Carter County, Oklahoma: Then and Now

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CARTER 

COUNTY, 

OKLAHOMA 

Then and Now 

by Bob Burke and Eric Dabney 

Commissioned by the Greater Southwest Historical Museum 

Historical Publishing Network 

A division of Lammert Incorporated 

San Antonio, Texas

Among the area’s earliest residences is the painstakingly preserved Eaves-Brady cabin, today a massive exhibit in the heart of the Greater Southwest Historical Museum in Ardmore. 

James Jackson Eaves and his family settled thirty-eight miles northwest of present-day Ardmore, near Pooleville, in the winter of 1892. The house would remain occupied by several 

families until 1949. Jimy Brady Rose donated the cabin and its contents to the Museum in 1998. 

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF ERIC DABNEY. 

First Edition 

Copyright © 2012 Historical Publishing Network 

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, without permission in writing 

from the publisher. All inquiries should be addressed to Historical Publishing Network, 11535 Galm Road, Suite 101, San Antonio, Texas, 78254. Phone (800) 749-9790. 

ISBN: 9781935377856 

Library of Congress Card Catalog Number: 2012942144 

Carter County, Oklahoma Then and Now 

authors: Eric Dabney and Bob Burke 

contributing writer for sharing the heritage: Joe Goodpasture 

Historical Publishing Network 

president: Ron Lammert 

project manager: Curtis Courtney 

sales representative: Lou Ann Murphy 

administration: Donna M. Mata, Melissa G. Quinn 

book sales: Dee Steidle 

production: Colin Hart, Evelyn Hart, Glenda Tarazon Krouse, 

Omar Wright, Tony Quinn 

2 ✦ C A R T E R C O U N T Y , O K L A H O M A T h e n a n d N o w

CONTENTS 

4 CHAPTER I A R i c h H e r i t a g e 

19 CHAPTER II S t a t e h o o d a n d t h e C o m i n g o f O i l 

35 CHAPTER III Wa r Ye a r s a n d P o s t - Wa r E c o n o m y 

44 CHAPTER IV M o d e r n A r d m o r e 

49 CHAPTER V O t h e r P l a c e s We C a l l H o m e 

66 BIBLIOGRAPHY 

67 SHARING THE HERITAGE 

131 SPONSORS 

132 ABOUT THE AUTHORS 

C o n t e n t s ✦ 3

C H A P T E R 

I 

A RICH HERITAGE 

A number of unique geological 

landmarks stand along Highway 77 

in northern Carter County. They are 

a profound reminder of the rich 

heritage that exists above ground— 

and below. 


Carter County is a diverse land. Its 833 square miles in south central Oklahoma are part of 

several physiological regions, including the Arbuckle Mountains, the Coastal Plains, the Red Plains, 

and the Cross Timbers. The Arbuckles, dating back to perhaps 500 million years ago, comprise one 

of the oldest mountain ranges on the planet. They were formed when the earth’s crust buckled and 

cracked and then turned on edge to expose rows of limestone rocks. The mountains were originally 

8,000 feet in height, with an expansive valley toward present Ardmore. Over time, the Arbuckles 

have so eroded into the valley, the mountains are not nearly as imposing as before. 

Two main drainage systems serve the county. The Washita River and Caddo Creek and their 

tributaries drain much of the northern portion of the county while several creeks in southern Carter 

County feed the Red River. 

There were no permanent human settlements in the region before the federal government 

relocated the Five Civilized Tribes to Indian Territory in the first part of the nineteenth century. 

The Oklahoma Archaeological Survey has recognized more than eighty archeological sites, evidence 

of temporary camps of roaming Plains Indians. Some sites in the county date back to the Archaic 

period from 6,000 B.C. to the birth of Christ. 


Even though no ancient Indian tribes settled 

in what would become Carter County, the rich 

land was prime hunting territory for Mound 

Builders to the east and tribes of the Wichitas 

to the west. At the time of the Spanish 

conquistador Coronado’s travels through 

western Oklahoma in 1541, the Wichitas lived 

near the Great Bend of the Arkansas River in 

central Kansas. By the 1700s, the Wichitas and 

Caddoes constructed grass-thatched, conicalshaped 

huts on Hickory and Caddo creeks as 

temporary dwellings during the months the 

tribal members were looking for food to endure 

another winter on the plains. 

Also in the eighteenth century, the Osage, 

Pawnee, Comanche, and Kiowa were in the 

region on hunting and raiding expeditions, but 

they left little evidence of their existence. The 

early European explorers who came to the 

future Oklahoma in the 1700s did not visit 

the area. The first written account of white 

men visiting Carter County came with the 

Leavenworth-Dodge Expedition in 1834, an 

attempt by the Army to establish friendly 

relations with the Plains tribes and to stop the 

war between them and the Osages. 

Among the officers who visited near the 

present site of Ardmore in July, 1834, was 

Jefferson Davis, the future president of the 

Confederacy. The famous artist, George Catlin, 

also accompanied the Army expedition that 

turned to disaster when nearly half the 500 

men became sick with fever. The area was 

experiencing a drought, causing one sergeant 

to write in his journal, “The sun with all his 

scorching rays came pouring down upon us 

almost hot enough to have roasted an egg in 

the sand.” 

Carter County’s rich history associated with 

the Chickasaw Indians began with President 

Andrew Jackson’s support of the Indian 

Removal Act, passed by Congress in 1830. 

An early Native American village 

rises across the territory. 

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE GREATER 

SOUTHWEST HISTORICAL MUSEUM. 

C h a p t e r I ✦ 5

An early map of the Chickasaw 

Nation in Indian Territory shows the 

location of the land that would one 

day become Carter County. 



Through intricate negotiations and political 

pressure from the federal government, the 

Choctaws, one of the Five Civilized Tribes, 

were relocated from their ancestral homes in 

the southeastern United States from 1830 to 

1835. Their kinsmen, the Chickasaws, whose 

original home was in Alabama, Western 

Tennessee and Mississippi, came between 1837 

and 1840, although a few members of the tribe 

had moved westward with the Choctaws. 

The Chickasaws began arriving in their new 

home after signing the Treaty of Doaksville in 

1837 which allowed them to purchase for 

$530,000 what would be known as the 

Chickasaw District of the Choctaw Nation. 

Eventually, the district was divided into four 

counties—Cotton, Caddo, Perry, and Wichita. 

The desire for self government caused the 

relationship between the Choctaws and 

Chickasaws to change in 1855 with the 

establishment of the Chickasaw Nation in place 

of the old Chickasaw District. 

In August 1856, Chickasaws met at 

Tishomingo and agreed upon a constitution. 

Four new counties—Panola, Tishomingo, 

Pontotoc, and Pickens—were created. Ardmore 

was destined to be in Pickens County, named 

for Edmund Pickens, a prominent Chickasaw 

leader who helped negotiate several treaties 

between the tribe and the United States. The 

county seat of Pickens County was Oakland, 

two miles west of present Madill. 

Because of raids from Plains Indians, the 

Chickasaws were slow to move into the western 

part of their new nation. Around 1850, Adam 

Jimmy, a full-blood Chickasaw, built a log 

ranch house eight miles southwest of present 

Ardmore. He grazed large herds of cattle on the 

land that became known as “Adam Jimmy 

Prairie.” Because Jimmy was the only resident 

for many miles, his home was a favorite 

stopping place for travelers going from the Red 

River to Fort Arbuckle. 

The Civil War had little impact on the area. 

Prior to the war, the Chickasaw Nation was 

relatively free of white intruders. With the 

cattle business improving because of the 

coming of the railroads and the establishment 

of the cattle trails such as the Chisholm Trail, 

the Chickasaws began selling permits under 

which a white man could work for an Indian 

for a very small fee. It was a lucrative source of 

income for the tribe. 

The rich grassland south of the Arbuckles 

attracted many white ranchers from Texas. 

Some of the early ranching families included 

the Addingtons, the Roffs, the Criners, and 

the Washingtons. Some of the men married 

Chickasaw women and, by law, became citizens 

of the Chickasaw Nation. Russell Washington 

was one of the early large ranchers. He and 

his four sons established the IS Ranch near 

present Ardmore. 

In 1881, the O Cross O Ranch began on 

West Spring Creek. It was a large ranching 

operation complete with chuck wagons. To 

keep their cattle from straying, a drift fence 

ran from near present-day Gene Autry to 

Lone Grove. 


Left: The 700 Ranch house as it stood 

around 1900. 

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE ARDMORE 

PUBLIC LIBRARY/MCGALLIARD COLLECTION. 

The history of Ardmore perhaps began when 

the 700 Ranch came into existence in 1880. It 

was the first time permanent buildings were 

erected within the present city limits of 

Ardmore. The ranch house was built in a grove 

of large cottonwood trees near G Street and 

Second Avenue in southeast Ardmore. In late 

spring cattle were rounded up and driven 

either to Atoka or Caddo to the east, where they 

were shipped by rail to markets at St. Louis, 

Missouri, or herded westward to the Chisholm 

Trail, bound for shipping points in Kansas. 

Below: The Roff house, today a 

historic landmark across the street 

from the Great Southwest Historical 

Museum, was the first to be built 

within in the city limits of what would 

eventually become the city of Ardmore 

in 1870. It was originally located on 

the famed 700 Ranch along the west 

bank of the Anadarche Creek and was 

moved to its present site in 1991. 



Above: Ardmore, 1887. 



Right: The Whittington Hotel and 

Simon Bros. Dry Goods in Ardmore, 

Indian Territory. 




The 700 Ranch had many famous visitors. 

U.S. Marshal Heck Thomas often stayed at the 

ranch while tracking down whiskey peddlers, 

horse thieves, and other criminals who had fled 

Texas and other jurisdictions into the sparsely 

populated Indian Territory. Thomas and other 

deputy marshals followed cow trails and wagon 

roads searching old shacks and forests for 

suspects. When they were captured, they were 

chained to a chuck wagon for the trip to federal 

court in Paris, Texas. 

Before the railroad came, Gainesville, Texas, 

was the supply center for ranches south of the 

Arbuckles. A road from Fort Arbuckle to 

Gainesville passed through present Woodford, 

Lone Grove, Overbrook, and Thackerville. 

In 1883 post offices opened at Healdton and 

Berwyn. Two years later, a post office was 

established at Lone Grove. Then the few residents 

who lived in future Carter County heard rumors 

of the railroad coming to Indian Territory. 

Prior to 1885, the land that became Ardmore 

was grazing land. In May of that year, George 

Douglas, a Texas building contractor who was 

hoping to profit from the Gulf, Colorado and 

Santa Fe Railway extending north from Fort 

Worth to Purcell, moved his family to the 700 

Ranch. He built a log house and erected a 

stockade and barns. When the Santa Fe 

surveyors arrived in the spring of 1886, Douglas 

housed and fed them and asked them to move 

the right-of-way 100 feet east to miss his house. 

Thus was created a bend in the tracks. The 

surveyors selected a site one-half mile north of 

the Douglas’ home for a railroad station. 

The railroad station was named Ardmore for 

Ardmore, Pennsylvania. The extension of the 

railroad was primarily financed by Pennsylvania 

investors and many of the towns along the new 

Santa Fe route came from towns on the main 

line of the Pennsylvania Railroad. In addition to 

Ardmore, Wayne, Paoli, Wynnewood, Berwyn, 

Overbrook, and Marietta received their names 

because of the Santa Fe surveyors’ familiarity 

with the railroad in Pennsylvania. 

Contractors used substantial local labor and 

bought ties and bridge timbers from the 

Chickasaw Nation. Tracks were laid into 

Ardmore during July of 1887. On July 28 the 

first Santa Fe train arrived with lumber and 

other supplies to build a new town. That date 

is considered Ardmore’s birth date. 

Even before July 28 two businesses were 

flourishing. Samuel Zuckerman and the 

Frensley brothers ran general merchandise 

stores. From tents, merchants sold dry goods 

and groceries to railroad workers and crewmen. 

Shortly thereafter, the Frensley brothers used 

lumber brought on the first train to construct a 

permanent building. 

Above: Frensley Brothers Lumber 

Company was located at the 

northwest corner of Main and 

D Streets in Ardmore, 1905. 



Bottom, left: Oklahoma’s oldest bank, 

and the first to be nationally 

chartered in Indian Territory, The 

First National Bank and Trust 

Company of Ardmore was originally 

founded in 1889. The bank built this 

building as its new headquarters 

in 1918. 



Bottom, right: The First National 

Bank in 2010. 

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF SHELLEY DABNEY. 


Top: This sketch of early Ardmore 

appeared in Harper’s Weekly 

in 1893. 



Above: The cotton yards in Ardmore 

in August of 1910. 



In August 1887, the town of Ardmore was 

bustling with activity. The Chickasaws leased 

land to settlers who saw opportunity. Streets 

were marked out and the first residents lived in 

tents placed in even rows down the narrow thoroughfares. 

The first street was Caddo Street, now 

“A” Street. It was formerly a wagon road that ran 

from the 700 Ranch north to Caddo Creek. 

The post office in Ardmore was established 

on October 27, 1887. Dr. Hillard Yarbrough was 

the first postmaster. Initially, the post office was 

housed in a tent, but later moved to a small building 

on Caddo Street. New residents were eager for 

the chance of succeeding in a virgin country. 

Hardware stores, general merchandise stores, 

hotels, drug stores, and banks opened. In 1890, a 

branch of the federal court was established. The 

Buckles Hotel, the town’s first hotel, served visitors 

to Ardmore—now both a railroad and court 

town. As the population grew, ice cream parlors 

opened. There also were livery stables and wagon 

yards open for business twenty-four hours a day. 

1 0 ✦ C A R T E R C O U N T Y , O K L A H O M A T h e n a n d N o w

Farmers and ranchers in the area brought their 

crops and livestock to town. Bumper crops of cotton, 

corn, oats, cattle, hogs, vegetables, and fruits 

came from the fertile soil of the area. Ardmore 

soon became the largest town in Indian Territory. 

Even with its growth, the lack of telephones, electric 

lights, gas, sewers, and local police made the 

city a rough place to live. Sam Blackburn, longtime 

editor of The Daily Ardmoreite, said: 

There were no bridges…no paved sidewalks 

or roads. A few of the things we had were 

fleas, lice, bedbugs, and malaria, typhoid, 

tuberculosis, smallpox, diphtheria, and other 

diseases that since have been mastered. We had 

wooden sidewalks, gun fights, killings, thievery, 

robbery…and child labor. Our women did their 

washing with, at most, a washboard. 

There was no city government so U.S. 

marshals and deputy marshals enforced the 

law and kept order. Infamous outlaw Bill 

Dalton was shot and killed by marshals twenty 

miles northwest of Ardmore in 1894. When 

the officers and the dead outlaw returned to 

Ardmore, practically the entire town met them. 

More than 1,000 people crowded around the 

Apollos undertaking parlor to view the remains 

of one of the West’s most notorious outlaws. 

Because it was a court town, several lawyers 

moved to Ardmore. Saloons with sawdust floors 

and five gambling houses opened. Well qualified 

doctors and surgeons came from good medical 

schools and Ardmore became a regional center 

for medical care. The closest thing to a local 

government was the Board of Trade, serving the 

same role as the modern chamber of commerce. 

Hogs roamed Main Street and slept under stores. 

The Ardmore Weekly Courier was the town’s 

first newspaper, established in 1888. The first 

daily was the Daily Advertiser, which began 

publication in 1891, and was sold and published 

as The Daily Ardmoreite on October 28, 1893. 

The newspaper began to call for lighted and 

paved streets and a town waterworks. The only 

Clockwise, starting from the top: 

An early poster advertises the many 

businesses in Ardmore at the dawn of 

the twentieth century. 



The Daily Ardmoreite, shown here 

in 2010, moved into the Gilbert 

Building in 1966. Built in 1930 by 

architect J. B. White, the building was 

the home of numerous businesses in 

the mid-twentieth century, including 

the Masonic Lodge, Oklahoma Gas 

and Electric, and the Ardmore 

Little Theater. 


The Daily Ardmoreite, c. 1895. 



C h a p t e r I ✦ 1 1

Above: After fire swept through the 

young city of Ardmore, a local 

newspaperman wrote on April 19, 

1895, “Ardmore is laid waste; 

fortunes and bright prospects are 

wrecked and blasted; devastation and 

ruin surround us. The fire-fiend 

spared little. Main Street has been 

almost licked clean of buildings. 

The many new handsome bricks, 

Ardmore’s pride, are blackened and 

shapeless debris.” 



water supply was from wells and cisterns and 

was totally inadequate in case of fire. 

Despite warnings, city leaders did nothing 

about fire protection. The town’s first major 

disaster struck in the early morning hours of 

April 19, 1895, when fire started in a livery 

stable on North Caddo Street and swept 

through the main part of town. Fueled by high 

winds, the blaze destroyed 86 commercial 

buildings and private residences. Men, women, 

and children futilely fought the flames. The 

cotton gin exploded, a dreadful sound that 

could be heard for miles around. Ammunition 

exploded in hardware stores. Prisoners in the 

federal jail on Mill Street were taken to the 

Broadway Baptist Church. 

Right: The fire that consumed much of 

downtown Ardmore in 1895 began at 

Harper’s Livery Stable on 

Caddo Street. 




The young town was nearly wiped out by 

the fire, but residents immediately began 

rebuilding. Within days, walls of new buildings 

began to rise from the ashes. This time, the 

store fronts were uniform. Gone were gaps 

between buildings and structures jutting 

several feet from adjacent buildings. Among 

the businesses destroyed was the wholesale 

grocery business owned by Sam and Ed Noble. 

The Nobles had arrived in Ardmore in 1893. 

Undaunted by the fire, the Nobles moved 

across the street and opened a hardware 

store. Young Lloyd Noble delivered goods for 

the Noble store until he left for college at 

Durant in 1914. 


Within three weeks of the “great fire,” 

a volunteer fire department was 

officially established on May 7, 1895, 

with twenty-three charter members. 



Members of Ardmore’s first fire 

department. 



The Noble Brothers Hardware 

Store, 1896. 



C h a p t e r I ✦ 1 3

Above: The Eaves-Brady cabin at its 

original location near Pooleville 

in 1970. 



Below: Ardmore’s Methodist 

Church, 1909. 



After the 1895 fire, a mass town meeting was 

called, resulting in the formation of a volunteer 

fire company with John O’Mealy as the fire chief. 

When another, smaller fire broke out east near 

the Santa Fe tracks, the Board of Trade met and 

purchased 600 feet of fire hose and an engine. 

The town’s first schools were private, subscription 

schools, including King’s College, 

Hargrove College, and the Catholic St. Agnes 

Academy. In 1890, citizens donated $100 

to build a small one-room 

school house. Tuition for the 

first through the fourth grade 

was $1.50 per month. In the 

early years, churches were 

formed for Methodist, Baptist, 

Jewish, Catholic, Seventh-Day 

Adventist, and Presbyterian 

congregations. Civic groups 

and fraternal orders also 

opened local chapters. 

Ginning and selling cotton 

and coal and asphalt mining 

became two of the town’s principal 

industries. Shortly after 

1890, Ardmore became one of 

the great inland cotton markets 

in the world. Historian Paul 

Frame wrote, “The long, hot, 

dry summers of southern Oklahoma proved to be 

especially advantageous for the raising of cotton…For 

many years nearly all of the cotton 

raised between the Washita and Red rivers was 

ginned and sold in Ardmore.” Heavy-loaded cotton 

wagons often blocked downtown streets during 

harvest time. 

Ardmore officially became a city on April 16, 

1898, when an Indian Territory federal judge 

approved a petition for the town to become a 

“city of the second class.” The city moved up to 

a “first-class” statutory city the following year. 

Elections were held as the first act of the official 

city government. Thirty candidates ran for 

mayor, five aldermen, and other offices, including 

city marshal. John Galt was elected the first 

mayor and A. S. Pulliam was selected by the 

1,149 voters as the first marshal. The officers 

were sworn in on July 6, 1898. 

A municipal electric generation plant was 

built and the first telephone service was provided. 

A city public school system was formed with 

four numbered ward schools. More than 500 

children attended the first public schools. With 

the Dawes Commission carrying out the wishes 

of Congress in closing out the tribal affairs of the 

Five Tribes in Indian Territory, whites for the 

first time could purchase and own land for 

homes and businesses. 


In the early 1900s two new railroads came to 

Ardmore from the east. The Rock Island and the 

Frisco brought more people to settle. City Lake 

was built, the first water system was installed, 

and sewer lines were laid. In 1901 the Ardmore 

National Bank was organized with Lee Cruce, 

Oklahoma’s second governor, as president. By 

statehood, Ardmore National was the largest 

bank in the city. 

The first regular hospital came to 

Ardmore in 1901 when Dr. Walter Hardy 

and two other physicians placed ten hospital 

beds, a laboratory, and an x-ray 

machine on the second floor of the Ramsey 

Drug Store at Main and Caddo streets. It 

was called the Ardmore Sanitarium until 

Dr. Hardy, the first doctor with a medical 

diploma to practice in the city, established 

the Hardy Sanitarium in 1911. Hardy also 

established Ardmore’s first radio broadcasting 

station, WOOA, whose signal could be 

heard from a tower on top of the sanitarium. 

Later, in 1935, KVSO became the city’s 

radio station. 

In 1905, Charles Evans moved from 

Kentucky to Ardmore to take the job of 

school superintendent. Teaching was “missionary 

work” of the highest order for Evans 

who stimulated the city and school board to 

raise money for construction of a modern high 

school. Evans, one of Oklahoma’s most revered 

educators, later was president of Central State 

Teacher’s College, now the University of Central 

Oklahoma, and Kendall College, now the 

University of Tulsa. In 1908, he was elected the 

first president of the Oklahoma Education 

Association. He also served as Secretary of the 

Oklahoma Historical Society. 

Top: City Lake, 1923. 



Above: The historic train depot at 

Ardmore, 2010. 


Below: The official portrait of 

Governor Lee Cruce. 



C h a p t e r I ✦ 1 5


Hardy Sanitarium, 1940. 



Hardy Sanitarium was first 

established in this two-story structure 

in 1911. 



While head of the Ardmore schools, Evans 

named the ward schools after American leaders 

Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham 

Lincoln, and George Washington. To honor 

Evans’ contributions, a modern elementary 

school in the Ardmore system is named for him. 

Formerly used by the United States 

government during wartime, Dr. 

Hardy’s “airplane ambulance” 

included a 200-horsepower engine 

and traveled at speeds of nearly 

eighty miles per hour. One column 

noted, “Dr. Hardy or one of his 

numerous assistants may most any 

day be seen or rather heard speeding 

through space going to the aid of, or 

returning with a patient strapped in a 

special bed built in the fuselage.” 



Evans also sponsored the first library. The 

Carnegie Library had been built, but had no 

books and was used for an auditorium. Evans 

accepted books donated by citizens and hired 

the first public librarian. In a bold move as 

superintendent, he began the practice of 

raising the American flag over school buildings 

Hardy’s Sanitarium ambulance. 




each day. Even in the early years of the twentieth 

century before Indian Territory became 

Oklahoma, previous school administrators flew 

the Confederate flag over Ardmore schools. 

The first automobiles appeared on Ardmore 

streets in 1906. Oil man Wirt Franklin owned 

one of the first vehicles. One car owner 

charged fifty cents for rides up and down 

Main Street. In April 1907, fifteen miles of 

street car tracks were laid by the Ardmore 

Electric Railway Company. Main Street and 

major residential streets were paved. Streets 

were lighted, giving rise to nighttime gatherings 

of citizens discussing the pros and cons of 

Above and left: KVSO, the “Voice of 

Southern Oklahoma.” 



Below: On the air at 

Ardmore’s KVSO. 



C h a p t e r I ✦ 1 7

Clockwise, starting from the top, left: 

The Carnegie Library in Ardmore, 

March of 1907. 



This unique 1910 photograph 

captures the “seven early pioneer 

doctors of Carter County. From left to 

right they include Higgins, Dowdy, 

Boadway, Darling, Hardy, Tidmore, 

and Cantrell.” 



Oklahoma being admitted to the Union as two 

states—one from Indian Territory and another 

from Oklahoma Territory—or a single state 

combining the Twin Territories. Most leaders 

in Ardmore, including the most prominent 

Chickasaw political figure, Charles David 

Carter, did not believe that Indian Territory 

should be added to the United States as its 

own state of Sequoyah. Political decisions made 

far away in Washington, D.C., would soon 

decide the fate of Ardmore and all other 

cities and towns in what would become the 

forty-sixth state—Oklahoma. 

Charles Evans Elementary 

School, 1970. 




C H A P T E R 

I I 

STATEHOOD AND THE COMING OF OIL 

Based upon a series of complicated political decisions, President Theodore Roosevelt and 

Congress decided that statehood was possible only if Indian Territory and Oklahoma Territory were 

combined into a single new state. 

During 1906 and 1907 the voices of Ardmore’s leaders were heard in the debate. W. A. Ledbetter 

of Ardmore was elected to the constitutional convention in Guthrie. As chairman of the judiciary 

committee, he played a prominent role in the framing of the Oklahoma constitution. The 

convention’s work was closely followed by Ardmore newspapers. When the convention divided 

the new state into seventy-seven counties, Ardmore was chosen as the county seat of Carter County, 

named for Charles David Carter. 

An early photograph of the Carter 

County Courthouse. 



C h a p t e r I I ✦ 1 9

every county office and voters favored 

Democratic candidates for every state and 

national post. 

Statehood came on November 16, 1907. 

There was little public display reported by newspapers, 

perhaps because the coming of statehood 

also meant the Chickasaw Nation and Indian 

Territory ceased to exist. However, The Daily 

Ardmoreite reported, “In the city sounded the 

glad tidings…that another star had been added 

to the bright galaxy of stars in the field of blue.” 

Ardmore, with a population of 12,000, was 

twenty years older than the new state. Historian 

Paul Frame wrote: 

Buffalo bones still were scattered over the 

Ardmore townsite when the Santa Fe railroad 

came…and herds of wild horses and deer could 

be seen by the travelers riding in the stagecoach 

between Ardmore and Healdton…At first a few 

stores, then more stores and homes, and finally 

an expanding trade center with large brick 

buildings, a federal court, a city government, 

electric lights, telephones, and paved streets. 

This swift growth of Ardmore had been like that 

of scores of other towns in Indian and Oklahoma 

territories, but that does not make the transformation 

in any way less remarkable. 

The cornerstone of the grand Carter 

County Courthouse was laid on 

December 15, 1910. The building, 

shown here in 2010, was remodeled in 

1976 and is listed on the National 

Register of Historic Places. It is 

believed that the courthouse clock is 

among only a few left in the state that 

are still working today. 


At the first primary election on June 8, 1907, 

Carter was elected to Congress from the Third 

Congressional district, a post he held for the 

first two decades of statehood. His election was 

assured because he had served as mineral 

trustee for the Choctaw and Chickasaw tribes. 

Two men from Ardmore were major candidates 

in Oklahoma’s first election. Lee Cruce was 

defeated by Charles Haskell as the state’s first 

governor, although Cruce was elected 

Oklahoma’s second governor in 1910. Henry 

Furman lost in the race for United States 

Senator to Robert L. Owen. Democrats won 

Although the rich soil and native grasses of 

Carter County had first attracted ranchers to the 

area, the region had a more valued treasure 

beneath its gently rolling landscape—oil. 

Shortly after statehood ranching was still king. 

In 1909, Carter County boasted nearly 100,000 

acres of good farmland covered mostly with cotton, 

corn, and oats. 

Growing cotton necessitated the building of 

cotton gins and huge warehouse operations. 

Max Westheimer, who had arrived on the 

railroad in 1887, was recognized as an expert 

cotton sampler—his grade marks on a bale were 

never questioned by cotton firms to which 

Carter County cotton was shipped. Westheimer’s 

business interests later were assumed by his 

son-in-law, Walter Neustadt, who also dabbled 

successfully in the oil business. 

In 1911 the Chickasaw Telephone Company 

sold its exchange and lines to the Pioneer 

Telephone and Telegraph Company, a predecessor 

of Southwestern Bell Telephone Company. 


The first telephone exchange was established 

in 1898 by Dr. A. J. Wolverton and Clarence 

Ross. Fifty residents and businesses signed 

up for the first telephones. By 1911, 1,209 

subscribers were part of the system. After the 

oil boom, the Ardmore Exchange grew to 

nearly 2,300 customers. 

Although oil was not discovered in Carter 

County in a big way until 1913, Plains Indians 

had been aware of oil seeps for generations. 

They scooped oil from springs and used it 

for medicine for themselves and their animals. 

After the Chickasaws occupied the area, the 

Chickasaw Nation paid attention to what they 

called “medicine springs.” Boyd Springs, on 

Oil Creek northeast of Ardmore, was a muchused 

camp site. Indians sometimes gathered 

around the natural seep and forced a tube or 

gun barrel into the ground to tap the escaping 

natural gas. As the gas spewed, it was set afire 

to provide light. 

A shallow test well was drilled in the 

Healdton area as early as 1888. It was capped 

and the unknown prospector disappeared into 

the pages of history without the recording of his 

full name. The first commercial oil production 

in the county came in 1905 when the Santa Fe 

Railroad drilled producing wells at Oil Prairie 

northwest of Lone Grove. Oil was only thirty 

cents per barrel, so the production did not 

create any stir for local investors. 

The oil boom began on August 4, 1913, 

when the Plains Development Company, a 

partnership of five Ardmore men, Roy M. 

Johnson, Edward Galt, Samuel Apple, A. T. 

McGee, and Wirt Franklin, brought in a well 

that produced twenty-five barrels of oil daily 

from 920 feet. Apple and Franklin were law 

partners in Ardmore and owned 400 acres of 

land west of Healdton which they had bought 

for ranching, but partnered with Johnson, 

McGhee, and Galt to drill a test well to 

determine once and for all if oil was present in 

any large quantities in the area. Johnson came 

to Ardmore in 1908 and published a newspaper 

and managed a printing business. Galt 

mortgaged his mother’s home and combined 

the proceeds of the loan to join his partners for 

their first venture in the oil business. 

The Daily Ardmoreite duly noted the first 

commercially-successful well, writing that 

rumors existed that the “main pool of oil” may 

have been struck by the current drilling. The 

newspaper, in a front page story, predicted that 

the discovery of oil might make Ardmore grow 

as fast and as big as Tulsa. 

Above: An early view of Ardmore 

looking west along Main Street at the 

intersection of Washington Street, 

c. 1910. 



Below: Pioneer oil and businessman 

Max Westheimer. 



C h a p t e r I I ✦ 2 1

2 2 ✦ C A R T E R C O U N T Y , O K L A H O M A T h e n a n d N o w 

News of the producing oil well started a 

frenzy. A second well produced 300 barrels 

a day. In fifteen months, there were 275 

producing wells. Most production was 

completed by independent oil men, resulting 

in Ardmore being called the “Cradle of 

the Independent Petroleum Association of 

America (IPAA).” The prestigious IPPA 

was formed in 1914 in Colorado Springs, 

Colorado, and immediately moved its offices 

to Ardmore, with Wirt Franklin as its 

president. Ardmore attorney Jake Hamon 

was also active in convincing oil producers 

to conserve both the land and the oil beneath 

it. Hamon later became chairman of the 

American Petroleum Institute and the National 

Petroleum Council.

Opposite, top: The Chickasaw 

Telephone Company installation 

crew, 1890. 



Opposite, bottom: A crowd gathers 

at Grand Avenue and C Street in 

Ardmore on August 4, 1913, to 

witness the driving of the first spike 

into the railroad line that would 

extend west to Ringling. Governor Lee 

Cruce is holding a sledgehammer and 

John Ringling’s railroad partner, 

Jake Hamon, is in a white suit. 



The oil boom resulted in the founding of Wirt, 

a town of sheet iron, clapboard, and tent houses 

and commercial buildings. It was the hub of 

the drilling activity was dubbed “Ragtown.” 

The cry of “Ragtown—50 cents” was heard in 

the streets of Ardmore as truck drivers sought 

customers to take to Wirt which was a sprawling, 

brawling, and littered community. Many fires hit 

the town’s shanty-like structures. Some called 

Wirt “the town that was always burning.” 

The discovery of oil in Carter County is 

viewed as one of the most significant events 

in petroleum history. In 1917 wells in the 

Healdton Field contributed seventeen percent 

of the entire state’s production in an era when 

Oklahoma frequently led the nation in oil 

production. The field reached its peak in 1919. 

By 1949 it ranked as the twenty-fourth largest 

field ever opened in the United States, and is 

still a major producer today from secondary 

Above: New State Hardware and 

Harness Company was located at 215 

West Main Street in Ardmore, 1911. 



Bottom, left: The post office in 

Wirt, 1915. 



Bottom, right: Wirt Franklin, 1950. 



C h a p t e r I I ✦ 2 3

ecovery efforts. Because of the relative 

shallow nature of the large oil pools in 

the region, and the cheapness of 

drilling wells, the Healdton Field 

became known as the “poor man’s 

field.” The Hewitt Field, discovered in 

1919, is the nation’s seventieth largest field. 

Because the two fields were so close, their 

importance in petroleum history is often 

referred to as the Healdton-Hewitt Field. 

Many legendary names of the world’s oil and 

gas industry got their start in the Healdton- 


Hewitt Oil Field. William “Bill” Skelly brought 

his cable tools to Healdton and drilled 

some of the first wells in the new field. Skelly 

Oil became one of the nation’s largest oil 

companies in later decades. The McMann 

Oil Company, composed of P. A. Chapman, 

R. M. McFarlin, and J. A. Chapman, was one 

of the region’s largest producers. In 1916 

McMann sold its holdings in the Healdton Field 

for $36 million to the Magnolia Oil Company. 

Oklahoma oil pioneers, such as Robert A. 

Hefner, Sr., Erle Halliburton, and Lloyd Noble, 

set up operations in the Healdton Field. 

Halliburton invented a new method for 

cementing wells and created one of the world’s 

largest and enduring companies. 

Opposite, clockwise, starting from top: 

A Noble Drilling Company crew 

working a well near Ardmore 

in 1930. 



A well-pulling crew at work in 

“Ragtown” in 1920. Left to right are 

Lucian Bryant, Ira Patterson, and 

Lawrence W. Pryor. 



An oil “gusher” on the Healdton field 

in 1910. 



Above: Halliburton offices at 

Healdton, 1950. 



Left: In 1950, pioneer driller Bob 

Stuchel returned to the site of the first 

oil well drilled in Carter County, at 

Oil Springs on Oil Prairie north of 

Lone Grove. 



C h a p t e r I I ✦ 2 5

Above: Ardmore’s Whittington Hotel 

lobby in 1900. 



Below: The site of the disastrous cargo 

explosion of 1915 in Ardmore. 



Hefner, an Ardmore lawyer who later 

became a justice of the Oklahoma Supreme 

Court, introduced the concept of subsurface 

leasing into mineral rights law. Noble 

developed an international oil business 

and established the Samuel Roberts Noble 

Foundation, a nonprofit biotechnology 

foundation that helps farmers. 

Coincidentally, on the same day the first oil 

well began production, Ardmore financier Jake 

Hamon and Governor Lee Cruce drove the first 

spike on construction of the Ringling Railroad 

which ran west into the oil field and sparked 

new growth. As the oil boom continued, 

Ardmore became the center of an important 

refining region. 


Oil brought new riches to Ardmore and 

Carter County and changed the face of the area 

forever. New churches, schools, and other 

public facilities were built. Because of the 

influx of oil field workers, new businesses were 

established. Joe Brown, an orphan Cherokee 

lad from Muskogee, Oklahoma, came to find 

work in the oil fields. While raising a family of 

twelve children, Brown drilled oil and water 

wells until he joined four sons in forming the 

Joe Brown Company to furnish road and 

building materials. Later the company became 

a major supplier of ready-mix concrete. 

In September 1915 a second major disaster 

hit Ardmore. A railroad tank car filled with 

casing head gas exploded, killing forty-nine 

people and injuring hundreds more. The blast, 

said to be equal to the devastation caused by 

400,000 pounds of dynamite, literally split 

Main Street wide open. Dozens of buildings 

were leveled and hundreds were damaged. One 

writer said, “Houses quivered and Ardmore was 

chilled with fear.” The city’s wholesale district 

east and west of the railroad was reduced to 

ruins. The Santa Fe quickly brought in doctors 

and nurses to treat the injured. Many were 

Left and below: The 1915 cargo 

explosion resulted in the collapse of 

this section of the four-story 

Whittington Hotel. 



C h a p t e r I I ✦ 2 7

Hargrove College in Ardmore, 1900. 



taken to the Hardy Sanitarium where the least 

injured were placed on the front lawn until 

rooms were available for their treatment. 

It was a time of chaos. Acting Mayor J. M. 

Hoard declared martial law and Chief of Police 

Bob Hutchens drafted local townspeople to help 

prevent looting and keep order. Oil man Bob 

McFarlin wrote a personal check for $1,000 

to help with the relief effort. That began a large 

influx of checks from oil companies and 

interested citizens in several states. Ultimately, 

the Santa Fe paid more than $1.1 million to 

rebuild its own property and to reimburse 1,750 

businesses and individuals for their losses. 

Just like the city had done after the fire in 

1895, Ardmore built back, “bigger and better 

than before.” With money from the Santa Fe and 

insurance companies, businesses resumed operation 

within months and Ardmore flourished. 

In 1917, Bloomfield Academy, a Chickasaw 

girls school, relocated to Hargrove College in 

Ardmore after fire destroyed its campus near 

Achille. The school, founded in 1852, was 

renamed Carter Seminary. It became co-educational 

in 1949 and closed shortly thereafter. 

There was a down side to the new growth 

brought by economic prosperity in Carter 

County. Crime in the oil fields got out of 

hand. Gambling, bootlegging, and generally 

disorderly behavior became common. The 

Ku Klux Klan was organized in the county. 

Wives of Klan members sometimes handed 

out Christmas baskets, but the ugliness of the 

purpose of the organization was never well 

hidden. Ministers and other local leaders 

initiated the battle against vice and the Klan. 

Bob Hutchins was elected police chief of 

Ardmore during the oil boom. He, County 

Sheriff Buck Garrett, and Chief Deputy Bud 

Ballew, began a systematic removal of criminals 

and their exploits. Once Hutchins captured a 

rail carload of whiskey and poured it into the 


gutters of the streets. Hutchins, earlier in his life 

as a U.S. marshal in Indian Territory, had fatally 

shot the husband of notorious outlaw Belle Star 

in the Criner Hills, southwest of Ardmore. 

Ballew became nationally known as an Old 

West lawman. He shot and killed several men 

in gunfights. When millionaire Jake Hamon’s 

girlfriend was accused of shooting him in 1920, 

Ballew was often mentioned in the nation’s 

newspapers as he scoured the country to bring 

the suspect back to Ardmore to stand trial. The 

trial itself, which resulted in the girlfriend’s 

acquittal, was major news, especially in crime 

magazines of the day. Reporters filled the 

county courthouse to glean details of the 

scandalous story. Hamon was Republican 

National Committeeman from Oklahoma and 

was slated to become a member of President 

Warren Harding’s cabinet. Ballew was killed by 

an ex-lawman in 1922. 

Above: Tom Cooper Farms plant. 



Below: Lighthouse Assembly of God 

opened at this location along Lake 

Murray Drive in Ardmore in 1935. 

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF JOE AND 

RUTH MOORE. 

C h a p t e r I I ✦ 2 9

Left to right: County Sheriff Buck 

Garrett and Chief Deputy Bud Ballew. 



That same year, Sheriff Buck Garrett was 

removed from office by the governor after 

protests came from citizens who were concerned 

that lawlessness remained unchecked. 

After a countywide cleanup and the appointment 

of a new sheriff, Ardmore and Carter 

County entered an era of peace. 

In 1925, Oklahoma Gas and Electric 

Company purchased Ardmore’s electric system 

from a Chicago company that had owned the 

local electric plant since it was built by the 

Busch Company of St. Louis in 1908. At the 

time, OG&E only served Oklahoma City and 

Enid, Oklahoma. Immediately OG&E added 

transmission lines and generating capacity to 

enable high-power-usage customers to tap into 

the system. In 1925 there were only five customers 

using more than 100 horsepower. 

Many oilmen who came to Carter County 

because of the discovery of oil stayed and 

became prominent citizens. Charles B. Goddard 

arrived in Ardmore in 1929 after he retired as 

director and one of the largest stockholders of 

the giant Humble Oil and Refining Company. 

Goddard opened an investment and royalty 

office in Ardmore and began buying land in the 

foothills of the Arbuckle Mountains. Eventually 

owning more than 10,000 acres, the Goddard 

Ranch included 200 wild animals from all over 

the world. Goddard became of the town’s 

greatest supporters. 

In 1928, Colvert Dairy Products Company 

introduced pasteurized milk to southern 

Oklahoma. The company, founded in 1918, built 

a new plant that provided milk for decades to 

grocery stores across the region. Colvert later 

brought the first completely mechanically refrigerated 

delivery fleet to the area, a far cry from the 

horse-drawn milk wagon used in prior times. 

Another nationally famous dairy herd was 

founded in the 1920s in the county. Tom 

Cooper bought a herd of Guernsey dairy cattle 

in 1927 and began distributing milk in 

Ardmore. The Cooper Guernseys won thousands 

of trophies, ribbons, and championships 

at fairs and dairy shows. Later, Cooper Farms 

constructed a modern million-dollar plant to 

process milk and other dairy products. 

The Great Depression of the 1930s had a 

devastating effect upon the price of oil and 

other commodities which made up the Carter 

County economy. The prolonged drought that 

accompanied the most severe economic downturn 

in modern history changed the use of the 

farmland in the county. Cotton no longer 

was economically feasible to produce. The land 

frequently was converted into ranchland. The 

Oklahoma Pecan Growers Association was 

formed in Ardmore. 

Even though businesses suffered, county residents 

worked to retain the quality of life and 

prosperity of the oil boom and the 1920s. Hardy 

Murphy, “Mr. Ardmore,” helped create the 

Junior Chamber of Commerce and the Ardmore 

Roundup Club. He headed many local drives 

such as the Red Cross and March-of-Dimes, 

chaired Ardmore’s annual birthday celebration 

for many years, and assisted in the founding of 

the Ardmore real estate board. In the decades 


efore he arrived in Ardmore, Murphy and his 

horse, “Buck,” were headliners at New York 

City’s Madison Square Garden. Murphy and 

Buck even appeared before the Queen of 

England. Murphy’s contributions were recognized 

when the Fair Grounds Coliseum was 

renamed the Hardy Murphy Coliseum. 

In the middle of the Depression, two significant 

events occurred in Carter County. In 1932, 

Lloyd Noble entered the oil production business. 

He had been in the oil drilling business 

since 1921 when he and Wyoming driller, Art 

Olson, formed the Noble Drilling Company. 

Noble Drilling moved from boom to boom and 

played a major role in developing oil fields in 

Seminole, Oklahoma, Texas and Louisiana, and 

in the British Isles. Noble was the first contractor 

to explore the Gulf of Mexico from a 

portable drilling barge and the first to drill a 

well from an off-shore platform. 

Because of the lack of drilling in the 

Depression, Noble moved into production and 

created the Samedan Oil Corporation, named 

for his children, Sam, Ed, and Ann. While 

expanding his interests all over the world, 

Noble found time to serve two terms on the 

Left: Lloyd Noble, 1920. 



Below: The family of Von Creel 

enjoyed life in Ardmore and Carter 

County. Pictured here at the county 

clerk’s office in 1939 is Doc Creel, 

former Carter County Clerk, Gerry 

McCharin, Chief Land Person, Velma 

Halliman, and Carl Stringer. 

C h a p t e r I I ✦ 3 1


Opposite: Hardy Murphy and “Buck” 

lead a parade along Main Street in 

downtown Ardmore in 1930. 



Left: Hardy Murphy and “Buck.” 



Below: Hardy Murphy Coliseum, 

in 1960. 



University of Oklahoma Board of Regents and 

was the first Republican to serve in the 

Oklahoma House of Representatives from 

Carter County. In 1945 he recognized the need 

to conserve the land that was being scarred 

by the oil industry and by poor agricultural 

practices and founded the Samuel Roberts 

Noble Foundation, in honor of his merchant 

father, whom he termed, “the most charitable 

man I have ever known.” Lloyd Noble died just 

five years later and left the bulk of his estate to 

support the foundation he created. 

The other Depression-era event was the 

1933 Oklahoma legislature’s action that provided 

funding for the construction of Lake 

C h a p t e r I I ✦ 3 3

Right: The construction of Lake 

Murray, 1934. 



Below: Tucker Tower. 



Murray in southern Carter County and northern 

Love County. Ardmore State Senator Louis 

Fischl was trying to get the bill passed in the 

spring of 1933 when he ran 

into a roadblock. Funding was 

impossible until Fischl and 

other Ardmore leaders came 

up with the idea to name 

the new lake after Governor 

William H. “Alfalfa Bill” 

Murray. When the idea was 

proposed, the bill sailed 

through the legislature and 

was signed into law within a 

week. A few months later, 

work began on the 22,000- 

acre lake and recreation area. 

Tucker Tower, the famous 

landmark, was built with 

funds from President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s 

New Deal programs to help soften the ravages 

of the Great Depression. 


C H A P T E R 

I I I 

WAR YEARS AND POST-WAR ECONOMY 

Carter County residents overwhelmingly approved of America’s entry into World War II after 

Japanese planes attacked Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on December 6, 1941. As young men and women 

volunteered for military service, the U.S. Army chose a site near Gene Autry in northeast Carter 

County to build an Army Air Force base to train pilots and air crews of fighters and bombers. 

Initially a glider training program was slated for the facility known as Ardmore Army Air Field, 

but the Fourth Air Force used the base primarily to train B-17 and B-26 bomber pilots and crews. 

The base was officially activated on August 4, 1942, and was home to the 394th and 395th 

Bombardment Groups. The 394th served in combat with the Ninth Air Force in England, France, 

and Germany. Prisoners of war were interned at the base toward the end of the war. When hostilities 

ceased, the base was deactivated in 1946. 

The air field was not the city’s first airport. In 1920, World War I aviators Art Oakley and Dorsey 

Askew established an airport in a pasture on the north side of town east of the Carter Seminary. 

They built a large wooden hangar as the airport became a center of aviation in Oklahoma. It was 

nationally known as a staging area for barnstorming and stunt flying. 

Oakley, who appeared in early movies, started a flying school. With the help of Dr. Walter Hardy, 

Oakley established the world’s first air ambulance, flying sick and injured people to regional 

medical centers. After famed aviator Wiley Post lost his eye in an oilfield accident in Seminole in 

1927, he bought his first airplane in Ardmore for $300 and took lessons from Oakley. Later in 1935, 

Post became the first pilot to fly alone around the world and discovered the jet stream. 

As a result of the Korean War and the outbreak of the Cold War, the U.S. Air Force reopened 

the airport facility near Gene Autry as Ardmore Air Force Base in 1953. The base was used by the 

Tactical Air Command’s Eighteenth Air Force and attached to the 463rd Troop Carrier Wing, a 

reserve unit activated during the Korean conflict. In 1955 a tactical assault unit was assigned to the 

base. The following year the first C-130 Hercules transport planes in the Air Force were delivered 

to Ardmore Air Force Base. After the Air Force used the base for tactical airlift training for several 

years, it was again deactivated in 1959. 

Arthur Oakley, Mahota Nichols 

Oakley and Dorsey “Skew” Askew 

stand between an airplane and the 

Oakleys new Buick at the Ardmore 

airfield in 1925. 



C h a p t e r I I I ✦ 3 5

Above: Oakley-Askew Flying Field, 

in 1925. 



Below: Ardmore students join the 

war effort. 



The former Air Force Base was eventually 

converted into an industrial park and the 

Ardmore Municipal Airport that has an FAA 

staffed control tower, full instrumentation, 

parking capacity for up to 100 commercial 

sized aircraft of more than 36,000 square feet of 

hangar space. 

Much of the credit for bringing the Air Force 

base to Ardmore was due the Ardmore Chamber 

of Commerce. The group began as the Trade 

Club and Commercial Club in early years. 

In 1914 the organization changed its name 

to the Chamber of Commerce. The chamber 

encouraged the building of new roads, helped 

underwrite the cost of the Ringling Railroad, 

supported the building of Lake Murray, and 

convinced American Airlines to use the former 

Ardmore Air Force Base as a training facility. 

After World War II, America’s national pastime, 

baseball, returned to Ardmore. The city had 

been home to professional minor league baseball 

teams since 1904 and had sporadically played 

under team names such as the Territorians, Blues, 

Giants, Indians, Peps, Bearcats, and Boomers. In 

1947, the Ardmore Indians, with manager Dutch 

Prather, played in the Sooner State League. Over 

the years, eight Ardmore managers were former 

major league players. 

After five years as the Indians, the Ardmore 

team in 1952 became the Class D farm club of 

the St. Louis Cardinals and was called the 

Ardmore Cardinals. The team played to a full 

house for home games. In 1953 the local team’s 

star was Jackie Brandt who later had a decent 

eleven-year career in the major leagues. 

Professional baseball ended in Ardmore in 1961. 


Above: Ardmore Air Force Base, 

in 1957. 



Left: The Ardmore Industrial Airport, 

in 2010. 

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF JULIA DABNEY. 


Above: The first Texas-Oklahoma 

league baseball club posed for this 

photograph in Ardmore in 1920. 



Below: A May Day celebration at 

Whittington Park in Ardmore 

in 1910. 



Ardmore provided park facilities for residents 

for almost its entire existence. Whittington Park 

was built in 1901. Other city parks were added 

and maintained by the city. 

In 1950 the Ardmore Jaycees 

began a drive for a zoo. With a 

gift of a monkey from the Lincoln 

Park Zoo in Oklahoma City, and the 

help of welders in the area, cages 

were built to house the animals. 

Hundreds of people flocked to the 

fair grounds on sunny afternoons 

and brought animals for the zoo 

collection. Wolves, raccoons, squirrels, 

and foxes were added. Jaycees 

raised money to house a black bear, 

brought by two young boys from 

Pauls Valley. The bear was purchased 

for $15 and added to the zoo’s inventory. 

When a circus headquartered at Hugo, 

Oklahoma, went out of business, the Jaycees 

bought its two African lions. 


The need for a modern hospital in Ardmore 

resulted in the formation of the Southern 

Oklahoma Memorial Foundation (SOMF) in 

1950. Local leaders raised money from businesses 

and individuals to construct a new airconditioned 

facility that opened for business 

with 100 beds in May 1955, and greatly 

improved medical service to the people of 

southern Oklahoma. After the initial cost of the 

construction of Southern Oklahoma Memorial 

Hospital was paid, the foundation worked to 

establish an endowment for its maintenance. 

In 1996 new challenges facing independent 

hospitals resulted in the sale of the hospital to 

the Sisters of Mercy Health System. The sale 

produced $48 million that added to the existing 

endowment to make SOMF one of the state’s 

largest foundations. In the changing landscape 

after the sale of the hospital, John Snodgrass 

guided the SOMF in making grants to nonprofit 

organizations within a 50-mile radius 

of Ardmore. The grants reflected the original 

purpose of SOMF to “properly care for the 

inhabitants of this area.” 

SOMF projects have included the Good 

Shepherd Clinic, health care for citizens who 

cannot afford traditional health care, and the 

Take 2 Academy, established to help students 

who lacked certain social skills and needed a 

different environment in which to learn. 

Academy Director James Meese, a former public 

high school principal, said, “The funds invested 

in these children will return a hundredfold.” 

SOMF also has funded major operations of 

the Carter County Health Department, including 

a rural teen health conference, operational 

funds for the Ardmore Regional Park and the 

H. F. V. Wilson Community Center, and supports 

day care centers, community leadership programs, 

and many other projects. SOMF provides 

scholarships to all Carter County high school 

graduates with a B average who do not have 

other resources to allow them to attend college. 

Today the Mercy Memorial Health Center is a 

full-service hospital with 175 licensed beds, 913 

workers, and 145 physicians. The hospital operates 

four primary care clinics with locations in 

Tishomingo, Ringling, and Wilson. 

In 1954 final plans were approved for a new 

swimming pool on the east edge of Ardmore. 

The city had operated a large swimming pool in 

Whittington Park since the late 1940s, but the 

pool was outdated when the Kiwanis Club 

turned over operation of the new facility to the 

Community Youth Foundation of Ardmore. The 

foundation was formed as a nonprofit organization 

to manage the swimming pool and construct 

the Ardmore Baseball Park at the end of 

East Main Street for the American Legion junior 

baseball program and the YMCA kids baseball 

league. The sixty acres of land owned by the 

foundation housed a large baseball diamond 

and grandstands that also served as the home 

of Ardmore’s minor league baseball team. 

The YMCA had been incorporated in Ardmore 

in 1945 with Lloyd Noble as its first president. In 

1955, the group established its home on A Street 

and launched summer camp programs at Lake 

Murray. The YWCA was organized in 1921 and 

dedicated a new building in 1939. In addition to 

summer programs for girls, the YWCA assisted 

wives of airmen at Ardmore Air Force Base during 

the two times the base was activated. 

In 1956 one of Carter County’s most prolific 

chroniclers of history died. John F. Easley wrote 

reams of comments and news about the county 

and its people for nearly sixty years as reporter, 

editor, and publisher of The Daily Ardmoreite. 

Easley was oil editor of the newspaper during 

the oil boom and became owner and publisher 

in 1919. In his “Rambling Reporter,” column, 

Easley gave readers insight into both the good 

and bad things about Carter County. 

Lake Murray State Park, 2010. 

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF CLAIRE DABNEY. 


Top: A 1950 view of Lake 

Murray Lodge. 



Above: Dornick Hills Country Club, 

in 1920. 



Golf has been popular in Carter County 

since World War I. Perry Maxwell turned his 

dairy farm into Dornick Hills Golf & Country 

Club in 1913 and 1914. It was the first golf 

course Maxwell designed and built. He later 

built many golf courses including Southern 

Hills and Prairie Dunes, both considered 

among the top fifty courses in the world. 

Maxwell also renovated another fifty courses, 

including Augusta National. 

Maxwell named the golf course Dornick 

Hills from the Gaelic word “dornick,” meaning 

“small rocks.” He had to remove thousands 

of small rocks from the course during 

construction. Maxwell is buried in his family 

cemetery on the ridge north of the seventh 

fairway. Dornick Hills was the first Oklahoma 

golf club affiliated with the United States Golf 

Association, was the first course in the state 

with Bermuda grass greens, and has often been 

ranked by Golf Digest as one of the top five golf 

courses in Oklahoma. 

Learning to play golf in Ardmore was native 

son, Charles “Charlie” Coe, considered by 

many as the nation’s greatest amateur golfer. He 

won the U.S. Amateur Championship in 1949 

and 1958. He was runner-up to Jack Nicklaus 

in 1959. Coe never turned professional, opting 

to choose to spend time with his wife and 

family. He made nineteen appearances in golf’s 

Masters Championship and holds almost every 

amateur record in the prestigious tournament. 

In 1961, Coe rallied in the final round from six 

shots down to finish one stroke behind Gary 

Player. The Charlie Coe Golf Center at the 

University of Oklahoma is named in his honor. 


In 1965 a group of oil men headed by J. A. 

Vickers assumed control of the only oil refining 

operation that remained in Carter County. At one 

time there were several refineries in the area, 

including the Pure Oil, Imperial, and Chickasaw. 

The Vickers facility that began many years before 

as the Cameron Refinery, was bought by Wirt 

Franklin, and operated under a variety of names. 

Vickers sold the facility to Total Petroleum 

which operated the refinery until it became the 

Valero Refinery. Oil comes to the Ardmore refinery 

by way of the Texoma Pipeline that opened in 

1975. In 2011, the Valero Refinery was one of 

only five refineries in Oklahoma. Together they 

refine three percent of the oil in the United States. 

The Chickasaw Historical Society of 

Southern Oklahoma was founded in 1965 to 

preserve the area’s varied and fascinating local 

history. Newspaper reporter Mac McGalliard, 

whose articles had often related historical facts, 

was the organization’s first president. 

In 1966 the Oklahoma Department of 

Vocational and Technical Education established 

the Southern Oklahoma Vo-Tech School in 

Ardmore. The facility, now known as the 

Southern Oklahoma Technology Center, has 

trained thousands of workers for area industries 

and helped industrial development by making 

available a skilled work force. 

Also in 1966, Oklahoma’s worst plane crash 

occurred in Carter County. On April 22 an 

American Flyers plane crashed near Ardmore, 

killing 83 people, 77 of them soldiers who 

had just completed basic training. American 

Flyers operated out of Ardmore’s Municipal 

Airport and contracted with military agencies 

and colleges and universities to provide charter 

flights for large groups of passengers. There is 

a memorial to victims placed at the site of 

the crash. 

Ardmore’s economy received a huge shot in 

the arm in 1968 when Oklahoma Governor 

Dewey Bartlett was on hand to announce that 

Uniroyal Tire Company had picked Ardmore for 

the site of a new $75 million tire manufacturing 

plant. Tire building was not entirely new to 

Carter County. In 1915 the Akron Tire and 

Rubber Company built a plant in Ardmore and 

continued operation into the 1920s. 

Above: The photographic archives 

of the Greater Southwest Historical 

Museum includes this historic 

campaign-stop photograph of U.S. 

President Harry Truman in front of a 

KVSO radio microphone. Though the 

location of this photograph is 

unknown, President Truman spoke at 

Memorial Park in Ardmore on 

September 28, 1948. 



Left: John Easley at The Daily 

Ardmoreite in 1950. 




Above: Several memorials stand in 

tribute near the airport’s Memorial 

Park, 2010. 

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF EMILY DABNEY. 

Right: The Daily Ardmoreite’s record 

of the tragic plane crash of 1966, 

exhibited at the Memorial Park. 

COURTESY OF THE DAILY ARDMOREITE. 

The Ardmore Uniroyal plant provided highpaying 

jobs and was one of the largest industrial 

development events of the 1960s and 1970s in 

Oklahoma. Eventually, the plant was known as 

the Uniroyal-Goodrich Tire Plant. In 1990, 

Michelin North America acquired the facility. 

Largely because of the tire making jobs, 

manufacturing was the leading county industry 

in 2000. 

In 1970 the Charles B. Goddard Center for 

the Visual and Performing Arts opened as the 

latest chapter in the long tradition of cultural 

aspirations and activities in Ardmore. Soon 

after the first crude homes and businesses were 

built nearly a century before, cultural events 

became part of life in Ardmore. One of the first 

public buildings was the Kloski Opera House, 

the first of several constructed in the city. The 

opera houses featured traveling companies of 

players and musicians and local performers. Art 

clubs, book review clubs, and Ardmore Little 

Theatre continued through the years as only a 

few of the many cultural opportunities available 

for residents. 

The Chickasaw Nation established the 

Chickasaw Foundation, a non-profit corporation, 


in 1971 to expedite charitable giving to educational 

and healthcare concerns. Not only do the 

Chickasaws provide scholarships to members 

of the Chickasaw Nation, other special projects 

are funded. 

The Chickasaws are focused on programs to 

assist the Nation with preserving and enriching 

its heritage. The Chickasaw Foundation teams 

with the University of Central Oklahoma to fund 

an American Indian Learners 

Conference. Chickasaw funds 

are also used to sponsor the 

study of arts and humanities in 

the cities and towns where large 

numbers of Chickasaws reside. 

The Daily Ardmoreite wrote in 

March, 1971: 

All-America Cities for 1970. Ardmore and 

Dallas, Texas, were the only cities west of 

the Mississippi River chosen for the award. 

Local leaders had made a presentation to the 

Municipal League the previous August in 

Portland, Oregon. It was not the only time 

Ardmore was recognized as a special place to 

live. Hugh Bayless has cited the city as one of 

the 50 Best Towns in America. 

Above: The Goddard Center, 1970. 



Below: The Kloski Opera House 

building stood at the corner of Main 

and Caddo Streets, 1900. 



Who would have thought 

that little old Ardmore, 

Oklahoma…noted too often in 

the past as a tough town of lawlessness 

and other strife…would 

someday be chosen as an All- 

America City. 

