if you want to know it. Dad come down ahead of time on the train. He stopped Tulsa, Sapulpa, Bristow, Stroud and Chandler. Got 00:02:00off the train, walked out to residents some place, asked whoever answered the door for a drink of water. What he was hunting was good drinking water. He didn't care nothing about the size of the town or anything, he wanted good water. Everything was out of a well you see, there wasn't any running water any place. Bristow had the best water and that's the reason he decided--

WN: Oh well!

CH: --On Bristow.

WN: Well that's exciting to know. Do you know anything at all about your grandparents?

CH: Not very much.

WN: Not very much. Don't have any idea where they came from?

CH: Oh yeah, they-- my grandfather came from Pennsylvania. He settled in North Missouri and not on my father's side, on my mother's side I know very little about em' other than they was bout' fifty miles east of Kansas City.

WN: Well now, can you tell me any--

CH: My dad was in the Civil War.

UI: Oh yes! I wanna know. You know that for sure?

CH: I know it for sure because I drew a Civil War pen-- I have a (Indecipherable) of that. I drew a Civil War pension and I-- not many people my age. They say that they think you're crazy--

WN: (Laughter)

CH: -- and I was about nine years old when my dad died, and my mother drew twenty-seven dollars a month. I drew three dollars a month until I was eighteen years old--

WN: Well how exciting.

CH: -- and that was supposed to buy my school books.

WN: Well do you remember-- did your father ever tell you any Civil War tales or anything? Any adventures he had?

CH: Well there's one--

EF: you tell--

CH: --about the brother?

EF: No, go ahead and tell that one and then I'll-- remind me--

CH: Back then they was North Missouri and Missouri was right along the line, it didn't care-- the young boys didn't care which side of the war they was on. 00:04:00Everybody else was going to war and they wanted to join. Well, one of my brothers-- my father's brothers joined the South and my dad joined the North. And they know that they was in one battle together. Same place and it was-- you'll know--

EF: Against each other in one battle--

CH: You oughta know the name of the--

WN: Was it--

(Talking at the same time)

WN: -- Prairie Grove?

CH: It's Arkansas.

EF: It was out of Prairie Grove.

CH: Yeah in there somewhere. Anyway, here is the part about us. My dad came home; the brother never did.

WN: Oh--

CH: They don't know--

WN: What happened.

CH: --what happened, see.

WN: That's sad. Yeah, that's sad.

CH: Could be that my dad shot his own brother.

WN: (Laughter)

CH: (Indecipherable) trying to say--

WN: Yeah.

CH: That's possible, not at all likely--

EF: And down at (Indecipherable) River in Tennessee, wasn't it that he won an award and he made that pipe? I still got it--

CH: Oh yeah. Yeah--

EF: And there's the (Indecipherable) out of the (Indecipherable).

WN: Oh really?

EF: He didn't set it in the pipe.

CH: He's-- he's-- he's--

EF: I've got it and--

CH: -- He's got the pipe--

WN: Well you have the history of the--

CH: Great--

EF: Well no, I just got it all up here.

WN: Well you--

CH: Well now, he's got the-- he's got the old papers of my dad's-- where they went to while they was in the--

EF: Yeah.

CH: --in the--

WN: and his discharge papers and everything?

CH: Yeah--

EF: (Indecipherable)

WN: Yeah, yeah M-HM, they did. Well-- well tell me, how did your parents get to Oklahoma. Did they make the run originally--

CH: They made the-- yeah. Now they made the run. The one up-- would that be the Cherokee?

WN: Well it could be.

CH: I guess. Anyways that's no connection with em' coming to Bristow. They made that and sailed north of Enid, in there some place. I didn't know the name of the town--

WN: Yeah--

EF: Kremlin! It seemed like a name of Kremlin comes--

CH: Kremlin's it--

EF: Okay.

CH: --That's the closest town and they liked to starve to death picking up bones and--

WN: That's what my grandfather did.

CH: --and selling em', so they went back to Missouri.

WN: Uh-huh.

CH: and then later on, see I wasn't born then. That was in--

WN: 1889?

CH: 80-- 89?

WN: Or 91?

CH: Well, I don't remember.

WN: Yeah, okay.

CH: One of em'. It was-- it was that particular run up there then another run in Oklahoma City. This is what-- I think they called it-- I don't know. Cherokee I believe.

WN: Okay.

CH: Anyway, they made that and my father and mother and my mother's brother, which was single, and my mother's sister which was not married, and then the half-brother of mine all made the run together and they all settled on the-- what is it six hundred and forty?

EF: Section probably.

CH: Section--

EF: (Inaudible)

CH: They cornered and they built-- they built one nice house. My mother cooked for all of em'. They built a little shack on the other four to (Indecipherable)

WN: Yes, so they can--

CH: All right here in the corner.

WN: -- declare their homestead. Do you remember any outstanding things that happened to you as a child while you were in that area?

CH: See I wasn't there--

WN: You weren't there?

