HIDE, CJ,YDE STANLEY. INTERVIEW 10188 230

HIDE, CJ,YDE STANLEY. INTERVIEW 1 0 1 8 8

230

- 8 -Form A-(S-149)

BIOGRAPIff FCRM .. WORKS PROGRESS ADMINISTRATION

Indian-Pioneer History Project for Oklahoma

HYDB, CLYDS STANLEY. INTERVIEW. 1 0 1 8 8 .

Field Worker* s name Don toon Jr»

This'report made on (date) February \Qr tyiarch. 3. 4T[i and 5 f 193Q

1. Name Clyde Stanley Hyde.

2. Post Office Address Guthrle

3. Residence address (or location) 622 Kast Warner

4. DATE OF BIRTH: 'Month July Day 25 Year 1880

5. Place Of b i r t h TTninmrtila Putnam (Vmnt.v. Mi:

6. Name of Father . Frederick Hvde. Place of bir th southlngton..Connectitut.

Other information about father

Name of Mother gn ft Raha^p T.B«A. Place of birth• Pennsylvania

Other information about mother Homeateaded in Logan County, at

opening qfNotes or complete narrative by the field worker dealing with the l i fe and*story of the ,,erson interviewed. Refer to Manual for suggested subjectsand questions. Continue on blank sheets if necessary and attach firmly tothis form. Number of sheets attached 6S •

232

HYDE, CLYDE STANLEY. INTERVIEW. 10188.

Don Moon J r . ,Investigator.February 3,4,5, 1938.

Interview with Clyde Stanley Hyde,Guthrie, Oklahoma.Born July 25, 1880

Father-Frederick Hyde.Mother-Ella Rebecca Lane.

"Sewardl SewardJ"

We were rounding the curve north of Seward when the

conductor came through the t ra in announcing the station on

that warm spring day in Mar.ch, 1890. The depot, even, at the

present date of February, 1938, i s unchanged. Mr. Davis,

the f i rs t agent, who was there the day we arrived, and who

looked after the Santa Fe*s business in the early t 9 0 l s , '

moved l a t e r to Edmond where I have lost a l l trace of hin.

My brother, Fred, and I alighted from the t r a i n , made

some inquiries about the claim, Dr. Steimel and the 7/orth-

ings, and then started down the track toward the land Mather '*

had filed on a few months before.

** Fred Hyde, the ,older , was seventeen, and I , Clyde, wasIN *

coming ten. We followed the railroad as Mother had directed

us, until coming to a certain place v»here we were to turn to

the left up to old Dr. Steimel*s house. There we delivered

233

HYDB, CIXDS STANIBY. INTKffiTIBIf. ' 10188.

a cat which Mother had sent by *us for the St«4joels. Whether

i t was a Tom or a Tabby cat I do not remember, but no doubt

that same oat i s e i t h e r a grandpa or grandma of many ca t s

which have given back fence serenades in t h i s par t of Okla-

homa for these many yea r s . Mother had been down here before

when she f i l ed on the claim and* the folks here had complained

that there was a sca rc i ty of c a t s , hence the reason for send-

ing one with u s .

Bted and I continued our way south down the t r ack , two

miles and a, Half from Seward, and t h e r e , near ly nnder the

right-of-way was th» Worthing dugout, and jus t across the

t rack , the l i t t l e frame house Mother had b u i l t . At f i r s t the

house -had been located on the west side of the farm a t the

spot where now s i t s the Koetch o i l we l l , but she'had i t moved,

I be l ieve , on account of the Worthings, I t wouldn't be so lone-

some l iv ing near them and the r a i l r o a d . So the house stood

when Fred and I founcyHoo more than a s t o n e ' s throw frbra the

Worthing dugout.

The Worthing family consis ted of Mr. and Mrs. Worthing

and a boy, Arthur , and a daughter, L e t t i e , We made

1 234

HYDE, CLYDE STANLEY. INTERVIEW. . 10188.0

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.acquaintance the f i r s t day. They proved to be good neigh-

bors. The old folks have passed on. hut the farm is s t i l l

in the family, belonging to Arthur and Let t ie .

Judge Clayton*s claim joined our claim on the south-

east j Herman Anderson*s on the south and the claim of a man

of the name of Frazier on the west. On the north uas Dr.

Steimel and on the east the Worthinga. Many will remember

Judge Clayton and perhaps the other neighbors.

I wi l l mention a personal incident here which is unusual.

When we lef t Topeka, where we had lived a short while, I had

a toothache, and after arriving at the claim Lettie Worthing

attempted to stop the ache for me, which she did. Putting

some ordinary peppMsauce on some cotton she inserted i t in

the tooth and the ache stopped. From that day to t h i s , I

have never had a toothache.

The railroad cut. the northeast corner off our claim, and

just north of our corner there had been a t r a in wreck some-

time before we came there , and we could see where many head of

ca t t l e , killed in the wreck, had been buried along the r igh t -

of-way. Though he was not in the wreok, George Haas, an old-

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time engineer who l i v e s in Guthr ie , s t i l l remembers i t and

many o ther inc iden ts which happened in the ea r ly days. Mr.

Haas pulled a t r a i n through Seward and Guthrie the night

a f t e r the opening of t h i s par t of the Gauntry to se t t l ement .

My f a t h e r , Freder ick Hyde, died at Unionv i l l e , Missouri,

September E5, 1887. He was a C iv i l War f e t e r a n , having

served in Troop F , F i r s t Minnesota Cavalry, during the War.

He was a bro ther of I ra B. Hyde, of Pr ince ton , Missour i , who

was the fa ther of Arthur M. Kyde, Secre tary of Agr icu l ture

in the Hoover Oabinet and former Governor of Missour i .

There were four boys in our family, Ber t , the o l d e s t ,

Fred next , then Homer, myself, Clyde who was seven at t ha t

time, and two g i r l s , Helen, younger than I , and Carr ie who

was about a year old when Father d ied . Mother moved to

Topeka, Eansas ; ear ly in 1889 for the reason, I suppose^o

be near the new country when i t opened. Being a s o l d i e r ' s

widow was a help to her in g e t t i n g a claim as Uncle Ja&as

J . Rice located the claim for her . She came1" down to f i l e

on i t , bu i ld ing the l i t t l e frame house while she was here .

After t h a t , I do not know ju s t how long, Fred and I

came down and got off a t Seward, s tay ing on the claim u n t i l

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HYDE, CLYDE STANLEY. INTERVIEW. 10188

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Mother moved down to/Guthrie, which was not very long, as I

remember, and -livtfa a few days about where the Saddle Rock

Restaurant *as for so many years, but before Fred and I came

up from Seward, Mother had moved upstairs over the Andy Hinkle

Restaurant on the east side of the government acre which was

built solid to Oklahoma Avenue from the alley on the south•

We were in the second building fr'om the alley. The Wagner

girls had a millinery store the first door north of us. Next

to them was, aa I Remember, Dr. Slocum, a dentist, and well

known around town for his fife and drum corps which had a

part in every celebration and old soldiers1 gathering in

tho3e early days.

The Land effice was where the northwest corner of the

post office now stands. The porch of the land office was

'headquarters for the early day draymen who would sit there

waiting for a Job of hauling. . The acre covered half of the

block, the same as it does to this day. I don't know about

it being an acre of land but it was called that, and anyhow

it was large enough for the town boys to play marbles on,

which we did.

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HKDB, CLYDE STANUff. INTERVIEW. 10188.

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Two th ings I well remember as.we came down to Oklahoma

on tha t March morning of 1890; one was the red d i r t which

we saw f i r s t somewhere in the S t r i p , and the o ther the g rea t

crowds which met the t r a i n s a t Guthr ie , Each time a t r a i n

arrived i t looked liKe sdme spec ia l occasion, some notable

to ^ 7

was coming/Cown, but to those l iving here i t was a common

sight. The depot at that time was across the track from where

it is now; the original building was moved to the south and

is now the freight depot and* 1 believe there has been l i t t l e

change in i t , if any.

The Capitol Rotel was located a t the southwest corner of

Harrison Avenue and Second Street ' . To the west of i t was the

McCennon Opera House, the lower floor of which was occupied

by the State Capitol Printing Company. The F i r s t Legislature

met in the upper part of that building.

An incident which happened there in '90 is well remembered

by me, though I was but ten years old at the time. A bunch of

man, perhaps f if ty as well as I remember, started from the

rear of the building seeming excited about something. They

started to run southeast across town, down across the draw

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«

and on the road wftich went through the early day cemetery,

across on the h i l l about a half mile east and south of the

jpresent water works, then the crowd came to a stop at the

cemetery. I was following, but not knowing shat i t »as

a l l about, asked someone what the excitement was and was

told that some man had stolen the cap i t a l , or the Ter r i -

to r i a l Seal.

I know that half a hundred men didn ' t make a l l of that

run just to fool a small boy. I do not remember seeing any-

one they were a f te r , but that race was as real as anything

could be. Recently I asked Mr. Fred L. iVenner of t h i s c i ty

if he recalled such an incident, and he replied that one day

after the Capital Bi l l had been before the oody, but I do not

know in what shape or whether i t had been signed by the proper

ones, the Bill was missing.

Mr. Wanner reca l l s that there was quite a commotion, the

men looking everywhere for someone whom they f inal ly found in

an out building, and he did have the papers. Mr. Wenner was

a newspaper reporter at the time, and undoubtedly that was

the same day that I followed the men south of town.

239

HYDE, GLIDE STANLEY, INTBHVIEV7. 1 0 1 8 8 .

