Ellis Shamas

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EC: Ellis Shamas, June 20th, 1979. Why don't you just start and tell me about your own family and how they ended up in Bristow and that'll lead us, I think, into some of these other families, Lebanese families.

ES: To the best of my knowledge, my mother (Amalen Mehael Asad) came here in 1905 with a brother, Frank Mike. He had been here and returned to what was then Syria, today is Lebanon, to marry, and when he brought his bride, he also brought my mother, his sister, with him.

EC: Well, well, I understand that many of the Lebanese families have a common name, Feghali somehow. The name Feghali is a name where...

ES: That's a section of the country are in what we would term here as tribes. They follow a common ancestry from, no telling, how far back. This becomes the 00:01:00family name. Each son takes his last name, his father's first name.

EC: Oh, I see.

ES: And in my mother's case, her family name was Feghali in that country Feghali I don't know how far back the ancestry goes, but the founder of the tribe was a person by the name of Eheli Feghali (ph). Her father's name was Mehael in that country. And so she came over as Amalen Mehael.

EC: Now as far as you are aware was Joe Abraham the first Lebanese to settle in Bristow?

ES: The best of my knowledge, he came into Oklahoma with a pack on his back long before there were very many Lebanese in Oklahoma anywhere.

EC: And he was joined by two brothers.

ES: He, I think, first brought a brother, Ed Abraham over, and later on, a brother Useph Abraham came. The connection between my family and Ed Abraham was that my Uncle Frank, who came because Ed Abraham was here, was a partner with Ed Abraham in some kind of a business in a little village in Syria.

EC: This was Frank Mike.

ES: Frank Mike. He's taken his name, they made Mike out of Mehael. This was the nearest of the English language would come to that name.

EC: Your wife said there were 27 Lebanese families here at one time. Does that sound right?

ES: I don't really know the number of the families, but the oil boom brought a 00:03:00lot of cousins and uncles and aunts, the original, all Lebanese Syrians, I should call them, because that's what they were called in those days, came because they weren't doing too well in the villages where they were at, and each came to make his fortune and return. But the majority came, got married, started a family, and could never afford to return.

EC: Right? Yeah. So that most of the Lebanese families in Bristow did have some family relationship?

ES: The majority of the families came from two different villages. One of the villages, where Joe Abraham came from, was outside of Beirut, possibly 10 or 12 miles, as I understand, up in the mountains. This was [indecipherable] the village is still there. I don't know how much it amounts to, I've never been 00:04:00there. The, most of the other families came from a village near what today is Israel. And that was, [indecipherable] and this is in the United Nations whatever it is that they're holding there now.

EC: Right. And then I believe your wife was saying that a couple of the families here that were not related, just the two we talked about, to make [indecipherable] were not related and maybe the Eliases were not?

ES: The Eliases came from this village [indecipherable] outside of Beirut. But the villages there, apparently, were pretty close together. While the families knew each other, they didn't have a...(pause)

and relatives, cousins, uncles, whoever was here, would furnish the capital or would go to the bank and make arrangements for them to set up, not big businesses, maybe a pop stand, maybe a little grocery store somewhere.

EC: Jumping around a little bit before I forget. It's true that Clarke started in Bristow, the Clarke's clothing store?

ES: A.L. and Harry Clarke had a store here, probably, it was early as, I would say, 1921, 1922. I'm not sure of the year. They were located then about, I'd 00:06:00say, maybe on 120, maybe not that far on North Main. They moved across the street into a building that now is a vacant car lot. They were next door to where our bank was, American National Bank. They also, I think, opened a store in Cushing at that time. As best I know, Harry moved to Tulsa and bought out, I think, S&Q Clothiers (ph). I'm not positive of the [indecipherable], but that seems like the name. So this would've been possibly 1931, 1932. In the early thirties, Harry stayed in Bristow, and operated the store until, oh, I would say early fifties, store burned at that time, and he didn't go back into the business.

EC: Oh, what about, I've been told that the Haggar slack man started here. Did 00:07:00you know him?

ES: Yes. Joe Haggar worked for a family by the name of Wasaff. He worked in a store. The store was located probably about 216, 17, 18. It'll be on this side of the street, probably an even number, maybe like 218 North Main. I think a bakery is in the building now that Wasaff was in. His name was, as best I remember, Alex Wasaff. Joe Hagger was a clerk in the store. Married Wasaff's daughter, started on the road selling pants. Got a chance during the depression to buy a few sewing machines in Dallas, and I believe, that location was on Commerce. I don't recall exactly what block it would've been in, but the war was beginning to come on in Europe and he began to get a good many contracts like 00:08:00with the government, JC Penney, the people like that. And he expanded from this little [undecipherable] store operation and I don't know how many plants they have now, but a good many and rated as one of the top pants manufacturers in the country. Their volume is not as great as somebody like Levi or Bluebell, but there are about fourth or fifth down in, in total volume.

EC: What about the Besharas started in Bristow or, I guess, some of the Besharas lived here?

ES: The Besharas lived here. I don't know where they started. This was a family of people. They came probably in the early twenties, and it was Sandy Sheriff (ph), a sister of theirs, was married to Saab Elias, and there might have been 00:09:00others that I can't recall right now. Bill Hagar, by the way, was in an interview with Menswear (ph) listed as Bristow as one of the places where he began. He listed Joe Abraham in this interview as one of the first people that he worked for. Joe Abraham hired him, according to the interview, as a cotton buyer. He told Joe Abraham that he didn't know anything about cotton. He didn't know how to [indecipherable] Joe Abraham, according to Mr. Hagger, asked him if he knew what a good-looking horse was like. Mr. Hagger said yes. He did know what a good-looking horse was like. He asked him if he knew what a good-looking woman looked like, and he said, of course, anybody knows that. Then Joe Abraham told Mr. Hagger, you'll make a good cotton buyer.

EC: I was asking your wife before you came in, I'd realized that most of the Lebanese were Catholic, and she said, yes, except you were not, and it wasn't unusual for the Lebanese who came here to be non-Catholic. Is that a, I don't know that much about Lebanon.

ES: But [indecipherable] of course had a good many, that was the basis of most of the religions, absolutely. There was a Greek Catholic, which was a different church entirely from the Roman Catholic. They had their own bishop, their own priest. The village my father came from was primarily Greek Catholic. Mother came from, was primarily Roman Catholic, so there wasn't a Greek church, Greek Orthodox, I think, is the way they listed even yet. So my mother and my sisters and my younger brothers were brought up in a Catholic church. My father took me 00:11:00to the Christian Church.

EC: This probably isn't an easy question for you to answer, but I have read that there was a lot of anti-Catholicism in Bristow and this came from one of the local Catholics. And I wonder, how much of what she thought was anti-Catholicism was anti-Lebanese or how much of what may have been appeared to be anti-Lebanese was anti-Catholic. Were you aware of any prejudices in growing up here in Bristow?

ES: There was a lot of anti, all over the country. There was a lot of anti-WAFs (ph), a lot of anti-Shiites (ph), a lot of Jews, Yehudis couldn't go to a lot of places at one time. This was quite typical of that day and time, and this wasn't any different. Whenever people began to come into the area, they set up 00:12:00naturally and not [indecipherable], but in people that had common interests and the people that couldn't speak English and that included the Indians too, fell into their own groups.

EC: Right. How old are you?

ES: 65.

EC: All right. You were born then in 1914 or 15?

ES: 1913 October this year.

EC: Then your earliest memories of Bristow really would be, well, perhaps World War I might have been, but it was happening. But you really wasn't as gone much until the oil boom day.

ES: So my earliest memories of World War I is, I don't know what they were called at that time, home guards probably, but young men would get out and drill, getting ready for whatever may come. And I do remember going to the railroad station, [indecipherable] neighbor going into the service. And this 00:13:00would have been like 1917 as best I can place a year.

EC: Since you were just a young child, were you conscious of the oil boom in Bristow?

ES: Very much so, because, it was a very small town until the time the oil boom and people flocked in, took up every available place that they could live, sleep, eat, and it became an entirely different town from a small cotton country town. It became a town of people from New York, Pennsylvania, and other sections where they'd had oil previous to the oil boom here. And they were young people that came in, mostly without their families. And not having any other type of entertainment, whenever they would go out on an oil rig or a pipeline or 00:14:00anything of that nature, they would stay until the end of the week. And then they would come in, not all, not everybody, but they would get paid sometimes in gold, sometimes in currents, and sometimes in silver. They would come in to Bristow because this was the nearest place for them. And then they would find their entertainment with whatever the town offered.

EC: I judge the entertainment grew as the boom grew?

ES: Well, it was a good deal of industry in the upstairs of these buildings. Now they're all vacant. The, yeah, the fights were quite common. The town had a curfew, I don't remember what the age, but I think the time was after seven o'clock in the evening. Everybody under a certain age had to be off the streets. The law enforcement at that time probably consisted of maybe six to seven peace officers. Best I remember, the town had a city marshal. He might have had one or two helpers. There was a couple maybe, constables, in that day and time. There 00:15:00could have been in the area, two US marshals, and that was probably the entire peace force in a town that had in it probably 15 to 20,000 people crowded and everything that they could live in. And in the area itself, maybe like 30 to 40,000 people. It's considered this the shopping center.

EC: I would imagine you probably started working for your father when you were still in school. Is that true or did you have other jobs?

ES: No, I started working in the store probably like 8, 9, 10 years old. Jennifer worked, but in that day in time, a good many people quit school at the eighth grade and worked in the oil fields and places. An education then was eighth grade, a good deal more than a lot of other people had. And a high school graduate could almost teach school.

EC: Yes. What do you, what memories do you have of your own days in school here? Anything that stands out when you reminisce about school days?

ES: Nothing really that would be of any interest to anybody but myself, personally.

EC: Well, I was thinking more of the kind of, what kinds of things did young people do for fun, for entertainment? What, you know, do you remember things like Fourth of July picnics or parades or athletics or whether some particular kind of shenanigans the kids got into when you were young to get a flavor for the times?

ES: Halloween was one of the big things, and even the adults in those days enjoyed holidays. The Main Street would have almost as many adults and costumes as it would have young people. And of course, young people were permitted more leeway than they are today. This was a town with a lot of outhouses and like a lot of other towns, these outhouses suffered quite considerably. There was a lot of other things that went on, but it was quite common to soak windows and soak everything of this nature. I don't think the destruction was quite as expensive 00:17:00as today's destruction could be. The day and time, then, was only athletic activities took place in the afternoons. The football fields weren't lighted, the baseball fields weren't lighted, so when there was a football or a baseball game in town, the stores would close. It was that kind of game, and everybody would go to the football game. I only know this story by hearsay. This is by a friend of mine who isn't living now, but he told of the justice of peace, if I could use a name that was, Judge (John) Humphrey, that had a case going in his court early in the afternoon and there was a football game to begin about 1:30 or 2, whatever time this was. This may be a story only, I don't know if there's any truth. He listened to the two lawyers, plead the case for quite a while, just before game time. He stopped them, told them to go ahead and plead their 00:18:00cases, that he was going to football game, that they would find the decision in the top drawer.

EC: (laughs) What about...

ES: You'll hear a lot of these things around town, you know, you never know whether that's true or not.

EC: It sounds probable.

ES: Well, if you had known the man, you would've known it could have been very possible.

EC: Yes. Were there any special effects of the Depression on Bristow? Sometimes I have the feeling that small towns maybe didn't suffer as much as cities or maybe more, in other words, what strikes you from this distance about the effect of the Depression on Bristow?

ES: It had been technically an oil and cotton town. The price of oil dropped so that a lot of the companies couldn't produce it. They fired, of course, a lot of their employees, farmers themselves, weren't on the commercial scale that they are today. This, of course, is not a farm area now it's a [indecipherable] country, but families grew on, like, 40, 80, 120 off the top, large families, 00:19:00and when cotton cease to become commercial, these people were heavily mortgaged either to their suppliers of the stores or to the banks. And if they didn't lose their property to the banks or to the people they had borrowed from, they lost it in taxes. Cotton dropped down at the gin, something like 9 cents. This would convert to 3 cents in the field. They had to pay a cent and a half to have it picked so it wasn't commercial any longer. And had one of my pictures that shows that day and time, I've been told, you could have gone down Main Street from cotton wagon to cotton wagon and never put a foot down on the street itself. So, the buyers, the as best I remember, six gins, Joe Abraham was the owner of one of the gins. The others had other owners, of course. And the buyers would bid to 00:20:00get the cotton, but they would get into a lot of fights and all this type of thing, the buyers themselves. So one year they reached an agreement that they would pay a certain price and only a certain price for the cotton. This would eliminate the fights and the bad feeling and all of this. And Joe Abraham also agreed with the rest of the owners of the gins to, to hold by this price. And he only paid the agreed price for the cotton, but he paid a dollar a dozen for the eggs for everybody that sold the cotton to him. Eggs at that time was something like 10 cents a dozen.

EC: Right. Has there been anything oh, outstanding, amusing, exciting, interesting, the kind of thing that I might not know to ask you about that has happened in Bristow that comes to your mind?