CH: I wasn't born yet. That was before I was born. This run and settlement. It was in 89 wasn't it?

WN: There was one in 18--

CH: That's the one they made, the 89 run--

WN: The 89--

CH: --see I wasn't born til' 99, ten years later--

WN: Yeah.

CH: --but my two sisters, Orva-- you might--

WN: Well I remember my mother, Orva Hinkle (PH)--

CH: Yeah--

WN: My father--

EF: Orva Henkins.

WN: Well, Henkins-- I knew it was--

CH: Well now she made this run with us and his mother made it. See his mother and this Orva were sisters--

WN: Sisters?

CH: --and his mother was the-- one of the two first school teachers in this town.

WN: Lucy West (PH) and his mother--

CH: Lucy West (PH) and his mother--

EF: They taught at different schools, I think--

CH: No, taught at the same schools! --

EF: Same school?

CH: --This old church building right down here on-- right by the railroad track. It's not there now--

EF: At ninth, I think.

CH: Yeah, pretty close to where that--

EF: Creeco Mill?

CH: Where they shelled peanuts, I mean--

WN: Oh--

CH: Pecans.

WN: Pecans, down at the Creeco Mill--

EF: Creeco Mill.

CH: Yeah.

WN: and there was a church there--

CH: An old church there and that's where they held school.

WN: Well let me ask you, did your mother and father farm while they were in Bristow or what did they do--

CH: He was a carpenter.

WN: He was a carpenter, and you attended--

CH: My mother was a milliner. That's what they called-- made the hats back then--

WN: Yes! I-- did she sell her shop to Mrs. Klingensmith (PH) or--

CH: Her and Ms. Klingensmith (PH) were together--

WN: Were together? I--

CH: Yeah.

WN: --have been looking in some older newspapers--

CH: (Indecipherable)

WN: --and I saw this ad-- I saw a little thing in the news-- early newspaper down there, where that she bought in with Ms. Klingingsmith (PH) or something.

CH: Her and Ms. Klingensmith (PH) went in together.

EF: Uh, I--

WN: and their ad had (Indecipherable).

CH: Well, I don't remember. Had what?

WN: Had-- no had Henkins--

EF: Henkins.

WN: Henkins.

CH: I don't remember that part now--

EF: I got something that-- he can verify this. My grandmother went out in the cotton field cause they just had houses and all of the town was cotton fields and didn't she find, Albert Kelly SR. out there with Dysentery so bad and doctored em' back to health.

CH: Well you-- you've got me on who it was but I can remember the story about her finding somebody--

EF: Yeah. Well that's what I hear but--

WN: Albert Kelly SR.?

EF: M-HM

WN: Well that's interesting to know--

CH: Now, I know we knew Albert Kelly--

EF: Yeah I know that, but--

CH: I worked for him in the grocery store--

EF: --you or someone told me it was Albert, but I don't know--

WN: Well back up to your school, tell me a little bit about your early school house that you went to. All your grades and what did you use for books and you 00:10:00remember anything about school?

CH: I don't remember much about it other than I remember that I had to go to my-- the sister Orva's about half the time and she whooped me every day just to--

WN: (Laughter)

CH: --whether I needed it or not--

WN: Just for a good example--

CH: --so the rest of em' wouldn't think she's partial.

WN: Oh! (laughter)

CH: You look like your mother; you know it?

WN: I guess I do as I grow older; I look more like her.

CH: Well as I remember her--

WN: Yeah--

CH: --I don't remember too well, been years-- cause that's a lot-- we're talking bout' a lot of years.

WN: That's right.

CH: See, I left here in 1927.

WN: Well I was seven years old when you left then--

CH: And that's the last time I ever remember even seeing your mother, would be then. Oh I might've seen her on the street maybe coming back through or something--

WN: But--

CH: -- I seen your dad occasionally.

WN: Yes. Well let me ask you, how far did you get in school?

CH: Finished high school.

WN: You finished high school. Where was the high school at that time? Did you finish it here?

CH: Over on first street.

WN: On first street. Where the Washington School is now?

CH: That'd be the Washington--

EF: Across from mother and them over there?

CH: Yeah.

EF: Was that the high school?

CH: Yeah.

EF: I'm learning something.

CH: Yeah, a two story high school--

WN: Well, I think-- I keep thinking that those steps over there that are leading up to that wall there, were the steps to the original high school. I wish you'd look at em' when you take me home.

CH: I don't much believe so. I believe--

WN: You don't think they are?

CH: I believe it's set back a ways-- the school. It was two story, I remember that.

WN: Yes, I remember a picture mother had of it and I remember her saying that the High School yell for the basketball team was, "booma' like a chicka' lika' who are we? We're the girls of BIT" or (Indecipherable)

CH: When did your mother-- your mother graduated from High School here?

WN: I guess-- I know my aunt Mabel (PH) did, yes I'm sure my--

CH: What year?

WN: -- now why would you ask me that? (Laughter)

CH: I was just wondered if it was anywhere close to-- I graduated for the-- with a whole slug of Carmens (PH).

WN: Well now, I'm sure it was in the paper down there. You were on one of the first--

CH: (Indecipherable) Carmen (PH) was in our-- my class and Neva Carmen (PH)--

EF: Neva (PH). Yeah.

CH: -- and uh--

WN: You were an--

CH: Gladys (PH)

WN: --early football player there.

CH: What?

WN: You were an early football player--

CH: I was. Played on the first football team Bristow ever had with a coach.

WN: With a coach.

CH: 1917.

WN: Well that's interesting--

CH: -- and I don't know of any of em' to my knowledge that's still alive but one, Charlie Pickett (PH). He lived in--

EF: Blackwell.

CH: Blackwell, Oklahoma.

EF: Nursing home.

CH: He's in a nursing home.

WN: Well, can you remember how many people graduated from your class?

CH: Wasn't too many, I know that.

EF: He played with (Indecipherable)--

CH: I think in that book-- who's got that book?

EF: Joe Ihle had it. I gave it to him, he's supposed to--

CH: That Orva made--

WN: He's taking good care of it, huh?

EF: I don't know, he better.

WN: (Laughter)

CH: She-- my sister, Orva made me a book and she called it-- what was it? Purple 00:13:00and gold. That's when they first had the first colors, purple and gold. A football career--

EF: Yeah.

CH: --and there's a bunch of pictures in it. You haven't seen it?

WN: No, I haven't seen it--

CH: I gave it to him, he oughta bring it out and let her see it--

EF: Well, I don't have it right now.

WN: Well, they're trying to work out some kind of a thing for this big reunion and they're trying to get all the historical things together and they're getting some pictures made off of some of the things like you all--

CH: I give it to him and told him I didn't care what they done with it. I was real proud of it. It's got all the old football players from--

WN: Oh!

CH: --from the very first foot-- high school football team and the first coach they ever had clear up until 1950--

EF: (Indecipherable) Corey's (PH) pictures in it as coach of something.

CH: Huh?

EF: (Indecipherable) Corey's (PH) pictures in it. Corey (PH)!

CH: (Indecipherable) Corey (PH)?

EF: Yeah!

CH: I think that was connected with--

EF: Baseball.

CH: Baseball, yeah.

WN: Well I'll tell you, they'll put it in acid proof things, so that nothing will happen to it. Whatever, you know whatever it be--

CH: I told him I don't care what happens to it, only I no one's just shoved back 00:14:00on the corner. He'd just well keep it at his own house--

WN: That's right.

CH: If he's gonna do that with it.

WN: Well I think they're planning on that--

CH: It's got a lot of pictures in it. One picture-- one teacher I went to school with, probably a lot of people don't know that. Maybe some of the kids went to school with her. Right over there at that high school, she was Daniel Boone's (PH) great-great granddaughter.

WN: Oh.

CH: Taught school here as Mrs. Boone (PH).

WN: Mrs. Boone (PH).

CH: Miss Boone (PH)!

WN: Oh Miss Boone (PH). Oh, okay. Well now let me ask you, how far did you live from the school? Do you remember how you-- how you got to school--

CH: About two blocks. Walked.

WN: Oh you walked then. So you didn't--

CH: Now that was a grade school then, wasn't it?

EF: Well, don't ask me!

WN: (Laughter) Well did your father have a wagon?

CH: A what?

WN: A wagon.

CH: Oh yeah! That's the only way they could get around. (Indecipherable) and a horse and cows.

WN: Do you remember what kind it was?

CH: I know I delivered milk all over town after (Indecipherable). He died when I 00:15:00was just nine years old and my mother raised us three kids-- or the two girls was I guess already working. Raised me on twenty-seven, I believe twenty-- whatever I told you a while ago, twenty-seven or twenty-eight dollars a month, Civil War pension. What little she made out of the millinery sales.

WN: That's remarkable. Well let me ask you, do you remember what the main crops were here around Bristow?

CH: Cotton. Cotton--

WN: Cotton.

CH: Cotton you'd go to that main street, and you couldn't get up and down with the cotton wagons in fall of the year. No pavement, no anything you see.

WN: Do you remember when there were boardwalks?

CH: Well sure!

WN: Someone said there was a livery stable right bout' in the middle of--

CH: There was.

EF: He worked for it some.

CH: It caught fire one time and a bunch of horses burned up in it, I remember that. Right-- the livery stable was pretty close to where-- it was either where the First National Bank is now, or one block south of that. Right in there.

WN: Well now, do you remember the Frisco Depot being in the center of sixth street there? Do you remember when it was in--

CH: Where is it now?

WN: It's moved over between sixth and seventh now, but it was at one time supposedly out in the middle of sixth street and they moved it.

CH: You got me there.

WN: You don't remember that, okay. Did you ever work at any of the fields out? Did you ever when you were young do any of the oilfield work?

CH: Oh yeah I taught everyone oilfield work. I went (Indecipherable) --

EF: Well he was out there when Halliburton come out on his first job, you told me.

CH: 19-- I want to talk to her about Halliburton. I think she knows them people down at Fort Ramsay-- live right in-- what's their names?

EF: Maroon's (PH).

WN: Oh yes, Maroon's (PH)!

CH: Well I see-- I've seen them every day for the last month there at Fort Ramsay, Texas--

WN: Oh.

CH: --when I've been down there--

WN: Oh, well they left-- left their corner-- they still live here, they just leave their house and go down there and have a good time. That's what they're doing.

CH: Yeah.

WN: Yeah.

CH: And we was just talking the other day, something bout (Indecipherable) and I said, well I knew her of course but I couldn't think of your mother's name to save my life--

WN: My--

CH: --and they couldn't either.

WN: -- my father only has one living brother now and he lives down at Brownsville, Texas. He was a citrus brewer down there for a long time. Can you remember any of the things that your mother did, like did she make soap or did she do anything real pioneerish--

CH: I'm sure. They made soap back then and I know this, she dried lots of fruit on the roof--

WN: On the roof of your--

CH: -- dried apricots and apples and I guess that's about all.

WN: Well, did you help your mother with your laundry any at all?

CH: Did I help?

WN: Uh-Huh.

CH: Not if I could help it!

WN: Okay. (Laughter) Do you--

CH: I had two sisters and--

WN: --but did you have a cow in town?

CH: Oh yeah! I'd delivered milk all over town, nickel a quart.

WN: But just--

CH: Nickel a quart.

WN: Nickel a quart. Just from your cow? Or did--

CH: Oh yeah.

WN: Well at one point in time you said that there was a community pasture or something up here--

CH: I've taken-- I-- we took our cow out there and I had a pony and I'd deliver cows to your-- one to your house and one to--

WN: Oh.

CH: --certain ones for I don't know a little money of some kind I suppose, bound to be. But it was a community pasture and it was right pretty close to right in here.

WN: That's what I thought. That's what I've heard that it was up in this area.

CH: A little closer to town--

WN: Yeah--

CH: --I think.

WN: --A little. Up maybe where the sand pipe is--

CH: No, is it down-- where is the hospital, right here?

WN: Yeah, Uh-huh.

CH: Alright it was right between here and the hospital--

WN: Was it? Well that's interesting to know. Do you remember anything at all-- did you butcher anything--

CH: Oh yeah. I worked for Bullington (PH) (Indecipherable) and helped-- and done 00:19:00all the butchering. When I was a teenager, we'd go out east of town down on (Indecipherable) had what they called a slaughter house down there and me and old man Bullington (PH) would go down and kill a beef. I'd load it into my little cart that I delivered meat in and bring it back up and put it in the ice. I done all the butchering.

WN: Where'd you get your ice?

CH: From the ice plant.

WN: We had the ice plant--

CH: Victor's (PH)? Victor's (PH)--

WN: Victor's (PH) ?CH: Victor's (PH)?

WN: Victor's (PH) had the ice plant?

CH: Victor's (PH)?

EF: I don't know; this is before my time--

WN: Let-- let--

EF: Just across the railroad track on the left there.

CH: What's there now?

EF: Bank.

CH: Bank, yeah.

WN: Bank. It's gone. Well let me ask you, somebody called and asked me the other day if there-- if I had read any early accounts of a brick maker or a brick factory here in Bristow. Do you remember any kind of a brick-- anybody--

CH: You know it; it runs my mind it was but I can't come up with nothing--

WN: --somebody who made bricks-- well we're looking for somebody who made bricks. We're trying to find out where the bricks for that little church down 00:20:00there, that was a Christian Science church but before that, wasn't it a little Episcopalian church? The first little brick church in Bristow.

CH: It runs my mind that it was a brick factory there, but I can't come up with-- I can't say for sure.

WN: You don't remember that. Is there-- well let me back up a little bit. Do you remember anything about the Flu epidemic that came--

CH: You betcha I do, when they had it up-- there was people-- I'd say hundreds, seemed like and where they had em' on cots was the second story right where the old Abraham building-- what's there now the gas company or something?

WN: M-HM.

EF: Yeah.

CH: That was a different building that had them up on that fourth-- second floor and they just died like flies up there. I believe the 17 and 18, is that--

WN: M-HM. Yes, as I walked through the old part of the cemetery, I noticed so many things. Do you remember anybody who was a doctor here at that time?

CH: I'm pretty sure that King (PH) and-- I know King (PH) was here and I think--

WN: How about Schrader (PH) or--

CH: Schrader (PH). Schrader (PH).

WN: Schrader (PH) was here. Coppedge (PH) was he--

CH: Coppedge (PH) yeah, I think those three were here. I know King (PH) was because when I wanted my--

EF: Who delivered--

CH: Birth Certificate. Huh?