*

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The land immediately sout. of town was known as the

school section, an^ywe spoke of ix, as such.dn i t was the

fairgrounds and the cemetery. Back on the h i l l , probably a

quarter-mile south of the ci ty l imi t s , was a powder magazine

belonging to the New York Hardware Company. V

Over in what i s now the Elbow colored d i s t r i c t , but was

then just open land, was a soldiers ' camp, located about

where the mills are at th i s .da te . • One day in '90 a soldier ,

Harry Simms, was over on the school section, and not think-

ing of the danger set a can on top of the magazine, went back

to- about where the waterworks is now and shot at the can.

The shot went low, h i t t ing trie magazine. What happened is

well remembered by many early day folks including myself. The

magazine went up in the a i r , scat ter ing 'cans, pulverized rock

and d i r t , with, a t e r r i b l e i,last 'which shook the ci ty of Guthrienor

as it had not been, before / has since been suaken. ho one was

hurt. Simms was t r ied and released.satisfying the author i t ies

that he had no evi l intentions. ]n the year '90 the schools

were crowded, and Mother could get us in none but the Catholic

School which was in the 500 block on Bast Warner Avene. In

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IHD2, CLYDE STANLEY. IOTERVIJSA'. 10188.

the upper roo:r. of t na t sohool my s i s t e r Helen and I were at

the moment of the explosion which r e a l l y did shake the frame

bui ld ing .

Mother b u i l t a home ox, 603 South F i r s t S t r e e t , j u s t two

blocks from the wel l known dance h a l l on South Second, which

number would be 503 Soutn Second and x;.e tou5;hest p l ace , per -

haps, west of the Miss i s s ipp i River . This dan;e ha}.l was short

lived and was in opera t ion only about a yea r . I t s bar and

many woraen a t t r a c t e d men of a l l k inds , cowboys, out laws, gamblers

and o thers who wouj.d "shoot i t out" without much reason for doing

so.

The dance h a l l was too tough and was closed : . f ter the

f i r s t year , and stood vacant u n t i l moved to i;orth Second S t r e e t

where i t v?us used as a ho te l u n t i l to rn down and replaced by

the present Metropoli tan Hote l , j e fo re i t was iaoved fo lks

thoucnt i t was haunted. ^ bunch of boys, including myself,

went ins ide and u p s t a i r s one day, but at the f i r s t sound made

by a creaking board, no doubt, l e f t much f a s t e r than we had

entered . As f a r as I can remember t ha t was the l a s t time we

attempted to i n v e s t i g a t e t ha t old dance h a l l .

241


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In '89 there was a mil l dam bui l t where Vilas Avenue

Grossed the r iver which is the best fishing place in the

country, that i s for perch. Roscoe Robertson, brother of

the ex*sheriff Ed Robertson, who i s now a United States

Marshal ;lived in the Guthrie Hotel, just south and facing

the Government acre. We were friends and went to* the mi l l

dam every day and never failed to catch a s t r ing of perch

which I would clean on the sidewalk just east of where the

post office now stands.

The Thomas Bo at ho use was a block north of the dam, where

Harrison A venue Grosses the r iver . The or iginal house and

basement i s there a t the present time just l ike Manley Thonias

built i t in 1890. They had perhaps, twenty row boats and had

a floating sidewalk across the r iver . Eigh water took t h i s

floating sidewalk nearly to the Cimarron River onepime, but

the bunch of bojrs, including myself, towed i t back. Mayfs

Park was near the mouth of the Cottonwood and the steamboat

"Charley Mansur" made regular t r i p s down and back during the

Summer season. This boat was about t h i r t y feat long, and was

.really a steamer. I t belonged to Mr. Thomas. I t f inal ly

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HIDE, CIXDE STANLEY. INTERVIEW. 10188.

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sank between the boathouse and the dam and I have f ished

off of i t many t imes , as i t was only p a r t l y submerged. I

think some l a t e r flood took i t f a r t h e r down the r i v e r to

about where the Seventh S t r e e t bridge crosses i t a mile

north of town. There was a l so a paddle boat • for

t r i p s to the park with a l a rge paddle wheel a t the r e a r .

Mother, the g i r l s and I once made the t r i p down'in i t and

back. The paddle wheel waB operated by hand power. The

r ive r was much wider and deeper in those days. Around

Island Parkj where now you may s tep a c r o s s j i t was a t l e a s t

thi r ty , fee t wide, and very deep,

Harr ison Avenue was b u i l t s o l i d l y from the Reaves

Brothers Saloon to the depot , with the Egbert H o t e l , ( u n t i l

the Iowa opening when they moved t o Chandler^ the Hannen-

c r a t t Drug S t o r e , Paddy Shea ' s Saloon, the Santa Fo H o t e l ,

and o ther bu i ld ings long s ince torn down. Harr ison a t

Second S t r e e t WAS the crossroads of Oklahoma, and t h e r e on

the northwest corner was the well known Reaves Saloon and

gambling house. The Blue Bal l Saloon was d i r e c t l y ac ross

the s t r e e t e a s t . To the nor th was Waley Ong'a Chinese Cafe,

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.HYDE, CLYDE STANTEY. INTERVIEW. 10188.

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Far.fie.tr was the A* J . Spangle Furni ture and Undertaking Company.

On the north» in the same block, v?8s Pr ink and Rimse l f ' s Cafe.

Frink, a colored man, fed whites only and the "higher ups" of

the town patronized him.

The A. J . Spengel Company»s undertaker was T. B. Reader,

now dead. He and Neal Higgins , then of t h e W. L. Bhodes Fur-

n i ture and Undertaking Company, l a i d many ea r ly day vic t ims of

shooting scrapes co r e s t . They plugged up b u l l e t ho les and

otherwise patched up some of the worst outlaws who came to t h i s

t e r r i t o r y and those brought in every now and then from some.of

the Indian reservations. M

M. Collar, an *89er, located on South Second Street andand

dealt in new and second-hand goods,/his boy, Abe, aged 10,

was the f i r s t one diwwneA here that I know of; i t was in July,

1890, just south of the Perkins Avenue bridge. I was there

when his body was taken out of the water, though not there '

when he went down. We called the place the Sand Bar Swimming

Hole but a f te r the drowning we never swam there .

The four c i ty blocks where the Scottish Rite Temple now

stands were known then as Capitol Square, and were set aside

244

, CLYDE STANLEY. INTERVIEW. 10188.

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for the time when a Capitol building would be buil t by the

s ta te .

Down on Oklahoma Avenue beyond Fifth Street were two

livery barns, one was the Richmond, on the fiorth side of the

avenue was Cheatam*s Planing Mill , and other buildings. Fifth

Street from Oklahoma Avenue to Harrison was bui l t up with

business buildings, hote ls , and other kinds of business* The

present A. C. Hide & Metal Company was the Black Bottling

Works of the •90 t s .

The Baxter and Cammock Livery Barn was one of the main

bams at the time, though there were some twenty here then,

scattered a l l over town. The Baxter and Cammock barn was at

the middle of the block south of the Capitol Hotel. The

building on the southeast corner of the Harrison Avenue,

Second Street Crossing, was bui l t in f90 and occupied some

time after that by the Vanderpool Drug Store. A well known

hair restorer (Danderine) was-originated in that building.

The legislature met there at one time in the upstairs and

my sister, Helen was a page at that session.

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HYDE, OIJDB STANLEY. INTEHVISW. 10188. ^

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The same Old Moses Saloon was on the a l l e y ju s t t o the

eas t , and the Campbell Restaurant across the a l l e y , The boy,

Elmer Campbell, was acc iden ta l ly ; shot . He l ingered a few

. days and d ied . I t happened j u s t t o the south in the Vander-

pool Drug S tore . 'On the a l l e y back of the Blue Bell Saloon

was the Sampsell Cigar Store*

On the nor theas t corner of Oklahoma and Second S t r e e t s

was erected the f i r s t permanent bu i ld ing in town. I t was t h e

the Ragsdale Bank and f i r s t s t a r t e d business about where the

south door of the Cifey E a l l i s nowj they s t a r t e d the f i r s t

day. After moving to ^he new bu i ld ing they did bus iness

awhile, for how long I do not know, but I do know t h a t Mother

l o s t , a s I r e c a l l * , about $500.00. I do not "know whether

she ever got any of i t back or n o t .

The f i r s t post of f ice was j u s t south of the present one

on Second S t r e e t , and Dennis T. Flynn was the f i r s t pos tmaster .

In 1870 surveyors set a stone post a mile south of Fort

Arbuckle. I t i s s t i l l t he re and I saw i t in 1936. I t

marked the Indian Meridian. A l i n e was surveyed nor th and

was the eas t l i n e of old Oklahoma, d iv id ing i t from the Iowa

246


- 1 5 - V

Reservation. S t a r t i ng a t the atone post the range of town-

ships ran nor th , the ones on the west, were one, two, t h r e e ,

four, and so on, Range one l e s t * Another t i e r of townships

s tar ted s ix miles west of t h e ' p o s t and was Range two West,

and so on. East of the post was Township one, Range one

-East, two, t h r e e , four , and on nor th . The Meridian l i ne i s

the main s t r e e t of the town of Meridian, which was b u i l t up

in la te r ,years .

Out ta.it of Outhrie near the Meridian line the early

old Oklahoma s e t t l e r s , in the year 1890, saw the need of a

school and M. V. Allen, Squire Holland, Z. B. Williams and

other neighbors met and plans were made for buiiding a log

building. Land was donated by George- Timpy in the south-»

east corner of Saction 23, Township 16 Ibrth, Range one

West, to be used for school purposes, and when it ceased

to be used as such, the land, one acre , ^ould revert to the

original owner. The ifcaool was bui l t one mile west of the

Meridian l ine , on the bank of Bear Creek.

