NW Okie's Corner

Bayfield, CO - Happy mid-June 2013 and Father's Day to all the deserving fathers out there. The photo image on the left was taken Sunday afternoon as the afternoon clouds rolled in at Vallecito Reservoir (not dropping much moisture), but I could not resist clicking this shot of the stately pine trees standing tall on the mountaintop back behind our cabin in the woods.

The hummingbirds love the hanging flowers we have hanging around our mountain retreat here in southwest Colorado. We also have hummingbird feeders hanging high, out of reach of the bears. You can step outside and be buzzed by a few hummingbirds swiftly zinging through the air.

I keep telling my Duchess pug, "It's a dogs life!"

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One Hundred Years Ago - 17 June 1913

America - If you would have picked up the newspaper one hundred years ago today, 17th of June 1913, you might have read about, "Mrs. John Jacob Astor, the most interesting widow in America. John Jacob Astor was one of those aboard the Titanic when it sank back in April, 1913. In The Logan Republican, dated Tuesday, June 17, 1913, out of Logan, Cache County, Utah, we found this Headline: "Mrs. John Jacob Aster, the Most Interesting Widow In America." Mrs. Astor was reported to have received seven millions form husband's estate, with nearly $90,000,000 valuation placed on the estate of the Titanic victim, John Jacob Astor.

New York, June 13 (1913) -- The estate of Colonel John Jacob Astor who perished int he Titanic disaster, was officially appraised at $88,966,611 of which Vincent Astor received $68,964,499, Muriel Astor $4,856,758 and John Jacob Astor's son by his second marriage, $2,922,672.

The Astor estate was declared to be the largest ever appraised in this country, back then. There were two features of special interest in the appraisal.

One was the affidavit of the examiners that the property embraced in the ante-nuptial agreement for MRs. Ava Willing Astor amounting to about $1,738,000, which was to have reverted to her at the time of her husband's death, now terminates and goes to Vincent Astor for the reason that the youth's mother, although once Colonel Astor's wife ws never his widow. Mrs. Ava Willing Astor divorced her husband, whose legal widow was Mrs. Madeline Force Astor.

The second feature concerned the inheritance tax of Colonel Astor. The estate saved a large sum by paying $3,150,000 to the state October, 1912, within six months of Colonel Astor's death, this payment earning a 5 per cent rebate. The sum mentioned greatly exceeds any amount ever paid to any state as an inheritance tax, it was declared.

The appraisers placed the real estate value at about $63,100,000 and the value of the personal property close to $25,000,000. The real estate included the old Astor house property, the Waldorf Astoria, the St. Regis and Knickerbocker hotels and other hotel and office buildings.

Including both real and personal property, the estate was divided approximately as follows:

• Owned by J. J. Astor absolutely, $51,300,000.
• Interest under trust funds established by William Astor, $33,240,000.
• Ante-nuptial trust, Mrs. Ava Willing Astor, $1,773,000, (which reverts to Vincent Astor).
• Two ante-nuptial trusts, Mrs. Madeline Force Astor, totaling $1,450,000.
• Property in trust created by William astir, life interest by J. J. Astor, passing to Vincent Astor $236,300.

Duchess of Weaselskin

Bayfield, CO - Since we caged the SW Colorado Columbine flowering plant, no squirrels have eaten the buds off of it. It finally started opening it buds on Sunday, Father's Day, 16 June 2013. It has loads of buds. NW Okie loves the burgundy and white Columbine.








Other than that, it has been warm (high eighties here in the southwest corner of Colorado. Not much rain, but vacationers to Vallecito Reservoir, north of Bayfield, Colorado have been arriving and docking their boats and filling up the available cabins. The town of Durango on Main Street has seen some bustling of traffic, also. Last Tuesday we got caught in the traffic as the "Ride the Rockies," from Silverton to Colorado Springs, passed through Durango via hwy 240 to Bayfield, Colorado. We did get some video of that portion of the "Ride the Rockies," as seen in the video above.

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1941 Shooting of Donald Lee Benson (1919-1941)

Alva, OK - Marian Hatcher sent us a copy of the 1941 Wichita Beacon news article that appeared around December, 1941. It shows a photograph of Sheriff Ken Greer and his prisoner, Kenneth Root. It also gives updates on Benson's Condition.

The article mentioned that Benson's condition slightly improved as bullet was removed. It also mentioned Root's reasoning behind the shooting of Benson. The newspaper reported Kenneth Root as an "irate youth," who told county attorney, Bill Gruber, why he planned to kill his girlfriend's brother.

As to the condition of Donald Benson, who was 22 years of age, and a mill worker, shot in the stomach by Kenneth Root over Benson's sister, was reported on the day of the article as slightly improved, Saturday night, although still critical.

Everyone in Northwest Oklahoma should remember Dr. C. A. Traverse, who was the attending physician. Dr. Traverse removed the 32 caliber bullet from the wounded man, Donald Benson. There was also a signed statement made by Root to County Attorney Bill Gruber, admitting the shooting and the intention of killing the brother of the girl that Root cared for. Disregarding consequences which Root admitted he realized, he went to the Rose Hill school house Wednesday night with his father's Colt pistol loaded with two bullets with the determination to get Benson. Root also gave his reasons for his act in the statement.

Why did Root Run?

When Gruber asked Root why he ran after shooting Benson when he didn't seem to care what the consequences would be for killing a man, the 17 year old youth said, "If you ever shoot a man, You'll run." County Attorney Gruber reported that no new developments in the . . . . . (there the news clipping dropped off and was unreadable from that point.

In another clipping it continued with the following, "Roots testified that he remembered saying, after the shooting, 'Why in hell don't you laugh now, Donald?' but he said he couldn't remember pulling the gun, or riding away."

In the confusion, which was signed by Roots, County Attorney Gruber pointed out that the youth told in detail how he went to the school house that night, "with a pistol loaded with two bullets, to kill Donald Benson."

"When the defense is weak," Gruber said, "they jump on to the public officers. The sheriff's officers, nor the county attorney, nor the dead Donald Benson are on trial here."

At the close of Gruber's argument, the case was turned to the jury and Judge Bird gave them final instructions, and the group of men retired to have lunch and then go to the jury room to deliberate.

Benson's (continued from page 1)

Another article about the shooting and trial begins, "Try to get Root out of the county jail on a writ of habeas corpus.

"A third blood transfusion was administered to Benson at the Achenbach Memorial hospital in Hardtner (Kansas), where he is being treated for the wound. The improvement shown in Benson's condition is encouraging, according to Dr. Traverse. The physician said that if Benson's condition shows as much improvement over Sunday as it has improved Friday night and Saturday, there was a good chance he will recover.

"The fine physical condition of the boy and his youth has been much in his favor," Dr. Traverse said. Barring peritonitis or some other unforeseen complication, Benson's chances for recovery are better than fair. "Of course." Dr. Traverse said, "in a case like this anything might happen suddenly."

Officers have advised Benson's sister, Miss Eva Joan Benson, over whom the dispute between the two boys began, not to see Root at present, although she asked permission to visit him (Kenneth Root) in the jail here.

Turner Asked To Pardon Roots

There was a short blurp about Governor Roy J. Turner being asked to grant a parole for George Roots, 25, who is serving life. We believe this article is eight years later (1949) and that George Root is the same as Kenneth Root. View/Write Comments (count 0)   |   Receive updates (0 subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

1885 - Statue of Liberty Arrives

New York Harbor, NY - It was in 1885, the week of June 13th to 19th that the Statue of Liberty arrived in New York Harbor. A gift of friendship from the people of France to the people of America, the Statue of Liberty was shipped across the Atlantic Ocean in 350 individual pieces packed in more than 300 cases. It was reassembled, dedicated the following year in a ceremony presided over by U.S. President Grover Cleveland, becoming known around the world as an "enduring symbol of freedom and democracy."



The Statue of Liberty was intended to commemorate the American Revolution and a century of friendship between the United States and France. It was designed by French sculptor Frederic-Auguste Bartholdi (who modeled it after his own mother), with assistance from engineer Gustave Eiffel, who later developed the iconic tower in Paris bearing his name.

Did you know the Statue of Liberty was initially scheduled to be finished by 1876 for the 100th anniversary of America's Declaration of Independence?

It seems the fundraising efforts, which included auctions, a lottery and boxing matches, took longer than anticipated, both in Europe and the United States, where the statue's pedestal was to be financed and constructed. The statue alone cost the French an estimated $250,))) (more than $5.5 million in today's money).

It was June 17, 1885 that the statue of the robed female figure with uplifted arm holding a torch, reached its new home on Bedloe's Island in New York Harbor (between New York City and Hudson County, New Jersey). After it was reassembled, the 450,000 pound statue was officially dedicated on 28 October 1886, by President Cleveland, who said, "We will not forget that Liberty has here made her home; nor shall her chosen altar be neglected."

Standing more than 305 feet from the foundation of its pedestal to the top of its torch, the statue was dubbed "Liberty Enlightening the World" by Bartholdi, and taller than any structure in New York city at that time. The statue was originally copper-colored, but over the years it underwent a natural color-change process called patination that produced its current greenish-blue hue.

It was in 1892 that Ellis Island, located near Bedloe's Island opened as America's chief immigration station, as lady Liberty stood watch over the more than 12 million immigrants sailed into New York Harbor. In 1903, a plaque inscribed with a sonnet titled "The New Colossus" by American poet Emma Lazarus, written 20 years earlier for a pedestal fundraiser, was placed on an interior wall of the pedestal. Lazarus' now famous words include, "Give me your tired, your poor/Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free."

It became symbolic of America's vision of itself as a land of opportunity for immigrants. View/Write Comments (count 0)   |   Receive updates (0 subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

1889 - The Lost Found

Kansas City , MO - In the Oklahoma City Daily Times, Vol. 1, No. 88, Thursday, October 10, 1889, located in Oklahoma City, Indian Territory, sported this front page headline: "The Lost Found!" Who was lost, and who was found? After twenty years' absence, a lost son was found in a Kansas City drug store.

Kansas City, Mo., Oct. 9, 1889 -- Nearly twenty years (1869) a. M. Lytle, a prescription clerk in Frank Price's drug store on Union avenue, ran away from his home in Woodbury, New Jersey and shipped as cabin boy on an East India merchantman. For many years he followed a sea faring life, finally shipping on the steamship Salparaiso, where a pupil of the ships surgeon, he learned the drug business. In the course of his travels, he had visited nearly every country in the world. Finally he settled in Kansas city and invested his savings in a small property there.

The article goes on to report, "Last night Mrs. J. R. Lytle, his aunt, went to the drug store where the wanderer was employed to buy medicine. She recognized her nephew in the drug clerk. Mutual explanations followed."

Lytle returned to his home and received his share of the property of his father, who died a short time before. The search for the missing boy had been prosecuted by his parents with unflagging zeal up to the time the father died and his last request was the search be not given up, and directed in his will that a portion of his fortune, $30,000 be expended in continuing it. View/Write Comments (count 0)   |   Receive updates (0 subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

1913 Many Ex-Texans Now Oklahomans

Amarillo, TX - If you checked the front page headlines of the Amarillo Daily News, dated Tuesday, June 17, 1913, in Amarillo, Texas, you might have noticed this little headline: "Many Ex-Texans Now Oklahomans." It also mentioned that Sooner state thickly populated by emigrants from this state, and overcrowding is the cause. A. S. Stinett says, "Great Panhandle Fair would bring stream of immigration to this section of Texas."

Stinett wrote, "Did it ever occur to the people of the Panhandle that the quick settlement and development of the State of Oklahoma was mainly by and through the people emigrating thither from Texas! There is a large sprinting of Texas people in the northern and northeastern section of Oklahoma, but most of the people of the Old Indian Territory subdivision of Oklahoma are ex-Texans, and it is this division of the state that carries the heaviest population, and has the development and wealth, and such is largely true of Western Oklahoma."

It was reported back in 1913 that Oklahoma had a population of something like two million people, and it would be no exaggeration to state that 500,000 of the said population were ex-Texans.

The news article also mentioned that there were at least 100 counties in the state of Texas that had every tillable acre, and in their extremity, many acres that were not tillable, under cultivation in a desperate effort to keep the rising generation at home, and the overflow from these counties was then growing and increasing each year, and this overflow was still seeking a resting place in Oklahoma in one direction. California, Washington, Oregan and other Northwestern states, in another direction, and there was a steady and increasing stream of Texans passing through the Panhandle to the Northwestern States, and this was known to be true, as the editor of the news piece had met them with increasing numbers over the past several years around 1913. View/Write Comments (count 0)   |   Receive updates (0 subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe