00:00:00Interviewer: Debbie Blansett
Interviewee: Royce Kelly
Other Persons:
Date of Interview: July 16, 1986
Location: Bristow, Creek County Oklahoma
Transcriber: Abby Thompson
Organization: Bristow Historical Society, Inc.
Original Cassette Tape Location: OHP-2020-06 at 00:00 to 49:47
Abstract:
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.
DB: I'm gonna have to put them back on. This is Debbie Blansett with the Bristow
Historical Society in Bristow, Oklahoma and this interview is part of the
Historical Societies ongoing oral history project. The date is July 22nd, 2020
and I am sitting here with Royce Kelly at the spirit bank board room in Bristow,
Oklahoma, who's going to tell me a little bit about their history in the Bristow
area. Now if you'll give me your full name so that they'll know your voice.
RK: Okay, well Debbie it's good to be with you and I appreciate your interest
and efforts on behalf of Bristow's history, it's important. I'm William Royce
Kelly, born in the family home on east 12th street in Bristow, Oklahoma on
December the 30th, 1941 shortly after the start of WWII. I think it's
00:01:00interesting is I was thinking about this opportunity, here we are in the middle
of a, hopefully, in the middle of the downhill pull side of a COVID-19 worldwide
pandemic, and when I was in grade school, the big concern at that time was
polio. And all the precautions that were taken for that, with particularly the
young people and even when, and that was back in the times when you know, the
iron lung was created, things like that. Talk about respirators today, an
offshoot of that and polio is virtually eliminated in the world today. But one
00:02:00of the things I remember doing during that era at the time, Bristow had three
movie theaters on main street. At the time I was old enough to go to the movies,
there were only two; The Princess and The [Indecipherable]. And you would get
news reels, kind of like a news broadcast, of course they were dated, many of
the items were either of national importance or things that were happening
overseas, and you'd have that and then you'd have cartons, and usually for the
younger set, such as myself--as my age group, the Hop Along Cassidy or something
like that movie. And one of the things that communities did to support the
00:03:00research and so on for polio was called the March of Dimes.
DB: Hm
RK: Well, if you--they'd give out little cards, little cardboard cards and they
had slots on them, and if you got them filled up with dimes and it was probably
$3 worth of dimes, you could get in the movie free. And--but that was part of
the community involvement pulling together to try to combat some of that. And
that was a time when we still had county fair here in Bristow, and I remember
coming home with some cotton candy and my mother promptly throwing that in the
trash because it could catch germs. Our father had homesteaded in, well he had
00:04:00come to Bristow following seven years of drought in the Burlington, Kansas area,
and he was looking for something, greener pastures so to speak, and came down
here and--on horseback and saw a friend and they were able to dig turnips on New
Year's day and he just knew this had to be the land of milk and honey, so he
went back, being the middle of 13 children to a widow mother and made
arrangements for the rest of the family and then came on down the next year in a
wagon and homesteaded you might say, he bought some acreage; this was before
statehood, and he was able to buy acreage at that time and you had to prove it
up, you had to make enough income off the land to be able to make your payments.
00:05:00So he was basically a farmer, but then in the 20's, they hit--drilling company
hit some oil on the farm and so he had an income off of that, and so he was able
to prosper even more, wound up having a cotton gin and at that time, Bristow had
six cotton gins--
DB: Woah
RK: And three peanut mills, so we were agriculturally based in the economy. We
00:06:00weren't manufacturing plants or anything of that nature. He--during the
depression, the several of the banks in town failed or closed due to the
economic situation, and he'd had two nephews follow him down here, Loren and Al
Thompson (ph) and they were working in the American National Bank, and because
it needed capital, just as banks do today, to keep from being closed down. And
so they approached uncle Albert, our father, about investing in the bank to stay
00:07:00afloat. He did and subsequently became also a banker and also had the cotton gin
and the--so he was a bit of an entrepreneur but before those two things
happened, he had a general store at what today would be sixth and main, and he'd
sell bread, everything--
DB: Everything
RK: general stores sold back in those days, he and a gentleman named Conger
(ph), Conger Kelly Grocery. He was blessed in many ways; then in 1920, our
mother Dorcas Barnum Tracey (ph) came to town to open the towns first hospital.
00:08:00This was in a time when you went to the hospital to die, but the--she worked for
a, I would call him a society doctor in Tulsa, Doctor Reader (ph), also was the
public registrar for the health department. And Bristow was experiencing an oil
boom in the early 20's and the doctors said "You know, they really need medical
00:09:00care in Bristow" so she came to town, she was what I'd call a women's liver
before a women's limb, she had received her nursing degree from Ann Arbor,
Michigan and had grown up in the Hominy area. She also had, while she was
working in Tulsa, had rental property that she ran and managed, and so she came
to Bristow, found a building, equipped it, they had the first hydraulic
operating table in the state and she was making the rounds, calling all the
doctors and saying "[Indecipherable] in town". And remember, this was a time
when Bristow was thriving, it was not unusual for offices to be up stairs on the
second floor; I can remember as a child, my dentist was on the second floor from
00:10:00building at seventh and main; Dr. Fight (ph). So she was making the rounds,
calling on the doctors to use her facilities, we can help your people get well,
and many of them that are injured in these oil field accidents or farm accidents
rather than relying on untrained family to try to nurse them through, and this
is when she met our father. She called on the doctor, this one particular
doctor, and she was ushered into his office and he was in there with another
gentleman which happened to be my father, Albert Kelly, and the doctor kind of
gave her a short audience and said "well come back tomorrow" and so she did, she
00:11:00came back the next day, and the doctor and my father were in there having a
cordial you might say, and she--her comment was he again gave her kind of a
short time to make her appointment and she said "Well doctor if I'd known you
needed a bouquets" alluding to a brand of liquor known as four roses "I would've
brought a bouquet". And with that little bit of sass, needless to say my
father's attention was peaked and low and behold, the doctor had agreed to use
that hospital. And after a courtship that was during a time when he went to the
00:12:00world cotton conference in Liverpool, England and toured the Europe and middle
parts of Europe and the Middle East, brought back two stones from King Solomon's
mines, one of which was given to the Masonic Temple and the other one was in our
garage here on twelfth street. And father being known as he was, was certainly
pursued by other ladies, but mother was the only one he brought gifts back to.
And it went from there to their marriage in Tulsa in 1921 and from that issued 5
00:13:00boys spread over 19 years of which I was the youngest, and today I am the only
one living. At the time of their marriage, mother was 24 and daddy was 47, but
they were blessed and in turn became a blessing.
RK: Some thoughts about Bristow growing up, we had progressed from the times of
dirt streets to main street being paved with bricks, laid by hand. One of the
gentlemen I knew as I grew up and became an adult, a gentleman called McKinley
00:14:00Shoals. And he was an African American but he was one of the individuals that
helped lay those bricks. And it's a little rough [Indecipherable] than you have
today, it's been covered over with asphalt, but made for a good solid street.
The--what should I be telling you about?
DB: Hm
RK: Bristow of course when I was young, movie theater like I mentioned. There
was a skating rink where a lot of times if you were lucky, you got invited to a
birthday party at the skating rink. And we had--I can remember Bristow in the
00:15:00days of segregation, I can remember when Washington school, there were two grade
schools, one for the blacks and one for the whites, it was on the east side of
town and it closed and the two grade schools were integrated as well as on up.
The city hall so to speak was located on the south east corner of 8th and main
and you had the fire station, the police department, you had public segregated
bathrooms, accessible from the outside, not of the best cleanliness most of the
00:16:00time, but they were segregated, and the courts system was upstairs, the city
offices were upstairs, it was sort of a [Indecipherable] level so everything was
in one little package there, and--
DB: On both sides of the street?
RK: No just in one building
DB: Oh
RK: Those kind of three story building
DB: Is there a parking lot there now?
RK: It's on the corner there
DB: Across from Roots?
RK: Up north of Kemp Drugs
DB: Okay, there's a parking lot there now
RK: The--it was another useful item was, if we had a good sleet or ice storm or
00:17:00snow, was to go to 10th street, west 10th street and sled down the hill and that
became quite a gathering for mostly young people, got some adults out there too.
The--it was simpler times, you go camping, you go fishing, [Indecipherable] guys
in the neighborhood or whatever. I was blessed to grow up here, and be
influenced by some of the people that helped bring this community along. There
were prominent citizens, the Joneses and others that were a part of the oil
patch bonanza that happened in the area. My--some of my teachers--I'm sorry I'm
00:18:00bouncing around so much
DB: That's alright
RK: I remember Mignon List was my first grade teacher, her Husband Wendell ran
the Ford dealership here in town, the building is just across from the old
public library, that would be 10th and main. The Bristow had a bowling alley, I
remember when televisions was invented and came to town so to speak. I--we had a
neighbor that had a TV and I got to go over and watch that TV, but in those
00:19:00times you didn't really go to Tulsa much to do your purchases, so there were a
couple of retail establishments on main street, and in the evening they would
have the television in the window so people on the outside of the window at
night could watch the television play.
DB: Oh wow
RK: And that was necessary advertisement for them.
DB: Yes
RK: With the elections coming up this year, that time was very common for the
people running for office would hire a car run by Leon Davison (ph) at night
time who would drive his car around with speakers on the top and extoll the
virtues of the candidates that paid him to do that. And handing out little
00:20:00tokens, whether it was match strip covers or little sewing kits or what have you
was fairly common.
DB: Buttons
RK: Yes, buttons little clip on buttons. Another thing that I remember from
younger days in school: Christmas season, the local merchants would be selected
to put up funds and school would let out and you'd march by classes or proceed
by classes down main street to sixth and main where they would have a podium in
the middle back off the street, podium in the middle about 12ft square built in
the middle and probably 4ft high of stairs going up and they would--as your
00:21:00class got to the center of the intersection, you'd be handed a peppermint candy
cane, it was probably 8 inches long and thickness of an inch probably
DB: Wow
RK: So big piece of candy, and in those days that was really a treat. And in the
wrapping, it had a number and they would call out numbers and if they called
your number, you could go up on stage and they would give you a prize
DB: Oh wow
RK: You know the merchants had been solicited for a pair of roller skates or a
00:22:00book or whatever. So that was usually a big event
DB: Where was the school?
RK: The schools are virtually, you had--you had Edison where it is now, but it
was in an old building, Sanford Willis, a wonderful gentleman was our custodian.
DB: And that's where you would walk from to 6th and main that's from the old Edison?
RK: Yes
DB: Okay
RK: And, which was at 9th, 9th and main roughly, 8th to 9th. But there was also
a school; excuse me, back up I think the black grade school was Lincoln
DB: Yes
RK: It was Lincoln school, and Washington school is also on the east side
DB: Yes
RK: So those students would--
00:23:00
DB: Come
RK: Would come, and--
DB: How many children about?
RK: I have--
DB: A lot
RK: [Indecipherable]
DB: For your little--when you were young, it probably seemed like a sea of children.
RK: Yes, it was a good size crowd and of course the adults would be there, those
that could be away from work would be there to observe it, it was during the
day. Western Heritage days was also a big draw to celebrate some of the early
days of the Woodland queen is Bristow, we had a [Indecipherable] for a period of
time, and--
DB: It's almost that season again.
RK: Yes
DB: Western Heritage days, when did that begin? Do you remember when that began?
RK: No I do not. I do remember a time I was going to ride my pony in the parade,
00:24:00I was again in grade school so not exactly a master of my fate. But I got on the
pony, which I've had ridden [Indecipherable] and I was waiting for the parade to
start and this was at about 11th and north main street. I was on my horse, other
people were on their horses or pulling a wagon or whatever, and everything went
fine until the band started to play, and my horse Tony (ph) took off
DB: Oh no
RK: And I--some good souls were finally able to get in front of the horse and
stop him down in front of what was the old library.
DB: Oh no
RK: So, but I remember that one
DB: Oh I bet
RK: We had a bowling alley at one time. Garment factory was probably our first
00:25:00large industrial plant followed by carpet mill and some items like that. Weldon
Gas (ph) has always been a great mainstay through the ups and downs of the
industry. I remember in the 50's when the toll road came through and one of the
little [Indecipherable] over the toll road was that they were using dynamite to
blast through rock formations to level out the highway access. Of course that
broke a lot of plaster in homes around town so they had to deal with the legal
ramifications of that. Occasionally, I'd get to go to the Silver Plunge, which
was out at the city park at Bristow Swimming pool, and this was before it
was--before the present pool and it was always enjoyable, while I didn't get to
00:26:00go there very often but. Then [Indecipherable], memory for a lot of Bristow
children. I remember other teachers of course. Dora Wolfe (ph) and Caroline
Foster (ph), Jean Sampson (ph), many wonderful people that helped for a lot of
youth. [Indecipherable] The Lebanese community, they had stores on main street
00:27:00some of them, there were shops, Doctor Yurman, he was a leader in the optometric
world doctor, Clarks Good Clothes, he had a brother with Clarks clothing in
Tulsa but he was here and he sold I guess you could say upscale men's clothing
mostly, that's where you could get your boy scout uniform. But he was always
interesting, Choora Paramen Cobbler (ph), Paul Wilslef (ph), Ricksol Drive (ph),
all wonderful. On Sunday if--and this was again in the day before there was so
much going on, if you had a visiting preacher in town, they'd usually wind up at
00:28:00our house after the service since there weren't places to take them. You
didn't--most restaurants and places were closed on Sunday and even if they were
open, there were not many of them. But one of the, there were two place, one was
the J&J Beach Shop, which was I guess you'd call it today a little more upscale
restaurant, and just down the street from that was the Hamburger King, and in
the days of route 66 being the only main quarter from Tulsa to Oklahoma City,
many people would stop at Hamburger king, they'd plan their trip to be able to
stop there to get a sack of burgers and they always were good and just smell
great coming out of that paper sack. So Bristow has been--you seen people go
00:29:00from the school system here and be success in their profession worldwide heading
up organizations, doing good things, you've had a lot of good solid citizens
here, what's the old song, good folks and General people, they live in my home
town. I was gone basically from--I went away to High school at New Mexico
military institute and from there to college at West Minister college from
Missouri where Churchill gave him Iron Curtain address, and from there to serve
00:30:00in the United States Army. And then worked for 15 years in for a bank in
Oklahoma City prior to returning to town and working for America National Bank
here, which today is Spirit Bank. Civic Clubs have always been a star work for
Bristow, they are not as much in fashion to use a term as they were 50 years ago
even, but they've done a lot in their wave for promoting Bristow, doing good,
[Indecipherable] a vehicle for to [Indecipherable] of civic responsibility, and
hopefully we'll get back to that time when people are more, more civic minded
00:31:00than we allow ourselves to be today.
DB: You've covered a lot; I'm very pleased with the things that you brought to
the table today.
RK: A little disjointed perhaps, but--
DB: No not at all. When you were here, you went to church?
RK: Yes, one of the stories told within the family was that, this was not too
long after the turn pike was built, and it used to have manned tollbooth, a toll
taker. And this person stopped at the tollbooth, paid his toll, and asked, he
00:32:00said "I'm coming to see the Kelly's, you know where they'd be?" He said "Well,
it's Sunday morning, they'll be in church" so we, we were again blessed to have
a church, that was important to the family, and participated and did our share
of teaching Sunday school and all the things that happen in a small town church,
and that continues today. But first Presbyterian church was built I think in
1920, might have been 22' it's on the cornerstone. And the several of the,
00:33:00everyone in the church helped participate in the funding, two of the notable
ones were the Freeland family, Glenn who lived in the house immediately west of
the Church, which still stands today, and his brother Glenn, they had been a
very successful and had a little oil company from the oil boom days but had lost
it in the depression. But they had participated quite a bit, and then
predominately Mr. Rolleston (ph) who was one of these wild-catter types if you
will, or oil people that had come to the area, and he had been bankrupt four
times. He'd make a fortune then lose it one way or another, drilling dry holes
00:34:00or whatever happened. And the story is that he (Coughing) Excuse me, that he
said "God, make me rich again and I'll build you a church". Well, God did make
him rich again and he did contribute very successfully to the building of First
Presbyterian Church. The--they had a architect I believe out on Saint Louis,
they have this recorded, but the I believe it's Carthage Limestone, Tiffany
stained glass windows, and the first pastor that was called had come from the
old Sod as they would say, he was from Ireland.
DB: Oh
RK: Ireland [Indecipherable], so many of the saints have come from. And, but he
00:35:00also had also been skilled in building, so he was not only a preacher, he was
superintendent of construction. And as they started putting on the roof, he
noticed they were not using the right materials, they were using galvanized
nails. And the plans called for copper nails, so they had to take all the old
galvanized down, and put it on properly with copper nails.
DB: Absolutely
RK: And I think that roof has only been replaced one time since then.
DB: Oh wow
RK: Entire roof. The Rolleston (ph) wound up committing suicide after he had
00:36:00lost his fifth fortune, and he lived on about 30 acres on the edge, on the north
edge of town, which happens to be the house that I grew up in and was born in.
The--I, being 19 years younger than my oldest brother, of course the older two
brothers went to, served in the second world war, Albert in the navy, my
brothers were Albert Charles, Forest Levan, Oliver Tracey, and Allison Asbury.
Albert served in the submarine in the navy, Levan was in the army, he served in
00:37:00the pacific, Tracey served in the Korean war, Allison registered but his eyes
were weak enough that he could not pass that part of the entrance, and then I
served in the army during the Vietnam conflict and I was fortunate enough I did
not see combat. And of course I'd gone through ROTC and things of that nature,
we were all officers, so that's marked each of us. The--
00:38:00
DB: So there were five Kelly brothers
RK: Yes
DB: And there still is a Kelly brothers?
RK: Yes
DB: What made that come up out?
RK: Thank you for your question. Our, and I'm going to digress just a little bit
DB: Oh okay
RK: To [Indecipherable]. When we grew up, we had, when I was younger from the
[Indecipherable] boys right in a row, we had about 8 years and another brother
Allison and then I came home and got five years later, so with that spread and
with the economics at the time, the old brothers were in that era when they had
00:39:00to milk the cows and stuff. We always chores when we came [Indecipherable].
Chickens or feed the dogs or whatever, mow the lawn, we always had chores and
things to do whether that was our election or not. And, but my father died of
cancer in when I was 4 years old, so I missed that influence but I also was
blessed by having older brothers to fulfill part of that. But, so mother was
left with raising five boys and a ranch to run because daddy had progressed from
hog to cattle at that point, so she had all that to run plus the household. And
00:40:00it was not unusual for when there was a calf born and the mother might reject
it, or there were some runt pigs, my older brothers would get the responsibility
of hand raising them so to speak. And, but then when they became big enough to
go to market, they got the proceeds and so that kind of established a bit of a
pattern, and so at one point, we decided to call it Kelly Brothers and then
under Oklahoma Law, you could not have a corporate farm at that time, you can
00:41:00today. So we incorporated as a legal entity and called it Kelly Brothers, our
brand was 6k, which would be mother and the five boys, and it was centered
primarily around our ranching activity, at one point we ran about fifteen
hundred cows and my brother Levan kind of took that over when he came back from
World War II, brother Albert took more of the financial side and the bank,
and--but we continued to do family business
00:42:00
DB: Yes
RK: whether it was ranching, a little bit of oil and gas royalties, what can we
do to make the town better, can we, you know, whether it's working out deals to
provide land for the airport or--our father was very, very much, I don't know
that humanitarian was quite the right word, but for instance: he provided land
for a black cemetery, African Americans. This was at a time when they were not
allowed to be buried in the Bristow Cities cemetery, but he provided land for
00:43:00them to have proper burials. He also provided one for indigenous people that
were the county winds up with the responsibility to do something. That's on west
of 66, as is the black cemetery. Both still in use today, and but before that,
our father provided land for what became known as the county poor farm. It was a
two story sandstone building on some of the family property near our ranch
headquarters west of town, and there was a producing well on it, and he provided
the income from that to help support those individuals so that's where after the
depression, if you couldn't--
00:44:00
DB: [Inaudible]
RK: there was not a welfare system or anything of that nature at that time. And
I'm going to digress again on another matter, our mother, as I say, came here to
open the first hospital, and this was at--on main street across from the then
public library and I'm not even sure which came first. But anyway, having been
in Tulsa prior to that, she was still involved over there and when they had the
race massacre in 21', she left here to go up and get her orderly staff, the
people that helped her provide nursing and care and so on, up there she went to
00:45:00the old fair grounds, not where they are today, but the old fair grounds to get
them out of lock up and remember her last name was Tracey, and she said "I could
hear them calling 'Ah Ms. Tracey save us'" and so she was able to go out there
and common dear things and get them out of lock up, and get them to where they
could: one, be safer and two, serve some of the medical needs at the time.
DB: Wow
RK: The, and she would also when things were not very much in season here in
terms of fresh fruits and vegetables, she would drive to Tulsa and that started
when part of the road was not paved. She would drive up there to get fresh
fruits and vegetables for her patients. Now, you'd ask about Kelly Brothers; we
00:46:00continue today to try to do things that are economically beneficial. One of the
stories within the family is that, well, mother would show some sticks, and she
said "watch this" and she could just break a stick. Well she said if you put
these together, if you put five sticks together, it's very hard to break them,
and that kind of became the visual if you will of Kelly Brothers, is that
together you can do more and support one another.
DB: Oh that's so good
RK: More than being alone. Another [Indecipherable] is "If you wanna go fast,
00:47:00travel alone. If you wanna go together, you'd be more successful", and so we
have been blessed with the people that we've known, that have helped us; we've
had our adversities, but we've certainly had a large number of blessings.
DB: Very blessed, and I am just amazed with the stories of your mother, what a
tough, tough lady--
RK: She was
DB: And, do you remember when she left her nursing? Did she ever retire or did
she just keep--?
RK: Well no, well she spent most of her time nursing five boys, because she--
DB: When they came
RK: She was very, very resourceful in terms of providing medical care.
00:48:00
DB: Hm, she ran that ranch when you lost your father
RK: Yeah we, of course--
DB: Or the farm
RK: I remember her being so sunburned one time, we were out branding and she was
helping and fair skinned anyway, but she did that and her day to day was mostly
running around. But then she got involved in politics, she was a republican
national committee lady woman, and was very involved in the [Indecipherable]
Eisenhower years, and then in the Dixon years, she was head of the Oklahoma
delegation both years, national convention, etcetera. But we were instilled in
00:49:00being involved in politics, because that does influence a lot of what goes on,
and church, and trying to do good for everybody involved.
DB: Okay, well I'm gonna say thank you for all of your time talking to us; we
appreciate it and this is going to become an important part of the oral history
archives for the museum
RK: Thank you