The newspaper was reporting 

the fact that the National 

Municipal League had named 

Ardmore as one of only eleven 


C H A P T E R 

I V 

MODERN ARDMORE 

Ardmore’s historic train station 

in 2010. 


Substantial economic growth has occurred in Ardmore in the past twenty-five years. A big reason 

is the city’s location. One of the nation’s main transportation arteries, Interstate 35, cuts north-south 

through the city. U.S. Highways 77, 70, and 177 also carry vehicles to and from the county. The 

Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railroad remains an active freight carrier. The Heartland Flyer, 

operated by Amtrak, provides daily rail passenger service to Ardmore’s historic Santa Fe depot. 

Because of excellent transportation arteries, the low cost of living, the low cost of construction 

and utilities, and abundant business incentives, the area is home to regional distribution centers 

for Best Buy, Dollar Tree, and Dollar General. The Ardmore Development Authority is a premier 

economic development organization, focusing on attracting new business and industry and 

retaining present businesses. The authority owns and operates four industrial parks with 3,400 

industrial acres and more than three million square feet under lease. The Ardmore Tourism 

Authority helps promote the natural and scenic beauty of the area. 

In 2011, the top fifteen employers in Ardmore were: Michelin North America, Mercy Memorial 

Health Center, Dollar General, Walmart Supercenter, Ardmore City Schools, the Noble Foundation, 

City of Ardmore, Valero Refinery, East Jordan Iron Works, Best Buy, Werner Trucking, IMTEC, First 

National Bank & Trust Company, and Dot Foods. Nearby is the WinStar World Casino, one of the 

largest casinos in the world that provides a major revenue stream to the Chickasaw Nation. 


Carter County prosperity has resulted 

in phenomenal charitable giving. The Noble 

Foundation is the state’s largest private 

foundation and the forty-fourth largest 

foundation in assets in the United States. When 

Lloyd Noble’s son, Sam, died in 1992, The 

Noble Foundation had contributed more 

than $100 million to worthy causes around 

the world, with the lion’s share of funds going 

to Oklahoma projects. In an editorial, The Daily 

Oklahoman paid tribute to Noble, “Sam Noble 

and his family are legends in philanthropy 

and public service. They are prime examples 

of unselfish public service and generosity… 

Sam Noble is one of those rare individuals 

who made his millions in business, but will 

be remembered more for the millions he 

gave away.” 

Above: Feedlots at the Noble 

Foundation, 1960. 



Below: Charles Goddard on his ranch 

in 1960. 

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY ARDMORE OF THE 


C h a p t e r I V ✦ 4 5

Clockwise, starting from top: 

Sam Noble, 1950. 



Governor Dewey Bartlett presents 

Ward Merrick for induction into the 

Oklahoma Hall of Fame, 1970. 



Overton James (middle), Governor of 

the Chickasaws, appoints William 

McGallaird (right) and Al Schmid as 

honorary Chickasaw Chiefs. 



More than a half century later, The 

Noble Foundation continues Lloyd 

Noble’s vision—to influence agriculture 

by improving production techniques and 

advancing plant science through research 

and discovery. The Noble Foundation 

operates three divisions—agricultural, 

plant biology, and forage improvement. 

The agricultural division helps agricultural 

producers in a 47-county area 

within a 100-mile radius of Ardmore 

from its 500-square-foot central campus. 

In addition to ongoing agricultural 

programs, The Noble Foundation has 

made large grants for a myriad of 

projects in Oklahoma. In recent years 

the foundation contributed $500,000 

to the new Oklahoma History Center. 

Appropriately, the gallery showcasing 

agriculture is named The Samuel Roberts 

Noble Foundation Gallery. The basketball 

arena at the University of Oklahoma, 

named the “Lloyd Noble Arena,” and the worldclass 

Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural 

History on the OU campus are prime examples 

of the generosity of the Noble Foundation and 

the Noble family. 

Another successful Ardmore oilman was 

Charles B. Goddard, originally from Ohio. Upon 

his death, Goddard bequeathed his fortune to 

the Charles B. Goddard Foundation Trust. 

Monies from his estate have helped fund the 

Charles B. Goddard Health Center at OU, the 

Goddard Center for Performing Arts in 

Ardmore, and The Goddard Youth Camp in the 

Arbuckle Mountains. 

Ward Merrick was another Ardmore oilman 

who generously contributed to charitable 

organizations during his lifetime. The Merrick 

Foundation, guided by Ward Merrick, Jr., and 

Elizabeth Merrick Coe, has long supported 

research and education at the Oklahoma 

Medical Research Foundation (OMRF). 

The Merrick Award was established at 

OMRF in 1983 to encourage and recognize 

outstanding young medical researchers at 

the institution. 

An Ardmore oil family that has contributed 

to Oklahoma charities and educational 

institutions is the Neustadt family. 

Walter and Dolores Neustadt gave the 

University of Oklahoma the land for Max 

Westheimer Airpark and funded a wing of 

Bizzell Memorial Library. The Neustadts also 

sponsor the Neustadt International Prize for 

Literature, a biennial award of $50,000 that 

honors leading international poets, novelists, 

and playwrights. The Prize, sponsored 

by OU and World Literature Today, was the 

first international literary award to originate 

in the United States. 


A new generation of the Neustadt family 

has established the NSK Neustadt Prize for 

Children’s Literature, honoring an accomplished 

contemporary writer of children’s literature 

every other year. The letters “NSK” stand for 

Nancy, Susan, and Kathy, the children of Walter 

and Dolores Neustadt. 

Wealth has translated into Ardmore being 

blessed with art and cultural endowments. The 

Goddard Center sponsors various productions 

and exhibits. Studio 107 Gallery & Art Studios 

hosts local and regional exhibits. The Ardmore 

Convention Center is the region’s convention 

and trade show facility, supplemented by 1,000 

lodging rooms ranging from traditional hotels 

to bed and breakfasts. The 45,000-square-foot 

convention center opened in 2004. 

The Ardmore Little Theater, the Community 

Chorale Society, the Southern Oklahoma Arts 

and Humanities Council, the Ardmore Art 

Guild, and the Southern Oklahoma Children’s 

Chorus provide a few of the cultural and 

entertainment opportunities. In 2005 the 

Ardmore Chamber of Commerce began an “Arts 

in Public Places” program by unveiling the 

sculpture “Into the Sun.” 

In 1999, the Ardmore Public Library moved 

into its third building. Andrew Carnegie 

donated $15,000 to build the town’s first 

library in 1903. A second modern library 

opened in September 1963. The newest library 

on E Street has more than 83,000 titles. Special 

collections include the Eliza Cruce Hall Doll 

Museum and the William A. “Mac” McGalliard 

Local History Collection. The doll collection of 

more than 300 rare and antique dolls was 

donated by the niece of Oklahoma’s second 

governor, Lee Cruce, of Ardmore. 

The proud history of Ardmore has been 

preserved in many ways. Historic structures are 

still in use, including the county courthouse and 

more than a dozen buildings on the National 

Register of Historic Places. Heritage Hall, 

formerly known as Ardmore Civic Auditorium, 

Above: Walter Neustadt, Sr., 1950. 



Below: The Greater Southwest 

Historical Museum, 2010. 


C h a p t e r I V ✦ 4 7

Above: The Greater Southwest 

Historical Museum is also the home 

to the remarkable treasures of the 

Military Memorial Museum, 2010. 


Below: The Confederate Veterans 

Home in 1912. 



is an Art Deco structure in the heart of 

downtown that is a favorite venue for concerts 

and meetings. 

Exhibits at the Greater Southwest Historical 

Museum, located in the old National Guard 

Armory, tell the story of the county from the 

coming of the Chickasaws. A military annex 

at the museum debuted on April 28, 1990, 

“to the honor and memory of the American 

veteran,” and displays memorabilia from the 

Revolutionary War through the Iraq War. 

Memorial Square was dedicated in 2001 and 

is a monument to the men and women who 

forged the history of the city. The Chamber of 

Commerce Foundation and other organizations 

funded the monument that pays tribute to two 

important aspects of the city—energy and 

veterans who fought to preserve freedom. 

In 2003 the national media spotlight was on 

Ardmore when fifty-two Democratic members 

of the Texas House of Representatives, known 

as the “Killer Ds,” left Texas for Ardmore 

to deny the Republican-controlled House a 

quorum when Republicans attempted to pass a 

congressional redistricting plan. The move 

delayed ultimate passage of the plan, although 

parts of it were later declared in violation of the 

Voting Rights Act of 1963. 

The Ardmore Veterans Center celebrated 

a century of service in 2010. In 1910 the 

Oklahoma legislature established the Oklahoma 

Confederate Home in Ardmore to care for veterans 

of the Confederate Army. In 1942 the home 

was converted to a center to serve as a long-term 

care facility for all American veterans. 

Ardmore is home to the Ardmore Higher 

Education Center, a consortium-model system 

of higher education that offers courses and 

degrees to local residents from four participating 

state colleges and universities—Murray 

State College, Southeastern Oklahoma State 

University, East Central Oklahoma University, 

and Oklahoma State University. 

During December each 

year, Ardmore Regional 

Park is transformed into a 

winter wonderland with a 

drive-thru display of more 

than 100 animated scenes. 

The Festival of Lights has 

become one of the most 

popular light displays in 

the state. 

Ardmore is nearly 125 

years old. The same spirit 

and resilience that brought 

residents through disasters 

and hard times exists 

today. Carter County’s real 

story is not about places 

and events—it is about 

its people. 


C H A P T E R 

V 

OTHER PLACES WE CALL HOME 

D I C K S O N 

By 2010, Dickson had doubled in size from its 1,139 population in 2000. The city has never had 

its own post office, so residents have an Ardmore address. The town began when a store was built 

around the time of statehood at the junction of US-177 and OK-199, ten miles east of Ardmore. Due 

to growth in the area, a twelve-grade Dickson Consolidated School District was formed in 1923, 

named for Carter County School Superintendent, A. E. Dickson. Hester Horn donated the land for 

the school on the condition that she would be the first district school superintendent. 

The school district was formed from former local schools of Clinton, Mulkey, and Nelda. Later, 

the Baum, Durwood, Mary Niblack, Provence, Pruitt, Smyrma, Gene Autry, and Springdale schools 

became part of the district. 

Dickson graduated its first senior class of five students in 1927. The original school was twice 

destroyed by fire. However, the Works Progress Administration built a rock building in 1940, using 

stone quarried from the area. Because of the expansive area covered by the district, Dickson is one 

of the state’s largest school districts. 

Dickson High School, 2010. 


C h a p t e r V ✦ 4 9

Top: Among the area’s most famous 

citizens is Rosella Hightower, a worldrenowned 

prima ballerina, who was 

born on Wolf Creek outside of 

Dickson in 1920. Her life and 

contributions are memorialized in this 

historical marker along Daisy Lane. 


Above and right: Gene Autry, 1940. 



Opposite, top: The Sante Fe Depot in 

Berwyn, 1910. 



Opposite, bottom: The Gene Autry 

Oklahoma Museum in 2010. 

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF DON DABNEY. 

Home of the Comets, the school won the 

state large school powerlifting championship 

in 2008 and several skeet shoot state championships. 

It was one of only a handful of school 

districts in Oklahoma to receive a distinguished 

GreatSchools Rating of nine out of ten. In the 

mid 1990s, the Comets cross country team won 

the state tournament for three consecutive years 

under the coaching of Ron Love. 

The city of Dickson was incorporated in 

1968. The city is governed by a board of 

trustees, a mayor, a fire and police department, 

and a city court system. 

G E N E 

A U T R Y 

The town, located seventeen miles northeast 

of Ardmore, was originally called Lou, named 

for the wife of C. C. Henderson who opened 

a store in the 1870s east of the present town 

in the Chickasaw Nation. In July 1883 a post 

office was established inside the store. Four 

months later, the mail room was moved and 

renamed Dresden. 

In 1887 the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe 

Railroad bypassed Dresden and residents 

relocated to the tracks. A new post office 

was opened on September 1, 1887, as Berwyn, 

named for Berwyn, Pennsylvania, a tradition 

along the railroad of naming towns after 

stations on the Main Line of the Pennsylvania 

Railroad. It was farming community that 

supported a feed mill, two cotton gins, a grain 

elevator, various general stores, and a flour 

warehouse. The Berwyn Light newspaper 

informed local citizens of the latest news. The 

population peaked at 435 in 1920 and then lost 

residents due to the Great Depression. 

In November 1941 singing cowboy Gene 

Autry bought the 1,200-acre Flying A Ranch 

west of Berwyn as headquarters for his traveling 

rodeo. In his honor, the town was renamed 


Gene Autry. More than 35,000 

people attended the ceremony 

on November 16, Statehood Day, 

in 1941. Oklahoma Governor 

Leon “Red” Phillips joined Autry 

on horseback to lead the celebration 

that was broadcast live on 

Autry’s “Melody Ranch” radio 

program. The post office officially 

changed its name to Gene Autry 

on January 1, 1942. 

When America entered World 

War II, Autry joined the U.S. 

Army Air Corps and sold his 

ranch. The Ardmore Air Force 

Base was constructed north of 

the town in 1942 and provided 

much needed jobs. The former 

base is now the Ardmore Industrial Park. 

After World War II, the town’s population 

continued to decrease, with only 99 official 

residents in 2000. The old Berwyn school is 

now the Gene Autry Oklahoma Museum, 

perhaps the nation’s only museum dedicated to 

the singing cowboy. The Gene Autry Oklahoma 

Film and Music Festival annually brings visitors 

to the old school auditorium that is now a 

500-seat performance hall. The museum has 

the largest private B-western collection in the 

United States. 

C h a p t e r V ✦ 5 1

Right: Healdton’s historic State 

Armory, shown here in 2010, was 

built by the WPA in 1936. 


Below: The Oil Museum at Healdton, 

in 2010. 



H E A L D T O N 

Originally called Mason for its founder, 

Elisha Mason, the town’s post office was established 

on February 26, 1883. Mason was 

renamed in honor of Charles H. Heald, a prominent 

resident who arrived in the community in 

1888 and became its postmaster in 1897. 

As part of Pickens County in the Chickasaw 

Nation, Healdton was a prominent cottonproducing 

center until the Oklahoma, New 

Mexico and Pacific Railway laid its tracks south 

of Healdton on its route from Ardmore to 

Ringling. The economy suffered when many 

residents moved adjacent to the railroad. 

Fortunately, the discovery of oil in 1913 put 

Healdton on the map. Development of the field 

had a major impact. The Healdton Field became 

one of history’s largest producing oil regions and 

construction later began on the Ringling and Oil 

Fields Railway that ran from Ringling to just 

west of Healdton. Ben Heald, the son of Charles 

Heald, succeeded his father as postmaster and 

moved the post office to the railroad and labeled 

“new” Healdton at its present site. 

Many oil pioneers, such as Robert A. Hefner, 

Sr., Erle Halliburton, Lloyd Noble, and Wirt 

Franklin set up operations in the Healdton Field. 

By 1918, the field produced fifteen percent of all 

oil pulled from the ground beneath Oklahoma. 

The Healdton schools began in 1919. The 

Healdton Herald has been published since 1917. 

The city is governed by a home-rule charter. 

The Zaneis School Teachers’ Dormitory and the 

National Guard Armory are listed in the National 

Register of Historic Places. The Healdton Oil 

Museum, an affiliate of the Oklahoma Historical 

Society, tells the story of how oil changed the 

face of Carter County and the world. 

Among the area’s famous citizens is 

Oklahoma University women’s basketball 

coach, Sherri Buben Coale. Actress Eddi-Rue 

McClanahan, who starred on the television 

show “Golden Girls,” was born in Healdton. 

She died in 2010. 

Above: Crowds gather to welcome the 

first train into Healdton. 



Below: Derricks spring up across 

Healdton, 1920. 



C h a p t e r V ✦ 5 3

Above: Lone Grove High School 

in 2010. 


Bottom, left: The Lone Grove School 

in 1923. 



Bottom, right: Lone Grove’s school in 

1936-1937. 



L O N E 

G R O V E 

A former village in the Chickasaw Nation, 

Lone Grove was founded and a post office established 

on February 4, 1885. Prior to its official 

designation as Lone Grove, the community was 

known as Price’s Store, after C. C. “Tom Cat” 

Price who owned a local general store. Price 

actually petitioned Congress for the post office 

to be named Lone Cedar, but somehow the Post 

Office Department changed the name. The first 

school was built in 1887. The two-story frame 

building was used by two teachers with the 

Masonic Lodge occupying the second store. 

Located along US-70 eight miles west of 

Ardmore, Lone Grove lost many of its business 

and residential structures in a devastating fire 

on November 15, 1899. In the early part of 

the twentieth century, the town had three 

grocery stores, a drugstore, a movie theater, 

a blacksmith shop, three doctors, and a 

barbershop. The Oklahoma, New Mexico and 

Pacific Railway, commonly called the Ringling 

Railroad, reached the town in 1913. The 

railroad later was part of the Santa Fe system 

and was abandoned in 1976. 

In 1910 a new two-story brick school 

was build for the students of Lone Grove. In 

1927 the Blue Ribbon school district was 

consolidated and two busses were purchased to 

transport rural children. Other adjacent school 

districts were consolidated in the 1930s and 

1940s and new schools had to be enlarged and 

added to the system. 

During the 1920s, the town boomed as 

nearby oil fields provided jobs and brought 

commercial enterprise to town. A two-story 

Masonic lodge building, a grist mill, a cleaning 

shop, an automobile garage, and a wagon yard 

were built. 


The town’s first three schools were 

subscription schools where patrons paid to 

have their children attend classes. The first 

public school was built in 1887. A two-story 

brick school was constructed in 1910 and Kate 

Galt Zaneis was superintendent. A new high 

school was built in 1978. The community’s first 

newspaper, the weekly Lone Grove Ledger, 

began publication with owners Gary and Linda 

Hicks in 1983. 

In 2006 construction was completed for 

grades 9-12. The new facility included thirtytwo 

classrooms, a library, and a band room. In 

May, 2008, a $10 million dollar school bond 

issue passed with more than eighty percent of 

the vote to expand public school facilities, 

including more classrooms, computer labs, a 

gymnasium, and an auditorium. The Lone Grove 

schools have produced numerous state winners 

in vocal music, band, and debate competition. 

On February 10, 2009, eight people in Lone 

Grove were killed by a tornado. The National 

Weather Service classified the storm an EF-4 

with winds up to 165 miles per hour. In 

addition to the fatalities, 46 other people 

were injured and 114 homes or mobile homes 

were destroyed. 

R A T L I F F 

C I T Y 

The post office in Ratliff City opened on 

January 1, 1953, when the town was 

incorporated. It was named for Ollie Ratliff, 

owner of a local automobile garage. Prior to 

its incorporation, the community was known 

as Ratliff Corner. J. E. and Nora Sullivan 

opened a store there in 1927. During a long 

cold spell in the winter of 1929, the Sullivans, 

who had the only working car in the area, 

delivered groceries to stranded residents and 

cattle feed to animals unable to find food in the 

deep snow. 

In 1990 the Natural Gas Pipeline Company 

of America built a compressor station a mile 

north of Ratliff City as part a huge pipeline 

project connecting Oklahoma with the Gulf 

Coast. Wildfires devastated the lives of dozens 

of Carter County residents in the Ratliff City 

area in both 2006 and 2009. Strong winds 

pushed fires that blackened thousands of 

acres and destroyed dozens of homes and 

businesses. During the 2006 fires, Ratliff City 

Fire Chief Richard Wright described to 

reporters a 100-foot wall of fire coming over 

the tops of trees. 

Ratliff City’s town park, 2010. 


C h a p t e r V ✦ 5 5

Above: Joe Arnold’s General Store in 

Springer, 1910. 



Below: The community of faith is alive 

and well across Carter County, and 

includes many churches like Springer’s 

historic United Methodist Church, 

shown here in 2010. 

S P R I N G E R 

Located on US-77 ten miles north of 

Ardmore, Springer’s post office was established 

on September 1, 1890, and named for local cattle 

rancher, W. A. Springer. The community’s first 

store was built by Jim Rushing along Buzzard 

Creek. On September 16, 1910, a fire started in 

the post office and 

spread to a general 

store, a blacksmith 

shop, and a building 

occupied by 

fraternal orders. As 

the fire raged, residents 

used dynamite 

to stop flames 

from spreading to 

other businesses 

along Main Street. 

The Springer 

school was built at 

the time of statehood. 

The town was six miles west of the Santa 

Fe Railroad and, by 1923, only a few stores, the 

school, and a post office remained. The population 

of Springer peaked at 679 in 1980. The 

town’s life revolves around the Springer schools. 

In 2011, the post office, several churches, and a 

few stores remain in |the town to serve area 

ranches, farms, and other residents. 


Above: Tatums’ Bethel Baptist Church, 

shown here in 2010, is located at the 

corner of Webster and Lane and was 

originally organized on May 22, 

1894. The congregation continues to 

meet for weekly services in a newer 

building near the historic landmark 

even today. 


Left: Tatums school, c. 1917. 

C h a p t e r V ✦ 5 7

Above: The town’s founding couple, 

Lee and Mary Tatums. 

Below An early map of the townsite 

of Tatums. 

T A T U M S 

The town of Tatums was founded in Indian 

Territory in 1895 by Lee Tatum and his wife, 

Mary. The post office opened on May 9, 1896, 

with Mr. Tatum as the first postmaster. Located 

four miles northeast of Ratliff City, Tatums 

is one of only thirteen all-black towns in 

Oklahoma that remains from fifty in the early 

part of the twentieth century. The towns were 

founded by former slaves of the Five Civilized 

Tribes who were freed after the Civil War. 

The freedmen gathered in groups for mutual 

protection and economic security. They created 

prosperous farming communities that could 

support businesses, schools, and churches. 

The Tatums operated the post office and a 

small grocery store from their home. Lee Tatum 

was also appointed U.S. marshal. As residents 

moved into the community, a church and 

school were built prior to 1900. A hotel was 

constructed in 1899 and a blacksmith shop 

opened in 1900. A cotton gin and sawmill 

opened in 1910. The discovery of oil brought 

prosperity to many local landowners in the 

1920s. Funds from the Julius Rosenwald Fund 

enabled construction of a brick school in 1936. 

A gymnasium was added in 1949. The Bethel 

Missionary Baptist Church, listed in the 

National Register of Historic Places, was 

completed in 1919. 

In 1927, a silent movie, “Black Gold,” was 

filmed by Norman Studios. Marshal Tatums was 

asked to appear in the movie. Although no copy 

of the film is available, a script is preserved 

at the Gene Autry Museum of Western Heritage 

in California. 

Among Carter County’s famous citizens is 

Mentha Mitchell Varner, who was born to W. E. 

and Mary Mitchell in Tatums in 1914 and 

moved with her family to Ardmore in 1930. 


A graduate of Douglass High School in 1932, 

Mrs. Varner earned her Bachelor of Science in 

elementary and physical education from 

Langston University and began teaching in 

Ardmore in 1937. She remained a dedicated 

educator for forty years and was instrumental 

in raising funds for Ardmore’s 

Head Start building. The building and a 

library were later named in her honor. 

In 1954, Mrs. Varner became the first 

black teacher of American Red Cross 

Home Nursing Classes. In 1966 she was 

the first black teacher to integrate the city 

school system. She retired in 1976 after 

serving three years as a principal of the 

Kindergarten Center that she established 

for the Ardmore school system. A member 

of several Halls of Fame, including the 

Oklahoma Women’s Hall of Fame and the 

Greater Southwest Historical Museum 

Hall of Fame, Mrs. Varner received the 

Donna Nigh Award and, in 2007, was 

named one of Oklahoma’s “Uncrowned 

Queens” for the Oklahoma Centennial 

Celebration. On her eighty-fourth birthday, 

U.S. Representative Bill Brewster 

obtained a Congressional Record presented 

at a public birthday celebration for her 

on July 12, 1994. 

The Great Depression caused many residents 

of Tatums to migrate to urban areas. At the 

end of the twentieth century, the population 

was 172. 

Above: Mentha Mitchell Varner, 1995. 

Below: Dedication of the Mentha 

Mitchell Varner Ardmore 

Headstart Center. 

C h a p t e r V ✦ 5 9

Below, left to right: Wilson’s police 

force included Tom Griffin, first police 

chief, Ed Taylor, night chief, and 

Charles P. Jones, constable, c. 1914. 



Opposite, top: Downtown Wilson, 

in 2010. 


Opposite, middle, left to right: Among 

Wilson’s famous citizens is film and 

television star, Chuck Norris, and 

Chickasaw Indian bronze sculptor 

Clayburne Straughn. 


Opposite, bottom: Wilson Historical 

Museum, 2010. 


W I L S O N 

The town was founded as New Wilson 

when a post office opened on January 17, 1914. 

Jake Hamon, a Kansas lawyer who came to 

Oklahoma to make his fortune in oil, bought 

eight acres and began selling lots in 1912. 

Surrounded by good farming land, New Wilson 

was incorporated in 1914. By the end of that 

year, the town had a population of 2,000, and 

grew to 3,000 by 1918. The town was renamed 

Wilson on January 28, 1920. A town by the 

same name in another part of the county had 

disappeared, and Governor Robert L. Williams 

declared that “New Wilson” would thereafter 

be known as “Wilson.” Cotton and corn were 

original principal crops. Later peanuts replaced 

cotton and the discovery of oil totally changed 

the economy and was a major factor in the 

growth of the town. 

The town was named by John Ringling to 

honor Charles Wilson, manager of the Ringling 

Brothers Circus, that established its winter 

headquarters west of the community. Ringling 

and his partner, Hamon, built a railroad to 

carry circus animals and oil field equipment. 

The first railroad spike was driven on January 

24, 1914. The railroad later became part of the 

Santa Fe and was abandoned in 1976. 

The Methodist Church of Wilson was 

organized in 1892 in a log house located south 

of Hewitt, one mile east of Wilson. The Church 

of Christ had its beginning in 1915 when 

a congregation moved from Hewett. In 1908, 

Dr. W. A. Darling established the Darling 

Telephone Company, later acquired by 

Southwestern Bell Telephone Company. The 

town’s first bank opened in 1914. The same 

year, the Wilson News newspaper began 

publication. In 1917, the Mobley Hotel opened 

with twenty-eight rooms with private baths and 

hot and cold running water. The Gordon- 

Nuckolls ice plant was build in 1922. Ice was 

produced in 300-pound blocks and then stored 

in the front of the building. 

Wilson had several theatres including the 

Dreamland, Empress, Ezy, Hippodrome, Rialto, 

Thompson, and Yale. 

The town’s population peaked at 2,517 in 

1930, although a chamber of commerce 

brochure claimed the businesses of the 

town served 20,000 people and was “the 

natural center of the Greater Wilson 

Oil Fields.” Following the Great 

Depression, only 1,700 people lived in 

Wilson in 1940. The 2000 population 

was 1,584. 

In 1915 a high school was 

organized in Wilson with T. H. 

Reynolds, later head of the history 

department of Oklahoma A & M 

College, as principal. The first 

graduate was Eugene Brimer who later 

operated the Brimer Brothers’ store. In 

1918, a three-story high school 

building was built. The oil boom in the 

1920s allowed the addition of several 

new school buildings. Dr. L. B. 

Sutherland was in the charge of the 

Wilson Hospital in the 1920s. There 

were six other doctors in the town 

before the Great Depression. 

In 2011 an aldermanic form of town 

government existed. The Historical 

Wilson Museum, a senior citizens center, 

several businesses and an active 

school system serve the community. 


C h a p t e r V ✦ 6 1

Right: Fox Public Schools continues to 

serve the community and its families 

in 2010. 

Below: The construction of an early 

school at Fox, 1923. 




F O X 

Named for Chickasaw native Frank M. Fox, 

the post office in the town of Fox opened on 

January 25, 1894. 

T O W N S T H A T 

H A V E V A N I S H E D 

A review of an 1898 map of a survey of 

Carter County shows towns that have not 

survived. In the early part of the twentieth 

century, there were eighty-two schools in the 

county, one-room school houses in every 

community. Some of the towns that no longer 

exist are: 

A L P E R S 

The town was seven miles northeast of Ratliff 

City and had a post office from 1918 to 1931. 

The postmaster was Dr. H. W. Alpers, who also 

ran a drug store and was a medical doctor. 

C H A G R I S 

Northwest of Healdton, the town had a 

school, two stores, a cotton gin, a blacksmith 

shop, and a post office from 1896 to 1909. 

George Tyson was the first postmaster. 

K E L L E R 

Located six miles east of Healdton, the town 

was named for local merchant, William Keller. 

The post office was established August 6, 1894, 

and closed sometime before statehood. 

N E L D A 

Named for Nelda Tindall, the daughter of 

the manager of Ardmore’s Luke’s Music Store, 

the town was six miles southeast of Ardmore 

and had a post office from 1914 to 1921. 

M O N K 

Adjoining Ratliff City, Monk had a post office 

from February 25, 1896, to December 31, 1905. 

It was named for Monk Tipps, a local resident. 

The Monk school was a subscription school. 

B E R W Y N 

The town was originally Dresden. The post 

office changed to Berwyn, after Berwyn, 

Pennsylvania, on September 1, 1887. The name 

again changed to Gene Autry on January 1, 1942. 

H O M E R 

The town was five miles north of Elk and was 

named for a local store owner. Dan Carpenter 

was postmaster from 1898 to 1905. 

Top: A photographer captures 

Berwyn’s First National Bank and a 

local restaurant in 1900. 



Above: Downtown Berwyn, in 1900. 



C h a p t e r V ✦ 6 3

O T T E R V I L E 

G L E N N 

Opposite, top: Cave exploring. 

Opposite, bottom: Hoxbar school 

around 1910. 



Below: The infamous Western outlaw, 

Bill Dalton, was killed in a gun battle 

in the area in 1894. The event is 

memorialized in this historical marker 

at the corner of Ranch and Pooleville 

Roads in western Carter County. 

Located one mile west and one mile south 

of Woodford. 

U M B R I A 

Located four miles south and one mile east 

of Berwyn. 

