Mile Marker 103 - The History of Edmond, Oklahoma

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MILE MARKER 

The History of Edmond, Oklahoma 

by Bob Burke and Eric Dabney 

MILE 

1 

0 

3 

Special Research by Nina Hager 

OFFICIAL PROJECT 

Celebrating 

The 125th Anniversary 

of the Land Run 

A PUBLICATION OF THE 

Edmond Historical 

Society & Museum 

HPNbooks 

A division of Lammert Incorporated 

San Antonio, Texas

First Edition 

Copyright © 2013 HPNbooks 

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 HPNbooks, 11535 Galm Road, Suite 101, San Antonio, Texas, 78254, (800) 749-9790, www.hpnbooks.com. 

ISBN: 978-1-939300-12-6 

Library of Congress Card Catalog Number: 2013939471 

Mile Marker 103: The History of Edmond, Oklahoma 

authors: Bob Burke 

Eric Dabney 

front cover photographer: Patrick Berry 

special research: Nina Hager 

contributing writers for sharing the heritage: Eric Dabney, Tammy Elder 

HPNbooks 

president: Ron Lammert 

project manager: Lou Ann Murphy 

administration: Donna M. Mata 

Melissa G. Quinn 

book sales: Dee Steidle 

production: Colin Hart 

Evelyn Hart 

Glenda Tarazon Krouse 

Tony Quinn 

2 ✦ M I L E M A R K E R 1 0 3

CONTENTS 

5 CHAPTER 1 Rising from the Prairie 

21 CHAPTER 2 Building a Town 

35 CHAPTER 3 A New State 

47 CHAPTER 4 War Years and Baby Boomers 

55 CHAPTER 5 Stable Growth 

63 CHAPTER 6 The New Century 

❖ 

Opposite and above. 

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF 

THE CITY OF EDMOND, 2010. 

70 BIBLIOGRAPHY 

71 SHARING THE HERITAGE 

127 SPONSORS 

128 ABOUT THE AUTHORS 

C o n t e n t s ✦ 3

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 

Writing a book is a community project, so we would like to thank the members of the Edmond 

Historical Society & Museum and executive director Jena Mottola as well as those who have 

supported our efforts and research in allowing us to tell another wonderful story about the great 

state of Oklahoma. We thank Dr. James Crowder, Jr.; Leith Laws at UCO Archives and Special 

Collections; Jenny Powell at Oak Tree National; Chad Williams at the Oklahoma Historical Society 

Collections; Debbie Neill; Marsha McCaslin; photographer Harvey Payne; Lisa Marine of the 

Wisconsin Historical Society; Tammy L. Posey, curator, Drumright Historical Society; Mike Roark, 

director, Edmond YMCA; Nathan V. Turner, director, Oklahoma Territorial Museum; Heidi Vaughn, 

curator, Laboratory of History Museum at the University of Central Oklahoma; Lucille Warrick 

(1928-2009), Edmond Historian; 3 Girls Photography; The U.S. Military Academy Library at 

West Point; Nicole Willard, UCO archives director and archivist; David Derringer, City of Edmond 

marketing and public relations; Kansas Memory; Survey Antiques, Littleton, Colorado; Edmond 

Santa Fe High School Media Center; and Terry Zinn, photograph manager, Oklahoma Historical 

Society Research Division. We extend a very special acknowledgement and thank you to Nina Hager, 

exhibit director of the Edmond Historical Society & Museum, for her outstanding, tireless work in 

photographic research and captioning, which is evident throughout the book. 

—Bob Burke and Eric Dabney, 2013 

❖ 

Tallgrass Bison. 

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF HARVEY PAYNE. 

4 ✦ M I L E M A R K E R 1 0 3

C H A P T E R 1 

RISING FROM THE PRAIRIE 

Until the nineteenth century, the rolling hills and prairie upon which the thriving modern city 

of Edmond is built lay nearly untouched by human presence. There were large herds of grazing 

buffalo and wild horses, vast flocks of birds stopping for food and water during migration, and 

turkeys and other wild animals of every kind and description. The balance of peaceful solitude and 

nature was interrupted only by occasional Native American hunters passing through the region. 

What was to become central Oklahoma belonged to no one. 

Scientific discoveries tell us something about prehistoric times. An elephant tusk was discovered 

near present Boulevard and Waterloo, a mammoth bone was uncovered in the mud of the Deep 

Fork Creek, dinosaur bones were unearthed on Cottonwood Creek, and arrowheads and tomahawk 

heads were found south of Edmond. The discoveries tell the story of the existence of mastodons and 

other large animals of the Ice Age giving way to smaller species, and the camping spots of roving 

bands of pre-horse Native Americans, ancestors of the Plains Indians. 

❖ 

Autumn settles on the 

Tallgrass Prairie. 

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF HARVEY PAYNE. 

C h a p t e r 1 ✦ 5

❖ 

Above: In the book A Tour of 

the Prairies, Washington Irving 

described the challenge of traveling 

by horseback through the brambles 

and black-jack oak on his journey 

through the area that later would be 

called Edmond, Oklahoma. He stated: 

“I shall not easily forget the mortal 

toil, and the vexations of flesh and 

spirit, that we underwent occasionally, 

in our wanderings through the 

CROSS TIMBER. It was like 

struggling through a forest of 

cast iron.” 

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF N. HAGER. 

No doubt early Spanish and French explorers 

saw the present Edmond area that was 

on the western edge of the legendary Cross 

Timbers, a large strip of land that stretches from 

southeastern Kansas across central Oklahoma 

and deep into central Texas. The Cross Timbers 

is made up of a mix of prairie, savanna, and 

woodland. It forms part of the boundary 

between the more heavily forested eastern 

country and the almost treeless Great Plains. 

in 1823 and called the region “an immense 

natural hedge dividing the woodlands of settled 

portions of the United States from the open 

prairies which have been the home and hunting 

ground of the red man.” 

Bottom, left and right: Six miles 

east of Edmond’s center stands the 

Oklahoma Historical Society Marker 

recognizing the 1832 travels of author 

Washington Irving who accompanied 

a troop of U.S. Army Mounted 

Rangers through an area now in the 

city limits. Known as the “Father of 

American Literature” and “Inventor 

of the Short Story,” Irving attached 

himself to Henry Ellsworth who was a 

member of the Stokes Commission 

responsible for the relocation of 

Native Americans from east of the 

Mississippi River to Oklahoma. 

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF N. HAGER. 

Literally at the west edge of present Edmond 

began a vast buffalo prairie that, especially after 

the introduction of horses, allowed the earliest 

Native Americans to move from river to river, 

hunting buffalo, deer, and other wild game. 

Thomas James explored the Cross Timbers 

The first visitor who recorded details of his 

visit to the area was Washington Irving, best 

known for writing fiction such as The Legend of 

Sleepy Hollow and Rip Van Winkle. His greatest 

contribution to history was A Tour on the 

Prairies, considered by historians as the world’s 

first travel guide. In 1832, Irving and his party 

explored the prairies in the American heartland, 

including extensive travels in what would 

become Oklahoma. 

6 ✦ M I L E M A R K E R 1 0 3

On October 23, 1832, the Irving expedition 

passed near Edmond. He wrote, “Our march this 

day lay through the same kind of rough rolling 

country; checkered by dreary forests of post-oak, 

and cut up by deep dry ravines.” Irving noted 

the tracks of buffaloes and wild horses. He said, 

“It was evident we were on the great highway of 

these migratory herds.” Occasionally, Irving and 

his men saw bands of wild horses prancing 

about, “with heads erect and long flaunting tails.” 

Flocks of wild turkey were so huge and noisy, 

Irving’s horse was startled. Often, the crackling of 

sticks in the underbrush turned out to be young 

buffalo bulls that had wandered from their herd. 

At the end of the day’s journey, Irving and 

his party camped on Coffee Creek, a few miles 

north of present Edmond. Bells around the 

necks of horses let loose to graze were stuffed 

with grass to prevent their “tinkling,” as Irving 

wrote, “lest it might be heard by some wandering 

horde of Pawnees.” 

The bounty of nature along Coffee Creek 

was best demonstrated by a young ranger who 

left the Irving party to look for game for the 

evening meal. In skirting the thickets of a deep 

ravine, he wounded a buck which fell among 

the bushes. Before the ranger could recover the 

deer, he heard a low growling and saw a huge 

bear dragging the carcass along the dry channel 

of a brook. The bear, wrote Irving, was “growling 

and snarling at four or five officious wolves, 

who seemed to have dropped in to take supper 

with him.” 

The following morning, Irving’s party traveled 

along Coffee Creek to near present Arcadia, then 

turned south to cross the North Canadian River 

east of present Oklahoma City, passed present 

Norman, then headed back to Fort Gibson, the 

western-most American military post. 

The pristine nature of future Edmond still 

saw no permanent residents for another half 

century. There were visitors aplenty; early 

military expeditions, trappers on their way to 

fur-rich Rocky Mountains, merchants headed 

to Santa Fe, cattle drovers pushing longhorn 

herds from Texas to railheads in Kansas, gold 

seekers bound for California, and surveying 

parties seeking to define the Indian land. The 

first government survey of the Edmond area was 

completed in 1871. 

When the federal government, by treaty, 

dedicated portions of land in the Indian 

Territory to the Creeks, Seminoles, and other 

tribes, a large area in the center of the Territory 

was not assigned to any tribe. Present Edmond 

was within this region that became known as 

the Unassigned Lands. By 1879, white settlers 

began clamoring for the right to settle the 

region. In 1880, Captain David L. Payne led his 

first colony of boomers from Kansas, over a hill 

on the east side of present Edmond where his 

scout had dropped buffalo skulls to mark the 

way, and to present Oklahoma City. Each time 

Payne tried to lead his wagon trains of settlers to 

a new home in the Unassigned Lands, federal 

soldiers drove them out. 

❖ 

Captain David L. Payne’s last 

Boomer Camp, March 1883. 

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE THOMAS N. 

ATHEY COLLECTION, OKLAHOMA 

HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 

C h a p t e r 1 ✦ 7

❖ 

Frank Mosier and Willie Davis were 

part of a crew of the Southern Kansas 

Railroad who were laying rail in 

September 1886 through the site of 

present day Edmond. Two miles to the 

south of the first Edmond train 

station, these two men died in a fight. 

Because the men were railroad 

employees they were buried in sideby-side 

graves on the west side of the 

railroad right-of-way. The Oklahoma 

Historical Society erected a red 

granite marker at this historic site in 

1979, which carries the history of the 

Right-of-Way-Graves. The sandstone 

marker belonging to Frank Mosier 

was embedded into the Oklahoma 

Historical Society granite marker 

after it broke away from the 

original tombstone. 

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE 

EDMOND HISTORICAL SOCIETY COLLECTIONS. 

8 ✦ M I L E M A R K E R 1 0 3

❖ 

Left: The Southern Kansas Railway 

hired hundreds of construction 

workers from Caldwell, Arkansas 

City, and the surrounding area to 

build the rail through the Unassigned 

Lands. Pile drivers like this one were 

used to push the rail south and to 

build the bridge over the 

Cimarron River. 



Then came the railroad—a development that 

would define both the location and name of 

Edmond. In 1884 the Southern Kansas Railway, 

which became part of the Atchison, Topeka, 

and Santa Fe Railway (Santa Fe), was granted 

the right to build a rail line from Arkansas 

City, Kansas, through the Unassigned Lands, 

through Indian Territory, and eventually to the 

Gulf of Mexico. 

In January 1886 a party of fifteen railroad 

surveyors began looking for the best and 

straightest route, with their eye on locating 

potential siding stations to allow trains to take 

on more coal, and crews to have a place to eat. 

Surveyors spotted a “good spring” at mile 103 

and noted it was the perfect location for a 

coaling station exactly 103 miles from Arkansas 

City. Horse-and-mule-drawn scrapers graded 

the land in preparation for laying the railroad 

tracks. During the grading on September 19, 

1886, a fight broke out among workers and two 

men fought to their deaths. The graves, marked 

by a wooden and iron cross, still can be seen 

along the tracks just north of Thirty-third Street. 

Bottom, left: A survey crew like this 

one was led into the middle of the 

Unassigned Lands by Civil Engineer 

J. D. Wirt in 1886. He and a party 

of fifteen surveyors marked the 

new route from Arkansas City to 

Gainesville, Texas, in January of 

1886. “Mile Marker 103,” an area 

which they noted had “a good spring” 

would eventually become the 

Edmond Station. 

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF SURVEY ANTIQUES. 

Bottom, right: Southern Kansas 

Railway Document mapped by 

surveyors in “Indian Territory” 

July 17, 1886. The map marks the 

site of later day Edmond: “Mile 

Marker 103.” The Township Line as 

indicated on the right side of the map 

is the current day Fifteenth Street in 

Edmond and the dividing line between 

sections 26 and 35 is what would 

become Second Street. (Hoig, 

Edmond The Early Years, page 4.) 

See Bibliography on page 70. 

C h a p t e r 1 ✦ 9

E D M O N D ’ S 

N A M E S A K E 

Only in the last two decades have historians discovered that Edmond was named 

for railroad agent Edmond Burdick. Researchers for many years pored over Santa Fe 

records but could never find documentation that would link any person to the 

naming of the stop on the railroad. Then, in 1991, Lucille Warrick was reading old 

issues of the Edmond Sun on microfilm when she found a story about Burdick’s 1891 

visit to the town and found it to be “a source of pleasure” that Edmond was named for 

him. That discovery led to substantial research by historians such as Nina Hager to 

discover much about Burdick’s life and his connection to the city that bears his name. 

Burdick was the youngest member of his graduating class at the University of 

Wisconsin in the late 1880s. He worked for a short time as an attorney before 

beginning his railroad career for the Santa Fe Railway and later the Mexican Central 

Railway. He died in 1909 in Mexico City from complications of typhoid fever. 

❖ 

Top, right: What little survives of 

railway documentation connected 

to the town of Edmond, an internal 

Santa Fe publication indicates that 

railroad employees carried time cards 

as they traveled into Edmond, 

although there was no station or town 

at the time. This article published in a 

January 1911 issue of the Santa Fe 

Employees’ magazine, proves that 

employees charged with building the 

rail knew Edmond by its former 

designation: “Summit.” (MaCrae, 

Albert, managing editor, Santa Fe 

Employes’[sic] magazine, Railway 

Exchange, Chicago, January 1911, 

Volume 5, No. 2, page 95). 

A coaling station and water tanks were built 

at Mile Marker 103. The site perhaps was called 

“Summit” by construction crews for a brief 

period, but Santa Fe officials named the railroad 

stop “Edmond Station” on March 28, 1887. 

Shortly thereafter, Santa Fe formally requested 

the federal government to name the side track 

for Edmond Schuyler Burdick, a Santa Fe 

official. Burdick was trained as a lawyer, but 

worked as a Santa Fe traveling freight agent. 

In 1891, he visited the city named for him and 

looked over the site for the new normal school. 

He informed city leaders that the railroad would 

transport building materials for the school at a 

greatly reduced rate. 

Right: In 1891, Burdick was listed in 

the Wichita City Directory as a 

Traveling Freight Agent. That same 

year, The Edmond Sun published 

this article that would become an 

important link to the town's 

namesake. Just two years after the 

Land Run of 1889, on a business trip 

south in August, Burdick told the 

locals that he was very pleased to see 

the town that was named after him 

doing so well. 

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE UNIVERSITY 

OF CENTRAL OKLAHOMA ARCHIVES. 

Bottom: Edmond Schuyler Burdick. 

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE WISCONSIN 


Edmond’s first permanent citizen was W. J. 

Donovan, the railroad telegrapher who lived 

in a tiny shed beside the railroad tracks. The 

first family was John Steen, his wife, Cordelia, 

and their two-year-old son, Charlie. John was 

the Santa Fe employee who oversaw the drilling 

of a water well and pump house to provide 

a water supply for the Edmond Station. The 

Steens lived in the one-room pump house until 

a larger structure was built. 

It was a lonely life in early Edmond. The 

only activity was the daily arrival of one 

passenger train and one freight train from 

1 0 ✦ M I L E M A R K E R 1 0 3

❖ 

Left: Left to right, Edmond’s water 

well, the pump house and water tank 

on stilts with a standpipe for watering 

passing trains. In the foreground, 

the small marker in the ground in 

between the tracks is the actual 

“Mile Marker 103,” which indicated 

the number of miles from Arkansas 

City, Kansas, to Edmond, 

Indian Territory. 


EDMOND HISTORICAL SOCIETY COLLECTIONS 

each direction. Occasionally rancher 

Eddy B. Townsend brought cattle to 

the station from his ranch on the 

Iowa Indian reservation to the east. 

Cordelia Steen cooked for hungry 

train passengers while her husband 

helped refuel and add water to the 

engines. Charley Steen remembered 

his father shooting deer from the front 

door of the pump house and Indians 

wearing blankets coming to trade 

fresh meat for flour and coffee. 

However, the tranquility of Edmond 

Station was about to end abruptly. 

Center: A few years after the birth of 

Edmond, John Steen stands in the 

doorway of the simple, one-room 

pump house that was a home for his 

family until well after the opening of 

the Unassigned Lands. Prior to 

settlement, Turner’s General Store in 

Wellston used Edmond as a receiving 

point for their supplies. Native 

Americans from the outlying lands 

and reservations came to the door of 

the pump house in Edmond to trade 

for coffee, flour and meat. 



Bottom: The Edmond, Indian 

Territory, Train Order Office, c. 1887. 

Note the one stall water closet, the 

water tank on stilts at left, and freight 

cars parked along the siding. 

Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe 

workers and officials stand on the 

small wooden platform in front of the 

small Train Order Office structure 

that included a Western Union 

Telegraph Office where W. J. Donovan 

worked as a railroad telegrapher. 

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE OKLAHOMA 

HISTORY CENTER RESEARCH DIVISION. 

C h a p t e r 1 ✦ 1 1

❖ 

Clockwise, starting from the top: 

The Santa Fe pump house, built by 

Steen and railroad crews, was the 

first residence of Edmond. The 

Steen’s pump house was adorned with 

homemade furniture and wall bunks 

for sleeping. The boiler and pump 

were located in the corner of the front 

room. Later, an addition was built 

onto the back of the pump house. In 

the winter the boiler kept the Steen’s 

home warm, and in the summer, they 

moved their beds outside. Prior to the 

1889 Land Run, the Steens saw only 

one passenger and one freight train 

passing through each day. Edmond 

was a coaling and watering stop for 

passing trains, located between the 

Cimarron and North Canadian 

Rivers. This photograph was taken on 

December 25, 1888, showing that a 

black-jack oak tree branch was “the 

first X-mas tree in Edmond.” 



Cordelia Steen, 1938. The Steens 

lived trackside in the working pump 

house, the pump house was built to 

transfer water from the well to the 

standing water tank. The Steens 

were the first permanent residents 

in Edmond. Edmond’s own “Harvey 

Girl;” Cordelia prepared hot meals for 

engineers who telegraphed their 

arrival in Edmond. 



Charley J. Steen, age four years. 



John N. Steen, 1838. John and 

Cordelia Steen and their young son 

Charley were the first family of 

Edmond, Indian Territory. John Steen 

worked for the Atchison, Topeka and 

Santa Fe Railroad, coming to Edmond 

in 1886 to oversee the construction of 

Edmond’s great water well. 



The cry for white settlement of the 

Unassigned Lands reached Washington, D.C. 

Bowing to political pressure, President 

Benjamin Harrison signed a proclamation 

allowing homesteaders to rush into the 

Unassigned Lands at noon on April 22, 1889. 

Historian James L. Crowder, Jr., said, “No one 

forecast the storm of humanity that would 

quickly develop.” 

It was high drama as men and women 

rushed into the Unassigned Lands to stake out 

a future for themselves and their children. It 

was the first great rush for free government 

land in history. As noon approached, two 

Santa Fe employees walked a few feet off the 

railroad right-of-way and claimed two 160-acre 

tracts adjacent to the Edmond Station. They 

ignored a notice that was posted in the station 

house that railroad employees wishing to claim 

land would have to leave the Oklahoma district 

in order to legally participate in the Land Run. 

One of the first horse-bound land runners 

was Eddy B. Townsend, who made the run from 

the boundary to the east. At 1:40 p.m., he 

arrived at Edmond Station and claimed the 

same 160-acre tract as Alexander F. Smith, the 

railroad employee. After a lengthy court battle, 

the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that no one 

could gain an advantage by starting the land 

rush from the railroad right-of-way. 

1 2 ✦ M I L E M A R K E R 1 0 3

❖ 

Top: John N. Steen (pictured at left) 

standing beside the back of the “Dot” 

rail car he ran for two years for the 

superintendents, roadmasters and 

other officials of the Santa Fe 

Railroad in New Mexico. The “Dot” 

carried officials over the road on 

inspection trips between New Mexico 

and Texas. John N. Steen worked for 

the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe’s 

New Mexico Division as engineer, 

fireman, conductor and brakeman. 

This picture was taken in 1881, before 

Steen came to Indian Territory to 

finish the construction of the 120 feet 

deep, 30 feet across water well. 



Center: The Clifton coal chute was 

used in Edmond from 1886 to 1902. 

The Clifton coal chute had twelve 

pockets, with tracks running along 

both sides to service locomotives. 

Gondola cars loaded with coal would 

be pushed up the ramp under the 

facility where crews would shovel the 

coal into the “pockets” pictured under 

the roof of the structure. Each pocket 

could hold five tons of coal. Fireman 

would pull the pocket gate down that 

would drop the coal directly into the 

engine’s tender parked below the 

coal chute. 

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF PAIRED RAILS. 

Bottom: Prior to the April 22, 1889, 

Land Run the Southern Kansas 

Railway built a Train Order Office, 

a twelve-pocket Clifton coal chute, 

a pump house, coal bin, water well, 

and at least five other buildings on the 

site of Edmond’s station. 


JOHN B. MOORE COLLECTION. 

C h a p t e r 1 ✦ 1 3

❖ 

An iconic photograph of the famed Land Run of 1889. 

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE BARNEY HILLERMAN COLLECTION, OKLAHOMA HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 

1 4 ✦ M I L E M A R K E R 1 0 3

C h a p t e r 1 ✦ 1 5

❖ 

Above: “She is Happy in Adventure” 

illustrations from the Saint Paul 

Daily Globe, May, 1892. While 

newspapers across the region as well 

as those in California and New York 

perpetuated her nickname “Kentucky 

Daisey,” it was not until after her 

death that her legend began to grow. 

On October 18, 1903, reporter 

Fred Barde wrote her obituary. 

Published by the Daily Oklahoman 

and written fourteen years after the 

1889 run, in his article he described, 

for the first time, that Daisey secured 

her claim by jumping from the 

cowcatcher of the train, tying her 

petticoat to a nearby bush. 

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE LIBRARY OF 

CONGRESS, CHRONICLING AMERICA. 

Right: Kentucky Daisey’s shack, 

this photograph taken in 1939. 

Her claim was the northwest quarter 

of Section 24 (bounded by Danforth, 

Boulevard, Covell Road and Bryant). 



After 3:00 p.m., Nanitta R. H. Daisey, later 

known as “Kentucky Daisey,” arrived on a 

double-engine Boomer passenger train from 

Purcell. She was a reporter for the Dallas 

Morning News. Stan Hoig wrote, “A pistol was 

strapped about her waist, and her long skirt 

flapped in the wind. With one hand she clung 

to the train and in the other she clutched a 

claim stake.” Two miles north, near present 

Boulevard and Covell Road, she jumped from 

the train, crossed a drainage ditch, staked her 

claim on 160 acres, fired her pistol into the air 

to the cheers of the train’s passengers, and ran 

back to catch the caboose of the train. Daisey’s 

dashing and daring story was covered by every 

major newspaper in the nation. 

Surveyors for the Seminole Townsite Company 

arrived and began selling town lots laid out 

in the town plat they had previously prepared. 

Only 40 people had claimed land or lots by 

the middle of the afternoon when a townsite 

colony of 48 members from Springfield, Missouri, 

arrived on one of the many south-bound trains. 

Plenty of good land was available at Edmond 

Station because a majority of passengers arriving 

in the Unassigned Lands by train from the south 

stopped at Oklahoma Station, now Oklahoma 

City. Oklahoma Station was a town of 10,000 

by nightfall. 

Even though Edmond did not begin with 

such a bang, its population doubled as 72 

members of a colony from Chicago, Illinois, 

arrived by train. When they bought lots or 

staked 160-acre tracts, they returned to the 

comfort of railroad coaches that had conveniently 

been diverted to the railroad siding. 

Others among Edmond’s first-day population 

of 150 pitched tents. Stan Hoig chronicled 

the moment: 

When the darkness of night settled over 

Edmond station that day, campfires flickered 

across the land on both sides of the railroad 

line. Men with their rifles close at hand hovered 

about their fires, happy that they had won a 

claim or a townsite lot and determined to defend 

it on the morrow. Some were merely speculators 

who hoped to sell their claims for a profit; some 

were professional men looking to the promise of 

financial success in the new land of Oklahoma. 

They had survived the chaos of the great rush 

and won their prize. But mingled with their 

own private concerns was a sense of destiny in 

building a new community here in the wilds of 

a frontier land. 

1 6 ✦ M I L E M A R K E R 1 0 3

❖ 

This photograph depicts the first house built in Edmond, taken in 1890, with a group of Edmond’s first settlers, at Townsend’s homestead just west of the Santa Fe station. 

Left to right is: Charles J. Steen (on horseback)—who was almost two years old when he joined his father at Edmond Station, I. T., in November 1887; George B. Elliott—who 

homesteaded a quarter section on the southeast corner of Fifteenth Street and Kelly; Joseph D. “Dee” Turner—who operated the Indian trading post at Wellston, I. T., made the 

“Run of 1889” with Townsend, and purchased a claim at the northeast corner of Second Street and Kelly; Colonel Eddy B. Townsend—a rancher on the Iowa Indian Reservation who 

was one of Edmond’s four original settlers on April 22, 1889; Mrs. J. D. Turner with baby, J. H. Turner; Mrs. Hardy C. (Daisy Collier) Anglea, a recent bride; Hardy Cryer “Pete” 

Anglea—who made the “Run of 1889” with Townsend, staked a claim on the quarter section at the northwest corner of Fifteenth Street and Boulevard, and was the first person to 

purchase Oklahoma Territory’s first public schoolhouse (completed August 1889) for a residence; Mrs. John N. (Cordelia Paisley) Steen—who joined her husband at Edmond Station, 

I. T., in November of 1887; John N. Steen—who was Edmond’s first permanent resident and had come in December 1886, to supervise the digging, construction, and operation of the 

Santa Fe Railway’s well and water system; Robert B. Farwell—who established Edmond’s first drugstore (Farwell and Moore); John Wheeler Turner—who homesteaded on the quarter 

section at the northeast corner of Fifteenth Street and Kelly after making the “Run of 1889” with his brother J. T. Turner, E. B. Townsend, and H. C. Anglea; and Miss Florence Higbee 

(on horseback)—who served as the first organist for the early Edmond Union Sunday School. Note the Santa Fe steam engine on the left. 

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE EDMOND HISTORICAL SOCIETY COLLECTIONS. 

There was immediate trouble over which 

townsite group would control the new settlement. 

The Seminole Company, the Missouri 

colony, and the Chicago colony, joined by 

another three dozen people from Michigan, 

vied for leadership. On April 23 representatives 

of the three groups held a joint 

meeting by a rousing campfire, elected city 

officials, and resolved that the town be 

surveyed into 25-by-140-feet lots. The Chicago 

group wanted to name the town “Birge City” 

after one of its leaders, but a majority of 

those present at the meeting agreed the name 

of the new town should be “Edmond.” 

W. E. Drum of Springfield was elected the 

first mayor and R. E. Parshall of Michigan was 

selected as vice-mayor. Logan Cox was the first 

city marshal. 

C h a p t e r 1 ✦ 1 7

❖ 

Edmond, c. 1890, by Charles Dake. Taken looking east from Broadway, Anton Classen’s homestead is seen in the foreground. Edmond’s Territorial Schoolhouse in the background to 

the right, (with the bell tower still under construction) located along “Two Street” and St. John the Baptist Catholic Church is in the background to the far left. Charles A. Dake came 

to Edmond, shortly after the Land Run of April 1889 from Lowell, Michigan. Dake promptly opened a photographic business. He took a series of photographs on June 29, 1889, 

that recorded the rapid growth of the town. The three photographs shown here, including “Edmond Looking West” and “Edmond from Coal Shed,” were both taken as a part of this 

important series. Thanks to his pioneering photography, today we are able to see the progress the town of Edmond had made in just thirty-seven days after the Land Run that opened the 

“Unassigned Lands.” Charles A. Dake was elected mayor of Edmond from 1893 to 1894 and took many early photographs of the landscape and its pioneers. Ironically, there are no 

known photographs of Edmond’s pictorial historian. Dake died in April 1899, ten years nearly to the day after the founding of the town. 


❖ 

Edmond, June 29, 1889, looking west, by Charles Dake. The open short grass prairie in the foreground records the sparse landscape on which the town of Edmond was initially built. 

The photograph depicts the first wooden structures built in Edmond in the summer of 1889. The first church built in Oklahoma Territory, St. John’s the Baptist Catholic stands to the 

left of the photograph. The coal shed and tenders can be seen in the distance. 

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE EDMOND HISTORICAL COLLECTION, IMAGED ENHANCED FROM ORIGINAL. 

1 8 ✦ M I L E M A R K E R 1 0 3

The appearance of the new town was suddenly 

transformed. James Crowder, wrote: 

In just a few days Edmond’s appearance 

began to evolve from a disorganized bivouac to 

a new town as rough lumber buildings started 

replacing tents and “lean-to” shacks. New stores 

and houses began to line up along Broad Street 

and Two Street. And more people were still 

coming in slow moving wagons or on trains 

that were passing through. Several people 

who already felt squeezed out by the hustle and 

bustle of Oklahoma Station and Guthrie retreated 

to Edmond to try again. 

Still more controversy erupted. The competing 

townsite companies would not give up their 

own plats for city lots without the intervention 

of a special agent from the Department of 

the Interior. Through his efforts, a compromise 

was reached for the original mayor and town 

council to hold office for forty days until a new 

election could be held. Two different surveys 

were accepted, allowing original purchasers 

to keep their lots, with the remaining lots to 

be laid out according to compass points. That 

is the reason some streets in downtown 

Edmond do not follow a true north-south or 

east-west course. 

Streets were named for people familiar to 

the first residents. Littler was named for 

Congressman David T. Littler of Illinois, one 

of the first deputy U.S. marshals in Oklahoma. 

Hurd was named for A. A. Hurd, a Santa Fe 

attorney in Kansas. 

On June 1, 1889, the second election in 

Edmond was held. J. S. Hunt, a settler from 

South Carolina, who ran the First Street 

Feed Store, was elected mayor. Robert 

Galbreath, the proprietor of the Pioneer Dry 

Goods Store, was chosen as city marshal. 

Among the first town trustees elected was 

W. J. Donovan, the first resident, Santa Fe agent, 

and telegrapher. 

