Bertrand Cemetery, Felt, Oklahoma

Oklahoma

 

(Library of Congress) Oklahoma entered the Union as the forty-sixth state on November 16, 1907. Five days later, The Beaver Herald, the Beaver County Oklahoma newspaper, carried this news, reporting in the headline that “The Brightest Star in the Constellation Now Shines for the 46th State—Oklahoma.”
The history of Oklahoma is tied to the early nineteenth-century use of this land for relocating the Native American population from the settled portions of the United States. Congress passed the Indian Removal Act on May 30, 1830, authorizing land grants in this open prairie, west of the Mississippi, in exchange for Native American property to the east.
Oklahoma became the migration destination of Choctaw, Chickasaw, Creek, Seminole, and Cherokee tribes as the federal government coerced these peoples to relocate. Known as the “five civilized tribes,” these Native Americans of the south and southeastern United States were forced west by the enormous land hunger of this period.
By 1880, sixty tribes, had moved to Oklahoma where they created a government structure, landownership laws, and a thriving culture. Thus, the name Oklahoma is derived from the Choctaw Indian words “okla,” meaning people, and “humma,” meaning red. Continued

Jim Thorpe

(Wikipedia) James Francis Thorpe (Sac and Fox (Sauk): Wa-Tho-Huk, translated as "Bright Path" (May 22 or 28, 1887 – March 28, 1953) was an American athlete and Olympic gold medalist. A member of the Sac and Fox Nation, Thorpe became the first Native American to win a gold medal for his home country.
 Considered one of the most versatile athletes of modern sports, he won Olympic gold medals in the 1912 pentathlon and decathlon, and played American football (collegiate and professional), professional baseball, and basketball.
He lost his Olympic titles after it was found he had been paid for playing two seasons of semi-professional baseball before competing in the Olympics, thus violating the amateurism rules that were then in place. In 1983, 30 years after his death, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) restored his Olympic medals. Continued

T. Boone Pickens

(Wikipedia) ... Pickens was born in Holdenville, Oklahoma, the son of Grace (née Molonson) and Thomas Boone Pickens. His father worked as an oil and mineral landman (rights leaser).
During World War II, his mother ran the local Office of Price Administration, rationing gasoline and other goods in three counties. Pickens was the first child born via Caesarean section in the history of Holdenville hospital.
At age 12, Pickens delivered newspapers. He quickly expanded his paper route from 28 papers to 156. Pickens later cited his boyhood job as an early introduction to "expanding quickly by acquisition", a business practice he favored later in life.
When the oil boom in Oklahoma ended in the late 1930s, Pickens' family moved to Amarillo, Texas. Continued

The Abernathy Kids

 

(405 Magazine) A century ago, in the years between statehood and the beginning of World War I, 9-year-old Louis “Bud” Abernathy and his 5-year-old brother, Temple, hankered for adventure.
Their dreams were not unusual. What was out of the ordinary was that their father said yes.
After the boys asked to ride their horses by themselves from Oklahoma to Santa Fe to see the new mansion of the governor, Jack Abernathy seriously considered their request. Their mother had died, and they were growing up fast.
With every confidence in their horsemanship, he laid down some guidelines, opened a checking account for each with $100 apiece and encouraged them to saddle up. Continued

Darrel Coble

Coble headstone featuring the famous 1936 photograph by Arthur Rothstein of the FSA.

 Darrel Coble was the smallest member of the Coble family in the picture posted above. He had every right to be proud. Not only was it a great & famous picture of the Dust Bowl days, it served to point out that not everybody was leaving the Great Plains, many were sticking it out. This at a time when politicians in Washington were considering just giving the whole thing back to the buffalo, or even paving it all over. Believe you me, crazier things happened, back in the '30's.

I like the scenes on the back of stones that show when everything's just right,
those rare moments we all live for,
 the one's that try and explain just why people stuck it out.

And stick it out they did, there are still Coble's in Cimarron County, Oklahoma.

Bryce Alford

(Wikipedia) Bryce Alford (born January 18, 1995) is an American professional basketball player for the Oklahoma City Blue of the NBA G League.
He played college basketball for the UCLA Bruins. He set school records for the most three-point field goals made in a game, season, and career. He earned first-team all-conference honors in the Pac-12 as a senior in 2016–17.
As a senior in high school in New Mexico, Alford set a state single-season scoring record, and was named the state's top high school player. Continued

Patrick Hurley

(Wikipedia) Patrick Jay Hurley (January 8, 1883, Choctaw Nation, Indian Territory — July 30, 1963, Santa Fe, New Mexico) was a highly decorated American soldier with the rank of Major General, statesman, and diplomat. He was the United States Secretary of War from 1929 to 1933.
... Hurley was the Republican candidate for a seat in the United States Senate for the state of New Mexico in 1946, 1952 and 1958 but he lost all three attempts against the Democratic candidate Dennis Chavez. Continued

Roger Miller

(Wikipedia) Roger Dean Miller, Sr. (January 2, 1936 – October 25, 1992) was an American singer-songwriter, musician, and actor, best known for his honky-tonk-influenced novelty songs. His most recognized tunes included the chart-topping country and pop hits "King of the Road", "Dang Me", and "England Swings", all from the mid-1960s Nashville sound era.

After growing up in Oklahoma and serving in the United States Army, Miller began his musical career as a songwriter in the late 1950s, writing such hits as "Billy Bayou" and "Home" for Jim Reeves and "Invitation to the Blues" for Ray Price. Continued

Wallie Criswell

(Wikipedia) Wallie Amos Criswell (December 19, 1909 – January 10, 2002), was an American pastor, author, and a two-term elected president of the Southern Baptist Convention from 1968 to 1970.
Supporters have described him as one of the 20th century's greatest expository preachers and the patriarch of the "Conservative Resurgence" within the SBC.
... Criswell grew up in Texline in Dallam County, the most northwesterly community in the Texas Panhandle, where his cowboy-barber father moved the family in 1915. Continued

Old House 146

Felt, Oklahoma

Old House 145

Felt, Cimarron County,Oklahoma

In the distant future, will our history be lost? Will the homesteaders become like the Anasazi? Who were they? Where did they come from? Why did they leave? Of course, the answer was the same: It was a good place to live, and then it wasn't. Climate, economics, security, mere details.

What We Know About the Ol’ Chisholm Trail

Jesse Chisholm

(Wild West Magazine) … Over the last 20 years or so attention has again shifted to the Chisholm Trail, a route that purportedly originated somewhere in Texas and ran north to central Kansas. Many Plains communities marked the sesquicentennial of the trail in 2017. But questions remain.
For one, was the northbound cattle trail known as the Chisholm in its heyday, or did the name come into use well after the drives had ended? Continued

150 Years Ago Today: Battle of Washita River

 

(Wikipedia) The Battle of Washita River (also called Battle of the Washita or the Washita Massacre) occurred on November 27, 1868 when Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer’s 7th U.S. Cavalry attacked Black Kettle’s Southern Cheyenne camp on the Washita River (near present-day Cheyenne, Oklahoma), part of a major winter encampment of numerous Native American tribal bands. Continued

Tommy Allsup

Tommy Allsup, 2009 (Wikipedia)

(Rockabilly Hall of Fame) Tommy, [November 24, 1931 – January 11, 2017], a Rockabilly Hall of Fame Inductee, started his musical career in Claremore, Oklahoma in 1949 with the "Oklahoma Swingbillies."
In 1950 he went to work with fiddle player Art Davis in Miami, Oklahoma; from there to the Cowboy Inn in Wichita, Kansas with singer, fiddle player Jimmy Hall.
In 1952 and 1953, he moved back to Tulsa, Oklahoma to join the "Johnnie Lee Wills Band." From 1953 to 1958, he had his own band, "The Southernaires" in Lawton, Oklahoma with homebase being the Southern Club.
In 1958, Tommy's career would take a different direction. On a trip to Clovis, New Mexico to record at Norman Petty's famous studio, he met the late Buddy Holly. In April, he started playing lead guitar with Holly and the Crickets.
He continued playing with Buddy until the fatal plane crash that took Buddy's life, along with the Big Bopper, and Ritchie Valens. It was Allsup who flipped a coin with Ritchie Valens for a seat on the ill-fated plane. Continued

A Shed and its Roof

Felt, Oklahoma

Will Rogers

(Wikipedia) William Penn Adair "Will" Rogers (November 4, 1879 – August 15, 1935) was a stage and motion picture actor, vaudeville performer, American cowboy, humorist, newspaper columnist, and social commentator.
Known as "Oklahoma's Favorite Son", Rogers was born to a prominent Cherokee Nation family in Indian Territory (now part of Oklahoma). He traveled around the world three times, made 71 movies (50 silent films and 21 "talkies"), and wrote more than 4,000 nationally syndicated newspaper columns.
By the mid-1930s, the American people adored Rogers. He was the leading political wit of his time, and was the highest paid Hollywood movie star. Continued

Old House 140

This square house, in Felt, Oklahoma, represents a very popular style from the homesteading days. Though this example is not doing very well, many are still occupied and in great shape. It's one of my favorite old designs.

John Ross

(Wikipedia) John Ross (October 3, 1790 – August 1, 1866), also known as Koo-wi-s-gu-wi (meaning in Cherokee: "Mysterious Little White Bird"), was the Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation from 1828–1866, serving longer in this position than any other person.

Described as the Moses of his people, Ross influenced the Indian nation through such tumultuous events as the relocation to Indian Territory and the American Civil War. Continued

Highland High alum McDonald, speedy Hall of Fame receiver, dies at 84

(AP) ... A native New Mexican, McDonald and his family moved from the small town of Roy to Albuquerque before his sophomore year in high school.

He developed into a three-sport athlete in football, basketball and track and field for the Hornets. Continued