Meet Oklahoma’s “Ideal American Soldier”
Did you know an Oklahoman was chosen by a French artist to personify the “ideal American soldier” in World War I for the people of France?
Here’s his story.
Otis W. Leader was born in Calvin in 1882 and raised in Lehigh. He was of Choctaw, Chickasaw, Scotch and Irish descent. The Oklahoman from Aug. 9, 1936, tells the story leading to Leader’s enlistment: “… On April 5, 1917, Fort Worth, Texas, papers carried a story about suspected spies being trailed through the stockyards by secret service men. One of them was Leader. His companions were Arnold Arn and Karl Marty, naturalized natives of Switzerland from Chicago and owners of a Pittsburg County ranch on which Leader was employed at the time. They had accompanied a shipment of cattle from the ranch to the Fort Worth market and their brogue had excited the hysterical suspicion of the day.
“The following day, the United States declared war on the central powers. On April 12, Leader, then 34 years old, enlisted in the regular army at McAlester. By June, he was in France.
Leader and his unit, the First Division, were the first American combat troops. They were available for a July Fourth parade in Paris. It was at that parade that a French artist, Raymond DeWarreux, with a commission from the French government to paint the ideal U.S. soldier, saw Leader, and decided the American Indian would be his subject.
The artist produced a paper granting permission that was signed by Gen. John J. Pershing, the commander of the American Expeditionary Force.
The artist described Leader: “a half-blood Choctaw Indian from Oklahoma, straight as an arrow and standing over six feet tall; keen, alert, yet with calmness that betokens strength and his naturally bronzed face reflecting the spirit that they took across with them, the spirit that eventually turned the tide.”
And so Leader had his picture painted and, according to the 1936 story in The Oklahoman, his painting hangs in a French military museum.
A 1968 article from The Oklahoman says another painting of Leader was painted by the Rev. Gregory Gerrer in 1922. Sources at the Oklahoma History Center said the painting was transferred to the Mabee-Gerrer Museum in Shawnee.
From a 1958 Oklahoma City Times story is this description: “The Doughboy proved his bravery and won a hero’s status in the fighting that followed. His machine gun company took some of the very first German fire to hit American soldiers, and three of his closest buddies were the first Americans to die in the war.”
In heavy fighting at Chateau-Thierry, when three of the four men in his machine gun crew were killed, Leader took up a rifle, went through the lines and captured 18 Germans.
Leader, who rose to the rank of sergeant, was wounded twice and gassed three times. He was in a French hospital recovering from shrapnel wounds he suffered in the Argonne at the war’s end.
For his valor, Leader received a Purple Heart, two Silver Stars, the Distinguished Service Cross, nine battle stars and two individual awards of the Croix de Guerre, France’s highest military honor.
Leader also was one of the 18 Choctaw code talkers who prevented Germans from deciphering messages.
After several stays in a veterans hospital, suffering complications from his military service, Leader died in 1961 at age 79.
6 Oklahoma City schools survive 100 years, for better or worse
In 1910, the school term began a bit later in Oklahoma City than it does these days. The Oklahoman published a story Sept. 12, 1910, announcing the completion or near completion of six new schools. The story read:
“The list includes six new buildings, namely: Lowell, Culbertson, Whittier, Wheeler, Lee and the high school. The Whittier school will not be completed and ready for occupancy until next week. Arrangements, however, have been made to take care of the students temporarily at the Willard, which is nearby. The high school building also is in an incomplete stage, but enough rooms have been put in order to take care of the student body for the present. Another month will probably elapse before the building will be complete in every sense of the word.
“Others incomplete.
“The Wheeler school, in east Capitol Hill, and Lee in west Capitol Hill, also are incomplete. The former, however, it is said, will be ready for occupancy in two weeks. A month or more probably will elapse before the Lee can be thrown open. Churches and store rooms have been rented to furnish temporary quarters for the children.”
In this throwaway age, I was pleasantly surprised to find that these buildings still exist and that all but one of them still is being used.
Lee and Wheeler elementary schools, at 424 SW 29 and 501 SE 25, are still in use as elementary schools and are celebrating their centennial this year. Whittier school was the second home of Oklahoma State University Technical Institute. The institute used it for some classes for about 12 years after moving to a new building in 1971. Next, the Community Action Agency moved in, now using it for storage. The Central High School building, 800 N Harvey, is now home to American Farmers and Ranchers Mutual Insurance and has been proposed as a site for the new downtown elementary school.
The Culbertson school was listed in the “Architectural/Historical Survey of Oklahoma City’s Historic School Buildings” prepared for the Criterion Group and submitted February 2001 as “may still be standing.” A drive by the building at 1200 NE 13 certainly shows a building, that could conceal the Culbertson school building under a brick facade. It houses the state Department of Mental Health and Substances Abuse Services and the Oklahoma County Crisis Intervention Center.
The truly sad note is Lowell school at 600 N High. It is the only building not being used today. It was the home for F.D. Moon Middle School, Page-Woodson and the old Douglass High School. It now sits boarded up and in disrepair and appears on Oklahoma’s Most Endangered Historic Places list. The Oklahoma City School District still owns it. Perhaps instead of letting it crumble from disuse, some MAPS dollars could be used to re-create Lowell school as the new downtown elementary school.
All of these buildings are eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places.
In this 100th year, let’s join Lee and Wheeler schools as they celebrate their centennials. And let’s hope that all six have an additional 100 years of service in them.
A ring, a button and a thimble — who knew?
While searching The Oklahoman’s online archive for information about Pershing, OK, an oil boomtown that went bust long ago, I came across a story from 1904, where then-Capt. John Joseph Pershing (he would become known as Gen. Black Jack Pershing), while serving as assistant chief of staff of the Southwest Army Division, was present in Oklahoma City at the wedding of Lt. Louis H. Kilbourne and Margaret Crittenden Laird.
It was the description of the cutting of the wedding cake that sent me off on a tangent.
From the society pages of The Oklahoman of Jan. 24, 1904, is the description:
“The reception held afterwards at the Laird home on North Robinson was a delightful crush. The cutting of the bride’s cake, containing the prophetic emblems, was attended by the most breathless interest by the four dainty bridesmaids and the other unwedded ones present. It contained a ring, a button and a thimble.
“Captain Pershing, one of the bachelors attached to General Sumner’s staff, who is causing a flutter among the girls, caused a deeper and more painful flutter by drawing the ring, which signifies that he will soon become a benedict; Miss Richardson, one of the bridesmaids, a petite, brown-haired lassie, drew the hateful thimble that used to mean that one would become a spinster, but now only signifies that she will be a bachelor maid. However the cruel fate was left undecided by her catching the bouquet, which the bride threw from the top of the stair to the maids lined up in the hall below expectantly. This contradiction will have to be unraveled by later events, but it seems that the omen of the bouquet, which means she will be the next to wed of the bridal party, seems the most likely solution to the tangle.
“Mr. Edgar Laird drew the button. This regulates him to single blessedness all his days, so it must be one of those buttons you sew on with a hammer or a hairbrush, and which are called ‘bachelor buttons,’ a name once signifying an innocent little yellow flower.”
Never having heard of putting things in cakes, except for Mardi Gras king’s cake, I had to do a little research.
The Oklahoman’s archives provided several more examples, one in 1911, in which the ring, the thimble, the darning needle, the button and the shell were put around the base of the cake and had ribbons attached for the participants to draw. The shell was for the promise of a sea voyage. I’m not sure about the darning needle. I did learn a “benedict” was a newly married man who was thought to be a confirmed bachelor.
I guess in Pershing’s case, it was true, because several years later he married. But in the case of Laird, the button didn’t take, because the next year, the society pages were mentioning Mr. and Mrs. Edgar Laird.
By 1939, Emily Post, who had a syndicated column, was suggesting that the favors be placed beside the cake.
The Oklahoman carried advertisements for a selection of favors, and my Aunt Grace Helms said when she married in 1941, her mother bought a set and slipped the pieces between the layers of her cake.
In 1960, the favors were recommended for Halloween or birthdays with these explanations: a button for bachelor, a ring for marriage, spoon for spoony (foolishness), a thimble for old maid, a dime for fortune, a penny for poverty, a dog for luck and an airplane for travel.
