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Politics as usual

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

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

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Harvey Avenue named for another forgotton pioneer

“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.

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

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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

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.

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.

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

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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

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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

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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.

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

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

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“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

mphillips@opubco.com

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“Father of Capitol Hill” named Oklahoma City

I came across a story that referred to  Benoni Harrington as the “father of Capitol Hill.” I was curious because I had never heard of him. So I began looking for any information I could find, and I was able to learn about another of Oklahoma City’s colorful pioneers.

Benoni (Ben) R. Harrington arrived in Oklahoma City on April 22, 1889, by train.  He was, however, not new to Oklahoma Territory.

Relocating in Wichita, Kan., from California, he would take the train several times a month to the “wild country.” He was a correspondent for the Wichita Beacon and would write about the Unassigned Lands. An interview with Ben Harrington from The Oklahoman, Feb 6, 1949, stated, “Harrington’s stories did a lot toward starting the Sooner movement. People who read them, came on the Santa Fe to look and some tried to stay.”

When Hamlin Sawyer, a Kansas editor, wanted to start a newspaper in the Oklahoma Territory, Sawyer  asked Harrington what he should name the newspaper, and Harrington told him to name it the Oklahoma City Times. The Times was first printed in Kansas and sent down by train. 

Quoting from “The First Eight Months in Oklahoma City” by Bunky (Irving Geffs) serialized in the Oklahoma City Times in 1933: “The initial number of the Oklahoma City Times was published to the world Dec. 29, 1888 by Hamlin Whitmore Sawyer, the present editor and publisher.  Mr. B. R. Harrington, who was perfectly familiar with this country, was the local editor. The mechanical work on the first issue was executed at Wichita, Kan. but the copy was furnished by Mr. Harrington from this place. Type and material was at once furnished to Mr. Harrington at this place and the Oklahoma City Times as a weekly paper appeared regularly and was circulated to the world through the postoffice at this city. The novelty of a newspaper in the Oklahoma Territory, from the city that bears its name, was a drawing card and everybody wanted to see the new paper. Chicago, Kansas City, St. Louis, Wichita and many metropolitan papers quoted the Oklahoma City Times.  The result was a marvelous increase in circulation. In 30 days from the first issue the circulation was extended to every state and territory in the union besides quite a list in Canada and Great Britain. It afforded the publisher a handsome income until Feb. 10, 1889, when Lieutenant Malcomb, commanding a company of U.S. troops raided this section of Oklahoma and put the Times to flight.”

Eventually, the newspaper  was purchased by The Oklahoma Publishing Company and was Oklahoma City’s afternoon paper until ceasing publication in 1983.

Because of Ben Harrington’s input in the naming of the newspaper, he was credited with the naming of Oklahoma City. Two stories I found in The Oklahoman and his obituary published April 30, 1959, confirm this.

In 1900, Harrington bought 160 acres south of the North Canadian River, and in 1901 he platted the first addition that was named Capitol Hill.

During his 1949 interview, Harrington said, “Near as I can remember, I answered right off Capitol Hill. They said no, call it Harrington addition. But I said call it Capitol Hill and put it on the map.”

The newspaper article reported: “His idea was to locate the capitol there. There was no state then and Guthrie was the territorial capital.”

In 1904, Capitol Hill was incorporated as a town, and in 1910, it was annexed by Oklahoma City with a population of 2,500. In 1949, it was estimated the population of Capitol Hill was 85,000.

Ben Harrington had a mercantile and contracting business in Oklahoma City on a lot he paid $100 for at 225 w California, but he also dabbled in land developing, natural gas drilling and he was one of the businessmen who encouraged the packing plants to locate in Oklahoma City.

Before his death on April 29, 1959,  at 96 years old, Ben Harrington had lived long enough to see Capitol Hill grow from “the one store on the river and open country it was when Harrington planned it,” according to the 1949 story. In 1959 Capitol Hill had ”a semi-weekly newspaper, a daytime radio station, 75 churches, 18 schools, seven parks and business and industry of untold financial value. A major part of Oklahoma City industry is located in the Capitol Hill district.

The Discovery Well of the Oklahoma City field. - THE OKLAHOMA ARCHIVES

“The district’s real growth dates from the discovery of oil, the final realization of Harrington’s dream on Dec. 4, 1928.”

 The Indian Territory Illuminating Oil and Foster petroleum companies’ well came gushing in 6 and 1/2 miles south of the city and was the discovery well for the Oklahoma City field. On Wednesday, Dec 5, 1928, the citizens of Capitol Hill held a celebration including fireworks and a street dance for the oil discovery.

During the 1949 interview, Harrington said, “Instead of capping it and keeping it quiet, they did like I asked and let her gush.”

The article continued: He figures the gusher attracted attention and started a black gold rush which boomed Capitol Hill and Oklahoma City out of slow growing pains.

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Grand Prix car race not new idea for Oklahoma City

While news reports abound with the proposal of a Bricktown Grand Prix auto race, the idea of racing high speed automobiles on Oklahoma City streets is not a new one.

“When the whir and whizz of automobiles, running in international races on the asphalt road known as the Grand boulevard of Oklahoma City, disturb the stillness of 1911 then the park board may rest–and not ’til then.

In their (the park board members) dream, or rather plan–for it is mapped out now, and grading is underway–they have conceived of a road 200 feet wide, interlaid with trees and flowers, an endless path of unobstructed ease for those who would drive and drive and drive.”

The Oklahoman Dec 12, 1909,  story further described their dream:

“On this primrose path there will be none of the grade crossings, nor the halting unpleasantness of hucksters, pedestrians, sand piles and street cars that befuddle and make stuffy the streets of cities. Overhead and underneath, the vehicles which pass the course of the boulevard will go over viaducts and through tunnels.

On the auto-course road rules alone governing directions will restrict. Not only will there be no limit to speed but driving to the best power of the machine will be encouraged.”

As history and current experience shows, Grand Boulevard never quite reached the high expectations of those early leaders.

 When Oklahoma City finally staged the Southwest Sweepstakes Race in April 29, 1915, the racers, including the famed Barney Oldfield, did not race on Grand Boulevard. The racetrack, 2.404 miles long, was laid out on Linwood Boulevard.  The winner of the 200-mile race was “Wild Bob” Burman, and there were only two slight accidents. Burman received $2,500.

When Grand Prix racing comes to Bricktown, the prize money will be greater, but  the excitement for the crowds will be much the same.

–Mary Phillips

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“Driving Miss Daisy” Oklahoma style

“Driving Miss Daisy,” an award-winning movie from 1989, chronicled the relationship of a chauffeur and his elderly woman passenger over a period of many years. 

The Oklahoma version played out over several months in 1910, and it was a story of young love.

In the early days of the automobile, people would often take a touring car and see the country. Twenty-year-old  George Gibson came to Oklahoma from California chauffeuring a group on their way to Memphis, Tenn. In Oklahoma City, the group was entertained at a banquet at the Chamber of Commerce and it was there George saw Helen Adkins,  the young (16-year-0ld) daughter of city attorney Charles Adkins, who was making her society debut.

Picking up the story from The Oklahoman, Feb. 8, 1910: “His first glimpse of her satisfied him that she was the only girl he could ever love, he says, and as a result he turned the touring party over to another man, and remained in Oklahoma City. For several weeks he showered his attentions on the girl, meanwhile casting about for some employment.”

“Then the girl’s mother, liking the young fellow’s looks, offered him a position as driver of her new automobile.  The position was accepted. Constantly thrown with Gibson in drives, and in other ways, the girl lost her heart to him, but her father, when approached on the subject of the couple’s marriage would not hear of it.” (No doubt saying they were much too young.)

But love would not be denied, so the couple took the train to Guthrie, lied about their ages to get a license and were married before a justice of the peace. (Legal age was 21 for men and 18 for women.)

“Still fearful of her father’s anger, and desiring to pacify him before seeing him, the girl called up from Guthrie and telling her father what had been done, asked whether or not she should return home. Hiding his surprise and anger, he told her to come home …”

Then, her father called the police and told them his daughter had been abducted and was on the Guthrie train with her abductor. The police were waiting and took George to the police station, where he was met by a deputy and promptly taken to the county jail.

“Before he had been in jail an hour, Adkins called over the telephone, requesting his release. Shortly after, the pretty young wife appeared, and with tear-stained face, waited, while Jailer Skaggs tried to get County Attorney Reardon by the telephone to have him approve the release. Finally, she drove to the county attorney’s house, roused him from bed and got him to telephone the necessary order to the jail. Gibson was released shortly after midnight, and with his wife and mother-in-law, drove away.”

I checked the newspaper archive to see if our couple lived happily ever after and I was disappointed to find The Oklahoman for Sept. 15, 1911, announcing “LOVE DREAM ENDS.”

“Less than two years ago, Oklahoma City society was astounded to hear that pretty little Miss Helen L. Adkins, daughter of Charles H. Adkins, one of the city’s prominent attorneys, had eloped with George W. Gibson, a young man from California, who was acting as her father’s chauffeur. Now Love’s young dream has ended, for suit was filed in superior court Thursday, asking that the marriage be annuled, as neither of the parties were of legal age at the time.”

The story continues: “For a while the little society miss found a chauffeur charming as a lover, yet it was a different proposition to depend on him for a living and love at the same time.”

George was last seen in Nebraska.

– Mary Phillips

mphillips@opubco.com

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