W I L S O N 

Not the current town, but on the other side 

of the county, seven miles southeast of 

Ardmore. It had a post office from April 4, 

1888, to August 15, 1907, and was named for 

local merchant, J. H. Wilson. 

E L K 

Post office established on January 15, 1890. 

Because there was an Elk City in Oklahoma 

Territory, the town’s name was changed in 1907 

to Pooleville, named for E. R. Poole, an early 

day settler. 

The town was two miles east of Woodford 

and had a post office from April 20, 1894, to 

July 15, 1922. 

C H E E K 

Located ten miles southwest of Ardmore, 

the town had a post office form November 19, 

1888, to March 15, 1935. 

R E C K 

Located five miles southwest of Wilson, the 

town had a post office from January 25, 1892, 

to June 21, 1919. 

H O X B A R 

The town was located one mile south and 

two miles west of Wilson. There was a post 

office there from October 4, 1895, to November 

30, 1926. It took its name from the cattle brand 

of John Washington, local rancher. 


C h a p t e r V ✦ 6 5

BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Ardmore Junior Chamber of Commerce. The History of Carter County. University Supply and Equipment Company, Fort Worth, 

Texas, 1957. 

Baird, W. David & Goble, Danny. The Story of Oklahoma. University of Oklahoma Press, Norman, Oklahoma, 1994 

Burke, Bob. Deals, Deals, and More Deals: The Life of John Nichols. Oklahoma Heritage Association, 2004. 

Chickasaw Historical Society. Pages of History. Privately printed, 1969. 

Foreman, Grant. A History of Oklahoma. University of Oklahoma Press, Norman, Oklahoma, 1942. 

Frame, Paul N. A History of Ardmore, Oklahoma, From the Earliest Beginnings to 1907. J. G. Printing Enterprises, Kansas City, 

Missouri, 1995. 

Franks, Kenny. Ragtown. Oklahoma Heritage Association, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, 1986. 

Green, Donald E. Rural Oklahoma. Oklahoma Historical Society, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, 1977. 

Lone Grove Historical Committee. Lone Grove Centennial, 1885-1985. Privately printed, 1985. 

McGalliard, Mac. Reporter’s Notebook. Sprekelmeyer Printing Company, Ardmore, Oklahoma, 1973. 

Morris, John W. Cities of Oklahoma. Oklahoma Historical Society, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, 1979. 

Morris, John W. Ghost Towns of Oklahoma. University of Oklahoma Press, Norman, Oklahoma, 1977. 

Norton, Patty Virginia, and Layton R. Sutton, editors. Indian Territory and Carter County, Oklahoma, Pioneers. Taylor, Publishing 

Company, Dallas, Texas, 1983. 

Wood, Jimy Brady. What God Hath Blessed. Rockwell International Printing Services Department, Richardson, Texas, 1976. 

Zaneis, Kate Galt. Journal of Carter County Schools. Privately printed, 1923. 


SHARING THE HERITAGE 

H i s t o r i c p r o f i l e s o f b u s i n e s s e s , o r g a n i z a t i o n s , a n d 

f a m i l i e s t h a t h a v e c o n t r i b u t e d t o t h e d e v e l o p m e n t a n d 

e c o n o m i c b a s e o f C a r t e r C o u n t y 

SPECIAL 

THANKS TO 

The Quintin Little Company, Inc. ......................................................6 8 

Tripledee Drilling Company ..............................................................7 2 

Otey Johnson Properties, Inc. ............................................................7 3 

Otey Johnson Foundation 

Ardmore Institute of Health ........................................................7 4 

The Chickasaw Nation .....................................................................7 6 

Guest Inn ......................................................................................8 0 

Greater Southwest Historical Museum ................................................8 3 

Chapman Brothers, LLC ...................................................................8 4 

Boys & Girls Club of Wilson and Ardmore ..........................................8 7 

Mercy Memorial Health Center .........................................................8 8 

Dolman Law Firm ...........................................................................9 1 

Hewitt Mineral Corporation .............................................................9 2 

Ardmore Chamber of Commerce 

Ardmore Development Authority 

Ardmore Tourism Authority ....................................................9 4 

Brady Welding & Machine Shop, Inc. .................................................9 6 

Joe Brown Company, Inc. ..................................................................9 8 

TriPower Resources, LLC ................................................................1 0 0 

Ardmore Higher Education Center ....................................................1 0 2 

Chickasaw Regional Library ............................................................1 0 4 

Lewis Magneto & Supply Co., Inc. ...................................................1 0 6 

Oklahoma State Horseshoeing School ................................................1 0 8 

Ringling Enterprises, Inc. 

Rockland Oil Company .............................................................1 1 0 

T. C. Craighead & Company ..........................................................1 1 2 

Ardmore Public Library ..................................................................1 1 4 

Forsythe Oilfield Service, Inc. .........................................................1 1 6 

Sullivan Insurance Agency ..............................................................1 1 8 

Swink Heating, Air Conditioning, and Electric ...................................1 2 0 

The Hefner Company, Inc. ..............................................................1 2 2 

Murray State College .....................................................................1 2 4 

First Bank & Tr ust Co. ..................................................................1 2 5 

Murphy Housing, Ltd. ....................................................................1 2 6 

Ferral Howard Construction ...........................................................1 2 7 

Day Concrete & Block Company ......................................................1 2 8 

Hughes Family Dental 

Robert V. Hughes DDS, Inc. FAGD ..............................................1 2 9 

Comfort Inn & Suites Hotel 

Days Inn Ardmore ....................................................................1 3 0 

Elmbrook Management 

Company 

Tom & Kim Coble 

Don & Elva Jackson 

J&D Hauling 

S h a r i n g t h e H e r i t a g e ✦ 6 7

THE QUINTIN LITTLE COMPANY, INC. 

Oklahoma and Quintin began buying and 

selling oil and gas leases and put together 

lease blocks across Texas and Oklahoma and 

as far away as New York, Mississippi, and 

North Dakota, amassing a large mineral holding, 

as well. 

Quintin was instrumental and directly 

involved in discovering and developing the 

Cumberland, Madill, Tatums, and Apache Fields 

in Oklahoma and the Sherman and Big Mineral 

Fields in Grayson County, Texas, all of which 

still produce today. 

Quintin established the company in Madill 

and later met Carrie Lou Scott, a recent graduate 

and Valedictorian at Madill High School 

who had come to work in the growing business. 

The couple married on March 29, 1940 and 

together moved the business from Madill to 

Ardmore in 1944. The family lived in Ardmore 

where Quintin was active in civic affairs. 

Right: Cumberland Field Discovery 

Well #1 Little, Marshall County, 

Oklahoma, March 1940. 

Below: Quintin Little at Discovery 

Well in Cumberland, March 1940. 

Born in Indian Territory in the village of Cliff, 

between present-day Kingston and Madill, 

Quintin Little joined a family rich in an 

Oklahoma heritage that traces its roots to the 

family’s arrival in the area in 1864. 

Quintin was raised with a deep love for his 

native state and began his business career as a 

cotton broker in the 1920s. Cotton was king at 

the time in southern Oklahoma with Ardmore 

being the largest inland cotton port of the 

world. By 1934, however, farmers across the 

Great Plains were weathering the devastating 

effects of the Dust Bowl. The severe drought 

that settled over the state proved cotton was no 

longer a viable source of income in southern 

In 1949, Quintin purchased the city’s largest 

office building, the Little Building, at 10 West 

Main (now the Colston Building). In 1982 a 

new office building at 2007 North Commerce 

was completed. 

Quintin was an active member of the Church 

of Christ, served as president of the Ardmore 

Chamber of Commerce in 1954 and was a 

three-term member of the University of 

Oklahoma board of regents. 

In 1961, Quintin wanted his son, Jud, to 

have the best education possible. The elder 

Little, a twenty-one year member of the 

University of Oklahoma board of regents turned 

to his close friend and Sooner football coach 

6 8 ✦ H I S T O R I C C A R T E R C O U N T Y

Bud Wilkinson for advice. Wilkinson, who had 

graduated from Kemper Military Academy in 

Minnesota, suggested the Culver Academy in 

Indiana, starting a lifetime relationship between 

the Littles and the college preparatory school. 

Culver is one of the largest boarding schools 

in the United States, with 790 students, and 

the schools focuses its curriculum on leadership 

training. Incoming freshmen are given the 

choice of four areas of interest to focus on 

during their tenure at the school: infantry, 

artillery, band, and horsemanship. With Jud’s 

love of horses already instilled, he naturally 

gravitated toward the horsemanship program 

and the famed Black Horse Troop—one of the 

nation’s elite horsemanship groups for high 

school students. As a member of the troop, Jud 

rode in Lyndon Johnson’s 1965 presidential 

inauguration parade. 

Jud also learned to play polo and became 

captain of the polo team and Lancer Platoon 

Mounted Drill Team, an honor unit comprised 

of the best horseman of the Black Horse Troop. 

His Culver education also led to success in 

the classroom and Jud received a bachelor’s 

degree in economics from the prestigious 

Wharton School of Finance and Commerce at 

the University of Pennsylvania. 

Jud’s success at Culver and in the business 

world has made him a champion for his alma 

mater. Calling the school a “leadership factory,” 

he is a past president of the Culver Legion, the 

school’s alumni association, and is a current 

member of the school’s board of trustees. He 

is also the premier financial supporter for the 

school’s horsemanship program, while the 

state-of-the-art, indoor riding arena the school 

uses to house the Black Horse Troop bears 

Little’s name. 

Left: Quintin and Carrie Lou Little at 

Republican National Convention in 

San Francisco, California, 1944. 

Below: Quintin Little purchases the 

Simpson Building. 1948. 


Above: The Quintin Little Building 

located in Ardmore, Oklahoma. 

Right: Carrie Lou Scott Little. 

Below: Jud Little, Mattie Little 

Jackson, Carl Jackson and Williamson 

Penn Little at daughter’s wedding in 

Dallas, Texas, October 2009. 

With hopes of giving fellow Oklahomans 

the same educational opportunities he had, 

Jud founded the Jud Little Scholarship at 

Culver. One scholarship per year is set aside 

for a boy or girl from rural Oklahoma who is 

interested in horsemanship. The scholarship 

covers full tuition, room and board, uniforms, 

horsemanship fees and books. Jud says they 

encourage those students from Oklahoma 

to come back to their home state to be 

significant leaders. 

Today, the Quintin Little Company is owned 

and operated by Quintin and Carrie’s son, 

Jud. He is also owner of the Jud Little Ranch, 

breeding championship horses on the 

Springer ranchland he bought as a thirty 

year old in 1976. The Jud Little Ranch has 

become the horse breeder of choice for 

champion barrel racers and rodeo ropers. 

Founded by Jud after he had traveled the 

world as a polo player, the ranch is now 

home to over 120 mares that have produced 

mounts regularly appearing at the National 

Finals Rodeo. 

Jud’s daughter, Mattie, carries on the family 

tradition by competing professionally on Jud 

Little Ranch barrel horses. Jud’s son, Penn, 

graduated from Culver Military Academy in 

2002 and also shares his father’s love of 

horses. Jud married Benette Barrington, a 

competitor in the 2010 National Finals, on 

March 29, 2011. 

For more information about the Little family 

and company, please visit them online at 

www.judlittleranch.com. 


Above: Jud Little and Frosty Feelins at 

Jud Little Ranch, Springer, Oklahoma. 

Left: Jud and Benette Barrington Little 

with JL Dash Ta Heaven at Fort 

Worth, Texas, January 2010. 


TRIPLEDEE 

DRILLING 

COMPANY 

Left: An original postcard printed in 

1906-1907 before statehood and sent 

from Errett Dunlap to someone who 

gave the postcard back to him about 

fifty years later. 

Right: The building has not changed 

much—as the photo attests in 2011. 

Oklahoma was still considered a new state 

when Errett Dunlap moved into the area. In the 

summer of 1913, he began buying and selling 

mineral properties and leases when the first well 

was drilled in the Healdton Field in Carter 

County. Dunlap started his business with three 

wells on the corner of Highways 53 and 76 

south of Fox in 1918. These wells are still producing 

today, ninety-three years later. Dunlap is 

considered one of the pioneers in the early 

development of the oil business in Oklahoma. 

During the early years of World War II, oil and 

gas production from Oklahoma and Texas were 

instrumental in providing the Allies with necessary 

fuel. Soon after the war ended, the demand for gas 

brought about a “boom period” of abundant and 

cheap fuel. This demand was significant in expanding 

the company by buying drilling rigs and exploring 

for oil and gas. After WWII, Errett Dunlap was 

joined by his son, Errett Dunlap, Jr., and daughter, 

Elsye Ve Dunlap Van Eaton, to form Tripledee 

Drilling Company in 1950. Together with his sonin-law, 

Charles Van Eaton, a geologist, Dunlap 

bought two drilling rigs and expanded the business 

into drilling and operating wells in a five-county 

area. Most of the wells drilled in the 1950s and 

1960s are still producing fifty years later. Currently, 

the company drills, completes, maintains and 

ultimately plugs and abandons oil and gas wells. 

With the 1950 formation of the company, 

many other people were credited with its success, 

including tool pusher Albert Allen, responsible 

for running the rigs; production foreman Henry 

Ogletree, responsible for field production; Don 

Cude and Mary Harrell, land title, accounting, 

and regulatory work. In later years, Ralph Payne 

handled the drilling rigs; Otis Harris, field production; 

Kay Harrington and Dana Dabbert, title, 

accounting and regulatory work, followed by 

Dale Ray Gaither, Gerald Monroe, Hubert Harris 

in the field Jennifer Evans, Dave Fackrell, and 

Carrie Manteufel in the office. 

Later, ownership and management of the company 

was taken over by third generation Tom and 

Nancy Dunlap, and has now been passed on to 

their children Cathy Black, Vicki Black, and Phil 

Black. They will continue the family’s management 

of the company with their children, Ben and John 

Moon-Black, and Gunnar, Haakon and Lilli Black. 

In the future, the company plans to concentrate 

on secondary and tertiary methods of recovering 

more of the oil in place, as the science of oil recovery 

continues to improve. Secondary recovery 

projects are already in place to inject and recharge 

the reservoirs with water. The company is testing 

the use of anarobial injections of microbes that 

feed on the oil to generate methane gas, as well as 

testing the use of polymers and heat generation as 

tertiary methods of recovering additional oil. 

Tripledee, its founders, current owners, and 

employees, have supported many community 

projects and charities throughout the years, from 

the early day Masons and Salvation Army to 

the Ardmore Mercy Memorial Hospital and 

YMCA. The company also supported funding 

for the Memorial acknowledging the Sherwood 

Forest project by Ardmore’s Lloyd Noble to take 

drilling rigs to England during WWII to 

increase England’s domestic oil production 

for the war effort. Over the years, 

the company supported the Chamber 

of Commerce and Main Street projects, 

the building of the Higher Education 

Center in 1973, and the annual 

Arbuckles to Ardmore Marathon event. 

The company maintains its office at 

100 West Main Street in Ardmore in a 

building that was the first three-story 

office building in Ardmore. It was built 

in 1906, survived the railway explosion 

and fire in September 1915, and was purchased 

by Errett Dunlap in 1937. The company manages 

over 200 wells with eight employees along with 

several outsourced operational services and consultants. 

As newer wells are drilled, the company 

expects to continue business another fifty years. 

For more information about Tripledee Drilling 

Company go to www.tripledeeoperating.com 

or www.ardmoreoilandgas.com. 


Dr. Otey G. Johnson was born in Battle 

Creek, Michigan on July 14, 1914, the son of 

Roy M. Johnson, one of the first oilmen in 

southern Oklahoma. Otey was raised in the 

Ardmore area, but later left Oklahoma to attend 

college in California, graduating from medical 

school at Loma Linda University. However, after 

returning to Oklahoma, Otey never practiced 

medicine; he became interested in the oil and 

gas business. Following in the footsteps of his 

father, Otey began to purchase minerals rights 

and interests in oil and gas wells and in the 

1970s, he teamed up with Keith F. Walker, 

a geologist from Ardmore, and together they 

discovered a significant oil field in western 

Carter County, Oklahoma. 

Although Dr. Johnson was trained to be a 

medical doctor, he was more interested in finding 

“hydrocarbons.” He often-times stated that 

he preferred “to treat his wells, and leave the 

sick alone.” Soon after graduating from medical 

school, Dr. Johnson found his first small oil 

field near Minerals Wells, Texas. After that, he 

spent the remainder of his life searching for 

more oil and gas. Although he acquired a minor 

in geology, he was an avid believer in “creekology,” 

learning to read what the surface told 

him about what was underneath the ground. 

He would often take friends to places around 

Oil City, Oklahoma, to show them oil-stained 

rock layers or oil drenched creek beds explaining 

the geology behind the evidence of oil on 

the surface. His knowledge of southern 

Oklahoma geology, combined with his unique 

“creek-ology,” allowed him to extrapolate the 

best spots to drill for oil. 

Dr. Johnson joined with other prominent 

oil and gas businessmen in developing properties 

in southern Oklahoma, including Hugh 

Ledbetter, H. M. Petree, Errett Dunlap and 

Taft Milford. He conducted the majority of his 

oil and gas business by telephone. His records 

were kept in cardboard boxes in the old granite 

mansion his father had constructed in 1921, 

in a Mediterranean-style home located adjacent 

to his father’s home, in the two hotel rooms 

rented at the time of his death, and in the back 

seat of his car. 

When Dr. Johnson travelled out of town he 

relied on Lou Ann Walker, daughter of Keith 

Walker, and Bonnie Kendall, his “girl Friday,” to 

handle his accounting and pay bills. In his later 

years, he depended heavily upon Alison Smalley 

to research county records to determine mineral 

ownerships, and then to negotiate and purchase 

oil and gas leases. After his death, it was through 

Smalley’s tireless efforts to organize and make 

sense of Dr. Johnson’s records that OJP was able 

to function as a business. 

Throughout his life, Dr. Johnson suffered 

from severe allergies. He often travelled to areas 

with drier climates such as New Mexico, 

Arizona and California. While away from home, 

he began collecting western art and historical 

documents. His art collection would eventually 

include significant works by Charles Russell, 

Frank Tenney Johnson, Edward Borein, Olaf 

Wighorst, I. E. Couse, Nicholai Fechin, and 

Joseph Henry Sharp. 

Over the course of his life, Dr. Johnson accumulated 

oil and gas leases and mineral properties 

throughout southern Oklahoma. Under the 

provisions of Dr. Johnson’s Trust, a net profits 

overriding royalty interest in all of his oil and 

gas properties was conveyed to Ardmore 

Sanitarium and Hospital, a 501(c)(3) charity, 

which ultimately changed its name to Otey 

Johnson Foundation (“OJF”). 

OTEY JOHNSON 

PROPERTIES, 

INC. 

Above: Dr. Otey Johnson doing what 

he enjoyed most—getting his hands 

dirty in oil. 

Left: Otey’s “creek-ology” often 

resulted in situations like the one 

pictured here—finding oil at or near 

natural oil seeps. 


In 1985, Otey Johnson Properties, Inc., 

(“OJP”) was formed to hold, operate and further 

develop the oil and gas properties owned by 

Dr. Johnson at the time of his death. The 

mission of “OJP” is to manage the oil and gas 

properties gifted by Dr. Otey Johnson primarily 

for the benefit of Otey Johnson Foundation. The 

revenue generated through “OJP” during the 

last three decades has made possible many 

of the charitable activities of Otey Johnson 

Foundation, which recently reorganized and 

now supports and funds the charitable activities 

of Ardmore Institute of Health (“AIH”). 

Thomas F. Dunlap was appointed by Dr. 

Johnson as one of his five trustees to oversee 

and administer his estate. Dunlap was the only 

trustee who had business experience in the 

oil and gas industry. He was a petroleum 

engineer by training and came from a long line 

of oil men including his father Errett Dunlap, 

Jr., and his grandfather, Errett Dunlap. Dunlap 

spent several years working with Exxon-Mobil 

Oil Corporation in the Gulf of Mexico and in 

West Africa before returning home to Ardmore 

to join his father in building their own family oil 

and gas business. Dr. Johnson had a great deal 

of admiration and respect for the Dunlap family 

and how they operated their business. He chose 

Dunlap to carry on that tradition in operating 

and developing “OJP.” 

Today, Otey Johnson Properties, Inc. has 

approximately 230 producing properties in nine 

counties in Oklahoma, Texas, and Colorado. In 

accomplishing its primary purpose, “OJP” continues 

to manage and develop Dr. Johnson’s oil and 

gas properties for the benefit of the Otey Johnson 

Foundation, which in turn funds the charitable 

mission of “AIH.” It is through “AIH’s” mission 

that Dr. Johnson’s legacy is continued to this day: 

to promote and advocate healthy lifestyle choices 

through publishing, health care delivery, research, 

education and other activities that have as their 

ultimate purpose the reduction and prevention of 

chronic diseases in the general population. 

OTEY JOHNSON 

FOUNDATION 

ARDMORE 

INSTITUTE OF 

HEALTH 

In 1947, a charitable organization called 

Ardmore Sanitarium and Hospital was organized 

by Roy M. Johnson, along with two other individuals. 

The Ardmore Sanitarium and Hospital 

(“AS&H”) initially operated a small hospital in 

Ardmore; however, in the 1960s the charity 

turned from hospital operations to providing 

financial support to Ardmore’s two other hospitals, 

the Ardmore Adventist Hospital and 

Ardmore Memorial Hospital. 

In 1984, through generous gifts left through 

the estate of Johnson’s son, Dr. Otey G. Johnson, 

the organization refocused its charitable mission 

to make possible the vision of Dr. Johnson 

to enhance human health by promoting and 

advocating healthy lifestyle choices in the areas 

of diet and exercise to achieve and maintain 

optimum health. The financial gifts included 

mineral properties, an extensive Western Art 

collection, historical documents and a ninety 

percent net profits interest in Dr. Johnson’s 

oil and gas properties. By 1987, Ardmore 

Sanitarium and Hospital had changed its name 

to Ardmore Institute of Health (AIH), which 

again changed its name to Otey Johnson 

Foundation in 2010. At the same time a new 

501(c)(3) charity was formed under the name 

Ardmore Institute of Health. Otey Johnson 

Foundation is operated exclusively to manage 

its assets and provide funding to Ardmore 

Institute of Health, which continues the charitable 

works first set in motion by Dr. Johnson. 

After Dr. Johnson’s death in 1984, William 

(Bill) Wiist succeeded to the Presidency of 

Ardmore Sanitarium and Hospital. With a 

substantial source of funds from Dr. Johnson’s 

estate, revenue from the oil and gas properties, 

and a background in stock trading, Wiist was 

able to generate the funding necessary to 

purchase 1,700 acres of land and construct a 

100,000 square foot facility between Davis 

and Sulphur, Oklahoma. The facility was named 

the Lifestyle Center of America, an offshoot of 

Ardmore Institute of Health. 

The Lifestyle Center of America (“LCA”) 

opened its doors in 1996 and was the health 

promotion, residential facility envisioned by 

Dr. Johnson. Dr. Johnson was educated in 

Seventh-day Adventist institutions and was a 

voracious student of preventative medicine 

throughout his life. With this background, 

together with his observation of the residential 


healthcare program pioneered by Dr. 

John Harvey Kellogg at Battle Creek, 

Michigan, Dr. Johnson was convinced 

that the scientifically based diet and 

healthy lifestyle promoted by the 

Seventh-day Adventist Church were the 

keys to health and longevity. 

Staffed with physicians, nutritionists 

and physiologists, LCA offered five to 

nineteen day residential programs in 

which individuals received lectures and 

classes on diet, nutrition, cooking and 

exercise. The program focused on the 

prevention and reversal of heart disease, 

diabetes, hypertension, stress related 

illnesses, and smoking cessation, all 

without the use of drugs or surgery. The 

program also emphasized the use of hydrotherapy 

and massage for the relief of pain, stress 

and obesity, and natural remedies such as fresh 

air, sunshine, and trust in a divine power were 

incorporated in each program. 

The trial program proved to be a success 

after the first few months. Most people in 

the program lost weight, and their aches and 

pains were much improved. The hydrotherapy 

reduced stress and anxiety. Many participants, 

who thought their exercise days were over were 

able to walk more than a mile a day. Program 

participants also experienced a reduction in 

cholesterol and triglyceride levels, and diabetics 

experienced miraculous drops in their blood 

sugar, some even eliminating their medications. 

Although helping over 4,000 individuals to 

better health and vitality, and with much reflection 

on the long-term efficiency of its programs, 

AIH discontinued their residential programs in 

2008. Not only was the cost to the individual 

and to LCA substantial, but the long-term health 

benefits for those who went through the programs 

demonstrated that lifestyle changes, when 

made in a learning intensive environment away 

from a person’s community and home support, 

did not have enough long-term efficacy to merit 

the amount spent on the programs by LCA. 

Ardmore Institute of Health continues to 

offer behavioral health education programs to 

facilitate lifestyle changes that prevent and 

overcome chronic diseases, including (a) The 

Full Plate Diet book, a New York Times best 

seller, that offers a realistic way to enjoy a full 

plate and still lose weight; (b) fun and engaging 

live Lunch-N-Learn presentations to employees 

of corporations, hospitals, and governments, to 

assist in keeping a healthy and vibrant workforce; 

(c) peer led facilitated weight loss programs 

offering self-paced health behavioral tools 

based on The Full Plate Diet (FPD); (d) a free 

weekly Blog written by the FPD staff to provide 

ongoing helpful tips and ideas for successful 

weight loss; (e) an electronic version of the FPD 

in a “vook” format which amplifies the book’s 

reading experience; and (f) a weight loss clinic 

located in Gilbert, Arizona, which utilizes the 

behavioral health tenets espoused in the FPD. 

AIH continues to advance Dr. Johnson’s vision 

by promoting and advocating healthy lifestyle 

choices through its publishing activities, healthcare 

delivery systems, scientific research validating 

its programs, educational programs and 

other activities that have as their ultimate purpose 

the reduction and prevention of chronic 

diseases in the general population. It is through 

the charitable mission of Ardmore Institute of 

Health, which is funded primarily through 

income generated by Otey Johnson Foundation, 

that Dr. Johnson’s legacy continues today. 

The offices of Otey Johnson Foundation 

and Ardmore Institute of Health are located in 

the Dunlap Building, 100 West Main, Ardmore, 

Oklahoma, with principal business operations 

located at 3650 Chickasaw Boulevard, Ardmore, 

Oklahoma, in the Dornick Hills area of 

Ardmore. AIH also conducts operations in 

Gilbert, Arizona. 

The Otey Johnson Foundation and the 

Ardmore Institute of Health offices in 

2011. This was formerly the Roy 

Johnson home (Otey Johnson’s father) 

at 3650 Chickasaw Boulevard in 

Ardmore (across the road east of the 

Country Club). 


THE CHICKASAW 

NATION 

CHICKASAW 

CONNECTION TO 

CARTER COUNTY 

PREDATES 

STATEHOOD 

Charles David Carter. 

Carter County will always be linked with 

the Chickasaw Nation because the name itself 

honors the family of the first U.S. Congressman 

to represent the county, which is part of 

Oklahoma’s Fourth Congressional District. 

Charles David Carter, of Chickasaw and 

Cherokee heritage, served in a number of roles 

in the government of the Chickasaw Nation, 

including auditor, superintendent of schools 

and council member. 

His election to represent Oklahoma’s Fourth 

Congressional District was a natural progression 

at the time, since prior to Oklahoma statehood 

the Chickasaw Nation was the ruling government 

in the area. 

Carter served as U.S. Congressman from 

1907 to 1927, representing first the Fourth 

District, then the Third District beginning in 

1915 after Congressional redistricting. A listing 

in the Chronicles of Oklahoma stated that 

“Charles D. Carter was born at Boggy Depot in 

August 1869 and died at Ardmore in April 

1929. He therefore saw the marvel which 

converted the wilderness into a commonwealth 

and he played a mighty part in making 

Oklahoma what it is today.” 

Somewhat of a Dickensian figure, Carter witnessed 

the “best of times” and “the worst of 

times” as he saw the government of the 

Chickasaw Nation lose the power and sovereignty 

it had long exercised in the region. 

In 1906, as Oklahoma statehood approached, 

it was widely believed the Chickasaw Nation 

was spiraling down toward its last days as a 

sovereign nation. 

Dozens of newspaper reports focused on 

discussions of matters facing the U.S. Congress, 

the tribal legislature and tribal governor in the 

waning days of the Chickasaw government. 

While there were many matters of grave 

importance facing the Chickasaw Nation, the 

ability of the tribal government to deal with 

them directly had been greatly diminished. 

While under the Atoka Agreement, the government 

of the Chickasaw Nation would have 

ceased to exist March 4, 1906, Congress continued 

the tribal governments of the Five Tribes 

“with full force and effect, for all purposes authorized 

by law, until otherwise provided by law.” 

That language, however, does not fully 

convey the limitations under which tribal 

governments worked during the final months 

leading up to statehood. 

A September 5, 1906 edition of the Daily 

Ardmoreite included the full text of what was 

thought at the time to be Governor Johnston’s 

last message to the tribal legislature. 

That message included the following remarks: 

Whatever may be our regrets for the past 

and hopeful aspirations for the future, the 

Chickasaws are in the midst of a condition which 

is a reality and that condition is that the customs 

and traditions of our fathers are no longer our 

rule and guide in so far as the protection of our 

rights and property is concerned, but we must 

now contend, side by side, as citizens of the 

United States and of the new state of Oklahoma 

with more than a million other like citizens. 

Little more than a year later, the change in 

status of the Chickasaw legislature was outlined 

in a September 16, 1907 article in the Daily 

Ardmoreite titled “Last Indian Legislation.” 

“The body up to a few years ago held great 

sway in this section of the country and enacted 

laws and legislation to govern both the Indian and 

the white man who has come in their midst to 

carve an empire state—the heritage of the Indian. 

“Those laws protected the natives and new 

comers alike, and it was with much reluctance 

that the Chickasaw Indians gave up their individuality 

as a nation. 

“The Chickasaws, for the last few years have 

not enacted laws, but could only recommend to 

congress legislation that they most desired.” 

Because of that remarkable change, there 

were many who recognized the need for tribal 

members to be elected to Congress. 

The December 23rd Ardmoreite announced 

Charles Carter as a candidate for Congress stated 

“The legislation sought for by the people of 

this section would in all probability be easier 

secured by sending a representative Indian to 

congress (sic) than by sending anyone else.” 

That statement proved well founded as 

Congressman Carter, during his twenty years in 

office worked on legislation that was of benefit 

to not only the Chickasaw Nation, but the entire 

district. At the time of his retirement in 1927, 

Carter had served in Congress longer than any 

other Oklahoman. 


The Chronicles of Oklahoma had this to say about 

Carter’s long tenure as a member of Congress: 

Such an honor did not come to this brilliant 

Indian because of political accident. It was not 

due to any demagogic tactics on the part of the 

recipient. It was due to Carter’s unrivalled ability 

as a political campaigner, to the unbounded 

confidence the people reposed in him, to his 

widespread popularity with the voters, and more 

than all else, to the signal service he rendered his 

people and his state in the capitol of his country. 

For Charlie Carter was more than a representative 

of his people: he was in high degree a 

leader of representatives. He soon commanded 

the confidence of his law making associates just 

as he commanded the confidence of the people 

of Oklahoma. He became known as a tireless 

worker, a sound adviser, a trusted coadjutor, and 

a man whose word could be relied upon under 

any and all circumstances. Moreover, his associates 

soon discovered that he knew more about 

Indian problems (which in a large way are 

Oklahoma problems) than any other man in 

congress. When he talked the parliament listened. 

because all his hearers knew that Carter 

knew his subject and under no circumstances 

would mislead or deceive. Because of his state 

and lineage he became a member of the 

Committee on Indian Affairs, but it was because 

of his preeminent knowledge of Indian questions 

that he was made chairman of that committee 

when his party acquired control of the 

congress. It should be a matter of pride to all 

Oklahomans to know that even after Carter had 

retired from congress he was frequently consulted 

in matters of Indian legislation and really 

exercised a greater influence in a body to which 

he no longer belonged than many of the actual 

members of the House. 

While Charles Carter is likely the individual 

Chickasaw citizen who had the greatest impact 

on Carter County, the Chickasaw Nation has 

had positive impact in many other ways. 

Bloomfield Academy, a Chickasaw school for 

girls, was relocated to Ardmore in 1917 after a 

fire destroyed the school buildings. Bloomfield 

had opened in 1852 in present-day Bryan 

County. Operated at various times in its history 

by missionaries, the Chickasaw Nation and the 

federal government, the school was eventually 

renamed Carter Seminary in 1934. It became 

co-educational in 1949. In 1953 the campus 

boarded American Indians from across the 

United States, but the children attended public 

school off campus. 

William “Alfalfa Bill” Murray, while not 

Chickasaw, had close ties to officials within the 

Chickasaw Nation during Indian Territory days. 

He married Alice Hearrell, niece to Chickasaw 

Governor Douglas Johnston. 

Murray became interested in politics after 

Oklahoma Statehood and was eventually elected 

governor in 1930. During his administration, 

WPA and CCC workers converged on what had 

formerly been Chickasaw Nation property in 

1933, to begin construction on Lake Murray 

State Park. At the same time, workers began 

construction on the castle-looking building later 

to be called Tucker Tower. The lake was opened 

for public use in 1938. Unfortunately, the Tower 

was left unfinished due to budgetary concerns. 

Top: Carter school office. 

Above: Carter Seminary choir, 

1933-1934. 


Clockwise, starting from the top left: 

Night at the theater with Elvis. 

Left to right: Students Minnie Gray, 

Irene Alexander and Barbara Barcus 

riding the school bus. 

Carter, 1967-1968. 

Although the Chickasaw Nation as a government 

entity had little influence in the county from 

the time of statehood until 1971, many Chickasaw 

people remained an integral part of Carter County 

society as they continued to live, work and raise 

families in the area. Today, more than 3,300 

Chickasaw citizens live in Carter County. 

A resurgence of the Chickasaw Nation began 

in 1970, when Congress passed legislation 

allowing certain tribes to hold elections for the 

purpose of choosing their own officials. In 1971 

the Chickasaw Nation held its first election since 

statehood, electing Overton James as governor. 

In 1981 a commission of six appointed 

Chickasaw individuals came together in a series 

of meetings in Ardmore in an effort to draft a 

document the Chickasaw people could review 

and possibly vote to ratify as their new, modern 

Constitution. The document was successfully completed 

and ratified in 1983. It is what the Chickasaw 

Nation government operates under today. 

Bill Anoatubby was elected lieutenant governor 

in 1979 and served in that capacity until 

1987, when he was elected to his first term as 

governor. He has served as Governor of the 

Chickasaw Nation since that time, making it the 

mission of his administration “To enhance the 

overall quality of life of the Chickasaw people.” 

In order to accomplish this mission, the 

Chickasaw Nation has engaged in a robust program 

of business and economic development. The 

tribe owns and operates more than sixty diverse 

businesses, which range from hotels to radio stations. 

Funds generated from these businesses 

enable the Chickasaw Nation to offer an ever 

increasing number of services to serve the health, 

education, housing, nutrition and other needs of 

Carter County residents. These businesses also 

provide a major boost to the local economy. 

Since 1987 financial outlays have grown 

from around $12 million to nearly $1 billion 

in 2011. The employee base has grown from 

less than 250 to more than 11,000. The 

tribe employs hundreds of people in Carter 

County. Many of those employees work in 

offices located in Ardmore providing services 

for Chickasaws and other area residents. 

It is almost certain that none of the early 

twentieth century residents of Carter County 

who read of the impending demise of the 

Chickasaw Nation could have imagined the 

resurgence of the tribe more than 100 years later. 

The current growth of the Chickasaw Nation 

has been a direct result of the exercise of tribal 

sovereignty and the desire to decrease reliance 

on funding from the federal government. To 

pursue what is commonly called “self determination,” 

tribes have devised their own methods 

of funding their governmental operations. Self 

determination allows every tribal government 

to establish its own programs, tailored to the 

specific needs of each tribe’s citizens. 

Many of the Chickasaw Nation’s offices in 

Ardmore are located on what was previously 

known as the Carter Seminary Campus. The 

Chickasaw Nation operated Carter Seminary, 

formerly Bloomfield Academy, in Ardmore 

beginning in 1917. Carter Seminary was a 

boarding school for Chickasaw girls. It was 

originally opened in 1932 in Bryan County. 

Carter Seminary has since relocated to Marshall 

County and is known as the Chickasaw 


Children’s Village. It is co-educational, and the 

students attend school off campus. 

The Chickasaw Nation opened a health 

clinic in Ardmore in 1988 to serve Chickasaw 

people and other Native American tribes. An 

increase in the number of patients created a 

need for a larger facility. In the spring of 2011, 

the Chickasaw Nation broke ground for a new 

66,000 square foot medical clinic. The new clinic 

will be six times the size of the original clinic 

and create many more jobs for the area. 

Governor Anoatubby has ensured that the 

needs of the Chickasaw people are at the forefront 

of every decision made. In addition to 

nutrition services, the tribe built a wellness 

center in Ardmore in 2002 to assist Chickasaw 

people and the community with staying active. 

The wellness center offers a lap pool, exercise 

equipment and fitness classes. 

Elders are honored by the Chickasaw people 

and the Chickasaw Nation works diligently to 

care for them. The tribe began building a new 

Ardmore-area Chickasaw Nation Senior Citizens 

Center in 2011. The new center will be 

equipped with a full kitchen, dining room with 

a seating capacity of 100, computer room, an 

exercise room, and an arts and crafts room. The 

location of the new senior center provides elders 

with easy access to the health clinic, wellness 

center and nutrition services. The tribe has 

eleven senior centers located within the 

Chickasaw Nation boundaries. 

In addition, the Chickasaw Nation opened 

the Chickasaw Elder Independent Living 

Apartments in the summer of 2011. The apartments 

are located adjacent to the new senior 

center. Each apartment has one bedroom, one 

bath, refrigerator, stove, and a washer and dryer. 

The apartments are available to Chickasaw and 

Native American elders. 

Ensuring Chickasaw people receive a quality 

education is a top priority of the Chickasaw 

Nation. The tribe understands that education is 

important for the preservation of culture and 

the future success of the tribal community. 

From Head Start to career placement and 

every step in between, the Chickasaw Nation 

has a multitude of programs to assist with 

education, testing and even internship. The 

Chickasaw Nation has Head Start facilities located 

in Ardmore, Ada, Sulphur and Tishomingo. 

Head Start is a national program that promotes 

school readiness for children and helps them 

better prepare for kindergarten. The Ardmore 

Head Start serves more than 100 students aged 

three to four. In 2011 the Chickasaw Nation 

began construction at the Ardmore facility to 

add two classrooms and a cafeteria, which can 

be used as a safe room. 

In addition, scholarships, grants, academies, 

the Chickasaw Honor Club and similar programs 

encourage youth to make the most of 

the opportunities available to them. In FY 2011 

the division of education awarded a total of 

more than $15.5 million in grants, scholarships, 

incentives and other educational assistance to 

Chickasaw students. 

Under Governor Anoatubby’s leadership, the 

tribe realized that in order to offer services and 

programs the Chickasaw people needed, the 

Chickasaw Nation needed to generate much more 

capital. That was the driving force behind their 

business ventures; the tribe needed the funds to 

serve their people in order “to enhance the overall 

quality of life of all Chickasaw people.” 

Top: The groundbreaking for the 

Ardmore Clinic site. 

Above: The Elder Independent Living 

Apartments ribbon cutting ceremony. 


GUEST INN 

Above: Guest Inn, 2011. 

Below: In 1979 the name was 

shortened to “Best Western Inn”. 

Bottom: The original motel, in the 

1970s, was named “Best Western 

Town House Inn”. 

Weary I-35 travelers or visitors to the Carter 

County area may rest assured that they will 

receive a warm family welcome at Ardmore’s 

Guest Inn at Exit 33. For over thirty years, 

the Polzien family has extended hospitality, 

southern Oklahoma style, as the proprietors of 

the Inn. 

Marvin and Dora Polzien and their family 

have not always been Oklahoma residents; they 

moved here from Iowa in January of 1973, and 

finished construction and opened the Inn, then 

called Best Western Town House Inn, in April. 

As “luck” would have it, these were the days of 

the oil embargo and not a lot of people were 

traveling. The family rode out the hard times 

and persevered, lodging thousands of folks 

through the years, including some famous 

names, such as Mickey Mantle, Jenny Finch and 

David Allen Coe. 

As the area has grown, the Guest Inn has 

expanded to keep pace. From the original 

seventy rooms to the current facility’s 125 units, 

the Inn is continually updated to meet the 

demands of its guests. Free high speed Internet, 

a business center, outdoor pool, and deluxe 

continental breakfast are just a few of the many 

amenities offered by the Inn. In 1986, a second 

location in Longview, Texas was opened and in 

1991 a third Guest Inn debuted in Norman, 

Oklahoma. Today, the Inn includes twenty-five 

employees in Ardmore. 

A graduate of Iowa State University and a 

veteran of two years in the Korean War, 

Marvin is well-known for his interesting 

hobbies. He scuba dives, is the owner and pilot 

of a hot air balloon and an airplane, and enjoys 

another kind of piloting—cruising Lake Murray 

on a large houseboat. 

Marvin has served on the board of the 

Oklahoma Hotel and Lodging Association, of 

which he is a past president, and is also a 

member of Lions Club and past board member 

of the Ardmore Chamber of Commerce. He also 

was honored by serving on the Air Force 

Innkeeper Evaluation Team in 1989 and 1995 


which took him to various Air Force bases 

around the world from Bitburg, Germany to 

Vance Air Force Base in Enid, Oklahoma. 

Dora received her degree from Buena Vista 

University, was active in the American Association 

of University Women, the Athenaeum Study 

Club, and enjoys ballooning, flying, bridge, and 

“my grandchildren.” 

In 2004 the Polziens’ daughter Julie Brady 

returned to the Guest Inn and became general 

manager of all three locations. She has fond 

memories of being raised at the Inn and of 

the many interesting guests that she met 

throughout the mid-1970s. 

Julie went to school in Ardmore, graduated 

from the University of Oklahoma, became a 

teacher in a neighboring town, raised a family 

and then returned to continue the family 

business. She serves on the board of the 

Ardmore Tourism Authority and the Oklahoma 

Hotel and Lodging Association, and has 

continued the family tradition of showing a 

warm reception to guests and visitors that was 

first established by her parents. 

Top, left: Guest Inn welcomes visitors 

to Ardmore. 

Top, right: Guest Inn’s blimp was 

designed and built by Marvin Polzien. 

Below: Guest Inn and the Polzien 

family were presented the Governor’s 

Award of Excellence in 2008. Left to 

right are Dora and Marvin Polzien, 

Julie Brady and Howard Hendrick. 


Above: Inflating the Guest Inn Hot 

Air Balloon, “Kaleidoscope,” 2008. 

Right: The Guest Inn Hot Air Balloon 

that is flown by Marvin Polzien and 

featured on their logo. 

In 2008, Guest Inn received the Governor’s 

Disability Employment Award of Excellence. 

Guest Inn’s housekeeping department is fully 

staffed thanks to their partnerships with the 

Sunshine Industries Supported Employment 

Program. Over the past several years, the 

Guest Inn has also hired ten individuals 

with disabilities, six of whom are currently 

employed. They have discovered that taking the 

time to thoroughly train employees will, in turn, 

ensure a reliable workforce with less staff 

turnover—the goal of every successful business. 

Guest Inn is active in the community, giving 

charitably of their time and finances to Lions 

Club, Ardmore Chamber of Commerce, State 

and National offices in American Hotel and 

Lodging Association (AH&LA). The company 

has also promoted and chaired the Hot Air 

Balloon Festival that was held annually in 

Ardmore. In fact, much of their advertising has 

been based on the Hot Air Balloon activities, 

as reflected in their logo. The company also has 

their own blimp, which is designed, built and 

flown by Marvin Polzien. 

For more information or to book a reservation, 

visit Guest Inn online at www.guest-inn.com. 


Visitors to Ardmore’s Greater Southwest 

Historical Museum find themselves transported 

to the early days of South-Central Oklahoma 

through the photographs, belongings and 

dwellings of the pioneer people. The museum 

is housed in the former National Guard 

armory, which was built of local native limestone 

by the Works Progress Administration (WPA) 

in 1936. 

The mission of the Greater Southwest 

Historical Museum is to collect, preserve, and 

interpret the social, cultural, and economic 

history of South-Central Oklahoma, with a 

special emphasis on Ardmore and Carter County. 

Lives of early pioneers are interpreted through 

the museums many artifacts and exhibits. 

Most impressive is the Eaves-Brady Cabin, a 

complete 1890’s wood cabin that was taken 

apart and then reassembled inside the museum. 

The cabin was originally located on a ranch near 

the town of Pooleville and contains frontier area 

furnishings and features. Other exhibits feature 

a variety of unique artifacts that were collected 

from around the South-Central Oklahoma area. 

Everything from an early electric car to one of 

the earliest examples of a steam-pumper fire 

engine can be found. 

One of the more impressively sized artifacts 

at the museum is its Wichita Falls Spudder Rig. 

This monstrous oil rig was used in the Ardmore 

area oil fields during the 1920s-1940s and was 

moved to the museum grounds in 1990. The 

Spudder Rig was selected as an official project of 

the Oklahoma Centennial Commission in 2007 

and underwent rehabilitative and beautification 

work that was completed in 2008. The rig is 

located just south of the museum building and 

visitors are encouraged to view this impressive 

part of the “black gold” heritage of Oklahoma 

during their visit. 

The museum is also home to the Carter 

County Genealogical Library. This library 

specializes in family and genealogical research 

through microfilm, books, city directories, 

obituaries, censes records, Internet research, 

and original documents. A small group of 

dedicated volunteers manages the library and 

provides assistance to those interested in doing 

research while visiting the museum. 

Another fascinating part of the museum 

complex is the Military Memorial Museum 

located in the west wing of the facility. This 

museum is dedicated to honoring all veterans 

of the various branches of the United States 

Armed Service. Exhibits representing nearly 

all eras can be found here: the Civil War, 

Spanish-American War, the Indian Wars, 

World War I and II, Korean Conflict, Vietnam, 

the Gulf War and Iraqi Freedom. Visitors will 

be dazzled by the impressive array of 

uniforms, weapons, medals, and military 

equipment on display. 

The museum’s General Store Gift Shop is also 

the place for Oklahoma souvenirs and items 

of local interest. History books on area topics 

are available here as well as an impressive 

assortment of old fashion toys, Native American 

pottery and jewelry, handmade crafts and 

much more. 

The Greater Southwest Historical Museum is 

located at 35 Sunset Drive in Ardmore and 

admission is free! Please contact the museum at 

(580) 226-3857, or visit www.gshm.org to learn 

more about its programs and activities. 

GREATER 

SOUTHWEST 

HISTORICAL 

MUSEUM 


CHAPMAN 

BROTHERS, 

LLC 

Fred A. Chapman, Sr. 

Few families have had a greater influence 

on the civic and business development of 

the Ardmore area than the Potterfs, and the 

Chapmans. For more than a century, members 

of these families have been leaders in agriculture, 

business, education, government and law 

in the Ardmore area. 

The first to make his mark on Ardmore’s 

history was Henry Carlyle Potterf, who arrived 

in Ardmore on the city’s birthday, July 28, 1890. 

Potterf, the son of William H. Potterf and 

Susanna Shidler Potterf, was born in Eaton, 

Ohio, in 1859. His parents moved to Johnston 

County, Missouri when he was an infant and 

he received his early education in Missouri 

schools. He graduated from the State Normal 

School and taught for nine years in Missouri 

and one year in Montana before entering law 

school at Washington University in St. Louis. 

He was admitted to the bar in 1888. 


He practiced law at Harrisonville, Missouri, 

until 1890 until he was persuaded by the firm of 

Austin, Blair and Lester to organize a law office 

in Ardmore, Indian Territory. His contract guaranteed 

him $500 of the first year’s fees and twothirds 

of the fees collected after the first year. 

After a year, Potterf opened his own office and 

practiced law for fifty-two years. He was also 

chosen to serve on the first board of governors of 

the State Bar Association of Oklahoma. 

He married Elise Girrard Waggenlander, a 

school teacher in Gainesville, Texas, in 1893. 

Elise was one of the most respected and admired 

ladies in Ardmore until her untimely death in 

1922. William and Elise had three children, 

one of whom died in infancy. The others were 

Elise Potterf Chapman, wife of Ardmore businessman 

and State Senator, Fred A. Chapman. 

A son, William Henry Potterf, was a successful 

oil operator until his death in 1955. 

Soon after arriving in Ardmore, Potterf was 

influential in organizing the first school 

board and served as the first president. He 

also served on the State Board of Education 

and was appointed a member of the Text 

Book Commission. 

In business, Potterf was a director of the first 

National Bank, as well as a corporate trustee. 

He served on the board as secretary 

and attorney for the Pennington 

Grocery Company, and was the first 

president of the Chickasaw Telephone 

Company. He was one of fifteen businessmen 

who organized the People’s 

Building and Loan Association and 

was a director and attorney for that 

association for a number of years. He 

was a member of First Presbyterian 

Church, where he served as an Elder. 

Fred Alexander Chapman, one of 

eight children born to Phillip and 

Roxie McFarlin Chapman, was born at 

Ovilla, Texas, in 1887. He received his 

early schooling in Ellis County, Texas, 

and attended Trinity University in 

Waxahachie, Texas, for both his high 

school and college years. He received a 

Bachelor of Arts degree from Trinity 

and entered Texas University Law 

School at Austin, where he received 

his law degree in 1913. 

Chapman first visited Ardmore in 1913 while 

on his way to practice law with his brother, 

James A. Chapman. Lured by the beautiful, 

rolling farm land in the Ardmore area, he 

returned in 1916 and remained until his death 

in 1979 at the age of ninety-two. 

Upon his arrival, Chapman began buying 

farms and ranches in Johnston, Murray, Carter 

and Marshall Counties. The farms along the 

Washita River were considered some of the 

finest river bottom land in Southern Oklahoma. 

His arrival coincided with the Healdton oil 

boom, and he became very active in the oil 

business until his death. 

Chapman married Elise Potterf, daughter of 

Henry Carlyle Potterf, in 1919. They had two 

sons: Fred Alexander Chapman, Jr., and William 

Carlyle Chapman. 

Elise Potterf Chapman was born in Ardmore 

in 1896 when the area was still an Indian 

Territory. She lived in Ardmore all her life until 

her death in 1977. She attended Ardmore city 

schools and graduated from the University 

of Oklahoma. She was one of the founding 

members of the Ardmore Ladies of the Leaf 

and served on its board of directors, as well as 

president. She was also a life-long member of 

the First Presbyterian Church. 

Fred A. Chapman, Jr. 


William C. Chapman. 

Fred Alexander Chapman was very active 

in civic affairs and served as president of the 

Ardmore Chamber of Commerce in 1951. He 

served as State Senator from 1943 to 1950 and 

was elected to another four-year term in 1951. 

During his ten years in the State Senate, 

Alexander was responsible for a number of 

important laws, including the legislation that 

helped remove the ‘snake pit’ stigma from 

mental health facilities in Oklahoma. He coauthored 

the bill that led to the transformation 

of the Oklahoma Confederate Home at Ardmore 

into today’s Veterans Home. Senator Chapman 

was a strong supporter of Murray State College. 

He was a member of the Ardmore Rotary Club 

and, at the time of his death, had sixty-one years 

of perfect attendance. He was also a life-long 

member of First Presbyterian Church and served 

as an Elder and member of the board of trustees. 

Fred A. Chapman, Jr., born in 1928, is a lifelong 

resident of the Ardmore area. He graduated 

from Oklahoma A&M and served two years 

with the U.S. Army. 

He has been very active in Boy Scouts and is 

most proud that as a member of the board of 

Arbuckle Council of Boy Scouts, he has been 

very instrumental in building and maintaining 

the excellent water system for Camp Simpson. 

Fred Chapman, Jr., has served on the 

boards of Lincoln Bank, Ardmore Chamber 

of Commerce, the Foundation of Murray 

State College, Board of National Livestock 

Commission Credit Corporation, and in many 

other important positions. He has held numerous 

positions in the First Presbyterian Church 

and has more than fifty years attendance in the 

Rotary Club. 

After returning from the Army, Fred managed 

several family ranches in southern Oklahoma 

and worked with his brother in overseeing their 

other family business interests. Fred was married 

to the late Joan Chapman for fifty-seven years 

and they had four children, Ruth 

Elise, Elise Ann, Fred Alexander, III, 

and Eric Joseph Chapman. 

William Carlyle Chapman was 

born in 1935, the son of Fred A. and 

Elise P. Chapman. He graduated 

from Ardmore High School and graduated 

from Oklahoma University in 

1958. He also received an L.L.B. 

degree in 1960. He received a Rotary 

International Fellowship in 1961 to 

study at the University of Melbourne, 

in Australia. Upon his return, he 

served as an officer in the U.S. Army 

for two years. 

In 1964, he married Elizabeth M. 

Andrews of Norfolk, England. They 

are the parents of four children, 

Belinda, Ian, Colin and Scott 

Chapman. After the death of his first 

wife in 2001, he married Sandra 

Haines in 2004. 

William operated the Chapman 

family office in Ardmore, overseeing business 

interests in commercial property management, 

oil and gas production, and farming and 

ranching operations in Oklahoma and Texas. 

He is a member of First Presbyterian Church 

of Ardmore, where he has served as an officer, 

and is a long-time member of the Ardmore 

Rotary Club. 

He also served forty years as vice president 

of the Oklahoma delegation of the Red River 

Valley Association, a four-state organization 

which advocates for the progress of navigation, 

bank stabilization, flood control and economic 

development in the Red River Valley. 


The Boys & Girls Club of Wilson and 

Ardmore came about through the tireless efforts 

of Renee Wiggins and a group of friends and 

associates who were determined to help young 

people considered ‘at risk’ by the general public. 

Although Renee has no children of her own, 

she does have experience with young people 

from different backgrounds and situations. 

Through her experience, she discovered a common 

thread among these children—they often 

respond positively to an alternate environment, 

mentor or supervising adult in their 

lives. This observation launched Renee’s vision 

of a structured home-type environment, a 

place where children feel safe, receive homework 

assistance, have adult role models and 

healthy meals. 

To achieve this dream, Renee needed to find 

a building. She started searching in her hometown 

of Ardmore in January of 1997, but no 

suitable site could be found. Then, a trusted 

friend, Colene Loving, suggested the historic 

Myers Apartment Building in Wilson, a 100- 

year-old structure that had once been a hospital. 

The property was acquired and, after extensive 

remodeling, Hardy’s House opened its doors 

and started serving children in November 1998. 

“God blessed me with being surrounded with 

dear friends, acquaintances, and business affiliations 

of compassion, kindness, and caring,” 

Renee says. “They all believed in and shared the 

vision of helping young people.” 

Among the many friends and associates 

involved in the development of the house and 

its programs were Judy Bacon, Wayne Payne, 

Dennis Stangle, Jolyn Kenaga, Peter Herrington, 

Caren Braunagel, and Sister Cabrini Koelesh. It 

was Sister Cabrini who introduced Renee to the 

concept of Kid’s Café, which was soon incorporated 

into the program. 

“After Hardy’s House had been up and running 

for a couple of months, my friend Jolyn 

Kenaga suggested I contact Sam Thomas with 

Boys & Girls Clubs of America,” Renee says. 

“They have amazing youth programming, a fine, 

well-structured national organization, and were 

looking for an opportunity to sponsor new 

clubs.” A meeting with Thomas resulted in the 

formation of the Boys & Girls Club, which now 

serves the youth of Wilson and Ardmore. 

Hardy’s House and Teen Town are located at 

532 Birch Street in Wilson, and Tiger Unit is 

located at the Ardmore Middle School, 511 

Veterans Boulevard in Ardmore. 

BOYS & GIRLS 

CLUB OF 

WILSON AND 

ARDMORE 


MERCY 

MEMORIAL 

HEALTH CENTER 

Above: St. Agnes Academy. 

Memorial Hospital of Southern Oklahoma, 

known today as Mercy Memorial Health 

Center, was constructed in Ardmore in 1955. 

The hospital’s roots, however, go deep into 

Oklahoma’s history. The vision that became 

Mercy Memorial Health Center was conceived 

in September 1898, when five Sisters of 

Mercy established St. Agnes Academy for young 

Native American girls. 

The Sisters of Mercy were dedicated 

to building a home and a 

future for hundreds of children and 

their vision endured for more than 

seven decades, through economic 

depression, a devastating fire and 

years of poverty. 

The school closed in the 1960s 

but, with the purchase of Mercy 

Memorial Health Center in 1996, 

the Sisters of Mercy once again 

established their ministry in the ‘House of 

Mercy’ that is Mercy Memorial Health Center. 

The idea of a community hospital for 

Ardmore began as a Chamber of Commerce 

community project in 1947. Leon Daube, a 

prominent business and civic leader, contributed 

$50,000 as seed money for a new 

hospital. Two other businessmen and philanthropists, 

Ward Merrick, Sr., and Lloyd Noble, 

also threw their support behind the project, 

along with longtime Ardmore businessman 

Ray Scrugham. 

The hospital project was formalized in 1950 

with establishment of the Southern Oklahoma 

Memorial Foundation. Initial financing for the 

hospital was provided by a $25 contribution 

from each of the thirty foundation trustees. The 

foundation then secured $675,000 in matching 

federal Hill-Burton funds. Oilman and philanthropist 

Charles Goddard pledged to match 

whatever could be raised from private sources. 

With an overwhelming response, more than 

1,600 community members contributed more 

than $1.1 million and Goddard matched all 

contributions with valuable securities that 

became a permanent endowment for the 

new hospital. 

The hospital opened on Memorial Day, 

1955, and has continued to grow and develop 

over the years. The last decade has seen Mercy 

Memorial Health Center rise to a new point of 

service, as advanced medical technology and 

physicians with new medical specialties have 

given new life to the dream that began with the 

Sisters of Mercy more than a century ago. 

The 35,800 square foot hospital opened with 

100 beds, but the need for additional facilities 

was soon apparent and the new forty-four bed 

Ardmore Hospital was opened in 1959 at a cost 

of $400,000. 

Medical facilities for the community continued 

to improve in 1968 with a $150,000 

expansion to Ardmore Sanitarium, operated by 

the Oklahoma Conference of the Seventh Day 

Adventist Church. A year later, a new east wing 

was constructed at Memorial Hospital, increasing 

the bed capacity to 170. A $2 million building 

and renovation project was completed in 

1979 and a heliport, sponsored by the Ardmore 

Kiwanis Club, was dedicated. 

The first class of nurses graduated in 1973 

under a joint program developed by the 

MHSO administrator and the president of 

Murray State College. 


A $6.5 million expansion project, which 

included a new CT scanner and new surgical 

suite, was announced in 1983, and a $3.5 

million renovation project began in 1989. This 

renovation included a complete redesign of the 

Intensive Care Unit and Delivery and an 

increase in the number of private rooms from 

twenty-three to fifty. 

Memorial Hospital and Ardmore Adventist 

Hospital agreed to a merger of the two facilities 

in 1991. Five years later, in 1996, Memorial 

Hospital of Southern Oklahoma became part of 

the Sisters of Mercy Health System. 

Mercy Memorial opened a new $5 million, 

12,400 square foot outpatient surgery center in 

2002 and a Hyperbaric Medicine and Wound 

Care Center opened in 2004. 

New health procedures and techniques have 

also kept up with new construction during the 

years. These advances included an MMX mammography 

unit purchased in 1974; ‘rooming in’ 

of newborns and their mothers, which began in 

1978; an ultrasound imaging system added to 

the Radiology Department in 1981; and 24/7 ER 

physician coverage, which began in 1981. 

The 1980s saw the opening of a Level II 

Neonatal Intensive Care Unit; the opening of a 

new surgical suite with thirteen surgery rooms; 

and opening of Dialysis, Chemical Dependency 

and Rehab units. 

The hospital’s Oncology unit opened in 1991 

and was soon followed by a Cath lab, GI lab, 

Sleep lab, and Behavioral Medicine unit. MRI 

was installed in 1994. 

Today, Mercy Memorial Health Center is a 

full-service tertiary hospital with 190 licensed 

beds a staff of nearly 1,100, and almost 

100 physicians. 

Mercy operates six physician clinics with locations 

in Ardmore, Tishomingo, and Healdton 

(Healdton Mercy Hospital), and has management 

agreements with Love County Hospital 

and rural Health Clinic in Marietta and Valley 

View Regional Hospital in Ada. 

A new patient tower opened in the summer 

of 2010, providing 150 private patient rooms 

and a total of 193 beds. In addition, the 

Intensive Care Unit was expanded from ten 

beds to thirteen. 

A state-of-the-art Women’s Center focuses 

on obstetrical services and houses the nursery, 

labor and delivery rooms, along with related 

diagnostic services. 

Mercy Cancer Center provides patients with 

the very best in cancer care right at home, eliminating 

long trips to Dallas or Oklahoma City 

for treatment. Mercy recently recruited eleven 

new oncologists in a monumental effort that 

elevates the Cancer Center to the forefront of 

cancer care in Oklahoma’s central and southern 

regions. Mercy’s team of medical oncologists is 

now the largest statewide outside of Tulsa. 

Thirty-one additional physicians will be 

recruited over the next five years to accommodate 

Mercy Memorial’s future growth and to 

assist in recruiting physicians and other medical 

professionals to our area. 

The mission of Mercy Memorial Health 

Center continues to reflect the vision of the 

Sisters of Mercy who established St. Agnes 

Academy in Oklahoma’s territorial days: 

“As the Sisters of Mercy before us, we bring 

to life the healing ministry of Jesus through our 

compassionate care and exceptional service.” 

For more information, check the website at 

www.mercy.net. 



DOLMAN 

LAW FIRM 

Left: Lewis S. Dolman at his desk, 

July 1918. 

Established in 1905, three generations of 

Dolman lawyers have carried on the family 

business in Ardmore for more than one 

hundred years. 

Louis Samuel “L. S.” Dolman was practicing 

law in Topeka, Kansas, when his brother asked 

him to come to Oklahoma. L. S.’s brother 

was a civil engineer who came to Southern 

Oklahoma to help the Rock Island Railroad 

build a rail line. L. S. helped put together 

right-of-way acquisitions for the line. 

By 1903, the line was completed. At that 

time, L. S. worked for the Dawes Commission, 

which had been established to identify and 

enroll various members of Native American 

tribes for purposes of dividing up lands in 

Oklahoma or Indian Territory. 

When finished in 1904, L. S. established a law 

office in Ardmore in 1905. His son, James Lewis 

Dolman, was born that year in Hardy Sanitarium. 

Ezra Dyer approached L. S. about 1917 and 

was looking for a practice in Ardmore. That 

firm was established as Dolman & Dyer for 

awhile until Ezra went away to war. When 

James Lewis graduated University of Michigan 

Law School and joined the practice in 1930, 

it became Dolman, Dyer & Dolman. 

When L. S. was approached about office 

space in the proposed Simpson Building (now 

known as the Colston Building), L. S. leased 

space from the plans long before the building 

was built in 1917. Throughout a century of 

renovations, the Dolman office 

has not moved from where it 

began on the fifth floor of the 

building. James L. Dolman’s 

son, Jim Dolman, joined the 

practice when he came back 

from the U.S. Army in 1964. 

James Lewis wanted Jim to 

understand the practice of law 

is personal, and relationships 

between lawyers and clients are 

personal. James Lewis taught 

Jim a lot about handling people 

and being patient with people 

and their problems. “My father 

was very sensitive to the 

anxieties of clients and was very 

professional in that way, and 

I always had great respect for 

him and his professionalism,” 

Jim says. 

Jim has three children and 

none of them are lawyers. 

“Maybe it’s because they have 

seen the agony attorneys go 

through,” he says. 

Below: James L. and James B. 

Dolman at a Carter County Bar 

Association gathering. 


HEWITT 

MINERAL 

CORPORATION 

Above: Simon Westheimer, first 

president of Hewitt Mineral 

Corporation, 1928. 

Below: One of the early day wells 

drilled in Carter County, Oklahoma, 

in February 1921. 

Hewitt Mineral Corporation represents 

a continuation of the vision of several 

local, early-day pioneers in the oil and 

gas industry in southern Oklahoma. 

Hewitt came into existence like many 

other companies of its day by initially 

starting out with mineral acres held in 

a trust. 

In Carter County, Oklahoma there 

were two major oil fields: Healdton 

Field and the Hewitt Field. William J. 

Millard was one of the first to map the 

Hewitt Field and the anticline which 

folded downward along the sides of a 

buried hill. 

On June 5, 1919, the first discovery 

well of the Hewitt Field, the No. 1 A. E. 

Denney, was completed at a depth of 

2,134 feet with an initial production 

of 410 barrels of oil a day. This 

prompted the investment of five 

prominent businessmen from the town 

of Ardmore—Simon Westheimer, David Daube, 

L. S. Dolman, W. M. Gwyn, and Kirk Dyer—to 

begin buying mineral interests in and around 

the field and form the Hewitt Mineral Trust on 

July 14, 1919. Many wells were operated at 

that time by the Trust and leases were also given 

to other trusts, “wildcatters,” and oil and gas 

companies moving into the area. One of the 

biggest discoveries, the No. 33 Noble, recorded 

12,800 barrels a day at its peak. 

At one point there were 160 geologists and a 

good half-dozen major recognizable oil and gas 

companies in the area. In 1920, Earl 

Haliburton came in and cemented a few 

of the wild wells in Hewitt field and 

helped stabilize production. The Hewitt 

Field had expanded into 540 wells 

producing 43,000 barrels of oil daily. 

In 1928, Hewitt Mineral Trust 

decided to incorporate, with each 

investor having ten shares with the total 

capital stock of the company being 

$150,000. Westheimer was named the 

first president of Hewitt Mineral 

Corporation, Dyer was vice president 

and Dolman was treasurer. 

At this time, the Hewitt field had over 

800 productive wells spread across 

3,000 acres with an output of over 60 

million barrels, which ranked Hewitt 

Field as the seventieth largest producing 

field in America. From its discovery in 

1919 to the end of the first five decades 

of the twentieth century, the Hewitt 

Field had a total cumulative output of 


110 million barrels of oil. During this time the 

company began to grow and acquire minerals 

and non-operating working interests in 

southern Oklahoma and enjoyed modest 

success under the direction of selected oil and 

gas operators and developers. 

Hewitt Mineral Corporation, which used to 

operate in the early days, does not 

operate any properties nor does it engage 

in drilling operations, relying instead on 

independent contractors or operating 

partners. Through most of the twentieth 

century, its properties—mostly in 

Anadarko Basin—provided most of the 

company’s oil and gas production. Hewitt 

has been fortunate enough to grow and 

expand its reserves through acquisitions, 

and partner with small independent 

companies to drill and produce in 

and around Oklahoma. Through these 

partnerships, Hewitt participated with a 

working interest inside and outside the 

state of Oklahoma. 

Today, Hewitt Mineral Corporation 

maintains an inventory of leasehold 

interests and minerals primarily within 

the states of Oklahoma, Texas, Louisiana 

and Illinois. As Hewitt has grown 

throughout the years, its shares of stock 

have been divided several times over 

as generations increase. In 1999 the 

stockholders agreed to amend the 

Certificate of Incorporation for a ten-forone 

stock split. 

During the latter years of the 

twentieth century, Hewitt hired its first 

full-time geologist to produce and 

evaluate oil and gas prospects and 

benefited greatly from the addition of 

James B. Dolman as president up until 

his death in 2007, at which time the 

equity in Hewitt grew over four 

hundred percent. The corporate officers 

and directors still monitor several 

of the early day leases acquired during 

the years that contributed to the 

company’s early net income in addition 

to leases acquired in Oklahoma and 

various other states. New innovations in 

exploration have further increased the 

value of the company and its oil and 

gas holdings. 

The twenty-first century brings great 

opportunity for growth for Hewitt and its 

current president, William E. Dolman, as Hewitt 

is positioned to benefit from high energy 

prices and the steady increase of demand 

around the world. 

Above: L. S. Dolman maintained the 

activity and livelihood out of his office 

for more than fifty years. 

Below: James B. Dolman, president, 

1992-2007. 


ARDMORE 

CHAMBER OF 

COMMERCE 

ARDMORE 

DEVELOPMENT 

AUTHORITY 

ARDMORE 

TOURISM 

AUTHORITY 

The purpose of the Ardmore Chamber of 

Commerce is to provide the leadership for the 

promotion and advancement of the economic 

vitality and the quality of life for the greater 

Ardmore area. 

The Chamber was formed in 1914. One of 

the initial functions of the Chamber was the 

establishment of roads and railroads to serve the 

oil fields, which the Chamber helped fund. 

Through the years, the Chamber has been an 

instrument for building the City of Ardmore. 

Civic leaders united their efforts through the 

Chamber to move the community forward. The 

Chamber helped make Lake Murray a reality 

by employing a full time coordinator to promote 

the project locally and in Washington, D.C., 

gaining approval as a WPA project made it 

a reality. 

At the beginning of World War II, 

the Chamber successfully coordinated 

the effort to gain a military installation 

for the area. The base was 

closed following the Korean Conflict 

and was deeded to the community. 

In the early years, the Chamber 

held its meetings in a room in the 

courthouse. In the 1920s the 

Chamber moved to the Dunlap 

building at the corner of Main and 

A Streets and leased space there for 

many years. In 1954 the Chamber 

purchased its own building at 6 East 

Main Street. That facility outlived its 

usefulness and the Chamber built a 

modern headquarters at 410 West 

Main Street in 1993. Additional 

information is available online at 

www.ardmore.org. 


The Ardmore Development Authority (ADA) 

was formed in 1964 following cooperative 

efforts of city officials, the Chamber of 

Commerce and the Ardmore Industrial 

Development Corporation (AIDC). The ADA 

was formed under the Trust Indenture Statutes 

of the State of Oklahoma. It was the first such 

local economic development public trust 

authority in the state and has since been the 

model for others. The initial Trustees of the ADA 

were G. P. Middaugh, Felix Simmons, John H. 

Snodgrass, John C. Sauerwein, Jack Smith, 

Woodrow W. Hulme and R. G. Colvert, Jr. 

The purpose of the ADA is to provide 

programs and services resulting in new 

economic activity by attracting new industry, 

helping existing industry expand and assisting 

new start-up companies. The ADA owns and 

develops industrial parks, constructs buildings 

for sale or to lease to companies. The ADA also 

operates the Ardmore Airpark, a full service 

Airport that was a former military installation. 

Marketing Ardmore to prospective new companies 

is a major function of the ADA. 

The ADA is recognized nationally for excellence 

and has received numerous national 

awards and recognition. 

The first major project of the Ardmore 

Development Authority happened to be the 

largest project in the city’s history—the attraction 

and location of the Uniroyal Plant. 

Ardmore’s economic history was first spurned 

by the discovery of oil in Healdton in 1913. 

That gave the town its first great spurt of 

progress. In the 1930s and early 1940s, the 

community entered the recreation business in a 

big way with Lake Murray and other developments. 

Another boost came in the 1940s with 

the development of the Ardmore Air Base. 

The economic spurt that added manufacturing 

as a significant contributor to the local economy 

occurred in 1970, with the opening of the 

Uniroyal plant. The project really began in 1968 

when the company chose Ardmore over other 

competing communities and states. Uniroyal 

was later purchased by BF Goodrich and the 

plant became Uniroyal Goodrich. In 1990 the 

company sold to Michelin and officially changed 

the name of the local plant five years later. The 

Ardmore Development Authority is located 

online at www.ardmoredevelopment.com. 

The Ardmore Chamber of Commerce initiated 

efforts in 1994 to form an organization 

dedicated to the promotion of tourism and to 

have the legal authority to construct facilities for 

the community and to serve the tourism industry. 

The Ardmore Tourism Authority (ATA, aka 

Ardmore Convention and Visitors Bureau) was 

officially formed in November 1994. 

A hotel/motel room tax was passed in 

November 2001 with two-fifths of the funds 

dedicated to promoting tourism and three-fifths 

dedicated to the future Convention Center. In 

2002, voters approved a two year one-half cent 

sales tax to help fund the construction of the 

Convention Center, which opened in 2004. 

Today, the ATA, Chamber of Commerce and 

the Development Authority each have a governing 

board but administrative services for all are 

coordinated by Chamber management. 


BRADY 

WELDING & 

MACHINE SHOP, 

INC. 

William (Bill) Brady started Brady Welding 

in 1957. He began with a 1953 one-ton Ford 

welding truck and a Lincoln welder that he purchased 

for $1,200. His father-in-law, Earl 

Hance, loaned him the money to start the business. 

Through hard work, Bill was able to purchase 

tank trucks in 1960 and rig-up trucks in 

1965. Within a few years, he began purchasing 

heavy equipment such as backhoes and 

dozers. During this time Brady’s began offering 

roustabout services. Shortly thereafter, Bill 

bought out Morgan & Hamm Machine Shop in 

Healdton. During this time, Brady Welding & 

Machine Shop was operating at 301 Shell Street 

in Healdton with Bill’s wife, Naomi, working in 

the office. 

Brady Welding & Machine Shop incorporated 

when it moved to its current location at 797 

Highway 76 North in Healdton in 1981. This is 

an industrial zone on a well-traveled highway, 

conveniently located near Ardmore, between 

Oklahoma City and Dallas, Texas. The location 


consists of a main office building, a 6,000 

square foot machine shop, a 6,000 square foot 

truck shop, and other storage buildings in a 

seven and a half acre yard. Brady Welding & 

Machine Shop, Inc. purchased a shop, office 

building, living quarters, and three acre yard in 

El Reno to open a crane and heavy haul trucking 

division; expanded to an office building, 

service shop, and yard on the south side of 

Healdton for the pumping unit division; and 

opened an office and yard in Woodward to 

expand the crane and trucking division. 

Brady’s currently offers crane services (truck 

and all terrain cranes, ranging in size from 

40 ton to 275 ton), pumping unit sales and 

servicing, dirt work (backhoes, trac-hoes, dozers, 

etc.), trucking (fluid and equipment), shop 

and field welding, rig moving and building, 

industrial construction, a full machine shop, 

and other contracted oilfield services. 

Bill retired as president of Brady Welding & 

Machine Shop, Inc. in 2000 after building the 

company from a single welding truck to an 

incorporated multimillion dollar business that 

offers a full range of oilfield services and 

employs over 125 people. The family-owned 

business is now run by Bill’s sons, Mike, David, 

and Bill Dan. Mike graduated from the 

University of Oklahoma with a degree in 

Petroleum Land Management and began working 

in 1980. David received his degree in 

Business Management from Southeastern 

Oklahoma State University and began working 

in 1982. Bill Dan graduated from Southeastern 

receiving a degree in Business Administration 

and began working in 1988. Bill’s daughter, 

Jana, graduated from the University of 

Oklahoma with a degree in Business Education 

and began working as the company’s bookkeeper 

in 1986. 

Brady Welding & Machine Shop, Inc. is 

involved with and supports the community. 

Brady's donates thousands of dollars per year 

through money, labor and services to local and 

regional charities, churches, schools, scholarship 

foundations, and athletic departments. 

Brady Welding is a member of the Healdton 

Chamber of Commerce. 

For more information about Brady Welding 

& Machine, please visit the company online at 

www.bradywelding.com. 


JOE BROWN 

COMPANY, INC. 

Bottom, left: Joe Brown Company 

President Teresa Brown. 

Since 1947, Joe Brown Company, Inc. has 

been a respected name in the transportation 

and construction industries. Current transportation 

operations originate from two terminals 

supported by the corporate office in 

Ardmore, Oklahoma. 

Joe Brown Company maintains a diverse 

fleet of equipment, consisting of late model 

over-the-road truck tractors and trailers to 

deliver to customers in the lower forty-eight 

states and Canada. With more than 200 pieces 

of equipment strategically located, Joe Brown 

Company serves its customers with team 

coordinated operations on any size job. 

The Davis terminal primarily delivers bulk 

commodities such as sand, gravel and dirt, in 

end dump or belly dump trailers and hazardous 

waste in end dumps or roll off boxes. The 

Ardmore terminal handles dry fine-ground 

materials such as frac sand and cement, in 

tankers, asphalt oil and flat bed products. 

Joe Brown was born May 24, 1896 and was 

entered in the final roll of the Cherokee nation. 

He worked as a young man for the Texaco 

refinery in Tulsa, Oklahoma, before traveling 

by train in 1914 to the Arbuckle Mountains to 

work in the Goose Nest Mines. Joe learned the 

drilling business, while enjoying bird hunting 

and baseball as a past-time. 

In 1917, Joe married Vera Dewey Cowden. 

Joe and Vera moved to the town of Homer, 

later called Alpers, two miles west and one 

mile south of Hennepin in Carter County. They 

reared twelve of thirteen children. 


Joe had continued in the drilling 

business and just after the Goose 

Nest Mines closed, he sold his 

Indian allotment near Keffeton, 

Oklahoma, to buy a drilling rig. 

The rig was shipped to Davis, 

and then transported to Hennepin 

over a swinging bridge across the 

Washita River. He drilled shallow 

oil and water wells in Carter, 

Garvin and Murray Counties. In 

February of 1920, they completed 

the Vendome Artesian well in 

Sulphur, Murray County. It was the 

largest flowing mineral well in the 

world at 3,500 gallons per minute. 

In the late 1920s Joe bought out 

his drilling partners. In the early 

1930s he and his son Joe continued drilling, 

farming, ranching, custom farming and also 

started selling building materials such as rock, 

sand, and gravel. 

In the late 1940s it was apparent that extra 

help was needed in supplying building materials, 

so the idea of Joe Brown Company was 

conceived. As Joe’s sons began returning from 

service in World War II—Joe, James, Orville 

and Clifford, from the Air Force, and Gene from 

the Navy—they began helping their father, 

some of them buying their own trucks. Gene 

stayed in the water well drilling business, and 

Joe, James, and Clifford, along with their father, 

formed Joe Brown Company in 1947. They 

began furnishing road and building materials in 

the County Line area. 

In 1953, the first ready-mix concrete plant 

was purchased in Ratliff City, Oklahoma, thereby 

supplying ready-mixed concrete to the oil 

field of Carter County. In 1954, a ready-mix 

concrete plant was purchased in Healdton, 

Oklahoma, and in 1956, another was purchased 

in Ardmore. The first venture of the small company 

outside Carter County was in 1958, when 

a plant was purchased in Duncan, Oklahoma. 

By 2000, Joe Brown Company owned seventeen 

ready-mix plants across southern Oklahoma. 

Joe Brown Company was instrumental in the 

building of three bridges, from Oklahoma to 

Texas, including Willis Bridge over Lake 

Texhoma as well as in building parts of I-35 by 

furnishing materials and hauling concrete. 

Today, the company focuses on supplying frac 

sand to natural gas wells, rock to build well 

locations and construction projects in the south 

central United States. 

After sixty-four years, Joe Brown Company, 

Inc. is operated by a third generation of Browns; 

Joe’s daughter Teresa and Cliff’s son Scott. 

Joe Brown Company has many long term loyal 

employees continuing this family endeavor. 

You will notice Joe Brown’s striking green 

and orange trucks on highways and county 

roads throughout our region. Few trucking 

companies have passed to a third generation, 

Joe Brown’s green and orange tradition of 

trucking will soon pass to a fourth generation. 

For more information about Joe Brown 

Company, Inc., visit this historic company 

online at www.joebrowncompany.net. 

Above: President Teresa Brown, 

Chairman Joe D. Brown and 

Ardmore, Oklahoma, terminal 

manager Lu Kennedy. 


TRIPOWER 

RESOURCES, 

LLC 

Right: John Gibbs stands in front of 

the TriPower Resources offices. 

Below: The staff of TriPower 

Resources, 2010. (Left to Right) Back 

row: John Orr, Neal Hill, Stephanie 

Parish, Julie Lee, Waylan Morris, 

Diane Allen, Jim Thornton, and Jeff 

James. Front Row: Dub Curry, Becke 

Blakemore, Tamie Jones, Melissa Lee, 

Deanna Lima, Rebecca Gibbs, and 

John Gibbs. 

TriPower Resources, LLC is a privately held 

independent energy company engaged in the 

exploration, development and acquisition of oil 

and natural gas resources in the United States. 

In 1992, Buttes Gas and Oil of Houston purchased 

certain assets from Merrico Resources, 

Inc. In December 1993, Redwood Microcap 

Fund Inc, Primrose Drilling Ventures Ltd, and 

John D. Gibbs purchased the assets of Buttes 

Gas and Oil and the company was incorporated 

as TriPower Resources, Inc. Through the use of 

cash flow and bank debt the assets of the 

company were increased by small acquisitions 

and drilling in the Grady County, Oklahoma 

area where the company operated the majority 

of their properties at that time. 

1 0 0 ✦ H I S T O R I C C A R T E R C O U N T Y

In March 2005, Gibbs Holdings LLC, Gibbs 

as principal, acquired all of the assets of 

TriPower Resources, Inc. TriPower became an 

LLC in 2006. Corporate offices are located in 

Ardmore, Oklahoma. 

Currently the company operates 200 plus 

wells in their primary focus areas of Oklahoma, 

Kansas, Illinois, Texas and Wyoming. They also 

own non-operated interests in an additional 

200 plus wells in those states as well as in 

Arkansas, New Mexico and Utah. 

The company actively looks for opportunities 

to acquire attractive properties, which meet 

their criteria for geologic and reserve potential. 

Another main objective is the enhancement of 

value through improved operating practices 

and exploitation. 

TriPower has maintained an active drilling 

program throughout its history. The primary 

focus of exploration is on lower risk opportunities 

for reserves. The current focus is on shallow 

wells. On average TriPower drills and operates 

ten to twelve new wells per year and participates 

in another ten to twenty new properties per year 

as a non-operating interest owner. 

TriPower currently has a staff of sixteen 

employees, including a consulting geologist 

and sixteen contract pumpers. 

Gibbs has been the president and Chief 

Executive Officer since 1992. Gibbs has 

over thirty years of experience in the energy 

industry. Since 2005, Gibbs has had sole 

ownership of TriPower. Additionally, Gibbs 

has served on the Board of Directors of the 

Oklahoma Independent Petroleum Association 

since 2004. 

TriPower has been an active member of 

the Ardmore Chamber of Commerce for many 

years and supports their community efforts. 

TriPower’s employees are actively involved 

in giving back to the community as well. 

They support numerous local churches in 

addition to the March of Dimes, Habitat for 

Humanity, Boy Scouts of America, Girl Scouts 

of Western Oklahoma, The Fellowship of 

Christian Athletes, Rotary and many others. 

Above: A dedicated supporter of the 

University of Oklahoma Women’s 

Basketball program, here John Gibbs 

holds an autographed OU Women’s 

Basketball. Coach Sherri Coale 

created the University of Women’s 

Basketball Scholarship Endowment 

Program to have all fifteen players 

covered under an endowed 

scholarship. “The John and Sue Gibbs 

Women’s Basketball Scholarship” is 

part of their endowment program. 

John has also served as the president 

of the OU Women’s Basketball Fast 

Break Club for six years. 

S h a r i n g t h e H e r i t a g e ✦ 1 0 1

ARDMORE HIGHER EDUCATION CENTER 

Created by the Oklahoma State Legislature as a 

pilot project in higher education, the Ardmore 

Higher Education Program was the state’s first 

consortium-model university center. When the 

program originated in 1974, there were only ten 

courses offering classes from freshman through 

graduate-level and 110 students. Housed in 

Ardmore High School during its inaugural 

semester, the Ardmore Higher Education Program 

moved to the renovated Mount Washington 

School in the fall of 1974 and increased its 

offerings to twenty-four courses. In 1977 the pilot 

program was made permanent by state statute and 

was placed under the administration of the Office 

of the Chancellor for the Oklahoma State Regents 

for Higher Education. 

The program had outgrown its surroundings 

due to quickly-increasing enrollment. A new 

building was constructed on property belonging 

to the Ardmore City Schools. It was supported 

by a maintenance endowment from the Noble 

Foundation, which was matched by gifts for construction 

from the community-at-large. While the 

building was owned by Ardmore City Schools, 

the program was awarded usage under a twenty 

year lease. With expanded space, more than 750 

students participated in ninety course offerings. 

Renamed Ardmore Higher Education Center, the 

program expanded, local involvement increased 

and an Advisory Board was formed in 1983. 

The Ardmore Higher Education Center 

continued flourishing throughout the 1990s. 

Well into its third decade, enrollment continues 

to increase from year to year and new courses 

and degree programs have been added that 

provide higher education opportunities to 

thousands of college students in southern 

Oklahoma each year. While most students are 

nontraditional, working adults, many students 

transfer to another college or university after 

completion of general education courses, or are 

high school students enrolling in college courses 

concurrently. The average academic load per 

semester is two to three courses totaling six to 

ten credit hours. 

The Ardmore Higher Education Center 

delivers degree programs from East Central 

University in Ada; Murray State College in 

Tishomingo; Southeastern Oklahoma State 

University Durant; and Oklahoma State 

University-Oklahoma City. AHEC offers undergraduate 

and graduate courses in a wide range of 

areas that enables students to earn associate, 

bachelor, or master degrees through one of four 

participating institutions. 

Degrees are offered at the Associate, Bachelor 

(criminal justice, business management, elementary 

education, counseling, and nursing), 

and Master (business administration, education, 

human resources, and psychological services) 

levels. Agreements between the two-year and 

four-year institutions facilitate the transition 

to a Bachelor degree program for students 

completing their general education requirements 

through the two-year institution. 

Individuals can also take courses that further 

their professional credentials as elementary 

school teachers, school administrators, school 

psychologists, school psychometrists, and 


licensed professional counselors. All degree 

programs are fully accredited and students 

graduate with a degree from the participating 

college or university partner. 

All faculty members are employed by the 

college and university partners. The Center 

employs a minimal administrative staff to 

operate the facilities and schedule classes 

and the college and university partners 

maintain full time academic advisement staff 

at the Center. Most faculty teaching at the 

Center hold advanced degrees and many 

hold earned doctorate degrees. Class size is 

relatively small with the faculty-to-student 

ratio averaging about 15:1. 

Tuition and fees at the Ardmore Higher 

Education Center are about the same as on the 

main campuses of the college and university 

partners. Tuition waivers, scholarships, federal 

grants, and loans are awarded to qualifying 

students. Financial aid is administered through 

the financial aid offices of the college and university 

partners, but application can be made at the 

Center. Additionally, the Center also awards 

tuition scholarships to qualifying students based 

on available funding. 

The 30,000 square foot AHEC facility 

includes twelve classrooms, a library, 

administrative offices for AHEC staff, and 

academic advisement/student services offices 

for the college and university partners. Due to 

the need for additional space, ten to twelve 

classrooms at Ardmore High School are used for 

evening classes. 

The Ardmore Higher Education Center has 

built a reputation for friendliness and support 

based on several decades of serving students 

with high quality, higher education programs. 

For more information about AHEC, visit them 

online at www.ahec.osrhe.edu. 


CHICKASAW 

REGIONAL 

LIBRARY 

During the first half of the twentieth century, 

the majority of citizens in South Central 

Oklahoma had no library services available 

to them. However, by the end of WWII, 

Oklahomans were fired with enthusiasm for 

additional and better community libraries. 

In 1956 federal funds became available for 

library service to rural areas and to increase 

operations in existing city libraries. Realizing 

this need in southern Oklahoma, the Oklahoma 

Department of Libraries won the support of 

interested citizens and commissioners of Carter, 

Johnston, Love and Marshall Counties. As a 

result, the Chickasaw Multi-County Library 

was born in 1960. In addition to ad valorem 

taxes, funding was supplemented by the generosity 

of the Daube and Merrick families. 

Ardmore, Madill, Sulphur and Wilson 

became cooperating units of the Library System. 

Throughout the 1960s, a big red bookmobile 

made regular stops in the rural areas and kept 

community libraries supplied with new resource 

materials. As new programs were developed and 

services improved, the public’s reception of the 

Chickasaw Multi-County Library was excellent. 

The System grew and expanded and the name 

was changed to “Chickasaw Library System.” It 

is important to note that the name “Chickasaw” 

was given to the Library System because the 

original counties that formed the System were in 

what was historically known in Oklahoma as 

“Chickasaw Territory.” There has never been a 

connection with the Chickasaw Nation (Tribe). 

In 1971, a published article stated: 

Modern public library services are provided 

to the people of the towns and rural 

communities in six Southern Oklahoma 

counties by the Chickasaw Library System. The 

counties served are Carter, Love, Johnston, 

Murray, Coal and Atoka. The headquarters 

library and service center is at 22 Broadlawn 

Village in Ardmore, and branch libraries are 

located at Wilson, Healdton, Marietta, Davis, 

Sulphur, Tishomingo, Coalgate and Atoka. 

Over fifty rural communities and smaller towns, 

plus a number of rural schools, are served by 

two big red bookmobiles. 

Through this multi-county library system… 

all the people in the six-county area have 

access to almost unlimited library materials. 

The Chickasaw System itself has more than 

50,000 books, plus magazines, phonograph 

records, films, slides and other materials. 

Particular books and other materials not 

available at the local branch library or from 

the bookmobile can be ordered from the 

headquarters library. 

By 1977 the Ardmore Headquarters Library 

urgently needed more space. Dana Champion 

Mordy and Charles Champion generously 

offered a parcel of land in the Champion 

Station area. In 1981 the new 9,800 square 

foot facility opened at 601 Railway Express. 

It still serves as the support center for the 

System and as a public library. 

Today, the Chickasaw Regional 

(Public) Library System (CRLS) 

accommodates nearly 96,000 

citizens in the five counties of 

Carter, Atoka, Johnston, Love 

and Murray. Eight libraries are 

located in the cities of Ardmore, 

Atoka, Davis, Healdton, Marietta, 

Sulphur, Tishomingo and Wilson. 

Each community library has 

its own unique personality 

and serves citizens of all ages 

and all socio-economic backgrounds. 

CRLS offers a broad 

range of services and programs 

along with ever expanding 

technology resources. 


The Library provides traditional resources 

such as books, periodicals, microfilm, DVDs 

and audio books. A comprehensive archival 

collection of The Ardmoreite newspaper dating 

back to 1893 is available on microfilm. Readers 

of all ages enjoy quality programs such as 

the acclaimed Let’s Talk About It, Oklahoma 

reading and discussion series, the popular 

preschool story hour, the successful children’s 

Summer Reading Program and visiting authors. 

Throughout the year, programs are presented 

for people of all ages and for many different 

interests with an emphasis on life-long learning. 

The Library offers patrons a world of information 

through electronic resources and gives 

instruction in computer applications and the 

most recent “technology trends.” Netbooks and 

laptop computers are available for adults to borrow. 

Electronic Books (E-Books) and downloadable 

music can be accessed by library card 

holders. Public computers and wireless Internet 

are readily available to community patrons. A 

wide range of research capabilities is offered by 

CRLS Libraries, including EBSCOhost, which 

includes databases of general and academic 

interest, business information, and maps online. 

Citizens have remote access to CRLS’ resources 

twenty-four hours per day, seven days a week. 

For more information about the Chickasaw 

Regional (Public) Library System, please visit 

www.crlsok.org. 


Above: Lynn (left) and Paul 

Lewis (right). 

Below: Lynda (left) and Paula 

Lewis (right). 

LEWIS MAGNETO & SUPPLY CO., INC. 

Lewis Magneto & Supply Co., Inc. was 

started as a small repair shop in 1946 by Lynn 

Lewis, who had learned about repairing 

magnetos by working on elevators. Lewis, who 

had twenty years experience in motor tune-ups 

and ignition services, moved from Ardmore to 

Healdton in 1946 to work for Ottis Gann Motor 

Company. The need for magneto repair shops 

was growing rapidly at the time and Lewis 

started Lewis Magneto and Ignition Company, 

which was located in the motor company. 

Although Lewis serviced automotive, farm and 

oilfield magnetos, most of the business came 

from the oilfield, which was booming in the 

Healdton area at the time. 

In the late 1940s, Lewis relocated from the 

motor company to a small tin building at 10 

South Fourth Street. The business grew and in 

September 1949, Lynn and his son, Paul, 

completed a new brick building, which was 

connected to the wall of the old tin building. 

Elmer Knutter’s Café occupied the front part of 

the building and shared in the construction 

cost. Pumpers, oilfield workers and farmers 

would leave magnetos to be repaired in the 

shop, then go to the front of the building to eat 

at Elmer’s. 

Construction on an even larger building 

began in 1952. It was constructed around the 

old building on Fourth Street and boasted buff 

brick, 13-inch fireproof walls, two 10-foot 

drive-in service doors, and a roof made of steel 

strong enough to support a second-story 

addition. Elmer Knutter and his family lived in 

the upstairs addition. 

Lewis purchased Cornish Magneto & Supply 

Company in August 1955 and the company was 

merged into Lewis Magneto’s Fourth Street 

location. Paul Lewis sold his interest in the 

business to his father in 1956 and returned to 

Ardmore to open his own business. 

Elmer Knutter, Sr. continued to operate the 

café in the front part of the Lewis Magneto 

business until 1962. 

The company was sold on September 1, 1977 

to three partners; Odis O. Blakemore and Gary 

D. Rich, both of whom had a working interest, 

and Linton C. Lock, who was a silent partner. 

The new owners incorporated the business on 

August 31, 1977 but retained the wellestablished 

Lewis Magneto name. After the 

purchase, the business was changed from Lewis 

Magneto Ignition to Lewis Magneto & Supply 

Co., Inc. Lock sold his shares back to the 

company in November 1977. 

Lewis Magneto relocated in 1982 when the 

building and land that housed a bowling alley at 

512 East Main Street was purchased from 

Marvin Hufling. The business has operated in 

the same location ever since. 


Gary Rich sold all his shares back to the 

company in 1984 and Lewis Magneto & Supply 

Co. has been family owned and operated ever 

since. Current president of the company is 

Michael E. Blakemore. Mark W. Blakemore serves 

as vice president and Clinton E. Blakemore as 

secretary/treasurer. Several other family members 

own stock in the business. 

In the many years it has been in business. 

Lewis Magneto has employed a number of 

family members including grandchildren, 

school students, halfway house (DOC) workers, 

and veterans from all branches of the military. 

From its beginning, Lewis Magneto and its 

employees have supported the local schools and 

a number of nonprofit organizations. 

As the company has grown, it has ventured 

into many other areas and now repairs—in shop 

or in the field—engines, pumps, and many 

other oilfield items. The company has a 

complete oilfield supply store and also sells and 

services outdoor power equipment. 

Today, Lewis Magneto stocks approximately 

20,000 line items in its inventory. The stock 

includes oilfield supplies, pump and engine 

repair parts, new and rebuilt pumps and 

engines, outdoor power equipment and parts, 

many assorted pipe fittings and fasteners, hand 

and power tools, along with magnetos and 

magneto parts. While the demand for old-style 

magnetos is dwindling fast, the stock has been 

upgraded to include parts and service for 

electronic ignitions. 

Above: The old Lewis Magneto shop 

on Main Street some time after 1962. 

Below: Mary D. Blakemore (center) 

with (clockwise from top, right) 

Odis O. , Clinton E. , Michael E., and 

Mark W. Blakemore. 


OKLAHOMA 

STATE 

HORSESHOEING 

SCHOOL 


The Oklahoma State Horseshoeing 

School in 1975. 

Regan and Ty Kester practicing for a 

draft shoeing competition. 

Reggie Kester. 

Since it was founded more than thirty-five 

years ago, the mission of Oklahoma State 

Horseshoeing School has been to train students 

in the art and science of the farriery and blacksmithing 

industry, surrounded by a friendly and 

professional atmosphere. Students are prepared 

to become self-employed, contributing individuals 

with high values of honesty and integrity. 

When OSHS opened in 1975 there was only 

one instructor—Reggie Kester—and four 

people in the first class. The school now 

averages twenty-two students per class with 

several full and part-time instructors, including 

members of the Kester family. In addition, 

OSHS employs an office manager, two 

secretaries and a welder. 

There were few horseshoeing schools in the 

country when Reggie decided to leave his job as 

a professional horseshoer and instructor at Al 

Penson’s horseshoeing school in Texas and open 

a school of his own. He and his wife, Marcella, 

selected Ardmore as the site for the school, since 

it was strategically located between 

Oklahoma City and Dallas in an area 

with a large horse population. 

Reggie and Marcella moved to 

Ardmore, bought some land, and 

worked on the school each weekend 

until it was finished. Reggie built the 

first building with his own hands. 

It served as office, classroom and 

shoeing barn. Two years later, a dormitory with 

two efficiency apartments was added. Since that 

time, the school has added a separate classroom, 

added on to the office to make it three times 

larger, built a recreational room, and added a 

third apartment. 

There was a need for additional instructors as 

the school grew and Marcella attended the 

school in order to help with future classes. She 

and a friend, Darla, who attended school with 

her, were among the first female horseshoers in 

this part of the country. Meanwhile, Reggie 

became the sixth person to become a member of 

the Oklahoma Farrier’s Association. 


The Kesters also passed their skills on to 

a second and third generation. Reggie and 

Marcella’s son, Regan, attended the course under 

his dad’s instruction while a teenager. Then, 

when Regan’s son, Ty, was a teenager, he attended 

the course and received instruction from both 

his dad and grandfather. Regan has been an 

instructor at OSHS since his graduation. 

A colorful and diverse group of students, 

including doctors and lawyers, have attended 

OSHS over the years. Two couples met at the 

school and were later married, and one of those 

couples sent their son through the school many 

years later. In addition, a father attended the 

school with his three sons and a deaf student 

had a signer work with him throughout the 

course. One class included eight students from 

Canada and another class included five females. 

People have come from all over the world to 

attend the course. The school has had students 

from the ages fourteen to sixty-five and students 

have included a professional boxer, a registered 

nurse, firefighters, and many different lawmen. 

The school has had students from all fifty 

states as well as Argentina, Australia, Austria, 

Brazil, Africa, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Finland, 

Germany, Greece, United Kingdom, Israel, 

Philippines, Norway, New Zealand, Netherlands, 

Mexico, Switzerland and Sweden. 

In an effort to raise the standards of the 

profession, Reggie founded the American 

Farrier’s Education Council, an organization 

composed of owners of horseshoeing schools 

across the country. 

Oklahoma State Horseshoeing School is 

located at 4802 Dogwood Road, a few miles east 

of Ardmore, and students travel to all the big 

ranches in the area. Some customers come all 

the way from Oklahoma City and Dallas to 

have their horses shod by OSHS students, and 

owners bring crippled horses from throughout 

the country for our instructors to correct. OSHS 

sells supplies to all the local farriers and ships 

supplies to customers throughout the nation. 

Reggie was active in the business until his 

passing in December 2008. Marcella continues 

to work each day and the family plans for the 

second and third generation of Kesters to take 

over the school and supply store. 

For more information about the Oklahoma 

State Horseshoeing School, check the website at 

www.oklahomastatehorseshoeingschool.net. 

The Oklahoma State Horseshoeing 

School as it appears in 2011. 


RINGLING 

ENTERPRISES, 

INC. 

ROCKLAND OIL 

COMPANY 

Above: John Ringling North II, current 

president of Rockland Oil Company. 

In the summer of 1911, John Ringling arrived 

in Oklahoma where he first met Jake Hamon, a 

local attorney, who was looking for capital to 

build a local railroad system. Together, Ringling 

and Hamon began buying property and town 

sites to begin their railroad venture. In 1912, 

Ringling acquired several tracts of land in Carter 

County, eventually purchasing around 8,000 

acres. These proved to be rich in oil, and in 

August 1913, a “gusher” blew securing Ringling’s 

initial investment and fortune in the oil business. 

The oil business was not the first investment 

for Ringling. He was already well-known for 

his partial ownership of the Ringling Brothers 

Circus. The five Ringling brothers, Albert, Otto, 

Alfred, Charles and John showed early talents as 

entertainers. In 1884 the brothers started their 

first show in Baraboo, Wisconsin, with a trained 

horse and dancing bear. By 1890 they had purchased 

their first elephant and began travelling 

by train. As the circus grew and prospered they 

began to purchase other small circus acts. In 

1919, Ringling Circus merged with the Barnum 

& Bailey Circus to become “The Ringling 

Brothers Barnum & Bailey Circus, The Greatest 

Show on Earth.” 

Ringling eventually allowed his brothers to 

take the reins and manage the circus for a time, 

while he became more interested in Oklahoma 

and his oil investments. The town of Ringling 

was established in 1914, with Healdton shortly 

thereafter. By November of 1914, there were 

275 producing wells in the Healdton sector. 

Within the next year, the field production was 

118,000 barrels and no way to ship all the oil 

out. The few railroad tank cars and one pipeline 

were inadequate for the heavy oil producing 

wells. By 1917 six pipelines were laid in addition 

to the Oklahoma, New Mexico and Pacific 

Railroad, sometimes referred to as the “Ringling 

Road,” to transport the heavy oil production. 

In 1925, Ringling and his assets were worth 

over 100 million dollars. Besides the circus, oil 

fields and railroads, he owned other real estate, 

banks, theaters, and hotels in Oklahoma and 

across the country. Ringling began to travel to 

Europe and collect artwork eventually amassing 

over 500 masterpieces from sixteen and seventeenth 

century artists such as Peter Paul Reubens, 

Titan, El Greco, Rembrandt, Velasquez and Van 

Dyck. In the mid 1920s, Ringling and his wife 

Mable began construction of a thirty-two room 

Venetian-Gothic style palatial mansion on sixtyeight 

acres in Sarasota, Florida, at a cost of 1.6 million 

dollars. The mansion was called “Ca’ d’Zan,” 

which means “House of John” in Venetian dialect. 

Right: A crowd gathers in Ardmore as 

the “golden spike” is driven to 

complete the Oklahoma, New Mexico 

and Pacific Railroad to Ringling in 

1914. Jake Hamon, Sr., and John 

Ringling co-founded the city of 

Ringling in 1914. Oklahoma 

Governor Lee Cruce holds 

the hammer. 

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE MCGALLIARD 

COLLECTION, ARDMORE PUBLIC LIBRARY. 


In 1925, Ringling began construction on a 

museum to house his massive art collection. 

Styled after a fifteenth century Italian villa, the 

museum is home to one of the finest collections 

of European art in the country. The courtyard 

of the museum features casts of renaissance 

sculptures, including a replica of David by 

Michelangelo. The courtyard also features two 

fountains, a replica of the Fountain of Tortoises 

from the Piazza Mattei in Rome and Oceanus 

Fountain, copied from the sixteenth century 

original by Giovanni Bologna in Florence’s 

Boboli Gardens. The gardens at the complex 

include a special rose garden designed by Mable 

Ringling. Unfortunately Mable died prematurely 

in June 1929, at the age of fifty-four. 

Throughout his life Ringling maintained his 

connections with the family run circus business, 

although his mainstay was in the oil and real 

estate business. After his death and that of his 

siblings, control of the business was passed onto 

Ringling’s nephews, John Ringling North and 

Henry Ringling North. Henry said of his uncle, 

“John Ringling will be remembered not only as 

a circus owner, but for his interest in oil and as 

a builder of railroads…many of the first railroad 

cars that brought oil field workers from 

Ardmore to Ringling were richly upholstered 

wooden coaches, many previously used by part 

of the Ringling Circus special train.” 

In October 1931, “The John and Mable 

Ringling Museum of Art,” was officially opened 

to the public. However, with Ringling’s declining 

health, stock market crash and effects of 

the Great Depression, his business investments 

began to diminish. After his death from pneumonia 

in 1936, Ringling left his estate and art 

collection to the State of Florida, which now 

owns and operates the entire complex. The state 

added a circus museum in 1948 to house circus 

artifacts, including bandwagons, calliopes, costumes, 

posters and circus memorabilia. The 

Circus Museum in Sarasota, Florida was the first 

museum in the country to document, preserve, 

and exhibit the rich history of the circus. 

Rockland Oil Company was founded on 

October 23, 1916 to drill, explore and operate oil 

and gas leases in Oklahoma. The company was 

started with an authorized capital stock of 

$100,000. Ringling Enterprises merged with 

Rockland Oil on December 31, 1948. After the 

death of John Ringling North, the vice presidents 

of Rockland Oil Company were Henry Ringling 

North, Leonard G. Bisco, and Sydney R. Newman. 

Henry Nolen, a sixty year employee of 

Rockland Oil, began his career in 1923 as a 

roustabout on a pulling unit crew and later became 

production superintendent. Henry Ringling North 

called Nolen “the best field man in Oklahoma.” 

Upon Henry Ringling North’s death in October 

1993, his son, John Ringling North II, became 

president of Rockland Oil. The company is 

still operating today and located in Ardmore, 

Oklahoma, with a field office in Healdton. 

Left: John Ringling. 

Right: Henry Ringling North, 

John Ringling North’s brother. 


T. C. CRAIGHEAD 

& COMPANY 

In 1962, Tommy C. Craighead resigned his 

job as a district land man for Samedan Oil 

Corporation to become an independent oil and 

gas lease broker. It was a big step for Craighead, 

who had worked there for thirteen years after 

attending Murray State College. Initially hired as 

an office boy for Samedan, he was moved to the 

oil fields where he gained invaluable knowledge 

of the petroleum industry, before returning to 

the home office as a petroleum clerk. 

As an independent petroleum land man, 

Craighead initially operated out of his home in 

Ardmore with his wife, Billye Joy 

serving as his first secretary. In 

late 1962, he and Rudy J. White 

purchased the Duke and Bennett 

Insurance Agency and moved into 

an office in the Little Building in 

downtown Ardmore. Soon he was 

faced with a choice of continuing 

to expand his insurance business 

or to proceed full force with the 

brokerage business. He chose 

the latter, selling the insurance 

business to White and began 

working extensively for several 

local oil and gas companies, 

including the Daube Company 

and Quintin Little Company of 

Ardmore and L. E. Jones Production 

Company of Duncan. 

While working in Arkansas, 

Tommy met Gene Golden of Midwest 

Oil Company, and Jim L. Hanna 

of Hanna Oil & Gas. This chance 

meeting led to life-long friendships 

with the two. Tommy worked as a 

broker for Midwest Oil and participated in many 

wells with Hanna Oil & Gas. 

In 1972, Tommy decided to incorporate and 

formed T. C. Craighead & Company, which continued 

doing land work but gradually expanded 

into participating in drilling wells as a nonoperator. 

It was also in the 1970s that Tommy 

entered into a joint venture in Canada with his 

former Samedan boss, R. C. (Bob) Lang, III. 

They opened an office in Calgary, and developed 

and drilled many successful oil and gas 

prospects, before selling out to a Canadian firm 

in the mid-1980s. With the profit from this sale, 

the company commenced its own operations, 

drilling, producing, and operating wells in both 

Oklahoma and Texas. 

As the brokerage reputation of T. C. Craighead 

& Company grew, the company was hired as 

an independent contractor by many of the 

major oil and gas companies and put together 

large acreage blocks in Oklahoma, Arkansas 

and Texas for Conoco, Getty Oil, Chevron, 

Exxon, Mobil Oil, Shell Oil, and others. 


In 1997, the company sold all its operated 

interests as management chose to focus on 

non-operated working and mineral interests 

in Arkansas, Louisiana, Texas and Oklahoma. 

In the 2000s, the company expanded these 

interests outside the Mid-Continent into the 

Rocky Mountain and Gulf Coast Texas regions 

and beyond, participating in wells from Florida 

to California to North Dakota and Montana. 

While the oil and gas activities continued to 

expand, Tommy’s interests turned to ranching 

and the cattle business. He developed a true 

love for the industry as was shown by his 

support of the Carter County Junior Fat Stock 

shows, and his lifetime membership in the 

Oklahoma Cattlemen’s Association. 

A number of key individuals were instrumental 

in the growth and success of T. C. Craighead 

& Company. Annita J. Holt joined the company 

as a secretary in 1972 and eventually became a 

vice president and office manager. Craighead’s 

elder son, Tommy Don, worked summers 

and school breaks until graduating from the 

University of Oklahoma in 1972 and the 

University of North Carolina in 1973. He then 

joined the company full time, ultimately becoming 

executive vice president. 

As the oil and gas brokerage business 

continued to grow, additional people were 

brought into the firm and trained to do title 

work. These included R. D. Williams, Martha 

Graybill, Vernon L. Smith and Terry E. Harris, 

all of whom ultimately left to manage their own 

companies. Terry Dodge joined the firm and 

eventually became vice president of land 

operations. Mel Van Craighead was hired as a 

broker and remained with the firm as interoffice 

liaison. Judy Kenaga was the company’s first 

accountant, and ran that department for years. 

Lana Jayne Craighead Martin, initially hired as 

a secretary, was soon in charge of accounts 

payable. Her husband, Steve, established and 

ran the I. T. department. 

Craighead, one of the founders of OU’s Energy 

Center, established the Tommy C. Craighead 

Chair of Meteorology at the University of 

Oklahoma, and funded the Tommy C. Craighead 

Geology & Geophysics Scholarship at the 

University of Oklahoma. 

In 2011, full time employees included 15 in 

the office and 3 farm hands, with an annual 

payroll of $1.5 million. T. C. Craighead & 

Company moved to its present location at 

310 West Main in 1976. 


ARDMORE 

PUBLIC LIBRARY 

Oklahoma was still a territory in 1906, but 

the thriving community of Ardmore was 

already considered the ‘inland cotton center of 

the world’ and residents were eager for better 

facilities, including a public library. 

The movement for a public library began 

in 1903. One of the leaders, Mrs. Hosea 

Townsend, was so determined that Ardmore 

have a library that she approached the millionaire 

philanthropist Andrew Carnegie, who was 

using his vast wealth to establish libraries in 

local communities across the nation. 

The philanthropist provided $15,000 for the 

project and ground was broken for the Ardmore 

Carnegie Library in 1904. The library was 

formally opened in September 1906 and Myrtle 

Jones was chosen to be the library director. She 

served in the position for next forty years. 

Jones and other library supporters managed 

to procure 1,300 books, including 800 from 

the personal library of Judge Hosea Townsend. 

The Oriole Study Club knocked on doors and 

searched through their attics and contributed 

another 500 books. Four hundred of the books 

had been catalogued and shelved when the 

library opened for business. 

The citizens of Ardmore were enthusiastic 

supporters of the Carnegie Library from the 

very beginning. Circulation statistics for the 

first month show that 642 books were checked 

out, with children’s fiction leading the list. 

Twenty years later, in 1926, the library 

circulation had increased to approximately 

52,000 books annually. By the end of World 

War II, circulation had increased to nearly 

67,000 books annually. 

Esther McRuer, who earned a 

degree in Library Science from the 

University of Oklahoma, succeeded 

Jones in 1946 and began to promote 

the need for a larger library to better 

service the citizens of Ardmore. 

In 1953, William Morse became 

library director of what was now 

known as the Ardmore Public 

Library and continued to pursue the 

dream of a new facility. After a tenyear 

struggle, a new $280,000 

building was opened in the fall of 

1963. The library also took its first 

steps toward becoming a multimedia 

center during Morse’s tenure. 


Kay Watson Wakeland succeeded Morse in 

1967 and began to emphasize the idea of taking 

the library to the people. Other recent library 

directors have included Jo Ann Lauderdale 

1970-1979, Carolyn Franks 1979-2004, and the 

current director, Daniel Gibbs. 

The present Ardmore Public Library, located 

at 320 E Street Northwest was opened in 1999. 

The new building was made possible by a 

generous gift from the estate of Charles R. 

Smith. The library has twelve full-time and two 

part-time employees. 

The Ardmore Public Library now has more 

than 80,000 titles in its modern 28,000 square 

foot building but the libraries services have 

moved far beyond the circulation of books. 

A large collection of newspapers and magazines 

is available to patrons, along with audio 

books on CD, DVDs and music CDs. Reference 

materials include an extensive collection of 

auto repair resources. 

The library houses materials for genealogy 

research, including census and Indian rolls 

and the Oklahoma history collection includes 

photos and documents pertaining to the history 

of Ardmore and the region. 

Services provided to the public by the 

library include eighteen public PCs with 

Internet access plus Microsoft Office software 

and free wireless Internet connectivity. Meeting 

rooms, including kitchen facilities, are available 

for use by local organizations and copiers, 

printers, fax machines and notary public 

services are available. 

After more than a century of serving the 

citizens of Ardmore, the library remains 

committed to its mission to connect people 

with ideas, and support lifelong learning by 

providing reliable information resources, a 

well-rounded book collection, and other 

materials and programs that foster a literate, 

informed and culturally aware community. 

For additional information about the 

Ardmore Public Library, including an online 

library catalog, visit www.ardmorelibrary.org. 


FORSYTHE 

OILFIELD 

SERVICE, INC. 

Above: Left to right, Lawrence 

Forsythe and Gene Chapman. 

In March of 1969, Humble, now Exxon 

Mobil, was putting a water flood in the Dillard 

Field about five miles from the Forsythe home 

in Wilson. Lawrence Forsythe bought a two 

ton winch truck and let Humble know he 

needed to work. Two men he had worked with 

in the past, Ed Cavener and Arthur Bachman 

were superintendent and field foreman for 

the Hewitt Unit, and agreed to give Lawrence 

his first job. 

The company’s main business after 1976 was 

pulling units. They had several very dedicated 

employees during that time, and when the 

pulling units were sold in 2000, Jim Blodgett 

had been with the company for eighteen years. 

Lawana says, “He was never late and was always 

willing to stay as long as he was needed.” 

L. C. Loving soon came to work as their 

Rig Pusher. He stayed for ten years and the 

Forsythes were very fortunate to have a man of 

his character and work ethics. 

Their son, Ben, was in the Army in 1969. He 

served in Vietnam, returned home in 1973, 

and joined the company. Their son, Larry, was 

in high school and joined the company soon 

after he graduated. They both worked under 

many titles doing what was necessary to help 

make the business successful. 

The Forsythe’s first employees were Charles 

Blodgett and David Vernon. Lawrence’s wife 

Lawana vividly remembers those early years 

in the business, “Words cannot express how 

valuable they were in getting Forsythe Oilfield 

Service up and running.” 


In 1982 during the oil boom, there was a 

need for hot oilers and transports. Ben and 

Larry talked to Stanley Watkins, the Forsythe’s 

nephew, and decided to buy a hot oiler and 

hire Stanley as the operator. After years of hard 

work, Stanley bought the hot oilers and started 

his own business and is still successful today. 

Mary, the Forsythe’s daughter, joined Lawana 

in the office in 1982. She was an invaluable asset 

to the company and passed away on September 

28, 1999 as a result of breast cancer. Later, 

Lawrence was diagnosed with leukemia and 

passed away on December 7, 1999. At such a 

difficult time the company had to make several 

changes, sold most of the equipment, and started 

a rental tool and pressure truck business. 

Lawana had known Joe Aycox and was familiar 

with his reputation as a good and honest 

tool man. He joined the company in 2001 as 

their tool salesman and is still with them today. 

Lawana remains active in the business and 

plans to stay involved as long as her health 

allows. She has had assistance from a good 

friend, Sharion Ralls, in the office since 2006 

and granddaughter Lynsee Brown-Bates is 

currently working in the office, as well. 

Lawrence had the privilege of not only working 

with and teaching his sons the business, 

he also had the opportunity to teach his 

grandsons, Chad Brown, Josh Forsythe, Davis 

Forsythe, E. J. Forsythe and Colt Forsythe, and 

nephew, Benton Goodson, how to work with 

integrity and pride. 

Lawrence believed everyone deserved a 

chance and in helping the town of Wilson, his 

church, school or anyone that was in need. 

Lawrence believed that the success of his 

company was dependent on hard work from 

himself and the employees he had working for 

him and he took every opportunity to give 

them the credit they deserved. 

Lawrence would say, “Give a man a days 

work for a day’s pay and they will call you 

back,” and this has proven to be true over the 

past forty-two years. 

Though no one can know what the future 

holds, Lawana’s hope, as Lawrence Forsythe’s 

widow, is that in the years to come the 

company will grow with the help of the third 

generation; that they will remember their 

“Granny and Pa” for the honest hardworking 

people they were, and to hold the Forsythe 

name up to as high a standard as their 

grandfather did. 

Above: Lawana and Lawrence Forsythe. 


SULLIVAN 

INSURANCE 

AGENCY 

Right: The agency’s founder, John 

“Jack” Sullivan, in 1950. 

Below: John F. Sullivan, Jr., 1975. 

Founded by John “Jack” F. Sullivan, Sullivan 

Insurance Agency is a family owned 

independent agency that has been providing 

customers with a variety of life, personal 

insurance coverage needs, and commercial 

property and casualty coverage for over a half 

century in Carter County. 

Jack was working for Prudential Insurance 

in Boston, Massachusetts when he accepted a 

transfer to Ardmore in 1939. Within a year, 

he met and married the love of his life, Ruth 

Pollock, on August 14, 1940. As the couple 

settled into family life in the area, Jack joined 

the United States Navy on December 8, 1941 

and served his country in World War II for the 

next fours. Upon Jack’s welcomed return to 

Ardmore, he founded his own independent 

insurance agency in 1946 and Jack Sullivan 

Insurance was born. 

The agency’s original offices were located in 

the Colston Building, formerly known as the 

Simpson Building in downtown Ardmore. Jack 

soon became well-known throughout the 

county as “the man with the plan” and the 

insurance agency would flourish in the decades 

to come. 


Though Jack passed away in 1967, his wife 

Ruth continued to direct the agency until 

their son, John F. Sullivan, Jr., joined the 

group to become its leader in 1974. John 

graduated from Westminster College in Fulton, 

Missouri with a degree in Economics in 1972 

and a Masters in Business Administration 

from Oklahoma City University in 1974. 

From 1971 to 1973, he was a commercial 

casualty underwriter with the Insurance 

Company of North America, received his CPCU 

designation in 1976, and a CIC designation 

in 1981. 

John has been active in a variety of state 

and local associations and served on the Board 

of Directors of Associated Risk Managers 

International, Inc. from 1990 to 1999, and as 

its secretary from 1990 to 1992. He is currently 

a Director of Associated Risk Managers of 

Mid-America. 

Today, Sullivan Insurance Agency has grown 

to include a staff of sixteen, and welcomed the 

third generation of the Sullivan family when 

John’s daughter, Lena, joined the agency in 

2003 and became a partner in 2008. In 2006, 

after sixty years in the Colston Building, the 

agency was moved to its current location at 321 

West Broadway. 

It has also expanded across Oklahoma with 

branch offices in Edmond and Durant. The 

agency is also proud to include an outstanding 

team of producers that includes Barbara 

Anderson, CPCU, AU; Stacy Herron; Arthur 

Rickets, CIC; Stacy Sullivan, CIC; Lena 

Sullivan, CIC; and stepson Justin Arledge. 

With the addition of the producers and branch 

offices, a new dimension has been added to 

the marketing and underwriting goals of the 

Sullivan Insurance Agency. 

The Sullivan Insurance Agency is a member 

of the Oklahoma Indian Gaming Association, 

Oklahoma Grain and Feed Association, Texas 

Grain and Feed Association, and the Texas Seed 

Trade Association. 

John Sullivan, Jr., and his staff 

in 1984. 


SWINK 

HEATING, AIR 

CONDITIONING, 

AND ELECTRIC 

Right: Jarred Swink, owner of the 

business has over twenty years 

experience in heating/air conditioning 

and electric. He is always available to 

his customers and just a phone 

call away. 

Below: Swink Heating, Air 

Conditioning and Electric opened its 

doors in 2005 starting with just two 

employees and now employs fifteen. 

Thanks to the faithful customers that 

continue to rely on them for all of 

their heating, air conditioning and 

electrical needs, they continue to grow 

each year. 

Swink Heating, Air Conditioning, and Electric 

offers full service air conditioning, heating and 

electrical repair, design and installation services. 

On-call twenty-four hours a day, seven days a 

week, the company employs only state licensed 

technicians as they assist residential, commercial 

and industrial customers across the area. 

The company opened its doors in 2005 when 

owner Jarred Swink was able to utilize his 

previous experience with Keeton Plumbing and 

Vernon’s Heat and Air to start his own business. 

Jarred grew up in the Ardmore/Lone Grove area 

graduating from Lone Grove High in 1992. He 

attended the HVAC program at the local 

Southern Oklahoma Technology Center while 

finishing high school. From there he went on to 

OSU Okmulgee to obtain more knowledge in 

the HVAC field. It was when he returned from 

OSU that he began working for Vernon’s, 

catching on quickly and realizing that some day 

he wanted to pursue owning his own business. 

Along with the support of family and friends, 

starting small, and building as the years went 

along, Swink Heating, Air Conditioning, and 

Electric has always been an exciting challenge, 

with something new to learn at every turn. 

Jarred’s business partner and wife, Lara, says, 

“Working with the customers daily is a blessing 

not only for our business but for our family as 

well. We rely on the business of our hometown 

to keep our business thriving and we appreciate 

each customer and their business.” 

Swink was originally located at 406 I SW in 

Ardmore and is now located at 14570 U.S. 

Highway 70 in Ardmore on the highway towards 

Lone Grove. Swink Heating, Air Conditioning, 

and Electric began with just two employees and 

now employs fifteen full-time employees hoping 

to continue to grow in the upcoming years. The 

business has prospered thanks to community 


support and faithful customers, and a trusted 

commitment to maintaining happy customers. 

With three fulltime Heat and Air technicians 

and one dedicated installer, Swink is able to 

meet the demands of their customer’s needs. 

Swink Heating, Air Conditioning, and 

Electric is an active contributor to the local 

schools, scholarship and memorial funds, and 

are proud members of NATE, ADA, the Ardmore 

Chamber of Commerce, as well as the Kiwanis 

Club of Lone Grove. 

“Hot, Cold or Shorts on fire, Think Swink, 

locally owned and operated!” 

For more information about Swink Heating, 

Air Conditioning, and Electric visit the company 

online at www.swinkairandelectric.com. 

Left: Swink is located at 14570 U.S. 

Highway 70 in Ardmore, Oklahoma. 

The building sits on the north side of 

the highway, headed west towards 

Lone Grove. 

Below: Swink relies on the outstanding 

technicians and their apprentices to 

maintain the highest standard in job 

completion. Pictured below are the 

important people that get the job done! 


THE HEFNER 

COMPANY, INC. 

Clockwise, starting from top: 

Robert A. Hefner, c. 1940-1945. 

The Hefners signed an oil and gas 

lease which led to “our first well” in 

the Hewitt Oil Field, 1919. The field 

was later unitized, then water flooded 

but still producing in 2011, ninetytwo 

years later. 

Eva Johnson Hefner, 1879-1962, 

driving the family’s Pierce-Arrow. In 

the back seat wearing a sailor’s cap is 

“Billy” Hefner, 1915-1995. Eva is 

parked in front of the family’s second 

Ardmore home, 331 G Street 

Southwest, c. 1919. 

Opposite, top: Robert A. Hefner, 

president of the board of education of 

Ardmore, driving with his daughter 

Evelyn. The car was decorated for 

Ardmore’s Spring Parade and Fashion 

Show, March 25, 1917. Fellow school 

board passengers are Superintendent 

C. W. Richards, J. C. McNeese, 

J. C. Thompson and C. E. Ringer. 

Opposite, bottom: Robert A. Hefner, 

Ardmore in the late 1920s. 

He was born in a two-room house in Hunt 

County, Texas, and survived the hardships of 

his childhood to make a name for himself. 

Robert Alexander Hefner (1874–1971) went on 

to work his way through college and law school. 

He became a school teacher, attorney, authority 

on oil and gas law, civic contributor, mayor of 

two cities, Justice of the Oklahoma Supreme 

Court, and founder of an oil and gas company 

that has survived for more than ninety years. 

As a boy of 12 and 13, Hefner worked as a 

shepherd and lived on the dry plains of Texas, 

having only a muzzle-loading musket to defend 

the flock he was entrusted to guard from bobcats, 

wolves, rattlesnakes and mountain lions. 

His only companions were a dog and a burro. 

Despite the solitude and difficulties, he managed 

to both care for the sheep and do quite a bit of 

self-educating. Although he had a total of only 

nine months of formal schooling by the age of 

twenty-one, he absorbed every bit of knowledge 

he could thanks to a cousin who would give him 

her school books as she finished them. During 

his teenage years, he worked as a blacksmith in 

a small shop on the family farm and studied at 

night under the light of a kerosene lamp. 

In the best of times, the family income did 

not exceed $300 a year. In 1895 his father died 

in debt. A middle child of six, Robert alone 

stepped forward and agreed to provide his labor 

for one year while being credited $15 a month 

to clear the indebtedness. When he was finished, 

he went off to work his way through college, 

having only thirty-five cents to his name. 

His tuition at North Texas Baptist College 

was on credit. But he worked on weekends 

clearing trees and roots off farmland. His payment 

was to be able to chop the wood and sell 

it in town. By the time he got his degree, he had 

repaid the college. He was certified as a teacher, 

allowing him to work his way through the 

University of Texas Law School. Also, he spent 

one year in a post-graduate capacity as a fellow, 

was president of the Oratorical Association, as 

well as president of the Rusk Literary Society. 

By 1908, Hefner was married, had a child, and 

was working as a railroad attorney. Certain litigation 

brought him to Carter County, where he saw 

opportunities with the oil industry. By 1909, he 

had moved to 821 B Street Northwest in Ardmore. 

By 1917, with three children, he and his wife, 

Eva, had moved to 331 G Street Southwest. 

He was a pioneer in the concept of severing 

minerals from the surface ownership of land, and 


developed the ‘Hefner Mineral Grant Form’ that 

became the standard in the industry. Its language 

was used for decades in the document approved by 

the Mid-Continent Royalty Owners Association. 

Among the clients that he represented were 

Humble Oil & Refining Company, Magnolia 

Petroleum Company, Pure Oil Company, Gulf Oil, 

Carter Oil Company, Skelly Oil, Edwin Cox, Fred 

A. Chapman, Dillingham & Rickey, Mike Gorman, 

John A. Heenan, Ross Coe, Heenan & Coe, 

F. W. Merrick, R. F. McCrory, S. A. Mills, C. Sykes, 

Waco Turner, Fred E. Tucker, W. W. Woodworth, 

Gates Oil Company, Westheimer & Daube, 

D. C. Fitzgerald, Guy Harris, and Walter Neustadt. 

In 1911, he became the city attorney, as well 

as the president of the board of education. 

In 1919, Hefner was elected mayor of Ardmore. 

As Ardmore’s mayor, he improved the city’s 

financial position from a deficit of $9,000 in 

1919 to a surplus of $193,000 by 1926. Even 

so, the Hickory Creek Reservoir was built during 

this time. There were other improvements 

to the water and sewer systems, fair grounds, 

streets, police department and other services. 

While in Ardmore, Hefner was a director of the 

Peoples Building & Loan Association, president 

of the Chamber of Commerce and president of 

the Rotary Club. 

On the last day of 1919, using his holdings 

of mineral rights and surface lands, he formed 

The Hefner Company. 

He remained mayor until he resigned to take 

a seat on the supreme court of the State of 

Oklahoma, to which he was elected in 1926. 

Following his time on the court, he served as 

Oklahoma City’s first two-term mayor from 

1939-1947, leaving office at the age of seventythree. 

He was deeply involved with the creation 

of Tinker Air Force Base during World War II. 

Hefner’s leadership to improve Oklahoma 

City’s water supply led to the building of Bluff 

Creek Reservoir. Following the reservoir’s 

completion, the city council renamed it Lake 

Hefner in honor of the man who saw the growing 

city’s needs ahead of time. Hefner Road was 

another honorarium, as was Lake Hefner Park. 

His work led him to make the acquaintance 

of Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman, Dwight D. 

Eisenhower, Robert S. Kerr, H. E. Bailey, Admiral 

Chester W. Nimitz, Bob Hope, John Wayne, 

Martha Scott, Henry Fonda, Perle Mesta, Will 

Rogers, Xavier Cugat, Eddie Rickenbacker, Frank 

Phillips, Waite Phillips, Lord and Lady Halifax, 

Stanley Draper, E. K. Gaylord, Allie Reynolds, 

and others. 

He was inducted into the Oklahoma Hall of 

Fame in 1949 and posthumously named to the 

National Petroleum Hall of Fame in 1992. 

In his nineties, Robert Alexander Hefner 

would walk the halls of Hefner Middle School, 

so proud of his connection to the very kind of 

school he was never able to attend himself. 


MURRAY STATE 

COLLEGE 

Above: The sprawling campus situated 

in historic Tishomingo offers the 

perfect blend in education for the 

traditional college students as well as 

commuters. Easy access to all 

classroom buildings, the library, 

cafeteria and parking make it an ideal 

choice to begin your education. 

Below: Picturesque Murray State 

College located in Tishomingo in the 

scenic Texhoma region of Southern 

Oklahoma. Murray State College is 

a comprehensive two-year school 

providing a ten county area a unique 

partnership in education and skills 

needed for the communities it serves. 

No place so close can take you so far. 

The history of Murray State College is 

closely aligned with the history of Oklahoma. 

The school was founded as an agricultural 

school of secondary level on March 20, 1908 

during the very first legislative session of the 

new state of Oklahoma. 

The school opened in October 1908 in a 

vacated school building provided by the city of 

Tishomingo. Meanwhile, eighty acres south of 

the city was acquired for $2,000 and deeded to 

the state of Oklahoma. This site would become 

the familiar Murray State main campus. 

Enrollment grew quickly and reached 100 

in 1909. By 1914, enrollment had increased to 

125 students. 

The central structure of the Administration 

Building (Murray Hall) was completed in 1910 

and has been enlarged and expanded over the 

years. Two new residence halls were completed 

in 1917. 

In the early days, students were taught 

English, mathematics, and the sciences. In 

addition to this basic curriculum, boys took 

courses in agriculture and manual training 

and girls were taught homemaking and home 

economic skills. 

Murray continued as a high school into the 

early 1920s, although a freshman year of 

college was added in 1922. The legislature 

changed the school’s name to Murray State 

College of Agriculture in 1924. 

Enrollment skyrocketed during the Great 

Depression of the 1930s because students were 

attracted by the school’s low costs. Students 

were allowed to work for their room, board and 

tuition during this period. 

Murray State College of Agriculture opened 

in 1940 and the school continued to grow, 

especially when the GI Bill attracted hundreds 

of veterans following World War II. 

In 1974 the legislature created the Ardmore 

Higher Education Center. In addition, a nursing 

program was added in the early 1970s and became 

one of the schools’ most attractive programs. 

Today, after more than a century of progress, 

Murray State College serves more than 2,600 

students on campuses in Tishomingo and 

Ardmore. With a faculty, staff and administration 

fully committed to perpetuating a quality 

learning environment, Murray State has a significant 

and lasting impact on the quality of lives 

for its students and the communities it serves. 

For more information about Murray State 

College, check their website at www.mscok.edu. 


Acquired by LaWayne Jones in 1988, First 

Bank & Trust Co. came to the citizens of Carter 

County through the acquisition of Ardmore’s 

Lincoln Bank and Trust in December 1999. 

Located at 301 West Main Street, the bank 

resides in one of Ardmore’s most historic architectural 

landmarks. 

The building was constructed between 1916 

and 1920 with construction slowed by World 

War I and was originally the Ardmore Hotel, 

which boasted 150 rooms—100 of which had 

bathrooms. It also had revolving doors at the 

entrance that all the children played in when 

they came into town. The hotel was in operation 

until 1964. During this time, the Glider Room, 

a bar in the basement named for the glider pilots 

stationed at Ardmore Air Base, was in operation 

from 1922 to 1964. 

It was once rumored that the building almost 

burned down, but it was just a small fire on the 

roof that began when an old wooden water storage 

was being removed and caught fire while a 

worker was using a cutting torch to dismantle it. 

The building, made of concrete and steel, could 

not burn. 

The building’s unique penthouse suite was originally 

joined to the apartment below with a spiral 

staircase. Rented for a small fee, the suite includes 

a small kitchen and balcony view of Ardmore, and 

is enjoyed by many county residents for all types 

of social and business gatherings. 

There are stories that the building has been 

host to some supernatural events. Sightings of 

unexplained bats, “cold spots” and the smell of 

flowers or perfume in certain areas including the 

barroom are just some of the strange and unexplained 

occurrences people still claim to have 

experienced today. 

The building, which housed a bank and several 

offices, was renovated to become Lincoln 

Center in February 1964. In December of 1999, 

First Bank & Trust Co. acquired the bank along 

with the building and has been enjoying the historic 

location since. 

First Bank & Trust Co. is headquartered in 

Duncan, Oklahoma and has ten locations 

including three in Ardmore, as well as in 

Healdton, Waurika, and Norman. The bank 

employs 163 people, holds $496 million in 

assets, and serves 16,298 households with 

53,951 accounts. 

First Bank & Trust Co. supports the communities 

it serves through a variety of charitable and 

community organizations including Firstar 

Children’s savings program, American Cancer 

Society, Relay for Life, Habitat for Humanity, March 

of Dimes, Cornerstone Mercy Memorial Health 

Center, Rotary, Chamber of Commerce, SCORE, 

Newspapers in Education for local schools, and as 

a sponsor of Cornerstone Education. 

For more information about First Bank & 

Trust Co., please visit www.fb247.com. 

FIRST BANK & 

TRUST CO. 

Above: The Ardmore Hotel. 

COURTESY OF MCGALLIARD COLLECTION. 

Below: The current location of First 

Bank & Trust Co. at 301 West Main 

Street in Ardmore. 


MURPHY 

HOUSING, LTD. 

Milton and Claire Murphy are firmly 

dedicated to providing affordable housing for 

the residents of Dickson and the Ardmore area. 

Milton was the first housing code enforcement 

officer for the city of Ardmore and was 

instrumental in the demolition of nearly a 

hundred vacant and dilapidated houses in 

Ardmore. He also served as the city’s first 

Community Development Coordinator. 

Milton and Claire expanded the affordable 

housing program in 1982 by founding Murphy 

& Associates, Inc. and using federal Community 

Development grants to clear more than 800 abandoned 

and vacant houses in Southern Oklahoma 

and rehabbed more than 1,200 houses in the 

1980s and 1990s. 

The Murphys also developed Murphy Housing 

Addition to provide affordable brick homes, 

which were sold primarily to working families. 

After building approximately 300 HUD 

houses, Milton and Claire organized Murphy 

Housing LTD Corporation in 1999. They purchased 

130 acres close to their ranch in Dickson 

so they could supervise the construction and 

provide hands-on assistance in the decisionmaking 

process. 

Fox Engineering laid out forty-five, two-anda-half 

acre lots on the site of an old farm, which 

had become a virtual wilderness. The property 

was a sanctuary for wildlife and the truck driver 

delivering the first load of bricks encountered a 

trophy-sized deer. A worker was bitten by a poisonous 

snake when he put his hand in a water 

meter hole. An old barn, debris and trees were 

cleared and a road, now known as Dublin Drive, 

was constructed in front of the first five lots. 

Other street names took on Irish ancestors’ 

names with construction of one-and-a-quarter 

miles with street names of Waterford 

Drive, Killarney Lake Road, Wexford 

Drive—these names came from Ireland, 

where the Murphy clan originated. 

More than a hundred people were 

involved at some stage of construction. 

Charles Brooks provided construction 

oversight. Danny Brooks provided CHA 

for all houses. Clay Battles and Mike 

McCoy worked on framing and finishing 

the houses, and Debbie Taylor at the 

local DEQ provided inspections for 

sewer systems. The Murphys supervised 

the location of water and sewer to each 

home site. 

Milton and Claire Murphy invested 

more than $325,000 to develop the fortyfive 

lots where affordable brick homes of 

1,300–2,700 square feet were constructed. 

Presently, only five lots are left. 


FERRAL 

HOWARD 

CONSTRUCTION 

Founded in 1967 by Ferral and Wanda 

Howard in Lubbock, Texas, Ferral Howard 

Construction first began to grow when several 

projects required Ferral’s expertise in the masonry 

business. As word of the company spread 

across the area, the couple began receiving contracts 

for work at Fort Wolters, a nearby military 

base and helicopter training facility during the 

Vietnam War. Located at Mineral Wells, 

Texas, the couple eventually moved to the 

area and Ferral continued to hone his 

masonry skills. When the Vietnam conflict 

ended in 1973, the base began scaling 

back to prepare for peacetime. 

By now a highly skilled masonry contractor, 

Ferral soon began bidding for 

projects near his birthplace at Cheek, 

Oklahoma, a close-knit farming community 

southwest of Ardmore. Ferral’s mother, 

Mattie, had originally founded a church 

at Cheek in the 1950s. The church, which 

still exists today, is led by Ferral’s younger 

brother, Pastor Wayne Howard. 

As business picked up in the area, the 

couple bought a home in Ardmore in 

1973 and eventually incorporated their 

company in 1979. In 1983 the company 

began to pursue the masonry business 

and later, general contract projects. In 

1984 the company transitioned into its new 

work as a General Contractor. 

Today, Ferral Howard Construction remains 

a family-run business pursuing commercial 

and industrial projects across Oklahoma 

and into North Texas. The Howards remain 

actively involved in their church, The Country 

Tabernacle, at Cheek. 

Above: In 1996, the Daily 

Ardmoreite featured this photograph 

of Ferral Howard as he admired a 

new Works Projects Administration 

display at the Greater Southwest 

Historical Museum in Ardmore. The 

tools in the display were used in the 

construction of Lake Murray in 1938 

by crews that included Ferral’s father. 

Below: Ferral and Wanda Howard. 


DAY CONCRETE & 

BLOCK COMPANY 

Thad Day, Sr., and crew started their 

work in the concrete and masonry 

business nearly a century ago. 

Pictured from left of the mixer are 

Charlie Jones, Clyde Day, Ben Day 

(boy), Spence Wilson, and Thad Day, 

Sr. Pictured from right of the mixer 

are Cleve Day, Dutch Wilson, Jess 

Day, Royce Day, and Vernon Wilson. 

In Southern Oklahoma when anyone thinks 

of concrete the Day name comes to mind. 

Joseph Thad Day, Sr., started in the concrete 

and masonry business in the 1920s in Ardmore. 

He did it the hard way by shoveling the sand, 

cement, rock and water into a hand turned 

mixer. He would spend weekends going to creek 

beds and loading sand by shovel to stock pile for 

the jobs he had lined up to do. Bagged cement 

came in by boxcar at the railroad tracks, which 

was loaded on a flatbed truck and taken to his 

work yard. In the 1940s, Thad bought a tractor 

to lighten his work load. Evidence of his hard 

work can be seen all over Southern Oklahoma in 

sidewalks, streets, rock buildings and homes. 

In 1957, Joseph Thad Day, Jr., returned to 

Ardmore after finishing college and serving two 

years in the United States Army. He had been 

thinking about going into the concrete business. 

His brothers, uncles and cousins were all part of 

the concrete and masonry business, so Thad 

decided he would put in a concrete block manufacturing 

company. There had been a concrete 

block company in Ada, where Thad had gone to 

college, and it was very successful. With hard 

work, a strong faith in God, and endless determination, 

Thad started his business. Later, he 

added the Ready-Mix Concrete. 

Wanting to retire and take it easy, Thad and 

wife, Jerri, decided it was time for their sons Roger 

and Rod Day to step in and take control. Roger 

and Rod had worked in the business from the 

time they were in middle school and remained 

active in it through high school and college. 

Today, the Day brothers have taken the business 

to new levels. They have torn down the old and 

added the new, which now includes the latest in 

automated technology for the concrete industry. 

Located at 1401 Monroe Northeast in Ardmore, 

the company offers a wide range of materials 

including ready-mix concrete, rock, blow sand, 

pea gravel, concrete blocks, screenings, masonry 

sand and sack cement, concrete waste material, 

driveway materials, and patio blocks. 

Over the years, Day Concrete and Block has 

been built on prayer and a strong faith in the 

Lord to provide and to be in control of everything. 

To God Be the Glory! 


Hughes Family Dental in Ardmore is dedicated 

to providing patients with the best dentistry 

has to offer. By listening and caring for 

your concerns, Dr. Hughes and his staff hope to 

build a relationship based on honesty and trust. 

We believe a healthy smile is a beautiful smile. 

Dr. Hughes, a graduate of the Baylor University 

College of Dentistry, practiced dentistry for a 

year in Healdton, Oklahoma, before opening 

a practice in Ardmore in 1969 at 217 Second 

Avenue Northwest. The practice is still located in 

that original location. 

In the early days, Dr. Hughes practiced with 

his childhood dentist, Dr. L. K. Turnbull, who 

inspired him to study and become a dentist. 

In 1974 a friend and former classmate, Dr. Tom 

Howorth, encouraged Dr. Hughes to train at the 

L. D. Pankey Institute in Miami. “The purpose 

of this institute is to educate dentists in the 

methods of optimal whole mouth diagnosis, 

treatment planning and restoration,” says 

Dr. Hughes. “It promotes comprehensive oral 

health treatment and is individualized for the 

patient’s highest well being and provided in a 

truly caring way that respects the dignity and 

concerns of the patient.” 

In 1977, Dr. Hughes became a member of 

the Academy of General Dentistry (AGD) and 

has maintained his membership over the years. 

In addition to the requirements of continuing 

education required for licensure in Oklahoma 

and Texas, AGD membership requires an 

additional seventy-five hours of study every 

three years. Dr. Hughes obtained his Fellowship 

in the Academy of General Dentistry, which 

requires 500 hours of prescribed dental courses 

and successful completion of a comprehensive 

examination. Dr. Hughes is also a member 

of the American Dental Association, the 

Oklahoma Dental Society, and the Arbuckle 

Dental Society. 

At Hughes Family Dental, 

the procedures, instruments 

and techniques are state-ofthe-art. 

With features such as 

the Cerec 3 System, drill-less 

dentistry, an on-premise lab, 

digital x-rays and mercury-free 

fillings, Dr. Hughes is able to 

provide safer, more convenient, 

long-lasting and comfortable 

dentistry for the entire family. 

The staff includes two dental 

assistants, a dental hygienist 

and an office manager. Together, 

they have more than forty years 

combined experience. 

For more information about 

Dr. Hughes and Hughes Family Dental, check 

our website at www.robertvhughesdds.com. 

HUGHES FAMILY 

DENTAL 

ROBERT V. 

HUGHES DDS, 

INC. FAGD 

Above: Robert V. Hughes DDS. 


COMFORT INN & 

SUITES HOTEL 

Located just off Interstate 35, the Comfort 

Inn & Suites Hotel provides convenient access 

to such major attractions as the Hardy Murphy 

Coliseum, Ardmore Convention Center and 

Lake Murray State Park & Lodge. 

Outdoor enthusiasts will delight in the multitude 

of recreation areas only fifteen miles 

away at Lake Texhoma. Whether you want to 

golf, swim, hike or bike, this recreational area 

offers something for everyone. 

Guests enjoy a variety of special features at 

Comfort Inn & Suites, including a free breakfast 

with hot waffles, free Wi-Fi and high-speed 

Internet access, free daily newspaper, free local 

calls and free coffee in the lobby. 

Whether you are traveling on business or 

pleasure, you will find services and amenities to 

make your visit more pleasurable. A 100 percent 

smoke-free hotel, Comfort Inn & Suites provides 

banquet and meeting rooms, a business 

center with copy and fax machines, an exercise 

room, a convenience store and guest laundry. 

The comfortable rooms at Comfort Inn & 

Suites include cable/satellite television, DVD 

players, hair dryers, in-room coffee maker, individual 

air conditioning and heat, iron and ironing 

board, pillow-top mattresses, down pillows and 

refrigerators. Guests may relax in the indoor heated 

pool or enjoy the indoor Whirlpool hot tub. 

Comfort Inn & Suites Hotel is located at 

410 Railway Express Street in Ardmore. 

DAYS INN 

ARDMORE 

The Days Inn at 2614 West Broadway in 

Ardmore combines comfort and convenience 

with economy. 

Guests enjoy spacious rooms with cable 

television, hair dryers, safe deposit boxes and 

many other amenities. King rooms include a 

sofa, and rollaways and cribs are available on 

request. Suites are available for those requiring 

additional space. 

All guests enjoy a free continental breakfast. 

There is free parking, with special RV 

or truck parking, and handicapped rooms 

are available. 

The Days Inn Ardmore is conveniently located 

near a number of local attractions. The Eliza 

Cruce Hall Doll Museum is only a mile away, 

Heritage Hall is only two miles away, and the 

Goodard Centre for the Arts is three miles away. 

The Arbuckle Wilderness and Turner Falls Park 

are only twenty miles away. 


SPONSORS 

Ardmore Chamber of Commerce/Ardmore Development Authority/Ardmore Tourism Authority...................................................94 

Ardmore Higher Education Center .............................................................................................................................................102 

Ardmore Public Library ..............................................................................................................................................................114 

Boys & Girls Club of Wilson and Ardmore...................................................................................................................................87 

Brady Welding & Machine Shop, Inc............................................................................................................................................96 

The Chickasaw Nation .................................................................................................................................................................76 

Chapman Brothers, LLC ...............................................................................................................................................................84 

Chickasaw Regional Library........................................................................................................................................................104 

Tom & Kim Coble ........................................................................................................................................................................67 

Comfort Inn & Suites Hotel/Days Inn Ardmore ..........................................................................................................................130 

Day Concrete & Block Company................................................................................................................................................128 

Dolman Law Firm ........................................................................................................................................................................91 

Elmbrook Management Company.................................................................................................................................................67 

Ferral Howard Construction.......................................................................................................................................................127 

First Bank & Trust Co. ...............................................................................................................................................................125 

Forsythe Oilfield Service, Inc......................................................................................................................................................116 

Greater Southwest Historical Museum ..........................................................................................................................................83 

Guest Inn .....................................................................................................................................................................................80 

The Hefner Company, Inc...........................................................................................................................................................122 

Hewitt Mineral Corporation .........................................................................................................................................................92 

Hughes Family Dental/Robert V. Hughes DDS, Inc. FAGD ..........................................................................................................129 

J&D Hauling ................................................................................................................................................................................67 

Don & Elva Jackson .....................................................................................................................................................................67 

Joe Brown Company, Inc. .............................................................................................................................................................98 

Lewis Magneto & Supply Co., Inc. .............................................................................................................................................106 

Mercy Memorial Health Center.....................................................................................................................................................88 

Murphy Housing, Ltd.................................................................................................................................................................126 

Murray State College ..................................................................................................................................................................124 

Oklahoma State Horseshoeing School.........................................................................................................................................108 

Otey Johnson Foundation/Ardmore Institute of Health.................................................................................................................74 

Otey Johnson Properties, Inc. .......................................................................................................................................................73 

The Quintin Little Company, Inc. .................................................................................................................................................68 

Ringling Enterprises, Inc./Rockland Oil Company ......................................................................................................................110 

Sullivan Insurance Agency..........................................................................................................................................................118 

Swink Heating, Air Conditioning, and Electric ...........................................................................................................................120 

T. C. Craighead & Company .....................................................................................................................................................112 

TriPower Resources, LLC ............................................................................................................................................................100 

Tripledee Drilling Company .........................................................................................................................................................72 

S p o n s o r s ✦ 1 3 1

ABOUT THE AUTHORS 

B O B 

B U R K E 

Bob Burke has authored more historical non-fiction books about Oklahoma than anyone in history. He was born in Broken Bow, 

Oklahoma, and now practices law and writes books in Oklahoma City. Burke graduated with a journalism degree from the University 

of Oklahoma and a law degree from Oklahoma City University. 

Burke has written on such diverse topics as baseball, aviation, art, and religion in Oklahoma. His biographies of Wiley Post and 

books on the history of baseball in Oklahoma and about the Oklahoma governor’s mansion have won the Oklahoma Book Award. His 

biography of Bryce Harlow was named the “outstanding Oklahoma history book of the year” by the Oklahoma Historical Society. His 

book about the life of Ralph Ellison was nominated as a 2005 Oklahoma Reads Oklahoma book selection. Also in 2005, his book 

about traveling Oklahoma timber towns was named “book of the year” by the Oklahoma Museum Association. 

E R I C 

D A B N E Y 

Eric was born and raised in Kremlin, Oklahoma, and received his undergraduate and graduate degrees from the University of Central 

Oklahoma, where he now serves as an adjunct professor in the College of Education. 

He is the series editor for Bob Burke’s Commonwealth Publishing, is a contributing writer of over thirty publications of Lammert Inc.’s 

Historic Publishing Network, and is the co-author of Fearless Flight: The Adventures of Wiley Post, Historic South Carolina, Historic Rogers 

County, and The Life of Bill Paul. Eric and his wife have three daughters and live near Guthrie, Oklahoma. 


$34.95 

LEADERSHIP SPONSORS 

THE CHICKASAW NATION DUNLAP & COMPANY, LLC QUINTIN LITTLE COMPANY, INC. 

About the Cover 

The charcoal drawing cover of this book by artist Daniel 

Hacker is a reflective look into the past of East Main Street, 

Ardmore, Oklahoma, more commonly known as “The Stolfa 

Hardware Co.” This block of properties was purchased in 2006 

with the mission of “Preserving the Past & Creating the Future.” 

Owners Bob Drake and the late Kay Drake have invested a great 

deal of financial resources. Their resources paired with the vision 

of Jerold W. Wells, Jr., and Sandra Wells has made this mission a 

reality as demonstrated by the photo above. 

This book cover was underwritten by Bob Drake on behalf of 

the late Kay Drake. Kay was very passionate regarding history. 

She left behind a legacy of enthusiasm for historical items 

and property. She believed in preserving the past and the 

importance of educating future generations of local history. She 

will be missed dearly. 

ISBN: 9781935377856 

Historical Publishing Network

Carter County, Oklahoma: Then and Now

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