Gaggles of Geese & Spring

It is a sunny, cloudy on this second Saturday of March 2007. Gaggles of geese have been flying overhead in the southwest Colorado valley for the last few days.

Spring can not be too far behind! NW Okie planted her garden seedlings in her greenhouse the first of this week to get a jump start on her Summer garden of tomatoes, corn, beans, cucumbers, squash, herbs, etc...

We noticed the horses started shedding their winter coats the last week and have been grazing more in the lower pasture. Can we ... or do we need any other reminders that Spring is just around the corner. Let us not forget the early springing forward of our clocks this Saturday night for Daylight Savings Time.
View/Write Comments (count 0)   |   Receive updates (0 subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

1930's NSTC Students - Alva, OK

Awhile back in an archive of the OkieLegacy Ezine we mentioned these old pictures of 1930's Northwestern State Teacher College (NSTC) students. We are still searching for identities of these 1930's NSTC students.

These photos are dated 1930 and 1935 of students of Northwestern State Teachers College, courtesy of The OkieLegacy and Fronia. Can you help us identify these 1930's photographs taken by Ellis Studio and Saunders Photography, in Alva, Oklahoma and northwest Oklahoma around the mid-1930's?

Create Your Own

View/Write Comments (count 0)   |   Receive updates (0 subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

Jogging More Memories

Rod Murrow sent us a link to one of his Flickr photos of an old homestead northeast of Freedom, Oklahoma, just a mile off of highway 64. It is what survives of a rock prairie home beside a county road. We are curious if anyone knows anything about the history of this old rock homestead.

I am not quite sure, but this rock house seems familar. Have we mentioned, pictured this in an earlier OkieLegacy newsletter -- from a different angle? Check out Rod's message in the Mailbag corner, Little House On the Prairie.

Alma & Eugene McCann (sister & brother) were placed in the IOOF Carmen Children Home in 1938? Patricia Mills is doing family genealogy on her family and would like to know more about the Carmen Children's Home and the Checotah IOOF Home where Eugene went when the Carmen Children's Home closed.

We are still looking for any stories of the Old Opera House Murder of 1910; an old photo of Mabel Oakes; and the 1956 Avard Cold Case fiery death of Ann Reynolds. If you would like to share your ancestors stories & photos, please email NW Okie at EMAIL: mcwagner.lk@gmail.com.

It was September 1918 when Albert Lemmon was shot and killed in Dacoma, Oklahoma by the Dacoma newspaper publisher, D. R. Carpenter. We are told that Mr. Lemon poured concrete sidewalks in the town of Dacoma, Oklahoma.

AND... Why was Mr. Lemon buried in Alva when his relatives were from around Freedom? Can anyone out there shed some light on this 1918 murder in Dacoma, Oklahoma?

Back to the St. Nicholas Hotel in Alva, Oklahoma for another memory jogger... Marty would like to know who the owners were during the late 1940's. Marty says, "The owners were really nice to me and kept a pretty close watch on me as they were friends of my parents."
View/Write Comments (count 1)   |   Receive updates (0 subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

Little House on the OK Prairie

- Little House on the Prairie midi (Click to Play.) -- "Carolyn and I were driving a few days ago Northeast of Freedom, just a mile off of highway 64, and found this wonderful old rock prairie home beside a county road. This link is to one of fourteen photos I have of it, posted on my Flickr photo site. I'm curious to know if anyone knows anything about the history of the old place. It is quite small, as you can tell from the photos, but has 'wood paneling' (real wood, not thin panel sheets like we use now), and the amazing part to me is that it was built with a concrete guttering around three sides, enabling the rain water to be collected in a cistern located on the north side of the house.

This seems to be a perfect project for a restoration effort and a preservation effort, much as has been done for the old log cabin down near Aline. But it sits alone, gradually falling prey to the elements and to predators (human and otherwise, I suppose). Communities are always on the lookout for projects to increase tourism in the area - and yet, this one is slowly decaying. If nothing else, it would be nice to have as complete a history of the place as is possible to gather. I'm curious to know when it was built, something of the people who lived there, etc. Does anyone know?" -- Rod Murrow, Freedom, Oklahoma
View/Write Comments (count 3)   |   Receive updates (0 subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

Pop City, OK Story

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!
View/Write Comments (count 0)   |   Receive updates (0 subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

The Rest of the Story

Farry, OK History... "I just love getting my weekly OkieLegacy. So glad to hear that someone is keeping up on history related to my husbands family (Thelma DeGeer Lippincott). I found information that Audrey DeGeer Smith and Ivy DeGeer Dunning wrote in the Pioneer Footprints Across Woods County book that Thelma DeGeer Lippincott gave me. The information might be helpful in your search. Apparently in 1898 Ren DeGeer filed on a claim near Old Freedom on Anderson Creek. In 1900 Ren married Josie James. Her parents operated a small store in conjunction with a post office at Farry. In 1902 Ren & Josie got the first mail contract from Freedom to Whitehorse. In 1906 they bought the newspaper business from Caleb Bales of Avard. The first issue was April 19, 1906 (Thelma was about 2 yrs. old). A platform was built under a huge elm tree shortly after the first issue until a room could be built on to their home to house it. Soon after statehood they sold the paper and it was moved to Old Freedom. Nowhere does it mention the exact location of the elm tree. There is however, mention of the road to Old Freedom that crossed 2 creeks some 3 quarters of a mile north of the DeGeer home. Bull Creek always a running stream was directly in front of the house. This creek was bridged on the road north while Anderson Creek, a wide and usually dry bed creek, was not. The Ren & Josie DeGeer Family moved to Alva to educate the children and Ren worked in the old Tea Store and later purchased and operated different groceries from 1921-1931. Ren died in 1957 in Alva. Josie died in Alva in 1965. Keep in touch. John's maternal grandmother was Thelma Evelyn DeGeer Lippincott. Thelma married Roger Lippincott and had one daughter, Linda Lippincott Kent. Linda married Lonnie Jackson Kent of Sherman, Texas and had 2 sons, Johnny and Daniel Kent."

Oklahoma Lookout Homestead... "Sandy Wimmer says the house is located at the 5 mile corner south of Coldwater, Kansas. It belongs to the Coulters by inheritance."

OkieLegacy Joining MySpace... "Yeah! Guess who talked her into it. ;) None other than the next Bard of the Port City down here in Lousiana. " -- MWags the Developer - Email" mcwags@earthlink.net

St. Nicholas Hotel - Alva, OK... "Does anyone remember who owned the St. Nicolas Hotel during the late 1940's. I use to have a room there when I was very young. The owners were really nice to me and kept a pretty close watch on me as they were friends of my parents." -- Marty
View/Write Comments (count 0)   |   Receive updates (0 subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

Dacoma, OK Shooting - 1918

"I don't have any more information about the Ann Reynolds mystery (1956), nor the opera house murder of 1910. I was a small child when I remember my mother talking about the Avard (1956) mystery -- something that always stuck in my mind.

During your newspaper research did you ever remember a shooting occuring in Dacoma in September 1918? I was told that Albert Lemon was shot and killed in Dacoma by D. R. Carpenter, the newspaper publisher of the Dacoma paper. Someone told me he also poured concrete sidewalks in Dacoma. Some of the sidewalks still bare his name and date. One is located where the old post office was. Why was Lemon buried in Alva when his relatives were from around Freedom? Maybe some one can answer these questions for him." -- Anonymous
View/Write Comments (count 0)   |   Receive updates (0 subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

Dacoma School District

"Perhaps the I in the school district designation stands for Independent. It seems to me that I have heard the explanation that country schools were dependent on county funds, and the larger schools, probably in the towns, were independent of county aid. Any thoughts on that explanation?" -- Sandie Olson
View/Write Comments (count 1)   |   Receive updates (0 subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

"I" for Independent District

"I remember from way back when -- The I stood for Independent District. I think Coy, Oklahoma was I 6 District. -- TL
View/Write Comments (count 0)   |   Receive updates (0 subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

Oklahoma Centennial Book: Mama Grace

"Mama Grace is very interesting reading, relating a woman's trip in a covered wagon with her 5 children from Blackwell to Waynoka in 1906. Grace's destination was her father's farm less than 2 miles northwest of Waynoka (Oklahoma Territory). On the 1906 Woods County Atlas, you can locate the Yourt farm on S26-T25-R16. I'm including the Publisher's description of the book. It is an officially recognized Oklahoma Centennial Book. We have them at the Museum Gift Shop for $17.95 plus $1.61 tax. For mailing, add $2.50, for a total of $22.06. Send orders to Museum Gift Shop, PO Box 193, Waynoka OK 73860. Thanks very much." -- Sandie Olson

FROM THE PUBLISHER... "After the flood demolished their home along the banks of the Chikaskia near Blackwell, Oklahoma in 1907, Mama Grace packaged her five children and her treasured Majestic cookstove into a covered wagon and travelled -- minus Papa -- to her father's homestead in Waynoka, Oklahoma.

