Travels With Duchess

Last Sunday Duchess and this NW Okie headed East from SW Colorado to NW Oklahoma -- leaving the cool, mountain climate behind us for a few weeks. Some of the sights we left behind in Colorado were the snow-capped mountains. We did view a few herds of antelope grazing in the early morning hours east of Raton, New Mexico along hwy 64 towards Clayton. We reached our NW Oklahoma destination Monday mid-afternoon. AND... Our eyes have been itchy,watery ever since we arrived in Oklahoma.

Except Thursday evening and Friday's thundershowers, it has been dry for awhile. Traveling from here to the central part of the state you can see the farmer's wheat fields being cut.... AND NOT for havesting the grains! It's being cut and baled for hay. They tell me the weevils and the late frost have been bad on the wheat this year.

We hope all you mother's out there had a great mothers day. The Texas Techie (a.k.a. Son of Okie) has developed developed a subscription service where all visitors can now subscribe to get emails when their favorite eZine story receives a comment. We have been testing this feature this week. After each "Feature" & "Mailbag" story you will notice a couple of new links: "Receive Email Updates" "Unsubscribe Comment Updates." IF you click the "Receive Email Updates" and fill-in your email address, you will receive an email when someone "Comments" on that story. IF you have any suggestions, please let us know. This newsletter is for everyone and we are trying to make it as interactive, informative as we can. AND... we need your input, legacies and old photos to soar into the future -- share the past & present. Thanks for letting us come into your lives each weekend. Thanks also for letting us test new ideas with you all! View/Write Comments (count 2)   |   Receive updates (0 subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

The Alva Review-Courier - July, 1935...

Besides traveling from the cool mountains of SW Colorado to NW Oklahoma, we have been traveling back in time to "1935" by way of a local NW Oklahoma newspaper, The Alva Review-Courier, dated 19 July 1935. That Summer the mercury again was held to 99 degrees as Alva was going through three consecutive "cool" days, 17th thru 19th July (1935). The maximum temperature on the 19th July stopped at 99, to the relief of the perspiring citizens. That evening it sank to 70 during the night as a trace of rain fell.

The Alva Review-Courier (ARC) was published daily except on Saturday and entered at the postoffice at Alva, Oklahoma, for transmission through the mails as 2nd-class matter. It was a member of United Press Association with Telegraph Press Reports Daily. The publisher & General Manager was Horace T. Newton; News Ed., Schuyler Allman; National Advertising Representatives were Frost, Landis and Kohn. The ARC was the official County & City paper with subscription rates and delivered by carrier -- Per week rates, 10 cents; per year (in advance), $5; In Alva and adjoining counties per year, $2; Zones outside Woods County and adjoining counties, $3.

Just glancing through the headlines we learn lots of things about Woods County and Alva, Oklahoma. The Mayor in July, 1935 is A. G. Sutton; District WPA Administrator, Walter Berry; and the Water Superintendent, Wes Warren. The Frontpage Headline Stories consisted of a few of the following:

• City To Reconsider Budget In Effort to Find WPA Job Funds
• Number of Needy To Gvoern WPA Grants
• New Postal Chief Named For City Job
• Veterans' CCC Quota Sought
• Legion Asked To Help Fill Army's Ranks
• Two Must Die For Killings
• AAA Boards To Vote August 6
• Sewage Plant Work Is Urged
• Child Slayer Is Given Life
• Enid Man Hired As County's Engineer
• 175 Names To Office of NRS
• Waynoka Port Work Started

1935 - Waynoka Port Work Started - Towers are Shipped To Fort Worth...

ARC News -- dated 19 July 1935 -- "Towers at the Transcontinental Western Airport at Waynoka have been dismantled and haved been shipped to Fort Worth to complete the first step in a change which may make the Waynoka port one of the keys in a nation-wide air safety system. By October 1, a government crew will be moved in to Waynoka to set up the radio 'cluster.' Work on the radio station will be completed within 60 days after it is started and it will be opened on January 1.

Part of New U. S. Plan -- Far from killing the Waynoka airport, the move to place a department of commerce radio station there should make Woods County's only standard air field more popular than ever. Since the death of Senator Bronson Cutting of New Mexico in an airplane crash, caused by fog, the government has launched a nationwide program to make the airways safe, regardless of flying conditions.

To Give Weather Data -- It plans to establish at 100-mile intervals radio stations which will give accurate weather data. In this nationwide network will be Waynoka's port. Fortunately, it is ideally located for one of the government stations. It is 100 air miles from Oklahoma City and 100 air miles from Canadian, Tex. The government will take over operation of the station, leasing it from TWA, which owns the port." View/Write Comments (count 0)   |   Receive updates (0 subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

John David WARWICK & Ina A. Bacon Marriage Certificate...

A few issues back (Vol. 7, Iss. 15) we talked about the 1938 Graduating Seniors from Northwestern State Teachers College, Alva, Oklahoma. One of those graduating Seniors was Ina A. (BACON) WARWICK. We found a marriage license & certificate that shows the marriage of John David WARWICK of Alva, County of Woods, State of Oklahoma, and Miss Ina A. BACON of Freedom, county of Woods, State of Oklahoma, whose ages, birthplace, residences, are as follows in that order:

John David WARWICK, 21, white, Virginia, Alva, OK
Ina A. BACON, 22, white, Oklahoma, Freedom, OK

Were Thora & Ella BACON sisters of Ina A. BACON?
What happened to the birth of their son between 1928-1930?
What caused the marriage to breakup?

WPA Projects in 1935 - Park Plan Sketched

ARC News article dated July 19, 1935 -- "The special committee enumerated this morning the projects it had in mind for Hatfield park, designed to make it a playground for northwest Oklahoma. The work calls for:

1. Concrete swimming pool
2. Concrete wading pool
3. Bath houses of native stone
4. Concrete public tennis courts.

July 1935 - Town Tattler...

"One of the busiest corners of the city hall these days is the library. Sauntering in to freshen up a little on Abyssinia, the Tattler was astounded to find the place overrun. Librarians say it has been like this ever since college students lost their library. No wonder the city is hiking its book appropriation.

The fireboys had a practice of their own Thursday afternoon. At the direction of the council. They got out a fire hose and soused the lawn and trees around the city hall. Hot weather had caused many of the trees to lose their leaves, as though the frosts were already upon them.

Editor Hopkins, up from Waynoka, reported he had his first experience with air-conditioned passenger trains on his vacation trip, which ended this week, and he now finds it more difficult than ever to stay in his cubicle these warm days long enough to get out the county's Enterprise." View/Write Comments (count 0)   |   Receive updates (0 subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

Enid Fly-in Event...

"I was trying to reach the Enid chapter of Red Hat Ladies. If I have not reached the correct address could you please forward this to the appropriate individual. I am emailing you in order to offer your club a chance to either recruit or fundraise at our event. I have listed the event info below and I am now recruiting different clubs, organizations, vendors that would be interesting to the public. Some ideas for fundraising are a selling crafts, face painting, setting up a children's contest like bobbing for apples or any ideas you may have. Our space is limited so we are asking interested parties to respond no later than June 30.
      Enid Woodring Regional Airport is hosting Fall Fest 2005 on Saturday, September 24 from 11:00-4:00. So if you all could plan on 12:00-4:00 that would be perfect.
      This is an aviation and family oriented festival put on in order to promote interest and awareness of aviation in general. This is a fly-in event, but it is open to the public as well so we are estimating 7,000-9,000 people will attend. There will be static displays, aircraft flyovers, possible aerobatic demonstrations, spot landing/flour drop contest, giveaways like airline tickets and free fuel, pony rides, live radio broadcast, Young Eagles flights, wine tasting and much more.
      Thank you for your time and if you have any further questions please do not hesitate to give me a CALL: 580-234-5476. Thank you and have a great day" -- Christy Rowney, Event Coordinator View/Write Comments (count 0)   |   Receive updates (0 subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

1904 Pioneer Article Agitator by David Payne

"May I have permission to link to your page: 1904 Pioneer Article - Agitator by David Payne from an online Oklahoma Curriculum I am writing for homeschoolers? This page has some interesting information I would like the children to read about David Payne. Thank you."-- Cindy Downes, OKLAHOMA HOMESCHOOL - Email: cindy@oklahomahomeschool.com View/Write Comments (count 0)   |   Receive updates (0 subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

2nd Lt. Quartermaster Raymond F. RALL ...

"My mom had met my dad in Okmulgee when he was stationed there. My mom had recently passed away and I am trying to fill in the pieces on our family history. My Dad was Raymond F. RALL and he must have been out there before January, 1944 when they got married. I know he retired a 2nd Lt. Quartermaster when I was born in 1951 and remained in the reserves. How can I find out at what camp he may have served? Any information would be appreciated. Thank you." -- Sharon Rall Silos, Englewood, CO - Email: ELOSILOS@MSN.COM View/Write Comments (count 0)   |   Receive updates (0 subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

1933 - Farmers and the New Deal...

"The farmers of America did not prosper in the so-called Roaring Twenties. They were simply too successful in that they produced far too much for the American market. With western Europe as a market effectively closed to them as a result of a tariff war, the farmers could only sell in America. Too much product for too few people caused prices to plummet. Bankruptcy followed bankruptcy in the mid-West. In January 1933, Ed O'Neal, the farmers union leader had said: Unless something is done for the American farmer we will have a revolution in the countryside within less than 12 months. The Hoover administration had done little to help the farmers. Hoover's prosperity is just around the corner. The attack and attempted lynching of a judge by Iowan farmers in April 1933 (he was signing eviction orders to be served on farmers) lead to the Governor of Iowa putting the state under martial law. Roosevelt had to be seen to be doing something as for nearly 13 years the federal government had done little to assist the farmers. In May 1933 the Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA) was passed. This act encouraged those who were still left in farming to grow fewer crops. Therefore, there would be less produce on the market and crop prices would rise thus benefiting the farmers - though not the consumers..... In 1936, the Supreme Court declared that the AAA was unconstitutional in that it had allowed the federal government to interfere in the running of state issues. This effectively killed off the AAA.

The AAA did not help the sharecroppers though. These people, and there were three million sharecroppers, did not own their land. Many sharecroppers were African American and they lived lives of poverty. In the immediate aftermath of the AAA, they got employment from farmers to destroy the farmers' crops. Once this had been done, they had nothing to do and many left the land and moved to the ghettos in the cities where they faced similar poverty." -- www.omhros.gr/Kat/History/Txt/Ec/FarmersND.htm View/Write Comments (count 0)   |   Receive updates (0 subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

1935: The Work Progress Administration (WPA) Established...

"1935: The Work Progress Administration (WPA) was established by New Deal legislation on a semi-permanent basis to take the place of the Civil Works, the CCC, and the ERA. The WPA employed roughly 10% of the labor force and by 1936, a 500 worker sewing project had become one of the first WPA projects to organize its workers as part of the Federal Workers Section. As with other government work relief programs, jobs were assigned according to gender, regardless of the workers skills. The Cass Lake WPA sewing group further segregated its workers by race: one group for white women and a separate group for women of color. Married women who accepted work were seen as a threat to male workers: they took work away from men who "rightfully" deserved it. Under the New Deal, women were only considered in relationship to the family, and the morality of non-family women was subject to scrutiny. Women who received mother's pensions (later known as Aid to Dependent Children) could not work WPA projects; married women were not eligible unless their husbands were deserted or disabled. Organized labor and the Federal Workers Section sought to improve women's situation in the relief system through court battles and demonstrations......" -- READ MORE View/Write Comments (count 0)   |   Receive updates (0 subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

1935 - Three Youths Held On Bonds of $2,000...

"Bonds of $2,000 each were set this morning by County Judge J. J. Glaser for three youths, held in connection with the theft of some harness from Frank Nicholson, farmer living in the Edith community. The three, Gilbert Denton, Andrew Denton and Frank Brooks, did not enter a plea. They asked for attorneys. Date for their preliminary hearings will not be set until attorneys have been named." View/Write Comments (count 0)   |   Receive updates (0 subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

Julia Ward Howe's Mother's Day Proclamation...

Julia Ward Howe (1819-1910) was a poet who co-published the anti-slavery newspaper The Commonwealth with her husband, Samuel Gridley Howe. In 1861 she wrote the words to The Battle Hymn of the Republic, which became the recognized theme song of the Union during the Civil War.

After the war Howe continued writing, became active in the woman's suffrage movement and advocated world peace. In 1908 she became the first woman elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Here is the original, pre-Hallmark, Mother's Day Proclamation, penned in Boston by Julia Ward Howe in 1870:

Arise then ... women of this day! Arise, all women who have hearts! Whether your baptism be of water or of tears! Say firmly:

"We will not have great questions answered by irrelevant agencies, Our husbands will not come to us reeking with carnage, for caresses and applause. Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn all that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy, and patience. We, the women of one country, will be too tender of those of another country to allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs."

From the bosom of a devastated Earth a voice goes up with our own. It says: "Disarm! Disarm!"

The sword of murder is not the balance of justice. Blood does not wipe our dishonor, nor violence indicate possession.

As men have often forsaken the plough and the anvil at the summons of war, let women now leave all that may be left of home for a great and earnest day of counsel.

Let them meet first, as women, to bewail and commemorate the dead. Let them then solemnly take counsel with each other as to the means whereby the great human family can live in peace, each bearing after his own time the sacred impress, not of Caesar, but of God.

In the name of womanhood and humanity, I earnestly ask that a general congress of women without limit of nationality may be appointed and held at some place deemed most convenient and at the earliest period consistent with its objects, to promote the alliance of the different nationalities, the amicable settlement of international questions, the great and general interests of peace. --- Julia Ward Howe

July 1935 - Legal Assaults On Act Continue...