ES: I'm not sure exactly the kind of thing, you know, that you're,

EC: oh, that's, anything that, yeah, that strikes

ES: that you're wanting but there was a lot of money around the town and the people that had the money were young, energetic, aggressive people. Naturally, you could tell this because they brought KVOO into a town this size whenever Tulsa didn't have anything to compare with it. They built a hotel here in town that was equal to almost anything there was in the area. And as things began to dwindle, these same people lost their money. Not particularly in the oil fields here, but they plunged in other areas for it. Particularly, you've probably been told the hotel here was named after the two partners that had done real well. There was two brothers here that produced their own oil, refined their own oil, and sold it to their own service stations. That was Glen, Glen Freeland and his 00:22:00brother. You've probably been heard a lot of this from, people heard know a lot more about it than I have. It's unfortunate, but one of the Freelands died just possibly 60, 90 days ago. There's a lot of people still living in this area that would give you something a little different than I can give you. Some are connected with peace enforcement, some are connected with the Indian tribes. Some are connected with the fire department.

EC: Well, now you mentioned the Indian tribes and the police enforcement and fire departments. I, and fire department I talked to Curt Gillaspie, who would be the only person I'm aware of connected with the fire department and I have, do you have everybody particularly in mind for police or Indian?

ES: This woman's husband, she's in a rest home now, but her mind is still pretty alert. She's in her nineties. He was one of the early justices of the peace here 00:23:00and also a city, they called them city marshals in those days. They and their chief of police.

EC: Right.

ES: This woman is a granddaughter of the fella by the name of Allen, who was one of the early, these are Indians.

EC: Right?

ES: This fellow Allen was one of the early US Marshals appointed from Fort Smith before this was statehood. And the best I know her. She's still alert.

EC: Right.

ES: You know, she would still be a good person if she wanted.

EC: Yeah.

ES: If she will [indecipherable] with you. She would be a good person if you hadn't already had these names, given them to you. This man served on the police force, years, oh, on the police force, and he was a fireman too. This goes back a good many years and the town is quite young. This lady got married in a building two doors down from me in a bakery. She, thinking she may still be 00:24:00visiting here, but I'm not sure. This is an old timer that was in the oil fields that would know a good deal about the oil fields, a lot more than I.

EC: Sure.

ES: I don't have.

EC: Well, why don't you just tell me, Mrs. Stoker first about your family. Where were they from and how'd they happen to end up in Bristow?

PS: Well, my, my family's all gone except one sister. I have one sister alive and she's in North Carolina. She's my baby sister.

EC: Well, were you born here in Bristow?

PS: No, I was born in Kansas.

EC: Whereabouts in Kansas?

PS: Parker.

EC: And did your parents move to Bristow?

PS: Oh, they come to, and they, and then we have been here since I was seven 00:25:00years old.

EC: What when was that? What year?

PS: Oh, I don't remember.

(Unknown Speaker) She's 89.

EC: Okay. You're 89 now. And you were, came here when you were,

PS: Oh, she would say that.

EC: You came here when you were seven?

PS: Yes.

EC: Ah do you know why your parents chose to come to Bristow?

PS: No. My father was just hunting green pasture.

EC: What did he do for a job?

PS: He was a farmer.

EC: A farmer?

PS: Yeah.

EC: He, what'd he do get a, an allotment, a lease, an allotment.

PS: Oh, no, we were not Indians,

EC: But I thought maybe he,

PS: No.

EC: Where'd he get the land to farm?

PS: Oh he just was a sharecropper.

EC: Oh, I see. What do you remember about coming to Bristow the first time?

PS: The thing I remember coming to Oklahoma was when we came across the 00:26:00Verdigris River and the horses, we were in the covered wagon and the horses had to swim, and one of my sisters laid down and put her head under a quilt, and mama was driving, papa was driving the big team. They were covered wagon and he took all the kids and put us in that wagon and mama was [indecipherable]. And mama said, now I'll not come in that river. They told us that it, we were going to come across that river tonight because of it rising all the time. And so, mama said you come back after me, I won't come in there. But when she started that team that she was driving, they just stood up on their hind feet and they were going too. And when mama got up, when Papa got across the river, the horses 00:27:00had swum the river in the covered wagon. He had another team in front of him. Another man [indecipherable] mama that, that horse [indecipherable] sat on the back of the seat of the surrey. And I looked out the window. I was seven years old and I looked out that little fold in the back of the covered wagon and I could see the team, but we couldn't see mama. She was sitting on the back end of the seat and she come up and stood the beside of papa and he said, where'd you come from? She said I had to come! The horses, I couldn't hold them. And that's the most thing that impacted me. And then the first Indians we saw was at Blue Jacket, and I was scared to death of them. And some of 'em didn't have anything on but a [indecipherable] pile.

EC: Well, what about Bristow itself?

PS: Well, after my father was killed, my father was killed when his team ran off, and the line broke. The man that he was working for the Campbell Oil Company, he had lost everything he had during, well, during McKinley about the year McKinley was killed. He had a mortgage on sixteen head of cattle and four big horses, and they foreclosed on him. And so we came and he went into the oil field to work out of Nowata. And he was killed coming in from work one night. Team, it was a very bad team, and had always been, had already killed one man. And he was working in the Home Shooter Field (ph) and they had got a big gas 00:29:00well, and Mr. Campbell had come after him and his driller and the team, just as they got into the town of Nowata right on Main Street, the team started to run and the line broke. And my father was a head buck boy at that time, and my father was putting on the brake and the other men jumped and Papa jumped, but his foot was caught, and it broke his neck. That was in 1910.

EC: Okay. When did you, and you came to Bristow,

PS: 1911.

EC: 1911.

PS: Yes.

EC: What are your memories of Bristow when you first came here?

PS: Oh, I thought it was terrible.

EC: Did you?

PS: No, it was quite a permissible town and they part had parts, wooden sidewalks here, and I thought it was terrible. But my mother had come here. She never went down the main street of Nowata after my father was killed. And she 00:30:00came here, she had a little insurance and bought a place on the east part of town.

EC: A farm?

PS: No, just a house.

EC: Just a house.

PS: And there were four of us children in the home. My older sister was married and gone from home.

EC: Did you go to school here in Bristow?

PS: No, I went to work to make a living.

EC: Where did you work?

PS: I worked at Ed Abraham's store. And then Mr. Wolf, LM Wolf gave me more money and I went there. Mrs. (Nellie Gray Campbell) Abraham didn't want me to quit and she tried to get Ed to give me more money and he wouldn't do it because she and I were very good friends. So I went to LM Wolfe's store was there right south of the, what's that other bank?

EC: Community.

PS: Community State Bank now.

EC: And when did you get married?

PS: Oh, 1916.

EC: Alright. Was your, had your husband been living in Bristow long?

PS: Well, he was an oil field worker and he came here and drilled some wells and got dry holes. He drilled for [indecipherable], and they got dry holes at that time. But later he came back and then after we were married he went to Shamrock and that's when the Shamrock boom was on. It was about 19, 1915, the Shamrock boom. And then in 1916 we got married and we went to Ponca City. And he worked for Marvin (ph) as his driller.

EC: Came back to Bristow later?

PS: Then, he came back, oh, about 1925, I guess [indecipherable].

EC: But you came back here to live?

PS: Yes.

EC: And that was because of the oil boom here? Was that because of the oil boom 00:32:00here in Bristow?

PS: Yes. And he knew everybody here and he Marvin (ph) had to, well he had kind of overextended himself and he took the wells down and gone back east to get more money and my husband come right down here and stepped in the [indecipherable].

EC: Were there any particular stories that your husband told you about the oil field here at Bristow?

PS: No.

EC: Anything you remember about who were the people who really made money out of the oil here in Bristow?

PS: [Indecipherable] the old poor farm that the state had bought, the county was out on the old highway and one, and I had [indecipherable] and I went out to get my wood and it was covered in snakes and that, well, I come in out there and the 00:33:00wind [indecipherable] and my feet were covered. There were [indecipherable]. Right down. Well, it just had a big tank. That's about all I can remember of his particular things. So it went broke.

EC: It went, broke? You?

PS: No, he did.

EC: He did. Well, what happened?

PS: Well, oil went to 10 cents a barrel. We got [indecipherable] became contractors and we would get along pretty good. And then we had two wells. He drilled two wells of his own and you know, [indecipherable] oil was 10 cents a barrel and these big companies filled their tanks for, and we had 500 barrels of 00:34:00oil. And when my husband went to the gate to take the oil [indecipherable] taking it, he said, I can't take it. My tanks were all full. Well, the state took it for back taxes the state tax on oil, and that was the end of our contract.

EC: Who were the people? Who were some of the people who made money in oil here in Bristow? Who were the big oil people in Bristow? [Indecipherable] You came here in 1916. You got married in [indecipherable]. What the, did you notice anything about World War I, did it affect Bristow at all? Did you notice any? 00:35:00What about, go ahead. Go ahead. I thought you were gonna say something. What about when they all boom hit Bristow? Did the town change?

PS: Oh, yes.

EC: What kind of changes did you see?

PS: You couldn't find a place to stay all night that people came here, at one time, Bristow was 15 south population people set up in the depot [indecipherable].

EC: Is that right? Was it a rowdy town, like a lot of oil towns, a lot of activity and were fights on the streets and things like that?

PS: Well, no, I can't say [indecipherable]. People came here and [indecipherable] and they were all small.

[Indecipherable]

I didn't buy it. He passed away now and has been gone for some years.

EC: What were some of the more interesting things that you can remember happening? Anything funny or exciting or memorable?

PS: No. I have some things, but I wouldn't wanna tell them.

EC: Why not?

PS: Well, it's people here that might not appreciate it.

EC: I see.

PS: [Inaudible] Oh, well, when I came here this town was a for a cotton town, 00:37:001st of September, the street that he bought the cotton buyers and cotton wagon. And Ed had a lot of money out. Mr. Wolf had a lot of money [indecipherable] and, but Ed was a [indecipherable], and that's the year the Titanic went down. [Indecipherable] Titanic, went down and Ed could not read [indecipherable] and he would go out and buy papers and want me to read about the Titanic. And then. Joe Abraham, his brother, came here ahead of him and he built where Anthony is now. That was Joe Abraham [indecipherable] moved our [undecipherable] up there 00:38:00and Ed had a building and and Joe had one and Joe had was a cotton, he had a cotton gin and also he put in a cotton mill gin, a piece mill (ph), to piece the salt. And so Ed had a lot of money out and of course when they, each person came, he went under. He died here.

EC: When did he die?

PS: Oh, about a year ago. But Joe's been dead for some time.

EC: Who were some of the more interesting people that you knew in Bristow? Who were some of the more interesting people in Bristow?

PS: Well, I guess the Joneses had the First National Bank, so [indecipherable] 00:39:00this parking lot where, [indecipherable] LM and OD, LM was the old man and OD was his son and they ran the bank [indecipherable] first one of the boys and he was a doctor and Hooker Groom (ph) was the pastor of the Christian Church here. When Mr. Groom died shortly after I came here and he was a man, well respected. Wasn't anyone in this town, I don't think was what loved Mr. Groom on Old Man Groom for then they built that building across the street that what is now against our insurance building there, and it went broke and the person and their 00:40:00first statement [indecipherable] the corner of seventh and main by the American National. That's where [indecipherable] that is the Jones Bank. OD, I mean, M Jones, [indecipherable] BB Jones. They dropped their money from the Drumright oil fields.

EC: Oh, they did? Were there people in Bristow who lost money in the bank?

PS: Oh yes. One man lost $90,000 in the bank. And he [indecipherable] my husband, he [indecipherable] and they had an awful hard time. They owned a [indecipherable] and they struck oil. And they called it [indecipherable] all 00:41:00the children were married but the youngest girl and they'd gone to Norman and she was going, and when the bank went broke, he called Mr. Davidson (ph) and he came up and he had $90,000 [indecipherable].

EC: Tell me about the old green corn dance.

PS: Well, I can't tell you much about that. I've been trying to get the information. I went out there, the Indians used to have a green corn dance. I, maybe they do now. There was a lot of Indians here, then most of them have died off. And so I went to the store out there. We had a horse and buggy [indecipherable] night. Well, I wouldn't get out the buggy. Things didn't look very good to me out there. And I was a kind of a fussy old person, and I, [indecipherable] was killed out there. His name was Ralph (ph), but I've never 00:42:00been able to understand what his last name is. I called two men last night that I had known, and none of them could remember. Well, his wife was pregnant. His [indecipherable] wife was pregnant and she lost her baby and he [indecipherable] same call, but I never could, I can't remember who that last name was. No.

EC: Was the Green Corn Dance the same time as, what do they call it, the Green Onion, the Green Onion dance or something different?

PS: Green Corn Dance Days.

EC: What about the, most of the Indians have died off. Were there Indians who lived in Bristow? Like they lived outside?

PS: No, they lived mostly they [indecipherable] and they had come here, you know, [indecipherable] and these Indians were part nigger, part colored I should 00:43:00say, and they came here to, they was a year coming from Georgia. I had a friend who was born in a covered wagon on the way.

EC: Well what, surely you've got some other vivid memories of something that happened in Bristow. Do you remember one of the bank robberies or do you remember any of that?

PS: Yes, I remember that. We were having a big faith convention in the Baptist church and Mr. Endsley had a meat market. He was cooking a ham for it and his daughter and I had gone to [indecipherable], and taken the car and gone after this ham for dinner. And when we got back there at the American National Bank, you know, the big crowd there and we didn't know what was wrong. And she jumped 00:44:00out of the car to run to find out and the bank had just been robbed, but they, then they went [indecipherable] the bank and they said by that time they called out [indecipherable] coming out of the bank. And that was the end of them. [Indecipherable] was sheriff of this county and was for years.

EC: Did you have children?

PS: No.

EC: Did you or your husband were you or your husband ever involved in politics in any way?

PS: No. He oil, this was his life. He was a mason and a Baptist, and that's just as far as it went. He was the first man, a first person, ever baptized in the Baptist Church, 1921.

EC: Is that right?

PS: [Indecipherable]

The cotton got kind of short and it seemed like to me the oil had made this town. It used to be a little and tiny out here, and when that oil went down to 10 cents a barrel, it blew up. People lost their jobs. People were just, people lost their homes. Jim Fogle, he told me, we sat one night and ate together. I had known him for years and I was, I went back to work for Penny and. We used sat down there and he was telling me Jim had a hard time when he was telling me 00:46:00they had oil on his face. And he said, I'm setting pretty. Well I saw, I knew the times that Jim Fogle went on the WPA [indecipherable] had two boys and a girl. One of his boys was being, was educated to be a doctor. Dr. (Charles T.) Schrader was his uncle, and Dr. Schrader was sending him to school and the other boy told was going to be a preacher and a Methodist. After Jim went broke, the Methodist sent Joe on to be a preacher.

EC: Were there many merchants here who went broke?

PS: Oh yes. Yes.

EC: Do you remember any soup lines or anything like that?

PS: It was just done for, we had a lot of oil well [indecipherable] and in fact 00:47:00the town just boomed overnight. I never saw a town where people come and sat on your porch because they couldn't find a place to stay all night. Their own hotel was not built at that time. It was a livery barn [indecipherable] and imagine a livery barn that[indecipherable] helped put that hotel up there. And I've seen the time, but they said they had the lobby full of people that come here to get jobs and they sat in the lobby for days waiting for a place to live.

EC: Bishop. Oh Bishop, what about John Bishop?

PS: John Bishop? I don't know. No, I don't remember him. John Bishop? No. There 00:48:00was a Groom thing and Jones thing. And then the first state, it was a Mr. Flurry (ph) and Mr. Harry Hunter (ph) had that. He went broke [indecipherable] screwed up. [Inaudible]

EC: Community.

PS: Oh, he had that now, don't he? That was, well, they reorganized and they got that bank for going and I don't know of anybody, if they ever got any that money. [Inaudible]

EC: Tell something about Dr. Schrader.

[Inaudible]

PS: Oh, I don't know why I don't, we just thought he was a wonderful doctor that was old. He, oh I know, we hadn't been here very long. My mother's youngest girl, my sister was 10 years old, and after Papa was killed, well, she just didn't know where she was [indecipherable] home and about 1919 [indecipherable] she couldn't talk [indecipherable] inflammation of the stomach. But Dr. Schrader had been out here three or four times out to my mother's house, and he couldn't 00:50:00talk her into operate on my sister because my oldest sister lived up here by [indecipherable] and she told her not to. So that [indecipherable] and he said, I want you to come home. And I said, how's my sister? He said[indecipherable] grabbed me and took me in and said, we've got operate on her. My mother was walking me back of the yard and crying, but [indecipherable]. They came down, they, the three days was already up and they had her packed in ice and the next 00:51:00day they [indecipherable] and Dr. Schrader, and Dr. (W.E.) King and Dr. [indecipherable] nurse all came out and still my mother [indecipherable] had talked me into it. Well, I realized they knew more than my mother about that. [Indecipherable]. 12 o'clock everything was done and they had gone and she got along wonderful. On the table. They told me that. He told me to take everything outta the living room, Dr. Schrader did, and wipe the walls down. [Indecipherable]. They came out and my mother [indecipherable] another time and 00:52:00my mother and he told her, he said, one more way [indecipherable]. I waited too long now [indecipherable] and he took the penny the first thing [indecipherable] all over Jessie's (ph) stomach. And he said it was twice [indecipherable]. My mother had said she know [indecipherable]

EC: Was there a flu epidemic in Bristow or small pox?