Dave Johnson, Miles V. Allen, and Z. B. Williams were

the f i r s t school board members. They, with Bi l l i e Buoy, Mr.

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HYDB, CLYDE STANLEY. INTERVIEW. 10188.

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Timpy, Will Klncaid, Marion Dunlap, R. E Dyer, and others,

including one Chet Nichols, out logs, hauled them to the

grounds and soon had a building about 16 by 20 feet . The

floor and roofing rare bought in Guthrie.

Mr. Allen had a s is ter- in- law, Miss Nettie Mudge, who

was engaged to teach the 1890«?91 t-enn, part of which I a t -

tended. The next term was taught by a Mrs. Briggs who

lived a mile west and a mile north of the school. She left

not long af ter for Boston where they were from. I also

attended the term taught by Mrs. Briggs. ,

In the early spring of 1891 Mother wanting to get me

out of town, thinking I would be less , l ikely to get in bad

company, lef t word at the Ball Grocery s tore on South Second

that she would l ike to find a family who might need a boy

about my s ize . Bi l l ie Buoy traded there and one day as I

was at school in the ecrly part of the 1891 term, in a long

building at 523 South F i rs t Street , Bi l l ie knocked on the

door, and Miss Cuppage the teacher, answered. Be was af ter

me to go home with hin^which I did>and"attended the l a t t e r

part of Miss Mudge's and a l l of Mrs. Briggs' terms. B i l l i e ' s

248


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claim was two miles west of the Meridian or Iowa line

as we called it then, and on Bear Creek. His claim >

was the southeast quarter of Section 22, Township 16

North, Range one West of the Indian Meridian.

Billie Buoy did not make the run into Old Okla-

homa , but came in soon after, poming two miles up

from the Iowa line he found a man camped under a large

oak tree and badly discouraged. With Billie was his

wife Josie, and they had brought all the necessary be-

longings including what were the best horses in that

part of the country then and for some years after.

The man who had taken the claim was named Brown,

and he offered to trade his relinquishment to Billie

for a black horse which he was leading. The trade was

made for one of the best farms on Bear Creek owned at

this date by J. T. (Dike) Simpson, or rather by his

heirs. Billie Buoy died in 1896\ Josie, his wifa, is

still living.

In 1889 Billie built a log barn about sixteen feet

square, and after I came, in 1891, he decided to put on

HYDE, CLYDE STAMJtf. INTEHVIiSW. 10188.

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more cr ib and barn room, so he engaged some of the neighbors to

help at a log r o l l i n g . The logs were cu t , .mostly on the claim

adjoining on the south , and were h tuled t o the s i t e . The neigh-

bors, George Tirupy, Dave Anderson, Fete Conwell, Cl i f f Timpy,

BCid Timpy, Squire Holland with h i s boys Logan and Newt, J o e l

Goifcdrick, and the women folk to a id with the d i n n e r , csi.e on the

set day t o put up the o ther part of the b u i l d i n g .

The second par t of the buiidine3 was se t about s i x t e e n f e e t

s<swth of t h e f i r s t , or o r i g i n a l b-rn« I t was b u i l t as a c r i b .

That l e f t a s ix teen foot space between, which could be sided up

and used t s a c r i b when necessa ry . The whole th ing was roofed

over, about forty-eight feet in a l l . I have seen the crib and/

the entry way as the center part was called, full of corn.

Billie was about the first hog raiser in that part of the coun-

try, shipping large bunches of hogs as early as 1892. AS the

crib got too high for the men to l i f t the logs, two poles were

leaned against the crib and the logs to go in the crib were

rolled up with a rope powered by old Dolly, a gray mare Billie

had brought from Vinita, which was the place he ca e from. The

logs were then fastened in place by wooden pins.

At this writing, February, K38, that sine barn is standing,

and without a change of any kind since that

* * . . • » »

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HYDS, CIZfDE STANIEY. IHTEBVIBfl. 10188.

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day In 1891 when the neighbors gathered to help with i t .

Signs of buffalo were s t i l l to be seen when I went

to Billie*s> A larger t r ee jus t in front of the house,

no more than twenty feet from the road, had been used as

a rubbing t ree by them, the bark some three feet above

the ground had -been rubbed off at about the place where

the i r old hides would s t r ike i t . There were wallows over

across the creek, where buffalo haa wallowed a few ywars

before. Those l i t t l e depressions can s t i l l be located

over the country in land which has never been plowed.

There was a second bottom grove on the place next

to Mr. Cooper's, where, when I went there there were

s t i l l tepee poles standing as l e f t by the Indians.

Timber was not as large as in some par ts of Oklahoma,

though many logs were hauled to the Welsford mil l a half

mile west of the Iowa l i n e , on Baai1 Creek. The two larges t

t r ees in t h i s part of the country were on the claim jus t

souUi of B i l l i e ' s . One was a cottonwood, the other an oak.

' I know the exact locat ion of each, as I saw them. I could

hardly say how large they were but they were much la rger

than any other oaks in t h i s country. The oak was cut and

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HYDE, CLYDE STANLEY INTERVIEW. 10188.

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hauled to the mill and the cottonwood was cut by some men of

the name of Worley, just to hear it fall. They lived on the

place for about a ye&r and had no thought nor care that anyone

would ever want the big tree.

Bear Creek in those days afforded plenty of good fishing

as there were many good holes of water all along its course.

At this date they are hardly more than puddles. Down in the

Iowa country, and near Bear Creek, there are two long lakes,

the lower one is in sight of the Indian Village of which I

will tell when I can, later. The Logan and Lincoln County

lines cross the north lake. They were at one time the bed

of Bear Creek, of that I have no doubt, for a few years ago

a depression was still noticeable leading from the creek on

toward the lake but as the road has been graded at that

point. it would be harder to trace now. The lakes have every

mark of a creek filled up to about four or five feet from the

top level of the land. There must be more than a mile of

them, and at no place wider than a hundred feet. I have

fished there many times with a bunch of fellows from above

the line. The upppr lake at this time is nearly filled up,

252

HYDE, CLYDE STANLEY INTERVIEW. 10188.

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Is

but the lower, belonging to Charley Christ, still has quite

a lot of water. Though it went dry a few years ago it no

doubt has restocked itself with fish.

About a mile above the lakes to the north • as at that

time, 1891, a large blackberry patch. Mr. Buoy, Mr. Goodrich,

and the families, including myself, went to the patch in 1891

to gather berries, but had not much for our trouble except

mosquito bites and briar scratches, as the berry crop was

short. There were other large berry patches in the Iowa coun-

try at that time, but as most were in the bottom land, they

have all been plowed up. Pecan trees were plentiful in the

low lands of that part, and over nearly all of the Iowa, Sac

and Fox Reservations. The lakes are on the west side of^Bear

Creek, some places fairly close and others perhaps a quarter

or e half mile off.

The President issued a proclamation opening the Iowa^Sao

and Fox country Cor settlement, the date to be September 22,

1891. I was at Billie Buoy's. Billie had one of the best

wells in that part of the oountry and it was wall known to

travelers, or home seekers as we called them. The day before

253


- 22 -

the opening, and night just before, rigs of til deacriptions

went by Billie*s on the way to the line, as the road went

within seventy-five feet of tbe house. A Mr. Moone^ a re-

lative of the early day Dr. H. L. Smith, and ol' the Ball

Brothers, who owned the store on South Second, was at Billie*s

the night before, as Billie was to locate him on a claim the

next day, which he did.

Mr. 'Joel Goodrick moved down from Iola, Kansas, to

be near when the country opened, and lived in the Wm. Cole

house just east of Billie*s about a quarter, on tae south side

of the road. That house is today as it was originally built.

The next day found Mr. Goodrick, Billie, Mr. Mooney, myselfof people

and many hundreds/ scattered all along the l,ine. We were about

where the Meridian bank is now located. Mrs. Goodrich, after

the run started, a daughter Essie, and Mrs. Buoy were to fol-

low Mr. Goodrick. Mr. Goodrick went down several miles but

got nothing, the women folks followed about a naif mile saw

that no one was on the second claim down from the line, and

they stopped and puya flag to show that they had taken thei

place. Mr. Goodriok came back up the bottom after not finding

254

HYDE, CItfDX STANLEY. INTERVIEW. 10188. *

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a place, or one not claimed by someone else, found^ his wife

had taken one, which was not their intention when they started

out, but luckily she did for they filed on it and owned it for

many years. Mr. Iflooney located on the place w^ere McKinley

Post Office and store rare later established. The next day

after the opening, while Mr. i ooney we-\t to' Gufchrie to file,

leaving Billie's about three ©'clock in the morning, Billie,

Josie and I went to the Mooney claim and did some sod* breaking

just to make c showing that the claim was taken.

It was a sight to see all of those horse-backers, foot-

travellers, covered wagons, buckboards and every known rig,

going down that bottom in hopes of getting a home. Some few

are still on the land they took that-day. I was just eleven

years old at the time.

In '9£ or '93, Billie bought a lot of corn from John

Collins, who just passed away about the first of this year.

Mr. Dave Anderson, Billie*s neighbor on the north, hauled it

to Billie's home, using two teams. I do not recall how much

oorn it was, but we made several trips, Billie waa feeding

several hogs at the time and his own supply wasn't enough.

255

HYDE, CLYDE.STANLEY. INTERVIEW. 10188.

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Going back to April, 1891, some fellows, including Geosge

Ford, the Blackerbys and others, organized a townsite company

and proceeded to lay off a townsite about the middle of sec-

tion 25, Township 15 North, Range one Westo It was on_a

part of three farms.

They had a town lot sale and I recall the caravan which

left Guthrie that day. There were rigs of all descriptions

with placards on them saying, "All aboard for Tohee" and men

hollering the same thing as they went along Harrison Avenue,

headed for Tohee, over the winding trail, which had no draws

or gulleys to cross, as "the trail want in such a way that it

B4««fd them only crossing one which was Bear Creek, at the

Polite dossing.

The promoters argued that those who bought lots at Tohee

and settled there would be near when the Iowa, Sac and Fox•

country opened and could look the country over before locating

land of their choice. And those who put up business buildings

would be ready for the business which was sure to oonje af'ter

the opening. .

256


- 25 -

They engaged the Iowas tu put oh a barbecue. A beef was

turned loose and the Iowas were to till it in their, own way

arid barbecue.it, which they did, furnishing a free lunch as

a part of the program during the lot sale. About a hundred

lots were sold. Some store buildings were erected, parley

Briaon was the postmaster. Lillie and Wright put in a drug

store, Lou Ford a grocery, Bacon a grist mill and later a

Heffron Grocery located.there.

They had a building which was called the Telephone Rail,

in which Ralph R. Carlin had his real estate office. The

telephone line ran to Guthrie and I have seen it many times.

The Lillie Drug Store in Guthrie was the owner of the Tohee

Drugstore, with Mr. Wiigh$, who at this date is a druggist

of Chandler. F. B. Lillie of the firm has passed away, but

h^|, fon Foress still operates the original and perhaps the

oldest drug store in Oklahoma.

Wilbur Brown of Guthrie, a local merchant, carried mail

to Tohee awhile in about 1901. Tohee was by that time nearly

all moved away, as It did not flourish after the opening as

expected' and about 1905 was entirely gone, leaving only an

257


- 26 -

old well and a foundation* I was there in 1894 and at that

time there was a store and some kind of a mill, but by

1904 noihing remained but the well and foundation. I, with

Wilbur Brown, visited the scene in March, 190?. Where once

there had been a promising little town, an old well covered

with brus& and a few scattered atones remain to tell the tale.

A person could walk across the site many times and would never

guess what had once been there. He would perhaps think, by

seeing the well, that a farm cabin had at one time stood on

the site. The Blackerbys, the father and two boys, Tom and

Henry, were the only ones to build a dwelling there, others

used tents.

Eransville, named after the owner of the land, a Mr.

Evans,"Iras built on the northeast corner of the northeast

quarter of sectiofrJ-4, Township 15 :iorth, Range one West*

It started about 1895. Dr. J. H Rinehart had a drug store

at that time there. There wcs a gin. and two more stores,

one belonging to Frank Smith who was postmaster and the

other to a Mr. Mariam, who, according to Wilbur Brown who was

there at the time,was held up by the Al Jennings gasfg once.

258

, CLYDE STANLEY. INTERVIEW. 10188,

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Wilbur saw the gang as they left iSvansville after the robbery.

Mr. Brown carried the joail three times a week from Guthrie to

Evansville along about 1901. Charley Hathaway, also living in

Guthrie at this tint., was a carrier to jlvansville and Tohee.

Hiram Paubin, & colored man, ran a store there for several years,

Along about 1905, tho Blaekerbys had a large stock of general

merchandise and they and Frank Smith, the other merchant of

that time, did a good business. But as Leridian was building

•at that time, starting about two years before, Svanstille be-

gan to lose trade, and at this date, 1938, only the colored

Masonic hall remains.

The Iowa Indian village, i.-. what is now Lincoln county,

only a xiile from the Logan eeunty line, was1 perhaps a half

ceils east of the lower lalte spoken of- in a preceding page.

There were about seventy Indians who lived there, some in a

stockade, some in bark houses and some in tepees. I was there

in 1891 but later I have been to their burying ground which

is about a quarter west of where the village had been. We

counted about fifty graves there. They >vere not buried as some

Indians bury their dead, they were laid away like the whites

259

HYDE, CLYDS. dTANLEY. INT2HVLSW. 10188.

- 28 -

4o, anly they were north and south, east and west or any

direction they saw f i t . The burying ground is on a very sandy

knoll overlooking the bottom and the l&ise to the west. The

village s i te and burying grounds ere about one half a mile

north of Fa l l i s on the farm of a Llr. 3eyers. A Quaker missionary

lived and worked with them before the Iowa country was opened,

and perhaps- af ter , of whlcn i do not know. His naue was John

Burdock* Wilbur knew him at that time.

In 1892 l . is . Harbour, mother of l£rs. H. I, Smith now

living at Meridian, started a store and post office on the Iowa-

old Oklahoma l i ne , or the Indian Meridian l ine which is the

same. I t was at the extreme southeast corner of sect ion 24,

Township 16 North, Range one tfest, on the"2.B." (Dad1) Williams

dlaim where Meridian i s now located. Four :..iles west, Mr.

Daniel i.oore put in a l i t t l e storo and called i t Doddsworth.

McKinley post office was on the ..ooney claim down east , in the

Iowa country. Next east of i t v/as Mitbhell, next norace, then

Chandler.

Another route to Chandler went by the Beulah post office

and store, owned by la*. Allen, a Methodist preacher. I t was

260

HYDE, CLYDE STANLEY. INTEHVIE.*. 10188.

- 29 - . r—

about twelve mi lea southeast of Guthrie. Next was the Ryan

Halfway House, five idles north of Luther, then Ingram, aboutr

a n i l e from where Wellston now i s , then to Chandler, ivansvil le

was between Beulah and the Halfway House, right here I vai l

mention that a son of I.r. *_Llen of zue Beulah post office,

Simpson al ien by nama-jr was associated with the well known Carrie

Nation of hatchet fame, while she lived in G u t u i e . That was

in the early 1900*s. The house was in the 800 block on •.. .Varner

After the Iowa opening, when the Harbour stCre,

and others were established, the s t a r ^a i l routes , or stage routes

were star ted. The one by Beulah, jSvansirille, Rgraals Halfway

^puse, and Ingrara, was tir. southern route. McKinley, Doddsworth,

Harbour, k i tche l l and so on were on the nort.tera route,

I will mention here, that I was at Ingra-ii in 1894, but a l l

I can remember of i t i s that the s t reet ran ea.-A and west, and

that there were trees a i l over che townsite. I do not reca l l

how many stores there were there . Last year I was near the old

•site, and was told that the post office build'ing, a small house

si t t ing north of the road, was the original Ingram Post Office,

261

HYDE, CLYDE STANLEY. INTiHVLStf. 10188.

- 30 -

though i t had been moved I th ink , perhaps a quar te r north

frcr. i t s original place. I t i s to the f i r s t section l ine

north of .Vellston, and a half mile west.

The 1891-92 term I attended the Timpy School. That was

Mrs. Sriggs' term. The 1895 terra I attended the Bock Mound

School, a mile east of Mother's claim. Ed Rezroad was the

teache^ son of the blacksmith R^xroad of earj.y day Guthrie,

•Liother, ters. Ella R. Hyde, with eh-- g i r l s , Helen and Carrie,

and myself, lived on the claim a l i t t l e just to hold i t ,1

suppose, as our home was in 'Guthrie. The claim, numb'-rs were,

southwest quarter of a c t i o n 23, Township 15 North, Eange three

West of the Indian Meridian.

Waterloo i s two miles south of the claim, but at the time

we came to Oklahoma the name of the s ta t ion was Turlington. I t

amL-Seward are pract ical ly the sair.e size as the day Fred and I

f i rs t saw them. An old store bailding in aaterloo at th i s date

is} as I believed when I sav; i t l es t year} one of the or iginal

store buildings at which Fred and ' nele James J . Rice a&d I used

to trade in 1890.

^ 262

HYDE, CLYDE STANLEY. IHTERVIa... 10188.

- 31 - t.

According to Lr. George Haas the first train through

Guthrie, Seward, our claim and on to Purcell from Arkansas

City was run June 12, 1897. He was on the Arkansas City-.

Purcell run fro., that time till loug after tho country

opened, retiring about ten years ago. He, like many other

folks, has a hobby, which is clocks, ^bout two days ago

he told me he had a hundred and one clocks. e has about

any kind of a clock you could imagine. I saw them three orJie had

four years ago, though/not more tnan fifty at that time, but

it was a real collection. He has an annual pass, or a life

pass and all he needs is to hear of a strange clockJ he*11

do the rest. He has no family? his wife died a few years

ago and he lives alone in Guthrie.

tfhen the Santa i'e was built, a cut was dug just south

ef Guthrie. from one bend of the Cottonwood to another,

giving the rivar a short route and cutting off the part which

runs around Mineral Wells Park, known in early days as Iiiftnd

park. The cut is on the west side of the Santa le just south

of town. At this writing the city is w king another cut nearly

north of the Santa Fe cut, eliminating a bend of the river which

runs to the west.

263

: HYDE, CLYDE STANLEY. imSWISS. 10188.

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Some early day characters: Llickey Ferguson, the broom

peddler, a l i t t l e short Irishman who aold brooms a l l over the

county and was well known. Everyone would josh him and alv/ays-

got the same answer i'roi* him. "In chail youse aught to be." But

just to hear him say i t ) / Anyone in this county in the early days

will remember him and his two-wheeled cart .

Coal Oil Sam (Sam Howels) was well known. He had a tank\

wagon and sold coal o i l and gasoline over town. In crying his

wares this i s what he said. nAw Coal," no matter what he i^eant,

that was what he seid.

Hot Tamale Klason, another well ..nown character in Guthrie,

was a colored man iho sold tamales for several years on the corner

of Harrison and Second Streets . .V. B. (Billie) Reece, auctioneer,

in. calling Ms crowet^for an auction, would say, "flome up, ro l l up,

tumble up anyway to get up, don»t care how you get up, just so

you get up.* He died about 1933 in a town west of Ailsa, Keystone.

The bootblacks had their l i t t l e boy^s, about sixteen inches

long and eight inches square, with a foot rest on top. The

blacking and brushes were carried inside the box and a l l hung

264


- 33 -

from the shoulders of the bootblack, as the boys were called.

Then there was the Tucker water wagon. Tucker went into the

livery business and sold the wat-r route to the l a te S. B.

Bates who ran the wagon from about 1690 on for several years.

Bates had a well in about the 400 block on West Grant .avenue

and pumped water by horsepower, f i l l i n g his tank wagon from

a tank raised about ten feet from the ground. Tucker*s

Liverjr Barn was at 308 S. F i rs t S t . , where the west part of

the Arkansas Lumber Company was bui l t l a t e r .

In the '90*3 two g i r l s became well known on the s t r e e t s ,

as they sold papers*, everyone knew them, as I also did, but

feel that I should not mention the i r names, as they are s t i l l

l iving, or were *a year or- so ago.

I remember Judge LlcCord, police judge; Judge Olsmith, the

same; Policemen, Ed Kelley, Gepke, Janes, . no. Baxter of the

Baxter and CananockLL very B &rn, Nis aud Halsell Grocery Company ,

wholesale^was just across west of the Santa Fe depot. The

schools bui l t in r94 were the Capitol, Central,Banner, and

Lincoln,all torn dovm in the las t three years and replaced Vy

new onea*

265

HYDE, CLYDE STANLEY. IOTflHVIiW. 10188.

The S ta r Bazaar, a c lo th ing , or r a t h e r a dry goods

s tore , was where the Llelba Theater now i s on Harrison Avenue.

I t seemed to me tha t they had a c los ing out sa le as r e g u l a r l y

as a week ro l l ed around. Anything was an excuse for pu t t ing

on a sa le and -they r e a l l y did put them on. Frank H a r r i s , a

brother of the well known Jennie Har r i s Ol ive r , poet and

short s tory wr i t e r was an employee of the S ta r Bazaar.

Other business houses of t ha t time were the Ph i l Heilman

and the A. P. Saunders Harness Shops and Sadd le r i e s . The

D. h . Good, the Poland, Welcome, K i r z e l ' s , Goyle and Smith

and Hunter and Son} g r o c e r i e s . Dry goods and c lo th ing ;

TSaldneTs"Star Bazaar, Boston, and t h e Meyers Stor-Q-. The

re s tua r an t s were Campbell 's , Sab ine r s , rfaley Ong fs, -Browns,

S u l l i v a n ' s and. the Trumbull, underneath which i s now located

the Wi l l i s Furni ture Company. They served meals for 10 c e n t s .

Just south of tne Capitol Hotel between i t and the Baxter and

C&'amock ^ ive ry f t a rn , was the u.K. Hote l , which was moved to

Perry when the S t r i p opened.

266

BHDB, OLTEBE STi^LJEY. /INTERVIEW. 10188.

Aims Company was a t d i f ferent places in town,

but the place I beat remember was at about E08 South Divis ion

St ree t i n a small b u i l d i n g . A I I to the east> o r most a l l was

vacant and the farmers used i t as a feeding place and the

horse t r a d e r s , &f whom there were many, used the yard as a

t rading p l a c e .

The Reeves Brothers Saloon, with gambling h a l l and honky-

tonk to the west , adjoined each o the r . I have spent many d#ys

and n igh ts in and out of the saloon, the gambling house^and

even attended the shows a t the honky-tonk, but want to^say

r igh t he re , t h a t I hage spent i n my whole l i f e only one dim?,

-40-cants. i a j a l l , for^whiskey or beer and t h a t was fo r whiskey,

and M o t h e r fellow drank t h a t . I have drunk perhaps a teacup

of whiskey, and maybe two ga l lons of beer , but the dime i s i l l

I have been out for them. I was only ten years old when I

s ta r ted going in and out of saloons with the o ther boys but I

don' t r e c a l l ever being ordered out of e i t h e r a saloon or

gambling h a l l .

One day in Reeves, a United S t a t e s marshal drew h i s gun

on the ba r - t ende r and I ' t ook t o cover behind a post over toward

the gambling par t of the bu i ld ing , but the marshal cooled off

267

HStDB, CLYDE STANLEY INTERVIEW. 10188*

- 36 -

and he ana\ the bar-keeper soon made up . I do not remember the

marshal 's*name, the re were two b r o t h e r s , both marsha ls .

There was a t one time a g rea t dea l of chicken s t e a l i n g

going on, so one day I met Heck Thomas, A United dtaties

Marshal, and Frank Mart in , a boy I knew very we l l , coming i n

from the eas t with soue chickens , game ones however, as Thomas

and Frank had been off somewhere having gaae cokk f i g h t s , Ibeen

knew «hat they had/doing, and fo r e joke I sa id t o FrankT

wBaen out s t e a l i n g chickens. Frank?. He saw the joke and he

and Heck Thomas laughed and went on. Thomas has brought i n

some bad men in h i s t ime . • Other marshals of t ha t t imej Joe *-

Runnels, B i l l Tilghman, the L i l l i e s , M Nix, and severa l I

cannot recal l .

ifiarly hardware stores were the Tontz and Hirshi Hardware

Company on Harrison & venue in the 100 block on the south side

of the street about -.vhers the Guthrie Daily Leader office i s

now. The New York Hardware v es f i r s t , on Oklahoma 4venue, on

the north aide of the street a half block east of the depot•

Then afterwards, at 222 West Oklahoma Avenue where i t has been

for many years.

268

HIDE, CLYDE STANLEY. INTERVIEW, 10188.

- 37 -

The J . S. Lyon Implement store wa3 at iUS West Harrisoa

where the Wedel Drug Store is no;:. Bi l l ie Parker, Implements,

Wagons and Buggies, 223 East Oklahoma Avenue,

Meat Markets: Andy Hinkle Restaurant and Meat Market, on

the Government i».cre; Winklerrs on Harrison, and Metz just

across the Koble Asrenue bridge.

Pace ts Cleaning and Pressing, just north of the Blue Bell

Saloon* Waley Ong's Cafe, next north of Reeves Brothers; on

the north, a colored ^an of the name of Smith had a grocery

and on far ther Frink and Kiiuself, then there \.as a Chinese

laundry. The Bonfils Building i s in that block, bu i l t in 1890

oy Mr. Bonfils who in l a t e r years was editor of the Denver

-Ac£Qss~±he. _sireet js^ thj De ^ord Building, just south

of the Acre. I remember when they were building i t . I t i s now

occupied and owned by the Willis Furniture Company.

The only t o l l bridge or crossing that I know of in t h i s

part of tue country, was the Babb's Crossing down in Lincoln

County on the south route to Chandler. Babbs had bui l t i t

and charged 25 cents for crossing. I t was just* a l i t t l e

creek but about the only way to cross i t was ut Babbs,

269

HYDE, CLYDE STANLEY. IHT4HVTSV7. 10188i

- 38 -

One time two United States marshals, coming from the east

to Guthrie with a prisoner, can.e to the crossing and the keeper,

Mr. Babbs, was at din:.er. Instead of going after him, they

palled out a forty-five and shox the lock off, then went on

their way.

There were outlaws and plenty of Lnited States marshals

in those days and Guthrie was headquarters for the marshals,

whil*£ngaHs, a . . i t t le town east of St i l lwater seemed to be

_Jhe Jiead^iLartsrsfor the outlaws. The town of Ingalls has been

changed to Signet ~:id very l i t t l e of the old town may be sean

at th is time, ^,

Bill Tilghman brought Bi l l Doolin fro:, SureksE Springs,1

r

iOrkansas, I believe i t was, but Doolin soon after made his

escape. I re., einber one time after Doolin had got away, Bi l l

Tilghman was standing on Harrison avenue with his foot on a

water plyg, and someone said to him, "Bi l l , Doolin will never

be brought in again as easy as yoa did i t . " I don't reca l l

Tilghmants answer but uhen Doolin w*as at las t brought in he

was dead. He had eight or ten buckshot holes in his' breast .

He is buried near the northeast corner of Summit Tiew Cemetery

of this ci ty and a buggy axle marks his grave.

270


- 39 -

None of the bad men were evar hanged here, Lvit a scaf-

fold \.as~built in the early 90»s between Oklahoma nd Cleve-

land Avenues, about a hundred feet west of Firs t s t ree t in

the a l ley. I saw i t b u i l t . The nar- to be handed couid see

i t froc. the Federal J a i l window over on noble and Second and

mowing what i t was for, i t brought on him soiae kind of a sp i l l

or sickness fro-i which he died »r>fl the scarf old was never used.

Some to th i s day claim that Bi l l Doolin was not kil led by

the of f icers , that he died of "tuberculosis and that the officers

got his body, leaned i t up against something and shot him with

a shot gun, using buckshot. The undertakers said that if he

had been shot while alive soue blood spots would have shown

andthe fact that he did not bleed leads them to believe he was

shot afterward in order to get the rewards. None of th i s I

know, i t i s merely hearsay.

At the May Fark, near the mouth of the Cottonwood, were

signs of beaver, where they had cut down the t r ees , leaving a

stump sharpened somewhat like a pencil , only more blunt, and in

town a l i t t l e above the place where the Perkins Jcenue bridge

now i s , was an old beaver dam, with enough left to t e l l what *

i t had been.

271


- 40 -

On Bear Creek, beginning at the old Oklahoma line which

was also the Iowa l ine, the s e t t l e r s were, Z. B. Williams, M.

W. Allen, Dave Johnson, W. IP. Kincaid, R. E. Dyer, Marion

Dunlap, George Timpy, Squire Holland, . / i l l Llorrow, Chet Nichols,

Wm. Cole, Mr. Willie, Joe Price, I«ir. Callahan, I. L. Dancy, Jim

Anderson, Mr. Croak, Llason Goff, W. R. Birch, W. S. Wilson,

Daniel Mo&re, Pomeroy Gooperfs father , Pete Conwell, Mrs.

Anderson, Sam Dunham, Lon Irvin, Ad Christison, Mr. Ladner,

J.» .R, Clark, Mr. Briggs from Goston, Tom Fergisen, John Ivic-

Cormick, Mr*.Gates, Mr. J a r re l , Ja^e Haas, V. 2. Golibart,

Bil l ie Buoy, Dave Anderson, C.'E. Neidy, Ed Hoover, Dr. March,

J . T. Simpson, W, H. Ricistrew, George Morgan, Frank Lair ,

colored, George Thompsen, and Dick Po l i t e .

Camp meetings were held over the country, generally in

brush arbors, I reca l l one about a mile east of the Meridian

line after the Iowa land was opened. The evangelists then

were satisfied with the i r board and with a fa i r salary, donated

by the folks of the cojmunity. These meetings were in the fcity

of Gufcliiii:** The camp meetings and the school house meetings of

early days were apparently for the Lord*s cause, not for moaty»

272

HYDB, CLYDE STAttLBY. IOTSHvTBrt. 10188.

- 41 -

Mrs. Lavina Smith, wile of the storekeeper of i lvansvi l le ,

organized temperance s o c i e t i e s at t h e d i f fe ren t school houses

over the country out eas t of Gufchrie, around Tohee, Evansvflle

and Meridian. Al l were asked to sign the pledge ,noi- to touch

in tox ica t ing l i q u o r . Itany have signed the pledge and worn

the white ribbon showing they had. I \;as one who had\ signed

and worn the white ribbon and I have c e r t a i n l y kept t ha t

pledge, though I had never used strong drink before , ivlrs.

&nith i s l i v i n g at t h i s ti.":e in Oklahoma Ci ty . \

The ea r ly gather ings a t the Timpy. or as i t was sometimes

called the Bear Creek school, house of logs and l a t e r of frame,

are well remembered by r.,e. 1 more my f i r s t long pants a t

place . The Christmas t r e e , Inc le Johnnie Vfaters1 s ingingi

school, ,the box suppers, the literacies., Sunday School and

church, po l i t i ca l , %and a l l kinds of featherings were held there!

and I for one missed none of them.

I t was there that my t^ife and I UBST;, while Mrs. J . R. \

Clark 7/as the teacher, in 1§95. The log building had been \

replaced by a frame one afteflLirs. fcriggs' term. I t was in ^

the new frame building that we\ were taught by Miss Jennie

VHarris, now the well-known Jennie Harris Oliver of Fallis*

273

HYDE, CLYDE STANLEY. INTERVIEW. 10188,

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We have seen the Chandler stage bus go by there many

times ana have hollered at John Grant, an Iowa Indian, as he

went *by on his way to Guturie. He had an «tllotment two miles

down east, a mile in the Iowa country*

"Brudder Abe" (Abe Boles)? a colored man, would come by

the school on his mule going to Guthrie and would let the mule

stop and graze whenever he wanted to. That mule really did

grazeoall the way to Guthrie, and Brudder Abe never seemed to

be in a hurry. Everyone called hin Brudder Abe. He had a claim

about three miles in the Iowa country, and lived v;ith his sister,

Martha Hill, in a little log cabin.

The Turkey Track Ranch was near where Kearney is now

located, but I have known very little about it, seeing only a

few posts in 1894 which had been a fence belonging, to it.

There was a Turkey Track Trail but I have lost all track of

it. The only th.mg which resembles a mound there is a little

over a half .nile east of Meridian on the soutri side cf Bear

Creek. It" sets out by itself but I think it must be a nat-

ural mound.

274

HYDE, GLIDE STANLEY. INTERVIEW. 10188.

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On the last Sunday in July of 1936 and 1937 there werenot

reunions of the Timpy scholars who had/ seen each other for

forty years. Those reunions mean a lot to me. as I was one

of the scholars and organized the meetings, notifying the ones

from far and near and getting the grounds and benches ready

for the event. Last year they were made more permanent, and

this July we will need only to have the weeds cut and raked

up. Jennie Harris Oliver met with us last year.

A- this time, I am on a Committee to locate and mark the

old landmarks in the city of Guthrie. Mr. A. 0« jparquharson,

Fred L. Wanner, and myself, are on that committee. At each

place .we propose to put a marker with the neme of the firm

that was located there in 1889, or at about that time. This

is in preparation for the *89er celebration to be held here

April 2£, the forty-ninth anniversary of the opening of old

Oklahoma.

The first bridge to Island Park, now Mineral Wells Park,

i»as built on Second street in about '92. I worked on it.

Whoever it was who had the contract hired me at 50 cents a

day to help, I was just twelve but he said I was handy, so

I could do the climbing the older ones wouldn't want to do, I

HOT, CLYDE STANLBT. INTERVIEW. 10188.

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do not remember who th is man was. The brides was of wood, but

cut and put together as the s tee l bridges are now. The arches

of the span were made of about 3x12*8 put together with bolts

and separated by iron washers. The span looked l ike an ordinary

iron bridge, except that i t was of vrood. .

Across the Ninth Street bridge, gping south, between the

place where Noble Park for colored folks i s now and on the east

side of the road, there were several residences along about

1893, but at t h i s date there is no sign that they were ever

there. Second Street was bui l t with business houses, f a i r ly

solid south to the middle of the 300 block.

When the Str ip opened September 16, 1893, there was a

ta i lor shop at about 315 South Second Street owned by a man of

the name of Williams. Mr. Williams made the run into the

St r ip , gett ing a claim on which he bu i l t a house. This was

owned, in l a te r years by Laura Crews, s i s t e r of the l a t e W. J»

crews of th i s c i ty . I t i s now a part of the Covington oi l

f ie ld. The Sinclair Befinery i s on the spot where Mr, Williams

built his house and where I stayed with his wife as she was

living on the land to hold i t , while Mr. Williams worked in

Guthrie at his shop making a living for his family*

276.

HYDE, CLYDE STAtfUSY. . INTERVIEW. 10188.

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I recall that when I was there, ft I.Ir. Dikes was plowing

sod down in the bottom to the east and tnat ivir. Williams

said "He is plowing for me? Mr. Dikes was contesting lvlr«

Williams and according to Vf. J. Crews, won the contest. I

do not know whatiever became of Mr. Williams, but I do know

that I stayed some few weeks or months on that claim which

was later the .aura Craws lease and a part of the Covington

oil field.

A Mr. Diehl who lived at about 615 South First Street,

Gutlirie, made the run into the Strip and located about a

mile and a half east of Lr. Williams, where he put up a store

building and ran a general store. The store was there when

I stayed at i.jr. Williams' place and we were over there several

times. W. J. Crews had, I believe, the claim cornering with

Willaims1 on the southeast. V

The last I heard of kir. Diehl he was living at Hinton where

his daughter, Hilda, worked in one of the banks. His daughter,

Cora V. Harvey, was recorder of deeds along about 1893, having

her office in the rear of the Ragsdale Bank, or where it haa .

been, on the corner of Oklahorja Avenue and Secona street in

Guthrie,

277

HYDE, CLYDE STANLEY. INTERVIEW. 16188*

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In 1894 I attended school in the basement of the South

Methodist Church which was 223 3ast Vilas Arenue. The build-

ing was torn down, oz> moved many years ago. 1/rs. Scott

taught in the south roo... and i j s . i-ieece in the north. I do

not remember how i t happened but I went to both teachers.

The early day drug stores were Dr. D. V. Hannencrattts

store which was located the f i r s t year down near the dance

hall on South Second and from then on between Heaves Brothers

Saloon and the depot. Others were, L i l l i e ' s Drug, s tore, the

Seaton Jrug Store and the Renfro Drug Store.

The State Capitol Printing Company was under the McKennon

Opera House on the ground f loor . H. H. Coyle had the f i r s t

cotton gin in Guthrie, for I remember his daughter, lone, now

I\:rs. Lymon J. Gray, in 1894, at the same school and I remember

that her father owned the gin here^ which was the f i r s t one.

I believe the G. I.I. Sharum gin was the next. I t was on the

eafct side of the 40C block on South Division s t ree t .

Ed Luce, now living in Guthrie, was the f i r s t messenger

boy with the telegraph company here, and was here at the

8an£t Fe Depot before the opening. He is a son-in-law of

278

HYDE, CLYDE STANLEY. INTiBVIE.j. 10188.

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the Sharums. In the early days thare were no carriersv

either in town or country, and to get their mail folks had

to stand in line, often a very loag cne> and -.vait their turns

at the window.

The saying, "Joe and his mule," or how it was started

•has been told in so many ways that I will not attempt to tell

how it was, but most any time in the early days, especially

at night, someone would holler, "Oh Joe, herefs your mule,"

and so^e one off on another street would answer bade M0h Jos,

here's your mule." 13b old timer will ever forget that

familiar* call.

iwt this writing we are living in the next house east of

the original Frank K. Greer residence, though he had r.oved

away some years before we bought. We have the three corner

lots east of his former home.

The New York Hardware Conpany was first started by a

Mr. Mundy. It was on the ncrth side of Oklahoma Avenue,

about a half block east of the Santa Fe Depot and in about

1891. Farquharson and Morris, bought it out and finally Mr.

Morris bought the Farquharson share and operated it until

about 1221. It is stil- open for business, but under dif*

HYD&, CLYDE. STANLEY. USTCKKVIiSii. 1 0 1 8 8 ,

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forent management and under a different narue; th.Lt of Vassar*

The Bank of Indian Territory was on the southwest

corner of the intersection of Oklahoma Avenue and Division

Slfcreet. The building is now occupied by the Jelsma Abstract

Company. The building i s now known as the Gray Building

named for the Gray Brothers who bui l t i t and known by some

as the Frazler Building, who are i t s present o?/ners.

Shiloh, a mile west of the Lincoln County l ine on Bear •

Creek.as nearly as I can remember} was started about the time. . _

the to. K. and T.. .Railway and the Sort Smith, and Western

bui l t there and someone hid a g r i s t n i l l a l s o . Different ones

.had s tores there from ti.^e to time, but a t t h i s wr i t ing t h e r e ' s

nothing, there but a dwelling house. Shiloh was near the bafaks

of Bear Creek and the box-car depot was no more than f o r t y feet

from the bank of the creek.

My fa the r - in - law, Frank L. Dancy, located on the north-

east quarter of Section 34, TbwnsMp 16 Horth, Bange one West,

buying the relinguishment f ro^ Gus Morgan, brother of George

R. Morgan,of tha t community. The fana belongs yet to the h e i r s ,

my wife being one of them. Ly wife and I s^ent the f i r s t ten

280

HYDE, CLYDE STANLEY. INTSRVIiS'tf. ' 10188.

- 49 -

years of our married l i f e on t ha t farm; we had the nor th-

east f o r t y a c r e s t Though never deeded to a s , i t has always

been meant for us when the-land was d iv ided .

tfe ; ay have hard times now, but not herd times as the

ear ly s e t t l e r s had. «.r. Dancy a~d inany o tae rs hauled s tove-

wood to Guthrie', ten or perhaps f i f t een mi les , ' ge t t ing from

$1.00 t o f l . 2 5 for tne load . L r . Dancy hauled wood nine and

one half m i l e s , put t ing i n one day c u t t i n g L e wood and

the next day hauling i t to Guthrie and not al. ,ays s e l l i n g i t ;

at t ha t but one th ing v/as d i f fe ren t at t h a t t ime, $1.00 "would

buy more than $3.00 w i l l now.

The f i r s t Oklahoma Christmas as near ing but* I l r s . Dancy

met the occasion,, as many o thers d id , even i f they were poor.

She made popcorn b a l l s , molasses candy> and made the p re sen t s ,

dol la from corn cobs, dressing them by ty ing a rag around the

cob, f ix ing the head* and making eyes, nose and mouth with a

penci l . Those t h r e e ' g i r l s » 5 K y r t l e , BQXt&a, now my wife, and

Sdna thought t h a t was a r e a l Christmas, even if i t was i n a

log cabin with a d i r t f l o o r / covered with a c a r p e t . They

hung t h e i r s tockings up by the big f i r e p l a c e and Santa Clause

did come and f i l l them, even if t he i r fo lks were poor.

281

HIDE, CLYDE STAKLBY. IHTJsKVIiStf 16188.

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j have said many t i n e s , jok ing ly , tha t if i t had not

been fo r gravy ; Oklahoma would never have be~n s e t t l e d up.

and t h a t i s more t r u t h then poetry , t oo , fo r gravy ..as a

big p a r t ' o f the da i ly f a r e . Sa l t rsett was or.ly bcut 4

cents a pound and a f t e r frv ir.-z i t a I i t ' ; l o f lou r was added

arid milk or a t e r w s put i n t o -he grease and s t i r r e d u n t i l

i t came to' a b o i l . That ..as tl.3 thickened gravy. I t r e a l l y

was one o|TVne cheapest d ishes the pioneers could mcke and

took the 5 ^ ? e of b u t t e r . I rei.enber B i l l i e Buoy saying at

.the t ab l e one day, wPass the Jchnscn*" The word vas not

Joruison, but I have s u b s t i t u t e d t h a t for tx:e r e a l name of the

s e t t l e r he meant—o.;e vrho used gravy ,*~Eillie thought, more

than anyone elg.e. I have bean ir. the ho:..es of many of the

se t t l e r s and I know that"gravy did have a r ea l part in the

daily d i e t . *"

I am going to mention Jennie Harris Oliver again. She

was Jennie Harris at the time we ,.ent tc school to her in

1897-98. Jennie would never /anish me, though I often needed

i t . Instead, when I did something I should not hive done}she

"would merely give me a look, not of anger, but a sad, pitying

282

HYDE., CLYDE STANLEY. INTiffivIB... 10188,

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look, looking me straight in the eyes. This never failed

to make me behaye. I could not have rtone o.i and disobeyed -

her after that.

About 1932 I began writing poens, ana no?/ have fourwith

hundr.ed and sixteen of then, together/about fifteen short

stories. Perhaps they do not ar.'ount to much b.t I have had

a lot of pleasure writing them. About a hundred and sixty-

five of my poems and stories have baan published in local

pa:ers. The stories have appeared mostly in the special

n89er editions and Christmas editions. l.'.y poems have been

included in- volumes two and three of the "Anthology of Poetry

by Oklahoma^Writers" and in the anthology "Old Trails." I

use the pen name, or rather "pencil" name, 3 . K. Inney.

Because my nair.e is rlyde uany'people cal l me Skinney, hence the

signature.

lurs. T. B.Ferguson, wife of the Ter r i to r ia l Governor,

held one of the camp meetings, spokon of before, in an arbor

east of the Meridian l i ne . ,<e attended the meeting.

I Will s ta te here, that S. H. Bates, who ran the water

wagon in 1890 and sold water by the barre l over town, was in

283

HYUE, GLIDE STANLEY. INTERVIEW. • 10188.

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the restaurant busines in Guthrie for many years. Tola Ferguson,

no relation to the above, was a Bear Greek .ioneer and a son

of the well known broom peddler of the r90rs, Mickey Ferguson.

The Tohee Telephone line which was built before the town lot

sale of that place, went in a southeasterly direction fran

Guthrie and across lots, I might say and the Bear Creek road

also went along near it, crossing 3ear Creek at the Polite

Crossing, going east from there and at about two railes east

the road turned north across claizaa for about two miles and

a half, getting back to Bear Creek again. Afterward, shorter

or more direct routes were made to the Bear Cre ;k country.

A little incident I recall about former Governor Trapp

whose father homesteaded in that part of the country. It was

at the Lear Sbhoolhoua et, about ten miles southeast of Guthrie,

It was at a literary. -Trapp and another young fellow were

putting on a little comedy of some kind but in it thevother

fellow asked Trapp what the people in tne audience ware sod

Trapp answered, *They is spectators." "Well,'* the other asked,

•if they are spectators, what are the girls in the audience."

"Well," Trapp answered, *Tb.ey is aweet tatera? Trapp lived

284


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some four miles west of us, and while v/e always knew him, we

were never much acquainted with him. He and James* I, McDaniel

were life-.long friends and I*Ir. McDaniel had a part in his

election as clerk of Logan County, before he .vas elected Governor.

An incident happened at the Timpy school house during the

1892 or 1893 term, and while I was not attending that particular

term I knew of the incident afterwards. tiarion Dunlap v.as

building a frame school building just in front, to the south

of the log building, M, A. McPeak was teaching at the time in

the log building. Dunlap was putting some of the final touches

on the building, it being almost complete, when a dozen or more

of the men from the country gathered in front of the school

grounds. 13o one $t school, not even Mr. Dunlap knew what the

gathering of men was. After a little while they rode off.

A day or two before, there had bean an election, or a

caucus at the town r.ouse, a stone building in the center of the

township built for such purposes, and to. Danlap had been there

with a Mr. Morrow, a brother of Bill Morrow, one of the settlers

a half mile north of the school. This Morrow had no land there

but was camped on Dunlaps f-arm, chopping wood, He had no wife

but his two little girls were living with him.

\

285


- 54 -

itorrow had disappeared right after the caucus, not even

going home, and the neighbors were alarmed about him. Sone

remembered that he and ~.r. Dunlap had quarreled over at the

town house, and they -auz euong the s e t t l e r s saying they

believed Mr. Dunlap had been the cause of his disappearance*

The men had made inquiries over the counxry for Imorrow, and

not finding any trace of him feeling was running high. The

men had been to Marion's place where Morrow was camped and

asked the l i t t l e g i r l s if they knew what had become of the i r

father and were told that they did not know where he was.

M. W. Allan, I believe i t was,, talked to the men t e l l i n g

them that Korrow more than l ike ly had just gone off so;ne place

and would be. bafck soon, and for them not. t-o ba too hasty and

aot &a._somethi.,g they would always regret . He' suggested that

they go 'and see the g i r l e again, maybe Tnsy^oTrld^thlTik of

something Morrow had said which tiioy could go and follow up

and find him.

Tl?.ey lef t the school /£s I have said before, going to see

the gir ls* Upon closer questioning, the g i r l s did remember

their father had said something about going to 91 place about a

£86

HYDE", CLYDE 3T^KLSY. INTSHVI3... 10188.

- 5 5 - f /'

mile north and a l i t t l e east of the Harbour store to see a man

about a farm over near Tryon. I do not r eca l l the man's1 name,/'

but the men went there and inquired if l*lr. Morrow had been

there. 'They were told that he had stayed tnere the night be-

fore, or the night before that^and had gone to a place near

Tryon with the man to look at a farm, . /el l , the bunch of men

went to the i r homes, glad they had listened to Mr. Allen. In

a day or two Mr. wlorrow came back hoae, knowning nothing of

what had happened. I doubt if Marion and Liorrow had had a

word at the town house, but when a bunch of men get s tar ted,t

/

they are l iable to do a lot of guessing.

Vx* Dunlap *had never been in any trouble, up to then, or

a l l the years I have known him. He l ives at t h i s tirae in

Y/ichita, Kansas. The circumstances merely pointed to him for

Morrow, a year or two l a t e r , was k i l l e d near Perkins* He had

camped by the side of the road, I be l ieve one of h i s l i t t l e

g i r l s was with him, though I am not su re . I was s tgying a t

B i l l i e Buoy'a a t the t ime. He was h i t on the head with an ax

and ac&olqred fel low was suspected, but fu r the r than t h a t I do

not r e c a l l .

287

HYDE/CLIDi;.STANLEY. , INTiSRVIS.V. 10188.

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Back to B i l l Doolin again, ± was told, the fol lowing by

an old time United S t a t e s marshal . When Doolin was captured

the f i r s t time and brought to Guthrie , iz was mace up between

Doolin and the United s t a t e s Marshals tha t i f he -was captured

by them, he agreed tha t he vould stand t r i a l on a whiskey

charge and lay out a short sentence . Or anyhow the whiskey

cherge was a l l tha t would be brought aga ins t him. The t r u t h

of t h i s I do not kno.-, but I do knc,< he escaped from the federa l

J a i l . The next time he was brought in he was dead. The Federal

J a i l was 308 North Second Street . I t i s serving a t t h i s date

as a Nazarene Church. I t has been g r e a t l y remodeled. Iconinm,

a town for colored peoplr , was in ths southwest of Sec t ion 10,

northwest of Sect ion 15, Township 16 Horth, Pange one i ias t .

The Beulah i:Ost Office ,.&s in Section n ine , Township 15 nor th ,

Range one West. ,Shiloh was in the southeast Sect ion two,

Township 15 2*orth, Ra^ge one Safct.

In the yeaV)1892 my f a t h e r - i n - l a w , Frank L, Dancy, went

back to Chetopa, Kansas, to work, leaving k r s . Dancy and the

three g i r l s at the claim. Vfhile he was Gone> o n Q evening ; a

san rode up t o tne log house and asked if he could s t ay a l l night

288

HIDE, GLIDE STANLEY. INTERVIEW. 10188.

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there. Mrs. Dancy explained that Mr. Dancy was not home and

she would rather he would not stay there, t e l l ing him that he

might get to stop at the Birch's on the claim to the west, that

there were soa.e men there. The Birch home was hardly a half a

mile from the DanoyB1. rf. B. Birch was the father of Sarn, Ed

and Eugene, la te of Guthrie. The man insisted that hb stay

there but when he went to bed, he gave Mrs. Dancy his w o guns

so that she would be less afraid of h iu . Ke turned his horse

loose and called him up the next morning by merely whistlingman

for him. . The/iaaaat no harm . but the Dancys always have thought

he was one of the outlaws, of whom there were plenty at that

time. Another reason they thoughiJh^jaaa. .an-.outlaw was- thsiP

he seemed not to want to stay where there were any men. Anyhow,

the next morning when the .jan rode off Mrs. Dancy and the three

gi r l s fe l t much rel ieved.

The Cooper Cemetery was started about February, 1891, wnen

Mr. Cooper was buried there. I t i s two .ailes and three-quarters

west of the Meridian line on the southwest quarter of S ection

22, Township 16 North, Range one 7?est. He have an infant son

there, my namesake, Clyde Stanley Hyde, also a daughter,

289

HYDE, CLYDE STANLEY. INTERVIEW. 10188,

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who died when, she was rive years old. Many of the original

se t t le rs are buried there . Bi l l ie Buoy, Walter S. tfilson, .

George R, Morgan,George Timpy, Lrs. Timpy, and two of the

boys, Bud and 3d. I have followed many dear old friends to

their las t rest ing jylace atop the Cooper Hi l l and I have spent

many years within a mile of that place.

The f i r s t baby born in Guthrie was Guthrie iday Faubusch.

She did not live long. I don't know whether she died in infancy

, or lived a year or so, but I do remember, seeing her tombstone

in Sunmit View Cemetery, I think in 1894. I knew and played

with her brother in the early f90*s,

Willie Guthrie Griffin i s claimed by his parents to be

the f i r s t boy born in Guthrie. His parents were John and Bell

Griffin, tfillie .,as born at 604 South second S t r e e t , according

to Lira. Griffin he was born about four days af ter the opening.

The attending Physician was Dr. Fawner, i d l l i e died in 1907,

Guthrie S l l i s Irvin was claimed by his parents to be the f i r s t

boy born here. He is the son of the late Alonzo lLon) Irvin for

nhoin the Irvin School was named. The Irvin Dis t r ic t is

southeast of Guthrie t Guthrie i i l l ia Irvin i s at th i s date with

290

HYDE, CLYDE? STAHLffif. INI'ISRVUEM. 10188.

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the Santa Fe at Arkansas'City, Kansas* I have known, personally,

Willie Guthrie Griffin from the time he was a year o M until

his passing. I have also knuwn Guthrie Sllis Irvin for forty

years or more.

1 One of the early day doctors of the country east of Guthrie

was Dr. J. H. Rinehart. He was a brother of Frank Rinehart of

Guthrie,ar. early day sheriff of tliis county. Another doctor

was Dr. Geter, colored") who practiced among white and colored

for many years: and finally moved to Oklahoma City. Another

doctor^ Dr. Q,. B. Neal, also colored, Ouuld hardly be told

from white. Dr. Neal lived a mile north of the Timpy School-

house and also practiced among white and colored people. H©

was will known and the white people thought nothing of calling

either him or Dr. Geter. Dr. Getea? lived two miles east of

Meridian. Dr. Neal moved several years ago to Pawhuska, where,

I understand,he died, though we »aff and talked'to him in about

1934.'

The M. K. and T. and the Fort Snith and Western built down.

Bear Creek bottoms in 1903.t The C. R. I. P. Railway built the

same year about three miles north^ going to Chandler.

291

CLYDE STANLEY. INTEHVISS. 10188,

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The Tort Smith and M. K. and T. crossed a t the Meridian

l i n e and the town of Meridian was e s t ab l i shed a t t h a t t ime, •_

though Z. B« Williams had bui l t , on tne l i n e j u s t above

Allen^s s t o r e and h i s daughter , iMan,had b u i l t on he r clairu.

which was j u s t across the l i n e . They, with the Harbour, or a t

t h i s time Allen s t o r e were vhe f i r s t of Meridian*

While t h e r a i l r o a d s were bui ld ing some of the fe l lows

including Sam Dunham and Marion Dunlap, t r i e d to s t a r t a town

ihere the Timpy school was, meeting i n the school b u i l d i n g .

They promised t h a t i f the town was s t a r t e d t he re they

would guarantee to bui ld a business bu i ld ing , vi i ic l^as I

suppose now_, would have been a sa loon, or maybe a h o t e l . The

M. K» and T. r igh t -o f -way came through the school ground, so

the school bu i ld ing was sold and a new one b u i l t a t Meridian.

I worked, in a l l , about ten years , in stone and when the,

r a i l r o a d s came through I got a contract^' to bu i ld an arch under

the M. K. and T. j u s t t o t a e eas t of theJTimpy school ground*

The road bed i s now used as the highway from the school ground

to Meridian. The highway g e t s onto the road bed. a t t h a t p lace

and runs over the arch I b u i l t in 1903. There -was a l s o , be-

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fore Meridian was s tarred, a blacksmith shop just vest of the

Harbour, s tore , owned by a l£r» tlater, grandfather of Arthur MaterA

of Guthrie.

The first business r en of Meridian were: M. W. Allen, W.

F. Kincaid, and F. S. Houghton, grocers; D. S. Johnson, hard-

ware; Arkansas Lumber Company, branch of the Guthrie firm, and "

operated by Mr. Nealeyj Hewitt Drug Store; Cozart and Nance,

restaurant; Billie Spencer, blacksmith; saloon and hotel

operated by Sam Dunham and the Ball Brothers Bank, with Miner

,C. Sloan as cashier.

Later merchants were; John j_ee, restaurant; two cotton

gins, the ft. H. Coyle 'and the Guthrie Cotton Oil Company,

.or Houghton in the beginning and Hider, blacksmith shop. I.

J> Church bought out the Houghton Storef fr. L. Smith the Hewitt0

Drug Store; Ford and Heath the bank. iSjmer "Wilson had" the f i r s t

barn, but JSd Williams did some iivarylbusiness before him. M. A.McPeak was postmaster after 1&. W. Allen. W. 1U Branson^

Ayer Brothers and I were the grocers and general storekeepers'*

Ayers owning the original Houghton Store. I recall the"Green-

way sawmill about four miles southeast of Meridian. It was on

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HIDE, CLYDE STANLEY. INPEH7IB.7. 10188,

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the Del Newland farm; which had about the tallest and straight-

est timber to be found in that part of the country.

In ,1907 the Leridian telephone line *as built and in 1910

we took it over and operated it nine years, quitting in 1919.

I had. started a garage in about 1917 and .anted to give all

my time to it. It was the first garage at Lleridian. My wife,

myself and daughter^ Helen, operated the telephone svfit onboard,

as Dorothea and Thelma were not large enough at that time to

help. ?/e moved from the fana,two miles west and one mile>

south of Leridian, when we took the telephone system over,

tie did not own i t , only operated i t for a local company* There

were at hundred phones belonging to i t and we switched the

Svansville Company of about twenty and about the same for the

Springvale Gonpany, who were colored subscribers.

HIDE, CJ,YDE STANLEY. INTERVIEW 10188 230

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