❖ 

Edmond from the coal shed, June 29, 1889, looking north, by Charles Dake. This photograph was taken when Edmond was just two months old with newly built businesses, homes, 

and tents to the east of the Edmond Station which stands essentially as it did before the Land Run. 

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE EDMOND HISTORICAL COLLECTION, IMAGED ENHANCED FROM ORIGINAL. 

C h a p t e r 1 ✦ 1 9

❖ 

Right: This map, published in the 

first issue of the Edmond Sun on 

July 18, 1889, edited by Milton 

“Kicking Bird” Reynolds, illustrates a 

bird’s eye view of Edmond as a hub 

of rail traffic. 


HISTORICAL SOCIETY RESEARCH DIVISION— 

GATEWAY TO OKLAHOMA HISTORY. 

Below: Men gather along Broadway 

in Edmond, Oklahoma Territory, 

in 1890. 


UNIVERSITY OF CENTRAL OKLAHOMA ARCHIVES 

AND SPECIAL COLLECTIONS. 

2 0 ✦ M I L E M A R K E R 1 0 3


BUILDING A TOWN 

Several of Edmond’s early settlers were men who first lived in Guthrie, but decided that Edmond 

offered more opportunity. An example is Milton W. “Kicking Bird” Reynolds, an ardent supporter of 

settlement of the Unassigned Lands. The founder of newspapers in Lawrence and Parsons, Kansas, 

and a member of the legislature in Kansas and Nebraska, Reynolds was one of a few newsmen who 

covered the famous Treaty of Medicine Lodge. It was there that he was forced to take refuge from 

Cheyenne Dog Soldiers in the lodge of Kiowa chief Kicking Bird, whose name Reynolds took for the 

remainder of his life. 

Shortly after the Land Run of 1889, Reynolds established a newspaper in Guthrie. Finding that 

competition was stiff and numerous, he had his press and equipment moved by wagon from Guthrie 

to Edmond on July 11, 1889. A week later, on July 18, the first issue of the Edmond Sun, Oklahoma’s 

oldest continuous newspaper, was printed in an office in a small frame building at 109 North Broadway. 

Reynolds’ early editorials were passionate about properly building Edmond, especially in the 

area of education. He called for a state university to be built in Edmond, but unfortunately did not 

live to see his dream. In the hot summer of 1890, while campaigning for a seat in the territorial 

legislature, Reynolds became ill and died. His description of Oklahoma as “The Land of the Fair God” 

has been quoted by historians and writers for more than a century. 

In Reynolds’ last editorial in the Edmond Sun before his death, he talked about the positive future of 

Oklahoma. He wrote, “Ten years from now Oklahoma will be one of the brightest states in the Union. 

Ten years from now there is not a settler upon a claim in Oklahoma who, if he in industrious and sober 

and has his health, will not be worth from $10,000 to $15,000.” Reynolds was but a few years off in his 

prediction for statehood, but his enthusiasm was contagious for early residents of Oklahoma Territory. 

❖ 

Above: This photograph, taken 

when the territory was a year old, 

depicts Milton W. Reynold’s Ranch, 

the Signal Mound Farm, one mile 

northeast of Edmond, Oklahoma. 

Edwina Reynolds is pictured at the 

right front of the photograph, 1890. 


HISTORICAL SOCIETY RESEARCH DIVISION, 

FROM THE THOMAS N. ATHEY COLLECTION. 

Below: Milton “Kicking Bird” Reynolds. 



C h a p t e r 2 ✦ 2 1

E D M O N D F I R S T S I N O K L A H O M A T E R R I T O R Y 

• First higher education building—Old North Tower 

• First church building—St. John the Baptist Catholic Church 

• First continuous newspaper—Edmond Sun 

• First public school house—August 1889 

• First city library—1890 

• First barrel of flour ground—1891 

❖ 

Right: Oklahoma City civic leader and land developer Anton H. Classen was born October 8, 1861, at Pekin, 

Illinois. Classen received a common school education in Illinois and studied law at the University of Michigan. 

Two years after he graduated from college, he made the 1889 land run into the Unassigned Lands of Oklahoma 

Territory, living for a brief period in Guthrie. The town had too many lawyers, so he sought opportunity in 

nearby Edmond. While practicing law, Classen edited the Edmond Sun newspaper and promoted the location 

of Oklahoma Territory’s first normal school at Edmond. He served as Edmond’s Postmaster and was 

instrumental in bringing the Interurban Rail to the Town of Edmond. 

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE OKLAHOMA HISTORICAL SOCIETY RESEARCH DIVISION, EDGAR S. VAUGHT COLLECTION. 

Bottom, left and right: Front and second page of the first Edmond Sun, the first newspaper established and 

published by Milton W. Reynolds on July, 18, 1889. Reynolds brought his manual printing press, typewriter and 

determination from Kansas to Edmond in the 1889 Land Run. The subscription price was $1.50 per year or 

75 cents for six months. The Edmond paper is Oklahoma’s oldest continuously published newspaper and was the 

hometown voice of Edmond during its territorial days. 

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE OKLAHOMA HISTORICAL SOCIETY GATEWAY TO OKLAHOMA HISTORY. 

2 2 ✦ M I L E M A R K E R 1 0 3

Another early transplant from Guthrie was 

Anton H. Classen, a young lawyer who decided 

there were too many lawyers in Guthrie and his 

future was in Edmond. In the fall of 1889 he 

purchased 160 acres east of Edmond and built 

a one room, 12-feet by14-feet home. Soon his 

sister and brother-in-law arrived from Illinois. 

Classen, a bachelor, let his sister and her family 

use his home and he moved into the Central 

Hotel. Classen opened a law office in the same 

small building that housed the Edmond Sun. 

He played a major role in the development of 

Edmond, including supporting the establishment 

of a state college. When Kicking Bird Reynolds 

died, Classen bought the Edmond Sun. 

The first grocery store in Edmond was in a 

tent on the northwest corner of Broad Street 

(now Broadway Avenue) and Two Street 

(now Second Street). James Brown opened a 

lumberyard on First Street, John Pfaff founded 

the Bank of Edmond, James Taylor and Frank 

Dawson operated a hotel and livery stable, and 

Charles Edgerton was manager of the Edgerton 

and Tullis Hardware & Implement on Broadway. 

For the first months of its existence, Edmond 

had no post office. Residents picked up incoming 

mail at Guthrie. On July 1, R. Franklin Green, a 

political appointee from Montana and first 

Edmond postmaster, opened the local post office 

and received nearly 4,000 pieces of mail in its 

first month of operation. 

Edmond’s first church was St. John the 

Baptist Catholic Church, which held its first 

mass on June 24, 1889. The four Catholic 

families in town, along with non-catholic 

neighbors, built a frame church with a bell 

tower and seating 150 people. It was located at 

First Street and Boulevard. A new building was 

built in 1900 at the original location. In 1955, 

the centennial year of the Diocese of Oklahoma 

City and Tulsa, St. John the Baptist moved to its 

present site at Ninth Street and South Littler. 

At the same time, nearly seventy pioneer 

Protestants joined forces and held a Union 

Sunday School in a new store building the day 

before the new Catholic church was dedicated. 

❖ 

Above: People’s Bank Building, 

First Street and Broadway. John Pfaff 

established Edmond’s first bank, 

the Bank of Edmond, just after the 

Land Run of April 1889 at 101 East 

Broadway. In 1898 the Bank of 

Edmond consolidated with People’s 

Bank, which was originally 

established in 1893. This two-story 

sandstone building also housed 

Edgerton Hardware, seen at right of 

the photograph. 



Below: St. John the Baptist Catholic 

Church, 1889. The first church 

building built in Oklahoma Territory. 

Townspeople of all religious 

persuasions contributed to its 

construction and attended various 

services held in the building. 

The church opened its doors for mass 

on June 24, 1889. Not to be outdone, 

approximately seventy Protestants 

decided to join forces and hold the 

first Union Sunday School in a new 

store building on June 23. 



C h a p t e r 2 ✦ 2 3

❖ 

Right: Prominent teacher and Edmond 

pioneer Charles Douglas Clem was 

the son of a slave in Kentucky. 

After his father escaped and fought 

for the Union in the Civil War, he 

returned to Kentucky to marry. The 

couple moved with their son Charles 

to a claim four miles southeast of 

Edmond in 1890. Charles was later 

educated at the AME Church 

Industrial College at Greenville, 

Kentucky, before returning to Edmond 

in 1899 as a celebrated poet and 

teacher at the Edmond Separate 

School at 21 West Ayers Street. 

Bottom, left: Ollie McCormick, 

the first schoolmarm in 

Oklahoma Territory. 

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE LEKVEN 

FAMILY COLLECTIONS. 

Bottom, right: The 1889 Territorial 

Schoolhouse. The school building was 

the first project spearheaded by the 

Ladies Aid Society. The schoolhouse 

opened its doors on September 16, 

1889. The schoolhouse was the first 

built in Oklahoma Territory and 

stands today in its original location 

at Second Street and Broadway. 

By 1892, the first public school 

building had been expanded to include 

a rear addition, a vestibule, 

and a belfry. 



Most of the women of Edmond were late 

arrivals. Their husbands made the run, staked 

claims, and then called for their families who 

arrived by wagon. But even though most of the 

women of the community arrived a few days or 

weeks after their husbands, they were quick to 

better their new home. In the summer of 1889, 

women sponsored ice cream socials and other 

fundraising events to build Oklahoma Territory’s 

first public school house. Jennie Forster was an 

early leader who, even though she was a bride of 

only a few months, realized the need for schools 

and obtained credit at a local lumberyard in order 

for materials for the new school to be purchased. 

On September 16, 1889, the first public 

school in the territory opened its doors with 

Miss Ollie McCormick hired to teach all eight 

grades for eight months for the enticing sum of 

$240. Nineteen students answered the call for 

the first day of school. 

To celebrate the first Thanksgiving in Edmond, 

the Ladies Aid Society sponsored a huge dinner to 

raise money for operation of the school. The men 

were asked to bring meat for the occasion. In a 

one-day hunt, the men of Edmond brought in 

132 quail, 11 prairie chickens, 22 rabbits, seven 

turkeys, two squirrels, two raccoons, and one 

opossum. Enough money was raised at the dinner 

to finance new Edmond’s school for the full year. 

The school house on the southwest corner of 

Second Street and Broadway was a multipurpose 

building. Thomas N. Horner,preached 

the first sermon in the building on August 4, 

1889, and performed Edmond’s first recorded 

wedding a week later. Within the next few 

months, the Methodist Episcopal, Christian, 

Presbyterian, and First Baptist church congregations 

organized in the school house and began 

planning for their own buildings. In 1892 

the school board authorized a large addition 

to the school house and the construction of an 

2 4 ✦ M I L E M A R K E R 1 0 3

18-by-24-foot building for black children that 

opened for classes on September 5, 1892. 

The Ladies Aid Society raised money for 

wooden sidewalks in the business district. From 

money raised from a masquerade ball to celebrate 

the first anniversary of the Land Run, the town’s 

first library opened. Jennie Forster donated 100 

books from her personal collection to begin the 

library and served as the first city librarian. 

By act of Congress, the Oklahoma District 

became Oklahoma Territory on May 2, 1890. 

Edmond’s address changed from Edmond, Indian 

Territory, to Edmond, Oklahoma Territory. On 

December 31, 1890, Edmond was officially 

incorporated as a village. Its population was 294. 

The year 1890 was tough for Edmond’s 

political base. Within a few months, territorial 

delegates Kicking Bird Reynolds and C. M. Burke 

died, the latter succumbing to typhoid. In addition, 

prominent political leader and postmaster 

Franklin Greene, a good friend of President 

Benjamin Harrison, died. 

With the loss of political clout, Dr. J. W. 

Howard, a delegate in the Territorial Legislature, 

motivated citizens to lobby the legislature for 

Edmond to be the site for a state college. After 

all, residents of the new town had shown 

their interest in education and religion by 

establishing the first public school house and 

church in the Oklahoma District. 

❖ 

Above: William Maurice Sulcer was 

hired as a teacher at the Edmond 

Separate School in 1895 and became 

the school’s second principal. 

The school was nicknamed “Tuftime” 

and was closed in 1905. He was 

influential in religious and educational 

issues and helped establish the 

Oklahoma County Ida B. Wells 

Teachers Association and the state 

Oklahoma Association of Negro 

Teachers. He was also a leader in the 

formation of Langston University. 

Left: Outline map of the lands known 

as Oklahoma Indian Territory, 1889. 


HISTORICAL SOCIETY MAP COLLECTION. 

Below: Dr. J. W. Howard. While 

serving on the Territorial Legislature, 

Howard was instrumental in bringing 

the Normal School to Edmond. 



C h a p t e r 2 ✦ 2 5

2 6 ✦ M I L E M A R K E R 1 0 3

❖ 

Opposite: Forster’s Pioneer Grocery 

and Library, June 1889. George C. 

Forster along with George Angerman 

established the Pioneer Grocery in a 

tent the day after the April 22, 1889, 

Land Run. Jennie Forster donated 100 

books from her personal collection to 

begin the first Library of the 

Unassigned Lands in Indian Territory 

in the family’s two-story grocery store. 

Early settlers could buy their flour, 

grain and loan their library books all 

from Forster’s special mercantile. 

Jennie Forster is standing first from 

the left of the second story, George C. 

Forster is leaning on the barrel. 



Even though the state university was to be 

located in Norman and Stillwater was chosen as 

the site for an agricultural and mechanical 

college, Edmond was awarded Oklahoma 

Territory’s two-year Normal School to train 

public school teachers. Through the efforts of 

Dr. Brown, Richard D. Thatcher was hired as the 

first principal of the Territorial Normal School of 

Oklahoma. When classes began with twentythree 

students on November 9, 1891, in the new 

Methodist Episcopal Church building on the 

corner of Hurd Street and Broadway, the Normal 

School became Oklahoma’s first institution of 

higher learning. Oklahoma A&M began classes a 

month after the Normal School and the 

University of Oklahoma did not open until 1892. 

Anton Classen donated forty acres for the 

construction of the new school’s first building. 

Ten acres were set aside for the school and 

the remaining lots were sold to raise $3,000 

in buildings funds and the city government 

contributed $2,000. The Normal Building, or Old 

North Tower, opened with eighty students on 

January 13, 1893. It was a day of great pride for 

all Edmond residents. The Territorial Legislature 

appropriated $15,000 to add a four-sided clock 

tower and two wings to the Normal Building in 

1894. Two men and three women made up the 

Normal School’s first graduating class in 1897. 

There has been unbelievable progress in 

the century and a quarter since the opening of 

the Normal School. Even though teacher training 

has remained at the heart of its mission, the 

school’s curriculum has gone beyond the original 

preparatory and normal school courses to include 

a variety of majors and graduate degrees. There 

were name changes—to Central State Normal 

School in 1904, to Central State Teachers College 

in 1919, to Central State College in 1939, to 

Central State University in 1971, and to the 

University of Central Oklahoma (UCO) in 1991. 

The Edmond cemetery began in 1895 when 

the city’s board of trustees proposed the purchase 

of twenty acres on North Boulevard for 

$500. Such a large expenditure required a vote 

of the people. At a special election, voters 

approved the purchase and trustees named the 

new cemetery Gracelawn over Pleasant Valley. 

The twentieth century began with Edmond 

students and teachers moving into a new twostory, 

stone school, named for Charles Kingsley, 

an Anglican clergyman, teacher and writer. 

The old school was sold to Pete Anglea to renovate 

for his residence. At the turn of the century 

Above: Methodist Church, 1891. 

The wood-frame Methodist Church 

located on Hurd Street and Broadway 

was completed in 1891. The first 

classes of the Normal School were 

held in this church before the building 

was finished on November 9, 1891. 

The formal dedication of the building 

occurred on August 28, 1892. 



Below: Gracelawn Cemetery was 

established by the citizens of Edmond 

in April 1895 and located at the 

northwest corner of East Danforth 

and North Boulevard. It replaced 

Edmond’s first cemetery (1889-1895) 

that was illegally placed in an area of 

the school land section on the east side 

of South Rankin from Second to Fifth 

Streets. Gracelawn is the final resting 

place of noted civic leader and 

publisher Milton “Kicking Bird” 

Reynolds, and many Edmond pioneers. 

The distinctive exterior rock wall was 

a WPA project, installed in 1940. 



C h a p t e r 2 ✦ 2 7

❖ 

Right: The James L. Brown House 

and Blacksmith Shop. James L. Brown 

established Edmond’s first 

lumberyard, April 25, 1889. 

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF 

CENTRAL OKLAHOMA ARCHIVES COLLECTIONS. 

Below: This scene along Broadway 

Street in 1890 shows the first bank in 

Edmond, at center, and Hampton’s 

Art Gallery. 




2 8 ✦ M I L E M A R K E R 1 0 3

❖ 

Below: The Jackson Hotel. After his 

service to the Union in 1865, Jackson 

came with his wife and family to 

Edmond. He made the April 22, 

1889, Land Run into Edmond, I. T., 

from Texas. Jackson opened Edmond’s 

first hotel on the northeast corner of 

Second Street and Broadway. (The 

two-story building behind the group of 

people gathered on Broadway, seen 

with fenced upper deck). The Jackson 

Hotel landed Jackson and his wife at 

the core of Edmond's social events. 

Settlers were eager for a suitable 

gathering place. An ice cream social 

there raised money to support the 

building of the Territorial School 

House and to purchase hymn books. 

Jackson was wounded in the Civil War 

and walked the wooden sidewalks of 

Edmond with a cane due to a hip 

injury from that war. 



C h a p t e r 2 ✦ 2 9

❖ 

Right and below: Taylor and Dawson 

Hotel DeHoss, 1890. James Taylor 

and Frank Dawson operated the 

Hotel DeHoss Livery Stable located 

on Second Street, west of Broadway. 

Horses and buggies were available 

with or without drivers. Prior to 

completion, the building served as 

the location for the first All-Edmond 

Thanksgiving Day Dinner in 1889. 

As Edmond grew, Taylor and Dawson 

established the first stage line from 

Edmond to Guthrie. Later a leg to 

Shawnee was added. The Livery 

Stable operated until the 1930s. 

By 1927, fifteen million Model T’s had 

been manufactured and gasoline 

powered automobiles and farm 

equipment were more popular and 

cost effective than the feed costs of 

using horses and mules. 

PHOTOGRAPHS COURTESY OF THE 


3 0 ✦ M I L E M A R K E R 1 0 3

❖ 

Left: Looking north along Broadway 

Street with horses, buggies and men 

in 1890. 



Edmond was home to nearly 1,000 people. 

In 1901 Anton Classen extended Main Street 

through his orchard to develop a new housing 

addition. He also helped develop residential 

areas between Boulevard and the Normal School. 

In 1902 the commercial district of Edmond 

consisted of 79 buildings—10 of them were 

made of stone or brick. A city band marched 

in parades and played concerts every Saturday 

night. George Klein played the tuba and 

directed the band that was dressed smartly in 

new uniforms. 

Also in 1902, the town’s first telephone 

system was introduced. The first operator’s 

name was Bell Tuttle. The Normal School 

played its first intercollegiate football game in 

the fall of 1902. It was difficult for the team of 

thirteen players in homemade uniforms, and 

with just three weeks of practice, to travel to 

Stillwater for the game with Oklahoma A&M. 

They rode the train to Perry and transferred to 

horse-drawn wagons for the overland trip to 

Stillwater. On a frozen field, the Normal team 

lost to A&M 40-0. 

Below: Buggies, horses and early 

settlers of Edmond gathered one year 

after the Land Run of 1889. 

The two-story building in the center 

background was the original office of 

the Edmond Sun Newspaper. 



C h a p t e r 2 ✦ 3 1

❖ 

Top: Oklahoma and Cherokee Strip “The Home-Seekers’ Mecca,” 1889. 

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE OKLAHOMA HISTORICAL SOCIETY MAP COLLECTION. 

Above: Early postmark from Edmond, 1906. The town of Edmond did not gain mail service until July 1, 1889. 

Franklin Green of Montana was appointed Postmaster, but was too ill to open the Edmond office until three 

months after the Land Run. Post office records for July showed 3,937 letters were received and 5,117 were 

dispatched in the first month after the Post Office was opened. 


Right: City Drug Store. An early Edmond pharmacy located on the west side of Broadway. 


3 2 ✦ M I L E M A R K E R 1 0 3

❖ 

Left: Edmond, Oklahoma Territory, 

First Central Hall. Central Hall was 

located on the north side of west First 

Street and was constructed in the 

spring of 1890, it had two floors and 

served as a public meeting place. 

On April 22, 1890, festivities were 

held to commemorate the “Run,” 

including a “Grand Masquerade Ball” 

which took place at Central Hall. 

Anton Classen, then an eligible 

bachelor, won a silk quilt made by the 

town ladies that evening. Orators, 

including Milt Reynolds, presented 

lectures in the Hall. Quilting bees, 

dances and touring entertainment all 

used Central Hall as their venue in 

early Edmond history. 

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE PHOTOGRAPHIC 

ARCHIVES WESTERN HISTORY COLLECTIONS, 

THE UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA. 

Below: P. C. Slack, 1903. Slack 

came to Edmond in 1901 and 

bought the “Post Office News Stand,” 

transforming it into a book, stationary 

and gift store. Phillip Slack was 

blinded by a hunting accident in 

Wisconsin in his early twenties. 

He helped to organize the Oklahoma 

State Association for the Blind and 

assisted countless students attending 

the Normal School with their 

educational needs. 



C h a p t e r 2 ✦ 3 3

T H E G R E A T E D M O N D T R A I N R O B B E R Y 

Author David Farris has uncovered Edmond’s brush with outlaw infamy when, on August 16, 1897, the Jennings Gang 

robbed a southbound Santa Fe passenger train about one mile south of Edmond’s downtown. The legendary Jennings Gang 

was made up of three brothers who were tired of practicing law and began robbing banks and trains. 

After the Santa Fe stopped in Edmond for water, the three masked Jennings brothers and cohorts sprang from tall grass 

along the tracks and jumped onto the slow-moving train. After two unsuccessful attempts to dynamite the train’s safe, 

the gang took what loot they could get from passengers and then disappeared into the night. 

When the train arrived in Oklahoma City, the conductor notified the sheriff who called the U.S. deputy marshall, 

Heck Thomas, in Guthrie. Within days, members of the gang were either killed or imprisoned. The younger Jennings, 

Al, moved to Hollywood after serving his prison term and became a technical adviser on Western movies. He wrote an 

embellished book about his outlaw days. The book, Beating Back, was made into a movie. 

❖ 

Above: Santa Fe Train at the 

Edmond Depot. 



Right: Earl Rodkey in his first car, 

1915. Earl Rodkey sits behind the 

steering wheel of the second car to be 

owned in Edmond. 



Central Normal gained its second permanent 

building in 1904. The new building, built to the 

south, was called the South building. Thus, the 

original Normal Building became known as 

the North building, the Tower building, and 

ultimately Old North Tower. 

The automobile came to Edmond in 1905. 

When a local doctor arrived with a Tonneau 

Runabout, the newspaper opined, “No automobiles 

for us!” Most citizens did not like the 

appearance of an automobile and labeled them 

“trouble wagons.” The city council set the speed 

limit at five miles per hour. 

3 4 ✦ M I L E M A R K E R 1 0 3


A NEW STATE 

Oklahoma was admitted into the Union as the forty-sixth state on November 16, 1907. Many 

Edmond citizens wore their Sunday best and arrived at the Santa Fe station for the short ride 

north to the new state capital of Guthrie for the day’s celebrations. There was a festive mood among 

the crowd aboard the northbound train. 

With statehood came a time of reflection about Edmond’s future. Stan Hoig wrote: 

Like all other towns, Edmond could only wonder as to what this great event portended for it…. 

In a world yet undisturbed by the automobile, the radio, television, or a major world war, this was an 

interlude of peace and tranquility where the basic concerns of everyday living consumed the attention of 

all in this slow-paced, unruffled American village. 

❖ 

The inauguration of Governor 

Charles N. Haskell and Statehood 

Day on November 16, 1906, 

was celebrated by crowds outside 

Guthrie’s Carnegie Library. 



Edmond, with nearly 2,000 residents, was placed squarely between the two leading cities of 

Oklahoma. Guthrie, the state capital, was to the north, and Oklahoma City, growing faster than 

all other cities in the state, was to the south. New housing additions were being built in Edmond 

and there was news that the Interurban street car system was beginning to lay tracks north from 

Oklahoma City. Shortly, the Interurban would provide Edmond residents with quick and dependable 

transportation to Oklahoma City, chosen in 1910 by state voters as the new state capital. 

C h a p t e r 3 ✦ 3 5

3 6 ✦ M I L E M A R K E R 1 0 3

❖ 

Opposite, top: Edmond barber shop, 

a gas-light fixture allowed business 

owners to light their shop interiors. 

Opposite, bottom: Cash Grocery, 

1905. Interior of an early grocery 

store in Edmond. A kerosene lamp 

fixture hangs from the ceiling. 

Above: Charles Milton Garrett, 

standing beside a horse-drawn postal 

wagon which delivered mail on a 

rural route in Edmond. 

After statehood, there was a period of building 

boom in Edmond. New housing additions and 

businesses were added. A water system was 

funded by bonds approved by voters and 

the town’s first water tower was built on 

West Fourth Street. Edmond also built a new 

electric light utility, an ice plant, and the town’s 

first sewage system. The Normal School grew, 

reaching a new enrollment mark of 700 in 

1910. A new city hall was occupied in the fall 

of that year. The lower floor of the two-story 

structure was the fire station and jail, with 

offices for the mayor and city clerk and a 

modern indoor toilet on the second floor. 

Below: A postcard of Mr. Fink with 

his mail truck. He carried U. S. mail 

on a rural route West and North of 

Edmond. The back of the postcard 

reads: “I have been using this auto 

for six months and have never 

missed a trip or come in late yet. 

Yours truly, R. K. Finch.” 

PHOTOGRAPHS COURTESY OF THE 


C h a p t e r 3 ✦ 3 7

❖ 

Right: Protest of delay of starting 

Interurban, 1910. Edmond citizens 

were eager to use the modern 

convenience of the Interurban Rail 

system, and were impatient with the 

time-consuming process of track 

installation. At a time when most 

people of the town depended on 

horse-driven transportation, the idea 

of traveling on “modern” trolley cars 

had a wide appeal. 



Below: Albert Leonard, seated at left 

with WWI Infantry buddies. Leonard 

was born in 1891, serving with 

Company F, 111th Regiment of the 

Infantry from 1917-1919. Leonard 

helped build the Edmond American 

Legion Hut after his return from the 

first World War. 



Opposite, top: The first Buntingcovered 

Interurban Railway Cars 

arrived in Edmond from Oklahoma 

City on May 29, 1911. The occasion 

was celebrated with a throng of 

Edmond citizens, speeches by Anton 

Classen, John Shartel and John Mitch. 



On May 29, 1911, the first Interurban railway 

cars reached Edmond at Mitch Park at the 

present location of the post office. Pioneers 

Anton Classen, part owner of the Oklahoma 

Railway Company, and Edmond booster John 

Mitch spoke to the celebratory crowd. Trolley 

transportation allowed Edmond residents to go 

north to Guthrie, when the line was extended 

further, and south to the Belle Isle Amusement 

Park in Oklahoma City. 

A new post office building was built in 1913 

at First Street and Broadway. A third major 

building was built at the Normal School, a 

library named Evans Hall. In 1916 a new high 

school was under construction on Boulevard 

and Edmond’s first automobile filling station, 

repair shop, and Ford dealership opened. 

It was a banner year for Central State 

Teachers College in 1919 when the school was 

granted authority to grant full college degrees. 

Previously, only teaching certificates were 

issued to graduates. In 1920, prohibition went 

into effect in the country. There was little 

change for Oklahoma that had been dry since 

statehood in 1907. Edmond was a quiet town. 

As Stan Hoig wrote, 

Opposite, bottom: Interurban special 

car. The Interurban line offered a 

great convenience to Edmond citizens 

and Normal School students, thankful 

for special rates designed to help their 

commute. In Edmond, the trolley ran 

down Broadway to the college on an 

hourly schedule. 



While other parts of the nation were indulging 

in the excesses of speak-easies, bathtub gin, 

and gangsterism, Edmond was exercising the 

restraints of fervent piety. 

To accommodate the growing number of 

tourists traveling through Edmond by automobile, 

the Edmond chamber of commerce built a 

campground at the end of Second Street. The 

roadside park had shade trees, water fountains, 

benches, tables, and cooking grills. The park 

helped Edmond win the top prize in the 

Better Cities contest. In 1923, the state highway 

department completed the paving of Kelly Road 

south of Edmond, giving residents its first paved 

road connection to Oklahoma City. 

3 8 ✦ M I L E M A R K E R 1 0 3

C h a p t e r 3 ✦ 3 9

T H E R O D K E Y M I L L 

For decades, Edmond’s flour mill was the town’s largest 

employer. It was built in 1891 by James Martin, a member of 

the original Chicago colony that settled Edmond. In 1897, 

Isaac W. Rodkey and George Farrar bought an existing mill 

and created the Eagle Milling Company. Rodkey spent one 

week on the road selling flour and the next week grinding 

and shipping the product. Rodkey bought out Farrar in 1914 

and changed the name to the Rodkey Flour Mill. 

Rodkey’s Best flour was sacked in printed material that 

women could use to make dresses. As the town’s largest 

employer, Rodkey employed as many as thirty workers. The 

grain elevator of the mill still towers over the former site of 

the Santa Fe Depot area. 

❖ 

Above: Rodkey Mill interior, c. 1920. 


Left: Isaac Rodkey. In 1897, Issac W. Rodkey and George Farrar bought the Gallihugh- 

Martin Flour Mill, renaming it the Eagle Milling Company. Farrar’s shares were bought out 

and the Rodkey Flour Mill, became family owned and operated by 1914. Rodkey Flour Mill 

was Edmond’s largest employer. 


4 0 ✦ M I L E M A R K E R 1 0 3

C H I M E S F O R O L D N O R T H T O W E R 

In 1911 the North Building of Central State Teachers College was renovated, but the State Board of Public Affairs refused 

to provide $1,200 for a clock with chimes to ring across the campus. The president turned to the students. They were 

poor, but were willing to work. Through suppers, candy sales, campus fairs, and with donations from merchants, $550 was 

raised and presented to the Board of Affairs with a petition for the balance of the purchase price. The state board responded 

to the spirit shown by the students. Charles Evans wrote, “On June 12, 1912…after twenty years of waiting, the chimes rang 

out while more than a thousand teachers upon the campus cheered.” 

An $83,000 bond issue was passed by voters 

in 1924 for the building of a new high school 

on the east side of the original Mitch Park. 

The following year voters approved a new 

city manager form of government. With a state 

legislative appropriation of $130,000, a new 

auditorium was built on the Central campus 

and named Mitchell Hall. The town’s first 

concrete swimming pool was built south of 

Stephenson Park. The Kiwanis Club of Edmond 

later assumed management of the pool. 

The 1920s saw great success in athletics 

for the college in Edmond. E. C. Hafer was 

the college’s first real sports star, winning the 

Wantland Trophy as the outstanding athlete on 

campus in 1922. In 1924 the Broncho football 

team missed a perfect season by a one-point 

loss to Centenary of Louisiana, but won 

bragging rights in the state by beating the 

University of Oklahoma 2-0. 

❖ 

Left: E. C. Hafer, 1947 Bronze Book. 



Below: Pleasant Valley Schoolhouse 

and students. This one room, 

log cabin schoolhouse located east of 

Edmond was built in the area that 

would later be the site of 

Arcadia Lake. 



C h a p t e r 3 ✦ 4 1

❖ 

Above: Kingsley Public School, 

Edmond, Oklahoma, 1912. 

On May 8, 1899, a bond election to 

build a new Edmond school was held. 

The vote was 175 to 0 for approval. 

On January 2, 1900, the new school, 

located at Main and Littler, was 

named Eastside School, later renamed 

Kingsley. The building was a sixtyfoot 

square, two-story, native red 

sandstone structure. A 500-pound bell 

hung in the belfry. The cost of the 

building at the turn of the century 

was $8,169.07. 



Right: Students of Kingsley School 

pose for a photograph in front of the 

first stone school building in Edmond. 



With progress came more paved and full 

graveled streets. In the late 1920s, Second Street 

was widened to accommodate the heavier 

traffic with the thoroughfare being designated 

as part of the U.S. 66. Local Edmond merchants 

wanted to make certain that Americans traveling 

the new highway to the West Coast stopped 

at their places of business. Bradbury Corner, 

now the intersection of Second Street and 

Interstate 35 was a busy place. It was perhaps 

the crossroads of America—where Route 66 and 

U.S. 77 intersected. Automobile filling stations 

were built and one small tourist court opened 

for overnight guests. A trading post, restaurant, 

and mini-zoo was built at Bradbury Corner. 

There was an air of excitement in 1930 when 

famous oil wildcatter Tom Slick hit oil in the 

Edmond Oil Field west of town. Hundreds of 

citizens drove to the field and sat on their car 

fenders to admire the wooden derrick. There were 

so many spectators, enterprising entrepreneurs 

set up soft drink stands and started horseshoe 

games. But, the price of oil declined and the 

Herman Messer Well #1 was capped. Edmond’s 

future in the energy world would have to wait. 

4 2 ✦ M I L E M A R K E R 1 0 3

❖ 

Above: Camp Dixie, located at 

703 East Second Street, advertised 

“comfortable cabins equipped with 

gas stove, sink, water piped in and 

out, sanitary painted walls, clean bed 

linens, electric lights and a children’s 

playground.” Rates were “$1 and up.” 



Left: Everett Bradbury in front of 

Bradbury’s Station. 



C h a p t e r 3 ✦ 4 3

❖ 

Right and below: Wide Awake Cafe, 

1937. Originally called the 

“Night & Day” in 1927 when it 

was first built, was open to Route 66 

travelers twenty-four hours a day, 

seven days a week. Cleo and Noe 

Lamson owned the Wide-A-Wake 

from 1931 until 1972. Pictures of 

truckers lined its walls; mementos of 

thanks for wake-up call breakfasts 

served to their cabs by the 

Wide-A-Wake on their long hauls 

through Oklahoma. Seating only 

thirty-one, outside tables and curbside 

service were provided by a 

dedicated wait staff. 



The Wide-A-Wake Cafe opened at 213 

South Broadway in October 1931. Crawford 

and Gene Noe and their wives opened what 

became an Edmond institution in order to 

generate income to survive the Depression. 

With a short counter and two tables, the 

Noe families fed local residents and many 

truck drivers. The cafe was open twenty-four 

hours a day, seven days a week. For the next 

forty-eight years, “Stay awake and eat at 

the Wide-A-Wake” was a common motto for 

travelers coming through Edmond. The 

following year, 1932, the Royce Cafe opened. 

The national crime spree of the 1930s did 

not escape Edmond. In 1931 a sixteen-year-old 

boy was kidnapped during an invasion of 

his home and taken to Illinois before being 

released. His kidnapper was handed a life 

sentence, escaped from the state penitentiary 

at McAlester, and was shot to death in a 

gun battle with police in Dallas, Texas. Other 

kidnappings occurred—some for ransom, some 

because of fight with family. Filling station 

robberies were commonplace and too many 

4 4 ✦ M I L E M A R K E R 1 0 3

Edmond citizens were killed in collisions with 

trains at crossings that were not as well marked 

as in future years. 

Even though the Great Depression had a 

horrible grip upon Oklahoma’s economy in the 

1930s, Edmond never suffered as much as rural 

communities. Having a college with static 

government salaries helped, although Central 

State Teachers College operated on a reduced 

state budget. The discovery of oil also kept the 

local economy stable. Oklahoma as a whole lost 

a substantial portion of its population during 

the Dust Bowl days and economic downturn. 

However, Edmond gained more than 400 residents 

from 1930 to 1940—from 3,576 in 1930 

to 4,002 in 1940. 

There was steady civic progress during the 

Great Depression. H. W. Clegern donated a block 

of land south of Sixth Street and east of Boulevard 

for a new elementary school and developed 

a residential addition nearby. The Baggerly 

Funeral Home opened its new building at 

Third Street and Broadway and W. Z. Spearman 

opened a new Plymouth automobile agency. 

❖ 

Left: Royce and Neva Adamson 

opened the Royce Cafe in 1933. 

Located at Fourth Street and 

Broadway in Edmond, the building 

was made from native red sandstone 

and still stands today, although the 

Royce is no longer in operation. 

Customers enjoyed twenty-four hour 

service with favorites like hot 

Dr. Pepper in the winter and their 

famous blue cheese dressing. 

Legend has it that John Dillinger, 

the notorious gangster, stopped for a 

cup of coffee one evening at the Royce. 



Below: Bender Buick and Oldsmobile 

Building, 1937. Three gasoline pumps 

with glass tanks stand outside Bender 

Buick. Located on Broadway at the 

northwest corner of Second Street, 

it was later the building used by the 

Edmond Enterprise. 



C h a p t e r 3 ✦ 4 5

E D M O N D ’ S O I L B O O M S 

Edmond saw two flurries of oil and gas drilling activity in the twentieth century. Nothing came of an oil well drilled eight 

miles northwest of town in 1911, but drilling after World War I produced gas wells and a short-lived oil play in the mid 

1920s. The first significant boom came in the 1930s when wildcatter Tom Slick’s Herman Messer #1 flowed oil, was capped 

for a while, and brought into production in 1934. That same year, the Dahl #1 blew out with such a roar near Pennsylvania 

Avenue and Fifteenth Street, it could be heard in Edmond. Other wells began producing and the Edmond Oil Field was born. 

During World War II, in 1943, the No. 1 Lynn Wagner was brought in ten miles west of town in what became known 

as the West Edmond Oil Field. It was even a larger pool of oil than the discoveries of the 1920s and 1930s. Eventually, 

hundreds of oil wells were drilled. 

❖ 

Onlookers watch Messer Well #1. 

This was the first oil well in the 

West Edmond Oil Field in 1930. 



Oil activity picked up in the Edmond Field 

in 1934. The Messer Well was reopened and 

the oil boom officially began when the Dahl #1 

blew in. Within a few weeks, eight derricks 

dressed the skyline west of town, oil companies 

were buying up leases, and more drilling began. 

The chamber of commerce was so excited it 

sponsored a big watermelon, ice cream, and 

cigar celebration for oil field workers. There 

was a shortage of housing in town, although 

many of the workers lived in the old Central 

Hotel on First Street. 

4 6 ✦ M I L E M A R K E R 1 0 3


WAR YEARS AND BABY BOOMERS 

With the Great Depression behind them, leaders of Edmond promoted business and 

neighborhood growth in the late 1930s and early 1940s. WPA projects, carried over from the 

Depression-era government works programs, widened Boulevard and a wall was built around 

Gracelawn Cemetery. On July 4, 1940, residents gathered at Stephenson Park to hear patriotic 

music by the Edmond High School band and a radio speech by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. 

America had not become involved in the war in Europe, but there was a growing uneasiness about 

the world’s condition and a stirring of nationalism. 

After the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, Edmond was quick to join the 

rest of the nation in preparing for the world war. Wage and price controls were instituted by the 

federal government and air raid posts were established around town. Nurses enrolled in Red Cross 

classes. Scrap iron and rubber drives and sugar rationing became part of the wartime vocabulary. 

In 1942, the Wide-A-Wake Cafe garnered national attention in an article in the New Yorker 

magazine. A travel writer exaggerated the location of the cafe in the Wild West, “the place to head 

for is the Wide-A-Wake Cafe. Just hitch your hoss to the rail outside and saunter in. And keep 

daylight showin’ between your hand and that Colt, stranger.” 

Route 66 was still busy as Americans from many states passed through Edmond. James 

Crowder wrote: 

❖ 

Stephenson Park was named in 

1934 by the city council for then City 

Manager Fred M. Stephenson for his 

service to the city. Formerly known as 

“South Park,” the newly refurbished 

Stephenson Park of the thirties 

boasted tennis and croquet courts, 

an elaborate rock garden in the ravine 

and the planting of trees and shrubs 

in 1934. The rock northwest wall 

entrance to the park was also a 

WPA project built in 1934. 

The park was also home to the WPAconstructed 

American Legion Hut and 

the Edmond Armory. 



Most of them were just plain folks but every once in a while somebody special made the news. 

One summer day a truck carrying all the instruments and luggage for Woody Herman’s band rolled over 

three miles east of Edmond. Perhaps the driver fell asleep or maybe was a bit tipsy, but just the thought 

of someone driving all the way from New York to Hollywood thrilled every day-dreamer around. 

C h a p t e r 4 ✦ 4 7

❖ 

Clockwise, starting from the top left: 

James Woodrow Bigbee, Jr., 

WestPoint Yearbook photograph, 

1942. Bigbee was the first Edmond 

casualty of the second World War. He 

was killed when his plane crashed 

during a take-off at Kelly Field, 

Texas, ending the military career of a 

promising young man. 

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE WESTPOINT 

MILITARY ACADEMY ARCHIVES, 1942 

HOWITZER PAGE 154. 

Central State was selected as the site of an 

Army Air Corps training program. Soon Air 

Corps and Naval cadets were taught flight 

instruction and navigation. Central State lost 

twenty percent of its enrollment to the draft of 

young men to fight the war in Europe and the 

Pacific. Edmond’s first casualty of the war was 

Lieutenant James W. Bigbee, Jr., who died when 

his flight trainer crashed at Kelly Field in Texas. 

Good news came from increased exploration 

in the West Edmond Field. The town was 

flooded with oil field workers, pushing the 

population to 6,000. Many residents took jobs 

at Tinker field or the adjoining Douglas Aircraft 

factory. In 1944 more than 1,000 citizens of 

Edmond worked at either Douglas or the 

Oklahoma City Air Depot. The oil field activity 

and defense jobs caused an acute housing 

shortage in Edmond. 

Second Lieutenant Russell R. 

Dougherty, 307th Bombardment 

Group, Army Air Corps, “The Long 

Rangers.” Dougherty was the first 

Edmond High School Graduate to die 

in World War II. His B-17 crashed on 

take-off from Guadalcanal. He was 

awarded a Purple Heart and an 

Edmond Elementary School was 

named in his honor. 



The 179th Infantry at the Edmond 

Armory. Uniformed soldiers pose at 

the south side of the Edmond Armory. 

The Edmond Armory served as the 

headquarters for the 179th Infantry 

Regiment of the 45th Division of the 

National Guard until 1972. 



The lives of Edmond families were changed 

by the war. Mothers fretted over the safety of 

their young men and women were serving in 

a distant war zone. Victory gardens became 

fashionable and ration books became part of life. 

An air show was held on August 5, 1945, to 

dedicate a new airport a mile and a half north 

of Edmond. The field, hangar, and shop were 

approved by the Civil Aviation Administration. 

4 8 ✦ M I L E M A R K E R 1 0 3

Toward the end of World 

War II, the number of producing 

oil wells in the West 

Edmond Field rivaled the 

great East Texas Field. With 

increased revenues and new 

housing units being constructed, 

the city began 

improvements to the water 

and sewer lines. When the 

war was won, GI’s began 

returning home to resume 

their normal lives. Central 

State College’s (CSC) enrollment 

dramatically increased 

with an influx of GI Bill students. 

Temporary barracks 

were installed on the campus 

to house married veterans. Dale Hamilton 

drafted some of the returning GI’s for his football 

team while Gerald “Cowboy” Barnett 

coached the CSC basketball team. 

On February 1, 1947, the Edmond Hospital 

opened, founded by Dr. N. F. Wynn, Dr. D. H. 

Fleetwood, M. O. Baggerly, C. F. Kirkland, and 

R. R. McCoy. The hospital was located above 

the Broncho Theater. 

The year 1947 brought an era in the life 

of Edmond to an end. The Interurban tracks 

that had carried trolleys for decades were 

removed and Broadway was paved over for the 

use of automobiles. At CSC, Dr. Max Chambers, 

a former star athlete at Central Normal, was 

named president. 

The new Statue of Liberty on Second Street 

and South Boulevard was dedicated in 1951. 

There was a feeling of patriotism in the air 

as more than 100 Central State College students 

left for military service in Korea. The Statue 

of Liberty had been won by Edmond in a war 

bond drive and T. H. Denton had it installed 

on a permanent foundation. 

In 1952 part of a large street improvement 

program included the installation of parking 

meters in downtown Edmond. The Korean 

Conflict ended and enrollment at CSC 

increased. When Fred Snyder returned from 

service in the 45th Infantry Division, he bought 

the McMinimy Hardware Store on Broadway 

and renamed it Snyder Hardware. The state 

highway department began construction on a 

new four-lane highway to connect Edmond 

and Oklahoma City. In the fall of 1954, Addie 

Lee Jordan of Oklahoma City became the first 

African American student enrolled at CSC. The 

landmark U.S. Supreme Court case of Brown v. 

Board of Education, ending racial segregation in 

public schools, had no immediate effect upon 

Edmond because not one African American 

child was enrolled in Edmond schools. The case 

did give the Board of Education impetus to plan 

for further expansion. Ten acres at Ninth Street 

and Rankin were purchased as a possible site 

for a new high school. 

❖ 

Above: In 1924, a new high school 

building was built on North 

Boulevard. This was Edmond’s High 

School Building from 1924 to 1957. 



Below: Dr. Hall enrolls 

Mrs. Addie Lee Jordan, the first 

African American student to enroll 

at Central State University. 

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF 

THE 1955 BRONZE BOOK, PAGE 165. 

C h a p t e r 4 ✦ 4 9

S A T U R D A Y A T T H E M O V I E S 

Long before the advent of television, Edmond residents 

were blessed to have a good selection of theaters and 

outdoor movie venues for entertainment. The Opera House 

was the town’s first theater at 213 South Broadway. It cost 

ten cents for a silent movie. In 1917 Willie Spearman 

opened the Gem Theater on the west side of Broadway 

between First and Second streets. He also purchased two 

nearby lots and set up an outdoor screen—one of the first 

drive in movies in the country. A Wurlitzer player piano 

accompanied the silent movies. 

In 1924, on the southwest corner of Broadway and 

Main, the Joyland Theatre Airdome presented silent 

movies. Talking pictures arrive and the Spearmans turned 

a two-story stone building at Main and Broadway into the 

Broncho Theatre, complete with carpeted aisles, draperies, 

rest rooms, and two projection booths. The first film 

was shown in the Broncho on January 10, 1936. The Gem 

operated until the 1950s. The Broncho closed in the 

1970s. For a short time, an outdoor theater was in 

operation north of the Gracelawn Cemetery. Later the 

Edmond Plaza Theater served as a local movie house. 

Today, the Kickingbird Cinema provides first-run movies 

for the latest generation of Edmond residents. 

❖ 

Above: The 1940 billing for the 

Gem and Broncho Theatres. 


EDMOND HISTORICAL SOCIETY VERTICAL FILES. 

Right: Lines form at the Broncho 

Theater ticket booth in downtown 

Edmond, 1961. 

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE DECADE SERIES, 



5 0 ✦ M I L E M A R K E R 1 0 3

In 1955, CSC set a new enrollment record 

of 1,894 students. Much of the growth came 

from international students. At Central’s 

homecoming in October, Goldie Maher was 

celebrated as the only surviving member of the 

school’s first class sixty-four years earlier. 

As South Broadway was improved, more 

businesses located there, especially gas stations 

and used car lots. On the CSC campus, plans 

were announced to build a new library and 

add a wing to Thatcher Hall. 

In 1958, Edmond began building to the 

south and southeast. New brick homes were 

planned for the Henderson Hills addition. 

Some of the new homeowners were connected 

to Central Christian College that had moved 

from Bartlesville to the former farm of the 

Weiss family. Although the school, which 

became Oklahoma Christian College, and 

ultimately, Oklahoma Christian University, was 

located within the city limits of Oklahoma City, 

it was considered a part of Edmond—and a half 

century later—still is. 

Oklahoma City had become the largest city 

in land area in the nation, and was annexing 

land to its north. To slow the annexation of the 

capital city, Edmond leaders began annexing 

land to the east and west. James Crowder said it 

was an attempt “to prevent being surrounded 

and gobbled up by its big neighbor.” 

The romantic age of the railroad ended 

in Edmond in 1959 when Santa Fe No. 5 

locomotive made its final run from Edmond to 

Oklahoma City, leaving only one northbound 

train for a city that had been born because of 

the railroad. It was also the end of an era at 

CSC as President Max Chambers retired and 

was replaced by Dr. Garland Godfrey. Plans 

were announced for the construction of two 

new dormitories, a classroom building, a field 

house, a cafeteria, and additions to other 

buildings. Nearby, Oklahoma Christian College 

became a four-year college and began enrolling 

its first junior class. C. A. Henderson announced 

Edmond’s first shopping center to be built at 

Fifteenth Street and Broadway. 

❖ 

Edmond’s Depot was originally 

built in fall of 1890, and stood for 

seventy-seven years. The Edmond 

Train Depot was remodeled in 1947 

and was eventually torn down in 

1967 to make room for the Second 

Street underpass. Today, cars that 

drive under the train bridge pass 

directly underneath the original 

footprint of the old depot building 



C h a p t e r 4 ✦ 5 1

❖ 

Above: William (Bill) Payne, Jr., 

shown here in the 1960s, attended 

CSU from 1957 to 1960 and was 

honored as a distinguished former 

student in 1987. Payne was a pioneer 

in FM radio and ran the Edmond 

station KWHP-FM out of a house on 

Kelly Avenue. 

Opposite: An aerial view of Edmond, 

Oklahoma, 1961, shows the extensive 

growth of the city. The photograph 

looks south to Oklahoma City, with 

Broadway central to the photograph; 

the railroad depot, Rodkey Mill and 

other Edmond businesses are visible at 

right. A city block in the foreground 

left was cleared for the building of the 

new Post Office. 



Edmond was growing. Stan Hoig wrote: 

The Run of 1889 at Edmond had featured a 

rush of settlers and the erection of home and 

business structures virtually overnight. Another 

“rush,” this one spread over a longer period 

of time, took place during the sixties. The 

completion of 169 new homes and the influx of 

newcomers continued through 1961, causing a 

large increase in school children and a spurt in 

business volume. 

In 1962, Interstate Highway 35 opened, 

giving Edmond easier access to the world 

beyond. There was more residential expansion. 

Ray Vaughn developed a forty-acre addition at 

Eastern and Memorial and new homes were 

built north and east of Central State College. 

A bond issue was passed by residents for a new 

sewage plant as forty-eight homes were added 

in the far south part of town. Bill Payne secured 

approval from the Federal Communications 

Commission for Edmond’s first radio station, 

KWHP-FM. 

Almost overnight, the town that had modestly 

grown for decades was booming. Stan Hoig said, 

The sixties began a metamorphosis from a 

small provincial town into an urban community. 

Suddenly there was a hustle and bustle that 

Edmond had not known before. 

A new elementary school was built. It was 

first named Southern Hills, until it was renamed 

to honor the late Orvis Risner, long-time president 

of the school board. More homes sprang up 

in Henderson Hills and Broadway Park as the 

town spread to the south. Central State College 

hit the 5,000 enrollment mark for the first time. 

A Skelly gas station was the first business in the 

new Plaza Shopping Center at Fifteenth Street 

and Broadway. Edmond’s city budget surpassed 

$1 million for the first time in 1963. 

There was a building boom at CSC in the mid- 

1960s. The new Broncho Fieldhouse was completed 

and the state approved funds for a new 

$3 million student union and additions to student 

dormitories. Representative C. H. Spearman, Jr., 

5 2 ✦ M I L E M A R K E R 1 0 3

egan planting the idea in the minds of fellow 

legislators that CSC, with 7,000 students, should 

become a university, rather than a college. 

There was a changing of the guard at the Edmond 

Sun in 1965. Frank Dobyns sold the newspaper 

to Dave Sclair of Texas and Ed Livermore, Sr., 

of Sapulpa. Edmond’s second shopping center 

was announced for Second Street and Bryant. 

The new Edmond Public Library and Memorial 

Junior High School opened in 1967.Darrell Hager 

was hired as administrator for the city hospital 

that moved from its original location to a new 

building at Second Street and Bryant. 

Also in 1967, state highway commissioner 

Hubert Gragg announced plans for construction 

of the Broadway Extension, an improved 

highway from Edmond to Oklahoma City. The 

city council voted to build the Kicking Bird 

Golf Course. Despite the city’s objection, the 

Oklahoma Corporation Commission allowed 

the closing of Edmond’s train depot. It had 

served earlier generations well. 

The 1960s were kind to Edmond. James L. 

Crowder wrote: 

U F O 

In many ways Edmond did not mirror 

the newsmaking events of the “Sizzling Sixties.” 

In 1969 Woodstock attracted over 400,000 

members of the counter-culture to New York, 

but even seeing a real hippie in Edmond 

was a rarity. Approximately 250,000 anti-war 

protesters marched on Washington, D.C., but 

CSC students who wanted to demonstrate could 

hardly gather a crowd of thirty. 

S I G H T I N G 

On August 1, 1965, hundreds of Edmond residents’ quiet Sunday 

evening was interrupted with the sighting of an unidentified object in 

the summer sky. The white light source had a green glow about it and 

seemed to have flashing, red, white, and blue lights. The Edmond Sun ran 

a front-page story about it. Several Edmond police officers saw the 

object after the police department switchboard was flooded with calls. 

The unknown object was tracked by radar at Tinker Air Force Base, 

but an official Air Force investigation concluded only that there was an 

object—about thirty feet in diameter—but no government comment about 

the strange night’s event ever came. 

C h a p t e r 4 ✦ 5 3


STABLE GROWTH 

❖ 

Edmond Memorial High School 

was renamed in 1975 to honor six 

Edmond High alumni who were killed 

in the Vietnam War. 



Edmond’s population was 16,633 in 1970, at the dawn of a decade of explosive growth. Edmond 

had become a stellar bedroom community for Oklahoma City. The influx of people caused the city 

government to aggressively improve streets and add traffic lights and the school district to build new 

elementary and junior high schools. Enrollment progressively grew at the city’s only public high 

school, Edmond High School, which was renamed Edmond Memorial High School in 1975 to honor 

six alumni who were killed serving in the military in the Vietnam War—Floyd Frazier, Jr.; Allen 

Garrett; James Johnson; James Leonard; Danny Shores; and John Wilson. 

One of the reasons that some people were attracted to Edmond was a federal judge’s ruling that 

school children in Oklahoma City public schools must be bussed, sometimes to faraway schools, to 

achieve fair and balanced racial desegregation. Edmond schools already were considered to be above 

average academically. With the increase in the construction of new housing additions, hundreds of 

families left Oklahoma City for Edmond and its system of neighborhood schools. 

The 1970s also saw Edmond building westward and eastward, both in private home and commercial 

construction. The Purina Mills plant was built near the Santa Fe tracks on Memorial Road 

and a gigantic TG&Y warehouse was constructed nearby. On the west side, new housing additions 

were frequently announced. The Fourth of July parade, the Canterbury Arts Festival, an annual 

rodeo, the new Kicking Bird Golf Course, and expanded athletic fields drew more families to the area. 

Quality of life was important to city leaders. State Representative C. H. Spearman, Jr., was successful 

in pushing legislation that elevated Central State College to university level. Central State 

University passed the 10,000 student enrollment barrier. Neal McCaleb, Ed Livermore, and Alvin 

Alcorn led the Edmond Chamber of Commerce through a building boom that saw building permits 

surpass $3 million annually. Henderson properties unveiled plans to build a shopping center, Bryant 

Square, at Second Street and Bryant Avenue. Growth came so quickly that city planners announced 

that a ten-year plan for expansion was outdated by 1973. 

One of the major problems for city government in the 1970s was the race to keep up with 

increased traffic, due to a growing population and increased commuter traffic at CSU. Edmond 

became the fastest growing city in Oklahoma. Bond issues were passed to widen streets, add parking, 

and install traffic lights at busy intersections. The Parks and Recreation Commission was established 

to plan and build new parks for citizens. 

5 4 ✦ M I L E M A R K E R 1 0 3

An Edmond resident became the focal point 

of anti-nuclear activists when Karen Silkwood, 

who lived just north of CSU, was killed in an 

automobile accident returning home from her 

job at Kerr-McGee’s nuclear fuels facility northwest 

of Edmond. Silkwood’s death resulted in 

many years of litigation and a famous movie. 

Dr. Bill Lillard, superintendent of Oklahoma 

City Schools, became president of CSU in 1975. 

The city celebrated America’s bicentennial in 1976 

in a grand way. A pageant, “Oklahoma: USA,” 

accompanied the annual Fourth of July Parade. 

Dale Hamilton retired as CSU’s athletic director 

and the city council voted to name an expansive 

new city park after former Edmond sports star E. 

C. Hafer. The city’s two newspapers, the Edmond 

Booster and the Edmond Sun were combined by Ed 

Livermore, Jr., into a single daily newspaper, the 

Edmond Evening Sun. 

A revitalized Edmond Industrial Trust attracted 

large investments by commercial concerns. 

Fleming Foods, Magna International, and Ditch 

Witch agreed to build or enlarge their Edmond 

properties. The private home construction boom 

continued. In June 1977, more than 600 homes 

were under construction. Expensive homes were 

being built around the Oak Tree Golf Course. 

More bond issues and a city sales tax were 

approved by voters to keep up with street and 

school construction. In 1979 it was estimated that 

1,800 families and 211 new businesses set down 

their roots in Edmond. During the decade, 

Edmond’s population had more than doubled to 

more than 34,000 people. 

The economic outlook for Edmond was bright 

as the 1980s began. Private and commercial construction 

continued at high levels and ground was 

broken for the Lake Arcadia project, a dream that 

city leaders had championed for decades. 

Edmond was second in growth among Oklahoma 

cities behind Broken Arrow. Existing two-lane 

streets were widened into four-lane boulevards. A 

new post office opened on North Broadway, the 

former Mitch Park site, and a new YMCA gym was 

begun. Mayor Carl Reherman and the city council 

met frequently to keep up with demand for 

expansion of city services. School district officials 

faced state spending cuts, but somehow managed 

the budget to keep up with growing enrollment. 

Free to Live was the dream of Bill and Pat 

Larson. In 1984, the non-profit sanctuary for 

stray, mistreated, and abandoned dogs and cats 

opened on twenty acres of land north of Edmond. 

After a quarter century, more than 500 animals are 

adopted out to loving homes each year. 

In 1985, the Edmond Historic Museum and 

Edmond Historic Community Center opened in 

the renovated former National Guard armory on 

Boulevard. The first season of Oklahoma 

Shakespeare in the Park presented performanc- 

❖ 

Above: Chris Waters and Tom Currant 

construct a temporary sign for the 

Canterbury Art Festival at the 

entrance to E. C. Hafer Park at 

Ninth Street and Bryant Avenue. 



Left: Donovan W. Banzett was 

the long time editor of the Edmond 

Booster publishing his last issue on 

September 9, 1976. Banzett is 

pictured at the Edmond Armory 

Community Center in 1941 with his 

mother Hester Banzett who wrote 

a column for the Booster 

called “Randoms.” 



C h a p t e r 5 ✦ 5 5

❖ 

Yellow Ribbon Memorial. 

This memorial sculpture was 

dedicated to the fourteen victims of 

the Edmond Post Office massacre 

which occurred on August 20, 1986. 



es of Twelfth Night and A Midsummer Night’s 

Dream to more than 6,000 people. The event 

became a mainstay of Edmond with its presentation 

of theatrical productions and classes for 

students in theater, voice, and dance. 

On August 20, 1986, Edmond drew national 

attention for a tragic event. Disgruntled post office 

employee Patrick Sherrill entered the post office 

heavily armed and killed fourteen of his fellow 

workers and wounded several more. It was the 

nation’s third-largest mass murder committed by a 

single individual. Later, a large sculptural memorial 

was dedicated on the ground to remember the 

victims. Sculptor Richard Muno depicted a standing 

man and woman holding a yellow ribbon, surrounded 

by fourteen fountains, one for each victim. 

One historian noted, “No words can assess or 

mitigate the shooting’s terrible impact on the victims 

and their families. Emotional and physical 

recovery was slow, but sure.” 

On a positive note, Allison Brown was named 

Miss Teenage USA and Edmond resident Bob 

Tway won the Professional Golfers’ Association 

Championship. Oak Tree became a magnet 

community for professional golfers as more new 

homes were built around the Oak Tree Course. 

Lake Arcadia was dedicated in 1987. The lake 

became a popular attraction for boaters, fishermen, 

and picnickers. Edmond Memorial High 

School graduated its largest senior class ever, with 

770 students walking across the state. Oklahoma 

Christian Schools moved its high school to the 

MetroChurch complex on Second Street and I-35. 

The biggest event for Edmond in 1988 was 

the PGA Championship held at Oak Tree. More 

than 150,000 people attended the event to see 

legends such as Arnold Palmer and Jack 

Nicklaus play the course. Edmond was a big 

winner with positive national exposure. The old 

Edmond post office at First Street and Littler 

Avenue was given a facelift and became the new 

Edmond City Hall and Municipal Court. 

With Memorial High School’s graduating class 

ballooning to 825 in 1988, talk began to build 

another high school, although education leaders 

put the idea on the back burner for the time 

being. Edmond schools were growing at an annual 

rate of more than four percent. It was difficult 

to keep up with state standards for class size. 

Edmond residents celebrated the centennial of 

the Land Run in 1989 with many projects and 

programs. The Knights of Columbus of St. John 

the Baptist Catholic Church constructed a scale 

model of the church’s original structure. Pearl 

Cartmill, 101 years old, was honored for making 

of the Run of ’89 as a baby. At Stephenson Park, 

everyone in town was invited to an “old fashion 

social” and to help eat a 587-foot long birthday 

cake that earned its place in the Guinness Book of 

World Records. In sports, Edmond Memorial 

defeated Tulsa Washington to win the city’s first 

ever state championship in football. 

Edmond was changing as it began its second 

century. As James Crowder said, 

The demographics of the town had changed… 

as the one-time sleepy college town was now a 

fast-growing city of new brick homes, fancy cars, 

and upwardly mobile young families. 