Many years ago, Mama Grace was a historical story penned by Mama's daughter. Letha Crossman. Publishers were not interested then, but a great-granddaughter, Dana Bagshaw, rewrote the story and completed the project and took it to Evans Publishing, Inc. Mama Grace was selected by the Oklahoma Centennial Commission to bear the Centennial Commission logo.

Letha Crossman was a resident and teacher in Ponca City from 1940 to 1968. Dana Jones Bagshaw grew up up in Fort Smith, Arkansas, attended Phillips University in Enid, Oklahoma in the 1960s. She received a B.A. degree from San Jose State University in California, and took employment in Silicon Valley as a technical writer. She currently resides in England where her play Cell Talk has been published and performed. "What a story!" Sandra Olson of the Waynoka Historical Society exclaimed. She described Grace as "a couragous woman, a true pioneer who braved the unknown," "an entrepreneur," and "a wife who longingly watched the road for her husband's promised coming."

The book includes a section of photos courtesy of the Waynoka museum, along with those from the author.

In the final chapters of the book, Papa packs up the cookstove and the family and travels -- minus Mama -- perched atop the refurbished wagon through a bemused Tulsa in 1918 to a new farm in Siloam Springs, Arkansas."
View/Write Comments (count 0)   |   Receive updates (0 subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

McCann's & IOOF Carmen Children Home

"My mother (Velma McCann), her sister (Alma McCann) and their brother (Eugene McCann) were placed in the IOOF Carmen Children Home in 1938. If there are any living people who were there when they were, I would like to hear from them. I am doing a family genealogy on my family. I would like to know more about the Carmen Children's Home as I am a member of the IOOF (Rebekah's in Kansas) and need the history of it -- also the Checotah IOOF Home where Eugene went when the Carmen Children's Home closed. Thanks very much." -- Patricia Mills - Email: bettyboop_1956@hotmail.com
View/Write Comments (count 0)   |   Receive updates (0 subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

The Outsiders - Tulsa Oklahoma

"Our daughter, Lindsay, and her 7th grade class, just finished reading the book, "The Outsiders". I had seen the movie way back when but didn't realize until know that it was filmed in Tulsa, Oklahoma. How are you doing? We think of you and your husband often. The kids still talk about the dinner that you and your husband treated us to a couple of years ago in Oklahoma. Thanks for keeping us on the OkieLegacy mailing." -- Your CA friend
View/Write Comments (count 0)   |   Receive updates (0 subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

OkieLegacy Guestbook

Great-Grandmother Klanke... "My great grandmother came to U.S. on the ship, Weser when she was only 16 years old and by herself. I knew her when she passed when I was 6. She was a very hardy woman. Her name was Charlotte Louise Klanke and she came from Germany." -- Judy Stone - Email: deden42@macomb.com

Daughter of Chenault... "I am Nathan B. Chenault's daughter. Just found this by searching his name on the internet. Do you have memory of him?" -- Carol Chenault Hoberec caloho@yahoo.com

Green Valley Vicinity... "Born in rural Carmen, Green Valley vicinity. Early childhood in Alva -- attended Horace Mann and Longfellow schools." -- Nola Veley Wilkerson - Email: wilkerne@bluevalley.net

Interested in WWII... "I am very interested in the history of the POW camps from WWII, I went to school at Oklahoma State Tech in the early 60's I was always fascinated by it history. At that time there was still some of the walls and gun towers still left. It was a great 2 years when I was there. Where there any books written about the states deep history of involvement in WWII. I have always been interest in the History of WWII. I really injoyed all the work you have done putting so much of its history on the internet. Thank You." -- Bob - Email: rwagner@sofast.net
View/Write Comments (count 0)   |   Receive updates (0 subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe