Kate Corey

Interviewer: Ed Cadenhead (EC)

Interviewee: Kate B. Corey (KC) (1897-1996)

Other Persons: None

Date of Interview: Unknown

Location: Bristow, Creek County Oklahoma

Transcriber: Macy Shields

Organization: Bristow Historical Society, Inc.

Original Cassette Tape Location: OHP-0025B Side B at 00:00 to 39:08

Abstract: In this interview, Kate B. Corey (1897-1996) discusses her family's experience in Bristow. She moved with her husband in the 1920's and lived there for the remainder of her life. She describes life during the oil boom, teaching during racial integration, entertainment, and the effects of World War I and World War II.

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.

KC: I'm Kate B. Corey, and I was reared in Western Oklahoma, but when I was married, came to Creek County in 1920, during the oil boom at Depew. A little town seven miles from here, and we lived there five years and then moved to Bristow. We have been here ever since.

EC: Alright, and where was your husband from?

KC: He was-- well he's from-- he was born in Kansas, but he'd lived in Oklahoma-- Edmond and other places. His father was a railroad man and so he traveled up the Frisco Line and he was at two or three stations but had been here as I said since 1899.

EC: Well why did you happen to move to Bristow?

KC: Well, just because the boom was dying out over at-- the oil boom was dying 00:01:00out over at Depew, and then my husband's father had a bank here and so he came over to do some work there and then he was working as-- in the (Indecipherable) until he lost his shirt.

(Laughter from both)

KC: -- right at the time that the banks were closing and-- and the--there were three banks of the five in Bristow that closed that year.

EC: Which bank was your husband's fathers?

KC: The First State Bank.

EC: The First State Bank. So the oil business was what got you here and almost did you in.

KC: M-HM. It did us in. It was very good to my husband's father, and to us for a while but it folded up like all oil business.

EC: What was Bristow like in the oil boom days.

KC: Well I really came here before the-- before the oil boom days. I forgot to 00:02:00say that I came here to teach when I was nineteen years' old.

EC: Uh-huh.

KC: -- and just taught ten weeks in the winter term as a sort of a substitute and it was always remembered the busy streets during the cotton season. You couldn't go down the streets on paved streets because of the big cotton wagons, and the dust, and the crowds of people and that was-- that was all in 1916, so I have been here longer than I told you in the first place and then I went back to school and graduated and did not teach here anymore.

EC: So you noticed the difference when you came the second time?

KC: I really did because in the-- in the meantime the Oilfield Slick was open first and then the first time I came here that we were about to see the wells 00:03:00pouring over the top at Slick and it was just a booming, busy place and I loved the oil boom so much. The sound of the hammers and the dust and the horses, and the cussin' (Laughter) but, that was-- it must've been in 19-- oh I don't know, 18 or 19. I'm not an authority on the times of the oil boom, but it had struck Oklahoma, it had struck Bristow-- it had moved in from Okmulgee and Slick and then on this way and when we were--let's see, when we were married, just about that year 1919 I think it was, we were married 1920. But I think it was about 1919 just after the war was ending that they began drilling quite a bit out here 00:04:00and Bristow came along about 1920 or 21. I'm sure it was just a rounded off guess, but they said it had sixteen thousand people and it could easily of had, because every garage and barn and camp was filled with people and my husband was a gentlemen of the old school, he wouldn't let me go to town at night. He went alone because there were so many dope heads and drunks and oilfield followers on the street and it was-- it was quite a life.

EC: Someone told me that woman, that she didn't like early day Bristow because she couldn't go out.

KC: M-HM.

EC: -- and you had the same experience.

KC: I had the same experience, at night. Went all the time in the day time, and we-- it was when we were-- we lived in Depew but we came over here almost every day because my husband's parents lived here. We'd come over in the evening and when we'd go home, I would just take off my wedding ring and anything else I had of any value and hide it, and several times we'd go home just to find out that someone had been held up the night before--

EC: Oh.

KC: -- and one night as we were driving home, a car turned in from a side road and followed us all the way just shooting up in the air and yelling at us, and when we tried to drive fast they did, and if we slowed they did. So my husband went to the, oh I guess the cuffs force-- somebody at Depew. There wasn't any policeman, and report him and had him put in jail because he came into town. So long in the middle of the night, the phone rang and it was one of his friends 00:06:00and it was his casing crew who had been arrested. They had just had a little bit too much to drink and were just having a good time. Coming a long (Indecipherable) but it was as effective as if they'd really went (Indecipherable). Laughter.

EC: Yes. Any other memories of those days?

KC: Well--

EC: (Indecipherable) oil business

KC: -- another time we were driving home and passed the place that we'd always called it a "Bootleggers Camp" and suddenly we stopped because a woman was lying right across the road and a man stepped out to attend and he said, "I have one down here, would you help me get her inside?" So my husband stepped out, and just as he did, she stepped up and grabbed the

whiskey bottle and in no uncertain oilfield terms told him just exactly what he was. (Laughter)

EC: Oh my!

KC: -- and what the man was, because he left her there to run that shack all afternoon, and I think she must have drunk all the contents.

EC: (Laughter) Wow. How-- you said the (Indecipherable) of a boom is a big up and a down.

KC: M-HM.

EC: Well was the down as fast as the up?

KC: I don't-- I don't believe it was, but the down was accelerated probably by the general economy. There were several years of crop failures and the depression really hit Bristow before 1929, and whether it was a result of the overcrowding and the great expectations, and all the money that was made and 00:08:00then when they found out that the field wasn't as big and as permanent, that left unemployed people here. Would be my, it's my way of saying--

EC: You say three of five banks went broke?

KC: Yes, M-HM.

EC: You remember which-- what the names of them were?

KC: No, I remember-- let's see. I don't even remember the names of the other banks. There were the American national and the First State.

EC: Well were there any--

KC: I really don't remember?

EC: --were there any major failures for individuals because of the bank failures.

KC: Well my husband's father, because he had the-- he was the active vice 00:09:00president and the president was, maybe you better turn that off (Laughter). The president was informed of drilling some dry holes.

EC: With bank money?

KC: It was bank money--

EC: Oh.

KC: --and that really brought on the failure of that bank, before the general bank failures, and Dad Corey thought that, well he just felt responsibility for the people. His friends who had put their money into the bank, so he paid them out of his own money.

EC: When did you start teaching school here?

KC: Well--

EC: The second time.

KC: --the second time I started, in 1930. I had-- we had two older children and when they were about seven and eight there was another one and he was born just 00:10:00a few weeks after the October 29th crash and my husband was-- he had multiple skin cancers and in depression times it was just better for him to go to the veteran's hospital, and the nearest one was Chicago, and so he-- and they wouldn't, they'd treat him and then he had to stay there until he was dismissed. So, he would wood work when he was out, but that would take a month or two out of six months every once in a while. He'd had over-- already had an overdose of radiation. Guinea pig for a (Indecipherable)

EC: What was the school system like?

KC: Well, it was pretty great, it was the best school I ever was in. Including 00:11:00the later years. The CH Black his name was there, was the head of the school system, superintendent and he was, he was considered a slave driver by many people. But he was alright as long as, as teachers did what they were asked to do, and I found him very well. It was pleasant working for him because he accomplished much. Bristow had a reputation of having one of the best schools in the state and for instance, one year the freshmen-- in the freshmen class at both OU and Stillwater, Bristow High School received the trophies for highest grade point averages of freshmen in school. Which spoke very well for them and 00:12:00there was a-- a very strong faculty of dedicated teachers and with Mr. Black there if you didn't get-- if you weren't dedicated you became dedicated or you didn't stay.

EC: How long did you continue to teach?

KC: I taught from 1930 to 1961.

EC: Schools stayed as good?

KC: Well you know they-- there were a lot of things that mattered into it, the times mainly I think. They were always-- I think they were always higher than average but to-- they didn't have quite the reputation, but you know it-- it became just a little bit more difficult to teach and a little bit more difficult to accomplish anything and I think, well when the World War II came in we'd had 00:13:00a very strong junior college, small but a good junior college and it almost died out with the-- when so many of the students left to go to the different branches of the service and then when it was started again, oh about 1945 or something. I don't know these dates are just off the top of my head. It was reorganized and it didn't last very long. For one thing, it wasn't supported as much by the superintendent at that time and-- and people had more money and more of em' were able to send their children to larger schools, but each of our three children-- 00:14:00two of em' during the first good times of the junior college and then one later in 1947 or 8 or something like that, had one year of junior college and I thought it was the greatest asset to a small town--

EC: Where was it located?

KC: It was in the high school building, and it was separate from the high school as far as the discipline and the hours and we tried to make as much of a college out of it as possible, but the high school teachers taught the subjects and I don't know-- I don't remember how many hours were given, but enough that in two years they can get what would've been an Associate of Arts degree.

EC: Were there any problems in Bristow over the years that you can remember? 00:15:00Worth telling about.

KC: This isn't a problem, but another thing in regards to schools. During the NYA, the National Youth Administration, we had a school here in that building out at the park. It is now called the Farm Center. It was a dormitory. It wasn't built for that, but it was made into a dormitory for the NYA and Mrs. Franklin Roosevelt came here to the dedication of it and the students were from this area, but they contributed a lot to the success of the junior college in numbers and all that. There were never any very startling times to me, now I remember my 00:16:00husband telling about the Crazy Snake Uprising.

EC: What do you remember of that?

KC: I don't remember anything about it--

EC: You remember what he told--

KC: I remember what he told. Well that the Indians were encamped somewhere out in the country from here, and there were-- I may not be telling this, this just may be one of those heresy, and it is a heresy report, but it's interesting he said it started because the Indians thought that someone in a general store in Bristow was charging them more than they charged-- they charged the white people and my husband's father as I said was deployed and so a message came to round up all the deputies here in the area and his older brother got on a horse and rode 00:17:00down to country with the telegrams, and it was quite exciting times because they could hear the songs and the tom-toms and all the uproar at the encampment.

EC: M-HM.

KC: And that-- I'd really have to go to a history book to find. (Laughter) (Indecipherable)

EC: Speaking of Indians, has there been a good mix of Indian and White in Bristow, or was there discrimination?

KC: I've never thought that there was any discrimination. In high school we didn't have a very high percentage of Indians, but we always had some and I'm sure they were accepted probably for football (Indecipherable) You know that's the biggest integrator in the world, and there were several who were very 00:18:00artistic and generally good students and if they ever felt any discrimination, I don't know anything about it, but this just occurs to me, has anyone suggested that you talk to Mrs. Lucinda Johnson?

EC: I don't think so.

KC: Or Majel Frye?

EC: That name sounds familiar.

KC: Well Mrs. Johnson is Majel Frye's mother, and she was born here. She's the daughter of a white man named Jess Allen (PH) and his wife had her allotment out on the road to Slick. I'd say halfway between here and Slick and the house is still out there where-- where her father lived, but Mrs. Allen now lives-- oh her name is Johnson, her name is now Johnson. She was married again. In fact, her maiden name was Allen, and she now lives over near Slick but she comes to 00:19:00Bristow almost every day because her son lives in the nursing home here and she just spends a lot of her time here and I-- I've heard my husband tell about when he was, he was a few years older than she, several years I expect, but her father would bring her and her sister to the railway station to send them to a Catholic school at Sapulpa. They didn't (Indecipherable) and I'm sure she would, she might remember a lot of things that would be very helpful.

EC: I have seen of things like that. I have read and heard about the Black population of Bristow that lived in what I guess was Lincoln Heights--

KC: Yes--

EC: -- and was moved.

KC: M-HM

EC: I don't understand who moved em' and how do you move em'?

KC: Well, now Lincoln heights was right up here, and the black neighborhood is 00:20:00over, oh six blocks I guess. Just down north of here, six or eight blocks, and they-- there was a black neighborhood out there and then this Lincoln Heights area. I can't speak with any voice of authority. I think it belonged to Mumford McGee (PH) that the land belonged to Mumford McGee (PH) and that (Indecipherable) sold and then he-- he opened-- this is a housing development and the Negros were not allowed to lived here, but some of them kept their houses. Even as far as two or three blocks north than the new high school building, where the new high school building is. Have you-- you've seen that haven't you?

EC: Yes, I have.

KC: Well, between that area and west of there.

EC: Have there been any racial problems in Bristow over the years.

KC: No, not that I know of. I was trying to connect it with-- I was thinking really of the Tulsa, but there wasn't anything like that, and it was always said that integration was carried on very peacefully and easily here and I was teaching at the time that we were integrated and we had-- we spent the year before trying to get the students and the teachers to, and I was one of them (laughter) into the mood of acceptance of em', and I heard the superintendent 00:22:00say several times, how smooth integration was for us and how easily it was accomplished, but I always felt just a little bit of sadness about it. Not for the whites but for the Negros, because they had an ideal in school that they're with their own debate clubs, and wonderful chorus, and basketball teams and everything of the kind. Well when, and they have again taken their place as leaders in athletics, but when they-- the first years-- the first year to that they moved to high school, just frankly I'd look up and I'd think well what are you doing it over here, but after I, I was counselor and after I had worked with 00:23:00em' for a year or so it just changed me so completely. When I could see the problems they were having and the struggles that they had to do anything. You see the white teachers-- the Negro teachers were all dismissed and several families who had-- whose children had been leaders in the-- what did they call that school? Lincoln High School, came over to high school and they were too new to it to find their place in the high school, and I think we definitely tried to, but really one reason integration was so successful and so many of them simply dropped out of school.

EC: M-HM

KC: And I think, I don't think that's the case now. I think, I expect there's high percentage in the Negros graduating according to the number who enter as 00:24:00whites, and they seem more and more to be getting meeting places back to presidents and student council last year with the negro, Bill Mitchell a veterinarian's son and he's a fine student.

EC: Going back in time, thinking back to the--your-- the 1920's when you first married, what was life like in Bristow? What did you do for entertainment?

KC: Oh! We had-- it was great! (Laughter) For the women it was bridge clubs and the town was-- had grown so fast and we were in the habit of inviting everybody that we knew to the bridge club ya know? Well as more people came in, we still invite em' and it-- it wasn't anything unusual to have a bridge party of 00:25:00fourteen to twenty tables and we moved out everything but the beds and the kitchen stove to have em'. Everyone dressed up in their best dress and we wore our hats and kept em' on all the time that we were playing and it was an occasion to use the best china and the silver and the-- and the linen cloths and it was so easy because you could have em' made four dollars a week.

EC: M-HM

KC: And, that was great, and for a while long in those boom days the-- we had dances and--

EC: Where did you have them?

KC: At the, oh in the-- at the country club. I think it was built, it was built about 1923 or 25 and the Roland Hotel had a (Indecipherable) and you've heard of 00:26:00the (Indecipherable) KFRU the--

EC: Yes, I have.

KC: --the radio station, and the men wore their tuxes and it was just a very great life. There was a, my husband was one of the charter members of the golf country club, the country club and played golf all the time and we had picnics, and swimming parties and movies every night. Ya know, we didn't have (laughter) televisions to sit around, because we had two movies.

EC: Someone told me there were three here at one time.

KC: There were! Just as I said that, there were three but there were-- one was about where, long about where Kemp's Drugstore is, not entirely and another one 00:27:00down about where the Chamber of Commerce, right in that area. Now another one across the street and as soon--as soon as the roads were-- they didn't even have to be very acceptable, we got up to Tulsa to The Opera and baseball games and always went to all the football games at OSU who had such a good pick of teams and at OU and at TU. My husband was in for all kinds of sports, and so for a long time he went alone while the children were little and then I began going with him and we had season tickets at OU and OSU for the last years (Indecipherable)

EC: Were than any particular vacation spots that people in Bristow used? Did 00:28:00people take vacations in the 40's?

KC: Yes. Well up in Missouri around Branson--

EC: M-HM

KC: --and, Eureka Springs, and I can't even remember the names of the place, and then we made trips to Canada. My husband's father was very fortunate in some of his land he owned and had five producing wells on it at one time. So we were the typical new rich, it didn't last long but it was fun while it lasted. (Laughter)

EC: Did World War II have any dramatic effect--

KC: Yes, it did.

EC: -- on Bristow?

KC: It closed down.

EC: It closed down?

KC: (Crying) Our son was killed in it.

EC: Oh I am so sorry.

KC: And the World War I had a very dramatic effect too. My husband's mother was secretary of the Red Cross and everybody was-- I wasn't here at that time but I've heard of all, them-- the only-- the oldest club in Bristow, our embroidery club, which is still hanging on, gave up all their time to roll bandages and my husband and his brother were in the army. My husband was over in England for 00:30:00seven months, and-- and it had-- and I was at (Indecipherable) at that time, and so I was spotching Doves and baby Merritt's and selling (Indecipherable) and everything of the kind.

EC: Getting to more recent events, I forget it's history. Making to say the last twenty-five years in Bristow, anything that has happened that you think is significant?

KC: Now ya know, Bristow dwindled from that sixteen or seventeen thousand to about-- well we always had a sign up by the turnpike that said population seven thousand but it really since didn't show it that way, and for years there was no building, it was just-- it held-- it stayed alive. I guess that would be the 00:31:00best way to put it and they-- I think that the school population was always, remained about the same until the last four or five years. That's just common I think everywhere with the-- with the end of the Baby Boom, and Bristow had-- it suffered a lot in the depression and really never did come back to itself. There were at one time-- there were several refineries here. The Transcontinental one's the big one, and the Wilcox refinery. (Inaudible) maybe there was just two and they finally closed. They ya know, there were cotton gins. There were five cotton gins at Depew. I don't know how many were here, and with the-- when they 00:32:00quit farming, well there were none. There's a great-- for a while, peanuts were the-- you know this was the peanut capital of the world. Do you know the-- oh I don't know that it was a law, but anyway something was passed making it mandatory to serve peanuts to every café customer and that big building down-- big empty big storage building was the peanut storage place and that helped it a little bit. The economy and I think all of it, Bristow was always a very good place to live but not a very good place to make a living and that was-- that's what happened to our children, that they would've liked so much to stay here but unless you were one of the half dozen oilers who could make a living here or a 00:33:00merchant and so our children all left.

EC: You mentioned earlier that some of what you knew about Bristow was stories your husband had told. Are there any particular stories that he told that come to mind?

KC: A lot of his stories were about his very good friends, the Lebanese, Syrians they were then who came in, there were many Syrians here and you've heard of Joe Abraham? and his brother Ed Abraham and many of the stories were just fun stories about them. He liked them they were his very good friends, but they're-- they're troubles with making-- Joe Abraham-- (indecipherable) isn't that an awful name for an old man?

EC: (Laughter)

KC: When I, I don't like saying, my husband, I can't call him Mr. Corey, but-- 00:34:00always liked people so much and he tried to help him teach, learn English and he was gonna learn Syrian but he found out that most the words that he was were not words (laughter) and many of the stories were about-- just about the fun things that they said.

EC: Had there been any spectacular scandals or finds or anything of that sort of kind in Bristow?

KC: No, I don't know if they have. There's something I was going to say, and what was it? I think that Bristow would be described better as a-- as a very-- other people, everybody might not feel it this way but I've felt that it was a very close knit family, and many of the people who came here, and settled in 00:35:00were from Missouri and south, down especially Mississippi. The Jones family came here Boyce McMillian's (PH) husband's relatives and were at Drumright, made their first money over there, and they-- and they and the-- they kind of set the tone for (indecipherable) I don't know that it's always been a place of great culture but many of the people who were here had a culture background and they kept em' developing it and had been responsible. Now way back during the, let me see, after the it was the twenty-five to the thirties and very good music club a little theatre. (Indecipherable) Bridge Club, (laughter) baseball teams, 00:36:00football, tennis then and it died out and came back in a big way. If there's-- if Bristow has had anything really startling or exciting, I don't know what it was. We built this house in 1940 and it was one of three or four houses built in that many years. There just wasn't any there. There were two or three little houses over on second street that were built a little bit after we built this one and-- and then for a period of five, ten years or so. I don't think anybody 00:37:00ever felt-- anybody who lived in Bristow and-- and was a chamber of commerce spirit felt that we were any worse off for the slowness of it.

EC: Which-- which buildings in Bristow today, as far as you know are the oldest ones?

KC: Well, a little brick build-- a little brick house over on fourth street is one of the oldest. There were either two or I think probably three of those brick houses together and the others or other one demolished-- was demolished last, oh in the last year or two and I thought that that little brick house was made of the bricks that were, made out of a brick factory that was here near 00:38:00the-- out by the--over there across the railroad tracks and a little bit further--

EC: You have any idea who built this house?

KC: No, I don't-- (indecipherable) would've known all about that, but I just don't know.

EC: Any other house or buildings--

KC: Well, I think they-- you've probably heard this, but the-- probably the oldest church in town in the little Christian science church. That was built by where the Episcopal church, then was used after they-- there weren't enough Episcopalians here and the Presbyterian church leased it or did something for a while. It's on the corner of, I believe eighth and Elm. Pretty little church and then they-- Oh let me tell you somebody else. Do you have Neva Gurley's (PH) 00:39:00name on that?

EC: I don't.

KC: Hmm. Well you (inaudible)

End of interview