EF: Pardon me, go ahead. I just wondered who delivered me? I come in seventeen.

CH: When I was trying to get my birth certificate, I had trouble getting it because I didn't have the doctor, and midwife and they was all dead and my mother couldn't get any of the information I finally went to Doc King (PH) and he says, well Hank-- everybody called me Hank-- he said, Hank if you can't get one-- says, I know you was alive when you was about two years old. He said if you can't get one I'll give you one because I've doctored you ever since coming to Bristow. So he was the doctor when I come to Bristow in 1902. I know he was here then.

WN: Well did-- was your mother ever a midwife? Did she ever do anything like that?

CH: I couldn't tell you about that. I imagine so, probably.

WM: Do you remember what kind of medicines you took-- they took during the flu epidemic--

CH: No, I know they had something. Dr. King (PH) give you something called Deep Fork Slugs.

WN: (Laughter) Deep Fork Slugs?

CH: Yeah, that's exactly what it was. It's for-- in the spring for the Flu you know, they didn't call it Flu then.

WN: (Laughter)

CH: Yeah, Deep Fork Slugs.

WN: Oh!

CH: Big ole capsule like thing and I think it's kind of-- put the medicine in it their selves ya know and just get the end caps. Ray Mars (PH) was a druggist he done most of it.

WN: Well let me ask you, did you help your mother can or do anything at that time?

CH: I didn't help much but she done lots of it.

WN: Well let me ask you something else, do you remember when they first paved 00:23:00the streets--

CH: Yeah, bricked em'. M-HM, yeah.

WN: --and how long did it take em'? Do you have any idea?

CH: Oh, I don't have any idea on that.

EF: Didn't you say one man-- colored man laid most of the bricks--

CH: I remember that. He was a big ole colored man that, I mean he could lay more brick than anybody I-- I'd as a kid just go down there and watch em'. I don't have any idea what years that had to be but, I must've been sixteen, fourteen, fifteen years old. So it'd be about 1916 or 17. You remember when they was paved?

WN: No! No I don't. They've always been paved as far as I'm concerned.

EF: Yeah.

WN: I do remember when they paved eleventh street though because I--

CH: Well it wasn't brick though was it?

WN: No it wasn't brick, but I-- I remember I got to roller skate down the hill and take the wagon down the hill. I thought that was so exciting and you didn't even have to worry about cars then. (Laughter) Oh, well do you-- can you tell me just a little bit about the kind of social life you had as a teenager and some of the rules and regulations or how you courted or--

CH: Oh, now I don't know too much about it, I wasn't interested in anything like 00:24:00that. There wasn't a whole lot went on.

WN: You mean you weren't interested in the girls or anything?

CH: No, not then.

WN: (Laughter) Well what did you do for entertainment?

CH: Well, there wasn't much. I'll tell you there wasn't much. Just go for a walk and things like that. I can remember on Sunday a whole bunch of kids would go out about this time of year, huntin' first little ole flowers to come out. Out here on-- right about where the hospital is, where we'd all congregate and wonder around.

WN: Well, my mother used to say they enjoyed walking at the railroad tracks.

CH: Yeah.

WN: Did you ever do that?

CH: I expect I have.

WN: (Laughter) Well, everything is so different. Do you remember-- can you tell me about any kind of a wedding you ever went to? Do you remember your first wedding that you ever went to?

CH: I think the first one I ever went to was my own!

WN: (Laughter) Well did you ever read any of the officials in the-- well wait a minute, let's back up. About your own wedding, where were you married?

CH: Oh, I was married right here. There wasn't any wedding just went in to the church, married here in the Baptist Church.

WN: Did you have a shivaree or anything like that?

CH: A what?

WN: A shivaree.

CH: Oh, married here and left out in an hours' time. I was working (Indecipherable) in the oilfield at that time.

WN: Well did you know-- lets back up then. Did you know any police officers or sheriffs or federal marshals or--

CH: I knew-- I knew (Indecipherable) which is an old time (Indecipherable) and city police. (Indecipherable) was sheriff, what's his name? Johnson (PH)?

EF: Lee (PH).

CH: Lee Johnson (PH).

EF: You knew Allen (PH) too.

CH: Allen (PH).

EF: I'm gonna bring up that story when you was on the pipeline.

CH: Oh.

EF: Tell her about that--

CH: Jessie Allen (PH)?

EF: Yeah.

WN: Jessie Allen (PH)? Oh tell me about--

CH: He wasn't a police!

EF: Tell her that story.

WN: Oh, he was a marshal wasn't he?

EF: Marshal.

WN: Well thank--

CH: Well not Jessie Allen (PH).

EF: Well now go ahead and tell that story.

CH: Jessie Allen (PH), Indians raised him.

WN: Uh-Huh.

CH: and he married an Indian and he was almost an Indian but he wasn't. And 00:26:00they-- I was just a kid and I was working for (Indecipherable).

EF: Lumber yard.

CH: Lumber-- in the lumber business and they leased a wagon out to-- to this pipeline crew to-- I'd haul the crew out to lay the pipeline out. Anyway, they'd come to Jessie Allen's (PH) place out here and he come down, told em' they wasn't gonna cross-- and this-- and this crew foreman told me he said "Go on across kid!" I was just a kid, probably fifteen, sixteen years old and I said, "No, not me that's Jessie Allen. (PH)" and he had a rifle across'd his saddle of his horse and this guy says "Well we can't get him to talk to us." and I said "No he was Indian raised and he's just that much Indian." And I said, "I'm not driving across'd there." And I don't know how it was straightened out but he stopped em' and they had to come back and get the--

EF: Three or four days you had-- they had--

CH: Yeah, they held the whole crew up three or four days but this pipeline guy was going on across and he'd a shot him sure of the world, cause he'd already shot several people as far as I (Inaudible).

WN: Did you ever-- did you ever have any confrontations with any of the Indian youth around this area?

CH: Indian?

WN: Yeah, I noticed where the Indian youth played baseball a lot of times.

CH: Yeah.

WN: The Yuchi's.

CH: Yeah. We played Yuchi Indians High School a lot of times. I'm-- on this-- in this book he got all of these writings and several of em' in there about the Yuchi Indians. I remember one of em' especially I can kinda remember would be them 60's and nothing--

WN: (Laughter)

CH: --and that's when the Yuchi Indians school was--

WN: At Sapulpa?

CH: -- was at Sapulpa. I don't believe the (Indecipherable) bacon-- ba ba Bacone.

WN: Bacone.

CH: Or something like that.

WN: Well-- well let me ask you on the--

CH: And I played football with France Laux and he turned out to be you know quite--

WN: Yes.

CH: --an announcer for--

WN: The Cardinals!

CH: Yeah.

WN: Saint Louis, Cardinals. Didn't he?

CH: He started in right here in Bristow. Announcing the-- if it hadn't been for sports he'd of starved to death. He couldn't do nothing else--

WN: (Laughter)

CH: --he wasn't fit for nothing. Never done a day's work in his life.

WN: (Laughter) Well he sure did well in the news--

CH: Yes, he did.

WN: -- in the announcing business.

CH: Well I played football with him for three years.

WN: Well while I was reading in the early newspaper, I read something about some Snake Indians around this area. Do you remember any--

CH: Snakes?

WN: Snake Indians. Didn't-- do you remember a Mr. Purdy (PH)?

CH: Oh! Old man Purdy (PH)?

WN: Yes.

CH: Sure.

WN: Well, in one of his little diaries he had something about an uprising with the Snake Indians and--

CH: You mean CH Purdy's (PH) dad?

WN: I think it was.

CH: Yeah. I remember-- I know quite a story about him.

WN: Well let me ask you, what was the relationship of the early settlers, or the early people here with the Negro.

CH: You know, I can't tell you. It seems to me like when I was a kid we got 00:29:00along good with the Negros.

EF: Uh--

CH: Old Tom (PH)-- Tom (PH)-- Tom (PH) somebody sold whiskey and--

EF: Tell her the story that you told me down at the--

CH: Oh tell about-- who was that (Indecipherable) Sanders (PH)?

EF: Yeah.

CH: (Indecipherable) Sanders (PH) was colored but he was white and I was down there one time and they'd like to run him to death running him so-- the colored section around to the white section. The guy at the colored section new him.

WN: Uh-Huh.

CH: I don't know whether he was buying a ticket or trying to send some express or something, but he went to the colored section where he oughta be and that guy didn't know em' and he thought it was white and he sent him around to the white and when he got around there he knew him and knew he was colored and he sent him back.

WN: (Laughter)

EF: You said he got kind of upset for it all.

WN: Well during World War I do you remember anything in particular that-- how it affected our community?

CH: Not particularly. I-- I was drafted, examined here, and accepted but then knew they wouldn't take me because I had a bad eye but I told him-- I think it was Dr. Schrader (PH) that was doing the examining. I said, "I want to go anyway." and he said, "Well we'll send you" and on the train to Oklahoma City to take our final examination and be inducted on the (Indecipherable) they turned us south and came back.

WN: Oh. (Laughter) Well--

CH: They had-- they had a little National Guard troop here and its Clad Purdy (PH) was the head of that, I know that and I belonged to that and a bunch of us kid's kind of like Boys Scouts, go out and stay all night and sleep out and a few things like that--

WN: But do you-- do you remember when they first opened up this as a park area here?

CH: Park?

WN: Uh-Huh. Do you remember anything about it?

CH: About the first time I remembered about it was when that little colosseum was built down there. Where the rock--

WN: Oh, where they torn it down? That--

CH: Oh did the tear it out?

WN: Yeah.

EF: M-HM

WN: Yeah, it's gone.

(Everyone talking at once)

EF: You saw it this morning where the tennis courts was.

CH: I know, but that-- where the stage was and the rock seats--

EF: Yeah, yeah.

WN: Oh!

pause in recording

WN: It was at Klingensmith Park.

CH: You know who this Klingensmith (PH) was don't you?

WN: Well someone said he was the first--

CH: He was the-- he was the son of this lady that was in the milliner store.

WN: With your mother?

CH: With my mother. Her son and he was the first one killed from Bristow in World War I.

WN: Was he married? Do you know?

CH: I don't believe he was. I'm pretty sure he wasn't. Him and Gene Wrine (PH) went together, same time. Gene Wrine (PH) was an old timer around here and he was in the sign business here for years and years. The signs still around town, he made and him and Klingensmith (PH) was together overseas and that's about all I know about it.

WN: But then they dedicated the park in his honor?

CH: On account of him being the first one.

WN: Okay, do you remember anything about the flappers in the early 1920's when they went from long skirts to short skirts or?

CH: Well I can remember a little about it, not too much.

WN: You still wasn't looking at the girls?

EF: Oh I've got pictures of him with a girl under each arm out here--

WN: Oh.

EF: -- in an old model eight car.

(Laughter)

CH: I know this, I had-- I had-- when let's see the first radio station in Oklahoma was right here in Bristow at the Roland Hotel.

WN: Hmm.

CH: What'd they call it? KOX? K-- first one in Oklahoma?

EF: Wasn't it KVOO?

CH: Yeah, KVOO right here and that's where France Laux got his start and I know I made the-- what are they called? Chrystal set?

EF: Yeah.

CH: And it was my old Model T Coupe. About all you could do was just drive around the block but you could get the music in on it and the first radio we had, had to have earphones with it, and my mother got such a bang out of the radio you know, we took it home and put it in the great big ole-- it had to be-- couldn't have been aluminum, didn't have-- metal dish pan. We put the radio in 00:34:00that and we'd all huddle around it and that'd pull the sound back at you because of the microphone, I guess you could call it.

WN: Well now, they said that they had an opera house down on sixth street. Did you ever go to any of the entertainments there?

CH: On sixth street?

WN: There were the gas-- electric company is right there on the corner where Dr. Harse (PH) had his--

CH: Well that's where the old Abraham building-- where they had the flu people--

WN: Yeah.

CH: Yeah! That's what that was, the opera house. M-HM. Yeah, I remember. Oh sure!

WN: And you went to some performances there?

CH: I don't remember-- I don't remember too much about em' but I know I did.

WN: Well, did-- tell me how was the interaction between the Indians and the whites at that time? Were there lots of intermarriages and--

CH: You know something, I was a little too young to really remember about that-- I don't know!

WN: Well I didn't know whether they went to the same social events or--

CH: I don't know. I couldn't answer that.

WN: Well now then, lets back up again. Do you remember how the Great Depression affected you in this area?

CH: Well now you're talking about what years?

WN: Well like when the banks folded. Would be 1929--

CH: Well, see I'd already--

WN: You'd already left?

CH: --I'd already left then. That was in 29 wasn't it?

WN: Yeah and you had-- when did you leave?

CH: Yeah, in 27.

WN: In 27--

CH: --Yeah I was married in 27 and moved to Seminole. And I know this, I got-- I had a little money in three different banks and they all-- all three of them went broke and I didn't have much but it was just exactly like breaking John D. Rockefeller. It was all they had.

WN: (Laughter) Well let me ask you this, in your early, early days do you remember Joe Abraham and--

CH: Well sure I do!

WN: --and the other immigrant who came--

CH: I know Joe Abraham and Ed Abraham. I worked a little for Ed in the store when I was a kid. No! Uphus (PH), it was Joe, Ed and Uphus (PH).

WN: Uphus (PH), I saw that name in the paper the other day--

CH: Uphus Abraham (PH). He wasn't-- he wasn't-- he didn't-- climb the ladder like the other two did. Ed and Joe was the-- and I know-- of course I know all of their kids. Went to school with some of em'.

WN: Can you-- can you remember any of the stores that were on main street when you were a child? Or when you were in this area.

CH: Oh I remember this, Abraham-- this Uphus Abraham (PH) and EH Mount (PH) had the grocery store and I remember another grocery store right next to--

EF: EH Mount's(PH).

CH: -- I don't remember who run it, but they called him "No No (indecipherable) he'd had cancer and nose something and they had to take his whole nose off. (Indecipherable) you run a grocery store over there and of course HL House's 00:37:00(PH) Hardware and (Indecipherable) Hardware--

WN: How many cotton gins were there here? Do you remember?

CH: I know all kinds about three or four but to my-- I don't think there was too many-- too many, but they were pretty good size cotton gins.

EF: Bought a few of em'.

WN: --Tell me, can you remember the jail?

CH: Oh yeah! The old jail, now why they ever go of that and get away with that are now down across the railroad tracks--

WN: Oh!

CH: -- Yeah!

WN: I fought so hard to try to save that one at the city meetings--

CH: I don't know why in the world that-- that hurt me more than anything else. See that was--

WN: Now I wanted to save that. I wanted them to fix a little park area down there--

CH: Well sure.

WN: Don't you remember that Ed (PH)?

EF: Oh!

CH: Well I remember when we was kids I just big enough to be kind of scary, we'd sneak down there at night and that was when this-- I called his name a while ago-- Jimmy (PH) (Indecipherable) was marshal. Little bitty dried up guy but boy 00:38:00he was a tough character I guess. Killed several people and they didn't pull him. That was during the early oil boom now. That was a long about fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, something like that.

WN: Another thing I was reading about in the early papers; I'd like to know a little more about. I noticed where we always had a big Fourth of July celebration.

CH: Out here--out here, I guess where the park--

WN: Yes

CH: --is now in that neighborhood.

WN: and then--

EF: Wouldn't be Cole (PH) Park was it?

CH: Huh?

EF: Wouldn't be Cole Park (PH) was it?

CH: Cole (PH)?

EF: Yeah.

WN: No, it was Klingensmith Park.

EF: Okay.

CH: My mother would give me a quarter and tell me to have a good time and I had to spend every bit of it--

WN: And you had a good time. They were well attended weren't they?

CH: Oh yeah. All the politicians that's here, I can remember following-- I don't know who it was. I knew him pretty well, and he was connected with your dad some way. Run for sheriff one year, and I'd just follow him around and every time he'd give somebody a nickel or a dime to get a pop with, well I'd have my hands out. I can remember that just as well as (Indecipherable).

(Laughter from everyone)

WN: If you remember statehood, tell me about--

CH: Not too well see, I was just eight years old--

WN: Well, let me tell you every issue of the-- of the local newspaper somebody has stolen it and it has not been microfilmed. We don't have any copies of Bristow's early statehood papers. There was a paper called the Territorial Enterprise and then The Record and so--

CH: I can't remember nothing but The Record.

WN: Just The Record. Okay--

CH: Now who was one of the first editors?

WN: Nichols (PH).

CH: Nichols (PH)?

WN: Yes, the Nichols (PH).

CH: I remember him and her (Indecipherable).

WN: Okay now tell me what you remember about Statehood.

CH: I was just a kid was all. I don't remember much other than it was a big celebration in coming to town and what sticks out the most is a fight they had down town and that's the first time I'd ever seen two men fight and just 00:40:00absolutely bloody each other and this one down he had him down and around him beating him in the face with a brick or a rock or something and blood was just a (indecipherable) and that sticks with me, that's the main thing I can remember.

WN: (Laugher)

EF: Well-- (Inaudible)

CH: Nine years old see, you wouldn't remember too much about it.

EF: You told me (Indecipherable).

CH: Well, there's some connection there.

WN: With the Oklahoma. She may have been born--

EF: Statehood.

WN: Yeah, Statehood.

EF: 1970 something.

CH: I knew her real well but the connection--

WN: Wasn't she pretty and you didn't even get excited? I can't believe you'd sit there and tell us that--

CH: See, my wife was working for Mr. Mounds (PH) when I met her. HL (PH)-- what was--

WN: EE Mounds (PH).

EF: EE (PH).

CH: EE Mounds (PH) yes, lived right there by the-- on the (Indecipherable)--

EF: Working at the (Indecipherable)

CH: I can remember your face.

WN: This-- this is--

EF: He worked-- he worked--

BN: Well, I wasn't born here or anything.

CH: No, but--

BN: I've been here for--

CH: Were you here in 26, 25 and 26?

BN: No.

WN: (Laughter)

CH: I don't remember you then.

EF: He worked at-- you mighta went by our old Ford's--

CH: Oh you worked for Ford's too?

WN: Yeah, he was my--

CH: Oh well then I--

WN: See he's my husband.

CH: See I worked for Ford's when they-- I was working for-- for--

WN: Lloyd and--

CH: Who'd they buy out?

EF: He--

CH: House (PH)?

EF: (Indecipherable)

CH: HL House (PH)?

WN: House (PH) or Grimes (PH)?

CH: The hardware.

BN: He bought out Grimes (PH).

WN: Grimes (PH), he bought out Grimes (PH)--

CH: Grimes (PH), that's right.

WN: Grimes (PH) is--

Everyone talking at once.

CH: I had that part wrong. I worked for--

WN: In the House (PH) building, but--

EF: It was Grimes (PH).

CH: I worked for it. HL House (PH) was in the hardware business.

WN: Yes, he was--

CH: And I worked for him and then I worked for Lloyd and--

WN: And my father, Earl?

CH: Earl. When they first bought-- they was from Depew wasn't they?

WN: Yes, they were. They were from down south of Depew. Well, I appreciate you taking the time to come by and I'm glad we got him before he left town Ed.

End of interview