Dog Days of August 2008

August & Dog Days of Summer 2008 have arrived! That means Rodeos, Old Cowhand Reunions in Northwest Oklahoma as parents get ready to send their children back to school in a few weeks. AND... least we forget about the "Dog Days of Summer."

As to Rodeos & Cowhand Reunions, Freedom, Oklahoma, West and South of Alva, Oklahoma, in northwest Oklahoma will be celebrating it's 71st Old Cowhand Reunion & Biggest Open Rodeo, August 14-16, 2008.

If you haven't been to one of Freedom's unique western festivals, then you might want to mark your calendar now for a unique, old time cowhand reunion, rodeo and dancing in the western main streets of Freedom, Oklahoma, USA.

A week before Freedom's Rodeo you might set aside another stop over in Waynoka, Oklahoma for their annual Cimarron Stampede & Rodeo. AND... don't forget to visit the Sand Dunes south of Waynoka, Oklahoma.

As to the '57 Boys choir photo we showed in the last two Issues of the OkieLegacy, Gary Tanner gave us another couple of names to add to the list of Alva boys in the '57 Neumans Boys choir: Steve Hanson and (?) Geis.

On another note... We want to extend a big welcome to Wanda from Farmington, New Mexico, a neighbor to the South of Colorado. Yep! Vallecito is a great place and the lake is so full this year as is the green valley below with all the snowpack we received this last Winter.

Keep COOL during these "Dog Days" of Summer 2008. AND... if you know of someone who would like to subscribe to our "OkieLegacy Ezine," send them the following link: OkieLegacy Subscription Link and let them insert their email address.
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Call Into Howard Hughes!

Well! Since we have moved to our new residence in the mountains North of Bayfield, Colorado, we are still crawling along at a snail's pace with our Satellite broadband connection.

One of our loyal readers, Kenneth, offered to call Howard Hughes to get our broadband speeded up. BUT... Alas! Howard or Hughesnet technical persons have yet to call and align our broadband dish. So... we are still crawling along at dial-up speeds. I will be glad when Qwest gets DSL in this area... if they ever do!
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History of Silverton, CO

Silverton, Colorado is known as the Treasure Chest of the San Juans! For more information on Silverton History you can visit www.silvertonhistoricsociety.org. Silverton was "a gritty little mining town with victorian pretensions!" as one local might put it.

It was once a stomping ground of silver kings and railroad giants. Today it is considered on of Colorado's most endearing destinations as you travel the million dollar highway from Durango to Silverton.

Silverton district opened legally to miners in 1874, following the Brunot Treaty with the Utes when an estimated 2000 men moved into the region of that same. The men came from across the United States, parts of Europe and china to endure severe winters and dangerous mining conditions in their pursuit of the minerals they hoped would make them rich. They came on foot and astride mules.

In 1879, the wagon road over Stony Pass (12,590 feet) opened. Three years afterwards the railroad reached Silverton, coming north from Durango relieving Silverton's isolation. In 1884 Otto Mears operated his toll road between Silverton and Red Mountain town, and then on into Ouray. By 1887 the railroad had reached Ouray from the north, but it never connected to Silverton from the north due to the rugged Uncompahgre Canyon. There were also "sturdy souls" who lived in Silverton and worked in the post office, sawmills, blacksmith shop, mercantile, newspaper, liquor stores, smelters and assay office. The town's population in 1876 was 500 and life was not easy for any of them. Causes of death in early Silverton was from snowslides, miner's consumption, penumonia, influenza (1918 epidemic) and mine accidents.

The mining around Silverton reached its peak between 1900 and 1912 and the population of San Juan County peaked at 5000.

According to the Silverton Colorado website, "The area boasted four railroads, three smelters, and over thirty mills serving myriad gold and silver mines high in the mountains. Men worked at these remote locations year-round, living in boarding houses, coming off the mountains via tram bucket over long cable tram lines designed to carry the ore from the mine to the mill several thousand feet below. On the rare occasions miners came to town, many of them spent their money in Blair Street’s saloons and houses of ill repute."

Today Silverton's population of 500, is a tribute to the survival of a gritty, tough community for whom quitting was never an option. The entire town has been designated a National Historic Landmark. It is a favorite destination for train fans, history buffs, and outdoor enthusiasts. Silverton remains Silver Queen of Colorado, beloved by those who live there and those who come to visit.
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Hot & Steamy In Oklahoma

"Temps have gone back into the triple digits for north-central and northwest Oklahoma, and besides the 100 degree plus temperatures, we're also dealing with the humidity that's left over from the gulf hurricane. The weather folks have been saying that we may even get some more rain from the back side of that thing before it dies completely.

Our gas prices here in Perry have been holding steady the past few days at $3.61.9 for regular unleaded and at $3.51.9 for Conoco's gasohol. Of course it could still change for the weekend.

August 2, 2008... The price for Conoco gasahol was raised today to $3.58.9 and I would presume that regular prices at the other stations probably went up a few cents too. The Phillips station now advertises that it too has NO ethanol in it's gas. That probably means that Conoco is the only one in town that sells gas with ethanol in it! I wonder how that will effect sales?" -- Roy
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Growing & Burning Up In Oklahoma

We are in the process of taking down Kenneth Updike's stories and ramblings of "Growing Up In Oklahoma" because Kenneth asked us, "To remove all of my previous writings to you about my Ramblins. Personal stories that I told you and your readers. My Son has had all of my writings, and notes copyrighted so that we can put them in a book or booklet. His idea. I really have no objections to this, but he insists we can be viewed by more people. I leave it up to him. Thanks for your help in the past, and I still read your Okie Legacy nearly every week."

If you find some of Kenneth's Ramblings that I have missed, Please email me the link with Vol. and Iss. numbers so that this NW Okie can remove them. Thanks for your help!
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'57 Boys Choir Photo

In addition to the ones mentioned in the last Okie Legacy, I also recognize Steve Hanson and Bruce Geis." -- Gary D. Tanner - OkieLegacy Comment
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Cherokee Strip Celebration In Perry OK

"You have my permission to use any or all of this 'article' below because it's going to be 'published' to late to help our (Perry) Cherokee Strip Celebration in the publication that it was originally submitted to.

THE DAYS OF THE OLD WEST - by Roy Kendrick

Back in the days of the "Old West," cattle ranching became almost a craze with some people, and the vast range was extended until it all but covered the Great Plains region of these United States. This was the so-called "cow country" that has become world famous because of numerous books, western movies, and television shows.

In the center of this "cow country", between the huge cattle breeding grounds of Texas, and the feeding grounds of Kansas and other northern states, were the lands known as Oklahoma and Indian Territories. In the northern part of this vast land was the Cherokee Outlet. It was known as this because it had been reserved by the Cherokee Nation as a corridor to the hunting grounds of the buffalo herds in the west.

However, the Cherokees seldom used this passage because many of the herds had already been destroyed, and they found better hunting closer to home. So instead, they leased much of this strip of land to the white men for cattle ranching, and in the 1880's this outlet was to become the greatest cattle country in western Indian Territory.

Jesse Chisholm's famed 'trail' brought Texas long-horn and other cattle from those huge breeding grounds of Texas into the feeding grounds up north, and over six million acres of the outlet were leased by the Cherokees to the white man's Cherokee Strip Livestock Association for a number of years. But as more and more settlers migrated towards the west, the Government was pressured to open the strip to homesteaders.

The Santa Fe Railroad extended its branch line south from Arkansas City, Kansas to Purcell in the Chickasaw Nation, Indian Territory in 1887, completing the line to Gainsville, Texas (through what is now known as Noble County, Oklahoma) and a Santa Fe way-station was established at Mendota (later known as Wharton) a mile south of present day Perry, Oklahoma.

In 1880, government offices issued orders banning use of the Cherokee Outlet land for grazing and the cattlemen were ordered to leave by October 1st. This strategy was used to compel the Cherokees to sell the lands for settlement, and finally in 1891, they reluctantly agreed to do so. The tribes were paid about $1.40 per acre for the more than 6 million acres, in order to open them for settlement.

People from all over the world then headed towards the area, as the government surveyors staked out certain portions for townsites, and land offices were established at Perry, Enid, Woodward, and Alva.

Soldiers patrolled the land to keep folks out until the run, and then at noon on Saturday, September 16, 1893, as a pistol shot echoed across the plains, tens of thousands of people raced across the lands in search of homesteads. History has recorded this as the greatest land run ever! The nearest point to enter (to reach the town of Perry) was from the south and just to the east of the town of Orlando in Old Oklahoma. From this starting point, hundreds of horse-drawn wagons and buggies, riders on horseback, and even men on foot, set out to cover the twelve miles to Perry as rapidly as possible.

It was estimated that, of the hundred-thousand-plus folks involved in this "biggest land run ever", over 40 thousand tried to crowd into the town of Perry, and the black dust was so thick and heavy, and water was so scarce, that one new saloon, the "Buckhorn" sold 38,000 bottles of beer the first day at $1.00 a bottle. The next day, they dropped the price to 50 cents a bottle.

Within a week after the run, the "government acre" where the land office was, became surrounded by 110 saloons, plus numerous tents, tent "hotels", cafes. Bawdy houses, gambling dens and dance halls (anything to make money from the folks waiting in line to register their claims) and became known as the infamous "Hell's Half Acre".

It was said that one of the singers in a saloon became very popular by singing a song After The Strip Is Over (to the tune "After the Ball is Over). The day after the run, church services were held in at least one of the saloons.

Famed lawman, William (Bill) Tilghman, who had teamed up with the Masterson brothers to clean up Dodge City, Kansas was hired as the first town marshal of Perry, and Heck Thomas was hired as his deputy. Thomas also had quite a reputation hunting down murderers and train robbers riding the back roads and trails of Indian Territory. Often he would bring in as many as a dozen at a time, tied together with a length of rope. Together, Marshal Tilghman and Deputy Thomas set out to clean up "Hell's Half Acre" and did so within a year ... but that's a "whole 'nother story" that I'll need to write about some day.

Today the citizens of Perry are proud of their pioneer heritage and celebrate with an exciting week of festivities. It begins with the Noble County Fair, which lasts from September 9th. through the 12th, while the carnival opens downtown on Wednesday the 10th and runs through Saturday the 13th. Friday night will have a home football game with Pawhuska as the opposing team (out at the football stadium, Daniels Field). Also on Friday and Saturday nights (12th and 13th) at 8 P.M. there'll be a lot of whoopin' and hollerin' as the rodeo takes over the Cherokee Strip Arena (out by the football stadium).

The big day of course is Saturday, September 13th., when the fun begins in the early morning with the Li'l Settlers Land Run along with a 5-K run and a One Mile Fun Walk. A horse-shoe toss usually begins at 8 A.M. on the north side of the Noble County Courthouse, and live entertainers will perform free at the bandstand west of the courthouse from 9 A.M, till about 5:30 P.M.

The Cherokee Arts and Crafts Festival will show and sell handmade treasures (also from 9 A.M. 'til about 5 PM) and staged gun fights will be featured throughout the day. At 10:30 A.M. everyone will scurry to the perimeter of the courthouse square for the excitement of the big parade. This consists of marching bands from high schools and colleges from all over the state, Shriners in midget cars and on motorcycles, numerous floats (they compete for prizes), antique tractors plus a large assortment of Perry manufactured DitchWitch equipment, lots of horses, clowns, and who knows what celebrity might show up to appear in this parade as it winds its way through the business district and around the square. The parade is usually over about noon and then it's time to eat.

Various civic groups and churches have set up concessions stands in a designated area and there are marvelous ethnic foods or barbecue; and even at lunch time, all sorts of events are scheduled to last into the evening hours. However, this years street-dance (normally held until midnight) has been cancelled due to the small number of folks who turned out for last year's event (I'm told that there were less than a dozen couples who danced!).

For additional information about other events, contact the Perry Chamber of Commerce at 580-336-4684. They're located in the historic Foucart Building at 300 6th Street (the corner of 6th and Cedar). and P.O.Box 426." -- article submitted by: Roy Kendrick dba Cherokee Strip Antique Mall which is located at 511 Delaware Street (Phone 580-572-8434) Perry, Oklahoma
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Pittman/Osborn Family Inquiry

Linda, Love your site. I am again looking for info on the Pittman, Osborn spelling variations and Shaffer Family's of Alva, Oklahoma or near by. Can anyone look up any street names they lived on with address? I am also looking for school records for the above Families 1920+. I live in San Francisco Bay Area where gas is $4.07 gallon today (July 29, 2008)." -- Victoria J Glover - Email: vglover776@comcast.net
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Neighbor Up the Road In Farmington, NM

"It's interesting that you are just up the road from us here in Farmington (NM). I really love to go camping at Vallecito; been doing it for a number of years. Yes, we live in a great area, mountains, lakes, forest, and down here a short distance great weather with access to the above." -- Wanda Krause, a friend of K. Updike.
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Roy M. Johnson - Oklahoma Pioneer

Roy M. Johnson was an aggressive and strenuous young business man of Ardmore, Carter County and had the foresight and good judgment to profit largely through his associations with industrial and financial enterprises in Oklahoma. Roy Johnson was best known for a number of years as head of the principal; republican newspaper in Southern Oklahoma, but the chief objects of public service.

Roy M. Johnson was born at Cashton, Monroe County, Wisconsin, July 11, 1881. His parental grandfather was born and reared in Norway, and came to the United States in 1850, settling in Illinois. Later he became a pioneer settler in Wisconsin. He finally established his home near Cambridge, Dane County where, as a prosperous farmer, he spent the remainder of his life.

Roy Johnson's maternal grandfather was Dr. John B. Skinner, whose ancestors had come to America in early colonial times. He was an early country physician in Wisconsin, and went from that state as a soldier to of the Union during the Civil war, and was member of a regiment of Wisconsin cavalry until incapacitated by sunstroke, from the effects of which he never fully recovered. He was a resident of Cashton at the time of his death in 1880.

His father, Prof. O. Andrew Johnson, was born in Illinois in 1851 and was a chiibiveral education in schools and colleges, and was a man of high scholarship who had been an influential figure in educational affairs and also in the Seventh Day Adventist Church. His home was in Wisconsin until 1882, when he removed with his family to Fort Calhoun, Nebraska, where he continued his evangelic labors for a decade.

In 1892 Prof. Johanson became a member of the faculty of Union college at Lincoln, Nebraska, but in 1894 returned to Wisconsin and served three years as president of the Adventist Conference of that state. In 1897 he resumed his professorship in Union College, where he remained until 1900, and then went to Norway, the land of his ancestors, and became president of the Norwegian Adventist Conference. In 1908 he resigned from that position and had since held the chair of Bible History in Walla Walla college, the Adventist institution in Walla Walla, Washington. He was one of the most distinguished representatives of the religious organization of the SEventh Day Adventists, and his wife was also a devout and zealous member of the same body.

Professor Johnson married in Wisconsin to Sarah M. Skinner, who was born in Illinois in 1851. She died at Walla Walla, Washington, in may, 1915. Roy M. Johnson was the older of their two sons, while Harry Lynn, who was becoming distinguished in the field of mechanical inventions, was president of the Johnson Automatic Machinery Company of Battle Creek, Michigan.

Roy M. Johnson was in the public schools of Nebraska and acquired his early training, followed by a course in Union College, where he was graduated A.B. in 1899. In the meantime he had also been a student for three years in Milton College at Milton, Wisconsin. Roy learned the printer's trade at Battle Creek, Michigan, where he lived from 1900 to 1903, except the summer of 1902 spent with his parents in Norway. For four years, 1903-07, he followed his trade at Beaumont, Texas, employed alternately in the offices of the two daily papers of that city.

In 1907, the year Oklahoma became a state, Roy Johnson established his home at Ardmore and founded the Ardmore STatesman. In a short time he had made this one of the model weekly papers of the state and was ite editor and publisher until the spring of 1915, when he sold the plant and business to Edward L. Gregory of Lawton. The Statesman had been an effective exponent of the republican party, and under Roy Johnson's control it became the official republican organ for a large part of the Southern Oklahoma, and in fact was the only important republican paper in the South Central section of the state.

From the time Roy Johnson established his home at Ardmore, he was convinced that the city was the center of what would ultimately prove a great petroleum oil district. His confidence was one of action, and he mortgage his newspaper plant for $2,000 and with some progressive associates leased a tract of land in the Healdton District. Their activities brought in the celebrated field, which, though only one third developed, gave a yield of 100,000 barrels a day. Johnson's individual holdings in this field were valued at approximately over a half a million dollars.

Roy Johnson was president of the Crystal Oil company, heavy stockholder in the Bess Tucker Oil Company, the Vernon Collins Oil company, and the Scivally Petroleum Company, as well as a stockholder in several developing companies. His judicious investments have also extended to farm land, and he was the owner of a large amount of that class of property in Carter County. His largest income was from his royalties in his oil properties in the Healdton fields. He was a director of the Guaranty State bank of Ardmore and a stockholder in several other banking institutions in Southern Oklahoma.

Roy Johnson was a considered a sincere and straightforward republican that became successful in making the Ardmore Statesman a leading organ of his party in the new state of Oklahoma. He was a man of prominence and influence among Oklahoma republicans. He was a member of the Republican State Central Committee from Carter County and in 1914 served as president of the Republican Press Association of Oklahoma.

Roy Johnson was one of the directors of the ARdmore Chamber of Commerce, a member of the Dornick Hills County club, the Chickasaw Lake Club, the ARdmore Rod and Gun Club, and he and his wife were members of the Presbyterian Church of Ardmore, of which he was a Deacon.

On April 22, 1913, at Dallas, Texas, he married Odessa Otey, of Huntsville, Texas. Her parents died while she was a young girl, and before her marriage she was a popular teacher in the Ardmore schools. They had one son, Otey, born July 14, 1914.

They had one son, Otey, born July 14, 1914.
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Judge Roy Parker - Hangin' Judge

Judge Roy Parker drove himself. With so many more whites to prey upon, outlaws increased in number and improved in organization throughout the so-called twin territories -- Oklahoma & Indian Territories.

In this final decade of the 19th century, crime in that region was to reach a sensational peak, then start a slow decline. More than any other event, what brought the turning point was the death of one outlaw, Bill Doolin, at the hands of Deputy U. S. Marshal heck Thomas, whom Judge Parker had brought in from Texas in 1886.

Bill Doolin was far and away the prize catch for any lawman lucky enough, and tough enough, to trap him. The region i which he operated had never known quite his like. His accuracy with a rifle and his readiness to kill were attributes many other gunfighters shared, but Doolin had something else -- a cool, shrewd head. he had no zest for the outlaw's life; he was in it not for the thrill but for the money -- a commodity that was in lamentably short supply during his days as a hardscrabbling farm boy in Arkansas. And carefully planned robberies, staged at the lowest possible risk, struck him as the way to achieve his goal.

Doolin began his career as a promising young protege of the Dalton brothers, after they had forsaken the lawman's life to pursue a more lucrative calling in crime.

To Doolin's good fortune, the Daltons failed to include him in their featherbrained scheme to stage two simultaneous bank holdups in Coffeyville, Kansas, in the course of which they got shot to pieces. Doolin did not tarry to mourn his mentos. Returning to Oklahoma Territory, he hand-picked his own gang of 10 seasoned holdup men and set up a cave hideout on the Cimarron River, not far from Guthrie. Then, between 1892 and the end of 1894, he planned and executed a series of brisk forays on banks and trains in Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri and Oklahoma Territory.

It was from 1893 onward, deputy marshals from several jurisdictions were in full cry after Doolin and his gang. The lawmen were coordinated by the U. S. Marshal for the territory, Everett Nix. Like Judge Parker, Nix had a flair for recruiting talent. One first rate aide he enlisted was Deputy U. S. Marshal Heck Thomas.

Heck Thomas was a native Georgian when at the age of 12 served as a Confederate Army courier. After the Civil war, while working as a private detective in Texas, he pulled off the singlehanded capture of two desperadoes, and won renown among outlaws as a man to be shunned.

Thomas took the reputation with him to Judge Parker's jurisdiction, where he quickly impressed admirers with his distinctive garb -- knee-high boots, corduroy trousers and flannel shirt -- set off with two ivory-handled six shooters and a shotgun that had been mellowed by hard use and tender care.

With Heck Thomas, marshal Nix recruited two more supersleuths for the campaign against bill Doolin. The second man was also from Judge parker's roster of rugged aides: A red-haired soldier of fortune named Chris Madsen, a Dane who had fought for the Italian rebel Garibaldi and for the French foreign legion in Africa before being lured to America in 1870 by tales of gold strikes and Indian wars.

The third man Marahal Nix enlisted was Bill Tilghman, who had never worked for Judge Parker, but he had chalked up a distinguished gunfighting record as marshal of Dodge City before moving to Oklahoma Territory.

Tilghman, Thomas and Madsen, soon dubbed the "Oklahoma Guardsmen," formed a triumvirate that in itself marked a kind of milestone on the road to better law and order in the West. Teamwork improved the chances of bringing a clever criminal in. Each of the Guardsmen was assigned to a different slice of Bill Doolin's various stamping grounds, but each lawman knew what the other was doing; marshal Nix, from his headquarters in Guthrie, directed the joint effort.

In December of 1895, Tilghman tracked Doolin to a health spa at Eureka Springs, Arkansas, where the outlaw had gone to soak his rheumatic bones. Doolin was reading a newspaper in a bathhouse when Tilghman strolled in dressed as a minister. Doolin failed to recognize him, but he did recognize the six-shooter the visitor had drawn. Doolin started to reach for his own pistol, then thought better of it. Tilghman wired Nix, "I have him. Will be home tomorrow." There was no need to explain who 'him' was.

To cut a long story short, a crowd of 5,000 mobbed the Guthrie railroad station to see the famous lawman and his infamous prisoner. Tilghman signed autographs and photographers took pictures. Doolin, who looked too slight and ordinary to deserve his label, King of Oklahoma Outlaws, was given dinner at the best hotel in town, the royal, but the treat ended there. His lodgings were less regal -- Guthrie's jail. Doolin spent a flea-bitten night behind bars, consigned to await trial and certain conviction.

Doolin refused to wait for the courts in Oklahoma Territory to clear their crowded calendars. In July 1896, some six months after his capture, Doolin escaped and vanished. In the following months Heck Thomas learned from an informer that Doolin was holed up with his wife and small son in a farmhouse at Lawson, Oklahoma Territory, and that he was planning to take them out of the country, perhaps to Canada or Mexico.

Marshal Thomas sped to lawson one moonlit night with a small posse, and near the farmhouse the lawmen found what seemed to confirm the getaway rumor: a well-stocked wagon wit a team hitched to it, and a riding horse, saddled and tethered to one of the wagon's front wheels.

Thomas and his deputies took up concealed positions nearby, the door of the farm house opened and Doolin came out, carrying a Winchester and followed by his wife with their child in her arms. He helped them into the wagon and walked ahead, leading his horse in the bright moonlight.

Suddenly Thomas emerged from the bushes that had hidden him, "Drop your gun and put up your hands!"

Doolin wheeled, raised his rifle, fired -- and missed. Thomas, with his own mellow shotgun, took better aim. Doolin's suddenly lifeless body slumped to the ground.

The death of this seemingly invincible outlaw was sobering news to criminals riding the twin territories. it did not stop their robberies and murders, but it did give them food for thought. The manhunt that put bill Doolin out of business for good had demonstrated that the forces of the law were no longer scattered, but increasingly well organized and just as important more certain than ever before of local support. --
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Leather-faced Miscreant Named Belle Starr

Because Belle Starr was a female, flamboyant and frustrating to the "hanging Judge Parker" of Fort Smith, Arkansas, the press disregarded inconvenient facts, invented plenty of fictional exploits for her and made her everybody's favorite criminal.

Belle's antisocial career grew out of her consuming passion for cutthroats and robbers. Belle was born Myra Belle Shirley, a native of Missouri whose family moved to Texas. She had barely become nubile when she began to hobnob with the James brothers and bore their confederate, Cole Younger, a daughter. Then she married a horse thief named Jim Reed and bore him a son. When Reed was killed, Belle took up with a gang and moved into Indian Territory, where she met and married a handsome cherokee bandit named Sam Starr.

From their hideout on the Canadian River, about 75 miles west of Fort Smith, she acted as organizer, planner and fence for rustlers, horse thieves and bootleggers who distilled and sold whiskey to the Indians.

Her managerial skills rewarded her well, and when her friends were captured, she spent her money generously to buy their freedom. If bribery failed, Belle would try another approach. She would employ her powers of seduction to persuade a deputy to return empty-handed to Fort Smith.

Repeatedly thwarted by these tactics, Judge Parker was ready to use almost any pretext to jail her. But whenever his deputies brought her in to face a charge of bootlegging or rustling, he was obliged to free her for lack of evidence. finally, in 1882, Belle was caught in the act of stealing a neighbor's horses, and the evidence stuck for once. After a short trial, Parker sentenced Belle to two six-month terms in prison. She served nine months before being let off for good behavior, but the time she spent behind bars did nothing to dampen her ardor for criminals and the lawless life. She boasted to one reporter, "I am a friend to any brave and gallant outlaw. There are three or four jolly good fellows on the dodge now in my section, and when they come to my house they are welcome, for they are my friends."

Belle Starr's skirmishes with Judge Parker continued into 1886, the same year her Cherokee husband was fatally shot at a party. A lover she had taken got intot deep trouble with the law. The man, a desperado who flourished under the alias Blue Duck, had gotten drunk and murdered a farmer. parker sentenced him to hag, but Belle hired the best lawyers she could find and sent them to Washington, to appeal to the White House.

President Grover Cleveland commuted the sentence to life in prison. Two years later Belle finessed parker again. her son by Jim Reed was caught stealing horses, and Parker sentenced him to seven years in prison. Once more Belle dispatched her lawyers to see the President -- he found reason to oblige with a full pardon.

It was in 1889 and to Judge Parker's relief, and to the sorrow of romantic newspaper readers from coast to coast, that Belle Starr came to a bad end.

Belle was shot from ambush on a lonely road, and she was laid to rest at Younger's bend, her hideout on the Canadian River. Her murderer's identity was never proved, but it was probably her newest husband, a young Creek named Jim July.

After a quarrel with Belle, he had reportedly offered another man $200 to kill her, and on being turned down had shouted,"Hell -- I'll kill the old hag myself and spend the money for whiskey!"
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1896 - Bad Day At Blackwell, OK

On December 4, 1896, at Bert Benjamin's ranch near Blackwell, Oklahoma Territory, before dawn, a posse slipped into position around a shack in which two men suspected of planning a robbery of the town's bank were holed up.

When they emerged at sunrise, Deputy Sheriff Alfred Lund bellowed, "Throw up your hands!" Instead, the suspects reached for their guns. As the first shots rang out, three members of the posse (half the total force) took to their heels. Lund stood his ground, wounding one gunman, killing another and inadvertently riddling one of Bert Benjamin's livestock.

The wounded man proved to be a hardcase named Ben Cravens, but the dead man seemed an even bigger prize. Since he was missing three fingers, the lawmen confidently identified him as the vicious outlaw Dynamite dick Clifton, who was said to have lost the same number of appendages during a gunfight. It turned out that the dead man had been invested in a ntoriety of which his corpse was unworthy. As a newspaper commented later, he was only a petty thief named Buck McGregg.

Despite this disapoointment, the press managed to find a happy note; it reported that Blackwell's encounter with crime had caused a marked advance in the local real estate market.
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Cincinnati, OH Mural

"I was in Cincinnati last week and saw this under construction. I thought you would like to see what other areas do with their murals." -- Steve





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Okie's: James Simpson & Idella Smith Dobbins

Photo on the left: Idella Smith Dobbins and James Simpson Dobbins.

"Good morning. I was looking for some Okie recipes from the dust bowl days to add to a recipe collection I'm putting together and came across your website.

My grandparents migrated to California during the dust bowl, but they weren't the typical Okie migrants; my grandpa got a job in the oil fields and didn't follow the crops. I think at one point my grandma picked cotton, but I actually remember her big cotton bag; so that would have been at least in the '50's. Grandma died last year at 96 years old.

Unfortunately, I don't know much. My dad died about 3 years ago, and grandma passed away last year. I do recall hearing that my great-grandma Smith was one of the Sooners, although she was just a little girl. I'll try to find out what I can from my mom. I've attached a picture of Grandma and Grandpa somewhere in Oklahoma. I remember family being in Piedmont. Grandpa is the one on the far right holding his hat standing next to Grandma.

Just dropping you a line to say thanks for your website." -- Susan (Dobbins) Koble
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Paris Family Branch

"Hello, I am the ninth in a line of males of the PARIS surname, descended from Edward (and Susannah Molton), then Moses, then Moses Jr., then James C. (and Ana May), then Asa (and Catherine Dowden), then Powell (and Ida Wahl), then Alvin (and Ana ___), then Lee (and Kathleen ___), and then me." -- Gregg - Email: starryskyne@hotmail.com
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