PS: We had that [indecipherable] they didn't have that here when I was here. We had that [indecipherable].

EC: What can you tell me about Albert Kelly?

PS: Oh, well, Albert Kelly was an old [indecipherable] and he loved everybody and [indecipherable] built an apartment house and they wanted a hospital here so bad, but he couldn't get no help. So [indecipherable] on sixth street, on Main Street. So he [indecipherable] that and [indecipherable] it to a girl. I learned for a hospital. And me, my sister was offered [indecipherable] but that was several years later in that hospital. But he couldn't get no help. He wanted to get help, help build a hospital. Nobody seemed to be interested in it.

EC: That was Dorcas (Kelly). That was Dorcas.

PS: Then he was married to her, and I think they've had six or seven children. 00:54:00And wonderful man. And they, I, they have the bank now instead of the Jones Bank. It's the Kelly Bank. It's the American National. [Indecipherable] wonderful man.

EC: Where did Albert Kelly make his money?

PS: Oil.

EC: Oil.

PS: Well, he and Dr. Schrader, and a [indecipherable] that was a county commissioner, and Albert had the oil, you know, [indecipherable] and that's where they that's where he made his money.

EC: [Indecipherable] the county commissioner.

PS: Well, no, this was [indecipherable] at that time. Now Paul Foster (ph) saved the people in this town [indecipherable]. He gave a steer every other month, 00:55:00every month. And the boys went out and butchered it, went out and bring half of it in, and the other half, put in ice, that's all there was to it. And, but they couldn't sell [indecipherable], a wonderful thing.

EC: Who was county commissioner who made money on the [indecipherable]?

PS: Johnny (ph)

EC: He owns some of the mineral rights himself.

PS: Yeah. He and [indecipherable] and he went out to California and one of his 00:56:00daughters is living here now. And he and his wife, youngest child went out on a trip to Wyoming and Connie (ph) died out there of a heart attack. And his wife come back and she kept [indecipherable] a million dollars in their hand, and they didn't take it, but it [indecipherable] there. They just closed. They couldn't tap it. They couldn't, there was so much gas, they couldn't tap it and it just pulled itself out.

EC: Who were some of the other people, like your husband who worked in the oil fields that weren't...

PS: Well, Jimmy [indecipherable] and oh, I can think of a hundred if you hadn't asked me.

EC: Well, was Brick Kirchner one?

PS: [Indecipherable] No, he never worked, Brick didn't, where my husband worked, but he never worked. [Indecipherable] They were the ones that, they had the 00:57:00money and my husband had worked for them. [Indecipherable] and a wonderful man to work for.

EC: Roy, you know Roy?

PS: Yeah. Anyway, he came later. Yeah, we wasn't here then. My husband had, [indecipherable] but at that time my husband had been in the hospital, 00:58:00[indecipherable] she died of cancer. I knew her.

EC: Tell me what you did for, what did you do for fun? Socialize. Did you go to dances or

PS: No, I didn't have any fun. Oh, it took all, I had to go home and make a living for my family.

EC: Well, after you got married?

PS: Oh, my husband, he did work 12 hours a day and went to bed the other 12 hours. Now, when we lived in Ponca City, he never missed a day for two years. That was the [indecipherable] had eight strings of tools on him, and my husband 00:59:00never missed a day for two years until he come down with the flu and he almost died. Marvin (ph) was a wonderful man. He there was no hospital there at that time and he just signed a check and took it to the Catholic priest and said, get him to somebody. And they had a sister or mother superior or somebody [indecipherable] came down there to Ponca City. They were loaded bed and they put him in a basement of the Catholic Church, and they took to take care of 12, but people died like, and we all, my mother, my husband and I was all down at one time. But a doctor, a little doctor came out and he took a nurse off of another state and brought him. And I've had that man come at two o'clock in the 01:00:00morning. He came every day for 30 days and I looked up one morning, one night, and there he stood in the door, there were a cup of coffee and a piece of bread and he said that's all I've had this morning. [Indecipherable].

EC: Let's see, Mrs. Stoker lived in Texas and then in the state of Washington and at Los Alamos with their husband, returned to Tulsa and moved back to Bristow around 1975.