The Alva Review-Courier dated July19, 1935 takes us back to a time of AAA (Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1933). According to one of the frontpage headlines in this NW Oklahoma newspaper, legal assaults on the Act continued all the way to the Supreme Court. The Boston U. S. Circuit Court held the AAA wheat processing tax unconstitutional, sending the issue to the supreme court.

Another Reversal -- Basing his opinion on the Boston Court's decision a Brownsville, Texas, federal judge held that licensing provisions of the act also were unconstitutional.

Washington, July 19 (1935) - UP - Asserted that the Bankhead cotton bill and the AAA program probably would be held unconstitutional by the supreme court, Rep. Martin Dies, democrat, Texas, disclosed that he asked President Roosevelt to support a substitute plan for benefit payments to wheat and cotton growers. Dies said he had written the White house for support of his bill, that was before the house agriculture committee. The payment, he estimated at between $300,000,000 and $4,000,000,000. Dies said he suggested to the president that the program could be financed from the $4,000,000,000 emergency public works fund. His program embraced a domestic allotment plan under which American Farmers would receive benefits on that portion of their crop consumed domestically.

Licensing Invalid -- Brownsville, Texas, July 19, 1935 - UP - Federal Judge T. N. Kennerly ruled that licensing provisions of the agricultural adjustment acts are unconstitutional. He quoted the ruling of the U. S. Supreme Court which invalidated the NRA as decided the matter.

Birmingham, Ala., July 19, 1935 - UP - Six Alabama firms, attacking the government's processing taxes on cotton and pork, won the first round of their battle when Federal Judge Charles Kennamer granted them a temporary injunction enjoining collection of the levies. View/Write Comments (count 0)   |   Receive updates (0 subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

1935 - 175 Names To Office of NRS - To Be Checked For Registration

ARC News article dated July 19, 1935 -- Names of 175 clients on relief rolls were sent to Woodward Thursday for a checkup with the National Re-employment Service's (NRS) district office, Dr. Eugene Antrim, social service director, said today. The names, on form "600," show the occupational records of the clients. The NRS will check them with its rolls to see if the men are registered with NRS. If not, their names will be returned to the county office and the clients will be immediately notified to fill out the cards. Through the NRS the relief clients will be given permanent jobs under the new WPA program. Scouting reports that no men are now available, the social service director said there are now men ready to qualify for WPA. They are those on the list of 175 who already have registered with NRS. These men must be put on WPA jobs, Dr. Antrim said. The government has set an absolute limit of 10 per cent of the workers, all skilled, who need not be on NRS rolls. All the rest of the men must be taken from the re-employment rolls. Names of 175 clients on relief rolls were sent to Woodward Thursday for a checkup with the National Re-employment Service's (NRS) district office, Dr. Eugene Antrim, social service director, said today. The names, on form '600,' show the occupational records of the clients. The NRS will check them with its rolls to see if the men are registered with NRS. If not, their names will be returned to the county office and the clients will be immediately notified to fill out the cards. Through the NRS the relief clients will be given permanent jobs under the new WPA program. Scouting reports that no men are now available, the social service director said there are now men ready to qualify for WPA. They are those on the list of 175 who already have registered with NRS. These men must be put on WPA jobs, Dr. Antrim said. The government has set an absolute limit of 10 per cent of the workers, all skilled, who need not be on NRS rolls. All the rest of the men must be taken from the re-employment rolls." View/Write Comments (count 0)   |   Receive updates (0 subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

MORE ARC News Articles Dated July 19, 1935...

1935 - Enid Man Hired As County's Engineer J. Ralph Houghton, Enid, Thursday afternoon was named by the board of county commissioners as part-time engineer. With funds insufficient to hire a full-time engineer, the board will probably permit towns and school districts to use his services in drafting WPA projects. Mr. Houghton will go to work Monday on three projects which commissioners have outlined for him. He was in Oklahoma City today.

1935 - Dairy Herd Tests Slated Next Week Dairy herds serving Alva with milk will be given bovine tuberculosis tests, starting next Monday or Tuesday, Dr. O. E. Templin, county health officer, said today. Material for the tests has been ordered and should be here by this weekend. After the tests are given, the dairies will be inspected by the county health officer.

1935 - Injured Man Able To Leave Hospital Jake Sternberger, Hardtner, Kans., who under went an operation Tuesday for the removal of his left eye, was able to leaver Alva General hospital today. The eye was injured in an altercation Tuesday.

1935 - New Postal Chief Named For City Job Roosevelt Puts Name of R. J. McCormick Before Senate. A seething political contest moved rapidly to a conclusion today as President Roosevelt sent the name of R. J. McCormick to the senate for confirmation as Alva's postmaster. View/Write Comments (count 0)   |   Receive updates (0 subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe