Volume 7 , Issue 52

Looking Back At 2005...

January 2005 -- Tsunamis in Thailand -- ice storms in Oklahoma -- Christmas snow in Galveston TX -- snow storms in Colorado! snow started to fall Friday evening (7th of January)

Strickland/Horner Airport & Flying School... Catch up on the Strickland/Horner Airport & Flying School that was located about 7-miles East of Alva, southside of the highway, in the mid-1930's. Leo and Roscoe Horner's airport (on the Strickland homestead) which celebrated the airports 3rd. birthday. It was started January 2, 1938 by Leo (Strickland) and Roscoe (Horner) with 2 brand new 40 Horsepower Piper Cubs.

By Mid-January There were reports that the approximate total snowfall accumulated over the first couple of weeks of January was 67-inches up at Vallecito, Colorado. The newspapers reported that they had to close Wolf Creek Pass SW (Colorado) due to 10-feet of snowfall.

One of our readers sent us some items that appeared in Renfrews Record, dateline - Dec. 12, 1913, Alva, Oklahoma. 2 stories written by I. T. Strickland which were published in one or more of the early day newspapers of Alva. Dateline is Alva, Woods County, Oklahoma, Friday December 12, 1913. The contents are about hunting and Indian encounters on the trip's. Also copied were several other articles in the paper on the front page. These are news items of Alva. One concerns a hearing in court of a man named Charlie Bower being held for murder in Cherokee (Oklahoma). He was being charged with murdering a man named Jay French near Ashley on the night of November.

Towards the last of January, 2005 we were searching for whatever happened to Kenneth Root. Here's the rest of the story: Kenneth Root (17 years of age in 1941). Kenneth shot a Donald Benson (22 or 23 years of age in 1941). I am assuming that this Benson worked at the Alva Flour Mill and had a sister that Kenneth was dating back then. There was this dinner at the Rose Hill School that Kenneth and Benson were at when the shooting occured. Kenneth Root was arrested by Sheriff Ken Greer and charges were filed against Root by County Attorney Bill Gruber. The presiding judge was JJ Gaiser and the defense attorney was CH Mauntel. We are told that after the trial Kenneth went free.

Ernest Martin's Fathers Legacy website and paintings touched, left impact on others... "Thank you. It has been a wonderful journey through your life and paintings. I started on the internet to find a picture of a dirt road to go in my church bulletin with the writing 'Dirt Roads' and with God's help, I found your site. Your work is wonderful and your writing made me homesick for my home town of Tarboro, North Carolina and I wanted to see my Grandmother even though she has passed away (15 yrs ago). I wish you had sketches or paintings to go with your writings. I can picture my growing up places with your words and I just want to go home! Your painting of the 'Farm' is the type of place that I would love for my 7-year-old grandson to grow up. Thank you for touching my heart and soul today. Your work has meant a lot to me."

February 2005 - Ashley Baseball Team... Beginning of February we were asking,"Whether it be derogatory or the term 'Okie' carried proudly amongst though of us who want to share, preserve our memories of this great Okie heritage that has been passed down from one generation to another."

We were searching for information on a fire in Woods County, perhaps in Cedar Twp, about 1918. Three children were believed killed in that fire (maybe others). The known names are: Melvin, Alice and Galen OSBURN. Have seen the surname as OSBORN, also. These children, along with their father George (spelled Gorge on his headstone) Harvey OSBURN, siblings Dollie, Oscar and Dazie are buried in White Horse Cemetery.

Dacoma, OK was losing a business icon with the closing of Dacoma's Cowboy Grill, in the rural community of Dacoma (Dakoma), Oklahoma. Billy and Floy Whittet are finally retiring and closing down the Cowboy Grill after 80 some years in their lives.

Dacoma (Dakoma) & Jot-em-Down Store� "Murrow's Jot-em-Down Store, Dacoma, Oklahoma "I received three photos of the old Jot-em-down Store (the original Murrow's Grocery in Dacoma, Oklahoma) from Patti Kilbourne. She 'retrieved' them with her digital camera from an album of photos owned by Billy and Floy Whittet in Dacoma - who are in the process of closing down the Whittet's Store & Cowboy Grill.

The majority of OkieLegacy readers were proud to be called "Okie"

We learned about history of the Faulkner's was taken from the "Pioneer Footprints Across Woods County", pgs 213-215, as told by Greta Faith and Opal French. Charles Fredrick Faulkner was born 7 Aug. 1864, Springville, Virginia; died 5 Apr. 1910, Alva, Oklahoma. Mattie A. Greear was born 7 July 1869, Grant, Virginia; died 23 Oct. 1944, Alva, Oklahoma. Charles and Mattie married at the GREEAR home, 18 July 1888, Grant, Virginia. Charles was a farmer and blacksmith for 5 years in Virginia. About 1893 they loaded their family of six children, father and mother into a wagon & team -- headed westward for greater opportunities and adventures. They sold their Virginia home and headed west to Taneyville, Missouri (first stop on their westward adventure).

We learned Hugh T. Donnan that had a photography studio in the Alva, Oklahoma and Kiowa, Kansas area in the late 1800s and early 1900s. We also know that Hugh Donnan married Lilla Wilhite, April 18,1899, in the home of Fanny and Frank Hatfield in Alva, Oklahoma.

We were remembering the Air Tour, June 1, 1946, in Waynoka, Oklahoma? AND... Remember the Green Cars of NYC? The Green Cars Tours started from Hotel Bartholdi, Broadway & Twenty-third Street in NYC."

March 2005 -- The OkieLegacy was reborne and merged into its interactive database with the help of our son, Michael. Enabling readers, viewers to leave comments after each feature.

This was also the year that We heard from a lady in California whose family has had two framed Sketches of John Jacob WARWICK and Mary Jane VANCE WARWICK that her husband's father had picked up at an auction. It has been hanging on their wall for 40 years or so and they are looking for some WARWICK family to sell it to.

We also learned about the Man who invented the 'Okie' term dies in California -- Named an 'honorary Okie' in 1968 - By S.E. Ruckman, Staff Writer - Posted October 27, 1997 TEMPLETON, Calif. -- Newspaper publisher Ben Reddick, credited with coining the term 'Okies' when he was a freelance writer during the Depression, died Thursday. He was 82." - SEE Ardmoreite News dated 10/27/97: The Daily Ardmoreite - dated 10/27/1997 - Headlines -- Named an 'honorary Okie' in 1968.

Alva, Oklahoma had another NEW mural in the 600 block of Barnes Avenue, in downtown Alva. It depicts the Hot Rod Days of Alva, Oklahoma. behind that building is about where McGill Bros. Swimming pool once resided. We believe now it has been filled in and no longer exist.

1938-39 Lookout (Oklahoma) Sunday School Students were identified. Thanks to Rod... we have identified all the Sunday School Students in the old Lookout, Oklahoma photo. They are: 1 - Frank Neukirch; 2. Mathesia (Knabe) Myers; 3. Mrs. Roy Carlson; 4. Kenneth Bliss; 5. Marjorie Bliss; 6 - Alfred Beagley; 7 - Earl Hackney; 8 - Ray Neukirch (brother of Frank); 9. Mary Ellen Hackney; 10. DeWayne Hodgson; 11. Beagley; 12 - Joy Neukirch (cousin of Frank and Ray); 13 - Colleen Hackney (sister of Earl); 14 - Shirley Neukirch (Joy's sister, also cousin of Colleen Hackney Nixon). Scroll down to the Mailbag Corner to click on the photo.

We saw where 2 years ago (2003) at this time that our OkieLegacy visitor counter clocked a total of 200,000 visitors. We believe our counter for December 2004 clocked in with 325,000+. As for December, 2005, we took a look at our OkieLegacy counter to find it over the 400,000 mark (436,697).

We were wondering if... this Alpha Updegraff of the Freedom and NW Oklahoma is the same "Al Updegraff" who was injured in a Bat Masterson's last shootout, April 17, 1881, Dodge City, Kansas?

April 2005 -- March went out like a "lion." Bellowing it's last few breathes of Winter Wednesday and Thursday with April on the horizon -- making it's debut on a sunny, calm Friday morning here in the valley of SW Colorado.

We learned that in 1937 (two years after the burning of the Castle on the Hill) that the small, rural community in Northwest Oklahoma gathered, organized for the Dedication of Jesse Dunn Hall that replaced the old Castle on the Hill, at Northwestern State Teachers' College, in Alva, Oklahoma. That was not the only building they were dedicating on Northwestern's campus. Across campus to the west was Horace Mann Hall. two-day dedication, Thursday, March 11 & Friday, March 12, 1937. Even the First Lady, Eleanor Roosevelt, made an appearance on this special dedication ceremony, 12 March 1937.

We traveled back to 1947 to take a gander at Alva's Senior Class of '47. According to The Alva Review-Courier, dated Wednesday, May 21, 1947, the frontpage headlines of the Annual Graduate Edition 1947.

Jim filled us in about the present high school (14th & Flynn Avenue) that sits on the land once occupied by the Alva Golf and Country Club. The Country Club purchased the land north of Alva for the new course sometime in the mid 1950's. The northeast corner of the old course was the corner of 13th and Flynn. The old course was sold to the Alva School District and the new building was ready for classes in the fall of 1956 (Jim said he was in the first class that graduated from that building in the Spring of 1957). Jim couldn't remember how far south the course ran, but thinks it must have been fairly close to the old hospital. The old country club building was used as the high school industrial arts building for several years.

May 2005 -- We shared some of our Uncle Bob McGill's "Old Kemper Military School Pics" that were among Uncle Bob's treasure chest AND... Kemper military days in Booneville, Missouri back in the years 1936 thru 1938.

We passed the 60th Anniversary of VE-Day (May 8, 1945) in May, 2005.

1947 - Wrecks Kill Two Collegians... Taken from The Alva Review-Courier, dated 21 May 1947 - Oklahoma City, May (UP) -- "Two college students returning home for the weekend were killed in automobile accidents last night and early today to raise Oklahoma's May traffic total above the month's record last year. ack Lyon, 20, Wichita, was killed last night when a car driven by Gilbert Valdes, 21, also of Wichita, left U.S. Highway 77 north of Perry in a driving rain and overturned. Sheriff Merl Harmon, who investigated the accident, said both men were war veterans and students at Oklahoma A. and M. college. Valdes was not injured in the accident. Albert Jackson Harris, whose wife was a local newspaper reporter until recently, was found dead in the wreckage of his automobile at 5 a.m. today. The machine had crashed into a bridge abutment on a county road norhteast of here.

Around the last week or so, we were also transcribing an old July, 1937, Alva Review Courier newspaper.

We were searching for information on a fire in Woods County, perhaps in Cedar Twp, about 1918. Three children were believed killed in that fire (maybe others). The known names are: Melvin, Alice and Galen OSBURN. Have seen the surname as OSBORN, also. These children, along with their father George (spelled Gorge on his headstone) Harvey OSBURN, siblings Dollie, Oscar and Dazie are buried in White Horse Cemetery.

Dacoma, OK was losing a business icon with the closing of Dacoma's Cowboy Grill, in the rural community of Dacoma (Dakoma), Oklahoma. Billy and Floy Whittet are finally retiring and closing down the Cowboy Grill after 80 some years in their lives.

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