5 6 ✦ M I L E M A R K E R 1 0 3

Streets that were once lined with small houses 

and frame buildings were now ablaze with 

tall signs of dozens of fast-food restaurants. 

Residents loved living in Edmond—it was just a 

short drive from their homes nestled in trees 

and hills to the bustling array of restaurants and 

retail establishments. 

As the change of demographics affected the 

makeup of the residents of Edmond, it also caused 

a change in politics. Since statehood, most locally 

elected state representatives and senators were 

Democrats. When Republicans began winning 

elections, the local newspaper editorialized, 

“Edmond Democrats, Whither Thou Goest?” 

In 1990, Edmond became a two-university city 

when Oklahoma Christian College became 

Oklahoma Christian University. Future President 

of the United States George W. Bush was on campus 

to witness the name change and help launch a 

$3-million fundraising campaign for the university. 

Two Edmond churches, First Presbyterian and 

First Baptist, celebrated their centennials. The local 

Baptist congregation had mothered three other 

Baptist churches in the area—Henderson Hills 

Mission in 1963, Highland Park Baptist in 1967, 

and Waterloo Baptist in 1974. All became established 

Edmond churches. 

Also in 1991, Dr. Bill Lillard hosted the centennial 

celebration of Central State University. A 

local newspaper editorial noted that CSU was a 

major reason for Edmond’s growth, employing 

1,500 people with a payroll of more than $40 

million annually. Chamber of Commerce officials 

estimated the school’s impact exceeded 

$120 million a year on the local economy. CSU 

began its second century with 14,245 students. 

The new decade brought more private schools 

to Edmond. St. Elizabeth Ann Seton School joined 

the ever-growing private school sector with 

Oklahoma Christian Schools, sponsored by 

MetroChurch; Oklahoma Christian Academy, 

supported by area Church of Christ members; and 

St. Mary’s Episcopal School, sponsored by St. 

Mary’s Episcopal Church. 

An important figure in Edmond’s history died 

in 1991. Ruby Arnold Stone was the first graduate 

of Edmond High School. When she completed 

classes in 1921, she could never have imagined 

the overflowing classrooms and buildings of 

Edmond’s public school buildings. In 1991 the 

school board appointed a forty-two-person committee 

to explore the possibility of expanding to 

three Edmond high schools. Also in 1991, the 

name of CSU was changed by the legislature to 

the University of Central Oklahoma (UCO). As a 

reward for city and civic leaders’ work to develop 

the city, Edmond was one of only nine cities in 

the state to be named a “Certified City” for maximizing 

its potential to develop and reach economic 

development goals. 

❖ 

Oak Tree National was named after 

the majestic oak tree on the fifth hole 

of the famous course. Pete Dye 

created the golf course in 1974 and it 

opened in 1976. Scott Verplank won 

Oak Tree’s first U.S. Amateur in 

1984. The course has since hosted 

the 1988 PGA Championship, 

2000 PGA Club Pro Championship, 

2006 PGA Senior Championship 

and the 2012 Trans Mississippi 

Amateur Championship. 

C h a p t e r 5 ✦ 5 7

❖ 

Right: David and Danny Edwards 

grew up playing the sport of golf, 

excelling at the game even at a young 

age. Both attended Oklahoma State 

where they were recognized as 

All-Americans. Each turned 

professional after graduation, where 

they enjoyed success, winning various 

tournaments, even claiming first 

together in a team tournament. 



Below: Bill Self wearing jersey 

number twenty-three celebrates a 

victory with the Edmond Memorial 

basketball teammates Tom Cravens 

and Jay Davis in 1981. 



5 8 ✦ M I L E M A R K E R 1 0 3

B R O N C O 

The 1992, petite Shannon Miller of Edmond 

was a household name in the world of gymnastics. 

At four-foot, seven inches, the fifteen-yearold 

won two silver and three bronze medals in 

the Summer Olympics in Barcelona, Spain. 

When she returned home, at least 10,000 cheering 

fans honored her along the route of a 

grand parade. Four years later Miller won two 

gold medals in the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta 

and many more medals in the World 

Championships and Pan American Games. 

Also in 1992, former Oklahoma Governor 

George Nigh was named president of UCO and 

undertook a massive building and landscaping 

renovation of the campus. In one year during 

Nigh’s tenure, twenty-two construction projects 

totally $52 million were begun. 

On the public school front, Edmond schools 

were fined $24,000 by the state in 1993 for violating 

mandated class size regulations. The overcrowding 

was relieved with the opening of 

Edmond North High School and Edmond Santa 

Fe High School. 

Edmond North, previously Edmond Mid- 

High at 215 West Danforth, became a four year 

high school on May 2, 1993, and became the 

Huskies. The first graduating class was in 1994, 

the same year the school began to accept freshmen. 

Notable alumni include gymnast Shannon 

Miller, pro baseball player Matt Roney, pro football 

player Kelly Gregg, wrestler Teyon Ware, 

and Kevin Tway, winner of the 2005 U.S. Junior 

Amateur Golf Championship. 

Santa Fe also opened in 1993 at 1901 

Southwest Fifteenth Street and became the 

Santa Fe Wolves. Notable alumni include pro 

football players Reggie Smith, Brandon Weeden, 

and Brandon Whitaker, and pro basketball players 

Ekpe Udoh and Obi Muonelo. 

Edmond has produced many more professional 

athletes and famous coaches. Bill Self, an 

Edmond Memorial graduate, won a national 

NCAA basketball championship as the head 

coach at the University of Kansas. Blake Griffin 

graduated from Oklahoma Christian Schools and 

was named the nation’s top men’s basketball player 

before becoming a star for the Los Angeles 

Clippers of the National Basketball Association. 

B I L L Y 

Edmond resident Billy Etbauer is one of the best saddle bronc riders in 

rodeo history. In 1992 he won the first of five world championships in saddle 

bronc riding at the National Finals Rodeo, the Super Bowl of rodeo. He 

holds the record for making to the National Finals for saddle bronc riding. 

❖ 

Shannon Miller stands third from left 

with her Women’s Olympic gymnastics 

teammates, celebrating their success 

in the 1992 Summer Olympic Games. 



C h a p t e r 5 ✦ 5 9

E D M O N D 

S A C R I F I C E S 

Twenty one residents of Edmond were killed and another twenty-nine residents 

were injured in the April 19, 1995, bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in 

downtown Oklahoma City. The bombing, the worst act of domestic terrorism in the 

nation’s history, killed 168 people. The blast could be heard in Edmond and shocked the 

entire nation. Eventually, two ex-military men, Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols, 

were convicted of the heinous crime. 

The Edmond residents who lost their lives in the bombing were Terry Rees, Larry Jones, 

Don Leonard, Ronata Woodbridge, Robert Chipman, Pat Nix, Diane Althouse, 

Paul Broxterman, Benjamin Davis, Carroll Fields, Ethel Griffin, Christi Jenkins, 

James McCarthy, Kenneth McCullough, Tony Reyes, Jules Valdez, Johnny Wade, 

David Walker, Michael Weaver, Alan Whicher, and Scott Williams. 

❖ 

Opposite: U.S. President William 

Jefferson Clinton stands inside the 

Education Building at the University 

of Central Oklahoma with UCO 

President and former Oklahoma 

Governor George Nigh in 1996. 

Pro BMX rider, Mat Hoffman, was born and raised 

in Edmond and has broken many world records 

on Edmond soil. He is recognized as one of the 

most prominent participants of his sport. 

Several stars of golf’s PGA call Edmond 

home. Among them are Bob Tway, Doug Tewell, 

Scott Verplank, David Edwards, and senior tour 

golf legend Dr. Gil Morgan. 

Children of many Edmond residents attend 

Deer Creek Public Schools, a sprawling district in 

northwestern Oklahoma County and southwestern 

Logan County. The school opened in 1921, 

named for nearby Deer Creek that runs through 

much of the district and has caused major flooding 

during spring rains. 

The presence of a cross on the traditional 

Edmond city seal drew the attention of the 

American Civil Liberties Union in the 1990s. 

After long litigation, the United States Supreme 

Court allowed a Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals 

decision that Edmond violated the First 

Amendment by endorsing a particular religion. 

The cross was removed from the seal, but leaders 

left the spot blank. 

When Edmond’s population approached 

60,000 in the mid-1990s, national chains 

began to seriously evaluate locating in the city. 

New restaurants led the list of all commercial 

development in 1995 with the construction of 

chain restaurants such as Applebees, Chili’s, 

and Denny’s. 

In 1996, President Bill Clinton visited the 

UCO campus as part of his trip to commemorate 

the first anniversary of the Murrah Building 

bombing. Clinton, a longtime friend of UCO 

President Nigh, spoke to more than 9,000 people 

gathered in front of Old North Tower. In 

1996 the city’s two universities had new leaders. 

Dr. Roger Webb was named president of UCO 

and Dr. Kevin Jacobs became the fourth president 

of Oklahoma Christian University. UCO’s 

football team ended the season as the topranked 

team in the nation in Division II. 

However, the Bronchos lost to the University of 

California at Davis in the playoffs. 

The year 1997 was a high mark for road and 

street construction for Edmond. Nearly $8 million 

in road projects were completed in the city 

limits as local drivers maneuvered around construction 

zones and detours. The State 

Department of Transportation also approved a 

$1 billion expansion of Broadway Extension 

from Memorial Road to Northeast Sixty-third 

Street in Oklahoma City. 

Also in 1997, the Edmond Chamber of 

Commerce, Visitors Center, and the Edmond 

Economic Development authority moved into a 

new $650,000 building on Second Street adjacent 

to UCO. The following year, the Edmond 

Historical Society completed the third phase of 

renovating the old National Guard armory into 

a first-class museum to preserve and tell the fascinating 

history of Edmond. A fifteen-year battle 

over the construction of a shopping center at 

Southeast Fifteenth Street and Bryant Avenue 

was resolved when city officials approved plans 

for the Spring Creek Shopping Center. 

As the end of the twentieth century 

approached, Edmond’s population exceeded 

70,000 and there were high expectations that 

the growth in private home and commercial 

construction would continue to boom. 

6 0 ✦ M I L E M A R K E R 1 0 3

C h a p t e r 5 ✦ 6 1


THE NEW CENTURY 

❖ 

The Libertyfest Parade makes its way 

through downtown Edmond in 1998. 


JIM ARGO COLLECTION, UNIVERSITY OF 

CENTRAL OKLAHOMA ARCHIVES AND 

SPECIAL COLLECTIONS. 

As the new millennium dawned, Edmond was a far different place than when it was just an insignificant 

stop on the railroad. The city had become a favorite place to live and work for a growing number 

of Oklahomans. The population of Edmond in 2000 was 68,315 with 25,256 households and 18,588 

families residing in the city. The racial makeup of the city was 86 percent Caucasian, four percent African 

American, two percent Native American, three percent Asian, and two percent Hispanic or Latino. 

The median age of Edmond residents was 34 years, while only 8.8 percent of the population was 65 

years or older. The largest age group, 29 percent, was from age 25 to 44. Demonstrating Edmond’s 

younger than average population, 27 percent of residents were the age of 18. The median income for a 

family was $85,759, far above the state average. Four percent of the families and seven percent of the 

population were below the official government poverty line. 

Not only were subdivisions and new business buildings springing up everywhere, the city’s reputation 

for its residents being among the most giving people in the state continued. An example was the community 

raising $1.2 million in to build a new facility for the HOPE Center at 1251 North Broadway. Founded 

in 1985, the Center has offered assistance to thousands of Edmond residents with food, clothing, small 

household items, and bedding and financial help with utilities, rent, and prescription medicine. Through 

a partnership with the City of Edmond, the HOPE Center uses a portion of sales tax revenue to help with 

electric bills. 

6 2 ✦ M I L E M A R K E R 1 0 3

Edmond became a three-college and university 

city in 2001 with the establishment of the Herbert 

W. Armstrong College. The college was built on 

170 acres of rolling meadows at North Bryant 

Avenue and Waterloo Road. The privately-funded 

college features dormitories, athletic fields, classroom 

buildings, and the Armstrong Auditorium, 

the largest and most elegant building on campus. 

Its theater hosts world-renowned artists who perform 

for the Armstrong International Cultural 

Foundation concert series. 

Also in 2001, Edmond citizens elected the 

city’s first woman mayor, Saundra Gragg Naifeh. 

It was a year of celebration in Edmond in 

2007. The Chamber of Commerce celebrated its 

100th anniversary in November with a formal 

dinner at Oak Tree Country Club. Former 

Governor and UCO President George Nigh was 

master of ceremonies at the event that was 

attended by twenty-two former presidents of the 

chamber. Mo Anderson, the first female president 

of the chamber in 1982, was a featured speaker. 

The entire year was filled with events to celebrate 

the hundredth birthday of the State of 

Oklahoma. The Edmond Centennial Commission 

promoted Edmond’s part in the history of 

Oklahoma by winning first place for its float in the 

LibertyFest parade on July Fourth. A Centennial 

Clock was placed at the corner of Second Street 

and Broadway. A statue created by Mary Lou 

Gresham and a centennial time capsule were 

placed in the new plaza at the Festival Market 

Place. Trees were planted as a centennial project 

along Edmond’s exits to I-35. 

LibertyFest was special in 2007. USA Today 

and CNN designated the weeklong celebration as 

one of the top ten places to be in America on the 

Fourth of July. The celebration began with a concert 

at Mitchell Hall on the UCO campus, followed 

by the Miss Edmond and Miss LibertyFest 

Scholarship pageant. Other activities included a 

Kitefest over Mitch Park, A Taste of Edmond, featuring 

booths filled with foods from various 

Edmond restaurants, and a road rally, including 

the seventh annual car show featuring cars from 

Model T’s to Edsels and Corvettes. LibertyFest 

concluded with the annual Fourth of July Parade 

which had a fireworks display and was attended 

by more than 50,000 people. 

In 2007, Edmond was named by Relocate 

America as one of America’s top Rated Smaller 

Cities and Top 100 Places to Live. The award was 

based upon quality of life, cost of living, and 

access to educational and artistic opportunities. 

The “helping others” spirit of Edmond was displayed 

in February 2009, when a rare winter tornado 

touched down in northwest Edmond. More 

than 200 structures were damaged as Mother 

Nature turned the Oak Tree Golf Course into a pile 

of trees. The twister ripped through homes in Oak 

Tree, Sorghum Mills Estates, and Coffee Creek. 

Immediately, the Red Cross set up shelters, church 

groups came with volunteers armed with chainsaws 

to help removed down trees, and businesses 

offered temporary space to commercial concerns 

that had been wiped out. Within six weeks, city 

workers had removed the debris as families began 

to repair and rebuild. 

A new era in medical care for Edmond began in 

2010 when the Edmond Medical Center became 

part of the University of Oklahoma Medical 

Center. OU Medical Center Edmond continued 

the tradition of caring for residents of Edmond, 

northern Oklahoma County, and southern Logan 

County. With its new status the hospital began an 

$18 million expansion and renovation. One of the 

highlights was the reintroduction of labor and 

delivery services to Edmond. When the expansion 

was completed, more than 300 physicians representing 

more than 50 medical specialties and nearly 

500 employees and a loyal volunteer auxiliary 

became active participants in the continued 

growth of the city and its quality of life. 

In 2011, according to the City of 

Edmond’s Comprehensive Annual Report, 

the city’s top employers were: 

Edmond Public Schools 2,598 

University of Central Oklahoma 1,224 

City of Edmond 659 

Adfitech 541 

OU Medical Center Edmond 485 

Petra Industries 311 

Remy International 277 

Integris Health Edmond 140 

Pelco Products 123 

In addition to expansion of OU Medical 

Center Edmond, Integris Health Edmond 

C h a p t e r 6 ✦ 6 3

E D M O N D 

S C H O O L S 

Public Elementary Schools 

Private Schools 

Oklahoma Christian School 

Oklahoma Christian Academy 

Providence Hall Classical Christian School 

St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Catholic School 

Holy Trinity Christian School 

Mercy School Institute 

St. Mary’s Episcopal School 

Edmond Christian Academy 

Angie Debo 

Centennial 

Charles Haskell 

Chisholm 

Clegern 

Clyde Howell 

Cross Timbers 

Deer Creek 

Ida Freeman 

John Ross 

Northern Hills 

Oakdale 

Orvis Risner 

Prairie Vale 

Rose Union 

Russell Dougherty 

Sunset 

Washington Irving 

West Field 

Will Rogers 

Public Middle Schools 

Central 

Cheyenne 

Cimarron 

Deer Creek 

Oakdale 

Sequoyah 

Summit 

Public High Schools 

Boulevard Academy 

Deer Creek 

Edmond Memorial 

Edmond North 

Edmond Santa Fe 

❖ 

Opposite: Stephenson Park, wellknown 

by children as “rocket park,” 

at East Fourth Street and South 

Littler Avenue in Edmond in 2010. 





opened a forty-bed hospital and office facility at 

I-35 and Fifteenth Street in 2011, and Mercy 

Health Systems opened a wellness and medical 

practice facility in the same area in 2013. 

In 2011, Edmond was # 1 on CNBC’s “10 

Perfect Suburb’s” list. The report cited Edmond 

Public Schools’ highest academic performance of 

all Oklahoma 6A school districts, an ACT 

District Composite score of 23.7, more than two 

points above the national average of 21.1, a cost 

of living eight percent below the national average 

and an average household income of $100,670. 

Even in a stale national economy, Edmond 

business flourished in 2012 as sales tax collections 

exceeded the previous year. City officials agreed to 

spend up to $11 million on the infrastructure for 

the construction of a hotel, conference center, and 

sports complex at I-35 and Covell Road. The idea 

E D M O N D 

P A R K S 

Bickham-Rudkin Park 

Brookhaven Park 

Centennial Park 

Chitwood Park 

Clegern Park 

Dog Park 

Hafer Park 

Fink Park 

Gossett Park 

Mitch Park 

Johnson Park 

Meadow Lakes Park 

Penick Park 

Shannon Miller Park 

Stephenson Park 

Ted Anderson Park 

Westborough Park 

Whispering Heights Park 

6 4 ✦ M I L E M A R K E R 1 0 3

C h a p t e r 6 ✦ 6 5

E D M O N D 

A T T R A C T I O N S 

ARCADIA LAKE—boating, camping, picnicking, swimming, hiking, 

and bird watching 

ARCADIAN INN—historic register house, home to one of Edmond’s first 

families, and bed and breakfast 

ARMSTRONG AUDITORIUM—a concertgoer’s dream, majestically adorned 

DOWNTOWN EDMOND—historical and eclectic shopping district 

DOWNTOWN EDMOND ARTS FESTIVAL—annual fine arts displayed with 

music, food, and children’s activities 

EDMOND HISTORICAL SOCIETY AND MUSEUM—the history of Edmond 

told for all ages 

ELEVATION TRAMPOLINE PARK—Oklahoma’s first trampoline park 

FESTIVAL MARKET PLACE AND PLAZA—herbs and produce picked fresh 

and sold every Saturday from May to October 

FINE ARTS INSTITUTE—nurturing the arts with shows, instructions, 

and special events 

6 6 ✦ M I L E M A R K E R 1 0 3

GOLF COURSES—Coffee Creek, Fairfax, Kicking Bird, Oak Tree Country 

Club, Oak Tree National, Silverhorn, and Tour 18 at Rose Creek. 

HAFER PARK—fishing, pavilion rentals, playgrounds, and trails, and home 

to Summer Concerts in the Park series 

LIBERTYFEST—one of the most-attended Fourth of July celebrations in the 

nation. It celebrated its fortieth birthday in 2012. 

MATHIS SKATE PARK—one of the state’s only skate parks for skaters, 

roller-bladers, and bikers 

MITCH PARK—133 acres of playgrounds, pavilions, picnic table, 

amphitheater, and sports fields 

OKLAHOMA STATE BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION FORENSIC SCIENCE 

CENTER—$30 million facility provides forensic science services including 

drug identification, latent prints, and crime scene investigation 

SHADID FINE ART GALLERY—art gallery located in Oklahoma Territory’s 

first boarding house 

TERRITORIAL SCHOOLHOUSE—1889 one-room schoolhouse standing 

on original schoolyard 

UCO JAZZ LAB—work-class entertainment venue styled after New Orleans 

jazz clubs 

UCO MITCHELL HALL—the UCO performing arts venue since 1926 

UCO OLD NORTH—first opened for classes in 1893, the first building 

of higher education in Oklahoma 

❖ 

Opposite, top: Quimby Enterline, 

a thirty-year volunteer at the Edmond 

Historical Society and Museum. 

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF 3 GIRLS PHOTOGRAPHY. 

Above: Construction of Old North, 1893. 


CENTRAL OKLAHOMA ARCHIVES AND SPECIAL COLLECTIONS. 

C h a p t e r 6 ✦ 6 7

P R E S E R V I N G O U R H I S T O R Y 

Edmond proudly boasts of a rich and colorful past. Sites that have been placed the National 

Register of Historic Places include: 

AMERICAN LEGION HUT—101 East Fifth Street, built in 1936 in Stephenson Park 

CITIZEN’S STATE BANK OF EDMOND—102 South Broadway, built in 1901. 

EDMOND ARMORY—431 South Boulevard, built in 1936 by the WPA as a National 

Guard armory, now home to the Edmond Historical Society and Museum 

GOWER MEMORIAL CEMETERY—on Covell between Douglas and Post, more than 

a century old, including veterans from the Spanish American War 

OLD NORTH TOWER—on the UCO campus, built in 1892 

Y-CHAPEL OF SONG—on the UCO campus, the chapel was completed in 1949 

❖ 

Construction begins on Evans Hall, just south of the Old North Tower, under in 1915. 

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CENTRAL OKLAHOMA ARCHIVES AND SPECIAL COLLECTIONS. 

was to promote economic development and 

increase sales tax collections. 

Construction began in 2012 on a new $22.5 

million Edmond Recreation and Aquatic Center. 

The competitive swimming pool and recreation 

site is being built in Mitch Park in partnership 

with Edmond Public Schools and the YMCA. 

The YMCA is contributing $6 million of the cost 

and will manage the center. The Edmond Public 

Schools is putting up $10 million and the City 

of Edmond is spending $6.5 million. 

Edmond leaders recognize the importance of 

building leaders for the future. In 2012, the 

twenty-eighth class of Leadership Edmond gave 

community leaders a deeper understanding of 

the critical issues affecting the Edmond area. The 

program also provides a continuing source of 

diverse leaders who are prepared and committed 

6 8 ✦ M I L E M A R K E R 1 0 3

to sustain positive change for the quality of life 

in the community. 

City leaders are committed to Edmond’s status 

as one of the safest cities in the nation to 

live, work, and visit. FBI violent crime statistics 

for 2010 found Edmond the eleventh safest city 

in the United States for cities above 75,000 population. 

In the past decade, although the city’s 

population increased ten percent, 

the overall crime rate dropped 4.5 percent. In 

Oklahoma, Edmond has the lowest violent 

crime rate among the state’s top ten cities. 

LibertyFest remains one of the state’s top holiday 

events. In its fortieth year in 2012, the 

multi-day event featured a kite festival, beauty 

pageant, rodeo, road rally, parade, fireworks, and 

the ever popular Taste of Edmond. 

Committed to a forward thinking approach to 

attracting and developing business in Edmond, 

the City of Edmond established the Development 

Review Committee (DRC) in 2011 to partner 

with the Edmond Economic Development 

Authority and the Edmond Chamber of 

Commerce to assist business owners, from the 

first planning to the ribbon-cutting ceremony. 

In 2011, Dr. Roger Webb retired as president 

of UCO after fourteen years at the helm of the 

university that had been transformed from 

mostly a commuter college to a beautiful, 

vibrant campus with a first-class housing program. 

Webb was replaced by Dr. Don Betz as 

UCO’s twentieth president. On UCO’s 210-acre 

campus, 116 undergraduate majors and 55 

graduate programs are offered. 

Other post high school educational opportunities 

are available at Oklahoma Christian 

University, Herbert W. Armstrong College, and 

the Francis Tuttle Technology Center. The 

Francis Tuttle Training and Business 

Development Center opened in 2012 in the 

Cross Timbers Office Park at Covell Road and I- 

35. As part of the Francis Tuttle Edmond campus 

is the Center for Municipal Excellence, a 

joint venture between the technology school 

and the City of Edmond to provide training 

services for professional municipal employees. 

The official 2010 census put Edmond’s population 

at 82,616, making it the sixth largest city 

in Oklahoma. The busiest intersection in town 

was at Thirty-third Street and Broadway, with 

Fifteenth Street and Broadway not far behind. 

The total annual income for residents of 

Edmond is estimated at more than $3.2 billion. 

More than $24 million was invested in 2011 in 

Edmond’s multi-family market and the occupancy 

rate remained strong at 94 percent. 

The high-education level of Edmond residents 

is proven by government statistics. In comparing 

cities and residents twenty-five years and older, 

47.3 percent of Edmond’s population had earned 

at least a bachelor’s degree. That is a better rate 

than Austin, Texas, Boston, Massachusetts, San 

Diego, California, Chicago, Illinois, and more than 

twice the rate in the entire State of Oklahoma. 

The Art in Public Places program, established 

in 2001, continues to place sculptures throughout 

the community in parks and along streets. 

Edmond residents have a religious choice of 57 

Protestant, two Catholic, four LDS, and one 

Unitarian Universalist church congregations, one 

Islamic mosque, and one Bahai center. 

With quality schools, expansive parks and 

recreation areas, a plethora of commercial and 

retail establishments, phenomenal 

housing additions, and numerous cultural 

opportunities, Edmond has MILE 

grown into a large city but maintains 

1 

its sense of heritage and small hometown 

characteristics. 

0 

Edmond has come a long way from 

its roots, planted squarely at Mile 

3 

Marker 103—and the future is 

brighter than ever. 

❖ 

The entrance to the nationally historic 

Gower Memorial Cemetery. John and 

Ophelia Gower gave a portion of their 

160-acre homestead to establish the 

cemetery in November 1889. 

The site is also among the last 

remaining physical evidences of one 

of the rural areas, here known as 

“Nonsey,” in Oklahoma settled 

primarily by African Americans. 

The earliest burial record is that of 

Elizabeth Miller in 1896. 





C h a p t e r 6 ✦ 6 9

BIBLIOGRAPHY 

❖ 


CITY OF EDMOND, 2010. 

Crowder, Dr. James L., Jr., Historic Edmond: An Illustrated History, Lammert Publications, Inc., 

San Antonio Texas, 2000. 

Hoig, Stanley, Edmond: the Early Years, Edmond Historic Preservation Trust, 1976. 

Hoig, Stanley, Edmond the First Century, University of Oklahoma Press, 1987. 

7 0 ✦ M I L E M A R K E R 1 0 3

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 E d m o n d 

The City of Edmond .......................................................................7 2 

In Search of the Lord’s Way ............................................................8 0 

OU Medical Center Edmond ............................................................8 4 

Angel House .................................................................................8 6 

Edmond Historical Society & Museum...............................................8 8 

Powers at Law, LLC .......................................................................9 0 

University of Central Oklahoma ......................................................9 2 

Hornbeek Blatt Architects ...............................................................9 4 

Fairfax Estate and Golf Community .................................................9 6 

Nestlé Purina Pet Care ..................................................................9 8 

Oklahoma Christian University......................................................1 0 0 

David Lee Marketing, Inc. ............................................................1 0 2 

Oklahoma Municipal Power Authority .............................................1 0 4 

AVL Systems Design .....................................................................1 0 6 

Keller Williams at the Kivlehen House ............................................1 0 8 

St. John the Baptist Catholic Church...............................................1 1 0 

INTEGRIS Health Edmond ............................................................1 1 1 

Fine Arts Institute of Edmond .......................................................1 1 2 

LifeStyles ...................................................................................1 1 3 

A Bloom Above the Rest ................................................................1 1 4 

kerr 3 design group, Inc. ..............................................................1 1 5 

Edmond Convention & Visitors Bureau ............................................1 1 6 

Oklahoma Christian Academy ........................................................1 1 7 

Sight to See Vision Associates ........................................................1 1 8 

Circle Saw Shops .........................................................................1 1 9 

Rain Guard, Inc. .........................................................................1 2 0 

Pelco Products,. Inc. ....................................................................1 2 1 

Edmond Dental Associates ............................................................1 2 2 

Diagnostic Radiology ...................................................................1 2 3 

Faith Electric, Inc. ......................................................................1 2 4 

St. Mary’s Episcopal School ...........................................................1 2 5 

Animal Medical Center I35 ...........................................................1 2 6 

S h a r i n g t h e H e r i t a g e ✦ 7 1

THE CITY 

OF EDMOND 

Edmond’s remarkable success as one of the 

country’s most sought-after communities for 

families and businesses is the outgrowth of 

more than a century of dedicated foresight, 

leadership and public support for the continued 

development of this flourishing city. Its 

history is alive and well and remains a powerful 

example of Oklahoma spirit and determination 

across the land. 

On January 5, 1892, the town committee 

met and discussed that the attorney general of 

Oklahoma Territory had rejected their town 

ordinances. The committee had then employed 

the town clerk to draft a set of ordinances to 

be submitted to the board for their approval 

after they had been approved by the attorney 

general. Most of the town meetings were held 

at Central Hall because they offered the use of 

the room for free. 

The first official records for the town of 

Edmond, Oklahoma Territory, are found in a 

legal publication that announced a Monday, 

May 2, 1892, election to choose town officers. 

The officers included town treasurer, town clerk, 

justice of the peace, town marshall and one 

trustee from each of five wards. There were 

two political parties—the “Citizen” ticket and 

the “Independent” ticket. 

Much of the early day business of the town 

board of trustees was construction of wooden 

sidewalks on Broad Street (now Broadway), 

issuance of saloon licenses, enforcing the 

regulations against the sale of liquor on Sunday 

and the prohibition of the sale of liquor to 

minors and planting of shade trees on public 

streets and grounds. 

At the time, the main source of revenue for 

the town was receipts from thirteen issued 

liquor licenses and a variety of fines. The first 

marshal of the town was fired due to failing 

to prosecute flagrant violations of the liquor 

law committed in Edmond. The total annual 

revenue for the fiscal year ending April 12, 1892 

was $1,126.37. 

In November 1899 a night watchman 

was hired at the salary of $1 per night to watch 

all trains arriving or leaving Edmond during 

the night. His duties were to stop any tramps 

or persons from the small-pox district from 

disembarking the train in Edmond and prevent 

them from entering saloons and the railroad 

depot, and to look after fires in the town. There 

were two men vying for the position and a vote 

was taken by the board of trustees to determine 

who got the job. He was also asked to enforce 

the ordinance prohibiting boys from jumping 

on moving trains within the town limits. 

In 1904, Edmond became a city and a city 

council was formed. The council authorized the 

organization of a fire company not to exceed 

twenty men and drills with no expense to the 

city except installing and paying the expenses 

for a telephone at the residence of one of the men. 

This appears to be our first “fire department.” 

Another big concern at this time was the 

sprinkling of streets, which was accomplished 

by a man, a team of horses and wagon. The 

windmill that supplied the water could produce 

750 gallons of water in twenty-four hours if it 

was in proper working order. 