Other stories and ads mention a wishbone for luck.
A search of the Internet suggested that the ring, the thimble and the button were of Irish origin.
Now, when I married, I did wear something borrowed and something blue, and had a sixpence in my shoe. But my wedding cake was empty, but for the flowers that decorated its surface.
Politics as usual
Lee Cruce, a Democrat, served as Oklahoma's second governor from 1911 to 1915. - From The Oklahoman Archives
With the July 27, primary election quickly approaching, campaign signs have blossomed and some of the candidates are beginning to badmouth one another’s records. If we go back 100 years ago, we find that politics haven’t changed a great deal.
William H. “Alfalfa Bill” Murray, Lee Cruce and L.P. Ross were the Democratic candidates for governor.
Ross was a poor third and the race was between Murray and Cruce.
Bill Murray accused the election board of favoritism towards Cruce and attacked the three-man board, vociferously in speeches and in letters. He, however, provided no proof. He attacked Gov. Charles Haskell when he did not endorse him.
Letters were fired back and forth, and editorials were written.
This article, published Aug. 1, 1910, in The Oklahoman, gives a good description of the race:
“A campaign fraught with significant incidents is nearing its close. On the last day before the battle of the ballots….democratic voters of the state are giving serious consideration to only two candidates, Lee Cruce and Bill Murray.”
“Bill Murray’s mud-slinging campaign has been of his own choosing. Because men have honestly
William H. "Alfalfa Bill Murray, Oklahoma's ninth governor, was elected in 1931 and served until 1935. - From The Oklahoman Archives
opposed them they have been denominated “debased and debauched politicians.” Because newspapers have opposed him, he has charged them with being corporation tools. Scarcely an incident of the campaign has passed without a tag being appended by Murray bearing slanderous and unprintable language of denunciation. With scarcely an exception such language was unpardonable, unjustified and unworthy of a man seeking the office of governor.”
While jockeying went back and forth between the candidates , the winner of the primary election was not “Alfalfa Bill” Murray but Lee Cruce, who went on to be elected Oklahoma’s second governor. Murray had to wait until 1931 for his term as governor.
Now 1oo years later, as we prepare for the next gubernatorial primary election this month technology has certainly changed the way candidates get their message out, but has Oklahoma politics and political candidates really changedvery much?
– Mary Phillips
Harvey Avenue named for another forgotton pioneer
David Archibald Harvey, Oklahoma Territory's first congressman. - From The Oklahoman Archives
“Few of the thousands of persons who daily traverse Harvey avenue, one of Oklahoma City’s principal thoroughfares, have knowledge that the street was named in honor of Oklahoma’s first congressman, David Archibald Harvey, congressional delegate from Oklahoma territory, 1891-93.” This statement was written by Alvin Rucker, a writer for The Oklahoman in an in-depth article published on Dec. 15, 1929.
David A. Harvey was born a British subject in Nova Scotia in 1845 and moved with his family to Ohio when he was 6. After college in Ohio, he moved to Kansas and worked as a civil engineer and entered the practice of law in 1874. In Kansas, he met David Payne and William Couch, leaders of the Oklahoma “boomer movement,” advocates of the settlement of Indian Territory, and he became a staunch supporter.
When Oklahoma was opened for settlement April 22, 1889, Harvey was already here. He was a “Sooner.” While it cost him his claim, when he was challenged and he admitted he entered before the official opening, it didn’t harm him politically.
He received a commission, as a federal district court commissioner and was an active participant of the Board of Trade, the predecessor of the Chamber of Commerce. In 1890, an election was held, and, while he was not the popular candidate, (that was Dennis Flynn, who was too closely aligned with Guthrie at the time) Harvey won.
While in Congress, “he introduced the first joint statehood bill for Oklahoma and Indian territories; he aided materially in passage of the bill under which the government bought the Cherokee Strip and threw it open to settlement; he introduced the “free home” idea …”
“Among the bills introduced by Harvey during his congressional services were:
Eight bills to reimburse settlers for losses sustained through depredations committed by Indians.
A bill to appropriate money to erect a building for the U.S. experiment station at Stillwater.
A bill granting to the Atlantic, Guthrie and Pacific railroad, right-of-way through the Sac and Fox, Iowa, Creek, Cheyenne and Arapaho reserves.
A bill extending over Oklahoma townsites certain Kansas laws.
A bill to approve and legalize Oklahoma legislative acts extending probate court jurisdiction.
A bill to authorize the purchase of school land for cemetery purposes.
A bill to ratify agreement with the Wichita and affiliated Indians and for an appropriation to make the agreement effective.
A bill authorizing the Middle Valley railroad to build through Indian Territory.
A bill to grant the Rock Island rights to buy land at Chickasha, Indian Territory, for station purposes.
A bill authorizing the Santa Fe railroad to purchase land in the Chickasha Nation.
A bill extending the Oklahoma legislative session 30 days.”
Harvey returned to Oklahoma City in 1893, at the end of his congressional service practiced law until 1896, when he moved to Wyandotte, in what is now Ottawa County, Oklahoma, where he became an attorney for Indians.
He died in 1916 and is buried in Seneca, Missouri.
Oklahoma Natural Gas building, formerly the Elks Lodge building, located on Harvey Ave. - From The Oklahoman Archives
New federal building in downtown Oklahoma City, located on Harvey Avenue. - From The Oklahoman Archives
A drive north on Harvey Avenue provides a glimpse of our city’s history in the form of buildings and structures: the OG&E building, ONG building, the new Federal Courthouse and the 9:03 gate of the Oklahoma City Memorial are all on Harvey. Fitting monuments to a forgotten man.
– Mary Phillips
Visitors look at the memorial fence at the Oklahoma City National Memorial on Harvey Avenue. - From The Oklahoman Archives
The facade of the Oklahoma Gas & Electric building on Harvey Ave. - From The Oklahoman Archives
A busy week in history: Election and theft set stage for capital
One hundred years ago this was a tumultuous and historic week.
It began Saturday, June 11, when the state held an election to determine whether Oklahoma City, Guthrie or Shawnee would become the permanent state capital.
On June 12, the Sunday Oklahoman announced Oklahoma City as the winner of the election by a
The Logan County courthouse, in Guthrie, which served as the state Capitol before 1910. It is from this building that the state seal was "stolen." - Oklahoman Archive photo.
landslide vote of 70,004 to 39, 642 with several precincts still waiting to report. It also mentioned the filing of a temporary injunction by Guthrie to prevent the removal of state records and property.
Monday’s newspaper announced, “STATE CAPITAL IN OKLAHOMA CITY TODAY,” and included a letter from Gov. Charles M. Haskell declaring Oklahoma City the official state capitol and inviting anyone who felt the need to come to the Lee-Huckins Hotel, which was serving as the temporary capitol building, and talk to him.
The original seal of the State of Oklahoma. - Oklahoman archive photo
Wednesday’s paper carried a story on Page 5 about the thrilling automobile drive taken to Guthrie on Saturday and “theft” of the state seal on the governor’s orders by his secretary, W. B. Anthony, and several other accomplices.
On Thursday, the newspaper reported a celebration at the state fairgrounds and the automobile parade through the streets of more than 200 cars filled with dignitaries and celebrants.
In Friday’s paper, Gov. Haskell issued an official proclamation, proclaiming the election results official and Oklahoma City the winner.
Gov. Charles N. Haskell, Oklahoma's first governor from 1907 to 1911. - Oklahoman archive photo
By Saturday, the only mention was of the injunction before the state Supreme Court that was expected to be and was nullified. The big stories on the front page were about Theodore Roosevelt taking a vacation to Oyster Bay, N.Y., after touring Africa and Europe and California’s governor preparing to declare martial law to prevent a boxing match.
So a busy and controversial week ended, and Oklahoma City has been our capital ever since.
Mary Phillips
A Stock Yards Centennial
Recently I had dinner at Cattleman’s restaurant in Stockyards City.
I noticed a sign touting a centennial event for Stockyards City. I hadn’t realized that the Oklahoma National Stock Yards were celebrating 100 years in existance.
Earlier this year, I had driven along S May Avenue, where many of the old packing plants were located. The livestock holding pens are gone and the enormous meat processing buildings are empty and gathering graffitti.
I can remember, as a child, being driven past the pens, full of animals, and not realizing then what I was smelling was the odor of success. At that time, the packing plants and the adjoining Stock Yards had been in business for at least 50 years and the area was originally known as Packingtown.
In May of 1909, the Oklahoma City Chamber of Commerce was celebrating its success in enticing the Thomas Morris Company to build a massive plant in south Oklahoma City.
From an advertisement published in The Oklahoman Oct. 4, 1910, Morris & Company announced it was in operation as of Oct. 3 and invited the public to come “inspect our Packing Houses …”
The advertisement included an invitation from the The Oklahoma National Stock Yards Company to “visit and inspect the most perfectly arranged and modern stock yards …”
While the packing plants are abandoned or nearly so, and the Oklahoma National Stock Yards may no longer be the “worlds largest,” Stockyards City, the unique area along S Agnew still has much to offer – shops, restaurants and atomosphere galore
Join them in their centennial celebration year. As they would say, “Ya’ll come now!”
– Mary Phillips
Mother’s Day — A day to recognize
This proclamation was published in The Oklahoman May 1, 1910:
“MOTHER’S DAY IS MAY 8; MAYOR’S PROCLAMATION”
“Mayor Harry M. Scales Saturday issued a proclamation settling Sunday May 8, as “Mother’s Day.” The proclamation was as follows:
“Throughout the country, it is fast becoming the custom to set apart a day to be known and observed as Mother’s Day. The idea is a most commendable one, and the day should be commemorated by wearing a white flower or her favorite bloom.
“Therefore, in accordance with the beautiful idea set forth, I, Henry M. Scales, mayor of Oklahoma City, Okla., do hereby declare Sunday, May 8, Mother’s Day to be properly observed by the citizens of Oklahoma City.
“HENRY M. SCALES
mayor”
On May 7, this article appeared:
“Oklahoma City is preparing Sunday to honor one dear to the hearts of all people. To honor the best mother who ever lived — your mother. In accordance with an already old custom in the east, a day is set aside each year, proclaimed as a legal holiday by the mayor and state officials as “Mother’s Day.” In this city the second Sunday in May has been set aside as a legal holiday.
The objects of Mother’s Day is to recall the memories of the mothers that are gone and through loving words and care to brighten the lives of the mothers that remain and to help the children and men and women to a greater blessing in honoring their father and mother.
To call back mother’s words and prayers and the promises made her by the boy who is now a man and to think a little of what she was to her family. Those who are still blessed with a mother may show their appreciation by some deed of gratitude and love.
Emblematic of the day, each person will be asked to wear a white flower symbolic of purity and love, the two characteristics of mother…
“Mother’s day” had its origin in the person of Miss Anna Jarvis of Philadelphia, about five years ago, and so rapidly has the idea spread that in New England states, New York, Pennsylvania and New Jersey it is observed each year.”
The second Sunday in May became the national holiday for Mother’s Day with the proclamation in 1914 by President Woodrow Wilson.
What was a great idea in Oklahoma City 100 years ago, is still a great idea.
Happy Mother’s Day!
– Mary Phillips
The first Capitol picnic
Imagine, if you will, the area where the state Capitol now stands as empty prairie and how bright stars would have been without the lights of the city today. This would have been the scene on a crisp, November night in 1910.
This photo taken circa 1915-16 of the construction of the state Capitol shows the area as it was, farm land and prairie. - THE OKLAHOMAN ARCHIVE
Before the graders could grade and the builders could build, the surveyors had to perform their calculations to determine the exact location in the world of the Capitol building.
Two stories from The Oklahoman, Nov. 12 and Nov. 13 of 1910 described the actions of the surveyors as they engaged in ”Fixing the State Capital Meridian.”
The Saturday, Nov. 12, article is prefaced as though for a play:
Scene: The Capitol site
Time: Friday evening
Props: “Two delicate surveyor’s transit instruments, the best of the kind in the world, flickering lantern, fitful gleams of a gypsy fire, great bags of apples, surveyors stakes in a pile, small flash lights and above all an appetizing aroma of coffee from the bubbling pot on the fire.”
Cast– members of the capitol commission, corps of engineers and at least one newspaper reporter.
“There you are–what was it all about? An important event in the history of Oklahoma City’s acquisition of the state capitol– the establishment of the capitol site by astronomical calculation based on the whirling of Polaris, the north star, on its heavenly orbit.”
“The calculation was made by Mr. D’Yarmett in the presence of the capitol commissioners to provide an absolute basis for the surveyor’s lines on the capitol site. No human agency can rub out this important imaginary line– and should all other plats and maps and records be destroyed the expert engineer with the exact longitude of the capitol site, obtained last night, could reproduce the maps. The observation of Polaris to determine “True North” is handed down to science by the sailors of Phoenicia–in its perfected form it played its part in the building of a great state house by a great state.
“The observation was begun by a corps of engineers at 8:45 o’clock Friday night when the star
A surveyor at work on the Capitol grounds in 1936. - The Oklahoman Archive
peeped from the mists of the northern sky. It was finished in the wee hours of this morning but the sensitive instruments were left on their tripods until early today when the calculation from their reading will be made and announcement given out by the capitol commission. The jarring of street cars or automobiles in carring the instruments to the city might have produced serious error. Hence the all night vigil– the blazing fire for warmth to the watchers and the glowing coals to cook the appetizing midnight meal for the the engineers and commissioners– the first picnic on the capitol site.”
The Oklahoman Sunday, Nov. 13 announced:
“The capitol of the state of Oklahoma will be located on longitude 97 degrees, 25 minutes.
“… the observation was the clulmination, the finishing touch, to the tremendous work of laying out and platting the state capitol site. The establishment of the meridian, or “the azimuth of the base line of the capitol addition,” forever fixes ” a bench mark” from which the entire site could be replatted, should all other records be effaced…”
– Mary Phillips
“The meaning of Easter”
This is a reprint of an article by Edith C. Johnson, an editorial writer for The Oklahoman, that was first published 95 years ago on Easter Sunday, April 4, 1915:
“Today is Easter — the most significant and appealing festival in the calendar of the year — with the single exception of Christmas.
Easter is our most perfect symbol of hope renewed and our promise of life eternal. Rightly interpreted, it becomes the sign-manual of creative energy bursting the bonds of a thousand limitations. It is the token of new courage with which to face life’s struggle–strong in the belief of an ultimate supremacy. To contemplate the eternal verities for which it stands is to widen our horizon and broaden our purposes and hopes.
Science teaches us that one spring is like another–but science is forgotten in the message of inspiration the recurring springtime brings to a world that is weary with toil and endless disappointments, that is wasting its blood in futile warfare, that is struggling with iron oppressions and that is crushed to earth under the heel of selfishness and cold indifference.
Easter beckons on the human race. Symbolizing the renewal of man’s shining ideals, it revives human faith after the winter of our discontent, and spurs us on to the accomplishment of unbelievable tasks, through a courage that finds its source in the life-giving stream of our spiritual nature.
There is a sublime general in Easter, celebrated by the return of spring with its melting snows and streams, its budding leaves, and its bursting blossoms that once more turn their petals to the sun. Man may fall, but nature always stands proudly erect– for the seed drops to earth, only to blossom forth in greater glory. Man may transgress or evade the law. Inviolable nature keeps it. Man may sullenly turn away from light and truth. All nature turns her face towards the sun.
Thus do we read in the buds and blossoms and leaves of grass the victories of life. The beauties of nature heal and restore us. The incommunicable trees, flowers, the earth and the waters, all growing things and the heavens, bid us live with them and enter into the fullness of life. They proclaim that love shall overcome hate; that justice shall rise above injustice; that right will triumph over might and that dominion and power shall ultimately belong to the righteous and pure in heart.–E.C.J.”
May you find beauty in the Oklahoma spring landscape on this early Easter morning.
Mary Phillips