In 1908 the city council authorized the sale 

of bonds to raise money to institute a system of 

waterworks and an electric light plant. This was 

the origination of “Edmond Electric.” 

Progress continued in 1911 as this is the date 

the city council minutes were first typewritten 

rather than handwritten. 

The city finally celebrated the signing of its 

official charter on March 25, 1925. On January 

13, 1926, the Edmond City Council adopted 

a resolution opposing the change in type of 

7 2 ✦ M I L E M A R K E R 1 0 3

government to “charter city.” In their opinion, 

the change from the existing form of government 

to a charter would be “expensive, unsafe, 

unsecure and dangerous and likely to involve 

the city in much litigation.” They appealed to 

the Oklahoma Supreme Court as to the validity 

of the municipal charter. The supreme court 

ruled the charter was valid, thus a new mayor 

and city council were sworn in. 

Throughout the 1920s and 1930s the city 

continued to expand its infrastructure by 

adding streets, expanding the water and sewer 

system and building concrete sidewalks. 

Numerous bond issues were approved to pay 

for adding the improvements. In 1936, the 

Kiwanis Club asked the city to furnish water 

for the swimming pool. The city agreed to 

furnish water and light in the amount of $114. 

The council also agreed to furnish electricity 

to Central State Teachers College at cost plus 

ten percent. Water was sold to the college at a 

flat rate of ten cents per thousand gallons. 

In 1941, the city purchased portions of 

several farms for future use as an airport and 

fairgrounds. One of these farms was purchased 

from Susan Reynolds, the widow of legendary 

Edmond resident Milton W. “Kicking Bird” 

Reynolds, and is the current location of the 

Kicking Bird Golf Club. 

In 1942 the city decided to prohibit playing 

dominos in any pool hall, snooker parlor or billiard 

parlor, and required the police department 

to inspect these establishments daily. They 

wanted to insure that the proprietors were not 

allowing any persons under eighteen to enter 

and that no profanity was being allowed. 

In 1943 the city adopted a procedure for 

allowing citizens to use “free water.” A questionnaire 

was developed asking the number and 

ages of family members, whether the home is 

owned or rented, whether the citizens rent out 

rooms to others and where any government 

assistance is received. Several “widow women” 

applied and were approved to use free water. 

In 1954 the city council entered into an 

agreement with several local physicians to 

purchase land to build a hospital. Voters 

approved a bond issue for the hospital and the 

hospital was built on North Bryant just north of 

Second Street. 


The city council annexed large areas of 

land into the city limits in the late 1950s and 

early 1960s. The first master plan for the 

City of Edmond was authorized in 1961 at the 

suggestion of the Oklahoma State Department 

of Commerce. Federal matching funds were 

received to assist the city in paying for the plan. 

The council also voted to seek federal funding 

to participate in an Urban Renewal Program to 

clean up “blighted” areas within the city. A big 

year for citizens, was 1965, as they also voted 

to levy a property tax to build the first library to 

serve Edmond citizens. In 1966 the council 

approved construction of the railroad underpass 

on Second Street and asked the A. T. & S. F. Railway 

to participate in the cost of construction. The city’s 

portion of the cost was funded by a general 

obligation bond approved by Edmond citizens. 

The first sales tax in Edmond was authorized 

by state law in 1965, and the city council called 

for a special election to approve a one percent 

sales tax for general operations of the city. 

During that year, the council also recognized a 

need for additional water to serve the city and 

they asked the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers 

to consider construction of a 12,500 acre feet 

reservoir for Edmond’s water supply. This was 

called the “Arcadia Reservoir.” 

In 1967 the city acquired dilapidated houses, 

buildings and lands for Central State College 

expansion though the Urban Renewal Program, 

and entered into an agreement with the college 

for development of the land. The houses and 

buildings were later razed and are now part of the 

campus of the University of Central Oklahoma. 

In 1968 the city council held a special 

meeting to discuss the problem of a large white 

shepherd dog that was running at large and to 

abate the dog as a public nuisance. Mail delivery 

had been discontinued for several days due to 

this dog biting the postman, as well as biting 

the paper boy. The dog was declared a public 

nuisance and was scheduled for abatement. 

The dog was moved to Arkansas. 

In the 1970s the city was moving ahead with 

plans to construct a municipal airport adjacent 

to I-35. The plans were abandoned in 1979 

when the city received a letter from the FAA 

rejecting the site because the location of the 

runway and the IRF activity would conflict with 

instrument approach and departure activity at 

Will Rogers World Airport in Oklahoma City. 

In 1984 the city council adopted an ordinance 

annexing the area known as “Arcadia” 

into the Edmond city limits. Residents in that 

area did not want to be annexed, and after 

the ordinance was adopted, they circulated a 

petition among Edmond citizens to de-annex 

their area. Enough signatures were obtained, 

and the issue went to a vote of Edmond citizens. 

The vote to de-annex Arcadia passed overwhelmingly. 

Edmond city limits surround this area on 

all four sides, but it remains a town of its own. 

In 1985 the city purchased its first desktop 

computer. It was used in the city clerk’s office to 

index actions of the Edmond City Council and 

to build a database for burials in Gracelawn 

Cemetery. In the same year, a 1.8 millionsquare-foot 

regional shopping center was proposed 

to be built at Thirty-third Street and I-35 

on the east side of I-35. The “Edmondton” center 

would contain mixed use development and a 

hotel/motel. Due to objections from nearby 

citizens and property owners in the Arcadia Lake 

area, the shopping center was not approved. 

7 4 ✦ M I L E M A R K E R 1 0 3

A special city council meeting was held in 

Washington, D.C., in 1987 to discuss cost 

overruns by the U.S. Corps of Engineers for 

recreational facilities at Arcadia Lake. This is 

the only official city council meeting that has 

ever been held outside the City of Edmond. The 

cost overruns were several million dollars, 

and the city had never agreed to pay them. 

A lawsuit was filed over the cost overruns and 

water storage fees at Arcadia Lake. The lawsuit 

was settled by a consent decree issued in 1992, 

and the city paid the amount agreed upon. 

However, the Corps of Engineers continued 

to charge interest on the principal amount. 

Interest continued to accrue until 2007, at 

which time the amount owed was $11 million. 

The city finally received Congressional 

forgiveness of the debt through passage of 

the Water Resources Development Act of 2007. 

Today, the City of Edmond remains “a great 

place to grow” as it is centrally located in 

the heart of Oklahoma and offers outstanding 

hotels, conveniently located attractions, championship 

golf, and nostalgic shopping areas 

featuring the unique and antique, all with the 

added pleasure of beautiful public art on almost 

every corner. 

Located on the historic Route 66, Edmond is 

just minutes from international attractions such 

as the National Cowboy and Western Heritage 

Museum, Remington Park horse racing, the 

Lazy E Arena and picturesque, historic Guthrie. 

Edmond is host to some of the most exciting 

PGA, USGA and celebrity golf events in the 

country and over 200 holes of championship 

golf are only minutes away. The city also boasts 

exceptional competitive quality soccer fields, 

competitive ice skating facilities and tennis 


court facilities with a strong history of hosting 

USTA satellite tournaments that feature players 

from around the world. 

The City of Edmond has made a conscious 

decision in developing the visual arts aspect of 

the community. The result is that treasures for 

the eye abound making Edmond a very special 

city that is well-known for its award-winning 

public art featured in many outstanding lifesize 

bronzes. 

Edmond’s parks are premier places for families 

to play and neighborhoods to interact and 

include everything from walking trails to live 

concerts under the trees, outstanding musical 

performances under the stars at the Mitch Park 

Amphitheatre and swimming at Pelican Bay 

Aquatic Center. 

Citylink, Edmond’s fare-free public transportation 

service offers several local routes, 

citywide paratransit service and twelve daily 

trips to the downtown area of Oklahoma City. 

The transfer center is conveniently located 

downtown at Edmond’s Festival Market Place. 

All buses are equipped with bicycle racks and 

wheelchair lifts and some with Wi-Fi access 

for those on-the-go riders. Citylink drivers are 

exceptionally friendly and each bus utilizes 

cleaner, alternative fuels. 

Students in the award-winning Edmond Public 

Schools score well above the state and national average 

in the ACT Composite Test averaging a composite 

score of 23.4. In addition, their overall 

Academic Performance Index is the highest 

among 6A districts statewide. Along with great 

students come distinguished teachers and 

administrators. There are 113 Edmond Public 

School educators that hold the distinction of 

being named National Board Certified Teachers 

and seven administrators have been named 

National Distinguished Administrators. The 

EPS District has produced more than thirty 

State High School Championship teams since 

2005 with its highly competitive athletics 

department. When it comes to community 

involvement, Edmond Public Schools boast 

exceptional community support with fifty-three 

consecutive bond issues being passed over a 

period of fifty-one years. 

While Edmond continues to add to its 

quality of life with new restaurants, shopping 

centers and medical establishments, Edmond’s 

cost of living remains low. The (EEDA) participates 

in the ACCRA Cost of Living Survey, 

which measures relative price levels for consumer 

goods and services in more than 300 

cities in America. ACCRA looks at six main 

categories: grocery items, housing, utilities, 

healthcare, transportation and miscellaneous 

goods. The average for all participating areas 

equals 100 percent. Edmond’s 2011 Annual 

Average was 92.5 percent, well below the 

national average. 

7 6 ✦ M I L E M A R K E R 1 0 3

Exceptional police and fire service have 

remained a hallmark of the community. Edmond 

is ranked as the eleventh safest city in the United 

States and remains first among Oklahoma’s 

ten largest cities for having the lowest violent 

crime rate, the least property crimes and the 

least for total violent and property crimes. 

The City of Edmond also provides complete 

utility services including water, sewer (wastewater), 

solid waste (trash) collection, and 

stormwater services. Its competitive utility 

services also include the community-owned 

Edmond Electric, operated by the City of Edmond. 

First approved by Edmond voters in 1908 to 

build an electric light plant to power the town’s 

water and sewer system pumps, Edmond 

Electric has remained dedicated to the growth 

and investment of the city’s infrastructure for 

more than a century. The company celebrated 

the installation of the “Great White Way”—ten 

clusters of lights on each side of Broadway 

between Second and Main Streets—in 1920. 

By 1929, the first advertisements for electric 

appliances appeared in the Edmond Sun. 

As the population of the city burgeoned, 

demand for power outgrew its plant capacity 

and the city contracted with the Oklahoma 

Railway Company to furnish additional power. 

In 1923 the city began purchasing power from 

Oklahoma Gas and Electric (OGE). 

In 1965, Edmond Electric installed the city’s 

first underground power lines in the Chowning 

Heights and College View Neighborhoods. 

As wholesale electric rates continued to rise 

in the early 1980s, Edmond Electric ended their 

contract with OGE and joined the Oklahoma 

Municipal Power Authority (OMPA), a municipal, 

joint-action agency to provide power supply, 

generation and transmission resources to support 

its municipal member cities. 


7 8 ✦ M I L E M A R K E R 1 0 3

Edmond Electric received the prestigious 

Don Howland Electric System Safety and 

Operations Award for 70,000 hours of accidentfree 

work in 1998. In 2008, 2010 and 2012, 

the company was also named one of eighty-four 

of the nation’s more than 2,000 public power 

utilities to earn Reliable Public Power Provider 

(RP3 ® ) recognition from the American Public 

Power Association. 

In 2012, Edmond Electric took delivery of a 

hybrid fuel-powered bucket truck, the first 

of its kind in the state. The dedication of the 

C. R. Burgett Substation in October added twentyfive 

megawatts of new capacity to the Edmond 

Electric system. The substation was named to 

honor former Electric Director, Charlie Burgett, 

who served Edmond Electric and the Edmond 

community for over seventeen years. 

Today, Edmond Electric continues to provide 

high quality electric service at a competitive 

price, responding to the customers’ needs 

with trustworthy service. The company has a 

longstanding commitment to environmental 

stewardship and has been recognized by the 

U.S. Department of Energy for demonstrating 

dedication to voluntary approaches to environmental 

protection. It was also the first municipal 

electric utility to offer wind power and Oklahoma’s 

first TreeLine USA Municipal Utility, which 

distributes over 800 trees through community 

events and tree replacement programs. 

Edmond Electric’s service covers 90 square 

miles and approximately 617 miles of overhead 

and 657 miles of underground electric lines, 

30,000 electric meters, 6,300 distribution 

transformers, and 8 substations. 

Because of Edmond Electric’s support, the 

community maintains a high quality of living, 

yet has one of the lowest sales tax rates in the 

state for its size. They are a proud sponsor of 

a variety of community programs benefiting 

education, events and festivals, and organizations 

including the Edmond Public Schools 

Foundation, the University of Central Oklahoma, 

LibertyFest, Edmond Arbor Day Festivities, 

Arcadia Lake’s StoryBook Forest, Summerstock 

Theater, Senior PGA 2006, Senior USGA 2014, 

Edmond Centennial Commission, Edmond Arts 

Council, Edmond Area Chamber of Commerce, 

Edmond Downtown Business Association, and 

the Hope Center. 

For more information about upcoming 

events across the community, visit the City of 

Edmond at www.edmondok.com. 


IN SEARCH 

OF THE 

LORD’S WAY 

❖ 

Mack Lyon. 

In the summer of 1979 TV-Guide published 

an article to the effect that fifty percent of people 

then living in America receive their religious 

teaching from television, while only ten percent 

receive theirs by attending Sunday School and 

or worship on Sunday. 

On Thursday of each week The Wewoka Daily 

Times reported church attendance for all 

churches on the previous Sunday. Mack Lyon 

was the preacher at the Wewoka Church of 

Christ. When Thursday’s paper came, sure 

enough, the total reported church attendance 

was about ten percent of the population of 

the town—and its environs. While the church 

of Christ had the largest attendance of any 

church in town, it had less than one percent. 

Mack could not live with that! He had 

friends in and around Wewoka who must 

not be receiving any religious teaching. He 

would try. He envisioned a local television 

program that would reach and teach that 

estimated fifty percent every week. With no 

promise of financial support, he bought air-time 

(10:30 a.m. Sundays) on the nearest TV station, 

KTEN-TV, Channel 10 in Ada, Oklahoma. 

Mack went back to Wewoka and asked 

for a meeting of the leadership of the church 

(eight men) to tell them what he had done and 

to ask for their financial support. He had signed 

a contract for fifty-two television programs that 

would cost a minimum of $600 per week— 

including the production costs. The church, 

which was a generous church, consisted of 

many elderly people. They must increase their 

offerings that amount every week. Fifty-two 

weeks of that would be $31,200. 

Mack’s plan was “not” to spend precious television 

time fleecing the audiences for money, 

which was so common in religious programming 

in those days. He strongly believed 

churches of Christ should—and would finance 

their God-given mission to preach the gospel to 

every creature. To his surprise enthusiasm was 

high, much higher than he expected. 

That was the beginning of what God had 

planned: a worldwide television and radio 

program teaching His message of love, faith, 

hope and salvation in Christ. It was the beginning 

of the In Search of the Lord’s Way television 

program the first Sunday in September in 1980. 

Multitudes of people were asking for printed 

copies and audio tapes of the lessons, which 

were expected, but it increased the cost. Then 

something unexpected happened: people who 

were visiting in the viewing area of the station 

saw the program and asked if they might have 

it on their station in other cities in Oklahoma, 

Kansas, Missouri, Texas, Louisiana and elsewhere. 

It became necessary to move Search to a 

larger church for a larger staff, more oversight 

and finances. 

In 1980 with the encouragement of Richard 

Jones, preacher at the Edmond Church of 

Christ that now worships at the corner of Ninth 

Street and Bryant Avenue in Edmond, Edmond 

was chosen. 

Office space was rented at the Broadway 

Office Building in Edmond. As the program 

kept on growing, necessity demanded more 

work and office space, so the move was made 

to Boulevard Office Park. Later, a Christian 

brother gave a gift (anonymously), which 

was used to build the present home of the 

program at 1321 East Ninth Street in Edmond. 

It houses the production facilities, the studio 

and office space. 

8 0 ✦ M I L E M A R K E R 1 0 3

Sam Clark, who was production manager 

for Channel 25 in Oklahoma City, resigned his 

position there to become producer and agent 

for Search. He was one of the first to recognize 

the possibilities and the need for such a 

program. As production manager, he puts the 

quality in the program. Without his vision 

and skill, the program might never have been 

what is today. He is a “God sent person.” 

Don Reneau (now deceased), was another 

“God sent” person who saw the need and 

potential for the program. He burst into the 

office one morning saying excitedly, “I have 

resigned my position with my company and am 

going to work for Search.” He worked west of the 

Mississippi River informing churches about Search. 

Jim Rains of Chattanooga, Tennessee was 

another “God-sent” man who devoted his life to 

working day and night, without pay, spreading 

the news about the Search program east of the 

Mississippi River. There have been others who 

deserve mention as helpers, but space does not 

permit it. 

The program kept on growing! It began to be 

used by missionaries abroad; in Mexico, Belize, 

India, South Korea, Africa and other nations. 

One day the “Minister (Secretary) of Religion” 

called from Moscow, Russia saying one of the 

Soviet “agents” in America had seen the program 

and thought it was suitable for broadcast on 

their national network. Would we come to 

Moscow at their expense to talk about it? 

Frank Harbin went as legal adviser, Sam went 

as technical advisor and agent, and nobody 

knows what kind of advisor he was, but Mack 

went along, too. They agreed to begin the first 

Sunday in January 1989. However, the Soviet 

Union collapsed before the end of 1989 and 

the plans never materialized. The trip was not in 

vain, though, because an agreement was reached 

to begin on nationwide television in the Ukraine. 

With every passing week, the Search program 

continues to grow! When it became necessary in 

2010, after thirty years as the teacher on the 

program, Mack had to retire, with God’s goodness 

and help, Phil Sanders was chosen to carry 

that load. How many religious programs can 

you remember that survived that change? The 

In Search of the Lord’s Way program is one of 

growth because “It is the Lord’s doing and it is 

marvelous in our eyes.” 

In Search of the Lord’s Way currently appears 

in all 210 television markets in America and 

often by more than one means. Search appears 

on nearly 200 multicounty broadcast stations 

like KSBI in 170 television markets. Search also 

appears on 150 local cable systems in various 

cities and 50 radio stations. The Search television 

ministry is the largest media outreach in 

the nation among Churches of Christ. 

In addition, Search appears nationwide at 7:30 

EST each Sunday morning on the Inspiration 

Network and can be viewed on dish and cable 

systems. The Inspiration Network (INSP) is a 

twenty-four hour a day network available to 

65 million U.S. households via cable and satellite 

television. The network targets the millions of 

Americans who embrace inspirational values. 

In Search of the Lord’s Way offers its materials 

free to all who request their booklets or audio 

CDs. Because Search is a nonprofit ministry, it 

relies on more than forty volunteers to help mail 

thousands of requests for information each 

week. Viewers can also access their materials 

in written, audio, or video formats over the 

internet at www.searchtv.org. Beginning in 

2011 Search began offering free study sheets 

to go along with their programs. Viewers can 

download the study sheets from the internet 

prior to the program and use them to follow 

along with the study. 

While some think of Search as a nationwide 

ministry, the Search program has also appeared 

on television in fifteen other countries: Canada, 

Iceland, South Korea, Philippines, Guam, Guyana, 

❖ 

Phil Sanders. 


❖ 

Mack and Phil Sanders in the studio 

in Edmond. 

Bahamas, Virgin Islands, Trinidad, Jamaica, Puerto 

Rico, Dominica, St. Lucia, St. Kitts, and Nevis, 

American Samoa, and Micronesia. Through Pacific 

Broadcast Radio, Search airs four times per day 

to thirty countries in the South Pacific. 

The Search website, www.searchtv.org, provides 

more than two years of downloadable 

programming free to the world. Each Search 

program includes recordings of congregational 

singing by the Edmond Church of Christ. 

The Search website contains nearly 200 

downloadable hymns used in the programming. 

Other resources include an Evangelism 

Handbook of New Testament Christianity 

and Upon the Rock Bible Studies. The Search 

website hosts more than one thousnad unique 

visitors each day. Search has appeared on 

the internet and on dish by means of the 

Gospel Broadcasting Network (GBN), since its 

beginning nearly a decade ago. Search appears 

five times a week over the Internet and by 

Roku connections. 

8 2 ✦ M I L E M A R K E R 1 0 3

People across the world are acquainted with the 

Search website. Reports come from many countries 

of viewers watching the Search program via the 

Internet. Records show that more than ninety 

countries access the Search website each month. 

Churches in India, for instance, download the 

video each week and show them to thousands. 

Visitors from England and Canada stay an average 

of fifty-two minutes on the website. By phone, 

mail, and the Internet Search makes nearly thirty 

thousand personal contacts each month. 

Though Search is a nationwide ministry, it has 

always focused back on the local congregation. 

Search provides an opportunity to more than five 

hundred local churches to advertize their worship 

services over broadcast television and cable systems. 

Some smaller churches in mission areas of 

America depend on Search to provide the sermon 

for their worship services. 

Search produces a free, monthly newsletter, 

The Search Light, which goes nationwide to more 

than sixty thousand supporters, providing news 

and information about the Search ministry. Search 

has also offered a Bible Correspondence Course to 

thousands of students nationwide. 

Search presents a Biblical message without 

compromise and yet in a kind and humble way. 

They have not commercialized their faith or 

sensationalized their message; and they have 

no plan to do so in the future. They plan to 

continue speaking the simple truth in love and 

humility for many years to come. 

Search remains dedicated to its five-fold purpose 

in ministry: to take the Way of salvation 

to thousands who live right among us—those 

whom we have yet to persuade to worship or 

study with us; to light a candle in the darkness 

of immorality that is gaining acceptability and 

respectability in our society; to resist the 

materialism and humanism that is choking the 

faith and spirituality out of so many people; to 

restore credibility to the religion of Christ that 

has been diminished in the commercialism and 

sensationalism of many religious television 

programs; to tell your friends that the church of 

Christ is not dead, but that it is very much alive 

and that we care. 

In Search of the Lord’s Way is located in 

Edmond at 1321 East Ninth Street and online 

at www.searchtv.org. 

❖ 

The offices of In Search of the Lord’s 

Way, 2012. The ministry employees 

six full-time and four part-time 

employees, and 1,100 churches of 

Christ across the United States are 

regular supporters. 


OU MEDICAL 

CENTER EDMOND 

OU Medical Center was originally founded 

as Edmond Hospital in February 1947 by 

N. F. Wynn, M.D., D. H. Fleetwood, M.D., 

funeral home owner M. O. Baggerly, pharmacist 

C. F. Kirkland, and businessman R. R. McCoy. 

The twenty-two-bed hospital received strong 

community support with donations of necessary 

items such as sheets, towels, and pots and pans. 

The hospital was originally located above the 

Broncho Theater in downtown Edmond. Many 

longtime Edmond residents have memories of 

visiting the hospital above the movie theater 

and remember the smell of popcorn drifting 

upstairs from the theater below. 

Around 1963, Edmond voters approved 

$400,000 in municipal bonds to buy land 

and construct a city-owned hospital. The new 

Edmond Memorial Hospital was comprised of 

35 beds on two floors built on 12.5 acres, and 

opened July 1, 1964. In January 1981, Hospital 

Corporation of America (HCA), one of the 

world’s largest healthcare providers, purchased 

Edmond Memorial Hospital from the City of 

Edmond for $7.3 million. With the resources 

provided by HCA, the hospital was able to 

expand its services in surgery, intensive care, 

diagnostics, emergency medicine, wound care, 

and geriatric behavioral health. Several name 

changes incurred over the years, including 

Edmond Memorial Medical Center, Edmond 

Regional Medical Center, and Edmond Medical 

Center. The proceeds from the sale established 

the Edmond Hospital Trust, which voters 

recently approved to use in building a new 

Public Safety Center for the City of Edmond. 

Today, the hospital is known as OU Medical 

Center Edmond. In 2010, the facility became 

a part of the OU Medicine family. By joining 

the state’s largest hospital area, residents 

have expanded access to world class medical 

research, technology, and cutting-edge treatment. 

Recently the hospital underwent an $18 

million renovation and technology investment 

to ensure that Edmond residents would have 

the most comprehensive services available. 

Major highlights include interior and exterior 

remodeling; the purchase of daVinci Si HD 

Surgical Systems; GE Optima MRI; Selenia 

Digital Mammography with 3D capability; 

Upgraded Emergency Department; New 

Surgical Rehab Unit; and My BirthCenter, 

which opened in September 2011. 

As a part of HCA Healthcare, headquartered 

out of Nashville, Tennessee, each of the 168 

hospitals in the system conduct the daily operations 

and strategic plans in the cities and towns 

in which they are located. Each facility has its 

own CEO, COO, CFO and CNO (Chief Nursing 

Officer). Now that the hospital is part of the 

8 4 ✦ M I L E M A R K E R 1 0 3

OU Medical System, the hospital works closely 

with their counterparts at the downtown location 

to ensure the continuum of patient care. 

Currently, OU Medical Center Edmond has 

500 employees with over $17.8 million in 

contributions to the City of Edmond in 2011 in 

the form of revenue, taxes, payroll, charity care, 

and philanthropic contributions. The medical 

center serves citizens throughout Edmond 

and the surrounding counties, and welcomes 

patients from as far away as Enid, Idabel and 

western Oklahoma. 

The hospital is also involved in many 

community and charitable activities including 

the following: Edmond Chamber of Commerce; 

Edmond Public Schools; Edmond YMCA; 

Fine Arts Institute of Edmond; Edmond 

Women’s Club; United Way of 

Central Oklahoma; American Heart 

Association; Edmond Parks and 

Recreation; Edmond Historical 

Society; American Cancer Society; 

Downtown Edmond Arts Festival; 

Oklahoma Hospital Association; 

University of Central Oklahoma 

and Oklahoma Christian University 

Nursing programs; Oklahoma City 

Memorial Marathon; and Central 

Oklahoma Alzheimer’s Association. 

The hospital also supports many 

other local charities, associations, 

and events. 

Future plans for the hospital 

include providing the best patient 

care and experience possible in the 

OKC metro area. Being a part of the OU Medical 

System allows the hospital to give patients the 

best of both a community hospital with support 

from a world class academic medical center. The 

hospital has recently renovated the interior of 

the facility and created a new helipad designed 

for today’s helicopter emergency services. The 

hospital, whose mission statement reads, 

“Above all else, we are caring people. We commit 

our resources to the healing art of healthcare 

delivered with integrity, accomplished through 

teamwork, and performed with passion,” is 

planning additional expansions and building 

projects over the next five to ten years to accommodate 

the growing needs of Edmond families. 

Additional information is available on the 

Internet at www.oumedicine.com. 


ANGEL HOUSE 

Among the city’s most recognized and 

ethereal landmarks, the Angel House, with its 

brilliant white clapboard exterior, welcoming 

wraparound porch and whimsical, turreted 

roof, has remained a historic presence in 

Edmond for more than a century. 

Established at 203 East Main near Boulevard 

and Second Street by a Mrs. Haney in 1902, 

the home’s first owner and resident was Iowa 

native and livestock businessman Fred Patten. 

The home was unique and exquisite in style 

and design, including an indoor bathroom 

and closets throughout the quarters. Mr. and 

Mrs. Patten lived in the home until 1906 when 

it was purchased by the home’s enduring 

namesake John and Maude Anglea—a name 

pronounced by Edmond residents as “Angel.” 

The family made their mark upon the community 

and John served as a banker at First 

National Bank while Maude ran a successful 

tailoring school. The couple’s son, Hill, a patent 

attorney, later lived in the home with his 

wife Daisy, who was an artist and gave art and 

piano lessons in the garden room, until it fell 

into disrepair in 1971. 

It was at this time that attorney Jim Little and 

his wife Joyce purchased the home and began to 

refurbish the venerable residence. The summer 

kitchen in the back of the house was torn down 

and the old bathroom renovated into a new 

kitchen with cabinets made from walnut trees 

harvested on the Little’s family farm. A garage and 

swimming pool were also added to the home. 

In 1981, Joe and Connie Dixon purchased the 

home and, with the assistance of Little and the 

City of Edmond, converted it for commercial 

use. The Dixon’s used the home for the Edmond 

branch of their company, the Oklahoma City 

Abstract and Title Company. 

In early 1995, Catherine Butler Pendley and 

her husband Dave purchased the Angel House for 

Catherine’s growing art business. The home was 

soon refurbished to include an art gallery, work 

room, and a gift shop. The couple also added the 

home’s beautiful French gothic picket fence, 

English garden, two ponds and an herb garden. 

8 6 ✦ M I L E M A R K E R 1 0 3

The home marked something of a unique collaboration 

among its new owners. Catherine, a 

gifted and well-known watercolorist and printmaker 

who graduated from Marion College in 

Indianapolis, was a favorite protégé of American 

watercolorist Floyd Hopper. She is also recognized 

for her prints of architectural subjects and 

her inspirational angels and her works are 

owned by such celebrities as Walter Cronkite, 

Sammy Davis, Jr., Ed McMahon, Chuck Norris, 

Ginger Rogers, and Betty White, and political 

luminaries including U.S. Presidents George H. 

W. Bush and Bill Clinton, and Oklahoma 

Governors David Walters and Frank Keating. 

Throughout the Pendley’s first decade of 

ownership, the Angel House soon became 

characterized by its Angel paintings, prints and 

gifts. The site was twice featured in Southern 

Living magazine, The Daily Oklahoman, the 

Edmond Sun, and other local and regional 

newspapers. In 1996 the Angel House was 

awarded the Edmond Preservation Award from 

the Edmond Historical Society. 

By 2005 the demand for Catherine’s original 

prints and watercolors from more than 700 

galleries that carried her work internationally 

made it impossible to continue the retail gallery 

and gift shop. At the same time, Dave’s newest 

business, American Business Finance, was 

growing and needed a larger space so the Angel 

House was remodeled into office space to 

accommodate the company, a private provider 

of working capital loans to entrepreneurial 

businesses in the United States that find their 

rapid sales growth causing them to be unable to 

obtain a traditional bank loan. 

Dave has been providing commercial business 

loans since 1965, having founded two other 

asset-based loan companies, the First Asset-Based 

Lending Group and First Capital Corporation, 

after working for sixteen years for GE Capital. 

After selling his interest in his second start up, 

First Capital, in 2003, he founded American 

Business Finance to service small commercial 

companies that sell their products and services, 

to other businesses and had been underserviced 

by commercial banks and private lenders. 

Dave, a graduate of Washington University in 

St. Louis, Missouri, and the Stonier Graduate 

School of Banking, is the former chairman of the 

Commercial Finance Association (CFA), as well 

as co-founder of the CFA/Wharton Institute of 

Secured Lending, and the CFA Educational 

Foundation. A few of the many fast growing 

companies that Dave provided working 

capital loans to included Dell Computers, 

Express Personnel, Snyder General Corporation, 

Aaron Rents, Southwest Factories, CMI, Farah 

Manufacturing, and the Telxon Corporation. 

❖ 

Above: Dave and Catherine Pendley. 


EDMOND 

HISTORICAL 

SOCIETY & 

MUSEUM 

Step through the front door of the Edmond 

Historical Society & Museum and you immediately 

enter the community’s rich history. 

The land that later would eventually house 

the Edmond Historical Society & Museum links 

to a time when the open prairies of the area 

were being mapped by the railroad. In January 

1886, a party of fifteen surveyors under civil 

engineer J. D. Wirt noted the area had a “good 

spring” between mile markers 102 and 103 

out of Arkansas City. This spring site was located 

at approximately Fourth and Littler Streets, 

the northwest corner of Stephenson Park, now 

the location of the historical Museum. 

Edmond’s first resident, Eddy B. Townsend 

staked his claim in the northwest quarter of 

Section 35, Township 14 North, Range 3 West, 

which included the section of land on which 

the museum now stands. 

The museum is housed in the 

historic, former Edmond Armory 

built of red, rich, native sandstone 

as a project of the W.P.A. The 

Edmond Armory, completed in 

1936, became the headquarters for 

the 179th Infantry regiment of the 

45th division of the National Guard 

until 1972. The 45th Infantry 

Division mobilized in the Edmond 

Armory for World War II on 

September 16, 1940. That Division 

served in North Africa, Sicily, 

Italy, France and Central Europe. 

In 1950 it was called to serve in 

Korea. The National Guard built 

a new facility on Bryant and the 

Armory was turned back for city use in 1972. 

Old-time Edmond residents recall that on 

some weekends, the Guard would put up heavy 

wooden barricades around the perimeter of 

the Armory’s drill hall and allowed Edmond 

residents to rent skates. 

The Armory building was briefly put up for 

sale in 1972, but the offer was withdrawn 

when Edmond officials revealed they had a 

letter dated and signed in 1935 from then state 

Adjutant General Charles F. Barrett stating that 

the armory would be returned to the City of 

Edmond if the guard ceased to use it. 

8 8 ✦ M I L E M A R K E R 1 0 3

In 1983 the city leased the building to 

the Edmond Historic Preservation Trust with the 

support of the city council for renovation. 

The renovation was completed in time for 

the observance of the 1989 Edmond Oklahoma 

Centennial festivities. By 1983 the Trust had 

converted the Armory into the “Edmond Historic 

Community Center.” The center’s purpose was to 

serve the community by offering a venue for civic 

meetings, family reunions and birthday parties. 

Long-term tenants of the building included many 

community groups over the years such as the 

Edmond All Sports Association, City of Edmond 

Parks and Recreation Offices, the original 

Edmond Historical Museum, the Edmond Arts 

and Humanities Council, contemporary dance 

groups, and Oklahoma Shakespeare in the Park. 

The Edmond Historical Museum first occupied 

the single room which today houses the 

Research Library and Genealogy Center. As the 

City of Edmond grew and new buildings 

were renovated and constructed for their use, 

the Museum eventually was granted use of the 

entire building. The large vaulted drill room, 

originally designed for artillery training has 

evolved to become the Main Gallery of the 

Museum, rich with exhibits that tell the 

history of Edmond. What were originally 

barracks, offices and storage areas now 

comprise the museum’s administrative offices 

and research libraries. Storage areas that 

once held artillery, now are the vaults for the 

collection of historic artifacts that tell the story 

of the history of Edmond. 

The museum has been in operation since 

1983 and recognized on the National Register of 

Historic Places since 1991. The museum’s Main 

Gallery features permanent collection exhibits. 

Experience the lives of early pioneers and 

observe the history that changed Edmond from 

a one-horse town to a bustling metropolis. 

The Children’s Learning Center located off the 

Main Gallery is a perfect hands-on learning area 

inspired by early Edmond. Children’s imaginations 

come alive in the miniature 1889 town. Children 

can sell flour in the general store, wear a badge 

in the sheriff’s office, live inside a teepee, find 

out what is in the cupboards in a prairie house, 

be the conductor at the train station, count the 

money in the bank vault, plant a vegetable garden, 

and “touch & learn” about Oklahoma animals. 

The museum features many seasonal, temporary 

and traveling exhibits. Rotating calendar 

of events and information about educational 

programs and tours can be found at the 

museum website www.edmondhistory.org. The 

welcome center and gift shop feature a 

wide variety of old fashioned toys, Route 66 

memorabilia, books written by regional authors, 

postcards, historic photos and much more. 

The 1889 Territorial Schoolhouse is the center 

of the museum’s educational programming, 

located on the corner of Second and Boulevard 

in Edmond, Oklahoma. The schoolhouse is 

open to the public the first two Saturdays of 

each month from 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. and by 

appointment. The Edmond Historical Research 

Library and Genealogy Center is also located 

within the historic Armory. 


POWERS AT LAW, 

LLC 

❖ 

Above: G. Kay and Don at the 

Americans for Prosperity annual 

meeting in Washington, D.C. 

Below: G. Kay pointing to her 

name among the one hundred most 

influential women in Edmond over the 

last one hundred years. 

Powers at Law, organized in September 2000 

by Don M. Powers and G. Kay Powers, a husband 

and wife team, was selected as the 2009 

Small Business of the Year by the Edmond Area 

Chamber of Commerce and Bank of Oklahoma. 

The firm is a limited liability company and 

both attorneys are licensed to practice in every 

Oklahoma State and Federal Court, the Federal 

Court of Appeals (10th Circuit), and the 

Supreme Court of the United States. They are 

also certified to provide mediation services. 

Prior to establishing the law firm, both Don 

and G. Kay were successful in other careers. Don 

was the director of safety and environmental 

management at the University of Central 

Oklahoma (UCO) in Edmond, while G. Kay, a 

Ph.D. Mathematician, was dean of the College 

of Mathematics and Science at UCO. Prior to 

attending law school, Don served as airport 

director in Tulsa and director of facilities, capital 

improvements, and transportation for the Kansas 

City, Missouri, Independent School District. 

In 2007, Don joined G. Kay full-time at the 

law firm and expanded their scope of practice. 

His expertise in drafting, negotiating and 

executing contracts brought in new business 

clients. Don and G. Kay were assisted by other 

local experienced attorneys who often coached 

the husband-wife team in the practice of law. 

G. Kay’s brother-in-law, John N. Goodman, 

a premier attorney in Oklahoma City, has 

been and continues to be a valuable source of 

knowledge and encouragement. They happily 

include these attorneys in their success. 

Don and G. Kay credit their firm’s success to 

God, who guided the development of their 

professional reputation and produced referrals 

from clients and others. They believe what sets 

them apart is described in the firm’s motto: “The 

Power of Two Working for You.” The motto also 

exemplifies two old adages: “Two heads are 

better than one,” and “Two for the price of one.” 

As Powers at Law matured and developed 

into a leading boutique law firm in Edmond, 

the attorneys strengthened their individual areas 

of expertise: Business Law and Governmental 

Issues, for Don, and Family Law, Estate 

Planning, and Probate, for G. Kay. Oklahoma 

Super Lawyers named Don among the “2010 

Oklahoma Rising Stars” in the Business/ 

Corporate Area of Practice, and The Journal 

Record recognized G. Kay with a 2007 

“Leadership in Law Award.” 

Don and G. Kay Powers are also active in the 

community as members of the Edmond Area 

Chamber of Commerce, Edmond Rotary Club, 

and Community Emergency Response Team, 

which is prepared to assist the community in 

an emergency. Don helped form the Oklahoma 

9 0 ✦ M I L E M A R K E R 1 0 3

Airport Operators Association and the 

Oklahoma Campus Safety Association. He 

served as a member of Edmond’s Emergency 

Management Planning Group, chairman of the 

Oklahoma Workers’ Safety Policy Council, and 

led the UCO Disaster Resistant University 

Project. Don, an Air Force veteran and a patriot, 

teaches principles of the U.S. Constitution to 

the public and writes a weekly newspaper 

column, “…perfect Union…,” in Edmond Life 

and & Leisure. In 2012, he was recognized for 

this work by the Freedoms Foundation at 

Valley Forge. His blog is “perfectunionusa.com.” 

Don is a graduate of Leadership Tulsa, and 

G. Kay is a graduate of Leadership Edmond 

and Leadership Oklahoma. 

G. Kay served the City of Edmond on 

numerous committees, including the charter 

review committee and the capital improvement 

projects committee. As part of Oklahoma’s 

Centennial Celebration in 2007, the Edmond 

Women’s Club selected G. Kay as “One of the 

Women Who’ve Made a Difference in Edmond 

in 100 Years.” She was a member of the 

Oklahoma Commission on the Status of 

Women Advisory Council for several years 

and served for five years as a district judge 

for the Sac and Fox Nation. She also volunteers 

for Oklahoma Lawyers for Children by representing 

deprived children in juvenile court. 

Powers at Law anticipates future growth, 

and increasing demand is expected in the 

development of enhanced legal packages and 

services that will reduce clients’ overall legal 

fees. Its goal is to provide legal and mediation 

services to individuals, families, and small 

businesses and to do so with the least possible 

disruption to clients’ personal or professional 

lives or business operations. 

The firm is located at www.powersatlaw.com 

and in Edmond at 1420 Bond Street. 

❖ 

Above: Don teaching a constitutional 

class at H&H Gun Range in 

Oklahoma City. 

Below: The Powers accept the Small 

Business of the Year Award for 2009. 


UNIVERSITY OF CENTRAL OKLAHOMA 

There are few institutions in our state that 

can be so closely tied to the birth of our 

state than the University of Central Oklahoma. 

When Oklahoma’s centennial birthday was 

celebrated in 2007, the state’s Centennial 

Commission endorsed the history of the school, 

Building Traditions, Educating Generations: A History 

of the University of Central Oklahoma, for good 

reason. The authors wrote, “UCO’s vibrant past 

is inherently connected to the establishment of 

Oklahoma Territory, the uniting of Oklahoma 

Territory and Indian Territory at statehood in 

1907, and the legacy and important place 

Central holds in the history of higher education 

in Oklahoma and the nation.” Today it remains 

the oldest institution of higher learning as 

the first to conduct classes in Oklahoma and 

dates back to December 24, 1890, when the 

Territorial Legislature voted to establish the 

Territorial Normal School in Edmond. 

The Territorial Legislature located the new 

school in Edmond and Oklahoma County 

donated $5,000 in bonds while Edmond 

donated forty acres within one mile of the town 

and $2,000 in bonds. It was agreed that ten 

acres would be set aside for the new school 

and the remaining land divided into lots and 

sold to raise money for the building of the 

fledgling campus. 

9 2 ✦ M I L E M A R K E R 1 0 3

The inaugural class of twenty-three students 

met for the first time on November 9, 1891, at 

Edmond’s First Methodist Church at the 

southwest corner of Broadway and Hurd. 

Construction of Old North began in the 

summer of 1892 and classes met in the 

striking edifice for the first time on January 3, 

1893. It operated as a normal school with 

two years of college work and a complete 

preparatory school under the leadership of 

the school’s first president and instructor, 

Richard Thatcher (1891-1893). The school 

celebrated its first graduating class of two men 

and three women in 1897. 

In January 1904, Territorial Normal became 

Central State Normal School and fourteen 

students received their diplomas at commencement 

ceremonies that spring. Their class 

motto—“If we rest, we rust.” By 1908 the 

school enrolled more 

than 1,000 students from 

25 Oklahoma counties 

and 14 states. 

On December 29, 

1919, the State Board of 

Education passed a resolution 

making Central a 

four-year teachers’ college 

conferring bachelor’s 

degrees. It was renamed 

the Central State Teachers 

College. Two years later, 

nine graduates received 

the school’s first four-year 

degrees. In 1939 the state legislature passed a 

law renaming the institution and the new 

Central State College was authorized to grant 

degrees without teaching certificates. The name 

remained until April 13, 1971, when the state 

legislature officially changed the institution’s 

name to Central State University. Nearly twenty 

years later on May 18, 1990 during the university’s 

Centennial Year, legislation was passed 

changing the name to the University of Central 

Oklahoma (UCO). 

After more than a century, what began as 

the Territorial Normal School with just 

twenty-three students on the frontier in 1891 

has flourished into a metropolitan, four-year 

university with 116 undergraduate majors and 

58 graduate programs and an enrollment of 

more than 17,000 on a 210-acre campus. 

Notable academic programs include forensic science, 

music theatre, mass communications, 

accounting, graphic design, the region’s only 

accredited professional golf management 

program, jazz studies, and the Academy of 

Contemporary Music at UCO, located in downtown 

Oklahoma City’s Bricktown District. 

Central is also the nation’s only university 

named an official U.S. Olympic and Paralympic 

Training Site, and hosted the 2010 World 

Sitting Volleyball Championships on campus. 

UCO remains a top producer of Fulbright 

scholars in the United States and is the top 

public regional university in the state according 

to the list of 2013 Best Colleges by U.S. News & 

World Report. The school is ranked seventy-two 

on the list of Tier One institutions in the 

“Regional Universities: West” category. 

Of the university’s stellar, historic example of 

placing student learning and achievement above 

all, UCO’s twentieth President Dr. Don Betz 

writes, “The University of Central Oklahoma 

is creating a pathway to relevance and 

distinction that distinguishes us among our 

peers. At a time of momentous challenge 

and profound change, Central has committed 

itself to creating and sustaining a culture of 

learning, leading and serving. As Oklahoma’s 

metropolitan university, we are able to respond 

with clarity and vision with the understanding 

that education can change lives, our communities 

and our state. We move forward poised to 

extend the partnership with our community 

to create opportunities that advance our 

great state.” 

❖ 

Opposite, top: Construction begins 

on Evans Hall, just south of the 

Old North Tower, in 1915. 




Opposite, bottom: The construction of 

one of Edmond’s most well-known 

landmarks, Old North, began in 

1892. An announcement in the July 

13, 1893 issue of the Edmond Sun 

stated that “an imposing tower and 

extended wings were to be added.” 

The building, originally known as the 

Normal School Building and later 

North Building, was built through the 

contributions of money and time 

provided by the citizens of Edmond 

and was completed in 1897. 

The Oklahoma Historical Society 

dedicated Old North as a historical 

site in 1973 and it remains one of the 

largest existing native sandstone 

buildings in Oklahoma. 




Above: The Nigh University Center 

and Broncho Lake, 2012. 





HORNBEEK BLATT 

ARCHITECTS 

❖ 

Above: The Citizens Bank of Edmond. 

Below: Café Evoke in Edmond. 

There is a profound respect for Edmond 

history that infuses the lives and work of those 

at Hornbeek Blatt Architects (HB). Hornbeek 

Blatt couples innovative design within the 

contextual fabric of Edmond, and with this 

landscape continues to be renewed and 

revitalized for a twenty-first century world. 

In business since 1999, Hornbeek Blatt is 

proud of their efforts to honor the historic fabric 

and to be included as a part of the heritage 

and legacy of Edmond, Oklahoma. Locations for 

their projects range from the city’s central core 

to the perimeter of the community and include 

commercial, educational, medical, institutional, 

recreational and high-end residential for both 

public and private clients. Hornbeek Blatt 

strives to create innovative designs while being 

respectful of an established context. 

The firm approaches each project as an 

opportunity to create a custom tailored design 

specific to the functional needs and aesthetic 

desires of the client. The opportunity to provide 

high quality design at every budget level means 

that each project receives premium attention 

and detailing. In addition to a keen attention 

to detail, Hornbeek Blatt is ever respectful of 

an owner’s budget and resources and works to 

develop solutions that fit within all required 

economic parameters. 

In downtown Edmond, Hornbeek Blatt has 

completed five recognizable projects. At the 

same time there are four projects on the campus 

of the University of Central Oklahoma. In the 

downtown area notable projects include the 

Citizen’s Bank main branch and drive-thru 

facility; the North Broadway Building, which has 

been designed to emulate five different fronts and 

stands across from the post office; Edmond Golf; 

the remodeling of the “Rendezvous,” currently 

where Summit Outfitters is located; Café Evoke 

and HB’s own floor, above the Edmond Tag 

Agency. At UCO projects include the addition 

and renovation to Wantland Stadium, the renovation 

of Mitchell Hall, the window refurbishing 

at Thatcher Hall, and the conversion of the 

Ramada Hotel into the “Central Plaza” dormitory. 

Outside of the central business core in 

Edmond the firm has completed the “MAC,” the 

city of Edmond’s multi-use activity center located 

in Mitch Park off of Covell Avenue, the city 

of Edmond’s Public Service Center located at 

the southeast corner of Covell and Interstate 35, 

the Picnic Pavilion at Mitch Park, the Edmond 

Wine Shop, and the American Indian Cultural 

Center & Museum. 

Hornbeek Blatt is among the most innovative 

Architectural/Planning design firms in the 

country with public, corporate and private 

clients worldwide. More than two decades of 

experience by highly skilled professionals, 

together with the incorporation of leading 

technologies have firmly established their 

reputation for design excellence. 

9 4 ✦ M I L E M A R K E R 1 0 3

HB continues to offer proven experience on 

a wide variety of project types including, but 

not limited to: corporate offices, retail centers, 

medical complexes, hotels, recreational facilities, 

education facilities, large residential developments, 

and high-end single-family housing. 

The firm’s principals, David Hornbeek, a 

graduate of the University of Oklahoma with 

degrees in environmental design and architecture, 

and Anthony Blatt, a graduate of Oklahoma 

State University with a degree in architecture, 

have led the firm with profound and steady 

core values to continually refine its architectural 

vision while reacting quickly and efficiently 

to the challenges of the design and construction 

process; to provide environmentally sensitive 

designs that take into account immediate as 

well as long-term goals; to employ skillful and 

imaginative designers, planners, architects, and 

interior designers who recognize the value of 

listening as the critical tool to develop an 

owner’s ideas, values and dreams into a threedimensional 

reality; and to approach the 

creative process with a goal of creating long 

lasting friendships. 

Hornbeek Blatt is proud of its esthetic contributions 

and honored to be considered as one of 

Edmond’s civic leaders and visionaries for the 

future.The firm has always valued the role and 

place of the city as “home” and is honored to 

give back to the community it serves through 

activities and community leadership in church, 

school, community, and extracurricular activities. 

In 2011, Hornbeek Blatt Architects was 

the recipient of the “Soloman Andrew Layton 

Award” as the “Firm of the Year” by the Central 

Oklahoma Chapter of the American Institute 

of Architects, an award that is voted upon 

by the members. Hornbeek Blatt is located at 

101 South Broadway, Suite 200 in Edmond and 

online at www.hornbeekblatt.com. 

❖ 

Above: The elevated press box of the 

University of Central Oklahoma’s 

Wantland Stadium. 

Below: Edmond’s premier 

multipurpose activity center, 

The “MAC” at Mitch Park. 


FAIRFAX ESTATE 

AND GOLF 

COMMUNITY 

❖ 

Above: The current-day Fairfax Golf 

Clubhouse was originally the ranch’s 

hunting lodge. If golfers listen closely 

they can still hear the voices from the 

past making oil, cattle and land deals. 

And, as you walk the old wooden 

floors of the clubhouse you might 

even hear the sound of racing horses 

off in the distance. 

Among the city’s stellar communities and rich 

sporting history stands Fairfax Estate and Golf 

Community. Originally established in December, 

1998 by Robert Griffin, the area flourished 

when it was acquired by one of Edmond’s 

leading developers of upper end real estate, 

J. W. Armstrong, and Armstrong Developments, 

LLC, through Fairfax Joint Ventures, LLC, in 

2002. Today, the property continues to flourish 

under its development with more than 250 

homes and a renowned 18-hole golf course. 

Nestled across thousands of acres of land, the 

area was captured by the Harper family and 

Forrest E. Harper, who built wealth through 

oil, cattle and horses and added a hunting lodge 

at the site of the present Golf Course Clubhouse 

in the 1940s. In addition to the lodge, Harper 

eventually included a horse stable and race track 

in the location of the present fifteenth and 

sixteenth holes of Fairfax. A large spring-fed 

pond that was stocked with trout is now 

surrounded by the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th holes, 

while quail pens were located north of the 

clubhouse. Harper was also famous for joining 

early Oklahoma Governor Roy Turner in bringing 

“the nations’ first million dollar bull,” 

Hazford Rupert 81st to Oklahoma. 

Today, Fairfax Golf Club is one of Oklahoma’s 

premier clubs and is committed to providing 

quality service, profitability and community 

usage that includes a superior golf facility and 

professional staff for its residential neighborhood 

as well as the wider community. 

Fairfax Golf Course is a “park” style course 

that uses natural creeks and spring-fed waterways 

and ponds, numerous trees and red sandstone 

rock outcroppings to capture the serenity 

desired by metropolitan golfers today. While 

hunting is no longer allowed in the area, deer 

and turkey are common spectators at a golf 

game. The deer herd features a strain of albino 

deer common to the North Edmond area, while 

trophy bucks provide outstanding photographic 

opportunities during a round of golf. 

Featured in the magazine Golf Oklahoma, 

Fairfax Golf Course is well-known for its challenging 

eighteen-hole configuration. Columnist 

Ken MacLeod writes, “Fairfax has always been a 

bit of an anomaly for a golf course in a bustling 

city. A few feet off many fairways is dense underbrush 

under large trees…the land rises and falls 

in larger-than-expected swales, creating angles 

and sight lines that are both pleasing to the 

eye and not always easy to play. Fairfax is not 

long, measuring 6,658 yards from the back 

trees—654 of that on the par-5 ninth hole— 

but it requires accuracy and imagination to 

consistently play well.” 

9 6 ✦ M I L E M A R K E R 1 0 3

❖ 

Opposite, bottom, left and right: 

Fairfax Estates and Golf Community 

is more than one of Edmond’s most 

outstanding gated neighborhoods. 

The tree-covered hills and pastures 

where Fairfax residents now reside is 

rich with history that dates back to 

the first half of the twentieth century 

when Oklahoma was the world 

capital of the oil industry. 

Alternately lining the fairways of its celebrated 

golf course, Fairfax’s Residential Community continues 

to flourish in its development through the 

efforts of Armstrong and Armstrong Developments. 

In addition to the Fairfax Community of more than 

250 homes, Armstrong’s portfolio includes East 

Oak Place, The Oaks, and Golf Club Estates, all 

located in the Oak Tree Golf Course and residential 

communities. Armstrong Developments currently 

includes Quo Vadis and Hampden Hollow. 

For more information about Armstrong 

Developments and its communities, visit the 

company online at www.fairfaxedmond.com 

and www.armstrongdevelopments.com. 

Above: The old Harper Ranch wine 

and spirits cellar. 

Below: The former Harper Ranch 

horse stables. In the 1930s the land 

where Fairfax Estates exists was 

owned by Forrest E. Harper, 

oil man and cattle rancher. He 

and Oklahoma’s thirteenth governor, 

Roy J. Turner, purchased prized show 

stock and developed a ninety-six 

hundred acre ranch named Hereford 

Heaven, located five miles east of 

Sulphur, Oklahoma. Harper later sold 

his interest in Hereford Heaven and 

purchased 4,500 acres in Edmond, 

Oklahoma; close to Oklahoma’s 

capital, the perfect location for 

political, cattle, and oil deals. 

This land purchase became the 

Harper Family Ranch where business 

prospects could fish, hunt and 

race horses. 


NESTLÉ PURINA 

PETCARE 

❖ 

Above: The plant site in March, 1970. 

Below: The plant’s bulk building 

construction in May 1970. 

Nestle—a Swiss company with an iconic 

name recognized the world over for “something 

good.” Ralston Purina—a historic Americanborn 

company with over a century of historic 

growth in the pet care industry. When these 

two famous companies merged in 2001 to 

become the Nestlé Purina PetCare Company, 

it was a perfect match. 

Originally founded in 1894 by St. Louis 

businessman William H. Danforth, Ralston 

Purina would weather the good and bad times 

of twentieth century America—from economic 

depressions to world wars, new competitors 

and marketing styles to the significant demands 

in a world of ever-changing technology. 

Within an environment driven by outstanding 

quality and a constituent legacy of service to 

pet owners, Nestlé Purina’s top priority remains 

offering exceptional food that nourishes pets the 

world over. It is this commitment and integrity 

that allows the consumer assurance knowing 

that when it comes to purchasing Purina products 

for their pets, they are providing the best in 

nutrition and care that is made certain through 

the company’s characteristic high standards. 

From the source to the bowl, food quality is 

ensured in several areas including Ingredient 

Sourcing, a rigorous process ensures that ingredients 

meet or exceed FDA, USDA, or AAFCO 

standards for pet food with every supplier 

meeting stringent standards, product safety, and 

proper sanitation and manufacturing practices; 

Ingredient Testing, which includes onsite quality 

assurance laboratories and staff; Ingredient 

tracking and control, to assure quality as ninetyeight 

percent of all Purina pet food products 

sold in the United States are made in Purinaowned 

U.S. manufacturing facilities, and all raw 

ingredients are tracked from time of receipt at 

their plants, through their inclusion in finished 

products, and on to retail stores. 

Nestlé Purina is also committed to helping 

pets in local communities. Launched in 1984, 

an initiative program, Pets for People, supports 

a variety of animal welfare organizations. Such 

programs have continued to grow—annually, 

Nestlé Purina donates more than $30 million 

to U.S. animal welfare and other charitable 

organizations. By supporting partners in animal 

welfare, the company helps provide care and 

adoption for more than 2 million pets annually. 

9 8 ✦ M I L E M A R K E R 1 0 3

The company’s ONE Hope Network is 

dedicated to the cause of animal welfare and 

a mission to find forever homes for pets in 

need by providing high-quality nutrition to 

help homeless pets look and feel their best so 

they have a better chance for adoption. Other 

Purina programs include Rally to Rescue for 

select pet rescue organizations dedicated to 

raising funds and awareness 

for the cause of pet rescue; 

and Purina Pets For Seniors 

where the company assists 

seniors with free or reduced 

cost for adoptions at participating 

humane shelters. 

Nestlé Purina is also a 

proud supporter of Adopt a 

Pet (www.adoptapet.com), the 

country’s largest nonprofit 

website dedicated to placing 

homeless pets in permanent 

homes; and Pet Partners, 

an international nonprofit 

organization dedicated to 

helping people live healthier 

and happier lives by incorporating 

therapy, service and 

companion animals into their 

lives, and St. Louis PetLover 

Coalition, formed in 2009 to 

improve the lives of dogs and cats 

in the community. The St. Louis 

PetLover Coalition fosters collaborative 

efforts of local animal welfare groups 

and the community to promote responsible 

pet ownership and to increase the 

save rate of companion animals within 

the community. 

Today, Nestlé Purina PetCare employs 

approximately 7,000 workers in North 

America and 330 workers in its Edmond 

plant. The company is also involved 

in local community activities including 

support of the United Way, providing 

food to local animal shelters, and 

Junior Achievement. 

Though more than a century has 

passed since its founding by William H. 

Danforth, the Purina brand remains 

dedicated to making the lives of pets 

and their owners better. With the rapid 

changes in pet care in the twenty-first century, 

the challenge to lead the way with fresh, innovative 

approaches to pet care is at the forefront 

of this historic company’s exploration of new 

trends and ideas that will define the future of 

pet care worldwide. 

True to their company slogan, “Pet care isn’t 

just our business, it’s our passion.” 

❖ 

Above: The plant’s first twenty-five 

pound bag of dog chow being packed 

on May 12, 1971. 

Below: An aerial view of the plant 

in 2012. 


OKLAHOMA 

CHRISTIAN 

UNIVERSITY 

❖ 

Right: OC President John deSteiguer 

walks with students in Lawson 

Commons. The University House in 

the background is part of almost $40 

million in student housing 

construction and improvements in 

recent years. 

Below: Oklahoma Christian is on 

the President’s Higher Education 

Community Service Honor Roll, 

the highest federal recognition a 

university can receive for its 

commitment to volunteering, servicelearning 

and civic engagement. OC 

was honored for numerous programs, 

including students’ work with Stanley 

Hupfeld Academy at Western Village 

(a former at-risk elementary school); 

health fairs conducted by nursing 

students, community cleanup projects, 

and (pictured) OC’s decades of service 

hosting recreational programs for 

physically and mentally challenged 

children from Edmond. 

Thousands of people have called Oklahoma 

Christian University home since the college 

relocated from Bartlesville in 1958. OC’s 

200 acre campus is located on the border 

of Edmond and north Oklahoma City, helping 

students enjoy the academic, cultural and 

recreational benefits of a big city in a safe and 

comfortable suburban atmosphere. 

Over the last six decades, Oklahoma 

Christian has grown along with the surrounding 

community. Recognized as one of the best 

universities in the western United States by 

U.S. News and World Report and The Princeton 

Review, OC offers undergraduate programs in 

more than sixty fields of study and graduate 

programs in business, engineering, ministry, 

and divinity. 

A record enrollment of 2,271 students 

coincided with the beginning of John 

deSteiguer’s tenure as Oklahoma Christian’s 

seventh president in 2012. 

The institution’s first president, L. R. Wilson, 

served from 1949 to 1954. Under his leadership, 

many of OC’s foundations were established: 

daily Chapel, outstanding musical programs 

and student publications, social service clubs, 

high moral expectations, and a high level of 

academic excellence. 

James O. Baird became president in 1954, 

and aided by the generous financial support 

of the Oklahoma City business community, 

the institution moved to its current location 

in 1958. 

In 1959, the institution changed its name 

from Central Christian College to Oklahoma 

Christian College and began offering bachelor’s 

degrees. The first senior class graduated in 

1962 and the North Central Association of 

Colleges and Schools granted full accreditation 

to OC in 1966. 

Oklahoma Christian grew from adolescence 

to young adulthood in the mid-1960s. The 

campus expanded and the institution’s net 

worth and endowment soared. The college 

established itself as a leader in 

the new field of “instructional 

technology” with the opening 

of the Mabee Learning Center 

in 1965. One-third of America’s 

colleges and universities sent 

representatives to see the innovative 

study carrel system, which 

received national acclaim from 

Time and other publications. 

J. Terry Johnson, a 1964 

Oklahoma Christian graduate, 

became president in 1974. 

During his twenty-one year 

tenure, the longest of any OC 

president, he led the institution to unprecedented 

growth in campus development, student 

enrollment, and institutional endowment. 

Enterprise Square opened in 1982 to rave 

reviews and television appearances on NBC’s 

Today Show and the CBS Evening News. Famous 

guests like Bob Hope, Walmart founders Sam 

and Helen Walton, Opryland’s Minnie Pearl, 

and motivational speaker Zig Ziglar visited 

the campus in support of OC’s American 

Heritage Programs. 

The “With Wings As Eagles” campaign of the 

1980s helped build the Bible facility (now the 

Williams-Branch Center for Biblical Studies), 

Prince Engineering Center, and the Thelma 

Gaylord Forum, expand the Mabee Learning 

Center and Payne Athletic Center, and establish 

the Study Abroad program and OC’s first 

graduate degree program. 

Oklahoma Christian gained university status 

in 1990, complete with a special event featuring 

future U.S. President George W. Bush. Two 

years later, sitting President George H. W. Bush 

spoke to a packed Thelma Gaylord Forum on a 

beautiful March day. 

Under the leadership of Kevin Jacobs from 

1996 to 2001, the university set enrollment 

records for five straight years, renovated the 

1 0 0 ✦ M I L E M A R K E R 1 0 3

Gaylord University Center 

and Garvey Center, and 

added an MBA program. OC’s 

technology innovations continued 

with a wireless campus 

network and laptops for every 

full-time student. 

Alfred Branch served as 

OC’s president in 2001 and 

2002, guiding the university 

through a pivotal time in its 

history. As executive vice 

president and chief operating 

officer before and after his 

interim presidential tenure, 

he oversaw the development 

of more than $48 million in student housing, 

campus renovations, and retail projects. 

Mike O’Neal became OC’s sixth president 

in 2002. He connected OC with leaders from 

all over the globe, including a partnership 

with Rwanda that brings some of that nation’s 

brightest students to study at OC. His tenure 

included vital improvements in the university’s 

financial stability, numerous 

enrollment records, the construction 

of many new facilities 

through the $64.3-million 

Higher Learning-Higher Calling 

campaign, the growth of OC’s 

academic programs, and the 

strengthening of the faith 

foundation upon which OC 

was built. 

In fact, the integration of 

faith and learning by highquality 

Christian faculty and 

staff members has helped 

OC grow into the leading 

university it is today. And that commitment 

is making a difference here in Edmond and all 

over the world. 

For more information, go to www.oc.edu. 

❖ 

Above: Oklahoma Christian, a 

member of the NCAA Division II 

Heartland Conference, annually 

ranks among the best small-college 

athletic programs in the country. OC 

student-athletes have combined to win 

fifty-three national championships, 

including seven team titles. 

Left: In 1992, U.S. President George 

H. W. Bush spoke to more than 8,000 

people at Oklahoma Christian 

University’s Thelma Gaylord Forum. 

BELOW: PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE 


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

DAVID LEE 

MARKETING, INC. 

❖ 

David and Lynne Lee. 

David Lee Marketing, Inc., is a forty-yearold 

independent manufacturer’s representative 

covering five states including Oklahoma, Texas, 

Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi. The company 

is the marketing arm for manufacturers 

handling sales and marketing setting distribution 

and establishing new accounts and brand 

recognition in the zone on a contractual basis. 

They specialize in mobile electronics such as 

car audio, video, satellite television, and voice 

and data transfer for the oil and gas industry. 

The company began in October of 1973, 

where, as David Lee says, “good things always 

start and end with a middle line.” David and 

his wife, Lynne, and their four children moved 

from California to Texas on a promise before 

a blessing for their future began as they settled 

in Oklahoma. 

In the earliest days of the business, David 

was often on the road selling while Lynne 

remained at home “working on the Royal 

typewriter and sending in orders.” 

The conditions were sometimes difficult and 

money was tight. David often drove to cities 

such as Houston or Dallas in one day and, not 

being able to afford a hotel room or food, 

returned home the same evening for a few 

hours sleep. Ultimately, that hard work paid 

off and the company began to flourish and the 

family celebrated the purchase of their first 

home in Edmond. 

In the beginning, David and Lynne were 

joined by various people who worked part time 

at the fledgling company. As the children grew, 

they joined their parents in the hard work and 

often filed papers after school. David and 

Lynne’s youngest daughter graduated from 

college and married before returning to the 

business to work full time. She remained with 

the company until three children pulled her 

back home for her full time work as a mother. 

David and Lynne’s two sons always worked 

around the business, and often helped with 

special events before they left for college, one 

attended the University of Oklahoma. Both sons 

now work full time with the company. 

One particular day in 1980 stands out in 

David’s mind as a landmark in the life of his 

company. David relates the story, “A fellow in 

a tan truck came down our driveway with a 

speaker system behind the seat, which was 

unheard of at the time. I liked it and he asked 

if we would represent his line. I told him we 

would…before I discovered that the company 

included just four men and a woman who painted 

the boxes and dried them on a clothes line. 

It did not matter to me, though, so I asked the 

sales manager if he had a suit and if he would 

like to show his speaker system at the Consumer 

Electronic Show in Las Vegas. We were able to 

pull a few strings and set up in a booth with a 

friend of ours. Eventually, I asked a few of my 

1 0 2 ✦ M I L E M A R K E R 1 0 3

friends and fellow reps in other parts of the 

country to represent the line. I am happy to say 

that we had a part in building that company— 

Stillwater Designs Manufacturing and Kicker 

Speakers. Today, they are the world’s largest 

aftermarket automotive speaker manufacturer…and 

we still represent them in our territory.” 

The company opened its warehouse operation 

in 1997 at 3900 South Broadway to service 

the lines that they represent for a five state 

area. Later that year, they opened Auto Gear 

to service local car dealers installing radios, 

security, video, radar detectors, satellite television 

and window tint. 

In March 2009, David Lee Marketing moved 

into its new building, which houses the rep 

firm, Warehouse and Auto Gear, at 14921 

North Lincoln Boulevard in Edmond. 

Today, the company includes David Lee, 

president, Lynne Lee, vice-president, Kelly Lee, 

vice president of operations, Dallas Lee, vice 

president of sales, Jeff Bowdler, warehouse 

sales and operations, and John Gentry, 

warehouse manager. 

David Lee Marketing remains an award 

winning organization with many Reps of the 

Year, and often receives national awards for 

highest volume. The company is proud to be 

characterized as a “lean machine” and includes 

eleven employees and two satellite offices—one 

in Houston and the other in Dallas—and 

generates in excess of $21 million annually. 

The future remains bright in the mobile 

electronics business simply because there will 

always be new and better, more exciting 

products to sell, while satellite communications 

for data and voice can be used anywhere in the 

field for gas and oil exploration and continues 

to improve its line with each passing day. 

The company is committed to a range of 

community efforts and enjoys giving back. 

They are proud sponsors of children in sports 

and buy meals for the homeless through 

a downtown mission program. Kelly also enjoys 

coaching football for the local YMCA. 

The company is located at 14921 North 

Lincoln Boulevard in Edmond and online at 

www.davidleemarketing.com. 

❖ 

Above: The company’s expansive 

warehouse, 2012. 

Below: Pictured left to right, 

John Gentry, Kelly Lee, David Lee, 

Dallas Lee, and Jeff Bowdler. 


OKLAHOMA 

MUNICIPAL 

POWER 

AUTHORITY 

❖ 

A picture of the signing of the 

OMPA Act on June 1, 1981. On the 

left is Chuck Smith, who was MESO 

executive director, he still lives in 

Edmond, next to him is Louis Garber, 

purchasing agent for the City of 

Edmond and next to him is Phil 

Watson, state senator from Edmond 

in 1981. Governor George Nigh is 

signing the Legislation. 

First created by legislation signed by 

Governor George Nigh on June 1, 1981, the 

Oklahoma Municipal Power Authority (OMPA) 

provides reliable, low cost energy and services 

to municipal entities that enable each municipality 

to be competitive and maximize the 

benefit to its stakeholders. 

The organization’s roots are traced to the 

unique role that Oklahoma has played in the oil 

and gas industry throughout its history. The 

need for such an organization as OMPA was 

first recognized because many municipals in 

Oklahoma had small generating plants that 

used natural gas generation. The oil embargos 

of the 1970s had forced many cities to shut 

down their small plants and interconnect with 

the investor-owned power companies who were 

building coal fired plants to offset the loss of 

natural gas and fuel oil. With more coal fired 

plants being constructed to meet the growing 

and additional loads of cities and towns that 

owned their electric distribution systems, it 

resulted in the need for rate increases. 

Retail rate increases were approved at the 

Oklahoma Corporation Commission and usually 

took about six months, whereas a contract to 

a municipal electric system was a wholesale 

contract which was reviewed by the Federal 

Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). The 

new rates could be charged after thirty days 

and then, when approved, all charges above 

the final approved rate were to be returned 

with interest. Since wholesale rates could now 

go up quicker than retail, the wholesale rates 

were filed first and then the retail rates. This 

led to a price squeeze where wholesales rates at 

times would be higher than the retail. 

As a result, cities and towns began working 

together through their state association, Municipal 

Electric Systems of Oklahoma (MESO), to get 

legislation passed that would allow them to 

work together to either contract for larger 

blocks of power or have ownership in power 

plants. Using the tax exempt financing, the 

cities and towns could purchase into power 

plants and build substations and transmission 

1 0 4 ✦ M I L E M A R K E R 1 0 3

lines to serve their citizen owners. Until the 

OMPA Act was passed in 1981, cities and towns 

could not work together on projects; each city was 

required to handle its own issues and financing. 

The first two power plants in which OMPA 

was able to buy a part-ownership in 1984, the 

Pirkey Plant and Dolet Hills Plant, were done 

by a hand shake on a hunting trip between 

board member Buddy Veltema and the CEO of 

Central and Southwest Corporation that owned 

Public Service Company of Oklahoma. OMPA 

officially began service on July 1, 1985, to twenty-six 

municipal electric systems in Oklahoma. 

Roland Dawson was hired as OMPA’s first 

full-time general manager in December 1982 

and reported to work in mid-January 1983. As 

soon as he arrived at Will Rogers World Airport, 

he was met by Buddy Veltema, the board chairman 

at the time, welcomed and given the keys 

to the agency vehicle that had been purchased 

and the office space that had been rented. 

When Dawson opened the glove box of the car, 

he found several parking tickets which needed 

to be paid. Upon arrival at the office, he opened 

the door and found an office with nothing in it 

except a phone sitting on the floor. He walked 

around the building and found a green folding 

chair by the pay phone, which he took to the 

office so he would have something to sit on. 

From those humble beginnings, the agency 

grew to be a recognized power supplier in the 

state for municipal electric systems. 

In 1986, six more cities joined the power 

supply program. 

OMPA met the initial goal of reducing 

wholesale power cost for cities and towns. 

During the first year, many cities and towns 

saw on an average of thirty plus percent in 

power cost reductions. With power cost 

lowered, the OMPA Board turned the focus 

on providing better quality services and 

programs that members could use to better 

serve their customer owners. 

Since that time, seven more 

cities have joined with the last 

in November 2011. When OMPA 

began service to its member cities, 

there were twelve employees and 

an annual electrical load responsibility 

of 372 megawatts with 

annual revenues of approximately 

$2.1 million. The population served 

was 164,800. 

OMPA has flourished in large 

part because of the dedication of its 

founders and early members who each realized 

how important it would be to ensure a 

strong future in the communities served by 

the organization. They include A. L. “Buddy” 

Veltema, city manager of Walters; Louis Garber, 

purchasing agent for the City of Edmond; 

former Mayor Carl Reherman of Edmond; 

Chuck Smith, MESO executive director, who 

lives in Edmond; Board member Gene Brown, 

then and now Mayor of Duncan; and board 

member Drake Rice, then city manager of 

Blackwell, now director of member services 

for OMPA; Retired General Manager Roland 

Dawson; and Charles Martin, city administrator 

of Altus and later OMPA board chairman. Their 

leadership and foresight have allowed OMPA 

to continue to grow and become a customer 

driven organization that today serves approximately 

two thirds of all municipal electric 

systems in the State of Oklahoma. This desire to 

be the municipal electric provider of choice 

continues to be carried on under the leadership 

of Edmond Mayor Charles Lamb and OMPA 

General Manager Cindy Holman. 

In 2011, OMPA served thirty-nine municipal 

electric systems with an annual electrical load 

responsibility of 781 megawatts with annual 

revenues of approximately $168 million. 

Population served today is approximately 

240,000, and the current full-time staffing 

level of OMPA is 59. Of the 59 employees, 

39 are located at the Edmond Headquarters 

and Operations Center and 20 are based at the 

Ponca City power production facilities. 

❖ 

OMPA headquarters is located at 

2701 West I-35 Frontage Road. 


AVL SYSTEMS 

DESIGN 

❖ 

Above: Marc Pierce. 

Founded in Edmond in 2000 by Ken Moore, 

AVL Systems Design is a national integration 

and design build firm excellent in design and 

installation for audio, video, and lighting. 

The firm was created on the concept of the 

“team” approach with the belief that no one 

person can make a project successful, it takes 

a collective effort. The expertise of company 

employees allow the firm to work successfully 

with architects, engineers and most importantly, 

their clients. 

AVL Systems Design has seen growth and 

cutbacks over the years. Since its inception, 

from two employees in the first days to over 

twenty-seven in 2008, AVL has had the 

expertise it needs to survive the good and the 

bad economic times. AVL has been consistent 

in its positive reputation and continues to put 

customer service as its first priority. 

Approximately one year after AVL was 

formed; a young man by the name of Marc 

Pierce joined the team as a technical intern 

right out of college. Over several years Marc 

worked hard sweeping the floors, picking 

up trash and dedicating himself to all aspects 

of the company. Marc worked in all positions 

including installation technician, installation 

lead, project management, design engineer, 

director of engineering, sales, and general 

manager. After nine years and complete 

dedication to the company, Marc purchased 

AVL Systems Design on April 1, 2011, in full. 

From that day to the present, Marc and his 

wife and partner, Stacy, have successfully run 

the business. 

Under their leadership, AVL has more than 

doubled its annual revenue. While raising the 

profitability of the business, they have more 

than doubled their staff, remodeled facilities 

and tripled their client base. AVL has grown in 

knowledge, professionalism and customer care. 

This is the result of streamlining processes 

while working more efficiently and productively 

both within the office and the field. The end 

result is proud employees, happy clients and 

repeat business. 

1 0 6 ✦ M I L E M A R K E R 1 0 3

The future of AVL is wide open with many 

possibilities. Marc and Stacy believe that investing 

in each employee is key. By doing so they 

believe it will greatly prosper and positively 

affect the future of AVL and ultimately its 

clients. AVL will strive to continue a strong 

customer base with repeat business and positive 

referrals. AVL will continue to strive for 

excellence in every aspect of who they are and 

what they do. 

Marc has over fifteen years of experience as a 

professional resource person for houses of worship, 

business and educational institutions. He 

graduated from the Conservatory of Recording 

Arts and Sciences in Tempe, Arizona, with an 

Audio, Live/Recording Engineering and Music 

Business degree, and an emphasis in acoustics 

and commissioning. His experience includes 

Engineering and Designing, FOH Engineering 

for various music artists, houses of worship and 

government facilities, as well as many other 

nationally known facilities. 

CFO and part owner, Stacy has a degree 

in vocal performance from Oklahoma City 

Community College. She continues to teach 

vocal lessons at AVL’s private recording studio. 

Not only do all financial aspects run through 

her, but she has a passion for the employees 

and clients and helps to provide excellent experiences 

for both. She has negotiated many deals 

with manufacturers to help ensure AVL’s cost 

effective approach. She has also spearheaded 

the streamline approach to all operations. 

Marc and Stacy believe that the talents and 

wisdom of one person are never enough to 

tackle the complex decisions and requirements 

of business in society today, and promote the 

team approach to all projects. 


❖ 

KELLER WILLIAMS AT THE KIVLEHEN HOUSE 

Above: Benjamin Floyd and 

Mariana Lloyd. 

Right: The Kivlehen House at 

525 North Jackson in Edmond. 

Mariana Lloyd is a firm believer in taking 

advantage of opportunities that can make a 

difference in life. On the fireplace mantel in 

her office is a sign that reads “Never, Never, 

Give Up.” It serves as a reminder to her that life 

is what you make it. So, the Edmond resident 

did not think twice when she approached 

her son, Benjamin Floyd, to join her in a 

real estate business partnership in 2001. The 

Edmond Women’s Club named Lloyd “Business 

Woman of the Year” in 2002. Today, she has 

one of the most successful Keller Williams 

Real Estate teams in the region and the nation. 

Their mission is “To build a real estate business 

worth having, a business worth owning, and 

lives worth living.” 

Lloyd’s Keller Williams team does relocation 

for major corporations and individuals, and 

is headquartered at The Kivlehen House at 

525 North Jackson in Edmond. 

Lloyd’s responsibilities include the Team’s 

Broker, marketing, listing, and selling properties, 

contacting potential buyers and sellers, 

and working with large corporations, builders, 

banks, and individuals. 

Floyd serves as a listing/buyer specialist and 

is a licensed Realtor, a residential real estate 

inspector and a home builder. 

“Having my son as business partner is a 

dream come true for me,” Lloyd said. “I was a 

single mom, and worked all the time when 

Ben was growing up. I didn’t spend nearly as 

much time with him as I wanted and missed out 

on a lot. This was a way I could spend time with 

him almost every day, and build a business 

worth having.” 

Since that time, the pair have won numerous 

awards, closed hundreds of millions of 

dollars in real estate and won regional and 

national recognition. 

The construction part of the company is 

done under the Benjamin Floyd Homes logo. 

They recently added another branch of the 

business called The Kivlehen Kottages, which 

allows clients a place to live for a short/long 

period of time when they are between homes. 

In 2007, Lloyd and her son restored a 

three-story Victorian home built in 1902, as 

their office, known as The Kivlehen House. 

It was nominated for a Merit Award by the 

State Historical Society and was presented at the 

Society’s 2008 Historic Preservation conference 

in Ponca City. In addition, the renovation 

was approved of the National Park Service for 

rehab credits. The home is now on the National 

Register of Historic Places. 

The Kivlehen House is a Colonial Revival 

style house in the heart of downtown Edmond. 

Construction began in 1902 and was completed 

in 1907 by James D. Kivlehen, the postmaster of 

1 0 8 ✦ M I L E M A R K E R 1 0 3

Edmond in 1916, as well as a banker at Citizens 

Bank of Edmond, and his wife Mattie. They had 

one daughter, Coleen, who inherited the home 

from her parents and sold it in 1993. Working 

closely with the State Historic Preservation 

Office and the National Park Service, Lloyd’s 

project adapted the house into an Edmond 

branch office for Keller Williams Realty. 

“This was a two-year renovation,” said Lloyd 

of the 3,000-square-foot home. “It was perfect 

because we are a branch office of Keller 

Williams Realty and this was our opportunity to 

have a beautiful office that once was a beautiful 

home. Ben and I are proud to be part of the 

rehabilitation of this Edmond landmark. It is 

our heritage preserved. Our hope is that the 

steps we have taken toward preserving this 

area will encourage others to do the same.” 

Lloyd is a past board member of the Edmond 

Chamber of Commerce, Leadership Oklahoma 

City and Leadership Edmond. Today, Lloyd’s 

Keller Williams team has seen steady growth 

since 2002 and closed more than $33 million 

in 2012. 


ST. JOHN THE 

BAPTIST 

CATHOLIC 

CHURCH 

❖ 

Interior of St. John the Baptist 

Catholic Church in Edmond. 

COURTESY OF MILESTONES PHOTOGRAPHY. 

The Catholic Parish of St. John the Baptist 

has a unique role in the history of the city 

of Edmond. Built in 1889, it was the first 

church of any denomination in the Oklahoma 

Territory. The church was the inspiration of 

Catholic settlers and Father Nicholas E. Scallan, 

an Australian missionary who settled in the 

territory following the 1889 Land Run. 

Father Scallan enlisted the help of the 

only Catholic men he could find in Edmond 

to help build the church—all four of them. 

Dedicated on the feast day of St. John the 

Baptist, the small, one room frame structure 

at the southwest corner of First Street and 

Boulevard heard its bell peal for the first time 

on the feast of St. John the Baptist, June 24, 

1889. The only church in town, St. John’s 

opened its doors to other denominations for 

Sunday worship. 

As Edmond’s population grew, Father 

Willebrord Vooghden, the first resident pastor, 

saw the need for expansion and supervised 

the building of a new church on the same 

site in 1891. In 1936 the belfry and roof of 

the church were destroyed by fire and had to 

be renovated. This building was in use until 

further growth became necessary in 1954 

following World War II. On May 22, 1955, 

the parish of St. John the Baptist celebrated 

its new home. A new brick church, built on 

Littler between Ninth Street and Boulevard, 

opened its doors for services. The new church 

was complete with stained glass windows, 

a rectory and parish hall. 

St. John’s grew as Edmond grew with the 

construction of an 825 seat sanctuary dedicated 

in 1982 north of the existing church under the 

direction of Father Samuel Levin. As more and 

more families moved into the city, the parish 

addressed the need for Catholic education 

in Edmond. Parishioners answered the call, 

and under the direction and leadership of 

Pastor Father John 

Petuskey, the doors 

opened to St. Elizabeth 

Ann Seton Catholic 

School in 1990. 

Beginning with 85 

students, the 

enrollment is over 

400 students in 2012 

and double tracked 

from pre-kindergarten 

through eighth grade. 

The school building 

also hosts the parish 

Religious Education 

Program and the Child 

Development Center, 

an educational program for children two 

through five years old. 

Although an 8,750-square-foot, threestory 

Pastoral Center was added in 1994, the 

parish continued to outgrow its physical 

constraints. In 2006, St. Elizabeth Ann Seton 

School added a new gym and wing to house 

their state-of-the-art science and fine arts 

programs. At the same time, the parish added 

a new gathering space and 425 seats to the 

existing sanctuary to bring a 1,250-seating 

capacity for parishioners to come together as 

a community of faith. 

St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Catholic School 

celebrated its twentieth anniversary in 2010. 

Open to all denominations, St. Elizabeth’s 

is one of the largest Catholic grade schools in 

the state. 

According to Father Ray Ackerman, 

appointed pastor in 2012, the parish now 

serves over three thousand families. The parish 

of St. John the Baptist will continue to grow 

as Edmond grows, always ready to welcome 

citizens seeking a place to worship, a faith 

community and a place to experience and 

celebrate the presence of God. 

1 1 0 ✦ M I L E M A R K E R 1 0 3

When INTEGRIS Health Edmond opened 

its doors on October 3, 2011, its focus was 

simple: combining healthcare with hospitality. 

Offering personalized care and advanced 

technology, with a natural setting designed to 

bring the outside in, would promote a truly 

healing environment. 

“When we envisioned our campus, we 

wanted our patients to benefit from the 

serenity of a hospital built away from busy 

streets and highways,” said Avilla Williams, 

INTEGRIS Health Edmond president. “We 

took special care to ensure our rooms were 

open and tranquil. Our soothing design, color 

and photography elements inside reflect the 

natural beauty of the woodland surrounding 

the hospital.” 

When Tom Howard suffered a stroke just a 

couple of hours after the hospital opened, 

he had no idea he would be linked forever to 

the hospital. He was the first of more than ten 

thousand patients that inaugural year to visit 

the facility’s emergency room, and the first to 

stay overnight. 

The next day, the labor and delivery department 

welcomed INTEGRIS Health Edmond’s 

first baby. This was a tremendous occasion not 

only for baby boy Ryson Wilson’s parents and 

the hospital, but for the Edmond community 

as well. 

Ryson celebrated his first birthday simultaneously 

with the hospital’s first anniversary. 

His pioneering birth paved the way for the 

other three hundred new lives begun at INTE- 

GRIS Health Edmond its first year. 

With a full service ER, ICU, labor and delivery 

department and surgery services, INTEGRIS 

Health Edmond has become the healthcare 

facility of choice for many Edmondites and 

neighbors from the surrounding Logan County, 

Arcadia and Lincoln County areas. 

“Our patients like knowing they don’t have 

to drive far for excellent care,” said Williams. 

“Our experienced medical team and advanced 

technology are available in our own backyard.” 

INTEGRIS Health Edmond’s on-campus 

medical office building offers specialties ranging 

from family and internal medicine, obstetrics 

and gynecology, orthopedics, INTEGRIS Jim 

Thorpe Rehabilitation, diagnostic imaging, 

cardiology, pulmonology, pain management, 

surgical podiatry, medical oncology, nephrology, 

neurology, pediatric neurology, urology, general 

surgery, and colorectal surgery. 

For more information about INTEGRIS 

Health Edmond, visit integrisok.com/Edmond. 

INTEGRIS 

HEALTH 

EDMOND 


FINE ARTS 

INSTITUTE OF 

EDMOND 

❖ 

BELOW: PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF TODD WARD. 

It started in 1985 with a conversation 

between four mothers who were voicing their 

concerns that their children were not getting 

enough art in elementary school. They decided 

to take action and applied for a nonprofit 

501c3 status, wrote some bylaws, established 

a board of directors; and founded the Fine Arts 

Institute (FAI) of Edmond. 

Nancy Effron, June McCoy, Gae Rees, and 

Bonnie Smith opened the program teaching 

art and music in one classroom at an 

Edmond church. Art supplies were kept in their 

cars and enrollment was taken from an 

answering machine in the Rees home. In its first 

year, FAI welcomed 90 students; by 2012, 

over 2,800 adults and children would attend 

its classes. 

Today, FAI is housed in its own 8,000- 

square-foot building north of the downtown 

post office. In 2010 it purchased the small 

property to the west and developed “Mitzi’s 

Park,” an art park and outdoor classroom. 

Class curriculum includes drawing, painting, 

clay, pottery, theatre arts, mixed media, 

printmaking, jewelry design, seasonal art, 

cartooning, classes developed for home school 

students, and more. FAI sponsors the Edmond 

Youth Chorus, two children’s plays, Edmond’s 

Got Talent, a statewide Youth Impressions juried 

art show and features a monthly exhibit in 

its gallery. 

“Our motto is ‘all ages and all stages’,” states 

Executive Director Mitzi Hancuff. Hancuff has 

held this position since 1988. 

Lead by an outstanding board of directors 

of Edmond’s finest leaders, a talented, awardwinning 

faculty, and dedicated staff, the Fine 

Arts Institute family shares a common value 

and purpose as it focuses on excellence and 

cultural programming to play a major role in 

the community. 

Funding for the Fine Arts Institute comes 

from an impressive base of generous corporate 

sponsors, foundations, and 

community patrons as well 

as support from the 

Oklahoma Arts Council 

and City of Edmond. The 

daily classes are supplemented 

by tuition from students, 

patron drives, and 

regular fundraising events. 

FAI has also developed a 

wide network of community 

partners including education, 

civic, church, and 

corporate contacts. 

When people think of 

the arts in Edmond, the 

Fine Arts Institute comes 

to mind. For more information, 

visit FAI online at 

www.edmondfinearts.com. 

1 1 2 ✦ M I L E M A R K E R 1 0 3

LifeStyles is a unique home furnishings concept 

combining lighting fixtures, furniture, home 

décor and decorative hardware under one roof. 

The company first opened in the early 1970s 

as Edmond was beginning its growth in 

population. Dave Howl, a lighting and electrical 

supply salesman, met with two investors and 

bought land on Thirty-Third Street near 

Boulevard and a 7,000-square-foot building 

opened as The Lighting Center in 1971. 

The store enjoyed sustained growth among 

homebuilders across Edmond throughout its 

first decade. However, by the early to mid 1980s 

the “oil bust” and banking collapse hit the state 

with a profound impact upon its housing 

market. The Lighting Center and other industry 

businesses watched their growth come to a 

near standstill. 

As the 1980s ended, economic stability and 

gradual growth in homebuilding and established 

homeowners returned to Edmond and The 

Lighting Center grew to include retail customers. 

In 1996, Howl was nearing retirement and 

invited his son-in-law, Gregg Tunison, to take 

over the day-to-day management of the 

company. Uniquely qualified, Tunison had 

spent fifteen years in the retail department 

store industry and brought with him experience 

and skills that helped transform The 

Lighting Center into a successful 

second-generation business. 

In 1997, The Lighting Center 

opened a second store in Norman and 

became the largest volume lighting 

distributor in the state. 

In 1999, The Lighting Center went 

online at www.LightingCenter.com 

and became one of the first successful 

distributors of residential lighting 

fixtures on the web. The Internet 

business grew to require a separate 

warehouse and distribution location 

along with its own dedicated staff. 

The company opened a new larger 

store in February 2001 in Edmond 

and renamed it LifeStyles to reflect the 

new merchandise mix that went far 

beyond just lighting and included 

furniture and home accessories. The 

diversity and success of this new 

product mix was attributed to the 

buying and merchandising talents of Teresa 

Tunison, the founder’s daughter, who joined 

the company in 2000. At the same time, the 

company acquired Semones Lighting in Tulsa. 

As the success of the new “LifeStyles” concept 

grew in Edmond, the Norman location was 

closed and the company moved Semones 

Lighting to a new 28,000-square-foot building 

site on Mingo Road, just south of Memorial 

in south Tulsa, and renamed it LifeStyles in 

November 2005. 

That same year, Fans, Lights, Etc. was 

acquired in Plano, Texas. It was later closed 

in 2008 to open in a new nearly 50,000-squarefoot 

facility as LifeStyles in 2008 and was 

the largest lighting showroom in Texas and 

Oklahoma. The company’s combined growth 

in both size and sales volume pushed its 

employee count to over 125 people. 

The Lighting Center that began in Edmond 

back in the early 1970s as a simple lighting 

showroom with just eight employees has 

grown to be an important contributor to 

Edmond’s strong roots. LifeStyles has supported 

the needs of Edmond area charities, schools 

and churches, and donates thousands of 

dollars to Make-a-Wish Foundation, St. Jude’s 

Children’s Hospital and Habitat for Humanity. 

LIFESTYLES 


A BLOOM 

ABOVE THE REST 

❖ 

Above: Inside A Bloom Above the Rest. 

Right: Wedding and specialty event 

items are a common request of 

patrons to the shop. 

Below: Erin and David Pinkston with 

their daughter Kendall. Erin attended 

Edmond’s Sunset Elementary and was 

among the first class to enter the 

newly opened Charles Haskell 

Elementary and later Sequoyah 

Middle School before graduating from 

Memorial High School and attending 

the University of Central Oklahoma. 

Establishing its roots in the Edmond 

community more than a half-century ago, 

A Bloom Above the Rest has remained 

true to its outstanding heritage in the 

area since it first opened by Barbara 

Pearce as Pearce Floral. 

The shop debuted in 1955 across the 

street from the original Edmond High 

School on Boulevard. In the 1960s, they 

moved to a location just north of the 

local Safeway Grocery Store on Second 

Street near Broadway. It was at this 

time that Wilma Minyen purchased the 

venerable business and changed the 

name to Edmond Flower Shop. 

In 1974 the shop was reestablished at its 

current location on South Broadway. An old 

home originally sat on the small acreage and 

was razed by Mr. and Mrs. Minyen. The couple 

salvaged a bit of the lumber from the home and 

today these historic pieces serve as shelves that 

line the walls of the shop. 

Though Edmond Flower Shop was sold 

to Jimmy Burdick in 1977, Erin and David 

Pinkston purchased the business in 2008. The 

Pinkstons originally opened A Bloom Above the 

Rest in a renovated house on Ninth Street in 

2002. Erin, who was only eight years old when 

she moved with her family to Edmond from 

Canada in 1983, was enamored with Edmond 

Flower Shop’s rich history in the city and its 

landmark status as an Edmond institution. 

After the couple established their flourishing 

business with the strong customer base of 

Edmond Flower Shop, their work soon 

doubled. Today, many of the store’s longtime, 

loyal customers still write their checks in the 

name of the original business. 

A Bloom Above the Rest is honored to serve 

those dedicated customers and so many new 

families and friends in the area today. In 2013 

the Pinkstons are joined by employees Amanda 

Sterba, Kaci Sullivan, Sumer McCullough and 

Jessica Beene. The Pinkstons are also actively 

involved in a variety of community organizations 

and are members of the Edmond Centennial 

Kiwanis Club. Erin has served on the board of 

directors for the Oklahoma unit of Teleflora and 

is a past member of the board of directors for 

the Oklahoma State Floral Association. 

A Bloom Above the Rest, specializing in 

weddings, gift baskets, funerals, get well, dish 

gardens, and silk arrangements, and home décor, 

is located in Edmond at 416 South Broadway 

and online at www.abloomabovetherest.com. 

1 1 4 ✦ M I L E M A R K E R 1 0 3

For more than thirty-five years, kerr 3 design 

group, Inc. has provided architectural design 

and construction management services for 

renovations and new facilities. 

The company was founded by Terry Kerr, 

who opened the firm over the former Edmond 

Plaza Twin Theater near Fifteenth and Broadway 

in February of 1977. 

As the company grew, Bernadette “Butch” 

Gottschalk joined as office manager in 1980 

and remained with the firm until her retirement 

in 2011. 

Also an architect, Kerr’s older son, James, 

joined the firm in 2002 and serves as vice 

president of construction services. 

is noted for renovation of historic Jelsma 

Stadium and the Guthrie Fire Station blending 

current technologies with the historic architecture 

of the community. 

KERR 3 DESIGN 

GROUP, INC. 

❖ 

Clockwise, starting from the top: 

Guthrie Fire Station, 

Guthrie, Oklahoma. 

President Terry Kerr, AIA, CPC. 

Vice President James Kerr, AIA. 

OmniDome Theater, 

Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. 

In 2008, Terry’s wife, Kathy, joined the firm 

in an administrative role and currently serves 

as business operations manager. 

Across the state, the kerr 3 companies have 

provided designs that actualize and build the 

vision of individuals, school districts, churches 

and other organizations. 

In 1980, Kerr served as architect for 

renovation of the Edmond Police Station and 

later developed Edmond neighborhoods 

including Kingston and Fox Hollow. In 1989 he 

began design and facility renovations at Science 

Museum Oklahoma, where he designed the 

OmniDome Theater in 1998. In Guthrie, kerr 3 

Terry has served as president of the state 

and regional chapters of American Institute 

of Architects. In 2007 he was awarded the 

William Wayne Caudill Award recognizing his 

long-standing commitment to the betterment of 

the profession of architecture and professional 

architects in the state. 

The kerr 3 design group approach to all 

projects remains consistent—the completed 

project must always represent the owner or user 

of the space, never the architect. 

kerr 3 design, Inc. is located in Edmond 

at 507 South Coltrane Road and online at 

www.kerr3.com. 


❖ 

EDMOND CONVENTION & VISITORS BUREAU 

Above: Endurance by sculptor 

Shirley Thompson Smith is located in 

front of the city’s municipal court 

building at East First Street and 

South Littler Avenue. 

Below: Children take part in the 

Endeavor Games held annually at 

the University of Central Oklahoma. 

Located in the heart of historic Route 66, 

Edmond, Oklahoma, is a city unmatched in the 

heartland. Originally formed more than thirty 

years ago as an initiative of the chamber of 

commerce, Edmond Convention & Visitors 

Bureau is now an agency of the city dedicated 

to benefitting the city of Edmond and its 

citizens by promoting the valuable commodity 

of the city itself to visitors, meeting and event 

planners thereby bringing in valuable tourist 

dollars to local businesses. 

Edmond is known for excellence…from 

outstanding hotel and banquet facilities and 

restaurants for all appetites, to stellar cultural 

events and beautiful public art, world-class golf, 

family attractions, and a vibrant downtown 

shopping scene. This is a city where more than 

150 world-class sculptures are scattered like 

jewels throughout the city—lining the streets 

and tucked into corners just waiting to surprise 

you with unexpected beauty. 

Edmond’s University of Central Oklahoma is 

noted as a premier official U.S. Olympic and 

Paralympic Training Sites and is home to the 

Men’s and Women’s U.S. Sitting Volleyball 

Teams. Other Team USA sports that train here 

include archery, track & field, and powerlifting. 

As an Olympic/Paralympic Training Site 

and Regional Center for Excellence, the 

University of Central Oklahoma also provides 

introductory and emerging Paralympic sport 

training to injured active duty servicemen 

and women and disabled veterans. The 

UCO Endeavor Games in June is an annual 

multi-sport competition bringing in athletes 

with physical disabilities from across the globe. 

The city is also home to the Edmond Soccer 

Club, which is the largest club in the region. 

Several other exciting projects will open in 

2014 including a new Edmond Recreation & 

Aquatic Center in Mitch Park, housing an 

Olympic-size competitive swimming pool, a 

new softball complex on Route 66, and the 

180,000-square-foot Summit Sports Field 

House at Covell and I-35, 

which will house 10 basketball 

courts, 18 volleyball courts, 

and 2 indoor soccer fields. 

These and so many other 

amenities and events taking 

place in Edmond require a 

unique skill, to promote 

throughout the country. The 

ECVB offers assistance to group 

meeting planners making their 

events productive and successful 

while bringing in 

travel dollars and creating a 

positive economy for Edmond 

from this business of tourism. 

The Edmond Convention 

& Visitors Bureau is located at 

1030 South Bryant and online 

at www.visitedmondok.com. 

1 1 6 ✦ M I L E M A R K E R 1 0 3

Nestled among eleven acres in the heart of 

Edmond, Oklahoma Christian Academy (OCA) 

celebrated its twenty-fifth year educating 

students from 18 different communities and 15 

denominations and religious groups in 2012. It 

was first born in the spring of 1987 in the 

hearts of several Church of Christ families who 

hoped to form a private Christian school in the 

Oklahoma City metropolitan area. When it 

debuted that fall, faculty and staff welcomed 

students from Kindergarten through seventh 

grade as it “established not a secular school 

with a Bible class, but a Christian school governed 

in all aspects by Biblical truth.” 

At its founding, OCA truly began as a community 

effort. In the first year of operation, the 

school was housed in four different locations. 

The preschool and a Kindergarten class were 

located at the Edmond Church of Christ. The 

Oakcrest Church of Christ was home to one 

Kindergarten class, and the Northwest Church 

of Christ housed first to sixth grades. Also, 

the College Campus Church of Christ (now 

known as the Memorial Road Church of Christ) 

housed first to sixth grades and the junior 

high school. In 1988 the school consolidated 

to two locations—Edmond Church of Christ 

and the Memorial Road Church of Christ. OCA 

flourished to include a new grade level each 

year until 1992-93, when it celebrated its first 

senior class graduation. 

As the school grew, more space and a 

self-operating campus were needed. In 2001 

the Edmond Church of Christ building was 

purchased and soon allowed students from 

preschool through twelfth grade to be located at 

one site. 

The school’s strong sporting tradition and 

the academic excellence of its student body 

have played a significant role in the history of 

the school. In 2001 the boys’ basketball team 

became conference champions and state finalists. 

In 2004 and 2005, the girls’ basketball 

team celebrated its state championship victory, 

and the girls’ varsity track team was named 

state champions in 2006 and 2007 while the 

boys’ team became state champions in 2007. 

The varsity boys’ basketball team became district 

champions in 2008. In 2010 and 2011, the 

varsity girls’ fast pitch softball team became district 

champions, and OCA’s football team 

OKLAHOMA CHRISTIAN ACADEMY 

became Class B academic state champions. The 

school’s academic team competed in its first 

year in the OSSAA Academic Bowls in 2011- 

2012 and was named Class A regional champions 

and area champions. 

Today, OCA’s President Brandon Tatum leads 

the school and its outstanding administration, 

teachers and staff as they continue to offer a 

Christian approach to the children’s learning 

environment that encourages spiritual growth 

and strives to train Christian leaders. 


SIGHT TO SEE 

VISION 

ASSOCIATES 

Sight to See Vision Associates at 701 South 

Broadway has been providing eye care to Edmond 

families for over four decades. It was established 

in 1971 by Dr. Richard V. Simon, who moved to 

Edmond with his wife Lois and their small children 

upon completing his doctor of optometry 

degree in Memphis, Tennessee. He and his father 

Richard R. Simon built the office and made his 

practice the anchor tenant. It was 2,500 square 

feet and he employed two assistants. Edmond’s 

population was approximately 16,500 and there 

was only one other optometrist in the city. 

In 1971 the first soft contact lenses were 

coming on the United States market. Dr. Simon 

witnessed the profession expanding from the 

core of corrective eyeglasses 

and hard contacts 

to diagnosing and managing 

ocular diseases to 

eventually the utilization 

of lasers in eye care. 

When “super opticals” 

opened in the 1980s, 

many optometrists were 

concerned that it would 

be the end of local, 

independent owned practices. This did not 

intimidate Dr. Simon. To improve service and 

remain competitive, in 1990 he expanded his 

office space to over eight thousand square feet to 

add an optical lab and triple frame inventory. In 

1998, Dr. Raquel (Simon) Strange joined the 

practice, and added surgical co-management 

and treatment of acute and chronic eye conditions 

to the services being provided. 

Sight to See Vision Associates is a family business. 

R. V. and Lois, their sons Mark and Scott, 

and daughters Raquel and Angel, have worked 

or still work at the office and have contributed 

to its success. Lois has been the backbone of the 

optical for over thirty-five years. Mark manages 

the optical lab and his wife Daina runs the front 

office and preliminary testing. Scott is currently 

enrolled at NSU Oklahoma College of 

Optometry and is joining the practice upon 

graduating in 2016. The doctors attribute the 

office’s staying power to their passion for the 

profession and their staff of twelve extraordinarily 

experienced and loyal employees. 

Sight to see Vision Associates is located in 

Edmond at 701 South Broadway and online at 

www.sighttoseevision.com. 

1 1 8 ✦ M I L E M A R K E R 1 0 3

CIRCLE SAW 

SHOP 

Circle Saw Shop has remained among 

Edmond’s most venerable landmarks for residents 

and customers of the outdoor power sales 

and repair store for over forty years. Though its 

official debut near the corner of Broadway and 

Second Street is unknown, the shop’s former 

owner, Albert F. “Al” Lamonte, bought the 

business from a retired military man in the early 

1970s after an injury at work spurred him to 

consider a new career. 

When he took over the shop, Al focused his 

efforts upon providing his faithful and growing 

list of customers the best sharpened circular saw 

blades in the area. He soon expanded into sharpening 

other types of blades and began receiving 

more and more requests to sharpen chain saw 

chains and work on weed eaters. Al also tinkered 

with a variety of machines 

and studied small engines. 

He later moved the shop to 

Fourth Street and Broadway 

to a building that was separated 

into three sections. He 

gradually bought each section 

and removed walls, fashioning 

the building into one shop 

at Nine West Fourth Street 

and incorporated it in 1977. 

As the sharpening business 

diminished, Al repaired 

lawn equipment until his 

retirement, when he 

sold the business to Ron 

Moore in 1987, but kept 

the building. Ron owned 

the shop until 1992, 

when he sold it to Steve 

and Sharon Gay. They 

owned it until 1996, 

when their nephew and 

employee Tyrel Rogers 

and his wife Aleisha 

took over the business. 

By this time, Circle Saw Shop had outgrown 

the building, but Al added more space to the 

site. In 2005 the business outgrew its location 

again and was moved to 429 West Edmond 

Road. Many loyal customers have been coming 

since the 1970s because, “Al could fix anything.” 

They still come from across Oklahoma and as far 

away as Colorado, Ohio, Texas, and Missouri. 

As they remember the role Al has played in 

the life of the shop, the Rogers write, “Even 

after he sold the business, Al often stopped by 

to see us and offer any advice when we needed 

it. Circle Saw Shop still does some sharpening 

but it is mostly an outdoor power sales and 

repair store. We owe such a great thanks to Al 

for starting that work on chain saws and weed 

eaters so many years ago.” 

❖ 

Top: The Circle Saw Shop at 

Nine West Fourth Street before 

the remodel. 

Left: The Circle Saw Shop at 

Nine West Fourth Street after 

the remodel. 

Below: The Circle Saw Shop at 

429 West Edmond Road in 2012. 


RAIN GUARD, 

INC. 

“When raindrops fall…remember to call.” 

In 1974, Gene Bootenhoff moved his family 

to Oklahoma. David, Gene’s second oldest son, 

worked part-time for a Tulsa-based gutter company 

during high school and after graduation 

was offered a sales position in Tulsa. Gene’s 

middle son, Denis, graduated high school and 

moved to Weatherford, where he then decided 

to work in the drilling industry while he 

attended SWOSU. 

Ultimately, Rain Guard, Inc., was founded by 

Gene and his sons because friends so often told 

Gene he had enough kids to run his own business. 

Gene took out a loan and Denis left 

SWOSU to pursue the business with David in 

Tulsa, while Tim joined the family business in 

Tulsa after high school. 

not afford a building for storage. He later opened 

his own office in north Oklahoma City in 1983. 

The first year in Oklahoma City was a 

struggle, but Denis realized the potential of 

the business and understood the valuable 

relationships with clients that he was building 

on a daily basis. The company soon flourished 

and customers were often shocked when Denis 

guaranteed installation of their guttering within 

only a few days, if not the next day. The company 

has worked with most OKC area developers and 

builders. Denis is proud of his family and his 

business. “It is a family business, and we stick 

to what we know, and that is guttering,” he said. 

“If we install our guttering and there is a 

problem, we will go the extra mile to give the 

customer what they want.” 

After a year in Tulsa, Denis decided to open a 

new location in Oklahoma City, while David and 

Tim remained in Tulsa. In the beginning, Denis 

drove to Tulsa to pick up material, sell the 

guttering and install it himself because he could 

Today, Rain Guard, Inc. has three offices 

owned and operated by Denis. They are located 

in Nichols Hills, Edmond, and Norman. You 

can read all about Rain Guard’s products and 

services at www.rainguardok.com 

1 2 0 ✦ M I L E M A R K E R 1 0 3

PELCO 

PRODUCTS, 

INC. 

Pelco Products, Inc., is an Oklahoma based, 

family-owned business specializing in the 

design and manufacture of traffic hardware, 

utility products and decorative outdoor lighting. 

With over 150 employees in Edmond alone, it 

is the largest traffic hardware manufacturer in 

the nation. 

Pelco Products, Inc., was co-founded by Phil 

Parduhn and his son, Steve. Three years later, 

Phil’s son Jeff joined the company. Phil’s daughter 

Diana also maintains an active role in the company. 

The Parduhn’s have been involved in the 

traffic control business for over fifty years. Prior to 

Pelco, Phil and his brother-in-law Bill McCurdy 

began and operated VePed Traffic Controls, Inc., 

for twenty-three years in Oklahoma City. 

Pelco opened for business in January of 

1985 with six employees, all dedicated to manufacturing 

the most innovative and highest 

quality traffic hardware. With the invention and 

success of the Astro-Brac, created in 1968, the 

company has continued to show a history of 

innovation and holds many patents. Pelco 

has grown its product line to include utility 

hardware, decorative lighting and ornamental 

products and accessories. Pelco’s decorative 

lighting, street lighting and signage can be seen 

throughout Edmond, Oklahoma, and in many 

surrounding neighborhoods and cities throughout 

the United States. 

The company’s original location occupied 

2,500 square feet of space near Wilshire and 

Broadway in Oklahoma City. By 1987, Pelco 

had expanded into seventy-five hundred square 

feet with visions of growing more as plans were 

made to construct a building in Edmond. By the 

end of its third year, Pelco had grown to twentyfive 

people. Today, Pelco Products, Inc., of 

Edmond and affiliate, Pelco Structural, LLC of 

Claremore employ over 325 in three facilities totaling 

more than 310,000 square feet on 53 acres. 

Always at the forefront of technology in its 

industry, Pelco is constantly providing new 

products to help customers solve their problems. 

Pelco’s manufacturing technology is world 

class, utilizing the latest in machining techniques. 

Employing its own integrated powder 

coating facility, as well as wet-painting, Pelco is 

able to provide customized product finishes. 

The company also adopted the disciplines 

of Lean Manufacturing in which continuous 

improvements throughout the organization 

provides rapid customer response, shortened 

lead times, and improved product quality. 

Pelco has proven to be a pioneer in their 

industry and has become the standard for 

products that are superior in design, quality 

and cost effectiveness. “We sell service and it 

just happens that we manufacture products that 

allow us to sell our service.”—Steve Parduhn. 


EDMOND DENTAL 

ASSOCIATES 

❖ 

Above: The offices of Edmond Dental 

Associates, 2012. 

Below: Drs. Vince and Ralph Willcox. 

Edmond Dental Associates, PLLC is home 

to the father and son dental team—V. Ralph 

Willcox DDS and Vince Willcox DDS. The 

practice was originally founded in the mid- 

1960s by Dr. Donald E. Courts, only the third 

dentist to open in Edmond. 

Dr. Ralph Willcox graduated from the 

University of Oklahoma (OU) College of 

Dentistry in 1985 and purchased the practice 

in 1993 from Dr. Courts. Dr. Vince Willcox 

entered the practice after graduating from 

OU College of Dentistry in 2007. Dr. Ralph 

and Dr. Vince both grew up in Edmond and 

graduated from Edmond Memorial High School. 

Their great great-grandfathers, John W. McCoy 

and Albert W. Deal, arrived in central Oklahoma 

during the Land Run of 1889. Growing up 

here has given them the opportunity to provide 

services for childhood friends, their parents, 

former teachers and coaches, as well as many 

new Edmondites. 

Today, Edmond Dental is a state-of-the-art 

practice providing services for all ages and 

includes preventive and restorative services, 

digital x-rays, cosmetic procedures, implants, 

digital dentures, and Invisalign. The practice 

consists of 2 dentists, 4 dental hygienists, 

4 dental assistants, and 3 business coordinators. 

They are a large privately-owned dental 

practice with a small hometown feel. Their 

growth mainly comes from the referrals they 

are blessed to receive from patients, doctors, 

and dental specialists. The greatest compliment 

they receive is through these referrals. New 

patients are always welcome. 

The practice is also dedicated to providing 

optimum care for patients of all ages in a warm, 

caring, and fun environment. They take pride 

in the smiles, stories, and laughs shared with 

patients and one another. As dentistry continues 

to change, they vow to continue to grow and 

change with it while always serving their 

patients in a manner in which they would want 

to be served, providing the best dental care 

available at a fair price. 

Edmond Dental actively supports several 

organizations such as Fellowship of Christian 

Athletes (FCA), Water is Life, Shepherds of 

Love Ministry, Ministries of Jesus, Boys Ranch 

of Edmond, and Edmond Hope Center. They 

also provide dentistry in the mission field both 

locally and internationally. 

Edmond Dental Associates is located online 

at www.edmonddental.com and at 950 Medical 

Park Boulevard in Edmond, just south of 

Fifteenth Street and east of Kelly, in the 

Renaissance Business Park. 

1 2 2 ✦ M I L E M A R K E R 1 0 3

DIAGNOSTIC 

RADIOLOGY 

Diagnostic Radiology was founded in Edmond 

in 1971. The original office location was on 

Broadway in downtown Edmond. The current 

office location at Ninth Street and South Bryant 

Avenue was opened in 1986. 

Diagnostic Radiology is a radiologist-owned 

and operated imaging facility composed of fulltime 

on-site board certified radiologists with 

combined experience of more than sixty years. 

The independent facility is a favorite among 

referring physicians and their patients. 

Diagnostic Radiology’s team of professionals 

provide the ultimate radiology experience, 

from scheduling your appointment with same, 

or next day, availability to rapid reporting of 

results. Diagnostic Radiology is known for 

their personal attention and follow up with 

each individual case from procedure to the 

final diagnosis. 

Today its three board certified radiologists, 

Drs. J. D. Crooks, Donald Nix, and Howard B. 

Herberman, specialize in diagnostic radiology, 

ultrasound, CT, and mammography. Radiologic 

and ultrasound technologists are registered, 

ensuring quality images for precise diagnosis. 

The facility is fully digital with imaging 

services including general x-ray and fluoroscopy, 

ultrasound, CT and women’s imaging 

including mammography and infertility testing. 

Fluoroscopy is used to evaluate the esophagus, 

stomach and intestines. General ultrasound is 

used to evaluate the abdomen, pelvis, and 

vascular system; more specialized ultrasound 

for breast, OB/GYN, and head and neck imaging 

is also offered. CT is used to evaluate the head, 

sinuses, neck, chest, abdomen and pelvis, and 

bone density. Women’s imaging studies include 

obstetric and gynecologic ultrasound, mammography, 

breast ultrasound and biopsy, and 

hysterosalpingography (HSG) for infertility 

testing. Fine needle aspiration (FNA) biopsies 

are performed with on-site histologic assessment 

by Dr. Ruth Oneson of Heartland Pathology. 

Diagnostic Radiology is located at 902 South 

Bryant Avenue in Edmond and online at 

www.edmondradiology.com. 


FAITH 

ELECTRIC, INC. 

❖ 



Founded in Edmond by Larry Admire in 

1980, Faith Electric, Inc., provides and delivers 

state-of-the-art electrical design, installation, and 

repairs, in an ever-changing residential, commercial, 

and industrial marketplace. The company 

serves the Oklahoma City metro area and central 

Oklahoma, offering outstanding service at a 

cost-effective rate, while never compromising 

workmanship and the proper use of materials. 

Faith Electric, Inc., offers a variety of commercial 

and residential services in the field including 

design build, consultation, emergency service 

work, remodel work, single-family and multifamily 

residence, and light industrial projects. 

Working with Siemens and Levington manufacturers, 

the mark of Faith Electric, Inc., is to 

provide the same attention to quality, efficiency, 

and detail on all projects, no matter how large 

or small. 

Faith Electric, Inc., provides rapid response, 

expert technicians, and excellent productivity 

that all combine for a level of efficiency and 

performance simply unparalleled. The company 

includes a large fleet of fully equipped service 

trucks, vast array of tools and testing equipment, 

and completely stocked materials warehouse that 

provide the team a diverse capability to perform 

the most difficult projects on time and within, if 

not under, budget. Faith Electric, Inc., specializes 

in the design, construction, management, operation 

and maintenance of physically distributed 

assets such as electricity and telecommunications 

networks, but we also turn the skills 

honed on this work to any related task. The 

company distinguishes itself from its competition 

by specializing in fast-track and complex 

electrical installations. Their highly qualified 

and proficient workforce of thirty gives them the 

competitive edge for timely job completion, reputable 

work and a history of satisfied customers. 

Faith Electric, Inc., is also an authorized 

Generac Elite dealer, including their Guardian 

Series, QuietSource Series, and CorePower Series. 

Faith Electric, Inc., is also the authorized dealer 

for the install, design, and sell of Generac 

Guardian generators, the top-selling brand in residential 

backup power, providing reliable emergency 

standby electricity for homes and small 

businesses. The fully automatic system restores 

power within seconds of an outage. Permanently 

connected to the home’s electrical system, 

Guardian generators provide power for heating 

systems, water heaters, well pumps, sump pumps, 

appliances and selected lights and receptacles. 

Faith Electric, Inc., is a member of the 

Central Oklahoma Builders Association and is 

located at 6712 North Coltrane in Edmond and 

online at www.faithelectric.net. 

1 2 4 ✦ M I L E M A R K E R 1 0 3

ST. MARY’S 

EPISCOPAL 

SCHOOL 

Among the great models of early childhood 

education in Oklahoma, St. Mary’s Episcopal 

School stands as a testament to the work of its 

founders, and is a proud landmark in the life of 

current and former students and their families. 

From its debut in Edmond in 1972, the school 

has remained devoted to providing the very 

best academic programs in an environment that 

fosters respect for faith, family, others and self. 

The school was originally privately owned by 

Kitty Warren who then offered it to St. Mary’s 

Episcopal Church. The church accepted the 

school and asked Kay Salyer and Beth Peacock 

to continue it as a parish day school. With a 

$100 donation, Salyer and Peacock opened the 

doors of the school in October 1977. 

Opening as an official entity of the church 

that fall, twenty preschoolers and ten kindergarteners 

attended morning classes in what was 

later known as the Canterbury House. The 

Reverend Canon David Egbert, St. Mary’s 

Episcopal Church Rector served as the school’s 

chaplain and Susan Radke as school director. 

In 1980 the program was expanded and 

enrollment grew to fifty children. In 1983 an 

education wing was added to the church and 

student enrollment quickly doubled in size. 

The school again flourished near the end of the 

decade with the church’s purchase of adjacent 

property and the Burton House, and completed 

minor renovations to the Canterbury House. Firstgrade 

students were enrolled in 1989 and courses 

in music and physical education were added. In 

1990, 143 students and 17 staff and 

faculty members welcomed Nancy Hetherington 

as head of the school when Susan Radke ended her 

outstanding tenure as the director of the school. 

The end of the twentieth century and start 

of a new millennium was a landmark period in 

the history of the school. It was accredited with 

the Southwest Association of Episcopal Schools, 

incorporated and expanded to a full elementary 

program to serve students through the fifth 

grade. In 2001, fifty-one acres were purchased 

along Covell near Broadway for construction of 

a new facility with ambitions to expand into 

middle school as well. Reverend Dr. Mark Story 

became Rector of St. Mary’s Episcopal Church 

and the school’s chaplain in 2002. Thirdthrough 

fifth-grade students occupied the new 

building in 2004, followed by preschool 

through second grade students in 2006. 

Today, St. Mary’s is located online at 

www.smesedmond.org and at 505 East Covell in 

its more than 26,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art 

facility. The school includes 33 faculty and staff 

members and 158 current students in 

its elementary and middle school programs. 

Established in its legacy as the home of devoted 

leaders and outstanding teachers, St. Mary’s 

continues to seize every opportunity to enrich the 

lives of its students in the twenty-first century. 

❖ 

Above: St. Mary’s Episcopal 

Church, c. 1937. Upon inception 

of St. Mary’s Episcopal School, 

classes began meeting in the original 

church building, also known as the 

Canterbury House. Sadly, the building 

burned down before the school moved 

its campus to its current location at 

505 East Covell. 

Below: Students, faculty and staff 

gather outside the school’s modern 

campus along Covell during the 

2011-2012 school year. 


ANIMAL MEDICAL 

CENTER I35 

❖ 

The staff of Animal Medical 

Center I35 from left to right: 

Denise McClelland, Jennifer Baker, 

Cath Coover, Dr. Susan Tomlinson, 

Candice Pitts, and Michelle Guindin, 

c. 2000. 

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF SARAH PHIPPS 

AND THE EDMOND SUN. 

Animal Medical Center I35, in operation 

since 1988, is owned by Dr. Susan Tomlinson. 

Originally founded by Dr. Sam Crosby and his son 

Dr. Sammie Crosby, Animal Medical Center I35 is 

a small animal veterinary medicine and surgery 

clinic, which provides grooming and boarding 

services. The Crosbys opened the practice as 

Abri to serve as a mixed animal practice before it 

was purchased by Dr. Larry Nieman as a small 

medicine clinic in 1998. Dr. Susan Tomlinson and 

her husband, Tommy, bought the 

practice in 2000 and the name was 

changed to Animal Medical Center I35. 

In 2001, Dr. R. B. Blankenship sold 

his practice building at Second Street 

and Bryant Avenue in Edmond and, 

with his associate, Dr. Melanie Krenek, 

joined Animal Medical Center I35. 

Another key staff member, Louann 

Randall, who had been with Dr. 

Blankenship since 1974, also joined 

Animal Medical Center I35. When 

Dr. Blankenship retired in 2010, 

Dr. Chris Petro joined the center. 

Today, Animal Medical Center 

I35’s central location just a few blocks west of 

Interstate 35 on Second Street welcomes clients 

and pets from Edmond, Arcadia, Jones, Guthrie 

and Oklahoma City. The center is a proud 

supporter of local pet rescue organizations 

such as Heartland Lab Rescue and Misfits, Mutts 

and Meows. 

For more information, visit Animal Medical 

Center I35 online at www.edmondvet.com and 

www.facebook.com/animalmedicalcenteri35. 

1 2 6 ✦ M I L E M A R K E R 1 0 3

SPONSORS 

Angel House.................................................................................................................................................................................86 

Animal Medical Center I35.........................................................................................................................................................126 

AVL Systems Design ...................................................................................................................................................................106 

A Bloom Above the Rest .............................................................................................................................................................114 

Circle Saw Shops........................................................................................................................................................................119 

The City of Edmond.....................................................................................................................................................................72 

David Lee Marketing, Inc. ..........................................................................................................................................................102 

Diagnostic Radiology ..................................................................................................................................................................123 

Edmond Convention & Visitors Bureau......................................................................................................................................116 

Edmond Dental Associates..........................................................................................................................................................122 

Edmond Historical Society & Museum.........................................................................................................................................88 

Fairfax Estate and Golf Community..............................................................................................................................................96 

Faith Electric, Inc. ......................................................................................................................................................................124 

Fine Arts Institute of Edmond ....................................................................................................................................................112 

Hornbeek Blatt Architects.............................................................................................................................................................94 

In Search of the Lord’s Way ..........................................................................................................................................................80 

INTEGRIS Health Edmond .........................................................................................................................................................111 

Keller Williams at the Kivlehen House........................................................................................................................................108 

kerr 3 design group, Inc.............................................................................................................................................................115 

LifeStyles....................................................................................................................................................................................113 

Nestlé Purina Pet Care..................................................................................................................................................................98 

Oklahoma Christian Academy ....................................................................................................................................................117 

Oklahoma Christian University ..................................................................................................................................................100 

Oklahoma Municipal Power Authority........................................................................................................................................104 

OU Medical Center Edmond ........................................................................................................................................................84 

Pelco Products,. Inc....................................................................................................................................................................121 

Powers at Law, LLC ......................................................................................................................................................................90 

Rain Guard, Inc..........................................................................................................................................................................120 

Sight to See Vision Associates .....................................................................................................................................................118 

St. John the Baptist Catholic Church ..........................................................................................................................................110 

St. Mary’s Episcopal School ........................................................................................................................................................125 

University of Central Oklahoma ...................................................................................................................................................92 

S p o n s o r s ✦ 1 2 7

ABOUT THE AUTHORS 

B O B 

B U R K E 

Bob Burke has written more historical non-fiction books than anyone else in history. His 112 books are all about Oklahoma’s 

incredible heritage. Born in Broken Bow, Oklahoma, he was the director of a large state agency in Governor David Boren’s 

administration and managed Boren’s first campaign for the United States Senate. He is a graduate of the University of Oklahoma and 

Oklahoma City University School of Law. He is the father of Robert, Amy, and Cody, stepfather of Natalie, Lauren, and Calli, and 

grandfather of Nathan, Jon, Ridge, Fallon, Greyson, Mia, and Emerson. He and his wife Chimene live in Oklahoma City where he 

practices law and writes books. 

E R I C 

D A B N E Y 

Born and raised in Oklahoma, Eric Dabney received his undergraduate and graduate degrees from the University of Central 

Oklahoma in Edmond where he now serves as an adjunct professor in the College of Education. He is the co-author of Historic South 

Carolina, Willie of the Valley: The Life of Bill Paul, Historic Rogers County, Carter County Oklahoma: Then and Now, and the children’s 

biography, Fearless Flight: The Amazing Adventures of Wiley Post. Eric and his wife Shelley have three daughters, Emily, Claire and Julia, 

and live near Guthrie, Oklahoma. 

1 2 8 ✦ M I L E M A R K E R 1 0 3

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